New NASA Space Suit

NASA has apparently settled on a supplier for their planned new universal space suit. I’m guessing the board of directors of Hamilton, which has been doing the NASA suits since forever, is pretty pissed right now.

Bonus: cool space walk pictures (see them while you can, it’s looks like a private server).

Planets, Planets Everywhere!

They’ve managed to spot some new planets, this time not much bigger than Earth itself (well, compared to the gas giants they’ve been observing so far). How long until we have the equipment in place to spot New Earth, and what are we going to do about it once the first spectrograms come in?

Exotic Space Thruster...

…blows up during testing at NASA. To which I say, bravo! About time they took some risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The Phoenix Has Landed

The Phoenix probe has landed on Mars. A big bravo to the team at NASA — Mars probes usually have a 50% chance of failure, based on past attempts.

UPDATE: You may have seen these already, but the pictures taken by the HiRISE camera are pretty neat.

The Image To End All Images, it shows PHX as it descended, about 20 seconds after its parachute deployed.

This one is 11 hours after landing. It shows the lander and its descent hardware.

The final one is PHX 22 hours after landing, ready and deployed. Keep in mind this is a picture taken from orbit!

Carnival of Space 51

It’s been a while since I’ve linked to the Carnival of Space. They’re up to issue 51, collecting space-related articles and posts from across the Blogosphere.

Yuri's Night

Don’t forget that tonight is Yuri’s Night, the 47th anniversary of the first human spaceflight and the 27th anniversary of the first shuttle launch.

I’m not attending one of the special parties, but you might be interested — check the link above for the listing, there might be one in your neck of the wood.

Prepping the Shuttle for Launch

See the pictures here.

No wonder each launch is so bloody expensive. If you had to rebuild your 747 from the ground up and ferry in two-third of the parts, your ticket to Europe would be a lot more than $800!

Jules Verne Docks at the ISS

The latest unmanned ship docked at the space station today, all on its own. There are some good images around.

To my eyes it’s like a section of the station is adding itself, so similar are the designs, but that’s physics for you. The only real difference between a space station and a space ship is the thrust of their engines, really.

Lynx

Finally, the space race is heating up. XCOR Aerospace just announced their new suborbital vehicle, the “Lynx.” It’s supposed to fly within the next two years.

Pry Bars

That’s why we need humans in space. Try to do something like this with the Canadarm!

Dextre In Orbit

Check out the first pictures of Dextre in space. Now imagine it has legs, thrusters, and a cockpit…

"My God, It's Full of Star..."

Or at least I hope it is for him. Noted science-fiction author and scientist Arthur C. Clarke is dead at 90. Another one that I will never have the chance to meet, alas.

UPDATE: You can find a lot more coverage right here, including a review of his life and books, and yet more links.

Jules Verne

I think I forgot to mention it earlier, but the European Jules Verne ATV is heading for the International Space Station. It’s a neat thing, despite being essentially an overgrown Progress cargo.

Dextre

So they’re getting ready to launch the next piece of the ISS puzzle, the Dextre remote manipulator. It’s a Canadian-built robot-like crane that will help astronauts move large masses around the station’s perimeter. For the geeks out there, it’s only slighty smaller than a Heavy Gear, and would probably be the same size if it had legs.

When do we get the free flying — i.e., mobile suit — version?

I'd Like to Go to Space...

But no way are they getting me on board of this thing. [grin]

Kudos for thinking out of the box, though.

SpaceShipThree revealed?

The title says it all. Keep in mind we’re speculating here, since SS2 hasn’t flown yet.

Down It Goes

The errant spy satellite was shot down yesterday by a kinetic kill vehicle launched by the USS Lake Erie. A very impressive feat — I hear the KKV transfered 130 megajoules of energy to the bus-sized sat, which of course was transformed into confetti.

Note that, unlike the Chinese, the Americans had the decency to wait for a falling sat to do their anti-missile test instead of polluting a perfectly nice polar orbit.

Happy Anniversary, US Space Program!

Yep, today marks the 50th anniversary of the US space adventure.

SpaceShip2 Unveiled

And lo and behold, it doesn’t look like the early SS1-like design.

While the suborbiter itself is sort of a cross between a DynaSoar and the SS1 tail feathers, the White Knight 2 carrier looks much more conventional than its elegant predecessor. I guess that ease of building and operation took precedence over aesthetics, which makes sense for a commercial outfit that expects to turn a profit on the things.

I’m very glad to see that it’s being built for real. Who knows, by the time they get to SS3 or SS4, I’ll have enough spare cash for a ticket. Is it too soon to start a “send the vulture man to space” funding drive?

Air Launched SSTO

A great article over at Selenian Boondocks about the pros and cons of an air launched SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) design.

Bottom line: upper design mass is limited, but it does provide several advantages.

Happy Anniversary, Spirit!

Four years on Mars: pretty amazing for two tiny robots which were only supposed to last for 90 measly days.

(Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, will turn four on January 25, which is close enough.)

SpaceX Status Update

And a massive update it is.

Funny how private companies seem to be moving much faster than NASA these days. Reminds me of mammals vs. dinosaurs.

Silver Lining

When one of the wheels of the Spirit Mars rover ceased functioning in 2006, I thought that this was the beginning of the end for the tough little robot. Well, turns out it was a blessing in disguise.

I keep getting amazed by this mission. It’s really all or nothing when Mars is involved: you either lose the probe on arrival, or it lasts for years longer than first planned.

No Lunar Lander Challenge Winner This Year...

No winners at the X-Prize Cup this year, alas. Armadillo had another hard start that damaged the Mod vehicle. They decided not to risk their second unit, Pixel, in the harder Level 2 competition. Oh well — the money will still be there next year, and by then there should be a lot more contestants ready.

X Prize Cup 2007

It’s that time of the year again! Wired Blogs is covering the event. Transterrestrial Musings also has pictures.

UPDATE: Armadillo’s lander “Mod” made a hard landing seven seconds short of the Level 1 prize. They’ll spend the night making repairs and try again tomorrow morning.

Carnival of Space 24

The 24th Carnival of Space is now available.

Soviet Sats

In the spirit of Sputnick’s anniversary, here’s a gallery of soviet satellites.

Happy Anniversary, Sputnick

The Space Age is fifty years old today: Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4th, 1957.

The fact that after half a century, the best we’ve managed to do is to get one orbital workshop and not even a single moonbase saddens me immensely.

Here’s a roundup of Sputnick links.

In the Shadow of the Moon

I’ll have to find the time to go see this when it comes out (conveniently enough, near my birthday).

Carnival of Space 19

It’s time for the Carnival of Space #19.

Carnival of Space

It’s been a while since I linked to one of these, but the Carnival of Space #18 is now online.

I'm Ready for my Close-up, Mr. DeMille

Is it just me, or is NASA moving backward instead of forward?

It’s like they’re trying to go back to their glory days, like an aging actress trying to wedge herself into a too tight costume instead of hitting the gym (or simply accepting that it’s time to retire).

NASA needs a severe clean-up.

Carnival of Space 15

I need to find a way to get information downloaded directly to my brain. There’s just too much interesting stuff to read to keep up.

Antimatter Containment

Here’s a discussion of the current progress in antimatter containment, which is very promising for spaceflight.

The only thing that gives me pause is, are we mature enough, as a civilization, to handle such a concentration of raw power?

Space Debris

Time for orbital garbagemen, me think. Equip them with coilguns to deorbit mid-sized pieces, disposable solid booster packs for large pieces, and aerogel shields to collect smaller debris.

A Dark Day for Space

Like Rand Simberg writes on his blog, today is not a good day for space enthusiasts.

Not only are there rumors of drunk astronauts, and NASA has found sabotage on an ISS-bound computer, but I just read that there was an explosion at Scale Composite. Apparently, one of their test engines blew up, killing two and injuring four.

Opening a new frontier has always been costly in blood, alas.

Rovers Still Alive

Apparently, the Mars Rovers have weathered the worst of the dust storms. Tough little critters! I hope we put them in a nice museum once we get to Mars.

Top Ten Spacewalks

Fogonazos blogs the Top 10 Best Spacewalks in History. It’s going to take your breath away.

Landing on Mars

It’s harder than it looks.

Scaled Composite Bought

Northrop Grumman has just bought Scaled Composites. Scaled is, of course, Burt Rutan’s company, creator of SpaceShipOne.

I’m of two minds on this. On the one hand, perhaps the influx of cash will help the development of future reusable vehicles. On the other, however, I fear that the small company “can do!” atmosphere is going to be suffocated within the corporate structure, and we’ll go back to square one on that aspect of RLV technology. Time will tell.

UPDATE: More thoughts here.

Lunar Longings

It’s been 38 years since we went to the Moon for the first time. No one has left low Earth orbit for the past 35 years, despite an obviously more advanced technology level.

It’s very sad. I blame bureaucrats and congressmen, both more interested in their personal fiefdoms than space exploration.

BioSuit

Finally, a smarter space suit design. Not that it’s a new idea, mind you – using mechanical pressure to keep the body together instead of building a fully pressurized vessel.

I don’t like the helmet, however. I’m not sure if the designers ever tried to wear their suit, but if they did, they would soon realize that it’s useful to be able to look down without having to bend the entire body. (I.e., that glass bubble should extend down pass chin level.)

(Here’s a better picture.)

Reusing Spacecraft

Slashdot has a series of links to articles talking about new missions for old NASA probes. Hey, if it’s still flying, keep using it!

Space Prizes Done Right

Here’s a summary of the recent NASA spacesuit glove competition. The gloves are the most problematic parts of a spacesuit — make them work, and you just made EVA 100% easier.

An Opportunity for Exploration

‘Scuse the pun. NASA is really getting some mileage out of the Mars Rovers, aren’t they?

If only all their projects worked so well…

Genesis II in Orbit

Bigelow reports the successful launch of their Genesis II space module prototype. This follows on the successful flight of Genesis I a year ago.

At the speed they are moving, I wouldn’t be surprised if they caught up and surpassed the ISS within the next few years. Given that they are using NASA tech — inflatable habitats — wouldn’t this be egg on the face of the NASA bureaucracy?

UPDATE: Contact has been established with Genesis II, and it’s doing just fine, as planned.

Fly Me to the Moon...

Well, if you have $100 million dollars on hand. And I mean “fly” literally — it’s just a circumlunar flight aboard a Soyuz, no landing, not even an orbit.

They already have customers lined up, of course.

Orbital Skydiving

If I won’t jump out of a perfectly good airplane (like my mother-in-law does, sometimes - brave woman!), what makes them think I’d want to jump out of a perfectly good spaceship?

ISDC News Summary

The first International Space Development Conference has just finished. Here’s a news wrap-up, conveniently located on one page.

Yuri's Night

Yep, today’s the 46th anniversary of the first space flight.

Interplanetary Logistics

Engineers create SpaceNet, an hypothetical near-space supply chain.

As Steve Jackson said, there has to be a boardgame idea in there somewhere.

Falcon 2 Almost Makes It

SpaceX had their second test flight yesterday, after a couple of false starts. The rocket made it to space but not to orbit, telemetry being lost after five minutes.

I watched the video of the flight, and while it was cool as heck you can see that the first stage separation wasn’t as clean as SpaceX said it was.

That said, they did reach 90% of the objectives they set themselves, and given that their first rocket blew up just above the pad, I’d say it’s a darn nice job. Kudos!

Reusable Launch & Space Vehicles Project Table

NASA better watch out. At this rate, by the time they get back to the Moon they will be able to check into Luna City’s Hilton.

Space Debris on the Rise

Or so says the New York Times. We space geeks have known it for some time.

There are solutions, however. My favorite (and on that I’m going to use in Project 7) is a large solar sail spun out of Aerogel. Put it in a reverse orbit (at high energy cost, I know), and it will literally “sweep” the skies clear, either by trapping smaller debris or absorbing enough of their velocities to lower their orbit into the atmosphere. Obviously, given the volume of space concerned, more than one sail would be needed, and it would take years.

But the visuals… That would be something to see.

Er, What?!

You can’t make up crap like this: female shuttle astronaut arrested at Orlando Airport on attempted kidnapping, battery charges. The victim? Another female astronaut, apparently involved with… a shuttle pilot that the first one had an eye on(!).

Guess those emotional stability tests are not as reliable as they used to be in the old days of the space program.

UPDATE: Ouch. That’s gotta sting.

New Horizons at Jupiter

The New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt probe is heading for its gravity-boost encounter with Jupiter. While in the neighborhood, it’ll take the opportunity to take a few more pics of the gas giant.

Only eight years until Pluto, folks…

New Horizons at Jupiter

The New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt probe is heading for its gravity-boost encounter with Jupiter. While in the neighborhood, it’ll take the opportunity to take a few more pics of the gas giant.

Only eight years until Pluto, folks…

Blue Origin Ship Revealed!

Talk about starting 2007 on a good note: super-secretive Blue Origin, Amazon.com’s founder Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, has finally revealed their suborbital spacecraft. See the videos of the first test hop — it really works!

Boy, I hope the NASA folks are updating their resumes. They’ll need them when the public starts asking why it costs $1B to launch a shuttle once, while private entrepreneurs are well on their way to space using essentially their own pocket change.

Ad Astra

If you’ve never visited Encyclopedia Astronautica, you really should.

You Try It First

One way to make spaceflight cheaper is to reduce the mass of the payload. Here’s an article that suggests the ultralight approach to personal space travel.

Makes sense, but I’ll wait for a first class ticket, methink.

(Via Transterrestrial Musings)

Yuri's Night

I couldn’t access the Movable Type control panel yesterday, so I’m a day late posting this:

45 years ago today, on April 12th 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to reach space. Two decades later, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen rode America’s new Space Shuttle into orbit. Tonight, people everywhere will be celebrating human space travel with Yuri’s Night space parties!

(via BoingBoing)

Arming Spacecraft

Not with guns, with manipulator arms — see this blog entry on the possibility of fitting a mini-canadarm on SpaceX’s planned Dragon capsule.

Space-borne mecha make sense, I tell you…

Keep Space for Peace?!

They’re discussing what the Hippies would like as a space policy over at MarsBlog. It’s always a funny read. The thing that I found most amusing was that old saw, “ban space weapons!”

These people are not scientists, and it shows. A spacecraft engine delivers as much energy as a large bomb, just over a longer period of time.

Virtually any spacecraft, by virtue of its kinetic energy alone, is a deadly weapon. I’ve seen it written down as Robinson’s First Law of space combat: something hitting at 3 km/sec (kips) delivers kinetic energy broadly equal to its mass in TNT. (Which means that future space missiles won’t have to carry a warhead, just a heavy and dense nosecone.)

It doesn’t matter if it’s a environmental survey satellite — if you smash it against a shuttle, it will destroy it. If you drop a space station on a city, it acts as a massive nuke (Operation British in MS Gundam is a fictional but graphic example).

Things are Happening in the Space Race

They may not be as flashy as the NASA presentations, but these guys (well, quite a few of them at least) are building and flying rockets.

Couple this with the surge in orbital elevator technology, and private industry might just beat NASA to the Moon. Wouldn’t that be funny?

More Comments on Apollo Redux

Apparently, I’m not the only one unhappy with the new NASA Moon plans (scroll down to get all the entries). They’re nasty, but (alas) they’re right! The space industry shouldn’t be a high-tech job program.

(See my previous entry on the subject.)

Moon Shot?

I mean, I’m glad to see NASA unveil a moon plan, but I’m worried that much of the money is going to be spent in design studies and other pork products.

Also, the 2018 date really chafes me. It took less than a decade originally, starting from scratch and with technology a lot less advanced. They’re using existing Shuttle hardware (another decision I only half-agree with) and modern CAD/CAM systems, it should go a lot faster.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see private astronauts beat them to the Moon. After all, once someone (Rutan?) manages to reach orbit, they’re halfway to anywhere in the solar system…

UPDATE (Sep. 20): The BBC has a gallery of pictures of the new Moon hardware. The ressemblance to Apollo is even more striking than I though. 36 years later, and this is the best we can do?

Space Propulsion

This is an interesting (if short) article about unusual ideas for future space travel. Nothing new for me in there, but it did link to a Robert Forward novel I didn’t know about. And the metastable helium rocket sounds very interesting, though more research is required on my part…

And it did made me wonder why I didn’t put more cyclers in the Jovian Chronicles universe. After all, they already have colony cylinders, it would be logical to have a Nomad nation that plies the space lanes between planets on endlessly looping orbits.

(The JC universe doesn’t really need the solar boiler drive or the lightcraft, however, given that they have magsail and fusion drive technologies.)

Ad Astra Eternae

I chose the category “Science” for this entry, but I could have as well chosen “Society” — this is the start of another era in Mankind’s history.

Rutan’s SpaceShipOne captured the X Prize this morning, showing that you don’t need an extensive government organization to reach space.

I know, I know, it’s much simpler to build a suborbital craft than an orbital one. But is anyone here doubting that either Rutan or someone else will have an orbital shuttle flying within ten years?

I’m not. Godspeed!

X Prize Countdown

The next SpaceShipOne launch is scheduled for tomorrow. The rolls on the last flight don’t seem to be cause for concern, according to the people at Scaled.

Here’s hoping that everything goes well. I wish I’d be able to watch the webcast in direct, but I have three meetings back-to-back tomorrow morning — I’ll have to catch the replay.

Ad Astra!

The Race is On

I had heard they were present at Rutan’s press conference, but it’s now confirmed: the Da Vinci team will also fly to win the X-Prize.

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian team of aspiring astronauts has set an Oct. 2 launch date for the country’s first manned spaceship, as it tries to win a $10 million prize set up to spur commercial space travel. . . .

More than 20 teams are competing for the Ansari X Prize established in 1996. The prize will go to the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, into space, safely returns them, and repeats the entire venture within two weeks.

This is awesome news!

I was rooting for Rutan’s team all along, but you have to admit that it would be funny if a $1M Canadian effort beat them to the prize (Scaled Composites’ budget is estimated at $20M).

Ad Astra

This is a good summer for space cadets like me.

Cassini is entering the Saturn system, after seven years of travel.

Opportunity is preparing to explore a new crater on Mars.

The Chinese have just announced another manned flight for 2005.

NASA has started looking into a robotic rescue mission to save the Hubble.

I missed the transit of Venus — oh well.

And finally (but not least), SpaceShipOne is scheduled to make its first X-prize attempt on June 21. (And damn, that’s a sexy pair of flying vehicles!)

Oh yes, things are shaping up nicely.

More SpaceShipOne

There are new pics of the latest flight up on Scaled’s Website. The pic with SpaceShipOne in feather-mode 200,000 ft above the Earth is awesome. Almost there!

(Oh, and the amateur rocket team shooting for 100km altitude has succeeded, breaking a new record and being the first non-gov rocket in space.)

Next Gen Soyuz

While NASA debates and spends a lot of money doing precious little (well, at least the Constellation is in the planning stage), the Russians are at work once more. Sometimes, something short of cutting edge works just as well, or even better. I’m looking forward to seeing this fly.

Sunday Night

Quiet weekend here, with lots of sleep and not much computer use. Got caught up on stuff on Saturday (added one pic in the Snowboard section), and started the new Baldur’s Gate II computer game on Etienne’s Xbox today. Not as visually nice as the first one, but there are more character choices and a new weapon craft system. Too bad the game still only takes two players — Martin was reduced to making comments on our fighting style from the peanut gallery. At least I get my favorite class/spell combination back (Cleric with Cure Wounds and Flame Strike).

Opportunity landed without problem. I followed the event in real time, and was delighted when it touched down right on the spot. Hopefully, the rover can avoid the Flash problems that are plaguing its twin on the other side of the planet…

Now just checking the Web, with the wife-to-be… Life is good.

Space Initiative Musings

In case you don’t know, I’m a rabid “space cadet” — I’m all for the exploration and colonization of space by the human race. Both because we humans need new frontiers to motivate us to keep growing and evolving, and because at some point we’ll have to leave this planet behind for our safety (rogue asteroids) or even survival (death of the Sun).

So the new space initiative proposed by President Bush is a welcome change from the bloated shuttle and ISS programs. Of course, it’s somewhat unrealistic (at least to me): first, we’d have to do in-depth changes at NASA, fire a whole bunch of people, establish clear duties and tasks, and so on. But at least it’s a start — a vision that says, yes, we still have the will to move forward.

Another thing that I like about this proposal is the fact that private initiatives, such as SpaceShipOne, are not mentioned. That keeps them off the radar and leave them alone to build their stuff (which, I suspect, is exactly Bush’s plan). That way, NASA and their usual band of fat contractors won’t be able to interfere until it’s too late. “Errr, NASA, why do you need half a billion to launch three guys? Scaled Composites does it for less than 10 millions a flight!” I suspect we’re going to see the required huge changes in the bureaucracy only at that point.

The excellent space-oriented blog Transterrestrial Musings has some very good discussions on this subject — check it out!

Tell Your Children You Saw It

The true Dawn of the Space Age.

SpaceShip One had its first powered flight yesterday, on the 100th anniversary of the first human flight. Mach 1.2+, 68,000 ft, and that was just a test.

I expect them to go fully orbital within two years. NASA better shape up or ship out.

Chineeeesee... Innn... Spaaaace!!!

Of course I saw it. But when I went to blog about it, the server crashed.

The entry was saved at home — I’ll replace this placeholder with it tonight.

UPDATE (Nov. 5): better late than never, as they say.

Well, they’ve done it. Assuming the taikonaut comes back safely (and given the previous flights, there is no reason to believe he won’t), China has now joined an elite space club. Whether this will provide a kick in the pants to NASA is unknown at this time, but I kinda hope it does.

(On the other hand, with Burt Rutan and his band poised for a December suborbital launch, and the Armadillo not far behind, we might not need NASA much longer anyway.)

Some already worry about Chinese plans and intentions, but I say that competition for space access and exploitation can only be good for all.