Monthly Archive for August, 2008Page 2 of 5

Ouch…That’s Gotta Hurt!

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Doug Messier
on August 19, 2008, at 11:13 pm
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Back in the early 1960′s, NASA conducted an unmanned test of the ejection system for its new Gemini spacecraft. The ejection seat performed perfectly; unfortunately, the spacecraft’s clam-shell hatch failed to open. The rocket-powered seat blasted right through the 2-inch thick hull plating.

Watching nearby, astronaut John Young – destined to fly the first Gemini mission with Gus Grissom – was horrified but maintained his sense of humor. “That’s one hell of a headache, but a short one!” the laconic Texan remarked.

NASA’s astronaut corps is probably feeling much the same these days following the July 31 failure of the parachute system for the agency’s new Orion spacecraft. The set-up parachute for the full-scale mock-up failed to inflate, causing the test vehicle to plunge to the desert floor at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Testing Grounds in Arizona. The vehicle, shown above, was heavily damaged.

Fortunately no one was aboard, but the failure represents yet another headache for NASA as it attempts to get the Apollo-style capsule flying. The vehicle and its Ares I and V launch vehicles are running significantly behind schedule amid reports of major development problems and cost overruns.

Buzz Answers 15 Questions

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Doug Messier
on August 17, 2008, at 7:57 pm
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I ran into Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin last weekend while having brunch with a friend in Santa Monica. He was sitting in a nearby booth, unrecognized by any of the other patrons. We went over and introduced ourselves, spending several minutes chatting about various matters. Buzz was in a fine mood, eager to talk about several projects he’s pursuing.

At 78, Buzz hasn’t slowed down all that much. He’s been in the press a lot lately, criticizing NASA’s Constellation program and narrating Fly Me to Moon, a 3-D animated film about three flies who stow away on the Apollo 11 mission. (The movie has not been very well received by critics; Rotten Tomatoes has it at only 18 percent fresh, with 8 positive reviews and 36 negative ones.)

Below are links to a couple of interviews with Buzz in which the famous moon walker talks about the new movie, his current activities, and his views on where the space program is heading.

7 New Questions on the Future of Mars and Private Space for Buzz Aldrin
Popular Mechanics

“Q: Do we have a space race on our hands now?

A: The finish lines are entirely different. All China has to do is take a Shenzhou and join it up with a Russian propulsion stage and go around the moon and come back. Our purpose is not just to go around the moon. We need to establish a coherent, deliberate program that prepares for commercial use of lunar resources and permanence on Mars. And maybe we learn how to go to smaller places with resources not on the moon. Asteroids just may have very high value.”

8 questions for astronaut Buzz Aldrin
New York Daily News

Q: What future projects are you working on?

A: Well, I’m helping to celebrate 40th reunions of all the Apollo missions and developing lotteries for people to travel in space – like Richard Branson’s flight, but also for orbital flights. In California, I’m also developing some education programs. I’m also strongly supporting and working with oilman T. Boone Pickens and his plan for energy alternatives. I want him to include solar power on satellites in space.

Iran Joins Exclusive Orbital Club

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Doug Messier
on August 17, 2008, at 7:20 pm
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Iran sparks US concern with satellite rocket launch
AFP

“Iran said it had sent a rocket carrying a dummy satellite into space on Sunday, triggering fresh concern in Washington that the technology could be diverted to ballistic missiles.

The launch is likely to further exacerbate tensions with the West over its nuclear drive, which Iran’s arch-foe Washington and its allies claim is a cover for atomic weapons ambitions.”

Editor’s Note: This will probably make it a bit more difficult for NASA to get an exemption to spend money on Russian Soyuz flights to the International Space Station.  U.S. law bans contracts with Russia and other nations that have been providing technical support for Iran’s nuclear program.

NASA will be heavily dependent upon Russia for transportation to the station after it retires the space shuttle in 2010. The shuttle’s successor, Orion, is not to set to fly until 2014 or 2015.

Blowing Up the Moon – or at Least a Small Part of It

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Doug Messier
on August 17, 2008, at 11:35 am
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Popular Mechanics has a feature story about NASA’s plans to crash a rocket into the moon in order to search for frozen water.

Early next year, the space agency will launch its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which will map the moon and its resources in unprecedented detail. The Atlas rocket also will send a small sub-satellite, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will remain attached to the upper-stage Centaur booster. LCROSS will steer the booster toward a collision with one of the moon’s poles.

“Nine hours before impact, 24,000 miles above the lunar surface, LCROSS and the Centaur would separate. The 5,000-pound Centaur would crash into a dark crater at twice the speed of a rifle bullet, kicking up a plume of debris more than 6 miles high. Four minutes later, the heavily instrumented LCROSS would ride the plume, checking for water and relaying data to Earth until it, too, slammed into the lunar surface.”

Rosetta Spacecraft Starts Tracking Asteroid Steins

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Doug Messier
on August 17, 2008, at 11:09 am
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ESA MISSION UPDATE

Heading toward its first target-asteroid, (2867) Steins, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has started using its cameras to visually track the asteroid and eventually determine its orbit with more accuracy.

Rosetta started the optical navigation campaign on 4 August 2008, at a distance of about 24 million km from Steins; the campaign will continue until 4 September, when the spacecraft will be approximately 950 000 km from the asteroid.

“The orbit of Steins, with which Rosetta will rendezvous on 5 September, closing to a distance of 800 km, is only known thanks to ground observations, but not yet with the accuracy we would like for the close fly-by,” said Gerhard Schwehm, Rosetta Mission Manager based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), near Madrid, Spain.

Continue reading ‘Rosetta Spacecraft Starts Tracking Asteroid Steins’

Interorbital Plans Tests, Offers Lunar Samples for Only $3.4 Million Per Pound

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Doug Messier
on August 17, 2008, at 2:10 am
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Interorbital will be conducting engine tests over the next few months for its SeaStar launch vehicle, Flight Global reports.  If the tests are successful, the California company could conduct flight tests of the rocket off the California coast at the end of the year.

The company is planning to launch a lunar sample return mission in 2010. It is offering advanced sales of its lunar samples at a mere $3.375 million per pound or (for you metric fans out there) $7,500 per gram. This represents a 25 percent discount on the full rate. And you only have to put 10 percent down now.

Mars’ Clays, Titan’s Tholins, and Europa’s Ocean Depths

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Doug Messier
on August 16, 2008, at 10:02 pm
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Astrobiology Magazine has some interesting articles about possible life elsewhere in the Solar System….

Mawrth Vallis Water

“Layers of clay have been discovered in the martian highlands using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The data indicate that liquid water was once widespread on early Mars.”

The Stuff of Life on Titan

“Could tholins formed in Titan’s atmosphere react with liquid water temporarily exposed by meteor impacts or ice volcanoes to produce potentially probiotic complex organic molecules – before the water freezes? Until this year, no one knew.

“Now, laboratory research by Catherine Neish, a graduate student working on her doctorate in planetary science at the University of Arizona, shows in the journal Astrobiology that, over a period of days, compounds similar to tholins can be hydrolyzed (i.e., react with water) at near-freezing temperatures.”

Cracking the Question of Alien Life

“New research is providing clues about the potential for life on Europa. By studying Europa’s surface, scientists hope to determine the best places to search for life and whether or not the moon is geologically active.”

Phoenix Microscope Takes First Image of Martian Dust Particle

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Doug Messier
on August 16, 2008, at 9:06 pm
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MARS PHOENIX UPDATE
14 August 2008

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has taken the first-ever image of a single particle of Mars’ ubiquitous dust, using its atomic force microscope.

The particle — shown at higher magnification than anything ever seen from another world — is a rounded particle about one micrometer, or one millionth of a meter, across. It is a speck of the dust that cloaks Mars. Such dust particles color the Martian sky pink, feed storms that regularly envelop the planet and produce Mars’ distinctive red soil.

“This is the first picture of a clay-sized particle on Mars, and the size agrees with predictions from the colors seen in sunsets on the Red Planet,” said Phoenix co-investigator Urs Staufer of the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, who leads a Swiss consortium that made the microscope.

“Taking this image required the highest resolution microscope operated off Earth and a specially designed substrate to hold the Martian dust,” said Tom Pike, Phoenix science team member from Imperial College London. “We always knew it was going to be technically very challenging to image particles this small.”

Continue reading ‘Phoenix Microscope Takes First Image of Martian Dust Particle’

Cassini Pinpoints Source of Jets on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

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Doug Messier
on August 16, 2008, at 9:01 pm
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CASSINI MISSION UPDATE
14 August 2008

In a feat of interplanetary sharpshooting, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed precisely where the icy jets erupt from the surface of Saturn’s geologically active moon Enceladus.

New carefully targeted pictures reveal exquisite details in the prominent south polar “tiger stripe” fractures from which the jets emanate. The images show the fractures are about 300 meters (980 feet) deep, with V-shaped inner walls. The outer flanks of some of the fractures show extensive deposits of fine material. Finely fractured terrain littered with blocks of ice tens of meters in size and larger (the size of small houses) surround the fractures.

“This is the mother lode for us,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. “A place that may ultimately reveal just exactly what kind of environment — habitable or not — we have within this tortured little moon.”

Continue reading ‘Cassini Pinpoints Source of Jets on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus’

Constellation’s Latest Headache: Lawyers

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Doug Messier
on August 16, 2008, at 8:46 pm
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NASA nixes Oceaneering’s suit contract; reopens bidding
Houston Chronicle

“NASA has terminated Houston-based Oceaneering International’s contract to develop a new generation of spacesuits and is reopening the bidding for the $184 million contract.

“Responding to a complaint filed by rival bidder Exploration Systems & Technology of Houston, the space agency has asked the two companies to make “limited” revisions and then resubmit their proposals.”

NASA contractors locked in legal battle
Orlando Sentinel

“A potentially damaging legal dustup has broken out between the contractor running NASA’s space shuttle and the company in charge of the next rocket program.

“The heart of the complaint is that Alliant Techsystems Inc., or ATK, which is designing the Ares rockets that will take astronauts back to the moon by 2020, is poaching skilled engineers from United Space Alliance, or USA, NASA’s prime shuttle contractor.”