A quantum communication experiment tucked inside a tiny satellite could someday lead to a global network for sending or receiving unbreakable codes. One of the first steps came during a weather balloon flight to test whether a quantum experiment's hardware could survive near-space conditions.
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19-06-2012 09:25 NASA and the FAA collaborate to create regulations for commercial space flight. Fore more tech news subscribe to NewsyTech:
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The Composite Crew Module being rolled into the vacuum chamber at Marshall's Environmental Test Facility. The test will continue through the end of the summer. Credit: NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given
(Phys.org) -- This week, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., moved a Composite Crew Module (CCM) into the Environmental Test Facility vacuum chamber to gauge how well a space structure fabricated with composite materials will react in a simulated space environment. Data gained during this test series will aid in the design and development of future in-space composite habitable structures.
During the vacuum test, the chamber is sealed and purged to a level a vehicle would encounter on orbit to evaluate the composite material's integrity. The crew module is filled with helium gas to allow engineers to detect any leaks that may occur as pressure increases. Vacuum testing will yield a leak rate for the entire structure, then the team works to repair small leaks that may arise to improve the hardware's performance.
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The crew module was designed to test new materials and fabrication techniques that may be used in future space structures, which will be constructed of both metals and composites. The Composite Crew Module Project is led by NASA's Engineering and Science Center at Langley.
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In this artists impression supplied by the ESO (European Southern Observatory) on April 25, 2007, the planetary system around the red dwarf, Gliese 581, is pictured showing what astronomers believe is the most earth like planet found outside our solar system to date. (Photo by ESO via Getty Images)
MENLO PARK (CBS 5) Citizens in Space, a non-profit group that hopes to use the new wave of private sub-orbital space flight to make scientific breakthroughs, has an informational meeting planned for this Thursday, where citizen scientists will be encouraged to develop experiments to be carried into space.
According to the organization, Citizens in Space has booked 10 flight on the Lynx Rocketplane being developed by XCOR Aerospace. The group has said it plans to train 10 citizen astronauts to fly aboard the missions, which will carry about 100 science experiments into space.
Edward Wright, project manager for Citizens in Space, will discuss an open call for citizen-science experiments at a Menlo Park routable at the TechShop from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Suborbital vehicles like the Lynx will open up spaceflight to private citizens the same way microcomputers opened up computing, Wright said in the press release. The combination of low-cost spaceflight and modern technologywill enable citizen scientists to perform amazing space-science experiments.
Other speakers will include members of James Camerons DeepSea Challenge project, and the SETI Institute.
Tickets for the event are still available. Admission is $30 for the general public, $20 for Roundtable members, and $10 for students.
Citizens in space said their flight may begin by the end of 2013.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Public Recruited For New Space Experiment Ideas In South Bay
18-06-2012 09:37 Download this song, our REMIX EP and our DEMO 4 free @ Title: Falcon in the Gloomy Sky (Space Flight Mix by Bart Nova) Remix by Bart Nova Original track by The Day After The Last Crime Album: Remix Tracknr.: 03 Year: 2012 all rights reserved
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The Day After The Last Crime - Falcon in the Gloomy Sky (Space Flight Mix by Bart Nova) - Video
19-06-2012 04:20 The Air Force's mini-Space Shuttle ,the X-37B, spent over a year traveling around our planet.That's a long time. What was it doing? We don't know—it's a secret. But now that it's finally landed, it's time for a few questions. Some of the cutting-edge technologies tested were the auto de-orbit capability, thermal protection tiles, and high-temperature components and seals. The Pentagon's mini spaceplane, one quarter the size of NASA's now-retired space shuttle, returned to Earth just after dawn Saturday for a pinpoint touchdown at Vandenberg Air Force Base. It is not known if the X-37B conducted reconnaissance activities during the flight. It does have the capability to deploy satellites in space. It was originally developed by NASA but was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2004. Music By Agriflex.
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Pentagon's Mini Shuttle Returns From Secret Space Mission - Video
In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Systems Division (NAS) of the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California is conducting research into molecular-sized devices known as Nanotechnology. This photograph, taken on Apr. 1, 1997, depicts two "Fullerene Nano-gears" with multiple teeth.
The hope is that one day, products can be constructed made of thousands of tiny machines that could self-repair and adapt to the environment in which they exist.
Researchers have simulated attaching benzyne molecules to the outside of a nanotube to form gear teeth. Nanotubes are molecular-sized pipes made of carbon atoms. To "drive" the gears, the supercomputer simulated a laser that served as a motor. The laser creates an electric field around the nanotube. A positively charged atom is placed on one side of the nanotube, and a negatively charged atom on the other side. The electric field drags the nanotube around like a shaft turning.
Jie Han, Al Globus, Richard Jaffe and Glenn Deardorff are the authors of a technical paper detailing this technology which appears in The Journal of Nanotechnology.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).
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by Christopher Smith Gonzalez / The Daily News
khou.com
Posted on June 19, 2012 at 8:43 AM
HOUSTON Commercial flights into space might be a few years away, but NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration are laying the groundwork for the licensing and regulation requirements for those flights.
Heads of the two government agencies signed a memorandum of agreement that aviation administration acting Administrator Michael Huerta said provides a regulating framework and avoids conflicting sets of requirements and standards.
Under the agreement, the aviation administration will license commercial space flight providers to ensure the safety of the launch and re-entry of the spacecraft.
Huerta said the aviation administration would look at things such as the safety of the launch sight, appropriate contingency plans should something abnormal happen during the launch and cleared airspace.
What were focused on is the safety of the launch and safety of the re-entry as it passes through the national airspace, Huerta said.
Click here for more on this story from The Galveston County Daily News
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China's latest launch of three astronauts puts the country on a firm space footing. That's impressiveand not.
HE YUAN / EPA
Liu Yang, Liu Wang, and Jing Haipeng, the three astronauts for the space voyage on the spacecraft Shenzhou-9, salute before their departure at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan in northwest China's Gansu province on June 16, 2012.
There are a lot of reasons to be both very impressed and very unimpressed by Chinas announcement that it successfully launched a three-person crew into space todaya crew that included Liu Yang, 33, the countrys first female astronaut. Before 2003, China had never conducted any manned launch at all. That year they put one astronaut in orbit; in 2005 they lofted a two-man crew; in 2008 it was three menplus a spacewalk. Last year they launched Tiangong-1, an unmanned space station, that the new crew will attempt to dock with this week. So just like that: the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs in four deft vaults. The Great Leap Forward was never like this.
But what about those Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs? Chinas been in the manned space game for nine years now and has managed four successful launches. The U.S. flew six Mercury missions from 1961 to 1963; ten Geminis in the 20 months from March 1965 to November 1966; and elevenApollos from 1968 to 1972. In the nine months from Oct. 1968 to July 1969 alone, we popped off the first five Apollosincluding three visits to the moon and the first landing. The fact that China lofted a female astronaut so early in its space program is a very good thingbut that achievement comes a whopping 49 years after the U.S.S.Rs Valentina Tereshkova first made space travel a Title IX sport.
(MORE: And We Have Lift Off! A Historic Family Day at Chinas Space City)
Dont lose sight either of the fact that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were inventing the systems and the flight techniques pretty much on the fly. Its a familiar joke that before Yuri Gagarin became the first human being in space in 1961, people didnt know whether or not a human beings eyeballs would explode in zero-g. But the fact is,people didnt know whether or not a human beings eyeballs would explode in zero-g. The spacecraft, the spacesuits, the ability to rendezvous, dock, walk in space, reenter safelyevery bit of it was new.
China is standing on the shoulders of those long-ago giantsas is the U.S. private sector as it tries to crack open the space travel industry itself. You have every reason to be proud if youre able to summit Mt. Everest, but dont kid yourself: you aint Sir Edmund Hillary.
Much more important though than the fact that China is able to travel in space is the fact that its decided to. The most resonant phrase in Pres. Kennedys 1962 speech speech at Rice University committing the U.S. to a manned lunar landing before the end of the decade was, We choose to go to the moon. JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen may have beenin the words of Bernard Malamuds The Naturalthe best there ever was, the best there ever will be. He knew the power of the carefully curated verb, and choose said everything. The U.S. has chosen to dither in space (at least in the manned portion of the program) for the better part of 40 years now. The Soviets chose to blow their entire social and political system up 20 years agoan admittedly very good decisionand have been a bit too busy and a lot too poor for an ambitious space program since. That left a big void, and no other wealthy, technologically advanced nation chose to step into it. Props to China for having the spine to do it. But whether it will continue to reel off the successes is very much an open question.
(MORE: China Prepares to Send First Female Astronaut into Space)
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15-06-2012 22:46 On May 25, 2012, SpaceX became the first private company in history to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Here's to the people who made it possible, and who are ushering in a new era of space flight. Well done guys! Looking forward to what you do next! Plant some economic seeds; go sign the petition! Song: Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars Edited by Andrew Robles
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16-06-2012 10:03 China has launched its latest manned space mission - whose crew includes its first female astronaut, Liu Yang. The Shenzhou-9 capsule rode to orbit atop a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport on the edge of the Gobi desert. Ms Liu and her two male colleagues are heading to the Tiangong space lab. They will spend over a week living and working on the 335km-high vessel, testing new systems and conducting a number of scientific experiments. Before leaving, the crew were presented to Communist Party officials, VIPs and the media. Wearing their flight suits and sitting behind glass, they waved and smiled. "We will obey orders, listen to directions and be calm; and co-ordinate together to successfully complete China's first manned rendezvous and docking mission," said Commander Jing Haipeng. China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, wished them well and told them: "We are expecting your safe return." The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft lifted off on schedule at 18:37 local time (10:37 GMT; 11:37 BST). All systems appeared to function normally and eight minutes later, the spacecraft had entered orbit. Very shortly after Shenzhou-9 had unfurled its solar panels. It will take a couple of days to reach Tiangong. A docking is planned for Monday at 15:00 Beijing time (07:00 GMT; 08:00 BST). Mr Jing, 46, is making his second spaceflight after participating in the Shenzhou-7 outing in 2008 - the mission that included China's first spacewalk. His flight engineers are both first-timers, however ...
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China launches space mission with first woman astronaut - Video
Friendship 7 launch. Image: NASA.
Hermann Potonik, an Austrian Army officer writing under the pseudonym Hermann Noordung, described the benefits of telescopes in space in his seminal 1929 book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: der Raketen-Motor. The 1995 NASA-sponsored English translation of Noordungs work includes a brief section titled Unlimited Visibility. It describes how, beyond Earths blanket of air,
nothing weakens the luminosity of the stars; the fixed stars no longer flicker; and the blue of the sky no longer interferes with the observations. At any time, the same favorable, almost unlimited possibilities exist, [and] telescopes of any arbitrary size, even very large ones, could be used. . .
In 1946, Princeton University astronomer Lyman Spitzer also wrote about the possibilities of space-based astronomy, and it was with him that U.S. efforts to place telescopes into space originated. In 1960, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, began work on the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) series of space telescopes. The Grumman-built satellites would image the cosmos in wavelengths that could not easily penetrate Earths atmosphere and radio the images they captured to receiving stations on Earth.
Astronomers eagerly anticipated the OAOs, but for the general public NASA in 1960 was all about Project Mercury. The first manned Mercury orbital flight, designated MA-6, took place on Feb. 20, 1962. An Atlas rocket propelled astronaut John Glenn into space on board the Friendship 7spacecraft (image above). Glenn orbited Earth three times and splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean a little less than five hours after launch.
Faith 7 readies for launch. Image: NASA.
Three more astronauts rode Mercury capsules into orbit. The last Mercury mission, MA-9, saw Gordon Cooper orbit Earth 22.5 times in the Faith 7 capsule. His 34-hour mission spanned May 15-16, 1963.
If Windsor Sherman, an engineer at NASAs Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia, had had his way, then Mercury would have found a new role as part of NASAs space astronomy program. In a NASA Technical Note published a year and a half after MA-9, Sherman proposed that NASA modify manned Mercury capsules to serve as recoverable unmanned Earth-orbiting observatories.
Shermans Mercury-derived observatory would weigh more than the manned Mercury (2150 kilograms versus 1660 kilograms) and would require a higher orbit (at least 500 kilometers) to ensure that it would operate above Earths atmospheric airglow. The manned Mercurys Atlas booster would not be up to the task, so the recoverable observatory would launch on an Atlas with an Agena B upper stage. A similar rocket launched Ranger robot explorers to the moon.
Cutaway of Sherman's Mercury-derived recoverable observatory. Image: NASA.
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China's latest space mission is its most ambitious yet and shows Beijing's resolve to increase its technological capabilities and bridge the gap with the United States and Russia, experts say.
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Capping a 15-month clandestine military mission circling the planet, the Pentagon's miniature spaceplane, one quarter the size of NASA's now-retired space shuttle, returned to Earth just after dawn Saturday for a pinpoint touchdown at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The powerless glider's approach and landing used Vandenberg's three-mile-long concrete runway once envisioned to support manned space shuttles returning from polar-orbiting military flights. The base is located on California's Central Coast about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
"Similar to OTV-1, the vehicle will go through post-landing assessments and refurbishment and lessons learned from that will be incorporated into the next mission," said Maj. Tracy Bunko, an Air Force spokeswoman.
Watch a video of the landing and see a collection of post-landing photos.
The official duration for OTV-2 was 468 days, 13 hours and 2 minutes on a voyage that circled the globe more than 7,000 times. The single-mission numbers surpassed the flight time amassed and orbits accumulated by any of the individual space shuttles in their reusable lives. Discovery had the fleet-leading credentials at 365 days and 5,800 orbits on 39 trips to space.
The marathon OTV-2 flight also lasted twice as long as the program's maiden mission in 2010.
Vandenberg officials said its personnel had conducted extensive, periodic training to stay ready to receive the spaceplane at a moment's notice. Range Safety personnel had the duty to destroy vehicle if it had deviated from prescribed boundaries, but all went according to plan Saturday.
"Team Vandenberg has put in over a year's worth of hard work in preparation for this landing and today we were able to see the fruits of our labor," said Col. Nina Armagno, 30th Space Wing commander. "I am so proud of our team for coming together to execute this landing operation safely and successfully."
Launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on March 5, 2011, shrouded inside the booster's nose cone for the flight through the atmosphere, the winged craft was inserted into low-Earth-orbit where it operated in secret to carry out a research mission with a classified payload.
Its pickup truck-size cargo bay, seven feet long and four feet wide, could have been filled with equipment being exposed to the harsh environment of space for proof testing or could have contained experimental instruments intended for use by future military and reconnaissance satellites. The craft's unique capability to drop from orbit and land on a runway allows technicians to get their hands on the hardware after it spent more than a year in space.
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Liu Yang becomes the first Chinese female astronaut to go to space while traveling on the Shenzhou 9 capsule. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.
By Ed Flanagan, NBC News
BEIJING -- China's first woman in space, Liu Yang, will be conducting space medical experiments on a 10-day mission that started Saturday, but experts are deeply interested in the mechanics of the mission -- namely the manual space docking the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft will attempt with the Tiangong-1 module.
Launched last September, the Tiangong-1 is Chinas first space laboratory module and a key cog in Beijings larger ambitions of establishing a space station by 2020. From this outpost, Chinese scientists over the next few years will be able to test out new equipment and experiment with future space station capabilities.
But first Chinese astronauts need to prove they can actually dock with it.
Last year, China successfully got its unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft to remotely link up with the Tiangong-1 module, but this will be the first time Chinese astronauts will attempt to manually guide a spacecraft into docking.
"Some people describe the manual docking as threading a needle from 100 meters away, so you can see how difficult and precise the procedure would be said astronaut Jing Haipeng, who with 14 years of experience in Chinas space program, will be responsible for this critical aspect of the mission.
"The manual space rendezvous ... is a huge test for astronauts' ability to judge spatial position, eye-hand coordination and psychological abilities," he added.
According to NBC News space analyst, James Oberg, the sooner Chinas astronauts master how to linkup with the Tiangong-1, the faster the country will be able to realize its long-term vision.
The Tiangong-1 is not just a docking target ... this is a full-fledged, live support module that can also can be used as a living space if the Chinese decide to move beyond low-Earth out to the moon or deep space said Oberg. The Tiangong-1 is exactly the kind of module for long term, deep space missions.
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The space shuttle Shenzhou 9 is ready for liftoff. And for the first time in the history of Chinese space flight, it will be transporting a female astronaut into space. Beijing is cashing in on its promotional value.
The Shenzhou-9, which means "divine vessel," is due to be launched into space on Saturday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Chinas arid northwest. It will then dock with the space module Tiangong 1 ("heavenly palace"), which was launched last year.
This will be China's first docking maneuver with the module and a manned ship; but that is not the only reason this flight will be novel. Its the first time, China is sending a woman into space.
Officials named the "A team" on Friday and confirmed 34-year-old Liu Yang as part of the crew. Married with no children, she is a former Chinese air force pilot. She was selected at the beginning of 2010 as a candidate for the space program and was then trained.
No scars, nor cavities
Chinese media have been reporting on the strict selection criteria used in choosing female astronauts. Apparently candidates were not allowed to have any scars or dental cavities. Thick calluses on the feet are also said to be grounds for exclusion from the selection process.
Yang Liwei is a national hero
In total, 56 female astronauts have been sent into space so far; 46 from the US, three from the former USSR, as well as three Russians, two Canadians and two Japanese.
Bernd Dachwald, a space flight expert at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, told DW that women faced the same challenges as men when it came to space travel and that there should be no special criteria.
"The Americans put women into space all the time. They have almost as many female as male astronauts on their crews," he said, adding that the only real difference was the hormonal fluctuations caused by the menstrual cycle.
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Beijing, June 15 (Xinhua-ANI): China will conduct space medical experimental research on Tiangong-1 space lab module in the upcoming manned space flight, China's manned space program spokeswoman Wu Ping said Friday.
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The U.S. Air Force is standing ready for this week's much anticipated return to Earth of a robotic space plane that has spent more than a year in orbit on a secret mission.
Air Force officials say landing day for the unmanned X-37B space plane is imminent, and could occur on Friday (June 15). But weather conditions at its intended landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as well as other factors, will determine when the spacecraft's will ultimately land.
"Team Vandenberg is prepared to safely receive the X-37B at a moment's notice," Air Force Lt. Austin Fallin told SPACE.com in an email this week. "Exact landing date and time depend on weather and technical considerations."
The X-37B spacecraft's landing window opened on June 11 and runs through June 18, with Friday being the next opportunity, Fallin said. The exact nature of the space plane's mission is classified, so aside from a brief May 30 statement announcing the upcoming landing in the mid-June timeframe, Air Force officials have remained mum on re-entry details. [Photos: Air Force's 2nd Secret X-37B Mission]
"More information will be released as it becomes available," Fallin said.
- Air Force Lt. Austin Fallin
The X-37B space plane set to land this week is known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2) and looks much like a smaller version of NASA's reusable space shuttles. Unlike NASA's shuttles, the OTV-2 is completely unmanned and is powered by a solar panel that allows it to stay in orbit for months at a time.
Air Force officials have said the estimated mission length for its X-37B space planes (there are currently two) is about 270 days, but the OTV-2 mission has far outlasted that timeframe. The OTV-2 mission launched into orbit on March 5, 2011 and has racked up more than 460 days in orbit so far.
The Air Force's X-37B space planes are built by Boeing and originally began as a NASA test program that shifted into the U.S military's control in 2006, first to DARPA and then to the Air Force, due to funding issues. Each X-37B spacecraft is about 29 feet long (8.8 meters) 15 feet wide (4.5 m), and has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.
The spacecraft are launched into orbit atop unmanned Atlas 5 rockets and are designed to guide themselves back to Earth on autopilot by re-entering the atmosphere and landing on a runway at Vandenberg. The OTV-2 mission and its predecessor were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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14-06-2012 09:25 more at "STS-49, the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Includes the dramatic capture, repair, and reboost of the INTELSAT VI satellite; as well as the ASEM experiment designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of certain EVA techniques for the future construction of a space station." Public domain film slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). Split with MKVmerge GUI (part of MKVToolNix), the same freeware (or Avidemux) can recombine the downloaded parts (in mp4 format): part 2: also see: "Houston, I Think We've Got a Satellite" STS-49 was the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The primary goal of its nine-day mission was to retrieve a Intelsat VI satellite (Intelsat 603, which failed to leave low earth orbit two years before), attach it to a new upper stage, and relaunch it to its intended geosynchronous orbit. After several attempts, the capture was completed with a three-person extra-vehicular activity, the first time that three people from the same spacecraft walked in space at the same time. It would also stand until STS-102 in 2001 as the longest EVA ever undertaken. Commander Daniel C. Brandenstein ...
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Space Shuttle STS-49 Endeavour Intelsat VI Repair pt1-2 Post Flight Press 1992 NASA - Video
The U.S. Air Force is standing ready for this week's much anticipated return to Earth of a robotic space plane that has spent more than a year in orbit on a secret mission.
Air Force officials say landing day for the unmanned X-37B space plane is imminent, and could occur on Friday. But weather conditions at its intended landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as well as other factors, will determine when the spacecraft will ultimately land.
"Team Vandenberg is prepared to safely receive the X-37B at a moment's notice," Air Force Lt. Austin Fallin told Space.com in an email this week. "Exact landing date and time depend on weather and technical considerations."
The X-37B spacecraft's landing window opened on Monday and runs through next Monday, with Friday being the next opportunity, Fallin said. The exact nature of the space plane's mission is classified, so aside from a brief May 30 statement announcing the upcoming landing in the mid-June timeframe, Air Force officials have remained mum on re-entry details. [ Photos: Air Force's 2nd Secret X-37B Mission ]
"More information will be released as it becomes available," Fallin said.
The X-37B space plane set to land this week is known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2) and looks much like a smaller version of NASA's reusable space shuttles. Unlike NASA's shuttles, the OTV-2 is completely unmanned and is powered by a solar panel that allows it to stay in orbit for months at a time.
Air Force officials have said the estimated mission length for its X-37B space planes (there are currently two) is about 270 days, but the OTV-2 mission has far outlasted that timeframe. The OTV-2 mission launched into orbit on March 5, 2011 and has racked up more than 460 days in orbit so far.
The Air Force's X-37B space planes are built by Boeing and originally began as a NASA test program that shifted into the U.S military's control in 2006, first to DARPA and then to the Air Force, due to funding issues. Each X-37B spacecraft is about 29 feet long (8.8 meters) 15 feet wide (4.5 m), and has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.
More space news from msnbc.com
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: A double shot of solar particles is due to hit Earth's magnetic field on Saturday, but not to worry the most noticeable effect is likely to be heightened auroral displays.
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