ISRO takes giant step towards manned space missions
The ISRO has taken a huge step towards manned space missions. The space research organisation has successfully tested the launch and recovery of a crew recovery module, a process critical to...
By: Headlines Today
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Mar 29 2014 at 4:00 AM
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Do you get sick? asks the boiler-suited boffin strapping me into what looks like a high-tech human hamster ball. As all good astronauts would concur, theres only one way to find out.
Sitting in a metal seat with my wrists strapped down and a five point harness sucking all the air out of my lungs, I am about to be put through the kind of training Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins experienced before their Apollo mission to the moon.
As the motors whirr, I tip slowly backwards, a gentle introduction to what would soon be a wild ride.
The multi-axis trainer quickly gets going, and my body is spinning faster and faster, my eyes starting to lose focus as the NASA sign attached to the frame flies past my face at what seems like the 100th different angle. How are you feeling? I hear the controller shout, the direction of his voice lost in a blur. Yeah, pretty good, I lie.
Great. Well take it up another notch then. Ugh. Really? After five minutes that seem like five hours, the human gyroscope coasts to a halt. My eye balls settle. I am, I think, back up the right way.
OK, calls the boffin. Time to go walk on the moon. Huntsville, Alabama, has near legendary status in Americas space story. Here, at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Centre, engineers designed and built the rockets for the Apollo program in the 1960s and 70s, and it is now the place from which the US manages all the activities of the astronauts on the International Space Station. It is also home to Space Camp, a training centre for aspiring astronauts, both young and old.
The buzz begins on arrival, when visitors are welcomed by a 36-storey Saturn rocket model that towers over the interstate highway at the entrance. A fully assembled Space Shuttle launch craft sits beside the car park and thats just the start.
The US Space and Rocket Centre Museum is NASAs original visitor centre and still its most impressive, with more than 1500 items of space memorabilia.
The rest is here:
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are gearing up for launch March 27 to kick off a record one-year stay aboard the International Space Station, an orbital marathon both men say is crucial for planning future flights beyond Earth orbit and, eventually, to Mars.
While four cosmonauts logged flights longer than one year between 1987 and 1999, the upcoming flight will be a first for the international lab complex and the first to focus on the long-term biological effects of the space environment using state-of-the-art medical and scientific research equipment and procedures.
"If we're ever going to go beyond low-Earth orbit for longer periods of time, spaceflight presents a lot of challenges to the human body with regard to bone loss, muscle loss, vision issues that we've recently realized people are having, the effect on your immune system, the effect of radiation on our bodies," Kelly said Thursday during a news conference in Paris. "Understanding those effects are very important.
"If a mission to Mars is going to take a three-year round trip, we need to know better how our body and our physiology performs over durations longer than what we've previously on the space station investigated, which is six months. Perhaps there's a cliff out there with regards to some of these issues that we experience and perhaps there aren't. But we won't know unless we investigate it."
A veteran of three previous space flights, including a shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and a 159-day stay aboard the station in 2010-11, Kelly is the twin brother of Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut who flew four shuttle missions and who is married to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Kornienko also is a station veteran, logging 176 days aboard the outpost in 2010.
Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko strike a pose during training for launch next year on a record year-long mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA
"The last long-time space mission was on the Mir (space) station and it brought major data for investigations and research about how humans will feel during long-term flights into space," he said. "I hope that our mission will be an opportunity for others who will follow in our footsteps and take space exploration further."
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THE SPACE RACE l British Path
One of the most popular races in our history is the Space Race. Apart from the moon landing there were quite a few inventions and facts that came along with this historical event. We #39;ve prepared...
By: British Path
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Launch of a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship like this one, shown during final approach to the International Space Station last September, has been delayed from Friday to Jan. 6 because of technical issues, holiday launch opportunities and orbital temperature constraints. SpaceX
SpaceX has delayed the launch of its fifth operational space station resupply mission from Friday to Jan. 6 because of problems encountered during an engine test firing Tuesday, limited options for additional launch attempts over the holidays and unrelated issues concerning the space station's orbit, the company and NASA confirmed Thursday.
SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said the hot fire test, in which the nine Merlin 1D engines in the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage were briefly ignited Tuesday evening to make sure ground and flight systems were ready for launch, was cut short, but he did not provide any details.
He said it would have been possible to press ahead for launch either Friday or Saturday, but mission managers decided to err on the side of caution and to delay the flight to early January.
"While the recent static fire test accomplished nearly all of our goals, the test did not run the full duration," he said via email. "The data suggests we could push forward without a second attempt, but out of an abundance of caution, we are opting to execute a second static fire test prior to launch."
"Given the extra time needed for data review and testing, coupled with the limited launch date availability due to the holidays and other restrictions, our earliest launch opportunity is now Jan. 6 with Jan. 7 as a backup."
The "other restrictions" refer to so-called "beta angle cutouts," periods when the angle between the sun and the plane of the space station's orbit results in near continuous sunlight and higher-than-normal temperatures that increase the demand on the lab's cooling systems.
The next cutout, extending from Dec. 28 to Jan. 7, would not have any impact on the Falcon 9's launch, but the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship could cause problems. For a launch on Jan. 6, the Dragon would reach the station on Jan. 8, after the beta constraint eases.
The upcoming launch will kick off the first U.S. station resupply flight since an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket carrying a station-bound Cygnus cargo ship exploded seconds after liftoff Oct. 28.
In the wake of the space shuttle's retirement, NASA is relying on Orbital and SpaceX to deliver critical U.S. supplies and equipment to the lab complex, augmenting cargo carried up aboard Russian Progress supply ships and occasional Japanese freighters.
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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are gearing up for launch March 27 to kick off a record one-year stay aboard the International Space Station, an orbital marathon both men say is crucial for planning future flights beyond Earth orbit and, eventually, to Mars.
While four cosmonauts logged flights longer than one year between 1987 and 1999, the upcoming flight will be a first for the international lab complex and the first to focus on the long-term biological effects of the space environment using state-of-the-art medical and scientific research equipment and procedures.
"If we're ever going to go beyond low-Earth orbit for longer periods of time, spaceflight presents a lot of challenges to the human body with regard to bone loss, muscle loss, vision issues that we've recently realized people are having, the effect on your immune system, the effect of radiation on our bodies," Kelly said Thursday during a news conference in Paris. "Understanding those effects are very important.
"If a mission to Mars is going to take a three-year round trip, we need to know better how our body and our physiology performs over durations longer than what we've previously on the space station investigated, which is six months. Perhaps there's a cliff out there with regards to some of these issues that we experience and perhaps there aren't. But we won't know unless we investigate it."
A veteran of three previous space flights, including a shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and a 159-day stay aboard the station in 2010-11, Kelly is the twin brother of Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut who flew four shuttle missions and who is married to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Kornienko also is a station veteran, logging 176 days aboard the outpost in 2010.
Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko strike a pose during training for launch next year on a record year-long mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA
"The last long-time space mission was on the Mir (space) station and it brought major data for investigations and research about how humans will feel during long-term flights into space," he said. "I hope that our mission will be an opportunity for others who will follow in our footsteps and take space exploration further."
Link:
CTVNews.ca Staff Published Thursday, December 18, 2014 11:24AM EST Last Updated Thursday, December 18, 2014 1:50PM EST
One of Canada's new astronauts is proud Canada is playing a role in an upcoming year-long expedition aboard the International Space Station, saying he hopes it adds to our knowledge about long-duration space flight..
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency) are due to blast off to the ISS in March, 2015, to begin a years stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. It will be the longest time astronauts have spent on the Station in a single mission.
The Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen says Canada will be playing a supporting role in the mission, with the Canadarm robotics team helping with station maintenance and spacewalks, as well as capturing visiting vehicles bringing supplies to and from the ISS.
Hansen says it is his hope that the mission will provide valuable information about long-term space travel information that he himself might one day be able to use.
"I personally hope to someday be part of some missions that takes me beyond low-earth orbit," Hansen said at a European Space Agency news conference Thursday in Paris.
That may not happen for a while. NASA has said that no Canadians will be travelling to the ISS anytime soon, as all flights are booked to the end of 2016, but an opportunity could open up in 2019-2020.
Hansen has been working to be sure he'll be ready and said Thursday he welcomed the chance to speak with Scott Kelly to find out what it's like to prepare mentally for a long stay in space.
"Some of these missions will require significant periods of time in space. And I'm very interested in how one prepares for that," he said.
Understanding the effects of long-term space travel will also be crucial to any future trips to Mars, Hansen said a dream he fully expects will be realized in his lifetime.
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Astronaut Hansen proud Canada playing role in year-long ISS mission
Organic matter detected on Mars
For the first time, Curiosity rover detected organic matter on Mars. NASA scientist Danny Glavin discusses the most recent findings by the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite (SAM). Credit:...
By: SciNews
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Sriharikota: India's space agency is all set for one of its most ambitious tests as it readies for the unique maiden flight today of its heaviest rocket to date - the 630-tonne, three-stage rocket Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III.
The rocket is scheduled to lift off at 9:30 am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
This experimental flight marks a quantum shift in the rocket technology that India has mastered. The new three-stage rocket is capable of doubling the capacity of payloads India can carry into space. The rocket can deposit up to four tonne class of communication satellites into space. ISRO hopes this will become its mainstay rocket in the future. The rocket will later be suitably equipped for ferrying Indian astronauts into space.
On this flight, the rocket will be tested on how it performs during its travel in the atmosphere. The rocket will have the first two stages as active rocket engines, while the third stage that consists of the cryogenic engine is a passive stage. The heavy-duty cryogenic engine
The GSLV Mk III is an altogether new design of rocket by Indian engineers. Incidentally, its first stage consists of twin solid-state rocket engines that carry as much as 200 tonnes of propellant each. "These are the world's third largest rocket boosters," said ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan.
Once ISRO masters this rocket, there may not be any need for India to send its heavy-duty communications satellites to space using expensive foreign launchers. It can also hope to make a dent in the multimillion-dollar global commercial launch market. Astronaut Programme
This flight is a two-in-one mission being undertaken by ISRO. The main passenger in the rocket is an Indian-made crew module. This marks the beginning of what could be India's initiation into the ambitious human space flight programme. While this crew module will be unmanned, the small room-sized cupcake-shaped satellite is indeed capable of carrying two or three astronauts into space. (India Gets Set for Flying Astronauts)
In this flight, the crew module will be hoisted up to an altitude of about a 127 kilometres above Earth. The crew module is also powered by its own engine and will be navigated and made to re-enter the atmosphere at a massive velocity. It will then be slowed down using massive parachutes. Incidentally, the parachutes being used are the largest ever to be deployed by India.
The crew module will then make a splash down near the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. In its flight, several parameters will be tested on the crew module; crucially, ISRO is very keen to understand how the crew module and it's outer lining made of special heat resistant tiles withstands the over-4,000 degree centigrade temperatures it experiences as it comes hurtling back to Earth.
ISRO has proposed that it can fly Indian astronauts into space using an indigenous rocket from Indian soil within seven to eight years of getting a government nod for its astronaut programme. ISRO has sought funding of about Rs 12,500 crores for its human space flight endeavour. When it happens, India will become the fourth country in the world to have indigenous capability of sending humans into space; presently, Russia, USA and China are the only nations to have the necessary technology for this complex mission.
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ISRO's Big Launch Today: Testing India's Largest Rocket and an Astronaut Capsule
New Delhi: India's space agency is all set for one of its most ambitious tests. The countdown has begun for the unique maiden flight of Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO's heaviest rocket till date - the 630-tonne three-stage rocket Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. (Watch: India's Monster Rocket Ready for Test Flight)
This experimental flight marks a quantum shift in the rocket technology that India has mastered. This new rocket is capable of doubling the capacity of payloads India can carry into space. The rocket can deposit up to four tonne class of communication satellites into space. ISRO hopes this will become the main stay rocket in the future, which later will be suitably equipped for ferrying Indian astronauts into space.
On this flight, the rocket will be tested on how it performs during its travel in the atmosphere. The rocket will have the first two stages as active rocket engines, while the third stage that consists of the cryogenic engine is a passive stage. The heavy-duty cryogenic engine necessary for this rocket is still under development by ISRO. A full-fledged launch of the rocket can be expected in a few years.
The GSLV Mk III is an altogether new design of a rocket by Indian engineers. Incidentally its first stage consists of twin solid-state rocket engines that carry as much as 200 tonnes of propellant each. ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan says "These are the world's third largest rocket boosters."
Once ISRO masters this rocket, there may not be any need for India to send its heavy-duty communications satellites to space using expensive foreign launchers. It can also hope to make a dent in the multimillion-dollar commercial launch market of the world.
Astronaut Programme
This flight is really a two-in-one mission being undertaking by ISRO. The main passenger in the rocket is an Indian-made crew module. This marks the beginning of what could be India's initiation into the ambitious human space flight programme. While this crew module will be unmanned but this small room-sized cupcake shaped satellite is indeed capable of carrying two or three Indian astronauts into space. (Watch: India Gets Set for Flying Astronauts)
In this flight the crew module will be hoisted up to an altitude of about 127 kilometres above earth. The crew module is also powered by its own engine and will be navigated and made to re-enter the atmosphere at a massive velocity. It will then be slowed down using massive parachutes. Incidentally the parachutes being used are the largest ever to be deployed by India.
The crew module will then make a splash down near the Andaman Islands in the waters of the Bay of Bengal. In its flight several parameters will be tested on the crew module, crucially ISRO is very keen to understand how the crew module and it's outer lining made of special heat resistant tiles withstands the over four thousand degree centigrade temperature it experiences as it comes hurtling back to Earth.
ISRO has proposed that it can fly Indian Astronauts into space using Indian rocket from Indian soil within seven to eight years of getting a government nod for its astronaut programme. ISRO has sought funding of about Rs 12,500 crores for its humans space flight endeavour. When this happens, India will become the fourth country in the world to have indigenous capability of sending humans into space; the only other countries that have the necessary technology for this complex mission include Russia, USA and China.
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ISRO's Big Launch: Testing a Monster Rocket and an Astronaut Capsule
The twists and turns of Ascensions three-night mini-series flight landed the earthbound space arks most Right Stuffy space hero and the story itself in a mysterious place strewn with wreckage and reminders of other stories. And more mystery! In the final minutes of part three, we learned that Dr. Harris Enzmann (Gil Bellows) was using the decades-long psych experiment started by his father to trigger punctuated evolution and produce a next-gen X-Mana star childpossessed with morphic resonance (i.e., telepathy, telekinesis, super-powers) capable of manipulating the vast energies located within the nuclear powered Panopticon to do even more amazing things, like actually send someone across the universe!Why take a slooooooooow-boat generation ship when you can just grow a magic sea monkey in a skyscraper-sized fishbowl? NASA, youve been doing it wrong!
Enzmann found success in the form of young Christa (Ellie OBrien), part Marvel Girl, part Firestarter, part Space Guild navigator from Dune. In the final moments, she used her abilities to channel the energies of a Glowglobe to produce a Holtzman effect and save Aaron Gault (Brandon P. Bell) from a baddies beat-down by instantaneously teleporting him to a distant, dark planet? Another Enzmann simulation? The only thing we know for sure is that Ascension is perhaps best understood not as a response to the myth of the 60, as I argued pretentiously on Monday (sorry). It is something very post-modern, a self-aware sci-fi saga born from an accumulation of sci-fi sagas over the past 50 years, and perhaps full of pining for better, more hopeful, more serious-minded sci-fi: I found something meaningful and provocative in the last image: Gault, a space hero with the Right Stuff, rising to his feet amid that trendiest, most dismal of things, a dystopian wasteland.A charitable read: Ascension was challenging a genre to dream better. More hope, less No Future cynicism. More big new ideas, fewer hyperlinks trapping us in old ones. More mind-expanding space odysseys, less self-absorbed geeking like this review.
Thats what I got out of the interesting mess that was Ascension. How about you?
Elaborations and ridiculata:Ascension was a stir of sci-fi (and Syfy) echoes. There was Stokes (Brad Carter) watching space opera on a motel telly, ogling the space princesses. There was James Toback (the name, a reference itself; the actor, P.J. Boudousque) catching flickers of Fraggle Rock on Ascension monitors. (Or thats what he was watchingon my Syfy-supplied screener. Those whove seen the aired version are saying he saw ALF. Ill update this Thursday morning after checking out the PST telecast.) We definitely got a coded nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey. That line about the star child must be born (uttered by the treacherous faux troublemaker Eve, revealed to be an Ascension fangirl running a honeypot to snare haters) came during the same scene in which Stokes was playing Moon-Watcher. Gault got The Last Starfighters arc, graduating from (unwitting) space hero gameplay to becoming the real deal. (Will Enzmann cover up his absence from the ship by replacing him with a robot doppelganger, just like the movie?)
And was Ascension winking at The Terminator franchise, arguably the defining dystopian, No Future narrative of the past 30 years, during its final act? There was Christa, the storys symbol for a better, redeemed future (a real Christ-a child), standing in the mud, stuck, in front of three doors labeled T-1, T-2, and T-3, waiting for one ruthless, cynical terminator to come through to claim her, while another terminator, morally dubious but presently on the side of angels (Enzmanns inside man, revealed to be Loreleis killer) trying to save her, pleading with her to leave, his line a version of come with me if you want to live.
Okay, maybe I am projecting but projecting might be what Ascension is all about! Ill bet you five bucks that if Ascension returns for another mini-series, well learn that some kind of magical observer effect is at work here, with Enzmann affecting reality inside the ship simply by watching it, by projecting his wants and wishes upon his space heroes. Of course, I once theorized something similar about Lost, and in fact, I dare say this revelation that Enzmann was trying to cultivate a super-powered savior inside his spaceship Skinner Box is basically my Evil Aaron theory of The Dharma Initiative. (Since all of my columns and recaps have made like Gault and mysteriously vanished from this site, you can find that theory here. Thanks, verdantheart!) I also used to insist that Lost was a self-aware pop construct built from bits and bobs of other pop culture. It can now be revealed! Doc Jensen is also a super-powered mutant, just like Christa. I wasnt watching and writing about Lost back in the day. I was just precogging Ascension.
Ascension was definitely fixated with the theme of watching and the effect that watching has on the watched, and vice versa, and more, the show wanted us to know all that, too, via clues to be decoded. Enzmanns term morphic resonance is apparently some sort of pseudoscience business made up by a dubious parapsychologist dude named Rupert Sheldrake, whose books include The Sense of Being Stared At. I am guessing that scientist-voyeur-mutant maker Enzmann is very familiar with those books. James Toback called the monitor showing Fraggle Rock/ALF a Panopticon. Which definitely sounds like a good name for a TV monitor, except the word means something else altogether: A Panopticon is a special kind of prison designed in such a way that the prison guards can see all the prisoners at the same time. A perfect analogy for Ascension. (Another Lost link: The inventor of the Panopticon was the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, and Jeremy Bentham was the pseudonym used by John Locke after he vanished from The Island when he turned the frozen donkey wheel.) (If I had the energy for it, I would argue a theory that Ascension brims with passive-aggressive seduced and abandoned anger at Lost, Seduced and Abandoned being a movie by increasingly meta-filmmaker James Toback. Another time Okay, probably never.)
There was also that moment when Dr. Juliet Bryce (Andrea Roth, who in a past Lost life played Harper, the woman married to the Other who was sleeping with Dr. Juliet Burke) used the phrase every breath we take, which is so close to every breath you take, which, clearly, makes it a wink at The Polices stalker-surveillance ballad Every Breath You Take, from the album Synchronicity, which was inspired by The Roots of Coincidence by Arthur Koestler, who also wrote a book called The Ghost in the Machine, which inspired the title of The Polices previous album Ghost in the Machine, which brings us back to Ascension because we learned in part three that Lorelei is now some kind of ghost in the machine that is the ship that both Christa and Gault can see. And I am pretty sure I used all this Police/Koestler stuff in my Lost theories, too. And a few FlashForward recaps, too! Ascension is trolling me, isnt it? ISNT IT?!?!
This job is going to break my mind one day. Welcome to my breakdown.
But hey, back to Panopticons. A Panopticon is also a pretty good analogy for the power we have over a TV show. We are the guards; the show is our prisoner; we control its fate with our watching. The TV version of the observer effect: If enough of you watched Ascension, youll get another season that resolves all of its darn cliffhangers! Chief among them: Where is Aaron Gault? TBD but only if you watched! Otherwise, consider Ascension forever lost in space. Cue this.
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UFO Space Flight - An Informational Video For An Android App
This video contains images from the UFO Space Flight app now available for Android devices on Google Play at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_ArtistMichelleKirk.
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UFO Space Flight - An Informational Video For An Android App - Video
Virsatile - Let Me Breathe
Let Me Breathe a video shot by Space Flight Films Beat produced by J.Esco mixed and recorded by Virsatile.
By: Virsatile Bennett Jr.
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Image: NASAs MAVEN mission is observing the upper atmosphere of Mars to help understand climate change on the planet. MAVEN entered its science phase on Nov. 16, 2014. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Provided by Nancy Neal-Jones, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
Early discoveries by NASAs newest Mars orbiter are starting to reveal key features about the loss of the planets atmosphere to space over time.
The findings are among the first returns from NASAs Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, which entered its science phase on Nov. 16. The observations reveal a new process by which the solar wind can penetrate deep into a planetary atmosphere. They include the first comprehensive measurements of the composition of Mars upper atmosphere and electrically charged ionosphere. The results also offer an unprecedented view of ions as they gain the energy that will lead to their to escape from the atmosphere.
We are beginning to see the links in a chain that begins with solar-driven processes acting on gas in the upper atmosphere and leads to atmospheric loss, said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Over the course of the full mission, well be able to fill in this picture and really understand the processes by which the atmosphere changed over time.
On each orbit around Mars, MAVEN dips into the ionosphere the layer of ions and electrons extending from about 75 to 300 miles above the surface. This layer serves as a kind of shield around the planet, deflecting the solar wind, an intense stream of hot, high-energy particles from the sun.
[ Watch the Video: First Light for MAVEN ]
Scientists have long thought that measurements of the solar wind could be made only before these particles hit the invisible boundary of the ionosphere. MAVENs Solar Wind Ion Analyzer, however, has discovered a stream of solar-wind particles that are not deflected but penetrate deep into Mars upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
Interactions in the upper atmosphere appear to transform this stream of ions into a neutral form that can penetrate to surprisingly low altitudes. Deep in the ionosphere, the stream emerges, almost Houdini-like, in ion form again. The reappearance of these ions, which retain characteristics of the pristine solar wind, provides a new way to track the properties of the solar wind and may make it easier to link drivers of atmospheric loss directly to activity in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
MAVENs Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer is exploring the nature of the reservoir from which gases are escaping by conducting the first comprehensive analysis of the composition of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. These studies will help researchers make connections between the lower atmosphere, which controls climate, and the upper atmosphere, where the loss is occurring.
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NASAs MAVEN mission identifies reasons behind Mars' atmospheric loss
The Ascender space plane, designed by David Ashford of Bristol SpacePlanes
Bristolians are being invited to help launch planes into space in a new crowd-funding campaign.
Bristol SpacePlanes, a local firm which hopes to one day make space travel affordable, wants to raise 10,000 to build the first model of its Ascender space plane.
Founder David Ashford believes organisations such as NASA having being going about space travel the wrong way and that it could become much cheaper by reviving some old ideas from the 1960s.
The main barrier is not the technology, but changing peoples mindset he said. The technology is proven its just a case of getting people to believe.
Support us and you will, we truly believe, be helping us to bring spaceflight to the masses within 15 years.
One the reasons space flight is so expensive, costing millions of pounds to send an astronaut into space, is that rockets burn out and cant be re-used.
Imagine how much motoring would cost if we threw away the car after every journey, said David.
It is clear that an airliner that could fly to orbit would transform this situation. It could provide an airline service to orbit and open up large new markets, especially tourist visits to space hotels.
What is less well known is that in the 1960s most big aircraft companies in Europe and the USA studied space planes in depth. There was a consensus that space planes were the obvious next step and that they were just about feasible with the technology of the day.
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Bristol SpacePlanes launches crowd-funding campaign to help it get into orbit
The steadfast mission control director under pressure as astronauts lives hung in the balance in the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, and a man dubbed the architect of American space flight are two of four inductees into the National Aviation Hall of Fame Class of 2015.
NAHF announced the inductees Tuesday on the eve of the 111th anniversary of the first-powered flight by Dayton aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert L. Cardenas, former NASA space flight director Eugene Kranz, the late Robert N. Hartzell, a propeller-making pioneer, and the late Abe Silverstein, architect of the NASA space program, were chosen among 200 nominees, said Ron Kaplan, National Aviation Hall of Fame pioneer.
Collectively, they span the history of manned flight and individually each one stands as an icon in their own community of aviation, Kaplan said.
The Hall of Fame, inside the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, will formally induct the aviation and space pioneers in an Oct. 2, 2015 ceremony at the museum.
* Cardenas, 95, of San Diego, Calif., was the pilot on the mother ship B-29 bomber on the record-breaking X-1 program, the first jet-powered aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight on Oct. 14, 1947 over the California desert. Aviation buffs know Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier but Cardenas was flying the four-engine B-29 on its test flights, Kaplan said.
A World War II bomber pilot, Cardenas was chief pilot on the XB-49 flying wing test flights and a commanding officer of a F-105 Thunderchief unit in Southeast Asia and in the Air Force Special Operations Force. In his Air Force career, he was a test pilot at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and attended the Air Force Institute of Technology, according to his military biography.
* The late Robert N. Hartzell, who was born in Greenville, Ohio and grew up in Dayton, started a company that manufactured propellers for Liberty engines in World War I. Orville Wright encouraged Hartzell, the son of a woodworker, to build propellers, Kaplan said. The company had a stint manufacturing planes. It assembled both wood and metal propellers for World War II aircraft. In the post-war era, Hartzell Propeller, based in Piqua, developed lightweight and more controllable propellers, NAHF said.
Robert Hartzell died in 1968.
* Eugene Gene Kranz, 81, a Toledo native and former NASA director of mission operations who gained fame as the flight director of the troubled Apollo 13 mission that never landed on the moon after an explosion on the spacecraft, but returned three astronauts safely to Earth. He was a co-recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in the Apollo 13 mission, where he is perhaps best remembered for the phrase failure is not an option.
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Apollo 13 mission director, 3 others to enter Aviation Hall of fame
From Christmas to Ramadan, images of the Earth taken from space show how we use lights differently during the holidays. (NASA)
The holiday spirit can now be quantified and measured -- as a brightening of nighttime lighting so distinctive that, if you have the right technology to observe it, is visible from space.
Such is the upshot of a new series of powerful NASA satellite-based composite images, showing major increases in night lighting in many U.S. and global cities during the holidays -- and especially in the suburban areas surrounding them.
For instance, here's what the D.C.-Baltimore area looks like (anything colored green means there is more nighttime light at this time of year than in other seasons):
The image above is based on data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, whoseVisible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), capable of glimpsing the side of the Earth that is facing away from the sun,is responsible for the famous "Earth at Night" pictures that we've all seen before.
So what's the reason for increased lighting? It's simple, saysNASA'sMiguel Romn, a physicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who conducted the research behind the images with Eleanor Stokes, a NASA fellow and Ph.D. student and at Yale."What youre seeing here, anywhere you see green, is Christmas lights from space," says Romn.
"If you look at the spatial trend, you will find, a lot of the green in the DC area is concentrated in the suburbs," he adds.
Here are Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas:
The composite images are based on the period from the end of Thanksgiving through the first week of January.Only cities not under regular snowfall in winter could be imaged in this way (snow reflects light).
Overall, the researchers found that nighttime lighting increased by 20 to 50 percent in U.S. cities and suburbs during the holiday period, and that suburbs tended to light up more than urban centers. The images are based on data from 2012 and 2013.
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Wonkblog: The mesmerizing view of Christmas lights from space
Beltsville, Md. (PRWEB) December 16, 2014
NASA has awarded the Program Analysis and Control IV contract to ASRC Federal InuTeq. The five-year contract, primarily supporting NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is valued over $290 million.
Under the contract, ASRC Federal InuTeq will provide a wide range of business services, including planning and scheduling, configuration management and documentation support. Additionally, ASRC Federal InuTeq will provide specialty IT services that support critical NASA missions.
We are proud to have earned the opportunity to continue our partnership with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on the PAAC IV contract, said Mark Gray, ASRC Federal president and CEO. Our team is well-equipped to deliver the evolving services needed to help enable scientists and engineers to focus on NASAs space exploration missions.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is one of NASAs major field centers and is dedicated to the development and operation of unmanned spacecraft for scientific research. Since its inception in 1959, NASA Goddard has been involved in numerous key agency programs.
About ASRC Federal ASRC Federal comprises a family of companies that deliver engineering, information technology, logistics and technical services and solutions to U.S. civil and defense agencies. ASRC Federal companies have employees in over 40 locations across the U.S. focused on providing reliable, cost-efficient services that help government customers achieve mission success. Headquartered in Beltsville, Md., ASRC Federal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. For more information, please visit: http://www.asrcfederal.com
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ASRC Federal InuTeq Awarded NASA Program Analysis and Control Contract
SAN FRANCISCO Cities around the world brighten considerably during the holiday season, surprising new images from space reveal.
City lights across the United States blaze 20 to 50 percent more brightly in December than they do the rest of the year, and some cities in the Middle East brighten by more than 50 percent during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, researchers said.
"What's happening during the holidays is that our patterns are changing," study co-leader Miguel Roman, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said during a press conference Tuesday (Dec. 16) here at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. [Gallery: Holiday Lights From Space]
"People are leaving work for the holiday, and they're turning on the lights," he said, adding that scientists had previously thought that nighttime lights were relatively stable throughout the year. "People are demanding more energy services, and we see that embedded in this data."
Roman and his colleagues analyzed data collected in 2012 and 2013 by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite, a joint mission involving NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The researchers developed a new algorithm that filtered out clouds and moonlight in the VIIRS data, allowing them to isolate city lights and track how they changed over time. Snow was too reflective for the algorithm to handle, however, so the team looked at 70 warm American cities, all south of St. Louis.
Every one of the 70 (as well as cities and towns throughout Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States) lit up just after Thanksgiving and blazed brightly through Jan. 1, Roman said.
"This is telling us something that we all as Americans know, which is that Christmas is not just a religious holiday; it is also a civic holiday," he said. "This space-based retrieval is tracking this national tradition. It's amazing."
The same pattern was also observed throughout the Middle East but the holiday of note in this region is Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. Many Muslims fast during the daylight hours throughout Ramadan, delaying meals and a number of other activities until nightfall.
Cities in Muslim countries such as Jordan and Egypt exhibited the brightness spike during Ramadan while the lights in neighboring Israel remained stable throughout the year, showing that the VIIRS data can track cultural differences, researchers said.
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Holiday Lights From Space: Satellite Sees Cities Brighten (Photos)
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