NASA space shuttle landing site to turn commercial

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The Florida facility used by NASA as a landing site for its retired space shuttle fleet could see new life as a commercial spacecraft facility.

Local news station WFTV reports that the US space agency is in talks with the state's Space Florida agency on plans that would turn the portion of the Kennedy Space Center previously used to land the shuttle into a commercial space flight center.

The 4,600-meter concrete runway had served as one of several facilities capable of handling the shuttle on its returns from space. The reusable craft relied on the extended runway to complete a glider-like landing process which saw the shuttle touch down at speeds of 226mph following re-entry from orbit.

Following the 2011 retirement of the shuttle fleet, NASA was faced with the task of repurposing much of the infrastructure used to support the program. While some of the assembly and maintenance facilities have been adapted for use in other projects, the decision by NASA to adopt a capsule-like craft in the Orion program rather than another glider design meant the landing strip would no longer be needed.

According to WFTV, NASA and Space Florida are looking at a plan that will extend one side of the current runway to house a multi-use spaceport. Initial plans would call for federal approval to build in the surrounding wetlands region, followed by official handover of the facility from NASA to Space Florida, at which point construction work on the commercial facility could begin.

The report has yet to name possible tenants for the facility. While the SpaceX corporation has set up one of its launch sites in Cape Canaveral, the company has thus far relied on rockets and capsules which would not require a runway.

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has used extended runways to land its SpaceShipTwo suborbital commercial craft, but that company has thus far opted to focus its operations on the other side of the country in the Mojave Desert.

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NASA space shuttle landing site to turn commercial

Hyperspectral satellite set to monitor Hawaiian volcano

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by Ford Burkhart in Baltimore A suitcase-size satellite called SUCHI is now scheduled for launch from Kauai Island in Hawaii in the fall of 2014, after a year's delay to fine-tune its hyperspectral sensing technology, a team member said at the outset of SPIEs defense, security and sensing (DSS) event in Baltimore.

The delay was to allow more work on a little of everything said Sarah T. Crites, a doctoral candidate in geophysics at the University of Hawaii who is working on the project. We need more testing of the whole spectrometer. We wanted to know more about what it would do.

Speaking at a conference session on May 5, the researcher said that SUCHI was undergoing tests to see how its components would survive the intense shaking of a rocket launch. Im excited to have the vibration testing going on today. The SUCHI will be fastened to a table that is shaking like a satellite launch. This is the first time for these tests, Crites said.

SUCHI stands for Space Ultra-Compact Hyperspectral Imager for small satellites, and Crites report was part of a session called Pervasive Techologies Supporting Responsive Space, in the Sensors and Systems for Space Applications conference at the DSS meeting, held at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Lava flows The imager is designed to study geological phenomena like volcanic eruptions and lava flows, with a six-month primary mission that could be extended to two years. The ultra-compact satellite, measuring just over 16inches in length, 4inches deep and 5inches wide, will run on solar panels approximately the size of a notebook.

Inside it is a FLIR A35 camera, mounted in a sealed vessel and collecting images at a resolution of 336x256 pixels. Each pixel measures 38m.

Actually a trimmed-down version of a 2012 design for the satellite for long-wave infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral imaging, it was developed by a University of Hawaii team and built at the Hawaii Space Flight Lab in Manoa, a suburb of Honolulu.

During its short deployment, it will help geologists to monitor volcanic gas emissions and rates at which lava cools. The captured images are also expected to be useful in the mapping of major rock mineralogy, Crites said.

Tracking vog gas One key application is to monitor sulfur dioxide, a volcanic gas constantly erupted by the active Hawaiian volcano Kilauea. The gas forms aerosols that locals call vog (volcanic fog), which floats across the islands and can cause respiratory problems. The gas can be tracked and quantified using spectroscopy in the 9m region of the infrared spectrum.

That part of the spectrum is also an ideal wavelength range for geological mapping of certain minerals.

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Hyperspectral satellite set to monitor Hawaiian volcano

NASA Image Mars Anomalies Road Sign With Text A Dog A Hinged Briefcase And Stone Walkways – Video

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NASA Image Mars Anomalies Road Sign With Text A Dog A Hinged Briefcase And Stone Walkways
NASA Image Mars Anomalies Road Sign With Text A Dog a Hinged Briefcase And Stone Walkways This amazing Mars Curiosity image shows two road signs one with written text on it....

By: enigmadigest

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NASA Image Mars Anomalies Road Sign With Text A Dog A Hinged Briefcase And Stone Walkways - Video