Monthly Archives: July 2017

Royal College of Art graduate Brian Black has designed a concept rover and virtual-reality interface that would allow anyone on earth to contribute to space exploration missions.

Black's vision would see participants driving the rovers over real planets and moons, and collecting samples for analysis, all via a virtual-reality (VR) headset.

Installed in galleries, universities or other public places, the VR experience would function as an engagement mechanism during future interplanetary missions by NASA and other space agencies.

Black a masters student in Vehicle Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA) titled his project the Overview Effect, after a phrase used to describe the awe and change in attitude that astronauts commonly report experiencing once they see the earth from orbit.

He said: "I started with a question. What if there was a way to increase understanding? To give the public an experience that provokes a mental shift the same way astronauts have that first time they look back upon the earth?"

"From space, astronauts tell us national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this 'pale blue dot' becomes both obvious and imperative."

"Even more so, many of them tell us that from the Overview perspective, all of this seems imminently achievable, if only more people could have the experience," he continued.

For the purposes of the project, Black used Saturn's largest moon, Titan, as an example, because its earth-like qualities have made it a subject of interest for scientists.

Anticipating that a one-and-a-half-hour time delay in the transmission between Titan and earth would make real-time exploration impossible, Black proposes that the VR experience take place in a pre-scanned environment, with the terrain mapped using an orbital probe or data that the rover has already collected.

To avoid running into unforeseen obstacles, the rovers would also need to be equipped with autonomous technology.

In Black's demonstration for The Overview Project, users of the VR headset saw the terrain mapped as a simple point cloud, but he said that more detailed visualisations could ultimately be developed, such as those developed by 3D-scanning company ScanLAB.

Brian Black demonstrated a version of The Overview Effect virtual-reality interface at the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition

An accompanying concept space rover called Creos is also part of the Overview Effect. It is designed around its power source, an advanced radio isotopic generator (ASRG), a highly efficient kind of generator that is currently under development at NASA.

Around this, Black has imagined a "rugged" body suitable for exploration. The rover has a high clearance but is otherwise low and flat, with a nearly square shape.

The rover uses lidar (like radar, but using pulsed laser light) to visualise its environment the same technology as in today's self-driving vehicles. This module is situated on the rover's roof.

For users on earth, the vehicle also captures a soundscape using binaural audio receivers embedded in its front side panels. Scientific instruments like sampling tools and probes are all loaded into the front of vehicle.

Interplanetary design is experiencing something of a renaissance now that several private companies like Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk's SpaceX are aggressively pursuing space travel.

Clment Balavoine has imagined flight suits precisely tailored to support the musculoskeletal system of SpaceX travellers, while one of 2016's Designs of the Year was a Space Cup emulating a natural drinking experience for astronauts.

Black, who is originally from the US, studied at the Art Institute of Colorado before beginning his studies at the RCA. His work was included at the school's graduate exhibition, which ran from 24 June to 2 July at the Kensington campus in London.

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RCA graduate proposal would see ordinary people driving NASA's space exploration rovers - Dezeen

Human Mars missions are still stuck in sci-fi for many reasons, one being that the right propulsion technology hasnt yet launched. Now deep space propulsion is about to take off.

The Space Subcommittee of the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology recently held a hearing with several experts who are also part of the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) taking a stand for advancing travel through the final frontier. Technological breakthroughs brought before Congress included ways to amp up speed, payloads and propulsion. There was one in particular that surprised even the cynics.

NASAs Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) program was all but extinct until leaders in the space industry highlighted the propulsion advances brought about by developments for the program meant to prepare astronauts for Mars by robotically redirecting an asteroid to orbit the Moon. They would then explore this asteroid and use it to test out tech prototypes as a precursor to putting boots on the Red Planet. Even with the current administrations planned funding cuts that threaten to be its last gasp, ARM is spawning another arm.

NextSTEP connects the public and private sector in space exploration by joining forces with NASA and using commercial developments (whose funding cant be blasted by the government) to probe new possibilities for extended missions to Mars and beyond. ARM had made some serious leaps forward in solar electric propulsion (SEP) aka ion propulsion. This is a more efficient alternative to the chemical rockets and thrusters on most spacecraft, which rely on heavy fuel. Solar panels use radiation to power the ionizingelectrically chargingof a gas, which creates enough thrust to propel the craft while minimizing weight.

SEP is the same type of technology that sustains the Dawn mission which has been exploring the asteroid belt for a decade, and thruster advancements intended for ARM have tripled its power, increased its efficiency by half and drastically reduced the amount of required propellant. It could someday send off payloads that will give rise to a human colony on Mars.

High power solar electric propulsion capabilities, scalable to handle power and thrust levels needed for deep space human exploration missions, are considered essential to efficiently and affordably perform human exploration missions to distant destinations such as Mars, stated Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, at the hearing.

The only con in the galaxy of pros SEP brings to space exploration is that such engines is that, unlike chemical rockets, they are unable to accelerate fast enough to defy Earths gravity and launch a spacecraft off the surface. That all changes once its shot into space. Outside our atmosphere, SEP can fire for years on end. Superpowered electric propulsion will operate at levels that start at hundreds of kilowatts, eventually switching out solar electric power for nuclear electric power the further away future missions take us from the sun. NASA foresees sending Earthlings to Mars by using SLS (Space Launch System), the shiny new rocket its currently developing, together with SEP to propel immense payloads towards the planet before the first human footsteps land in its red dust. But first, we actually have to blast something running on one of these engines into space.

A key goal is to demonstrate these new capabilities in the next few years and infuse them into human missions in the next decade, said Gerstenmaier. Watch out, Mars.

(via Seeker)

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Deep space flight may soon be rocketing forward - SYFY WIRE (blog)

Risk and failure are a normal part of any space programme. China has come to learn that, just as other space-faring nations have. The failed launch of a Long March 5 rocket, the second such incident in as many weeks, is without doubt a setback for engineers, scientists and the nations ambitions. But when it comes to extraterrestrial exploration, there can be no success without failure.

Scientists have always known that, so it is good that authorities now also understand. In a positive sign of transparency, they were quick to announce Sundays mishap with the rocket and the loss of the experimental satellite it was carrying, the largest that China has yet tried to launch. An investigation is under way, but the outcome is unlikely to alter the setbacks to human space flight and planet exploration plans, which will rely on the heavy-lifting capacity of the Long March rocket. A malfunction in a lesser version last month failed to lift a satellite to its anticipated orbit, but the more powerful rockets reliability had already been brought into question during its first test last November; although considered a success, it was similarly unable to put its satellite payload onto the right path.

Chinas moon programme takes a hit due to Long March rocket failure

There is good reason for transparency, though; China pins its hopes on the Long March 5, a rocket that puts its capabilities beside long-standing space powers the United States and Russia. The rockets next planned launch in November was to carry the Change-5 spacecraft, which is to be the crux of the nations second lunar lander with a mission to bring back the first samples from the moon in four decades. It will also be integral to helping assemble Chinas first permanently crewed space station, with the core module expected to be launched either next year or in 2019. It is too soon to say whether those programmes will be affected by the rocket failures.

Chinese have justifiably watched with pride the nations meteoric rise among space nations. In the 14 years since astronaut Yang Liwei made history by orbiting the Earth 21 times, there have been extraordinary achievements. An orbiter has navigated the moon and a rover has landed on it, a component for an orbital space station was launched and three astronauts, including Chinas first woman in space, docked with it. But scientists lost control and a successor, Tiangong-2, was embarked upon and two astronauts spent 30 days aboard it last November to learn how to live and work in space.

China aims to land on the moon in the mid-2030s; it hopes to become a leading space power by about 2030. In doing so, there are bound to be more failures. But learning from mistakes is the only way to move confidently forward. Accepting risk and failure is the price that has to be paid to expand knowledge and advance technology.

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Setbacks are inevitable in space exploration | South China Morning ... - South China Morning Post