Thursday, March 27, 2008
I've Moved...
I am amazed (shocked and dismayed) to see an average of 100 people visiting this site this week. Shocked as I haven't posted here in so long.
I've moved on, folks. I'm sharing blogging duties at TexasBestGrok. Come on by. I'll even use the word "y'all".
I am amazed (shocked and dismayed) to see an average of 100 people visiting this site this week. Shocked as I haven't posted here in so long.
I've moved on, folks. I'm sharing blogging duties at TexasBestGrok. Come on by. I'll even use the word "y'all".
Labels: Administrative
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Mars: Updates from Mars and Earth
Opportunity has dipped its toes into Victoria Crater, stopping at a band of bright bedrock partway down the slope of the crater. The rover will bring its suite of instruments to bear as soon as mission managers are sure that safety checks (needed because of the 25 degree tilt of the rover) are working.
"This will be the first of several stops within this band of rock," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payloads on Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. "By sampling it at several different levels in the crater, we're hoping to figure out the processes that led to its formation and its very distinctive appearance."
Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, Spirit is exploring the top surface of a plateau called "Home Plate," where rocks hold evidence about an explosive combination of water and volcanism.
Now that Spirit has lasted longer on the surface of Mars than the venerable Viking 2 lander, it is time to take another look at highlights from this mission that just won't quit! And: bet you'd love to see this help-wanted ad in your local paper..."Mars Rover Driver Wanted!"
In orbit around Mars, the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is returning to normal operations after going into "safe mode" recently. The orbiter has sent back images of what appears to be possible cave "skylights" in seven areas on the surface of Mars. Some hope that these windows into the geology of the planet or even potential underground habitats. Odyssey is also allowing scientists to map ground ice under the surface of Mars.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter seems to have fully recovered from a camera problem earlier this year; pictures returned recently have not conclusively proved, one way or the other, visible signs of the presence of flowing water on the surface of Mars.
The Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled to be launched in ____, has been the subject of some controversy recently. Depending on how you look at it, NASA is either trying to keep costs under control and make people stick to a budget or NASA is acting "weird".
From Europe, comes word that instruments similar to those used on the failed Beagle-2 probe (previously announced as going to Mars thanks to NASA, although NASA did not seem to have agreed on the addition!) are now...strangely...going to Mars on another NASA mission. Even stranger...NASA again doesn't seem to know anything about it. The European Space Agency is testing out a "life chip" that might make the journey to Mars on its planned ExoMars rover (scheduled for a 2013 launch).
And some news on (simulated) human missions to the Red Planet. Readers in Canada can see a mini-series and a multi-part documentary on a mission to Mars (no word yet on where else this will be seen). Various government and private groups have wrapped up another season on a Mars-like part of the Arctic. Russia is running a simulation of a mission to Mars; let's hope it goes better than a previous one.
Opportunity has dipped its toes into Victoria Crater, stopping at a band of bright bedrock partway down the slope of the crater. The rover will bring its suite of instruments to bear as soon as mission managers are sure that safety checks (needed because of the 25 degree tilt of the rover) are working.
"This will be the first of several stops within this band of rock," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payloads on Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. "By sampling it at several different levels in the crater, we're hoping to figure out the processes that led to its formation and its very distinctive appearance."
Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, Spirit is exploring the top surface of a plateau called "Home Plate," where rocks hold evidence about an explosive combination of water and volcanism.
Now that Spirit has lasted longer on the surface of Mars than the venerable Viking 2 lander, it is time to take another look at highlights from this mission that just won't quit! And: bet you'd love to see this help-wanted ad in your local paper..."Mars Rover Driver Wanted!"
In orbit around Mars, the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is returning to normal operations after going into "safe mode" recently. The orbiter has sent back images of what appears to be possible cave "skylights" in seven areas on the surface of Mars. Some hope that these windows into the geology of the planet or even potential underground habitats. Odyssey is also allowing scientists to map ground ice under the surface of Mars.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter seems to have fully recovered from a camera problem earlier this year; pictures returned recently have not conclusively proved, one way or the other, visible signs of the presence of flowing water on the surface of Mars.
The Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled to be launched in ____, has been the subject of some controversy recently. Depending on how you look at it, NASA is either trying to keep costs under control and make people stick to a budget or NASA is acting "weird".
From Europe, comes word that instruments similar to those used on the failed Beagle-2 probe (previously announced as going to Mars thanks to NASA, although NASA did not seem to have agreed on the addition!) are now...strangely...going to Mars on another NASA mission. Even stranger...NASA again doesn't seem to know anything about it. The European Space Agency is testing out a "life chip" that might make the journey to Mars on its planned ExoMars rover (scheduled for a 2013 launch).
And some news on (simulated) human missions to the Red Planet. Readers in Canada can see a mini-series and a multi-part documentary on a mission to Mars (no word yet on where else this will be seen). Various government and private groups have wrapped up another season on a Mars-like part of the Arctic. Russia is running a simulation of a mission to Mars; let's hope it goes better than a previous one.
Dawn on Thursday
There's nothing like waking up and watching a successful rocket launch! After a relatively minor hold, the Dawn spacecraft was launched from Florida this morning on its journey to Ceres and Vesta (and possibly a few smaller encounters). Next up for the mission are a series of system "wakeups" and a slow "throttling up" of the vehicle's ion engines (for the earlier posting on Dawn, please see this entry).
There's nothing like waking up and watching a successful rocket launch! After a relatively minor hold, the Dawn spacecraft was launched from Florida this morning on its journey to Ceres and Vesta (and possibly a few smaller encounters). Next up for the mission are a series of system "wakeups" and a slow "throttling up" of the vehicle's ion engines (for the earlier posting on Dawn, please see this entry).
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Visiting the Neighbor
Japan launched its first probe to the Moon, Kaguya (or "Selene"), since its successful Hiten-Hagomoro probe in 1993. Relatively quiet since the 1960's, except for the occasional visitor such as a flyby of the Jupiter-bound Galileo, the orbital invasion began again in earnest in the 1990's with Hiten-Hagomoro, as well as Clementine, Lunar Prospector and the ESA's SMART-1.
And this return by Japan is only the beginning. Later this year should see China's Chang'e 1 (which may or may not be the start of human exploration by China, it depends on which set of tea leaves you read). Next year should see India's first attempt to achieve lunar orbit with Chandrayaan-1. The United States plans to support the Vision for Space Exploration with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter next year, to be followed (possibly) by a mission to return samples from the Aiken Basin at the Moon's south pole.
(Russia? Good question. The folks that make the rockets also make big promises. The folks that have the money are sounding quite a bit more restrained and conservative in their plans. The fact that sometimes these are the same folks makes you confused!)
Been there! Done that! Why are we going back?
There are many reasons. For some countries, it is as much for the science as for the prestige. Only a handful has reached the Moon, only one has landed humans there. As with climbing Mount Everest, racing to reach the Poles, or flying the first airplane showing that you have the technological knowledge and the national will to get to the Moon will still send a powerful message to other nations.
And, a bare handful of men walked on the Moon (only one a geologist), exploring (briefly) a handful of areas. Can we really say that we "know" all there is to know about the Moon? Lunar scientists have designated many areas of interest on the Moon, places we've never explored before as well as places we touched in the past. Is there ice at the poles? Evidence of past (or even "recent") volcanic action? Do the so-called transient lunar phenomena exist? Many questions abound!
The Moon could be useful as a place for other science. The bulk of the Moon could act as a shield against our ever increasingly "noisy" (in a electromagnetic sense) planet, with craters providing a natural shape for radio telescopes (much in the same way that the Arecibo Observatory took advantage of a natural formation in its telescope dish.
Just as the International Space Station could be seen as an engineering project to teach us how to build large structures in space and a place to learn how to manage long-term missions, the moon could be seen as a school for exploration. It can be a place to hone our skills, see how far people can work in harsh conditions but still offer a relatively short ride home in case something happens.
In the meantime...if you think you have what it takes, NASA is looking for candidates to fly their planned Orion vehicle to the Moon. NASA is running a contest to help design habitats for the surface of the Moon. You can see what the original astronauts felt in a new movie.
And then there's Google. From the folks that brought us Google Earth, have extended their reach out to the Moon. Google Moon allows one to explore the Moon...in a virtual sense.
Google isn't stopping there. They are helping to fund the Ansari Lunar X-Prize. Google is offering $20 million to the first private company that can land a robotic rover onto the lunar surface where it will move about and beam back information.
Maybe private industry will beat all the governments back to the Moon!
Japan launched its first probe to the Moon, Kaguya (or "Selene"), since its successful Hiten-Hagomoro probe in 1993. Relatively quiet since the 1960's, except for the occasional visitor such as a flyby of the Jupiter-bound Galileo, the orbital invasion began again in earnest in the 1990's with Hiten-Hagomoro, as well as Clementine, Lunar Prospector and the ESA's SMART-1.
And this return by Japan is only the beginning. Later this year should see China's Chang'e 1 (which may or may not be the start of human exploration by China, it depends on which set of tea leaves you read). Next year should see India's first attempt to achieve lunar orbit with Chandrayaan-1. The United States plans to support the Vision for Space Exploration with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter next year, to be followed (possibly) by a mission to return samples from the Aiken Basin at the Moon's south pole.
(Russia? Good question. The folks that make the rockets also make big promises. The folks that have the money are sounding quite a bit more restrained and conservative in their plans. The fact that sometimes these are the same folks makes you confused!)
Been there! Done that! Why are we going back?
There are many reasons. For some countries, it is as much for the science as for the prestige. Only a handful has reached the Moon, only one has landed humans there. As with climbing Mount Everest, racing to reach the Poles, or flying the first airplane showing that you have the technological knowledge and the national will to get to the Moon will still send a powerful message to other nations.
And, a bare handful of men walked on the Moon (only one a geologist), exploring (briefly) a handful of areas. Can we really say that we "know" all there is to know about the Moon? Lunar scientists have designated many areas of interest on the Moon, places we've never explored before as well as places we touched in the past. Is there ice at the poles? Evidence of past (or even "recent") volcanic action? Do the so-called transient lunar phenomena exist? Many questions abound!
The Moon could be useful as a place for other science. The bulk of the Moon could act as a shield against our ever increasingly "noisy" (in a electromagnetic sense) planet, with craters providing a natural shape for radio telescopes (much in the same way that the Arecibo Observatory took advantage of a natural formation in its telescope dish.
Just as the International Space Station could be seen as an engineering project to teach us how to build large structures in space and a place to learn how to manage long-term missions, the moon could be seen as a school for exploration. It can be a place to hone our skills, see how far people can work in harsh conditions but still offer a relatively short ride home in case something happens.
In the meantime...if you think you have what it takes, NASA is looking for candidates to fly their planned Orion vehicle to the Moon. NASA is running a contest to help design habitats for the surface of the Moon. You can see what the original astronauts felt in a new movie.
And then there's Google. From the folks that brought us Google Earth, have extended their reach out to the Moon. Google Moon allows one to explore the Moon...in a virtual sense.
Google isn't stopping there. They are helping to fund the Ansari Lunar X-Prize. Google is offering $20 million to the first private company that can land a robotic rover onto the lunar surface where it will move about and beam back information.
Maybe private industry will beat all the governments back to the Moon!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
No Quitters
When we last took a look at Mars, things looked bad for the Mars Rovers. A global dust storm threatened their power-generating capabilities. Was this the end of Spirit and Opportunity?
Amazingly, no! The rovers survived the dust storm, are starting to gather power again and are ready to continue the mission! Skies are brightening and winds have even helped by scrubbing some of the accumulated dust from the solar arrays.
What next, once mission managers check the health of the rovers? Spirit has climbed onto a rock formation known as Home Plate, a plateau that might be volcanic in origin. Spirit will investigate at least three areas on the formation, to get a wide sample of the materials there.
On the other side of Mars, Opportunity is getting ready for what might be its final mission. It is poised on the edge of Victoria Crater, where we might get a peek at the ancient past of the martian surface. On September 11, Opportunity took a small test drive into Victoria, "dipping" four meters into the crater to see how well the rover will work on the slope. The rover then backed out, and the mission managers are deciding on the next step of the mission.
We're ready for our descent into Victoria Crater!
In other news, the Phoenix Mars Lander is in good shape on its way to Mars. As part of a recent series of checks, it took a picture of the scoop on its robotic arm.
Science, a lot of science, is still going on around Mars. The 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter has been gathering data since it entered martian orbit over 2,000 days ago. Its instruments, such as the THermal EMission Imaging System (THEMIS) has been busy looking the landing site candidates for an upcoming rover mission, the Mars Science Laboratory (scheduled for a 2009 launch). Candidate areas include the Melmas Chasma, a slice of the vast Valles Marineris canyon system. For spectacular scenary potential, there might not be a better place on Mars!
The European Space Agency's Mars Express is into its second mission extension. Among the results from this mission are new topographic maps of Mars, a better understanding of how the surface has evolved, and even the discovery that Mars has auroras!
Finally, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the newest addition to the orbital parade, is sending back the closest orbital looks of Mars yet. Here, for example, is a pit on the flank of the Arsia Mons volanco that actually cuts through the lava flow. Here is further evidence of the work of liquids on the surface of Mars (click on the images for spectacular large-sized views, but be warned these files are big!). Amazing stuff!
When we last took a look at Mars, things looked bad for the Mars Rovers. A global dust storm threatened their power-generating capabilities. Was this the end of Spirit and Opportunity?
Amazingly, no! The rovers survived the dust storm, are starting to gather power again and are ready to continue the mission! Skies are brightening and winds have even helped by scrubbing some of the accumulated dust from the solar arrays.
What next, once mission managers check the health of the rovers? Spirit has climbed onto a rock formation known as Home Plate, a plateau that might be volcanic in origin. Spirit will investigate at least three areas on the formation, to get a wide sample of the materials there.
On the other side of Mars, Opportunity is getting ready for what might be its final mission. It is poised on the edge of Victoria Crater, where we might get a peek at the ancient past of the martian surface. On September 11, Opportunity took a small test drive into Victoria, "dipping" four meters into the crater to see how well the rover will work on the slope. The rover then backed out, and the mission managers are deciding on the next step of the mission.
We're ready for our descent into Victoria Crater!
In other news, the Phoenix Mars Lander is in good shape on its way to Mars. As part of a recent series of checks, it took a picture of the scoop on its robotic arm.
Science, a lot of science, is still going on around Mars. The 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter has been gathering data since it entered martian orbit over 2,000 days ago. Its instruments, such as the THermal EMission Imaging System (THEMIS) has been busy looking the landing site candidates for an upcoming rover mission, the Mars Science Laboratory (scheduled for a 2009 launch). Candidate areas include the Melmas Chasma, a slice of the vast Valles Marineris canyon system. For spectacular scenary potential, there might not be a better place on Mars!
The European Space Agency's Mars Express is into its second mission extension. Among the results from this mission are new topographic maps of Mars, a better understanding of how the surface has evolved, and even the discovery that Mars has auroras!
Finally, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the newest addition to the orbital parade, is sending back the closest orbital looks of Mars yet. Here, for example, is a pit on the flank of the Arsia Mons volanco that actually cuts through the lava flow. Here is further evidence of the work of liquids on the surface of Mars (click on the images for spectacular large-sized views, but be warned these files are big!). Amazing stuff!
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Back to Mars!
This weekend (if weather and other conditions permit) we will see a new probe being dispatched on its way to Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander is a "reborn" version of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, lost, along with a pair of impact probes, during its landing on Mars in 1999. The Phoenix is continuing the Martian mantra of "follow the water". It is intended to land in the high northern latitudes of Mars, clawing into the icy surface, to see if frozen water melts on a periodic basis...which might sustain a livable environment for microbes. The probe will employ landing thrusters instead of airbags (due to the fact that it is too heavy for current designs of airbags) and come down in what is hoped to be a smooth enough area allowing a touchdown and not a wrecked vehicle! The vehicle is the subject of some controversy, due to a problematic camera that is slated to be used during descent. Well, at least you can buy official licensed gear! And if we land humans on Mars, they can spend their free time going through the DVD that the Planetary Society crammed with Mars-related fiction and greetings from Earthlings.
Important mission? A potential problem-plagued mission? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well.
This weekend (if weather and other conditions permit) we will see a new probe being dispatched on its way to Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander is a "reborn" version of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, lost, along with a pair of impact probes, during its landing on Mars in 1999. The Phoenix is continuing the Martian mantra of "follow the water". It is intended to land in the high northern latitudes of Mars, clawing into the icy surface, to see if frozen water melts on a periodic basis...which might sustain a livable environment for microbes. The probe will employ landing thrusters instead of airbags (due to the fact that it is too heavy for current designs of airbags) and come down in what is hoped to be a smooth enough area allowing a touchdown and not a wrecked vehicle! The vehicle is the subject of some controversy, due to a problematic camera that is slated to be used during descent. Well, at least you can buy official licensed gear! And if we land humans on Mars, they can spend their free time going through the DVD that the Planetary Society crammed with Mars-related fiction and greetings from Earthlings.
Important mission? A potential problem-plagued mission? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well.
Labels: Space
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Recycle!
To follow up on two previous postings about explorations of our Solar System, it is nice to see NASA finally realizing that a working spacecraft in outer space is definitely cheaper than a spacecraft that is designed from scratch. Two probes had successful missions: Deep Impact rendezvoused with Comet Tempel-1 on July 4, 2005, examining the comet as it flew by and also getting a peak inside by releasing a probe that impacted with the comet. The Stardust mission flew through the tail of Comet Wild-2 in order to collect samples of the comet's coma as well as (later in the mission) samples of interstellar dust. These samples were returned to Earth on January 15, 2006. Missions over, right?
Wrong! NASA has extended both missions. Deep Impact will undertake two new missions called Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh). It will swing by Earth for a boost and course change and study Comet Boethin. It will also study stars where known extrasolar planets orbit in order to try and find other (smaller) extrasolar planets. Stardust's mission is known as New Exploration of Tempel-1 (NExT). The vehicle will rendezvous with Comet Tempel-1 and take a look a what changes may have occurred since Deep Impact's probe hit the comet.
To follow up on two previous postings about explorations of our Solar System, it is nice to see NASA finally realizing that a working spacecraft in outer space is definitely cheaper than a spacecraft that is designed from scratch. Two probes had successful missions: Deep Impact rendezvoused with Comet Tempel-1 on July 4, 2005, examining the comet as it flew by and also getting a peak inside by releasing a probe that impacted with the comet. The Stardust mission flew through the tail of Comet Wild-2 in order to collect samples of the comet's coma as well as (later in the mission) samples of interstellar dust. These samples were returned to Earth on January 15, 2006. Missions over, right?
Wrong! NASA has extended both missions. Deep Impact will undertake two new missions called Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh). It will swing by Earth for a boost and course change and study Comet Boethin. It will also study stars where known extrasolar planets orbit in order to try and find other (smaller) extrasolar planets. Stardust's mission is known as New Exploration of Tempel-1 (NExT). The vehicle will rendezvous with Comet Tempel-1 and take a look a what changes may have occurred since Deep Impact's probe hit the comet.
Labels: Space
Tragedy in Private Space
Following up on the previous posting about Scaled Composites, tragedy struck this private space effort this past week. An explosion during a tank test took the lives of three Scaled Composites employees and wounded several others. Rand Simberg has some thoughts, and we turn to Robert A. Heinlein for more thoughts. A fund has been established for the families of those who died.
Following up on the previous posting about Scaled Composites, tragedy struck this private space effort this past week. An explosion during a tank test took the lives of three Scaled Composites employees and wounded several others. Rand Simberg has some thoughts, and we turn to Robert A. Heinlein for more thoughts. A fund has been established for the families of those who died.
Labels: Space
Stormy Weather
Following up on this posting, here's a quick update. Both Spirit and Opportunity are being threatened by large dust storms that are girdling the martian globe. It's not so much the force of the winds involved (remember that sequence from Mission to Mars?), but the amount of dust being raised. Both Spirit and Opportunity rely on solar power to keep them going and the amount of light getting through the dust is decreasing, as this sequence of pictures from the Astronomy Picture of the Day site shows. Will this be the end of these plucky devices?
Following up on this posting, here's a quick update. Both Spirit and Opportunity are being threatened by large dust storms that are girdling the martian globe. It's not so much the force of the winds involved (remember that sequence from Mission to Mars?), but the amount of dust being raised. Both Spirit and Opportunity rely on solar power to keep them going and the amount of light getting through the dust is decreasing, as this sequence of pictures from the Astronomy Picture of the Day site shows. Will this be the end of these plucky devices?
Labels: Space
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Small Business...Big Dreams
Following up on the Scaled Composites post, there's a lot of other interesting stuff going on in the areas of private and quasi-private space.
Besides Scaled Composite's efforts in SpaceShipOne (which one the X-Prize) and SpaceShipTwo (which will be the backbone of Virgin Galactic's "space fleet"), other companies are pursuing similar efforts. For example, Jeff Bezos, the man behind Amazon.com, is financing Blue Origin, a somewhat secretive company working in Texas. Some information has been leaking on their vehicle, New Shepard, a vertical take-off and landing sub-orbital vehicle. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the DC-X test vehicle (not surprising since some of the design and engineering team for New Shepard worked on the DC-X).
Then there's Armadillo Aerospace. Edged out of the X-Prize, they are working on several fronts, ranging from modular vehicles to concepts for a lunar lander. Founded by, like Blue Origins and SpaceX, another software engineer who made good (yes, Mom, you were right, again, about my poor career choice!), this is a company to keep an eye on.
With all these companies working on sub-orbital vehicles, what side industries might we see? How about rocket racing? Think NASCAR is hot? What until you see these babies! More seriously...how about space diving? It might be the most extreme of extreme sports, but it might lead to a new way for astronauts to escape from a crippled spacecraft.
What else? How about space hotels and space industrial parks. No joking, the first steps towards this are above your heads right now! Using technology originally designed by (and now licensed from) NASA, Bigelow Aerospace has successfully launched and orbited Genesis I and Genesis II, the first two test space station modules. Future plans are for larger and larger modules, possibly even for modules that could be used on the surface of the Moon. Will NASA's "hard shell" approach for the ISS be obsolete shortly after the ISS is finished?
Hey, what about Ad Astra? Now, not Ad Astra Games, the Ad Astra Rocket Company! In one of those strange but true tales, there's a company working on the VASIMR propulsion system with the name of Ad Astra. Not only that, but they've managed four hours of continuous use of their engine, a quantum leap from the earlier test that managed two minutes! Maybe a merger between the two Ad Astra's is in the offing?
What to wear, what to wear? Spacesuits have been somewhat clunky looking outfits. Wouldn't it be better to wear something that allows you a full range of motion and won't tire you out from all the bulk? Perhaps the first steps in that direction have been taken at MIT.
So other than visiting Bigelow's orbital hotels and industrial parks, what can one do in Earth orbit? Well, NASA is looking for ways to expand the use of the International Space Station (ISS) with plans to open up portions of it for "private business". When the ISS is "completed" (and that's only the latest definition of "completed") in 2010, NASA is hoping that research will be carried out by a mix of government and private interests. Me, I'm hoping that by 2010, Bigelow Aerospace has several sites in operation already, beating NASA to the punch!
Next, with the space shuttle scheduled to retire (sooner rather than later!), what will take its place to carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station and other orbital destinations? The Russians are still building the dependable Progress vehicle and Soyuz vehicle and the European Space Agency is hoping to get its Automated Transfer Vehicle online. Even the Japanese are hoping to get into the act with their H-2 Transfer Vehicle.
But what about the United States? If NASA is successful in building and launching its Ares I launch vehicle, it will have a government-financed way of getting both cargo and crew to the ISS. With the larger Ares V, it would even have a way of lofting large cargoes into orbit.
More interesting is what is known as the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA is partnering with two private firms, Rocketplane-Kistler (with its K-1 Orbital Vehicle) and SpaceX (with its Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle and Dragon crew and cargo capsules). Will NASA be able to break from its "we invented space travel" mentality and work with private partners? Will the private partners be able to pull this off? I hope so, as it is far too dangerous to have all our manned and cargo lift capability in one basket (or dependent on foreign partners).
Further out? How about private expeditions to the Moon? Much of the technology has been proven, but not quite in these circumstances: using Russian vehicles, modified with additional modules, for a slingshot trip around the Moon. Who could afford such a trip? Space Adventures, the folks behind several private trips to the ISS claim they already have their first client at the cut-rate price of $100 million (per passenger seat!). When will this occur? Details are still being worked out, but I wouldn't be surprised to see private space beat NASA back to the Moon, even if it is just for a quick jaunt!
Finally, with all this activity, there's a growing need for scientists and engineers at these companies. And not just that...what about machinists, software designers, financial wizards and more! Here, for example, is a recent advertisement from XCOR Aerospace:
XCOR Aerospace Is Hiring - And It's Not Rocket Scientists
Want to help build rocket ships? XCOR Aerospace has an immediate opening for an experienced precision prototype / job shop machinist. CNC experience (both mill and lathe) required. Full competency with conventional equipment and freehand tool grinding capability also a must. Good pay commensurate with experience. Applicant should be a self-starter and function well within a small group. XCOR is a small company with a motivated, entrepreneurial and friendly working environment. This position is open to current U.S. citizens or permanent residents only. Position is located at the Mojave Spaceport and Civilian Aerospace Test Center in Mojave, CA. Strong verbal and written communication skills in English required. Benefits include medical and dental, and all employees get rides! XCOR Aerospace is an equal opportunity employer.
Interested? Know someone who is? E-mail resume to shadowcat [-at-] engineer [-dot-] com or call Aleta at 661-824-4714 x113. Fax resume to 661-824-0866.
Phew! We've only scratched the surface of the private and quasi-private efforts! More as I come across more news!
Following up on the Scaled Composites post, there's a lot of other interesting stuff going on in the areas of private and quasi-private space.
Besides Scaled Composite's efforts in SpaceShipOne (which one the X-Prize) and SpaceShipTwo (which will be the backbone of Virgin Galactic's "space fleet"), other companies are pursuing similar efforts. For example, Jeff Bezos, the man behind Amazon.com, is financing Blue Origin, a somewhat secretive company working in Texas. Some information has been leaking on their vehicle, New Shepard, a vertical take-off and landing sub-orbital vehicle. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the DC-X test vehicle (not surprising since some of the design and engineering team for New Shepard worked on the DC-X).
Then there's Armadillo Aerospace. Edged out of the X-Prize, they are working on several fronts, ranging from modular vehicles to concepts for a lunar lander. Founded by, like Blue Origins and SpaceX, another software engineer who made good (yes, Mom, you were right, again, about my poor career choice!), this is a company to keep an eye on.
With all these companies working on sub-orbital vehicles, what side industries might we see? How about rocket racing? Think NASCAR is hot? What until you see these babies! More seriously...how about space diving? It might be the most extreme of extreme sports, but it might lead to a new way for astronauts to escape from a crippled spacecraft.
What else? How about space hotels and space industrial parks. No joking, the first steps towards this are above your heads right now! Using technology originally designed by (and now licensed from) NASA, Bigelow Aerospace has successfully launched and orbited Genesis I and Genesis II, the first two test space station modules. Future plans are for larger and larger modules, possibly even for modules that could be used on the surface of the Moon. Will NASA's "hard shell" approach for the ISS be obsolete shortly after the ISS is finished?
Hey, what about Ad Astra? Now, not Ad Astra Games, the Ad Astra Rocket Company! In one of those strange but true tales, there's a company working on the VASIMR propulsion system with the name of Ad Astra. Not only that, but they've managed four hours of continuous use of their engine, a quantum leap from the earlier test that managed two minutes! Maybe a merger between the two Ad Astra's is in the offing?
What to wear, what to wear? Spacesuits have been somewhat clunky looking outfits. Wouldn't it be better to wear something that allows you a full range of motion and won't tire you out from all the bulk? Perhaps the first steps in that direction have been taken at MIT.
So other than visiting Bigelow's orbital hotels and industrial parks, what can one do in Earth orbit? Well, NASA is looking for ways to expand the use of the International Space Station (ISS) with plans to open up portions of it for "private business". When the ISS is "completed" (and that's only the latest definition of "completed") in 2010, NASA is hoping that research will be carried out by a mix of government and private interests. Me, I'm hoping that by 2010, Bigelow Aerospace has several sites in operation already, beating NASA to the punch!
Next, with the space shuttle scheduled to retire (sooner rather than later!), what will take its place to carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station and other orbital destinations? The Russians are still building the dependable Progress vehicle and Soyuz vehicle and the European Space Agency is hoping to get its Automated Transfer Vehicle online. Even the Japanese are hoping to get into the act with their H-2 Transfer Vehicle.
But what about the United States? If NASA is successful in building and launching its Ares I launch vehicle, it will have a government-financed way of getting both cargo and crew to the ISS. With the larger Ares V, it would even have a way of lofting large cargoes into orbit.
More interesting is what is known as the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA is partnering with two private firms, Rocketplane-Kistler (with its K-1 Orbital Vehicle) and SpaceX (with its Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle and Dragon crew and cargo capsules). Will NASA be able to break from its "we invented space travel" mentality and work with private partners? Will the private partners be able to pull this off? I hope so, as it is far too dangerous to have all our manned and cargo lift capability in one basket (or dependent on foreign partners).
Further out? How about private expeditions to the Moon? Much of the technology has been proven, but not quite in these circumstances: using Russian vehicles, modified with additional modules, for a slingshot trip around the Moon. Who could afford such a trip? Space Adventures, the folks behind several private trips to the ISS claim they already have their first client at the cut-rate price of $100 million (per passenger seat!). When will this occur? Details are still being worked out, but I wouldn't be surprised to see private space beat NASA back to the Moon, even if it is just for a quick jaunt!
Finally, with all this activity, there's a growing need for scientists and engineers at these companies. And not just that...what about machinists, software designers, financial wizards and more! Here, for example, is a recent advertisement from XCOR Aerospace:
XCOR Aerospace Is Hiring - And It's Not Rocket Scientists
Want to help build rocket ships? XCOR Aerospace has an immediate opening for an experienced precision prototype / job shop machinist. CNC experience (both mill and lathe) required. Full competency with conventional equipment and freehand tool grinding capability also a must. Good pay commensurate with experience. Applicant should be a self-starter and function well within a small group. XCOR is a small company with a motivated, entrepreneurial and friendly working environment. This position is open to current U.S. citizens or permanent residents only. Position is located at the Mojave Spaceport and Civilian Aerospace Test Center in Mojave, CA. Strong verbal and written communication skills in English required. Benefits include medical and dental, and all employees get rides! XCOR Aerospace is an equal opportunity employer.
Interested? Know someone who is? E-mail resume to shadowcat [-at-] engineer [-dot-] com or call Aleta at 661-824-4714 x113. Fax resume to 661-824-0866.
Phew! We've only scratched the surface of the private and quasi-private efforts! More as I come across more news!
Labels: Space
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Scaled Composites
So Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites and Northrop Grumman have announced that NG is going to increase their stake in Scaled Composites from 40% to 100%. A buyout, in other words. Maybe this is a positive, and NG will allow Rutan to run a Skunk Works for NG, employing his talents. Possibly, or equally possibly they take the current ideas, find that the cultures "don't match" and he'll move on. Klyde Morris has the best take on why it might be that somebody who was so independent seemed to agree to the deal that ran contrary to much of what we heard from this smaller shop.
So Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites and Northrop Grumman have announced that NG is going to increase their stake in Scaled Composites from 40% to 100%. A buyout, in other words. Maybe this is a positive, and NG will allow Rutan to run a Skunk Works for NG, employing his talents. Possibly, or equally possibly they take the current ideas, find that the cultures "don't match" and he'll move on. Klyde Morris has the best take on why it might be that somebody who was so independent seemed to agree to the deal that ran contrary to much of what we heard from this smaller shop.
Labels: Space
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Short Stories!
The Heinlein Society is holding a short story contest for the best tale to reflect the philosophy and spirit of Robert A. Heinlein. It's open to both professional and amateur writers and first prize is $5,000.00, considerably more than Heinlein himself would have won if he had sent his first tale into a contest, rather than submitting it to Astounding Stories. You have a year, so start writing!
The Heinlein Society is holding a short story contest for the best tale to reflect the philosophy and spirit of Robert A. Heinlein. It's open to both professional and amateur writers and first prize is $5,000.00, considerably more than Heinlein himself would have won if he had sent his first tale into a contest, rather than submitting it to Astounding Stories. You have a year, so start writing!
Labels: Science Fiction
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Belters
Following up on last week's posting, that concentrated on the inner planets, we now move outward in our solar system and visit three current or pending missions.
First up is the Dawn Mission, designed to explore the Asteroid Belt. This could almost be called the Phoenix Mission (except that name is already taken!) as the mission has gone from being active, to almost being canceled, and then back to a go again.
So what's the big deal? Several big deals, actually. First up, following up on the successful use of ion engines in missions such as Deep Space 1 and SMART-1, Dawn will use an ion engine. These will be improved models and are expected to run longer and carry a much heavier payload that any previous ion-propelled mission. The second big deal is where Dawn is going. The Asteroid Belt appears to be the remnants of a planet that never finished forming (possibly stopped by the nearby presence of Jupiter and its massive gravity field). So we have a chance of seeing what the protoplanets that eventually became places like our home started out like. Third, we have a big deal in the route we are taking. Our deep space efforts to date have either been flybys (sometimes of more than one planet) or missions that end in orbit. For Dawn, thanks in part to the use of continuous thrust ion engines, we will travel to one asteroid, orbit it for several months, then travel to a second asteroid and orbit it.
Finally, when it comes to our future in space, we're visiting a very interesting place and two very interesting objects. If we are to extend our presence into the solar system, we'll need resources. You can launch them from Earth or another planet, but even from Mars (with the potential of water there, for example), you're fighting gravity. The asteroids (and, by extension, the comets) offer the potential of plenty of resources, with much smaller gravity wells.
What kinds of resources can these smaller bodies provide? Long the setting in science fiction as a kind of "Wild West", there is the potential of some serious resource gathering out there. There are basically three kinds of asteroids, rocky (or "silicaceous"), metallic and carbonaceous. Carbonaceous asteroids are the most numerous, and are made up of various carbon compounds. With a little money and know-how, such compounds could be turned into building materials...fertilizer...food and more. Metallic asteroids (the smallest part of the population) could potentially yield resources for building habitats, ships, or for use back in the "inner system". And then there's water. Comets are icy bodies, and many asteroids are expected to yield water as well. For example, one of Dawn's targets is the asteroid (or "dwarf planet") known as 1 Ceres, the other is 4 Vesta. What makes 1 Ceres so interesting, for resources, that it might contain water. How much water? One theory puts the amount of water at 200 million cubic kilometers, or more water than that is found on Earth!
With past missions, plus Dawn, we've barely scratched the asteroid belt. About 5,000 of these bodies are discovered each month; the catalog numbers in the hundreds of thousands (for a nice graphical view click here). The potential for resources is vast.
Metal shortages? Water shortages? Pollution? Energy problems? Our planet may be a "closed system", but we may come to have the means of "opening" it up to the point where scarcity of resources is a thing of the past.
Addendum: You too can participate in the Dawn Mission! NASA is encouraging amateur astronomers to observe Ceres and Vesta. Why? Larger telescopes are in constant use, there are more targets than telescopes. On the other hand, there is a large community of amateur astronomers. If enough observe a particular target, a baseline of information can be built up. Amateurs are often on the forefront, for example, in spotting comets, events in the atmosphere of Jupiter or storms on Mars.
No telescope, you say? Well, how are your model-making skills? Give a paper model of Dawn a try!
Following up on last week's posting, that concentrated on the inner planets, we now move outward in our solar system and visit three current or pending missions.
First up is the Dawn Mission, designed to explore the Asteroid Belt. This could almost be called the Phoenix Mission (except that name is already taken!) as the mission has gone from being active, to almost being canceled, and then back to a go again.
So what's the big deal? Several big deals, actually. First up, following up on the successful use of ion engines in missions such as Deep Space 1 and SMART-1, Dawn will use an ion engine. These will be improved models and are expected to run longer and carry a much heavier payload that any previous ion-propelled mission. The second big deal is where Dawn is going. The Asteroid Belt appears to be the remnants of a planet that never finished forming (possibly stopped by the nearby presence of Jupiter and its massive gravity field). So we have a chance of seeing what the protoplanets that eventually became places like our home started out like. Third, we have a big deal in the route we are taking. Our deep space efforts to date have either been flybys (sometimes of more than one planet) or missions that end in orbit. For Dawn, thanks in part to the use of continuous thrust ion engines, we will travel to one asteroid, orbit it for several months, then travel to a second asteroid and orbit it.
Finally, when it comes to our future in space, we're visiting a very interesting place and two very interesting objects. If we are to extend our presence into the solar system, we'll need resources. You can launch them from Earth or another planet, but even from Mars (with the potential of water there, for example), you're fighting gravity. The asteroids (and, by extension, the comets) offer the potential of plenty of resources, with much smaller gravity wells.
What kinds of resources can these smaller bodies provide? Long the setting in science fiction as a kind of "Wild West", there is the potential of some serious resource gathering out there. There are basically three kinds of asteroids, rocky (or "silicaceous"), metallic and carbonaceous. Carbonaceous asteroids are the most numerous, and are made up of various carbon compounds. With a little money and know-how, such compounds could be turned into building materials...fertilizer...food and more. Metallic asteroids (the smallest part of the population) could potentially yield resources for building habitats, ships, or for use back in the "inner system". And then there's water. Comets are icy bodies, and many asteroids are expected to yield water as well. For example, one of Dawn's targets is the asteroid (or "dwarf planet") known as 1 Ceres, the other is 4 Vesta. What makes 1 Ceres so interesting, for resources, that it might contain water. How much water? One theory puts the amount of water at 200 million cubic kilometers, or more water than that is found on Earth!
With past missions, plus Dawn, we've barely scratched the asteroid belt. About 5,000 of these bodies are discovered each month; the catalog numbers in the hundreds of thousands (for a nice graphical view click here). The potential for resources is vast.
Metal shortages? Water shortages? Pollution? Energy problems? Our planet may be a "closed system", but we may come to have the means of "opening" it up to the point where scarcity of resources is a thing of the past.
Addendum: You too can participate in the Dawn Mission! NASA is encouraging amateur astronomers to observe Ceres and Vesta. Why? Larger telescopes are in constant use, there are more targets than telescopes. On the other hand, there is a large community of amateur astronomers. If enough observe a particular target, a baseline of information can be built up. Amateurs are often on the forefront, for example, in spotting comets, events in the atmosphere of Jupiter or storms on Mars.
No telescope, you say? Well, how are your model-making skills? Give a paper model of Dawn a try!
Labels: Space
Thursday, July 12, 2007
From the Inner Solar System...
This post is the second update on the current state of exploration in our solar system. This installment will skip Mars, although there is still plenty to talk about. I'll refer you back to my previous posting and mention that the dust storm circling the planet is still delaying the entry into Victoria Crater. Stay tuned!
Quick! What's the second-most under-visited planet in our solar system? It's easy to answer what planet (sorry IAU) is the most neglected, that being Pluto. The second most neglected body in our solar system is Mercury, the innermost planet. Visited once previously in a series of flybys using the Mariner 10 probe, only about 50 percent of its surface has been photographed in any detail. Seeing that was in 1975, a return visit is more than overdue!
The current mission is known as Mercury MESSENGER (MEcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, get it?). Launched in 2004, the probe will finally arrive in mercurian (hermian?) orbit in 2011, after a journey that involves one flyby of Earth, two of Venus and three of Mercury itself before finally settling into orbit. Unlike some missions where a flyby might be used to boost the spacecraft's speed (such as the recent encounter between the Pluto-bound New Horizons probe and Jupiter), these multiple flybys are being used to change the speed, size and tilt of the Mercury MESSENGER's path to enable it to use its relatively small engines to settle into orbit around Mercury.
What then? We have lots of questions, hopefully we'll get more than a few answers. For example, of the four "rocky" planets, Mercury is the smallest of the batch, has densest makeup, the oldest surface and the most extreme temperature variations. MESSENGER will probe the surface with a variety of instruments to try and determine the makeup (and therefore, which theory of evolution was the most likely). Imaging the surface will build a more detailed maps. Does Mercury have a liquid core (it shows a magnetic field)? Is there ice (water ice?) at the poles?
Mercury has been an enigmatic planet both in history and science fiction. Think of what you've read that has been proven wrong. A twilight belt. A half-molten/half-frozen surface. A place of weird creatures. You know something? What we really find there might be even more exciting and strange!
Mercury MESSENGER's mission is expected to last for one year. After that, we might see the joint Japanese-European twin probe known as BepiColombo, which is planned to orbit the innermost planet for three-and-a-half years.
So what about our "twin", the cloud-shrouded planet Venus? Not quite as neglected as Mercury, there also has been a long gap in explorations there. Currently, there is one visitor from Earth in orbit, the ESA's Venus Express. Built mostly from spares from the Mars Express and Rosetta missions, Venus Express was designed to orbit Venus for two days (Venusian days, that is...about 500 Earth days!) and pierce some of the clouds of mystery.
Does Venus have a liquid core? Are there active volcanoes on the planet (the surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity in the past, is it still undergoing eruptions?)? Why are craters on the surface distributed fairly uniformly? Does this mean that the surface has been massively reworked? What is the link between the geology of Venus and the climate? What are the atmospheric mechanisms for things such as the rotation of the atmosphere (many times faster than the rotation of the planet)?
Being so close, yet so different, from Earth makes Venus an interesting object to study. There is a lot of concern here on Earth that we are heading into a period of global warming. Venus is an extreme case of global warming; might it be useful as a model to study that?
Want to see Venus yourself? Look in the western sky, after sunset. It's currently one of our "evening stars" and (next to Jupiter) the brightest object that you can see.
As an addendum, even old missions can yield new results. For example, take a look at these images from the Soviet Venera landers. The data was reprocessed and cleaned up, yielding stunning images of one of the most hostile places in our solar system.
This post is the second update on the current state of exploration in our solar system. This installment will skip Mars, although there is still plenty to talk about. I'll refer you back to my previous posting and mention that the dust storm circling the planet is still delaying the entry into Victoria Crater. Stay tuned!
Quick! What's the second-most under-visited planet in our solar system? It's easy to answer what planet (sorry IAU) is the most neglected, that being Pluto. The second most neglected body in our solar system is Mercury, the innermost planet. Visited once previously in a series of flybys using the Mariner 10 probe, only about 50 percent of its surface has been photographed in any detail. Seeing that was in 1975, a return visit is more than overdue!
The current mission is known as Mercury MESSENGER (MEcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, get it?). Launched in 2004, the probe will finally arrive in mercurian (hermian?) orbit in 2011, after a journey that involves one flyby of Earth, two of Venus and three of Mercury itself before finally settling into orbit. Unlike some missions where a flyby might be used to boost the spacecraft's speed (such as the recent encounter between the Pluto-bound New Horizons probe and Jupiter), these multiple flybys are being used to change the speed, size and tilt of the Mercury MESSENGER's path to enable it to use its relatively small engines to settle into orbit around Mercury.
What then? We have lots of questions, hopefully we'll get more than a few answers. For example, of the four "rocky" planets, Mercury is the smallest of the batch, has densest makeup, the oldest surface and the most extreme temperature variations. MESSENGER will probe the surface with a variety of instruments to try and determine the makeup (and therefore, which theory of evolution was the most likely). Imaging the surface will build a more detailed maps. Does Mercury have a liquid core (it shows a magnetic field)? Is there ice (water ice?) at the poles?
Mercury has been an enigmatic planet both in history and science fiction. Think of what you've read that has been proven wrong. A twilight belt. A half-molten/half-frozen surface. A place of weird creatures. You know something? What we really find there might be even more exciting and strange!
Mercury MESSENGER's mission is expected to last for one year. After that, we might see the joint Japanese-European twin probe known as BepiColombo, which is planned to orbit the innermost planet for three-and-a-half years.
So what about our "twin", the cloud-shrouded planet Venus? Not quite as neglected as Mercury, there also has been a long gap in explorations there. Currently, there is one visitor from Earth in orbit, the ESA's Venus Express. Built mostly from spares from the Mars Express and Rosetta missions, Venus Express was designed to orbit Venus for two days (Venusian days, that is...about 500 Earth days!) and pierce some of the clouds of mystery.
Does Venus have a liquid core? Are there active volcanoes on the planet (the surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity in the past, is it still undergoing eruptions?)? Why are craters on the surface distributed fairly uniformly? Does this mean that the surface has been massively reworked? What is the link between the geology of Venus and the climate? What are the atmospheric mechanisms for things such as the rotation of the atmosphere (many times faster than the rotation of the planet)?
Being so close, yet so different, from Earth makes Venus an interesting object to study. There is a lot of concern here on Earth that we are heading into a period of global warming. Venus is an extreme case of global warming; might it be useful as a model to study that?
Want to see Venus yourself? Look in the western sky, after sunset. It's currently one of our "evening stars" and (next to Jupiter) the brightest object that you can see.
As an addendum, even old missions can yield new results. For example, take a look at these images from the Soviet Venera landers. The data was reprocessed and cleaned up, yielding stunning images of one of the most hostile places in our solar system.
Labels: Space
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Endurance Missions
It's an interesting time to be studying Mars. In addition to the orbital looks of the ESA's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey (I'll have a writeup on these three in the future), we're still reaping the benefits from two other missions, both of which have lasted well past their "expiration dates."
(Update! The entry into Victoria Crater (see below) has been delayed due to a dust storm!)
On the ground, the mars rovers, MER-A and MER-B (more popularly known as Spirit and Opportunity) continue to operate in Gusev Crater (for Spirit) and at the edge of Victoria Crater (for Opportunity). Originally designed to last for ninety days on Mars, the rovers have had their missions extended again...and again...and again to the point where both rovers have been operating on the martian surface for nearly four years.
Mission managers have found ways of keeping the rovers operating (such as "wintering over" to keep batteries charged), have had the fortune of recovering from glitches (computer problems such as software resets and memory) and even have been helped by the environment (with an occasional "windshield wipe" from the winds to clean off the rovers solar panels).
Spirit has traveled from its landing site to the region known as Columbia Hills. There it most recently has found evidence of ancient volcanic explosions in the form of layered basalt. Spirit is somewhat worse of than Opportunity, with workarounds for a stuck wheel, a "stiff" arm (that restricts movement to a certain region) and a rock abrasion tool that has gotten stuck on occasion.
Opportunity is about to set forth on what might be it's final mission. It is poised to enter half-mile wide Victoria Crater. Victoria Crater could allow scientists to "peek" into the martian past, revealing layers upon layers of deposits that show the wet environment that was Mars of long ago. There's a chance that Opportunity might damage itself either on entry or trying to exit, trapping the rover inside the crater.
Why take the risk in damaging the rover and limiting its future explorations? "While we take seriously the uncertainty about whether Opportunity will climb back out, the potential value of investigations that appear possible inside the crater convinced me to authorize the team to move forward into Victoria Crater," says Alan Stern. "It is a calculated risk worth taking, particularly because this mission has far exceeded its original goals."
The other mission of note is the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). It was launched in 1996 and sent back images from martian orbit until November 2006. During its long orbital career it sent back hundreds of thousands of images. Observing over several martian years allowed us to track changes on Mars. Some of the more significant things discovered by the MGS are the retreat of the southern polar cap, signs of fresh cratering and signs of something (dare we say...water?) causing fresh gullies to appear on the surface of the planet. The MGS even managed to capture images of Viking 1, Viking 2, Spirit, Opportunity and the Mars Pathfinder landers! Let's hope the current orbital missions last as long!
Mars, the dead planet? Not at all!
Addendum: I should have pointed out that July 4 marks ten years since the Mars Pathfinder mission (with the MER's "mother" rover, Sojourner!)
It's an interesting time to be studying Mars. In addition to the orbital looks of the ESA's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey (I'll have a writeup on these three in the future), we're still reaping the benefits from two other missions, both of which have lasted well past their "expiration dates."
(Update! The entry into Victoria Crater (see below) has been delayed due to a dust storm!)
On the ground, the mars rovers, MER-A and MER-B (more popularly known as Spirit and Opportunity) continue to operate in Gusev Crater (for Spirit) and at the edge of Victoria Crater (for Opportunity). Originally designed to last for ninety days on Mars, the rovers have had their missions extended again...and again...and again to the point where both rovers have been operating on the martian surface for nearly four years.
Mission managers have found ways of keeping the rovers operating (such as "wintering over" to keep batteries charged), have had the fortune of recovering from glitches (computer problems such as software resets and memory) and even have been helped by the environment (with an occasional "windshield wipe" from the winds to clean off the rovers solar panels).
Spirit has traveled from its landing site to the region known as Columbia Hills. There it most recently has found evidence of ancient volcanic explosions in the form of layered basalt. Spirit is somewhat worse of than Opportunity, with workarounds for a stuck wheel, a "stiff" arm (that restricts movement to a certain region) and a rock abrasion tool that has gotten stuck on occasion.
Opportunity is about to set forth on what might be it's final mission. It is poised to enter half-mile wide Victoria Crater. Victoria Crater could allow scientists to "peek" into the martian past, revealing layers upon layers of deposits that show the wet environment that was Mars of long ago. There's a chance that Opportunity might damage itself either on entry or trying to exit, trapping the rover inside the crater.
Why take the risk in damaging the rover and limiting its future explorations? "While we take seriously the uncertainty about whether Opportunity will climb back out, the potential value of investigations that appear possible inside the crater convinced me to authorize the team to move forward into Victoria Crater," says Alan Stern. "It is a calculated risk worth taking, particularly because this mission has far exceeded its original goals."
The other mission of note is the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). It was launched in 1996 and sent back images from martian orbit until November 2006. During its long orbital career it sent back hundreds of thousands of images. Observing over several martian years allowed us to track changes on Mars. Some of the more significant things discovered by the MGS are the retreat of the southern polar cap, signs of fresh cratering and signs of something (dare we say...water?) causing fresh gullies to appear on the surface of the planet. The MGS even managed to capture images of Viking 1, Viking 2, Spirit, Opportunity and the Mars Pathfinder landers! Let's hope the current orbital missions last as long!
Mars, the dead planet? Not at all!
Addendum: I should have pointed out that July 4 marks ten years since the Mars Pathfinder mission (with the MER's "mother" rover, Sojourner!)
Labels: Space
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Are You People STILL HERE????
I'm getting indication of about a hundred or so visitors a week. Folks, I've moved on. To where the yellow rose is. Raising flatcats. Grok?
I'm getting indication of about a hundred or so visitors a week. Folks, I've moved on. To where the yellow rose is. Raising flatcats. Grok?
Monday, May 14, 2007
Because There Are Still Visitors Here...
According to the visitor tracking counter, people still are hitting this site. Or maybe it is just a bunch of bots. But, in case people are looking for postings: Folks, I've taken the blog down. Completely. You can thank a beautiful mind for making me do this. Sanity and safety is more important than posting.
I am back, elsewhere. If you seek me, you will find me. Just not here. Look for the yellow rose. Failing that, seek out Willis.
According to the visitor tracking counter, people still are hitting this site. Or maybe it is just a bunch of bots. But, in case people are looking for postings: Folks, I've taken the blog down. Completely. You can thank a beautiful mind for making me do this. Sanity and safety is more important than posting.
I am back, elsewhere. If you seek me, you will find me. Just not here. Look for the yellow rose. Failing that, seek out Willis.
Labels: Administrative
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Chuck Norris
Top 100 facts about Chuck Norris. Martial arts superstar, actor, and now internet phenomena.
The Code of Honor of Chun Kuk Do
Top 100 facts about Chuck Norris. Martial arts superstar, actor, and now internet phenomena.
The Code of Honor of Chun Kuk Do
01. I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.
02. I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements
03. I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family
04. I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.
05. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.
06. I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
07. I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness
08. I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.
09. I will always remain loyal to God, my country, family and my friends.
10. I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country, and myself.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Tommy
(Rudyard Kipling)
(Images (c) by Michael Yon.)
I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.
Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.
We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.
You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!
(Pictures by Michael Yon. The best darn combat reporter out there. Bar none. Articles that featured these images are: Gates of Fire, Jungle Law, Battle for Mosul, Part III, British Forces at War: As Witnessed by an American. Those are only a few of his excellent works that combine fine writing and superb photography.)
Labels: Kipling
