Moon Poses Radiation Risk To Future Travelers

Astronaut Edwin E 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr. walks on the surface of the moon. Future lunar travelers face a radiation dose 30 percent to 40 percent higher than originally expected from radioactive lunar soil. NASA/Neil Armstrong

From Discovery News:

Rather than blocking cosmic rays, the moon itself is a powerful source of radiation, measurements show.

Future lunar explorers counting on the moon to shield themselves from galactic cosmic rays might want to think about Plan B.

In a surprising discovery, scientists have found that the moon itself is a source of potentially deadly radiation.

Measurements taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the number of high energy particles streaming in from space did not tail off closer to the moon's surface, as would be expected with the body of the moon blocking half the sky.

Read more ....

Piercing The Plasma: Ideas To Beat The Communications Blackout Of Reentry

HOT STUFF COMING THROUGH: Computer modeling by Krishnendu Sinha of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay shows the heat flow a space capsule might generate during reentry. Hottest regions exceed 6,000 degrees Celsius (white, purple and red), coolest regions a few hundred (blue). Krishnendu Sinha Itt Bombay

From Scientific American:

Anticipating novel spacecraft and Mach 10 missiles, the U.S. Air Force considers new ways around an old problem.

The frustrating communications blackout that can occur when a spacecraft reenters the atmosphere caused some tense moments in the earlier years of the space age—perhaps most memorably during the crippled Apollo 13 mission. But the phenomenon could also affect communications with new aircraft and weapons systems being contemplated now by the U.S. Air Force, which hopes to find ways to pierce the blackout.

Read more ....

Space Exploration Takes Too Long For Democracies?

From Future Pundit:

Will China's lack of democracy give it a leg up in the next wave of human space exploration? Michael Hanlon argues the next big step in space exploration takes too much time for a democracy to fund it.

It may simply be that space exploration is incompatible with US democracy. A Mars shot would take four presidential terms at least. No president will ask taxpayers to fund something he won't be around to take credit for.

Read more ....

Why Do NASA Launch Times Depend On Lighting Conditions?

The International Space Station photographed from Space Shuttle Discovery in March 2009. (NASA)

From The Air & Space Smithsonian:

It's all about the solar beta angle.

While it was a hydrogen leak on the pad that forced NASA to scrub the launch of space shuttle mission STS-127 on June 17, one main reason the agency had to wait several weeks to try again was something called a “solar beta angle cut-out.”

Solar what?

Before sending a shuttle aloft, mission planners carefully calculate the angle defined by its orbital plane around Earth and a line drawn from the center of Earth to the center of the sun. This “solar beta angle” changes constantly as Earth moves around the sun and the shuttle’s orbital plane precesses, or slowly shifts, due to the gravitational tug from Earth’s equatorial bulge.

Read more ....

Astronauts Want A Next-Gen Ride 10 Times Safer Than The Shuttle

A Safer Space Ride NASA's next-gen Ares I-X test rocket launches
within sight of the aging space shuttle. NASA

From Popular Science:

Astronauts say the next crew launch vehicle should have disaster odds of just 1 in 1,000.

Spaceflight continues to represent one of the more extreme and hazardous undertakings for humans, even if it's just about getting off the ground. But the men and women of NASA's astronaut corps say that the U.S. space agency can improve on the odds that faced the doomed shuttle crews of Challenger and Columbia. Florida Today has obtained the documents that show just where NASA's astronauts stand regarding their next-gen vehicle's safety.

Read more ....

Shrink-To-Fit Spacesuit Eases Astronauts' Workload

Made to fit
(Image: Space Systems Laboratory/Department of Aerospace Engineering/University of Maryland)

From New Scientist:

FORGET the complex choreography involved in putting on a spacesuit: astronauts will one day be able to get suited and booted in seconds by stepping through the neck of an overlarge, part-robotic spacesuit.

So say engineers David Akin and Shane Jacobs at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Once you're inside the baggy suit, its upper torso contracts using pneumatic artificial muscles to ensure a perfect fit.

Read more ....

Volunteers Wanted for Simulated 520-Day Mars Mission

A special isolation facility hosts the Mars500 study. (Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 28, 2009) — Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

Read more ....

Shuttle Astronauts Conduct 3rd Spacewalk

From Voice of America:

Robert Satcher and Randy Bresnik ventured into open space Monday for the walk that lasted nearly six hours. The two worked to attach a new oxygen tank at the orbiting outpost and installed a unit to conduct experiments.

Two U.S. astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis have conducted a third and final spacewalk at the International Space Station.

Robert Satcher and Randy Bresnik ventured into open space Monday for the walk that lasted nearly six hours. The two worked to attach a new oxygen tank at the orbiting outpost and installed a unit to conduct experiments.

Read more ....

Atlantis Astronaut Becomes A Father

NASA said it is the second time a baby has been born to
a US astronaut during a space flight Photo: AP/NASA

From The Telegraph:

An astronaut on the space shuttle Atlantis has become a father while in orbit, when his wife back on Earth gave birth to their baby daughter, NASA announced.

Randy Bresnik who ventured out on his first spacewalk on Saturday, became a father for the second time when his wife, Rebbeca Burgin, gave birth.

"Abigail Mae Bresnik arrived at 12.04am Sunday, November 22," the US space agency said in a statement posted on its website, adding that mother and child are "doing well".

Read more ....

Rosetta Probe Makes Final Earth Flyby As It Sling-Shots Towards Speeding Comet

From The Daily Mail:

This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by Europe's Rosetta probe as it made its third and final flyby of Earth.

The outline of Antarctica is visible under the clouds in the illuminated crescent. Pack ice in front of the coastline caused the very bright spots on the image.

The Earth image was taken by the-board camera OSIRIS yesterday, from a distance of 393,000 miles.

Read more ....

50 Years Of Space Exploration In One Handy Graphic

From Oh Gizmo!:

Created by Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco for National Geographic, this beautifully illustrated map includes the almost 200 missions to space from the past 50 years, showing which of our celestial neighbors we like to visit the most. The National Geographic website has an interactive version you can pan and zoom around on, but if you’d like to make yourself a nice little wallpaper you can find a full-sized version of it on Flickr.

Read more ....

Ariane Puts Satellites In Orbit

Photo: The sixth Ariane flight of 2009

From The BBC:

Europe's Ariane 5 rocket has launched another two telecommunications satellites into orbit.

Ariane sent the payloads into space from its Kourou base in French Guiana.

The 5,700-kg NSS-12 satellite is owned by SES World Skies and will deliver TV broadcasts to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Read more ....

Rocket Men

Aly Song / Reuters-Landov

From Newsweek:

Politicians won't get us back into the space race, but novelists just might.

Six months ago, President Obama asked a team of academics, astronauts, and aerospace executives to give him options for the future of the space program. Those options, as described in the Augustine Committee's just-released final report, must have sent a little thrill up our Spock-loving nerd in chief's leg: setting up a lunar base, flying to a Martian moon, etc. There's just one catch: NASA doesn't have the resources it needs to pursue these plans. Exciting proposals for voyages to alien moons aside, the report's attention to dollars and cents makes it a cosmic buzzkill.

Read more ....

5 Frightening (But True) Space Stories

The First Seven Astronauts

From Discover Magazine:

There's nothing like a good horror story in space*. I grew up watching Sigourney Weaver outsmart xenomorphs in her underwear and subsequently spent a little too much time reading the likes of Stephen King's "I am the Doorway," H.P. Lovecraft's "In the Walls of Eryx" and John Steakley's "Armor."

As a result, it's hard for me to read about space exploration without thinking of about its darker possibilities -- and I don't just mean aliens and distant Hell worlds. Leaving Earth's atmosphere is a dangerous endeavor and, major tragedies aside, there have been a number of smaller terrifying, grotesque and absurd episodes to come out of it. So if you'll allow me to serve as your cosmic Crypt Keeper for a few minutes, I thought I'd run though a few of the ones that get under my skin.

Read more ....

Private Space Technology Powers Up

Photo: Rocket science: Franklin Chang Diaz (top) is a former NASA astronaut and founder of Ad Astra Rocket Company. The company has developed a prototype plasma rocket, the VX-200 (bottom), that recently achieved 201 kilowatts of power.
Credit: José Díaz, La Nación (top); Ad Astra Rocket Company (bottom)

From Technology Review:

Former astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz says the private sector can help NASA, and reckons he has the rocket to prove it.

In the coming weeks the Obama administration will decide the future of U.S. human spaceflight. A summary report by the committee tasked with reviewing NASA's current plans and providing recommendations suggests utilizing the commercial sector for unmanned, and perhaps manned, missions as a way to reduce government costs. Franklin Chang Diaz, a former NASA astronaut and founder and president of Ad Astra Rocket Company, agrees.

Read more ....

Private Space Technology Powers Up

Photo: Rocket science: Franklin Chang Diaz (top) is a former NASA astronaut and founder of Ad Astra Rocket Company. The company has developed a prototype plasma rocket, the VX-200 (bottom), that recently achieved 201 kilowatts of power.
Credit: José Díaz, La Nación (top); Ad Astra Rocket Company (bottom)

From Technology Review:

Former astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz says the private sector can help NASA, and reckons he has the rocket to prove it.

In the coming weeks the Obama administration will decide the future of U.S. human spaceflight. A summary report by the committee tasked with reviewing NASA's current plans and providing recommendations suggests utilizing the commercial sector for unmanned, and perhaps manned, missions as a way to reduce government costs. Franklin Chang Diaz, a former NASA astronaut and founder and president of Ad Astra Rocket Company, agrees.

Read more ....

How The Spaceship Got Its Shape

“Little Joe” capsules were the precursors of Alan Shepard’s Mercury spacecraft.
(NASA Langley Research Center)

From Air & Space Smithsonian:

In the 1950s Harvey Allen solved the problem of atmospheric entry. But first he had to convince his colleagues.

The cover of the March 22, 1952 issue of Collier’s magazine made an audacious promise. “Man Will Conquer Space Soon,” blared the headline, above a painting of a multi-stage rocket with engines blazing, bound for orbit. Designed by German rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun, whose name was still unknown to most Americans, the Collier’s spaceship was a sleek, needle-nosed beauty; its winged third stage would be piloted to a runway landing. But it was all wrong.

Read more ....

Clown Blastes Into Space

Rocket Carrying Cirque Du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberté Blasts Off -- Montreal Gazette

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — The billionaire founder of Cirque du Soleil Wednesday blasted off on a Russian rocket to bring his trademark humour and acrobatic energy into the ultra-serious world of space flight.

Guy Laliberté, 50, a Canadian citizen, had spent millions from a personal fortune on his two week visit to the International Space Station (ISS) but he could be the last such "space tourist" for several years.

Read more ....

Canadian space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberte jokes during space suit testing prior to his blast off from a Russian leased Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome on September 30, 2009 in a Russian Soyuz TMA-16 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) together with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev and a U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams. Photograph by: Alexander Nemenov, AFP/Getty Images

More News On Today's Space Launch

Cirque de Soleil owner Guy Laliberte becomes first clown in space -- Times Online
Canadian circus billionaire heads to space station -- AP
Clown takes giant leap into space -- AFP
A Billionaire Clowns Around In Space -- Forbes
Cirque de Soleil boss in space -- The Sun
Canadian circus tycoon is 7th pay-for-play space traveler -- USA Today
'Clown' space tourist blasts off -- BBC
Circus tycoon Guy Laliberté becomes first clown in space -- The Guardian

Robot Arm To Grab Robotic Ship -- A Space Station First

The International Space Station's robotic arm reaches out to capture the Japanese HTV cargo ship in an artist's rendering. The tricky cosmic catch, slated to happen on September 17, 2009, might affect the orbiting outpost's ultimate lifespan by offering a cheaper way of delivering supplies to space, experts say. Due to budget concerns, the space station is currently slated to be deorbited in 2015. Picture courtesy Canadian Space Agency

From National Geographic:

For the first time, a robotic arm attached to the International Space Station (ISS) will capture an unmanned spaceship for docking on Thursday.

The bus-size Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, was launched on its maiden flight September 10. The remote-control ship is carrying more than four tons of equipment, food, clothes, and other essentials for the six astronauts currently aboard the space station.

Read more ....

Pentagon Wants ‘Space Junk’ Cleaned Up

From The Danger Room:

The orbit around Earth is a very messy place and the Pentagon’s far-out research arm wants to do something about it. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency put out a notice yesterday requesting information on possible solutions to the infamous space debris problem.

“Since the advent of the space-age over five decades ago, more than thirty-five thousand man-made objects have been cataloged by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network,” the agency notes. “Nearly twenty-thousand of those objects remain in orbit today, ninety-four percent of which are non-functioning orbital debris.”

Read more ....