Rocketplane Gets a New Pilot

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The commercial space company Rocketplane Global announced today that Paul Metz has joined the company as Vice President and Chief Test Pilot. Metz fills the spot vacated by former NASA astronaut John Herrington, who left Rocketplane at the end of last year. Perhaps things are looking up for Rocketplane. News from the company has been sparse since Herrington’s departure, as well as since word came out that NASA terminated its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with the Kistler side of Rocketplane (RpK) last year because the company failed to meet financial milestones. The one hopeful piece of news came in October 2007 at the X Prize Cup, when Rocketplane announced a major redesign of it’s XP Spaceplane.

Rocketplane also announced on Friday that David Faulkner has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer for the company. Faulkner has been with Rocketplane since 2005 and was Program Manager. He now will manage and direct the development of the company’s technology and vehicle programs. A press release from Rocketplane Global indicated that Faulkner’s promotion and the addition of Metz emphasizes the importance the company is placing on the development of the Rocketplane XP suborbital space vehicle as well as its plan to develop technologies and concepts that will lead to future vehicles.

Metz had previously been one of Lockheed Martin’s chief test pilots, but also recently served as Vice President for Lockheed’s flight test program for different types of aircraft.

Rocketplane Global, Inc. was formed in 2001 to develop, build, and operate vehicles to serve the suborbital space tourism market. Since 2004, Rocketplane has been developing the Rocketplane XP suborbital space vehicle. The vehicle will take passengers beyond 100km in altitude during its flights to space where the passengers will experience more than three minutes of weightlessness and a view of the earth previously only available to astronauts. Rocketplane Kistler is designing the K-1 reusable aerospace vehicle, designed to deliver payloads to orbit and provide a low-cost alternative to single-use launch vehicles.

New Source: Rocketplane Global press release

Astronauts Test Shuttle Tile Repair Techniques

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Two astronauts tested a special applicator and “goo” to see how well techniques developed for repairing damaged shuttle tiles work in orbit. Shuttle astronauts Mike Foreman and Bob Behnken used a T-RAD, or Tile Ablator Dispenser to squirt a pink, caulk-like substance called Shuttle Tile Ablator-54 into intentionally damaged shuttle tiles during their six and a half hour spacewalk to test how the tool and material behaves in the weightless vacuum of space. “I’m thrilled with what we saw today,” said ISS flight director Dana Weigel after the spacewalk, adding that T-RAD could also be used to mend torn shuttle insulation blankets. “It behaved very similar to what we saw on the ground, so that gives me a lot of confidence.”

The sample tiles and tools will be returned to Earth to undergo extensive testing on the ground. NASA engineers developed the shuttle tile repair tool after the 2003 Columbia disaster to fix dings in the thousands of ceramic tiles on the shuttle’s underside. “We’ve tested this material on the ground, but have not been able to test it in weightlessness and vacuum at the same time, so we hope to characterize how it performs,” said astronaut Mike Foreman before the spacewalk.

“It’s going to be really valuable to have actually have a test of this in case we ever need this in our bag of tricks for repairing a shuttle, particularly with the Hubble mission upcoming,” astronaut Bob Behnken said from orbit.
STA-54 sample.  Image Credit:  NASA
One of the compounds making up STA-54 causes bubbles to form. On Earth, those bubbles typically rise to the top. The spacewalkers found that with the absence of air or gravity, the bubbles tended to spread throughout the material causing it to bulge slightly in a phenomenon known as “bread loafing.”

Engineers were worried that it might bulge too much, and could cause the material to swell up over the surface layer of surrounding tiles, disrupting air flow during re-entry and causing excessive downstream heating. But during the tests in Thursday’s spacewalk, however, the STA-54 appeared not rise or bubble as much as was anticipated. While bubbles formed, the astronauts were able to use pads to tamp the material down and as the STA-54 “set up,” the swelling seemed to diminish.

“It goes down really well,” Foreman said as he tamped down the thick goop with a sponge-like tool. “It really is like a loaf of bread with a lot of little bubbles in there.”
Parazynski tile repair.  Image credit:  NASA
The astronauts did the tests on the nadir or underside of the Destiny module, using a suitcase-like kit filled with tile samples. There were several different samples with both big and small holes. The spacewalkers worked on this task for several hours, which took up the majority EVA’s duration.

The spacewalkers also performed a few other get-ahead tasks and replaced a failed Remote Power Control Module – essentially a circuit breaker – on the station’s truss. They were unable, however, to unplug a stuck electrical connector from a patch panel in the station’s Z1 truss that would have re-routed power to one of four control moment gyroscopes that helps stabilized the stations attitude. CMG-2 and CMG-3 were wired into the same circuit in the wake of an earlier failure and the cable change was needed to hook CMG-2 back up to its own power supply, restoring lost redundancy. But with the spacewalkers unable to make the change, a single failure could take out both CMGs, a situation NASA wanted to correct.

This was the 108th spacewalk for station construction and maintenance. Behnken and Foreman will begin the mission’s fifth and final spacewalk Saturday at 5:23 p.m EDT.

Original News Sources: NASA TV and CBS Space Place

Incredible SRB Video

Take a look at this amazing video shot from the cameras located on the solid rocket boosters on space shuttle Endeavour’s recent launch. The fact it was a night launch really highlights all the flames and sparking. Most interesting, however, is that during the first two and a half minutes of acsent while the SRB’s are attached, the leading edges of the shuttle’s wings are fully visible. I know hindsight is 20/20, but if these cameras had only been in place for Columbia’s last launch….

But we’re learning from experience. These cameras not only give engineers good information and views of the shuttle’s thermal protection system, but they provide some spectacular footage for us all to enjoy.

Video Source: Reel NASA

Ancient Asteroids Discovered

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Way back in the beginning of the solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, the first materials began to condense from gasses into solid particles. These materials were rich in calcium and aluminum. Astronomers have thought that at least some of the solar system’s oldest asteroids should have plenty of these two elements, but no asteroids had ever been found that were particularly rich in them. Until now. A team of scientists recently identified three previously unknown asteroids that appear to be among the oldest objects in our solar system.

Using visible and infrared data from telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, astronomers from the University of Maryland found asteroids that appear to relatively unchanged since they formed in the early stages of our solar system’s development. “We have identified asteroids that are not represented in our meteorite collection and which date from the earliest periods of the Solar System,” said research astronomer Jessica Sunshine. “These asteroids are prime candidates for future space missions that could collect and return samples to Earth, providing a more detailed understanding of the Solar System’s first few millions of years.”

Meteorites found on Earth do contain small amounts of calcium and aluminum. Called calcium aluminum inclusions (CAIs) these white, millimeter-sized objects are found in meteorites, often together with chondrules, which are small balls of iron or magnesium.

In 2002, an international team of scientists accurately dated CAIs at 4.57 billion years, making them the oldest known objects in the solar system. When the famous Allende meteorite was found in 1969, scientists first recognized these inclusions matched many properties expected to be found in the early solar system.

Sunshine’s team used the SpeX instrument at the NASA Infrared Telescope facility to look at the surface of asteroids, looking for “fingerprints” indicative of CAIs. Sunshine said that several asteroids have been found that contain 2-3 times more CAI materials than any known meteorite. “It appears ancient asteroids have indeed survived, and we know where they are,” she said.

Original news source: Eureka Alert

Great Images From the STS-123 Mission

There have been some outstanding images coming in from the current space shuttle mission at the International Space Station. The crews of Endeavour and the ISS continue their near-frantic pace of spacewalks and outfitting of the station during the STS-123 mission. During the 3rd spacewalk, astronauts Rick Linnehan (right) and Bob Behnken work on the new Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM). This image highlights how big the station is getting, as the astronauts are almost dwarfed by this one area of the truss section.

Spacewalk 3.  Image Credit:  NASA

Bob Behnken continues his work on Dextre during his EVA. During the 6-hour, 53-minute spacewalk, Linnehan and Behnken installed a spare-parts platform and tool-handling assembly for Dextre. They also checked out and calibrated Dextre’s end effector and attached critical spare parts to an external stowage platform. The new robotic system is scheduled to be activated on a power and data grapple fixture located on the Destiny laboratory today.

Dom Gorie. Image Credit:  NASA

All the astronauts have had to juggle lots of different activities during the current mission. Here, Dominic Gorie, STS-123 commander, reaches for a procedures checklist floating freely on the aft flight deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Window Spacewalk.  Image Credit:  NASA
Can you imagine looking out a window and seeing one of your best friends floating by? Visible through a window on Endeavour’s aft flight deck is astronaut Rick Linnehan during spacewalk #3 for the mission.

For Wednesday, the astronauts are scheduled to take a half-day off to rest up for two more spacewalks. They also are continuing their work to outfit the Japanese module that was attched to the Harmony node earlier in the mission. They’ll do a round of media interviews this evening, and get ready for another spacewalk on Thursday.

Link here for more STS-123 images.

Arthur C. Clarke Dies

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Sir Arthur C. Clarke, writer, inventor and visionary, has died from heart failure at age 90. A master of science fiction, Clarke was known most for his futuristic book “2001” published in 1968, which was made into the landmark movie. Clarke wrote scores of fiction and non-fiction books, more than 100 short stories, and numerous articles and essays.

Some of his early books included Interplanetary Flight (1950), Prelude to Space (1951), and The Making of a Moon (1957). He wrote a series of “Odyssey” books: 2010: Odyssey Two (1985) –also made into a movie—and 2061: Odyssey Three (1988) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1996). His last book was published in 2005, The Last Theorem.

Clarke foresaw many technological advances in his writing, describing, among other things, cell phones, the internet, and moon landings using a mother ship and a landing pod. He was also known as the “godfather of the telecommunications satellite.” In a 1945 article in Wireless World magazine, he outlined a worldwide communications network based on fixed satellites orbiting at 22,240 miles (42,000 km) – a geosynchronous orbit – often referred to as the Clarke Orbit.

Clarke was born December 16, 1917 in Somerset, England. From an early age he was interested in astronomy and science. During World War II he was a pioneer in using radar with the Royal Air Force. Later, he completed a college degree, with honors, in physics and mathematics at King’s College in London. He was an editor for the journal Physics Abstracts when his first science fiction books were published.

Clarke spent most of his life promoting science and space exploration. He was an American Astronautical Society Fellow, the British Science Fiction Association President, an International Academy of Humanism Laureate, was on the National Space Society Board of Governors and Planetary Society Advisory Council, was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and was Knighted by the British Empire in 2000. He has a nebula and an asteroid named after him.

Clarke suffered from post-polio syndrome since 1988 and sometimes had to use a wheelchair, but until recently, he still continued to scuba dive, one of his lifelong passions. His love of scuba diving brought him to Sri Lanka, where he lived since the 1950’s. Clarke once said he was “perfectly operational underwater.”

On his 90th birthday, Clarke released a video, in which he talked about his life and accomplishments. “Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered,” Clarke said. I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer.”

Mars’ Violent, Volcanic Past … and Possible Future?

Planetary geologists have a relatively simple method for calculating the age of a planet’s surface: count the number of impact craters in a region. The older the surface, the more craters there will be from meteorites that have struck the planet over the ages. Areas with fewer craters are generally interpreted as younger surfaces where other geological processes such as volcanic activity or plate tectonics, have erased the impact scars. A new analysis of impact cratering using images from the Mars Express has revealed that Mars has undergone at least five violent, global volcanic upheavals, shaping the surface of Mars we see today.

Using the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, planetary scientists are learning more about Mars’ past. “We can now determine the ages of large regions and resurfacing events on the planet,” says Gerhard Neukum. Resurfacing occurs when volcanic eruptions spread lava across the planet’s surface. But unlike Earth, where resurfacing happens gradually and slowly, Mars has had a series of violent volcanic periods. This occurred more than 3.8 thousand million years ago. In between these episodes, the planet has been relatively calm.

Mars Chronology Model.  Credits: Neukum and HRSC Team, 2008, chronology: Neukum & Hartmann, 2001
During these volcanic episodes, eruptions of lava flowed across Mars. The internal heat generated by the volcanic activity also caused water to erupt from the interior, causing wide-scale flash flooding.

Why did Mars behave like this? Geophysical computer-based models suggest that the planet has been trying to establish a system of plate tectonics, as there is on Earth where the crust is broken into slowly moving plates. On Mars, the volcanic episodes represent the planet almost, but not quite, developing plate tectonics.

We recently saw a landslide on Mars. Could we possibly see a volcanic eruption? “The interior of the planet is not cold yet, so this could happen again,” says Neukum.

Original News Source: ESA Press Release

Happy Birthday Vanguard 1, and Welcome Home?

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Jim Oberg has written a very interesting article at MSNBC.com, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of mankind’s fourth artificial satellite, Vanguard 1. While it is no longer functioning or communicating, it is the oldest satellite still in orbit. Jim says, “Vanguard 1 was the first artificial earth satellite powered by solar cells, and its small suite of instruments provided unprecedented information on Earth’s size and shape, air density and temperature ranges, and the micrometeorite density in space. Tracking its orbit helped geophysicists realize that Earth is not round but slightly pear-shaped, with a slight, symmetric equatorial bulge.”

Jim has a lot of good history included in the article, but most intriguing, Jim reports Vanguard 1 could become the first satellite brought home, for museum display, by a new generation of robotic space vehicles. That would be incredible! Such an attempt would be a demonstration of robotic space vehicles’ capabilty, in addition to providing an Earth orbit (and highly exciting) version of retrieving Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor. Do check out Jim’s article.

Jim Oberg, of course, is a noted journalist, author, linguist (sorry, inside joke) and space consultant for NBC News.

Making Lunar Soil Usable

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Based on what we currently know about the makeup of the lunar regolith, future colonists on the moon will not be able to use the soil on hand to grow food. But in a new experiment, bacteria called cyanobacteria grew quite well in simulated lunar soil. While this wouldn’t be a food source for humans, it would enable lunar soil to be broken down to extract resources for making rocket fuel and fertilizer for crops. This could help with the feasibility of setting up a base on the moon, aiding in reducing costs for certain supplies.

Lunar soil isn’t conducive for growing plants from Earth because many of the nutrients in the soil are locked up in tough minerals that the plants cannot break down. But a group led by Igor Brown of NASA’s Johnson Space Center added the cyanobacteria taken from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (US), to materials designed to approximate the lunar soil. They found that when water, air and light were supplied, the cyanobacteria grew quite well. Cyanobacteria were found to produce acids that work very well to break down tough minerals, including ilmenite, which is relatively abundant on the moon.

Breaking down the same minerals artificially would require heating them to very high temperatures, which would use precious energy, Brown said. Cyanobacteria, on the other hand, use only sunlight for energy, although they do their extraction work more slowly than heating the soil artificially.

Cyanobacteria typically grow in water-rich environments. They are technically a type of bacteria, but like plants, they produce their own food via photosynthesis.

Brown says he envisions growth chambers for cyanobacteria being set up on the Moon, as part of a multi-step process for making use of the resources bound in the lunar soil. The chambers would be supplied with water, sunlight and lunar soil to allow the cyanobacteria to grow.

Cyanobacteria harvested from the chambers could then be further processed to make use of the elements they extract from the lunar soil. For example, they could be broken down by other bacteria, resulting in a nutrient-rich soup that could be used as fertilizer for food plants grown in hydroponic greenhouses. Methane given off by the breakdown of the cyanobacteria could be used as rocket fuel.

Original News Source: New Scientist

Space Junk, Toxic Fuel Rains Down on Siberian Region

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People from the normally quiet and picturesque republic of Altai, Siberia keep their eyes on the sky when a launch occurs from the nearby Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. This region is regularly littered with debris and toxic fuel from space launches, as Altai lies along the flight path of rocket launches to space. Unlike rockets launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which shed excess stages into the Atlantic Ocean, sections from rockets launched from Baikonur crash back on land, usually landing in the Altai region of the Kazakh steppe.

Two incidents of falling debris in the past two weeks prompted farmers to file claims against the Russian space agency for damages. Four horses were reportedly killed from traces of toxic fuel in found in space debris that landed on grazing land and another 4.5 meter chunk of metal landed very close to a house.

According to the Moscow Times, the Russian Federal Space Agency and Altai authorities have designated a strip of land where rocket debris is supposed to fall. People who live in the zone are given at least 24 hours’ notice of falling debris. Only those outside the zone are entitled to any compensation for damage caused by the launches.

The two recent incidents both occurred outside the zone, an official said.

In 2007, 27 people in the Ust-Kansky region were hospitalized with cancer-related illnesses they said were linked to contamination from falling debris. Also, in September 2007, a Proton-M rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned around two minutes after takeoff, crashing near another Kazakh city, Zhezkazgan. No one was injured in the incident, but Russia paid Kazakhstan more than $2 million in compensation, after admitting that the rocket had been filled with higher-than-permissible levels of toxic heptyl fuel.
Space Junk.  Image credit:  Jonas Bendiksen/Eurasianet.org
In cases where there is a rocket malfunction, the procedure is for ground control to destroy it, often spreading debris outside the expected area.
People from the region say that the Soviets thoroughly cleaned up debris from the discarded stages, but clean-up efforts have scaled back considerably since the Soviet Union fell. The pictures used here are from a 2002 photo essay by Norwegian photographer Jonas Bendiksen showing the large pieces of debris laying lying around the Altai region.

Original News Source: New York Times