Bob Zimmerman reports on the latest space news during regular weekly slots (usually Tuesday and Thursdays) on the John Batchelor radio program. See the iTunes free Podcast for links to the latest shows.
In this video, NASA astronaut Mario Runco talks about some of the subtleties involved in taking photographs of the Earth from the International Space Station:
In the continuing serialization of the updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz. This week you can obtain the following chapters of the book:
The Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). There is particular relevance to NASA’s recently announced mission to find an asteroid by 2016 and then bring it to Cis-Lunar space, the technology concepts developed by the university teams for this competition conceivably could be used to mine resources on Asteroids as well as Mars. Robotic miners, just like these, will allow us to take samples at the returned Asteroid and give us valuable information to prepare for other deep space missions.
The challenge is for students to design and build a remote controlled or autonomous excavator that can collect and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of regolith simulant (aggregate) within 10 minutes. Regolith exists not only on Earth’s moon, but also on most planetary bodies such as Asteroids, Moons of Mars and Mars itself.
The complexities of the challenge include the abrasive characteristics of the simulant, the weight and size limitations of the robot, and the ability to control it from a remote control center. The scoring for the mining category will require teams to consider a number of design operation factors such as dust tolerance and projection, communications, vehicle mass, energy/power required, and full autonomy.
Here is a video in which the camera for the first half wanders around the event hall showing the student teams preparing their lunar mining robots for the contest. The second half shows the robots in the lunar simulant arena:
The Saturn V first stage engines recovered from ocean bottom by the Jeff Bezos F-1 Engine Recovery project will go on display this Friday at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center this week. Visitors will be able to watch restorers taking apart the engines for cleaning and coating with protective sealants. They will eventually be reassembled for exhibit.
The Society for International Space Cooperation (SISC) is an educational nonprofit organization whose board includes astronauts, cosmonauts, and luminaries like director James Cameron. We invite you to join the Space Explorers Club or Junior Space Explorers Club and be sent a different box every month with space goodies and space and science info from the past, present, and future of spaceflight.
The Society for International Space Cooperation is a 501(c)(3) so all donations are 100% tax deductible and all proceeds help support the educational programs of the society.
Paul Maley provides an interesting and extensive page with lots of info about, and many pictures of, space junk that has reached the ground over the years: SPACE DEBRIS – Eclipse Tours.
The Russian Bion M1, launched on April 19, 2013 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and returned on May 19th. The biology mission appears to have been a mixed success:
NASA’s Project Morpheus project recently began testing their new lander and here is a video of engine tests while on a tether.
This ground level hot fire test included a test at 0 feet and at 3 feet. This test also marked the first use of a flame trench with the Morpheus vehicle.
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