All posts by TopSpacer

Spacevidcast 6.06: Google Lunar X-PRIZE

The latest live Spacevidcast show is now online: Spacevidcast Live with the Google Lunar X-PRIZE – 6.06.

Caption:

Guests Leo Camacho and Nathan Wong join us to talk about the Google Lunar X-PRIZE, where the teams all stand and what the prize could mean for the future of lunar flight!

The full notes for this episode can be found on our wiki page here: http://wiki.spacevidcast.com/en/6.06

And don’t forget that the conversation continues in Spacevidcast After Dark. You can get access to After Dark by signing up for Spacevidcast Epic: http://www.spacevidcast.com/epic – Your subscription helps us continue to create awesome content.

Copenhagen Suborbitals: Update on launch escape system, model tests

Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals reports on the latest work with the Tycho Deep Space II capsule development: Launch Escape System and Scaled Model Testing – Wired Science/Wired.com 

Also,

Tomorrow, Monday 25, at 10AM EST / 10PM Copenhagen time I will be doing another Reddit Ask Me Anything session, together with Cameron Smith. The topics is space suit, life support and general human factors related to capsule and suit work at Copenhagen Suborbitals. Stay tuned for link!

Canadian asteroid finder to be launched on Monday

On Monday at 1226 GMT (7:26 a.m. EST), or 5:56 p.m. local time, India will launch six satellites on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The PSLV will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, which is India’s main launch site.

Included in the batch of satellites is the Canadian NEOSSat spacecraft, which has a small telescope that will be used to find Atira class asteroids, which orbit the sun entirely within the earth’s orbit: Asteroid Hunter: An Interview with NEOSSat Scientist Alan Hildebrand – Space.com.

NEOSSat will also scan for satellites and debris circling the earth.

NEOSSat was built by MSCI (Microsat  Systems Canada, Inc), which previously built the MOST (The Microviability and Oscillation of Stars) microsatellite, a low cost spacecraft that is still in operation several years past its originally planned lifespan.

Here are two Canadian Space Agency videos about NEOSSat:

AMSAT and ISS amateur radio news

Go to AMSAT News for the latest headlines about developments in amateur and student satellites and for updates about amateur radio on the ISS.

ANS 055 Weekly AMSAT Bulletin – February 24, 2013:
* STRaND-1 Launch Information
* AMSAT and Virginia Tech Sign Collaboration Agreement
* Upcoming ARISS Contacts
* AMSAT-DC Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations
* US Airforce Upgrades SpaceTrack Website For Keplarian Orbital Data
* Mission to Mars Announcement Expected

Planetary Collective’s Overview short film and Continuum documentary

The Planetary Collective is a

a group of filmmakers, visual media creatives and thinkers who work with cosmologists, ecologists, and philosophers to explore some of the big questions facing our planet at this time.

Embracing a multidisciplinary, multi-media approach, we brings scientists, philosophers, and researchers together with designers, coders, and creatives to bring new perspectives to audiences around the world in fresh and innovative ways.

The have created a  short film Overview about astronauts’ experiences in space. It is a prelude to their  feature film Continuum,

The planet is in crisis. The root of the environmental and social crises facing humanity is the misperception that we are separate – from each other, the planet, and the cosmos as a whole. The solution to this crisis can be found in an emerging worldview that points to our interdependence.

The CONTINUUM feature-length documentary will explore this worldview, weaving together perspectives and ideas from some of the key theorists and thinkers in the fields of cosmology, environmentalism, sustainability, social theory, anthropology, and systems dynamics, telling the story of where we have come from, where we are now, and the possibilities for our future.

The have a crowd-funding campaign on to fund the completion of the Continuum project: Planetary Collective presents CONTINUUM by Planetary Collective — Kickstarter.

We’ve already shot twenty amazing interviews, and some stunning visual narrative footage, but we need to raise a final round of funding to shoot 5-6 more interviews, and carry us through post-production to finish the film.

With $80,000 dollars, we can finish this film. But with more than that, we can make it more amazing, and bring it to you even faster.

Here is the trailer for Coninuum:

And here is the short film OVERVIEW: