Category Archives: Space participation

DIY space, Space participation

Training for suborbital spaceflight – needed or not?

3 Comments

Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals is skeptical of the need for specialize training for people going on suborbital space flights: Why Training for a Suborbital Spaceflight is Just another Great Story at the Local Chesterfield Club – Wired Science/Wired.com.

I’ll note that there have usually been three reasons given for suborbital spaceflight training such as that provided at NASTAR Center:

  1. To insure that those with potential health issues, e.g. advanced age and cardiovascular problems, can do the flight safely
  2. To allow suborbital spaceflight ticket holders to practice the zero-g phase with parabolic flights so they can maximize their enjoyment during the five minutes at the apogee of their flight.
  3. To include training as part of the whole experience of the spaceflight, which is very expensive at this early stage.

These all seem perfectly reasonable to me and I expect training to remain a part of suborbital adventure spaceflights even if its true that most people would survive a suborbital space flight without it.

Space participation

“Vulcan” top choice for Pluto moon name

2 Comments

The Pluto Rocks! contest to name the moons of Pluto (see earlier post) got the attention of the public when William Shatner proposed Vulcan. It has now gotten the most votes:  Vulcan tops vote to name Pluto moons – BBC.

Space participation, The Moon

Looking for the lunar crater created by Stuart’s Flare

Moon Zoo participants may start scanning the lunar surface to look for a crater in the area where a disputed flash was photographed in 1953 by amateur astronomer Leon Stuart : Stuart’s Event – Moon Zoo Blog.

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space participation

Scream in Space via an orbiting smartphone

India today successfully launched seven satellites on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island. One of the payloads is the STRaND-1 Cubesat built by Surrey Satellite and operated by a “Google Nexus One smartphone with an Android operating system”: World’s first “phonesat”, STRaND-1, successfully launched into orbit – Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL).

The phone provides

cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors – almost everything except solar panels and propulsion.  During the first phase of the mission, STRaND-1 will use a number a number of experimental Apps to collect data while a new high-speed linux-based cubesat computer developed by SSC takes care of the satellite.  During phase two, the STRaND team hope to switch the satellite’s in-orbit operations to the smartphone, thereby testing the capabilities of a number of standard smartphone components for a space environment.

SSTL carried out a public contest for apps to be run on the phone and the winners included apps for magnetic field measurements, satellite telemetry display, and earth imaging,

 

And the fourth app is Scream in Space!

Testing the theory ‘in space no-one can hear you scream, made popular in the 1979 film ‘Alien’, the app will allow the public to upload videos of themselves screaming in a creative way to an allocated website.  The most popular videos will be played on the phone while in orbit and the scream recorded using the smartphone’s microphone.

Here is a gallery of the video screams submitted: Screams | Scream in Space!

Activism, Space participation

Two blogs that point to more ways to space

I recently mentioned Pam Hoffman‘s blog Everyday Spacer, which urges you to “Take Part in Space Exploration Today!”

Another blog that focus on broad public participation in space activities is Path to Mars from artist Renate Pohl. She provides “1001 ways to get to space without being a rocket scientist”.

She also offers a free newsletter and 35 page booklet titled, Blast Off! An Action Plan to Get You to Space.