Category Archives: Space participation

Asteroids & Comets, Astronomy, Space participation

NASA and Slooh partner on hazardous asteroid search

A message from NASA and the SLOOH on line astronomy organization:

NASA Teams with Web Tech Company Slooh to Bring
Universe to Everyone and Help Protect Earth Too

As part of the agency’s Asteroid Grand Challenge, NASA is partnering with private internet technology company Slooh to engage citizen scientists in the effort to track and characterize near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) that are potentially hazardous to human populations.

Slooh’s global network of web-connected telescopes will be available for use by amateur astronomers for monitoring and characterizing NEOs. Citizen scientists without access to professional equipment will have the opportunity to be a part of the global challenge to find hazardous NEOs. NASA also is partnering with Slooh on live astronomy events.

“We are excited by the opportunity to tap into Slooh’s network of amateur astronomers, who are already producing scientific papers with their work,” said Jason Kessler, program executive for the Asteroid Grand Challenge. “We look forward to expanding the meaningful science the Slooh network can provide in support of the grand challenge.”

The live astronomy events on which NASA and Slooh will partner include the LINEAR comet meteor shower, occurring Friday, May 23, and Saturday, May 24. Slooh will provide live feeds of the event from 6 p.m. EDT Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday on the company’s website and the UStream feed for NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

Live astronomy events through the NASA and Slooh platforms increase the number of people who can watch and actively participate in science as it happens. Future events will include NASA experts offering commentary on live events. Slooh plans to provide NASA with relevant observation data from these events, which may be used for grand challenge citizen science efforts.

“This partnership is a great validation of our approach to engage the public in the exploration of space,” says Michael Paolucci, founder and CEO of Slooh. “NASA understands the importance of citizen science and knows a good way to get amateur astronomers involved is to offer them ways to do productive astronomy. Slooh does that by giving them remote access to great telescopes situated at leading observatory sites around the world.”

The Asteroid Grand Challenge is built on such collaborative efforts. The partnership with Slooh augments grand challenge partnerships with SpaceGambit and Planetary Resources Inc., and extending the search from existing data to direct observation through telescopes.

Through NASA’s asteroid initiative, the agency seeks to enhance its ongoing work in the identification and characterization of near-Earth objects for further scientific investigation. This work includes locating potentially hazardous asteroids and identifying those viable for redirection to a stable lunar orbit for future exploration by astronauts. The Asteroid Grand Challenge, one part of the asteroid initiative, expands the agency’s efforts beyond traditional boundaries and encourages partnerships and collaboration with a variety of organizations.

For more information on NASA’s asteroid initiative, visit:  http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative

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Here is a video from Slooh about the program:

DIY space, Rockets, Space participation

Copenhagen Suborbitals: HEAT2X test and other news

Copenhagen Suborbitals has released a new newsletter: May 25th we test the biggest amateur rocket ever built!

The first item describes an upcoming test:

May 25th we test the biggest amateur rocket ever built!

We are still GO for static testing of the HEAT2X rocket on Sunday 25th 14:00 CEST. The purpose of the test is to verify the performance of the improved TM65LE engine and to calibrate the active guidance system. We will as always broadcast the entire test LIVE on Youtube and Livestream.com. 

This year the event will be commented by science journalist Jan Haugaard and PhD Jonas Bjarnø from DTU Space. If you live close to Copenhagen you can watch the test live.Tickets are available here. As always active supporters of Copenhagen Suborbitals have free access to the event.  

The first attempt to raise the rocket into place didn’t go so well: HEAT-2X almost on the test stand… | Copenhagen Suborbitals

But now it is vertical: HEAT2X – Stacking completed – Copenhagen Suborbitals –

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Update: The test has been postponed a few days: HEAT2X static test postponed to May 31st – Copenhagen Suborbitals

Education, Rockets, Space participation

Smoke & Fire over Utah Salt Flats – more on NASA Student Launch competition

Here is a NASA announcement about the Student Launch Challenge mentioned here earlier:

‘Smoke and Fire’ Rise Over Utah Salt Flats as
Student Rockets Soar in NASA Challenge May 17
NASA, ATK Present Preliminary Awards

The 2013-14 NASA Student Launch rocketry challenge has come to an end — and brought something new to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Tooele County, Utah, where car and motorcycle enthusiasts regularly watch cutting-edge vehicles put to the test, speeding across the vast, flat expanse.

On May 17, all eyes there turned upward as 16 student-built rockets, ranging in size from 7-1/2 feet to 15 feet, soared high into the cloudless blue. Each sophisticated machine carried three working science or engineering payloads. Some roared to altitudes of nearly 20,000 feet. Each successful parachute deployment and vehicle touchdown on the white hardpan was met with cheers and applause from the crowd — which included approximately 250 students from 15 states and some 500 spectators.

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The social media audience, watching live coverage on NASA Television and UStream and following real-time updates onTwitter, was equally jovial. One proud father, whose son was part of the team from Mississippi State University in Starkville, summed up the day’s launches on the NASA Student Launch Facebook page: “This is awesome!”

This was the first year the challenge was held at the Utah site. It is organized annually by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and sponsored by ATK Aerospace Group of Magna, Utah.

Teams designed and built their rockets and experiments beginning in the fall of 2013. They maintained websites to document their experience and visited elementary and middle schools in their communities to inspire younger students to pursue the study of technical subjects critical to the work of NASA and the nation.

Nine preliminary awards were presented at a post-launch banquet May 17. The grand prize — $5,000 from ATK — will be awarded in late May after final post-flight analysis and reviews are complete. This year’s preliminary awards included:

  • Best Vehicle Design: The University of North Carolina in Charlotte received the award for the most creative, innovative, safety-conscious rocket design.
  • Best Payload Design: The University of Notre Dame in South Bend won the award for the most creative and innovative payload experiment, emphasizing safety and scientific value.
  • Best Web Design: Vanderbilt University in Nashville won for the best rocketry website.
  • Project Review Award: Vanderbilt University was honored for delivering the best combination of written preliminary design, critical design and flight readiness reviews and formal presentations.
  • Education Engagement Award: Vanderbilt University won for best inspiring the study of rocketry and STEM-related topics — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — among younger students and their community.
  • Closest to Altitude Award: The team from Vanderbilt University went four for four when their rocket came closest to their goal altitude without going over. Their rocket reached an altitude of 4,850 feet — just 150 feet shy of their 5,000-foot goal.
  • Safety Award: The University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, was honored for having the best safety practices.
  • Peer Awards: All rocket teams submitted votes for peer awards in each division. The “Best-Looking Rocket” award went to the team from the University of Hawaii Community Colleges in Kane’ohe. The “Best Team Spirit” prize was awarded to the team representing the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The Marshall Center’s Academic Affairs Office, part of the Office of Human Capital, has managed the rocketry challenge since its creation in 2000. This is the seventh year ATK has provided corporate sponsorship. The National Association of Rocketry supported launch readiness reviews and range safety.

For more information, including a complete list of participating schools, visit:  www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/studentlaunch

Archived launch-day coverage is available at:  www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

Visit NASA Student Launch Projects on Facebook and Twitter:

For more information about NASA education projects, visit: www.nasa.gov/education

[See also this set of] Images

 

 

Education, Space camps & hands on sims, Space participation

Space Camp plans major upgrade after financial recovery

The famous Space Camp at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama nearly went out of business in the late 1990s when a failed project to provide free camp stays for fifth graders left it heavily in debt. After many years of working down that debt they are now in position to pursue a major modernization of their facility and programs: U.S. Space & Rocket Center celebrates ‘watershed’ financial achievement, upgrade Space Camp facilities | AL.com.

Glad to hear they are moving away from the out-of-date Space Shuttle-centric approach and will be including commercial spaceships in their programs:

“I’m going to be upgrading the Space Camp training and simulation areas substantially to match what is in the runway of my Space Camp students. We’ve already got the Orion capsule and the return to the moon mission. We’ll be adding the Mars mission, we’ll be adding capturing an asteroid activities. We will add (SpaceX) Dragon. We will add (SNC) Dream Chaser. We will be adding all the commercial and next generation NASA vehicles and mission scenarios to the Space Camp training curriculum. It’s not going to be the same ol’ fly-the-shuttle anymore.”

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space participation, Space Radio

AMSAT, student satellites, and space radio news – May.18.14

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

ANS 138 Weekly AMSAT Bulletin – May 17, 2014:
* ARISS to the MAX
* The LituanicaSAT-1 team operational during the weekend of May 17-18
* Island of Miquelon Activation on Satellites: July 5-15 FP/KV1J
* From Holiday Inn to Outer Space
* FUNcube-1 AO-73 satellite SSB signal test
* BBC: ‘Pocket spacecrafts’ to become a reality
* 2015 NASA Aeronautics Scholarships
* NASA History Program Office Fall 2014 Internships
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts From All Over

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More links:

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Unfortunately, the KickSat nanosat reentered the atmosphere before it was able to release its 104 tiny Sprites chipsats.  The clock reset event reported earlier could not be undone. Project leader Zach Manchester says KickSat-2 will incorporate the lessons learned: KickSat — Your personal spacecraft in space! by Zachary Manchester » Updates — Kickstarter –

KickSat reentered the atmosphere and burned up last night some time around 9:30 PM EDT (01:30 UTC). Unfortunately, we were not able to command the Sprite deployment in time. While we are certainly disappointed that things did not go as planned, I think we still have a lot to be proud of.

Over 300 people from all over the world came together to make KickSat happen. We built a spacecraft, tested it, and launched it. Hundreds of people had their names flown in space, more than a dozen radio amateurs were able to receive signals from KickSat’s beacon radio, and volunteers collected and processed telemetry data and predicted KickSat’s orbit and reentry. This kind of participation is exactly what KickSat is all about and I’m glad we all got to share in this experience.

We’ve learned a lot from KickSat, and I plan to take those lessons and build an even better KickSat-2. This is only the beginning! Thank you all for your amazing support over the past two years. I hope you’ll stick with us as we continue to try to make space something everyone can take part in.

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Here is the audio of a BBC program about nano and pico satellites (recorded before the KickSat had its clock problem): ▶ BBC Radio 4 – Today, 15/05/2014, ‘Pocket spacecrafts’ to become a reality