In a multi-part interview with Moonandback, Henry Spencer discussed various aspects of asteroids including their composition, origin, probes, mining, Planetary Resources, and more:
Astronaut Chris Hadfield explains how the orientation of the International Space Station, where he is living at the moment, is controlled:
The MOOC Production Fellowship competition will provide 25000 Euro to each of the ten winning MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) programs out of the 200 that have entered. The winners will be determined by online voting. Anyone may vote for the contestants until May 23rd. The winning courses will be offered for free at the iversity online learning site.
I received a message from Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Berlin, Institute of Technology about their Space Technology entry in the competition. The course has no prerequisites “other than a basic understanding of maths”.
The course “Space Technology” covers the fundamentals of space engineering, as well as further related subjects like space law, space politics or management of a space project.
At first, a brief introduction of our solar system and the space environment will give an idea about the destination space. On a trip to space, one has to expect an extremely harsh environment with vacuum, zero-gravity, deadly radiation, micrometeoroids and extreme temperatures. Still, space engineering enables spacecraft and humans to survive under these conditions.
Most of today’s space applications are based on satellites. Therefore, a focus will be set on satellites and their subsystems. Here, subjects like mechanical structures, thermal control, electrical power systems, attitude determination and control, data management and communications will be introduced using a mixture of theory and real mission examples.
One of the most fascinating sectors of space technology is human space flight. A section will be devoted to human spaceflight. In this section several topics like life support systems, astronaut training and space stations will be addressed.
This video also describes the course:
I recently pointed here to the International Space Apps Challenge program, which aims to encourage “collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in space”. Stephen Murphey interviewed one of the competitors, Pablo Carranza Vélez, about his project, which involved “using the Raspberry Pi to create a space worth redundant computer”: How the International Space Apps Challenges Creates Innovation – DIY Space Exploration.
I have been offering a 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:
Download these within the next week. Only four chapters will be available at any one time.
** The electronic version of the updated book is available today for free at The Rocket Company eBook by Patrick Stiennon, David Hoerr, Peter Diamandis, Doug Birkhol: Kindle Store/Amazon.com.