Ace astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh captured images of the SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage as it passed over Belgium last April using a modest sized telescope. The Dragon had separated from the upper stage and gone on to deliver cargo to the ISS: A Rocket Engine Seen from the Ground – SpaceSafetyMagazine.com
Monthly Archives: June 2014
Sci-Tech: Polywell fusion project makes progress
Over the past few years I’ve posted several times about the Polywell fusion power concept invented by the late Robert W. Bussard. See, for example, this introductory video on the Polywell fusion system.
The Navy funded project investigating the system has been very quiet for the past year or so and I’ve not seen any new info on how they were doing. Today, however, comes word of a technical paper posted at arXiv.org and it sounds quite encouraging:
High Energy Electron Confinement in a Magnetic Cusp Configuration
We report experimental results validating the concept that plasma confinement is enhanced in a magnetic cusp configuration when beta (plasma pressure/magnetic field pressure) is order of unity. This enhancement is required for a fusion power reactor based on cusp confinement to be feasible.
The magnetic cusp configuration possesses a critical advantage: the plasma is stable to large scale perturbations. However, early work indicated that plasma loss rates in a reactor based on a cusp configuration were too large for net power production. Grad and others theorized that at high beta a sharp boundary would form between the plasma and the magnetic field, leading to substantially smaller loss rates.
The current experiment validates this theoretical conjecture for the first time and represents critical progress toward the Polywell fusion concept which combines a high beta cusp configuration with an electrostatic fusion for a compact, economical, power-producing nuclear fusion reactor.
World View Experience opens emblem design contest
The World View Experience high altitude balloon travel venture has opened a contest to design their Voyager emblem:
Leave Your Mark On Spaceflight – Design Contest
Design the World View Voyager emblem; an iconic mark that will represent our group of spaceflight passengers, which we call “Voyagers,” for decades to come. Our community of Voyagers is comprised of people from all over the world that have reserved a flight with World View. Like any club, alumni organization, or society that has a logo, our Voyagers need one as well. Something separate from the World View logo itself, but a mark that they would be proud to wear on a flight uniform or display in a home.
This is your chance to leave a mark – on the industry that captivates our dreams.
The Prize:
One designer will win $500 cash and an all expenses paid trip for themselves and one guest to our Inaugural Voyager Gala at the end of this year, where they’ll have the chance to witness the unveiling of part of the World View space capsule and rub elbows with NASA astronauts, celebrities, and leaders from industries the world over.
How to Enter:
Click on the “Enter and Submit Your Design” link above and submit your design through our online competition website. That’s also where you can find submission guidelines, official rules, and a link to our brand elements for use in your design.
The Deadline:
All designs must be submitted via the link above by 11:59 p.m. on June 23rd, 2014. Save the date! Bookmark this page. Set a reminder. Though we’d love to be flexible, our legal team won’t let us. So make sure your design hits our submission portal before time expires.
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Enter your design at Contest registration
Video: “Space to Ground” update on ISS
The latest Space to Ground report from NASA on activities related to the Int. Space Station this past week:
B612 update + Kepler back in action
Check out the latest newsletter from the B612 Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting earth from asteroid and comet impacts: Sentinel and Beyond: The B612 Foundation Newsletter! Vol. 12
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The Kepler telescope is looking for more exoplanets again: