Education, Rockets, Space Science

Student experiments launched on suborbital rocket at Wallops Island

A Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket was successfully launched today from NASA Wallops Island center with experiments built by students participating in the RockSat-X program run by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.

Here’s an earlier article about the RockSat-X program: University Students Fulfilling the Space Flight Dream – NASA

Uncategorized

Sci-Tech: The Sun returns for Antarctic researchers

The sun has once again appeared to inhabitants of the French-Italian Concordia Antarctic research station: Morning has broken  – ESA

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This is the first sunrise at the Concordia research station since last May. The photo was taken by Antonio Litterio, one of the crew staying at the station for the whole hard Antarctic winter. He writes his ‘message to the Sun’ on the ESA’s Concordia blog about this significant moment: 

“It’s 11:10 on the morning of 10 August 2013, and the eastern skies are clear and radiant. I’m surrounded by diffuse light, azure blue in front of me, dark blue behind. There’s still no trace of you but all this anxious waiting is about to come to an end.

“Slowly, on the snow, I see the first signs of you as a band of fiery red light brushes every single ripple of snow between me and the horizon. I watch the light spread. As it approaches me, it broadens like a wide embrace; I look up and there you are, in a blaze of light. I’m incredibly happy. I lose myself for a moment: I only have eyes for you, I immerse myself in you and you reflect in my eyes to light up infinity. 

“My heart leaps and I murmur ‘Welcome back’. Before today, I could never have imagined how powerful you are in the mind and heart of someone who has been deprived of you for so long. Ninety days after our last goodbye, here you are once again in all your splendour.” 

Credits: ESA–A. Litterio

Follow the activities at the station via this blog: Chronicles from Concordia | Updates from the scientific research base Concordia.

Check out these sci-fi looking habitats in the Antarctic: 5 Amazing Antarctic Research Buildings – Popular Science

Science and Technology

Sci-Tech: Martin Jetpack to begin manned flight tests

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Martin Jetpack of New Zealand has gotten permission there to begin manned flight tests of their dual ducted fan personal vertical takeoff and landing vehicle:

The new version of the vehicle has the fans, which are not jets but driven by 2-stroke piston engines, lower down relative to the pilot. They say that this “has vastly improved the jetpack’s performance, especially its maneuverability”.  It can fly for up to 30 minutes at a cruise speed of 30 kts. (See specs here.)

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The vehicle has a ballistic parachute system to save the pilot if the engine fails and a number of other Safety Features.

Here is a recent video of a flight test of the vehicle controlled remotely:

Future space, Space Settlement, Space Systems

Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress, Dallas, TX, Aug. 15-18

The Icarus Interstellar is hosting the Starship Congress in Dallas, Texas this Thursday through Sunday: Starship Congress: Competing Our Way to the Stars : Discovery News.

The gathering is described as follows:

The Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress to be held in Dallas, Texas, August 15-18 at the Hilton Anatole.

The Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress aims to bring together the interstellar community to foster discussion and generate tangible action. Our ambition is to move humanity toward becoming an interstellar civilization, with a broad campaign of exploration and migration to begin by the year 2100.

For 2013, the Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress is a four-day event. The first three days are dedicated to interstellar accomplishments in specific timescales: Interstellar Now (Next 20 Years), Interstellar This Lifetime (20-50 Years), and Interstellar Future (50 Years+). These are the near-term, medium-term and long-term focuses necessary for the realization of our ambition. The fourth day will be a wrap-up of the Starship Congress with a chance to network and plan for the future.

Presenters are a combination of scientists, physicists, engineers, researchers, and representatives from international space programs and present-day commercial space operators, as well as popular and well-known interstellar speakers and space journalists. Special note: Day 3 presenters include Science Fiction celebrities, authors and creators. The fourth day is for discussion of future plans and a summary of the congress.

The conference Program looks packed. Here’s a promotional video:

Everyone can participate in space