First annual Astronauts4Hire on line silent auction

April 8, 2013 TopSpacer

Astronauts4Hire is holding their First Annual Online A4H Silent Auction

The funds raised from this year’s auction, which runs from Sunday, April 7th until Friday, April 12th, will be used to support A4H’s educational outreach program, furthering the A4H mission: “To increase the competitiveness of commercial astronaut candidates by providing skills training, facilitating forums for candidate communication, engaging the space research community, and inspiring the next generation.”

The auction is “held in conjunction with Yuri’s Night events across the globe”: 2013 A4H Silent Auction – Astronauts4Hire.

The items up for auction were generously donated by A4H friends, members, and partners, and range from collectible NASA spaceflight memorabilia, autographed books, and unique patches, to lifetime Associate memberships in Astronauts4Hire. We would like to thank everyone who donated an item for this year’s auction, for without you and our supporters, we would not be able to carry out the A4H mission.

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DIY space, Rockets

Copenhagen Suborbitals: Aiming for a full-scale rocket test in 2014

April 8, 2013 TopSpacer

Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals notes that all their subsystems activities has made it seem they are losing sight of their original goal of putting a person into space on a very low cost rocket. So they have decided to aim for “for a launch or at least full scale test in Summer 2014” of the CS1600 rocket: Back on the (Megalomania) Track – Wired Science/Wired.com

Comparison of the Copenhagen Suborbitals CS1600 to two NASA rockets
Image by Kristian von Bengtson.

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Science and Technology, Space Science, Space Systems

ISS communications upgrade

April 8, 2013 TopSpacer

The International Space Station is getting a big boost in communications bandwidth, which will greatly benefit the rapidly growing scientific work going on there: ISS gets communications overhaul to boost scientific output – NASASpaceFlight.com.

NanoRacks, for example, is providing plug’n’play racks to provide low cost experiment power and communications systems for a wide range of scientific investigations from biology to physics. Such experiments can benefit from real or near-real time imaging, measurement data and control access.

There are earth observation systems going to the station such as ISS-RapidScat, which will monitor “monitored ocean winds to provide essential measurements used in weather predictions, including hurricane monitoring”.

As mentioned in comments here, NASA just approved funding for the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER), which will go to the ISS in 2017 to study neutron stars with a X-ray timing and spectroscopy instrument.

Such systems need lots of bandwidth to be productive and it appears the station is moving to keep up with bandwidth demands.

Activism, SpaceCasts

Spacevidcast 6-10: Eyes on the solar system

April 8, 2013 TopSpacer

Spacevidcast posts the video of their latest live show: Spacevidcast 6-10: Eyes on the Solar System – 6.10

Caption:

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Doug Eliison joins us in-studio to talk about the amazing ‘Eyes on the Solar System’ application. Fans of Eyes will also get a sneak peek in to the future revision with a new gaming engine!

In Space News we chat about SpaceX’s plans for reusability in 2013, Antares rolls out to the launch pad for first test mission, Yuri’s Night is less than a week away and Spacevidcast is looking for Mountain Climbers… On Mars!

Don’t let the conversation stop here! In addition to this great episode we continue speaking with Doug in After Dark. To watch this After Dark episode you can subscribe to Spacevidcast epic. For as little as $10/mo or $100/yr you not only get access to this exclusive content but an additional huge library of past shows, exclusive interviews and conferences. Spacevidcast epic helps us continue to product the show, we give you a bit extra and you help ensure we stay broadcasting! http://www.spacevidcast.com/epic for more information