Education, Space participation, Space Systems

Citizens in Space at MakerCon to debut space experiment carrier for XCOR Lynx

May 8, 2014 TopSpacer

Here’s a follow-up to the recent news from Citizens in Space about their newly developed experiment payload rack for the XCOR Lynx:

New Space Research Platform Will Be Unveiled at MakerCon

Redwood City, CA (May 8, 2013) – A new research platform that promises to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space for small scientific and education payloads will be publicly unveiled at MakerCon, which takes place at the Oracle Conference Center in Redwood City next week.

The Lynx Cub Payload Carrier, developed by the United States Rocket Academy, Texas A&M University, and the Space Engineering Research Center (a Texas state agency) will fly on the XCOR Lynx spacecraft. A fully reusable, piloted, suborbital spacecraft, Lynx is designed to fly four times a day. The Lynx Cub Payload Carrier will fit behind the pilot’s seat and carry up to 15 small experiments on each flight.

The Lynx Cub Carrier will be unveiled by United States Rocket Academy founder Edward Wright during a presentation on “Citizen Science and Citizen Space Exploration.” The presentation takes place on Tuesday, May 13 at 2:55-3:15 PM, in Room 102/103 of the Oracle Conference Center.

“The Lynx spacecraft is now under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California,” Wright said. “XCOR Aerospace expects to begin flight tests later this year.

“The Cub Carrier can be installed and removed quickly for frequent, low-cost flight opportunities. The Lynx Cub Carrier is an ideal platform for small materials-processing, fluid-physics, life-science, and engineering experiments. University teaching and research, K-12 education, citizen science, government and industrial R&D will all benefit from the convenient simple interfaces, rapid integration, and affordability of Lynx Cub experiments. We are pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this exciting platform to the audience at MakerCon.”

MakerCon is a premiere event organized by Maker Media, publisher of Make magazine and producer of Maker Faire.

MakerCon brings together the leaders at the forefront of the maker movement. The conference provides new insights into local and global manufacturing, design, marketing and distribution, and diverse funding options to help makers bring their products to market.

MakerCon is presented by Intel and hosted by Oracle Corporation. More information, including a complete list of speakers, is available at www.makercon.com. Registration is available at www.makercon.com/attend.

Additional information about Citizens in Space can be found at www.citizensinspace.org.

Activism, Education, Space books

Space book: “Harvesting Space for a Greener Earth”

May 8, 2014 TopSpacer

Les Johnson, Greg Matloff, and C Bangs have a new book out:

New Nonfiction ‘Harvesting Space for a Greener Earth’ Looks to
Space Exploration, Technologies to Solve Earthly Challenges

In the nonfiction work Harvesting Space for a Greener Earth, catastrophic threats to our civilization and way of life abound. Food and energy resources dwindle. Climate change looms. Tumbling space rocks threaten devastation or outright extinction.

But solutions to these very real challenges exist, the book’s authors contend, thanks to new technologies and scientific discoveries made possible by space exploration — and still more to come as humanity extends its reach ever further into the solar system.

Newly published by Springer, “Harvesting Space” is exhaustively researched and written by Greg Matloff, a physicist and retired associate professor at the New York City College of Technology and former NASA Faculty Fellow and consultant C Bangs, an ecological artist and former NASA Faculty Fellow; and Les Johnson, co-author of the science fiction novels Back to the Moon and the forthcoming Rescue Mode, and a physicist and technologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. It is the second edition of the trio’s 2010 work, Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth.

“Gloom and doom sells,” writes award-winning science fiction author Jack McDevitt in his foreword to the volume — but the “Harvesting Space” authors remain distinctly sanguine in their approach to their unsettling subject matter, objectively addressing global challenges from overpopulation and dwindling resources to the threat of an extinction-level event caused by a rogue comet or meteor.

The book pairs themes of environmentalism and exploration, championing good stewardship of the Earth and calling for greater investment in missions of discovery into the solar system. The writers illustrate potential solutions in clear, unambiguous language, demonstrating how technologies and capabilities derived from space exploration can slow, and even reverse, centuries of resource mismanagement across the globe.

“We should feel far from hopeless,” the authors assert. Their recommendation? Time to seek out the untapped resources all around us: “We merely have to move a few hundred kilometers straight up into space to access … a literal universe of energy, raw materials and real estate.”

Find “Harvesting Space for a Greener Earth” on Facebook .

Kindle and paperback editions are available on Amazon.com.

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Education, Living in Space, Space books

Story Time from Space – ISS astronauts read children’s space books

May 8, 2014 TopSpacer

In the new Story Time From Space (STFS) project, ISS crew members will read from a selection of books aimed at kids. There is a a Kickstarter campaign to fund STFS publicity and distribution of their materials.

Story Time From Space
Now Available to the Children of Earth

Stories read by astronauts on the International Space Station now available online.

HOUSTON, TX, May 7, 2014 – In another space flight first, Story Time From Space (STFS), partnered with Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), has debuted the first children’s book reading from the International Space Station on www.storytimefromspace.com.

“What you cannot imagine, you cannot do,” said Alvin Drew, NASA Astronaut and co-founder for STFS. “It is incredible to see this exciting concept finally debut online. The videos paired with the cross content curriculum will be a powerful tool for educators and families”

Five books by astrophysicist and author Jeffrey Bennett launched to the International Space Station on January 9 aboard the Cygnus spacecraft. The first book making an appearance on the website is “Max Goes to the International Space Station” read by astronaut Mike Hopkins from the space station’s seven window observatory known as the Cupola. The story follows Max the dog as he learns about life on the space station and explores the unusual effects of microgravity.

The books were selected by the founders Alvin Drew and space educator Patricia Tribe for their solid science and inspirational stories. The content makes the books a perfect spring board for the coming science demonstrations that will be flown in the fall. Nine experiments designed by veteran astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason will be conducted on the space station then used to develop curriculum to complement the science concepts in each book.

“The equipment we are building to fly to the space station is fairly sophisticated,” said Bjarni Tryggvason, veteran astronaut and lead science developer for STFS. “For instance, we are flying a spectrometer that will measure wavelengths of light as the sun rises and sets through the Earth’s atmosphere. This information gives us fantastic data on the atmosphere’s composition and has interesting applications for understanding climate change.”

Story time From Space is a project of the Global Space Flight Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and plans to make the STFS content available for free to families, schools and libraries. To fund the distribution and program expenses, STFS has launched a Kickstarter campaign.

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About Story Time From Space:
Story Time From Space (STFS) is a project of the Global Space Flight Education Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. The group has partnered with NASA and CASIS to have books read in space as part of an innovative program to combine science and literature. For more information visit www.storytimefromspace.com

About CASIS:
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) was selected by NASA in July 2011 to maximize use of the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory through 2020. CASIS is dedicated to supporting and accelerating innovations and new discoveries that will enhance the health and wellbeing of people and our planet. For more information, visit www.iss-casis.org.

About the ISS National Laboratory:
In 2005, Congress designated the U.S. portion of the International Space Station as the nation’s newest national laboratory to maximize its use for improving life on Earth, promoting collaboration among diverse users, and advancing STEM education. This unique laboratory environment is available for use by other U.S. government agencies and by academic and private institutions, providing access to the permanent microgravity setting, vantage point in low Earth orbit, and varied environments of space.

Eyes in the Sky, Space Systems

ISS earth observation: ISERV images for enviro tasks + HDEV video now streaming

May 7, 2014 TopSpacer

The ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (ISERV):

automatically takes images of Earth through a small telescope with an off-the-shelf digital camera mounted in the International Space Station’s Destiny module. When ISERV is running, it captures 3 images per second that cover approximately a 19 km x 11 km area each. The goal is to improve automatic image capturing and data transfer, but the images taken in the experiment could also help environmental scientists, disaster responders and other Earth-based users.

Burgess Howell is the principal investigator and payload developer for ISERV and in this video he describes the system and examples of images.:

See also the gallery of great images at ISERV: A New ‘Eye’ on Earth – a set on Flickr.

The overall SERVIR program

is a joint venture between NASA and USAID which provides satellite-based Earth observation data and science applications to help developing nations improve their environmental decision making.

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The ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment was mentioned here last Saturday but it was not active at the time. Today it has been showing beautiful streaming video of the earth:

Live streaming video by Ustream

Caption:

Black Image = International Space Station (ISS) is on the night side of the Earth.
Gray Image = Switching between cameras, or communications with the ISS is not available.
No Audio = Normal. There is no audio on purpose. Add your own soundtrack.

For a display of the real time ISS location plus the HDEV imagery, visit here: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/

The High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) experiment aboard the ISS was activated April 30, 2014. It is mounted on the External Payload Facility of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. This experiment includes several commercial HD video cameras aimed at the earth which are enclosed in a pressurized and temperature controlled housing. Video from these cameras is transmitted back to earth and also streamed live on this channel. While the experiment is operational, views will typically sequence though the different cameras.

Between camera switches, a gray and then black color slate will briefly appear. Since the ISS is in darkness during part of each orbit, the images will be dark at those times. During periods of loss of signal with the ground or when HDEV is not operating, a gray color slate or previously recorded video may be seen.

Analysis of this experiment will be conducted to assess the effects of the space environment on the equipment and video quality which may help decisions about cameras for future missions. High school students helped with the design of some of the HDEV components through the High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) program. Student teams will also help operate the experiment. To learn more about the HDDEV experiment, visit here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/917.html

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – May.7.14 + A video PSA

May 7, 2014 TopSpacer

Yet more space policy/politics related links:

[ Update:

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Webcasts:

* Tues 5/6/14 Hr 4 | John Batchelor Show – Bob Zimmerman on the first of his twice weekly report on space news & policy

* Robert (Bob) Zimmerman, Tuesday, 5-6-14 | Thespaceshow’s Blog – Bob spoke about “Russia-NASA space relationship with sanctions, ISS, SpaceX, Air Force & more”.