Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals gives an update on what they are working on during these cold winter months: The Hunt for the Center of Pressure and other Work in Progress – Wired Science/Wired.com.
Sci-Tech: Update on Paul Moller, Space Sciences, UrbanAero & Aerofex
I’ve been checking in on Paul Moller and his SkyCar project occasionally since the late 1980s when I read an article in the Economist about his project. He has been working on flying cars since the 1960s and has made a few millions along the way with spinoff inventions such as the SuperTrapp muffler and a line of compact rotary engines. But still no flying car. Just hovering cars as seen in these videos.
Via the Spaceports blog comes a pointer to an announcement from Moller that a Chinese based firm has agreed to provide $80M initially and up to $480M to get a VTOL vehicle in production: Moller Forms Joint Venture with Athena Technologies, Inc. – Moller
DAVIS, Ca. January 23, 2013–Moller International, Inc. (MI) (OTC-QB: MLER), the developer of the Skycar
® and Neuera™ aircraft announced today that it has received a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreeing to create a US-based Joint Venture (JV) with Athena Technologies Inc. of Harbor City, California. The goal of the newly formed JV is to establish co-production for its aircraft in the US and the People’s Republic of China.Under the provisions of the memorandum, MI will team with this US company-led JV to jointly produce numerous models of its vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The JV will initially invest $80 million (USD) of a planned $480 million investment with the objective of producing a variety of VTOL aircraft by 2014. Production will include the Skycar® 200 LS, Skycar® 400, Skycar® 600 and Neuera™ aircraft.
MI is to retain its Intellectual Property (IP) while providing the JV with aircraft designs,ready-to-install Rotapower® rotary aviation engines, and the requirements for the airframe and flight control systemhardware to be produced in China. The JV is to provide all necessary production funding, purchase a 35% ownership in MI and provide MI with 25% fixed ownership in the JV for a period of 10 years
The full text of the announcement is available at: Moller-Athena-MOU.pdf
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Meanwhile, the company Space Sciences Corporation in New Mexico has an agreement with Moller to commercialize an early version of the SkyCar. In this Moonandback interview from last October, the co-founders of the firm “talk about their activities over the past year in developing vertical takeoff/vertical landing (VTVL) craft – a putative Flying Saucer” : John D’Alessandro and Lindsay Quarrie – A Flying Saucer Update – Moonandback.
[Update Jan.30.13: In Part 2 of the interview they “talk about how a flying saucer excites the public and kindles the educational experience, and they look at some of the applications for a vertical takeoff and landing flying vehicle” : John D’Alessandro and Lindsay Quarrie – The Cool Factor – Moonandback.
]
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As I’ve mentioned before, I think the best hope for a practical VTOL flying car will be more along the lines of the Israeli UrbanAero AirMule. You can follow its progress via their updates and videos & downloads. The Aerofex Tandem Duct Aerial Vehicle takes a similar design approach:
The Spaceliner
The European SpaceLiner concept looks hopelessly expensive and impractical for point-to-point travel but something like it might work for transport to space once there are large habitats in orbit: Planners for hypersonic SpaceLiner craft propose a 50 year timeline – PhysOrg
Bob Zimmerman on John Batchelor Show – Jan. 22, 24, 2013
Bob Zimmerman reports on the latest space news during regular weekly slots (usually Tuesday and Thursdays) on the John Batchelor radio program. See the iTunes free Podcast for links to the latest shows. Here are links and summaries for his most recent appearances on the show:
Tuesday, 01/22/13 – Batchelor Fourth Hour | John Batchelor Show:
[…] robotic mission to ISS, private space enterprise to mine asteroids. The plans and proposed launch schedule of the new asteroid mining company, Deep Space Industries. They aim to do their work using cubesats, which will keep everything cheap and simple, with the first launches by 2015, and the first sample return missions by 2016. Their new manufacturing technology appears to be a variation of 3D printing, though the descriptions so far released remain vague on details.
[…] deep worry for Kepler: Even as the Kepler mission struggles to survive, the science team has released its entire database of exoplanet candidates to the public.
Thursday 01/24/13 Batchelor Fourth Hour | John Batchelor Show:
[…] Science: 1. A research plane has crashed in Antarctica, three missing. New balloon record in Antarctica. Balto 1925: the Anti-Balto, 2013: The polio virus has spread from Pakistan to Egypt.
[…] manned space: Opportunity celebrates its 9th anniversary. 1. Structural braces are being added to the first Orion capsule because of the cracks found. 2. Chinese space program gets speeded up? 3. Russia is threatening to abandon Baikonur because of demands made by Kazakhstan.
A week of remembering
This week marks anniversaries for three tragedies for NASA and the United States:
- Apollo 1 – January 27, 1967 – a fire in their capsule during a test on the pad kills three Apollo astronauts:
- Challenger STS 51-L – January 28, 1986 – leak in a seal between segments of a solid fuel rocket booster led to the failure of the vehicle during launch and the deaths of the crew members:
- Columbia STS-107 – February 1, 2003 – damage from falling ice, which had built up on the top of the external tank, to a thermal protection panel on the wing led to failure of the wing during re-entry and the deaths of the crew members:
Here is a sampling of articles and commentary about these events (I will be adding more as the week goes by):
- General:
- Apollo 1:
- Challenger:
- Columbia: