Category Archives: Space participation

Space participation, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

Space tourism roundup – Mar.13.2019

A quick scan of the status of space tourism:

** Suborbital space tourism should finally get underway this year as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic expect to begin taking “spaceflight participants” to the edge of space and back after they complete the remaining test flights:

Jeff Bezos, when asked about the start of New Shepard commercial flights, says:

This year. This is the first time I’ve ever been saying “this year.” For a few years I’ve been saying “next year.”

The New Shepard will take up to 6 people to over 100 kilometers. The vehicle will be controlled autonomously with no pilots aboard.

George Whitesides wants participants to unbuckle and experience weightlessness as well as a marvelous view of the earth:

Such experiences, of course, don’t come cheap with the price tag at around US$250,000 per trip. From take-off to the return landing will take 90 minutes, and passengers are likely to be at zero gravity for just five minutes. “There will be a section of the flight when passengers will be able to unbuckle their seatbelts and float around, and people can look down on to planet Earth and out into space,” he adds.

The SpaceShipTwo rocketplane is operated by two pilots and can carry up to 6 passengers to an altitude over 90 kilometers.

** Orbital space tourism will resume soon. Visits to the ISS by paying customers were suspended nearly a decade ago due to the disappearance of spare seats in Russian Soyuz spacecraft. All the Soyuz seats were needed for transporting new crew members to the station following the end of the Space Shuttle program. Now with the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing CST-100 Starliner about to start taking people to the ISS, there will be a several opportunities for paying customers to go to the station each year.

Space Adventures, which has arranged space tourism flights to the ISS for seven people, will resume its orbital space tourism business in 2021: Roscosmos and Space Adventures Sign Contract for Orbital Space Tourist Flight – Space Adventures

State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” and Space Adventures, Inc. signed a contract for the implementation of the short duration space flight of two spaceflight participants on board the same “Soyuz” spacecraft to the Russian segment of the International Space Station. The flight is scheduled to launch in late 2021.

Roscosmos and Space Adventures have been cooperating in space tourism since 2001, when the first space tourist – Dennis Tito – flew on orbit. In total, seven people have visited the space station in the frame of space tourism program with Charles Simonyi visiting the ISS twice.

“Over the last 18 years, our partnership has provided the opportunity for non-professionals to experience life in space. Our clients have spent in total close to three months in space and traveled over 36 million miles,” said Eric Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Space Adventures, Inc. “We look forward to continuing to work with Roscosmos in the pursuit of opening the space frontier to all.”

** Are space tourists astronauts or not? Soon, hundreds of tourists will go to space. What should we call them? | Ars Technica

Until now, it has been fairly easy to call men and women who have gone to space astronauts (or cosmonauts in Russia, and taikonauts in China). About 560 humans have gone to space, nearly all of them into orbit, and a lucky two dozen have gone beyond. Twelve have walked on the Moon.

In 2004, the private SpaceShipOne venture clouded the picture a little bit by making a private suborbital flight. The pilots, Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, had not trained as government astronauts, so the US Federal Aviation Administration created a new designation for them—commercial astronauts. Since then, the five crew members of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity flights in December and February have also earned that designation. But the FAA will only recognize “crew,” not passengers.

For now, there remains no official word on what to call non-crew members. Are they astronauts, too? Space passengers? Astro-nots? In the hopes of finding a consensus, we put that precise question to the companies, some bonafide NASA astronauts, and some experts in the aerospace community.

** A space tourism guide is available at Popular Mechanics: Everything You Need To Know About Going To Space

Space has it all. Circular mountain ranges! Metallic aster­oids! Geysers of sulfur! Oceans on a steady boil! It may just be the ultimate vacation destination. But how do you pack for the moon? What are you looking at for lodging? Will you get carsick in a rocket? In the era of space tourism, these are things you need to know.

So here’s the first thing: They call it “The Over­view Effect.” It’s what happens when you see the Earth from space, all you’ve ever known just a glitter­ing orb in the cosmic empti­ness. Your sense of humanity grows. Your perception shifts. You are forever changed.

Sounds kind of scary. But then, isn’t it exactly why we travel?

** Public response to space tourism has always been robust even when such trips for the public were not feasible:

In other words, everything was in place for Pan Am’s moon mania. Pistor’s initial moon-flight booking spawned a craze that would ultimately see Pan Am field 100,000 moon reservation requests under its First Moon Flights Club, which finally closed in 1971. All members were given cards with a number—an indication of one’s place on the ever-growing queue of layman astronauts.

A membership card in Pan Am’s “First Moon Flights” Club. Credits: Jeff Gates/National Air and Space Museum

** The SpaceX StarShip flight around the Moon with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and a group of artists might just make the 2023 target liftoff date for the Super Heavy Booster/StarShip combo considering the rapid progress that the company is making with the StarHopper.

The StarHopper is a low altitude suborbital test vehicle, with nearly the same dimensions as the StarShip, that the company will use to master the vertical takeoff and landing techniques needed to operate the massive reusable StarShip upper stage.

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The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect

Solar Science, Space participation, SpaceCasts

Videos: TMRO.tv: Space weather, Asgardia, and space news

The latest TMRO.tv Space episode examined space weather:

This week we bring on Dr. Tamitha Skov to talk about Space Weather and it’s impact on your daily life. We also go over how she got started and her journey to becoming the Space Weather Woman.

The previous show dealt with the Asgardia space nation project:

This week we welcome on Lena De Winne, the Deputy Head of Administration of Asgardia to talk about what Asgardia is, what they hope to accomplish and how they will get there. Asgardia is the first Space Nation and you can get more information at asgardia.space.

And here are two TMRO space news videos:

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Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA,
and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age

Rockets, Space participation, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

Virgin Galactic sets new milestones on second flight to edge of space in 10 weeks

1 Comment

Here is a press release from Virgin Galactic about today’s SpaceShipTwo flight to space:

Virgin Galactic Makes Space for Second Time in Ten Weeks
with Three On Board,
Reaching Higher Altitudes and Faster Speeds,
as Flight Test Program Continues

Flight Follows December’s Fourth Rocket-Powered Flight and First Space Flight

Mojave, California, USA (22 Feb 2019): Today, Virgin Galactic conducted its fifth powered test flight and second space flight of its commercial SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity. Please find reporting materials below for news coverage and multimedia reporting.

[ Update: Will add new media here as it becomes available.

]

B-roll & Images: Getty Press FTP: https://www.image.net/virgingalactic    Please visit periodically throughout the day and week for updates and additional test flight content.

News of the day and Richard Branson reaction quotes, per full copy below. Available for immediate use. Please cite original source: Virgin Galactic.

In its fifth supersonic rocket powered test flight, Virgin Galactic reached space for the second time today in the skies above Mojave CA. Spaceship VSS Unity reached its highest speed and altitude to date and, for the first time, carried a third crew member on board along with research payloads from the NASA Flight Opportunities program.

Virgin Galactic Makes Space for Second Time in Ten Weeks with Three On Board

This space flight means Chief Pilot Dave Mackay and co-pilot Michael “Sooch” Masucci become commercial astronauts and the 569th and 570th humans in space. Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s Chief Astronaut Instructor, flew as the third crew member in a first, live evaluation of cabin dynamics. She is the 571st person to fly to space and the first woman to fly on board a commercial spaceship.

In addition to this element of envelope expansion, VSS Unity flew higher and faster than ever before, as its world record-holding hybrid rocket motor propelled the spaceship at Mach 3.04 to an apogee of 295,007ft.

Beth Moses unbuckles and floats inside SS2.

The crew enjoyed extraordinary views of Earth from the black skies of space and, during several minutes of weightlessness while the pilots “feathered” the spaceship in preparation for a Mach 2.7 re-entry, Beth floated free to complete a number of cabin evaluation test points. The human validation of data previously collected via sensors, and the live testing of other physical elements of the cabin interior, are fundamental to the provision of a safe but enjoyable customer experience.

The glide back home was followed by a smooth runway landing and a rapturous reception from the crowd on the flight line, which included staff and some of Virgin Galactic’s 600 Future Astronaut customers.

Chief Pilot Dave Mackay, a born and bred Scotsman as well as an ex-RAF test pilot and Virgin Atlantic Captain, led his crew of newly qualified astronauts from VSS Unity accompanied by a kilted piper.

Post flight celebration.

Today’s flight notched several additional firsts for the industry:  The flight was the first time that a non-pilot flew on board a commercial spaceship to space, and it was the first time that a crew member floated freely without restraints in weightlessness in space onboard a commercial spaceship;  it was the first time that three people flew to space on a commercial spaceship, and Dave Mackay became the first Scottish-born astronaut (Brian Binnie, who was raised in Scotland, flew to space in 2004).

Addressing colleagues and guests Dave said:

“Beth, Sooch and I just enjoyed a pretty amazing flight which was beyond anything any of us has ever experienced. It was thrilling yet smooth and nicely controlled throughout with a view at the top, of the Earth from space, which exceeded all our expectations. I am incredibly proud of my crew and of the amazing teams at Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company for providing a vehicle and an operation which means we can fly confidently and safely. For the three of us today this was the fulfillment of lifelong ambitions, but paradoxically is also just the beginning of an adventure which we can’t wait to share with thousands of others.”  

Sir Richard Branson said:

“Flying the same vehicle safely to space and back twice in a little over two months, while at the same time expanding the flight envelope, is testament to the unique capability we have built up within the Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company organizations. I am immensely proud of everyone involved. Having Beth fly in the cabin today, starting to ensure that our customer journey is as flawless as the spaceship itself, brings a huge sense of anticipation and excitement to all of us here who are looking forward to experiencing space for ourselves. The next few months promise to be the most thrilling yet”

For downloadable assets from today’s flight test please visit our Press FTP https://www.image.net/virgingalactic.

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The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect

Astronomy, Space participation

Citizen Scientist in NASA project spots ancient white dwarf star with puzzling rings

As often reported here, citizen scientists, especially in astronomy, continue to make significant contributions to the sciences. Here is a new article from NASA detailing one such case:

Citizen Scientist Finds Ancient White Dwarf Star With Puzzling Rings

A volunteer working with the NASA-led Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has found the oldest and coldest known white dwarf — an Earth-sized remnant of a Sun-like star that has died — ringed by dust and debris. Astronomers suspect this could be the first known white dwarf with multiple dust rings.

In this illustration, an asteroid (bottom left) breaks apart under the powerful gravity of LSPM J0207+3331, the oldest, coldest white dwarf known to be surrounded by a ring of dusty debris. Scientists think the system’s infrared signal is best explained by two distinct rings composed of dust supplied by crumbling asteroids. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger. Download in high-resolution formats from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The star, LSPM J0207+3331 or J0207 for short, is forcing researchers to reconsider models of planetary systems and could help us learn about the distant future of our solar system.

“This white dwarf is so old that whatever process is feeding material into its rings must operate on billion-year timescales,” said John Debes, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “Most of the models scientists have created to explain rings around white dwarfs only work well up to around 100 million years, so this star is really challenging our assumptions of how planetary systems evolve.”

A paper detailing the findings, led by Debes, was published in the Feb. 19 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is now available online.

J0207 is located around 145 light-years away in the constellation Capricornus. White dwarfs slowly cool as they age, and Debes’ team calculated J0207 is about 3 billion years old based on a temperature just over 10,500 degrees Fahrenheit (5,800 degrees Celsius). A strong infrared signal picked up by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission — which mapped the entire sky in infrared light — suggested the presence of dust, making J0207 the oldest and coldest white dwarf with dust yet known. Previously, dust disks and rings had only been observed surrounding white dwarfs about one-third J0207’s age.

When a Sun-like star runs out of fuel, it swells into a red giant, ejects at least half of its mass, and leaves behind a very hot white dwarf. Over the course of the star’s giant phase, planets and asteroids close to the star become engulfed and incinerated. Planets and asteroids farther away survive, but move outward as their orbits expand. That’s because when the star loses mass, its gravitational influence on surrounding objects is greatly reduced.

This scenario describes the future of our solar system. Around 5 billion years from now, Mercury, then Venus and possibly Earth will be swallowed when the Sun grows into a red giant. Over hundreds of thousands to millions of years, the inner solar system will be scrubbed clean, and the remaining planets will drift outward.

Citizen scientists working on Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 scrutinize “flipbooks” of images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This animation shows a flipbook containing the ring-bearing white dwarf LSPM J0207+3331 (circled).
Credit: Backyard Worlds: Planet 9/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Yet some white dwarfs — between 1 and 4 percent — show infrared emission indicating they’re surrounded by dusty disks or rings. Scientists think the dust may arise from distant asteroids and comets kicked closer to the star by gravitational interactions with displaced planets. As these small bodies approach the white dwarf, the star’s strong gravity tears them apart in a process called tidal disruption. The debris forms a ring of dust that will slowly spiral down onto the surface of the star.

J0207 was found through Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a project led by Marc Kuchner, a co-author and astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, that asks volunteers to sort through WISE data for new discoveries.

Melina Thévenot, a co-author and citizen scientist in Germany working with the project, initially thought the infrared signal was bad data. She was searching through the ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Gaia archives for brown dwarfs, objects too large to be planets and too small to be stars, when she noticed J0207. When she looked at the source in the WISE infrared data, it was too bright and too far away to be a brown dwarf. Thévenot passed her findings along to the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 team. Debes and Kuchner contacted collaborator Adam Burgasser at the University of California, San Diego to obtain follow-up observations with the Keck II telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

“That is a really motivating aspect of the search,” said Thévenot, one of more than 150,000 citizen scientists on the Backyard Worlds project. “The researchers will move their telescopes to look at worlds you have discovered. What I especially enjoy, though, is the interaction with the awesome research team. Everyone is very kind, and they are always trying to make the best out of our discoveries.”

The Keck observations helped confirm J0207’s record-setting properties. Now scientists are left to puzzle how it fits into their models.

Citizen scientists working on Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 scrutinize “flipbooks” of images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This animation zooms in on the ring-bearing white dwarf LSPM J0207+3331 (highlighted). Credit: Backyard Worlds: Planet 9/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Debes compared the population of asteroid belt analogs in white dwarf systems to the grains of sand in an hourglass. Initially, there’s a steady stream of material. The planets fling asteroids inward towards the white dwarf to be torn apart, maintaining a dusty disk. But over time, the asteroid belts become depleted, just like grains of sand in the hourglass. Eventually, all the material in the disk falls down onto the surface of the white dwarf, so older white dwarfs like J0207 should be less likely to have disks or rings.

J0207’s ring may even be multiple rings. Debes and his colleagues suggest there could be two distinct components, one thin ring just at the point where the star’s tides break up the asteroids and a wider ring closer to the white dwarf. Follow-up with future missions like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may help astronomers tease apart the ring’s constituent parts.

“We built Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 mostly to search for brown dwarfs and new planets in the solar system,” Kuchner said. “But working with citizen scientists always leads to surprises. They are voracious — the project just celebrated its second birthday, and they’ve already discovered more than 1,000 likely brown dwarfs. Now that we’ve rebooted the website with double the amount of WISE data, we’re looking forward to even more exciting discoveries.”  

Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 is a collaboration between NASA, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Arizona State University, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the University of California San Diego, Bucknell University, the University of Oklahoma, and Zooniverse, a collaboration of scientists, software developers and educators who collectively develop and manage citizen science projects on the internet.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages and operates WISE for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The WISE mission was selected competitively under NASA’s Explorers Program managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado. Placed in hibernation in 2011, the spacecraft was reactivated in 2013 and renamed NEOWISE. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, visit: http://backyardworlds.org

For more information about NASA’s WISE mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/wise

By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Telescopes and Binoculars at Amazon

Education, Space Arts, Space participation

Winners announced for Space Foundation’s Int. Student Art Contest

The winners of the Space Foundation‘s ninth international student space art contest, co-sponsored by Firefly Aerospace, have been selected. See the gallery of terrific winning entries here.

Winners of the Space Foundation’s
9th Annual International Student Art Contest Announced

  • 25 winners selected from 61 countries
  • 3,908 entries submitted
  • Space Achievement Award winner is Xinyi Christine from New Jersey
Xinyi Christine, Space Achievement Award 13 – 14 Years Old, USA

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Jan 23, 2019) — The Space Foundation has announced the winners of its 9th Annual Space Foundation International Student Art Contest, co-sponsored by Firefly Aerospace. The 25 winners represent five U.S. states and 12 countries, with one entry chosen for the Space Achievement Award.

The Space Foundation invited public, private and homeschool children from around the world, ages 3-18, to submit original artwork depicting the theme, “Where Will Your Spaceship Take You?” The contest is free to enter every year, and the response for 2019 included more than 3,900 entries from 36 U.S. states and 61 countries, including Lithuania, United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Mongolia.

“Everything that has been constructed existed first in the imagination of its architect,” said Firefly CEO Dr. Tom Markusic. “We are inspired by the vision of these student space architects as they imagine ‘where their spaceships will take them.’”

Rui Xi, 1st Place 3 – 4 Years Old, Malaysia

The winning entries will be shown at the Space Foundation’s 35th Space Symposium, to be held April 8-11, 2019, at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA. After the Symposium, the winning art will be displayed at Space Foundation Headquarters and Discovery Center in Colorado Springs.

“I have greatly enjoyed personally viewing thousands of inspired contest entries over the years,” said Nancy Reed, Director – Marketing & Creative Services for the Space Foundation.  “I treasure gained insights from my involvement with the contest – that young artists’ creativity, desire to win and their view of space is universal throughout the world and transcends world politics and differing ideologies – a wonderful thing indeed!”

The winners will receive an astronaut autograph, certificate, ribbon and an art kit.

Adeena, 3rd Place 9 – 10 Years Old, Indonesia

In August 2019, the Space Foundation will make an announcement about the 2020 contest.

About the Contest

Students were invited to enter artwork in the following media formats: drawing, painting, mixed media and digital. The contest featured eight age categories, with first, second and third place honors for each of the age categories, plus one Space Foundation Achievement Award.

Jun Yao, 1st Place, 7 – 8 Years Old, China

The 2019 winners are listed by first name only in consideration of the children’s privacy.

3 – 4 Years      

  • 1st Place – Rui Xi, Malaysia
  • 2nd Place – Naajiha, Bangladesh
  • 3rd Place – Pulasi, Sri Lanka

5 – 6 Years      

  • 1st Place – Sansthita, India
  • 2nd Place – Hangyu, China
  • 3rd Place – Richard, United States

7 – 8 Years      

  • 1st Place – Jùn yáo, China
  • 2nd Place – Ruixi, China
  • 3rd Place – KeXin, China

9 – 10 Years    

  • 1st Place – Aaron, United States
  • 2nd Place – Xu Yuan, United States
  • 3rd Place – Adeena, Indonesia

11 – 12 Years  

  • 1st Place – Peter, United States
  • 2nd Place – Timur, Russia
  • 3rd Place – Maria, Ukraine

13 – 14 Years  

  • 1st Place – Crystal, United States
  • 2nd Place – Daria, Ukraine
  • 3rd Place – Jonathan, United States

15 – 16 Years  

  • 1st Place – Adrian, United States
  • 2nd Place – Natalie, United States
  • 3rd Place – Ziqing, China

17 – 18 Years  

  • 1st Place – Calum, United States
  • 2nd Place – Adriana, United States
  • 3rd Place –  Eva Sophie, Germany

Space Achievement Award   

Xinyi Christine, United States, Age 14

Where to See the Artwork
Winning artwork submitted for this year’s contest can be seen on the International Student Art Contest website gallery at http://art.spacefoundation.org/winners-gallery/2019, and all of the submitted artwork can be seen at http://art.spacefoundation.org.

About the Judges

Space Art Expertise

  • Richard Green, senior artist/designer with more than 20 years’ experience in creating and designing for the video game, aerospace and industrial design industries, Seattle, Washington.
  • Joe Vinton, digital artist, Renderosity Artist of the Year, Burton, Trent, United Kingdom.

Children’s Art Expertise

  • Hans Wolfe, middle and upper school visual arts, Visiting Artist Coordinator, Art Department Chair, The Colorado Springs School, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Commercial Art Expertise

  • Lourn Eidal, Assistant Art Director, Crystal Peak Design, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  • Susanne Arens, President, Crystal Peak Design and Art Director, photographer, fine artist, college instructor, Executive Director of the Pikes Peak Studio Tour, Springs Recovery Connection board member, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

About Firefly Aerospace

Firefly is developing a family of launch vehicles to provide industry-leading affordability, convenience and reliability for dedicated light to medium lift launches. Firefly’s Alpha and Beta vehicles utilize common technologies, manufacturing infrastructure and launch capabilities, providing LEO launch solutions for up to one and four metric tons of payload respectively. Alpha and Beta will provide the space industry with access to frequent launches at the lowest cost/kg, enabling ambitious commercial and exploration missions from LEO to the Moon. Headquartered in Cedar Park, Tex., Firefly has additional presence in Washington, D.C., Dnipro, Ukraine, and Tokyo, Japan. Firefly is financed by Noosphere Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif. Learn more by visiting fireflyspace.com.

About the Space Foundation
Founded in 1983, the Space Foundation is a 501(c)(3) and the world’s premier organization to inspire, educate, connect, and advocate on behalf of the global space community. It is a nonprofit leader in space awareness activities, educational programs, and major industry events, including the annual Space Symposium. Space Foundation headquarters is in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, and has a public Discovery Center, including El Pomar Space Gallery, Northrop Grumman Science Center featuring Science On a Sphere® and the Lockheed Martin Space Education Center. The Space Foundation has a Washington, D.C., office and field representatives in Houston and the Florida Space Coast. It publishes The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity, and through its Space CertificationTM and Space Technology Hall of Fame® programs, recognizes space-based innovations that have been adapted to improve life on Earth. Visit both of our websites www.SpaceFoundation.org and DiscoverSpace.org – and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.