Our vision is to enable extremely low-cost access to deep space. We are developing the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (CAT), a new rocket propulsion system powered by the Sun and propelled by water, which will push small spacecraft like CubeSats around and far beyond the Earth. New propulsion technologies can cost billions of dollars and take a decade to build and launch. CAT will be one of least expensive and most rapidly developed deep-space-capable systems ever built.
The project is based at the University of Michigan and led by Benjamin Longmier. Here was their fund raising video:
The European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory was put into space today by a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from the Arianespace facility in French Guiana. The goal of the mission:
Gaia will make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars.
NASA astronauts will make up to three spacewalks starting on Dec. 21st to fix a pump valve in the cooling system. The EVAs are complicated by the spacesuit leak that occurred during a spacewalk last July by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who came close to drowning in space.
Here are some details about the cooling system and the spacesuit issue:
During NASA Television press briefing from Johnson Space Center, agency managers discussed a series of planned spacewalks, Dec. 21, 23 and 25 by NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins to replace a faulty coolant pump on the International Space Station.
The pump is associated with one of the station’s two external cooling loops, which circulate ammonia outside the station to keep both internal and external equipment cool.
The previously planned Orbital Sciences commercial cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station has been postponed until no earlier than mid-January. The postponement will allow ample time for the station crew to focus on repairing the pump module, which stopped working properly on Dec. 11.
Today NASA’s Project Morpheus made its second free flight and its first horizontal translation. The vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) vehicle is modeled after Armadillo Aerospace‘s quad vehicles and the flight is similar to that carried out by teams in the X PRIZE Lunar Lander Challenge several years ago.
Caption:
The second free flight of a Morpheus prototype lander was conducted Dec. 17, 2013 at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 81-second test began at 1:37 p.m. EST with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending about 164 feet, pausing briefly at 82 feet. The lander then flew forward, covering about 154 feet in 30 seconds before descending and landing on a dedicated landing pad inside the autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology (ALHAT) hazard field. Morpheus landed within 3.5 inches of its target. Project Morpheus tests NASA automated landing and hazard avoidance technology and an engine that runs on liquid oxygen and methane, or “green” propellants. These new capabilities could be used in future efforts to deliver cargo to planetary surfaces. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/e….
When the Juno spacecraft recently did a fly-by of earth on its way to Jupiter, amateur radio enthusiasts were urged to try to contact Juno. This brief documentary video describes the successful project:
http://youtu.be/_yqHy_MpNiQ
Caption:
During its close flyby of Earth, NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft listened for a communication from amateur radio operators transmitting from locations around the world. This video clip depicts results, the “dits” and the “dahs,” of this high-flying social experiment.