Jack Kennedy reports on the first Estonian satellite,the ESTCube-1, which was built by students to test the electric solar wind sail concept (e-Sail) developed by Pekka Janhunen of Finland : ESTCube-1 to test novel propulsion method – Spaceports blog(See earlier report here.)
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.
Spacevidcast posts the latest live episode, which included guest Andrew Nelson from XCOR Aerospace who talked about the tests of their piston rocket engine, the Lynx suborbital spaceplane and other topics: XCOR’s new Piston Rocket Engine – 6.09 – Spacevidcast
The Estonian Student Satellite ESTCube-1 will test a new type of conducting space tether to test the electric solar wind sail concept (e-Sail) developed by Pekka Janhunen of Finland: The European Space Agency Has Made A Snap-Proof Super-Thin Space Tether – Popular Science
John Hare considers the capability of a monster (in more ways than one) rocket that combines a stretched SpaceX Falcon 9 with Shuttle solid rocket boosters to put about 140 tons into orbit: SFalconLS – Selenian Boondocks.
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Chuck Lesher notes that Navy railgun development has reached a level of capability already sufficient to hurl small amounts of material from the Moon at escape velocities: Is the US Navy Preparing to Conquer Space? – Moonandback
Even at this early stage, the railgun is already capable of launching a 23 pound payload off the surface of the moon. We have our mass driver but getting it operational on the moon along with all the support needed to supply it with payloads… well, solving that problem must wait for another blog entry.
