* First picture from ESTCube-1 ham radio CubeSat
* NEE-01 Pegasus 910 MHz TV Camera in Action
* Ecuador Pegasus CubeSat fears over space debris crash
* Argentinian CubeSat CubeBug-1 was also hit by space debris.
* NASA History Program Office Fall 2013 Internships
* Registration for the 5th European CubeSat Symposium (3-5 June 2013)
* NASA Seeks Academic Partners for SmallSat Technology Collaboration
* Satellite Applications Catapult Hackathon
* Amateur Radio Satellites for Emergency Communications
* NASA looking for far-out ideas
* Update: Museum Ships Weekend Special Event Station KK5W Satellite Operations
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
Project Morpheus test fired their new lander vehicle today while it was on a tether:
This is the first tether test of the v1.5b Morpheus vehicle. We had a good ignition and climb. However, as the vehicle attempted to stabilize itself it exceeded the internally set boundary limit causing a soft abort.
In this ground-breaking anthology James Benford and Gregory Benford combine their talents and celebrated intellects to bring together top scientific leaders and top science fiction writers—all focused on getting us (humans) to the next chapter in space travel, interstellar flight.
This week the Starship Century Symposium 2013 was held at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the UC San Diego. Speakers included scientists and engineers Freeman Dyson, Paul Davies, Peter Schwartz, John Cramer and Robert Zubrin and science fiction authors Neal Stephenson, Allen Steele, Joe Haldeman, Gregory Benford, Geoffrey Landis and David Brin.
Here are two reports on the talks and discussions:
Steve Squires points out an obvious problem with SLS safety that NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) refuses to address:
Another concern Squyres stressed is the low flight rate for the Space Launch System (SLS). “I’m deeply worried,” he told Edwards, because no other human spaceflight system has had such a low anticipated launch rate. The first SLS launch is expected in 2017, the second in 2021, and then once every two years thereafter. SLS and the Orion spacecraft need to be adequately funded “to be proven out on a pace that really supports … a safe pathway” to cis-lunar space, Squyres insisted. Cooke agreed. The flight rate is driven “totally” by funding, he said, and “they definitely need more funding … starting with inflation.” NASA’s budget is currently projected to be flat, with no adjustment for inflation, which erodes buying power as the years pass.
ASAP members have repeatedly questioned the safety of commercial rockets despite the fact that the Atlas V and Falcon 9 will have flown dozens of times before crews are launched by them. The Falcon Dragon capsule will also have flown multiple times. Yet ASAP was willing to let NASA astronauts fly on the Ares I after a single test flight and is now willing to let them fly on the SLS after its one test flight.
The latest Planetary Society Hangout dealt with the topic, What’s going on with Planetary Science cuts?
Planetary Society Advocacy Coordinator Casey Dreier discusses the background and latest funding problems facing Planetary Science at NASA. Emily Lakdawalla joins him to talk about her visit to Washington, D.C. to talk about planetary missions.
Learn what the Planetary Society is doing to Save Our Science at NASA and promote planetary exploration. We talk about the background of planetary exploration and why funding for this great program is being taken away.
Chris Hadfield’s music communicates a broader, deeper expression of what spaceflight is like than the usual astronaut interview. Michael Belfiore highlights the need for more people with artistic talents to go to space and to use those talents to communicate to the public what it is like there: Chris Hadfield shows why we need the arts in space – Michael Belfiore
The Canadian based company General Fusion, which has gotten funding from a variety of sources including Jeff Bezos, seems to be making good progress with its innovative design for a fusion power system:
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.
In this video, NASA astronaut Mario Runco talks about some of the subtleties involved in taking photographs of the Earth from the International Space Station:
In the continuing serialization of the updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz. This week you can obtain the following chapters of the book:
The Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). There is particular relevance to NASA’s recently announced mission to find an asteroid by 2016 and then bring it to Cis-Lunar space, the technology concepts developed by the university teams for this competition conceivably could be used to mine resources on Asteroids as well as Mars. Robotic miners, just like these, will allow us to take samples at the returned Asteroid and give us valuable information to prepare for other deep space missions.
The challenge is for students to design and build a remote controlled or autonomous excavator that can collect and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of regolith simulant (aggregate) within 10 minutes. Regolith exists not only on Earth’s moon, but also on most planetary bodies such as Asteroids, Moons of Mars and Mars itself.
The complexities of the challenge include the abrasive characteristics of the simulant, the weight and size limitations of the robot, and the ability to control it from a remote control center. The scoring for the mining category will require teams to consider a number of design operation factors such as dust tolerance and projection, communications, vehicle mass, energy/power required, and full autonomy.
Here is a video in which the camera for the first half wanders around the event hall showing the student teams preparing their lunar mining robots for the contest. The second half shows the robots in the lunar simulant arena:
The Saturn V first stage engines recovered from ocean bottom by the Jeff Bezos F-1 Engine Recovery project will go on display this Friday at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center this week. Visitors will be able to watch restorers taking apart the engines for cleaning and coating with protective sealants. They will eventually be reassembled for exhibit.
_200x157.jpg){kind=tracking}
