Monthly Archives: February 2013

Education, Space Models

A new ISS on board the ISS

Another space station orbited the earth recently:

It took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build the International Space Station (ISS). Satoshi Furukawa, an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours — and he did it all while aboard the orbiting outpost itself.

It helped that his space station was made out of LEGO.

LEGO_ISS_on_ISS_425x307

More LEGOs in space at LEGOspace.com.

See also the HobbySpace Modeling section.

Activism

Spacevidcast 6.06: Google Lunar X-PRIZE

The latest live Spacevidcast show is now online: Spacevidcast Live with the Google Lunar X-PRIZE – 6.06.

Caption:

Guests Leo Camacho and Nathan Wong join us to talk about the Google Lunar X-PRIZE, where the teams all stand and what the prize could mean for the future of lunar flight!

The full notes for this episode can be found on our wiki page here: http://wiki.spacevidcast.com/en/6.06

And don’t forget that the conversation continues in Spacevidcast After Dark. You can get access to After Dark by signing up for Spacevidcast Epic: http://www.spacevidcast.com/epic – Your subscription helps us continue to create awesome content.

DIY space, Rockets

Copenhagen Suborbitals: Update on launch escape system, model tests

Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals reports on the latest work with the Tycho Deep Space II capsule development: Launch Escape System and Scaled Model Testing – Wired Science/Wired.com 

Also,

Tomorrow, Monday 25, at 10AM EST / 10PM Copenhagen time I will be doing another Reddit Ask Me Anything session, together with Cameron Smith. The topics is space suit, life support and general human factors related to capsule and suit work at Copenhagen Suborbitals. Stay tuned for link!

Amateur/Student Satellite, Astronomy, Space Systems

Canadian asteroid finder to be launched on Monday

On Monday at 1226 GMT (7:26 a.m. EST), or 5:56 p.m. local time, India will launch six satellites on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The PSLV will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, which is India’s main launch site.

Included in the batch of satellites is the Canadian NEOSSat spacecraft, which has a small telescope that will be used to find Atira class asteroids, which orbit the sun entirely within the earth’s orbit: Asteroid Hunter: An Interview with NEOSSat Scientist Alan Hildebrand – Space.com.

NEOSSat will also scan for satellites and debris circling the earth.

NEOSSat was built by MSCI (Microsat  Systems Canada, Inc), which previously built the MOST (The Microviability and Oscillation of Stars) microsatellite, a low cost spacecraft that is still in operation several years past its originally planned lifespan.

Here are two Canadian Space Agency videos about NEOSSat:

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space Radio

AMSAT and ISS amateur radio news

1 Comment

Go to AMSAT News for the latest headlines about developments in amateur and student satellites and for updates about amateur radio on the ISS.

ANS 055 Weekly AMSAT Bulletin – February 24, 2013:
* STRaND-1 Launch Information
* AMSAT and Virginia Tech Sign Collaboration Agreement
* Upcoming ARISS Contacts
* AMSAT-DC Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations
* US Airforce Upgrades SpaceTrack Website For Keplarian Orbital Data
* Mission to Mars Announcement Expected