JP Aerospace tests Ascender airship

June 18, 2015 TopSpacer

JP Aerospace, “America’s OTHER Space Program“, has been out flying their high altitude airships again, including an Ascender prototype:

* Ascender 26 Flies!

Sunday June 14th our 26 foot Ascender airship took to the sky in Northern Nevada. This vehicle is smaller than some of our other vehicles, but it is extremely important. It is a test bed for an entire new internal structure and new internal helium cell interface. It was intended to be a short hop to 1000 feet above the ground. However everything was going so well we let her run and flew to 2585 feet above the ground (6,708 feet above sea level. We had the combination inner cell fill volumes and balance off by about six ounces and we floated tail up about twenty degrees most of the way. It slowed the climb rate a bit but didn’t detract from an excellent flight.

The Ascender is a pretty complex system with four helium inner cells, servo control vents, an out envelope pressurization system, a carbon truss internal structure, full unlink command and tracking system and independent backup gas release systems. The real value of this test flight was learning to deploy this complex of a system in the field. We still have goose bumps on how great the flight went. This is the vehicle that paves the way for the next generation of Ascenders to come.

*Away 117 Reaches 95,874 feet (29222 meters) –

Away 117 was our 180th flight. The flight carried magnetohydrodynamic experiments for the ATO project, a PongSat from Singapore and a slot machine for Soboba Casino.

The flight was a great success. We have a challenging recovery operation. It took four hours of off road driving and a twelve hour hike/climb up and down a mountain but we got it back.

Asteroids & Comets, Space Science, Space Systems

More Ceres photos from Dawn

June 18, 2015 TopSpacer 1 Comment

A couple of cool pictures of the asteroid Ceres taken by the Dawn spacecraft:

* Catalog Page for PIA19573 – “This image, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, shows dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). The image, with a resolution of 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel, was taken on June 6, 2015.”

* Catalog Page for PIA19574 – “This image, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, shows dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). The image, with a resolution of 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel, was taken on June 6, 2015.”

Activism, Events, Space Science

Galaxy Forum USA 2015 – Santa Clara, CA, July 3rd

June 18, 2015 TopSpacer

Here’s an announcement of a Galaxy Forum event sponsored by Space Age Publishing:

Galaxy Forum USA 2015
Friday, July 3, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Embassy Suites Santa Clara, CA
The Consulate Room
Launch 4th of July Weekend

Welcome
Opening remarks by Steve Durst
Space Age Publishing Company /
International Lunar Observatory Association
Hawai’i & California

Apollo@50
Apollo at 50 years and a Multi World Species

Juno@Jupiter
Steven M. Levin, Ph.D., Juno Project Scientist
NASA – JPL

NewHorizons@Pluto
New Horizons Encounters Pluto July 14
PI Alan Stern Recorded Presentation from
Galaxy Forum New York City

SpaceAge/SPC@40
Space Age Publishing Company — 40 Years and Beyond

RSVP news@spaceagepub.com or 650-324-3705
info@iloa.org or 808-885-3474

Science and Technology

SciTech: Martin Jetpack moves towards production with four deals signed at Paris Airshow

June 18, 2015 TopSpacer

I’ve occasionally posted here over the years about the Martin Jetpack company in New Zealand. The company has grown from a garage project into a company now valued at around $250M on the NZ stock exchange. The Jetpack, which actually flies via gasoline engine driven twin ducted fans, will go on sale in 2016 starting with a focus on the emergency first responder market.

This week at the Paris Airshow, the company announced the signing of four different agreements:

The agreements include:

An agreement with Beijing Flying Man Science & Technology Ltd involves the parties working towards the future delivery of a Martin Aircraft package with an initial tranche of 100 manned Jetpacks, 50 unmanned Jetpacks, 25 static models and 25 simulators. It is noted that at this stage the agreement is a strategic co-operation agreement and any sales are dependent upon a successful supply agreement.
An agreement with Beijing Voyage Investment Ltd a subsidiary company of well-known Chinese-based AVIC International Holdings Ltd for the intended future delivery of manned and unmanned Jetpacks, simulators, and static models.
An alliance agreement with Czech Republic-based Martin Aircraft Company s.r.o. to establish a European sales centre for the Martin Jetpack.
An alliance agreement with New Delhi based M2K Group Ltd to establish a regional sales presents in commercially important India market.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by senior government representatives of New Zealand, China, India and the Czech Republic, along with the Chair of Martin Aircraft, Mr Jon Mayson, Chairman of KuangChi Science and Martin Aircraft Director Dr Ruopeng Liu, and Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of Martin Aircraft, Mr Peter Coker.

Here is a promotional video from the company highlighting the use of the Jetpack for emergency services:

And this video gives the story of how the company raised money and eventually had a successful IPO:

General, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

Videos: TMRO 8.18 – NASA and Crowd funding + Space Pods – Senate space, Flying saucers, Art satellites + Reusable rocket engines

June 17, 2015 TopSpacer

The latest TMRO.tv live program is in the archive: Should NASA be allowed to Crowd Fund projects? – TMRO –

TMRO Live Shows are crowd funded. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/tmro for information, goals and reward levels. Don’t forget to check out our daily SpacePod campaign as well over at http://www.patreon.com/spacepod

Speaking of Space Pods, here are some more recent ones:

* The Senate Puts the Hammer Down on Space Policy – Space Pod 06/02/15