DailyDirt: Making A Trip To Mars

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been decades since a human being has traveled beyond low earth orbit. Last year, NASA tested its human-rated Space Launch System to an altitude of 3,600 miles, but getting people to a "human accessible surface" that isn't part of the earth is going to take some time. China could have a taikonaut on the moon before 2030. NASA can say it's "been there, done that" -- but when will it be able to top a manned lunar landing?

• NASA is working on its (potentially Mars-bound) spacecraft, Orion -- to get astronauts deeper into space. At the same time, NASA is also developing its Space Launch System (SLS) that will get Orion beyond low earth orbit, and if everything goes as planned the first manned crews will be taking off in 2023. [url]
• It might make sense to create a moon base as a pit stop before launching manned missions to more distant locations like Mars. If we can mine the moon for resources, that could reduce the expense of sending everything from the earth. However, it'll take a bit longer to figure out how to process and manufacture anything on the moon, especially if it's going to be done autonomously somehow. [url]
• NASA's 2013 class of astronauts are being trained to possibly go to Mars. There are only 8 of these astronauts (and 4 of them are women), and presumably, their training on vomit comets will be pretty intense. [url]
• Making a trip to Mars in the near future is going to be expensive and probably controversial. Arguably, billions of dollars could be better spent to solve problems on Earth, and Mars is going to be around for quite some time. Still, it doesn't hurt to make some goals and try to scope out potential landing sites on the red planet, does it? [url]

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Filed Under: astronauts, human accessible surface, leo, lunar base, manned missions, mars, moon, orion, sls, space, space exploration, space race, taikonauts, vomit comet
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Space Tourism vs Working In Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Even though there are less than a handful of ways for people to get into space right now, there may be a few more options in the near future to get close to space or into low earth orbit. If you have the resources, you could just book a seat on a Soyuz for $20-70 million. But for a bit less, you can book a trip on various vehicles without a decades-long track record. Or... you could be paid to be an astronaut if you have the skills, but the odds of getting selected are pretty slim.

• Virgin Galactic has built a replacement for its SpaceShipTwo vehicle that was destroyed in a fatal accident. The new VSS Unity incorporates a few more automated safety features and uses a different rocket fuel -- and may someday take dozens (hundreds?) of passengers to the edge of space as tourists. [url]
• Over 18,000 people have applied to become an astronaut for NASA -- in order to be named one of the 8 to 14 new astronauts in 2017. It's never been easy to be selected as an astronaut, but this is apparently the highest number of applications that NASA has received (even when NASA still operated a vehicle that could take people into space). [url]
• World View Enterprises is another step closer to building its own "spaceport" in Arizona. Spaceport Tuscon would launch World View's high altitude balloons to about 100,000 feet up in pressurized cabins. FYI, World View owns the tech that helped ex-Google VP Alan Eustace make a record-breaking skydive from an altitude of 135,908 feet. [url]

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Filed Under: astronauts, leo, manned missions, soyuz, space, space exploration, space tourism, spaceport, spaceport tuscon, spaceshiptwo, vss unity
Companies: nasa, virgin galactic, world view enterprises

DailyDirt: Government Space Programs On Shoestring Budgets

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

A renewed interest in space technology is growing with re-usable rockets and more private companies getting into the space business. Rocket science is generally a pretty expensive and risky venture because there are just so many things that could go wrong. Still, there are a few space agencies accomplishing significant space missions on relatively small budgets, and we should probably expect amateur space programs to get better and better as the costs to get to space come down.

• In Ghana, the All Nations University College (ANUC) is developing a fledgling space program with plans to send a cubesat into orbit by 2018. The University of Natural Resources and Energy in Ghana is planning to launch a weather satellite in September 2016, and the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) has other ambitious plans to send a satellite into space by 2020, too. While Ghana's economy is still mostly dependent on agriculture, these space programs could help farmers and the government plan better and help to preserve the nation's environment. [url]
• Russia is working with countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran on joint space programs for peaceful exploration. Roscosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency) is helping these countries train their own cosmonauts and build satellites, presumably in exchange for funding that the Russian space agency might need to continue building its own independent space station by 2023. [url]
• India's Mars Orbiter Mission was an impressive success in 2014 -- achieved with a fraction of the budget of other Mars missions. India put an artificial satellite named Mangalyaan in orbit around Mars for just $74 million -- less than the cost to make the fictional movie Gravity (and less than India receives in foreign aid from the UK). The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is only the 4th space agency behind the US, Russia and the EU to have completed a successful Mars space mission, and the entire mission took less than a year to execute from approval to launch. [url]

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Filed Under: all nations university college, ghana space science and technology institute, indian space research organization, isro, mangalyaan, mars, mars orbiter mission, roscosmos, satellites, space, space exploration

DailyDirt: If People Were Meant To Fly In Space...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

When the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, the US launched a satellite and put together its own space agency less than a year later. In the past week, NASA has commemorated the loss of its astronauts in the Challenger and Columbia disasters, as well as the men who died in Apollo 1. There's a new generation of kids who have only seen SpaceX and Soyuz take stuff into low earth orbit (plus maybe a successful Orion test) -- and a few other private companies reaching the edge of space. Robots have been doing an excellent job of exploring mars and other destinations in our solar system, but we shouldn't forget about manned space exploration entirely.

• The Columbia space shuttle disaster might have been averted with a second space shuttle launch to dock with it and rescue the astronauts. A rescue mission would have involved a complex space walk and several unknown risks, but plans were drawn up -- and that's why subsequent shuttle launches had a second shuttle on standby. (But the rescuing shuttle would still have the same problem of a potentially damaged wing, too...) [url]
• The Challenger explosion was predicted by a handful of NASA engineers who argued against launching the shuttle because they had data that indicated the o-rings wouldn't seal properly under the cold weather conditions. Bob Ebeling still blames himself, but hindsight is always clearer -- and it wasn't Ebeling's decision to launch. [url]
• NASA has lost 24 pilots and astronauts in space launches and test flights. Manned space exploration is still a NASA priority, and spaceflight will always be an inherently risky venture -- especially as it pushes technology to ever more distant places. [url]

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Filed Under: apollo, bob ebeling, manned missions, mars, soyez, space, space exploration, space shuttle
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine...

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If you're young enough, you were only taught about the eight planets in our solar system -- and possibly that there was a mysterious 'Planet X' or planet Tyche beyond Neptune. More recently, there's a new ninth planet proposal from the same folks who re-named Pluto as a dwarf planet. Check out these links on Pluto and this new ninth planet that might redefine the outer edge of our solar system.

• Twisting the knife into Pluto, Michael Brown and his fellow Caltech astronomer Konstantin Batygin have proposed a ninth planet in our solar system -- that's about the same size as Neptune but with an orbit so large that it would take roughly 15,000 earth-years to complete its own journey around the sun. What does Brown have against Pluto? Dwarf planets are still cute, I suppose. [url]
• Pluto was discovered in 1930, and at the time, it was mistakenly thought to be about the same size as the Earth. Further measurements revealed that Pluto is actually about 0.2% as massive as the Earth -- and that similarly-sized bodies in space called 'trans-Neptunian objects' (TNOs) also existed in our solar system. Since the discovery of TNO Eris in 2005 meant that Pluto was less planet-like than previously thought, these larger TNOs were named dwarf planets -- and Pluto was demoted. (And Pluto still hasn't even finished its 248-year-long orbit around the sun since it was discovered as a 'planet'... before it was re-classified as not a planet.) [url]
• Despite its dwarf planet status, Pluto has five moons of its own. Seriously. Five. Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra are the names of Pluto's satellites, and Charon is about half the size of Pluto -- which had some astronomers proposing to call Pluto a binary planet or double planet (binary dwarf planet?). [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, binary planet, charon, dwarf planet, eris, hydra, kerberos, konstantin batygin, michael brown, ninth planet, nix, planet x, pluto, solar system, space, space exploration, styx, tno, trans-neptunian object, tyche

DailyDirt: Can't Get Enough Of The Moon...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been a while since Apollo 17. Getting to Mars sounds like a worthy follow-up mission, but just figuring out how to live inside a metal tube for longer than a year outside of low Earth orbit is also a pretty challenging project. NASA hasn't been very focused on going back to the moon recently, but that could change depending on who becomes the next US president. But in the meantime, here are a few other efforts working on missions to get to the moon.

• The Part Time Scientists team is working on a lunar rover with funding from Audi -- and this project might be able to get a few million bucks from Google and the X Prize foundation someday. The Google Lunar X Prize requirements are looking for a private team to soft-land a robot on the moon, have that robot travel 500 meters on the surface and send back some high-def video and photos. Only a couple of teams (and the Part Time Scientists isn't one of them) have already secured launch contracts to get to the moon, but these German space geeks have their own ambitious plans to go to the moon and do some cool stuff -- without needing to win the X Prize. (And it's not a crazy space conspiracy.) [url]
• So far, only NASA has sent people to the moon, but it's not the only space program to go to our largest natural satellite. We know ice exists on the moon, and some private space companies could mine the moon for its resources to extend other space exploration missions. [url]
• SinterHab is a proposal to turn lunar dust into a moonbase by melting the metals in the moon's 'topsoil' to create ceramic building materials. A robot could potentially build a moonbase structure without transporting heavy materials to the moon, so it could be made relatively cheaply. [url]

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Filed Under: 3d printing, apollo, google lunar x prize, lunar rover, moon, moonbase, part time scientists, sinterhab, space, space exploration
Companies: audi, google, nasa

DailyDirt: Getting Back Into Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Despite a few mishaps with rockets headed for the International Space Station (eg. SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and the Russian space agency all failed to deliver re-supply cargo ships), there have also been some interesting space-faring developments in the last year or so. Fortunately, none of the lost spacecraft were manned missions, and the ISS also has the Japanese HTV as another backup cargo ship. And with SpaceX's awesome recovery with a successful launch, it looks like re-supply missions are getting back on track -- so the ISS will probably keep going until at least 2020 (and maybe a few years more? 2024? 2028?).

• The International Space Station has been re-supplied using the Cygnus spacecraft from Orbital Sciences -- on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. Orbital Sciences is still working out the bugs for its Antares rocket, but it's looking to restart Antares launches in 2016. [url]
• NASA has a contract with SpaceX for a manned mission to the ISS. With SpaceX getting its re-usable rockets into operation, trips to the International Space Station could get significantly cheaper, but obviously SpaceX has to prove its re-usable rockets are really re-usable (by re-launching one, not just saying it's possible). [url]
• Another private space company, Intuitive Machines, could provide "next day" shipping to the ISS with its Terrestrial Return Vehicle (TRV). Optimistically, this spacecraft could even provide "same day" delivery to the space station if everything works exactly as planned. This spacecraft is much smaller than other cargo ships that can dock with the space station, but it could be useful for time-sensitive supplies and experiments. [url]

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Filed Under: antares, atlas 5, cygnus, htv, international space station, iss, manned missions, rockets, space, space exploration, trv
Companies: intuitive machines, nasa, orbital sciences, spacex, united launch alliance

DailyDirt: Space Is Cool Again! Yay!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Maybe you haven't seen the latest Star Wars film yet, but it's pretty hard to avoid hearing about it. Recently, there have been some more "realistic" space movies out (eg. Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian), but there's also plenty of actual space stories to watch, too. In the past year or so, we've seen some spectacular rocket failures, but thankfully, we're closing out 2015 with some successful accomplishments -- and plans for more sequels.

• SpaceX just landed its reusable 1st stage rocket -- which is a remarkable come-back from losing a payload only a few months ago. However, this particular rocket will be studied and tested for its integrity, and it probably won't ever fly again. [url]
• New Zealand is getting its first rocket launch site, and it will start launches in mid-2016 on the Mahia Peninsula. This spaceport will be able to launch once a month, and it already has a booked schedule through 2018. (Hat-tip to Lawrence D'Oliveiro) [url]
• China's lunar rover, Yutu, was operational for well beyond its original 3-month mission, and it has provided geological data from the moon that show the moon's composition is much more diverse than previous samples suggested. The lunar surface may soon get some additional company from a private lunar lander sometime in 2017, sent by SpaceIL on a Falcon 9 rocket. [url]

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Filed Under: falcon 9, lunar rover, re-usable rockets, rocket, space, space exploration, spaceport, yutu
Companies: spaceil, spacex

DailyDirt: Putting People In Space Again

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The goal of launching people into space is difficult to really justify. Robots can do just about all of the same tasks a human astronaut can, and if robots can't, maybe we should work on building better robots. Still, manned missions to explore space are a really long term project that could lead to lunar space stations -- or small colonies on the moon or Mars. And if we ever want to expand beyond the Earth, we'll have to figure out how to travel in space for more than a few days at a time without the Earth's protection.

• NASA could get a significant funding boost for 2016 -- $19.3 billion to accelerate its efforts to get astronauts into space, along all the other things NASA does. NASA will still need to rely on Soyuz missions to get astronauts to the ISS for a few more years, but with a bigger budget, NASA could keep its Orion crew capsule on schedule for 2021. [url]
• Do you have the "right stuff" to be an astronaut for NASA? The government is accepting applications now, but if you're not a test pilot of some kind, you're going to need to have some serious science skills (and not be too tall/short or unfit). [url]
• Space suits are getting re-designed to walk in space and on Mars. The prototype suits are still bulky and protective, but they're probably a bit more comfortable on the inside for longer excursions. [url]
• In the 1960s, being an astronaut had a bit more propaganda surrounding the job. The sheen has worn off over the years, but it's still a noble profession. People are literally risking their lives to learn a bit more about space and how to live in it, and hopefully, we won't be watching dramatic reality shows featuring astronauts any time soon. [url]

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Filed Under: astronaut, international space station, iss, manned missions, orion capsule, space, space exploration, space suit
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Not Living Off The Land Anymore

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's not always easy to nurture plants so they grow and thrive, but it's especially difficult without land -- and gravity. Farming in space isn't exactly a common activity, but if any significant number of people are going to live in space for longer than a few months (without re-supply cargo ships or huge stores of packaged food), astronauts are going to need to figure out how to grow their meals. Space station residents have only just started to eat plants they've grown in space, so it'll be awhile before anyone is growing potatoes on Mars.

• Not too long ago, astronauts on the International Space Station ate vegetables grown in space for the first time. A greenhouse for growing plants has existed on the ISS since 2002, but no one on board ate the experiments before. It's far from a sustainable habitat up there, obviously, but we haven't exactly perfected sustainable farming techniques on the ground, either. [url]
• The very first space-grown vegetables were aboard the Mir space station in 1990, producing fresh radishes and Chinese cabbage. The first time plants were grown from seeds that were produced by parent plants that were also grown in space happened in 1997. A complete lifecycle (seed to seed) for growing plants in space isn't as easy as just adding water and setting up some lights. Microgravity and a variety of environmental conditions make it difficult for some plants to propagate. [url]
• The 'Seeds in Space' program allowed thousands of students to witness the differences of growing plants in space versus growing them on Earth. The kids observed how plants (rocket lettuce) grew in all directions both in micro-gravity and without a light source. [url]

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Filed Under: astronaut, farming, food, iss, mars, micro-gravity, mir, seeds in space, space, space exploration, space station
Companies: nasa