DailyDirt: Spaceplanes 2.0

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Space Shuttle was a cool idea, but it never accomplished the goal of providing a relatively low-cost route to space. The concept of reusable space ships is still attractive, but it really depends on how much it takes to refurbish them before they attempt another launch. A few different organizations are already testing some reusable space vehicles (and Boeing has its X-37B that's orbiting somewhere above us right now). Here are just a few more spaceplanes that might join the new reusable space race.

• The EU has its Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) robotic space plane that was tested last year. The IXV is scheduled to fly another test in 2019, and it might be operating by the time Elon Musk is on Mars.
• DARPA's XS-1 spaceplane project has a goal of flying 10 times in 10 days and putting a few tons of satellite payload into space -- for less than $5 million per flight. That's a pretty ambitious plan, especially if it's supposed to start testing by 2019 (and they're still narrowing down the technology).
• The Skylon concept spaceplane is a single-stage-to-orbit dream. It might not be hard to explain how it could work, but it'll sure be difficult to actually build a working prototype.

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Filed Under: intermediate experimental vehicle, ixv, re-usable rockets, single stage to orbit, skylon, space, space exploration, spacecraft, spaceplane, x-37b, xs-1
Companies: boeing, darpa, nasa

DailyDirt: 3, 2, 1... Liftoff

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Re-usable spacecraft sound like a good idea -- if they actually saved any costs and refurbishing them was economical. There are only a few examples of re-usable space vehicles so far, and NASA retired its space shuttle program in 2011, narrowing the field a bit. SpaceX seems to be getting closer to demonstrating a re-usable rocket system, but it still needs to re-launch one of its rockets (and it currently only has one rocket for such an attempt).

• India has an incredibly frugal space program which has just launched a mini reusable shuttle called the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV-TD). This shuttle was developed for about $14 million and looks like a smaller X-37B, but it has a lot more testing to undergo before performing the same kind of tricks. [url]
• SpaceX's latest rocket to successfully land may not be able to be re-used because it sustained "max damage" from its re-entry path. Still, this rocket stage will provide plenty of data to benchmark future re-usable rocket stages -- or perhaps inspire modifications that could make the journey less damaging. [url]
• NASA is working on high altitude balloons to study the upper atmosphere. Okay, this isn't exactly space, but NASA could also get a telescope to fly above a lot of atmosphere for a few months (or longer?) -- and that would be a lot cheaper than a satellite. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: balloons, re-usable rockets, rockets, spacecraft, suborbital, x-37b
Companies: boeing, nasa, spacex

DailyDirt: Looking Forward To More Space Exploration

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We've seen space travel getting cheaper over time, but it's still pretty expensive to get a person into low earth orbit. Some billionaires are optimistic that space travel will be accessible to more than just astronauts and other billionaires, and we're seeing some progress. Reusable rockets and more affordable space stations could lead to some pretty cool space-based vacations -- if you remember to bring your SPF infinity sunblock.

• SpaceX has successfully landed one of its rockets on a barge at sea. This is only the second time the company has been able to land a rocket safely, but it shows that it can be done. The next step is actually reusing one of these rockets (for less than the cost of building a new one). [url]
• The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is going to be added to the International Space Station, and this inflatable habitat might point the way towards cheaper space stations. There are only a few ways to build space stations: launch large spaceworthy structures into orbit (say, in the bay of a space shuttle or actually on top of a rocket), bring up the pieces and put them together in space, or some combination of pre-fab structures and in-space construction. Inflatable space stations make it slightly easier to construct large structures in space -- and we'll see how spaceworthy they are. [url]
• A metal composite foam material might be lightweight and strong enough to protect people from dangerous radiation -- AND bullets, too. These materials can block X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation better (compared to bulk metals of the same weight), but they're not ready for trips to Mars just yet. [url]

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Filed Under: bigelow expandable activity module, falcon 9, iss, manned missions, re-usable rockets, rockets, space exploration
Companies: bigelow aerospace, nasa, spacex

DailyDirt: Actually Getting People Into Space...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are only a handful of vehicles that have launched people into space (or even just provided shelter) for space-faring people. A few more ships and space stations would be nice to see, and there are a few in various stages development (unfunded proposals, ahem). If you're interested in people (not just robots) exploring outer space, here are just a few links on some of the ships that might transport more folks to at least the edge of space.

• Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight company just launched and landed a rocket -- again -- and this particular rocket was actually re-used. This accomplishment is still not quite on par with SpaceX's feat, but it's a solid step towards cheaper spaceflight for human passengers. [url]
• Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft has a NASA contract to become yet another backup way to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The lifting body design of the Dream Chaser can be traced back to Soviet-era experimental space planes -- and maybe someday we'll see this vehicle transporting astronauts. [url]
• Perhaps you've seen comparisons of the sizes of various fictional spaceships (eg. NCC-1701 vs. Firefly class transport ship), but a size comparison of actual (or proposed) space vessels compared to the International Space Station is pretty cool. All the real spacecraft (and even the ones that are still very much in development, like Skylon) are much smaller than the original Starship Enterprise, but the ISS is probably a bit more sprawling than you might think. Oh, and if you haven't seen the size comparisons of fictional ships, check it out. [url]

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Filed Under: dream chaser, elon musk, jeff bezos, lifting body, manned missions, re-usable rockets, rockets, space, space exploration, spacecraft, suborbital
Companies: blue origin, nasa, sierra nevada, spacex

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: Who Wants To Go To Space?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Reusable rocket technology has been a 'holy grail' of sorts for space exploration. Building reusable components is supposed to make space travel more affordable, but the Space Shuttle is the prime example of how that's not necessarily true, as it cost over an order of magnitude more than originally planned. Still, it should be possible to make reusable rockets that are cheaper to operate, and some private companies are figuring out how to do it. SpaceX hasn't quite gotten reusable rockets perfected yet (though, it has done it more than a few times with its Grasshopper vehicle). And depending on how you define a "rocket" -- Virgin Galactic & Scaled Composites have also developed reusable space vehicles.

• Blue Origin has successfully landed a rocket after it launched to a suborbital altitude. Elon Musk rightly points out that this isn't exactly the first time a suborbital rocket has landed in reusable condition, but it's still nice to see rocket technology improving and getting cheaper to operate. [url]
• Jeff Bezos is moving his space company to Florida to build and launch its rockets near NASA's government facilities -- the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Blue Origin will be making its rocket engines in the good ol' USA, and its BE-3 engine is the one that will be reusable. (note: The BE-3 isn't as powerful as Blue Origin's BE-4 engine which is more comparable to SpaceX's reusable rocket.) [url]
• Lots of people credit Jules Verne for inspiring spaceflight, but the first proposal of rocket-based spaceflight actually comes from Canadian William Leitch in 1861. Leitch's paper was written 4 years before Verne's book "From the Earth to the Moon" -- and decades before plausible rocket-powered space plans from Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and American Robert Goddard were written. But does it matter who thought of something first, or who actually executes it? [url]

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Filed Under: elon musk, grasshopper, jeff bezos, jules verne, kennedy space center, konstantin tsiolkovsky, new shepard, re-usable rockets, robert goddard, rockets, space, space exploration, suborbital, william leitch
Companies: blue origin, nasa, spacex

DailyDirt: It *IS* Rocket Science, Actually...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Getting stuff into space is difficult. There are a bunch of different rockets that have been used over the last few decades, but the odds of a launch failure isn't quite zero yet. A few companies are making cheaper launch systems, but a perfect track record is hard to maintain over more than a handful of launches. Perhaps that's why sentient robots in the movies never think about leaving the Earth behind.

• SpaceX's recent Falcon 9 failure is a huge setback for SpaceX -- because the exact problem hasn't been identified yet. This incident will delay future launches until the cause of the explosion can be reasonably explained. [url]
• NASA's development of its Space Launch System (SLS) is going through its own delays, as reviewing committees are concerned that NASA is wasting $150 million on an interim rocket stage that will not be used again -- instead of putting that money towards a more powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Building an unmanned rocket stage that will need to be replaced someday by a stage that is rated for a crew doesn't seem to be a great use of limited NASA funding, but lacking the full funding to directly build an astronaut-friendly, Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) vehicle forces NASA to create interim test stages. Our tax dollars at work.... [url]
• Three failed resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) have occurred over the last 8 months. Orbital Sciences is shifting away from using 1960s-era Soviet rocket engines that were probably the cause of its launch failure last October. In May, a Russian re-supply mission put its cargo in the wrong orbit. And SpaceX's investigations are ongoing for its recent Falcon 9 explosion. There are actually a few other options for getting supplies to the ISS, and Orbital Sciences will be employing alternative launch systems to fulfill its contract while it works on its replacement engines. [url]
• The idea of using reusable rockets isn't unique to SpaceX. Blue Origin's New Shepard is being tested for its re-usability. The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has plans for a reusable Vulcan rocket that is recovered by helicopter. Airbus has also unveiled its reusable Adeline design which could start test launches in 2025. [url]

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Filed Under: adeline, beo, eus, falcon 9, iss, new shepard, re-usable rockets, rocket technology, rockets, sls, space, space exploration, vulcan
Companies: airbus, blue origins, nasa, orbital sciences, spacex, ula

DailyDirt: More Economical Ways Into Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The affordability of putting things into space is very gradually getting better all the time, and someday cheap launches will enable some pretty cool stuff. Rockets are still expensive (and dangerous), but there's more competition than ever before -- and the prices are coming down. Here are just a few links on cheaper ways to get off our planet.

• The trajectory that most people think of for getting to Mars is the Hohmann transfer approach -- where you aim your rocket at where the planet is going to be and you have limited windows of time for optimal launching. A ballistic capture approach could be cheaper by aiming a rocket in front of Mars and waiting for the planet to catch up (avoiding the Hohmann method's retrorockets to slow down upon approach). It's a slower trip, but it could be practical for unmanned payloads and re-supply missions to the red planet someday. [url]
• SpaceX is almost ready to test its reusable rockets. The plan is to launch a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to get an unmanned Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, then the rocket will safely (and softly) land on a floating platform so that it can be cheaply refurbished for another mission. [url]
• The EU is trying to compete with lower cost launch systems with a next generation of Ariane rockets. A proposed Ariane 6 will have more flexible capabilities, including heavier payload capacity, and do so for (up to) 50% less in the costs. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: ariane 6, ballistic capture, hohmann transfer, international space station, iss, mars, re-usable rockets, retrorockets, rockets, space, space exploration
Companies: spacex

DailyDirt: Abandoned Space Vehicles

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The space race created a lot of ambitious plans and designs for spaceships that never actually made it into space. While we're entering a new era of a space race, which includes commercial ventures and fragile alliances with certain countries, it's fascinating to look back at some government-funded projects that could have been taken to the next step. Would anyone even consider nuclear-bomb propulsion systems today? Here are just a few plans to ship people to the moon or Mars (or farther!) that are just gathering dust.

• Pictures of a secret Soviet lunar lander from the Moscow Aviation Institute shows an unsuccessful program to put a man on the moon. An orbit module and a landing module were constructed that look superficially similar to Apollo spacecraft, but only one cosmonaut would travel in this vehicle. [url]
• In the early 1970s, NASA had plans for a Reusable Nuclear Shuttle (RNS) that could travel back and forth to the moon. This nuclear-powered shuttle would never land on Earth, and if you approached it from the wrong side, you might get a fatal dose of radiation. [url]
• Project Orion was an ambitious plan to build a spaceship the size of an ocean liner and send it to Mars (and beyond)... using atomic bombs as propulsion. The Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 made it difficult for any practical work to continue on this kind of spacecraft design. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: apollo, lunar lander, manned missions, moscow aviation institute, project orion, re-usable rockets, reusable nuclear shuttle, space exploration
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Rockets In Small, Medium And Large

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Getting into space doesn't seem like a big deal anymore, especially since there have been so many space missions and even amateur projects that have reached the edge of space. But buying a ticket on Virgin Galactic isn't quite affordable, and the edge of space isn't really the same as going to Mars. Still, it's cool to see more rockets shooting off towards the heavens.

• NASA introduced its next generation rocket design for manned space exploration that's expected to take off sometime around 2017-2021. Senator Bill Nelson called it a "monster rocket" -- and we'll see if a certain cabling company sues over that nickname. [url]
• The Spaceship Company is an appropriately-named joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites that will manufacture suborbital spaceships in California. And the company has opened the world's first facility dedicated to producing private, commercial manned space vehicles. [url]
• A Carmack Prize entry released a video of a relatively small rocket reaching 121,000 feet in about 92 seconds. Maybe there will be a credit card company space race someday.... [url]
• To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: carmack prize, manned missions, re-usable rockets, rockets, space exploration, spaceships
Companies: citi, nasa, scaled composites, spaceship factory, virgin galactic