A year long lunar fly-by mission might get started as early as April, 2007, according to Luan Enjie, commander-in-chief of China’s lunar exploration program. After a conference for leaders of that program, Luan spoke to reporters and when asked about a manned mission to the moon, he jokingly replied, “Sending a man to the Moon? It would be a one-way ticket if we do it now, given the thrust of our rockets at present is not strong enough.”
In the later part of an article on the English version of China View website, it was said that the satellite would orbit the moon collecting data.
This could be a combination of things; my layman’s misunderstanding of what “fly-by” means, or once again translation problems. To my way of thinking they are two different things.
The article mentions a program timetable of sorts for mile marker mission which include the first unmanned lunar landing mission in 2010 and a soil sample collecting mission scheduled around 2020.
Honoring a Chinese legend about a fairy-like creature called Chang’e who flies to the moon, this program is called Chang’e project and the first lunar orbiting satellite is named Chang’e-I.
There are times I wish I was able to read Chinese because it seems like every time they speak we get a different answer or at least a different translation of the same answer.
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Tuesday, December 27th the Washington Post printed an Op/Ed piece written by Paul Spudis.
Dr. Spudis a member of the Aldridge Commission on the Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy and staff member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory laid out Why We’re Going Back to the Moon.
He lists off most of the more important reasons for going and as such, they are probably very familiar to you as a reader of this blog. However that is not the point. The point is, they are not at all familiar to the typical reader of the Washington Post and that makes page A25 a nice podium to use for an outreach message.
Discuss this at the OotC forums
A Russian Progress freighter bearing Christmas gifts for the ISS crew docked on Friday at the International Space Station. Out of the Cradle has uncovered exclusive evidence of a massive NASA cover-up of a second, unpublicized docking that day. Transmissions aired on NASA TV during the Progress docking were altered in real time to conceal the presence of another vehicle approaching ISS at the same time.
Out of the Cradle has obtained a recording of the unedited transmissions, captured by a ham radio operator in Clear Lake. A transcript follows:
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The recovery of the Stardust’s tiny Apollo-like return capsule is
visualized in this artist’s concept. (Credit: NASA)
Taking nearly seven years to complete a 2.88 million mile round trip, the NASA probe Stardust will be coming home just after the holidays. A parachute landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City, the capsule will be bearing gifts.
Launched on a Delta II rocket back on February 7th of 1999, the Stardust vehicle is expected to touchdown in the early morning of January 15th, 2006 where depending on the weather it will either be greeted by helicopters or special off-road vehicles which will retrieve the capsule and to whisk it to the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, for initial processing.
So what is the precious cargo that Stardust carries back from its $168.4 million mission?
The Stardust spacecraft has circled the Sun a total of three times over seven years. On the way to its comet encounter, it collected interstellar dust on two different solar orbits. On Jan. 2, 2004, Stardust flew past the nucleus of comet Wild 2 at a distance of 240 kilometers (149 miles). During this close flyby, a special collector captured particles of the comet as the spacecraft flew through the coma, or cloud of dust and debris, surrounding Wild 2.
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The probe gathered the particles on the surface of what is being called “cometary catcher’s mitt.” The particle catcher is composed of a special silicon dioxide material designed to prevent radical alteration of the comet dust. Prior to the rendezvous with the comet, the backside of the catcher’s mitt was used to collect interstellar particles flowing through the solar system.
During the close encounter, onboard cameras captured some amazing images of the comet and other scientific instruments fed a wealth of data back to earth. But the return samples will be more than the icing on the cake — it will be a chance to examine what may truly be some of the building blocks of the solar system.
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The search for near-earth asteroids is about to get a big boost.
A group of telescopes using the world’s biggest digital cameras will soon start scanning the sky from the Hawaiian Islands, tracking down thousands of the smaller, dimmer and overlooked objects in the Sun’s neighborhood. The reason? Hunting for those dangerous space rocks that still elude detection.
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An article at Space.com introduces a new telescopic array that from its Hawaiian island location can scan 3/4 of the night sky. This program is sponsored by the U.S. government and is dedicated to surveying the skies for asteroids and comets for the purpose of determining if they pose a danger to earth.
When fully operational, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) project will deeply scan most of the night sky several times a month. About three-quarters of the sky are visible from the Hawaiian Islands, and Pan-STARRS will use four linked telescopes connected to its enormous cameras to take broad pictures of unprecedented detail. Objects as dim as 24th magnitude—250 times fainter than objects detected by the current champ in asteroid spotting LINEAR—will pop out of the background and be analyzed for their threat potential.
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Although the entire system won’t be on line until 2009 the first of the four telescopes become operational next month, (January of 2006.)
Pan-STARRS will bolster the Earth’s early warning system for threats from asteroids and comets—a congressionally directed program that currently consists of LINEAR (Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research), LONEOS (Lowell Observatory Near Earth Object Search), NEAT (Near Earth Asteroid Tracking) and Spacewatch.
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I expect we shall see some interesting things come from this system. For one of the possible solutions if we do indeed spot trouble coming, read the recent interview with former Apollo astronaut, Rusty Schwiekart.
NASA Automation, Robotics, and Simulation Division (ARSD)
“Space Educators’ Handbook”
Johnson Space Center
12/20/2005
On-line Text
NB: Thanks to Rick Eckelkamp of NASA Code ER, LEAG & ATWG for providing a copy to the Lunar Library.
This is the final word on the subject for now, so I might as well let Elon have it…
Posted December 19, 2005 at 4:40 p.m. (pst)
Here is the apparent cause of structural damage (further analysis may change the conclusion):
Due to high winds, we placed the countdown on hold and began draining the fuel tank. As we drained fuel from the 1st stage tank, a faulty pressurization valve caused a vacuum condition in the tank. This caused a fuel tank barrel section to deform and suck inward. It is important to note that the root cause is an electrical fault with a valve, not structural design.
At this point, it appears that no other damage was sustained to the vehicle or the satellite. The rocket will be lowered down this afternoon and placed in its hangar for further inspection.
— Elon —
Posted December 19, 2005:
Launch is scrubbed until early next year, as there is a structural issue with the 1st stage fuel tank that will require repair. I will provide further comment as soon as this has been carefully analyzed.
Consistent with our policy, we must be 100% green for launch with no outstanding concerns whatsoever. It is not just a matter of repairing the damage, but also understanding at a fundamental level how to ensure it never happens again. We will also do another full review of all the vehicle systems, including propulsion, structures, avionics, software and ground support systems. Therefore, I expect that the earliest that launch would occur is late January. Third time’s the charm.
— Elon —
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Also join us at the forums where you can register, sign in, and post any questions for us or to submit to SpaceX. An earlier glich prevented people signing in to the forums but it has now been fixed. So join us.
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NASA Announces First Comet Sample Return to Earth
NASA will brief news media at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 21, about the return of the Stardust capsule. The capsule is carrying cometary and interstellar dust particles back to Earth. The briefing is at NASA headquarters, 300 E Street S.W., Washington. It will air live on the Web and on NASA TV’s Public and Media channels.
NASA Announces Pluto Mission Briefing
NASA will brief news media about the New Horizons mission to Pluto and its moon Charon at 1 p.m. EST, Monday at the agency’s headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Washington.
The briefing airs live on the Web and on NASA TV’s Public and Media channels.
Hayabusa explorer moves to recovery operation mode
The status of the Hayabusa, which lost its attitude control when it left the Itokawa, has been gradually clarified. It seems that the attitude was shifted because gas that was generated due to evaporation of leaked propellant within the explorer had spilled out of the Hayabusa.
NASA budget option: Retire Atlantis
The immediate retirement of one shuttle orbiter, Atlantis, is among the options being discussed to solve a $3 billion to $6 billion shortfall in NASA’s space shuttle budget.
In a letter from key members of the House of Representatives, concerns were expressed regarding possible shortfalls in NASA’s 07 budget.
Discuss this at the OotC Forums
Falcon 1’s Tropical Island Aerie
SpaceX has firmed up the date and time for their launch attempt of the Falcon 1 rocket. With the various complications that arose to scrub the initial launch attempt now resolved, the Falcon 1 is scheduled to lift-off from the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands on December 19th at 11:00 a.m. (PST).
Out of the Cradle will once again Live Blog the event with the help Gwynne Shotwell, VP of Business Development at SpaceX who will be moderating the live teleconference feed.
Our coverage will start approximately half an hour prior to the launch so stay tuned.
As I sit here supposedly completing a list of items I want for the holidays, I glanced around my book shelves and thought of the good selection of tomes I already have. I decided to start a layman’s list of space related books.
This list is for someone interested in space who wants to get more informed about the subject.
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We’ve been very busy behind the scenes at OotC this week: We have some very interesting interviews coming up, and we’re in the process of developing a new page layout, which should appear in the next week or so. We’re also in the process of preparing for our next live blogging event - the second launch attempt for Falcon 1.
Once all of that’s done, we’re itching to talk about some of the things that have been going on in the last couple of weeks that we’ve been too busy to cover.
Lots of good stuff coming up - stay tuned.
When last we tuned into the Falcon 1 saga, the launch had been scrubbed for the November 27th date.
“Although we were eventually able to refill the vehicle LOX tanks, the rate at which we could add helium was slower than the rate at which LOX was boiling away. There was no way to close the gap, so the launch had to be called off. In addition, we experienced an anomaly with the main engine computer that requires further investigation and was arguably reason in and of itself to postpone launch.”
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Piloted by Dick Rutan, XCOR’s EZRocket rocket plane completed a slightly over 10-mile, flight from the Mojave California Spaceport to the California City airport. The point-to-point nature of the flight and the distance are both records.
Although the engines were shut off prior to a glide-in landing, the majority of the flight was under the power of the twin 400-pound thrust, rocket engines.
According to a Space.Com article…
Stashed onboard the EZ-Rocket were four pouches of mail, a bill with a check attached, letters from around the world, and other items.
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Some of those other items were patches and flight covers, with which Rutan plans to help support his scholarship fund.
After “hauling the mail,” XCOR is retiring the EZRocket program, a program that has given them plenty of experience to carry forward on the development of the “X-Racers” for the newly formed Rocket Racing League.
In an interview just a few days prior to the rocket plane flight, Rutan said, ” You can bet I plan to be intimately involved in the emerging space tourism industry.”
I bet he will be too.
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NewScientistSpace.com featured and article highlighting two newly announced NASA Centennial Challenges. Which got me to thinking; we are due an update on the various challenges on the books.
First some recaps are in order.
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Ellis, Warren. Illustrated by Chris Sprouse
“Ocean”
Wildstorm Productions
2006
ISBN: 1-401-20849-5
Publisher’s Web Site
Watermark Books review
Pages (999999): [1] 2 3 » ... Last » |  Even though the risk of an accident is low, most of us aren’t prepared to drive our cars without insurance. The consequences of an uninsured fender bender are too great. So we prudently spend a small amount of money to hedge our bets against an unlikely but real risk.
Former Apollo astronaut Russell L […]
READ MORE... This is the second part of our interview with John Powell. The first part is here.
OotC: PongSats fly on the development missions for your other major program, Airship to Orbit (ATO). When I first heard of ATO, it struck me as a little counterintuitive - but the more I thought about it, the […]
READ MORE... John Powell is the president and founder of JP Aerospace. All through his youth, he dreamed of building spacecraft - and that’s exactly what he’s been doing ever since. With advanced balloon, airship and rocket systems, and even his own free flight experiment payload program, John and his team have been quietly and […]
READ MORE... The logo above has become a very familiar feature in the lives of many space enthusiasts. With its twice weekly broadcasts that bring us conversations with many of the top names in space activities from authors, academics, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and some times just plan folks like me who have a deep interest in […]
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