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Notes
Posted 2 weeks ago

In November, NASA launched the Mars Curiosity Rover, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). This video shows how it is going to gently touch down on the Martian surface. Curiosity is about the size of an SUV, so it needs a slightly gentler landing than Spirit and Opportunity’s slow bounce (which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiEoGUHEobo from 1m onwards).

Later today, MSL’s spacecraft will perform some engine burns to properly target Gale Crater, the rover’s landing site.

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Posted 1 month ago

Russia sent up a rocket late last week. It put six satellites into orbit. Six. I thought that was a lot, but in 2008, India launched ten from a single rocket, which is a world record.

And, they built their own rocket to do it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Satellite_Launch_Vehicle

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Posted 4 months ago

Kudos on the camera angles, China

The launch was well served throughout by some nice clear footage. At one point, we were under a fairing just in time to see it separate, but I didn’t get a picture of that one.

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Posted 4 months ago

Tiangong-1

China is about to launch space laboratory Tiangong-1, which will demonstrate technology that will be used to build China’s future space station. The lab will be unmanned for now, but some Chinese astronauts will be paying a visit next year.

Watch the launch here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15078569

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Notes
Posted 4 months ago

Sea Launch

It somehow escaped my notice until now, but there’s a company that specialises in launching stuff from a converted oil rig at the equator. This is simply too cool.

Less fuel is required to make orbit from the equator, thanks the Earth’s spin being amplified, making for cheaper launches. And also, it’s just ace.

http://www.sea-launch.com/

(Source: BBC)

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Posted 5 months ago

Nose to nose

Endeavour and Discovery, swapping places in the decommissioning process, passed each other by this week at the Kennedy Space Centre.

It’s a shame that these multi-billion dollar pieces of technology will never fly again, except on the back of NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Looking forward to getting to see one in a museum, though.

More images here.

Quote 2020
Notes
Posted 5 months ago

First of all, let’s clarify what the NASA budget is. Do you realize that the $850 billion dollar bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50-year running budget of NASA?

And so when someone says, “We don’t have enough money for this space probe,” I’m asking, no, it’s not that you don’t have enough money, it’s that the distribution of money that you’re spending is warped in some way that you are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.

You remember the 60s and 70s. You didn’t have to go more than a week before there’s an article in Life magazine, “The Home of Tomorrow,” “The City of Tomorrow,” “Transportation of Tomorrow”. All of that ended in the 1970s. After we stopped going to the Moon, it all ended. We stopped dreaming.

And so I worry that the decision that Congress makes doesn’t factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. Tomorrow’s gone. They’re playing for the quarterly report, they’re playing for the next election cycle, and that is mortgaging the actual future of this nation, and the rest of the world is going to pass us by.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (via david)

(Source: kateoplis)

via david
Photo 78
Notes
Posted 5 months ago
ckck: Still from a video of Apollo 16’s Lunar Module Orion taking off from the moon on April 22nd, 1972. Whenever I see this, I always think it looks like a party on the moon. I think it’s actually just an artefact of the camera. All the debris kicked off from the ascent module’s booster move so fast, it seems to be caught in different “passes” of the camera, so the red, green and blue elements are seen as clearly separate. There’s a big chunk going to the right of the module, heading off the screen, and you can see it caught in all three colours. Also, it’s worth noting how much easier it is to make orbit from the moon. On Earth, a three-man capsule needs a big rocket with a dedicated launch pad underneath it to get to orbit, with months of preparation. Here, the launch pad is the fragile landing legs of the Lunar Module, and a single small engine is enough to get the ascent module up into orbit.

ckck:

Still from a video of Apollo 16’s Lunar Module Orion taking off from the moon on April 22nd, 1972.

Whenever I see this, I always think it looks like a party on the moon. I think it’s actually just an artefact of the camera. All the debris kicked off from the ascent module’s booster move so fast, it seems to be caught in different “passes” of the camera, so the red, green and blue elements are seen as clearly separate. There’s a big chunk going to the right of the module, heading off the screen, and you can see it caught in all three colours.

Also, it’s worth noting how much easier it is to make orbit from the moon. On Earth, a three-man capsule needs a big rocket with a dedicated launch pad underneath it to get to orbit, with months of preparation. Here, the launch pad is the fragile landing legs of the Lunar Module, and a single small engine is enough to get the ascent module up into orbit.

via ckck
Photo
Posted 6 months ago
T-38 training jets, and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft overfly OV-101 Enterprise, at Edwards Air Force base. Zoom

T-38 training jets, and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft overfly OV-101 Enterprise, at Edwards Air Force base.

Photo 80
Notes
Posted 6 months ago
astroperlas: Energía-Burán. On the topic of Buran, good photos of it are hard to come by. Love this one of it being mated with the Energia booster that would take it to orbit. Unlike the US, rockets launched from Baikonur are assembled and transported sideways, before being pulled upright onto the pad. Zoom

astroperlas:

Energía-Burán.

On the topic of Buran, good photos of it are hard to come by. Love this one of it being mated with the Energia booster that would take it to orbit.

Unlike the US, rockets launched from Baikonur are assembled and transported sideways, before being pulled upright onto the pad.

via astroperlas