Aviation Week: SpaceX Dragon Cleared For Launch
CAPE CANAVERAL — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is awaiting an FAA license to fly its Dragon capsule through the atmosphere, following launch on a Falcon 9 rocket targeted for Nov. 18 from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla.
The launch license was granted Oct. 15. The pending re-entry license will be the first ever issued by FAA, according to George Nield, FAA’s associate administrator for Commercial Space Transportation.
“As we go forward [with NASA Commercial Crew Development and other programs] we expect to see a lot more of those,” Nield tells AVIATION WEEK.
Building on the Falcon 9’s successful June 4 debut (Aerospace DAILY, June 7), SpaceX plans to put Dragon into a 34.5-deg.-inclination, 300-km. (190-mi.) orbit, where it will remain for less than 4 hr. before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near Southern California.
Demo flight
The mission is a demonstration flight for NASA under its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. have contracts to develop and demonstrate launch vehicles and to fly cargo to the International Space Station.
“While we had an incredibly successful first launch of the Falcon 9, this second launch is still very much a demonstration mission and will be our first attempt to bring a spacecraft from orbit back to Earth,” SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost says.
“We would like to do more integrated system testing, including another in-depth round of hardware-in-the loop mission simulations to see if we can uncover any corner-case problems. So far, it looks good, but we want to triple-check.”
Test points
Following Dragon’s release from the Falcon’s second-stage engine, the capsule will be used to test operational communications, navigation, maneuvering and re-entry.
“They have a pretty aggressive flight,” says Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations.
“They’ll do, I think, two orbits and then do a re-entry of their capsule. I think that will be a good test to see how things are going in their systems,” he adds.
“It seems simple to just describe two orbits and then the re-entry. That’s still a pretty sophisticated test for them. They have their whole attitude-control system on orbit, which hasn’t been checked out yet. They’ll do some maneuvers on that. They have their entry systems with their parachute system, the heat shield, all that performance to come back, as well as a water recovery off the coast of California.
“They’re taking their time, working through the issues that they’ve got with their vehicle,” Gerstenmaier notes. “They had some software things they wanted to spend a little more time working with. They have hardware integration tests where they check out their hardware with their software; they wanted some additional time to do that, so that’s why they moved from the 8th to the 18th.
“They’re doing all the right things. They’ve got the right attitude of how to get ready for flight. I think it will be interesting to see how this flight goes ... and then they have potentially two more demonstration flights. The third one will actually come to the space station,” Gerstenmaier says.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Space ministers press for co-operation to make exploration a reality
FlightGlobal: Space ministers press for co-operation to make exploration a reality
By Dan Thisdell
Those who are particularly cynical about the justification for spaceflight budgets enjoy an amusing little circular argument. Question: why do we have the International Space Station. Answer: so the Space Shuttle has someplace to fly. Question: then, why do we have the Space Shuttle? Answer: to get to the Space Station, of course.
In these troubled financial times, such games demand more than a cursory brush-off. But, based on presentations to the second international conference on space exploration on 21 October in Brussels, it was easy to conclude that, nobody has much of an idea of what to do with the ISS.
More than 30 countries - including members of the European Space Agency, the European Union, Russia, the USA and other space players ranging from Japan to South Africa - were represented by ministers or their proxies.
Yet while speaker after speaker praised the ISS as a model of successful international collaboration in space and a magnificent orbiting laboratory, none presented a specific vision for the station, beyond the need to agree on its use to test technologies that may support journeys deeper into space.
ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain has no time for the cynics. Speaking to Flight International on the conference sidelines, he stressed that ESA, NASA and their international partners have suddenly been presented with a vast new opportunity with the ISS.
A year ago there was intense US space budget competition between the ISS and the return-to-the-Moon Constellation programme, but with Constellation's cancellation and US determination to support maintenance of the station up to 2020 and perhaps beyond, the game has changed.
Now, says Dordain, scientists have a 10-year or longer time horizon to plan for ISS use. That is a period longer than a PhD programme, he notes - long enough to offer exciting opportunities for science.
As the gathering in Brussels made clear, much of that ISS-based science can be directed to developing technologies that will drive exploration of the solar system, by both unmanned and manned missions.
ESA Council chairman Giuseppe Pizza struck a key theme in stressing the need to develop new propulsion and space transport technologies. Critically, he said, breakthrough technologies are needed in human life support systems, which so far cannot operate independently of supplies from Earth.
ALL TOGETHER, NOW
Pizza's opening remarks, underscored by several subsequent speakers, stressed that in the current economic climate, co-operation between spacefaring nations is more important than ever. Indeed, said Pizza, there is no question of achieving ambitious scientific objectives or opening a significant new chapter in space exploration without a global strategy, including the active participation of every European player.
Or, as NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration Laurie Leshin put it, if there is to be a human presence in deep space in a reasonable timeframe, there is no way forward but collaboration. Describing the NASA-ESA relationship as "robust and effective", she added: "Exploration begins with the ISS" and its "huge opportunities" for discovery.
Frank de Winne - Belgian air force brigadier general and the first non-US or Russian astronaut to command an ISS mission and chairman of the technical steering group advising European space ministers - placed a great deal of emphasis on forging a co-operative effort to improve life support system technologies, as well as an international agreement on a common space transport system able to provide what he calls "balanced, sensible access to space".
The Russian delegation called for a co-ordinated, international approach to developing rockets to complement its workhorse Soyuz launchers, ships for interplanetary travel and nuclear propulsion. Co-operative Moon missions should focus on mapping and then rover landings.
Clearly, while the 1960s US-Soviet space race may have made the Apollo Moon landings possible, that sort of competition is no longer a valid approach. But, as the conference also made clear, there are limits on what can be achieved through collaboration. Dordain noted that while co-operation will pay dividends in access to space, Europe needs to establish independent access capability, at least for non-exploration type missions.
De Winne himself may have foretold a thread of tension in a co-operative future by noting that Europe "should be part of exploration because we want to bring our European values to this venture". That means, he said, that the citizen must be the central focus of Europe's thinking about how to approach space exploration and bring benefits in technology to Earth.
De Winne clearly embodies a grander European vision of the future. The astronaut freely admits to having been inspired as a child by the Star Trek vision of "voyages focusing on discoveries and human values [of] universal liberty, equality, justice, diplomacy and co-operation between societies".
For now, specific plans and programmes remain elusive. The ministers meeting in Brussels merely agreed to join forces to develop technologies enabling space exploration, to seek better exploitation of the ISS and to establish a dedicated, high-level inter-government platform to co-ordinate international space exploration efforts.
Italy, in its capacity as ESA president, offered to host the first meeting of this high-level group a year from now in Lucca. It seems likely that Pizza and his colleagues will, as hosts, be looking to wrap up that gathering with some detailed plans - with a European flavour - for this new era of co-operation.
By Dan Thisdell
Those who are particularly cynical about the justification for spaceflight budgets enjoy an amusing little circular argument. Question: why do we have the International Space Station. Answer: so the Space Shuttle has someplace to fly. Question: then, why do we have the Space Shuttle? Answer: to get to the Space Station, of course.
In these troubled financial times, such games demand more than a cursory brush-off. But, based on presentations to the second international conference on space exploration on 21 October in Brussels, it was easy to conclude that, nobody has much of an idea of what to do with the ISS.
More than 30 countries - including members of the European Space Agency, the European Union, Russia, the USA and other space players ranging from Japan to South Africa - were represented by ministers or their proxies.
Yet while speaker after speaker praised the ISS as a model of successful international collaboration in space and a magnificent orbiting laboratory, none presented a specific vision for the station, beyond the need to agree on its use to test technologies that may support journeys deeper into space.
ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain has no time for the cynics. Speaking to Flight International on the conference sidelines, he stressed that ESA, NASA and their international partners have suddenly been presented with a vast new opportunity with the ISS.
A year ago there was intense US space budget competition between the ISS and the return-to-the-Moon Constellation programme, but with Constellation's cancellation and US determination to support maintenance of the station up to 2020 and perhaps beyond, the game has changed.
Now, says Dordain, scientists have a 10-year or longer time horizon to plan for ISS use. That is a period longer than a PhD programme, he notes - long enough to offer exciting opportunities for science.
As the gathering in Brussels made clear, much of that ISS-based science can be directed to developing technologies that will drive exploration of the solar system, by both unmanned and manned missions.
ESA Council chairman Giuseppe Pizza struck a key theme in stressing the need to develop new propulsion and space transport technologies. Critically, he said, breakthrough technologies are needed in human life support systems, which so far cannot operate independently of supplies from Earth.
ALL TOGETHER, NOW
Pizza's opening remarks, underscored by several subsequent speakers, stressed that in the current economic climate, co-operation between spacefaring nations is more important than ever. Indeed, said Pizza, there is no question of achieving ambitious scientific objectives or opening a significant new chapter in space exploration without a global strategy, including the active participation of every European player.
Or, as NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration Laurie Leshin put it, if there is to be a human presence in deep space in a reasonable timeframe, there is no way forward but collaboration. Describing the NASA-ESA relationship as "robust and effective", she added: "Exploration begins with the ISS" and its "huge opportunities" for discovery.
Frank de Winne - Belgian air force brigadier general and the first non-US or Russian astronaut to command an ISS mission and chairman of the technical steering group advising European space ministers - placed a great deal of emphasis on forging a co-operative effort to improve life support system technologies, as well as an international agreement on a common space transport system able to provide what he calls "balanced, sensible access to space".
The Russian delegation called for a co-ordinated, international approach to developing rockets to complement its workhorse Soyuz launchers, ships for interplanetary travel and nuclear propulsion. Co-operative Moon missions should focus on mapping and then rover landings.
Clearly, while the 1960s US-Soviet space race may have made the Apollo Moon landings possible, that sort of competition is no longer a valid approach. But, as the conference also made clear, there are limits on what can be achieved through collaboration. Dordain noted that while co-operation will pay dividends in access to space, Europe needs to establish independent access capability, at least for non-exploration type missions.
De Winne himself may have foretold a thread of tension in a co-operative future by noting that Europe "should be part of exploration because we want to bring our European values to this venture". That means, he said, that the citizen must be the central focus of Europe's thinking about how to approach space exploration and bring benefits in technology to Earth.
De Winne clearly embodies a grander European vision of the future. The astronaut freely admits to having been inspired as a child by the Star Trek vision of "voyages focusing on discoveries and human values [of] universal liberty, equality, justice, diplomacy and co-operation between societies".
For now, specific plans and programmes remain elusive. The ministers meeting in Brussels merely agreed to join forces to develop technologies enabling space exploration, to seek better exploitation of the ISS and to establish a dedicated, high-level inter-government platform to co-ordinate international space exploration efforts.
Italy, in its capacity as ESA president, offered to host the first meeting of this high-level group a year from now in Lucca. It seems likely that Pizza and his colleagues will, as hosts, be looking to wrap up that gathering with some detailed plans - with a European flavour - for this new era of co-operation.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
ISS Partners Set Docking Interface Standards
Aviation Week: ISS Partners Set Docking Interface Standards
Designers of future spacecraft that need to dock with each other for crew and cargo transfers are likely to use a new set of interface standards just published by the International Space Station partners in the hope they will simplify human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
Available to anyone with an Internet connection—including Chinese, Indian and commercial companies—the standards give engineers the information they need to build docking systems for the space station as well as possible lunar excursions, rescue missions and any future “international cooperative demonstration” that brings together spacecraft from different nations.
An industry day next month at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to explain the new standards will be open to international and commercial participants, apparently without restriction. NASA expects the companies vying for a shot at providing commercial crew transportation to the ISS to be present, and it is not ruling out Indian and Chinese participation.
“We’ll have the hardware set up and teams out in place to talk to whomever decides to come,” says Stephen Gaylor, the space shuttle program flight manager who was chairman of the team that drafted the international docking standards.
Chinese participation at the Houston workshop will not be out of the question. Senior Chinese space officials have expressed readiness in discussing docking-interface parameters for human spacecraft (AW&ST April 19, p. 32), and a delegation from the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) is due to visit the U.S. next month as part of an exchange set up last year by Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visited the Chinese human launch facility at Jiuquan last week as a guest of the CMSEO. Bolden, accompanied in China by astronaut Peggy Whitson and other NASA officials, toured space facilities and met with officials in Beijing, as well.
The interface standards do not cover the actual technology that would operate a docking system. Instead, they give measurements and force loads for engineers to match as they design their own docking system. For example, the diameter of the opening in the mating plane listed in the documents posted at http://www.internationaldockingstandard.com/ is 1,045 mm., but it is up to individual designers to design the mechanisms that will use that opening to guide and lock the two halves together.
The new standard is based on the old Russian androgynous peripheral assembly system (APAS) used to dock the space shuttle to the ISS, according to Caris A. “Skip” Hatfield, the senior NASA engineer assigned to implement the new standard on the station.
The mechanical APAS has been modified with elements of the electromechanical low-impact docking system (LIDS) under development at JSC to create a standard for systems that work like APAS but require less force to drive the two spacecraft together.
“They have a table that extends, that has the soft-capture system that makes first contact,” Hatfield says. “That soft-capture system is what takes out the initial forces and moments from the contact. And then that table is withdrawn, and there’s a hard-capture system, a set of hooks that reach up and bring it together and achieve the pressure seal and the physical interface.”
To date, NASA is closest to having a system based on the new standard. In its active mode, the NASA docking system uses a closed-loop computer control system that senses the forces and moments, and commands electromechanical actuators to dampen them out before drawing the two halves together.
The European Space Agency is at work on a similar system for its proposed Advanced Reentry Vehicle (ARV), a spin-off of its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that would be able to return cargo from the ISS (AW&ST Oct. 4, p. 47). Known as the International Berthing Docking Mechanism, it would also be made compatible with the new standard and would allow the ARV to dock at the U.S. end of the ISS, according to Simonetta di Pippo, ESA director of human spaceflight.
The NASA system is likely to be the first to be used in space. Plans call for the two APAS-based systems on the Harmony node to be moved to the Tranquility node in 2014 and replaced with common docking adaptors using the new NASA docking system.
That is where the commercial cargo vehicles being developed with NASA seed money at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corp. will dock, as would any commercial or government crew vehicles developed under NASA’s emerging new space policy (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 32). Russia will continue to use the probe-and-cone docking system in place on its end of the ISS for docking Soyuz and Progress modules and the ATV.
Designers of future spacecraft that need to dock with each other for crew and cargo transfers are likely to use a new set of interface standards just published by the International Space Station partners in the hope they will simplify human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
Available to anyone with an Internet connection—including Chinese, Indian and commercial companies—the standards give engineers the information they need to build docking systems for the space station as well as possible lunar excursions, rescue missions and any future “international cooperative demonstration” that brings together spacecraft from different nations.
An industry day next month at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to explain the new standards will be open to international and commercial participants, apparently without restriction. NASA expects the companies vying for a shot at providing commercial crew transportation to the ISS to be present, and it is not ruling out Indian and Chinese participation.
“We’ll have the hardware set up and teams out in place to talk to whomever decides to come,” says Stephen Gaylor, the space shuttle program flight manager who was chairman of the team that drafted the international docking standards.
Chinese participation at the Houston workshop will not be out of the question. Senior Chinese space officials have expressed readiness in discussing docking-interface parameters for human spacecraft (AW&ST April 19, p. 32), and a delegation from the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) is due to visit the U.S. next month as part of an exchange set up last year by Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visited the Chinese human launch facility at Jiuquan last week as a guest of the CMSEO. Bolden, accompanied in China by astronaut Peggy Whitson and other NASA officials, toured space facilities and met with officials in Beijing, as well.
The interface standards do not cover the actual technology that would operate a docking system. Instead, they give measurements and force loads for engineers to match as they design their own docking system. For example, the diameter of the opening in the mating plane listed in the documents posted at http://www.internationaldockingstandard.com/ is 1,045 mm., but it is up to individual designers to design the mechanisms that will use that opening to guide and lock the two halves together.
The new standard is based on the old Russian androgynous peripheral assembly system (APAS) used to dock the space shuttle to the ISS, according to Caris A. “Skip” Hatfield, the senior NASA engineer assigned to implement the new standard on the station.
The mechanical APAS has been modified with elements of the electromechanical low-impact docking system (LIDS) under development at JSC to create a standard for systems that work like APAS but require less force to drive the two spacecraft together.
“They have a table that extends, that has the soft-capture system that makes first contact,” Hatfield says. “That soft-capture system is what takes out the initial forces and moments from the contact. And then that table is withdrawn, and there’s a hard-capture system, a set of hooks that reach up and bring it together and achieve the pressure seal and the physical interface.”
To date, NASA is closest to having a system based on the new standard. In its active mode, the NASA docking system uses a closed-loop computer control system that senses the forces and moments, and commands electromechanical actuators to dampen them out before drawing the two halves together.
The European Space Agency is at work on a similar system for its proposed Advanced Reentry Vehicle (ARV), a spin-off of its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that would be able to return cargo from the ISS (AW&ST Oct. 4, p. 47). Known as the International Berthing Docking Mechanism, it would also be made compatible with the new standard and would allow the ARV to dock at the U.S. end of the ISS, according to Simonetta di Pippo, ESA director of human spaceflight.
The NASA system is likely to be the first to be used in space. Plans call for the two APAS-based systems on the Harmony node to be moved to the Tranquility node in 2014 and replaced with common docking adaptors using the new NASA docking system.
That is where the commercial cargo vehicles being developed with NASA seed money at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corp. will dock, as would any commercial or government crew vehicles developed under NASA’s emerging new space policy (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 32). Russia will continue to use the probe-and-cone docking system in place on its end of the ISS for docking Soyuz and Progress modules and the ATV.
Russia marks space accident
NewstalkZB: Russia marks space accident25/10/2010
Russians are marking the 50th anniversary of the worst-ever accident linked to space exploration.
Russians have been marking the 50th anniversary of the worst-ever accident linked to space exploration.
More than 120 people died in a launch pad explosion, which happened in the Soviet Union in 1960.
They were burned alive...some vapourised...when an experimental rocket went wrong.
The Russians kept details of the incident secret until the 1990s.
Russians are marking the 50th anniversary of the worst-ever accident linked to space exploration.
Russians have been marking the 50th anniversary of the worst-ever accident linked to space exploration.
More than 120 people died in a launch pad explosion, which happened in the Soviet Union in 1960.
They were burned alive...some vapourised...when an experimental rocket went wrong.
The Russians kept details of the incident secret until the 1990s.
Moon Express Enters the $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition
Space Ref: Moon Express Enters the $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition
San Francisco, CA (October 26, 2010) - Today, Moon Express Inc., a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the Moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. Team MoonEx, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, is among 24 teams from a dozen countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse.
Moon Express is also among six U.S. companies award a contract by NASA, the US civil space agency, as part of its $30M Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program. The ILDD contract is for the purchase of technical data resulting from industry efforts to develop vehicle capabilities and demonstrate end-to-end robotic lunar landing missions. The data from these contracts will inform NASA in the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles and exploration systems.
"The Google Lunar X PRIZE and NASA's Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data program are very exciting competitions that represent the knee in the curve of opportunity for the commercial lunar industry," said Moon Express Team Leader, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards.
"We are very excited to have Moon Express as one of our Google Lunar X PRIZE teams," remarked William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. "With NASA already signed on as a customer, Moon Express enters the competition on great footing, and promises to be an extremely strong competitor."
For more information about team Moon Express, please visit www.moonexpress.com.
About Moon Express
Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company. We have the experienced people, partners and financial resources to blaze a trail to the Moon and establish new avenues for commercial space activities beyond Earth orbit. Moon Express is planning a media conference to announce its recent NASA contract award, as well as other details of the company. Information on this announcement will be made in the next few weeks. If you'd like more information on this event, please send an email to media@moonexpress.com
About the Google Lunar X PRIZE
The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that challenges and inspires engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth. The Grand Prize is $20 million until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, please visit www.googlelunarxprize.org.
About the X PRIZE Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured world headlines when Burt Rutan, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private vehicle to space to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation is creating and conducting competitions in four prize groups: Exploration (Space and Oceans), Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, and Education & Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leader in fostering innovation through competition. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org.
San Francisco, CA (October 26, 2010) - Today, Moon Express Inc., a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the Moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. Team MoonEx, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, is among 24 teams from a dozen countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse.
Moon Express is also among six U.S. companies award a contract by NASA, the US civil space agency, as part of its $30M Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program. The ILDD contract is for the purchase of technical data resulting from industry efforts to develop vehicle capabilities and demonstrate end-to-end robotic lunar landing missions. The data from these contracts will inform NASA in the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles and exploration systems.
"The Google Lunar X PRIZE and NASA's Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data program are very exciting competitions that represent the knee in the curve of opportunity for the commercial lunar industry," said Moon Express Team Leader, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards.
"We are very excited to have Moon Express as one of our Google Lunar X PRIZE teams," remarked William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. "With NASA already signed on as a customer, Moon Express enters the competition on great footing, and promises to be an extremely strong competitor."
For more information about team Moon Express, please visit www.moonexpress.com.
About Moon Express
Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company. We have the experienced people, partners and financial resources to blaze a trail to the Moon and establish new avenues for commercial space activities beyond Earth orbit. Moon Express is planning a media conference to announce its recent NASA contract award, as well as other details of the company. Information on this announcement will be made in the next few weeks. If you'd like more information on this event, please send an email to media@moonexpress.com
About the Google Lunar X PRIZE
The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that challenges and inspires engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth. The Grand Prize is $20 million until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, please visit www.googlelunarxprize.org.
About the X PRIZE Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured world headlines when Burt Rutan, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private vehicle to space to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation is creating and conducting competitions in four prize groups: Exploration (Space and Oceans), Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, and Education & Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leader in fostering innovation through competition. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org.
Space Tourism, Climate Change and the Need for Sustainable Space Exploration
World Changing: Space Tourism, Climate Change and the Need for Sustainable Space Exploration
Will space tourism be a major climate change propellant? A new study reported in Nature finds that the impacts of a commercial space industry could be serious, even catastrophic:
[E]missions from 1,000 private rocket launches a year would persist high in the stratosphere, potentially altering global atmospheric circulation and distributions of ozone. The simulations show that the changes to Earth's climate could increase polar surface temperatures by 1 °C, and reduce polar sea ice by 5–15%.
"There are fundamental limits to how much material human beings can put into orbit without having a significant impact," says Martin Ross, an atmospheric scientist...
Given how rapidly the aerospace industry is growing, how much demand for space tourism there seems to be among the very wealthy, and how big these impacts are, these findings seem to demand serious attention.
Indeed, we would seem to need a much greater focus on sustainable space exploration in general. We're serious supporters of space programs as a way to understand and protect the home planet. That said, today's aerospace technologies present many environmental and social equity challenges. I've written before about the need for environmental law in space. Now it seems pressure needs to be exerted on limiting the emissions of rocket tourists.
Perhaps it's time for an advocacy group, Sustainable Space?
Will space tourism be a major climate change propellant? A new study reported in Nature finds that the impacts of a commercial space industry could be serious, even catastrophic:
[E]missions from 1,000 private rocket launches a year would persist high in the stratosphere, potentially altering global atmospheric circulation and distributions of ozone. The simulations show that the changes to Earth's climate could increase polar surface temperatures by 1 °C, and reduce polar sea ice by 5–15%.
"There are fundamental limits to how much material human beings can put into orbit without having a significant impact," says Martin Ross, an atmospheric scientist...
Given how rapidly the aerospace industry is growing, how much demand for space tourism there seems to be among the very wealthy, and how big these impacts are, these findings seem to demand serious attention.
Indeed, we would seem to need a much greater focus on sustainable space exploration in general. We're serious supporters of space programs as a way to understand and protect the home planet. That said, today's aerospace technologies present many environmental and social equity challenges. I've written before about the need for environmental law in space. Now it seems pressure needs to be exerted on limiting the emissions of rocket tourists.
Perhaps it's time for an advocacy group, Sustainable Space?
Monday, October 25, 2010
What Happened in Space News October 25
Venera 10 - USSR Venus Orbiter and Lander - 5,033 kg was launched on June 14, 1975 (7 days after its sister spacecraft, Venera 9).
Venera 10 arrived at Venus on October 25, 1975, three days after its sister spacecraft Venera 9.
Both orbiters photographed the clouds and looked at the upper atmosphere. Differences in cloud layers were discovered at 57-70 kilometers, 52-57 kilometers, and 49-52 kilometers from the surface. The lander arrived on the Venusian surface on November 25, 1975. During a period of 65 minutes, it transmitted black and white images of the planets surface.
Venera 10 arrived at Venus on October 25, 1975, three days after its sister spacecraft Venera 9.
Both orbiters photographed the clouds and looked at the upper atmosphere. Differences in cloud layers were discovered at 57-70 kilometers, 52-57 kilometers, and 49-52 kilometers from the surface. The lander arrived on the Venusian surface on November 25, 1975. During a period of 65 minutes, it transmitted black and white images of the planets surface.
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