India’s second lunar probe, Chandrayaan-2, faces possible launch delays
India’s second lunar probe, Chandrayaan-2, faces possible launch delays due to limitation in their rocket engine capabilities.
Year: 2012
ISS to finally get an experimental centrifuge
At last! The ISS is to finally going to get an experimental centrifuge.
I have studied at length all the research done on all the space station ever launched, from Skylab, all the Russian Salyut stations, Mir, and now ISS, and from I could tell, only once was a centrifuge experiment put in space, by the Russians. Though the centrifuge was small and the results inconclusive, they suggested that even the addition of a truly miniscule amount of force could significantly mitigate the effects of weightlessness on plants and materials.
To finally get an experimental centrifuge on ISS is wonderful news. In order to build an interplanetary spaceship as cheaply and as efficiently as possible using centrifugal force to create artificial gravity we need to know the minimum amount of centrifugal force we need. Less energy will probably require less complex engineering, which should also require less launch weight to orbit, lowering the cost in all ways.
Preston Reed – Ladies Night
An evening pause: How about some really wild guitar playing by Preston Reed?
Facebook and the CIA
An evening pause: Maybe this is why I avoid Facebook.
Cathy Rigby – Never Never Land
An evening pause:
I have a place where dreams are born,
And time is never planned.
It’s not on any chart.
You must find it with your heart.
Never never land.
Why things break in space
Updated and bumped: I will be discussing this story on the the John Batchelor Show tonight, February 17, Friday, 12:50 am (Eastern), and then re-aired on Sunday, February 19, 12:50 am (Eastern).
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Someday, humans will be traveling far from Earth in large interplanetary spaceships not very different than the International Space Station (ISS). Isolated and dependent on these ships for survival, these travelers will have no choice but to know how to maintain and repair their vessels whenever something on them should break.
And things will break. Entropy rules, and with time all things deteriorate and fail.
Each failure, however, is also a precious opportunity to learn something about the environment of space. Why did an item break? What caused it to fail? Can we do something to prevent the failure in the future? Finding answers to these questions will make it possible to build better and more reliable interplanetary spaceships.
ISS is presently our only testbed for studying these kinds of engineering questions. And in 2007, a spectacular failure, combined with an epic spacewalk, gave engineers at the Johnson Space Center a marvelous opportunity to study these very issues.
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Perspective
The White House chart that illustrates the irresponsible nature of Obama’s proposed budget.
The White House chart that illustrates the irresponsible nature of Obama’s proposed budget.
Yes, that’s right, the chart is from the White House itself, which means they themselves know how useless their proposed budget is, and how little they care. More here, including video of a truly entertaining but clarifying exchange between Congressman Paul Ryan and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
China’s next launch of its Shenzhou capsule will be manned
China’s next launch of its Shenzhou capsule this summer will be manned.
It seems those rumors weren’t true. Or maybe they were.
Just like in the 1960s with the Soviet Union, the only way to find out what exactly is going on in the Chinese space program is to wait for something to actually happen.
government by presidential fiat
“Government by presidential fiat.”
The president of the United States has just ordered private companies to give away for free a service that his own health and human services secretary has repeatedly called a major financial burden.
On what authority? Where does it say that the president can unilaterally order a private company to provide an allegedly free-standing service at no cost to certain select beneficiaries?
Repeal this damn law (Obamacare), and fire the goddamn politicians that had the hubris to force it on us.
A burst of aurora for reasons that are “unclear.”
In related Sun news: A burst of aurora this week for reasons that are “unclear.”
A weak maximum now expected
The solar scientists at the Marshall Space Flight Center significantly downgraded their prediction today for the upcoming solar maximum.
Unfortunately, the Marshall scientists don’t archive their previous predictions, merely changing the text of their webpage periodically. However, I have archived most of these predictions as they have changed. Here they are:
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