The harsh environment of space, normally hostile to most materials, acts beneficially to cure certain epoxy resins. Key quote:
“You don’t have to take it up there in the shape that you eventually want,” said University of Sydney physicist Marcela Bilek, a co-author of the new study. “You can take something in a packaged form, all folded up, and then inflate it in space and have it cure into a mechanically solid structure.”
Read the research paper here.
The number one injury reported by astronauts appears to be fingernail and hand injuries resulting from the use of spacesuit gloves. Key quote:
A previous study of astronaut injuries sustained during spacewalks had found that about 47 percent of 352 reported symptoms between 2002 and 2004 were hand related. More than half of these hand injuries were due to fingertips and nails making contact with the hard “thimbles” inside the glove fingertips. In several cases, sustained pressure on the fingertips during EVAs caused intense pain and led to the astronauts’ nails detaching from their nailbeds, a condition called fingernail delamination.
All systems go! The project engineer of the Dawn mission has posted a very detailed update (as of August 30), describing the spacecraft’s status in its journey to the asteroid Vesta.
Good news for private space! Scaled Composites put WhiteKnightTwo back in the air today, only three weeks after one of its landing gears failed during a landing. You can read the test flight logs here.
Engineers are reviewing the life expectancy of the International Space Station, in light of the desire of politicians to keep it operating through the 2020s. Intriguing quote:
Airlines and airplane contractors commonly inspect aircraft for such fractures, but with the space station out of reach more than 200 miles up, engineers rely on complex models to predict their growth in orbit.
Boeing, which is now building its own private space capsule, and Space Adventures, the company that flies tourists to space, are apparently teaming up. More details will be announced at a press conference is scheduled for next week.
Scientists develop first tractor beam, although it can only move tiny objects less than two yards. Worse, “because this technique needs heated gas to push the particles around, it can’t work in the vacuum of outer space like the tractor beams in Star Trek.”
Launchpad 39B, where 53 shuttle launches took place, is about to be torn down.
The reason the Danish privately funded suborbital rocket did not launch on Sunday was because the power had accidently been cut off to an ordinary hair dryer, purchased at a Danish supermarket and installed in the rocket to keep the valve from freezing.
An evening pause: One week ago today the rocket company ATK test fired the first stage solid rocket motor of the Ares I rocket. At the moment, no one knows if this rocket will even be built, as the Obama administration opposes it while Congress argues a variety of options. Regardless, watch this video of the test and you will understand why it is fun ito build rockets.
The first test launch of that privately funded Danish suborbital rocket had to be scrubbed on Sunday when a valve jammed.
That test flight of a Danish privately built suborbital rocket has been delayed from today till tomorrow due to weather, with tomorrow’s flight having a 70% chance.
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