The U.S. military is developing plans to recycle orbiting space junk into workable satellites.
A solar powered experimental airplane has successfully completed the first intercontinental roundtrip between Europe and Africa.
Skydiver Felix Baumgartner has successfully completed an 18 mile dive in preparation for a record 23 mile dive next month.
Bad news: One of Kepler’s four reaction wheels — used to orient the space telescope — has failed.
Kepler only needs three wheels to function – one to control the probe’s motion along each axis – and the probe resumed its observations on 20 July. “Kepler is functioning very well on three reaction wheels,” says mission manager Roger Hunter of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. If the glitch can’t be fixed, though, Kepler will be left without a backup wheel. “This is reducing the odds of making the mission go as long as we can,” says Kepler chief scientist William Borucki of NASA Ames, who doubts that Kepler could point accurately enough to look for transiting planets if reduced to two reaction wheels. “It was a disappointing surprise to find this wheel stopped so early.”
Good news: Mars Odyssey has successfully adjusted its orbit so as to provide up-to-the-minute communications when Curiosity lands on August 5.
A test redocking of a new automatic docking system on a Russian Progress freighter was aborted last night when the system did not work as planned.
They will probably try again on the weekend, after a Japanese cargo craft is berthed with the station.
NASA successfully tested a new inflatable heat shield today in a suborbital flight at Wallops Island..
Ten hotels made of weird things.
Oy. A new study has found strong evidence that compact fluorescent bulbs can harm the skin.
The oldest known color videotape recording: President Eisenhower in 1958.
Answering the important questions: What would happen if a fastball pitcher could throw a baseball at 90% speed of light?
The competition heats up: Russia has announced it has begun construction on a manned lunar lander, set for its first unmanned test flight in 2015.
There have been many such announcements from Russia over the past decade with few ever coming true, since such announcements are generally nothing more than a public relations lobbying effort to get funding.
The most intriguing part of this article however was this quote:
Last week, head of the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Corp. Victor Khartov said Russia must “return to the Moon in 2015 in a Soviet style, to prove everyone and ourselves that we remember all the Soviet Union could do” at the Farnborough air show in Britain.
I would interpret this statement as a desire for Russia to compete more aggressively with the U.S. and others, as they did back in the days of the Soviet Union. It was also in that time period that the Lavochkin center was in its heyday, with lots of money and research work.
Russia is considering shortening the time it takes for its Progress and Soyuz capsules to reach ISS after launch, from 50 hours to 6.
The long travel time was designed to save fuel at launch — thus increasing payload — by allowing orbital mechanics to bring the capsule and station together. I wonder then why the Russians are considering this change. Have the figured out a way to save the fuel in other ways?
The competition heats up: Orbital Sciences has announced an updated schedule for testing and flying its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule to ISS.
This article gives a bit more background.
NASA successfully completed today a parachute drop test of its Orion capsule.
Higher and higher: The ten tallest skyscrapers now under construction.
Another opinion: NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is costing 320 times more than NASA’s commercial space program.
In other words, having NASA build a rocket and capsule makes no financial sense. At these numbers, SLS cannot survive.
Astronomers have discovered the first exoplanet smaller than Earth.
The University of Central Florida has detected what could be its first planet, only two-thirds the size of Earth and located right around the corner, cosmically speaking, at a mere 33-light years away. The exoplanet candidate called UCF 1.01, is close to its star, so close it goes around the star in 1.4 days. The planet’s surface likely reaches temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The discoverers believe that it has no atmosphere, is only two-thirds the gravity of Earth and that its surface may be volcanic or molten.
What is especially remarkable about this discovery is that the scientists used the Spitzer Space Telescope to do it, detecting the planet’s transits across the star’s face, just like Kepler. Spitzer was not designed to be able to do this.
Knowledge is power: Outlining the optimal military tactics for taking the Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle.
Above all, we can all agree on this secondary objective:
While in Fantasyland we will have the opportunity to take down the menace of all parents everywhere. The “It’s a Small World” ride will be within our reach. Our secondary objective is to eliminate the ride with extreme prejudice. This isn’t a capture mission like the castle, but one of complete annihilation. Expect heavy casualties as their adorable repetitiveness burns into your skulls like white phosphorous in the jungle. Our sacrifices will be great, but our suffering is in the name of protecting others.
Scientists think they have found the cause of the inexplicable slow down in the speed of the two Pioneer spacecraft, and it isn’t due to some previously unknown force of nature.
The preliminary plans for rebuilding the Titanic were released today by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer.
The flamboyant billionaire said Titanic II’s first voyage remained set for late 2016, with the boat due to sail from China to England ahead of her maiden passenger journey to North America. Interest was “overwhelming”, he said.
Two news items from NASA today:
What I find most interesting about these stories is the fees charged by the two companies. SpaceX will be paid $82 million for its one launch, while ULA will be paid $412 million for its three launches, or about $137 million per launch.
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Tantalizing hints: Has Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser been picked as one of two finalists in NASA’s competition to ferry crew and cargo to ISS?
Three astronauts successfully lifted off on a Soyuz rocket earlier today, headed to ISS.
Don’t use this as a laser pointer: Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have achieved a record-setting laser shot with a peak power of 500 trillion-watts to a target of just two millimeters in diameter.
Mars Odyssey went into safe mode on Wednesday for about 21 hours.
The orbiter has had increasing issues recently. Since it is used mostly as a communications satellite, this has impacts data downloads mostly from the rover Opportunity, and will a bigger problem once Curiosity arrives in August.
The competition heats up: ESA is revamping how it builds rockets in order to compete with SpaceX.
ESA officials have been spooked by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., which has demonstrated its technical prowess with the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo vehicle to the international space station. SpaceX officials say one of the keys to its success is that Falcon 9 is built in one factory owned by SpaceX.
Read the whole thing. The way ESA builds the Ariane rocket requires too many participants (what we in the U.S. call pork), raising its cost. ESA is now abandoning that approach to cut costs and thus compete with SpaceX.
