Techdirt. Stories filed under "spacecraft"

Techdirt. Stories filed under "spacecraft" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "spacecraft"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Going To Mars Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100208/0432428084/dailydirt-going-to-mars.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100208/0432428084/dailydirt-going-to-mars.shtml

The Inspiration Mars Foundation is planning a roundtrip manned mission to Mars (non-stop, so no landing) that would last about 501 days, launching in 2018. A press conference to announce the details will be held on Feb 27th. [url]

When the Phobos-Grunt mission failed to reach Mars orbit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested some severe punishments (but no death penalty!) for whoever was to blame. The mission had planned to return soil samples from Phobos (one of Mars' moons), but the spacecraft never left Earth orbit due to a computer programming error. [url]

Valery V. Polyakov spent 438 continuous days in space aboard Mir and returned to Earth in 1995. That is the longest anyone has stayed in space in a single trip (others have been in space for more time, but over multiple trips), and it demonstrates that it's possible to survive in microgravity for the approximate amount of time it might take to go to Mars. [url]

Elon Musk has a vision of a public-private joint venture to establish a human colony on Mars. Musk is obviously promoting the SpaceX brand with this kind of public statement, but he also says that a viable Mars mission would need about $36 billion to get off the ground. [url]

Speculation on China's rocket technology suggests the country's Long March 9 rocket will be more than capable for sending astronauts to the moon, Mars, and perhaps other distant destinations within our solar system. The Long March 9 is expected to be in service around 2020-2025. [url]

Google's Lunar X Prize is closed to new participants, but there are about 25 teams still competing for rewards totaling $30 million -- for these privately funded teams to send robots to the moon. The deadline for these teams is the end of 2015. Hopefully at least one team will succeed in its mission, and we'll have mini moon bases sending back all kinds of data before the end of the decade. [url]

The Soyuz spacecraft has been a workhorse for decades, but Russia has recently announced plans for its next generation spaceship design that could be used for manned missions to the moon (or possibly Mars). Test flights are scheduled to begin in 2017, and this Prospective Piloted Transport System (PPTS) could also service the International Space Station (creating another backup solution to supply the ISS). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101110/19025111806 Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Exploring Mars Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100914/12154911010/dailydirt-exploring-mars.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100914/12154911010/dailydirt-exploring-mars.shtml

Analysis of two Martian meteorites suggests that Mars may have contained much more water than previous estimates. During the formation of Mars, water was likely to be present in the Martian mantle in similar proportions as the Earth's mantle. [url]

The Mars Curiosity Rover isn't the only spacecraft to try to land on an astronomical object in our solar system. At least twelve other unmanned crafts have hit moons, asteroids or other planets: the Soviet Union's Luna 9, NASA'a Surveyor 1 on the moon, the Lunokhod 1 on the moon, Russia's Venera 7 on Venus, Soviet Mars 3, the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecrafts on Mars, the Mars Pathfinder, the NEAR Shoemaker on an asteroid, Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Huygens probe of Titan, Japan's Hayabusa probe, and the Mars Phoenix lander. [url]

The 11-year-old Mars Odyssey probe is serving as a "real time" communications relay for Curiosity, allowing Curiosity to focus more of its energy on exploring Mars. Two other Mars satellites (NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express) are also re-transmitting signals from Curiosity, but with delays of several hours. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100914/12154911010 Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Space Tourism Is Almost Here Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/11454010177/dailydirt-space-tourism-is-almost-here.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/11454010177/dailydirt-space-tourism-is-almost-here.shtml mini-shuttle) to get people into space. On top of that, though, the private space industry is starting to kick in with more and more ambitious plans to offer rides into space -- or at least to the edge of space. Here are just a few more examples of these private efforts.

Travel agents are already booking seats on Virgin Galactic -- for $200,000 (including a $20,000 upfront deposit). Over 450 passengers have already bought tickets. [url]
Mars One is aiming for human settlement on our neighboring planet around 2023. It'll be a one-way trip, so plan accordingly. [url]
The Hermes spacecraft received some Kickstarter funding to build its next test rocket. It's still far from developing a rocket system ready for humans, but it's still cool to see more engineers trying to re-invent space travel. [url]
Alliant Techsystems (aka ATK), which manufactured the Space Shuttle's booster rockets, is developing a rocket system it calls Liberty. This Liberty rocket system is designed to hold 7 passengers and reach destinations like the International Space Station. [url]
To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100712/11454010177 Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Space Shuttle Stories Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100711/21375810163/dailydirt-space-shuttle-stories.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100711/21375810163/dailydirt-space-shuttle-stories.shtml

Wayne Hale, a retired Space Shuttle Flight Director, explains how Columbia was damaged by the loss of insulation foam -- by finding out that Discovery was almost damaged in the same way. It wasn't due to improper foam installation, but instead thermal cycling from filling and re-filling the cryogenic fuel. [url]

On its way to a museum, Enterprise sustains damage to its wingtip after hitting a bridge. The NASA prototype spacecraft never flew in space, and it suffered only cosmetic damage while being transported to its final destination at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan. [url]

Caenorhabditis elegans worms actually survived the Columbia disaster, and their descendants flew into space in 2011 on the Endeavour. Worms on a m*********ing spaceplane! [url]

To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100711/21375810163 Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Rockets, Man Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100419/0051579073/dailydirt-rockets-man.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100419/0051579073/dailydirt-rockets-man.shtml

North Korea tried to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of its national founder Kim Il-sung with a big rocket launch. The rocket was also a thinly-disguised test for a long-range missile, but it failed by blowing up a little over a minute after launching. [url]

The world’s first student-made rocket to hit space hasn't quite succeeded in reaching an altitude of 100 km, but there are a number of schools working on it. A pass or fail grade for this project seems like tough grading... [url]

SpaceX is working on designing safer and cheaper manned spacecraft, anticipating an upcoming boom in commercial space ventures. For example, its launch abort system has integrated escape thrusters mounted to the side of the crew capsule, and these engines aren't jettisoned or wasted if the mission goes as planned. [url]

To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100419/0051579073 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Space Robots... Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110912/13511815913/dailydirt-space-robots.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110912/13511815913/dailydirt-space-robots.shtml

Voyager 2 is about 14 BILLION kilometers from earth now, but it's still getting software upgrades after 34 years in service. Even with its plutonium batteries, it'll cease to function in the mid-2020s. And unlike the Terminator, it won't be back (hopefully). [url]

A 3m-by-1m spacecraft weighing about 400kg will relatively cheaply collect medium-resolution images of the earth using radar. The radar sensors will be able to see the the earth's surface in any weather -- and a series of these satellites would be able to image any location on earth within 24 hours. [url]

A robotic arm with a sticky hand will grab onto objects in space with the help of electrostatic forces. This robot arm could help clean up space junk or launch/retrieve nanosatellites. [url]

To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110912/13511815913 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Commercial Space Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101025/05064811568/dailydirt-commercial-space.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101025/05064811568/dailydirt-commercial-space.shtml

NASA is handing off low-Earth orbit to commercial enterprises and taking a look at longer-range missions for itself. The space race has essentially turned into America's Next Top Space Model... or American Space Idol... [url]

Paul Allen and Burt Rutan have developed an enormous mothership that will launch rockets from the stratosphere. Stratolaunch Systems hasn't built it yet, but they plan to launch the first rocket in 2016. [url]

So far, SpaceX is the only commercial company to successfully return a spacecraft from orbit. This capability is only shared by five nations and the European Space Agency. [url]

To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]