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spacecraft posts

Physicist wants to test Hyperdrive Propulsion in Large Hadron Collider

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 11th 2009 at 12:14AM

How come news can never come out of the Large Hadron Collider that doesn't remind us of our planet's impending SciFi Techno-Apocalypse(tm)? When not busy being called a doomsday machine, being bedeviled by hackers and Chuck Norris (yuck!), or just plain failing, the facility could be used to test "hyperdrive" spacecraft propulsion. Seriously! And you know what that means -- someone is planning on escaping the planet, and fast. A physicist named Franklin Felber has been musing over a little known German paper from the 1920s ("The Foundations of Physics" by David Hilbert) which states, in part, that under certain conditions a stationary mass should repel a relativistic particle. If this is true, Felber, concludes, then shouldn't a relativistic particle repel a stationary mass? According to MIT's Technology Review, the LHC would be the perfect place to test this idea: Felber could "set up a test mass next to the beam line and measure the forces on it as the particles whiz past." The experiment could be run in tandem with the collider's other work -- and who knows? Mankind may soon be on its way to the stars at near-light speeds. Let's just hope we figure this out before the robots take over.

[Via Technology Review]

NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"

by Laura June posted Mar 6th 2009 at 3:50AM

NASA's just declared its Kepler spacecraft "ready to launch." In case you're not already in the know on this one, the Kepler's mission will be to jaunt out into space, then watch a massive patch of it for 3.5 years to see if there are any signs of habitable planets similar to Earth. The craft will be looking mostly for planets that revolve around stars similar to the Sun, and it will be able to watch about 100,000 of them continuously, unlike the beleaguered but awesome Hubble telescope. The Kepler has a 0.95-meter diameter telescope, and the project has been in the works for about 25 years. It will finally launch tonight, on a Delta 2 rocket. Check out a few images of the Kepler after the break, hit up NASA's Kepler site for the full details of the mission.

[Thanks, Matthew]

Continue reading NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"

Spaceship "force field" could protect astronauts on trip to Mars

by Donald Melanson posted Nov 4th 2008 at 7:14PM

While there's certainly no shortage of folks working on sending robots to Mars, there's also thankfully a few researchers focusing on making the trip a bit more bearable (and survivable) for us humans, and a group from a consortium of different institutions now say they've made some real progress on that front. Their idea is to use a portable "mini-magnetosphere," which would protect a spacecraft from harmful solar storms and cosmic rays in much the same way the Earth's magnetosphere naturally protects the planet. That is actually an idea that has been around for decades, and was shown last year to be at least theoretically possible, but it has only now been taken beyond the realm of computer simulations. That was apparently possible thanks to the use of an unspecified "apparatus originally built to work on fusion," which allowed researchers to recreate "a tiny piece of the Solar Wind" and confirm that a small "hole" in the wind would indeed be all that would d be necessary to keep astronauts safe. Of course, the leap from the lab to an actual spacecraft is another matter entirely, but the researchers seem to think that there's quite a bit of promise in the idea.

[Via PhysOrg, image courtesy of NASA]

Space radiation knocks Giove-B Galileo satellite into "safe mode"

by Darren Murph posted Oct 1st 2008 at 1:54PM

Safe mode, huh? While we had previously assumed only our clearly cursed PCs could fall into such a dark, dark place, apparently we were badly mistaken. The recently launched Giove-B satellite, which is the second bird launched for Europe's next-gen satnav network, was recently sent into some sort of "safe mode" after being "rocked by a surge of space radiation." Reportedly, said mode halts the satellite's mission activities and forces it to "concentrate on keeping its batteries topped up by ensuring its solar panels are properly aligned with the sun." Thankfully, the poor Giove-B was able to resume its frolicking in outer space around a fortnight after being blasted, though we hear if it had been just a tad worse, ground control would've had a real mess on their hands with the Blue Screen of Death.

The Professor: Victorian heat sinks, new spacecraft, alien-language translators

by Joshua Topolsky posted Apr 20th 2008 at 6:06PM

The Professor rounds up a handful of interesting and informative gadget-related science stories from the week and presents them in an easily digestible liquid form.

Having trouble keeping your fingers, thumbs, or eyeballs on the pulse of modern science? Do you find yourself in the throes of panic due to misunderstandings in molecular goings-on? Did the latest aircar, split atom, or robotic insectoid go buzzing over your head before you had time to ready a response? Don't worry friends, The Professor is here to help. Though not an actual scientist, professor, or even a college graduate, he can help guide you through the cascading, complicated, and spasmodic visionary vistas of human invention and achievement as smoothly as a hot knife descending into softened butter.

Continue reading The Professor: Victorian heat sinks, new spacecraft, alien-language translators

Deadly blast rocks Virgin Galactic rocket test

by Darren Murph posted Jul 27th 2007 at 10:58AM

This week is quickly becoming a tough one for the aerospace industry, as just a day after NASA reported tampering on an ISS bound computer, an explosion at the Mojave Air and Space Port has claimed two lives and seriously injured four others. The blast reportedly occurred during a "test of a new rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo -- a spaceship being built for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company." According to a spokeswoman for the spaceport, the blast was "on a remote pad" at an airport home to Scaled Composite (which is the builder of the first private manned rocket to reach space), but the firm's founder Burt Rutan wasn't in attendance when the "cold fire test" went awry.

'Refrigerator-sized' device to be heaved into space

by Darren Murph posted Jul 20th 2007 at 11:06PM

If you thought hoisting a giant banana above Texas was outrageous, you may indeed chuckle to learn that a 1,400-pound refrigerator-sized container of ammonia will be jettisoned from the International Space Station next week. On July 23rd, to be precise, Expedition 15 crew member Clayton Anderson will have the, um, privilege of heading outside in order to toss "two large hunks of unneeded equipment towards Earth," and once ejected, they will be tracked by NASA for an entire year until they finally begin to enter the atmosphere. Notably, officials are still not sure where the debris will land just yet, but if you happen to find your fridge replaced with a partially disintegrated (albeit similarly sized) container of fetid material in the next year or two, you'll know exactly what went awry.

[Image courtesy of MSNBC]

Space Adventures offering $100 million trip to space

by Darren Murph posted Jul 19th 2007 at 7:43PM

While there's long since been ways to get a piece of your mind (or your best Photoshop effort) launched into space, getting your person up there isn't exactly feasible if your pay stub isn't stamped by NASA. Now, however, Space Adventures is looking to hoist a pair of untrained civilians into space in 2008 and 2009 aboard a Soyuz craft, and the firm will soon be selling seats for the low, low price of $100 million apiece. The Lunar Mission will eventually bring you "to the other side of the moon," and while we're sure the itinerary is quite detailed considering the price of admission, the firm isn't dolling out too much more until you prove your bank account is stocking the required dough.

[Thanks, Yossi]

ASTRO, NextSat reunite once more as Orbital Express concludes

by Darren Murph posted Jul 5th 2007 at 8:12AM

It seems like it was just yesterday when ASTRO and NextSat took to the ~~skies~~ galaxy in hopes of making their creators proud, but now the time has come for the two to wind down and sip exotic liquids from an umbrella-adorned glass. Thankfully, this story has somewhat of a gleeful ending, though it wasn't looking so rosy just days ago; on June 27th, the two parted ways and managed to drift some seven-kilometers apart before ASTRO used its onboard camera system (and a bit of help from ground control) to navigate back to NextSat, where it then proceeded to give its space-bound buddy a theoretical noogie. Sadly, this final scenario marks the final test in DARPA's Orbital Express demonstration, which means that the two machines now have an ominous decommission plan to look forward to.

[Via NewScientist]

Experimental space hotel hurtled into orbit

by Darren Murph posted Jun 29th 2007 at 2:35PM

Although we're not quite ready to pony up for a ticket to space just yet, billionaire Robert Bigelow is thinking way into the future by trialing a space hotel. Dubbed Genesis II, the inflatable module could eventually be used as a "hotel in space" or double as a manned space station, and considering that it only inflates once it settles in orbit, the cost of launching is substantially decreased. The experimental craft was successfully launched on board a Russian rocket, and has since established communications and "beamed back a series of images of its expanding solar panels." This endeavor is just the beginning, however, as Bigelow envisions a "full-scale space hotel" to be named Nautilus, and if you're interested in helping out (and making $50 million on the side), you've got three years to "design a craft capable of carrying five people to a height of 250 miles."

[Image courtesy of Bigelow Aerospace]

When good toys go bad VI: baby monitor swipes NASA shuttle feed

by Darren Murph posted Jun 15th 2007 at 2:23AM

Looks like Summer Infant has a whole lot of explaining to do after one of its baby monitors has reportedly been able to "pick up black-and-white video from inside the space shuttle Atlantis." A Chicago-based mother probably had uncomfortable flashbacks to Signs after her newly purchased monitoring system chose to broadcast video of the mission right on the screen, but a NASA spokeswoman has already deflated hope that it was somehow coming directly from the shuttle. Apparently, a live feed is also available on NASA's website, which is leading investigators to focus on more earthly origins -- the mom, however, will probably just cancel her cable and keep on watching intently "to see what happens next."

[Thanks, Joe]

NASA's Shuttle Launch Experience thrill ride simulates shuttle blast off

by Darren Murph posted May 26th 2007 at 8:24AM

While just being in the presence of a full scale Gundam makes it worth the price of admission, we'd speculate that talking a stroll in the Land Walker would fall more into the thrill ride category. Of course, rocketing from ground zero into outer space takes things (almost) to another ~~level~~ galaxy, and that's precisely what NASA's Shuttle Launch Experience gives you a taste of. The $60 million attraction opened up yesterday to a team of nearly 40 astronauts, some of which reportedly said that the ride managed to best actual training simulators in terms of sheer realism. Apparently, the ride takes passengers through a simulated shuttle launch, and utilizes 13-channels of surround sound, rumbling seats, and an 84-inch HD screen to terrorize (in a good way) riders. Granted, we'd have no idea what cruising around at 17,500 miles-per-hour feels like, but for folks visiting the Kennedy Space Center, feel free to chime in if you can put it into words.

[Via Wired]

University of Washington's Raven to try surgery in simulated spacecraft

by Darren Murph posted Apr 19th 2007 at 5:46PM

If you thought ASTRO and NextSat were the only two autonomous robots frolicking around in testing environments, Raven would certainly beg to differ, as NASA has recently announced that the University of Washington's mobile surgical robot will soon be off to tackle surgical tasks whilst underwater. The 12th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations test will see the mechanical MD pick up the tools in a simulated spacecraft submerged near Key Largo, Florida, where the "mission will test current technology for sending remote-controlled surgical robotic systems into space." Thanks to a combination of wired and wireless networks, a trio of seasoned veterans back in Seattle will be dictating the movements remotely, as the bot attempts to "suture a piece of rubber and move blocks from one spindle to another." Interestingly, there was no word on whether Raven was scheduled to pick up the night shift at Seattle Grace upon its return from the depths.

[Via MedLaunches]

Ill-fated Mars Global Surveyor has human error to blame

by Darren Murph posted Apr 15th 2007 at 12:30PM

While we've no idea how much the Mars Global Surveyor actually cost to construct, launch, and manage whilst hovering around in space, it's entirely likely that a single human error wiped out even more than was initially lost by the Alaska Department of Revenue earlier this year. Sad to say, galaxy geeks everywhere now have a scapegoat to direct their wrath at, as a review board of the mishap found that "a single command (root@mars-surveyor: rm -rf /) that oriented the spacecraft's main communications antenna was sent to the wrong address," subsequently leading to a cataclysmic series of events that finally dismantled its communication system. Interestingly, the command caused the befuddled craft to think that one of its solar panels was "stuck," which eventually led to an autonomous decision to enter "safe mode," followed by a complete shutdown of the unit's onboard batteries. Intelligently, the LA Times report neglected to mention any specific culprit, and hey, living with the guilt of destroying the machine that showed us so much of the Red Planet is probably punishment enough.

[Via Slashdot]

ASTRO satellite to autonomously move objects to NextSat

by Darren Murph posted Apr 9th 2007 at 9:01AM

Don't say we didn't warn you, as just days after ASTRO and NextSat successfully completed an autonomous fuel transfer whilst orbiting, the thoughtful duo is already looking forward to the next big challenge. As Scenario 0 operation trials continue, the ASTRO satellite will utilize its "ten-foot-long robotic arm to move objects to NextSat," the first of which will purportedly be a "spare battery transfer" that will be "snatched from ASTRO and plugged into NextSat." Reportedly, this very battery will be the focal point of a number of future handoffs, and a "secondary sensor processing computer" will eventually be offloaded to NextSat as well if the arm cooperates. Of course, these relatively minor exchanges don't mark the end of the work week for these two, as a number of future scenarios look to provide increasingly difficult challenges for "mating" the two machines. Hey, we've already got robotic rights in the works, so we're looking that way for guidance about handling these newfangled (and slightly awkward) mechanical relationships, cool?

[Via Slashdot]