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#28726 Re: Human missions » Hubble Mistake **2** - Action still Needed » 2005-01-24 05:32:35
There are also seasonal or angular viewing restrictions for Earth based telescopes, which space telescopes do not have IMO this means we need to build more for space. Also having a base or mini ISS station to keep fixing them and or to give them needed upgrades in there orbital local is a plus.
More places to do science from and more places to go will IMO mean a lowering of launch cost in time.
#28727 Re: Interplanetary transportation » How do "we" get back from mars? - for my essay » 2005-01-21 21:11:21
If I recall the flight from Earth to Mars has a few months worth of windows to try within. Why only one window coming back? ???
#28728 Re: Interplanetary transportation » Just Cancel The Shuttle Program - Not in five years, do it right now. » 2005-01-21 21:08:18
Huge amount of other documents at the link on the referred to page but before I can even get to that I need to decipher the alphabet soup in the second paragraph at space Ref.
#28729 Re: Not So Free Chat » A380 airbus - monster of the skies » 2005-01-21 14:41:20
What about metal fatique in time, for something so large?
#28730 Re: Unmanned probes » Bush adminisetration kills Hubble - Funding cut for rescue mission » 2005-01-21 14:34:07
Sorry you are late, already being discussed in the hubble thread.
#28731 Re: Human missions » Hubble Mistake **2** - Action still Needed » 2005-01-21 14:32:24
If the military needs a proving ground for Earth to space weaponry well here is there chance,,, or any other nation for that fact. They could practice that is a small asteriod and try to blast it out of the sky...
#28732 Re: Human missions » Hubble Mistake **2** - Action still Needed » 2005-01-21 13:36:27
Well the cost of servicing the Hubble has raised the eyebrows of concern and the White House Cuts Hubble Servicing Mission from 2006 Budget Request and directed NASA to focus solely on de-orbiting the popular spacecraft at the end of its life, "according to government and industry sources." So how much of the allocated funds remain for the de-orbit mission or should we just let it come down where ever it may.
#28733 Re: Human missions » NASA Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committ - Planning the future. » 2005-01-21 08:02:17
We always seem to come back to how much it cost Nasa to do the good things that it can and why does it cost so much.
Well here is an example of what can be done for less.
Students' satellites win right to space flight
A team of 17 graduate and undergraduate students, and three faculty advisers, were given the challenge of planning and building a satellite, weighing less than 30 kilograms. They were given a budget of $100,000 and two years to complete the task.
The result was the Formation Autonomy Spacecraft with Thrust, Relvav and Crosslink (FASTRAC) - twin satellites in a closed, dust-free environment.
Microdischarge Plasma Thruster
The rocket will use superheated helium to create a thrust only as strong as a light breeze, but with persistent force will propel and maneuver the satellites once they're in orbit.
#28734 Re: Not So Free Chat » Alternative Space ventures - are we on the road to cheaper access » 2005-01-21 07:48:40
Cape launch site could host new commercial rocket fleet
SpaceX is moving forward with plans for the pad 36 complex.
This makes good sense to use the Atlas facility for a couple of reasons as the number of launches from them have diminished for Lockheed and it would already be setup for the same fuel types.
"Until the formal process is complete we cannot say the pad is ours," Musk told Spaceflight Now in an interview this week. "But it's my understanding that there is no obstacle to us obtaining the launch pad. Unless something very unusual happens, we should receive it."
The two-stage, small-satellite launcher Falcon 1 will call pad 36A its Florida home. That is Complex 36's northern pad, which has been active since 1962. The larger, more powerful Falcon 5 is headed for the site's pad 36B that entered service in 1965.
Edit more news stories:
SpaceX starting small as it dreams of grand plans
Gee, not much more than a soyuz or maybe even a progress.
SpaceX has been selling its small Falcon 1 rocket for $5.9 million and the beefed up Falcon 5 for $15.8 million, plus launch site Range fees, which is significantly cheaper than other American rockets available today with comparable lifting capacity.
#28735 Re: Human missions » Hubble Mistake **2** - Action still Needed » 2005-01-21 06:18:22
Thanks on the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope project at The Johns Hopkins University. This was the first that I had heard of its existance.
It appears to have flown twice but is it still in orbit? ???
Its abilities where to extend the sensitivity beyound that of hubble in that band.
Just think if we had to build complete brand new ground base telescopes every 5 or 10 years rather than retrofitting them.
To save Hubble is only for the science that it can produce while another better telescope or multiple telescopes are built for the specific studies which are needed. It would appear that Nasa is headed to specialized wave length telescopes rather than that to which the Hubble is in there replacement efforts. A more universal do almost all the spectrum type is what Hubble is.
Making a short term fix of only 5 years is not a fix In My Book.
#28736 Re: Unmanned probes » Opportunity & Spirit **8** - ...More... » 2005-01-20 12:46:16
Now do the rovers have another year of problem free use or must it go into hibernation for the winter since it has seen its shadow... 
In addition to the wheels the next item will be the battery that will slowly not hold a full charge capacity for use as it builds up cell membrane barriers internally, from the dimmer days it has recieved in the collection of solar energy by those slightly dusty panels.
#28737 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Wind mill generator on Titan? » 2005-01-20 12:02:52
Yes, true but that does not stop us from using the air for free here on Earth at the cost of only having so much fuel on board. Yes, it would have a short life but so would most things that cold...
#28738 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target » 2005-01-20 10:59:59
This makes the second BAE Systems radiation-hardened microprocessors The RAD750 Microprocessor was manufactured at its Manassas, Va., facility. It will process and help return the data of the probe's collision to scientists on Earth.
BAE Systems has a 20-year history of providing radiation-hardened solutions for U.S. space programs. Its RAD6000 computers were installed on each of the still-broadcasting Mars Rovers - the only control and data computers aboard the two Rovers - to execute flight, landing and exploration operations on Mars.
#28739 Re: Human missions » NASA Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committ - Planning the future. » 2005-01-20 10:41:55
The above information has been updated with membership list on the NasaWatch site.
#28740 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Wind mill generator on Titan? » 2005-01-20 10:06:51
You could send a plane for the next probe, just send O2 and scoop the rest you need for fuel from the atmosphere until you run out of O2. View as much as you can while the supply of O2 last. Then when it is all gone Crash and burn would be how it would end.
#28741 Re: Human missions » More ISS hardball - How does this affect US vision? » 2005-01-20 08:07:47
Well the Russian and the ESA have been hard at work hammering out the agreement for the Russian Rockets to Fly From Equator from the new launch pad and other infrastructure on French Guyana's Kourou Island.
#28742 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » New Solar Power Technology » 2005-01-20 06:58:50
On the note of power here is an article Lunar colony to run on moon dust well not actually but it has been a SIMULATED moon dust component which has been used to make key component of a working solar cell. The idea of getting robotic rovers to build solar cells entirely out of lunar dust or "regolith" was put forth in an article in the New Scientist, 24 June 2000, p 14.
fine, grey powder is half silicon dioxide, with the remainder made up of a blend of oxides of 12 metals, including aluminium, magnesium and iron. The team reasoned that this mix contains all the elements necessary to build a solar panel, and suggested that robots trundling over the lunar surface could melt regolith, refine it and then lay down a glassy substrate on which solar cells could be deposited. The rover- solar-powered of course- would leave a trail of solar panels in its wake.
The team's experiment showed, for example, that the glassy re-formed regolith is smooth enough to serve as a substrate for the micrometre-thick layers of the solar cell, and tough enough not to crack. Such flaws in the base of a solar cell would wreck it by bringing oppositely charged electrodes into contact with each other, causing short circuits. For future tests, they plan to work out how to make the semiconductor parts of the solar cell using silicon extracted from the regolith.
#28743 Re: Human missions » The need for a Moon direct *2* - ...continue here. » 2005-01-20 06:51:08
On the note of power here is an article Lunar colony to run on moon dust well not actually but it has been a SIMULATED moon dust component which has been used to make key component of a working solar cell. The idea of getting robotic rovers to build solar cells entirely out of lunar dust or "regolith" was put forth in an article in the New Scientist, 24 June 2000, p 14.
fine, grey powder is half silicon dioxide, with the remainder made up of a blend of oxides of 12 metals, including aluminium, magnesium and iron. The team reasoned that this mix contains all the elements necessary to build a solar panel, and suggested that robots trundling over the lunar surface could melt regolith, refine it and then lay down a glassy substrate on which solar cells could be deposited. The rover- solar-powered of course- would leave a trail of solar panels in its wake.
The team's experiment showed, for example, that the glassy re-formed regolith is smooth enough to serve as a substrate for the micrometre-thick layers of the solar cell, and tough enough not to crack. Such flaws in the base of a solar cell would wreck it by bringing oppositely charged electrodes into contact with each other, causing short circuits. For future tests, they plan to work out how to make the semiconductor parts of the solar cell using silicon extracted from the regolith.
#28744 Re: Human missions » Hubble Mistake **2** - Action still Needed » 2005-01-20 06:18:08
If the norm is to repair with the same item that will only fail again within the same time frame, IMO do not do the repair. But if the item is repaired with an enhance version that will last long by all means get the job done.
As for the recycling question does it make sense to keep replacing the telescopes every 10 years, why not 15 or even longer. Does the technology evolve that quickly to justify this.
#28745 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » New Discoveries *4* - ...Solar System, Deep Space, cont'd » 2005-01-19 13:55:59
I think the difference would be that at some point more heat is given off than it would recieve from a nieghboring star.
#28746 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens III - Continued from previous » 2005-01-19 12:08:20
Interesting comparison of size of titan and or own moon is little more than a 1000Km and that other than the absence of Oxygen Titans atmosphere is very much earth like.
#28747 Re: Human missions » NASA Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committ - Planning the future. » 2005-01-18 13:13:34
Good question as the editor of NasaWatch put it? ???
Roadmap Committee Membership Remains a Mystery
The following NASA Strategic Roadmap meetings occur in less than a week:- NASA Robotic and Human Lunar Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (24-25 Jan)
- NASA Universe Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (25-26 Jan)
- NASA Earth Science and Applications From Space Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (26-27 Jan)The following meetings occur in less than two weeks:
- NASA Solar System Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (3-4 Feb)
- NASA Exploration Transportation System Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (3-4 Feb)Yet when you go to the official NASA website for this Roadmap effort the only committee whose membership has been publicly announced is the Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committee which held its meeting on 4-5 January.
Who is on these committees? You'd think that someone at NASA would know since the attendees have to be making travel plans.
#28748 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens III - Continued from previous » 2005-01-18 11:24:39
Could the white colored areas be Ice capped elevational changes and the darker areas liquid methane?
#28749 Re: Human missions » New X Prize Sets Sights - Science, Technology and Social Solutions » 2005-01-18 10:53:04
Race for Next Space Prize Ignites With a mighty roar that could be heard even through the concrete walls of the blockhouse at a rocket-testing facility here, a Space Exploration Technologies rocket engine called Merlin blazed to life Friday. The camera views on the monitors in the control room trembled as the engine shook the ground of the empty Texas plain with 73,000 pounds of thrust -- enough power to send a 1,500-pound payload into orbit.
This article discusses the alternative space companies in particular the Falcon and the virgin air sub orbital.
#28750 Re: Life on Mars » (Non-)Official Life on Mars Poll - Does it exist? » 2005-01-18 10:17:18
Other post was large so here is a continuation:
Chip sniffs out the building blocks of life
This article contains more of the same but gives more details into how the instrument will work in order to find life signs.
Dying to detect
A probe carrying the device would scoop up a sample of soil and place it into the MOD, which would heat up the sample to 500°C. This heat should cause any organic molecules in the rock to turn to gas, which could then be condensed onto a cold, dye-covered surface.The dye attaches to a particular reactive group, present on all amino acids, so if any of these molecules are present they become labelled. Any fluorescence seen by the detector indicates the presence of an amino acid. At this stage the MOA takes over. Through a series of tiny pumps and channels, the analyser can separate out different amino acids.
The finish of the article talks of changes that would be implemented aboard the next generation rover that would go in 2009 to mars.
Instead of the Mars Organic Analyzer, the roving Mars Science Laboratory will carry the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite to detect organic compounds. It uses a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer - an advanced version of the device flown on the Viking landers. In addition, a laser will vaporise soil so its molecular composition can be analysed.