Those pesky Soviets...er Russians and there socialist propoganda...er democratic...er dictatorial...er whatever they've got for a government and its pesky propoganda.

The Buran  shuttle itself, otherwise, is quite similar to the U.S shuttle, it is, however, more advanced in the sense that unlike the U.S shuttle it can be piloted unmanned solely by computer, completing even complex two week missions with no-one on board.

To summarise... Buran-Energia was in many ways an improvement on the US Shuttle system, with a much more flexible design, even if sadly, it is not the system that is currently in operation.

The U.S. Shuttle System Vs. Russia's Buran-Energia

heh.

eh...

Wait.  I got lost there somewhere.  Doesn't something have to actually DO something before it can be declared better?  I mean we are up to Shuttle Mission STS-124.  That should count for something don't you think.  Throw me a bone here people.

There are some awesome pictures over there though.  Like this one.

...static..."This is Major Tom, I'm ready for liftoff, tell my wife I love her."...static.

Sorry about the snark...sorta.

More Official Site: Molniya Research Industrial Corporation.

So I found this link out there on the fabulous intertubes. Teh r0><or (that's translated into "the roxor", [that translates one layer further into "That Rocks!"]).  But I digress...where was I again?

Oh yeah space shuttle.

Well being the proud owner of a 3rd grader and a 1st grader the first section of the document regarding the Space Shuttle that I drilled into was the how-do-they-go-to-the-bathroom section:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-eclss-wcl.html#sts-eclss-wcs

You're welcome.

You can go over the rest of the document here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/

heh:  Ironically named software platform upon which to build your Shuttle OS -

The software programs are written in HAL/S (high-order assembly language/shuttle) especially developed for real-time space flight applications.

This is fascinating.  We have a private Space Race fully underway.

Several companies pursuing several different strategies.  A couple, like Virgin Galactic, are promoting space tourism with a sub-orbital flight.  SpaceX is looking to create ISS capable rockets.  Bigelow is looking create space hotels.

Heinlein would love it right now.

Anyways check out the pictures of the construction of SpaceShip Two.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4256017.html

Turn it up.

Titan’s surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth

"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material—it’s a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Lorenz.

...maybe when we get there we can bring along our big SUV's.

The much maligned International Space Station keeps moving forward oblivious to its critics.  Yesterday the Shuttle Atlantis blasted off with the Columbus Module aboard.

The Columbus module is another science module with the ability to hold 10 racks of scientific experiments.

It is growing and finally becoming a significant platform in space.  I understand the critics that deride its lack of strategic space location.  Its in-between-ness that doesn't help us much to get anywhere else in the solar system.  I understand the critics that bring up the ROI on a manned space station and compare it to one of our probe missions like the Mars Rovers.

I understand all that.

But I believe it provides other benefits:

1. It teaches us how to construct complicated things in space.  What we are learning from the ISS will be crucial for ANY construction we do in space and if you think there won't be much call for that...well I disagree with you.
   
   This has been done over a period of years.  From a broad base of contributors spanning continents, languages, governments.  It's remarkable.
   
2. We continue to learn how to make livable habitats for humans in space.  We need to have this sussed if we are to do any sort of long range trips in the future - Mars anyone?
   
3. There ARE science experiments that can only be performed by humans in space.  The trick is identifying them and prioritizing them.
   
4. It is a manned presence in space.  Do you realize if things just stumble along like this for another 10 years or so that we might enter an era where mankind will always have a representative in space.  And in my opinion there will be increasing numbers of extra-terran humans as the years go on.  Too many people want to explore "out there".

I also think it is flippin' cool.  And in the grand scheme of government and society expenditures the entire space programs of all the world are hobbies.  NASA has had a 12-15 billion dollar budget since the 1980's.  Through all that inflationary time, where the value of its dollars has steadily decreased, it has maintained the program and accomplished significant things.

It will be fascinating to see if the burgeoning commercial space programs will interface with the existing governmental ones.  Stay tuned...

Update: The final volume of the ISS is going to be approximately 1000 cubic meters. It is more than half done but for the sake of argument let's say there is 500 cubic meters of livable volume in orbit right now.

Well according to the awesome intertubes a standard 40 foot shipping container has 67.5 cubic meters of volume inside it.  That means there are the equivalent of 7.5 shipping containers of habitat up there right now and in the end there will be approximately 15 shipping containers of habitable volume (a little less actually but close enough).

Now that is amazing.  The space boys and girls aren't just whistling Dixie.

...Commercial...Space...Station...

Look, I don't mean to keep talking about all this accelerating change and stuff, but I really think we're on the verge of something here.

1. We have Virgin Galactic releasing their spaceship design and preparing for launches at some undetermined time.

2. We have SpaceX developing a new cost effective rocket system with the intent to be the only ISS supportable US based space system at the time the Shuttle fleet is finally grounded.  They have already had two launches and have several scheduled this year.

And now this news from Bigelow.

Bigelow Aerospace and Denver-based United Launch Alliance (ULA) have been working together for over a year studying what it would take to human-rate the Atlas 5 rocket. Industry sources said Bigelow Aerospace is ready to place an order that includes six launches starting in 2011 to begin assembly and early operation of the new station.

We live in unprecedented times in so many ways this is merely one more manifestation of the change that is taking place all around us.

Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShip Two model.

$200k per trip.

What will be the rate of failure?

What are you chances of getting blowed up?

There are more than 200 people that have already signed up to fly on the SpaceShip Two. I wonder if Branson will fly on one of the early flights. I suppose owing to his nature that he will.

I mean I'm all for space travel and all that, but this is the FIRST commercial spacecraft.  I'm not sure I'd be all fired up to be part of the early adopter crowd in this space.  I think I would prefer to hang back with the pragmatists.

Wait until the statistics get boring and the price comes down a bit...juuuust a bit.

I don't see the benefits in this plan: Space leaders work to replace lunar base with manned asteroid missions

Well let me re-phrase that, I see the benefits, but I don't think they're compelling enough to make a political argument.  Which is the battle the space program needs to always fight.  And in general they suck at it.  They're engineers, not politicians.

What they need to realize is the the whole man-in-space thing is a tough sell to congress.  And the only things that spark the political will when it comes to the whole man-in-space thing is big mountaintops to summit.

Asteroids are small and pointless.  Small foothills in the landscape of space.

The MOON!

MARS!

Those are marketing messages a politician can sell.

So my space program engineer side says, "duh, the moon doesn't help us get to Mars much."  But my congressional lobbyist side says, "Gimme something I can sell to joe sixpack, 'cause the asteroid belt ain't it."

If it was MY space program I'd be spending way more money than 15 Billion, but it isn't mine, and that is the budget and you can't do everything you want and you HAVE to sell the program.

Sell the moon, sell Mars!

Don't try and sell small rocks with names like numbers...it won't work.

2007 WD5 Mars Collision Effectively Ruled Out - Impact Odds now 1 in 10,000

Looks like it will miss by at least 4000 kilometers and most likely by somewhere more in the neighborhood of 26,000 kilometers.

Oh well.

What do we hope to learn?

Well for starters scientists have never had the opportunity to view an asteroid impact as it is happening.  They were able to watch the Shoemaker-Levy comet strike Jupiter, but that is a different type of observation entirely.

Here we are talking about a planet strike.  There it was an impact into the atmosphere.  For the potential Mars impact we have two ground based rovers and an orbiting satellite.  For the Jupiter impact...none of that.

This is historic.

According to the latest data the likelihood of an actual strike keeps going up.  From 1-in-75 down to now a 1-in-25 chance, or approximately a 4% chance.

LA-Times Story

They've been too busy to update the website since August.  And by busy I mean BUSY!

Report from Elon Musk.

Among the many items listed, all of them impressive, is this one that caught my eye.

A few months ago, NASA approved the critical design review (CDR) for the initial flight of our Dragon spacecraft on the Falcon 9 rocket booster. F9/Dragon is intended to provide crew and cargo service to the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle retires in 2010, so passing this review was no small matter. Apart from the flight itself, this was arguably the most important mark of progress in the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

SpaceX is in a unique position.  A place and time in space exploration that is unlikely to come again.  They have a project plan that aligns with a demand from NASA that no-one else will be able to meet.  If they can stay on schedule or near schedule SpaceX could become one of the if not THE private space launch company for the U.S.

Wow!

Overall, the Falcon 9 program remains on track for demonstration of cargo delivery to the International Space Station by the end of 2009.

Go read the whole thing.

Carnival of Space #31

Cool roundup of space news, go check it out.

To paraphrase Austin Powers - "Yay Capitalism!"

I think there is a remarkable group of efforts going on right now in the world of space technologies.  And all of it is being spearheaded by private companies.  Not by huge governments.

Where NASA is struggling to set a roadmap and plan for hundreds of different missions, here we have small nimble private corporations creating solutions to problems.

Here is Armadillo Aerospace attempting to capture the Lunar Lander X-Prize.

They're sponsored by nVidia, which to me seems a cool corporate investment.

Google is in the act as well.

The next couple of decades could be very interesting.  I would like to wholeheartedly encourage the multitude of high-tech billionaires that read the Rivet to invest in the emerging private space race.

C'mon you already have 3 Ferraris, what's left?  How about a moon base.

Related articles: SpaceX Flight Review

Just plain cool:

A java app that displays the ground passing under the Landsat satellite as it is traveling over it (sometimes it is a replay if there is not a satellite over the US at the time you are watching).  It scrolls smoothly, compiled from images made before.

So I've read this great book just lately called: A Man On The Moon. It's really cool.  The author, Andrew Chaikin, does a great job. He interviewed a lot of the astronauts and gives a great telling of the adventure.

I highly recommend it.

Well one of the subjects that he covers in the book is how the first spacecraft were very much like floating latrines.  The capture and disposal of calls-of-nature was a rather crude amalgamation of poorly functioning technology.

I was curious how this might have changed over time.  I mean there are now a significant number of women going up into space as well.  Some of the technology described in the book about the Apollo mission just wouldn't work.  I mean...well...how do they do it?

 Here is a good article from the BBC that describes it clearly.

How do you 'go' in space?

So now you know.  Thought you might like to have that question answered.

Very interesting article over at TCS: [A Modern Day Erie Canal]

The premise being that a functioning space elevator would have a similar impact on space exploration, commerce, migration, and general usage that the Erie Canal had on New York City, New York State, the United states as a whole and in the end the world.

The one point that the author of the piece doesn't hammer home enough is the impact that the Canal had on NY City.  Prior to completion of the canal NYC was the smaller, less important city when compared to Boston.  Soon after its completion, NYC became the hub of the entire eastern seaboard and never looked back.

The Erie Canal alone was what drove NYC to prominence.

A completed Space Elevator at the disposal of the US will only solidify the US preeminence  in the world economy for the rest of the 21st Century.

In honor of the launch of discovery today and marking the first time in history that a woman has commanded both the space shuttle and the international space station at the same time, here is a great video of a shuttle launch from the viewpoint of the cockpit.

Wow.  The rockin' and rollin' inside the cockpit is freaky.  I also think it is interesting how you can hear it get quieter right after they pass through Max Q (maximum air pressure during launch).

Great video.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11oct_undularbore.htm

cool.

And then, why then my dear travelers through this universe of ours, we will have the mind blowing space traveling abilities of the far future.  I speak of the awe inspiring year of 2001.

At least that's how science fiction predicted it.  Funny we're still driving combustion engine cars and the grand total of people who have been in space is still less than 1 thousand.  (I guess that is a lot more than 1, but it is still less than a billion).

Self-sufficient space habitat designed

Now we hear about a "new" set of technologies being refined down under in Oz. [linky]

Devised by an international team of 30 space scientists, Luna Gaia would be a 'closed-loop' environment, meaning that almost all material within the system is recycled with very little need for input from outside sources. The current design caters for a team of 12 astronauts under isolation for up to three years.

This doesn't sound Earth shattering except it is a skill set that we do need to have fully understood before we can successfully deploy a space colony. Shipping up a couple of cases of macaroni and cheese gets a bit prohibitive at thousands of dollars per pound of payload.

A lunar base is unlikely to ever be 100 per cent self-sufficient, said Chartres, because no atmosphere is completely safe from leaks and it could not provide humans with all the nutrients that they need to survive.

Luna Gaia...ugh.  Why not call it Lunar Colony Test Facility? 

NASA's Centennial Challenges to Advance Technologies

"The innovations from these competitions will help support advances in aerospace materials and structures, new approaches to robotic and human planetary surface operations, and even futuristic concepts," said Ken Davidian, program manager for NASA's Centennial Challenges, Headquarters, Washington.

More info here.

http://www.spaceward.org/

Ok so it's only for three people, but Bigelow Aerospace is committed to having their Sundancer module launched before 2010.

This is private enterprise at its best.  Let's review.

Paul Allen is involved with Space Ship One / Scaled composites.
Richard Branson also.
...and Northrop Grumman buys the company.

Elon Musk is working hard with SpaceX on the Falcon project.  Successfully launching a Falcon earlier this year.  Impressive in most accounts.  He has revenue coming in from scheduled launches of satellites (whether that covers his costs is unlikely).

And now we have the ambitious plan of Bigelow Aerospace.  This is an unprecedented influx of private industry into the space exploration realm.

The design of the Bigelow modules are very innovative...they inflate once in space.  As long as the interior is sufficiently safe, this is a very cool evolution.  Space stations cubic interior space would no longer be limited by the carrying volume of the launch spacecraft. 

If it is scalable, it would make vastly bigger constructs possible in space.

More info: [cosmic blog ]

SpaceX has just posted its review of its latest launch. The key parts of the review is the impressive job of "Rapid response capability – launched within 70 minutes after hot launch abort". And lower in the anomalies wherein it discusses the upper stage control anomaly. It appears that was due to Liquid Oxygen sloshing in its tank.

Upper Stage Control Anomaly
An oscillation appeared in the upper stage control system approximately 90 seconds into the burn. This instability grew in pitch and yaw axes initially and after about 30 seconds also induced a noticeable roll torque. This roll torque eventually overcame the 2nd stage’s roll control thrusters and centrifuged the propellants, causing flame-out of the Kestrel engine. There is high confidence that LOX slosh was the primary contributor to this instability. This conclusion has been verified by third party industry experts that have reviewed the flight telemetry.

Falcon 1 did not use slosh baffles in the second stage tanks, as simulations done prior to flight indicated the slosh instability was a low risk. Given that in space there are no gust or buffet effects, the simulations did not take into account a perturbation, as occurred due to the hard slew maneuver after stage separation. Extensive 2nd stage slosh baffles will be included in all future flights, as is currently the case with the 1st stage.

Installing baffles will increase weight though...

Go go Elon.

I was talking about the scale of the solar system with one of my kids and I wanted to find a picture of the Sun taken from Voyager to show how small it was.  I came across this picture.

1970's technology meets 2007.

1970's - Voyager:
Here we have one of the shining stars of the NASA space program, Voyager, sending back to Earth a composite picture of our solar system with all the planets out to Neptune captured in one amalgamation.

Brilliant.

2007 - Google:
And here I am able to go clickety click click and view the fantastic image on my own machine.

Also brilliant.

The vast store of all knowledge that is available to any person with an internet connection is immense, ubiquitous, stupefying and already taken for granted. 

My kids will never know anything different.  Will they ever have the need to open a printed encyclopedia? 

Will their research ever involve going to the school library "stacks" to find a specific tidbit of knowledge squirled away on page 743 from some obscure research scientist from Peru?

Will they even have the need to learn the Dooey Decimal System?

I would argue "no" to all three of those questions.