This is an item that holds double interest.

1. It is a cool display of the Shuttle Launch profile with three items in view on the page.  The Shuttle STS-116 launch video and three telemetry data displays: Speed, Altitude, Downrange distance.

2. It is an implementation of cool HTML 5.0 specification page markup.  The video is embedded in the page as a <video> tag (not the <object> tag nor the <embed> tag) and the graphs are all implemented by the <canvas> tag (again no flash).

This is all really cool stuff.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

We at techRivet aims to please.

This will be the final servicing mission performed by the Space Shuttle.  After this one or the other spacecraft, Hubble or Shuttle, will be decommissioned before a servicing mission 5 will be necessary.

Nasa: Servicing Mission 4 Essentials

What a remarkable piece of engineering the Hubble has been.  One of the true intersections between science and engineering and art and even perhaps spirituality.  If you have looked at the images from Hubble and haven't felt humbled at some point along the way, well, you ain't no geek.

Hubble's triumphs continue to accumulate thanks to a unique design that allows astronauts to repair and upgrade the telescope while it remains in orbit. Repairs keep the telescope functioning smoothly, while upgrades to the instruments bring a slew of new discoveries and science.

Review of the Servicing 4 mission. 

This is fascinating...

At Goddard engineers and astronauts work together developing tools and techniques to resurrect two malfunctioning science instruments currently on orbit inside Hubble.

Of course the astronauts are integrally involved in the training, I keep forgetting they are no longer still rocket jockeys but engineers and physicists.

Detail of what a servicing mission entails.  Cool video from the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC).

and crew training.

...why space poop of course.

This cute short video actually has one of the most succinct explanations of how a space toilet works.

Interesting article over at the Washington Post by Michael Benson: It's All Decked Out. Give It Somewhere to Go.

His premise is we already have a habitable platform built in Earth orbit, the International Space Station, why not give it a little boost and make it an interplanetary spacecraft.

Cool idea.

The one issue he does not bring up is the radiation exposure on humans outside of the Van Allen belt.  The Space Station is not built to protect astronauts against the harsh radiation between planets but relies on the strong protection of the Earth's magnetic field.

...but besides that tiny detail, fairly compelling idea.

Reminds me of a cycler as proposed by Buzz Aldrin: Mars cycler, which could sail on the low energy pathways between the planets: Interplanetary Transport Network

I vote Do It!

So.  heh.  Did someone have trouble reading the directions?

The toilet is breaking up on the space station and there is only one.  There isn't a hardware store nearby where you can go buy a new wax seal you know,.  If you need a replacement for it, it's gotta be flown up there.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After being rushed in from Russia, a toilet pump was loaded into space shuttle Discovery on Thursday just in time for this weekend's liftoff to the international space station, where the lone commode is acting up. - [yahoo news]

I wonder if it was small enough to be considered carry-on or if they had to check it.

The toilet isn't completely broken luckily.  Just the urine pump.

While the three space station residents are eager to see the Kibo lab, the bathroom situation has become a more pressing issue. For the past week, the two Russian and one American men have had to periodically manually flush the urine side of the Russian-built toilet. The job takes 10 minutes and requires two people.

Just reminds me of the quotes about the Apollo capsules being flying outhouses.

One of the Apollo 7 astronauts said the smell was so bad it woke him out of a deep sleep. - [linky]

ick.

So this goes down as one of those "if-you-can-think-of-it, someone-has-already-made-a-website-for-it" things on the Internet.

I wanted to put together a blog entry detailing all the locations of all the space launch facilities in the world and well wouldn't you know it someone has already done so.

Check out this link.

It's pretty cool.  Every Lat|Long listed is linked to a google map (I woulda used maps.live.com but no big deal).

There were two separate articles that are two sides to the same coin that came out this week.

On the 12th Popular Mechanics had this article: NASA Makes Space U-Turn, Opening Arms to Private Industry which spoke of NASA changing its policy.

NASA officials insist that the budding commercial spacecraft fleet represents the only way the United States can realize its dreams of solar-system conquest on schedule and at an affordable cost.

Wow!  This is great news, it opens the door to the protagonist[s] in our second article from Aviation Week: SpaceX Claims Crew Transfer Ability By 2011.

techrivet.com has reported in the past the business plan that SpaceX and it's principal Elon Musk are pursuing.  They want to be the private space delivery system for NASA and other customers.  Specifically the only ones capable of the heavy lifting needed to supply the ISS.

It appears his plan is well on its way to fruition.

Based on a sub-compact car the little Reliant Robin.

Excellent.

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.

Turn it up.

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.

Carnival of Space #31

Cool roundup of space news, go check it out.

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.

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.