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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.
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
On March 19th of 2008, Arthur C. Clarke passed away. Earlier in that day [Earth time] there was an event, an explosion the likes of which has never been witnessed in human history. A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye. NASA Satellite Detects Naked-Eye Explosion Halfway Across Universe It was a gamma ray burst of such magnitude that it was visible to the naked eye from across half the universe. Later that evening, the Very Large Telescope in Chile and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas measured the burst's redshift at 0.94. A redshift is a measure of the distance to an object. A redshift of 0.94 translates into a distance of 7.5 billion light years, meaning the explosion took place 7.5 billion years ago For those following along at home, that is CRAAAZY far away. Well this is all mind-boggling, but now there is an effort to get the event named after Arthur C. Clarke. Why not the “Clarke Event?” Sounds worthy to me.
We gotta keep this telescope operational: Hubble discovers 67 new gravitationally lensed galaxies What is gravitational lensing? Gravitational lensing occurs when light travelling toward us from a distant galaxy is magnified and distorted as it encounters a massive object between the galaxy and us. These gravitational lenses often allow astronomers to peer much farther back into the early universe than they would normally be able to do. Here is a cool video of an Einstein Ring. An Einstein ring is a complete circle image of a background galaxy, which is formed when the background galaxy, a massive, foreground galaxy, and the Hubble Space Telescope are all aligned perfectly. Therein creating a complete circle lense effect. So pretty pictures are nice, but what impact do these discoveries have on astro-physics? Well read on dear surfer, read on. ...they can be used to create a census of galaxy masses in the universe to test the predictions of cosmological models. Basically, since we understand how gravity works here, and we can get estimates of galaxy size out there, we can then compare and contrast and see if gravity remains constant from one side of the visible universe to the other.
Because you just can't get a good cup of Earl Gray in orbit. </rimshot> Actually they voted in 1986 to not participate in human space missions. Sensible and boring...oh wait this is England so that makes sense. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1084/1 The article's lede is that Britain might be returning to the human spaceflight arena. But if you read through the whole article you will see it is merely an opinion piece without any basis in fact. Looking at a search on the subject, it appears people bemoan the current status of the lack of Englishmen in space every couple of years. Oh well, space free of Englishmen...I guess we'll all keep drinking our squeeze tubes of coffee.
 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: - 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.
- 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?
- There ARE science experiments that can only be performed by humans in space. The trick is identifying them and prioritizing them.
- 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.
This Poll will be closing tomorrow Jan. 31 so get your vote in if you haven't already done so.
 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.
 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
tags: [ mars | NASA | space]
 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.
 Accelerating change is going on all around us. We see it in entertainment from computer games to movies. We see it in telephones as they keep getting smaller and more feature rich. We see it in cameras and music players and personal GPS devices. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
All of this creeps into our lives and becomes ubiquitous. The changes quickly becomes invisible, expected and, in a weird sort of way, un-important. But accelerating change is also affecting the sciences. For example the hunt for extra-solar planets. The first one discovered was in 1991. Since then there has been a rapid pace of discovery. The bulk of the discoveries essentially done by inference: careful detection of the wobbling of the star around which the planet[s] orbit.  So the point here is that before 1991 we had NO evidence of planets orbiting other stars. In theory we were 100% sure (or so close as to make no difference) that most stars had some planets, but we had no direct evidence. Now there has been over 250 planets identified. But wait that's not all! N ow there is a new technology under development by the Lyot Project, it's goal to create the necessary instrument and associated software to remove starlight from images thus allowing the much fainter planets to be viewed directly. Astronomers will no longer need rely on inference to discover new planets. This would be a remarkable achievement and would allow for a much greater number of planets to be discovered. It would probably also allow for the discovery of Earth like planets and the reading of spectrums from the planets themselves. What would the reactions be if we found a planet with a spectral analysis that matched Earth? Orbit, temperature, water, oxygen?... Would that spur some research into a viable star probe? Just asking... Accelerating change is cool. Sites of interest:
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
 So interplanetary travel...cool yes?
How do we do it? Shane Ross gives a compelling speech about the use of LaGrange points as entry and exit points into orbits of planetary bodies. The Interplanetary Transport Network Essentially there are low energy paths that lead from Earth orbit to L1 or L2. There are then low energy paths that lead from L1 to the Earth-Sun LaGrange point called E1 or E2. And from there more low energy paths to the LaGrange points around other bodies in the solar system. He uses the Genesis project as an example of very low energy orbits. The Genesis project used these low energy pathways to make its way from Earth to L2 and from there to E2 where it stayed and sampled the solar winds for 2 years. It then used the reverse of those paths to make its way back to Earth again. Genesis was able to do all this travel while using "...five hundredths of 1% of the fuel that it takes to get a rocket into Earth orbit." That is remarkable. The major point of this whole speech was summed up early: Once you reach Earth's orbit you are halfway to anywhere. Here is a little lighthearted graphic from the speech defining the low energy pathways as a Metro map. 
Transit stop Professor Ross argues that the Lunar L1 location become a gateway station. It's the best location for a manned space station because: travel time is a matter of days from the Earth, launching craft and maintaining craft from that location is cheap, launching from L1 up to E1 or E2 is cheap and therefore exiting the local Earth system to head to other planets is cheap as well. It becomes the closest rest stop on the interplanetary highway. Can we get into orbit cheaply? So then the remaining hurdle is getting into Earth orbit. If we can make that cheap then the entire process of interplanetary travel becomes inexpensive. What technology are we working on right now that might lower the cost of getting payloads into orbit? Space Elevator. Does it feel like we are on the cusp of a convergence here? If we are able to tie these two sciences together, the engineering feat of a space elevator with the comprehensive knowledge of how to navigate the solar system's "currents", what will the bounds of our exploration be? Cheap Planetary Travel It would no longer require huge chemical rockets to get from Earth to Mars or Jupiter or anywhere for that matter. It would be like nudging a stick out into a stream and watching it float on down to the next stop. Only you would be able to nudge the stick back upstream as well, whenever you wanted. Download and watch the video it's compelling.
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. Update: What other finalist in the entire list of weblog finalists would have an article on space toilets. Once again techRivet breaks the mold.
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.
 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). 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?
 Just an example of accelerating change.
There were rooms and devices in history that could be categorized as planetariums dating back to the 13th century, but the first true planetarium was created in Munich in 1920. [ref. linky] [wikipedia] That planetarium used a metal dome with holes poked in it to project the lights onto a domed ceiling. This technology remained largely unchanged for 60 years. Since then we have seen rapid change. With computer processing power increasing continuously it is now possible to provide dynamic content up onto  the dome. I went to a local planetarium last year and the experience was more like a trip through space than a lecture from an instructor. It was remarkable. But it doesn't stop there. We now have sophisticated programs available to everyone for free that exceed the capabilities of ANY planetarium that was built before the year 2000. Stellarium [linky] is only the most sophisticated example. The power of a full planetarium placed in your hands for free. Accelerating Change: This is only one trivial example of accelerating change in our lives. We have the capabilities at our fingertips that only large institutions have had in the past. And even those institutions, whether business or government, have only had THOSE capabilities for a hundred years or so, before that essentially nobody could do these things. And we take it all for granted. We shouldn't. We live in an age of miracles. It is not an age of once in a blue moon someone gets healed by some mysterious means or someone walks on water or something trivial like that. It is an age where the miracles are so common and ubiquitous that they have become mundane.
http://www.stellarium.org/ Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. Remarkable program. Go get it. Send a link for it to your Dad or Uncle who is into astronomy. 
Comparison of the very small and the very large. Let's take a look at the empty space inside a hydrogen atom. Do NOT grab the horizontal scroll tab, but click to the right in the scroll bar and see how far to the right the hypothetical electron resides in comparison to the proton...11 real world miles of scrolling supposedly, good luck. ...ok, once you get the idea grab the horizontal scroll tab. ...or go to the web page if you prefer: http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/index.html Now compare that to the cool planet and stars scale video... I don't have anything else...I just thought it was cool Look! Kittens! 
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/
While looking for info on tomorrow mornings Lunar eclipse, I ran into a cool Solar System Simulator from NASA. Just punch in what you want to see and from what point of view.  I captured some screen shots of what you'd see, but there are disclaimers everywhere on using NASA phot | |