Fires aboard ISS can pose significant hazards to crew and equipment. Extinguishing techniques used on Earth are inadequate in Space due to differences in the physical properties of flames in Space. NASA’s FLEX – Flame Extinguishing Experiment – aims to address these challenges. “We hope to gain a better knowledge of droplet burning, improved spacecraft fire safety and ideas for [...]
Archive for November, 2011
Flight Engineer Furukawa Pioneers Space Baseball
JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa who returned from a six month stay aboard ISS on November 22, spent some of his leisure aboard the space station developing “spaceball.” Flight Engineer Furukawa, who reports baseball as one of his interests on Earth, developed his own version of the game for space. Watch Furukawa play spaceball in the video below. Staff WritersMore Posts
AsiaSat 7 Successfully Launched
AsiaSat 7, a communications satellite destined by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) for Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat), was successfully launched atop an International Launch Services (ILS)-operated Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on November 26th. Following the launch, SS/L announced that the satellite had successfully deployed its solar panels and was performing scheduled post-launch maneuvers that would take it to geostationary [...]
Contact With Phobos Grunt Unreliable
Only intermittent contact has been possible with the ailing Phobos-Grunt probe, despite promising news on November 23rd that a carrier signal had been received from the probe by an ESA tracking station in Perth, Australia. Although the Perth station was subsequently upgraded with an expanded antenna range to enable it to receive telemetry from the probe, controllers in both Perth [...]
Copenhagen Suborbitals Passes Rocket Test
On November 26, Copenhagen Suborbitals conducted a test of their two-stage rocket SMARAGD. The test was a success, with a 3 second burn on the first stage and 20 second burn on the second stage engine. The engines are designed to ignite simultaneously with allowance for a 3 second delay. During the test, the engines ignited within 0.11 seconds of [...]
Video Introduces Curiosity’s Sample Analysis Instrument
Source: NASA This video trailer introduces the mission of the SAM instrument suite aboard the Mars Science Laboratory, otherwise known as the Curiosity rover. SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) will look for evidence of water, carbon and other building blocks of life in the Martian soil and atmosphere. Staff WritersMore Posts
Instrument-Laden Curiosity Heads To Mars
Source NASA Nov. 26, 2011: NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the Nov. 26 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m. PST). “We are very excited about sending the world’s most advanced scientific [...]
Infographic: Atomic Batteries for Deep Space Missions
For more than 50 years, NASA’s robotic deep space probes have carried nuclear batteries provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. Even the crewed Apollo moon landings carried nuclear powered equipment. However, the United States’ supply of plutonium-238, which fuels these batteries, called radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), is running low. Experts worry that ambitious planetary science missions in the future may have [...]
NASA Rover Successfully Launched to Mars in Search of Life
History’s most ambitious rover mission to Mars was launched by NASA on Saturday, November 26. Named Curiosity, the rover was carried by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:02 am local time (EST). NASA declared the launch a complete success. “It’s an enormous mission. It is [the] equivalent of three missions, frankly, [...]
Space Debris Makes it to Hollywood
In recent times, space debris has definitely become a hot topic. After countless scientific studies and governmental proposals on how to handle the intensifying problem, the topic is making its way to the Silver Screen. Director Alfonso Cuaron is currently editing the movie Gravity, which features Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as two surviving astronauts trapped inside the remote space station damaged [...]
