Golden Spike Company, a space startup from Colorado, is looking to get humans back to the moon by 2020, using existing or underdeveloped technologies to begin what could be called a commercial lunar campaign. Although this plan has so far been circulating unofficially, the company is expected to make a formal announcement in December 2012. According to NASA Spaceflight, a [...]
Articles written by: Guillaume Houdu
Rescuing Orion After Off-Nominal Landing
NASA is setting up the mission rules for the Orion spacecraft with a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) that includes scenarios for keeping a crew alive after end of mission splashdown. The scenarios include off-nominal landings to remote areas of the ocean, and crew rescue by US Department of Defense (DoD) assets. During the last thirty years, Space Shuttle crews have [...]
Orbiting Breeze-M Explosion Poses Serious Collision Threat
Left tumbling for two months after a launch failure, a Proton Breeze-M finally exploded on October the 16th 2012, creating a new debris cloud in a 264 km x 1512 km at 49°.9 inclination elliptical orbit. On August the 6th 2012, the shut-down of the Proton Breeze-M stage shortly after the start of the third of its four planned maneuvers [...]
Update: Breeze-M Explodes in Orbit Creating Debris Cloud
October 25 Update: The Breeze-M that malfunctioned on August 6 has now exploded in space, creating a debris cloud. Shortly after publication of this article, reports surfaced indicating that explosive deconstruction of the Breeze-M upper stage had occurred on October 16. The occurence was not surprising considering the large quantity of hypergolic propellant still aboard the vessel – more than half of its [...]
NASA Plans Deep Space Outpost Near Moon
One of the leading projects proposed by NASA for the agency’s next mission is the construction of a spacecraft which would hover above the far side of the moon in a location known as the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2, an area where the combined gravities of the Earth and moon reach equilibrium. “Placing a spacecraft at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point [...]
Hypervelocity Nuclear Interceptor Proposed for Asteroid Impactors
A Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle (HAIV) mission architecture which aims to optimally fragment and disperse hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) using a hypervelocity kinetic impactor combined with a subsurface nuclear explosion has been developed by the Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC), Iowa State University, through a 2011 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I study. Professor Bong Wie, Director of ADRC, has recently [...]
ISS Expedition 32 Landed Safely in Kazakhstan
ISS Expedition 32 Russian Commander Gennady Padalka, Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, and NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba safely landed in their Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan on Monday September 17, 2012, at 2:53 a.m. UTC (8:53 a.m. local time), as officially recorded by the Russian Federal Space Agency. Returning from their trip to the International Space [...]
Synchronized Tumbling: Developing a Space Debris Removal Skill
In-orbit rendezvous is a potential solution to address space debris removal, considered to be the predominant issue facing the arena of outer space security and safety. DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is using an unusual resource to develop rendezvous capability with out of control satellites: a high school competition. “The control procedures that were developed for the [...]
Spelunking Robots May Aid Martian Caves Exploration
Recent discoveries of skylights and lava tubes on the surface of Mars and of the moon have initiated research and development of robots able to descend into caves and explore tunnels. “Geology works in layers, so how many layers can you see?” asks Jason Derleth, senior technology analyst with NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. “Sinkholes on Mars expose potentially hundreds [...]
Sri Lanka’s First Space Academy to be Created with Chinese Support
Taking advantage of Chinese technical assistance offered by Sino Satellite Communications Company Ltd (SinoSAT) and China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), the Sri Lankan company Supreme Satellite Private Ltd (SupremeSAT) just signed a joint agreement for the establishment of a first ever Sri Lankan Space Academy. “I am very glad that this venture coincides with the vision of the President [...]
