India’s space agency experienced its second launch failure of the year when a rocket carrying a communication satellite exploded shortly after takeoff.
Yashpal, a retired Indian scientist and independent commentator, said he was very disappointed by Saturday’s failure, but other countries too have experienced such problems.
“I hope it’s just one of those things,” Yashpal, who uses one name, told reporters.
Finally, we can protect the planet while fleeing it. A team of Swedish scientists discovered a new molecule that could increase the power of rocket fuel 20% to 30% while leaving less of a carbon footprint.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (not to be confused with the Republic of Congo immediately to the west…. Seriously) has a surprisingly rich history of space programs and rocket launches.
The story first begins back when the DRC was known as Zaire back in the late 1970s. A German company by the name of Orbital Transport und Raketn Aktiengesellschaft (OTRAG) decided to set up a rocket testing and launch facility in the Shaba Province of Zaire and signed an agreement with the government in 1976. To sweeten the deal, Zaire would be given one experimental satellite and a reduced rate for any future rocket launches. Logistical reasons that Zaire was chosen were the low population density near the launch site and because it was near the equator where rockets are just a tad easier to put into orbit.
However, the main reason why OTRAG didn’t set up in West Germany was a combination of two factors. The first factor was the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which states that all rockets fired in international air space must be flagged from the country of origin. This directly conflicted with the 1954 Treaty of Brussels which, in part, prohibits the production of long-range or guided missiles on German territory. Zaire had no issue with providing the rockets with a Zaire flag and they placed no restrictions on OTRAG for missile development.
Rockets were launched beginning in 1977 with both successful launches and failures. However, due to intense pressure from the Soviet Union and France, two countries none too pleased with German rocket advancement, Zaire closed the program down in 1979. The video below is one of the failures.
NASA engineers have proposed a system comprised of a two-mile-long rail gun and a scramjet to launch a spacecraft into orbit. The rail gun would have a 240,000- horsepower motor that would convert 180 megawatts into enough force to accelerate the scramjet down the rail gun to Mach 1.5 in under 60 seconds. The scramjet would then launch from the track carrying the payload. Once it hit 200,000 feet at Mach 10 the spacecraft would separate from the scramjet and fire its rockets into orbit.
The system calls for a two-mile-long rail gun that will launch a scramjet, which will then fly to 200,000 feet. The scramjet will then fire a payload into orbit and return to Earth. The process is more complex than a rocket launch, but engineers say it’s also more flexible. With it, NASA could orbit a 10,000-pound satellite one day and send a manned ship toward the moon the next, on a fraction of the propellant used by today’s rockets.
Scientists claim that the planet Wasp-12b has such a high carbon-to-oxygen ratio that the planet may literally be littered with diamonds and the core of the planet could have diamonds as well. It is the first carbon-rich planet observed and actually has more carbon than oxygen.
The lead researcher specifies: “You might see land masses and mountains made up of diamonds.”
The surface temperature is a warm 4199 Fahrenheit so the diamonds might be a little hot to the touch.
The Croatian Astronomical Society Vidulini is planning on putting a rover on the moon by the end of 2012 near where Apollo 17 last landed in 1972. The rover is called Histrohod and will only cost 20,000 Euros to build. The Astronomical Society Vidulini created the first Croatian space program (Astronautika) and is also part of team “Synergy Moon” which is participating in the Google Lunar X Prize contest.
Through a group of mobile devices, “Histrohod” will send televised segments down to Earth. This is a big challenge for our society and we are extremely proud that our association and our small Istria will become a part of space exploration,” said the Society’s president Marino Rumpic
Scientists have studied a centuries worth of comet data and come to the conclusion that at least 20 percent of visible comets were kicked out of the Oort Cloud by a Jupiter-sized object lurking at the solar system’s outer edge. Eighty percent of objects pushed out of the Oort cloud could be explained by the gravity of the galaxy, but the remaining comets would have required an object 1.4 times the mass of Jupiter to kick them out.
In 1999, Matese and colleague Daniel Whitmire suggested the sun has a hidden companion that boots icy bodies from the Oort Cloud, a spherical haze of comets at the solar system’s fringes, into the inner solar system where we can see them.
In a new analysis of observations dating back to 1898, Matese and Whitmire confirm their original idea: About 20 percent of the comets visible from Earth were sent by a dark, distant planet.
An object such as a brown dwarf would knock out more than 20 percent, but “Something smaller than Jovian mass wouldn’t be strong enough to do the deed,” Matese said.
The Cassini space probe recently scanned the atmosphere of Saturn’s second largest moon, Rhea, and discovered that it is comprised of 70% oxygen and 30% carbon dioxide. In the past the Hubble Space Telescope has detected thin oxygen layers on Europa and Ganymede around Jupiter, but this is the first time oxygen has been seen directly in the atmosphere of another world. Scientists are not holding out hope for life on Rhea at this point though.
“All evidence from Cassini indicates Rhea is too cold and devoid of liquid water necessary for life as we know it,” Teolis told them.
One more milestone in private sector space exploration has been crossed. The FAA granted SpaceX the first-ever commercial license for reentry for its Dragon capsule. This means that SpaceX can offer round trip voyages to the ISS and beyond.
“Milestones are an important part of space exploration and SpaceX achieved a very important one today,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. “I congratulate SpaceX on this landmark achievement and wish them the best with their launch of the Dragon capsule.”
Flight Engineer Scott Kelly wants you to know what it’s like to be on the International Space Station. In this video he gives a detail guided tour, but can Mr. Kelly be trusted. If he’s in outer space HOW DO HIS GLASSES STAY ON HIS HEAD?!?!?
Scientists have discovered a Jupiter-like planet inside the Milky Way that once belonged to another galaxy. This smaller galaxy was swallowed up by the Milky Way between six and nine billion years ago and belongs to a group of stars left over called the Helmi Stream. Nearly 500 planets have been discovered outside of our solar system, but this is first to have an extragalactic origin.
Dust off that old jingoism and get your down payment’s ready, the Space Race is back and this time we’re getting all private sector up in this piece.
Russian companies are facing off with US competition to get a privately owned space station all up in great beyond within the next five years.
Both seek put up far more durable models that can survive debris impacts. The American candidate already has tacit commitment from six international space agencies should they get their project functioning. It’s possible the station could be fired into space by a Falcon 9 rocket, as created by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.
In this amazing photograph offered up by NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day you can see the edge of the NGC 4452 galaxy. It was taken by the revered Hubble telescope and gives we land-dwellers a rare glimpse into the long view of the cosmos.
At long last, the original footage from the moon landing has been released. Until now, the best we have had is a recording sourced from a television camera pointed at a monitor on that fateful day. This restored footage is so clear you can even see the astronaut’s faces through their reflective helmets.
Launching gigantic shuttles into orbit (although awesome) is costly. So what if we just threw that bad boy as hard as we could like a paper airplane and then fitted it with some super sweet rockets to blast that sucker into the cosmos?
An early proposal calls for a wedge-shaped aircraft with scramjets to be launched horizontally on an electrified (magnetic levitation) track or gas-powered sled. The aircraft would fly up to Mach 10, using the scramjets and wings to lift it to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, where a small payload canister or capsule similar to a rocket’s second stage would fire off the back of the aircraft and into orbit.
Engineers also contend the system, with its advanced technologies, will benefit the nation’s high-tech industry by perfecting technologies that would make more efficient commuter rail systems, better batteries for cars and trucks, and numerous other spinoffs.
So we get a reusable solution for shuttle launches and the latest monorail technology? Well that’s good enough for me to link this song!
