KySat

Video: Cooling electronics on the Moon

Astrobotic, one of the teams in the Google Lunar X-Prize discusses the thermal challenges for its rover design in this YouTube video. How will it remove heat from the on-board electronics?

The most recent stories from teams competing from the prize may be found here.

Wayne

Google X-Prize on YouTube

Space Prizes provides a list of Google X-Prize videos on YouTube that haven't shown up on the official X-Prize Foundation web site.

Wayne

Future Kentucky Space

[KySat Space readers: the next couple of posts will consist of my live notes from the Kentucky Space Conference '08 session held on Wednesday in Lexington.]

Dr. Jim Lumpp, KySat faculty advisor from the University of Kentucky, will talk briefly about future missions.

Beginning with high altitude balloons, he explains that near-space can be used for a wide variety of things because at 100,000 feet, only one percent of the atmosphere is left.

"You can also look up," he says.

Suborbital missions will continue to play a part in the Kentucky Space program. As a test bed for systems, the experience is invaluable.

Displaying a picture of KySat-1, orbital missions are, of course, critical and picking up a theme of Dr. Malphrus', he says that the infrastructure being built around orbital missions is impressive.

Given enough experience, perhaps a lunar mission is possible. Could a P-Pod ride to the moon and eject a cube for lunar orbit?

The satellites being built at MIT, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley and Stanford are big - cubesats are different and KySat has discussed with each of these schools the possibility of working together to contribute cube technology being developed in-house.

Because CubeSats are such a disruptive technology, he adds, the National Science Foundation is looking to launch 3-6 missions a year to do space weather and atmospheric research.

Transitioning to the current project, KySat-1, Dr. Lumpp says that KySat-1 will be passively magnetically stabilized. Since there is nothing "to lever off of" in space, being able to point cubes will be the subject of future efforts. And he offers this thought: perhaps by inducing an electronic current, a magnetic field can be created. This field could be turned on and off. When it's off, the Earth's magnetic field can take over to passively orient the cube.

It's a brief session and in response to a question, Dr. Lumpp describes how cubes can be used for life sciences research. Pharmasat is doing an E. Coli study, for example.

In fact, he adds, it's the launch opportunities that are holding up science.

Wayne

Carnival of Space No. 50

My name is Wayne Hall and I work with the Kentucky space program. Huh? Kentucky what?!

Suffice it to say that a group of talented people are out to change the perception of what's possible in the commonwealth of Kentucky by doing hands-on space science. The very first project of this ambitious enterprise is a cooperative, student-led effort to design, build and fly a CubeSat that kids from the eastern mountains to the western Mississippi river shore can figuratively reach out and touch from classrooms all over the state. The first of many planned efforts, it will rocket to orbit sometime late this year or early next. And with that,

Welcome to the 50th edition of the Carnival of Space! From rocket racing to astronomy to particle physics to the search for intelligent life, this week features a wide variety of space-related topics. So let's dive right in.

New Frontiers has news about the Rocket Racing League and its announcement about upcoming exhibition race dates. Meanwhile, Space Transport News discusses Red Bull air races and the differences and similarities to rocket racing as well as taking some notes from the news conference.

At Altair VI, David S. F. Portree writes about the old NASA Office of Exploration Mars' and Moon vision for space exploration and has something to say about space tourism.

The Planetary Society's Emily Stewart Lakdawalla notes the stunning images of Phobos available from the Mars Express image catalog. A Babe in the Universe follows suit, pointing out that the crater Stickney is 9 km across on a moon only 22 km long. Speaking as a blogger who makes liberal use of CICLOPS and HiRISE images, the pictures coming from current robotic missions are spectacular. I'm looking forward to what MESSENGER and New Horizons might reveal.

Speaking of the planets, Stuart Atkinson at Cumbrian Sky reports on one suggestion to send monkeys to Mars. You read that right. He also provides some images of Pheonix's landing spot on the planet.

Fraser explains why Pluto is no longer a planet. Let's just say that the region beyond Neptune is awfully interesting.

Of the many satellites that dance around Sun, Neptune's Triton is probably not a world that tickles one's imagination when envisioning space colonization. But while it may be ignored as scientists chase after Mars and Titan, Neptune's Triton may in the distant future become a prime location at the edge of our solar system. Colony Worlds asks: Neptune's Triton: Is It Worth Billions, Or Trillions?

This week's Space Video at Space Feeds is the eighth episode of Firefly, Out of Gas.

At Next Big Future, Brian Wang asks whether a $153 million Thin Film Dome inflated over cities might protect against nuclear weapons or perhaps substitute for communication satellites. Russian inventor and researcher Alexander Bolonkin has developed an interesting technology that suggests all kinds of commercial possibilities.

Can Dark Matter be directly detected? Anticipating such an announcement, astrophysicist Ethan Siegel expresses his doubts at Starts with a Bang! It's a question I've also put to Star Stryder, Pamela Gay.

Astronomer Robert Simpson at Orbiting Frog contributes a post to the 50th carnival on Nebulae in 3D. He nominated another post about the late John Wheeler from Daniel Holz at the wonderful group blog Cosmic Variance. Holz movingly recalls his time with the physicist, who was conversant in biology, history and poetry. Please give it a read.

At Out of the Cradle, Ken Murphy continues his look at growing plants on the Moon with a review of the book "Lunar Base Agriculture" in part II of his article "Of a Garden on the Moon".

At Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster, who is surely link-weary from the attention this blog has paid to him, posts a story about "Life as Rarity in the Cosmos," which looks at new research suggesting that we are living rather late in the history of Earth's biosphere. If so, it might have implications for the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere. Bottom line: we might find that life itself is rather common, but intelligent life? Not so much.

Do we have anything to worry about from the Large Hadron Collider? Ian O'Neill explains that "an Earth-eating black hole is pretty much impossible."

Ever-prepared, Scouts Canada describes a variety of methods for finding direction without a compass or GPS by using the sun, stars and moon. In practical fashion, Scouts blogger Mang also lends some context to astronomical distances - the discussion includes a scale overlay of the solar system on the City of Toronto using a standard marble for Earth - and writes about modeling a micro-satellite, the Microvariability & Oscillations of STars (MOST) satellite. The MOST team has opened target proposals to the public.

Space Cynics, meanwhile, wonders how prepared Gen-Y is to contribute to the national space program.

Tyler Nordgren is educating visitors about what they learn about the solar system and universe through what they can see for themselves in the dark starry skies above the parks, as well as on the ground around them in the wonderful geological processes and features the parks protect. The most recent entry from this week at Arches National Park is found here.

Finally, at Music of the Spheres, Bruce Irving asks Why Space?, a theme that the Martian Chronicles also picks up on this week, along with providing some great Cape Verde images as seen from everyone's favorite Martian rover.

Why explore indeed! And since it's THAT time again, perhaps it's appropriate that John Benac contribute a post about Political Action for Space, the first space political action committee.

It's been a blast to host the carnival at Kentucky's space program blog this week. KySat hopes to make its own news in the near future. So please come back and please visit all the great blogs and bloggers you see listed here!

Wayne

Choosing a moon lander motor

What kinds of design decisions must be made when choosing a motor for a moon lander? The Southern California Selene Group, which is competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, has posted its take on some engineering and propulsion issues it's currently facing. The latest on the teams and news may be found here.

Wayne

Google moon rover hardware

The teams in the Google Lunar X Prize are actively posting news about their work. One, Astrobotic, has recently contributed pictures of hardware, including a vacuum chamber, actuators, battery, wheel, and a model of the rover.

Wayne

Moon 'bot prototype

One of the teams participating in the Google Lunar X Prize challenge has posted this video of a robotic sphere, which as the team's blog entry also points out, has been the subject of a New York Times article.

Wayne

Odyssey Moon offering delivery

The very first official entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize, now one of ten, has announced a "Payload Flight Opportunity," the first of what it anticipates will be several such opportunities.

Odyssey Moon is making 15 to 25 kg of payload is available on the initial flight, planned for July 2011.

Wayne

Google Lunar X Prize news on YouTube

News about the major expansion of teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize has been posted to YouTube. Judging by the sheer number of hits it has received in so short a time, this business of private missions to the Moon excites a lot of people.

Wayne

Google Lunar X Prize team to land on site of Apollo 11

Space Prizes links to some recent news from one competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize, Carnegie Mellon. The student newspaper, The Tartan, which reported on a recent faculty and student presentation on the Google Lunar X Prize from Pathfinder veteran, Tony Spear, also reported this nugget about the team's plans:

  Due to the moon’s proximity to Earth, the robot will be able to transmit a high-bandwidth reciprocal interaction. Carnegie Mellon’s robot for the competition, which is currently under construction, will have multiple cameras attached to it to satisfy requirements of the competition to transmit video, photos, and information back to Earth.

  The moon rover will land on the site of Apollo 11, where Neil Armstrong first landed on the moon. The robot will transmit high-resolution photo and video images from the momentous site on the moon

A total of ten teams are listed on the competitors' page at the X Prize Foundation. Astrobotic is the CM entry.

Wayne

Google Lunar X Prize

Space Show to air Vision for Space Exploration interview

Hobbeyspace lists the week's agenda on The Space Show. On Friday an interview with Dr. Louis Friedman of the Planetary Society will be aired, the subject of which will be the recent meeting at Stanford to discuss the Vision for Space Exploration. It should be interesting.

The Planetary Society has already posted this news about the meeting.

Wayne

Moon 2.0

If you haven't see this yet, the X Prize Foundation is promoting the Google Lunar X Prize on YouTube.

Wayne

Odyssey Moon: "continued lunar commercial presence"

As mentioned the other day, the Space Show interviewed Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards of Odyssey Moon Ltd., the first official entrant into the Google Moon X Prize. The host, Dr. David Livingston, has since posted a recap of the show here. As you might imagine, the business of space featured prominently in the discussion. Dr. Livingston:

Bob began the discussions by explaining Odyssey Moon Ltd, its general business plan, their unwillingness to redevelop technology or hardware that they can buy commercially, and their plan for a continued lunar commercial presence.

Complete audio is here.

Wayne

New Google Lunar X Prize teams to debut soon?

Space Prizes links to a Will Pomerantz post at the X Prize Foundation, who covers a lot of ground related to the work of the X Prize Foundation. But he also drops this bit of news about the Google Lunar X Prize that I wanted to pass along.

With the new year, the Google Lunar X PRIZE is getting some new teams. We've received and gone over several applications already, and we've got some really exciting teams that will debut soon. I can't give away too much right now, but stay tuned.

The second moon race will award $35 million to the first team to put a privately funded craft on the moon,  travel at least 500 yards and return a "mooncast" of the mission from the lunar surface.

Wayne

Moon racer to be interviewed today

According to the International Space Fellowship, tonight at 10 ET, Dr. Robert Richards, who is the Founder and CEO of Odyssey Moon Limited, will appear on The Space Show. Odyssey Moon is a commercial lunar enterprise and the first official registrant in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. It ought to be an interesting interview.

Much more information about Richards can be found using the first link above. Archived audio from the interview should be available in the next few days on The Space Show pages.

Wayne

Astrodemocracy, Orion, Antimatter

Dr. Pamela Gay, a.k.a, "Star Stryder," reports on a burgeoning astrodemocracy. Dr. Gay, who is also behind Astronomy Cast series, says that the show will soon begin a 30 minute "student questions" podcast series related to high-energy astrophysics:

Each show will eventually have an illustrated transcript, and questions will also be indexed online by topic. Submitted questions not used in shows will still be answered, but will only appear in the online index. To facilitate educators submitting audio questions, Astronomy Cast can provide recording devices that can be shipped on loan to schools at no cost to them (return postage provided). Teachers are also free to use any existing equipment their school has to send us audio. This program is sponsored by NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope Education and Public Outreach program.

Space Prizes: is San Jose State University going for the Google Lunar X-Prize?

NASA will host a technology exchange conference, focusing on "transport to the moon, lunar operations and outpost technology" in order to "develop a variety of new capabilities, supporting technologies, and foundational research that enables sustained, affordable, human and robotic space exploration."

Courtesy of Universe Today, take a peek at an aluminum mock-up of the Orion Crew Module.

RLV and Space Transport News links to a couple of Space.com videos from the X-Prize lunar landing competition.

The Kansas City Space Pirates: we just missed.   

Centauri Dreams: Antimatter for Deep Space Propulsion?

The image at top is a newly released image of Dione provided by CiCLOPS, the team responsible for the Cassini imaging system. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Wayne

Ares 5 rocket roles assigned

As part of its effort to get back to the moon and to go potentially to Mars, NASA has assigned various roles to its field offices in the development of its Ares 5 rocket. Space.com:

Development of the Ares 5 rocket and its Earth departure stage will be lead by the Huntsville, Ala.-based Marshall Space Flight Center. Marshall will also lead development of the lunar lander's decent stage. Marshall is already in charge of developing and testing the smaller Ares 1 rocket which will be used starting around 2015 to launch the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to the international space station. When lunar missions commence around 2019, NASA intends to use the Ares 1 to launch Orion into low-Earth orbit, where it will meet up with the separately launched lunar lander for a several day journey to the Moon under the power of the Earth departure stage, which is a giant fuel tank with a rocket engine attached.

Ames Research Center near San Francisco was assigned lead responsibility for Ares 5's integrated health management system and a supporting role developing its payload shroud. Ames will also lead development of integrated health management systems for the lunar lander and other lunar surface systems, and work with other field centers to build mission operations simulations capabilities, NASA officials said (hyperlink supplied).

The article points out that the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2010 will free up the money to begin serious development of the vehicle.

The Ares 5 is the rocket on the left side of the picture. Image Credit: NASA

Wayne

China launches moon probe

China has launched its first lunar probe, sending the satellite Chang’e-1 to moon. The probe is expected to orbit the moon for the next year, providing satellite images and other information as China prepares to launch a space vehicle to the moon by 2012 and then send an astronaut by 2020.

The Chang’e-1 satellite, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, lifted off at 6:05 p.m. yesterday.

The launch represents an intensifying of an Asian space race, according to the New York Times. Just last month Japan sent its own probe to the moon and India has plans to send a satellite into lunar orbit next year.

Wayne

Rockets, superheroes and prizes

Just some space links to start your week.

• Japan has put its first probe into lunar orbit.
• Space Prizes points out a couple of new blogs that have emerged in connection with the X-Prize Foundation. "Chasing the Dream" is a particularly interesting post on the role of prizes in business.
• Star Stryder muses on superheroes and the conservation of energy.
• What do we mean by terrestrial planets? asks Centauri Dreams.
• Space.com profiles the Wirefly X-Prize Cup, set for later this month, October 24 - 28.
• The image above of Dione, taken by Cassini, was taken on September 2 and released in the last few days. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

Wayne

"Carrier landings" on the Moon

In this YouTube video clip, Apollo 17 Lunar Module Pilot Jack Schmitt describes how he and Commander Gene Cernan landed Challenger on the Moon. The audio quality isn't the greatest, so you may need to turn up the sound. But as a someone with log time as a private pilot, I was struck by his account of calling out vertical and horizontal velocities and how Cernan used that information while looking out the window to hand-fly Challenger to the surface and avoid in the last moments, Schmitt said bemusedly, a "carrier landing."

His remarks were made in a lecture last month at the Museum of Flight, Seattle. It's difficult to imagine that the next crewed mission to the lunar surface might come some 45+ years later.

Coincidentally, in a piece yesterday about how the next space age might be different from the last, Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log quotes Jack Schmitt as saying the the science and technological achievements of the space program are still underappreciated after 35 years. Read Boyle's piece if you get the chance.

Wayne

Carnegie Mellon rolls out moon car

Wired: Carnegie Mellon has already rolled out a prototype lunar vehicle in its bid to win the Google Lunar Lander X Prize. To follow events with the team, use this page. Alas, there was no feed to be had.

Wayne

Explore! The week in news

The latest Carnival of Space is up and guess what story is dominating the news? Not willing to wait, Advanced Nanontechnology has already outlined how to win the $30 million Google Lunar Lander X Prize.

Other stories not included in the latest iteration of the space carnival include Paul Gilster's piece on Tau Ceti, which asks the question: what should the constant bombardment of potential planets in the dust belt surrounding that star tell us about the development of life on Earth?

The European Space Agency's super-chilled infrared observatory, Herschel, designed to register the faintest heat objects in the most distance past, is one step closer to being ready to fly.

Wired reports that NASA's GLAST is designed to peer into every corner of the universe as well, looking for the sources of gamma-ray radiation, the kinds of fantastic energy produced by merging neutron stars, for example. Wired's science blog also links to Scientific American articles on the future of space travel and the hard choices NASA may face - funding for every worthy goal simply isn't available.

Lastly, the image above is from Cassini's recent very close flyby of Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons. The image is of its "Himalayas." In this press release from NASA, the moon is characterized as the "Yin-and-Yang moon." Image Source: CICLOPS, the Cassini Imaging Team.

Wayne

Google Funds New Moon Race

Cosmic Log: Partnering with the X Prize Foundation, Google has funded a $30 million space prize for the first privately funded lunar lander, the Google Lunar X Prize:

The new prize calls upon teams to create autonomous rovers that could land on the moon, travel at least three-tenths of a mile (500 meters) and send video, images and data back to Earth.

The first team to succeed would win $20 million - that is, if the job is done by 2012. After that, the prize drops to $15 million, and if no one is successful by the end of 2014, the money could be withdrawn. If a second team succeeds before the deadline, $5 million would be given as a runner-up prize. Another $5 million would be reserved for bonus tasks - for example, roving for longer distances, taking pictures of old lunar spacecraft, finding water ice or surviving the long lunar night.

No more than 10 percent of a competitor's income can come from government contracts. See Alan Boyle's entire article for more, including comment from other private space ventures on the announcement.

Video of the announcement may be found at the X Prize Foundation.

Wayne

Lunar Lander competition update

Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log provides an update on the Lunar Lander Challenge, direct from Wirefly X Prize contest organizer Will Pomerantz.

Two contenders have dropped out, leaving a field of seven competitors. Still, that's six more than last year, when only Armadillo aerospace competed. Boyle also provides some information on one of Armadillo's craft that might interest you.

The video above is of Armadillo's three attempts at the two-leg course during the 2006 Lunar Landing Challenge.

Wayne

Working on the moon

NASA has selected four astrophysics proposals for science on the moon. According to the news release:

The newly-announced proposals for concept studies may lead to experiments placed on the moon that would allow for unprecedented tests of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, instruments to probe the early evolution of structure in the universe, and observation of X-rays produced by the charged particles the sun emits, known as the solar wind. Instruments based on these concept studies also would provide unique information on the interior structure of the moon and on Earth-moon interactions.

Related, NewScientist asks "what will future lunar bases look like?" The image above, available at NASA and reproduced in the NewScientist story, is one attempt to answer that question. It's an inflatable lunar module now being evaluated for use. Credit: NASA/Jeff Caplan

Wayne