LiftPort plans to build space elevator on the Moon by 2020 When the late Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11 went to the Moon, they did so sitting atop a rocket the size of a skyscraper that blasted out jets of smoke and flame as it hurtled skyward. For over half a century, that is how all astronauts have gone into space. It’s all very dramatic, but it’s also expensive. Wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to take the elevator? That’s the question that Michael Laine, CEO of LiftPort in Seattle, Washington, hopes to answer with the development of a transportation system that swaps space-rockets for space-ribbons. View all Rockets have done sterling service in launching satellites and astronauts into orbit. The idea even predates liquid-fueled rockets. For decades, the idea languished and was largely forgotten, until is was reinvented in 1959 by another Russian scientist, Yuri N. By the 1970s, the basic design of a possible future space elevator had been refined. This system doesn’t envision the use of an actual elevator.
Astrophile: Mars coils hold with those who favour fire - space - 26 April 2012 Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse Object: Spiral patterns in Martian valleysOrigin: Solidified lava lake Some say Mars's northern valley formed in fire, some say in ice: now curious spirals on the floor of the valley have been glimpsed – and hold with those who favour fire. The Athabasca Valles region, a channelled and scabbed valley just north of the red planet's equator, was clearly carved by floods of fluid coursing through it tens of millions of years ago. Graduate student Andrew Ryan of Arizona State University and colleagues seem to have settled the debate with their discovery of subtle spirals on the valley floor that could only be formed from lava. Athabasca Valles is famous for its large dark plates, which seem to be floating in a network of channels that were probably carved in a flood of liquid water. Ocean of consternation "That caused a lot of consternation," Ryan says. Wrinkled skin
Canada Unveils Next-Generation Robotic Arms for Spaceships The Canadian-built robotic arms built for NASA's space shuttle fleet and the International Space Station are about to get two new siblings. Last week, the Canadian Space Agency showed off the Next-Generation Canadarm (NGC) prototypes, which were unveiled after three years of development at Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates. The mechanical limbs are the successors to the shuttle fleet's Canadarm and station's Canadarm2, which played pivotal rolls in the station's construction for more than a decade. The CSA and MDA plan to use this technology to position Canada for newer space business opportunities in areas such as in-orbit refuelling of satellites, said Gilles Leclerc, the agency's director-general of space exploration. "We prepared all these new systems so that we will be well-positioned for the next thing in space," Leclerc said. Fuelling competition One of the prototype arms spans 49 feet (15 meters), the same length as the space station's Canadarm2. Canadarm's legacy
Researchers claim quantum breakthrough & News in Science (ABC Science) News in Science Thursday, 26 April 2012 Connor Duffy and staffABC Giant leap Researchers say they have designed a tiny crystal that acts like a quantum computer so powerful it would take a computer the size of the known universe to match it. Details of the crystal, which is made up of just 300 atoms, are published today in the journal Nature. "Quantum computing is a kind of information science that is based on the notion that if one performs computations in a fundamentally different way than the way your classical desktop computer works," says study co-author University of Sydney's Dr Michael Biercuk. "There's a huge potential to solve a variety of problems that are very, very hard or near impossible for standard computer." The crystal simulator uses a property of quantum mechanics called superposition, where a quantum particle appears to be in two distinct states at the same time. As the number of qubits increase, the number or states increases exponentially. Outstrips classical computers
X's Reusable 'Grasshopper' Rocket Makes 1st Test Flight It's one small hop for a rocket, but one giant leap for reusable rocket ships: A private rocket prototype has sailed through a 6-foot hop that, while short, marked a major test for a novel reusable launch system being developed by commercial spaceflight company SpaceX. Called "Grasshopper," the rocket lifted off briefly then set back down on four spidery legs during the recent test at SpaceX's proving ground in McGregor, Texas. "The short hop of approximately 6 feet is the first major milestone for Grasshopper, and a critical step toward a reusable first stage for SpaceX’s proven Falcon 9 rocket," SpaceX officials said of the Sept. 21 test. The Grasshopper rocket uses the first stage of SpaceX's successful Falcon 9 rocket, a two-stage booster that stands nearly 227 feet tall (70 meters) and is used to launch the company's Dragon space capsules and other payloads into low-Earth orbit. The Sept. 21 test hop is just the first in a series of flight demonstrations, SpaceX officials said.
Warp drive looks more promising than ever in recent NASA studies "Interstellar travel may still be in its infancy, but adulthood is fast approaching, and our descendants will someday see childhood's end." The Starflight Handbook The first steps towards interstellar travel have been taken, but the stars are very far away. The warp drive broke away from being a wholly fictional concept in 1994, when physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested that faster-than-light (FTL) travel was possible if you remained still on a flat piece of spacetime inside a warp bubble that was made to move at superluminal velocity. An Alcubierre warp drive bubble, showing spatial compression ahead of the bubble, and spatial expansion behind (Image: NASA) The warp effect uses gravitational effects to compress the spacetime in front of a spacecraft, then expand the spacetime behind it. Such a warp bubble could in principle be used to enable subluminal travel (travel slower than light) as well as superluminal travel (travel faster than light). Source: NASA Eagleworks
Sailing by solar winds The electric solar wind sail will not use sunlight, but hydrogen nuclei and electrons that blast away from the Sun. (Illustration: Alexandre Szames, Antigravite, Paris) A new type of spacecraft could use long extremely thin and delicate metal threads to exploit the power of solar winds. What’s more, an initial trial will be made in 2013 when a Finnish satellite is launched. Until now sun sail proposals have involved gigantic, ultrathin foils that reflect solar light. A photon sail was tested on the Japanese Ikaros space probe that orbited Venus. But Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Kumpula Space Centre has another approach. At the recent meeting of the International Astronautical Congress in Naples he explained his plan: A spaceship that sails by means of the solar wind. The solar wind consists of hydrogen nuclei and electrons that blast away from the Sun. A sail of threads Janhunen’s electric solar wind sail has one big advantage on photon sails. How do you make a sail of threads? Reference:
NASA Is Building A Mocked-Up Deep-Space Habitat In Texas Testing the technology that might bring humans to Mars Deep Space Habitat Concept NASA When it's done, the concept for a ship that'll take astronauts to deep space won't look like much. Actually, it kind of sounds like a mess: the "Deep Space Habitat" is being cobbled together from scrap parts of the International Space Station, and even a museum mockup. Obviously, it's not going to send anyone to deep space. But it does give us a tantalizing look at what it'll look when NASA does take the next steps in space travel. Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center and experts Johnson Space Center in Houston (led by astronaut Alvin Drew) are tinkering with the spaceship mockup, deciding the right size, necessary equipment, and everything else that's going to make a mission to Mars, a near-by asteroid, or the second Earth-Moon Lagrangian point (277,000 miles away from Earth) as pleasant as possible. Multi Purpose Logistics Module Mockup: NASA Now we just have to wait for the mission.
NASA heli-capsule could let astronauts land anywhere Space exploration once captured the world's imagination. In the 1960s and 1970s, children dreamed of satellites, lunar rovers, and walking on the moon. Today – decades after Sputnik, Neil Armstrong, and the Apollo missions – many children may not even know what a space capsule is. Some of those children from the Space Race years, though, grew up to work at NASA. Rekindling an old idea This model may help the researchers figure out how to use wind-powered propellors (Photo: NASA) Researchers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are testing a rotor system that would let space capsules fly like helicopters. A heli-capsule could land gently, and nearly anywhere. The helicopter-like design wouldn't, however, be powered by an engine. An engineer at Kennedy, Les Boatright, likens the project to modern mobile devices: "A hundred years ago, there were cameras and there were phones and there were wireless devices to send Morse code and they were all separate technologies on their own.
NASA examines hybrid solar-electric propulsion for manned space missions A marriage of the tortoise and the hare may be the key to exploring the Solar System. At least, that’s the belief of Nathan Strange, a mission formulation systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who has outlined a plan to use hybrid chemical/solar-electric propulsion systems for the manned exploration of the Moon, Mars and the asteroids. View all Getting around space is a matter of velocities. Comparison of chemical fuels, cryogenic fuels and SEPs Currently, we rely almost entirely on chemical rockets for space travel. Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) systems such as ion drives and Hall thrusters seem like a better deal. The hybrid system allows for mission flexibility All that sounds great, but SEPs suffer from extremely low thrust – about the same as the weight of a coin resting on a table. Strange and his team believe that the answer lies in combining these methods into a much more efficient and flexible system. Example of a solar panel/Hall thruster array