ARMADILLO AEROSPACE PLANS NASA-FUNDED LAUNCHES FROM SPACEPORT AMERICA
SPACEPORT AMERICA PRESS RELEASE •
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE •
SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 •
ARMADILLO AEROSPACE PLANS NASA-FUNDED LAUNCHES FROM SPACEPORT AMERICA
LAS CRUCES, NM – The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has announced that Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwell, Texas, plans to launch three NASA-funded tests of their vertical takeoff and landing rocket technology from Spaceport America this winter.
“These launches mark an important step in NASA’s plan to empower the emerging commercial spaceflight industry to assume a greater role in the nation’s space program,” said Rick Homans, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. “Spaceport America is the launch pad for this new industry, and Armadillo’s decision to launch here affirms our important position.”
Armadillo Aerospace is developing new vehicles that can launch small payloads to suborbital “near space”, which NASA defines as altitudes between about 19 and 106 km, and return them safely to earth.
“Armadillo is proud to pioneer reusable rocket technology for the commercial space industry and Spaceport America provides the perfect place for our launches,” said Neil Milburn, Vice President of Program Management at Armadillo Aerospace. “We selected Spaceport America because of its geographic advantages, dedicated staff, technical experience, flexibility and its low cost. We need exactly this kind of support to be successful.”
Milburn said Armadillo will move its test operations to Spaceport America for two NASA-funded CRuSR (Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program) flights to 15 kilometers, under the Amateur Class III waiver, and a subsequent fully licensed or permit flight to at least 40 kilometers this winter.
Armadillo’s grant will help fund flights from Spaceport America, and was made possible through NASA’s CRuSR program, which establishes a series of suborbital flights that will yield many benefits to NASA by providing access to 3-4 minutes of microgravity for experimentation, discovery and testing. According to Homans, it’s NASA’s goal to help private firms develop suborbital spacecraft that will eventually provide the nation with much lower-cost and much more reliable access to orbital space. Spaceport America anticipates playing a critical role in the CRuSR program.
Homans added that the Armadillo announcement comes just two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded at least $5 million to New Mexico State University to develop a Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation.
“These announcements, coming one on top of another, are big news for Spaceport America,” Homans said.
Armadillo Aerospace is a leading developer of reusable rocket powered vehicles. Founded in 2000, Armadillo Aerospace has an unequaled experience base with over 200 flight tests spread over a dozen different vehicles. The company has done work for NASA and the United States Air Force, and flown vehicles at every X-Prize Cup and Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge event, including those held in New Mexico from 2006 to 2008. The firm has plans to provide a platform for civilian access to suborbital space via a recent marketing agreement with Space Adventures, Ltd.
Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. The state-of-the-art launch facility is under construction near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and is expected to become fully operational in 2011. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with leading aerospace firms such as Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, Moog-FTS, and UP Aerospace to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on its promise to the people of New Mexico.
— 30 —
(For additional information and images of Spaceport America go to www.spaceportamerica.com
SpaceX Press Release: Dragon Spacecraft Successfully Completes High Altitude Drop Test
Friday, August 20, 2010
SpaceX recently completed its first Dragon high altitude drop test and it was 100% successful!
View the video here.
The purpose of the test was to validate the Dragon’s parachute deployment systems and recovery operations prior to the first flight of an operational Dragon later this year. The drop occurred on August 12, 2010 about nine miles off the coast from the scenic town of Morro Bay, CA– 45 miles north of Vandenberg Air Force Base.
An Erickson S-64F Air-Crane helicopter dropped a test article of the Dragon spacecraft from a distance of 14,000 feet, directly above the center of a 6 mile diameter Pacific Ocean test zone.
Photo credit: Roger Gilbertson/SpaceX
In a carefully timed sequence of events, dual redundant drogue parachutes deployed first to stabilize and slow the spacecraft. Full deployment of the drogues then triggered the release of the main parachutes, with the drogues detaching from the spacecraft, allowing the main parachutes to deploy.
Left photo: The drogue parachutes stabilize and slow the spacecraft. Right photo: Detached drogue parachutes (top) descend after pulling out the main parachutes, which are shown in the process of deployment. Photo Credit: Roger Gilbertson/SpaceX
While Dragon will initially be used to transport cargo, the spacecraft was designed to transport crew. The parachute system validated during the drop test is the same system that would be used on a crew-carrying Dragon.
The three main parachutes, designed and manufactured by Airborne Systems, are particularly large–each measuring 116 feet in diameter when fully deployed. The oversized parachutes are key in ensuring a comfortable landing for crew members. After the drogues stabilize the spacecraft, the main parachutes further slow the spacecraft’s decent to approximately 16-18 ft/sec which makes for a very soft landing.
Even if Dragon were to lose one of its main parachutes, the two remaining chutes would still ensure a pretty soft landing for the crew. Under nominal conditions, astronauts would experience no more than roughly 2-3 g’s during this type of decent—less than you’d experience at an amusement park.
Fully deployed, the three main parachutes gently bring the Dragon spacecraft down for a water splashdown. Photo Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX
Two released drogue parachutes also visible as the Dragon spacecraft continues its decent. Photo Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX
While the test article landed well within the targeted zone, the landing of an operational Dragon will be even more precise. With an operational Dragon, the landing location is controlled by firing the Draco thrusters during reentry, ensuring Dragon splashes down less than a mile from the desired landing site. Even that dispersion is only due to wind drift while Dragon is under the parachutes–if winds are low, Dragon’s landing accuracy will be to within a few hundred feet.
For initial crewed flights, Dragon will be recovered by helicopter and airlifted to shore. Our long term goal, however, is to land Dragon on land. Once we have proven our ability to control reentry accurately, we intend to add deployable landing gear and leverage the thrusters in order to land on land in the future.
During this particular drop test operation, Dragon was returned by boat and lifted onto its transport carrier via a bay-side crane as shown in the photographs below.
One of three recovery boats approaches Dragon spacecraft after it has completed its decent. Photo Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX
Dragon spacecraft being lifted out the bay and onto its transport carrier for return to SpaceX’s Hawthorne headquarters. Photo Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX
A drop test is historically a very difficult test to complete successfully, so congratulations to the entire Dragon drop team for achieving 100% success on their first attempt. In addition, SpaceX thanks the numerous individuals who were incredibly helpful in assisting with the execution of this test–a test of this size requires significant coordination between numerous parties and we greatly appreciate their help. In particular, SpaceX thanks the Dynegy Morro Bay Power Plant, Erickson Air-Crane, Angel City Air Aerial Photography, Associated Pacific Constructors of Morro Bay, Castagnola Tug Service, Morro Bay Harbor, Fire and Police Departments, US Coast Guard Morro Bay Station, The Federal Aviation Administration, Morro Bay Planning Division, Protech Express Towing, SloDivers, Centurion Private Security, Coast Diving Service and Woody Wordsworth at Radio Shack Morro Bay.
SpaceX Team
In a recent editorial for Aviation Week, Thomas H. Zurbuchen, a professor of space science and aerospace engineering, and associate dean of entrepreneurial programs at the University of Michigan, wrote a great piece entitled “Aerospace Must Revive Its Spirit”. The article highlighted the need for entrepreneurship in aerospace, and had great things to say about the SpaceX team and our program:
“I recently performed an analysis of the very best students in my space engineering programs over the past decade, based on their scholarly, leadership and entrepreneurial performance at Michigan. To my amazement, I found that of my top 10 students, five work at SpaceX. No other company or lab has attracted more than two of these top students.
…A former student told me, ‘This is a place where I am the limiting factor, not my work environment’. At SpaceX, he considers himself to be in an entrepreneurial environment in which great young people collaborate to do amazing things. He never felt like this in his previous job with an aerospace company.
…Today, the SpaceX parking lots are full at night, not because people are forced to put in extra hours, but just like at the early NASA, SpaceX is working in young teams, on the toughest challenges, and realizing that risk is an important aspect of any entrepreneurial activity. That’s why SpaceX attracts the best of the best to join its team.
…I hope entrepreneurial successes, such as the ones at SpaceX, will start to define a new image for an industry that often believes its most important achievements are in the past. We need to create an entrepreneurial environment to attract top talent and once again shoot for the stars!”
Read the full article here.
Another Look at Star Birth and What Interests Astronomers
The Astronomer’s Universe with Carolyn Collins Petersen
Star Birth
Best seen Full Screen
This month another look at star birth from the viewpoint of what interests astronomers about this most fundamental process. The first stars came into existence just over 13 billion years ago and the procedures for making stellar objects have been occurring ever since then. We see it happening in nearly every direction of the universe, in nearly every galaxy that exists.
You would think that such a ubiquitous process would be very well understood by astronomers. In very general terms, we do know the basic outlines of how it is that stars form from a nebula (a cloud of gas and dust) and ultimately end up as bright self-luminous objects. But, as they always say, the devil is in the details.
What causes that cloud of gas and dust to start down the long road to star formation? Why do some clouds produce huge numbers of clouds while others form just a few? Where did the gases and dust in the star forming nebula come from? What was the event that kicked off the formation of our own solar system? What really happens in those very dense clouds of gas and dust that we can’t see into, such as those in the famous Pillars of Creation image from HST?
These questions and many others drive astronomers to study star birth regions in the Milky Way and beyond, using new technologies that allow them to peer beyond the clouds of gas and dust nearly to the hearts of stellar nurseries. It’s an exciting field of study that encompasses not just astronomy but astrophysics and chemistry (particularly the chemical interactions in the clouds where stars form). The study of star birth ultimately also leads to the study of star death because for all the star forming regions we see today, stars had to die and contribute material in order for new generations of stars to form. This is one of the many reasons that starbirth fascinates astronomers.
Re-post
A Green Space – A Green Earth Focus on Disaster Mitigation and Early Warnings
This month A Green Space – A Green Earth focus on disaster mitigation and early warnings and how space based Earth observations contributes to safe-guard lives and property. See Video
New satellite techniques such as InSAR complement GPS in unraveling in fine details crustal movements of the Earth. ESA’s GOCE gravity measurements from space will add knowledge to our understanding of sub-surface movements leading up to earthquakes. Through observing Earth from space before, during and after earthquakes we improve disaster mitigation and early warnings.
Learn more about earthquakes and the examples mentioned in this episode through the following links:
InSAR used at the L’Aquila, Italy earthquake 2009.
Seismic and Medical Tomography
Global Earthquake Model – A OECD program
Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster 2004 – A portal for more information at University of Buffalo, NY, USA
Wenchuan, China earthquake 2008 – A portal for maps and geophysical information about the earthquake
Wenchuan, China earthquake 2008 in numbers (in Chinese with map from China Earthquake Adminstration)
L’Aquila, Italy earthquake 2009 in pictures – A collection of images in Boston Globe.
Space geodetic techniques – A portal for more information about space based geodetic techniques.
Re-post
Our Night Sky – August 2010
Catch what’s up in our August night sky.
Best seen full screen. Click right button on player control.
Alien Twitters
Frugal Aliens Might Be Sending in a Cost-Effective Way
The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been the focus of a dedicated group of scientists for the past 50 years. The process, developed in the 1960s, involves listening for signals from nearby stars and trying to decipher any type of intentional message from among the noise of space. And, make no mistake about it, space is noisy.
No signals have been found yet, and that has some researchers wondering if there isn’t a better and more cost-effective way to monitor signals. But, has anybody thought about what sending messages across space might cost a civilization? Gregory Benford, an astrophysicist at University of California-Irvine is. He’s teamed up with his twin brother James, who is a physicist specializing in microwave technology, to look at the problem from the point of view of the folks on other worlds who we have been hoping were sending messages to us. Their conclusions, publihsed in the June of the journal Astrobiology, assume that any alien civilization might want to save money and resources and send their messages in the most cost-effective way possible. This means optimizing the use of bandwidth and sending narrowly focused beams that carry pulsed signals in the 1- to 10-gigahertz range.
James Benford likens that approach to being more like Twitter, with its shortened, efficient methodology of sending messages. James and Gregory (who is also a science fiction writer) have caught the attention of the SETI community with their so-called “Benford Beacons”. Researchers are taking a look at their current efforts, which focus their receivers on narrow-band input. They’ve come to the conclusion that they may be looking for the wrong kind of signals. The Benfords and a growing number of scientists involved in the hunt for extraterrestrial life advocate adjusting SETI receivers to maximize their ability to detect direct, broadband beacon blasts.
Once that’s done, the next question will focus on where to look for these little beacons. The Benfords suggest star-rich areas of the Milky Way, particularly toward the center where stars are at least a billion years older than the Sun. Those stars might stand a good chance of harboring life of the intelligent variety.
To hear more about these Benford Beacons, watch this video interview with James Benford.
If you’re interested in learning more about all the aspects of SETI, consider attending SETICon, being held August 13-15, 2010. Details at are SETIcon.com.
It’s a Planet… No, It’s a Comet…
No… Maybe It’s A Cometary Planet
- An artist’s concept of an exoplanet being baked by its star, with the planetary atmosphere streaming out to space like a comet tail. Courtesy NASA, ESA and Greg Bacon (STScI).
Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) to study the ultraviolet-light fingerprints of elements in light streaming away from a star located 153 light-years from Earth. What’s so important in that starlight? According to astronomer Jeffrey Linsky of the University of Colorado, Boulder, the evidence from the spectrograph shows that there’s a “baked” object orbiting the star.
The chemical elements in the starlight are actually evidence that the planetary atmosphere is being heated by the nearby star and escaping into space. The fleeing atmospheric gases are being swept into a tail, giving the planet — named HD 209458b — a comet-like appearance.
“Since 2003 scientists have theorized the lost mass is being pushed back into a tail, and they have even calculated what it looks like,” said Linsky, who is the leader of the COS study. “We think we have the best observational evidence to support that theory. We have measured gas coming off the planet at specific speeds, some coming toward Earth. The most likely interpretation is that we have measured the velocity of material in a tail.”
The planet is not Earth-like, but instead is more Jupiter-like. It orbits 100 times closer to its star than Jupiter does to the Sun. That gives this roasted planet a very short year — only 3.5 days long. For this reason, plus its proximity to Earth and the fact that it is one of the few known exoplanets that can be seen passing in front of (transiting) its star, HD 209458b is one of the most intensely scrutinized alien worlds in our part of the galaxy. The fact that this star transits its star so frequently allowed Linsky and his team to use COS to analyze the planet’s atmosphere as it passed in front of the star.
During a transit, astronomers study the structure and chemical makeup of a planet’s atmosphere by sampling the starlight that passes through it. The dip in starlight because of the planet’s passage, excluding the atmosphere, is very small, only about 1.5 percent. When the atmosphere is added, the dip jumps to 8 percent, indicating a bloated atmosphere.
COS detected the heavy elements carbon and silicon in the planet’s super-hot 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit atmosphere. This detection revealed the parent star is heating the entire atmosphere, dredging up the heavier elements and allowing them to escape the planet.
The COS detection isn’t the first time a Hubble Space Telescope instrument has detected this cometary planet’s atmosphere. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) first observed the planet in 2003 and found the first evidence of this world’s evaporating atmosphere. COS’s followup study gave astronomers much more detail and is allowing them to study the action in ultraviolet wavelengths.
JAXA Confirms Photon Acceleration of Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator ‘IKAROS’
JAXA announce the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator “IKAROS” has reached a successful acceleration of a photon (*1) after its sail deployment. IKAROS was launched by JAXA on May 21, 2010 (JST) . The thrust by solar light pressure is 1.12 mili-Newton (*2,) which is the expected value. JAXA has announced, “the IKAROS was proved to generate the biggest acceleration through photon during interplanetary flight in history.”
Read more in the JAXA Press Release.
Visiting Lutetia – Rosetta’s Encounter with An Asteroid
Rosetta’s Encounter with An Asteroid
A series of closest-approach images of 21 Lutetia, returned by the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft. Courtesy European Space Agency, Rosetta Mission. Click to enlarge.
The Rosetta spacecraft, a project of the European Space Agency, has just completed a close fly-by of the mysterious asteroid 21 Lutetia. The spacecraft flew within 3,160 kilometers and took a series of images that reveal a lumpy, battered surface that seems to have a thick layer of regolith (the technical term for a layer of loose “soil” on the rocky surfaces of places like Mars, the Moon — and apparently, 21 Lutetia). Planetary scientists will be studying images and spectra of Lutetia to determine just what it’s surface composition is — and, given its beat-up appearance — the impact cratering and formation history of this asteroid.
Why study asteroids up close? These little chunks of rock are more than simply space debris. They give us insight into the earliest epochs of solar system formation — and the birth of planets like Earth and Mars. Asteroids contain some of the oldest materials in the solar system. The rocky bodies of the larger planets formed from rocks like these during the early evolution of the solar system. They condensed out of the disk of material left over from the birth of the Sun. As time went by, the chunks of rock, sometimes called planetesimals, collided to form ever-larger worlds.
Thus, the evolutionary history of our solar system is written in the minerals of these asteroids. And, places like 21 Lutetia continue to experience impacts in the modern era — giving solar system researchers insight into the complex dynamical evolution of the asteroids today.
You can follow the Rosetta mission and see the latest images at the ESA’s Rosetta Blog. It features first-look images taken during the flyby. Scientist interviews are available on ESA’s Livestream channel. Watch and learn what planetary astronomers are finding out about Lutetia from Rosetta’s images and data.
More Than Fireworks on July 4th
While much of the lights in the evening will be fireworks throughout the USA in celebration of Independence Day, take this opportunity to observe some celestial lights in the night sky. About one and a half hours after sunset, look in the west for Venus. It will only be about 6 degrees away from Regulus, the brightest star in Leo the Lion. Also note that Venus, Mars and Saturn this evening will span a mere 35 degrees of the sky, roughly in a line with that which is known as the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun in the sky. Take a look with a pair of binoculars (often used to see fireworks) and you will catch this planetary alignment. Download a free sky map online here to see what else you might find in the night sky, other than fireworks.