Category Archives: Space Exploration

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched a Taiwanese Earth-observation satellite today (Aug. 24) and then came back down for a pinpoint landing on a ship at sea.

The two-stage Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 2:51 p.m. EDT (1851 GMT; 11:51 a.m. local time), hauling the Formosat-5 spacecraft into the heavens.

About 2.5 minutes after launch, the rocket's two stages separated. The second stage continued carrying Formosat-5 toward its prescribed orbit, and the first stage performed a series of maneuvers to head toward the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. [Watch: Awesome Supercut of 5 SpaceX Rocket Landings]

The booster aced its landing, settling softly on the ship's deck a little less than 11 minutes after taking off.

Such dramatic touchdowns are getting to be somewhat routine for SpaceX: Today's was the 15th that the company has pulled off during orbital launches, and the ninth to take place on a drone ship. The other six rocket landings have occurred at "Landing Zone 1," a SpaceX facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

These activities are part of SpaceX's effort to develop reusable spaceflight systems, which company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said could slash the cost of space exploration. SpaceX has already re-flown two used Falcon 9 first stages, and it has also employed the same robotic Dragon cargo capsule on two separate resupply flights to the International Space Station. (The Falcon 9 that took off today, however, was entirely new.)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Formosat-5 Earth-observation satellite on Aug. 24, 2017.

But getting Formosat-5 aloft was the main point of today's mission. The satellite, which was built by Taiwan's National Space Organization, will study Earth for at least five years, from a sun-synchronous orbit 447 miles (720 kilometers) above the ground.

The main payload of Formosat-5 is an optical "Remote Sensing Instrument," which will provide 6.5-foot (2 meters) resolution for black-and-white images and 13-foot (4 m) resolution for multi-spectral color images, SpaceX representatives wrote in a mission overview.

"Formosat-5 also hosts a secondary scientific payload, an Advanced Ionospheric Probe (AIP), developed by Taiwan's National Central University," they added.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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SpaceX Launches Earth-Observing Satellite, Lands Rocket on Ship at Sea - Space.com

Lesa Roe hopscotched across the country working her way up the ranks at NASA. And when you spend more than three decades working on projects that push the boundaries of space exploration, its hard to pick the coolest moment of your career.

"Oh my gosh, thats really hard to nail down because theres just too many exciting things to talk about," she says.

Roe managed the research program at the International Space Station and helped launch missions that have discovered new worlds. As an engineer by training, Roe even helped build the space shuttle Endeavor. She installed its communications systems.

But she says the most thrilling moment came in the middle of the night a little more than five years ago.

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Roe was in Pasadena California, in the control room as the Curiosity rover was landing on Mars. She says the tension in the room was palpable, with dozens of blue-shirted scientists and engineers anxiously watching their screens.

"Theres what they call seven minutes of terror when you have no communications as the vehicle is going through the atmosphere of Mars," she says.

Most of them had spent their entire careers working on getting a robot the size of a MINI Cooper to the surface of the red planet. So when it landed safely, "everybody just exploded in excitement. And so thats just something that sticks with you forever."

So how do you go from being the No. 2 at NASA an organization with more than 17,000 employees and a $19 billion budget to running university system in Texas? Roe says thereisa connection.

"We really need a well-trained, well-educated workforce coming in to make those tremendous scientific discoveries, to do all of the incredible systems, the design, everything that we do at NASA. And so the University of North Texas systems role is to develop those students that can do that kind of work," she says.

Roe will inherit a growing university system.Theres new law school in Dallas, and a new medical school in the works in Fort Worth. Roe says she wants to make sure graduates are attractive to top employers.

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"Every time I talk to students I talk about doing internships and really getting that hands-on experience and seeing what its like and learning and being part of a team even while youre a student in a university," she says.

Roe wants UNT to be inclusive and accessible for people of all economic backgrounds. And personally, shes on a mission to get more women into STEM fields.

"I have a huge passion for young girls seeing yeah, I can do this, I can be a part of it. I was one of those young girls, I was the first to go to college in my family, and so I want to help be that encourager to say you can do this."

And if they need a little inspiration along the way, shes always got that whole Mars landing story to tell them.

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UNT's next chancellor has pushed the boundaries of space ... - Texas Tribune

A Different Path to Space

On Monday, August 14, SpaceX launched a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was the 12th resupply flight SpaceX has done for NASA as part of its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, and the last one with an unused Dragon capsule. It has also been a month since Elon Musks rocket company flew to space, after a series of successful launches earlier this summer. This most recentCRS-12 flight was a special one, both for NASA and SpaceX, but also for the future of space exploration.

A great many recent rocket and spaceflight achievements have been madeby commercial space companies like SpaceX and Orbital ATK (formerly Orbital Sciences). Both companieshave been running CRS missions for NASA, as well as aeronautics giant Boeing. Theres also Jeff Bezos Blue Origin which is also working on reusable rockets, Virgin Galactic with its more space tourism-focused approach, and many more space endeavor focused startups.

NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot, Jr. is convinced that these private, commercial companies are actually the future of space exploration or at least, theyll make it possible. Today epitomizes what we have been doing for a long time in terms of building our commercial partnerships, Lightfoot told Futurism after Mondays launch. We are getting to space a little differently than we used to. Its not just us anymore by ourselves. Weve got a great partnership with SpaceX. Weve got a great partnership with Orbital ATK.

While commercial space companies may have their own plans for space exploration most of which involve returning to the Moon and getting to Mars it doesnt mean that NASA doesnt haveplans of its own. In fact, NASA has been working on its own mission to Mars for a while now. The space agency is also currently building its own large rocket. However,recent developmentssuggest that NASA needs all the help it can get for its programs to survive.

Such a collaboration between NASA and commercial space agencies has been working well, Lightfoot noted. For one, its whats made it possible for the ISS to continue operating. They have allowed us to keep the space station going and allowed us to do some fantastic research, he said, referring to SpaceX and Orbital ATKs CRS missions.

Lightfoot also suggested that these partnerships could do so much more, like sending people to space again. SpaceX and Boeing will come along and allow us to fly [a] crew, he said. In a couple of years we will get there, and they will be getting crew to the station.this will give us our own access to space. From there on, the possibilities could be endless.

Indeed, space exploration is entering a new era. It isnt necessarily ending the era when space agencies were the only ones making giant leaps for mankind only helping it. Collaboration is the future of space exploration.

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NASA: We Need Companies Like SpaceX for the Future of Space Exploration - Futurism

Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the unveiling event of the Dragon V2 in Hawthorne, California, May 29, 2014

After a roughly 36-hour journey, a SpaceX Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station this week, delivering over three tons of supplies.

Over the past year, an index of stocks linked to space exploration and the space industry compiled by the hedge fund analytics tool Kensho has also soared. Kensho's space index is up over 27 percent in a period where the S&P 500 gained 12.5 percent.

The companies in the Kensho space index design and build rockets, satellites, launch vehicles and their systems.

The top performing components: Boeing, which jumped 82 percent, II-VI, up 68 percent and Aerojet, which gained 53 percent.

For more information on the Kensho indexes, head to CNBC.com/Kensho-indices

Disclosure: NBCUniversal, parent of CNBC, is a minority investor in Kensho.

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Boeing leads gains in stocks linked to space exploration - CNBC

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The word far is an understatement when it comes to the vast distances between celestial bodies. The distance between the sun and our farthest planet Neptune is 2.7 billion milesit would take astronauts roughly a dozen years to get there using current technology. The farther out into space you go, miles start to lose their meaning and light-years come into play. To put that into perspective, Alpha Centauri A/B, our closest neighboring star (actually, a binary system of two suns), is 4.3 light-years from Earth or roughly 25 trillion miles.

Breakthrough Initiatives Starshot is involved in developing a proof-of-concept for unmanned space flight that travels at 20% the speed of light. (Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)

Suffice to say, it would take us around 137,000 years to get to our nearest neighbor, a lofty goal we could never reach by todays technological standards. We would have to travel at the speed of light or close to it, to get there in a reasonable enough timeframe, something that is currently beyond our reach or is it? An ongoing endeavor by Breakthrough Intiatives is looking at getting us our first poolside glimpse of Alpha Centauri and other neighboring stars in just 20 years by sending tiny microsatellites.

Founded and funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Breakthrough Initiatives is an aspiring program centered on searching for intelligent alien life forms throughout the universe. The program is actually broken down into several projects to achieve this goal:

While all of the projects outlined in the program are intriguing, Starshot is perhaps the most fascinating: Traveling at 20% of the speed of light opens up a new world of possibilities of exploration that would be unprecedented even for a generation. To accomplish this goal, Breakthrough is designing its own microsatellite (or Nanocraft) code-named StarChip, a centimeter-sized interstellar spacecraft.

Think of it like a tiny single-board controller (SBC) outfitted with four sub-gram digital cameras with a minimum of 2 Mpixels of resolution. Accompanying those cameras are four onboard processors, four photon thrusters, an array of sensors, and a 150-mg atomic battery powered by either plutonium-238 or americium-241. The hardware will feature a protective coating (possibly beryllium copper) to deflect damage from dust and radiation particles as it travels.

A powerful Earth-based laser array will provide propulsion for the tiny satellites. (Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)

To get the craft up to speed, an Earth-based, kilometer-scale, phased laser array will pulse (at 100-gigawatt levels) photons at the craft, which will push a connected light sail to its destination, increasing its speed with each pulse. The sail is the keyit needs to be composed of robust materials (graphene perhaps?) that wont disintegrate the planned meter-wide, atoms-thick sail. So far, the team behind Starshot has succeeded in deploying Sprites, space probe prototype precursors of the StarChip into low-earth orbit, a great first step in exploring deep space.

Taking on Water

Most satellites maneuver using a chemical propellant deployed by thrusters, which makes sense considering most conventional satellites are large and therefore have the needed room for the chemical systems. Not so for microsatellites or CubeSats. These typically rely on reaction wheels, magnetorquers, or tiny air-based thrusters for attitude control and movement.

Well, now we can add a fourth method of propulsion thanks to some clever researchers from Purdue University, who designed a new micro engine system that uses ultra-purified water vapor for movement while in orbit. The new system, known as a Film-Evaporation MEMS Tunable Array (FEMTA) Thruster, features tiny capillaries (10 mm thick) to harness the power of water.

Purdue University harnessed the power of vaporized water for CubeSat propulsion. (Credit: Purdue University)

To provide thrust, small heaters are located near the ends of the capillaries, which vaporizes the water as it flows from the tiny tubes. Whats interesting is that because of the capillaries micro size, the surface tension of the water keeps it from flowing out. When the heaters are activated, the tension is released at the capillary end, and the water can then freely flow, acting much like an on/off valve, or in a similar fashion to an inkjet printer.

Incredibly, the tiny FEMTA Thruster has demonstrated a thrust-to-power ratio of 230 micronewtons per watt for impulses lasting 80 seconds long. To put that into perspective, its enough power to rotate a CubeSat 180 in under a minute using less than a quarter-watt of power.

Purdues CubeSat FEMTA Thruster engine reached a thrust-to-power ratio of 230 micronewtons per watt for impulses lasting 80 seconds long. (Credit: Purdue University)

The researchers used commercially available parts to design their new thrusters, most of which are integral for IoT devices, including an inertial measurement unit that controls the satellites movement. An onboard microcontroller processes the data collected from the sensor and triggers the FEMTA Thruster to achieve the needed movement. The platform has yet to be tested (except in a vacuum chamber); researchers would like to outfit their new system on a mission-ready satellite sometime in the near future.

These are just two examples of new propulsion methods that can be harnessed for both deep-space exploration and low-earth orbit expeditions. As new technology advances continue to arrive, other propulsion options will undoubtedly follow. It will be interesting to see what the future holds and what discoveries come from it.

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Advances in Microsatellite Propulsion | Machine Design - Machine Design

NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 are still exploring the outer solar system and continue to communicate with us on Earth daily.

The identical spacecrafts launched a couple of weeks apart from one another. Voyager 2 left Earth on August 20, and even though it launched first, it got its name because it was expected to reach Jupiter and Saturn after Voyager 1.

According to NASA, few missions can match the many achievements of the Voyager spacecrafts during their 40-year journey. Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft and only human-made object to have entered interstellar space. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have flown by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Even though the Voyagers will not come near a star until 40,000 years from now, together, they have improved our understanding of the characteristics of the atmosphere of Jupiter. They also discovered the first active volcanoes beyond Earth at Jupiter's moon Io; hints of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa; encountered Saturn's largest moon Titan, where data showed a thick Earth-like atmosphere; found the icy moon Miranda at Uranus and spotted icy-cold geysers on Neptune's moon Triton.

Though they are incredibly far from Earth -- Voyager 1 is almost 13 billion miles away and Voyager 2 almost 11 billion miles -- they continue to communicate with NASA daily, sending back observations on our solar system. The significance of the Voyager is the vast amount of new knowledge of outer space it has provided and the interest in further exploration it's generated. That interest has resulted in the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn, as well as the discovery of three new moons around Saturn using Earth-based instruments.

Today, this mission's legacy has made an impact in our culture, and has reached the film, art and music industries. Each spacecraft contains a "Golden Record," a 12-inch phonographic gold-plated copper capsule containing Earth sounds, pictures, and messages designed to give any possible alien who encounters the spacecraft an idea of what life on Earth is like. They are expected to last billions of years and could one day be the only traces of human civilization.

As for the future, it is expected that in the year 40,272 AD, Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear or Little Dipper) and in about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will come within about 1.7 light years of a star called Ross 248, a small star in the constellation of Andromeda.

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Voyager probes fulfill 40 years of space exploration - CNN International

In BriefA team at Purdue University have designed a water vaporpropulsion system that could make CubeSats more effective thatlarger satellites. The Smaller the Better

Satellites are typically imagined to be massive constructs that take millions of dollars to produce and maintain, but the much smaller CubeSatsminiaturized satellites shaped like cubes are more convenient, cost-effective, and easier to handle. The latest development in CubeSat propulsion could soon see CubeSats using water vapors to maneuver around, potentially making them the preferred hardware to use in future exploratory missions. Water is not only safe to use, but plentiful in our solar system; within our planetary neighborhood, its thought to be abundant just next door on Mars moon, Phobos.

A team at Purdue Universityis behind the water-propelled project,which involved a number of undergraduates as part of a propulsion design course. Their prototype CubeSat, presented at the 31st AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, was made using commercially available products at a relatively low cost.

The new propulsion system, called a Film-Evaporation MEMS Tunable Array, or FEMTA thruster, utilizes small capillaries that are ten micrometers in diameter. Ten micrometers isnt large enough to allow the teaspoon of water inside the CubeSat to be used, so small heaters wereinstalled that can be activated to turn the water into vapor and provide thrust.

Four of these FEMTA thrusters were used on a single ten-centimeters-cubed CubeSat, allowing it to rotate on a single axis. For full three-axis rotation, twelve thrusters are required.

This is a very low power, said Alina Alexeenko, a professor at Purdue University and lead researcher on the propulsion project, in a press release. We demonstrate that one 180-degree rotation can be performed in less than a minute and requires less than a quarter watt, showing that FEMTA is a viable method for altitude control of CubeSats.

CubeSats have typically been used alongside their larger counterparts. Theyve previously had no propulsion system of their own, requiring them to be launched while aboard another craft. They have then been used for various tasks, such as internet service, high-res imagining, environmental observations, and military surveillance.

With this new water-based propulsion system, however, they can be used for far greater things, such as constellation-flying and exploration things traditional satellites are unable to do due to their size. Fortunately, Alexeenko and her team are eager to have their system used in a real space mission, and are pursuing a patent for the concept.

That will take some time and more work, of course. The goal now is to further reduce the weight, volume, and power needed to effectively use CubeSats in space. The aforementioned prototype could only accommodate four FEMTA thrusters, and still weighed 2.8 kilograms (6 pounds). To get the most out of the amount of water needed, the CubeSat will have to be lighter.

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Small, Water-Powered Satellites Could Be the Future of Space Exploration - Futurism

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California Editorial Rdp Columbus Ledger-Enquirer On Monday, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, conducted a successful launch of a resupply mission to the International Space Station, or ISS, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the company's reusable ... SpaceX to launch supercomputer to International Space StationWGN-TV SpaceX launches successful 12th International Space Station resupply missionThe Daily Breeze Spaceborne Computer - NASANASA HPE Newsroom -YouTube -SpaceX all 539 news articles »

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Alia Al Mansoori is a fine example of how space research can galvanise young minds. Scott A Miller / The National

At precisely 12.31pm on Monday, a Falcon9 rocket lifted off from Nasas Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The rocket shot a 2,900 kg Dragon cargo capsule into space. When astronauts aboard the International Space Station retrieve the capsule today, they will find, among its contents, an experiment by Emirati teenager Alia Al Mansoori that will study DNA to identity how proteins in living organisms are synthesised, modified and regulated in space. The results of the experiment may yield clues that could aid in the prevention of unwanted cell death in astronauts on long-haul missions into deep space, including future flights to Mars. Ms Al Mansooris experiment won the Genes in Space competition, which is sponsored by The National, the UAE Space Agency and Boeing. She is the first winner from outside the United States.

The inclusion of Ms Al Mansooris experiment in the Nasa mission is a measure of the strides the UAE has made since Sheikh Zayedquizzed visiting American astronauts in the 1970s about space exploration. In 2014, the UAE launched its own Space Agency, the first in the Arab world. In 2020, the agency will launch space probe that will reach Mars the following year, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the UAEs founding. In 2015, the UAE established the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre. Two years later, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled the Mars 2117 Project: a plan to buildthe first human settlement on Mars within a century. "Nothing is impossible ... we can compete with the greatest of nations in the race for knowledge," he said when he announced the project earlier this year.

The UAEs space programme drew sceptical responses from some quarters in the beginning. To others, space exploration has always seemed like a waste of resources. This is a profoundly misplaced view. Ms Al Mansoori is a fine example of how space research can galvanise young minds. It is a catalyst for technological innovations; in addition to making hugely important discoveries in space, it gives rise to unexpected inventions on earth that benefit us all. John FKennedy understood this; as, in our own day, does Sheikh Mohammed.

The computer microchip, the CAT scanner (which can detect cancer), the satellite television and the smoke detector these are all among the dozens of technologies we now take for granted but which would not be available to us were it not for space research. As Dr Ahmad Belhoul, the UAEs Minister of State for Higher Education and the Chairman of the UAE Space Agency, wrote in these pages last month, space exploration is a necessity not only because of its tangible benefits to our everyday lives, but because of its potential to inspire and uplift mankind in ways we can only imagine.It will, in short, drive the knowledge economy and ensure that our post-oil economy receives a necessary boost of rocket fuel.

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Space exploration will send our economy into orbit - The National

No Man's Sky promised infinity, and that's a promise nothing can ever keep.

You may remember that Hello Games' epic space exploration opus landed one year ago. In the months preceding its release, the game became a sensation based solely on word of mouth. Studio lead Sean Murray appeared on Late Night With Stephen Colbert . The technology behind the game garnered breathless coverage in The New Yorker and every gaming publication. Fans buzzed with anticipation.

No Man's Sky promised a galaxy of infinite, procedurally generated planets to explorea rich microcosm of life to catalog and experience. It became, in the imaginations of many players, a sort of final game , the end product of digital entertainment that you could live in indefinitely.

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Naturally, that didn't happen. Turns out, Murray created just another videogameand a quiet one at that. You spent very little time interacting with anything other than a vast, open void. You flew to a planet and gathered the resources needed to fly to another one. You did this over and over and over until you reach the center of the galaxy or until you grew bored. An exile in deep space. The massive hype quickly gave way to an equally massive backlash. Players were horrified. The subreddit built around the game experienced a minor meltdown. Even now, No Man's Sky remains one of the few highly anticipated major releases on Steam with "mostly negative" reviews.

To mark the game's first anniversary, Hello Games just released a major update. In doing so, it underscores not just gaming's newfound plasticity, but the redemption that can be found within it.

"Atlas Rises" is the third update since the game's release, and it feels fundamentally different. It adds a few things players have griped about for ages, like the ability to fly close to the ground or summon your ship from anywhere, but it is ambitious enough be more than a sop to the few faithful fans. By adding 30 hours of story to the game, the update fleshes out a more complex narrative. By allowing players to communicate with others in their vicinity, it lays a foundation for cooperative play in the future. The patch notes drone on and onnew quest system, improved trade, more robust visual interfacesbut taken together they take on a new shape. Hello Games makes an overture to everyone who wrote off the game a week after launch. No Man's Sky is still here, the update says, and it is a growing thing. Hello Games would prefer you not abandon it so quickly.

In 2017, games like No Man's Sky can evolve over time, building and rebuilding audiences during their lifespans. They can flirt, woo, and make overtures to lost loves.

Thus is the state of play in 2017. Far from being mere glitch fixes, enhancements, or monetization plays , post-release patches turn games into organic texts. They make artistic work explicitly conversational, a dialogue between creator and audience in which players' responses can drastically shape, and reshape, a product. That doesn't always lead to a positive outcomeit can create a sense of entitlement among players, and perhaps even lead to harassmentbut it lets games like No Man's Sky evolve over time, building and rebuilding audiences during their lifespans. They can flirt, woo, and make overtures to lost loves.

Setting aside the merits of any features Hello Games added or removed since the game's release, it's worth remembering what made No Man's Sky so remarkable to begin with: It presented enormity as meditation. It is a game so big, so full of cosmic spectacle, and so dedicated to showcasing the powerful, eclipsing emptiness of space that playing it could verge on a spiritual practice. This was a game to be played slowly, thoughtfully, with curiosity and reverential care.

That game is still there for anyone willing to give it a chance. It might be bigger and a bit more conventional now, but no matter. Its galaxies are worth exploring.

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One Year Later, No Man's Skyand Its EvolutionIs Worth Exploring - WIRED