News Summaries for November 15
No More Space For Space As Tickets Sell Out (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Despite the double-digit million-dollar price of a ticket, Russia's space tourism scheme has proven so popular that seats are sold out until 2009, the head of the Russian Space Agency Anatoly Perminov said in an interview published Monday. To try and meet the growing appetite for space travel, Russian scientists were looking at a cheaper solution -- a sort of fast-space option, he said.
Launch Forecast Goes from Bad to Worse (Source: Florida Today)
Don't let the beautiful weather in central Florida today fool you. The forecast for the planned launch of a Delta 2 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday is going from bad to worse, with only a 30 percent chance that conditions will be acceptable for liftoff. The 12-story Boeing rocket and its cargo -- the third modernized Navstar Global Positioning System spacecraft -- remain scheduled for launch during a window that will extend from 2:17 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
Lofting Special Items Into Space (Source: Courant.com)
UP Aerospace, a privately held rocket company, is betting that your beloved is less likely to say no to a marriage proposal if you blast the engagement ring into outer space before popping the question. Based in Connecticut, UP Aerospace promises to send your stamps, coins, rings, and even your Aunt Gerty's ashes on an affordable four-minute ride through space and then gently parachute those items to the ground. Funded by angel investors, the 2-year-old company went from start-up to operational in two years on less than $2 million, Knight said.
On The Long Road To Making Time Travel A Future Reality (Source: Courant.com)
ince 2001, when he delivered a paper on using lasers to manipulate space and time, Ronald Mallett has been one of the leading figures in the theory of time travel. Though time travel has been a lifelong goal for Mallett, a 61-year-old theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, it took him a while to tell his colleagues. He eventually told a fellow physicist in 1998. ("You have to remember that I was a tenured physics professor by this time, so I didn't worry about it getting back to my department," he says.) His friend encouraged him to develop his ideas, and a few years later, Mallett made headlines around the world. Visit http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-timetraveler.artnov14,0,4921429.story?coll=hc-headlines-life to view the article.
Space Tug in Cost-Cutting Redesign (Source: Flight International)
The Conexpress orbital life-extension vehicle (CX-OLEV), offered to increase commercial satellites' operational lives, is being redesigned to reduce its development cost. Development of the 1,400kg vehicle, with a 14m-span solar array, was costed at $190 million, with industry and the European Space Agency each paying 50%. The Phase A/B preliminary design review was completed in February, and the next step was to have been full development of the vehicle under Phase C/D. But, eight months later, the private financing required by ESA for it to continue its investment has not been put in place. "Industry is investigating various schemes for financing their 50% share of the project," says the agency. "Industry is also looking into simplifying the spacecraft to reduce the cost."
NASA Must Stick Tightly to Budget or Lose Support in Revamped Congress (Source: Florida Today)
NASA must keep their fledging return-to-the-moon project on an extremely tight fiscal track, or risk losing support in the new Congress where Democrats, and many Republicans, will not tolerate cost overruns. Even before Democrats regained congressional control last week, the GOP leadership had put the agency on firm notice it had to keep its budgetary house in order. Enter the Democrats, who want to cut the runaway federal budget deficit and will be in no mood to dole out extra cash to NASA. That means the agency must keep its new manned Orion moonship program on schedule and within budget. If not, plans to start launching the Orions from KSC in 2014 could be pushed back, and the goal of returning to the moon by 2020 delayed, or even scuttled.
JAXA Plans Recoverable HTV (Source: Flight International)
A blunt capsule is the preferred design for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) cargo return vehicle, derived from its H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) resupply craft for the International Space Station, and the preliminary design work could begin next April. The Japanese agency has been analysing options for a cargo return vehicle based on its HTV. To be launched by Japan's H-IIB booster, the HTV is a cylindrical solar-powered vehicle with pressurised and unpressurised payload sections and propulsion and instrument units. It is designed to deliver 6,000kg (13,200lb) of cargo to the ISS beginning in 2008.
Satellite Studies Shape Ariane 5 Replacement (Source: Flight International)
Contracts to assess likely commercial satellite designs, technologies and launch demand between 2015 and 2025 have been awarded to two consortia by the European Space Agency. The 18-month Tomorrow's Bird study contracts are significant because their outcome could heavily influence ESA's choice of a future launcher to replace the Ariane 5. The agency has concluded that the time required to develop a new launcher is, on average, as long as it takes to field two generations of commercial satellites. ESA has already begun work on a new rocket under its Future Launcher Preparatory Programme (FLPP). Whether that launcher has two or more stages, is fully or partially reusable, or simply an improved Ariane will largely depend on how often European governments expect to launch payloads and what those payloads will be.
