Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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posted by Michael Belfiore at 6:44 PM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, March 15, 2010

SpaceX one step away from launch

Got this photo in from Space Exploration Technologies during the night. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is sitting on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. Over the weekend, the team fired the rocket's nine engines in a test run lasting several seconds.

Next step, a test launch to orbit, some time in the next two to three weeks.

Falcon 9 is powerful enough to send 7 astronauts to low Earth orbit. For now it will be pressed into service by NASA for cargo delivery flights to the International Space Station. But Falcon 9, along with the SpaceX Dragon capsule, is number one on the runway as America's next manned spaceship, gearing up to take over the Space Shuttle's duties when it retires this year.

Photo credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX

posted by Michael Belfiore at 2:25 PM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

X-51 hypersonic waverider prepping for spring flight

Here's an Air Force video report on one of the projects I cover in my book The Department of Mad Scientists.


The X-51 project seeks to break new ground in the field of hypersonic (mach 5+) air breathing flight. If all goes well, an unmanned aircraft will drop from a B-52 bomber off the California coast, fire a solid fuel booster rocket to get up to operating speed, and then light up a scramjet engine to get up to mach 6.

This will be the first time that a scramjet stays lit for as long as its fuel supply holds out. Previous tests have achieved powered flight for only a few seconds at a time. Staying lit for over a minute will be a first, and has tremendous implications for the future of aviation. See, for example, program manager Charlie Brink's discussion of using scramjets for spaceflight in the second half of the video.

Thanks to Nancy Colaguori of the X-51's propulsion contractor, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, for the link.


posted by Michael Belfiore at 6:58 AM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

ARPA-E awarding $100 million for energy breakthroughs

ARPA-E, the wild-haired agency of the Department of Energy inspired by DARPA, has just announced that it will award an additional $100 million for breakthrough energy projects.

Job one for ARPA-E is solving the nation's energy problems. And high on the list of desperately needed tech is grid storage. "By investing in the development of grid-scale energy storage technology," says an ARPA-E press release today, "this funding opportunity will allow the U.S. to assume global technology and manufacturing leadership in the emerging and potentially massive global market for stationary electricity storage infrastructure."

Sun power and wind power hold enormous potential for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, but only if some economical way can be found to use their power when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. There are also vast fortunes to be made, if this problem can be solved. Said IDC Energy Insights analyst Sam Jaffe in a recent podcast:

For instance, in Hawaii right now, there's been a large buildout of photovoltaic—still in the single percentage points of overall electricity generated—but it's causing a significant strain on a local utility. The local utility is now saying 'we cannot take any more distributed photovoltaic without some sort of storage and storage management system to avoid hurting our distribution system.' And that's in the single percentage points.
Ordinary lead acid batteries won't cut it for large scale storage, and more advanced lithium-ion batteries, like those in laptops, are too expensive. Very likely no single solution will do the job, but rather a hybrid approach. Some contenders for grid-scale storage include liquid metal batteries (already getting ARPA-E money) and flywheels.

posted by Michael Belfiore at 10:30 AM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

SpaceX loaded for bear


While the space world contemplates the ramifications of NASA's radical new direction, Space Exploration Technologies is gearing up for the first commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station.

This photo just in from SpaceX shows technicians loading the company's Dragon space capsule with a standard ISS cargo rack as NASA personnel, including astronauts Marsha Ivins and Megan McArthur, look on off camera.

It's just the beginning of a whole new way of doing doing business at NASA. As X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis told Popular Mechanics science editor Jennifer Bogo yesterday,
"The new approach NASA has taken has laid the foundation for the Google, Cisco and Apple computers of space to be born. And, ultimately, lays the foundation for the rest of us to have a chance to get to go to space."
See my analysis of NASA's new trajectory at popularmechanics.com.

According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in an update posted earlier this month, the maiden voyage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the one that will fly the Dragon, should occur in the March to May time frame. After a total of three such test flights to orbit, the first cargo delivery flights should occur later this year.

posted by Michael Belfiore at 6:44 AM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

End of a manned space flight era

The writing's been on the wall for some time. Now it looks as though it's finally going to be official.

The Orlando Sentinel quoted some unnamed sources today as saying that the White House is going to fight to axe the multi-billion-dollar Constellation program that was to replace the Space Shuttle as America's next manned spaceship.

The program's been behind schedule and over budget (now up to $8 billion and counting) pretty much from day one. What's more, it's based on an inherently flawed and dangerous design, using as a first stage a bigger version of the difficult-to-control solid booster that doomed the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Keeping big contractors in business in key states has always been the name of this game, more than the ostensible reason for the system, getting American astronauts back to the moon. From the Orlando Sentinel article:
One administration official said the budget will send a message that it's time members of Congress recognize that NASA can't design space programs to create jobs in their districts. "That's the view of the president," the official said.
It seems the 50-year reign of U.S. government owned manned space ships will end with the retirement of the Space Shuttle this year. What's to take it's place?

Certainly the Russians will keep flying U.S. astros to the International Space Station, but some home-grown solutions are waiting in the wings to fill the gap.

SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are already under contract to NASA to send cargo to Space Station. Looking ahead to the not-too-distant future, SpaceX is already building its cargo ships with windows. The company's Falcon 9 rocket, capable of launching up to 7 astros into orbit, is being readied at a Cape Canaveral launch pad for its maiden voyage later this year.

Meanwhile, commercial space station builder Bigelow Aerospace is moving ahead in a partnership with Boeing to develop its own manned launchers. Robert Bigelow told me last week that he's looking forward to a breakout year for his company as well, as he transitions from a primary focus on R&D to full-on sales mode. His man in Washington, Mike Gold, has been showing off scale models of Bigelow's space habitats to prospects at space agencies around the world. If all goes well, soon the Space Station will no longer be the last word in orbital research centers.

My editor at Popular Mechanics, Joe Pappalardo, asks in a post today,
What will happen if private space fails to create a reliable launch vehicle? So far they are doing well, but a small engineering flaw or a mishap could grind the effort to a halt. Also, as private space companies morph into large contractors, will the risk of bureaucratic lethargy increase, as seen in the defense industry among prime contractors?
Important questions, to be sure, but I think the new, private space pioneers will indeed save the day, and open space to exploration as never before. Now all our government has to do is help, rather than hinder them. Looks like it's on the right track.

posted by Michael Belfiore at 8:21 PM 1 comments links to this post

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

SpaceShipTwo Unveiled


Congrats to Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites for last night's dramatic rollout of SpaceShipTwo in Mojave.

California governor Schwarzenegger was on hand to help christen the ship the VSS Enterprise, and then some 800 spectators partied on—at least until high winds forced them to evacuate. MSNBC's Alan Boyle described the scene:

Tonight's main event was a Virgin classic: Within minutes after the rollout, the tent was transformed into a lounge, complete with an ice bar, buffet and techno music on the public address system.

True to form, Scaled is keeping mum about the upcoming flight schedule, but based on SpaceShipOne's series of flight tests, Enterprise will likely go through captive carry flights (slung beneath mothership Eve), followed by unpowered drop tests before making powered flights that will lead up to a run to space.

Enterprise could send its first passengers to space as early as 2011. Three hundred passengers have already paid for the $200,000 suborbital flights, including London-based financier and adventurer Per Wimmer, who said in a press release yesterday,

Today's unveil of SpaceShipTwo means that we are now seriously close to getting into space. No more fancy powerpoints; we now have a full scale spaceship and a mothership and I am sensing the smell of rocket fuel.
Virgin chief Richard Branson called on President Obama yesterday "to embrace private space travel," according to Boyle. With NASA's space shuttles set to retire soon and development of the Ares replacement ships in disarray, he may not have a choice. Here's hoping he too smells the private space rocket fuel.

posted by Michael Belfiore at 7:21 AM 1 comments links to this post