Take a look at this interesting video clip showing the effects of a re-boost on the astronauts onboard the International Space Station. This took place last week, 26th October  2011, and raised the ISS back up to an altitude of around 242 miles (390km). The clip shows the effects of the ISS accelerating, in effect leaving behind all of the astronauts onboard.  

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A recently released NASA video shows interesting footage of a 3 year journey made by the Mars Exploration Rover called Opportunity, all condensed into just 3 minutes. Opportunity travelled from Victoria crater to Endeavour crater on Mars, between September 2008 and August 2011. Each day that the rover travelled it took an end-of-drive picture and these 309 images have been spliced together to give an interesting insight into a 13 mile (21 km) strip of Martian landscape.  The soundtrack for the video was created by speeding up by a factor of 1000 the low-frequency recordings from the rover’s accelerometers, which represent the vibrations recorded by the rover as it moved over the surface of Mars. Louder sounds represent the rover travelling on bedrock, whilst the quieter sounds are when the rover was moving over sand.

Interesting images and an eerie soundtrack -  definitely has a very desolate feel to it.

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Following on from a previous post regarding the descent of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), it would appear that the bus sized piece of space junk safely re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere early on Saturday morning 24th September 2011.

By a stroke of luck the vessel plunged to earth somewhere over the southern Pacific Ocean about as far from large land masses as you can get, reducing any possibilities of damage or injury being caused by the 26 parts that would survive the fiery heat of re-entry.

After the launch of this satellite in 1991, NASA and other space agencies agreed to adopt new procedures in an effort to reduce space junk and lessen the possibilities of future satellites causing problems when falling back to Earth.

However, in the immediate future the German satellite ROSAT, launched in 1990 and weighing in at 2.5 tonnes is expected to fall back to Earth in late October or early November this year. Some 30 pieces of debris are expected to survive re-entry, potentially including sharp mirror shards, so we should all continue to keep looking warily to the skies for now! 

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First man to walk on the Moon Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969, is usually known as a quiet man of few words who would rather avoid the spotlight. 

Yesterday, however, saw him take part in a 4 man committee testifying before Congress about the current state of the American human spaceflight program, with the words “embarrassing” and “unacceptable” being freely used.

"We will have no American access to, and return from, low Earth orbit and the International Space Station for an unpredictable length of time in the future", Armstrong told the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

"For a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable."

His words echoed the sentiments felt by many with the cancelation by President Barack Obama of the Constellation program that would have returned man to the Moon, and with the recent final flight and retirement of the space shuttle program, leaving no capability for the US to send humans into space.

Armstrong was joined by fellow astronaut and last man to step on the Moon in 1972, Eugene Cernan, who was equally dismissive of the current administration at NASA.

"Today, we are on a path of decay. We are seeing the book close on five decades of accomplishment as the leader in human space exploration", Cernan said.

Given the current poor economic situation of the United States and a new determination to encourage commercial companies to supply the next generation of crew and cargo transport vehicles, it is difficult to see how the US can lead at the forefront of future space exploration – but I guess time will tell.  


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A redundant six-tonne NASA satellite is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere with the next few hours, potentially scattering debris over a 500km wide area of the planet’s surface.

Whilst the majority of the bus sized Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will burn up upon re-entry into our atmosphere, NASA has indicated that about 26 parts will survive the intense heat and will fall to Earth: including 4 titanium fuel tanks, 3 batteries, 4 steel flywheel rims and an aluminium structure that on its own will weigh 158kg.

Although NASA is tracking the orbit of the falling satellite, the final destination of these objects won’t be known until minutes beforehand due to continuous changes in the atmosphere caused by the Sun.

Target zone is anywhere between 57 degrees latitude north and 57 degrees latitude south, i.e if you live further north than Quebec or further south than Argentina you should not be at risk.

Though you may cast an occasional look to the skies over the next day, I wouldn’t worry too much as you would have to be incredibly unlucky to be struck by some of the falling debris. NASA calculates that there is a 1 in 3,200 chance that a piece will hit a person somewhere on the planet, whilst you own personal risk of you specifically being struck is 1 in 21 trillion – you are far more likely to win this week’s lottery!

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The possibility has emerged that the International Space Station (ISS) may be left unmanned for a period of time if launch problems with the Russian Soyuz rockets cannot be rectified soon.

Earlier this month, 24th August 2011, saw the crash soon after launch from Kazakhstan of an unmanned Soyuz carrying food and fuel to the ISS, following the failure of one of the booster rockets. The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos has delayed the next manned mission by at least a month to allow time for safety checks to be carried out, and it is likely that at least two test launches of an unmanned rocket will be conducted before sending anymore astronauts up.

 The delay means that replacement crew will not go to the ISS until late October at the earliest, assuming that all goes well with the testing. The station is currently manned by a team of 6, with 3 likely to return to Earth in mid September and a decision needing to be made about the remaining crew.

Alexei Krasnov, head of manned flights at Roscosmos recently indicated that: 'If for any reason we will not be able to deliver the crew before the end of November, we will need to review all possibilities including leaving the station unmanned.'

The ISS has been continuously manned for more than a decade. It can in fact be flown without a crew if needed, though this is not an ideal situation as repairs can be made and problems fixed faster with crew members onboard, reducing the possibilities of major damage occurring. 

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NASA's Juno solar powered probe
Today should see the launch from Cape Canaveral of an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket carrying onboard NASA’s Jupiter bound Juno spacecraft.

It is equipped with three large areas of solar panel that will be deployed and unfold after launch, giving around 60 square metres of panel in total and leaving the craft looking rather like a windmill. It will take Juno five years to reach its destination, where it will be placed into a polar orbit around the planet to study the composition, gravity and magnetic fields, and polar magnetoshpere. Juno will also search for clues about the formation of Jupiter, including whether the planet has a rocky core, the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere, and how the mass is distributed within the planet. Juno will also study Jupiter's deep winds, which can reach speeds of 600 kms per hour (370 mph).

The robotic explorer will become the first probe to have ever travelled so far, powered by the solar wings which will still provide 400 watts of power despite being nearly 500 million miles away from the sun. After orbiting Jupiter 33 times in one year gathering data, the probe will be crashed into the planet, concluding the mission in 2017.

 

 


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With the final flight of NASA's shuttle Atlantis due to take place later this week, it will bring with it an end to the capability of the USA to send its own astronauts into Space. I'm sure it is going to be a very sad day for many when Atlantis makes its final landing after a 12 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and many people I am sure will be left shaking their heads in disappointment. 
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The US will now be reliant on Russia for future astronaut transportation to the ISS until such time as privately developed commercial crew transport becomes available, hopefully in the next few years but with no guarantees as to time scale. Quite coincidentally today I came across this graphic which shows the yearly cost per seat the US will have to pay on board the Russian Soyuz capsules. According to Charlie Bolden, current Nasa Administrator, the price is going up due to inflation and not because the Russians are taking advantage of their monopoly. Perhaps true, but inflation would seem to be very high at the moment! 
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The final touchdown of US space shuttle Endeavor took place at 06.34 GMT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, bringing an end to the space craft’s last 16 day mission to the International Space Station.

For the record, Endeavour flew into Space a total of 25 times, orbited the Earth 4,671 times, covered 123 million miles, and spent 299 days in Space.

Retirement now beckons for the craft that was named after the ship commanded in 1769 by British explorer James Cook, with Endeavor going on public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

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Space shuttle Endeavor blasted off today on its final mission before being decommissioned and put on display to the public at the California Science Center, USA.

The 16 day mission which will be its 25th flight into Space and the 11th calling at the International Space Station, will deliver $2bn worth of astrophysics equipment to the ISS, designed to search Space for antimatter. 

The final countdown for the launch of the last shuttle will take place in July when Atlantis will fly for the last time, bringing to an end the 30 year NASA shuttle program.

What follows next will be a significant period of time when the US will be unable to put astronauts into Space under its own steam, relying totally on the Russian Soyuz program. The future of American led missions into Space will only restart again once private companies have developed and built rockets to take over the job, with 2015 being estimated as the earliest date for new launches to begin.

Uneasy times ahead for the USA Space program I think!

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