Space travel to get boost from solar power

by Chris Owen on

The reality of manned space travel has scientists on limited budgets looking at every angle that might make it happen efficiently. Recently, five aerospace companies contracted with NASA to study the idea of a new propulsion system, designed to turn the sun’s rays into electricity for space travel.

NASA hopes the end result is a new propulsion system that will power a reusable “space tugboat” capable of ferrying satellites from low-Earth orbit to the higher geosynchronous Earth orbit.

The idea is popular because a solar powered vehicle would save money on fuel and eliminate the need for the secondary rocket booster normally required to send a satellite into high orbit.

Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Aerospace Systems sector and Boeing‘s Phantom Works unit are two of the companies involved, each winning a four-month $600,000 NASA contract to conduct early-stage studies for a high-power solar propulsion system.

“The study has no hardware, so the `work’ is all design work, and will be done here in Redondo Beach mostly,” Northrop spokeswoman Mary Blake said in the Daily Breeze.

Just one piece of the space travel puzzle, the new solar-powered propulsion system would have other uses too, including cargo transportation for human exploration and cargo transportation to the moon.

Flickr photo by y gr33n3gg


Presidential hopeful promises travel to the Moon, Mars

by Chris Owen on

Renewed interest in travel to the Moon and Mars? It was just the song that Florida voters wanted to hear. After a virtual grounding of the U.S. space program not long ago, the promise yesterday by republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich to bring multiple daily launches to Florida was music to their ears. A permanent base on the Moon and new technology that would enable quick flights to Mars sweetened the deal.

“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American,” said Gingrich at a rally in Cocoa on Florida’s Spacecoast reports Spaceflight Now.

To pay for that and more, Gingrich suggested setting aside 10 percent of NASA’s budget (about $1 billion) for prize incentives aimed at the commercial space sector with a focus on developing new technology (warp drive?) to make flight faster.

Continuing his grandiose plan, Gingrich added “We will have commercial near-Earth activities that include science, tourism and manufacturing and are designed to create a robust industry precisely on the model of the development of the airlines in the 1930s because it is in our interest to acquire so much experience in space that we clearly have a capacity that the Chinese and Russians will never come anywhere close to matching.”If that plan happens, there is no shortage of commercial operations that might be in line for that cash. But the space community, operating in the real world, has been headed in a different direction, already funding commercial space ventures.

In preparation for the future, NASA has awarded $millions to several private contractors in the last few years for the construction of space taxi’s able to fly to the International Space Station now that the shuttles have been retired.

Called the Commercial Crew Development Program, NASA’s goal in 2011’s round of grants was “to accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities and reduce the gap in American human spaceflight capability. Through this activity, NASA also may be able to spur economic growth as potential new space markets are created,” the space agency said in a press release at the time.

One such new market already has a player. Space Adventures already has experience as the only company to have booked and offered commercial space travel, delivering astronauts to the International Space Station for a round-trip price of $150 million.

“The moon holds a special place in all of our hearts. It’s a symbol of the space future that humanity wishes for, a symbol of our curiosity, and something that we see every night. When the private moon mission launches, the eyes of the world will truly be upon those people, and it will truly be an extraordinary event,” Eric Anderson of Space Adventures told International Business News.

Tapping that special place in our hearts, election year politics or a viable plan, fans of space travel liked what he had to say.

“I’m prepared to invest the prestige of the presidency in communicating and building a nationwide movement in favor of space,” Gingrich said at a meeting of aerospace executives and community leaders after the rally.

“If we do it right, it’ll be wild and it will be just the most fun you’ve ever seen,” he said.



Flickr photo by Gage Skidmore

Training shuttle to be displayed in Seattle’s Museum of Flight

by Sean McLachlan on


It looks like the Space Shuttle, but it isn’t. It’s made of plywood, for one thing, and it can’t fly.

Yet it’s a piece of aeronautics history and will soon grace Seattle’s Museum of Flight. This training shuttle, more properly called the Full Fuselage Trainer, is a full-scale mockup that astronauts have used for practice since the 1970s. The museum originally hoped to get one of the four actual Space Shuttles, but those went to other museums. The advantage of the training shuttle, however, is that visitors will be able to climb aboard and get a feel of what it must have been like to go on a mission.

The shuttle will be flown to Seattle in five segments starting in May and should be open to the public sometime in June, the Seattle Times reports.

The Space Shuttles are going to four different museums. The Atlantis will go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center in Florida. The Endeavour will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Discovery is earmarked for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia. The Smithsonian will transfer the shuttle prototype Enterprise to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Video of the Day: Making tacos in space

by Mike Barish on

Preparing your own meals while on the road can be tough. You don’t always have a proper kitchen stocked with all of the tools and appliances that you need. Ingredients can be difficult to find. Still, at least we always have gravity to help us out. Not so for astronauts. When it’s dinner time, they have to assemble their tacos in zero gravity. The last thing that anybody wants is refried beans in the ventilation system. Think of this guy and his space taco the next time you want to complain that the kitchen in your RV is too cramped.

NASA is looking for new astronauts!

by Kraig Becker on

Anyone who has ever dreamed of going into space received a glimmer of hope this past week when NASA announced that they were looking for their next class of astronauts. This high profile “help wanted” ad had the dual effect of sending many of us scrambling to update our resumes, while simultaneously regressing to a point in our lives when we actually believed we could still grow-up to be an astronaut.

The actual job posting can be found online by clicking here. It provides plenty of great information for those wanting to know the details about the requirements and perks of the position. For example, the salary ranges from $64,724 to $141,715 per year, which is a bit surprising, because many of us would probably actually pay that much for an opportunity to go into orbit. The position is listed as Full Time and Permanent, but would require a move to Houston, which is probably the biggest downside of the job.

As you might expect, the position requires at least a Bachelor’s degree and three years of experience in your field, which can include technology, nursing, aviation, amongst others. Candidates will be required to pass a physical as well, and must have vision that is correctable to 20/20 in each eye. They also need to be between the heights of 62 and 75 inches, which will rule out most NBA players who are looking to pick up supplemental work during the lock-out.

The job listing also notes that prior to being hired candidates must undergo a background check and pass a drug-test as well. After all, NASA isn’t going to turn over multi-million dollar equipment to just anyone. They also note that frequent travel is required, but considering that travel involves going into space, I doubt anyone will really complain all that much. How many frequent filer miles is a trip to the International Space Station worth anyway?

When I was a kid, being an astronaut ranked right up there with ice cream taster and James Bond as the best jobs on the planet. For some reason I thought the career path to getting that job would be different than simply filling out an application and going in for an interview. Turns out, NASA hires people just in the same manner as Walmart.

For more information on the position and the application process, click here. Good luck to everyone who applies. You’re going to need it, because I’ve seen every episode of Star Trek ever and have visited the local planetarium twice.