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Luís F. Simões

Russia To Spend 2 Bln Dollars For Space Clean-Up - 1 views

  • "The corporation promised to clean up the space in ten years by collecting about 600 defunct satellites on the same geosynchronous orbit and sinking them into the ocean subsequently,"
  • He said the cleaning satellite would work on nuclear power and be capable to work up to 15 years.
  • Energia said that the company would complete the cleaning satellite work-out and assembly by 2020 and test the device no later than in 2023.
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    Hehe... as far as I know the Russians, they won't miss a chance to "clean up" a few enemy satellites too...
Nina Nadine Ridder

Fla. airport gets OK for spaceport license - Space- msnbc.com - 0 views

  • Cecil Field becomes the country's eighth licensed commercial spaceport
  • In addition to suborbital passenger flights like those Virgin is offering, Cecil Field hopes to offer commercial orbital launch services
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    Cecil Field becomes the country's eighth licensed commercial spaceport
pacome delva

Accurate light-time correction due to a gravitating mass - 1 views

  • The Orbit Determination Program (ODP) of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was used in the data analysis, is based on an expression for the gravitational delay which differs from the standard formula; this difference is of second order in powers of $m$ -- the sun's gravitational radius -- but in Cassini's case it was much larger than the expected order of magnitude $m^2/b$, where $b$ is the ray's closest approach distance. Since the ODP does not account for any other second-order terms, it is necessary, also in view of future more accurate experiments, to systematically evaluate higher order corrections and to determine which terms are significant.
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    Some other crazy guys interested in high precision measurement of time of flight...
Joris _

Observatory - Cassini Data Solves Mystery of Iapetus's Two-Tone Surface - NYTimes.com - 4 views

  • dust, most likely from another of Saturn’s moons, falls on the leading side of Iapetus as it orbits the planet
Joris _

NASA budget for 2011 eliminates funds for manned lunar missions - washingtonpost.com - 3 views

  • NASA's grand plan to return to the moon, built on President George W. Bush's vision of an ambitious new chapter in space exploration, is about to vanish with hardly a whimper
  • a commercial spacecraft that could taxi astronauts into low Earth orbit
  • Obama budget as disastrous for human space fligh
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    Personally I think this is great.
  • ...1 more comment...
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    what is great exactly ? No human beings will put a foot on the Moon, or Mars, in the next 22 yrs and more ... what an awful waste!
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    Well, the constellation program was a waste of money in its current form, overrun by delays and insufficient budget. We would have had Apollo 2.0 sixty years later, for what? At least now they are talking about going to asteroids, martian moons and stuff like that.
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    I agree that Constellation was a mistake. It is though a pity that now human Mars missions would certainly happen even later than initially hoped.
Joris _

NASA will miss Congressional deadline for asteroid tracking - Science Fair - USATODAY.com - 0 views

  • he panel finds the 2005 order to find 90% of Earth-threatening asteroids 460 feet or larger infeasible,
  • No method for diverting asteroids has been experimentally demonstrated
  • Options include a "gravity tractor" orbiting slow-moving objects and tugging them off course with tidal tugs, a "kinetic" impact of a heavy spacecraft into an asteroid, or a nuclear explosion
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Unlike the dinosaurs, we are smart enough to do the math and figure out the answer that modest resources should be dedicated to the problem
    • Joris _
       
      "we are smart enough" is a completely subjective comment. Reading the article it does not give the same impression :|
Joris _

Robot mini space shuttle is go for April, says US air force * The Register - 2 views

  • concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.
  • a robotic spaceplane able to remain in orbit for substantial periods before re-entering the atmosphere and coming in for a runway landing automatically
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    make you wonder when the FLPP will actually lead to something flying !
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    I did not even know that the airforce continued the X37 project when it was cancelled at NASA ... interesting stuff indeed ...
LeopoldS

Spaceflight Now | Atlas Launch Report | Air Force spaceplane is an odd bird with a twis... - 3 views

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    Juxi are you following this one? any idea on its purpose?
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    Not that I'm an expert in the field in any way, but there are two things I could think of: 1) possibility of bringing the payload back means that it can collect huge amounts of data which wouldn't be possible to be transferred via radio in reasonable time and/or you can bring back data you don't want to be intercepted by enemy 2) I remember reading somewhere that possibility of re-entry from orbit means you can strike any country without violating the airspace of the neighbouring countries. As the project is now managed by military, a purely civil purpose can be safely ruled out in my opinion.
santecarloni

[1106.1470] Evidence for Time-Varying Nuclear Decay Rates: Experimental Results and The... - 2 views

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    Unexplained annual variations in nuclear decay rates have been reported in recent years by a number of groups. We show that data from these experiments exhibit not only variations in time related to Earth-Sun distance, but also periodicities attributable to solar rotation. Additionally, anomalous decay rates coincident in time with a series of solar flares in December 2006 also point to a solar influence on nuclear decay rates....
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    can we use space to make a smart experiment to solve this riddle? e.g. sending a decay detecter on a close solar orbit and one to Pluto and then compare decay rates? or a highly elliptical trajectory and compare during peri and apoapsis?
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    I think it could be possible. I need to look into the details. In fact it could probably be done already with the nuclear generators on the Voyager and Pioneer and other nuclear powered probes. That is if the data are precise enough...
Luís F. Simões

Europe's Plan to Move An Asteroid - Technology Review - 3 views

  • In 2002, the European Space Agency began a program called Don Quijote to find out how best to perform such a deflection.
  • Now, Stephen Wolters at the Open University in the UK and a few friends have published a new analysis of the mission saying that measuring the change in orbit is not enough. Instead, the spacecraft needs to characterise the impact in detail, determining the density of the material near the asteroid's surface, the size of the surface grains as well as the mass and speed distribution of the impact ejecta.
  • Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1107.4229: Measurement Requirements For A Near-Earth Asteroid Impact Mitigation Demonstration Mission
pacome delva

Orbiting standards lab could improve climate predictions - physicsworld.com - 2 views

  • Policy makers would be much better placed to combat the effects of global warming if scientists had access to accurate measurements of the Earth's radiation balance from a dedicated satellite, claims an international group of physicists.
  • it estimates that the satellite could cut a decade or more from the time needed to make useful projections of global temperature at the end of the 21st century.
Joris _

Domino's plans pizza on the Moon - Telegraph - 0 views

  • Rival chain Pizza Hut set the bar high in 2001 by delivering a pizza to astronauts orbiting the Earth
  • a plan for a dome-shaped concrete Domino's restaurant on the surface of the moon.
LeopoldS

A Plan To Place An Asteroid In Earth Orbit - Technology Review - 4 views

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    nice ...
LeopoldS

SpaceX Launch Successfully Delivers Satellite Into Orbit | Wired Science | Wired.com - 0 views

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    fantastic step forward! does anybody know how much they actually sell/sold the launch? I could not find good data. The only phrase in the article that I doubt is this one "Satellite launches are a lucrative business" ...
Joris _

$21 Billion Orbiting Solar Array will Beam Electricity to Earth - 0 views

  • The project, to be undertaken by a research group from 16 companies including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, aims to spend the next four years developing the technology needed to beam the electricity produced to earth
  • not be commercially viable at today's prices
Juxi Leitner

A More Affordable, High G force Magnetic Space Launcher Proposal - 0 views

  • The launcher operates 350 days and launches 100 kg payload every 30 min (This means about 5000kg/day and 1750 tons/year). Then additional cost from installation is $2.86/kg then total cost is $6/kg
  • The railgun does not have this limit, but produces some engineering problems such as the required short (pulsed) gigantic surge of electric power, sliding contacts for some millions of amperes current, storage of energy, etc.
  • A short rail way (412 m) would launch 7500 Gs into orbit.
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    another rail-gun try
Joris _

Report: Planets will collide in 5 billion years - 0 views

  • Mercury, Mars, Venus and Earth to smash into each other, either one at a time or all at once
  • by the end of that same 5 billion years the sun will have burned up its hydrogen and in a cooler state will inflate itself
  • the great "gas giants" of the outer solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - are extremely stable in their orbits, so they could remain where they are for a much longer time
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    Interesting, but obviously something is wrong. How the big giants can remain still if the inner planets and the sun vanish at the same time !
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