Rocco Fanucci's blog

See That Rocket?

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:34:21 -0700

Nice setting: a calm evening along the coast in French Guiana. Suddenly, there's a huge clap and a rocket appears on the horizon. Awesome.

That's what it's like in the Department of French Guiana. Here's the official story...

After its 6:41 p.m. liftoff from the Spaceport, the vehicle’s cryogenic upper stage was injected with the following provisional orbital parameters:
- Perigee: 249.9 km. for a target of 249.7 km.
- Apogee: 35,972 km. for a target of 35,958 km.
- Inclination: 2.00 deg. for a target of 2.00 deg.

During tonight’s launch, the Arabsat-5A satellite was deployed first during the flight sequence, being released from atop Ariane 5’s payload “stack” at 26 min. into the mission. Produced by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space on a turnkey contract for the Arabsat telecommunications operator, the satellite had a mass at liftoff of about 4,940 kg.

Arabsat-5A carries 24 Ku-band transponders and 28 C-band transponders for telecommunications and TV broadcasting services over the Middle East and Africa. Astrium provided the Eurostar 3000 spacecraft platform and was responsible for satellite integration, while Thales Alenia Space supplied the payload.

This mission marked another milestone in Arianespace’s 25-year relationship with the Saudi Arabia-based Arabsat telecommunications operator, which began with the launch of Arabsat 1A in 1985 on an Ariane 3 vehicle. A total of seven Arabsat satellites have been launched by Arianespace during the past 25 years.

The COMS satellite passenger was separated from Ariane 5 at 32 min. into tonight’s flight, completing this second heavy-lift mission of 2010. The multi-purpose COMS spacecraft for South Korea’s KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) is fitted with three payloads for meteorological observation, ocean surveillance and experimental broadband multimedia communications services.

Liftoff mass of the COMS Astrium-built Eurostar 3000 platform was 2,460 kg., and its communications payload came from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea. COMS continues a collaboration that started with Arianespace’s launch of the Kitsat A and Kitsat B scientific microsats in 1992 and 1993 for Korea’s Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC), and was followed by the 1999 launch of the KOREASAT 3 communications satellite for Korea Telecom.

Yeah, the video!

DIY Friday: iPhone 4 Antenna Fix

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:00:19 -0700

Holding the new iPhone 4 can cause interference between the GSM and WiFi antennae, so naturally the Net is abuzz with this "problem." Hey, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

Brilliant Scotchtape solution from Kit Eaton, and costs almost nothing, via Fast Company...

Get about an inch of scotch tape off the reel (that's Sellotape if you're in the U.K.).

Cut it carefully so that you make a rectangle something over a half-inch long and just tall enough to exceed the iPhone 4's height (about 0.4 inches should do it).

Align the piece of tape so that it's covering a section of the lower left metal side of the iPhone 4, some below the thin black plastic line and some above.

Stick it around the phone's metal edge, making sure that all of the back of the edge's metal strip is covered--you may even be able to leave the front uncovered, as it's the back where your hand will rest. The main thing is to ensure that it's unlikely that your palm will touch the metal on both sides of the black plastic line.

Result: Your iPhone 4's twin antennas are now insulated against skin short-circuiting in the "problem corner". You don't even have to use scotch tape--make a statement and do it in bright red electrician's tape, if you feel better for it.

It's about time the geniuses at 3M got some attention.

Oh, and the new iPhone? It's lovely; held one yesterday.

Technorati Tags: apple iphone+4 scotch+tape iphone at&t verizon

HFS: Buzz Aldrin!

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:26:15 -0700

NASA won a Webby Award, which second-man-on-the-moon Buzz Aldrin accepted on their behalf. I love their approach: no more that five words. You've got to choose your words carefully, as Buzz did: "Humanity. Colonization. Phobos. Monolith. Mars!"

And Jake from CollegeHumor.com's "Jake and Amir," who changed his speech when he realized who he was standing next to offstage: "Holy f*cking sh*t, Buzz Aldrin!"

I think space is cool again, thanks to the general public's curiosity and fascination with space. Let's not forget the "we could use the money elsewhere" critics, as they've got a valid point.

Then there's the British metal band Iron Maiden, who opened a new tour in Texas. Yeah, they paid a visit to Johnson Space Center and got to play with the Space Shuttle Simulator.

Check out this podcast about this simulator...

Technorati Tags: webby nasa buzz+aldrin iron+maiden space+shuttle+simulator jsc

Hayabusa's Hot Today

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:00:36 -0700

Beautiful video footage, courtesy of NASA, of Hayabusa's re-entry after a 7-year mission and 6 billion kilometers.

Officially...

　日本時間6月13日19時51分に「はやぶさ」は無事カプセルを分離し、日本時間6月13日22時51分頃には大気圏に突入しました。
　2003年5月9日にM-Vロケットで打ち上げられてから約7年間、イトカワに着陸し、サンプル採取作業を行い、再び地球に帰還するという難事業を、幾多の困難を乗り越え成し遂げることができました。
　これまで応援していただいた皆様に感謝いたします。

　引き続き、豪州において地球に帰還したカプセルの回収作業を進めてまいります

In other words, via JAXA...

Hayabusa separated the capsule at 7:51 p.m. and reentered the atmosphere at 10:51 p.m. on June 13th, 2010 (JST).
Hayabusa was launched on May 9th, 2003 by M-V rocket and operated for approximately seven years. During its operation, JAXA was able to achieve the difficult mission including Hayabusa's sample capture attempt after its touchdown on the asteroid named Itokawa, and Hayabusa’s return to the earth overcoming many hardships. JAXA would like to appreciate every support to JAXA leading this mission to a great success.
The Hayabusa capsule has just returned to Woomera, Australia. As the next step, JAXA will move forward to the capsule recovery.

So what did it look like on the ground? Somebody from Wakayama University Institute for Education on Space was pretty excited to capture it on video, on the ground in Australia...

Technorati Tags: jaxa nasa hayabusa muses-c asteroid+sample woomera reentry hayabusa+reentry

KSLV Launch Update

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:17:59 -0700

One of the leaders in the "Asian Space Race" suffered a loss today. The news via the BBC...

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 is thought to have blown up 137 seconds after take-off, said science minister Ahn Byong-man.

The rocket lifted off from Goheung's Naro Space Centre at 1701 (0801 GMT).

But contact was lost as the rocket reached an altitude of 70 kilometres (44 miles).

"Looking from the bright flash seen on the camera mounted on the tip of the rocket, it appears [the KSLV-1] exploded in flight during the first-stage ignition," said Mr Ahn.

Pictures on South Korean television appear to show the rocket's final moments, with the cameras following a white speck on its downward trajectory into the sea.

Technorati Tags: rd-151 naro-1 kslv korea south+korea

IKAROS Solar Sail

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:29:34 -0700

Watch the IKAROS solar sail deploy on this JAXA blog.

Technorati Tags: ikaros jaxa solar+sail

World Cup Star Wars

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 06:13:02 -0700

Sure, there's media attention on the World Cup in South Africa. The latest of Adidas is entertaining (above), and Nike broke viewing records with its spot...

Shaw Direct Satellite TV will be broadcasting the the CBC's FIFA World Cup in 3D-TV throughout Canada. ESPN will be using an OC-12 fiber connection and use MPEG-4 encoding for their main feed from South Africa. This list goes on and on.

So who's at the source of all this worldwide broadcasting? Host Broadcast Services, that's who. And it's complicated. With more cameras and tech than ever before. TV Technology gives us the detail...

HBS crew at the IBC can browse the servers in the OB trucks, while also ingesting up to 18 live video feeds coming from the venues to the IBC. HBS packages the content into a fully formatted programme feed for wholesale delivery to Media Rights Licensees.

The EVS equipment tally at the HBS Production facility is 50 HD XT[2] servers, totaling 1900 hours @ 108 Mbps (DVCPro HD), plus another 1100 hours of hi-res media in an XStore[2] storage platform. 140 IPDirectors are for logging, browsing and content management. 6 XF[2] units are for removable storage. 32 Xedio Media Dispatchers are for P2 file selection, clipping and transfer.

3. IBC Johannesburg — MRL Production — this other half of the IBC comprises the studio and production facilities set up individually by each of the visiting broadcasters, as well the home broadcaster, SABC. Deemed “Media Rights Licensees”, the abbreviated form “MRL” is now the common term to describe the visiting broadcasters and those who stayed at home but nonetheless paid for the rights to rebroadcast the FIFA World Cup matches in their geographical zone.

Collectively, the MRL’s in the IBC will be making good use of 60 EVS HD XT[2] servers, 30 IPDirectors and 20 XF[2] sets of removable storage.

4. Distribution — now somewhat more complicated than it used to be due to the emergence of web and mobile video distribution pipelines in addition to the traditional terrestrial, satellite and cable outlets. Extremely fast turnaround of packaged clips is part of the system design. The HBS promise is to deliver craft edited clips for mobile devices within three minutes after the live action.

Something to think about as you watch.

Technorati Tags: world+cup fifa south+africa hbs+tv

Coke Mentos Rocket Car

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:30:32 -0700

The guys at EepyBird.com are at it again. This time it's a car powered by Coke Zero and Mentos. The video was seen 2 million time in its first week.

Wired went behind the scenes for this story...

Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz are the guys behind the famous video of a Mentos-and-Diet Coke, Bellagio-style fountain, which they estimate has been seen by more than 120 million people. Four years later, they’re back with a rocket car powered by nothing but Mentos and Coke Zero. The video, which debuted this week, shows the duo’s efforts to set a land-speed and distance record for a vehicle powered by nothing but erupting, minty, fizzy soda.

The video was directed by Rob Cohen (director of The Fast and the Furious). Two dimensions not enough? There’s even a 3-D rocket car video you can watch on YouTube, if you have a pair of red-and-cyan 3-D glasses.

Wired sat down with Grobe and Voltz shortly after a recent performance at Maker Faire to find out how they built their 900-pound vehicle. It contains 108 2-liter bottles of Coke Zero, 648 Mentos, an elaborate-looking system of PVC pipes and pistons, and a complicated rig for dropping all those mint candies into all those bottles at the same time. In this exclusive Wired.com video, the duo explain how they made the magic happen.

Technorati Tags: eepybird coke+mentos coke+zero mentos

500 Days

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:29:53 -0700

More like 520 days. Six guys, locked up in a box for about a year and a half, starting 3 June 2010.

Why? To simulate a manned mission to Mars! Behold, the objectives of Mars 500...

Investigation of the influence of conditions, simulating peculiarities of a manned Martian expedition on health and working capacity of the crew;
Organization of the activity of the crew and its interaction with the ground-based control center taking into account peculiarities typical for the Martian flight;
Verification of the principles, methods and means of control and monitoring of the habitat during over-long staying of the crew in conditions of confined pressurized facility;
Simulation of the activity of the crew on the surface of Mars and dynamic operations during the flight;
Verification of the principles, methods and means of control, diagnostics and forecast of the state of health and working capacity, improvement of means of providing of medical help and prophylaxis;
Improvement of the means of collection, processing and analysis of medical and physiological information;
Creation and approbation of reference-information system, providing activity of the crew, keeping and transfer of electronic information;
Verification of means and methods of telemedicine for distant control over the state of human health;
Approbation of methods and autonomous means of psychological support;
Assessment of modern technologies, systems and means of support of life and activity and protection of humans.

Let's see if Letterman picks up on this "top 10" list for his show. More on this mission from the ESA...

Technorati Tags: esa mars+500 Bio-Medical+Problems roscosmos

VASIMR: Hammer-down in Space

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:26:43 -0700

Very cool technology being developed by Ad Astra Rocket Company: using plasma engines to reach Mars in 39 days. Hammer-down: space truckin at 110,000 MPH.

Excellent piece in SpaceflightNow.com on the VASIMR engine...

The company's main project is the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, a highly-efficient space engine running on electricity and argon gas instead of conventional solid or liquid propellants.

Franklin Chang-Diaz, the project's chief architect, says the VASIMR engine is the most flight-ready high-power electric propulsion system anywhere in the world.

"It is transformational technology that we are developing," Chang-Diaz said. "It always has been my view that chemical approach to space transportation really was not going to get us very far."

Chemical rocket engines require spacecraft to carry all of its propellant during its mission. The VASIMR engine burns small amounts of argon gas, one of the most stable elements on the periodic table. But one of the most revolutionary features of the VASIMR design is its reliance on electricity, a renewable resource in space.

"It's very robust, but in order to get beyond the moon, and move on to Mars and beyond, we really need completely new transportation technology," Chang-Diaz said. "We view the VASIMR as the workhorse for that transportation infrastructure."

Electrically-powered plasma rockets could cut travel times for missions across the solar system. One concept championed by Chang-Diaz involves a 39-day mission to Mars, but it assumes leaps in nuclear energy production in space.

Yeah, it works alright. Watch this engine test...

Here's a video clip about the company...

And a simulation of the trip to Mars...

Technorati Tags: vasimr plasma helicon+physics

Moving Museums

Thu, 27 May 2010 06:09:24 -0700

Think the world of top-flight museums is a calm, respectable place to work? Like most workplaces, there's some behind-the-scenes posturing and socially-awkward behavior going on. Comes with the territory, especially where people tend to stay at their jobs longer.

As we climb out of The Great Recession, museums and other cultural institutions are fighting for more revenue and scarce development dollars and it's getting rough out there. Case-in-point: getting the old space shuttles from NASA after retirement. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Dayton, Ohio, has the Wilmington News Journal on its side...

Throughout the shuttle program, the Air Force has played an essential role in its success. Besides infrastructure and operational support, the Air Force provided NASA with many highly skilled astronauts. The cooperation between NASA and the Department of Defense on the shuttle program dates back to 1969. The Air Force’s satellite launch requirements largely determined the shuttle’s design, and the Air Force saved the shuttle program in lean budget years during development. Recognizing that long partnership, the Secretary of the Air Force has requested a shuttle orbiter be added to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

The museum already receives more than one million visitors each year. The addition of a shuttle is a rare opportunity for the museum which would significantly increase that attendance and be a substantial boost to the economy of Dayton and the region. Museum officials are planning for what we hope will be a favorable decision by NASA. The Air Force Museum Foundation is supporting a major construction program that would expand the museum’s current one million square feet of exhibit space by another 200,000 square feet. That building would also house other impressive related exhibits.

Many who have visited the National Museum of the Air Force regard it as an unforgettable experience. There are aircraft from the early years of flight — such as the Wright 1909 Military Flyer and the Curtiss 1911 Model D — and aircraft used in the modern era. There also is an Air Force One display, including the Boeing VC-137C that served as Air Force One on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The public can also enter presidential aircraft of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. These are only a few of the many aircraft and educational exhibits on display. The addition of a shuttle orbiter would enhance the significant investment that has already been made in the National Museum of the Air Force.

The reality of manned fight was born from the minds of Wilbur and Orville Wright, two Ohioans who worked in Dayton and developed and tested their aircraft at Huffman Prairie, near what today is Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the National Museum of the Air Force. Fast forward to today and the shuttle Atlantis is orbiting the Earth on a mission to support the international space station. It is the last scheduled flight of Atlantis. The orbiter is closing in on flying 120 million miles throughout its career. It is appropriate that Atlantis or Endeavour spend their retirement in Dayton for current and future generations of local residents and visitors to see at the place where aviation was born.

Any others out there? You bet! Vik Saini put together a great list. Sorry, the Space Farms Museum & Zoo in Beemerville, NJ, is not on the list -- nothing to do with space; it's the dude's name.

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the world's most popular, always get the best space stuff. You can't beat the actual back-up lunar module...

Technorati Tags: space+shuttle nasm smithsonian dayton usaf museums

Absolute Military Control of Space

Wed, 26 May 2010 07:47:40 -0700

So what's all this then? The X-37B is a "spy plane?" That's what Mr. Broad reports in the New York Times...

A team of amateur sky watchers has pierced the veil of secrecy surrounding the debut flight of the nation’s first robotic spaceplane, finding clues that suggest the military craft is engaged in the development of spy satellites rather than space weapons, which some experts have suspected but the Pentagon strongly denies.

Last month, the unmanned successor to the space shuttle blasted off from Florida on its debut mission but attracted little public notice because no one knew where it was going or what it was doing. The spaceship, known as the X-37B, was shrouded in operational secrecy, even as civilian specialists reported that it might go on mysterious errands for as long as nine months before zooming back to earth and touching down on a California runway.

In interviews and statements, Pentagon leaders strongly denied that the winged plane had anything to do with space weapons, even while conceding that its ultimate goal was to aid terrestrial war fighters with a variety of ancillary missions.

The secretive effort seeks “no offensive capabilities,” Gary E. Payton, under secretary of the Air Force for space programs, emphasized on Friday. “The program supports technology risk reduction, experimentation and operational concept development.”

The secretive flight, civilian specialists said in recent weeks, probably centers at least partly on testing powerful sensors for a new generation of spy satellites.

Now, the amateur sky watchers have succeeded in tracking the stealthy object for the first time and uncovering clues that could back up the surveillance theory. Ted Molczan, a team member in Toronto, said the military spacecraft was passing over the same region on the ground once every four days, a pattern he called “a common feature of U.S. imaging reconnaissance satellites.”

In six sightings, the team has found that the craft orbits as far north as 40 degrees latitude, just below New York City. In theory, on a clear night, an observer in the suburbs might see the X-37B as a bright star moving across the southern sky.

“This looks very, very good,” Mr. Molczan said of the identification. “We got it.”

In moving from as far as 40 degrees north latitude to 40 degrees south latitude, the military spacecraft passes over many global trouble spots, including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea.

Mr. Molczan said team members in Canada and South Africa made independent observations of the X-37B on Thursday and, as it turned out, caught an earlier glimpse of the orbiting spaceship late last month from the United States. Weeks of sky surveys paid off when the team members Kevin Fetter and Greg Roberts managed to observe the craft from Brockville, Ontario, and Cape Town.

Russia Today was quick to jump on it, "interviewing" Lt. Col. Robert Bowman (ret.) soon after its launch from Cape Canaveral...

Technorati Tags: dod x-37b spy+plane molczan amateur+astronomy otv-1 atlas+v x-38b+otv

Dancing With The Satellites

Tue, 25 May 2010 08:02:22 -0700

Typically well-done rendering by AGI of how SES and Intelsat plan to mitigate interference between Galaxy-15 and AMC-11.

Technorati Tags: amc-11 galaxy-15 ses-1 zombiesat ses intelsat

It's Big in Japan Today

Thu, 20 May 2010 20:13:20 -0700

Excellent launch campaign by JAXA and Mitsubishi in getting AKATSUKI and IKAROS up. Check it out...

日本初の金星探査機「あかつき（Akatsuki）」を載せたH2Aロケットが21日午前6時58分、鹿児島県の種子島宇宙センター（Tanegashima space centre）から打ち上げられた。当初18日の打ち上げ予定だったが、悪天候で延期されていた。

　あかつきは約半年かけて金星に到達する。5台の観測カメラを搭載し、金星から300～8万キロ離れた楕円（だえん）軌道上を周回して硫酸の雲などを観測する。

　同ロケットにはあかつきのほか、太陽光の圧力で宇宙空間を進む「宇宙帆船」、イカロス（Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun、IKAROS）や小型衛星などが搭載されている。

What, can read Japanese? 日本語を読むことを学ぶ (Nihongo o yomu koto o manabu).

Read it on Universe Today...

Japan's first robotic mission to Venus and an experimental solar sail launched successfully from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The Venus Climate Orbiter, or Akatsuki, the IKAROS solar sail and several smaller payloads launched aboard an H-IIA rocket at 6:58 local time May 21 (21:58 UTC May 20). The video shows a very smooth-looking launch, and 27 minutes later, JAXA confirmed the successful separation of Akatsuki. Then, about 15 minutes after that, the solar sail canister separated.

"We would like to express our profound appreciation for the cooperation and support of all related personnel and organizations that helped contribute to the successful launch of the H-IIA F17," JAXA said in a press release.

Akatsuki should arrive at Venus in December. The IKAROS solar sail will be checked out before being deployed in a few weeks.

Technorati Tags: akatsuki planet-c jaxa h2a japan ikaros tnsc h-2a+launch

Cluster Launch

Fri, 21 May 2010 16:17:38 -0700

We've got three launches coming up in the next few days.

From Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, an Ariane 5 will launch a dual-payload: ASTRA 3B and COMSATBw-2.

Ariane-V194 Launch window...

From 7:01 p.m. to 7:44 p.m., local time in Kourou, French Guiana
From 6:01 p.m. to 6:44 p.m. in Washington, D.C.
From 10:01 p.m. to 10:44 p.m. UTC, on May 21.
From 12:01 a.m. to 12:44 a.m. in Paris, on May 22.

Watch it live here.

On 20 May 2010 21:58:22 UTC, JAXA's H-IIA rocket will launch (H-IIA F17) AKATSUKI to explore Venus and the IKAROS solar sail. You can watch that one live, too. That will be from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.

Friday night, live from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a Delta IV will launch GPS 2-F1 for the U.S. Air Force. Launch window: 11:25 - 11:43 p.m. EDT (22 May 2010 03:25 UTC). Noteworthy...

The GPS IIF system brings next-generation performance to the constellation. The GPS IIF vehicle is critical to U.S. national security and sustaining GPS constellation availability for global civil, commercial and defense applications. Besides sustaining the GPS constellation, IIF features increased capability and improved mission performance and longevity.

This is a mission of several important firsts. Not only is it the first IIF to be launched, this will be the first GPS satellite to ride on the Delta IV launch vehicle.

Watch it live on the ULA site, or downlink the C-band broadcast...

SATELLITE - Galaxy 19
TRANSPONDER - G19C-08
BAND - C-band Analog
ORBITAL POSITION - 97 degrees
CARRIER - INTELSAT
BANDWIDTH - 36 MHz
DOWNLINK FREQ - 3860 MHz Horizontal
BARS AND TONE: 10:30 p.m.
BROADCAST START: 11:04 p.m.

Go Ariane! Go H-IIA! Go Delta IV!

Technorati Tags: arianespace rocket+launch cape+canaveral cnes ariane comsatbw astra akatsuki block+f gps usaf jaxa astrium ikaros