Really Rocket Science

Awesome: Falcon 9 Heavy, announced yesterday, is after the ULA business…

The Falcon Heavy could put 117,000 pounds into the same orbit as the International Space Station. The space shuttle hauls about 54,000 pounds into orbit. The old Saturn V could carry more than 400,000 pounds of cargo.

The old Soviet Union had a giant moon rocket bigger than the Falcon Heavy, but it failed in all four launch attempts. Another Soviet rocket, also bigger than Falcon Heavy and designed to launch its version of the space shuttle, had one successful flight more than 20 years ago.

While the new Space X rocket is designed initially for cargo, it satisfies NASA’s current safety requirements for carrying humans and after several launches could carry people too, Musk said. He has said that if NASA does buy rides on commercial rockets, he would be able to fly astronauts to the space station in his smaller Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule within three years.
Potential customers for the new larger rocket are NASA, the military, other governments and satellite makers.

Musk said Falcon Heavy will be far cheaper than government or private rockets. Launches are about $100 million each. He said the Air Force pays two older more established aerospace firms about $435 million for each of its launches. Over its 40 year design history, the space shuttle program has cost about $1.5 billion per launch, according to a study by the University of Colorado and an Associated Press analysis of NASA budgets.

Musk, who has a contract to supply the space station with cargo using the smaller Falcon 9, said his pricing is more fixed than traditional aerospace firms. He joked: “We believe in everyday low prices.”

To get costs that low, Musk said he needs to launch about four Falcon Heavy rockets a year but plans on launching about 10. He doesn’t have a paying customer for his first launch, but is in negotiations with NASA and other customers for flights after his company proves the new rocket flies.

“It would be great if it works, if it’s safe,” said Henry Lambright, a professor of public policy and space scholar at Syracuse University. “I don’t want to come across as skeptical, but I am.”
Lambright said companies have often made big claims about private space without doing much. But, he added, Musk has some credibility because of his successful Falcon 9.

If Musk’s plans work, it will give President Barack Obama’s space policy a needed boost, Lambright said. Obama has been battling some in Congress over his plans to use more private space companies, like Space X, for getting people to orbit with NASA concentrating on missions to send astronauts to new places, such as nearby asteroids.

Several companies are vying to launch private rockets that could replace the shuttle. NASA is now paying Russia to send astronauts to and from the space station on Soyuz spacecraft.
Howard McCurdy, a space policy expert at American University, said of Musk: “If he’s not in the lead, he’s well positioned for the finish.”

McCurdy said NASA’s space shuttle was a technological marvel, but had a bad business model and wasn’t cost effective. He said Musk, who is using his own money in his privately held firm, has incentive to be more financially savvy.

You sure I need this antenna grounded? Oh, yeah, rocket scientists. You can bet your feedhorn!

Here’s a story from Long Grove, Illinois, via The Lake County News-Sun…

Lightning that struck a home’s satellite dish Sunday night started a fire that caused about $25,000 damage, fire officials said Monday.

Long Grove Fire Protection District firefighters arrived at 2237 Stayton Lane about 9:19 p.m. and used about 600 gallons of water to extinguish a fire burning at the peak of the roof, officials said. Crews also used a fire extinguisher to put out some hot embers that fell into the attic.

The blaze apparently started when lightning struck a satellite dish on the roof and traveled throughout the house, officials said. The flames did not spread to other areas of the house, but the electrical surge burned out three electrical sockets and tripped eight circuit breakers.

The residents and their dog had already evacuated the house by the time crews arrived. There were no reported injuries.

And the video, too.

Ever since the launch above earlier this month, skywatcheers have been searching for the X-37B. Found it…

NORAD ID: 37375
Int’l Code: 2011-010A
Perigee: 328.6 km
Apogee: 343.8 km
Inclination: 42.8°
Period: 91.1 min
Semi major axis: 6,707.2 km

 

The details, provide by Noah Shactman at Wired…

It took the amateur sleuths nearly a month to hunt down the first X-37B after it launched on its inaugural mission. That’s an eternity in sky-spotting time.

The second time around was easier. The U.S. space plane was discovered just four days after it blasted into orbit, earlier this month. Cape Town, South Africa’s Greg Roberts — “a pioneer in using telescopic video cameras to track spacecraft, chalking up exceptional results over the years,” according to Space.com — spotted this second secret spacecraft, just like he found the first.

The X-37B has generated intense interest, long before it ever left the ground. Boeing originally developed the 29-foot unmanned craft — a kind of miniature Space Shuttle — for NASA. Then, the military took over in 2004, and the space plane went black. Its payloads were classified, its missions hush-hush.

Depending on who you talk to, the space plane could be a prototype commando transport, an orbiting bomber or (most likely) a spy-above-the-skies. It could launch, repair or reposition U.S. satellites in low orbit. It could sneak up and disable or steal enemy satellites. Its pickup-bed-sized payload bay is particularly enticing to observers.

And now, there are observers — plural. Ontario’s Kevin Fetterof filmed the X-37B “gliding past the binary star Eta Serpentis,” according to Space.com, which has video of the flyby. Skywatchers Brad Young, Bill Young, and Alberto Rango have all reported sightings, as well.

You can even see the space plane for yourself: The X-37B is traveling in a slightly elliptical orbit more than 200 miles up, swooping from 43 degrees north latitude to 43 degrees south. (Check the real-time map at n2yo.com.)

That orbit gives some indications about what the space plane is actually doing up there. The typical spy satellite has a polar orbit, which means “it can cover the whole earth, and it can fly over the same spot at the same sun angle each time it comes overhead,” explains Brian Weeden, a former Air Force Space Command officer, now with the Secure World Foundation.

The X-37B, on the other hand, is orbiting around the fat middle of the planet, traveling over the Middle East, Africa, and fair chunk of China. “It means they are giving up global coverage and predictable shadow lengths, but getting more frequent passes,” Weeden says. The orbit lends credence to the idea that the space plane is an orbiting spy.

So does the X-37B’s altitude. It’s flying pretty low — one of the rare orbiters traveling beneath the International Space Station. “The lower you are,” Weeden notes, “the higher resolution you can get in any imagery.”

And the easier you are to spot from the ground.

Here’s a little love for QDaffy: a GBU-31 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) fitted with a BLU-109 penetrator warhead.

Photo credits: MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images

Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / Carnegie Institution of Washington

Via The Planetary Society Blog…

This is MESSENGER’s very first photo from Mercury orbit, a wide-angle view that reaches right to Mercury’s south pole, exposing a very tiny sliver of territory not previously seen by spacecraft. It was taken at 09:20 UTC today, March 29, 2011, the first in a set of 363 that formed MESSENGER’s first downlink of orbital images, the first downlink of very many. This particular image is not necessarily any more important than any other image; its importance lies in the fact that it was taken and downlinked right on schedule, indicating the spacecraft is performing exactly as planned.

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA is actually a video…

Time-Lapse Auroras Over Norway
Credit & Copyright: Terje Sørgjerd; Music: Gladiator Soundtrack: Now we are Free

Explanation: Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. Such was the case earlier this month when one of the largest auroral displays in recent years appeared over northern locations like the border between Norway and Russia. Pictured in the above time-lapse movie, auroras flow over snow covered landscapes, trees, clouds, mountains and lakes found near Kirkenes, Norway. Many times the auroras are green, as high energy particles strike the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the air to glow as electrons recombine with their oxygen hosts. Other colors are occasionally noticeable as atmospheric nitrogen also becomes affected. In later sequences the Moon and rising stars are also visible. With the Sun expected to become ever more active over the next few years, there may be many opportunities to see similarly spectacular auroraspersonally, even from areas much closer to the equator.

The most significant real news coming out of last week’s Satellite 2011 show in Washington was the contract between Intelsat and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) of Canada to re-fuel orbiting geosynchronous spacecraft. If successful, it has the potential of shifting the economics of satcom services. MDA has the experience and it takes away some of the thunder created by ViviSat earlier this year.

MDA has been pitching this business for years now, and the people managing the spacecraft could not find a way to (1) accept the engineering risk, and (2) see the financial benefits.  The scenario was adroitly summarized by Peter de Selding’s piece in Space News…

• Intelsat will select one of its satellites nearing retirement to be moved into a standard graveyard orbit some 200 to 300 kilometers above the geostationary arc 36,000 kilometers over the equator. It is the most used orbital highway for telecommunications satellites.
• Richmond, British Columbia-based MDA will launch the SIS servicer, which will rendezvous and dock with the Intelsat satellite, attaching itself to the ring around the satellite’s apogee-boost motor.
• With ground teams governing the movements, the SIS robotic arm will reach through the nozzle of the apogee motor to find and unscrew the satellite’s fuel cap.

The SIS vehicle will reclose the fuel cap after delivering the agreed amount of propellant and then head to its next mission.

MDA Chief Executive Daniel E. Friedmann said in a conference call with investors that MDA has identified more than 40 different types of fueling systems and that the SIS will carry a toolkit designed to open most of them.
Steve Oldham, president of MDA’s newly formed Space Infrastructure Services division, told reporters here March 15 that SIS will be carrying enough tools to open 75 percent of the fueling systems aboard satellites now in geostationary orbit.

Oldham said each mission will last two or three weeks.

So the potential is there for MDA — and you’ve got to give Intelsat credit for looking into the future potential like they’ve got a set. Other operators seem content to wait and see if it works — for now. With 52 orbiting spacecraft, Intelsat is in a good position to give it a go.

Andy Pasztor’s story in the Wall Street Journal latched on to the real financial potential for Intelsat: reselling the service to government customers who have their own spacecraft in need of refueling:

But the seven-year, $280 million contract announced Tuesday is the culmination of MacDonald Dettwiler’s efforts to take the lead in shifting from demonstrations and research to using the technologies in real-world applications.

“This takes it out of the realm of science fiction,” said Kay Sears, president of Intelsat’s government-services unit. “We don’t need to study it any more, we’re going to do it.” Intelsat, based in Luxembourg but with its main office in Washington, operates the largest global commercial-satellite fleet.

By pairing a sophisticated robotic service vehicle with what essentially amounts to an orbiting gas station for satellites, MacDonald Dettwiler intends to shuttle fuel to satellites reaching the end of their normal operational lives of between 10 and roughly 15 years.

Unlike concepts favored by rivals, the Canadian system is designed to have the mobile servicing vehicle disconnect from satellites after they are refueled, a process likely to take several weeks.

According to Ms. Sears, Intelsat chose that approach because it affords maximum flexibility to subsequently move rejuvenated satellites around as market conditions change.

In addition to using the venture to assist Intelsat’s own fleet of more than four dozen satellites, Ms. Sears said the company has the exclusive right to market the first-of-a-kind services to the Pentagon and other prospective U.S. government customers operating satellites, including spy agencies.

Once the venture gains momentum, she said, “it’s going to change the industry” and offer U.S. government officials “a nice opportunity to use a cost-effective” solution to avoid huge replacement costs for certain aging satellites.

This creates a new market in the space business, so I’d expect ViviSat’s simplified solution to gain some traction with other operators in the near future.

Very nice job, taking over these video screens in New York’s Times Square:

The way it works is pretty simple: plug in my transmitter into the iphone 4 and play back any video clip. you can play it through the ipod feature or through the camera roll. the transmitter instantly sends the video signal to the video repeater and the video repeater overrides any video screen that it’s being held next to. it doesn’t matter what shape or size the hacked screen is because the hack video will simply keep its correct dimensions and the rest of the hacked space will stay black.

I chose Times Square for my demo because it has lots of video screens to try it on. it is also one of the most monitored and secured areas in New York City and that made it that much more fun :). You can see in my video that the repeater is pretty powerful but the signal is not very stable yet. i’m working on that. I will post a new video later this week explaining how i made this prototype.

A lot of this advertising content is distributed by satellite, so naturally we think it’s wild.

Wait a minute. Was the quality too good? Seems it may have been. It’s a viral marketing pitch for the movie “Limitless,” which begins on 18 March 2011. Here’s the trailer…

Fantastic presentation of before and after satellite photos — with interactive slider — of the catastrophic tsunami in Japan, only on the Web site of The New York Times, nytimes.com

 
C’mon, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the guy’s innocent.

A statement from John Demjaniuk, via the Kyiv Post…

Statement of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk in Germany
Feb 22 at 19:23 | John Demjanjuk
Editor’s Note: The following is a statement released by Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk, who is undergoing trial in Germany, where he is charged with World War Il crimes. See this Associated Press story and this Reuters story for more details.

As a child, Stalin condemned me to die through Holodomor, the forced famine. As a Soviet Ukrainian POW of the Germans, they tried to kill me through starvation and slave labor. The USA and Israel fraudulently accused me of being Ivan the Terrible. As a result, I spent 8.5 years in prison and 5 years in the death cell. Though innocent, on each of those 1,800 days in a death cell, I feared I was going to die due to the reckless fraud and political motives of corrupt prosecutors and judges who were not seeking justice.

Now, nearing the end of my life, Germany, the nation which murdered with merciless cruelty millions of innocent people, attempts to extinguish my dignity, my soul, my spirit, and indeed my life with a political show trial seeking to blame me, a Ukrainian peasant, for the crimes committed by Germans in World War III. They chose me for prosecution – a foreign POW in the brutal hands of Germany – rather than any of the truly guilty Germans and Ethnic Germans. Germany’s weapons of torture in this trial include, suppression of exculpatory evidence, falsification of history, introduction of so-called legal principles which never existed in Germany previously, conspiring with fraudulent prosecutors of the USA and Israel, and a reckless refusal of each argument, motion and exculpatory piece of evidence my defense has submitted which should have already resulted in my acquittal and freedom.

Fearing the truth, the German Court and Prosecutors continue to turn a blind eye to justice by refusing the following:

To request from Russia and Ukraine, File 1627, the 1400 page Soviet MGB/KGB investigative file on my case.

   1. To request from Russia and Ukraine, File 15457, the investigative file of Ignat Danilchenko, specifically to include the report of interview conducted with him about me at the request of the US authorities in 1983/1984.
   2. To request a qualified expert to examine the high quality photos available of the signature on the 1393 Trawniki document which has been falsely attributed to me.
   3. To accept as historical fact that the Nazis tortured Ukrainian POWs like me with starvation so that 3.5 million were murdered.
   4. To accept as historical fact, based upon overwhelming evidence from multiple countries and dozens of witnesses that POW Trawnikis were coerced under a real threat of death and were executed for attempting desertion.
   5. To accept as historical fact, based upon the entire record of the US and Israel proceedings, that I have previously been indicted and tried for the crimes now alleged here which resulted in my acquittal and release from Israel.

I have survived the brutality of Stalin and Nazi Germany and the wrongful conviction and death sentence of the Israelis and Americans. I have lived through unimaginable horrors from Stalin and death by starvation, to Nazi Germany and death by starvation and cannibalism as a POW, to Israel and death by hanging. This trial is now nothing more than the execution of these three unjust and horrific death sentences. There remains no other way for me to show the world what a mockery of justice this trial represents. Unless the Court accepts the historical facts, uses it’s authority to obtain the critical defense evidence not yet before the court and shows the world that it fully accepts its duty to seek justice rather than just conduct a political show trial, I will within 2 weeks begin a hunger strike.

John Demjanjuk

The following are comments by his son, John Demjanjuk Jr.:

“If the Germans are interested in justice, they will simply ask the Russians and the US to turn over all the evidence including Soviet Investigative file 1627 on my father and the missing Danilchenko reports. They have the access to evidence and we do not. This case has been fraught with government cover-up and prosecutorial misconduct and fraud over the years. So far, this trial has been just another chapter of the same injustice. Testimonies and official Nazi war records prove Soviet POWs faced starvation by the millions or were coerced to serve or face execution for desertion. It is abhorrent for Germany to now make its former prisoners and victims responsible for the crimes committed by Germans who in many cases were acquitted or never tried by Germany. This is not about justice being better late than never. Rather, it is Germany’s continued utter failure to accept responsibility for destroying the millions of people it captured.”

John Demjanjuk Jr.