Slashdot Mirror
Domain: spaceflightnow.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to spaceflightnow.com.
Stories · 128
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First Emergency Use of Whole-Aircraft Parachute
Ahotasu writes "Over at SpaceFlightNow, there is a short NASA news release discussing the development of and first emergency use of a production parachute system for a general aviation aircraft. Whole-ultralight parachute systems have been available and used for some time, but this is apparently the first use in a "certified general-aviation aircraft". From the article: "In October 2002, a pilot released his single engine aircraft's parachute and landed safely in a Texas mesquite- tree grove. The pilot was uninjured, and there was minimal damage to the plane. The safe landing made aviation history, as it was the first emergency application of an airframe parachute on a certified aircraft." Here's the company's website. Looks like right now, they only have models for a select few gen. aviation aircraft, probably the most popular models." -
Only 10-20 Billion Years To Go
cinorhc writes "An article at Space Flight Now reports on a study of some Stanford researchers that say the universe will collapse in on itself in a mere 10-20 billion years, resulting in "the Big Crunch". That puts us in the middle of the uni's life cycle. The generally accepted theory as of now is the universe will expand forever, leaving isolated galaxies all alone in a nearly infinite sea of darkness. If these guys are right, we should see galaxies blue shift any day now. I personally prefer a universe that will collapse in on itself and then re-Big Bang so to speak, circle of life on a grand scale." -
Houston, We Have a Software Problem
An anonymous reader writes "The computer system that launches the Space Shuttle is an old, but important, computer system. It is built from mid 70's technology and features SSI chips like 7400's...which are getting hard to find. It has 64k of memory and no room to repair any software bugs. NASA started the CLCS project in 1996 which uses state of the art computer languages, OO methodologies, and hardware. Everything that you could actually hire people off the street for. However, NASA is in a budget crunch with the Space Station cost overruns. It is looking to trim costs to keep the Space Station going. There are stories about CLCS getting cancelled here and these guys say its already cancelled." -
Antarctic Telescope Funded
An anonymous reader writes "SpaceflightNow reports that a multi-institutional team of scientists led by the University of Chicago will receive $16.6 million from the National Science Foundation over the next five years to build a telescope at the South Pole aimed at piercing one of the darkest secrets of the universe. The telescope will help scientists to reveal new details regarding a mysterious phenomenon called dark energy, which makes the expansion of the universe accelerate." -
Atlas V's Maiden Launch a Success
PyroMosh writes "The next generation expendable heavy lifting rocket, the Atlas 5, lifted off today from Cape Canaveral Air Station. The American rocket, built by Lockheed Martin, sporting Russian RD-180 engines carried the Eutelsat Hotbird 6 telecommunications satellite into orbit. This next generation heavy lifter can out-lift any rocket built since the Saturn V 'Moon rocket', including the shuttle." Spaceflightnow has extensive coverage. -
Atlas 5 Launches
Rubyflame writes "As I write this, the Atlas 5 is just about to take off. Spaceflight Now for Mission Status. Atlas 5 is be the biggest Atlas rocket yet, and the first next-generation expendable launch vehicle." -
Atlas 5 Launches
Rubyflame writes "As I write this, the Atlas 5 is just about to take off. Spaceflight Now for Mission Status. Atlas 5 is be the biggest Atlas rocket yet, and the first next-generation expendable launch vehicle." -
New Problem Could Ground Space Shuttle Fleet
Ender writes "As if the NASA folks at KSC did not have enough problems to deal with a the moment, (see previous /. article on the engine cracks and the following CNN article on the repairs) a NEW problem has sufaced in the Apollo Era transporter which vehiculates the Shuttles to the launch pads (crawler). They found many cracked bearings in the cylinders that lift the shuttle and its launch platform on the transporter. After this discovery they took a look at the other crawler and it too had quite numerous cracked bearings. No word from NASA yet but these findings may further delay the next Space Shuttle launch which is currently scheduled for NET (no earlier than) Sept 28th and by the same token slow down the assembly of the ISS. Complete articles at SpaceFlightNow and United Press International." -
Evidence Found of Lake, Catastrophic Flood on Mars
angkor points to this article on spaceflightnow.com, excerpting: "Scientists 'have discovered a large former lake in the highlands of Mars that would cover an area the size of Texas and New Mexico combined.'" -
World's Lightest Solid
Erazmus writes: "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has manufactured the world's lightest solid. At only 3 milligrams per cubic centimeter, it's close to the density of air (1.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter). Spaceflight Now has the article. The article points to JPL's site, along with some amazing pictures." -
Solar Sail to be Launched This Year
mad_goldfish writes: "Spaceflight Now is reporting that the Russians are preparing a Solar Sail for launch sometime after September aboard a Cosmos 1 rocket. Apparently most of the components have now been tested and they are getting ready to integrate all the flight components. Just the camera, S-band radio and main computer are yet to be completed." -
Solar Sail to be Launched This Year
mad_goldfish writes: "Spaceflight Now is reporting that the Russians are preparing a Solar Sail for launch sometime after September aboard a Cosmos 1 rocket. Apparently most of the components have now been tested and they are getting ready to integrate all the flight components. Just the camera, S-band radio and main computer are yet to be completed." -
NASA Wants You! (To Sit in a Spinning Room)
slinted writes: "Bottomquark recently posted that Nasa scientists are looking for a few good men (5"8' or less) to participate in hypergravity experiments. The experiments entail 7 'habitation sessions,' 5 of which will last up to 22 hours of spinning at up to 2G in a chamber 7.6 feet long and 6 feet wide. Since the experiments are at Ames Research Center, in Mountain View CA, this might be perfect for some techies 'in between projects.'" -
Clearest Photos Ever Of Horsehead Nebula
angkor writes "A new composite image created from high-res photographs. Wow, just wow. You can see it at SpaceFlightNow." -
"Dark Matter" Observed
An anonymous submitter writes: "The space news site Space Flight Now has an article about the first direct "observation" of so called dark matter. Galaxies appear to have more gravitation (mass) than we can currently observe. The theory of dark matter tries to explain this missing mass by the existence of massive bodies too faint to detect. These bodies include everything from dim stars to exotic particles called WIMPs. The previously dark matter, a dwarf star, was detected when it passed in front of a brighter blue star, creating a gravitational lens. It is thought that there are many more like it out there creating all that extra gravity, we just can't see them." Wired has another story; or see the European Space Agency's original article. -
"Dark Matter" Observed
An anonymous submitter writes: "The space news site Space Flight Now has an article about the first direct "observation" of so called dark matter. Galaxies appear to have more gravitation (mass) than we can currently observe. The theory of dark matter tries to explain this missing mass by the existence of massive bodies too faint to detect. These bodies include everything from dim stars to exotic particles called WIMPs. The previously dark matter, a dwarf star, was detected when it passed in front of a brighter blue star, creating a gravitational lens. It is thought that there are many more like it out there creating all that extra gravity, we just can't see them." Wired has another story; or see the European Space Agency's original article. -
Cluster Cracks Jupiter's Moons
YourHero writes: "Using the 256-cpu/500MHz Velocity I Cluster (64 Dell PowerEdge boxes installed Aug 1999) Cornell researchers have explained some of the wild moon orbits around Jupiter by running a 1-billion-year simulation. Abstract , abstract (presented at AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences), and news coverage [spaceflight now]. I saw no information on run time, but Aug 1999-present represents an upper limit somewhat short of 1 billion years." -
Monster European Environmental Satellite
andygood writes: "Spaceflight Now has this article about the 'Mother of All Earth Observation Satellites' which will be launched by Europe in early 2002. This thing is the size of a juggernaut and 'every hour will gather as much data as can be stored on a dozen PC hard disks'. 'ENVISAT' (ENVIronmental SATellite) has been in the works for almost fourteen years with a price tag of 2.3 billion (Euro)." -
Monster European Environmental Satellite
andygood writes: "Spaceflight Now has this article about the 'Mother of All Earth Observation Satellites' which will be launched by Europe in early 2002. This thing is the size of a juggernaut and 'every hour will gather as much data as can be stored on a dozen PC hard disks'. 'ENVISAT' (ENVIronmental SATellite) has been in the works for almost fourteen years with a price tag of 2.3 billion (Euro)." -
Canadarm2 May Get Arthroscopic Surgery
Soft writes: "Atlantis' rainsoaked tiles were barely dry when SpaceflightNow reported that the International Space Station's brand-new arm might have developed a problem in the Shoulder Pitch joint, which could require on-orbit replacement in what they call a "daring spacewalk". The incident could play havoc with the shuttle launch schedule, since the next mission, which was to deliver the station's big US airlock, requires a fully-functional arm there." There's another article about the malfunctioning arm at space.com. -
Canadarm2 May Get Arthroscopic Surgery
Soft writes: "Atlantis' rainsoaked tiles were barely dry when SpaceflightNow reported that the International Space Station's brand-new arm might have developed a problem in the Shoulder Pitch joint, which could require on-orbit replacement in what they call a "daring spacewalk". The incident could play havoc with the shuttle launch schedule, since the next mission, which was to deliver the station's big US airlock, requires a fully-functional arm there." There's another article about the malfunctioning arm at space.com. -
Canadarm2 May Get Arthroscopic Surgery
Soft writes: "Atlantis' rainsoaked tiles were barely dry when SpaceflightNow reported that the International Space Station's brand-new arm might have developed a problem in the Shoulder Pitch joint, which could require on-orbit replacement in what they call a "daring spacewalk". The incident could play havoc with the shuttle launch schedule, since the next mission, which was to deliver the station's big US airlock, requires a fully-functional arm there." There's another article about the malfunctioning arm at space.com. -
Mars Odyssey begins
Soft writes: "NASA's latest Mars probe has had a good launch on the first try. Stories at SpaceflightNow, CNN, and the BBC. The Delta rocket's onboard camera gave impressive pictures of the ascent..." Read the CNN story for an awesome picture from the nose of the rocket looking back. I want a print of that. -
Launch Your Own Picosatellite
zoomzoom writes: "Through a company called One Stop Satellite Solutions you can launch your own picosatellite for less than $50,000. Measuring 10 centimeters on a side, and weighing less than one kilogram, the OSSS CubeSat Kit is a special kind of small satellite called a picosat. Each CubeSat is a perfect cube, holding its experiments inside like shelves in a cupboard. A CubeSat can hold anything, from microgravity experiments to the ashes of a loved one, and can be deployed into low-Earth orbit. The CubeSats are launched in orbit from a larger satellite called a Multi-Payload Adapter (kind of like a big Borg cube launching little Borg cubes). I read about this in a Spaceflightnow article linked up at bottomquark." I dunno - it does seem some kind of a stretch - anyone have confirmation? -
Space Station Crew Face Air-Scrubber Failures
madumas writes: "This article reports that the crew of the ISS (or alpha, or...) seem to have some problems with their air scrubber. They need replacement parts so fix the regenerator. It's interesting to see that they are a failure away from an emergency evacuation. For now, they are planning the shipping of the spare parts that should be done Dec. 26. Let's hope for them it doesn't fail." -
Iridium Saved?
Ekeron writes: "Spaceflightnow.com reports that: 'The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the bid of Iridium Satellite LLC to purchase the operating assets of Iridium LLC and its subsidiaries. Iridium Satellite LLC will continue to provide commercial satellite communications to the U.S. Government and plans to re-launch affordable satellite communications services to those industry segments that have a particular need for satellite communications (government, military, humanitarian, heavy industry, maritime, aviation, adventure) within 60 days.' Get the full story at: Spaceflightnow." -
Mir Likely To Be Deorbited [Updated]
Decibel writes: "It seems that Mir's fungal infection is soon to be the least of its problems. Unless $7-10 million can be raised in the next few days, Mir will be de-orbited some time after its 15-year anniversary in February 2001. MirCorp has been financing the operation of the outpost since the Russian government abandoned it last year, but they've run out of money as well. To make matters worse, unless the russian government (or someone else) comes up with $60 million to make two final missions to Mir, it will be an uncontrolled reentry. Of course, if any of that fungus survives reentry, it could be a moot point anyway. :)" But what about the Destination Mir teevee show?! Surely NBC has 7 or 10 million to toss in the pot, considering they've already paid more than that for rights to the show.[Updated 3 Oct 2000 21:30 GMT by timothy] funk_phenomenon writes: "To add another story to the Mir fire, James Cameron (the man who directed Terminator 2 and Titanic) is planning to stay on the space station. He has already undergone medical tests at the Russian Institute for Medical and Biological Problems and received a go ahead. Cameron went to see the Titanic and he made a movie; maybe he plans the same?"
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Dirt Cheap Telescopes With Liquid Mercury
Decibel writes "Scientists at the University of British Columbia have built a 6 meter telescope that uses a plate filled with mercury for its primary mirror. At a cost of $1 million, this technology makes it possible for many research teams to have continuous access to a telescope, rather than sharing with many other researchers. On a somewhat related note, the top 10 images taken by the only company that provides commercial satellite images at 1 meter resolution have been released to the public. Included are pics of the Olympic Park in Sydney, the Hollywood sign, Hoover Dam, and the Great Pyramids of Egypt. I don't know how they determined that these were the top 10, but they're certainly worth a look."Personal addendum by jamie .
Summer 1983: I was at a cool kids' summer camp learning about astronomy. I was 12. A friend and I came up with the idea of spinning mercury into mirrors. We didn't know much about optics or physics and had no idea if it would work, but we presented the idea to the Very Smart guest speaker the next day.
He thought about it for a second, and shot us down: he didn't think it would focus properly because the surface would be a catenary, not parabolic.
I would just like to take this opportunity to say: in your face, dude.
Mercury mirrors do not, however, make good replacements for general-purpose telescopes. They only point straight up; they'll never do long exposures or see anything outside their latitude. I'm a little surprised the article doesn't emphasize this.
(On the off-chance my "co-inventor" Bill Hall, from Kalamazoo, Michigan is reading this: drop me a line, Bill.)