HobbySpace - Space Log

The JAMSTAR (Joint Aerospace & Meteorlogical Stratosphere Analysis Rocket) project aims to develop sounding rockets to launch meteorlogical instrument packages (so-called dropsondes that descend on parachutes) up to 30 miles (~50km). These will provide useful scientific data and also train students and develop the capabilities of the FIT aerospace group.

See the Mission page for details about JAMSTAR and the rocket, which includes the first stage booster and an unpowered dart type second stage that carries the payload.

An Iridium moment in space... Check out this wonderful photo of an Iridium Flare taken by Don Pettit on the Space Station. Note that he knew when to look for the flares due to the assistance of amateur astronomers Rob Matson and Robert Reeves.

Satellite zoom in ... The TerraFly site at Florida International University provides a "zoom in" service on a given location, via address entry, using satellite and aerial photography.

A popup applet provides various options including a map overlay with labels on major highways and other landmarks.

The TerraServer site provides a similar zoom-in service. More remote imaging info and links in the Eyes in the Sky section.

Mars Streakers... Evidence is increasing that not only does the Mars surface contain enormous amounts of ice but in some areas it occasionally melts and shows up as dark streaks. While pure liquid water would quickly evaporate in the very low atmospheric pressure on Mars, this article Mars Water, Odd Surface Features Tied to Life By Leonard David - Space.com - Mar.28.03 discusses how briny slush may arise from geothermal activity.

The dark coloring could indicate microbial activity. See the Strange Mars Pictures in the Multimedia section for links to sites with collections of images from the two Mars Orbiters that indicate all sorts of temporal changes on the surface.

In the latest issue of Aviation Week, Arthur C. Clarke states his firm belief that some of these pictures indicate signs of life.

Iraq satellite imagery .... I'll maintain a list of links to sites and articles about satellite imagery of Iraq, some in "near" real-time .

In the article he sets out a roadmap for space development and settlement based on a number of economic and social drivers. These include space tourism, space based solar power, asteroid mining for high value metals such as platinum, and defense against near earth asteroids.

Mars radiation levels livable... Results from the The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) system on the Mars Odyssey orbiter indicate that radiation levels are, as expected, higher than in Mars orbit than in earth orbit, but are well within limits acceptable for explorers and settlers.

Note that the exposure estimates also assume that shielding is not significantly improved over that currently used in spacecraft like the ISS. Obviously, those living on Mars (or on the Moon) could use underground dwellings or heavy construction materials for surface habitats to reduce exposures significantly.

This will also work for high energy cosmic rays (CR). The statement in this article - Radiation Dangers for Mars Astronauts Downgraded - Sky and Telescope - Mar.19.03 - tha there is "no practical way to shield astronauts from cosmic rays" is wrong. While current propulsion systems allow only for minimal shielding during transit, once the astronauts reach the surface they can use underground facilities or "earthen" techniques for effective shielding against CR.

There is nothing magical about the earth's atmosphere for filtering cosmic rays (or the magnetosphere for shielding out the lower energy solar wind). It's a question of practicality with regard to how much bulk matter you can use to obtain equivalent shielding. The huge O'Neill habitats, for example, were always designed with an outer layer of lunar rock delivered by mass drivers on the Moon. This shielding would allow for earth type radiation levels for those living inside the rotating habitats.

Different materials and layering arrangements provide different levels of shielding. A priority for current space research should be to find the least massive combination of materials and layered structures that provide the highest degree of shielding. For example, when a CR collides with an atom it will produce a shower of secondary particles. These will be of lower energy but if there is not enough material to "soak them up", then this effect can actually raise an astronaut's exposure.

It's quite conceivable that a Mars transit vehicle could be designed with an inner sanctum area, surrounded by water tanks, layers of shielding materials, and the vehicle's structural mass, that would provide significant protection against both solar protons and cosmic rays.

Nevertheless, even with current systems, the risks are manageable for those who choose to go to space. Remember, on earth we live our whole lives in a continual spray of natural background radiation. Future archeologists can date our bones from the radioactive carbon that we store in them. If you live at higher elevations or in areas with higher radioactivity in the ground, you get substantially more than the average rate. Going to space is a question of increasing your degree of exposure, not of whether you are exposed or not.

Settling the question... We go to space to stay there. In the severe retrenchment in space exploration after the Apollo program cancellation, a shell-shocked NASA grasped for science research as a justification for its manned space program. However, the scientific return has been modest compared to the enormous costs of the shuttle and ISS programs.

Gradually more people are coming to see that creating permanent settlements in space must become the main goal of our space programs. John Carter McKnight develops this proposition in the following essays:

This Friday there will be an open briefing on the concept on Capitol Hill from Dr. Edwards (10:00 am in room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building) sponsored by the National Space Society.

Gravity glasses... The most elegant demonstration of general relativity must be the phenomena of gravitational lensing. Einstein's prediction that light could be bent by high mass objects was proven in 1919. It was eventually realized that, just the way that glass in a lens bends light to form an image, a massive astronomical object could bend the light of a star or galaxy behind it to form an image that could be visible to observers on earth. This can produce multiple images of the same source.

The first such gravitational lensing case was discovered in 1979. Since then the effect has become an important tool in astrophysics since it allows the study of both the source of the light and the mass distribution of the deflector. See this table of imaged systems.

For more about gravitational lensing, see the introductory level materials at Peter Newbury's site.

It certainly spiked my traffic. Instead of the average 1700 visitors and 2500 page views per day, HobbySpace received nearly 19,000 visitors/35,000 pageviews on Friday. The total for the past 3 days was roughly 35,000 visitors/ 64,000 pageviews. Over 6 GB were downloaded, which is close to a typical total for a whole month. (Thankfully, I'm still within my hosting plan limit!) The traffic has died down considerably now but I sure hope many of those who visited decide to become HobbySpace regulars.

Note that some of the comments on the item indicate that weathersat scanning is an old hobby and hardly qualifies as news. I agree in principle but most people don't know about the hobby so it will be news to them. My pages are written at a very introductory, newby-friendly level to try to entice more people to get involved.

On Line Space Courses... The Florida Space Research Institute - FSRI provides a number of on line space courses. Supported by the state of Florida to increase the number of people trained in space related fields, the courses can be taken for a membership fee of $25 per year. See the ALE - Advanced Learning Environment section. Two courses - Shuttle Program and Newtons Laws are free. Courses range in depth from high school to college level

An Interview with Brian Chase, Executive Director of the National Space Society. Mr. Chase talked with me about space activism, space policy, the Columbia aftermath and efforts to replace the Shuttle, and priorities for the NSS.

I also got a chance to offer some of my observations and suggestions on moving the the Society, in which I've long been a member, towards a more hands-on participation orientation. It was the relatively low membership in the NSS, compared to the millions who show a strong interest in space, that originally inspired HobbySpace and its emphasis on space hobbies and activities in which everyone can get involved.

Rocketry campaign info... The Rocketry Information Center provides background info, news, announcements, etc. about the campaign to remove rocketry fuels from the US government's list of explosives needing strict regulation. The ARSA campaign headquarters is, of course, also the site to go to for the latest developments.

Please stop the rocketry bombardment... The recent campaign to convince senators to back a bill to remove rocketry fuels from explosives regulations seems to have overwhelmed Senate offices with phone calls. The ARSA campaign headquarters site now requests "Please discontinue calling your Senators for now." The staff are becoming more annoyed than impressed by the large number of calls. Continue sending letters, though.

Space business... Here are some recent developments of interest in the world of space business:

Broadband via satellite prospects have risen slightly after getting knocked flat by the telecom recession and LEO satellite phone failures.

WildBlue, which seemed out for the count when Echostar removed it's support last year, is now back on its feet with fresh investments from Intelsat and other major large backers - Report: WildBlue Ready to Deliver - SkyREPORT.com - Feb.5.03 * WildBlue to get $156 million: Liberty Media leads group of investors; satellite launch set - Rocky Mountain News - Dec.24.02

Even Charlie Ergen, head of Echostar, now claims that satellite broadband is viable though last year he said that it would be so only if the Echostar - DirecTV merger went through. In the most recent Space News he claims that new advancements in satellite technology now make broadband feasible with Echostar's financial resources. This May the company will launch a satellite with Ka-band transponders on it. Though current Ku band transponders have been used for home internet delvery, it is believed that Ka band is required for providing broadband internet to a large numbers of users at a reasonable price - EchoStar to Launch EchoStar IX Satellite in May; New Satellite to Test First Ever Ka-Band Commercial Service - EchoStar PR - Mar.11.03

The Thuraya mobile satellite phone company plans to introduce a mobile broadband service - Thuraya and M2sat Launch a New Mobile Broadband Service... - Thuraya - Mar.3.03 - though this will be a premium service such as that offered by Imarsat.

Satellite phones - Those two successful companies, which use satellites in geostationary orbit, are usually ignored in discussions of satellite phones (their combined subscribers are a few hundred thousand) and instead the bankruptcies of Iridium and Globalstar are the focus, as in this report - Satellite Phones Go To War - Washington Post - Mar.13.03

Iridium is now a privately held company with a large US Defense Department contract. Reports from the company indicate that it now also has a significant number of non-DOD customers.

Surprisingly, Iridium recently contributed to a fund to help Globalstar through its bankruptcy restructuring - Globalstar Debtor-in-Possession Financing Approved by Court - Globalstar PR - Feb.21.03. Whether this indicates a possible joint operation or takeover in the future is not known.

Data Monitoring & tracking I've noted before that there has been something of a boomlet recently in the number of companies getting involved in using satellites for tracking of industrial shipments and for data monitoring, i.e. obtaining data from distributed sources such as pipeline pumping stations and electrical meters. See the Tracking & Monitoring section for more info.

Globalstar & AeroAstro have been collaborating on a project to use the Globalstar constellation of satellites for tracking and monitoring applications. Yesterday they announced that the service is now available in North America - Globalstar Introduces Data Monitoring Service in North America - Globalstar PR - Mar.12.03

SETI@Home Produces Leads ... The SETI@Home public computing project, which now involves more than 4,280,000 users, has accumulated over a million processor-years of computation on space radio data in search of signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Now scientists plan to use the Arecibo radio telescope to re-examine 150 celestial locations for the most promising candidate signals found in the analysis so far.

An Interview with Paul Blase - Co-founder and CTO of TransOrbital, the company that plans to launch its TrailBlazer spacecraft to the Moon this autumn. Last December the company successfully launched a test spacecraft on a Dnepr rocket and last August received all necessary licenses for the lunar mission.

Mr. Blase discussed with me the status of the project, the challenges of getting such a mission underway, how activists can contribute to space hardware development, and what TrailBlazer will mean for commercial exploration and development of space.

Rocket seat available: Mr. Blase says there is extra room on the Dnepr for a small payload. If you know of a university project or other group in need of a ride for a nanosat, tell them to contact Paul Blase for more information.

Taikonauts debut... As mentioned below, the Chinese manned spaceflight program looks more and more vigorous. The Astronautics website today published pictures of the Taikonaut Chen Long expected to make the first flight on the Shenzhou.

Students to work with Mars rovers... The Athena Student Interns Program at JPL will allow students to workd for a week in Pasadena directly with data from the Mars rovers, which head for the Red Planet this Spring. Deadline for applications is Mar.31.03

Fading brave spacers... Two valiant and spectacularly successful space probes have recently begun their goodbyes:

Pioneer 10 has apparently sent it's last transmissions from 12 billion (7.5M miles) away - Deep space probe says farewell - BBC - Feb.26.03. Launched over 30 years ago, the spacecraft is now on a silent journey into interstellar space as it's radioisotope power supply slowly dies away.

Galileo has been studying Jupiter and its Moons for thirteen years and has taken a beating from the severe radiation belts there. On February 28th the data recorder was shut down - Goodbye Galileo - Sky and Telescope - Mar.4.03 - and only minimal contact will be made with the spacecraft until it dives into Jupiter's atmosphere on September 21st.

Engineers will tell you that much if not most of the knowledge and skills for making something, whether it's rockets or buildings or widgets of any sort, are carried in the heads of the people involved, not in books or on computer disks. Saving all of that knowledge is usually done by passing it on to younger workers via tutoring and verbal communications.

Unfortunately, such knowledge is often lost when projects are canceled or older workers retire. We could not, for example, start building Saturn V rockets tomorrow if we wanted to because a huge body of lost knowledge would first need to be re-discovered.

Much of history, in fact, has been lost because the knowledge and memories of those who were actually involved there "on the ground" so to speak, never recorded their memories and experience. How can we understand the Moon Race period, for example, without hearing from members of the public who remember the mood and spirit of that time.

The ECHO Science & Technology Memory Bank project at George Mason University seeks to save some of this knowledge by recording the "stories and the ever-expanding, ever-accelerating history of recent science and technology using a contemporary technology well suited to such a daunting yet critical task: the Internet."

The ECHO wants those "who have participated in the world of science, technology, medicine and engineering" to contribute to their growing databank that will be a treasure trove for future historians who will want to examine this age.

The project recently created the Space Shuttle Archive in which participants in shuttle development, as well as members of the general public, can post their stories and impressions about the loss of Columbia.

The Moonwalk section deals with the personal histories of the Apollo landings on the Moon.

In the HobbySpace Space History section, the Personal Space Histories sub-section lists a number of other sites that deal with the recountings by individuals who participated in space related endeavors or simply what to tell how space exploration affected their lives.

China seems serious about a long term committement to space exploration. China plans three-phase Moon exploration - New Scientist - Mar.3.03 . (Maybe they want to get back on track from where they stopped 600 hundred years ago. See the note below about the Ming Dynasty's turnaround from exploration.)

[See Zheng He, Again - Rand Simberg . I should have mentioned that others had used this historical analogy to space exploration. However, I though it was interesting that this essayist had made the connection independently. Mar.3.03]

An Interview with Peter Diamandis : Founder and President of the X PRIZE Foundation - Dr. Diamandis answers questions about a number of topics including the funding of the prize, the sub-orbital approach to developing spaceflight, regulatory issues, and follow-on contests.