NewSpace
2011 Conference Review
A report on the annual Space
Frontier Foundation's conference held
at NASA Ames in Mountain View, California.
Topics of discussion ranged from entrepreneurial
space businesses to lunar miing to fully reusable
suborbital space vehicles.
Space
Access 11 Conference Review
A report on the annual Space
Access Society's annual conference in
Phoenix, Arizona. The focus, as always, was
on efforts by entrepreneurial companies to
achieve dramatically lower costs for getting
to space..
Here is the latest Virtual
SpaceTV 3D show, which was created by BINARY
SPACE with story content from HobbySpace.
Virtual presenter Amanda Bush reports on a student
competition involving robots aboard the International
Space Station, on the British Skylon
single-stage-to-orbit spaceship, and on a documentary
film about Richard Garriott's trip to space. Space
weather man James C. Birk reports on a recent upsurge
in solar storms. New spaceweather-man
James C. Birk talks about the surge in solar storms
in the past month.
These videos are intended as demonstrations of an experimental
technique for generating animated presentations. The
show was generated autonomously by software and without
human interaction. The project is described in the Virtual
Producer whitepaper (pdf). For further information
contact info@binary-space.com.
The BBC's Stargazing
Live program has encourage viewers to
participate in the the Planet
Hunters public participation project.
Participants examine data from the Kepler
orbital observatory to find indications
of a planet passing in front of a distant
star.
Armadillo Aerospace Launch
STIG Rockets Towards Space
Armadillo
Aerospace has been best known for developing
rockets that take off and land vertically
(see, for example, this
video) and for providing engines for
the rocketplanes
of the Rocket
Racing League. In the past year, however,
they have been using more conventional tube
rockets to test their technology for supersonic
and high alititude flight. Since last June
they have flow their STIG rocket design
three times.
The vehicles are intended to be reused
after returning to earth via parachute.
However, STIG-A suffered some damage due
to problems with the ballute, an inflatable
form used to slow the rocket as it falls
in the near airless environment at high
altitude before deploying the parachute.
That sort of problem, however, is exactly
what the STIG vehicles are meant to investigate
and solve.
A new, larger STIG-B rocket is expected
to launch in early spring and take a science
payload across the 100 km border to space.
"View of parachute ballute deployment
at apogee during Armadillo Aerospace’s
STIG-A III rocket launched from Spaceport
America, taken January 28, 2012".
Credits: Armadillo
Aerospace and Ben Brockert.
"View of the Rio Grande River valley from
239,000 ft (~50 mi) aboard
Armadillo Aerospace’s STIG-A III rocket
launched from
Spaceport America, taken January 28, 2012."
Credits: Armadillo
Aerospace and Ben Brockert
"Armadillo Aerospace's STIG-A III Rocket
Launches Successfully
from Spaceport America".
Credits: Armadillo
Aerospace and Ben Brockert
A video for the January 28th flight is
not yet available. However, here is a video
from the STIG-A rocket when it flew on December
4, 2011:
Run the Satellite
Tracking Tool from BINARY
SPACE right here at HobbySpace
in your browser. The program allows you to track a large
set of satellites in both low earth and geostationary
orbits. (Note: the program requires Microsoft
Silverlight, Version 5 or higher, as well as the latest
version of your browser. Currently the program works on
the Microsoft® Windows® platform only.) The Satellite
Observing section provides additional information
and web resources about the hobby of satellite tracking
and watching.
Real-Time
Space Viewers
Earth
Weather maps, remote sensing
and spysat images.
Space
Weather
Sun, solar wind, aurora images
and the latest data