Aerospace

Richard Feynman is something of a legend in science circles these days.  Posthumously, he became regarded as an insightful polymath, with his hands in the development of the atomic bomb (which was a real anathema to the previous generation, not so much mine and later ones) and quantum physics, along with being a musician and a student of numerous subjects. He was also no slouch when he was alive, though far fewer people had heard of him in the broader public than reference him now.   He's so popular now they hold symposia entirely on individual lectures of his; there are more people…

While we chug away on our Tubesat-style picosatellite, in the 10x10x10cm range, two independent efforts are working on even smaller satellites, and I thought they were worth a nod. An aerospace engineering team at Cornell has an ongoing and already funded kickstarter for the Kicksat, which is a cube filled with 300 or more even smaller Sputnik-type "I only beep" ultra-mini satellites.  Each person who contributed gets to name their little piece.  It's a very cool engineering project that's been going on for 3 years, and looks really, really solid.  Better yet, it's met its…

I'm working to make a list of potential conferences for meeting other Cubesat (picosatellite) builders.  A quick search on 'cubesat conferences' primarily turns up past events and past proceedings.  Any ideas?  My list so far: SpaceUp: any of the regional ones.  The previous SpaceUpDC was fruitful for me. AAS (American Astronomical Society) twice-yearly meetings.  I will be at the Jan 2014 one, in D.C. AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) has focused topical conferences, plus an annual on Jan 2013 that might be worth attending.  I haven't…

Why would anyone build a Tubesat when the Cubesat open standard tends to dominate the picosatellite world?  Well, first, there's only been a bit over a dozen Cubesats, so it's a wide open field.  Second, the Tubesat design is actually a kit, including schematics that are pre-integrated, rather than being an open spec like Cubesat. In some ways, it's a little odd to compare them, much like you can't really compare an iPhone to an Android smartphone.  iPhones are a device; Android is an operating system used in over 75 different devices.  Similarly, Tubesat is a device…

MSNBC reported on the latest set of new NASA prizes: NASA today announced three new competitions offering a total of $5 million in prizes — and only one of them involves actually putting something in outer space. I'm a huge fan of prizes.  Although I love NASA's work, I dream of a day where fully half of NASA's workload consists of evaluating prize entries by indy companies that are hitting specific get-us-to-space benchmarks. Picosatellite launch teams, including Interorbital Systems , are listed as likely contenders for the new orbital prize, but of course some of the most innovative…

Nasa's GOES robot satellite discovered a massive solar flare on the surface of the sun on August 9th. This discovered flare released a massive amount of radiation and high-energy particles into the solar system. This will be a serious problem for space agencies and the planet in the future.   When a beam of a variety of high enegy light hits the earth, it disturbs the radio waves comming from the satellite. Well, some TV or radio stations did had problems with collecting data from the satellite on tuesday (August 9th). But the problem is that we can have more major problems with GPS,…

Science 2.0 favorite Lawrence Krauss of ASU tackled the James Webb Space Telescope issue on the Richard Dawkins website and a commenter there linked to my rationalization that canceling it might be okay, with the hasty disclaimer that he does not agree with what I write - the Dawkins site moderators, and perhaps Dawkins himself, have made their distaste for anyone outside the echo chamber well known so perhaps his rapid disavowal was necessary, though it seems odd Krauss would have the same concern, since he is an outreach guy rather than a religion basher worried about his site being overrun…

With the end of the space shuttle, we may also be seeing an end to manned space travel as a science endeavor.  I am not saying we shouldn't send people into space, we certainly should, but it should be just that - a bold voyage into the unknown and not rationalized with science, where it is not a very good one.  Robots are cheaper and better and the Congressional hearings are less messy if a robot dies. President Obama likely agrees about robots, since he canceled the manned successor to the space shuttle, the Constellation project and there is no valid replacement in sight. With…

The Redemption of Gus Grissom The 50th anniversary of Alan Shepard's flight, the first American in space, was something of a big deal in pop culture.  The 50th anniversary of John Glenn orbiting the Earth, arriving this winter, will likely be a much bigger deal because Sen. Glenn has a lot of name recognition. But between them in aerospace history, chosen to be among the "Mercury 7" test pilots who were picked when NASA was just six months old and who risked their lives flying into the great unknown, is a guy who doesn't get enough respect.   He's a man who was America's first space…

Some cry that it is daft to make your own satellite (ignoring 40 years of AMSAT history). Others exclaim that, hey, whatever I am doing, they can do better.  To the former, my building Project Calliope is proof that we're entering a new age of private space exploration. To the latter, I say "yes, yes you can."  And now, O'Reilly Media is launching a DIY Space series.  I'll be writing four eBooks so you, too, can design and launch your own picosatellite, Tubesat, Cubesat, or whatever you wish to build. 1) DIY Satellite Platforms (Realtime eBook #1)Building a space-ready…