Report Examines Options for Detecting and Countering Near-Earth Objects
The 60" telescope on Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, AZ used for the Catalina Sky Survey hunting for Near Earth Objects (asteroids that could kill us all). (Photo by Jon Wiley.CC Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic)
A new report from the National Research Council lays out options NASA could follow to detect more near-Earth objects (NEOs) – asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard if they cross Earth’s orbit. The report says the $4 million the U.S. spends annually to search for NEOs is insufficient to meet a congressionally mandated requirement to detect NEOs that could threaten Earth.
Congress mandated in 2005 that NASA discover 90 percent of NEOs whose diameter is 140 meters or greater by 2020, and asked the National Research Council in 2008 to form a committee to determine the optimum approach to doing so. In an interim report released last year, the committee concluded that it was impossible for NASA to meet that goal, since Congress has not appropriated new funds for the survey nor has the administration asked for them.
In its final report, the committee lays out two approaches that would allow NASA to complete its goal soon after the 2020 deadline; the approach chosen would depend on the priority policymakers attach to spotting NEOs. If finishing NASA’s survey as close as possible to the original 2020 deadline is considered most important, a mission using a space-based telescope conducted in concert with observations from a suitable ground-based telescope is the best approach, the report says. If conserving costs is deemed most important, the use of a ground-based telescope only is preferable. (more…)
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Congo Receives Help from Space After Volcano Eruption
Mount Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of Congo spewing lava on 15 January 2010. The volcano erupted on 2 January. (RMCA - B. Smets)
On 2 January, Mount Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted, spewing lava from its southern flank and raising concerns that the 100 000 people in the town of Sake could be under threat.
Fears were also triggered in Goma as rumours circulated that an eruption was imminent at the nearby Nyiragongo volcano, which devastated the city in 2002.
Following the eruption, scientists and local authorities have been using a long series of space images from ESA’s Envisat, together with seismic and helicopter data, to monitor the situation and calm fears of the local population.
Dr Nicolas d’Oreye of GORISK, which is in Congo assisting the Goma Volcano Observatory to collect and process satellite observations and field data, said the satellite images are very useful for managing the crisis. (more…)
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Africa Establishes New Space Partnerships
Use of satellites by Africa can help in such areas as disaster management, food security, environmental monitoring, land use, water management and public health. (NASA)
The use of space-based technologies can help achieve sustainable development in Africa, a capacity recently bolstered in that continent by creation of two regional space partnerships.
The third African Leadership Conference on Space Science and Technology for Sustainable Development was held on December 7-9 in Algiers.
The conference was hosted by the Algerian Space Agency with the support of the United Nations Committee on The Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).
An outcome of the gathering was the signing of two regional space partnerships:
– To support African efforts in disaster management by means of space-based technologies, the Algerian Space Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a cooperation agreement to establish a regional support office for the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response, a program created under the recommendations of COPUOS and implemented by UNOOSA.
– The Governments of Algeria, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa signed an agreement on African Resources Management Satellite Constellation, a regional initiative that aims to develop a network of satellites to make space technology more accessible to end-users in areas such as food security, environmental monitoring, land use, water management and public health. (more…)
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Scientists Discover Fog on Titan
Fingers of fog can be seen moving across the south pole of Titan in this image constructed by Mike Brown and his colleagues using data from the Cassini spacecraft. The fog shows regions where pools of liquid methane sitting on the surface of Titan are evaporating into the atmosphere. After a long summer of frequent clouds and rain at the south pole, it appears in this late summer image that evaporating liquid methane covers large areas of the pole. (Mike Brown/Caltech)
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system—aside from our home planet, Earth—with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. According to planetary astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog.
The presence of fog provides the first direct evidence for the exchange of material between the surface and the atmosphere, and thus of an active hydrological cycle, which previously had only been known to exist on Earth.
In a talk to be delivered December 18 at the American Geophysical Union’s 2009 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor and professor of planetary astronomy, details evidence that Titan’s south pole is spotted “more or less everywhere” with puddles of methane that give rise to sporadic layers of fog. (Technically, fog is just a cloud or bank of clouds that touch the ground). (more…)
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Colliding Auroras Produce an Explosion of Light
by Dr. Tony Phillips
The five spacecraft of THEMIS were built to answer fundamental questions about auroras. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)
A network of ground-based cameras deployed around the Arctic in support of NASA’s THEMIS mission has made a startling discovery about the aurora borealis, commonly known as the Northern Lights. Sometimes vast curtains of aurora borealis collide, producing spectacular outbursts of light.
Video images of the phenomenon were presented Dec. 17 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
“Our jaws dropped when we saw the movies for the first time,” said Larry Lyons, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and a member of the research team that made the discovery. “These outbursts are telling us something very fundamental about the nature of auroras.”
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency created the camera network in the Arctic. THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) consists of five identical satellite probes launched in 2006 to solve a long-standing mystery: Why do auroras occasionally erupt in an explosion of light known as a substorm? Substorms are dramatic disturbances of the global magnetosphere-ionosphere system that release large amounts of solar wind energy and are associated with auroral activations. (more…)
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Reducing Orbital Debris – A Call for Global Leadership and Cooperation
Dealing with orbital debris is a growing international concern. Experts are defining steps that can be taken to help reduce this menacing problem. (NASA)
NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have organized the first ever international conference devoted solely to the subject of orbital debris removal. The NASA/DARPA meeting was held this week, December 8-10, in Chantilly, Virginia.
Taking part in this seminal gathering is Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation’s Technical Advisor, providing an authoritative look at the policy issues of active debris removal and the opportunity for leadership and cooperation.
Not just a technical problem
“Orbital debris is a global problem that poses a threat to the use of space by all States. Actively removing orbital debris is part of solving this problem, but it is by its nature a global solution that requires international cooperation and transparency,” Weeden said.
As invited speaker to the three-day international conference, Weeden has noted that orbital debris removal is not just a technical problem. “The economic costs of removing objects need to be compared to the risk they pose to active spacecraft, and there are large legal and political issues to tackle as well,” he advised. (more…)
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The Search for the Origin of Cosmic Rays
M82, or the Cigar Galaxy, is a starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away from Earth. In the galaxy's center, stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside the entire Milky Way galaxy. The high stellar birth and death rate made M82 a good test case for the theory that cosmic rays are generated in supernovae explosions. In this false-color image, X-ray data recorded by the Chandra X-ray observatory is blue; infrared light recorded by the Spitzer infrared telescope is red; Hubble space telescope observations of hydrogen line emission is orange, and the bluest visible light is yellow-green. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScl/CXC/UofA/ESA/AURA/JHU)
Washington University physicists are closing in on the origin of cosmic rays.
A thin rain of charged particles continually bombards our atmosphere from outer space. The mysterious particles were first detected 100 years ago but until 10 years ago when a new type of telescope began to come online physicists weren’t sure where the “cosmic rays” came from or how they were generated. They suspected the particles were accelerated by supernova shockwaves, but suspicions aren’t proof.
Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes now keeping a watchful eye on the night skies are finally providing the evidence needed to solve this longstanding puzzle. Over the past several years, observations of individual supernovae remnants in our galaxy have gradually strengthened the case for supernova acceleration. (more…)
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GOES-14 (O) Moving Into On-Orbit Storage Around the Earth
An artist's concept of GOES-O in orbit. (NASA/Honeywell Tech Solutions, C. Meaney)
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite named GOES-14, is being placed in on-orbit storage this month to await its call to duty.
Since it was launched, scientists and engineers on the ground have been monitoring the instruments on GOES-14, formerly known as GOES-O, and it is operating well. “The GOES-14 (O) Post Launch Test phase continues with the specification testing of the Image Navigation and Registration (INR) System and performance is excellent,” said Andre’ Dress, GOES N-P Deputy Project Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The fall eclipse season has come to an end and the power and thermal performance was exactly what we expected.”
Twice a year, around the spring and fall equinoxes the GOES spacecraft experience a period by which the sunlight is blocked by the Earth’s shadow (eclipse). The maximum shadow duration is approximately 72 min out of the spacecraft’s 24 hour orbit period. The shadow (or eclipse season) lasts for approximately 45 days, twice a year. (more…)
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Nanotech in Space: Experiment To Weather the Trials of Orbit
Novel nanomaterials developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are scheduled to blast off into orbit on November 16 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. The project, funded by the U.S. Air Force Multi University Research Initiative (MURI), seeks to test the performance of the new nanocomposites in orbit. The materials will be mounted to the International Space Station’s outer hull and exposed to the rigors of space. (Rensselaer/University of Florida)
Novel nanomaterials developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are scheduled to blast off into orbit on November 16 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.
The project, funded by the U.S. Air Force Multi University Research Initiative (MURI), seeks to test the performance of the new nanocomposites in orbit. Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry the samples to the International Space Station (ISS). The materials will then be mounted to the station’s outer hull in a Passive Experiment Carrier (PEC), and exposed to the rigors of space.
Rensselaer professors Linda Schadler, of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Thierry Blanchet, of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, worked with a team of researchers from the University of Florida to develop two different types of experimental nanomaterials. The MURI project and the University of Florida research team are led by Rensselaer alumnus W. Greg. Sawyer ’99, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Rensselaer and is now the N. C. Ebaugh Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. Blanchet was Sawyer’s doctoral adviser. (more…)
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New Report Offers Steps to Outer Space Security
Security in outer space is an increasingly important issue, for one due to the recent increase in orbital debris from both deliberate and accidental satellite destructions. A new report has flagged a series of recommendations to help address the orbital debris concern, and other issues that can assure enhanced security in space for all. Earth photo taken November 12, 2009 by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft. (ESA)
Outer space security has become an increasingly important issue over recent years.
For example, the global community of spacefaring nations is witnessing a sizeable increase in orbital debris from both deliberate and accidental satellite destructions.
A new report has flagged a series of recommendations to help address the orbital debris concern, and other issues that can assure enhanced security in space for all.
The report — entitled “Towards Greater Security in Outer Space: Some Recommendations” — has been released, made possible by information gathered during a recent workshop held in Paris, France and co-sponsored by Secure World Foundation and the L’Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri).
Collision avoidance exercises
The report puts in perspective the dynamics of current international deliberations and actions on space security and presents a set of key recommendations, among them:
– There should be a concerted effort to establish an international Space Situational Awareness (SSA) architecture in order to reduce the risk of accidental collisions in space. (more…)
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ESA Spacecraft May Help Unravel Cosmic Mystery
Cassini-Huygens swings by Earth and accelerates towards Saturn. (ESA)
When Europe’s comet chaser Rosetta swings by Earth tomorrow for a critical gravity assist, tracking data will be collected to precisely measure the satellite’s change in orbital energy. The results could help unravel a cosmic mystery that has stumped scientists for two decades.
Since 1990, scientists and mission controllers at ESA and NASA have noticed that their spacecraft sometimes experience a strange variation in the amount of orbital energy they exchange with Earth during planetary swingbys. The unexplained variation is noticed as a tiny difference in speed gained or lost during the swingby when comparing that predicted by fundamental physics and that actually measured after the event. (more…)
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Tackling New Arctic Challenges from Space
International scientists, researchers and decision makers met at the ‘Space and the Arctic workshop’ to identify the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and to explore how space-based services can help to meet those needs.
The workshop, held from 20 to 21 October in Stockholm, Sweden, was organised by the Swedish National Space Board and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute together with ESA, EUMETSAT and the EC.
The warmer climate, advances in technology and demand for natural resources are leading to increased human activity in the Arctic. This increase in activity, especially related to oil and gas production, changing fishery patterns and new shipping routes, provides new opportunities but also creates new risks to those working and living in the area and to the pristine and unique natural environment.
One of the highlights of the workshop was the ‘Arctic Marine Transport and Space’ presentation given by Dr Lawson Brigham of the University of Alaska Fairbanks that outlined the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) report for 2009. (more…)
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Exploring the Final Frontier: Disease Proposed as Major Barrier to Mars and Beyond
The Hamilton-Sundstrand advanced space exploration concept suit equipped with a Xybernaut MA IV wearable computer and a wireless radio networking system developed Dr Steve Braham at Simon Fraser University. (NASA Haughton-Mars Project / Pascal Lee / Mars-like color enhancement)
A new report appearing in The Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) argues that human missions to Mars, as well as all other long-term space flights might be compromised by microbial hitchhikers, such as bacteria. That’s because long-term space travel packs a one-two punch to astronauts: first it appears to weaken their immune systems; and second, it increases the virulence and growth of microbes. This combination of factors makes it vital for scientists to find tools that can help people cope with these microscopic hitchhikers before they lead to disease, especially since astronauts will not have the ability to return home to a hospital.
“When people think of space travel, often the vast distances are what come to mind first,” said Jean-Pol Frippiat, one of the report’s co-authors from Nancy-University in France, “but even after we figure out a way to cover these distances in a reasonable amount of time, we still need to figure out how astronauts are going to overcome disease and sickness.” (more…)
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New Celestial Map Gives Directions for GPS
by Bill Steigerwald, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
An artist's concept of a quasar (bright area with rays) embedded in the center of a galaxy. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)
Many of us have been rescued from unfamiliar territory by directions from a Global Positioning System (GPS) navigator. GPS satellites send signals to a receiver in your GPS navigator, which calculates your position based on the location of the satellites and your distance from them. The distance is determined by how long it took the signals from various satellites to reach your receiver.
The system works well, and millions rely on it every day, but what tells the GPS satellites where they are in the first place?
“For GPS to work, the orbital position, or ephemeris, of the satellites has to be known very precisely,” said Dr. Chopo Ma of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “In order to know where the satellites are, you have to know the orientation of the Earth very precisely.” (more…)
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Better Electric Propulsion May Boost Satellite Lifetimes
Researchers Jud Ready and Mitchell Walker prepare a carbon nanotube field emitter sample for measurements in the High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory of Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering.(Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek)
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have won a $6.5 million grant to develop improved components that will boost the efficiency of electric propulsion systems that are used to control the positions of satellites and planetary probes.
Focusing on improved cathodes for devices known as Hall effect thrusters, the research would reduce propellant consumption in commercial, government and military satellites, allowing them to remain in orbit longer, be launched on smaller or cheaper rockets, or carry larger payloads. Sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Defense Sciences Office (DARPA-DSO), the 18-month project seeks to demonstrate the use of propellant-less cathodes with Hall effect thrusters.
“About 10 percent of the propellant carried into space on satellites that use an electric propulsion system is essentially wasted in the hollow cathode that is part of the system,” said Mitchell Walker, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering and the project’s principal investigator. (more…)
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Carrots in Space: Fresh Food for Astronauts on Its Way
Dinnertime on board the International Space Station. (NASA)
New research indicates that astronauts will soon have their own gardens aboard the International Space Station with the ability to grow vitamin A-rich carrots in space, according to a study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists.
Researchers from Tuskegee University in Alabama conducted a study targeted at finding a way to incorporate natural and fresh antioxidants into the diets of astronauts while traveling in space. They grew 18 different varieties of hydroponic carrots using two different methods of nutrient delivery. Growing carrots hydroponically cultivates the vegetables by placing the roots in liquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil.
Among all foods, carrots have the highest carotenoid content. They also contain a natural pigment known for provitamin A and have been associated with protection against cancer, cardiovascular diseases, cataracts and macular degeneration as well as enhancing the immune response. Astronauts can be exposed to elevated levels of radiation, which might put them at risk for some types of cancer. Researchers believe that the addition of unprocessed carrots to their diets may help reduce the negative effects of radiation and cancer development. (more…)
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The VASIMR Plasma Rocket
This video shows what it’s like to fire the VASIMR plasma rocket, the highest power steady-state electric propulsion device in the world, located in Houston TX. Video was taken with the POV.1.5 camera which sports a wide angle lens. Two scientists sit at the command and control computer, and one scientist observes the exhaust plume. The VASIMR VX-200 rocket is located within a vacuum chamber, which simulates the vacuum of space. The cryo-compressors for several vacuum cryo-pumps can be heard in the background. When the rocket fires, valves for liquid nitrogen can be heard opening, which is accompanied by a hiss of gaseous nitrogen. The blue flashing light indicates that the VX-200 superconducting magnet is energized, and the red flashing light indicates that the electrical power for the rocket is enabled. (more…)
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32 New Exoplanets Found
On Oct. 19, 2009, the team who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, better known as HARPS, the spectrograph for ESO's 3.6-meter telescope, reported on the incredible discovery of some 32 new exoplanets, cementing HARPS's position as the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter. One of these is surrounding the star Gliese 667 C, which belongs to a triple system. The six Earth-mass exoplanet circulates around its low-mass host star at a distance equal to only 1/20th of the Earth-Sun distance. The host star is a companion to two other low-mass stars, which are seen here in the distance. (ESO/L. Calçada)
“HARPS is a unique, extremely high precision instrument that is ideal for discovering alien worlds,” says Stéphane Udry, who made the announcement. “We have now completed our initial five-year programme, which has succeeded well beyond our expectations.”
The latest batch of exoplanets announced today comprises no less than 32 new discoveries. Including these new results, data from HARPS have led to the discovery of more than 75 exoplanets in 30 different planetary systems. In particular, thanks to its amazing precision, the search for small planets, those with a mass of a few times that of the Earth — known as super-Earths and Neptune-like planets — has been given a dramatic boost. HARPS has facilitated the discovery of 24 of the 28 planets known with masses below 20 Earth masses. As with the previously detected super-Earths, most of the new low-mass candidates reside in multi-planet systems, with up to five planets per system. (more…)
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Galactic Magnetic Fields May Control the Boundaries of Our Solar System
Dr. David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute
The first all-sky maps developed by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, the initial mission to examine the global interactions occurring at the edge of the solar system, suggest that the galactic magnetic fields had a far greater impact on Earth’s history than previously conceived, and the future of our planet and others may depend, in part, on how the galactic magnetic fields change with time.
“The IBEX results are truly remarkable, with emissions not resembling any of the current theories or models of this never-before-seen region,” says Dr. David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute. “We expected to see small, gradual spatial variations at the interstellar boundary, some 10 billion miles away. However, IBEX is showing us a very narrow ribbon that is two to three times brighter than anything else in the sky.”
A “solar wind” of charged particles continuously travels at supersonic speeds away from the Sun in all directions. This solar wind inflates a giant bubble in interstellar space called the heliosphere — the region of space dominated by the Sun’s influence in which the Earth and other planets reside. As the solar wind travels outward, it sweeps up newly formed “pickup ions,” which arise from the ionization of neutral particles drifting in from interstellar space. IBEX measures energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) traveling at speeds of roughly half a million to two and a half million miles per hour. These ENAs are produced from the solar wind and pick-up ions in the boundary region between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium. (more…)
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New Concept May Enhance Earth-Mars Communication
An artist's impression of Mars Express. The spacecraft left Earth for Mars on 2 June 2003. It reached its destination after a six-month journey, and has been investigating the planet since early 2004. (ESA - D. Ducros)
Direct communication between Earth and Mars can be strongly disturbed and even blocked by the Sun for weeks at a time, cutting off any future human mission to the Red Planet. An ESA engineer working with engineers in the UK may have found a solution using a new type of orbit combined with continuous-thrust ion propulsion.
The European researchers studied a possible solution to a crucial problem affecting future human missions to Mars: how to ensure reliable radio communication even when Mars and Earth line up at opposite sides of the Sun, which then blocks any signal between mission controllers on Earth and astronauts on the red surface. The natural alignment, known as a conjunction, happens approximately every 780 days, and would seriously degrade and even block transmission of voice, data and video signals.
The research findings were released this week at the 60th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the world’s biggest space event, being held in Daejeon, South Korea. This new solution is one result of a €100 000 study funded by ESA’s General Studies Programme to catalogue non-traditional orbital zones throughout the Solar System that could be exploited thanks to emerging propulsion technologies. (more…)
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NASA Spacecraft Provides First View of Our Place in the Galaxy
The IBEX spacecraft in space. (Credit: Walt Feimer/NASA GSFC)
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in the Milky Way galaxy. The new view will change the way researchers view and study the interaction between our galaxy and sun.
The sky map was produced with data that two detectors on the spacecraft collected during six months of observations. The detectors measured and counted particles scientists refer to as energetic neutral atoms.
The energetic neutral atoms are created in an area of our solar system known as the interstellar boundary region. This region is where charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, flow outward far beyond the orbits of the planets and collide with material between stars. The energetic neutral atoms travel inward toward the sun from interstellar space at velocities ranging from 100,000 mph to more than 2.4 million mph. This interstellar boundary emits no light that can be collected by conventional telescopes. (more…)
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NASA Crashes Two-Ton Rocket Into The Moon Friday
Key lunar landmarks used to locate Cabeus crater, the site of the LCROSS crash, are colored and labeled in this view. The yellow scale shows angular distances in the plane of the impact site; blue arcs show heights 50, 100 and 200 kilometers above it. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)
At 7:30 a.m. EDT on October 9, a two-ton rocket body will slam into a crater near the moon’s south pole. By studying the resulting plume of gas and dust, scientists hope this grand experiment will confirm the presence of ice in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles.
The event is the highlight of NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission. The LCROSS spacecraft flies behind its empty upper stage, which is targeted to strike the floor of Cabeus crater. LCROSS will image the impact and provide direct measurements of the plume before it also plunges into the lunar surface. With LCROSS gone, further measurements of the cloud depend on ground-based observatories around the world.
“This is a completely unique mission that will excavate two large holes dozens of meters across on the lunar surface. It will give us composition measurements we wouldn’t otherwise be able to get,” said Tim McClanahan, a scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (more…)
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New Aluminum-Water Rocket Propellant Promising for Future Space Missions
by Emil Venere
Purdue is working with NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Pennsylvania State University to develop a new type of rocket propellant made of a frozen mixture of water and "nanoscale aluminum" powder. Holding a rocket launched earlier this year using the propellant, from left, are: mechanical engineering undergraduate student Cody Dezelan, mechanical engineering graduate student Tyler Wood, mechanical engineering professor Steven Son, aeronautics and astronautics graduate student Mark Pfeil, mechanical engineering doctoral student Travis Sippel, aeronautics and astronautics research assistant professor Timothée Pourpoint, and postdoctoral researcher John Tsohas. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)
Researchers are developing a new type of rocket propellant made of a frozen mixture of water and “nanoscale aluminum” powder that is more environmentally friendly than conventional propellants and could be manufactured on the moon, Mars and other water-bearing bodies.
The aluminum-ice, or ALICE, propellant might be used to launch rockets into orbit and for long-distance space missions and also to generate hydrogen for fuel cells, said Steven Son, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.
Purdue is working with NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Pennsylvania State University to develop ALICE, which was used earlier this year to launch a 9-foot-tall rocket. The vehicle reached an altitude of 1,300 feet over Purdue’s Scholer farms, about 10 miles from campus. (more…)
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New Report Examines Space Security Issues
A new study provides a comprehensive source of data and analysis on space activities and their cumulative impact on the security of outer space. (Project Ploughshares/Space Security Index)
A newly issued study provides a comprehensive source of data and analysis on space activities and their cumulative impact on the security of outer space.
Space Security 2009 has been jointly released by Project Ploughshares and Secure World Foundation on behalf of the Space Security Index, an international research consortium. This is the sixth annual report on trends and developments in space, covering the period January to December 2008.
Among a roster of findings, Space Security 2009 finds that the number of actors with access to space, including dual-use applications — those with potential civilian and military uses — has continued to grow in the past year. By 2008, nine actors had demonstrated independent orbital launch capacity and 49 states had launched civil satellites, either independently or in collaboration with others.
The report notes that the deployment of military space systems, which continues to be led by the United States and Russia, has increased in other countries around the world as well. At the end of 2008 there were over 150 operational dedicated military satellites worldwide, with the U.S. operating approximately 76, and some 36 spacecraft operated by Russia. (more…)
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