Tag: space

SPACE TREBUCHETS*!

Kind of:

On Thursday, a Silicon Valley startup called SpinLaunch Inc. will reveal the first details of its plans to build a machine meant to hurl rockets into space. To achieve that goal, SpinLaunch has secured $40 million from some top technology investors, said Jonathan Yaney, the founder.  The company remains tight-lipped about exactly how this contraption will work, although its name gives away the basic idea. Rather than using propellants like kerosene and liquid oxygen to ignite a fire under a rocket, SpinLaunch plans to get a rocket spinning in a circle at up to 5,000 miles per hour and then let it go—more or less throwing the rocket to the edge of space, at which point it can light up and deliver objects like satellites into orbit.

Continue reading SPACE TREBUCHETS*!

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s 7% mutation in space.

This sounds… odd.

A new study from NASA has found that astronaut Scott Kelly’s genes are no longer identical to those of his identical twin after spending a year in space.

Preliminary results from NASA’s Twins Study found that seven percent of Kelly’s genes no longer match those of his twin, Mark. Scott Kelly spent one year aboard the International Space Station during the study, while his brother remained on Earth.

Continue reading NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s 7% mutation in space.

Coming soon-ish: a US military ‘Space Force.’

My wife feels that this should be called the ‘Space Patrol:’ I do not so much agree as I concede that calling it the ‘Solar Patrol’ would be at best premature. But this is gonna happen. Maybe in this Presidential administration, maybe not: if it doesn’t happen by the end of the next one I’m going to be shocked. There’s just a trend-line there:

Rep. Mike Rogers said the U.S. Air Force needs a separate “Space Corps” to handle military operations in orbit, as a first step in creating a completely separate military branch.

“We have to acknowledge that the national security space structure is broken,” the Alabama Republican said in a Tuesday morning speech at the 33rd Space Symposium. “It’s very hard for a government bureaucracy to fix itself, and that’s exactly why congressional oversight exists. It’s the job of the Armed Services Committee to recognize when the bureaucracy is broken and to see that it’s fixed.”

Continue reading Coming soon-ish: a US military ‘Space Force.’

Interesting: India’s done a successful reusable spaceship test.

Always nice to see a country actually have an actual space program*.

In the early hours of Monday morning, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched its first “Re-usable Launch Vehicle,” which at full-size will be able to lift satellites into orbit.

Scientists launched the unmanned model to a peak altitude of 65 km (40 miles) before turning it around for a controlled descent into the Bay of Bengal. The total flight lasted about 13 minutes.

Continue reading Interesting: India’s done a successful reusable spaceship test.

Ted Cruz and the space progra… Geez, people, he’s a Senator from TEXAS.

OF COURSE HE’S GOING TO BE FOR THE GORAM SPACE PROGRAM.  JUST LIKE THE SENATORS FROM ALABAMA, CALIFORNIA, AND FLORIDA ARE*.

Sorry.  It amazes me that some people can’t seem to get an elementary fact like that through their heads. Although I suppose it’d be more accurate to say that they won’t let an elementary fact like that get through their heads.  Anyway, here’s Sen. Cruz on NASA:

Q. For the last three years NASA has been building the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. Do you support the continuation of these programs?

A. SLS and Orion are critical to our medium- and long-term ability to explore space, whether it is the moon, Mars or beyond. Absolutely I support them. At the same time, I am deeply concerned about our inability to reach low Earth orbit right now. We are entirely dependent upon the Russian Soyuz system. It is unacceptable from the perspective of space interest and also from national security interests. I have repeatedly inquired of this administration about its contingency plans if the Russians shut off the Soyuz. The answers have been altogether insufficient. America should have the capacity to get to the International Space Station without the assistance of the Russians. Americans should have the capacity to launch a rescue mission to the station – should that prove necessary – without being dependent. America should have the capacity to launch our critical satellites without needing to acquire Russian RD-180s (rocket engines).

Continue reading Ted Cruz and the space progra… Geez, people, he’s a Senator from TEXAS.

Hey, just had a future shock moment!

Right out of nowhere.

Scientists are expanding the range of worlds that could orbit in habitable regions of their stars—worlds that are rocky, such as the Earth, and could have just the right temperature to host life.

Of the eight planets discovered in the latest finding discussed today, 6 January, the scientists consider two to be pretty close in range to Earth. They are called Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, after the space observatory that discovered them.

…Oh. Right. We can see extrasolar planets with our telescopes, now.  We’re no longer wondering if other star systems have them: we’ve known that they could, for decades. And we’re routinely finding non gas giant planets all the time now. Yup.

The future creeps up on you, you know?

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

CPAC 2010: Rep Rob Bishop (R, UT-01).

This CPAC interview with Rep. Rob Bishop (R, UT-01) seemed relevant, given the post that I did earlier on the White House gutting 23K space-reliant jobs in a politically-unreliable Democrat’s Congressional District:

Rep. Bishop is active in space issues, and in fact went into greater detail recently about why said gutting is ill-advised. The op-ed is well worth reading, if probably not making an argument that’s unfamiliar to my likely readers…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.