Masthead
Feb 2002

Welcome back to Launchpad, and have we got some catching up to do. Three month's worth of space news in two pages, so excuse the brevity and make yourself comfortable.

Iridium SatelliteIridium has reared it's head once more. This was meant to be a constellation of 66 satellites (one shown here on the right) that would give anyone, anywhere a cellphone. But the charges were too steep, the market too small, they wouldn't work inside, and it fizzled out. Back at the tail end of 2000, there was much talk of bringing the entire constellation of satellites flaming back down to Earth to keep space tidy, and a couple of commercial rescue attempts. Well, one worked. The US Government has rented it up to keep all its diplomats and embassies in contact, and early this February completed the constellation by launching the last 5 satellites. But rumour has it that this is not exclusively for diplomats, and may become the "Spook's Network". Various interested parties in places such as Afghanistan have been given Iridium phones; presumably so they can call up and complain when the US bomb their positions.

IoGalileo's Last Gasp

The orbiting probe Gallileo, the one that has been taking pictures of Jupiter and its satellites, took its swan dive on the 17th January 2002. It skimmed past Io (seen here on the left courtesy of NASA) at a height of about 100km, but seemed to suffer some malfunction that prevents many of its pictures being returned. Still, there is other science data and no doubt some interesting things to be learned as it smacks into Jupiter next year. This drastic manoeuvre is to prevent it accidentally contaminating Io with Earth life, which could otherwise spoil another life-form's party.

What Goes up ...

As well as the 'usual' gamut of launches from the US and Russia, there have also been some from India and Japan. Neither was a complete success, with both suffering problems with the payloads. But the rockets themselves worked fine. Japan's H2-A launch was particularly embarrassing as it carried their DASH experiment. This was supposed to re-enter the atmosphere in a controlled way, but a wiring fault in the separation control designs stopped it casting off.
Now the International Space Station's Multilateral Co-ordination Board, which covers all the nations involved in the station, have produced guidelines for sending paying passengers up, we'll be seeing more of your actual humans going up there. NASA Caused a little bit of fuss by announcing spending cuts on the station, and had to be reminded that it was in fact an international project . Unilaterally cutting finance from an international agreement that forms a contract is not on, and countries such as Canada have also invested large sums in the station.

...Must Come Down

NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite did a pot-luck descent on the 31st January. With a total mass of 3.5 tonnes and its steering gear out of action, it was a little more nerve-wracking than Mir's controlled burn-up though. This was due to some very solid lumps of steel called "grazing incidence mirrors" weighing 45kg in it. But it all ended well, unless you look at it from the satellite's perspective, in a lot of bits somewhere over Egypt.

Weird Stuff

Winged craft on magnetic launch railThe last 3 months have been characterised by a lot of what was science fiction being examined as practical solutions. NASA are investigating the use of a type of magnetic railway track to give spacecraft the initial thrust that booster rockets currently do. Once built though, they would be reusable; the problem is that NASA is not investing serious money in it. Russian developers are taking a slightly different track, and are very close to testing rocket boosters that have a jet engine and autopilot. These will be able to fly back and land after launch - it's already built, with funding in place.

Another idea is a long cable dropped from an orbiting satellite, but the cable needs to be made of either a new super-strong material called nanotubes or something else almost as strong as diamond. The idea was first conceived by Arthur C. Clarke in his book "Fountains of Paradise".

Looking farther afield John Moore, and anthropologist from Florida University, has been investigating the best size for a spacecraft crew that would go to other stars. Using the approach adopted by the Polynesians of sending young, childless couples he arrives at a figure of 160 people for a stable population. By delaying childbearing until later years, a population of 80 would do. But by the time we're up to doing the job, medical science will be a different animal altogether.

How they get out there is another problem. Today's chemical rockets just don't cut it. Even the nuclear-powered rockets (which US President Bush is attempting to revive) would not provide enough energy. A light-sail pushed by enormous lasers may do the job, but NASA is now looking into another fantastic solution: antimatter. One gram of it would launch the space shuttle, but there are problems: Making it, keeping it away from matter, and extracting the energy from it without vanishing in a puff of hot vapour. A trap for antimatter has been built, but it holds less energy than a AAA battery. But it does have a use, as such small amounts can be used in a similar way to radiation sources in medicine.

But one thing we did get last year was a lot of pictures. To some they are scientific information, to some they are an art form, and some just look and stare as their imagination transports them across the lightyears. Now if I published them here, Vic and Audrey would have a fit, so find yourself a web browser and visit this site: http://space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/coolest_2001_011221.html

And speaking of pictures, the Mars Odyssey craft has now finished using Mars' atmosphere to slow itself down into the right orbit, and is ready to start returning images which we hope will tell us if there is water on the surface of Mars or not, or at least where to look for it. With water comes life, and with that, hope.

This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz.   vik@olliver.family.gen.nz

"There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for." - Fred Hoyle.
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