July 2004

The space race is pressing on now, with Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites team having done one hell of a burnout – the rocket is fuelled essentially by a big bit of rubber tube and a nitrous cylinder - put their SpaceShipOne just over 100km up in the air – technically in space. A large crowd watched the event, some bearing placards saying “SpaceShipOne GovernmentZero” and “We are going to space ... and the Government is Not invited.” The little craft doesn't stand a snowball's chance of going into orbit though, because it's not headed in a circle. It's all it can do to punch through the atmosphere through the most direct route possible – it's got no fuel left for fancy manoeuvres like orbital entry and only just manages the get-to-the-ground-safely part.

The flight wasn't without it's exciting moments. Pilot control at some points in the ascent was pretty marginal, to put it mildly. As the craft shoots on up, its control surfaces run out of air to grab onto. If it starts veering off to one side in empty space, you might as well wriggle your backside as twist the controls. There was a huge bang at one point too, as an expendable piece of panelling began to take on a similar expensive dented appearance to the rear wing on my Mazda SUV. [Image above by Giulio Marcocchi / Sipa Press]

Little things like that are bad news for any forthcoming X-Prize attempt. Their record-breaking attempt was not intended to qualify for the prize, as the prize's requirements are for 3 people, or one and some weights. Burt indicated that they'd have to spend a little more time on the drawing board before making another flight, and there is a high likelihood of another test flight before any attempts at the X-Prize.

So the USA is currently without a manned spaceflight capability again, which sucks for everyone really. The Shuttle is likely to remain grounded beyond next March and while SpaceShipOne might be able to loft a smaller rocket that could make orbit, it can't orbit people. The Shuttle's latest problems are two-fold: There is no device yet that can inspect the Shuttle's exterior in orbit and make repairs, and that bits of insulation still fall off the big, orange tank. The “search and repair” device is basically intended to double the size of the Shuttle's existing arm, but in practice tying all the hardware and software together is a nightmare. You see, the Shuttle's inspection is automated with sensors and scanners, which have to be placed in the right location while on the end of a multi-jointed arm. One built in two parts by different designers to total over 30 metres long that basically needs to be able to bend up its own trouser-leg.

There is also an existing known problem with flexible hoses on the Shuttle cracking up. There are over 200 of these hoses, and they'll all have to be replaced before the next launch. There is also the realisation dawning that the more safety work they do on the Shuttle, the more problems they seem to find. At this rate, the Shuttle's next trip will be to the museum; preferably before it soaks up all of the US manned spaceflight budget.

Out by Saturn, things are going very well and NASA mission control are doing high-fives around their consoles – with good reason. Cassini-Huygens conducted its main burn, passed through Saturn's rings, and entered orbit very neatly. On the way it took some very close up pictures of Saturn's moon Phoebe, which from its icy an cratered appearance looks very much like it might be a large captured comet.

As I write, way past The Roundabout's copy deadline, Cassini-Huygens has sped past the south pole of the moon Titan, and will shortly be beaming back pictures 17 times more detailed than anything we have had before. Now Titan is covered with a thick, brown smog so we can't see the surface clearly but a few cleaver optical filtering tricks will help get enough idea of the surface for NASA and ESA to decide where to put the Huygens probe down. We are on the verge of making some exciting new discoveries about worlds covered in methane, and if you're into this you might want to check the Cassini-Huygens homepage regularly: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

Of course, the star of the show is still Saturn – or “Lord of The Rings” as some people who do not fear copyright lawyers have been calling it. We know from the Voyager flyby images that the rings are very intricate, and some of the more recent Cassini-Huygens images like these from NASA's archives clearly show the “braiding” and ever increasing details. These images do not show all of the rings, just the edge of one of them.

Closer to home, Kistler Aerospace have fallen out with NASA over supplying private launch vehicles. These were the ones that were going to be launched from Australia, and more recently were scheduled to take over the American end of resupplying the International Space Station. Kistler's company is in receivership, but expects to emerge from it and build their K-1 reusable rocket. It is based on proven Russian engines burning kerosene and liquid oxygen and should be able to be reused 100 times – if they're given a chance to get it off the ground.
This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz.   vik@olliver.family.gen.nz
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