Masthead
June2000

STScI Image of mars taken 1995The big news this month is the possibility of liquid water on the surface of Mars. Experience on Earth has shown that where there is water, there is life. Be it on the top of the highest mountain, in the depths of the deepest ocean, or boiled in Rotorua something is wriggling in it. The theory goes that Mars was once a nicer, wetter place for lifeforms, and the good times just maybe lasted long enough to evolve into critters that could survive the Great Martian Water Shortage that we have on Mars today (as seen in the picture from the Hubble Space Telescope and STScI on the right). Maybe they're still alive today, maybe we'll find fossils, but once we know for sure that life happened on more than one planet we can be pretty sure that there's a whole universe of it out there.

NASA/JPL images of water-carved channelsOne of the debates is the age of these features we can see now; last year's floods? 1,000 Years old? A million? Mars can't have liquid water standing around on the surface today, but there are two possible ways in which liquid water can still exist: temporarily and/or below the surface. The weight of the martian dirt could compress water below the surface to the point where it melts, and that could squirt out from the base of a cliff to create small mudflows. Another place the water could exist is at the bottom of Mars' huge canyons. SSTL's SS18 launchThese go down several kilometers into the planet, and the air pressure at the bottom is much greater than at the surface. If the canyon is on the equator so that the sun can shine down into it's depths, it might be able to hold liquid water often enough to support life. One thing is for sure: NASA will be asking for a budget to go and have a look (image of water channels courtesy NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems).
 

Here's My Card

Here's a picture that I could be seeing sometime in the middle of next year. It's actually Surrey Satellite Technology Limited's UoSAT12 satellite launch, which was taken aloft on a converted Russian SS18. This is very similar to the rocket that the company I work for, TransOrbital Inc., is going to use to launch the TrailBlazer 2001 to the moon in July next year. TransOrbital now has a private individual who has bought our "Business Card Delivery Service", and his business card will be hard-landed on the moon by the TrailBlazer. We're going to take a number of business cards and other small items of cargo, embed them in epoxy and integrate them with the structure of the TransOrbital satellite. This supplements the income from the more serious image-gathering side of the project.

Pommie Rocket Bikers In Space

Now this sounds like something you'd see in "The Truth", but it's actually for real. There's a bloke in the UK called Richard Brown who is the fastest man on two wheels, courtesy of a rocket-powered bike that notched up 578Km/h on Bonneville Flats last year. Unfortunately he didn't make the return run, so the record is unofficial. But his next trip should have no problems making the return flight - 200Km straight down. He won't actually be on it though, as the Cheap Access To Space prize that he's aiming for only requires a 2Kg weight to go up that far; no passengers required. Mr. Brown is confident that he'll be able to beat the American rocket amateurs at their own game and grab the prize. It's "only" US$250,000 but he says he's not in it for the money. Gentlemen, start your engines...

Zarya/ISS courtesy NASARed Star In Orbit

The International Space Station (ISS) is to get extended soon. Sometime on the the 12th July, the Russian module Zvezda (Russian for "Star") will be hoisted aloft on a new, improved Proton rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The previous two new, improved Protons blew up, probably because someone forgot to clean the swarf and metal filings out of a critical pump component - a severely career-limiting move on the part of that worker. However, there will be a trial launch of another new, improved Proton before Zvezda, just to make sure everything is moving according to plan.

It's quite a major piece of kit, and will be the core of the Russian section of the ISS when the station is complete. It is also the first section to contain complete life support, and as soon as it has deployed the 30 metre long solar panels it will be able to support a crew. Zvezda has 3 pressurised sections, four new docking ports and is 13 metres long, so combined with the existing sections (Zarya and Unity, seen here in the NASA image on the left), it will provide the same living space as a large house. Zvezda also has power systems and propulsion to power and control the other modules. Hopefully this should put an end to the problems seen last month where the ISS was dropping rather too close to the atmosphere for comfort.

Zvezda on the groundOver 14 days of orbiting the Earth, the orbit of Zvezda (shown on the right, still under construction) will be brought into line with that of the ISS and the two will be docked using the automatic systems on the existing Zarya module. The timing of everything is being arranged so that the docking will happen in daylight over Russian flight control, so there will be no problems with visibility or communications. The docking has to be automated as there is nobody currently onboard the ISS, and we hope it all goes well. If it does, the ISS will start to grow quite rapidly after Zvezda, acquiring some scaffolding, large solar arrays, the US Destiny laboratory, a Canadian robot arm, and hopefully - the bit I've been waiting for - a crew on the 30th October.

This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://family.gen.nz/launchpad .   vik@family.gen.nz
"The man with a new idea is a crank, until the idea succeeds."
- Mark Twain
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