Mar 2007
Mar 2007
An
interesting start
to SpaceX's entry into commercial launches saw their Falcon 1
experience what the rocket scientists call a "loss of spacecraft
event", which needs little translation. What does need
translation is the difference between it being a total loss and a
valuable first flight. The 21 metre long rocket went approximately
320km up – 80km shy of the International Space Station - and the
second stage separated. This means one heck of a lot actually worked
– second stage ignition, electronics operating in a vacuum, that
kind of thing. Congratulations rather than commiserations are in
order (and thanks to SpaceX for the image on the right).
But we all love disasters, so I'll harp on about those for a bit. First off, not a good result for the US Air Force Academy cadets whose FalconSat 2 sat on top of the thing. Sorry guys, better luck next time. Second, not so good for the demonstration of reusable first stage either. It was meant to come down dangling on parachutes, but rocked around somewhat and did a colossal belly-flop in the ocean. Glug, glug. At least they know what went wrong: Fuel slopped around inside the tanks, intermittently starving the engine, and an unexpectedly high kick from the first stage shutdown didn't help.
And for those Star Wars fans out there, yes the rocket is named after Han Solo's Millennium Falcon.
All
Hail The Space Shuttle
The space shuttle external tank (ET to the acronym-lovers, shown on the left in a NASA/.KSC photo) has had its moments. It has been invaded by woodpeckers, had a rather nasty incident involving bits falling off it, and it sheds chunks of ice as water condenses on the outside due to the super-cool liquids inside it. Now it has been perforated by unusually large hailstones, and NASA safety folks are considering exchanging it for a new one. This might mean a shuttle launch delay until mid-June.
Holy
Hexagons!
Every so often something comes up that's so goshdarned structured out of total chaos it looks weird. The unique shapes of snowflakes, the shape of a bee's honeycomb. Well, now the clouds of Saturn make their contribution. The planet has an incredible weather system, and no land. It's clouds would go round and round in bands, right? And all the cloud streams would be circular, eh? Well, under some circumstances, streams will interact to give a hexagon (this trick can be used to lathe bolt heads, but that's another story). The hexagon shape is about 25,000km across. You could fit 4 Earths in it, and it was first spotted 26 years ago by Voyager. They don't yet know how fast it rotates, because nobody is quite sure of Saturn's actual rotation rate.
In other news, the Russian government is close to closing a deal with the South Korean government to create a rocket capable of putting a 100kg satellite in orbit. This is apparently a peaceful, scientific thing rather than a bomb-throwing thing. I hope.
Alliance
of Alliances
Speaking of international collaboration, Russia is also sharing a joint ESA (providers of picture, left) mission to Mars with China. It's called Phobos-Grunt, yes, Grunt, which is Russian and in this instance means soil. That's 'cos it plans to land on the Martin moon Phobos and return to Earth with a sample. Pictures of Mars, Phobos and all will be sent back, of course, and the Chinese will contribute a small satellite that will orbit separately. No news as to what it actually does yet, but the whole lot is supposed to go up on a Soyuz rocket around October 2009. It is built around a powerful electric propulsion system that accelerates a tiny stream of extremely ionised (electrically charged) gas to high speed giving incredibly efficient and long-lasting - but feeble - thrust. It runs on solar power 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year, and in the frictionless vacuum of space you just start to move faster and faster. Until you run out of gas.
This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz. vik@olliver.family.gen.nz