Nov 2003
Nov 2003
The
eyes are still on the Chinese,
who are parading their taikonaut Yang Liwei as a national hero. But
the parades are a sideshow, and the real business is all about
occupying space. This needs the help of the unmanned section of the
Chinese space program, because the Chinese know relatively little
about the weather up where they want to orbit their manned space
station or stations. This is in the area their scientists call
"geospace"; the magnetosphere, ionosphere, and the middle
and upper parts of our atmosphere.
You
might be surprised to hear that there is weather up there, but
geospace is battered by fluctuations in the solar wind, and our
Earth's magnetic field as well as atmospheric warming and even
pollution. If the charged particles whizzing around up there get
over-enthusiastic and pass through an orbiting manned station, those
inside get a rather large dose of radiation. Predicting these things
and knowing how much shielding you'll need is a vitally important
piece of knowledge. So they're planning a raft of unmanned research
satellites, increasing their launch rate to eleven over the next
year. Two of these –
the "DSP Satellites" – are specifically assigned to
this monitoring task. One orbits the Earth over the poles, the other
over the equator, both using eccentric orbits to cover areas where
some data has previously been sketchy. The European Space Association
(ESA) is joining in with some of the research, and it is interesting
to note that ESA now has agreements in place to launch Soyuz
rockets (like the one on the left) from their launchpads in Kourou ,
French Guiana where they can lift heavier payloads due to their
proximity to the equator. This gives ESA a manned launch capability
for the first time. Russia has also secured an EU-Russian partnership
to improve the existing launchers and develop a reusable launcher in
2010.
The Chinese are using their Long March rocket for everything, so improvements developed during this increased launch activity will be applicable to their manned program, and economies of scale will apply to their rocket production lines. Interesting times indeed.
On
the 6th November TransOrbital,
my satellite launch company, managed to get a submission to the US
Senate Science, Technology and Space subcommittee
on the future of NASA. We hope to offer our services and some of the
facilities of our TrailBlazer satellite (on the left). Other notables
including Harrison Schmitt, the only scientist ever to walk on the
moon, testified to try to persuade the US Senate to back a return to
the moon. Reasons given include establishing a successor to the
elderly Hubble telescope, transmitting solar power to Earth, and
mining exotic materials not found down here like Helium3 which could
provide a less dangerous form of nuclear power. Hopefully NASA will
be spurred on, and TransOrbital hopes to be able to assist with the
collection of lunar data. It is possible that President Bush may
announce some formal plan to return to the moon on the 16th
December, which is the 100th anniversary of the Wright
Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk.
Also
eyeing that date are some of the X-Prize contenders, who obviously
think that it'd be a very auspicious date to put the first private
craft into space. Xcor has fought their way through the regulatory
federal hurdles designed to make sure American space entrepreneurs
don't "jeopardize U.S. national security or foreign policy
interests" and now has 180 days to launch in. Xcor have
developed their prototype EZ-Rocket craft, but that has a
maximum altitude of 3.2km; one of their proposals is this Xerus
concept (in their artist's impression right) though it is not certain
what they intend to launch.
Another entry has joined in the US$10m X-Prize, that of the High Altitude Research Corporation (HARC). Their entry is more along the lines of a conventional big-engined rocket, but both stages float back down on a parachute. It also looks relatively safe, launching over water and sporting an additional escape tower rocket. Now I know what I want for Christmas!
This
edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to
http://olliver.family.gen.nz. vik@olliver.family.gen.nz
"If
voting could really change things, it would be illegal."
- Revolution Books, New York, New York.
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