September 2004

We've had another significant space first pass us by, and few news services even bothered mentioning it. A solar sail was successfully deployed for the first time ever by the Japanese ISAS who were kind enough to provide the photograph of the experiment on the right. Space enthusiasts have been talking about solar sails for decades, but up until now nobody has managed to put one up. The Planetary Society tried to put one up on a Russian submarine-launched Volna rocket, but the launch kinda mucked up and the sail got a wee bit wet. The ISAS one came back down again soon after launch because they only used a small rocket and orbit was not intended to be achieved.

So, uh, obviously this is some kind of shiny sail-like thing, right? Yes, that's the idea. The ISAS actually launched a couple of different designs on the same flight – the clover leaf shown here, and a fan-shaped one. But the gist of it is to put up something very thin and light that can bounce back photons (light waves, if you will) without folding up into a crumpled heap in the process. It's not using the “solar wind”, which is a stream of gas that comes off the Sun and a different thing altogether. Photons are smaller and will produce useful thrust out to about Jupiter. Further than that, it gets a bit dark due to the long distance from the Sun, and if you want to use solar sails any further out you need to point pokey lasers at them to get them to move anywhere.

Meanwhiles, back on Earth, the Planetary Society are fortunate enough to have a backup sail., and this is being readied. Now that the Volna launcher checks out, they'll have another go at launching Cosmos 1 later this year. All being well, and it wasn't last time, the sail will raise its own orbit to 800km or so using nothing but sunlight and hang around for months. For all you big kids, here's a model on the Internet that you can print out, cut up and assemble on a rainy day: http://spacecraftkits.com/cosmos1/index.html

On then to the Ansari X-Prize, where the Da Vinci Project unveiled their entry and formally announced their intention to launch. I feel cheated. Their rocket was not the slick multicoloured masterpiece used in their promotional material, but an ugly, black lump that looks like it got whacked off the Mothership along with the indicator lights and part of the bumper during a particularly bad parallel parking manoeuvre. But hey, if it flies and lands without munting the payload, I'll forgive them.

Luck was not with the Armadillo Aerospace crew who suffered a “complete loss of vehicle event.” It flew up 200 metres, ran out of fuel, and landed sideways. The owner, John Carmack, is better known to many for his famous computer game Doom. After surveying the wreckage, he said "$35,000 of rocket is now a whole lot of primo Armadillo Droppings," before pointing out “It's a good thing Doom 3 is selling very well.” He's down, but not out, for at least 5 weeks due to the lead times on some components. Sadly, he's blown any chance of showing a functional spacecraft this year.

The Rubicon 1 by Space Transport Corp. (shown here on the right from the Encycolpedia Astronautica and the left from AP) got a little higher at around 300 metres, but then disintegrated into a fiery mass rather than reaching the anticipated height of 6,000 metres. From looking at the photos, it appears that the seven reusable solid rocket motors clustered underneath the nosecone seem to have been distributed by some kind of explosion. As I can count only 6 intact motors, I have a hunch as to what that explosion might consist of. Fortunately it was unmanned.

When intact, the rocket is 6 metres high and weighs just under 2 tonnes including a crew of 3. It may seem like a very expensive experiment, but the cost of building the rocket is only a small part of the necessary infrastructure, and so rebuilding is not as expensive as it might seem – not to mention the potential investors that may be acquired through the old adage of “any publicity is good publicity.”

The X-Prize runs out on the 1^st January 2005, so the remaining competitors (Scaled Composites, Da Vinci Project and perhaps Canadian Arrow) had better get their act together and make each flight count. There is not going to be much time left for a re-run if one of their flights fails.

The old International Space Station is going well. The two astronauts onboard got their latest delivery of goodies from the Russian Progress cargo ship, and set about unpacking it. Oh, and scanning all the barcodes so that their fancy new Inventory Management System knows where all the toilet rolls and spare socks are etc. I could do with one of those.

They've put the station's robotic arm in a good position for their upcoming spacewalk on the 3^rd September, which will be done using Russian Orlon spacesuits. The new cooling pumps for the troubled US spacesuits came up in the Progress and the crew will be having a go at fitting them soon once they've finished playing with their chicken shakes. No, not some new kind of space food, but a South American musical instrument rather like maracas with the handles snapped off. These instruments were shaken all about in a videotaped demonstration on how microgravity affects rattles and other sounds.

They also tested the thruster system, which adjusts the angle of the spacecraft, and raised it's altitude slightly. What you might call a shake, rattle and roll. OK, maybe not.

This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz.   vik@olliver.family.gen.nz
"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom
consists of not exceeding the limit."
- Elbert Hubbard

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