Happy 40th Apollo 11
40 years ago today the last and greatest frontier opened up as men landed for the first time on the surface of the moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins became household names on July 20, 1969.
While today is an amazing anniversary it also highlights the fact that we have not returned to the lunar surface any time recently. The plan is to return man to the moon by 2020 and to set up a permanent base on the ground by 2025. This would give astronauts a place to study, not only the surface, but also the troubles involved with extended stay on new harsh environments to prepare them for trips to other alien worlds (aka: Mars).
The new Constellation program promises to be exciting and unique (if it gets off the ground) but today it’s about our past even more than our future. Look what we did 40 years ago, it’ll be crazy to see what we can do now. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The Technological Frontier
Lets talk Disruption Tolerant Networking. I know, it sounds like any network, any plagued internet connections, but this is still something new.
DTN is basically space style internet. That’s space as in the cosmos. Information can now be transmitted from NASA to ships about 20 million miles away. The hitch is the delay. The connection is not continuous and data is often stalled and late, but hey, it’s still internet in deep space. And it does put any sluggish earth bound computers in perspective doesn’t it?
Goodnight Mars
After far more than the planned 90 days the Mars Phoenix Lander has seen it’s last martian sunrise.
After seeing everything from red dust to ice and snow . The lander has at last run out of its last drop of power and is now frozen on the red planet, just like the ice it dug up so many weeks ago. The Landers mission was successful for the most part, detecting water, observing weather, and doing a whole number of other experiments. A mission set to last only 90 days lasted nearly 60 more, and that’s a pretty big success as NASA missions go.
We’ve reached Mars by Phoenix, so when will we reach it with men?
Because 1 Ship isn’t Enough
I’ve written about space tourism before but this new concept suborbital vehicle is a little different than designs we’ve seen previously.
It looks like a fish bowl. It’s just a concept ship right now but it’ll provide one hell of a view. Quite a leap from those singular port hole windows of yesteryear. Armadillo Aerospace plans to build a prototype in 2009 for a launch in 2010. It sure looks funny but I hope it all works out. Although, for an $100,000 trip price tag, the trip better be pretty incredible.
Driving Along in an Automobile
So in 2020 we’re supposed to go back to the moon. I’m excited. Recently NASA unveiled an updated version of the lunar rover supposedly getting tested for just such a trip.
The Small Pressurized Rover Concept can travel at 6 mile per hour and can hold a charge for up to two weeks of travel. That means that with a pressurized cabin two astronauts can wander from their bulkier space ship to the further reaches of the lunar surface. That’s pretty cool, though I don’t know how comfortable I’d be in that nothing but that tiny compartment for protection for two whole weeks.
A New Space Nation
South Korea has now joined the worldwide race for space. It’s not as much of a race today, but that fact is they are now ready to take their first step to joining the ranks of orbit bound countries around the rest of the planet. Perhaps it’s not privately funded like The Google X prize here in the US, but it’s still a step forward for the world as a whole.
The KSLV-1 (unveiled at the Naro Space Center in Goheung) will be capable of putting Korea’s first satellite into orbit sometime between April and June of 2009. It’s a big deal. Our new frontier is in the news again and things look to be moving forward as we continue exploration up and out.
Alien Weather
It’s only October here on the planet earth but it seems it’s an early holiday season … on Mars. The Phoenix Mars Rover detected snow this Monday on the red planet.
NASA has said that an instrument on the Rover set to examine the atmosphere detected snow about 2.5 miles from the martian surface. The flakes evaporated before reaching the ground however, but it does give us some important information about the cycle of water out there on our neighboring sphere. It seems there’s an early holiday season somewhere out there in the universe (even when we on earth haven’t reached Thanksgiving yet).
Up Up and Away
The first privately funded rocket has reached orbit (as of September 28th). Perhaps it didn’t have as much coverage or fan fair as Sputnik or Alan Shepard, but it’s still pretty monumental. A new and very real stage in space exploration has begun.
The launch of the Falcon 1 was streamed live on the internet over at the Space X web site. The live broadcast of this particular event over the internet feels pretty poetic to me. The internet is to this generation of space exploration what TV was to the last. May the success and evolution of our technology continue as we head further out into the final frontier.
New News from NASA
It’s that time again, with NASA’s plans to retire the space shuttle program in 2010 any new equipment or innovation takes on new and more pressing meaning.
The Ares I rocket (part of NASA’s new Constellation Program, which plans to bring Astronauts back to the moon) was successfully reviewed in Alabama last week. The Constellation program is scheduled to begin missions in 2015, a set back from the original launch date of 2013. Yet, the space shuttle hasn’t been redesigned in such a measured way in more than 30 years, which keeps everything surrounding the Constellation Program very exciting. It’s not just privatized space flight that’s changing the shape of our “new frontier”.
Galactic Roundup
It has been another big week for our universe. From the unveiling of one space touring ship to a total solar eclipse things have been crazy.
Lets work our way up shall we? This week Virgin Galactic unveiled its White Knight Two, the aircraft that will carry Space Ship Two in the first stage of Virgin Galactic’s sub orbital touring experience. It’s a big step in the ever evolving field of space tourism.
Second, a complete solar eclipse is making its rounds about the earth today. Unfortunately it won’t be visible in the United States, but Canada, China, and Russia are a few countries that will get to see the eclipse play out.
And finally, this weeks greatest space inspired news, water has been found on Mars. Ice has been rumored on the planet, we’ve even seen photos, info has been trickling in since May, but NASA officially announced that the Phoenix lander had grabbed and sampled honest to God H2O yesterday. Now how cool is that?
