My Turn

After these past few months of research and I am ready to present my first rough sketch of my rocket for the future.  Here it is...

 

First let's start with the basic idea of this mission.  The rocket will be constructed in space in order to allow the boosters of the rocket to produce much more trust than they would on Earth because they are not fighting gravity.  This will allow the rocket to travel at a higher velocity.  The boosters of the rocket will not all be fired at the same time though.  One booster will be fired at a time.  Two of the boosters and the fuel that will sit inside will be used for trust in space.  The other third booster will be used for traveling back and forth from the rocket and any planet that the ship would orbit.  Now let's get into the different stages of the rocket. The first stage will be the control and storage area. This area will control the use of the rockets and functions of stage two.  There will also be solar panels located on the outside of this stage as a power source.  Stage two will be the living quarters and the area where the ion thrusters are located.  Living on this ship will consist of a lot of sleeping.  The crew will stay in an induced hibernation capsule that will also rotate in order to create the effects of gravity.  This will decrease the amount of food and other supplies that the crew will need for long missions.  The ion engines also located in this stage will be used for maneuvering and as slight accelerators and decelerators for the rocket as a whole.  The third stage is home to the rocket boosters, which will be the main source of thrust and power for the rocket.  More detailed explanations for each stage will be coming in the following week.  If you have any questions about this space-craft or have any suggestions to better the craft please leave them in the comment box below.            

The Emptyness of Space is Bustling with Activity

This past week was eventful to say the least for space.  After my last post the Dawn spacecraft began its orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and has also began to gather more information on the small planet.  On Wednesday the rocket booster for NASA's Space Launch System, which will be carrying Orion into space, went for a test blast.  The booster was turned on its side for the test and produced around 3.6 million pounds of trust.  Once all the information about the test is confirmed the booster will be sent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida where it will prepped to launch Orion for another test flight.  Today, March 12, NASA will launch their Magnetospheric Multi-Scale mission.  This mission will launch four satellites into space with the mission to measure the sun's magnetic field and how it effects Earth's, specifically the effect of solar flares.  The satellites will be carried by an Atlas V rocket and the launch can be seen on NASA TV starting at 8 p.m. with the launch around 10:44 p.m., weather permitting.  Finally the website SPACE.com has been publishing what it would be like to live on another planet in our solar system.  Each week they write about another planet and it is a very interesting article.  It can be found at  http://www.space.com/28355-living-on-other-planets.html.

NASA's Magnetospheric Multi-Scale mission satellites and their Atlas V rocket are rolled out to the launch pad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ahead of a planned March 12, 2015 launch.                                                                               Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

At the Orbital ATK test facility, the booster for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was fired for a two minute test on March 11. The test is one of two that will qualify the booster for flight before SLS begins carrying NASA’s Orion spacecraft and other potential payloads to deep space destinations.

Image Credit: 

NASA

Shooting Ions to get to Ceres

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will make history Friday March 6, 2015 when it gets pulled into the orbit of the dwarf planet Ceres.  This craft will be the first to orbit two different extraterrestrial bodies and the first to orbit a dwarf planet.  The best part about this is what is powering Dawn on this journey.  Dawn is being powered by 3 Ion engines.  These engines do not expel gas like most engines but shoot out ions.  The engines work by ionizing xenon atoms and then accelerating the ions out the back of the spacecraft using a large voltage.  To get a more in-depth explanation of this process visit http://www.space.com/28732-nasa-dawn-spacecraft-ion-propulsion.html and watch both the videos on the page.  As explained in the videos these engines do not provide must trust but over time their push just keeps adding up and it allows the craft to reach very high velocities. The engines also allow the craft to more easily get into the orbit of other celestial bodies.  A final advantage of the ion engine allows Dawn to be able to orbit Ceres for a while and then fire up its engines and take off toward another planet.  The only downfall to these engines is that in the beginning of a trip they cause the craft to travel quite slowly.  Hopefully, however with more use and more research into these cheap and safe engines they will be powering the rockets of tomorrow.

This illustration depicts NASA's Dawn spacecraft arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres (lower right). Image released March 2, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Light and the Universe

Can we travel at the speed of light and if so how far in the universe can we go or can we go to other universes or is there only are universe or are we an advanced program created by another civilization?  The video below talks about traveling the speed of light and they reality of it.  We can never travel that fast, unlike most sci-fi movies, because we have mass and mass can never travel at that high of a speed.  The other question posed in this video is what is the universe and can there be many different universes.  Both of these questions go back to the original question for this blog,  What lies beyond where man has not gone?

See You Next Year

Every person knows about the International Space Station and the many men and women that are sent up to it each year.  However many people probably do not know that they are only up in space for a couple months and then are brought back home.  This March will be the first time in history that two astronauts will be sent up to the ISS for a full year.  Their mission is to conduct experiments in space but they are also part of an experiment.  NASA will be closely observing the ways in which NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko bodies will change during their year in space.  This test will give NASA information on how an astronaut's body will change during a deep space mission such as traveling to Mars.  With this information NASA will be able to better plan and come up with solutions on how to keep the human body healthy in the vacuum of space.  The two men will start their journey March 2015 and will be under strict watch until after their return March 2016.   

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (left), the Expedition 43/44 flight engineer and Expedition 45/46 commander; and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, the Expedition 43-46 flight engineer, will serve one full year on the International Space Station starting in March 2015. Credit: NASA/Bill Stafford

Boeing Entering the Great Race

The great passenger jet company Boeing is now making news in space.  The company is working on their CST-100 Spaceship and plans to be sending a crew within it into space by 2017.  The craft resembles many of the other deep space ships being produced lately.  They all seem to be applying a gum drop shape to their return modules.  This push foreword by Boeing has been heavily financed by NASA, hoping to rely less on the Russian space program.  The CST-100 will be able to hold seven crew members, be reused 10 times, and be able to land on land.  This means that this ship will be the first to land on land since the space shuttle program, everything else lands in the ocean.  The ship will mostly be used to send crew members back and fourth form the International Space Station (ISS) but Boeing says it may take normal people into space on joy rides, hoping to make some money off the ship.   

This artist's illustration depicts a Boeing CST-100 spacecraft approaching a private inflatable space station complex designed by Bigelow Aerospace.Credit: Boeing

The Reusable Rocket Take Two

The company SPACEX is at the forefront of space travel and innovation.  This Sunday, February 8, at approximately 6:30 a.m. the company will be trying to push even further.  SPACEX will be for the second time trying to launch and land its Falcon 9 rocket.  This attempt was made earlier and can be seen failing here: https://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK .  The attempt failed but just barely.  The rocket landed on a 300 ft. by 100 ft. barge in the Atlantic Ocean which is an enormous achievement for human space travel.  The company is obviously hoping to do much better this attempt but if they fail, SPACEX has another 15 launches already planned for this year alone, including its Falcon Heavy the world's most powerful rocket by a factor of 2.  What is the big deal about landing a rocket and taking off with it again though?  The answer is that this process would significantly decrease the cost of going up into space.  We would be able to send many more missions into space and learn a lot more about a vast area we still know very little.

 SPACEX Home

Jon Ross at @zlsadesign and zlsa.github.io
         Artist's impression of SpaceX rocket landing.