I have blogged before about all the debris orbiting the Earth left over from space launches. It is estimated that there are more than one hundred million pieces of debris that are less than 1 centimeter in size. They are too small to track with radar but are big enough to cause serious damage to a space craft because they are traveling so fast.
One of the more fantastic ideas for getting into space is the space elevator. The basic idea is that a super strong cable reaches from the Earth’s surface to a huge counterweight that is beyond the twenty-three thousand miles geosynchronous orbit. Vehicles like elevator cars would climb up and down the cable lowering the cost of sending things to and from orbit by several orders of magnitude.
Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 and Part 2 first)
One big stumbling block for the Interstellar Probe project is the fact that best heat shield ever used by a NASA probe is only able to protect a probe that comes within four million miles of the Sun. The Interstellar Probe would have to come within two million miles of the Sun in order to make best use of the gravity boost.
Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 2)
Part 1 of 3 Parts
For the most part, I have blogged about space around the Earth. Occasionally I have ventured out into the Solar System. Very rarely, I have written about missions beyond our Solar System. Today I am going to blog about a such a mission.
NASA has just announced that it is sending a lander to Titan, a moon of Saturn. The lander will carry a robot helicopter to explore Titan. The mission is called Dragonfly. It is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program which is dedicated to high-priority solar system science projects.
I have written about Tethers Unlimited (TU) before. They are a private space company located in Bothell, WA. Years ago, when they were founded, tethers were thought to hold great promise for a number of space applications. As time passed, that promise faded and so did the money available for research and development.
Twenty commercial space companies joined NASA representative at a conference last week to discuss the commercial possibilities of the International Space Station. NASA has been planning to use the ISS to support the commercialization of space for some time. Stephanie Schierholz, the lead spokesperson for NASA, said, “We’re here because the International Space Station is now open for business.”
In addition to this blog on the space industry, I also write a weekly blog on the nuclear issues at www.nucleotidings.com. Occasionally, I write posts that are relevant to both blogs such as today’s post on nuclear thermal propulsion.
NASA has just announced that it has awarded contracts to three companies to carry payloads of scientific instruments to the Moon in 2020 and 2021. No private company has ever successfully landed a probe on the Moon. The last time the U.S.
