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[...] mission would take advantage of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket or a launch vehicle similar, all of which are still under development. The plan would also take [...]
The Sky is Waiting.
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Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New.� A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
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Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth�s shadow is apparent in the image.
10.04.11: Towards a Brave New Decade of Space Exploration.
Earlier, this week, two news articles made their way to us via Spaceflight Now that we thought deserved some weekend editorializing in this space. On Tuesday, SpaceX announced its plans for a Falcon Heavy rocket, which could provide 3.8 million pounds of thrust to place a 58+ ton payload into low Earth orbit or a 15 ton payload much farther afield.
The first launch may occur as early as 2013, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk envisions two missions a month at the jaw droppingly low rate of 75-125$ million dollars a shot. This would give us a capability we haven�t had on the launch pad since Apollo; the ability to put large payloads into solar orbit. This also came on the heels of an announcement that NASA�s flat line budget may seriously hamper many of the proposed missions on the drawing board for unmanned planetary science. As always, a tension exists between what scientists would like to do, what engineers state is possible, and what politicians and taxpayers will pay for. Do we do a little with a lot, or vice versa? Missions like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Mars Science Laboratory are great and should be done, but always threaten to gobble up huge chunks of a dwindling budget; we could fund many smarter missions like Messenger or even the atmosphere-bound SOFIA many times over. The launch vehicle is often the elephant in the room when it comes to cost concerns; it�s worth noting that the recent Decadal Survey for planetary exploration was conceived sans launch costs, although that may ultimately be the largest consumer of cash. Still, a launch vehicle like the�Falcon Heavy gets astronomers and planetary scientists salivating; we think of the large payload missions and Battlestar Galactica-style platforms we could get into space, without complex unfolding maneuvers and long, looping orbits. We could just get there, without being a tacked on afterthought, and have the gear to do some really cool science.
And of course, there are some thoughts to employ either the�Falcon Heavy or a rocket similar to the proposed Ares V to take astronauts to a Near Earth Asteroid. Proposed targets include 2009 OS5, in 2020, 1999 AO10 in 2025, 99942 Apophis in 2029, and 2003 SM84 in 2045. This would give us a chance to explore these worldlets first hand and provide a stepping stone style mission to Mars. But the mission would be a complex one; not only is there the radiation hazard, but the rendezvous would be more akin to a docking than landing. Then there�s the problem of return velocity; astronauts returning from Apophis, for example, would face a blazing 108,000km per hour return, far faster than Apollo and faster than the unmanned Stardust mission at 46,600km per hour. Perhaps a more logical target would be the recently discussed NEO 2010 SO16, currently in a lazy 350 year horseshoe orbit about 0.2 AU distant between the L5 LaGrange point and the Earth.
So, how do we feel about the commercialization of space? I�m curious to see how eager companies may be to fund pure scientific research and exploration that may have little or no short term gain; of course, scientists have historically faced a similar dilemma when competing with military and political interests. I think most fans of the space program are simply happy at the end of the day to have a mission, whether it be to Low Earth Orbit, the Moon, an asteroid, or dare we say Mars. We’re onboard; lets go. A great �turning away� from space is what we all fear most; certainly, the next decade may make or break both manned and unmanned space exploration. Let�s get out of LEO (I don�t care who is paying for the ride) and get back to the business of solar system exploration!