Tag Archives: Space

By Evan Ackerman

The options at the moment for getting into orbit (or even sub-orbit) as a private citizen are somewhat limited. You can spend a week on the ISS (for $25 million), buy a seat on Virgin Galactic (for $200,000 pretty soon), or get there on a technicality in a MiG 31 (for about $27,500). Copenhagen Suborbitals is looking to break into this questionable market with their Hybrid Exo Atmospheric Transporter, which is a single person space capsule that sits on top of a ballistic missile.

This concept is about as awesomely old-school as it gets. Don’t believe me? They did it in Star Trek: First Contact. There’s no room for a seat; the passenger is stuffed into the nose of the missile in a standing position. This is done partly to save space and weight (the diameter of the launch vehicle can be reduced), and partly to mitigate g-forces (they pulled the same trick in the Apollo lunar modules): oriented vertically, the human spine and legs make great shock absorbers. You do get a plexiglass window above you to look out of, and I imagine the takeoff experience would be pretty spectacular. You also get a pressure suit, some modified SCUBA gear to keep you breathing, and an emergency parachute. And vomit bags. The restraint system won’t let you move at all, though, except for maybe slight sideways turns of the head. Obviously, this is not for the claustrophobic.

The booster underneath is going to be a custom made hybrid rocket, firing for 60 seconds with about 3 gravities of thrust, which is significantly less than many roller coasters, albeit for a longer period of time. Most healthy people should be fine, though. The booster has no guidance system at all; it’s got a guide rail on the launch tower and after that, nothing but static fins to keep it on course. After a one minute burn, the booster is jettisoned. The capsule continues upward to over 100 km of altitude, and then descends, using two sets of parachutes to make it safely back to the earth.

The cost for all this is unspecified, since the rocket is still in the development stage. It seems to be moving along nicely, though… After the jump, watch a test video of Copenhagen Suborbitals’ rocket engine.… Continue Reading

By Evan Ackerman

This picture of the milky way galaxy was taken by amateur astrophotographer Wally Pacholka in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. It’s a panorama of 4 individual pictures stitched together, each one a 25 second exposure on a Canon 5D at 1600 ISO with a 24mm lens. The lighting inside the cave comes from flashlights bouncing soft light off rocks, but the rest of the lightning comes from nothing but a crescent moon and the stars. It took him five 1600 mile trips out to Utah, plus a 2 mile hike in the dark (and he got lost every time) to get this one image. Worth it? Yeah, obviously. You can buy 11 x 14 prints of this picture starting at $55.

[ Wally Pacholka ] VIA [ Digg ]

By Evan Ackerman

It’s pretty dusty up there on the moon. So dusty, in fact, that in an effort to prepare the lunar surface for human habitation, a company called W.I.S.E. Retail Solutions is now stuffing Apollo 11 commemorative pens with it and selling them to earthlings to help make the place a bit tidier. The pens have a little chamber for the dust, as well as “a handcrafted, individually hand painted miniature Apollo 11 astronaut figurine” at the top.

Of course, it’s not real moon dust. Of course. The dust in the pens is actually a simulant called JSC-1A, which is made in Texas with volcanic ash from Arizona. It’s just about as close to the real thing as you’re likely to get, though… NASA uses JSC-1A to test out equipment destined for the lunar surface. Real moon dust is electrostatically charged (making it stick to everything) and highly abrasive; not something you really want getting into either sensitive equipment or your lungs. With that in mind, NASA goes through literally tons of it trying to moon-proof spacesuits and the like.

If you’re interested in the real moon bits, you can find pieces of the moon for sale from meteorite dealers (how else do you s’pose it gets to Earth?) online. The moon is not cheap, though… Expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per gram. If you’re thinking you might rather have the pen instead, it’ll only cost you $25, and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation.

Oh, and just a warning: their website is atrocious.

[ Moon Dust Pen ] VIA [ Moon Daily ]