Neil Armstrong, First man to walk on the Moon R.I.P.

Sad story today. Neil Armstrong has died today at the age of 82. According to the reports he  underwent a heart-bypass surgery earlier this month to relieve blocked coronary arteries.

Let us remember him this way.

 

ABC Report

 

Latest Masten Xombie Mars EDL flight

Great multi-camera view of the latest Masten Xombie EDL test flight. This time the flight takeoff and landing sites were 750 meters apart and the flight apogee of 476 meters.

“Less than a week after the successful completion of the 650 meter down range flight on August 9, Masten successfully conducted the third and final flight of its recent Entry Descent & Landing test campaign for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)**. Reaching an altitude of 476.4 meters, the vehicle translated 750 meters down the test range at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The flight, controlled by Masten’s native Guidance, Navigation & Control system, precisely matched its targeted trajectory and met all test objectives.

As with the flights on July 25 and August 9, this test served to evaluate JPL’s powered descent and landing trajectory optimization algorithms for future Mars Entry Descent & Landing (EDL) applications.”  -Masten

 

Manned Spaceflight Instrument Panels

Just like your modern car dashboard manned spacecraft have elaborate Instrument panels for operation, computing and guidance. Historically these have become much more elaborate over time and they monitor and control a vast army of instruments. Take a look at these historic panels and the increased complexity over the years.

US

MERCURY

mercury instrument panel (click to enlarge) – image credit: NASA History Program

GEMINI

gemini instrument panel (click to enlarge) – image credit: NASA History Program

APOLLO

Command Module

apollo-CM-instrument-panel (click to enlarge) – image credit NASA History Program

Lunar Module

apollo-LM-instrument-panel (click to enlarge) – Image Credit NASA History program

SPACE SHUTTLE

Discovery Instrument Panel (click to enlarge)

SOVIET/RUSSIA

VOSTOK

Vostok Instrument panel

SOYUZ

Soyuz Instrument panel – credit :Russian Central House of Aviation

BURAN -(Mock-up)

Never actually Manned but designed for eventual manned flight.Buran instruments mock-up – image credit: Russian Central House of  Aviation

China

SHENZHOU

Shenzhou 6 interior – image credit: http://www.astronautix.com/flights/shezhou6.htm

 

Mighty Eagle lander flies again

image credit: NASA

NASA’s protoype robotic lander, Mighty Eagle, took to the skies again at Marshall Flight Center.

“The lander is equipped with automated rendezvous and capture technology that contains a camera that allows the vehicle to locate its target and image processing software that generates control commands to guide it to rendezvous with the target.”

“Since its last round of tests in 2011, the Mighty Eagle team has made significant updates to the guidance controls on the lander’s camera, furthering its autonomous capabilities. The three-legged “green” lander is fueled by 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide and receives its commands from an onboard computer that activates its onboard thrusters to carry it to a controlled landing using a pre-programmed flight profile. It is 4 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter and, when fueled, weighs 700 pounds.” – NASA Marshall

image credit: NASA

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You can view video of the August 8th flight here

image: NASA

 

Copenhagen Suborbitals LES Test

photo credit : Copenhagen Suborbitals

Preliminary reports say that the Copenhagen Suborbitals Launch Escape test did not perform as expected. The launch was successful but  there were stability problems with the vehicle and it tumbled end over end while still under powered flight. All other aspects of the test worked as expected.

You can view live feeds and more info at Copenhagen Suborbitals Blog at Wired

capsule recovery

 

Morpheus lander crashes on first free flight

Looks like the Morpheus lander has just crashed on its first free flight.

UPDATE: Video of crash

Morpheus main site

Last tethered flight

 

Has an Apollo 13 secret been revealed over 40 years later?

Apollo 13 – image source: NASA

An interesting thread appeared on Reddit recently where a 97 year old ex-deputy chief of media relations during the time of the Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 dropped a real bombshell claiming that an unknown MIT student came up with the idea to slingshot Apollo 13 around the moon and save the mission.

“All the engineers and everybody else at NASA in Houston were working hard at recovering the moonshot, and they were in real trouble, weren’t sure they could get it back. They got a phone call from a grad student at MIT who said he knew how to get them back. They put engineers on it, tested it out, by God it worked. Slingshotting them around the moon. They successfully did. They wanted to present the grad student to the President and the public, but they found him and he was a real hippy type — long hair and facial hair. NASA was straight-laced, and this was different than they expected, so they withdrew the invitation to the student. I think that is a disgrace.”

The source says he has kept this secret for over 40 years. Redditors tried to out the name of the student but have not gotten a response. Hopefully the validity of the story will be evaluated and confirmed or denied in time.

Apollo 13 secret source – image credit: redditor Methusela1915

Link to the full thread

 

Curiosity is on Mars

9 AM August 6 Landing Recap News Conference

Statement by the President on Curiosity Landing on Mars

“Tonight, on the planet Mars, the United States of America made history.

The successful landing of Curiosity – the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet – marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future. It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique blend of ingenuity and determination.

Tonight’s success, delivered by NASA, parallels our major steps forward towards a vision for a new partnership with American companies to send American astronauts into space on American spacecraft. That partnership will save taxpayer dollars while allowing NASA to do what it has always done best – push the very boundaries of human knowledge. And tonight’s success reminds us that our preeminence – not just in space, but here on Earth – depends on continuing to invest wisely in the innovation, technology, and basic research that has always made our economy the envy of the world.

I congratulate and thank all the men and women of NASA who made this remarkable accomplishment a reality – and I eagerly await what Curiosity has yet to discover.” -White House

image credit: NASA

Curiosity Paper Model

Previous Post with many Curiosity Links

 

Countdown to Curiosity: 1 Day

MSL official web site

Everything you need to know all on one page

Great Landing Infograph by JPL 

NASA Spacecraft including Curiosity on your iPhone
Spacecraft 3D App for iPad-iPhone

All previously reported links

Video about the scientific instruments on Curiosity

Curiosity to search for organics

Details on MSL(Wikipedia)

William Shatner on the Curiosity Landing

Curiosity Rover released as next Hot Wheels toy

Curiosity(MSL) Fact Sheet

What will happen? 7 Minutes of Terror

Watch it Live

 

Countdown to Curiosity: 2 Days

Video about the scientific instruments on Curiosity

Curiosity to search for organics

Details on MSL(Wikipedia)

click to enlarge – graphic credit: NASA

more great links 3 DAYS - 4 DAYS

 

Countdown to Curiosity: 3 Days

William Shatner on the Curiosity Landing

Curiosity Rover released as next Hot Wheels toy

Curiosity(MSL) Fact Sheet

The rest of the Curiosity Post and Links

 

Countdown to Curiosity: 4 Days

image credit: neoteotihuacan on reddit

What will happen? 7 Minutes of Terror

Watch it Live

 

Masten Xombie test Mars EDL Trajectory

“We’re excited to release this footage of Masten’s July 25, 2012 Mars landing trajectory test flight on Xombie. The flight reached 476.5 meters in altitude and translated 500 meters downrange. The test was carried out for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to test the powered descent and landing trajectory optimization algorithms for future Mars Entry Descent & Landing (EDL) applications. It is the first EDL style trajectory carried out on a terrestrial vertical takeoff and vertical landing testbed. Masten’s native Guidance, Navigation & Control system controlled Xombie as it followed the JPL-provided Mars landing trajectory.

What happened at the end? After successful completion of the trajectory, we lost visual contact when a large dust plume obstructed the landing site camera’s view and thought the vehicle had already landed. In accordance with Masten safety procedures, we turned the engine off. Turns out we were a couple feet off the deck. Don’t worry though, Xombie is currently standing up in the shop and won’t miss her next scheduled flight.” – Masten

 

 

Chinese confirm robotic mission to moon in 2013

According to Beijing Morning  Post, Chang’e 3(named after Chinese goddess of the moon) will launch in 2013 on an ambitious robotic mission to the moon. The soft landing made by a lunar landing craft will include a robotic rover. The rover includes a nuclear battery with an expected 30 years operation.
Chang’e 2 launched in 2010 and was a successful lunar orbiting mission testing many of the technologies for future flights.
The new missions lunar rover was designed by Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute and is designed to send video in real time.
The lander will include the moon’s first astronomical observatory including specialty cameras and a telescope.If successful the landing will be the first soft landing since the Soviet’s in 1976.
Of course this mission as in all Chinese moon missions will be testing technologies that could lead to a future manned landing.

 

Chinese moon rocket details emerge

image credit : China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology

There is an excellent article over at American Space about emerging details on the rocket that will used by China for moon missions. The Long March 9 (CZ-9) is being developed under two options. Option A (preferred – 321 foot tall) is an oxygen\kerosene rocket while Option B is an oxygen\hydrogen rocket.

Details were recently released by  Liang Xiaohong (Communist Party Chief) at The China Academy of launch Vehicle Technology.

Article over at American Space

China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology