Well, it may have been a miserable week on the ground, particularly if you’re trying to borrow money or are close to collecting your super pay out, but it’s been a great couple of weeks for being out of the Earth’s atmosphere.
It’s like the heady days of the Space Race in China at the moment. They’re having parades for the astronauts (I refuse to use the abomination “taikonaut”) who successfully completed China’s third crewed space mission, and the first space walk. From a western perspective, this isn’t all that impressive – they purchased a lot of the technology straight from the Russian space program, who’ve been doing this since 1965 (the first American spacewalk followed a couple of months later). But even re-implementing known space technology is pretty damn difficult. The bigger question is what the Chinese are likely to try in the future. Beating NASA back to the moon is a distinct possibility.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most scientifically important achievement of NASA crewed space program, the Hubble Space Telescope, has had the world’s most fortuitously timed fault. A final shuttle mission to service the Hubble was due to launch a couple of weeks from now. However, one of the Hubble’s systems responsible for transmitting scientific data back to Earth failed. There’s a backup component, but, unsurprisingly, NASA wants to replace the system, so they’re modifying the mission to include the replacement. On the downside, it’s also pushed the mission back to February next year. But better a failure now, when it can be fixed, than one later, when the shuttle won’t be available to fix it.
The official future of the NASA crewed space program is Project Constellation. But given the likely budgetary impact of a US recession, it might just be that the future of Yanks in Space has a lot to do with the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 1. I’ve mentioned SpaceX before – the guy behind PayPal has chosen to invest/waste his millions on building low-cost space launch vehicles. Falcon 1 is tiny, but SpaceX have been working on a people-sized rocket, the Falcon 9, and a crew capsule, the Dragon, for some time now. They have a contract with NASA to demonstrate that the Dragon can carry cargo, and ultimately people, to and from the International Space Station. The contract is for peanuts compared to the cost of Constellation. Frankly, if SpaceX succeeds with Falcon 9 and Dragon, I wonder whether the bloated Constellation program, in large part a job-retention exercise for the Space Coast, will survive, and SpaceX’s new-from-the-ground-up approach will get scaled up, possibly for a moon shot of their own. The more libertarian space enthusiasts see this as a triumph of private enterprise over bloated government bureaucracy. Frankly, it seems to be about not being hamstrung by decades of institutional fossilization, something that can happen in the corporate world just as easily as in government.
Other uncrewed spacecraft have also been busy in their unobtrusive way. While transferring crew gets the attention, getting supplies up to the space station are just as essential for keeping it going. The Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle completed its resupply and garbage-disposal mission by burning up over the Pacific ocean. More romantically, the Phoenix Mars Lander observed snow falling on Mars, as the Martian winter approaches (and, incidentally, spells the end for the lander).
Oh, and SpaceX successfully launched their Falcon 1 to low Earth orbit on the 4th attempt. The first successful fully commercial, fully private attempt. But this is LP, so I won’t harp on about it
Oh bugger, I’m an idiot with a first post. I’m going back to Slashdot.
Thank you Robert for reminding us about the real important stuff. In space, no-one can hear Sarah Palin waffle.
Thanks for the post Robert. The Chinese spacewalk was virtually the only good news this week. Hopefully, once the financial mess blows over, the Chinese achievements will shake the Yanks out of their apathy when it comes to space exploration.
A c’mon Jacques, do all the slashdot jokes right here!
In Soviet russia… (nah, not gonna work).
1. fire rocket
2. Kick Taikonaut out of capsule until he cries and wets himself.
3. …
4. Profit!
Insensitive clod! I am a Taikonaut!
(actually, I like “Taikonaut”, it’s very Gerry Anderson).
Minor trivia: the Institute for Telecommunications Research at the University of South Australia provided tracking support for the Jules Verne ATV mission, which was the first use of this new European Space Agency Vehicle. It looks like they’ll be doing the same for future missions, too – they’re one of a number of Australian universities involved in international space research. Check out the National Space Society of Australia’s ambitious ‘Decadal Plan for Space Science’ – which includes a proposal for the ‘Sundiver’ project, which does exactly what you think it does.
Disappointing that the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 was delayed. Must be pretty costly. You don’t see this (two shuttles?!?) very often.
Thanks for the spaced-out post, Robert. New Scientist has a great feature from last week’s magazine about the up and coming private space-flight companies. Typically, they want you to actually have bought the magazine (or a subscription) to see it.
Keep up the science/technology posts.
Andos: I’d be a lot more disappointed if they’d done the mission, and then the transmitter unit on Hubble had given out when there’s no possibility of fixing it.
Yes, Robert. That is a mighty salient point.
At least we only have to wait until mid November for the next shuttle mission. This one to expand ISS crew capacity. Woot!
Thanks Robert – it was nice to see the Chinese getting right into it. They seem to be taking the slow-but-steady approach which in the space business usually works. And yes, they may have used a lot of the Soviet/Russian technology but make no mistake, planning and doing something like this is quite an acheivement – from the looks of the video I’ve seen a fair amount of time was spent manuovering and package retrieval in full sunshine. Not an easy job!
As regards Hubble – I’m reminded of the original debate as to whether the “fix” was worth it…well here we are years down the track and that bird has been brilliant.
Andos – the real trick there is going to be getting the final pad processing right with the limited resources NASA seems to have these days. Again full marks to Space X for finally having a good launch – poor buggers have had a rough ride…
All-in-all exciting times ahead for space nerds
Next step – bring on Project Sunshade, we might well need it
Beating NASA back to the moon is a distinct possibility.
.
But they need to do more than just get there in order to compete with the Americans. They need to leave a flag and a plaque with an arsehole’s name on it as well. Shame Mao isn’t still alive.
Firstly, fuck NASA. I was all set to be in Florida on the NASA causeway on 10 November to watch the launch of STS-126 but now they’ve pushed it out to 12 November which is just not doable for me. I fired off a stern email to President Bush about this and am eagerly waiting a response. Although in retrospect, I perhaps shouldn’t have titled it “Oi grand fromage, you screwed up again didn’t you”.
I think the Project Constellation concept has got some legs -especially if they open it up to other space bodies and the private sector. Modular space development with NASA, ESA et al jointly setting systems architecture, interoperability standards, routes and traffic management standards.
“The Man Who Sold The Moon” made a big impression on me as a teenager and to this day the conquest and exploitation of space always brings out my inner libertarian. Everyone should just fucking go for it. However, sooner or later, yer gonna need some government/industry bodies to set some basic ground rules for when technology meets commerce so as to deliver sustainable and consumer trusted results.
Not unlike the growth of commercial aviation post WW2. Which seems to have worked out well until now. $50 per carry-on!?!. No cocktail lounge!!!??!! Which is I why I just bought an Amtrak USA rail pass with roomette upgrade options.