Rocket Science

Because of rainclouds in our area, we missed this spectacular light show last evening. However, SpaceWeather.Com, published a couple of nice images of the light show.

From Spaceflight Now:

Six tiny satellites sped into space Friday evening aboard an ultra-fast rocket booster, beginning a five-year mission to examine Earth’s atmosphere and the underlying hints of climate change by employing a novel technique.

The $100 million COSMIC mission that partners the U.S. and Taiwan roared away from the wet and foggy Space Launch Complex 8 on the southern end of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 6:40 p.m. PDT (9:40 p.m. EDT; 0140 GMT).

The Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket was gone in a flash, almost instantly disappearing from view of launch pad cameras. The liftoff was delayed an hour-and-a-half after an initial countdown attempt was aborted because of a problem with the system monitoring rocket data.

A while back, I referenced a story about moondust smelling like gunpowder. Now, it seems, moondust has magnetic properties as well. Each tiny grain of dust contains a few iron particles. The iron’s magnetic properties allow the smallest dust particles to be swept up by magnets. This is a key discovery for NASA engineers who want to return manned expeditions to the lunar surface where dust has plagued the seals of space suits and contaminated mineral samples and just about everything else. Even astronaut Gene Cernan was a moondust mess after a surface excursion (see picture).

NASA – Magnetic Moondust

April 4, 2006: Thirty-plus years ago on the moon, Apollo astronauts made an important discovery: Moondust can be a major nuisance. The fine powdery grit was everywhere and had a curious way of getting into things. Moondust plugged bolt holes, fouled tools, coated astronauts’ visors and abraded their gloves. Very often while working on the surface, they had to stop what they were doing to clean their cameras and equipment using large–and mostly ineffective–brushes.

Dealing with “the dust problem” is going to be a priority for the next generation of NASA explorers. But how? Professor Larry Taylor, director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee, believes he has an answer: “Magnets.”

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A Russian communications satellite in geostationary orbit has apparently taken an “exceptionally rare” meteor impact. The spacecraft’s thermal control system malfunctioned as a result and prompted an attempt by ground controllers to deorbit the spacecraft. Were the satellite to completely fail on station causing the deorbit attempt to be unsuccessful, the residual “space junk” would render a valuable segment of geostationary orbit unusable for re-use for an indeterminate period of time. Available “slots” in the geostationary band are few these days due to high demand.

Don’t think that this is exclusively the Russians’ problem, since many western commercial and military interests vie for slots which are internationally allocated – for military applications, slots are required in view of every location on Earth. For technical reasons (beamwidth and selectivity), geostationary satellites can not be placed at intervals closer than every few degrees. This fact limits the number of satellites that may occupy slots in a thin band of space defined as exactly a specific geostationary distance from the planet and exactly over the equator.

From New Scientist:

Impact suspected for loss of Russian satellite

A Russian communications satellite appears to have been struck by “a sudden external impact”. Its operators say the extent of the damage caused means the satellite will be sent into “space disposal orbit”.

The Russian Satellite Communications Company’s (RSCC) Express-AM11 satellite ran into its trouble at 0341 Moscow time (0041 GMT) on 29 March. Telemetry from the craft indicates that the fluid circuit that is part of the satellite’s thermal control system depressurised very rapidly. Such damage leaves the spacecraft unable to prevent fluctuations in temperature that can cause electronics to fail.

An RSCC statement says that the satellite’s manufacturer, NPO-PM in Krasnoyarsky Krai, Russia, believes the depressurisation was triggered by an external impact on the spacecraft.

I told you this was a Russian brainfart. From SpaceWeather.com

SUITSAT IS SILENT: Space is cold–apparently too cold for SuitSat’s batteries. The Earth-orbiting spacesuit stopped transmitting shortly after it was thrown overboard from the International Space Station on Feb. 3rd. Probable cause: lack of power.

Right: SuitSat floats away from the International Space Station on Feb. 3rd.

This doesn’t mean that SuitSat was a failure. The experimental satellite was “launched” to answer questions such as “Can a spacesuit-satellite function without internal temperature controls?” The answer, apparently, is no. Next-generation SuitSats will take this into account.

SuitSat will continue to orbit Earth for weeks, spiraling slowly into the atmosphere. Stay tuned for information about seeing SuitSat in the night sky.