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So, Which Is It?

NPR’s Carl Castle this morning reported on China’s announcement that it plans to send a man into space by the end of the year. (Sorry, no links — it’s old news anyway.)

At the end of the piece, he said something to the effect of “The astronauts will be referred to using the Mandarin word for ‘space’, as ‘taikonauts’.”

Huh?

I thought that was a Western/Anglophone neologism, and that the Chinese actually refer to their astronauts as “yuhangyuan”?

September 23rd, 2003 | Category: Chinese Space | Comments are closed

It’s Over

Galileo Ends 14-Year Mission in Jupiter.

(Interesting choice of prepositions there…)

Update: Well, these moonbats turn out to have been wrong. [Cue mad-scientist Theremin crescendo] SO FAR…..

September 21st, 2003 | Category: Space Technology | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)

Rocket Science: Hybrid Rockets

What is a hybrid rocket, how does it work, and what are the advantages and disadvantages versus conventional solid and liquid rockets?

Continue reading Rocket Science: Hybrid Rockets

September 21st, 2003 | Category: Rocket Science | Comments are closed

SSO Downselect

Scaled Composites has selected SpaceDev to supply the hybrid rocket for SpaceShipOne.

September 21st, 2003 | Category: Space Technology | Comments are closed

Another Galileo Obituary

Goodbye, Galileo.

Moreover, it is pointing the way for future missions, including one proposed to study Jupiter’s moons that would launch no sooner than 2012.

“It’s forwarded our understanding to the point where we have new questions to ask,” Alexander said.

Which is what good science should do. Why, then, do we have such a ho-hum, “been there, done that” attitude towards the Moon? You’d think we’d explored the whole thing already, but we’ve sent what, two probes there since the end of Apollo?

September 21st, 2003 | Category: Space Technology | One comment - (Comments are closed)

Alternative Launch Concept

A potential booster concept not likely to win approval any time soon.

Update: More here.

This project has the makings of a great alternative-history tale. What if it had been built and flown, and had gone off-course over L.A. as feared?

September 20th, 2003 | Category: Space Technology | One comment - (Comments are closed)

Squeak?

Some bizarre comments on Mars life from Arthur C. Clarke:

Mars has a case of the munchies. That is, the red planet is spotted with vegetation with some sort of life feasting on the foliage. So says Arthur Clarke, the noted sci-fi writer and space visionary, making the claim during a recent conference on the space elevator.

Clarke was keynote speaker at the 2nd annual international conference on the space elevator, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sir Arthur beamed into the gathering by satellite link on September 13.

When asked what destination he’d like to travel to via the space elevator, Clarke said he was “ready and willing” to journey over to the red planet.

“Mars is the obvious place,” Clarke said. “I’m now quite convinced that Mars is infested with life. Mars orbiter photographs show huge areas of vegetation. I don’t think there’s any doubt anymore on that. And where there’s vegetation, they’ll be something nibbling on it,” he said.

Unfortunately, this snippet came without attribution, so I can’t confirm that he actually said this nor establish the context in which the remarks were made. Does anyone else have information on this?

[via Robby Gaines’ “Spotlight on Space” newsletter]

September 20th, 2003 | Category: Entertainment | Comments are closed

Goodbye, Galileo

Space.com has a good pre-obituary of Galileo, covering the highlights of its mission to Jupiter.

Update: I just poked around on Google, but was not able to find a site or news item decrying our pollution of the pristine Jovian atmosphere with radioactive materials. I’m shocked. I probably won’t have to wait long, though…

September 18th, 2003 | Category: Space Science | Comments are closed

Pulling Off the Wings?

Apollo-like capsule may replace shuttle
Seems like old news, but curiously it is back in the headlines just as NASA is trying to figure out what direction OSP will take.

Hmm.

September 18th, 2003 | Category: Space Technology | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)

Next?

Frank Sietzen asks, For NASA, beyond Columbia, what?

September 18th, 2003 | Category: Space Policy | Comments are closed
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