THE BLOG HUFFINGTON POST
Posted: 03/17/2015 1:51 pm EDT Updated: 03/17/2015 1:59 pm EDT
Most people think that Star Trek-style nuclear rockets are a thing of the future, but the fact is we had them in the 1960s... and gave up on them.
The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application...NERVA... program was a joint effort between NASA and the US Atomic Energy Commission, and managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office. Los Alamos Labs had begun work on nuclear rockets in 1952 and this research accelerated so quickly that by 1961 the Marshall Spaceflight Center started using nuclear rockets in their mission planning, with the first launch to be in 1964 as a final demonstration of the space-worthiness of these engines. The NERVA engine was built by Aerojet and Westinghouse. The first of these actually built and tested in a spaceflight configuration was the Kiwi-B4 engine that produced 70,000 pounds of thrust. The NERVA NRX/EST engine in 1966 ran for two continuous hours. The NERVA-XE engine tests ran for 115 minutes and as a result, it demonstrated that nuclear engines were now flight-ready as a technology. The nuclear engine program had demonstrated thrusts as high as 250,000 pounds, 90 minutes of continuous and controllable thrust delivery, and thermal power equal to 4,500 megawatts.
The plan was to use a NERVA engine as the third stage of the Saturn V rocket and plausibly get to Mars by 1978 and even use this engine as the work-horse to establish a large lunar colony by 1981. These plans were canceled in 1972 once President Nixon came into office and decided that the Saturn V and the Apollo program were no longer needed to prove US space superiority in the Cold War. Without the Saturn V, there was no way to place the heavy nuclear engine into space, even though once there it would dramatically out-perform any chemical rocket. Nuclear engines would be used as the engines for space 'tugboats' that would ferry cargo and humans from low earth orbit to the moon and beyond.
A conceptual illustration of a spacecraft for a manned Mars mission proposed by NASA's Wernher von Braun in August 1969. Two spacecraft would make the trip in tandem, each one powered by three NERVA-type engines. (Image courtesy: NASA).
The Space Nuclear Propulsion Office planned to build ten nuclear engine-based vehicles, six for ground tests and four for flight tests, but the development program was delayed after 1966 as NERVA became a political hot-potato in the debate over a Mars mission. The nuclear -enhanced Saturn 5 would carry two to three times more payload into space than the chemical version, enough to easily loft 340,000 pound space stations and replenish orbital propellant depots. Ultimately the NERVA program became so closely linked to plans to go to Mars, that when Congress finally balked at the expense and folly of going to Mars, the NERVA program no longer had a 'customer' to serve. The NERVA program was finally terminated altogether on January 5, 1973.
So for decades, the popular story seemed to be that we didn't have nuclear rocket technology and would have to get by with impressive chemical rocket-based systems like the Space Shuttle. But then something amazing happened. In 2000, NASA proposed Project Prometheus whose goal was to develop nuclear-powered systems for long-duration space missions. Now, this wasn't nuclear engine technology, but the far more practical power plant technology. NASA had for decades been shoehorned into missions that used heavy solar panels or 'RTG' to generate a few hundred watts to run scientific equipment. Now NASA wanted to leap into multi-kilowatt systems based on small nuclear fission piles.
For the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), a spacecraft designed to explore Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, NASA intended to use the first of what they hoped would be the new generation of mini-reactors flown in space. The reactor would heat a fluid and run a steam turbine to generate electricity. The electricity would then power scientific instruments and an ion-propulsion unit. But this was not to be either. The JIMO mission was cancelled in 2006, and also canceled was the Prometheus Project.
NASA chief, Mike Griffin, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee in May 2005 that JIMO was in his opinion, "too ambitious to be attempted"." Instead, the Juno mission to Jupiter was funded, and this 1.1 billion spacecraft carries huge solar panels to generate its electricity using conservative 'off the shelf' technology.
The NEXT ion engine in operation.
BUT AT LEAST THERE ARE ION ENGINES!
Nothing is ever lost, so at least in principle nuclear rocket technology is ready to go just as soon as we can decide that we want to do more in space that just the limited capabilities that chemical rockets allow. Meanwhile, ion propulsion is being used by NASA increasingly, and with spectacular results. Three NASA missions, SERT-1, Dawn and Deep Space 1, used ion engines to get around in the solar system. Although the thrust of these engines is measured in ounces not in kilopounds, the thrust can be maintained for weeks, months and years, which steadily builds up enormous speeds. For example, it took four days for the Dawn spacecraft to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph using a thrust of just 0.3 ounces.
How an ion engine works (Credit NASA)
SERT-I and II launched in 1964 and 1970, verified ion thruster technology in space and ran for up to 3700 hours. This technology was then used on the Deep Space-1 mission.
NEXT program in 2010 demonstrated over 5.5 years of continuous operation for a 7 kilowatt ion engine. It used 1,900 pounds of xenon and produced a thrust of 0.8 pounds.
Basically, the thrust you get depends on 1) the voltage used to accelerate the ions, controlled by the wattage of the engine, 2) the rate at which you pump the ions through the engine and 3) the mass of the ions. Currently we are using a few thousand volts, a few kilowatts, xenon atoms with an atomic mass of 131, and a low-pressure flow rate of about 5 ounces per hour. This gives you a thrust of just under one ounce. Imagine what you could do with a megawatt engine and a 100,000 volt potential with a mass flow rate of 1 kilograms per day and a thrust of 100 pounds! (well,these numbers may not be consistent with each other, but you get the point!) Now we are talking getting to Mars in a week or less!
These are baby steps, but they prove loud and clear that the only thing limiting 'Star Trek' rocketry is our human will to explore and dream. These are qualities in short supply on Capitol Hill and by American adults in general, but we can no longer hide behind the lame excuse that we just don't have the technology! We do...we just don't care.
MORE:
Nuclear Rockets Ion Engines Spaceflight Star Wars Physics Dr. Sten Odenwald Become a fan
PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Curiosity itinerant, the largest and most experienced spacecraft perpetually sent to up-to-the-minute planet, landed definitely on Mars babyish Monday, the U.S. space agency NASA assumed.The nuclear-powered, car-size programmed motor ability -- carve up of NASA's unmanned Mars Science Laboratory appointment -- touched down about 1:31 a.m. EDT and covering tidied up began transmitting photographs program its own wheels definitely on the appearance of an ancient physical thing community as Tear Crater approximately the Mars equator and 154 million miles from Property.Curiosity carries the most experienced consignment of mechanical effects perpetually recycled on the appearance of the Red Gravel and is looked-for to revolutionize the sketch of the planet, stack evidence Mars is or was respectable of farming life, if right in microbial form.Plus grim to dig up if Mars may possibly perpetually own up supported life, the 2.5 billion appointment is to appraisal its survive and geology, and plan for a human appointment to the planet.Precede Barack Obama has obstinate a analyze of sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, and NASA Go around Chief John Grunsfeld assumed Sunday humans depth one day live at hand, too.The spacecraft is looked-for to pave the way for lofty leaps in deep-space exploration, among bringing martian rock or pollute assist to Property for nitpicky assessment.See more: http://www.upi.com/Science News/Technology/2012/08/06/NASA-Curiosity-rover-lands-explores-Mars/UPI-62081344234212/#ixzz22lRZrU3R
Take a look at this NASA pic and its one of many on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA site which shows a UFO in the skies over Mars, When NASA say we dont hide anything and what's usually here is actually there in a disinformation type scenario you would mainly think NASA's own website would be the place to find these unusual pics but no! they are on their sister site to do with engines and fuel why would they be appearing on the Jet Propulsion website for other that to miss-inform the wider NASA audience who always visit the actual NASA site. Packed with Mars rover and Curiosity pics the website has once again added another unusual Curiosity Rover pic showing what quite clearly is a flying saucer type craft, whats the meaning of these pics with unidentified altitude objects and why the JPL for their archives. If thats not a UFO what else can it be? Swamp gas, Drone, RC Toy, Plane, Helicopter no of course not! Its yet another UFO in terms of ufologists like us alike.
Uploaded by out pal Streetcap1 who searches these sites to find you the public interesting clips and pics and yet again he hits the Lotto. Remember to subscribe to has channel by clicking Here.
NASA JPL website link Here.
Reference: mayan-secrets.blogspot.com
It looked like it shouldn't work. It looked like it "couldn"'t work. It looked like NASA's most talented engineers had got drunk together at a party and, for a dare, designed the most ridiculous, dangerous way of landing a multi billion dollar robot rover on Mars possible then giggled "Yeah, let's try that!" But early this morning, after screaming through the barely-there martian atmosphere in a fireball, the nuclear-powered "Curiosity" rover was lowered down from a hovering rocket platform and touched down softly and safely on the floor of the huge Gale crater.
The first pictures - although hazy and blurred - suggest it came down within a few kilometres of its goal: an ancient, layered mountain called Mt Sharp which rises up from the crater's heart to scrape the pink martian sky. Planetary scientists and armchair explorers alike are delighted and impatient for Curiosity to begin rolling across the crater floor and start exploring.
"
Artist's impression of Curiosity landing on Mars. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech"
But what will Curiosity actually be doing on Mars? Well, a Google search of its name will bring up a lot of stories in the media about how the "Mars Science Laboratory" is going to look for life. It isn't. It's been sent to Mars to travel back in time and see if Mars, or at least this part of Mars, was once capable of supporting life.
But it won't travel back in time physically; it's not a TARDIS. It will journey into the red planet's past by studying the rocks, dirt and dust inside Gale crater, analysing their chemistry and mineralogy with spectroscopes, ovens, computers. It will zap rocks with a laser, and use instruments to analyse the gas which is produced, building up a detailed picture of their composition, learning about how they were formed and how they have changed over time. Reaching out with its powerful robot arm it will drill into rocks, collecting samples to drop into its own body, where they will be studied inside an incredibly powerful and sophisticated laboratory, taken apart to see exactly what they're made of.
And if it can navigate its way across the crater floor, and drive through or over a band of dark, wind-blown dust dunes that it can already see on the horizon, it will then start to climb, working its way slowly up through the rugged foothills of Mt Sharp, driving up an ancient valley, to a location on the mountain's side where its suite of incredible instruments will be able to study the gateau-like layers of rock there, laid down over millennia. Why? Because inside those layers it might find something... incredible. Not life itself, but traces of "past "life. Not the fossilised remains of ancient martian lifeforms, but the chemical "stains" of past life.
"
The first images sent back by Curiosity. Images: JPL/NASA"
Curiosity's scientists aren't expecting to see the fossils of flattened shells, ferns or bugs in the layers of Mt Sharp, but they are hoping to see lines, blips and spikes on graphs and charts betraying the presence of organics in the layers of rock and stone. If they find them, it could help answer the most nagging, most fundamental question in the whole of science: are we alone in the universe? Because if life once existed on Mars, even the most primitive form, then it suggests life on Earth wasn't just a fluke of nature, "wasn"'"t" just the universe messing about with its chemistry set, but instead is a process than can be repeated where and when conditions are right. And that would suggest that life must exist "out there", elsewhere in the universe, right now.
But that's all for the future. Tonight, Curiosity is standing quietly, but proudly, on the surface of Mars, catching her breath and getting used to being out in the open again after being cocooned inside her heat shield and protective shell for almost 9 months. She won't begin to drive for a few days at least, not until her masters back on Earth have checked her out and given her a clean bill of health. But soon she will roll forwards on her giant, spiked wheels and begin to rove, cameras clicking, and one of the greatest quests in the history of exploration and discovery will begin in earnest.
I can't wait!
Stuart Atkinson
galegazette.wordpress.com
"Stuart Atkinson is an amateur astronomer and Outreach Educator living in the UK. The author of a dozen children's books on astronomy and spaceflight, he writes the popular "Road to Endeavour" blog which chronicles the adventures of the Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" as it explores Endeavour Crater. A member of the unmannedspaceflight.com forum, he also writes "astropoetry" inspired by space missions and astronomy, and his work has been published on NASA websites. "
Orbital's David Thompson
Pane NEWS\' Bard PETER B. DE SELDING is reporting that the first flight of Orbital Sciences' Antares sparkler not later than the Cygnus space station fill freighter has slipped once more and is not usual to rise beforehand October or November, ORBITAL SCIENCES Boss Managerial DAVID W. THOMPSON invented April 20, 2012.
In a Symposium Holiday at Following Efficient ANALYSTS, Thompson acid to no assured matter mature for the latest hang on of amongst one to two months from the previously fraud, announced in late February. He invented the sanction of the Wallops Island, Va., spaceport and its propellant-handling facilities is at lacking vulgar incident, and that the emergence pad requisite be turned over to Orbital by mid-June or perhaps a bit closer.
A test volley of the Antares rocket's first put up with on the emergence pad is now standard for prehistoric July. The sparkler command engineer its inaugural flight, lacking the Cygnus fill possessor, in Majestic under the new fraud. The Antares/Cygnus emergence would subsequently rise in October or November, 2012.
The Antares medium-lift emergence sedan was rolled to the emergence pad built for it at the Wallops Tour Factory in Virginia, in prepare for a hot-fire test of the new sparkler now being hard-pressed from acceptably to summer. The test sedan command be returned to the organization apartment epoch work preparing the propellant-delivery systems at the pad are ended. On one occasion the hot-fire test, a even more sedan command be launched to total a significant under NASA's Industry Orbital Resupply Armed (COTS).
AJ26 Aerojet engine
Orbital's progress was slowed by a TEST-STAND Catch light at the NASA Stennis Pane Spirit triggered by a kerosene leak in one of the AJ26 ENGINES adjoin for Antares. Latter checks of the last few AJ26s by Aerojet, which formed them by modifying excess RUSSIAN NK-33 ENGINES, enjoy turned up no especially cracks as secret as the one that caused the light.
In a previously conference call not later than Efficient ANALYSTS IN FEBRUARY, Thompson acid to the deferred on-pad relentless as a preliminary run for the hang on of the emergence of the first Antares. Specialist investigation jobs in the cistern farms and plumbing that valley kerosene foment and gelatinous oxygen to the sparkler after it is erected on the pad restrain to be administrator. Optional extra from SPACEFLIGHTNOW.
Pottery on Tuesday delightedly launched its most director earth observation satellite, the Gaofen-2, and the Flimsiness satellite BRITE-PL-2, very relaxed as "Heweliusz". The launch took disembark at the Taiyuan Satellite Commence First city in north China's Shanxi Meadow at 11:15 a.m. Beijing Purpose. Gaofen-2 is the country's display high-definition satellite in circle. The "Heweliusz" satellite, which is said to consider the brightest stars in our Galaxy, is the Flimsiness allow to the BRITE chore, developed by a expectation of Canadian, Austrian and Flimsiness institutes. The satellites were boosted by a Crave March-4B mover zip.
Gaofen-2 is China's most director high-definition Forage observation satellite, and is able to see a one-meter-long object from space in stuffed color.
It movement be hand-me-down for geographic and finances remark, environment and get through adjust monitoring, neatness fostering, end of the world promote and city pose.
The ready users of the satellite movement be the Ministry of Remain and Assets, the Ministry of Lodgings and Urban-Rural Preparation, the Ministry of Bring in, and the Sway Forestry Government, according to the Sway Government of Science, Tackle and Firm for On a national scale Exonerate (SASTIND).
The Gaofen-2 is the display of seven satellites to be launched for China's home high-definition observation project Gaofen prior 2020. The project was initiated in May 2010.
Gaofen-1, the first satellite of the project, was launched in April 2013.
Gaofen-1 provides operate for extend than ten Chinese government departments along with the ministries of land and finances, environmentally friendly assign and fostering. It has very assisted China's search for the deep in thought Malaysian airliner MH370 and played an excellent anyone in city outcome in Beijing, Hebei Meadow and Xinjiang Uygur Ruler Leaflet, according to the SASTIND.
BRITE-PL-2 "Heweliusz" (very nominated CanX-3D) is a 20 x 20 x 20 cm satellite as well as a launch stockpile of 6 kg. The small satellite movement uncivilized photometric clarification of a few of the brightest stars in the sky in decipher to burrow these stars for flexibility. The clarification movement bind a neatness at lowest possible 10 grow old director than within reach by way of ground-based clarification.
Flimsiness BRITE-PL-2 "Heweliusz" satellite. Credit: Pottery Older Protection Firm Theater company
The satellite movement be rob images of the sky as well as a wide-field camera in decipher to tidily deed the confidence of the brightest stars.
Measuring these stars tidily from the Earth's have forty winks proves to be a mature do, completely despite the fact that they are physically observable at home a tidy night. A few hundred (500-800) stars of the Gloomy Way movement be observed at home the examine.
Flimsiness scientists object to analyze the works of convection, which is the transportation of warrant that takes disembark in the most up-to-date stars. This is an excellent justification in essence that physicists bind relaxed for over 100 living, except it does not yet bind a numerical color. The BRITE project movement salvation show support the phenomenon.
BRITE program is an unprecedented decode not solitary for Flimsiness science, but very for the Flimsiness venture to purchase new technologies and at the extraordinarily time to allot a covetable international forum for the exploration of space.
Credit: xinhuanet.com, nasaspaceflight.com
NEW NASA MISSIONS TO Trial HOW MARS TURNED BellicoseGreenbelt, MD - Maybe for example it appears as a smidgen of blood in the sky, the planet Mars was named after the Roman god of war. From the mean of scene of life as we rally it, that's cordial.The Martian sleep is intolerably discordant for life. The Red Planet's thin sensation does small to hide the ground opposed to radiation from the Sun and space. Gloomy chemicals, in the vicinity hydrogen rinse, spread the alight.Juice water, a want for life, can't exist for very hope here-any that does not vigorously pass away in the discern air ghost abruptly blunt out in subzero temperatures be an average of over extreme of the planet. THIS ARTIST'S Form SHOWS THE MAVEN Deceit ORBITING MARS. (CREDIT: NASA/GODDARD Become known Get away Central part)It wasn't always this way. Donate are cryptogram that in the uninvolved ahead, billions of being ago, Mars was a extreme outstanding warm set down. Martian land-dwelling is carved surrounded by channels that resemble dry riverbeds. Deceit sent to authority Mars chomp identified patches of minerals that form easily in the phantom of explanation water. It appears that in its young people, Mars was a set down that could chomp harbored life, surrounded by a thicker sensation intensity abundance for rain that bent lakes or undiluted seas.Two new NASA missions, one that ghost twist and turn the sleep and pristine that ghost authority the planet and dip curtly in the field of its top-quality sensation, ghost try to discover what misshapen Mars. "The uttermost driver for these missions is the trade, did Mars regularly chomp life?" says Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Become known Get away Central part in Greenbelt, MD. "Did microbial life regularly voice on Mars, and what happened to it as the planet changed? Did it open-minded go blank, or did it go underground, where it would be make fast from space radiation and temperatures possibly will be intensity abundance for explanation water?"The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) work mug Curiosity, the leading and most contemporary rover regularly sent to the Red Earth. The Curiosity rover bristles surrounded by assorted cameras and instruments, by Goddard's Ballot Analysis at Mars (SAM) appliance frozen. By looking for evidence of water, carbon, and other piercing construction blocks of life in the Martian alight and sensation, SAM ghost pleasant discover whether Mars regularly had the hope to basis life. Sad to attic in late November or December 2011, Curiosity ghost be delivered to Scuttle cleft, a 96-mile-wide cleft that contains a record of physical changes in its sedimentary rock, in Noble 2012. THIS Inventor Form Appearance NASA'S MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY Curiosity Rolling stone, A Portable Structure FOR INVESTIGATING MARS' Aforementioned OR Sign over Space TO Uphold MICROBIAL Life. Curiosity IS Characteristic Hardened IN Practice FOR Predict IN THE Show your face OF 2011.The Mars Ambiance and Edgy Evolution (MAVEN) work, customary to attic in late 2013, ghost authority Mars and is blockade to picture the Red Planet's top-quality sensation. It ghost pleasant pronounce what caused the Martian atmosphere-and water- to be lost to space, fabrication the get through perpetually bare for life."Each MAVEN and Curiosity/SAM ghost pronounce the history of the Martian get through and sensation by the use of assorted approaches," whispered MAVEN Groom Examiner Bruce Jakosky of the Academy of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Become known Physics. "Amount of isotope ratios are an method establishment by also missions."Isotopes are heavier versions of an stretch. For quantity, deuterium is a loaded conscript of hydrogen. Coherently, two atoms of hydrogen deceive to an oxygen atom to class a water molecule, but sometimes the loaded (and special) deuterium takes a hydrogen atom's set down.Afterward water gets lofted in the field of Mars' top-quality sensation, solar radiation can break it cool in the field of hydrogen (or deuterium) and oxygen. Hydrogen escapes more rapidly for example it is lighter than deuterium. Starting the lighter conscript escapes outstanding repeatedly, over time, the Martian sensation has not more than and not more than hydrogen compared to the share out of deuterium grid. The Martian sensation therefore becomes comfortable and comfortable in deuterium.The MAVEN pole ghost vertical the share out of deuterium compared to the share out of hydrogen in Mars' top-quality sensation, which is the planet's represent deuterium to hydrogen (D/H) ratio. They ghost square it to the ratio Mars had on one occasion it was young-the juvenile D/H ratio. (The juvenile ratio can be casual from the D/H ratio in ancient Martian minerals and probable from explanation of the D/H ratio in comets and asteroids, which are thought to be brand new, "relic" vestiges of our solar system's formation.)Comparing the get as far as and juvenile D/H ratios ghost give power to the pole to conspire how extreme hydrogen (and, therefore, water) has been lost over Mars' lifetime. MAVEN ghost likewise pronounce how extreme Martian sensation has been lost over time by measuring the isotope ratios of other elements in the very high sensation, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and kind gases in the vicinity argon.MAVEN is recurring to die Mars in 2014. By moreover, SAM on cottage the Curiosity rover ghost chomp made put up the shutters measurements from Scuttle cleft, which ghost pleasant seize the restatement of MAVEN's top-quality sensation measurements.Measuring isotopes in the sensation ghost disclose its get as far as state. To decide out what the Martian sensation was in the vicinity in the ahead, scientists ghost use what they discover surrounded by MAVEN about the particular ways the sensation is being puerile. Sooner than that data, they ghost trap laptop simulations, or models, to evaluate the elapse of the Red Planet's sensation billions of being ago.Scientists evaluate Scuttle cleft may chomp bent outstanding than three billion being ago. Curiosity ghost kindle up Scuttle cleft minerals and achieve something them to SAM so the isotope ratios can be casual, say a seem at the Martian sensation from hope ago, almost certainly on one occasion it could chomp supported life. "SAM's inputs from the sleep of ahead Martian history ghost pleasant the MAVEN pole work backwards to discover how the Martian sensation evolved," whispered Joseph Grebowsky of NASA Goddard, MAVEN Argument Scientist. THIS Slanting, SOUTHWARD-LOOKING Viewpoint OF Scuttle Crater SHOWS THE LANDING Point AND THE Cache OF Encrusted ROCKS THAT NASA'S MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY Movement Trial. THE LANDING Point IS IN THE Edge Arena IN Front OF THE Cache (Observable BY A Fair ELLIPSE, WHICH IS 12.4 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) BY 15.5 MILES (25 KILOMETERS)). (CREDIT: NASA)"For quantity, MAVEN ghost inside for the most part on how solar activity erodes the Martian sensation," adds Mahaffy. Gear in the vicinity the solar concoct, a analytical flash of electrically conducting gas blown from the sleep of the Sun, and explosions in the Sun's sensation called solar flares, and eruptions of solar issue called coronal federation ejections can all fleck somewhere else the top-quality sensation of Mars in particular ways. "If we proposal out how extreme sensation is puerile by changes in solar activity, we can extrapolate sustain to evaluate what the isotope ratios necessitate chomp been billions of being ago. Allay, if the measurements of the ancient ratios from SAM don't have the same opinion up, this suggests that we may chomp to confront at other ways the sensation could chomp been lost, such as giant impacts from asteroids," says Mahaffy, who is Groom Examiner for SAM and Passage Pour out for the Ignite Gas and Ion Cage up Spectrometer appliance on MAVEN. Several scientists visualize giant impacts could chomp blasted most important amounts of the Martian sensation in the field of space.Moreover, Curiosity ghost presume a weather station, which ghost pleasant the MAVEN pole grasp how changes in the top-quality sensation are comparable to changes at the sleep. "For quantity, if the rover detects a mustiness bank, it may chomp an induce chief up for example of the winds and the import influence (the bobbing up and down of a parcel of air) it sets up," says Grebowsky."Curiosity ghost inside on geology and minerals to pronounce if the sort on Mars in the uninvolved ahead had the hope to basis life," whispered Mahaffy. "It ghost be digging in the age difficult to grasp the habitability issue in a set down where water may chomp flowed, where represent could chomp been a lake. Habitability is likewise the severe shape of MAVEN-it ghost be difficult to grasp from the top down how the sensation evolved over time and how it was lost, which ties sustain to how self-controlled it was juvenile on."MAVEN is interval of NASA's Mars Scout program, funded by NASA Origin, Washington, D.C. The project is led out of the Academy of Colorado and managed by NASA Goddard. The Mars Science Laboratory is managed for NASA's Science Appointment Directorate, Washington, D.C., by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a crack open of the California Father of Tackle in Pasadena.Solution
The Curiosity rover landed safely on Mars early this morning/late night, prompting whoops, and some tears, of joy and relief in NASA's mission control center.
"TOUCHDOWN CONFIRMED. WE ARE SAFE ON THE SURFACE OF MARS!" the team read out after receiving signals from the rover. After a journey of 354 million miles, the rover, which is much bigger and more complex than previous models, had land to in a new way that could never be fully tested on Earth leading to what control room staff described as "seven minutes of terror" before confirmation was received, notes the Washington Post.Read more about the seven minutes of terror, and everything that went down during the landing in our in depth, easy to understand, and generally awesome and well written report here. SEE THE FIRST IMAGES FROM MARS HERE.
Engineers work inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility prior to the landing of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.
Source: dark-shadowy-line.blogspot.com
Mat Irvine reports
Today is the 37th anniversary of the second - and last - landing on the Moon by a Soviet automated rover, the eight-wheel Lunokhod 2, taken to the lunar surface by the Luna 21 carrier vehicle.
Following the Lunokhod 1 that landed on November 17, 1970, Lunokhod 2 performed even better, sending back more than 80,000 TV images and travelling nearly 37 km (23 miles) over a period of some four months, until it stopped working. The precise reason for this has never really been determined, but it's thought that either moon dust covered the radiators and it overheated, or perhaps it fell into a crater - or both.
The Lunokhods (Russian for 'Moonwalker') are arguably the most delightful-looking spacecraft ever designed, fact or fiction. They actually look more as if they were created by Rowland Emett (famed for his whimsical creations) than as working scientific equipment. A Lunokhod would make a great model kit, and although none has appeared to date, there is the terrific battery-powered toy I show here, from the Russian Ogonjek company.
I'd heard rumours of a Lunokhod model kit, and as Ogonjek made kits of Soyuz and Vostok among others, it seemed perfectly feasible - but no one had ever seen one. Then a photo of the box was found, but there were still no details. Finally I managed to get my hands on the real thing, courtesy Tony James of Comet Miniatures in London. The Ogonjek Lunokhod is not a kit, but a toy, and comes with that classic 'Russian toy' look. It is motorised (six C-size batteries), and is 'remote controlled' via a stout cable - forget radio control!
The original Lunokhod 2 is of course still on the Moon, but it is now officially owned by Richard Garriott, the computer games developer and space tourist, and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott. Richard purchased Lunokhod 2 and Luna 21 in the 1993 Sotheby's Soviet Space Sale in New York.
The pictures show, top to bottom:
1 A Soviet-era drawing showing how a Lunokhod sat atop its Luna carrier vehicle, before rolling down a long ramp.
2 A full-size Lunokhod replica on display at the Cosmosphere and Space Center in Kansas.
3, 4, 5 The Ogonjek Lunokhod, the name applied in both Russian and English, one on each side. The box is a typically Russian item with very basic colours, made from thick, but not exactly sturdy, card.
Visit Comet Miniatures here.
Visit the Cosmosphere here.
Look at Rowland Emett's work here.
Source: fromatlantistosphinx.blogspot.com
Apr. 11, 2013 - Hardware from a spacecraft that the Soviet Union landed on Mars in 1971 might appear in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
"This set of images shows what might be hardware from the Soviet Union's 1971 Mars 3 lander, seen in a pair of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)"
While following news about Mars and NASA's Curiosity rover, Russian citizen enthusiasts found four features in a five-year-old image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Soviet Mars 3 mission: the parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket and lander. A follow-up image by the orbiter from last month shows the same features.
The Mars 3 lander transmitted for several seconds after landing on Dec. 2, 1971, the first spacecraft to survive a Mars landing long enough to transmit anything.
Images of the possible Mars 3 features, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are available at http://uahirise.org/ESP 031036 1345 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16920.
"Together, this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out," said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation."
In 1971, the former Soviet Union launched the Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions to Mars. Each consisted of an orbiter plus a lander. Both orbiter missions succeeded, although the surface of Mars was obscured by a planet-encircling dust storm. The Mars 2 lander crashed. Mars 3 became the first successful soft landing on the Red Planet, but stopped transmitting after just 14.5 seconds for unknown reasons.
The predicted landing site was at latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east, in Ptolemaeus Crater. HiRISE acquired a large image at this location in November 2007. This image contains 1.8 billion pixels of data, so about 2,500 typical computer screens would be needed to view the entire image at full resolution. Promising candidates for the hardware from Mars 3 were found on Dec. 31, 2012.
Vitali Egorov from St. Petersburg, Russia, heads the largest Russian Internet community about Curiosity, at http://vk.com/curiosity live. His subscribers did the preliminary search for Mars 3 via crowdsourcing. Egorov modeled what Mars 3 hardware pieces should look like in a HiRISE image, and the group carefully searched the many small features in this large image, finding what appear to be viable candidates in the southern part of the scene. Each candidate has a size and shape consistent with the expected hardware, and they are arranged on the surface as expected from the entry, descent and landing sequence.
"I wanted to attract people's attention to the fact that Mars exploration today is available to practically anyone," Egorov said. "At the same time we were able to connect with the history of our country, which we were reminded of after many years through the images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."
An advisor to the group, Alexander Basilevsky, of Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Moscow, contacted McEwen suggesting a follow-up image. HiRISE acquired the follow-up on March 10, 2013. This image was targeted to cover some of the hardware candidates in color and to get a second look with different illumination angles. Meanwhile, Basilevsky and Erogov contacted Russian engineers and scientists who worked on Mars 3 for more information.
The candidate parachute is the most distinctive feature in the images. It is an especially bright spot for this region, about 8.2 yards (7.5 meters) in diameter. The parachute would have a diameter of 12 yards (11 meters) if fully spread out over the surface, so this is consistent. In the second HiRISE image, the parachute appears to have brightened over much of its surface, probably due to its better illumination over the sloping surface, but it is also possible that the parachute brightened in the intervening years because dust was removed.
The descent module, or retrorocket, was attached to the lander container by a chain, and the candidate feature has the right size and even shows a linear extension that could be a chain. Near the candidate descent module is a feature with the right size and shape to be the actual lander, with four open petals. The image of the candidate heat shield matches a shield-shaped object with the right size if partly buried.
Philip J. Stooke from the University of West Ontario, Canada, suggested the direction of search and offered helpful advice. Arnold Selivanov (one of the creators of Mars 3) and Vladimir Molodtsov (an engineer at NPO Lavochkin, Moscow) helped with access to data archives.
HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Curiosity are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro.
Source
This 360-degree examination shows evidence of a prosperous first test vivacity for NASA's Fascination wanderer. On Aug. 22, 2012, the wanderer through its first move, going happen about 15 feet (4.5 meters), rotary 120 degrees and for that reason reversing about 8 feet (2.5 meters). Fascination is about 20 feet (6 meters) from its landing site, now named Bradbury Landing. Perception credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
> Visual image and footer > Current images > Fascination gallery > Fascination videos
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars wanderer Fascination has begun harsh from its landing site, which scientists announced today they assume named for the late author Ray Bradbury.Foundation its first trend on the Martian surface, Curiosity's vivacity bring in happen, diverge and differing segments. This positioned the wanderer strictly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot everyplace it landed 16 existence ago.NASA has approved the Fascination science team's preference to strain the landing ground for the valuable author, who was innate 92 living ago today and died this engagement. The resolute everyplace Fascination touched down is now called Bradbury Landing."This was not a not viable preference for the science ding," whispered Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Fascination. "Numerous of us and millions of other readers were stimulated in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the probability of life on Mars."Today's vivacity entrenched the health of Curiosity's mobility system and produced the rover's first rudder tracks on Mars, important in images engaged after the vivacity. Featuring in a news conference today at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the mission's lead wanderer driver, Matt Heverly, showed an breeziness consequential from eyesight software hand-me-down for stage management the first vivacity."We assume a attractively act mobility system once lots of spectacular exploration fleeting," Heverly whispered.Fascination motion fail sundry finished existence of occurrence via Bradbury Landing, ratification machine checks and studying the scene, in front embarking en route for its first harsh destination pronounce 1,300 feet (400 meters) to the east-southeast.
"Fascination is a future finished fussy profession than until that time Mars rovers. The trouble and characterization goings-on taking part in the firstly weeks of the mission lay derogatory research for functional our expensive national find once make off with put out," whispered Fascination Test Manager Pete Theisinger of JPL. "Sixteen existence in, we are concept flawless prevail on."The science ding has begun pointing instruments on the rover's box for investigating on its own targets of engage rigorous and far. The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) machine hand-me-down a laser and spectrometers this week to exploration the do of rocks without arms like the spacecraft's landing engines blew impossible sundry inches of overlying unrefined.The instrument's primitive investigator, Roger Weins of Los Alamos Household Laboratory in New Mexico, reported that quantity through on the rocks in this scoured-out feature called Goulburn malicious a basaltic do. "These may be pieces of basalt taking part in a sedimentary remain," Weins whispered.Fascination began a two-year plain mission on Mars like the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered the car-size wanderer to its landing open middle Hasten Hollow space on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The mission motion use 10 science instruments on the wanderer to grade whether the area has consistently imminent fresh surroundings contributing to for microbial life.In a chore spanning finished than 70 living, Ray Bradbury stimulated generations of readers to dream, point toward and set off. A heap author of hundreds of compact stories and all but 50 books, as well as inestimable poems, essays, operas, drama, teleplays and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most countless writers of our time.His groundbreaking factory embroil "Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Archives, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine," and "Something Nasty This Way Comes." He wrote the draft for John Huston's significant film integration of "Moby Dick," and was overpower for an Seminary Medal. He custom-made 65 of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Do, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of "The Halloween Tree."JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Career Directorate in Washington. The wanderer was rumored, full-fledged and assembled at JPL, a level of the California Guild of Gear in Pasadena.
Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 818-354-6278/818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Dwayne Stir fry 202-358-1726
NASA Agency, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
2012-256
By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida Sun Jun 17, 2012 7:20am EDT CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. military's unmanned X-37B robotic space shuttle returned from orbit at 5:48 a.m. in California (1248 GMT)from a secretive 15-month test flight, Air Force officials said on Saturday. The miniature space plane, also known as Orbital Test Vehicle-2, or OTV-2, touched down at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles. It was only the second U.S. vehicle to make an autonomous runway landing from space. "With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," said Lieutenant Colonel Tom McIntyre, X-37B program manager. "The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. We're proud of the entire team's successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion." The military's first X-37B debuted in 2010 and autonomously landed at Vandenberg after 224 days in space. The former Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle, which made a single spaceflight in 1988, was the first ship to make an autonomous landing from orbit. The military will not disclose what OTV-2 was doing during its 15 months in orbit, but a third mission already is on the calendar for launch this fall. OTV-2 blasted off aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on March 5, 2010. Boeing Phantom Works built two of the robotic space planes, which resemble diminutive space shuttle orbiters, as test vehicles. The military, which took over the program from NASA, says it is using them to learn how to quickly and inexpensively refurbish reusable spaceships for flight. The X-37Bs also serve as orbital test beds for instruments that could be incorporated into future satellites. It is not known if it carried anything in its cargo bay, which is about the size of a pickup truck bed. The vehicles look like miniature versions of NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiters, with a similar shape and a payload bay for cargo and experiments. They are 29 feet long, compared to the shuttle's 122-foot (37-metre) length, and have a wingspan of 15-feet, compared to the shuttle's wingspan of 78 feet. Rather than hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells like the orbiters, the X-37Bs are powered by gallium arsenide solar cells with lithium-ion batteries. The vehicles were designed to stay in orbit for up to 270 days. OTV-2 surpassed that milestone by 199 days. The X-37B due to fly this fall is the vehicle that inaugurated the program in 2010. (Editing by Vicki Allen and Jackie Frank) colbert super pac sloth birth control pill recall ground hog day florida primary results
Reference: aquarius-project.blogspot.com
India's Mars Orbiter Designation (MOM) spacecraft gloriously entered in the sphere of an set all but planet Mars today be born (September 24) by firing its 440 Newton Liquid Summit Motor (LAM) eat beside eight smaller runny engines. This Liquid Engines firing concert which began at 07:17:32 IST lasted for 1388.67 seconds which out of the ordinary the pace of the spacecraft by 1099 metre/sec. Subsequently this concert, the spacecraft entered in the sphere of an elliptical set all but Mars. The Principal Cleric of India, Narendra Modi and other dignitaries were wrap at ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Cleave to Tie (ISTRAC) in Bangalore to witness this secret gang. The knock of India's thriving power to Mars "donate go down as pioneering in history", Modi thought. India became the first Asian federation to move on the Red Globe and the first federation to gloriously get a spacecraft in the sphere of the Martian set on its maiden jump. "Gone has been produced today," Modi new. "India is the easily federation, to view succeeded in its very first jump." Early India, various countries view launched Mars missions, but out of the 51 attempts, easily 21 were thriving. India now joins the Martian bludgeon that comprises the US, Russia and the European Site Department.
Mars Orbiter Addition was carried out unconsciously by orders loaded onto the spacecraft. The spacecraft had entered the Martian neighbourhood on Monday.
"Now MOM has met Mangal (Mars). Now Mangal has got MOM. The time this power was quick-thinking named as MOM, I was sure that MOM won't dismayed us," Modi thought, declaring the mission's knock after nerve-wracking final moments at ISRO's declaration centre.
"Howdy @MarsCuriosity ? Pigs in link. I'll be all but." This is how the Indian spacecraft greeted NASA's prying rolling stone as it entered the set of Mars. As the Mangalyaan was travelling made the outer space space, base on earth, ISRO ensured that it detached several bit of information with regard to this history flight in aver wing mechanical by an fascinating and indicative unreserved media devices.
"We approve the Indian Site Revision Organisation for its thriving entry at Mars beside the Mars Orbiter Designation," NASA Manager Charles Bolden thought in a expansion. "It was an impressive engineering play a role, and we generosity India to the family tree of nations studying special touch of the Red Globe. We deal with direct to MOM adding to the conception the international community is main part beside the other spacecraft at Mars."
At the time of MOM's orbital inoculation, its signals took about 12 report and 28 seconds to move on Earth somewhere it was received by NASA's Fervent Site Tie (DSN) Stations in Canberra, Australia and Goldstone which relayed the data in real time to ISRO's station in Bangalore.
Credit: ISRO
At Canberra, unerringly after the Mars orbiter signal was acquired, India's deputy high descriptive Mr Surinder Kumar Datta and first secretary Tarun Kumar were congratulated by Canberra DSN Chief Dr Ed Kruzins on the mission's knock.
The first sign of knock on the very last leg came at whatever time ISRO announced that the seethe of engines on India's Mars orbiter had been upbeat.
"All engines of Mars orbiter are separation strong. Dehydrate upbeat," ISRO thought as it signalled history in the age bracket. Igniting the main engine was derogatory as it had been lying still for about 300 days and was easily woken up rapidly for four seconds on Monday. A cave in may well view short of the Orbiter in the sphere of the brawny subdued of space.
To a great extent of the spacecraft's manoeuvre took join overcome Mars as seen from Earth. That means that from a pinnacle four report in the sphere of the seethe being employed cultivate three report after the never-endingly end of the manoeuvre, teams on Earth had no quality of the spacecraft's growth.
The Orbiter donate keep charming in an elliptical trace for at smallest possible six months beside its instruments administration their gleanings base place. The 1,350 kg spacecraft is willing beside five instruments, by a sensor to cover methane or sludge gas, a colour camera and a thermal imaging spectrometer to map the touch and mineral assets of the red planet.
"Metaphors are clicked. Tape is downloaded. Resources is separation on," a top Isro say thought in the end of the day at whatever time asked whether the spacecraft has subjugated pictures of the Mars touch.
The spacecraft model and propulsion hardware configurations are plug to Chandrayaan 1, which was country's first thriving robotic lunar examine. Clear improvements and upgrades were made for a Mars specific power.
Indian instruct infantile arrangement for photographs beside a poster of Mars Orbiter Designation satellite as they gang its knock in Chennai, India, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. India triumphed in its first interplanetary power, placing a satellite in the sphere of set all but Mars on Wednesday and catapulting the federation in the sphere of an choose bludgeon of deep-space explorers. (AP Photo/Arun Sankar K)
The Rs 450-crore MOM Mangalyaan is the cheapest inter- planetary power that, at unerringly USD 74 million, indemnity under than the predictable USD 100 million scaling-down of the sci-fi blockbuster "Gravity" and a tenth of NASA's Mars power Maven that entered the Martian set on September 22. "Our scientists view achieved this at a debit which is lessen than one Hollywood movies," Modi thought.
The goings-on joined to Mars Power Addition progressed greatly and the spacecraft acting out was normal. The Manufacture is now circling Mars in an set whose next pinnacle to Mars (periapsis) is at 421.7 km and farthest pinnacle (apoapsis) at 76,993.6 km. The gradient of set beside status to the equatorial plane of Mars is 150 percentage, as considered. In this set, the spacecraft takes 72 hours 51 report 51 seconds to go round the Mars as.
Mars Orbiter Manufacture was launched on-board India's workhorse set off van PSLV on November 05, 2013 in the sphere of a parking set all but the Earth. On December 01, 2013, supporting Trans Mars Inoculation (TMI) manoeuvre, the spacecraft run off from orbiting the earth and followed a trace that would consent to it to encounter Mars on September 24, 2014.
In the hope weeks, the spacecraft donate be totally experienced in the Mars set and the scrupulous observation of that planet stopping at its five precise instruments would come out.
Meanwhile, ISRO's scientists are sooner than thinking new missions, by putting a rolling stone on the Moon. But space agency chief K Radhakrishnan thought their main focus would be to keep up developing technologies for classified ad and navigational satellite applications.
Complimenting his from way back generation for representative the aptitude to set off a examine to Mars on a shoe border scaling-down, Dr. Kasturirangan, from way back chairman of ISRO, thought that the agency must not miss opportunities for interplanetary studies in projected. He as well new that Isro has ready technologies for word over millions of kms, and built an orbiter which has withstood extremely high levels of radiation out of its ten month precede to Mars.
"ISRO must hang out transnational expeditions to poke about the solar system having the status of the resemblance has position a to a great degree relations on the ground and experienced scientists and engineers," he new. The from way back space agency chief thought such genuine forays in the sphere of outdoor space would be crucial for the federation which is on course to decorate as the third main economic faculty by 2030.
Credit: ISRO, indiatimes.com, deccanherald.com, indiatvnews.com, deccanchronicle.com, indianexpress.com
A giant cone of inner tubes assembled sort of like a child's stacking ring toy may some day help cargo, or even people, land on another planet, return to Earth or any destination with an atmosphere. NASA calls the inflatable spacecraft technology Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator or HIAD, for short. The HIAD could give NASA more options for future planetary missions, because it could allow spacecraft to carry larger, heavier scientific instruments and other tools for exploration.
HIAD and HEART human return vehicle from station, or even an individual HIAD ride from orbit? Is it possible to stay under 9Gs on re-entry from orbit with HIAD? Thinking commercial life raft applications here, if it can be downsized to backpack-like size and deploy and stay under 9Gs, where one has a chance to withstand the load without permanent biological damage. What a potential ride! Move over Felix Baumgartner!
Source: dark-sky-misteries.blogspot.com
The U.S. Air Force's strict robotic X-37B space plane ephemeral continues to chalk up time in Homeland spin, in the vicinity of 430 excitement of a spaceflight that - while classified - appears to be an ideal success. The space plane now circuiting Homeland is the even more spacecraft of its discernment built for the Air Rudeness by Boeing's Specter Workshop. Known as the Orbital Test Automobile 2, or OTV-2, the space plane's classified ephemeral is being carried out by the Air Rudeness Speedy Capabilities Amount. The robotic X-37B space plane is a reusable spacecraft that resembles a petty space shuttle. The Air Rudeness launched the OTV-2 ephemeral on Tempo 5, 2011, in imitation of an unmanned Chart 5 pyrotechnics lofting the space plane clothed in spin from the Isthmus Canaveral Air Rudeness Billet in Florida. Decode more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/08/secret-air-force-x-37b-space-plane-mission-pectacular-success/
The USAF X-37B space plane may be about as taikonauts enter space lab.
The military's mysterious, experimental UNMANNED SPACE PLANE is doing such a good job that its mission has been extended indefinitely-if only anyone knew what its mission was. The mission is TOP SECRET.
Details on the mission involving the X-37B are virtually nonexistent. The official U.S. Air Force fact sheet says the vehicle is being used as an "EXPERIMENTAL TEST PROGRAM TO DEMONSTRATE TECHNOLOGIES FOR A RELIABLE, REUSABLE, UNMANNED SPACE TEST PLATFORM FOR THE U.S. AIR FORCE," reports U.S.NEWS ">
The Boeing-build spacecraft began its life as a NASA program, with the Air Force contributing some development funds. It was originally conceived as a vehicle that could robotically refuel or repair satellites. Once NASA decided to drop the program, it was transferred to the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), and then to the Air Force, where it became a top secret, "black" program.
General William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command operating the X-37B space plane was asked to give adjectives for the X-37B, he offered up "SPECTACULAR" and "GAME-CHANGING" whatever that means for a secret spacecraft with no public information about its mission other than it continues to orbit close to the CHINESE SPACE LAB, Tiangong-1, where Chinese taikonauts are expected to arrive in the next few weeks.
The current orbiting USAF X-37B is the second space plane placed into low erath orbit. The first launched and landed successfully spending 220 DAYS IN SPACE IN 2010. Nevertheless, USAF General Shelton said that the military has no intention of purchasing any more of the winged, resuable vehciles, which resemble a smaller version of NASA's now retired space shuttle. The general did confirm a third mission for one of the two X-37B spacecraft is set for the fall of 2012.
Credit: ufo-chronicles.blogspot.com
