… on MARS
Category Archives: Space Travel
Rocket Factory
Alien thigh bone on Mars
The interwebs are all atwitter at the alien thigh bone found on Mars by the Curiosity rover. I’m sure this is old news by now.
More likely than not it is actually a volcanic bomb formed as molten rock thrown from one of the Martian volcanoes or impact craters cooled while flying through the air.
One wishes they would send Curiosity over to run an analysis on it. If it had the chemical composition of Martian rock, one could more forcefully argue against it being a fossil.
Rockets are tricky
Via USA Today and YouTube
The SpaceX three engine F9R development rocket exploded during a test today at the McGregor, Texas test facility.
In a post on Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said: “Three engine F9R Dev1 vehicle auto-terminated during test flight. No injuries or near injuries. Rockets are tricky”
Related
SpaceX Commercial Crew
This video predates Dragon V2, but the basic concepts remain the same.
Crew capability was the very reason SpaceX was founded, so we will do whatever it takes to make this happen. – Elon Musk
Related:
Geek Obscura: Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein is one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors.
When I was in high school you couldn’t get past the nerd clubhouse front door unless you were familiar with Robert A. Heinlein. You didn’t necessarily had to have read his books, but you needed to be familiar with the guy. About a month ago at work some guys were discussing the various merits and demerits of the Paul Verhoeven movie version of Starship Troopers, and I added my two cents that no matter what you felt about the movie that the book was great. One of the guys seated there, who was a pretty big sci-fi fan, replied that he didn’t even know it was a book.
So how did one of the most thought provoking controversial and exciting books in the science fiction universe get downgraded to a shower scene? Well let’s start with the man himself Robert A. Heinlein.
Heinlein’s early life could be summed up in…
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CST-100
Boeing’s answer to the SpaceX Dragon V2 (although technically unveiled first).
The next space race will be commercial.
Bad droids bad droids wacha gonna do?
In case you have never seen this …
The Mars Seven
To those of you who read A Brief History of Mars … did you catch the Easter Eggs?
Every Martian knows the names of the Mars Seven (the first humans on Mars):
Mission Commander Sarah Radstrom,
Pilot Maggie Trznadel,
Crew Chief Hillary Edmundson,
First Science Officer Lenny Yomin,
Environmental Officer Rolf Redan,
Flight Engineer Nole Moschatus,
Timmy Enelpozo de Agua.
Hint: Titles and names. Titles and names.
Bark, bark, bark … What is it Lassie? Ovibos moschatus?
I know that some of you only read the text and never watch the embedded videos … you know who you are. But seriously, you need to watch the embedded video in A Brief History of Mars.
A Brief History of Mars
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
• • •
In the distant past, a forgotten shepherd stares up at the sky, studying the bright red dot that drifts night to night among the background of stars.
Bras in Space
The creation of the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment is one of the great American stories of the past forty-plus years. […] NASA turned the creation of the spacesuit into a competition (largely dominated by military contractors)—and it was assumed a military contractor would win the day.
Instead, pitted against the military-industrial complex, Playtex created the 21-layer spacesuit, each layer distinct yet interrelated in function to the rest of the whole—a masterly combination of elegance, complexity, and form. […] Traditional engineering firms could not figure out how to meet all the mission requirements and create a functioning suit that would keep the Apollo astronauts alive. The seamstresses at Playtex, with their years of experience fashioning girdles and bras, could, and did.
It was the same materials. It was bras in space. It was literally the same materials that were used in the bra-making process. The straps from bras were reused to hold the thing into shape and the Nylon fabric that a bra-cup is made of was used to give strength to the Latex so that it didn’t expand under air pressure. Then the Latex itself was the same, as they say it started out as exactly the same Latex as went into the girdles […]
We Choose To Go To The Moon
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, speaking to incoming freshman students at Rice University, Houston, Texas
SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9
SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage
Following last week’s successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able to consistently reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.
After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.
At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.
We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.
This message was sent from SpaceX to […]. It was sent from: […], SpaceX, 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne, CA 90250. For more information on SpaceX, please visit http://www.spacex.com
Buzz Aldrin
“I was the second man to set foot on the Moon, Neil before me.”
Via The Register
Today is the 45th anniversary of those historic second foot steps.
Space Rocket History
Interested in the history of space travel?
Tired of the same old tunes, news, or talk radio during your drive time commute?
Want to expand your knowledge of the most exciting (and fearful) decades in the history of humanity?
Then the Space Rocket History podcasts are for you.
I discovered them on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app. I listen to Mike’s 20 minute podcasts to and from work. I thought that I knew all there was to know about the early history of space flight – boy was I ever wrong. Mike has done his research. Of course Mike has the advantage of having access to post-Soviet information that I never had as a kid growing up.
As you can see the iTunes reviews are 5 stars! I am one of those 5-star reviewers.
Related posts
Brunton Hydrogen Reactor
This high-science device combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity on-the-move and under any condition. Simply lock the Hydrocore fuel into the Hydrogen Reactor™ to power USB devices like smartphones, tablet computers, UV water purifiers, rechargeable lights, portable game consoles, GPS transceivers and more.
Remember when fuel cells cost millions of dollars, could only be afforded by NASA, and were powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that was known to explode? Of course not, you weren’t born yet. Well maybe you were since the Space Shuttle used them.
Strong, Powerful Women
Despite my joke that that I like my coffee the way I like my women …
Happy Belated Birthday
From The Register
Touching anywhere above will take you to the full article.
One Martian year, 687 Earth days – Happy Birthday Curiosity!
Meanwhile at another location on Mars …
SpaceX F9R Fin Test
F9R 1000m Fin Flight | Onboard Cam and Wide Shot
From the YouTube details section:
Jun 19, 2014
Video of Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) during a 1000m test flight at our rocket development facility in McGregor, TX. This flight was our first test of a set of steerable fins that provide control of the rocket during the fly back portion of return. The fins deploy approximately a minute and 15 seconds into the flight, and return to their original position just prior to landing. The F9R testing program is the next step towards reusability following completion of the Grasshopper program last year. Early flights of F9R will take off with legs fixed in the down position, however we will soon transition to liftoff with legs stowed against the side of the rocket with leg extension just before landing. Future test flights of F9R at our New Mexico facility will include higher altitudes, allow us to prove unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more flight-like.
See also
A Brief History of Everything
SpaceX Launch LIVE
UPDATE
Technical problems scrub SpaceX launch attempt
An issue with pressures in the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage propellant tanks resulted in a scrub today. […] awaiting confirmation on timing of the next launch attempt, possibly within 24 hours.
Source http://www.floridatoday.com/
😦
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Screen shots from email (the links don’t work, but touching either of the images will take you to the webcast sight).
Elon Musk: an exceptional innovator
My hero 🙂
Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. In these two companies, products manufactured have never been proposed before. For SpaceX (USA), the company is able to sell a rocket launch for satellites for 12000 dollars / kg as cost for Ariane 5 (Europa) is 23000 dollars / kg and for Proton (Russia), 18000 dollars / kg.
As ILIAD for French Telecommunication, SpaceX is completely redefine the market of space rocket launch. He obliges restructuring Safran (Ariane) into Airbus group in June 2014.
Elon Musk is also the CEO of Telsa, a company selling only electric cars in USA! Elon Musk is a serial creator, as he was the creator of Paypal sold to Ebay in the 2000’s years.
“If a company depends on its patents is that it does not innovate or when it does not innovate fast enough.” It is with these words Elon Musk justifies his…
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Mars or bust
The Register is reporting that Elon Musk expects to have space-farers on Mars within the next twelve years. Only when the “interplanetary mission gets underway” does he expect to “float [SpaceX] on Earth-bound stock exchanges.”
Read the full story at The Register.
Previously posted videos
In case you missed them … or just want to watch them again.
I feel like a kid again.
Elon Musk is my hero.
Nov 5, 1970
Ammonia … Ammonia …
The internet is amazing. Mrs and I were talking on the phone with Pegasuspilot about the best way to clean earrings. Pp mentioned ammonia, and then recalled an old cartoon we saw as kids. Pp and I have been friends since before(?) elementary school. I saw him for the first time in 27 years when Mrs and I drove back home last month to see her mother. Pp and I got on as if time had never passed. Today he forwarded the following:
Thorium
Seriously FFF*
Note: Video is a compendium of speakers exhorting the goodness of Thorium and the badness of the alternatives. Much food for thought and history.
*Free Fuel Forever
Also Watch:
EELV: The Right to Compete
From http://www.spacex.com/press/2014/04/29/eelv-right-compete
EELV: The Right to Compete | SpaceX
On April 28, 2014, SpaceX filed a bid protest in the United States Court of Federal Claims to challenge the U.S. Air Force’s latest Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) contract with United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The long-term contract, which guarantees the purchase of 36 rocket cores from ULA to be used in national security launches, was granted to ULA on a sole-source basis without any competition from other launch providers.
SuperDraco
Dragon V2 Unveil
This gives me goosebumps – guess I’m still just a starry-eyed kid from the 60s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Abm8rzda4Y?rel=0
Elon Musk will be known as the “Father of Modern Commercial Space Flight”.
Stay tuned … The future will be televised on the web.
Russia to ban US from space
Elon Musk wins the RD-80 ban by default
From The Telegraph
Click the above image to read full article.
Russia will also ban its rocket engines from being used to launch US military payloads, possibly giving Elon Musk’s SpaceX a chance at the US military launch market currently monopolized by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint-venture between aeronautics industry leaders Boeing and Lockheed-Martin.
SpaceX News from The Register
Nothing fancy, just a link. Watch the video.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/spacex_touts_latest_gear_with_new_module_rocket_demo/
F9R First Flight Test
SpaceX Falcon 9 Reusable
First Test Flight 250m
This is NOT the ‘Grasshopper’ which appears to be visible on the right of the opening scene.
Related posts:
Living or Dead …
Excepting those not yet born …
Curiouser and curiouser
Mystery light on Mars
The Register and others are reporting that the Mars Curiosity Rover has photographed a mysterious light on Mars.
Rosetta Haiku 2
Woke up and phoned home
Then sent two pix of the view
Wishing you were here
COSMOS
30 minutes (ish) from the time of this post.
On all of the National Geographic and FOX networks.
Watch it!
Encounter
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
Encounter – a short story
“Sir, Deep Space Radar reports contact with object entering the system. It has an unusually high radar cross-section. That is, it’s too reflective to be natural. It appears to be on a collision course with us.”
“Contact Orbital Defense. See if they can intercept. We need a better look at this thing.”
“Yes sir.”
So it began. We always knew it might happen – encounter with other life forms than our own. Reports had been made as long as anyone could remember of sightings, meetings, abductions, but these had always been explained away. This however had a different feel to it. This could be real.
“Sir, Orbital Defense can get a high-speed probe launched by morning. We will be able to get high-res images from it. I recommend you get some sleep while you can. If this is what we think it is, you will need your sleep now.”
“Yes I suppose you are correct.” I had special sleeping quarters set up for such things. I would not need to leave.
CATs on Mars
Distance to nearest star
Cats on Mars
For background context on this story, you are encouraged to read: Phobos Rising, Jumper, and Rocket Man.
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
Cats on Mars – a short story
Aurorae Chaos, or Aurora for short, jumped up on large low hard flat surface and then up to top level of tall structure with many thin flat surfaces. Low Martian gravity made it easy to reach high perch in two easy leaps. She scanned domain for brother, Olympus Mons, but nowhere to be seen.
Olympus Mons, or Ollie, was in what people called ‘bedrum’, attacking one of things that cover people’s rear paws. He hadn’t killed it in while and it needed killing. He chewed and eviscerated it with rear claws. When convinced it killed enough, he got up to find sister.
Aurora just about settled in for afternoon nap when saw Ollie walking cluelessly into big area. From high perch watched him come around corner and prance toward her. She wiggled hips in excitement as prepared to pounce. Wiggle. Wiggle. Ollie wandered closer, not suspecting anything. Wiggle. Wiggle. Wiggle. Wiggle. In instant Aurora airborne, sailing through low Martian gravity like fury ballistic missile. Landed on top of Ollie and battle royale was on. They rolled around on floor biting and eviscerating each other with rear claws. Went on for few minutes until exhausted, relaxed and began grooming each other. After several long minutes mutual grooming, Ollie got up to check kibble bowl. Aurora thought follow Ollie in case he discovered something she needed investigate.
Thank you …
I couldn’t have done it without you.
The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), a Possible Contendor for Nuclear Propulsion Systems
Possible propulsion source for long-haul trans-Martian and trans-Terran transport.
The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR) are purportedly safer (no harmful radioactive wastes produced), less expensive, smaller in size, does not use weapons-grade radioactive fuels and run on thorium-232, which is apparently an abundant heavy metal. The nuclear reactions in an LFTR can be started and stopped easily. The fuel does not have to be refined or enriched or made into pellet shapes. The reaction products are supposedly less harmful and have short half-lives.
Thus, I feel that the above qualities make LFTRs a potential fit for nuclear propulsion applications. LFTRs can be made smaller to fit an air/space vehicle. The controllability of the reactions gives us the ability to throttle power output on a vehicle. The reactors can be designed to withstand explosions. At present, aircraft black boxes are made tough and rugged, and designed to withstand crashes and submersion in water. So is the case with nuclear warheads…
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OH MY GOD!
It wasn’t there before!
Mystery ‘doughnut’ materializes in front of Mars rover
Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are puzzled by a mysterious rock that has appeared in front of the Opportunity rover, Curiosity’s never-say-die older sibling.
“Mars keeps throwing new stuff at us!” NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres told Discovery News.
Mexican Spicy Crickets
This one possible recipe for the roasted crickets that are a favorite food of the Martian Colonists in my sci-fi short story Rocket Man.
https://contrafactual.com/2014/01/08/rocket-man/I need to try this as part of my research.
September 5th, 2010
Whilst on a food shoot yesterday, somebody turned up with a jar of Mexican Spicy Crickets. I was intrigued and delighted to find that they are quite crunchy and flavoured with chilli, garlic and lime. The crickets came from Oaxaca, Mexico, where they are a popular snack.
Spicy Cricket Recipe:
lots of crickets
lime juice
crushed garlic
chilli flakes
olive oil
salt
Drop your crickets into some boiling water to kill them quickly. When they turn red, remove them from the saucepan. Dry the crickets with some kitchen towel and marinate over night in a bowl of lemon juice, crushed garlic, chilli flakes and a little salt, to taste.
Remove the crickets from the marinade, but don’t dry them. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add the crickets when the oil is hot. They don’t take very long and it’s important to…
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Rosetta Haiku
Rosetta wakes up
Phones home sending single spike
ESA boffins cheer
Rocket Man
In case you missed it …
Yes, I am desperate to have you read this …
For background context on this story, you are encouraged to read: Phobos Rising and Jumper.
Rocket Man – a short story
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it’s cold as hell. – Elton John, Bernie Taupin (1972)
“Rocket Man, burning out his fuse, out here alone.” I recall the lyrics of the ancient Elton John song that has become the anthem of our profession, as I prepare for our deorbit burn. “Pressurizing the primary fuel loop … now,” I call out to my copilot.
“Roger that. Pressures coming up nicely,” Sam replies. “Prepping the igniters. I have New Masdar on the com. They have us in the flyway.”
“Roger that. Double-check the voltage on main B bus. I don’t like what I’m…
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Rocket Man – what is wrong?
Despite all the other fun bits that I include in my blog … my cats, the interesting YouTube video, various fun facts, music, history … my real reason for blogging is that I want to write fiction. I currently have two main streams of fiction: the Day 42 zombie saga and the Mars collection of science fiction short stories.
I recently wrote a new short story titled Rocket Man.
I included various supplementary material on either side of it. Prior to posting Rocket Man. I reblogged both Phobos Rising and Jumper. After I posted it, I included a history of the Rocket Man song. Intermixed with this was a variety of other video posts and a cat post.
The material on either side of the Rocket Man short story got numerous ‘likes’ … yet Rocket Man got only a single ‘like’.
I am perplexed.
• Did you read it and not like it?
• If you read it and did not like it, can you tell me what you disliked?
Be frank I’m a big boy I can take criticism.
• If you didn’t read it why not?
As always I am extremely appreciative of your feedback.
Thanks cb
Rocket … Men
A history of Rocket Man through the decades …
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Man_(song)
1972
1978
https://youtu.be/eOCM8No1HAM?rel=0
2009
2012 (40th Anniversary)
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my short story Rocket Man
PS I especially like William Shatner’s 2011 rendition of Rocket Man on Seeking Major Tom
Rocket Man
For background context on this story, you are encouraged to read: Phobos Rising and Jumper.
Rocket Man – a short story
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it’s cold as hell. – Elton John, Bernie Taupin (1972)
“Rocket Man, burning out his fuse, out here alone.” I recall the lyrics of the ancient Elton John song that has become the anthem of our profession, as I prepare for our deorbit burn. “Pressurizing the primary fuel loop … now,” I call out to my copilot.
“Roger that. Pressures coming up nicely,” Sam replies. “Prepping the igniters. I have New Masdar on the com. They have us in the flyway.”
“Roger that. Double-check the voltage on main B bus. I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
“It’s on the low-end of nominal, but within tolerance. It should get us home.”
“Okay, bringing reserve batteries online. Request NAV fix.”
“Patching in NAV from New Masdar”
“Got it. Ten minutes to ignition,” I confirm. “Better notify our passengers.”
Jumper
Prerequisite reading …
[Author’s note: This is part of the Project Mars series of short stories.
To start at the beginning go >> HERE << ]
Copyright © 2013 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
http://en.almareekhwiki.org.mars/jumper_(spacecraft)
Jumper (spacecraft)
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From AlMareekhWiki, the free encyclopedia of Mars
(Redirected from Ballistic Jumper)
English Version | النسخة العربية | Русская версия | 中国版本 | हिंदी रूपांतर
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Jumper, also known as ballistic jumper, is the primary short range transport vehicle for Mars. It is a variant of the lunar jumper in use since the mid twenty-first century. Like the lunar jumper, upon which it is based, it comes in three variants: ballistic crew jumper…
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Contrafactual 