Three generations of Mars rovers: MER, Sojourner, MSL |
Space exploration
Nobody should imagine, even for a second, that this was meant to be a complete list of cool space stuff. This is as much as I'm willing to try to maintain, with emphasis on cool, current, and recent, and an obvious bias for US projects ... because I'm a Yank. If you want to see everything, including projects from Russia, Europe, Canada, Japan, China, and India, try Wikipedia's big
Solar System exploration timeline.
- Mars Exploration Rover mission (MER)
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/
Wikipedia
- Solar-powered science rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. Opportunity is still going, like the Energizer bunny, but Spirit has been stuck in sand since May 2009, and as of late January 2010 NASA has given up on getting it unstuck. They were only designed to work for 90 days. This mission established that Mars had surface water early in its history.
- Mars Pathfinder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathfinder
- Pathfinder and its tiny Sojourner rover landed in Chryse Planitia on 4 July 1997, and proved the airbag landing system used later in the two-lander MER mission.
- Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
Wikipedia
- Large rover mission now set to launch in late 2011. MSL weighs almost a ton, has
RTG nuclear power instead of solar (not affected by dust storms) and is designed to function for at least a Mars year, almost two Earth years. MSL is much too big for airbags, and will land on its wheels with a rocket/tether system they're calling Skycrane.
- Phoenix Mars mission
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
Wikipedia
- North polar lander mission, May-August 2008; the first successful Mars rocket lander since Viking in the 1970's.
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
Wikipedia
- Imaged the Phoenix lander descending on its parachute.
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A subject of debate is whether first priority in exploration, establishment of bases, and development should be focused on Mars or the Moon. People seem to be more excited about Mars in recent years. It makes more sense to me to start with the Moon, but the choice may come down to engineering considerations.
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/
Wikipedia
Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/
- LRO will map and survey the Moon from polar orbit for at least a year, starting June 2009. LCROSS impacted a polar-region crater in October 2009 with the spent upper stage that launched both craft, at 5600 mph, to confirm the Clementine and Lunar Prospector findings of subsurface water.
- Lunar Prospector
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Prospector
- The Lunar Prospector spacecraft confirmed the presence of fairly large deposits of water ice at both lunar poles. Lunar Prospector was launched January 6, 1998 and entered lunar orbit January 11th. Polar ball-of-string mapping orbit of 100 km altitude initially, reduced late in the mission for higher resolution. The spacecraft was deliberately crashed near the lunar south pole on July 31, 1999.
- Clementine Project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_(spacecraft)
- In late 1996, a radar experiment on the DoD/NASA Clementine spacecraft found evidence implying the presence of water ice inside a crater near the south pole of the Moon.
- Lunar space elevator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_space_elevator
- A space elevator for the moon would not require exotic mega-strength materials like carbon nanotubes, as for an Earth elevator, but could be built with existing materials such as Kevlar, Spectra, or M5.
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- International Space Station
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Wikipedia
- There's a link here to an interactive guide to ISS sighting opportunities by city worldwide. You select your nearest listed city and see a generated list of your next chances to see the station, including exactly where to look. It's visible when it's still in sunlight in your post-sunset or pre-dawn sky. On 1 November 2006, after several years looking for a sighting opportunity with compatibile local weather, I finally saw the station. It was at 5:45 pm local, in the center of a small city of 200,000 people, on a night with a thin high cirrus cloud deck, and the station still looked pretty bright. Since 2009 it now has the complete truss and all four of its large solar arrays installed; from a location with dark sky and good seeing it ought to be breathtaking.
As of early 2010 the whole Constellation program has been canceled by the Obama administration. The theory is private companies will provide transportation to low Earth orbit and geosynchronous transfer orbit, and NASA will concentrate on developing engine and other technologies. It might even work. There's some opposition to cancellation in Congress and industry.
- Wikipedia:
Constellation program;
Orion spacecraft,
Altair lander,
Ares I &
Ares V boosters
- Orion was the new Apollo-style spacecraft NASA and Lockheed were working on for the return to the Moon, among other things; 16-foot diameter, 2½ times the interior volume of an Apollo capsule, and four seats, or six for station crew missions. Orion could abort with a solid-rocket escape tower that's attached during launch, similar to Apollo. Constellation also included the Altair four-man lunar lander and Ares I and V boosters. The smaller Ares I would have launched just the Orion spacecraft and crew, with a narrow single-motor solid-fuel first stage and wider liquid-fuel second stage. Ares V would have launched the heavier Earth Departure Stage and Altair lander, with no crew aboard. Ares V would have been able to boost about 188 tons to
LEO, about six times the original design payload of the Space Shuttle, surpassing the Russian Energia booster and even Apollo's Saturn V.
- Wikipedia:
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)
- NASA program to coordinate development by private companies of vehicles to deliver crew and cargo to the ISS.
- SpaceX
http://www.spacex.com/
Wikipedia
Orbital
http://www.orbital.com/
Wikipedia
- Two COTS participants. Both are developing boosters and unmanned cargo vehicles, and the SpaceX Dragon capsule is also supposed to have a seven-seat crew configuration. The planned SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy configuration would have an LEO payload approximating the original design payload of the Shuttle.
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- Dawn
asteroid mission
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
- Ion-drive probe to investigate the two most massive asteroids (or dwarf planets) Vesta and Ceres, which are thought to have very different compositions. Launched in 2007, Mars gravity assist in 2009, Vesta orbit 2011-12, Ceres orbit 2015. The Dawn mission is expected to produce information about the formation of the solar system.
- MESSENGER
Mercury mission
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/
Wikipedia
- First spacecraft to orbit Mercury, in March 2011, launched in 2004.
- Cassini/Huygens
Saturn mission
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
- Launched in 1997, entered Saturn orbit July 2004. Launched Huygens lander into Titan's atmosphere December 2004, which produced the famous pictures of the surface of Titan. The Cassini orbiter is still operational and may continue until 2017. Dozens of stunning wallpaper-worthy images on this site.
- New Horizons Pluto/Kuiper-Belt mission
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
Wikipedia
- Launched in early 2006, Pluto/Charon encounter 2015, Kuiper Belt 2020.
- Deep Impact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Impact_(space_mission)
- This probe hit comet Tempel I with an impactor at 6 miles per second on 4 July 2005, while watching at appropriate close range with multiple sensors. Comets are leftovers from the birth of the solar system.
- Galileo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft)
- 1995-2003 Jupiter mission: atmospheric entry parachute probe and long-term orbiter.
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- James Webb Space Telescope
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
- Large infrared telescope meant to launch in 2014. It will have a mirror about six times the area of the mirror in the Hubble telescope, and operate from the Sun-Earth L2 point, partially shadowed by the Earth and about four times as far away as the Moon, and will have a sunshade to keep it very cold.
- Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA)
http://www.esa.int/science/gaia
Wikipedia
- ESA mission to conduct a massive stellar census of about a billion stars, to magnitude 20; intended launch in 2012. Also to operate from the Sun-Earth L2 point.
- Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/
Wikipedia
- Polar-orbit space telescope, launched in December 2009, designed to survey the entire sky at high sensitivity over six to nine months. Expected to detect brown dwarfs, star-forming regions, and large numbers of main-belt and near-Earth asteroids. WISE won't detect plutoids and Kuiper-belt objects because they're too cold.
- Herschel Space Observatory
http://herschel.esac.esa.int/
Wikipedia
- Space telescope for far infrared and sub-millimeter, expected to give information on star formation in dust and gas clouds in our galaxy, also operating from Sun-Earth L2. Launched in May 2009.
- Kepler mission
http://kepler.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
- A space telescope mission to explore the structure and diversity of extrasolar planetary systems, launched in March 2009. The Kepler telescope is in an Earth-trailing solar orbit. The first exoplanets were found mostly by looking for spectroscopic evidence of stars wobbling due to planetary gravity, which preferentially finds very large planets that orbit very close to their star. Kepler is part of a newer approach that looks for slight dips in a star's brightness when a planet passes in front of it, or transits, relative to our viewpoint. This approach has a better chance of detecting less radical examples of planets. The transit method still has bias in favor of larger and closer planets, but not as much as the wobble method.
- Planetary Society Catalog of Exoplanets
http://www.planetary.org/exoplanets/
Exoplanets.org
http://exoplanets.org/
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
http://exoplanet.eu/
- More than 400 exoplanets have been found as of October 2009, including probable superjovian Epsilon Eridani b, just 10 light years away. There are so many known now that some people have gotten weary saying "extrasolar planet," hence the newer term "exoplanet."
- Spitzer Space Telescope
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitzer_Space_Telescope
- Infrared telescope launched in 2003, Earth-trailing solar orbit. Spitzer ran out of liquid-helium coolant in May 2009, which left only the two shortest-wavelength modules operational.
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- Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)
http://www.lsst.org/
Wikipedia
- A large wide-field survey telescope to be built in Chile, that will photograph the available sky continuously on a three-night cycle, generating up to 30 terabytes of data per night. Goals include mapping near-Earth asteroids and Kuiper belt objects, detecting novae and supernovae, and mapping our Milky Way galaxy. First light: 2015.
- Pan-STARRS
http://pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/
Wikipedia
- Another survey telescope array; its first telescope, called PS1, went online in 2008 on Haleakala on Maui. Three more telescopes to complete the array are supposed to be done by 2012. It's similar in general concept to LSST, but with a primary mission to detect near-Earth objects that might cause impact events.
- Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)
http://www.almaobservatory.org/
Wikipedia
- Multi-nation funded project to build a sophisticated, multi-antenna, millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelength, high-resolution radio interferometer. The site is above 16,000 feet altitude in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere, which absorbs the desired wavelengths. Great results are expected in the area of star and planet formation.
- Allen Telescope Array
http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=503
Wikipedia
- An LNSD radio interferometer in California to be used for radio astronomy and simultaneous SETI research. The first phase with 42 antennas has been operational since 2007; expansion is contemplated up to 350 antennas.
- European Extremely Large Telescope
http://www.eso.org/public/astronomy/teles-instr/e-elt.html
Wikipedia
- Optical and near-infrared telescope with a 42 meter mirror, site not yet chosen, but probably Atacama desert in Chile or on the Canary Islands. First light: 2016?
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- VASIMR
http://www.techbriefs.com/content/view/1768/32/
Wikipedia
Ad Astra Rocket Company
http://www.adastrarocket.com/
- The higher a rocket's exhaust velocity, the more push it gets out of each pound of propellant, and the more efficient it is. The exhaust velocity of chemical rockets is limited by the energy available from the exothermic chemical reaction used, typically 4.5 km/sec. Various other systems to produce higher exhaust velocities have been studied, including nuclear thermal or NERVA, ion, and Hall-effect.
VASIMR uses magnetic fields and radio waves, most likely powered by a nuclear reactor, to ionize and constrain hydrogen plasma and heat it to extremely high temperatures—ten million kelvins—producing exhaust velocities up to 300 km/sec. This means you can get from Earth to Mars in four months instead of a year, or six weeks with a high-power system. VASIMR or something very like it is the tool needed to conquer the solar system.
- Boeing X-43A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-43
- This unmanned 12-foot-long hydrogen-fueled scramjet reached Mach 9.8 over the Pacific on 16 November 2004, three times as fast as a previous long-standing SR-71 record. The scramjet operated for about twelve seconds during the 2004 flight.
- Boeing X-51 WaveRider
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-51
- This unmanned scramjet design is to be tested four times in 2010; during the first test on 26 May 2010 an X-51 flew at Mach 6 for over 200 seconds. Like X-43, it launches from under the wing of a B-52, and is accelerated to about Mach 4 by a rocket booster. The 26-foot-long scramjet then separates and accelerates up to Mach 6-7. WaveRider burns JP-7 hydrocarbon fuel, and could be described as closer to practical technology than X-43.
- Inductrack
http://www.llnl.gov/str/Post.html
Wikipedia
- An improved, much cheaper system for maglev ("magnetically levitated") high-speed trains; also being investigated for use in electric catapults for the initial acceleration of launch vehicles, up the side of a mountain. Sounds like a good idea to me.
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
- If you like astronomy wallpaper on your PC, this site is for you. One of the more interesting is a
2008 map of our Milky Way galaxy's arm structure, with rollover labels, including the Sun's location, based on the
GLIMPSE survey done by the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope (home page linked above).
- Delta Clipper/DC-X
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x-33/dc-xa.htm
Wikipedia
- DC-X was an unmanned demonstration vehicle that several times took off, hovered, maneuvered, and landed vertically, balancing on its rocket thrust, Flash Gordon style. Not selected for further development, but fascinating anyway. The flight-control computer was a stock F-16 component with tweaked software. ("It thinks it's an F-16 with a really strange mission profile.")
- NASA Watch
http://www.nasawatch.com/
- "This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something."
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- Space.com
http://www.space.com/
- News, articles, and lots of links, mostly about real space missions; some sci-fi links.
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