Reality - Journey To The Moon

Polywell Fusion fan kunkmiester has suggested an interesting Reality TV Show.

Had this thought, mostly as an interesting way to get back to the moon. SpaceX is the big key in this though, since:

Dragon mission to ISS(close approximation to putting a crew capsule on a transfer vehicle) is $113M

Falcon 9X is $100-150M, figuring probably $120M for what I'm looking at

Base price of a Falcon 9 is $54M.

With modern tech, a lunar transfer vehicle with fuel should be well below the 9X's wieght to LEO. Crew goes up in a Dragon, lander gets in there, probably as a separate 9 launch.

Which is techno speak for how about a reality TV show whose goal is a return to the moon? There is more at the link. (note - I have added some links to the text for those of you who need to come up to speed on current technology)

I like the idea.

Organic Space

Crack open a meteorite and find organic compounds.

The Murchison meteorite, a 100-kg stone made of carbonaceous chondrite, is conventionally estimated to be 4.6 billion years old--as old as the solar system itself, according to the conventional nebula theory of its formation. It fell to earth on September 28, 1969 at about 11:00 a.m. local time, a fragment of a fireball that broke into three parts over some farmland near the town of Murchison and then shattered into thousands of pieces that fell over a five-square-mile region. Since its discovery, scientists have long known that it held a variety of organic compounds. Today's report by John Matson of Scientific American announced the results of a high-resolution mass spectrographic analysis conducted at the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Munich. This analysis revealed at least 14,000 "unique molecular compositions," considered a highly conservative estimate.

These findings have caused great excitement among astrobiologists (scientists who search for life in space, especially life that they think they can prove came from space). Daniel Glavin of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center speaks openly of the possible seeding of the earth from space, perhaps by meteoroids like the one that became the Murchison meteorite. By definition, then, Glavin and others are reviving a proposition called panspermia (literally, "seeding everywhere"), according to which the stuff of life fell to earth either on meteorites or from a comet's head or tail.

Neat stuff so far. And then the guy writing the piece goes off the rails.

Another commenter raised another possiblity: that the Murchison meteorite, before it fell to earth, came from earth. The commenter cited the Chicxulub impact as an example of impacts great enough to send fragments into space, even at escape speed.

This last commenter might, without knowing it, have hit upon the real answer. Even if the Murchison meteorite is not contaminated, it could have been ejected into space, not by a meteor impact, but by the great water jet that rushed through the rupture in the earth's original crust that caused the Global Flood. This is a far more likely scenario than the conventional one, which assumes that life somehow generated itself in space and then survived billions of years in a hostile environment, followed by a fiery transit to earth.

Oh well. He is the religion writer for the site so what would you expect.

I do have an idea though. We need to send missions out with micro GCMS sets and start examining things.

Tom Ligon On The Space Show

Tom Ligon will be on the Space Show at 9 PM CDT, 22 December 2009. That is this evening. The Maker willing and if the technical details work out I will be joining him.

You can listen live at the link.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Mach-Einstein Drive

I have a new article up at ECN Magazine on experiments testing out the possibilities of a Mach-Einstein Drive. I call it: Maching Einstein.

Why is this important? If the experiments work (and even if they don't) we will learn more about how our universe is constructed. If they do work we can get propulsion without having to build huge rockets. Earth to Mars travel in a few days would be a definite possibility. If it works really really well faster than light speed travel is a definite possibility.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Statistical Sun

While noodling around the 'net I came across a statistical study of the history of sunspots and the Earth's climate. (if the English is less than perfect it is because the person writing is a native of Finland)

When the planetary effects have been searched as a cause for sunspots, a gravitational effect is mostly assumed. My theory is purely statistical so it does not necessitate a theory about the physical background. But still one can make some speculations. Evidence strongly suggests that the sunspots have a clear electromagnetic nature. The solar system baths in the electromagnetic field of the Sun. Nasa announced in 2008 that there are some kind of electromagnetic "ropes" between the Sun and possible all the planets that have an electromagnetic field of their own (such as Earth and Jupiter for example).

I make a suggestion: The electromagnetic fields of Sun and Jupiter are partly intertwined, sometimes more, sometimes less during the nearly 12-year orbital revolution of Jupiter. Changes in eccentricity may then cause long-period changes in Sun's activity. And one thing we don't know: if the theory of everything combines gravity and electromagnetic forces the warping of space around Sun would really cause something extraordinary, like changes in the Sun's activity. One interesting thing is, that although the main effect of Jupiter seems to come via the perihelia of Jupiter, also the points where Jupiter crosses the plane of equator of the Sun, seem to have some effect.

The author takes a look at what this all might mean for the weather on Earth.

According to my theory about Jovian effect on sunspots, based on facts measured since 1700 and estimated since 1500 (Schove)
- The Jupiter perihelion and sunspot minimum never coincide and the nearing perihelion in 2011 will slow the rise of the height of sunspot cycle, as now is happening to the cycle 24.
- The Gleissberg cycle almost reached its lower limit, which is 72 years in 2005.
--- In fact this low it has not been ever after the Maunder minimum.
--- So it must go up, the short cycles of the 20th century has created a debt that must be paid.
--- This means lower cycles and if the past is a good predictor, colder times on Earth.

Now how about the NASA study of electromagnetic ropes? (this is from late 2007)

"The satellites have found evidence of magnetic ropes connecting Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the sun," said David Sibeck, project scientist for the mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "We believe that solar wind particles flow in along these ropes, providing energy for geomagnetic storms and auroras."

A magnetic rope is a twisted bundle of magnetic fields organized much like the twisted hemp of a mariner's rope. Spacecraft have detected hints of these ropes before, but a single spacecraft was insufficient to map their 3D structure. THEMIS' five identical micro-satellites were able to perform the feat.

"THEMIS encountered its first magnetic rope on May 20," said Sibeck. "It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located approximately 40,000 miles (70,000 km) above Earth's surface in a region called the magnetopause." The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another like sumo wrestlers locked in combat. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy.

I wonder if the IPCC has included this in their models? Probably not since it is not well understood. How many other things that may or may not affect climate are not well understood? And that is just the known unknowns. Could there be some unknown unknown that affects climate that we are missing? Well the answer of course is: we don't know.

And on the basis of all this shaky science we are going to spend trillions on Waxman-Malarkey [pdf]? The Senate has not yet passed the bill. So we still have a chance. Contact your Senator:

The Senate

Cross Posted at Classical Values

It Was 40 Years Ago Today

I was in a hippie house on Webster Avenue, just off of Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, watching avidly on a B&W TV. I never imagined that we would stop manned missions to the moon and beyond for such a long time.

Here is a book about it:

The First Men on the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Constellation Program

NASA is building a new man rated launch vehicle that is going back to the tried and tested methods of the Apollo Program. You can see more pictures and read the captions at Constellation Program Gallery.

If you want to learn more about the Apollo Program this DVD from 2005 might help: Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Space Without The Russians

For about five years America is going to depend on the Russians for access to the Space Station. Suppose because of happenings in Georgia the Russians decline to do their part?

“The new challenge we have is that for approximately five years, the plan — which is a very bad plan but is the only plan that NASA and the administration and Congress have approved — is to be dependent on the Russian Soyuz vehicle to get people to and from the international space station,” said Tom Feeney, (R-FL). “And so now, with the political realities with Russia invading Georgia, we have a new wrinkle thrown in.”

Tom Feeney is right. It is a very bad plan. So what can be done?

Full speed ahead with private efforts to get into space in the same way the US Government sponsored air mail contracts to get the fledgling aircraft industry off the ground.

How about a competition to get private industry to supply the space station?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Countdown To Mars Phoenix Lander

HT Deep Sky Blog where there is more about the Phoenix Lander.

The Race To The Moon

I have been following this story for quite some time, so I think it is ripe for comment.

Asia Times reports on this new race to the moon.

MUMBAI - With the Chinese and Japanese making plans to establish moon bases, can India be far behind?

"Global players have declared that by 2020, they will have their bases on the moon," Madhavan Nair, chief of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), declared on August 18. "I don't think India can afford to be lagging behind in that."

Nair said ISRO is defining technologies needed for India's first manned space mission in an Indian space vehicle scheduled for 2015 (Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma spent eight days aboard a Soviet Soyuz T-11 in 1984). Fifty-nine of 122 lunar probes launched worldwide were successful. More are heading moonward in a renewed interest in Earth's neighbor 385,000 kilometers away.

Leading Asia's moon ambitions is the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which rescheduled its lunar orbiter, Kaguya, to September 13 instead of this month. On August 17, China insisted its lunar Chang'e I program is purely scientific and not competing with any other country (read Japan).

India is expected to invest US$1.5 billion over the next five years to develop technologies for a manned space flight by 2015 and a moon flight by 2020. Most of the designing, research and technical jobs are to be completed by 2012.

The United States wants a permanent outpost on the moon. This month, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a master list of potential lunar objectives, consulting more than 1,000 people from businesses, and it included developing lunar commerce.

Scientists say moon resources could support life on Earth with cheaper and cleaner energy and help human exploration of the solar system and outer space with cheaper rocket fuel and space-travel construction materials. Lunar mineral deposits include aluminum, magnesium, titanium, iron (for building moon structures), and silicon (to make solar cells for energy), besides the lunar soil enriched with oxygen (for astronauts to breathe and for making rocket fuel) and hydrogen; the soil could also be melted into casts and used as construction blocks.

Now the big prize not mentioned in the article is Helium 3 which is an excellent fusion fuel. It is very scarce on Earth but relatively abundant on the moon.

Some people think that the race to the moon is basically a race for fusion fuels.

...today's moon race, unlike the one that took place between the United States and the U.S.S.R. in the 1960s, a full roster of 21st-century global powers, including China and India, are competing.

Even more surprising is that one reason for much of the interest appears to be plans to mine helium-3--purportedly an ideal fuel for fusion reactors but almost unavailable on Earth--from the moon's surface. NASA's Vision for Space Exploration has U.S. astronauts scheduled to be back on the moon in 2020 and permanently staffing a base there by 2024. While the U.S. space agency has neither announced nor denied any desire to mine helium-3, it has nevertheless placed advocates of mining He3 in influential positions. For its part, Russia claims that the aim of any lunar program of its own--for what it's worth, the rocket corporation Energia recently started blustering, Soviet-style, that it will build a permanent moon base by 2015-2020--will be extracting He3.

The Chinese, too, apparently believe that helium-3 from the moon can enable fusion plants on Earth. This fall, the People's Republic expects to orbit a satellite around the moon and then land an unmanned vehicle there in 2011.

However, I believe this rush for Helium 3 is unnecessary for fusion fuels.

First of there is enough Deuterium in the ocean for millions of years of power at current rates of world consumption. Second if we use Boron 11 in our fusion reactors we have supplies good for at least 100,000 years in mines and more if we extract it from the ocean.

Deuterium is good because it is abundant, but when it fuses it produces lots of neutrons. Neutrons cause problems. Boron 11 when it fuses with Hydrogen (sometimes referred to as proton-Boron 11 fusion) produces very few neutrons.

In any case, the reason for the race to Helium 3 is that it "ignites" in a fusion reactor at lower energies than either Deuterium or Boron 11. For a Tokamak reactor like ITER this is a big problem. It doesn't do the high temperatures needed for Deuterium or Boron 11 well. As Plasma Physicist Dr. Nicholas Krall said, "We spent $15 billion dollars studying tokamaks and what we learned about them is that they are no damn good."

There are alternatives. One is the Bussard Reactor which has been funded. We will know in the next 6 to 9 months if such a reactor is feasible.

There are lots of good reasons to go into space. Mining Helium 3 for use on Earth may not be one of them.

Space War

Nice site to check out if you want to follow the current war and the future of high tech weapons:

Space War

Might As Well Be Walking On The Moon

It appears that China is interested in mining the moon.

Chinanews, Guiyang, Aug 10 –China plans to survey every inch of the soil on the moon during the Chang'e project, said Ouyang Ziyuan, China's chief scientist for the moon exploration project.

So why would China be spending money on moon exploration. Do they have something practical in mind? Yes they do.

“There are altogether 15 tons of helium-3 on earth, while on the moon, the total amount of Helium-3 can reach 1-5 million tons. Helium-3 is considered as a long-term, stable, safe, clean and cheap material for human beings to get nuclear energy through controllable nuclear fusion experiments. If we human beings can finally use such energy material to generate electricity, then China might need 10 tons of helium-3 every year and in the world, about 100 tons of helium-3 will be needed every year. This means that the helium-3 reserves on the moon can serve human society for at least 10,000 years,” he said.

It turns out that if this alternate fusion scheme works, out we will not have to go to the moon for fuel. We can leave the He3 on the moon for use in space travel. On earth we can use Boron 11 and hydrogen. Hydrogen is abundant. There is enough Boron 11 for around 100,000 years. More than enough time to figure out what is next. Plus we need not get into resource wars over goodies in space. At least not for a while.

Cross Posted at Classical Values and at The Astute Bloggers

NASA Picture of the Day

NASA Picture of the Day.

I have added a link on the sidebar for those of you who would like to check this out daily. Just below the Amazon link in the "More About Me" section.

Space Videos

Here are links to a number of space videos.

Saturn's Rings

Galatic Cluster's Rings

The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared Light

Mercury Transits the Sun

Exploring Auroras with Satellites

H/T Instapundit

Aren't They Supposed To Be Above That Sort Of Thing?

Romantic entanglements entangle astronuat.

An astronaut drove from Houston to Florida, donned a wig and trench coat and confronted a woman she believed was romantically involved with a space shuttle pilot she was in love with, police said. She was charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.

US Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail.

Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport - wearing diapers so she would not have to stop to urinate - to confront Colleen Shipman.

Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the space station last December, police said.

This romantic rivalry has proven that the space program has come of age and humans have not.

Cross Posted at Classical Values