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July 2000 Mir will no longer be deorbited. Instead, a group of international investors are paying to have a pair of cosmonauts fix up the space station. How they are going to hake a profit of it remains murky. Ideas range from making it into a hotel for the daring to a movie set. Lockheed Martin Space Systems will blend Russian and US Air Force technology to create its new Atlas V family of rockets. The upper stages of the rocket will consist of a Common Core Booster and a Centaur upper stage. The unit will be powered by a Russian built RD-180 rocket engine with up to 5 Gencorp Aerojet strap-on solid rocket boosters. The first launch of the rocket will take place some time after 2002. NASA and Cybersonics of Erie, PA have teamed up to create a drill that has no motor, gears, or any other rotating part. It uses piezoelectric actuators that vibrate an electrical field. This motion can wear away at the hardest of materials with out having to put significant pressure on the bit. The drill will first be used by doctors to drill holes when attaching surgical plates. The White House order that gave civilian GPS users access to highly accurate signals has fueled rumors that the Pentagon is working on a new military navigation system. It may be replaced by a "gravity mapping " system like those on submarines. Ancient technology may soon power satellites. Power demands for satellites are rapidly outpacing developments in batteries. Honeywell of Arizona has said that using a flywheel will solve the problem. The wheel will be spun when the satellite’s solar panels are in the sun. Once the satellite moves into the darkness the flywheel would turn a generator, creating the power that the satellite needs. |
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