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Rules
listed for $50 million orbital race
Spacecraft would have to fly twice in orbit by 2010
Anyone
who wants to follow in the shoes of Burt Rutan and win the next big
space prize will have to build a spacecraft capable of taking a crew of
no fewer than five people to an altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers)
and complete two orbits of Earth at that altitude. Then they have to
repeat that accomplishment within 60 days.
While
the first flight must demonstrate only the ability to carry five crew
members, the winner will have to take at least five people up on the
second flight.
And one
more thing: They have to do it by Jan. 10, 2010.
Those
are just some of the rules that govern who wins the $50 million
"America’s Space Prize," an effort by Bigelow Aerospace of
North Las Vegas, Nevada, to spur the development of space tourism in low
Earth orbit.
No more
than 20 percent of the spacecraft’s hardware can be expendable. It
must also demonstrate the ability to dock with Bigelow Aerospace’s
inflatable space habitat and be able to stay docked in orbit for up to
six months.
NASA
Scramjet Tackles Mach 10
Nov. 16, 2004 — An
innovative engine that compresses air by its shape alone to reach
hypersonic speeds broke its own record with a test flight over the
Pacific Ocean.
NASA's X-43A took its third
and final test flight on Tuesday, having already reached a speed of Mach
7, seven times the speed of sound, or about 5,000 miles per hour, on
March 27, landing a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Lockheed
Martin
Rolls the First F/A 22 Raptor Bound for Langley Air Force Base
“As
we roll out the first combat dedicated F/A-22 Raptor, we know its
lethality, technological advances and superior performance will be
placed in the hands of the best airmen and warriors on the planet,”
Weiss said, as he addressed 1st
Fighter Wing representatives and Lockheed Martin production line
employees. “May its presence alone provide deterrence … but if
deterrence fails, we know it will provide a level of air dominance never
seen in history.”
High
Intensity Proton Accelerator Project
The high power proton
accelerator shall be one of the most important accelerators in the 21st
century, because a broad range of frontier sciences can be advanced with
it. Three major regions in the world (America, Europe and Asian/Oceanic
Area) will have strong scientific centers with high power proton
accelerators. We would like to form one research centers in the
Asian/Oceanic region. Clearly, many issues must be solved until the
first beams (to be expected in 2007). We will make every effort toward
the success of the project.
Once this
facility is completed, it will be open to every scientist who wants to
conduct scientific research with it. In addition to construct the
first-class facility itself, it is important to create a new
organization with which to allow easy and efficient usage of the
facility by world-wide users. Your frank comments on the present
construction as well as on the future organization are thus welcome.
Shoji Nagamiya
Project Director
Science
group warns of political interference
Bush administration said still
trying to exert control
WASHINGTON
- The Bush administration is still packing scientific advisory panels
with ideologues and is imposing strict controls on researchers who want
to share ideas with colleagues in other countries, a group of scientists
charged on Thursday.
The
Union of Concerned Scientists said in a report that the administration's
policies could take years to undo and in the meantime the best and the
brightest would be frightened away from jobs in the National Institutes
of Health and other government institutions.
The
union, chaired by Dr. Kurt Gottfried, Emeritus Professor of Physics at
Cornell University, said more than 4,000 scientists, including 48 Nobel
laureates, had joined the call for "restoration of scientific
integrity in federal policymaking."
"I
don't think one should simply assume that the problem ... will go away
if there is a new administration in office," Gottfried told
reporters in a telephone briefing.
Pioneer
Courthouse Square
On April 6, 1984, 9,000
citizens inaugurated what has become one of the most successful public
spaces in America. The Square was recognized by Time Magazine as one of
the "ten most notable design achievements" in the country
| Located
in the heart of downtown Portland, Pioneer Courthouse
Square, a thriving urban park, is affectionately known as the
City's "living room." More than 21,000 people pass by
the Square each day, while thousands more utilize its on-site
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When the Square was born, the
501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Pioneer Courthouse Square, Inc., was
created to manage this City Park. A City Management Agreement was
established to outline a partnership between the City and the non-profit
management organization.
Rutan
aims for space: A look at SpaceShipOne
Rutan’s custom-built
“B-52”, the White Knight aircraft, is designed to carry SpaceShipOne
under its fuselage. On a typical flight, the White Knight would fly to
an altitude of about 15,000 meters before releasing SpaceShipOne. Once
clear of the aircraft, SpaceShipOne will fire its single rocket engine
and bank into a steep climb, 84 degrees from the horizontal. The engine
will burn for just over a minute, putting the spacecraft on a trajectory
to reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, a widely-accepted definition of
the boundary between the atmosphere and space.
Gravity
Probe Launched
Gravity Probe B was
successfully launched on its mission to test two extraordinary
predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Mars
Exploration Rover mission
NASA’s Mars
Exploration Rover Spirit took this panoramic camera image on sol 86
(March 31, 2004) before driving 36 meters (118 feet) on sol 87 toward
its future destination, the Columbia Hills. This is probably the last
panoramic camera image that Spirit will take from the high rim of
"Bonneville" crater, and provides an excellent view of the
ejecta-covered path the rover has journeyed thus far.
A
Vision for Portland Public Market
| Successful
Public Markets define and nourish their city's souls. Certainly
Portland is not without a soul, but yet we have a missing link
between one of the most European-styled cities in the West and
some of the most fertile land in the country. That connection occurs
when urban shoppers understand the source of their spiritual and
physical sustenance, and |
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come together to celebrate even the most
simple, edible transactions of daily life.
Take a
look at the Skidmore
Fountain site (Central Fire Station). The market will cover the
entire block surrounding the historic Skidmore building.
The Portland Public Market is not replacing Saturday
Market, but working with them on a new home that will help create a
Market District.
Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum
Newly
remodeled site and the home of the X - 15 Hypersonic Research at the Edge of SpaceThis joint
program by NASA, the Air Force, the Navy, and North American operated
the most remarkable of all the rocket research aircraft. Composed of an
internal structure of titanium and a skin surface of a chrome-nickel
alloy known as Inconel X, the X-15 had its first, unpowered glide flight
on June 8, 1959, while the first powered flight took place on September
17, 1959.
Hyper-X
Research Vehicle Program X-43A
Hyper-X Research Vehicle Program (X-43A)
The X-43A is an air-launched system designed to explore the hypersonic
(Mach 5 +) region of flight and to acquire data for future vehicles.
During testing, the air-launched X-43A with its attached Pegasus
booster, is carried by a NASA B-52 to an altitude of approximately
20,000 feet and released off the coast of California. Ignition of the
booster rocket will take place approximately 5 seconds after release
from the B-52, accelerating the X-43A to the test Mach number to ignite
the scramjet propulsion system. In a series of test flights the Hyper-X
program will explore speeds ranging from Mach 7-10 and altitudes up to
100,000 feet.
The
Elegant Universe
It's the holy
grail of physics--the search for ultimate law and order in the universe.
And in the last few years, excitement has grown among scientists as
they've pursued a revolutionary new approach to unifying nature's
forces. It's called string theory and, to the uninitiated, it's totally
mind-boggling. But physicist Brian Greene has a rare gift for conveying
physics in vivid everyday images, a gift that has turned his recent book
The Elegant Universe into a mighty bestseller, and now Greene brings his
talent and vitality to this documentary.
NASA
JSC Carbon Nanotube Project
NASA and the
Johnson Space Center (JSC) have made a commitment to pursue and drive
breakthrough technologies to expand human exploration of space. The very
future of space exploration depends on advanced technologies such as
nanotechnology and biomimetics. Toward this goal, JSC is focusing on the
development of nanotechnology based on single-wall carbon nanotubes. JSC
is working toward bulk SWNT production methods to reduce cost and foster
widespread applications studies. In addition, we are pursuing
applications, including fabrication of SWNT composites, with predicted
strength-to-weight ratios that far exceed any of today’s materials.
NASA's commitment to nanotechnology is testimony that nanoscopic
materials, nanoelectronics and molecular devices will be fundamental to
future space exploration.
Nano
test tubes fabricated
Researchers from
the University of Florida have found a way to make minuscule test tubes
from carbon and silica nanotubes. Nanotubes are rolled-up sheets of
atoms that can measure less than 1 nanometer in diameter, and carbon
nanotubes occur naturally in soot. A nanometer is the span of 10
hydrogen atoms.
The nano test tubes could eventually be used -- along with tiny caps --
to bottle small numbers of molecules such as drugs, DNA, or proteins and
release them in specific places in the human body.
The researchers made the nano test tubes by modifying their template
method of making open-ended nanotubes.
The Connection.org : Jane
Goodall
She
discovered that the animals were not gentle, cuddly vegetarians as
previously believed, but instead they were highly evolved social
creatures that hunted, waged war, and made tools. Her studies changed
the field of primatology.
Evolution: Library: Jane
Goodall
Dr. Jane Goodall was
interviewed by a member of the Evolution project on May 29, 2001, at the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. In this part of the interview,
Dr. Goodall speaks to how the behaviors of chimpanzees may give us
insight into the behaviors of early humans. While at the museum, Dr.
Goodall spoke to area schoolchildren about "Roots and Shoots,"
her environmental education and humanitarian program for youth.
Space
Elevator: Next Stop, Earth Orbit
WASHINGTON --
Consider it a stretch of the imagination or the ultimate high-wire act.
All aboard the space elevator, to be whisked above Earth in an
electromagnetic-powered cable car.
The
Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality
ALBUQUERQUE,
NEW MEXICO -- Make way for the ultimate high-rise project: the space
elevator. Long viewed as science fiction "imagineering",
researchers are gathering momentum in their pursuit to propel this
uplifting concept into actuality.
Light
can break its own speed limit, researchers say
Scientists have apparently broken the
universe's speed limit.
For generations, physicists believed there is
nothing faster than light moving through a vacuum -- a speed of 186,000
miles per second.
But in an experiment in Princeton, New Jersey,
physicists sent a pulse of laser light through cesium vapor so quickly
that it left the chamber before it had even finished entering.
The pulse traveled 310 times the distance it
would have covered if the chamber had contained a vacuum.
Researchers say it is the most convincing
demonstration yet that the speed of light -- supposedly an ironclad rule
of nature -- can be pushed beyond known boundaries, at least under
certain laboratory circumstances.
SOHO
Exploring the Sun!
SOHO is a
project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
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