OrbitalHub

Credits: NASA

The University of Toronto Astronomy and Space Exploration Society (ASX for short) has started a very nice tradition: the space movie night.

I received an invitation for Friday, November 28, 2008, and I could not refuse it. The last time I attended an ASX event I was not disappointed, and I was sure this time would not be any different.

The movies presented were The Rocketeers and The Last Empty Sky. The Rocketeers presented the history of the X series of aircraft (the rocket planes that broke the sound barrier and put the first American pilots into space), and the The Last Empty Sky presented the development of rocket between 1920 and 1957.

It was interesting to follow the story of Werner Von Braun and how he managed to build the Saturn family of rockets using the technology available at the end of the World War Two.

I hope that ASX will continue the movie night tradition and present more movies about space exploration. For sure, I will be the first to respond to their invitation. Thank you, ASX!

If you know about similar events in your hometown, please share the information with OrbitalHub readers in the comments section.

Credits: JAXA

The Carnival of Space #81 is up on Tiny Mantras. There are many interesting stories that you can read about this week: tips for buying a telescope, a zero-g coffee mug, tracking meteorites, and much more.

GOSAT/Ibuki was the story OrbitalHub contributed to the Carnival. We hope you will enjoy reading this week’s selection from around the space blogosphere.

Credits: NASA

One of the crucial requirements for a man-rated launch system is a reliable Launch Abort System (LAS). LAS is basically a top-mounted rocket connected to a crew module and it is used to separate the crew module from the rest of the launch vehicle in case of emergency.

An emergency can be anything from an explosion of the launch vehicle on the launch pad to a failed separation of the lower stage during flight.

In the case of the Orion Module, several designs were considered for the LAS: the Multiple External Service Module Abort Motor concept, the Crew Module Strap On Motors concept, and the In-Line Tandem Tractor (Tower) concept. The latter concept was incorporated in the Ares I/Orion design.

The Tandem Tractor (Tower) design of the LAS has three motors: an Attitude Control Motor (eight nozzles), a Jettison Motor (four aft nozzles), and the Abort Motor (four exposed flow nozzles). These motors will make possible the separation of the module and the control of the flight after the separation from the launch vehicle. An important component of the LAS is the Boost Protective Cover (BPC), which protects the crew module from the exhaust of the motors.

Credits: NASA

The LAS is designed to perform on the launch pad as well as during the first 300,000 feet after the launch. There are three possible scenarios for the abort procedure: on the launch pad, on the mid-altitude flight segment (up to an altitude of 150,000 feet), and on the high-altitude flight segment (from 150,000 feet to 300,000 feet, where the LAS is jettisoned on a nominal flight). Tests will have to be performed to cover these scenarios: on the launch pad as well in flight.

NASA has made available animations of the test flights planned for the LAS. One is the animation of the Orion Module LAS pad abort flight test. The second presents the Orion Module LAS ascent abort flight test.

Credits: NASA

Currently, the Launch Abort System of the Orion Module is under development.

The first full-scale test fire of the motor that powers the LAS was completed on November 20, 2008. This was the first time a LAS test has been conducted since the 1960s, when the LAS for the Apollo Program was tested.

Credits: JAXA

If measures are not taken to address the effects of the greenhouse gases produced by our civilization, extreme climate changes will occur: droughts, heat waves, and floods.

Understanding the behavior of greenhouse gases is critical for developing effective measures to fight climate change.

The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) is the first satellite to observe greenhouse gases from space. The main contributors behind GOSAT are the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), and the Ministry of Environment (MOE). The chosen nickname for GOSAT is IBUKI, which means breath or puff.

The data collected by the GOSAT satellite will help us make better estimates as to how different areas on Earth contribute to global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases. The data will also help us understand the behavior of the greenhouse gases by combining global observation data collected on orbit with data collected on the ground, and it will also help us improve simulation models.

Credits: JAXA

The observation instrument onboard GOSAT is called the Thermal And Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation (TANSO).

There are two sensors that collect data for the instrument: a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) and a Cloud Aerosol Imager (CAI).

The sensors will observe the infrared light from the Earth’s surface and will return measurements that can be used to calculate the abundance of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄).

The operational orbit will allow GOSAT to circle the Earth in roughly 100 minutes and to return above the same Earth coordinates every three days. One thing to mention here is that the observations can be done only on cloud-free areas, meaning that on average only ten percent of the total number of measurements can be used for calculating the abundance of CO₂ and CH₄. However, the number of measurement points surpasses the current number of ground measuring points (under 200) and areas that have never been monitored will be covered by GOSAT observations.

Credits: JAXA / MHI

A Mitsubishi H-IIA launch vehicle will inject GOSAT into its predetermined orbit: a sun-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit at a perigee altitude of 667 km, apogee altitude of 683 km, and an inclination of 98 degrees. It will be the fifteenth flight of an H-IIA. The model used for this launch, H2A202, has two solid rocket boosters.

Besides GOSAT, which is the main payload, the payload includes several piggyback payloads. In the case of an excessive launch capability, it is common practice to include in the payload small satellites that are made by private companies or universities.

Seven micro-satellites, six selected through public tender and one JAXA satellite, will be launched by the H-IIA launch vehicle with Ibuki: KAGAYAKI / SORUN CORPORATION (debris detection and Aurora electric current observation mission), STARS / Kagawa University (tether space robot demonstration), KKS-1 / Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology (demonstration of the micro cluster and three axis attitude control functions), PRISM / The University of Tokyo (earth image acquisition by using an expandable refracting telescope), SOHLA-1 / ASTRO TECHNOLOGY SOHLA (measurements of thunder and lightning), SPRITE-SAT / Tohoku University (observations of the sprite phenomenon and gamma radiation of the Earth’s origin), and Small Demonstration Satellite-1 (SDS-1) / JAXA (on-orbit verification of the space wire demonstration).

For more details on the additional payload for the GOSAT/Ibuki mission, you can check out the piggyback payload web page on the JAXA web site. Some of the links on the page require knowledge of Japanese or hands-on experience with the Google translation tool.

The launch date for GOSAT/Ibuki has been set. The H-IIA Launch Vehicle No.15 will liftoff sometime between 12:54 and 1:16 PM on January 21, 2009.

Check out the GOSAT / IBUKI program page on the JAXA web site for more information.

Credits: SpaceX

The nine Merlin engines that power the first stage of the Falcon 9 launcher have been successfully tested. At the McGregor Test Facility in Texas, a full mission-length firing test of the first stage of the launcher was conducted on November 22, 2008. The engines, fired for 178 seconds, consumed over half a million pounds of propellant.

During the last eighteen seconds of the test, two of the engines were shut down in order to test the ability of the first stage to complete a mission in the event of an engine being lost during flight.

According to SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the first liftoff of a Falcon 9 launcher from Cape Canaveral will occur in 2009.

Falcon 9 is a two-stage launch vehicle. It is powered by liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene. Nine Merlin engines power the first stage of the launcher. The second stage of the Falcon 9 launcher is powered by one Merlin engine.

Falcon 9 has a length of 54.9 m, a diameter of 3.6 m, and can have a mass of 333,400 kg for a low Earth orbit (LEO) mission, and 332,800 kg for a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) mission. It can inject 12,500 kg payloads into LEO (200 km) and 4,640 kg payloads into GTO (185×35,788 km). SpaceX will charge $36.75M for a LEO mission, and $46.75M for a trans-lunar injection (TLI) mission. For GTO missions, the price ranges from $36.75M to $57.75M.

For more details about the Falcon 9 launcher, you can visit the Falcon 9 overview web page on the SpaceX web site.

Check out the video with the 3 minute test of the Merlin engines on the SpaceX web site.

Credits: NASA

The Carnival of Space #80 is up at Starts With A Bang!. This edition of the Carnival of Space is orbiting around an Authentic Thanksgiving menu. Oceans on Mars, Russian cosmonauts, the ISS, and Moon rovers are among the topics you can read about at this carnival.

OrbitalHub has added to the menu a post about the European-built MPLM.