Oh what I'd give to sit down and have lunch with him and Dr. Michio Kaku.

4/2/2012 3:13:15 PM

Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

Quote :

"A newly unveiled company with some high-profile backers — including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page — has announced plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for resources such as precious metals and water. Planetary Resources, Inc. intends to sell these materials, generating a healthy profit for itself. But it also aims to advance humanity's exploration and exploitation of space, with resource extraction serving as an anchor industry that helps our species spread throughout the solar system. "If you look at space resources, the logical next step is to go to the near-Earth asteroids," Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Eric Anderson told SPACE.com. "They're just so valuable, and so easy to reach energetically. Near-Earth asteroids really are the low-hanging fruit of the solar system.""

http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-mining-venture-backed-google-execs-james-cameron-011205183.html

This excites me.

4/24/2012 5:37:48 PM

4/24/2012 5:52:09 PM

^^^It's probably more doable than you think. Particularly if you get a few more interested people to join you. He's a professor at the city college of New York. I'm sure he'd be receptive.

4/24/2012 6:14:36 PM

Google Space

4/24/2012 7:47:16 PM

^^ Dr. Kaku is too busy solving the mysteries of the universe to fiddle with mere mortals such as me. But man that would be so awesome!

4/24/2012 7:52:37 PM

5/4/2012 1:12:02 PM

I prefer this one: http://www.theonion.com/articles/nasa-announces-plan-to-bring-wifi-to-its-headquart,2299/

5/4/2012 2:31:40 PM

BIG announcement tonight by ATK (the company that made the solid rocket boosters for the shuttle and will make them for the SLS as well)...

The Liberty Launch Vehicle... The nephew of the defunct constellation program's "Ares I" launch vehicle - but from what I've read, a much more elegant design. A lot of the problems NASA had with the Ares I - such as severe vibrations requiring significant dampening hardware - have been solved because they are using an existing upper stage from the European "Ariane 5" launcher... This new upper stage has a different resonance frequency, among other things which solve the vibration problem (on paper at least).

The rocket/launcher is not a "new" idea... it was proposed shortly after obama gave constellation the ax, however they have an updated schedule and plans to not only make the rocket, but also a capsule and "escape" system - basically a complete package. A lot of critics - myself included - seem to have partially warmed to the idea of this rocket, especially considering the simplicity a lot of the core problems NASA had have been potentially solved.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/atk-liberty-ksc-test-flights-reveal-crew-spacecraft-mlas/
This is a great article that was released shortly after the announcement tonight at 7:30

A few pictures:

5/9/2012 9:36:36 PM

They can't have just announced the Liberty launch vehicle, I swear I've seen press release info on it in the past. That's an interesting LAS they have on it though, very non-traditional. I did a lot of work on Ares I so I'm pleased that it won't be for nothing.

5/10/2012 9:17:46 AM

no, it's not new... i've been reading about liberty for a while... what is new is that they are developing their own capsule and it's going to be a complete launch system, and not just the launcher. (at least this is what they announced at the press conference last night)

5/10/2012 10:19:22 AM

Good luck to SpaceX today, they'll be attempting to dock their unmanned capsule to the ISS sometime today.

5/25/2012 1:35:48 AM

i tried to get up early enough to watch the launch early tuesday, but that didn't happen

5/25/2012 10:00:32 AM

The Dragon capsule has successfully docked.

5/25/2012 10:01:40 AM

Incorrect. It was captured by the robotic arm on the ISS, but it still has not been docked to the space station.

5/25/2012 10:10:37 AM

Watching live while in my psych class

5/25/2012 10:11:56 AM

Oh right, sorry for the confusion.

5/25/2012 10:24:22 AM

This is a historic day that probably 95% of americans will have no idea about.

5/25/2012 10:38:46 AM

anyone got a link to video that is typically work-friendly (e.g. ustream is blocked)

5/25/2012 10:50:27 AM

Google nasa tv

5/25/2012 10:50:58 AM

5/25/2012 11:00:12 AM

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

5/25/2012 11:09:21 AM

Quote :

"This is a historic day that probably 95% of americans will have no idea about."

Yes, congratulations mankind for doing something you've already done many times.

5/25/2012 11:30:32 AM

first time for a private company.

5/25/2012 11:33:36 AM

First time for a private company AND the first time in a little under a year by an American made vessel.

5/25/2012 11:35:56 AM

Damn, I have a meeting in about 5 minutes. Probably gonna miss it

5/25/2012 11:36:39 AM

none of the video feeds work for me

Guess I'll try my phone then

5/25/2012 11:37:49 AM

Does Dragon have the capability to be remotely docked or does it have to be grappled every time?

5/25/2012 11:45:00 AM

Quote :

"Does Dragon have the capability to be remotely docked "

what does that even mean?

5/25/2012 12:13:34 PM

In other words, can it be flown directly to the docking collar like the space shuttle did. If the robot arm was inoperative, would they be able to dock.

I think the answer is yes, however it depends on which docking collar is free. Currently they have like 4 craft connected to the ISS, so it probably had to be grappled to a less convenient docking port.

5/25/2012 12:40:10 PM

no not right now... the dragon doesn't "dock"... it "berths" unpowered via the CBM (common berthing mechanism) instead of one of the docking mechanisms the shuttle used. The advantage is the CBM has a larger diameter for transferring cargo than some of the other docking systems.

5/25/2012 1:11:39 PM

Did the shuttle actually dock unassisted by the ISS beams? I was under the impression that it just flew to a close hold and was pulled in as well.

5/25/2012 1:25:44 PM

I watched them dock before and they had to fly into a docking target. So yes, the shuttle docked under its own RCS thruster power with the ISS. I am not sure if the robot arm would have the power necessary to move or rotate the shuttle anyways. May be too much mass and would overload the mechanism if they tried to pull it around.

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qna/questions/How_Shuttle_Docks_with_ISS.htm

That link is a Q&A somebody did asking about the docking procedure.

5/25/2012 1:30:52 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_docking_and_berthing_mechanisms

Quote :

"Spacecraft docking and berthing mechanisms are used to join two spacecraft. Docking specifically refers to the joining or coming together of two separate free-flying space vehicles.[1] Berthing refers to mating operations where an inactive module/vehicle is placed into the mating interface using a robotic arm.[2]"

citing wikipedia FTW

5/25/2012 1:35:33 PM

neat thanks

5/25/2012 1:36:16 PM

Dragon has unberthed from the ISS and should "land" in the pacific ocean off the coast of california/mexico in a few hours.

[Edited on May 31, 2012 at 9:11 AM. Reason : ]

5/31/2012 9:09:31 AM

SPLASHDOWN!!! The dragon has "landed"

5/31/2012 11:47:04 AM

This is the SpaceX Dragon capsule after splashdown yesterday! I love the singed look! (which is completely normal/expected!)


Maybe I'm the only one excited here, but there have been very few entities that have send ships that have docked with the International Space Station and returned to Earth:
United States
Russia
Elon Musk (SpaceX)

I truly hope this marks a new chapter in space flight where low earth orbit is dominated by private companies, and the government ships focus on loftier goals such as the moon and mars!

6/1/2012 8:39:14 AM

Here is a bigger picture from a friend of mine that works at SpaceX:



Per your additional comment, we unfortunately (US Space Program) won't be landing people on the moon or Mars unless the next president comes up with a new plan. We will be sending astronauts to orbit both the moon and Mars and landing them on various asteroids that the moons of Mars (Phobos and Diemos). The whole logic being that the government has a pretty solid grip on going to NEO so it's time to focus on more difficult stuff that has never been done before.

6/1/2012 9:01:30 AM

^yep. unfortunately, it doesn't seem that either obama or romney have a solid vision for space. (in face, during the florida primary debates, romney said he would fire anyone on his staff that even suggested a permanent moon base)

as far as mars, it's the "eventual" goal for the US, but it's perpetually 20-30 years in the future.

[Edited on June 1, 2012 at 9:09 AM. Reason : ]

6/1/2012 9:08:11 AM

Quote :

"We will be sending astronauts to orbit both the moon and Mars and landing them on various asteroids that the moons of Mars (Phobos and Diemos)."

huh, i had not heard of this

6/1/2012 9:45:29 AM

mining asteroids will never be cost effective until they build the space elevator

6/1/2012 9:58:55 AM

not necessarily true... especially if the material mined is used in situ (of course, i see this more as something that might eventually happen on the moon... lunar infrastructure built from lunar material.)

6/1/2012 10:02:18 AM

ok, cost effective to use on the surface of the earth

6/1/2012 10:06:07 AM

Although NASA isn't doing much related to asteroid mining, Planetary Resources, Inc. was just recently unveiled with long term goals of doing just that. d357r0y3r posted about it earlier in this thread but here is an additional link:

http://www.newspacejournal.com/2012/04/24/planetary-resources-seeks-to-mine-asteroids-and-develop-propellant-depots/

It's got some solid financial backing from rich folks such as James Cameron and Ross Perot.

6/1/2012 11:11:39 AM

Quote :

"mining asteroids will never be cost effective until they build the space elevator"

And again with this junk!

You've got it backward, the space elevator will never be cost effective until we mine asteroids. And there's a huge demand for delivery of tiny payloads to GEO that take days or weeks to climb. And all the superior alternatives inexplicably become unworkable. And pigs fly.

6/1/2012 11:50:29 AM

video showing the descent and "spashdown" of the dragon capsule...

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=145209661

[Edited on June 1, 2012 at 6:00 PM. Reason : ]

6/1/2012 5:59:56 PM

6/1/2012 7:43:29 PM

NASA can't even afford to launch simple satellites any more.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/06/07/nasa-kills-x-ray-telescope-blames-project-cost/

6/7/2012 4:03:57 PM

2011 was the first time ever that china had more launches than the US (19 vs 18). 2012 is shaping up to be ridiculously worse... china already has had 9 launches this year (out of 22 planned)

6/8/2012 10:28:04 AM