Archive for May, 2016

 Moon's far side captured by NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Credit: NOAA/NASA


Moon’s far side captured by NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR).
Credit: NOAA/NASA

China has a stated interest to send a lander to the Moon’s far side – the Chang’e-4 (CE-4) mission.

New details about possible instruments of CE-4 are to be detailed in a forthcoming conference on Moon exploration.

Y.L. Zou and colleagues from the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration in Beijing are on the agenda of the Fourth European Lunar Symposium to be held May 18-19 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Propositional payloads

The CE-4 scientific objectives are anchored to a lander, a rover, and use of a telecommunication relay that will be sent to the Earth–Moon L2 Lagrange point.

China's Yutu lunar rover took this image of Change'3 lander. New lunar landers are being readied for China's next step in Moon exploration. Credit: NAOC/Chinese Academy of Sciences

China’s Yutu lunar rover took this image of Change’3 lander. New lunar landers are being readied for China’s next step in Moon exploration.
Credit: NAOC/Chinese Academy of Sciences

CE-4 would be launched toward the Moon in about 2018. The weight of payloads onboard the lander total about 77 pounds (35 kilograms) and 37 pounds (17 kilograms) on the rover.

CE-4 mission “propositional payloads” involve six on the lander, five payloads on the rover, and one payload on the telecommunication relay orbiter.

Objectives

The researchers report that the scientific objectives of CE-4 are many, including:

  • Study the characteristics and the formation mechanism of lunar surface floating dust;
  • To measure lunar surface temperature, analyzing its change with time and in different light conditions;
  • Measure the chemical compositions of lunar rocks and soils and study their distribution;
  • Carry out lunar surface low-frequency radio astronomical observation and research;
  • Identify the structure of cosmic rays, and to find the possible original position for these cosmic rays;
  • Observe the independent kilometer wave burst event from the high layer of the solar corona, investigate its radiation characteristics and mechanism, and to explore the evolution and transport of coronal mass ejection (CME) between the Sun and Earth.

Radio astronomy station

Once on the Moon, the lander would use cameras, a dust-analyzer, and other instruments.

Firmly footed on the bleak lunar terrain, the lander would also become a far side radio astronomical station, staging low, mid and high-frequency sweeps of space from the lunar surface.

China’s Chang’e 3 Moon lander, imaged by Yutu lunar rover. It reportedly continues to serve as an astronomical observation outpost. Credit: NAOC

China’s Chang’e 3 Moon lander, imaged by Yutu lunar rover. It reportedly continues to serve as an astronomical observation outpost.
Credit: NAOC

Along with other devices, the Chinese lunar rover is expected to be equipped with ground penetrating radar.

Probing look at lunar ionosphere

In related Moon research, another paper to be presented at the meeting details probing of the lunar ionosphere. This investigation made use of a service module now in lunar orbit. That module was a component of China’s circumlunar return and reentry initiative that occurred in late 2014.

The circumlunar return and reentry spacecraft – commonly tagged as Chang’e 5-T1 — was launched on October 23, 2014 and nine days later the return vehicle landed at Inner Mongolia successfully. The service module performed a divert maneuver to avoid re-entry and moved to the Earth-Moon L2 point (EML2).

After releasing a test return capsule to Earth, the solar-powered service module first loitered at Earth-Moon L2 and then moved into orbit around the Moon. Credit: CCTV/China Space Website

After releasing a test return capsule to Earth, the solar-powered service module first loitered at Earth-Moon L2 and then moved into orbit around the Moon.
Credit: CCTV/China Space Website

That module remained at that location until January 4, 2015 then conducted a departure maneuver to leave EML2 and begin a transition into lunar orbit. The module arrived on January 11, 2015 in lunar orbit and then lowered closer to the Moon. It imaged the target landing zone for the 2017 Chinese lunar sample return mission – Chang’e 5 – a touchdown site which has yet to be disclosed.

Radio occultation finding

“During this period, we performed the radio occultation experiment to detect the lunar ionosphere,” notes M. Y. Wang of China’s National Astronomical Observatories.

Illustration of the service module of the circumlunar return and reentry spacecraft  mission used for a radio occultation experiment. Credit: M. Y. Wang/National Astronomical Observatories.

Illustration of the service module of the
circumlunar return and reentry spacecraft mission used for a radio occultation experiment.
Credit: M. Y. Wang/National Astronomical Observatories.

The observation confirms the presence of a large ionosphere surrounding the Moon, and data was collected on the total electron content, M.Y. Wang and his research colleagues report.

They add in their abstract for the upcoming meeting: “In the future, we will perform more observation and work on the lunar ionosphere and its distribution characteristics.”

Curiosity's ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager took this image on Sol 1338, May 11m 2016. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

Curiosity’s ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager took this image on Sol 1338, May 11m 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

 

Yesterday, on May 11, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been on the surface of Mars for two Mars years – almost four Earth years.

During that time, the rover has made systematic measurements to compare how conditions change from year to year on the Red Planet.

Curiosity is now in Sol 1339, with the plan calling for the continuation of a drill campaign at the target “Okoruso,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Also on tap for this Sol 1339, the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is to observe a pile of drill tailings that was dumped without being sieved.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on May 11, 2016, Sol 1337. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on May 11, 2016, Sol 1337.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

 

Science block

The robot’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) is to complete the analysis from the Sol 1338 plan, and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will make an overnight measurement of the dump pile.

Anderson notes that on Sol 1340, scientists have a targeted science block with the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) making passive and active observations of the dump pile, and active observations of the targets “Kobos 2”, “Stampriet”, and “Swartmodder.”

Curiosity’s Mastcam will then document those targets. Then Mastcam and Navcam will make some atmospheric dust observations.

Icing on the cake

On an eat your cake and have it all too, Anderson explains that French colleagues at CNES (Centre national d’études spatiales) made a Mars-themed cake to honor Curiosity’s two Mars years of exploration, “complete with a little rover exploring a delicious-looking cocoa-dusted martian surface!”

Tiramarsu cake made by French colleagues engaged in the Curiosity rover’s Mars exploration. Credit: USGS

Tiramarsu cake made by French colleagues engaged in the Curiosity rover’s Mars exploration.
Credit: USGS

 

 

Meanwhile, the makings of a new Curiosity “selfie” appear to be now back here on Earth! Curiosity’s selfie requires 60 different images, and takes nearly an hour to acquire.

This picture is a thumbnail version of a larger image, a merged product from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to create a rover selfie. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, taking this image on May 11, 2016, Sol 1338. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This picture is a thumbnail version of a larger image, a merged product from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to create a rover selfie. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, taking this image on May 11, 2016, Sol 1338.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

 

 

 

 

 

Dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researcher Megan Bruck Syal examines a pair of meteorites destined to be vaporized by high-powered lasers. Credit: Julie Russell/LLNL

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researcher Megan Bruck Syal examines a pair of meteorites destined to be vaporized by high-powered lasers.
Credit: Julie Russell/LLNL

Asteroids are big bruisers that can lead to a bad day on Earth. Dealing with space rocks that are on-target to strike our planet has prompted a number of planetary defense ideas.

At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, a group of physicists, material scientists, engineers and computational researchers have focused their efforts on two principle methods of asteroid deflection – nuclear explosions and hypervelocity projectiles.

Their goal: Not to destroy inbound space objects, but rather to nudge their trajectory just enough to make them miss the Earth.

Deflection data

“Each comet and asteroid has its own unique character, which presents a challenge for predicting how an individual target would respond to a deflection attempt,” says LLNL postdoctoral researcher, Megan Bruck Syal.

“The makeup may vary significantly from asteroid to asteroid. An individual body may have an abnormal orbit or rotation, and its size would also affect which method we might use to deflect it,” Bruck Syal notes in an LLNL press statement.

Because so little is known about asteroid strength, researchers are gathering data about how asteroid materials respond under extreme conditions.

Numbers of studies have prompted planetary defense concepts. Credit: NRC

Numbers of studies have prompted planetary defense concepts.
Credit: NRC

Target chamber

Enter LLNL’s Jupiter Laser Facility. Come fall, specially prepared samples of meteorites will be mounted inside the target chamber of the powerful laser.

Months of preparation will come down to a nanosecond laser pulse, sending a haymaker shockwave through the samples.

The Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) is a unique laser user facility for research in High Energy Density science. Its five diverse laser platforms offer researchers a wide range of capabilities to produce and explore states of matter under extreme conditions of high density, pressure and temperature.

The JLF includes the Titan, Janus, Callisto, Europa, and COMET lasers and associated target chamber.

Walnut-sized

The two meteorites to be used in the test — around the size of walnuts — were scavenged in Antarctica, later sorted and classified at NASA Johnson Space Center. The space rocks are to be vaporized by the high-powered laser, and the data they yield is expected to inform the prospect of asteroid deflection in the future.

Bruck Syal is teaming up with Laura Chen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, to help determine what sort of laser pulses to use to extract the data they need from the meteorite samples.

Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Space rocks aren’t like most laser targets. They tend to be much more heterogeneous, often containing chondrules, pebbly inclusions that were melted early in solar system history and embedded in a matrix of finer-grained material.

Moreover, it is this heterogeneous nature that makes it difficult to obtain the experimental data that will ultimately inform how best to deflect an incoming asteroid.

 

Avert disaster

This planetary defense initiative is one of dozens of research efforts that grew out of the capabilities and expertise developed and honed in Lawrence Livermore’s weapons program.

LLNL planetary defense work is part of a confab of NASA, Los Alamos and Sandia national labs experts, along with collaborators across a number of universities and international research centers.

The challenge facing this international coalition of scientists is to detect and deflect the next large Earth-bound object.

Credit: ESA - P.Carril

Credit: ESA – P.Carril

“It’s not a matter of if, but when,” Bruck Syal adds, referring to the eventual certainty of a large celestial object impacting the Earth. “Our challenge is to figure out how to avert disaster before it happens.”

 

 

 

 

Check out this informative video on the research at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwwM6qHSPyg

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on May 5, 2016, Sol 1332. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on May 5, 2016, Sol 1332.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

 

 

NASA’s Curiosity is now in Sol 1337, slated to go into an extensive arm workout.

Last weekend, the rover transferred and sieved the “Okoruso” drill sample, and analyzed it with the Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin).

The plan then called for imaging the drill location, starting by dumping the pre-sieved drill sample. Then use of the robot’s Mastcam was on tap to image the dump pile and drill site, reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager took this image on Sol 1336, May 9, 2016. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager took this image on Sol 1336, May 9, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANLthe pre-sieved drill sample. Then use of the robot’s Mastcam is to image the dump pile and drill site, reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Dump pile

Next item on the to-do list was to target the drill hole with the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and also characterize a nearby bedrock target named “Ubib,” followed by use of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to image the dump pile.

MAHLI is to also do some nighttime imaging of the drill hole and “Ubib” under different illumination conditions.

All in all, “that’s already several hours of arm activities, while holding a 66 pound (30 kg) turret at the end,” Edgar adds.

This image was taken by Curiosity's Mastcam Left on Sol 1334, May 7, 2016. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This image was taken by Curiosity’s Mastcam Left on Sol 1334, May 7, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Time for a selfie

After such an intense workout, what’s next?

“Time for a selfie,” Edgar says. Curiosity will take a MAHLI self portrait to document the drill site.

“But unlike most selfies, Curiosity’s selfie requires 60 different images, and will take nearly an hour to acquire. Finally, we’ll give the arm a break, and Curiosity will take several ChemCam and Mastcam observations of the drill tailings in the afternoon.

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1334, May 7, 2016. Credit NASA JPL Caltech MSSS

Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1334, May 7, 2016.
Credit NASA JPL Caltech MSSS

“Talk about a good workout…for a lot of great science,” Edgar concludes.

The first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle waits in the encapsulation cell of the Evolved Expendable Launch vehicle on April 5, 2010 at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla. Half of the Atlas V five-meter fairing is visible in the background. Credit: U.S. Air Force

The first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle waits in the encapsulation cell of the Evolved Expendable Launch vehicle on April 5, 2010 at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla. Half of the Atlas V five-meter fairing is visible in the background.
Credit: U.S. Air Force

X-37B update:

Satellite watchers have indicated that the now-orbiting X-37B (OTV-4) recently made a significant orbit boost. In early May, ground observers started noticing the OTV-4 was not showing up as predicted. It was found on May 6 by José Luis Ruiz Gómez running around 44 minutes late. The OTV-4 orbit had been boosted by around 22 miles (36 kilometers). Such a maneuver may well indicate the craft is due to stay in Earth orbit or might suggest a burn off unneeded fuel and weight for a reentry. Special thanks to Thomas Dorman for this information. Satellite analyst Ted Molczan adds that the vehicle was also briefly at about its present altitude late last fall. OTV-3 was at a similar altitude twice during its flight, he points out.

The secretive mission of the United States Air Force’s X-37B space plane is nearing one year in Earth orbit.

Sent spaceward on the program’s fourth flight on May 20, 2015, the winged space plane’s on-orbit duties remain a tight-lipped affair. It was orbited by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, kicking off a mission dubbed OTV-4 (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-4).

In a response to a Space.com inquiry: “I can confirm the 4th OTV mission is approaching one year on-orbit,” responded Air Force Capt. Annmarie Annicelli at the Pentagon’s Air Force press desk.

Beyond that…nothing further to add, Annicelli said.

Recovery crew members process the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle at Vandenberg Air Force Base after the program's third mission complete. Credit: Boeing

Recovery crew members process the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle at Vandenberg Air Force Base after the program’s third mission complete.
Credit: Boeing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For additional info on this baffling project, go to my new Space.com story today:

Mystery Mission: Air Force’s X-37B Space Plane Nears 1 Year in Orbit

May 10, 2016 08:00am ET

http://www.space.com/32839-x37b-military-space-plane-one-year-mission-otv4.html

 

 

Credit: Bob Sauls/XP4D M. Wade Holler Director, Digital Content and Media Strategy Explore Mars, Inc. Used with permission.

Credit:
Bob Sauls/XP4D
M. Wade Holler
Director, Digital Content and Media Strategy
Explore Mars, Inc.
Used with permission.

 

Nobody ever claimed that planting humans on Mars was easy – and that keeping them there safe and sound was a slam dunk.

Next week, the Humans to Mars Summit (H2M) will spotlight the needed steps to enable human exploration of the Red Planet by the 2030s. This confab of experts takes place May 17-19, 2016 at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Presented by Explore Mars, Inc., the summit brings together high level experts from NASA, academia, and private companies to discuss the challenges and solutions required to dispatch expeditionary crews to Mars.

Critical juncture

“H2M is taking place at a critical juncture,” explains Chris Carberry, CEO of Explore Mars, Inc.

“There has been a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and support for human missions to Mars over the past couple years,” Carberry tells Inside Outer Space, “but as we approach a new administration, we want to make a clear statement to policy makers and candidates that Mars has broad support and it is an achievable goal as early as the early 2030s.”

Colorado's U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07), member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07), member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

H2M will not only feature senior NASA, industry, and policy figures, but representatives from the entertainment industry, virtual reality experts, STEM education professionals, and experts on innovation and economics, Carberry adds.

“We want to be clear that Mars isn’t just the realm of a small group of space and aerospace professionals, but it has a tremendous reach and impact throughout society,” says Carberry.

Who’s who?

This year’s summit will feature top names in aerospace, science, policy, entertainment, and other fields including:

Buzz Aldrin (Apollo XI; Gemini XII)

Dava Newman (NASA Deputy Administrator)

Andy Weir (Author, The Martian)

Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ (CEO, The Planetary Society)

Robert Palumbo (National Geographic Channels Executive Producer)

Ellen Stofan (NASA Chief Scientist)

Joel Achenbach (The Washington Post)

James Green (NASA Director of Planetary Science)

Credit: Mars Explores, Inc.

Credit: Mars Explores, Inc.

For more information and to register for the May 17-19 Humans to Mars Summit, go to:

http://www.exploremars.org/

Practicing liftoff of commercial space travel, Virgin Galactic visionary, Richard Branson. Credit: Jack Brockway

Practicing liftoff of commercial space travel, Virgin Galactic visionary, Richard Branson.
Credit: Jack Brockway

 

The space future comes into sharp focus by the farsighted entrepreneur Richard Branson in a special series of articles as part of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s special centennial issue.

Branson has created Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceline, the LauncherOne small-satellite launch service, and an aerospace manufacturing arm – The Spaceship Company.

 

Richard Branson during February 19 roll out ceremonies for new SpaceShipTwo at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Credit: Leonard David

Richard Branson during February 19 roll out ceremonies for new SpaceShipTwo at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Credit: Leonard David

Greater purpose

Branson has shared his thoughts on the future of space exploration.

“At Virgin Galactic, our early building blocks are our human commercial spaceflight program and our small-satellite launch service. Even as we focus now on the ground tests of our ambitious projects, we are constantly mindful of the greater purpose of it all, and of what might come next,” Branson writes.

SpaceShipThree

Taking a long look at where his space efforts are going, Branson explains that as important and ambitious as SpaceShipTwo and LauncherOne are, “they are not an endpoint but rather one step.”

 LauncherOne hauls satellites into orbit. Credit: Virgin Galactic


LauncherOne hauls satellites into orbit.
Credit: Virgin Galactic

Branson adds: “We don’t yet know exactly what SpaceShipThree or LauncherTwo will look like, but we do know what we want our future vehicles to do—and how we think our contribution to the exploration of space can help make our planet a better place to live.”

 

For your read of Branson’s space views, go to:

http://aviationweek.com/space/next-100-years-richard-branson

Special thanks to Frank Morring of Aviation Week & Space Technology for assisting in this posting.

 

Credit: Scaled Composites

Credit: Scaled Composites

As part of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s special centennial issue, aerospace imagineer, Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites, has shared his thoughts on the next 100 years of aerospace, and the ingredients required for technological breakthroughs.

Rutan led the team who created the first privately built spacecraft to send humans into space – SpaceShipOne — that then repeated the achievement within five days. Accomplishing the feat, the team captured the Ansari X Prize in 2004.

Engineering challenge

“We should aggressively work to discover if we are the only intelligent species in the universe,” Rutan explains. Furthermore, he notes that “any important breakthrough, before it happens, is often dismissed as nonsense.”

“I agree with my friend Elon Musk that locating our species on more than just Earth may be our most important engineering challenge,” Rutan writes. “Also, protecting our planet and our species from history’s only real significant threat (asteroid/comet impact) should not be overlooked. Aerospace researchers should have a critical role in developing technologies needed to achieve both those goals.”

For full access to Rutan’s look into the past and future, go to:

http://aviationweek.com/space/next-100-years-burt-rutan

 

Special thanks to Frank Morring of Aviation Week & Space Technology for assisting in this posting.

SpaceShipOne returns to the runway. Courtesy of Scaled Composites, LLC

SpaceShipOne returns to the runway.
Courtesy of Scaled Composites, LLC

 

The sweep of aerospace progress is celebrated Aviation Week & Space Technology's special centennial issue. Credit: Ted Williams/Aviation Week & Space Technology

The sweep of aerospace progress is celebrated in Aviation Week & Space Technology’s special centennial issue.
Credit: Ted Williams/Aviation Week & Space Technology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holloman AFB in New Mexico is home to the world’s only magnetically-levitated sled system in the world. Sleds are propelled down the 2,100 foot-long track to test sensitive electronic components for weapon systems. Credit: U.S. Air Force Credit: Airman 1st Class Randahl J. Jenson

Holloman AFB in New Mexico is home to the world’s only magnetically-levitated sled system in the world. Sleds are propelled down the 2,100 foot-long track to test sensitive electronic components for weapon systems.
Credit: Airman 1st Class Randahl J. Jenson

 

Last March, a magnetically-levitated rocket sled set a world record, racing across a nearly frictionless track at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The speed attained by the 2,000-pound, magnetically-levitated (Maglev) sled was clocked at 633 miles per hour, operated by the 846th Test Squadron at the facility.

This was the fastest speed attained by the Maglev, done on March 4, said Lt. Col. Shawn Morgenstern, the Commander of the 846th Test Squadron. An earlier use of the Maglev achieved 513 miles per hour, beating a test of 510 miles per hour done a couple of years ago, he said.

Technicians from the 846th Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., pump liquid helium into a test sled here Aug. 18, 2015. This sled system runs on four super-conducting magnets that need to be cooled down to a few degrees above absolute zero to ensure the smoothest ride possible. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Randahl J. Jenson

Technicians from the 846th Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., pump liquid helium into a test sled here Aug. 18, 2015. This sled system runs on four super-conducting magnets that need to be cooled down to a few degrees above absolute zero to ensure the smoothest ride possible.
Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Randahl J. Jenson

One-of-a-kind

This magnetically-levitated sled is a one-of-a-kind system that uses powerful magnets to steady a rocket-propelled sled on a 2,100 foot-long track. In order for the magnets to work properly, engineers must first cool them to four degrees Kelvin above absolute zero—four degrees above the coldest an object can possibly get. This ensures the smoothest ride possible, explains Airman 1st Class Randahl J. Jenson of the 49th Wing Public Affairs.

“We use very cold liquid helium to essentially levitate the sled via super-conducting magnets,” Morgenstern said. “The Maglev system gives us the ability to test systems without much vibration,” he added.

Faster and faster

“If you have sensitive components that are a part of a weapon system and you want to test them in a realistic environment, a system like this allows us to do that. We measure those vibration environments at various speeds to understand what the system is really capable of as we continue to go faster and faster,” Morgenstern noted.

The recent test did not go exactly as planned, according to the AF public affairs report.

“What we have planned to do after this test is refine the design of the sled itself,” Morgenstern said. “We want to look at some lighter materials and continue to see what kind of capability we can get out of this system in terms of the speeds that we’re capable of going.”

“Go Mach 10” is the 846th Technical Squadron’s motto. Mach 10 is a hypersonic speed, a velocity reaching 7672.69 miles per hour.

There are many military applications of Maglev, from aircraft catapult systems to lobbing “smart” artillery shells. NASA has also investigated Maglev for launching purposes and Elon Musk’s “hyperloop” concept benefits from this type of technology.

Different technologies to push a spacecraft down a long rail have been tested in several settings, including this Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) System evaluated at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA

Different technologies to push a spacecraft down a long rail have been tested in several settings, including this Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) System evaluated at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Credit: NASA

 

 

History in the making

Holloman Air Force Base is not unfamiliar with historical milestones.

On December 10, 1954, Lt Col (Dr.) John P. Stapp received the nickname “The Fastest Man Alive” when he rode a rocket propelled test sled, Sonic Wind No. 1, to a speed of 632 miles per hour.

On December 10, 1954, Lt Col (Dr.) John P. Stapp received the nickname "The Fastest Man Alive" when he rode a rocket propelled test sled, Sonic Wind No. 1, to a speed of 632 miles per hour. Credit: U.S. Air Force

On December 10, 1954, Lt Col (Dr.) John P. Stapp received the nickname “The Fastest Man Alive” when he rode a rocket propelled test sled, Sonic Wind No. 1, to a speed of 632 miles per hour.
Credit: U.S. Air Force

Then there was Captain Joseph W. Kittinger Jr. and his small step, big leap out of an open balloon gondola at 102,800 feet on August 16, 1960 to evaluate techniques of high altitude bailout. Capt Kittinger’s jump lasted 13 minutes reaching a velocity of 614 miles per hour.

Lastly, there was the November 1961 flight of Enos, a chimpanzee trained at Holloman’s HAM facility (Holloman Aero-Medical laboratory). Enos was the first U.S. specimen launched into orbit, riding a Mercury-Atlas capsule that completed two orbits around the Earth. That intended 3-orbit mission was cut short due to a malfunctioning thruster and other technical difficulties. The flight however cleared the way for America’s first human orbital spaceflight and helped certify the Mercury capsule, thus green-lighting John Glenn’s milestone flight on February 20, 1962.

 

Credit: UP Aerospace/GoPro

Credit: UP Aerospace/GoPro

A newly released, award-winning GoPro video captures the November 6th, 2015 rocket flight of UP Aerospace Inc. – a 20-foot (6 meter) tall SL-10 suborbital rocket.

The mission deployed the Maraia Capsule testing the aerodynamics and stability of the payload on re-entry to the atmosphere. Designed and built by NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center, Maraia re-entered Earth’s atmosphere independent of the launch vehicle to test controllability at Mach numbers reaching 3.5.

The UP Aerospace rocket reached an altitude of 396,000ft (120,700 meters) and speeds up to Mach 5.5 (3800mph or 6115km/h) at engine burnout.

Deployment system

That mission signaled the 10th SpaceLoft rocket flight from Spaceport America in New Mexico and the 4th mission for NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.

Credit: UP Aerospace

Credit: UP Aerospace

The mission also marked the debut of UP Aerospace’s new Automated Payload Deployment System (APDS). At 60 seconds into the flight the system successfully released the nose fairing and ejected the 11-pound Maraia re-entry capsule.

The remainder of the vehicle contained three other experiments by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Purdue University, and New Mexico State University.

Recovery at White Sands

The SpaceLoft-10 mission involved an18 minute sub-orbital launch into space and the vehicle was recovered on White Sands Missile Range for re-use on future missions.

Strap yourself in and watch the video at: