Cool Stuff – Page 8 – The Chiles Files

July 20, 2012July 20, 2012

One Giant Leap

Despite (or perhaps because of) today’s dreary headlines, I’d be neglecting my space-nerd cred if I didn’t point out that today is the 43rd anniversary of the first moon landing.

I was five, and completely obsessed with the whole program. My grandpa loaded me up with Apollo toys from the Gulf station, including some nifty stuff that came inside Tang jars (the official OJ of the space program). The coolest was this little plastic disc that you’d pop out of the lid and bake in the oven. It came out as a perfectly realized Apollo Command Module.

Yeah, I had a couple dozen of them. Plus models. Plus GI Joe astronauts. Plus books. So it was pretty much a no-brainer for my parents to let me stay up well past bedtime to watch the first moonwalk on TV. And I wasn’t the least bit fooled when my Mom called in from the front porch that she could see them up there on the Moon (unlike my little sister, who fell for it).

She couldn’t fool me. I had a telescope, and therefore knew better. Didn’t stop me from trying later on, though…

Our youngest has always had a fascination with the moon. Not sure why – who can explain such things? But I totally get it. When he was younger, he’d ask me if he could go to the moon when he grows up. I told him I certainly hope so. He said “I’m going to go to that moon, and smoke a cigarette when I get there”.

It’s beyond disappointing that we stopped going and have been mired in low Earth orbit ever since. I don’t want this to just be another vague story my kids hear about from their old man – I want them to see it happen again. I want them to have the chance to go – and to go even farther.

Thankfully, that may be even more likely now than it was just ten years ago. Here’s hoping my son has the chance to light up a cig on the moon one day.

But afterwards, he’d #$%@! well better never touch one of those cancer sticks again.

July 14, 2012

What’s Old Is New Again

In the closing notes of Perigee, I mentioned that one of the biggest reasons spaceflight has been so stupendously expensive is the problem of reusability. A big rocket is every bit as expensive and complex as a new airliner, but it all gets thrown away after one flight.

Think you could afford a weekend jaunt to Vegas if Southwest ditched their 737s at the end of every trip? For that matter, could they even afford to do business like that?

The answer, obviously, is a big fat NO.

There are other things at work, namely a bureaucratic legacy that has made it overly complicated to build any launchers for NASA (especially “human rated” ones). Their own internal studies admitted that if SpaceX had developed the Falcon launcher family along the traditional guvmint model, it would’ve increased costs by a factor of 10 or so.

The Air Force’s “evolved expendable launch vehicle” (EELV) program didn’t bring those costs down very much. But they did result in some way-cool rockets than can be used for lots of stuff besides milsats. Here’s a Delta IV-Heavy, which will take NASA’s Orion capsule on its first unmanned test flight next year:

Delta IV Heavy NROL-15

Impressive. But now, check out this much smaller rocket – size doesn’t matter here, look at what it does:

Masten Xaero

Now for something that combines really big rockets with vertical landing, like something from a 50’s sci-fi movie. Given SpaceX’s success record, I have no doubt they’ll be able to make it happen:

SpaceX Reusable Falcon 9

Buckle up!

June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

Fly Me to the Moon

Suborbital hops into space and back not enough of an adrenaline surge? Bored with flying in circles aboard the space station? Clearly, you are a discerning traveler who can be satisfied with nothing less than the most unique experience.

Or maybe you’re just a gold-plated pain in the @$$. If you’ve got the money, it don’t matter.

So how about a trip to the Moon? If that doesn’t light you up, then you must be dead. And please, hold the “no, but I’d be dead by the end of the trip” jokes to yourself, thankyouverymuch.

As with suborbital passenger hops, two companies are vying to offer different variations of the same amazing journey. In this case, each wants to be the first to send paying passengers around the Moon.

IRONY ALERT! Forty-three years after the US won that race, both plan to return by using – wait for it – Russian spacecraft.

Soyuz was originally intended to be the Soviet’s moonship, so it’s not too much of a stretch to think it’s still up to the task after 40 years of production and design improvements. It’ll require a better heat shield, life support, and nav/com, but these likewise have the benefit of 40+ years experience.

First up, let us dispense with what I believe to be the dark horse in this race: Excalibur Almaz. They’ve essentially salvaged 1980’s Russian military space station hardware to spiff up, attach to an Earth-departure booster, and put into lunar orbit. It would be reusable, as would the re-entry vehicles they bought to service it.

Hey, I didn’t make it up – that’s what they said. If they can pull it off, great. The idea of a small space-station-sized passenger vessel that regularly transits between Earth and Moon is a terrific idea. Heck, it might even make for a really good book.

The catch? Ion propulsion. Not only is their trans-lunar injection (TLI) stage based on technology that’s not really off-the-shelf ready yet, the low thrust means a long orbit – like six months round trip. It would actually take its passengers farther away from Earth than any other humans have ever been, according to their own information.

Now I’m all about traveling the scenic routes, but there ain’t that much to see on the way to the moon unless you’re pointed right at the thing. That’s an awfully long time to be cooped up in something the size of a school bus, eating freeze-dried food and inhaling your shipmate’s farts.

And did I mention this experience can all be yours for only $150 million?

Now for the one that I take more seriously: Space Adventures. This is the same outfit that’s arranged for several trips into orbit on Soyuz, including week-long stays at the International Space Station. They’ve long since learned how to suppress the giggle factor amongst the nonbelievers, and seem to have this jaunt planned out fairly well. To my layman’s eyes, it looks like a recreation of the original plans to send a crewed Soyuz into lunar orbit. Considering the price tag and exclusive clientele, they’ve also seen fit to purchase an extra hab module which will go up with the TLI stage. I would imagine it’ll work out to one pax in each module, with the pilot in the other. Which will probably work just fine for a 10-day trip, because this one uses good old-fashioned chemical rockets.

One seat has already been sold, supposedly to filmmaker James Cameron. And if I had that kind of money, I’d be right behind him in the ticket line.

Did I mention someone ought to write a book about this?

June 21, 2012June 23, 2012

T-Minus Eight Years And Counting

It’s been eight long years since SpaceShipOne became the first privately-built spacecraft to actually fly into space, thus earning the title of…spacecraft.

OK, so that’s redundant. My kids have been making me watch too much Austin Powers (allow myself to introduce…myself).

Not being content with making history just once, Rutan and Co. went on to make two more flights with ballast equivalent to two passengers, thus earning the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.

Naturally I was geeked out over the whole thing when it happened. It also gave me the impetus to start writing Perigee, which had already been flitting about inside my cranial region for some time. I figured now that someone had actually done it, and another really rich guy was bankrolling a whole new airline on the concept, that my own wild ideas wouldn’t feel so…science-fictioney.

Yeah, that’s a word. Trust me, I’m a writer. Continue reading “T-Minus Eight Years And Counting”

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

Aw, Screw It

I’ve spent enough time on the internet to become absolutely convinced that the world is ending, and that The Man isn’t telling us about it. Seriously.

Might be a zombie outbreak, might be an unavoidable collision with some wandering celestial body, or maybe it’s some combination of the two: that is, alien invasion!

When a respectable foreign policy journal (coincidentally named “Foreign Policy”) posts an article about stuff DARPA’s working on that could fight off an alien attack, well then…you just have to wonder. Or not.

I mean hot damn, what’s not to like about that action? All the opportunities for mass mayhem, without the guilt of shooting creatures that might look like your neighbors. Or, you know, might actually be your neighbors. If they hadn’t gone all zombie-undead and everything. Sorry man, but I like my brain right where it is, thankyouverymuch.

And then some hoity-toity scientist just has to go and blow holes in all of it. Geez. They’re spoiling all of my apocalyptic plans. What am I going to do with all these hollow-points and tactical bacon?

In the meantime, it gives me an excuse to link to awesome artwork like this:

Hippies of San Francisco: Lord Vader Finds Your Lack of Faith Disturbing — Lord Vader has found your lack of faith disturbing.

May 31, 2012May 31, 2012

Chasing the Dragon

Splashdown!

The SpaceX Dragon has successfully completed its first demonstration mission to the International Space Station.

Wish I had time to opine more, but for now get thee to this here link for pictures and details.

UPDATE:

Here’s a shot of Dragon waiting for its ride home:

The significance of this mission cannot be overstated. From my layman’s perspective, it was pretty much flawless – and did I mention this was only the second flight? There’s been a lot of skepticism about the whole Commercial Crew program from politicians and others who are ordinarily pro-free market, but when seeing their NASA cash cow starved, begin to freak out and insist on throwing more money at an agency which has not demonstrated that it can successfully develop a new spacecraft in the past thirty years. Continue reading “Chasing the Dragon”

May 31, 2012May 31, 2012

Look at me! Look at me!

I’m starting to feel like a real author now. Thanks to Digital Book Today for publishing a really nice interview, which is currently headlining their website.

Wondering what all the hubbub is about (bub)? Well, wonder no more! Check it out, beeches: Buy this book!

May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Viva Capitalism!

UPDATE: Archive videos from NASA TV here.

UPDATED UPDATE: Really, really excited about this? You can take a class in space hotel design this summer. Beats Medieval French Poetry or Transgender Victim Studies…