Celebrating the Space Shuttle era

As the Space Shuttle era draws to a close for NASA, with the final mission next month, Apogee Books have released Voyages of Discovery – The Missions Of The Space Shuttle Discovery, the first book to cover specifically the history of the space shuttle Discovery, the most storied orbiter in the fleet.

A very straight forward narrative history of the most storied orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet, the book is written by written by former navy man Robert A Adamcik with a minimum of technical jargon. It put the reader on Discovery‘s flight deck during some of the most important missions of the Space Shuttle era from satellite retrieval to deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, to construction of the International Space Station, and the Return to Flight after two tragic losses.

The book also offers general background on the history of the Space Shuttle program and the shuttle Discovery in particular, with information on her various crew members, missions, research and scientific discoveries.

Robert A Adamcik was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy and served for 20 years as a Surface Warfare Officer, serving on six ships during the course of Operations Desert Storm, Southern Watch, Stabilise, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Retiring as a Lieutenant Commander in 2009, Mr Adamcik combined his love for space flight, ships, and history into Voyages of Discovery. He resides in Norfolk, Virginia with his wife Kate and their several dogs and cats.

• Voyages of Discovery – The Missions Of The Space Shuttle Discovery Robert A Adamcik cost £18.95 ISBN 9781926837130
• STS 134: The Final Shuttle Mission
• NASA: The Space Shuttle Era mini site

Dan Dare inspired a lifetime of science for Professor Pillinger

Dan Dare fans inspired by his adventures might well be interested in Professor Colin Pillinger’s new book, My Life on Mars.

Colin gained his PhD from the University of Swansea, Wales, in the late 1960s , and became one of the lucky few Britons to work on the lunar samples brought back by the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission. Later, at Cambridge and the Open University, he developed techniques for classifying meteorites according to their chemical composition, and has worked on a NASA mission to collect a sample of the ‘solar wind’, and ESA missions to investigate how meteorites erode in space.

He’s perhaps best known for his work on the European Mars Express project and the the Mars Lander, Beagle 2 and his experiences surrounding its development are a major part of the new book.

Born in 1943 and growing up in the 1950s, it should come as no surprize to learn that Professor Pillinger was inspired by reading Dan Dare in the Eagle and the BBC’s  Journey into Space radio adventure serial as a child.

Journey in to Space -
like Dan Dare, an
inspiration

“Like many kids, I used to read Dan Dare comics and listen to Journey into Space on the radio,” he revealed in an interview for the European Space Agency web site. “And I would draw rockets, which, of course, bore no resemblance to how they are now. It was a big surprise when I first saw that spacecraft didn’t have a point at the top and fins at the bottom!

“But I was not an anorak,” he insisted in another interview for the Daily Telegraph. “When I went to class, it was to sit in the back row. School was a place to meet other kids and play football. I didn’t want to be the next Einstein.”

“My Life on Mars is a dual autobiography,” Professor Pillinger says of the book. “Mine interwoven with the untold story (including the bits some people didn’t want anybody to know) of Beagle 2. For seven years the British mission to look for life on the Red Planet captivated the public all over the World.”

Stories about about the mission appeared in the media all over the World, particularly in the United States as the following extract from the book’s dust jacket reveals:

On 12 March 2010 Astronauts Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, Gene Cernan, the last man to do so and Jim Lovell, who piloted the stricken Apollo 13 home, broke a journey back to the United States to attend an event at the Royal Society designed to encourage an audience of young people to follow careers in science and technology. Among the Fellows of the Society present was Colin Pillinger.

As Colin got up to leave at the end of the afternoon, he was grabbed by a US Embassy official who said “The Astronauts would like to meet you.” Of course Colin wanted to meet them but he wasn’t prepared for the greeting he received from Neil Armstrong, perhaps the best known man on Earth, “You analysed some of my samples!” Being recognised by such a trio must make Colin, a man with a passion for telling the public about science, one of the best known scientists in Britain.

Colin owed Armstrong et al. a great deal. He had come from what can only be described as an under-privileged background, via the Apollo programme to lead the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission to Mars. In 1996 he gathered around him an unlikely team consisting of the Rock Band, Blur, the country’s most controversial artist Damien Hirst, combined them with top University scientists and engineers from the satellite Industry, designed a spacecraft on the back of a beer mat, built it in a garage and set off 250 million miles to answer one of life’s ultimate questions: “Are we alone in the Universe?” Colin’s wife, Judith, named the spacecraft Beagle 2; it had the British Nation on the edge of its seat at Christmas 2003.

This then is Colin Pillinger’s story and the full, previously undisclosed, account of the Beagle 2 mission.

Published by the British Interplanetary Society, this 369 page book features over 100 illustartions and a foreword by Sir Patrick Moore. It  costs £16.50 (plus £2.50 P&P in UK, overseas please enquire) when purchased from British Interplanetary Society’s website at www.bis-spaceflight.com and is also available from all good bookshops (ISBN 978-0-9506597-3-2).

• For signed and dedicated copies contact the author at www.barnstormpr.co.uk

• Inside Out – 2004 BBC interview with Professor Pillinger

• The Guardian, 16th January 2009: Britain needs a real-life Dan Dare to inspire the young

NASA developing Orion launch safety systems

An artist's rendition of Ares I
being stacked in the vehicle assembly
building at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. Image: NASA

Aerospace engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center are conducting a series of wind tunnel tests to develop technology for future human space exploration – the kind of technology I like to keep my eye on as background information when writing Ex Astris (when I get the chance to write Ex Astris!)

Orion, for those of you who don’t already know, is NASA’s next generation human spacecraft, which the agency and its contractor teams are in the process of designing, building and testing.

Using a six per cent scale Orion model, featuring complex moving parts, the latest stage in development sees engineers simulating various launch abort conditions the spacecraft might encounter during ascent to characterize the effects of launch abort and control motor plumes on the aerodynamics of the spacecraft.

One of the critical aspects of human space flight is the ability to protect astronauts in case of a failure on the launch pad and during the climb to orbit. (Launching – and landing – a spacecraft in Earth atmosphere is always no easy task and there has been more than one disaster, and not just for the US space program, either).  In case of such an emergency, NASA engineers have designed a Launch Abort System, or LAS, to safely deliver astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft away from the failure and return them to Earth.

There are extremely complex interactions between the launch abort system’s control effectors, or motors, and the aerodynamic environment that the spacecraft encounters. Wind tunnel testing, using scaled models, is one of the means for NASA engineers to better understand and explain this dynamic interaction. (NASA also successfully tested a Launch Pad abort system back in May)

“Simulating launch aborts will help us explain the complex interaction between the plumes from the smaller attitude control motor and the larger abort motor,” said Jim Ross, an aerospace engineer who is leading the team at Ames supporting NASA’s efforts to develop Orion and its systems.

“This is the most intricate wind tunnel model the Orion team has developed and the data we obtain will go a long way toward defining the aerodynamics of the Orion spacecraft during ascent,” he added.

The abort system is a tower atop a cover that fits over Orion during launch and ascent through Earth’s atmosphere. It features a powerful, four-nozzle solid rocket, called the abort motor, which, when engaged, will quickly shepherd Orion and its precious human cargo away from the launch vehicle in an emergency.

It’s also equipped with a smaller, eight-nozzle motor at the top of the tower, called the attitude control motor, which is designed to steer and stabilize Orion towards safety. In the wind tunnel, plumes from both of these motors are simulated using high-pressure air.

“Our team at Ames Research Center conducts simulations that help us develop assured launch abort technology and resolve complex aerodynamic interactions,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Project Office manager at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston. “The team¹s work greatly contributes to ensuring the safety of the astronaut crew throughout the entire mission. The launch abort system wind tunnel tests were a major factor in the development of the LAS and the recent successful Pad Abort 1 flight test.”

The wind tunnel tests at NASA Ames are part of a larger effort to facilitate the development of Orion, NASA’s new Orion spacecraft. Engineers across the agency, including NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston and NASA’s Langley
Research Center, Hampton in Virginia., are involved in successfully completing these tests in wind tunnels across the US.

• For more information about Orion, visit: www.nasa.gov/orion

UK Team develop award-winning ion engine

QinetiQ Ion Engine

QinetiQ’s ion propulsion team has been named “team of the year” for its outstanding contribution to space exploration at the recent Sir Arthur C. Clarke Awards.
The award comes at the end of a landmark year for the QinetiQ ion propulsion team which saw the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) GOCE Spacecraft become the first to launch with QinetiQ’s T5 ion thrusters on board and QinetiQ begin work supplying advanced T6 thrusters for ESA’s future BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

“We knew about the nomination but winning the award came as a complete surprise to all of us,” commented the team’s Chief engineer, Neil Wallace, as he accepted the award. “It was a great team effort and reflects the hard work of many individuals for almost 20 years.”
He added: “2009 was a busy and exciting year for the Ion Engine Team and we’re thrilled to have our work on the GOCE and BepiColombo spacecraft recognised with this award. Electric propulsion will make spacecraft and satellites lighter, allowing more weight for the real payload, and we are delighted to be at the leading edge of this technology.”

The Sir Arthur Clarke Awards are presented annually at the climax of the UK Space Conference to honour those who have done the most to further the field of space exploration in the past year.

Previous winners have included the ESA ATV team, responsible for creating the Spacecraft which keeps supplies flowing to the International Space Station and the Huygens team which landed the first spacecraft on Saturn’s moon, Titan. QinetiQ beat off fierce competition from fellow nominees SSTL and ESA to win this year’s honour.

Chair of the judging panel, Dr. Lesley Wright said that “This was an outstanding achievement by the QinetiQ team which the judges view as a significant contribution to space exploration.”

The T5 and T6 ion thrusters developed by QinetiQ are ten times more efficient than the chemical engines traditionally used to propel spacecraft making some deep space missions possible for the first time. For ESA’s Bepi Colombo mission to Mercury, the engines make the mission possible by counteracting the sun’s gravitational pull.

John Freeman at Sci-Fi-London

A quick reminder of two panels I’ll be appearing on at Sci-Fi-London on Saturday (1st May 2010).

60 Years of Dan Dare
A panel on 60 years of the lantern jawed space pilot. Alex Fitch will be talking to: Garry Leach, who drew Dan’s return to print in 2000AD, ten years after the end of the original Eagle, in the late 1970s and more recently covers for Virgin comics’ revival of the ‘Pilot of the future’ in 2008.

Rian Hughes, who drew the Eagle-inspired comic The Science Service in 1989 and then the Mekon’s final revenge in the Thatcherite satire Dare in the adult comics Revolver and Crisis a year later; Gary Erskine, who drew Dan Dare’s most recent official comic book adventures in the Virgin Comics periodical of the same name; Titan Books Dan Dare collections editor John Freeman, who previously wrote The Science Service and now writes the strip Ex Astris in the Dan Dare magazine Spaceship Away; and Rod Barzilay, the editor and one of the writers of Spaceship Away.

• 60 Years of Dan Dare runs from 10.30am on Saturday 1st May

30 years of Marvel UK


Alex Fitch hosts a panel on the British arm of the American Superhero publisher, featuring: Dez Skinn, a pioneering Marvel UK editor who launched titles such as Hulk Comic and Doctor Who Magazine , which featured early licensed work by Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons; Dan Abnett, who gave Captain Britain a new, darker spin in the 1990s by adding him to an Arthurian team of heroes with Gary Erskine, co-creator of the Knights of Pendragon; John Freeman, who edited many of Marvel UK’s early 1990s titles such as Death’s Head II, Warheads, Killpower and Motormouth, contributing strips to several issues as well, and also edited Doctor Who Magazine; and Simon Furman, primary writer for Marvel’s Transformers, and a dozen issues of Doctor Who Magazine. He created some of Marvel UK’s most memorable SF titles including Dragon Claws and Death’s Head.

• 30 years of Marvel UK runs from 11.45 am, Saturday 1st May

All the events – there are plenty more comic-related events – take place at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, 19 Lower Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4LR. More info at www.sci-fi-london.com

Inker Appeal from Ex Astris comic creator

Bill Storie – my colleague and creator of the Ex Astris strip – has too much work on his plate at the moment and he’s looking for a reliable UK-based inker to work with him.

“There just aren’t enough hours in the day!” says Bill. “I’m currently working on three CGI strips (Ex Astris and two others for a US company) as well as pencils and inks on a new project written by a rather famous UK creator for the European market – but John (Freeman) and I have two more projects which we’re keen to get off the ground.

“Whilst I’m quite fast at pencilling, I’m criminally slow when it comes to inking — so we need to recruit another member for our team who can take care of the inking.”

Bill has sent me pencil samples of his art from one of the new projects (click the image above for full size).

“Unfortunately there are no contracts up for grabs at the moment and therefore no guarantees of untold riches etc – yet!,” Mike points out. “The new projects have not been approved for publication yet and so we can offer no money up front. But John and I have a pretty good record for getting our projects published so you’ll just have to look at the art and decide if you feel we’re worth taking a chance on.”

The battle for Earth’s resources

One of the background elements of Ex Astris is the growing environmental problems facing Earth, right now. So it was interesting to read this a statement from US Rare Earths, Inc. (www.usrareearths.com), a privately owned company, which commended the US Government Accountability Office on its report documenting that China, supplier of 97% of the world’s rare earths, dominates the supply of rare earth materials crucial to the US defence, computer and renewable energy sectors.

Seems to me that the battle for resources (and their exploiatation) is rich territory for Ex Astris “back story” tales.The report, commissioned by Congress, resulted from concerns that China could reduce the rare earth materials supply, curbing US production of guided missiles and other defence weapons as well as commercial products such as computer hard drives, cell phones, MRI machines, hybrid autos and wind turbines, among other sophisticated technologies that employ rare earth materials.

“The GAO report is a timely warning that the US needs to ramp up its domestic production of both light and heavy rare earths immediately,” argues US Rare Earths, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Edward Cowle.

We can bet that will go down well with environmental groups in the US, as the extraction of ‘rare earths’ must, I’m sure have some environmental cost, just like oil, for example, does.
“Idaho, Montana and Colorado were mentioned in the GAO report as states where there was an availability of rare earths,” notes Cowle. Quite by coincidence: “These are the states where US Rare Earths, Inc. owns the mineral rights to the light and heavy rare earths referenced in the latest U.S.G.S. reports.”

The report notes that less-abundant, and more valuable, heavy rare earth ore deposits are currently found in southern China, but such deposits have also been identified in Australia, Greenland, Canada, and the United States. Sounds like a recipe for some

“Perhaps the likeliest source of heavy rare earth elements in the US comes from the deposit at Diamond Creek, Idaho, owned by US Rare Earths, Inc.” notes Cowle. “The US Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) also lists some heavy rare earth elements at the company’s Lemhi Pass deposits on the Idaho-Montana border.

As you can imagine, US Rare Earths stock is considered a hot commodity as investors realize the potential for this company to make a killing, with some scientists predicting a rare earths shortage will hit in about 10 years.

“Rare earths are essential raw materials used in nearly all sustainable energy technologies and a wide spectrum of defence applications,” argues Cowle. “Our rare earth deposits could help supply the projected demand of the United States military and civilian green industries and would assist in eliminating the dependence the United States currently has on Chinese sources.”

US Rare Earths’ founders started the company 15 years ago with its Lehmi Pass deposits. At the time, reports moneyblog, they were only interested in the concentration of thorium, which provides an alternative to nuclear fuel. After 15 years and countless technological innovations, US Rare Earths now finds itself in the position of owning the only known rare earth deposits in the country and for the time being, is concentrating on mining the Diamond Creek land in Idaho because it is closer to civilization and thus more “mining friendly.” But the costs involved in exploiting even these are, apparently, daunting (see this MSNBC report).