Could Britain Ever Have Its Own Spaceport?

The Constellation Program's Ares I-X
test rocket roars off Launch Complex 39B
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Florida.
Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

With the recent launch of the new US Aries rocket, I was reminded that Britain has its own space program – but of course we never had a “space base” like Cape Kennedy in the UK. However, given the number of space companies based in the Isle of Man, might the UK ever have its own rocket launch site, as seen in comic strips such as Eagle’s Dan Dare? Perhaps even on the Isle of Man?

Sadly, Ex Astris tech genius Jeremy Briggs, who wrote a piece on the British Rocket Programme for Spaceship Away (it’s in issue 12 if you would like to read it – back issues are still available) tells me the answer is almost certainly no.

The problem mainly boils down to Britain’s location on our planet. Most satellites are put into an orbit that spins with the planet and the planet spins anticlockwise looking down on it from the north pole. This spin of the Earth to the east is used by rockets to get a little extra momentum for free by launching them to the east.

Therefore you need a launch site which is clear to the east (normally ocean) like NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre or the European Space Agency’s Kourou, which both allow spent stages to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

“Launching from the Isle of Man would leave spent stages or failed launches falling on England,” our resident boffin expands. “The UK does not have any good potential launch sites because of our geographical location – Shetland is the only likely candidate and that is very remote but even then, the Scandinavian countries would complain.

“The rocket engine test sites used for the Blue Streak, Black Knight and White Arrow rockets were Spadeadam near Carlisle and the Isle of Wight because they were accessible but poorly populated,” he continues. “There was never any suggestion that launches would take place from either of them.

“The spin of the Earth is used by rockets to get a little extra momentum for free and the most spin occurs where the surface of the planet is spinning the fastest – the equator. However, most of the equator is ocean and the land is mainly third world countries. Therefore, most of the space countries set up rocket launch sites which are as close to the equator as is possible in their own territory. This was a problem for the USSR, who also needed their site to be secret ie far away from NATO spy planes, and they ended up building in a desolate land locked area at Tyuratam instead.

Tas and the Space Machine, the first of
two "Tas" books
published in 1955 and set at Woomera.
Image via www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

“Since we didn’t have anywhere desolate enough in the UK for non-orbital rocket flight testing in the 1950s the British Empire came into play and Outback Australia was the best candidate – hence the range at Woomera, which is about the size of England. Reginald Alec Martin, writing as EC Eliot, set his two 1955 Tas books, illustrated by Eagle comics artist Bruce Cornwell, there.”

So, no spacebase near Blackpool then, although of course Britain does contribute to the ESA and British-born astronauts have gone into space. Plus, of course, private space company Virgin Galactic‘s owner Richard Branson is both British and a Dan Dare fan!
Fictional private space companies, of course, play a major part in Ex Astris…

Web Links

• The British Space Program: Wikipdia
• British National Space Centre
• History of British Rocketry
• Information on Blue Streak
• Virgin Galactic
• Author Reginald Alec Martin on Collecting Books and Magazines

NASA’s Hitch Hiker Fans ‘Tweet’ Their Praise

Penguin Books and NASA have very different ideas about celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
NASA did it by having their LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) vehicle tweeting lines from Hitchhiker’s, just before it slammed into the moon’s surface earlier this week.Quoting the lines from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide as a whale, brought accidentally and improbably into existence by last Earthman Arthur Dent, falls towards the surface of the planet Magrathea, it tweeted:

# “And what’s this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round,
about 4 hours ago from web
# it needs a big wide sounding name like ‘Ow’, ‘Ownge’, ‘Round’, ‘Ground’!”
about 4 hours ago from web
# “That’s it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it’ll be friends with me?”
about 4 hours ago from web


Then it hit the moon, to mixed responses, with something of a ‘plop’, rather than the ‘blam’ some people thought it would (with the more extreme declaring NASA was ‘bombing’ the moon, as if one more crate would actually make any difference given the number already created every day by meteors that still hit it.)

Penguin, on the other hand is marking this occasion in what’s been argued by some as a controversial way by publishing a sixth volume in the ever-more increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy on Monday (12th October). This isn’t, however, a lost Douglas Adams manuscript but an entirely new novel by internationally best selling author of the Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer.

Adams final book in the Hitchhiker’s series ended (as it began) with the complete destruction of Earth. Everyone is dead, which doesn’t leave much of an opening for Eoin to start the sixth book in the series. So how does Eoin bring the eternal pessimist Arthur Dent, his alien best friend Ford Prefect and the two headed Galactic President Zaphod Beelbebrox back from the dead?

For a sneak preview and a chance to join in the anniversary celebrations yourself, London’s Southbank Centre and Penguin Books have joined forces to create Hitchcon’09: a day of celebration, spectacle and delight voyaging deep into the Hitchhiker’s Universe on Sunday 11th October.

The 30th anniversary of Hitchhiker’s and the publication of Eoin’s new book will be celebrated across the world in a whole manner of ways and in different mediums – for information, visit the official web site at www.6of3.com.

But NASA’s tweets have definitely sent the anniversary celebrations from global to intergalactic.

Garth Debuts in New Spaceship Away

The latest issue of the Dan Dare-inspired comics magazine Spaceship Away is on sale now via the official web site, and as I previously mentioned over on downthetubes, features the first installment of the Frank Bellamy Garth story The Bubble Man, beautifully re-coloured by John Ridgway.

Spaceship Away Part 19 – the title’s sixth birthday issue – doesn’t feature Ex Astris (we’ll be back soon, though) but does includes articles on Frank Hampson’s Epsom College days and the creation of comic strip Nick Hazard, drawn by Ron Turner, which also features in the comic magazine (also re-coloured by John Ridgway); plus new artwork from John M. Burns and all-new original Dan Dare comic strips – Green Nemesis and The Gates of Eden, both drawn by Tim Booth.

• To get the magazine delivered to your door, go straight to Spaceship Away Order Page

Water on the Moon

The findings of an Indian space mission supports other evidence that there is water on the moon, raising hopes that a manned base could be established there within the next two decades.

Although the mission was not a complete success and was cut short, data from India’s Chandrayaan-1, launched last year, allegedly found clear evidence of water there, apparently concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind.

The findings back up evidence of water on the moon found by two NASA probes – Deep Impact and Cassini – and the research from the three missions will be published in the journal Science on Friday.

What’s more, the Guardian and other newspapers report, water appears to still be forming, advancing the possibility that human life could be sustained there. Scientists hope that astronauts could one day not only drink the water but extract oxygen from it to breathe and hydrogen to use as fuel.

The moon has long held a fascination for Indians, not just in terms of space exploration.
Launched last year, the Chandrayaan-1 mission aimed to deliver high-resolution remote sensing of the moon in visible, near infrared (NIR), low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions, preparing a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon.

The mission was, unfortunately, cut short due to problems caused by the underestimated effects of direct solar heat and reflected lunar heat, with Indian press blaming their own scientists for not ensuring there was enough insulation inside and outside Chandrayaan-1 for its failure. Despite this, European scientists praised the mission and the water finds are a bonus for the Indian Space Research Organisation, which took a lot of flack earlier this month for its apparent shortcomings.

“It’s very satisfying,”  Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, told the Times of the water finds. “This was one of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-1, to find evidence of water on the moon.”
Carle Pieters, of Brown University on Rhode Island, and colleagues reviewed data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission and found spectrographic evidence of water, apparently thicker closer to the poles.

“When we say ‘water on the moon,’ we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles,” Pieters said in a statement. “Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl (hydrogen and oxygen) that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimetres of the moon’s surface.”

Previously, infrared mapping from NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft had been used to show water all over the moon, while Roger Clark of the US Geological Survey and colleagues used a spectrometer – which breaks down light waves to analyse elements and chemicals reflecting them – from the Cassini spacecraft to identify water.

Next month, Nasa’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS mission will try to detect water by deliberately crashing a large spacecraft on to the moon.
Although its life was cut short, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 was a “fantastic success”, according to Detlef Koschny, European Chandrayaan-1 project scientist. He told the Times of India Chandrayaan-1 had carried three scientific payloads of the European Space Agency (ESA).
“I think (the) Indian press should stop trying to put ISRO down,” he told the paper. “You should rather acknowledge the fantastic achievements your space agency did,” he said, listing many of the achievements.

“You sent a spacecraft to the Moon and entered a low lunar orbit — a very high challenge which is already a fantastic success.

“Secondly, all scientific instruments were commissioned and worked flawlessly. The data came down, over a distance of about 400,000 km and it was put together into images, atomic counts etc.”

Web Links
• Indian Space Research Organisation
• Chandrayaan Mission Page


• If you’re having an “Impact Night” event on 8th October and/or 9 the tools @ http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/impactkit/ can help you. Let NASA know via  @ arc-dl-ameswebteam@mail.nasa.gov if you are putting on an event so we can help disseminate the information to the public. Additional Resources are available at: http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/resources/

Ex Astris Hits 5000

I got one of those 'good feeling' e-mails earlier this week when MyEBook informed us that some 5000 people have now read an episode of Ex: Astris, called Homecoming on their platform. Homecoming is, as many fans of this strip know, a 10-page strip which first appeared in the British comic in Bulletproof Comics #2. This standalone story, drawn by Mike Nicoll, links with the strips we've published on ROK Comics and Clickwheel.net, taking place on a post-apocalypse Earth in 2511.

Included in this myebook is a one page article with some background on the origins of the strip, which was recently commissioned for an ongoing run in Spaceship Away for 2010.

For me, hitting 5000 readers is great news: I still don't see how myEbook intend to monetize the service but it's clearly built up a good head of steam in terms of comic fan awareness.

Several independent publishers are using the platform to promote their projects. You'll find books such as new Garth by Huw-J, The Fat Man by Thomas Cochrane, previews of Marksoia titles, and comics from Orang Utan Comics, Insomnia Publications, Unico Comics and many others.

If you want to read Ex Astris: Homecoming in print, then head over to the Bulletproof web site and order a copy of #2, an 80-page anthology which also features strips such as Slumbertown by Rik Hoskin & Thomas Crielly, Simba Khan by Paul Birch & Jon Haward, Love Hurts by David Hailwood & Stuart Giddings, Sideburns by Jim Alexander & Jon Haward and Redstitch by Lee Langford & Klaus Belarski.

 • Bulletproof Comics: www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk

Note: the MyEbook seems to have banished since this post was first published!

Space Telescope Detects ExoPlanet Atmosphere

The latest issue of Science magazine carries a full feature on the intriguing news that NASA’s new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope’s extraordinary scientific capabilities. The report is exciting for me because it’s another indication of how the search for life-bearing planets is cranking up as our ‘search tools’ become increasingly more sophisticated.The find is based on a relatively short 10 days of test data collected before the official start of science operations. Kepler was launched back in March and the observation demonstrates the extremely high precision of the measurements made by the telescope, even before its calibration and data analysis software were finished.

“As NASA’s first exoplanets mission, Kepler has made a dramatic entrance on the planet-hunting scene,” said Jon Morse, director of the Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Detecting this planet’s atmosphere in just the first 10 days of data is only a taste of things to come. The planet hunt is on!”

Kepler team members say these new data indicate the mission is indeed capable of finding Earth-like planets, if they exist. (It’s the kind of research our fictional characters in Ex Astris would find darn useful, for reasons that will become apparent as our story develops).
Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years searching for planets as small as Earth, including those that orbit stars in a warm zone where there could be water. It will do this by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars, which occur when orbiting planets transit, or cross in front of, the stars.

“When the light curves from tens of thousands of stars were shown to the Kepler science team, everyone was awed; no one had ever seen such exquisitely detailed measurements of the light variations of so many different types of stars,” said William Borucki, the principal science investigator and lead author of the paper.

The observations were collected from a planet called HAT-P-7, known to transit a star located about 1,000 light years from Earth. The planet orbits the star in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun. Its orbit, combined with a mass somewhat larger than the planet Jupiter, classifies this planet as a “hot Jupiter.” It is so close to its star, the planet is as hot as the glowing red heating element on a stove.

The Kepler measurements show the transit from the previously detected HAT-P-7. However, these new measurements are so precise, they also show a smooth rise and fall of the light between transits caused by the changing phases of the planet, similar to those of our moon. This is a combination of both the light emitted from the planet and the light reflected off the planet. The smooth rise and fall of light is also punctuated by a small drop in light, called an occultation, exactly halfway between each transit. An occultation happens when a planet passes behind a star.

The new Kepler data can be used to study this hot Jupiter in unprecedented detail. The depth of the occultation and the shape and amplitude of the light curve show the planet has an atmosphere with a day-side temperature of about 4,310 degrees Fahrenheit. Little of this heat is carried to the cool night side. The occultation time compared to the main transit time shows the planet has a circular orbit. The discovery of light from this planet confirms the predictions by researchers and theoretical models that the emission would be detectable by Kepler.

This new discovery also demonstrates Kepler has the precision to find Earth-size planets. The observed brightness variation is just one and a half times what is expected for a transit caused by an Earth-sized planet. Although this is already the highest precision ever obtained for an observation of this star, Kepler will be even more precise after analysis software being developed for the mission is completed.

“This early result shows the Kepler detection system is performing right on the mark,” said David Koch, deputy principal investigator of NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. “It bodes well for Kepler’s prospects to be able to detect Earth-size planets.”

• More info about the Kepler Project on the NASA web site

Exploring the Moon using Google Earth

 

Marking the anniversary of the first human moon landing, Google has launched Moon in Google Earth, an interactive, 3D atlas of the Moon, viewable with Google Earth 5.0.
Users can explore a virtual Moonscape, follow guided tours from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 17‘s Jack Schmitt, see the latest rover concepts by teams competing in the Google Lunar X-Prize, view high-resolution panoramic photos, watch previously unreleased video footage captured from the lunar surface, and much more.Moon in Google Earth also incorporates a complete lunar terrain data-set by Kaguya LALT, produced by JAXA/NAOJ, which serves as the atlas’ base-map.

It’s all very slick and great fun to use, although we’re disappointed Google hasn’t slipped in a few aliens for the SF fans. Perhaps next April 1st…

“40 years ago, two human beings walked on the Moon. Starting today, with Moon in Google Earth, it’s now possible for anyone to follow in their footsteps,” said Moon in Google Earth Product Manager, Michael Weiss-Malik. “We’re giving hundreds of millions of people around the world unprecedented access to an interactive 3D presentation of the Apollo missions.”

The most recent tool to have been developed as a result of the Space Act Agreement between Google and NASA, Moon in Google Earth enables information about the Moon to be accessible to anyone in a unique three-dimensional context.

In addition to satellite imagery and terrain, the following layers can be explored with Moon in Google Earth:

• Featured Satellite Imagery – Explore overlaid satellite imagery and detailed descriptions of selected areas on the Moon from Arizona State University’s ‘Lunar Image of the Week’
 
• Spacecraft Imagery – View selected imagery captured by the Apollo Metric Camera, Clementine, and the Lunar Orbiter
 
• Apollo Missions – Travel back to the Apollo era and discover the landing sites of Apollo missions 11-17. Explore “Street View”–style panoramic images, watch previously unreleased footage from Spacecraft films, and read about the places astronauts saw on their trips to the Moon.
 
• Guided Tours – Take a narrated tour of the Moon from Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) and Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17)
 
• Historic Maps – Discover Apollo-era geologic and topographic maps of the Moon that were used in mission control for trips to the Moon
 
• Human Artifacts – Learn about the various types of exploratory equipment that humans have left on the Moon and where those objects can be found today. Artifacts from the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the EU, Japan, and India are included, some of them as 3D models.

• To experience Moon in Google Earth, open Google Earth 5.0 and switch modes from ‘Earth’ to ‘Moon’ on the top toolbar. Google Earth 5.0 can be downloaded at http://earth.google.com/moon.