Category: Aerospace

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From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: ISS Soars Above Beautiful Auroras, Lightning and Stormy Weather Back on Earth

ISS Over the Clouds via YouTube

For your morning viewing pleasure, we bring you another beautiful video of one of the rarest views in the universe – Earth lit up from below as the International Space Station soars 220 miles above.

The video contains a series of time-lapse sequences captured by the crew of Expedition 30 aboard the ISS. It starts over the southern United States and moves toward the American West and into Canada; then you see central Europe toward the Middle East, starting at 21 seconds in. There are amazing lightning storms, rains over Africa, the southern aurora over the Indian Ocean, a setting moon – and even Comet Lovejoy makes an appearance.

The song is called “Walking in the Air,” by Howard Blake, in case you’re wondering.

NASA posts these videos on occasion, and although they may be similar, each is so unique that I stop what I’m doing and stare. Especially when the spangled arm of the Milky Way shows up on the horizon, serving as a reminder that our planet really is so very small.

[NASA]

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

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From Engadget: Space travel coming to an airport near you? Maybe, if Skylon keeps its cool

reaction-engines-spaceplane-skylon-critical-cooling-tests

Want to get from New York to Perth in under 4 hours, or maybe just head to outer space on a lark? Reaction Engines’ “Skylon” mach 5 spaceplane might be your chariot — or not. Its scheme of ingesting oxygen from the atmosphere instead of stowing it like a 50-year old modern multi-stage rocket sounds good, but the project’s fate may hang on critical new tests. Failure is still a possibility, but if the high-speed, superhot gases can be cooled enough for the hybrid Sabre engines to work, and if Reaction Engines Limited can secure another round of funding, punching your space-ticket could soon be a very real possibility.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

There’s no doubting that the cause of renewable energy is a noble one. But, ethics aside, it also gives birth to the occasional technical marvel. Altaeros Energies, a company from Massachusetts (with MIT and Harvard blood in its veins) has created one such curiosity. The prototype is a wind-turbine that doesn’t just languish on a hill-top, cutting a line in the horizon. No, this one has a helium-filled outer-section which allows it to deploy itself to 1,000 feet, where it can benefit from stronger, more consistent winds and gives nearly twice the power yields of its land bound brethren. That’s all very nice, but we just thought it looked dang cool in action.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Boeing CST-100 capsule could shuttle astronauts to ISS, shows off its innards in Colorado Springs

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With the Space Shuttle now officially grounded, NASA has been researching alternatives for ferrying astronauts from Earth to the International Space Station, orbiting some 230 miles above the planet. One such vehicle has made its way from Boeing’s HQ to the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, where a full-size model is on display for conference attendees. Externally, the spacecraft appears very similar to the reentry modules of yesteryear, measuring 14.5 feet with room for up to seven people. The craft is designed to make its way through the atmosphere mounted to an Atlas V rocket, and is rated for up to 10 roundtrip missions. As is typical with spacecraft, it looks like astronauts won’t be traveling with first-class accommodations — things will likely feel quite cozy when the CST-100 is at capacity — but such conditions come with the territory. There’s no date set for delivery, but the craft could be making its way to space as early as 2015, and has reportedly been tested in the Nevada desert as recently as this month.

 

from Engadget