BMU # 370 The Rise & Rise of Grey Power + No Great Magic con

Well here we are!  Another week gone by and it is time for Beam me up episode 370.

I start this week I open with what I like to call a conversation but others would classify as a rant  ***sigh*** How about we split the difference and call it a conversation with passion?  No? Well anyway, a listener pointed me in the direction of a news article concerning recent additions to the passenger list of Virgin Galactic.

Next I was having some difficulty talking, I play a nice musical selection which leads to the the first story of the afternoon David Scholes “The Rise & Rise of Grey Power”.

I open the book on Star Trek Trivia.  This week – Mudd’s Women.

Now I meandered over to the Beam Me Up blog.  This week, articles about China’s space effort and Andromeda it seems has a plethora of black holes in its core. From the weekly rundown, Nuclear  spacecraft engines, It seems that some gullies On Mars were not made with water, news on NASA’s Sun Jammer solar sail as well as discussion on Lagrangian points.

Then it is time for the conclusion of “No Great Magic”.

That’s it for this week.  Enjoy!

First-Ever Solar Sail Deployed

Wired has an article on the recent developments of the Japanese IKAROS spacecraft. The diminutive craft is the test bed for a feasibility study on "Solar Sails". The picture from JAXA shows the sail as it begins to deploy. Controllers are being cautious in stating that it will be a few weeks before they know anything at all of the sail's performance because of the variable in the system. First the structure is fantastically lightweight, being only as thick as a red blood cell and over 600 square feet in size makes it incredibly susceptible to damage. Even a slight breeze would tear the sail to shreds. Since there are no "breezes" in space, that is not a concern. What can damage the sail according to those in the know said “The things we’re watching for are all their dynamical behaviors that you ultimately can’t model and that might cause undue stress on the material,”

The sail will use the minuscule force imparted by a photon, which isn't much but adds up in time. It is hoped that this type of propulsion will be used on long duration mission.

Wired article here

**UPDATED!!!** NASA's first Solar-Sail ready to fly within days!

**UPDATE** SpaceX's Falcon 1 which was to launch the NASA NanoSail-D failed shortly after launch. The failure was traced back to a failure of the first and second stage to separate properly. Launch was at 20:33 PDT August 8th and an anomaly was reported at 20:38 PDT.

<- more from Wired ->

NASA is set to launch the NanoSail-D, its first solar-sail powered spacecraft. NanoSail, whos' only source of motive power is a 10 square-meter sail made of a thin metallic polymer, is scheduled for July 29 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket. (fingers crossed please, falcon rocket has a dismal launch record) Envisioned as long haulers, solar sails have been the grist for science fiction for years, NanoSail's mission will be a bit more mundane. The diminutive craft will be used as a "proof of concept" platform, staying in Earth orbit to conduct it's experiments.




<- Technology Review via Gizmodo ->