Atlas launches NASA satellites / Spacewalk runs into major snag

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From: "Spaceflight Now" <newsalert@spaceflightnow.com>
Date: Aug 31, 2012 10:21 AM
Subject: Atlas launches NASA satellites / Spacewalk runs into major snag
To: <aquarianm@gmail.com>

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NEWSALERT: Friday, August 31, 2012 @ 1520 GMT
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ATLAS LAUNCHES MISSION 50 YEARS IN THE MAKING
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A mission to answer questions as old as the space age launched from Cape Canaveral Thursday morning as two armored satellites were sent into hellish orbits that submerge the craft in Earth's punishing radiation belts.

http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av032/

HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO COLLECTION:
http://spaceflightnowplus.com/hd/rbsp/

OUR COUNTDOWN AND LAUNCH JOURNAL:
http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av032/status.html

LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY:
http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av032/launch/

 

SPACEWALKERS RUN INTO MAJOR SNAG REPLACING POWER UNIT
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The failure to install a replacement electrical distribution box during a marathon spacewalk Thursday has temporarily left the International Space Station unable to take in power from two of its eight solar array wings. But mission managers said jumpers installed before the excursion will allow near-normal operations while engineers study possible spacewalk repair options.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1208/30mbsu/

 

NASA ASKING FOR IDEAS ABOUT ASTEROID DETECTORS
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NASA is studying the placement of an instrument on a commercial or U.S. government communications satellite to detect and track asteroids near Earth for potential human visits.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1208/28asteroids/

 

NUCLEAR-POWERED CRAFT NOT PICKED IN LATEST COMPETITION
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NASA officials last week passed up a chance to test an advanced nuclear generator in space, likely delaying the first flight demonstration of the plutonium power source until after 2020.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1208/24asrg/

 

CURIOSITY SENDS STUNNING VIEWS OF MOUNT SHARP
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NASA's Curiosity rover, giving earthlings a glimpse of its ultimate target, has beamed back spectacular high-resolution photos of the rugged foothills of Mount Sharp, showing a khaki-colored landscape marked by towering hills, gaping canyons and sand dunes reminiscent of the American southwest, scientists said Monday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/120827color/

 

INTERACTIVE iPAD GUIDE TO CURIOSITY ROVER MISSION
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Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now have created an interactive iPad guide to the Curiosity rover mission. Learn more about the mission, explore the rover's components and preview Europe's plans for the next Mars rover destined to visit the Red Planet.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mission-to-mars-astronomy/id548931049?mt=8

 

MARS CRAFT BRING WEATHER STATIONS TO THE RED PLANET
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Amid its rock-zapping duties and choreographed test drives, the Curiosity rover's weather station is logging sharp temperature swings, wind gusts and pressure changes to create an enduring record of Martian climate.

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/120827weather/

 

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Here's a blast from the past: Mass Driver tech update from 1980 -

http://www.nss.org/settlement/L5news/1980-massdriver.htm

To the Moon, Alice!

Dan

Wikipedia Article On Mass Driver Technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver

Lunar Mass Driver concept:

Incredi-Geek: Coming Soon To A Booty Near You - Invisible Electronic Tattoos...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/11/electronic-skin-tattoo-has-medical-gaming-spy-uses/

I predict that invisible webcam tattoos will soon follow.

The uses for technology like this are vast, and they are on the edge of Ray Kurzweil's "Singularity," where humans merge with intelligent machines.

Make this tech shower-proof and merge it with quantum computing, and you could be adding a super computer and multi-spectrum connectivity to your birthday suit.

Just slap on the latest version of Itatt, and be able to interface with the web through whispers and gestures, while seeing the action on your heads-up display contacts in 3D, and hearing it through Audio-Toos set in your ear canals. You'll look like a wizard trying to cast spells when working the web, so they'll probably call the interface system Spellweaver, or something similar.

Of course, some people will deck themselves out with LED tattoos for the coolest light show on the human body, enhancing the wizard look. Maybe even cult fans of Tron, the movie series. Brings a whole new glow to the 1970's-era pastime of streaking, doesn't it? Imagine Bodylite-enhanced ballet and stepper dancing.

I imagine being able to wirelessly drive a car by pantomime, either in-person or remotely. The same goes for aircraft.

Imagine the effects on the dating scene, as your dates are all uploaded to Youtube in real time. Was that a wink or a blink? Green light or red? Are your friends wispering advice over your body web? Did you remember to turn off your Camtatts when he took you home, Charlotte? Did he?

This is going to be huge in the long-term. Cellphones will become highly obsolete in a wiredbody world, at most they'll become local mass storage devices.

Bodyweb security will be a huge issue, because your bodyweb will be able to track every hard, wet fact about your physiology, and you might never know who knows your every...heartbeat.

Wow.

Dan

Magnetoverse: More Perspective On Ring Launchers...

http://spacemonitor.blogspot.com/2007/03/magnetic-launch-system.html

Dream Big,

Dan

Magnetoverse: Rails-To-Launcher Technologies...

Old railway right-of-ways are routinely converted to bicycle and pedestrian trails as traditional railroad companies have abandoned them over the last fifty years. Interestingly enough, an old railway might be the ideal place to instal a magnetic space launch facility, especially if the last few miles includes an uphill grade facing East.

If you had three sets of rails, one in the center and two to either side, you could build a maglauncher in modular sections, using a rail-mobile crane to add sections as they're built. As soon as you have enough sections installed, you could begin launching G-hardened payloads at high-G acceleration. You then stop operations for an hour or so as you add each new section. As more sections are added, you can start launching "softer" payloads, until you get a long-enough launcher to put biological organisms and delicate instruments into space.

This arrangement becomes even more useful if it can be built in the Mojave Desert States, where solar power is plentiful and can be used all along the maglauncher to make it non-dependent on the existing power grid.

The first country to fully develop such technologies will dominate space, giving it an incredible advantage in expanding into the rest of the solar system for mining and agricultural operations.

Dream Big,

Dan

Magnetoverse: Magnetic Launch Ring Could Revolutionize Space Launches...

Think "particle accelerator meets maglev meets mass-driver."  This device could wind up launching a payload per minute instead of a payload per year.

The sheer volume of launches that become possible with this technology would make the Moon as accessible as London from L.A. in our lifetimes. It could make Mars trips no worse than traveling from
New York to the West Coast a hundred years ago, without a hostile population opposing your visit.


http://www.launchpnt.com/portfolio/aerospace/satellite-launch-ring/

Check it out.

Dream Big,

Dan