The Musk Dispenser?

 Starship Window!

One recently heard and interesting interview given by the billionaire Elon Musk into why he is keen to develop his Spaceship that will allow humans access to planets, The Moon and other bodies in the Solar System and return to Earth to be reused!

He said that this time was our opportunity, in case in the nest hundred years we are knocked back by a natural disaster, nuclear war or a virus of some type. This might lead to us not being able to gain the ground that we now have?

But meanwhile with all this private venturing other contracts are underway for a new Space Shuttle, that can be updated using nano technologies and it may be in a year or two before is is un vailed to the world?

By then Musk will have an fully operational star ship system to get to the Moon and Mars, since he believes that NASA is too slow with everything it has been doing?

The Moon?

NASA's Gateway to the Solar System!

The return to the moon is underway with a new space ship being constructed in the U.S. for a return mission and the establishment of a Moon Base and first human travel to Mars by 2030? The Trump administration believe that with the current technology available all of this can be achieved within the next eleven years!

Wither this is true or not by 2030 NASA hopes that the International Space Station ISS will be defunct and some of its component parts will be cannibalised for the Moon base? At this time there is n mention of reinstating the space shuttle programme which on paper still remains a viable proposal for inter-planetary travel!

Both China and Israel now have probes working on the Moon to gather much needed data on radiation exposure from the Suns solar flares and other problems that were discovered during the Apollo flights back in the 1970's!

Rocket Deign. Part-One.

Russia leads in the Field.

Getting into space is the most expensive thing that humanity has undertaken, in its known history. The rocket at the moment or since 1957 has been the only way to get outside the earths gravitational field!

America had to play catch-up to the Russians in the 1960's but made it to the Moon, which many scientists believe was the biggest waste of resources? Since then America built the Space shuttle, which did a fantastic job, apart from a few losses?

But President Barak Obama cut the programme on two accounts, one cost and two old technology. There may be many other reasons in relation to its bad fire tiles safety record? Meanwhile the U.S has to share with Russia it Kazakhstan facility, to get their crews up to the ISS (International Space Station).

Half of the ISS is made up of the latest MIR sections, while the U.S. and Japan have their various modules and ESA may have one or two attached.

Russia has lead in rocketry from 1926 and its ideas on Spaceships, it has just kept on improving what it has and despite its many other developments such as the Progress Robotic modules and Mir Components both have again improved with time and reliability.

What does the future hold?

The development of a reusable plane concept has ben on the books, since the 1960's, but only up until recently was a new type of non-rocket development in the U.S. by NASA which is the first Electro Engine?

Interstellar Travel. Part-One.

Our nearest Neighbour.

Much of space science is currently being employed into the idea of sending a Laser powered sail spacecraft on a thirty year trip to our nearest neighbouring star, which is four light-years away. With our current technology it would take us two hundred years plus to get there and back.

At this time the only manned Space ship is the International Space Station, which is three-hundred miles up making a 45-minute circle of the Earth. The Russian Progress robotic and U.S. Dragon supply vessels are the only way of getting up and down, since the retirement of the ageing former Space Shuttles.

The next objective in to get a manned mission to Mars by 2035 or establish a southern-hemisphere Moon base, as a first step by 2028?

Prof. Stephen Hawking's is very keen to encourage the Solar sail project, but some believe it would be wise to test it out first within the known confines of the solar system? making a four hour journey to Pluto, instead of the ten years it took the New Horizon probe. 

It also remains unclear what is beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt, which the second phase of the New Horizons will arrive at in 2019. One of the six believed moon type objects has already been spotted and a new planet Niku is on a 110 degrees plane between Neptune and Pluto. Meanwhile this small world is blue and is travelling backwards to the normal pattern of all the other planets rotation around the Sun.

The problems with Interstellar travel is the possibility of another rocky domain well beyond the Kuiper Belt that would be like a mine field to exit the Solar system, there is also believed to be another planet known as X9 somewhere out there with a very large gravity field?

Satallites Military and Commercial. Part-One.

Reagans Laser Satellites Plus.

About two years ago amateur astronomers noticed a unidentified flying object making regular orbits of the Earth, at first they thought it was a satellite in an inner orbit?

But that would mean it might collide at some point with the International Space Station, NASA then had to reveal it was a new type of mini Space Shuttle known as the X37.

Science fiction and the dupe of former U.S President Mr. Ronald Reagan had become a reality. In one of the James Bond films a recovery vehicle was deployed to capture satellites from both the Soviets and the Americans.

The X37 was being used to maintain damaged military reconnaissance equipment in lower orbit, if not replace or update. Speculation arose that Israel and NATO were probably also having a share in the U.S. Project?

NASA Adopts X-Planes.

A British Concept.

I am a bit limited to my night sky videos of only the Moon, since it is the nearest object in the night sky to catch apart from the International Space Station (ISS).  NASA has announced this year, 'That it has found a replacement to its former Space Shuttle, quite a profound bit of tech.'

The Space Shuttle was really 1960's tech in the 1990's and even beyond the millennium was costing a fortune to maintain. A mini shuttle (X37) was developed to carry out sole military operation and was secret, until the amateur astronomers observed its orbits.

The X-Plane that is now being considered was a British concept thought up by the Astronomical Society in the 1970-80's in Vauxhall, London. U.K. 

This concept aircraft could be launched either by rocket platform, as the Shuttle or take off on the piggy back of another larger aircraft and fire off in high altitude into Space. 

It would then make its return under its own power just like a conventional aircraft, where as the Space Shuttle was really a giant glider. If the X-Plane concepts are ever built, we will have our first true Space Ships, now that Star Trek marks its 50th Anniversary.

Space...

The Final Frontier.

We have all grown up with the concepts of Space, wither it is with Science fiction, Star Trek, Blake 7, Atlantis, Star gate SG-1. The realities of NASA putting the first man on the Moon 40 years ago and the various missions to the planet Mars and other planets in our Solar system.

Space travel was a regular occurrence in the United States, prior to the retirement of the ageing Space shuttle programme.

Space travel plays an important role in communications, Satellite TV, the Internet and weather. It also has many military aspects, that we know very little about accept perhaps for GPS.  Currently thirteen nations are involved in the International space station (ISS). Which one can see flying over some part of the Earth each night.

 Many schools and colleges are involved in connections daily to the astro/cosmonauts, who are on board. The ISS is the largest International gathering of co-operation between nations peacefully for some time.

Rockets. Part-Two.

From Chinese Firecracker to ISS.

Today rockets are big business for the telecommunications industry, everyone wants a faster Internet speed. Despite many still believing that this is based on optic fiber cables, space actually provides the links.

The rocket has only come into its own, since the end of World War-II (1939-45). The 1950's saw the development of the missile at the beginning of the 'Cold war, between Soviet Russia and the U.S. The Inter-continental ballistic Missile (ICBM) was developed by all sides to deliver multiple nuclear warheads to multiple targets, anything from 12 to 24.

In 1957 Russia launched Spunik and the first man in space  Yuri Gagarin. 

Despite America coming late, it took over with a man on the Moon and then developed the Space shuttle. Russia has opted for commercial satalites launches and now provides the progress Robot shuttles to the International Space Station.

The Jumbo Jet.

Boeing 747-100/8.

You could say 'that the Jumbo jet was the King of the skies, because it has had a forty-three year unchallenged stay.' It is only now with the advent of the Airbus A380, that its reign may end?

I say may, because as has been seen many will continue on as cargo and freight usage. Nearly every country on the planet uses or has at one time employed this huge civil aircraft. The U.S. Boeing 747-100 was conceived by the owner of Pan Am, who designed an aircraft that would be the clipper of the sky, that was formerly held by the British Shorts Sunderland flying boat.

The 747 started as the flagship for Pan-Am, but soon everyone wanted one, because of its long haul capability. Even with the introduction of the joint British/French Concorde, the Jumbo held its ground. Later with the -200 series, I think the most of any series built it set it self up.

Many other versions, including military, scientific and the NASA Space Shuttle carrier have been built and next year (2014) we will take a closer look at some of them.