Russian rocket builder Khrunichev opened up its doors for a media tour on Aug. 4 to show off its production facilities.

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Late next year, a cargo freighter will deliver a potentially revolutionary new propulsion system to the International Space Station.

Franklin Chang-Diaz’s VASIMR engine? No, that test is still a couple of years off.

The propulsion system is called NOFBX. It’s a green fuel system developed by a little-known Mojave-based R&D company called Firestar Technologies. And it could well be one of those “game changing” technologies that NASA officials believe will make space travel a lot more affordable.

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UKSA PR — Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), part of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), has become the newest member of the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ (The Charter).

The Charter is a joint initiative for providing emergency response satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters anywhere in the world. Charter members put space technology at the service of authorities in the event of a major disaster, providing earth observation data of the affected areas to assist rescue and disaster management efforts. Each member agency has demonstrated a commitment to use space technology to serve humankind when it is in most need of assistance – when disasters of both natural and human origins strike world’s communities or wreak havoc on the environment.

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So, I bet you are just dying to know where the $3 million that NASA is spending on advanced technology research is going.

Well, the answer is: lot of places. Thirty in all. The $100,000 apiece research grants will fund the study of everything from fusion vehicle architecture and lunar lava tubes to printable spacecraft and something called “ghost imaging of space objects.”

And no, that last one is not going to Shaggy, Scooby and the rest of the gang at Mystery, Inc. Although that would have generated a helluva lot more publicity than boring old JPL. Yet another lost opportunity to get America’s youth and an entire generation of slackers interested in space. When will NASA ever learn??!!

But, I digress.

Check out the table after the break for full details on these visionary research project. (more…)

PITTSBURGH, PA – Astrobotic PR – NASA today selected Astrobotic Technology Inc. to research breakthroughs in methods to explore lava tubes, caves and recently discovered “skylights” leading down into these features on the Moon and Mars. Lava tubes and other types of caves can shelter astronauts and robots from harsh off-world environments, which on the Moon means micrometeorite bombardment, intense radiation and extreme temperature swings of 500 degrees from day to night. […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 30 proposals for funding under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, or NIAC, program. The advanced concepts selected for study under NIAC were chosen based on their potential to transform our future space missions, enable new capabilities or significantly alter current approaches to launching, building and operating space systems.

Each proposal will receive approximately $100,000 for one year to advance the innovative space technology concept and help NASA meet operational and future mission requirements.

“These innovative concepts have the potential to mature into the transformative capabilities NASA needs to improve our current space mission operations, seeding the technology breakthroughs needed for the challenging space missions in NASA’s future,” said the agency’s Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
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This week on The Space Show…. 1. Monday, August 8, 2011, 2-3:30 PM PDT: No Space Show today as I am at Small Sat. 2. Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 7-8:30 PM PDT: No Space Show today as I am at Small Sat. 3. Friday, August 12, 2011, 9:30-11 AM PDT: Dr. Jim Wertz of Microcosm returns to discuss the new SMAD interactive text book which is now on the market. […]

The always candid video game guru/rocketeer John Carmack had little good to say about the nation’s space agency during a 2 1/2 keynote address at QuakeCon 2011 last week:

Carmack also had some choice words for NASA, saying the entity was no longer “a good value,” and that the recently-closed Space Shuttle program was an experiment that lasted two decades longer than it should have. As for his own Armadillo Aerospace, which actually had an operating profit this years, John revealed that AA would no longer seek government contracts and focus on its own internal goals and experiments.

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How this conversation might go today….

NASA’s human spaceflight program is heading for a similar train wreck unless something changes.

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LOUISVILLE, Colo., Aug. 5, 2011 /Altius PR/ — On July 30th, Altius Space Machines won the $25,000 grand prize in the 2011 Heinlein NewSpace Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation. Altius’ winning business plan focused on their “Direct to Station” space station delivery solution.

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