A Safer, Simpler Rocket Fuel
Defense News
The U.S. Air Force is funding the development of a new rocket fuel that promises to be as powerful as current propellants, but safer and simpler to handle, possibly cheaper and environmentally benign. It’s made from a frozen mixture of finely powdered aluminum and water.
ACCA PRESS RELEASE
Almost two-thirds of Brits (60 per cent) would like to be their own boss, according to new research into small businesses from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). The entrepreneurial spirit is even stronger amongst 25-34 year olds, with three-quarters aspiring to one day run their own company.
The UK’s top five most creative and unusual business ideas:
• Dating service for the more mature person
• Pro-cycling team
• Canine stationery
• Space tourism
• Male escort service
Artists conception of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in orbit
Signaling growing ambitions in commercial human spaceflight, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will test its Dragon spacecraft earlier than expected on the first flight of its Falcon 9 launcher, while fellow NASA commercial partner Orbital Sciences begins studies of a human-rated version of its Cygnus cargo delivery spacecraft.
Some sobering words about America’s predicament in space, courtesy of Norm Augustine and Aviation Week:
Augustine said the situation actually is worse than reflected in agency funding charts because so much of NASA’s overhead is charged to the shuttle program. Once the shuttle program is shut down, he said, that overhead will be charged elsewhere on the agency’s books – “probably to the Constellation program.”
The Space Show will feature Mars Society Founder Robert Zubrin among others.
Today, Team Selenokhod, a Russian group of engineers and managers, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE – a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks as outlined in the competition’s official rules.
SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket
Lift off for SpaceX: Commercial deals show it can compete internationally
Florida Today
It’s too early to say if this success means the California company better known as SpaceX is NASA’s best hope for the commercial development of space, which appears to be the approach set for the future direction of the U.S. space effort.
However, the contract awards for the 7-year-old SpaceX show that a U.S. launch enterprise can compete in the international launch market.
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Cirque du Soleil’s Guy Laliberte describes training for his upcoming space tourism flight to the International Space Station.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is testing a new robotic lunar lander test bed that will aid in the development of a new generation of multi-use landers for future robotic space exploration.
Foster + Partners in bid to build in outer space
Building
After dominating the architecture scene for 40 years, Norman Foster seems to have decided that the world is not enough: his practice has joined a European consortium to look into how future structures could be built on the Moon, Building can reveal.
Riding a Slingshot into Space: A project under development at NASA may someday give astronauts that option
Technology Review
Engineers at NASA have created a prototype of an electromagnetic propulsion system that would use a linear motor and ramjet engine–instead of a rocket propulsion system–to fling a vehicle into space. It is the first system that would operate beyond the sound barrier using an air-breathing ramjet engine. The work was presented this week at the Space 2009 Conference in Pasadena, CA.
