Sunday 28 October 2012

SpaceX capsule returns with safe landing in Pacific


SpaceX capsule returns with safe landing in Pacific

The capsule returned to Earth carrying an unusual cargo

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A space capsule has returned to Earth, ending the first commercially contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The capsule was sent by the California-based company SpaceX, the first of 12 missions it will perform for US space agency Nasa.
It landed in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico at 12:22 local time (19:22 GMT).
Nasa is looking to the private sector to assume routine transport duties to and from low-Earth orbit.
The robotic Dragon ship lifted off on 7 October, with 400kg of food, clothing, experiments and spares for the orbiting platform's six astronauts, and docked three days later.
On its return, the capsule carried broken machinery and medical samples gathered by the astronauts aboard the ISS over the course of the past year.
SpaceX's next mission is expected in January, although the company will need to satisfy Nasa before then that the cause of an engine anomaly experienced by Dragon's launch rocket during its 7 October ascent has been understood, and that corrective action has been taken.

International Space Station

International Space Station
  • The International Space Station (ISS) is larger than a football pitch
  • The first module called Zarya was launched into orbit in 1998
  • It took 13 years to complete at a cost of around $100bn
  • There is a permanent crew of six astronauts onboard who carry out space environment research
New destinations
Nasa has given SpaceX a $1.6bn contract to keep the ISS stocked with essentials, restoring a re-supply capability that the US lost when it retired its shuttles last year.
The terms of the contract kicked in following a successful test of Dragon's systems in May.
That demonstration saw the capsule berth with the ISS - the first commercially designed and built vehicle to do so - and then return safely to Earth.
Nasa hopes a second company can also soon begin operational cargo deliveries to the station.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) will shortly test its new Antares rocket before undertaking its own ISS demonstration with a robotic vessel called Cygnus.
If that mission - tipped to take place next year - goes well, it will trigger a $1.9bn contract for Orbital.
Nasa's aim is eventually to put astronaut transport in the hands of the private sector too.
SpaceX says it is just a few years away from being able to provide an astronaut "taxi" service.
Nasa's policy of outsourcing its cargo and crew transport needs is intended to find savings that can be ploughed back into building a rocket and capsule system capable of taking humans to more challenging destinations.

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Thursday 6 September 2012

Putin flies with cranes


Published on 6 Sep 2012 by 
Russian leader Vladimir Putin takes to the air in a hang glider alongside cranes

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Sunday 6 May 2012

supermoon

Bigger and brighter 'supermoon' graces the night skyA "supermoon" has graced the skies, appearing bigger and brighter than usual, as it comes closer to the Earth - and is likely to bring higher tides.The phenomenon, known as a perigee full moon, means the Moon appears up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when it is furthest from the planet.The optimum effect was seen - cloud permitting - at 04:30 BST (03:30 GMT).The Royal Astronomical Society's Dr Robert Massey said the Moon's size may be more obvious than its brightness.Supermoon"The eye is so good at compensating for changes in brightness that you simply don't notice (that element) so much," he said.When the Moon appears at its biggest it will be just 356,400km (221,457 miles) away, compared to its usual distance from Earth of 384,000km (238,606 miles).He added: "The Moon is always beautiful and a full moon is always dramatic."Dr Massey said: "When the Moon is closest to the Earth and full or Scientists have dismissed the idea the perigee could cause strange behaviour - like lycanthropy - or natural disasters.cular one

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Saturday 5 May 2012

heavy rain


RSPB says heavy rain has been disastrous for birds


RedshankAmong those species affected are Redshanks, said the RSPB

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Heavy rain and flooding has had a disastrous impact on many of the RSPB's nature reserves, the charity has said.
Nests and breeding grounds have been destroyed by rising water levels, the bird protection group added.
The BBC's rural affairs correspondent Jeremy Cooke said the recent deluge of rain had come in the wake of acute water shortages.
Among the worst affected is the Ouse washes in Cambridgeshire, which is an important wetland habitat.
The reserve is used as part of a flood relief system for the Great Ouse river and the Environment Agency was forced to open sluice gates which prevented flooding upstream, but meant the nesting grounds of many wading birds were washed away.
Redshank, lapwing and rare black-tailed godwits were among the victims.
Jon Reeves, RSPB's site manager at the Ouse Washes, said: "Following centuries of land drainage across the UK, the Ouse Washes is now the most important stronghold for these birds after they have been largely forced out of other sites.
'Devastating'
"Literally, we have all our eggs in one basket and we've lost them.
"It's devastating to watch the nests succumb to the rising waters without being able to do anything to prevent it," he added.
But our correspondent said lowland snipe were worse hit with over a third of their estimated population in England and Wales having had their nests destroyed.
At the Minsmere reserve on the Suffolk coast, avocet and black-headed gulls and been particularly badly affected.
The RSPB says there has been similar destruction at nature reserves at Pulborough Brooks in West Sussex and Fairburn Ings, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.
But one family of coots at Fairburn Ings survived when the nest full of eggs was washed away.
The nest floated to a spot 30 metres away where the eggs were able to hatch.
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cuckoos


Tagged cuckoos complete migration and return to the UK

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC Nature
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Tracking devices fitted to five cuckoos have revealed the remarkable annual journey of a bird that heralds the arrival of the UK's spring.
The male birds were fitted with the satellite tags last May by scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
Two cuckoos, Lyster and Chris arrived back in the UK this week - the first to have their African migration mapped.
After a 10,000 mile trip, Lyster was seen 10 miles from where he was tagged.

Summer visitors

Portrait of a swift
  • A 2010 survey by the RSPB revealed that, of the 10 UK birds which have declined the most since 1995, eight are summer migrants, including thecuckoo, turtle dove, yellow wagtail and nightingale
  • Common swifts favour a life in the air where they feed, drink, mate and even sleep on the wing
  • Nightingales are famous for their beautiful night time vocal abilities which can consist of over 200 variations
  • Migrating swallows cover 200 miles a day at speeds up to 35 mph
  • Puffins only return from the sea to breed. A single chick, known as a puffling, is raised in an underground burrow
Phil Atkinson, head of international research at the BTO spotted the cuckoo in the Norfolk Broads on Tuesday.
"We saw him flying past - you can see the wire antenna poking out [from his tag], so it was definitely him," he told BBC Nature.
"It's just fantastic; we know where he's been, we know the routes he's taken and now he's back in the broads."
The aim of the project was to discover why, each year, fewer and fewer of the birds return to the UK.
Britain has lost almost half of its cuckoos in the last two decades and the population of the birds is continuing to decline steadily.
The lack of information about the cuckoos' long migration has hampered the understanding of how to help conserve the birds.
This cuckoo migration map has now revealed, for the first time, exactly where the birds spend the winter and just how brief the time that these so-called British birds actually spend in Britain.
"They're African birds really," said Phil Atkinson, who has taken a leading role in the cuckoo project.
"They evolved in Africa."
Phil Atkinson explains how the study could help conserve the cuckoo
Missing in action
Like all migrating animals, they respond to the changing seasons - depending on lush greenery to provide the fruit and the food for insects that they feed on.
This reliance seasonal patterns means that a changing climate could make an already challenging journey impossible.
"All the birds got down to Congo and survived, and it's only on spring migration that we started to lose birds," said Dr Atkinson.
"We lost our first bird, Clement, in Cameroon on the return journey," he told BBC Nature.

“Start Quote

Cuckoo with GPS tag (Image: BTO)
Timing is really important... in determining whether a bird undertakes a migration successfully or not”
Dr Phil AtkinsonBritish Trust for Ornithology
"So we think the crunch time is just before they cross the Sahara."
Although the team were sad to lose the birds, Dr Atkinson said that understanding the most challenging parts of a cuckoo's journey - and where they were most likely to die - provided them with "an incredible amount of new and important information".
"These birds move into west Africa, they fatten up as much as they can - enough to fuel their Saharan crossing.
"And if they're not able to do that, I think that's going to be a real pinch point in terms of mortality.
"That's where we need to focus our research effort and conservation action."
The team now plan to continue the project by fitting a group of female cuckoos with the same tracking devices.
"Males and females may well do different things in terms of migration," said Dr Atkinson.
"Males may well be more time-stressed to get back in spring to get a good territory and find females and females might have to stay later to get the last few eggs out.
"As we have seen in the five cuckoos, timing is really important and this may be crucial in determining whether a bird undertakes a migration successfully or not."
Grahame Madge from the RSPB said it was a relief to know that at least some birds were coming back to Britain to carry on future generations.
"The cuckoo is an urgent priority for research," he told BBC Nature.
"This fantastic project is boosting the understanding of this bird so that, hopefully, we can give this bird a future."

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Friday 27 April 2012

Skylon


Key tests for Skylon spaceplane project

B9 test stand The pre-cooler demonstration is a major step in proving the Skylon concept
UK engineers have begun critical tests on a new engine technology designed to lift a spaceplane into orbit.
The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.
Its major innovation is the Sabre engine, which can breathe air like a jet at lower speeds but switch to a rocket mode in the high atmosphere.
Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements.
This being so, the firm would then approach investors to raise the £250m needed to take the project into the final design phase.
"We intend to go to the Farnborough International Air Show in July with a clear message," explained REL managing director Alan Bond.
"The message is that Britain has the next step beyond the jet engine; that we can reduce the world to four hours - the maximum time it would take to go anywhere. And that it also gives us aircraft that can go into space, replacing all the expendable rockets we use today."
To have a chance of delivering this message, REL's engineers will need a flawless performance in the experiments now being run on a rig at their headquarters in Culham, Oxfordshire.
The test stand will not validate the full Sabre propulsion system, but simply its enabling technology - a special type of pre-cooler heat exchanger.
Sabre is part jet engine, part rocket engine. It burns hydrogen and oxygen to provide thrust - but in the lower atmosphere this oxygen is taken from the atmosphere.
The approach should save weight and allow Skylon to go straight to orbit without the need for the multiple propellant stages seen in today's throw-away rockets.
But it is a challenging prospect. At high speeds, the Sabre engines must cope with 1,000-degree gases entering their intakes. These need to be cooled prior to being compressed and burnt with the hydrogen.
Reaction Engines' breakthrough is a module containing arrays of extremely fine piping that can extract the heat and plunge the intake gases to minus 140C in just 1/100th of a second.
Ordinarily, the moisture in the air would be expected to freeze out rapidly, covering the pre-cooler's pipes in a blanket of frost and compromising their operation.
But the REL team has also devised a means to stop this happening, permitting Sabre to run in jet mode for as long as is needed before making the transition to a booster rocket.
Sabre engine: How the test will work
Illustation of how the skylon engine works Groundbreaking pre-cooler

  • 1. Pre-cooler

    During flight air enters the pre-cooler. In 1/100th of a second a network of fine piping inside the pre-cooler drops the air's temperature by well over 100C. Very cold helium in the piping makes this possible.

  • 2. Jet engine

    Oxygen chilled in the pre-cooler by the helium is compressed and used to fuel the aircraft. In the test run, a jet engine is used to draw air into the pre-cooler, so the technology can be demonstrated.

  • 3. The silencer

    The helium must be kept chilled. So, it is pumped through a nitrogen boiler. For the test, water is used to dampen the noise from the exhaust gases. Clouds of steam are produced as the water is vapourised.

On the test rig, a pre-cooler module of the size that would eventually go into a Sabre has been placed in front of a Viper jet engine.
The purpose of the 1960s-vintage power unit is simply to suck air through the module and demonstrate the function of the heat exchanger and its anti-frost mechanism.
Helium is pumped at high pressure through the module's nickel-alloy piping.
The helium enters the system at about minus 170C. The ambient air drawn over the pipes by the action of the jet should as a consequence dip rapidly to around minus 140C.
REL control room The next few weeks will see some intense activity in the REL control room
Sensors will determine that this is indeed the case.
The helium, which by then will have risen to about minus 15C, is pushed through a liquid nitrogen "boiler" to bring it back down to its run temperature, before looping back into the pre-cooler.
"It is important to state that the geometry of the pre-cooler is not a model. That is a piece of real Sabre engine," said Mr Bond.
"We don't have to go away and develop the real thing when we've done these tests; this is the real article."
The manufacturing process for the pre-cooler technology is already proven, but investors will be looking to see that the module has a stable operation and can meet the promised performance.
The BBC was given exclusive access to film the rig in action.
Because REL is working on a busy science park, it has to meet certain environmental standards.
This means the Viper's exhaust goes into a silencer where the noise is damped by means of water spray.
The exhaust gases are at several hundred degrees, and so the water is instantly vaporised, producing huge clouds of steam.
Anyone standing outside during a run gets very wet because the vapour rains straight back down to the ground.
Future direction The REL project has generated a lot of excitement. One reason for that is the independent technical audit completed last year.
The UK Space Agency engaged propulsion experts at the European Space Agency (Esa) to run the rule over the company's engine design.
Our science editor David Shukman watches the Skylon engine tests
Esa's team, which spent several months at Culham, found no obvious showstoppers.
"Engineering is never simple. There are always things in the future that need to be resolved - problems crop up and you have to solve them," said Dr Mark Ford, Esa's head of propulsion engineering.
"The issue is, 'do we see anything fundamental from stopping this engine from being developed?', and the answer is 'no' at this stage.
"The main recommendation we made is that we would like next to see a sub-scale engine - so, a smaller version than the final engine - being tested.
"So far we've looked at critical component technologies. The next step is to put those technologies together, build an engine and see it working.
"We want a demonstration of the thermodynamic cycle. We'd also like to see the engine operating in air-breathing and rocket mode, and the transition between the two."
Skylon cutaway (Reaction Engines)
This sub-scale engine is one of the activities proposed for the next phase of the project.
Also included is a series of flight test vehicles that would demonstrate the configuration of the engine nacelles - the air intakes.
Additionally, updated design drawings would be produced for the Sabre engine and the Skylon vehicle.
So far, 85% of the funding for Reaction Engines' endeavours has come from private investors, but the company may need some specific government support if it is to raise all of the £250m needed to initiate every next-phase activity.
"What we have learned is that a little bit of government money goes a long way," said Mr Bond.
"It gives people confidence that what we're doing is meaningful and real - that it's not science fiction. So, government money is a very powerful tool to lever private investment."
This public seed fund approach to space has certainly found favour recently within government.
Ministers put more than £40m into developing the communications payload for the first satellite operated by the Avanti broadband company, and they are giving more than £20m to SSTL to make a prototype radar satellite.
Sabre Engine (Reaction Engines) A concept drawing of the Sabre engine with a series of pre-cooler modules
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Monday 6 February 2012

The China Air Transport Association (CATA), which represents four of the country's biggest airlines, says they won't pay.


More shots are being fired in the war of words over the EU's new law requiring airlines to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions.
The law came into force at the beginning of this month, and carriers flying to or from European airports will have to include their emissions in the EU's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).
Despite the fact that airlines will get 85% of their allowance for free, they don't seem to like the scheme very much - particularly the ones based outside the EU.
The end of last year saw the failure of a legal challenge mounted by US airlines, led by Continental.
Now, the focus has switched to Chinese carriers. The China Air Transport Association (CATA), which represents four of the country's biggest airlines, says they won't pay.
If they don't, they could face fines of up to 100 euros ($128) a tonne for their emissions - or they could be banned from EU airports.
As I alluded to in my last post of 2011, the dispute is hard to understand on one level because the sums of money involved are so trifling.
CATA estimates that Chinese airlines may lose $123m (95m euros) this year, and three times as much annually by 2020.
To put that in perspective, it's worth taking a look at the financial health of the four CATA members - Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Air Hainan.
In 2010, Air China posted a profit of $1.83bn - double the previous year's. China Southern Airlines made a 15-fold jump to $883m, and its eastern peer a 26-fold leap to $807m.
Hainan Airlines was the baby of the bunch, turning a mere $458m profit. But its bosses were presumably comforted by being the first Chinese airline to receive "five-star" status.
Cumulatively, then, the annual profits of CATA members amount to about $4bn - vastly more than the estimated cost of adhering to the EU ETS.
EU climate commissioner Connie HedegaardClimate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is standing firm
Further indication of just how tiny the sums are comes from Delta, which has become the first US airline to put a levy on ticket prices tied to the EU ETS fees.
The size of the levy: $3.
At the moment, Delta has a special offer on some flights to Europe, the cheapest of which will take you from New York to Rome, Florence or Milan for $329. The same amount will get you back again.
The small print clarifies: "Federal Excise tax of $3.70, Passenger Facility Charge(s) of up to $4.50, and the September 11th Security Fee of up to $2.50 for each flight segment are not included. Fares do not include US International Air Transportation Tax of up to $32.60..."
And there's more: "For travel between United States and Europe, 60 USD/CAD*/EUR* fee for second checked bag when bags are prepaid during online check-in at delta.com (additional 15 USD/CAD*/EUR* surcharge for the second bag, when checking in via ticket counter, kiosk, or curbside)..."
How likely does the $3 look in this context to put a dent in Delta's business? Waive one 20th of the second bag surcharge... job done!
When it comes to China's airlines, it's also worth considering the overall opportunities that the ETS brings for Chinese businesses.
The Asian giant was always going to become a massive manufacturer of goods for the EU market, as it is for the US and indeed the rest of the developed world.
But academic studies of "carbon leakage" - the transfer of production from one place to another as a result of emission pricing - suggest that EU climate policies have helped transfer high-emission industries to China and other major developing countries.
The maths are vague and laden with assumptions - particularly concerning the level of the EU carbon price - and I'm not going to pretend that an accurate calculation is possible. But here's an indicative and almost certainly conservative account.
The EU's steel industry turns over 150bn euros a year. One recent modelling exercise estimated a possible leakage of nearly 40% in the energy-intensive steel business.
Chinese steel plantChina's steel industry has some financial woes, but may gain from the EU's carbon trading scheme
Those numbers together suggest the EU could lose 60bn euros worth of steel business a year as a result of its climate policies. As China is the world's largest producer, it might be expected to pick up, say, half of that.
At a profit margin of 5% on that 30bn euros, China would benefit to the tune of 1.5bn euros a year from the EU ETS.
Once again, this is an indicative exercise. But even if the figure is too high by a factor of 10, the gain to China's steel industry would outweigh the projected costs to its airlines.
And when you throw in carbon leakage in other industries as well as steel, the economics must tip further in the same direction.
But I have not seen China or any other exporting nation query the EU's right to put a price on carbon on those grounds.
The European Commission is standing its ground.
"We are not modifying our law and we are not backing down," Isaac Valero-Ladron, spokesman for climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard, told Thursday's news conference in Brussels.
"If the Chinese want to do business in Europe, like open a restaurant or something, they have to comply with the health and safety requirements. This is not that different... if you want to operate in Europe you have to respect the law."
And as aviation pricing is now EU law, it would indeed be tough for the bloc to amend or annul.
There's talk in some quarters of a trade war; but given the piffling costs, and the fact that all airlines have to pay exactly the same fees, it's hard to see how even a waving of handbags is justified.
The suspicion must be that what we are seeing is a co-ordinated movement by two of the countries that have most vehemently opposed tough international action to restrict emissions over the last few years - perhaps as a buffer in case the EU starts looking at other trade-related climate measures, such as border adjustments, more seriously.
There's another set of statistics that might be weighing on governments' minds: the estimates of damages from natural disasters, which are always published at this time of year by the major reinsurers.
The 2011 figures were dominated by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
But according to Munich Re, the US alone suffered weather-related losses of $46bn.
Rising sea levels, salination of fresh water, droughts, floods... the maths of future climate impacts are inexact, but on a global scale the costs are likely to rise, not fall - and by far more than the costs borne by highly profitable Chinese airlines as they fly inside the EU's climate policy umbrella.
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