Random Thoughts, Random Places

On Thursday, July 21st, in the pre-dawn darkness of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis touched down, marking the end of the last flight in this program and the end of a glorious chapter in US space exploration.

The shuttle fleet of 5 craft, six if you count the non-powered test vehicle Enterprise, were all named after historically  famous explorers’ ships. (Even Enterprise, which never really flew, was named after the Star Trek Enterprise which also never really flew.) The missions and the people behind them have amassed a staggering amount of firsts and records. 21,152 orbits of the Earth. 542,398,878 miles traveled. 1,332 days, 20 hours, in space. Incredible numbers for this 30 year project.

And now, it’s over.

The three remaining Shuttle Orbiters will be deactivated and sent to museums. Discovery, which has flown more than any other shuttle and which deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, will be sent to the Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.  Atlantis, the fourth shuttle built, the last shuttle to fly a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and also the last shuttle to fly will be sent to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour,  built as a replacement for Challenger,  and the first shuttle to fly to the Hubble Space Telescope will be sent to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  Even the prototype Enterprise, which never flew in space, will be sent to the Intrepid museum in New York City. Ironically, none will sent to the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center, home of the US Astronaut corps, in Houston.

Sadly, two of the fleet were destroyed while on missions.

The first tragedy came in 1986 and involved the second shuttle,  Challenger. It’s first flight was April 4,1983. Challenger, which made the first flight  in which astronauts used jet-packs for spacewalks and also in which a satellite was take from orbit, repaired, and re-launched met an untimely end when on January 28, 1986 on it’s 10th launch,  a booster rocket failed, burned through the external fuel tank, and caused an explosion. The result was the break-up of the vehicle at just 73 seconds into the flight. All seven astronauts perished.

The second disaster came to the first shuttle. Columbia first took to the skies on April 12,1981 with the launch and mission that was a verification of the whole system.   Further flights followed with more specific purposes such as satellite launches and scientific work. Columbia also was the only shuttle to land at White Sands in New Mexico.  But at the end of it’s 28th mission on February 1, 2003, Columbia and it’s seven astronauts were lost when the craft broke apart on re-entry.

Will it be the final chapter for U.S. Manned Space Exploration?  It could be.  Astronauts will still visit the International Space Station but that’s not really exploring.  And they will get there by hitching a ride on a Russian Soyuz capsule.  Correction – not “hitching” a ride but paying a healthy $62.7 million per astronaut, round-trip.   Sounds expensive until compared to the Shuttle.  Those flights cost $450 million each, round-trip.  With an average crew of 5, that’s still $90 million per astronaut.

But bargain or not, it’s still embarrassing. The United States, once the world leader in manned space flight is now relegated to paying the rival Russians to get there.  And there doesn’t seem to be anything on the horizon for future U.S. Manned Space Flights.  With an administration whose actions are anti-space and anti-scientific (unless it’s “Green Projects”) plus a staggering federal deficit, the future of U.S. space exploration seems in doubt.

I’m glad I was able to witness the glory days.  I hope future generations will be able see future glories.

It wasn’t a UFO.  No, no says investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen.  Instead Ms Jacobsen thinks it was a Russian spacecraft with “child-size aviators” developed in human experiments by Nazi doctor and war criminal Josef Mengele.  But Roswell is only one chapter and actually more of a tease.

The book, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, is reportedly a fairly straightforward investigative book about aviation and the military history of Area 51. I haven’t read it.  But after reading a New York Times review I plan to.

Oh yes.  The International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell is planning on a big summer tourist season.

No, it’s not Al Capone’s vault. This vault belongs to the FBI. And yes, it does contain a lot of information on the famous/infamous gangster. But it also covers a lot of other subjects.

In April, 2010 the FBI overhauled their FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) website and now, a year later has revamped the “Reading Room” and named it “The Vault“.  It has an excellent search feature. And while you can enter “Al Capone”, if your reading this page you’re probably more interested in searches like “UFO” or “MJ-12″.  There’s plenty there to keep you occupied for days.

The Vault has over 2000 documents on hand, most with dozens of pages. And while they cover all time periods of the Bureau, some have only recently been added.  Complete instructions are included, although it’s very straightforward and “user friendly”. I have to congratulate the FBI.  They really got this right.

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have passed a major breakthrough in their work on a Free Electron Laser, FEL, with the demonstration of an injector needed for a megawatt laser beam for the Navy’s next generation weapons system.  Dr. Dinh Nguyen, senior project leader for the FEL program, said, “The injector performed as we predicted all along.”  He added, “We’re currently working to measure the properties of the continuous electron beams, and hope to set a world record for the average current of electrons.”

The FEL project began in the 1980′s but it wasn’t until 2010 that it graduated from basic research to an Innovative Naval Prototype.  The ONR hopes to move testing to a maritime enivronment as early as 2018. You can read more at the offical Office of Naval Research website.

The latest in space hardware just completed it’s maiden long-range mission.  The X-37B, after 7 months in space, landed safely December 3rd at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “Big deal”, you say?  Well, yes it was.  The X-37B was launched into space from Cape Canaveral on April 22nd, completed it’s mission and landed like an airplane or Space Shuttle in California.  And it all was done with no one on board.  Or in Air Force talk, Captain Nolo – “No Live Operator”.

Of course the Air Force won’t say what the purpose of the flight was, other than to test the plane/spacecraft.  And as would be expected, no word on what the future use of the X-37B will be.

But it’s an amazing accomplishment. Both the Air Force and Boeing, the manufacturer, should be congratulated. It amazes me. Seven months in space for a craft not much larger the the little Cessna’s I used to fly.

A mysterious blue light appeared in the skies over Centerville, VA  last Wednesday night, November 3rd.  Bryan Fains, cellphone in hand, captured the light for posterity.  It does look unusual, but then, so do lots of “lights in the sky”.  Those are some of the most difficult UFO sightings to explain, mainly because there is so little information in the reports.

But I’ll take a stab at it.  The light was blue, uncommon on aircraft.  The only case I know of where a plane displays a blue light is in aerial refueling.  And while refueling the planes fly a track, often oval.  When done they break apart, with the tanker and it’s blue light make a climb.

Case solved?  Not completely, but it’s a pretty good guess.

I normally wouldn’t post anything about the recent U.S. elections, but this is too good to pass up.  According to the Associated Press, Denver voters have soundly defeated a proposal to establish a commission to track extraterrestrials.  By a vote of 106,776 to 20,162 they turned down the measure proposed by Denver resident Jeff Peckman.

Peckman works as a meditation instructor.  He also promotes new technology, including something he says reduces the “chaos of electromagnetic fields.”  His previous proposals include a ordinance requiring the city to offer “stress reduction measures”.

I’d offer a comment poking fun at Mr. Peckman, but his activities make that un-necessary.

Wondering what to do if a flying saucer lands in your backyard? The United Nations has you covered.  They’re about to announce that Mazlan Othman, the head of the U.N.’s little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), will act as first contact for any little greys that may come visiting.

During a recent talk to fellow scientists Othman said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials.”

“When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The U.N. is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.”

British Professor Richard Crowther said, “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person.”

I think I’d rather have Will Smith.

That “Space News” scroll on the left moves by fairly fast, so you may have missed this amazing photograph taken from the International Space Station (ISS).  Take a look.

Another amazing space photo is this one of the first “solar sail” spacecraft.  The story of this Japanese probe is quite amazing.

The Science News from  AP has been dead for over a week.  I give up.  So I’ve replaced it with a space news feed from Feedzilla.  You’ll see a few ads float through but hey, the price is right.  Just mouse over the little window to get the scroll to stop.

We’ll see how it works.  And there are lots of RSS feeds around.  If I find a better one I’ll make changes.