10Jan

SpaceX Dragon: The First Spacecraft Using Solar Panels

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SpaceX Dragon The First Spacecraft Using Solar Panels

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I wonder what it feels like to know that you’ve contributed to space expeditions and, indirectly, to the future of mankind? Very proud, I assume, as must feel the engineers from SpaceX, a private space transport company led by Elon Musk, also Tesla Motors’ CEO.

During its first mission to the International Space Station, the Dragon spacecraft will spread out solar arrays within minutes after its departure.

The arrays will be put in place to capture the energy needed to run sensors, cooling and heating systems as well as keeping in touch with SpaceX’s Mission Control Center and the ISS.

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16Nov

Space Lasers! (for Clean Energy, Obviously)

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iaa-orbiting-space-lasers

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Orbiting solar power stations have been a continuous source of debate for decades – someone always brings up the idea of power plants IN SPACE and it always gets shot down as being unfeasible. (What’s not realistic about having energy beamed down from space? Come on.) But because Star Trek has been part of our collective consciousness for the past 50 years (or maybe it’s just me), someone always goes back to the idea of space lasers providing clean energy. (more…)

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15Nov

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

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Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

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The sun’s abundant energy, if harvested in space, could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years with seed money from governments, according to a study by an international scientific group.

Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and beaming it to Earth appear “technically feasible” within a decade or two based on technologies now in the laboratory, a study group of the Paris-headquartered International Academy of Astronautics said.

Such a project may be able to achieve economic viability in 30 years or less, it said, without laying out a road map or proposing a specific architecture.

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26Oct

KickSat would launch members’ nanosatellites into space for a few hundred bucks

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Pssst, do you wanna buy a satellite? No, really – do you? Well, Zac Manchester would like to sell you one. Not only that, but he claims that the thing could be built and launched into orbit for just a few hundred dollars. For that price, however, you’re not going to be getting a big satellite. Manchester’s Sprite spacecraft are actually about the size of a couple of postage stamps, but they have tiny versions of all the basic equipment that the big ones have.

Zac is a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, and was part of the team that originally designed the Sprites for use as space probes – the idea being that they could travel on solar winds, like cosmic dust, traveling deep into space without the need for fuel. Three of the one-square-inch spacecraft were delivered to the International Space Station this May, to see how they how well they could stand up to the rigors of outer space. They are currently still mounted on the outside of the station, and are due to be brought back to Earth in a couple of years.

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