Peru Enters The Space Arena

It looks as if another nation is slowly making its way into the space arena. Although very far behind their North American friends, it is a good sign to see another nation in the western hemisphere joining launching rockets towards the stars.

(People's Daily Online) Peru has launched its first space probe entirely designed and built by Peruvian scientists, an Air Force officer said on Wednesday.

The Paulet I, named after Peruvian aviation pioneer Pedro Paulet, was launched on Tuesday at 3.30 p.m. from the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) base in Punta Lobos, Pucusana, 50 km south of Peru's capital Lima, said Air Force colonel Wolfgang Dupeyrat. [...]

Dupeyrat, who is also a Conida director, told media that Peru now sought to develop its space program.

Editor's Note: Congratulations to the Peruvian scientists for finally convincing your government that space is not only our future, but worth funding as well. I wonder how long it will take them to decide to send up one of their own into space?

Will Our Future On The Moon Be Underground?

If humanity ever does regain the will to revisit the moon, we may have to construct lunar bases underground. With the frequency of raining space rocks from above greater than previously thought, humanity may find the moon to be an unfriendly place.

(New Scientist Space) Two small NASA telescopes with their lenses trained on the Moon spied five, and possibly six, Geminid meteoroids striking the lunar surface early on the morning of 14 December. The observations will help NASA design safe shelters for its future Moon base. [...]

The concern is not really for the softball-sized projectiles hitting the astronauts directly, Cooke says, but rather from the material scattered from the resulting crater. Because of the Moon's lower gravity and thin atmosphere, material could fly for hundreds of metres. Cooke likens the ejecta to shrapnel from a bomb.

Although more data is being collected, humanity may be limited into how much of the lunar surface we can colonize. According to one study (which has to be refined), the moon could be hit with up to 260 two pound rocks every year, which is enough to cause serious damage to any future moon base.

Unless there is a way to develop some kind of magnetic force field, we may not be going back to the moon en mass anytime soon (at least going there ensured anyways).

Saturns Lunar Titan May Be Worth Billions

Saturn's moon Titan may be one of the most valuable worlds in our solar system, after Earth and the Moon. Satellite flyby's and lunar probes have revealed Titan to be a world with many methane/ethane lakes dotting its surface (at least in the north).

(New York Times) As scientists have predicted but have had a hard time proving, the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, appears to be dotted with lakes of liquid methane. The lakes are more intriguing evidence of the active phenomena at play on the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere. [...]

The radar imaging system detected more than 75 dark patches in the landscape near Titan’s northern polar region, the scientists said in a detailed description of the find published today in the journal Nature.

The patches, they said, indicated smooth surfaces in an otherwise rugged topography, suggesting lake beds either partly dry or filled with liquid. These smooth surfaces, more or less circular and with diameters ranging from 2 miles to 40 miles, are associated with channels that appear to have been formed by flowing liquids, presumably tributaries to the lakes.

Despite the fact that conquering Titan is many generations away, the fact that this world harbors fuel resources is a very comforting thought for future colonists. With Saturn orbiting almost a billion miles away from the Sun, solar power may not be an option for those fortunate enough to land on its various moons.

Harvesting Titan's methane may provide a cheaper alternative to nuclear and hydrogen fuel via ice, and may allow humans to further explore our solar system without breaking the bank.

England Slowly Consideres Humans In Space

Ever since the UK entered the space race, England has been rather slow about sending humans into the cosmos. Despite the potential of colonizing other worlds (i.e. resources, international focus on exploring instead of war, etc.) Britain seems to have "delegate" this process to their American and Russian friends.

But all of that might change thanks to their brave new science minister who goes by the name of Malcolm Wicks.

(Times Online) "I think we need to think that through," he said. "I think sometimes our understandable reluctance to fund British men and women going into space has come across wrongly as us being a bit cool about space. I think we should be hot and enthusiastic.

"It's going to be this millennium's great adventure. I'm not changing our position on this now, but I think it would be foolish to be dogmatic about these things."

Successive governments have decided that the benefits of human spaceflight are not worth the heavy financial costs or risk to life.

Although England has had several astronauts fly into outer space, most of them have had to become American citizens in order to participate (with one flying under the EU flag).

If England does not seriously consider taking matter into their own hands by either partnering up with the US or EU or building their own space ports, they will have nothing to complain about when the US, Russia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, etc. begin importing minerals, Helium-3 and rare metals for their benefit (not to mention expanding their DNA off world).

It would be good to see the United Kingdom partner with NASA and land an astronaut on the moon. After all, if Canada sees the benefit of doing so, then why not our UK brethren?

Update (7/18): Added source link (which was foolishly left out).

Korea Building A Space Port?

It looks like Korea (that would be South Korea) is starting to become a little jealous over its Chinese and Japanese "brethren" flying off humans and satellites to the stars and has decided to jump into the action themselves.

(Digital Chosunilbo) In a small village at the tip of the Oe Naro Island, a beachhead for space exploration is under construction by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The Naro Space Center is to launch a rocket made with Korea's own technology in 2008. Located at the foot of Machi Mountain on Oe Naro Island, there is a 500 million sq. m construction site for the Space Center. Its seven core facilities are now 95 percent complete.

The Naro Space Center will build equipment and conduct test operation by the first half of this year, when the rocket operation system worth W265 billion (US$1=W930) will be complete. With this development, Korea becomes the world's 13th nation to own a rocket launch station, and the site will be the 26th in the world.

Despite their belated entry into the space arena, Korea seems to be seriously considering establishing itself among the heavens as one can notice by their latest attempt at sending up astronauts into space.

Ironically, the Korean island is remaking itself into a "space center" in order to not only become the main launching point for South Korea, but also increase tourism into the area.

Terrestrial Space Elevators, A Neccessary Evil?

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.

~Paul Valery


With humanity on the verge of leaving their terrestrial cradle, one can only imagine how far they will go in order to explore, build and conquer other worlds. But whether we choose to enter space via chemical and nuclear rockets, or magnetic sleds, we may have to construct a space elevator, even if the previous methods become cheaper in the future.

Whether or not one acknowledges global warming, most people can agree that air pollution is a major concern for our environment. Although much of it comes from common vehicles such as automobiles, a large portion comes from power plants, especially coal.

Many communities have responded to this by building "clean, safe," nuclear power plants. Although they do not pollute our atmosphere they can leave a nasty side effect called nuclear waste which can take thousands of years to decay or worse be spun into weapons.

Removing them off our planet would not only ensure that future descendants do not spin them into weapons, but that our environment would not suffer from a dump site leak.

Since most nations would be uncomfortable having a rocket or magnetic sled hurling nuclear materials half way around the planet (especially in their neighborhood), a space elevator could easily solve this problem by moving nuclear waste "slowly" off our planet from a location away from major populations.

The waste could then be disposed of by a robotic shuttle in space and then dumped on Venus (or perhaps even hurled towards the sun).

Although most of humanity is probably fit for space travel, there remains a vast minority who are either unfit physically (as in the case of Stephen Hawking) to travel to the stars. Despite lacking the physical strength to endure the trip, these people may have a lot to offer humanity as far as intellect and our understanding of the universe goes.

Leaving these people behind to observe the universe through others would be nothing more than to deny them the opportunity to explore the universe for themselves. A space elevator would allow those who are disabled or not healthy enough to travel via rocket (or magnetic sled) to join the rest of humanity in our quest to colonize the stars.

But before we can even adequately transport large numbers of people into space, (as well as dangerous materials on Earth) humanity will need to figure out a way to remove nearly 4,800 satellites no longer in use, circling our globe. Although many of these satellites are unusable, they may hold some historical value such as humanities first satellite into space, Sputnik 1.

Unfortunately despite their value, many of these objects can not be brought back towards earth because of the dangers that they would pose to both the shuttle and the crew. A space elevator could enable humanity to get a glimpse of their past by enabling the safe transport of distant satellites from space to Earth (possibly through solar dump trucks).

Not only would scientists and historians enjoy the return of some of the satellites to planet Earth, but also engineers as well (as they could finally figure out what went wrong in the past). A space elevator may even allow us to recycle these satellites and refurbish them for other missions.

Whether we get to space en mass through rockets or magnetic sleds only the future can tell. But regardless on the vehicle chosen to get to the stars and beyond, we may have to construct a ladder to the future to not only resolve problems around and on Earth, but to insure that all may have the opportunity to fully enjoy the cosmos.

(Hat Tip: Space Elevator Journal)

Update: Corrected some grammatical errors.

Video: Would You Visit MOON Resort?

(Hat Tip: Robot Guy)

It looks like a company called MOON World Resorts has found its universal niche and has decided that it will build a vacation resort on the lunar surface. I'm not sure if they are seriously pursuing this or creating an earthen copycat, but at least they provided an interesting video.

Note: Unless this company can find a cheap way of transporting materials (let alone employee's) to the surface, then this idea will probably not enter reality until 2070 at best.