Well, a few days after I praise SpaceX I learn that not only is the initial launch delayed again, albeit through no fault of their own but that they also had an incident at their test facility in Texas.
Today I read in a Space Politics article by Jeff Foust that because of of a conflict with a Titan IV launch carrying a classified national security payload the SpaceX launch has been delayed. I was actually aware that there might be a conflict but until an actual delay had been confirmed I said nothing.
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According to China’s People Daily a joint project between the Advanced Technology and Materials Co., the University of Science and Technology Beijing and the Institute of Physics under Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) has achieved a major breakthrough in the developement of Nano-crystalline material joining Japan and Germany as leaders in the field.
Nano-crystalline material is made up of crystal particles five to ten nanometers long. The new material will be used on Shenzhou VI scheduled to launch in mid-October with a crew of two Yuhangyuan (astronauts).
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NASA with its partner the Spaceward Foundation announced yesterday the first First Centennial Challenges Prizes.
This is quite exciting as the first prizes deal directly with technologies required for a space elevator. And as some of you may know I’ve been a proponent of the Space Elevator concept for some time and created the Space Elevator Reference. The first two prizes are as follows;
The Tether Challenge centers on the creation of a material that combines light weight and incredible strength. Under this challenge, teams will develop high strength materials that will be stretched in a head-to-head competition to see which tether is strongest.
The Beam Power challenge focuses on the development of wireless power technologies for a wide range of exploration purposes, such as human lunar exploration and long-duration Mars reconnaissance. In this challenge, teams will develop wireless power transmission systems, including transmitters and receivers, to power robotic climbers to lift the greatest weight possible to the top of a 50-meter cable in under three minutes.
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The Teal Group announced today today the publication of its new Near-term Outlook during the Satellite 2005 conference. “The study highlights Hughes’ Spaceway dedicated broadband satellite system and SpaceX’s Falcon partly-reusable rocket as two programs that could have noticeable impact on the market.”
I first met Elon Musk the founder of SpaceX in the summer of 2001 at a space conference and have had the opportunity to talk him on several occasions since then about space exploration and in particular his company SpaceX. I’m a big supporter of SpaceX because Elon is attacking the biggest problem we have with space exploration in a creative and inivative way.
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Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman M.D. teamed up to write one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in some time, Fantastic Voyage, Live Long Enough to Live Forever.
Never have we humans lived as long as we do now. And with advances in health care, genomics and upcoming nanotechnology I could conceivably live a happy and healthy life well past my 100th birthday. (I’m 41 now) But health care and technology will only take you so far say Kurzweil and Grossman.
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