William Shatner: Now The Oldest Person In Space?

As an actor who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series over 50 years ago, is William Shatner now the oldest person to travel to space?

By: Ringo Bones

Its official, as of October 13, 2021, William Shatner, the actor who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series that first aired over 50 years ago is now the oldest person to have gone to space at the age of 90. While his space travel exploits on TV five decades or so ago has been the stuff of science fiction during the infancy of the United States manned space exploration program, William Shatner has finally achieved real space travel making him indeed earn the moniker “rocket man”.

For a number of years, it was the Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star Lt. Mae Jemison who actually experienced actual space travel as a Space Shuttle era astronaut. It wasn’t until the advent of space tourism start-up companies – like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin private space travel / space tourism firm in the 21^st Century – where almost anyone with enough money can experience what used to be the domain of tenured astronauts from NASA and other nations fortunate enough to afford costly space exploration programs.

William Shatner’s most touching quote on his travel to near space on the Blue Origin New Shepard is: “You look down, there’s the blue down there and the black up there… there is Mother Earth and comfort and there is, is there death? I don’t know, but is that death? Is that the way death is? It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable.” He said while the crew celebrated behind him. Speaking to Jeff Bezos after the Blue Origin flight, the 90-year-old actor told him: “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine.” Shatner also continued: “It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death.”

Being a lifelong Star Trek fan, Bezos flew Shatner as a “comped guest”. Shatner’s three other crewmates are Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of the satellite company Planet Labs and software executive Glen de Vries – who are both paying customers. And Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations.

Before William Shatner became the oldest space traveler, the record was previously held by Wally Funk, who at 82 years old was part of the crew of the Blue Origin New Shepard’s inaugural manned flight earlier in July 2021. Funk was originally part of the Mercury 13 program that included women astronauts that was scrapped by NASA back in the early 1960s. Back in 1998, 77 year old former NASA astronaut and Senator John Glenn previously held the title of the oldest astronaut during his STS-95 mission onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery back in October 29, 1998.

Nokia: First Mobile Phone Network On The Moon?

After winning a contract from NASA in the wake of Project Artemis, could Finnish mobile phone company Nokia be the first one to provide mobile phone coverage on the Moon?

By: Ringo Bones

After winning a contract bid and granted by NASA $14.1-million to build the first ever 4G mobile phone networks on the Moon, it seems that the Finnish mobile phone company Nokia could be the first ever to establish a working 4G mobile phone network on the Moon that would be used by astronauts. In the wake of NASA’s Artemis Project that aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024 (and about time, given that the last time NASA sent a men to the Moon was back in 1972). By 2028, NASA hopes to have the beginnings of a working lunar base and, ultimately, a sustainable human presence.

If NASA’s current timetable goes as planned, Nokia says that their Lunar 4G Network will be completed by late 2022, with humans due to arrive shortly after in 2024 as part of NASA’s Project Artemis. Nokia decided to choose to establish a 4G network first because given its long track record has proven reliability and robustness in the previous years, although Nokia says that it already has plans for 5G purpose built for space applications in the near future.

Nokia says the proposed 4G network will provide connectivity for any activity that astronauts need to carry out on the Moon, including using the network for transmitting biometric data, remotely controlling autonomous exploratory lunar rovers, streaming high-definition video in order to allay the concerns of “Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theorists”, and enabling voice and video communications. Although how all of this will work with the expected one and a quarter second travel time delay of the radio waves between the Earth and the Moon is yet to be determined given that the 186,000 miles per second speed of the radio waves still have to travel a quarter of a million miles to the Moon and back to Earth again. And let us also hope that the “roaming charges” does not carry an astronomical price tag.

Virgin Orbit’s Satellite Launching System: The Most Cost Effective Way To Reach Low Earth Orbit?

Though launching rockets from 8 miles up to reach low earth orbit has been done before, could the Virgin Orbit’s satellite launching system the “cheapest” way to do it?

By: Ringo Bones

Virgin Orbit is a spin-off of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and had been operated independently by its CEO Dan Hart since 2017. Their satellite launch system consists of a modified Boeing 747 christened as Cosmic Girl that could launch a two-stage rocket christened LauncherOne that could launch a new generation of micro-satellites into low Earth orbit after the Cosmic Girl launch plane reaches 39,000-feet. A series of test launches had been done, but the most recent one back in May 25, 2020 ended in failure. But despite of the setbacks, it could be considered a miracle that Virgin Orbit still exists as a commercial entity back in May 2020 because since the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown, it was feared that the satellite launching company will be closed – citing reasons that it is no longer economically viable. Despite of this, is Virgin Orbit’s satellite launching system the most energy efficient and therefore cheapest way to launch commercial payloads into low Earth orbit?

The first ever manned hypersonic experimental aircraft – the X-15 – was launched in a similar manner by being flown to 39,000 feet via a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress that was christened as “The High And Mighty One” during the latter half of the 1950s. And its scores of test pilots of this program includes astronaut Neil Armstrong whose flight took them to altitudes that borders the region of the point marking the start of orbital space.

From a physics standpoint, Cosmic Girl’s 39,000-foot head start off the ground is not that much of a help in terms of fuel savings and energy conservation because the modified 747 does not have much upward velocity considering its 600-mph top speed. The launch vehicle – i.e. the LauncherOne rocket – still needs to accelerate to a speed of 18,000-mph to make the satellite achieve a stable orbit around the Earth.

The greatest advantage of Virgin Orbit’s launch system is that this allows the modified 747 known as Cosmic Girl to be essentially a mobile launchpad, enabling the flexibility of offering rocket launches from many more locations. If there is a thunderstorm, the jet can fly around or over it. And by flying over the ocean immediately reduces the risk of people below if the rocket explodes. The two-stage LauncherOne can lift up to 1,100-pounds to low Earth Orbit. Only smaller satellites can fit within the rocket’s four foot wide payload section. Using this method to launch a typical micro-satellite via Virgin Orbit will set you back 12-million US dollars.

Rockets: The Only Viable Way To Reach Outer Space?

From Robert H. Goddard’s first working prototypes to the Apollo’s Saturn V to the current SpaceX Crew Dragon, are rockets the only viable conveyance to reach outer space?

By: Ringo Bones

A few months before the Wright Brother’s first successful flight back in December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, space travel visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published his work – including the pertinent mathematics - detailing how rockets would be necessary in space exploration. Fast forward to the successful SpaceX Crew Dragon docking with the International Space Station and the Falcon 9 rocket’s lower section successfully landing for reuse to slash the cost of reaching low earth orbit, are “Goddard style rockets” currently the only viable vehicles for space exploration in the foreseeable future?

Anyone old enough to remember the early successes of the McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper Experimental DC-X single stage to orbit launch system would probably think that this kind of space vehicle – as in the classic “rocketship” – is the only viable way to explore space for the foreseeable future – that is until we can create a working Alcubierre style warp drive used by Zefram Cochran in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. I mean, around the early 1990s when a suitable replacement for the NASA Space Shuttle fleet was already sought due to its cost and safety issues, it seems that the upstart DC-X single stage to orbit upstart was seen as the most promising replacement for the NASA Space Shuttle fleet – that any potential space vehicle that’s a cross between an airplane and a rocketship – i.e. a space vehicle that can reach low earth orbit but can take-off and land on a conventional 10,000-foot runaway like a passenger jet – was inevitably seen as a “technological dead end”. I mean probably anyone old enough to remember the successes of the McDonnell Douglas DCX single stage to orbit launch vehicle back in the first half of the 1990s would probably state that the design is probably what “influenced” Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon combo.

Then came 9/11 and in the intervening years on what rogue states are capable of or are willing to do. Imagine a crew of astronauts landing in hostile territory and eventually taken hostage by a terror group or a rogue state just because a ballistic computer malfunction had sent them to land in “unfriendly territory”. Such a nightmare scenario gained an air of plausibility when back in April 19, 2008 a Soyuz TMA capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-yeon, Commander Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenachenko got almost 300 miles off course due to a malfunctioning ballistic computer.

Maybe NASA should work with Richard Branson in order to make a version of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo that could reach the International Space Station given that the SpaceShipOne can be controlled aerodynamically to land in a more or less conventional airport runway. I mean a design like the SpaceShipTwo is less likely to get off course and crash in a Taliban controlled territory in Afghanistan compared to the Soyuz TMA capsule returning from the International Space Station.

Crew Dragon: Most Eagerly Anticipated Space Mission?

Given that it finally regained NASA’s ability to launch space missions from American soil, was the Crew Dragon launch the most eagerly anticipated space mission for more than a decade?

By: Ringo Bones

Since the NASA’s fleet of Space Shuttles has been retired back in 2011, it seems that the United States has lost its ability to launch crewed missions into the International Space Station and return them safely using launch systems on American soil. NASA has, for almost a decade, became dependent on the Russian Soyuz launch system as the only way to send American and other astronauts to the ISS and back. But could a private space start-up by Elon Musk provide a more cost effective and safer alternative?

Since the private space transportation company was established back in 2002, Elon Musk’s SpaceX primary mission was to provide launch systems that can make space missions make fiscal sense to be economically viable enough to make space industry – and even space tourism – a reality. And since the NASA Space Shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, it only spurred on SpaceX’s plans to provide a suitable new and improved launch system.

With the successful SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A back in May 30, 2020 with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard. The crew successfully docked to the International Space Station back in June 1, 2020 and with a reusable and returnable lower stage, it seems that Elon Musk’s system could prove to be a cheaper and safer alternative to NASA’s now retired Space Shuttle program – and even the existing Russian Soyuz launch system.

Farewell Katherine Johnson

Could the United States have won the so-called space race against the then Soviet Union without the help of NASA's African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson and her team?

By Ringo Bones

Fortunately, she got her due credit while still alive given that her most important mathematical works were done during Jim Crow era America. As of February 24, 2020, former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, also known as Katherine Goble passed away in Newport News, Virginia. Born in August 25, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, USA became well known as America’s NASA mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics during her employment at NASA were critical to the success of the first and subsequent manned spaceflights.

Katherine Johnson was better known to the generation born after the Apollo moon missions as the NASA African-American mathematician portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures about a group of trailblazing African American women mathematicians employed by NASA during the start of America’s Civil Rights movement at the start of the 1960s. Although Katherine Johnson’s mathematical work began earlier in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics / NACA – the predecessor of NASA – back in 1953. Before being made famous by the movie Hidden Figures in 2016, Katherine Johnson was awarded with the Presidential Medal of freedom – America’s highest civilian honor – by President Barack Obama in 2015.

During the early days of programmable digital computers – whose active components of which were still largely made with subminiature vacuum tubes first manufactured during 1947 – astronauts were not exactly keen on putting their lives in the care of these early electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts according to NASA. So pioneering astronaut John Glenn asked the NASA engineers to “get the girl” – referring to Katherine Johnson to run the computer equations by hand for improved reliability. Johnson and her team of African American women mathematicians did vital work for NASA that eventually made the United States won the space race by successfully landing the first men on the moon and  taking them back safely to earth before President John F. Kennedy’s end of the 1960s deadline.

Japanese Billionaire Seeks Date To Fly With Him To The Moon: One Giant Step For Space Tourism?

Even though it had become the romantic gesture of the moment, does a Japanese billionaire seeking a date for his lunar jaunt represent a one giant step for space tourism?

By: Ringo Bones

His name is Yusaku Maezawa and he is a 44 year old Japanese billionaire fashion mogul who back in January 13, 2020 is seeking for a date to accompany him on a round trip to the moon on a SpaceX rocket by 2023 – maybe the three years preparation includes the spaceflight training for the lucky woman. The lucky woman will be selected via a TV reality dating show. The requirements are she must be single over 20 years of age and has a positive disposition. But whatever the outcome will be, it could represent a “giant leap” when it comes to making space tourism that much affordable for the rest of us.

Before the Douglas DC 3 went into service, it was the very rich who were subsidizing the cost of civil aviation between World War I and World War II. Given that Elon Musk has yet to create a DC 3 equivalent of a space vehicle that could make space tourism affordable for the masses, it is up to the world’s billionaires to foot up the bill for R n’D ing space vehicles whose ticket prices mere mortals can afford. 

Has Science Taken A Back Seat When It Comes To Lunar Exploration?

50 years after NASA managed to land men on the Moon, has science always taken the proverbial “back seat” when it comes to lunar exploration?

By: Ringo Bones

As humanity celebrates the 50^th Anniversary of the Moon landing, it seems that – then and now – science has always taken the proverbial “back seat” when it comes for reasons for the multi-billion dollar lunar exploration missions. With NASA and the powers that be at Capitol Hill already has serious plans for returning to the Moon, it seems that the “science part” of the upcoming missions – like checking out those water deposits that were spotted by visiting unmanned robotic spacecraft during the past few years are usually mentioned last during a typical press interview. Though it is quite refreshing that during a somewhat “misogynistic” U.S. administration that there has been emphasis on sending the first woman astronaut to the Moon as part of the team who will be landing there as soon as 2024, when it comes to the science part of the mission, the intrepid researcher has typically has to “Google deeply” or check out books that were first published back in 1970.

During my elementary and high school days back in the late 1970s and the 1980s, the “scientific instruments” bought by the first trio of NASA astronauts to the Moon – i.e. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins – were not quite general knowledge. It wasn’t until one delves deeply in their local library to find out that the first trio of astronauts did carry a tinfoil made shade to capture “solar wind” particles, a portable seismograph to test for “Moon quakes” and a quartz laser retro-reflector to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon to an accuracy of less than 1 centimeter. The first trio of astronauts who land on the lunar surface may not be “professional scientists” but their mission is for all intents and purposes is a “scientific mission” that’s shrouded in Cold War era politics.

Can Commercial Space Tourism Fund NASA’s Return To The Moon?

Given that NASA now opens the International Space Station to tourists by 2020, is it enough to fund their manned mission to the moon by 2024?

By: Ringo Bones

Unbeknown to most people, the International Space Station does not belong to NASA, it was built with the help of Russia back in 1998 with the help of other space travel capable countries in order to participate in the mission and send up astronauts. The ISS have hosted space tourists with enough cash to spare before, like U.S. businessman Dennis Tito who back in 2001 had paid Russia around 20-million USD for the trip. Others followed his footsteps, the last being Cirque Du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte back in 2009. But this time, it would be different because the proceeds will be used by NASA to fund its return to the moon and as a means for the cash-strapped government funded space agency to financially disengage itself from the orbiting research lab. Given that the International Space Station has a projected lifetime of 40 years and it is already around half that, maybe the money earned and saved by NASA could also be used to build another space station 20 years from now.

Back in Friday, June 7, 2019, NASA’s chief financial officer Jeff DeWitt announced that it will open up the ISS to business ventures including space tourism by 2020. There will be two short private astronaut missions per year, said Robyn Gatens, deputy director of the ISS. The missions will be for stays of up to 30 days. As many as a dozen private astronauts could visit the ISS per year, NASA said.

Even though the rate for staying at the International Space Station is 35.000 USD a night – there are way more expensive honeymoon suites in Dubai with a going rate of 400,000 USD a night by the way – but the round trip bill via Soyuz launch system will cost you around 58-million USD. Expensive the trip may be but the view is literally out of this world.

Space tourism will not be the only way for NASA to make fiscal sense of the rather costly endeavor of space exploration. This would include startups developing techniques for building materials in conditions of weightlessness in which experiments conducted on early NASA Space Shuttle missions have proved to be of vital importance – i.e. ultra strong and yet lightweight metal alloys and protein crystals that can only be fabricated in weightless conditions. Also fiber optic cables can be of extraordinary quality when manufactured at weightless conditions. In terms of space commercialization that makes actual fiscal sense, it seems that space based industries have the potential to earn way more money than space tourism.

Stratolaunch: A Newfangled Satellite Launch System?

Despite the delays since it was announced back in 2011, is Scaled Composites’ Stratolaunch now the largest aircraft by wingspan to ever take flight and a unique satellite launch system to boot?

By: Ringo Bones

Stratolaunch finally took its successful maiden flight back in Saturday, April 13, 2019 10:00 AM local time from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port, which now makes it the world’s largest aircraft to ever take flight. Its 385-foor wingspan beats out Howard Hughes Spruce Goose by a significant margin and its primary purpose is to launch satellites into space at a much reduced cost than existing launch methods.

Originally designed by Silicon Valley billionaire Paul Allen and its construction was made possible by the Northrop Grumman subsidiary called Scaled Composites and the plane’s completion was first announced back in 2011. Unfortunately, Stratolaunch remained on the ground far beyond its originally planned first test flight date back in 2016. Paul Allen died near the end of 2018 of complications related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, though the project continued in his stead.

Despite being made almost entirely of carbon fiber material and related lightweight composites, Stratolaunch weighs in at 500,000 pounds. Much of it is due to the plane’s twin fuselage design and to further reduce costs, the plane uses six Pratt & Whitney jet engines similar to ones used on the iconic Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet and also the plane’s 28-wheel landing gear is also similar to the one used on the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.

Only a handful of twin-fuselage planes have been developed in the past few decades and Stratolaunch will primarily be used for spaceflight – as in a satellite launch system for launching payloads into space. Even though it only attained a speed of 189 miles per hour during its maiden flight, the plane is still very capable of reaching 35,000 to 40,000 feet at such relatively low speeds because launching payloads into space at such heights provides significant rocket fuel savings compared to existing launch methods of using static rockets on ground-based launch pads. Not only satellites, but Stratolaunch can also be used as a basis of a low-cost system to launch manned spacecraft into low Earth orbit and en route into the International Space Station.

Launching payloads at such altitude also minimizes complications from bad weather as the plane can simply fly over storm systems and further fuel savings can be made by flying Stratolaunch over the Earth’s equator and launch satellites there. The plane is capable of launching up to three of Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rockets. Sadly, due to the aircraft’s rather “unique” shape, there are still delays on the plane’s certification by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, not to mention additional more test flights before it can start launching payloads off the planet. And Stratolaunch is also facing competition from Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit – a satellite launch system that’s based on a modified Boeing 747-400 aircraft and due to Branson’s plane having a “more conventional profile” compared to Stratolaunch, Virgin Orbit could get FAA approval much sooner than the twin-fuselage Stratolaunch.

Was Israel’s First Lunar Landing Mission A Total Failure?

Slated to perform a series of scientific experiments on the Sea of Serenity, was Israel’s first ever lunar mission a total failure?

By: Ringo Bones

The dishwasher-sized robotic spacecraft was called Beresheet – a Biblical reference that means “in the beginning” – attempted Israel’s first ever privately-funded lunar landing on the night (7:23 PM Israel local time) of Thursday, April 11, 2019, but a failure of its main engine put an end to that. The 600-kilogram four-legged space probe was designed and built by an Israeli nonprofit firm called SpaceIL and with a total cost of about 95-million US dollars, including launch, Beresheet was a bargain-basement spacecraft. Had the mission been successful, it would have made Israel the fourth nation ever (together with the United States, Russia / the then USSR, and The People’s Republic of China) to have an unmanned spacecraft survive a lunar-landing attempt. Nonetheless, Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander managed to transmit one final “photo”, a kind of the unmanned spacecraft’s own selfie, about 23-kilometers above the lunar surface before its main engine failure.

The planned landing site for the Beresheet spacecraft was Mare Serenitatis, or the “Sea of Serenity” in the northern hemisphere of the Moon – a dark lava-covered site of ancient volcanic eruptions and a long-source of magnetic and gravitational anomalies of every unmanned lunar orbital spacecraft that flew above the site. As seen from planet Earth’s surface, the Sea of Serenity is the famed “left eye” of the Man in the Moon.

Beresheet was designed to take measurements of the Moon’s magnetic field using an instrument supplied by the University of California, Los Angeles. If the craft had landed safely, SpaceIL would have shared the spacecraft’s data with NASA and other space agencies and “hop” Beresheet to another location using its thrusters. Bersheet not only spent seven weeks in space but also closed the 3.7-million kilometer gap between planet Earth and the Moon and then entered into lunar orbit – making Israel the seventh country ever to do so – and successfully completed a series of engine burns to poise it for a landing attempt. Due to its low cost, the mission was far from a total failure because the underwriters of the first ever Israel lunar landing mission still has a budget for a second attempt.

NASA Now Paying 19-Thousand USD To Volunteers To Stay In Bed For Two Months?

Does NASA’s recent “laziness experiment” an actual analog for replicating prolonged weightlessness?

By: Ringo Bones

I think it was around the middle of the 1990s when I first heard of NASA’s aviation medicine specialists stating in a press interview that the bone loss experienced by astronauts in prolonged weightlessness is physiologically similar to anyone who’s lying in bed for prolonged periods. Does this make bedsores now the so-called “final frontier” when it comes to tackling one of current space travel’s thorniest problems?

NASA and two other space agencies are asking for 24 volunteers to lie in bed for two months as part of a study, which will pay them about 19,000-US dollars. And the venue of the study will be the European Space Agency’s astronaut training facilities in Germany because part of the requirement of the study is that the volunteers must also possess a working knowledge of the German language. NASA and ESA officials say that “We are looking for test persons to take part in a bed rest study from September to December 2019 in Cologne, Germany and spend 60 days lying down.”

The point of the study is to “research how the body changes in weightlessness. Bed rest simulates this condition.” Based on the study results, scientists will develop techniques to reduce the negative effects of prolonged weightlessness on astronauts. During the two months, the volunteers will live in a single room, but will be divided into two groups. One group will be rotated around in a centrifuge, similar to an artificial gravity chamber, which will force blood back to their extremities. The second group will not be moved. And when they say you’ll do everything lying down, they aren’t kidding. The volunteers must eat, exercise, get dressed and even shower while lying flat on their beds. Another catch, the participants’ beds are tilted slightly downward to encourage fluids to pool in their upper body to mimic as close as possible weightless conditions experienced by astronauts in space.

Did India’s Anti-Satellite Missile Test Endanger The International Space Station?

Even though the target satellite was in an orbit lower than that of the International Space Station did last week’s Project Shakti test generated enough debris to endanger the ISS?

By: Ringo Bones

Last week’s Project Shakti anti-satellite missile test had definitely bolstered India’s space and national defense standing in the world, not to mention Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll numbers. But more recently, an announcement by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine claims that India’s recent anti-satellite test could endanger other satellites and objects in space – including the International Space Station.

The target of India’s Project Shakti anti-satellite missile last week was believed to be its own spy satellite Microsat-R that was launched a few months ago. The resulting kinetic impact that destroyed the spy satellite created a field of satellite debris at that orbital altitude. The debris now poses a problem because a significant number of it was kicked-up into the same orbital altitude as the International Space Station. In a worse-case scenario, some of the debris could impact the ISS creating a scenario akin to that in the movie Gravity. Some of those pieces are currently too small for NASA to reliably track, meaning we’ll have no way of predicting an impact beforehand. NASA Administrator Bridenstine announced on Monday, April 1, 2019, that “What we are tracking right now, objects big enough to track – we’re talking about 10-cm (4-inches) or bigger – about 60 pieces have been tracked”.

India deliberately targeted a satellite that had a lower orbital altitude than that of the International Space Station to prevent this very sort of situation, but a significant number of the debris appears to have been flung to a higher orbital altitude. Of those 60 debris and objects tracked by NASA, Bridenstine says 24 of them are now at the same altitude as the ISS or higher.

The nature of the region of space in low Earth orbit means that even debris residing above the ISS’ orbit could still pose a threat. Satellites and debris are gradually slowed down by the very thin atmosphere that exists there. The International Space Station, for instance, must routinely fire its booster rockets in order to maintain its orbital altitude and counter the residual atmospheric drag.

Over time, the resulting debris of the recent Indian anti-satellite test would lose altitude and eventually burn up when it hits the denser parts of the Earth’s atmosphere, but the higher altitude debris will have to come down first to within the orbital altitude of the International Space Station posing danger of an impact. The danger of debris impact could still happen months after the test. Even Mainland China’s anti-satellite missile test back in January 11, 2007 still has free-floating debris that could potentially endanger the crew of the ISS.

India Successfully Tests An Anti-Satellite Missile: A Prelude To A Gene Roddenberry Style Sino-Indian War?

With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a successful ant-satellite missile test as an “anti-China measure”, will this be a prelude to a Gene Roddenberry style Sino-Indian War?

By: Ringo Bones

During his national address back in Wednesday, March 28, 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country has successfully shot down its own low-orbit satellite with a missile that now puts India in the league of global “space powers”. Prime Minister Modi said India had achieved a “historic feat” by shooting down its own low-orbit satellite with a ground-to-space missile in three minutes. Historic feat indeed because when the United States successfully tested the ASM-135 Anti-Satellite Missile back in September 13, 1985, it took over 20 years to perform the same feat – i.e. The People’s Republic of China when they successfully tested their own anti-satellite missile system back in January 11, 2007 and Russia only recently succeeded in doing the same back in November 18, 2015.

The test comes two weeks before polling begins in general elections and Prime Minister Modi is seeking a second term in power after a landslide victory in 2014. The test was largely termed as an ant-China measure according to Bharat Karnad, a security expert with the Indian think tank the Center of Policy Research. And given that almost all of Pakistan’s latest military satellites are launched with technical assistance from The People’s Republic of China, it seems that India’s latest successful ant-satellite missile test could be perceived as payback for the country’s defeat during the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

Even though India already possess missiles capable of downing satellites in low-Earth orbit since 2012, the recent success of Mission Shakti – Shakti stands for power in Hindi – as India’s foremost anti-satellite weapons system would defend the country’s interest in space. India’s latest space capabilities seem inevitable because the country’s space program has grown substantially over the past decade. In 2014, the nation managed to put a satellite into orbit around the planet Mars and the Indian Space Organization has announced that it will send a manned mission into space in the next three years.

Should US Vice President Mike Pence’s Fast-tracked Manned Lunar Mission Be Taken Seriously?

Given that he is a staunch Creationist – i.e. believes that the whole Universe is only 6,000 years old and planet Earth is the center of the Universe – should US Vice President Mike Pence’s fast-tracked manned lunar mission be taken seriously?

By: Ringo Bones    

                                                                              

Thanks to Donald trump’s base of Moon landing hoax conspiracy theorists and far-right Christian extremists, America had been reduced into the world’s intellectual laughingstock. But on March 26, 2019, US Vice President Mike Pence called for a greater urgency at NASA to send “American Astronauts to the Moon before the end of 2024 by any means necessary”. Although on how the Trump Administration intends to accomplish an ambitious Moon landing was not clear. Worse still, the Trump Administration just recently slashed funding for the National Science Foundation by more than a billion dollars, supposedly to fund Trump’s Wall.

Remember back in 1989 when then US President George H.W. Bush’s announcement of a 400 plus –billion US dollar manned mission to Mars was “coolly” received? Well, NASA’s top brass will probably had a tougher time reasoning with a task-master who genuinely believes that the whole Universe is only 6,000 years old and planet Earth is flat and is the center of the Universe. Add to that the urgency of “by any means necessary” not to mention the climate change denial policy could prove just another reason why the United States had become the world’s intellectual laughingstock under the Trump Administration.

First All Female Spacewalk Cancelled Due To The Ultimate Wardrobe Malfunction?

Although the exploration of humanity’s final frontier has been made as inclusive as possible, is there a lingering sexism that exists when it comes to space exploration?

By: Ringo Bones

The scheduled Extra-Vehicular-Activity was never planned as a historic mission, although it would have been a historic moment: as in the first ever all-female spacewalk. Sadly, that historic moment would have to wait, as NASA said back in Monday, March 25, 2019, because of a somewhat mundane issue – lack of appropriate spacesuit sizes. The two astronauts who were scheduled to walk together in space back in Friday, March 22, 2019 – Anne C. McClain and Christina H. Koch – would both need to wear a medium-size torso component (as in a medium-sized spacesuit), but only one was readily available at the International Space Station at the time. That Friday, the two woman astronauts would have ventured outside of the ISS on a six-hour mission to install massive lithium-ion batteries that will help power the research laboratory. Unfortunately, it will be rescheduled this Friday, March 29, with Christina Koch along with her fellow astronaut Nick Hague as Anne McClain already performed her scheduled EVA last week.

Even though Anne McClain had performed a previous EVA wearing a large-size torso spacesuit, on her last EVA on March 22 she wore a medium-size torso and learned that it fit her better. Christina Koch also uses a medium-size torso spacesuit. A proper fitting spacesuit for EVA missions is very important because these missions could last from 6 to 8 and sometimes extended to 12 hours. And there’s pre-breathing involved before any astronaut an go on an EVA because current NASA spacesuit technology aren’t strong and flexible enough to work with a oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere pressurized to the same level of the interior of the International Space Station which is equivalent of standing on 8,000 feet above sea level here on Earth – which is around 11.3 pounds per square inch. A typical NASA spacesuit, in order to maintain flexibility and safety, can only be pressurized by up to around 2 to 3 pounds per square inch – which is akin to breathing pure oxygen while staying 40,000 feet above sea level here on Earth. This means lengthy pure oxygen pre-breathing time (17 to 20 minutes?) before an EVA mission to flush out excess nitrogen from the astronauts system.

Even though it is seldom mentioned in the mainstream press, the powers-that-be in charge of access to space since the 1960 can be quite sexist in comparison to our “post hash-tag me too movement” world. Even though the then Soviet Union were the first to sent the first woman in space, as in Valentina Tereshkova back in June 16, 1963, it took the then Soviet Union almost twenty years later to send the world’s second woman in space – Svetlana Savitskaya – in 1982, citing that women can be bad luck for the male cosmonauts. And as recently as April 18, 2008, the Russian space agency blamed Peggy Whitson for sending the Soyuz spacecraft 450 kilometers off course during the team’s return from the International Space Station. Even though many have said NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson should have been commended for her quick thinking by avoiding the Soyuz from landing in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan back then.

Is Space Herpes For Real?

Although it seems like a plot from a bad science fiction movie, does the latest studies from NASA already shows that prolonged space travel could trigger a so-called “space herpes” epidemic?

By: Ringo Bones

No, it is not a plot from a bad Star Trek episode although there was an episode in Star Trek Voyager that explains why the rulebook on the Prime Directive is over two inches thick and despite Stephen Colbert and other late night show hosts recently poking fun at it, it seems that NASA researchers have recently uncovered that prolonged spaceflight is triggering viruses such as herpes, chickenpox and shingles in astronauts. As part of the study on the impact of space travel has on viruses, NASA researchers analyzed blood, urine and saliva samples from astronauts before, during and after Space Shuttle flights and International Space Station missions.

The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology show an increase in shedding or reactivation of these viruses while in space. Lead study author Satish K. Mehta from Johnson Space Center said “to date, 47 out of 89 (53 percent) NASA astronauts on short Space Shuttle flights and 14 out of 23 (61 percent) on longer International Space Station missions shed herpes viruses in their saliva or urine samples. These frequencies – as well as the quantity – of viral shedding are markedly higher than samples from before or after flight, or from matched healthy controls.”

According to researchers, the reactivation of the dormant viruses was found to be caused by stress – the same factor that awakens them here on Earth. So being exposed to prolonged periods of weightlessness are not turning these viruses into superbugs? Although bathroom breaks in the weightless conditions of space – to me at least – can be quite a stressful experience in comparison to going here on the sensation of the Earth’s normal pull of gravity. In addition to being confined in small spaces and separated from family and friends for extended periods of time, astronauts also undergo stress during takeoff and re-entry, the most dangerous phases of space travel. Add to that exposure to weightless conditions and increased doses of cosmic radiation.

The study also found that four of the eight human herpes viruses were detected, including oral, genital, shingles and chicken pox, however, although the viruses were found to “wake up”, most of the astronauts did not display symptoms. According to Mehta “Only six astronauts developed any symptoms due to viral reaction, all were minor.” In addition to the increased possibility of infecting others, the reactivation of the herpes virus raises concerns regarding future long-term missions to the planet Mars. According to Mehta “The magnitude, frequency and duration of viral shedding all increase with length of spaceflight. The ideal countermeasure is vaccination for astronauts – but this is so far available only against chickenpox.” Researchers are currently looking for methods of combating the reactivation of the virus – which would also benefit those here on Earth.

SpaceX Dragon: Viable Replacement Of The NASA Space Shuttle?

Given that the NASA Space Shuttle has been retired since 2011, will Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon spacecraft the most viable American made replacement of the Space Shuttle?

By: Ringo Bones

Since NASA retired its Space Shuttle program back in 2011, the search has been on for a cheaper, safer alternative transport that can take American astronauts to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the “safest” and “cheapest” existing alternative so far has been the Russian Soyuz spacecraft despite dating from the 1960s, this Soviet era Korolev Design Bureau, now RKK Energia run, spacecraft has been the only way for astronauts to reach the International Space Station. It wasn’t until March 3, 2019 that Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon’s successful test flight to the ISS that America finally has a home-grown replacement for the Space Shuttle.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk named it after the Peter, Paul and Mary song Puff The Magic Dragon, the Dragon spacecraft achieved its maiden flight back in December 2010 and was originally designed as a vehicle for paying space tourists to reach into low Earth orbit. After the NASA Space Shuttle was retired back in 2011 due to safety and reliability issues – as in no comparable spacecraft with a 21^st Century era computer was offered as a viable replacement, every astronaut going to the ISS were hitching a ride instead into the Soyuz.

With a successful test back in March 3, 2019 with a sensor filled dummy named Ripley – named after Lt. Ellen Ripley from the Alien move franchise – the computer guided SpaceX Dragon successfully docked with the International Space Station after it was launched atop the Falcon 9 two stage to orbit launch vehicle. With computer control, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft safely survived the reentry stage to return safely to the Earth. With the recent successful test, NASA already considers manned tests of the Dragon spacecraft as soon as July 2019. Although Boeing has a similar spacecraft and NASA had been working on its own Space Launch System before the Space Shuttle was retired, it seems that Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon could become a very viable Space Shuttle replacement when it comes to ferrying astronauts into the International Space Station.

Farewell Alan Bean…..

With previous career as a naval aviator and a test pilot, does Alan Bean represent our impression as a “stereotypical NASA astronaut”?

By: Ringo Bones 

When the “first batches” of astronauts destined for space travel was set-up by NASA during its establishment back in 1958, all of them were men, from the military with aviation and test piloting experience, making Alan Bean your stereotypical astronaut from NASA’s golden age of space exploration. Born March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas, Alan LaVern Bean was an American naval officer and a naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3. Based on his career, to folks old enough to remember the iconic 1970s TV series The Six-Million Dollar Man, one could easily mistake that fictional TV astronaut Steve Austin was based on Alan Bean. Before passing away back in May 26, 2018, was the last living crew of Apollo 12. 

Bean became the fourth man to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission back in November 1969. He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973 – the second manned mission to the Skylab space station. After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, Bean pursued his interest in painting, depicting various space-related scenes and documenting his own experiences in space as well as that of his fellow Apollo program astronauts. To folks born way after Neil Armstrong’s first walk on the Moon knew Alan Bean more as an artist/chronicler than someone who actually walked on the Moon over 40 years ago.

Stem Cell Manufacturing In Space: The Future of Biotechnology?

Could that quaint stem cell experiment done by Mark Shuttleworth in the International Space Station represent the future of biotechnology?

By: Ringo Bones

South African I.T. entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth – whose trip to the International Space Station back in April 2002 not only made him the first African to go into space, but also, one of the experiments that he did on the ISS at the time could signal a brand-new industry, namely “space-based biotechnology”. This is more than just a good thing because even now, more than 15 years after Shuttleworth’s so-called working vacation in the ISS, the only serious money-making enterprise of our current space exploration programs is space tourism. Could the manufacture of useful pharmaceutical and biological products in the weightless conditions of low-Earth-orbit be a source of serious money that might make space travel finally pay its way in a an economically viable manner?

Though quite controversial when Mark Shuttleworth did the experiment back in 2002 in the International Space Station nonetheless given that this was the height of the US President George Dubya Bush era “conservatism” where anything remotely related to stem cells is taboo to his voting constituency, it did manage to generate groundbreaking knowledge hitherto unknown before Shuttleworth got the resulting data of his experiment. The result of Shuttleworth’s stem cell experiments in the weightless conditions of the International Space Station back in 2002 had shown that stem cells in the weightless conditions of low-Earth-orbit develop into a form that’s far more useful for medical use. According to Mark Shuttleworth; “Understanding these cells holds the key to healing serious injuries where the cells in one part of the body have been damaged beyond repair.”