Rocket Science for the Rest of Us

I hope that folks are reading along with the JPL class with me.  Today's lesson can be found at http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf3-2.php.

To supplement, I went to YouTube, which is my new BFF for these lessons, and found these videos.  You can watch them first, then read the lesson, or visa-versa.  I didn't get into non-Newtonian physics because, as noted in the lesson, we don't achieve speeds fast enough to really take relativity into account, except in small or experimental cases.

A little about Sir Isaac Newton and his Principia Mathematica:

Here's an explanation of Newton's Three Laws of Motion:

And here it's applied to a liquid fuel rocket:


I hope you're enjoying Space Studies Tuesday.  I have been.  I'm going to look for some other classes we can do online after this one.  I considered the Rocket Propulsion class mentioned in this lesson, but it's equation heavy, and I'm not sure everyone would be interested in going through all the math.

My vacation has started.  My firstborn graduates May 31!  W00t!  That's it's own kind of job satisfaction for a mom.  I leave you with this fun thought:

...and thanks for showing the world that you don't need a bloated government program to get us into space!

This was a pretty self-explanatory lesson, I thought, but I did this video to show you a little better about what an ellipse is.  The toothpicks are the foci, and the two parts of the rubber band going from the toothpick to the rubber band and back to the toothpick is always the same.  If the rubber band were smaller, the ellipse would be narrower.  It would have greater eccentricity. Ditto if the toothpicks (or foci) were farther apart, but the rubber band remained the same.

Here's one that applies it to the Earth's orbit around the sun.

Alas, right at liftoff, they had an abort from the computer systems and missed their ONE SECOND launch window.  Disappointing, but all they lost was some fuel.  They'll try again Tuesday.


I've mentioned on more than one occasion how excited I am about the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon Capsule space launch, which is slated for May 19, with May 22 as a back-up.  I think I'm more excited about this launch than I was about the Space Shuttle launch, although it could be because I'm older and more interested in space operations now.  Nonetheless, I see this as a groundbreaking move, and not so much in the area of technology, but a cultural, political, and economic change in paradigm that is going to finally get humanity off the ground and into space on a truly significant basis.

It's a historical progression:  When the Americas were first colonized, governments did the initial work; however, things really took off when commercial interests came into play.  In the time of kingdoms, these were sometimes one and the same, but not so now.  This is a much needed step forward.

But more than that, we need to government to start taking the support role in space, helping to build industries while still allowing them to rise and fall according to their own ability to create a functioning and desired product without making itself the only client of said product.  In other words, it should help industries create space assets that it can use, and not limit itself to one company making one product for the one customer--NASA..

In an age when people want the government to do it all for them, we can see very clearly the effect of a government monopoly on manned space.  The dream of John F. Kennedy was reduced to a contest against Russia, with only two subsequent programs--the space station (an international endeavor) and the Space Shuttle, now a museum piece.  Even more ironic, it's the Russians who now give us a ride to our own station.  So who won that race, again?  Attempts to progress in our quest for space are riddled with politics, at the whim of the current party in power, and fraught with cost overruns as the lowest bidder gets the contract then realizes it cannot keep its promises without further funding.  Plus, there's not a lot of economic sense in building something only you can use, and (for that matter) only sort-of use for reasons of national pride or scientific study.  Good reasons, perhaps, but when balanced against the fiscal realities of a nation trying to do too much with too little.

We need private companies to carry us forward.  They can set a vision and run with it without worrying what the voters think.  They do have to worry about their customers, but that's a whole different dynamic; a commercial program might fail because there's no customer base.  A government program might fail because a president wants to put his own stamp on things, or Congress wants to look tough on spending, or someone decides teaching kids about space has more voter appeal than building equipment to study or occupy space.

Commercial industries also have to keep an eye on the bottom line.  They need to make a program that will sustain itself through customers (like tourists or scientists who rent space on the flight) or products like in asteroid mining.  The government cannot start its own industry, and thus, space exploration will forever be at the whim of the taxpayers and their elected officials.

Commercial industries foster competition, new ideas, chance-taking and a different "Will-Do" attitude that the government cannot.

Now having said, that, I don't think the government should step out of space completely.  We do have national interests and international obligations in space.  I just think that instead of hiring one company to handle all of that (or attempt to as the whims of Capitol Hills change their operating instructions), they should encourage multiple companies to develop the industry.  The COTS program, which awards prizes to industries able to create certain products, like the Dragon space capsule, fits that need exactly.


On May 19 (or 22), we will see the fruits of that program in SpaceX, but SpaceX is not the only company in the running.  Orbital Sciences is slated to begin its own crew resupply program in the next year or so.  Other industries have sprouted in hopes of receiving the award, too.  The best part of these, however, is that they see NASA as  a stepping stone rather than an end goal.

We have a model rocket of the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon that we will launch when Rob gets back from training in honor of the launch of the actual spacecraft.  it will be streamed live on their website at http://spacex.com.

Today, we're learning about TIME!

Naturally, we're dealing with a lot of definitions again.  The goal, of course, is to make sure everyone's clocks, which aren't quite running in sync, are at least telling equivalent times for any event.  The question I have is, is this going to be easier, harder, or about the same when we start traveling and living farther from the Earth?  I am going to have to find someone to ask this of, and I'll get back to you.  In the meantime, is it any wonder the Doctor is sometimes late?

Saw this article earlier this week:  German Scientists Grow Lichen Under Mars Conditions.

Are you lichen this experiment?  Photo: German Aerospace Center (DLR)

This is really the gist of the article:

There they were subjected to the same atmospheric, temperature, radiation and pressure conditions they would experience if they were on the Martian surface.

This could be a blessing and a curse for future exploration.

First, if lichens can grow in the Martian soil, there might be a promise for a certain kinds of plants, and hence an independent food source?  OK, so who wants to eat moss?  But with genetic engineering what it is, this could be the promise of the future of Martian colonization.

On the other hand, it could be a challenge for those trying to find independent life on Mars.  Last year, I mentioned that Guy Consolmagno had mentioned that one problem with human exploration of Mars is that if we contaminate the soil with Earth bacteria, etc., we may not be able to tell what was Martian and what is a transplant.  Now, it looks even more likely.

Interestingly, Utah high school student Jane Cox may have a solution.  She suggested looking at the amino acids of Earth life vs. those not found on Earth.  You can read the whole story here.  She's gotten the attention of the ESA.

I've been finding that the videos are helping me.  How about you?

Here's one about the Deep Space Network, from the Aussies.

Once again, I think this is the kind of lesson that I would need to actually work with in practice to truly grasp.  Moving on to 2-3...

I had no idea the orbit of the earth was so complex until I saw this video:

I'm thinking that if you want to do some major time travel, like they did in Terra Nova, you have got some serious positional calculations to make, too.  No wonder they ended up with an alternate dimension Earth.  (Terra Nova was a pretty good show, too.  Too bad it got canceled.)

I don't have a lot of comments on this section.  It was mostly vocabulary, and I've got the feeling I'll only truly grok it if we use it in later lessons.  I will remember to come back to it, however. 

Was any of this new to you?