Retro Thing

NASA Revisits The Moon In High Definition

The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing is less than two weeks away. In anticipation of this milestone, here's a look at NASA's shiny new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The LRO launched on June 19, 2009 - NASA's first lunar mission this century.

The spacecraft will spend a year in a low polar orbit approximately 50 km above the lunar surface. Its primary mission is to compile high-resolution 3D maps that could help to identify landing sites for future surface exploration. NASA will also be on the lookout for life-sustaining water and potentially lethal radiation.

Video: LRO/LCROSS Atlas 5 Launch
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: NASA's First Step Back To The Moon

Brilliant 1950s Space Fleet Collector's Cards

Skelly Gas issued an imaginative series of All American Space Fleet collector's cards in the 1950s. It appears that space exploration was exclusively a male pursuit in those days -- ships were crewed by countless rugged spacemen, crewmen, ore men and radar-men.

However, there were a few positions open to eager young ladies as Junior Stewardesses. After all, someone had to prepare the evening space meals and change the anti-radiation urinal pucks while wearing form-fitting spandex leggings and cotton gloves...

All American Space Fleet Cards [via Nerdcore]

Explosion of Sun Overdue

 
Here's a cheery bit of anonymous research from the April 1933 issue of Modern Mechanix. Let's hope it doesn't happen for the next hundred thousand years or so; most of my clones should be off-planet by then.

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator: Do You Have The Right Stuff?

Martin Schweiger's Orbiter lets you try your hand at launching a space vehicle, although you should expect your first attempts to end in disaster. In fact, the FAQ includes questions like, "Why can't get into orbit?" The current version includes the TransX module to set up interplanetary routes, should you wish to try your hand at reaching Mars.

"Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to deploy a satellite, rendezvous with the International Space Station or take the futuristic Delta-glider for a tour through the solar system - the choice is yours.

The emphasis is firmly on realism, and the learning curve can be steep. Be prepared to invest some time and effort to brush up on your orbital mechanics background. Good starting points are JPL's Basics of Space Flight, and R. Braeunig's Rocket & Space Technology."

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator

46 Years of Satellite TV

The Telstar 1 communication satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 10, 1962, ushering in the modern age of intercontinental broadcasting and telecommunication. It was owned by AT&T and developed at Bell Telephone Labs as part of an international project sponsored by the USA, UK and France. Its $3 million trip atop one of NASA's Thor-Delta rockets was the first commercially sponsored launch.

Telstar was placed in a medium altitude elliptical orbit that circled the earth approximately once every 2 3/4 hours. This resulted in a short 20 minute window during which intercontinental communication could be established between Andover Earth Station in the United States and Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in Cornwall, England or Pleumeur-Bodou in France.

Goonhilly became the first ground station to receive a live intercontinental TV feed on July 23, 1962, although the French were the first to receive a patriotic American test image from Andover, Maine.

Telstar 1 was successful but short-lived. High-altitude nuclear experiments by the USA and USSR dramatically increased radiation levels in the Van Allen Belt throughout late 1962 and led to the satellite's premature failure the next February. A flurry of activity followed. The first geostationary communications satellite - Hughes Aircraft Company's Syncom 3 - was launched in August 1964, followed by Intelsat 1 - the first commercial communications satellite - in April 1965.

The Telstar name has stood the test of time, with its most recent namesake - Telstar 18 - successfully launched in June 2004.

As of it's 46th birthday, Telstar 1 remains in orbit, enjoying the view.

GRIN: Download NASA's Photographic Treasures

Great Images in NASA (GRIN) is a stunning archive of high resolution images dating back to the dawn of the US and Russian space programs. Subjects include the X-Series aircraft, many iconic photos from the US and Soviet/Russian manned space programs, plus robotic exploration and space science. The majority of these pictures are available in high resolution versions and are not copyrighted, allowing you to print high quality 8x10 prints at home.

Great Images in NASA library [NASA]

Vanguard 1 Celebrates 50 Years In Space, Forgets To Phone Home

Even though it was the fourth man-made satellite successfully launched into space, Vanguard 1 has earned a special place in history as the oldest spacecraft in orbit. The shiny 1.47kg (3.2lb) spherical spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 17, 1958. Scientists originally believed it would remain in orbit for several thousand years, but solar radiation and atmospheric drag have reduced its off-world vacation to about 240 years.

America's second successful satellite (an earlier failed Vanguard Project launch was dubbed 'Flopnik' by thre press) was equipped with two radio transmitters, including the first solar powered transmitter to reach space. The primary battery powered transmitter lasted until the batteries were exhausted in June 1958, while the solar equipped radio remained operational until May 1964. Vanguard now orbits the earth silently once every 132.4 minutes and has traveled a whopping 10 billion kilometers over its lifetime.

Vanguard 1's rudimentary transmitters enabled researchers to determine that the earth was slightly pear shaped. It had a diameter of only 16.5 cm (6.44 inches), causing Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dismiss it as "the grapefruit satellite." Still, Vanguard's successful launch into a permanent orbit using a three-stage rocket and its pioneering use of solar technology were indeed vanguards of things to come.

NASA's official Vanguard 1 page

related:
More of The Right Stuff: A New Lunar Documentary
Cosmonauts paid less than McDonald's employees

Cool Rockets: Your Very Own Classic Space Ship

We featured Cool Rockets on an RT-TV segment a few months ago, but they're, uh, cool enough to deserve a repeat mention. Bohus and I both harbor a secret desire to get our hands on a collection of designer Jeff Brewer's large scale 5 foot custom models for Retro Thing's secret underground lair. However, until we actually get around to refurbishing an old Titan missile complex, I'll make do with one of Brewer's smaller Fleet Edition ships.

Each Cool Rocket is a resin-cast, hand-finished rocket ship inspired by 1940s and 1950s comic book art. They're reasonably priced - most well under $100 - enabling you to acquire a small fleet for your rocketport (uh, desk). They're all original designs, so there's no danger of mistaking these puppies as Jetsons or Perry Rhodan castoffs.

My favorite is the Jetsonesque 9-inch long Space Bucket, "Everyone’s favorite spaceship runabout! An economical family style vehicle, the Bucket is equally at home visiting the next galaxy or just schlubbing junior out to the mall. Cast in polyresin, hand-painted and aged, on a cool moon base. It is shipped in a sturdy color labeled gift box with a protective plastic inner structure." That said, I'm sure my five-year-old would love the battery-powered Big Boy Fleet Edition lamp... if he could pry it out of my hands.

Visit the Cool Rockets site for a quick spin around the galaxy [inspired by OhGizmo!]

DIY Satellite At The Top Of My Christmas Wish List

Want.  I can't really be elegant about how cool or desirable this is.  I just took one look, and covetousness took over.  Want.  I have a feeling that this will top the Christmas lists of more than a few of you, dear readers.  I just have to ask that you follow my convoluted logic for a minute...

I threw out a pair of 17 year old sneakers today.  Leaky, cracked, worn - they were barely performing sneaker-type duties.  I wasn't hanging onto them out of sentimentality - in fact I never really liked them (they were a sort of "gift" from a demented stranger on the street), yet I kept them around way beyond their "end-of-life".  Which of course got me thinking about space suits.

Stay with me now... If I was so reluctant to throw out regular earth-bound sneakers, how could anyone ever get rid of a worn out (and very expensive) space suit?  One of those suits is like a mini spaceship, so you can't keep it in action as it approaches its end-of-life.  So where do they end up?

I learned that that they don't all simply end up in museums.  Clever people in a Russian amateur radio group thought that a retired cosmonaut suit could be a cheap and temporary transmitter satellite, offering a signal that could be picked up on inexpensive HAM radios.  Just for fun.  Brilliant fun.

A little transmitter (with a PIC controller running the show!) was fitted into the space suit that among other things played a looping "secret message" in several languages intended for school children worldwide to tune in and decode.  SUITSAT-1 (also nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich) was launched from the International Space Station in February of 2006. It was expected to transmit for about three days, though its signal could be heard for about two weeks before the suit plunged into the earths' atmosphere seven months later.

So it sounds to me like all you need to make your own satellite is an old space suit, some clever electronics, and a way to bum a ride on a space shuttle.  Can we pass the hat and start up a collection to get our own Retro Thing radio satellite?  What a terrific use for an end-of-life space suit.  That's way more useful than me trying to use my old shoes as an orbiting transmitter.

I hope that all of you pirate radio guys out there are taking notes...

Learn more from the guys who built the transmitter (with video!)

NASA press release from the event

Visions Of A Soviet Retro Future In Outer Space

The folks over at darkroastedblend.com have collected a number of Eastern Bloc paintings of life in space.   Reminiscent of outlandish American pulp covers from the 50's, these paintings are full of faith in the technological future that never really happened quite that way.  Let's not forget how close the Cold War space race could get at times - the overwhelming fear in the U.S. was that the flag that flew over the moon could be a red one.

Many of the fictitious designs feature cavernous all-glass rooms (imagine the heating costs, let alone paying the oxygen bill!), vehicles with robot pincer arms, and of course the hazards of winged space beasts - all meant to fire landlubber's imaginations.

The interesting thing to bear in mind is that all of these spaceships and living quarters would have to exist in the harsh realities of space.  You'd think that would limit some design choices when creating these fantastic vehicles and dwellings.  Even with those sorts of design parameters, you can still sense elements of the arts' iron curtain origins. 

One thing that they definitely got right in many of these paintings... cosmo-ladies.

Thank you, comrades.

Check out the collection at Dark Roasted Blend

Related:
Space race launched 50 years ago with Soviet Sputnik
Pulp cover art documentary on DVD
Soviet designed computer mice

50 Years Ago: Sputnik 1 becomes the third man-made object to reach space

Sputnik electrified the world. The 184-lb radio transmitter stunned the United States by being eight times heavier than the 21-1/2-lb device American scientists planned to launch the following spring.

"By WILLIAM J. JORDEN
Special to The New York Times

MOSCOW, Saturday, Oct. 5 -- The Soviet Union announced this morning that it successfully launched a man-made earth satellite into space yesterday.

The Russians calculated the satellite's orbit at a maximum of 560 miles above the earth and its speed at 18,000 miles an hour.

The official Soviet news agency Tass said the artificial moon, with a diameter of twenty-two inches and a weight of 184 pounds, was circling the earth once every hour and thirty-five minutes. This means more than fifteen times a day."

The first vehicles to reach space were a pair of German V2 rockets that achieved apogees of 189 km (117 miles) and 176 km (190 miles) during vertical test flights in June 1944. Sadly, the exact dates and circumstances of the launches are lost in the mists of time.

Sci-Fi Space Suits That Never Were

Lets face it, today's bulky space suits make you look like the Pilsbury Dough boy - hardly the way to get that cute diaper-wearing astronaut grrl to notice your fabulous gravity-free bod. What the world needs is space suits like they used to draw in the good old days, before boring things like real world physics and down-to-earth budget constraints ruined everything.

Atomic Rocket: Space Suits offers up pictures of dozens of imaginative designs that will ensure that you're the toast of every space station tailgate party. Just remember to follow the immortal words of Larry Niven in The Hole Man: "You don't leave your fly open in a pressure suit."

Of course, things are much harder in the real world than on the pages of a science fiction novel. Faced with the challenge of producing safe equipment, NASA has created some extremely odd designs, like the awkward armored suit on the right.

Still, there's hope: Modern technology promises to usher in an era of highly flexible and svelte space gear. All we have to do is avoid an accidental global nuclear war while the boffins do their thing.

Atomic Rocket: Space Suits [via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Cosmonauts paid less than McDonald's employees

The breakup of the Soviet Union had many unintended consequences. The fabled Russian space program has been one of the most high profile victims of the nation's shift to capitalism. Simon Saradzhyan at Space.com recently wrote, "A career as a cosmonaut—once the dream job of a lifetime for millions in this country—is increasingly less attractive because it is no longer the ticket to international fame or a fortune. As a result, the pool of qualified candidates for positions in Russia’s cosmonaut corps is shrinking."

There are currently 37 Cosmonauts on active duty in Russia and each is paid less than 20,448 Rubles (US $775) per month, plus flight bonuses. The Cosmonaut program is still popular with military pilots because it offers a higher salary, but many others opt for more lucrative careers in the private sector.

There is one benefit of the reduced competition to become a Cosmonaut. In the past, qualified Cosmonauts sometimes retired without ever flying in Space. The reduced size of the modern space program means that there's a much greater likelihood that participants will get to travel to the ISS, although the current wait time is 10 to 15 years. And you have to admit that riding a rocket into orbit beats flipping even the best of burgers.

Cosmonaut Careers: Russian Interest in Homegrown Spaceflyers Flags

Related:
Buran: The first Russian shuttle to reach space
The Scent of Moondust

The Scent of Moondust

Have you ever wondered what things smell like in space? I once concluded that a spaceship would smell something like a well-sealed dorm room -- a combination of sweaty socks, warm electronics and a hint of week-old pizza. It turns out I wasn't far wrong. Space traveler Anousheh Ansari recently reported: "As they pulled the hatch [to the ISS] open on the Soyuz side, I smelled SPACE. It was strange… kind of like burned almond cookie."

Things get even weirder on the moon. Almost 34 years ago, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan succinctly summed up the scent of moondust: "It smells like spent gunpowder." It turns out that the incredibly fine dust on the surface of the moon has a propensity to stick to everything. No matter how careful the returning astronauts were, they inevitably tracked it into their lunar module and smudged it everywhere. As soon as their helmets were off, the scent of moondust permeated the ship.

Interestingly enough, the only way to smell "the real stuff" is to take a trip to the moon. On Earth, moondust loses its distinctive fragrance:

There are hundreds of pounds of moondust at the Lunar Sample Lab in Houston. There, [NASA researcher Gary] Lofgren has held dusty moon rocks with his own hands. He's sniffed the rocks, sniffed the air, sniffed his hands. "It does not smell like gunpowder," he says.

Were the Apollo crews imagining things? No. Lofgren and others have a better explanation: Moondust on Earth has been 'pacified.' All of the samples brought back by Apollo astronauts have been in contact with moist, oxygen-rich air. Any smelly chemical reactions (or evaporations) ended long ago.

Apollo Chronicles: The Smell of Moondust [NASA]

Buran: The first Russian shuttle to reach space

Space Shuttle Buran launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 15, 1988. It promised a new age in Soviet space flight. Outwardly, Buran resembled the American space shuttle but there were several important differences. The most apparent was the monstrous Energia heavy-lift rocket system, capable launching the shuttle with up to 100 tonnes of cargo -- three times the capacity of the American model.

The Energia rocket was capable of full oribital insertion, allowing Russian designers to do away with the bulky engines required by the American design -- the Soviet shuttle's thrusters were required only for manuevering. In addition, the Buran-Energia system was designed to be fully reusable. The shuttle, rocket and liquid-propellant Zenit boosters could be reconditioned and reused.

The Buran flew only one automated (and unmanned) space flight - orbiting Earth twice in 206 minutes - before returning successfully to the ground. Sadly, the political and economic situation in Russia resulted in the cancellation of the project in 1993. Shuttle Buran was destroyed when Baikonur Cosmodrome Building 112 collapsed in 2002, but Buran's sister ship Ptichka ("Little Bird") was more than 95% complete when the program was canceled and currently resides in the MIK hanger at the Baikonur complex.

A comparison of two shuttles: USA vs. USSR