Rocketeers.co.uk - a British view of commercial spaceflight

(Source: Amazon)

The latest in the highly-acclaimed edumanga series from No Starch Press, The Manga Guide to the Universe explores the Universe, with the aid of manga cartoons. The story revolves around three students who develop an interest in the Universe after listening to a Japanese folktale about a girl from the Moon. The girls enlist Kanta, an astronomy major, to teach them more about the Universe.

The Manga Guide to the Universe begins with an overview of how ancient cultures thought about and studied the Sun, Moon, and stars, coupled with an overview of important astronomical work by Copernicus, Gallileo, and other seminal astronomers. Kanta explains how our solar system works; how we calculate distance in space; the Big Bang Theory; and theories about the Universe's evolution and cosmic expansion. Readers explore the Milky Way, faraway galaxies, supernovas, quasars, and black holes, as well as the history of space exploration, including the Moon landing, the launch of the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope--all with the aid of original Manga cartoons. This edumanga title is co-published with Ohmsha, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, and is one in a series of translations from Ohmsha's bestselling Japanese originals.

Well, that's going to make the next NewSpace industry conference....um... interesting....

Bearing in mind that Burt was himself part of an effort by the 'commercial guys' to go beyond Earth orbit, I find his comments particularly... erm... odd. Plus there's the whole "we shouldn't rely on free enterprise because it might fail". What kind of attitude is that for an American (and a successful entrepreneur at that) to have?? :-p The (very brief) article doesn't make it clear what Burt thinks we should be using, but it should be pretty damned obvious that it's not Constellation. That is D-E-A-D, and even the defibrillator of stimulus funding isn't going to make it walk again. Maybe it's something DIRECT-shaped? I guess we'll find out in due course...

Sigh. I can almost hear Sen. Shelby cackling with laughter from here...

Update: Clark has more details on Burt's actual views, which aren't quite as black-and-white as the WSJ paints them.. He laments the perceived loss of ambition in deep-space exploration, rather than lambasting the transfer of manned LEO capability to the commercial sector.

Burt says:

"I am concerned to see NASA manned spaceflight disappear, since they provided world leadership in the '60s and part of the '70s. The result was America’s universities being the leader in science/engineering Ph.D.s. Many American kids will be depressed by the thought that our accomplishments will not be continued and thus America will fall deeper away from our previous leadership in engineering/science/math. I believe our future success depends on our ability to motivate our youth."

Personally, I would have thought a whole slew of new American manned vehicles carrying more people into orbit much more frequently to multiple destinations would be pretty exciting, but there you go. All that Constellation was going to achieve (maybe by 2030) was flags and footprints. Again. We need a more affordable, sustainable and robust programme of exploration, and that means multiple providers enabling reliable and inexpensive lift to orbit.

If you're interested (like I am) in current research into extrasolar planetary systems (hey, those starships have to have somewhere to fly to!), then you should check out the Systemic weblog by Greg Lauglin of Lick Observatory. The blog also includes downloadable software (the Systemic console) which allows you to play with real radial velocity data from extrasolar systems, and try your hand at fitting planetary orbits.

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Jonathan Goff has an interesting blog post on the application of powerful magnetic fields, to provide supplementary aerobraking, TPS and aerodynamic control:

• MHD Aerobraking and Thermal Protection: Part I - Introduction -- Selenian Boondocks

I can't help but wonder whether the powerful YBCO superconducting magnets being produced by the Cambridge University spin-off Magnifye might find an application here.

• Magnifye Makes Powerful 17 Tesla Superconducting Magnets That Take up 2 Million times Less Space and Are Cheaper to Charge -- Next Big Future

Given that the Magnifye method produces magnets which are more than ten times as powerful as conventional magnets, and the MHD braking term depends on the square of the B-field, this might well be an approach worth looking at. The spacecraft would have to carry an LN2 system to keep the magnets chilled to superconducting temperatures, but might not actually need much because of the efficiency of the magnets. An interesting engineering challenge for someone!

Magnifye currently doesn't list any space applications for their systems. Perhaps they should...

In a recent posting on Selenian Boondocks, John Hare makes some rather worrying comments about the implications of ITAR for discussion of rocketry technology on a public forum. In a case of "loose lips sink ships", US commentators could in principle find themselves at risk of serious legal sanction for discussion of sensitive technologies with non-US citizens.

This leads me to wonder about my situation. I'm not a US citizen, so ITAR doesn't directly apply to me. I'm not aware of any equivalent under UK law, but IANAL. Anyone else have any insight into this?

All the best for 2010 to the readership of Rocketeers.co.uk!

--- Rocketeer

UK space technology prizes along the lines of the Ansari X-Prize and Centennial Challenges might not be as implausible as you might think. There is already a major technology prize in the UK which has a larger prize fund than the X-Prize. The Saltire Prize is a £10 million ($16 million) prize funded by the Scottish Government for development and deployment of advanced wave or tidal energy systems. There is real and growing political support for space tourism in Scottish politics -- one of its strongest advocates is Angus Robertson MP, Westminster leader for the Scottish National Party, and local MP for the proposed Virgin launch site at RAF Lossiemouth. It seems to me that a focussed lobbying effort (perhaps even a specifically Scottish effort) towards a small number of well-designed space technology prizes in the mould of the Centennial Challenges might have a reasonable chance of success, particularly in the context of the new UK Space Agency.

Question is, who would lobby for it? Organisations like the BIS seem to be focussed more on "Big Space" efforts like the UK Human Spaceflight Campaign, than the potentially transformative effects of technology prizes. Something to think about further...