The Space Billboard: Innovation or Pollution of the Earth's skies

SpaceBillboard, a supporter of innovative space research, is set to launch the world's first billboard in space in a milestone that marks the increasing importance of CubeSats in Space Exploration.

Researchers at KU Leuven University in Belgium came up with the novel idea of launching a real billboard into space to help fund their research on a new line up of NexGen satellites called CubeSats.

A CubeSat is small, about the size of a milk carton - and lightweight, which makes them cheaper to build and launch.

A CubeSat is the perfect answer for universities and start-ups to get involved in space research, one of the bedrock platforms for research on advanced technology solutions.

European Space Agency ESA and NASA in the US have active CubeSat programs that help drive the development and adoption of emerging technologies in support of new business solutions.

Tjorven Delabie, co-founder of SpaceBillboard said: "We are talking about an out-of-this-world project, that allows companies to bring their brand into space."

"The idea is catching on, and SpaceBillboard has already secured a number of contracts for companies to have their message on their own billboard in space."

The launch of the billboard is scheduled for the beginning of 2016, to be launched from Alcantara in Brazil.

Highest and fastest
The messages on the SpaceBillboard will be the highest and the fastest ever seen in the industry, flying at 27,400 kph at an altitude of 500 km.

The Billboard will orbit the Earth 15 times a day, becoming the first advertisements that literally bring their message around the world.

Although the billboard will not be visible from Earth, all messages will be continuously visible on the SpaceBillboard website as well as used in the customers' branding campaigns.

Marketing and Science
SpaceBillboard is a new kind of crowdfunding project where private and corporate donors help push space research forward. For companies, buying one or more of the 400 available squares on the billboard is a perfect opportunity to showcase their innovative spirit. At euro 2500 per square for the launch premiere, SpaceBillboard is a fantastic way to bring together experts from academia and industry to support the future of technology.

Personal Messages
Inspiring people about space research is an important part of SpaceBillboard's mission. Therefore, you can also put a personal message on the billboard yourself.

Sending a personal message into space costs euro 1/character. So far, many have already signed up to share their message, most of them are messages of love.

Into Space
Once the SpaceBillboard has been sold out, it will be put on the CubeSat. This satellite will also perform a valuable scientific mission.

The CubeSat will be deployed into a high inclination, low Earth orbit, and is expected to operate in orbit for up to ten years.

After that, the satellite will burn up in the atmosphere, ensuring that no space debris is left behind.

EADS E-Fan and E-Thrust Battery-powered plane takes to the skies - Video

We’ve already got electric cars and bikes, but they could soon be joined by aircraft if a bold new concept from Airbus gets off the ground.

The aircraft manufacturer has unveiled its ideas at an E-Aircraft Day including previews of E-Fan and E-Thrust planes that are powered by batteries.

A highlight was the first public flight of the electric E-Fan experimental aircraft pictured here.

The impressive creation is a training plane that comes packed with innovative technology and the maiden voyage represents a significant step forward in the development of electric aircraft.

Airbus is currently putting together plans that will see a production facility built close to Bordeaux.

Adding to the expansion is a plan to produce a four-seater version E-Fan 4.0, which will be a training and general aviation aircraft and could feature a combustion engine within the fuselage to provide an extended range or endurance.

The experimental E-Fan plane will be used as a test bed for Airbus and its move towards electric and hybrid engines in the future.

It was first shown off at the 2013 Paris Airshow and features a cutting-edge design that makes uses of composite materials, which means less weight and better durability.

The more motors allow the plane to remain nimble and easy to maneuver, making it an ideal craft for pilot training.

Although the aircraft is still in development, its lithium-ion polymer batteries can keep the plane in the air for around 30 minutes.

As Airbus increases development of both the plane and the batteries it hopes to take that flying time up to around an hour. Airbus bosses reckon that the E-Fan could be turned into a production model by 2017.

“The E-Fan project and Airbus Group’s commitment to the field of electric and hybrid research show our vision of future technological developments."

"It will not only lead to a further reduction in aircraft emissions and noise to support our environmental goals but will also lead to more economic and efficient aircraft technology in the long run."

"Our focus is to develop innovations that will help define what tomorrow’s aerospace industry will look like,” said Airbus Group Chief Technical Officer Jean Botti.

VAMP: Northrop Grumann Inflatable Aircraft Could Cruise Venus Skies

Artist's concept of an inflatable airship cruising through the skies of Saturn's huge moon Titan. 

Aerospace firms Northrop Grumman and L'Garde have been developing a Venus-specific version of this vehicle called VAMP (short for Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform). 

Credit: Northrop-Grumman

A big robotic airship could ply the skies of Venus for up to a year, giving scientists an unprecedented look at Earth's hellishly hot "sister planet," the craft's developers say.

For the past year, engineers at aerospace firms Northrop Grumman and L'Garde have been working on an unmanned concept vehicle called the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform.

Using a mixture of powered flight and passive floating, VAMP could stay aloft for long periods, collecting a variety of data about Venus and its atmosphere.

Further, no big breakthroughs are required to get VAMP — which remains in the design phase — up and running, team members say.

"There are no major technology unknowns," Northrop Grumman's Kristen Griffin told reporters in December at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting in San Francisco.

"It really is something that could be developed when the [scientific] community is ready for it."

View a Caltech presentation on VAMP (pdf)

VAMP A Venus airship
VAMP is a big but incredibly light inflatable aircraft. While its 151-foot (46 meters) wingspan dwarfs that of NASA's now-retired space shuttle, the triangular VAMP would tip the scales at just 992 pounds (450 kilograms).

In the vehicle's envisioned mission architecture, VAMP hitches a ride to Venus orbit with a carrier spacecraft, then deploys and inflates (with hydrogen or some other buoyant gas) while still linked to this mothership.

VAMP then detaches and spirals down toward the planet, hitting the atmosphere in a slow, smooth entry that requires only minimal thermal-protection gear.

This critical maneuver would be far less dramatic than the August 2012 entry, descent and landing of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which space agency officials dubbed "seven minutes of terror," Griffin said.

"This would be more like an hour and a half of trepidation," she said.

VAMP would then cruise through Venus' skies at altitudes ranging between 34 miles and 43 miles (55 to 70 kilometers), using propellers to get high up during the day and floating passively at lower altitudes after sunset.

Solar panels would power the craft's propellers, while night-time operations would be supported by batteries or an advanced stirling radioisotope generator (ASRG), which converts the heat produced by radioactive decay of plutonium-238 into electricity, VAMP's developers say.

The airship could carry up to 44 pounds (20 kg) of scientific gear if scientists wanted it to fly as high as 43 miles but a minute sacrifice in maximum altitude — just a mile or so — would allow VAMP to tote a 440-pound (200 kg) payload, team members say.

Data gathered by the vehicle's onboard instruments would be relayed back to Earth via the carrier spacecraft, which would remain in Venus orbit.

Venus' strong winds would sweep VAMP around the planet every 6 days or so. The aircraft could conceivably keep studying Venus for a year before the gradual loss of its buoyant gas brought its mission to an end.

NB: The lead-melting temperatures at Venus' surface make long-term rover and lander missions difficult, but conditions high in the atmosphere are much more benign.

Meteor: Massive explosion over Argentina

"This happened at an altitude of approximately 70 kilometers", said Prof Jorge Coghlan, the director of Observatorio Astronómico, Santa Fe, who added that as the "space rock penetrates the atmosphere; in a radius of forty kilometers it could be clearly heard".

However in this case the radius area was estimated in 300 kilometers.

The Fire Brigade of the town of El Trebol in central Santa Fe province had been warned by NASA that sometime in the morning a phenomenon of this kind was possible, "and most probably that is what happened".

Jorge Coghlan

The head of the local Fire Brigade said that according to reports from different offices the bang was heard in a radius of 250 to 300 kilometers, thus the fright and fears it could have been an earth tremor.

Marcos Escajadillo, head of Santa Fe province Civil Protection said that because of the impact and extension of the bang, "all emergency mechanisms went on alert.

Currently we are waiting for a report from the Space Activities National Committee, although at this stage we can confirm no impact on land".

"We have reports from an area of 120 kilometers and it all confirms it was a high altitude event. Radiation pressure generated the vibrations at surface level and in window glasses as if it had been a minor earthquake" added Prof Coghlan.

Prof Coghlan, the Director of Code, Center of Space Observers said that "an estimated 100.000 elements of this kind bombard the Earth every day but they are mostly so small that they are not detectable".

Authorities have not yet found any meteor fragments, but "it is possible that the orb disintegrated in the air," astronomer Prof Coghlan told local radio.

Residents in the area who reported hearing a loud explosion Tuesday said that the ground and also buildings shook.

These tunneling clouds in the skies are... long

The Morning Glory cloud is a special cloud that forms at altitudes of up to two kilometres and stretches for as long as 1,000 kilometers long.

It happens when flowing, moist and cool air meets the inversion layer where air temperature atypically increases with height.

This photo was taken by photographer Mick Petroff from his airplane near the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia in 2009.