World View Enterprises design for near-Space Balloon and Capsule

This artist's rendering provided by World View Enterprises on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 shows their design for a capsule lifted by a high-altitude balloon up 19 miles into the air for tourists. 

WWE CEO Jane Poynter said people would pay $75,000 to spend a couple hours looking down at the curve of the Earth. 

AP Photo/World View Enterprises

The latest space tourism venture depends more on hot air than rocket science.

World View Enterprises announced plans Tuesday to send people up 19 miles in a capsule, lifted by a high-altitude balloon.

Company CEO Jane Poynter said the price for spending a couple of hours looking down at the curve of the Earth will be $75,000.

But it's not quite space. Space starts at 62 miles.

Still, the plan requires approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial space. She said it uses existing technology and the first launch could be as early as the end of 2016.

The same team last February proposed a private venture to send a married couple to Mars in 2018.

Artist's rendering provided by World View Enterprises on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 showing their design for a capsule. 

Credit: AP Photo/World View Enterprises

ESA Education: Student teams Prepare upcoming REXUS Launch

Ten student teams from ESA's Member and Cooperating States have been selected by a panel of experts from ESA, the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), SSC and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to fly their experiments on future sounding rocket and balloon campaigns.

The teams selected for the REXUS 13/14 (Rocket Experiments for University Students) are:

• CAESAR (Switzerland): Capillarity-based Experiment for Spatial Advanced Research - Investigation into the behaviour of liquids under high Bond numbers, using propellant management devices.
• Gekko (Hungary): Measurement of the variation in electric conductivity with altitude.
• MUSCAT (Sweden): Multiple Spheres for Characterisation of Atmospheric Temperature - Measurement of atmospheric temperatures and horizontal winds in the mesosphere.
• PoleCATS (United Kingdom): Polar test of the Conceptual And Tiny Spectrometer - Demonstration of conceptual space plasma instrumentation to sample plasma energy distributions in upper atmosphere.
• SOLAR (Sweden): Soldering Alloys in Reduced gravity - Studying the effects of reduced gravity on soldering in a low pressure environment.
• StrathSat-R (United Kingdom): Investigation into the use of two Cubesat-based deployable inflatable structures including a solar sail and a dynamic structure that adapts to varying conditions.

NASA GRAPE: Balloon-based experiment to measure gamma rays 6,500 light years distant

Beginning Sunday, September 18, 2011 at NASA’s launch facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, space scientists from the University of New Hampshire will attempt to send a balloon up to 130,000 feet with a one-ton instrument payload to measure gamma rays from the Crab Pulsar, the remains of a supernova explosion that lies 6,500 light years from Earth.

The launch is highly dependent on weather and wind conditions, and the launch window closes at the end of next week.

The Gamma Ray Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE), which was designed and built at the Space Science Center within the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS), is an effort to apply a new type of detector technology to the study of celestial gamma rays.

Specifically, the goal of the GRAPE project is to study the polarization of gamma rays from celestial sources. “Polarized” radiation vibrates in a preferred direction, and the extent of that polarisation can provide clues to how the radiation was generated, in essence serving as a probe of the source.

Gamma rays, such as those emitted from the Crab Pulsar, are generally produced from the interactions of a highly accelerated beam of subatomic particles – massive ejections of high-energy particles that are thought to take the form of a narrow jet moving outward at nearly the speed of light.

“We think that an accelerated beam of particles is the source of the high-energy radiation from the Crab Pulsar, but the structure of that beam and the mechanism by which the radiation is generated is not entirely clear,” says mission lead scientist Mark McConnell, a professor in the SSC and chair of the UNH department of physics.

Physorg.com: Further information on NASA GRAPE and other Balloon based gamma-ray detection experiments. 

Balloon-based experiment to measure gamma rays 6,500 light years distant | ScienceBlog.com

Socially Awkward Robotic Blimp Stalks People

Meet Ollie, the DIY autonomous robotic blimp. He (yes, the blimp is apparently a "he") floats on Helium; has flapping wings made of wire, mylar, and servos; and he reacts to his surroundings--often socially awkwardly.

Created by Pritika Nilaratna, a user experience designer and programmer in New York City, Ollie floats around and tries to get attention from people. He is observant and reacts to voices by "excitedly flapping his wings. Ollie is meant to be friendly and eager to be noticed, but also unobtrusive--you could just just push him out of your way if he gets annoying.

In the video of Ollie below, you see that he actually kind of stalks people to get their attention. According to Pritikia "machine-human interaction has the potential to be both poetic and ubiquitous," and Ollie "is a demonstration of the creative capabilities of robots as inhabitants of our society, breaking the stereotype of the servile robot." In other words, Ollie is meant to break the standard that we're so used to. It's definitely funny watching some people's responses to Ollie.


Ollie from Pritika Nilaratna on Vimeo.

So how do you get your own? You make it! Ollie is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License which means that you can copy and modify Ollie's design so long as you give credit to the author (Pritika) and that you only distribute the resulting work under the same kind or similar license.

You can make your very own Ollie with an Arduino board, some servos, a mylar balloon envelope, and some other basic electronics supplies. Pritika posted instructions for Ollie on the main Ollie site and also as an Instructables project. To learn more about Ollie check out the abstract.
[Ollie via Hackaday / Video: Pritika Nilaratna (at Vimeo)]

NASA Aeronautics at Balloon Fiesta

Rising Expectations: NASA Aeronautics Showcased at Balloon Fiesta

Visitors at the 2010 International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, N.M., not only get the visual stimulation of hundreds of colorful hot-air balloons soaring skyward, but can learn about NASA efforts toward improving aviation via an exhibit focusing on the agency's aeronautics research efforts.

NASA Aeronautics exhibit this year is focusing on its "green aviation" initiative, which seeks to test and integrate technologies for reducing aircraft noise and emissions, maximizing fuel usage and improving air-traffic management.

It also features displays on the history of NASA aeronautics research, including a timeline of aviation achievements, a space shuttle tire flown on the shuttle Discovery, cockpit simulators, wind tunnels and even a "virtual airport" where visitors can zoom in to see how NASA’s technology has found its way to use on military, commercial and general aviation aircraft and helicopters.

A display about the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, which incorporates the world's largest airborne infrared telescope installed in the rear fuselage of a NASA 747SP aircraft, introduces visitors to the infrared spectrum by allowing them to see themselves on a monitor through the lens of an infrared camera.

ARCA: Romanian Moon Shot by Balloon

NASA has successfully launched Ares 1-X, the prototype replacement to the space shuttle. But halfway across the globe, a rising power is posing a challenge to America's space dominance. I speak, of course, of Romania, which is readying a critical flight of her mighty moon-balloon.

No typo there, they really are shooting for the moon in a balloon. At least that's the plan of the non-profit Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA), which is using an oldie but sort-of-goodie idea for getting something into space: Tie a rocket to a balloon, launch the balloon and then launch the rocket from the stratosphere.

The US briefly tried this strategy in the 1950s, but they eventually abandoned it in favour of more stable launch pads, like the one that the Ares 1-X used. There's a few advantages to the more concrete approach: It's easier to orient your rocket from the ground, you don't have to worry about it blowing away, and critically, it's not going to fall on anybody.

It's in part due to that last safety concern that a Romanian frigate is carrying ARCA's Helen test rocket into the Black Sea. The Helen is a tour-de-force in Transylvanian technology. Rather than launching a rocket with a complicated staging system, they're just tying their stages together with string. When the first stage runs out they'll cut the cord and fire the second, and the third, and onward until they deliver their payload (which appears to be some sort of orange football or rugby ball, depending on your nationality).

The Helen, Romania's third test flight, could launch as soon as tomorrow. Stay tuned moon and vampire lovers alike for all your ARCA coverage!

Credit: ARCA