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The European Space Agency study testing the psychological effects of a 520-day trip to Mars began today. In other words, six poor suckers have been locked in a room and they can’t come out for 18 months. [BBC]
Do you know why James T. Kirk is happy? Because those crazy Europeans are developing a magnetic shield that will protect spaceships when entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Well, that and because he’s thinking about doing naughty things with Uhura.
There are 18,000 pieces of tracked space debris in orbit—and millions more smaller bits—all potentially fatal. To nudge them towards the atmosphere to burn up, one scientist proposes lasers, another proposes water.
newVideoPlayer("/IXVMissionsVideo_gizmodo.flv", 475, 286,""); This is ESA’s video unveiling of its Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, a test-bed for a next-generation reentry pod. The IXV is due to rocket aloft on Europe’s new small Vega launcher in 2012 and test out a range of systems for a “proper” future vehicle. Ditching the simplicity and limitations of the now old-fashioned conical-pod-with-heat-shield design, it’s a lifting-body shape with a thermal protection system somewhat like the Shuttle’s. The wingless pod is steered by aerodynamic body flaps with reaction jets as backup and for orbital maneuvers, and when it’s low and slow enough it’ll pop a ‘chute and plop into the Pacific. And it’ll do it all autonomously. Clever stuff. [ESA via Slashdot]
