Universe Today

Artist concept of orbiter, airblimps, rovers and robots working together. Credit: JPL

JPL has a fun article on their website detailing what future robotic exploration might entail: an armada of robots could one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes. This is the vision of Wolfgang Fink, from the California Institute of Technology. He says we are on the brink of a great paradigm shift in planetary exploration, and the next round of robotic explorers will be nothing like what we see today.
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The Space Pen is a marvel of industrial design that was invented to write under any condition. This pen even had some urban legends. For example there is the legend that supposes that the pen was developed at NASA for the extraordinary cost of $11 million. However, the pen's origins are quite different. At the time there were no safe and effective writing implements that could be properly used in the conditions of space. Most ball point pens relied on still rely on gravity to deliver ink to the the ball point tip where it is rolled on to the paper. This was not workable in a zero gravity environment. Mechanical pencils were also ruled out due to the dangers posed to astronauts by floating pencil lead in a weightless environment. The pen was indepdently developed by industrial entrepreneur, Paul C. Fisher. He wanted to develop a ball point pen superior to any other on the market. His company put $1 million of its own money into the effort and the result was extraordinary.

The pen used a pressurized ink cartridge and a precision fitted ball point pen. This allowed the pen to write in any condition from underwater to deep in space. The pen could also write in conditions with temperatures ranging from -50F to 400F. The pen did not stop there. Even the ink used was one of a kind. It was made of a special compound that had the properties of jello. It would be solid when undisturbed but turn liquid under oblique force such as when a person is rising.

While the urban myth of the exorbitant cost of the pen is part of its mythos and held up by fiscal conservatives as an example of government waste, the pens were actually the cheapest solution for the NASA space program. The agency had tried to oder mechanical pencils but their costs were expensive at the cost of $128.89 per pencil. The Fisher space pen in comparison actually cost in just $6 per unit.

Another interesting aspect of the story of the pen was its incredible popularity with space programs. The pen was not taken on faith and was rigorously tested by NASA before it was cleared for use on missions. However, once its utility was recognized other programs adopted it. The Russian Space program ordered 100 of the Fisher Space pens for the Soyuz mission in 1969. Before that the Soviets had used grease pencils.

If you enjoyed this article there are others on Universe Today that you will be sure to enjoy. There is a great article about the benefits of space exploration. There is also an interesting article on the first human in space.

There are also great articles and resources online. There is a great article about the space pen on the history section of NASA.gov. You can also go the website for Fisher space pen.

You can also check out Astronomy Cast. Episode 149 deals with the Constellation program.

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to take a vacation in space? This idea might seem far fetched but the reality is closer than you think. Competitions like the X-prize have led to the blossoming possibilities of private and commercial space travel with the emergence of a budding space tourism industry being one of the possible outcomes. Some day you might be able to take a trip to space and stay in a space hotel.

So what are the obstacles that have kept space hotels from becoming a reality? The biggest obstacle has been money. As of right now, there are few countries on the planet that have the capability to launch a payload into orbit. The main two being the United States and Russia. For the US, it is still unusually costly to do so. The space shuttle on average costs about $450 million just to launch. However the Russian space program has been able to launch conventional payloads for around $20 million.

The next challenge is technological. The science of space exploration is complex because there are so many potential problems and obstacles to anticipate in order to avoid accidents and malfunctions. Space is THE harshest environment in existence so scientist have their hands full just making it possible for human beings to survive.

Fortunately, solutions are cropping up that meet these challenges. The main sources have been the private sectors and universities. The end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century has seen the emergence of more billionaires than any other time in modern history. These people have big dreams and ideas and the cash to test them out. This solves the cost issue as private citizens and companies are spending their own money. Billionaires like Charles Branson and Elon Musk are using their wealth to push the boundaries of space exploration funding the successful construction of cheaper and better ways to get to space. In the area of space hotels specifically entrepreneurs have already come up with unique ideas of how to build, launch, and fund hotels in space.

A good example is Robert Bigelow. Mr. Bigelow owns Budget Extended Stay Hotels. He used the ingenious idea of using inflatable modules made of super strong fabrics. He also used the cheaper Russian space agency to launch them into space. For a fraction of the cost, he solved the problem of carrying the payload into space and building it. Since only the most wealthy can even afford a trip into space he proposed a unique solution using these hotels as business buildings allowing countries without a space program and private companies to be the main clientele.

Today most space tourism is now done through the Russian space agency. Strapped for cash after the end of the Space and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians turned to selling trips to space to fund their program. For most tourists, the cost is around $20 million US. However, as market competition heats up to find cheaper and better ways to get to space and live there the space hotel of tomorrow may be closer than we think.

If you enjoyed this article there are others on Universe Today that you might enjoy. There is a great article about space elevators which may play a key role in space tourism. There is also a great article about a spaceport being built in the United States.

There also several new articles on the web about space hotels. The first is about Mr. Bigelowe's space hotels. The second is about the space hotel being built by a company in Barcelona, Spain.

You might also like listening to Astronomy Cast. Episode 14 Getting Around the Solar system is a great show.

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Have astronauts from Earth ever stepped foot on Mercury? No, Mercury has been visited by spacecraft from Earth, but no human has ever gone into orbit around Mercury, let alone stepped on the surface. Just what would it take to visit Mercury?

Humans attempting to visit Mercury would find a similar environment to the Moon. Mercury is airless, so they would need a spacesuit to protect themselves from the vacuum of space. However, the temperatures on Mercury are much greater. During the daytime, the surface of Mercury at the equator rises to 700 Kelvin (427 degrees C). Just for comparison, the surface of the Moon only rises to 390 Kelvin (117 degrees C) during the daytime. So you would need some kind of protection from the intense heat.

But then, nighttime on Mercury dips down to only 100 Kelvin (-173 degrees C) – that's the same low temperatures you get on the Moon at night. So an astronaut's spacesuit would need to be able to keep an astronaut warm when they're in the shade.

The travel time to the Moon is only about 3 days. But the travel time to Mercury is much longer. That's partly because Mercury is much further away – 10s of millions km. But spacecraft also need to take special trajectories so they can get into orbit around Mercury. All of the spacecraft that have visited Mercury have taken longer than a year to reach the planet. That would be a long, hot journey for astronauts.

Maybe some day in the future humans will visit Mercury, but it hasn't happened yet.

We have written many stories about Mercury here on Universe Today. Here's an article about a the discovery that Mercury's core is liquid. And how Mercury is actually less like the Moon than previously believed.

Want more information on Mercury? Here's a link to NASA's World Book on Mercury, and here's NASA's Solar System Exploration Guide to Mercury.

We have also recorded a whole episode of Astronomy Cast that's just about planet Mercury. Listen to it here, Episode 49: Mercury.

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Asteroid mining is purely conceptual at this time, but there are valuable minerals to be harvested out there. In addition to iron and nickel there is thought to be gold an platinum in some asteroids. Asteroids were formed in much the same way as the Earth, so it only makes sense that they contain many of the same minerals and raw ores as the Earth. In the future, miners will be asteroid mining.

Asteroids are classed in three types: More than 75% of them are C-type which are very much like the Sun, but less volatile. Then there are the S-type which contain iron, nickel, and magnesium for sure, but may also contain gold and platinum. Lastly, there are the M-type which contain iron and nickel. Astronomers know all of this by using telescopic spectroscopy, which analyzes light reflected from the asteroid's surface, to find out what might be there. They also know that there is water and trapped oxygen on or in some of these asteroids. Asteroid mining would only be possible if miners could take advantage of the oxygen and water there. There is no other way to make a profit or carry all of the supplies that you would need for a long term project.

John S. Lewis, author of an asteroid mining book has said “…an asteroid with a diameter of one kilometer would have a mass of about two billion tons. One of these asteroids, according to Lewis, would contain 30 million tons of nickel, 1.5 million tons of metal cobalt and 7,500 tons of platinum. The platinum alone would have a value of more than $150 billion!”. The huge sums of money involved could one day induce mining companies to look towards the heavens. It may not happen until we have exhausted most of the Earth's natural resources, but it will happen.

Asteroid mining may only be a concept for science fiction at this time, but it is a future probability. The problems lie in how to bootstrap along until the things needed for protection and daily living can be extracted from the asteroids themselves. Asteroid mining would not be a thing of glory. It would be a hard scrabble life that could end at any second.

We have written many articles for Universe Today about mining asteroids. Here's an article about Asteroid 2009 BD, which might be a great place to set up a mining operation.

Want more resources on asteroids? Here's NASA's Lunar and Planetary Science Page on asteroids. And here's NASA's World Book on Asteroids.

We have recorded two episodes of Astronomy Cast about asteroids. There's Episode 55: The Asteroid Belt, and here's Episode 29: Asteroids Make Bad Neighbors.

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