Human Spaceflights - Space tourism and time travel is a reality

XCOR Aerospace began test firing a fairly new jet design concept, this Methane Rocket Engine is to overcome some of the engineering challenges. This XCOR spacecraft named Lynx is a rocket ship type plane capable of sub-orbital flight to altitudes more than 60 kilometers above the ground.

By definition this rocket engine is to lift the sub-orbital craft to a spaceflight altitude higher than 100 kilometers above sea level.

Sub-orbital tourist flights will initially focus on attaining the altitude required to qualify as 'reaching space.' The take-off flight will be a highly juiced g-force ride, either vertical or very steep and landing very much like a plane or shuttle. The spacecraft will probably shut off its engines well before reaching maximum altitude and then coasting up to its highest point. Those few minutes from where the engines shut off to the point where the atmosphere begins to slow down the downward acceleration, the passengers will experience true 'weightlessness.'

The XCOR Lynx being launched in Mojave California today; the spacecraft is expected to be scheduling regular flights by 2010.

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Astronauts test handyman robot

Photo Credit / Graphics by Tomitheos© International space station's giant new handyman robot got its first checkup this past Sunday, with astronauts and flight controllers testing its electronics, joints and brakes.
The Canadian-built robot, named Dextre, passed all but one of the tests. One of the wrist joint brakes in Dextre's left arm slipped a tiny bit more than engineers wanted, but Canada's acting space station program manager said he wasn't too concerned. The brakes help hold the arm steady.

"In the long term it's not going to affect the operation of Dextre in any significant way," Pierre Jean said.

Astronauts and flight controllers planned to test the brake a couple more times in hopes that it slips less as it gets more worn in, Jean said.

Two astronauts plan to take a spacewalk Monday night to add a tool holster and other accouterments for Dextre. When the robot is fully assembled, it will stand 12 feet and have a mass of 3,400 pounds.

Dextre — short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter — is designed to assist spacewalking astronauts and possibly someday take over some of the tougher chores, like lugging around big replacement parts.

Two astronauts installed Dextre's two 11-foot arms during an overnight spacewalk that lasted into the wee hours of Sunday.

Dextre has seven joints per arm and can pivot at the waist. Its hands, or grippers, have built-in socket wrenches, cameras and lights. Only one arm is designed to move at a time to keep the robot stable and avoid a two-arm collision. The robot has no face or legs.

Space station astronauts will be able to control Dextre, as will flight controllers on the ground. The robot will be attached at times to the end of the space station arm. It is also able to ride by itself along the space station arm's railway.

A total of five spacewalks are planned for Endeavour's nearly two-week visit to the space station, the most ever performed during a joint shuttle-station flight.

While some of the astronauts prepared for Monday night's outing, other crew members stowed equipment that was brought to the station aboard the storage compartment segment of Japan's Kibo lab. That will pave the way for the shuttle Discovery to deliver the $1 billion lab in May.

Photography by Tomitheos

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