Space Shuttle Discovery: Last Launch Rescheduled

"Shuttle Discovery's Gas Leaks Repaired In Time for Wednesday Launch"
Denise Chow, Space.com (October 31, 2010)

"NASA is counting down toward the final flight of space shuttle Discovery after engineers successfully repaired two minor gas leaks on the spacecraft in time for one last launch on Wednesday (Nov. 3).

"Discovery's final launch has been delayed two days due to leaky helium and nitrogen seals found in the shuttle's right orbital maneuvering system pod last week.

"Technicians raced to troubleshoot the problem and re-pressurize the orbiter's rocket engine in time for a targeted launch at 3:52 p.m. EDT (1952 GMT) on Wednesday. The official countdown toward liftoff began today (Oct. 31) at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT)...."

The Lemming may indulge in a little nostalgia around Wednesday. I remember watching coverage of the first Space Shuttle test flight, and have followed the program over the decades - including the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Those are reminders of how risky getting to orbit and back can be. Looking at it another way, the 131 Space Shuttle missions that went pretty much as planned shows how far this sort of transportation technology has come since the Vanguard days.

The end of the Space Shuttle program is hardly the end of people traveling to space. It's more the end of a very early stage in our travels beyond Earth.

"...NASA will retire the three remaining shuttles in its fleet – Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour – next year to make way for a new plan aimed at sending astronauts to visit an asteroid and Mars. Discovery is the oldest of NASA's space shuttles...."

In the short run, it looks like vehicles that will replace the Space Shuttle fleet will look more like the old Soyuz/Apollo-era capsules. A few years further out, my guess is that transoceanic air travel will merge with service to low Earth orbit. Ten years or so from now, folks may be flying something like the X-51 or Skylon hypersonic vehicles.

One thing this era is not, is boring.

Related posts:

• "Space Shuttle Discovery: Last Launch, First Robot"
  (October 29, 2010)
• "Last Flights of the First Space Freighters, New Construction at Spaceports"
  (September 23, 2010)
• "Boeing CST-100 Spaceship: Passenger Service to ISS, Commercial Space Stations"
  (July 21, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "Skylon: Spaceplane for 2019"
  (March 12, 2009)

More:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"

X-51A Waverider: It's Just the Beginning

"Air Force Sees Hypersonic Weapons and Spaceships in Future"
Space.com (June 17, 2010)

"A recent United States Air Force scramjet test has hinted at a future where hypersonic vehicles streak through the sky at many times the speed of sound around the world, and perhaps even open up access to space.

"The experimental X-51A Waverider used a rocket booster and an air-breathing scramjet to reach a speed of Mach 5 and achieve the longest hypersonic flight ever powered by such an engine on May 26. That technology might not only deliver cargo quickly to different parts of the globe, but could also transform the space industry and spawn true space planes that take off and land from the same runway...."

There's nothing particularly new in this article - but it's a pretty good retrospective/review of hypersonic flight, from Lockheed's supersonic SR-71 Blackbird (supersonic, yes - hypersonic, no) to the X-51A Waverider.

And a pretty good discussion of the sort of technology it'll take to turn vehicles like the X-51A Waverider from interesting experiments into practical transports.

The military applications get discussed - as well as what spaceplanes could do in civilian work. I'm not all that upset that 'the military' is involved. Sure, it'd be nice if everybody would always be nice: but judging from the 4,000 or so years of history, that's not going to happen any time soon. ("Four Millennia of Human Nature: I Think Qoheleth is Right," Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 3, 2009))

I'm particularly interested in the last year's developments in hypersonic flight. We're a long way from having routine commercial service to low Earth orbit: but that seems a lot closer now, than it did just 12 months ago.

Related posts:

• "X-51 Scramjet Test: Over Three Minutes of Hypersonic Flight"
  (May 28, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Transports: Not Yet, But They're Coming"
  (March 30, 2010)
• "X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens"
  (March 11, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)

More:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"

X-51 Scramjet Test: Over Three Minutes of Hypersonic Flight

"Air Force's X-51 Scramjet Sets Record for Longest Hypersonic Flight"
Space.com (May 27, 2010)

"An experimental aircraft has set a new record for the longest hypersonic flight after streaking across the sky Wednesday for more than three minutes while flying at Mach 5 – five times the speed of sound — the United States Air Force has announced.

"The vehicle, called the X-51A Waverider, dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress mother ship while flying over the Pacific Ocean just off the southern California coast. It successfully ignited an air-breathing scramjet engine than accelerated up to Mach 5, Air Force officials said in the announcement.

"The entire test flight lasted just over 200 seconds, more than 10 times longer than the previous hypersonic record (just 12 seconds) set by NASA's X-43 vehicle in 2004...."

200 seconds is three and a third minutes: Which doesn't sound like much, until you start thinking about the forces at work. Remember the Wright Brothers' first flight? That lasted 59 seconds. These days, taking a little less than a minute to go 852 feet in an airplane would be anticlimactic. In 1903, it made history.

Back to that Space.com article. They defined some terms - which doesn't always happen in news coverage:

"...Hypersonic flight, typically defined as beginning at Mach 5, is more challenging than supersonic flight at lower speeds because of the higher temperatures and pressures involved with the faster flight speed. The speed of sound, Mach 1, is about 760 mph (1,223 kph) at sea level.

"Conventional turbine jet engines can't handle such speeds, Air Force officials said.

"But scramjets, air-breathing jet engines driven by supersonic combustion, like the one on X-51A have their own challenges too. Air Force project officials compared it to 'lighting a match in a hurricane and keeping it burning.'..."

This time around, they kept that match burning for over three minutes. It won't get anybody from New York to Los Angeles - or low Earth orbit - but I think that's coming.

Related posts:

• "X-51 Scramjet Test: This Month?"
  (May 18, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Transports: Not Yet, But They're Coming"
  (March 30, 2010)
  • A few modifications, and these could 'fly' to orbit and back
• "X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens"
  (March 11, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)

More:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"

X-51 Scramjet Test: This Month?

"Hypersonic X-51 Scramjet to Launch Test Flight in May"
Space.com (May 17, 2010)

"The first hypersonic X-51 scramjet powered long-duration flights to give the Pentagon a new "Prompt Global Strike" capability that ties atmospheric and space propulsion will begin as early as May 25 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The X-vehicle scramjet flight tests are also a key step for the use of air breathing propulsion to launch into space.

"As spectacular as space shuttle flights still are, they are also about the past. Scramjet propulsion is about the future. Unlike rocket engines, scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets) are air-breathing engines that inhale oxygen from the atmosphere to achieve near rocket engine velocities and altitudes without carrying tons of oxidizer supplies.

"Scramjets should eventually enable flights to hypersonic near-space velocities and altitudes, just like high performance jet engines propelled the Anglo-French Concorde to supersonic speeds in the upper atmosphere..."


(from Pratt & Whitney, via Space.com, used w/o permission)
"The X-51 WaveRider is designed to fly longer hypersonically than all of its predecessors combined. Credit: Pratt & Whitney"

Scramjets have been in development for decades: the science was fairly straightforward, but there was an enormous amount of technology to develop to handle the forces and temperatures involved.

The Space.com article goes into quite a bit of detail about what's been happening with the X-51 project, how scramjets in general and the X-51 in particular are supposed to work, and and military applications of scramjets.

As someone who's been reading about scramjets for decades, it's exciting to see another test - this time of a vehicle that's expected / hoped to fly between 350 and 400 miles.

It's no 'spaceplane,' but it looks like we're coming a lot closer to having something that can take off from an airport, fly to orbit, and return. Just in time to provide passenger service to those orbital hotels and manufacturing plants.

They're not here - yet - but I think it's just a matter of time before the ISS has company.

Related posts:

• "NASA, Collier Trophy, and the International Space Station"
  (May 17, 2010)
• "Space Marines: Really"
  (April 18, 2010)
• "X-37B / Orbital Test Vehicle Robot Spaceplane Now an Air Force Project"
  (April 5, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Transports: Not Yet, But They're Coming"
  (March 30, 2010)
  • A few modifications, and these could 'fly' to orbit and back
• "X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens"
  (March 11, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)

More:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"

Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades

A few months ago, I put together a link list of posts about developments in spaceflight. Not so much the esoteric search for knowledge of the cosmos, as crew-optional cargo ships for the Earth-orbit run; orbiting commercial facilities; Tourism beyond Earth's atmosphere, and spaceports.

That was "Humanity in Space: Looking at the Big Picture" (January 29, 2010). "Big Picture" included a very quick look at space agencies around the world, and a video tour of the International Space Station.

Power Stations in Space, Lunar Mining: It's Real

I'll be adding links to posts about space-related technology, transportation, military and business developments:

• "Asteroid Miners"
  (January 25, 2013)
• "'One Small Hop for a Grasshopper...' SpaceX's Reusable Rocket"
  (December 28, 2012)
• "SpaceX's Dragon Cargo Ship Returns"
  (June 1, 2012)
• "The Dragon Flies: SpaceX Photo, and Some Drawings"
  (May 25, 2012)
• "Skylon Spaceplane's New Engine Test; Old Video; Passenger Module"
  (April 30, 2012)
• "There's Nickle in Them There Asteroids"
  (April 23, 2012)
• "Spaceplanes: Seven Decades, One Infographic, and a Hopeful Lemming"
  (July 23, 2011)
• "Space Shuttle Era Ends: 'It's On to the Next Adventure' "
  (July 21, 2011)
• "McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper: First Single-Stage-to-Orbit Freighter - Almost"
  (July 13, 2011)
• "Space Shuttle: Three Decades of Flights; and looking from Silbervogel to the Stars"
  (July 13, 2011)
• "Atlantis: 'Inspirational,' the Last of Its Kind (and what's next)"
  (July 8, 2011)
• "British Spaceplane Engine Test Coming in June"
  (May 6, 2011)
• "April 12, 1961, and Yuri Gagarin: the Lemming's Take"
  (April 12, 2011)
• "High-Tech Steam Gun to Mars: No Kidding"
  (April 8, 2011)
• "Space Junk, Lasers, and Diplomacy"
  (March 21, 2011)
• "Space Shuttle Discovery: 27 Years, Last Flight Done"
  (March 9, 2011)
• "ISS Storage Room, a Video, and Hair"
  (March 2, 2011)
• "Four Ships Docked at the ISS"
  (February 28, 2011)
• "Space Shuttle Infographic: From Steering Thrusters to Rudder/Speed Brake"
  (January 31, 2011)
• "International Space Station: Not Many Amenities, But What a View!"
  (January 26, 2011)
• "NanoSail-D: Maybe It's Working, Maybe Not"
  (December 12, 2010)
• "X-37B Back on Earth: Photos, Facts, and the Lemming"
  (December 3, 2010)
• " 'Today the Sun, Tomorrow the Stars?' Weird-But-True Legal Claim"
  (November 27, 2010)
• "Discovery Launch: Hydrogen Leak, Cracks, and Canvas Sails"
  (November 24, 2010)
• "Hyperbole, Business, and a Spaceship Factory"
  (November 19, 2010)
• "3-D Printer in Space: Seems to Make Sense"
  (November 11, 2010)
• "Bigelow Aerospace, Private Space Station, International Enterprise"
  (October 20, 2010)
• "SpaceShipTwo's Quarter-Hour Glide"
  (October 11, 2010)
• "Teachers in Space! Almost. Sort of."
  (October 8, 2010)
• "Russia Will Have First* Commercial Space Station"
  (September 29, 2010)
• "Last Flights of the First Space Freighters, New Construction at Spaceports"
  (September 23, 2010)
• "Spaceships Launched on Rails: Not-So-New Idea Proposed"
  (September 15, 2010)
• "Commercial Flight to Mars: Maybe, in 15 Years or So"
  (September 1, 2010)
• "Asteroid Mission 'Plymouth Rock:' Catchy Name, Practical Technology"
  (August 31, 2010)
• "NASA's Six-Legged Roving Lunar Base"
  (August 19, 2010)
• "Repair Job on the International Space Station"
  (August 2, 2010)
• "Farms: On the Moon? Quite Likely"
  (July 29, 2010)
• "European Space Agency Inheriting Huge Satellite, and Trouble to Match"
  (July 27, 2010)
• "60 Years Plus One Day at the Cape"
  (July 25, 2010)
• "Boeing CST-100 Spaceship: Passenger Service to ISS, Commercial Space Stations"
  (July 21, 2010)
• "Proposed Commission for Planetary Defense: H.R. 5587 Makes Sense"
  (July 20, 2010)
• "Space Tourism and Virgin Galactic: Another Step"
  (July 17, 2010)
• "Free Fall for the Fourth of July"
  (July 2, 2010)
• "JAXA's Ikaros Sets Sail for Venus"
  (June 19, 2010)
• "X-51A Waverider: It's Just the Beginning"
  (June 18, 2010)
• "Taxi to the Stars, No: To Earth Orbit, Soon"
  (June 5, 2010)
• "X-51 Scramjet Test: Over Three Minutes of Hypersonic Flight"
  (May 28, 2010)
• "Secret X-37B Space Plane and Amateur Astronomers"
  (May 23, 2010)
• "Falcon Test Flight Next Week: Or, Not"
  (May 21, 2010)
• "Last Space Shuttle Launch: More of a Beginning, Than an End"
  (May 14, 2010)
• "Asteroids and Earth: Time for the Space Patrol?"
  (May 2, 2010)
• "X-37B Test Flight Scheduled For Tomorrow: Robots, Spaceships, and Feeling Safe"
  (April 21, 2010)
• "Space Marines: Really"
  (April 18, 2010)
• "X-37B / Orbital Test Vehicle Robot Spaceplane Now an Air Force Project"
  (April 5, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Transports: Not Yet, But They're Coming"
  (March 30, 2010)
  • A few modifications, and these could 'fly' to orbit and back
• "X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens"
  (March 11, 2010)
• "Sailing on Sunlight"
  (November 11, 2009)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "Skylon: Spaceplane for 2019"
  (March 12, 2009)
• "Blue Origin: Another Company Building Spaceships"
  (February 27, 2010)
• "Goodbye Shuttle, Hello Falcon"
  (February 20, 2010)
• "Photovoltaic Nanotech: Solar Power, Cheap(er)"
  (February 18, 2010)
• "Humanity in Space: Looking at the Big Picture"
  (January 29, 2010)
• "Spaceport America: More Progress"
  (January 29, 2010)
• "Bullet Trains in America: United States Transportation Enters the 20th Century (It's About Time)"
  (January 28, 2010)
• "Bigelow Aerospace: Space to Rent or Lease, in Orbit"
  (January 20, 2010)
• "America's Seventh Spaceport"
  (January 19, 2010)
• "Crew-Optional Dragon Cargo Ship Ready for Testing Soon"
  (December 16, 2009)
• "ISS Space Station Walkthrough, Looking Ahead"
  (October 28, 2009)
• "NASA's X-37 Project, New Technologies, and - EEEK! the Military!!"
  (October 23, 2009)
• "New Rocket Fuel: Aluminum and - - - Water?!"
  (October 21, 2009)
• "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
  (October 4, 2009)
• "A Freighter Unloads its Cargo: What's the Big Deal?"
  (September 20, 2009)
• "Alan Stern and Space Tourism"
  (July 18, 2009)
• "Power Stations in Space: California Caught On"
  (April 20, 2009)
• "Spaceport America: It's Real, and Open for Business"
  (October 26, 2008)
• "Spaceship to the Moon: This One's from India"
  (October 22, 2008)
• "Bigelow Aerospace Space Habitat Prototype Passes Milestone"
  (May 12, 2008)
• "Coming Soon to a Spaceport Near You"
  (March 26, 2008)

Posts about what's a bit further over the horizon:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Centuries "

Tomorrow's Job Opportunities? Look Up - Literally

"10 Space Jobs From The Near Future"
GeekDad (April 7, 2010)

"The United States' government-run manned spaceflight program was given a one-two punch in the last year. First in August 2009, the Augustine Commission, that was appointed by the Obama administration, recommended that NASA look to commercial space operators to take on the burden of ferrying mission commanders, scientists, and specialists up to the International Space Station. And then in February 2010, the administration's 2011 budget reflected just that...."

"...So what will a job market for the aspiring space junkie look like in 20 - 30 years? For a long time, the single goal for kids that were spastic over spaceflight was to become an astronaut. Now, it looks like that job title is going to have some competition. Here are 10 non-scientist jobs I believe that youngsters should start to prepare for:..."

Then there's a list of job titles, with a one-paragraph description of each.

• LEO Pilot (eventually, Lunar Transfer Pilot)
• Space Travel Ticket Broker
• Spaceport Traffic Control (also, On-orbit Traffic Control, Earth and Lunar)
• Human-Rated Spacecraft Maintenance
• Space Communications
• Space Construction and Repair Specialist
• Lunar Base Psychologist (presence on the Moon not required)
• Mars Colony Psychologist
• Nuclear and Solar Power Engineers
• On-Orbit Refueling Specialist

No, I don't think the writer's joking. Those may not be the exact job titles listed in the D.O.T. (or its successor), but I'd be surprising if people didn't have jobs like that, around the time my kids are hitting retirement age. (That's not all that far away, I realize.)

This is an - interesting - time to live in. Someone around my age, Dr Franklin Ramon Chang-Diaz, is a retired Mission Specialist Astronaut with NASA. There's a pretty good writeup or two about him online, including:

• "Chang-Diaz"
  Encyclopedia Astronautica
• "About Astronauts"
  NASA
  • Former Astronauts / Biographical Data
    • "FRANKLIN R. CHANG-DÌAZ (PH.D.)"

I'll allow myself a little nostalgic feeling about the 'good old days' when NASA and western-hemisphere spaceflight were pretty much synonymous. But I'm delighted to be living in a time when America has seven spaceports, India has sent probes to the Moon, and an entrepreneur is taking steps to make sure he gets in on the ground floor of low Earth orbit real estate.

"Ground floor"? "Low Earth orbit"?! We'll need new metaphors. Definitely.

Related posts:

• "More Postcards From the Frontier"
  (April 7, 2010)
• "Over Four Dozen Space Agencies (and Growing?)"
  (February 28, 2010)
• "Blue Origin: Another Company Building Spaceships"
  (February 27, 2010)
• "Bigelow Aerospace: Space to Rent or Lease, in Orbit"
  (January 20, 2010)
• "America's Seventh Spaceport"
  (January 19, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)

Another 'Last' for the Space Shuttle Fleet

"NASA Launches Shuttle Discovery In Pre-dawn Liftoff"
Space.com (April 5, 2010)

"The space shuttle Discovery lit up the sky above Florida like an artificial sun Monday in a rare pre-dawn liftoff of one of NASA's last few shuttle missions – and the final flight expected to launch under cover of darkness.

"Discovery soared spaceward from a seaside launch pad here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center with a crew of seven astronauts on a busy delivery mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff occurred at 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT)...."

I remember when the Space Shuttle was the latest, greatest thing in ground-to-orbit-to-ground reusable vehicles. There were a lot of "first flights with - - -" then.

Now, almost three decades later, there are quite a few "last flights with - - -" for the shuttle fleet. I think it's possible that generations from now writers will use the era of the Space Shuttle as the setting for tales of adventure and romance, just as storytellers today weave tales set more or less in the time of Spanish galleons and billowing sails.

But I'm not sorry that the Space Shuttle fleet will become a few museum pieces. Any more than I'm sorry that galleons have been replaced with transcontinental airliners and container ships.

Related posts:

• "X-37B / Orbital Test Vehicle Robot Spaceplane Now an Air Force Project"
  (April 5, 2010)
• "Blue Origin: Another Company Building Spaceships"
  (February 27, 2010)
• "Humanity in Space: Looking at the Big Picture"
  (January 29, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "NASA's X-37 Project, New Technologies, and - EEEK! the Military!!"
  (October 23, 2009)
• "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
  (October 4, 2009)

---

More:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different"

Hypersonic Transports: Not Yet, But They're Coming

"New Hypersonic Rocket Test Launched in Australia"
Space.com (March 26, 2010)

"Australian and United States military scientists test launched a new hypersonic rocket this week, the latest in a string of demonstration flights aimed at developing ultra-fast supersonic aircraft.

"The test rocket streaked through the atmosphere at speeds of greater than Mach 5.5, which is equivalent to more than five times the speed of sound.

"The flight marked the second in a series of up to 10 planned flights designed to advance research on high-speed flights and hypersonic technology, said Greg Combet, Australia's Minister for Defense Personnel, Material and Science, in a Monday statement. An earlier test was performed last May...."

The idea is to eventually design and build vehicles that can fly at hypersonic speeds for extended periods of time. There's no reason, in theory, why we shouldn't be able to do that. There are fairly big engineering issues to work out - but that's being done now.

Eventually, something like what's shown in this animation might be as routine as transoceanic airline flights are today:

"Skylon Mission Animation"

deanfilip YouTube (February 07, 2009)
Credits: Reaction Engines Ltd.
video (8:17)
(embedded in "Skylon: Spaceplane for 2019" (March 12, 2009))

Related posts:

• "X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens"
  (March 11, 2010)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "Skylon: Spaceplane for 2019"
  (March 12, 2009)

More:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different "

X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens

"Air Force to Test New Hypersonic Aircraft"
Space.com (March 9, 2010)

"The U.S. Air Force is gearing up for the first of four planned test flights of a hypersonic aircraft designed to operate for much longer durations and cover far greater distances than previous platforms of its type.

"The maiden flight of the X-51 Waverider aircraft — the first U.S. hypersonic vehicle to fly in six years — is scheduled to take place later in March. Boeing Defense, Space & Security Systems of St. Louis has been developing the aircraft since 2003 on behalf of the Air Force Research Laboratory and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"The missile-shaped X-51 will be carried aloft under the wing of a B-52 bomber, Joe Vogel, Boeing's director of hypersonics, said in a Feb. 22 interview. It will be released from the jet over the Pacific Ocean and drop for four seconds until its rocket motor ignites and accelerates it to about 5,800 kilometers per hour, just shy of the widely accepted start of hypersonic flight at Mach 5, or about 6,100 kilometers per hour. At that point, its air-breathing scramjet — or supersonic combustion ramjet — engine, built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., will kick in, shooting the craft to Mach 6, or more than 7,400 kilometers per hour...."

We're not at the point where someone can board a shuttle in Florida, spend a weekend at the Bigelow-Hilton in low Earth orbit, and be in Tokyo Monday afternoon. But we're not that far away, either. Entrepreneurs are racing to get the first and/or best spaceliners built and flying, at least one other is looking at developing rental properties in low Earth orbit, and at last count America has seven spaceports up and running.

A couple years ago, I ran into a review of the "crazy" architectural projects in the construction or planning stages in Dubai: including a rendering of a spaceport with a sort of retro-fifties look to it. The caption read: "The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way. I'm not joking..."

In common with so many interesting pages on the Web, this one was undated. By the time I read it, in 2008, Spaceport America was in operation.

This is an exciting time to be alive: blink and you'll miss a major development.

Like America moving into the 20th century, with our first "bullet train." I'd be more impressed, if more countries weren't dealing with aging high-speed rail infrastructure by now, with China running maglev service in the Shanghai area. (January 28, 2010) Better late than never, I suppose.

Change Happens: Deal With It

"Nothing endures but change."
(Heraclitus, 540 BC - 480 BC)

I think Heraclitus has a point. Things don't stay just the way they were. I'm okay with that, but quite a few folks don't seem to be.

Others don't seem to have noticed what's happened in, say, the last half-century. That's understandable. Here in America, 宇宙航空研究開発機構 and इस पृष्ठ का हिन्दी अनुवाद don't get as much coverage as, say, pro basketball or the latest Congressional shenanigans.

That was (painfully) obvious, in one online discussion about the reorientation that NASA's going through. At least one of the people seemed to be under the impression that if an American federal agency stopped sending people into low Earth orbit, all of humanity was going to be Earthbound. (January 29, 2010)

Even in the sixties, the Soviet Union was quite active in developing Earth-to-orbit transportation systems. They had a different approach to engineering: but that's more a cultural thing, I think. The point is: America has never been mankind's only hope for space exploration.

I don't think it helped that at least one American subculture got very technophobic four or five decades back. Yes: we did need to get serious about pollution controls. But the feeling that big, bad technology (and *shudder* industrial anything) was going to destroy poor, frail, delicate little Mother Nature? I've written about that before. (December 20, 2009)

I like to think that America as a whole has sobered up, and is starting deal with a world where change happens: very fast, these days.

For a look at what people can do, when they're open to new ideas:

"maglev train shanghai complete video presentation"

wowiejunior, YouTube (June 8, 2006)
video, 5:35
(Originally embedded in "Bullet Trains in America: United States Transportation Enters the 20th Century (It's About Time)" (January 28, 2010))

A phrase from the video's (English) narration, "...a city with a proud tradition, but always open to the new...." presents an idea I think Americans could seriously consider.

Related posts:

• "Blue Origin: Another Company Building Spaceships"
  (February 27, 2010)
• "Humanity in Space: Looking at the Big Picture"
  (January 29, 2010)
• "Bigelow Aerospace: Space to Rent or Lease, in Orbit"
  (January 20, 2010)
• "America's Seventh Spaceport"
  (January 19, 2010)
• "They're Birds! They're Planes! No, It's the SWAT Team!"
  (December 4, 2009)
• "Power Stations in Space: No Panacea; But No Kidding, Either"
  (December 2, 2009)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "NASA's X-37 Project, New Technologies, and - EEEK! the Military!!"
  (October 23, 2009)
• "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
  (October 4, 2009)
• "Alan Stern and Space Tourism"
  (July 18, 2009)
• "Groundbreaking at Spaceport America: World's First Purpose-Built Commercial Spaceport"
  (June 20, 2009)
• " 'Hot Eagle:' the Space Marines Are Coming"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (October 19, 2008)
• "Dubai Architecture: A Photo Gallery"
  (October 25, 2008)

---

More:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different "

America's Seventh Spaceport

"Florida Airport is Newest U.S. Spaceport"
Space.com (January 18, 2010)

"The first wealthy tourists rocketing into space from Florida may start their trips in Jacksonville, not the Space Coast.

"The Federal Aviation Authority last week approved Cecil Field, a former naval air station about 25 miles southwest of the city's downtown, as a spaceport for commercial launches of spacecraft like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.

" 'We're extremely excited and very much looking to the future to work with potential operators,' said Todd Lindner of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority...."

"...Cecil Field's license makes it the nation's seventh commercial spaceport. It permits 'horizontal' launches of vehicles that would take off and land like planes at the site's 12,500-foot runway...."

"...'Initially, the operations will be for your upper-end leisure traveler, the person who wants an exciting ride, Lindner said.

"Later, the market could expand to microgravity research flights and launches of small satellites into orbit from motherships...."

What? No Martian Princesses?

That's the control tower of Cecil Field, in the photo.

Doesn't look much like part of a spaceport, does it? No useless 'streamlining' or lightning-bolt logo; no green-skinned visitors, who look quite Anglo-American, apart from their complexion and silver lame' jumpsuits; no rocket ships that look like a WWII V2 with wings.

That's because this one is real, and those were imaginary: often, I suspect, made in a hurry, on a low budget.

Judging from artists' renderings the passenger terminal at Spaceport America, in the southwest, will have the ultra-contemporary streamlined look of science fiction spaceports. Even there, though, many of the structures now in use don't look all that much like something out of Buck Rogers of Star Trek.

As the Cecil Field spaceport grows, some of the new structures will probably look like something out of the 21st century. Which figures, since that'll be when they get designed and built.

Another Step Toward the Stars: Living the Dream

You may have lived your entire life in a world where bandwidth was important when choosing an ISP; when robot spaceships were exploring the outer Solar system; and the Space Shuttle was an aging, almost antique, vehicle.

I was born during the Truman administration. I remember my parents' first television set. And how amazing color television was, years later. I learned to program computers when and perforated paper tape were standard information storage technologies.

And, I remember Sputnik, the Mercury program, and the landing at Tranquility Base.

I'm not particularly sorry that the (wildly optimistic) Lunar settlements of "2001: A Space Odyssey" aren't there. Well, maybe a little.

The point is, I've seen space travel grow from a pipe dream to a tourist industry. For me, it's like living in a boyhood dream come true.

I've been 'living in the future' for quite a while now. It's not the wildly optimistic techno-kitsch festival of pre-sixties speculation: and it sure isn't the still-fashionable 'and we're all gonna die' horror of post-sixties prognosticators. (More, at "- - - 'And We're All Gonna Die!'," Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (June 30, 2009))

Space Tourism?! Oh, the Crass Commercialism!

And, no: I don't mind that people who have the money are paying to go into space. Any more than I mind advertising on launch vehicles. (It's been done: quite a few years ago. And at least one terribly earnest scientist had a fit.)

They're providing capital and incentive to improve and develop technologies that will be more efficient than what we've got now.

Delta Flights to Orbital Hotels? Spaceliners?

Think about the automobile. It started out as a sort of toy for the rich. During the 20th century, automobiles became a major part of American (at least), and an important part of transportation systems around the world.

I think we're looking at launch vehicles going through a similar process. We're not at the 'spaceship in every garage' stage - and probably never will be. Or won't be for a very long time.

On the other hand, not too long ago I posted about Bigelow Aerospace's plans for marketing space habitats to international space agencies and multinational corporations.

Make the things a little bigger, add some amenities and a customer-service-minded staff, and I think we're looking at luxury resorts.

Given time, I don't see why there wouldn't be a sizable number of people working - at least - in low Earth orbit, with commercial shuttle flights serving their transportation needs.

Spaceliners? As a sort of cruise ship, maybe - but that'd be more the sort of situation we have with orbital luxury hotels. I suspect it'll be generations before enough people live on the Moon or (more likely, I think) Mars to support commercial passenger travel between planets.

Come to think of it, there's an intriguing possibility about living in the clouds of Venus. But that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "Second Smallest Exoplanet Found: HD 156668b (Caution! Geeky Content!)"
  (January 10, 2010)
  Particularly
  • Abstract Knowledge - Maybe More
  • Message in a Virtual Bottle
• "Crew-Optional Dragon Cargo Ship Ready for Testing Soon"
  (December 16, 2009)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "ISS Space Station Walkthrough, Looking Ahead"
  (October 28, 2009)
• "New Rocket Fuel: Aluminum and - - - Water?!"
  (October 21, 2009)
• "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
  (October 4, 2009)
• "A Freighter Unloads its Cargo: What's the Big Deal?"
  (September 20, 2009)
• " 'The future ain't what it used to be.' Probably Just as Well"
  (August 30, 2009)
• "Alan Stern and Space Tourism"
  (July 18, 2009)
• "Tranquility Base as an Archaeological Site"
  (July 16, 2009)
• "Spaceport Hawaii: Maybe"
  (July 11, 2009)
• "Groundbreaking at Spaceport America: World's First Purpose-Built Commercial Spaceport"
  (June 20, 2009)
• "Warp Drive Might Not Be Stable: Physcisists Take Another look at Alcubierre's Work"
  (June 12, 2009)
• "Warp Drive: Yes, it May Be Possible; But Don't Hold Your Breath"
  (May 7, 2009)
• "Spaceport America: Still Open for Business"
  (November 6, 2008)
• "Spaceport Development Tax on Otero County Ballot"
  (November 5, 2008)
• "Spaceport America: It's Real, and Open for Business"
  (October 26, 2008)
• "Spaceports: the Blog"
  (October 26, 2008)
• "Dubai Architecture: A Photo Gallery"
  (October 25, 2008)
  Particularly
  • Dubai's spaceport
    • It won't be the world's first
    • But It'll probably be among the most spectacular
• "Cloud Cities of Venus"
  (July 25, 2008)
• "Bigelow Aerospace Space Habitat Prototype Passes Milestone"
  (May 12, 2008)
• "Coming Soon to a Spaceport Near You"
  (March 26, 2008)

---

More:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different "

Crew-Optional Dragon Cargo Ship Ready for Testing Soon

"SpaceX Aims to Launch New Space Station Cargo Ship in 2010 "
Space.com (December 14, 2009)

"The commercial spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) said this month that it expects to launch its cargo-carrying Dragon spacecraft on a maiden flight to the International Space Station (ISS) sometime between May and November 2010.

"The Hawthorne, Calif.-based company said it conducted the first Dragon operations training session with NASA astronauts in October to bring them up to speed on how the station crew will interface with the capsule while it is approaching and berthed to the station.

" 'Three of the participating astronauts - Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock — will be on board the ISS when Dragon makes its first visit under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program,- SpaceX officials said in a recent statement...."

SpaceX's Dragon is a reusable spacecraft, that will, if all goes well, be "used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members...." (DRAGON OVERVIEW, SpaceX)

Looks like there won't be that much of a gap in cargo runs to the ISS, after all.

Heavy-lift reusable vehicles are another matter, but I suspect someone will work out a commercially-feasible design.

There's a Dragon launch planned for early 2010: but that vehicle won't go near the ISS.

Exciting times, these that we live in.

Related posts:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different"
  (last updated December 2, 2009)
• "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
  (November 2, 2009)
• "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
  (October 4, 2009)
• "A Freighter Unloads its Cargo: What's the Big Deal?"
  (September 20, 2009)
• "Groundbreaking at Spaceport America: World's First Purpose-Built Commercial Spaceport"
  (June 20, 2009)
  • The spaceport has been in operation for some time
  • The groundbreaking involved the passenger terminal
• "Spaceport America: Still Open for Business"
  (November 6, 2008)
• "Dubai Architecture: A Photo Gallery"
  (October 25, 2008)
  • Review of a post by someone who wasn't aware that a commercial spaceport was already in operation.

More:

• SpaceX.com
• Spaceport American

Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space

"Hypersonic Vehicle Applications"
Aerospaceweb.org

"Now that we have explored the properties of hypersonic flows, hypersonic aerodynamics, and theoretical waverider designs, you may be wondering if any vehicle utilizing these concepts has or ever will fly. We will now discuss a few of the more common applications of hypersonic vehicles...."

The "more common applications" include:

• XB-70 Valkyrie
• National Aerospace Plane (NASP) and X-30
• X-43 Hyper-X
• LoFlyte
  • "...designed using a Mach 5.5 conical flowfield, ... not actually capable of flying at hypersonic speeds..."
  • Used to test low-speed control systems for hypersonic vehicles

This page/article is part of the "Hypersonic Waveriders" section on Aerospaceweb.org's¹ website.

"Hypersonic"? What's That?

"...The general rule of thumb is that the hypersonic regime begins at about Mach 5...." In other words, "hypersonic" speeds start at around five times the speed of sound.

Hypersonic vehicles aren't all that new. Design work started in the fifties. The XB-70 prototypes cruised at about Mach 3 - well under the Mach 5 low end of hypersonic flight: but used many features that a hypersonic transport would have.

I found this article with a Google search - hypersonic aircraft design - while doing some research for another blog. Some of what I found was clearly on the 'hard science fiction - fantasy' continuum. On the other hand, some of the weirder-looking designs are what serious engineers are working on.

You'll find "Mach 5 - 25" used as a speed range in a number of (serious) articles on hypersonic flight. That's impressive, since at around Mach 23, you're at orbital velocity for low Earth orbits.

One of the serious - and exciting - possibilities is that, after some rather tough engineering issues are worked out, it will be possible to fly from a commercial airport to low Earth orbit and back. In an aircraft that takes off and lands pretty much the same way airliners do now. Using air-breathing engines for most of the flight.

These spaceplanes won't look much like a Boeing 747. Some hypersonic vehicle designs look like gargantuan arrowheads, others like a block of wood that's been used to demonstrate planing techniques in a high school shop class.

As I've said before, these are exciting times.

Related posts:

• "ISS Space Station Walkthrough, Looking Ahead"
  (October 28, 2009)
• "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
  (October 4, 2009)
• "A Freighter Unloads its Cargo: What's the Big Deal?"
  (September 20, 2009)
• "Alan Stern and Space Tourism"
  (July 18, 2009)
• "Spaceport Hawaii: Maybe"
  (July 11, 2009)
• "Groundbreaking at Spaceport America: World's First Purpose-Built Commercial Spaceport"
  (June 20, 2009)
• "Skylon: Spaceplane for 2019"
  (March 12, 2009)
• "Doing Something for a Much Larger Reason"
  (December 22, 2008)
• "Blue Origin: Into Space in a Flying Gumdrop"
  (December 10, 2008)
• "Spaceport America: Still Open for Business"
  (November 6, 2008)
• "Spaceport Development Tax on Otero County Ballot"
  (November 5, 2008)
• "Spaceport America: It's Real, and Open for Business"
  (October 26, 2008)
• "Spaceports: the Blog"
  (October 26, 2008)
• "Dubai Architecture: A Photo Gallery"
  (October 25, 2008)
  • Review of a post by someone who wasn't aware that a commercial spaceport was already in operation.
• "Spaceship to the Moon: This One's from India"
  (October 22, 2008)

---

¹ "Aerospaceweb.org is a non-profit site operated by engineers and scientists in the aerospace field. The goal of this site is to provide educational information on a variety of subjects ranging from aviation to space travel to aerospace technology. Our primary areas of expertise include aerodynamics, propulsion systems, vehicle design, engineering career information, and aerospace history. Learn more about these and other topics by visiting the following sections of our site."

The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different

Links to sections of this post's lists:

• My Take on "The Future" and related topics, and highlighted posts
• The Future - Technology, Society and Economics
• Star Trek Technology is So 20th Century
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Robots (and waldos)
  • "Future" technology

The Future: Hope, Fear, and Common Sense

There are technophiles and technophobes: people who are either attracted to, or frightened by, technology. I'm a bit of a technophile. It runs in the family. Arba Zeri Campbell was the first person with a telephone in his part of the world: and had to wait a long time before it rang.

But I don't buy into the old 19th-20th century idea that science and technology will solve all our problems: or the more recent one that science and technology are bad and will kill us all.

My take on humanity and technology is reflected in a really old joke:

"Hundreds of thousands of years ago, man learned how to make fire.

"Generations later, man learned how to put out fires."

Posts about

• My Take on "The Future" and related topics, and highlighted posts:
  • "Lemming Tracks: Toxic Light Bulbs For a Brighter Future"
    (January 16, 2012)
  • "A 21st Century Look at 19th Century Visions of the 20th Century"
    (January 4, 2012)
  • " 'Cancer Causes Cell Phones!' - or, not"
    (July 18, 2011)
  • "Ray Guns, Electric Cannons, and the Mind of the Lemming"
    (June 20, 2011)
  • "Boeing 747-8: Big Can be 'Green' "
    (February 12, 2011)
  • "Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
    (January 25, 2011)
  • "Moore's Law, or Observation, Or Whatever: 45 Years Later"
    (January 9, 2011)
  • "The Pill That Listens: And Wait'll You See What's Next"
    (November 9, 2010)
  • "HP: Memristors on the Shelves in Maybe Three Years"
    (September 1, 2010)
  • "Social Media and - Old Web Habits?!"
    (August 2, 2010)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Erin Andrews, Policing the Internet, and Power to the People"
    (July 29, 2010)
  • "The Web Rewires Your Brain: Ain't That Great?"
    (July 2, 2010)
  • "Brain Scans and Marketing: This Isn't Science Fiction"
    (June 24, 2010)
  • "Facebook, Privacy, Small Town America and a Village of 6,830,000,000 people"
    (May 31, 2010)
  • "Never Heard of a BCI (Brain-Computer Interface)? You Will"
    (April 20, 2010)
  • "Tomorrow's Job Opportunities? Look Up - Literally"
    (April 8, 2010)
  • "Over Four Dozen Space Agencies (and Growing?)"
    (February 28, 2010)
  • "3D Gesture-Recognition Technology: I Remember When the Clapper Was New"
    (February 18, 2010)
  • "Data-Driven Art: For an 'Overwhelmed' 'Hive Mind???' "
    (January 27, 2010)
  • "Spaceport America: More Progress"
    (January 29, 2010)
  • "America's Seventh Spaceport"
    (January 19, 2010)
  • "Robovie-II and Robovie-IV: Robot Assistants for Store and Office"
    (January 7, 2010)
  • "Architects, City Planning, Le Corbusier, Pulp Fiction, The Masses, The City of the Future, and Me"
    (December 16, 2009)
  • "Power Stations in Space: No Panacea; But No Kidding, Either"
    (December 2, 2009)
  • "Next-Generation Prosthetic Hand - and Intel Says Direct Neural Interface Brain Chips by 2020"
    (December 2, 2009)
    Ultra-summarized:
    • Evil Technology? Ain't No Such Thing
    • Old-Fashioned and Simple doesn't Necessarily Mean "Good"
    • Will Brain Implants Be Misused?
      • Of course they'll be misused
      • They'll also be put to good uses
  • "Tofu Turkeys, Genetically Altered Foods, and the Evil Eye"
    (November 14, 2009)
  • "Leon Theremin, Inventor of the Theremin: a Weird-Sounding Instrument"
    (November 3, 2009)
  • "Northwest Flight 188 Overshoots MSP - Time to Reconsider Humans on Flight Crews?"
    (October 23, 2009)
    • Repeated in Artificial intelligence, robots (and waldos), and "Future" technology, below
  • "NASA's X-37 Project, New Technologies, and - EEEK! the Military!!
    (October 23, 2009)
  • "When it's Time to Build Spaceships, People Will Build Spaceships"
    (October 4, 2009)
  • "A Freighter Unloads its Cargo: What's the Big Deal?"
    (September 20, 2009)
  • "Masdar City Video - Looks Cool"
    (September 9, 2009)
  • "'Perfect Solar Storm' 150 Years Ago Today: Good News; Bad News"
    (September 2, 2009)
  • "NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts: Time to Re-Start?"
    (August 11, 2009)
  • "Alan Stern and Space Tourism"
    (July 18, 2009)
  • "Good News, Neural Devices Connect Brain, Computers: Bad News, Same Thing"
    (July 11, 2009)
  • "Power Stations in Space: California Caught On"
    (April 20, 2009)
  • "More About the Marvelous Memristor"
    (May 1, 2008)
    Back to top
    
• The Future - Technology, Society and Economics:
  • "Ray Guns, Electric Cannons, and the Mind of the Lemming"
    (June 20, 2011)
  • "Boeing 747-8: Big Can be 'Green' "
    (February 12, 2011)
  • "1938 World's Fair: A Fleischer Cartoon Take on 'The Future'"
    (February 12, 2011)
  • "Social Media and - Old Web Habits?!"
    (August 2, 2010)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Erin Andrews, Policing the Internet, and Power to the People"
    (July 29, 2010)
  • "The Web Rewires Your Brain: Ain't That Great?"
    (July 2, 2010)
  • "The Sentient Cities are Coming: Park Benches With Attitude Coming"
    (October 24, 2009)
  • "Really Cool Ideas for 'the Bathroom of the Future' - Some Might Actually Work"
    (October 8, 2009)
  • " 'The future ain't what it used to be.' Probably Just as Well"
    (August 30, 2009)
  • "Tokyo Motor Show, 2007: Cars of the Future"
    (June 26, 2009)
  • "Chevy Volt Electric Car: Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, According to Chevrolet"
    (July 31, 2010)
  • "Flying Car Invented: Again"
    (July 1, 2010)
  • "Clothing of the Future: 2000 as seen in the 1930s"
    
  (June 26, 2009)
  • " 'House of the Future' - Another One, this Time in Brussels"
    (June 7, 2008)
  • "Urban Chairlift: No Kidding"
    (May 14, 2010)
  • "Bigelow Aerospace Space Habitat Prototype Passes Milestone"
    (May 12, 2008)
  • "Interstellar Travel: Difficult, yes; Impossible; No - NASA"
    (April 30, 2008)
  • "Futurist Fashion Designers of the 1930s"
    (April 4, 2008)
  • "It Bends! It Cleans Itself! It's Solar Powered! Meet the Cell Phone of the Future! Maybe"
    (March 3, 2008)
  • "A World Without Trucks: A Pipe Dream (Literally!)"
    (February 25, 2008)
  • "The Home Computer of 2004: As Imagined in 1954"
    (February 7, 2008)
  • " 'Book of the Future' - 2000 as seen from 1979"
    (February 4, 2008)
  • "The House of the Future: Ecofuture, This Time"
    (January 29, 2008)
  • "Future Truck: Catching Up to the Sixties"
    (January 3, 2010)
  • "Brain Backups: Coming Soon?"
    (November 14, 2007)
  • "Futurists Through the Centuries"
    (November 1, 2007)
  • "Agriculture as a Mistake"
    (October 29, 2007)
  • "The Future Isn't What It Used to Be"
    (October 4, 2007)
  • " 'The Future Isn't What it Used To Be' "
    (August 22, 2007)
    Back to top
• Star Trek Technology is So 20th Century
  • Artificial intelligence
    • "Galaxy-Sorting Artificial Intelligence"
      (June 5, 2010)
    • "Robovie-II and Robovie-IV: Robot Assistants for Store and Office"
      (January 7, 2010)
    • "Northwest Flight 188 Overshoots MSP - Time to Reconsider Humans on Flight Crews?"
      (October 23, 2009)
    • "What Next? Robot Doctors? (Don't Hold Your Breath)"
      (September 12, 2009)
    • "Sudoku-Solving Robot: with Video"
      (September 8, 2009)
    • "Asimov's 3 Laws, Real Robots, and Common Sense"
      (August 20, 2009)
    • "Cool Robots (One Robot, Many Waldos), a PC World List"
      (April 25, 2009)
    • "Indus Valley Script: Artificial Intelligence Says It's a Language"
      (April 23, 2009)
    • "Better Ideas From Japan: 'Robocop' Rolled Out"
      (January 24, 2009)
    • "The Robot With a Rat's Brain"
      (August 14, 2008)
    • "Winglet: Just Like Segway, Except Slower and Not Available"
      (August 2, 2008)
    • "WALL-E: 'It's the Seven Hundredth Anniversary of
      Our Five-Year Cruise' "
      (June 29, 2008)
    • "Japanese Robot Girlfriend: No Joke, EMA is Here"
      (June 18, 2008)
    • "A Beauty is in the Eye of the - Computer?!"
      (April 7, 2008)
    • "Rubix Cube Meets Robot"
      (March 29, 2008)
    • "Little Yellow Robot: Artificial Intelligence of a Sort"
      (March 28, 2008)
    • "Coming Soon: Glasses That are Smarter Than You Are! (More Observant, Anyway)"
      (March 16, 2008)
    • "Domo, O Roboto"
      (March 3, 2008)
    • "C3PO Will Have to Wait: Artificial Intelligence Today"
      (February 9, 2008)
    • "Big Brother is Watching: Microsoft Applies for Spookware Patent"
      (January 16, 2008)
    • "Lucky, or Loser? Chatroom Bot Lets You Be Both"
      (December 12, 2007)
    • "Robo-Kid Fits in with Toddlers"
      (November 5, 2007)
    • "Face Recognition: Teaching the Machine"
      (October 11, 2007)
    • "Fascinating AI Text Analysis, or Weird PC Project? Either Way, Looks Interesting"
      (September 25, 2007)
    • "Ten Top Bots: Robots for the Future"
      (August 22, 2007)
      Back to top
  • Robots (and waldos)
    • " 'While Strolling Through the Park One Day - - -' "
      (April 12, 2013)
    • "Curiosity: Landing Video; and Settling In"
      (August 24, 2012)
    • "Roomba Review, and Dancing Robots"
      (August 17, 2012)
    • "There's Nickle in Them There Asteroids"
      (April 23, 2012)
    • "Robot Cheetah: No Head, but Really Fast"
      (April 2, 2012)
    • "Mars Rover Spirit: Not Bad for a Limited-Warranty Robot"
      (May 26, 2011)
    • "Flying Mechanical Penguins"
      (February 12, 2011)
    • "Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
      (January 25, 2011)
    • "Space Shuttle Discovery: Last Launch, First Robot"
      (October 29, 2010)
    • "Driverless Van: Nifty Concept; Apparently Works"
      (October 28, 2010)
    • "What Next: Robot Lifeguards?"
      (October 25, 2010)
    • "Meet Fenway the Robot, Hospital Helper"
      (September 21, 2010)
    • "What do Robots do on the Weekend?"
      (June 2, 2010)
    • "Penguin Robot? Roller Skates? You Decide"
      (February 11, 2010)
    • "Robovie-II and Robovie-IV: Robot Assistants for Store and Office"
      (January 7, 2010)
    • "The Robots are Coming! The Robots are Coming!"
      (November 4, 2009)
    • "Asimov's 3 Laws, Real Robots, and Common Sense"
      (August 20, 2009)
    • "Japanese Dwarf Flying Squirrels: And Dancing Robots"
      (August 18, 2009)
    • "Robot Hands: Fast Ones"
      (August 7, 2009)
    • "R & D & Rovers: Back to the Moon and Mars"
      (May 18, 2009)
    • "Hordes of Italian Robots on the Moon: It Could Happen"
      (May 14, 2009)
    • "Mars Robot Spirit Rebooted Itself - Twice"
      (April 15, 2009)
    • "Tweenbots - Cute, Cybernetic, a Bit Kitschy"
      (April 13, 2009)
    • " 'Kittens Meet Roomba' - the Video"
      (January 30, 2009)
    • "Riding With Robots on the High Frontier: A Blog Worth Return Visits"
      (August 12, 2008)
    • "A Robot Gets a Robot to Help Clean Up the Lab"
      (May 1, 2008)
    • "Beer Robot: the Video"
      (April 25, 2008)
    • "Run, Robot: Run"
      (April 13, 2008)
    • "Better Ideas From Japan: A Robot Snowplow"
      (January 1, 2008)
    • "Bristlebot: Technology Doesn't Have to Be Practical"
      (December 30, 2007)
    • "And Now, for Something Completely Different: Hong Kong's Robot Kitchen"
      (December 13, 2007)
      Back to top
  • "Future" technology
    • "Driverless Cars: Keep an Eye on Nevada"
      (June 24, 2011)
    • "Quantum Entanglement, Diamonds, and New Information Storage Tech"
      (March 28, 2011)
    • "Hands off Driving, Driving With Your Brain, and All That"
      (March 4, 2011)
    • "Femtosecond Transient Imaging, Seeing Around Corners: Available in About Two Years"
      (November 22, 2010)
    • "3-D Printer in Space: Seems to Make Sense"
      (November 11, 2010)
    • "Yves Rossy and His Flying Backpack"
      (October 30, 2010)
    • "Coming Soon: Touchy Aircraft"
      (September 24, 2010)
    • "Tractor Beam Developed at Australian National University"
      (September 9, 2010)
    • "Programmable Matter: Today, Robotic Origami; Tomorrow, Claytronics"
      (June 29, 2010)
    • "X-37B / Orbital Test Vehicle Robot Spaceplane Now an Air Force Project"
      (April 5, 2010)
    • "X-51 Waverider, Bullet Trains: Change Happens"
      (March 11, 2010)
    • "Bullet Trains in America: United States Transportation Enters the 20th Century (It's About Time) "
      (January 28, 2010)
    • "Bigelow Aerospace: Space to Rent or Lease, in Orbit"
      (January 20, 2010)
    • "Worlds First Bionic Fingers? Could Be"
      (December 8, 2009)
    • "They're Birds! They're Planes! No, It's the SWAT Team!"
      (December 4, 2009)
    • "Glow-in-the-Dark Flashing Tattoos? Prosthetics With Neural Interfaces? They're Coming"
      (November 20, 2009)
    • "Sailing on Sunlight"
      (November 11, 2009)
    • "Hypersonic Vehicles: Waveriders to Space"
      (November 2, 2009)
    • "NASA's X-37 Project, New Technologies, and - EEEK! the Military!!"
      (October 23, 2009)
    • "New Rocket Fuel: Aluminum and - - - Water?!"
      (October 21, 2009)
    • "Coming Soon: The Man With the Heart of a Cockroach"
      (October 3, 2009)
    • "20 Years of Building Stuff One Atom at a Time"
      (October 2, 2009)
    • "This Electric Motorcycle is No Wimpmobile"
      (September 15, 2009)
    • "Solar Trees Top (Some) California Parking Lots"
      (August 29, 2009)
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