Materials Science Update – Research into Invisibility Cloak Yielding Heat Shield Technology Results

As much as the military and Harry Potter have sought a cloak of invisibility, the science that studies light wave deflection is looking at thermal wave invisibility for creating heat shields. French researchers are intending to build materials that shield electronics to keep them cool or do the reverse, provide concentrated heat to generate power from a light source — the Sun.

Sebastien Guenneau heads up a research team at the University of Aix-Marseille and France’s Centre National de la Reserche Scientifique (CNRS). The team intends to develop prototype thermal cloaks for microelectronics that diffuse heat around a protected area. They have published their findings in Optics Express, in an article entitled, Transformation Thermodynamics: Cloaking and Concentrating Heat Flux. This type of heat shield would have many applications within microelectronics and space science. The reverse, focusing heat on a small volume would be used for enhancing the power and heat production for the solar energy industry.

If a thermal invisibility cloak can be developed then this illustration shows how it would work. The object in the centre is a schematic for a micro-electronic device. The source of heat coming from the left side is diffused around the object rendering it "invisible" to the heat. Source: Institut Fresnel, CNRS/AMU

Current thermal protection technologies include the reinforced carbon panels, ceramic tiles and resins used by the Space Shuttle,  the plastic foams we see in the insulation used in commercial products like coolers, the aerogels that NASA has used in Martian rovers. How does “thermal invisibility” compare?

Whereas the materials described above absorb and diffuse the heat from its source, this new technology deflects it around the object rendering it invisible to the heat source. The French research team is working with PVC-type polymers, silver and gold with a prototype near completion.

Our 20th Century Space Legacy – Part 5: America Goes to Venus

The 1960s were not only the era of Apollo and the race to the Moon, they were also a time for experimenting with technology that could get us to our closest planetary neighbours – Venus and Mars. The Soviets with the Luna program, and the United States with Ranger, Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor developed spacecraft systems for missions beyond Earth orbit. Their destination was the Moon. But the opportunity to extend the reach of robotic spacecraft to explore neighbouring planets led to the development of ambitious programs with multiple robotic probes and orbiters with the capability to go beyond the Moon.

In this blog we look at the technology and missions that unlocked the mysteries of Venus. Venus presented a total mystery before humans sent unmanned spacecraft there. The remarkable scientific discoveries by robotic spacecraft starting in the 1960s changed our understanding of our nearest planetary neighbour. But we also gained in many other ways. We developed new materials capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and acidity to cope with the Venus’ surface environment. We learned about the extreme effect on a planet of a runaway greenhouse contributing to a better understanding of the impact of rising levels of greenhouse gases here on Earth. We applied the laws of physics in developing new celestial navigation techniques to enhance spacecraft performance. We perfected remote sensing and radar technology that we use here on Earth today. Who would have thought that in going to Venus we would be able to exploit the technologies we used to explore that planet to help us find new sources of mineral wealth, oil and gas here on Planet Earth. It’s a great story and one in which the United States played a leading role.

Mariner Goes to Venus

The American Mariner program launched the Earth’s first interplanetary spacecraft. Mariner spacecraft used the proven designs of the Moon-based Ranger missions. Each spacecraft incorporated within its magnesium casing a panel of science experiments, communications, data encoding and computing, timers, attitude control for navigation, power supply, battery and rocket motor. The Mariner-2, the first to reach Venus,  housed a 1,000 watt-hour silver-zinc cell battery recharged by two deployed solar panels. A directional dish antenna with a 3-watt transmitter extended from the side and below the craft receiving data from and relaying it to Earth ground stations.

The launch vehicle of the program was the American workhorse for medium payloads and the Mercury program, the Atlas, using a second-stage Agena booster to break out of Earth’s orbit. During Mariner-2’s flyby of Venus, in December 1962, it reached within 30,000 kilometers (approximately 19,000 miles) of the planet surface. Mariner made several discoveries including Venus’ slow retrograde rotation, high surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure, atmospheric composition, mostly CO2, its continuous cloud cover rising up to 60 kilometers (37 miles) above the surface, and no detectable magnetic field.

The Mariner program was not exclusively focused on Venus and included Mars as its other destination. So it wasn’t until Mariner-5, a surplus backup spacecraft to a Mars mission, that the Americans returned to explore Venus with a June 1967 launch and arrival in October when spacecraft passed within 4,000 kilometers (approximately 2,500 miles) of Venus’ surface while taking magnetic readings and studying the ultraviolet emissions from its atmosphere. With most of the remaining Mariners dedicated to Mars, it was 1973 before the United States launched the next Mariner to visit Venus. This time, however, the mission had two destinations, Venus and Mercury. The Mariner-10  mission flew within 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) of Venus’ surface before using its gravity to assist the spacecraft in navigating on to Mercury. This type of celestial navigation had never been tried before and today has become a standard practice in planetary missions.

Mariner-10 provided the first quality pictures of the two inner planets of the Solar System. Venus appears on the left and Mercury on the right. Source: NASA

America’s Next Venus Visitors

After Mariner-10, came Pioneer Venus. This ambitious research program combined two spacecraft, an orbiter and a multiprobe. Both were launched in 1978 using Atlas-Centaur rockets. Pioneer Venus-1, the Orbiter brought radar mapping to planetary exploration. Known as Range-Doppler or Doppler Radar, it could determine features, elevation and other surface characteristics hidden under the planet’s clouds. Although the formal mission of Pioneer Venus-1 ended in 1982,  most of its instruments continued to operate for a decade after when it finally burned up after its orbit decayed. The map it compiled seen in the image below gave us the first comprehensive image of the planet’s entire surface showing plateaus and mountains as high or higher than those on Earth. In addition to the radar imaging the spacecraft also had 12 experiments onboard dedicated to studying the gravity, magnetic properties, and atmosphere of the planet.

Pioneer Venus-1 used Range-Doppler radar to give us our first comprehensive map of the surface of Earth's closest neighbour. Source: NASA

Pioneer Venus-1’s companion, Pioneer-Venus-2, demonstrated remarkable robotic skills upon its approach to Venus, launching one large and 3 smaller probes, each designed to collect
data while in parachute-assisted controlled descent into the atmosphere. This too was an American first. The probes produced interesting data that indicated little atmospheric haze below 30 kilometers (approximately 17 miles). Two of the three small ones survived impact with the surface continuing to transmit with one continuing to send telemetry for more than an hour before succumbing to the high surface temperatures.

The Technical Achievements of Magellan

A decade later, Magellan, a second orbiter carrying new radar technology arrived in 1990 and settled into polar orbit around Venus. Launched by one of the American Space Shuttles, Magellan had a radar technology onboard with high-resolution imaging capability. This technology, called Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging, or SAR for short, took advantage of characteristics within radar signals to capture the feedback, process it digitally and create high-resolution images. Magellan mapped 98% of planet creating images like the one seen below.

The comprehensive picture of Venus that Magellan relayed to Earth gave scientists an understanding of the planet’s geological record. Venus’ surface, unlike Earth, appeared to be very young, most of it only 500 million years old and created during a planet-wide period of active vulcanism. From data collected by Magellan scientists concluded that planet’s environment had remained consistent since that volcanic episode. And unlike Earth, Venus had no moving crustal plates with no continental drift at work.

The evolution of radar imaging technology is demonstrated when you compare Pioneer Venus-1 mission results with those of Magellan seen in this picture. The image is colour-enhanced to bring out details. Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA

Magellan’s mission ended in 1992 with the firing of its onboard rockets to allow it to enter and burn up in Venus’ atmosphere. Before that, however, the spacecraft not only provided spectacular radar maps showing details as small as 100 meters (330 feet), but also global gravity field maps. In Magellan mission controllers were able to test for the first time a new maneuvering technique called aerobraking, using the planet’s atmosphere to slow and steer a spacecraft. This was to prove useful in other interplanetary flights.

Since Magellan – Not a Lot Happening with Venus

Venus has largely been forgotten since the Magellan mission. The planet has been visited by spacecraft going to other planets in the Solar System using Venus as a gravity-assist for acceleration, deceleration and course correction. The Galileo spacecraft used Venus this way in 1989 on its way to study Jupiter. Cassini-Huygens did two gravity-assist flybys of Venus in 1998 and 1999 before heading to Saturn. And most recently, Messenger used Venus in two flybys in 2006 and 2007 to adjust its course and speed on its mission to Mercury.

In our next blog on the subject of space we look at the Soviet Venus missions and their contribution to the advancement of technology and our scientific understanding.

Material Science Update – The Promise of Self-Healing Plastics

Recently in a blog focused on the evolution of materials for automobiles I wrote about the future of  shape memory polymers, self-healing nanoparticle-based plastics that return to their original shape after being dented or dinged. Well it seems the future is getting closer to the present.

At the March 2012 meeting of the  243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Professor Marek Urban from the University of Southern Mississippi reported that his team of researchers had developed plastics, that when scratched or cracked, visibly change colour at the point of the defect. And when the damage is exposed to visible light, heat or acid respond by “healing” and restoring themselves to their original colour. The plastics can repeatedly respond this way doing self-repair many times.

What makes this possible? The self-healing plastic contains small molecular links or bridges that span the long chemical chains within the material. When the plastic is scratched or cracked, those links break, changing shape. The change in shape alters the colour appearance of the plastic turning it red. A sample of this process is seen in the picture below.

Plastics developed by the University of Southern Mississippi turn red where damaged and “heal” after exposure to light, heat or acid. The plastic on the left  (A-1) is the original material. The middle image (A-2) displays damage . The self-healed plastic (A-3) is restored after exposure to light.                                            Source: Professor Marek Urban

This new plastic is water-based and contains no toxic chemicals making it even more attractive. You can imagine the wide range of industrial uses this kind of material would have because it visibly warns the manufacturer or user of damage and requires easily accessible processes for repair.

For the automobile industry plastics like this would make it easy to deal with the repair of incidental scratches to an automobile body. Just exposure to sunlight would repair the damage. In fact, the material could be used in any mission-critical structure where any damage to materials would immediately be seen and repaired by applying light, heat or acid to the defective part.

Increasingly we rely on plastics in manufacturing. Plastics have replaced steel, aluminum, glass, paper and other traditional materials. With this technology plastics will become even more appealing as the material of choice in manufacturing.

Mastering Space Beyond Near-Earth – Part 2: How We Got Started – The American Story

From the ashes of Germany’s Second World War V-rocket program, the United States and Soviet Union developed space programs of their own. They did this by bringing the German scientists from Peenemunde to their respective countries along with the factories and remaining rocket inventories.

It should be no surprise that so many of the ideas and technology developments behind the programs of both countries appeared similar in design. While the Soviets managed to achieve the most notable firsts in their space exploration program from the launch of Sputnik to the first lunar  landers and orbiters, their American counterparts, with muscle and money, and managed by a single organization NASA, soon caught up.

America Goes Translunar

The United States launched Explorer-1 in January of 1958, almost 4 months after Sputnik-1. Built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, the satellite contained instruments for detecting cosmic rays. The launch vehicle was a direct descendant of the German A-4, renamed the Jupiter-C. Explorer-1 weighed approximately 14 kilograms (30 pounds). Compare that to Sputnik-1 at 83.6 kilograms (183.9 pounds). Could the Americans have launched a satellite the size of Sputnik-1? Not in 1958.

The R-7 seen on the left was bigger than any American competitor. It produced sufficient thrust to put large payloads into low-Earth orbit, and in multi-stage versions was capable of translunar flight. In 1958 the 3 American competitors could put small satellites into Earth orbit but none had the thrust and payload capacity for translunar flight. Source: M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry

The Soviet R-7 made American rocket boosters look feeble in comparison. The Jupiter-C’s Juno-1 version used in the Explorer-1 launch provided approximately 50,000 kilograms (110,000 pounds) of thrust. The R-7 in comparison with its four rocket engines could deliver 408,000 kilograms (900,000 pounds) of thrust, enough to launch payloads as large as 8,000 kilograms (17,600 pounds). The R-7 was modifiable to be a multi-stage vehicle for translunar flight. None of the American rockets had that capability.

In March 1959, the Americans launched Pioneer-4 using a Juno-2 rocket and for the first time had the thrust capability to push a satellite beyond Earth orbit to an escape velocity that allowed it to pass within 60,000 kilometers (37,000 miles) of the Moon. The Juno-2 payload capability allowed for a 41 kilogram (90 pound) satellite in low-Earth orbit and could boost a 6 kilogram (13 pound) object into translunar flight and ultimately solar orbit.

American Lunar Exploration

In support of President Kennedy’s pursuit of a manned spacecraft landing on the Moon before 1970, the United States developed both the technology for getting there and doing scientific study as well as  surveying and photographing the lunar surface. To do this the Americans relied on three missions and spacecraft types, the first called Ranger, the second Surveyor and the third Lunar Orbiter.

Ranger

The Ranger series of spacecraft were missions designed to take close-up images of the Moon’s surface. Ranger spacecraft were built to crash onto the lunar surface while sending images back to Earth until impact. To launch the equipment needed to do this type of mission the Americans required a more powerful rocket than the Juno and Jupiter-C. They chose Atlas as the primary launcher (see picture above) for these missions. Atlas was far more powerful than its predecessors and could place a 327 kilogram (702 pound) payload into lunar trajectory. But early Ranger attempts failed to get beyond Earth orbit because of problems with the rocket’s upper stages. When Ranger-3 launched in January 1962 it was placed in low-Earth orbit before the upper stage rocket engines were successfully restarted to inject the spacecraft into a translunar flight. The spacecraft missed the Moon as did its sister, Ranger-4, in April 1962. Ranger-5 launched in October 1962 relayed pictures of the Moon but missed its target by 725 kilometers (450 miles). In January 1964 Ranger-6 successfully hit the target but failed to transmit pictures of its descent. Finally in July 1964 with Ranger-7, a 362 kilogram (798 pound) satellite, the Americans achieved both impact and pictures. Ranger-8 and Ranger-9 successfully followed in 1965.

Ranger-9's descent to the surface of the lunar highlands was relayed to Earth using six TV cameras transmitting in high-resolution. The pictures seen here represent a sequence of the spacecraft's approach to the surface before crashing. The Ranger transmissions were shown "live from the Moon" to millions of TV viewers. Source: Malin Space Science systems, Inc.

In the Ranger program the Americans, like their Soviet rivals, demonstrated that they could provide sufficient payload launch capability to achieve beyond-Earth space flight. They could operate multi-stage rockets that could be restarted in space. They could adjust flight paths, and could operate instrumentation in space and communicate back to Earth.

What remained on the shopping list of technological achievement included powered, controlled descent and soft landing, and orbital insertion capability around a non-Earth space object. These technological achievements were the goals of the other lunar programs that NASA launched after Ranger.

Surveyor

In Surveyor-1, in June 1966, the United States demonstrated a technological breakthrough. Only trailing the Soviet Luna-9 landing by four months, Surveyor-1 provided colour-television camera images of the lunar surface and relayed these back to Earth. Launched by Atlas-Centaur rockets between 1966 and 1968, five of the seven successfully soft-landed on the Moon and transmitted more than 88,000 pictures of their landing sites back to Earth. These sites were to be future landing sites for the Apollo Program. Surveyor-3 and Surveyor-7 included robotic soil scoopers for sampling lunar surface materials. The Surveyor landers from 5 through 7 included chemical analysis equipment and magnetometers to study lunar surface soils.

The Atlas-Centaur rocket could place 5,000 pound payloads into high-Earth orbit. It was really the mating of two very different rocket systems. The Atlas lower stage provided sufficient thrust to allow the Centaur stage, using liquid hydrogen as propellant, to become the workhorse upper stage for robotic spacecraft missions not only to the Moon but to a number of planetary missions in the 1970s.  Centaur technology packed a lot of punch for its size. That’s because liquid hydrogen proved to be a high-energy fuel source for rocket propellant, far more efficient than kerosene. Mastering the technical challenges posed by liquid-hydrogen rocket systems proved to be a significant achievement for the American space program.

This image shows the landing sites of Surveyor, Apollo and the Soviet Luna spacecraft. Surveyor and Apollo would not have been achievable without the development of liquid-hydrogen rocket systems first successfully demonstrated with Atlas-Centaur rockets and later with the Saturn family of Moon rockets.

Lunar Orbiter

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place for the American space program’s ambitious attempt to land a human on the Moon before the Soviet Union with the successful Lunar Orbiter missions in 1966 and 1967. From Lunar Orbiter-1 in August 1966 to Lunar Orbiter-5 in August 1967, the Americans demonstrated technology that produced high-resolution images of 99% of the Moon’s surface. What started as a low-orbit project to map and image suitable landing sites for Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft turned into a scientific mission with the last two Lunar Orbiter flights. Lunar Orbiter-4 flew a high-altitude polar orbit and photographed the entire Earth facing side of the Moon and 95% of the far side. Lunar Orbiter-5 provided medium resolution images of the far side and high-resolution of 36 specific lunar sites.

Lunar Orbiter-1 took the first images of the Earth from lunar orbit. This image taken in 1966 was digitally enhanced in 2008. Source: Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project

The unmanned robotic missions to the Moon by the United States proved a strong technical foundation for subsequent planetary exploration. The rocket systems developed continue to be the primary technology NASA continues to use for space flight.

Climate Change Update – Probability Not Certainty is the Cautionary Conclusion of European Climatologists Studying Recent Weather History

Does the recent warm spell over the eastern half of North America reflect climate change induced by increased greenhouse gases? When Europe experienced an extreme heat wave in 2003, two scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research began a study to see if that event could be related to global warming. Dim Coumou and Stefan Rahmstorf have published an article entitled, A Decade of Weather Extremes, published in Nature Climate Change, cataloguing extreme weather events since the year 2000 including the European heat wave, the drought and heat wave that hit the American Mid-West and Southern Plain States in 2011, the rain and flooding events that struck Pakistan and Thailand in 2010, the tropical cyclone of 2007 in Oman and others.

In their conclusions the scientists stated that no single weather event proves that we are experiencing human-induced global climate change. But the frequency of unusual weather events may be an indicator of a shift away from normal climate patterns. In their cataloguing of extreme weather events one thing became exceedingly clear. The Earth is experiencing more extreme weather events than at any time in recorded history and that the events are more extreme – heavier rain and flooding, more violent storms, larger and more frequent tornadoes, and more prolonged droughts and heatwaves.

The graph above shows the increasing frequency and cost of extreme weather events in the United States from 1980 to 2011. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Coumou and Rahmstorf’s data shows that globally we are experiencing three times higher monthly heat records in the 21st century than at anytime in our past. Like other climate scientists they recognize that local weather variation is not proof of global warming, but the pattern that is emerging suggests something is happening with the most likely variable in the climate model being us. We are the influence that is causing global temperatures to rise. And when the atmosphere gets warmer, weather gets more active and weather events become more extreme. So although we cannot unequivocally state that extreme weather reflects climate disruption, we can see cause…not certainty….but high probability.

 

Biomedicine Update – Skin Cells Converted to Stem Cells Point Way to Tissue Regeneration

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany have created somatic stem cells from mouse skin cells.  Hans Schöler and his team of researchers have succeeded in inducing the skin cells into becoming neuronal somatic stem cells without passing through a pluripotent stage. Up until now converting somatic cells (the normal cells we find in our body) into stem cells involved reversion technology making the specialized cell go backward to its undifferentiated embryonic state. In this state the cells became pluripotent, capable of becoming anything. But there has been a downside to this reversion process. The plasticity of pluripotent cells can lead to undesired consequences such as cancerous tumours, not healthy tissue.

Neuronal stem cells induced from skin cells appear in this immunofluoresced microscopic image.
Source: © MPI for Molecular Biomedicine

The research done by the Institute has created what are called multipotent stem cells. They cannot give rise to any cell type, merely a select subset. In this case skin cells have been able to create neural tissue. Schöler calls the process interconversion. It involves using a specific protein called BRN4. BRN stands for Brain. The protein is found in neural stem cells. Skin cells exposed to the protein become highly susceptible to conversion into neuronal somatic stem cells without reverting to the pluripotent state.  When bathed in growth factors to increase cell division the skin cells’ interconversion speeds up with the cells losing their molecular memory. Within a few cell division cycles the conversion completes creating neuronal somatic stem cells that appear indistinguishable from normal stem cells.

Multipotency means stem cells like these can be used to regenerate damaged or diseased tissue.  The next step is to duplicate the experiment using human skin cells and then track the stability of the cell line over time to ensure that it can become a safe source for cell and tissue regeneration.

Urban Landscapes and Agriculture Update – New Technology to Assess Water Stress

In a new study conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be published in the journal Computers & Geosciences, in May 2012, , researchers announced a new method for assessing global water stress. The tool they developed integrates climate, population and freshwater statistics to provide future projections. The authors, Esther Parish, Evan Koda, Karsten Steinhaeuser and Auroop Ganguly are the first to integrate disparate observations to create a global picture of areas potentially vulnerable to water shortages.

Water stress is defined as availability of freshwater per capita of less than 1.7 million liters (450,000 gallons) per person per year. That seems like a lot of freshwater, 4,657 liters (1,232 gallons) per person per day. But the number represents much more than water for domestic usage such as drinking, washing and sanitation. It includes water used for industrial and agricultural purposes.

This map depicts the current state of freshwater on the planet. Areas in blue do not suffer from water scarcity. Areas in red are currently in crisis. Areas in the shades of orange are approaching or experiencing physical water scarcity.

The team used high-resolution Global LandScan population distribution datasets, combined these with population projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the Community Climate System Model 3, and current freshwater supply to come up with projections estimating demand for freshwater by 2025, 2050 and 2100. Interestingly, the variable that most impacts the data modeling is not rising temperatures from global warming, but rising human global population.

Results from the study show that in North America, Florida and the American Southwest are most vulnerable to water stress in the near and longer term. The Great Lakes region on the other hand should be sustainable.

On a global scale the data concludes that by 2100, 56 to 75% of the world’s population will experience freshwater stress. Central and South America may experience massive population shifts based on projected water scarcity data.

Robotics Update – Biomimickry and a Jellyfish named Robojelly

People who study Biomimetics look at biological processes and try to mimic them in technology. After all nature has tooled around with DNA-inspired creations from the dawn of life on this planet nearly 4 billion years ago. And humans have learned from nature. Some modern examples of biomimickry include:

• winglets on airframes, aping the long wing feathers of raptors and vultures breaking up air turbulence and improving fuel consumption in modern commercial jets.
• Prosthetics that mimic real limbs
• Cochlear implants that restore hearing.

Through mimicking nature we have made great technical strides. To the ones described above add another.

As reported in the journal, Smart Materials and Structures, Virginia Tech’s is Alex Villanueva  has developed a robotic device that uses the propulsion and rowing actions of a jellyfish. His creation is Robojelly seen in the picture below.

Robojelly looks and moves like a jellyfish. It derives power from the interaction of seawater and the alloy composites used in its construction. Source: Virginia Tech

Robojelly has one other characteristic that has significance for other types of robot designs, the ability to derive the energy to drive it from the surrounding environment. It does this using a platinum-based surface which catalyzes the hydrogen in seawater to create an exothermic reaction. The heat from the exothermic reaction makes Robojelly’s artificial muscles, called actuators, contract the bell-shaped dome expelling water to propel it forward.

The actuators are composed of nickel-titanium shape-memory alloy and sheets of carbon nanotubes coated with platinum powder. The material has been given the name BISMAC standing for Bio-Inspired Shape Memory Alloy Composites. The byproduct of the hydrogen reaction is water vapour.

Robojelly can run indefinitely deriving all the energy it needs from the seawater that surrounds it. Add a packet of sensors and it becomes a surveillance and telemetry tool that can measure and study the ocean without ever having to stop for fuel. To view Robojelly in action click here.

Mastering Space Beyond Near-Earth – Part 1: How We Got Started – The Soviet Story

How do you tackle the subject of space, a significant contributor to our technological progress in the 20th and 21st century? In my previous blogs on space I have described the development of rocketry, a technology that gave us the means to reach beyond the outer atmosphere and establish our first human-inhabited and artificial robotic systems in near-Earth proximity.

But in treating the subject of space in the 21st century we need to look beyond the race to space, the Moon, and the planets, comets and asteroids of the Solar System. We need to understand what’s in it for us, why space and the technology we invent to explore it will be a driving force for innovation throughout the 21st century.

So how did we get started? It began with the Soviet Union and Sputnik-1, on October 4, 1957 and humanity has never looked back. Sputnik circled the Earth. We then launched many more satellites, some to spy on our neighbours, some to help us improve global communications, some to study the atmosphere, weather, our oceans, land use and more. What started as a two-nation duopoly in space has broadened to become a global adventure today. The United States and Russia have been joined by 48 other countries with satellites in orbit. Nine countries have launched satellites into near-Earth orbit. Six countries and Europe through the 18-member European Space Agency (ESA) have sent probes to explore Solar System neighbours. Business is getting into the act with the United States moving from a government-only contractor to a mixed economic model embracing for-profit companies working on sub-orbital and low-Earth orbit transportation systems.

In the articles that follow we look at the history of our outward urge, starting with the Moon and other nearby Solar System neighbours. We look at this from the perspective of technological accomplishments in achieving success beyond Earth orbit. In this immediate posting we focus on the Soviet Union’s contribution to escaping the bonds of Earth. They were the first to do it and it is a remarkable story.

The Technology to Leave Earth Orbit – The Soviet Union Came First

The launch of Luna-1 by the Soviet Union represented the first human-made object to escape Earth’s gravity.What did it take to send a satellite beyond Earth orbit? It meant developing a rocket capable of lifting a 361 kilogram (790 pound) object, Luna-1, into space traveling at a speed of 11.2 kilometers (7 miles) per second. That amounts to 40,234 kilometers (25,000 miles) per hour.

An augmented R-7 rocket, named Vostok, provided the launch capability. In an earlier blog we talked about the R-7 program, the most successful rocket launching system ever built. For the Soviets to turn it into an orbital escape booster they added a third-stage. This gave them capability to deliver 6-ton payloads into low-Earth orbit, and 1.5 ton payloads into trans-lunar trajectory. Luna-1 proved a remarkable achievement for technology in 1959, passing within 6,000 kilometers of the Moon before entering solar orbit. Its onboard instruments fed telemetry back to Earth providing measurements of our planet’s magnetic field.

A second 1959 triumph was Luna-2. It was the first probe to target and hit a non-Earth object, the lunar surface.  The Soviets recognized that reaching the Moon required longer duration power systems to keep instrumentation working. In Luna-3, launched a month after Luna-2, they incorporated solar cell technology to supplement the onboard batteries. When Luna-3 reached the Moon it circled it and returned to pass by Earth. During this elongated orbit of both Earth and Moon its onboard camera photographed 70% of the Moon’s unseen side. The  camera used standard 35 mm film. An onboard film laboratory developed the images which were then scanned by a television camera and transmitted using radio waves back to ground stations as the spacecraft approached Earth.

This map of the Moon's hidden far side was compiled from photographic images obtained by Luna 3. It represented the first map created from the observations and data collected by an artificial satellite of a Solar System object. Source: International Planetary Cartography Database

The Soviets Develop Robotic Systems for Planetary Exploration

Right from the start the Soviet Union made the Moon a target of its space program. When President Kennedy announced the Moon as the goal of the American space program in the 1960s he was abundantly aware of Soviet ambitions. The Soviets weren’t hiding anything. They had built heavy lift capacity in their rocket systems  far more than needed for ballistic missiles. But the Soviets needed much more than big rockets if they were to succeed. Their shopping list included:

1. Multi-stage rockets capable of being started and stopped in mid-trajectory flight
2. Satellite systems capable of adjusting flight paths and inserting themselves with pinpoint accuracy into orbit around another space object
3. Remote separation of sub-assemblies from the main satellite
4. Extended-range power supplies using solar, nuclear and improved battery systems
5. Powered controlled descent and soft landing systems for robotic probes
6. Mobile robots capable of navigating over uneven remote surfaces
7. Instrumentation that worked beyond low-Earth orbit and on remote planetary surfaces
8. Two-way communications systems working at never attempted distances

The Soviets mastered these skills but they came at great cost. In 1965 they made four failed attempts (Luna-5 through 8) to soft land Luna probes on the Moon. The technology included vernier rocket packs for controlled descent, nitrogen-bag inflation systems to cushion probeS on impact, and instrumentation shielding to achieve ambient temperatures (19 and 30 degrees Celsius, 66 to 86 Fahrenheit)in a space vacuum. These technologies worked to perfection in January 1966 with Luna-9 making the first powered descent to the Moon’s surface. Luna-9 incorporated a panoramic television camera onboard capable of 360 degree coverage.

This compiled picture from Luna-9 was the first set of images ever taken by a remote robot from the surface of another Solar System object.

Two months after Luna-9, the Soviets once again proved they had mastered another technological accomplishment, successfully placing a satellite into lunar orbit. Luna-10 achieved this feat using its course correction engines to slow the spacecraft sufficiently for lunar orbit insertion. The battery-operated instrumentation package included gamma radiation, electric and magnetic field, micro-meteoroid, and solar wind detectors. After 57 days and 460 orbits the batteries finally ran out and the Moon’s first artificial satellite ceased transmissions.

In 1966 the Soviets followed with two more Luna orbiters, Luna-12 providing television transmissions of the lunar surface back to Earth and Luna-13, deploying a lander with a penetrometer to dig 45 centimeters (18 inches) into the Moon surface to study its soil properties.

Luna-16, launched in 1970, after the first two Apollo Moon landings, incorporated robotic systems for descent, sample collecting of lunar surface materials, ascent and then return to Earth. In 1970, Luna-17 delivered a robotic rover to the Moon’s surface, Lunokhod-1.

In 1973, Luna-21 delivered a more sophisticated robotic rover to the Moon’s surface, Lunokhod-2. This rover traveled 37 kilometers during its mission, transmitting more than 80,000 and conducting over 700 lunar soil tests.

In 1973 the Soviets landed a robotic rover on the Moon, Lunokhod-2. Operating with guidance from Earth it travelled 37 kilometers over the lunar surface taking soil samples and television images and relaying the results to ground stations in the Soviet Union.

The last Luna probe, Luna-24 landed on the Moon in 1976 where it proceeded to take a 2.5 meter lunar core sample and return it to Earth.

The Soviets in their lunar exploration activity created all the technologies needed for planetary exploration beyond the Moon.

What were the Americans doing in parallel? Read the next blog.

Urban Landscapes Update – Seattle Building Designed to be Autonomous and Green for 250 Years

Creating “living buildings” requires a new approach to design and construction that recognizes the need to reduce our energy footprint. With this in mind the designers of  the Bullitt Center, a 6-storey headquarters for the Bullitt Foundation, intend to create a sustainable office building that minimizes its environmental footprint.

The new building being constructed in downtown Seattle, and opening in late 2012, uses 1/3 of the energy normally consumed by a standard office building of equal size. The building generates its own electricity using solar arrays, collects rainwater for internal consumption, and treats sewage and wastewater on site. Although still connected to the electrical grid the building systems send power back to the grid when producing beyond the needs of its tenants resulting in net zero electricity usage from utilities.

The builders estimate costs at 33% higher than traditional construction but expect their creation to endure for 250 years. Compare that to the average office building lasting 40 years, more than justifying the extra investment in initial construction.

Located in Seattle, Washington, the Bullitt Center is a commercial building with a net-zero environmental footprint. Source: Metal Construction News

The Bullitt Center will be the largest net-zero office building in the United States. To meet the net-zero challenge the Center includes:

• Roof solar panels extending over the sides of the building and efficient enough to generate power even in a cloudy environment like Seattle
• 26 geothermal water wells, each 400 feet deep in earth to main a constant temperature of  12 degrees Celsius (55 Fahrenheit) for heating and cooling.
• A 56,000 gallon cistern for collecting rainwater from the roof through a special membrane  and ultra filtration and ultraviolet light treatment for purification.
• 10 basement composters for treating sewage which will then be turned into fertilizer offsite.
• Use of timber frames certified as sustainable wood.

The Bullitt Center is one of a few select buildings that are changing the face of the urban landscape to meet sustainability challenges.