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.

Our 20th Century Space Legacy – Part 3: Testing the Limits of Human Endurance in Near-Earth Space

In December 1972 the United States sent Apollo XVII to the Moon – the last time a human stepped on the surface of another world. Since then human activity in space has been limited to missions in near-Earth orbit. The rivalry between the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the United States continues but cooperation between the two countries has resulted in long-duration flights, space laboratories and technological innovations. By the end of the 20th century humans from in space were in the process of building a space station with the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and 18 countries from the European Space Agency (ESA) involved.

Humans in Space – Testing the Limits

Salyut and Almaz

The Soviet Union with the first to launch payloads big enough to allow for multiple human occupancy. This included two spacecraft, Salyut and Almaz. The name Salyut referred to the civilian Soviet program. Almaz had a military purpose.

The Soviets called Salyut and Almaz space stations but in fact they were far from the permanent orbiting platforms that were to follow in the 1980s and 1990s. Both had limited long-term habitability. Both were plagued by problems at the beginning. Neither could be refueled and both were limited by a single docking port.

The first Salyut launched in April of 1971 could not be accessed by the first human crew that attempted to board because of docking problems. The second mission with three Soyuz cosmonauts ended in tragedy on attempted reentry with the Soyuz spacecraft’s air escaping leading to the death of the crew.

Salyut-6 and Soyuz technology for ferrying crews and supplies allowed the Soviet Union to study long-term human exposure to low-gravity environments.

The Soviets continued to launch Salyut and Almaz into near-Earth orbit finally achieving success with three deployed in succession manned by 5 separate crews. Further technological developments allowed for longer-duration Salyut flights. Modifications included two docking ports and a modified Soyuz module, called Progress, for use as a freight carrier. By 1978 Soviet crews were completing extended stays of up to 180 days. In 1978 the Soviet Salyut program invited the first foreigner onboard, Vladimir Remek , a Czechoslovak.

With increasing costs and the beginning of détente the Soviets finally abandoned the Almaz program in 1981.  Salyut, however, became the core technology for the next Soviet foray into space, a true, permanent orbiting habitat, Mir.

Skylab

The Apollo Moon landings totally occupied the American program and when these flights ended, NASA sought a new initiative – to develop long-duration flight capability in low-Earth orbit. This led to Skylab, the first American-built orbiting space station built from one of the multiple stages of the Saturn rocket. Skylab weighed about 100 tons and was launched in 1973. Crews rotated every 3 months conducting solar astronomy observations, life sciences experiments, astrophysics and prolonged human exposure to space studies.

Skylab allowed a crew of 3 astronauts to work in a space habitat that included an onboard dining facility seen in this picture, as well as bedrooms, a shower, bathroom and scientific and research laboratory. From left to right in this picture we see an onboard shot of Scientist-Astronaut Joseph P. Kerwin, Pilot- Astronaut Paul J. Weitz, and Commander-Astronaut Charles Conrad Jr.

Surplus Apollo command modules shuttled the crews to and from the space station. The Skylab interior included an upper and lower floor, two airlocks, a dining area, 3 bedrooms, a common work area, shower and bathroom. Like the Salyut spacecraft Skylab was not designed as a permanent orbiting platform. Its orbit, initially at approximately 435 kilometers (270 miles) degraded and in 1979 the space station disintegrated on re-entering the atmosphere.

Mir

In 1986 the Soviets began the building of a long-duration space station called Mir, meaning “peace” and “community,” in the Russian language. Using modified Salyut and Almaz technology, Mir was modularly assembled over nine years. When completed it weighed more than 100 tons and measured 33 meters (107 feet) by 27.5 meters (90 feet) including docked Progress and Soyuz spacecraft.

Although Mir began as a Soviet project, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became a Russian program and soon involved international contributors and visitors from the United States, European Space Agency, Canada, Japan, Afghanistan, Bulgaria and Syria. In 1995, the first American Space Shuttle docked with Mir (see the picture below).

Mir was assembled by connecting modules launched from the Soviet Union. It served as a guide for the subsequent modular assembly of the International Space Station.

Mir, originally designed for a 5-year mission, hosted over 100 humans during its 15 years in orbit. Soviet and Russian cosmonauts set space endurance records with Valery Polyakov accumulating 679 days in two flights. Mir hosted the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, a multimillionaire who paid to visit the station in April 2001.

With the Russian post-Soviet economy struggling, NASA funds continued to support Mir but the two nations focused on collaborating on development of the International Space Station. Russia finally decided to decommission Mir and it re-entered and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere in March 2001.

International Space Station

In 1998 with Mir still in orbit work began on assembling the first modules for the International Space Station. First conceived as the American answer to Mir, the first module of the station was launched into orbit by Russia, quickly followed by an American module. The work had begun on a 13-year collaborative project.

The end of the 20th century marked the end of the “Space Race” and established the beginning of a cooperative effort to develop technology for human exploration in near-Earth space.

In our next two blogs we will look at the evolution of winged spacecraft, the American Space Shuttle and the Soviet Union’s Buran program. And then we will look at space station technology after Mir including a more detailed discussion on the International Space Station and its contribution to the development of long-term human habitation in space.

Our 20th Century Space Legacy – Part 1: The Evolution of Rocket Technology

I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction where humanity travelled as freely through space as we do on Earth. Our venture into space so far does not reflect the science fiction I read as a young man. Where the 20th century launched us for the first time into and beyond our atmosphere, the 21st to date has largely remained near-Earth orbit experience for humans in space. Human-built robots have been the spacefarers exploring the planets of the Inner and Outer Solar System and with spacecraft launched in the 1970s reaching interstellar space.

Rockets are a Chinese invention with reference to them as useful for both military and celebratory purposes. The Chinese defended themselves against the 13th century Mongol invasion using rockets with little effect. Through trans-Asian trade, rockets were introduced to Europe in the 14th century. Rockets primarily were powered arrows at this time. In the 19th century the British Congreve rockets inspired Francis Scott Key in his writing of “The Star Spangled Banner,” the American national anthem. Rockets were used in whaling to enhance the power and distance harpoons could travel. Rockets attached to safety lines were used to reach ships in distress so that they could be towed to safety. The Katyusha rockets of World War II were the 20th century equivalent of the British Congreve rocket.

The image above is of two Congreve Rockets, similar to the ones that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the American national anthem. Source: The Smithsonian Institute

But the rockets that were to launch humans into Outer Space did not use the technology inspired originally by Chinese invention. In 1903, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian school teacher, proposed liquid propellants as a rocket fuel because of the potential increase in exhaust velocity to drive rockets farther. In his writing Tsiolkovsky laid the theoretical groundwork for the rockets of Robert Goddard, an American, who built the first liquid-fueled rocket and launched it successfully. It didn’t go far but the technology he demonstrated became the basis for Germany’s emergence as the leader in modern rocketry.

Before World War II rocket clubs popped up throughout Europe, Japan and the United States. Rocket hobbyists were popular in Germany inspirted by the writings of Dr. Hermann Oberth, a Hungarian-born German, who wrote about rocket travel beyond Earth. An inspired Werner von Braun in 1930 began experimenting, building and firing liquid-fueled rockets built on Goddard’s designs. Von Braun eventually became the leader of the German rocket program that created the A-4, the rocket known to us as the V-2. The A-4 stood 14 meters in height (46 feet), burned alcohol combined with liquid oxygen, and could launch a  750 kg, (1,650 pound) payload. It had a range of 360 kilometers (225 miles). Several thousand A-4s with attached warheads were constructed and launched against British, French and Belgian targets from 1944 to early 1945 causing considerable destruction.

With the end of World War II both the United States and Soviet Union took an interest in the weapon systems designed by Germany. German scientists, remaining inventory of A-4  rockets, and the engineering tools and technology were spirited out of the country. The race to exploit and enhance this technology for war and science had begun.

Machines Enter Outer Space, Humans Soon Follow

Both the United States and Soviet Union assembled and test-fired the remaining inventory of A-4 rockets. Then they began building their own largely for war purposes. The dream of using rockets to put machines and humans into outer space seemed like an afterthought.

Exploration of near-Earth space soon followed with the launch of Sputnik, in October, 1957, the first artificial satellite placed in orbit. Weighing 84 kilograms (183 lbs.), Sputnik’s launch vehicle was the R-7.  R-7 technology directly evolved from the A-4. It burned kerosene and liquid oxygen. Today’s Russian space program continues to use the R-7.

To get to orbit rocket technology needed to achieve escape velocity. That meant building rockets with more power. More power required a larger amount of fuel. Both the Americans and Soviets approached this by developing multiple-staged rockets. With multiple staging a rocket could achieve orbit without carrying around any extra weight in the form of empty rocket casings. The approach to multi-staging, however differed dramatically. The Americans chose to build multi-stage rockets in a vertical-stack configuration. The Soviets built multi-stage rockets by strapping together each rocket. In the picture below you can see how the two designs differ. In the short-term the Soviet design made it possible to develop heavier lift capacity. The R-7 had three times the thrust and payload capacity of any of the American rockets. With limited thrust and capable of delivering only small payloads American satellite requirements stimulated integrated circuit development and the technology behind modern computing. But at the beginning of the Space Age, this need for light and small was not seen as an advantage.

The two rockets on the left are American. The Jupiter C resembled the A-4 in design. The Redstone and its successors were vertically stacked. The Soviet R-7 design straps multiple rockets together giving them initially a significant technological advantage in delivering large payloads into near-Earth orbit.

In space the Soviets surged ahead with heavy launch capacity and a program aimed at being first in all the key categories;

1. First artificial satellite (Sputnik 1) October 4, 1957
2. First animal sent into orbit (Sputnik-2 with the dog, Laika on board) November 2, 1957.
3. First satellite to orbit the Moon (Luna 1) January 2, 1959.
4. First satellite to send photographic images of  70% of the Moon’s far side (Luna 3) October 4, 1959
5. First animals sent into orbit and returned safely to Earth (Sputnik-5 with two dogs, Belka and Strelka on board) August 19, 1960.
6. First human to orbit the Earth and return safely (Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1) April 12, 1961
7. First human to do multiple orbits of the Earth (Gherman Titov in Vostok 2) August 6, 1961
8. First multi-crew orbital flight (Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov, Boris Yegorov, in Voskhod 1) October 14, 1964.

For the American program the achievements were far more modest, the successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1, January 31, 1958. Pioneer 4, launched in March 3, 1959, became the first American satellite  to pass the Moon and achieve solar orbit. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to achieve suborbital flight. And on February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

The components for reasonably reliable rocket technology made these advances possible. All that was left was the imagination and determination of a government to set an achievement goal. That happened when President John F. Kennedy established a goal of landing a human on the Moon before 1970.

In our next blog we will look at the technology that created to achieve the Lunar landing of Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin in Apollo 11.

Transportation – Part 7: Airplanes – What We Can Expect to See in the 21st Century

Like the automobile, the airplane is an icon of the 20th century. It began with the Wright Brothers and their successful launch of the ” Flyer” in 1903, and by the end of the century saw space shuttles, supersonic transports, and scramjets.

The Flyer was the first successful heavier-than-air powered flight

The Flyer looked more like a box kite than an airplane. Today’s aircraft bear no resemblance to it. New materials, engine technologies, computer controls and scale have turned the airframe at Kitty Hawk into behemoths like the one seen in the image below.

Airbus A380 landing at Toronto Pearson Airport. The A380 is currently the world's largest passenger aircraft. (Source: Jerrold Litwinenko)

The Wright Flyer on that first flight could attain a speed of 16 kilometers (10 miles) per hour and travelled 852 feet. Today’s commercial aircraft fly at speeds of 900 kilometers (over 550 miles) per hour and travel from New York to Singapore without refueling. Experimental aircraft such as the rocket-powered X-15 in 1967 reached a speed of close to 7,000+ kilometers (4,500 miles) per hour. How far we came in the 20th century. Where do we go from here?

The Evolution of Commercial Flight

There are more than 49,000 airports in the world today. Today it takes longer to fly between destinations in North America than it did in 1960. Navigation systems are antiquated based on radio beacon technology and skies are more congested than ever with airplane traffic flow experiencing bottlenecks near major airport hubs.

The future of commercial flight, particularly passenger-based aircraft, looks at accessibility, energy conservation, speed, safety and comfort. Commercial airlines want to optimize flight volume and landing locations. This means a wider variety of aircraft capable of landing almost anywhere and smart traffic management systems.

The National Air and Space Administration (NASA) has been a catalyst for aircraft concepts in the commercial sector. In this blog I share with you some of the concepts that NASA and its commercial partners are proposing  for the first half of the 21st century.

Several manufacturers have proposed lighter and more aerodynamic aircraft with the variable passenger capacity to meet a wider range of locations and demand. One of these, GE Aviation has developed a prototype 20-passenger aircraft designed to reduce fuel consumption, minimize engine noise, provide comfort equal to modern passenger jets, and the capability to land in smaller airports previously inaccessible to commercial passenger aircraft. The concept aircraft uses fuel cells to power its electrical systems, and low-noise propellers with advanced turboprop engine technology capable of very short takeoffs and landings and quick vertical climbs.

Our largest commercial aircraft today, the A380 seen in the picture above, can handle 600 or more passengers.  But NASA and Airbus are both proposing new designs that incorporate a Blended Wing Body or BWB. These aircraft are capable of handling a variety of passenger loads from 600 to over 1,000 passengers. A prototype, the NASA X-48B, developed at Boeing Phantom Works, a R&D laboratory, has flown more than 50 times to prove the capability of  BWB design. The full-size version of the Boeing BWB, seen below, would feature a blended wing, engine and body design with passengers seated on two decks.

BWB Aircraft would handle 800 passengers for intercontinental flights

Going Supersonic Again

The demise of the Concorde and Tupolev TU-144 supersonic commercial aircraft has not ended the interest in developing faster than sound capability. NASA and industry partners have designed concepts for the next-generation supersonic transport (SST) planned for deployment by 2030. A passenger jet that would fly 300 passengers at more than 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) per hour it would be capable of crossing oceans in half the time of current passenger jets. This next generation SST would feature a propulsion system that used green fuels and noise abatement technology to reduce sonic booms making it possible to fly over the continental land mass, unlike Concorde. Instead of cockpit windows, the pilots would use sensor displays with video imaging and computer-generated graphics to exceed human vision and eliminate the need to drop the nose of the aircraft as was required in the Concorde and Tupolev.

This futuristic SST is a design concept from NASA and a consortium of engineering firms. It's expected to fly by 2030.

The SST shown above uses engine materials capable of withstanding 1,650 degrees Celsius (3,000 Fahrenheit) over the duration of a flight. Boeing and Lockheed Martin have proposed designs that incorporate engine design and placement that eliminates sonic booms and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These concepts were presented to NASA in 2010 with plans for commercialization by the mid 2030s.

Another next-generation supersonic jet closer to flying is named after a fleet-of-foot horse in Greek mythology, Aerion. The first SST  business jet, Aerion would carry a dozen passengers at speeds of up to 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) per hour for 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles). Aerion has undergone aerodynamic testing at NASA both in wind tunnels and airborne. It features supersonic natural laminar flow (SNLF), a technology that decreases surface friction by 90% compared to conventional airframe skin designs. The first Aerion is expected to fly as early as 2014.

Hypersonic Aircraft

Hypersonic flight reaches speeds in excess of 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) per hour, or Mach 5 and above. Rockets up until now have been the sole means of traveling at these kinds of speeds, but military research into scramjets is making it possible to bring this technology to commercial application. The X-51A Waverider is one of a number of unmanned test vehicles being used to test hypersonic flight. The X-51A uses a rocket booster to launch before deploying the air-breathing scramjet. The Falcon HTV-2 is another test vehicle that is deployed initially by rocket and capable of speeds approaching 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) per hour within the atmosphere. An aircraft flying at that speed would travel from London, England, to Sydney, Australia in less than 50 minutes. Scramjet technology can take commercial aviation to the edge of space and when combined with rockets spawn space plane technology that takes off and lands on runways similar to those used by commercial jets today.

Although much of the research on scramjet technology is coming from defence budgets, one company, Airbus, in 2011, provided a glimpse of the near future with its hypersonic concept, ZEHST, standing for Zero Emission Hypersonic Transport.  Airbus is proposing a 100-passenger aircraft powered by jet, scramjet and possibly rocket engines capable of flying at 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) per hour at elevations of approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) turning today’s 8-hour flight from New York to London into a one hour hop. Airbus estimates that airplanes similar to ZEHST will be deployed by 2050.

Zero Emission Hypersonic Transport will use scramjet technology running on biofuels

ZEHST would use biofuel-powered jet engines during low atmosphere ascent and landing before switching to a pollution-free hydrogen rocket-based scramjets (RBCC) as it operates in the upper atmosphere close to the edge of space.

Space Aircraft

With the launch of the NASA Shuttle in the 1970s, the airplane form factor was introduced into space travel. Prior to the Shuttle all launches were traditional rocket designs, cylinders with vanes and rocket engines. The Shuttle’s original design included jet engines for use on atmospheric descent and landing but weight considerations and cost soon removed jet engines from the design turning it into a very sophisticated and heavy glider. Hypersonic aircraft may give us the opportunity to recapture the idea of a space plane.

Commercial developers have also been experimenting with space planes. The 1994 announcement of the $10 million Ansari X Prize led to the development of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne. The prize initiated a commercial space race focused on sending a piloted space craft to a height of 100 kilometers (62 miles) and returning it to Earth for relaunch and return within a week. SpaceShipOne accomplished the feat in October of 2004. Truly a space plane, the craft was mated to a parent twin turbojet aircraft and then launched once airborne. SpaceShipOne used nitrous oxide and solid rubber as its fuel source. It had foldable wings designed to provide high levels of drag upon reentering the atmosphere.

SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize in 2004 achieving two suborbital manned flights within a week.

SpaceShipOne’s successor is SpaceShipTwo, the first commercial space plane designed to take a crew of 2 along with 6 passengers into suborbital flight. Of course, suborbital flight is not the ultimate goal of space planes. The ability to transition from aircraft to spacecraft and back will lead to many designs, one of which is pictured below. In this Boeing concept a mated-pair of air and space craft separate. While one remains in the upper atmosphere or returns to the surface, the other proceeds into orbit. These space technologies will employ a combination of high-speed turbine jet engines, RBCC and turbine scramjets (TBCC), reusable high-performance rocket engines with lightweight fuel tanks and airframe structures, and high-temperature materials and thermal protection systems for re-entry.

Mated Rocket and Hypersonic Technologies will drive spacecraft in the mid-21st Century

Reaction Engines, a British company, has been developing SABRE, an engine that operates in dual mode as an air-breathing turbojet and rocket-propelled system once in the upper atmosphere. When deployed in a space plane such as the Skylon, pictured below, this technology would create a seamless journey from runway to space and back.

Skylon uses the SABRE engine capable of atmospheric and space flight

Geoengineering – Part 3: Terraforming in the 21st Century

When I was a younger man I wrote a short story about a girl who lived on Mars. Her father, a scientist, was in the business of changing the Martian atmosphere and his gift to his daughter was to give her a living tree outside the protected air envelope that was home to his family on Mars. The science he practiced was terraforming and making Mars more earth like was his goal.

With CO2 on the rise on Earth the science of re-engineering the planet now resides here, not on a neighbouring planet like Mars. But re-engineering may be not too far in our future.

So let’s begin this discussion with the problem of Earth and rising CO2. What are we facing and what can we do to reverse the process that we refer to as climate change or global warming. And then let’s talk about what it would take to change Mars.

Current CO2 Levels

Want to know the current levels of atmospheric CO2? Go to CO2 Now. For members of 350.org the lobby attempting through civil disobedience to raise the profile of climate change with the public, this site ticker must be disheartening. As of July 2011 we have reached 392.39 parts per million 42 points above what is considered safe by many climatologists. And the number isn’t about to go down in the near future.

At the present rate of carbon emissions we could see CO2 levels between 500 and 700 parts per million by 2100. The consequences of increasing CO2 have been described in a previous blog. In that blog we discussed ways to mitigate and reduce CO2 levels.

Technology, however, can only help us if we recognize the ecological problem we face through uncontrolled rises in greenhouse gases. What kind of social re-engineering is required to change our species behaviour to end and reverse the rise in CO2 and other greenhouse gases?

350 – The Magic Number

When we talk to political and thought leaders about bringing CO2 back to a manageable level they provide a shopping list of behavioural changes usually followed by a cautionary statement about economic sustainability and manageable cost. What are the changes that we seek?

• Changing our fossil fuel consumption dramatically by reducing our dependence on oil, natural gas, and coal as primary energy sources
• Overall dramatic reductions in energy consumption to fuel our industry, habitats and transportation needs through technology improvements and innovation
• Building new and rebuilding old infrastructure to maximize energy conservation and reduce pollution
• Investing in sustainable, renewable energy from solar, wind, tidal and other non-fossil fuel sources
• Fostering a new approach to land use from forest sustainability and reforestation to agriculture including herding, crop selection and soil management
• Supporting ecological and socially responsible initiatives within developing nations to create sustainable economies that are not held back from achieving quality of life for their populations equal to those in developed nations

The problem with these solutions is their fuzziness. There is nothing concrete. These are goals without policy, legislation and enforcement. When the world’s nations got together in 1997 to create the first global act focused on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, mechanisms were created to encourage governments and industry to act.

Binding targets were established for controlling and reducing the following greenhouse gases: CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, hydroflourocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexaflouride. The 37 industrialized countries and European Union agreed to reductions and a timetable. Whereas some countries have demonstrated a true commitment to Kyoto target reductions, others have done little to meet their obligations. One of these is my country, Canada, where changes in government, changes in industrial priorities and initiatives to back development of bitumen resources, has led to an abandonment of targets. Canada’s example is not isolated. A number of countries fault the process because, they argue, Kyoto wasn’t a global initiative. The United States participated in the process but did not sign the final agreement.

Kyoto left out the Developing World and focused only on established industrial economies. That meant China, India, Brazil and a number of other fast growing economies were not partner to the agreement.

In defence of Kyoto, the countries that were signatories represented the economies that were the worst polluters and generators of greenhouse gases at the time of signing, with the United States the exception. Unfortunately the signatories for the most part plus the United States continue to be the worst polluters on the planet even with the implementation of some policies coming out of Kyoto.

A successor to Kyoto remains elusive. Science fiction writers, however, have imagined feats of engineering that demonstrate the ability to alter a planet in its entirety to make it inhabitable. Yet here we are on Earth doing the very thing, but negatively, through our industrial processes and the burning of fossil fuels. Can we as a species learn from altering another world how to rescue ours?

The Science of Terraforming – the Case for Mars and Other Planets

Out of the works of science fiction writers has come terraforming – an idea that uses advanced technology to alter a planet’s atmosphere and surface to allow us to inhabit it without having to rely on pressurized living accommodation and manufactured atmospheres.

Mars is usually the first planet in our Solar System that we think about when we speculate on future human habitations beyond Earth. Mars today is cold and dry although we have discovered lots of sub-surface and polar ice, enough in fact, if it all melted, to form a surface-wide ocean more than 30 meters deep. Like Earth, Mars has abundant amounts of carbon and oxygen (CO2 is 95.3% of the atmosphere), nitrogen and argon. This atmosphere bears a resemblance to what existed here on Earth billions of years ago. Bacterial life altered Earth’s atmosphere creating free oxygen as a byproduct of CO2 and ultimately allowing animals and plants to evolve.

Mars today is also very cold with an average temperature of -63 Celsius (-81 Fahrenheit). In contrast Earth’s average temperature is 14 Celsius (58 Fahrenheit). In the Martian summer temperatures can reach 24 Celsius (75 Fahrenheit) at the equator so it can get reasonably comfortable on a nice day. Mars also experiences seasons and has an axial rotation similar to Earth as well as a day that is about one-half hour longer than ours. So adapting to Mars with its many similarities to Earth sounds possible.

If we were to live on Mars we would have to accommodate to its extremes but we could also change the atmosphere not at a geological pace, but rather quickly. The goal would be to introduce technologies that would create a greenhouse effect, thickening and heating the atmosphere to make it habitable. This could take centuries or as much as a milennia based on our perception of what is doable today. As we get better at the technology of terraforming the time to re-engineer the planet may be considerably less.

What kinds of technology could we deploy that would turn Mars into a habitable place? There is nothing we can imagine today that would give us the capability of altering Mars into an Earth-like habitat in a hundred years. But we do have technology in its formative stages as well as technologies deployed on Earth that can alter Mars over a longer period. These include:

• space mirrors
• solar-powered greenhouse gas generators
• artificial photosynthesis
• phototropic bacteria
• comets and asteroids

Space Mirrors

Space mirrors are large reflective surfaces made from the same materials used in solar sail technology. Space mirrors have been considered as a means to deflect solar rays from Earth to offset the greenhouse effect on Earth. Whereas a solar mirror deployed in Earth orbit would be used to block sunlight, many deployed  in orbit around Mars would reflect solar radiation into the atmosphere. A single large mirror with a diameter of 250 kilometers (155 miles) could be built, using materials found in space, and deployed 350,000 kilometers away from the planet raising surface temperatures in a small area such as a polar ice cap. This would could cause the ice to melt releasing greenhouse gases.

Solar-Powered Gas Generators

Gas generators could be a key way to alter the Martian atmosphere. Today on Earth we have lots of industry experience generating greenhouse gases that burn fossil fuels. This same atmospheric heating effect could be reproduced on Mars by setting up hundreds of factories that use the carbon in CO2 and pump out oxygen. If the factories were largely constructed out of Martian materials it would make this economically more plausible. Such factories would slowly oxygenate the atmosphere over centuries.

Artificial Photosynthesis

Current research on artificial photosynthesis uses nanotechnology to mimic plant leaves. Plants breakdown water molecules using captured sunlight. From this the plant receives carbohydrates as fuel and oxygen as a byproduct. Plants use chlorophyll to achieve this result. Creating an artificial equivalent to chlorophyll for use on Earth is all about creating new energy sources to replace fossil fuels and not about oxygen.

Research focuses on generating liquid hydrogen or methanol from the process with the hydrogen used as a fuel or in fuel cells. On Earth water is plentiful and so is sunlight. And both appear to be plentiful on Mars as well.

Artificial photosynthesis uses a catalyst in place of chlorophyll to split water molecules and generate the energy needed to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen. Current research experiments are testing manganese, titanium dioxide and cobalt oxide to mimic what plants do.

Finding these materials on Mars and building industrial-scale artificial photosynthesis generators would be a massive project.

Phototropic Bacteria

Bacteria created Earth’s thick atmosphere with its abundant oxygen and nitrogen. Thriving on CO2, bacteria could prove to be an effective terraforming solution for Mars. Today on Earth we use phototropic or photosynthetic bacteria for all kinds of biotech applications including water and wastewater purification, chemical remediation, fertilizer, aquaculture supplements and animal feed. Phototropic bacteria may prove to be efficient at harvesting energy from light. Adding phototropic bacteria into the terraforming mix on Mars could accelerate the planet’s atmospheric conversion.

Comets and Asteroids – When Worlds Collide

Like the proposals to tow Greenland and Antarctic icebergs to Saudi Arabia, some space scientists have come up with a solution that involves moving objects the size of asteroids and comets near Mars and then making them collide with the surface of the planet. The motive power would be ion propulsion or nuclear powered rocket engines attached to these space bodies. Icy asteroids contain lots of water and greenhouse gases and if allowed to collide with Mars would not only release gases and water, but also massive amounts of energy equivalent to thousands of atomic bombs.

A single asteroid or small comet collision could raise the atmospheric temperature of Mars several degrees which would accelerate melting of subsurface and polar ice. Such a catastrophic approach to terraforming would make Mars uninhabitable for a period of time but as the planet recovered from each collision it would be closer and closer to becoming much more Earth-like.

What Terraforming Can Teach Us About Restoring Earth’s CO2 Levels

In the 21st century our species will land on Mars and begin to explore that planet. We will master technologies to make it possible for us to survive on its surface, at first by creating a life support system and artificial environment to sustain us. In our Martian lab we will apply Earth technology in new ways to make Mars a more livable environment. The technologies that allow us to terraform our neighbour will be such that adapting them to re-engineer Earth will only be a matter of course. We won’t master planet re-engineering in the 21st century but we will take the first steps along this path. It took billions of years for natural processes on Earth to create a habitable planet. The promise of restoring Earth to a sustainable environment will come as we learn how to transform our neighbour, Mars.

What Lies Ahead? An Introduction to the themes of this blog

I was born in 1949, the mid-point of the 20th century. I have witnessed the rise of the computing age, the space age, the Internet, nuclear power, widespread pollution, human-influencing climate change, biomedical breakthroughs, our first steps into creating artificial intelligence and our first steps with robotics.

So what lies ahead?

If the first decade of this century is any indicator we are in for a roller coaster ride with technology being a source of our problems as well as a means to save our species and the planet. For in our technology we have sowed much that is wrong in our world today. We have in overcoming disease created unprecedented population growth. The consequence for our species includes shrinking biodiversity, stressed environments, and perennial food challenges. Through technology we have created weapons of such power and consequence that we hold the keys to global destruction.

But we have also accomplished so many wonderful technological achievements. The computer and telecommunications revolution has changed our human world forever. We are connected as never before. We are used to being always on, always connected. Our sources of news have changed. We are switching from paper to electronic. We can choose what news we want rather than accept what is published for all. My website home page feeds me an encapsulated summary of many subjects that I track. Every day I receive over 100 emails from businesses I work with, and from friends and acquaintances. My social networking Internet sites, of which I have too many to recall these days, provide me with daily postings, tweets, wall messages, and friend requests. I am involved in Internet debates on several sites responding to commentary on issues and themes of interest to me. I have my own website, another blogging site other than this one. I also publish articles on several other sites. I have a PayPal account and send and receive money from clients this way.

For the past three years I have become an investor in the developing world providing micro loans to small business entrepreneurs that I vet through an Internet link. What a rush — to help people achieve success $25 at a time.

We have mapped the human genome and found that much of what we thought we knew about our bodies, and disease, has been wrong. We have started down the path of creating nanotechnology with no clear idea of where we will end up with these new micro molecular toys. We have robot dogs and robot butlers to amuse us, knowing that these are the first steps in the development of android artificial mechanical intelligence.

Although our foray to the moon in the 1960s and 70s united all of humanity in our pursuit of the impossible, the fascination with human space travel has been overtaken by earthly concerns and today only a few of us inhabit a low-Earth orbit space station. Meanwhile our robots travel to the planets of our Solar System and our satellites show us a Universe that we could have scarcely contemplated a half-century ago.

We have created machines with the potential to help us unlock the mysteries of sub-atomic particles, dark matter and dark energy.

We are told that our collective knowledge is doubling every five years. The hope is that so is our collective wisdom.

We have planted so many of the seeds I have described above. We sit in the latter part of the first decade of this 21st century poised to continue the tech revolution that we started in the last. What will it look like?

This blog is dedicated to exploring where we are and where we are going, always through the technology that has inherently become an extension of who we are as a species. Because it is technology that separates us from other intelligent species on this planet, and it is upon technology that we must rely on ensuring that the planet continues to be a place on which we, as a species, and all other species thrive.