Bell 205 myndar ísþoku

Flott videó af Bell 205 í hífingavinnu.

Þegar þyrlan hífir hlassið myndast ísþoka við þéttingu rakans. Bell 205 þyrla getur lyft um 2 tonnum í krók. Þessar þyrlur eru til líka í tveggja hreyfla (mótora) útfærslu og heita þá Bell 212. B-205 er með Lycoming mótor en B-212 með 2x PT6 Twinpac.

Ég hef verið þeirrar ánægju aðnjótandi að starfa sem flugmaður á B-212 og naut hverrar mínútu um borð í þeim vélum. Gamaldags vélar en smíðaðar eins og skriðdreki og þægileg í meðförum.

5 ár frá því að Columbia fórst.

Þann 1. febrúar 2003 kl 09:00 EST fórst geimferjan Columbia við endurkomu til jarðar eftir 16 daga ferð við vísinda rannsóknir.

Um borð voru 7 geimfarar:

Rick Husband (commander), Willie McCool (pilot), Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, David M. Brown,  Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla.

Ástæða slyssins var að að gat hafði komið á frambrún vængs er einangrun losnaði við geimskot 16 dögum áður og við endurkomu í lofthjúpin komst heitt gas (plasma) inn og eyðilagði burðarbita vængsins.

Geimskot Columbia í hinstu för:

Síðustu samkipti ferjunnar við Houston - hljóðskrá(vma). 

Jeff Kling, an engineer who was working the mechanical-systems position known as MMACS (pronounced Macs), had witnessed a swarm of erratic indications and sensor failures. The pattern was disconcerting because of the lack of common circuitry that could easily explain the pattern of such failures-a single box that could be blamed.

Kling had been bantering good-naturedly on an intercom with one of his team, a technician sitting in one of the adjoining back rooms and monitoring the telemetry, when the technician noted a strange failure of temperature transducers on a hydraulic return line. The technician said, "We've had some hydraulic 'ducers go off-scale low."

Kling had seen the same indications. He said, "Well, I guess!"

The technician said, "What in the world?"

Kling said, "This is not funny. On the left side."

The technician confirmed, "On the left side ..."

Now Kling got onto the main control-room intercom to the lead controller on duty, known as the flight director, a man named Leroy Cain. In the jargon-laced language of the control room Kling said, "Flight, Macs."

Cain said, "Go ahead, Macs."

"FYI, I've just lost four separate temperature transducers on the left side of the vehicle, hydraulic return temperatures. Two of them on system one, and one in each of systems two and three."

Cain said, "Four hyd return temps?"

Kling answered, "To the left outboard and left inboard elevon."

"Okay, is there anything common to them? DSC or MDM or anything? I mean, you're telling me you lost them all at exactly the same time?"

"No, not exactly. They were within probably four or five seconds of each other."

Cain struggled to assess the meaning. "Okay, where are those ... where is that instrumentation located?"

Kling continued to hear from his back-room team. He said, "All four of them are located in the aft part of the left wing, right in front of the elevons ... elevon actuators. And there is no commonality."

Cain repeated, "No commonality."

But all the failing instruments were in the left wing. The possible significance of this was not lost on Cain: during the launch a piece of solid foam had broken off from the shuttle's external fuel tank, and at high speed had smashed into the left wing; after minimal consideration the shuttle program managers (who stood above Mission Control in the NASA hierarchy) had dismissed the incident as essentially unthreatening. Like almost everyone else at NASA, Cain had taken the managers at their word-and he still did. Nonetheless, the strange cluster of left-wing failures was an ominous development. Kling had more-specific reasons for concern. In a wonkish, engineering way he had discussed with his team the telemetry they might observe if a hole allowed hot gases into the wing during re-entry, and had come up with a profile eerily close to what was happening now. Still, he maintained the expected detachment.

Cain continued to worry the problem. He asked for reassurance from his "guidance, navigation, and control" man, Mike Sarafin. "Everything look good to you, control and rates and everything is nominal, right?"

Sarafin said, "Control's been stable through the rolls that we've done so far, Flight. We have good trims. I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

Cain directed his attention back to Kling: "All other indications for your hydraulic systems indications are good?"

"They're all good. We've had good quantities all the way across."

Cain said, "And the other temps are normal?"

"The other temps are normal, yes, sir." He meant only those that the telemetry allowed him to see.

Cain said, "And when you say you lost these, are you saying they went to zero ..."

"All four of them are off-scale low."

"... or off-scale low?"

Kling said, "And they were all staggered. They were, like I said, within several seconds of each other."

Cain said, "Okay."

But it wasn't okay. Within seconds the Columbia had crossed into Texas and the left-tire-pressure indications were dropping, as observed also by the cockpit crew. Kling's informal model of catastrophe had predicted just such indications, whether from blown tires or wire breaks. The end was now coming very fast.

Kling said, "Flight, Macs."

Cain said, "Go."

"We just lost tire pressure on the left outboard and left inboard, both tires."

Cain said, "Copy."

At that moment, twenty-three seconds after 7:59 local time, the Mission Control consoles stopped receiving telemetry updates, for reasons unknown. The astronaut sitting beside Cain, and serving as the Mission Control communicator, radioed, "And Columbia, Houston, we see your tire-pressure messages, and we did not copy your last call."

At the same time, on the control-room intercom, Cain was talking again to Kling. He said, "Is it instrumentation, Macs? Gotta be."

Kling said, "Flight, Macs, those are also off-scale low."

From the speeding shuttle Rick Husband-Air Force test pilot, religious, good family man, always wanted to be an astronaut-began to answer the communicator. He said, "Roger, ah," and was cut off on a word that began with "buh ..."

It turned out to be the Columbia's last voice transmission. Brief communication breaks, however, are not abnormal during re-entries, and this one raised no immediate concern in Houston.

People on the ground in Dallas suddenly knew more than the flight controllers in Houston. Four seconds after eight they saw a large piece leave the orbiter and fall away. The shuttle was starting to come apart. It continued intermittently to send telemetry, which though not immediately displayed at Mission Control was captured by NASA computers and later discovered; the story it told was that multiple systems were failing. In quick succession two additional chunks fell off.

Down in the control room Cain said, "And there's no commonality between all these tire-pressure instrumentations and the hydraulic return instrumentations?"

High in the sky near Dallas the Columbia's main body began to break up. It crackled and boomed, and made a loud rumble.

Kling said, "No, sir, there's not. We've also lost the nose-gear down talkback, and right-main-gear down talkback."

"Nose-gear and right-main-gear down talkbacks?"

"Yes, sir."

At Fort Hood, Texas, two Dutch military pilots who were training in an Apache attack helicopter locked on to the breakup with their optics and videotaped three bright objects-the main rocket engines-flying eastward in formation, among other, smaller pieces and their contrails.

Referring to the loss of communications, one minute after the main-body breakup, Laura Hoppe, the flight controller responsible for the communications systems, said to Cain, "I didn't expect, uh, this bad of a hit on comm."

Cain asked another controller about a planned switchover to a ground-based radio ahead, "How far are we from UHF? Is that two-minute clock good?"

Kling, also, was hanging on to hope. He said, "Flight, Macs."

Cain said, "Macs?"

Kling said, "On the tire pressures, we did see them go erratic for a little bit before they went away, so I do believe it's instrumentation."

"Okay."

At about that time the debris began to hit the ground. It fell in thousands of pieces along a swath ten miles wide and 300 miles long, across East Texas and into Louisiana. There were many stories later. Some of the debris whistled down through the leaves of trees and smacked into a pond where a man was fishing. Another piece went right through a backyard trampoline, evoking a mother's lament: "Those damned kids ..." Still another piece hit the window of a moving car, startling the driver. The heaviest parts flew the farthest. An 800-pound piece of engine hit the ground in Fort Polk, Louisiana, doing 1,400 mph. A 600-pound piece landed nearby. Thousands of people began to call in, swamping the 911 dispatchers with reports of sonic booms and metal falling out of the sky. No one, however, was hit. This would be surprising were it not for the fact, so visible from above, that the world is still a sparsely populated place.

In Houston the controllers maintained discipline, and continued preparing for the landing, even as they received word that the Merritt Island radar, in Florida, which should by now have started tracking the inbound craft, was picking up only false targets. Shuttles arrive on time or they don't arrive at all. But, repeatedly, the communicator radioed, "Columbia, Houston, UHF comm check," as if he might still hear a reply. Then, at thirteen minutes past the hour, precisely when the Columbia should have been passing overhead the runway before circling down for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, a phone call came in from an off-duty controller who had just seen a video broadcast by a Dallas television station of multiple contrails in the sky. When Cain heard the news, he paused, and then put the contingency plan into effect. To the ground-control officer he said, "GC, Flight."

"Flight, GC."

"Lock the doors."

"Copy."

The controllers were stunned, but lacked the time to contemplate the horror of what had just happened. Under Cain's direction they set about collecting numbers, writing notes, and closing out their logs, for the investigation that was certain to follow. The mood in the room was somber and focused. Only the most basic facts were known: the Columbia had broken up at 200,000 feet doing 12,738 mph, and the crew could not possibly have survived. Ron Dittemore, the shuttle program manager, would be talking to reporters later that day, and he needed numbers and information. At some point sandwiches were brought in and consumed. Like the priests who harvest faith at the bedsides of the dying, grief counselors showed up too, but they were not much used.

Cain insisted on control-room discipline. He said, "No phone calls off site outside of this room. Our discussions are on these loops-the recorded DVIS loops only. No data, no phone calls, no transmissions anywhere, into or out."

The Atlantic

Messenger

Geimfarið Messenger (Ekki Messanger eins og Visir.is segir) fór hjá Merkúr 14 janúar og hóf þá að senda upplýsingar til jarðar. Messenger er búinn að vera 3.5 ár á leiðinni og hefur ferðast 2milljarð mílna sem verður að teljast dágóður spotti.

Nafnið Messenger stendur fyrir "MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging"

Árið 1974 og 5 fór Nasa geimfarið Mariner 10 hjá Merkúr og myndaði yfirborð plánetunnar. Messenger mun núna fljúga hjá Merkúr í tvö skipti til viðbótar þar til hann fer á sporbaug 2011 og mun klára að kortleggja plánetuna.

Merkúr er sú pláneta í sólkerfinu sem er næst sólinni og er birta sólar allt að 11 sinnum meiri þar en hér á jörðinni og hitasveiflur frá -180°c til +430°c.

Af Vísir.is

Vísindamenn í skýjunum vegna mynda frá Merkúr

Vísindamenn eru yfir sig hrifnir af myndunum sem Messanger, geimfar bandarísku geimvísindastofnunarinnar NASA sendir frá plánetunni Merkúr þessa dagana.

Messanger er fyrsta geimfarið sem fer á sporbaug um Merkúr og myndir þær og upplýsingar sem farið sendir hafa varpað nýju ljósi á plánetuna. Meðal annars hafa fundist traustar sannanir fyrir því að eldfjallavirkni var til staðar á plánetunni fyrr á tímum.

Stór fjöll eru til staðar á Merkúr sem myndast hafa í eldgosum eða jarðhræringum og á yfirborði plánetunnar er að finna gíga eftir loftsteina sem eru ólíkir þeim gígum sem finna má á tunglinu.

Á myndinni sést einn af gígunum sem taldir eru sanna eldfjallavirkni á Merkúr. Hann hefur hlotið nafnið Símagígurinn vegna sérkennilegrar bergmyndunnar í honum miðjum.

Geimferð

Nú er að styttast að maður getið skellt sér í geimferð.

Virgin Galactic fyrirtækið mun bjóða upp á geimferðir frá Mojave eyðimörkinni í Kaliforníu til að byrja með en í byggingu er stór Spaceport (Geimvöllur!) í New Mexico sem verður tilbúinn 2009/10 og er ætlað að þjóna 50.000 geimferðalöngum næstu 10 árin.

Til að byrja með er áætlað að flogið verði einusinni á viku með geimflauginni Spaceship2. Flaugin tekur 6 farþega og 2 flugmenn (hvar ætli maður geti sótt um vinnu?). Farþegar gangast undir 3 daga þjálfun fyrir ferðina. Flaugin tekur sér far með burðarvélinni Spaceknight2 upp í 50.000´hæð þar sem henni er sleppt og við tekur eldflaugamótor Spaceship 2 sem ber hana í 360.000´hæð á 90 sekúndum og nær þreföldum hljóðhraða. Síðan svífur flaugin á eigin vængjum tilbaka til jarðar.

Maður telst meira að segja til geimfara eftir túrinn, ekki amalegt það.

"The term Astronaut is a derived from Greek words Ajstron ("star") and nautes ("sailor"). The criteria for determining who has achieved human spaceflight vary. In the United States, people who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) are designated as astronauts. The FAI defines spaceflight as over 100 km (62 miles).Virgin Galactic passengers will receive their Virgin Galactic astronaut wings and may receive FAA astronaut wings as well."

Spaceship two og Spaceknight two.

Ræða Burt Rutan (smiður og hönnuður)

Youtube Video

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Af Vísir.is

Geimferðir fyrir almenning hefjast í lok næsta árs

Virgin Galaxy, félag í eigu breska auðkýfingsins Richard Branson, mun hefja geimferðir fyrir almenning í lok næsta árs. Branson kynnti áform sín á fundi í New York síðdegis í gær.

Farið ber nafnið SpaceShipTwo og hafa um 200 manns þegar pantað sér far. Geimferðin hefst með því að flutningavél tekur það á loft og áleiðis í geiminn. Síðan taka vélar geimfarsins við og það mun fljúga upp í 110 kílómetra hæð yfir jörðu.

Eftir rúmlega fjögurra mínútna flug í þyngdarleysinu utan gufuhvolsins mun farið snúa aftur til jarðar. Það er ekki ódýrt að fara í geimflug með Virgin Galaxy því miðinn kostar rúmlega 12 miljónir króna.

Fyrir utan þá 200 sem þegar hafa pantað far hafa 85.000 lýst yfir áhuga sínum á að kaupa farmiða þegar geimfarið er komið í notkun

Steinmyndir eða Osama?

Frétt af mbl.is um Marsbúa eða álfa  

Sumir segja að þarna sé Osama bin Laden lifandi kominn loksins, reyndar bara 6cm hár og í 300 millj km fjarlægð frá jörðu svo það er erfitt að innheimta gjaldið sem er sett til höfuðs honum en þetta eru nú bara forvitnilegar steinmyndir því miður.

Athyglisvert er hversu vel Mars ökukannarnir tveir Opportunity og Spirit hafa dugað en þeir lentu á Mars í janúar 2004 og áttu að duga í 90 daga. Í dag 4 árum síðar eru þeir enn við vinnu að rannsaka jarðveg og mynda yfirborð Mars á sitthvorri hliðinni.

Nú er reyndar vetur á Mars og því lítið um sólarljós til að hlaða rafhlöður ökutækjanna og því starfsemi í lágmarki en þess má geta að Mars árið samvarar 687 Jarðdögum.

Bigfoot on Mars

Marsbúi eða garðálfur?

Sniðugt

Af Visir.is

Fyrsta kaupskip í heimi sem siglt er með aðstoð risastórrar fallhlífar er nú á leiðinni frá Þýsklandi til Venesúela.

Það er fyrirtækið Skysails sem hannað hafa hina tölvustýrðu fallhlíf sem staðsett er yfir framan stefni skipsins. Fallhlífin er 160 fm að stærð og talið er að spara megi um 20% af eldsneytisnotkun skipsins á leiðinni til Venesúela.

Skipið sem hér um ræðir, MS Beluga, er að prófa hina nýju tækni sem hér um ræðir. Árangurinn ætti að liggja fyrir innan tveggja vikna.

Gróðurhúsaáhrif á Diskóflóa

Ég hef sjálfur unnið við flug um Diskóflóa nokkra vetur og t.d. var ísinn veturinn 2004 ekki nema smá skán í tvær vikur en 2001 var mikill og þykkur ís.

Þeir sem eru fullvissir um að gróðurhúsaáhrif séu nánast að valda heimsendi eins og við þekkjum hann hafa mikið notað það sem rök að ísinn sé horfinn af Diskóflóa enda lagði flóann alla vetur frá 1960 og var vel hundasleðafær í nokkra mánuði.

Spurning hvað á að segja núna um gróðurhúsaáhrif þegar flóann leggur aftur svona rækilega.

Kaldasti vetur á Grænlandi í tíu ár

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