MARE NUBIUM, my novel of lunar colonization and survival, is now 70,000 words long. I have six weeks left if I’m going to finish the thing by Halloween. I need to pick up the pace.
On the space history front, 45 years ago today — September 18, 1963 — the lifting body demonstrator “ASSET-1” (a precursor to the Space Shuttle) flew to an altitude of 35 miles at the Eastern Space & Missile Center. You can read about the ASSET program on this Air Force fact sheet or this Wikipedia page.
by 
Astute readers might say to themselves, “Not much was happening a half century ago in space,” but something happened on the ground on September 17, 1958, that was important to U.S. space exploration: the NASA-ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) Manned Satellite Panel was formed.
According to THIS NEW OCEAN: A HISTORY OF PROJECT MERCURY, the panel recommended:
I. OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the project are to achieve at the earliest practicable date orbital flight and successful recovery of a manned satellite, and to investigate the capabilities of man in this environment.II. MISSION
To accomplish these objectives, the most reliable available boost system will be used. A nearly circular orbit will be established at an altitude sufficiently high to permit a 24-hour satellite lifetime; however, the number of orbital cycles is arbitrary. Descent from orbit will be initiated by the application of retro-thrust. Parachutes will be deployed after the vehicle has been slowed down by aerodynamic drag, and recovery on land or water will be possible.III. CONFIGURATION
A. Vehicle
The vehicle will be a ballistic capsule with high aerodynamic drag. It should be statically stable over the mach number range corresponding to flight within the atmosphere. Structurally, the capsule will be designed to withstand any combination of acceleration, heat loads, and aerodynamic forces that might occur during boost and reentry of successful or aborted missions.
The document outlined generally the life support, attitude control, retrograde, recovery, and emergency systems and described the guidance and tracking, instrumentation, communications, ground support, and test program requirements.
I love the concise nature of the statements, and the fact that the whole plan consumed “only two and one-half pages of typescript.” These days stating the objective by itself would probably take almost that much space. (Maybe typewriters and carbon paper helped them get to the point.)
[BREAK, BREAK]
Congratulations to my writing friend and fellow member of the Codex Writers Group, Alex Wilson, for reaching the finals of the Writers of the Future Contest! I hope he snags one of the prizes, and that I reach the same point … or sell so much that I render myself ineligible. 😉
by On September 12, 1993, the Space Shuttle Discovery launched on mission STS-51. Astronauts Frank L. Culbertson, Jr., William F. Readdy, James H. Newman, Daniel W. Bursch, and Carl E. Walz made up the crew.
Details of the mission, including the scrubbed launch attempts starting in July, are on this page.
The crew deployed two payloads: the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) and the Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (OERFEUS-SPAS). The mission lasted nine days — a day longer than scheduled because of adverse weather at the Kennedy Space Center landing site.
by On August 30, 1983, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-8. Astronauts Richard Truly, Daniel Brandenstein, Dale Gardner, Guion Bluford (first U.S. black man in space), and William Thornton made up the crew. The mission launched the Insat-1B satellite (a multipurpose satellite for India) and was the first shuttle launch in the dark and the first shuttle landing in the dark.
Other mission highlights (edited into bullet format),
– the nose of orbiter was held away from the sun for 14 hours to test the flight deck area in extreme cold
– the crew filmed performance of an experimental heat pipe mounted in the cargo bay
– the orbiter dropped to 139 miles altitude to perform tests on thin atomic oxygen to identify the cause of glow that surrounds parts of the orbiter at night
– the remote manipulator system was tested to evaluate joint reactions to higher loads
– six rats were flown in the Animal Enclosure Module to observe animal reactions in space
– testing was conducted between the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I (TDRS-1) and the orbiter using a Ku-band antenna
– investigations continued on the Space Adaptation Syndrome
[BREAK, BREAK]
In other news, Dragon*Con is going fine. I got to visit with several of my writing friends at supper last night, and I’ll be leaving in a little while for Day 2 (featuring the ever-popular Baen slide show).
by … and a press pass.
Doggone NASA has scheduled a Lunar Exploration Workshop at Johnson Space Center for September 8th, at which
Reporters will have a unique chance to experience lunar life, including driving across and touching a simulated moonscape….
During Monday’s tour, reporters will visit NASA’s lunar yard to view NASA’s prototype lunar truck as it travels across the mock surface of the moon. They will be able to climb into a concept lunar lander in the Altair development lab and examine moon rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo astronauts.
Here’s the press release if you want to read more about it.
Hey, NASA: I’m writing this novel about lunar colonists and the sacrifices they make to keep their colony alive. Can I come?
You’d better believe I would try if I could come up with money for a plane ticket and could take some more time off from my NC State job. (Baen work I can take with me, which is very nice.)
But, since I’m sinking a decent amount into this week’s trip to Atlanta for Dragon*Con — and need to hold back a tidy sum to pay my estimated taxes next month 😡 — and don’t really have any more time off to spare, I guess I won’t try to wrangle press credentials to attend.
Drat.
by Ever suddenly realize you don’t know what day it is? Me, too.
I have a wide range of excuses as to why I didn’t post this yesterday–good excuses, too, I assure you–but rather than enumerate them I’ll just post it now.
Fifty (50!) years ago yesterday the U.S. launched Explorer 5 from the Eastern Space & Missile Center. Or, rather, attempted to launch. It didn’t achieve orbit because parts of the rocket and the spacecraft collided in flight.
Why is that significant? Not just because it was a half-century ago, but because it’s so similar to the failure that hit the Falcon-1 program earlier this month. That launch, back on August 2nd, failed because the first and second stages collided in flight.
Spaceflight, contrary to our best wishes, is still hard.
by Two items in one: A question about whether growing geopolitical contention with Russia will hinder NASA’s access to the ISS, and an article (sent by one of my old bosses) that considers the results of the National Security Space Independent Assessment Panel.
I posted both items in the Space Warfare Forum, and rather than repeat myself, here are the links:
– How Strained are U.S.-Russian Space Relations?
– New National Security Space Policy Coming?
And yes, new members are always welcome in the Space Warfare Forum.
by A little progress on MARE NUBIUM, having crossed the 55,000-word threshold tonight. It’s somewhat slow going, but I’m still having fun with it. Hopefully some readers will get the chance to have fun with it, too.
[BREAK, BREAK]
In the “This Day in Space History” file, ten years ago today the Russians launched Soyuz TM-28 to the Mir space station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The spacecraft returned to earth the following February, but one of the cosmonauts stayed aboard Mir for a year. (The Mir station itself deorbited in 2001.*) See this page for more on the Soyuz TM-series spacecraft.
___
*The main character in my story “The Rocket Seamstress,” a worker at Baikonur, considered what she thought of as the ignoble fate of Mir.
by Only saw one meteor last night, and it was so quick and faint it may have been my imagination — unlike the night we sat behind our house in Nebraska and so many fell and seemed so close I thought I might reach up and catch them. But last night I needed to sleep, since I’m driving to Asheville this morning.
On an up note, however, two rising stars of SF&F — who just happen to be two of my favorite people in the world — are featured in a hilarious interview: Alethea Kontis, author of Beauty & Dynamite (which I am enjoying reading), interviewed Edmund Schubert, editor of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, on topics ranging from how he came to edit IGMS to his “PenguinMan” superhero persona. It’s wonderful. Click through from one of their web sites or read it here.
And take a look at the book trailer for Beauty & Dynamite. It just went up on YouTube recently, even though the book has been out for awhile. The trailer is classy and understated — unlike Lee, who is classy and exuberant — and was produced by a certain daughter of mine.
by 
