CoS 128
I’ve been busy catching up on my classes, so I haven’t posted anything lately.  But, you can catch up on lots of great space-related blog posts at the 128th Carnival of Space, being hosted this week at the AARTScope Blog. -Astroprof

Ares I-X Launch Photos
It’s been a week since the Ares I-X launch, so you are probably wondering where the pictures are.  After the launch, I tried to clean up as best I could in the bathroom at the space center, and I headed straight to the airport to catch my plane back to DFW.  Upon returning, I have been busy trying to play catchup.  I needed to rescale the images so that they would not be too large.  But finally, they are here!  Click on the pictures for a larger view.  Don’t rag on me that the pictures are not as good as the press photographers get.  They’ve got more expensive camera equipment and a lot more experience than I do!

Triboelectrification trouble
Well, the launch did not go as hoped for this morning.  Last night, the forecast was for only about a 40% chance of the launch getting off.  This morning, when I got up to head over to the space center, I saw stars!  Things were definitely looking good!  Then, as we headed to the launch site, I saw some clouds.  Weather was moving in.  Still, it looked like we’d get the thing off if everything went according to schedule.  Well, it didn’t. First of all, they were running a bit late.  The announcer said that there were no particular problems.  However, running late delayed the launch until clouds arrived.  Weather aircraft were studying the clouds and balloons

Ares I-X
If everything works out OK, then NASA will launch a new rocket this coming Tuesday:  the Ares I-X.  And, if everything works right, I’ll be there to witness it! The Ares rockets and Orion crew module are supposed to eventually replace the Space Shuttle in NASA’s inventory of craft to ferry astronauts to and from space.   The Ares has been the target of quite a lot of criticism, too.  Th

Electrostatic Radiation Shielding
Clearly carrying heavy shielding to protect astronauts from radiation in space is expensive.  If you havent’ been reading my space radiation series as I’ve been posting, then you can look over the last several of my postings about space radiation to see some of the problems.  So, some other strategy may be the way to go to shield against radiation.  One idea that I ran across a while ago was electrostatic shielding.  Space.com did a good article on that a few years ago.