NASA scientist wins free space trip on rocket plane

PALO ALTO, Calif. — A NASA scientist has won a free flight to suborbital space, but he may not be able to claim the prize.

Thomas Goodwin, a physiology and bioengineering researcher at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, won a suborbital flight on XCOR Aerospace's Lynx vehicle, a $95,000 value. Goodwin's name was randomly selected here Monday (Feb. 27) at the 2012 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC-2012).

"I'm not sure I can accept this," Goodwin said, referencing his status as a government employee, which may prevent him from using the prize. "I'm very surprised."

If government regulations and red tape prohibit Goodwin from claiming the award, a backup is ready to step up; XCOR officials drew an alternate name just in case. Conference attendees who registered in advance were entered in the drawing.

XCOR's Lynx is a two-person space plane designed to take off and land on a conventional airport runway. In addition to flights with paying passengers, the rocket-powered vehicle is being designed to carry research experiments to suborbital space.

XCOR officials have said the Lynx could be in flight-test operations by the end of 2012. The company plans to charge $95,000 per seat when the space plane is up and running. XCOR also announced Monday that it recently secured $5 million in equity funding that will help fund its work on the Lynx.

Whoever eventually goes up in the space plane will be in for a real treat, XCOR officials said.

"Hang onto your hat, because it's going to be one amazing ride," said former NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander Rick Searfoss, XCOR's chief test pilot.

XCOR isn't the only company developing craft to take scientists, experiments and tourists up to suborbital space. Virgin Galactic, for example, is charging $200,000 for rides on its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, which seats six passengers, along with two pilots.

NSRC-2012, which runs through Wednesday (Feb. 29), brings scientists and educators together to talk about how commercial suborbital spacecraft can help advance research in atmospheric science, physics, planetary science, biology and physiology, among other fields, according to conference organizers.

The meeting is jointly hosted by NASA, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and the Colorado-based Southwest Research Institute.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

View the original article here

Astronaut creates Lego model of International Space Station

As detailed recently by space history site CollectSpace, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa spent a couple hours constructing a model of the International Space Station (ISS) out of LEGO bricks while he was a resident of the ISS during late September 2011. Measuring approximately two feet in length, Furukawa had to construct the entire model within a glovebox. Designed to protect astronauts from hazardous dangers and conduct research experiments, the glovebox is a sealed, clear container with gloves mounted on the sides which allows astronauts to manipulate components in physical and chemical interactions to better understand how gravity alters similar experiments on Earth.

The LEGO bricks were placed inside the glovebox to protect astronauts from losing the plastic bricks inside the space station. According to NASA astronaut Michael Fossum, another resident of the ISS at the time, he stated “A lot of the work dealing with the small pieces had to be done in an enclosure, like a simple payload glovebox. A simple structural one with plastic sides so you could see inside, but a glovebox so you don’t have all of these little pieces getting loose and becoming either lost or potentially getting jammed in equipment or even becoming a flammability hazard.”

However Furukawa did have some difficulty using the glovebox to build the entire replica of the ISS. He stated “The challenging part was using the thick rubber gloves in the containment system because it made me clumsy in building the LEGO space station. I needed to use the system to put many small pieces of LEGO under control in microgravity.”

Furukawa also had to create the station in different sections due to the size of the work space within the glovebox. Once the ISS replica was completed, the model was only allowed to remain assembled for two hours due to concerns over fire. According to the astronauts, exposing the LEGO bricks to the open cabin air was a flammability hazard. 

Due to Furukawa’s interest in LEGO models, Fossum mentioned “He really enjoyed doing that and he kind of became ‘the LEGO guy.’” While on the International Space Station, Furukawa also built LEGO models of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars rover, a lunar exploration rover as well as a communications and global positioning satellite. 

The International Space Station makes about 16 trips around the Earth each day as it travels approximately 17,000 miles per hour while in orbit. Earlier today, astronaut Mike Fossum tweeted about a “stunning” YouTube video demonstrating the orbital path of the ISS. Available in 1080p, the time-lapse video has been digitally altered to appear smooth and almost resembles CGI. 

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Space elevator could be ready by 2050, ride takes a week

A moving experience – robotic mannequin debuts in Tokyo

Japanese drinks company launches vending machine with free Wi-Fi (as well as drinks)

Car security: Japanese engineers develop seat that knows who’s sitting on it

View the original article here