GRB From Beyond

A little over a week ago, a rare event occurred and was captured by NASA's Swift satellite. The event was actually so rare, that nothing with that magnitude had ever been detected before. I'm speaking of a gamma ray burst (GRB) that was visible with the naked eye.

Gamma Ray Bursts are not uncommon, about 2 are detected every week. The oddity here was how far away the burst was from Earth. The distance was measured at about halfway across the observable universe. That is 7.5 billion light years, and it was visible with no telescope, no binoculars. Nothing even remotely close to this distance has ever been observable with the naked eye.

There are two explanations, either this was an extremely powerful burst, or the jets from the GRB was extremely narrow and happened to be directed toward Earth. Actually, when this GRB occurred, the Earth was not even in existence, 7.5 billion years ago. Pretty interesting to imagine this.

This burst came as one of 4 GRB's detected that day, setting a new record for GRB detections for the Swift satellite. Coincidentally this record GRB detection came the day after Arthur C. Clarke died.

If you want to read more on this check out NASA.gov


Godspeed

Blu-Ray and Dell

Dell is now offering the Inspiron 1529 which now includes a Blu-Ray drive for reading blu-ray disks.

This is not a new thing for laptops/computers. There are plenty of companies that now offer the Blu-ray drive in their computers. What sets this new laptop apart from the competitors is the price, starting at $879 with an option to buy a Blu-ray burner, for only $200 more.

This price is great, finally a blu-ray that is affordable in a computer. We can only hope that this will help drive down the prices of not only blu-ray reading computers, but also regular blu-ray players that are currently way overpriced.


Godspeed

Valve and Portal

I don't know how many people are huge Portal fans like myself. I loved the innovative new format of the game along with an interesting story that doesn't get in the way of the game play. It was great to see a new idea come out when there are few new innovative ideas in the gaming world anymore. Not to say there aren't great games, but the game types and genres have become pretty repeatative, not too much out of the box thinking.

Portal was a refreshing game, all be it short, that gained quite the following. If you haven't tried this game, go out and grab Orange Box, not only will you get Portal, but you'll also get Half-Life, as well as Team Fortress, a little something for everyone!

As I was saying though, some great news for those of us who are huge fans of Portal. It appears, Portal 2 is in the works. I personally can't wait to get my hands on this game, we'll see in the future when this will release and how they will continue this story. For some more info check here


Also, should you want something cool from the game to have around the house, check out the Weighted Companion Cube Plush. Find it at the Valve Store



Godspeed

Life on Enceladus?

The Cassini spacecraft was recently steered into the icy plumes that emanate from Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. The icy plumes were only discovered in 2005 and was a surprise to many scientists who did not expect to find activity on a moon so far from the Sun.

A surprising thing was discovered when the Cassini spacecraft was steered through the moons icy plumes. There were many organic compounds found within the material being ejected from the moons surface. Basically the moon is ideal to have life on the surface, or someplace within the Saturn system.

Enceladus has the conditions needed for life to exist and this is the first time that such favorable life supporting conditions have been found outside of our own planet. Truly a remarkable discovery and something that will definitely need to be looked into further.

An amazing find, hopefully we'll see more come of this in the near future.

Godspeed

Latest Poll

The Latest Poll Results:

Which refueler fills the USAF role?

KC-767..............................83% of the votes
KC-30/KC-45.......................16% of the votes


Godspeed

MD-80's Grounded

American Airlines and Delta Airlines have decided to ground almost 500 planes in order to conduct inspections on wire bundles in their fleets of MD-80's and MD-88's. The companies have done these inspections voluntarily in order to check to make sure the wire bundles are maintaining the FAA requirements.

American finished checking 243 of their aircraft yesterday and will finish inspecting the remaining aircraft today. American's grounding of their MD-80 fleet interrupted the schedules of about 26,000 passengers yesterday.

Delta Airlines has not disclosed the number of passengers effected by the grounding of the 117 MD-88's they are inspecting. Delta promises to have all aircraft inspected and back into service by Saturday.

These inspections come in the wake of a major saftey problem involving Southwest Airlines not being inspected for long periods of time. Rebounding from this, the FAA has issued audits on many maintenance logs, in order to make sure nothing is being missed after this huge saftey slip- up with Southwest.

American and Delta will be back to full operation by this weekend.


Godspeed

"Breaking Atmo"

A company named XCOR has made an announcement today that they will be joining the "Space Tourism" industry. XCOR is a company out of Mojave, CA who has been in rocket engine development for different rocket engines over the last 9 years.

XCOR will create a personal aircraft sized spacecraft that will launch and fly out to the edge of the atmosphere for passengers to view the Earth from space and to experience a short duration of weightlessness.

XCOR plans to use a liquid fueled rocket system due to both the saftey of the system and the minimal impact on environment as compared to other rocket configurations. Liquid fueled rockets are safer due to the fact that they can be shut down once started, you just cut off the fuel and oxidizer flow to the engine. Hybrid rockets also work like this, but solid fueled rockets can not be stopped once they have been ignited.

With the safety of the liquid fueled system, comes a heightened complexity to the rocket. A liquid fuel system requires a lot of cooling and piping, as well as turbo pumps to feed the fuel into the engine.

If you want to take a look at the new vehicle proposed by XCOR, check out their website XCOR.com


Godspeed

F-35B Lightning II

The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-35 is the next generation Joint Strike Fighter which is set to replace the aging fighter fleet along with offer many planes to allied countries. The F-35B version of this plane is one of the most capable and amazing aircraft ever created. The F-35B was created to service the Marines and replace the AV-8B Harrier. The F-35B has a lift fan right behind the cockpit and the main engine swivels downward.

The F-35B is the first aircraft that can take off, go supersonic, and land vertically. The design of the aircraft is amazing, and the engine is able to pull of some pretty crazy things.

Watch the video below and enjoy this new aircraft!



Godspeed

Aloha Chapter 11

Aloha Airlines has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, just 2 years after emerging from a previous bankruptcy. They plan on continuing to fly as long as their bankruptcy is accepted by the courts.

Aloha Airgroup Inc. is blaming the loss of revenue on the low prices of competitor Go! airlines which is managed by the Mesa Air Group Inc.

Go! came into the market in 2006 to compete with both Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. Aloha is claiming that Go! is operating the business at below cost, meaning they are losing money on passenger tickets. The money coming in is less than the money going out, no net profit, they are operating at a loss. This seems to be backed by the fact that Go! reported a net loss in its first year of operation.

Aloha CEO and President David A. Banmiller had the following to say, "It is a travesty and a tragedy that the illegal actions of a competitor and other factors completely beyond our control have forced us to take this action." Banmiller is referring to the fact that Go! is operating at a loss in order to draw as many people as possible to the airlines and in turn forcing Aloha and Hawaiian to dramatically lower ticket prices in order to compete. All of this occurs at a time when fuel prices are skyrocketing out of control.

We'll see how everything plays out. For more information on this story, visit Aviation.com


Godspeed

DARPA Loves Long Flights

That's right, DARPA is at it again with a pretty crazy project. DARPA is looking to have an aircraft built to meet some pretty crazy criteria. The main one being, a 5 year flight duration.

Yep, DARPA wants to fly an aircraft for 5 year straight without touching down. The aircraft will be mainly used to sample the atmosphere over the five year mission time. DARPA has named this project the "Vulture" project.

DARPA is close to awarding a contract and will move forward after that. The picture above is of the NASA long endurance aircraft and could be one possible design choice for entries into the project.

Currently the longest duration aircraft flying is the Global Hawk. The Global Hawk is an UAV that can fly for 40-48 hours straight without refueling. This new proposed aircraft would fly for 1000 times longer than the Global Hawk. Some ideas of how this could be achieved include solar power which would work really well and possibly fuel cells.

We'll see how this interesting project pans out in the near future!

Godspeed

Phoenix Readying for Touchdown

NASA has begun adjusting orbits of three orbiting satellites over Mars as it prepares to cover the landing of the latest Martian visitor, the Phoenix. Having the three satellites cover the landing of the probe will give scientists a better understanding of what occurs as probes land on Mars.

Phoenix was launched in 2004 and will land farther north than any previous Mars lander. The hope is that the probe will be able to find frozen water further north.

The polar regions of Mars is covered in what appears to be snow, but the white "ice caps" are actually frozen Carbon Dioxide. Scientists believe that beneath the CO2 lies frozen or even liquid water/ice, this belief arising from observed impact craters and the debris spread from those craters. Also recent observations with a gamma ray spectrometer has detected water at the polar caps.

The probe will search for signs of water and gather data on the meteorological conditions at the polar caps so that models of the past and present polar conditions can be created. The probe is set to enter the martian atmosphere on May 25th.

This should be an interesting mission


Godspeed

EADS Outpreforms Boeing? Who Got Paid Off Here?

As I spoke about a week or two ago, EADS company, Airbus, has won the contract for the Air Force tanker program. Recently the Air Force clarified things, saying that the A330 beat out the 767 in every category. This leaves me personally confused as to how they determined this. Someone got a payoff with this one.

Lets review the 5 criteria for the contract:

-capability
-risk
-past performance
-cost
-"integrated fleet aerial refueling assessment"

Ok, lets review these one by one and assess how exactly Boeing lost in every single category.



Capability

As far as capability, the 767 should be just as capable as the A330 with the only exception being that the A330 can carry more fuel. At the same time though, Boeing was given the criteria of medium sized air refueler, if the Air Force had specified that it wanted a large refueler, then the 777 would have been put forth as an option. A330 has the capacity, but capacity is not the same as capability.


Risk

This one confuses me, how is a 767 which has been through flight testing and proven as a reliable aircraft, more risky then an aircraft that hasn't been built yet, by a company that has never made a tanker aircraft before. That’s right, Airbus has never made a tanker before, while Boeing has two under its belt.


Past Performance

I'm not sure if this is past performance of the aircraft or the company. If it’s the aircraft, I'm not sure you can measure the past performance of planes that have no past. If it's the company, then how is the performance of a company that has never made a tanker before, better than that of a company that has created two, to date.


Cost

Well there, somehow Boeing lost with a lower cost per plane, and it currently fits all available hangars. The A330 costs more per plane, and is larger so it doesn't fit all of the current hangars requiring more money to be spent on modifying hangars and possible the runways for a heavier aircraft. Not sure how the 767 costs more.

"Integrated fleet aerial refueling assessment"

Ummmm, What does that mean? at the least this is a tie to anyone outside of the, Air Force elite who are the only ones who actually know what this criteria means.




As far as I can tell, the 767 still came out on top, well unless you factor in the changing of criteria after bids were due. That’s a whole other issue though.

Robot Dog

This is a video of a DARPA funded project to build a cargo carrying robot dog. This thing is crazy stable and can recover from some incredible slips and such, watch the video. This is the future of robot stability.

RSS Feed

I've made the RSS Feed a bit more accessible, check out the right column for the RSS Feed.

I'll keep everyone updated on any future changes I make to where the RSS is hosted!

Russian Proton Failure

Early Saturday morning, the Russian launched Proton rocket failed while placing a DISH network satellite into orbit.

The Proton rocket worked flawlessly until a little over an hour into the flight when the vehicle needed to make a planned orbit change in order to get the payload to an optimal orbit. When the failure occurred, the upper stage was in the process of completing a 34 minute burn. The premature shutdown of the upper stage left the satellite 5,000 miles short of its intended altitude of 17,400 miles.

This incident marks the 2nd Proton in 6 months to fail, leaving parent companies wondering what is wrong with their launch vehicle and having to open an investigation into the cause of the problem.

The satellite owner, SES AMERICOM, must make a decision on what to do bout the errant satellite which was to provide HD television service to the U.S. through DISH Network. Now that the satellite is out of position, there are a few options, either use the fuel on board the satellite to move it into position, use the fuel to de-orbit the satellite, or try a risky lunar assist orbit change.

The lunar assist worked for a previous Proton launch failure, but is tricky and far from guaranteed to work. Using on board fuel to change the orbit of the satellite will likely cause some problems; this would almost certainly use most of the fuel on-board and leave little for in orbit adjustments and severely life limit the satellite. The third option is to use the on-board fuel to degrade the orbit into the atmosphere, most likely this would be chosen for insurance reasons.

If you want to read more on this, check out Space.com

Endeavor Away!

The shuttle Endeavor is on the platform and ready to go. Endeavor is prepared to take off on it's mission to the International Space Station, launch is scheduled for 2:28 am local time.

The Endeavor will fly to the ISS carrying the new Japanese built Kibo labratory section. Also the shuttle will carry the new Canadian double robotic arm, this will allow the arm system to reach just about all locations on the space station and make many repairs and adjustments without having to preform a spacewalk.

For more information, visit NASA.gov

Saturns Moon Has A What?

Thats right the Saturn satellite Rhea, may have rings surrounding it. The Cassini detected lowered levels of electron activity coming from around the moon Rhea. The most obvious and plausible explanation is that the moon has a ring, or multiple rings filled with stellar debris, very similar to the ring surrounding it's parent planet, Saturn. The ring would be not nearly as dense as those found around Saturn, but a ring none the less.

This is the first discovery of a moon that has a ring, no stellar body other than planets have been found to have rings. This is an interesting discovery, and has yet to be verified visually, but possibly in the near future by Cassini or other spacecraft could visually confirm this.

Southwest Under the Microscope

Southwest has backed themselves into a corner, and now must attend a hearing on some pretty serious charges.

Apparently Southwest has been operating many planes (117 to be exact) without proper saftey inspections. Due to a few crashes of 737 aircraft in the past, 737's being the only aircraft operated by Southwest, these aircraft must undergo inspections of the rudder and for metal fatigue on a regular basis.

It seems as though some of Southwest's 737 have gone up to 30 months without an inspection. These are some serious issues brought up by two FAA inspector who are claiming that some FAA administrators have relaxed the rules on purpose for Southwest, as to not interrupt regular flight schedules. As far as I can tell, 30 months is not "relaxing" the rules as much as breaking right through them and leaving their shattered remains in the dust.

This is a huge problem, as it risked passenger lives, and overall may have been part of the reason that Southwest has been turning profits and bragging, when other airlines struggle.

This is unacceptable, saftey is always the first and foremost in any situation.

The Dwarf Planets

As many know by this point, Pluto was removed from the list of solar system "planets" and added to the new list of "dwarf planets" which brought us to an 8 planet solar system and 3 major dwarf planets. Pluto was reclassified in 2006, this was something know by most people, but the reason for the reclassification.

In 2003 the "dwarf planet" Eris was first seen, but not identified until 2005. Eris is located well beyond the Kuiper Belt, at 96.7 AU away from the sun, which is about 3 times farther away than Pluto.

The kicker of discovering Eris... it's bigger than Pluto, 27% more massive. This caused Eris to be dubbed the tenth planet for a short period of time, until it spurred the defining of the label "planet" which reclassified Pluto and Eris as a dwarf planet.

As much as I hate to see Pluto go, I don't really know how well everyone would have excepted a 10th planet. If at all interested in Eris, check out some general information HERE.

USAF Slammed By the Public and Boeing

Yesterday the USAF announced its decision for the purchase of the new air refueling tankers. Their decision was for the KC-30 (named the KC-45A by the USAF), built in France by Airbus. This aircraft was chosen over the Boeing 767. Needless to say, the general public, and Boeing were livid... to put it lightly.

In order to understand why everyone, admittedly including myself, were so angered by this decision we have to look at many factors. When you look at the stats between the two planes that each tanker is based off of, the reason for the decision is fairly clear; fuel capacity. The KC-30, based on the A330, is larger than the Boeing competition the KC-767, modeled from the Boeing 767. While this seems to be an obvious choice for the winner, thats just about the only thing going for the KC-30.

At the moment, Airbus has built a grand total of, yes count them.... 0 KC-30 tankers, yep thats right, this plane has not even been built and flight tested yet. The KC-767 has recently finished flight testing and has started to be delivered to both the Italian Air Force and the Japanese Air Force for their use. This puts Boeing way ahead of Airbus, they have a deliverable model... right now!

Now lets look at a few more things. Boeing is an American Company, and Airbus is European. This mean the USAF, will be supporting mainly another country, although Airbus has promised to use the American company Northrop Grumman for the mods. So in a time of recession, the USAF decides to send our tax dollars to another country, nothing like giving the stock market a negative boost.

Then there's the issue of price. The sale price for the KC-767 will be $40 million less than that of the KC-30. So the Air Force, who at the moment is complaining because their fighter fleet needs updating and they don't have the budget, is spending over $7.1 billion extra in the initial contract, just by picking the KC-30 over the KC-767. So if they supported the American economy and bought the cheaper plane, that would allow them to buy an additional 51 F-22 Raptors, to update their fighter fleet; not nearly enough, but a good start.

Now we'll talk about the serious impact to the American economy, other than straight cash... rather... Jobs! Boeing estimates that if the contract was given to them, that would allow them to create/sustain about 44,000 jobs in about 40 states between all the supplies and Boeing employees. This also kills Kansas, as many know, I live in Wichita. Our mayor was told this news at a meeting, and shook his head in disbelief, as did many of the other people attending the meeting.

The contract would have created 300-500 new jobs at the Boeing facility in Wichita, as well as another 500 jobs for supplier Spirit Aerosystems. This contract would also have kept the 767 production line running for the next few years, allowing those jobs to remain in Everett, Washington. Overall in Kansas the new job total was expected to be about 3,800. The Wichita agenda meetings produced disbelief and people saying something about an "explosion in Congress."

In a time when European companies are very hesitant to give any money to the American economy, case and point, British Airways. Why should we be supporting another country... in any way if avoidable.

We can only hope that this decision is reversed after the publics reaction to this. I am personally disappointed by this decision. This raises many questions for me about the leadership of the USAF.