Outer Space Has A Smell & Laser-Propelled Spaceships Could Transform Transportation

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Space Shocks Rookie Astronauts' Senses
Pilot Kevin Ford Says He Wasn't Prepared for Smell of Space
Tariq Malik, Space.com


WASHINGTON (Sept. 5) - For rookie astronauts flying aboard the International Space Station, the food is good, the rocket thrusters are loud and there's an odd tang in the air -- apparently from outer space.

"It's a very, very different environment than I expected," Discovery shuttle pilot Kevin Ford, a first-time spaceflyer, said from orbit late Friday.

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One of things Ford wasn't ready for is the weird smell.

"From the [spacewalks] there really is a distinct smell of space when they come back in," Ford said from the station in a Friday night news conference. "It's like...something I haven't ever smelled before, but I'll never forget it. You know how those things stick with you."

In the past, astronauts have described the smell of space as something akin to gunpowder or ozone.

The sounds of spaceflight have also been surprising, especially when Discovery fires up its large maneuvering thrusters, Ford said.

"It definitely gives the shuttle a kick and you just feel a little twang throughout the whole orbiter when they're firing to keep you in position," he added.

Of the 13 astronauts aboard the International Space Station and docked shuttle, nearly half are taking their first trip to space. For some, it's a short trip aboard the shuttle, which blasted off last week with three rookies aboard.

Other first-time spaceflyers are on the station for the long haul. Some have already been there for months, so the term "rookie" barely applies.

"The food is wonderful," said rookie astronaut Nicole Stott, who arrived at the station Sunday on Discovery to begin a three-month stay. "Of course we have a mix from all the partners now."

The result, she said, is a sort of orbital smorgasbord that includes food from the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe.

"I think you can find something for everyone," Stott said.

Discovery's seven-astronaut crew is in the middle of a 13-day mission to deliver fresh supplies and new science gear to the space station. The astronauts ferried Stott to the outpost to replace another NASA astronaut who will come home on the shuttle.

They also delivered a $5 million treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert.
Even some of Discovery's grizzled veterans were surprised by the life aboard the station, which is the $100 billion product of 16 different countries.

"It's really awesome to see all the work that's been achieved up here since our last flight," said Discovery commander Rick Sturckow, who is making his fourth flight to the station. "They've added a new solar array and some new modules. The station is something that all the international partners can be very proud of for their contributions."


Laser-Propelled Spaceships Could Transform Transportation
By Leik N. Myrabo and John S. Lewis


Beamed Energy Propulsion (BEP) is far more than a dream or idea: It is a powerful enabling technology that will radically transform the future of air and space transportation. It is physics, not imagination.

BEP permits us to build and fly hyper-energetic vehicles driven by remote sources of laser, microwave, and mm-wave power. Such vehicles provide unique performance that would be impossible to achieve with traditional, combustion-based engines. Vehicles driven by BEP will be "greener," safer, smaller, lighter, faster, and far more efficient than any currently existing means of flight transport.

Beamed Energy Propulsion, detailed in our book "The Lightcraft Flight Handbook: LTI-20," is inherently a clean technology. It uses electricity, which can be produced in an eco-friendly manner. It doesn't matter whether the electricity comes from Earth-based or space-based solar, wind, fission, fusion, hydroelectric (or other), so we can choose how to produce it--and we can choose from the start to produce it in an ecologically responsible way. We see here the emergence of nothing less than a sustainable energy infrastructure, one that permits us to relegate our crude oil to use as a chemical feedstock, a resource far too precious to burn.

Throughout the history of human transportation, two things have acted as the practical constraints on how fast, far, and high we can go: the power density of our engines and the energy density of our fuels. And what if we leave the "fuel" behind altogether – and exploit beamed energy propulsion instead? What if we could have the total output of an aircraft's or spaceship's powerplant devoted to lifting the payload and structural shell that supports the engines and payload?

Such a system would represent the next major breakthrough in aerospace propulsion, first enabling affordable access to space for launching constellations of nanosatellites, and finally transform humans from Earthlings into space-farers. We could not only lift 100 times as much payload with a given amount of energy—we could do so with cheap electric energy. By leaving the fuel behind, we also can make spaceflight much safer.

Cheap access to space is nothing short of revolutionary. Just as internal combustion, electricity, telephones, computers, the internet, and aviation have dramatically changed our lives, so will our lives be changed again by our gaining cheap access to nearby space. We will tap the vast energy resources of the sun and material resources of the nearby asteroids while expanding human civilization into this unbounded new environment. We will enter a new era for humanity, a new Age of Sustainable Flight Mobility.

Is beamed energy propulsion some futuristic pipe dream? Interestingly, laser-powered lightcraft have already flown in miniature form. In a series of experiments nearly a decade ago, saucer-sized lightcraft were successfully launched using a military laser (one non-optimized for propulsion) at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico to 71 meters altitude. That altitude record still stands. In one generation, the science and technology needed to build and fly full-size Lightcraft has been developed to maturity, ripe for commercialization. All that's needed now is to actually build them. The problem has evolved from a scientific one to an engineering one—simply a matter of will.

The sky is no longer the limit.

[Rivkah Cohen]

Pretty amazing. Knowledge has definitely increased and increased.
Rivkah