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Showing posts from March, 2012

One giant dive for mankind

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In a historic solo dive to the bottom of the world, famed filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence James Cameron descended 35,756 feet (6.77 miles/10.89 km) to reach the " Challenger Deep ," the ocean's deepest point located in the Mariana Trench some 200 miles (322 km) southwest of Guam on Monday, March 26.  The descent voyage took two hours and 36 minutes from 5:15 a.m. until 7:52 a.m. local time. In his specially designed submersible DEEPSEA CHALLENGER , Cameron spent about three hours on the seafloor collecting photos and samples for scientific research in marine biology, microbiology, astrobiology, marine geology, and geophysics.  In another first, he also tweeted from the seafloor under a crushing pressure of 16,285 psi (112,280 kPa). The vehicle surfaced at 12:00 noon local time and was retrieved by the Ship Mermaid Sapphire . Photo by Mark Thiessen/National Geographic. (shown with permission) Filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-R

One small step for Suborbital

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We are moving from an era of limited government-controlled space access using very expensive vehicles to more affordable systems developed by the private sector that can provide frequent trips to space for a variety of purposes.  Multiple companies are rushing to be the first to market, including Virgin Galactic , XCOR Aerospace , Armadillo Aerospace , Blue Origin , and Masten Space Systems . Their varied technological approaches and flight plans offer researchers a great deal of options for studying the suborbital realm.  The sky is not the limit! Last month I attended the 2012 Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) in Palo Alto, California.  The purpose of the conference was to kickstart the imaginations of scientists who may utilize suborbital platforms for research.  Whereas tourism has driven much of the initial investment in the burgeoning new paradigm for space access, it is the research market that stands poised to provide the long-standing demand to sustai