Hazard's stuff

Resurs-DK1

— Posted by hazard @ 2006-07-02 23:49
The new Russian imaging satellite, Resurs-DK1, has already been described as being "8x better than West counterparts" to president Putin. Below are links to pictures of Izmir, Turkey, taken by Resurs-DK1, and picture of the same place from Google Earth (most probably from Ikonos satellite). Compare yourself.

Izmir, by Resurs-DK1
Izmir, by Google Earth


Movie about Fobos-Grunt (Phobos-Soil / Phobos-Grunt)

— Posted by hazard @ 2006-05-06 19:01
I found a nicely done clip about upcoming Fobos-Grunt interplanetary mission (in Russian). Aim of the mission is to get samples of Phobos soil and bring it back to Earth. Mission has been delayed and delayed since 90s, so I'm not sure it will fly in 2009, but its nice to see Russian Federal Space Agency getting better at PR.

64m radiotelescope at Kalyazin, Russia

— Posted by hazard @ 2006-04-30 04:32


End of the World

— Posted by hazard @ 2006-04-27 11:49
Here you can download video of EROS-A satellite launch. It was put into space using mobile Topol missle launcher. Since exactly the same thing would be used if nuclear war started, this video gives you an idea of how the End of the World would look like.

First pictures from Monitor-E

— Posted by hazard @ 2005-12-03 16:03



The first modern remote-sensing satellite made in Russia, Monitor-E, has successfully sent first pictures. This is important as right now Russia does not have any remote-sensing satellite capable of transmitting pictures with less than 10m resolution online - in fact, the only satellite capable to send photographs online is almost dead (a Meteor-3M), and its resolution is 35 m. So far high resolution pictures were acquired using satellites designed in 1970s which photographed them to film and returned it in capsules, meaning that one had to wait for several months.

N-1 flies!

— Posted by hazard @ 2005-10-05 03:09
What Soviets couldn't do was done by Americans... a flying N-1 rocket! Though it's a bit smaller :)

Hyperion

— Posted by hazard @ 2005-10-03 10:32
Cassini pictures Saturn's satellite



Best Satellite Earth Images from 2004

— Posted by hazard @ 2005-02-09 20:46
Space Imaging has published their top 10 Earth images taken by Ikonos satellite. Nice stuff.

Soviet Space Cameras

— Posted by hazard @ 2005-01-16 20:08
Donald Mitchell did a great research on images returned from Soviet planetary probes. It seems that most images published in Soviet press were heavily degraded due to poor print handling. Donald managed to get copies of original digital data returned from the probes and reconstructed them.

Soviet press:

Donald Mitchell:


Some of the images returned from Soviet probes, such views from Venera series Venus landers, or IR Mars images returned by Phobos probes, have not been surpassed in quality even today.

Dangerous asteroid around

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-12-27 04:44
The 2004 MN4 asteroid got one of the highest impact risks in history. Right now it is 4 on the Torino scale, meaning that a hit is not unrealistic. The orbit of the asteroid is still not 100% known, subsequent updates will either increase or reduce its impact risk. In any case, if the risk will remain high humanity has about 25 years to prepare until the asteroid comes (and that will result in substantial progress of space technology).



Delta-4 Heavy finally launched

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-12-22 12:09
After one year of standing on the launched pad and lots of preparations, the Delta-4 Heavy inaugral launched finally happened. Photographs are here. I must say that it is an impressive sight. :)



Movie about Plesetsk Cosmodrome

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-12-06 01:39
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Soyuz 2-1a successfully launched!

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-11-09 13:13
It finally happened. :-) Details and photos here.


ï ÓÉÓÔÅÍÅ ÕÐÒÁ×ÌÅÎÉÑ ËÏÓÍÉÞÅÓËÉÈ ÎÏÓÉÔÅÌÅÊ

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-11-05 15:35
éÚ ÆÏÒÕÍÁ Ï óõ óÏÀÚÏ×. þÕÄÅÓÁ ÁÎÁÌÏÇÏ×ÙÈ ü÷í :)

ëÁË ÏÓÕÝÅÓÔ×ÌÑÅÔÓÑ ÕÐÒÁ×ÌÅÎÉÅ ÕÇÌÏÍ ÔÁÎÇÁÖÁ:
" ... ÒÕÌÏÎ ËÉÎÏÐÌ£ÎËÉ Ó Þ£ÒÎÙÍÉ É ÐÒÏÚÒÁÞÎÙÍÉ ÛÔÒÉÈÁÍÉ, ËÏÔÏÒÙÊ ÐÅÒÅÍÁÔÙ×ÁÅÔÓÑ Ó ÐÏÓÔÏÑÎÎÏÊ ÓËÏÒÏÓÔØÀ ÍÉÍÏ ÆÏÔÏÄÁÔÞÉËÁ, ËÁÖÄÙÊ ÛÔÒÉÈ ÎÁ ÐÌ£ÎËÅ ÓÏÏÔ×ÅÔÓÔ×ÕÅÔ ÏÄÎÏÍÕ "ÛÁÇÕ" ÛÁÇÏ×ÏÇÏ Ä×ÉÇÁÔÅÌÑ, ËÏÔÏÒÙÊ ËÒÕÔÉÔ ÏÓÎÏ×ÁÎÉÅ ÒÅÚÉÓÔÉ×ÎÏÇÏ ÄÁÔÞÉËÁ ÔÁÎÇÁÖÁ! "

ïÔÄÅÌÅÎÉÅ ÓÔÕÐÅÎÅÊ:
" á ×ÙÞÉÓÌÉÔÅÌØÎÏÊ ÍÏÝÎÏÓÔÉ ÎÁ "óÏÀÚÅ" ÎÅÔÕ ÓÏ×ÓÅÍ. ôÙ ÔÏÌØËÏ ÎÅ ÐÁÄÁÊ - ÏÔÄÅÌÅÎÉÅ ÐÅÒ×ÏÊ ÓÔÕÐÅÎÉ ÐÒÏÉÓÈÏÄÉÔ ÐÏ ÓÉÇÎÁÌÕ ÏÔ ÜÌÅËÔÒÏÌÉÔÉÞÅÓËÏÇÏ ÉÎÔÅÇÒÁÔÏÒÁ. üÔÏ ÔÁËÁÑ ÂÕÌØËÁ Ó ÒÁÓÔ×ÏÒÏÍ ÈÌÏÒÉÄÁ ÎÁÔÒÉÑ É Ä×ÕÍÑ ÚÁÐÁÑÎÎÙÍÉ ÜÌÅËÔÒÏÄÁÍÉ ÉÚ ÓÅÒÅÂÒÁ, ÎÁ ËÏÔÏÒÙÅ ÏÓÁÖģΠÈÌÏÒÉÄ ÓÅÒÅÂÒÁ. þÅÒÅÚ ÎÅÇÏ ÔÅÞ£Ô ÔÏË, ÐÒÏÐÏÒÃÉÏÎÁÌØÎÙÊ ÓÉÇÎÁÌÕ Ó ÁËÓÅÌÅÒÏÍÅÔÒÁ. ëÏÇÄÁ ÈÌÏÒÉÓÔÏÅ ÓÅÒÅÂÒÏ ÎÁ ÏÄÎÏÍ ÉÚ ÜÌÅËÔÒÏÄÏ× ÐÏÌÎÏÓÔØÀ ×ÏÓÓÔÁÎÁ×ÌÉ×ÁÅÔÓÑ, ÎÁ Î£Í ×ÏÚÎÉËÁÅÔ ÓËÁÞÏË ÎÁÐÒÑÖÅÎÉÑ. ðÏ ÜÔÏÍÕ ÓÉÇÎÁÌÕ ÐÒÏÉÓÈÏÄÉÔ ÚÁÐÕÓË ÏÔÄÅÌÅÎÉÑ ÐÅÒ×ÏÊ ÓÔÕÐÅÎÉ. "

NASA FlightLinux

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-30 03:01
Herešis a webpage regarding NASA's project to study possibility to use Linux for spaceflight applications. Quite interesting, since some of the reportsš(circa 2002)šmentionš that a few teams had already chosen Linux as the on-board OS. I'm wondering what is currentšthe status. Also reports contain other interesting stuff, such as what CPUs were used for various NASA projects in the past.


BISER-6

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-29 19:52

BISER-6 is apparently the newest digital computer subsystem which is used for Russian spacecraft (Proton-M, Angara, TSYKLON-3). It is based on subsystem developed for Zenit rockets and Fregat boosteršduring 1980s. 32-bit architecture compatible with åó ü÷í (clone of IBM mainframes), 8 Mhz clock. This isn't so bad, currently the most popular western CPU for space applications is RAD6000 CPU, which runs up to 20 Mhz. Where BISER-6 really lacks is the amount of RAM: 224 Kb compared to 128 MB on RAD6000SC.



Soyuz TMA-5 successfully docked with ISS

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-16 20:14
Soyuz TMA-5 has successfully docked with ISS. The docking was done in manual mode, as autopilot had turned off due to higher velocity than expected. It is not clear what caused it yet. (More)

Meeting "Buran"

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-16 19:58
Here is a interview with the first person to have seen Buran when it returned to Earth after its first flight - Mig-25 reconaissance laboratory pilot Mahomed Talboev. The Buran computer was flying like a first class pilot and actually Talboev had to use his "air fight" skills in order to "catch" it. Cool stuff.

 (More)

Mars and back in 90 days

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-16 01:29
New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible.
 (More)

Soyuz TMA-5 enroute to International Space Station

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-15 01:34
Soyuz TMA-5 has been successfully launched, and is enroute to the ISS. Video of the launch can be found here, fast forward to actual action which starts around 17:00. It is the first time I saw that the cosmonauts use "pointy stick" to press buttons on the control the computer. :)
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Interface systems of Soyuz

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-12 04:38
Here is an interesting article describing evolution of control/interface systems of Soyuz. (More)

Soyuz On-board Control Computer

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-11 23:32
Introducing Soyuz On-Board Control Computer: 2x2 KB RAM; 3x16 KB ROM. Everything a rocket scientist would dream about. :) (More)

Comparison of price per kg to orbit for various space vehicles

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-10 23:01
I found an interesting document with comparison of price per kg to orbit for various space vehicles, including Russian and Chinese ones. (More)

Buran

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-10 03:56
I have placed some videos of the only Buran launch and landing here. Also some nice photographs can be found on buran.ru. Unlike Shuttle, Buran was fully automated - in fact its only flight was done without any crew on-board. You can find Buran vs Shuttle comparison here. It is said to see all this multi-billion $ effort wasted.

UPDATE: For those who may ask why don't we resurrect Buran project, here is a post which explains why it is impossible.
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Private spaceflight is a reality

— Posted by hazard @ 2004-10-01 23:32
A nice video of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne flight which happened a few days ago can be found here(More)