Aerospace Technology

The era of satellites was born when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite into space called Sputnik in 1957. Since then, people have developed and created new satellite technology such as communication satellites, direct broadcasting satellites, early warning satellites, spy satellites, scientific satellites, weather satellites, infrared satellites, x-ray satellites, remote sensing satellites, and even the Hubble Space Telescope which is considered a satellite. These satellites helped develop the world with its own technological thrust with the use of different kinds of satellites mentioned above. If people think about it, without any sort of satellite, we wouldn’t be as technologically advanced in our current world and the word “modern” would be decades away. The creation and development of satellites have benefited our human community with communications, warnings, and even in-depth information about our solar system. The birth of satellites has been a benefit to our technological society.           Even if you don’t realize much about this, satellites allow many items to function. For example, your cell phone cannot work unless you can get connection from range in a base station. In addition, international calls would be impossible without the use of Iridium satellites. Iridium was the first system to become operational. It uses 66 satellites that orbit the earth at a height of about 485 miles. If someone (could be you) were to call someone in another country, your call would be linked to an Iridium satellite and it sends it to other Iridium satellites until it reaches a specific Iridium satellite that covers the area where the person who is getting called is located. If the person does not own an Iridium phone, the call will get sent to an Iridium ground station and the message would get converted into an ordinary telephone system. Iridium satellites help people call internationally. There used to be a global communication system called Ellipso and its plan was to put its satellites into “sub-constellations” because it had high and low orbits in specific populated areas where the satellites are able stay longer. However, the system became a technical challenge as the cell phones began to develop. As the cell phones became slimmer and smaller, the Ellipso system began to get challenging and consequently, the system failed and is no longer in use. Global communication satellites ensure the use of international phone calls.     During the Cold War, the United States felt that the ground-based radar sites did not provide an early warning in case of a missile attack. Therefore, the Defense Support Program (DSP) created early warning satellites to detect any launches from anywhere in the world. With these warning satellites, the United States were able to be protected by surprise missile attacks. According to Jim Winchester, the DSP was a main factor in Americans winning the Cold War. Currently, the DSP is considering launching another satellite constellation of a new type of global satellite coverage called the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). It will consist of 24 of these satellites to track all launch movements in the world. The DSP believes that the SBIRS satellites would be able to provide information about a general guess of the location of the missile’s target and is given the nickname, “Brilliant Eyes”. They will work in pairs to continuously track data with each other and will be able to keep its target in complete view. During Operation Desert Storm, the DSP detected all of the Scud missiles that were launched toward civilians and soldiers. The DSP satellites detected the missile within seconds from lift-off. As a result, many civilians and soldiers were saved because of the DSP’s warning satellites. The SBIRS program that is currently being developed will cost approximately 22 billion dollars. However, most military commanders believe that each dollar is worth of accurate knowledge of missile attacks.           Since the Space Age when Sputnik first left the earth, scientific satellites have been absorbing information about our Earth or the mysteries of space. Try to recall those moments in the elementary library where you first saw those round ball things with different sizes called planets in little science books. Those pictures and small captions of information of the planets are the results of scientific satellites. Not only does the scientific satellites provide humans with pictures and information, it saved the city of Los Alamos, New Mexico with a satellite called Landsat 7. As a uncontrollable fire was advancing towards Los Alamos, Landsat7 was able to detect the size and movement of the fire and with that information, firefighters figured out hotspots and turned off the dangerous wild fire. Several scientific satellites are studying the Sun’s magnetic field and solar wind. They have found out that an outburst from the Sun can disrupt radio communications and cause chaos in the technological society. Also, the satellites have been sent to many different planets to research their physical appearances, their history, and different moons. These satellites have found out that Mars has evidence of an ancient river valley that can signify life. Furthermore, these satellites have discovered possible oceans beneath Jupiter’s moon called Europa’s icy crust. As Jim Winchester, author of Space Missions, wrote in his book, “These and other satellite missions continue to push back the boundaries of the known universe, expand our knowledge of our own world, and increase our understanding of our place in the cosmos.”           Since the 19^th Century wars, and World War 1 time periods, reconnaissance was commonly used to spy on enemy positions. In 1960, the United States built spy satellites to spy on Russian activities. The CIA flew a spy satellite in 1960 called Corona and took pictures on film. The Soviet Union sent its first space satellite called Zenit in 1962 where it also sent filmed pictures back to the country. Since then, the United States began improving its spy satellites to target specific individuals or groups amongst the people of the criminal world. Today currently, the smallest thing that can be seen through a spy satellite is a size of a house, however, the technology is improving so fast that soon, “spy satellites could soon be reading the headlines on a newspaper” according to the National Reconnaissance Office in Washington D.C. and NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites. Numerous people believe that if spy satellites were developed enough to see the physical description of an individual soldier or vehicle, combat would differ greatly. With spy satellites monitoring the ground with real-sized images from space would benefit the military commanders with new tactics and strategies against the enemy’s “exposed formation” (Jim Winchester). The use of spy satellites can be used for police purposes as in finding captives or witnessing crimes. It can also be used to gain information about the enemy by its strategies and formations during wartime. Although in my opinion, the spy satellites do not help the human population but the military commanders and police force and additionally, it doesn’t help the country’s economy but it certainly is an advantage in lowering crime rates.           Weather satellites have been created to forecast the weather. However, it may seem very beneficial to human communities but in reality, advance knowledge of dangerous rain, winds, or storms can help save crops and even lives. The world’s first weather satellite is called the Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) went into orbit in 1960 and began broadcasting almost 650,000 images. After this accomplishment, other countries began launching their own meteorological satellites. Currently, more than 120 countries receive most of their weather information from United States satellites. After the weather satellite engineers gained more experience and knowledge, they began creating satellites that began recording atmospheric and ocean temperatures and even estimating rainfall. These weather satellites can help the human community by warning people of an incoming tornado 25 minutes before the storm. It can also record the world’s ocean currents and even hear signals from ships. These weather satellites help us give an image of what our next day will be like and without these satellites, many people could have been killed by an unexpected tornado or hailstorm in the middle of an outdoor party. Because of the weather satellites, people are able to predict what our next day’s weather will be but it can also warn us of an upcoming storm.           Satellites have been part of our technological society with the involvement of cell phones and the weatherman of the morning forecast in our daily news channel. It also benefits us with the warning of an incoming missile and it fills our library with information about the planets and stars with the scientific satellites. The spy satellites will be able to help the military commanders with new tactics and strategies as well as helping the police force to maintain contact with dangerous individuals and catch them in the act. The creation of satellites has been technologically beneficial to us, humans, because it is constantly providing us with daily information about weather predictions and even new knowledge about the boundaries of space limitations. In my opinion, satellite technology is a benefit to our world.Information from Space Missions From Sputnik to SpaceShip One: The History of Space Flight. Book written by Jim Winchester.            Spy satellite image                      

The world’s first double-decked jetliner, the Airbus A3XX, renamed as the Airbus A380, is the largest passenger airliner ever built. The successful flight of the Airbus A380 on February first in 2007 using GTL (Ground to Liquid) fuel, gave possible solutions to the increase of global warming. The use of GTL reduces CO2 emissions and results in low cost since less jet kerosene fuel is used. In one of the four engines of the Airbus A380, 60% is filled with standard jet kerosene fuel and 40% is filled with GTL, which is made out of natural gas from gas plants in Malaysia. The Airbus A380 produces only 75g of CO2 per passenger, which is a very low amount of carbon dioxide. According to Airbus.com, the GTL in the engines produced a smooth sound and reduced vibrations in the aircraft, in general, a hybrid feeling. This GTL fuel may not only help the environment, but it may increase the amount of comfort. Also, Airbus notices in the experimental flight that the GTL reduced the loudness of the noise from the engines and as stated before, it may increase the amount of comfort because of the smooth noise that is produced by the GTL used engines. GTL helps the Airbus Company economically because it is much cheaper than regular jet kerosene. Producing more GTL than kerosene will help the economy of Airbus. However, more GTL is required to equalize the amount of support it gives to the gigantic aircraft. Currently, there is not enough GTL fuel to power all the commercial aircraft in the world but many people believe that in about 2015, GTL will be sold by oil companies such as Shell and will slightly change the aircraft industry in a positive way. In addition, Shell was the company that first developed GTL fuel and worked with Airbus for the creation of an experimental flight using an Airbus A380 on February first. The company decided to use this specific aircraft because of two unique aspects. The Airbus A380 is a very fuel-efficient aircraft flying today and many people believe that it would remain that way for approximately 30 years. It also contained four engines and one was needed to fill the GTL fuel. The other three engines were critically important because it contained regular fuel and if the experimental flight turned out wrong, the three engines would have enough support to bring the aircraft back to the airport. However, without these engines, the Airbus A380 wouldn’t support the weight in which the engines where designed for and without the engine support, Airbus would lose an Airbus A380 which is equivalent to 275 million dollars. The successful 3-hour experimental flight began a slight change in the aircraft industry. As www.airbus.com states, “The A380 is a new generation of aircraft.”
As many people know, the Airbus and Boeing Company have a tough rivalry. Many different people prefer either one of their luxury and comfort and both companies receive victory and losses per year. Different people prefer Boeing’s luxury or others congratulate Airbus’s early start and success. To clarify, the Boeing Company began in 1916. On the contrary, the Airbus Company was founded in 1970, fifty-nine years after Boeing’s foundation. What many people like about the Airbus is that it developed very quickly and had a rivalry with a company that started fifty-nine years before the Airbus. This accomplishment is something very unique that the Airbus cotains. People such as Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal from Saudi Arabia replaced his private Boeing 747 for a 300 million dollar Airbus A380, which placed the world record of the world’s largest private jet. The prince’s nickname for his new VIP luxurious aircraft is the “Flying Palace”. Furthermore, according to the BBC News, Boeing’s 747 Jumbo Jet dominated the aircraft market for forty years until the Airbus A380 came in. Although the Boeing has more history behind the company, Airbus being created so early has become stiff competition against Boeing. The successful creation of the Airbus A380 using GTL as power source gave a helpful economical boost as well as more public support. Two years ago, Boeing was boasting about their large orders from other aircraft companies or airlines. However, Airbus, which represented Europe, was contracted by the United States Air Force, one of Boeing’s prime customers, which embarrassed Boeing because of the fact that Boeing was an American company. The cause for the contract was that Boeing accidentally reduced the size of the tankers in a contract with the U.S. Air Force therefore, the Air Force decided to change its buyer. After the Air Force contracted Airbus, Boeing was too embarrassed to let this go and tried to persuade the Air Force to change their minds. However, the Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Wynne, described Boeing and Airbus’s rivalry as “not even close” which silenced the Boeing Company. Airbus’s achievement not only gave them lots of money such as 100 billion dollars from the contract but it also succeeded in “stepping ahead” of its rival, Boeing. As a result, Airbus is now leading the competition. Currently, British billionaire Richard Branson’s (photo shown in my Commercial Spacecraft post) Virgin Group is planning to experiment bio-fuel in a Boeing 747. I believe that this was caused because of Boeing’s losing competition and Boeing’s attempt to reestablish itself in the competition. Also, I believe that the Airbus A380 was a unique and successful achievement that gave the Airbus the opportunity to help the environment and even beat their rivals, Boeing. However, this achievement will not be used as a commercial product until enough GTL fuel source is created. I think that the Airbus A380 could have been Airbus’s main source of victory and strategic power in which if used wisely, would benefit the company with financial expansion. As shown in the example of the Air Force contract, it gave Airbus an incredible amount of money, 100 billion dollars, that if Boeing were to receive it, they could have used it to surpass Airbus’s efforts. In reality, Airbus succeeded in receiving an American company to help beat an American aircraft company. The continuous efforts of Airbus may help change the world in an economical way for Airbus, but at the same time, delay global warming for at least one more day.
Some information from www.gizmag.com, www.cnn.com, www.wikipedia.org, www.airbus.com, www.surfersvillage.com, http://www.cbw.cz/en/the-wind-is-changing-in-the-boeing/airbus-rivalry/7123.html, and  www.news.bbc.co.uk. Airbus A380  Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal´s Airbus A380 “Flying Palace” interior bed.

Many little children on Earth have always wanted to become an astronaut and go to space. As they grow on, they realize that only a few per year are chosen to work in government owned organizations such as NASA. However, currently, there are privately owned companies that are being formed that allow new astronautical careers. The Virgin Galactic Spaceline Company is a company that is creating spacecraft for commercial purposes. Burt Rutan, a famous aerospace engineer, develops and designs the spacecraft for the Virgin Galactic Spaceline Company and is known because of his creation of SpaceShipOne and currently constructing SpaceShipTwo. He is one of the best influential designers of aircraft and airframes in the 20th Century. Burt has also won the Ansari X-Prize for the SpaceShipOne´s historical flight on June 21. The Virgin Galactic Spaceline Company will allow astronautical careers to form and an expansion of an aerospace industry. Since this company is privately owned, astronauts and engineers will not be considered working for the government but commercially hired. The Virgin Galactic Spaceline Company are working with the Rutan Aircraft Factory commonly referred as the Scaled Composites company. The Scaled Composites Company was founded by Burt Rutan and has achieved creating lots of aircraft such as the famous Orbital Science Pegasus rocket, the rocket that carried the first hypersonic jet plane into action(X-43A scramjet) and the historical 318 White Knight that carried the first commercial spacecraft into high altitude and allowed SpaceShipOne to be blasted into space. These commercial spacecraft companies will allow more aerospace engineering jobs to expand and career astronaut seeking people will have a better chance of accomplishing their dreams.SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo are both commercial spacecrafts that transports passengers into low orbit and allows them to view and observe the earth from above the atmosphere. They are privately funded thus, did not receive any help from NASA or any other government organizations. On June 21, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded manned spacecraft to leave the earth´s atmosphere. This accomplishment gave a name for the date, “historical flight”. To improve the engines of the SpaceShipOne, aerospace engineers are currently developing the engine by inserting a hybrid rocket engine that uses both liquid (nitrous oxide oxidizer) and solid(solid-form rubber fuel) propellant. To increase the speed of SpaceShipOne even more, many engineers propose to expand the amount of nitrous oxide oxidizers to and burn in its initial thrust which increases speed to have an earlier burst from the atmosphere. However, the use of an extensive amount of nitrous reduces the signal from the control system of steering in the atmosphere. Many engineers currently are arguing over the use of extensive nitrous or having a better control system of steering in the SpaceShipOne. It currently has the speed of Mach 2-3, 2 or 3 times the speed of sound, a reasonable amount of achievement without government funding. However, Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, helped the project and donated 25 million dollars. Unfortunately, the historical SpaceShipOne was used only three times because of Burt Rutan decided to not risk damage on the spacecraft. It is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. However, two identical SpaceShipOnes are being used as experimental tests to reveal beneficial information for the future construction of the SpaceShipTwo.SpaceShipOne only allowed two passengers excluding the two pilots. To throttle into the atmosphere, a 318 White Knight jet-powered aircraft, needs to transport the SpaceShipOne 50,000 ft high. The 318 White Knight had the similar size of a Boeing 737 and had the length of 82ft. After reaching 50,000ft, the 318 White Knight dropped the SpaceShipOne and then flew back to base while the spacecraft blasted through the atmosphere. SpaceShipTwo, on the other hand, will support six passengers excluding the two pilots with a total of eight people. It will be transported just like SpaceShipOne but a 318 White Knight 2, the descendant of the 318 White Knight. SpaceShipTwo will be twice the size of its descendant and will construct windows for the passenger´s viewing pleasure. Five SpaceShipTwos are being constructed but names have not yet been placed. Currently, 200 people have reserved tickets and 95% of them have passed the 6-8g centrifuge tests, a test where it determines the ability to resist 0 gravity. The Scaled Composites expected the price of one seat of SpaceShipTwo would be around $200,000. The New Mexico government have funded for Spaceport America, the launch site of the SpaceShipTwos. Another spaceport is under construction in Mojave, California. These two spaceports will start being used after commercial launches begin.Many people have wanted to go to space but without being an astronaut, it was nearly impossible. However, the Virgin Galactic Spaceline Company gives the opportunity for people to visit space just like touring the Eiffel or hiking Mt. Everest. People now have a chance to visit outside our atmosphere with commercial spacecraft such as SpaceShipOne and Two. Although beforehand, passengers must pass the G-force test whether or not passengers are capable of resisting zero gravity. As many other companies such as the Rutan Aircraft Factory or the Scaled Composites Company are developing and helping with commercial spacecraft. As these privately owned companies expand their research and commercial spacecraft constructing abilities, I, in my opinion, believe that space tourism may occur one day.Information from www.wikipedia.org, www.aerospace-technology.com, www.space.com, and www.virgingalactic.com. Branson on model seats of the SpaceShipTwo. Virtual images of a flight on the SpaceShipTwo. Note the circle shaped windows that allow observations of Earth.

Freedom of speech in my point of view, should be a hundred percent guaranteed right to all human beings with a few limits. Article 19 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Freedom of speech proves to be useful and helpful to the people because they can express themselves towards the government and try to change their discomfort. I strongly believe that without criticism from the people towards the government´s decisions, the country would collapse because the government´s primary job is to keep a country under control and issue laws that would benefit the people and the country. Without criticism from the people, the government would not have a chance to improve into an appearance that the public would want to see in a good way.

I feel that the colonists agreed to put down freedom of speech in the Bill of Rights because of their experiences with England. Before the resolution from the American Revolution, colonists had lots of restrictions with speech towards the king. I believe that the colonists didn´t really have lots of freedom of speech and were punished if they criticised the king. Therefore, I feel that the colonists wanted to establish a country where freedom of speech was protected by the Bill of Rights. I believe that a hate speech should be protected by the Bill of Rights because the people are expressing themselves towards other people. Although the hate message should not harm others physically, I feel that it should be allowed because of freedom of speech. For example, there was a Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois through a Jewish community. Many people disagree with the march and say that it is not protected by the First Amendment. However, the government officials did not stop the march. Personally, I think that hate speeches should be allowed but not too intense to cause physical harm on others. Also, to just express and show that they hate someone is enough however, killing and shouting at people should not be protected by the First Amendment.

Freedom of speech is a right that all humans have in the United States and is protected by the First Amendment. It also helps the government to realize their mistakes based on the reactions from the public and try to change their decisions. For example, in Costa Rica, there was an argument over “Trato de Libre Comercio” in Spanish which stands for TLC. In Costa Rica, people who wanted this government decision expressed their feelings by protesting and creating stickers, and posters saying “Yes” or “No”. This freedom of speech allowed the Costa Rican government to realize that the country was unhappy over this TLC. Therefore, to resolve this conflict between the country´s own citizens, the government decided to allow a vote over this issue. This case clearly shows how freedom of speech is beneficial to a country´s government. However, if freedom of speech was not allowed in Costa Rica and the citizens couldn´t express their feelings towards TLC, what would happen? I believe that it would result in riot and protest against the government even if freedom of speech was outlawed. Then, government armed forces would fight and things would be out of control. Freedom of speech is an important and critical part in the country and without it, caos may occur in a country.

I, as a blogger, should realize that the Edublogs is a private organization. Therefore, freedom of speech has more restrictions than in public places. I know that using inappropiate words or pictures in my blog is the key for the administrators of the Edublogs to have the right to take away my blog. However, pointing out your opinions and beliefs in the blogs should be okay since freedom of speech allows opinions to be free although the use of language should be appropiate. For example, the administrators of the Edublogs cannot take away someone´s blog just because they did not agree with the opinions of others. However, they can take it away if the blogger expressed himself with the use of inappropiate language and pictures. Basically, I will be cautious of the use of language and the way I express my thoughts because of the fact that the Edublogs is a private organizations and has more restrictions from the freedom of speech.

KuKluxKlan marching through town. Similar example with the Nazi march. They have the right to express their hates to others. Right protected by the First Amendment.
Information from wikipedia.org and plato.stanford.edu/entries/freedom-speech/

As the 21st century began, scientists began to create supersonic combustion ramjets or “scramjets” in short. These high-altitude jet vehicles such as the X-43A are designed primarily for speedy transportation. Researchers predict that scramjets can reach 15 times the speed of sound where an 18-hour trip from Tokyo to New York City becomes a 2-hour trip. In my opinion, if scramjets were used for commercial purposes, I believe that reaching Europe or Asia(from Costa Rica) wouldn´t be as long however it may be very expensive. The technology behind this fast-moving vehicle is very similar to a rocket. A rocket burns its fuel by using a combustion chamber therefore, it creates a significant large amount of weight. In a combustion chamber, an oxidizing substance is used to burn the fuel and both the oxidizing substance and fuel is very expensive because of its large quantities. However, a scramjet burns its fuel by collecting air from atmospheric altitude without the need of a combustion chamber. This, therefore, brings less weight on the vehicle, becomes faster, and much much cheaper than a rocket. During the Apollo Program,(program to produce rockets to reach the moon) the Saturn V rocket(most powerful rocket in history) reached the speed of Mach 3, three times the speed of sound. On the contrary, the U.S. Air Force SR-71 is a currently used manned aircraft that reached 3.4 Mach, 3.4 times the speed of sound. Currently, scramjets are being tested unmanned and the U.S. Air Force SR-71 is an example of a manned scramjet. NASA’s Hyper-X Phase 1 is a project conducted by the Langley Research Center located in Hampton, Virginia. Phase 1 will take seven years and will cost about 230 million dollars for research on flight-validate scramjet propulsion, hypersonic aerodynamics, and design methods.

 On June, 2007, The Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization(DSTO) tested their scramjet engine and reached 10 Mach, 10 times the speed of sound. HyCause is Hypersonic Collaborative Australia/United States Experiment where the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and DSTO are researching and testing together in Australia. This success is the key for a 2-hour trip from London to Sydney, Australia. Not only are the U.S. and Australia working on scramjet projects but Japan and Italy are researching and developing scramjets. If this hypersonic engine is used for commercial purposes, long-durated plane trips may no longer be a problem and some military leaders are considering scramjets for military purposes as well. They have concluded that military scramjets would send too much infrared to be detected by satellite and be followed by a heat-guided missile. However, they have realized that there is no such missile that can reach Mach 10 and its speed may be the key for its defence.

Personally, I think that scramjets is a big success in the aerospace industry because it may change the speed in aerial transportation. While you are reading, aerospace engineers are researching and developing scramjet engines at this moment. At the same time, scientists are researching the propulsion and lots of other people are having different roles in the creation and development of scramjets. Currently, aerospace engineers are working on NASA´s Hyper-X Phase 1 at the Langley Research Center at Hampton, Virginia.

Information from: wikipedia.org and nasa.gov

The link underneath has a video about the X-43A scramjet. Note: The rocket you see falling from the plane is not the scramjet. The scramjet is strapped on the rocket to increase its speed because it needs a specific speed to start absorbing atmospheric air. After the rocket lets go of the scramjet, it would be hard to locate it on camera since it´s too fast.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6652339530072290462