Cutting Edge

This is an artist's rendition of Ares I in the assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center. Ares I is a two-stage rocket configuration topped by the Orion crew vehicle and its launch abort system. It is designed to carry crews of four to six astronauts and has a 25-ton payload capacity.

(Credit: NASA)

President-elect Barack Obama appears to be gearing up for a space race 2.0, this time with China.

Obama's transition team is considering doing away with some of the barriers that separate the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA, according to Bloomberg.

Citing people who've discussed the idea with the Obama team, Bloomberg says they believe collaboration between the country's civilian space agency and the military's space program would speed up the time in which the U.S. is able to send people back to the moon.

The main--and very costly--goal is to build a rocket that can carry Orion, NASA's next-generation spacecraft, to the International Space Station, the moon, and further out into the solar system. NASA has planned to use its new Ares I rocket for that purpose. Last year, it completed preliminary design review for the Ares rocket, which is slated to launch for the first time in 2015.

But Obama would like to get Orion in the air before then. Getting a working rocket system up and running will be critical to getting the U.S. back to self-sufficiency with its space programs. As it stands now, the current space shuttle is scheduled to retire in 2010. So if Orion launches with Ares as planned in 2015, this leaves a five-year period of time in which the U.S. will have to pay Russia to fly astronauts to and from the ISS. And that's assuming Orion (and Ares) are delivered on time. If history is any indicator, delays are likely if not guaranteed. And with added demands for federal funds due to the recession, it's unclear where NASA and some of its programs stand.

Bloomberg's sources suggest the Obama team believes the Defense Department (which spent about $22 billion in the last fiscal year) can share some of its resources to give NASA a boost--and that they're even considering scrapping development of the Ares rocket entirely in favor of using the Pentagon's Atlas or Delta rockets, which are much further along in development.

Whatever they decide, the incoming administration is likely feeling some pressure from China, which plans to land a robotic rover on the moon in 2012, with a manned mission to follow a few years later.

When the streets of Singapore come alive with Formula One action this weekend, it may be easy to forget how much technology is involved to enable the cars to whiz through the track at breakneck speeds.

(Credit: Formula One)

Perhaps the most noticeable equipment will be the lights lining the track. Designed by Italian lighting contractor Valerio Maioli, the Philips-made system will involve some 1,500 lighting projectors around the track, lighting it to the level of 3,000 lux--nearly four times brighter than that of a typical sports stadium.

Provisions have been made for wet weather in the tropical city: the projectors will beam light on the track at different angles, rather than vertically, to minimize glare off the road surface, should it rain.

The power requirements of these lights are correspondingly stringent. While many of the teams will plug their back-end IT systems into the country's power grid, Valerio Maioli has fitted 12 twin-power generators to power the lights. These 24 generators are also fail-resistant--the second generator will pick up the load, should the first one fail, to keep the light levels consistent.

But environmentalists should rest easy, a Philips representative told ZDNet Asia. The lighting system is 16 percent more energy-efficient, compared to competitors' products, the representative said.

Another noticeable addition to the track from Valerio Maioli will be digital flags--electronic light displays that will replace the traditional colored flags used in day races, for better visibility at night. These 35 panels will communicate vital information to drivers.

Supercomputing in Formula One
Behind the scenes is where you will find the heavy-duty computing power. Alex Burns, chief operating officer of the Williams F1 team, described to ZDNet Asia in an interview the magnitude of the systems involved, both leading up to the event and during the actual race.

Burns said the team takes 35 Lenovo ThinkPad laptops to the circuit, to be used by race engineers. In the garage by the pit stop, there are another eight racks of servers: two for the data coming off each of the two cars, and another two for each car's engines, he said.

Rocket fans are a little closer to having their own spectator sport--thanks to a new engine design and the sponsorship of fashion brand DKNY.

The Rocket Racing League, an aspiring Formula 1 for rocket racing, said Wednesday that it completed its three test flights with a new liquid oxygen-alcohol engine from Armadillo Aerospace, a suborbital space company founded by Doom creator John Carmack. This summer, the RRL also secured a high profile sponsorship from a clothing brand that people wouldn't necessarily associate with rockets: DKNY for men. The premiere racer for the league now will have the luxury clothing maker's name permanently brandished on its vehicle--a potential marketing coup if the RRL eventually airs on TV, as expected.

More importantly, the successful engine trials mean that New York-based RRL is that much closer to production of its fleet of rockets and upcoming public races, which have been pushed back several times. Now, the RRL needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is no small feat and could cause more delays.

"This will now be the primary engine for the next rocket racers," said Granger Whitelaw, CEO and co-founder of the RRL. The league is building five rockets so that it will have six by next spring.

Whitelaw said he hopes to have FAA approval in time to fly an exhibition run at the Reno Air Races in September, or hold a public race later this year.

The rocket from Armadillo will replace one from Xcor, which makes a pump-fed engine powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene. Armadillo, which builds rockets for suborbital space flight that have been tested by the military and NASA, retrofitted its pressure-fed engine earlier this year so that the RRL could test them for winged vehicles that would eventually be used to race in public events.

Armadillo's is a pressure-fed engine that runs on liquid oxygen, helium, and ethanol. Whitelaw said that the RRL chose the Armadillo engine because it satisfies the safety, power, and reliability standards that it needs for a racing league.

"We had always planned on testing different engines, similar to Formula 1," said Whitelaw.

Armadillo's engine runs on 2,500 pounds of pressure and flies for about 10 minutes at about 300 miles per hour. It can go from zero to 110 miles per hour in 6 1/2 seconds. Whitelaw said that it has more thrust than an F18 jet--the Navy's fastest combat vehicle--on "full afterburner," or the button that gives the jet that extra juice.

The RRL's aircraft is made by Velocity Aircraft, which was acquired by the league earlier this year.

Whitelaw said he expects the RRL's first TV event by the end of 2009, or beginning of 2010. But, until then, fans can get a fix on YouTube, here: