Crashing Rockets Could Lead To Novel Sample-Return Technology 18
vinces99 writes "During spring break the last five years, a University of Washington class has headed to the Nevada desert to launch rockets and learn more about the science and engineering involved. Sometimes, the launch would fail and a rocket smacked hard into the ground. This year, the session included launches from a balloon that were deliberately directed into a dry lakebed. Far from being failures, these were early tests of a concept that in the future could be used to collect and return samples from forbidding environments – an erupting volcano, a melting nuclear reactor or even an asteroid in space. 'We're trying to figure out what the maximum speed is that a rocket can survive a hard impact,' said Robert Winglee, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, who heads that department and leads the annual trek to the desert. The idea for a project called 'Sample Return Systems for Extreme Environments' is that the rocket will hit the surface and, as it burrows in a short distance, ports on either side of the nose will collect a sample and funnel it to an interior capsule. That capsule will be attached by tether to a balloon or a spacecraft, which would immediately reel in the capsule to recover the sample. 'The novel thing about this is that it developed out of our student rocket class. It's been a successful class, but there were a significant number of rockets that went ballistically into the ground. We learned a lot of physics from those crashes,' Winglee said. The technology, which recently received $500,000 over two years from NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, could have a number of applications. It would allow scientists a relatively safe way of recovering samples in areas of high contamination, such as Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, or from an erupting volcano, or even from an asteroid in space, in advance of a possible mining project."
Re: (Score:2)
People, we desperately need to break out of the conceptual straightjacket of three dimensions. If only scientists would listen to me and read the thousands of letters that I have sent to NASAR, Bill Gates, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Clinton, and other respected Schientists, they would have realized that you can get inside solid objects with ease just by travelling in the fourth dimentian. This is something I do on a regular basis, and have done since I was six years old. Once you learn it, it's like riding a bike, you can't get off it ever!
Until here, i was all like "haha, yeah."
Laura, I love you!
Well, now you remind me of this guy. [imgur.com]
Fukushima? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
"such as Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant" is it just me or does this not seem like a very good suggestion, radioactive waste rockets
Hardly. It just seems like another bit of FUD from an anti-nuke. That said however, a contaminated environment is still a contaminated environment regardless of how it got that way.
Re: (Score:3)
It seems like academics grabbing at straws to make themselves seem relevant for their grant proposals. The parts of Fukushima that can be reached by a rocket impactor can still be accessed by a person in a suit in a much more controlled and safe manner.
Smashingly brilliant! (Score:1)
"Houston, we have a problem; but that's a good thing this time."
Re: (Score:2)
Thats one word you dont want to hear from plane Captain.
Lithobraking (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
the real sponsor (Score:3)
this brilliant idea has been brought to you by the Kerbal Space Program!
Porpoising (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
This is the different in that it's aim is to return a physical sample in a container of later more controlled analysis.
Physics (Score:3)
Warning to UW rocketry students (Score:1)
* EU: Ryan Air.