Cozy Dark emerging technology began work in 2010 as a skunkworks-style engineering firm and is registered with CCR and NSPIRES.
Our early engineering & design efforts have focused on orbital debris solutions and electrodynamic tether technology.
Zach Urbina founded Cozy Dark with the cooperation of technical, research, and academic colleagues in the Southern California AeroAstro community.
We also have a growing library of space science talks featuring Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, astrophysicist Sean Carroll and more.
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6 posts tagged Roscosmos
Phobos-Grunt Mars probe crashes into the Pacific |
Orbital tracking reports suggest Russia’s failed Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, fell back to Earth on Sunday, to be destroyed over the Pacific.
Russian, US and European sources announced the demise of the craft within minutes of each other.
It brings to an end the sorry story of this mission, which promised to return rocky samples from Mars’ biggest moon.
Instead, after its launch in November, Phobos-Grunt could not get more than 345km from Earth before stalling.
Once it became clear that controllers could not establish contact with the probe and diagnose its faults, a fiery dive back to Earth was inevitable.
The spacecraft’s last orbit took it over Japan, and the Solomon Islands, and to the east of Australia and New Zealand. Conflicting reports then had the final re-entry point across a great swathe of the Southern Ocean. Certainly, it seems Phobos-Grunt was down and destroyed before it could have passed over South America.
(via itsfullofstars)
Space Station’s orbit to be raised by 6 km |
The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will be raised on Friday by 6 km (3.72 miles) to 392 km (243.5 miles), a spokesman for Russia’s Mission Control said.
The orbit’s correction will be carried out with the use of thrusters of Russia’s Zvezda module.
“The thrusters will be switched on for 217 seconds starting at 08.07 a.m. Moscow time (04:07 GMT),” the official said. “As a result, the average orbit will be increased by six kilometers to 392.3 km.”
The operation to raise the orbit is necessary to ensure favorable conditions for the landing of Russia’s Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft on November 22 and the docking of Soyuz TMA-03M piloted spacecraft with the orbital station in December. continue reading
Progress 42P Re-Entering Earth’s Atmosphere |
This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 29, 2011 from 12:49:23 to 12:54:07 GMT, on a pass starting about 900 miles east of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean traveling southeastward.
This brief video was compiled from a sequence of shots taken after the Progress 42P vehicle undocked from the ISS. This vehicle brought the crew supplies on October 29, 2011, and undocked later that day. This video shows the vehicle burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
(via unknownskywalker)
Amazing pic of ISS cargo ship burning up over Pacific |
On April 27, 2011, a Russian Progress M-10M rocket launched into space from Kazakhstan, carrying supplies for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. It stayed docked to the ISS for nearly 181 days.
On October 29, 2011 it undocked, empty. It performed a routine de-orbit burn and disintegrated as it burned up at 12:54 UTC. But not before U.S. astronaut Mike Fossum took this incredible picture of it from space.
via unknownskywalker
Station partners assess impacts after cargo launch failure |
It was the second failure in a row for the Russian space program after the Breeze-M upper stage of a more powerful Proton rocket malfunctioned last Thursday, stranding a communications satellite in the wrong orbit. The Breeze-M is not related to the Soyuz-U’s upper stage.
The Progress M-12M/44P spacecraft was loaded with 2,050 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 2,777 pounds of U.S. and Russian dry cargo. While the supply train to the space station is critical for supporting a full-time crew of six, the lab complex currently is in good shape, flush with supplies and equipment delivered to the outpost aboard the shuttle Atlantis in July.
But engineers want to find out what went wrong with the Soyuz-U upper stage as soon as possible because it is virtually identical to the third stage used by Russia’s manned Soyuz spacecraft. Launch of the next manned Soyuz mission is targeted for Sept. 22.continue reading
Russia, NASA to Meet This Month to Discuss Collaboration on Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft
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NASA’s proposed Prometheus spacecraft would’ve had a nuclear engine in the nose that powered ion jets in the rear to propel the long-distance vehicle.
In the last century, Russia and the United States engaged competitively in both a space race and a nuclear technology race. In this century, it appears the two are considering collaborating in turning the fruits of those Cold War showdowns into workable technology that could expand spaceflight operations beyond Earth orbit. On April 15, Russia and NASA (and a handful of other “nuclear club” countries) will convene to talk about building a next-gen, nuclear powered spaceship.
