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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17 posts tagged spacecraft
SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule Roars to Space Station |
SpaceX’s first space station-bound Dragon spacecraft, flying atop a Falcon 9 rocket, launched early yesterday morning. Liftoff occurred on May 22, 2012 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes Parachute Test |
The Boeing Company successfully completed the second parachute drop test for its Crew Space Transportation (CST) spacecraft May 2, 2012, part of its effort to develop commercial crew transportation capabilities that could ferry U.S. astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station.
A helicopter lifted the CST-100 crew capsule to about 10,000 feet above the Delmar Dry Lake Bed near Alamo, Nev. A drogue parachute deployment sequence was initiated, followed by deployment of the main parachute. The capsule descended to a smooth ground landing, cushioned by six inflated air bags. The test demonstrated the performance of the entire landing system.
“Boeing’s parachute demonstrations are a clear sign NASA is moving in the right direction of enabling the American aerospace transportation industry to flourish under this partnership,” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango said. “The investments we’re making now are enabling this new path forward of getting our crews to LEO and potentially the space station as soon as possible.”
Boeing’s CST system is designed to be a reusable, capsule-shaped spacecraft capable of taking up to seven people, or a combination of people and cargo, to and from low-Earth orbit, including the space station. HDT Airborne Systems of Solon, Ohio, designed, fabricated and integrated the parachute system, including the two drogue parachutes. ILC Dover of Frederica, Del., designed and fabricated the landing air bag system. continue reading
Blue Origin Reveals New Details of Spacecraft Plans |
The curtain of secrecy is being raised by Blue Origin, a private entrepreneurial space group designing both suborbital and orbital vehicles.
Backed by Amazon.com mogul Jeff Bezos, the Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin group has completed wind tunnel testing of its next-generation craft, simply called the “Space Vehicle.” It would transport up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Though the company has been stingy on public information in the past, new details of the recent work have been released.
Blue Origin’s spacecraft sports a biconic shape, with its design refined by more than 180 wind tunnel tests and extensive computational fluid dynamics analysis. To help validate the spacecraft’s shape and body flap configuration, tests were recently carried out over several weeks at Lockheed Martin’s High Speed Wind Tunnel Facility in Dallas.
“Our Space Vehicle’s innovative biconic shape provides greater cross-range and interior volume than traditional capsules without the weight penalty of winged spacecraft,” said Rob Meyerson, president and program manager of Blue Origin.
The testing was conducted as part of Blue Origin’s partnership with NASA, under the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev)program, which awarded the company $22 million in 2011 to develop the vehicle. continue reading
ATV-3 Approaches the Station |
In this photo taken from the International Space Station, the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3) is seen on approach for docking.
The ATV-3 delivered 220 pounds of oxygen, 628 pounds of water, 4.5 tons of propellant and nearly 2.5 tons of dry cargo. Among other items, the station crew received experiment hardware, spare parts, food and clothing.
The six-member Expedition 30 crew adjusted its sleep schedule to accommodate the ATV-3 docking. The crew stayed up late to monitor the approach and docking.
Image Credit: NASA
Looking for work? On Saturday April 21st, look to the desert.. |
I always take a gamble to head up to Mojave for a friend’s monthly mixer party, every third Saturday, and it consistently proves to be worth the drive. This month, in addition to the monthly Plane Crazy event, Scaled Composites, designers and manufacturers of Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, will be displaying both aircraft as well as evaluating prospective hires. Might be worth the trip for you too.. - ZU
Robert Staehle presents his team’s work on interplanetary cubesats at NASA’s NIAC Symposium on 28 March 2012 [18min:12sec]. Every presentation was uniquely brilliant, but Staehle’s team was of particular interest to long-term Cozy Dark objectives.
My personal favorite talk was Gregory Scott’s discussion of microbial fuel cells (tiny bugs that eat sugar and poop electricity).
This talk has been added to our growing video archive, which includes talks from Buzz Aldrin, Sean Carroll, and several more noteworthy individuals. - ZU
SpaceX completed another key step on the road to their upcoming 30 April launch: Crew Equipment Interface Test at the Cape with NASA.
