RocketSTEM Issue #5 - January 2014

Contents 10 12 18 32 70 China On the Moon Nothing but success for China with the descent of its lander and deployment of a rover. Watching the Weather Before a rocket is cleared to launch, many must weigh in, including meteorologists. Earth’s Auroras Venture close enough to the poles and you can witness an visual display like no other. New Spaceplanes Four companies are working to develop a new generation of winged spacecraft. Abraham Benrubi He’s a character actor, voice of Darth Vader, and an avid space geek. Also Inside: Cygnus Delivers . . . . . . . . . IFC Black Hole Duo . . . . . . . . . . 02 ESA’s Swarm Trio . . . . . . . . . 04 Hole-in-One . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 Voyage of Honor . . . . . . . . . 11 MAVEN Launches . . . . . . . . 14 India Heads to Mars . . . . . . 15 Dynamic Red Planet . . . . . . 16 Monitoring Winds . . . . . . . . . 30 VG’s SpaceShipTwo . . . . . . 34 XCOR’s Lynx . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Newcomers Movie . . . . . . . 41 www.RocketSTEM.org SNC’s Dream Chaser . . . . . 44 Bond’s Vision of SSTO . . . . . 50 REL’s Skylon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Skylon Math Lesson . . . . . . . 58 Transportation Spinoff . . . . . 60 Mapping a Billion Stars . . . . 62 The Coldest Place . . . . . . . . 64 It’s 2014, and along with the change of the calendar, arrives the first issue from our second year of publishing RocketSTEM. Whether it is your dream to fly into space, or just view the beauty from the ground, we’ve got you covered within these pages. Enjoy. We’ll see you again in March. This digital publication is available for free download as a PDF file. www.rocketstem.org All of our issues are available via a full-screen online reader at: www.issuu.com/rocketstem Editorial Staff Managing Editor: Chase Clark Astronomy Editor: Mike Barrett Photo Editor: J.L. Pickering Contributing Writers Mike Barrett • Andrew Green Rich Holtzin • Mike Killian Ken Kremer • Joe Maness Tony Rice • Nicole Solomon Sherry Valare • Amjad Zaidi Contributing Photographers P. Carril • Peter Carson Pat Corkery • S. Corvaja Andrew Green • Mike Killian Ken Kremer • K. Long Mike Massee • M. Shafiq Erin Smith • Nicole Solomon Contributing Graphic Artists S. Brunier • Darien Davis Aaron Kaase • Kelvinsong Mike Massee RocketSTEM Board of Directors Chase Clark • Brenden Clark Tim Brown • Nicole Solomon Anthony Fitch RocketSTEM • January 2014 Vol. 2 No. 1 Issue 5 (ISSN: 2326-0661) © 2014 All Rights Reserved (Classroom use permitted) Astronomy: Comets . . . . . . 66 RocketSTEM Media Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 304409 Pensacola, Florida 32507 Tilting Europa . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 email: [email protected] CubeSats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC On the Cover: The Aurora Australis as seen from aboard the International Image: NASA Space Station. Baby Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC 01 01

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