Tuesday, February 11, 2014

NASA Develops Low Cost Equipment Launch


It is difficult to calculate planetary motion from under the atmosphere. Once we get into the stratosphere we have more opportunities to see space without all the haze. It will then offer the ability to see ultraviolet- and infrared-wavelength bands. Launching items into space costs a lot of money but NASA scientists have cheapened the price by developing the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP).

It works a little likely a catapult and launches equipment with a balloon.  It is this launching arc method with the balloons that substantially lower the price of conducting research. This is important for fostering additional research and is likely to have a systematic impact on the amount of research in the future.

Think about research as inspecting each piece of hay in a hay field. In science there is as a time and cost associated with studying each item. It is difficult to come to an accurate picture unless one studies many pieces of hay and this may take decades. Lowering the costs not only helps budgets but can speed up the amount of research conducted.

There is a lot of math that goes into calculating such trajectories. WASP appears to be very accurate in its launches. This is based on its ability to calculate the varying factors that go into the movement of objects into space. You are unlikely to get this type of calculation without the advent of the modern computer and higher honed math skills. 

No comments:

Post a Comment