Space Forum / Space Flight / October 2005

I read a news item about the original air processing machine on the
ISS having been broken for some time, and the astronauts depending
on the older "oxygen candles".  Did the origninal machine produce
Oxygen by cracking Carbon Dioxide?  If so, what was the chemical

Looking at the planned vehicles for the return to the moon, the
article(s) seemed to emphasize leverage of shuttle technology. For
example the use of SSMEs and SSRBs. However, only the CEV was described
as reusable.

Space.com has a diagram, and it says the orbital module is "capable of
independent navigation"
Does this mean it can stay in orbit and function after the crew module
departs? If so, any particular benefit to that? Is this one of the

Hmm, the idea looks far-fetched, but the Economist magazine has
bothered to give it some coverage:
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4455446
The fellow claims it may be possible to create a convection-fed vortex

Not sure to what extent this sort of thing is news, but some might be
interested: Dassault have built and produced an aircraft without
building a single prototype; they went straight from computerised design
to production.

I recently came across an intriguing photo of what appears to be a
four-engined Titan first stage.
http://www.bernd-leitenberger.de/titan34.html
(scroll down to bottom of web page)