Japan H-2B To Launch Newest ISS Cargo Craft, HTV

The newest addition to the fleet of ISS resupply vehicles is set for its maiden voyage this week. Japan's H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV) is scheduled to launch from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 02:00 (JST) on September 11. In case of postponement, the launch window will remain open until Sep 30. HTV is 4 meters across and 10 meters long. It consists of 3 parts: a propulsion module, an avionics module and a logistics carrier designed to deliver up to 5.4 metric tons to the ISS. Flight controllers in Tsukuba, Japan and Houston, USA will conduct a series of tests on the craft during its week-long journey to the station. Once HTV moves within about 40 feet of the orbiting laboratory, space station crew members will capture the craft using the Canadarm2 robotic arm and attach it to an Earth-facing docking port on the Harmony connecting module. Along with interior supplies and equipment, HTV will carry 2 experiments for the Japan Kibo module's external porch. Japan is also debuting a new rocket, specifically designed to launch HTV. With a 5.2-meter diameter first-stage rocket equipped with 2 parallel LE-7A engines, the H-2B Launch Vehicle is the largest new-module rocket in Japan. It is expected that operating the HTV will allow Japan to accumulate experience that can aid its future projects on the Space Flyer Unit and on human transportation. Pictured: (TR) H-2B Project manager Tomihisa Nakamura, (BR) HTV Project Manager Yoshihiko Torano. (Credit: JAXA)

SPACE Canada / IAA Symposium Looks at Solar Energy from Space

Developing a source of clean, sustainable energy from space to be used on the Earth, Moon or anywhere else humans are likely to go will be the focus of an international symposium on September 8-10 in Toronto, Canada. SPACE Canada and the International Academy of Astronautics will host ‘Solar Energy from Space: From the Sun to the Earth.’ Scientists, engineers and agency officials will cover topics on sustainable energy, solar power satellites (SPS), space law and security, manufacturing in space, entrepreneurs in space and global warming. Dan Fortin (T), president and CEO of IBM Canada will give his key note address on ‘The Smarter Planet,’ followed by other speakers including Bryan Erb, a pioneer in space-based solar power and Robert Richards (B), founder and CEO of Odyssey Moon. The SPS concept would put solar power plants in geostationary orbit above Earth, where they would convert sunlight to electricity and beam the power to ground-based receiving stations. Unlike present ground-based solar power, SPS would not face obstruction from cloud cover and will receive 25% more intense sunlight resulting in continuous, renewable solar energy. Mitsubishi Electric Corp and IHI Corp of Japan also intend to harness solar energy from space, proposing to build a giant solar power generator in space within 3 decades that would cost US $21 billion. (Credit: Space Canada, IAA, IBM, odysseymoon.com, John MacNeill, noaa.gov)