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Japan's 'Space Fireworks' A Success
Space fireworks were successfully released by researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Sunday. The three one-and-a-half minute bursts were visible from most of western Japan including Tokyo.
(Space Fireworks planned flight diagram)
The fireworks-like display was created by a timed release of lithium vapor from a rocket launched from the JAXA Uchinoura Space Center in southern Kyushu. The first release occurred at 7:26 pm at a height of 250 kilometers. The second was made at 200 kilometers and the final release at 150 kilometers. The rocket fell into the Pacific about 500 kilometers south of Wakayama prefecture.
The intent of the program is to study the atmospheric flow in the ionosphere (from 100 to 300 kilomters). This is a difficult area for study, because it falls below the threshold for direct satellite sampling and above that of balloons.
(Space Fireworks photo taken at Tokushima-Kainan Observatory)
This isn't really a case of fireworks in space, of course. The only person I know who seriously thought about using actual fireworks in space was Jules Verne, in his 1867 novel From the Earth to the Moon.
Thus, powerful fireworks, taking their starting-point from the base and bursting outside, could, by producing a recoil, check to a certain degree the projectile's speed.
In making this suggestion, Verne was the inventor of what NASA would call retro-rockets.
Via Pink Tentacle.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/2/2007)
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