Ares 1x-V2.1 Test Flight

First-ever multi-person space vacation confirmed for 2011

The company that's lofted customers to the International Space Station on five separate occasions announced today that it will launch the first private multi-person mission to the ISS in the second half of 2011.

Space Adventures announced that the 2011 flight will be a fully dedicated mission, with two Russian Soyuz-TMA spacecraft seats available for private space explorers.

Previous single-space-tourist flights have cost a reported $20 million US.

Seats used for something besides people?
The first full-blown private "mission" to the ISS (as opposed to single paying customers tagging along in seats on missions earmarked for space station construction) will be offered to businesses, organizations, and institutions, as well as individual explorers.

"For the last decade, Space Adventures' orbital spaceflight program has provided the only opportunity for private individuals to fly in space, conduct research in a sustained zero gravity environment and experience the beauty of seeing the Earth from humanity's only orbiting outpost," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures.

Space Adventures first grabbed headlines in 2001 when it brokered the launch of business tycoon Dennis Tito, the world's first privately funded spaceflight participant.

Google in spaaaace...
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is hoping to buy one of the seats on the 2011 flight.

As well, Space Adventures' sixth orbital spaceflight client, video game designer Richard Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, is currently in cosmonaut training with his launch to the ISS scheduled for October 12, 2008.

"We are very pleased to continue working with Space Adventures into the foreseeable future. This method for growing our commercial partnership with Space Adventures is beneficial for all parties. The Soyuz to be used for this mission shall be a specially manufactured craft, separate from the other Soyuz vehicles designated for the transportation of the ISS crews," said Alexey B. Krasnov, FSA. "This private mission, flying two Space Adventures' clients at once, will not interfere with the implementation of the ISS program or the obligations of the Russian space agency; on the contrary, it shall add flexibility and redundancy to our ISS transportation capabilities."

Original here

Plutoid chosen as name for solar system objects like Pluto

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. Credit: IAU, NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), the HST Pluto Companion Search Team and M. Brown

Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway.

Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)

Your Zodiac Horoscope - Insert Your Birthdate & Get Answers about Past-Present and Future. Free
www.aboutastro.com/my-horoscope

Knowing your Personality - Most detailed Personality Assessment on the Internet
www.personality100.com

Astronomy, Science & God - "Was the Universe Created?" Get the Latest Facts from Hubble
Astronomy.CosmicFingerprints.com

Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made.

The dwarf planet Ceres is not a plutoid as it is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Current scientific knowledge lends credence to the belief that Ceres is the only object of its kind. Therefore, a separate category of Ceres-like dwarf planets will not be proposed at this time.

The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s. The IAU CSBN, who originally proposed the term plutoid, is responsible for naming small bodies (except satellites of the major planets) in the Solar System. The CSBN will be working with the IAU WGPSN to determine the names of new plutoids to ensure that no dwarf planet shares the name of another small Solar System body. The WGPSN oversees the assignment of names to surface features on bodies in the Solar System. These two committees have previously worked together to accept the names of dwarf planet Eris and its satellite Dysnomia.
In Oslo, members of the IAU also discussed the timing involved with the naming of new plutoids. Again, following the advice of the Division III Board and the two Working Groups, it was decided that, for naming purposes, any Solar System body having (a) a semimajor axis greater than that of Neptune, and (b) an absolute magnitude brighter than H = +1 magnitude will be considered to be a plutoid, and be named by the WGPSN and the CSBN. Name(s) proposed by the discovery team(s) will be given deference. If further investigations show that the object is not massive enough and does not qualify as a plutoid, it will keep its name but change category.

In French plutoid is plutoïde, in Spanish plutoide.

Source: International Astronomical Union

Original here