(Image: The first flight-ready Merlin engine on display at the DARPATech event in Anaheim CA, August 2007, before shipment to Texas for qualification testing. Credit: SpaceX)

While many rocket companies within the NewSpace arena focus on thrust for power or cheaper prices, it looks as if SpaceX, led by Elon Musk is seeking to build a world class, reliable rocket ship.

(SpaceX Press Release) More than anything else, the Falcon 9 design is absolutely focused on reliability. This is one of the few launch vehicles in the world designed to the higher safety and reliability standards required for manned spaceflight. Before carrying astronauts to the International Space Station, the Falcon 9 will undergo an intense NASA safety review and will be required to have far higher structural safety margins and ability to tolerate sub-system failure than are needed simply to launch satellites.

A significant advantage of the Falcon 9 is the ability to lose any engine on the first stage and still safely complete the mission, much as a Boeing 747 can lose an engine and still be ok. Like jet engines, each of our Falcon 9 Merlin engines is wrapped in a Nomex and Kevlar flak jacket, so that even a worst case fire or explosion is contained and cannot affect other engines or the stage itself. In the event of an engine failure, it just means that the first stage will fire for a little longer than would otherwise be the case.

Only time will tell whether or not SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will raise the standard within the industry. If the Falcon 9 is successful, SpaceX will probably find itself in the unique position of having too many customers desiring to launch their cargo aboard their rockets.

(Video: Merlin 1C engine firing on the vertical test stand. The blast extends dozens of feet and is ducted out to the side in a long trench. Credit: SpaceX)

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With the United States determined to maintain its place in the cosmos, it seems that Russia has struck a unique partnership with Europe that may enable both of them to secure their place among the heavens.

(RIA Novosti) The Russian and European space agencies will develop a manned transport spaceship for flights to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars, the head of the Russian agency said Tuesday.

“We agreed today with Jean-Jacques Dordain, the head of the European Space Agency, to form a working group to deal with developing a piloted transport system to fly to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars,” Anatoly Perminov said after talks with Dordain on the sidelines of the MAKS-2007 air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.

While a partnership between the two may strike some as strange, both Russia and Europe could potentially benefit from relying on each others strengths. Russia currently lacks the funds for a lunar landing while Europe lacks the expertise.

Russia previously was attempting to partner with NASA for a lunar mission, although NASA was not too thrilled with that idea and seems to have chosen England instead.

Hopefully the nation that originally brought humanity to the cosmos is able to regain is “solar honor,” as it would be embarrassing for future historians to refer to Russia as a “former space power.”

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Brian Wang of Advanced Nanotechnology hosted last weeks Carnival of Space, which this author was (unfortunately) unable to participate in.

Nevertheless, there were several interesting posts featured, with a few controversial posts entering this space geek roundup, such as:

• Louise Riofrio via A Babe in the Universe enlightens everyone Why Dark Energy Is Bad For Astronomy.
• Phil of Phil For Humanity gives his thoughts about terraforming Mars.
• Chris Reed from Bigelow Aerospace informs everyone on the companies plans to launch a human habitable space station.
• Mark Whittington of Curmudgeons Corner discusses the next 50 years of space exploration (a must read!).

But the best post thus far was by Paul Gilster of Centauri Dreams.

(Centauri Dreams) Flight International‘s story on this study reports that a nuclear interceptor could deflect a Near Earth Object (NEO) in the range of 100 to 500 meters if launched two years before impact. Larger NEOs might be deflected with a five year lead time. The idea here isn’t to blast the asteroid into rubble, much of which would doubtless fall to Earth in any case, but to deflect it by a ‘stand-off’ detonation near the object. This could be handled in various ways depending on the sequence and the number of available warheads, and running the numbers shows it might just work.

A stand off blast toward an incoming asteroid could enable the human species to survive not only on Earth, but on both the Moon and Mars as well, as raining space rocks are fairly frequent upon those worlds, respectively.

If humanity can figure out more ways to deter these planetary killers from ever threatening our future home worlds, then colonizing our solar system will become a little less dangerous (at least for future generations).

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After a brief delay, it looks as if the samurai nation’s lunar satellite will finally take its place among the heavens next month.

Scheduled for launch on September 13^th, the SELENE orbiter could enlighten our species by providing detailed images of the lunar surface.

(International Herald Tribune) The SELENE project is the largest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo program in terms of overall scope and ambition, outpacing the former Soviet Union’s Luna program and NASA’s Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects, Oshima said.

It involves placing the main satellite in orbit at an altitude of about 100 kilometers (60 miles) and deploying the two smaller satellites in polar orbits.

Mapping the moon would give the Japanese an edge over their American, European and Chinese neighbors by allowing them to locate the best landing sites, especially those suspected of harboring helium 3.

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