Spudis: The not so barren Moon

Dr. Paul Spudis checks in to remind us of something soft-spoken Dr. Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt has quietly been insisting upon since at least as long ago as the Lunar Prospector mission. Regardless of whether we prove water is abundant on the Moon, we already know with far more certainly that hydrogen is is there, and it is also available in the same Near Side basins where titanium oxide and iron oxides are located (and where Helium-3 probably makes up twenty percent by weight of the surface layer.)

From the his new blog posting at The Once and Future Moon
Smithsonian Air & Space

Can we be "resourceful on the Moon? (Part 1)

"It’s often said that the Moon is resource-poor. That is inaccurate; the Moon is resource different. It is depleted in volatile substances (those that have very low melting points). The most important rare resource on the Moon is hydrogen. The Moon itself has very little of this element, but the soils have a great deal of it; because the Moon has no atmosphere or global magnetic field, the stream of protons from the Sun (the solar wind) implants hydrogen onto the surface of the dust grains on the Moon. This solar wind hydrogen can be released through heating of the dust. When you have both hydrogen and oxygen, you have air, water, and rocket propellant."

"The typical hydrogen concentration in most soils is 20 to 100 parts per million. This is enough quantity to extract and use, especially if much of the mining and processing work is done through robotic machines operated from Earth. Hydrogen appears to be present in higher quantities in soils that have high titanium content, which are abundant on the lunar near side (the Apollo 11 landing site has one of the highest titanium contents found on the Moon to date)."

(That's true, by the way. No question.)

"Now there are even more exciting resource prospects. The Moon has abundant hydrogen at the poles, enriched by more than a factor of three over the global average. Some of this hydrogen, present in the permanently dark and cold floors of polar craters, may be in the form of water ice. Additionally, with the spin axis of the Moon perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the Sun, some peaks near the poles appear to be in near-permanent sunlight, permitting continuous collection and use of solar electrical power, as well as the important benefit of a near constant surface temperature."

NIF demonstrates Super Laser

The National Ignition Facility has demonstrated it's Super Laser for the first time, showing the real potential for sustained fusion, materials, and a host of applications for astrophysics and engineering.

From Breitbart : NIF is touted as the world's highest-energy laser system. It is located inside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about an hour's drive from San Francisco.

Equipment connected to a house-sized sphere can focus 192 laser beams on a small point, generating temperatures and pressures that exist at cores of stars or giant planets.

NIF will be able to create conditions and conduct experiments never before possible on Earth, according to the laboratory.

A fusion reaction triggered by the super laser hitting hydrogen atoms will produce more energy than was required to prompt "ignition," according to NIF director Edward Moses.

"This is the long-sought goal of 'energy gain' that has been the goal of fusion researchers for more than half a century," Moses said.

"NIF's success will be a scientific breakthrough of historic significance; the first demonstration of fusion ignition in a laboratory setting, duplicating on Earth the processes that power the stars."

Construction of the NIF began in 1997, funded by the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

"NIF, a cornerstone of the National Nuclear Security Administration's effort to maintain our nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing, will play a vital role in reshaping national security in the 21st century," said NNSA administrator Tom D'Agostino.

"This one-of-a-kind facility is the only place in the world that is capable of providing some of the most critical technical means to safely maintain the viability of the nation's nuclear stockpile."

Scientists say that NIF also promises groundbreaking discoveries in planetary science and astrophysics by recreating conditions that exist in supernovas, black holes, and in the cores of giant planets

Electricity derived from fusion reactions similar to what takes place in the sun could help sate humanity's growing appetite for green energy, according to lab officials.

"Very shortly we will engage in what many believe to be this nation's greatest challenge thus far, one that confronts not only the nation but all of mankind -- energy independence," said lab director George Miller.

The lab was founded in 1952 and describes itself as a research institution for science and technology applied to national security.

"This laser system is an incredible success not just for California, but for our country and our world," Schwarzenegger said.

"NIF has the potential to revolutionize our energy system, teaching us a new way to harness the energy of the sun to power our cars and homes."

Leroy Chao surfaces as ninth on Augustine II

No pattern of cronyism among
cited Commission members

Mark Matthews of the Orlando Sentinel reports in The Write Stuff we may add to the names already mentioned as possible member of the second Augustine former astronaut Leroy Chiao The new commission has been created by President Obama to examining American manned spaceflight policies, the Constellation program in particular.

"Sources said the former space station crew member likely would be named to the blue ribbon panel headed by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine that will help chart the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program,"Matthews posts.

"Reached by phone, Chiao said that he had been contacted by administration officials assembling the committee and that they expressed interested. “I don’t think I’ve done anything since I left NASA to [disqualify] me,” he joked."

"Chiao retired from NASA in 2005 after flying three shuttle missions and serving more than six months aboard the International Space Station, where he “performed numerous tasks including 20 science experiments and two repair and installation space walks,” according to his NASA biography."

"Since then, he’s worked as an executive at the private spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz and as a consultant and public speaker, according to Chiao’s own website. He has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and can speak English, Russian and Mandarin Chinese."

No "pay-to-play" pattern has emerged among those names already mentioned as possible members of the second Augustine Commission, or at least not in the Federal Election Commission's online data.

Norman Augustine was an early supporter of President George W. Bush in 2000 and contributed $2,300 each in 2007 to the presidential campaigns of Senator John McCain (R-NM) and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA).

Dr. Sally Ride contributed $4,600 to President Obama election committee through the 2008 Democrat primary and the general election cycles in 2007, representing close to the maximum any individual can contribute to any single campaign committee.

General Lester Lyles contributed $1,000 to the Obama campaign in September 2008, barely considered "Big Money" in professional campaign financing.

In August 2007 he contributed $1,000 to the Dayton Power & Light employee's Political Action Committee, which has contributed over years regularly donatied to Dayton Congressman and now House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and also incumbent Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) "Dayton Power and Light Company Employee's Fund for Responsible Citizenship" contributed $1,000 to McCain-Palin during the General Election, and gave $500 to the Ohio Democratic Party in 2007.

Jeff Greason contributed $500 in early support for the brief presidential campaign of Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM), and there was a good-cross section of support for Democrats and Republican running for federal office among those who identified Greason's XCOR as their place of employment.

Bo Bejmuk has made mid-range contributions, from time to time, supporting Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), now the ranking member of the House Science and Technology Committee Twice, earlier in the past decade, Bejmuk contributed $500 Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA40).

Dr. Christopher Chyba is reported as having contributed exclusively to Democrat federal campaigns, in recent years, $500 each to General Wesley Clark in 2004 and subsequently to the primary campaigns of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) early in 2008. In the final hours before Election Day 2008 Dr. Chyba contributer $1,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and through 2008 he contributed $750 to Barack Obama. Over the years, he has been a frequent supported with small donations made to Congressman Rush D. Holt (D-NJ12).

Leroy Chiao, Professor Edward F. Crawley of MIT and Wanda Jackson, CEO of Aerospace Corporation, do not appear in the FEC's records as contributing anything to any federal campaign in the past decade.

Stennis builds for the Moon

From Lunar Pioneer

Construction continues at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, MS on the 235-foot A-3 engine test stand. The stand will be used to test engines on the next generation of NASA rockets, which are planned to take humans back to the Moon. - NASA (full image HERE.)

J.R. WELSH Sun Herald
Biloxi-Gulfport and South Mississippi

A massive steel structure jutting into the sky not far from Interstate 10 is sending the world a message: NASA is taking the next step in hurtling humans back to the moon.

Structural work was recently finished on the giant A-3 test stand. Now, things are moving further along in the construction phase.

In April Lafayette Steel Erector of Louisiana put the final steel beam on top of the towering test stand and bolted the beam in place, bearing the signatures of project team members. “We’re now 235 feet closer to going back to the moon,” A-3 project manager Lonnie Dutreix said.

The test stand has a final completion date of May 2011. Steel for the project began arriving at Stennis in October 2008 — enough to build 16 phases on foundations and footings that were placed in 2007. All told, four million pounds of fabricated steel were used.

With the steel skeleton erected, further work has begun. “We’re now working on general construction,” said Chris McGee, NASA’s news chief at Stennis.

The general construction package was awarded to Roy Anderson Corp., of Gulfport.

It cannot exceed $45 million, McGee said, and includes general mechanical and electrical support for the A-3. Work also is progressing on nearby canal docks that will allow materials to be brought to the test site, and work is under way on underground utilities.

When completed, the stand will be serviced by nine water storage tanks, each holding 35,000 gallons.

The test stand is an integral part of NASA’s new Constellation Program, which will take Americans back to the moon and possibly beyond. When completed, the A-3 stand will test J-2X engines that will propel the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle.

NASA has tested space flight engines for many years, but the new stand was necessary to achieve the height simulations needed in the Constellation Program. The A-3 can simulate altitudes up to 100,000 feet and can withstand a million pounds of thrust. The J-2X is expected to produce less than 294,000 pounds of thrust; however, the extra capability was built into the A-3 to accommodate more powerful engines in the future.

Stennis, with its 125,000-acre acoustical buffer zone, was selected by NASA in the 1960s as an engine test site, specifically because of its space and isolation. The first test stand was used to test the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo Program. In the 1970s, Stennis began testing space shuttle main engines.

Aside from Steel Erector Inc., companies involved in the A-3 work have included prime contractor IKBI, of Choctaw, Miss., and Prospect Steel Co. of Little Rock. Prospect handled the steel fabrication work.

Ares I-X puzzle pieces coming together

From Lunar Pioneer

Work continues as we put together the pieces of hardware for the Ares I-X flight test scheduled for later this year. Two of the newly designed and manufactured segments, called the forward skirt and the forward skirt extension, were joined together earlier this month in the Assembly Refurbishment Facility at Kennedy Space Center. They are two of sixteen pieces that have been put together so far. When we put all 26 pieces together, we’ll say we've got a rocket. So, in a way, I guess you could say we're more than half way there.

The 16,000-pound forward skirt extension is a proof-of-concept, or demonstration of this prototype, that incorporates 18 months of design work and eight months of manufacturing. It's made of an aircraft-grade aluminum structure and houses three newly designed parachutes that will bring the first stage of the Ares I-X to a safe splashdown about 150 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Cape Canaveral.

The 14,000-pound forward skirt is constructed entirely of the same kind of armored steel used on Abrams A-1 tanks and armored Humvees. It is designed to simulate the stage that will contain the Ares I first stage electronics and provide access to the top of the motor. It also contains two video cameras that will capture the main parachutes deployment. Once attached, this assembly will be joined to the frustum, another new segment made especially for Ares I-X, and then be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking.

Permalink

ITER scaled back - Big Fusion delayed

According to a report in Nature, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) under development since 1989 and construction since 2006, has been formally scaled back because of cost overruns.

Geoff Brumfiel reports from the 40 hectare construction site at St Paul-lez-Durance in France, the "international experiment boldly aiming to prove atomic fusion as a power source — will initially be far less ambitious than physicists had hoped, Nature has learned."

"Faced with ballooning costs and growing delays, ITER's seven partners are likely to build only a skeletal version of the device at first. The project's governing council said last June that the machine should turn on in 2018; the stripped-down version could allow that to happen, but the first experiments capable of validating fusion for power would not come until the end of 2025, five years later than the date set when the ITER agreement was signed in 2006."

"The new scheme, known as 'Scenario 1' to ITER insiders, will be discussed on 17–18 June in Mito, Japan, at a council meeting that will include representatives from all seven members: the European Union (EU), Japan, South Korea, Russia, the United States, China and India. It is expected to be approved at a council meeting in November.

"Indeed, the plan is perhaps the only way forward. Construction costs are likely to double from the €5-billion (US$7-billion) estimate provided by the project in 2006, as a result of rises in the price of raw materials, gaps in the original design, and an unanticipated increase in staffing to manage procurement. The cost of ITER's operations phase, another €5 billion over 20 years, may also rise.

"In fact, the ultimate cost of ITER may never be known. Because 90% of the project will be managed directly by individual member states, the central organization has no way of gauging how much is being spent, says Norbert Holtkamp, ITER's principal deputy director-general. "They won't even tell us," he says. "And that's OK with me."

"Holtkamp says that the only way to get ITER built is to do the skeletal version first. Before scaling up to do energy-producing experiments, he says, "you really need to know whether the major components work. It's absolutely clear that this is the right approach." As to why Scenario 1 is being touted only now, Holtkamp says it took him time after joining the project to review the original schedule."

"Fusion researchers say that Scenario 1 is preferable to the alternative: a permanent smaller machine that would never produce significant amounts of power. "You can't build a half ITER because then you'll just go on and on not quite knowing what the answer is," says Steven Cowley, director of the UK Atomic Energy Authority's fusion laboratory at Culham."

The full Article can be read HERE.

Yet another prediction for Solar Cycle 24

An international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle. Solar Cycle 24 will peak, they say, in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots.

"If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.

It is tempting to describe such a cycle as "weak" or "mild," but that could give the wrong impression.

"Even a below-average cycle is capable of producing severe space weather," points out Biesecker. "The great geomagnetic storm of 1859, for instance, occurred during a solar cycle of about the same size we’re predicting for 2013."

The 1859 storm--known as the "Carrington Event" after astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare--electrified transmission cables, set fires in telegraph offices, and produced Northern Lights so bright that people could read newspapers by their red and green glow. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause $1 to 2 trillion in damages to society's high-tech infrastructure and require four to ten years for complete recovery. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina caused "only" $80 to 125 billion in damage.

"Right now, the solar cycle is in a valley--the deepest of the past century. In 2008 and 2009, the sun set Space Age records for low sunspot counts, weak solar wind, and low solar irradiance. The sun has gone more than two years without a significant solar flare. In our professional careers, we've never seen anything quite like it," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's lead representative on the panel. "Solar minimum has lasted far beyond the date we predicted in 2007."

"Meanwhile, the sun pays little heed to human committees. There could be more surprises, panelists acknowledge, and more revisions to the forecast."

"Go ahead and mark your calendar for May 2013," says Pesnell. "But use a pencil."

via NASA Science News
The full Article can be read or heard HERE.

Apollo 11 - The Untold Story

From Special K at Lunar Update - "Coming up on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Were you there, listening on a black and white TV? No, then you might be interested in reading the below Popular Mechanics article."

Link to the Excellent Feature Story, HERE.

OrbiterSim 2006 hits a new stride

With the rise of a younger crowd being cultivated at NASA, more than just Social Media and Twitter has arrived at Johnson Space Center and all the other specialized NASA campuses, where long-protected turf walls are "a tumblin' down."

Where computer simulation was born, smaller more accessible simulation programs, some around for years, are being pushed upon older managers by a new generation of space scientists and engineers too young to remember when there wasn't a Space Shuttle.

They certainly don't remember Apollo, but they may have already traveled to the Moon - in realtime, more than once, as well as Mars and Miranda, and perhaps even to other virtual star systems, each with planets as unique in character and hazards and possibilities for explorers as those in our Sun's family.

These simulators were not built by IBM, but their realism rivals and is inspired by George Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic of Marin County.

One such "very clean" simulator, with a large world wide community of devoted followers is the Open Source Freeware program Orbiter Simulator, first introduced to the world by the unassuming Martin Schweiger, a German engineer living in England ,in 2001. Orbiter Simulator 2006 P3 is the third and most popular iteration, with websites of scenario and space craft designers creating more "add-ons" than iPhone has apps.

From The Discovery Enterprise, Alex Michael Bonnici recently posted his impressions of how the Orbiter Simulator engine (which runs on Windows machines without detection by the sensitive, all-seeing Operating System Registry) handles an add-on emulating the full Apollo lunar landing mission from start to finish:

"The versatility of the Orbiter Space Simulator continues to amaze me," Bonnici writes. "I first wrote about this free space simulator program in my article "For All You Armchair Astronauts."Here is another awe inspiring film made by TexFilms using Orbiter."

"In “Apollo 11: Remastered” we can all vicariously embark on the epic voyage of Apollo 11 from launch to splashdown and relive this grand adventure. This film is a remake of TexFilms original Apollo 11 release featuring Orbiter Space Flight Simulator and AMSO Apollo addon."

The Discovery Enterprise post by Bonnici is HERE.

Visit the Orbiter Simulator Wiki HERE.

Spectacular new refinements to Kaguya laser altimeter maps have been released

Cropped to a much larger scale, just part of what was "terra incognita" of the lunar South Pole region of the Moon, from Earth's line of sight behind Malapert Mountain (center top, at 86 degrees south), the rim of South Pole Aitken Basin, most of which resides on the Far Side, and Shackleton, where Near Side longitudinal lines converge at 90 degrees South. Among other firsts Japan's first lunar orbiter, Kaguya (SELENE I) mapped the depths of permanently shaded Craters, likely cold traps for scarce volatiles, and even vitually-imaged the interior of Shackleton. All in all JAXA, and the other first-time lunar orbiters of ISRO and CNSA, have set quite an impressive standard for NASA's Lunar Reconassaince Orbiter (LRO) to surpass, after finally beginning its mission next month. JAXA released this astounding third refinement of Kaguya's laser altimeter topography May 28.

Kaguya Topography v. 3.5 far surpasses two earlier releases

Once again I'm in debt to Chuck Wood at Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD). This time for alerting us to an update to the Kaguya (SELENE) Image Gallery, as always on the Japanese language site weeks before the same updates eventually make it to the English side of JAXA's tantalizing gallery.

It's not another HDTV image. It's a welcome third updated topography formulated from Kaguya's laser altimeter data gathered before its primary mission ended last December.

The first planet wide map was necessarily a little disappointing, of such large scale as to be exacting but of poorer resolution than the famous painted National Geographic wall map first released in March 1970, now hanging on my wall.

The second provided far greater detail and was made available in an appropriately huge .tiff file, ans representing data refined and many millions of data points. It was followed up with different projections showing definitive proof of Japan having located both the Moon's highest and lowest elevations. It's lowest was already known to be within the ancient South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin, easily seen affecting the shape of the Moon's backside in beautifully projected clarity. And its highest elevation was not very far away, also on the Far Side, on the rim of Korolev, within a formation that, taken on the whole, might well be part of the outer rim of a "Mega-Basin impact event" predating SPA, perhaps even centered near the northwestern edge of Mare Tranquilitais and larger than the entire Near Side of the Moon.

As excitement grows over the hopefully pending launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) with its companion mission the LCROSS impactor with its sensing shepherding vehicle, news arrived that JAXA had set a date for deorbitng Kaguya, near Gill Crater on June 10, only a week before an Atlas V carries the LRO/LCROSS bus to orbit and Trans Lunar Injection. to begin their long tours.

This has distracted those of us who regularly check Kaguya's Japanese language Flash Gallery for early releases, but Chuck Wood kept his eye on the Ball. JAXA has now released more laser altimeter data in an even more refined was, enough image and data to require a large Adobe pdf. format.

What a beauty, all 13.8 megabytes of it, layered much like those long available from the Planetary Data System and the Lunar and Planetary Science Institute. It represents even further improvements on what Chuch Wood admits are presently the best topographic maps of the Moon ever made.

Since the end of it primary mission at the end of 2008, after more than a year orbiting the Moon at around 100 kilometers in altitude, Kaguya has been lowered to as close as 15 kilometers in perilune, where JAXA investigators announced hopes to improve on magnetometer data and our understanding of the lunar morphology refinded from the 1998-1999 Lunar Prospector mission, most of it decyphered after that amazing and relatively cheap orbiter was itself "deorbited" ot far from the Moon's South Pole in 1999.

Work by Halekas, Hood, and many, many others have since continued to refine Prospector's returned data and mapped in crustal magnetism, e.g., at Descartes and Gerasimov, sufficiently intense to stand-off solar wind, miniature bowshocks whose longevity, along that of their associated surface albedos, continues to baffle.

Kaguya, like India's Chandrayaan, provided us with a hint of how we can expect data to be delivered from LRO during the next year and beyond.

Corrections and refinements will improve upon early results, after much more work.

Meanwhile, we are also promised real-time availability of HiRes camera imagery, in much the same manner images from Cassini and the rovers Opportunity and Spirit, which should provide for plenty to digest while professionals create the kinds of product that will undoubtedly raise as many question as are answered, and past the life-time of the vehicle, just the camera-less Lunar Prospector continues to surprise, through hard work, a decade after its impact.

Kaguya has refined the long-elusive center of gravity of the Moon down to within two or three meters, and mapped the compex gravity to a resolution never seen.

Kaguya has found, with precision, the lowest elevations (within South Pole Aitken Basin) and the Moon's highest (near on the rim of Korolov) and these are are also pinpointed, on this new map, as are the locations of each of the Apollo landing sites.

In the context of all the other data examine in both Kaguya's and soon LRO's laser altimeter data, that cluster of landing sites is a stark seen as proof of how much of Earth's Moon was left unexplored at the cancelling of Apollo.

Add to the new and skillful refinements to Apollo orbital photography and mini-satellite data being painstakingly restored today, and the exceptional new information being tweeked from the forty-year-old Lunar Orbiter data, it is probably safe to say that, beginning with the humble Prospector the DOD's Clementine sensor experiments, we have learned, and are learning, more about the Moon today than at any time since the Apollo Era.

From Lunar Pioneer

Narrowing LCROSS impact visibility

Based on the comments during the joint Lunar Reconnaissance Orbit (LRO) and Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) press briefing, last week, as well as comments made by LCROSS project scientist Tony Colaprette, we surmised the best we could an eventual likely impact in a permanently shadowed crater timed to occure at perigee, 47 minutes after the Moon transits its highest point in the skies over the central pacific

A favorable libration also, during those house, much of the South Pole and south by southwest areas of the Nearside points to a planed target in the lunar South Pole region, though this is by no means certain. Commitment can wait until LCROSS is directed toward its first steering encounter with the Earth. A southern approach, sending the Moon toward the North over the South Pole to bring the spacecraft back after 130 days heading for the lunar south.

Fortunately, as hinted strongly at the time of the first initial report, LPOD contributor and observational lunar observers with better minds have taken it from here,

Jim Mosher, a frequent contributor to the Lunar Picture of the Day, has calculated how the fundamentals of a range of impact possibilities for LCROSS should the present launch date of June 17 slip yes again, because of weather or mechanical holds:

He and others present them HERE.

Virgin Galactic announces engine tests

Heads-Up to the essential Jeff Foust
Personal Spaceflight

"Virgin Galactic announced this morning that the company has successfully carried out its first full-scale engine tests for SpaceShipTwo. Virgin released a video featuring the tests along with a press release:"

"Neither the video nor the press release provide much in the way of technical details about the engine tests, other than the engine is the largest hybrid engine of its type ever. Both do play up the “low environmental impact” of this propulsion system, and the potential applications beyond space tourism for future space transportation systems using such technology. (Server farms in space?)"

"Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn is scheduled to speak later this morning at the International Space Development Conference in Orlando. I’ll be there and report on any other announcements or developments he provides there."

Personal Spaceflight Article HERE.

The Search for Lunar Regolith Simulants

CoreCast #97 Marisa Lubeck -- How the U. S. Geological Servey is creating artificial moon regolith, assisting NASA with planning future lunar exploration. (Transcript is also available)

With what is sounding like a real breakthrough in the search for a useful and realistic "simulant" to recreate the dusty lunar surface earlier this week, perhaps it's time to review this nagging problem once again.

The breakthrough

Earlier this year NASA was given its highest mid-term grades in the keeping up with the science preparations ahead of "extended human activity on the Moon, for its effort, but not for its progress in with the sticky problems in the path back to the Moon: lunar dust.

The biggest problem has been developing simulated dust like none found anywhere on Earth, silicate "ground exceedingly fine" by the same processed reworking the outer centemeters of the lunar surface every 10 million years or so. So far, the best available is a good proxy, aside from the slow process needed to come close to fixing nanophase iron, and the electro-static properties than may make lunar dust most of the Moon's atmosphere, levitating micro-fine particles in a wave that may continuous follow the sunset.

Today the U.S Geological Service, released a flash video discussing the situation, and their role, linked above.

You can read about the breakthrough HERE.

Bolden's address at Baylor Med Grads

General Bolden at Baylor Medical, Monday
"Impossible is nothing."

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Former astronaut and retired marine Major General Charles Bolden made his first public appearance since being nominated by President Barack Obama to be NASA's newest administrator.

Bolden delivered the keynote address to more than 40 graduating students at the Baylor College of Medicine yesterday. Some in the crowd wondered if he would discuss the headlines he made over the last week and a half. At one point, he talked about how special this week has been.

"This week was very emotional for me, particularly Tuesday morning as I listened to crew of STS-125 release the Hubble Space Telescope for what will probably be the last time," he told the graduates.

Video Report HERE.

Augustine II Member's names leaked

from The Write Stuff

Besides Augustine, they are:

CHRISTOPHER F.CHYBA, Ph.D. - Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. One time Carl Sagan Chair for Study of Life in the Universe at SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA; Supporter of President's nuclear disarmament policy, writing here.

Dr. SALLY RIDE - Physicist and a former NASA astronaut who, in June 1983 became the first American woman and youngest American (at the time) to enter space. Headed Ride Commission investigating Challenger Disaster.

General LESTER LYLES (USAF, Ret.) - Previously mentioned as likely NASA administrator appointee, "an expert in military space issues and member of NASA Advisory Committee," "Director of DPL and DP&L since 2004. Independent consultant since August 2003; Commander of Air Force Materiel Command from April 2000 to August 2003 and the 27th Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1999 to 2000. General Lyles is a Trustee of Analytic Services Inc. and a Director of General Dynamics Corporation, Precision Castparts Corp., Battelle Memorial Institute, USAA and KBR, Inc. General Lyles also is a Managing Partner of Four Seasons Ventures, LLC."

EDWARD F. CRAWLEY, Sc.D. - Ford Professor - Engineering Systems Division, MIT, and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. Engaged with NASA on design of lunar and earth observing systems; BP on oil exploration system designs.

BOHDAN "Bo" BEJMUK - Respected engineer and executive at Boeing; joined SeaLaunch in 1997 as Vice President and General Manager of Home Port in Long Beach, where he helped put together and run the company’s unique offshore rocket launch system. He also assembled and led an elite Boeing engineering team to assist leading the integration of Russian elements into the Station. He was also involved in the space shuttle program from its earliest days.

JEFF GREASON - President, CEO and founder of XCOR Aerospace and the Personal Spaceflight Federation. He was the team leader for engine development at the now-defunct Rotary Rocket, and previously worked at the computer chip manufacturer Intel. He has been active in lobbying to encourage support for private spaceflight activities.

WANDA AUSTIN -- President and CEO, The Aerospace Corporation, an independent non-profit dedicated to assisting the nation's space program. NASA recently commissioned her company to study whether military rockets could lift people and cargo to ISS and the moon, and the study concluded they could, contrary to previous assertions.

ISDC2009 Webcast underway

Zybek boasts Regolith simulant at volume

Zybek engineer Michael A. Weinstein uses a welding mask because the plasma process creates extremely high temperatures to melt minerals. (THE DENVER POST | John Prieto)

Plasma process speeds weathering at high volumes needed for badly needed properties, but does it embed nanophase fe?

BOULDER — There isn't a big demand for man-made moon dirt, but there is one customer — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — and that's enough for Steve Wilson and Mike Weinstein.

NASA plans to construct a lunar base by 2024 and needs to know a lot about moon dirt.

So Wilson, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, and Weinstein, a principal at Zybek Advanced Products Inc., teamed up to make as much as 100 tons of moon dirt for NASA.

It was just a few minutes after the first moon landing, in 1969, when astronaut Neil Armstrong, trying to plant an American flag, learned that moon dirt wasn't Earth dirt.

The surface looked sandy, but Armstrong struggled to get the pole in.

Moon-dirt particles are "very angular" and compact, making the soil tough to penetrate, Wilson said.

Mineral molecules on Earth, on the other hand, tend to be rounded at the edges because of weathering. And there's not much weather on the moon.

The Apollo astronauts also found that the moon dust got clogged in the joints of their spacesuits and was sharp enough on its edges to tear the fabric.

When NASA decided in 2006 to develop a solar-powered lunar base designed to use the moon's natural resources to supply air and energy, the agency was in the market for moon dirt.

The USGS, which makes "reference" samples of geochemical materials for scientists, was asked to find something akin to moon dirt, or, as geologists call it, "regolith."

"We knew the constituents of regolith from the Apollo samples, so the question was what on Earth came close?" Wilson said.

The answer turned out to be waste rock from Stillwater Mine, near Nye, Mont.

The material — crushed to simulate the angularity of molecules without being ground too much — got close to moon dirt, Wilson said.

But two key ingredients — a high-quality glass and a low-quality glass called aggulinate — were missing.

The two are created by the bombardment of the atmosphere-deficient moon by micrometeorites.

Enter Boulder-based Zybek and its plasma arc smelter.

On Wednesday, a crushed-rock mixture was fed into the belly of the smelter as the heat rose to as high as 40,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Dropping out of a funnel at the bottom of the smelter came a fiery orange stream of glass and aggulinate. The glass and aggulinate, which make up 40 percent to 50 percent of the regolith, will be blended with other ores, Wilson said.

The "lunar simulant" will be used to test breathing filters, systems to protect surfaces, bearings and gears from dust and grit, and the performance of vehicles and hardware, said Carole McLemore, NASA project manager.

"Anything that goes to the moon is going to touch regolith," she said. "So we want to know how it will perform before it gets to the moon."

Low tide sparks tsunami fear in Caribbean

This representation of tidal oscillations at Vieques Island
after a classic resonance of Earth, Lunar and Solar tides
resulted in an extraordinary low tide on the southern
banks of Puerto Rico, May 2009
(tide-forecast.com)

Danica Coto, AP

"It's only the moon, emergency officials in Puerto Rico are telling nervous islanders who have feared that recent extreme tides portend a tsunami or biblical catastrophe."

"Waters receded up to 50 feet (15 meters) this week during low tide on Puerto Rico's southern coast, sparking a flurry of calls to seismology and geological agencies from people worried about natural disasters or supernatural events. Tsunamis are sometimes preceded by a dramatic drop in sea level."

"About 75 people have called Puerto Rico's seismological agency this week, including one woman who refused to believe the scientific explanation, said data analyst Harold Irizarry."

"She could not be convinced," he said."

"People in the southern coastal town of Ponce have been seen walking over areas normally covered by water, studying exposed rocks, coral and sea shells."

"The extreme-tide phenomenon has been noted across the Caribbean and in Central America."

"Some beaches along the Pacific coast of El Salvador have seen tides that are 10 feet (3 meters) lower than usual."

NASA modifies contract with Roscosmos

From MSNBC

NASA has signed a $306 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation and related services in 2012 and 2013.

The firm-fixed price modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all necessary training and preparation for launch, crew rescue, and landing of a long-duration mission for six individual station crew members.

Space station crew members will launch on four Soyuz vehicles: two in spring 2012 and two in fall 2012. Their landings are scheduled for fall 2012 and spring 2013, respectively. The contract modification also provides for crew post-flight rehabilitation, medical exams and services.

Under the contract modification, the Soyuz flights will carry limited cargo to and from the station, and dispose of trash. The cargo allowed per person is approximately 110 pounds launched to the station, approximately 37 pounds returned to Earth, and trash disposal of approximately 66 pounds.

China continues to talk manned moon flight

CNSA

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today

"A Chinese space scientist said that his country is considering the feasibility of a manned lunar landing mission sometime between 2025 and 2030. China is also planning a sample return mission to the Moon by 2017, said Ye Peijian, chief designer of the China’s Chang’e Project. “Through the development of lunar probes, we have made constant progress of the ability to explore the outer space,” Ye was quoted as saying by the China News Service."

Read the Article HERE.

Charlie Duke's surface notebook at auction

The cuff mounted checklist worn by Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot Charlie Duke while exploring the Descartes region on the moon in 1972 is displayed at Bonhams, April 27, in London. The piece, expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000, makes up part of a historic collection of space exploration artifacts being sold at auction on July 16. (Getty)

How did this piece of American history end up on the auction block, in London? The Getty Image above does not do it much justice.

This is the notebook that was once mounted to the cuff of Apollo 16 lunar module pilot and Brig. General Charles M. Duke, Jr. (USAF), referencing sampling to be done during his and Captain John Young's third EVA, north of their landing site, from the "Ejecta Blanket" of North Ray Crater.

The artwork is probably only a mystery to me

Was it added before or after the mission, and was it drawn by General Duke himself?

A contemporary of mine who, like me, remained glued to the television just as much during Apollo 16 as during Apollo 11, calls one of the sketches "endearingly crude." (I think they are magnificent. Do you know what a thimble filled with lunar dust is worth, just for its science value alone, these days?)

A student, too young to remember when there was not an International Space Station simply calls the artwork "cute," and calls my reluctance to post the sketch seen here, "charming." I think she just misunderstands my appreciation of fine art, what Dr. Sigmund Freud was referring to when pondering "what's on man's mind?"

What really grabs my attention is the sheer iconography this notebook represents, not simply because Larry Scott and I became enthralled with Descartes Formation, and its fascinating magnetic anomaly or bright albedo, in our studies - though it is true that my eye is first drawn in a telescope to North and South Ray Craters, and Descartes, when gazing through the telescope at Ellis Cove.

Imagine, for a moment, stumbling upon the notebooks of Columbus. You know already, because of his son's Ferdinand's biography, about Columbus and there are samples of his handwriting, her and there, apparently.

Just as we've collected those splendid restorations of the photography from Apollo 16, however, there is just no substitute for the experience of actually standing on Descartes, at EVA Station 4, for example, or the rim of Kiva, or experiencing the actual Descent down into the narrows between the "Smoky Mountains" and "Stone Mountain," the very northern edge of the rolling Descartes phenomena.

This notebook comes pretty close. It evokes inspiration, bordering on idolatry in me, I have to confess. It is hard evidence real human beings walked on the Moon with a studied purpose, forty years ago. I didn't just dream that.

There are few seemingly both unaffected and deeply affected by that experience than Charlie Duke. We can't all drop in on General Duke, down in the Texas Hill Country, and especially unannounced. Fortunately, he did leave a virtual light on.

He has a website, thank goodness. It's bound to keep fanatical pilgrims, the curious and the kooky, at a safe distance. - JCR

From Lunar Pioneer

(In addition to becoming Tenth to walk on the Moon in 1972, General Duke also served as CapCom during the Apollo 11 landing in 1969. Many have heard his voice and not recognized his unique part in the last anxious moments that first Terminal Descent to the lunar surface. General Duke was the first person to talk to someone on the Moon.)

Eight ridiculous things bigger than NASA

Nancy Atkinson
Senior Writer
Universe Today

"The most often-used argument against space exploration is that we should use that money to alleviate problems here on Earth..."

"Americans also spend $586.5 billion a year on gambling..."

"It’s possible we could give up some other things to help alleviate the problems in our country without having to give up the spirit of exploration."

An article attracting attention HERE.

Soyuz away...

"nominal flight..."

Roscosmos Energia - Soyuz TMA-15 is in orbit, after another smooth ride into low Earth orbit. The three-man crew is now chasing the International Space Station, after an on time lift-off at 11:34 UT, 27 May. On-board were Commander Roman Romanenko (RU), Robert Thirsk (CAN) and Frank De Winne (BLG-ESA), three who will tally out the first permanent six-person crew on ISS, now continuously inhabited for nine years.

Soyuz readied for launch Wednesday

Commander Roman Romanenko (RU) (l), Robert Thirsk (CA) (c), and Frank De Winne (BLG) efore launch to the International Space Station
(Credit: Roscosmos Energia)

The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft, mounted atop the same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age, is scheduled for takeoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:34:49 a.m. EDT.

Soyuz commander Roman Romanenko, son of a Russian cosmonaut, will be strapped into the center seat, flanked by European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, a shuttle veteran.

"I can't think of three finer gentlemen to help us realize our dream of six permanent crew in orbit," Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, told the Soyuz crew Tuesday.

Assuming an on-time liftoff, Romanenko plans to oversee an automated approach and docking to an Earth-facing port on the front end of the space station's Russian Zarya module at 8:36 a.m. Friday. Waiting to welcome their new crewmates aboard will be Expedition 20 commander Gennady Padalka, NASA flight engineer Michael Barratt, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

William Harwood cnet has the story HERE.

Critical tests for Ares 1-X begin

A Heavy Comparison: At approximately 14 feet in average diameter and 320 feet long, Ares I-X has a high "slenderness ratio" compared to other launch vehicles. The similarly-shaped Delta IV, for instance, is about 17 feet in average diameter and 225 feet long. The Saturn V was about 33 feet in average diameter and 363 feet in length. Image Credit: NASA

A critical series of ground tests are scheduled to begin this week at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to confirm that Ares I-X, the precursor to NASA's next generation launch vehicle, will behave as predicted as it lifts off the pad and powers through the initial stage of flight in a demonstration flight later this year.

Computer analytical models developed by the agency have predicted how the Ares I-X will behave when launched. The upcoming ground tests will validate those vehicle models that were used to derive the flight control parameters by comparing test data with the predicted vehicle flight behavior.

Called "modal survey testing," the tests include two partial stack tests and a test of the full Ares I-X vehicle on the Mobile Launch Platform that are located in Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. The first partial stack test will involve only the top part of the vehicle that includes the launch abort tower, crew module, service module and spacecraft adaptor. The second partial stack test is composed of the interstage, frustum and simulated fifth segment of the first stage of the rocket.

More via SpaceRef HERE.

Expedition 20 prepares for launch

High-preforming interns first NASA Student Ambassadors

"Members of the NASA Student Ambassadors Virtual Community will interact with NASA, share information, make professional connections, collaborate with peers, represent NASA in a variety of venues, and help NASA inspire and engage future interns. Through the community’s Web site, participants will have access to tools needed to serve as a NASA Student Ambassador. The Web site provides the latest NASA news, blogs, and announcements; member profiles, forums, polls, and NASA contact information; and links to cutting-edge research and career resources."

via The Space Fellowship, HERE.

This is why we fly

Hubble repair mission showcases the value of the manned space program

Houston Chronicle

The billion-dollar Hubble Space Telescope boasts astounding accomplishments. For nearly two decades, this window to the universe has peered back millions of years in time to produce stunning photographs of stars, nebulae and galaxies whose light took eons to reach the Earth.

But the Hubble, launched with a flawed lens and fuzzy vision, would have been remembered as a colossal blunder had not the brave men and women of NASA been prepared to fly into space to install corrective optics.

For those who continue to question the necessity for a human role in the exploration of space, the marvelous achievements this past week of physicist, astronomer and astronaut John Grunsfeld and his shuttle Atlantis crew mates provide an inspiring answer.

In five grueling spacewalks to revive the aging Hubble, the astronauts demonstrated why human hands and minds in orbit remain indispensable.

The spacewalking mechanics, encumbered by bulky gloves and spacesuits, successfully pulled off unprecedentedly complex repairs. Nearly 37 hours of maintenance, installation and rehab work on the telescope not only restored the universe-piercing gaze of Hubble, but expanded its capabilities to probe even further into the mysteries of the cosmos.

Grunsfeld, who has visited the Hubble three times on repair assignments (including eight spacewalks), applied the last human touch to a project that has been the culmination of his multi-discipline career.

The telescope is expected to function with enhanced capabilities for at least five more years before it is decommissioned and guided by a robot craft in a fiery descent to the Pacific Ocean.

As the Obama administration evaluates the future of NASA’s manned space program, the final mission to Hubble echoes the experiences of earthbound explorers over the ages: Machines can assist humans, but not replace them.

That’s a message that Houstonian and former shuttle commander Charles F. Bolden Jr. — named on Saturday by President Obama to be the next NASA administrator — will be well qualified to deliver upon assuming his new post.

Decision Matrix Considerations at NASA

Determining components for Rovers, Spacecraft, Lunar Colonies and ISS is no easy matter in the race for Space. Additionally it is difficult to trust ones life to the components all built by the lowest bidder when it is know that such technologies, prototypes and one offs will mean life or death for real people; that is to say astronauts, research scientists or even wealthy space travelers whose funds are necessary for the advancement of the human race. Luckily there are many brilliant individuals working on Artificial Intelligent scripts and programs to help with the decision matrix to evaluate our best options for safety, efficiency and utility. Some of these programs are written HERE.

One individual who stands out as an up and coming scientist in this field is Richard Campanha whose script along with some in house testing on Dr. Christie Iacomini’s part with Paragon were what ultimately helped the script become useful in developing a decision matrix script for evaluating processes of manufacturing components to do a certain task on the Lunar Base Station. By developing a simple script capable of comparing over 5 different types of autonomous fuel/life support producing factories, that were previously unable to be compared.

This method was generalized and allowed for any future ISRU plants to be compared and contrasted.

By determining the best system the United States can realize its dreams of a Moon and Martian Colony. By putting a self-generating and rocket fuel factory on Moon in a Lunar Colony we can advance mankind’s exploration of the Solar System and have a re-fueling station. This will allow us a way to move more out equipment, weight, supplies and people out of our atmosphere without the fuel expenditures needed to carry more fuel for the actual journey.

For mankind and the United States of America to realize our dreams and successfully complete our Roadmap to the Moon, Mars and Beyond it will take the best and brightest amongst us and the inner strength of us all. Thankfully we have the brilliant minds we will need to make this dream a reality. Think on it.

Lance Wilson

STS-127

Moon over Endeavour (UPI)

KSC (UPI) - NASA says it's planning the final events prior to space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 June mission to the International Space Station.

STS-127 will be the 32nd construction flight to ISS, the last of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the JAXA Kibo laboratory. NASA officials say Endeavour will be moved from Launch Pad 39B to pad 39A Saturday, with the STS-127 crew's Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test between May 31-June2.

Endeavour had, of course, been stationed at 39B in on stand-by as STS-400, an emergency rescue operation if necessary during the repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope by the crew of Atlantis.

The launch of STS-127 is presently scheduled for June 13 at 7:17 a.m. EDT.

Space Frontier Foundation: NewSpace 2009 Agenda at NASA Ames

William Watson

The Space Frontier Foundation today announced that the program for its NewSpace 2009 conference is now available on the NewSpace 2009 website.

Held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, the conference programming will span Friday, July 17, through Monday, July 20.

Friday, July 17: Space Elevator Day:

Hosted by the Space Science and Engineering Institute, a special one-day session will explore the potential and possibilities of space elevator technology with panels such as “Carbon Nanotube Technology”, “Economic Growth Opportunities”, and “Spaceward and the Elevator Games”. In the evening, the regular conference programming will commence with a screening of the film Orphans of Apollo.

Saturday, July 18: Enabling the Future:

“As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Serving as the opening day of the full NewSpace conference, Saturday will begin with a special session organized by NASA Ames, which will explore public and private partnerships, small satellites, and commercial space initiatives at this leading edge research center. The afternoon will investigate what opportunities the future holds for NewSpace and features panels such as “Suborbital Point-to-Point: Going Places or Taking Us for a Ride?”, “Space Solar Power: Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?”, and “NewSpace in the Age of Economic Uncertainty”.

Sunday, July 19: The Business of NewSpace:

Sunday morning will host a Business Plan Competition, where submitters will compete for real prizes. The afternoon will investigate business and policy of NewSpace with panels such as “Commercial Lunar Opportunities” and “Drawings to Dockings: the Future of COTS”. The day will close with a series of business case studies, where both successful and unsuccessful startups will be investigated and compared.

Monday, July 20: Apollo Anniversary Day: Moon, Mars, and Beyond:

Monday will serve as a look at what destinations lie in the future for NewSpace. To this end, it will investigate not only what destinations exist and how they will be utilized, but also how will we get there. This will be done with panels such as “Commercial Space Facilities”, “Eat or Be Eaten: The Threat and Promise of Near Earth Objects”, and “Lunar Science and Settlement”. The day will conclude with a final view of “Where Do We Go from Here?” The annual gala will follow, which will serve not only to commemorate Apollo, but to investigate what Apollo means to the future.

“For twenty years, the Space Frontier Foundation has led the public conversation about the rapid economic development and settlement of space. Today, amidst global concerns about jobs, the environment, and the future, we invite you to join us help solve those challenges by opening the space frontier. Come to Silicon Valley this July and become a part of this next great era in human history.”

~ James Muncy, Space Frontier Foundation co-Founder

Discounted early-bird registration for the Conference is available at the NewSpace 2009 website, which also provides information about our group rate ($99/night) at the Domain Hotel in nearby Sunnyvale, California.

For more information about the foundation, conference and registration, visit www.spacefrontier.org/newspace2009 - or RSVP on Facebook today!

The persistence of the Orphans of Apollo

The Soviet Union's Mir space station,
deorbited to makeway in its orbital plain for
the International Space Station

The Past and Future of NewSpace
Alan Boyle - CosmicLog / MSNBC

"Orphans of Apollo" chronicles the rise and fall of MirCorp, the venture created to turn Mir into an orbiting commercial paradise, through present-day interviews as well as extraordinary home video shot during Anderson's business dealings.

One sequence of shots shows Anderson and his buddies feasting on take-out pizza and wine and playing Risk while they fly on the millionaire's private jet for a crucial round of talks in Russia. During the year 2000, MirCorp's team spun out grand plans to refurbish the space station as a tourist destination and the setting for a reality-TV show. At one point NBC, one of the partners in the msnbc.com joint venture, had a deal with MirCorp and "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett to use Mir as the centerpiece of a prime-time series.

Thanks to Anderson's millions, MirCorp got their Russian "landlords" to send one more crew up to the space station in mid-2000 and keep the place running. But that was the venture's high point. The grand ambitions of Apollo's orphans ran up against a perfect storm of personality clashes, politics and economics.

Definite Must Read HERE.

STS-127 Mission Specialist Julie Payette
of the Canadian Space Agency

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, will embark on her second space voyage on-board Endeavour (STS-127), destined for the International Space Station, launching June 13.

On the flight Payette will operate three robotic arms during a "robotics-intense mission," the Shuttle's Canadarm, the ISS Canadarm2 and the JAXA arm on the Kibo module.

"Canadian robotic technology will be used almost every day of this assembly mission," says CSA.

Details on the mission, HERE.

Dassault Systèmes and the Singapore Space Challenge

Dassault Systèmes has announced its sponsorship of the annual Singapore Space Challenge: Space Design Competition, hosted by Singapore Space and Technology Association (SSTA) and co-developed with the Centre for Research in Satellite Technologies (CREST) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

"The two-year sponsorship is Dassault Systèmes’ contribution towards promoting and generating interest in the new frontier among students and tertiary institutions in Singapore.

“We are pleased to have Dassault Systèmes as a key sponsor of Singapore Space Challenge: Space Design Competition in both 2009 and 2010. Software brings out the excitement in students as simulation brings concept to life,” said Adeline Tung, Vice President of SSTA.

Open to tertiary students in Singapore, the competition required teams to design a satellite or system of satellites for launch into Low Earth Orbit to monitor the seaways around Singapore and the neighboring countries.

This year’s competition has attracted a record 22 teams, more than triple the seven teams that took part in the inaugural competition.

Participating in the contest were teams from Victoria Junior College, Temasek Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Nanyang Girls’ High School, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, and NTU.

Results of the competition will be announced on June 27, 2009. The first prize is S$10,000 cash, while the second and third prize winners will take home S$5,000 and S$2,500 respectively.

“Dassault Systèmes already has many customers in the satellite and space industries around the world. As the space industry is new in this part of the world, we are delighted to provide support to nurture its growth and drive more innovation. The Singapore Space Challenge is a good move by SSTA and will certainly boost the industry in Singapore,” said Keith Tan, Regional Channel Director, Dassault Systèmes.

In conjunction with the competition, SSTA organized the Singapore Space Challenge Seminar at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

More than 70 students from various tertiary institutions attended the seminar and heard from Dassault Systèmes’ experts on trends and key software relevant to the aerospace/space industry.

New images of the Tycho Brahe spacecraft

Copenhagen Suborbitals' workshop;
in the belly of an old ship in Copenhagen harbor

From The Space Fellowship, "the first pictures of the Tycho Brahe spacecraft in the CS workshop. The long tube at the end of the spacecraft is for the drouge parachute. The main parachutes will be situated arround this tube and will be covered by the outer hull."

Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengtson during the assembly of the space craft pressure structure.

More images are available Here

Space Foundation Applauds NASA Leadership Nominations

The Space Foundation welcomes the nominations of Major General Charles Bolden, USMC (retired), and Lori Garver to serve as NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator, respectively.

"By announcing nominations for both Administrator and Deputy Administrator, the White House has demonstrated that it appreciates the importance of both of these key positions to the future of America's space agency," said Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham. "Charlie Bolden is an American hero who brings deep NASA knowledge and experience, and unsurpassed leadership skills to the key position of NASA Administrator. Lori Garver is an experienced space policy professional with significant previous NASA experience, strong knowledge of the space industry, and the political and communication skills that are crucial to communicating with the administration, Congress and the public."

"Together they should make a dynamic leadership team at a crucial juncture when NASA will be more important than ever to U.S. leadership," Pulham said. "As our posture as a global leader in space continues to be challenged by decades of insufficient investment and the rise of able competitors around the globe, NASA will be more relevant to U.S. leadership and economic rebuilding than ever before. Charlie Bolden and Lori Garver are solid candidates to lead NASA going forward."

ISDC 09 this week in Orlando

Senior hospitality/tourism/entertainment industry executives and space industry leaders will come together May 27, 2009 at the Omni Orlando Resort in Champions Gate, Fla., for Space Investment Summit 6 (SIS-6) to engage in a full day of presentations and discussion relating to a variety of emerging business opportunities.

The summit will focus on rapidly expanding linkages between space and non-space factors. The program will include stimulating keynote and panel sessions, featuring the most respected and creative minds in relevant industries, addressing timely topics such as development of exciting simulation and virtual space experiences.

Former NASA astronaut and retired Navy Captain Jon A. McBride, Vice President of Strategic Development for Delaware North Companies, will deliver a keynote luncheon presentation sharing his own unique perspective on business opportunities involving space themes. An example of his creative approach involves creation of the 44,000-square-foot Shuttle Launch Experience at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, where visitors can strap in and "get vertical" for an all-too-real simulation of the sights, sounds and feelings of a space shuttle launch.

Summit panel sessions will focus on the following major subjects: financial issues in the synergy of space and hospitality, tourism and entertainment; space-themed physical attractions; the multimedia virtual experience of space; and lively discussion concerning business challenges and opportunities.

The summit is organized by the Space Investment Summit Coalition in collaboration with the University of Central Florida, Rosen College of Hospitality Management, and hosted by the National Space Society (NSS), an active member of the Coalition. The event will be held immediately prior to the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) May 28-31, the annual conference of NSS.

“The summit has been carefully designed to stimulate dialogue among industry leaders, concerning market expansion created by the growing synergy of space, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment initiatives,” said Paul Eckert, summit coordinator and Boeing international and commercial strategist.

“This conference will bring together executives from the space and hospitality-tourism industries to discuss future joint ventures in the exciting, emerging world of space tourism,” said Dr. Abraham Pizam, dean of the Rosen College. “We are honored to support this event and assist in merging these great industries.”

The ongoing summit series helps stimulate private investment and business innovation, providing outstanding, twice-yearly venues for leaders to explore emerging space-related opportunities.

For more information, please visit www.spaceinvestmentsummit.com.

An artist's touch on lunar dust

Retrieved from the moon, scientists bring priceless dust to Maui to have its portrait taken

Lehia Apana, Staff Writer
The Maui News

NASA-contracted scientists Carol and Christopher Kiely recently touched down on the island to team with Haiku inventor and scientist Gary Greenberg. Their mission: capture never-before-seen images of moon particles.

Carol, who works with microscopic materials at Pennsylvania's Lehigh University, has spent the last year examining lunar dust samples looking for clues about the evolution of the solar system. She says teaming with Gary is the missing link she had been hoping for.

As luck would have it, Carol had stumbled upon Gary's book, "A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonders," which features vibrant three-dimensional, high-definition photos of sand grains.

View a Gallery, HERE.

Aldrin: America Lost in Space

Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Vladisaw

Ex-Astronaut and the second person to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, has never been shy when it comes to advocating for space issues. Once again Buzz passionately lays out his arguement for how America is missing a golden opportunity with the International Space Station.

"Apollo was a strategic program. And, if we wish to return to global space leadership, then we need to return to strategic thinking."

Read Vladisaw's Diary HERE.

Mastin: "Progress on All Fronts"

Flight 5 of XA-0.1B-750

Masten Space Systems and their recent flight tests: Flight of the Zombie - OnSpace/AvWeek - May.24.09. Video (YouTube) of Flights 4 and 5.

Via Hobbyspace

China considering manned lunar landing in 2025-2030: expert

(Xinhua) -- A space scientist has said that Chinese scientists are considering the feasibility of a manned lunar landing mission at an appropriate time between 2025 and 2030.

China will be able to fetch samples collected by unmanned lunar probe by 2017, Ye Peijian, chief designer of the lunar probe with China's Chang'e Project, said at a science lecture held Friday in Shanghai.

"Through the development of lunar probes, we have made constant progress of the ability to explore the outer space," Ye was quoted as saying by the China News Service.

China launched its lunar mission in 2007 by successfully sending a unmanned probe Chang'e-1 to the lunar orbit. The spacecraft managed to transmit some pictures of the moon's surface back in January last year.

Chang'e-1 ended its 16-month mission on March 1 this year by impacting the moon, bringing the first phase of the nation's three-stage lunar mission to an end.

The second phase will lead to a landing and launch of a rover vehicle on the moon's surface.

According to Ye, China will launch the second lunar probe Chang'e-2 in 2010 which will conduct research at a 100-kilometer-high moon orbit as the preparation for a soft landing by Chang'e-3.

"By 2013, China will send the landing craft and rover vehicle to the moon," he said.

The chief designer said that Chang'e-3 will use variable thrusters to make a vertical landing on the surface near the moon's equator area.

The lunar rover will leave Chang'e-3 and work on the moon's surface for three months, Ye said, adding scientists have decided to adopt isotope technique generator to provide energy for the rover when it is in lunar nights when temperatures drop to 200 Celsius degrees below zero.

For the third phase of the mission, China will recover a spacecraft carrying samples from the moon by 2017, and according to the current design of a sample collector, two kilograms of lunar samples can be brought back, Ye said.

NewSpace 2009 Agenda; ISDC Updates

Important information:

NewSpace 2009 Agenda; ISDC updates

from Space Prizes

Bolden appointment finally announced

President Obama meets with General Charles Bolden, right, and White House aides Tuesday at the White House.
The President announced today his intent to nominate Bolden as Administrator of NASA.
(Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Bolden gets nod to run NASA

By Andy Pasztor and T.W. Farnam
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is expected to pick former astronaut and retired Marine Corps Gen. Charles Bolden Jr. to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but controversy over his background and NASA's future direction could complicate his job.

Gen. Bolden's nomination would cap months of political maneuvering, which has left some major agency decisions in limbo. It also has become a flash point for a broad debate over how NASA should conduct future human space-exploration programs.

Gen. Bolden was a NASA official in the early 1990s and more recently worked for two major NASA contractors. His critics contend he's too closely tied to existing NASA programs.

These people, who want to shake up the agency's priorities, include officials of smaller aerospace firms hoping to snare NASA business and some Obama advisers likely to play a role in charting NASA's direction. Gen. Bolden has supported some startup space ventures, but they still want a nominee with a more-unconventional background.

White House officials said Gen. Bolden wasn't available for comment. In a meeting with Mr. Obama in the White House Tuesday, the former astronaut spoke about his "vision for NASA's future," among other topics, according to a White House statement. Before the meeting, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president "hopes that [Gen. Bolden] is the right person to lead NASA in the coming years and through its evolving role."

People familiar with the nomination process said Gen. Bolden has pledged to give weight to the recommendations of an independent commission recently set up by Mr. Obama to look at NASA's future that's expected to report back by summer's end.

Read the Wall Street Journal analysis HERE.

Canada's Robert Thirsk bound for ISS

CBC.CA Just when most Canadians are preparing to break out the barbecue, astronaut Robert Thirsk will be saying goodbye to fresh food, swimming pools and sunshine until November.

Thirsk is a member of a six-person crew that will live on the International Space Station for six months. On May 27, he and two other crewmates are scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan to join the other three already aboard the station.

This will be Thirsk's second trip into space, and the first time a Canadian has participated in a long space mission.
Endurance will be tested

Many people think being an astronaut is a glamorous career, but Thirsk says he's heard from his colleagues that life on the space station is anything but.

"Living aboard a space station is not like living in a four-star hotel," Thirsk told the CBC News in a February 2008 interview. He is currently sequestered at NASA in preparation for his mission and was unavailable for interviews.

He'll sleep in a bunk the size of a telephone booth, drink water that comes from recycled sweat and urine, and eat freeze-dried food.

A major goal of the mission, dubbed Expedition 20/21 by NASA, is to test the endurance of the human body in space. Scientists hope to use the information to one day build space colonies on the moon and Mars.

Read the profile HERE.

Elementary school celebrates lunar landing

Elementary school celebrates lunar landing with moon rocks
WOAI San Antonio VIDEO

For the kids at Neil Armstrong Elementary

SAN ANTONIO - Chances are you won't be going to the moon anytime soon, so one local elementary school is bringing the moon to San Antonio!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. To celebrate that Neil Armstrong Elementary School in the South San Antonio ISD is hosting a moon rock display. The rocks are one of six samples in the world that are available to the public.

Students have also decorated their entire campus with moon-related projects.

”We have a moonwalk station set up in the back. We have places where you put your face in an astronaut's suit. The whole school has gotten involved in this awesome program,” explains Chrislane Puente, a science teacher at the school.

Students will get to check out the moon rocks starting today. The school will be open next Tuesday starting at 5:30pm for anyone else who wants to see them.

Russia 'to save its ISS modules'

Anatoly Zak
BBC Science reporter

Russia is making plans to detach and fly away its parts of the International Space Station when the time comes to de-orbit the rest of the outpost.

Industry officials told BBC News of plans to keep the Russian ISS modules flying around a decade from now.

ISS partners are optimistic they will be able to extend funding for the project beyond a current 2015 deadline.

Read the article HERE.

Kennedy Library celebrates Apollo's 40th

"Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?"

The Rice students in the crowd cheered wildly, the schoolkids taken somewhat aback.

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win..."

John Kennedy, Rice Stadium
September 12, 1962
Video of the Address, Part 1 & Part 2

Paul Ring
Daily News Tribune

When President John F. Kennedy stood in front of Congress in May 1961 to propose "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth," the United States had just 15 minutes and 28 seconds of experience in space from the flight Alan Shepard's Friendship 7.

After the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1958 and the orbital flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Kennedy began looking for a way to best the USSR and show off America's technological prowess.

"The launch of Sputnik was a real wake-up call for America," said Stacey Bredhoff, curator of a new exhibit at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston. "The thought was if they could send a satellite into orbit," their missiles could reach the United States.

"President Kennedy sent out a memo asking, 'Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets (in space)?"' Bredhoff said.

That memo is on display next to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's reply.

"...With a strong effort," the Vice President wrote, "the United States could conceivably be first (in a manned trip to the Moon) by 1966 or 1967."

Just in time for the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing, the Kennedy Library has launched "Moon Shot - JFK and Space Exploration" that tells the story of the earliest days of America's space race with the Soviet Union.

Read the article HERE.

Parazynski reaches Everest summit with piece of the Moon in hand

"We’ve been following former astronaut Scott Parazynski’s attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and now comes the news that he has successfully reached the summit, one year after a back injury forced him to give up his climb. “It was a wonderful experience, though and through,” Parazynski said in a Skype interview with Miles O’Brien, “and certainly the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life, both physically and mentally.” Parazynski brought several objects with him to the world’s highest summit, including rocks from the Moon, and remembrances of fallen astronauts. Parazynski is the first astronaut to summit Mt. Everest"

Read the rest by Nancy Atkinson
of UniverseToday HERE.

The Moon at LCROSS impact

The Moon's possible appearance over Hawaii when LCROSS
impact occurs, next October

There are many, many more qualified amateur enthusiasts, particularly those who've been rehearsing their part in possible Earth-side observation of the LCROSS impact event who can better explain what it all means.

But during their briefing on the up-coming NASA LRO-LCROSS mission Thursday, mission managers gave more than a few hints about what viewers on Earth (not watching NASA-TV) can expect next October 8 when LCROSS finally reaches its still-undetermined target.

Perhaps some of the uncertainty has been narrowed down.

If the October 8 impact holds as a target for the LCROSS impact, as project scientist Tony Colaprete of NASA Ames said Thursday, we might now be able to infer pretty closely the actual time when the impact will occur, and perhaps at which lunar pole.

The eventual target has not been formally chosen, and won't be until well past the vehicle's initial steering encounter with the Moon well after its scheduled launch June 17.

"The event is timed to occur next October 8, when the Moon is over Hawaii," Colaprette said, which is an optimum for Keck Observatory and others on the summit of Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawai'i, and also for the other observing partners "from South Korea to "about as far east as Texas."

A glance over ephemeris data show the Moon will transit over Keck (19°49′35″N 155°28′27″W ) at 0338 on the morning of Oct. 8 (1738 UTC & 08:38 EST).

Perhaps more importantly the Moon reaches perigee roughly around 04:26.30 (18:26.30 UTC - 09:26.30 EST) while the Moon is still well over Mauna Kea.

At that moment, 47 minutes after transiting Hawaii, the Moon will be 372,532 km away, just 9,428 km shy of formal perigee along its 363,104 by 405,696 km orbit. It's apparent diameter will be 32.08'

It may also be safe to predict LCROSS is gunning for a target in the lunar South Polar region based on this and a nominal steering slingshot maneuver that will set it up for impact much later, after entering an eccentric polar orbit of Earth. After that maneuver, depending on whether LCROSS is initially steered over the North or South pole, it will be too late to switch from one target region to the other.

Expectations are LCROSS will enter it's eccentric polar orbit over the lunar South pole, returning it to perigee back near the earth, and setting up an eventual return encounter with a target in the lunar South.

Back to very early in the morning on October 8, at 14:26.30 UT the Moons, libration in latitude will be -04°56' and -03°35' in longitude, allowing craters and crater groups like Drygalski, Cabeus and Malapert, etc., to be tipped into Earth's line of sight, visible along with Shackleton and the lunar South Pole region in general.

This very favorable south and southwestern limb libration will be have been greater three days earlier at Full Moon, but 14,800 kilometers further away (387,330 km) with a smaller apparent diameter - two full arc minutes of degree smaller.

If the eventual target must be within the nightside terminator choices of qualifying targets will have to lie roughly between longitudes 33.8° and 212.5° (33.8° east & 146.5° West).

On the Farside the permanetly shawdowed candidate could be among the Wiechert crater group, most of which are south of 85.5° in latitude.

On the Nearside at 14:26.30 UTC Faustini will have just undergone local sunset and will still be well-tipped into a favorable line of sight with the Farside's Wiechert crater group lingering just behind.

Among many other qualifying targets will also be some craters among the Demonax group, Amundsen and Idel'son L, etc.

As Chuck Wood says, how many qualifying targets can you pick out?

Space pioneers battle for greater freedom

CIVILIAN space flight companies are this week pressing the US government to change strict arms-control rules that could cripple their nascent industry.

At issue are the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which are supposed to prevent technological secrets ending up in the hands of 21 proscribed nations, including China, Iran and North Korea. If a technology appears on a document called the US Munitions List, companies need a licence to export it or to reveal details to a foreign national. Even if granted, the licence often forces the firm to mount a security guard on the system while it is in another country.

The list contains very broad definitions of what should be kept secret, and even includes spacecraft hatches and windows. "That list is written for a cold war world," says Mike Gold of Bigelow Aerospace in Washington DC, which plans to fly crewed inflatable habitats in Earth orbit. "Any space technology, no matter how benign, such as a solar panel or the table you support a craft on in the workshop, is covered by it."

Gold speaks from experience. In 2006, Bigelow launched a model habitat called Genesis 1 on a Russian ballistic missile. ITAR requirements cost the firm $1 million, including $220,000 for two American guards to watch over a support stand no more advanced than a coffee table.

On 21 May, Gold will chair a meeting of the commercial space transportation advisory committee of the Federal Aviation Administration. Alongside specialists from fellow firms such as Virgin Galactic and Space X, he hopes to thrash out exactly what revisions the Munitions List needs. "There are limited government resources for monitoring sensitive technology exports in any case," says Gold. "This will allow the government to spend more time on the truly sensitive stuff, like the rocket technology."

Bigelow has already scored a success. The US Department of State has waived the need for the company's technology to have separate licences for every non-American passenger on its space habitat - a move expected to benefit other space firms.

"It makes sense," says Gold. "Passengers are not exposed to detailed technical data in a Bigelow hab or a Virgin Galactic spaceship. I fly frequently but I still can't build a Boeing 737."

"Imagine if the Star Trek crew had to operate under today's rules," he adds. "Kirk couldn't tell Chekhov to fire the phasers because he's Russian. Or tell Sulu to go to warp speed because he's Japanese. We need to get ITAR right so we can achieve the dream we all have."

Pauls Marks
The New Scientist

Mike M carries friendship token on STS-125

Kathryn Baron
VOA

Mike Massimino carries with him on STS-125 a replica of the mezuzah carried by astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died on-board Columbia February 1, 2003.

"It's fairly small," Massimino says, "and it's got the Star of David on it, and it's got the barbed wire that represents the concentration camps, around it."

Ramon's parents were survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. He and Mike Massimino had become close friends during their early training days at NASA.

The whole story HERE.

Japan's Kaguya to impact June 10

Swinging back north up the Farside, leaving Earth, Australia,
Malapert Mountain, Shackleton and the Lunar South Pole
behind, Japan's spectacularly successful first lunar orbiter
Kaguya returned this now-iconic HDTV image taken
(c) JAXA NHK Kaguya 040 November 2007

Dr. Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt said in reports the now-famous High Definition Television stills and videos returned from Japan's Kaguya (SELENE) lunar orbiter were the closest thing to being there he had experienced since "being there" in lunar orbit in 1972, on-board Apollo 17.

Yet this was only the beginning of the rich data sent back to JAXA, much of which has been shared with the world by JAXA, since Kaguya began orbiting the Moon in late 2007.

Only a week before the present "earliest" launch of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, however, Kaguya will be deorbited June 10.

"I am very sorry that, as I was stacked with many, many businesses," reported Junya Terazono by Email, early Thursday. "I could not send any information for these couple of months. Even during the time, Kaguya conducted survey (lower altitude). And today JAXA announced detailed information of (Kaguya) impact."

The estimated impact at 18:30 June 10 (UTC) is expected "around 80 degrees East and 63 degrees South latitude, south of Gill crater."

If on schedule, Kaguya's impact will not be visible from the Western Hemisphere.

At that moment the Moon will be 92 percent Waining Gibbous, 17.26 days into the next lunation, or three days past Full, rising locally around 10:45 PM. Just past sunset at the impact, site at around Five O'Clock" on the Moon's Nearside, within the darkened southwestern limb, Kaguya's ending may well be excellently placed for observers in Japan, all of whom deserve the world's gratitude for this historic mission.

From Lunar Pioneer

"Please look at the Kaguya project website often to obtain up-to-date information about the impact time and place as some reviews will be made through the future satellite operation."

As anticipation build ahead of the launch of LRO/LCROSS, hopefully on June 17, now might be an excellent time to review what accomplishments JAXA has been willing, so far, to share from this incredible mission. It is likely, with the help of Kaguya's twin sub-satellites, that the Japanese mission has mapped the true lunar dimensions for the first time, and deduced the Moon's elusive center of gravity within less than 100 meters.

The mission's lasar ranger using many millions more data points than ever before, delivered what is by far the most accurate topographical maps of the Moon ever produced. The first images of the interior of a permanently shadowed lunar polar crater, Shackleton abutting the South Pole.

But it will likely be for the high definition television, the virtual fly-throughs of Tycho and elsewhere that Kaguya will be remembered, most of which can be downloaded or viewed at what became a regular stop for "lunatics" everywhere since Kaguya's mission began.

Chandrayaan orbit raised to 200 km

This "Second First Look" into a permanently-shadowed
lunar polar crater came with the release of this image
from the NASA Mini-SAR experiment, flown on
India Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan 1

Bangalore: The Indian space agency has raised the orbit of its first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 to 200km from the lunar surface for further studies on orbit perturbations and gravitational field variations of the Moon.

'With the successful completion of all the mission objectives from 100 km above the moon since November 2008, we have raised the height of the spacecraft to 200 km Tuesday to enable imaging lunar surface with a wider swath,' the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement here Wednesday.

During the last seven months, all the 11 scientific payloads onboard the 519kg Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft have been operationalised and excellent quality data has been received.

'The scientific community from India and other participating international agencies are analysing the data and several interesting results have been obtained,' the statement said.

The spacecraft operations are being carried out from the ISRO telemetry, tracking and command network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore and the Indian deep space network at Byalalu, about 40km from India's tech hub.

'The scientific data from Chandrayaan-1 is being archived and disseminated from the Indian space science data centre, which is also located at Byalalu,' the statement added.

Of the 11 scientific instruments (payloads), five are Indian and six foreign, including three from the European Space Agency (ESA), two from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US and one from Bulgaria.

The scientific objectives of the spacecraft are remote sensing of the Moon in visible, near infra-red, low energy x-ray and high-energy x-ray regions.

During the two-year expedition, some of the payloads will prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of moon, with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5-10 metres.

'Specific instruments will conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for collecting data on the distribution of elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium, with a spatial resolution of about 25km and high atomic number elements such as radon, uranium and thorium, with a spatial resolution of about 20km,' a senior space scientist told IANS.

Of the five Indian payloads, the 34kg moon impact probe (MIP) was crashed onto the lunar surface November 14.

During the probe's 25-minute descent, its mass spectrometer measured the constituents of the thin lunar atmosphere. The spectrometer also analysed the chemicals and minerals of the moon and relayed the data to the ground station after impacting the lunar surface.

The probe, carrying three instruments and with the Indian flag painted on its outer panes, settled in a crater in the Moon's South Pole.

Sify News

Panel's review seen as 'test' - Scolese

Eun Kyung Kim

WASHINGTON -- NASA employees have mixed reactions to President Barack Obama's decision to name an independent panel to review the agency's manned space exploration program, NASA's acting administrator said Tuesday.

"No one likes to take a test, and this is a test," Christopher Scolese told members of the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee. But "some people clearly recognize the value of the review, given some of the questions that have been opened, and they clearly are relieved."

Continued at Florida Today

Late Heavy Bombardment may not have extinguished early life - Study

Impact evidence from lunar samples, meteorites and the pockmarked surfaces of the inner planets paints a picture of a violent environment in the solar system during the Hadean Eon 4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago, particularly through a cataclysmic event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.9 million years ago. Although many believe the bombardment would have sterilized Earth, the new study shows it would have melted only a fraction of Earth's crust, and that microbes could well have survived in subsurface habitats, insulated from the destruction.

"These new results push back the possible beginnings of life on Earth to well before the bombardment period 3.9 billion years ago," said CU-Boulder Research Associate Oleg Abramov. "It opens up the possibility that life emerged as far back as 4.4 billion years ago, about the time the first oceans are thought to have formed."

A paper on the subject by Abramov and CU-Boulder geological sciences Professor Stephen Mojzsis appears in the May 21 issue of Nature.

Science Daily

NASA details plans for precursor lunar exploration robotic missions

Michael Mewhinney /Jonas Dino
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-3937/5612
Michael.S.Mewhinney@nasa.gov / Jonas.Dino@nasa.gov

MOFFETT FIELD, CA (NASA Ames) ­ NASA's return to the moon will get a boost in June with the launch of two satellites that will return a wealth of data about Earth's nearest neighbor. On Thursday, the agency outlined the upcoming missions of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The spacecraft will launch together June 17 aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Using a suite of seven instruments, LRO will help identify safe landing sites for future human explorers, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment and test new technology. LCROSS will seek a definitive answer about the presence of water ice at the lunar poles. LCROSS will use the spent second stage Atlas Centaur rocket in an unprecedented way that will culminate with two spectacular impacts on the moon's surface.

"These two missions will provide exciting new information about the moon, our nearest neighbor," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington. "Imaging will show dramatic landscapes and areas of interest down to one-meter resolution. The data also will provide information about potential new uses of the moon. These teams have done a tremendous job designing and building these two spacecraft."

LRO's instruments will help scientists compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it in the far ultraviolet spectrum. The satellite's instruments will help explain how the lunar radiation environment may affect humans and measure radiation absorption with a plastic that is like human tissue.

LRO's instruments also will allow scientists to explore the moon's deepest craters, look beneath its surface for clues to the location of water ice, and identify and explore both permanently lit and permanently shadowed regions. High resolution imagery from its camera will help identify landing sites and characterize the moon's topography and composition. A miniaturized radar will image the poles and test the system's communications capabilities.

"LRO is an amazingly sophisticated spacecraft," said Craig Tooley, LRO project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Its suite of instruments will work in concert to send us data in areas where we've been hungry for information for years."

While most Centaurs complete their work after boosting payloads out of Earth's orbit, the LCROSS Centaur will journey with the spacecraft for four months and be guided to an impact in a permanently shadowed crater at one of the moon's poles. The resulting debris plume is expected to rise more than six miles. It presents a dynamic observation target for LCROSS as well as a network of ground-based telescopes, LRO, and possibly the Hubble Space Telescope. Observers will search for evidence of water ice by examining the plume in direct sunlight. LCROSS also will increase knowledge of the mineralogical makeup of some of the remote polar craters that sunlight never reaches. The satellite represents a new generation of fast development, cost capped missions that use flight proven hardware and off the shelf software to achieve focused mission goals.

"We look forward to engaging a wide cross section of the public in LCROSS' spectacular arrival at the moon and search for water ice," said LCROSS Project Manager Dan Andrews of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "It's possible we'll learn the answer to what is increasingly one of planetary science's most intriguing questions."

LRO and LCROSS are the first missions launched by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Their data will be used to advance goals of future human exploration of the solar system. LRO will spend at least one year in low polar orbit around the moon, collecting detailed information for exploration purposes before being transferred to NASA's Science Mission Directorate to continue collecting additional scientific data.

Goddard manages the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Ames manages the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. LRO is a NASA mission with international participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia provides the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft. Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, Calif., built the LCROSS spacecraft.

Apollo vets call for spaceflight funding

Tim Talley - AP Texas Houston Chronicle

OKLAHOMA CITY — Former astronauts and NASA administrators said Wednesday the space shuttle mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope is a good example of why the nation needs a viable, well-funded space program.

"The Hubble Space Telescope wouldn't be in the shape it's in if it wasn't for them," George Abbey, a former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said of the mission by the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis to make the 19-year-old observatory more powerful than ever.

"It's a great example of why you have men in space and the value of men in space," Abbey said.

Abbey and other former NASA officials discussed funding issues and the uncertain direction of the U.S. space program during a ceremony at the Oklahoma History Center to observe the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 10 mission, for which Oklahoma native Thomas Stafford served as commander.

Stafford, who also flew on two earlier Gemini missions and commanded a second Apollo mission in 1975, said the future of the space program will depend largely on what kind of support it receives from the Obama administration.

Former astronaut Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot on the aborted Apollo 13 mission, said funding is vital if the space program is to repeat the successes of the 1960s that ended with a series of manned missions to the moon.

"You're not going very far if you don't have enough," Haise said.

Former astronaut Walter Cunningham, the lunar module pilot on Apollo 7, said administrators and budget writers should stop citing risk factors in space flight when deciding which NASA programs to fund and how much they receive.

"Space is never going to be cheap. And it's never going to be safe," Cunningham said. "Sometimes that's the price you pay for progress."

Read the article HERE.

Russia, ESA plan orbiting shipyard

European Space Agency and Roscosmos officials "want to create an international space shipyard in low orbit above the Earth," Rob Coppinger at FlightGlobal has reported.

The proposal is a response to the uncertain retirement of ISS after American support for the space station is still formally scheduled to end in 2016. The ESA-Russian orbiting platform would be used "to assemble manned spacecraft that could travel to Mars or the moon."

Roscosmos and ESA are already planning a Russian section for the European equatorial launch facility at Kourou in French Guyana.

Meanwhile some Members of Congress in the U.S. remain hopeful of extending support for ISS beyond 2016 though such funding may offset support for the Constellation program.

According to FoxNEWS, "NASA's plans for future manned trips to the moon involve some type of ship assembly in Earth's orbit, as do plans for any vessels capable of taking people to Mars."

"A majority of the world's major space agencies are expected to meet in June at the Hague, and the shipyard is expected to be on the agenda."

ESA unveils roster of astronauts

PARIS (AFP) — The European Space Agency unveiled Wednesday a roster of six new astronauts selected after a gruelling, year-long vetting process that began with more than 8,400 applicants.

Europe's new space elite comprises one woman, from Italy, and five men. One of the male astronauts is also Italian, with the others coming from Britain, Denmark, France and Germany.

"I am very proud of the result achieved with this selection," Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight, said at a press conference.

"This result exceeds our greatest expectations. Not only do we have a group of outstanding astronauts, we also have a representation of European countries that reinforces the support for human spaceflight and exploration in Europe."

The new recruits range in age 31 to 37 years old, and are the first to join the European Astronaut Corps since 1992. This is only the second selection process ever carried out by the ESA.

They will join eight other members of the Corps -- all men -- and will start their training to prepare for future missions to the International Space Station (ISS), ESA said.

Ares I new SRB chutes successfully tested

Sheena McFarland
Salt Lake City Tribune

"The three parachutes, each with a 150-foot diameter or about half the size of a football field, slowed a 41,500-pound weight that simulates the size of the Ares I first-stage booster. The parachutes are the largest of their type in the world. The weight and chutes were dropped from a C-17 aircraft at 10,000 feet, and successfully deployed at 4,500 feet above the U.S. Army's Yuma Testing Ground.

"This test marks yet another successful milestone in the development of NASA's Ares I launch vehicle," said Charlie Precourt, ATK Space Systems vice president and general manager of Space Launch Systems. "The teamwork between NASA and the contractors ensures continued success in the development of the next generation crew launch vehicle."

"United Space Alliance at the Kennedy Space Center, who subcontracted with ATK, manufactured the parachutes. Designers modeled the parachutes after the 136-foot diameter ones that currently slow the solid rocket boosters from the space shuttle enough to splash down into the Atlantic Ocean. The new chutes also will slow the Ares I rocket for an Atlantic landing, where the rockets will be recovered, refurbished and reused. "

Review the story HERE

Read the Story HERE

Rick Scheuring - Constellation's lead for medical operations

Nearly 40 years after watching the first men on the moon parade down Michigan Avenue, Chicago native Dr. Rick Scheuring is helping send a new generation of explorers to the moon. Today, the Ridgewood High School track and field alumnus is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of future moonwalkers for NASA’s Constellation Program.

Scheuring is Constellation’s lead for medical operations integration. He was recently reunited with the three astronauts he witnessed decades earlier: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. The lessons they shared from their journey to the moon are helping Scheuring shape crew health and safety goals for future Constellation missions.

Read the NASA JSC Press Release
at SpaceRef.com

Minotaur 1 launched with PharmSat

From Lunar Pioneer

After a twenty minute hold, brought about by a wayward boat that strayed into waters downrange from Wallops Island, Orbital Science's Minotaur 1 showed its stuff at 19:55 ET.

On-board was the payload was NASA Ames' mini-satellite PharmSat, a breadbox-sized experiment to determine the effects of the near-Earth environment on certain pharmaceutical precursors.

"Grow yeasties, grow," Ames director Pete Wordan Twittered.

The lower show above, in this composite shows the how merciless the crosswinds must have been on the vehicle. The shot was taken approximately 220 kilometers to the south by southwest, not far from the coastal waters of North Carolina.

NASA Briefing LRO/LCROSS Thursday

NASA will host a presser, Thursday regarding the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar CRater Remote Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) now scheduled for launch no earlier than June 17.

Members of the mission and science teams will brief reporters May 21 at 2300 UT in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA HQ in Washington. It will be carried live on NASA TV.

"Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, focuses on the selection of safe landing sites, identification of lunar resources," the announcement reads, "and the study of how lunar radiation will affect humans."

And "the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, will impact the moon twice in its search for water ice."

Briefing participants are Doug Cooke, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters; Mike Wargo, chief lunar scientist, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate; Craig Tooley, project manager, LRO, NASA Goddard; Rich Vondrak, project scientist, LRO, Goddard; Dan Andrews, project manager, LCROSS, NASA Ames; Tony Colaprete, project scientist, LCROSS, Ames.

Students can get scholarships to Space Lab

Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute will award scholarships to high school students from counties in Western North Carolina for the Space Science Lab.

Interested students should contact their high school science teacher or PARI Education Director Christi Whitworth (828-862-5554 or cwhitworth@pari.edu).

“PARI has conducted the SSL for the past three years,” said Whitworth, “and the program has proven so valuable that the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Student Science Enrichment Program has extended funding for three more years. The funding provides full scholarships for 30 high school students each summer. The scholarships include all costs for room, board, instruction and materials, and each student also receives a monetary stipend.”

This summer the SSL students will learn about lunar impact craters and how they are detected. Each student will live on the PARI campus for a week during the summer studying the lunar surface. They will learn to use a robotic PARI telescope for observations and build their own telescopes that can be used to detect and photograph lunar impacts by meteors.

“The motivation for the Space Science Lab,” Whitworth said, “is the hope that by becoming resident scientists at PARI, students will become interested in pursuing careers in research or other science-related areas. SSL students become excited about science because they can learn by doing. At PARI, we can make science fun--- which is a critical first step in making it interesting. During the SSL experience, our students learn
and develop skills in digital imaging, computer sciences, astronomy, physics and earth sciences. They take their telescopes home with them for continued observations and school-related projects.”

The SSL students will contribute their observations to the Lunar Impact Team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. As part of the collaboration, the SSL students will participate in videoconferences with the NASA Lunar Impact Team and will share their observations with scientists from around the world.

For more information about the program, visit www.pari.edu/programs/students/ssl.

What can we expect from Charles Bolden?

John Kelly Florida Today

Bolden has been in hiding the past few months as President Barack Obama's science team worked its way through a list of other candidates for NASA administrator. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has been advocating fiercely for his former shuttle crewmate and close personal friend, but Bolden's just waiting quietly.

Now, it seems Bolden will get the nod, perhaps as early as today when he sits down with Obama in the Oval Office, presumably to talk about where they'll take U.S. space policy. The White House's leak last week that Bolden is now their guy prompted no public complaints over the weekend from senators who would have to confirm him.

There are plenty of hints in the public record about Bolden's stand on the big overarching issues of space exploration.

First, Bolden is an astronaut. He would be the first astronaut to get the job since President George H.W. Bush tapped Dick Truly. Bolden is a U.S. Marine aviator who piloted two shuttle missions and commanded two others.

However, he is not a one-dimensional advocate of human exploration. In 2006, he testified before the U.S. Senate about balancing human and robotic exploration.

"Building a vehicle or set of vehicles to take humans to the moon and on to Mars without continued emphasis on the life science research to understand more fully the environmental and human factors challenges that must be overcome to successfully allow humans to survive these journeys is a certain recipe for disaster and ultimate failure," Bolden told senators.

"Similarly," he went on, "funding increased science exploration and experimentation through employment of robotic vehicles and remote sensing and satellite data-gathering without continued improvement in our ability to safely send humans beyond Earth's bounds and on to other heavenly bodies literally defeats our innate human drive and curiosity to explore the unknown and venture from this planet in search of ways to improve our lives here at home."

Bolden's on the record with the same plea as most other space-exploration advocates have used. NASA's budget is insufficient to tackle all the jobs it has been assigned: studying Earth's climate, advancing aeronautics, exploring the solar system with robotic probes and pushing the limits of human spaceflight.

One tidbit on his resume: He lobbied briefly for ATK. The launch-systems company is the lead contractor for the Ares rocket currently under scrutiny as the Obama administration reviews NASA's developing moon program.

Just about anyone qualified for this job would have a history of working for or with contractors, universities and others doing business with NASA.

Certainly, Bolden has the ear of a key influential member of Congress. Nelson, a Democrat who flew on the shuttle in 1985 with Bolden, helps lead committees overseeing NASA policy and funding. Nelson fought hard against other hopefuls the White House suggested, holding firm for his friend.

Where Bolden stands on parochial Space Coast issues such as when to retire the shuttles and how to proceed on new moon rockets probably will depend less on personal beliefs and more on orders from the White House. Marines understand orders.

It's worth noting that Bolden served on an independent safety panel that strongly recommended this year against flying the shuttles past 2010, saying it is unsafe and would drain funds needed to develop new rockets and spacecraft.

John Kelly: jkelly@floridatoday.com.

Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts

"Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts" is a new book produced by NASA and Abrams that provides a unique perspective of the historic program that took people to the moon nearly four decades ago. The publication chronicles Apollo missions 7 through 17 using photographs of the flights selected by each of the surviving Apollo astronauts.

Between 1967 and 1972, 29 astronauts left Earth to explore the nearest celestial body, our moon. To celebrate that achievement, NASA and Abrams will publish "Apollo" in June, in advance of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's first lunar landing on July 20, 1969.

"Most Americans remember the Apollo astronauts as brave test pilots, engineers and scientists. However, one could argue that many of these explorers also were talented artists," said Bob Jacobs, acting assistant administrator for Public Affairs at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "They documented history while working in a very dangerous and hostile environment, and many of their images rival the beauty and historic significance of any picture captured by professional photographers."

"Apollo" features a foreword by Stephen Hawking, bestselling author of "A Brief History of Time" and the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, England, and his daughter Lucy Hawking, a journalist and novelist.

"Abrams is thrilled to collaborate with NASA on this book chronicling the Apollo lunar missions," said Eric Himmel, vice president and editor in chief of Abrams in New York. "It's especially rewarding to have the participation of the surviving Apollo astronauts, who, in addition to their other achievements, took some of the most extraordinary and influential photographs of our time."

The book uses vivid photographs and detailed text to create a visually compelling and authoritatively written record of a landmark achievement in human history.

"It will be interesting to see the different perspectives of my Apollo crewmates," said Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean. His photograph of fellow astronaut and mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad on the Ocean of Storms makes up the cover of the new publication. "We all shared a special experience, but how each individual reflects on that experience is, of course, different."

Jacobs edited the book in collaboration with colleagues at NASA Headquarters in Washington: Michael Cabbage, director of News Services; Constance Moore, head photo researcher; and Bertram Ulrich, curator and multimedia manager.

"We wanted to publish the best of the best of the Apollo photographs and give the astronauts an opportunity to share with us their memories and experiences of this historic achievement in exploration," Jacobs added. "We deeply appreciate their cooperation and dedication."

"Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts" will be available in retail and online bookstores by early June.

Frank DiBello: interim Space Florida president

Hat Tip to NASAWatch, reporting Frank A. DiBello, founder and chair of the ITV Group, a strategic and investment advisory firm in Merritt Island, has been named by Space Florida's Board as interim president.

Link to NASAWatch Post HERE.

Learned Robotic Rover Mobility

So new, it has no "catchy acronym yet..."

Weird new NASA rovers, really get around

"At some point on their five-year journey, Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have both gotten their feet stuck in the soil, and NASA is taking notes for the design of the next generation of rovers.

"In 2005, Opportunity spent five weeks spinning her wheels in a dune later dubbed “Purgatory.” Last week, Spirit sank into a sandpit scientists are calling “Troy,” and could stay there for weeks — or forever.

"But rovers of the future may have an easier time of it. NASA scientists are building an army of prototypes with new and ever weirder ways to rove.

Read all about Hopper, LEMUR & CLIFFBOT Here.

Apollo 10 plus 40 years

On May 18, 1969, Apollo 10 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The flight was a test run, a crucial dress rehearsal leading up to the historic Apollo 11 mission that two months later carried the first people to walk on the moon.

"The three-man mission was a "dress rehearsal" for the lunar landing just a few months later. It tested the full Apollo spacecraft - both the mother ship (CSM) and lander (LM) - in lunar orbit, going down to within about 15 kilometres of the lunar surface at one point.

"So why stop there? The answer you'll find in simple accounts is that Apollo 10's lander was too heavy to land and take off again. The reality was more complex."

More Background from Henry Spencer, HERE.

The Hunt for the Moonwalk Tapes

Sensational work by LOIRP restoring Lunar Orbiter data has inspired much conversation about what might be done to show the original Black & White video of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon at never-before-seen fidelity, or at least as they were intended to be viewed.

It's long been acknowledged the frame-per-second rate of the video downlinked from Apollo 11, the show hundreds of millions on Earth watched live from the Sea of Tranquillity, improperly matched the resolution of standard analog television.

Unlike those of us watching in our living rooms, the original camera designers cringed when those first images came into view on the evening of July 20, 1969. They knew the image seen would be hazy, but not that hazy. But the moment passed and mission managers quickly moved on to color television, beginning with Apollo 12.

An incidental shot of the Sun almost immediately toasted the first color television camera to be hand-delivered to the Moon with Apollo 12. The first true color television moonwalk video would wait until 1971 and Apollo 14, featuring Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell hiking through the slopes of Fra Mauro. Without a rover, however, much of that mission took place out of view of the live television camera, as Shepard and Mitchell search for the rim of Cone Crater.

By the time the best video was returned from the final three missions, each with rovers, remote controlled cameras and uplinks, a lot of public attention had been lost. The Big Three networks were swamped with viewers complaining of missing their soaps.

The designers in charge of the very historic Apollo 11 first-footage have long believed that the original data stream, captured in Australia, could be reformatted to show generations to come those images as intended, as no one has seen those moments before. There's just one problem. The data tapes and any copies that might have been made are "missing."

NASA is undergoing an "informal search" for that video and has not given up finding the data, in one form or another. An update on the search "for the missing Moonwalk Tapes" can be reviewed HERE.

One last look at LRO & LCROSS

Mated: LRO stacked onto LCROSS, are sealed
away into the Atlas fairing as preparations
continue for their joint launch, now
scheduled no earlier the June 26

We expect to hear great things from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and it's sister payload, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) over coming months. But until some enterprising Lunar Pioneer visits the sites and artifacts of past human activity on the Moon this is any will see of either spacecraft.

It is almost certainly the last time anyone will see either spacecraft intact.

On the LCROSS flight director's Blog, yesterday evening, Paul D. Tompkins shared the live experience:

"Seeing this in photos brought a strange sense of finality to the whole development. Years of effort, and now the team is done designing, done building, and nearly done testing."

"LRO is the silver-colored spacecraft, LCROSS the gold-colored spacecraft. Having never seen LRO, members of our flight team were stricken by how different the two spacecraft look. Both are covered in Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI for short) that protects the spacecraft from the harsh thermal environment of space. But the kinds of materials each spacecraft uses in their MLI are tailored to their respective missions - their orbits, how long they expect to dwell in the shadow of the moon, which sides of the spacecraft will face the sun, the sensitivity of some spacecraft elements to heat and cold, and the amount of heat specific electronics units produce."

Read the background HERE.

Congratulations to New Canadian Astronauts

Montreal Gazette lauds the two finalists chosen to join Canada's astronaut corp, bemoans 'no place to go'

Congratulations to fighter pilot Jeremy Hansen and medical doctor David Saint-Jacques, newly named as Canada's latest astronauts. Selected by the Canadian Space Agency from more than 5,000 accomplished applicants, they become candidates to join the list of eight Canadians who've been in space.

NASA's space shuttles will be retired next year, before the two Canadians can fly. But they won't be all dressed up with no place to go: After their two-year training they might go to the International Space Station in a Russian vehicle, on a private rocket, or, in 2015 or later, via NASA's new Constellation launch system, also intended to establish a human colony on the moon.

We'll see. Despite the scientific and engineering advantages, the national prestige, and the sheer exultation of it all, the lunar program remains a likely target for budget-cutting.

Read the Gazette Editoral HERE.

Oklahoma honors Stafford and Apollo 10

40th Anniversary of the wild "gyrations"

Ron Jackson - The Daily Oklahoman

Weatherford, OK — Disaster fell upon Apollo X astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan 40 years ago this month when their lunar module began spinning wildly during a low pass over the moon’s surface. No humans had ever been so close to another celestial body, and yet in that defining moment, the mission — and their lives — appeared in jeopardy.

The world listened anxiously to the spacecraft’s radio transmission to NASA’s Command Center in Houston. As the lunar module pitched and rolled in "wild gyrations,” Cernan bellowed his now-famous, "Son of a b----!”

Stafford mumbled something inaudible in his Oklahoma drawl and took action.

"When you see the surface of the moon flash before your eyes eight times in 15 seconds, it’s a bit unnerving,” recalled the retired Capt. Cernan, now 75 and living in Houston. "Luckily, Tom was able to shut it down completely and take over full control of the lunar module manually and get us back under control.”

Read the complete article HERE.

Nelson credited for Bolden

Robert Block, posting at the The Write Stuff, is crediting U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) for doggedly lobbying the Obama White House for the pending appointment of Maj. Gen. Bill Holden (USMC Ret.) as NASA Administrator.

"Nelson has tirelessly -- some might say obnoxiously -- pushed for his old friend and the man who piloted the shuttle that Nelson flew on in 1986, where he earned the nickname “Ballast” from fellow astronauts.

In fact, Nelson not only stumped for Bolden, he also actively lobbied against alternative candidates.

Though highly regarded by the aerospace community and NASA insiders, Bolden, 62, was never the White House's first choice for the NASA job. But for three months, other names that the White House floated for the job were knocked out of the running or withdrew from consideration.

Much of the resistance was spearheaded by Nelson."

Read the Block's observations HERE.

Wisconsin Student ‘Rocketeers’ Win National Team America Rocketry Challenge

The Plains, VA - A team from Madison, Wis., took first place at the Seventh Annual Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) Saturday, taking on the title of national champion.

The four-member team won the rocket competition after spending months perfecting their rocket design. The Team America Rocketry Challenge kicked off last September with hundreds of teams from 45 states and the District of Columbia vying for a chance to compete at the finals held today outside of Washington, D.C. with the top 100 teams.

“Hard work, perseverance, teamwork, and custom electronics are the reasons our rocket performed well today,” said Ben Winokur, team member. He added a key component of their rocket’s success was, “a very intricate active parachute ejection on ascent.”

The team, one of three from Madison West High School, logged the winning score of 20.54. Each point represents a deviation from altitude and time aloft targets, so the lower the score, the better. Festus High School from Festus, Mo., took second place with a score of 25.92 while New Site High School from New Site, Ms., placed third with a score of 36.3

This year, student teams were asked to design, build and launch a model rocket to an altitude of 750 feet with a flight time of 45 seconds and a raw-egg payload situated horizontally to mimic the position of an astronaut. The egg had to return to earth unbroken in order for the launch to qualify.

The contest, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, is designed to encourage students to consider careers in aerospace. Great jobs in the field will be abundant as almost 60 percent of the U.S. aerospace workforce is 45 or older and retiring in large numbers, according to AIA statistics.

The winning team will compete today for international glory in a fly-off against the winners of the UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge from Royal Liberty School in Essex.

AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said the contest was a great success in achieving its goal of attracting young people to consider careers in aerospace and advancing their studies in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM fields.

“The students today were absolutely outstanding,” Blakey said. “Each and every team demonstrated a superb grasp of the fundamentals of rocketry using physics, math and teamwork to launch their rocket and spur a terrific competition. This is an encouraging sign that there is a promising pipeline of future employees for our industry.”

The Madison West High School team wins a trip to the International Paris Air Show in June, sponsored for the fourth year by Raytheon Company, a major supporter of the competition. The winning team shares a prize pool of more than $60,000 with other top finishers. Lockheed Martin Corporation provides $5,000 scholarships to each of the top three teams, and teams also will receive an invitation from NASA to participate in its Student Launch Initiative, an advanced rocketry program. Other sponsors include the Defense Department, the American Association of Physics Teachers and 34 AIA member companies.

About 7,000 middle and high school students took part in the qualifying rounds of competition. Each team had until April 6 to submit qualifying scores, which were achieved by launching their rockets in their home region under the supervision of a judge from the National Association of Rocketry.

AIA created the Team America Rocketry Challenge in 2003 to celebrate the centennial of flight and to generate interest in aerospace careers among young people. Despite the challenging economic times, the aerospace and defense sector is still hiring technical talent to replace the baby boomer generation that is starting to retire.

Members of the Madison West High School team are: Jacqui German, Tenzin Sonam, John Schoech and Ben Winokur. Their mentor is Dr. Pavel Pinkas, an engineer, and their teacher is Chris Hager, who teaches biology. The team of high school juniors was sponsored by the Madison Wisconsin community through fundraisers held by the Madison West Rocket Club. The Club opted to raise contributions in the low-tech manner of raking leaves.

Complete competition results are available at http://www.rocketcontest.org. High-resolution images and broadcast-quality video are also available upon request.

17 Steps to the Moon and Back: Anatomy of a Moonshot

Joe P. Hasler

Popular Mechanics - June 2009

The most remarkable thing about Apollo 11—considering the uncertainties of manned spaceflight and the mishaps that bedeviled NASA on previous and subsequent missions—was its nearly flawless execution, from liftoff to splashdown. “I had the sense that surely something would go awry sooner or later,” flight director Glynn Lunney says. “It was pretty much by the book.” Here are the critical events that had to go right, and what would have happened had they gone wrong.

Read the Article HERE.

Diagram by Dogo

Aerospace Consultant: Dennis R. Jenkins, NASA 

Checking in on the Lunar Analog Study

Going to bed for your country

Unlike other Space Flight Simulation studies which mimic micro gravity by placing subjects in a bed with their heads inclined six degrees lower than their feet, The Lunar Analog study is a 9.5 degree head up study.

Physics determines the 9.5 degrees incline – at this angle, the gravity force through the subject’s legs along the long axis is 1/6th of the subject’s body weight. The study goals are similar to our other studies conducted by NASA, to assess the effects of simulated reduced gravity on the body. Once scientists have confidence that these bed rest models induce changes similar to spaceflight, they can assess ways to mitigate these effects to possibly keep the astronauts healthier in space and on the moon.

The Lunar Study is a pilot study to confirm that scientists are seeing what they expect in terms of the physiological changes. The study requires the subjects to be on the unit for two weeks for baseline tests and diet stabilization, then in the 9.5 degree bed (for 16 hours a day) for 6 days. The subjects sleep at zero degrees.

This change from 9.5 degrees to zero degree each night is to simulate a lunar gravity field and astronaut activity. The astronauts will be sleeping “flat” when they stay on the moon (they will not be on their feet 24 hours a day), so there was no a need to have study participants subjected to a 9.5 degree tilt 24 hours a day. The goal of the study is to examine the effects of lunar gravity on the “long axis” of the body, so “removing” the simulated lunar gravity from the feet and legs each night by going to zero degrees should simulate the lunar activity.

Once eight subjects complete the study and scientists confirm the data, NASA will proceed with a new Lunar Study in the fall of 2009 that will involve 14 days of pre-bedrest preparation, and 60 days in bed.

One important note is that the 9.5 degree angle provides the appropriate mechanical stimulus to investigate losses in bone and muscle function. This mechanical stimulus however, does not produce the upward shifting of body fluids in the cardiovascular system that scientists expect to see on the moon. To obtain these changes in the cardiovascular system, knee-high compression hose are used to facilitate upward movement of body fluids.

Spaceflight (no gravity) is a little easier to model on the ground, the minus-six degrees is chosen to simulate the cardiovascular effects. Since there is negligible gravity in space, scientists simply remove all forces and weight from the long axis with confined bed rest.

For more information on the Lunar Study or other Space Flight Simulation studies please call the Human Test Subject Facility at the Johnson Space Center at 1-866-JSC-TEST (572-8378) or visit http://www.bedreststudy.com.

Bolden likely NASA administrator

Five months after reports in January, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden (USMC Ret.) is likely to be appointed NASA administrator as early as Monday.

There's not much more to be added to THIS.

Moon Java - Lunar Brew

Notional Fission Surface Power system

Have you ever wondered how you'd make your morning cup of java if you lived on another planet, or perhaps the moon? That steaming beverage would be a must on a cold lunar morning.

But with rare sunlight, no coal or wood to burn, and no flowing water for hydro-electrical power, how would you make that cup of coffee, much less cook breakfast, heat your abode, and power the life support equipment and tools you needed to live and work up there?

NASA, planning for a future lunar outpost, has been asking those same questions lately.

There's more than one way to generate power on the moon. Fission Surface Power is one of the options NASA is considering. If this method is chosen, an engine invented in the early 1800s by Scottish brothers Robert and James Stirling could help make it work.

The Stirlings were so proud of their creation that they made it their namesake – and with good reason. Over the years the Stirling engine -- the reliable, efficient "little engine that could" -- has earned a sterling reputation here on Earth, and it may one day prove its worth on the moon.

"Inhabitants of a lunar outpost will need a safe and effective way to generate light and heat and electricity," says Mike Houts of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "The tried and true Stirling engine fits the bill. It's not only reliable and efficient, but also versatile and clean."

NASA is partnering with the Department of Energy to develop Fission Surface Power technology to produce heat and feed it into a Stirling engine, which, in turn, would convert heat energy into electricity for use by moon explorers.

It's not certain that this kind of power system will be adopted by NASA, but it does have some very appealing qualities. Houts explains: "A key advantage to this power system is that it wouldn't need sunlight to operate. An FSP system could be used to provide power any time, any place, on the surface of moon or Mars. It could be used at the poles and away from the poles, it could weather a cold lunar night, and it would do well in places like deep craters that are always shaded. Not even a swirling, sunlight obscuring, Martian dust storm could stop it."

NASA's engine would only need to produce 40 kW or less power – just enough for a lunar outpost.

"This power level is high by space standards but extremely low by Earthly standards," says Houts. "It's about 1/20,000th of what a typical Earthly reactor puts out. We'd only need a tiny reactor on the moon – the fueled portion would be only about 10 inches wide by 1½ feet long."

It would provide more power with less mass than other power systems. The whole assembly, radiator on top of Stirling engine on top of reactor, could be stowed in a fraction of the lunar lander.

Before developing the final system, Houts and his team are testing with non-nuclear power for proof of concept.

"We're conducting tests in a thermal vacuum to learn about operating and controlling the system on the moon," says Houts. "We're using resistance heaters to simulate nuclear heat. Electrical resistance produces heat."

After the test system proves the viability of the concept, the team could be directed to build the "real thing," drawing heavily on US and international terrestrial reactor experience.

"It would be built from stainless steel and fueled by uranium dioxide. This combination has been used in terrestrial reactors throughout the world, so scientists and engineers are well-versed in its operation."

The unit would not be active at launch, but would be "turned on" once in place on the lunar surface, where it would be surrounded by shielding to prevent any hazard from the radiation emitted.

"It would be very safe," says Houts. "And the beauty of the system is that it would be practically self-regulating."

Here's how it would work: Inside the reactor is a bundle of small tubes filled with uranium. Outside the reactor are control drums -- one side of each drum reflects neutrons and the other side absorbs them, providing a way to control the rate that neutrons escaping the reactor core are reflected back in. To start up the unit, the absorbent side of each control drum is turned out, away from the reactor core, so the reflective material faces in and sends escaping neutrons back in to the core. The resulting increase in available neutrons enables a self-sustaining chain reaction, which produces heat.

A coolant (sodium potassium mixture)* flows through the passage-ways between the tubes, picks up the thermal heat produced by the reacting uranium, and transfers the heat to the Stirling engine. The Stirling engine then does its magic** to generate electricity. Meanwhile the coolant, which has "downloaded" some of its cargo (heat) to the Stirling engine, circulates back through the reactor core, where it picks up heat and is ready to repeat the entire cycle.

The system would use only a miniscule amount of fuel -- 1 kg of uranium every 15 years – and still have enough reactivity to run for decades.

"We give it a life expectancy of 8 years, though, because something else would falter before the fuel would run out."

After shutdown, radiation emitted by the system would decrease rapidly. A replacement system could easily be installed at the same site.

After all, coffee may be in high demand up there!

More Information HERE.

MoonROx internship and ISDC presentation

"One objective of this work is to prepare to win the MoonROx Challenge, issued by the California Space Authority, a prize for oxygen extraction which carries a $1,000,000 first prize. Another objective is to publish the results of this research in a technical forum in the aerospace field..."

Background HERE.

Privately-funded space kicks-off ISDC 2009

SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn and Orion Propulsion’s Tim Pickens among private sector entrepreneurs on hand to discuss the next frontier of the space industry

Cape Canaveral, FL – RLV & Space Transportation News – The National Space Society (NSS) announced today that Day One of the 28th annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) will dedicate itself to an in-depth look into the emerging privately funded sector of the space industry.

The nation currently finds itself in the midst of a crippled economy, a planet in peril, and in alarmingly low regard in the minds and hearts of the rest of the world. These ominous issues have brought forth a new mandate for American government and business that has become a call to action for those who believe that they can solve some of the grandest challenges of our time.

Read the latest HERE.

What the Augustine Committee Didn’t Know in 1990

Paul SPUDIS - A newly formed commission led by Norman Augustine will review NASA’s human spaceflight program with the aim of determining if we are on the “right track.” This is familiar territory for Augustine, who led the 1990 Advisory Committee on the Future of the US Space Program. Now, 19 years later, it may seem that he’s treading across similar ground, but the landscape has changed.

Recommended Read HERE.

Australian Space Agency?

"In the Australian Federal budget presented last night, as well as big national infrastructure spending, an amount of $48.6 million over four years was allocated for an 'Australian Space Science Program.' Normally a space program is managed by a space agency. Does this now mean that Australia will follow the recommendations of the Senate Space Science report and give up its rather inadequate title of the only top-20 GDP nation not to have one? With nations like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Bulgaria forming or maintaining space agencies, this government infrastructure is obviously not limited to G-20 nations. Discussions to combine Australian and New Zealand airspace have been undertaken; should that translate to aerospace too, and both nations form an ANZAC space agency together?"

From Slashdot.org

Team Italia conceives Bot Swarm to win Google Lunar X-Prize

An impossibly huge notional unit, part of a swarm of similar robots GLXP Team Italia has announced it may use to win the Google Lunar X-Prize, looms over the lunar Nearside

Jeremy Hsu, Space.com - "What began as a glimmer in the mind's eye for one robotics researcher has grown into a national endeavor for Team Italia, one of 17 groups competing for the Google Lunar X Prize.

"Team Italia has evolved," said Piero Messina, president of the Naples-based International Association for the Aerospace Culture (AICA) that is coordinating Team Italia. Messina helped pull together all the major Italian aerospace and engineering universities, as well as the two largest Italian aerospace companies, to support the race to land a robot on the moon by 2012.

"The idea to compete for the Google Lunar X Prize crystallized around the vision of Alberto Rovetta, a professor of robot mechanics at Politecnico di Milano. Rovetta's designs for lunar robots resemble skittering spiders or crabs that could deploy as a swarm of mobile cameras and sensors on both legs and wheels."

Read the article HERE.

Lingering lunar flashes may be eruptions

Transient Lunar Phenomena, or TLP's have come under renewed study in recent years, though the vast majority of reports have been traced either to the illumination of high grounds and peaks behind the sunset and ahead of sunrise on surrounding terrain.

NASA carried out a two-year continuous observation of the Moon's unlit Nearside and recorded the nearly instantaneous flashes of hundreds of meteoric impacts. Until and during the Apollo Era eminent planetary scientists continued to argue about the obvious role of volcanism in the formation of lunar features. The belief that a far larger percentage of lunar craters could be remnants of volcanoes, and not impacts, quietly died away.

Nevertheless, the idea that at least some "active" geological processes, if only from an occasional release of trapped gases shaken free from impacts and moon quakes, has never been ruled out. completely.

"If you tie all this together in one package, you can convince yourself there's a story here," said lunar and planetary scientist Dr. Paul Spudis. "At one time the Moon had volatiles; it might still have some remnant of those in the deep interior," he says.

Lucas Laursen, writing in Nature reports, "Reports of ephemeral flashes of light seen on the Moon, dismissed by some as imaginary, could be due to the explosive discharge of gas beneath its surface. The analysis, by astronomer Arlin Crotts of Columbia University in New York, may breathe new life into investigations of its geological activity and history.

Crotts mapped about 2,000 observations of bright flashes called transient lunar phenomena (TLPs) reported by astronomers during at least the past 350 years. The flashes last too long to be meteorite impacts, and many researchers have dismissed the reports as observational errors.

But when Crotts compared the most commonly reported sites of observation with a map of known gas leaks from the Moon's surface, he found a strong correlation. "It really boils down to just a small number of sites where [TLPs] are happening consistently," he says. "That's almost exactly the same list of sites where people have seen radon [gas]."

Read the bulk of the Article HERE.

Random Walk to the Moon's origin

Edward Belbruno

From the Mathematical Association of America, via Jaksichj, a Senior Member of the Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum, comes a compelling lecture by Dr. Edward Belbruno.

Having read the introduction, being only a crippling two-thirds familiar with the needed scholarship necessary to fully understand Belbruno's discussion, my first reaction has been serendipity, because not everyone agrees with the prevailing theory of the origin of Earth's Moon. 

That theory explains a great deal, and it has been "the prevailing theory" since the Apollo Era. It states, in short, that the Moon resulted from a very fast accretion of debris following a glancing encounter with Earth by a "Mar-sized object," very early in our planet's history.

One scholar who has not been completely sold on this theory is none other than Dr. Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt, who remains the only professional scientist (a geologist) to actually visit the Moon. 

Jack Schmitt has an exceptionally respected perspective on the Moon's origin not merely because he actually explored some of the most historic and profound Ground Truth on the question, but because of his eminent scholarship on the matter, both before and long after his field trip to the Taurus-Littrow valley on the southeastern edge of Mare Serenitatis in 1972.

Dr. Schmitt is almost as conventional as any lunar and planetary scientist on the history of the Moon after it's arrival in Earth orbit. He is perhaps as anxious as any to gain more definitive evidence of the theorized late Grand Bombardment, for example, but leans away from the Earth impact-origin toward capture, something believed unlikely by many others. He also has not dismissed the possibility of a megabasin-forming impact, prior to the South Pole-Aitken basin, as well.

And now comes the eminent mathematician and theorist Edward Belbruno, who has worked out very-low energy trajectories from Earth to Moon which have already put to good use in lunar exploration. 

My first reaction was a thought that, somewhere in Belbruno's remarkable balance is a reconciliation between unexplained angular momentum of Earth's Moon after 4.5 billion years in Earth orbit and the Post-Impact Fast Lunar Accretion theory.

But it will take someone like Harrison Schmitt to work out the details. I'm merely a tourist riding below the waterline, obviously.

The MAA introduction begins, HERE.

So close...

Moon over downtown (Kalim Saliba)

And yet so desperately far away, apparently, in both Space and Time. 

What seems a modest view of our worlds, the hustling activity of the city scape is no different than several million campfires, each a common sign of humans busy about the business of survival. How many have been there, among them, those with eyes to see the backdrop of eternity. 

Mitochondrial DNA presents evidence that all humans alive on Earth today are but 5,000 generations removed from a common mother. Was she a stargazer? Were her eyes sharp enough to trace out the basins of the Moon?

None can tell, of course, but it is unlikely she was more sophisticated than those of the ancient world, at least as far back as Ur, who saw a powerful Deity. From among them would come one who discerned in the predictable order of this orb an obedience to some still-higher power, and this first astronomer would part ways with the priest-kings and seek his own obedience to this ultimate power.

Whether his descendants, according to blood or faith, seek fealty in the laws or in a sublime personality, together they cannot look away from the witness, they will not ultimately be restrained. And each step has taken a break from the countering instinct of whatever priest-kings there always seems to be, along with its orthodoxy.

They will set off, just as this first sojourner did, even if that decision requires they too become strangers in a strange land.

Peter Smith finally corrals his Ph.D.

Aaron Mackey

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Tucson - Peter Smith was able to find water on Mars, but until this spring one major accomplishment had eluded him — earning a Ph.D.

The University of Arizona senior research scientist who led the Phoenix Mars Mission will receive his doctorate in optical sciences during commencement this week after a 34-year detour.

Read the inspiring story HERE.

Mining the moon, they hope

Scale model of a load-haul dump machine. This machine is hydrogen powered, customized for tele-robotic operation, and can be operated from extreme distances.

Canadian miners aim to regain lost ground as resourceful innovators

Peter Koven, Financial Post

"We've seen a decline in Canadian R&D and innovation over a couple of decades. We've said in mining that that doesn't work for us. If we've lost ground, that's unacceptable," says Jean Vavrek, the CIM's executive director.

"He describes the conference as an attempt to focus on maintaining (and in some cases regaining) Canada's edge in mining innovation, with many more panel discussions than usual and "a lot of soul-searching."

"But, he says, we are still doing awfully well. The conference, with around 400 exhibitors, will show off all kinds of technologies that prove Canada is very much at the forefront when it comes to extracting resources out of the ground.

"Technologies on display will include advanced wireless communications, 3D remote visual equipment, advanced underwater and Arctic drilling equipment and, yes, a focus on mining in outer space."

Read the Article HERE.

LUNAR-TEX radiation blanket: Skeptical

The Secondary Radiation Problem
"Managing Space Radiation Risk in the
New Era of Space Exploration" (NAP #12045 - 2008)

North Carolina State University reported Monday that former students Michael Sieber, Ryan Boyle and Anne Tomasevich, all recent graduates of the textile engineering program, have come up with a blended textile fabric blanket, "a lunar radiation shield with the ability to protect its inhabitants from radiation."

The headline and story, picked up and reported by dutiful space bloggers, as "More Star Trek than Snuggie," raises many red flags, especially when it included the following true statement: "The surface of the moon is exposed to cosmic rays and solar flares – making radiation hard to stop with shielding. When these rays hit matter, they produce a dangerous spray of secondary particles which, when penetrating human flesh, can damage DNA, boosting the risk of cancer and other maladies."

If the team, led by respected material textile scientist Dr. Warren Jasper, professor of textile engineering and advisor for the project, claims to have designed added shielding from Solar Particle Events (and the Sun's variable but steady wind of protons,) for inflatable and light-weight lunar outpost buildings, this news makes some degree of sense. It might even pose a breakthrough.

Because the press release mentions Cosmic Rays, however, and the huge health uncertainties posed by secondary radiation on the lunar surface, both day and night, from these heavy highly energetic interstellar interlopers, reaction is skeptical.

If this inference from the PR is possible, it supports more than a breakthrough. It would represent a quantum leap in material science. It's Flubber.

The news is simply that a team representing North Carolina State University has been selected as finalists in a design competition based on their design for a lunar outpost radiation blanket.

The competition, RASC-AL, the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage is cosponsored by NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace, "a design project competition aimed at university-level engineering students," according to the RASC-AL website.

"Michael Sieber, Ryan Boyle and Anne Tomasevich, all recent graduates of the textile engineering program at NC State," added Carolyn Barnhill of the university's news service.

"Their design of a lunar radiation shield, with the ability to protect inhabitants from radiation, was reviewed by a panel of industry experts and chosen as one of ten undergraduate abstract finalists in the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition." They will now proceed to Florida, next month, to compete in the RASC-AL forum.

Back to their submission, however, and why it's being looked upon with skepticism: Some experts estimate as much as 15 meters of lunar surface material would need to be piled on top of a underground settlement on the Moon to provide the similar protections from Cosmic Rays that we enjoy here on Earth.

In general, space radiation in the inner Solar System is composed of radiation from the Sun and Cosmic Rays from beyond, with the latter of very high interest and still not well understood.

The Fermi Space Telescope, launched last summer, is presently making unprecedented discoveries and leading cosmologists to revise upward the possible energies hinted at that are above even this revolutionary space telescope's 10 Billion electon volt ceiling.

Cosmic Rays are of interest to NASA because of both known and unknown health hazards, for future astronauts, because the Space Studies Board of the National Academies of Science strongly urged NASA not to exceed the current allowable dosage limits in the astronaut program.

During Apollo lunar missions astronauts added from one tenth of one percent to over one percent to their individual chances of an eventual "Radiation Exposure Induced Death" (REID). NASA's career limit for astronauts is reached when a four percent increased risk of REID (over the remainder of an individual astronauts life) is attained.

If that happens, you are grounded.

As seen in the illustration above, lifted from "Managing Space Radiation Risk in the New Era of Space Exploration" a 2008 report from the Space Studies Board commissioned by NASA, it is presently calculated that a 20 gm-per-square centimeter aluminum hull design should adequately shield astronauts from Solar Particle Events.

With Cosmic Rays, these hull designs make problems worse, however. Cosmic Rays are very energetic and often massive atomic nuclei, falling into the Solar System from every direction. A human profile actually presents a larger target of opportunity for the shower of secondary particles coming into a ship's cabin after the primary particle's initial impact.

"Space is a harsh environment," wrote the Space Studies Board, "Nevertheless, engineering technology is capable of protecting astronauts against vacuum, extreme thermal conditions, and micrometeoroid environments. Protection from radiation, however, is much less straightforward.

"The radiation environment in space can be very dynamic. While the general climate of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) varies fairly predictably on an 11-year cycle, solar particle events (SPEs) are unpredictable, both in timing and character. Whereas the radiation hazard posed by episodic SPEs can be managed by providing sufficient shielding, galactic cosmic rays pose a radiation hazard that is distinctly different:

• (1) galactic cosmic rays are always present, and;
  
  
• (2) their energy spectra extend to very high energies with sufficient intensity that the hazard cannot be eliminated by shielding."

On the Moon's surface, half the sky is blocked from these interstellar Cosmic Rays by the Moon itself, under an astronaut's feet. Thus, the hazard they present can be reduced by 50 percent, immediately, and then by another 50 percent when the interplanetary magnetic field is at its strongest, during Solar Maximum. The threat is never a zero.

Whether the "Lunar-TEX" blanket, as it is called, actually contends primarily with Solar Particle Events, such as Coronal Mass Ejections and flares, or actually represents some breakthrough in shielding humans in deeps space from cosmic radiation remains to be seen, but I think someone has their facts a little squirreled up.

Earlier today yet another well-meaning and decent sort suggested this NCSU team has come up with an electro-static solution, as so many others have suggested; the idea being to generate a magnetic field to refract and essentially repel Cosmic Rays, just as the Sun's massive interplanetary magnetic field is able to do, though never completely and not so well at present, either, during an unusually lengthy Solar Minimum.

The problem with such an idea is the size required. Even beginning to refract the lower energy Cosmic Ray away from the source of a magnetic field would require thousands of kilometers.

Because we would love to see durable space fabric within which we can be shielded against Galactic Cosmic Rays, because it is the greatest threat known to the viability of deep space travel, this story spreading around the Space Community got my interest. But I'm not getting my hopes up, if you get my drift.

'Scores' witness lunar rainbow

"Moonbow," lunar rainbow graces Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls - Zambia Times -Scores of local and foreign tourists thronged the Victoria Falls at night over the weekend to watch the lunar rainbow.

A check at the entrance to the Victoria Falls from Friday showed that many tourists entered the site to see the exciting natural phenomenon, which is formed when moon rays pass through the sprays of the Victoria Falls after heavy plunges of the Zambezi waters.

One of the tourists from the United Kingdom, Jane Smith described the amazing formation as wonderful.

"It really looks so unreal to be real. It was a wonderful sight which needs more marketing at international level so that more people can come and see it, otherwise you are losing a lot of money," she remarked enthusiastically.

Other excited tourists took pictures in the night as the rainbow curved across the gorge, displaying an exciting bright arch formation.

Read the Article HERE.

'The Shuttle's most dangerous mission'

Jacqui Goddard - London Daily-Mail - "It’s a belt-and-suspenders kind of approach," says STS125 Cmdr Scott Altman. "But when your suspenders fail, you’re glad to have the belt. I don’t know if I’ll be breathing comfortably until our wheels stop back at KSC."

Among the greatest hazards facing Atlantis is the intense amount of space junk - such as broken satellites and dead rockets - that is cluttering the area where the shuttle will rendezvous with Hubble.

Shuttle flights usually only go to the International Space Station no more than 250 miles up - but at 350 miles, where Hubble flies, the hazards are far greater.

During five highly risky spacewalks, they will clamber aboard Hubble to repair and replace instruments contained inside, upgrading its capabilities and prolonging its life for another five years.

Without new cameras, gyroscopes and batteries, Hubble will otherwise burn out. But with the space shuttle fleet due to retire next year and its successor not due for completion until at least 2015, this is the last chance to fix its problems.

'The adrenalin is certainly pumping,' said Dr David Leckrone, Nasa’s senior Hubble scientist.

Astronaut John Grunsfeld likens the intricacy of the tasks he and his colleagues will perform to 'performing brain surgery in space.'

They will face major hurdles, such as unscrewing dozens of minute screws while wearing gloves five layers thick and removing razor-sharp circuit boards capable of piercing the $10 million spacesuits that keep them alive in the vacuum of space.

'I would consider this the climbing Mount Everest of spacewalking missions,' said Mr Grunsfeld, 51.

'The big unknowns are where we’re pushing the envelope further than its been done before in spaceflight…we’re trying some techniques that haven’t been done before.

'In training it’s been going very well…the only hesitation I have is that Hubble has a way of surprising us.'

You could say "Oh it’s going to be a piece of cake, we’ve done this five times" - except on this mission we are going to be repairing instruments that were never designed to be repaired in orbit,' explained Ed Weiler, Nasa’s associate administrator for science missions.

He added: 'This is really going to be tough, the toughest servicing mission we have ever attempted.'

Nasa promises that, if successful, Atlantis’s mission will allow Hubble to once more 'push the boundaries of how deep in space and how far back in time humanity can see.'

Cdr Altman, who said: 'It’s going to be a busy time, it is challenging - and it’s going to be amazing.'

Daily Mail article HERE.

Sara Howard: Ignored 'No More'

TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Next week the museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library will unveil a special new exhibit, Moon Shot. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, and President Kennedy's grand vision that made the achievement possible. But there are also more than 400,000 other people that made it possible. And many of their stories have been lost. But one Tallahassee woman hopes to change that by telling her story of the women working as engineers in the space age.

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade not because they are easy but because they are hard," said Kennedy.

It was 1961 when President Kennedy challenged the nation to land a man on the moon, his speeches were heard around the world, and his spirit of adventure pushed many young minds into aerospace technology among them, Sara Howard.

After graduating with a degree in math and minor in astronomy, the Boeing Company hired her. She was one of the first women aerospace engineers to work on to the Apollo Program.

Sara was hired on in New Orleans with only one other woman to work on the first of three stages on the Saturn 5 Rocket.

Sara and Sally were part of a team called Systems Test Engineering.

The rockets they tested generated 7 1/2 million pounds of thrust. Saturn 5 was designed in part by Wernher Von Braun who a young Sara is pictured with here.

It's part of a history she wants people to know, the role she and other women played as engineers in sending 2 men to the moon just eight years after she heard the presidents call. She says with 23,000 contractors, keeping up with all their employees was not a priority.

Sara says she loves to share her story because otherwise the women behind Apollo would be forgotten and now she hopes to spread to her love of the universe to younger minds.

Follow Sara Howard on Twitter

Sara Howard's Blog

Up in the air

With the shuttle program winding down, NASA’s future needs resolution

This weekend moviegoers are getting their first look at the reinvented Star Trek, the latest cinematic twist on a 43-year-old iconic TV series and subsequent set of feature films that helped hook several generations of Americans on the allure of manned space exploration.

Meanwhile, in real life down here on Earth, NASA’s plans to boldly go to the moon (where a handful of astronauts have gone before) and Mars (where humans have never been) face scrutiny and possible delays by a review committee set up by President Barack Obama’s administration. Former Lockheed Martin chief executive Norman Augustine will chair the effort, which aims to produce findings by the end of August. Houston, home to the Johnson Space Center and its 20,000 employees comprising the heart of the U.S. manned spaceflight program, has a lot riding on the outcome of that review.

With the space shuttle fleet to be mothballed after nine more flights, including Monday’s scheduled launch of Atlantis to service the Hubble telescope, the U.S. will face years without the capability to launch astronauts to the International Space Station. That will make the formerly dominant U.S. space program dependent on Russia for access to even low Earth orbit for five years or longer. Although congressional critics have called for an extension of shuttle operations, NASA is going forward with layoffs and program cuts to close out shuttle operations.

The review will take a top-to-bottom look at the progress of the Constellation program, which would replace the space shuttle with a new generation of Ares launch rockets and the Orion, an expanded version of the capsule-style craft that carried astronauts to and from the moon. Developmental issues with the Ares I and V have prompted some experts to suggest that existing Atlas and Delta rockets used to launch military satellites could be adapted for the Orion at a substantial savings.

Whether the review actually results in a substantive change in NASA’s future plans is uncertain. The space agency has spent $13.6 billion on the Constellation program so far, and will continue the work at a $300 million-a-month clip even while the audit goes forward.

The administration has proposed $18.7 billion for NASA’s 2010 budget, a 5 percent increase over current spending levels. The allocation for Constellation actually got a boost, at least in the short term.

Obama has yet to select a new NASA administrator, leaving agency veteran Christopher Scolese as acting chief. At a budget briefing, Scolese, who will choose the ten-member review panel in consultation with the White House, signaled his own preference for the manned exploration program. “Clearly if we are on the wrong path, we should change,” said Scolese. “If you are asking me if I think we’re on the wrong path, no, I don’t.”

It’s a positive sign that funding for work on the new launch system will continue during the review. Obama needs to name a permanent NASA chief who can forcefully articulate the agency’s future flight plans.

The United States must maintain a leading role in the exploration of space by manned and unmanned vehicles, for economic, scientific and national security reasons.

The Houston area has watched its residents walk on the moon. The fact that the space program has been allowed to muddle into a precarious situation where America will lack the capacity to even launch astronauts into orbit for a period of years is not only shameful, but dangerous to the national interest. It must be remedied as soon as possible.

Houston Chronicle

Minotaur 1 - Safed to launch another day

At slightly more than two minutes to go before launch,
Minotaur 1 launch with PharmSat payload for orbit
Launch Scrubbed. Near Full Moon shows welcome
weather, for a change, on 4th attempt.

Augustine & Griffin from Jeff Foust's Archive

Jeff Foust - Space Politics - As expected, the White House has ordered an independent review of Constellation to be chaired by Norm Augustine and be completed by August. That exploration architecture is at the heart of Mike Griffin’s legacy at NASA administrator. So it was interesting that someone reminded me that both Augustine and Griffin were witnesses at the same hearing of the House Science Committee back in March 2004, when the committee was taking an initial look at the Vision for Space Exploration announced two months earlier. Augustine appeared in his role as former chairman of the “Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program” (aka the Augustine Commission) in 1990, while Griffin spoke as president of In-Q-Tel and incoming head of the Space Department at APL (the hearing took place almost exactly one year before Griffin was nominated to become NASA administrator).

Read the Posting HERE.

Young Astronauts successfully complete their mission to the moon

The Young Astronauts from the Columbus Magnet School at their press conference, after the completion of their 24-hour mission to the moon and back

Norwalk Plus magazine - The Young Astronauts from Columbus Magnet School in Norwalk , Connecticut landed this morning a little before 10 a.m. after a 24-hour simulated mission to the moon and back.

“Luna Redux” (from Latin, Back to the Moon) was a mission to bring mankind back to our natural satellite and jumpstart the exploration of the Solar System and beyond. (Read more about the mission here. To see photos from the press conference, click here.)

After the textbook splashdown, the Young Astronauts, both from Mission Control, as well as the space crew, were greeted by students and faculty as well as a number of local and state dignitaries. The astronauts were congratulated for the successful mission and attended a press conference.

Read the Article HERE.

Jeff Greason fitted for a Space Suit

Sneak Peak: XCOR CEO Jeff Greason performs a suit fit check in an
engineering mockup of the Lynx pressure cabin.

An Interview with Jeff Greason after he donned the latest version of the Orbital Outfitters pressure suit.

Q: Some call the suit a space suit, but you prefer the term “pressure suit.” Why?

At the altitude the Lynx will fly, where there is no atmospheric pressure, you need more than just an oxygen supply to stay alive. You need a pressure suit. There are many arguments about what a space suit is, some say that the term space suit only applies to those suits you would use for extra-vehicular activity, others call anything you wear in space a space suit. I prefer to avoid all those arguments and just call what we use pressure suits.

Q: Why did you personally wear the suit?

There are two reasons why I wore the suit as we checked out the Lynx cockpit. First, I am unusually tall when I am sitting down. My torso is in the 95 percentile. So that makes me a good model for height. On the other hand, our Chief Test Pilot, (former NASA Astronaut and retired USAF Col. Rick Searfoss), has unusually long legs. So between us, we span a very wide range of people that the cockpit has to fit.

The second reason I wore the suit is that I didn’t spend so many years of my life building this vehicle to find out just before first flight that I didn’t fit in it.

Read Interview HERE.
XCOR Newsletter

NOAA revises solar cycle prediction

Dr. Leif Svaalgard's plot of Recent Solar Activity
appears to show a very gradual beginning
to Solar Cycle 24 may already be underway.
Englarge HERE.
Leif Svaalgard's Research Page HERE.

In March 2008, NASA heliophysicists could not agree on the likely magnitude of Solar Cycle 24, or on much else other than that Solar Cycle 23 was obviously on the decline. In the end, their prediction was bifurcated, with one camp predicting a sharp end and a "typical" fast upswing in solar activity and a reduction of Cosmic Ray incidence refracted from the Solar System by a renewed interplanetary magnetic field. A peak in Cycle 23 would happen, these experts agreed, in 2011.

The second camp predicted a bottoming out and beginning to Cycle 24 in early 2008, and a strong peak, but no so great as that predicted by the first group four years later. Both camps agreed "we would know by March 2008."

Indeed, in late February 2008 the Sun's activity was already below that of recent Solar Minima, but the first groupings of sunspots with Cycle 24's signature polarity had appeared and, almost as suddenly, faded away. Officially, Solar Cycle 24 was underway. Nevertheless, the Sun continues to remain mostly calm, Cycle 24 sunspots have occasionally sputtered into sight, though twice in the past year, Cycle 23 sunspots also appeared, and the present Solar Minimum now is officially longer and deeper than any recorded in more than a century.

Dr. Leif Svaalgard, a solar physicist of international standing, predicted the present behavior of the Sun with stricking accuracy. A look at the graph above shows his own research, which is groundbreaking, maps what he believes to have been a bottoming out of Cycle 23 and the slow beginning to Cycle 24 probably in July and August 2008.

Today, NOAA released a revised prediction, the summary of which appears below.

NOAA: Mild Solar Storm Season Predicted:

Although its peak is still four years away, a new active period of Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928, predicts an international panel of experts led by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center and funded by NASA. Despite the prediction, Earth is still vulnerable to a severe solar storm.

Solar storms are eruptions of energy and matter that escape from the sun and may head toward Earth, where even a weak storm can damage satellites and power grids, disrupting communications, the electric power supply and GPS. A single strong blast of “solar wind” can threaten national security, transportation, financial services and other essential functions.

The panel predicts the upcoming Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day on average. If the prediction proves true, Solar Cycle 24 will be the weakest cycle since number 16, which peaked at 78 daily sunspots in 1928, and ninth weakest since the 1750s, when numbered cycles began.

The most common measure of a solar cycle’s intensity is the number of sunspots—Earth-sized blotches on the sun marking areas of heightened magnetic activity. The more sunspots there are, the more likely it is that solar storms will occur, but a major storm can occur at any time.

“As with hurricanes, whether a cycle is active or weak refers to the number of storms, but everyone needs to remember it only takes one powerful storm to cause huge problems,” said NOAA scientist Doug Biesecker, who chairs the panel. “The strongest solar storm on record occurred in 1859 during another below-average cycle.”

The 1859 storm shorted out telegraph wires, causing fires in North America and Europe, sent readings of Earth’s magnetic field soaring, and produced northern lights so bright that people read newspapers by their light.

A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a storm that severe occurred today, it could cause $1-2 trillion in damages the first year and require four to 10 years for recovery, compared to $80-125 billion that resulted from Hurricane Katrina.

The panel also predicted that the lowest sunspot number between cycles — or solar minimum — occurred in December 2008, marking the end of Cycle 23 and the start of Cycle 24. If the December prediction holds up, at 12 years and seven months Solar Cycle 23 will be the longest since 1823 and the third longest since 1755. Solar cycles span 11 years on average, from minimum to minimum.

An unusually long, deep lull in sunspots led the panel to revise its 2007 prediction that the next cycle of solar storms would start in March 2008 and peak in late 2011 or mid-2012. The persistence of a quiet sun also led the panel to a consensus that the next cycle will be “moderately weak.”

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is the nation’s first alert of solar activity and its effects on Earth. The Center’s space weather experts issue outlooks for the next 11-year solar cycle and warn of storms occurring on the Sun that could impact Earth. SWPC is also the world warning agency for the International Space Environment Service, a consortium of 12 member nations.

As the world economy becomes more reliant on satellite-based communications and interlinked power grids, interest in solar activity has grown dramatically. In 2008 alone, SWPC acquired 1,700 new subscription customers for warnings, alerts, reports, and other products. Among the new customers are emergency managers, airlines, state transportation departments, oil companies, and nuclear power stations. SWPC’s customers reside in 150 countries.

“Our customer growth reflects today’s reality that all sectors of society are highly dependent on advanced, space-based technologies,” said SWPC director Tom Bogdan. “Today every hiccup from the sun aimed at Earth has potential consequences.”

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

Bill Nelson's letter to Charlie Crist

Dear Charlie,

We have arrived at a critical juncture both for the future of human spaceflight and for Florida's Space Coast. Over the next two years, NASA will complete the Shuttle's nine remaining missions. Meanwhile, the President has ordered a complete review of the nation's human spaceflight program, to determine how we can best return to the moon while stimulating the development of commercial spaceflight capabilities.

This transitional period will pose unique challenges - and opportunities - for our state. As we look to the future, Space Florida must play a vital role in maintaining Florida's position as a world leader in aerospace research and space exploration.

With that in mind, I write to ask that you undertake a nationwide talent search for a world-class manager to lead Space Florida during this critical time. We need to attract the best and the brightest, and to make sure that they lead the organization in a direction that makes all Floridians proud.

Meantime, I have submitted two of Space Florida's funding priorities to the Senate Appropriations Committee. I will work with the committee to provide funding to renovate an abandoned launch complex near the Kennedy Space Center, which will be available for commercial launches, and to rebuild a cutting-edge vacuum chamber for testing the next lunar lander and future commercial satellites.

I will work my hardest to ensure that we fund these important projects. I hope that Space Florida's next leader will take advantage of that funding to attract new business and investment to the Space Coast, and I look forward to working with you toward that end.

Human spaceflight has provided some of our nation's proudest moments, from Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon to construction of the International Space Station. Images of rockets arcing over Cape Canaveral still symbolize our nation's passion for exploration, and must continue to inspire future generations.

Sincerely,

Bill

What we think: Stop delaying on space

Orlando Sentinel Editorial, May 7: It's a critical time for the U.S. space program. The shuttle is scheduled to stop flying as soon as next year. NASA has started whacking jobs, and layoffs on Florida's Space Coast could reach 10,000. The United States is facing a gap of five years or more in sending astronauts into orbit, and problems plaguing NASA's next manned program mean a longer delay. Yet there's a maddening lack of urgency, and interest, among federal and state policy-makers.

After months of inaction, the Obama administration was expected this week to announce a review of the next manned program, Constellation. The review would include an examination of whether the Ares I rocket is the best design for Constellation.

This is long overdue. Serious doubts about Ares have been raging for more than a year. But former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who helped design the rocket, deflected the questions and insisted the problems were not unusual or unmanageable. But Mr. Obama's NASA transition team started asking pointed questions about Ares in December, and Mr. Griffin resigned in January.

Now that a review finally is coming, it needs to be thorough but quick. NASA can't afford to keep plowing money and time into Ares if it's going to get dumped in favor of another launcher.

But the review leaves a more important piece of unfinished business for the Obama administration: naming a new chief for the space agency. The president has said NASA is "adrift." What agency wouldn't be without a permanent leader in charge?

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who says he has the president's ear on space policy, has resorted to publicly pleading for him to name a new administrator. With so much at stake for NASA and the nation, the delay from the White House is confounding.

Mr. Nelson had one bit of good news to report this week from the president. Mr. Obama told him he will complete all the shuttle missions that have been planned, even if delays push them past the program's scheduled retirement date in 2010.

The gridlock isn't just in Washington. Lawmakers in Tallahassee also act as if space policy isn't a priority. Legislators didn't pass even one of several space-related proposals during this year's regular session. And they let a turf battle between two universities doom a bipartisan bid to create a space-research institute.

Legislators also didn't commit any new money to help Florida keep up with the competition from other states for commercial space ventures, which would help offset the economic damage from losing the shuttle program. Their reluctance stemmed in part from an understandable lack of confidence in Space Florida, the agency charged with growing the industry in the state. It has few real accomplishments to show for the millions in taxpayer dollars it has received.

But the better approach from legislators would have been to extract a guarantee of reform at Space Florida in return for any additional money. Instead, they accepted assurances from Gov. Charlie Crist's administration that "improvements" would be made at the agency over the summer.

That's cold comfort, what with a lightweight like Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp serving as Mr. Crist's right-hand man on space policy.

America's pre-eminence in space, billions of dollars in investment in science and technology, and thousands of jobs all hinge on decisions made by federal and state policy-makers. That's more than enough to demand more urgency.

Deep space missions may get new jolt of fuel

Apollo 12 lunar module pilot Al Bean unloads RTG
fuel cell from descent stage. With negligible power
loss, the mission's Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment
Packages (ALSAP) continued to return data, until
de-funded and shut-down in 1977.
(NASA Pete Conrad, Nov. 1969 - AS12-46-6790)

John Johnson, Jr. - Los Angeles Times - The Department of Energy plans to restart its program of making radioactive fuel for NASA's deep space missions, the agency announced Thursday, a decision that came only hours after the National Research Council warned that the nation is fast running out of the fuel.

Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said the agency has requested $30 million in its fiscal 2010 budget proposal to restart the fuel-making process. In its budget statement, the agency said it had "a long and successful history" of supporting NASA's needs. It said it welcomes the National Research Council findings.

In a 74-page report, entitled "Radioisotope Power Systems: An Imperative for Maintaining U.S. Leadership in Space Exploration," the National Research Council pointed out that American leadership in space has depended in part on the ability to power spacecraft on deep space missions, in which the sun's rays are too weak to make solar power.

For such research, which include the New Horizons mission now heading for Pluto and the Cassini mission now orbiting Saturn, the electricity that powers onboard instruments comes from devices called radioisotope power generators. The RPGs make electricity with the heat from the radioactive decay of small amounts of plutonium-238 carried on board.

Read the Article HERE.

Making the Case for a Lunar Base

Paul Spudis refers us to "25 Good Reasons to Go to the Moon," by Ken Murphy from Selenian Boondocks via Out of the Cradle.

Darnell Clayton, writing at The Moon Society Blog earnestly and openly writes:
"Dear NASA, It's Luna or nothing (including Mars)"

Responses to his "Case for a Lunar Base" are picked up by Transterrestrial Musings.

Which, in turn, reminds us to download and re-examine: NASA's Exploration Systems Architecture Study 630 pages, (pdf) 2006, HERE.

Steve Kohler resigns Space Florida

Space Florida President Steve Kohler has resigned effective Friday. (Hat Tip Flame Trench)

The embattled administrator recently fought off an attempt to half the agency's $4 million budget over a controversy about paying a lobbyist.

Also, Kohler had been criticized by the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, who complained that Kohler was trying to support a competing launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

"My capacity to serve effectively as president likewise has been damaged," Kohler wrote in a resignation letter to Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp. "Therefore, in order to remove the unfair distraction and enable Space Florida to move forward with complete focus on space in Florida, I am resigning as president effective May 8, 2009."

Resignation Letter

Robert G. Piper, 74

Worked on Lunar Module for NASA Robert G. Piper, 74, of Copperas Cove, Texas has passed away.

Mr. Piper, born in Woodlawn, IL in 1934, died Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at his home.

He served in the Army and the Air Force, serving in Okinawa during the Korean War.

Survived by his wife of 54 years, Cleta, he is survived also by two sons, Joseph Piper and William C. Piper, both also of Copperas Cove, along with five grandchildren; and five great grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association, 6801 Sanger Suite 102, Waco, Texas 76710.

NASA Ames unveils Virtual ISS Synth

Virtual International Space Station Photosynth, HERE.

W. Michael Hawes; NASA's liaison with Augustine Commission

W. Michael Hawes, Associate Administrator for Program Analysis and Evaluation - to be Liaison with Augustine Commission, Manned Space Flight review.

NASA Bio.

Augustine Commission II

Norman Augustine

Appointed by President Obama to head
Review of United States
Human Space Flight Plans
Commission

"Any task can be completed in only one-third more time than is currently estimated."
- Augustine Quotes

White House will review manned spaceflight

The Obama administration has formally announced the appointment of a "Blue-Ribbon" commission to "review" the Vision for Space Exploration, and more specifically the Constellation program, "with the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space. The review will be conducted by a blue-ribbon panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, who served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under Democratic and Republican presidents and led the 1990 Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program and the 2007 National Academies commission that produced the landmark report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, as well as a number of other high-profile national commissions.

"The "Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans" is to examine ongoing and planned National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) development activities, as well as potential alternatives, and present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable human space flight program in the years following Space Shuttle retirement. The panel will work closely with NASA and will seek input from Congress, the White House, the public, industry, and international partners as it develops its options. It is to present its results in time to support an Administration decision on the way forward by August 2009. “President Obama recognizes the important role that NASA’s human space flight programs play in advancing scientific discovery, technological innovation, economic strength and international leadership,” said John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. “The President’s goal is to ensure that these programs remain on a strong and stable footing well into the 21st Century, and this review will be crucial to meeting that goal.”

"In a letter to Acting NASA Administrator Christopher Scolese asking him to undertake the review, Holdren noted that it is prudent for the new Administration to obtain a fresh assessment of America’s human space flight program given its scale and scope—and especially given its importance for scientific and technological innovation and discovery. Scolese expressed confidence that the review would serve the nation, NASA, and its employees well. “The thousands of workers who have given so much over the years to bring human space flight to where it is today deserve nothing less than a full assurance that their commitment will be applied in the smartest and most practical ways,” Scolese said. “I appreciate the strong support that the President and Dr. Holdren have for NASA’s programs— including our human space flight program—and I look forward to working with Norm, the panel, and the Administration to ensure that NASA remains on the best path as it moves forward.” Scolese emphasized that work on Constellation will continue while the review is underway and that workforce issues will be an important factor assessed by the panel as it considers various options.

The review panel will assess a number of architecture options, taking into account such objectives as: 1) expediting a new U.S. capability to support use of the International Space Station; 2) supporting missions to the Moon and other destinations beyond low Earth orbit; 3) stimulating commercial space flight capabilities; and 4) fitting within the current budget profile for NASA exploration activities. Among the parameters to be considered in the course of its review are crew and mission safety, life-cycle costs, development time, national space industrial base impacts, potential to spur innovation and encourage competition, and the implications and impacts of transitioning from current human space flight systems. The review will consider the appropriate amounts of R&D and complementary robotic activity necessary to support various human space flight activities, as well as the capabilities that are likely to be enabled by each of the potential architectures under consideration. It will also explore options for extending International Space Station operations beyond 2016.

"Members of the panel are to be named soon. “It is an honor to be asked to lead this important human space flight review, and I am excited about working with my fellow panel members to examine these difficult, complex, and pressing questions,” said Augustine, a former aerospace industry executive who is a recipient of the National Medal of Technology, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Public Service Award, the Department o