From India's Current Science:

SPECIAL SECTION: CHANDRAYAAN-1

	First Results from Chandrayaan-1
486	Chandrayaan-1: India’s first planetary science mission to the moon
	J. N. Goswami and M. Annadurai
492	Terrain Mapping Camera: A stereoscopic high-resolution instrument on Chandrayaan-1
	A. S. Kiran Kumar, A. Roy Chowdhury, A. Banerjee, A. B. Dave, B. N. Sharma, K. J. Shah, K. R. Murali, S. R. Joshi, S. S. Sarkar and V. D. Patel
496	Hyper Spectral Imager for lunar mineral mapping in visible and near infrared band
	A. S. Kiran Kumar, A. Roy Chowdhury, A. Banerjee, A. B. Dave, B. N. Sharma, K. J. Shah, K. R. Murali, S. Mehta, S. R. Joshi and S. S. Sarkar
500	The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) on Chandrayaan-1
	Carle M. Pieters, Joseph Boardman, Bonnie Buratti, Alok Chatterjee, Roger Clark, Tom Glavich, Robert Green, James Head III, Peter Isaacson, Erick Malaret, Thomas McCord, John Mustard, Noah Petro, Cassandra Runyon, Matthew Staid, Jessica Sunshine, Lawrence Taylor, Stefanie Tompkins, Padma Varanasi and Mary White
506	Near Infrared Spectrometer SIR-2 on Chandrayaan-1
	Urs Mall, Marek Banaszkiewicz, Kjell Brønstad, Susan McKenna-Lawlor, Andreas Nathues, Finn Søraas, Esa Vilenius and Kjetil Ullaland
512	Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI): a tool for the study of topography and gravitational field of the Moon
	J. A. Kamalakar, A. S. Laxmi Prasad, K. V. S. Bhaskar, P. Selvaraj, R. Venkateswaran, K. Kalyani, A. Goswami and V. L. N. Sridhar Raja
517	The Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer
	Manuel Grande, Brian J. Maddison, P. Sreekumar, Johani Huovelin, Barry J. Kellett, Chris J. Howe, Ian A. Crawford5, D. R. Smith and the C1XS Team
520	High Energy X-ray Spectrometer on Chandrayaan-1
	P. Sreekumar, Y. B. Acharya, C. N. Umapathy, M. Ramakrishna Sharma, Shanmugam, A. Tyagi, Kumar, S. Vadawale, M. Sudhakar, L. Abraham, R. Kulkani, S. Purohit, R. L. Premlatha, D. Banerjee, M. Bug and J. N. Goswami
526	Investigation of the solar wind–Moon interaction onboard Chandrayaan-1 mission with the SARA experiment
	Stas Barabash, Anil Bhardwaj, Martin Wieser, R. Sridharan, Thomas Kurian, Subha Varier, E. Vijayakumar, Veena Abhirami, K. V. Raghavendra, S. V. Mohankumar, M. B. Dhanya, Satheesh Thampi, Asamura Kazushi, Herman Andersson, Futaana Yoshifumi, Mats Holmström, Rickard Lundin, Johan Svensson, Stefan Karlsson, R. Daniele Piazza and Peter Wurz
533	Mini-SAR: an imaging radar experiment for the Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon
	Paul Spudis, Stewart Nozette, Ben Bussey, Keith Raney, Helene Winters, Christopher L. Lichtenberg, William Marinelli, Jason C. Crusan and Michele M. Gates
540	The Moon Impact Probe on Chandrayaan-1
	Y. Ashok Kumar and MIP Project Team
544	Monitoring lunar radiation environment: RADOM instrument on Chandrayaan-1
	T. Dachev, B. Tomov, P. Dimitrov and Y. Matviichuk

NASA-NIA Forum on Moon-Mars featuring Spudis in Hampton, March 17

What is America's vision, and is it the right one?

Four international experts will address those questions and others in a special Moon-Mars Forum, March 17, from 7-9 p.m. at the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton, Virginia. Among them will be Dr. Paul D. Spudis, senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

The National Institute of Aerospace and NASA Langley Research Center's Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate are hosting the panel discussion that will feature two leading authorities on lunar science, engineering and space policy and two experts on Mars science, engineering and policy.

Speakers include Dr. Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute and a professor of the practice in International Affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs; Dr. Paul D. Spudis, senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas; Dr. G. Scott Hubbard, professor at Stanford University and current Carl Sagan Chair at the SETI Institute; and Dr. Joel S. Levine, senior research scientist in the Science Directorate at NASA Langley. Dr. Douglas Stanley, visiting professor from Georgia Tech at NIA, will moderate the forum.

The Moon-Mars Forum is the latest offering in a Distinguished Lecture Series started in 2006. It is supported by NASA Langley's Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD) and features presentations by experts from academia, industry, and government on the conception, design, engineering, analysis, and operation of vehicles and systems to continue mankind's exploration of the solar system.

NIA is a non-profit research and education institute headquartered in Hampton, Va. It was formed in 2002 by a consortium of research universities to ensure a national capability to support NASA's mission by expanding collaboration with academia and leveraging expertise inside and outside NASA. NIA performs research in a broad range of disciplines including space exploration, systems engineering, nanoscale materials science, flight systems, aerodynamics, air traffic management, aviation safety, planetary and space science, and global climate change. The Institute's graduate program offers master's and doctoral degrees in the fields of engineering and science through its university partners: Georgia Tech, Hampton University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, and the College of William & Mary.

For more information on the NIA/SACD Distinguished Lecture Series, visit HERE.

15 teams make it to the Finals of NASA's Lunar Design Challenge

Fifteen teams made it to the Finals of a NASA and National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) competition challenging university students to think about conditions astronauts will experience upon the renewal of extended human activity on the moon, and afterward to design projects that could become part of lunar exploration.

Engineering students won the right to compete against each other at the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage, or RASC-AL Forum, in Cocoa Beach, June 1-4.

“The RASC-AL steering committee of NASA and industry experts was impressed by the creativity, ingenuity and thoughtfulness of this years student entries,” said Pat Troutman, senior systems analyst NASA Langley. “Next Generation engineers are going to be crucial in helping NASA get back to the moon, then to Mars and beyond.”

The five graduate student teams include University of Texas in Austin; University of Maryland, College Park; a joint effort from University of Florida in Gainesville and Arizona State University, Tempe; and two Georgia Tech groups that reside at NIA.

Ten undergraduate student teams made the cut, from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden; Arizona State; a combination of Penn State, Polytechnic Institute of NYU-Brooklyn and Georgia Tech of Atlanta; U. of Maryland; Clarkson U. in Potsdam, NY; University of Alabama in Huntsville; Virginia Tech, ; Worcester Polytechnic Institute; NC State; and a NC State team that resides at NIA.

The student teams submitted a summary of and an outreach plan for their proposed projects. Their work was based on one of four themes: outpost to settlement, initial lunar outpost, bringing the world along with virtual exploration and novel approaches to increase sample return from the moon.

The teams must submit a written report, prepare a poster and give an oral presentation at the RASC-AL forum. The steering committee will score the students’ work and award first and second prizes in undergraduate and graduate categories. To cover costs of travel, registration and incidentals each team receives $5,875.

“NIA is impressed by the quality of proposed design projects and we anticipate a highly competitive forum,” said Dr. Bernard Grossman, vice president of education and outreach at NIA. “RASC-AL is a great venue to identify todays university students grasp of engineering concepts.”

The June forum will give faculty and students the chance to meet with NASA and industry experts, introduce concepts and data from the competition into NASA exploration program planning, develop relationships that could lead to participation in other NASA student research programs and show the benefits of NASA-university-industry cooperation.

For more information about the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage competition, please go to http://www.nianet.org/rascal

Armstrong hometown museum in danger

Twenty days before 40th Anniversary of One Small Step

WAPAKONETA - Wapakoneta will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing this summer. Unless things change, however, the museum dedicated to the native son who took those first steps may be as vacant as the lunar surface.

William Laidlaw, executive director of the Ohio Historical Society, on Thursday announced that budget woes may force the agency to shutter 18 sites, including the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum, effective July 1. The 18 sites are those directly operated by the state historical society.

LimaOhio.com

Florida asked to promote home-grown Space

Orlando Sentinel calls on state legislature not to lose Florida's edge:

We think: Legislators need to stop the decline of the space industry in Florida

Florida legislators now meeting in their annual session are understandably focused on trying to keep the state afloat amid the worst fiscal crisis in decades. But that's not a good excuse for overlooking an economic calamity looming for the state's Space Coast.

Tallahassee, we have a problem.

Ever since 2004, when the Bush administration unveiled a plan that called for retiring the space shuttle in 2010, it's been clear that thousands of high-skill, high-wage jobs at Cape Canaveral would be at risk. Now the Obama administration has reaffirmed the plan to ground the shuttle, and the worst-case scenario may be materializing.

Last week the Sentinel reported that the federal Missile Defense Agency is looking to hire thousands of top engineers for its new base of operations in Huntsville, Ala. NASA's shuttle contractor, United Space Alliance, already is working with the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce to pluck engineers from the shuttle work force that will be idled next year.

If the Space Coast loses this talent, it will seriously undermine the region's prospects of attracting private space-related investment and recovering from the shuttle's retirement. It also could leave NASA short of the skilled work force it will need to run its next rocket program, Constellation, set to start launching from the cape in 2015.

The impact will be felt far beyond the Space Coast. Space is a $2 billion industry in Florida, supporting jobs in 47 of 67 counties. They're some of the best jobs in a state that still relies too heavily on low-wage work.

It's little wonder that more than a dozen other states, as well as a growing list of other countries, are aggressively targeting space-related investments.

Read the rest of the Editorial HERE.

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Funding Issues Cloud NASA Future

By ANDY PASZTOR
Wall Street Journal Online Subscriber Content Preview

A U.S. space shuttle slated to blast off Wednesday will carry the final solar-panel assembly to provide power the International Space Station needs to support more crew members, but the mission comes amid uncertainty over the future of America's manned space efforts.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration appears to be losing momentum as it confronts retirement of the temperamental shuttle fleet in less than two years. The agency is also operating without a permanent administrator and has yet to receive the significant long-range funding boost telegraphed by President Barack Obama in his campaign.

Plans envision spending a total of as much as $50 billion to build a new generation of rockets and space capsules able to take astronauts to the moon by 2020 and eventually to other planets. But Mr. Obama's initial budget leaves those questions in limbo and essentially locks in his predecessor's spending priorities.

NASA's travails coincide with stepped-up space-exploration efforts by China, Russia, India, Japan and the European Union. Within the U.S. space community, it has become routine to talk about Chinese astronauts beating their American counterparts to land on the moon.

Splits within the aerospace industry and longstanding management problems at NASA have added to the agency's difficulties. The Governmental Accountability Office recently found 10 of 13 NASA programs suffered major cost increases and delays.

Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com

From Russia, with ambivalence?

According to Stevie Smith of The Tech Herald, Russia has officially entered a space arms race, "Following a retired Russian general’s suggestion that February’s satellite collision was engineered by the United States, a deputy defence minister for the Russian government has revealed the country is developing an anti-satellite weapons system."

"According to an Associated Press report, General Valentin Popovkin has said the weapons array is being created as a way for Russia to push the modernisation of its nuclear capabilities and maintain momentum alongside similar technology held by other nations."

Meanwhile, according to Novosti, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said "an arms race in outer space is inadmissible and called on other world powers to unite efforts in countering missile threats."

"Prevention of an arms race in space will contribute to ensuring the predictability of the strategic situation and preserving the orbital property," Sergei Lavrov told a disarmament conference in Geneva, adding that all states using space objects for civilian purposes should be interested in it."

Lavrov said that in February last year Russia and China submitted a draft international treaty on prevention of outer space weaponization.

"We plan, jointly with China, to submit to your consideration soon a document generalizing the results of discussions that have taken place at the conference and containing reaction to comments on the draft treaty. We hope the document will become a good help for future talks," the Russian minister said.

My Ph.D. dissertation advisor has a crater on the Moon named after him

I’m still catching up on news from the last couple of weeks, which is the only explanation I have for my stupidity in missing this story when it first came out: My Ph.D. alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, announced on February 5th that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) had named a crater on the Moon after my dissertation advisor, the late Prof. Larry A. Haskin. Crater Haskin is on the far side, it’s 58.4 km in diameter, and it’s near the Moon’s north pole.

The Planetologist

Former NASA official accused of steering funds to consulting client

By Carol Cratty
CNN Senior Producer

A former high-ranking NASA official was indicted Friday for allegedly guiding more than $9.6 million in agency funds to one of his consulting clients.

Courtney Stadd, 54, a former NASA chief of staff and White House liaison, is facing charges of making false statements and committing acts affecting a personal financial interest.

When Stadd left NASA, he founded a management consulting firm called Capitol Solutions that specialized in providing services for clients in aerospace-related industries. One of those clients was Mississippi State University's GeoResources Institute. According to the indictment, in 2005, Stadd helped steer NASA funds from an earth science appropriation to his client.

Stadd returned to NASA for three months in 2005 as a special government employee in the office of NASA's administrator. According to prosecutors, Stadd "knowingly and willfully participated as a government officer in recommending and rendering advice on the allocation of NASA funds to Mississippi State University, a matter in which Stadd knew he had a financial interest."

The indictment says Stadd wrote to NASA officials saying he had recused himself from all matters involving clients and had also told his clients he could only advise them on matters that did not involve the space agency. But prosecutors allege an MSU official complained to Stadd that the university might not receive funds it hoped to get from NASA because of requirements there be a nationwide competition to win the earth science funds.

See NASA fund Indictment HERE.

International Space Dominance

7 Nations Launching the Next Space Race

North Korea is about to launch its first satellite. Iran launched theirs last month. India's space agency recently got the green light to send people into space, and China's announced plans to build a space station. Getting to space is no longer for a few, technically apt nations. Here's a look at seven countries that have their sights on orbit and the capabilities to get there.

Michael Belfiore, Popular Mechanics

With a flurry of international efforts toward satellite launch capability (from one's home country), getting back to the moon and putting citizens in space, some experts say we are looking at a new space race–one focused on total space dominance. Should we be worried? After all, the first space race had at its core a battle for who could build the biggest intercontinental ballistic missiles.

No doubt about it, says Henry Hertzfeld, research professor at George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, "there are a lot of new starts." But he cautions that it's important to put them in perspective. "There are different launch vehicles and different capabilities, too. Comparing a manned capability that India might want to spend some money on with Iran launching a very small, very low Earth orbit satellite is really apples and oranges." Here is a look at the capabilities of the top–and most-talked-about–space-faring nations in what may be a new world order. The race is on for space dominance.

Read the Review HERE.

Florida Space Industry anxiety rises

Kennedy Space Center might lose
thousands of jobes to Hunsville
Robert Block, Aaron Deslatte and Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writers

Huntsville's U.S. Space and Rocket Center Ranks #1
Number 1 tourist attraction that charges admission in Alabama
WAAY-TV Huntsville

Sobering Space Day in Florida capital

Jim Ash The News-Press, Fort Myers
TALLAHASSEE - Space Day in the Florida Legislature couldn't come at a more difficult time, with lawmakers facing a budget crisis and leaders in both chambers critical of the state's efforts to retain and attract the industry.

Space Day in Florida beset with bad news
Robert Block, The Write Stuff, Orlando Sentinel

Scolese warns of bogus parts plague

Stewart M. Powell
Houston Chronicle

The acting administrator of NASA told Congress Thursday that some of the cost overruns besetting the space agency stem from counterfeit parts inadvertently installed on space craft.

“We find out late they are counterfeit parts,’” Christopher Scolese, the space agency’s acting administrator, told a House Science and Technology subcommittee. “We find out about it while sitting atop a rocket or, worse, find out about it in space.”

NASA has been trying to weed out counterfeit parts for years, Scolese said.

But the problem has been growing, with foreign firms and counterfeiters manufacturing equipment that ends up in NASA’s supply chain, Scolese told reporters after the session.

Most recently, he said, NASA personnel detected an unspecified counterfeit part on the Kepler spacecraft “a couple of months ago.” The discovery potentially contributed to a nine-month delay in launching the unmanned probe, which is designed to discover earth-like planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The counterfeit part was replaced on the spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch today, he said.

The Government Accountability Office advised the committee before Scolese’s testimony that the Kepler project had suffered a 20 percent cost overrun, which had driven the project’s total costs up to $595 million. But GAO investigators did not raise the problem of counterfeit parts.

The Kepler probe was one of 10 of NASA’s $250 million plus projects found by a GAO audit to have run over cost and over deadline. Investigators said average development costs alone had increased 13 percent and average launch delays stood at 11 months.

Counterfeiting has become a way of life around the world . The federal government estimates that trade in counterfeit items has skyrocketed from $5.5 billion in 1982 to $600 billion in 2008, accounting for up to 7 percent of world trade.

Bloomberg News Service reported that parts with stolen manufacturer markings have been found by NASA personnel and aerospace industry officials. Some of the counterfeit equipment includes aerospace components embossed with logos from top-flight aerospace manufacturers and sold at premium prices.

Kaguya Data: No 'Peak of Eternal Sunlight'

Hat Tip to Lunar Mark and (Nick Azer)
Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

In what seems to be a little-noticed but highly important development for lunar base planning, Japan’s SELENE (also known as Kaguya) lunar orbiter last month determined that the concept of a ‘Peak of Eternal Light‘ at either of the lunar poles does not exist.

The possibility of a Peak of Eternal Light at one of several locations, including the rim of Shackleton Crater or on Malapert (both at the South Pole), made those locations prime candidates for early lunar bases. Having eternal sunlight is, clearly, an advantage for any outpost relying largely on solar power.

Some of these points at the lunar poles do have as much as 89% illumination, though, so they remain very strong locations as far as near-constant solar power.

The pessimists of the universe, though, will rejoice in knowing that permanent shadow was confirmed to exist–leading to potential water ice.

The JAXA team’s findings were published in the U.S. journal of Geophysics last month.

Technologies for landing on the Moon

The NEXT Lunar Lander study
EADS Astrium

The United States have been to the Moon and want to go again, China and India have recently launched their own lunar missions, and Europe is looking at the possibility of future missions to Earth’s natural satellite. Astrium is working on a European Space Agency (ESA) study: ‘NEXT Lunar Lander with In-Situ Science and Mobility’.

The NEXT Lunar Lander study is in two phases. “In the first phase, we defined the baseline for a mission concept,” explains Dr Peter Kyr, who is leading the study at Astrium Space Transportation. “This mainly concerned the transfer strategy, the descent, landing, mobility, lunar surface operations and the issue of weight distribution between the lander and the Moon rover.” The results of the first phase were presented to ESA in July 2008. In Phase 2, the complete mission concept is now being finalised, and the design of the transfer module, the lander and the Moon rover is being developed.

An excellent, brief concept analysis HERE.

After the moon, ISRO aims for the sun

Last updated September 15, 2010 1858 UT
The universe is our playground

Harsha Pramod
itexaminer.com

Bengaluru (India)

The silent space surrounding the moon could soon be busy with the movement of active satellites from different countries in its parent planet. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 is now orbiting in an elliptical orbit over the polar regions of the moon. ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 (meaning ‘moon craft’) successfully on 22 October 2008, thereby joining the space faring countries in the lunar race. Launched at a cost of about $75 million, Chandrayaan-I will remain in its orbit for about two years. This is especially significant because of the renewed interest in the Earth’s lone satellite after a lull of many decades.

The moon has always been a source of mystery to the human race. It has been associated with mythology and beauty. Being the nearest celestial body, it continues to be a source of great interest to the space scientists. The lunar mission is seen as an important milestone in the space journey.

In the early 1960s the race for the moon was between the US and the USSR. However, the USSR nearly abandoned its lunar mission in the 1970s. Russia is now planning to launch its lunar project ‘Luna-Glob’ in the next few years. The US agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) are expected to provide significant information to help plan for an advanced manned lunar mission in the next decade. LRO is scheduled for launch in April this year while GRAIL is planned for 2011.

ISRO is conscious of the fact that although other countries have undertaken space missions, the data is often not shared. So, India launched its own lunar mission. China is also moving ahead in space, with plans to send (three more) robotic explorers to the moon by 2020.

Its first lunar satellite Chang'e-1, named after (the) legendary Chinese moon goddess, impacted the moon this year. In the global scene, India has set an example of international cooperation by carrying foreign payloads on Chandrayaan-1.

Chandrayaan-1 should help ISRO improve technology for future missions (and) could provide information about the availability of Helium-3 on the moon.

Helium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium considered as a comparatively clean fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors.

Riding high on the success of Chandrayaan-I, ISRO plans to launch Chandrayaan-2 in 2012. Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The mission has been allocated a budget of $86.6 million (Rs 425 crore). Chandrayaan-2 will comprise a lander and a robotic rover, which will soft land on the moon. The robot will take samples from the lunar surface for analysis and will transmit the data back to the earth. ISRO has already signed a pact with the Russian federal space agency (Roscosmos) for the mission. According to the pact, Roscosmos will be responsible for the Lander/Rover.

While Chandrayaan-1 is yet to unload many of its secrets, ISRO is aggressively pursuing its future projects such as the solar mission, Aditya, a satellite to study solar emissions. With the design in place, the mission will be launched in a couple of years. Aditya is reportedly the first space based solar mission planned to study corona, the sun’s outer layer. There are limitations to studying corona from the earth as it is visible only during solar eclipses. The earth’s atmosphere also scatters sunlight. This makes a space mission to study corona even more significant.

ISRO’s study on a Mars mission is also underway. The orbiter mission to Mars aims to study the Martian atmosphere, weather and solar wind-Mars interactions. According to ISRO, setting up a base in the moon could help future space explorations. A long trip to a celestial body such as the Mars could use the moon as an intermediate base. Mission to Mars is likely to could happen around 2019. Missions to other planets could well become a reality in the long term.

India’s manned mission to space at a cost $2.3 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) could be expected before 2015. While ISRO is not averse to international cooperation, it prefers to be self-reliant. ISRO’s manned mission into space has been approved by the Space Commission and is awaiting the government’s approval.

Asteroid or comet flyby flights could also become future missions. This could study the surface and interior of comet nucleus, composition of dust and gas in the comet, solar radiations and also bring samples of comet dust for study.

NASA is currently in the news for its Kepler mission, which aims to explore outer space for alien life. If all goes well, the mission will be launched in Florida on Friday night, 6 March, local time. The Kepler mission is a $600-million mission in search of habitable planets.

China, the US and Japan are going ahead with major plans for space exploration. Everyone wants a share of the outer space. While ISRO says it is not interested in a space war, it also does not want to be lagging behind in enhancing its competence to explore space. The possibilities awaiting the space explorers could very well challenge human imagination.

Check Out
Chandrayaan-I mission not expensive, says Nair
Chandrayaan 1 launch success
India allocates $86.6 million for Chandrayaan-2
ISRO
PIB
Economic Times

Lunar Cycle Turns Hurricanes Into Beasts

Michael Reilly, Discovery News

Werewolves aren't the only terrors that follow the lunar cycle; hurricanes strengthen more often under a new moon than at any other time, according to a new study.

The moon's spooky influence on Earth and its denizens is legendary, and rightly so. From fertility to suicide, most phenomena attributed to Luna are almost exclusively superstition.

But Peter Yaukey (BIO-PDF) of the University of New Orleans has found what he thinks is real evidence that the phases of moon drive hurricane behavior. Storms that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean between 1950 and 2007 were more likely to form right after the new moon. They also intensified 49 percent more often after a new moon than at any other time in the 29.5-day lunar cycle.

Over the last century, Yaukey said, a smattering of scientific research has hinted that the moon may influence rain patterns, thunderstorms and other meteorological events. Explanations for why this is are many, but nothing conclusive has been shown.

"I had a lot of skepticism attributed to the moon, and I still do in a sense," he said. "It's not enough to have a pattern in the data. You need to have a mechanism to explain it."

There are a range of possibilities. Just as the moon pulls on Earth's oceans and creates the tides, it also tugs on the air above it. Lunar atmospheric tides are thought to be weak, but could create favorable conditions for storms to strengthen.

The moon's gravity may also pull cosmic dust into Earth's atmosphere in a cyclical fashion, perhaps seeding cloud formation and precipitation.

The most promising explanation is internal tides encouraged by the lunar cycle. The currents beneath the ocean surface could circulate warm water up underneath a storm, supplying it with the energy it needs to intensify.

But before scientists seek explanations for the connection they must make sure it's real, said Gabriel Vecchi of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association in Princeton, N.J.

"There's an easy way to do an independent test for this," he said. "Go back and look back at Atlantic hurricane data from 1878-1950 to see if there's still this pattern."

Only 13 percent of the world's hurricanes occur in the Atlantic Ocean. So if the moon is really influencing hurricanes, the signal should show up in Pacific and Indian Ocean storms, too.

If the pattern persists through those tests -- and if the data aren't biased by any human tendency to perform scientific measurements on a monthly cycle -- then Yaukey may be onto something.

"Those are two big 'ifs'," Vecchi said. "But if you get past those, then the subsurface ocean is where I'd look first -- internal tides do a lot of mixing."

Raffaello Lena - GLRP & Selenology Today #13

From left to right, South to North. A very highly scaled section of a much larger 12.6 cm comparative polarity image of the Near Side portion of the Lunar South Pole, just above the rim of abyssal 19 kilometer wide Shackleton (lower left), future notional site of Armstrong Station, the American portion of the semi-permanently manned lunar outpost presently in the federal budget. Malapert Mountain, on the Right, has been the notional site of every possible multi-purpose lunar outpost imaginable, and for good reason. As on Earth, so it is on the Moon. Real Estate is "location, location, location."

Wow! It's not every day a person in the lunar community receives high praise from two highly respected forums, each of whom are Websites of Record. Nevertheless, there you have it.

That was enough for Lunar Pioneer Research Group to wave our hand and "give it up" for Raffaello Lena of the Geologic Lunar Research (GLR) group, truly dedicated publishers of Selenology Today.

Issue #13 was released on the web today, and this Number is dedicated to LCROSS.

First the LCROSS Observation Group, a primary contact point for amateur Plus Ultra observers preparing to record that impactor in action later this year, express high praise and gratitude to Raffaello Lena for featuring some really fine articles, written by senior members of the group explaining the importance of earth-bound "amateur" observers of the final stage of the LCROSS mission, in this latest issue of Selenology Today #13.

Now, if that were not enough, Raffaello Lena also received some very high praise tonight/this morning from, guess who... Chuck Wood, who put his Moon-powered LPOD spotlight on Mr. Lena, to illustrate "the P in LPOD doesn't just stand for Photograph, it also stands for "People."

Chuck Wood working on Lunar Second Life

While on the subject, I can never say enough good things about Charles Wood and his ever-growing LPOD. The Lunar Picture of the Day is a first and second tourist destination for me every single day.

After only having briefly flitted around in Second Life (and finding it a strangely relaxing experience, until my "Avatar" was confronted with a 40 meter high floating 3D copy of John McCain's head!) it was wonderful to receive news that Chuck Wood is involved with creating a Second Life lunar "Island," based on the crater Timocharis.

Chuck shared the news on the March 3 LPOD: "Do you have an avatar? Have you been in Second Life? You are going to want to, I hope, later this year when the MoonWorld virtual reality simulation goes online. Second Life (SL) is a persistent virtual world that is very different from a web site. It is a three dimensional environment that you explore not by looking at, but by walking, running or flying through. "You" are represented by an avatar which can be either sex or even an animal or a mythological creature. My colleagues and I at the Center for Educational Technologies are creating an island (a distinct parcel of land in SL) that will be terraformed (lunaformed?) to resemble the area of the crater Timocharis."

Read the rest HERE.

The Chang'e Enigma

1,400 kilogigs of data, fifteen months in lunar orbit, and then the unannounced controlled de-orbit of Chang'e 1 should have more to show for the effort of the largest nation of people on Earth than an essentially useless, low-contrast optical image of the lunar surface. The People's Republic may try to lay claim to that image being the first of its kind but it is just not so, and I think most who study the Moon and the half century of its exploration know.

At least Clementine, a mission with an openly military objective, visited the Moon in 1994, returned volumes of data from an array of highly sophisticated sensors (its primary mission), before being "lost and gone forever." From the portal of the U.S. Geological Service, new interpretations of this fifteen year old data continues to yield discovery. This secretive "spectacle" method of lunar exploration is all show and no blow, and precisely the sort of thing that gets people talking about ruined cities and "spires" on the Moon.

It is strange enough, as it is, without China playing up what was, by all appearances, barely a major league accomplishment.

As far as the wasted opportunities for cooperation, Chuck Wood, the day before yesterday, said it well: "The pioneering Chinese lunar orbiter Chang'e-1, following commands, crashed onto the lunar surface at 0813 GMT on March 1, 2009.

Its impact was in northeastern Mare Fecunditatis near the small crater Messier J. There was apparently no advance warning and thus no chance for observers to look for an impact flash or plume. This would have been more than just an exciting event because imaging a collisional flash from a projectile of known mass, velocity and impact point would have provided a calibration for the ongoing imaging of meteorite impact flashes on the Moon, and possibly be of use to planners preparing for the impact of LCROSS in a polar crater."

Here is a video of the spotless control room and an animation of the Chang'e-1 crash.

"The Moon" gets a premier date

It won't matter to me that the lonely Helium-3 "miner," played by Sam Rockwell, in the Sundance Film Festival sleeper Sci-Fi hit "The Moon" is stationed, for obvious dramatic effect, on the Moon's Far Side. Never mind that our best science indicates that vast amount of available Helium-3 is probably located in Near Side seas Mare Tranquillitatis and Oceanus Procellarum.

It's just great to see Helium-3, which in the case of The Moon is really only the thing that Alfred Hitchcock called a "McGuffin," or "the thing the spies are looking for that doesn't really matter to the story or the audience" finally become a part of the popular culture, or at least "the noise level," for what its worth.

Enough has been written elsewhere about this film and its story, and how it received a distribution deal after its Festival premier. Nevertheless, it would be lax to neglect joining others in announcing The Moon will be generally released June 12, immediately after the peak of the Summer Blockbuster release season, which already features the hyper-hyped and anticipated Star Trek in May.

And the launch of LRO/LCROSS, if all goes well, on May 27.

New center honors New Hampshire's Christa McAuliffe and Admiral Shepard

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center Friday in Concord, New Hampshire, honoring star-crossed "Teacher in Space" Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986) and Admiral Alan Shepard (1923-1998), the first American in space and fifth man to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 14.

With its observatory dome and 92-foot full-scale mockup of the rocket and capsule that carried Shepard into space in 1961, the center dwarfs the original planetarium. Its programs do the same.

Director Jeanne Gerulskis says the expansion transforms the planetarium's operations. New programs build on the planetarium presentations, interactive space and science displays and teacher and student workshops.

McAuliffe's mother, Grace Corrigan, said McAuliffe would be proud to be linked with Shepard, whom she considered a hero.

Transcient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) spotlighted by National Geographic

Those of us who spend a lot of time looking at the moon, more specifically along the sweep of the sunrise terminator where the solar phase angle brings out the finest detail, changing over the course of a minutes, are not surprised Aristarchus is far and away the most common location for reports of TLPs.

Aristarchus is to TLPs what Venus is to UFOlogy.

Nevertheless, in formal studies, combing data over decades, and combining that with modern computerized simulations of the apparent view of the Moon at the locations of observers, and our best accounting for feature height and topography, lunar libration and solar phase angles, not all reports of TLPs can, in fact, be accounted for.

The dynamics of the interactions of the Moon with the Geomagnetic field and it's sweep over the very dusty lunar surface is an area of intense interest, and several models have been put forward which may or may not add to our understanding of TLP's.

Here's National Geographic's Robert Lovett's take, on this "mysterious flash" phenomena, which is a legitimate report on an area of genuine scientific interest.

Funded in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration and at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in northern , a team has set up two 10-inch (25-centimeter) robotic telescopes, in New York CityChile—are enough apart that, most nights, at least one will have clear skies.

Mysterious Moon Flashes Signs of "Last Gasps"?

Astronomer Arlin Crotts is trying to solve a 400-year-old puzzle.

Ever since the invention of the telescope, said the Columbia University astrophysicist, observers around the world have occasionally watched small areas of the moon brighten or "turn fuzzy." Sometimes they even turn reddish.

Read the National Geographic Story HERE.

Raytheon completes missile-detection test

Raytheon Company reported Monday it has finished testing an infrared missile warning sensor that can detect objects across the globe.

The Waltham, Massachusetts defense contractor completed testing of the first-of-its-kind sensor at its space manufacturing facility in El Segundo, California, which simulated background noise, electromagnetic flux static and other conditions found in space.

The technology is the central feature of the third generation infrared satellite system program sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center. The program’s goal is to confirm that so-called wide field of view sensors in a small, low-risk and easily manufactured systems can perform full-earth monitoring for missiles.

“This sensor is important to America’s missile-warning capability,” said Bill Hart, vice president for Raytheon’s space systems group, in a statement. “A persistent sensor that can cover the entire earth gives us the detection sensitivity and responsiveness our military forces need for time-critical decisions.”

Hart added that such a sensor could be delivered to the government in two years.

Raytheon generated $23.2 billion in sales to military and government agencies in 2008.

PRC "aggressively" developing space station

Confirming an earlier report from Xinhua, Craig Covault over at Spaceflight Now is reporting that far from maintaining cautious and methodical space exploration, Beijing is preparing to launch a 17,000 lb low orbiting manned "military" space station. Launch is expected, Craig reports, in late 2010, to coincide with the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

Read Craig's story HERE.

Understanding the Activation and Solution Properties of Lunar Dust for Future Lunar Habitation

W.T. Wallace and A.S. Jeevarajan, USRA/NASA Johnson Space Center - Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XL (2009), The Woodlands, Texas, March 2009

The decision to return humans to the moon by 2020 makes it imperative to understand the effects of lunar dust on human and mechanical systems.( Bush 2004; Gaier 2005; Mendell 2005) During the Apollo missions, dust was found to cause numerous problems for various instruments and systems.

Additionally, the dust may have caused health issues for some of the astronauts.(Gaier 2005; Rowe 2007) It is necessary, therefore, for studies to be carried out in a variety of disciplines in order to mitigate the effects of the dust as completely as possible.

Due to the lack of an atmosphere, there is nothing to protect the lunar soil from ultraviolet radiation, solar wind, and meteorite impacts.

These processes could all serve to "activate" the soil, or produce reactive surface species. In order to understand the possible toxic effects of the reactive dust, it is necessary to "reactivate" the dust, as samples returned during the Apollo missions were exposed to the atmosphere of the Earth.

We have used grinding and exposure to UV radiation in order to mimic some of the processes occurring on the lunar surface. To monitor the reactivity of the dust, we have measured the ability of the dust to produce hydroxyl radicals in solution. These radicals have been measured using a novel fluorescent technique developed in our laboratory,(Wallace et al. 2008) as well as using electronparamagnetic resonance (EPR).

We have measured the reactivity of ground lunar dust, lunar simulant, and quartz using a fluorescent assay. The ability of the ground lunar dust to produce hydroxyl radicals is much greater than ei-ther lunar simulant or quartz. These results are impor-tant, as grinding can act as a surrogate for meteorite impacts on the lunar surface. Additionally, we have studied the dissolution of lunar simulant in buffer solu-tions of different pH. Lower pH causes a number of different ions to be leached into solution at much higher concentrations, as does grinding of the materi-all. While these studies have not shown the presence of toxic materials or sufficient concentrations to be harmful, similar studies on lunar dust are necessary and will be performed soon.

LPSC XL (2009) #2483

ESA input sought on multi-purpose lunar lander

An autonomous lunar lander, which is capable of delivering payload to the lunar surface in support of a human presence on the Moon, as well as payloads directly supporting European exploration objectives. - ESA

The European Space Agency is seeking input from industry, engineering and science interests on the design of what may be the backbone of the middle range of NASA's lunar precursor robotics mission, the International Lunar Network.

Last July, NASA and ESA completed a comparative architecture study on the next generation of unmanned lunar landers. This latest requests builds on such "comparative architecture analysis studies recently conducted in cooperation with NASA," according the the ESA's announcement.

"They helped to define the multiple and varied building blocks needed to return humans to the Moon, and to support a sustained presence there."

At Ministerial Level, "funding was approved for ESA to work towards launching a lunar lander in the 2017–20 timeframe within the European Transportation and Human Exploration Preparatory Activities program and the Global Exploration Strategy (GES)."
This mission builds on lunar exploration comparative architecture analysis studies recently conducted in cooperation with NASA. They helped to define the multiple and varied building blocks needed to return humans to the Moon, and to support a sustained presence there.

Key elements identified in these studies include:

• fixed and mobile habitation units with integrated life support systems, to give human explorers a safe living environment
• robotic systems that can act autonomously to prepare for human exploration, and can later work alongside crews during surface operations
• power generation and storage systems of varying scales to support the energy needs of surface activities, and potentially a human lunar base
• in situ resource utilization systems that can produce consumables needed by a human crew, such as oxygen and water, from material available on the Moon’s surface
• delivery of cargo and logistics to the lunar surface to support human excursions, mobile surface missions and possibly base operations

The latter was identified by both ESA and NASA as a possible European contribution to a future international programme of lunar exploration and would take the form of a lunar Cargo Lander.

This Cargo Lander would deliver items such as food, water, oxygen, fuel and equipment to the Moon, in order to enable astronauts to stay for extended periods. It could also be useful during the construction of a permanent human lunar base.
In addition, ESA is also studying a precursor Lunar Lander mission, for which different mission options are under consideration, to develop and demonstrate the required capabilities. The primary goal is the advancement of European human exploration capabilities for contribution to the international lunar exploration effort. The mission also provides an opportunity to characterize the lunar environment and the landing site, as well as a platform for scientific research.

Request for Information

In order to ensure a robust mission definition and to draw on the wealth of relevant experience available, ESA invites the science, technology and industrial community (including non-space industries) to provide inputs to the project through a Request for Information (RFI).
In particular, ESA is interested in learning about technologies, instruments, techniques and experiments that could be accommodated on the Lunar Lander and are in keeping with the mission objectives:

1. To advance European technological capabilities for future human exploration of the Moon.
2. To characterise the lunar environment and potential in situ resources to identify their implications for future human exploration.
3. To progress in the definition of tools, interfaces and operational techniques for surface exploration.
4. To increase our understanding of the formation, history and evolution of the Moon.

These inputs will be used in the early design phases of the mission, in advance of a formal Announcement of Opportunity.

The RFI began on the Monday 2 March 2009 and remains open for six weeks until 10:00 CEST (08:00 UT) on Tuesday 14 April. Further information on the RFI, including a concept submission template and the review and selection process, can be found in the links on the right side of the page. Responses to the RFI should be sent to: explorationcall@esa.int.


For more information contact:

James Carpenter
Tel: +31 71 565 3540
Email: James.Carpenter@esa.int

ESA FIRST LUNAR LANDER
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (pdf)

China: Proud of Mediocrity?

China Daily and Xinhua continue to paint a bright and shinning future for their ambitions in low Earth Orbit and, following the de-orbiting of Chang'E 1 late last week, plans for safely landing future Chang'E probes.

"China plans to land Chang'e III on the moon at the soonest in 2013, Ye Peijian, chief designer of Chang'e I, the country's first moon probe, said here Monday.

"The mission of Chang'e III is to make soft landing and probe the moon, said Ye, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.

"Before the mission, Chang'e II will be launched at the latest in 2011 to test key technologies of soft landing and lower technical risks, he said.

"The timetable was revealed as China concluded the first phase of its three-stage moon mission with a controlled impact of Chang'e I on the moon Sunday.

"Ye said China's three-stage moon mission could be defined as "orbiting", "landing" and "returning".

"A Chang'e IV will also be launched during the second phase, which will be concluded before 2017, said Ye. But he didn't detail the task of the fourth probe.

"Ye said the third phase will last from 2017 to 2020, during which China will launch recoverable moon rovers.

"Chang'e" is named after a legendary moon goddess. But Ye said the recoverable moon rovers may not continue to be named after the goddess. The name hasn't been decided yet," he said.

"China's space program claimed a new landmark with its first space walk last year. It is the third nation, after the US and Russia, to launch people into space."

Time will tell how hard and fast Chang'E 1 plowed into Mare Fecunditatis, 150 miles east of the central Messier crater group.

The Moon is a notoriously difficult place to maintain a low orbit, with it's dishomogenity of mass.

Japan has already announced plans to de-orbit Kaguya late this summer, taking the route followed by Lunar Prospector in 1999, by first stabilizing the vehicle in a much closer and more unstable orbit where, like Prospector, it has been announced JAXA's first lunar orbiter can more closely study lunar magnetic anomalies.

It is still hoped things can be timed well enough precision that Kaguya and/or Chandrayaan to view the impact of the LCROSS and it's shepherd craft, if LRO/LCROSS can ever regain the priority it lost late last year, when it was announced that it gave up its December launch window in favor of tests of the secretive USAF X-37.

Chang'E arrived a few weeks before Kaguya, in 2007, and the Chinese National Space Agency has been downright stingy with photographs and data.

JAXA's Kaguya and ISRO's Chandrayaan have, at times, been sometime frustrating in more general releases of new data, blaming personnel shortages. JAXA vastly improved on that situation late last year, though they are still making new releases of HDTV photographs, etc., first, and in some cases almost exclusively in Japanese.

American amateurs have learned to scope the Japanese Kaguya Image Gallery to discover new data sometimes weeks before when its availability has been generally announced.

While not wanting to make light of China's engineering achievement, perhaps I hope I am not the first to suggest that the "first time total moon photograph," proudly introduced in the Great Hall of the People late last year, is neither the first nor is it particularly well done.

Unless there is some deeper resolution not yet been made available, 59 percent of the lunar surface is better photographed by amateur observers on Earth.

Dennis Wingo and the crowd at LOIRP are getting better data out of 42 year old telemetry from the Lunar Orbiter series.

Everyone apologizes for the Chinese National Space Agency, for their "outstanding achievements" but that big 1-25000 scale photograph was just plain lousy. Ed White and Alexi Leonov walked in space more than forty years ago. It is not as though they are required to re-invent the wheel.

Some of the best cosmological science is coming out of the Chinese universities, some really outstanding work on lunar morphology that simply would not have been possible without Clementine, for example, and the gigabytes of data from that mission and others freely available on the web. They sure didn't waste much time learning how to build fission and then fusion bombs, or the ICBM's to carry them, and they are not wasting time building a deep water navy that could project force in the Gulf of Mexico as easily as the United States does the Persian Gulf.

It's not a matter or pride or resources. It's a matter of priorities. Some days it seems as though the Americans will suffer the fate of Spain in the Americas, destined to make the European discovery (and to loot the local wealth) only to have that empire gradually diminish until a final and unnecessary war with America lost them their Empire. (They did have a good three century run, though.)

And then this new President surprises me completely, deciding NASA should not be thrown out with the bath water. Maybe someone over at the White House actually read the National Academies' Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon.

Taking The Stink Out Of Space Travel

FORBES.com / Tim Kelly

Japanese technicians smell the roses.

The Chinese may get to the moon before Ohnishi or his colleagues do, but if Wakata's odor-eating wear works, the Japanese at least should smell rosier when they eventually touch down.

Read about national priorities in Space HERE.

CNSA Change'E 1 "lands" in Sea of Fertility

Hat Tip to Svetoslav Alexandrov for alerting this late sleeper to the news that China's first lunar orbiter Chang'E 1 was brought down or "landed" (if crashed or impacted is not to your liking) according to news sources close to 52.36 east, 1.5 degrees south of the lunar equator.

The impact sight is within seven kilometers east of Messier J, a secondary crater among the wide and scattered Messier group, in north central Mare Fecunditatis, or "Sea of Fertility"

Telescopic observers can spot Messier J, with it's neighbor Messier L, a few kilometers northwest. Both are located 150 kilometer east of Messier proper, and its more familiar oblong neighbor with the westward pointing ray, Messier A.

The Messier J and L secondaries are located where the wrinkle ridges Dorsa Geike from southward meet those ridges winding south associated with Dorsum Cateux.

If the skies are clear where you are tonight, the phase angle of the sun at the location of the Change'E impact area, Messier A and its ray might be an excellent place to start looking eastward, halfway between the terminator and rim, more of less. The ray of Messier A points back to its crater of origin, and immediately to its east is Messier proper. Continue east and the meeting of the ridge groupings and the secondaries might just be a good opportunity for historic observation. Though the evenings of February 27 and 28 would have been perfect

Phil Stooke reminds us that this, among nearly seventy locations of human activity over the lunar surface since 1959, is "another point on the map" ... about 140 kilometers west (by southwest) of the (September 1970) Luna 16 landing site."

China plans to construct space station

Report from Beijing says CNSA will set core module in Low Earth Orbit in 2010.

Read report HERE.