tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65060336174518834462024-01-29T00:29:36.044-08:00Space Travel Law NewsThe STELA / Space Travel Law Association BlogUta Stenzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03400583003093752784noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-60968084336139258902012-04-24T06:45:00.003-07:002012-04-24T06:45:34.372-07:00Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[<a href="http://www.space.com/15395-asteroid-mining-planetary-resources.html">Source</a>] </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 23 April 2012 Time: 09:00 PM ET</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A newly unveiled company with some high-profile backers — including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page — is set to announce plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for resources such as precious metals and water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planetary Resources, Inc. intends to sell these materials, generating a healthy profit for itself. But it also aims to advance humanity's exploration and exploitation of space, with resource extraction serving as an anchor industry that helps our species spread throughout the solar system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"If you look at space resources, the logical next step is to go to the near-Earth asteroids," Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Eric Anderson told SPACE.com. "They're just so valuable, and so easy to reach energetically. Near-Earth asteroids really are the low-hanging fruit of the solar system."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planetary Resources is officially unveiling its asteroid-mining plans at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) Tuesday (April 24) during a news conference at Seattle's Museum of Flight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Precious Metals and Water</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two of the resources the company plans to mine are platinum-group metals and water, Anderson said. [Images: Planetary Resources' Asteroid Mining Plans]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Platinum-group metals — ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum — are found in low concentrations on Earth and can be tough to access, which is why they're so expensive. In fact, Anderson said, they don't occur naturally in Earth's crust, having been deposited on our planet over the eons by asteroid impacts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We're going to go to the source," Anderson said. "The platinum-group metals are many orders of magnitude easier to access in the high-concentration platinum asteroids than they are in the Earth's crust."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And there are a lot of precious metals up there waiting to be mined. A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history, company officials said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When the availability of these metals increase[s], the cost will reduce on everything including defibrillators, hand-held devices, TV and computer monitors, catalysts," Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Peter Diamandis said in a statement. "And with the abundance of these metals, we’ll be able to use them in mass production, like in automotive fuel cells."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many asteroids are rich in water, too, another characteristic the company plans to exploit. Once extracted, this water would be sold in space, providing significant savings over water launched from the ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Asteroid water could help astronauts stay hydrated and grow food, provide radiation shielding for spaceships and be broken into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, the chief components of rocket fuel, Anderson said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planetary Resources hopes its mining efforts lead to the establishment of in-space "gas stations" that could help many spacecraft refuel, from Earth-orbiting satellites to Mars-bound vessels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We're really talking about enabling the exploration of deep space," Anderson said. "That's what really gets me excited." [Future Visions of Human Spaceflight]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition to Page, Planetary Resources counts among its investors Ross Perot Jr., chairman of The Perot Group and son of the former presidential candidate; Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google; K. Ram Shriram, Google board of directors founding member; and Charles Simonyi, chairman of Intentional Software Corp., who has taken two tourist flights to the International Space Station.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cameron serves the company as an adviser, as does former NASA space shuttle astronaut Tom Jones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Plan</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The company is not ready to break ground on an asteroid just yet. Before that can happen, it needs to do some in-depth prospecting work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of the roughly 8,900 known near-Earth asteroids, perhaps 100 or 150 are water-rich and easier to reach than the surface of the moon, Anderson said. Planetary Resources wants to identify and characterize these top targets before it does anything else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To that end, it has designed a high-performance, low-cost space telescope that Anderson said should launch to low-Earth orbit within the next 18 to 24 months. This telescope will make observations of its own but also serve as a model for future instruments that will journey near promising asteroids and peer at them in great detail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The prospecting phase should take a couple of years or so, Anderson added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We will then, at that time, determine which of these objects to pursue first for resource extraction, and what mission we'll be facilitating," he said. "Before you decide where to put the gas station, you've got to understand where the trucks are going to be driving by."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mining activities will be enabled by swarms of unmanned spacecraft, according to company materials. Planetary Resources will focus on near-Earth asteroids, with no immediate plans to extend its reach to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or to the surface of the moon, Anderson said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He declined to estimate when Planetary Resources would begin extracting metals or water from space rocks, saying there are too many variables to lay out a firm timeline. But a recent study sponsored by Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies estimated that a 500-ton near-Earth asteroid could be snagged and dragged to the moon's orbit by 2025, at a cost of about $2.6 billion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatever Planetary Resources' exact schedule may be, Anderson said the company is already well on its way to making things happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We're out there right now, talking to customers," Anderson said. "We are open for discussions with companies — aerospace companies, mining companies, prospecting companies, resource companies. We're out working in that field, to really open up the solar system for business."</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-42653247561328384542012-04-17T06:46:00.004-07:002012-04-17T06:58:49.576-07:00Private Company's 1st Space Station Visit On Track<p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="line-height: 22px; "><span></span></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private U.S. company is on track to become the first commercial visitor to the International Space Station.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>NASA said Monday there's a good chance that Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, will make its April 30 date to launch a cargo ship to the space station. More software testing is needed before a final "go" is given. Managers said they will meet again next Monday to review everything.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>The Dragon spacecraft will be hoisted aboard the company's Falcon rocket from Cape Canaveral.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>The company's chief executive officer and chief designer, Paypal co-founder Elon Musk, said the Falcon and Dragon are proven vehicles. What's new is getting the supply ship to the space station. Musk was hesitant to give out odds for success, stressing that this is a test flight.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>NASA has paid $381 million to SpaceX to get this far, under its post-shuttle push for commercially provided cargo and, in three or more years, possibly crew. Musk said the company has put about $1 billion of its own money into the venture.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>SpaceX is one of several companies competing for the right to handle astronaut ferry trips. Until then, American astronauts will have to travel aboard Russian spacecraft to the space station.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>Musk plans two more Dragon flights to the space station this year, if all goes well on the upcoming mission.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>NASA loaded the Dragon with non-essential items such as clothing, food, computers and science experiments. The capsule is designed to return to Earth with a full load as well, something none of the other visiting cargo ships — from Russia, Europe and Japan — can do. NASA says by bringing back old equipment, money can be saved by refurbishing the pieces and launching them back up, rather than buying new replacements.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>By retiring the space shuttles last year, NASA wanted to focus on getting astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit, possibly asteroids and ultimately Mars.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>________________________</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>Online:</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>NASA: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/cargo/spacex_index.html">http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/cargo/spacex_index.html</a></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_24_1334669974567_208" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span>SpaceX: <a href="http://www.spacex.com/">http://www.spacex.com/</a></span></p><p></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-50887756130060215842012-01-27T06:03:00.000-08:002012-01-27T06:11:00.696-08:00Moon or Asteroid? NASA's Next Giant Leap Depends On Who'll Be President<p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span style="line-height: 26px; "></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer</span></p><p></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><abbr title="2012-01-26T20:06:11Z" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; text-align: -webkit-auto; line-height: 26px; "></abbr></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >The United States may start working toward establishing a moon colony by 2020, or an asteroid may remain the next target for manned exploration; it depends on who wins this November's presidential election.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >America's space policy tends to change on four- or eight-year cycles, often shifting dramatically when a new commander-in-chief is sworn in. With the next election less than 10 months away, it appears that incumbent Democrat Barack Obama will take on one of two Republicans — former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney or former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Romneyand Gingrich are currently leading the Republican primaries, ahead of Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Here's a brief look at the vision the president and each of the two Republican frontrunners have professed for NASA and the nation's space activities.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><span><b>Barack Obama: The Status Quo </b></span><span style="font-size: medium; ">President Obama announced his adminstration's space policy in 2010, one year after taking office. The plan called for a radical change in direction for NASA.</span></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: medium; " ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Obama cancelled George W. Bush's Constellation program, which had instructed NASA to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. Instead, Obama directed the space agency to focus on getting humans to an asteroid by 2025, then on to Mars by the mid-2030s.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >The president's vision entails, in part, the development of a new heavy-lift rocket. In response, NASA has begun working on a booster called the Space Launch System, which it hopes will be operational by late 2021.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Obama's policy also seeks to jump-start commercial spaceflight capabilitites. Since the space-shuttle fleet was grounded last year, NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >But over the long haul, Obama wants private American spaceships to take over this taxi role. So the president promised NASA an extra $6 billion over five years, which the agency would use to help companies develop these new craft.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >NASA has said it hopes some of these commercial vehicles will be up and running by 2017 or so.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><span><b>Newt Gingrich: Grand Plans </b></span><span style="font-size: medium; ">Newt Gingrich has big ideas for American spaceflight, which he laid out in a speech Wednesday (Jan. 25) on Florida's Space Coast.</span></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: medium; " ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >The self-professed space geek said that, if elected president, he would push for a permanent manned lunar colony by 2020. He also wants a bustling commercial spaceflight industry by that year, as well as a next-generation propulsion system capable of sending astronauts to Mars quickly and efficiently.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >But Gingrich wouldn't count on NASA to make all of this happen. Instead, he would look to develop the capabilities of private industry by establishing a system of cash prizes. As an example, he said he'd propose a $10-billion prize for the first company or entity to get a human to Mars.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >"You put up a bunch of interesting prizes, you're going to have so many people showing up who want to fly, it's going to be unbelievable," Gingrich said. "So the model I want us to build is largely the model of the '20s and '30s, when the government was actively encouraging development [in the aviation industry], but the government wasn't doing it."</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Gingrich announced he would set aside 10 percent of NASA's budget to help fund these prizes. He seems keen to cut the space agency's funding overall, saying repeatedly that he wants NASA to be "leaner" and less bureaucratic.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><span><b>Mitt Romney: Steering NASA By Committee </b></span><span style="font-size: medium; ">Mitt Romney hasn't been as voluble on space policy as Gingrich, but he shares his Republican rival's desire to shift more of the spaceflight burden from NASA to private industry.</span></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >In fact, Romney wants the business community to help chart NASA's course and provide part of its funding. At a Republican primary debate in Florida on Monday (Jan. 23), he suggested that leaders from the private sector, academia and the military should work together with the president and NASA officials to map out the nation's space activities.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >"Bring them together, discuss a wide range of options for NASA, and then have NASA not just funded by the federal government but also by commercial enterprises," Romney said. "Let's have a collaborative effort, with business, with government, with the military as well as with our educational institutions."</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Compared with a Gingrich presidency, a Romney administration would likely place less weight on exploring and exploiting the final frontier. However, the former Massachusetts governor has said that he views space exploration as a priority.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >We need to "have a mission, once again excite our young people about the potential of space, and the commercial potential will pay for itself down the road," Romney said.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: medium; " ><b>CALLING ALL VISIONARIES</b></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: medium; " ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: medium; " >These presidential hopefuls are following in the footsteps of past leaders by declaring sweeping visions for our nation's space program. Most famously, John F. Kennedy said on May 25, 1961, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Those words prompted a countrywide push to carry out the Apollo program, culminating in the landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in 1969.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Ever since, leaders have been trying to reproduce the Kennedy effect.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >"I have been puzzled for years by a statement that goes something like, 'If we just had a president with the vision and foresight of John F. Kennedy to announce a bold space initiative, all would be well with NASA,'" said Roger Launius, space history curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >The problem is that Apollo succeeded because of the very specific political, technological and economic environment of the time, Launius said. It's not necessarily for a lack of vision that NASA hasn't quite reached those heights since.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >"We have had those national leaders who made those bold proclamations," Launius told SPACE.com in an email. "Twenty years to the day after the Apollo 11 landing, President George H.W. Bush made another Kennedy-like speech announcing the ambitious Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) that was intended to return people to the moon by 2000, establish a lunar base, and then, using the space station and the moon, reach Mars by 2010. The price tag for this effort was estimated at a whopping $400 billion over two decades and the initiative never gained traction in Congress or with the American people."</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >That president's son tried again 15 years later.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >"On January 14, 2004, President George W. Bush performed essentially a reenactment of his father by announcing a 'Vision for Space Exploration' that called for humans to reach the moon and Mars during the next thirty years. It did not gain much political or funding support either," said Launius.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span >Whether Obama's, Gingrich's, or Romney's plans will succeed remains to be seen.</span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span ><br /></span></p><p class="first" id="yui_3_3_0_18_1327672804228418" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><i><span >SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz contributed to this report. You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.</span></i></p><p></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-65944658147604987402012-01-16T07:54:00.000-08:002012-01-16T07:58:23.471-08:00Saturn's Moon Titan May Be More Earth-Like Than Thought<div style="text-align: justify;"><span >Saturn's moon Titan may be more similar to an Earth-like world than previously thought, possessing a layered atmosphere just like our planet, researchers said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >Titan is Saturn's largest moon, and is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere. A better understanding of how its hazy, soupy atmosphere works could shed light on similar ones scientists might find on alien planets and moons. However, conflicting details about how Titan's atmosphere is structured have emerged over the years.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >The lowest layer of any atmosphere, known as its boundary layer, is most influenced by a planet or moon's surface. It in turn most influences the surface with clouds and winds, as well as by sculpting dunes.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >"This layer is very important for the climate and weather — we live in the terrestrial boundary layer," said study lead author Benjamin Charnay, a planetary scientist at France's National Center of Scientific Research.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >Earth's boundary layer, which is between 1,650 feet and 1.8 miles (500 meters and 3 kilometers) thick, is controlled largely by solar heat warming the planet's surface. Since Titan is much further away from the sun, its boundary layer might behave quite differently, but much remains uncertain about it — Titan's atmosphere is thick and opaque, confusing what we know about its lower layers. [Amazing Photos of Titan]</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >For instance, while the Voyager 1 spacecraft suggested Titan's boundary layer was about 2 miles (3.5 km) thick, the Huygens probe that plunged through Titan's atmosphere saw it as only about 1,000 feet (300 m) thick.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >To help solve these mysteries about Titan's atmosphere, scientists developed a 3D climate model of how it might respond to solar heat over time.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >"The most important implication of these findings is that Titan appears closer to an Earth-like world than once believed," Charnay told SPACE.com.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >Their simulations revealed the lower atmosphere of Titan appears separated into two layers that are both distinct from the upper atmosphere in terms of temperature. The lowermost boundary layer is shallow, only about 2,600 feet (800 meters) deep and, like Earth's, changes on a daily basis. The layer above, which is 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) deep, changes seasonally.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >The existence of two lower atmospheric layers that both respond to changes in temperature help reconcile the formerly disparate findings regarding Titan's boundary layer, "so there are no more conflicting observations," Charnay said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >This new work help explains the winds on Titan measured by the Huygens probe, as well as the spacing seen between the giant dunes on Titan's equator. Also, "it could imply the formation of boundary layer clouds of methane on Titan," Charnay said. Such clouds were apparently seen before but not explained.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >In the future, Charnay and his colleagues will include how methane on Titan moves in a cycle from surface lakes and seas to atmospheric clouds, just as water does on Earth.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >"3D models will be very useful in the future to explain the data we will get about the atmospheres of exoplanets," Charnay said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span >Charnay and his colleague Sébastien Lebonnois detailed their findings in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-3979168787479629742011-10-18T10:47:00.000-07:002011-10-18T10:55:46.728-07:00First Commercial Spaceport Hangar Dedicated In New Mexico<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZVyBb0JH7jA/Tp29g5HhiXI/AAAAAAAAAY4/qtorlvz1ct4/s1600/wk2%252BvssEnterprise%2B%2540%2BSpaceport%2BAmerica%2Bdedication.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZVyBb0JH7jA/Tp29g5HhiXI/AAAAAAAAAY4/qtorlvz1ct4/s320/wk2%252BvssEnterprise%2B%2540%2BSpaceport%2BAmerica%2Bdedication.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664892279087794546" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; ">by Leonard David, SPACE.com’s Space Insider ColumnistDate: 17 October 2011 Time: 10:07 AM ET</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — The hangar at the operating hub for public space travel is being dedicated here today (Oct. 17), home base for pay-per-view suborbital treks out of Earth's atmosphere.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">The Spaceport America Terminal Hangar Facility is to be utilized by Virgin Galactic, a spaceline operation backed by British billionaire and adventurer Richard Branson.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">The hangar-dedication ceremony is the latest in a string of opening events for the spaceport. In October 2010, officials dedicated the facility's long runway, named "The Governor Bill Richardson Spaceway."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">The hangar itself is a Tomorrowland-looking piece of work. It is expected to house up to two of Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo launch planes and five SpaceShipTwo tourist-carrying rocket planes, in addition to all of Virgin's astronaut preparation facilities and a mission control. [Photos: Spaceport America Blooms in New Mexico Desert]</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">The Terminal Hangar Facility "has turned out better that anyone could have imagined," said Christine Anderson, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">"It is a beautiful building befitting of the beginning of a new era where all of us can now not only dream of going into space but actually have the opportunity to do so," Anderson told SPACE.com. She said that there are more milestones ahead in anchoring the future of commercial space travel.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Spectators at the dedication event were treated to a flight of the combined WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo twosome, circling to high altitude and zooming over Spaceport America.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Branson characterized the terminal design as not only being a real landmark with its iconic architecture, "but also something that was at the cutting edge of environmentally sustainable design."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Simply put, Branson said, "it is a 21st century building for a 21st century business."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Branson was in rare form, living up to his adventuresome past – with a keen eye on grabbing the media spotlight.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">He joined an aerial ballet group that pranced and flew across the glass edifice of the terminal building. Hanging on a rope tangling attached high on the structure, he popped open a champagne bottle and sipped while announcing that the structure is now named the "Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><b>Rambling Desert Locale</b></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Spaceport America is tagged as the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport. The rambling desert locale is roughly 45 miles north of Las Cruces, N.M., covering 18,000 acres and containing a nearly 2-mile-long (3.2 km), 200-foot-wide (61 meter) "spaceway" – a specially built runway that can handle Virgin Galactic's use of the WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo dual-action system.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">The Terminal Hangar Facility was designed by United Kingdom-based Foster + Partners, along with URS and local New Mexico architects SMPC. The trio won an international competition to build the first private spaceport in the world.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Now undergoing extensive testing, the SpaceShipTwo craft dubbed the VSS Enterprise, and carrier WhiteKnightTwo, christened the VMS Eve, have both been developed for Virgin Galactic by Mojave, Calif.-based Scaled Composites.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">This launch system is designed to haul six customers and two pilots on suborbital space flights, allowing an out-of-the-seat, zero-gravity experience and out-the-window views of Earth from the black sky of space.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">After VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve test flights are completed, Virgin Galactic will begin commercial operations here at Spaceport America.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><b>Iconic Infrastructure</b></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Today's Terminal Hangar Facility dedication "is a very important milestone on the path to commercial operations for Virgin Galactic," George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic president and chief executive officer told SPACE.com.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">"While there is still work to be done in driving to completion of the vehicle development program," Whitesides said, "the dedication event is an opportunity for us to recognize all the people in New Mexico and around the world who have worked so hard to turn a patch of ranch land into the world's first commercial spaceport."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Whitesides said that architectural teams from abroad and here in New Mexico have designed iconic infrastructure that will long be remembered as the first dedicated home for operational commercial spaceships. "We anticipate that over the coming years, thousands of our customers will receive their space training here, preparing for the experience of their lifetimes," he said.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">There remains more work on outfitting Spaceport America, Whitesides added. "Over the coming months, we will be working closely with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority," he said, "to finish the overall facilities of the spaceport, including certain infrastructure features and fit-out of the building's interior."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><b>This Is Hard</b></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">While the festive nature of the dedication was in high gear, much work is ahead to propel trial runs of suborbital jaunts into ticket-holder flight status.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">"This is hard," said Stephen Attenborough, Commercial Director for Virgin Galatic.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">"Since I started, this project for me has been characterized by the fact that, in some ways, what we’re doing is very simple … but actually achieving it is very hard," he told SPACE.com.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">Attenborough said that "there’s probably a reason why this hasn’t been accomplished in the last 50 years, because we have to start off with standards of safety that are multiple of anything that has been achieved to date."</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">There’s a very close correlation between funding and success, Attenborough added. Being well-capitalized, using proven technology, gaining operational experience, having customers and a spaceport are key ingredients.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; ">"So we should be able to make it," Attenborough concluded.</div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><i><br /></i></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify; "><i>Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of this year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.</i></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="article_img_i02" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; width: 574px; text-align: center; color: rgb(114, 127, 110); "></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="article_img_i02" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; width: 574px; text-align: center; color: rgb(114, 127, 110); "></div></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-1937750870139392712011-10-08T18:52:00.000-07:002011-10-08T18:57:47.547-07:00Private Space Station Builder Downsizes Dramatically<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >By Brian Berger and Dan Leone, Space News</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Space.com | SPACE.com – 11 hrs ago</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >WASHINGTON and LONG BEACH, Calif. — Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing inflatable space habitats for commercial use, laid off some 40 of its 90 employees Sept. 29, a company official confirmed.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >"We are proceeding with a core group of fifty plus engineers, managers and support staff," Mike Gold, Bigelow Aerospace's director of Washington operations and business growth, said in an emailed response to questions from Space News. "This core group allows us to retain key human capital and capabilities, with which we are continuing to aggressively pursue the development and eventual deployment of the BA 330 system."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >The BA 330 is a six-person inflatable space station Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., is developing to serve commercial and government human spaceflight markets. The BA 330 is one of the proposed commercial platforms Boeing Co. intends to serve with the CST-100 space capsule it is developing with financial assistance from NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Bigelow Aerospace employees told Space News that the company laid off nearly all of its machinists and that most of the workers retained are associated with the Boeing CCDev effort. Bigelow’s partnership with Boeing on the CST-100 predates Boeing’s 2010 CCDev award.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Gold, in his email, said the layoffs "were caused by a perfect storm of events."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >"We had hoped that by 2014 or 2015 that America would again be able to fly its own astronauts. Unfortunately, the prospect of domestic crew transportation of any kind is apparently going to occur years after the first BA 330 could be ready," Gold wrote. "For both business and technical reasons, we cannot deploy a BA 330 without a means of transporting crew to and from our station, and the adjustment to our employment levels was necessary to reflect this reality.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >"If anything, Bigelow Aerospace has been suffering from its own early success, and we’re years ahead of where the rest of the industry is."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Bigelow Aerospace, founded by motel mogul Robert Bigelow, views space agencies around the world as a key market for its planned space habit. The company has deployed two smaller-scale inflatable test habitats in space using Russian rockets.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Space News correspondent Debra Werner contributed from San Francisco. This article was provided by Space News,dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-17465144426435596152011-08-16T08:38:00.000-07:002011-08-16T08:40:28.162-07:00SpaceX to Fly to Int'l Space Station In November<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) — SpaceX's next mission is to the International Space Station.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >The Hawthorne, Calif.-based private rocket maker said Monday its Dragon capsule will launch on Nov. 30 on a cargo test run to the orbiting outpost. SpaceX said the launch will be followed by a station docking more than a week later.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >With the space shuttle fleet retired, NASA is depending on private companies like SpaceX to handle space station supply runs and astronaut rides. Until then, the space agency is paying for trips aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Last December, the Dragon capsule made the world's first private trip to and from orbit. During the test flight, the capsule simulated some of the maneuvers that would be needed for a docking.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >_______________________</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Online</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-62417558662593048052011-05-21T12:23:00.000-07:002011-05-21T12:30:36.148-07:00Texas Space Alliance Celebrates New Space "Tourism" Law<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">by Staff Writers<br />Austin TX (SPX) May 12, 2011<br /><br /><br />The Texas Space Alliance congratulated the governor and legislatureon passing what it hopes will be the first of a new wave of pro-commercial space laws in the last weeks, and called for the Texas government to move quickly to pass other pro-commercial space legislation - before other states seal their leads in courting this billion dollar industry.<br /><br />With the signature of Texas Governor Rick Perry affixed, and its publication by the Texas Secretary of State, the new Texas space liability law goes into immediate effect.<br /><br />It restrains unlimited personal liability for passenger travel to/from space via the state of Texas, providing what should be the first of many steps to enhance space business in the state, moving Texas toward the goal of being a premiere space launch and landing destination for all customers -- personal, educational, commercial, military and governmental.<br /><br />"We at the Texas Space Alliance salute the government for taking this first small step towards making Texas a space state," said Wayne Rast, Director-Governmental Affairs for TXA. "After having offered testimony in the Texas Senate on behalf of this legislation, we are thrilled to see it become the law in Texas."<br /><br />The TXA, which worked with other pro-commercial space supporters to help pass the legislation saluted State Senator Carlos Uresti (TX-19), and Texas Congressmen Pete Gallego (TX-74), for introducing and then championing passage of this important new law, which it believes will help usher in an age of commercial space travel in Texas, including so called space "tourism" flights to the edge of space.<br /><br />They also acknowledge the work of Keith Graff and others on the governor's staff, and the governor himself, who they believe can help rally the state to this important cause.<br /><br />"This is the beginning of a new effort on our part to "awaken the sleeping giant" of Texas when it comes to the emerging commercial space industry," said TXA President Rick Tumlinson.<br /><br />"But we have to move quickly. Other states such as Florida, Virginia and New Mexico are far ahead of us in courting and supporting this potentially multi-billion dollar industry, and if we want a part of it dramatic and determined action will be necessary - as the deals are being cut right now that will determine its future for decades."<br /><br />With the liability law in place, the TXA is working on a Texas Space Plan that includes important items for improving the space business climate in Texas, including a zero-gravity, zero-tax law (ZGZT) to draw new jobs and industry to Texas, and the development of Space Enterprise Zones and a set of Texas Spaceports.<br /><br />ZGZT has received enthusiastic support from the Chair of the Senate Economic Development Committee - State Senator Mike Jackson (TX-11) and early efforts and interest from Texas Congressmen Larry Taylor (TX-24) and House Economic Development Chair John Davis (TX-129)."</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-65682557534436935262011-01-31T15:46:00.000-08:002011-01-31T15:48:56.098-08:00Channel Island Named First 'Dark Sky' Community<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">– Mon Jan 31, 12:07 pm ET<br /><br />LONDON (AFP) – The Channel Island of Sark has been designated the first dark sky community in the world in recognition of the lack of light pollution that allows clear views of the stars at night, officials said Monday.<br /><br />The tiny island, located west of France's Cotentin Peninsula and about 80 miles (130 kilometres) off the south coast of England, hopes the designation from the US-based International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) will help boost tourism from star gazers.<br /><br />"Sark becoming the world's first dark sky island is a tremendous feather in our environmental cap, which can only enhance our appeal," said Paul Williams, chairman of the Sark government's agricultural committee.<br /><br />The island, which is three miles long and 1.5 miles wide, has no cars and no public street lighting, but local residents and businesses have also made an effort to reduce the amount of light spilled upwards.<br /><br />As a result, the Milky Way is clearly visible stretching from horizon to horizon and streaking meteors can be picked out among bright stars.<br /><br />After an audit last year, Sark now joins a select group of global dark sky sites, although it is particularly special, according to Martin Morgan-Taylor, chairman of the IDA's international committee.<br /><br />He notes that all the other sites are uninhabited natural parks, with the exception of Flagstaff, Arizona, which has a major observatory -- making Sark the first "dark sky community".<br /><br />"Here we have a living, thriving community that has made a conscious effort that they themselves will help to protect and help to restore the view of the night sky," Morgan-Taylor told AFP.<br /><br />Hungary's Hortobagy National Park has also been newly designated by the IDA, Morgan-Taylor said. The other two dark sky sites in Europe are Galloway Forest in Scotland and Zselic Park in Hungary.<br /><br />"This is a great achievement for Sark," said Professor Roger Davies, president of the Royal Astronomical Society.<br /><br />"People around the world are become increasingly fascinated by astronomy as we discover more about our universe, and the creation of the world's first dark sky island in the British Isles can only help to increase that appetite."</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-92034281242466066522010-12-13T17:59:00.000-08:002010-12-13T18:02:29.019-08:00SpaceX Launches Success With Falcon 9/Dragon Flight<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2010)<br /><br />SpaceX Corp. tested its Falcon 9 and a fully functioning Dragon capsule combination during a brief mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on December 8, 2010. The uncrewed capsule parachuted back to Earth about three hours after liftoff following maneuvers in orbit, a first for the privately owned company.<br /><br />Flames erupted from the base of the Falcon 9 at 10:43 a.m. as it sat at Launch Complex-40. A few seconds later, the rocket and its Dragon capsule pushed above the surrounding lightning towers and headed into orbit.<br /><br />The first stage separated on time and the second stage took over as planned. A camera on board the rocket showed the Dragon capsule separate from the second stage and trunk to orbit on its own.<br /><br />After working through its maneuvers, the Dragon fired its braking rockets to begin re-entry. Like the Apollo spacecraft of the 1960s and 70s, the Dragon pierced Earth's atmosphere protected by an ablative heat shield. Parachutes deployed and the spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.<br /><br />"This has really been better than I expected," said Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX. "It's actually almost too good."<br /><br />The test flight was the first under a NASA contract called COTS, short for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services. The contract was set up to encourage private companies to ship cargo to the International Space Station.<br /><br />"This is really an amazing accomplishment for SpaceX," said Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo program manager. "From all indications, it looks like it was 100 percent successful."<br /><br />It was the second test flight for the Falcon 9, a 180-foot-tall, medium-lift booster SpaceX developed in part to service the station. The first Falcon 9 successfully launched a Dragon capsule simulator into orbit on June 4.<br /><br />"We're beyond the 'Is it possible?' We did it and now we move on," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX.<br /><br />The successful mission could clear the way for a Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the station sometime next year, potentially delivering cargo on that flight.<br /><br />Before the launch, NASA voiced a high level of support for the mission.<br /><br />"Getting this far this fast has been a remarkable achievement," said Phil McAlister, NASA's acting director of Commercial Space Flight Development. "No matter how this spaceflight goes, we are committed to this program."<br /><br />NASA wants rockets like the Falcon 9 and Orbital Sciences' Taurus II to carry important supplies, experiments and equipment to the space station after the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2011.<br /><br />The rockets and capsules could one day carry astronauts to the station as well. But for this flight, the pressure was on SpaceX to demonstrate its nine-engine booster and accompanying capsule would work as advertised.<br /><br />The next Falcon 9/Dragon launch is slated for 2011.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-11269512858394441432010-11-01T14:15:00.000-07:002010-11-01T14:18:21.683-07:00Robot's Space Debut 'Giant Leap For Tinmankind'<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn, Ap Aerospace Writer</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space is about to get its first humanoid from planet Earth. Robonaut 2 — affectionately known as R2 — is hitching a one-way ride to the International Space Station this week aboard the final flight of space shuttle Discovery.<br /><br />It's the first humanoid robot ever bound for space, a $2.5 million mechanical and electrical marvel that NASA hopes one day will assist flesh-and-bone astronauts in orbit.<br /><br />Imagine, its creators say, a future where Robonaut could take over space station cleaning duties; spend hours outside in the extreme heat and cold, patiently holding tools for spacewalking astronauts; and handle emergencies like toxic leaks or fires.<br /><br />Why, Robonaut's descendants could even scout out asteroids, Mars and other worlds in the decades ahead, paving the way for humans.<br /><br />The adventure begins Wednesday afternoon, with the planned final launch of Discovery and Robonaut's six human crewmates. Mission managers gave the green light Monday for the new launch date; shuttle gas leaks had to be repaired before the countdown could begin and forced a two-day delay.<br /><br />"While it might be just a single step for this robot, it's really a giant leap forward for tinmankind," said Rob Ambrose, acting chief of Johnson Space Center's automation, robotics and simulation division in Houston.<br /><br />For now, R2 — a collaboration between NASA and General Motors — exists only from the waist up. It measures 3 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 330 pounds. Each arm is 2 feet 8 inches long.<br /><br />Legs are still in the works. But, oh, what an upper body: perfectly toned arms and hands with palms, a robotic rarity, along with broad shoulders and a washboard stomach. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood's cyborg Terminator, would be proud.<br /><br />Watch Robonaut lifting a 20-pound dumbbell, and "you can kind of feel the burn," Ambrose said, showing a video at a recent news conference.<br /><br />Unlike people who tend to cheat, "this robot will really do what the physical trainers tell you to do, which is to do the bicep curls nice and slow," he said.<br /><br />Made of aluminum and nickel-plated carbon fiber, the torso and arms are padded to protect Robonaut and the astronauts, all the way down to the five fingers on each hand. No metal, bony-looking fingers for this robot.<br /><br />R2's eyes are where they should be: in its gold-colored head. Four visible light cameras are located behind the robot's visor, and an infrared camera is in its mouth for depth perception.<br /><br />But its brain is in its tummy; engineers had nowhere else to put the computerized gray matter.<br /><br />A backpack holds a power system for plugging R2 into the space station. On an asteroid or Mars, the backpack would contain batteries.<br /><br />The joints are filled with springs for give, and more than 350 electrical sensors are scattered throughout, allowing R2 to sense even a feather with its fingertips.<br /><br />NASA began working on its first dexterous robot — the landlubbing Robonaut 1 — in 1997. Lacking money, the project ceased in 2006. General Motors stepped in with the intention of improving car manufacturing and better protecting workers. Early this year, the much speedier R2 was unveiled.<br /><br />NASA made room for the robot on one of its last few shuttle flights. It is Discovery's 39th mission and the next-to-last shuttle flight for NASA, although an additional trip may be added next year.<br /><br />R2 is boxed up and stowed away for launch. Its identical twin — identical on the outside, anyway — is at Kennedy Space Center, posing for pictures and awaiting liftoff.<br /><br />"I'm not even a little nervous; NERVES OF ALUMINUM!!!" R2 said last week in a Twitter update under AstroRobonaut. (OK, so a NASA public relations woman and Robonaut team member are serving as ghost tweeters.)<br /><br />The robot will remain tucked away at the space station until late December — a nice Christmas present for the station's six inhabitants, Ambrose figures.<br /><br />While the space station already has Canadian and Japanese robotic arms — resembling cranes — human operators are needed. Once given orders, R2 can carry out preprogrammed tasks by itself.<br /><br />First will come a series of tests to see how Robonaut operates in weightlessness atop a fixed pedestal.<br /><br />Legs will be needed before Robonaut can tackle indoor chores like wiping handrails or vacuuming air filters. NASA hopes to send up legs in late 2011, followed a year later by torso and computer enhancements enabling the robot to venture out on spacewalks.<br /><br />The objective is to help astronauts, not replace them, NASA stresses. Humans have been living continuously on the space station for 10 years — the actual record-setting anniversary is Tuesday — and the wish is for 10 more.<br /><br />The beauty of Robonaut, officials say, is it's strong yet safe and trustworthy enough to work right next to humans. Think good Autobots rather than evil Decepticons from "Transformers." It's also serenely mute, more WALL-E than R2-D2 of "Star Wars" fame.<br /><br />Discovery's astronaut-physician, Michael Barratt, would have loved to pawn off toilet cleaning while living at the space station last year. As appealing as Robonaut is, he cautions "it will be a long time" before the robot can do a job as quickly and efficiently as a space station human.<br /><br />Robonaut's strength, Barratt said, will be emergencies.<br /><br />"Going into a toxic atmosphere to throw a switch or close a valve," he explained.<br /><br />And, in a final salute, going down with the ship.<br /><br />R2 will be on board when the space station stops operating sometime after 2020 and NASA sends it hurtling toward a grave in the Pacific.<br /><br />___<br /><br />Online:<br /><br />NASA: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp<br /><br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/AstroRobonaut<br /><br />GM: http://www.gm.com/vehicles/innovation</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-13925969776051727312010-10-28T05:06:00.000-07:002010-10-28T05:16:51.504-07:00NM Spaceport Sets Stage For Commercial Space Race<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6t9YZ8azP_o/TMlpnlTuYgI/AAAAAAAAAYU/Zm5YrQBaQ40/s1600/branson_nm-governor.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 213px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 142px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533069745952023042" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6t9YZ8azP_o/TMlpnlTuYgI/AAAAAAAAAYU/Zm5YrQBaQ40/s320/branson_nm-governor.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press – Wed Oct 27, 7:05 pm ET<br /><br />UPHAM, N.M. – British tycoon Richard Branson has dreamed of going to space since he was a teenager. He'll get his wish when Virgin Galactic begins taking tourists into suborbital space from a specially designed spaceport in the New Mexico desert.<br /><br />Gov. Bill Richardson, a longtime space buff, remembers when astronaut Alan Shepard first reached space and man first walked on the moon. He wants to see space too, but he's not willing to be among the first passengers on Branson's out-of-this-world venture.<br /><br />Branson and Richardson shook hands five years ago to build the world's first dedicated spaceport. With the runway 45 miles north of Las Cruces complete, and the terminal and hangar facility nearly done, they see their partnership as a major milestone for the world's burgeoning commercial space tourism industry.<br /><br />It's only a matter of time now — and not much time — before the industry starts to take off, experts say.<br /><br />"It's a dream come true. It's happened. New Mexico is going to be a leader in space tourism," Richardson proclaimed last week, standing on the nearly two-mile-long concrete runway at Spaceport America.<br /><br />Others who were present included 130 journalists from around the world, a group of British school children, a few dozen people who have already paid hefty deposits to be among Virgin Galactic's first customers, and former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon in 1969.<br /><br />Branson and Richardson predict this place in southern New Mexico will be a hot spot in the next nine to 18 months. But it won't be the only one.<br /><br />The commercial space industry is rapidly developing with companies like SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., seeking to supply the International Space Station for NASA. SpaceX, run by PayPal founder Elon Musk, has successfully placed a dummy payload into orbit and has contracts to lift satellites next.<br /><br />Other firms, including Masten Space Systems of Mojave, Calif., and Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, are testing systems that would carry unmanned payloads to space.<br /><br />Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos is also in the race with Blue Origin, a Washington state company that plans to compete as a space taxi.<br /><br />Boeing Co. has lined up Virginia-based Space Adventures to sell seats on the seven-person spaceship it wants to build to fly to the International Space Station starting in 2015. Space Adventures currently sells seats on trips to the space station aboard the Russian-built Soyuz spaceship.<br /><br />NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said the recent flurry of development in the commercial space industry dovetails perfectly with the agency's intention of working more closely with the private sector. Just last month, Congress approved legislation affirming President Barack Obama's intent to use commercial carriers to lift humans into near-Earth space.<br /><br />After 50 years of NASA space exploration, Garver said, "we need to be confident that credible, innovative, enterprising and bold individuals and entities are ready, willing and able to receive the torch."<br /><br />The spaceport, she said, will provide a jump start for the commercial space industry by providing a place to launch and land, and by piquing more private interest and competition in space travel.<br /><br />"No question that over the next five to 10 years there will be more people going to space, whether it's from here in New Mexico with Virgin Galactic, with other entities or from other parts of the country," Garver said.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-14438753629707281532010-10-11T20:19:00.000-07:002010-10-11T20:21:15.385-07:00Private Spaceship Makes First Solo Glide Flight<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">– Sun Oct 10, 11:51 pm ET </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />MOJAVE, Calif. – Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight Sunday, marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers.<br /><br />SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the mothership.<br /><br />The entire test flight lasted about 25 minutes.<br /><br />"It flew beautifully," said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides.<br /><br />The six-passenger SpaceShipTwo is undergoing rigorous testing before it can carry tourists to space. In the latest test, SpaceShipTwo did not fire its rocket engine to climb to space.<br /><br />Until now, SpaceShipTwo has flown attached to the wing of its special jet-powered mothership dubbed WhiteKnightTwo. Sunday was the first time the spaceship flew on its own.<br /><br />"It's a very big deal," Virgin president Sir Richard Branson told The Associated Press. "There are a number of big deals on the way to getting commercial space travel becoming a reality. This was a very big step. We now know that the spaceship glides. We know it can be dropped safely from the mothership and we know it can land safely. That's three big ticks."<br /><br />SpaceShipTwo will make a series of additional glide flights before rocketing to space.<br /><br />"The next big step will be the rocket tests actually on the spacecraft itself," Branson said. "We've obviously have done thousands of rocket tests on the ground, the next big test is in the air. We'll be doing gentle rocket tests in the air, ultimately culminating into taking the spaceship into space."<br /><br />SpaceShipTwo, built by famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan, is based on a prototype that won a $10 million prize in 2004 for being the first manned private rocket to reach space.<br /><br />Tickets to ride aboard SpaceShipTwo cost $200,000. Some 370 customers have plunked down deposits totaling $50 million, according to Virgin Galactic.<br /><br />Commercial flights will fly out of New Mexico where a spaceport is under construction. Officials from Virgin Galactic and other dignitaries will gather at the spaceport Oct. 22 for an event commemorating the finished runway. The event will also feature a flyover by SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo.<br /><br />___<br /><br />Online:<br /><br />Virgin Galactic: http://www.virgingalactic.com </span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-84279132073000593842010-09-29T03:45:00.000-07:002010-09-29T03:49:02.275-07:00Russia to Launch Commercial Space Station By 2016<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Associated Press [5:05am (EST) September 29, 2010]</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />MOSCOW – A private Russian space firm and a state-controlled spacecraft manufacturer are planning to build and operate the world's first commercial space station and expect it to launched by 2016.<br /><br />Sergey Kostenko, chief executive of the Moscow-based Orbital Technologies, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the station will cater to space tourists and researchers.<br /><br />Kostenko said the station will initially be equipped to host seven people but will be capable of significant expansion.<br /><br />The Russian state space agency, which stands to benefit from the proposed station by leasing launching pads for service modules, says it could be used as a safety back-up for the International Space Station in emergencies. </div></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-24618814146678489102010-09-24T14:38:00.000-07:002010-09-24T14:44:02.480-07:00[U.S.] Air Force to Launch Satellite to Keep Close Eye On Space Junk<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer <em><span style="font-size:78%;">space.com – 4:06pm (Friday, September 24, 2010)<br /></span></em></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />A new U.S. Air Force satellite built to track space junk and other spacecraft orbiting Earth is set to launch tomorrow (Sept. 25) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.<br /><br />The Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, called SBSS, is part of an evolving goal to dramatically improve awareness of space debris and other objects around our planet, Air Force officials said.<br /><br />"Every day, threats to our nation's valuable satellites and space platforms are growing," said Col. J.R. Jordan, vice commander of the Space Superiority Systems Wing at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, in a statement. "SBSS will revolutionize our ability to find and monitor objects that could harm the space assets we depend on for security, communications, weather forecasting and many other essential services." [Worst Space Debris Moments Ever]<br /><br />The 2,277-pound (1,031 kilograms) SBSS satellite system will be launched into orbit on a Minotaur 4 rocket, designed by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. Liftoff is set for 9:41 p.m. PDT (12:41 a.m. Sept. 26 EDT, or 0441 GMT).<br /><br />The satellite was originally scheduled to launch in Oct. 2009 but was delayed due to technical concerns with its rocket launch vehicle.<br /><br /><strong>Space Junk Sentinel<br /></strong><br />There are about 500,000 known pieces of space junk orbiting around our planet. Of those, about 21,000 objects are larger than 4 inches (10.1 cm) in diameter, and are being tracked by the Department of Defense as part of the Space Surveillance Network. These are items such as spent rocket stages and broken satellites.<br /><br />Space junk – even tiny pieces of it – can be dangerous because they orbit the Earth at high speeds and pose risks for impacts and collisions.<br /><br />The SBSS satellite will provide data for the Air Force's Space Surveillance Network, which already keeps an eye on orbital debris. Aerospace juggernaut Boeing is responsible for the overall SBSS program management.<br /><br />The Colorado-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. developed, designed, manufactured, integrated and tested the satellite, using the Boeing-built onboard mission data processor.<br /><br />The overall cost of the SBSS program is about $858 million, Air Force officials said.<br /><br /><strong>Sensors In Space </strong><br /><br />The SBSS spacecraft will be equipped with a visible sensor mounted on an agile, two-axis gimbal. This device will give ground controllers the flexibility to quickly move the camera between targets without needing to reposition the satellite itself or expend additional fuel.<br /><br />"With its gimbaled camera, reprogrammable onboard processor and open-ground-system architecture, SBSS can respond quickly to today's changing mission requirements and adapt to meet tomorrow's threats as well," said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. "Boeing looks forward to putting these advanced capabilities into action for the Air Force."<br /><br />The SBSS satellite will collect data to be used in conjunction with observations from ground-based radars and telescopes, but with one clear advantage. As the Air Force's only space-based tracker, SBSS will not be limited by weather, atmosphere or time of day.<br /><br />"The SBSS team is ready to go on Sept. 25," said Todd Citron, director of the Boeing Advanced Space and Intelligence Systems. "We've thoroughly rehearsed all plans and procedures, the Satellite Operations Center has been configured for flight operations, and the SBSS satellite and Minotaur launch vehicle are completing final preparations. We're looking forward to putting this spacecraft into orbit so that it can perform its vital mission." </span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-72189190770966406182010-09-21T19:45:00.000-07:002010-09-21T19:47:02.910-07:00NASA Sends Shuttle Discovery to Pad For Last Time<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn, Ap Aerospace Writer – Mon Sep 20, 7:57 pm ET<br /><br />CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery is headed to the launch pad for the last time.<br /><br />NASA moved Discovery out of its hangar Monday night. The 3 1/2-mile trip to the pad was bittersweet for the space agency, which has only two shuttle missions remaining.<br /><br />Discovery is set to lift off Nov. 1 for the International Space Station. Endeavour will follow in February to wrap up 30 years of shuttle flight.<br /><br />Scores of shuttle workers and their families gathered to watch Discovery take its last ride to the pad atop a giant transporter.<br /><br />Several hundred contract employees will lose their jobs Oct. 1 in a continuing wave of layoffs. NASA's future is uncertain because of disagreement in Washington over the next rocketships. </span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-27486223674154398272010-09-19T12:34:00.000-07:002010-09-19T12:37:39.957-07:00Seats On Boeing Spaceships Could Go Up For Sale<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">By JOSHUA FREED, AP Business Writer Joshua Freed, AP Business Writer – Wed Sep 15, 5:44 pm ET<br /><br />MINNEAPOLIS – Boeing and a space tourism company announced a deal on Wednesday to sell tickets on rocket rides to the International Space Station. Now Boeing just has to build a spaceship.<br /><br />Space Adventures Ltd. has already been selling seats aboard the Russian-built Soyuz spaceship. Its last passenger was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who paid $35 million for a 10-day trip.<br /><br />Now, Boeing says Space Adventures will sell seats on its planned CST-100, which would carry seven people. NASA has been encouraging aerospace companies like Boeing to develop spaceships that can carry government-sponsored astronauts as well as paying tourists to the space station. The idea is to spread around the cost of NASA missions while also boosting privately funded space efforts.<br /><br />Big questions remain. Congressional funding isn't assured. And Boeing and Space Adventures will have competition from a California company called SpaceX, which is also seeking NASA work for space station missions.<br /><br />So far, seven customers have ridden on eight flights through Spacecraft Adventures.<br /><br />The trips will be for millionaires, at least for now. Boeing and Space Adventures executives didn't have pricing details, but said on a conference call that prices would be "competitive" with the cost for a flight on the Soyuz craft.<br /><br />The more people fly to space, the sooner the cost will come down, said Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures. He said people ask him when it will cost, say, $40,000, or $4,000, instead of close to $40 million.<br /><br />"I don't know," he said, "but I know that it'll never be $40,000, or $4,000, if it doesn't start off at $40 million. ... We'll get there. Until launch technology radically changes, the price is still going to be quite expensive."<br /><br />Boeing's CST-100 is a reusable capsule with a round bottom and pointed top that, from the outside, bears some resemblance to the Apollo capsules launched beginning in the 1960s. Boeing is doing design and testing work now, and hopes to have the craft ready in 2015.<br /><br />Boeing plans to build two at first, which would be used for testing and then refurbished for missions. Each spaceship would need about six months in between flights to have its heat shield restored and its systems tested, said John Elbon, vice president and program manager for Boeing Commercial Crew Transportation Systems.<br /><br />"Together we can open space to more people, and expand a new market, and I find that terribly exciting," said Brewster Shaw, a former astronaut and vice president and general manager of Boeing's Space Exploration division.<br /><br />Anderson, of Space Adventures, said he's aiming to reduce the months of training that precede flights on the Soyuz craft, which includes Russian language training that won't be needed on the U.S.-led flights. He said shorter training will encourage more people to sign up, while still being sufficient to get them ready for the flight.<br /><br />He objected to the notion that the people who accompany government-sponsored astronauts are "tourists."<br /><br />"It's not the case that a bunch of people show up to the station in their flowered T-shirts with sunglasses on," he said. "I think this is much more about private citizens who are opening the frontier alongside government space explorers, and are doing so in a very serious fashion with lots of serious work behind it."<br /><br />Still, the Cirque du Soleil founder wore a red clown nose on his trip.<br /><br />Boeing Co. shares fell 3 cents to close at $62.73.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-67608065556676888912010-07-14T14:16:00.000-07:002010-07-14T14:19:19.559-07:00Spaceport Seeks Tour Contractor<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Tue Jul 13, 9:38 am ET<br />LAS CRUCES, N.M. –<br /><br />The New Mexico Spaceport Authority is seeking proposals for a contractor to provide regular sightseeing tours of the spaceport facilities and construction site.<br /><br />Officials hope to start regular weekend tours as early as Sept. 1.<br /><br />The so-called "Hard Hat Tours" will be conducted every Friday, Saturday and Sunday with clearly defined operational schedules.<br /><br />Spaceport director Rick Homans says the tours will offer visitors an opportunity to watch as Spaceport America takes shape. Construction is continuing at the spaceport site, 40 miles north of Las Cruces.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-6535782379356562232010-06-10T18:09:00.000-07:002010-06-10T18:22:27.716-07:00Millionaire Space Tourist Wants to Go Back<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Clara Moskowitz Senior Writer<br />SPACE.com </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> – Wed Jun 9, 10:15 am ET<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />The third private citizen to fly in space, American millionaire Gregory Olsen, says he's excited about the future of space travel — especially if it means he might have another chance to fly.<br /><br />Olsen visited the International Space Station in October 2005 as a paying passenger aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. His ticket, which cost about $20 million at the time, was brokered with the Russian Federal Space Agency through the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures.<br /><br />A scientist and entrepreneur, Olsen founded the Princeton, New Jersey-based optics firm Sensors Unlimited. The sale of that company in 2000 largely financed his later space trip. Olsen recounts his long road to space in a new memoir, "By Any Means Necessary," published by his new company, GHO Ventures.<br /><br />"I'd go in a heartbeat," Olsen said of a second space visit. Of particular interest would be an orbital trip around the moon on a Soyuz spacecraft. No space tourist has yet traveled beyond low-Earth orbit, but Space Adventures is working on offering such an excursion.<br /><br />"I just have to sell another company to afford the trip", Olsen said. And private space travel to orbit may be getting more expensive.<br /><br /><strong>Pricier Space Seats</strong><br /><br />With private seats for orbital trips to the space station in short supply and increased production demands, the price for flights similar to Olsen's voyage are now going for a steeper price.<br /><br />The seventh space tourist to fly, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, paid a reported $35 million for his 12-day trip to space in October 2009. "It looks like I got a bargain," Olsen told SPACE.com.<br /><br />For now, orbital spaceflights have been the bulk of space tourism offerings, though a number of private companies are hoping to offer suborbital joy rides in the next few years at a cost of up to $200,000 or so.<br /><br />If Olsen does manage to make it back to orbit, Olsen won't be the first repeat customer for Space Adventures. The fifth-ever space tourist, American billionaire Charles Simonyi, revisited the space station on a second mission in March 2009, two years after his first flight. Both trips were booked through Space Adventures. Simonyi paid $35 million for his second space tourist trek. His first trip in 2007 cost about $25 million.<br /><br /><strong>Private Space Travel's Bright Future</strong><br /><br />Olsen said he is eager to see how the future of U.S. human spaceflight plays out. President Barack Obama has proposed a new direction for NASA in which commercial companies take the lead in ferrying astronauts to low-Earth orbit, while the space agency focuses on going to an asteroid and to Mars.<br /><br />Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a California-based company among the first tapped to provide commercial space cargo delivery services for NASA, successfully launched the first of its new private rockets called Falcon 9 into orbit on Friday. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets are built to launch the company's capsule-shaped Dragon vehicles into space on unmanned cargo missions, though the company hopes to modify them to carry people as well.<br /><br />"I'm really glad they're pushing for the commercialization," Olsen said.<br /><br />He could easily envision a commercial taxi service going to the International Space Station, and said he would like to see the industry take things even further.<br /><br />"I'm a moon fan," he said. "This mission that Space Adventures is planning that's all possible. The moon could eventually go to the private sector too."<br /><br />The spaceflyer said he reminisces about his space journey almost every day. "It'll be five years in October and not a day goes by when I don't think about it."<br /><br />The experience was truly life-changing, he added. "When you fly over the Earth, there's no sign of life," Olsen said. "There's nothing to indicate that there's anything going on there occasional jet trails, but other than that it just looks serene, perfect. When I was up there I just said, 'Wow, I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be able to see this.' " </span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-11607348866068841392010-05-18T19:51:00.000-07:002010-05-18T19:59:50.462-07:00Japanese Solar Sail Headed For Venus and Beyond<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Jeremy Hsu SPACE.com Senior Writer<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">space.com – Sun May 16, 1:00 pm ET<br /><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">An ambitious solar sail mission designed by Japan is poised for launch tomorrow could become the first successful mission powered solely by sunlight, but that's not all. The spacecraft is also aimed at Venus and beyond, and could pave the way for a future hybrid space engine.<br /><br />The solar sail will hitch a ride aboard an H-2A rocket slated for launch on Monday (Tuesday local time) from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center. That rocket carries the main mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Venus Climate Orbiter called Akatsuki — which means "Dawn" in Japanese.<br /><br />But only Akatsuki has a planned meet-up with Venus, even though the sail — called Ikaros (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) — will also launch along the same trajectory toward the mysterious planet.<br /><br />"This will be the world's first solar powered sail craft employing both photon propulsion and thin film solar power generation during its interplanetary cruise," said a JAXA mission website.<br /><br />Venus would mark just a six-month pit stop for the solar sail during a three-year trek toward the far side of the sun.<br /><br />"To me it's a very bold activity to be conducting a technology test like this on an interplanetary mission," said Louis Friedman, an executive director of the Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif. "I think it shows a lot of foresight on their part."<br /><br />Past solar sail demonstrations have fallen short of achieving actual solar-propelled spaceflight, but that certainly has not stopped JAXA from planning an ambitious technological debut. Even Ikaros itself represents just a stepping stone to a "hybrid" space engine that incorporates solar sail technology, mission planners have said.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Space Hybrid Vehicle</strong><br /><br />The kite-shaped Ikaros relies upon the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, but it also carries thin film solar cells built within its sail. Such cells could generate electricity from the same sunlight pushing the solar sail along.<br /><br />That won't do much good by itself for a solar sail without an engine. But JAXA hopes that the power-gathering demonstration could eventually lead to spacecraft with ion-propulsion engines that draw electricity from solar cells and also take advantage of solar sail propulsion — a hybrid propulsion system.<br /><br />"They want to ultimately have a solar electric [ion propulsion] and solar sail vehicle that would be used for outer planetary missions," Friedman told SPACE.com.<br /><br />Yet the history of solar sail tests presents a sobering reminder of the troubles that can arise. The California-based Planetary Society attempted to fly its Cosmos-1 solar sail in 2005, but lost their prototype because of a Russian rocket malfunction. NASA's NanoSail-D was also lost in the third failed flight of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket in 2008.<br /><br />A British shoebox-sized mission slated for launch next year might also test solar sail propulsion, but would mainly test the sails as brakes for taking defunct satellites down.<br /><br />Japan did deploy a solar sail from a sounding rocket in 2004, but did not actually attempt to demonstrate controlled flight. If that represented the dry run, then Ikaros comes as the real deal.<br /><br /><br /><strong>True Solar Sailing</strong><br /><br />Ikaros is designed to unfurl its sail during its first stage by taking advantage of its spinning momentum, and then actively deploying the rest of the way during a second stage.<br /><br />"The membrane is deployed, and kept flat, by its spinning motion," the JASA mission website stated. "Four masses are attached to the four tips of the membrane in order to facilitate deployment."<br /><br />The Planetary Society still has ambitions to someday launch a solar sail mission into deep space, but its first planned solar sail test would involve a much smaller spacecraft than Ikaros, which stretches almost 66 feet (20 meters) at the diagonal of its square sail.<br /><br />A refitted NASA solar sail might weigh a little less than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) compared to the 700-pound (315 kg) Ikaros.<br /><br />The Planetary Society would aim first for launch to low-Earth orbit, before eventually launching a second mission that lasted perhaps weeks. Only the third mission would try for interplanetary traveler status, Freidman said.<br /><br />For now, Friedman and the Planetary Society will share technological information and results from the JAXA mission, and keep an eye on their own hopes for the future.<br /><br />"We wish we were first, of course, but it doesn't matter," Friedman said. "It's about advancing solar sail technology." </span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-37815414270434360152010-04-15T14:46:00.000-07:002010-04-15T17:41:13.483-07:00Moon Vets Say Obama's NASA Cuts Would Ground U.S.<div align="justify"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6t9YZ8azP_o/S8eJ78QGW3I/AAAAAAAAAX4/57EE6DCndZU/s1600/neil_armstrong.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 245px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 182px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460484736088955762" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6t9YZ8azP_o/S8eJ78QGW3I/AAAAAAAAAX4/57EE6DCndZU/s320/neil_armstrong.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">By Todd Halvorson, Florida Today<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong at a "Legends of Aerospace" event in New York City last March.</span></em></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><div align="justify"><br />CAPE CANAVERAL — President Obama's plans for NASA could be "devastating" to the U.S. space program and "destines our nation to become one of second- or even third-rate stature," three legendary astronauts said in a letter Tuesday. </span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://spacetravellaw.blogspot.com/p/letter.html">READ THE LETTER</a></span></div><div align="justify"><br />Neil Armstrong, who rarely makes public comments, was the first human to set foot on the moon. Jim Lovell commanded the famous Apollo 13 flight, an aborted moon mission. And Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan remains the last human to have walked on the lunar surface.<br /><br />In statements e-mailed to the Associated Press and NBC, Armstrong and other astronauts took exception with Obama's plan to cancel NASA's return-to-the-moon program, dubbed Project Constellation.<br /><br />Armstrong, in an e-mail to the AP, said he had "substantial reservations." More than two dozen Apollo-era veterans, including Lovell and Cernan, signed another letter Monday calling the plan a "misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future."<br /><br />The statements came days before Obama is to visit Kennedy Space Center on Thursday to explain his vision for NASA.<br /><br /></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://spacetravellaw.blogspot.com/p/bold-approach-for-space-exploration-and.html">READ HIGHLIGHTS OF SPEECH</a></span></div><div align="justify"><br />Not all former astronauts have come out against the plan. Armstrong's crewmate Buzz Aldrin, the second man to stand on the moon, has endorsed Obama's plan, which includes investing $6 billion to develop commercial space-taxi services for astronauts traveling to and from the International Space Station. Aldrin said the proposal will "allow us to again be pushing the boundaries to achieve new and challenging things beyond Earth."<br /><br />The plan would also extend the space station operations through 2020. It would cancel Project Constellation and the Ares rockets, which NASA has been developing for six years at a cost of more than $9 billion. Obama would retain the Constellation project's Orion capsule. The capsule, which was to go to the moon, will instead be sent unoccupied to the International Space Station to stand by as an emergency vehicle to return astronauts home.<br /><br />Administration officials told the AP that NASA will speed up development of a rocket that would have the power to blast crew and cargo far from Earth, although no destination has been chosen. The rocket would be ready to launch several years earlier than under the moon plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to not detract from the presidential announcement.<br /><br />The former astronauts said, "It appears that we will have wasted our current $10-plus-billion investment in Constellation. … Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downward slide to mediocrity."<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Contributing: Associated Press</span></em></strong> </span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-79862465664005563782010-04-10T05:24:00.000-07:002010-04-10T05:25:43.358-07:00Russia raises price tag for giving US astronauts rides to space after shuttles get scuttled<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><h1 style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><br /></h1><div id="ynmain" style="clear: both; "><div id="storybody" style="width: 1273px; float: none; "><div class="storyhdr"><p style="margin-bottom: 2px; margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><em class="timedate" style="display: block; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-style: normal; ">Tue Apr 6, 6:51 PM</em></p><div class="spacer" style="display: block; clear: both; height: 0.01em; line-height: 0; font-size: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "></div></div><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; ">By The Associated Press</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; "></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; ">WASHINGTON - The price for American astronauts to hitch a ride on a Russian spaceship is going sky high.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; "></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; ">NASA on Tuesday signed a contract to pay $55.8 million per astronaut for six Americans to fly into space on Russian Soyuz capsules in 2013 and 2014. NASA needs to get rides on Russian rockets to the International Space Station because it plans to retire the space shuttle fleet later this year.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; "></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; ">NASA now pays half as much, about $26.3 million per astronaut, when it uses Russian ships. NASA spokesman John Yembrick said the cost is going up because Russia has to build more capsules for the extra flights. NASA had already agreed to pay as much as $51 million a seat for flights in 2011 and 2012, before the latest increase.</p></div></div></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-80847042006685063252010-03-23T18:19:00.000-07:002010-03-23T18:24:05.579-07:00Branson Spacecraft Completes Test Flight<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">(CNN) -- British billionaire Richard Branson's dream of space travel that thousands of people can afford took a leap toward reality with the maiden flight of the world's first commercial spacecraft over California's Mojave Desert.<br /><br />Branson's company Virgin Galactic announced Monday that the VSS Enterprise had successfully completed what it called a captive carry flight attached to a carrier plane.<br /><br />The spacecraft's developer called it a "momentous day."<br /><br />"The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program," said Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites, which built the spacecraft.<br /><br />The VSS Enterprise remained attached to its carrier aircraft for the duration of the 2-hour, 54-minute flight, reaching an altitude of 45,000 feet, according to a statement from Virgin.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Eventually, the 60-foot long rocket plane will be taken 60,000 feet above the Earth by its carrier and fire rockets to propel itself into space.<br /><br />The test-flight program is expected to continue through 2011, going first to a free glide and then to a powered flight before commercial flights begin.<br /><br />"Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, ground-breaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us," Branson said.<br /><br />"Today was another major step along that road and a testament to U.S. engineering and innovation," he said.<br /><br />Virgin Galactic has envisioned one flight a week, with six tourists aboard. Each will pay $200,000 for the ride and train for at least three days before going. About 80,000 people have placed their names on the waiting list for seats.<br /><br />"What we want to be able to do is bring space travel down to a price range where hundreds of thousands of people would be able to experience space, and they never dreamed that [they] could," Branson said last year.<br /><br />He has said he hopes the technology will lead to a new form of Earth travel, jetting people across oceans and continents faster through suborbital routes.</span></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;">___________________________________________</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;">SEE ALSO: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/12/07/branson.spaceship/index.html#cnnSTCText">Branson Opens Doors to Spaceship</a></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-59398176103559197812010-03-13T06:58:00.000-08:002010-03-13T07:03:03.675-08:00US Lawmakers Urge Obama to Save NASA Moon Program<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Thu Mar 11, 6:26 pm ET<br /><br />WASHINGTON (AFP) – A group of US lawmakers Thursday urged the US administration to save NASA's Constellation project aimed at returning Americans to the moon in the next generation of space travel.<br /><br />"Space exploration has been the guiding star of American innovation," the lawmakers -- 10 Republicans and five Democrats -- said in a letter to the NASA administrator Charles Bolden.<br /><br />"It is imperative that the United States remain the world's leading spacefaring nation," they added.<br /><br />They urged Bolden to assemble a team of NASA experts to review how exploration spacecraft and launch vehicle development can be kept within the existing budget to ensure "uninterrupted, independent US human space flight access to the International Space Station and beyond."<br /><br />The team should report back within 30 days on its findings, the lawmakers urged.<br /><br />Seeking to cut the massive US budget deficit, President Barack Obama's administration has proposed scrapping the costly and over budget Constellation rocket program designed to return Americans to the moon by 2020.<br /><br />Instead, NASA would concentrate on research and development that could, over a longer time-frame, eventually see astronauts travel outside low Earth orbit and even aim for Mars.<br /><br />The US space agency would also be encouraged to develop operations with commercial partners to fly astronauts to the ISS.<br /><br />But the 15 lawmakers, most of them from Texas and Florida where much of the US space industry is based, were heavily critical of the plan.<br /><br />"I am concerned that the Russians and the Chinese will get ahead of us... that English won't be the dominant language in space," Republican Representative Michael McCaul from Texas told a House hearing.<br /><br />The United States is due to retire its aging shuttle fleet this year, and from then on will depend on Russian Soyuz flights to transport its astronauts to the ISS until the Ares 1 rocket and its Orion capsule are operational in 2015.<br /><br />"By the time commercial low-Earth orbit vehicles are cleared for flight, US astronauts may have nowhere to go," the lawmakers said in the letter.<br /><br />"NASA will no longer have a clear vision on its direction and ultimately the US will no longer be a spacefaring nation."<br /><br />Obama is to host a space conference on April 15 in Florida to chart his vision for the future of human spaceflight, the White House revealed at the weekend.<br /><br />Obama has proposed dropping the massively over-budget Constellation program launched by his predecessor, George W. Bush, because it was too costly, used outdated technology and would not be ready to ferry humans to the moon before 2028.<br /><br />"The president's ambitious new strategy pushes the frontiers of innovation to set NASA on a more dynamic, flexible, and sustainable trajectory that can propel us on a new journey of innovation and discovery," the White House said in a statement Sunday.<br /><br />"After years of underinvestment in new technology and unrealistic budgeting, the president's plan will unveil an ambitious plan for NASA that sets the agency on a reinvigorated path of space exploration," the statement added.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506033617451883446.post-66949814443606439072010-03-12T17:45:00.000-08:002010-03-12T17:53:14.793-08:00Just One Hitch In Choosing China's First Women Astronauts<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">By Tariq Malik<br />SPACE.com Managing Editor<br />posted: 10 March 2010<br />06:12 pm ET<br /><br />China has selected two military air transport pilots as its first female astronauts, the country's state media reported Wednesday. The only hitch? The women had to be hitched – as in married – to make the cut.<br /><br />Zhang Jianqi, the former deputy commander of China's human spaceflight program, told the state-run Xinhua News Agency that aside from being married to their respective spouses, the two female astronauts met the exact same criteria as the country's male spaceflyers.<br /><br />"In the selection, we had almost the same requirements on women candidates as those for men, but the only difference was that they must be married, as we believe married women would be more physically and psychologically mature," Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying during a break at an annual parliamentary session.<br /><br />Zhang also said that female astronauts may also have more "endurance and circumspection" than their male counterparts, Xinhua reported.<br /><br />The women are both pilots with the People's Liberation Army Air Force. They were selected alongside five men as China's second class of astronauts as the country pushes forward with its manned spaceflight program. The addition of seven new recruits boosts China's total astronaut corps to 21 spaceflyers.<br /><br />The China National Space Administration selected its first 14 astronauts, also called taikonauts, in the mid-1990s.<br /><br />China is the third country after Russia and the United States to build spacecraft capable of launching humans into orbit.<br /><br />The country's spaceship of choice is the Shenzhou (Chinese for "Divine Vessel"), a three-module vehicle derived from Russia's workhorse Soyuz craft. But unlike the Soyuz, the Shenzhou has an orbital module equipped with solar arrays, allowing it to stay in orbit long after its crew returns to Earth.<br /><br />China launched its first manned spaceflight – the one-man Shenzhou 5 flight – in 2003. A two-man Shenzhou 6 mission followed in 2005, leading to a three-man Shenzhou 7 spaceflight in September 2008, which included China's first spacewalk by astronaut Zhai Zhigang.<br /><br />In 2011, China plans to launch Tiangong 1 – the first module of a new space station – from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi desert.<br /><br />The country is also planning to launch its second moon orbiter, called Chang'e 2, in October to search for potential landing sites for future robotic lunar probes. A third moon mission, Chang'e 3, is slated to launch in 2013, Xinhua quoted Ye Peiujian – who designed the first moon probe (Chang'e 1) and is commanding the second mission – as saying.<br /><br />Chinese space officials have also said a new heavy-lift rocket, called Long March 5, is also in development and due to make a launch debut in 2014. The new rocket should be capable of hauling up to 55,000 pounds of payload into low Earth orbit, they added.<br /><br />Other Relative Link: </span><a href="http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90881/6915224.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">China's First Two Women Astronauts Selected</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><em> </em></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><em>(People's Daily Online, English Version)</em></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0