August.31.2004
Space News
Amateur satellite info... An
excellent introduction to amateur satellite projects is given
in this set of slides: Introduction
to Satellites by Emily Clarke - West Coast Space Symposium
- April.2004 (pdf, 1.5M) from the projectoscar.net
website. This site offers a lot of other resources as well such
as the OSCAR
links.
The Project
Oscar home page currently is posting a set of papers from
the same symposium like this intro to space radio: Getting
Started by Cliff Buttschardt and Ed English - West Coast
Space Symposium - April.2004 (pdf, 600K)
Emily Clarke provides a lot of interesting info on her own
Planet Emily
web site. For example, the AO-7
Resource Page reports on the OSCAR that refuses to die.
Space all around... Dennis
Tito said he never tired of watching the infinite
variety of magnificent scenery as the earth passed below the
ISS. He only had a relatively small window to view it all, though.
He may decide to go back after they install the cupola
in 2009: A
room with a view for the International Space Station: Completion
of the cupola observation module - ESA Portal - Aug.30.04.
The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday August 31, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - "features
Jeff Krukin, advocate of the importance of space to human
survival and prosperity, and our connection to space in numerous
ways, i.e. "Human-Space Connection. (tm)" This covers the
spectrum from spiritual to scientific to environmental to
commercial.
Sunday Sept. 5, 2004: 12:00-1:30pm Pacific TIme - features
Dr. Barbara Thompson, NASA GSFC, "Space Weather - Conditions,
Considerations, Forecasting" and much, much more!
Now posted in the archive are recent interviews with Gene
Meyers, Founder and CEO of The Space Island Group, Inc,
with Dr.
John Brandenburg who is a Mars scientist, researcher in
various forms of propulsion, and science fiction author aka
Victor Norgarde, and with Jim
McDade who is a long time space advocate, activists, and
publisher of Space
ADG newsletter.
Hear the SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle,
and on line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
News briefs ... The ISS
astronauts work with two ham stations: ARISS
Puts ISS Phase 2 Equipment to Use as FM "EasySat"
- ARRLWeb - Aug.30.04 ...
... Saw a link yesterday
to this useful resource site: Encylopedia
of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight - David J. Darling.
See also these other space
encyclopedias and references and space
statistics....
... Satellite
phones are finding their niches: Security
Concerns Seen as Boon for Mobile Satellite Services - Space
News/Space.com - Aug.30.04 * Wireless
World: Satellite Phones On The Rise - SpaceDaily/UPI - Aug.20.04.
August.30.2004
Space News
NASA - always losing its mind... While
some
say that the NASA culture is gradually overcoming its faults,
the agency's memory continues to fail badly. Take, for example,
the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond,
also known via its chairman's name as the Aldridge Commission.
The commission had hearings over several months that included
testimonies from a broad range of space advocates, entrepreneurs,
scientists, analysts, and others with interesting point of view
on the future of US space policy. One doesn't have to be an
Internet pack rat to realize the educational and historical
value of the transcripts and videos from these hearings that
were available on the commission's web site.
Yet, without any warning or explanation, the original commission
link now goes to nothing but a short, dull message from
the administrator. Thankfully, a non-NASA archive
has made a copy
of the commission's web site, which even includes its documents
and videos (link via the Space
Review).
This is hardly an unusual occurrence. Frequently, NASA web
pages, and even vast web sites devoted to particular projects
like the X-33, just disappear without a trace from the NASA.gov
domain. (Usually there is no forwarding address provided even
when a page has simply been moved to a different location. Innumerable
bookmarks around the world are spoiled everyday by NASA.)
While some fraction of the resources of the NASA's disappeared
web resources can be found in third-party archives like the
CyberCementary
and the Wayback
Machine, some significant information is lost to public
access. The agency has never explained why it doesn't provide
a complete online archive on its own.
As someone who has for years tried to post and maintain links
to a sampling of the vast amount of NASA web resources, I can
tell you that nothing is more exasperating than the way the
agency cavalierly breaks those links. To me this represents
the breaking of an implicit promise by a government agency to
preserve, protect, and publish the results of its expenditures
of the public's money.
Even if a project like the X-33 is a failure, there is no excuse
for blanking it out from the agency's web publications. Much
can be learned from mistakes as well as successes.
This problem goes beyond just web sites. Constance
Adams, the space architect, lamented in an article
in Popular Science a general Knowledge Capture failure
by the agency. For example, when starting to work on development
of a module for the ISS, she had great difficulty locating technical
information about the agency's first space station - Skylab.
Her group came to rely heavily on a cadre of retired NASA engineers
who provided crucial advice and data from their own personal
archives and memories.
She points out that this kind of human data resource is also
cavalierly discarded by the agency. Teams that have accumulated
hundreds of person-years of work in a particular area are broken
up without any systematic effort to collect and retain all of
the experience and knowledge gained. These will all have to
be re-accumulated again when some future project returns to
that area.
While the agency works on its cultural shortcomings, it should
also seek a cure for its long term memory problems.
News briefs... Speaking
of the Adridge commission, there is at least one Mars advocate
who won't mind if it disappears from view: Debating
the Aldridge report by Jeff Foust - Space Review - Aug.30.04....
... Check out the other
interesting articles in the latest Space
Review such as Whatever
happened to solar power satellites? - The Space Review - Aug.30.04
and
Buy the light of the Moon - The Space Review - Aug.30.04....
... Taking Mars life seriously:
Life
on Mars: A Definite Possibility - Astrobiology Magazine - Aug.30.04.
News briefs... Add a solar
activity monitor monitor to your home page courtesy N3KL.org...
... A chance for amateur
space explorers to obtain a set of big radio dishes: Stanford
8/26 meeting report: Success! Dish demolition deferred - ERPS
Forum - Aug.27.04 ...
... Dennis
Wingo expects a Moonrush: We
must mine the moon, man says: Local author argues lunar mission
works only as business trip - Huntsville Times - Aug.28.04...
... The Space
Flight Adventure Camp of the Virginia Space Flight Academy
offers summer and weekend Camps at the Wallops
Flight Facility near Chincoteague Island, Virginia. It's
trying a more low-key, educational approach than that of Space
Camp in Huntsville: Flying
high at space camp: Director laments local students' lack of
interest in program - Eastern Shore News - Aug.28.04...
... Tripoli
West Palm launches The Big Kahuna, Spirit of Columbia built
by local high school students: 'Chute
fails at 8,000 feet, foiling kids' space project: The payload
from a 24-foot rocket that Pembroke Pines students helped build
crashes in a field after takeoff, but students and their teacher
remain optimistic. - Herald.com - Aug.29.04
... A TIVO for satellite
radio isn't appreciated by everyone: Homemade
Sat Radio Software Bump - Wired News - Aug.29.04 ...
... Washington Post reviews
the status of the new space policy: Plan
1 for Outer Space: In a Treacherous Environment, NASA Charts
a New Course - Washington Post - Aug.29.04 ...
... This article is not
quite right: Have
$20 million? Be a space tourist: Russia willing to sell seat
on flight taking Danville astronaut to station - Tri-Valley
Herald Online - Aug.29.04. I've heard that Lori Garver was
making great progress in setting up sponsors for her trip to
the ISS until Lance Bass made it appear he was certain to fly,
which caused her sponsors to back out.
August.27.2004
Space News
World
Space Week - Oct.4-10 will
involve "celebrations in over 50 nations on all seven continents
marking the 5th year of World Space Week" -
Students will compete for the chance to meet World Space
Week Youth Spokesperson Lance Bass of NSYNC by designing
Lance's
Lab for the International Space Station.
Teacher
Materials include activity
guides for space-related math and science topics. There's
also a kit
with the guide, poster
and certificate.
Lift prize ... Alan Boyle
reports on an X PRIZE type of contest for space elevator technology
development: Space
elevator contest proposed: 'Elevator:2010' aimed - MSNBC - Aug.27.04.
The Space
Elevator Climber Competition is sponsored by Elevator
2010. The latter group is in turn supported by The
Spaceward Foundation and Gizmonics,
Inc..
News briefs... Use the
Bigha:
Jasper Laser, an ultra-bright green laser, at night to point
out constellations and other celestial features. ...
... Check out the this
building block, functional nanosat model at EyasSAT
: Educational Satellite System ...
... The
Dr. Sky Show, hosted by Steve Kates, provides this archive
of interviews with the "worlds most interesting guests
from the realms of Astronomy, Space, Aviation and Weather and
much more.." ...
... Well, I liked Blade
Runner but it's no Space Odyssey (in my totally unbiased view):
'I've
seen things...': Our expert panel votes for the top 10 sci-fi
films - Guardian - Aug.26.04 ...
... Amazing how in the
past ten years or so we've gone from no know extrasolar planets
to over one hundred and the search resolution just gets steadily
better: Extra-special
exoplanets - Alan Boyle/Cosmic Log - Aug.26.04 * Major
NASA Extrasolar Planet Discovery Announcement Scheduled for
August 31st - SpaceRef - Aug.26.04.
Tech News briefs... First
there came the announcement of a metallic glass: Glass
breakthrough - Physics Web - Aug.25.04...
... And now comes the plastic
magnet: First
practical plastic magnets created - New Scientist - Aug.25.04
August.26.2004
Space News
Tourism - where the real money is
... I occasionally here people scoff at the notion
that tourism will provide the sort of serious market that commercial
space needs for its development. There's the notion that tourism
is a trivial service and instead what space commerce needs to
produce is some sort of tangible commodity (e.g. He3 from the
Moon or platinum from asteroids) or a product like solar power.
In fact, tourism is the single biggest industry on earth and
one of the largest employers. World tourism expenditures are
estimated to be over 500 billion dollars (Plunkett
Research - Travel/Tourism Industry * Tourist
Stats) If private space tourism in twenty or thirty years
can grow to the size of just one of the large Caribbean cruise
lines, it will be a huge success and easily create the framework
for large scale space settlement....
... Meanwhile, Space Adventures
continues steadily to develop new space tourism related services:
Space
Adventures Offers Teambuilding and Leadership Programs Through
Team Concepts, Inc. Bringing space experiences to the Olympic
level - Space Adventures - Aug.24.04
News briefs... Alan Boyle
reports on the space
music contest at the recent Mars Conference: More
melodies for Mars - Alan Boyle/Cosmic Log - Aug.24.04 ...
.. Satellite phones are
slowly becoming a real business: Wireless
World: Satellite Phones On The Rise - SpaceDaily/UPI - Aug.20.04....
... Sounds like amateur
astronomers could afford the equipment to start looking for
extrasolar planets: Backyard
Telescope Helps Find New Planet - Space.com - Aug.24.04....
.. Mars cries dry tears
for its lost seas: Martian
teardrop carved in crater - New Scientist - Aug.24.04....
.., But maybe Mars life
was not lost: Scientists
Seek Scent of Life in Methane at Mars - Space.com - Aug.24.04....
... And maybe human life
will go there to revive a near dead planet: Mars
Homestead Project
August.24.2004
Space News
Mars
Society Convention press release reports on the
highlights of this year's meeting held over the weekend in Chicago.
Note the information on the Mars
movie in production and on the Second
Rouget De Lisle song contest.
Mars Society Convention
A Smashing Success
August 23, 2004
The 7th
International Mars Society convention has been a smashing
success. Held at the historic Palmer House Hilton, Chicago,
IL from August 19-22, the convention gathered 400 leading
space scientists, engineers, government officials, entrepreneurs,
activists, authors, and artists from many countries, including
the USA, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Britain, Ireland, Spain,
France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Japan, China, India,
and Australia to discuss ways and means of advancing the exploration
and settlement. Over 120 papers were presented, and over $50,000
was raised to further the work of the Mars Society. The conference
received prominent coverage in many important Chicago area
media, including The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times,
the Journal-Herald, NPR Radio, and Fox TV News.
Among the highlights of the convention were the opening plenary
by Mars Society President Robert Zubrin, who explained how
a coherent joint Moon-Mars system development could enable
the exploration of both bodies at much lower cost and risk,
and shorter schedule than the wasteful "first Moon, then Mars"
approach being pushed on NASA by certain quarters. Zubrin's
presentation was followed by Dr. Steven Squyres, the Principal
Investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which
has discovered conclusive evidence for existence of large
standing bodies of water for long durations of Mars' early
history, habitable environments in which life could have once
evolved. Squyres made it clear that he believed that human
exploration was a necessary follow-up to the robotic exploration
of Mars. This prompted one reporter to observe: "There are
all these characters who say that Mars can be explored just
with robots. But the guy who is actually exploring Mars with
robots says we need to send people. That says it all."
Squyres was followed by Admiral Craig Steidle, NASA Associate
Administrator for Exploration Systems, who is leading the
space agencies efforts to return humans to the Moon and proceed
onward to Mars. Steidle explained his plan for "spiral development"
of the necessary systems for human exploration, and emphasized
that he hoped to work closely with the Mars Society in moving
the program forward. Steidle reemphasized this latter point
in a comment which appeared in the Sunday Chicago Tribune
August 22, in which he said; "Societies like the Mars Society
are extremely important to us. They have an innovative and
thorough process. We hope to continue the journey together."
Other exciting plenary talks included Dr. Mike Lembeck, who
serves as Steidle division chief for requirements development,
who explained how his group is laying out the roadmap for
technology development to open the solar system; Dr. Bill
Clancey, the head of human centered computing at NASA Ames
Research Center, who presented a talk and video showing research
his group has done at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research
Station investigating techniques for combined human-robot
exploration on Mars; Dr. Stan Borowski, of the NASA Glenn
Research Center, and the space agency's top expert on nuclear
thermal rocket (NTR) propulsion, who explained how NTR technology
could enable accelerated cost-effective
exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond; Dr. Chris McKay,
of NASA Ames Research Center, who explained the central significance
of the search for life on Mars to resolving the question of
the diversity and prevalence of life in the universe; Eric
Anderson; President and CEO of Space Adventures Ltd., who
explained how space tourism could potentially open a market
that would establish the economic basis for commercially financed
space settlement; Dr. Fred Pohl, a Grandmaster of science
fiction (author of many award winning works, including "The
Space Merchants") who presented a science fiction visionary's
view of "When will humankind become a spacefaring species."
Dr. Scott Horowitz; and astronaut and Shuttle commander, who
piloted the second Hubble repair mission, who presented an
astronaut's view of human Mars exploration.
A major sensation was caused at the
convention by the announcement by award-winning filmmaker
Sam Burbank that he would be making a theatrical motion picture
based on Robert Zubrin's novel "First Landing." Listing the
various Hollywood horror pictures or shoot-em- ups nominally
featuring Mars, Burbank drew a sharp distinction between those
efforts and the kind of movie "First Landing" will be. "There
never has been a movie actually about the human exploration
of Mars. This will be the first." Burbank said, adding: "It
will not be set in the glorious science fiction future, but
in our own time, and it will show the mission done with all
the grungy realism of the kind of space travel we can really
do. It's not going to show the Mars mission as being easy.
It's not going to show it as being impossible. It's going
to show it as being really tough, but doable, by a group of
people who have what it takes to do it."
If the heavy applause Burbank received wasn't sufficient indication
of the audience's appreciation of his project, what happened
next certainly was, as following his remarks, paperback copies
of "First Landing" were bought up literally by the dozens
by conference members mobbing the book table.
Another highlight of the conference was the showing of advance
clips of James Cameron's upcoming 3-D IMAX film "Aliens of
the Deep." The footage for this movie was taken by Cameron
and his team operating in a flotilla of submarines operating
in conjunction with mobile telerobots to explore extremophile
lie forms living around hydrothermal vents 3000 ft below the
Atlantic. Cameron was going to show the movie to the conference
himself, but a last minute emergency called him away. However
in his place he sent his co-producer and fellow underwater
explorer Steve Quayle, who presented the film to the conference.
The film was quite literally incredible, with the explorers
discovering at every turn weird creatures that exceed the
imagination of Hollywood special effects artists. The movie
will appear in IMAX theaters starting in January 2005, and
we give it eight hundred thumbs up. No one should miss this
film. There never, ever, has been anything like it.
There is so much that could be said,
and not all can. But one thing that cannot escape mention
is the joy and excitement brought to the convention by the
space song contest. This contest, formally known as the Second
Rouget De Lisle space song competition (so named after the
musical genius who wrote "La Marseillaise," and thus gave
the French Revolution its rousing anthem) was conducted over
the past year, during which over 100 songs celebrating human
space exploration were submitted. These were downselected
to 20 finalists who sang off in public competition on the
evening of Friday August 20. the audience of Mars Society
members voted for the top six, who then sang in final competition
at the Saturday night banquet. These songs were outstanding,
and it was hard to judge between them. But for the record,
the winners are:
Gold Medal Category;
1st place; "Thank God Dreams Survive," by Bill, Tina, and
Casey Swindell
2nd place; "On to Mars," by Robert McNally
Silver Medal Category
3rd Place; "Lullaby for Mars," by S. Miria Jo
4th Place; "When Mice Become Men," by Janetta Deavers
Bronze Medal Category
5th Place; "Make this World Come Alive," written by Leslie
Fish, sung by Beatriz Serrato
6th Place; "First Footprint," by Robert McNally.
All 20 of the finalists have been forwarded to Prometheus
Music (producers of the highly successful "To
Touch the Stars" CD which featured selections from the
previous Rouget de Lisle" song contest) for possible inclusion
in its next release.
Songs from the first Rouget de Lisle contest have been posted
and are available for downloading at the "Mars Songs" link
at www.marssociety.org.
By popular demand, there will be a Third Roget de Lisle competition
for songs celebrating the human exploration of space next
year.
Next year's Mars Society convention will be held next August
at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The conference plenary
hall there is known as the Glen Miller ballroom, after the
famous musician and CU graduate, who was lost over the English
channel while traveling to lift the spirits of the troops
trying to break out of the Normandy beachhead during June
1944. It's fitting that his ballroom should host the meeting
of those seeking to break humanity out of its planetary beachhead.
And this time the musicians to rouse their spirits will be
there too.
The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday August 24, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - "features
Dr. John Brandenburg, Mars scientist, science fiction author
aka Victor Norgarde and author of “Morningstar Pass: The Collapse
of the UFO Cover-up.” Dr. John Brandenburg is a researcher
at Florida Space Institute having come from The Aerospace
Corporation, where one of his duties was as principle investigator
of the MET (Microwave Electro-Thermal) propulsion project.
He also performed an architecture study for a Human Mars Mission
using solar electric propulsion...."
Sunday August 29, 2004: 12:00-1:30pm Pacific TIme - the Space
Show guest "features returning Space Show guest Gene
Meyers, Founder & CEO of The Space Island Group, Inc. Gene
Meyers has worked as an industrial engineer and division manager
for 25 years, most recently TRW. He has written more than
100 articles on space commercialization, and has discussed
the topic on some 200 radio talk shows and a dozen television
news outlets. Meyers founded The Space Island Group, Inc.
in 1999 as a for-profit company with the goal of privately
financing the design, launch and construction of very large,
commercial space facilities in orbit..."
Now posted in the archive is the recent interview
with Prof.
Leik Myrabo of Rensselear
Polytechnic Institute and founder of Lightcraft
Technologies. Inc. He will talk about his ideas and experiments
involving beamed energy propulsion using lasers and microwaves.
Hear the SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle,
and on line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
China and the US and space...
Taylor Dinerman reviews the chances for possible Chinese-US
cooperation in space: Dancing
on eggs: US space cooperation with China - Space Review - Aug.23.04....
... While Jeffrey Bell makes his usual rapid-fire over-the-top
generalizations and gross simplifications, he's right that the
US has little to fear from another big dumb government-run space
program: Why
Fear Won't Sell Space - SpaceDaily - Aug.20.04 (link via
Jon Goff.)...
... But as Rand
Simberg warns, if they decide to switch to an incremental
development route, starting with low cost suborbital space access
route ala SS1, then the US better watch out.
News briefs... Fly your
name on the SpaceShipOne
for a vicarious space thrill: 'Ordinary
names' to go into space - BBC - Aug.23.04...
... Defense satellites
map out nightlife around the world:
Earth at Night - APOD - 2004 Aug.22.04 ...
... Dirty talk may drive
space radio even higher: Radio's
Satellite Revolution - Motley Fool Take - Aug.2.04 ...
... Check out the latest
animations of Mars landscapes at Space4Case.
BTW: The soundtrack music for the two long animations made for
the 1st European Mars Society European Convention is very nice.
August.22.2004
Space News
In space, feeling good, and writing
songs ... Barnaby
Oliver of the band Venus
Ray wrote to tell me he is producing an album based on music
written in space by cosmonaut Yuri
Romanenko.
During a 326 day stay on Mir
from Feb.5.1987 to Dec.29.1988, Romanenko wrote 20 songs. They
were "optimistic songs, written by a man who feels good" according
to this article: Cosmonaut
sees no limit to space visit length - Houston Chronicle - Jan.21.88.
Barnaby says he is trying to get Romanenko, who lives in Star
City near Moscow, to come to London to record the songs but
they haven't yet managed to arrange his trip.
Nevertheless, the album is in production with background vocals
being recorded by members of Venus Ray. If Romanenko doesn't
provide the lead they will either use another singer or do the
songsin instrumental form. "I'm still very excited about
the project, and intend to produce a genuinely good record,
not just a gimmick. I also have (less advanced) plans for a
stage show based on the songs."
He says the album "will come out on Negative
Records in the UK, but we will be seeking licensing deals
for other countries."
Too few millions... A Russian
millionaire tried to get a discount on a flight to the ISS after
Gregory Olsen's ticket was canceled
due to health problems. Despite the fact they will now get no
millions at all, the Russian space agency refused to drop its
price to what Sergei Polonsky was willing to pay: Russian
millionaire rejected for space ride: After talks, space agency
opts for military cosmonaut - MSNBC - Aug.20.04
Lunar lander sim for the
MS Flight Simulator 2004 coming out this fall. LunarPilot
will offer a highly realistic simulation of the the Lunar
Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), which was used to train
the Apollo astronauts.
Mars sim misfire... Here's
a report on a Mars exploration simulation that never got released
to the public: Another
World Is Here: Angry Red Planet - WorldChanging - Aug.21.04
(Via Andrew Case at Transterrestrial
Musings)
News briefs... Frank Sietzen
talks about the events that led to the President's space initiative:
New
Moon Rising - Interview with Frank Sietzen - Space.com - Aug.20.04
...
... Check out the beautiful
snapshots of Saturn and its Rings taken by Cassini: Latest
color pictures from Cassini look like artwork - Spaceflight
Now - Aug.19.04 ...
... Meanwhile, the Mars
rovers continue their explorations: Mars
Rover Finds Mysterious Rocks and More Signs of Water - The New
York Times - Aug.19.04 *
Bedrock
in Mars' Gusev Crater hints at watery past - Spaceflight Now
- Aug.18.04 ...
... Watch the National
Space Society director testify
to the Aldridge Commission: George
Whitesides Testimony - Videos - NSS Chapters News - Aug.18.04
August.18.2004
Space News
News briefs... Phil Plait's
and his Bad Astronomy
website get some attention: Scientist
debunks astronomically bad ideas - Marin Independent Journal
- Aug.17.04...
... Alt.spacers should
head for Long Beach in October: Space
Frontier Conference 13 - aboard the Queen Mary ocean liner
in Long Beach California, Columbus Day weekend, October 8-10,
2004. Let's
Rock this Boat - Queen Mary to Host Major Space Conference -
Space Frontier Foundation Announces Gathering of Space Experts
and Rocketeer - Aug.17.04....
... Everyone can participate
in rocketry: Blind
students to launch NASA rocket: Thursday launch to measure light,
temperature, pressure, speed - MSNBC - Aug.17.04...
... Grassroots space activists
went to the Moon
Mars Blitz to push for the President's space initiative:
Space
junkies push Congress: Budget tough to sell during election
year - Florida Today - Aug.18.04...
August.17.2004
Space News
The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday August 17, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - "features
Humboldt C. Mandell, Jr., Ph.D. Dr. Mandell is currently the
senior Research Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin
Center for Space Research and the principal investigator for
Mars Deep Drill project. He recently retired after 40 years
with the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where
his most recent duties were developing plans for a human expedition
to the planet Mars...."
Sunday, August 22, 2004, 6:00-7:30pm Pacific Time - "features
returning Space Show guest, Jim McDade. Mr. McDade has his
MIS degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and
is a long time space advocate, activists, and publisher of
Space ADG newsletter. He has written numerous articles and
commentaries about space exploration for the Birmingham News
, InsideKSC, TV, radio and other publications over the past
several decades. He is a former Contributing Editor for the
Space.Com Astronomy reporters network, Mr. McDade has been
a radio reporter and TV reporter/producer for a state public
television network in the late-1970s...."
Now available on line is a interview
with Prof.
Leik Myrabo of Rensselear
Polytechnic Institute and founder of Lightcraft
Technologies. Inc. He talked about his ideas and experiments
involving beamed energy propulsion using lasers and microwaves.
Hear the SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle,
and on line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
News briefs... The book
Moonrush by Dennis
Wingo gets a positive review
from Jeff Foust. (Amazon
affiliate link)...
... One reason it's great
to have a space station if you are interested in long term,
large scale settlement of space is to learn about the various
practical things that you don't know about until you are actually
in space working everyday and getting surprised when things
don't behave as expected: Soldering
Surprise - Science@NASA - Aug.16.04 ...
... Sam Dinkin talks about
why the choice is never actually between space and _____ (fill
in the blank with your favorite non-space program): Space
vs. butter - The Space Review - Aug.16.04 ...
... I've been informed
of the Japanese web site SpaceFutureJapan.com,
which is apparently a companion site to SpaceFuture.com,
run by Patrick Collins...
... Bigelow licenses more
technology from NASA for spacecraft development:
NASA
Notice of Prospective Patent License: Bigelow Development Aerospace
Division, LLC - SpaceRef - Aug.16.04...
... Get a look from space
of the Athens Olympic site: Views
from Space - Athens 2004 Olympics.
Japanese space love story...
The following Japanese TV program recently began on the USN
network, which is carried by some cable systems in the US (item
via HS reader Jay K.):
New Drama Series
"Loved to love" starts on August 6th at 8:30pm!
Two souls that were destined to meet and fall in love. What
happens if one of them leaves this world before even meeting
the other?
Akiyama (Kenji Sakaguchi) is an elite pilot who trained at
NASA, and now enrolled to be a pilot of Japan's first manned
space shuttle launch. Reiko (Hitomi Kuroki) is a director
at an investment bank that sponsors this space shuttle project.
They got the looks, intelligence and wealth. But there is
one thing they don't have... which is truly love and to be
truly loved. Akiyama and Reiko were destined to meet and to
be fall in love.
This captivating romantic love story starts on August 6th!
[The US broadcast in Japanese with English subtitles.]
August.15.2004
Space News
Apollo computer emulation... Check
out the Virtual
AGC - Apollo Guidance Computer Emulation progam developed
by Ronald Burkey. The Virtual AGC is a detailed, faithful emulation
of the Apollo guidance computer used in both the Command Module
and on the Lunar Module. Executables are available for Linux
and Windows.
The open source project can allow the AGC code to become a
module in a general Apollo/LM simulation. For example, Mark
Grant is working to incorporate it into the Orbiter
simulator. More Developer
Info.
For more history on the AGC, see
One Giant Leap: The Apollo Guidance Computer by Dag Spicer -
DrDobb's - Feb.2001 and Phil Parker's The
Apollo On-board Computers.
Space music ... Boris Belovarski
and his wife Victoria are independent producers of audiovisual
programs that mainly invovlve "sci-fi audio theatres (radio
drama) and audiobooks, plus all that comes with it: music soundtracks,
special effects (SFX), foleys, moods, soundcapes, etc."
He also writes sci-fi
books.
Samples
of their own music are available on their ACIDplanet.com
page. It provides a complete version of Mars
Cantata, which they dedicated to the STS-107 Columbia crew.
They have released several
albums including Spacewalk:
From Eden to Mars (2003)
August.14.2004
Space News
Britain grounded in science...The
British have long followed the advice of their scientific establishment
and funded no manned programs of any kind. But rather than producing
a bonanza for science, the Sagan rule (i.e., space science funding
tracks manned spaceflight funding) holds true and the entire
British program remains small and anemic: Will
we ever have lift off? Timandra Harkness - spiked-science -
Aug.13.04
August.13.2004
Space News
Memorabilia auction...
In support of the Astronaut
Scholarship Foundation, there will be a space collectibles
auction on September 4th to fund support for college students
"who exhibit motivation, imagination, and exceptional performance
in the science or engineering field of their major" - Silent
Auction on Sept.4,04 - collectSPACE
"A majority of the items to be auctioned were consigned
by the astronauts and their families."
You can particpate via the Internet or in-person at a dinner
with the astronauts hosted by Sims & Hankow Enterprises at the
Burbank Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
More info at www.collectspace.com/auction/.
The SpaceShow
this week:
This Sunday
the Space Show guest will be Prof.
Leik Myrabo of Rensselear
Polytechnic Institute and founder of Lightcraft
Technologies. Inc. He will talk about his ideas and experiments
involving beamed energy propulsion using lasers and microwaves.
Now available on line is a interview
with Guillermo Sohnlein, who was a guest last Tuesday. He
is the founding Director of the International
Association of Space Entrepreneurs (IASE).
Check out also the recent interview
with Ed Wright, who talked about suborbital spaceflight and
his company X
Rocket. A major goal of the company is the development
of the Rocket
Academy where students will train for spaceflight and
will culminate their education with a ride to 60Km on the
Archangel.
Hear the SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle,
and on line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
News briefs ... Get your
Moon phase update via a screensaver: Daily
Moon Phases screensavers - StarMessage screensaver ...
... Not quite the undersea
city of sci-fi but this facility is still impressive: Undersea
Habitat Becomes Experimental Hospital Bed for NEEMO 7 - NASA/SpaceRef
- Aug.12.04
August.11.2004
Space News
Space perception... This
article - Space
and subject classification by Michael Huang - The Space Review
- Aug.9.04 - discusses how the conventional classification
of space as a scientific subject keeps it confined to that area
and makes it difficult to expand consideration of space policies
to a broader range of possibilities. If we instead thought of
space as a "place", then a wild idea like space settlement
becomes much less wild because human settlement is what usually
happens to a "place".
News briefs... Russian
businessman may be the next space tourist to go the ISS: Construction
Mogul Bargains for Space Ride - The Moscow Times - Aug.10.04
...
... There might be remains
of ancient microbial mats on the Mars surface. Won't know for
sure until we send the right instruments there to find out:
NASA
Scientist Sees Possible Mat of Martian Microbes - Space.com
- Aug.9.04....
...The communications infrastructure
at Mars keeps growing: Interplanetary
net widens - Alan Boyle/Cosmic Log - Aug.10.04 ...
... Keith Cowing wants
NASA to make a clear and firm decision on how it will attempt
to repair Hubble: Fixing
NASA's Hubble: Its Time to Fish or Cut Bait by Keith Cowing
- SpaceRef - Aug.10.04
August.9.2004
Space News
News briefs... Bigelow
Aerospace is gradually revealing more to the press about its
projects: U.S.
Hotel Tycoon Reaches for the Stars - Reuters.com - Aug.8.04
(via Space
Race News)...
... If robots are so great, why do oceanographers still want
to travel in person to the deepest waters: An
Undersea Fixture for 4 Decades Is Headed to Pasture - The New
York Times - Aug.7.04 * Alvin
to be Retired - Transterrestrial Musings - Aug.7.04. (Or
why do other scientists spend hundred of millons of dollars
to work in the Antarctic and build and maintain crewed stations
there: NSF
- OLPA - Fact Sheet: U.S. Antarctic Program)...
Cool calculation tool...
Here's an innovative program called Frink,
created by Alan Eliasen. At the simplest level it just does
unit conversion but, as these sample
calculations show, it can do an amazing range of calculations
with one or a few lines of code. It "is optimized for doing
quick, off-the-cuff calculations with a minimum of typing".
You can use in with a form
or an applet.
You can also download
and run it as a standalone application and can incorporate it
into other Java programs.
August.7.2004
Space News
A rocket race movie is
in development: Film
based on ANSARI X PRIZE in development: 'First Flight' - Space
Race News! - Aug.6.04. The company
Conti Film
is developing a "sexy, romantic, adventure" based
on the X PRIZE. Called First
Flight, the test film (Windows
Media, 11MB) shows high quality special effects but has
a disappointingly downbeat climax.
Explore Mars pictures and
with a bit of imagination you can find all sorts of strange
phenomena: Mars
Gone Wild: Millions of amateur astronomers are poring over pictures
of the Red Planet. Experience the thrill of discovery - or self-delusion
- for yourself! - Wired - Aug.04 (See also the Strange
Mars Images section.)
Explore the cosmos from home...
Several times I've discussed the new robotic telescope capabilities
that allow one to carry out observations on major telescopes
via the Internet. (See the Robotic
Telescopes section.) Now SLOOH.com
offers a subscription type program in which you can do observation
with telescopes on the Canary Islands. See the FAQ
and Press articles
for more info.
Space law, property, and timewarps...
This article describes some of the issues related to space
law, especially the development of private property
rights: Writing
the rules to govern the cosmos : Where mankind may go, lawyers
are quick to follow - and futuristic as it may seem, some are
busily writing the laws they hope will ultimately govern the
universe. - csmonitor.com - Aug.4.04.
The article quotes a space lawyer as saying -
"Outer space is a province of all mankind," says Sylvia Ospina,
a member of the board of directors at the International
Institute of Space Law. "There is not, and should not
be, any privatization of outer space. It is a common thing
that should belong to all."
This kind of proclamation drives many space advocates to distraction.
Unfortunately, in many academic circles, especially in Europe,
there remains a time warp to the 1960s where all correct thinking
educated people take for granted that private ownership is bad,
government ownership is good.
The fact that you cannot find anywhere on earth a successful
economy without private property rights is irrelevant to their
utopian ideals.
A rational, empirical approach would involve the creation of
a framework of private property rights that requires a physical
presence on the property of interest and the development of
that piece of property. You shouldn't be able to claim the whole
Moon, for example, just because you build a habitat on a small
piece of it.
The details need to be worked out for this kind of homesteading
in space (e.g. would a robotic presence suffice or would human
occupation be required) but I see no reason it couldn't be made
to work.
All of humanity will benefit from the settlement of space and
the creation of a viable economy model. It doesn't subtract
from my wealth, or anyone else's, for example, if someone homesteads
a plot of land in Alaska. Quite the contrary, if that person
successfully develops that property in some way such as by farming
or mining it, we all benefit. The homesteader makes a living
from whatever good or service they derive from that property
and we get a good or service that we desire.
The same economic principles will hold true in space. Economics
is a win-win scenario when done correctly.
See more discussion of this article at Space
Law - Transterrestrial Musings - Aug.5.04
Space islands of profitability...
Participants at the recent Return
to the Moon Conference discussed a plethora of ideas about
how to return to the Moon and to build habitats, colonies and
businesses there. Jon Goff sent me a link to his presentation
(460KB powerpoint) in which he discusses "islands of
profitablity" that could finance a process of incremental
commercial development of the systems to reach the Moon and
to settle it.
Another Mars season passes...
This summer's Mars projects on Devon Island have come to an
end. You can read Elaine Walker's journals about her days with
the NASA Haughton-Mars
Project. The Mars
Society's Flashline Arctic Research Station is closing up
and you can read the crew commander's summary at Flashline
MARS Crew Completes Field Season - Mars Society - Aug.2.04.
Alan Boyle reviews the Lessons
from an Arctic Mars - Alan Boyle/MSNBC - Aug.4.04.
News briefs... Speaking
of Mars, check out the Rick
Sternbach Resin Castings of Mars terrains....
... Maybe hibernation for
space travelers isn't total sci-fi after all: Could
astronauts sleep their way to the stars? Space agency plans
studies on human hibernation. - news@nature.com - Aug.3.04....
... Get together with other
space fans: International
Space Exploration Meetup Day ....
... The space colony based
thriller The
View From Zero has moved to a new web address.
August.4.2004
Space News
News briefs... Jeff Foust
reviews the book by Frank Sietzen and Keith Cowing on the Presidents
space initiative: Review:
New Moon Rising - The Space Review - Aug.2.04. More
reviews....
... Taylor Dinerman comments
on the usual threat by the President to veto an appropriations
bill over a space funding shortfall: The
veto threat - The Space Review - Aug.2.04....
... The singer and songwriter
Tish
Munton posts this mp3
that begins with a clip of her tribute song for Challenger called
"Reach Out for the Stars." (via Fred Becker.)
Space business news...
Satellite TV is booming and taking customers away from cable
according to this article in today's Wall Street Journal: Cable
Trouble: Subscriber Growth Stalls As Satellite TV Soars - WSJ
- Aug.4.04 (paid subscription required). The satellite companies
offer lower prices, all digital transmissions, and generally
better service. Despite cable's advantage of higher bandwidth,
bad service and high (and always getting higher) prices make
Sat TV very appealing.
The Sat TV providers are now joining with telephone companies
to offer DSL broadband. This will ameliorate the advantages
cable has of including broadband with their digital TV packages..
.. And Sat Radio is also doing well: Satellite
radio captures ears of millions - CNN.com - Aug.3.04
Criticism of human spaceflight becoming
obsolete... In an article as surprising as a Dog
Bites Man new flash, Prof. James Van Allen wrote yet another
article
recently that criticized human spaceflight, something he has
been doing since the start of the space age. Sam Dinkin gives
a good rebuttal in Human
spaceflight is inevitable - The Space Review - Aug.4.04.
Several months ago I contacted Prof. Van Allen to ask whether
the new generation of manned suborbital vehicles would offer
new possibilities for science. While I knew of his prejudice
against human spaceflight, I hoped he would rise above a knee-jerk
response and make some effort to think objectively about the
possibilities that will come with the availability of frequent
reflights and much lower launch costs. He was one of the first
to do sounding rocket flights in the post W.W.II era and would
certainly have an interesting perspective if he took the time
to think about these new technologies.
Unfortunately, instead of a thoughtful response, he just sent
a brief reflexive rejection of humans on board and made no comments
on these other capabilities:
"I am among the many admirers of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne
development and consider it an inspiring contribution to aerospace
engineering.
"But I regret to tell you that I am not able to suggest
any example of how a human passenger on a suborbital flight
could perform scientific observations or on-board experiments
that could not be much better performed with automated/commandable
equipment on unmanned rockets. Nor have I learned of any such
credible suggestions by anyone else."
After receiving this message I informed my wife, who does microbiology
research at NIH, that there is no reason she needs to go to
her laboratory anymore since automated equipment can perform
her job much better than she does. (If having a pilot or scientist
on board to monitor and control an experiment is so horrible,
the instruments could be sealed from their flawed interference.)
The public likes to think of scientists as having a Spock-like
dedication to objective, rational, and fair analysis of issues
put before them, even when new information and ideas might show
prior statements to be false. However, that's as fictional as
the planet Vulcan. Scientists are no more or less open minded
than any other group of people and hate to admit they are wrong
just as much as anyone else.
Thankfully, we are entering an era of private human spaceflight
in which funding will come from investors and from the recycling
of profits made from businesses like space tourism. We won't
have to get funding from a government that is easily swayed
by prestigious scientists who bear impressive credentials but
also impenetrable biases.
August.3.2004
Space News
The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday August 3, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - "features
returning Space Show guest Robert Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman
is an award winning science writer and space historian, and
author of the new best selling book, 'LEAVING EARTH: Space
Stations, Rival Superpower, and the Quest for Interplanetary
Travel.'..."
Sunday, July 18, 2004, 6:00-7:30pm Pacific Time - "features
returning guest Ed Wright, founder of X-Rocket LLC. Ed Wright
of X-Rocket
(Experimental Rocket Racing Organization) first proposed the
rocket racing concept to follow the example set by the airplane
racing events in the pre-WW II era that had a big impact on
advancing aviation technology. Rocket racing events would
consist of suborbital manned rocket vehicles that would compete
in vertical drag races. The company is not a hardware developer,
instead it is a spaceflight services company with the goal
of making commercial human spaceflight safe, routine, and
affordable by offering training and education to industry,
government, and the general public..."
Recent shows in the archive: