September.29.2004
Space News
News
briefs ... Amazing that the Mars orbiters can see
the tracks of the rovers: Making
Tracks on Mars - Astrobiology Magazine - Sept.27.04 ...
...
Enter this online contest for a trip to Space Camp: G4TV.com's
Space Camp Contest - G4techTV - Sept.27.04 ...
...
Lot of cool ideas, like electrostatic radiation shielding, will
be examined by the latest winners of grants from NASA's advanced
concepts program: NASA
explores advanced space concepts - Spaceflight Now - Sept.28.04
...
...
Satellite photo sessions will synch with the tides: Coast-mapping
Satellites Will Follow The Tides - ESA/ScienceDaily - Sept.28.04
September.28.2004
Space News
Space
tourism study released ...
Futron
Releases Space Tourism Market Study to the General Public
Bethesda,
MD - September 28, 2004 - Futron
Corporation announced today that it is making its groundbreaking
Space Tourism Market Study, the most comprehensive survey
of customer demand for suborbital and orbital space tourism
to date, available to the public at no charge.
The Space Tourism Market Study, originally published two years
ago, is based on a Zogby International poll of affluent Americans
commissioned by Futron in 2002. The poll gauged the level
of interest in, and willingness to pay for, space tourism
experiences among those people with the means to afford such
flights. Futron used the poll results to generate a 20-year
forecast for consumer demand for orbital and suborbital space
tourism flights.
"Futron worked very hard over the course of several months
to objectively and accurately analyze the space tourism market,"
said Phil McAlister, Director of Futron's Space & Telecommunications
Division. "We hope that our efforts, as captured in this report,
will benefit the many people interested in this promising
market."
Highlights of the Space Tourism Market Study include:
- "
The overall space tourism market is very promising, and
could generate revenues in excess of $1 billion per year
by 2021;
- "
Suborbital space tourism will generate the largest demand,
with the potential for 15,000 passengers and $700 million
in revenues per year by 2021;
- "
Orbital space tourism, while growing more slowly than its
suborbital counterpart, will still have up to 60 passengers
and $300 million in revenues per year by 2021;
- "
Those interested in suborbital space tourism are demographically
distinct from those interested in orbital tourism.
The report
is available in PDF format from Futron's web site at http://www.futron.com/spacetourism.
Astronomy
adventures... Check out "exciting astronomy
adventure travel in Chile" offered by QuasarChile:
Enjoy
the Atacama Desert, site of NASA Mars experiments, with personalized
and expert guidance, and visit world premier research astronomy
destinations (VLT and ALMA). Spend nights discovering the
unique southern skies (Magellanic Clouds, southern clusters,...)
with amateur telescopes.
Other astronomy
and space related travel packages are available from companies
listed in the Astronomy
section.
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday
September 28, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - the Space Show
features "the return of Jim Benson, Founding Chairman
and Chief Executive of SpaceDev,
a publicly traded space development and exploration company.
SpaceDev specializes in affordable, high-performance small
satellites and safe, affordable hybrid-based rocket motor
propulsion systems. ..."
Wednesday,
Sept. 29, 2004 special live coverage of the Space Ship One
X-Prize flight in Mojave, CA begins at 6AM. [See links at
top of the RLV
News page.]
Sunday
October 3, 2004, 12:00-1:30 PM Pacific Time - the Space Show
"features Adriano Autino, prolific science and space
writer/lecturer for leading magazines, journals, and space
advocate organizations, as well as Italian entrepreneur, making
software and tools for aerospace and infrastructure. As an
'astronautic-humanist', he is the author of many original
concepts for space age philosophy..."
Find
the Space Frontier on the Queen Mary...
Conference
Registration Rates for Space Frontier Conference 13 increase
this Friday. Register Today!
Space Frontier Conference 13 - Register Today!
The Space
Frontier Foundation, America's leading edge space organization,
will help celebrate World Space Week by hosting Space
Frontier Conference 13 aboard the majestic Queen Mary
ocean liner in Long Beach California from October 8-10, 2004.
The conference will begin with an all day session Friday co-hosted
by the Space Access Society and featuring Alternative Space
transportation firms, from grass roots X-Prize contenders
to multi-million dollar launch companies. The day will be
punctuated by a luncheon panel of financiers and investors
who will discuss the ins and outs of money issues relating
to space companies.
Saturday's program includes a showcase of alternative space
firms building space hotels and other new space businesses,
to a discussion of Hollywood and media in space, to talks
on how you can get into space yourself, and the big picture
of where this is all leading – the human settlement of space.
Saturday evening the Foundation will hold its annual awards
banquet. A gala affair will honor those who have made real
breakthroughs in the opening of space, presented a compelling
future in the media and the people who have worked each day
to make a difference. Sunday sessions will focus on leading
edge ideas and culminate in a town hall meeting and workshop
on how to expand and accelerate this important movement.
Following within days of Burt Rutan and other X-Prize flights,
this conference is the place to be to hear the inside stories,
meet the movers and hear about what is coming next on the
space frontier!
For secure online registration: www.space-frontier.org/Events/SFC13/
For more information about SFC 13: www.space-frontier.org/Events/SFC13/
Reserve your room at the RMS Queen Mary now!
The rooms in the block reserved for the Space Frontier Conference
rate of $129 per night on the RMS Queen Mary are Outside Staterooms,
usually $240 per weekend night. If you plan to stay on the
ship you need to register ASAP. To get our special conference
rate you need to call 800-437-2934 or 562-435-3511. Registrations
made online will NOT be eligible for our reduced conference
rate.
For Queen Mary information: www.queenmary.com
September.27.2004
Space News
Big
news day in commercial space ...
See RLV
News for the latest news on the announcement by Richard
Branson on the development of Virgin Galactic space tourism
company and on Bigelow Aerospace's sponsorship of the American
Space Prize to spur development of low cost orbital transport.
Weightless
fun ...
See the video
of John Carmack and his Armadillo Aerospace crew experiencing
a ZERO-G
flight.
Amateur
Mars exploration... I've mention several times over
the past year or so the project of AMSAT,
led by the German
chapter, to develop a vehicle
to reach Mars. (See AMSAT
P5-A: Amateur Mars Satellite in the Satellite
Building section.) The propulsion and spacecraft
technology is actually not much beyond what AMSAT already accomplished
with AO-40,
the large satellite launched in 2000 with mixed results.
Maintaining
communications with the vehicle is the bigger challenge (especially
if the vehicle loses its attitude control temporarily and can't
point its high-gain antenna at the earth.)
The
P5-A would be an orbiter. The German
Mars Society has proposed that it carry an additional craft
that would release a balloon
that would provide descend into the atmosphere and transmit
back various measurements.
Over the
weekend there was a news conference by the German Mars Society
that present results of studies of the proposal and possible
techniques to use for a 2009 launch:
ARCHIMEDES
on the track
Sven Knuth President, Mars Society Deutschland
September 26, 2004
Today
on a press conference in Bochum, Germany, the private financed
Mars balloon mission P-5A/ARCHIMEDES was presented. The huge
press coverage exceeded every expectation. All newspapers
and magazines, TV and radio stations covered this visionary
idea. Especially articles in business newspapers like Handelsblatt
will help rise the needed funding.
The AMSAT P5-A is destined to enter an orbit around the planet
Mars. This spacecraft will then transmit scientific data to
Earth – data from experiments on-board P5A as well as - via
its repeater function - from the ARCHIMEDES balloon. This
probe will also take with ARCHIMEDES on its way to Mars after
launch with Ariane 5 where it is released and enters atmosphere.
Extensive studies conducted throughout the past years have
indicated that both the concept of inflating the balloon during
descent as well as the concept of inflating the balloon from
the ground poses immense technical hurdles that need to be
overcome. Both result in extremely complex spacecraft designs
and mission sequences that cannot be realized by the project
Archimedes team, if the proposed launch window of 2009 is
to be used. Hence, a different concept has been developed,
whereby the balloon is to be inflated out in space while approaching
the planet, and subsequently used as a hypersonic drag device
to slow the vehicle down enough for descent to its operating
altitude. This way, the ARCHIMEDES mission will also demonstrate
the technology for inflatable atmospheric drag devices on
Mars. It provides room for the significant technology experiment
COMPARE, the scope of which is to gather crucial hypersonic
flow data during entry of a large body into the Martian atmosphere.
This data will be invaluable to future heavy landers and aero-assisted
manśuvres. It also provides the unique opportunity to measure
the density profiles of the upper layers of the atmosphere
with accelerometers due to the spacecraft's very low ballistic
coefficient.
In addition to the aforementioned baseline mission scenario,
two other scenarios are currently considered. The first option
would be to target mission duration of one sol. This would
drop the requirement for night time survival, and thus also
reduces the requirements for power and thermal control. Since
the mission could be flown with primary batteries only, solar
cells would not be needed, and the suspension bridle also
becomes unnecessary. Most important, however, less internal
overpressure would be required, since the balloon would be
allowed to sack at night, and hence the floatation gas could
cool and contract below ambient pressure. But this in turn
lowers the skin load when the floatation gas pressure rises
upon entry heating. It should be noted here that all mission
requirements including the demonstration of sustained floatation
in the Martian atmosphere would be fulfilled by this option,
albeit being less desirable due to the short mission lifetime.
The second option would go even further and allow the balloon
to descent directly to the ground, a scenario referred to
as the "Direct To Ground Scenario" (DTG). In addition to the
first option, this option would employ a simpler, more common
and more robust, yet also heavier balloon skin material which
is not able to sustain floatation but causes the mission to
descent during a prolonged period of about two hours (as compared
to classic entry bodies that travel through the atmosphere
all the way to the ground within a few
minutes).
For more information visit the project website (there is an
English version available): http://archimedes.marssociety.de/
September.26.2004
Space News
Space
tourism class... Robert
Goehlich is teaching another course in space tourism at
Keio University. Space
Tourism II Lecture - Fall Semester 2004 is described as
follows:
Starting
from September 29, 2004, this lecture is part of Center of
Excellence (COE) Program. In contrast to “Space Tourism I”
lecture, the goal is to discuss selected topics such as “Ansari
X Prize”, “Space Adventures”, “Tourist Module on ISS” etc.
in detail. The lecture is complemented by various guest speakers
from universities and industries as well as using the Space
Tourism Market Simulation II. This is a master course, but
bachelor's or Ph.D. students are also welcome. Transfer of
credits to other universities on request. Visitors are always
welcome!
He will
be posting the lecture notes as the course progresses. He also
says that the course is available on the "internet via
webcam and microphone."
News
briefs ...
The latest Indian satellite is devoted to educational broadcasts:
Take-off
To Learning? EDUSAT, India's first thematic satellite, ought
to link schools across the country - Financial Express - Sept.26.04
...
...
A
near miss coming soon:
Asteroid
Close Encounter Coming Wednesday - National Geographic - Sept.24.04...
...
Buy
satellite and aerial photos and maps of your neighborhood and
other areas of interest:
LandVoyage.com
- Unlimited Maps and Imagery - Aerial Photos - USGS Topo Maps
- Satellite Images...
...
Tom
Hanks mini-series on the Apollo program will be shown on the
TNT network during Oct.1-3: From
the Earth to the Moon....
...
A British journalist becomes Superman for a hour or so: Flights
to weightlessness make playgrounds of the sky - Telegraph -
Sept.26.04...
...
"I've been interested in space travel as long as I can
remember." says teenager: Space
Adventures' SPACEFLIGHT CLUB Interests All Ages: Fourteen year-old
becomes Club member : Supports teen survey results - Space Adventures
- Sept.23.04
September.24.2004
Space News
News
briefs ...
The Coalition
for Space Exploration, made up of various activist organizations
in support of the Space
Exploration Initiative, sent out its latest newsletter:
The
Vision for Space Exploration - Sept.17.04. Earlier newsletters
can be found on their news
and info page....
...
The ISS astronauts continue their sessions via ham radio with
schools around the world: Astronaut
Thrills Audiences in Japan, Germany via Amateur Radio - ARRLWeb
- Sept.22.04 ...
...
NinjaBee.com
has released the Outpost
Kalok, "a humorous space station tycoon game!"....
...
Space
technology assisting the handicapped: Space-tech
at the Paralympics - ESA - Sept.21.04....
...
William
Shatner planning an invasion of Iowa: William
Shatner Holds Auditions for Sci-Fi Film - Space.com - Sept.22.04
...
...
NASA chooses a constractor for Project
Prometheus, which will develop an electric propulsion system
powered by a nuclear reactor: NASA
Selects Contractor For First Prometheus Mission To Jupiter -
NASA/ScienceDaily - Sept.23.04 ...
...
Even more advanced propulsion schemes compared in this paper:
Comparison
of Fusion/Antiproton Propulsion Systems for Interplanetary Travel
by Stanley K. Borowski - NASA Lews Research Centner - 1996
September.22.2004
Space News
Sci-Fi
story competition ... Alan Boyle and MSNBC are sponsoring
a sci-fi short-story contest" Bluetopia
vs. Redtopia - Alan Boyle/Cosmic Log - Sept.21.04. The theme
should center around the results of the Presidentail race -
"We invite you to send in your positive sci-fi visions
of the future, based on the policies of your favorite candidate."
See Mark Whittington's "The
Night We Return to the Moon", as an example of what
they are looking for.
News
briefs ... The rovers return to work after a brief
vacation: Mars
rovers renewed - Spaceflight Now - Sept.2.04...
...
Hope they didn't get any moss growing on them: Martian
methane hints at oases of life - news @ nature.com - Sept.21.04
...
...
Sloshsat heading for orbit to study how to handle large
volumes of liquids in microgravity: Misbehaving
liquid sent into space - New Scientist - Sept.22.04
September.21.2004
Space News
Zero-G-oy
experiences...
John Carmack has posted the following testimony on a couple
of newsgroups so I don't think he'll mind if I reprint it here:
Since
I got involved with the X-Prize,
Peter Diamandis has been talking to me about his other project,
http://www.nogravity.com/.
Like most people, he was hitting me up to invest in his company,
but I said that I would rather be a customer than an investor
(where possible, this is a better way to support companies).
It took two years for it to go from "We are going to be starting
flights in a couple months!" to actually getting the airplane
to Dallas, but today I took all of the Armadillo crew and
some of my partners from Id Software up on a chartered flight,
"beta testing" the experience.
It was
awesome!
We had
14 people, so it was only a little over half the full capacity,
giving us plenty of room to bounce around. Doing the martian
(1/3) and lunar (1/6) gravity parabolas is a really good idea,
as it lets people get a little used to the movement before
completely floating around. Many people thought the lunar
gravity parabolas were the best part.
We did
a total of 17 parabolas, the normal 15 and two extras at the
end. At least half the people thought that was plenty (or
two too many), but a bunch of us were like "Ten more parabolas!"
Nobody
puked, although we did have one person staring solemnly at
his barf bag at one point, and a few people had to go sit
down for a bit. They gave recommendations for prescription
medication that a couple people went and got filled, but the
rest of us just took over the counter dramamine pills that
they provided. One of the crew mentioned a promotional flight
they had recently flown with a bunch of unmedicated journalists
that had been hitting the cocktail bar, resulting in fully
one third of them losing it.
The time
went by so quickly that you completely forgot half the things
you planned on trying. A couple of us were doing low gravity
judo throws, and I took a shot at the worlds first flying
armbar in zero gravity (didn't work out too well). Most of
us that were doing fairly aggressive bouncing around landed
on our heads at least once, so I have some concern that they
will eventually have someone test the liability waiver.
The bottom
line is that I highly recommend the experience, and I am almost
certainly going to do it again at some point. Peter said most
of their bookings are for corporate incentive programs, which
is probably the most fun way to do it, but grabbing a friend
and getting tickets for one of the passenger flights that
will be starting soon out of Florida would still be memorable.
The current individual price is $3k.
The take
home lesson is that we need to add a lot of cabin volume to
our first consumer suborbital spacecraft. Adding an extra
63" by 12' of cabin volume will only cost us about 250 pounds.
You won't get much more total zero-g than on the parabolas,
but it will be contiguous, and combined with the view, the
boost burn, the reentry acceleration, and the exclusivity,
I do think it is going to be a ride worth $100k. Zero-G is
almost certain to stir up a lot of excitement about manned
space flight in general.
We'll
have more pictures and video in the regularly scheduled Armadillo
update this weekend, but here are a couple:
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/zg/pic1.jpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/zg/pic2.jpg
John
Carmack
www.armadilloaerospace.com
...
Another account of a Zero-G-oy ride is given by Xeni
Jardin at Boing Boing. The first episode in her account
starts here.
(Via Transterrestrial.)...
...
More
about preventing motion sickness at The
Balance Factor: Can You Handle Zero G? - Space.com - Sept.21.04.
News
briefs ... Possibility of bacterial life on Mars
grows stronger: Water
and methane maps overlap on Mars: a new clue? - ESA Portal -
Sept.20.04...
...India
successfully launches its education satellite: India
launches EDUSAT - spacetoday.net - Sept.20.04...
...
More about the accoustic engine driven by radioactive decay:
Spacecrafts
powered by thunder - New Scientist - Sept.20.04.
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday
September 21, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - the Space Show
"features JMatt Bille and Erika Lishock discussing their
book "The First Space Race," a ground-breaking study of the
contest to launch the world's first satellite..."
Wednesday
Sept. 22, 2004, 7-8:15 PM Pacific TIme Special Space Show
"features Brian Feeney, Team leader for the da
Vinci Project, live from Toronto, Canada. Mr. Feeney will
be discussing the da Vinci Project “go” for the X-Prize which
is currently planned for Oct. 2, 2004..."
Sunday
Sept. 26, 2004: 12:00-1:30pm Pacific TIme - "features
Richard Westfall, President and Research Director of Galactic
Mining Industries, Inc. He founded Galactic Mining Industries,
Inc. in 1989 and the company has operated as a think tank
for the last 15 years, dedicated to developing the technical
and legal foundations of space colonization. The focus of
Galactic Mining has been the mining of asteroids and the building
of space stations...."
September.20.2004
Space News
More
on Zero-G...
This article looks at the stresses and strains (which turn out
to be mild) on planes that fly the parabolas: How
Safe Is a Roller Coaster in the Sky? - Space.com - Sept.20.04...
...
Rand Simberg, who was involved in an earlier effort to launch
a commercial parabolic flyer project, notes that the motion
sickness threat is overblown by the media: Another
Myth Of The Old Space Age - Transterrestrial Musings - Sept.19.04.
More
science... Rand also points out that I was being
overly glib in my science
note on weightlessness in orbit when I spoke of an
orbit as occurring when "the curve of your falling trajectory
matches the curve of the earth."
As he points
out, and as Kepler did a few centuries ago, a spacecraft in
orbit actually follows the path of an ellipse,
with the center of mass of the earth at one of the foci of the
ellipse. I'll note that since
the earth is very massive relative to a spacecraft, you can
arrange for an orbit that is pretty close to circular with respect
to the earth's center.
Run this
fun
applet to shoot a cannonball around the earth. See also
the list
of more orbital simulation applets.
These two
sites Kepler's
Laws of Planetary Motion and Kepler's
Laws tell you about the details of ellipses and the principles
that Kepler discovered. And here are applets that illustrate
Law
1, Law
2, and Law
3.
News
briefs ... Speaking of applets, try out NASA's satellite
tracking simulator as recommended in this article: Surfin':
Tracking Spacecraft Online By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU - ARRLWeb
- Sept.17.04...
...
India is launching a satellite (into a nearly circular geostationary
orbit at) dedicated to educational broadcasts: Countdown
begins for educational satellite launch - NewKerala.com [India]
- Sept.19.04...
...
So
what will you munch on during your trip to Mars: What
to Eat on the Way to Mars - Wired - Sept.20.04...
...
Gregory
Anderson recommends that media have a camera in orbit waiting
to broadcast the first Mars landing: Operation
Public Eye by Gregory Anderson - The Space Review - Sept.20.04....
...
Richard
Godwin of Apogee
Books highly recommends this Rocket
Science (I cravenly added my Amazon affiliate link
to this item)....
...
This
looks to be a promising resource for resourceful hobbyists of
all sorts: Make
Magazine
September.18.2004
Space News
Zero-G
and your stomach...
Many of the articles about the new publicly available Zero-G
flights focus on the possibility of motion sickness. After
all, the astronauts didn't dub their parabolic flyer the Vomit
Comet for nothing.
However,
it should be pointed out that the company has tried to minimize
the possibility in several
ways:
- Fewer
parabolas - the NASA plane flew up to 60 parabolas at a time.
Motion sickness was more common after 20 or so. ZERO-G flights
do 15.
- Gradual
reduction - the first few parabolas produce Mars-like 1/3
Earth gravity, then Moon-like 1/6 g, and then zero.
- They
intersperse "a few minutes of straight and level flight"
occasionally into the trip.
- Coaching
is given on how to avoid getting sick, e.g. urging people
to focus on a fixed point during the high-g valleys
of the flight.
There are
also anti-nausea pills such as a scopolamine-Dexedrine
cocktail, but these are not perfect.
More articles:
Science
note... The "zero
g" effect produced by these flights, just like in orbit,
is an apparent one. Earth's gravitational pull doesn't
change and remains as strong as ever. (It decreases as 1/(distance
squared) as you move away from the planet.)
Over the
top of the parabola, both you and the plane are falling together.
You are no longer being pressed against the floor of the plane,
which is usually keeping you at a fixed distance from the earth
via the lift of its wings. (In the valleys of the trajectory,
the plane is having to decelerate and reverse you from the speed
gained during the falling portion of the parabola. So you feel
higher g force in that case.)
In orbit,
the same principle applies except you and the vehicle are falling
around the earth because your rocket produced enough
horizontal speed to keep you from hitting the ground as you
fall. That is, the curve of your falling trajectory matches
the curve of the earth.
GPS
brief...
Add satellite positioning info to your photos:DIY
Black Box - Tagging photos with GPS coordinates - Engadget -
Sept.04.
September.17.2004
Space News
Homesick,
not sick, for floating...
If there are a lot of articles like this one - Farewell
to Gravity - Wired - Sept.17.04, then the Zero
Gravity company is going to need to arrange for more planes...
...
Buzz weightless again: Buzz
Aldrin Returns to Lunar Gravity & Weightlessness Aboard
Zero Gravity Corporation's G-Force One - PRNewswire/ZeroGravity
Corp. - Sept.16.04
Space
arts report....
Here are some miscellaneous space art and music related links...
...
During May-June 2005, the
World Space Culture in London will encompass an international
conference, exhibitions and performances with the goal of celebrating
"the diversity of attitudes and approaches to space exploration
across cultures."...
...
Check out one artist's space explorations:
Space Synapse Systems...
...
The Voyager 2 art packet for aliens: British
artist revisits Nasa's alien view of Earth - Independent.co.uk
- Sept.16.04...
...
Steamrolling a space conference: Chip
Davis and Mannheim Steamroller to Perform at Strategic Space
Conference - Space Foundation - Sept.16.04 ...
...
Natural art:
A ring of scrim: Cassini returns an otherwordly view a space
artist would envy. - Astronomy - Sept.17.04
Astronaut
autographs... Countdown Creations, a HobbySpace
advertiser, is sponsoring a space charity event at its Rocket
Town store: "Evening
With The Astronauts" To Launch At Rocket Town: Astronauts
to sign autographs for the public to benefit Association of
Space Explorers - Rocket Town - Houston's Space Superstore!
September.16.2004
Space News
Lunar
In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) University Design Competition...
College students will compete to see who designs the best systems
for obtaining useful materials from the lunar surface. The contest
is being sponsored by the Florida
Space Research Institute and NASA: FSRI
and NASA Sponsor Lunar Exploration Design Competition - FSRI
- Sept.13.04.
Letters
of Intent are due on Oct. 17, 2004 and proposals are due on
Nov. 19, 2004. See ISRU
Design Competition Guidelines.pdf for program details.
News
briefs...
Students in ESA countries can obtain a cool space DVD for free:
'Newton
in space' DVD: a fresh approach to teaching science - ESA -
Sept.15.04...
...
The organization
SeaTurtle.org
uses satellits to track turtles at sea: Satellites
Track Turtle Trouble - Wired - Sept.15.04 ...
...
NASA budget
battles coming down to the wire: SpaceWatch
NASA Faces Final Budget Debate by Frank Sietzen - UPI/SpaceDaily
- Sept.16.04
September.14.2004
Space News
News
briefs...
You can now purchase a ticket to experience microgravity on
planes flying parabolic trajectories. See item in RLV
News...
...
Satellite broadband delivery to the home remains alive though
growing slowly: Satellite
Service Battles Lag - Wired - Sept.14.04 ...
...
2001:
A Space Odyssey still gets the highest ratings: Mad
Hal named 'top sci-fi moment' - BBC - Sept.13.04
Wasting
money on libraries...
In response to my recent
entry on NASA's failure to archive properly its technology
development, a reader responded with a story from his days in
Huntsville,
Alabama while working with a major aerospace company on the
space station program:
"The
NASA Inspector General's office sent staff to audit the company.
The result was a citation under the waste, fraud, and abuse
category for having documents in the company library that
were more than 5 years old. They decided it was a waste of
taxpayers' money. Of course, the engineers took the 'offending'
documents and stored them at their desks.
Aren't
you glad that we are paying government watchdogs to make sure
that evil, profit making corporations don't waste taxpayers'
money?"
I'll also
note that Gene Meyers says in a recent interview
on the Space Show that many of the Space Shuttle development
records have not been saved.
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday
Sept 14, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - The Space Show "features
returning guest Robert Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman is an award
winning science writer, space historian, and author of the
new best selling book, “LEAVING EARTH: Space Stations, Rival
Superpower, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel.” As an
award-winning author, writing articles and books on issues
of science, history, technology, and culture, his work is
published regularly in such magazines as Astronomy, The Sciences,
The Wall Street Journal,..."
Thursday,
September 16, 2004, 5-6:30 PM - "Special Live Taping
of The Space Show features Professor Michael Duke, Director
of the Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in
Space at the Colorado School of Mines, a NASA Space Commercialization
Center. Dr. Duke has 40 years in space science and lunar exploration.
He has worked at Johnson Space Center for 25 years as Lunar
Sample Curator, ..."
Sunday
Sept. 19, 2004: 12:00-1:30pm Pacific TIme - Space Show "features
Taylor Dinerman, space writer regarding military and civilian
space activities since 1983. From 1999 until 2003, Mr. Dinerman
ran Space Equity.com. Taylor Dinerman has now been writing
for a variety of publications including Ad Astra, The Wall
Street Journal and the American Spectator..."
September.13.2004
Space News
N\ews
briefs...
In response to an article
by Alan Wasser,
Sam Dinkin continues a discussion about space
property rights: Races,
beauty contests, franchises, and build-out requirements for
lunar property - The Space Review - Sept.13.04 ...
...
Some ideas about convincing the public of the importance of
space development: Marketing
space to the general public - by Jeff Krukin - The Space Review
- Sept.13.04
Space
book auction...
Richard
H. Jackson, former owner of Missile,
Space, and Rocket Used Books, is selling on September 23,
2004 his personal collection of over 6000 space related books
including science fiction, novels, children space books, brochures,
pamphlets, Martin Caidin books and manuscripts, plus other miscellaneous
books. Mr. Dale Sorenson has finished the catalog and it is
posted in its entirety on Waverly
Auction. To receive a printed copy of the catalog send your
snail mail address to: info@waverlyauctions.com
September.12.2004
Space News
Spinning
off better beds ... I'm not one to hold direct spinoffs
as a primary reason to support space development. (It's worth
doing for its own sake.) Many products that are famous as spinoffs,
such as Teflon, were not in fact developed by space research.
However,
it appears that one product that is starting to make big money
really is a space spinoff. As reported in this article- The
Sleep of Forgetfulness (and the Bed Remembers) - NY Times -
Sept.12.04 - the key material used in the Tempur-Pedic
mattress came from NASA funded research into cushioning for
astronauts during launch and reentry. (See also the NASA
Connection - Tempur-Pedic).
Mars
home builders... The Mars
Homestead Project announces plans to build a "full-scale
prototype research base" on Earth to develop techniques
for constructing bases on Mars: New
Project To Design, Build A Home On Mars - MarsHome.org - Sept.10.04
September.10.2004
Space News
News
briefs ...
There will probably be at least some science rescued from the
remains of the Genesis spacecraft: Genesis
Capsule a 'Mangled Mess' - Space.com - Sept.9.04...
...
Thinking
of a "what-if" future: Noah's
Ark plan from top Moon man - BBC - Sept.8.04.
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Sunday
Sept. 12, 2004: 12:00-1:30pm Pacific TIme - The Space Show
"features returning guest, Professor Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz,
a space law specialist from the University of Mississippi
Space Law Center. Prof. Gabrynowicz is the Director of the
National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center and is the Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal of Space Law. She has taught space law and
policy since 1987 and remote sensing law and policy since
1990..."
From the
archive you can hear Jim Muncy, head of PoliSpace, talk about
space legislation in an interview
on the Space
Show recorded last Tuesday.
September.9.2004
Space News
Comsat
comeback...
People buying those Hi-Definition TVs want something to watch
and the satellite broadcasters aim to supply them: DirecTV
to buy three Boeing satellites - spacetoday.net - Sept.8.04.
The recession in the communication satellite industry that began
around 2000 may be coming to an end. While a boom in new satellites
is unlikely, it looks like there will be a stable demand for
several years.
Despite
claims that satellites would inevitably lose to high bandwidth
cable, the opposite is happening. DTH is growing strongly while
cable actually lost subscribers this year. Meanwhile, satellite
radio is also growing rapidly.
News briefs...
More on nanosats: Small
satellites could be future of space technology - The Statesman
[Utah State Univ.]- Sept.3.04...
...
Space.com is marketing space music on its SPACEBOX
site.
Tech
brief... Development of the amazing Fanwing
flying machine continues: A
Leonardo da Vinci for the twenty-first century: It may look
like a combine-harvester but a plane designed in a Tuscan farmhouse
is being hailed as one of the great breakthroughs in aeronautical
history. Peter Popham meets its inventor - Independent - Sept.6.04.
September.8.2004
Space News
Alt.space
leaders...
SpaceNews/Space.com has posted a list of the 100 people that
it thinks have made the biggest contributions to space exploration
and development since 1989: 100
Who Made a Difference. It includes many of the usual suspects
from NASA, DOD, and the major aerospace companies. However,
it also includes a number of people in the entrepreneurial/space
advocacy community. See the sections on Entrepreneurs
* Visionaries
and Innovators * Explorers
and Trailblazers * People
to Watch
Nano
cost sats... For about $40K-$50K it possible for
even a small college research group to build a Cubesat
and get it into orbit: Cubesats:
Tiny Spacecraft, Huge Payoffs by Leonard David - Space.com -
Sept.8.04.
News
briefs... Whether it's for $20 model rockets or $260M
spacecraft, reliable parachute deployment remains an unsolved
problem:
NASA's
Genesis Probe...
...
The spacetug project of Orbital
Recovery continues to strengthen technically and financially
as high quality aerospace companies join its team: Swedish
Space Corporation negotiates strategic investment in Orbital
Recovery Ltd. - Orbital Recovery - Sept.8.04 ...
...
Rand
Simberg lays out clearly the reasons why it currently costs
so much to go to space, why this high cost is not due to any
fundamental laws of physics or economics, and how the costs
can be brought down significantly: The
Path Not Taken - The New Atlantis - Sept.04...
...
How about a series based on private Enterprise opening
space? Fans
Hope Suns Can Rise Again on 'Star Trek' - The New York Times
- Aug.31.04
September.7.2004
Space News
News
briefs ... The Congressional Budget Office releases
cost estimates for the President's space
initiative program: CBO
Study: A Budgetary Analysis of NASA's New Vision for Space Exploration
- SpaceRef - Sept.5.04....
...
Dwayne Day gives his review of the CBO study: Estimating
the cost of the vision by Dwayne A. Day - The Space Review -
Sept.7.04....
...
Sam Dinkin enters the Moon vs Mars debate on the side of our
nearest heavenly body: Colonize
the Moon before Mars by Sam Dinkin - The Space Review - Sept.7.04....
...
Alan
Wasser promotes squatters rights as a driver for lunar development:
A
better way to promote space settlement in our lifetimes - The
Space Review - Sept.7.04.
September.1.2004
Space News
Planet
search... The Dopplar
method to finding planets circling other stars works best
with big planets and those that orbit close to the star (i.e.
those with fast orbital periods). The latest announcement of
the discovery of Neptune-sized planets indicate the technique
is improving and lowering the mass range that it can detect.
Astronomers
discover small exoplanets - spacetoday.net - Sept.1.04.
Nevertheless,
finding earth sized planets in earth type orbits will require
far more sensitive techniques. These include Transit
Photometry (monitoring the reduction in light as a planet
crosses in front of star) and interferometry.
News
briefs...
The GOP Platform mentions space but that's about it: Republican
Party platform, 2004 edition - Space Politics - Sept.1.04....
...
These slide
style reports on the Mars rovers are a quick and convenient
way to keep up with their latest exploits.
