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May.31.2005
10:35
am: News briefs ...
This week's Space
Review has an array of interesting articles:
10:35
am: News briefs ... Students
involved in the Virginia
Tech Sounding Rocket Project recently carried out a launch
from Wallops Island. The rocket used an "Improved
Orion" motor provided by NASA. The students focused on
the development of the payload,
which measures "the atmospheric particles that comes from the
recondensation of evaporated meteoric material that enters the earth's
atmosphere." Prof. Chris Hall posted
More Rocket
Launch Photos - Spacecraft - May.27.05.
...
...
Nice to see non-governmental SETI
projects getting some front page attention on the Washington Post:
Finding
Support in the Search for E.T.: With Stronger Telescope and Renewed
Vigor, Scientists Scan the Sky - WashPost - May.30.05
1:55
am: The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, May
31, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Elon Musk of SpaceX
will discuss progress and plans with regard to the development
of the Falcon launch vehicles.
Wednesday,
June 1, 2005, 7-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - George Tyson, CEO of
Mojave based Orbital
Commerce Project, Inc., will discuss plans to offer suborbital
training to both businesses and individuals.
Thursday,
June 2, 2005, 7-8:30 PM (Pacific Time) - Robert
Zimmerman will review the recent ISDC conference.
Sunday, June
5, 2005, 12-1:30 PM (Pacific Time) - Dr.
Brad Edwards "returns to discuss all matters relating
to the space elevator."
The interviews
are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
1:55
am: This
week's AMSAT news:
Bangalore, India Students On Hamsat * OSCAR-11 Report - 25 May 2005
* AMSAT Board of Directors Nominations
+
ARISS Status: New York School Contact Successful * Japanese
School Contact * Upcoming School Contacts * ARISS International
Teleconference Held * SuitSat Educational Proposal * Dayton Hamvention
2005 * Columbus Module * Astronaut Training * Field Day * School
Selection Committee Meeting Held
May.27.2005
12:15
am: News briefs ...
The Team America
Rocketry Challenge program had another successful year. Several
hundred finalists competed last weekend in Virginia and a team from
Minnesota got the grand prize: Minnesota
Team New Champion of the World's Largest Rocket Contest - AIA -
May.21.05. An all girls team also did well: The
Rocket Girls from North Dakota - NPR (audio) - May.25.05
...
...
Alan Boyle reports on a mysterious spot on Titan: Titan’s
puzzling red spot - Cosmic Log /MSNBC.com - May.25.05 ...
...
And here he reports on the 7-UP suborbital spaceflight contest:
The
latest zero-G giveaway - Cosmic Log/MSNBC.com - May.26.05
...
...
More about Greg
Olsen's return to the ISS queue: US
Businessman Ready for Space Again - Kommersant - May.26.05
...
...
The comsat industry will get a boost if MSV
is a success: MSV
to launch new telecom satellite - ScienceDaily - May.25.05
May.25.2005
4:35
pm Arts and the ISS ... More
about the ESA initiative (Developing
a cultural policy for the International Space Station - ESA - May.20.05)
to support utilization of the ISS for artistic purposes: The
Arts Catalyst for the European Space Agency: Developing A Cultural
Policy For The International Space Station - Arts Catalyst - May.23.05.
The emailed
version of this announcement included the caveat: "At this
stage, no restriction on the types of utilization has been set,
however it should be noted that it is very unlikely that an artist
would have the opportunity themselves to go to the International
Space Station, certainly in the foreseeable future."
What a shame.
I think an artist might have a better chance of developing a profitable
space product than most any mission
specialist. As regular readers might expect, I can't resist
suggesting that a European artist in glass or metals be selected
to develop techniques for creating artworks that take advantage
of microgravity. See Arts
& Crafts in the Future
section.
This could also
be a great project for a school group. They could send up a bunch
of Pongsat
sized containers filled with various concoctions of light and heavy
materials with instructions to the astronauts to shake vigorously,
bake for 1 hour, let cool, bring back to earth.(Yes, I know all
this would involve extensive safety reviews.) Maybe some of the
melted globs would display esthetic qualities that could be refined
further in later studies.
9:00
am: News briefs ...
While many kids growing up in the 50s-60s like me were inspired
by the space race to enter technical fields, it sometimes seems
that subsequent generations never picked up the space bug. However,
that is obviously an exaggeration. For example, one of Google's
top guys is taking his capital gains and heading for an astronomy
job: Top
Engineer Leaving Google for Astronomy Job - WashPost - May.24.05.
Meanwhile, Larry
Page, a co-founder of Google, has become a member of the board
of trustees for the X
PRIZE Foundation...
...
Speaking
of Google, Microsoft seems to be playing catch-up in the satellite
imagery tools race: MSN
announces satellite-mapping service - CNET - May.23.05...
...
More about amateurs doing big time astronomy: Astronomers,
Amateur Skywatchers Find New Planet 15,000 Light Years Away - Ohio
State Univ. - May.23.05 * Amateur
and Professional Astronomers Team to Find New Planet - Harvard-Smithsonian
Center For Astrophysics - May.23.05 ...
...
Virgin
Galactic
should sign up this famous British soccer star for a ride to space:
Beckham's
dreams of space travel - BBC - May.20.05 ...
...
The NSS Ad Astra magazine offers some excellent articles on China
and its space plans: Special
Report: Emerging China, Engaging China - ad Astra/Space.com - May.25.05
9:00
am: SciTech news ...
Liquid ammonia may provide a practical approach to hydrogen storage
for fuel cells. As a liquid, ammonia ((NH3) holds 1.7
times more hydrogen than liquid hydrogen in a given volume. It is
fairly easy to crack the hydrogen from the nitrogen and the resulting
nitrogen/hydrogen gas can be used directly with an alkaline fuel
cell without having to filter out the nitrogen. (Ammonia
as Hydrogen Source for an Alkaline Fuel Cell Battery Hybrid System,
K. Kordesch et al., pdf)
The EV company
Zap and Apollo
Energy System are developing a prototype car with a complete
system of ammonia storage, cracker and fuel cell: ZAP
and Apollo Demo On-Board Ammonia Reformer for Alkaline Fuel Cell
Car - Green Car Congress - May.23.05. I would recommend, however,
that they hire a new car designer: Producing
Hydrogen - Apollo Energy Systems - May.05
...
...
Meanwhile, the available of fuel
cells for sale is slowly expanding. Check out the portable
fuel cell systems at Voller
Energy Portable Fuel Cells * Shipments
of new portable fuel cell commence - gizmag - May.25.05....
... We may be
watching nanotechnology on our TV sets soon: Move
Over Plasma TVs: Nano-Screens Are Coming - Technology Review - May.23.05
May.24.2005
5:20
pm: The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, May
17, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Robert Pearlman of collectSpace
returns to discuss space memorabilia and collecting. .
The interviews
are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
Check out
recent interviews with space advocate, lobbyist, and entrepreneur
Jim
Muncy and with Dr.
Stephen Johnson of the University of Colorado at Colorado
Springs and the Space Studies Department of the University of
North Dakota.
Note:
The Space Show is now podcasting. Subscribe your pod casters to
www.gigadial.net/public/station/11253/rss.xml.
5:20
pm: This
week's AMSAT news:
AMSAT Receives Certification * AO-51 June Schedule * AO-51 AMSAT
Kid's Day June 2005 * AO-51 AMSAT Kid's Day Certificate * An Amateur
Radio Station on Columbus * AMSAT-UK at The Space Technology Education
Conference +
ARISS Status: Japanese School Contact Successful _+ Albany Hills
School Contact + Upcoming School Contact + Space Day 2005 Update
+ SuitSat Status + Expedition 10 Crew Debrief + Dayton Hamvention
2005 + School Selection Committee Meeting Held
May.23.2005
4:40
pm: Space telescope tradeoffs ... Joan
Horvath has sent me a note expressing concern that the effort
to save the Hubble may backfire and cause "delays or worse"
to the next generation of space observatories:
Our community
has been supporting Hubble's mission extension without really
asking the question of what goes by the wayside if indeed Hubble
is fully funded without any additional dollars put into the astronomy
funding line.
In the current budget environment, NASA dollars - particularly
space science dollars - are tight. The latest possible victims
are the two planet-hunting major telescopes currently being developed
at JPL, the Space Interferometry Mission, SIM (sim.jpl.nasa.gov)
and Terrestrial Planet Finder, TPF (tpf.jpl.nasa.gov).
It has been getting almost zero press that SIM and TPF really
need public support - everyone wants to see us find new planets,
but there really needs to be some broad understanding that extending
Hubble's life looks like it is going to lead to SIM and TPF delays
or worse, since it's all the same budget and there has not been
enough public energy out there to expand the budget to be able
to both extend Hubble's mission AND keep these new missions on
track.
SIM and TPF
need support during this next week, while budget markups are ongoing
in Congress; anyone interested should send a fax to members of
the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, Space etc. (Wolf/VA;
Taylor/NC;
Kirk/IL;
Weldon/FL;
Goode/VA;
LaHood/IL;
Culbertson/TX;
Alexander/LA;
Mollohan/WV;
Serrano/NY;
Cramer/AL;
Kennedy/RI
and Fattah/PA).
If you are
a constituent of one of these members, so much the better! Planet
finding has captured the public imagination lately in ways few
other things have, and it seems rather a shame to let the schedule
on which we can make serious advances in this area slip and slip
out into infinity and beyond without a ripple....
Joan
CEO, Takeoff Technologies LLC
www.takeofftech.com
2:00
pm: News briefs ...
Sam Dinkin talks about the role of space journalists in the opening
of the new frontier and about the future of the Space Journalism
Association: The
duty and power of space journalists - The Space Review - May.23.05
* Transcript
of his remarks during the Space Journalism award presentation at
the ISDC ...
...
Dwayne Day provides an excellent myth-busting article about weapons
in space: General
Power vs. Chicken Little - The Space Review - May.23.05.
Too bad this isn't on the NY Times editorial page. Jeff
Foust discusses it further at Milspace
reality vs. fantasy - Space Politics - May.23.05 ...
...
Taylor Dinerman writes about the new NASA administrator and the
challenges that he faces: Mike
Griffin's choice - The Space Review - May.23.05.
May.22.2005
2:05
pm: Space value networking ... If you
are a business student looking for a great space related subject
for a term paper project, Michael Mealling has a suggestion for
you. In his
NSS ISDC presentation,
he talked about developing Value Networks. ISDC
Presentation: Value Networks in a Space Economy - Masten Space Systems
- May.10.05 and Value
Networks in a Space Economy (pdf) by Michael Mealling - ISDC - May.05.
I missed his
presentation but he gave me a condensed version the other day. As
I understand it, the basic idea is that no company stands alone
but is embedded in a network of supporting companies that provide
it with goods, services, markets, and other necessary resources.
One way to model such an economy is as a set of interconnected nodes,
where a node represents a particular company or type of company.
Michael believes
one could model a space economy this way and learn from it. Each
company node would require the development of a business plan showing
the necessary resource inputs and market outputs, i.e. the connections
to the other nodes. The models of all of the nodes would need to
match up their inputs and outputs with each other.
A company using
lunar regolith to produce oxygen, for example, would need equipment
and energy as inputs and it would need customers, e.g. Moon base
occupants and in space rocket transport services.
Sign up with
the The Consortium
for the Development of Space Value Networks if you would like
to get involved in this. Note that Michael believes that "its
easier to teach a business person about space than it is to teach
a space person about business?"
1:30
pm: News briefs ...
The FAA says space
advertising shouldn't be visible from the ground:FAA:
Space billboards don't fly - CNET - May.20.05 ...
...
WildBlue tries to
make consumer broadband internet by satellite a reality: WildBlue
to Roll Out Satellite Broadband Internet Service First Week of June
- SatNews Daily - May.20.05 ...
...
And
Mobile Satellite Ventures
tries to make a reality of other satellite based wireless services
...
...
SETI@Home
was the first of the projects to use home computers to provide a
massive parallel computation system. The electric
sheep screen-saver tries to take advantage of the same approach
but for a more esthetic motivation: Sheep
in Shining Armor: Let your PC join an army of several million others
and save the world while you sleep - Discover Magazine - Aug.04
(Item via a HS reader.)
May.21.2005
Eli Kintisch
(right) accepts the first annual Space Journalism Prize.
Sam Dinkin (left), founder of the prize, presented the prize during
the National Space Society's conference in Washington D.C.
10:45
pm: Space Journalism Prize Winner ...
The newly-formed Space
Journalism Association announced Friday that it awarded its
first annual Space Journalism Prize to Eli Kintisch. The $1,000
award goes to Kintisch for a three-part series about the Ansari
X Prize and SpaceShipOne published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
in September 2004:
- A
new space race - Sept.21.05
- Dreams-turned-schemes
launch one spaceworthy rocket ship - Sept.22.05
- SpaceShipOne
aims to claim $10 million - Sept.23.05
The press release
goes on to say:
"Eli's series
best described the challenges and prospects of personal spaceflight
and the new commercial frontier that SpaceShipOne opened last
year," said prize founder Sam Dinkin. "He was able to communicate
the promise of a new commercial era in space to a broad, general
audience, giving him the winning edge in a very competitive field
of entries."
The Space Journalism Prize was founded earlier this year as a
way to promote outstanding journalism on spaceflight topics in
print and online media. Journalists ranging from established reporters
in print media to new voices online submitted several dozen articles
for consideration.
The prize is the first major activity of the Space Journalism
Association, a new organization dedicated to supporting high-quality
journalism on space topics. More details about the association
will be announced at a later date. Additional information about
the prize can be found at the association's web site, www.spacejournalism.com.
I served as
one of the judges for the contest along with Sam Dinkin and Jeff
Foust. There were over thirty entries and I was very impressed that
so many of them were of very high quality and depth.
10:45
pm: News briefs ...
Catching up on space news after several days of conferences....
...
Peter
Kokh of the Moon
Society offers some counterpoint to the proposal that the first
lunar base must necessarily reside on the North pole: Not
So Picture Perfect: Proposed Lunar Landing Site Has Drawbacks -
ad Astra/Space.com - May.17.05 ...
...
Apogee books is publishing an interesting early sci-fi book: Edison's
Conquest of Mars: The Original 1898 Sequel to H.G. Wells' War of
the Worlds by Garrett Putnam Serviss - 1898 ...
...
Today
the finals
for the Team
America Rocketry Challenge! were held in Great Meadow, Virginia....
...
The Mars
Society opens an auction of Mars related memorabilia: The
Mars Society Auctions - the Leonard Bromberg Collection ...
...
NASA
begins a study of whether daily periods in artificial gravity produced
by rotation can ameliorate the effects of zero gravity: Artificial
Gravity: NASA Spins Up New Study - Space.com - May.18.05
May.16.2005
12:50
pm: GIS for the masses ...
People keep coming up with cool things to do with the Google maps
system: Hey
Google, Map This! - Wired News - May.16.05. I expect these kinds
of user friendly Geographic
Information System (GIS) tools to become more and more common
as they include practical info such as housing.
12:50
pm: News briefs...
This Java games page includes links to several astronomy/space related
programs: Java Technology:
Games Home....
...
Amateur
astronomers show there stuff with a big scope: Dream
come true: Canadian amateur astronomers receive rare opportunity:
an observing session with a giant telescope. - Astronomy Magazine
- May.16.05 * Canadian
astronomers look deep into stellar cocoon - Spaceflight Now/Gemini
Observatory - May.15.05 ...
...
You can
monitor the latest solar storm with the Space
Weather viewer and the images in the Living
Space section: Solar
storm may disrupt communications: Cell phones, spacecraft may be
affected by geomagnetic eruption - Florida Today - May.16.05
12:30
pm: Space discussion ... Joel
Achenbach, who wrote the Washington Post Sunday magazine article
about space, will be available at an online chat forum today starting
at 1:00pm at Post
Magazine: To Infinity and Beyond. (Via SpacePolitics.com.)
3:00
am: Space in the papers ...
Last
week, one Washington Post article - The
End of A Space Odyssey: After 39 Years, the 'Star Trek' Franchise
Falls Out of Orbit - WashPost - May.8.05 - took the cancellation
of the Star Trek Enterprise TV show as confirmation that
everyone has lost interest in space since we now know that "Space
is not a good place for humans." (I guess this means we should
remove Spaceship Earth from space as soon as possible!)
Less than a
week later, the same newspaper had a long Sunday magazine article
- To
Infinity and Beyond - WashPost - May.13.05 - that reports: "Space
is back. The space buffs are re-energized, and they're coming up
with schemes that will blow your mind."
This article
mostly presents the ancient "Space is NASA, NASA is Space"
paradigm but near the end it describes independent space efforts
such as the SpaceShipOne
project and SpaceX.
The piece is rather superficial and done with a slightly condescending,
mocking tone.
Both articles
confirm that your average weblog devoted to a particular subject
like space or sci-fi provides more reliable information than what
you get from non-specialized reporters in a better-than-average
newspaper.
One part of
the End of A Space Odyssey article that I take seriously
is where it describes the movement by the hardcore trekker fans
to create their own shows such as those from Star
Trek New Voyages and ExeterStudio.com.
A community of a few million people can form via the internet to
support
such independent programming. Furthermore, I would expect new creative
ideas to come out of such a community and to revitalize the genre
over the next few years
I described
a similar under-the-media-radar community building approach in this
article,
in which I argued that trying to convince everybody to love space
is pointless. In fact, only a relatively small community of dedicated
people is needed to sustain long term development and settlement
of space. The problem is that currently there are only a few tens
of thousands of space advocates in the US who are really energized
and active. If that number got up to a million or two, we would
quickly create a real space odyssey for humanity.
3:00
am: News briefs...
Here's
a list of space artifacts missing and possibly stolen from the Cosmosphere
museum: Cosmosphere
discovers artifacts sold: Missing artifacts total more than 400
- collectSpace - May.14.05 ...
...
Forming a US policy with regards to China's progress in space is
complicated: Many
fret as China progresses in space: Should we work with or against?
- Florida Today - May.15.05.
3:00
am: The
SpaceShow
this week:
[Update 12:25
pm: Monday, May 16, 2005: 7-8:30PM Pacific, Jim Muncy of PoliSpace
is tonight's special guest.]
Tuesday, May
17, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - features Kent Miller
program manager of the National
Space Society's upcoming International
Space Development Conference in Washington DC, May 19-22.
Sunday, May
22, 2005, 12:00-1:30 pm (Pacific Time) - Dr. Stephen Johnson,
Associate Professor of Space Studies at the University of North
Dakota..
The interviews
are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
Check out
recent interviews that include space advocate Ken
Murphy who maintains the Lunar
Bibliography, financier Tom
Olson of the Colony Fund,
and astronaut Wally
Schirra.
Note:
The Space Show is now podcasting. Subscribe your pod casters to
www.gigadial.net/public/station/11253/rss.xml.
12:35
am: This
week's AMSAT news:
Other AMSAT activities at Dayton * Dayton AMSAT Forum * New TlmEcho
Version * Orbital Debri Report + ARISS Status
May.14.2005
2:05
am: News briefs...
Congratulations to Alan Boyle on the third anniversary of his Cosmic
Log website, which always has a lot of great postings, especially
with regard to developments in alt.space : Happy
birthday, dear C-Log - COSMIC LOG/MSNBC.com - May.13.05 ...
...
A
former ISS resident goes trekking: After
ISS, a Starship Ride for NASA Astronaut - Space.com - May.13.05
2:00
am: SciTech news ... Sounds
like we will know within a year or so if sonofusion is real or not:
Bubble
Power: Tiny bubbles imploded by sound waves can make hydrogen nuclei
fusion and may one day become a revolutionary new energy source
- IEEE Spectrum - May.05 * Bubble
Power - Newswise - Apr.26.05 ...
...
Here's
a nice neat way to extract power form nuclear radiation: New
'Nuclear Battery' Runs 10 Years, 10 Times More Powerful - PhysOrg
- May.12.05.
...
...
This article
looks at the status of fuel
cells and where they are starting to sell: For
fuel cell innovation, the tank is half full - Cnet News.com - May.13.05
May.13.2005
2:40
am: Traveling space ed ...
Get your school to invite The
Traveling Space Museum "We Bring The Adventure Of Space To
You!".The program brings " full-scale and fully functional
simulators into schools and [uses] them as teaching tools."
The simulators include:
- Odyssey
Space Lab - "a 12 foot-long, full-scale replica of a
space laboratory module that would be found as a part of the International
Space Station."
- Orion
Shuttle - "12 foot-long motion-controlled flight simulator
that resembles the Space Shuttle and gives students the sensation
of piloting a spacecraft in low Earth orbit. "
- Mission
Control - "has a complete set of teleconferencing and
Internet links that correspond with workstations aboard the Odyssey
SpaceLab. Mission Control is also equipped to teleconference with
cadets piloting the Orion flight simulator at a third school."
[May.14.05 -
update: Here's an article about the TSM: Traveling
Space Museum Brings the Adventure to Earth - Space.com - May.11.05]
...
Erik Viktor's Spaceworld2000
is another traveling space and science education exhibition.
2:40
am: News briefs ...
Alan Boyle reports on an interesting program about videos made during
the training of the crew for the Columbia mission: Columbia's
chroniclers - COSMIC LOG/ MSNBC - May.11.05. They are the inspiration
for a documentary program called Astronaut
Diaries appearing this week on the Discovery Science Channel.
...
...
Hope this kid makes it to space soon enough: First
Teenager in Space.
May.12.2005
3:20
pm: News briefs ...
On RLV
News I recently
mentioned that Robert
Zimmerman has noticed early signs of a worldwide effort to colonize
space: Space
Watch: The new colonial movement - UPI - Mar.11.05.
Dan Shrimpsher gives his endorsement to the idea: Amen
- Space Pragmatism - May.11.05 ...
...
To
really explore and colonize space, we will need faster transport.
Nuclear reactor technology currently offers the best candidate to
power such transport. This week NASA announced that it will cut
back on specific nuclear spacecraft projects but will still focus
on development of the reactor technology: Prometheus,
ISS Research Cuts Help Pay for Shuttle and Hubble Repair Bills -
space.com - May.12.05 ...
...
Some
politicians and activists hear the word nuclear and go bananas:
Oh
My Goodness, NASA is going to Nuke Space! - Space Pragmatism - May.11.05
* McKinney
and Prometheus - Space Politics - May.12.05. (I always like
to point out that unlike the radioisotope type of power systems
used on Cassini, space nuclear reactors have little radioactivity
until they are turned on after they get into space.) ...
...
From
the above discussion, I see that NASA has an agreement with the
Keystone Center
to help develop a "public involvement strategy" on issues
related to space
such as Mars
Sample Return Program and Project
Prometheus Program (pdf). See the Space
Controveries section for more about nuclear power in
space and other contentious issues. ...
...
The Planetary Society
is trying to raise money to support the research into the mystery
of the Pioneer spacecraft trajectories: The
Unfinished Quest to Solve the Pioneer Anomaly - Planetary Society
- May.10.05 ...
...
The effort to search for deep subsurface water on Mars took a step
forward: Mars
probe uses solar heating to fix boom glitch - Spaceflight Now -
May.11.05
3:20
pm: SciTech news ... The ongoing advances in engineering
the micro-world will also help us develop the macro-world of space:
Micromachines
to Produce Propellant and Air on Mars - Space.com - May.11.05
...
...
New phenomena are being discovered such as this unusual low temperature
ignition catalyst: Platinum
nanoparticles bring spontaneous ignition - Nanotechweg.org - Apr.25.05
(via a HS reader) ...
...
You can monitor nanotech developments at nanotechweb.org.
May.10.2005
3:20
pm: Mars Song Contest deadline
has been extended:
Due to popular
demand, the deadline for the Third International Space Pioneer
Song Contest has been extended from April 30, to May 31, 2005.
This is a drop-dead deadline. There will be no further expensions.
So, space bards, if you want your music sung throughout the universe,
among nations yet unborn, on planets yet unknown, GET YOUR SONGS
IN NOW!
Third
International Space Pioneer Song Contest - Mars Society - March
17, 2005
11:
55 am: News briefs ... NSS
plans a legislative
lobbying assualt on Capitol Hill before the ISDC
starts: Advocates
Set Their Sights on Congress for 2005 'Space Blitz' - adAstra/Space.com-
May.10.05 ...
...
Dan Shrimpsher considers ways to promote space with the public:
Space
Pragmatism: If NASA Won't do it.... (PR Again) - SpacePragmatism
- May.05. I think working with the NSS or one of the other major
space advocacy
groups is a good way to go.
3:05
am: News briefs ... The
latest Space
Review had several interesting articles:
- Of
Moonbuggies and the Vision - Anthony Young wonders if the
best and brightest of America's aerospace students will find the
jobs that will let them fulfill their potential.
- New
Horizons indeed - S. Alan Stern tells how the spacecraft that
will go to Pluto got its name.
- Spysats
for profit - Sam Dinkin suggests a system that I believe would
come in very handy when I can't find my car in the parking lot.
All I would need is a web ready cell phone and a link to Google
maps.
- The
Bush Administration and space weapons - Taylor Dinerman wants
the US to go ahead and develop the systems needed to protect its
satellits
...
The
new Indian amateur satellite seems to be working well: Excellent
quality of transmission by Hamsat - Zee News - May.9.05
...
...
Here's
an interesting profile of a space workers hangout: Space:
the Florida frontier - Floridian - May.9.05 ...
...
The
Sanswire airship is finally getting off the ground: GTEL
Announces Floating and Testing of Sanswire One - GTEL - May.9.05.
3:05
am: SchTech news ... Nanotech starting to show its power.
First, fantastic new
batteries and now low cost flat screens:PhysOrg:
Motorola Debuts First Ever Nano Emissive Flat Screen Display Prototype
- PhysOrg - May.0.05
May.9.2005
12:35
am: The
SpaceShow
this week:
Monday, May
9, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Wally Schirra and Ed Buckbee
return to discuss their new book, The
Real Space Cowboys (Amazon affiliate link).
Tuesday, May
10, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Paul Smith is back on
The Space Show to discuss his new book, remote viewing and its
application to space development.
Sunday, May
15, 2005, 12:00-1:30 pm (Pacific Time) - Tom Olson joins The Space
Show to discuss and update us on developments with entrepreneurial
space commerce and more.
The interviews
are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
Check out
recent interviews with science editor Alan
Boyle of MSNBC and historian and columnist Robert
Zimmerman.
12:35
am: This
week's AMSAT news:
HAMSAT Available for Use * AMSAT at Dayton * Membership Drive and
Prize Drawing at Dayton * AMSAT-NA Membership Dues Changing * UO-11
Silent
+
ARISS Status: Upcoming School Contacts * ARRL Article on Chiao's
Record Breaking Contact * ARISS International Meeting Held
May.8.2005
3:55
pm: Space Design Contest ... Norman
Goh of the University of Toronto dropped me a note about an interesting
competition for which he is the chairman:
The University
of Toronto Space Design Contest (UTSDC) is an annual contest for
high school students. Teams of up to five compete by developing
a design for a particular space related project (survey missions,
space settlements, etc), and presenting it in a medium of their
choosing. This contest is meant to be an application of creativity,
technical knowledge, presentation skill and teamwork. Contestants
submit their reports to UTSDC to review, and will have the opportunity
to present their designs at an event hosted on the University
of Toronto St. George campus.
More information
can be found at our website utsdc.sa.utoronto.ca.
An annual
report will be made available within the next month or so.
3:45
pm: News briefs ...
Dan Shrimpsher wants to know what is going on with NASA public relations:
NASA
Public Affairs Office - Space Pragmatism - May.7.05...
...
A related
issue that aggravates me is the way NASA will "disappear"
a whole web site when a program like the X-33 or Orbital Space Plane
is canceled. Such web materials, which are public property after
all, should go to easily accessible archives. Instead, they vanish
as if NASA is embarrassed to acknowledge them ...
...
Check
out the pictures of the Saturn V undergoing restoration in Houston:
"Funds
sought to restore Saturn V" - collectSPACE - May.7.05...
...
Also
check out this fascinating imagery of the earth: Envisat
making sharpest ever global Earth map - ESA - May.5.05.
3:55
pm: SchTech news ... Inflatable structures, like those
under development by Bigelow
Aerospace, are becoming increasing capable for many applications.
Inflatable
composite structures enable lightweight transportable buildings
- gizmag - May.7.05.
May.6.2005
4:45
pm: Indian amateur satellite in orbit ... Congratulations
to Amsat - India
for the sucessful launch of the HamSat
spacecraft for amateur radio communications. The status of the bird
is available at amsat.org
...
...
Congrats also to India on the launch of their Cartosat-1
remote sensing spacecraft with stereoscopic imaging: India's
space program launches new satellite - Financial Times - May.4.05
* India
launches remote sensing satellite - spacetoday.net - May.5.05
4:45
pm: News briefs ...
Artist, space analyst and pal, Phil Smith has a newly revised and
very cool website
...
...
More imagery of Martian dust devils:
Gusev Dust Devil Movie, Sol 456 (Plain and Isolated) - NASA - Apr.21.05
* NASA
posts 'movies' of dust devils on Mars / Photo sequences by rover
are online - SFGate - May.5.05 ...
...
We may
be getting closer to answering the question of what-in-the-devil-happened
to the Mars Polar Lander: .Has
orbiter found NASA's lost Mars Polar Lander? - Spaceflight Now -
May.5.05. ...
...
This July
Lunar Explorer
will release a "fully immersive, interactive, Virtual Reality
simulation of the Moon. It is a vivid and stunningly realistic visual
experience of being on the Moon". ...
...
This is a rather depressing piece but we can hope that as spaceflight
becomes more routine and safe, the attitudes of kids (and of the
parents who instill them) will change: At
Space Day, Leery Dreams of Stardom: Students' Vision Tempered by
Columbia - WashPost - May.6.05
4:45
pm: News briefs ...
Gee, if diesel engines can provide this kind of performance and
fuel economy, and with low emissions as well, who needs hybrids?:
World 100,000
mile record: 140 mph for 30 days averaging 40 mpg - gizmag - May.05
...
...
It takes no great leap of imagination to believe that blindness
will essentially be eliminated in the next couple of decades via
both medical treatments and new technologies: Jeepers
Creepers, Bionic Peepers - Wired - May.5.05 .
May.4.2005
5:05
pm: News briefs ...
In response to questions from a couple of HS
readers, I tracked down a bunch of sites for Space-y
Sound Effects and for the Latitude/Longitude
coordinates of cities around the world...
...
Brian Webb offers a unique site for space news and general info
regarding Vandenberg and elsewhere in southwest US: Space
Archive - The Southwest's Source for Regional Space News.
May.3.2005
5:05
pm: News briefs ...
Back from Phoenix and the Space
Access Society conference. Will try to get back up to
speed soon. ...
...
The Gaia
Selene - Saving the Earth by Colonizing the Moon DVD is now
available at Amazon
(affiliate link). I earlier
posted their press release about the debut at the upcoming ISDC
meeting in DC. ...
...
Here's another space multimedia offering: DEEP
SPACE A multimedia trip in photographs and music which begins
millions of light years into deep space and travels back past galaxies
and nebula, radio sources and supernova remnants to our own small
planet Earth. The full download version runs for
12 minutes at 1280px by 1024px resolution and also comes with high-quality
MP3s, a screensaver and 12 high-resolution wallpapers.
...
...
Info on the possibility of water on the Moon: Prospecting
for Lunar Water: Settling alien worlds is thirsty work. - Science@NASA
- Apr.28.05. Note that there is no doubt that Lunar Prospector
detected hydrogen on the Moon. The question is whether it is in
water or some other form.
5:05
pm: News briefs ...
Physics can sure produce some surprising stuff: Flying
circles around the helicopter - New Scientist - Apr.30.05
2:05
am: The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, May
3, 2005, 7:00-8:15 pm (Pacific Time ) - the show features science
writer Alan Boyle of MSNBC.com and Cosmic
Log.
Sunday, May
8, 2005, 12:00-1:30 pm (Pacific Time) - The show feature Kenneth
Murphy who will discuss space education and outreach.
The interviews
are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
2:05
am: This
week's AMSAT news:
Ron Broadbent - SK * HAMSAT Launch * AMSAT-UK Colloquium * Space
Day * ARRL FD - AO-51
+
ARISS Status: Italy Schools Contact Successful * Successful
Swiss School Contact * ESRIN Contact Successful * ARRL Article on
New Hampshire Contact * ARRL Articles on ISS Crew Change
Continue
to April 2005 articles in archive
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