Charles Bolden continues to assert that NASA has a clear long term strategy and it starts with a human mission to an asteroid in 2025 time frame: Combating the perception of a lack of consensus – Space Politics.
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And more about NASA’s budget:
Monthly Archives: March 2013
Crowdsourcing for Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project raises substantial funds
Glad to see that the crowd-sourcing campaign to support the recovery of images of the Moon on magnetic tape date from unmanned lunar probe missions in the 1960s has succeeded in raising substantial funding: Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project – RocketHub.
They didn’t reach their goal of $75k but $62,560 is a lot more than the $10k or so they had just a couple of weeks ago. Help from Boing Boing and others made a big difference in the final push.
Congressional hearings on the asteroid impact threat
Jeff Foust reports on the House hearing on Tuesday about the threat of asteroid impacts on earth: NASA to Congress: don’t “pour money” into NEO programs – Space Politics.
And here are a couple of items about a Senate hearing on Wednesday about the same issue:
- Better Asteroid Detection Needed, Experts Tell Senate Panel – NYTimes.com
- Asteroids: Senator at space-threat hearing calls Bruce Willis as backup post Russian meteor – latimes.com
Update: Stephen C. Smith (Space KSC blog) has posted videos of both hearings:
* March 20, 2013 – the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space held a hearing titled, “Assessing the Risks, Impacts, and Solutions for Space Threats.” The invited witnesses were:
- Dr. James Green, Director, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Dr. Ed Lu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer B612 Foundation
- Mr. Richard DalBello, Vice President, Legal and Government Affairs, Intelsat General
- Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese, Professor, National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War College
* March 19, 2013, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing titled, “Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors, Part 1.”
Invited witnesses were:
- John P. Holdren, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
- Gen. William L. Shelton, Commander, U.S. Air Force Space Command
- Charles F. Bolden, Jr., Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Bob Zimmerman on the John Batchelor Show, Tues. + John Strickland & Claude Piantodosi on the Space Show
Bob Zimmerman reports on the latest space news during regular weekly slots (usually Tuesday and Thursdays) on the John Batchelor radio program. See the iTunes free Podcast for links to the latest shows.
Here is the list of topics discussed on this week’s Tuesday show:
Segment 1: science and space:
1. Curiosity has experienced another computer glitch, this time to its BACKUP computer.
2. The collision of space junk to a Russian satellite never happened.
3. A Chinese scientist who worked for NASA has been arrested trying to flee the country.
4. After losing its federal earmark, Pan-STARRS gets private funding to survive and upgrade.
5. The Antares launch date has been set.
Segment 2: climate:
1. More fraud in climate science.
2. The person who published the climategate emails releases some more emails, and emails the world his reasons for doing so.
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On the Space Show on Tuesday, John Strickland talked about the National Space Society, the ISDC 2013 conference, space settlement, space based solar power, launcher reusability and more: John Strickland, Tuesday, 3-19-13 – Thespaceshow’s Blog
On Monday, Dr. Claude Piantodosi talked on the show about his book, Mankind Beyond Earth, human spaceflight, Mars missions, radiation, and microgravity: Dr. Claude Piantadosi, Monday, 3-18-13 | Thespaceshow’s Blog.
Copenhagen Suborbitals: DIY space capsule wind tunnel tests
Copenhagen Suborbitals reports on low cost wind tunnel testing of their capsule design: DIY Space Capsule Wind Tunnel Testing – One More Time Please – Wired Science/Wired.com.