Activism

Jeff Feige named next Chairman of the Space Frontier Foundation

An announcement from the Space Frontier Foundation:

A New Generation Takes the Lead at the Space Frontier Foundation
Board Announces Retirement of co-Founder Bob Werb and Election
of Space Entrepreneur Jeff Feige as Chairman

Silicon Valley, CA – The Board of Directors of the Space Frontier Foundation announced today that Bob Werb, Co-Founder and long-time Chairman of the Board, has retired from the position, and that they have unanimously elected space entrepreneur Jeff Feige to take over as the Foundation’s new Chairman.

“Bob’s extraordinary vision and leadership permeates every corner of our organization,” said Foundation President James Pura. “As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of our founding, you can look back at 25 years of his passionate contribution of ideas, common sense, and business excellence to nearly everything we’ve done to advocate for an open frontier in space for everyone.”

“At the same time, a new generation of leaders has taken over the nuts and bolts of the Foundation, so we are very excited that Jeff Feige – a long-time Advocate and past conference manager – will be joining our Board again to lead us in our next phase of growth and achievement,” Pura added.

Jeff Feige is currently the CEO of space and pressure suit provider Orbital Outfitters Ltd., and has served in this role for the past six years. He also currently sits on the Board of Directors of Talon Aerospace LLC., an aerospace LED lighting company focused on supporting the commercial aircraft industry. Prior to his work with Orbital Outfitters, Jeff worked as a space business strategy and policy consultant at PoliSpace.  Earlier, Jeff was the Assistant to the Executive Director of the Aerospace States Association (ASA), an organization representing U.S. state governments on aerospace and related economic development issues. In the past, Feige served on the Foundation’s Board and managed both the Return to the Moon Conference and the NewSpace Conference.  He holds a B.S. from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, and is an avid SCUBA diver, sailor, and private pilot.

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Space Science

Video: The dancing auroras of Saturn

A beautiful set of image sequences showing the auroras of Saturn in action: Dance of Saturn’s Auroras – YouTube

From the caption:

Ultraviolet and infrared images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope show active and quiet auroras at Saturn’s north and south poles.

Saturn’s auroras glow when energetic electrons dive into the planet’s atmosphere and collide with hydrogen molecules. Sometimes a blast of fast solar wind, composed of mostly electrons and protons, creates an active aurora at Saturn, as occurred on April 5 and May 20, 2013. 

The first set of images, as seen in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum by Hubble, shows an active aurora dancing around Saturn’s north pole on April 5. The movie then shows a relatively quiet time between April 19 to 22 and between May 18 and 19. The aurora flares up again in Hubble images from May 20. This version, shown in false-color, has been processed to show the auroras more clearly.

A second set of ultraviolet images shows a closer view of an active north polar aurora in white. This set comes from Cassini ultraviolet imaging spectrograph observations on May 20 and 21. 

The last set of images, in the infrared, shows a quiet southern aurora (in green) in observations from Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on May 17. Saturn’s inner heat glows in red, with dark areas showing where high clouds block the heat

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Feb.12.14 [Updated]

Today’s set of space policy/politics related links:

Update:

Update 2:

Mars, Space Science

Curiosity: Crossing the sands of Mars + A panorama + Mapping the rover’s trek from orbit

The Mars Curiosity rover looks back over ira trek across a sand dune : NASA’s Curiosity Drives On After Crossing Martian Dune – NASA JPL –

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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is continuing its traverse toward enticing science destinations after climbing over a dune spanning a gap in a ridge.

The rover covered 135 feet (41.1 meters) on Feb. 9, in its first drive since the 23-foot (7-meter) crossing of the dune on Feb. 6. That put Curiosity’s total odometry since its August 2012 landing at 3.09 miles (4.97 kilometers).

An animated sequence of images from the low-slung Hazard-Avoidance Camera on the rear of the vehicle documents the up-then-down crossing of the dune.

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Check out also the cool interactive panorama created from Curiosity’s images near the sand dune: Curiosity Rover’s Epic New Panorama of the Sands of Mars – Wired Science

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Emily Lakdawalla describes the HiRISE high-resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter  and then shows some interesting images made with it of the area where Curiosity has been exploring and the path that it has taken: HiRISE image coverage of the Curiosity field site on Mars – The Planetary Society.

Living in Space, Mars, Space books

“The Martian” – Andy Weir’s debut novel becomes a best seller

Andy Weir‘s book, The Martian: A Novel, has become an unexpected hit and there is already a movie in the works: A Survival Guide to Mars: A Computer-Scientist-Turned-Novelist Explores Life on Mars in Debut Thriller – WSJ.com

What if you were the last person on Mars?

That is the dizzying premise of Andy Weir’s meticulously researched debut novel, “The Martian.” The novel, which began as a self-published science-fiction serial, is shaping up to be an international hit, with publication rights sold in 21 countries and a movie in the works.

The story opens as astronaut Mark Watney, the lowest-ranking crew member of NASA’s third manned mission to Mars, wakes, aching and fuzzy headed, from an unconscious stupor in his space suit. He is stranded on Mars, after his crew got hit with an unexpectedly powerful sand storm six days into their monthlong mission. He was presumed dead and left behind when the crew evacuated. Satellite radio communications with NASA blew out. The next scheduled Mars mission is four years away, and Watney only has enough food to last 300 days.

 

Everyone can participate in space