Space Science, The Moon

Planetary Society Hangout, Jan.21, 2013 with lunar geologist Sarah Noble

The Planetary Society Hangout on  Jan 31, 2013 welcomed Sarah Noble, a lunar geologist and a member of  the Research & Analysis program at NASA Headquarters. She talked about the space science program and in particular how space science proposals are reviewed and selected.  She also discussed lunar science and declared that the Moon is definitely not a “been there, done that” kind of place. There is a lot of good science left to be done there. She described, for example, NASA’s LADEE mission, which will look at the dust and hyper-thin atmosphere around the Moon.

History

Tenth anniversary of the Shuttle Columbia disaster

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Columbia accident. NASA held memorial events at Arlington National Cemetery and Kennedy Space Center.

There are hundreds of articles and commentaries in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other publications on line to day. (See, for example, spacetoday.net and news.google.com) Here is a sampling of items about the tragedy and its affect on the US space program:

See also the earlier post here about this week of sad anniversaries and it includes links to web resources for these space tragedies.

 

Astronomy, Space Science

A video guide to asteroid 2012-DA14

The Planetary Society provides this “Guide to the February 15, 2013 Close Pass by Asteroid 2012 DA14“:

History, Space Policy

Wayne Hale: Enduring lessons from Columbia

Continuing  his series on the Columbia disaster (see earlier item), former Space Shuttle flight directory and program manager Wayne Hale writes about the ten lessons learned: After Ten Years: Enduring Lessons – Wayne Hale’s Blog.

Everyone can participate in space