Category Archives: Activism

Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

Spacevidcast 7.07 – Who owns the moon?

The latest Spacevidcast live show is now available in the archive: Who owns the moon? – Spacevidcast

Caption:

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In this episode we talk about cosmic property rights. Who owns the moon? What about Mars? Can a company legally mine an asteroid?

In space news: ULA and SpaceX go head to head at a Senate hearing committee, how tensions with Russia can negatively impact the US space programs, COSMOS, a new space plane is being developed and the original space shuttle wooden mockup is moving.

You can watch the full Senate sub-committee video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he0-S…

Spacevidcast is a weekly show all about space and the comsos. Covering major events from NASA, ESA, JAXA, Roscosmos, SpaceX and more, Spacevidcast is your weekly news and views show for every space geek! Featuring monthly live shows and weekly cosmic updates, get your Space Geek on right here! Don’t forget to subscribe.

Activism, Mars, Space participation

Uwingu’s “Name a Mars Crater” – A view at Sky & Telescope

Sky and Telescope magazine backs Uwingu’s Mars Crater naming project: Name a Mars Crater with Uwingu – SkyandTelescope.com.

It’s for a cause. Also unlike the name-a-star scams, Uwingu’s name-a-crater scheme isn’t purely for profit. Half the proceeds go to the Uwingu Fund, which promises to support space education and research. The other half goes to running the company, which has no paid staff and a few paid contractors, such as for website development.

So far, the Uwingu Fund has funded eight starter grants of at least $1,000 each, including grants to the Astronomers Without Borders, the International Dark Sky Association, and the Galileo Teacher Training Program. (The fund also supported SETI’s Allen Telescope Array as part of the Indiegogo campaign.)

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Activism, Space Science, Space Systems

PlanetVac – a low cost sample-return system sponsored by the Planetary Society

The Planetary Society  is sponsoring development of the PlanetVac low cost sample-return system at Honeybee Robotics :

PlanetVac uses pressurized gas to push regolith into a sample container (effectively acting like a planetary vacuum cleaner).  Because of the low pressures on Mars, the Moon, and asteroids, the technique is extremely efficient because the efficiency is related to the ratio of the pressure of the gas you are using to the ambient pressure.  Landers typically have high pressure Helium already on board, used to pressurize the fuel tanks, which could be used as the gas.

A report on the project was given at a conference this week: PlanetVac at the IEEE Aerospace Conference – The Planetary Society

PlanetVac system on Mars soil simulantPlanetVac system on Mars soil simulant
Honeybee Robotics’ PlanetVac system, sponsored by The Planetary Society,
after successful testing in vacuum chamber, sits on Mars soil simulant that it
successfully sampled. Credit: Honeybee Robotics

This video shows prototype tests in a vacuum chamber:

And here is a video from a 2012 visit to the Honeybee Robotics factory:

Activism, Education, Events

Space advocacy conferences for 2014

2 Comments

Here is a list of some space advocate related events this year:

* Humans to Mars Conference 2014 – April 22-24, Washington D.C.

H2M 2014 will continue the discussion started at the H2M 2013 Summit to explore how humanity can land on Mars by the 2030s. This event will feature a myriad of topics and discussions on:

– New concepts of Mars architectures
– Updates on science missions and objectives
– Planetary protection
– In Situ Resource Utilization
– Human factors
– International cooperation

This event will also pay special attention to engaging the public.

H2M 2014 will feature some of the most prominent people in space exploration as well as policy experts, business leaders, media personalities, international representatives, academic leaders, and members of the entertainment community.

2014 H2M will be a highly interactive conference. In addition to the onsite audience, we anticipate having over a thousand schools viewing H2M as well as tens of thousands of individuals from around the world viewing and participating online in the event. While H2M will be based in Washington, DC, our goal is to create a worldwide Mars exploration event.

* ISDC 2014: A Space Renaissance – May 14-18, 2014 — Los Angeles, California
The annual conference of the National Space Society:

Among our special guests are Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Lori Garver, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, and astronaut Chris Ferguson.  Tracks include:  Living in Space, Mars, NASA/Exploration, Space-Based Solar Power, Space Engagement, Space Enterprise, Space Experience, Space Policy, Space & Media, Space Settlement, and Transhumanism.  Other activities include:  NASA Commercial Crew Program Panel, Space Tourism Panel, Science Panel, Space Arts, Students Movie Night – A Festival of Short Mars Films, Telescope Party, Student Space Settlement Design Contest Awards Ceremony, SpaceUp, and T-5 talks.

* NewSpace 2014 – July 24-26, Silicon Valley, California

Space Frontier Foundation is delighted to announce its list of panels for the NewSpace 2014 conference to be held between July 24-26 in Silicon Valley, CA. NewSpace 2014 is proud to usher in a broad spectrum of space related topics that will influence new ideas and innovation and serve as a stepping stone for the future of commercial space exploration and development. 

The panelists will share their experience and expertise on a range of topics which include:

Orbital Debris – The panelists will discuss current and future opportunities for marketizing insurance against and removal of orbital debris.
 
Space Data – This panel will explore how and why organizations who collect this data make it available to their users as well as how the users apply the data from space to make discoveries and solve problems on Earth. 
 
DIY Space Movement – The panelists will discuss how the DIY technologies are democratizing space exploration and how this movement will develop in the near future to both empower the citizen explorer and escalate humankind’s presence in space.
 
In addition to the aforementioned topics, NewSpace 2014 will host several other thought provoking panels and keynote speakers who will share their views on commercializing space. Have a glimpse at some of the programming for NewSpace 2014 and learn about what NewSpace has offered in the past by clicking here. 

* International Mars Society Convention – August 7-10, 2014, League City, Texas

The four-day event will bring together key experts, scientists, policymakers and journalists to discuss the latest news on Mars exploration and efforts to promote a human mission to the Red Planet in the coming years.

* Int. Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS 2014) – Oct.15-16, Las Cruces, New Mexico

The International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) is the most relevant, high-value commercial space conference of the year. This year, through two high-impact days of dynamic dialogue and collaboration, ISPCS will address strategies to manage the risks and reap the rewards of the rapidly evolving commercial space industry. Handcrafted panel discussions will examine key industry issues and trends in the high-risk ventures of developing new platforms for suborbital space and beyond.

*  SpaceVision 2014  – Oct.30-Nov.2.14, Univ. of North Carolina, Durham, N.C.
The annual meeting of SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space)

Join hundreds of passionate SEDS members from across the country in a celebration of space! SpaceVision is the annual networking conference for the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and is run and led entirely by students.

Update: A reader sent me the time and place for the SEDS meeting. 

Activism, Space Science

MESSENGER Mercury mission team wins NSS Space Pioneer Award

An announcement from the National Space Society and ISDC 2014:

MESSENGER Team Wins National Space Society’s Space Pioneer Award
for Science and Engineering  

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Washington DC – March 3, 2014:  The National Space Society takes great pleasure in awarding its 2014 Space Pioneer Award for the Science and Engineering category to the (Mercury) MESSENGER Team.  MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging.  This spacecraft entered an orbit around the planet Mercury and conducted an extensive scientific survey of the entire planet, the first human object to do so.  With this award, NSS recognizes both the importance of the first dedicated probe to orbit Mercury and the significance of the scientific results already released.

The National Space Society will present the Space Pioneer Award to MESSENGER project representatives Drs. Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler and Ralph McNutt at NSS’s annual conference, the 2014 International Space Development Conference (ISDC).  The conference will be held at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.  The ISDC will run from May 14-18, 2014.

MessengerPatch_606

About the MESSENGER Team:

The Principal Investigator for the Messenger Team is Dr. Sean C. Solomon. He also directs the prestigious Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.  Dr. Larry R. Nittler is MESSENGER’s Deputy Principal Investigator. Dr. Ralph McNutt is MESSENGER’s Project Scientist. The historic achievements of the MESSENGER Team (after construction and launch of the spacecraft) include successfully placing the spacecraft accurately into its intended orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011, after a series of six critical flybys of the Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself.  Besides the critical contribution of accurately mapping Mercury’s surface, the science results have confirmed the presence of water ice and organic chemicals at the poles, and the fact that Mercury’s magnetic field is offset to the north substantially from its equator.

About the MESSENGER Mission:

MESSENGER confirmed suspicions of major regional volcanism and mapped global patterns of thrust fault scarps that show Mercury has contracted several times more than Mariner 10 data indicated.  Global elemental and mineralogical mapping confirmed Mercury has a low-iron crustal mineralogy, but unexpectedly showed sulfur, potassium and other volatile elements are abundant, upsetting high temperature models of Mercury’s formation.  MESSENGER has discovered pitted “hollows” with bright halos, found in many craters, which appear to involve volatile loss but their formation mechanism remains enigmatic.

About the Space Pioneer Award: 

The Space Pioneer Award consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by Don Davis, the well-known space and astronomical artist.  The globe, as shown at right, which represents multiple space mission destinations and goals, sits freely on a brass support with a wooden base and brass plaque, which are created by Michael Hall’s Studio Foundry of Driftwood, TX. There are several different categories under which the award is presented each year, starting in 1988.  The NSS Awards Committee has been chaired by John Strickland since 2007 and its members seek prestigious award candidates on a continual basis.

About the ISDC: 
The International Space Development Conference (ISDC) is the annual conference of the National Space Society bringing together NSS leaders and members with leading managers, engineers, scientists, educators, and businessmen from civilian, military, commercial, entrepreneurial, and grassroots advocacy space sectors.
About the National Space Society: 
NSS is an independent non-profit educational membership organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization.  NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space, with thousands of members and supporters, and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world.  The Society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space.  To learn more, visit www.nss.org.