Category Archives: Space participation

Mars One to initiate its astronaut selection program in on-line event, April 22nd

An announcement from Mars One:

Mars One launch astronaut selection on Youtube and Twitter

AMERSFOORT, April 19th 2013 – Mars One will launch its Astronaut Selection Program on the 22nd of April 2013 at a press conference in New York. The event will be streamed live on Youtube.

The briefing will be moderated by Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor at the Planetary Society. The panel will include

  • Bas Lansdorp, General Director and Co-Founder, Mars One
  • Norbert Kraft, Medical Director, Mars One
  • Gerard ‘t Hooft, Nobel laureate and Ambassador, Mars One
  • Grant Anderson, Sr. VP Operations, Chief Engineer and Co-Founder, PParagon Space Development Corporation
  • Bryan Versteeg, Mission Concept Artist, Mars One

Date and Time: 22nd April, starts 12:00 pm EDT ends 1:30 pm EDT

You can be a part of the Q&A by sending us your questions and opinions via Twitter by using the hashtag #MarsOneLaunch.

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About Mars One
Mars One is a not-for-profit organization that will establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 through the integration of existing, readily available technology that can be purchased from the global private space industry. Mars One will fund this decade-long endeavor by involving the whole world as the audience of an interactive, televised broadcast of every aspect of this mission- from launch to landing to living on Mars. In March 2013 Mars One contracted Paragon Space Development Corporation (USA) to take the first steps in developing the life support system and spacesuits fit for the mission. Mars One is in talks with various other aerospace companies for different components of the mission; a series of contracts will be announced later this year. This is a global mission: our advisers, suppliers and also would-be astronauts come from all over the world.

Mars One website www.mars-one.com
Mars One Introduction Film

First space hacker workshop to happen in Silicon Valley on May 4-5

An announcement from Silicon Valley Space Center and Citizens in Space :

The Final Frontier for Citizen Science
First Space Hacker Workshop to Take Place in Silicon Valley

Mountain View, California (Apr. 2, 2013) – Are you a hardware hacker? Do you have the Right Stuff to become a citizen scientist or citizen astronaut? Here’s your chance to find out.

Citizen scientists and hardware hackers will learn how to do “space on the cheap” at the first Space Hacker Workshop for Suborbital Experiments. Participants at the two-day workshop will learn how they can build and fly experiments in space, and even fly in space as citizen astronauts, through the Citizens in Space program.

The Space Hacker Workshop takes place May 4-5 at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, California, across the street (literally) from NASA Ames Research Center.  The workshop is sponsored by Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy, and the Silicon Valley Space Center.

Citizens in Space has purchased 10 flights on the XCOR Lynx spacecraft, now under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port, which will be made available to the citizen-science community.

“We’re looking for 100 citizen-science experiments and 10 citizen astronauts to fly as payload operators,” Citizens in Space project manager Edward Wright said. “This is a chance for citizen scientists to develop and test new technologies, like bioreactors and 3D printing, in zero gravity; to collect microorganisms from the extreme upper atmosphere; to experiment with new processes for creating new materials; and do many more cool things. The Space Hacker Workshop will provide participants with information and skills needed to take advantage of our free flight opportunities.”

“Space is no longer the exclusive domain of NASA and university scientists,” said Dr. Sean Casey, co-founder of the Silicon Valley Space Center. “Citizen scientists can build and fly fully functioning experiments for a few hundred dollars or less, thanks to technology developed here in Silicon Valley. With components available at Radio Shack or Fry’s Electronics, citizen scientists can build instruments and experiments with more power than a NASA satellite from a few years back.”

“Commercial spaceflight is the next high-tech revolution, making space a participatory frontier,” said Dr. Alexander Saltman, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “This event will tap into the creative spirit that has made Silicon Valley a center of innovation for decades.”

The Space Hacker Workshop will provide hands-on exposure to a variety of microcontrollers, sensors, imaging systems, and other components. With these components, participants will learn how to design and build microgravity, fluid-physics, life-science, and engineering experiments.

Infinity Aerospace, which is developing the open-source ArduLab for low-cost space experiments, will be on hand to discuss the use of ArduLab hardware as a development platform. Also on hand will be representatives of XCOR Aerospace, which is building the fully reusable Lynx suborbital spacecraft, and NASA Ames Research Center.

Khaki Rodway of XCOR Aerospace will discuss the capabilities and requirements of the Lynx spacecraft. A panel of experts from NASA and industry will discuss research professional scientists have done in the past, prospects for new research on low-cost vehicles such as the Lynx, and opportunities for citizen scientists to build on the shoulders of NASA giants.

Project manager Edward Wright will be on hand to discuss Citizens in Space flight opportunities for experiments and citizen astronauts, including an exclusive glimpse at citizen-astronaut training activities planned for this summer.

Admission for the event is $150 at the door, but early-bird tickets are available now for $100. Tickets are limited and the event may sell out. Online registration is available at spacehacker.eventbrite.com.

Kickstarter: Making a movie of a Harry Harrison novel + Sending your face to space

A reader points me to a couple of space related Kickstarter campaigns.

In this project, the creator of movies Repo Man and Sid & Nancy will direct “a feature comedy based on Harry Harrison’s classic anti-war science fiction novel”: Alex Cox directs BILL THE GALACTIC HERO by Alex Cox — Kickstarter

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And this project says that they “want to launch a picture of your face into space. On a satellite. To scare away the aliens.” : Your Face in Space – A Quest to Save Earth by Ridiculo.us — Kickstarter

KLM contest offers space trip prize

KLM Airline has opened a contest for a ride on the XCOR Lynx suborbital spaceplane: KLM – Claim Your Place in Space

On April 22nd 2013, KLM will give you a chance to win the ultimate journey of inspiration — a flight into space.

In an exclusive competition, KLM will be launching a high altitude balloon in the Nevada desert. All you have to do is simply predict how high the balloon will reach before it pops!

The winner will receive a ticket aboard the zero gravity SXC Lynx Spacecraft. A true once in a lifetime experience!

Visit http://space.klm.com/ for a chance to claim your place in space.

Uwingu responds to IAU on exoplanet naming

Here’s a press release from Uwingu concerning the IAU statement:

Uwingu Responds to the IAU, Extends People’s Choice
Alpha Centauri Planet Naming Contest

Space company Uwingu’s ‘People’s Choice’ contest to solicit the public’s choice name for the nearest known planet around another star has been extended a week and will now end Monday April 22 at midnight US Eastern Daylight Time.
Uwingu Is Funding Space Education Grants Via This ContestBoulder, Colorado—

The UwinguTM ‘People’s Choice’ public engagement contest at www.uwingu.com to solicit and vote on a popular name for the nearest known planet around another star has been extended a week, and will now end Monday April 22 at midnight US Eastern Daylight Time.Uwingu’s mission is twofold: To help the public better connect to space and the sky, and to create a new kind of grant fund for space researchers and educators using proceeds from our web site. Uwingu’s name means sky in Swahili.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU)  issued a press release on 12 April that significantly mis-characterized Uwingu’s People’s Choice contest and Uwingu itself.

Uwingu affirms the IAU’s right to create naming systems for astronomers But we know that the IAU has no purview—informal or official—to control popular naming of bodies in the sky or features on them, just as geographers have no purview to control people’s naming of features along hiking trails. People clearly enjoy connecting to the sky and having an input to common-use naming. We will continue to stand up for the public’s rights in this regard, and look forward to raising more grant funds for space researchers and educators this way.

We now take this opportunity to note to the public that, contrary to the IAU press release:

*    Informal names for astronomical objects are common (e.g., “The Milky Way”). And in fact, there is no such thing as a unified astronomical naming system, and there never has been. Claims to the contrary are simply incorrect, as an astronomical database search on a representative star, Polaris reveals. This star is also known to astronomers and the public as The North Star, Alpha Ursa Minori, HD8890, HIP 11767, SAO 308, ADS 1477, FK5 907, and over a dozen more designations.

*    There are many instances where astronomers name things without going through the IAU’s internal process. There are many of features on Mars, ranging from mountains to individual rocks, with names applied by Mars-mission scientists and never adopted by, or even considered by, the IAU. And Apollo astronauts did not seek IAU permission before naming features at their landing sites or from orbit.

*   There are also numerous recent press releases in which astronomical objects were given names by astronomers without any IAU process: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/sn-wilso… (“Supernova Wilson”), http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/elgordo/ (Galaxy cluster “El Gordo”), and http://hubblesite.org/

newscenter/archive/releases/galaxy/spiral/2004/04/ (“Black Eye Galaxy”), none drew attention from the IAU.*    Uwingu looks forward to continuing to help the general public to engage creatively in astronomy and to participate in the excitement of the exploration of the universe in which we all live.

In our Alpha Centauri People’s Choice naming contest, anyone can nominate a name to honor a friend, colleague, loved one, or to recognize a place name, an author, an artist, or a sports team, for example.  The name getting the highest number of votes will be declared the public’s choice for Uwingu to use as the name for this mysterious new world. Never before has the public been asked to choose its favorite name for a planet.

Name nominations are $4.99; votes cost $0.99. Proceeds from naming and voting fuel new Uwingu grants to fund space education projects affected by sequestration cuts to NASA. Uwingu’s exoplanet naming efforts were recently featured in Time Magazine, at http://science.time.com/2013/03/07/name-your-own-exoplanet-for-4-99/

The namer of the most popular name for Alpha Centauri Bb will receive prizes from Uwingu and will be recognized in a press release about the winning name. Uwingu is also giving prizes for runner-ups, and for all names that reach thresholds of 100, 1,000, and 10,000 votes.

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About Uwingu:
Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”) was formed by a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators. The company includes space historian and author Andrew Chaikin, space educator Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, citizen science leader Dr. Pamela Gay, author and former museum science director Dr. David Grinspoon, planet hunter Dr. Geoff Marcy, planetary scientist and aerospace executive Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and former NASA science boss Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and CEO of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Mark Sykes, former Executive Director of the Planetary Society Dr. Louis Friedman, and space artists Jon Lomberg and Dan Durda. In September, Uwingu successfully concluded one of the 25 largest Indiegogo crowd-funding campaigns ever to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Visit Uwingu’s web site at www.uwingu.com to learn more.