The Year’s Most Audacious Private Space Exploration Plans

From Wired.com:  The Year’s Most Audacious Private Space Exploration Plans

It has been a remarkable and exciting year for commercial spaceflight companies.
Private asteroid mining! Commercial trips to the moon! Mars settlements! We barely had time to catch our breath from the last secret organization announcement when suddenly some other team was cropping up and declaring a bold new adventure in space.
“You had the unveiling of these really audacious business plans that at first blush you would dismiss as impossible,” said journalist and aerospace analyst Jeff Foust, editor and publisher of the space-industry-watching The Space Review. “But when you look at both the technical and financial pedigree of the people backing these systems, you step back and say, ‘Well, maybe there’s something here.’”
Many of these new companies have experts at their helms, founded or run by former NASA engineers and veterans of the spaceflight community. Others showed off their deep entrepreneurial pockets and touted the potential profits to be made in space.
So how did 2012 turn into the year of private space? Perhaps the most important factor was the trailblazing success of SpaceX, a commercial rocket business started by entrepreneur and PayPal founder Elon Musk. This year, the company conducted two launches to the International Space Station using their Falcon 9 vehicle, with the second mission bringing supplies and helping prove that SpaceX was on the path to ferrying astronauts.
The company is already planning their next rocket, the enormous Falcon Heavy, for launch in 2013 and recently won important contracts with the U.S. military to deliver hardware to space. With all these notches on his space belt, Musk is no doubt already eyeing the perfect ridge for his retirement home on Mars.
Contributing influences to 2012’s commercial space focus include an aimless NASA. Though it saw spectacular successes such as the Mars Curiosity rover landing, the agency is still wrestling with frozen budgets and a deeply divided Congress that disagrees on its overarching mission. Alongside NASA’s existential crisis was the aftermath of the second dot-com boom, which created a crop of young, sci-fi-crazy tycoons.
“When you give these Silicon Valley guys a billion dollars,” said astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of Harvard, who tracks rocket launches, “Their first thought is ‘Cool, now I can have my own space program.’”
Just in case you are having trouble telling the Planetary Resources apart from the Golden Spikes, Wired presents a gallery of the year's most impressive, daring, and wild business plans from commercial companies. We also talked to a small handful of spaceflight experts to get their take on which of the big dreams will pan out and which will burn out.
“I don’t expect them all to succeed, but I don’t expect them all to fail,” said space lawyer Michael Listner, founder of Space Law & Policy Solutions. Taken together, the companies’ ambitions underscore just how much times have changed. “About 10 years ago, if you presented one of these plans, people would have looked at you like you’re crazy. Now people can say, well it’s a little crazy, but considering what’s been done, it might be possible.”

Military Notes: Space exploration music alternatives

From PNJ.com:  Military Notes: Space exploration music alternatives

Alternative space music for the unveiling of the lunar landing module replica, the National Naval Aviation Museum’s LEM model could eventually take to the air, and complete blueprints to the original space vehicle couldn’t be found.

Space oddity

If you attended the unveiling of the National Naval Aviation Museum’s new replica of the Apollo 17 lunar excursion module last weekend and think you heard a different tune when the curtain went up than the music playing on our website’s video recording of the moment, you’re right.
At the event, 550 guests heard “Telstar,” a recording by the British group The Tornados, which was a hit on U.S. pop charts in 1962. And while the instrumental is certainly stirring, the Pensacola News Journal’s videographer Ron Stallcup decided to dub in music he thinks is more rousing and a better fit.
So those who tuned into pnj.com’s video of the unveiling on Sunday heard the theme from the 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Neither melody is from 1972, the year that Apollo 17 landed on the moon. Stallcup and the museum could have revived a hit song about space that was actually from 1972: “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time),” composed by Bernie Taupin and Elton John.

LEM trivia

Here are some more tidbits about the museum’s new LEM replica, which is 23 feet fall, made of steel and aluminum and weighs 4,500 pounds. For all that bulk, the manufacturer, Digital Design LLC in Phoenix, constructed the life-size model so that while it now rests on the floor of Hangar Bay 1, curators could eventually hang it from the ceiling — perhaps to dramatize the presentation and clear the way for another exhibit.
Another bit of LEM trivia, the museum’s replica, even though it’s made to sell at retail price of $180,000, is a bargain compared with the ones made for NASA’s Apollo program by Grumman. Those cost about $17 million apiece. Of course they were working space vehicles, while the museum’s replica is an empty shell.

Winging it

Grumman didn’t save complete blueprints of the original LEMs, according to Jaime Johnston, general manager of Digital Design. He said his company’s engineers and designers had to visit museums that contain four of the surviving real LEMs, none of which went into space, to make accurate drawings on which to base their replica.
Johnston said that if Grumman wanted to build another real-life LEM today, “They would have to grab one of the existing ones and take it apart.”

New posting schedule

Now that I've got this new full-time job, I'll be posting in this blog twice a week - on Monday's and Wednesdays.

So the next post for this blog will be on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

Who's next in line for the 'one small step' on moon

From Alamagordo Daily News:  Who's next in line for the 'one small step' on moon?

Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 17 mission Ð the sixth and last manned lunar landing mission.
The Apollo 17 crew included mission commander Eugene Cernan, lunar module pilot Harrison "Jack" Schmitt and command module pilot Ronald Evans.
Apollo 17 lifted off on Dec. 7, 1972 the only nighttime launch in the Apollo program and after a three-day voyage (which the onboard astronauts took the famous and iconic "blue marble" photograph of Earth) arrived in lunar orbit. Cernan and Schmitt then departed the command module America, and in the lunar module Challenger, descended toward their planned landing site, the Taurus-Littrow valley in the lunar highlands, arriving there on Dec. 11.
Cernan and Schmitt a geologist by profession and the first and only trained scientist to visit the moon Ð spent three days at Taurus-Littrow, performing three seven-hour moonwalks and conducting a variety of scientific investigations during the course of these.
Forty years ago this Friday, on Dec. 14, 1972, Schmitt, and then Cernan, ascended the ladder of Challenger from the lunar surface.
They then lifted off from the moon and met with Evans and America. Afterward, the three astronauts and America departed lunar orbit and headed toward Earth and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 19.
No one has visited the moon since the Apollo 17 crew departed it four decades ago.
Although there were originally three additional Apollo missions scheduled to fly after Apollo 17, these were cancelled due to budget cuts.
Meanwhile, even unmanned lunar exploration soon ground to a halt. At the same time, the former Soviet Union continued to launch a few more Luna missions during the subsequent years, including the Luna 21 mission, which deployed a rover in early 1973 and the Luna 24 mission, which successfully returned lunar samples to Earth in 1976, with the completion of this latter mission even that program ceased.
It wasn't until the 1990s that probes of any kind visited the moon; the earliest ones were the Japanese Hiten probe in 1991 and the American Clementine probe a Department of Defense mission in 1994. They were followed by the low-budget American Lunar Prospector mission in 1998.
Although these were not especially sophisticated missions, Clementine data indicated the possibility that ice might exist in permanently-shadowed craters near the moon's poles and data from Lunar Prospector somewhat strongly supported this.
The past few years have seen a resurgence in interest in unmanned lunar missions, both here in the U.S. and in several other countries.
In addition to the American probes, lunar-orbiting spacecraft have been launched by Japan, China, India and the European Space Agency.
The two primary American missions have been the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, which has been photographing the moon's surface in unprecedented detail, including various images of the Apollo landing site and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) spacecraft.
The two probes were co-launched in 2009, and in October of that year, LCROSS impacted a crater near the moon's south pole, with water being definitely detected in the resulting debris plume.
A recent American effort was the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, which consisted of two spacecraft since named Ebb and Flow that have been orbiting the moon closely in tandem with each since the beginning of this year in an effort to perform high-resolution mapping of the moon's gravity field.
According to recent results from the GRAIL mission, the moon's crust nowhere thicker than 27 miles is a crushed and pulverized "rubble pile" due to the violent and enormous impacts the moon has undergone since its original formation.
Ebb and Flow are being targeted to impact the moon's surface just before 3:30 p.m. MST Monday, Dec. 17.
So when will humans ever visit the moon again? This question cannot be easily answered.
The American Constellation program, originally proposed and initiated in 2004, had established a timetable of a flight to the moon to take place by 2020, however in reality, Constellation was never adequately funded and it was cancelled in 2010.
While potential lunar missions are presently being discussed, there are no formal American plans for a return to the moon anytime in the near- to mid-foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, the Chinese space program, which has successfully launched several manned Earth-orbital missions over the past nine years as well as two unmanned lunar orbiting missions within the past five years, has announced plans to launch an unmanned lunar rover mission late next year and to send astronauts to the moon in the 2025-2030 timeframe.
Perhaps the next lunar visitors will come from private efforts.
There is already the Google Lunar X-Prize, a $30-million prize to be awarded to the first private-developed effort to land and deploy a lunar rover, with a deadline date of the end of 2015.
The firm Space Adventures, which has facilitated several private citizen visits to the International Space Station (ISS) over the past decade, is currently marketing an around-the-moon trip, and meanwhile just last week came the announcement of a new company, Golden Spike, that is envisioning taking private visitors on lunar orbiting, and even lunar landing, journeys.
The prices for such trips are not cheap Ð the cost of a Golden Spike lunar landing mission is being estimated at $1.5 billion Ð so the next human to set foot on the moon might be one of our planet's wealthiest.
But in the precedent being set by the Space Adventures ISS flights, the costs could conceivably become more accessible to more "average" citizens within a generation or two.
The first human to walk upon the moon, Neil Armstrong, passed away earlier this year.
One can perhaps hope that the next person to do so is already alive, and may take that "one small step" sometime within the not-to-distant future.

First piloted rocket got attention, but not success

From Alamogordo Daily News:  First piloted rocket got attention, but not success

"Germans Plan First Rocket Flight With Pilot," the New York Times headlined the Associated Press story on Dec. 18, 1932.
"In an attempt to further the practical development of rocket flying," the story reported, "the city authorities, the police and the Governor of Magdeburg district have decided to grant permission for the first ascent of a rocket device occupied by a pilot."
The city of Magdeburg would contribute half of the $4,000 needed to build the 25-foot tall rocket; the Magdeburg Bank would loan the remainder.
"The rocket, which is expected to reach an altitude of 3,000 feet, is to return to the grounds by the means of a large parachute that unfolds itself automatically, and the pilot, after leaping out of the fiery sky ship, is to be brought down by a parachute," the Times stated.
Rudolf Nebel, a World War I combat pilot, was the rocket's "inventor," but at the time, he had little experience. Hermann Oberth had hired Nebel in 1929 to work in Berlin on rocketry for Fritz Lang's film "Frau in Mond" ("Woman in the Moon"). German ex-patriate Willy Ley wrote in "Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel" that Oberth "did not make certain whether Nebel had the qualifications," such as "in working with aluminum and magnesium alloys or at least with liquefied gases." According to Ley, Nebel later revealed "he had been graduated in a hurry during the war because he had volunteered for the air arm (of the military), and that after the war, he had never worked as a designing engineer but for some time as a salesman of mechanical kitchen gadgets."

The German Rocket Society/Society for Space Travel, or VfR, would build what was called the "Pilot Rocket"; even though Ley said the passenger wasn't really a pilot "since he did not do anything" except "jump out with his own parachute."
Nebel was secretary of the VfR; Wernher von Braun and Oberth were members. Ley, Nebel, and Jacques Valier were two of the founders. Valier, in 1928, had built the world's first rocket car, funded by automaker Fritz von Opel. On Sept. 27, 1930, the VfR had begun using the Raketenflugplatz, a former German military base, in Berlin to experiment.
"Berlin now has a rocket flying field with an area of about two square miles," the the Times reported on March 8, 1931. The story mentioned "references in the German press" regarding "discussions of the possibility of rockets," and warned of the "extraordinarily dangerous character of the experiments now being carried on at the Berlin rocket flying field."
By October 1931, the VfR had developed a water-cooled combustion chamber to feed an aluminum engine that burned 160 gallons of liquid oxygen and gasoline per second for 200 seconds. Members next designed dual tanks to separately hold, and then feed, liquid oxygen and gasoline.
The Magdeburg rocket was not Nebel's idea. One day, Fritz Mengering, an engineer with the City of Magdeburg, "showed up at Raketenflugplatz espousing a crackpot theory (dreamed up by someone else) that the apparent form of the universe was an illusion and the surface of the earth was on the inside of a sphere!" Michael Neufeld documented in "The Rocket and the Reich" (Smithsonian/1995). "By developing a large rocket one could prove this thesis."
The theory, Ley said, "began like a story by Jules Verne.
A mentally decrepit 'philosopher' had written a badly printed pamphlet about the true shape of the universe, in which he insisted that the earth is the universe, that we live inside a hollow globe of the dimensions of the earth, that there is nothing outside that globe, and that the universe of the astronomers is only an optical illusion. Since every crank can find some fellow cranks, the "hollow-earth philosophy' had found some too, among them an engineer named Mengering. É He conceived the idea of testing the hollow-earth theory by means of a rocket. If a rocket going vertically upward crashed É proof would be established."
Von Braun, among others, "emphatically rejected the theory." Nebel, however, "saw this idea as a new opportunity for raising money." They would launch during the next Pentecost.
"It looked like something in which we did not like to see the VfR involved," Ley said.
They didn't worry for long. Ley pointed out Nebel informed them the project "was to be entrusted to him personally (and) not the VfR," even though the members would be the labor.
It was Mengering who convinced Magdeburg to fund the project even though the government didn't buy the Hollow Earth theory. Ley said they did "welcome É scientific achievement," and the rocket would be "the crowning feature of a kind of city-wide holiday" during Easter 1933.
The Magdeburg Project failed. Neufeld, in "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" (Knopf/2008), called Nebel "more of a con man than an engineer."
"We all began to work feverishly although we knew that it would be impossible to get such rockets ready in the time interval agreed upon," Ley wrote. "But it meant an opportunity to build large rockets without being handicapped by lack of funds."
The VfR began building at Christmas 1932. A motor was tested on March 9 and "could be heard for miles," Ley said. A test three days later "exploded at the instant of ignition; the concussion was so bad that the eyeballs of the observers pained considerably." Another motor exploded on April 3.
At a June 9 launch, Ley said "the rocket began to rise slowly" up the 30-foot "launching rack É built in a cow pasture." The rocket never cleared the rack, and simply slid back down. "Another attempt two days later was spoiled by a leaky gasket." The engine "roared" for 2 minutes but never developed thrust. A June 13 launch "ended prematurely" when the rocket, rising only to six feet, "popped" a vent screw.
On June 29, because rain "had warped the wooden launching rack," the rocket caught as it came off the guide and launched "almost horizontally," making a "belly landing 1000 feet" away.
The Magdeburg government wasn't impressed.
"In return for partial fulfillment of his promises," said "To A Distant Day: The Rocket Pioneers" (University of Nebraska/2008), "Nebel received only partial payment."

Secret shuttle in orbit after Atlas V launch

From WFTV.com: Secret shuttle in orbit after Atlas V launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —

For a time on Tuesday it appeared the X-37b Space Plane would remain on the ground at Cape Canaveral air Force Station. But, just before the launch window closed, the clouds parted for the military's mini-shuttle and its top secret mission.

The unmanned shuttle was carried into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

The rocket launched from launch complex 41. Launch commentary ended 17 minutes into the undisclosed mission.

This is the second flight for this particular Air Force mini-shuttle, making it a milestone of sorts for the X-37b.

"A space vehicle has launched, returned to Earth and then launched again," said Christa Bell, a representative from United Space Alliance.

Jim Hale is an Air Force veteran and volunteer.

"We're so used to seeing the big shuttle and we thought these reusable vehicles were over and done with, and now we have a whole new generation of reusable vehicles," said Hale.

Unlike two previous mini-shuttle missions that touched down at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, this one may end where it started: on the space coast and with a landing on the shuttle runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Space exploration is Canadians’ ‘birthright

From Montreal Gazette: Space exploration is Canadians’ ‘birthright

Canada, the third nation to get to space, can and must claim rightful ownership to extraterrestrial technology – and achievements.

Iain Christie, president of Kanata-based space technology firm Neptec Design Group Ltd., told delegates at the Canadian Aerospace Summit that “being a space-faring nation is a birthright of Canadians” – as befits the third country, after the Soviet Union and the U.S., to launch a satellite into orbit in the 1960s.

The aviation and space industry is still digesting – and praising – the comprehensive aerospace review for the Canadian government released last week by David Emerson, a former cabinet minister.

The report urges Ottawa to place space and aerospace at the top of the government’s national priorities – including personal involvement by the prime minister at the key priorities and planning committee meetings.

Emerson said the space sector had been “drifting” in the federal government’s priorities for several years, and that it regularly fell “into a black hole” in terms of the direction and importance it was accorded.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said that before commenting and acting on the report’s 25 main recommendations, cabinet colleagues must discuss them at length. He did not say when a decision could be made.

But industry executives, including Steve MacLean, a former astronaut and the president of St-Hubert’s Canadian Space Agency, almost universally hailed Emerson’s report at the summit, organized by the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada.

MacLean and Christie, whose firm makes spaceflight sensors, among other things, emphasized the disproportionate importance Canada and Canadians hold in space exploration.

Christie recalled a space-shuttle mission on which he worked as a junior engineer in Houston in 1995 – STS-74 in NASA parlance.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who will launch into space again on Dec. 19, “had to take the Canadarm to pull a Russian module out of the space-shuttle bay, attach it to the shuttle, which then flew up and attached it to the Russian Mir space station,” Christie said.

“It was symbolically and physically a Canadian who, a few short years after the Cold War, took the Russians in one hand, the Americans in the other, and brought them together.

“That is emblematic of the role Canada has always played,” he said.

MacLean also recalled how awed he was during a stint at NASA to discover that John Hodge was a Canadian.

When Neil Armstrong’s Gemini capsule – pre-Apollo – suddenly gyrated out of control, Hodge calmly talked him though to recovery “literally seconds away” from spacecraft disintegration.

MacLean said he was “incredibly pleased” by Emerson’s report.

“And when I heard Minister Paradis say that space is important to the country, this stabilizes us,” he said.

“Just that one observation stabilizes things – it tells Canadians what the space program can do for Canada.”

 

Coalition for Space Exploration Announces New Leadership for 2013

From Parabolic Arc:  Coalition for Space Exploration Announces New Leadership for 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. –The Coalition for Space Exploration (Coalition) today announced veteran aerospace communicators George Torres of ATK and Mary Engola of Ball Aerospace will lead the Coalition in 2013. Torres will serve as the new chair and Engola will continue her role as the deputy chair. Each will serve a one-year term, effective January through December 2013.
Torres works as the vice president of communications for ATK’s Aerospace Group. He has broad experience in communications across the aerospace industry, and previously led communications organizations at Rockwell International, Boeing, Hughes Space and Communications Company, and The Aerospace Corporation. A published author, Torres has written two books on the space program and was the recipient of the Journalism Award of Excellence from the Aviation/Space Writers Association for these efforts.
Lon Rains, chair for 2012, congratulated Torres on his appointment and praised the continued success of the Coalition.
“The space industry has seen a lot of change in the past year and I’m proud that the Coalition has been there to help keep space as an important issue for our country,” Rains said. “I’m confident that with George and Mary leading the charge this momentum will continue to build next year.”
Torres has been an active member of the Coalition throughout its eight year duration and led membership efforts for the latter part of 2012.
“These are dynamic times for the space industry, and much progress has been made,” Torres said. “Yet, economic uncertainties pose a serious threat to our growing momentum and I look forward to working with Mary to lead the Coalition as we continue to advance the dialogue surrounding the importance of space exploration to our country.”
Engola, Coalition 2013 deputy chair, has been an active member since the Coalition’s inception in 2004. She served as the Coalition’s 2012 deputy chair and as chair in 2008. She is currently the manager of customer and industry relations at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
“I am honored to continue serving as a member of the Coalition’s leadership team,” Engola said. “I hope my experience helps to bridge our past success with the future as we do what we can to ensure space exploration remains a national imperative.”
Through effective outreach, the Coalition fosters a national conversation about space exploration among the leadership of member organizations, with other space-related organizations, NASA, legislators and the general public.
About the Coalition for Space Exploration
The Coalition for Space Exploration for Space Exploration is a group of space industry businesses and organizations collaborating to ensure that the United States remains the leader in space, science and technology.  By reinforcing the value and benefits of space exploration with the nation’s leaders, the Coalition intends to build lasting support for a long-term, sustainable, strategic direction for space exploration.

Voyager 1 finds unknown region at edge of solar system

From USA Today:  Voyager 1 finds unknown region at edge of solar system

8:18PM EST December 3. 2012 - The Voyager 1 spacecraft is traveling through a previously unknown region of deep space as it heads out of our solar system, which might happen soon, scientists reported Monday.
Voyage and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 and will become the first man-made objects to exit our celestial neighborhood -- relatively soon.
"We don't know exactly how long it will take," Edward Stone, a project scientist, told reporters during a teleconference, Space.com reports. "It may take two months, it may take two years."
"We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space," he said. "This region was not anticipated, was not predicted."
Both spacecraft, which continue to send data back to Earth, are in the heliosheath, the outermost layer of the heliosphere. That's where the force of interstellar cosmic ray particles slows the solar wind generated by the sun.
Scientists, meeting Monday in San Francisco, dubbed the new region a "magnetic highway," where charged particles from inside and outside the heliosphere flow out and in. NASA posted animations imagining what the Voyagers are experiencing, if the naked-to-the-eye ions could be seen.
The twin probes explored Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus between 1979 and 1989.

Malware Swipes Rocket Data From Japanese Space Agency

From RedOrbit:  Malware Swipes Rocket Data From Japanese Space Agency

Information about one of the Japanese space program’s newest rockets was stolen from a desktop computer that had been infected with malware, officials from the organization revealed on Friday.
A computer housed at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center northeast of Tokyo had been discovered compiling data and transmitting it to computers outside of the agency, according to Ars Technica’s Dan Goodin.
The computer was found to be infected and was cleaned on November 21, and no other computers were found to contain malware, Martin Fackler of the New York Times added.
JAXA officials said that it was not clear if the virus was a cyberattack, Fackler said, but Japanese defense firms had been targeted by similar information-stealing programs, including some that had been linked to China.
“The data stolen from the space agency included information about the Epsilon, a solid-fuel rocket still under development,” Fackler said. “While the Epsilon is intended to launch satellite and space probes, solid-fuel rockets of that size can also have a military use as intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
“The Epsilon, whose first launching is scheduled for next autumn, will also feature new technology that will allow it to be remotely controlled by a personal computer,” he added.
Computer-based espionage attacks have become more and more common in recent years, with a vast array of international targets – including private companies, government organizations, and human rights advocacy groups – becoming frequent targets of such cybercrime efforts, Goodin said. In many cases, evidence linking the attacks to Chinese government officials has been uncovered.
“Highly sophisticated malware dubbed Flame, which reportedly was jointly developed by the US and Israeli governments, has also been used to spy on Iran,” he added. “On Friday, researchers from antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab, published details on a targeted attack on Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Astronauts Criticize US Space Program

From Voice of America:  Astronauts Criticize US Space Program

CHICAGO — NASA Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt explored the surface of the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the last time anyone has left earth's orbit or set foot on the moon.  During a 40th anniversary celebration of Apollo 17 in Chicago, the astronauts said they had expected their mission would  start a path toward space travel, not become a history lesson.

Retired Astronaut Eugene Cernan is one of just twelve men who walked on the moon.  He currently holds the distinction of being the last man there.

"It is tremendously disappointing that I am here 40 years later and still hold that title or have that yoke on my shoulders," said Cernan.

Cernan, along with fellow Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the December 1972 mission with fellow astronaut Jim Lovell at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

As they returned to Earth on that long-ago December 19, Schmitt and Cernan didn't expect that 40 years later they would be commemorating it as the end of an era.

"To say that I thought it would be 40 years, or what is really going to turn out to be 50 or 60 years before Americans are back on the moon, I would not have guessed that at all," Schmitt noted.

"A half century ago, we went 250,000 miles, cracked the door open, and never walked through it into the future. The future is still out there," added Cernan.

A plan to return to the moon, which President George W. Bush proposed, was scrapped by President Barack Obama.

Amid deep budget deficits and an economy slowly recovering, U.S. lawmakers are not keen to spend more money on space exploration, something Cernan says is still only a small part of the overall U.S. budget

"We spend one half of one penny of every one of our tax dollars on space, all of space," Cernan noted.

Schmitt, once a U.S. Senator, says there is also a lack of willpower on the part of NASA.

"And from a fiscal point of view, it falls victim to being very small, and to not having a mission based on geopolitical reality, of the importance of the United States being the dominant space faring nation," Schmitt explained.

With the Space Shuttle now retired, the U.S.- based corporation Space X is developing a vehicle that can transport people to and from earth's orbit. A manned crew capsule could be ready in the next few years.

But for veterans of the Apollo program, that's not enough. They believe NASA should prioritize a return to the moon with Mars the ultimate destination. 

 

Who's Killing the Space Program?

From Space Daily: Who's Killing the Space Program?
This past August the U.S. landed a one-ton spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Sending a spacecraft to Mars is not unique in itself, since we have sent several exploration vehicles to the Red Planet over the past five decades.
The latest such mission placed Curiosity Rover on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater.
This very advanced rover system carries instruments that will look for conditions relevant to the past or present habitability of the planet. Over the next few years, Curiosity will explore its landing site while searching for evidence that Mars was once capable of supporting life. Of course, the other question is whether Mars could support life in the future.
About two weeks after Curiosity arrived at Mars, NASA selected InSight as its 12th mission in its Discovery Program. InSight (Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will carry out a unique geophysical investigation of Mars, looking into its deep interior to see why the Red Planet evolved so differently from Earth.
The mission involves placing instruments on the Martian surface to investigate whether the core of Mars is solid or liquid, and why Mars' crust is not divided into tectonic plates that drift like those of Earth.
Knowledge gained about the interior of Mars in comparison to Earth will help scientists better understand how terrestrial planets form and evolve.
However, Curiosity is certainly far and away the most complex vehicle to reach Mars, and it may be the last of the rovers for decades to come. Given the trend in space exploration budgets and the economy in general, it is unlikely NASA will be able to afford any future missions of this scale until such time that astronauts are sent to the planet. Since there is no urgency to do this, it will be at least decades before the U.S. will mount a human expedition to Mars.
NASA does have one other Mars mission planned to occur between Curiosity and InSight. It is a modest orbiter called MAVEN, slated for launch next year to study the planet's atmosphere.
Other modest missions may be funded in the interim decades ahead, but budget cuts and ongoing indecision at NASA regarding future missions suggests it could be a decade or more before any NASA mission touches down on the Red Planet's surface beyond InSight.
NASA had agreed to work with the European Space Agency (ESA) on a joint series of missions called ExoMars. However, when the Obama administration released its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal last February, there were no funds for NASA participation in ExoMars. That decision also included a proposed 20-percent cut in NASA's overall planetary sciences program.
Surely, part of the reason for the proposed cuts is the fact that the Curiosity Rover mission saw its costs increase from initial estimates of about $1.6 billion in 2006 to $2.5 billion by 2012.
In addition the original 2009 launch slipped to 2011. NASA's science program has also been squeezed by the increasing costs of other complex missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which now has an estimated cost of $8 billion.
So, who is killing the space program? The answer seems to be: everyone involved. Program managers and contractors underestimate program costs. Politicians don't have a mandate to spend large amounts of money on space exploration in the current budget environment.
NASA is not creating enough public excitement and interest in these programs to demand that congress fund them. The space community is not innovating new, low-cost missions of importance. There seems to be a general malaise among the space "movers and shakers."
The simple truth seems to be that space exploration has matured to the point where public interest levels have fallen while costs have risen to extreme heights.

Project Orion: Why Space Exploration Should Go Nuclear

From Urban Times:  Project Orion: Why Space Exploration Should Go Nuclear

The Orion spacecraft. Via Wikipedia

The human race, as it has always been, is on course for extinction. The Sun will lumber through its life cycle and, in the process of this, will engulf the Earth and destroy everything on it. This isn’t exactly new information and it’s one of the reasons why the continuing development of space exploration is essential to the survival of our species (and all others bound to this planet for that matter). One day, for whatever reason, without the creation of an invulnerable shield and a way to get energy without the Sun, we will have to leave this Solar System.

A design for Orion Pulse Unit. Via Wikipedia

This idea was slightly covered in xkcd’s “What If” weekly post entitled Everybody Out. This piece attempted to answer the question of whether or not there is enough energy to remove the entire population off of Earth. After some calculations in regards to the use of chemical propulsion (ie the same technology we use now to launch satellites and spaceships), just to move the weight of all the people (not including the rocket, fuel or anything else) we would need 8 petawatt-hours, or 5% of the world’s annual energy consumption.

. One of the fundamental issues surrounding [rocket science] is the fact that rockets need to carry the weight of the fuel itself.

Rocket science, as you probably know, is not exactly simple. One of the fundamental issues surrounding it is the fact that rockets need to carry the weight of the fuel itself. This suggest the creation of a never ending loop of increasing the necessary amount of fuel to carry the increasing overall weight due to extra fuel. This problem is solved using calculations based on the fact that the weight of the ship will decrease as fuel is burnt. As you can imagine, it is not the most efficient of methods.
At the end of the “What If” piece, we are given an estimation for the amount of fuel necessary to lift the entire weight of the population (roughly 400 million tons of flesh, bones and hair) would amount to tens of trillions of tons of fuel.It would take up a huge proportion of all hydrocarbon fuels on the planet. Of course, you could suggest we could use alternative fuels, but we still have to consider the weight for the ship, water, food and anything else we’d like to bring (xkcd’s article points out that there are about a million tons of pet dog just in the US). The article sums its verdict up with this sentence, “It’s not necessarily completely impossible, but it’s certainly outside the realm of plausibility.”
Obviously, the above example is taking things to the extreme, but it highlights the point that current propulsion systems are generally not that great. In the event of a global exodus, we would have to leave a hell of a lot of people behind without some new technology or, in this case, the revival of an old one.  In my opinion, the most viable alternative is also the one that sounds the most insane. It is the idea that we should launch ourselves into space by riding the shock waves of nuclear bombs.
Led by physicists Ted Taylor and Freeman Dyson, Project Orion began in 1958 and is a perfect example of how close madness and genius become. The idea of nuclear propulsion was first proposed by Stanislaw Ulam way back in 1946. A year later, Ulam and F. Reines made the first calculations. The project came to end in 1963 in response to a lack of political support due to fears of nuclear fallout and the introduction of the Partial Test Ban Treaty. Admittedly, in a world continuously in fear of all-out nuclear war, the idea of propelling spaceships with radioactive bombs was hard for people to get behind.
So how does it work? You would expect anything within the vicinity of a nuclear explosion would be destroyed, but not in this case. Project Orion designed a shield that would be able to harness the propulsion of the shockwave and thus keep itself ahead of the explosion itself. On the face of it, it is a pretty simple concept. Of course meticulous calculations had to be done to get a viable design completed. Dyson was very hopeful about this project saying, “…a Saturn V bears the same relation to an Orion ship as the majestic airships of the 1930’s bore to the Boeing 707”.
Why would an Orion spaceship be so much better? Well, it is the fact that it can combine a high exhaust velocity with massive levels of thrust, which is something rocket propulsions cannot do easily. This means a nuclear propulsion system is by far much more efficient and requires significantly less fuel as seen in this table looking at possible payload weights demonstrates:
:

As you can see, as the journey length increases the Saturn V rocket becomes more and more laughable. Of course, you might say that the Saturn V is out of date and that surely more modern rockets perform better. Well, in fact,  to this day, the Saturn V holds the record for the heaviest launch vehicle payload. If ever tested, an Orion spaceship would have blown it out of the water.

Governments should be investing more and more in viable interplanetary technology

It is a shame the project was discontinued when it was. It was clearly a visionary idea that would have revolutionised space travel for the future. What’s the problem with a bit of fallout when the Earth is going to be destroyed? Dyson managed to work out the essentials for lifting 8,000,000 tons (easily the weight of a city) into space using Orion methods. This could easily be achieved considering the stockpiles of nuclear weapons around the world. Carl Sagan himself made the point that it would be a good way to use them up.
The solution to saving mankind is the thing that came closest to ending it. Governments should be investing more and more in viable interplanetary technology and I would wager that nuclear propulsion is our best shot. Paranoid fears about radiation should be dismissed can considered in a more reasoned way. We should not be eschewing technology because of outdated Cold War fears.

Dark matter detector nearing activation in SD mine

From Yahoo News:  Dark matter detector nearing activation in SD mine

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Scientists hoping to detect dark matter deep in a former South Dakota gold mine have taken the last major step before flipping the switch on their delicate experiment and say they may be ready to begin collecting data as early as February.

What's regarded as the world's most sensitive dark matter detector was lowered earlier this month into a 70,000-gallon water tank nearly a mile beneath the earth's surface, shrouding it in enough insulation to hopefully isolate dark matter from the cosmic radiation that makes it impossible to detect above ground.

And if all goes as planned, the data that begins flowing could answer age-old questions about the universe and its origins, scientists said Monday.

"We might well uncover something fantastic," said Harry Nelson, a professor of physics at University of California, Santa Barbara and a principal investigator on the Large Underground Xenon experiment. "One thing about our field is that it's kind of brutal in that we know it's expensive and we work hard to only do experiments that are really important."

This one hasn't been cheap, at about $10 million, but like the discovery of the Higgs boson — dubbed the "God particle" by some — earlier this year in Switzerland, the detection of dark matter would be a seismic occurrence in the scientific community.

Scientists know dark matter exists by its gravitational pull but, unlike regular matter and antimatter, it's so far been undetectable. Regular matter accounts for about 4 percent of the universe's mass, and dark matter makes up about 25 percent. The rest is dark energy, which is also a mystery.

The search in South Dakota began in 2003 after the Homestake Gold Mine in the Black Hills' Lead, S.D., shuttered for good. Scientists called dibs on the site, and in July, after years of fundraising and planning, the LUX detector moved into the Sanford Underground Research Facility, 4,850 feet below the earth's surface. It took two days to ease the phone booth-sized detector down the once-filthy shaft and walkways that originally opened for mining in 1876 during the Black Hills Gold Rush.

There, the device was further insulated from cosmic radiation by being submerged in water that's run through reverse osmosis filters to deionize and clean it.
"The construction phase is winding down, and now we're starting the commissioning phase, meaning we start to operate the systems underground," said Jeremy Mock, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis who has worked on the LUX experiment for five years.
Carefully submerging the delicate detector into its final home — a water-filled vat that's 20 feet tall and 25 feet in diameter — took more than two months, Mock said.
Scientists are currently working to finish the plumbing needed to keep the xenon as clean as possible. The xenon, in both liquid and gas form, will fill the detector and be continuously circulated through a purifier that works much like a dialysis machine, pulling the substance out to remove impurities before pushing it back into the detector.
Keeping the water and xenon pristine will help remove what Nelson called "fake sources" — or stuff that scientists have seen before, such as radiation, that could serve as false alarms in their efforts to detect dark matter.
Nelson likens the experiment to Sherlock Holmes' approach to discovering the unknown by eliminating the known.

Once the data start to flow, it'll take a month or two before the detector is sensitive enough to claim the "most-sensitive" title, Nelson said.

After that, the scientists involved hope to start seeing what they covet most: something they've never seen before.

Lunar ‘Water Rush’: Robots May Search For Water On The Moon

From Red Orbit:  Lunar ‘Water Rush’: Robots May Search For Water On The Moon

The prospect of finding frozen water on the moon has several companies scrambling to stake a claim in “them thar lunar hills.”
“This is like the gold rush that led to the settlement of California,” said Phil Metzger, a physicist who leads the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab, part of Kennedy Space Center’s Surface Systems Office. “This is the water rush.”
Water has already been found on asteroids and its discovery on the moon represents a top prize for NASA’s exploration plans because the resource has so many potential uses for wayfaring astronauts. Comprised of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, water can be turned into everything from rocket fuel to a source of fresh air and water.
One of the companies leading the charge to mine the moon is the Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology. The company is currently in the midst of developing a solar-powered rover designed to search and drill for the frozen water.
“Our intent is to land on the surface of the moon in October 2015 and find water,” said the president of Astrobotic, John Thornton, alluding to his company’s recent deal with SpaceX to launch a lander and rover on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Thornton added that a number of competitors have sprung up and this shows the potential for landing a robotic explorer is real.
“If we were doing something really big and no one else was trying to do it, then it might not be that big,” he said.
Human visitors to the lunar surface never found signs of frozen water as they walked along the moon’s equator between 1969 and 1972. Water has never been found in any rock or soil samples ever collected from the moon. Within the past 15 years, several probes found signs frozen water not only exists on the moon, but that it is quite pervasive.
Scientists are also curious to find out if any frozen water is in the form of a powder, like the type skiers plow through as they swish down a mountainside, or if it’s completely solid ice. Some scientists expect to find evidence of water seeping down between granules of soil and freezing to create rocks as hard as granite.
“Our best guess is it’s going to be the ice,” Thornton said. “Probably small little pieces of ice mixed in with the regolith.”
According to an official statement on the NASA website, the agency is excited about the chances to use a new resource for deep space exploration.
For its part, Astrobotic said it wants to use the robotic prospector to map where the largest deposits of water and other helpful chemicals are located. The company could then use the information to efficiently extract the materials from the moon. According to Thornton, there are no plans to send water or other lunar samples back to the Earth.
“The beauty of sending a robot is they don’t demand a return ticket,” Thornton said. “Once we know where the water is and what form it is in, we can develop systems to produce it in useable quantities. Water is a critical resource because you can drink it, breathe it and use it for rocket fuel.”

Student Who Named The Mars Rover 'Curiosity' As An 11-Year-Old Gets Space Exploration As Well As Anyone

From LA-ist:  Student Who Named The Mars Rover 'Curiosity' As An 11-Year-Old Gets Space Exploration As Well As Anyone

Clara Ma at age 12 (Photo via NASA)

More than three years before the Mars Rover Curiosity touched down on the Red Planet, an 11-year-old in Kansas was only dreaming about how she could get involved in space exploration.
Now that Clara Ma has grown up and had the chance to see the rover touch down, she hasn't lost her sense of wonder. In a column that she penned for Mashable, she writes about how she came up with the name. She says she first read about the contest to name the newest Mars Rover in a kids' issue of TIME Magazine while she was at school one day. It didn't take her long to come up with the perfect name: Curiosity. She says she rushed home to pen the winning essay:

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. When I was younger, I wondered, 'Why is the sky blue?', 'Why do the stars twinkle?', 'Why am I me?', and I still do.

Based on her latest essay, we'd venture to say she probably gets science and space exploration as much as anyone who works at JPL or NASA (including the dude with the crazy mohawk). She writes about how she first became fascinated with space:

My grandmother lived in China, thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas. I loved the stars because they kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them. That’s what I love so much about space. No matter how much we learn, it will always possess a certain degree of mystery.

She reflects on how space exploration means something different now than it did during the midcentury Space Race:

In the past, space exploration may have been a competition to see who got somewhere first or the fastest. But now, it is one of the few things that bring people together. Science is a language that needs no translation. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — you just have to have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning in order to succeed.

The entire essay is worth a read.

On Aug. 5 at 10:31 p.m. PST, a rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars, and I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat.
My name is Clara, and when I was in 6th grade, I won the essay contest NASA held to name its next Mars rover. The essay I wrote was not even 250 words long, but somehow it was enough to change my life.
I still remember that chilly December day, sitting in science class. I’d finished a worksheet early and decided to get a TIME for Kids magazine off of Mrs. Estevez’s bookshelf. It was the 2008 Invention Issue, but that wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye. In the magazine, there was an article about a girl who named the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
The article also talked about the essay contest NASA was holding to name its next Mars rover. Before I even knew anything else about it, a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind: Curiosity.
I couldn’t wait for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay. That afternoon, I raced home from the bus stop, sat down at the computer, and typed until my fingers ached. It turns out I was just in time. A few days later, and the contest would have closed.
Five months later, shortly after I had turned 12, I was watching a National Geographic special on mammoths when the phone rang. My mom answered, and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.
When she told me that I had won, I was happier than I could ever remember being. I screamed and ran up and down the stairs and all around the house. I completely forgot about the mammoths and did not even remember to turn off the TV until it was really late.
When she told me that I had won, I was happier than I could ever remember being. I screamed and ran up and down the stairs and all around the house. I completely forgot about the mammoths and did not even remember to turn off the TV until it was really late.
Curiosity is such an important part of who I am. I have always been fascinated by the stars, the planets, the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl, my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours. She’d tell me stories and point out constellations.
Here in the heart of the country, my grandmother would say, there were no bright city lights to compete with the brilliance of the stars. There was just the chirping of the cicadas and the soft summer breeze.
My grandmother lived in China, thousands of miles awa
The Curiosity rover is more than just a robot. It is more than just a titanium body and aluminum wheels. Curiosity represents the hard work, passion, love and commitment of thousands of people from all over the world who were brought together by science.
Science is so awesome. It is breathtaking and mind-blowing, intertwining and unifying; and sometimes, it’s just a little bit crazy. The discoveries we make about our world are incredibly humbling. They move us forward and have the potential to benefit all of mankind.
This December it will be four years of my life that have been tied to Curiosity in some way. I’ve met so many amazing people through this experience, from scientists to engineers to administrators to volunteers. Their dedication and fervor inspire me immensely. My journey with Curiosity and the MSL mission team has shaped the person that I am today, as well as the person I would one day like to become.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to have this amazing adventure.
And to you, I hope your curiosity takes you far.
y from my home in Kansas. I loved the stars because they kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them. That’s what I love so much about space. No matter how much we learn, it will always possess a certain degree of mystery.
In the past, space exploration may have been a competition to see who got somewhere first or the fastest. But now, it is one of the few things that bring people together. Science is a language that needs no translation. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — you just have to have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning in order to succeed.
People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mars. Why do we explore? My answer to that is simple: because we can. Because we’re curious. Because we as human beings do not just stay holed up in one place. We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what’s over the hill and beyond the horizon.

Program gears up to test space vehicles

From VCStar.com:  Program gears up to test space vehicles

HILO, Hawaii (AP) - A program to test space vehicles on the Big Island is getting an infusion of millions of new investment dollars.
The state is putting $2.34 million into the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems to help the program prepare for missions to Mars or the moon, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday (http://is.gd/T889A7 ).
Rob Kelso, the new director of the program, known as PISCES, said long-term plans call for a high-tech park in Hawaii for research into technologies related to space travel and colonization.
One project for the near-term is developing a concrete-like building material that can be used in space and on Earth. Kelso said there also will be continued testing and research of robotic systems being designed for use on the moon or Mars.
Some of the equipment on the Mars rover Curiosity was tested on Mauna Kea in 2008 because that terrain is so similar to the basaltic makeup of Mars, said Kelso, who is a former NASA space shuttle flight director at Johnson Space Center.
He joined other researchers and space enthusiasts at the annual PISCES conference in Waikoloa this week for discussions and demonstrations of robotic equipment designed to explore challenging space environments.
Another avenue for research would be to develop new ways to extract resources, including oxygen and water, from the terrain on Mars, which has a chemical composition strikingly similar to portions of the Hawaii island landscape.
The PISCES project was founded in 2007, and this year was shifted from the University of Hawaii at Hilo into the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Kelso said the state is looking for a site for a new research facility that initially would be home to PISCES and might one day become an "aerospace enterprise zone" based in the Hilo area.
"Our goal is to become the preferred provider for space agencies and commercial space businesses around the world that are developing technologies to help enable and sustain planetary surface exploration," Kelso told PISCES conference attendees.
In the meantime, the program plans to rent temporary office space in Hilo, Kelso said.

Mars a major focus of space program

From News Leader:  Mars a major focus of space program

Decades ago, men looked up at Mars and could only wonder what was there. The planet was often seen as the home of little green men who invaded Earth in the movies.
Ever since the first photos of Mars were taken in 1965, NASA scientists have learned quite a bit about the Red Planet. They have learned that Mars is a cold, rocky wasteland that was once covered with active volcanoes and pounded by meteors.


The primary focus on Mars is the possible presence of liquid water, either in the past or trapped in the subsurface. That is because where there is water, there is always the possibility of microscopic life.
Evidence of water on Mars comes from polar cap ice, features that look like dry river beds, and rocks that appear as if they could only have been formed with water present.


NASA exploration of Mars began when Mariner flew past the planet in 1965, taking close-up photos. Viking I became the first spacecraft to touch down on the planet, in 1976, and return photos of the surface.
There was Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Pathfinder rover, Mars Odyssey, Phoenix, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, Mars Express and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, all contributing to a collective knowledge about the planet. Many of these missions are still operating, continuing to sending information back to NASA.

Not every mission was a success, however. Mars Observer, Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 are examples of Mars programs that were lost or failed to operate properly.

Curiosity

Mars Science Laboratory, with its rover Curiosity, is the most recent mission to Mars. Its mission is extremely ambitious: to find out whether Mars ever had an environment that would have allowed it to support life.
Through the six-wheeled, car-sized rover Curiosity, scientists continue to make discoveries on the Martian surface. Curiosity was launched Nov. 26, 2011, and landed on the planet on Aug. 6. The rover drives slowly across the surface of the planet, scooping up samples of soil. An on-board laboratory studies the chemical composition of soils and rock and can search for forms of carbon, which are considered the chemical building blocks of life.

Budget cuts cripple space exploration

From Northwest Missourian:  Budget cuts cripple space exploration

On Oct. 14, Felix Baumgartner captivated the minds and imaginations of millions of Americans with his world record-setting space jump from over 20 miles above the surface of the Earth.
Interestingly enough, just two weeks later the first commercial cargo flight into space was pulled off by the California-based company SpaceX. Both of these monumental achievements of science have one thing in common: the technology used in these missions was developed by NASA. However, as of late, this once-great administration has lost its luster, primarily due to the severe budget cuts it has endured.

President Obama’s proposed fiscal budget for 2013 calls for $309 million in cuts to the former leader in the space race of the ‘60s and ‘70s. That is a 20 percent slash of funds to NASA that would have gone to future Mars exploration and other missions.
That is somber news for anyone who grew up in the “Space Age” just a few decades ago. This country used to lead the way in discovering the infinite frontier of space, eager to learn more about what else is out there.
After the historic moon landing in 1969, America wondered how long would it be before we reached Mars and beyond. Unfortunately, 40 years later, we haven’t moved far from just dreaming.
No one has even been to the moon, much less Mars, since the last Apollo mission returned home in 1972. Sure, we’ve sent a few probes and put up some telescopes since then, but the drive to reach other worlds and the focus on space has long been dead.
Why is this happening? What happened to the “America of Tomorrow” and our dreams of moon bases? Well, in short, American politics got in the way.
The current allowance for NASA is .5 percent of the national budget, compared to the 4 percent it received in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Many argue that NASA is an unnecessary expenditure, and we can’t afford to keep it going at its current level, no matter how little percent of the budget it accounts for.
Let’s take a look at military spending in the United States and see if we can perhaps give NASA some of its money. Many politicians have proposed military spending to be around 4 percent of the GDP, not including war costs. Keep in mind it is estimated that the U.S. spent $12 million a day in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It is ridiculous to say we can’t give even a small sliver of that wasteful spending to NASA. Yes, every mission may not be completely practical, but neither is buying another $600 million aircraft carrier.
I think it’s reasonable to ask our government to get rid of maybe one aircraft carrier or so to make room for NASA. If they do, the American people can start dreaming of the future again.

 

Media Advisory: Space Conference Brings Astronauts, Space Industry CEOs to Buffalo

From University of Buffalo News Center: Media Advisory: Space Conference Brings Astronauts, Space Industry CEOs to Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- NASA's famed space shuttle program ended in 2011. Private companies are heading into orbit. What does the future hold for humanity in space? What new job opportunities are on the horizon for students?

To answer these questions, the University at Buffalo's chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) is hosting the nation's largest student-run space conference.

The event, SpaceVision 2012, takes place from Nov. 8-11 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center at 153 Franklin St., Buffalo. A detailed agenda: http://spacevision.seds.org/agenda/.

UB students competed with SEDS chapters nationwide to host the conference, which serves as SEDS' annual U.S. convention. More than 250 people from across the country are expected to attend.

For a video of UB students from SEDS discussing their love for space and future career ambitions, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAvKPYMqnmg.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES:

WHAT: Astronaut Peggy Whitson, the 13th chief of NASA's Astronaut Office, will be available to speak to media. Whitson, who served as the International Space Station's first woman commander, will answer questions about her experience and the future of space exploration.

Students who are planning to pursue space-related careers will also be on hand to share their thoughts on the future of the space and aeronautics industry.

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to noon on Friday, Nov. 9. Following this media availability, Whitson will deliver a keynote address from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. describing her experiences and how the next generation will make a difference in the future of space exploration.

WHERE: The lobby of the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.

WHY: The conference theme is "Crossroads: How Our Generation Will Take Us to the Space Frontier." This topic recognizes changes underway in the space industry, including the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011 and the growing number of private companies exploring everything from mining asteroids to making space travel available to the public. Whitson and the students will be able to provide distinct perspectives about the future of space exploration. Whitson's biography: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/whitson.html.

CONTACT: Media who would like to attend should contact Charlotte Hsu in UB's Office of University Communications at 716-645-4655 or chsu22@buffalo.edu, or 510-388-1831 on-site. *

WHAT: UB alumnus Chris Scolese, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will deliver a keynote address, enabling attendees to hear from the head of one of the nation's most critical robotic research facilities. Scolese, who attended high school in Western New York, received a BS in electrical engineering from UB in 1978.

WHEN: 8 to 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10.

WHERE: Room 106 of the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.

CONTACT: Media who would like to attend should contact Charlotte Hsu in UB's Office of University Communications at 716-645-4655 or chsu22@buffalo.edu, or 510-388-1831 on-site. *

Besides Scolese, conference presenters include another UB graduate: Hussein Jirdeh, head of communications and public outreach for the Space Telescope Science Institute, who received a PhD in mechanical engineering from UB in 1988.

Landmark Moments in Private Space Exploration

This is a video which you can only see at Youtube via a computer
  
From the Wall Street Journal YouTube Channel: Landmark Moments in Private Space Exploration 

The sad thing is it's been up for about a month and only has 592 views.

 

Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly makes the case for Obama's space program

From Examiner:  Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly makes the case for Obama's space program

Mark Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, the commander of the last flight of the space shuttle Endeavour, and the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, offered the case for continuing the course of President Obama’s space policy in a recent piece in Florida Today. Like Gaul, his defense of the Obama space program was divided into three parts.
First, he touted a $500 million plan to upgrade launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center. Part of this seems to be a play for Florida voters, as he states that this would have the effect of “--creating new jobs to upgrade Kennedy Space Center.” Kelly did not touch upon how these upgrades would facilitate NASA launch operations.
Second, Kelly touched upon the development of the Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle and the heavy lift Space Launch System. He states that this new space craft would enable American astronauts to “--to go beyond Earth’s orbit to the moon, asteroids and beyond” and coincidentally create jobs at the Kennedy Space Center. He does not mention that the Obama administration initially resisted the early development of the Orion and the SLS, these being a congressional mandate.
Finally, Kelly touts the development of the Kennedy Space Center as a commercial space port, launching spacecraft such as the SpaceX Dragon, which recently delivered supplies to the International Space Station and returned cargo to Earth. Again, Kelly touts the jobs this would create in Florida.
The one major critique of Kelly’s defense of the president’s space program is that it seems to be narrowly focused on its capacity to create jobs in Florida, considered a swing state, albeit one that seems to be, as of this writing, firmly in Mitt Romney’s column. NASA is a national space agency whose benefits should be judged by how much the effect the entire United States and not just one state. As such, Kelly’s argument seems to be undermined as it is too nakedly political.

 

Atlantis: The final space shuttle to enter retirement

From CNN:  Atlantis: The final space shuttle to enter retirement

This is it. Until now there was still a faint heartbeat, a bit of a pulse. But Friday, space shuttle program veterans will have sent the final orbiter into retirement: Atlantis.
“We will look after her as long as we are allowed to do so,” says Stephanie Stilson, who spent a decade preparing the shuttle Discovery for each flight.
After the shuttle program ended, Stilson was put in charge of readying each vehicle for retirement. “You can definitely sense a feeling of wanting to hold onto Atlantis as long as we can,” she says.
Once those giant doors at the vehicle assembly building close behind Atlantis, there will be finality. “I’m not sure if that will really sink in until Atlantis is out of sight,” says Stilson.
Unlike Discovery and Endeavour, Atlantis is staying close to home and won’t get to make any final glamorous flyovers. The shuttle will be towed just about 10 miles on Friday to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, its new home. Along the way, there will a ceremony and a stop at the space center's Exploration Park, where people can get a close look.
Atlantis flew in space 33 times during its career. Its final landing was July 21, 2011, marking the end of the space shuttle program.
The shuttle program was certainly far more than just vehicles that flew in space. It wasn’t just about the astronauts who flew them or the phenomenal accomplishments and the horrific tragedies.
Sure, these machines seemed to take on anthropomorphic characteristics. But above all, the program was about the people who built the machines. It was about the people who cared for them and got them ready to fly.
Many of these are people are out of work. Some have found employment. Many are hoping to land jobs with the commercial space companies, but their workforces are much smaller.
United Space Alliance, which handled shuttle processing, has laid off about 5,800 employees, more than 4,000 of whom were at the Kennedy Space Center. Some were kept on to finish the work of prepping the orbiters for retirement; those 300 will be gone by January.
“The ones that received their notices for December were sad to see things come to an end, but they also seemed at peace with it,” says Stilson. “We have known this moment was coming for a very long time. The ones still here feel fortunate that they were allowed to stay this long,” she added.
 A NASA employee, she wasn’t impacted directly by the layoffs, but she has been affected by friends lost and people hurting. For the next year, Stilson is going to spend some time at NASA headquarters in Washington working on future exploration, but it won’t be the same. “Once you’ve worked at KSC, it is hard to find anything comparable,” she says.
NASA is doing everything it can to talk about the future of space exploration and how grand it will be.  For now, other than commercial company successes, not much is concrete. It really is about the memories.
“Looking back over my entire career,” says Stilson, “the one that stands out the most is the launch and landing of the 'return to flight' mission after the loss of Columbia.” She adds, “The team had been through so much, losing the crew and the vehicle, but they were adamant that we would fly again and prove that we could overcome the tragedy and continue to do great work in honor of the crew’s memory.”
Stilson wraps up saying, “I am so grateful to have been part of the shuttle program to the very end, and I doubt anything I do in the future will ever compare to the memories I have collected over the past 23 years.”

 

Russian cargo ship launches on Halloween mission to space station

From Fox News: Russian cargo ship launches on Halloween mission to space station

A robotic Russian cargo vessel blasted off Oct. 31, carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies on a Halloween delivery mission to the International Space Station.

The unmanned Progress 49 spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:41 a.m. EDT (0741 GMT) today and is slated to arrive at the orbiting lab six hours later. You can watch the rendezvous and docking activities live  on NASA TV, beginning at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).

Progress 49 is toting 2.9 tons of supplies, including 2,050 pounds (930 kilograms) of propellant, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water, 62 pounds (28 kg) of oxygen and 2,738 pounds (1,242 kg) of spare parts, NASA officials said. There's no word yet on whether any candy corn or miniature chocolate bars made it onboard to help the space station's six astronauts celebrate the season.

Life on orbit is always busy, but this week is particularly jam-packed for station crew.

For example, today's launch comes just three days after SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule left the station, wrapping up the first-ever commercial cargo mission to the $100 billion orbiting complex. Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja California coast on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 28).

Dragon will make at least 11 more flights to the station under a $1.6 billion contract that California-based SpaceX signed with NASA. Its next launch is currently scheduled for January, agency officials have said.
Dragon is unique in its ability to ferry hardware, supplies and scientific experiments both to and from the space station. All other cargo craft currently operating — including Russia's Progress ships — carry supplies to the orbiting lab but burn up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Shortly after welcoming Progress 49 to the station, crewmembers will turn their attention to another task. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, commander of the orbiting complex's current Expedition 33 mission, and Japanese colleague Akihiko Hoshide will perform a spacewalk Thursday morning (Nov. 1).

Beginning at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT) Thursday, Williams and Hoshide will venture to the port side of the station's backbone-like truss to repair an ammonia leak in a radiator. The spacewalk should take about 6 1/2 hours, NASA officials said.

SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth after station visit In the final phase of its first operati

From CNewt:  SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth after station visit

In a major milestone for the space station program, a commercial cargo capsule loaded with nearly a ton of long-awaited experiment samples, broken components and other gear, returned to Earth Sunday, plunging back through the atmosphere to a Pacific Ocean splashdown to wrap up the spacecraft's first operational flight.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is the first space station cargo ship since the shuttle capable of carrying large amounts of equipment both to and from the lab complex As such, it restores a critical capability for NASA -- the return of experiment samples from the station -- along with failed components that require troubleshooting and analysis.
"We see her moving aft and away from us out of the keep-out sphere," Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams radioed from the station as the Dragon capsule departed early today. "It was nice while she was on board. We tamed her, took her (on board) and literally and figuratively, there's a piece of us on that spacecraft going home to Earth."
She was referring to urine and other biological samples packed aboard the cargo ship that had been awaiting a ride back to researchers on the ground.
"Not only is it going to give us a consistent supply chain up, but very critical, particularly to biological research, is the return mass, to be able to have frozen samples returned home," space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said earlier. "This really is the keystone to what is going to allow space station to do what it was built to do. It's critical to the success of the station."
Designed, built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies -- SpaceX -- under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA, the Dragon capsule was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Oct. 7, loaded with nearly a half ton of supplies and equipment. It was captured by the station's robot arm three days later and attached to the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.

The Dragon capsule, positioned for release from the station's robot arm.

(Credit: NASA TV)

After unloading its cargo, the station crew repacked the capsule with nearly a ton of experiment samples, station components and other gear awaiting return to Earth. Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, operating the space station's robot arm, detached Dragon from its berthing port at 7:19 a.m. ET today. The astronauts then released the capsule at 9:29 a.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 255 miles above Burma.
At that point, SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, Calif., took over active control, using thruster firings to move the capsule away from the space station. At 2:28 p.m., the capsule's braking rockets fired for nine minutes and 50 seconds, dropping the far side of its orbit deep into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
After enduring the heat of re-entry, the capsule's two drogue parachutes deployed at an altitude of about 45,000 feet, slowing the craft enough to permit the release of three large main parachutes at an altitude of around 10,000 feet. A SpaceX team was standing by in the landing zone 250 miles off the coast of Baja California to recover the spacecraft.
"The SpaceX recovery boat sees the vehicle with three main chutes out," NASA mission control radioed the station crew at 3:16 p.m.
"Good news," Williams replied from orbit. "Thanks for the update."
A few moments later, at 3:22 p.m., the spacecraft splashed into the Pacific Ocean to complete the return to Earth.
"Station, Houston on two, Dragon is in the Pacific," mission control advised.
"Awesome," Williams said. "She made it home to Earth."
The SpaceX commercial resupply contract requires the company to deliver 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies over 12 flights. To pave the way for operational resupply missions, SpaceX carried out two successful test flights, one that tested the capsule's systems in a solo flight and another that included a berthing at the station last May.

In orbital darkness, the SpaceX cargo ship pulls away from the station, on track for a Pacific Ocean splashdown later Sunday.

(Credit: NASA TV)

The Dragon capsule measures 14.4 feet tall and 12 feet wide, with a trunk section, jettisoned just before re-entry, that extends another 9.2 feet below the capsule's heat shield that houses two solar arrays and an unpressurized cargo bay. The spacecraft can carry up to 7,297 pounds of cargo split between the pressurized and unpressurized sections.
Under a separate $440 million contract with NASA, SpaceX engineers are working on upgrades to convert the Dragon capsule into a manned spacecraft that can ferry crews to and from the station. SpaceX managers believe they will be ready for initial manned test flights in the 2015 timeframe, assuming continued NASA funding. Two other companies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada, are developing their own spacecraft designs under similar contracts.
For Dragon's first Commercial Resupply Service mission -- CRS-1 -- the SpaceX cargo capsule delivered 882 pounds of hardware, supplies, and equipment to the space station, including 260 pounds of crew food and supplies, 390 pounds of science gear, and 225 pounds of spare parts and other station hardware.
For its return to Earth, the Dragon was packed with about 1,673 pounds of experiment samples and hardware, including 163 pounds of crew supplies, 518 pounds of station hardware, 123 pounds of computer gear and Russian equipment, and 866 pounds of science gear and experiment samples.