The Space Generation Advisory Council is sponsoring a student and young professional competition called: Move An Asteroid 2009.

The task is to class="linkLocal"Write a paper describing your innovative idea on how to move an asteroid or comet away from the earth. Papers should show originality, engineering practicality, familiarity with the technical literature and provide a clear written description of the innovation.The competition is open to those 33 years old or younger. Entries due by July 26, 2009. See flyer (pdf).

The winning entry gets a trip to Daejeon, South Korea to present the paper at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2009 and at the Space Generation Congress (SGC) 2009.

Here's a review of the book Desolation Road by Ian McDonald, with illustrations by Stephan Martiniere, which is set on a Mars going through terraforming : Ian McDonald's brilliant Mars book, DESOLATION ROAD, finally back in print - Boing Boing - July.1.09.

This mall hummingbird-like robotic flying device is imrpessive, though, battery capacity limits it to short flights:
/-- Nano-UAV Video - Aviation Week - July.1.09
/-- How To Build A Spy Bat - Forbes.com - June.26.09

A review of the book One Giant Leap by Piers Bizony : Book Review. The Giant Leap - The National Business Review [New Zealand] - July.1.09.

Alan Boyle posts a top ten list of websites that are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11th mission: Moonshots on your computer - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com - June.30.09.

US residents should check times for passes of the ISS over their locations this weekend: NASA: Expect 'Spectacular' Views of Space Station This Weekend - SPACE.com - June.30.09. More info on spotting the ISS and other satellites in the Satellite Observation section.

The Right Stuff is a performance drink and spinoff from NASA:
/-- NASA develops The Right Stuff drink - Examiner - June.30.09
/-- NASA Sports Drink Gives Everyone the Right Stuff - SPACE.com - - June.30.09

Check out PowerBeam, which is offering a wireless power distribution system fpr the home based on infrared laser diodes, photovoltaic detectors, and various other components. Encourages the implementation of wireless devices such as wall mounted flat screen photo displays, wireless speakers, etc.

See also PowerBeam moves electricity without wires -Space 2.0 Blog - June.30.09.

Allen Herbert at Jaka Consulting sent this announcement about the JURBAN team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE that they are working with:

The Google Lunar X PRIZE JURBAN Team
A Diverse Journey into Space

Baltimore, MD, June 1, 2009 — In 2008, the space industry was estimated to exceed $250 billion annually. The Personal Space Flight Industry invested $1.2 billion last year with a focus on space tourism. According to the FAA, this trend will continue and could generate more than $1 trillion (USD) in annual revenue by 2021.

Moving light speed ahead, recent movies like Star Trek and Transformers reflect the technical advancements imagined for space exploration and robotics. Therefore, opportunities are now preset for people around the world to secure a market in space entrepreneurship.

However, the question seldom posed is, “How many underserved or disadvantaged research and commercial groups around the world are participating in this new space entrepreneurship craze?” The answer is very few.

To date, there is one minority group in the personal space flight industry that merits attention - the JURBAN team, directed by Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell. Recently, the JURBAN team entered the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) competition in May 2008 to take on a space entrepreneurship challenge.
http://www.juxtopia.org/jurban/wordpress/support

For this challenge, the Juxtopia® Urban Robotics Brilliant Application Network (JURBAN) team will compete with 17 teams from around the world for a total prize of $30 million dollars. The main competition involves:
- Flying a robot to the moon before 2012.
- Navigating 500 meters across the lunar surface.
- Transmitting images back to earth.

Additionally, the JURBAN team will place a flag on the moon listing all partners and sponsors who have contributed their support for JURBAN’s lunar mission.

The JURBAN Team is from Baltimore, Maryland and comprised of African American high school and college students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) as well as professional engineers.

Together, the team of students and professional engineers are building an autonomous navigating lunar robot that mimics a centipede. The JURBAN robot is designed as a robot swarm (i.e., team of robots) that can automatically transform from one connected robot to a single robot link with a full set of visual and navigating sensors in order to work with each other on separate lunar tasks.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE challenge JURBAN team’s focus is to serve as a conduit for motivating underrepresented students to enter fields of study in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as it applies to space entrepreneurship.

The team has partnered with JAKA Consulting Group, one of the only African-American firms involved in the private space industry, to assist with leadership development, marketing and outreach efforts, and identifying strategic partnership opportunities. To help the JURBAN team successfully challenge competitive teams from China, the Netherlands, and other US-based universities with strong space science and robotic programs, JAKA Consulting Group’s “Space Sportilization,” approach will help integrate sports coaching techniques for providing a competitive advantage to the students while they learn principles of teamwork, discipline and tenacity during this historic lunar mission.

JAKA Consulting Group developed ‘Space Sportilization’ as an opportunity to advance private space industries such as space tourism, fitness, sports, entertainment and robotic collaboration with humans, on space missions. Founded by former NFL standout Ken Harvey, a four-time Pro Bowl player with the Washington Redskins and Arizona Cardinals, the company is looking forward to working with the JURBAN Team. “As a former high school dropout who overcame obstacles to attend the University of California at Berkeley and later succeed in not only the NFL but the business world, I believe in the power of achieving dreams,” says Harvey.

Allen Herbert, Vice President of JAKA Consulting Group, says “The GLXP is like the Super Bowl of space competition. It is great to be working with the JURBAN team because we not only want to win the competition, but afford students the opportunity to become educated about space entrepreneurship now and in the future. I hope others in the business, education and volunteers sector will see a great opportunity to participate in a mission that could make history.”

About JURBAN
JURBAN The JURBAN challenge is a program developed by the Juxtopia Group, www.juxtopia.org, a non-profit research organization. The JURBAN Challenge Program trains underserved and disadvantaged students to build autonomous service robotic systems that have significant impact in their community.

About JAKA Consulting Group
JAKA Consulting Group is a minority-owned government relations, business development and strategic marketing company offering a trademarked process of incorporating sports to accomplish business goals for its partners. The Journey After Knowledge = Action. Visit www.jakaconsulting.com to learn more

An update from Hyperkat Games on development of their Mars Colony Simulator:

HyperKat Games Announces Mars Colony Simulator Demo 2 Release

Mars Colony Simulator – Independent game developer, HyperKat Games, is excited to announce the immediate release of Mars Colony Simulator public concept demo. Mars Colony Simulator is the first virtual Mars exploration simulator, based on existing practical science, that puts the user into an immersive first person 3D graphics experience. Version 2 of the demo is now available as a free download at Hyperkat.com.

Mars Colony Simulator hopes to bring realistic space exploration experiences to everyone. The first mission puts up to four people on the surface of Mars, with all of the basic tools of survival and specific goals to ensure the eventual successful colonization of our sister planet. While open ended, the primary tasks are to locate water, sustain life support systems, generate fuel and gather and catalog information on local exploitable resources. The simulation has an active weather system and Colonists are required to equip EVA gear to survive the hostile Mars environment while installing and managing external activities. Things break and successful Colonists must think creatively in juggling mission requirements while maintaining critical systems. Successful missions complete all or most of the mission parameters while generating sufficient fuel and oxygen to return to earth.

The second mission has been added to this release and will require the user to complete the first mission. You land back on Mars with a Farm Unit that requires you to plant seeds, water and fertilize them so they will grow. Users will have to pick the plants and process the material into food. Mission 2 also comes with a 2 person drivable rover named Hercules to help expand the capabilities of the site and prepare for mission 3. We added extra supplies, communications tower and wind generators so there is plenty to do.

While this demonstration is still conceptual, there is a lot of potential to influence the development, from academic to mainstream experiences. HyperKat needs your feedback and participation to help refine and steer the development toward the best possible experience. Please join us at HyperKat.com to provide feedback, opinions and participate in testing programs for new missions. Our special thanks to all the testers who have logged hundreds of hours working out the bugs in Mission 2! We have a great community and would love you to join us!

Mars Colony ETS information: www.hyperkat.com/colonyets.html
Mars Colony ETS blog: www.hyperkat.com/blog
Mars Colony ETS Testers: www.hyperkat.com/litterbox

HyperKat Games was created 2003 by Howard Dortch to design, develop and distribute fun games for all ages. The company is located in an economically depressed area of Southern Ohio in hopes of providing local college students employment in the games industry.

Howard Dortch currently teaches game design at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. HyperKat is home to Mars Colony ETS, Virtual Rover Simulator, ScudBuster, SOF/Raiders and HyperXBall.
Company Site www.hyperkat.com

Here's a review of a book that describes an early example of amateurs participating in a serious space activity: Book Review: Keep Watching the Skies - Universe Today - June.29.09. The book Keep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age is describes as follows by Publishers Weekly:

McCray, professor of history at the Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, has previously written about "big science" in Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambition & the Promise of Technology. Here, he examines "small science" at the dawn of the space age: Project Moonwatch, in which groups of non-scientist volunteers dutifully observed the passage of artificial satellites in the sky. The project's mastermind, astronomer Fred Whipple, intended to provide a manual backup for the automated camera system that was meant to track satellites, a huge, multi-national science effort. At a time when very little was known about the ionosphere and upper atmosphere, armchair astronomers of all backgrounds turned out in the thousands to aid the scientific pursuit of knowledge (and, to a lesser extent, fight the Commies); when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, it was the Moonwatchers who provided the first observations to astronomers at the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory. McCray's history is full of fascinating individuals-not only Whipple, a legend among scientists for his energy and creative engineering, but "citizen heroes" as well. McCray has included a useful bibliography, and a helpful list of acronyms and people, but his text is jargon-free. This pop science takes a fascinating look at a fundamental, and almost-forgotten, moment in Space Age history.

See the Satellite Observing section here for how you can do spacecraft observations today from your backyard.

Here's an update on the Focus Fusion approach to nuclear fusion power: Interview of Eric Lerner, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics/Focus Fusion, by Sander Olson - Next Big Future - June.29.09.

A representative of Redshift software sent me the following announcement today:



Reach for the Stars and Download the New Astronomy Software Free Launcher
Redshift™ Live Gives Astronomy Hobbyists Reason to Celebrate the International Year of Astronomy

WASHINGTON, DC (June 29, 2009) – Astronomy enthusiasts have another reason to shoot for the stars during 2009. Redshift™ announced its astronomy software Redshift 7 and the new portal Redshift live are available at www.redshift-live.com. During the International Year of Astronomy, the Redshift software and plug-ins are offered at affordable prices, as well the launcher for free. Whether you have a MAC or a PC, the free launcher and the plug-ins at redshift-live.com are a great way to start sampling the best available astronomy content on the web at little or no cost.

I've mentioned here a few times that innovative small projects in areas of R&D like nuclear fusion power find it very difficult to find funding despite the fact that there would be a huge payoff if just a small fraction of such projects were successful. This article describes how such a situation arises in an area of medical research: Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe - Series - NYTimes.com.

Mark Mortimer reviews the book How to Live on Mars – A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet, by Robert Zubrin: Book Review: How To Live On Mars - Universe Today.