July.22.2004
Space News
News
briefs... A conflict develops over who gets the next
Soyuz seat: Russians
scramble to fill spaceship seat: Military cosmonaut vies with
young Russian tycoon - MSNBC - July.21.04 ...
...Newly
digitized versions of Apollo photographs now available at The
Project Apollo Image Gallery ...
...
NASA has
a new site at One
Giant Leap for Mankind : The 35th Anniversary of Apollo 11 -
NASA
July.21.2004
Space News
Space
history... James
Oberg points out that there may come a time when no one alive
will have walked on the Moon: The
secret formula for going to the moon: Fear played a role in
1960s, and may do so again by James Oberg - MSNBC - July.19.04.
If that happens, it will certainly indicate a state of human
stagnation. (Link via R. Campbell)...
...
One
experiment keeps doing its job: The
Most Important Thing Armstrong Left on the Moon: A cutting-edge
Apollo 11 science experiment left behind in the Sea of Tranquility
is still running today. - Science@NASA - July.20.04
News
briefs... More pieces of Mars found on earth: New
Mars meteorite found - Alan Boyle: Cosmic Log - July.20.04...
...
While
pieces of the Moon go underground: American
moon rock gifts vanish - BBC - July.21.04
...
...
Space
Station:Sim developer on Tech TV: Vision
VideoGames Intervew on G-4 Tech TV Friday July 23, 2004 - Vision-Play
- July.21.04
July.20.2004
Space News
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday
July 20, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time -"Rand
Simberg and William Simon return to The Space Show to
honor and celebrate our going to the Moon. They will present
their unique celebration program, Evoloterra."
Sunday,
July 18, 2004, 6:00-7:30pm Pacific Time - "Space Show
features returning Space Show guest, Dr. John Jurist....Among
the topics that Dr. Jurist will be discussing will be the
many tradeoffs involved in developing a life support system
in space or even the tradeoffs involved in developing a useful
spacesuit."
Hear the
SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle, and on
line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
Space
poll high...
Support for space exploration shows suprising breadth:
Poll: Support Grows for NASA's Space Vision - Space.com - July.19.04.
However, as Rand Simberg notes,
it depends a lot on how you frame the poll questions. Unlike
most such polls, this one apparently puts NASA funding within
the context of total government spending.
Space
history... A
sampling of articles and sites related to the 35th anniversary
of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon:
News
briefs ... If
the cut
in NASA fundiing holds up, hitching a ride with a private
firm may be the only way the agency gets back to the Moon: Private
firms step up for lunar missions By Irene Mona Klotz - UPI -
July.19.04 ...
...
Mars past gets more intriguing all the time: Mars
rover finds that water persisted - New Scientist - July.4.04
July.19.2004
Space News
Student
rocket launch... News of the July 17th launch of
the Pathfinder
Rocket in Advanced
Rocketry News...
Lunar
meeting reports... More about the The
Return to the Moon Conference can be found in this article
by Leonard David: Moon
Viewed as Policy Battleground - Space.com - July.17.04
and this
Return
To The Moon V Trip Report by Michael Mealling - RocketForge
- July.18.04. Rand Simberg also added more entries to his
blog.
New
Moon review by Michael Mealling : New
Moon Rising - review by Michael Mealling - RocketForge - July.17.04.
See also the collection
of info about the book.
Dumping
stuff that works... NASA continues to act like the
same ol'big dumb locomotive on autopilot that blindly rumbles
down a track defined by programmatic inertia and bureaucratic
exigencies rather than following the course that will best reach
its fundamental goals:
NASA
Denies Funding for Key Satellite: Decision on Orbiter Frustrates
Scientists - Washington Post - July.19.04. The NASA managers
need to remember that the agency builds science spacecraft for
the purpose of increasing knowledge not just to build spacecraft.
This case
is similar to the Hubble decision but even more comparable to
the decision to deorbit the working and very productive Compton
Gamma Ray spacecraft: FAQ:
Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory - NASA Watch - 16 May 2000.
Expanding
Bigelow info... Here's a list of recent articles
on the Bigelow
Aerospace expandables projects:
Space
history... Articles
related to the 35th anniversary of Apollo 11 will be popular
this week. Here is a sampling:
Space
biz news ... Satellite
radio continues to grow vigorously: Sirius
Satellite Radio Reaches 500,000 Subscribers - SIRIUS Satellite
Radio - July.14.04 * XM
Radio Exceeds 2.1 Million Subscribers at End of Second Quarter
- XM Radio - July.1.04 ...
...
I
wonder if the sat radio success is starting to affect the ground
radio business: A
Radio Giant Moves to Limit Commercials - NY Times - July.19.04
...
...
A
huge comsat was launched over the weekend:
Ariane
5 launches Anik F2 - spacetoday.net - July.18.04
July.18.2004
Space News
Conference
blogging ... Rand
Simberg has been blogging
direct from the The
Return to the Moon Conference. E.g. check out his report
on Frank Sietzen's talk...
...
See also the RTTMV
Pictures by Michael Mealling ...
...
Michael points
to the Space
Setttlement Project announced at the meeting. ...
...
Speaking
of Frank Sietzen, the SpaceShow
interview with him and Keith Cowing is now available in
the archive. ....
...
Don't forget the upcoming 2004
Mars Society Convention. Here's the schedule
(pdf)
Cell
phone in flight via satellite... If
the interference worries can ever be laid to rest, satellites
may be key to practical cell phone use on airliners: In-flight
cellphone network passes test - New Scientist - July.16.04
July.16.2004
Space News
News
briefs... Jeff
Foust reviews a recent space activist campaign in Washington:
Moon-Mars
Blitz wrap-ups - Space Politics - July.14.04...
...
Congressional
committee hears more about space prizes: Witnesses
Express Strong Support for Aerospace Prizes - House Committee
on Science - July.15.04 ...
...
Third installment of the series of excerpts from New Moon
Rising is now available: Book
details Bush moon decision - UPI - July.15.04...
...
It's expensive but SATfinder
- Satnews Publishers provides a big database of satellite
info.
Tech
news briefs...
Just heard about the thriving hobby of micro
jet turbine engines. They are used for model
planes and other applications. Check out the links such
as Advance Micro
Turbines and Gas
Turbine Builders Association .
July.15.2004
Space News
Arctic
Mars projects underway...
The 2004 crew for the Flashline
Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), supported by the Mars
Society, has arrived on Devon Island in the Canadian arctic.
Here's a list of research
goals for the ninth FMARS crew....
...The
separate NASA supported Haughton-Mars
Project also has arrived to begin its 8th field season.
Webcams
should be available around July 19th.
Lunar
news... The The
Fifth Annual Return to the Moon Conference starts tomorrow
in Las Vegas, Nevada and lasts till Sunday. Check out the agenda....
...
NASA's project to put an orbiter around the Moon by 2008 will
cost $90 million "from development through first-year operations"
according to this article: NASA's
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Takes Shape - Space.com
- July.14.04 (link via Jon Goff). That's a lot cheaper than
previous rumors suggested.
News
briefs... The second excerpt from the New Moon Rising
book: Exclusive:
Book details space plan's birth - UPI - July.14.04 (part 2)
...
...
The DART
project to demonstrate autonomous rendezvous readies for a launch
this fall: NASA
- Autonomous Rendezvous Spacecraft Arrives At Vandenberg - NASA
- July.14.04. See also the DART
page at Orbital Sciences, which leads the project.
July.14.2004
Space News
New
book rising...
The book New
Moon Rising by Frank Sietzen and Keith Cowing will be out
this week. They tell the behind the scenes story of the development
of President Bush's new space policy and the affect it is having
on NASA: Book
charts development of new space vision - Florida Today - July.14.04.
An excerpt
is available at UPI: Book
details NASA's ordeal - UPI - July.13.04
Here's nother
interesting new book is Moon
Rush: Improving life On Earth with the Moon's Resources by Dennis
Wingo - Apogee Books
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A
shuttle for Hubble should remain an option: Committee
recommends reexamining shuttle Hubble mission - spacetoday.net
- July.14.04
News
briefs... Aerosmith visited NASA a few months ago
- Aerosmith
Reaches New Heights Talking With Astronaut - NASA - Jan.29.04
- and now there's a video -
Aerosmith and NASA: Dream On - NASA - Multimedia - Video Gallery
- in which they "join forces with NASA to encourage the
next generation of explorers to 'Dream On'."...
...
A
potentially interesing Congressional committee meeting tomorrow:
Subcommittee
to Examine Role of Contests and Prizes in Space Exploration
[on July 15] - House Committee on Science - July.13.04...
...
A defense of people in space: Robotic
space endeavors lack creativity of humans by Mark R. Whittington
- USATODAY.com - July.13.04...
... Apollo
astronauts to each get a Moon rock dedicated to them but not
to take home: "Astronauts
to get moon rocks in name" - collectSPACE - July.14.04
July.13.2004
Space News
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday
July 13, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - The Space Show features
features authors Frank Sietzen (formerly the editor of the
NSS
Ad Astra magazine) and Keith Cowing (of NASA
Watch and Spaceref
) to discuss their new book, "New Moon Rising: The Making
of America's New Space Vision and the Remaking of NASA." .
Sunday,
July 18, 2004, 6:00-7:30pm Pacific Time - Space Show features
a pre-recorded session featuring Rand
Simberg who will update us with all important events and
activities in the space development world.
The archive
now holds the Space
Ship One Broadcast from June 21, 2004. This special Space
Show program featured author John Carter McKnight (of "The
Spacefaring Web" commentaries) on location and David
Livingston in San Francisco. The original three hour and forty
minute broadcast has been edited to one hour, 45 minutes.
David assures "all the listeners that this is the full
broadcast of the events this historic morning".
Other
recent broadcasts in the archive include those with Dr.
Paul Spudis, a renowed lunar scientist, and Dr.
George Nield of the FAA and who is involved in the licensing
of spaceships like the SS1.
Hear the
SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle, and on
line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
Space
architecture discussion... Richard Clar of Art
Technologies(tm) sent me a link to a transcript of an interesting
Space
Architecture Panel Discussion that he helped to organize
for the
World Space Conference in 2002.
See also
the resources here on space
architecture and the interview with architect Constance
Adams.
News
briefs ...The
IAA International
Academy of Astronautics puts forth an alternative space
initiative for Europe: IAA's
vision for the next steps in exploring deep space - ESA Portal
- July.13.04 (item via HS reader
B. Lee) ...
...
Fred Becker pointed me to the upcoming retro-future sci-fi file
coming out in September: Sky
Captain & the World of Tomorrow
Tech
news: A new electromagnetic frontier is opening up
in the terrahertz range. Check out TeraView
and other terrahertz
info.
July.12.2004
Space News
Book
a microgravity flight... The
US based company ZERO-G
has begun booking
seats on its parabola flying jet. Just like the flights
used to train astronauts, you will experience microgravity for
up to 25 seconds during the period over the crest of each parabola
in the trajectory.
The
plan is to fly about 20 parabolas. To lesson the chance for
motion sickness, the first 5 parabolas would produce Mars-like
gravity, the next 5 at lunar gravity, and the final 10 at zero-g.
The
first commercial flight starts on October 9th. The company will
use cargo jets. Air cargo is primarily a night business so the
vehicles are available during the day. See the photos
and video for a view of the plane and what the flights will
be like.
Peter
Diamandis, astronaut Dr. Byron K. Lichtenberg and
their partners have been slogging through the regulatory process
for about decade to make this happen. Congratulations to them
for making it to the finish line.
This item
via HS reader Robert Burmeister.
The
Space Review this week has a number of interesting
articles including
Moon
step... While
many Mars advocates want to skip the Moon altogether, others
argue that it will provide lots of useful experience, technologies,
infrastructure, etc. that will support a Mars program: Moon
To Provide a Stepping Stone to Mars and Beyond - Space News
- June.28.04
News
briefs ... Andrew
Chaikin reviews the Disney/Von Braun space programs of the 1950s:
'Tomorrowland':
Disney's Vision of the Future on DVD - NPR - July.8.04 ...
...
A
new space history program is in development at the BBC: BBC
unites old adversaries for new series on space race - BBC -
Jun.24.04 (item
via M. Huang) ...
...
Seth
Shostak puts some perspective on NASA: Commentary:
NASA May Take a Licking, But it Keeps on Ticking - Space.com
- July.8.04 ...
...
A storehouse
of Usnet space info at Space
- Yarchive via the Yarchive
- Usenet Archives ...
...
Useful
technical reliability info at NASA
Workmanship Technical Committee (from a posting by John
Carmack at the ERPS
forum) ...
...
Space
burial gets some attention from the Financial Times:
Crossing
the final frontier - Financial Times - July.9.04 (link via
Sam Dinkin.)
July.8.2004
Space News
Mars
Sats... Future
Mars explorers, both robotic and human, will have a satellite
support infrastructure awaiting them. There are currently three
active orbiters around the Red Planet and more will be going
there. Besides their remote sensing priorities, the orbiters
assist ground systems with communications and navigation. For
example, some of the communications with the Mars
Rovers is relayed
through the two US orbiters. This allows for more efficient
accumulation of data since a rover has a high speed direct link
with earth for only about three hours a day (see this page on
rover
data transmission.)
The satellites
also help with navigation: Red
Planet Wayfinder: A GPS System for Mars - Space.com - July.7.04.
The Mars
Reconaissance Orbiter, slated for launch in 2005, will carry
the Electra
payload that will provide communications
and navigation services. The first satellite dedicated to
communications and navigation around another planet will be
the Mars
2009 Telecommunications Orbiterl.
Progress
continues, as well, on Interplanetary
Internet development.
News
briefs... Meanwhile the rovers continue to rove:
Rovers
roll on (and up and down) Mars by James Oberg - MSNBC - July.6.04...
...
The newest AMSAT-NA spacecraft gets its official name: Echo
Satellite is Officially AMSAT-OSCAR 51 - ARRLWeb - July.7.04.
Tech
brief.... My favorite new
flying technique is growing in scale. The latest fanwing
prototype - the Fanwing
UAV - can carry 12kg. See the movie
(5MB mpg).
July.7.2004
Space News
News
briefs... The
upcoming Return
to the Moon conference
has an interesting agenda
...
...
SpacedOut
...
is a project to build the largest model of the solar system
in the whole solar system. School sites across the UK will represent
the sun, planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Schools
enter Solar System orbits - BBC - July.6.04.
...
...
Also,
check out another British site UK
goes to the PLANETS, which describes various space science
missions
that involve UK researchers.
...
...
Too
bad I can't locate an on line source for the video To Fly
by Brad Sayles that won a TELLY
Award according to this article: Composer's
NASA work wins award - Galveston County[Texas] Daily News -
July.7.04 (via spacetoday.net.)...
...
I did find a couple of articles about his involvement with the
Space
Cowboys movie: Oscars
2001 - Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman - Space Cowboys sound
effects * Audio:
Striving for Realism: Audio Effects in Space Cowboys - Film
& Audio Magazine - Aug.2000.
July.6.2004
Space News
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday
July 6, 2004: 7-8:15pm Pacific Time - The Space Show features
Dr. Paul D. Spudis, a Senior Staff Scientist at the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland
and Visiting Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute
in Houston, Texas.
Sunday
July 11, 2004: 12:00-1:30pm Pacific Time - Space Show features
Dr. George C. Nield, the Deputy Associate Administrator for
Commercial Space Transportation at the FAA. Dr. Nield has
over 30 years of aerospace experience with the United States
Air Force, at NASA, and in private industry. [He is deeply
involved with the licensing of commercial space transports
such as the SpaceShipOne.]
Sunday,
July 11, 2004, 6:00-7:30pm Pacific Time - Space Show features
a special live taping session featuring Rand
Simberg who will update us with all important events and
activities in the space development world.
The archive
will soon include the Space Ship One Broadcast from June 21,
2004 Space Show program featuring the continuous broadcast
of commentary on the the Space Ship One launch and landing.
News
briefs...
Fred Becker forwards this link to an writeup about Space
Age Music and the Moog by Susi O'Neill - Hypnotic/Switched
on radio.co.uk - 1999 ....
...
Congratulations
to the Canadian Mars Society on winning a space research grant:
Canadian
Space Agency Awards $20K Contract to Mars Society Canada for
Its Second Research Expedition - Mars Society of Canada - July.5.04
....
...
Thomas
Olsen warns that entrenched interests will resist many of the
recommendations of the Aldridge Committee. However, the private
sector initiatives could be enacted relatively easily and provide
greater benefits in the long run anyway: The
Aldridge Report: it's all about execution - The Space Review
- July.5.04...
...
Taylor
Dinerman says it may be time to create a new Space Force in
parallel with the Air Force and other services: A
new space service? - The Space Review - July.5.04...
...
Dwayne Day reports on a study in the late 1960s of a scheme
to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with the earth
by a fleet of Saturn V launched nuclear warheads: Giant
bombs on giant rockets: Project Icarus - The Space Review -
July.5.04....
...
A
new version of the StarStrider
- The 3D-planetarium from
FMJ-Software has been released.....
...
The Northern
Virginia Association of Rocketry is hosting "the National
Association of Rocketry Annual Meet" - NARAM-46
- on July 31 through August 6, 2004 at Great Meadow Outdoor
Events Center The Plains, Virginia.....
...
A whole 26 lecture college level course on rocket propulsion
is currently available at AE
6450 Rocket Propulsion, Dr. Narayanan M. Komerath - Georgia
Tech - Fall 2004
National
Academies studies... HS
reader Michael Antoniewicz has been scanning the list of publications
at National Academies
Press and found a number of studies related to the new space
exploration initiative. Here's some of what he discovered
(in HTML unless labeled PDF):
July.4.2004
Space News
Saturn
non-saturnine ... Saturn is bringing joy and excitement
to the Cassini/Huygen's
team. Too many articles about Saturn and Titan to keep up with
here. See spacetoday.net
for links to the latest. For example, see these summaries: Titan
images surprise scientists - spacetoday.net - July.4.04
and Cassini
ring images delight scientists - spacetoday.net - July.4.04
Rocketry
news... Alan Boyle reports on the effects so far
of the regulations imposed on rocketry since 9/11: Rocket
ruckus revisited - Alan Boyle/Cosmic Log - July.2.04. Thankfully,
they have
not caused the fatal disaster many feared.
However,
I think it's clear that they will seriously hinder the growth
of an important educational activity that should be encouraged
rather than discouraged by the government....
...
John Wickham
is leading a group of students in the development of a sounding
rocket that will launch from Wallops Island: Local
rocketeers prepare for Virginia launch - Casper Star Tribune
- July.3.04.
The Pathfinder
Rocket will fly on July 14th. The project involves students
from the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) and from Casper College
and Natrona County School District in Wyoming.
News
briefs... Dwayne
Day tells the interesting story of the Soviet Moon rocket:The
Secret at Complex J: At Tyuratam, the Soviet moon booster emerged
slowly and suffered disaster. - Air Force Magazine - July.04....
...
You
never know where GPS will show up these days and it's making
the military nervous: Coke's
GPs Promotion Has Army Nervous - Space.com - July.2.04 ...
Space
arts... More about Laurie Anderson's residency at
NASA: NASA
Gives Space to Artist in Residence - NPR - July.3.04 (See
also this previous link: Moon
and Stars Align for Performance Artist: Laurie Anderson Accepts
Art Commission From NASA - Washington Post - June.30.04)...
...
Colorado missile masters get a tribute: Trajectory
to the stars: Artist Darrell Anderson lands a dream with Missileers
mosaic - DenverPost.com - July.4.04 (via spacetoday.net)...
...
William
Shatner's "classic" rendition of "Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds" is made into a video
(via NASA Watch.).
Tech
news briefs... Suppressing sonic booms shows promise
and may lead to practical supersonic business jets in the not
to distant future: Whooshhh!
- Popular Science - July.04 [Update
July.5.04: Rand Simberg isn't impressed - Show
Me The Numbers! - Transterrestrial Musings - July.5.04]
...
...
Low
cost, light weight video projectors via the magic of lasers
and holograms: Holograms
enable pocket projectors - TRN - June.30.04
July.2.2004
Space News
News
briefs... Jeff Foust reports on preparations for
the Moon-Mars
Blitz lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill: Moon-Mars
Blitz update - Space Politics - July.1.04....
...
He also writes about a problem with funding for the Centennial
Challenges space prizes program: Centennial
Challenges Setback - Space Politics - July.2.04....
...
Saturn
pictures available at JPL
- Multimedia and JPL
- Latest Images.
The
SpaceShow
this week:
Sunday
July 4, 2004 Space Show features a replay of the July 1, 2004
taped program discussing the Return
To The Moon Conference with Manny Pimenta of the Space
Frontier Foundation.
Recent
shows available in the on line archive:
June
29, 2004: Dr. Carol Rosin, who spoke about "the militarization
of space, transforming military space to commercial space,
economic and job stimulation and more".
June
27, 2004: Joan Horvath, the CEO of Take-off Technologies,
LLC and the Executive Director of Global Space League, Inc..
She spoke about her trip to watch the SpaceShipOne flight.
(Read her special
report for HobbySpace.
She also "brought us up to date on the efforts to develop
a thriving commercial launch industry as part of the greater
Oklahoma Space Port Authority using Frederick, Oklahoma as
the launch site and base" and "She also talked about
the special and exciting business partnerships being developed
with Take-Off as well as Global Space League with the entertainment
industry, Santa Clara University, school programs, and much
more."
Hear the
SpaceShow programs live at KKNW, 1150 AM in Seattle, and on
line at www.live365.com/stations/dlivingston?site=dlivingston.
Tuesday
shows are on at 7-8:15PM Pacific Time and Sunday shows at
12-1:30PM Pacific Time.
July.1.2004
Space News
Space
on a roll... Gee, what a year for space. Just yesterday
we had Cassini
reaching Saturn plus an unusual space
walk on the ISS. Two wildly successful Mars
Rovers just keep on roving, Mars
Express is sending spectacular pictures,
President Bush gave space policy a major
jolt in January, just last week SpaceShipOne
initiated private spaceflight, and in May an amateur
rocket for the first time reached space.
In the coming
six months we can hope to see the X
PRIZE won and SpaceX
fly the Falcon I, which would be the first completely privately
funded vehicle to put a payload in orbit. [Update: Bill Claybaugh
corrects me. Orbital Sciences Pegasus
was developed with private funding. However, it did get much
indirect support from DARPA, including a 6
launch contract early in its development.]
Vicarious
spaceflight ... Cassini
arrived at Saturn with over 600,000 signatures from people around
the world: Paw
prints sent to Saturn - Alan Boyle/Cosmic Log - June.30.04
Can't
trust anything these days -
Speed
of light may have changed recently - New Scientist - June.30.04.
However, I won't get too excited yet about c becoming
inconstant. More likely there is something wrong with the analysis
of the Oklo
site. reactor. (Tell your anti-tech friends that nuclear
reactors are all-natural.)
I was just
thinking the other day about the many (at least a dozen or so)
announcements during the time I was in particle physics of major
or semi-major discoveries in that field, almost all of which
turned out to be false after further analysis and/or failures
to replicate the results. Free quarks, magnetic monopoles, heavy
neutrinos (later
experiments showed that neutrinos do in fact have mass but
far below what these earlier experiments claimed), new particles
of various sorts, etc. Some of these announcements came with
press conferences. All turned out to be wrong.
Until the
results are confirmed by other researchers using different methods,
be skeptical of claims of major discoveries in fundamental physics
