June.30.2005
12:55 pm: Space radio ... In
responding to a question about building a space radio receiving
station, I came across some links that might be of interest.
In the educational area, the site NOAASIS
- Satellites and Remote Sensing - Getting Started with Tutorials,
Classes and Web Resources offers a lot of material on remote
sensing. It also pointed me to this guide that looks quite useful
for those wanting to build a sat station: User's
Guide for Building and Operating Environmental Satellite Receiving
Stations (July 1997) - NTIS, by Jeff Wallach, National Environmental
Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Washington, DC.
The Dallas Remote Imaging
Group says that it provides "consulting services on weather
satellite imagery, satellite tracking, and the use of image acquisition
and processing in education."
These sites offer lots of links
See the space
radio and remote
sensing sections for more information about home satellite
reception.
12:55 pm: News briefs ... The
Deep Impact
module that will smack into Comet Tempel
1 on Monday will be carrying the names of many earthlings: 625,000
Names to be Vaporized in Deep Impact - SPACE.com - June.30.05.
Note the list of other Vicarious
Space Travel programs. ...
... Privately funded SETI
projects are becoming very sophisticated. For example,
the Allen
Telescope Array will be a world class radio telescope facility
that uses a very innovative system of many small dish antennas.
Here's an informative description of the reasoning behind the layout
of the dishes: Spreading
Antennas Around - SPACE.com - June.30.05
June.29.2005
11:30 am: Googling Earth ... Wow,
Google Earth
is really fun. The basic version of the program, which Google obtained
when it bought
the Keyhole company last year, is now available free for downloading.
It opens with a view of the earth and then via your mouse you can
zoom in on any area for which there is satellite imagery available;
often with resolutions of a couple of meters. I zoomed down onto
a beach on Rio de Janeiro and could see "figures" (well,
dark marks) on the beach (sorry, guys, no thong bikini views.)
A cool feature is the "Fly to" option in which you enter
the name of a city and watch the earth rotate and automatically
zoom in on the center of the town.
There are many other options that I'm still learning to play with.
You can, for example, put placemarks on points of interest, request
directions between different points, tilt the point of view, look
for particular places of interests such as hotels and restaurants,
etc.
Note that you need
a fast computer and a fast Internet link to appreciate the full
power of the program.
11:30 am: News briefs ... July
4th will bring fireworks to Comet Tempel 1:On
the 4th of July, a NASA spacecraft will blast a hole in Comet Tempel
1 - Science@NASA - June.28.05. The comet appears to be snorting
as it awaits the oncoming collision: Comet
Tempel 1 has another 'sneeze' outburst - Spaceflight Now - June.28.05
...
... Cassini spots what may
be a liquid methane lake on Titan: NASA's
Cassini reveals lake-like feature on Titan - Spaceflight Now - June.28.05
Potential
lake seen on Titan - Spacetoday.net - June.29.05 ...
... Notice how we (i.e. earthlings)
currently have spacecraft near a comet,
orbiting Saturn,
(several) orbiting
and roving
Mars, orbiting the Moon,
and hitting the heliosheath.
There are many scientific
spacecraft doing all sorts of missions and of course, hundreds
of satellites around the earth and two guys on the ISS. Space is
becoming a busy place. ...
... The Adler Planetarium unveils
a statue of astronaut James Lovell: A
successful launch for Lovell: Sculpture captures famous spacewalk
- Chicago Tribune - June.29.05 ...
... An entertaining review
of Mars films: Mars
in Pop Culture: Film - Astrobiology Magazine- June.29.05 ...
... Here's an article about
the Sun
Rings composition from Terry Riley and the Kronos
Quartet, which creates space
music from the natural
space sounds recorded by Prof. Don
Gurnett of the University of Iowa: Outer
space is noisier than you might think - Chicago SunTimes - June.29.05
...
... Someday, Martians will
be able to waste huge amounts of time surfing the interplanetary
web: Vint
Cerf: Next Stop, Mars: The Internet pioneer is working on interplanetary
communication - Business Week - July.4.05 issue
11:30 am:
SciTech briefs ... The Global
Observer from AeroVironment
is a liquid hydrogen fuel cell powered UAV that has now flown several
flight tests successfully: AeroVironment
Flies World's First Liquid Hydrogen Powered UAV: Enables Persistent
Communications Relay and Remote Sensing Breakthrough Systems - AeroVironment
- June.28.05
June.27.2005
1:20 pm: Outer Space setback ... The
latest Space
Review offers the concluding article from Alan Wasser on the
effects of the Outer
Space Treaty on space development. LBJ's
Space Race: what we didn't know then (part 2) - The Space Review
- June.27.05.
I lived through that period and I think he gets it a somewhat backwards.
The treaty did not undercut interest and support for space. Rather
the collapse of public interest and support for space (and science
and engineering in general) by the second half of the 1960s made
it possible for such policies to be instituted with little or no
resistance.
The launch of Sputnik set off a brief Renaissance in the US in
all areas of science and engineering but with a special focus on
Space. By the late 1960's, though, attitudes had completely reversed.
The Viet Nam War and social unrest distracted people from progress
in space and the counterculture's anti-science, anti-tech outlook
gradually became dominant. Furthermore, the vast expense of the
Apollo program convinced nearly everyone that space ventures of
any kind were inherently too expensive to be practical.
I don't think the Antarctica case applies to the Outer Space Treaty.
People know that mining in remote areas on earth like Antarctica
is difficult but not impossible. The extravagant costs of the Space
Race made schemes such as mining on the Moon seem like nothing but
distant Star Trek fantasies. So it took no convincing at all to
sell the treaty's restrictions on space property rights.
Of course, it's perfectly plausible that LBJ wanted to reduce space
competition with the USSR to shift money to the War effort. However,
even if he had been wildly enthusiastic about the possibilities
of space development, he would have had an extremely difficult time
convincing Congress to maintain Space Race funding levels.
1:20 pm: News briefs ... Other
articles in Space Review include:
... I wonder if the astronauts
will be able to play chess with Clarissa: NASA,
Xerox to demonstrate 'virtual crew assistant' - Spaceflight Now
- June.25.05 ...
... Words of wisdom from a
sci-fi master: The
Greatest Robert A. Heinlein Quotes - John Petrie.
1:20 pm: The SpaceShow
this week:
Monday, June 27, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - CEO of
American Antigravity will be discussing the latest in antigravity
research & its application to space access (www.americanantigravity.com).
[David explores the outer limits sometimes. Don't assume any endorsement
of the viability of antigravity by HS.
Note that American Antigravity includes interviews
with several alt.space notables such as Rick
Tumlinson of the Space
Frontier Foundation, Mike
Gold of Bigelow
Aerospace, and Michael
Lane of Liftport.
]
Tuesday, June 28, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Brian
Enke of the Southwest Research Institute discusses human spaceflight
& his new book, "Shadows of Medusa."
Sunday, July 3, 2005, 12-1:30 PM (Pacific Time) - Daniel Bateman
of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center will be discussing
this exciting center, its work, and more.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
1:20 pm: This
week's AMSAT news:
One Year Anniversary of Echo * Symposium Registration Now Online
* SSETI Express to Leave Cleanroom * 2006 Slate of BOD Candidates
* AMSAT Awards
+
ARISS Status: Canadian School Contact Successful * Upcoming
School Contacts * Article on Australian School Contact * SuitSat
Educational Project Status * ARISS Software News of SuitSat Spreads
* Astronaut Training * ARRL Article on ISS Participation in Field
Day * ARRL Article on John Phillips
1:20 pm:
SciTech briefs ... It appears that zinc can be used in
a system for converting solar power into a portable fuel. SOLZINC:
Storing Solar Energy in Zinc for Electricity or Hydrogen Production
- Green Car Congress - June.26.05. You can find more information
on the conversion plant at SOLZINC
and SolarPACES.
Info on zinc-air batteries is available at Electric
Fuel Zinc-Air Battery System ...
... The cover
article (subscription only) on the latest Aviation Week is about
a solar powered drone that flew continuously for 48 hours. AC
Propulsion reported earlier this month about the long flight
of its SoLong UAV: AC
Propulsion SoLong UAV Flies for 48 Hours on Sunlight Two Nights
Aloft Opens New Era of Sustainable Flight - AC Propulsion - June.3.05.
Note that the vehicle used the latest Li-Ion batteries with 220
Wh/kg. With even more substantial
improvements in the offing, it appears that Li-Ion batteries
may give fuel cells lots of competition for future energy storage
dominance. ...
... The
Views From Science educational website from Ely Silk provides
an introduction to several interesting scientific topics and includes
lots of beautiful pictures and videos. See the sections on Microcrystals,
Fluorescence,
and Radioluminescence.
The CyberSPACE
section offers video animation about topics such as the Jupiter
Moon Io.
June.25.2005
11:45 am: News briefs
... Space activist projects have apparently
reached a level of sophistication where some press reporters cannot
tell the difference between them and those at a well known space
agency. Dan Shrimpsher points
to this VOA article - NASA
Creates Simulated Mars Base In Utah Desert - VOA News - June.24.05
- in which the reporter thinks "the Mars
Desert Research Station is one of several sites built by NASA."
(The National Geographic, though, got the story right: Life
on Mars Simulated by Crew in Utah Desert - Nat. Geo. - June 26.02)
...
... The Moon
Society hopes to expand its membership and develop its projects
to the level of the Mars Society. A current project involves renting
the MRDS for simulations of a lunar habitat
...
... During the ISDC'05
meeting, the Moon Society and the National
Space Society announced the formation of a close alliance: The
Moon Society and The National Space Society Sign an Historic Agreement
by which the Moon Society becomes an Autonomous Affiliate of NSS
- Moon Society - May.22.05 ...
... The Moon Society also cooperates
closely with the American
Lunar Society. Check out the Lunar
Study and Observing Certificate Program - cosponsored with the
Moon Society ...
... Speaking of the lunar habitats,
here is an interesting article on developing an electrostatic radiation
shield for them: A
Force Field for Astronauts? - Science@NASA - June.24.05. This
Analysis
of a Lunar Base Electrostatic Radiation Shield Concept - Butler
& Wichmann - NIAC - Apr.28.05 offers more details. ...
... The Florida educational
program The
Endeavour Academy has announced a program in which a group of
Florida teachers will get to ride on the ZERO-G
parabolic flights: Florida
Teachers Soar High To Experience Zero-G - SpaceDaily/Zero-G - June.24.05
...
... In Britain you can use
GPS to find out where traffic cameras are placed: Show
me the way - BBC - June.24.05. ...
... Hubble eyes an eye on us:
Photo
In the News: Hubble Snaps "Eye in the Sky" - Nat. Geo
- June.24.05
11:45 am: SciTech briefs ...
Do androids read electric authors? David Hanson of Hanson
Robotics develops robots with realistic faces via his "patent-pending
Frubber™
that closely matches the physics of human skin". At an upcoming
exhibition he will debut a reasonable facsimile of the late sci-fi
author Philip
K. Dick, whose stories often involved robotics: Philip
K. Dick Resurrected - Hanson Robotics : Project - June.05 ...
... The InstantSOUP
- Electronics Cookbook uses a "learning by making" approach
to teach "electronic prototyping in a playful, non-technical
way." It uses the "Wiring"
prototyping board that connects to USB and Processing
1.0 (BETA) software. It particularly focuses on connecting Macromedia
Flash programs to the hardware. Projects include:SoundPad
, Etch
A Sketch, TinkerToy,
and NetBell.
Item via Another
World Is Here: InstantSOUP for the Fabricator's Soul - WorldChanging
- June.24.05
June.23.2005
4:20 pm: News briefs
... I find much of Laurie
Anderson's political commentary, in music and elsewhere,
to be predictable and sophomoric but eliminating the NASA artist
in residence program because you don't like her politics seems petty
and shortsighted: End
of the moon - John McCaslin - June.21.05 * NASA's
First and Last Artist in Residence? - NASA Watch - June.21.05
...
... More about the new Imax
space film: Magnificent
Desolation - NSS Chapters News - June.17.05 ...
... If access to the ISS became
a lot cheaper, as possible with, for example, the t/Space
scheme, then science on the station starts to make sense: NASA,
Entrepreneurs to Develop Biotechnology Plan for Space Station -
SpaceRef - June.22.05 ...
... Here's a cool reusable
microsat from NASA: NASA
Successfully Demonstrates Innovative Nanosatellite System - NASA/ScienceDaily
- June.22.05 ...
... I like the headline "Million
Robot March Attended by Exactly 1,000,000 Robots": The
Onion 2056.
4:20 pm: SciTech brief ...
Curious Aibo pups: Robo-pups
created with curiosity in mind - New Scientist - June.22.05
* The Playground
Experiment / Sony CSL Paris.
June.21.2005
11:45 am: The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, June 21, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - David
Ashford of Bristol
Spaceplanes in the UK.
Sunday, June 26, 2005, 12-1:30 PM (Pacific Time) - Dr. Alan
Hale, astronomer and co-discoverer of the Hale-Bopp Comet returns
to The Space Show.
Recent shows include an interview
with Jeff Feige, who talked about the Return
to the Moon Conference VI (July 21-23 at The Flamingo, Las
Vegas, Nevada), and an interview
with Leonard David, senior reporter for space.com.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
11:45 am: This
week's AMSAT news:
IARU Speadsheets on Small Satellites Available * Send Your Name
to Pluto! * AO-51 Configuration * AMSAT Journal Article Timing *
ISS Crew could be on the air for Field Day. * SSETI Announcement
* Small Payload Conference
11:10 am: Space Publisher/Developer
... The Space
Age Publishing Company, based in Hawaii, is an interesting organization.
It sells two online space services: the Space
Calendar, which provides a schedule of upcoming space events,
and the Lunar
Enterprise Daily, which gives the latest news on Moon related
developments. It also offers Hawaii
Space Tours, which include some of the famous astronomical observatories
on the islands.
In addition to these activities, the company is pursuing a space
development project called the International
Lunar Observatory. It gave SpaceDev
a contract
in July of 2004 to carry out a study
to investigate the feasibility of a unmanned mission "to put
a small dish antenna near the south pole of the Moon." The
latter part of this Space.com
article by Leonard David describes the project.
11:10 am: SciTech: Mu milestone
... It was a great news / bad news day for
Carter Aviation
Technologies, the small firm developing an innovative hybrid
winged and rotor vehicle. Last Friday the company's CarterCopter
was the first rotorcraft to ever achieve a mu of 1.
The mu factor, explained nicely here,
is the ratio of the speed of the aircraft VA to the tip
speed Vtip of the rotor (relative to the vehicle). The
top speeds of conventional rotorcraft are limited because of the
drag caused by the rotor and because the speed of the rotor tip
relative to the atmosphere can reach supersonic at modest vehicle
speeds.
The CarterCopter overcomes these problems by slowing the rotor
(i.e. reducing Vtip) and relying on a small wing for
lift. Weighted tips keep the slowly rotating rotor rigid, which
prevents flapping. The goal is a vehicle that can achieve very short
takeoff and landing and still provide for efficient forward flight
with speeds reaching up to 500 mph.
So the achievement last week was a significant one. Unfortunately,
in a flight later the same day "the pilots executed a forced
landing in a nearby field." No one was hurt but the "aircraft
sustained significant damage". This is reminiscent of the time
the vehicle presented a very impressive flight demonstration before
a military delegation only to land on its belly when the pilots
forgot to deploy the landing gear.
The team, however, doesn't seem to let such setbacks affect their
plans very much. They simply fix the broken parts and get back into
the air before long. They follow a very open development process
and you can check their progress via the weekly updates posted on
their website.
June.20.2005
3:05 pm: News briefs
... You can monitor developments with the
Cosmos 1 Solar
Sail via the Updates
page and the Solar
Sail Blog. The launch is set for tomorrow at 19:46:09 GMT (15:46:09
EST) ...
... You can Build
Your Own Solar Sail Spacecraft Scale Model via plans available
at Space Craft International.
They offer a number of other Free
Spacecraft Paper Model Plans. There are also some low cost kits
such as for the Hubble
Telescope and Lunar
Prospector...
... The latest Space Review
includes:
... See a trailer for the IMAX
space film Magnificent
Desolation, which is narrated by Tom Hanks and will premier
in the fall: Magnificent
Desolation teaser trailer - collectSPACE - June.19.05...
... Students taking part in
the European SSETI - Student Space
Exploration & Technology Initiative will get to see their satellite
launch this August: Students
wait to launch their dream baby - ESA - June.17.05
...
... A big Moon will bo on the
horizon in the northern hemisphere: Summer
Moon Illusion - Science@NASA - June.20.05
3:05 pm: Mundane vision
... Via Slashdot
I came across the Mundane
SF project whose Manifesto
rejects non-hard science sci-fi scenarios and "technologies"
such as faster-than-light travel, time travel, galaxy-wide empires,
etc. (See also the Mundane-SF
Blog.)
This jives well with my Solar
Sci-Fi approach except that, at least from a quick scan,
they seem to follow mostly an earth-only outlook with little consideration
of the possibilities of a future in which life spreads throughout
the solar system.
As I tried to express in this essay,
a future within the "confines" of the solar system will
be anything but mundane. (Note that slower-than-light
travel to other stars is feasible but it doesn't allow
for anything like normal human interaction and commerce.) We have
enormous resources awaiting us and lots of room in which to develop
a huge diversity of societies and ways of living.
The absence of a Solar Sci-fi genre with the popularity of Star
Wars has nothing to do with scientific or economic feasibility.
It does have everything to do with the paradigm of mundane space
created by the Moon Race period, which left everyone, including
many sci-fi writers, convinced that anything space-related must
be stupendously expensive, agonizingly slow to develop, and involve
only a handful of hyper-elite government employees.
I certainly hope that the X-PRIZE and StarShipOne and Two and other
paradigm-exploding events and technologies coming along in the next
few years will inspire a burst of creative energy and imagination
that fully exploits the vast possibilities that are opening up to
us.
June.18.2005
2:05 am: News briefs
... Here's a review of Chip Proser's Gaia
Selene documentary about lunar colonization: Hey
Gang! Let's Move to the Moon! - Wired - June.17.05 (I will comment
on it soon.) ...
... Here is a brief history
of amateur/student satellites in the Soviet Union and Russia and
a description of current projects: Students
instructed from space satellites - RIA Novosti - June.17.05
...
... The Mars
Express can now start doing some serious water mapping: Mars
Express deploys second radar boom - New Scientist - June.15.05
* Smooth
deployment for second MARSIS antenna boom - ESA - June.16.05
...
... I think the Martians (i.e.
the people who live on Mars) will decide how and when to transform
their planet: Terraforming:
Human Destiny or Hubris? - ad Astra/space.com - June.17.05 ...
... More places to look for
aliens: Setting
SETI's Sights: Latest Planet Discovery Suggests New Targets - Space.com
- June.16.05
1:55 am: SciTech briefs ... More
holographic news. Check out the holographic videos developed at
the Southwestern Medical Center: Dynamic
Display of Real and Virtual 3-D Holographic Images Using TI's DMD
- SWMED * Holographic
Movies Show Promise For Medical, Military Applications - ScienceDaily/UTSMC
- June.15.05 ...
... Info on open source hardware
projects is available at the inventionDB
- Invention Resource Database
June.15.2005
3:00 pm: News brief ...
Don't forget that Mike Melvill will hold a
webchat on the EAA
Young Eagles website this evening between 7 and 8 p.m. central
time: First
Civilian Astronaut to Answer Your Questions.
11:15 am: News briefs ... Jim
Oberg tries to bring some realism to the discussion of weapons in
space: Hyperventilating
over 'space weapons' - USATODAY.com - June.14.05 . See also
the recent articles by Dwayne Day: General
Power vs. Chicken Little - The Space Review - May.23.05 * Blunt
arrows: the limited utility of ASATs - The Space Review - June.6.05
...
... Dr. Jim Pass is advocating
the development of a branch of sociology that deals with the many
ways that space affects our society such as the impact of exploration
and development activities, SETI, cosmological discoveries, etc.
See his website Astrosociology.com
and hear his recent
interview on the SpaceShow for more info.
...
... Sounds like it involved
more show than substance when ISS astronaut John Phillips testified
to a Congressional committee yesterday: The
astronauts show - Space Politics - June.15.05 * Space-to-Congress
linkup allows astronaut to testify - Spaceflight Now - June.14.05.
However, I still like the way this moves society at least a small
step towards thinking of space as a place. A place where
people are living and working. ...
... Tom Delay offers advice
on other ways for space advocates to influence Congress: 'Space
Nut' DeLay advises group how to lobby NASA - Houston Chronicle -
June.14.05 ...
... Sounds like the Kansas
Cosmosphere is opening an excellent exhibit on the Space Race:
Cosmosphere
immerses visitors in space race - Wichita Eagle - June.15.05
* Cosmosphere’s
Mollett Early Spaceflight Gallery Opening Immerses Visitors in Launch
Day Experiences and Cold War Space Race Original Seven Mercury astronaut
Scott Carpenter highlights opening day event - Cosmosphere - June.6.2005.
11:15 am: Space business briefs ... Satellite
radio is learning new tricks: Sirius
Boosts Capacity: New modulation technology gives the satellite radio
company the capacity to offer advanced services. - Red Herring-
June.13.05 ...
... The LEO satellite constellations
continue on the road to becoming solid businesses. Iridium
has had a flurry of announcements
recently and yesterday said it had raised more money to fund further
development: Iridium
Closes $32 Million Credit Facility with Bank of America - Iridium
- June.14.05. Also, Globalstar
seems to be doing well: Globalstar
And Qualcomm Sign $140 Million Multi-Year Manufacturing Agreement
- Globalstar - June.13.05. Orbcomm had its own announcement
this week: ORBCOMM
Announces Agreement with M2M Communications Corp. - June.13.05.
11:15 am: SciTech brief ... Here's
a neat way to capture fast holographic images: Mobile
Holography and Laser Systems * Fast
holography of faces: An ultrafast holography system captures the
shape of live subjects - optics - June.14.05
June.14.2005
12:15 am: News briefs ... Mike
Melvill will hold a webchat on the EAA
Young Eagles website on Wednesday, June 15 between 7 and 8 p.m.
central time: First
Civilian Astronaut to Answer Your Questions ...
... The resolution of the Doppler
technique for finding planets is getting much finer than I ever
thought possible: Small,
Rocky Planet Discovered Circling Another Star - SpaceRef - June.13.05.
...
... Another day comes and goes
on Mars: NASA
Mars Rover Sunset: A Moment Frozen in Time - SpaceRef - June.13.05
June.13.2005
2:00 pm: The SpaceShow
this week:
Monday, June 13, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Jeff Feige
will talk about the Return
to the Moon Conference VI (July 21-23 at The Flamingo,
Las Vegas, Nevada), which he is organizing. Jeff Feige is currently
an associate at PoliSpace, a political consulting firm dedicated
to helping space entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs succeed at the
nexus of space business, technology, and public affairs.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Leonard
David, Senior Space Writer for Space.com, will discuss the "latest
up to the minute news and inside views on the important space
news stories happening now."
Sunday, June 19, 2005, 12-1:30 PM (Pacific Time) - Chuck Walker
will discuss his newly released Apogee book, Atlas,
The Ultimate Weapon.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
2:00 pm: This
week's AMSAT news:
Call for papers-2005 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting *
AMSAT Board of Directors Nominations Due * AO-51 Configuration for
Field Day * OSCAR-11 Reception Reports Sought * AMSAT Journal Needs
Authors * Field Day Pictures, Please * SETTI Express Launch Date
* AMSAT Awards Announcement * Keplerian Elements Now Available for
PDA
+
ARISS Status: Australian School Contact Successful * Upcoming
School Contacts * SuitSat Status * Astronaut Training * Dayton Hamvention
2005 Presentations * Field Day
11:45 am: A space suit for an amateur
satellite ... SuitSat
is an innovative project of the ARISS
(Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) program that
will turn a spare Russian spacesuit on the ISS into a satellite.
ARISS
Seeks School Involvement in "SuitSat" Project - ARRLWeb
- June.3.05
Note that there are still a couple of days remaining before the
deadline for schools to place images of artwork on SuitSat:
Attention Schools!!
Would your school like to participate in a spacewalk??
Here is an outstanding opportunity!!
Background:
In the fall of 2005, a Russian spacesuit is expected to be deployed
from the International Space Station. This deployment is expected
to occur during a spacewalk currently planned in mid-September.
Once deployed, the spacesuit will orbit the Earth for several
weeks until it burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere.
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team
has received permission to include a special compact disk on-board
this spacesuit with school artwork included. As a result, participating
schools will have an opportunity to "fly" their artwork as part
of the spacewalk.
To participate, schools should develop a 1 page piece of artwork
that uniquely represents your school. This could be an artist's
representation of the school, a list of student names, student
signatures, a school science project summary or a school mission
patch. This artwork should be primarily developed by the students.
The goal is for you to use your imagination and engage your students
in the development of the artwork.
The page, as delivered, should not exceed 8.5x11 inches ( 216x279
mm) so that it can be easily scanned onto the compact disk. Schools
can also take a digital photograph of their art work and send
this in. If you elect to take a digital photograph, we ask that
this be in jpg format and not exceed 2 megs in size. No other
formats can be accepted.
Delivery Specifics:
All entries need to be received prior to June 15 2005 to be included
on the compact disk. The disk will be delivered to Russia in late
June, flown to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and launched
on the 19P Progress vehicle currently planned for August 2005.
8.5x11 inch page artwork can be mailed to the following address:
School Spacewalk
c/o AMSAT
850 Sligo Ave.
Suite 600
Silver Spring, MD USA 20910-4703
Jpg images, no greater than 2 megs, using the naming format "schoolname_location.jpg"
can be e-mailed to: schoolspacewalk@comcast.net
The ARISS team looks forward to your artwork and is pleased to
provide this opportunity to school students around the world!!
11:45 am:
News briefs ... NASA flies a telescope in Near Space:
'BLAST'
Off! Stratospheric Telescope Studies Stars - Space.com - June.13.05
* NASA
Sends Up Balloon Carrying Telescope - Yahoo!/AP- June.12.05.
More info at NSBF
Kiruna Sweden Operations. (Item via R. Nech) ...
... Dwayne Day reviews where
the ISS has succeeded and where it has failed: Twenty-five
gigabucks of steel: the objectives of the International Space Station
- The Space Review - June.13.05 ...
... Meanwhile, a session of
the House
Committee on Science on the space station project will receive
testimony directly from the ISS astronauts: Even
in space you cannot escape Congress - Space Politics - June.10.05
...
... See Mars up close and in
3D via a high definition digital video production opening this summer
at the Science Museum
of Minnesota. The article Touring
Mars in 3D - Apple.com/ProVideo News - June.05 describes how
Mars 3D was
developed from NASA 3D images taken by the rovers. See the trailers
and more info in the Mars
3D PDF Press Kit available from the site of the producer Melissa
Butts ...
... Here's an interesting story
about how the Orange
County Space Society managed to resurrect a full sized shuttle
crew cabin simulator for the Discovery
Science Center in Orange County, California: Have
Shuttle, Will Travel: Endeavour Takes Shape at Discovery Science
Center - ad Astra/Space.com - June.2.05
11:45 am: Space history briefs ...
James Oberg reports on a well deserved honor bestowed on John Houbolt
who successfully championed the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous strategy
for the Apollo program: Academic
honors for a spaceflight prophet - The Space Review - June.13.05
...
... Geoffrey Landis reviews
a couple of books about a trio brilliant and eccentric rocket pioneers:
The
Three Rocketeers - American Scientist - July/August.05 issue
June.11.2005
8:50 pm: News briefs ... Alan
Boyle reports on places to see satellite images of storms: Watch
storms from space - Cosmic Log / MSNBC - June.10.05 * NASA
- Hurricane 2005: A Hurricane Resource Site ...
... If you are going for a
walk on the Moon, be sure to check the solar storm forecast: A
New Kind of Solar Storm: Going to the Moon? Be careful. A new kind
of solar storm can take you by surprise - Science@NASA - June.10.05
...
... On the other hand, lunar
colonies and space habitats can take great advantage of sunlight
by piping
it throughout their structures: New
lighting system transports sunlight to where it's needed - Gizmag
- June.10.05 ...
... Mark Whittington reviews
the various types of space related tourism experiences: Space:
The Final Frontier of Tourism - Fine Tuning - June.10.05 ...
... You can download plans
for models of Japanese spacecraft at NASDA
Paper Models ...
... NASA develops a nanosat
that can be used by itself or as a blackbox attachment to
larger spacecraft: Micro
Spacecraft to Pave the Way for Future Space Exploration - NASA -
Apr.29.05.
June.10.2005
7:25 am: News briefs ... The
refurbishment of the Saturn V in Huntsville will start soon: Saturn
V ready for makeover, 'shrink wrap' - Huntsville Times - June.9.05.
The Save
the Saturn V campaign raised over $2M for the project ...
... So what is really needed
to prepare for a human mission to Mars? One big problem is how to
deal with Red Planet dust. Check out this study for a list of such
challenges: Precursor
Measurements of Mars Needed to Reduce the Risk of the First Human
Mission to Mars - SpaceRef - June.9.05
...
... Space stuff is hot stuff:
Moscow
Police Detain Man Trying to Sell $50,000 Stolen Meteorite - Moscow
News - June.9.05. (via spacetoday.net)
June.9.2005
12:05 am: News briefs ... Astro
Black Morphologies is a multimedia performance derived from
x-ray data from the black hole Cygnus-XI. The performances by the
duo Eddie George and Anna Piva will be at the Science Museum in
London during June 9-24. They produce multimedia installations and
sound art performances under the Flow Motion name and record as
Hallucinator.
...
... Mars lights up: Auroral
Lights Discovered at Mars - Space.com - June.8.05.
...
... Things are starting to
buzz at KSC as the Discovery mission nears: Outward
bound: A new shuttle mission stirs up outer-space excitement - Chicago
Tribune - June.7.05.
June.7.2005
12:45 am: News briefs ... It's
often said that space is extraordinarily tough on spacecraft. It
appears to me, though, that space is not all that different from
the harsh environment of home. If a consumer device doesn't break
down there in the first week or two, it almost always works for
many years. In space, whether its amateur
sats or Mars
rovers, if the equipment survives the launch and some dramatic
events like separation from boosters and landings, the systems go
on and on:. Mars
rover escapes sand dune - spacetoday.net - June.6.05 ...
... Sam Dinkin discusses the
"interesting law and economics questions about who should get
the spoils when a [space]ship goes bad." Dividing
up the spoils - The Space Review- June.5.05 ...
... Dwayne Day points out the
technical and political drawbacks involved in trying to hit satellites
with rockets: Blunt
arrows: the limited utility of ASATs - The Space Review - June.6.05
...
... Taylor Dinerman examines
the consequences on space policy of the failure of the EU constitution:
The
French "non", the Dutch "nee", and their impact
on Europe's space policy - The Space Review - June.6.05 ...
... "Ed Buckbee, with
Wally Schirra, in their book The Real Space Cowboys share
emotional highlights of their own and others from the early U.S.
space program.":
Book Review: The Real Space Cowboys - Universe Today - June.6.05
June.6.2005
12:05 am: The Space Press Syndicate ...
In last week's SpaceShow
interview with Robert
Zimmerman I heard the bad news that UPI is dropping his column
and also that of Irene Mona Klotz. The struggling company wants
to focus its tech/science coverage on a limited selection of topics
such consumer health. Zimmerman and Klotz have been doing a great
job the past year or so in reporting on developments in the new
commercial space movement. It is a real shame to see their columns
disappear just when things are heating up.
Maybe it's time to form a press service dedicated to space. It
could distribute columns and reports from pros like Zimmerman and
Klotz as well as less polished works from the various alt.space
publications. It could operate initially as low budget clearinghouse
type of operation but eventually develop into the "AP of space"
as human spaceflight operations expand. I can imagine there will
someday even be stringers in space sending in hot news items from
the Moon, L5 habitats, and elsewhere...
12:05 am: Talking with greens in space
... I occasionally hear suggestions from space advocates
that there should be a greater effort to ally with environmentalists.
This should be a easy sale since space offers many ways to help
the environment ranging from extensive monitoring of the earth by
satellites to the use of space based resources like solar power.
Unfortunately, the environmental community contains a wide strain
of knee-jerk anti-tech sentiment and the suggestion of collaborating
with space developers is a nonstarter with many, if not most, environmental
activists.
However, there are some Greens who actually seem enthusiastic about
the possibilities. Jamais Cascio, for example, is not only aware
of how space utilization has benefited the environment but also
recognizes the potential benefits of the commercialization of space:
Another
World Is Here: Greens in Space, Part II - WorldChanging - June.4.05.
(I disagree with him on the Mars contamination issue but that is
something to argue about down the line.)
June.3.2005
10:25 am: News briefs ... Robert
Pearlman reports on a fascinating discovery in "a long-locked
room at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station": "Suits
for Space Spies" - collectSPACE - June.2.05 ...
... Alan Boyle links to several
fascinating Mars images and an amazing dust-devil
sequence: Postcards
from Mars - Cosmic Log/MSNBC.com - June.2.05 ...
... Many of those beautiful
astronomical images that you see from the Hubble and other observatories
are the result of extensive processing and the somewhat subjective
choices made for the coloration: How
Do Space Pictures Get So Pretty? - Photoshop, of course. By Daniel
Engber - Slate - June.1.05.
June.2.2005
1:15 pm: News briefs ... Looks
like Olsen's flight really is back on this time: Space
tourist Gregory Olsen may fly in fall 2005 - RIA Novosti - June.1.05
* Countdown
to space ride: - Cosmic Log/MSNBC - June.1.05 ...
... Dan Schrimpsher thinks
that a new joint NASA and DOD organization will be needed to deal
with monitoring and possibly deflecting a NEO that might hit earth:
2004
MN4, Return of the Jedi - Space Pragmatism - June.1.05
June.1.2005
4:35 pm: Space teachers ... Despite
the fact that thousands of teachers continued to express strong
interest in going to space even after the Challenger disaster and
the death of Christa McAuliffe, NASA has never sent a single teacher
to space in the 21 years since the founding of the Teachers-in-Space
program. That program evolved into the Educator
Astronaut, in which former teachers, like McAuliffe's backup
Barbara Morgan, become full-time mission specialists. However, Morgan
has still not flown.
Space Frontier
Foundation seeks to do something about this. It has created
the program Teachers
in NewSpace with the goal of convincing Congress to send up
to 1000 teachers to space via suborbital space tourist vehicles.
Tickets are projected to cost in the $100K range, so $20M a year
would give rides to 200 teachers a year (4 from each state.)
Ed Wright originated the idea and illustrated how it could be done
when his X-Rocket company
flew a teacher on one of its high altitude MiG-21UM supersonic jet
trainer: Teacher
In Space Candidate Completes Proficiency Flight - X-Rocket - Mar.30.05.
William
Boland, founder of Forever
Bound, is a strong advocate for Teachers in NewSpace
and I first heard about it from him at the recent ISDC
gathering. Here's a message
he wrote earlier this year to Sean O'Keefe asking for NASA's support.
4:35 pm: News briefs ... Rep.
Dana Rohrbacher will try to get some support for NEO monitoring
as urged by Rusty Schweickart and the B612
Foundation: Congressman
Backs Asteroid Agency - Wired - June.1.05. * NEO
policy - Space Politics - June.1.05...
... More about beaming your
message to space: Intergalactic
Communications: Tele-spamming Our Alien Brethren - Popular Science
- June.05 issue. The Vicarious
Space Travel section lists several companies offering
deep space messaging services...
... The satellite images option
for Google's map service
has gotten lots of publicity. Other satellite based mapping services
for the consumer will become available soon. Google, for example,
is selling a standalone satellite/aerial imaging program from its
Keyhole subsidiary
that has many more features than the free online mapping tool.
MSN will roll out its Virtual
Earth service this summer and it will combine satellite and
aerial images so that you can see up close the places you are seeking.
Amazon's A9.com
will offer images of store fronts made on the ground but they will
rely on GPS coordinates to align the images.
...
... Speaking of Google, here
is another article about one of their top programmers giving up
the web search business to do astronomy full-time: The
Google Astronomer - Space.com - June.1.05....
... Here are a couple of books
that I've seen talked about recently. In Space Tourism : Adventures
in Earth's Orbit and Beyond (Amazon:
US
UK) , author Michel van Pelt attempts
to answer the question of "what would it actually feel like
to be a tourist in space, to be hurled into orbit on top of a controlled
explosion, to float around in a spacecraft, and to be able to look
down on your hometown from above the atmosphere?" ...
... In the children's picture
book Reaching for the Moon, Buzz Aldrin tells kids the story
of his life and how he got to the Moon (Amazon:
US
UK). Buzz
Aldrin takes giant leap into kids' books - Register - June.1.05.
4:35 pm: Space music news ...
Eli Goldberg of Prometheus
Music passes along some items about the space music album To
Touch the Stars:
We are now shipping the second (2000 unit) printing of "To Touch
the
Stars", the first-ever singer-songwriter compilation CD celebrating
space
exploration. This printing features a new afterword by former
NASA mission
controller (and NSS director) Marianne Dyson, replacing the afterword
by
former NSS executive director Brian Chase.
We also removed one track, "Beyond the Sky", and redesigned the
Digipack
to include a removable booklet, rather than the glued booklet
used in the
first printing.
This second printing is now available for purchase, with generous
free
MP3s, at: www.totouchthestars.com
The last 8 remaining copies of the first edition (also 2000 unit)
are
available on eBay through June 4th at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3977712030
(These items were first posted on the collectSPACE forum: New
printing of "To Touch the Stars" CD; last few copies
on eBay - collectSPACE: Messages):
Music from the album has become a part of the annual Yuri's
Night festivities. The Kristoph song "Others Standing By" is
now one of their official Yuri's
Night tracks.
Eli also says that To Touch the Stars has found its way
into several academic
publications:
- "After Columbia: The Space Shuttle Program and the Crisis in
Space
Access" by Dr. Roger
Launius (in the Astropolitics journal) concludes
with Bill Roper's song "Legends".
- "A Tribute to the Space Shuttle Columbia and Seven" by Jill
Walters
(in the Microbial Ecology journal) quotes Dr. Jordin Kare's song
"Fire
in the the Sky" in its entirety.
(This was also mistakenly reproduced without Dr. Kare's permission
-
and with an erroneous attribution. They'll be publishing a correction
in
their next issue. Thanks to Sherman Dorn for helping us track
that down.)
- "Got Filk? Lament for Apollo in Modern Science Fiction Folk
Music"
again by Dr. Launius is a draft paper that discusses the album
and
several of the songs on it. I was personally struck by his interpreting
Apollo-related filksongs through Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's five-step
grieving process.
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