August.31.2005
12:05 pm: News briefs ... Alan
Chan, who has worked on films like Titanic and The Lord
of the Rings, is developing a space movie called Postcards
from the Future. It will "chronicle the life of an ordinary
guy who's job is to build out the power grid for a lunar settlement."
More at Postcards
From The Future - RocketForge - Aug.29.05 ...
... The Space
Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for
Aerospace Studies has a very active nanosat program:
... Pondering a ball game on
the Moon: Moon
Tennis - Science@NASA - Aug.30.05 ...
... Astroplane
is " The Strategy Game for the New Millennium". ...
... Michael Huang, who wrote
this week in the Space
Review about a Space
Flag for space settlers, points me to an earlier flag for Mars
pioneers: Official
'Mars flag' unfurls in space - CNN -Jan.7.00 ...
... The LEO comsat constellations
continue a steady comeback: Iridium
CEO eyes IPO in early 2006: Firm to pitch itself as a growth stock
- MarketWatch - Aug.30.05 *
Globalstar Growth Rate Soars: One year following restructuring,
the satellite service provider shows robust customer growth, expanded
coverage, as well as new products and services - Globalstar - May.19.05
... Mobile satellite communications
can be of great benefit in a situation like the disastrous aftermath
of hurricane Katrina: Globalstar
Satellite Phone Service Uninterrupted in Hurricane-Lashed Gulf Region
- Globalstar/PRNewswire - Aug.29.05 * GAN
and mini-M provide vital back-up communications for disaster relief
efforts in hurricane-hit US southern state - Inmarsat - Aug.31.05.
August.30.2005
12:15 pm: The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, August 30, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - "Dr.
Chris Luginbuhl, astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff,
AZ and expert on dark sky outdoor lighting issues and light pollution."
Wednesday, August 31, 2005, 9:30-11:00 am (Pacific Time) - "Jim
Lewis, CEO of the Deep Space Communications Network."
Sunday, September 4, 2005, 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Pacific Time ) -
John Barber returns to discuss his maglift rocket sled concept.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
12:15
am: This week's AMSAT news:
AMSAT
Symposium * HAMSAT Reports Needed * AMSAT Election Deadline Approaching
* Volunteer Station Needed
+
ARISS Status: Arizona Contact a Success! * Upcoming School Contacts
* ARISS International Meeting * ARRL Article on Krikalev * SSTV
Safety Review Held * Space Tourist Issued Callsign
11:35 pm: News briefs ... To
make the movement for space colonization more real and visible to
the general public, Michael Huang suggests that a
Space Flag is needed: The
Space Flag by Michael Huang - Space Review - Aug.29.05 ...
... The [next to] last of
Monte Davis's essay on maintaining a sense of realism with regard
to the pace of space development: Thinking
Clearly About Space Part III: Hardware and Hand-Waving - ad Astra/SPACE.com
- Aug.29.05 ...
... You can now hear online
the song I
Want To Go In A Space Ship, which is the theme music for
the DVD "Mojave Magic: A Turtle's Eye View of SpaceShipOne"
(Amazon: US)
...
... The American
Museum of Natural History offers a new Discovery
Tour on the theme of space tourism that includes visits to spaceports
and a rocket launch and the option of experiencing weightlessness
on a parabolic flight: Spaced
Out - Newsweek: Int. Edition./MSNBC.com - Sept.5.05 issue *
Earth
Orbit: Inside the US and Russian Space Programs. ...
... Phil Smith reviews a new
book about the Spirit and Opportunity rovers: .Roving
Mars - The Space Review - Aug.29.05 ...
... Nice to see scientists
at my undergrad alma mater giving names to parts of Mars: Martian
monikers: Tennessee crew puts its mark on map of Red Planet - KnoxNews
- Aug.29.05 ...
... Check out this spectacular
side view of Mount McKinley made by astronauts on the ISS: Mount
McKinley, Alaska - International Space Station Imagery, NASA - Aug.14.05
* NASA
Space Station Image of Denali (Mt. McKinley) - NASA/SpaceRef - Aug.29.05
11:35 am: Space movies ... Magnificent
Desolation, the new IMAX movie produced and narrated by Tom
Hanks, will be released in September: One
Giant Leap - Wired - Sept.05 issue
...
... Check out the clips of
the IMAX short film HubbleSOURCE:
Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time.
11:35 am: Amateur astronomy ...
Dwayne Day reports on the struggles of astronomers, professional
as well as amateur, to get the credit (and funding) they deserve:
When
I'm not in prison I'm an astronomer - The Space Review - Aug.29.05
...
... The AAVSO:
American Association of Variable Star Observers, for example,
involves amateurs who do solid, important work in the area of variable
star observation: Amateurs
Help Astronomers Unravel A Propeller Star - SpaceRef - Aug.26.05
...
... John Dobson showed that
big scopes could be build for little money: Heaven
on earth: John Dobson, the high priest of amateur astronomy, stays
true to his calling - Los Angeles Times - Aug.30.05
11:35 am: SciTech: Misleading first impressions
... How many times have you heard a newscaster begin
an item with "Scientists announced today ..."? The report
typically describes the results of a paper just published in a scientific
journal and the conclusions are presented as if they had been established
as fact. However, that isn't usually the case: Most
scientific papers are probably wrong - New Scientist - Aug.30.05.
The problem is seldom due to fraud or even deliberate exaggeration.
It is just the nature of scientific investigation that the first
experiments are incomplete and based on limited amounts of data.
There also can be serious systematic biases and errors, i.e. those
due to the particular type of technology and techniques used in
the experiment.
The same problems hold for theoretical analyses. Even if there
are no errors in the calculations, the analysis must start from
a set of assumptions and estimations and one or more of these may
be incorrect. (I make the brave prediction that over the next century
every year or two there will be a paper published, and reported
on in New Scientist, that proves that travel through a wormhole
is possible followed a year or two later by a paper proving that
such a shortcut is impossible.)
During my time in high energy physics research, there must have
been a dozen announcements of "discoveries" of new particles
or particle properties that turned out to be wrong or at least were
never confirmed by anyone. Fractional charges and a magnetic monopole
were seen at Stanford and anomalons were tracked at Berkeley. A
heavy mass for the neutrino emitted in beta decay was measured by
several groups using a similar type of detector but was eventually
disproven by groups using a different kind of detector. A major
particle accelerator laboratory in Germany once held a press conference
to announce the discovery of a new particle based on a signal seen
after about a third of the data had been analyzed. To their chagrin,
the signal (based on a 3.5 sigma bump on top of a background distribution)
disappeared in the following months as the rest of the data was
processed.
In many of these cases, dozens of theoretical papers were published
that explored the implications of the experimental findings.
The moral of this story, is that you should not take the initial
report of a scientific finding at face value. Look to see, for example,
whether an experimental discovery is based on a single experiment
or is a confirmation of earlier experiments. The latter case is
much more reliable than the former.
August.26.2005
1:55 pm: New satellite service...
In the spring of 2005, a telecom in South Korea began to offer a
high speed wireless service that provide multi-channel TV and other
features. Both satellite and terrestrial signals are used. About
40,000 subscribers have signed up.
Here is some information sites about DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting)
2:25 pm: Space art news ...
Famous space artist Robert
McCall has an exhibition opening in Arizona: Liftoff:
Space exhibit opens at Youth Museum - Arizona Republic - Aug.25.05
...
... Alan Boyle reports on some
astronomy art sleuthing: New
light on moon masterpiece - Cosmic Log / MSNBC.com - Aug.22.05
1:25 pm: News briefs ... DVDs
of presentations at the recent 6th
Lunar Development 2005 Conference: Return to the Moon - Reality
Check are available at www.AcceleratingMedia.com.
They also offer DVDs for other space activist meetings. ...
... More signs of water action
on Mars: Water
Flowed Recently on Mars, NASA Scientists Say - SPACE.com - Aug.24.05
...
... Amateurs get some funding
for asteroid finding: Amateurs
Receive Asteroid-Search Grants - Sky and Telescope - Aug.24.05.
August.25.2005
12:25 pm: News brief ... A
particularly exasperating aspect of NASA budgeting is the way the
agency will often kill very effective, very low cost projects to
obtain money for very wasteful, very expensive projects. This seems
an especially egregious example: Save
the Moon Buggy Races
August.24.2005
1:20 pm: Unmanned vulnerabilities ...
There's nothing particularly unique or remarkable about
this letter to a campus newspaper attacking an expensive robotic
Mars mission:
"Too Much for Mars?" - The GSU Signal - Aug.22.05.
But that's the point.
Many critics of spending on space don't make a distinction between
manned and unmanned systems. (I noticed this especially in the flurry
of editorials and essays after President Bush announced his space
initiative in January of 2004.) And why should they?
It's not as if missions to Mars or beyond have produced a tremendous
flood of direct practical benefits to the public or created lots
of important indirect spinoffs.
Those space science fans who advocate the elimination of manned
spaceflight in NASA because of a lack of near-term payoffs should
realize that the unmanned program would then become far more vulnerable
to the very same criticism.
Space science advocates like to bundle their spacecraft with communications
satellites, GPS, and remote sensing systems but those in fact could
all have been developed just fine without missions to Mars or Jupiter.
As shown in this NASA
budget table, the money spent on space science, which
mostly involves the deep space missions, is not a small fraction
of the manned program as many people seem to think. At $4B it is
equal to the Shuttle program and is comparable to the entire budget
for NSF. Without a manned spaceflight program to hide behind, space
science funding would be exposed for what it is: a stupendously
generous amount of money for an activity with meager immediate benefit.
The idea that all of the manned spaceflight money would shift over
to unmanned missions, or even to other basic sciences, is highly
improbable if not preposterous. Far more likely, is that the space
science budget would actually decline over time.
As I've noted before, the British government long ago eliminated
any support whatsoever for manned missions but this did not result
in a generous unmanned program. The Beagle
Two mission, for example, suffered fatally from a lack of funding.
Of course, like most proponents of manned missions, I think the
science program is well worth the expenditure and should get even
more money. It is one of the great strategic mistakes of the space
science community that it has never entered into a mutually supporting
alliance with manned spaceflight advocate organizations. That failure
of political insight and of imagination has resulted in a smaller,
weaker space program for everyone.
PS: The Planetary Society
has moved away from its early support only for unmanned science
to a general backing of manned spaceflight, at least for Mars exploration.
However, though it was founded by Carl Sagan and other noted space
scientists, it is not equivalent to the space science community.
The latter should follow the PS lead.
1:20 pm: News briefs ... Monte
Davis continues his series on space activism and developing effective,
realistic strategies for progress: Thinking
Clearly About Space Part II: Everybody Wants Space - SPACE.com --
Aug.24.05 * Part
1 - Aug.18.05 ...
... Michael Mealling responds
to a proposal
by Sam Dinkin on how to raise funding for space settlement: Lunar
settlement foundation - RocketForge - Aug.21.05 ...
... Spirit has risen to a new
height: Robot
From Earth Climbs Mountain On Mars - SpaceDaily - Aug.24.05.
I especially like this image Sol581:
Spirit Arrived! - Unmanned Spaceflight.com - Aug.22.05
1:20 pm: SciTech news ... Promises
of holographic memory have been around for decades but it looks
like commercial products are finally coming to market:
Holographic Memory - Technology Review - Sept.2005. Too bad
the first generation systems will be too expensive for consumers.
They sure sound impressive:
The disc [of DVD size] has more than 60 times the storage capacity
of a standard DVD, while the drive writes about 10 times faster
than a conventional DVD burner. That means the disc can store
up to 128 hours of video content--almost twice enough for the
full nine seasons of Seinfeld--and records it all in less than
three hours.
August.23.2005
11:15 am: News briefs ... An
excellent introduction to the promise and challenges of an Interplanetary
Internet is given in The
Interplanetary Internet: NASA researchers quarrel over how to network
outer space - IEEE Spectrum - Aug.22.05. More info at the Goddard
OMNI Web Server
and Delay Tolerant
Networking Research Group. See also Delay-Tolerant
Networks (DTNs): A Tutorial - Mar.5.03 ...
... Dan Schrimpsher sees taking
advantage of Internet in space as a good example of agile
development practices: Agile
at work in Space - Space Pragmatism - Aug.22.05 ...
... Help the American
Museum of Natural History by proofreading the script
of an educational space film they are producing: Calling
All Space Geeks and Parents of Young Children - Freakonomics- Aug.22.05.
(Item via Jay K.) ...
... The Hubble is helping to
find a good spot to land on the Moon that has resources that would
help sustain a base: Hubble
scans for Moon base locations - New Scientist SPACE - Aug.22.05
...
... Progress is being made
in restoring one of the remaining Saturn V rockets: JSC
Saturn V restoration continues - collectSPACE - Aug.22.05 ...
... More cool pictures of dust
devils on Mars: Dust
Devils Race Across Mars in New Movie - SPACE.com - Aug.22.05
*
Spirit - Dust Devil (JPEG) - Exploratorium.
August.22.2005
1:20
pm: The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - A re-broadcast
of the recent show with Joe Latrell of Beyond
Earth Enterprises who gave an update "on his company
and plans for sending items to space and more."
Sunday, August 28, 2005, 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - John
Spencer on space tourism.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
12:15
am: This week's AMSAT news:
AMSAT
Symposium Reminder * AMSAT Symposium Agenda * AMSAT Election Deadline
Approaching * Software Defined Transponder Prototype On-the-Air
* AMSAT Website Technical Review Team Formed * New AMSAT Video News
Released * OSCAR 11 Report
+
ARISS Status: ARISS Student Pursues Astronaut Career * PCSAT2/MISSE5
Status * ARISS International Meeting * Australian News Article on
Astronaut's Father * Astronaut to Visit ARISS School * Teaching
from Space Teleconference Held
1:05 pm: News briefs ... This
sounds rather lame but maybe they will do a good job: Thornton
Becomes The Astronaut Farmer - Coming Soon! - Aug.19.05 * "Astronaut
Farmer" to film in N.M. this fall - KOBTV.com - July.9.05 (via
Curmudgeons
Corner - Aug.22.05) ...
... This one appears to be
a fun sci-fi fan fiction pastiche of various space operas: Star
Wreck: In the Pirkinning. A trailer
is available on line. ...
... Jeff Foust reports on a
space activist effort "to organize visits to Congressional
district offices during the August recess": August
lobbying push - Space Politics - Aug.20.05
August.21.2005
3:00 am: News briefs ... I've
complained before about NASA's lack of interest in maintaining institutional
memory and its poor record in archiving knowledge gained in past
projects and studies. This item seems to show the problems remains:
Library
Downsizing - NASA Watch - Aug.15.05 (via an HS reader) ...
... Another SS1 passenger looks
to have paid for its way to space: SpaceShipOne
Obi Wan auction alert - Space Race News! - Aug.19.05 * eBay:
Obi-Wan Kenobi figure FLOWN IN SPACE on SpaceShipOne! ...
3:00 am: Spinning
off discoveries ... In RLV
News last Friday I posted an item
about a stem cell related spinoff from a NASA funded project. Rand
Simberg, though, thought it should be made more clear that the process
takes place on the ground and that like most other spinoffs cited
by NASA, it doesn't come close to justifying the expense involved
in doing science in space with the Shuttle and the ISS: More
Spinning Spinoff - Transterrestrial Musings - Aug.19.05.
I certainly agree with all that (see this discussion of spinoffs)
but I would not go nearly as far as he does in dismissing spinoffs
in general as just the result of occasional serendipity in any high
tech research. Doing exciting, on-the-edge research, whether it
is in basic science or in engineering, is a terrific environment
for stimulating new ideas and new inventions.
I will note, for example, that this nanotube
breakthrough, which I mentioned
on Friday and also posted
on Rand's site, can be traced directly back to the discovery of
Buckyballs.
That discovery didn't happen because the researchers were looking
directly for great nano-technology to build stuff with but it came
instead as a spinoff of the researchers' astrophysics studies of
red giant stars. It's quite possible that someone would have found
them eventually in a more direct manner but it also might have been
many years later and we would be the poorer for the wait.
The fact that funding for basic science like astrophyiscs is routinely
justified by such spinoffs seems perfectly appropriate to me. I
just advocate that basic engineering (OK, there is no such phrase
but you know what I mean) be treated the same way. Dealing with
the engineering challenges of living and working in space will result
in lots of spinoffs in the years to come, especially after the cost
of getting there drops significantly.
August.19.2005
12:10 am: News briefs ... This
article - Local
students participate in Moon mapping project - Coalfield.com - Aug.18.05
(via spacetoday.net)
- reports on Virginia students who are developing a Geographic Information
System database for the lunar polar regions. It will be posted at
LunarGIS.com,
which currently displays a very nicely made Flash animation. The
students recently attended the Return
to the Moon meeting to gather info and meet others who
are focused on lunar exploration and development. ...
... This
unobtainium looks to be obtainable for many different applications
including space related ones such as solar sails and space elevators:
Nanotubes
show their strength in numbers: Super-strong sheets could be used
in future screens and surfaces - MSNBC.com - Aug.18.05 * Researchers
produce strong, transparent carbon nanotube sheets - PhysOrg.com
- Aug.18.05 ...
... Alabama drivers can support
restoration of the Saturn V at the U.S.
Space & Rocket Center in Huntsvlle by buying a new license plate:
After
long delay, Saturn V fundraising tags land - Huntsville Times -
Aug.18.05 * Save
the Saturn V.
August.18.2005
11:30am: News briefs ... Monte
Davis argues against impatience and the search for simplistic silver
bullet solutions to the slow pace of space development: Thinking
Clearly About Space Part 1: Hustling the Future - SPACE.com - Aug.18.05
...
... Michael Belfiore finds
irony in the contrast of Russian market friendly space program with
NASA's command economy approach: The
'Evil Empire' Strikes Back - Wired - Aug.18.05
August.17.2005
11:40 am: ISS watching ...
Florida Today offers some advice on spotting the Space Station when
it crosses over your area: Look
for the space station: Web sites help spot laboratory - Florida
Today - Aug.17.05.
See also the ISS
section of the Satellite
Watching page for more information on tracking the station.
NASA, for example, offers several applets at Science@NASA
Realtime :
11:40 am: Student/Amateur space telescopes
... Space.com reports on the German student project called
the
Dobson Space Telescope (mentioned here last
month):
Universe in a Box: Collapsable Telescope Offers Multiple Uses -
SPACE.com - Aug.17.05.
Students in the Department of Astronautics at the Technische Universität
Berlin, Germany developed a clever way to pack a telescope to fit
within the narrow confines of a small spacecraft. The unfolding
scheme was recently tested on a prototype in microgravity during
a parabolic flight mission:The
unfolding space telescope - ESA - July.27.05. The telescope
could be used for either astronomical or remote sensing applications.
Another student/amateur space based telescope project is ISSAT
(The International Space Station Amateur Telescope), which would
be placed on a truss of the ISS. The project has been delayed by
the lack of access to the station but in the meantime they plan
to operate the telescope on the ground in robotic
mode at the Arizona
Sky Village. They are currently in test phase of the Alpha telescope
but will take requests
for observations.
11:40 am: News briefs ... A
spacesuit that is more practical for operations on the surface of
Mars is under development: An
outfit suitable for Mars - Slimmer space suits on the wrack for
astronauts. - news @ nature.com - Aug.16.05. ...
... The Mars Society's analog
stations are used by a number of projects to test technologies
like this spacesuit for applications on Mars. For example, the MonaLisa
Leonardo is an International Space University project that is
focused on studies at the MRDS (Mars
Desert Research Station) of both the social and technological
challenges of establishing a Mars base. ...
... T. L. James worries about
that many of the Mars studies are overemphasizing Martian science
and not focused enough on realistic, flexible approaches to the
creation of human settlements: Martian
Mindsets - MarsBlog - Aug.16.05. (via Transterrestrial
Musings.) ...
... Mark Whittington reviews
five major space movies: Five
Films about Space Exploration - Mark Whittington - FineTuning.com
- Aug.16.05. (I believe that a strong case can be made that
Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 book was his interpretation of the movie,
not the other way around.)
August.16.2005
2:40 pm: News briefs ... Here's
the official review of the annual Mars
Society meeting held last week in Boulder Colorado: Eighth
International Mars Society Convention - The Mars Society - Aug.15.05
...
... Alan Boyle talks about
the project MegaFlyover:
Revealing the Last of the Wild, which is a National Geographic
project to use all sorts of geographic data, including aerial and
satellite imagery, to determine the "human
footprint" on Earth: Views
from above - Cosmic Log/MSNBC - Aug.15.05
August.15.2005
3:30
pm: The SpaceShow
this week:
Monday, August 15, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - Gene Kranz
about his coming History Channel special, Beyond the Moon:
Failure is Not an Option II.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - David
Hoerr, co-author of The
Rocket Company.
Thursday, August 18, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - Joe
Latrell of Beyond
Earth Enterprises "returns to update us on his company
and plans for sending items to space and more."
Sunday, August 21, 2005, 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Re-broadcast
of Monday's show with Gene Kranz.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
3:30 pm:
This week's AMSAT news:
ISS
PCSAT2 PSK-31 * PCSAT2 Telemetry * MRO Electra SDR * AMSAT Awards
+ ARISS Status
3:30 pm: News briefs ... Dwayne
Day reviews two space DVD documentaries that follow a dramatization
format: Voyages
to alien worlds- DVD review: Voyage to the Planets and Alien Planet
- The Space Review - Aug.15.05....
... Taylor Dinerman looks
at the problems of international collaborations for space projects:
More
international delusions - The Space Review - Aug.15.05 ...
... Tom Hill reports on the
Mars Society Conference held last week in Boulder Colorado: The
Woodstock of Mars - the Space Review - Aug.15.05. ...
... Tom mentions a couple
of films shown at the meeting: The
Mars Underground - Ocule Entertainment and M
a e l s t r o m II - An independent short science fiction movie
project. Based on the short story Maelstrom II by Arthur C. Clarke
...
... Here's a neat Java tool
to view the latest Mars rover images:
Midnight Mars Browse
August.14.2005
8:30 pm: News briefs ... A
whole herd of Red Dust Devils in recent Spirit rover images:Dust
Devil Dance - Eric Hartwell's InfoDabble - Aug.12.05 (via NASA
Watch) ...
... Quakefinder,
a spinoff from a smallsat program at Stanford, is making progress
with its satellite and ground base studies of a possible "correlation
between electromagnetic phenomena and pre-seismic activity":
QuakeFinder
Steps Up Technology for Earthquake Forecasting - Quakefinder/CommsDesign
- Aug.12.05 ...
... An art museum in Hamburg
will have a space art exhibition from September to February: Return
to Space - Hamburger Kunsthalle.
8:30 pm: Space business news ...
While entrepreneurs try to create space business based in new areas,
especially human spaceflight, the plain old comsat industry keeps
moving along. Recent launches include: Soyuz
rocket launches U.S. cable TV spacecraft - Spaceflight Now - Aug.13.05
and Heaviest
ever telecom satellite reaches orbit - New Scientist - Aug.11.05.
...
... The total global space
and satellite market exceeds $100B according to Space
& Satellite Market Surpasses $103 Billion, to Reach $158 Billion
by 2010 - Int. Space Business Council/Yahoo! - Aug.9.05. Not
sure what they include in their estimate ( the www.spacebusiness.com
is not reachable at the moment). The Satellite
Industry Association (SIA) released its own report of satellite
related markets back in June: SIA
Releases Satellite Industry Report - PR - June 6, 2005 (doc).Their
report breaks down the numbers as follows:
- Total world sat revenue for 2004: $97.2 billion
- This number consists of
- Satellite services: $60.9 billion
- This includes Direct-to-Home TV: $49.5 billion
- Ground equipment: $23.3 billion
- Satellite Manufacture: $10.2 billion
- World launch revenue: $2.8 billion
August.12.2005
4:10 pm: News briefs ... NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is on its way to join three other orbiters
there: Sharp-eyed
orbiter dispatched to Mars - Spaceflight Now - Aug.12.05 ...
... More plans for space based
ham radio, including an amateur radio facility in the European Columbus
module, are under discussion: ARISS
Delegates Urged to Cast Eye on Future of Ham Radio in Space - ARRLWeb
- Aug.12.05 ...
... The educational Ball
State Electronic Field Trips program includes some space related
adventures such as experience weightlessness in parabolic flights:
Floating
Back to School - NASA - Aug.12.05 ...
... A new play builds a speculative
drama around a fictional Apollo 18 mission to the Moon: Probing
the 'Darkside' of space travel: Review: Ken Jones' gripping drama
takes us to the moon, and to the inner lives of U.S. astronauts.
- OC Register [CA] - Aug.12.05 (via spacetoday.net).
1:25 am: The next space tourist ...
Things seem to be going smoothly so far in Greg
Olsen's preparations for his trip to the ISS in October.
Information about him and his trip can be found in the
GoToOrbit.com section at Space
Adventures. I'll be posting articles about his trip in the Space
Tourism section.
Here are some recent postings
1:25 pm: Sci-Tech: Solar power focus ...
Perhaps the concentrator
approach will be the dark horse (light horse?) winner
in the race to develop solar power systems that are competitive
with conventional power sources. This article in a recent edition
of Wired - The
Dotcom King & the Rooftop Solar Revolution - Wired - July.05
- described compact, low cost but highly efficient concentrators
developed by Bill Gross's Energy
Innovations and EI
Solutions companies.
Now comes word that Southern California Edison has signed a contract
with Stirling Energy
Systems to build a 500MW power station with a 20000+ dish array
of the company's concentrators: World's
largest solar installation to use Stirling engine technology - Open
Source Energy - Aug.11.05.
This Inc.
Magazine article from July 2005 says the systems can produce
power for 8 cents per KW, which is competitive with gas powered
plants.
August.11.2005
1:30 pm: News briefs ... NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is still stuck on the ground as of today.
You can keep check on its status at Spaceflight
Now | Atlas Launch Report | Mission Status Center ...
... Meanwhile, the ESA's Mars
Express orbiter has begun its radar probes into the depths of
the Martian surface: Martian
radars to peer beneath Red Planet's surface - Spaceflight Now -
Aug.10.05 ...
... Efforts continue in the
quest to offer broadband Internet access from space:Heaviest
ever telecom satellite reaches orbit - New Scientist - Aug.11.05
August.10.2005
9:55 am: News briefs ... Check
out these amazing maps of the known universe: The
Universe within 14 billion Light Years - The Visible Universe
...
... Some Belgian students are
taking advantage of Pongsat
flights: SP.
ACE - Secondary School Students flying... up, up and away. [Aug.31:
corrected previous item which said the students were German.]...
... More about the Mars
Homestead Project and its design of a settlement on Mars:
The
Homestead Project: Making a Mars Settlement a Reality - SPACE.com
- Aug.10.05
August.9.2005
12:40 am: News briefs ... Rotation
of a space habitat to produce simulated gravity via the centrifugal
effect is the ultimate solution for microgravity ailments. In the
meantime, something like the Space
Cycle in a non-rotating habitat will do the trick. A
turn for the better: A UCI researcher is testing a centrifuge-like
device built to counter astronauts' physical deterioration under
lighter gravity. - OC Register [CA] - Aug.8.05 ...
... Despite what's implied
by the title of the article, the participants actually found parabolic
flights to be enormous fun: 'Vomit
Comet' tries even the strongest of stomachs - Rolla Daily News -
Aug.8.05. "The whole experience was awesome and I'd love
to do it again." ...
... Mission Specialist Steve
Robinson offers an MP3 from space: Discovery
Astronaut Sends Podcast From Space - SpaceRef - Aug.8.05 * Steve
Robinson: First Podcaster From Space - NASA - Aug.7.05. ...
... Leonard David reports on
spaceflight gone bad: Mishaps
in Space: Failures and Foul-Ups - SPACE.com - Aug.8.05
12:40
am: The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, August 9, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - David
Harland from Scotland and author of How NASA Learned To Fly
In Space.
Sunday, August 14, 2005, 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - -
Jason Andrews of Andrews
Space, Inc. (Replay of show on August 5th.)
Peter
Diamandis of X-PRIZE fame was interviewed on Monday
August 8th and the audio is already available in the archive.
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
12:15
am: This week's AMSAT news:
AMSAT-NA
Space Symposium Announcement * PCSAT2 Installed and Activated on
the ISS * AMSAT-UK Reports PO-28 to Return to Amateur Satellite
Service * September 27 is the New Launch Date for SSETI * Satellite
DXpedition to JW-Svalbard Announced * OSCAR-11 is Still Alive *
New OSCAR FM Help Page * AMSAT-Argentina Unveils On-line Amateur
Radio Calculator * AMSAT Awards This Week * PCSAT2 Telemetry Guide
+
ARISS Status: SuitSat Status * PCSAT2/MISSE5 Delivered to ISS
* ARISS International Meeting, Guildford, U.K.
August.8.2005
1:45 am: News briefs ... Robert
Pearlman writes about the artist Cecelia "Cece" Bibby
who painted the Mercury capsule logos and did other space artwork:
Breaking
through the glass gantry - collectSPACE - Aug.7.05. ...
... Astrosociology
is a new science that will study the enormous influence space has
on society: Astrosociology
and the space community: Forging collaboration for better understanding
and planning - The Space Review - Aug.8.05 ...
... A book from the 1960s inspires
Taylor Dinerman to create a wonderfully written essay: Oriana
Fallaci on the way to the Moon - The Space Review - Aug.8.05
...
... Greg
Olsen's Soyuz mission patch is posted at collectSpace: TMA-7
SFP Personal Patch - collectSPACE: Messages -Aug.4.05 ...
... Iridium satellite communications
continues its steady if modest growth: Iridium
Issues 2005 Mid-Year Report:Subscribers Up 20% and Revenue Up 27%
in First Half; Company Has 127,000 Voice and Data Subscribers Worldwide
- Iridium - Aug.1.05.
August.6.2005
1:45 pm: News briefs ... While
scanning the net for information in response to a reader's question
about the Revell
Gemini model kit, I came across this nice little article Win
A Gemini! by Scott P. Cook. I've not been adding to it lately,
but you can find more such stories in the Personal
Space Histories section ...
... Colin
Fries has compiled a complete list of all the Wakeup
Calls sent to US astronauts since the beginning of the
space program. See the site at Wakeup
Calls Chronology - NASA History and the file Chronology
of Wakeup Calls - Compiled by Colin Fries, NASA History Office,
June.15.05 (pdf) ...
... Here's a beautiful image
of just one small patch of Earth: Unique
Arctic landscape Surveyed by Proba - ESA Image of the week - Aug.5.05.
More at ESA
- Earth from Space Image of the Week - archive ...
... Mark Knopper is a writer
for Rolling Stone and other magazines and he has posted a couple
of articles on his website that deal with space music: Rocket
& Roll: What do astronauts listen to in outer space? Details
tracks the sounds of the final frontier - by Mark Knopper - Details/Knopps.com
-Jan.2000 and Weird
Band Alert: Max Q: Can NASA astronauts rock? Yes, they can! by Steve
Knopper - Blender/Knopps.com - Oct.2002 ...
... Jim Oberg reports on Discovery
re-entry viewing: Skywatchers
look south for shuttle's streak: Central America becomes prime viewing
zone for crucial re-entry - MSNBC.com - Aug.5.05. ...
... Smithsonian
Air & Space Magazine displays a set of RSS feeds at AIR&SPACE
Web News. It includes a Race
to Space feed from Space
Race News!.
August.5.2005
4:35 pm: Space radio supplies...
As I described in the tutorial
in the Space
Radio section, tracking weather satellites and receiving
their images directly via your own home satellite station is great
fun. It provides a wonderfully visceral direct connection with what
is going on up there in space.
Unfortunately, since moving back to the US and living in condo
with a poor view of the sky, I have not gotten back into the hobby.
Today, though, when I visited the Hamtronics,
Inc. website, I felt that maybe I shouldn't wait till we move
to a house to build a new sat station.
In Sweden we used some excellent and very reasonably price equipment
from the British Timestep
company, which caters directly to those interested in weather sat
reception (as opposed to stores that deal in general ham radio supplies).
Located in the US, Hamtronics
also provides some low priced weather
fax equipment, like the R139 wideband fm receiver, aimed at
the hobbyist.
Check the reviews at Hamtronics
R139 Weather Satellite Receiver - ARRL Review * Direct
reception of satellite weather images - Citizen Scientist Article/Hamtronics
- June.4.05. See also the Hamtronics
in Space.
4:35 pm: Astronomy briefs ...
This seems to make astronomy almost too easy:
SkyScout - the next step in telescope functionality - gizmag - Aug.5.05
. More info at Yamcon
...
... At Wunderground.com
Sky, US residents can just enter their ZIP code to get this
evening's night sky at their location.
4:35 pm: News briefs ... Joe
Latrell of Beyond-Earth Enterprises,
a HobbySpace advertiser, gives some
good advice on how to pursue space activism: Space
Advocacy: A Guide to Getting Involved - SPACE.com - Aug.5.05.
...
... Meanwhile, Bill Boland
of the Space-Fronter
Foundation and Forever
Bound talks about space advocacy and private spaceflight with
a reporter from Eileen Collins hometown region: Corning
native eyes place in space: Boland signs up to fly in space tourism
project. - Star-Gazette [NY] -Aug.5.05 ...
... More KSC history bites
the dust: Explosives
to topple Cape launch pad this weekend - Spaceflight Now - Aug.4.05
...
... Alan Boyle posts an item
about the recent space polls and what they may imply about public
interest in the shuttle program: Space
support slipping? - Cosmic Log / MSNBC.com - Aug.4.05 ...
... This shuttle mission seems
to be producing a particularly large number of striking images:
More at Return-to-Flight
Multimedia.
August.4.2005
12:50 pm: News briefs ... There
is a sizeable core audience out there for space: Space
enthusiasts glued to the tube (on the Web): NASA 'blown away' to
learn that 433,000 watched Discovery's launch on agency's site -
Houston Chronicle - Aug.3.05. Space advocacy organizations need
to reach the members of this audience and expand and deepen their
involvement with space. ...
... Jeff Foust reports on the
latest space polls and their usual shortcomings: Polls
on shuttle and exploration - Space Politics - Aug.4.05 ...
... I didn't know there was
nitrogen in the lunar soil: Earth's
Air Trapped in Moon Dirt, Scientist Speculates - SPACE.com - Aug.3.05.
I'll have to look into whether there is enough to be practical to
extract it to provide for a more earthlike atmosphere and to help
with farming.
August.3.2005
1:15 pm: News briefs ... Eugene
Kranz, the famous mission control director during the Apollo period,
contributed an article on today's NY Times editorial page: From
Giant Leaps to Baby Steps - NY Times - Aug.3.05 ...
... Kranz will also be on the
SpaceShow
on Monday, August 15. He will be promoting a sequel to
his previous History Channel program called Failure is Not an
Option broadcast in 2003 (see item
at collectSpace).. The sequel is called Beyond
The Moon: Failure Is Not An Option II and it will air on August
28th....
... The Space
Walk Hall of Fame Foundation needs help finding a new home:
Space
museum searching for home: Hike in rent, more memorabilila force
look for new spot - Florida Today - Aug.3.05.
August.2.2005
6:00 pm: News briefs ... Well,
it's all in the head. H2O is just H2O, regardless
of where the molecules have been: The
Big Gulp:NASA pisses away millions hauling H2O into orbit. But there's
a better way - recycle astronaut urine. Just one question: How does
it taste? - Wired - August.05 ...
... It's impossible to save
the world without using space: Disaster
Relief from Space - WorldChanging - Aug.1.05 ...
... CollectSpace talks with
the Discovery crew about their souvenir payload: Discovery's
on-board souvenir stash: The STS-114 Official Flight Kit Manifest
- collectSpace - Aug.2.05 ...
... The mysterious methane
of Mars: Methane
on Mars: the plot thickens - New Scientist - Aug.2.05 ...
... Perhaps these movable habitats
will offer ideas for the early Moon/Mars shelters: Futuristic
design for new Antarctic base - gizmag - Aug.1.05
12:15
am: Star Wars in space ... Here's
your chance to own some genuine space artifacts flown on SpaceShipOne:
Rocketboosters to auction
flown Star Wars dolls for Charity
or
"I have you now, SpaceShipOne!"
On Monday, August 8, a charity auction will begin on Ebay for
the first of two flown and autographed Star Wars dolls - Luke
Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi. Details about the charity will be
announced before the auction. You can find more information and
pictures over at the Mojave Air and Space Collectibles site: http://www.mojaveairandspace.com/auction.html
12:15
am: The SpaceShow
this week:
Tuesday, August 2, 2005, 7:00-8:30 pm (Pacific Time) - Charles
Chafer, CEO of Space
Services, Inc, which provides rocket launches of cremated
remains via its Memorial
Spaceflights program (formerly Celestis).
He was also involved with the Team Encounter solar sail project.
[Perhaps we will find out why the Team
Encounter web site has been inactive for several months.]
Friday, August 5, 2005, 9:30-11:00 am (Pacific Time ) - Jason
Andrews of Andrews
Space, Inc.
Sunday, August 7, 2005, 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Ben
Shelef, co-founder of Spaceward
Foundation, Director of Engineering at Gizmonics, Inc. and
involved with Dr. Brad Edwards and the space elevator as well
as the coming climber contest.
Sunday, August 7, 2005, 7-8:30 pm (Pacific Time ) - Red
(William) Whittaker Fredkin Professor of Robotics, Director
of the Field Robotics Center, and founder of the National Robotics
Engineering Consortium at Carnegie Mellon University. [CMU
Robotics Institute]
The interviews are discussed on the Spaceshow
Forum at Space
Investor.
12:15
am: This week's AMSAT news:
PCSAT2
Launch * PCSAT2 Downlink Challenge * AMSAT Video News Debuts * VU2NUD
Silent Key * Echo Mode Change * AMSAT President's Letter, July 2005
* SSETI Express Launch Delay * AO-27 Mode Schedule Program Available
* AMSAT Symposium * PCSAT2 On ISS
+
ARISS Status: NES Teacher Workshop * SuitSat Status * ARRL Article
on Return to Flight Mission * ARISS International Meeting, Guildford,
U.K. * ARISS International Teleconference Held * ARRL Article on
ISS Ham Repeater Mode * Astronaut Training
12:15 am: Space music news ...
On the last day at Oshkosh, Burt got to hear the song Want to
Go in a SpaceShip from the DVD "Mojave Magic: A Turtle's
Eye View of SpaceShipOne" (Amazon: US
): It's
music to ears of SpaceShipOne team - AV Press - July.31.05
...
... Andrei Gulaikin wrote me
about his electronic space music. Try samples at Gulan-meditation
- SoundClick and Gulan
- Soundclick.
12:15 am: News briefs ... The
Space
Frontier Foundation sent out this notice on Monday evening:
Need a lively discussion in the morning while others are still
asleep? Tune-in to CNN at 7:15am EDT/4:15am PDT as Rick Tumlinson
and Miles O'Brien talk about Discovery, the future of the space
shuttle program, and what it means for the emerging commercial
space transportation industry
Hope CNN makes it available as a free video cause I ain't gonna
be up at that time. ...
... Here's a new online space
periodical: International
Space Review, which is unfortunately priced for those who can
charge the subscription to their business account.
Continue
to July 2005 articles in archive