Globalstar To Build New LEO Constellation (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Globalstar and Alcatel Alenia Space, the European leader for satellite systems, announced today that the two companies have signed a contract under which Alcatel Alenia Space will design, manufacture and deliver the Globalstar second-generation constellation of 48 low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites.
Strip Moon - Mining the Moon to Fund a Space Base (Source: Slate)
The U.S. is planning a permanent moon base. Schedule: Robot mission to scout sites in 2010, first human mission in 2020, permanent occupation by 2024. Likely location: south lunar pole, since it has 1) lots of sunlight to generate solar power to run the base, 2) hydrogen and oxygen to produce water and rocket fuel, and 3) minerals and gases to produce nuclear fuel, aluminum, and other goods that might be valuable to ship back to earth. Financial plan: dangle these mining opportunities to attract corporate sponsorship. Idealistic prediction: Like our ancestors, we'll use the lure of profit to inspire and fund exploration. Cynical prediction: Like our ancestors, we'll use the rhetoric of exploration to rationalize plunder.
Arianespace to Launch COMS-1 for South Korea (Source: LaunchSpace)
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has chosen Arianespace to launch its COMS-1 multimission satellite. COMS-1 will be placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, between the end of 2008 and June 2009. The COMS-1 contract is the 278th launch service contract signed by Arianespace since its creation in March 1980, and the 12th contract signed in 2006. The Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite-1 (COMS-1) will be fitted with three payloads, including meteorological observation and ocean surveillance. Because of its orbital position, it will also be fitted with an experimental payload for broadband, multimedia communications services.
Spanish Firm Takes 32% Stake in Eutelsat (Source: Space News)
Spanish industrial conglomerate Abertis is purchasing a 32 percent equity stake in satellite-fleet operator Eutelsat in a transaction valued at 1.07 billion euros ($1.4 billion), which spurs closer links between Eutelsat and Spain’s Hispasat, Abertis announced Dec. 5.
Russia to Join U.S. Lunar Exploration Program if Funded (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia will join the U.S Moon exploration program if Washington provides the necessary funding, a Russian space representative said. "If the U.S. offers the necessary financing for Russia to participate in its national lunar program, Russia is likely to accept the proposal," said Igor Panarin, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency. Panarin said separate funds have not been earmarked for Moon exploration projects under Russia's federal space program for 2006-2015.
Russia in Talks with Other Countries on Joint Glonass Use (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia is negotiating with other countries on the possible joint use of Russia's global positioning satellite system Glonass, the head of the Russian Space Agency said. Glonass, a Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), is designed for both military and civilian purposes, and allows users to identify their positions in real time. It can also be used in geological prospecting. "We are in active talks with India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries on the joint use of the Glonass space system," Anatoly Perminov said. "As far as other countries are concerned, we are primarily in talks with the United States and the European Space Agency to prepare agreements on the use of Glonass jointly with GPS and Galileo [satellite navigation systems]," Perimov said.
NASA To Evaluate Non-recoverable First Stage for Ares I Launch Vehicle (Source: SpaceRef.com)
Some of the people working on the design of NASA's new Ares I launch vehicle want to delete the requirement to recover and reuse the rocket's first stage. The reason: the weight of hardware required to make recovery possible - and practical. One of the main attributes of the current Ares I design is the use of a Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) - one that has a common heritage with proven hardware from the Space Shuttle program. This commonality and reliability is regularly touted as one of the Ares I's current advantages over other possible launch systems.
NASA Plans Lunar Outpost by 2024 (Source: Washington Post)
NASA unveiled plans to set up a small and ultimately self-sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime around 2020 -- the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned exploration of the solar system. The long-awaited proposal envisions initial stays of a week by four-person crews, followed by gradually longer visits until power and other supplies are in place to make a permanent presence possible by 2024. The effort was presented as an unprecedented mission to learn about the moon and places beyond, as well as an integral part of a long-range plan to send astronauts to Mars.
The moon settlement would ultimately be a way station for space travelers headed onward, and would provide not only a haven but also hydrogen and oxygen mined from the lunar surface to make water and rocket fuel. NASA officials declined to put a price tag on what will clearly be an extremely expensive venture. But they said that with help from international partners and perhaps space businesses, the agency would have sufficient funds to undertake the plan without any dramatic infusion of new money. If the project goes ahead as planned, it would return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.
Rocket Carrying Ohio Science Projects Crashes (Source: Springfield News-Sun)
Twelve-year-old India Rogan wasn't sure what to expect from a Reese's peanut butter cup that rocketed 10 miles into the sky at 4,000 mph. She found out Monday. "It was smashed," she said definitively, holding out a bag of powdered bits. Hitting the ground at 700 mph might have had something to do with it, she said. Rogan, a Hayward Middle School sixth-grader, was one of a dozen students who gathered to open a box containing the remains of experiments they designed last school year to be shot into space. The program is run by UP Aerospace, a private company with a fleet of rockets that gives children the opportunity to launch science and technology experiments. On Sept. 25, UP launched a $200,000, telephone pole-sized rocket in New Mexico.
Lunar Observatories: Grand Plans vs. Clear Problems (Source: Space.com)
Humans will return to the Moon no later than 2020, paving the way for treks to Mars and beyond. When liftoff happens, astronomers don't want to be left in the dust. But currently, they are split over the merits of lunar-based observatories compared with those in free space like the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been a boon to astronomy during its more than 16-year life in low Earth orbit. "There's a great temptation to jump on the bandwagon completely as some people say the train's leaving the station and we've got to be on it. We are saying that might be a little naïve,"said Dan Lester of the University of Texas at Austin.
In the first of likely several discussions, a diverse group of astronomers met here last week to begin formulating a science guide of sorts for lunar-based astronomy. "The philosophy that I came to this meeting with was I want to identify what are very important problems in astrophysics and then to examine whether or not the return to the Moon can somehow lead to progress in answering these questions," said a senior astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Placing large telescopes on the lunar surface could be fruitful since the Moon lacks clouds and any blurring atmosphere. While free space offers these attributes, the Moon also provides a permanent platform—a solid anchor—and its far side is free of radio noise.
Views Mixed on Moon - Some See Opportunity; Others Urge Mars Now (Source: Rocky Mountain News)
Several planetary scientists enthusiastically endorsed NASA's decision to permanently staff an international lunar base camp by 2024. But the president of the Mars Society, Robert Zubrin said that the lunar goal is "too timid" and that the nation "needs something a bit more ambitious than this." Pres. Bush announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020 then on to Mars. NASA officials last week said a lunar base will be built at one of the moon's poles and will be permanently staffed four years later.
The Mars Society would skip the lunar base and send humans straight to the Red Planet. "This sort of thing would have been an appropriate goal for 1975. It would have been a logical follow-on to the Apollo program," said Zubrin. "But Mars is where the science is and where the challenge is and where the future is." Other planetary scientists disagreed and said a lunar base is the next logical step for NASA. "If you want to learn how to live in space and practice the things you'll use when you go to Mars, then you have to stay there long enough to experience what such a mission would be like. The thing to do next is to stay for a long time on the moon," said Larry Esposito of the University of Colorado. "If you're just there for a few days, it's like a camping trip." Esposito said he has just one reservation: The cost. "The danger is that they decide to get the money they need (for the base) from other parts of their budget," he said. "I'm concerned that they might rob from other aspects of scientific exploration."
NASA Glenn Could Be In Line for Lunar-Lander, Rocket Work (Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Beginning in about 2024, astronauts will live and work full time in a permanent base on the moon. The outpost is likely to be at the moon's north or south pole, where nearly round-the-clock sunlight can provide solar power and where deep craters in the surface may hold the raw materials for life support and rocket fuel. Modular habitats will shelter rotating crews of four or more, and motorized buggies - possibly with pressurized cabs and backhoes - will allow astronauts to explore or do heavy construction work.
It may be months before NASA divvies up work on the lunar lander among its 10 field centers and even longer for the base and other surface hardware. Cleveland's Glenn Research Center will make a strong case for a piece of the action. Glenn already has submitted a possible design for the lunar lander and has been doing research on an engine and control rockets that could power it. The center's engineers also are exploring ways that moon base occupants could make electricity, communicate with Earth and each other, mine the lunar soil and prevent the thick, abrasive lunar dust from harming equipment.
Destination Is the Space Station, but Many Experts Ask What For (Source: New York Times)
Once again, the shuttle Discovery is about to blast into space. And once again, it will dock with the International Space Station, and astronauts will continue the process of building the half-completed orbiting laboratory in a mission full of daunting challenges. But the majesty of the first nighttime liftoff in more than four years, now scheduled for Thursday, will not dispel a question that has long been the subject of sharp debate among experts: What is the space station for? It was originally to be finished by 2004, and it was to cost about $40 billion, shared by 16 nations, including the United States, Canada, Russia and the European Union. Those goals are barely recognizable now.
As the Columbia catastrophe forced a two-and-a-half-year delay in construction missions by the shuttle fleet, and as cost overruns and changing presidential administrations forced NASA to rethink its entire science mission, the station’s price tag has ballooned to $100 billion and the completion date has moved to 2010. And questions about the station’s scientific value have grown sharper than ever. NASA now seemed more motivated by the need to satisfy its commitments to international partners than by any compelling scientific objectives. Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/science/space/05stat.html?_r=2&ref=science&oref=slogin&oref=slogin to view the article.
Like No Place on Earth (Source: St. Petersburg Times)
4Frontiers Corp. of New Port Richey has joined the race to colonize and commercialize Mars. The entrepreneurs foresee the day when they could use low-cost launch services to send a dozen settlers to Mars. For both Mark Homnick and Joseph Palaia IV, the turning point came after reading The Case for Mars, a book by Robert Zubrin. Zubrin argued that creating a settlement on Mars is not only feasible, it is the kind of technological challenge that Western civilization needs. "This is no science fiction. There are no technological breakthroughs required," said Palaia, an MIT graduate student who is in the process of relocating to Florida from Boston. "There are just a lot of systems that need to be engineered."
At this point 4Frontiers is more about passion than profit. But they insist there are both long- and short-term business reasons for jumping into the space race. "It's almost like another dot-com boom," said Palaia, an MIT graduate student, referring to the growing number of space business startups. Homnick, 49, who moved to Pasco County after taking early retirement from Intel Corp., joined author Zubrin's Mars Society. About a year ago, he attended one of its meetings at MIT in Cambridge. "This is the type of thing they talk about at MIT," said Homnick, who often gets a different response from his neighbors in New Port Richey. "They live on the border there. You can have theoretical discussions about living on Mars without anyone batting an eye."
4Frontiers has developed a business plan and is seeking $30 million in initial financing. The company's first step has been to assemble a team of 45 advisers, specialists in everything from mining to robotics to hydrogeology, to design a habitat for the Mars surface. Using the explorers Lewis and Clark as role models, the scientists believe that space-going experts, equipped with the right fuel and tools, could use the carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen on Mars to create a self-sustaining community. "For tech folks who actually understand what would be involved in making this work, it is an almost irresistible challenge," Homnick said of the consultants, who receive a stipend for their work. To make some money in the meantime, the company is considering a tourist draw by building a mock-up of its proposed Mars installation in Florida or New Mexico. Visit http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/05/Business/Like_no_place_on_Eart.shtml# to view the article.
NASA's Delayed Moon Plans Worry KSC Workers (Source: WESH)
NASA is slowing down its plans to return to the moon. For Central Florida's space industry, that puts thousands of jobs in doubt. NASA is now confirming a four-year gap between the last flight of the shuttle and the first launch of its replacement. There are 14,000 space workers at the Kennedy Space Center, and many are wondering what will happen to them when nothing is flying for that length of time. NASA is asking them to hang on because they're needed if the U.S. is going to return to the moon. "As we're getting ready for 2014, there will have to be test flights leading up to that," said NASA's Dr. Scott Horowitz.
That's the best space workers can hope for -- less than a handful of test launches between the last shuttle flight in 2010 and the first launch of its replacement, the Orion capsule, in 2014. Workers will be needed to assemble the shuttle's replacement ship at the Kennedy Space Center, but that will take only 300 or 400 of the 14,000 space workers here. So, while workers worry about getting pink slips, NASA worries the employees will start leaving on their own, draining too much talent from the space program.
NASA Starts Countdown Clock for Shuttle's Launch (Source: AIA)
NASA has started the countdown clock for the Thursday night launch of Discovery. NASA put the chance of favorable weather on Thursday at 80%. Astronauts will spend part of the the 12-day mission rewiring the space station.
40 Are Offered Buyouts at NASA Langley (Source: Virginian-Pilot)
As many as 40 civil service employees at NASA Langley Research Center are being offered buyouts this month as the center shifts more work from aeronautics into space exploration. The move is targeted to ensure the right "skill mix," said a Langley official. "We have been shifting, and we're trying to ensure our work force is aligned to the work that is coming in." Eligible employees can apply for a maximum buyout of $25,000 until Dec. 18. More of Langley's work is focusing on space exploration to meet President Bush's goal of sending humans back to the moon and on to Mars. About 240 employees have participated in four previous buyouts offered since fiscal year 2005, Meisel said.
Water Spotted on Surface of Mars (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA is ready to announce major new findings about the presence of water currently emerging onto the surface of Mars. If confirmed, this would increase the possibility that microbial life could have existed recently or possibly exists now on the Martian surface. The potential seepage of ground water onto or near the surface has been a key area of investigation by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
By Edward Ellegood
LinkedIn Group
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