March 20 News Items

Houston Technology Center, NASA to Expand Partnership Agreement (Source: Houston Business Journal)
NASA and the Houston Technology Center have signed an agreement that will expand a multiyear partnership between the two organizations. NASA and HTC will collaborate on various educational efforts, including providing assistance to members of the business community in the development of grant proposals, supplying information on how to expand their products with licenses, and fostering research and development products that ultimately could be used by NASA.

Mojave Companies Vying for Ridership (Source: Californian)
Retail entrepreneur Tim Reed talked it over with his wife before spending $250,000 for a first-class ticket to space. "You've heard of venture capitalists?" he asks. "I view myself as an adventure capitalist." By early 2009, the 53-year-old businessman from Gladstone, Mo., fully expects to be strapped inside the crew capsule atop a 90-foot rocket designed right here in eastern Kern County by Interorbital Systems. Interorbital is one of several startups competing for space tourism dollars. There's also Jim Benson's Dream Chaser and, of course, the legendary Burt Rutan, building ships for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. He says he's already experiencing some of the same excitement and anticipation he felt as a boy as he watched NASA astronauts in their heyday riding fire-breathing rockets to orbit and beyond.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Yawn (Source: Denver Post)
Houston, we have a problem. Whatever endless fascination we once had with outer space has evaporated in a hail of plasma-rifle blasts and alien battle cruisers. Where kids once revered names such as Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, these days "Samus Aran" and "Master Chief" will get a bigger schoolyard response. The final frontier has slipped from humankind's destiny to the generic background for countless video games.

"SpaceStationSim" hits the shelves at the right time to illustrate the trouble with selling space to a generation raised on technological gee whiz. A good-natured Sims in Space, this game lets you manage the construction and operation of an international space station. From hiring astronauts to launching payloads of equipment into orbit, the title works to balance realism with a bit of fun. Keeping oxygen levels up while reducing carbon dioxide, and boredom, put the player in the situation of carefully doling out tasks to astronauts staffing the station. At mission control, it pays to keep an eye on Earthly budgets and stick to planning for that next launch of supplies.

Developed in collaboration with NASA, the simulation does what it can to make soaring into the stars - or at least spinning around Earth in orbit - amusing. The trouble is, other than some comic bits like the sudden arrival of a space tourist in a Hawaiian shirt, the game emphasizes how much more fun it would be if you could shoot something. Little green men from Mars might not fit the facts of space science, but they do help add drama to floating around in zero gravity. Sadly, shooting is inherently more fun than balancing the delicate ecosystem of a cramped space

SpaceX Scrubs Monday Falcon 1 Launch Attempt (Source: SpaceRef.com)
SpaceX decided to scrub it Falcon 1 Launch attempt for Monday. The turn around may be 24 hours - perhaps 48. Just a minute before launch SpaceX declared a "terminal count abort". No cause has yet been given. The launch was delayed earlier in the evening when a data link between the launch site and SpaceX offices in El Segundo was not operating properly. This link was eventually re-established. While it was not technically required i.e. not mission critical for the launch to proceed, SpaceX felt it was important that folks in El Segundo be able to see all the data.

Rocket-Plane Could Sniff Out Martian Methane (Source: New Scientist)
A rocket-powered plane may offer the best chance of finding the mysterious source of Mars's methane, which some scientists have speculated could come from living micro-organisms. Europe's Mars Express orbiter and Earth-based telescopes have detected methane in the atmosphere of Mars in the last few years, which is a puzzle since the gas quickly breaks down when exposed to sunlight. That suggested the gas has been released recently – perhaps by lava welling up close to the planet's surface, or, more intriguingly, by micro-organisms like those that produce methane on Earth. Now, a NASA scientist says an aeroplane that can suck in and analyse gas directly from the Martian atmosphere has the best chance of locating sources of the methane.

NASA Extends Marshall Science Systems Contract (Source: UPI)
NASA officials have approved a contract extension option with Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., for science systems development. The contract involves development and operations support for the Science and Mission Systems Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. NASA said the maximum value of the cost-plus-award-fee contract is $568 million. NASA said the contract is designed to further its science goals by developing, operating and maintaining facilities and payloads on the International Space Station and other space vehicles and carriers.

India to Launch 1st Foreign Satellite in April (Source: India Times)
India's first dedicated and full-fledged commercial launch of a foreign satellite will lift off the Satish Dhawan spaceport, Sriharikota, between April 18 and 25, 2007. The-360 kg satellite 'Agile', belongs to Italy and will carry out astronomical studies. The rocket will be the highly-proven four-stage polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).

Andrews Space to Work With USAF On Fast Program (Source: Andrews Space)
The Air Force Research Lab selected Andrews Space to help develop their Fully-Reusable Access to Space Technologies (FAST) program. The purpose of this effort is to design the program requirements for a series of technology experiments that will enable the development of an Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) capability for the nation. Andrews will conduct a three-month study of the options available for experiments in the key technologies for an ORS system. According to Jess Sponable, AFRL Program Manager, "The FAST program is a set of ground experiments that will advance and transition a set of reusable access to space technologies and support the future acquisition of reusable, rocket-powered spacelift systems."

Russia Space Forces to Ensure Permanent Presence in Space (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia's Space Forces must guarantee the country's independent access to outer space and ensure its permanent presence there, the defense minister said Monday. "One of the key tasks facing the Space Forces in the future is to ensure Russia's guaranteed and independent access to outer space, and the implementation of its independent space policy," Anatoly Serdyukov said at a meeting with the Space Forces' senior staff.

The minister also said that the Space Forces must build a fully-developed land infrastructure for launches for the entire range of carrier rockets and satellites, both military and dual-purpose, to all required altitudes and orbits. According to Russia's Defense Ministry, in 2006, the Space Forces launched eight military and 17 civilian satellites under various programs from three space centers on Russian territory, and conducted four practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. In addition, the Space Forces' early-warning radars detected last year 12 ballistic missile launches, including eight domestic and four foreign launches, 11 carrier rocket lift offs, and tracked the movements of over 100 domestic and foreign satellites.

Space Florida and ZERO-G Launch Microgravity Education & Research Center (Source: ZERO-G)
Space Florida and ZERO-G have jointly established a Florida Microgravity Education & Research Center to support microgravity research programs, and K-20 education for Florida teachers and students. The center will be the first-of-its kind by any state. Among the center's goals are broad outreach activities among Florida K-20 educators and students; the creation of education materials to be available statewide; the administration of an annual professional development workshop program for teachers incorporating weightless flights; and a statewide student engineering competition. Once the center's mission and structure is in place, it hopes to reach approximately 8,000 teachers and 80,000 students annually through microgravity flights and workshops.

Florida teachers are no strangers to microgravity and lead the nation in such flight experiences. More than 75 teachers from the state of Florida - more than any other state - have participated in ZERO-G pilot programs and last year's Northrop Grumman Weightless Flights of Discovery - a nationwide, professional development program that sought to inspire science careers for students by conducting teacher professional development that incorporated weightless flights. The program helped lay the foundation and demand for the new Space Florida / Zero Gravity Corp. initiative.

Why the Moon? Human Survival! (Source: Space Review)
Ever since NASA unveiled its plans for establishing a permanent base on the Moon, people have argued about which rationales are compelling enough to justify such a facility. Robert Shapiro argues that the best reason may be simply to insure the future of the human race. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/832/1 to view the article.