March 23 News Items

Astronauts Take a Break, Ahead of Return Trip to Earth (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Their fifth and final spacewalk behind them, the seven-member crew of the US space shuttle Endeavour enjoyed a break in their busy work schedule Sunday, ahead of their trip back to Earth later this week. Two astronauts from the Endeavour -- mission specialists Robert Behnken and Mike Foreman -- on Sunday attached a 50-foot sensory boom to the outside of the International Space Station. Their six-hour spacewalk was hailed by NASA as yet another ringing success. Endeavour, whose mission at the ISS is the longest ever, is scheduled to undock on Monday and return to Earth on Wednesday. (3/23)

Conserve the Moon for Radio Astronomy (Source: New Scientist)
As potential conservation areas go, it has to be the bleakest. But this hasn't stopped one astronomer from suggesting that a protected area be set up on the far side of the moon. Like many of his colleagues, Claudio Maccone of the International Academy of Astronautics in Paris thinks that the moon's far side will one day be a haven for radio telescopes, free from the electronic chatter of Earth and the many satellites now orbiting it. Maccone is calling on the United Nations to recognise a 1820-kilometer-diameter zone on the moon's far side as the "Protected Antipode Circle". A crater called Daedalus within this area would be suitable for a future radio-astronomy base, he says.

No one has put the idea to the UN in the past, according to Sergiy Negoda, legal officer at the UN's Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna, Austria. Creating a legal framework for something so novel can take "years, sometimes decades", he warns. Firms claiming to sell moon land say they would welcome a lunar conservation area. "Anything that protects the moon, front side or back, is to our minds a positive thing," says William Folkes of MoonEstates in the UK. (3/23)

Editorial: Canada in Need of Space Strategy (Source: The Star)
There are no crossroads in the vastness of space but Canada, nonetheless, must choose a direction. Much depends on setting a clear course now for our future role beyond the confines of Earth. Few countries have been more successful in breaching the final frontier. With the 1962 launch of its Alouette satellite, Canada was the third country in space, after the U.S.S.R. and the United States. Our amazing Dextre robot arm module is currently orbiting on the International Space Station. And just last December, Canada launched its world-beating Radarsat-2 satellite, providing images of startling detail to document what's happening on our planet. All Canadians can take pride in that legacy of achievement. But much of it is drawing to a close.

Marc Garneau, former astronaut and past head of the Canadian Space Agency (and a future Liberal candidate), says what we need is a comprehensive space strategy. "We are very much at a crossroads, at a time when even India, China and Brazil have got very ambitious space programs," says Garneau. "It seems everybody's going up there while we are beginning to slip." (3/23)

An 'Astounding Time' for Planetary Discoveries (Source: Washington Post)
It used to be that planets were familiar places such as Mars and Saturn that orbited our sun and were well known to all schoolchildren. Since astronomers identified the first planet outside our solar system 13 years ago, however, that idea has become downright quaint. Because now, according to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, there are 277 confirmed "extrasolar" planets, and quite a few more on the list of those suspected but not yet confirmed. This explosion in planetary discoveries is taking place at such warp speed that even those most intimately involved are often amazed -- especially because their ultimate goal is nothing less than finding life elsewhere in the universe. Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032301237.html?sub=new to view the article. (3/23)

Building a Base on the Moon: Infrastructure and Transportation (Source: Universe Today)
Imagine trying to build a structure on the surface of the Moon. Two of the biggest obstacles the first lunar settlers will come across are the very low gravity and the fine dust causing all sorts of construction issues. Although it seems likely that the first habitats will be built by automated processes before mankind even sets foot on the moon, fabrication of a settlement infrastructure will be of a primary concern to engineers so construction can be made as efficient as possible. Click here to view the article. (3/23)

Editorial: NASA Shouldn't Even Be Considering this Land for a Launch Pad (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
This isn't rocket science. Even NASA admits it isn't rocket science. Deciding where to build a new 200-acre, dual-launchpad complex for private users, a NASA administrator agrees, "is essentially about land use." That's why congressmen, environmentalists, businessmen, this Editorial Board and about everyone who has commented publicly about the project can't abide NASA siting it in either of two environmentally precious locations along the Space Coast. And why we all question why NASA doesn't immediately let go of one of the locations, a veritable Eden just west of Mosquito Lagoon called Site 2 that's in both the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Cape Canaveral National Seashore.

Instead, it should immediately do everything possible to locate the complex farther south inside Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, at an abandoned launch site. We're negotiating that, NASA says. But it began doing so only a few weeks ago. It's not easy, the agency says, getting the Air Force to approve building a commercial-launch complex on its property. But Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Tom Feeney note that the Air Force recently OK'd giving Space Exploration Technologies a five-year license at its Launch Complex 40. They add that one-to-three other Air Force sites might accommodate commercial launches. And Mr. Feeney says that because the base's current commander is more sensitive to the needs of the Space Coast community than some of her predecessors, NASA should have negotiated with her long ago.

If NASA doesn't step up, Mr. Feeney vows that he, Mr. Nelson, Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Dave Weldon will approach the secretaries of Defense and the Air Force. Good. Visit http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed23108mar23,0,7551470.story to view the editorial. (3/23)

Editorial: No Place for Partisans on NASA, Space Exploration (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Because of the 2008 presidential election, our nation's human spaceflight program is at a perilous crossroad. While Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain all have made allusions to supporting the program, none has made it a priority. In fact, in late 2007 Obama went on record as saying he planned to pay for his $18 billion education plan by taking it out of the hide of NASA. In defending his desire to delay the Orion and Ares programs (the next generation crew spacecraft and rockets), he stressed, "We're not going to have the engineers and scientists to continue space exploration if we don't have kids who are able to read, write and compute."

Perhaps now would be a good time to remind Sen. Obama of the sage and relevant words spoken by a president with whom he has been compared on occasion. On Sept. 12, 1962, at Rice University, President John F. Kennedy addressed the importance of the United States having a vibrant and preeminent space program. "We mean to be part of it we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond. Our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to become the world's leading spacefaring nation."

No matter who is our next president, he or she is either going to have to buy in completely to the premise of that young president, or stand aside and watch as other nations lay claim to the promise of space. There is no middle ground. John F. Kennedy understood it then, and the People's Republic of China, with its ambitious manned space program run by its military, understands it now. Preeminence in space translates to economic, scientific, educational and national security advantages. (3/23)