March 24 News Items

Cut Forces NASA to Park a Mars Rover (Source: AP)
Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers to sleep and limit the activities of the other robot to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget. The news comes amid belt-tightening at NASA headquarters, which is under pressure to juggle Mars exploration and projects to study the rest of the solar system. The solar-powered rovers Spirit and Opportunity have dazzled scientists and the public with findings of geologic evidence that water once flowed at or near the surface of Mars long ago.

Both rovers were originally planned for three-month missions at a cost of $820 million, but are now in their fourth year of exploration. It costs NASA about $20 million annually to keep the rovers running. The Mars rovers program received its latest extension, $22 million, in fiscal year 2008 and has used up half money. The latest directive from NASA to cut $4 million of the remaining funds means Spirit will be forced into hibernation in the coming weeks, said principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University. (3/24)

Private Moon Flights Coming, NASA Official Says (Source: London Free Press)
Private flights to the moon may be available to wealthy citizens “by the end of the 2020s,” a NASA official said in London today. In the meantime, there’s a new kind of space race — one in which private companies are scrambling to reap commercial rewards from other-worldly exploration. “We are not going to succeed in settling the solar system as a species without significant private-sector involvement,” said Peter Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center in California. Even now, companies such as Google — which recently launched a companion to Google Earth mapping with Google Moon mapping — are ponying up their multi-millions to join the race to the moon. (3/24)

Justice Department Approves Satellite Radio Merger (Source: SpaceToday.net)
The Justice Department would approve the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio without any conditions on the deal. In a statement, the Justice Department concluded that the merger of the only two satellite radio companies that serve the US would not "substantially lessen competition", in part because of technical incompatibilities between the two companies' receivers as well as a number of competing alternatives, including the Internet. Terrestrial radio companies had sought to block the merger, claiming it was anticompetitive, but the Justice Department rejected those arguments and concluded no conditions were required to ensure no harm was done to consumers. The merger, announced in February 2007, still required the approval of the FCC, which has not set a timetable for its decision. (3/24)

Energy R&D Project Considered for KSC (Source: Florida Today)
The proposed Florida Advanced Combustion Center is enticing for Florida. It would mean the creation of at least 1,300 high-tech jobs over 10 years, with an average annual wage of $58,000, at an unused facility at Kennedy Space Center just as the space shuttle program ends, sending droves of people in search of new work. And that employment number doesn't include hundreds of ancillary jobs. Also, the center could put Brevard County and the region on the ground floor for developing new environmental and energy technologies. The challenge is convincing the state to devote $50 million in economic development money toward the $175 million venture during the state's ongoing fiscal crisis. Florida Tech's Frank Kinney, who is leading the project on behalf of the state's educational partners, remains optimistic: "One of the items that lawmakers seem to be willing to fund is economic development."

The Center would involve research to increase the efficiency of turbine-powered generators. Almost all electrical power on Earth is produced with a turbine of some type. Most jet engines depend on some type of turbine technology, as do ships. A leading corporate player is Siemens AG, the Germany-based group that also is Europe's largest engineering conglomerate. Local corporate involvement would include Florida Turbine Technologies of Palm Beach County. Siemens is looking to move its turbine testing to the U.S., and the Florida site is a contender for a couple of reasons.

For one, testing would be near one of Siemens' operating units, the Siemens Power Generation Inc., near the University of Central Florida. And the proposed combustion center -- which would be built at NASA's industrial area south of the shuttle launch facility -- also would involve Florida Tech, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, UCF in Orlando and Florida Atlantic University in southeast Florida as educational research partners. Those schools would do research at the facility. They also would help secure any available research grants. (3/24)

Iridium Selects Three Finalists To Design/Develop Iridium NEXT (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Iridium Satellite has named three companies to enter into the concept development phase in its design and development procurement process for "NEXT," the company's next-generation satellite constellation. Over the next five months, Lockheed Martin, Loral and Thales Alenia Space will develop design concepts, review critical engineering trades and evaluate performance and capabilities required for NEXT along with the costs to manufacture and launch the system. Iridium plans to down-select to two candidates to undertake the detailed system development phase of the procurement process. (3/24)

Northrop Builds Satellite, Spacecraft for Lunar Mission (Source: AIA)
Northrop Grumman is building and testing a spacecraft that will crash into the surface of the moon and help scientists learn whether there is ice on the moon. "Ours is a suicide mission. When we impact, we don't survive," Northrop Director of Space Science Stewart Moses said. "The vast majority of our spacecraft are built to last a very long time. Suicide missions are not very common." (3/24)

Editorial: Mars Plan is Lost in Space (Source: Washington Times)
How much do we really want to know about other planets and heavenly bodies? As an extreme example, take Phobos, the moon of Mars. Phobos is a large rock. Photos at reasonable resolution are clearly of scientific value, as would be determination of the type of rock. Beyond that, what is worth knowing? It"s a rock. Just as clearly, we are far from knowing all that is worth knowing about Mars, Saturn, etc. Since unmanned exploration is both effective and cheap, finding the point of diminishing returns is not of immediate importance.

What could possibly be the advantage of permanent bases off this planet, particularly a lunar base? Such a base would immensely increase the national prestige of the country building it — and just as immensely decrease its supply of money. The moon also is a large rock, if more complicated than Phobos. Nobody has bothered to go there for 40 years. It can easily be studied by unmanned probes. A Mars base would be absolutely phenomenally expensive, as well as dangerous. Why is returning samples of Martian rock particularly desirable? It would be very pricey and, despite NASA's improvements, likely to fail. But suppose it worked. So what?

Is there any longer any point to manned exploration at all? Today's public seems to have little interest in the International Space Station, which creeps along ever so slowly. And nobody gives a convincing rationale for putting money into it instead of, say, planetary probes. Meanwhile the unmanned probes have become stunningly effective. My point in all of this is that it is probably a good idea to have a deliberate and reasoned plan for the exploration of space, rather than to continue on our current course through a combination of bureaucratic inertia and the desires of what might be called the "space-industrial complex." (3/24)

Arecebo Observatory Struggles to Stay Open (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
In its 45 years, the Arecibo Observatory has amassed an impressive list of accomplishments. It took some of the first pictures of Earth's changing surface signaling global warming and has mapped the surface of Mars with more precision than any other instrument. It also houses the only radio telescope in the world that can predict with enough accuracy just where and when an asteroid would hit Earth. Yet the Cornell University-run observatory is struggling to stay open after the National Science Foundation, its main funding source, decided last year to slash its budget from $10.5 million to $8 million. By 2011, the money is expected to dwindle to $4 million. (3/24)

Launch Providers: Too Few or Too Many? (Source: Space Review)
Last weekend's failure of a Proton rocket is the latest complication for the commercial launch industry, which has seen manifests fill up and customers complain about schedules and costs. Jeff Foust reports on the differing points of view about whether there are enough -- or even too many -- launch services providers. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1090/1 to view the article. (3/24)

Messy Battlefields (Source: Space Review)
If there is ultimately warfare in space, it will likely create a large amount of debris. Taylor Dinerman writes that countries that depend on space assets, like the US, need to prepare for this possibility by making their spacecraft harder to intercept and harder to damage. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1089/1 to view the article. (3/24)

Planting a Flag is Only the Beginning (Source: Space Review)
So much attention has been given to implementing the Vision for Space Exploration that there has been little thought as to what will follow it. Jeff Brooks argues that making the case for the economic benefit of the Moon, Mars, and beyond is essential. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1088/1 to view the article. (3/24)