April 16 News Items

NASA Buys Water Service for Space Station (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded a sole-source contract to Hamilton Sundstrand for water production services aboard the International Space Station. The firm fixed-price contract has a potential value of $65 million and extends through Sept. 30, 2014. Hamilton Sundstrand will provide equipment that uses the station's excess carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce water and methane. The methane will be vented into space, and the water will be fed into the station's waste water system, where it will undergo treatment before it is used. Under the contract, NASA will not buy hardware, but instead will purchase the water service. If the system does not work, NASA will not pay for it. (4/16)

Study: Florida No. 2 in Pro-Business Efforts (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
Florida is ranked second for a pro-business climate, according to a study by a Chicago-based broker and consulting firm. The 2008 Top 10 Pro-Business States report covered 29 factors such as taxes, human resources, right-to-work legislation, energy costs, infrastructure spending and jobs gained or lost. "Florida is trying hard to become the nation's No. 1 ranked pro-business state," says Brent A. Pollina, author of the study, in a prepared statement. "In our 2004 study, Florida ranked 17th. By 2008, it rocketed to second place." The top 10 pro-business states ranking in order are: North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, Wyoming, South Dakota, Georgia, Alabama, Utah and Kansas. (4/4)

Cassini Mission Extended (Source: SpaceToday.net)
NASA has extended the Cassini mission to Saturn by two years, allowing dozens of additional flybys of several of the planet's exotic moons. The four-year primary mission of the spacecraft was set to end in July 2008. The extension covers 26 additional flybys of Titan, the planet's largest moon, as well as several of Enceladus and three other moons; studies of the planet itself, its rings, and magnetosphere are also planned for the extended mission. Mission managers said that three instruments have "minor ailments" but continue to return science, and that the spacecraft will have enough propellant at the end of this extended mission to possibly permit yet another extension. (4/15)

Controllers Working to Keep Ulysses Sun Orbiter Alive (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Scientists continue to extract bits of data trickling to Earth from the Ulysses solar probe as ground controllers employ new strategies to extend the life of the 17-year-old spacecraft, including a "long shot" plan to put the observatory in hibernation until the sun's activity reaches its next peak in 2013. (4/16)

Scientists Reconstruct Pioneer Spacecraft Anomaly (Source: Scientific American)
What is putting a drag on the twin Pioneer spacecraft? Is it uneven heating? Or does gravity deviate from what is expected? NASA finally lost contact with Pioneer 10 in 2003, after 31 years, and with Pioneer 11 in 1995. What has become known as the Pioneer anomaly has never been explained. NASA was about to throw out hundreds of magnetic disks containing the Pioneer telemetric data—temperature and power readings, but the Planetary Society scrounged up the funds to save the data, allowing a programmer to write brand new code that extracted the telemetry readings from the raw 1s and 0s encoded in the magnetic disks.

A group of some 50 researchers is now trying to match the data to a detailed computer model of the craft's inner workings. The model is designed to mimic the flow of heat and electricity produced by the craft's generators, which harnessed the heat from radioactive plutonium and turned a fraction of it into electricity to power the craft. The remaining heat, equivalent to a 160-watt lightbulb, was lost to space or spread to other parts of the craft such as the antenna, which influenced each probe's overall momentum.

So far the model accounts for about 30 percent of the observed anomaly for Pioneer 10 up to a distance of 10 astronomical units (approximately 930 million miles, or 1.5 billion kilometers) from the sun. The group still has to extend the model to other distances and to Pioneer 11. The full verdict may not be in for some time. "It is likely that the thermal explanation will explain part of the anomaly," he says, but exactly how much is up for grabs. (4/16)

Editorial: We (South Korea) Should Go to the Moon (Source: Chosun.com)
Yi So-yeon is currently lodged at the International Space Station, and the first phase of the manufacturing of the Korea Space Launcher Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) is nearing completion in Moscow. The KSLV-1 is scheduled to be launched from Oinarodo Space Center in South Jeolla Province at year's end at a cost of over W500 billion. A plan to launch a much heavier spacecraft with a rocket completely manufactured in South Korea about 10 years later is estimated to cost more than W4 trillion. There is no guarantee whatsoever that even with that much spending we will be able to somewhat catch up with the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and the EU.

Russia has been extremely security sensitive, lest we might witness even a screw being driven. A Russian official said, "The space technology we have developed over 50-odd years cannot be subject to a diplomatic compromise." The U.S. is even more strict than Russia. "The world powers will absolutely not permit developing countries to step into the aeronautics and space industry," said a top executive of Hyundai Heavy Industries. No investment in space would be riskier than one under such circumstances.

Until a short while ago, we were a nation with a tendency for negative decisions on such matters. But world history has become the stage of the Westerners who sailed westward aboard ships unconditionally 500 years ago. If you explore untrodden routes, you may eventually open a new world, though you might well sustain injuries on the way. China plans to build a lunar base on its own and Japan dreams of developing a deep space base four times farther than the moon. The world powers are making space their territories, and occupying the future. Space is sometime bound to become a second "new continent" in human history. We must go to the moon this time, even if it means clutching one leg of the U.S. (4/16)

India Actively Considering Sending Man into Space (Source: The Hindu)
India is gearing up for the launch of its maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I later this year and the government is actively considering sending a man into space, Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan said. He said serious studies by scientists are going on to explore possibilities of putting a human into space. "The proposal is under active consideration by the government," Chavan said adding that Rs 95 crore had been sanctioned to conduct a detailed project report to make the cost-benefit analysis. (4/16)

Demand for Europe Space Rethink (Source: BBC)
Europe should give up on sending men and women into space and concentrate on unmanned projects, according to one of the world's leading astronomers. The future lies in using advanced robotics, miniaturization and fabrication, said Lord Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society. Europe "should try and get a world lead in unmanned exploration", he said. Spending funds on manned spaceflights "was not a very good use of money", that should be left to the US, he said. Three-quarters of NASA's money was spent "going round and round the Earth 35 years after people had already walked on the Moon", Lord Rees said. (4/16)

Amount of Space Junk Hit Record in 2007 (Source: Interfax)
2007 saw a record high in the amount of space junk orbiting Earth, a NASA official said at the 26th session of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee ongoing in Moscow. In 2007, there were ten destructions of spacecraft and launch vehicles, which disintegrated into more than 3,800 debris bigger than five centimeters in size, half of which were many years old, he said. (4/16)

Positive Results Encourage Further UK Stern Rocket Work (Source: Flight International)
A rocket nozzle that delivers optimal thrust across a much wider range of altitudes and which could be used for a UK spaceplane concept is to be tested again this year. This follows analyses of four one-second firings in February and March that indicated a successful outcome. Funded by Reaction Engines and built by UK company Airborne Engineering, the University of Bristol helped develop and test the 30kg (66lb) Stern rocket engine that produces 1,100lb thrust (5kN). This hydrogen, air-fuelled engine would power the company's horizontal take-off, horizontal landing Skylon spaceplane concept. (4/16)

ESA Considers Robotic Lunar Cargo Lander for Moonbase (Source: Flight International)
The European Space Agency is considering a robotic cargo lunar lander that would deliver 1,700kg (3,700lb) to a manned outpost on the Moon. ESA and other world agencies, with NASA in a lead role, are in discussions about a Moon base to be located possibly at the south pole in the 2020s. NASA's lunar lander concept named Altair is a 45,000kg vehicle that can deliver 4,500kg of cargo along with four crew to the Moon's surface. But NASA's own Lunar Architecture Team concluded that 6,000kg was preferred for an outpost. So the European lander could almost fill that cargo requirements gap. (4/16)

Spinoff of MDA Space Assets Proposed (Source: Globe and Mail)
MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates is believed to be looking at options, including the spinoff of some or all of its space assets, if its proposed $1.3-billion deal with U.S. space company Alliant Techsystems Inc. does not go through. The company has already carved its complex mix of businesses into two operating divisions, and hiving off assets such as the high-profile Radarsat-2 into a separate company could help MDA meet its strategic goals. (4/16)

KSC Constellation Official to Address AIAA Chapter (Source: AIAA)
Scott Colloredo, Chief Architect for Constellation Ground Systems at KSC, will be the featured speaker at an April 24 dinner meeting of the Space Coast Section of AIAA. Students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Florida Tech will display their own design work during the events social hour. The event will be held at the Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn, starting at 6:00 p.m. Contact Dan Fleming at mailto:dfleming@fit.edu for information. (4/15)

Russia To Test New-Generation Space Rocket In 2010 (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Flight tests of a new-generation Russian space launch vehicle will start in 2010. The Angara rocket, currently under development, is designed to put heavy payloads into orbit. It is mainly planned for launch from the Plesetsk space center, in northwest Russia, which will reduce Moscow's dependence on Kazakhstan's Baikonur, the main launch pad for the current generation of Russian rockets.

Flight tests will begin in 2010. A light-lift Angara will fly in 2011, followed by a heavy-lift Angara-5 version later the same year. Angara will not only be used for military but also civilian purposes, specifically to put into orbit satellites as part of the Federal Space Program, as well as joint international space projects. Configurations will be capable of lifting between two and 24.5 metric tons to low-earth orbit. (4/15)

Long Space Visits 'Quicken Ageing', Increase Cancer Risk (Source: Press Association)
Astronauts who spend too long in space may end up prematurely old and prone to cancer, new research suggests. The findings from US scientists could have major implications for plans to build moon bases and send explorers to Mars. Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center found that exposure to space radiation could be more damaging than previously realized. Tests showed that the high energy particles which flood through space triggered a harmful oxidative stress response in mice. Their cells generated large numbers of free radicals - destructive molecules which can damage DNA, leading to cancer. The effect was most pronounced in the gut, where the stress response continued for as long as two months after exposure to the radiation. (4/15)

Lockheed Martin Signs Agreement with New Mexico Spaceport (Source: NM Business Weekly)
Lockheed Martin has signed an agreement with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to conduct operations at Spaceport America. Lockheed has already tested some new launch technologies at the Spaceport through subcontracts with Colorado-based UP Aerospace. Lockheed uses UP because it can provide low-cost, fast-turnaround launch services year-round from the Spaceport. Lean ground operations mean Lockheed can do more testing more quickly, giving the company a competitive edge in developing technologies.

In December, UP carried out a small demonstration launch to test proprietary technology currently under development by Lockheed Martin. The Spaceport was able to host the launch safely and efficiently, which led to the new MOU with the state of New Mexico. "More and more companies are expressing commitments to the state, wanting to make Spaceport America a key part of their future plans," said Spaceport Authority Director Steve Landeene. Launch activity by Lockheed will continue in 2008 under the amateur class until the FAA vertical launch site license is issued, likely in 2009. (4/15)

Spaceport America Announces Deals in Advance of Vote (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Spaceport America officials announced another non-binding agreement with a private company to do business at New Mexico's future spaceport, the third such agreement to be announced in the weeks leading up to a crucial tax referendum Tuesday in Sierra County. In addition to aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, Microgravity Enterprises Inc. of Albuquerque and Denver-based UP Aerospace signed similar agreements last week.

On Tuesday, Sierra County residents will be asked to impose a one quarter of 1 percent gross receipts tax increase to help fund spaceport construction. Doña Ana County voters narrowly approved the same tax increase in 2007. Sierra County plays a vital role in construction of the $198 million spaceport, which would be the state's entry into the fledgling commercial space industry and is scheduled to open by early 2010. Though Sierra's financial contribution is small compared to the total cost of the project — about $2.3 million — approval of the tax is needed to create a taxation district that is required to be in place before any spaceport tax can be collected. (4/15)