May 20 News Items

University of Iowa Scientists Pleased NASA Mission Extended (Source: Iowa City Press-Citizen)
University of Iowa scientists are pleased with the news that NASA is extending its Cassini mission to Saturn and its moons. UI has on board an instrument with three antennas testing for radio emissions, radio waves and plasma waves. The mission was to end on June 30. Instead, it has been extended until June 30, 2010. Particularly of interest is Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Researchers have discovered clouds and precipitation of hydrocarbons, a substance that is found in humans. (5/20)

House Panel Votes to Add Shuttle Flights Before Retirement (Source: Florida Today)
A House panel has approved legislation that lays out a congressional blueprint for NASA for the next year. The “NASA Authorization Act of 2008” bill gives NASA the green light to pursue some significant goals. Among them, it would add three shuttle flights to the International Space Station before the entire fleet is retired. Two of those flights are now labeled as “contingency;” the third is a brand new flight that would take the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. The bill would also authorize about $20.2 billion for NASA, about $2.6 billion more than what the White House recommended in its 2009 budget. About $1 billion of the extra money is specifically to accelerate the Constellation program. (5/20)

Back to the Moon - U.S. Should Seek Assistance (Source: Watertown Daily News)
President Bush sought to reignite Americans' interest in space in 2004 when he called for the United States to return to the moon in 2020. America went it alone on the first space race against the former Soviet Union in the 1960s, but this time around some members of Congress, eyeing the cost of another moon venture, want international partners. Legislation has been introduced calling for international participation in the project, which will require development of new capsules and shuttles to take humans back to the moon.

The suggestion comes at a time when other countries are cooperating in space ventures with the intent of returning humans to the moon in the next decade. China has put a satellite into lunar orbit with help from the European Space Agency. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has predicted that China will get to the moon before the United States returns. He is said to oppose foreign involvement in the U.S. program. (5/20)

Joint NASA-French Satellite to Track Trends in Sea Level, Climate (Source: NASA)
A satellite that will help scientists better monitor and understand rises in global sea level, study the world's ocean circulation and its links to Earth's climate, and improve weather and climate forecasts, is undergoing final preparations for a June 15 launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 is a partnership of NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the French Space Agency and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). (5/20)

Brown University Scientist: Mars Landscape Bears Traces of Icy Past (Source: Discovery News)
A closer look at the remnants of mid-latitude glaciers on Mars has revealed signs of deep, icy rivers in the recent geologic past, say researchers who have published the discovery in the May issue of the journal Geology. Mars glaciologist James Dickson of Brown University and his colleagues followed the trail of telltale glacial remnants at the edges of Mars' northern lowlands and were surprised to find signs that a glacier once traveled in a direction now uphill, toward a canyon's edge. Unless the glacier somehow defied gravity, the only explanation is that it was once higher than the canyon. "What we see right now is a glacier that looks like it flowed uphill," Dickson told Discovery News. "That can't happen." (5/20)