September 8 News Items

Water Bears Can Even Survive Unprotected In Space (Source: Scientific Blogging)
Space is extremely cold, near absolute zero, and it is a vacuum, so no oxygen, plus there is the threat of lethal radiation from stars. It is considered the most hostile of environments. But researchers have shown that some animals — the tardigrades, or 'water-bears' — can do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation just fine. This is the first time that any animal has been tested for survival under open-space conditions. Tardigrades are tiny invertebrate animals from 0.1 to 1.5mm in size that can be easily found on wet lichens and mosses. Because their homes often fall dry, tardigrades are very resistant to drying out and can even resurrect after years of dryness. Along with this amazing survival trick comes extreme resistance to heat, cold and radiation — so tardigrades seemed like an ideal animal to test in space.

The dried-up tardigrades were aboard the FOTON-M3 spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in September 2007 and were exposed to open space conditions — i.e. to vacuum, UV radiation from the sun and cosmic radiation — in a low Earth orbit of around 270km altitude. After their safe return to Earth, it turned out that while most of them survived exposure to vacuum and cosmic rays alone, some had even survived the exposure to the deadly levels of solar UV radiation, which are more than 1,000 times higher than on the surface of the Earth. (9/8)

Long Wet Periods Sculpted Ancient Mars (Source: Space.com)
Valleys on Mars were carved over long periods by recurring floods at a time when Mars might have had wet and dry seasons much like some of Earth's deserts, a new study suggests. The research contradicts other suggestions that the large valley networks on the red planet were the result of short-lived catastrophic flooding, lasting just hundreds to a few thousand years and perhaps triggered by asteroid impacts.

The new modeling suggests wet periods lasted at least 10,000 years. "Precipitation on Mars lasted a long time – it wasn't a brief interval of massive deluges," said study leader Charles Barnhart, a graduate student in Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Our results argue for liquid water being stable at the surface of Mars for prolonged periods in the past." (9/8)

NASA Warns Hubble Mission Brings Greater Space Debris Risk (Source: AFP)
The US shuttle Atlantis faces nearly twice the risk of being struck by debris on a mission next month to the Hubble telescope, due to the high levels of space litter floating at the altitude of Hubble's orbit. "It's a very challenging mission. We have hazards we don't typically have for an ISS (International Space Station) mission," a NASA official said. "We have a one-in-180 chance of getting some type of catastrophic damage from micro-meteorites/orbiting debris (MMOD) compared to an ISS mission, which is typically a one-in-300 chance," he said.

Hubble is orbiting some 600 kilometers (360 miles) above earth, compared with 240 kilometers (144 miles) for the ISS. When the risk faced by a shuttle mission is greater than one-in-200, the decision to go ahead with the flight has to come from the highest authorities in NASA. Space has become more littered and dangerous in the past year due to mishaps, tests and aborted missions involving American, Chinese and Russian satellites and rockets. (9/8)

Editorial: The ISS: Who Needs It? (Source: RIA Novosti)
As the International Space Station nears its 10th anniversary on November 20, all the members of this unique research program seem to have overwhelmingly come out for it. The United States, which has been skeptical about it, has suddenly developed an interest, especially in how its crews are to be taken to the station after its Space Shuttle program winds up in 2010. Unfortunately, the renewed American interest in the ISS is neither because of concern for the station's future, nor because of the coming anniversary. The cause was provided by the Caucasian crisis. And had it not happened, the American participation in the program would have ended quietly, despite all assurances to the contrary.

But what has so agitated NASA in recent weeks? The future of the station itself or of its largest, American, segment? Neither. The Americans are horrified at the prospect of dealing with the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) one-to-one, when it becomes the only crew carrier for the ISS. NASA's shuttles are expected to retire in 2010, while the new ship, Orion, is not scheduled to enter service until 2015. For five years the Americans will have to go to Russia cap-in-hand. Click here to view the article. (9/8)

The New Red Scare — Avoiding a Space Race With China (Source: WIRED)
In the wake of the pageantry and sheer enormity of the Beijing Olympics, China is getting ready for its next beautifully scripted display of power and prestige: Its first space walk will be televised live by mid-October. The mission will carry three crew members, two of whom will move into the newly created EVA (extra-vehicular activity) airlock at the top of the Soyuz-like vehicle. One of these crew members will wear a newly designed Chinese EVA space suit, of which the country is very proud. The suit has been tested in a vacuum chamber and on weightless parabolic flights, but in case it fails, the second EVA crew member will remain safely in the airlock in a Russian suit, ready to rescue him.

If China does have trouble with the suit, they won't be the first. Both the United States and Russia had trouble with their early EVA suits, and the first space shuttle EVA was scrubbed when both spacesuits failed in the airlock on STS-5. The plan also calls for a soccer-ball-size, free-floating TV camera to get some dramatic shots of the EVA. Many have dismissed the Chinese human space program as relying on outdated technology borrowed from the Russians, while others have latched onto the young program hoping to galvanize the United States into a 1960s-style space fervor through fear. (9/8)

U.S. and China Resume Space Cooperation Talks (Source: Aviation Week)
China and the U.S. are restarting talks on space cooperation as final preparations are underway for a major Chinese manned space endeavor. The discussions, after a two-year hiatus, were held in Beijing in July between a U.S. delegation headed by Assistant Administrator Michael F. O'Brien, NASA's international affairs chief, and a Chinese delegation led by Sun Laiyan and Luo Ge. Sun heads the China National Space Administration, and Luo is CNSA deputy administrator. Both sides agreed to establish working groups on space and Earth science, in addition to addressing a framework for broader cooperation, say CNSA and NASA officials.

The negotiations took place just after China Great Wall Industry Corp., the nation's international space trading company, convinced the U.S. Treasury Dept. to remove stiff sanctions for alleged missile technology deals with Iran. The department quietly lifted the sanctions in June, but the timing of the NASA meeting was unrelated to the Treasury action, says O'Brien. (9/5)

Report Explores Use Of Earth Data To Support National Priorities (Source: NASA)
The nation faces challenges in utilizing Earth science information to manage resources and protect public health, according to a NASA-sponsored report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. The report examines the computer-based decision support tools that many government agencies use to make predictions and forecasts in areas such as agricultural productivity, air quality, renewable energy resources, water management, and the prevention of vector-borne disease.

The authors of "Uses and Limitations of Observations, Data, Forecasts, and Other Projections in Decision Support for Selected Sectors and Regions" found that while these tools have successfully incorporated Earth science information to address a number of issues, they are not yet widely used to investigate the implications of future climate change. The complete report is available at http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap5-1/final-report/default.htm. (9/8)

Russia Postpones Launch of European GOCE Satellite (Source: RIA Novosti)
The launch of a Russian Rockot carrier rocket bearing Europe's first GOCE satellite has been postponed. The decision to delay blast-off was made after a pre-launch inspection of the rocket showed glitches in one of the on-board devices. The new launch date will be announced shortly. The carrier rocket, bearing a Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite, had originally been scheduled for lift off on September 10. The Rockot launch vehicle is a modified version of the Russian RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missile. It uses the two original lower stages of the ICBM in conjunction with a Breeze-KM upper-stage for commercial payloads. (9/8)

Visionaries of Commercial Spaceflight (Source: Space Review)
The concept of commercial human spaceflight has gone from science fiction to the cusp of reality in recent years, thanks to the work of a number of visionaries. Patricia Hynes recognizes those people and highlights an upcoming conference on the subject. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1203/1 to view the article. (9/8)

Space-Based Missile Defense and the Psychology of Warfare (Source: Space Review)
Relatively crude ballistic missiles, like the Scuds Iraq used in the first Gulf War, are thought to have relatively little military value. However, Taylor Dinerman explains how they can boost the morale of the countries that use them, making missile defense, including space-based systems, all the more important. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1205/1 to view the article. (9/8)

Looking (Far) Ahead (Source: Space Review)
Last month SpaceX suffered another failure of its Falcon 1 launch vehicle. Jeff Foust reports, though, that the company is not only confident that they've identified and resolved the problem that caused the most recent failure, they're continuing to make ambitious plans for the long term. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1207/1 to view the article. (9/8)