October 25 News Items

On Defense, Presidential Candidates Agree More Than Differ (Source: AIA)
"Whether we get Obama or McCain, we will get a bigger military," predicts defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. "They both want to bolster intelligence, focus on counter-terrorism, reduce big-ticket weapons systems and crack down on defense contracts." The candidates oppose emergency supplements to the defense budget, and both are critical of the process for awarding weapons contracts, though neither is calling for an overall cut in defense spending. On missile defense, Obama wants further testing while McCain favors quick deployment. (10/24)

Science Advice: Advising the President About Advisers (Source: What's New)
Science magazine has a brief assessment of where the candidates stand on ten science policy issues ranging from national security to space. Obviously staff written, it wasn’t much help. We need to know to whom the future President will turn for advice on science-related matters. Alas, the stature of the science adviser diminished seriously under Nixon and Reagan. It may have hit bottom in the 2003 state-of-the-union address when Bush announced his hydrogen initiative; it was clear that he had not bothered to check with his science adviser. The job is no longer seen as the "nation’s top scientist." Whatever influence the science community has should be used to persuade the next President to select a wise science adviser as quickly as possible and rely on the science adviser’s counsel. (10/24)

Depressed Astronauts Might Get Computerized Solace (Source: AP)
Your work is dangerous and your co-workers rely on you to stay alive. But you can never get far from those colleagues. You can't see your family for months, even years. The food isn't great. And forget stepping out for some fresh air. No wonder the adventure of space flight can also be stressful, isolating and depressing. So scientists are working on giving a computer the ability to offer some of the understanding guidance - if not all the warmth - of a human therapist, before psychological problems or interpersonal conflicts compromise a mission.

Clinical tests on the four-year, $1.74 million project for NASA, called the Virtual Space Station, are expected to begin in the Boston area by next month. The new program is nothing like science fiction's infamous HAL, the onboard artificial intelligence that goes awry in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The Virtual Space Station's interaction between astronaut and computer is far less sophisticated and far more benevolent. In the project, sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a recorded video therapist guides astronauts through a widely used depression therapy called "problem-solving treatment." (10/25)

China Launches Two Satellites (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China has launched two new satellites from its Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. There has been an element of secrecy surrounding this launch, though previous missions via this particular model of satellite have been used to probe the space environment and to conduct other related space experiments. According to a State-run news channel, the new satellites will be used to conduct experiments on “environmental exploration”. Previous satellites in this range were built by the Shanghai Academy of Space Flight Technology and Dongfanghong Satellite Company under subcontract to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. (10/25)

India to Set Up Astronaut Training Unit (Source: Gulf Times)
Buoyed by the successful launch of the country’s maiden unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is all set to start an institute to train astronauts for its planned first manned space mission by 2015. “Bangalore is our chosen destination to set up a state-of-the-art institute to train astronauts for our manned space mission. We have already got 40 acres of land near the new airport at Devanahalli and the state government has promised to provide us with another 100 acres soon,” ISRO's chairman said. (10/25)

Delta Launches Italian Satellite (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Delta 2 rocket launched the third in a series of Italian remote sensing satellites Friday night from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It deployed the COSMO-Skymed 3 satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit 58 minutes later. The spacecraft is the third in a series of radar imaging satellites built by Thales Alenia Space Italia for the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The first two spacecraft were launched on Delta 2 rockets in June and December 2007. A fourth satellite is planned for launch in 2010, although no launch provider for that mission has been chosen yet. (10/25)

NASA Scientists Want India Space Jobs (Source: India Today)
Several NASA scientists - of Indian origin as well as foreigners - are knocking the door of Indian Space Research Organization looking for opportunities to work in future space missions following the success of Chandrayaan-I launch, a senior ISRO official said. He definitely sees a "small trend" of what he calls "reverse brain-drain". He said at least half-a-dozen of them had approached him seeking openings in the Indian space agency and he knew that "a good number of foreigners" were also looking for such jobs. (10/25)

New Mexico Space Flights for $100,000 (Source: KDBC)
Rocket Racing, Inc., the company that hopes to stage NASCAR-style races in the sky, is joining Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace to offer space flights from $100,000 or less at New Mexico's spaceport. Gov. Bill Richardson made the announcement Friday. The companies plan to fly evolutions of existing vehicles into space. By next year, they hope to build an initial manned vehicle prototype, with the first space flights as early as 2010. Armadillo Aerospace will develop reusable launch vehicles and provide ground support and equipment. Rocket Racing will finance and operate the partnership.

Could Smaller Budget Affect Space Program (Source: WAAY)
The nation's troubled economy could lead to a smaller federal budget for the space industry. Add that to the country's war-time debt and the future of NASA's spending looks rather bleak. President Bush has already requested $17.6 billion for NASA for next year. Congress increased the amount to more than $20 billion, but there is a veto threat. The cost to develop the Ares Rockets, is estimated at $10 billion for the next 9 years. (10/25)

New Station Water Treatment System To Save Big Bucks (Source: Florida Today)
A new U.S. water treatment system set to be shipped up to the International Space Station next month will save NASA and its partners an estimated $62 million a year -- money that otherwise would be spent hauling water to the outpost. Now packed away in shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay, the Water Recovery System is deemed key to plans to expand the resident crew size on the station to six from three next spring. The system collects urine, condensation from the cabin atmosphere and both crew perspiration and respiration. Then, through a a series of chemical treatments and filters, it produces water clean enough to drink. (10/25)

Armadillo Aerospace Meets Lunar Lander Challenge (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
For two years, a $350,000 first-place prize aimed at spurring the development of a space vehicle that can land and take off from the moon's surface has gone unclaimed. But that changed Friday in New Mexico, when Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace successfully completed one contest in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. Steve Landeene, director of Spaceport America, said the achievement is significant because the technology will be used in developing Armadillo Aerospace's commercial space vehicles. Spaceport America is the proposed launch site for commercial space vehicles in Sierra County. (10/25)

Google Founders’ Fighter Jet Will Fly NASA Missions (Source: New York Times)
A NASA official said Friday that the top Googlers’ new fighter jet will be used mostly to fly missions for the agency that four other jets owned by Google’s top executives could not handle. “They are dedicating the plane primarily for NASA payloads,” said Steve Zornetzer, associate director of the NASA Ames Research Center, which operates Moffett Field near the Google campus. He said that the Google executives’ pilots would use the Dornier Alpha Jet for “training and pilot proficiency.”

Last year, a company controlled by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders, along with Eric Schmidt, its chief executive, signed an unusual agreement with NASA giving them rights to use Moffett Field, an airfield adjacent to Google, for their growing fleet of private airplanes. At the time, NASA described the arrangement as a win-win: NASA would receive $1.3 million in rent every year, and it would get to place scientific instruments on the planes for use by its researchers. (10/25)

Mars Craters Might be Scars from Fallen Moon (Source: New Scientist)
An unusual pair of craters on Mars formed when a moon broke apart before crashing into the planet's surface about a billion years ago, a new study suggests. The craters could hint at what lies in store for Phobos, a potato-shaped moon that is expected to smash into Mars millions of years from now. The two craters, which lie about 12.5 kilometres apart, share the same oval shape and nearly the same west-east alignment. Similar crater pairs are seen elsewhere, including a duo called "Messier" on the Moon. The Messier craters may have formed from a pair of orbiting asteroids that crashed to the surface together at a low impact angle. (10/25)

NASA Unveils New Lunar Rover Built for Endurance (Source: Reuters)
NASA unveiled a new lunar rover on Friday which aims to transform space exploration by allowing astronauts to roam large distances without cumbersome spacesuits when they return to the moon by 2020. A team of scientists is testing the Small Pressurized Rover Concept vehicle -- which resembles a small, futuristic recreational vehicle mounted on six sets of wheels -- 12 in all -- in trials in a rocky, barren corner of northern Arizona, selected for its similarities to the surface of the moon. An astronaut took the vehicle for a spin over a broad lava field framed by craggy mountains. (10/25)

No Surface Ice Found in Moon Crater (Source: New York Times)
For years, scientists have wondered whether there might be water ice on the Moon’s surface. The question is of more than academic interest, because ice could be used by a future Moon base to produce oxygen to breathe and hydrogen to fuel spacecraft. Since almost all of the Moon is exposed to sunlight, ice could exist only in the few areas that are in permanent shadow — the inside walls and floors of certain craters near the poles. One candidate is Shackleton crater, which is about 13 miles in diameter and 2.5 miles deep. But images taken by a Japanese spacecraft throw hot water on the idea that Shackleton might have surface ice. Since parts of the crater are in permanent shadow, the images relied for illumination on sunlight glancing off the walls on the opposite side. (10/25)

NASA Adjusts Launch Pad for Ares Rocket (Source: Florida Today)
A shuttle switched launch pads at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for the third time in the program's history and for the first time in 15 years. Why did NASA move Endeavour down the coast to Pad 39A, when Pad 39B is equally able to launch shuttles? The northern pad is the launching point for a flight test planned next summer of the Ares 1X rocket -- the first flight test in NASA's push to return to the moon. To prepare for that and for later Ares 1 flights, the launch pad must undergo millions of dollars in renovations, starting with next month's scheduled arrival of a massive crane that will erect three skyscraping lightning towers. (10/24)

No Money, No Spacecraft, Russian Producer Warns (Source: Space Daily)
Russia's spacecraft producer Energiya will not provide any more Soyuz vessels for trips to the International Space Station unless funds could be found, Energiya's president and general constructor warned. "We have vessels and funding for them for the next two trips, but I do not know what will happen with expeditions after that," Vitaly Lopota said. "We have no funds to produce new Soyuz craft. Unless we are granted loans or advance payment in the next two or three weeks, we cannot be responsible for future Soyuz production," Lopota explained. (10/24)

U.S. Space Tourist, Russian Crew Return to Earth in Kazakhstan (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. space tourist Richard Garriott and a two-man Russian crew returned to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft on schedule and on target today, 10 days after leaving for the International Space Station. The three men landed on the steppe of northern Kazakhstan at 7:36 a.m. Moscow time, Russian state broadcaster Vesti-24 said, citing Mission Control outside of Moscow. Garriott, the 47-year-old son of an astronaut, is Russia's sixth space tourist. The computer-game designer paid $30 million to take photographs of Earth's surface and record how it has changed since his father, Owen Garriott, spent 60 days on Skylab in 1973. (10/24)

Ares 1X Rocket Parts Come Together at KSC (Source: Florida Today)
The first Ares 1X hardware delivered from elsewhere in the nation is at Kennedy Space Center, where NASA is pressing ahead with plans for the first test flight of a next-generation moon rocket. The ballast assemblies for the Upper Stage Simulator of the Ares 1X test rocket arrived a week ago today and now sit in High Bay No. 4 in the Vehicle Assembly Building. The Ares 1X test rocket will be a mix of flight hardware and mock-ups: a four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster topped with a fifth spacer segment and mock-ups of the Ares 1 second stage, Orion crew capsule and a launch abort system. (10/24)

Editorial: Cape’s Pad Opens Door for Business-Friendly Liftoffs (Source: Florida Today)
Ground was broken Wednesday for a new state-run commercial launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport that’s key to turning the site into a business-friendly area similar to a free trade zone. We’ve strongly advocated that move for years and Brevard County lawmakers in Tallahassee helped make it happen this spring when they gained about $15 million to refurbish abandoned Launch Complex 36. That seed money will allow Space Florida, the state’s space recruiting agency, to hopefully attract start-up companies looking to send payloads into orbit and to NASA’s International Space Station.

One such firm is PlanetSpace, a consortium of ATK, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which said Wednesday it will fly its new rocket from the pad to ferry cargo to the outpost. That could create 350 jobs, providing the company wins a NASA competition for the flights late next month. Meanwhile, negotiations continue with other firms interested in the site. (10/24)