November 19 News Items

Tallahassee Considered for Aerospace Technology Center (Source: Tallahassee Democrat)
Tallahassee is within 500 miles of most major cities in the Southeast — one reason why the area is in a prime position to become a center of aviation and aerospace technology. That was the thinking of those at Tuesday's discussion spearheaded by the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County. The launch of the EDC's Aviation/Aerospace Roundtable was the first step toward the area being in a position to lure scientists and engineers here as NASA's space shuttle program concludes in two years.

Farrukh Alvi, a mechanical-engineering professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, said opportunities are there, but they must include a method to ensure engineering graduates and other skilled employees do not leave the state after obtaining degrees here. Alvi will be the director for the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion (FCAAP). "The focus is on the science and engineering and problem solving," Alvi said about FCAAP, a partnership between faculty at FSU, the University of Florida, University of Central Florida and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "We want to devise technology that we can take to the industry and say 'Hey, this is something you can use,' or have industry come to us and say 'Hey, here is a problem. Fix it.'" (11/19)

Space Florida and FSGC Visit Embry-Riddle Students (Source: Space Florida)
Representatives from Space Florida and the NASA-sponsored Florida Space Grant Consortium held a special lecture and Q&A session at 175 freshman engineering students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The students learned how they could participate in state-sponsored aerospace academy programs and how they could position themselves for summer internships in the space industry. They also discussed project opportunities to design, build and fly scientific balloon payloads. (11/19)

Mysterious Source of High-Energy Cosmic Radiation Discovered (Source: NASA)
Scientists announced the discovery of a previously unidentified nearby source of high-energy cosmic rays. The finding was made with a NASA-funded balloon-borne instrument high over Antarctica. Researchers from the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) collaboration, led by scientists at Louisiana State University, published the results, which show an unexpected surplus of cosmic ray electrons at very high energy -- 300-800 billion electron volts -- that must come from a previously unidentified source or from the annihilation of very exotic theoretical particles used to explain dark matter. According to the research, this source would need to be within about 3,000 light years of the sun. It could be an exotic object such as a pulsar, mini-quasar, supernova remnant or an intermediate mass black hole. (11/19)

Why Europe Should Build its Own Crewed Space Vehicle (Source: New Scientist)
There is one area in space in which Europe is missing out: getting its astronauts up to the station and bringing them home again at the end of their missions. For this, ESA has to do deals with NASA and the Russian space agency Roskosmos in which expensive European equipment is exchanged for occasional astronaut trips. There is, however, one machine that could offer Europe independent access to orbit for its astronauts. ESA's 20-ton Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is one of the most sophisticated spacecraft ever developed. Its main task is to deliver 8-ton loads made up of crew supplies, propellant and scientific equipment to the ISS every 15 months or so.

The ATV's approach and final docking is wonderfully precise and delicate. It is also completely automatic, guided by on-board laser rangefinders. NASA has nothing remotely as advanced as this among its aging fleet of rockets and modules. There are dozens of safety features built into the ATV, and once it is docked astronauts from the ISS can climb aboard. All it needs for people to be able to fly inside is a re-entry capsule that can survive right down to the ground, instead of burning up on re-entry as the craft does now. The ATV could be turned into a people carrier by reinforcing its pressurized cargo section with heat shielding, albeit at the expense of some cargo capacity. This possibility has not escaped its designers, but ESA's senior managers seem unwilling to commit Europe to the obvious next step in its human space-flight program. (11/19)

Mission Mishap: Endeavour Spacewalker Drops Bag of Tools (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Space, a spacewalker and a leaky grease gun proved to be a slippery combination Tuesday when astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on a bag of tools she needed to fix a damaged space-station rotary joint. The slip-up took place right before Stefanyshyn-Piper, space shuttle Endeavour's lead spacewalker, started work on the damaged joint that keeps the station's solar panels tracking the sun.

Stefanyshyn-Piper noticed that one of the two grease guns in her bag had exploded, spreading the dark, dry grease all over her camera and gloves. The grease, called Braycote, is a durable, nonflammable lubricant tough enough to handle the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space. It is needed to lubricate the cranky joint, which has been grinding for more than a year. In the midst of trying to clean up the mess, the bag of tools floated away from her. Views from a camera mounted on her helmet showed it drifting slowly off toward the back of the station, 200 miles above Earth. (11/19)

Alcatel-Lucent to Sell Thales Stake to Dassault (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Alcatel-Lucent said it reached a preliminary agreement to sell its stake in defense-electronics company Thales SA to French conglomerate Dassault Group, a move that could help the telecom-equipment maker better withstand the economic downturn. If completed, the deal, under which Dassault would pay about $1.9 billion for the 20.8% stake, would boost Alcatel-Lucent's cash holdings at a time when its new chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, is trying to return the company to profit. (11/19)

Final Plea on Earth Observation (Source: BBC)
Earth observation scientists have made a last-minute plea to Gordon Brown to put the UK's weight behind Europe's environmental monitoring project, GMES. The 2bn-euro venture will build a full picture of the state of the planet from satellite and ground-based data. But despite the UK's oft-stated claim to lead the world on climate policy, it has so far been lukewarm on GMES. Three leading scientists have now sent a letter to the PM urging him to back GMES at a critical meeting next week. (11/19)

What To Do with Garbage in Space? (Source: Cornell University)
No one takes out the trash in space. In the cramped living quarters of a space station, garbage can pile up, spoil and become a health hazard for astronauts. There has never been a good system for dealing with space waste -- the space shuttle now brings full trash bags back to Earth; on the Russian space station MIR, junk would accumulate in hallways for months before it was sent to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

And that is why Jean Hunter, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, has been working with research partner Orbital Technologies Corp. (ORBITEC) of Madison, Wis., to develop a cutting-edge trash dryer for NASA. The space agency will need a new solid waste strategy before it sends astronauts on extended missions to Mars or an outpost on the moon. Visit http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov08/SpaceWaste.html to view the article. (11/18)

US Military, Intel Urged to Cooperate More on Space (Source: Reuters)
U.S. military and intelligence agencies must cooperate more closely on key satellite programs given mounting budget pressures and rapid advances by China and Russia in their space programs, a top U.S. lawmaker warned on Tuesday. 'We don't really have the money any more. It has to be a team effort,' said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Maryland Democrat and member of the House appropriations and intelligence committees. He said the stakes were too high to accept any additional failures in big military space programs, and the United States urgently needed a clear plan for funding, developing, and using satellites, which have become imperative to military and intelligence operations, and many civilian uses. "If we can pull this together, we can still maintain our dominance...The biggest threat to world security is the ability to control space." (11/18)

Florida Students to Launch Next Year at NASA Facility (Source: UCF)
Rockets powered by laughing gas are no joking matter to UCF students who are less than a year away from the first launch. Nitrous oxide, more commonly known as laughing gas, will help the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space at UCF propel two rockets into the upper atmosphere. The students expect the rockets, named Daedalus III and IV, to launch at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia next year, with the first during the summer and the second in December. Project Daedalus is one of two remaining student initiatives in Florida to launch a sounding rocket. Sounding rockets are used in sub-orbital research to gather data from the upper atmosphere. Last year, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach became the first undergraduate group to successfully launch a sounding rocket.

Both the UCF and Embry-Riddle programs are named after Greek mythological characters. Embry-Riddle's sounding rocket program is called Icarus. "Icarus fell from the clouds burning in flames and Daedalus is the one who survived," said Jeremy Lawrence, project leader for Project Daedalus. "They announced their project when our project was being formed, so they thought it was fitting that we kind of poke fun at their rocket." (11/18)

Will the Real Mike Griffin Please Stand Up? (Source: Space Frontier Foundation)
The Space Frontier Foundation points out that NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, in an interview with CBS News published last Friday, publicly contradicted his own 2003 testimony to Congress about the safety of flying humans on America's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs). "It's one thing for Mike to argue that EELVs can't send astronauts all the way to the Moon. But on Friday he claimed that EELVs are not safe enough, even for the easier job of launching astronauts to Earth orbit, and that's just not true," said Foundation Chairman Berin Szoka.

"Just five years ago, Mike testified to Congress that EELVs were safe enough to launch astronauts to low Earth orbit. And the only thing that's changed since then is that the Delta IV and Atlas V systems have, together, successfully flown 20 times," Szoka added. "We're already on record saying that the best way to close the impending gap in human spaceflight is to invest in new commercial crew systems, many of which would be launched on an EELV," said another SFF official. "Now we're saying NASA should launch its Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle on an EELV as well, instead of spending $10 Billion developing a brand new, EELV-class rocket." (11/19)

Calls Renewed for a Mid-East Regional Space Body (Source: The National)
The UAE should lead Arab countries into space, a panel of specialists said yesterday. The country is to launch its first governmental satellite, the DubaiSat-1, next year. However, speakers at the Global Space Technology Forum said further measures were needed to ensure the UAE had a rigid structure in place to foster more ventures into space. Ahmed Obaid al Mansoori, the director general of the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, which built DubaiSat-1, said a central authority uniting government, private companies and academic institutions with an interest in space technology should be established.

“It is time to design and set up the mechanism for a nationwide program for research in all fields, and the immediate aim is for such an authority to define a space policy. We need a regulatory authority not just to put the policies there but to co-ordinate everything – a special monitoring body to follow progress. We will need Emirati scientists, as they are the ones who are going to lead the future.” (11/18)

Why NASA Should Focus on the Moon, Not Mars (Source: New Scientist)
Recently, the Planetary Society called for major changes in US space-exploration plans. Specifically, it recommended bypassing the Moon in favor of Mars. Harrison Schmitt (the only scientist to have walked on the Moon) resigned from the society in protest. This actually harks back to the Planetary Society's beginnings. In its early years, the only form of manned space exploration it favored was an (international) Mars expedition. All other ideas that involved humans in space were counterproductive and undesirable, to hear the Planetary Society tell it.

This obsession with Mars was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now. However, some of the reasons advanced against it strike me as poor - sufficiently poor that they weaken attempts to argue for a more systematic and balanced space effort. An exclusive focus on Mars does have one thing going for it. If you believe that any resumption of manned space exploration will inevitably end the way Apollo did, with follow-on programs canceled and flight-ready hardware consigned to museums as soon as the program's first objective is met, then choosing the most interesting single destination makes sense. Click here to view the article. (11/18)