November 28 News Items

Gravity Anomaly Detected on Moon by Japan (Source: JAXA)
JAXA announced a new finding of a gravity anomaly for both the near side and far side of the Moon by using 4-way Doppler observation data from the RSTAR (OKINA) with the main orbiter, the KAGUYA. Until now, the gravity anomaly of the far side of the Moon has not been understood well. The gravity anomaly, which was obscure before, has been clearly revealed through observations by the Kaguya mission. For instance, the gravity anomaly of a basin on the far side is found to be characterized by a negative anomaly in a ring like the Apollo basin. On the other hand, the gravity anomaly of the basin on the near side is uniformly positive over the region such as with the Mare Serenitatis. (11/28)

Can X Prizes Spur Innovation? (Source: Business Week)
As contests have proliferated, so, too, have questions about their ability to push forward the boundaries of technology. Are they better at yielding breakthroughs than traditional research and development? Can Lotto-size payouts solve monstrously complex problems? Or are they a fad that stokes vanity-driven entrepreneurs focused on smaller-scale challenges? Peter Diamandis, not surprisingly, predicts that cash competitions will resolve some of ‘the world’s grand challenges.’ When he proposed a prize for space travel, he recalls, ‘a lot of people also told me it was a stupid idea and that no one could win it.’ But he concedes there are problems that you can’t simply ‘throw a prize at.’

And at least some scientists see contests as ultimately immaterial in their fields. Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, notes that researchers have made huge advances in understanding DNA without the lure of a sweepstakes. ‘The X Prize is cute,’ he says, ‘but is not really the driver.’ Still, he and others say what’s the harm if contests generate excitement about science. (11/27)

Peter Orszag and Technology Prizes (Source: Associated Content)
President Elect Barack Obama has named Peter Oszag, current Director of the Congressional Budget Office, as his Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The selection will bring into the Obama White House an advocate of prizes to foster technological innovation. Recently, in his blog as Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Orszag praised the idea of prizes as a means to encourage technological innovation. "In many settings, prizes can be an efficient way of encouraging new breakthroughs...I was therefore particularly encouraged to see that the X-Prize Foundation and Wellpoint have created a competition with a prize of at least $10 million for innovative approaches to addressing health care problems and improving the sector's efficiency — which is a key issue for our long-term fiscal and economic future." (11/28)

Endeavour Undocks from ISS (Source: SpaceToday.net)
The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station Friday morning as its two-week mission winds down. Endeavour undocked from the ISS at 9:47 am EST (1447 GMT) and performed a flyaround of the station before departing. Endeavour's crew will perform some standard inspections of its thermal protection system as part of preparations for a landing at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Sunday. Endeavour was docked at the ISS for nearly two weeks to help upgrade the station's systems to allow it to support six-person crews starting next year. (11/28)

Canada Contributes $16M to Keep Foothold in European Space Plan (Source: CBC)
Canada's space agency is hoping a relatively small investment in the next European space budget will reap big rewards down the road as it tries to navigate a new direction for its satellite and space industry. European ministers — and representatives from Canada — reached an agreement on Wednesday to spend 9.9 billion euros — or about $15.7 billion — on a number of space projects, including an unmanned Mars rover mission, for the period from 2009-13. The agreement was the culmination of a two-day meeting in The Hague between the European Space Agency's 18 European members and Canada, the only non-European member of the ESA. (11/28)

California Rocket Man Way Beyond Hobby Stage (Source: PressDemocrat.com)
At a critical juncture, Tony Alcocer and his son’s interest in flying rockets soared past the small, cardboard hobby shop rockets to handcrafted missiles made of exotic materials that fly miles into the air. “I started seven or eight years ago with my son, who was 13 at the time. We started building cardboard rockets and we advanced past that,” said Alcocer, a Santa Rosa firefighter. “It got out of hand.”

Alcocer has built two dozen rockets in his two-car garage, which has been converted into a workshop. The last flew to 63,000 feet at three times the speed of sound. It was launched at Black Rock in the Nevada desert, where the Federal Aviation Administration has established a 100,000-foot ceiling for amateur rocketeers. (11/28)

Searchers Find Remains of Fireball Meteor (Source: Reuters)
Searchers have found the remains of a 10-ton meteor that produced a dramatic fireball in the skies over the Canadian Prairies this month. Thousands of meteorite fragments have been found densely strewn over a 20-square-kilometer (8 square mile) area south of the community of Lloydminster on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. (11/28)

Did Lack of Comet Impacts Help Life Evolve? (Source: New Scientist)
It seems we got off lightly in the cosmic lottery. Deadly comet impacts may be much rarer in our solar system than in others nearby. We can't directly measure the rate of comet collisions in other solar systems but we can detect signs of the dust that such smashes kick up because the dust gets warmed by the star and so gives off infrared radiation. That radiation shows up as extra infrared in the spectrum of light coming from the star. Because such dust should dissipate quickly, it is thought to provide a good snapshot of the recent collision rate.

Jane Greaves of the University of St Andrews, UK, analyzed observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope and found that the vast majority of sun-like stars near us have more dust than our solar system does and therefore have had more collisions in their vicinity. Our solar system may be one of the few that have been safe for life. Greaves presented her results at the Cosmic Cataclysms and Life symposium in Frascati, Italy, this month. (11/28)

European Space Agency Funding Defies Downturn (Source: Nature)
"Just look at the smile on my face," beams David Southwood, head of science and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA), minutes after the outcome of a crucial summit between the ministers of the agency's 18 member states. Despite the financial crisis, the ministers agreed to commit €10 billion (US$12.8 billion)to ESA, a 21% increase on the sum promised at the last ministerial meeting in 2005. The funding secures almost everything that was on ESA's wish list, including a spending increase for its flagship science program. (11/28)

NASA May Struggle to Afford New Space Missions (Source: New Scientist)
Can NASA afford a shiny new generation of robotic space missions? The agency is developing the brawny Ares V rocket to take astronauts back to the moon. But it is also hopes the rocket will double up as a heavy lifter for robotic science missions which the current shuttles are too puny to lift off the ground. In the works, though yet to be approved, are a visible-light space telescope with an 8-metre mirror that would dwarf Hubble's, and an interstellar probe that could explore space beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

But the huge price tags attached to these proposals could make it very difficult to scrape together the necessary cash, says a report by a US National Research Council panel. Many of the missions will cost a minimum of $5 billion each in today's dollars. "If you look at what the NASA budget is now for science missions, it doesn't seem like a lot of them would fit in that budget," says panel co-chair and former shuttle astronaut Kathryn Thornton, who is now at the University of Virginia. (11/28)

Small Meteoroid Strikes Shuttle Endeavour (Source: WKMG)
A meteoroid struck space shuttle Endeavour but did not seriously damage it, NASA officials said. NASA said Endeavour was hit by a half-inch-thick meteoroid earlier this week. The minimal damage will not affect the shuttle's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, officials said. Endeavour undocked from the international space station on Friday, and the crew performed a final inspection of the shuttle's heat shield before returning to Florida. (11/28)

Site for New Russian Spaceport Approved (Source: Russia InfoCentre)
This November RosCosmos sent the reconnaissance commission to the Amur Region in order to specify location of the construction site for new Russian launching site “Vostochny”. The commission included experts in machine engineering and other industrial and scientific fields. Researchers specified sites for design and survey works near the town of Uglegorsk. Said works are scheduled to start in 2009. (11/27)