December 11 News Items

Griffin Responds to Transition Problem Report (Source: NASA Watch)
"A recent report in the Orlando Sentinel suggested that NASA is not cooperating with members of President-elect Obama’s transition team currently working at Headquarters. This report, largely supported by anonymous sources and hearsay, is simply wrong.

I would like to reiterate what I have stated in a previous email to all NASA Officials: we must make every effort to “lean forward,” to answer questions promptly, openly and accurately. We are fully cooperating with transition team members...Also, we strongly urge full and free cooperation by companies performing work for NASA. I am appalled by any accusations of intimidation, and encourage a free and open exchange of information with the contractor community. (12/11)

Who Owns the Moon? (Source: Space.com)
Nearly 40 years after the U.S. flag was planted on the moon, a global rush to the final frontier has some pondering property rights out there. “India, Japan and China are now circling the moon with their respective spacecraft – to be joined next year by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Then there’s the Google Lunar X Prize...The legal profession sees a brief in the making.

Laws tend to build on precedent. Since there's little precedent for lunar laws, some look to the sea for suggestions. That is, the use of ocean floor minerals beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Such valuable resources are designated by some as a Common Heritage of mankind, not subject to national appropriation. Could the Common Heritage concept work as the basis for a Moon Treaty? (12/11)

Lunar Lift Technology Developing in California Lab (Source: The Engineer)
At an anonymous looking facility in Redondo Beach, California, engineers are applying the finishing touches to a rocket engine that could be at the heart of NASA plans to take us back to the Moon, and ultimately Mars. Developed by Northrop Grumman, the company behind the lunar module descent engine used for the Apollo landings, the so-called TR408 is a reaction control engine (RCE) designed to provide the subtle bursts of power required for delicate maneuvers such as docking.

Engineered specifically for the ascent phase of a lunar lander, the engine runs on cryogenic liquid oxygen and methane which, the company claims, could be manufactured from materials in the lunar or Martian soil and atmosphere. Outlining the design challenges, Gordon Dressler, chief engineer at Northrop's Propulsion and Fluid Products Center, said for lengthy missions it is particularly important that the propellants are non-toxic, as the alternative air supply for astronauts is limited, and that they will not spontaneously ignite. It is also critical that exhaust gases do not contaminate the soil or atmosphere. (12/11)

NASA Considers 2018 Altair Lunar Lander In-Orbit Trial (Source: Flight Global)
NASA's Altair Lunar Lander could have its first test flight with in-orbit propulsion firings in June 2018 after being launched by the US space agency's Ares V cargo launch vehicle. The Altair's launch would be on the Ares V's test flight, Ares V-Y, already targeted for June 2018. Once Altair is in its 242km (150 miles) low Earth orbit, to which the Ares V's Earth departure stage (EDS) is designed to push the lander, it would separate from the EDS. (12/11)

UK Plans Multi-Million Ddollar Moon Mission Study (Source: Flight Global)
The British National Space Center (BNSC) has announced a call for industry bids for a nine-month phase-A study of its proposed 2014 Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecom Experiment (MoonLITE) mission. The study's budget is on the scale of £1 million ($1.49 million) or more, while the mission would place a telecommunications spacecraft in orbit to relay data back from four penetrators fired into the lunar surface. The penetrators would operate for 12 months, analyzing Moonquake strength and frequency. The BNSC is still aiming for a total mission cost, including its launch, of £100 million or less. (12/11)

More Competitors for Google Lunar X Prize (Source: CNET)
More scientists and engineers are about to join the international race to the moon sponsored by Google and the X Prize Foundation. The foundation on Tuesday will introduce two new Google Lunar X Prize teams to its already weighty roster of 14 competitors. Team LunaTrex will also have an announcement to make at that time, according to the foundation.

The first team to land on the moon and complete several tasks put forth by the Lunar X Prize rules by December 31, 2012, will win $20 million. Just to make it a little more exciting: if no one makes it by that date, the grand prize drops to $15 million. The second team to reach the moon and complete the objectives will win $5 million. There will also be a total of $5 million in "bonuses," though it's unclear how Google will decide to distribute that money among the remaining competitors. In order to qualify, competing teams must get 90 percent of their funding to compete from private sources. (12/11)

Gates to Flex Muscle in New Administration (Source: AIA)
When Robert Gates accepted the offer to stay on as Pentagon chief, he cited acquisition reform and military modernization as two of his primary motivations. Insiders say a new administration will offer Gates broad leeway in implementing his vision of modern warfare, including blimps and light planes instead of expensive, high-tech systems. Gates also is determined to fix the problems he sees in acquisitions, especially where the Navy and Air Force are concerned. "He wants to get acquisition and procurement back on track," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. "He is not looking to build a new railway, but he is determined to put them back on the rails." (12/11)

NASA Has Become a Transition Problem for Obama (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the space transition team, a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to witnesses.

In addition, Griffin is scripting NASA employees and civilian contractors on what they can tell the transition team and has warned aerospace executives not to criticize the agency’s moon program, sources said. Griffin’s resistance is part of a no-holds-barred effort to preserve the Constellation program, the delayed and over-budget moon rocket that is his signature project. Click here to view the article. (12/10)

Editorial Engaging China in Space (Source: Washington Times)
The incoming Obama administration has some tough choices to make on how it will engage China in space. Cooperation with China in space will involve substantial risks. Although Obama stresses the need to keep U.S. space assets free from threats of disruption, he has not shown any inclination to somehow confront China or call attention to any hostile intent on the part of China in space as well. He opposes stationing weapons in space and the development of anti-satellite weapons, and he believes the U.S. "must show leadership by engaging other nations in discussions of how best to stop the slow slide towards a new battlefield."

Discussions with China are one thing, whereas a formal tie in space with China is something else entirely. Eric Hagt, China program director at the World Security Institute in Washington, D.C., for example, considers it highly unlikely that the United States and China will work together on space programs of any substance. "The larger political and security relationship, not to mention a change in legislation impacting on U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations [ITAR] controls and sensitive export laws would need to be in place before actual cooperation can occur," says Mr. Hagt. (12/11)

U.S. Aerospace Group Predicts Modest Growth in '09 (Source: Defense News)
Growth will continue in the U.S aerospace industry in 2009, though at much more modest levels than in the past few years, Marion Blakey, Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) president and chief executive, told a gathering of industry executives and reporters Dec. 11. Blakey's comments about the aerospace industry were cautiously positive. Though defense and space sectors are relatively safe from federal funding cuts in the near term, civil aviation will be more susceptible to the economic environment, she said. (12/11)

NASA Sets Out Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle Development Plan (Source: Flight Global)
NASA has detailed its plans to spend at least $68 million until 2013 on the development of the largest rocket ever, its proposed Ares V cargo launch vehicle (CaLV) that will send the USA back to the Moon by 2020. Taller and more powerful than the Apollo program's Saturn V launcher, with a gross lift-off mass of just over 3.7 million kg (8.17 million lb), the 116m (360ft)-high rocket is limited by NASA's Kennedy Space Center vehicle assembly building's height.

Unveiled as the cargo launch vehicle (CaLV) in 2005 and renamed Ares V in 2006, it has two two solid rocket boosters (SRB) for its first-stage and a core stage that uses six Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 797,000lb (3,500kN)-thrust (108% in vacuum) RS-68B engines. Its upper, Earth Departure Stage (EDS) uses the PW&R 294,000lb (1,308kN)-thrust J-2X, derived from Saturn V’s second-stage J-2 and under development for the Ares I crew launch vehicle’s (CLV) upper stage. Click here to view the article, and here for more detailed specs on Ares V. (12/11)

U.S. Aerospace Urges Obama to Keep its Flame Bright (Source: Reuters)
The chief trade group for arms makers and others in the U.S. aerospace industry said it was a job-creating bright spot in a bleak economy and urged President-elect Barack Obama to keep it that way. The AIA said its members' sales -- including civil and military aircraft, missiles and space-related hardware -- are expected to hit $204.4 billion this year, following sales of $200.3 billion in 2007. This would be a rise of 2.1 percent, a lower growth rate than in recent years but a record for the fifth year in a row.

Since new procurement spending is basically locked in for the 2009 fiscal year that started October 1, "and the new administration will have limited impact on FY 2010, aerospace companies will likely see defense sales growth continue on pace through calendar year 2012," the AIA said in its forecast. U.S. aerospace exports are expected to rise 2.1 percent in 2008 to $99.2 billion, from $97.2 billion last year, fueling a foreign trade surplus of about $61 billion, little changed from 2007, AIA said. It referred to this as the largest trade surplus of any U.S. manufacturing sector.

The group -- whose members include Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon Co -- has begun playing up the number of jobs it creates in a bid to protect lucrative arms programs under Obama. In an advertising and lobbying campaign launched this month, the association argues that the U.S. aerospace industry supports more than two million middle-class jobs with 30,000 supplier companies in all 50 states. (12/11)

Orbital to Conduct Ribbon Cutting for Virginia Campus Expansion (Source: Orbital Sciences)
Orbital Sciences Corp. will hold the official ribbon cutting ceremony for a new building on its Dulles, Virginia, campus on Dec. 15. Orbital has embarked on a major expansion to its headquarters and satellite and space systems manufacturing facilities in Virginia. Orbital currently occupies over 500,000 square feet and employs approximately 1,700 people at its Dulles campus in Loudoun County. To accommodate its growth in business activity and employees, Orbital has completed the first of up to four new buildings that will add another 220,000 square feet of office and engineering space capable of housing another 600 employees. (12/11)

Swirling Waters Boost Chance of Life on Europa (Source: New Scientist)
With Jupiter stirring the pot, the planet's icy moon Europa may be brewing a more nutritious soup for life than anyone had expected. Ice-floe-like features on Europa's surface and certain characteristics of its magnetic field suggest there is an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. The heat needed to keep it liquid has long been thought to be produced by Jupiter's gravity: Europa's distance from the gas giant changes during its orbit, which means the planet's gravitational pull on the moon varies. This stretches and squeezes the moon's rocky core, producing heat by friction.

However, new calculations show that additional variations, due to a suspected slight tilt of the moon's spin axis relative to its orbital plane, make it possible for Jupiter's gravity to warm Europa's ocean directly by stirring up currents within it. The heat produced this way could exceed the amount generated by the flexing of Europa's core, according to Robert Tyler of the University of Washington in Seattle. (12/10)

Water Vapor Detected on Distant Planet (Source: Space.com)
Scientists have found clear evidence that water vapor exists in the atmospheres of giant, hot planets around other stars. These big gaseous exoplanets have masses similar to or greater than Jupiter's. Many of them orbit precariously close to their parent stars, so they are scorching hot. A team of astronomers used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to examine the spectrum of one such exoplanet, dubbed HD 189733b, for a telltale signature of water vapor. Water is a key requirement for life as we know it, though HD 189733b (about 65 light-years from Earth) is too hot to be habitable.

Models of the atmospheres of these so called hot Jupiters have predicted that an abundance of water vapor should be present in the planets' atmospheres, but recent observations failed to turn up any conclusive evidence of the molecule's presence in one exoplanet's atmosphere. A 2007 study reported to have found strong evidence for water vapor in the atmosphere of a world called HD209458b, but that "a lot of people [in the scientific community] had doubts." A new study measured the spectrum of the star/planet system before, during and after the planet's regular disappearance behind the star, allowing the astronomers to single out the planet's spectrum. In it, they found "an unequivocal signature of water vapor in the atmosphere of the brightest transiting exoplanet yet detected." (12/10)