December 8 News Items

Space Elevator Trips Could be Agonizingly Slow (Source: New Scientist)
The simple act of climbing could throw space elevators off track and potentially into harm's way, a new study suggests. Fixing the problem could require agonisingly slow trips lasting nearly a month or the careful choreography of multiple climbers. Space elevators have been proposed as a cheap alternative to expensive rocket launches to send cargo, and perhaps even humans, into space. The concept has been stuck on the ground floor for decades, not least because current materials are not strong enough to handle the strain on the tether. Carbon nanotubes may work, but they need to be longer and purer than those manufactured today.

Even with adequate materials, space elevators might be highly unstable. Gravitational tugs from the Moon and Sun, as well as pressure from gusts of solar wind, could shake the tether, potentially causing the elevator to crash into nearby satellites or space junk. Thrusters might be needed to keep the tether in line. Now, it seems that the act of climbing itself could also cause the tether to wobble.
Earth's spin

The culprit is the Coriolis force, which deflects objects that are moving in a rotating system. On Earth, the planet's rotation sets up a Coriolis force that deflects air currents and water. As the climber ascended, its motion would cause the Coriolis force to pull the climber, and thus the cable, in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation. This would pull the elevator away from its vertical resting position, causing it to oscillate back and forth like a pendulum. (12/8)

Lockheed Martin Donates $10,000 to Expand Robotics Development (Source: ERAU)
Lockheed Martin has donated $10,000 to expand robotics exploration at Embry-Riddle's College of Engineering. The gift will help more students learn about robotics and will help to promote interest and inspire innovation in the field, such as the student-designed underwater remote-controlled rescue robot, “Medusa,” which won first place in the university division at the National Underwater Robotics Challenge recently held in Arizona. (12/8)

Cape Canaveral Small Business Gains New Contracts (Source: Craig Technologies)
Craig Technologies will support the Integrated Communications and Information Systems (ICIS) Division of the Naval Air Systems Command under a recent contract with Booz Allen Hamilton. The contract will provide for services in support of a variety of communications and electronic systems development efforts. In a separate contract, Craig will provide project management support services at Kennedy Space Center under work awarded by NASA to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). (12/8)

Editorial: National Security Space - Where Do We Go from Here? (Source: Space Daily)
Results of recent blue-ribbon panels and commissions make it clear that the US approach to providing national security through space assets is not working effectively. Complex space programs are taking too long to develop, cost too much and are not providing the performance needed to do the job. The situation is further exacerbated by developing international competition and tightening US budgets.

Corrective efforts so far have had mixed results, but there have been some improvements. However, the magnitude of the shortcomings is so great that one might liken them to "putting a bandage on a broken leg." The underlying problems are far too fundamental to correct with superficial fixes. It is time to review realistic options for the future. First, let's agree that the challenges are not of a technical nature, but are based in the management and organization of the US national security space infrastructure. Corrective options must address the roles and responsibilities of those that provide national security through space assets. Click here to view the article. (12/8)

NASA Awards Weather Integration Research Contract (Source: Sensis)
Sensis Corp. announced that its Seagull Technology Center has won a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) project, "Integration of Weather Data into Airspace and Traffic Operations Simulation (ATOS) for Trajectory-Based Operations Research." The project will integrate weather forecast information and weather phenomena into the ATOS air traffic management simulator to ensure future concepts meet critical safety and efficiency targets. (12/8)

Ailing Economy Not Expected to Derail Iridium Deal (Source: Space News)
Managers of Iridium Satellite LLC and the investment company that plans to buy the mobile satellite services provider said they have seen no signs shareholders who must still approve the purchase have changed their minds because of the global financial crisis. They said they expected the transaction to close in mid-2009, giving them several months to survive the current financial shocks and demonstrate Iridium's growth prospects before asking shareholders to vote to purchase Iridium rather than receive cash for their shares in the acquiring company, GHL Acquisition Corp. (GHQ) of New York. (12/8)

Launch of Ariane 5 Postponed Until Dec. 21 (Source: RIA Novosti)
The launch of an Ariane 5 carrier rocket with two satellites from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana has been moved to Dec. 21. The sixth launch this year of an Ariane 5 rocket had been planned for Dec. 11. The rocket is due to put into orbit two satellites, HOT BIRD TM-9 and W2M, for the European communications and satellite television operator Eutelsat. Arianspace has said that the launch had been delayed due to mass protests in French Guiana against high gasoline prices. (12/8)

Griffin's Commercialization Legacy (Source: Space Review)
When Mike Griffin became NASA administrator in 2005, many in the space industry expected him to focus in particular on commercialization of some of the agency's activities. Jeff Foust reports on a recent speech where Griffin examined what the agency has done to promote commercial space efforts during his tenure. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1266/1 to view the article. (12/8)

Technical Ego: India and Germany in Space (Source: Space Review)
Indian and Germany are two countries that would not seem to have much in common when it comes to space ventures. Dwayne Day describes how the space efforts in these two countries do share some common characteristics. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1265/1 to view the article. (12/8)

Alan Stern and the Nature of the Space Industry (Source: Space Review)
Last week's decision by NASA to delay the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory mission two years is the latest cost and schedule problem to strike a major aerospace program. Taylor Dinerman argues that the root cause of such problems is a lack of talented technical leadership. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1264/1 to view the article. (12/8)

Embraer Breaks Ground on Florida Plant (Source: AIA)
Florida Gov. charlie Crist and other top officials were on hand Dec. 4 to break ground on a $50 million Embraer assembly plant expected to employ at least 200 people. Crist thanked the Brazilian jet manufacturer for choosing the site at Melbourne International Airport for its first U.S. plant. Embraer will occupy a four-building campus at the airport, and the company's arrival will help offset job losses associated with the end of the space shuttle program at nearby Kennedy Space Center. (12/8)

Europe Begins Building Satellite Navigation System (Source: AIA)
The European Union on Monday launched a $2.7 billion program to begin construction of a satellite-based air traffic control system, scheduled for completion by 2020. "We will change the way we manage air traffic -- no more skyways, just the most efficient trajectory to save fuel and time," said Eurocontrol Director General David McMillan. The so-called SESAR system, like NextGen in the U.S., is designed to use satellite navigation and in-cockpit digital messages to boost capacity and cut costs. (12/8)

Korean Space Program Hits Snag (Source: Korea Times)
Korea’s ambitious plan to put a satellite into lunar orbit by 2020 could be troubled by difficulties in rocket development. The country wants to launch a satellite into orbit from its brand new spaceport in Goheung, South Jeolla Province next summer. But even if the launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) is a success, the Naro Space Center won’t be used again until 2017, when Korea plans to have its KSLV-2 locked and loaded.

The development of the KSLV-2 is the ultimate challenge for Korea as the government intends to localize the rocket. Scientists and engineers at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) developed the upper part of the KSLV-1 that is designed to hold a satellite, but Russia’s Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center is providing the lower assembly of the rocket that contains the liquid-fuel propulsion system.

Countries such as the United States and Russia strictly prohibit the export of rocket propulsion technologies, due to the potential in military use, which means that the Koreans will have to figure out the hard parts themselves. However, it seems that local scientists and policymakers have yet to agree on what the KSLV-2 should look like. (12/8)

Secret Equipment Exploded at Baikonur Spaceport (Source: Kommersant)
Russia’s military are liquidating secret equipment and pyrotechnic devices at the Baikonur spaceport. The blasting operations are destroying equipment whose service life has expired. The operations are ongoing at a special firing ground, eight kilometers away from Baikonur, close to Saturn tracking station. Similar operations are annually carried out at Baikonur. This year, however, due to the disbandment of the Space Force unit staff stationed at the spaceport, the servicemen are destroying all equipment and explosives kept at the military warehouses. (12/8)

On Earth as It Is in Space (Source: Moscow Times)
U.S.-Russian relations are in poor shape. The old thinking has failed. As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it after the Russia-Georgia war: "For the first time, both the United States secretary of state and secretary of defense have doctorates in Russian studies. A fat lot of good that's done us." The U.S. needs a new, 21st-century strategy based on new thinking, new resources and new projects. The strategy must, of course, serve U.S. interests, but it must also be based on a clear sense of what Washington wants from Moscow and what can be reasonably expected from U.S.-Russian relations.

Should we expect a continuation of the current blend of rivalry and collaboration? Or is Russia lost because of foreign policy blunders by the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as anti-democratic choices made by then-President Vladimir Putin? Has Russia permanently reverted to its traditional repressive and aggressive model? Is Russia truly "resurgent," to use the current buzzword? Or, on the contrary, is it sick and dying, as demographer Murray Feshbach put it? And if Feshbach is correct, how exactly do you deal with an oil-rich, nuclear-armed state that is imploding? We haven't seen too many of those cases before.

If we wish to change the relationship from the adversarial to the cooperative, the answer is to increase cooperation between the countries. Russia and the United States are already doing this -- mainly in the struggle against nuclear proliferation and terrorism. But there is one more area that offers even more potential -- joint projects in space, which has reached a high point in the last 10 years. (12/8)

Russia Offers India a Lift into Space (Source: IT Examiner)
The Russian government has offered India help in developing an advanced space program. Moscow will provide New Delhi with assistance under a contract system. "From this moment, India will move along the real way of creating a manned program," said Perminov. (12/8)

Astronauts Have Ties to Space Coast (Source: Florida Today)
Two astronauts with strong ties to the Space Coast will fly on the last of next year's six planned shuttle missions. Kathryn "Kay" Hire and George Zamka, who both hold master's degrees from Florida Tech, will team up on a mission targeted to launch from Kennedy Space Center in December 2009. Hire, a mission specialist, became the first Kennedy Space Center employee to be selected as an astronaut in 1994. She began working at KSC as an engineer in 1989, and in 1998 was a mission specialist aboard Columbia on a medical research flight. (12/8)

Editorial: A Race the United States Shouldn't Lose (Source: Star Gazette)
If the search for intelligent life in outer space were a game, America would be losing it. Why? With the recent financial crisis looming, the U.S. stands in danger of letting let NASA programs take a backseat. A group of nations, from Venezuela to Russia, have set sail into outer space. Venezuela, China, Russia and India have recently launched either a satellite or manned space mission over the past few months. Perhaps the most threatening of these is China.

The U.S. has mainly been a competitor with Europeans and Russians throughout the decades, but now that other nations are starting their own space programs, we will have to brace for their impact too. With the manned U.S. space program scheduled to shelve its shuttle program in 2010 and resume with new manned craft in 2015, there's a real danger America will drop out of first place in the space race. And that could make it difficult for America to catch up with the rest of the world. (12/8)

U.S. and Europe Join Forces for Future Mars Missions (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
NASA and the European Space Agency have agreed on a strategic partnership for future robotic missions to explore Mars. The agencies have already worked together on previous Mars missions, including radars on ESA's Mars Express probe and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Mars Express was also used as a communications relay station for NASA's Phoenix lander. (12/8)

Early 2009 Launch for Wideband Global Satcom (Source: Aviation Week)
A satellite constellation once regarded as an interim step to advanced military communications has become a mainstay in large part because of the technology it has borrowed from commercial users. Already, the first Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite, which has been in orbit for a year, is providing the same amount of high-bandwidth capacity as the entire Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) it is beginning to replace. The new system pushes data transmissions 10 times faster than DSCS.

The military's need for high bandwidth is ballooning. The requirements range from transmitting massive full-motion video intelligence files collected from UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan to a growing dependency among high-ranking military leaders on video teleconferencing around the globe. Once called the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite program - envisioned as an interim capability between DSCS and the Advanced Extremely High-Frequency system that is to replace Milstar - WGS has graduated into a full-blown constellation of its own.

An initial order for three spacecraft was expanded in 2006 to build two more. When Australia wanted to be included in the network, it agreed to fund a sixth $300-million WGS satellite. Boeing is preparing to ship the second of these 13,000-lb. spacecraft to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in early January to meet customer requirements for launch on an Atlas V, probably in late February or early March. (12/8)