January 22 News Items

Lawmaker Giffords, Wife to Astronaut, to Lead House Space Panel (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
An Arizona lawmaker married to a NASA astronaut is expected to lead the U.S. House panel that has direct oversight of the space agency. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made history last year when she became the first member of Congress to watch a spouse blast into space. Now the wife of space shuttle commander Mark Kelly will hold the gavel for the Space and Aeronautics subcommittee, a division of the House science committee.

A spokeswoman for the committee said Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., was not concerned about a conflict of interest because Kelly is a naval officer on loan to the astronaut corps, and not a NASA civil servant. “He works for the Navy, so it’s not a conflict of interest,” said spokeswoman Alex Dery Snider. An aide to Giffords said the congresswoman would be "judicious" in her new role and that a conflict of interest would not be a problem. (1/22)

GAO: NASA Still 'High Risk' for Waste (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA remains a "high risk" investment of taxpayer dollars because it cannot complete major projects on time or on budget, according to a watchdog report. The news is hardly surprising. Federal auditors at the Government Accountability Office have included NASA on their "high risk" list since it was first created in 1990. At the time, the GAO said NASA missions faced "persistent cost growth and schedule slippage." Little seems to have changed. Since 2006, NASA has broken the bank on 10 of 12 major projects. (1/22)

Failed Telecom Satellite Drifts Out of Control (Source: Space News)
The Astra 5A commercial telecommunications satellite is out of control after an unexplained failure Jan. 15 and is drifting eastward along the geostationary orbital arc, with ground controllers pessimistic about their ability to re-establish sufficient communications to guide it into a graveyard orbit. (1/22)

Far Side of the Moon 'Once Faced Earth Before Asteroid Flipped It Around' (Source: Daily Mail)
The far side of the moon has long excited astronomers and science fiction writers alike because it never faces the Earth. But scientists now believe the moon may have faced the other way, before an asteroid flipped it around billions of years ago. Dr Mark Wieczorek and Matthieu Le Feuvre, from the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, studied the age and distribution of 46 known craters. Because it faces the direction of orbiting travel, the moon's western hemisphere should have more impact craters than its eastern hemisphere. The French scientists found this was true of young craters, but older craters were mostly concentrated in the east. The implication was that the eastern face had once experienced more bombardment than the western face. (1/22)

Why NASA Should Give Up Its Ambitions to Send Men Into Space (Source: Economist)
As long as people have looked up at the night sky, they have wondered whether humanity is alone in the universe. Of places close enough for people to visit, Mars is the only one that anybody seriously thinks might support life. The recent confirmation of a five-year-old finding that there is methane in the Martian atmosphere has therefore excited the hopes of exobiologists—particularly as the sources of three large plumes of the gas now seem to have been located. These sources are probably geological but they might, just, prove to be biological.

The possibility of life on Mars is too thrilling for mankind to ignore. But how should we explore such questions—with men, or machines? Since America is the biggest spender in space, its approach will heavily influence the world’s. George Bush’s administration strongly supported manned exploration, but the new administration is likely to have different priorities—and so it should. Luckily, technology means that man can explore both the moon and Mars more fully without going there himself. Robots are better and cheaper than they have ever been. They can work tirelessly for years, beaming back data and images, and returning samples to Earth. They can also be made sterile, which germ-infested humans, who risk spreading disease around the solar system, cannot. (1/22)

Lockheed Martin Profit Up, Lowers Outlook (Source: Reuters)
Lockheed Martin reported a better-than-expected 3 percent increase in quarterly profit, but sharply cut its full-year forecast due to higher expected pension costs. Many established companies such as Lockheed Martin are facing headaches this year from their big pension funds, which were decimated by losses in the financial markets in the second half of last year. Lockheed eported fourth-quarter profit of $823 million compared with $799 million in the year earlier quarter. (1/22)

Northrop Grumman to Post 2008 Loss on $3 Billion Charge (Source: AP)
Northrop Grumman will post losses for the 2008 fourth quarter and full year due to a charge of $3 billion to $3.4 billion connected to past acquisitions. Recent market turmoil has forced Northrop to write down the value of its acquisitions of Litton Industries and TRW made. The company will postpone the release of its earnings until Feb. 3. (1/22)

New Class Selected For Astronaut Hall Of Fame (Source: Florida Today)
The first commander of the International Space Station will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall Of Fame in May along with a veteran shuttle mission commander and an astronaut who flew untethered in jet backpack during a mission to repair the Solar Max observatory. Former NASA astronauts William "Bill" Shepherd, James Wetherbee and George "Pinky" Nelson were selected this week as the eighth group of space shuttle-era astronauts to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, which is located just outside the gates to Kennedy Space Center. (1/22)

United Technologies Sees 8% Jump in Q4 Net Profit (Source: AIA)
United Technologies Corp. said Wednesday its 2009 guidance could be "challenged" due to deferrals in emerging markets such as China and Russia. CFO Greg Hayes said the deferrals were coming mainly in construction-related divisions, while aerospace units such as Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney continue to perform well. For the fourth quarter, United Technologies beat expectations with an 8% rise in net profit. (1/22)

New Rocket Could Launch Giant Space Telescopes (Source: MSNBC)
NASA's plans for the mammoth Ares V rocket could do more than just launch new lunar landers and cargo to the moon. It could also haul massive telescopes that dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope or fling deep space probes on faster missions to the outer planets. Slated to make its first test flight in 2018, the Ares V rocket is designed to stand about 381 feet (116 meters) tall and be able to launch payloads weighing almost 180 metric tons into low-Earth orbit. "When it's built, it'll be the biggest rocket that's ever been built," said Kathy Laurini, project manager for NASA's Altair lunar lander designed to ride an Ares V to the moon by 2020, has said.

But while the Ares V is designed under NASA's Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon, the rocket behemoth presents a boon for astronomers and other scientists dreaming of bigger, better space-based observatories. "The science community is taking a hard look at Ares V and its capability," Laurini told SPACE.com. "It helps them enable a whole other class of mission." Click here to view the article. (1/22)

Texas Congressman Gets Space Subcommittee Appointment (Source: Galveston Daily News)
In office for less than a month, U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, has already snagged a key committee assignment when it comes to the future of NASA. His office confirmed Wednesday the freshman congressman was named the ranking member on the Space and Aeronautics subcommittee. The subcommittee works under the U.S. House’s Science and Technology committee. Ranking member means Olson will be the highest ranking Republican on the subcommittee that oversees the activities of NASA and its affiliates including the Johnson Space Center. (1/22)

Lunar Dust Buster will Keep Moon Base Spotless (Source: New Scientist)
Lunar explorers had better be handy with a vacuum cleaner. A new "lunar dust buster" may be an essential tool for future missions, allowing astronauts to clean up following grubby moonwalks and prevent the dirt penetrating the moon base. Moon dust is much more of a menace than the terrestrial variety, due to the structure of the particles. They are covered in tiny spikes that hook into surfaces. This means the dust sticks so tightly to surfaces that brushing alone cannot shift it. "We are talking about abrasive Velcro," says Pamela Clark of the Catholic University of America, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. These spikes also collect electrical charge, which holds them in place on a surface. The dust is so abrasive it can damage machinery, and there are also concerns that it could be dangerous if inhaled.

To solve the problem, Clark's team is working on SPARCLE, a "lunar dust buster" that astronauts could utilise in the airlock to a moon base. The device consists of a positively charged metallic nozzle fitted to an electron gun, similar to those used in electron microscopes, which fires a focused beam of electrons from a hot filament. Following a moonwalk, astronauts would scan the beam across the surface of their dirty equipment, showering it with electrons until all the dust particles and the surface become negatively charged and start to repel one another. This would loosen the particles' grip, allowing them to fly to the positively charged nozzlewhere they are captured. (1/21)

Interim NASA Chief Takes Charge Until Obama Settles on Successor (Source: Space.com)
Mike Griffin gave his last speech as NASA administrator to his staff before departing Washington on a ski vacation on Jan. 16, leaving Associate Administrator Chris Scolese to run the agency until U.S. President Barack Obama settles on a successor. Griffin's departure and the resignation of his deputy, Shana Dale, left Scolese as the top ranking official at NASA. Outgoing President George W. Bush issued an executive order Jan. 16 making the 22-year NASA veteran's position as acting administrator official. (1/21)

New Understanding of the Origin of Galaxies Advanced (Source: EurekAlert)
A new theory as to how galaxies were formed in the Universe billions of years ago has been formulated by Hebrew University of Jerusalem cosmologists. The theory takes issue with the prevailing view on how the galaxies came to exist. The new theory, motivated by advanced astronomical observations and based on state-of-the-art computer simulations, maintains that the galaxies primarily formed as a result of intensive cosmic streams of cold gas (mostly hydrogen) and not, as current theory contends, due primarily to galactic mergers. The researchers show that these mergers had only limited influence on the cosmological makeup of the universe as we know it. (1/22)

Martinez Joins Senate Committee with NASA Oversight (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez will join the Senate committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, adding another Florida voice to the panel that has oversight of NASA. His Democratic counterpart, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, already sits on the subcommittee that has direct influence of NASA, but the addition of Martinez could help the state recover from the political losses of former U.S. Reps. Dave Weldon and Tom Feeney, two big Republican boosters for Kennedy Space Center. Weldon retired, Feeney was voted out of office. Editor's Note: Feeney's repacement, Democratic Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, has been appointed to the House committee with NASA oversight. (1/22)