Rover Swallows 1st Mars Sample, Finds Odd Bright Stuff (Source: Space,com)
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has swallowed its first tiny bite of Martian soil, after standing down for a spell while scientists checked out some strange bright bits in the dirt. The rover ingested the minuscule sample — which contains about as much material as a baby aspirin on Wednesday. The soil has been successfully delivered to the rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin. "We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample," said John Grotzinger.
The sample that found its way into CheMin came from the third scoop of soil Curiosity dug up at a site dubbed "Rocknest." The first scoop was discarded after being used to scrub out the rover's sampling system, to help ensure that no Earth-originating residues remained. Work at Rocknest slowed after Curiosity dug its second scoop on Oct. 12, when researchers noticed oddly bright flecks at the bottom of the hole. The team dumped the scoop out, worried that it might contain debris that had flaked off Curiosity.
They already knew that some tiny rover pieces are littering the Martian ground, after spotting a bright shred of what appears to be plastic on Oct. 7. Team members have since identified five or six other such bits, which may have fallen off Curiosity's sky-crane descent stage during landing on Aug. 5. Curiosity scientists now believe the bright soil flecks are indeed indigenous to Mars. They could be minerals that are part of the soil-forming process, Grotzinger said, or reflective surfaces created by the cleaving of ordinary dirt. (10/18)
Aerojet Awarded Green Propulsion Demo Mission Contract (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Aerojet will demonstrate a reduced toxicity monopropellant blend that offers improved performance and simplified handling processes over hydrazine, the traditional propellant choice for spacecraft. Under contract to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., Aerojet will perform the technology demonstration mission, known as the Green Propellant Infusion Mission, or GPIM, for NASA’s Space Technology Program. (10/17)
68 Nobel Prize-Winning Scientists Endorse Obama’s Science Policies (Source: Center for American Progress)
The Center for American Progress Action Fund received an open letter co-signed by 68 Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine. The letter strongly endorses President Barack Obama’s science policies. “America’s economic future,” the letter begins, “depends on our ability to continue America’s proud legacy of discovery and invention.”
In the letter the Nobel Prize-winning scientists contrast President Obama’s programs to train young Americans in science and technology, strengthen science-based decisionmaking in government, and increase investments in science and innovation, with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s budget proposal, which would slash these investments.
Indeed, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan, which Gov. Romney endorsed, would invest fully one-quarter less in nondefense research and development compared to the president’s plan. Spanning several generations, the Nobelists are themselves fine examples of how public investments in science lead to a substantial return on our nation’s investment. Click here to see the letter. (10/18)
Garver: Fomenting Commercial
Spaceflight Industry is a Top NASA Priority (Source: Space
News)
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said jumpstarting a domestic
human spaceflight industry is among the agency’s highest priorities,
and cited current programs for delivering crews and cargo to the
international space station as tangible progress toward that goal.
Speaking Oct. 17 at the International Symposium for Personal and
Commercial Spaceflight, Garver counted the commercial crew and cargo
programs among NASA’s most important accomplishments since she and her
boss, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, arrived in July 2009.
Spurring a private U.S. commercial spaceflight industry “is one of our
absolute goals,” she said. Garver’s remarks, delivered with just a
couple of weeks ahead of the U.S. general elections, would appear to
contradict the sentiments of one prominent lawmaker whose support for
the commercialization program is based solely on its potential to
restore independent U.S. crew access to the space station. (10/18)
Cutting NASA Funding is Insulting to
Americans (Source: Daily Cardinal)
A few days ago, a man with a balloon set the world record for the
highest altitude skydive ever attempted. Fast forward a few days and
this man, Felix Baumgartner, is now a household name. Watching it
myself, I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching something akin to
the moon landing of 1969; it’s a frontier that no one’s explored
before. Being sponsored by a private company doesn’t take away from the
fact that so much of the technology employed in the venture was
developed in the first place by NASA.
It’s a little confusing to me, then, why a federal program that
produces so much in terms of useful technology and research, to say
nothing of the sheer wonder and inspiration, is being considered for
the massive spending cuts it is. In America, there are two reasons for
disliking NASA as I see it. Number one: we’ve already gone to the moon,
so nothing else needs doing for a while. Number two: Other countries
are catching up with us in capability in space, so they’re not
efficient enough.
Both of these positions advocate for cutting NASA’s budget since it’s
seen as ineffective and useless as a government agency. May I say here
that these people are largely missing the point of our space program.
Yes, Russia is now ferrying our astronauts to the Space Station due to
the discontinuation of the space shuttle program. Mitt Romney and Paul
Ryan have both expressed concerns about this and the fact that China is
eyeing a moon landing while we haven’t done so in decades. Therefore,
NASA is ineffective and its funding should be cut by $1.5 billion,
right? They couldn’t be more wrong. (10/18)
How Point-to-Point Spaceflight Could
Leave Spaceport America Behind (Source: SPACErePORT)
Suborbital space tourism, launching "spaceflight participants" to the
edge of space for a glide-flight back to the same spaceport, is a
potentially lucrative market for the handful of companies now pursuing
it. But some see this as a passing fad, a developmental phase en route
to a much larger market for global point-to-point spaceflight. The
suborbital vehicles we see under development today would become museum
pieces, making way for spacecraft capable of powered landings at
distant destinations.
Aside from vehicle technologies, one prerequisite for a robust
point-to-point market is a network of spaceports, located strategically
near major population centers and with easy connectivity to airports
and other transportation modes. Several emerging spaceports are
focusing on point-to-point spaceflight, including in Jacksonville and
on Florida's Space Coast, Front Range in Colorado, Ellington Field in
Houston, and others in the U.S. and overseas.
The folks at Spaceport America should be concerned as they watch the
industry evolve in this direction. Located hundreds of miles from any
major metropolitan area, with little connectivity to other high-speed
transport modes, Spaceport America offers little that would make it
attractive as a point-to-point destination. And with very limited
potential to support orbital vertical-launch vehicles, Spaceport
America's long-term fate could be sealed before their first Virgin
Galactic flight occurs. (10/18)
Orbital’s Cygnus Debut Pushed to March
or April (Source: Space News)
Orbital Sciences Corp. on Oct. 18 said its new Antares rocket will not
launch its Cygnus cargo freighter on a demonstration flight to the
international space station until around March or April, assuming that
two preceding rocket tests occur without a hitch. In a conference call
with investors, Orbital officials did not attribute the fresh delay of
the NASA-funded program, of three or four months compared to its last
quarterly update, to any particular event.
In recent months the company has restructured its relationship with the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va., becoming a
supplier to the spaceport rather than a partner in the new facility’s
development. Antares will launch from that facility. As part of that
transaction, Orbital booked $25.6 million in revenue from the sale of
infrastructure at the Wallops facility.
A successful engine-firing test will lead to the preparation of a full
Antares rocket for a test flight, without the Cygnus cargo vehicle, in
December. Thompson said the demonstration flight to the international
space station, this time with Cygnus, would then occur late in the
first quarter of 2013 or early in the second quarter, depending on the
station’s traffic schedule and on Antares’ status. (10/18)
Violent Origin of Saturn's Oddball
Moons Explained (Source: Space.com)
Saturn's icy medium-size moons were born when a few much bigger
satellites collided to form the ringed planet's huge moon Titan, a new
study suggests. The Saturn system started out with a family of several
relatively large moons like the Galilean satellites of Jupiter
(Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io), according to the new theory. But
things changed with a few dramatic moon mergers, which created the
Titan we know today and shed enough material to form satellites such as
Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus, researchers said.
"We think that the giant planets got their satellites kind of like the
sun got its planets, growing like miniature solar systems and ending
with a stage of final collisions," lead author Erik Asphaug, of the
University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. "In our
model for the Saturn system, we propose that Titan grew in a couple of
giant impacts, each one combining the masses of the colliding bodies,
while shedding a small family of middle-sized moons," Asphaug added.
(10/18)
Commercial Space sector Set to Hop
Aboard (Source: Florida Today)
Florida is taking steps to profit from what a top state space
development official predicted would be a boom in commercial space
business as reduced federal spending forces the government to rely more
on the private sector. "It’s time now for greater commercial reliance
in this industry,” said Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida. He
said the worldwide commercial space industry, estimated to be worth
$280 billion, and associated space technologies can spawn thousands of
new businesses, and Florida is well-positioned to grab its share.
DiBello spoke as part of the “Space Launch and Commercial Space” panel
at the fifth annual Wernher Von Braun Symposium this week at the
University of Alabama in Huntsville. The event brought together several
hundred space and aerospace leaders to discuss U.S. space policy and
the outlook for manned and unmanned space exploration. Click here.
(10/18)
Ariane 5 To Launch Two Indian
Satellites Next Year (Source: Space News)
Europe‘s Arianespace launch consortium, continuing its long successful
contract relationship with the Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO), will launch two Indian satellites — one for meteorology, one
for telecommunications — in mid-2013, Arianespace announced Oct. 17.
The contract announcement came less than three weeks after Europe‘s
Ariane 5 ECA rocket placed ISRO’s 3,400-kilogram GSAT-10
telecommunications satellite into geostationary-transfer orbit. (10/18)
Iran Capable of Launching
Nano-Satellites Weighing Below 10 kg (Source: Xinhua)
Iran Space Agency (ISA) Director Hamid Fazeli said the Islamic republic
has the capability to launch nano-satellites weighing below 10 kg into
space. Some of Asian countries and an Austrian university have
announced readiness to set their satellites into orbit using Iranian
space shuttles, Fazeli was quoted as saying. He said Iran is among a
handful of countries in the world that are capable of developing
satellite-related technologies. (10/18)
Demand Big for Suborbital Space Travel
(Source: Albuquerque Journal)
A recently released market analysis concluded there will be a healthy
demand for suborbital space travel over the next decade, but officials
with companies pioneering the new industry say that actual demand will
be better gauged after the first successful launches. One of the
companies pioneering suborbital space tourism is British mogul Sir
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which tentatively plans to launch
its first two-stage flight to the edge of space in December 2013.
Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant at the state-financed Spaceport
America under construction in southern Sierra County.
Virgin Galactic, so far, has received deposits of $67.5 million for the
$200,000 ticket to the edge of space from 546 people from 50 countries,
said Carolyn Wincer, head of the travel and tourism department for
Virgin Galactic. Wincer spoke Tuesday at the eighth annual
International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight at the
New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
Those ticket-buyers, Wincer said, do not fall into a homogeneous
demographic category, and not all are millionaires or even necessarily
adventurers, but they can be described as “early adopters,” people
willing to try a new technology and place their trust in a pioneering
company. What will broaden the market for suborbital space flight
beyond those early adopters, said John Kelly, manager of NASA Dryden’s
Flight Opportunities Program, is the success of early flights. Wincer
agreed. “To really change the game for us, we need a space flight,” she
said. (10/18)
White Sands Leader Vows at Symposium
to Renew Cooperation with Spaceport (Source: Las Cruces
Sun-News)
First impressions can mean a lot, and those were favorable for Army
Brig. Gen. Gwen Bingham and Lori Garver at Wednesday's International
Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. Bingham had never
been in New Mexico until becoming WSMR's commander — she spoke of White
Sands as if she was a born-and-bred native. "White Sands is a national
treasure," Bingham said. "It's a phenomenal asset that includes two
states and five counties.
Oh, and she didn't forget the only two places in the U.S. that have
unrestricted air space from the ground to infinity in space are the
White House and White Sands Missile Range. White Sands is the
birthplace of America's rocket and aerospace program. It began there,
with Von Braun and other scientists and rocketeers, in 1945. Bingham
added that isn't about to change anytime soon. She said an updated
Memorandum of Understanding between WSMR and Spaceport America will be
completed and signed next year. She also hinted that commercial space
crews could begin training at White Sands by 2015. (10/18)
Alabama Rocket Maker ULA Blasts
Through Milestones (Source: WAFF)
Rocket maker United Launch Alliance, which manufactures Delta IV and
Atlas V launch vehicles in Decatur, is marking an important step
forward in U.S. space flight and ULA's role in it. NASA said that ULA
has finished up a year-long study, part of the process to help
establish that ULA's Atlas V rocket will be safe for manned space
missions. It's a big step towards the Atlas V becoming the next launch
vehicle to take astronauts into orbit - and beyond.
"We still are innovating in this country," said Dan Caughran, ULA
Director of Production Operations. "I think manned missions, early test
manned missions, could be as early as late 2016 into 2017." The news
comes as ULA formally unveils its new exhibit at the U.S. Space and
Rocket Center in Huntsville. (10/18)
Wayne Hale Underscores Need for
Spaceport America Liability Law (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Wayne Hale understands as well as anyone both the potential for
commercial space flight, and the obstacles to success. Hale is a former
program manager for the space shuttle program. He was shuttle flight
director for 40 shuttle missions, and was deputy associate
administrator of strategic partnerships in NASA's Space Operations
Mission Directorate when he retired in 2010. He is now a consultant for
a private aerospace services company in Colorado.
During his keynote speech Tuesday at the International Symposium for
Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, Hale stressed the
importance of legislation to provide limited liability protection to
parts suppliers at Spaceport America if we are to successfully compete
with other states in the still-developing industry of commercial space
flight. "The most important thing we can do is remind (legislators) the
state has made this huge investment," Hale said. "If you're not
careful, you can lose that business to states that have friendlier
laws." (10/18)
Huge Moon-Forming Collision Theory
Gets New Spin (Source: Space.com)
The moon did indeed coalesce out of tiny bits of pulverized planet
blasted into space by a catastrophic collision 4.5 billion years ago,
two new studies suggest. The new research potentially plugs a big hole
in the giant impact theory, long the leading explanation for the moon's
formation. Previous versions of the theory held that the moon formed
primarily from pieces of a mysterious Mars-size body that slammed into
a proto-Earth — but that presented a problem, because scientists know
that the moon and Earth are made of the same stuff. (10/18)
NOAA: GOES-13 To Return to Service
Oct. 18 (Source: Space News)
A malfunctioning U.S. weather satellite whose primary instruments were
switched off in mid-September is slated to return to full service Oct.
18, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said
late Oct. 16. On Sep. 25, operators switched off the sounder and
imaging instruments on the Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite (GOES)-13, citing "data quality issues." In an Oct. 16 press
release, NOAA said the malfunction was due to "a vibration from aging
lubricant in the sounder instrument." (10/18)
Space Executives Discuss Commercial
Space's Potential on Space Coast (Source: Florida Today)
Despite hopes to restore massive government spending for the aerospace
industry, the trajectory of Brevard County’s space industry likely will
be guided by this concept: commercial. “There is going to be less
(government) spending in the future, no doubt about it,” U.S. Rep. Bill
Posey said Wednesday at an Aerospace and Defense Roundtable in
Melbourne.
Roundtable participants were from Harris Corp., Lockheed Martin, Space
Florida, United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, ATK Aerospace Group and the
University of Central Florida. However, at the meeting, the most
impressive numbers were announced by Scott Henderson, director of
mission assurance and integration for SpaceX, the first commercial
company to launch a capsule to the International Space Station. The
California company plans six launches in 2013, eight in 2014 and 10 in
2015.
Military and aerospace companies in Brevard are fearful that the
sequester budget cuts, which could go into effect after Jan. 1, could
drain their budgets deeply and disrupt the focus of the U.S. space
industry. “Nobody has painted a scenario for when the bubble bursts,”
Posey said. “It’s just not specific. That’s the scariest thing.”
Posey’s opponent in the November election, Shannon Roberts, a Democrat,
said she also supports NASA’s three-pronged plan of commercialization,
deep space exploration, and research and development. (10/17)
SpaceX Plans Dragon Abort Mission From
Florida in 2013 (Source: SPACErePORT)
SpaceX plans two Dragon abort tests to qualify the vehicle's abort
system prior to carrying astronauts. The first test will be in 2013 at
the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, where SpaceX is building a pad that would
"launch" the Dragon over the Atlantic from atop a mock-up Falcon-9. In
2014, the company will test one atop an actual Falcon-9 during a
mission from the Cape. (10/17)
Jupiter Photos Reveal Big Changes on
Planet (Source: Space.com)
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has made some dramatic
transformations in recent years, a new study reveals. Huge belts in the
giant planet's atmosphere have changed color, radiation hotspots have
faded and flared up again, and cloud levels have thickened and
dissolved, all while space rocks have been hurtling into it the gas
giant, astronomers said.
"The changes we're seeing in Jupiter are global in scale," Glenn Orton,
a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said
in a statement today (Oct. 17). Orton and his colleagues have been
snapping infrared images of Jupiter from 2009 to 2012 and comparing
them with amateur astronomers' visible images. (10/17)
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