China's Fourth Spaceport to be Used in
Two Years (Source: Xinhua)
China's fourth launch center, located in tropical island province of
Hainan, will be ready in two years, said a member of China's top
political advisory body. The launch center, which has been under
construction since 2009, will be able to launch space station capsules
and cargo ships, said Zhou Jianping, designer-in-chief of China's
manned space program. The rockets to be launched in the Hainan center
include Long March-7 and Long March-5, said Zhou, a member of the
National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC). Construction of the Hainan Space Launch Center, the
lowest latitude one in China, started in September 2009 in Wenchang
City, on the northeast coast of the tropical island province.
The center will be mainly used for launching synchronous satellites,
heavy satellites, large space stations, and deep space probe
satellites. It is designed to handle up to 10-12 rocket launches a
year. China currently has three spaceports: Jiuquan in northwest
China's Gansu Province, the nation's only site for human missions;
Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi Province for launching satellites;
Xichang in southwest China's Sichuan Province. These three launch sites
have carried out over 100 space launches, sending over 100 satellites
into space.
However, the three launch centers are all landlocked in western or
northern plateau and mountainous regions, lack commercial development
and are inconvenient for transportation. "A satellite launched from
Wenchang will be able to extend its service life by three years as a
result of the fuel saved from the shorter manoeuvre from the transit
orbit to the geosynchronous orbit," Long Lehao said. (3/3)
China Targeting Navigation System's
Global Coverage by 2020 (Source: Xinhua)
China's homegrown navigation system BeiDou is expected to achieve
full-scale global coverage by around 2020, a leading scientist said.
The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) will then be able to
provide highly accurate and reliable positioning, navigation and timing
service with the aid of a constellation of 35 satellites, said Ye
Peijian, chief commander of Chang'e-3, China's lunar probe mission.
"So far, China has successfully launched 16 navigation satellites and
four other experimental ones for BDS," Ye said. China started to build
up its own space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing system in
2000 by launching the first satellite for an experimental version of
the BeiDou. BeiDou has since started providing licensed services for
China's government and military users in transport, weather forecasts,
fishing, forestry, telecommunications, hydrological monitoring and
mapping.
However, it is estimated that more than 95 percent of navigation
terminals sold in China are GPS terminals. To compete with foreign
rivals, the BeiDou terminal can communicate with the ground station by
sending and receiving short messages, 120 Chinese characters in each,
in addition to the navigation and timing functions that the world's
other major navigation systems can provide. (3/3)
Solved: The Mystery of Mercury's
Surface (Source: Interesting Things)
Researchers have revealed the surface of Mercury was once covered with
a vast ocean of magma. Scientists analyzing data from a spacecraft
orbiting the plan have been baffled by odd readings that showed
unexplained chemical differences between rocks. Now they say the
differences may have been caused by a vast ocean of magma that created
layers of crystals, which melted then erupted.
Scientists at MIT have proposed that Mercury may have harbored a large,
ocean of magma very early in its history, shortly after its formation
about 4.5 billion years ago. The scientists analyzed data gathered by
Messenger, a NASA probe that has orbited the planet since March 2011.
Scientists analyzed X-ray fluorescence data from the probe, and
identified two distinct compositions of rocks on the planet’s
surface -but were baffled by the differences.
The MIT team used the compositional data to recreate the two rock types
in the lab, and subjected each synthetic rock to high temperatures and
pressures to simulate various geological processes. From their
experiments, the scientists came up with only one phenomenon to explain
the two compositions: a vast magma ocean that created two different
layers of crystals, solidified, then eventually remelted into magma
that then erupted onto Mercury’s surface. (3/3)
Next Canadian Astronauts Could be
Flying Commercial (Source;: AP)
The next Canadian to travel to space might be making the journey on a
commercial flight instead of through the national space agency. A
former Manitoba bush pilot, an ex-Snowbirds pilot, and two other space
enthusiasts are among the possible candidates to become the next
Canadian to leave the planet. There are currently no scheduled flights
of Canadian astronauts beyond Chris Hadfield, who completes a
five-month visit to the International Space Station in May.
An official with the Canadian Space Agency said it's still possible the
federal body might send one more astronaut up to the space station
before the end of the decade. Canada has confirmed its participation in
the International Space Station up to 2020. In the meantime, though,
commercial space opportunities are opening up. (3/3)
NASA on the Space Coast - Presentation
at the Cocoa Beach Library (Source: CBPL)
Space Shuttle Project Engineer and NASA Speaker Catherine Carr will
present a history of the American Space Program (1958-70) and speak
about the future of space exploration here on the Space Coast. The
event will be held on March 9 at 2:00 p.m. She will show slides,
videos, and memorabilia of NASA’s past, present, and future in Florida.
(3/3)
Tallahassee Challenger Learning Center
Celebrates 400,000 Students Served (Source: Tallahassee Democrat)
It’s been 10 years since the Challenger Learning Center has joined the
Tallahassee community. So to celebrate, the staff decided to go a
little looney and they’re inviting the community to join in. A Night of
Mad Science is set for March 8, from 6 to 10 p.m. the center.
“We are just thrilled to be celebrating a decade of serving our
community,” said Michelle Personette, CLC executive director. “Every
year we serve about 40,000 students... When you have a mission to
really dig into STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
— it’s really powerful. It’s thrilling for us to, each year, be able to
meet our mission and each year being able to add and grow.”
Editor's Note:
Located near the state capitol building, the Challenger Center will be
the location for Florida Space Day preparations on March 6, and it will
host a pre-event reception on March 5. (2/28)
NASA's Human Space Flight Program
Kicks Into Overdrive (Source: America Space)
Two days prior to the liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying
cargo to the International Space Station, NASA held a briefing at KSC
in Florida detailing the progress it has made in the agency’s efforts
to send astronauts beyond the Earth’s orbit. NASA Associate
Administrator Dan Dumbacher, Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer, SLS
Program Manager Todd May, and Ground Systems Program Manager Pepper
Phillips speak in this video about the status in terms of getting
astronauts back to the business of exploration. Click here. (3/2)
UK Commits £88m to Chilean Telescope
'As Big as All Existing Ones Put Together' (Source: Guardian)
Britain has committed £88m towards the construction of the world's
largest telescope. The huge observatory, to be built in the Chilean
Andes, will allow astronomers to capture images of the universe's
earliest moments. The giant eye on the sky, known as the European
Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), will cost more than £900m to build.
Its main mirror, which will gather light from distant stars and
galaxies, will be 39 metres in diameter, made of 798 segments. The
observatory will gather 15 times more light than the largest telescopes
today. (3/2)
NASA Needs Steady, Long-Term Planning
(Source: Houston Chronicle)
While NASA's future plans may be aimed at the far reaches of our solar
system, its present-day concerns are firmly footed here on Earth.
Specifically in Washington, D.C., where budget changes and political
whims ensure that voyages to explore that eternal frontier are often
shut down before they reach their final stages. Space science is
inherently complex, expensive and long-term - three qualities not
well-handled by the federal government these days.
So we're glad to see that key figures in Houston's congressional
delegation, particularly Republican Rep. John Culberson and Democratic
Rep. Gene Green, have wisely recognized their own institutional
weaknesses and are lined up behind a bill to detach NASA's leadership
and budget from the usual political cycles. The Space Leadership
Preservation Act of 2013, an updated version of last year's failed
bill, would create a 6-year term for the NASA administrator, allow for
easier long-term contracting and create a board of directors to prepare
budgets, recommend candidates and write reviews.
Short-term political maneuvers have left NASA without a clearly defined
mission. Are we going to the moon? Mars? An asteroid? A Lagrangian
point? And without a shuttle, how will we get there? It is difficult to
have a clear vision when the target seems to change every election
cycle. NASA's past job of providing access to low Earth orbit is
increasingly within the realm of the private sector - as SpaceX proved
Friday with its mission to the International Space Station. NASA must
blaze a path into a new wilderness. (3/2)
Texas Senate Strives to Fuel
Spaceflight Industry (Source: San Angelo Standard-Times)
In a Texas far, far away, rocket-plane hybrids launch space tourists
into low-Earth orbit, while other companies ferry supplies and
astronauts to space stations. That Texas could be getting closer. This
week, looking through Texas Senate committee meeting schedules, a
hearing for Senate Bill 267 caught my eye. It’s meant to regulate
spaceflight in Texas.
“XCOR Corp. is moving their facility from Mojave, Calif., to Midland
and is going to be a commercial spaceflight company with suborbital
flights going out of Midland,” said State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo,
the author of the bill. “What the bill does is says that the protection
of liability cities normally have operating airports applies to those
activities around space launch.”
The bill is still pending as clarifications in the language are made,
he said. It’s a small part of a push to get the extraterrestrial
businesses to Texas. During his State of the State address, Gov. Rick
Perry had invited XCOR to be among the companies standing behind him
during the speech. The Texas Space Alliance is proposing standard
legislative changes to put more private spaceflight in Texas, managing
liability law and eventually going after tax exemptions. The group also
hopes for a spaceport. SpaceX is reportedly looking at Brownsville as a
site to launch rockets. (3/2)
SpaceX's Dragon Reaches the ISS
(Source: Space News)
Overcoming a propulsion glitch that delayed its arrival by a day, a
Dragon cargo capsule operated by SpaceX arrived at the international
space station (ISS) March 3. After several hours of maneuvering that
began when Dragon got within 10 kilometers of ISS, astronauts used the
station’s robotic arm to grapple the capsule at 5:31 a.m. EST, an
hour earlier than SpaceX had announced the evening before. Dragon was
installed on the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module.
Ground controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston controlled
the arm during berthing. (3/3)