Mars Mystery Rock 'Like
Nothing We’ve Ever Seen Before’ (Source: Independent)
Steve Squyres said the images, from 12 Martian days apart, were from no
more than a couple of weeks ago. “We saw this rock just sitting here.
It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in
the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.
“We had driven a meter or two away from here, and I think the idea that
somehow we mysteriously flicked it with a wheel is the best
explanation,” Squyres said. Yet the story got even stranger when
Opportunity investigated further. Squyres explained: “We are as we
speak situated with the rover’s instruments deployed making
measurements of this rock.
“We’ve taken pictures of both the doughnut and jelly parts, and the got
the first data on the composition of the jelly yesterday. “It’s like
nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “It’s very high in sulphur,
it’s very high in magnesium, it’s got twice as much manganese as we’ve
ever seen in anything on Mars. “I don’t know what any of this means.
We’re completely confused, and everyone in the team is arguing and
fighting (over what it means)." (1/19)
Steve Knight to Run for
Congress (Source: Parabolic Arc)
California State Sen. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale), a key supporter of
commercial space, could be heading to Congress next year with the
pending retirement of Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita).
McKeon, 75, announced on Thursday that he would not seek an 11th term
representing California’s 25th District, which includes parts of the
aerospace-rich Antelope Valley that Knight represents in the State
Legislature. Knight earlier stated that he would run for Congress if
McKeon decided not to seek re-election. (1/17)
Get Used to Saying 'NASA
Armstrong' (Source: Parabolic Arc)
President Barack Obama has signed HR 667, the congressional resolution
that redesignates NASA’s Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center as the
Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, into law. The resolution also
names Dryden’s Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden
Aeronautical Test Range. Both Hugh Dryden and Neil Armstrong are
aerospace pioneers whose contributions are historic to NASA and the
nation as a whole. NASA is developing a timeline to implement the name
change. (1/17)
ESA Faces Large Cost for
Ariane 5 Upgrade, New Ariane 6 Rocket (Source: Parabolic
Arc)
The preliminary cost estimates are in the planned upgrade of the Ariane
5 launch vehicle and its Ariane 6 successor, and the one general
conclusion can already be drawn: Europe is in deep trouble. European
Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said on Friday
that it will cost 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) for the Ariane 5 ME
upgrade, which will allow the rocket to carry large payloads by 2018.
The upgrade is needed to allow the rocket to keep up with the growth in
the size of communications satellites, which Ariane 5 launches in
pairs. While that project is going on, it looks like Europe will have
to find an addition 3 billion and 4 billion euros ($4 to $5.4 billion)
to fund Ariane 6, which is set to enter service in 2021. The new rocket
is being designed to launch single communications satellites into orbit
for no more than 70 million euros ($94.7 million). (1/18)
Japan to Test 'Magnetic
Net' for Space Junk (Source: Space Daily)
Japan's space agency is subcontracting a fishing net company to develop
a technology to clean up the space junk that poses a direct threat to
Earth's communication networks. The mission is planned for 2019, with
first tests scheduled for this February.
Tokyo's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Nitto Seimo Co, a
company with almost a century-long experience in fishing net
manufacturing, have already developed a space net measuring 1 kilometer
long and 30cm wide in a bid to clear Earth's orbit from some 100
million pieces of man-made junk. (1/19)
NASA Prepare for Space
Launch System Engine Tests (Source: SEN)
NASA is making preparations for testing the engines which will power
the core stage of its next rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). The
SLS will have four RS-25 engines -- the same type which powered the
space shuttle -- to power its core stage. Each engine is designed to
provide 530,000 pounds of thrust. The testing of the engines is due to
begin this summer at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. A test
platform is being prepared for the installation of the first RS-25
engine arriving in May ahead of a hot-fire test in July. (1/19)
NASA’s Mars Design
Reference Mission Goes Nuclear (2001) (Source: WIRED)
In October 2001, nuclear engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center
described a variant of NASA’s 1998 Mars Design Reference Mission (DRM)
3.0 based on Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket (BNTR) propulsion. The BNTR
DRM concept, first described publicly in July 1998, evolved from
nuclear-thermal rocket mission designs Borowski and his colleagues
developed during the abortive Space Exploration Initiative (1989-1993).
Click here.
(1/18)
Is India’s Space Program
Worth the Money? (Source: PBS)
India's Mars Orbiter Mission is a point of great national pride. It
will be completed for just over $70 million dollars, a tiny fraction of
the cost spent by NASA on similar programs. But is spending any
resources on a mission to Mars wise when hundreds of millions of
Indians struggle to meet basic needs? Click here.
(1/19)
How Scientists Tackle
NASA's Big Data Deluge (Source: Space.com)
Every hour, NASA's missions collectively compile hundreds of terabytes
of information, which, if printed out in hard copies, would take up the
equivalent of tens of millions of trees worth of paper. This deluge of
material poses some big data challenges for the space agency. But a
team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is coming up with new
strategies to tackle problems of information storage, processing and
access so that researchers can harness gargantuan amounts data that
would impossible for humans to parse through by hand. Click here.
(1/18)
Arizona Considers
Spaceflight Liability Legislation (Source: Phoenix
Business Journal)
A bill at the Arizona Legislature would give space flight companies —
yes space flight companies — protections against being sued. The
measure is aimed at helping possible space tourism and commercial space
flights being planned in southern parts of the state. House Bill 2163
creates some legal protections for commercial and private space flight
companies by codifying liability release forms the companies could have
passengers sign. Click here.
(1/17)
Why We Want to Spend the
Rest of Our Lives on Mars (Source: The Guardian)
Since its announcement in May 2012, the Mars One project hasn't had an
easy ride. Critics have questioned all aspects, from the technical
feasibility to its funding model. But recent developments from the
project seem to be bringing the goal of starting a human colony on Mars
by 2025 a little closer. Click here.
(1/18)
Grissom's Corvette on
Auction in Florida (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Just two days before the 47th anniversary of his death, Mercury Seven
astronaut Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom’s 1967 Corvette will be on display at
Mecum Auto Auctions, located at Osceola Heritage Park (1875 Silver Spur
Lane) in Kissimmee, Florida. On January 25, the astronaut’s convertible
will be auctioned for an estimated $150,000 to $175,000. Grissom took
possession of the vehicle just a few weeks before his untimely death in
the Apollo 1 launch pad accident, making this occasion bittersweet.
The Mercury Seven astronauts were known as the height of cool in the
early 1960s. Magazines and newspapers dedicated full-color layouts to
the lives and hobbies of the earliest U.S. space explorers. One of the
bastions of “old school cool” from that era was none other than
Grissom, the second U.S. astronaut to fly into space on Liberty Bell 7
in 1961. He was also the first person to fly in space twice (he was
partnered with New Nine astronaut John W. Young on Gemini 3 in 1965).
(1/19)
RSC Energia Sales Grew by
Quarter in 2013 (Source: Interfax)
The Rocket and Space Corporation Energia ended 2013 with good business
indicators, its president and general designer Vitaly Lopota said. "The
expected sales revenues of RSC Energia in 2013 will grow 25% compared
to 2012. The main growth was generated by the Piloted Rocket and Space
Systems division," he said.
Meanwhile, "the company profit will somewhat decline which is related
to a drop in the prices under a contract for the production of
transport vehicles in the middle of the year and the completion in 2012
of an international contract for ATV to which RSC delivered a number of
systems, in particular, the docking unit," he said. "Sales revenues are
expected to increase by 8% in 2014 and profit will grow accordingly,"
Lopota said. (1/19)
"Super-Earths" May Have
Oceans & Continents (Source: Astrobiology)
Finding habitable, Earth-like planets is a Holy Grail of astrobiology.
But so far the hunt has been something of a boon and bust.
'Super-Earths'--rocky planets slightly larger than our own--are
particularly common outside our Solar System. Some have even been found
in the habitable zone--the area around a star where a planet could have
liquid water on its surface. Click here.
(1/19)
Birds' Migration Secrets
to be Revealed by Space Tracker (Source: The Guardian)
Small birds, butterflies, bees and fruitbats will be fitted with tiny
radio transmitters and tracked throughout their lifetimes from space
when a dedicated wildlife radio receiver is fitted to the International
Space Station next year. The ability to follow the movements of very
small organisms hour by hour from space will revolutionize our
understanding of long-distance bird migrations, and give advance
warnings of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
And it should also help protect human populations from animal-borne
diseases like Sars, bird flu and West Nile Virus, say conservationists.
Many animal species migrate continuously but biologists know the exact
movements of only very few, mostly large ones. But the low-orbit Icarus
wildlife receiver circling 200 miles (320km) above Earth should allow
even butterflies to be followed, said Uschi Müller. (1/18)
SpaceX Courtship Quietly
Continues as FAA Report Nears (Source: Brownsville Herald)
When now 20-year-old James Murray was a student a Porter High School he
remembers his classmates saying they couldn’t wait to leave Brownsville
once they graduated from high school and college. There was nothing in
this border town to keep them grounded. No big employers to make them
want to stick around. With the prospect of SpaceX possibly building a
launch pad outside Brownsville, Murray hopes to land a job with the
company and stay put so he can raise a family where he grew up.
Nearly two years since SpaceX announced that Texas is one of three
sites under consideration for the launch pad, officials on the local,
county and state level have courted the company, offering deals to lure
the private commercial company to set up shop here on Boca Chica Beach.
Texas has reportedly offered $15 million in incentives to lure SpaceX
to South Texas. Gov. Rick Perry late last year signed House Bill 2623,
which would temporarily close Boca Chica Beach for rocket launches in
anticipation of SpaceX operations there. The beach closures would only
be allowed at specific dates of the year. Click here.
(1/18)
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