SpaceX Assigns Science Fiction Names
to Landing Barges (Source: TOR)
While he’s working on getting humans into space, SpaceX CEO/CTO Elon
Musk hasn’t forgotten the greats who propelled us out of the
stratosphere through fiction long before him. Today, Musk tweeted that
he’s named two of his spaceport drone ships in the most fitting way:
after ships from science fiction writer Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels.
SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ships are custom-built ocean
platforms designed to accommodate the landing of booster rockets after
they have sent spacecraft into orbit. "Just Read the Instructions" and
"Of Course I Still Love You" are two of the sentient, planet-sized
Culture starships which first appear in Banks’ The Player of Games.
Just as the Minds inhabiting each Culture ship choose their names with
care, you have to imagine that Musk did the same here. (1/24)
Europe, China Issue Call for Joint
Science Mission (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Europe and China are planning a joint robotic space mission for launch
in 2021, and officials are asking scientists to propose projects aimed
at research in astronomy, exploring the solar system, or investigations
in fundamental physics. ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences
released a joint call for mission proposals Monday after crafting an
outline for a cooperative space project during two workshops held in
China and Denmark last year. (1/24)
Data Collective Tapped Its New Growth
Fund for Planet Labs Deal (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Data Collective, a venture firm known for its investments in very young
startups, tapped its new growth fund for the first time earlier this
month to lead a $70 million round for satellite company Planet Labs
Inc. Planet Labs’ post-money valuation well exceeded the $500 million
price that Google agreed to pay for another satellite imaging startup,
Skybox Imaging Inc., for an investment in mid-2014. “It is materially
above what Google paid,” Matt Ocko said, declining to be more specific.
(1/23)
Virgin Galactic Appoints Mark Stucky
As Pilot (Source: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark ‘Forger’
Stucky as pilot. Stucky will join Virgin Galactic’s commercial flight
team responsible for flying WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo: Chief
Pilot Dave Mackay and pilots Frederick ‘CJ’ Sturckow, Michael ‘Sooch’
Masucci, and Todd ‘Leif’ Ericson, who is also Virgin Galactic’s Safety
and Testing Vice President. His first day with Virgin Galactic is
February 2.
Stucky brings valued hands-on experience with Virgin Galactic’s fleet
of vehicles having served in a number of roles in Scaled Composites’
WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo development program, ranging from
engineering test pilot for both vehicles to technical adviser, design
engineer, instructor pilot, project pilot and mentor. (1/23)
NASA Alters Orion Heat Shield for 2018
Flight (Source: America Space)
NASA and Lockheed Martin have decided to change a critical component of
the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield for its next test flight in 2018 to
include an advanced 3-D woven thermal protect system fabric that will
help insure maximum safety for our astronauts returning from deep space
expeditions as the vehicle experiences blistering reentry heating. It’s
a must-have for Destination Mars. (1/24)
The Astronaut Beach House
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
It is perhaps one of the least-covered (in terms of the press)
components of astronaut “life” at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and
the adjacent Kennedy Space Center – the Astronaut Beach House. However,
just going to the historic site – really wouldn’t allow one to get a
feel for the true background of the place. For that, one would need to
speak with people who have actually done that. Click here.
(1/25)
To Be or Not to Be? Our Exodus to the
Stars (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Today, Earth is a very accommodating and hospitable place for us to
live. Temperatures are just about right. There is more than enough
oxygen for us to breathe. Pure drinking water falls from the skies.
Food grows on trees. For what more could we ask?
These near-ideal conditions are dependent upon our nearest star, the
Sun. Our understanding of solar physics and astronomical observations
of other stars tells us that since its formation the Sun has grown 30
percent brighter. Over the course of time this increase in brightness
will continue. 10 percent brighter than today and the increased radiant
energy will have vaporized the oceans. Click here.
(1/25)
NASA Awards Power System Upgrade
Contract (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded a contract to A. West Enterprise of Albany, Georgia,
to implement various safety and reliability upgrades to the
institutional power system at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The firm-fixed price contract begins Jan. 23. It has a maximum value of
$8.8 million with a potential performance period of approximately two
and a half years. (1/23)
Mixed Messages to Alien Intelligence
(Source: Aeon)
Our latest message to ET could be full of LOLcats and celebs. We should
try to do better, or keep quiet altogether. Once NASA's New Horizons
mission is complete, NASA will wipe its memory and wave goodbye as the
shuttered spacecraft continues on into deep space, forever.
But the craft will then take on another kind of cargo: memories of
home. Engineers plan to upload the ‘One Earth’ message, the first
crowd-sourced portrait of biological Earth, to the New Horizons’ hard
drive some time in 2016, after all the data from the Pluto flyby have
been downloaded. In the meantime, anyone with an internet connection
can submit prospective images, audio, video, text and 3D renderings for
the message, and a crowd will vote on what makes the final cut.
Right now, the One Earth message website asks visitors for just one
term describing ‘the aspect of life on Earth [they] think should be
included in a message to the Universe’. I recently logged on to make my
own entry, and found it a difficult task. Click here.
(1/24)
No, Astriobiology Hasn't Made the Case
for God (Source: New Yorker)
Recently, the Wall Street Journal published a piece with the surprising
title “Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God.” At least it was
surprising to me, because I hadn’t heard the news. The piece argued
that new scientific evidence bolsters the claim that the appearance of
life in the universe requires a miracle, and it received almost four
hundred thousand Facebook shares and likes.
The author of the piece, Eric Metaxas, is not himself a scientist.
Rather, he’s a writer and a TV host, and the article was a
not-so-thinly-veiled attempt to resurrect the notion of intelligent
design, which gives religious arguments the veneer of science—this time
in a cosmological context. Life exists only on Earth and has not been
found elsewhere. Moreover, the conditions that caused life to appear
here are miraculous.
So doesn’t that mean we must have come from a miracle at the hand of
God? “Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect
conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining
Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?”
Metaxas writes. (1/24)
There’s a Crack Forming on Rosetta’s
67P. Is it Breaking Up? (Source: Universe Today)
Rosetta’s comet 67P, the Rubber Duckie comet, has a crack in the neck
that raises concerns. Some comets may just fizzle and uniformly expel
their volatiles throughout their surfaces. They may become like
puffballs, shrink some but remain intact. Comet 67P is the other
extreme. The expulsion of volatile material has led to a shape and a
point of no return; it is destined to break in two. The images show an
approximate 100 meter (328 foot) fissure in the neck of the two lobe
comet. Click here.
(1/24)
NASA KSC Director Robert Cabana to
Receive the 2015 National Space Trophy (Source: NASA)
The Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) Foundation has
selected Colonel Robert D. Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space
Center in Florida, former NASA astronaut on four space shuttle
missions, and retired United States Marine Corps Colonel, to receive
the 2015 National Space Trophy on April 24, 2015, at the Houston Hyatt
Regency in Houston, Texas. (1/20)
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