May 8 News Items

DOD Turns to Venture Capitalists in Search for New Technology (Source: AIA)
The DOD is turning to technology investors to lead it to cutting-edge technology developed by startup firms. The program, called the Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative, provides the government and the investors with fast, efficient ways to work together. The investors have knowledge technology that may be developed by companies with just two employees, program director Bob Pohanka says. "These are companies that are not involved in the DOD supply chain," he says.

Who's Paying $200,000 For a Few Minutes in Space? (Source: USA Today)
The next space race is on, and this time it's for the masses. Well, not exactly the masses. More like the actors, real estate magnates, hedge fund managers and well-off adventurers who can afford $200,000 or so for a quick jaunt beyond the Earth's atmosphere and several minutes of zero-gravity weightlessness. They include actress and skin-care entrepreneur Victoria Principal, 57 and Hollywood director Bryan Singer, 41, who got turned on to the idea while planning a shuttle disaster scene for his movie Superman Returns. Among the not-so-famous is Soviet émigré Lina Borozdina-Birch, 38, who took out a second mortgage on her house to fulfill her extraterrestrial dream — despite her fear of flying. Space junkies George and Loretta Whitesides, both 33, plan to celebrate their honeymoon more than 70 miles above Earth. Customers have put down $21 million in deposits. Those who want to be among the first 100 to fly had to pay the full $200,000 fare up front; the rest put down a minimum deposit of $20,000. Visit

Virgin, which plans to eventually offer two spaceflights a day, is trying to appeal to a broader audience. In its quest to become the first commercial "spaceline," however, it has several competitors. Rocketplane Inc. of Oklahoma City plans to offer suborbital flights starting in 2009, the company's George French says. Tickets will cost $225,000 to $300,000, depending on how soon passengers fly and where they sit in the spacecraft. Benson Space Co. in Poway, Calif., also hopes to offer flights in 2009. The fare is $200,000. Neither wouldn't say how many reservations have been made. Visit http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-05-07-space-tourist_N.htm to view the article.

Space Camp Center Suffers Loss of Artifacts in Fire (Source: Huntsville Times)
U.S. Space & Rocket Center officials are assessing their losses from a maintenance building fire Monday that destroyed at least two Apollo-era relics. The blaze created a real launch-like backdrop for lunchtime commuters along Interstate 565 with smoke billowing behind the 360-foot-tall Saturn V replica. No one was injured and the fire posed no threat to the museum or U.S. Space Camp. Museum officials are grieving over the loss of a historic test command module and a historic "instruments unit" built for the Saturn V program. The equipment was in the building awaiting refurbishment.

Lockheed-Built Spacecraft to Set Out for Mars (Source: AIA)
The Phoenix lander is leaving Colorado for its trip to Florida today. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft, which will launch from Kennedy Space Center in August and land on Mars' north pole next May to dig through the surface of Mars for signs of life.

Huge Star Explodes in Brightest Supernova Yet Seen (Source: Reuters)
A gargantuan explosion ripped apart a star perhaps 150 times more massive than our sun in a relatively nearby galaxy in the most powerful and brightest supernova ever observed, astronomers said on Monday. And there is one such star in our own Milky Way galaxy that appears to be on the brink of dying in just such a supernova. The exploding star's dramatic death may have come in a rare type of supernova reserved for "freakishly massive" stars that astronomers had speculated about but never previously witnessed. The explosion occurred long ago but was detected last year after its light traveled many, many trillions of miles before it could be observed from Earth.

Rocket Racing Team Withdraws from League (Source: Space.com)
The first team to join the growing Rocket Racing League (RRL) has pulled out of the high-flying venture, citing fundamental differences. The Leading Edge Rocket Racing team announced its intent to withdraw from the nascent league late Friday. After working with [the] Rocket Racing League for the past 17 months, we have concluded that our vision, business practices, and communications standards are incompatible with those of the league," Robert Rickard, Leading Edge president and CEO, said in a statement. "We had very high hopes for this enterprise and tried very hard to find a common way forward."

Hawking Concerned for Earth-Bound Humans (Source: The Independent)
Professor Stephen Hawking has just completed a series of "zero-gravity" flights and says he wants to see the Earth from space by going for a ride with Virgin Galactic, which is scheduled to offer tourist trips into "space" in two years. Hawking believes that travelling into space is the only way humans will be able to survive in the long-term. He said in a statement: "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers...I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space."

Is It Not Better to Send Robots to Explore Space? (Source: The Independent)
Many intelligent people believe this is the case, given that a robot mission costs between 10 and 100 times less than a manned mission. Safety in space can be incredibly expensive, and to send people aloft means that three or four levels of safety precautions have to be built in to minimise risks. Robots are a long way from being able to substitute humans. A robot geologist, for instance, might take weeks analysing a Martian landscape or a piece of lunar rock that a human specialist could evaluate in minutes. Steve Squyres, the principle scientist on the NASA mission to explore Mars, pointed out that for all their apparent sophistication, space robots are still relatively primitive machines. "We are many decades away from robots that can match humans even in the lab. And laboratory robotics is about 20 years ahead of space robotics," he said.

What is the Point of a Suborbital Space Trip? (Source: The Independent)
Good question. At these altitudes it is possible to see the curvature of the Earth and look down on the thin smudge of air; our life-support system. Critics will argue that the space tours being promoted by billionaires such as Richard Branson will merely provide rich people with a good view of the atmosphere that their carbon-hungry trip has just helped to destroy - the ultimate 4x4 experience. Encouraging rich people to go for short, but expensive, joy rides into space appears to be led by even richer men with a boyish fascination for space travel. They argue that space tourism is about adventure and excitement, but the bottom line is that they also believe, with the right work behind it, it can be profitable.