August 19 News Items

ASRC Aerospace Plans Engineering Job Fair (Source: ASRC)
ASRC Aerospace at Kennedy Space Center is currently hiring Engineering Designers, Electrical Engineers, Computer Engineers, Mechanical Engineers and more. Their next job fair is planned for August 24-25 at the Country Inn & Suites at Cape Canaveral. Visit http://www.ustdc.com/ for information.

University of Florida Plans Space Research Colloquium (Source: UF)
The University of Florida is planning Space Research Colloquium on August 28-29 in Gainesville on the UF campus. Faculty at the university are involved in many aspects of space research, and this colloquium provides an opportunity to share their ideas and research with colleagues and interested external agencies. The goal is to explore new collaborations that can lead to research opportunities for funding and ultimately, commercialization of the technologies.

Space Florida and Space Foundation Plan Florida Space Policy Forum (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida plans an August 22 Florida Space Leadership Forum at the Radisson Resort in Cape Canaveral. The event will feature Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp, Congressman Dave Weldon, KSC Center Director Bill Parsons, Brigadier Gen. Susan Helms of the 45th Space Wing, Space Florida's Steve Kohler, the Space Foundation's Brendan Curry, and staffers from the offices of Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, and Representatives Tom Feeney and Dave Weldon. Industry, university, and local government leaders will also participate.

Canada Plans for Larger Role in Future Space Travel (Source: CTV.ca)
With the space shuttle program drawing to a close in 2010, there is no doubt Canada could be a key player in future space exploration. The question is, what course should the Canadian Space Agency chart in the coming years? Earlier this month NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander took off with a Canadian designed meteorological station. And Canadian robotics were showcased with the use of Canadarm and Canadarm2 on the latest shuttle Endeavour mission, including spacewalks conducted by Canadian astronaut Dave Williams and American Rick Mastracchio. Next year will see the launch of Dextre, a two-armed robot designed for repairs to the ISS.

Work Towards Setting Up Base on Moon: ISRO Chief (Source: Sahara Samay)
India should start working on a program to set up a base on the moon so that the country is not left behind in this race, the space agency chief has said. "Global players have declared that by 2020, they will have their bases on the moon. I don't think India can afford to be lagging behind in that," Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said. "Given an opportunity, ISRO would be able to do it in due course. ISRO as an organisation, with the help of many other institutions, will be able to take up these challenges." Nair, also secretary in the Department of Space, said ISRO is currently defining technologies needed for India's first manned mission to space scheduled for 2015.

Comet May Have Exploded Over North America 13,000 Years Ago (Source: NSF)
New scientific findings suggest that a large comet may have exploded over North America 12,900 years ago, explaining riddles that scientists have wrestled with for decades, including an abrupt cooling of much of the planet and the extinction of large mammals. The discovery was made by scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara. The period in question is called the Younger Dryas, an interval of abrupt cooling that lasted for about 1,000 years and occurred at the beginning of an inter-glacial warm period. Evidence for the temperature change is recorded in marine sediments and ice cores.

According to the scientists, the comet before fragmentation must have been about four kilometers across, and either exploded in the atmosphere or had fragments hit the Laurentide ice sheet in northeastern North America. Wildfires across the continent would have resulted from the fiery impact, killing off vegetation that was the food supply of many of larger mammals like the woolly mammoths, causing them to go extinct. The scientific team visited more than a dozen archaeological sites in North America, where they found high concentrations of iridium, an element that is rare on Earth and is almost exclusively associated with extraterrestrial objects such as comets and meteorites.

They also found metallic microspherules in the comet fragments; these microspherules contained nano-diamonds. The comet also carried carbon molecules called fullerenes (buckyballs), with gases trapped inside that indicated an extraterrestrial origin. The team concluded that the impact of the comet likely destabilized a large portion of the Laurentide ice sheet, causing a high volume of freshwater to flow into the north Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Space Shuttle Leaves Station Early to Beat Storm (Source: Reuters)
Endeavour departed hastily from the International Space Station on Sunday, ending a construction mission a day early in order to land before Hurricane Dean threatens its Houston control center. The powerful storm was heading toward Jamaica and on track to cross Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula before making landfall late Wednesday on the central Mexican coast. If the storm shifts north and threatens the Texas coastline, NASA would evacuate the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which oversees the shuttle during flight. To avoid setting up an emergency command outpost at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA wants to land Endeavour a day early, with touchdown in Florida planned for 12:32 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

PlanetSpace.com Takes Social Networking Out Of This World (Source: PlanetSpace)
Planet Space, Inc. has re-launched its http://www.PlanetSpace.com website into an interactive, online social networking platform aimed at the general public as well as the established space enthusiast. "PlanetSpace.com was designed for ease of use and to be welcoming towards people who do not have space knowledge but would like to join in and learn about the space community," says Kenneth Schweitzer, Founder of Planet Space, Inc. Planet Space, Inc., is a Florida corporation, founded in 2001 to provide multi-media company support for the space community.