November 28 News Items

China, Brazil Give Africa Free Satellite Land Images (Source: AFP)
China and Brazil will give Africa free satellite imaging of its landmass to help the continent respond to threats like deforestation, desertification and drought. A land imaging satellite launched by the two governments at a cost of some $100 million dollars in September would relay images, updated monthly, to four ground stations for dissemination to African states. "How much is it worth for (Africa) to have an up-to-date mapping of its agricultural areas? It is priceless," Gilberto Camara, director general of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, told AFP.

Public Sees Plans for Cecil Field Spaceport (Source: First Coast News)
Airport managers are taking their plans to the public, asking for input on their proposal to make Cecil Field a commercial spaceport. Cecil Field is already home to big aircraft. But it could also house spacecraft someday. There are new developments in a proposal to turn the former Navy base into a spaceport, while keeping its new role as a commerce center. When the idea was first pitched a couple of years ago to add a spaceport at Cecil Field, it came from a state agency. Things have changed. Now the Jacksonville Aviation Authority is pursuing the idea on its own.

The Jacksonville Aviation Authority is about six months away from filing its final piece of paperwork seeking FAA permission to launch and land two types of spaceships. "The X-Concept vehicle and the Z-Concept vehicle are the ones that we're pursuing on our license," Stewart said, referring to a pair of images on one of the posters in his office. Both designs would take off like a regular plane and be no louder than a single military jet, Stewart said.

Mars Visionary Tackles Earth Energy Policy (Source: EnergyDaily.com)
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez says he wants to send oil to $200 a barrel. Robert Zubrin has a plan to stop him. In his just released book, Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil, Zubrin, an American aerospace engineer known previously primarily for his inventive approach to Mars exploration, lays out the strategy. To say the book is remarkable, would be a severe understatement. Combining soaring idealism, incisive thinking, and a viscous go-for-throat killer instinct in a single package, Energy Victory is the first book I have ever read that actually lays out a credible plan to turn around the world energy situation. Visit http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/The_Plan_To_Destroy_OPEC_999.html to view the article.

NASCAR Enters the Space Age (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
It will bring a whole new meaning to the term "space race," or so NASA hopes. If the agency's promotional plan pays off, millions of NASCAR fans will have their eyes glued to the skies next month when space shuttle Atlantis blasts off into orbit -- carrying three Daytona 500 race flags in its cargo bay. The green starter flags are being launched into space to celebrate the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in February, as well as NASA's own upcoming 50th anniversary. "It's great," NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said. "It will hopefully bring space to a whole new audience." Editor's note: NASCAR racers have recently used the Shuttle Landing Facility as a super-long, super-straight roadway testbed, and have for many years used NASA-developed materials for heat shielding in their cars.

Entrepreneur of the Year: Elon Musk (Source: Inc.)
Electric sports cars. Solar power. Space travel. Finally, an entrepreneur who's not afraid to think really, really big. Watching Elon Musk at work is an exercise in controlling your urge to buy a man a drink. Make that several drinks. Musk is 36 years old, wicked smart, worth several hundred million dollars, and built like a tight end--thickset through the middle and well over 6 feet tall. Yet he never looks quite comfortable. Sitting in front of the oversize computer screen on his desk, he rolls back and forth in his chair, slouches and unslouches, rubs his temples, raps his fingers, and plays with his wedding ring. When he sighs, which he does frequently, his chest heaves, and his eyes widen, like someone confronted with news of his own death. He generally speaks in complete, precise sentences, rarely telling a joke or even cracking a smile.

It's not that Musk is an unpleasant guy. He just happens to be really, really busy. Musk is CEO, majority owner, and head rocket designer at SpaceX, an aerospace start-up in El Segundo, California, that by 2011 plans to be hauling astronauts to and from the International Space Station. And that's just his day job. Musk has two more wildly ambitious start-ups in play--the electric-car maker Tesla Motors and the solar panel installer SolarCity; in both cases, he serves as chairman and controlling shareholder. In fact, the South African native has been building big, ambitious companies for more than a decade. He co-founded PayPal, the online payment processor that eBay bought in 2002 for $1.5 billion, as well as Zip2, a dot-com media company that was sold for $307 million when he was just 27. Visit http://www.inc.com/magazine/20071201/entrepreneur-of-the-year-elon-musk.html to view the article.