June 23 News Items

Mikulski Cdnfirms Another Attempt at a NASA Budget “Miracle” (Source: Space Politics)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), chair of the appropriations subcommittee whose jurisdiction includes NASA, said she would again seek a billion-dollar increase in NASA’s budget above the $17.8-billion budget her subcommittee approved on Wednesday (and which the full appropriations committee also apparently approved Thursday, although there’s no announcement about it on the committee web site.) Mikulski made a similar statement earlier this year, when her subcommittee first held hearings on NASA appropriations. “I am committed to restoring NASA’s budget to ensure the continued safety of our astronauts, and to supporting the critical programs that are the hallmarks of their success,” she said in her statement. (6/19)

Space & Air Show at Kennedy Space Center Planned Nov. 8-9 (Source: KSCVC)
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels will headline the 2008 Space & Air Show at Kennedy Space Center on November 8th and 9th. This year’s show will bring together the best in military aircraft, coupled with precision pilots and veteran astronauts to celebrate space flight and military aviation. This is only the second time the Blue Angels have performed at Kennedy Space Center. Over 30 years have passed since they last visited America’s gateway to space. (6/23)

Ocean On Enceladus May Be Short-Lived (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
The tide may be changing for the ocean suspected under the icy shell of Enceladus. Recent research has shown that this small moon of Saturn does not produce enough heat in its present configuration to keep water from freezing down to its core. "There is no possible combination of parameters that allow for a thermally stable ocean," said a University of California scientist. (6/23)

Options for Space Tourists (Source: RIA Novosti)
What we have here is a typically Russian paradox: although this country was the first to try out space tourism, it has failed to develop it further, letting other countries reap the fruits of this endeavor. Furthermore, the ways in which Roskosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency) has been trying to branch out into tourism has no benefits for our national space program.

So far nine Russians have booked a space flight aboard a private vehicle Spaceship-2. It was developed by the British-U.S. company Virgin Galactic. The company is going to demonstrate the first prototype of this spaceship in July. The company is going to set up a fleet of 40 to 45 tourist vehicles. In a decade, three to four spaceships with six tourists on board will be able to travel every day on a two-hour suborbital tour from a spaceport currently under construction in New Mexico. Needless to say, Roskosmos's dream for flights on a mass scale has not come true. So far, only five commercial passengers have visited the space station. The average cost of a weekly flight was more than $20 million. (6/23)

The Most Massive Star Yet? (Source: Sky & Telescope)
We call our Sun an “average star.” It’s average because its size and brightness fall smack dab in the middle compared to stars throughout the universe. Some stars make the Sun look like an ant standing next to Abe Lincoln; others, an elephant overshadowing a ladybug. Stars differ in mass much less than they do in diameter or brightness, but they still cover a wide scale. The lightest stars have about 1/12 the Sun’s mass (any lower and they can’t sustain nuclear fusion), while the most massive top scores more.

So how heavy can a star actually be? For the universe’s present era, astronomers assume an upper limit of about 100 solar masses. This number comes from the need to preserve something called hydrostatic equilibrium. The term means that the two main forces working on a star have to balance out. One is gravity, which pulls a star together. The other is — no joke — the pressure of the star’s own heat and light. (6/23)

The Great Planet Debate: Dwarf Planets Are Planets Too (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Classification is an important and productive scientific tool which is employed in many branches of science, from biology to geology to chemistry and astronomy. Planetary science today faces a significant classification challenge: defining what objects are and are not "planets." This challenge has come to the fore owing to the discovery of numerous dwarf planets in the outer solar system, the recognition that Ceres is a dwarf planet (a fundamentally different body than the smaller asteroids), the discovery of planets around a pulsar, and the numerous discoveries of hot Jupiters orbiting other stars.

There are currently three known types of planetary scale objects within our solar system. Firstly, the inner rocky planets with high concentrations of metals. Secondly, the middle gas giants and thirdly the outerplanets that are largely water ice and frozen gases found within the Kuiper Belt - of which there could be hundreds of Pluto sized worlds. Beyond the Kuipers there may be a fourth class of planetary sized objects within the Oort Cloud. Click here to view the article. (6/23)

KSC Can Expect Engineering Work for Constellation (Source: Florida Today)
During a Senate hearing at Cape Canaveral, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said sustaining engineering work for moon missions will be located at the Kennedy Space Center. That's good news for the Space Coast. Sustaining engineering for the shuttle program now is performed at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. But sustaining engineering work for Project Constellation will be located at KSC to help offset the drop in the number of launch operations jobs at the nation's shuttle homeport, Griffin said. Griffin could not estimate the number of jobs that might result, but it likely will be in the hundreds if not more than 1,000. (6/23)

Long Waves and Space Development (Source: Space Review)
The early, hyperactive years of the Space Age benefited from the superpower competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, Nader Elhefnawy argues, long-term economic cycles also played a role, and can also explain the sluggish progress since then. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1156/1 to view the article. (6/23)

Paper Dragon: Pentagon's Unreliable Statements on China's Space Program (Source: Space Review)
For years the US Defense Department has issued annual reports on China's military efforts, some of which have included claims about space weapons technology of dubious validity. Dwayne Day reviews those claims and suggests that these are signs that the Pentagon does not put a high priority on producing these reports. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1155/1 to view the article. (6/23)

Extra Shuttle Mission Would Cost $300-$400M (Source: Florida Today)
NASA does not yet have the $300 million to $400 million it would need to fly the one extra shuttle mission approved last week by the House of Representatives, NASA's chief administrator said at a subcommittee hearing at Port Canaveral. But NASA still has time to prepare for such a mission, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said. "We could execute the mission in the late summer of 2010," he said. The House last week approved a NASA budget that calls for NASA to fly one additional shuttle mission to carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and other scientific gear to the International Space Station. (6/23)

Rally Highlights Space Program's Importance in Central Florida (Source: Florida Today)
NASA and other space workers rallied Monday morning, over the possibility they could soon be out of a job. Demonstrators showed up outside a Senate committee hearing at Port Canaveral. That meeting featured Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez questioning NASA, and local leaders, about Brevard County's future. "It's going to show up in church collection plates, little league registration, fundraising for the zoo, meals on wheels, arts," rally organizer Dale Ketcham said. Organizers hope the demonstration will convince the presidential candidates to take another look at the space program. Estimates show if the shuttle is shutdown, as many as 22,000 jobs will be lost throughout Brevard. (6/23)

Orion Reusability Remains Elusive for NASA (Source: Flight International)
NASA is not expecting to decide at its preliminary design review how reusable the Orion crew exploration vehicle's crew module is or what power levels and system the spacecraft will have. Instead Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems will assess its water landings' life-cycle cost impact, where the cabin is exposed to "salt-fog" for up to 2h, and only provide a design change plan for reusability at the 10-21 November preliminary design review. Reusability was originally viewed as a major life-cycle cost savings driver.

Remaining power issues have led to a "non-prime [contractor] team" being tasked with the design and analysis of alternate energy demand-based approaches for NASA's systems baseline review planned for 11-12 September. Lockheed is meanwhile charged with finding power reductions. (6/23)