October 3 News Items

Future of Mars Science Lab In Doubt (Source: Aviation Week)
Top NASA managers will decide next week the fate of the Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered astrobiology rover that already has cost $1.5 billion and is likely to hit the 30-percent overrun ceiling that could trigger cancellation by Congress. Officials from the agency's Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are set to brief Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler on the program next week. The MEP manager said that JPL probably will ask for a $100 million-$150 million increase to its $223 million fiscal 2009 budget - spread over FY '09-10 - to meet its September 2009 launch window. The program overran its $355 million FY '08 budget by $190 million, and is expected to overrun the total program cost by 33-40 percent. This could bring its total cost to more than $2 billion. He doesn't expect JPL's request to be granted, due to the center's traditionally shaky cost estimating, but outside cost estimates have been prepared as well. (10/3)

GPS "Spoofing" Threatens Airlines, Bbanks, Power Grid (Source: AIA)
The Global Positioning Systems used in scores of civilian applications can be easily "spoofed" by false signals, potentially causing blackouts, plane crashes or mayhem in the banking sector. Students at Virginia Tech have built a spoofer capable of replicating signals from 30 or so GPS satellites, confusing the triangulation required for the system to work properly. Military GPS uses encryption that makes spoofing impossible, but "there is no such protection for civilian GPS use," according to one expert. (10/3)

Obama Adviser Previews Defense Priorities (Source: AIA)
Richard Danzig, a former Navy secretary who is now a top adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, said Thursday he doesn't expect defense spending to drop "in the first years of an Obama administration." Danzig said he expected a focus on cyber warfare and unmanned aerial vehicles, but that traditional air and sea power would not be overlooked. "I think the temptation is to invest in the issue du jour or the cause du jour and to overlook a lot of basics," he said. (10/3)

China Sets Sights On First Space Station (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
The success of China's first spacewalk on the Shenzhou 7 mission paves the way for greater things. For China, the next great task will be its first space station. Much reportage has been circulated on this, but ironically, the more we read, the more confused space analysts become. What is China really planning? It all seemed so simple just a month ago. China would launch a space laboratory on the Shenzhou 8 mission. Despite its name, this would not be a Shenzhou capsule spacecraft, but a new type of vehicle. This would be followed by the unmanned Shenzhou mission, a conventional Shenzhou, which would dock with it. Finally Shenzhou 10 would carry a crew of three astronauts to the Shenzhou 8-9 complex. (10/3)

Scientists Learn Space Lessons from Antarctic Bases (Source: Reuters)
In the depths of the Antarctic winter, expeditioners at Australia's research bases might as well be on the moon. Or on their way to Mars. "When you are in Antarctica you know you can't get out -- there's no rescue during winter. And that changes one's mentality," said Des Lugg, former head of polar medicine at the Australian Antarctic Division and now a consultant to NASA. "You can get back faster from the international space station than you can from the Antarctic in the depths of winter," he said. It's that very isolation that makes Australia's Antarctic bases and their expeditioners perfect for planning long-term space missions, he said. (10/3)

ESA Plans for 2016 'Mid Life Evolution' of its Ariane 5 (Source: Flight International)
The next version of the European Space Agency's Ariane 5, the Mid Life Evolution (ME), could be operational in 2016 with a payload to geostationary transfer orbit capability of 11,200kg (24,600lb), 16% more than Arianespace's in-service Ariane 5 ECA. Developed by ESA with industry and manufactured by EADS Astrium, the ME, the fifth variant of the Ariane 5 since the Generic, will also provide a 21,000kg to low-Earth orbit capability. While the lower stages of the Ariane 5 are unchanged, the ME upper stage will require a new engine, the Vinci, now undergoing ground tests, that can achieve three restarts in orbit and a longer fairing to encapsulate two large satellites. (10/3)

A Traffic Jam On The Moon? (Source: Forbes)
China is about 40 years behind the U.S. and Russia in their space technology, but they are catching up fast, learning from previous mistakes. The progress of the Chinese space program, unlike the feverish race between the U.S. and Russia during the Cold War, is actually proceeding systematically, following a careful, three-prong strategy. After their next effort to develop a space station, China may focus on a manned mission to the moon, perhaps by 2020. (Given the recent problems with NASA's Orion/Constellation program, it appears as if the Chinese may win this race.) But after 2020, we might even see a traffic jam on the moon, with different lunar modules orbiting the moon at the same time from different nations. (Even the Japanese and Indians, stung by the successes of the Chinese, have revved up their rocket programs.) (10/3)

Pro-Con: Should the U.S. Worry About Falling Behind China? NO (Source: Kansas City Star)
Achievements are always empowered by dreams. From the household television and radio to the GPS positioned in taxis and fishing boats, from weather forecasts and the Internet to the “space rice” and “space vegetables,” we live in an era in which space technologies prevail everywhere in our daily lives. Outer space not only provides us resources, but also expands our living environment. Human exploration to to uter space, however, has just started. We have every confidence that China is capable of utilizing its space technologies and wisdom to benefit mankind. (10/3)

Pro-Con: Should the U.S. Worry About Falling Behind China? YES (Source: Kansas City Star)
At a congressional hearing in May 2007, Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese from the Naval War College said, “Chinese human spaceflight activities have taken a slow, incremental approach and still managed to create the perception that China is ‘beating’ the U.S. in a new space race. While far from true, what China has that the U.S. does not is top-down political will.” China has bottom-up support, too. With wall-to-wall coverage of the Shenzhou 7 launch, the Chinese are riding the crest of a wave of patriotism and pride that gathered momentum all year leading up to the Summer Olympics. (10/3)