Last Chance to Participate in the MARS Project

Today is the last day to volunteer as a crew member for The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station, a project that has been underway for more than a decade:

In order to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making sensuous the vision of human exploration of Mars, the Mars Society has initiated the Mars Analog Research Station (MARS) project. A global program of Mars exploration operations research, the MARS project will include four Mars base-like habitats located in deserts in the Canadian Arctic, the American southwest, the Australian outback, and Iceland. In these Mars-like environments, we will launch a program of extensive long-duration geology and biology field exploration operations conducted in the same style and under many of the same constraints as they would on the Red Planet. By doing so, we will start the process of learning how to explore on Mars.

Each Station's centerpiece is a cylindrical habitat, "The Hab," an 8-meter diameter, two-deck structure mounted on landing struts. Peripheral external structures, some inflatable, may be appended to the Hab as well.

Each station will serve as a field base to teams of four to six crew members: geologists, astrobiologists, engineers, mechanics, physicians and others, who live for weeks to months at a time in relative isolation in a Mars analog environment. Mars analogs can be defined as locations on Earth where some environmental conditions, geologic features, biological attributes or combinations thereof may approximate in some specific way those thought to be encountered on Mars, either at present or earlier in that planet's history. Studying such sites leads to new insights into the nature and evolution of Mars, the Earth, and life.

It sounds like a great experiment that allows for greater participation in the planning of a future Mars journey.  Go here for the application if you want to be a member of the MARS crew.  Other volunteer opportunities are also available here. 

Note:  Each research team has its own mission patch.

Great Images: Pillar and Jets

More and more I find the beauty of space is more astounding than any artist can imagine here on Earth.  To the right is a fascinating NASA-provided image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope:
  
This Hubble photo is of a small portion of one of the largest-seen star-birth regions in the galaxy, the Carina Nebula. Towers of cool hydrogen laced with dust rise from the wall of the nebula. The pillar is also being pushed apart from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. 

The much larger image shown below was released in 2007 to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope:

...a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth — and death — is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. 

If you are trying to locate the Pillars and Jets within the larger image, you can zoom the photo here.  Take a look in the upper right quadrant.

A Second Space Station?

I am not so sure the accomplished very much with our current International Space Station, and yet NASA is now proposing a second station.  This new station, called the "gateway spacecraft," would be located on the far side of the moon at the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2, approximately 38,000 miles from the moon and 277,000 miles from Earth.  At this spot the spacecraft would be in an equilibrium between the Earth and moon, thereby requiring little energy to remain in place.  Construction would begin sometime around 2019.

And what would this new station do?  Presumably it will serve as a way-station for trips to the moon and Mars. Now that sounds a little more intriguing than simply circling the Earth, which can be done by any satellite.  Mark K. Matthews in the Orlando Sentinel writes: 

Potential missions include the study of nearby asteroids or dispatching robotic trips to the moon that would gather moon rocks and bring them back to astronauts at the outpost. The outpost also would lay the groundwork for more-ambitious trips to Mars' moons and even Mars itself, about 140 million miles away on average...

It gives purpose to the Orion space capsule and the Space Launch System rocket, which are being developed at a cost of about $3 billion annually. It involves NASA's international partners, as blueprints for the outpost suggest using a Russian-built module and components from Italy. And the outpost would represent a baby step toward NASA's ultimate goal: human footprints on Mars.

This is encouraging, if funding can be located.  What is interesting is that I am seeing very little discussion outside of the Orlando story.  I hope to learn more about this story and this possibility.

Note:  The photo used above is from NASA:

The International Space Station can be seen as a small object in upper left of this image of the moon in the early evening Jan. 4 in the skies over the Houston area flying at an altitude of 390.8 kilometers (242.8 miles). The space station can occasionally be seen in the night sky with the naked eye and a pair of field binoculars.

David Brooks on Elon Musk

Last week's piece by New York Time's David Brooks, Temerity at the Top, was an interesting article on why America needs more Elon Musks.  Brooks holds up Elon Musk as an example of an immigrant who transformed the American economy, and the American dream, through his efforts.

...if growth is ever going to rebound, the U.S. will need a grandiosity rebound and the policies that encourage rich people with brass: immigration policies that attract people like Musk, tax rates that encourage risk and government policies that boost them along (SpaceX has benefited greatly from NASA, and Tesla received a big government loan).

Most of all, there has to be a culture that gives two cheers to grandiosity. Government can influence growth, but it’s people like Musk who create it. Stories like his are worth repeating because maybe some reader will think: What grand transformational process do I want to be a part of? If Musk pinioned his life to the Internet, electric cars and interplanetary travel, what are my projects? 

A BusinessWeek profile cited by Brooks is also worth viewing to learn more about Musk and his projects.  In terms of SpaceX, the author of the profile had this to say about the plant:

One group of workers is assembling the protective casing that will go around a satellite for a potential customer—the governments of both Canada and Thailand are interested, Musk says. Next year, SpaceX looks to launch eight flights, and as many as 16 the following year. If it hits those goals, SpaceX would be handling the majority of the world’s commercial spaceflights. (Companies like Virgin Galactic are offering trips for tourists.) In three years, SpaceX intends to send people to the space station for $20 million each, rather than the $63 million charged today. SpaceX may be Musk’s most solid performer—it already turns a profit as it works through its backlog of orders.
 
I agree with Brooks.  We need both dreamers and solid cooperation between the private sector and the federal government to bring America to the next level.  The private space cowboys are a good place to start.

Another Curiosity Landing Simulation

Just as astronomy has benefited from private citizens scanning the heavens with their own telescopes or offering some of their computer capacity to search for extraterrestrial life, private citizens are now assisting with videos and other media to make the space achievements more dramatic for the public.  I provided one example last month from Andrew Bodrov, and this month we have Bard Canning's painstakingly created "Curiosity Descent" covering Curiosity's landing on the Martian surface.  This video covers events from the heat shield separation all the way to the landing and Curiosity's panning the landscape.  A separate video shows how Mr. Cannin was able to create the video.  It's a fun presentation  And while it is not science, but rather a simulation (I covered NASA's pre-landing simulation earlier), it can only bring greater attention to NASA's amazing adventure.

In an interview, Mr. Canning stated:

My aim with this video was to bring the wonder of the Mars Science Laboratory mission to a wider audience.  To this end, I had to make the video a little more ‘Hollywood’ than its previous incarnations. I expected some backlash for this, but as you can see, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Last Word: India Defends Mars Mission

 

Given all the press criticizing India's plan to visit Mars, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defending his nation's decision (as quoted in a recent article in The Times of Oman):

Questions are sometimes asked about whether a poor country like India can afford a space programme and whether the funds spent on space exploration, albeit modest, could be better utilised elsewhere," Singh said in a speech...This misses the point that a nation's state of development is finally a product of its technological prowess.

The statement was made as India successfully launched its 100th space mission placing two foreign commercial satellites into orbit.  Of course, the article then goes on to note that "42 percent of Indian children aged under five are underweight due to malnutrition."

TED Video: Project Orion

If you have a few minutes, you should watch the fascinating video from TED where George Dyson describes Project Orion, a planned mission funded by the United States Air Force (USAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  George's father, Freeman Dyson, was part of the team working on the mission.  NASA wanted nothing to do with it.

As Mr. Dyson explains, this highly classified project was designed to put a man on Saturn, a feat that no one really talked about since given our difficulty in even envisioning a manned trip to Mars.  In the video, Mr. Dyson describes a Marriott hotel-sized, 8 million ton, nuclear-bomb propelled (2,000 to 3,000 bombs required) space craft that would take approximately 8 passengers to a moon of Saturn, possibly Io, Ganymede, Enceladus, Titan, or Mimas.   A larger version was also being planned for Jupiter that could carry a crew of 7 with room for an additional 7 scientists.  

The Orion Project was halted in 1965, most likely in reaction to the new restrictions under the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963.  But what  an amazing tale of big ideas, and, I suppose, silly ideas given the planned fuel.  However, Mr. Dyson claims the design may be one of the few off-the-shelf ideas for intercepting a planet killer asteroid, which may be why NASA has purchased some of the material from Mr. Dyson's archives (since NASA misplaced its copies, if they were ever shared with them). 

Mr. Dyson tells more in his 2002 book

The improbable story of the wildest idea-a space craft powered by hydrogen bombs-to come out of the space race.

It was the late 1950s. The Cold War was raging. Sputnik had made its voyage and the space race was on. In America, it was the age of tail fins and "duck and cover," but it was also a time of big ideas and dreams. On his way to school one day, George Dyson learned of a truly fantastical idea: massive space vehicles that would be powered by explosions of multiple hydrogen bombs. Among the brilliant minds behind this project was George's father, the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson. 

Project Orion chronicles this fascinating episode in U.S. scientific research, while capturing a unique time in American history and culture. The project brought together a cadre of brilliant physicists, the first such assemblage since the Manhattan Project of fifteen years earlier. In an idyllic seaside community in southern California-the very picture of 1950s suburban prosperity-a handful of scientists, tackled a massive project that required the ingenuity of an engineer and the vision of a great theoretician. Their work-ambitious but ultimately futile-took place against the political and cultural backdrop of the Cold War, when nuclear technology spelled both promise and terror.

Dyson's prodigious historical and scientific research, combined with his personal reminiscences and connections, make for a lively, richly detailed narrative.

Three cheers for big ideas, and we can only hope that other highly classified projects are thinking long term about space exploration.  Of course, I would prefer a more open debate with the involvement of NASA rather than some military-only application.  However, as I noted earlier, the USAF seems to prefer its own parallel space program. 

Great Images: Dione and Rhea

You might think you are watching daughter cells, as as one planet splits into two.  But what you really see are two of Saturn's moon, Dione and Rhea, passing your sight of vision in their orbits while still very far apart.  Here is the explanation from Discover Magazine:

...the top moon there is Dione, and the bottom one is Rhea. As Cassini flew by them, Dione was closer (a little more than 1.1 million km or about 690,000 miles), and Rhea farther away (1.6 million km or 1 million miles). The angle of Cassini’s trajectory was just right such that Dione passed right in front of Rhea, and it snapped this image just as it happened.

"Think of Neil Armstrong and Give Him a Wink"

Earlier today astronaut Neil Armstrong passed away at the age of 82.  His first walk on the moon's surface, an amazing feat regardless of nationality or politics, set America on the path of great achievements in space. 

NASA released this statement from his family:

We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.

He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits.

As much as Neil cherished his privacy, he always appreciated the expressions of good will from people around the world and from all walks of life.

While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

A Fitting Tribute to Ray Bradbury

NASA has decided to name the Curiosity landing site after Ray Bradbury, making the announcement on August 22nd, the day that would have been the author's 92nd birthday.  Called "Bradbury Landing," the author now has a permanent spot on the Red Planet many years after penning The Martian Chronicles. 

In the NASA press release, Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity, stated,

This was not a difficult choice for the science team...Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars.

I think this quote from Mr. Bradbury applies to many things, but certainly our latest adventure with curiosity:

Americans are far more remarkable than we give ourselves credit for. We've been so busy damning ourselves for years. We've done it all, and yet we don't take credit for it.

Curiosity Panorama from Mars

Take a look at this panoramic shot of the Martian surface put together by Andrew Bodrov.  It works best on an iPad or similar device.  I was wondering how Mr. Bodrov was able to do this until I read an explanation from NPR:

Earlier today, we published a panorama that purported to be stitched together from images taken by the NASA Mars rover Curiosity. Since that time, we have learned that the author of the panorama has said he used Adobe Photoshop to add a sun to the sky. According to Talking Points Memo, Andrew Bodrov used images from a 2005 Mars rover to approximate the size and appearance of the sun.

Mr. Bodrov's creativity, and contribution, is impressive.

Sally Ride's Stories

If you are interested in Sally Ride's career and some of her writings, you can find plenty of published material.  Many are geared for younger readers to engender their interest in space.  For instance, Ms. Ride's Space Shuttle adventures and more are recounted in her 1989 book for younger readers To Space & Back.  Ms. Ride also co-authored many other books with Tam O'Shaughnessy related to various aspects of the space program designed for younger readers, including:

-- Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System.  Published in 2005, Kirkus Reviews opined:

Astronaut/scientist Ride teams up with a science teacher for a book about the Voyager spacecrafts' epic journeys. During them, they passed close enough to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune to take detailed pictures and measurements; the result is a wealth of new information (especially about the planets' rings and moons), gorgeous color photos, and some scientific puzzles.

-- Exploring Our Solar System.  Published in 2003.  Booklist opined:

In this copiously illustrated volume, astronaut Ride and educator O'Shaughnessy offer a thrilling introduction to our solar system. Although our neighboring planets were "formed at about the same time and from about the same stuff," the authors write, "they are nine very different worlds." Each chapter takes readers on a planetary tour. The section on Earth includes a time line and theories of the evolution of life on our planet. The authors explain facts in simple, straightforward language that doesn't condescend to a young audience, and the visuals include exciting images from space, charts that contrast the planets' properties, and artists' renderings of unattainable space views and imagined explorations. Throughout, the authors successfully put the planets in wider context, as in the section "Venus, Earth and Mars--Why They Are So Different." Useful appended charts, including a full listing of all space flights, add to the appeal.

-- The Mystery of Mars.  Published in 1999.  School Library Journal opined:

Actually a physical portrait of two planets, this survey draws illuminating parallels and contrasts between the history, structure, and current state of both Earth and Mars. Imparting a vivid sense of how inhospitable the red planet is, at least to life as we know it, Ride and O'Shaughnessy supply a lively mix of sweeping claims ("Mars has the largest volcanoes and the longest, deepest canyons in the entire solar system"), specific observations, and logical extrapolations. The authors' comments are enhanced by a generous array of computer graphics, precisely detailed paintings, and recent photographs from both space and ground level. The material includes information gathered from the 1997 Pathfinder mission and a mention of the Mars Climate Orbiter, though not of the latter's failure. 

More Mars News: India

With all of the attention on NASA's Curiosity, many may have missed India's announcement that it would like to send a spacecraft to Mars next year.  The $82 million mission will orbit the planet and collect data.  India has already proved it space prowess back in 2008 when it sent a probe to the moon (Chandralayaan-1), so the idea is not all that far fetched. 

"This spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India follows the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and China, who have already sent missions to Mars.

Of course, with India still recovering from a massive electricity blackout, the announcement could not have come at a worst time. Critics of the announcement worry that India has bigger problems at home and planetary missions are a luxury the Indian people cannot afford.  Of course, the United States had a few problems at home itself as it was planning some of its space missions.  For instance, the moon mission was being implemented while the country was facing the Vietnam War abroad and race riots at home.  Competition with Russia was still paramount during this period, as was national pride.  India is no different, though its competition is with neighboring China.
 
The announcement may have unintended consequences.  The United Kingdom is already reconsidering the economic assistance it provides to India.  The Economic Times reported Conservative MP Philip Davies stated, "If they can afford to have some high-tech mission to Mars they can afford to look after their own people without British taxpayers having to put their hands in their pockets for money they haven't got."

NASA Adminstrator's Jobs Report

Just as President Obama used the successful landing of Curiosity to sell the merits of a private sector space program, which really had nothing to do with the mission at hand, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden made sure to use his second paragraph to sell the jobs created by NASA, stated to be about 7,000 positions in 31 states.  This is also how we push Department of Defense programs that we do not really need but keep certain legislators in their own jobs.

Luckily, the statements contained a little bit of vision as well for those who want a space program for learning about space itself.  First, the United States intends to send humans to Mars in 2030, of course a date so comfortably in the distance that we do not really need to fund it under this administration.  A more near term goal is next year's mission involving the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter (pictured below).  According to NASA,

Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatile compounds—such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and water—from the Mars atmosphere to space has played through time, giving insight into the history of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.

This week's successful Mars mission makes future missions to the Red Planet more likely as it proves American know-how and garners more interest in all things Martian.  Let's cheer this week and push for even more starting next week. Mars awaits!

Here is the full statement by the Administrator: 

NASA is back on Mars – and getting ready for the next mission to the Red Planet! After an astounding 352 million mile journey and a harrowing landing that demonstrated cutting-edge technology, Curiosity, the largest rover ever sent to another planet, is in place and ready to work. This robotic laboratory will seek answers to one of humanity’s oldest questions as it investigates whether conditions have favored development of microbial life on the Red Planet. The mission is a critical planetary science mission -- and a precursor to sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030’s, a goal set forth by President Obama. 

It’s another great leadership moment for our nation and a sign of the continued strength of NASA’s many programs in science, aeronautics and human spaceflight. It’s also important to remember that the $2.5 billion investment made in this project was not spent on Mars, but right here on Earth, supporting more than 7,000 jobs in at least 31 states.

With the retirement of the Shuttle program after its final flight in July 2011, some have suggested that NASA’s leadership in the exploration of space, including our extraordinary successes on Mars, was coming to an end. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Curiosity mission is only the latest in a long list of extraordinary NASA missions that established the United States as the undisputed world leader, and it will help guarantee that remains the case for many years to come.
When our Orion deep space crew vehicle takes its first test flight in 2014, it will travel farther into space than any spacecraft designed for humans has flown in the 40 years since our astronauts returned from the moon. 

In 2017, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, will launch Orion. 

We also reached a critically important milestone in May when SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft -- the Dragon cargo capsule -- to the International Space Station and return it with cargo intact. This successful mission ushered in a new era in spaceflight -- and signaled a new way of doing business for NASA. And just a few days ago, we announced the next step in the Obama Administration’s aggressive plan to once again launch our astronauts from U.S. soil on spacecraft built by American companies. 

As part of our commitment to maintain American leadership in the exploration of Mars beyond the Curiosity mission, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter next year. Earlier this year, I directed NASA’s science mission director, along with the head of human exploration, Chief Technologist, and Chief Scientist to develop a more integrated strategy to ensure that the next steps for Mars exploration will support the nation’s planetary science objectives as well as our human exploration goals. They are looking at many options, including another robotic mission to land on Mars in this decade. 

I am so proud of the NASA team that has made tonight’s challenging milestone possible. However, tomorrow we begin to plan for the next great challenge -- and start compiling incredible scientific data from Curiosity. For the past 50 years, NASA has specialized in doing the hard things. Thanks to the ingenuity of our teams across America and the world, we are poised for even greater success.

More Curosity Photos From Mars

NASA's Curiosity continues to send fascinating photos of the journey ahead.  Below is a shot of the distant rim of Gale Crater. 

 And below is a photo of the landing site with the various mission pieces scattered throughout the area.

 Here is NASA's description of the scene above:

The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. The large, reduced-scale image points out the strewn hardware: the heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed. Relatively dark areas in all four spots are from disturbances of the bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material below the surface dust.

Success: Curiosity Lands on Mars

We can all breath easy now.  Curiosity is safe and sound on the surface of Mars, landing earlier this morning.  To the right you can see Curiosity's first photo from the Red Planet.  NASA states, 

[The photo] was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. 

Here is the statement by President Obama on the landing:

Tonight, on the planet Mars, the United States of America made history. 

The successful landing of Curiosity – the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet – marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future. It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique blend of ingenuity and determination.

Tonight’s success, delivered by NASA, parallels our major steps forward towards a vision for a new partnership with American companies to send American astronauts into space on American spacecraft. That partnership will save taxpayer dollars while allowing NASA to do what it has always done best – push the very boundaries of human knowledge. And tonight’s success reminds us that our preeminence – not just in space, but here on Earth – depends on continuing to invest wisely in the innovation, technology, and basic research that has always made our economy the envy of the world.

I congratulate and thank all the men and women of NASA who made this remarkable accomplishment a reality – and I eagerly await what Curiosity has yet to discover. 

This is a proud day for NASA.  I am not sure why the President felt it was necessary to align the success with his private sector vision.  Let's keep it simple.  Great job, NASA!

Another Space Program with Spare Parts for NASA

Earlier I noted how the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) already has its own space shuttle program and maybe more sharing of resources could assist NASA.  Well, I forgot that DoD is just one of a number of federal agencies with its own space program.  For instance, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), one of our spy agencies, runs its own satellite and telescope missions as well, though these telescopes peer back onto Earth.  And now it appears that some inter-agency sharing is underway.

The Washington Post reported that two left-over NRO telescopes sitting in Rochester, NY, will go to NASA.  Both telescopes are as large as the Hubble space telescope though they have a much wider field of view.  In fact, the telescopes may be better than the current Hubble telescope, and potentially meet the needs of the now stalled Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). WFIRST's goals are exoplanet exploration, dark energy research, and galactic and extragalactic surveys.

The problem is that NASA will have to make a number of modifications to make them useful, and the funding problems at the Agency will make such modifications difficult.  NASA astrophysics director Paul Hertz said the new telescopes are unlikely to be launched before 2024, noting “Any dates earlier, like 2019 or 2020, is if money is no object,” Hertz said. 

While Congress continues to starve our space programs, it is nice to learn federal agencies are communicating.  This is not the same as having one national space program, but it is better than nothing.

Sally Ride, Rest in Peace

Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, died on Monday at the age of 61.  Ms. Ride's first entered the Earth's orbit via the Challenger Space Shuttle about 29 years ago on June 18, 1983.  Her list of accomplishments beyond this event is quite impressive:

-- Ph.D. in physics from Stanford. 
-- Joined NASA in 1978.
-- Helped develop a shuttle robot arm for NASA.
-- Part of the Rogers Commission to investigate the Challenger explosion in 1986.
-- Part of the commission to investigate the Columbia explosion in 2003.
-- Member of the Augustine Committee to make recommendations on the future of human spaceflight.
-- Science fellow at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University.
-- Professor of physics at the University of California in San Diego.
-- Started Sally Ride Science in 2001 to encourage children to seek careers in science and technology.

While she was not the first woman in space, with Russia being the first nation to do so in 1963 (while China hit this goal earlier this year), Ms. Ride certainly blazed a bright trail for other woman to follow. She may also be the first gay astronaut.  Sally Ride Science's obituary noted:

In addition to Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, Sally is survived by her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin, and nephew, Whitney; her staff of 40 at Sally Ride Science; and many friends and colleagues around the country.

Most importantly, as her organization's biography noted, was her love of space and determination to share it with others:

Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name. She became a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers and a hero to generations of adventurous young girls. After retiring from NASA, Sally used her high profile to champion a cause she believed in passionately—inspiring young people, especially girls, to stick with their interest in science, to become scientifically literate, and to consider pursuing careers in science and engineering.

Sally, we wish you well on your new voyage.

Great Images: Jupiter and Ganymede

This image is part of the NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection and found at nasaimages.org. Here is the photo's accompanying text:

The solar system's largest moon, Ganymede, is captured here alongside the planet Jupiter in a color picture taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 3, 2000.

Ganymede is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Both Ganymede and Titan have greater surface area than the entire Eurasian continent on our planet. Cassini was 26.5 million kilometers (16.5 million miles) from Ganymede when this image was taken. The smallest visible features are about 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) across.

The bright area near the south (bottom) of Ganymede is Osiris, a large, relatively new crater surrounded by bright icy material ejected by the impact, which created it. Elsewhere, Ganymede displays dark terrains that NASA's Voyager and Galileo spacecraft have shown to be old and heavily cratered. The brighter terrains are younger and laced by grooves. Various kinds of grooved terrains have been seen on many icy moons in the solar system. These are believed to be the surface expressions of warm, pristine, water-rich materials that moved to the surface and froze.

Ganymede has proven to be a fascinating world, the only moon known to have a magnetosphere, or magnetic environment, produced by a convecting metal core. The interaction of Ganymede's and Jupiter's magnetospheres may produce dazzling variations in the auroral glows in Ganymede's tenuous atmosphere of oxygen.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. 

Here is an earlier shot of Ganymede from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Photojournal page:  

In this global view of Ganymede's trailing side, the colors are enhanced to emphasize color differences. The enhancement reveals frosty polar caps in addition to the two predominant terrains on Ganymede, bright, grooved terrain and older, dark furrowed areas. Many craters with diameters up to several dozen kilometers are visible. The violet hues at the poles may be the result of small particles of frost which would scatter more light at shorter wavelengths (the violet end of the spectrum). Ganymede's magnetic field, which was detected by the magnetometer on NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1996, may be partly responsible for the appearance of the polar terrain. Compared to Earth's polar caps, Ganymede's polar terrain is relatively vast. The frost on Ganymede reaches latitudes as low as 40 degrees on average and 25 degrees at some locations. For comparison with Earth, Miami, Florida lies at 26 degrees north latitude, and Berlin, Germany is located at 52 degrees north.

North is to the top of the picture. The composite, which combines images taken with green, violet, and 1 micrometer filters, is centered at 306 degrees west longitude. The resolution is 9 kilometers (6 miles) per picture element. The images were taken on 29 March 1998 at a range of 918000 kilometers (570,000 miles) by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

Anniversary of Skylab's Return to Earth

Thirty-three years ago on July 11 America's Skylab returned to earth in pieces littering the Indian Ocean and Australia.  First launched in 1974, Skylab was America's first space station and hosted three sets of 3-man U.S. space crews during its operation, with the station itself having been occupied a total of 171 days.  The station may have lasted longer had the new NASA Space Shuttle program been further along to repair the station and adjust its orbit.

What did Skylab accomplish? According to a NASA paper on the program, the primary impact was highlighting the value of a manned operation:

While the program unquestionably yielded valuable scientific information, its greatest value came from its demonstration of the importance of the human element in the space program. As John Disher, NASA Director of Advanced Programs in the Office of Space Transportation Systems, would later note, Skylab "turned around many people who thought men in space were a hindrance rather than a help." Echoing this sentiment, Program Director William Schneider stated that Skylab had shown that, regarding the space program, "the limit is only our resolve, not the ability of men to work, and not our technical knowledge." 

We need more of that resolve as we look to future manned missions.