Congressional Harassment of SpaceX

Did SpaceX make too many waves trying to save the U.S. taxpayers some space dollars?  It certainly looks that way as congressmen from multiple states tied to the status quo rocket program ask more and more questions of SpaceX, criticizing the firm for an "epidemic of anomalies" in a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.  It seems the Dragon and Falcon projects make these congressmen nervous.  They write:

In the interest of full disclosure and accountability to the American taxpayer, we request that NASA publicly release all anomalies and mishap information, un-redacted, so that Congress can gain a better understanding of what has occurred and ensure full transparency...Again, because the vehicles in question were funded by American taxpayer dollars, there should be no issue in making this report publicly available.

The only problem is that the Falcon did not involve U.S. taxpayer dollars, not that technicalities like this ever bothered the Congress.  And I cannot help wondering if SpaceX's current lawsuit challenging the Air Force's purchase of Atlas and Delta rockets from a competitor located in the states of these congressmen has anything to do with it.

I would like to think this Congress sees the space program as more than a jobs program, and understands that cheaper rockets and related missions means even more missions for other space priorities.  Then again, this is an election year, so space can wait, again.  Maybe funding space museums should be our new priority since we do not seem to interested in bringing the space program into a new era of competition.  I am sure congressional members with museums in their districts will agree.

Great Image: The Jellyfish Supernova

Okay, that is not the official name, but the supernova labeled SN 1006 (a pretty boring title) looks a lot like a giant floating jellyfish.  The type of strange anomaly the USS Enterprise might investigate, or at least a curious astronomer as far back as 1006 AD.  And speaking of curious astronomers, NASA is on top of this one and has this description:

A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, lit up planet Earth's sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion, found in the southerly constellation of Lupus, still puts on a cosmic light show across the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, this composite view includes X-ray data in blue from the Chandra Observatory, optical data in yellowish hues, and radio image data in red. Now known as the SN 1006 supernova remnant, the debris cloud appears to be about 60 light-years across and is understood to represent the remains of a white dwarf star. Part of a binary star system, the compact white dwarf gradually captured material from its companion star. The buildup in mass finally triggered a thermonuclear explosion that destroyed the dwarf star. Because the distance to the supernova remnant is about 7,000 light-years, that explosion actually happened 7,000 years before the light reached Earth in 1006. Shockwaves in the remnant accelerate particles to extreme energies and are thought to be a source of the mysterious cosmic rays.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Zolt Levay (STScI)

Varying Religious Views on Space Travel

"I do believe there can’t be other intelligent beings in outer space because of the meaning of the gospel,”states Ken Ham, president and founder of the creationist organization Answers in Genesis.  According to the news coverage of Mr. Ham's remarks, any space aliens are going to hell.

I will admit it is not the most enlightened view, but the religious community has a variety of opinions on this matter.  For example, Pope Francis is a little more open-minded about the issue, and even seeks to add aliens to his flock.  A Vatican Radio story noted the Pope would baptize anyone coming to the church, with the Pope noting the Church needs to move "beyond the limits, go ever forward." 

In other news, the General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments (GAIAE) in the United Arab Emirates, issued a fatwa warning Muslims against a Mars mission.  The fatwa was primarily aimed at the Mars One mission, where individuals are not expected to return from Mars.  In this sense, GAIAE is equating the mission to suicide.  Luckily, Muslims in general have been more favorable to space exploration, going as far as creating a guidebook for Muslims working on the International Space Station. 

Interesting Facts About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

For the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, Popular Science magazine published an article "Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing."  The stories are taken from Craig Nelson's book Rocket Men.  They bear mentioning again five years later.  You can read all 10 by going to the link (or read the book for even more facts), but here are three of my favorites:

-- The "one small step for man" wasn't actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn't compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle's ladder to the surface.

-- When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

-- The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA's studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

I imagine the Moon missions would have ended that day if the astronauts had locked themselves outside of the capsule.  Many, many other little things had to go right for that mission and those that followed.  The Apollo missions represent the true triumph of the human spirit, and ingenuity as well.

A Talk with Freeman Dyson

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) posted an insightful interview with well-known physicist Freeman Dyson covering various topics, including finding alien life and humans in space. 

In terms of alien life, he says we are probably focusing on the wrong targets if we look primarily at planets and ignore the more voluminous parts of space that may harbor life, from asteroids to comments.  As far as humans in space, he does not see a human space colony for at least 100 years. 

Check out this link for the full interview.

45th Moon Landing Anniversary

Forty-five years ago this very day the Apollo 11 crew landed on the Moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong stated "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin visited the Moon's surface for about 22 hours before returning the the command module, where astronaut Michael Collins was waiting for them. The picture above is pretty dramatic, yet the world first saw the mission on television via the poor-quality video shown below.  NASA has restored the video showing about two and a half hours "extravehicular activity."  This was a amazing day in history, and hopefully we will have many more space moments in the future.  We have not returned to the Moon since 1972.  It may be time to revisit the Moon as part of plans to move further out into the solar system.

Big Holes in the Earth, Including Russia

With all the talk about the new 100 foot diameter hole appearing in the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia, one would assume that (1) climate change is a new concept and (2) holes in the Earth are unusual.  In terms of the first point, I am not sure why we are surprised that a northern Russian region with permafrost may experience some settling and melting as areas on the Earth continue to warm. 

And as far as holes go, I am much more concerned about sink holes appearing in populated areas, such as the hole below in Guatemala City formed in June 2010 after Tropical Storm Agatha.

And how about man-made holes?  The hole below is a more amazing image as it sits at the edge of a city.  This hole is found in the Siberian town of Mirny, though this one is a man-made diamond mine about 3,900 feet in diameter.  The air space is closed above the Mirny mine since it is known to modify the air temperature in such a way that is can suck in aircraft (as it did with a helicopter years back).  Now that is scary.

Cygnus a Success

The International Space Station (ISS) crew welcomed the Cygnus spacecraft yesterday as it resupplies the station with a variety of items, including spacewalking equipment, Earth-imaging nanosatellites, and hardware to  allow free-flying robots to conduct 3-D mapping inside the station. Nanosatelites?  Free-floating robots?  The ISS appears to be an experiment base for the next phase of the space program, which sounds like a very useful role.

This private space launch by Orbital Sciences represents the second successful mission by this company in addition to the multiple successful missions by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.  All of this fares well for a nation that wants to become more independent of the Russians and fill in a gap left by the previous Space Shuttle missions.

A Cloud City on Venus?

While most eyes are on Mars and the Moon for future settlements, some people are talking about Venus as another good location for human colonization.  A recent Citylab story noted the following:

The second planet from the Sun might seem like a nasty place to build a home, with a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead and an atmosphere so dense it would feel like being submerged beneath 3000 feet of water. But the air on Venus thins out as you rise above the surface and cools considerably; about 30 miles up you hit the sweet spot for human habitation: Mediterranean temperatures and sea-level barometric pressure. If ever there were a place to build a floating city, this would be it.

Some of this conversation stems from a 2003 NASA paper by Geoffrey A. Landis titled "Colonization of Venus,"  where he stated:

 At cloud-top level, Venus is the paradise planet...at an altitude slightly above fifty km above the surface, the atmospheric pressure is equal to the Earth surface atmospheric pressure of I Bar. At this level, the environment of Venus is benign.

 - above the clouds, there is abundant solar energy 

- temperature is in the habitable "liquid water" range of 0-5OC 

- atmosphere contains the primary volatiles required for life (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulfur)

- Gravity is 90% of the gravity at the surface of Earth. 

While the atmosphere contains droplets of sulfuric acid, technology to avoid acid corrosion are well known, and have been used by chemists for centuries.

In short, the atmosphere of Venus is most earthlike environment in the solar system. Although humans cannot breathe the atmosphere, pressure vessels are not required to maintain one atmosphere of habitat pressure,and pressure suits are not required for humans outside the habitat.

This is certainly an interesting idea, as is the idea of living on asteroids and other areas.  Of course, we are still trying to see if we can support a return trip to the Moon, so funding may be limited for extraterrestrial city-building for some time.  However, big dreams never hurt and may stimulate more creative and productive thinking about our future in the solar system. 

TV: Houston, We Have A Growing Problem

If you are looking for something different to take your mind off of NASA's funding woes, you might enjoy an evening of television entertainment from CBS.  Tonight you can watch the premiere of the new series produced by Steven Spielberg titled Extant, where Halle Berry plays a returning astronaut from a solo space station mission.  But she has a secret, and its not the fact that she has a robotic son.  That's the normal part.  The problem is that she is also mysteriously pregnant.  Here is a trailer if you want to see more.  It is not Gravity, but we have to take what we can get in this summer season. 

Interview with Dr. Stephen Hawking

For some light entertainment, you may want to view John Oliver's interview with Dr. Stephen Hawking as the discuss time travel, artificial intelligence, and parallel universes.  Dr. Hawking proves he has a sense of humor though all of it.  The HBO show is called Last Week Tonight, and the series is called Great Minds: People Who Think Good. 

Dr. Hawking has spoken on artificial intelligence in other more serious forums and provides us with a pretty dire warning.  In The Independent, Dr. Hawking wrote:

One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.

Something to ponder as we rush headlong into the future.

Questions About NASA's Budget Plans

Phil Plait had a good article in Slate earlier this week that questions NASA's reliance on the planned Space Launch System (SLS), noting it may be a drag on entire space program, enrich large contractors over smaller, more nimble competitors (e.g., SpaceX), and keep us on a path that relies on the Russians for entry into space.  Not a very good series of events.  He notes, 

Bottom line: [Senator] Shelby’s addition makes it easier for SLS to get built, and harder for commercial companies to build their own vehicles to send humans into space (and, importantly, can do it far, far cheaper than SLS can). That means we’ll have to rely on the Russians more for the time being. That’s something we really, really need to stop doing. They’re gouging us for rides to space, and their political situation isn’t exactly the most conducive for us right now...And worst of all, we still don’t have a clear and sustained purpose for SLS. Our government wants to spend billions upon billions of dollars on a rocket for no defined reason. It’s maddening. 

This is what you get when you run a space program via a committee of 535 politicians who are more interested in the jobs for their districts than the overall benefits for mankind.  Maybe the silver lining concerning tensions with Russia is that we start to think of competing in space again.  That seemed to get us to the moon, and it may be necessary to get us to Mars.

Image Credit:  NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/623766main_8143_Singer-AD_industry_day-021312_FINAL3.pdf

The Returning Ghost Ship

If you recall the first Star Trek movie in 1979, a returning spacecraft caused quite a bit of carnage on its way back to Earth.  In that case it was V'GER, but we are now faced with a real returning spacecraft from many years ago called ISEE.  It sound as mysterious, if not all-knowing, but we have this one figured out from the start.

The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) was launched back in 1978, one year before the Star

Trek movie, to study solar winds.  It was later re-purposed as the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) to study the plasma tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner on September 11, 1985.  The spacecraft was decommissioned in May 1997 and NASA lost the ability to communicate with the spacecraft in 1999.  But now it is back, and the rest of the story involves space piracy, a McDonald's restaurant, and a company called Skycorp that sounds a lot like a company from the movie Terminator (and we know how that ended for everyone). 


ISEE-3/ICE is approaching the Earth and a few private scientists have asked NASA for permission to communicate with the spacecraft one last time using funds obtained through crowd-funding.  The scientists hope to reorient the spacecraft so it can conduct more solar wind work.  The whole story and cast of characters was well-told in a New York Times article last Sunday.  It's quite a tale and we can only hope ISEE-3/ICE is a little less confused than V-GER as it approaches Earth. 

Update:  The attempt to restart the spacecraft failed earlier this month.  The team stated, "...we think there is a chance that the Nitrogen used as a pressuring for the monopropellant Hydrazine propulsion system may have been depleted."  However, the team is not giving up.  They believe they can heat up the fuel tank to free up the required Nitrogen.  Stay tuned. 

Beware the City-Busters from On High

Don Yeomans from the Near Earth Object Program Office in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been in the news discussing the risk of asteroid strikes here on Earth.  Back on June 9th he was the featured scientist in Time magazine's "The Man Who Guards The Planet," and more recently he has interviewed on 60 Minutes by Anderson Cooper in an episode titled Cosmic Roulette.  The story accompanying the 60 Minutes piece notes:

Though scientists are keeping an eye on most of the large asteroids and comets capable of causing global destruction by colliding with Earth, they have been able to track only one percent of the smaller ones that are capable of destroying an entire city, Anderson Cooper reports this Sunday on 60 Minutes. Cooper's story also reveals that NASA scientists first learned about the asteroid that exploded in Russia in February from Twitter and YouTube. There was no advance warning.

The issue is getting attention, but it is getting funding?  Barely, at about $40 million in 2013.  We are not too good about self-preservation unless the danger is clear and present, which is unlikely on the cosmic scale we need to deal with here.  And few nations have the luxury of peering into the heavens while man is so capable of creating a hell here on Earth, the latest being Ukraine, Syria, and Iraq.  With the U.S. carrying about 98 percent of the burden, it would be nice to have a few more nations on board. 

You can visit the NEO website if you want to learn more about the asteroid detection process and even learn about the next near approaches by the monitored asteroids.  As you can see from the table below, two were scheduled to make near passes today (2014 HN178 and 2007 FY20). 

I'm glad someone is tracking these items, though I am not so sure we will have the necessary 20-30 years warning to properly prepare. 

Crater Image and Table Credit:  http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/meteorcrater.html

Don Yeomans Image Credit:  Time magazine

Looking for that Next Earth

A lot of attention is being paid to the newly discovered Kepler 10c, a planet twice as large as Earth and 17 times heavier.  About 560 light years from Earth, this planet takes 45 days to orbit its sun.  In the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics press release announcing the finding, researcher Dimitar Sasselov, director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiatives, stated "This is the Godzilla of Earths!" But unlike the movie monster, Kepler-10c has positive implications for life."

What I find even more interesting is the age of  the solar system hosting Kepler-10.  It is about 11 billion years old, having formed less than 3 billion years after the Big Bang.  So in addition to a planet more than twice the size of Earth, it is also more than twice as old.  What does this rocky world tell us about the available elements for planet building.  And what has been happening on that planet all this time? 

Estimates on the number of Earth-like planets and the likelihood of life continue to abound.  One recent paper, Assessing the Possibility of Biological Complexity on Other Worlds, with an Estimate of the Occurrence of Complex Life in the Milky Way Galaxy, put the estimated number of Earth-like planets about about 100 million in the Milky Way alone.  The paper concludes, "It supports the view that the evolution of complex life on other worlds is rare in frequency but large in absolute number." That provides ample ammunition for many more stories about new worlds. 

Great Image: Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Last week NASA released an amazing image of the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope that took 9 years to create. It is a beautiful composite of of more than 10,000 colorful galaxies stretching back to the beginning of the universe.  Here is the official explanation from NASA: 

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have assembled a comprehensive picture of the evolving universe – among the most colorful deep space images ever captured by the 24-year-old telescope.

Researchers say the image, in new study called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, provides the missing link in star formation. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3.

Astronomers previously studied the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) in visible and near-infrared light in a series of images captured from 2003 to 2009. The HUDF shows a small section of space in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax. Now, using ultraviolet light, astronomers have combined the full range of colors available to Hubble, stretching all the way from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. The resulting image -- made from 841 orbits of telescope viewing time -- contains approximately 10,000 galaxies, extending back in time to within a few hundred million years of the big bang.

Image Credit:  http://hubblesite.org/news/2014/27

One Step Closer to US Flights to the ISS

With the unveiling of SpaceX's Dragon V2 last week, the United States is that much closer to flying its own astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) as it once did under the US space shuttle program.  After multiple successful Dragon V1 resupply missions to the ISS, SpaceX is taking the next step to carry humans.  Elon Musk walked an audience through the features of the spacecraft at the unveiling. 

What will be unique about this reusable spacecraft is that it will return to Earth and land like a helicopter, unlike the sea-splashing capsules or even the plane-like landing of the shuttles.  The Dragon V2 will still have a parachute for emergency backup during landing.  And the new spacecraft can carry up to seven astronauts, though they will sit in two tiers while being transported to the ISS.  The Dragon V2 is a capsule and not a working platform similar to the shuttle where the astronauts can move around and conduct their work.  However, SpaceX has also created the unmanned DragonLab that serves as a stand-alone platform for research.

In partnership with NASA, SpaceX is moving us in the right direction and away from dependence on the Russians.

Upcoming International Space Station Conference

The 3rd International Space Station Research and Development Conference takes place in Chicago next month.  From June 17-19, 2014, participants will meet at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago to discuss a variety of topics such as:

- Life Sciences in Microgravity;
- ISS: Pathways to Mars; and
- Entrepreneurship on the ISS- Case Studies.
 

There is still time to register.  

It is good to see the science and planning continues while NASA and its Russian counterparts still argue about the future of the space station.  Ultimately we want to ensure we continue to obtain solid achievements from our $100 billion investment, whether we do it in unison with or without the Russians.

NASA Cannot Do it Alone

Maybe we need Hollywood to help us to dream.  Whether it is the hopeful future portrayed by Star Trek, the encounter with a alien race in the movie Contact, or the horrible space accident in the most recent move Gravity, it always helps to have the imaginative powers of Hollywood on your side.  The same is true with the upcoming Christopher Nolan move Interstellar.  If this trailer does not get you excited about what may be out there and what we may yet do as a space-faring people, I am not sure what will. 

Great Image: Moon and Saturn Occultation

 

The composite image above shows the Moon Saturn Occultation from May 14th.  Created by amateur astronomer Paul Steward (see more of his work here), it was highlighted by Phil Plait in his Slate magazine column:

While these two tracks cross each other, it’s relatively rare for the Moon and Saturn to be at the same place at the same time. But it does happen, and it’s called an occultation. The Moon slowly covers Saturn, blocking it for some time, then once again moves out of the way to reveal the ringed planet. In this case, the timing of the May 14 occultation made it visible only for observers in the southern hemisphere, specifically Australia and New Zealand.

Image Credit:  Paul Steward, New Zeland