Pending Space Junk: A Very Close Call with the ISS

Is anyone else concerned that our $100 billion International Space Station (ISS) could have been gold-plated space debris last weekend?  It was a scary situation with the astronauts huddled in the Soyuz capsules hoping for the best.  This piece of debris threatening the ISS was from an old one-ton Russian Cosmos 2551 satellite that collided with an Iridium 33 satellite in 2009. The earlier Russian collision left behind thousands of pieces that need to be tracked forevermore since they threaten space craft. In June 2011 the astronauts had a similar close call with this same Russian space junk, causing them to also take shelter in the capsules.

This past January, the ISS also needed to fire its thrusters to dodge debris from a Chinese weather satellite intentionally destroyed by the Chinese military back in 2007.  And in April 2011 the ISS astronauts had to stay in the capsules to avoid this very junk.  It is not clear why the Chinese are creating lethal space junk while also planning to put their own manned space station into orbit. 

It would seem orbiting the Earth is becoming more dangerous each day.  Fortunately, we have the U.S. military's space surveillance network (SSN) tracking much of this debris.  The mission of SSN is to:

• Analyze new space launches and evaluate orbital insertion
• Detect new man-made objects in space
• Chart present position of space objects and plot their anticipated orbital paths
• Produce and maintain current orbital data of man-made space objects in a space catalog
• Inform NASA and other government entities if objects may interfere with the orbits of the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and operational satellite platforms
• Predict when and where a decaying space object will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere
• Prevent a returning space object, which to radar looks like a missile, from triggering a false alarm in missile-attack warning sensors of the U.S. and other countries
• Determine which country owns a re-entering space object
• Predict surface impacts of re-entering objects and notify the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Public Safety Canada if an object may make landfall in North America or Hawaii.

Of course, SSN can only track the larger pieces of space junk, though even debris the size of a grain of sand can cause serious problems.  SSN is already tracking space junk that is at least 4 inches (10 cm) in low-Earth orbit, the region where the ISS operates. In total, some 19,000 man made objects this size or bigger were orbiting Earth as of July 2009, mostly in low-Earth orbit.

What we really need to be wary of is the Kessler syndrome, proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978.  This idea related to a cascade of collisions in low-Earth orbit leading to the abandonment of this area, and potentially space exploration, because of the significant danger to all spacecraft.  What can we do?  Future postings will discuss some of the ideas being proposed to clean up this space debris.

2012 and Still Here, For Now at Least

With all of the predictions (and bad films) concerning the destruction of Earth in 2012, I am happy to report we have survived the first three months of the year.  Not that the world is a very safe place. In fact, the solar storm on March 9th and 10th did some real damage. 

The Pentagon is reporting the solar flares shut down some of its satellites.  While everything eventually rebooted, it would have not been a great situation in a time of war.  According to the U.S. News and World article, NASA believes the recent wave of solar storms will intensify through the end of 2012.  Even so, General William Shelton, head of the Air Force's Space Command Shelton, stated the military's satellites will be able to withstand these  future storms.  "I don't believe that anything—short of something truly catastrophic, that would be catastrophic to those of us on Earth as well, I don't believe there's a scenario where we'd wholesale lose spacecraft," Shelton said.

We had a little bit of warning about his latest storm, though it was predicted for 2013. The Telegraph noted back in 2010 that  

National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power in a few years. 

Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes “from a deep slumber” sometime around 2013, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. 

In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning” and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

Of course, this idea could be put to the test again in 2020, when a much large solar storm may hit the Earth.   Some put such chances at only 12 percent, though the impact could be tremendous.  

One report, Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts: A Workshop Report, highlights one of the most famous solar storm called The Carrington event of 1959:

Notable for both its scientific and its technological impact, the Carrington event was probably the most important space weather event of the past 200 years. It initially attracted scientific attention because it disrupted telegraphic communication for as long as 8 hours, presented a visual panoply of nighttime lights to observers, and was widely reported in newspapers.  [R. James Caverly of the Department of Homeland Security] reasoned that a contemporary Carrington event would lead to much deeper and more widespread social disruptions than those of 1859. Basic to his contention are the enormous changes to the nation’s infrastructure over the past century and a half and the virtual certainty of additional changes in the future.

Today scientists have a better understanding of the technical causes and implications of space weather, and even of appropriate technical responses to it, than they did in the past. Knowledge of the social, institutional, and policy implications of space weather is growing but is still rudimentary. The disruption of the telegraph system in 1859 caused problems in communication, but because modern society is so dependent on large, complex, and interconnected technical systems—and because these systems not only are vital for the functioning of the economy but also are vulnerable to electromagnetic events–a contemporary repetition of the Carrington event would cause significantly more extensive (and possibly catastrophic) social and economic disruptions. [Todd La Porte, Jr., of George Mason University] said that understanding the consequences resulting from interdependencies of infrastructure disrupted during significant space weather is essential. Caverly stated that although systems may be well designed themselves, there is a need to consider the “system of systems” concept and to examine the associated dependencies in detail. He added that today there is growing awareness among planners, managers, and designers of this necessity.

So relax, we have a few years to figure this out, though the way our society is going I can picture quite a fuss if the iPhone and Facebook generation (and whatever follows) goes without an electrical connection for more than 30 seconds.  It could get ugly.

Great Images: Spitzer Capture Planet UX Tau A

Here is another great image from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

This is an artist's rendition of the one-million-year-old star system called UX Tau A, located approximately 450 light-years away. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope showed a gap in the dusty planet-forming disk swirling around the system's central sun-like star.

Spitzer saw a gap in UX Tau A's disk that extends from 0.2 to 56 astronomical units (an astronomical unit is the distance between the sun and Earth). The gap extends from the equivalent of Mercury to Pluto in our solar system, and is sandwiched between thick inner and outer disks on either side. Astronomers suspect that the gap was carved out by one or more forming planets.

Does China Already Have a Space Station?

In a previous post, I discussed China's efforts to build its own space station.  But now I am wondering if they need to go to all that trouble.  A February 29 NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report noted someone may have obtained information to control the International Space Station as well as our other space missions:

Between April 2009 and April 2011, NASA reported the loss or theft of 48 Agency mobile computing devices, some of which resulted in the unauthorized release of sensitive data including export-controlled, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and third-party intellectual property. For example, the March 2011 theft of an unencrypted NASA notebook computer resulted in the loss of the algorithms used to command and control the International Space Station. Other lost or stolen notebooks contained Social Security numbers and sensitive data on NASA’s Constellation and Orion programs. 

While it is not certain the Chinese have access to this data, the Chinese have been caught plenty of other times trying to penetrate NASA's systems. Here are a few more from the OIG report:

-- In November 2011, [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] IT Security reported suspicious network activity involving Chinese-based IP addresses. Our review disclosed that the intruders had compromised the accounts of the most privileged JPL users, giving the intruders access to most of JPL’s networks. The OIG continues to investigate this matter.

-- As a result of an OIG investigation and lengthy international coordination efforts, a Chinese national was detained in December 2010 by Chinese authorities for violations of Chinese Administrative Law. This case resulted in the first confirmed detention of a Chinese national for hacking activity targeting U.S. Government agencies. Seven NASA systems, many containing export-restricted technical data, were compromised by the Chinese national.

And the Chinese are not alone.  In the report, the OIG noted the Agency has dealt with approximately 5,400 computer security incidents in 2010 and 2011, while investigators have conducted more than 16 separate investigations of similar breaches in the past few years, several of which have resulted in the arrests and convictions of foreign nationals in Estonia, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey.  A nation that cannot keep its secrets cannot keep its lead.  So maybe we will see Portugal on the moon before we have a chance to return.

A Manned Trip to Europa?

Of course, NASA may not be sending humans to Europa anytime soon (nor anywhere else), but Hollywood believes Europa may be a good backdrop for dramatic story-telling. In fact, the movie creators have set up a fun site under the name Europa Ventures LLC where you can watch the crew as the cross the solar system on their three-year journey to Jupiter's moon.  A pretty inventive approach to an interesting film.

The website also includes a mission statement:

For decades, scientists have theorized the existence of liquid water oceans on Jupiter's moon, Europa. We've recently discovered new, captivating evidence that these sub-surface oceans do exist and could support life. 

We've sent six astronauts from space programs throughout the world on a three year journey to Europa to explore its oceans and confirm these findings. 

We're proud to be at the forefront of the effort to prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life within our solar system, within our lifetimes. 

This allows us to have a little bit of fun while the Congress battles over the budget. The film will be released sometime in 2013. Somehow we need to keep NASA in the "forefront" as well.

 Update:  Here is a copy of the Europa Ventures screen if you have not seen it.

Mars Not a Budgetary Priority

The NASA's 2013 budget was recently released and, surprise of surprises, Mars is on the cutting table.  It is not all bad news since the James Web Space Telescope is being funded, as are studies on future trips to Saturn's moon Enceladus as well as Uranus.  However, further work on a Europa mission has been shelved for now as well.  Of course, NASA put a very positive spin on the proposed budget:

"This budget in-sources jobs, creates capabilities here at home -- and strengthens our workforce, all while opening the next great chapter in American exploration," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "And as we reach for new heights in space, we're creating new jobs right here on Earth, helping to support an economy that's built to last."

The NASA budget includes $4 billion for space operations and $4 billion for exploration activities in the Human Exploration Operations mission directorate, including close-out of the Space Shuttle Program, and funding for the International Space Station, $4.9 billion for science, $669 million for space technology and $552 million for aeronautics research. 

It was very important to put that "jobs" piece and "built to last" into this budget spin, with little time for dreaming these days.  However, not everyone is convinced.  The Planetary Society has his own take on this new budget in a press release titled "Proposed FY 2013 Budget Would Devastate Planetary Science in NASA":

NASA’s planetary science program is being singled out for drastic cuts, with its budget dropping by 20 percent, from $1.5 billion this year to $1.2 billion next year. The steep reductions will continue for at least the next five years -- if the Administration’s proposal is not changed. This would strike at the heart of one of NASA’s most productive and successful programs over the past decade. 

If Congress enacts the proposed budget, there will be no “flagship” missions of any kind, killing the tradition of great missions of exploration, such as Voyager and Cassini to the outer planets. NASA’s storied Mars program will be cut drastically, falling from $587 million for FY 2012 to $360 in FY 2013, and forcing missions to be cancelled. The search for life on other potentially habitable worlds -- such as Mars, Europa, Enceladus, or Titan -- will be effectively abandoned.

“People know that Mars and Europa are the two most important places to search in our solar system for evidence of other past or present life forms, said Jim Bell, Planetary Society President, “Why, then, are missions to do those searches being cut in this proposed budget? If enacted, this would represent a major backwards step in the exploration of our solar system.”

It is interesting that one source is talking about exploration in the regions of Saturn and Uranus while another implies an end to all such missions.  And of course this is not the final budget. It is no fun reading these budget documents, but I may give it a try to make some sense of all of this.  The bottom line, of course, is that we have some lean years ahead of us and this White House may be more interested in locating jobs on Earth than life on other planets. This is the new reality (or maybe it has always been thus, but better packaged).

Great Images: Spitzer Captures a Quadruple-Star System

Here is a great image from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

This artist concept depicts a quadruple-star system called HD 98800. The system is approximately 10 million years old, and is located 150 light-years away in the constellation TW Hydrae. 

HD 98800 contains four stars, which are paired off into doublets, or binaries. The stars in the binary pairs orbit around each other, and the two pairs also circle each other like choreographed ballerinas. One of the stellar pairs, called HD 98800B, has a disk of dust around it, while the other pair does not.

Although the four stars are gravitationally bound, the distance separating the two binary pairs is about 50 astronomical units (AU) -- slightly more than the average distance between our sun and Pluto.

Billions of Planets Throughout the Galaxy

A recent issue of Science News noted how scientists are now estimating that the Milky Way galaxy has 100 billion planets or more.  This works out to an average of 1.6 planets per star.  And smaller planets like ours are more common than large planets.  Pretty impressive stuff considering it was only a few years back when we were seeking evidence of any planets outside of our solar system. 

The Science News article states,

To make their estimate, the scientists used data that had been gathered from 2002 to 2007 by surveys looking for the temporary brightening in a distant star’s light caused by the gravity of a body passing in front of it. If that passing body is a star with planets, the system causes a predictable boost in the distant star’s light, revealing the presence of the closer planet.

So my question now is whether this estimate would also include planets that are not circling stars.  It seems unlikely.  Last year NASA reported,

The discovery indicates there are many more free-floating Jupiter-mass planets that can't be seen. The team estimates there are about twice as many of them as stars. In addition, these worlds are thought to be at least as common as planets that orbit stars. This would add up to hundreds of billions of lone planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone...The survey is not sensitive to planets smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, but theories suggest lower-mass planets like Earth should be ejected from their stars more often. As a result, they are thought to be more common than free-floating Jupiters.

So now we are looking at 300 billion or more planets throughout the galaxy.  While we strive for Mars today, the possibilities for the future are mind-boggling. 

Tissint Metorite: Mars Rocks Earth

We have heard a number of theories about comets and meteorites seeding life here on earth, and recently we saw even more evidence of outside interference.  According to The Meteoritical Society, last July the Maritain Tissint meteorite (see photo to right) crashed in the Moroccan desert:

At about 2 am local time on July 18, 2011, a bright fireball was observed by several people in the region of the Oued Drâa valley, east of Tata, Morocco. One eyewitness, Mr Aznid Lhou, reported that it was at first yellow in color, and then turned green illuminating all the area before it appeared to split into two parts. Two sonic booms were heard over the valley. In October 2011, nomads began to find very fresh, fusion-crusted stones in a remote area of the Oued Drâa intermittent watershed, centered about 50 km ESE of Tata and 48 km SSW of Tissint village, in the vicinity of the Oued El Gsaïb drainage and also near El Ga’ïdat plateau known as Hmadat Boû Rba’ ine. The largest stones were recovered in the El Ga’ïdat plateau, whereas the smallest one (a few grams) closer to the El Aglâb Mountains. One 47 g crusted stone was documented as being found at 29°28.917’ N, 7°36.674’ W. 

Are such meteorites odd?  Not really, though eye-witness stories of such landings are odd.  And this particular lot of rocks is pretty sizable, with one meteorite fragment weighing more than 2 pounds.  Back in 2001, a Discover Magazine article noted that "...up to 5 percent of the rocks launched from Mars land on Earth within 10 million years. Many arrive much sooner— some within a few years."  Moreover, one scientific team noted that "...50 billion Martian rocks landed on Earth during the first 500 million years of the solar system. Of those, about 20,000 rocks struck Earth within a decade. And throughout the subsequent 4 billion years, as many as 5 billion more Martian meteoroids journeyed our way. If life ever existed on Mars, it's quite possible that it contaminated Earth repeatedly."  This is an impressive amount of material littering the Earth.

Interestingly enough, you can now buy the Tissint meteorite as well as many other just like it.  Of course, a piece of the Tissint meteorite will cost about 10 times the price of gold.  In fact, it is not too hard to find a place selling meteorites.  Check out Galactic Stone and Ironworks, where you can purchase various meteorite specimens.  For example, to the right is the Bensour meteorite fragments on sale for $6 apiece.  According to the sellers, the meteorite has a similar story to the Tissint meteorite:

In February of 2002, nomads in the remote Saharan desert near the Moroccan-Algerian border saw a shower of meteorites rain down.  These meteorites turned out to be a beautiful LL6 chondrite that is well-known for it's dark black crust and contrasting light-grey matrix with metal flecks.   

It is pretty amazing that NASA and the European Space Agency are still devising a mission to bring back Martian samples while they are literally dropping out of the sky.  Don't tell Congress since they will most likely organize inexpensive rock hunts on Earth rather than billion dollar missions to Mars.

Moon or Bust: Newt Style

While I wish our political discussions where geared towards Mars, it appears our moon is back on the table as the ultimate destination in the near future.  Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has been discussing the merits of a moon base at his recent campaign appearances. In fact, he is already looking at delegate counts for his third term as president since the moon base will be an established post with 13,000 residents by the end of his term, by his reckoning at least.  Yes, these moon colonists can apply for statehood. 

In a recent interview, Neil DeGrasse Tyson noted that Newt has been bashing government with one hand and then touting the Apollo program and first landing on the moon on the other hand.  Dr. Tyson pointed out that government has a role in funding risky ventures, be it Columbus and his journey to the New World or Lewis and Clark as they explored an expanding America. 

Jon Stewart had it right when he noted that Newt has more interest in statehood for a non-existent moon colony then 500,000 Americans situated in Washington, DC.  One wonders if Newt has any interest in science on the moon or only campaigning for statehood on the moon.  And we may need to set some boundaries with the Chinese and Russians if they already have some similar claims.  Maybe we can buy out the Russians as we did with Alaska and give the Chinese the dark side of the moon.  So many possibilities.

I support the idea of big thinking for our space program, and maybe we need to piggy-back on silly political aspirations to do something at all.  As Great Britain's Telegraph noted recently,

Both the United States and to a greater extent Europe are suffering from a collective sense of ennui, a lack inspiration or purpose, which has manifested itself in a decline in invention and innovation. Nothing better illustrates America’s decline than the technological improvements of its space programme, or lack of them. The LA Times noted last year, when NASA announced plans “to build a heavy launch vehicle capable of sending astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit by 2025", that it would be only "slightly more powerful than the 1960s-era Saturn V that launched Americans to the moon”. How shameful.

If we needed the Cold War to get to the moon, maybe we need a pompous politician to break earth orbit.  I just wish we had even bolder aspirations than repeating the past.  If this base is a more practical port for later adventures, then it may have merit.  If it is only to thumb our nose back at the remaining earthlings, then I believe we can do better things with our money.

Update:  I enjoyed Jonah Goldberg's somewhat humorous take on big government projects, such as a lunar mission, in the February 20, 2012, edition of National Review:

...if you're going to go Keynesian, it might as well be on big cool stuff that helps define you as a nation for the better, inspires little kids in positive ways, encourages scientific education and training, helps create a whole generation of creative people (Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, and countless others were defined by their love of the space program), intimidates our enemies, and gets us one giant step closer to a Taco Bell on the moon.  You can't put a price on that.

The End of "LIFE" (And the Russian Mars Probe)

It’s another unexpected event in space exploration, always a risky business.  Rest assured that The Planetary Society will continue to press forward and seek answers to those deep questions: Where did we come from, and are we alone?

 -- Bill Nye
    CEO, The Planetary Society

I received this email a few days ago and now I read the Planetary Society's LIFE experiment, as well as the Russian probe Phobos-Grunt, came crashing down into the Pacific ocean yesterday (see my earlier piece).  It was a sad ordeal for the Russian space program, made worse by some Russians looking for someone to blame.  According to Canada's National Post, the Russians are looking at the internal causes of this failure. 

That's more encouraging then what we heard a few days ago where Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin indicated the West may have been to blame for the probe's problem.  Of course, not only did the probe contain a U.S. experiment (LIFE) but also a Chinese probe.  It was a truly international effort.  I hope we are getting past finger-pointing now, but it is not encouraging when the only country getting us to the International Space Station may think we are sabotaging their space program. 

What About the Worst Science Stories

We finished up 2011 with the biggest science stories, but what about the duds?  Fortunately, the magazine The Scientist came up with a list of the top science scandals of 2011.  Sadly, not every scientist is showing the greatest judgement or demonstrating a high level of integrity.  Five examples cited by the article related to (1) Diederik Stapel and his multiple problematic papers, (2) mice and chronic fatigue syndrome, (3) genes associated with extreme longevity, (4) arsenic-based life, and (5) change skeptic Edward Wegman. 

One of my earlier pieces discussed the arsenic-based life story when it first broke.  In fact, it was a NASA announcement, which only makes the error more serious. As I even noted then, there was great skepticism about this finding from the outset.  However, the paper has not been retracted.  Hence, the controversy continues. 

Such scandals are quite destructive at a time when much of the public is looking for reasons to ignore difficult choices and retreat to a more comfortable position where everything that needs to be known has been settled.  Risk-taking is a natural part of science, as is trial and error.  We just need to recognize those errors, learn from them, and move on.  Publishing these errors as new knowledge does great harm.

10 Biggest Science Stories

London's Guardian newspaper recently posted The Year's 10 Biggest Stories in science.  Of these stories, four touched upon astronomy, space travel, or the origins of our universe.  These stories were:

-- Flying faster than the speed of light just might be possible after all:  Discusses the CERN experiment that found neutrinos may have been traveling faster than light.

-- The best candidate for finding life on another world has been pinpointed by astronomers:  Notes how the Kepler telescope found Kepler 22-b, a planet 600 lights years away that is about 2.4 times the size of earth and sits within the "goldilocks zone."  With an average surface temperature of 22C (72 F), a solar orbit of 290 Earth days, and the possibility of water, the newly identified planet may be able to harbor life as we know it.

-- Mars continue to be a tricky place to reach:  The article notes that of the past 38 Mars missions, 19 have failed.  The Russian's most recent failure was not encouraging. 

-- We learned that the Higgs boson really does exist:  Scientists reported earlier in December that the Higgs boson, or the substance that gives all other particles their mass, may have been found. This offers some important insights into the origins of our universe.

Yes, it has been a pretty interesting year.  Now if we could only find a way to travel faster than light, we might have a chance to explore worlds such as Kepler 22-b.  Of course, we may need to do a better job getting to Mars before we worry about traveling elsewhere in the galaxy.

More on Musk (and Mars)

Yesterday Slate reported that Elon Musk is predicting that the first SpaceX mission to Mars could be as soon as 10 years from now.  Musk stated,  "Ultimately we don't really want 10,000 people on Mars...We want millions."  This is an impressive boast, and even more impressive if he has the resources to promise something that even the White House (and other countries) dare not utter. 

According to Musk at the National Press Club, “I would argue also on that scale should fit life becoming multiplanetary. And in fact I think, [after] consciousness, it’s the next step. You really kind of need consciousness to design vehicles that can transport life over hundreds of millions of miles of irradiated space to an environment that they did not evolve to exist in.”  Here is the part of the speech.

It is nice to have a few big thinkers in the room.  First we need to dream (and write it down), and then we need to act.  Someone contact NASA!

Startalk Radio - Fun Astronomy

I have been listening to Neil de Grasse Tyson on the StarTalk podcast and find that it is a fun mix of news, culture, science, and quite often topics on astronomy and astrophysics. Dr. Tyson, a well know astrophysicist, as well as the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, brings a lot of energy to the Discovery-funded program.  While I am not always a fan of the loud music starting the show and name-dropping that is bound to occur in each episode, I will give him credit for bringing audiences into a realm where they might otherwise be afraid to venture. 

Here are a few episodes from this year:

-- Oscar-winning actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg joins Neil to talk about her love of science, and how it eventually led to her role as Guinan on Star Trek, the Next Generation. 

-- Actor Alan Alda, comedian Eugene Mirman, and more great guests discuss the state of science literacy and take audience questions that explore just how weird and funny science can be.

-- Every now and then it's good to take a tour around your own backyard. Space scientists Steve Squyres and Heidi Hammel, comedian Chuck Nice, and Bill Nye the Science Guy join Neil in a look around our own corner of the cosmos.

Of course, Dr. Tyson is also the host of NOVA's scienceNOW, which has brought some interesting stories to the television.  He is a great popularized of science, which may rub some folks the wrong way (particularly his colleagues) yet offers a valuable service to a society where scientific opinion is often discounted for a variety of political reasons.  Whether he is showing up on Comedy Central's Daily Show or HBO's Real Time, he is pushing for more science funding as well as greater dreaming in our society.

As Carl Sagan played the serious scientist in his 1980s PBS series Cosmos, Dr. Tyson bring a comedic, frat boy style to his series to keep the topics light and interesting.  Of course, we also have the grandfatherly approach of Morgan Freeman on his Science Channel series Through the Wormhole to add to the balance.

It is odd that we have so many terrific science programs on television and populating the Internet, and yet Americans seem to be moving away from clear, scientific thinking on the issues facing us, be it the environment or the exploration of our universe.  How can we be starving in the midst of such plenty?

Let the Mission Begin - Curiosity and Mars

The Curiosity rover is on its way to Mars after a successful NASA launch yesterday.  In about 8 and a half months the rover will start its exploration of the Martian surface and tell us more about the origins and current state of the planet.  This is a success for NASA after the recent loss of another Mars mission, this one Russian and Chinese, which ended in low Earth orbit. 

NASA's $2.5 billion mission to Mars marks an expensive recovery from the space agency's unreadiness in 2009, which led to more than a 50 percent increase in the mission's cost.  But all of that is behind us as we watch the mission from here on Earth and learn about more than 1 billion years of Martian history once Curiosity starts crawling around Gale Crater. And while Curiosity is probing one part of Mars, the earlier rover Opportunity is continuing a separate mission elsewhere on the planet's surface.  So two U.S. rovers are crawling across the planet while we determine our future plans to send humans to the Red Planet.  This is one small step that will hopefully engage the American public (as well as the President) for such a mission.

Is the Space Program Running Out of Fuel?

I have written in the past about a lack of vision in the U.S. space program, but I did not expect to write about the potential loss of fuel for our spacecraft.  A recent NPR story, The Plutonium Problem: Who Pays For Space Fuel?, noted how the U.S. space program may face problems obtaining plutonium-238 for its spacecraft and rovers.  For instance, the new Mars rover Curiosity will use 8 pounds of plutonium-238 as part of its exploring on the martian surface.  

The article quotes Len Dudzinski, the program executive for radioisotope power systems at NASA headquarters, who stated, "Because the United States has access to plutonium-238, we are the only country that has ever sent a science mission beyond Mars."  Other spacecraft, from the Voyager missions to the more recent Cassini, are dependent upon this fuel. 

As always, the issue is resources or, more specifically, budget battles.  Who should pay for this fuel, NASA or the Department of Energy?  Of course, budget battles have become much more acrimonious in recent years, with many projects such as the James Webb Space Telescope being held hostage (though even this battle was positively resolved recently, giving me a little more hope).  

This is a tough time to find extra funds for anything, but NASA needs to push such projects and the President needs to be the Agency's advocate.  We are already stumbling about looking for the next space vehicle as well as the next place to visit, which has not been an inspiring picture to date.  But we are dangerously close to grounding all of our projects if we lack the fuel to continue. Yes, maybe new fuels will be found, but I would not walk away from anything right now until we have proven alternatives.  If we want to remain part of the space race (or even space jog), we need to have some basic items to continue.  I hope our leaders in DC realize this.

Note:  NPR reported on this very same issue in September 2009. And Space News reported that the Russians were holding on their plutonium-238 supplies back in December 2009.  This is not a new problem, but I guess Congress needs to be reeducated on a regular basis.

Russian Space Program: Good and Bad News

Well, the good news is that Russia has now had it's second International Space Station (ISS) success.  The first was noted in my earlier entry, when the Soyuz resupply mission left for the ISS.  The second successful launch was Monday, when a U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts left Kazakstan on their way to the station so that they could relieve the three existing crew members who return to earth next week. 

The bad news is that the Russian mission to Mars' moon Phobos is no more.  Phobos-Grunt failed to leave Earth orbit due to a rocket failure and now it is little more than space junk awaiting re-entry sometime next month.  This is a serious setback to the Russian space program that already had a number of problematic launches.  It also marks a setback for China, which had a Mars probe on board, as well as The Planetary Society, which had a soil experiment on the craft.  Some are talking about a possible recovery of certain parts of the spacecraft.  It would be nice if something can be salvaged.

The Space Station is Back in Business

Yesterday's launch of a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan has reestablished our link with the International Space Station.  The Russian resupply mission, named Progress M-13M (or Progress 45 to NASA), is the first since a rocket failure last August.  If all goes well, a new crew will replace the current three person crew in November.  

NASA is already looking forward to a six person crew in December:

We congratulate our Russian colleagues on Sunday's successful launch of ISS Progress 45, and the spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station. Pending the outcome of a series of flight readiness meetings in the coming weeks, this successful flight sets the stage for the next Soyuz launch, planned for mid-November. The December Soyuz mission will restore the space station crew size to six and continue normal crew rotations.

Profile Piece on Elon Musk

The Wall Street Journal had a recent piece on Elon Musk, the South African born founder of SpaceX, Telsa, and SolarCity.  The article contained a nice summary of his various endeavors, including this snapshot of SpaceX:

Around the Dragon, in this cavernous former Boeing 747 factory in Hawthorne, California, 1,500 young engineers and techs are building four more Falcon 9s. Musk has contracts for over 30 more launches worth $3 billion—including $1.6 billion from NASA. If all goes according to plan, in late December his third F9 launch will dock with the International Space Station. This 40-year-old is dreaming the stuff of nations.

With all the media focused on mediocre celebrities in Hollywood, it is nice to see a profile on someone who is really changing the world for the better.