New moon exhibit makes scents of space exploration

From TheStar.com (Canada): New moon exhibit makes scents of space exploration
What does moondust smell like?

Spent gunpowder, says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, who looked more like a coal miner than a space explorer after a moonwalk.

Four-day-old socks, says Michael Shara, who has created the exhibit that lets Earthlings get a whiff of the moon.

Shara, the Montreal-born and Toronto-educated director of astrophysics at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, built the new Beyond Planet Earth exhibit as a forward-thinking exploration in which the moon plays the role of next-door neighbour.

“I wanted to look at the next 50 or 100 or 300 years,” he told the Star.

“People have become extraordinarily blasé about things like the shuttle,” he said. “In large measure that attitude is well placed. But going over that is not the way to excite schoolchildren.”

So lunar mining and even tourism is a given, a jumping-off point for travel first to a nearby asteroid and then Mars and then Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and finally the Earthlike exoplanets orbiting other stars.

Will we be colonizing the moon in 50 years? “I would be surprised if we’re not.”

Helium 3, a vital element in nuclear energy, is rare on Earth but “relatively abundant” on the moon and “could be the thing that drives us to the moon and keeps us there.”

Or it could be tourism, via a lunar elevator rather than rockets. Shara himself figures he has a “50-50 chance” of at least getting to orbit the moon, but his children will land there.

The smell of moon dust, recreated by chemists synthesizing compounds, is among the interactive exhibits that attempt to recreate life on other worlds.

Despite “carte blanche” in the creation, Shara admitted he had to rein in his imagination.

“I would have preferred an even more immersive experience in Mars —a real lava field that people could walk through. But then we’d have a lawsuit on our hands if anyone fell in.”

The lunar liquid mirror telescope couldn’t use mercury because of its toxicity. “Everything has to be safe from the prying hands of kids.”

Asia's space race could turn into an arms race

From ArsTechnica: Asia's space race could turn into an arms race

By Kyle Niemeyer
A Chinese lunar probe on its way to orbit.

Asia’s current space race could turn into an arms race akin to the Cold War, according to James Clay Moltz, a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. He makes that argument in a recent Nature commentary.

The major Asian nations, including China, Japan, India, and South Korea, are all expanding their space programs with little-to-no cooperation. These efforts are driven by national prestige and geopolitical rivalries, similar to the US-Soviet space race of the 1960s. Like that period, this space race is stimulating technological advances, but competing agendas are leading to duplication of work and mistrust—in other words, a waste of resources. Even worse, this competition is undermining recent cooperation between the US, Russia, and Europe.

Unlike the Western Hemisphere, Asia doesn’t have any regional security organizations like NATO, the EU, or CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization, a post-USSR followup to the Warsaw Pact). Add to this long-standing feuds between specific nations—China-India, India-Pakistan, North Korea-South Korea, China-Japan, Vietnam-China, to name a few—and increasing military tensions, says Moltz, and you have a civilian space race that could turn into an arms race.
Competing for space

China, Japan, and India, the three Asian leaders in space, are all increasing their launch activity as they deploy satellite constellations for both civilian and military uses. China had the same number of launches as the US (15) last year, while Japan had two and India three. Japan’s annual space budget is the highest, at $3.8 billion, compared to China’s estimated $2.2 billion and India’s $1.3 billion. But China and India have an estimated 80,000 and 32,000 civilian space personnel, respectively, to Japan’s 8,300. For comparison, NASA’s 2011 budget is $18.724 billion and it carries about 19,000 employees.

Each of these nations has performed separate lunar-mapping missions since 2007, with planned follow ups of rovers, landers, and lunar bases—but no cooperation, even though a lot of the work will be redundant.

Japan has the most human spaceflight experience, with 15 manned flights since 1992 and a membership in the International Space Station, but it has always hitchhiked with the US or Russia; the country doesn’t have its own personnel transport vehicle. China launched its first astronaut in 2003 (via the Shenzhou-5), with multiple followups since. Most recently, it launched the Tiangong-1, an orbital test module for a planned 2020 space station. India, threatened by China’s recent rise, announced a planned manned flight in 2016.

In addition to human spaceflight efforts, the three major nations are also building their own supplements to the US-maintained Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. GPS is freely accessible but foreign nations are understandably concerned about relying on technology controlled by the US government. China has already deployed one third of its planned 35-satellite BeiDou network. Japan—a close US ally, and therefore likely more comfortable using GPS—is building the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), a three-satellite augmentation to GPS to better cover South Asia. India also plans to launch a South Asian satellite network, called the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (or GAGAN) System.

(Note: the Nature article describes the QZSS as a planned four-satellite system, but a JAXA [Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan’s NASA] website only mentions three.)

Smaller Asian nations, like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, are also building their own satellite-communications networks with help from larger partners, both in Asia and abroad. China, India, and Japan are also cooperating in some ways with US, Europe, and Russia, but not with each other.

Recently, some of the previously civilian-only space development started to move into military applications, specifically satellite interceptors. China destroyed an old satellite in 2007 with a ground-based weapon, creating more than 3,000 pieces of orbital debris. In response, both India and Japan announced offensive and defensive anti-satellite weapons.
Opportunities for cooperation

The biggest question in the face of this rising tension is, of course: what should be done? Getting the big three (China, Japan, and India) to cooperate on space development probably isn’t quite as difficult as the US and Soviet Union during the 1960s-era space race (although the same can’t be said for South and North Korea), but space relations are intrinsically linked to regional politics and rivalries.

To their credit, China and Japan both formed regional space groups: the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) and Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF), respectively, but there hasn’t been any cooperation between the groups, and members of each are limited to less-developed nations such as Bangladesh, Mongolia, Peru, and Thailand.

In addition, the recent natural disasters in the region sparked some data exchanges and networking among nations; APSCO and APRSAF could cooperate more in this area. China, Japan, and India also joined NASA’s Global Exploration Strategy, and expressed interest in data exchanges under the umbrella of the International Lunar Network. Moltz suggests that a human spaceflight initiative between China and Japan, like the US-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz docking in 1975, could help improve cooperation.

However, he says the most important issue is an easing of military tensions. The US and Soviet Union pledged satellite non-interference in 1972, but the new space powers haven’t even agreed to this yet. Orbital debris threatens the satellites and vehicles of all space-faring nations, so this might be the basis for talks aimed at ending development of satellite-killing weapons.

Another route to talks might be through the US. The government called for "responsible behavior" in space in 2010 but, due to congressional opposition, hasn’t pursued this much yet. Cooperation with China could downplay Asian rivalries and help develop shared interests in space, potentially leading towards global space efforts—exploration of space being in the interests of humankind, rather than just the citizens of specific nations.

Whether through Asian or US leadership, or a shared disaster, cooperation on space activities needs to grow to avert an arms race and potential conflict, warns Moltz.

Boeing Welcomes Astronaut Chris Ferguson to Space Exploration Team

From 4Trader: Boeing Welcomes Astronaut Chris Ferguson to Space Exploration Team
HOUSTON, Dec. 12, 2011 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced that Christopher J. Ferguson, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former NASA astronaut, has been named director of Commercial Crew Interface in the company's Space Exploration division, effective Dec. 16. Ferguson, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, will report to John Mulholland, Space Exploration vice president and program manager, Commercial Programs.

"Chris' extraordinary managerial and spaceflight experience will be a significant asset to our team as we advance our development of the Commercial Crew Transportation System," said Mulholland. "He will help us address all aspects of human spaceflight requirements, not only for trained NASA astronauts but also for a broad spectrum of people interested in accessing low Earth orbit."

Ferguson will have comprehensive oversight for crew integration and operations in the design of Boeing's Commercial Crew Transportation System. In this capacity, he will work with NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate; Johnson Space Center's Engineering, Flight Crew, and Mission Operations organizations; and Kennedy Space Center's Commercial Crew Program to ensure the design supports NASA Human Rating Requirements. Ferguson also will have a leadership role in the development and testing of system concepts and key technologies for Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) spacecraft, as well as integrated launch and ground systems.

The CST-100 spacecraft -- comprised of a crew module and a service module -- relies on materials and subsystem technologies that are proven and affordable. The CST-100 is designed to carry up to seven people, or a combination of people and cargo, and is compatible with a variety of expendable launch vehicles. By enabling development of a safe, reliable and cost-effective solution for crew transportation to and from the International Space Station, CST-100 ensures that the on-orbit research facility will continue to fulfill its promise as a world-class laboratory.

Ferguson comes to Boeing with space shuttle experience as pilot of STS-115 (Atlantis) and commander of STS-126 (Endeavour) and the final shuttle mission, STS-135 (Atlantis). He has logged more than 40 days in space. He also served as deputy chief of the Astronaut Office and was spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) for missions STS-118, -120, -128 and -129. His experience in crew communications, both on orbit and in the CAPCOM role, is essential to his new role at Boeing.

Ferguson has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He has been recognized with numerous service awards and citations, including the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Strike/Flight Air Medal, NASA Spaceflight Medal (three), Navy Commendation Medal (three) and the Navy Achievement Medal.

is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $32 billion business with 63,000 employees worldwide.

Pared Funding for Space Taxis Ups Ante for SpaceX Test Flight

From Space News: Pared Funding for Space Taxis Ups Ante for SpaceX Test Flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. —Space E xploration Technologies (SpaceX) is counting on a successful trial run to the international space station early next year to clinch a tightening competition to develop a commercial space taxi for NASA.

With a hoped-for commercial crew budget of $850 million for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, NASA said it planned to continue development work on two or more space taxi designs, in hopes of breaking Russia's post-shuttle monopoly on station crew transportation before the end of 2016.

But the agency received $406 million for commercial crew, less than half its request, raising the prospect that either the number of companies funded in the next round of the program would be cut, or the amounts awarded would be insufficient to keep the current schedule. Currently, NASA is investing in four companies: SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin.

“We are still reviewing the budget, its impacts and how we will respond, but meeting our target of having commercial crew capabilities up and running by the middle of this decade is unlikely with the current funding,” Ed Mango, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at the Kennedy Space Center, wrote in an email to Space News.

NASA planned to release a solicitation for the program’s Integrated Design Contract (IDC) this month. The contract or contracts are slated to begin in July 2012 and conclude in April 2014, a draft request for proposals issued in September shows.

Before selection is made, SpaceX, which debuted its Dragon cargo capsule during a test flight last December, plans to fly a demonstration mission to the station. It also may have flown the first of 12 supply runs already purchased by NASA under a related program.

“I always expected that for the next phase, NASA would down-select from four [companies] to two and that the two would probably be Boeing and SpaceX. Given the lower funding for commercial crew, I’m not sure if NASA still intends to down-select to two or not. If they down-select to one, I think we’ve got a better than even chance of beating Boeing because of the maturity of our spacecraft,” Elon Musk, SpaceX chief executive and chief technical officer, said in an interview with Space News.

“We will have flown to the space station probably twice by the time the commercial crew decision is awarded, and the design of our spacecraft is very similar between cargo and crew, so I think from a risk standpoint, SpaceX is the lowest risk and will be the most proven path to success for commercial crew,” Musk said.

SpaceX currently employs about 1,600 people, including about 70 in Florida. The company is looking for a second launch pad at either Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or one of the space shuttle launch pads at Kennedy, and expects its Florida payroll to include about 1,000 people within four to five years, depending on NASA and other awards.

“I’m highly confident that the commercial space industry will employ more than the government space industry ever did,” Musk said.

The company is awaiting NASA technical reviews for its second demonstration flight, which could include a berthing at the space station.

“From a SpaceX standpoint, we’re ready to go in December, but we have to coordinate that with NASA and any other missions that are going to the space station. What I’ve heard through the grapevine is that NASA is maybe aiming for a February launch,” Musk said. “We’re not going to launch until we’re ready and until NASA thinks we’re ready.”

Will the hacker space program make it to the moon?

From CBCNews: Will the hacker space program make it to the moon?
Now that the U.S has severely cut back its space program, independent groups and private companies are taking up the challenge.

According to a report on CBC Radio's Spark, there's an amateur space race going on, and this time it has nothing to do with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but instead sees space enthusiasts and hackers alike vying for a chance to go into orbit.

A German hacker collective called the Chaos Computer Club is one of the key players, having recently put out the call for a three-phase space program that aims to put a hacker on the moon in 22 years.

Meanwhile, the Copenhagen Suborbitals, a non-profit Danish group founded four years ago, successfully launched a rocket into space in June.

Here are 10,000 reasons to be excited about deep-space exploration

From I09: Here are 10,000 reasons to be excited about deep-space exploration

Here are 10,000 reasons to be excited about deep-space explorationYesterday, NASA announced a milestone in the almost 22-year history of its Hubble Space Telescope: The 10,000th refereed scientific paper based on Hubble data has now been published, reinforcing that Hubble is one of the most successful astronomical experiments in human history.

Many people will see this as an incredible achievement — a testament to humanity's indomitable spirit of inquiry. But make no mistake that others will hear this news and ask "why?"

They'll ask why we continue to strive to see further and deeper into space than ever before, without knowing what we'll find. They'll ask why we insist upon exploring a solar system that, by their account, has no immediate bearing on our lives. And they'll ask why, in light of recent budgetary crises, space agencies the world over deserve funding to seek out answers to the mysteries of a Universe that we will never fully understand.

And the simplest answer I can come up with is this: because when it comes to exploring the cosmic neighborhood we call our Universe, humanity has yet to even set foot outside the house. We have only just begun to look upon our solar system, galaxy and universe, and there is so much more to explore that we cannot even begin to speculate on what lies before us, waiting to be discovered. To not venture outside and take a look around would be not only boring, but irresponsible.

Last month, I had the chance to speak with astrophysicist Michael Shara — curator of the American Museum of Natural History's department of astrophysics — about the future of human space exploration. Shara uses data generated from Hubble for his own research, and, as an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, was responsible for the telescope's peer review committees in the 80's and 90's — so it was really only a matter of time before the topic of our discussion turned to Hubble.

And while Shara was quick to acknowledge the telescope's impressive scientific value, it was what he had to say about its so-called successor — the James Webb Space Telescope — that has really stuck with me; and it's something that I think captures the significance of space exploration particularly well.

Shara told me that the James Webb Space Telescope has, in many ways, 100 times the capabilities of Hubble. "There isn't a field in all of astrophysics that it will not benefit tremendously," he said. "Just as Hubble was an enormous leap forward for all of astrophysics…I find it almost impossible to believe that we won't make the same kinds of discoveries with the James Webb Telescope."

Shara then directed my attention to a book that he keeps in his office, titled Science with the Hubble Space Telescope.

He explained that if you had asked astronomers back in the 1980's what Hubble would discover, they would have offered up a whole list of ideas, based on what Hubble had been designed to explore and make sense of. That list, explains Shara, is the contents of Science with the Hubble Space Telescope. It was, in Shara's words, a list of "excellent ideas," a "blueprint for the first five years of operation of the Hubble Space Telescope."

"But interestingly enough, the great findings of Hubble are not in here," he said with a smile;

They're not here. Because once you started seeing things with Hubble that you'd never seen before, you pushed it harder and harder to do new things, and the kinds of things that are being done with Hubble today are very different from [the things in this book].

The same will happen with the James Webb Space Telescope. We will discover new things that we have no way of knowing about today, no way of guessing; our intuition isn't able to take us there. And those will be the great discoveries that will actually show up in the coming 20 years, in the coming 30 years.

One People, One Sky, One App! Astronomers Without Borders Endorses SkySafari for iOS and Mac OS X

Press Release: One People, One Sky, One App! Astronomers Without Borders Endorses SkySafari for iOS and Mac OS X
Southern Stars Group, LLC, makers of the award-winning SkySafari astronomy apps, announced a major endorsement by Astronomers Without Borders, a global non-profit organization promoting better international relations through shared interest in astronomy and space exploration. Coinciding with the endorsement, Southern Stars has launched a two-week promotion of its products, where 40% of the proceeds will be donated to Astronomers Without Borders.

AWB founder Mike Simmons writes, "We're very pleased to endorse SkySafari 3 and recommend it to our members. Because SkySafari 3 is developed by amateur astronomers, it's built with the accuracy and features needed for observational astronomy. This is no toy meant just to impress friends. It's real astronomy software that we can depend on." Mike added, "We really like Southern Stars' philosophy of making their apps accessible to everyone. This is completely in line with AWB's mission - bringing astronomy enthusiasts together from around the world - and our motto, One People, One Sky."

The promotion runs through December 8th, 2011. During the promo, Southern Stars' SkySafari 3 apps will be offered at up to 60% off regular price. Forty percent of the proceeds will be donated to Astronomers Without Borders. The SkySafari apps come in three versions - Basic, Plus, and Pro - and will be priced at $1, $12, and $30, respectively, compared to regular prices of $3, $15, and $60. SkySafari 3 has a 5-star rating on the iTunes store, and has won numerous awards, including a MacWorld Best-of-Show in 2010, and most recently Sky & Telescope Magazine's Hot New Product award for 2012.

To download SkySafari 3 for iOS from the iTunes Store, follow this link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/southern-stars/id437108146

To download SkySafari for Mac OS X, follow this link:
http://www.southernstars.com/products/skysafari_mac/index.html

For more information on SkySafari for Android, follow this link:
http://www.southernstars.com/products/skysafari_android/index.html

"We're amazed by how fast Astronomers Without Borders has achieved truly global reach," said Southern Stars Group founder Tim DeBenedictis. "It's not just AWB's roots in amateur astronomy that impressed us - it's their unique focus on sharing a common love of the night sky to bring people in different cultures and continents together. AWB's mission fits in perfectly with our motto: mobile astronomy for everyone. I can't imagine a partner we'd be more pleased to support."

About Southern Stars Group, LLC
Southern Stars Group, LLC is a world leader in mobile applications for astronomy, and has been developing planetarium software since 1993. In 2009, Southern Stars developed SkyFi, the first wireless iPhone-based solution for telescope control. That product, and the SkyVoyager iPhone app, won a MacWorld 2010 Best of Show award. Southern Stars was the also the first company to ship a Made-for-iPad serial cable for iOS devices (SkyWire). To date, Southern Stars' iPhone apps have been downloaded more than 800,000 times.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Southern Stars Group, LLC has more than three decades of collective experience in developing astronomical software, telescope control systems, and instrumentation.

About Astronomers Without Borders
Astronomers Without Borders organizes global programs that bring people together from around the world - regardless of national and cultural boundaries - through the universal appeal of astronomy. Astronomers Without Borders' signature program, Global Astronomy Month, is offered each April as a platform for astronomy organizations to engage astronomers and the public. Since its founding in 2007, Astronomers Without Borders has become the world leader in connecting astronomy enthusiasts worldwide, with participation in well over 100 countries. Astronomers Without Borders is a tax-exempt US charitable non-profit organization based in California.