From MLive: Letter: We should not punish U.S. space program for its successes
"Where's Spring Arbor?" a stranger will ask me. I'll reply, "It's a friendly small town with a big church in southern Michigan," and I might add it's in Jackson County. As a native Spring Arborite, I'm accustomed to community.
As I write this, I find myself in a the very different community of planetary scientists gathered at the weeklong 43rd annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. "Exhaustingly thrilling" summarizes my feelings of attending talks and rubbing shoulders with high-ranking NASA officials and high-powered scientists who control spacecraft scattered over tens of millions of miles in the solar system. I'm still a peon with my hot-off-the-press master's degree in the geology of Mars from Temple University in Philadelphia, though I'm about to start a Ph.D on the same topic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The atmosphere here this year is rather tense as President Obama's budget for NASA for next year contains a 20 percent cut to planetary science in general and Mars exploration in particular, even though NASA's budget is about flat from last year. The proposed 20 percent cut represents about $300 million, but it's so strange that it's targeted at planetary science, which is the most productive and successful of all NASA's programs in light of discoveries such as water currently flowing on Mars, colder-than-the-Upper-Peninsula lakes of liquid methane on Saturn's moon Titan, and the launch of spacecraft like the new Mars rover Curiosity (landing Aug. 6) and the new Jupiter orbiter Juno. Are we being punished for our success?
Michigan's economic ties to the space program are only slight, but we native Michiganders have more to gain than jobs. In fact, all citizens of Earth have intellectual, artistic, and even spiritual wealth to gain from a robust program of affordable space exploration, even in this austere budgetary climate. Doing or not doing exciting science isn't like flipping a light switch: It takes years to build up intellectual and technological capability, often in the form of investing in graduate students such as myself. Losing such capability, unfortunately, can be a much more speedy processes.
Candidly, I hope this will inspire some of you to write or visit Rep. Tim Walberg as well as senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, regardless of your political party. You can visit with Walberg's staff at 800 W. Ganson St. in Jackson; Levin's staff at 124 W Allegan St # 1810, Lansing; and Stabenow's staff at 221 W Lake Lansing Road #100, East Lansing.
The message to deliver? Fund the 2013 planetary science budget at 2012 levels! Learn more at planetary.org.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
In space, everyone can hear you innovate: Neil deGrasse Tyson on the benefits of space exploration
From CBC Books: In space, everyone can hear you innovate: Neil deGrasse Tyson on the benefits of space exploration
If asked to name a famous scientist, most people would be hard-pressed to come up with anyone besides Stephen Hawking. But astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson might be giving him a run for his money. After all, how many scientists are regular guests on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show? How many astrophysicists guest star on sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory? Or dramas like Stargate Atlantis? Or tour the TV talk show circuit? In fact, Dr. Tyson, who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York, has become the "face of space" in a way that has probably only been equalled by the much-missed Carl Sagan.
Tyson spoke with Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald over the weekend about his new book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier in which he makes the case for a new age of space exploration.
So why (aside from his job) does Tyson think that space exploration is so important? "I wouldn't have known what to say about how important space exploration is if we didn't already have evidence of how important it once was," said Tyson. He cites the golden age of space exploration in the 1960s, in which the Apollo race to the moon took place amid one of the most turbulent decades the United States has ever faced. "We were fighting a Cold War with the Soviet Union, and a hot war in Southeast Asia. That was a bleak decade.
Meanwhile, people are still dreaming about tomorrow, they're thinking about what a new world might be," he said. "All this is going on while we're going to the moon, a historically unreachable goal...if you can go to the moon, you can probably do anything. Well, we went to the moon and all of the science and technology trappings that accomplishing that feat could bring became part of our expectations of the future of our nation."
But what is space travel good for, other than inspiration regarding what the human race can accomplish? "When you innovate, you pump an ecomony like no other force of nature can," Tyson said. In the '60s, the American space program was driven almost entirely by competition with the Soviet Union. "War is the number one driver of the expenditure of human capital in the history of the world. Once you understand that about the Apollo program, it's obvious why we didn't continue on to Mars."
But Tyson doesn't want an international threat or conflict to be the driver for going back into space. "The way to do it is to recognize how it can pump and stoke an economy. And if you're not seduced by the urge to discover, I'm not going to twist your arm," he said. "But I will tell you that if you don't discover, you are mortgaging the future of your country and its financial health. Because you're not embracing the force that innovations bring to the economy."
In his book, Tyson talks about a trickle-down effect of investing in space exploration - all the designers and scientists and engineers and manufacturers whose abilities would be called upon. But there are many areas of research that arguably could be more beneficial to life on this planet: sustainable technologies or medicine, for example. But Tyson doesn't see space exploration as taking away from those other industries. "That's a common reaction that people have who aren't enamoured with space travel and want to keep that innovative money here on Earth," he said. "But that assumes that the most innovative solutions to problems happen when you throw money at them, which is almost never the case. I assert that if our nation goes to space in a big way, and innovates in a big way, we create a culture of innovation."
If asked to name a famous scientist, most people would be hard-pressed to come up with anyone besides Stephen Hawking. But astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson might be giving him a run for his money. After all, how many scientists are regular guests on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show? How many astrophysicists guest star on sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory? Or dramas like Stargate Atlantis? Or tour the TV talk show circuit? In fact, Dr. Tyson, who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York, has become the "face of space" in a way that has probably only been equalled by the much-missed Carl Sagan.
Tyson spoke with Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald over the weekend about his new book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier in which he makes the case for a new age of space exploration.
So why (aside from his job) does Tyson think that space exploration is so important? "I wouldn't have known what to say about how important space exploration is if we didn't already have evidence of how important it once was," said Tyson. He cites the golden age of space exploration in the 1960s, in which the Apollo race to the moon took place amid one of the most turbulent decades the United States has ever faced. "We were fighting a Cold War with the Soviet Union, and a hot war in Southeast Asia. That was a bleak decade.
Meanwhile, people are still dreaming about tomorrow, they're thinking about what a new world might be," he said. "All this is going on while we're going to the moon, a historically unreachable goal...if you can go to the moon, you can probably do anything. Well, we went to the moon and all of the science and technology trappings that accomplishing that feat could bring became part of our expectations of the future of our nation."
But what is space travel good for, other than inspiration regarding what the human race can accomplish? "When you innovate, you pump an ecomony like no other force of nature can," Tyson said. In the '60s, the American space program was driven almost entirely by competition with the Soviet Union. "War is the number one driver of the expenditure of human capital in the history of the world. Once you understand that about the Apollo program, it's obvious why we didn't continue on to Mars."
But Tyson doesn't want an international threat or conflict to be the driver for going back into space. "The way to do it is to recognize how it can pump and stoke an economy. And if you're not seduced by the urge to discover, I'm not going to twist your arm," he said. "But I will tell you that if you don't discover, you are mortgaging the future of your country and its financial health. Because you're not embracing the force that innovations bring to the economy."
In his book, Tyson talks about a trickle-down effect of investing in space exploration - all the designers and scientists and engineers and manufacturers whose abilities would be called upon. But there are many areas of research that arguably could be more beneficial to life on this planet: sustainable technologies or medicine, for example. But Tyson doesn't see space exploration as taking away from those other industries. "That's a common reaction that people have who aren't enamoured with space travel and want to keep that innovative money here on Earth," he said. "But that assumes that the most innovative solutions to problems happen when you throw money at them, which is almost never the case. I assert that if our nation goes to space in a big way, and innovates in a big way, we create a culture of innovation."
Monday, March 26, 2012
Indiana: Purdue to explore future of human spaceflight and exploration at annual conference
From the Daily Reporter: Purdue to explore future of human spaceflight and exploration at annual conference
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue student group will explore the future of human spaceflight and exploration with experts from private aerospace companies at its annual conference.
The Spring Space Forum on Thursday (March 29) will include the director of Lockheed Martin's human spaceflight programs, the director of ATK's advanced launch systems and two retired astronauts now involved with aerospace missions operations. The school's Students for the Exploration and Development of Space chapter sponsors the annual event. This year, they paired with NASA to attract speakers.
After each speaker, a panel of space experts will lead audience members in a question-and-answer session.
The forum will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Purdue's campus and is free and open to the public. A live stream will also be made available.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue student group will explore the future of human spaceflight and exploration with experts from private aerospace companies at its annual conference.
The Spring Space Forum on Thursday (March 29) will include the director of Lockheed Martin's human spaceflight programs, the director of ATK's advanced launch systems and two retired astronauts now involved with aerospace missions operations. The school's Students for the Exploration and Development of Space chapter sponsors the annual event. This year, they paired with NASA to attract speakers.
After each speaker, a panel of space experts will lead audience members in a question-and-answer session.
The forum will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Purdue's campus and is free and open to the public. A live stream will also be made available.
UW's Tony Irving is the go-to man in the red-hot world of meteorites
From the Seattle Times: UW's Tony Irving is the go-to man in the red-hot world of meteorites
A chance meeting between a pair of treasure-hunting brothers and a geology professor affiliated with University of Washington has led to the discovery of some the most extraordinary and valuable meteorites in history.
Long before he met the wealthy brothers, before he traveled to Morocco and received extraterrestrial nuggets in FedEx packages, Tony Irving got to touch the moon.
The Australian-born geochemist affiliated with the University of Washington spent his early career working with lunar fragments from the Apollo missions. Then, life being what it is, he returned to studying earthly matters — rocks that rise from the planet's mantle during volcanic eruptions. But a chance meeting brought him full-circle.
In the late 1990s, two adventurous computer entrepreneurs with a passion for metal-detecting and gold-panning brought Irving a strange rock. They thought they'd stumbled upon material from space.
They hadn't, but Irving and brothers Adam and Greg Hupé, of Everett, hit it off. The trio grew into an unorthodox team, becoming central players in a thriving international subculture — an obscure band of treasure hunters who scour the planet collecting, buying, selling and studying meteorites.
In this Byzantine world, geology is king. The brothers travel and barter to obtain uber-valuable celestial rocks. They mail pieces of the cosmos to Irving, who is now a leading expert at distinguishing real meteorites from their mundane terrestrial cousins, what he calls "meteor-wrongs."
"None of us realized what a bonanza it would be," Irving said.
It's a marriage that has given Irving a rare glimpse of far-flung corners of the universe, especially Mars.
"He's probably looked at more Martian meteorites than anyone in the world," said Irving's colleague, UW astronomer Don Brownlee, lead investigator for NASA's recent $212 million mission to study comet dust.
Lately such skills have been in high demand.
The market for meteorites exploded in the past dozen years, leading to ever more amazing discoveries — and some shenanigans. In January, a meteorite trader returned a 4.6 billion-year-old asteroid fragment he purchased from a thief who'd stolen it from a New Mexico museum. A dealer in Colorado was recently arrested, accused of selling lunar fakes.
But the number of documented meteorites from Mars also has doubled in less than a decade. This year, Irving helped confirm a fireball that streaked across the North African sky last July was a Mars meteorite. He did so by analyzing pieces of the rock gathered and sold by nomads in Morocco.
The find is only the 61st documented meteorite from the red planet, the first witnessed Martian meteorite to fall in 50 years, and the fifth such fall ever recorded. "Tissint," named for a village near where it landed, enthralled geologists around the world.
"This is actually the most exciting meteorite that I've come across so far in my career," the curator of London's Museum of Natural History told the BBC after examining a fist-size chunk. "Possibly it will be the most exciting meteorite that I will ever come across."
But for Irving and the Hupés, Tissint is one of many extraordinary finds.
Bonding over treasures
In fact, the brothers and Irving meeting each other may be their top discovery.
Adam and Greg, now both in their late 40s, ran a company called Computer Performance, but had bonded over their love of treasure hunting. They'd received a metal detector as a gift from their father in 1976. Over time it got so easy to find lost jewelry that they started panning for gold instead.
After stumbling on their weird fragment while prospecting — it turned out to be chromite — they talked to Irving about meteorites.
"I was just fascinated," said Adam Hupé, who now lives in Nevada. "This was a form of treasure-hunting, but a lot more rewarding than just going after gold. We could hunt for something with scientific value."
Tens of thousands of meteorites have been found on Earth. Most are fragments of asteroids, but a few are the result of "ejection by impact" — when an asteroid hits a moon or a planet hard enough to blast rocky specimens into space. The atmospheric gases trapped in rocks from the moon or Mars are unique and can be compared with gas samples gathered by NASA.
By the late 1990s, rising wealth and the Internet made it easier for people around the world to buy and sell obscure merchandise, including meteorites. While governments in Antarctica scoured the white snow for celestial rocks, a booming private market developed for rocks discovered in North Africa, where gray-black fragments stood out against hot-orange sand.
After decades of working 14-hour days, the Hupés sold their business and used their proceeds to buy meteorites online. Eventually, they financially backed meteorite-hunting trips. Irving evaluated their finds.
"We've got many different objects in the solar system, and there are only two ways to find them," Irving said. "Either you go there, or they come here. Luckily, with meteorites, you've got a delivery service."
For Irving, who had worked decades earlier with moon rocks at the University of Chicago and NASA's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, the brothers' enthusiasm was infectious. The brothers liked the hunt — the thrill of collecting something unique with scientific value. Irving liked applying forensic expertise to understanding exotic pieces.
"I'm not saying it's not cool to hold in your hand a piece of something that is from Mars — it is," Irving said. "But ... I don't collect things, I document them. But I can't document them without someone else collecting them."
The Hupés introduced Irving to more collectors, but it didn't hurt that the Hupés also were very good at collecting.
"Planetary pieces"
"As a team, I'd say we've put together more planetary pieces than anybody else on Earth," Adam Hupé said.
Greg, the more adventurous of the two, splits his time between meteorites, diving in Florida rivers for fossils or hunting gold doubloons from Spanish shipwrecks. The brothers, especially Greg, began making dozens of trips to Morocco, primarily to buy meteorites from nomads and villagers. Some of the fragments were worth thousands of dollars a gram.
"I'd receive samples from Moroccan partners and make a judgment call," Greg Hupé said from Florida, where he now lives. "That graduated, in time, to sending the samples directly to the UW and paying for them to analyze them for us. Over the years we got to know exactly what to look for."
In late 2000, an expedition they helped finance purchased a large lunar chunk, known as NWA 482. Irving believes the rock is at least 4.4 billion years old.
"It was one of the crown jewels," Greg Hupé said. "It was just like, 'Wow.' "
A few years later, the brothers tracked down a Mars meteorite and, in 2007, pulled out their ultimate treasure — NWA 5000, a 26-pound lunar piece so precious Adam Hupé constantly moves it around to keep it safe.
"It appraised at $14.5 million," Adam Hupé said, adding that he's not in it for the money. He'd like to keep the rock intact and someday sell it to a museum.
"Hundreds of years from now, I don't want to be remembered as the jerk who cut the thing up into a million pieces for money," he said.
Figuring out what to do with that piece has put Adam's adventures on hold, but just last week Greg announced the discovery of another new meteorite type.
Meanwhile, Irving this week is scheduled to give a talk in Houston about Tissint. But he's also hoping to confirm soon that existence of two more meteorites from Mars.
A chance meeting between a pair of treasure-hunting brothers and a geology professor affiliated with University of Washington has led to the discovery of some the most extraordinary and valuable meteorites in history.
Long before he met the wealthy brothers, before he traveled to Morocco and received extraterrestrial nuggets in FedEx packages, Tony Irving got to touch the moon.
The Australian-born geochemist affiliated with the University of Washington spent his early career working with lunar fragments from the Apollo missions. Then, life being what it is, he returned to studying earthly matters — rocks that rise from the planet's mantle during volcanic eruptions. But a chance meeting brought him full-circle.
In the late 1990s, two adventurous computer entrepreneurs with a passion for metal-detecting and gold-panning brought Irving a strange rock. They thought they'd stumbled upon material from space.
They hadn't, but Irving and brothers Adam and Greg Hupé, of Everett, hit it off. The trio grew into an unorthodox team, becoming central players in a thriving international subculture — an obscure band of treasure hunters who scour the planet collecting, buying, selling and studying meteorites.
In this Byzantine world, geology is king. The brothers travel and barter to obtain uber-valuable celestial rocks. They mail pieces of the cosmos to Irving, who is now a leading expert at distinguishing real meteorites from their mundane terrestrial cousins, what he calls "meteor-wrongs."
"None of us realized what a bonanza it would be," Irving said.
It's a marriage that has given Irving a rare glimpse of far-flung corners of the universe, especially Mars.
"He's probably looked at more Martian meteorites than anyone in the world," said Irving's colleague, UW astronomer Don Brownlee, lead investigator for NASA's recent $212 million mission to study comet dust.
Lately such skills have been in high demand.
The market for meteorites exploded in the past dozen years, leading to ever more amazing discoveries — and some shenanigans. In January, a meteorite trader returned a 4.6 billion-year-old asteroid fragment he purchased from a thief who'd stolen it from a New Mexico museum. A dealer in Colorado was recently arrested, accused of selling lunar fakes.
But the number of documented meteorites from Mars also has doubled in less than a decade. This year, Irving helped confirm a fireball that streaked across the North African sky last July was a Mars meteorite. He did so by analyzing pieces of the rock gathered and sold by nomads in Morocco.
The find is only the 61st documented meteorite from the red planet, the first witnessed Martian meteorite to fall in 50 years, and the fifth such fall ever recorded. "Tissint," named for a village near where it landed, enthralled geologists around the world.
"This is actually the most exciting meteorite that I've come across so far in my career," the curator of London's Museum of Natural History told the BBC after examining a fist-size chunk. "Possibly it will be the most exciting meteorite that I will ever come across."
But for Irving and the Hupés, Tissint is one of many extraordinary finds.
Bonding over treasures
In fact, the brothers and Irving meeting each other may be their top discovery.
Adam and Greg, now both in their late 40s, ran a company called Computer Performance, but had bonded over their love of treasure hunting. They'd received a metal detector as a gift from their father in 1976. Over time it got so easy to find lost jewelry that they started panning for gold instead.
After stumbling on their weird fragment while prospecting — it turned out to be chromite — they talked to Irving about meteorites.
"I was just fascinated," said Adam Hupé, who now lives in Nevada. "This was a form of treasure-hunting, but a lot more rewarding than just going after gold. We could hunt for something with scientific value."
Tens of thousands of meteorites have been found on Earth. Most are fragments of asteroids, but a few are the result of "ejection by impact" — when an asteroid hits a moon or a planet hard enough to blast rocky specimens into space. The atmospheric gases trapped in rocks from the moon or Mars are unique and can be compared with gas samples gathered by NASA.
By the late 1990s, rising wealth and the Internet made it easier for people around the world to buy and sell obscure merchandise, including meteorites. While governments in Antarctica scoured the white snow for celestial rocks, a booming private market developed for rocks discovered in North Africa, where gray-black fragments stood out against hot-orange sand.
After decades of working 14-hour days, the Hupés sold their business and used their proceeds to buy meteorites online. Eventually, they financially backed meteorite-hunting trips. Irving evaluated their finds.
"We've got many different objects in the solar system, and there are only two ways to find them," Irving said. "Either you go there, or they come here. Luckily, with meteorites, you've got a delivery service."
For Irving, who had worked decades earlier with moon rocks at the University of Chicago and NASA's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, the brothers' enthusiasm was infectious. The brothers liked the hunt — the thrill of collecting something unique with scientific value. Irving liked applying forensic expertise to understanding exotic pieces.
"I'm not saying it's not cool to hold in your hand a piece of something that is from Mars — it is," Irving said. "But ... I don't collect things, I document them. But I can't document them without someone else collecting them."
The Hupés introduced Irving to more collectors, but it didn't hurt that the Hupés also were very good at collecting.
"Planetary pieces"
"As a team, I'd say we've put together more planetary pieces than anybody else on Earth," Adam Hupé said.
Greg, the more adventurous of the two, splits his time between meteorites, diving in Florida rivers for fossils or hunting gold doubloons from Spanish shipwrecks. The brothers, especially Greg, began making dozens of trips to Morocco, primarily to buy meteorites from nomads and villagers. Some of the fragments were worth thousands of dollars a gram.
"I'd receive samples from Moroccan partners and make a judgment call," Greg Hupé said from Florida, where he now lives. "That graduated, in time, to sending the samples directly to the UW and paying for them to analyze them for us. Over the years we got to know exactly what to look for."
In late 2000, an expedition they helped finance purchased a large lunar chunk, known as NWA 482. Irving believes the rock is at least 4.4 billion years old.
"It was one of the crown jewels," Greg Hupé said. "It was just like, 'Wow.' "
A few years later, the brothers tracked down a Mars meteorite and, in 2007, pulled out their ultimate treasure — NWA 5000, a 26-pound lunar piece so precious Adam Hupé constantly moves it around to keep it safe.
"It appraised at $14.5 million," Adam Hupé said, adding that he's not in it for the money. He'd like to keep the rock intact and someday sell it to a museum.
"Hundreds of years from now, I don't want to be remembered as the jerk who cut the thing up into a million pieces for money," he said.
Figuring out what to do with that piece has put Adam's adventures on hold, but just last week Greg announced the discovery of another new meteorite type.
Meanwhile, Irving this week is scheduled to give a talk in Houston about Tissint. But he's also hoping to confirm soon that existence of two more meteorites from Mars.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
May says SLS program on schedule
From al.com: May says SLS program on schedule
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Space Launch System (SLS) Program Manager Todd May said the massive effort to design and build the next U.S. heavy lift rocket, NASA's largest development program, is on schedule and on track to meet the 2017 first mission launch.
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Space Launch System (SLS) Program Manager Todd May said the massive effort to design and build the next U.S. heavy lift rocket, NASA's largest development program, is on schedule and on track to meet the 2017 first mission launch.
Speaking to the Marshall Association Tuesday, May said that despite the debate on the U.S. space program, NASA has a strategy and a program to carry it out.
"Some say there is no plan. But there is a strategy and a mission," he said.
May sees that mission on several levels, viewing it in both space exploration leadership as well as national security. "We're losing the market, taking it on the chin from the Chinese and the Russians," he commented. "But as a nation we don't want to retreat from space exploration. We're focusing on beyond Earth orbit so what we learn will benefit all mankind."
He cautioned against buying into the notion that NASA has lost its relevance. "NASA has taken blows to its image, but don't you believe it," he said. "We're about to land a Mini-Cooper on Mars. The Russians tried and they couldn't do it."
May repeated a key NASA talking point - SLS has to be affordable in a time of budget constraints. He said NASA's budget, projected to decrease slightly in FY 2013, does not allow for development to proceed on the lines of the Shuttle program. "We won't be able to nail every problem flat," he said. "If you're used to Space Shuttle, this will be tough for you," he challenged his listeners.
He pointed to cost projections showing a flat cost curve after initial program startup, rather than the spiked curve with costs leveling out afterwards.
"The budget environment made the difference. We had to start with what we had."
The necessity to use largely existing hardware prompted a review of nearly 2000 rocket designs from around the world, he said. NASA at one time considered a design that would have used solid boosters and two different types of liquid-fueled boosters.
"You'd have to fire 13 different engines at simutaneously at launch. That just wasn't feasible," he said.
Use of existing engine designs for the first stage - the RS-25 liguid engines being recycled from Shuttle as well as modified versions of the solid rocket boosters - is one way the program is saving money and staying on its development schedule.
The upper stage will be powered by a new J2-X engine now under development, and being tested at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The first phase of the SLS program will produce a rocket capable of carrying a 70 ton payload by the year 2017, with payload capacity of later versions slated to rise to 130 tons by 2021.
May said two primary missions are planned. The first, dubbed EM-1, will be an uncrewed flight around the Moon planned for 2017. The EM-2 mission will carry U.S. astronauts back to the Moon in 2021.
A major challenge, he said, has been combining Shuttle and Ares personnel, who together make up nearly 90% of the SLS development workforce, and their cultures they bring with them. Shuttle personnel, he said, bring a more operationally-focused mentality, which has clashed at times with Ares more development-oriented culture.
"Managing these cultures has been a big part of the dynamic," he admitted.
May said the program is now in the middle of its System Requirements Review, and heading towards the first of two board reviews on March 29.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
NASA's Planetary Science Future Rides on Huge Mars Rover's Success
From Space.com: NASA's Planetary Science Future Rides on Huge Mars Rover's Success
A huge NASA rover streaking toward Mars to investigate the Red Planet's potential to host life has picked up a new mission objective — help save the space agency's planetary science program.
In the Obama Administration's budget request for next year, which was unveiled last month, NASA planetary science suffered a 21 percent cut, compelling the agency to scale back its robotic exploration efforts and drop out of two future European-led Mars missions entirely.
But top NASA officials are holding out hope that some funding may be restored in the future if the 1-ton Curiosity rover, which is due to arrive at the Red Planet this August, lands safely and performs as advertised.
"What a tremendous opportunity it is for us," Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said Monday (March 19) at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in The Woodlands, Texas. "I believe [Curiosity] will open up that new era of discovery that will compel this nation to invest more in planetary science."
A huge NASA rover streaking toward Mars to investigate the Red Planet's potential to host life has picked up a new mission objective — help save the space agency's planetary science program.
In the Obama Administration's budget request for next year, which was unveiled last month, NASA planetary science suffered a 21 percent cut, compelling the agency to scale back its robotic exploration efforts and drop out of two future European-led Mars missions entirely.
But top NASA officials are holding out hope that some funding may be restored in the future if the 1-ton Curiosity rover, which is due to arrive at the Red Planet this August, lands safely and performs as advertised.
"What a tremendous opportunity it is for us," Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said Monday (March 19) at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in The Woodlands, Texas. "I believe [Curiosity] will open up that new era of discovery that will compel this nation to invest more in planetary science."
Galaxy Four: Space Exploration Core, Pt 1: Rocketry
The origins of rocketry
It is unclear who first invented the rocket. It is believed that, as a people, the Chinese were probably the first, as they had been using gunpowder for over 1,800 years before other countries developed its use. The Chinese were using rockets in warfare at least by the time of Genghis Khan (ca. 1155-1227).
It is unclear who first invented the rocket. It is believed that, as a people, the Chinese were probably the first, as they had been using gunpowder for over 1,800 years before other countries developed its use. The Chinese were using rockets in warfare at least by the time of Genghis Khan (ca. 1155-1227).
Not long thereafter, the use of rockets spread to the west. A German named Konrad Kyster von Eichstadt, author of Bellifortis (1405) described the use of war rockets in his day.
During these decades rocketry was only used for the purpose of weapons. Sir William Congreve (1772-1828) developed incendiary barrage missiles for the British military that could be fired from either land or sea. These were used with effect against the United States in the War of 1812; it was probably Congreve’s weapons that Francis Scott Key wrote about in the "Star Spangled Banner" while imprisoned on a British warship during the bombardment of Fort McHenry at Baltimore.
The military use of rockets became outmoded later on in the 19th century (late 1800s) because of improvements in artillery which made it more accurate and destructive than rockets.
New uses for rockets were found in other industries such as whaling and for sea-going shipping where rocket-powered harpoons and rescue lines began to be employed.
How do rockets work?
From Wikipedia:
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction. Rocket engines push rockets forwards simply by throwing their exhaust backwards extremely fast.
While comparatively inefficient for low speed use, they are very lightweight and powerful, capable of generating large accelerations and of attaining extremely high speeds with reasonable efficiency, and are not reliant on the atmosphere, and so work very well in space.
Rockets for military and recreational uses were invented by the Han Chinese prior to the 13th century China. Significant scientific, interplanetary and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry was the enabling technology of the Space Age, including setting foot on the moon. Rockets are now used for fireworks, weaponry, ejection seats, launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight and space exploration.
Chemical rockets are the most common type of rocket and they typically create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant. Chemical rockets store a large amount of energy in an easily released form, and can be very dangerous. However, careful design, testing, construction and use minimizes risks.
Rocket Engines
A rocket engine, or simply "rocket", is a jet engine that uses only propellant mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. Rocket engines are reaction engines and obtain thrust in accordance with Newton's third law. Since they need no external material to form their jet, rocket engines can be used for spacecraft propulsion as well as terrestrial uses, such as missiles. Most rocket engines are internal combustion engines, although non-combusting forms also exist.
Rocket engines as a group have the highest exhaust velocities, are by far the lightest, but are the least propellant efficient of all types of jet engines.
Terminology
Chemical rockets are rockets powered by exothermic chemical reactions of the propellant.
Rocket motor (or solid-propellant rocket motor) is a synonymous term with rocket engine that usually refers to solid rocket engines.
Liquid rockets (or liquid-propellant rocket engine) use one or more liquid propellants that are held in tanks prior to burning.
Hybrid rockets have a solid propellant in the combustion chamber and a second liquid or gas propellant is added to permit it to burn.
Thermal rockets are rockets where the propellant is inert, but is heated by a power source such as solar or nuclear power or beamed energy.
Monopropellant rockets are rockets that use only one propellant, decomposed by a catalyst. The most common monopropellants are hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide.
Principle of operation
How rocket engines work
Rocket engines give part of their thrust due to unopposed pressure on the combustion chamber.
Rocket engines produce thrust by the expulsion of a high-speed fluid exhaust. This fluid is nearly always a gas which is created by high pressure (10-200 bar) combustion of solid or liquid propellants, consisting of fuel and oxidiser components, within a combustion chamber.
The fluid exhaust is then passed through a supersonic propelling nozzle which uses heat energy of the gas to accelerate the exhaust to very high speed, and the reaction to this pushes the engine in the opposite direction.
In rocket engines, high temperatures and pressures are highly desirable for good performance as this permits a longer nozzle to be fitted to the engine, which gives higher exhaust speeds, as well as giving better thermodynamic efficiency.
Introducing propellant into a combustion chamber
Rocket propellant is mass that is stored, usually in some form of propellant tank, prior to being ejected from a rocket engine in the form of a fluid jet to produce thrust.
Chemical rocket propellants are most commonly used, which undergo exothermic chemical reactions which produce hot gas which is used by a rocket for propulsive purposes. Alternatively, a chemically inert reaction mass can be heated using a high-energy power source via a heat exchanger, and then no combustion chamber is used.
Solid rocket propellants are prepared as a mixture of fuel and oxidizing components called 'grain' and the propellant storage casing effectively becomes the combustion chamber. Liquid-fueled rockets typically pump separate fuel and oxidiser components into the combustion chamber, where they mix and burn. Hybrid rocket engines use a combination of solid and liquid or gaseous propellants. Both liquid and hybrid rockets use injectors to introduce the propellant into the chamber. These are often an array of simple jets- holes through which the propellant escapes under pressure; but sometimes may be more complex spray nozzles. When two or more propellants are injected the jets usually deliberately collide the propellants as this breaks up the flow into smaller droplets that burn more easily.
Rocket nozzles
The large bell or cone shaped expansion nozzle gives a rocket engine its characteristic shape.
In rockets the hot gas produced in the combustion chamber is permitted to escape from the combustion chamber through an opening (the "throat"), within a high expansion-ratio 'de Laval' nozzle.
Provided sufficient pressure is provided to the nozzle (about 2.5-3x above ambient pressure) the nozzle chokes and a supersonic jet is formed, dramatically accelerating the gas, converting most of the thermal energy into kinetic energy.
The exhaust speeds vary, depending on the expansion ratio the nozzle is designed to give, but exhaust speeds as high as ten times the speed of sound of sea level air are not uncommon.
Rocket thrust is caused by pressures acting in the combustion chamber and nozzle. From Newton's third law, equal and opposite pressures act on the exhaust, and this accelerates it to high speeds.
About half of the rocket engine's thrust comes from the unbalanced pressures inside the combustion chamber and the rest comes from the pressures acting against the inside of the nozzle. As the gas expands (adiabatically) the pressure against the nozzle's walls forces the rocket engine in one direction while accelerating the gas in the other.
Bibliography
Atlas of Space Exploration, Roger Launius and Andrew Johnston, Bunker Hill 2009 (Check out our local Barnes & Noble for a $9.99 copy)
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