The plume created by the LCROSS impact on the moon on Oct. 9. (Credit: NASA)
WASHINGTON — NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 21, to discuss additional findings from NASA’s Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, missions.
This week in The Space Review…. International partners and NASA’s new direction While the debate in recent months about space policy in the US has been focused on its effects on the country’s space capabilities, those changes also have an effect on NASA’s international partners. Jeff Foust reports that European and Japanese partners see new opportunities for perhaps an expanded role in human space exploration. Moonbuzz Buzz Aldrin was back […]
The Space Show for this week…. Monday, October 18, 2010, 2-3:30 PM PDT: We welcome Dr. Chris Koehler, Chair of National Council of Space Grant Directors & Director of Colorado Space Grant. Joining him will be students Shawn Carroll and Emily Logan. . Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 7-8:30 PM PDT: We welcome Dr. Robert Fitts, Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Marquette University. Dr. Fitts is […]
SSI PRESS RELEASE
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (Oct 18, 2010) — Famed biologist and entrepreneur Dr. Craig Venter will give a special talk on synthetic genomics during the Space Studies Institute’s Space Manufacturing 14 conference in Mountain View, Calif. on Oct. 30.
Venter — best known for his pioneering work in sequencing the human genome and creating the first cell with a synthetic genome earlier this year — will give a 90-minute talk and Q&A session on the role that synthetic genetics will play in the future settlement of space. Venter will speak about how this emerging technology can be utilized in closed-loop life support systems, mineral extraction and synthesis, and other processes.
The Denver Post talks to Tom Marsh, a retired Lockheed Martin executive who recently took over as a new co-chairman of the Colorado Space Coalition, which is charged with promoting the state’s interests.
With the economy in turmoil, “we must sustain and maintain what we have,” Marsh said of Colorado space-related companies that annually generate an estimated $7 billion in revenues. An estimated 166,000 Coloradans are directly or indirectly employed by aerospace, which is one of seven “industry clusters” that are the focus of economic-development officials.
International Space Station
The Christian Science Monitor has a thoughtful piece about the delicate position that NASA is in regarding cooperation on human spaceflight with China as Administrator Charles Bolden begins talks this week.
US may outsource lightweight satellite launches to India
India Strategic
Lockheed Martin, the biggest US defence, aerospace and military technology corporation, broached the subject recently with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its export arm, Antrix.
NASA Orion
Lockheed, Lawmakers Urge NASA To Fund Orion Development at 2010 Level
Space News
Lockheed Martin officials along with Colorado lawmakers are warning that NASA’s spending plan for the Orion crew capsule over the next year is insufficient to retain the program’s current development work force and would make it difficult to conduct a flight test of a vehicle prototype the company envisions for late 2013.
(more…)
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA and Harvard University have established the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL), which will enable software developers to compete with each other to create the best computer code for NASA systems.
The NTL provides an online virtual facility for NASA researchers with a computational or complex data processing challenge to “order” a solution, just like they would order laboratory tests or supplies.
(more…)
U.S. Air Force Ponders New Upper-stage Rocket Engine Space News The U.S. Air Force is beginning to weigh options for developing a more capable and affordable upper-stage engine for the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets the service uses to launch most national security payloads. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles is giving industry until Nov. 9 to submit ideas for building a next-generation upper-stage […]
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
Four decades after the first NASA lunar rover rolled across the surface of the moon, innovative students are preparing to design and build a new generation of wheeled wonders.
Registration is open for the 18th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race, set for April 1-2, 2011, in Huntsville, Ala. Participating schools and institutions may register one or two vehicles and teams. Registration closes Feb. 1.
Researchers aboard ZERO-G Corporation's GFORCEONE aircraft. (PRNewsFoto/Zero Gravity Corporation, Steve Boxall)
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
The deadline is fast-approaching for undergraduate students to submit their team proposals to NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. Proposals must be received by 11:59 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, Oct. 27.
NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program gives aspiring explorers a chance to propose, design and fabricate a reduced gravity experiment. Selected teams will get to test and evaluate their experiment aboard a modified Boeing 727 jetliner provided by the Zero-Gravity Corporation of Las Vegas. Zero-Gravity Corp. will conduct the flights in cooperation with the Reduced Gravity Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The aircraft will fly approximately 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips during experiment flights to produce periods of weightlessness and hyper-gravity ranging from zero gravity to twice the Earth’s gravity.
