Peter Homer has won the $250,000 first prize and Ted Southern has won the $100,000 second prize in the Astronaut Glove Challenge.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting interview with Timothy G. Nelson, an international arbitration lawyer in New York who advises aerospace companies on how to make profits in space.
He says to forget about the Moon Treaty, which only 13 nations have signed, and instead to focus on the Law of the Sea as a model for how lunar resources (such as water and minerals) would be extracted and sold.
Costa Rican creates plasma rocket to pick up space trash
Global Post
Before launching speedier Mars missions, Chang Diaz proposes some practical uses of the rocket closer to Earth. It could, for example, act like a DHL in outer space, in which plasma-thrust crafts would transport packages, mainly fuel, to satellites or spaceships on the cheap — well, cheaper. Shipments that today run to the tune of a billion dollars, according to the CEO, would cost half a billion on Ad Astra spacecrafts.
He mentioned another use that flies closer to the heart of his eco-friendly homeland. These ships could start to clean up the clutter left by disused satellites.
The FAA has approved Cecil Field in Jacksonville as a commercial spaceport and will soon issue a license.
SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE
Nyack, NY, November 18, 2009 – It’s been a couple of months since the Augustine Committee had the temerity to suggest that maybe, just maybe, we should leave a few things that have long been the sole province of government to the vital and growing private sector. The push back from the forces of the status quo has been building ever since.
JAXA PRESS RELEASE
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide has been selected as a crew member for the 32nd/33rd Expedition Mission at the International Space Station (ISS). Once there, he will engage in space activities mainly for space environment utilization, including scientific experiments coordinated by Japanese scientists and international partners at the ISS.
Russia could delay maiden launch of Angara rocket
RIA Novosti
The maiden launch of Russia’s new Angara carrier rocket could be postponed for at least one year due to shortage of funds from the Defense Ministry, the top Russian space official said Wednesday.
Sir Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic pilots, staffers and investors. To his right is Mohamed Badawy Al-Husseiny, CEO of Aabar, which made a $280 million in Virgin Galactic.
There’s an interesting story in The National about how Aabar Investments – a company backed by the Abu Dhabi government – has transformed itself from a small energy firm into a high-tech powerhouse with investments in Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic (32 percent) and Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors (4 percent).
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA and Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., have collaborated to create a Web site where Internet users can have fun while advancing their knowledge of Mars.
Drawing on observations from NASA’s Mars missions, the “Be a Martian” Web site will enable the public to participate as citizen scientists to improve Martian maps, take part in research tasks, and assist Mars science teams studying data about the Red Planet.
STATEMENT
MARS SOCIETY PRESIDENT ROBERT ZUBRIN
While the results obtained from the LCROSS mission are of some scientific interest, it needs to be understood that the amount of water discovered was extremely small. The 30 m crater ejected by the probe contained 10 million kilograms of regolith. Within this ejecta, an estimated 100 kg of water was detected. That represents a proportion of 10 parts per million, which is a lower water concentration than that found in the soil of the driest deserts of the Earth. In contrast, we have found continent sized regions on Mars, which are 600,000 parts per million, or 60% water by weight.
India wants a space center, too
The Huntsville Times
Huntsville’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center has shown legions of children and adults how space exploration can be used to improve life on Earth, and now India wants to duplicate that inspiration by building its own teaching museum, the nation’s chief diplomat said Monday.