UBC PRESS RELEASE
A robot designed by UBC students will be shoveling moon dust at an international robotics competition next week, vying for a $500,000 prize and the opportunity to contribute to NASA’s future space exploration projects.
Investor and would-be space tourist Esther Dyson had some interesting things to say about commercial space and the International Space Station in an interview with Air & Space magazine. A few highlights:
NASA PRESS RELEASE
With a loud roar and a bright flash, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., successfully completed the first round of development testing for the ullage settling motor — a critical element of the Ares I rocket. The Ares I is the first rocket under development for NASA’s Constellation Program, a program tasked with the development of vehicles necessary to carry explorers on future journeys of exploration.
Looks like we won't be needing you, Bruce....this time....
NASA ARMAGEDDON UPDATE
Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid. The refined path indicates a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036.
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
There’s an interesting piece in the Huffington Post by Pinaki Bhattacharya about how the recent announcement about lunar water helped to restore ISRO’s damaged reputation:
For weeks before this, ISRO was being pilloried for the failure and eventual abandonment of the Chandrayaan 1. On 29 August. 2009 the Indian Deep Space Network in Byalalu near Bangalore, lost total contact with Chandrayaan 1. The end was not sudden, nor unexpected. The final failure was a culmination of a number of technical glitches that started to surface soon after the launch of the lunar vehicle.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA and industry engineers conducted a design limit load test of the Ares I rocket’s main parachute Oct. 8 at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground near Yuma, Ariz. The Ares I is the first rocket in NASA’s Constellation Program which will launch explorers on journeys to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond.
Third International Conference on Space Elevator Systems
CNT Tether Design and Lunar Industrial Challenges
Location: Luxembourg (Novotel Luxembourg-Kirchberg)
Dates: December 5-6, 2009
The conference will join some of the world’s leading researchers and engineers on space elevator systems and carbon nanotube fiber production. An add-on this year will be a session on lunar industrialisation challenges.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA will host its second annual NASA/JPL Small Business Symposium and Awards Ceremony Nov. 16 and 17 at the Marriot Bethesda North Hotel and Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Rd., Bethesda, Md.
The Symposium provides a forum for attendees to learn about NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and agency plans for future missions in space and Earth science.
CALIFORNIA SPACE AUTHORITY PRESS RELEASE
A record number of entrants have signed up to compete in the 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge and its whopping $750,000 prize money. Twenty-three teams have fulfilled the application requirements to compete in the October 17 and 18 event at the NASA Ames Research Park at Moffett Field in Mountain View.
Sir Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic pilots, staffers and investors in front of the WhiteKnightTwo.
SCALED COMPOSITES PRESS RELEASE
Scaled Composites’ White Knight One and White Knight Two aircraft will
be making a rare public appearance at the Edwards Air Force Base “Flight Test Nation 2009†Air Show and Open house on October 17, 2009.
The Space Elevator Games are now set for the first week in November after being postponed from August.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael Barratt and Canadian spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte have returned to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft. Landing occurred at 12:32 a.m. EDT, 10:32 a.m. Kazakhstan time.