Dr. David Livingston welcomes Rick Tumlinson, Brent Sherwood, Erik Seedhouse and Robert Zimmerman to his radio show this week.
With all the talk about water during the past week, I decided to go see some of water on this world on Saturday. I took these photographs at Davenport on California’s Pacific Coast about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz.
Miners hoping to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush at Auburn Ravine in 1852. (Credit: California State Library)
X PRIZE Foundation creator explains the significance of water on the moon in a piece on The Huffington Post:
From an economic point of view, water on the Moon is the equivalent of finding “gold in the hills of California.” Translation: there is the potential for a California gold rush to hit the space community in the years ahead, and the teams building robotic exploration vehicles in the Google Lunar X PRIZE are constructing the shovels and picks on the leading edge of this potential boom.
Solaren says it can build a functional space- based solar power satellite in only four launches.
Michael Bloomfield, vice president and program manager for Constellation systems at ATK Space Systems, makes the company’s case for continuing the Ares program on safety grounds:
Ares I was designed from the start with crew safety and mission reliability as key requirements. Multiple studies show that goal was achieved, with Ares I consistently rated tops for safety against any other option by a significant degree. This is no accident. A reduced part count combined with heritage human-space-flight hardware increases crew safety and decreases developmental and programmatic risk. Increased crew safety and mission reliability have the added benefit of reducing overall life-cycle costs. Expenses associated with a reliable human transport are less than for one that suffers intermittent catastrophic failures. That, in turn, facilitates commercialization of human low-Earth orbit transport. This is a rare win-win-win solution.
Russia hopes U.S. to extend shuttle operations
Reuters
Russia hopes the United States will extend the deadline to retire its space shuttles beyond 2011 and has heard unofficially it is possible, the head of Russia’s space agency was quoted as saying on Friday.
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Isle of Man Today has an interesting story about how one astronaut and two cosmonauts have laid down Cold Era rivalries to work for Excalibur Almaz – a commercial company that is using old Soviet hardware to launch space tourists into orbit.
The space veterans include NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, a veteran of three Shuttle missions and one Soyuz mission; Colonel Valery Tokarev, a Russian Air Force test pilot and cosmonaut; and Colonel Vladimir Titov, the first man to spend a full year in space.
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Ares concerns: If program is scrapped, hundreds of Top of Utah jobs may be lost
Standard Examiner
NASA’s next moon rocket, the Ares I, is scheduled to get its first launch pad test next month in Florida. But there are unanswered questions still hanging in the fall air regarding any U.S. space program that includes a future with the Utah-built Ares I rocket motor.
The answers to those questions could mean the survivability of at least 700 Utah jobs for ATK Space Systems, a company with three Utah locations.
Took a break from blogging this afternoon to explore the cliffs and coves along the coast between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. This photo was taken from a cliff overlooking the ocean just south of Davenport.
ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair talks about Chandrayaan-1’s success at the moon.
YURI’S NIGHT PRESS RELEASE
Yuri’s Night wishes to officially express its strongest support for the upcoming Poetic Social Mission Event: Moving Stars and Earth for Water. This performance by the next private space explorer, Guy Laliberte, is scheduled to be broadcast live around the world Friday October 9th, 8:00 PM ET (12 AM GMT) during his stay on the International Space Station.
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
The Innovative Partnerships Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington is offering an opportunity for the public to help shape the prize challenges the agency offers to America’s future citizen-inventors.