On Monday evening, I had the pleasure of joining the ISU Physical Sciences Department on a field trip to Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton overlooking San Jose, Calif. (Thank you, Department Chairdude Eric Dahlstrom!)
The company was great, the weather perfect, and the view tremendous. So, without any further delay, let’s start this first photo essay, which covers the outdoor highlights.
GERALD SOFFEN MEMORIAL PANEL
What’s Next for Mars Exploration?
Moderator:
Dr. David J.W. Kendall
Director General, Space Science Program
Canadian Space Program
Panelists:
Pascale Ehrenfreund
Research Professor
Space Policy Institute
The George Washington University
Jim Green
Planetary Science Division Director
NASA
David Southwood
Director of Science and Robotic Exploration
ESA
Hajime Yano
Assistant Professor, Department of Planetary Science
ISAS/JAXA
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
SPACE FLORIDA PRESS RELEASE
Governor Charlie Crist today highlighted the importance of aerospace to Florida’s economy and the national space program. His comments came during a discussion with reporters in Orlando at the 2009 Farm to Fuel Summit.
“The importance of extending the life of the Space Shuttle program cannot be overestimated,†said Governor Crist. “What I’d like to see is less of a gap between the shuttle program and the Constellation program. In fact, the best situation would be to have an overlap of the two.â€
SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket
SPACEX PRESS RELEASE
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announces the addition of Marv Vander Weg in the role of Vice President of the EELV Customer Office, where he will be responsible for acquiring and managing EELV missions for SpaceX’s US Government customers. He will be located at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
On the flightline of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Staff Sgt. Jonathan Young prepares to upload the X-51A WaveRider hypersonic flight test vehicle to a B-52 Stratofortress July 17 for fit testing. Two B-52 test flights are planned this fall prior to the X-51's first hypersonic scramjet flight over the Pacific Ocean scheduled in December. Representatives from the Air Force Research Laboratory, DARPA, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing are partnering on the X-51A technology demonstrator program.
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AIR FORCE PRESS RELEASE
Airmen successfully mated the X-51A WaveRider flight test vehicle to a B-52 Stratofortress July 17 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The fit check followed integration earlier in the month of the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne scramjet propulsion system into the X-51 at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif.
The X-51 test vehicle is now back at the Boeing facility in Palmdale where additional systems integration and testing are taking place in preparation for its inaugural flight test in December, said Charlie Brink, X-51 program manager from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate here.
During the flight test, currently planned Dec. 2, the Air Force Flight Test Center’s B-52 will carry the X-51A to 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean then release it. A solid rocket booster from an Army tactical missile system then will ignite and accelerate the X-51 to about Mach 4.5. Then, the supersonic combustion ramjet propulsion system will propel the vehicle for five minutes to more than Mach 6. Hypersonic combustion generates intense heat so routing of the engine’s own JP-7 fuel will help keep the engine at the desired operating temperature.
SPACE FLORIDA PRESS RELEASE
Space Florida’s ongoing work with the FAA includes a request that the FAA issue a consolidated, multi-site license to Space Florida that encompasses both SLC-36 and SLC-46. This first-ever consolidated license request by Space Florida is an innovative, streamlined approach for the Commercial Launch Zone (CLZ) since having a consolidated license will reduce duplicative efforts and facilitate future FAA licensing by Space Florida’s CLZ launch customers.
Formation flying over EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
ESA MISSION UPDATE
As a result of the latest International Space Station Multi-Lateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP) recently held in Houston, ESA has today announced that the European crewmember of Expedition 30/31 to fly to the International Space Station in 2011 will be André Kuipers from the Netherlands.
Therefore, as already stated by ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain on several occasions, an astronaut of German nationality will be assigned to the following opportunity for an ESA astronaut to fly on board the ISS on a six-month mission. ESA plans to obtain the agreement of the ISS partners to accommodate the following opportunity in the 2013-2014 timeframe.
PRESS RELEASE
The X PRIZE Foundation, Google Inc., LEGO Systems, National Instruments, and Wired’s GeekDad will announce “MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge†today at National Instruments NIWeek 2009. The new contest will challenge small teams comprised of children and adults to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, a private race to the Moon designed to enable commercial exploration of space while engaging the global public. To further this purpose, the X PRIZE Foundation and Google have now joined forces with three other well known technology companies to offer a competition that will stimulate learning of robotics and team building while exciting students and their families about their potential roles in the new Moon race.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA astronaut and U.S. Army Col. Tim Kopra has become the first International Space Station crew member to use the social media tool Twitter to discuss living and working in orbit.
Kopra (@Astro_Tim) recently joined the Expedition 20 crew after arriving at the orbiting laboratory July 17 aboard space shuttle Endeavour. He is set to return to Earth on the STS-128 mission, which is targeted to launch Aug. 25. To follow Kopra on Twitter, visit:
A Netscape moment for the commercial space industry?
by Michael Mealling
VentureBeat
The commercial space industry has seen some interesting developments over the past weeks. Statements last week by members of President Obama’s human spaceflight review committee (The Augustine Commission) suggest that commercial providers may be taking a significant role in how NASA accesses low Earth orbit and how missions beyond low Earth orbit use orbiting “gas stationsâ€. At the same time, two commercial space companies, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, have received significant investments from well known funds (more on that below), suggesting that capital markets see a fundable new industry developing.
