The DIRECT group – which is promoting an alternative lunar architecture to NASA’s Ares program – has issued a report criticizing the space agency’s critique of its rocket design as inadequate.
DIRECT’s 115-page PowerPoint response claims that NASA’s October 2007 review of the proposed Jupiter launch system included “significant flaws in the evaluation of DIRECT that set up a scenario where DIRECT would inevitably look inferior when compared to Ares.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
STS-125 mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel completed the fifth and final spacewalk on the Hubble Space Telescope Monday at 3:22 p.m. EDT. Outside the airlock hatch, Grunsfeld said, “This is a really tremendous adventure that we’ve been on, a very challenging mission. Hubble isn’t just a satellite- it’s about humanity’s quest for knowledge.”
imation of images taken by Herschel's Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) shortly after separation from the Planck-Sylda composite at 15:38 CEST on 14 May 2009.
ESA MISSION UPDATE
Stunning images taken from Earth and space show Herschel and Planck in flight on 14 May 2009. The first, taken from Herschel, show the Planck-Sylda composite just after Herschel’s separation, about 1150 km above Africa. A second set taken from ESA’s Optical Ground Station, shows Herschel, Planck, Sylda and the launcher’s upper stage long after separation, travelling together at an altitude of about 100 000 km.
Mars500 crew member Cyrille Fournier shows a flower he drew for his girlfriend.
As the crew completes their sixth week inside the isolation facility at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia, ESA-selected Mars500 crew member Cyrille Fournier reports back on their latest activities.
Cyrille Fournier writes:
As Oliver wrote last week, ‘tempus fugit’… And this is true, time passes by, le temps file, Zeit flieht, Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð»ÐµÑ‚Ð¸Ñ‚, tiempo vuela, il tempo vola, etc…! We have already finished the first of our three 35-day cycles and this week we started the second one.
Guests for this week include: Martin Ross, Joe Pelton, Angie Buckley, Neil McGilvray and Robert Utley.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
STS-125 mission specialists Mike Massimino and Mike Good completed the mission’s fourth spacewalk today at 5:47 p.m. EDT. The spacewalkers continued repairs and improvements to the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) that will extend the Hubble’s life into the next decade. The spacewalk lasted 8 hours, 2 minutes.
Shuttle imagery, logos up in the air
Florida Today
As the shuttle program winds down, marketing gurus, business operators and space enthusiasts question if it’s also time to consider retiring some of the iconic orbiter references and imagery that have been a part of the Space Coast’s cultural and tourism landscape since the 1970s.
NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino
NASA MISSION UPDATE
As astronaut Mike Massimino zoomed to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope Tuesday, he managed to reach out to thousands of people who are following his Twitter feed. He sent an email to Johnson Space Center, which then posted this message to his Twitter:
“From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”
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A giant leap toward space-based solar power
Los Angeles Times
A Manhattan Beach start-up called Solaren Corp. seeks to launch an array of giant solar power collectors into orbit 23,000 miles above Fresno and beam the energy to Earth. PG&E has signed a contract to buy the power — if Solaren can make the technology work.
The proposal is a potential energy game-changer, supporters say. But, critics dismiss it as pie in the sky.
A bit more news on DARPA’s work on hypersonics, courtesy of Arnold Air Force Base’s Public Affairs Officer Philip Lorenz III. He wrote the following story about a recent test done at the base on DARPA’s Falcon Combined Cycle Engine Test (FaCET) article:
Officials at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) are heralding a successful first freejet test on a dual mode, combined ram/scramjet hypersonic engine in the center’s Aerodynamic and Propulsion Test Unit (APTU), a major milestone on two fronts.
PNJ.com has a story about the Andrews Institute in Florida, which is pressing on in its efforts to get into the space tourist training business despite the freezing of its grant from Space Florida and the resignation of the man who headed up the program:
DARPA PRESS RELEASE
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has kicked off the Vulcan program with awards to four contractors. The four contractors participating in the eight-month first phase are: Alliant TechSystems, General Electric, Rolls Royce and United Technologies.
