Monday
Responding to Potential Asteroid Redirect Mission Targets Summary
NASA has become increasingly aware and involved in protecting Earth from asteroids and other large harmful matter in space. They have created the NEO program (Near Earth Object) for smaller asteroids and ARM (Asteroid Redirect Mission) for the most dangerous and largest asteroids. NASA is implementing connections with the Orion Spacecraft and Space Launch System to further this program and initiative.
Responding to Potential Asteroid Redirect Mission Targets
"One year ago, on Feb. 15, 2013, the world was witness to the dangers presented by near-Earth Objects (NEOs) when a relatively small asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere, exploding over Chelyabinsk, Russia, and releasing more energy than a large atomic bomb. Tracking near-Earth asteroids has been a significant endeavor for NASA and the broader astronomical community, which has discovered 10,713 known near-Earth objects to date. NASA is now pursuing new partnerships and collaborations in an Asteroid Grand Challenge to accelerate NASA’s existing planetary defense work, which will help find all asteroid threats to human population and know what to do about them. In parallel, NASA is developing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) -- a first-ever mission to identify, capture and redirect an asteroid to a safe orbit of Earth's moon for future exploration by astronauts in the 2020s.
ARM will use capabilities in development, including the new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and high-power Solar Electric Propulsion. All are critical components of deep-space exploration and essential to meet NASA's goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. The mission represents an unprecedented technological feat, raising the bar for human exploration and discovery, while helping protect our home planet and bringing us closer to a human mission to one of these intriguing objects.
NASA is assessing two concepts to robotically capture and redirect an asteroid mass into a stable orbit around the moon. In the first proposed concept, NASA would capture and redirect an entire very small asteroid. In the alternative concept, NASA would retrieve a large, boulder-like mass from a larger asteroid and return it to this same lunar orbit. In both cases, astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft would then study the redirected asteroid mass in the vicinity of the moon and bring back samples.
Very few known near-Earth objects are ARM candidates. Most known asteroids are too big to be fully captured and have orbits unsuitable for a spacecraft to redirect them into orbit around the moon. Some are so distant when discovered that their size and makeup are difficult for even our most powerful telescopes to discern. Still others could be potential targets, but go from newly discovered to out of range of our telescopes so quickly there is not enough time to observe them adequately.
For the small asteroids that do closely approach Earth, NASA's Near-Earth Object Program has developed a rapid response system whose chief goal is to mobilize NEO-observing assets when an asteroid first appears that could qualify as a potential candidate for the ARM mission.
"There are other elements involved, but if size were the only factor, we'd be looking for an asteroid smaller than about 40 feet (12 meters) across," said Paul Chodas, a senior scientist in the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "There are hundreds of millions of objects out there in this size range, but they are small and don't reflect a lot of sunlight, so they can be hard to spot. The best time to discover them is when they are brightest, when they are close to Earth."
Asteroids are discovered by small, dedicated teams of astronomers using optical telescopes that repeatedly scan the sky looking for star-like objects, which change location in the sky slightly over the course of an hour or so. Asteroid surveys detect hundreds of such moving objects in a single night, but only a fraction of these will turn out to be new discoveries. The coordinates of detected moving objects are passed along to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., which either identifies each as a previously known object or assigns it a new designation. The observations are collated and then electronically published, along with an estimate of the object's orbit and intrinsic brightness. Automatic systems at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL take the Minor Planet Center data, compute refined orbit and brightness estimates, and update its online small-body database. A new screening process for the asteroid redirect mission has been set up which regularly checks the small-body database, looking for potential new candidates for the ARM mission.
"If an asteroid looks as if it could meet the criteria of size and orbit, our automated system sends us an email with the subject "'New ARM Candidate,'" said Chodas. "When that happens, and it has happened several dozen times since we implemented the system in March of 2013, I know we'll have a busy day."
Remember, things have to happen quickly because these small NEOs are only visible to even the most powerful of telescopes for a short period of a few days during their flyby of Earth. After receiving such an email, Chodas contacts the scientists coordinating radar observations at NASA's Deep Space Network station at Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, to check on their availability. These are massive radar telescopes (the width of the Goldstone dish is 230 feet, or 70 meters, and the Arecibo dish is a whopping 1,000 feet, or 305 meters, wide). They have the capability of bouncing powerful microwaves off nearby asteroids, providing size and rotation information, and at times, even generating detailed images of an asteroid's surface. If these radar telescopes can see an asteroid and track it, definitive data on its orbit and size will quickly follow.
Chodas may also contact selected optical observatories run by professionals or sophisticated amateurs, who may be able to quickly turn their telescopes to observe the small space rock.
"The optical telescopes play an important role, as their observations can be used to improve our prediction of the orbital path, as well as provide data that helps us establish the rotation rate of an asteroid," said Chodas.
Chodas also reaches out to the NASA-funded Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. If the IRTF can detect the space rock, it can provide a wealth of detailed data on spectral type, reflectivity and expected composition.
"After one of these alerts, there is a lot of calling and emailing going on in the beginning," said Chodas. "Then, we just simply have to wait to see what this worldwide network of assets can do to characterize the physical attributes of the potential ARM target."
Scientists estimate that several dozen asteroids in the 20-to-40-foot (6-to-12-meter) size range fly by Earth at a distance even closer than the moon every year. But only a fraction of these are actually detected, and even fewer are in orbits that are good candidates for ARM. Roughly half will pass Earth on the daytime side and are impossible to find in the bright glare of sunlight. Even so, current asteroid surveys are finding tens of asteroids in this size range every year, and new technology is coming online to make detection of these objects even more likely.
"The NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, which has made the majority of NEO discoveries since its inception in 2004, is getting an upgrade," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Objects Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We also will have new telescopes with an upgraded detection capability, like PanSTARRS 2 and ATLAS, coming online soon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's new Space Surveillance Telescope will give us a hand as well."
As part of its effort to find asteroids hazardous to Earth and destinations for future robotic and human exploration, NASA's NEO program will continue to search for even better potential targets for ARM. Also, NASA's WISE spacecraft has been reactivated and rechristened NEOWISE (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-006) and could be used to characterize potential ARM targets.
In an attempt to leave no space-stone unturned, the agency is also combining public-private partnerships, crowdsourcing and incentive prizes to enhance existing efforts. Through its Asteroid Grand Challenge, NASA is reaching out to any and all who may have the next pioneering idea in asteroid research.
Of course, all this looking up and out and into the dim recesses of the solar system requires funding. NASA is already spending $20 million per year in the search for potentially hazardous asteroids through the Near Earth Object Observation Program. NASA's FY 14 budget included $105 million to plan for the capture and redirection of an asteroid, increase innovative partnerships and approaches to help us amplify efforts to identify and track and characterize asteroids, and conduct studies for mitigating potential threats.
We are learning a lot more about space rocks than we ever had before and along with that the rate of discoveries will continue to climb. And of those, only a portion of the new asteroids discovered is destined to have the right stuff for an asteroid retrieval mission -- the right size and the right orbit to satisfy mission requirements for the asteroid redirect mission.
The Near-Earth Object Program Office reports that, with current asteroid surveys already in place, about two potential candidates suitable for the asteroid redirect mission are discovered every year. The rate of discovery is projected to at least double as new imaging assets come online.
Does Chodas think there is a perfect target asteroid out there for an asteroid redirect mission?
"Absolutely. There are a lot of asteroids out there, and there are a lot of dedicated people down here, looking for them," said Chodas. "You put the two together and it's only a matter of time before we find some space rocks that fit our needs."
NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/,http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch.
NASA is assessing two concepts to robotically capture and redirect an asteroid mass into a stable orbit around the moon. In the first proposed concept, NASA would capture and redirect an entire very small asteroid. In the alternative concept, NASA would retrieve a large, boulder-like mass from a larger asteroid and return it to this same lunar orbit. In both cases, astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft would then study the redirected asteroid mass in the vicinity of the moon and bring back samples.
Very few known near-Earth objects are ARM candidates. Most known asteroids are too big to be fully captured and have orbits unsuitable for a spacecraft to redirect them into orbit around the moon. Some are so distant when discovered that their size and makeup are difficult for even our most powerful telescopes to discern. Still others could be potential targets, but go from newly discovered to out of range of our telescopes so quickly there is not enough time to observe them adequately.
For the small asteroids that do closely approach Earth, NASA's Near-Earth Object Program has developed a rapid response system whose chief goal is to mobilize NEO-observing assets when an asteroid first appears that could qualify as a potential candidate for the ARM mission.
"There are other elements involved, but if size were the only factor, we'd be looking for an asteroid smaller than about 40 feet (12 meters) across," said Paul Chodas, a senior scientist in the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "There are hundreds of millions of objects out there in this size range, but they are small and don't reflect a lot of sunlight, so they can be hard to spot. The best time to discover them is when they are brightest, when they are close to Earth."
Asteroids are discovered by small, dedicated teams of astronomers using optical telescopes that repeatedly scan the sky looking for star-like objects, which change location in the sky slightly over the course of an hour or so. Asteroid surveys detect hundreds of such moving objects in a single night, but only a fraction of these will turn out to be new discoveries. The coordinates of detected moving objects are passed along to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., which either identifies each as a previously known object or assigns it a new designation. The observations are collated and then electronically published, along with an estimate of the object's orbit and intrinsic brightness. Automatic systems at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL take the Minor Planet Center data, compute refined orbit and brightness estimates, and update its online small-body database. A new screening process for the asteroid redirect mission has been set up which regularly checks the small-body database, looking for potential new candidates for the ARM mission.
"If an asteroid looks as if it could meet the criteria of size and orbit, our automated system sends us an email with the subject "'New ARM Candidate,'" said Chodas. "When that happens, and it has happened several dozen times since we implemented the system in March of 2013, I know we'll have a busy day."
Remember, things have to happen quickly because these small NEOs are only visible to even the most powerful of telescopes for a short period of a few days during their flyby of Earth. After receiving such an email, Chodas contacts the scientists coordinating radar observations at NASA's Deep Space Network station at Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, to check on their availability. These are massive radar telescopes (the width of the Goldstone dish is 230 feet, or 70 meters, and the Arecibo dish is a whopping 1,000 feet, or 305 meters, wide). They have the capability of bouncing powerful microwaves off nearby asteroids, providing size and rotation information, and at times, even generating detailed images of an asteroid's surface. If these radar telescopes can see an asteroid and track it, definitive data on its orbit and size will quickly follow.
Chodas may also contact selected optical observatories run by professionals or sophisticated amateurs, who may be able to quickly turn their telescopes to observe the small space rock.
"The optical telescopes play an important role, as their observations can be used to improve our prediction of the orbital path, as well as provide data that helps us establish the rotation rate of an asteroid," said Chodas.
Chodas also reaches out to the NASA-funded Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. If the IRTF can detect the space rock, it can provide a wealth of detailed data on spectral type, reflectivity and expected composition.
"After one of these alerts, there is a lot of calling and emailing going on in the beginning," said Chodas. "Then, we just simply have to wait to see what this worldwide network of assets can do to characterize the physical attributes of the potential ARM target."
Scientists estimate that several dozen asteroids in the 20-to-40-foot (6-to-12-meter) size range fly by Earth at a distance even closer than the moon every year. But only a fraction of these are actually detected, and even fewer are in orbits that are good candidates for ARM. Roughly half will pass Earth on the daytime side and are impossible to find in the bright glare of sunlight. Even so, current asteroid surveys are finding tens of asteroids in this size range every year, and new technology is coming online to make detection of these objects even more likely.
"The NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, which has made the majority of NEO discoveries since its inception in 2004, is getting an upgrade," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Objects Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We also will have new telescopes with an upgraded detection capability, like PanSTARRS 2 and ATLAS, coming online soon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's new Space Surveillance Telescope will give us a hand as well."
As part of its effort to find asteroids hazardous to Earth and destinations for future robotic and human exploration, NASA's NEO program will continue to search for even better potential targets for ARM. Also, NASA's WISE spacecraft has been reactivated and rechristened NEOWISE (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-006) and could be used to characterize potential ARM targets.
In an attempt to leave no space-stone unturned, the agency is also combining public-private partnerships, crowdsourcing and incentive prizes to enhance existing efforts. Through its Asteroid Grand Challenge, NASA is reaching out to any and all who may have the next pioneering idea in asteroid research.
Of course, all this looking up and out and into the dim recesses of the solar system requires funding. NASA is already spending $20 million per year in the search for potentially hazardous asteroids through the Near Earth Object Observation Program. NASA's FY 14 budget included $105 million to plan for the capture and redirection of an asteroid, increase innovative partnerships and approaches to help us amplify efforts to identify and track and characterize asteroids, and conduct studies for mitigating potential threats.
We are learning a lot more about space rocks than we ever had before and along with that the rate of discoveries will continue to climb. And of those, only a portion of the new asteroids discovered is destined to have the right stuff for an asteroid retrieval mission -- the right size and the right orbit to satisfy mission requirements for the asteroid redirect mission.
The Near-Earth Object Program Office reports that, with current asteroid surveys already in place, about two potential candidates suitable for the asteroid redirect mission are discovered every year. The rate of discovery is projected to at least double as new imaging assets come online.
Does Chodas think there is a perfect target asteroid out there for an asteroid redirect mission?
"Absolutely. There are a lot of asteroids out there, and there are a lot of dedicated people down here, looking for them," said Chodas. "You put the two together and it's only a matter of time before we find some space rocks that fit our needs."
NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/,http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch.
DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."(http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/asteroid/asteroid-redirect-mission-20140214/#.UwuCTXlH1FI)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."(http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/asteroid/asteroid-redirect-mission-20140214/#.UwuCTXlH1FI)
Sunday
SpaceX Summary
The company SpaceX is planning to create/launch a new rocket that will be very large and powerful. In the meantime, the company currently acts as a cargo transportation service for NASA. SpaceX has figured out how to make good money off of weightlessness and has a monopoly over space transport. This piece also suggests that Americans need to invest and support long term industries tied to space and NASA, not only for safety but for a better economic future. Companies like SpaceX could potentially hold many jobs.
Monday
SpaceX
"The private spaceflight company Space X plans to build a rocket so big it would "make the Apollo moon rocket look small,"the company's CEO, Elon Musk, announced on "CBS This Morning"on Feb. 3.
The huge rocket would ultimately send colonists to Mars, but what would SpaceX do in the meantime? The company's primary focus right now is giving NASA astronauts access to the International Space Station (ISS) on American vehicles, drastically lowering prices to Earth orbit versus what the Russians are charging, Musk said. [SpaceX Breaks Ground on Launch Pad for Huge Private Rocket ] I would add that the company should also use its rockets and spacecraft to open up orbital space access to friendly governments, companies and individuals who could not afford it otherwise. That would provide a significant stimulus to the U.S. economy. Musk further mentioned SpaceX doing a manned flight around the moon, possibly including a landing. Following those events, he said, SpaceX would use the huge rocket for trips to Mars.
This all begs the question: If SpaceX is going to build this gargantuan rocket on its own dime, anyway, why is the U.S. Congress forcing NASA to develop the less capable Space Launch System(SLS) for many billions of dollars more?
Earlier, SpaceX stated it could develop a rocket that would launch 150 metric tons of payload,or 20 metric tons more than the most powerful version of SLS at a fixed price development cost of $2.5 billion (an amount that comes to roughly 1.25 years of SLS's funding). Also worthy of consideration is spacecraft launch company United Launch Alliance's (ULA) proposed — but not currently pursued — economical, large launcher that would loft 140 metric tons at $5.5 billion total development cost.
Wouldn't it make more sense for NASA to buy a huge rocket from SpaceX or ULA and get much more capability for less money? If SLS were cancelled now, couldn't a small part of the resulting savings help speed up development of the large SpaceX or ULA launch vehicles — or both? In fact, this was exactly what NASA proposed to Congress before SLS was legally forced on them.
Musk's statements also imply that SpaceX must develop an advanced interplanetary spacecraft much more capable than the upsized 1960s-style Orion vessel that NASA has already spent billions on, and on which it isslated to spend billions more. Why not have NASA help SpaceX and other groundbreaking aerospace companies speed things up with a safe spacecraft that is better than Orion, yet less expensive? This craft could be developed via the competitive "fixed-price/pay-only-for-success"format successfully used in NASA's Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew programs.
SLS is so expensive that there is no money left to develop the huge payloads it is designed to carry. Thus, it is often referred to as "The Rocket to Nowhere."As mentioned in a report from Booz-Allen-Hamilton, this rocket will probably only successfully meet goals for the first 3 to 5 years. Thereafter, the SLS will produce only a very few (if any) exorbitantly expensive flights, after an extravagant amount already spent.
If SLS and Orion were scrapped and a fraction of their funds applied to the SpaceX or ULA launchers, NASA could use the resulting savings to produce needed technologies for deep-space exploration. The agency cannot currently develop those technologies because the SLS/Orion costs leave no money for these other projects. Those needed technologies could include radiation protection, artificial-spin gravity, advanced space-propulsion systems and in-space filling stations — all of which are now on the back burner.
Additionally, NASA astronauts could perform many more deep-space missions with the alternate launchers. The much smaller unit cost and lower operating expense of these other rockets would permit these more-frequent missions. More ambitious robotic missions would be feasible for the same reason — all within NASA's current budget. Again, NASA proposed this very stratagem before Congress forced SLS on the space agency.
By the end of this year, SpaceX plans to launch its Falcon Heavy (FH) rocket. This craft will have three-quarters of the payload capacity of the low-end version of SLS (not to be launched until 2017 at earliest). FH will have been produced totally without funds from NASA, which appears to be the case with the earlier-discussed Super Rocket, as well.
FH is more than powerful enough to send a manned SpaceX Dragonrider spacecraft on the loop around the moon that Musk mentioned. In fact, FH will be the most powerful rocket to fly since the Saturn V moon rocket. And Dragonrider's heat shield is designed to withstand the greatly increased stress that occurs when re-entering Earth's atmosphere from the moon or from interplanetary distances. Two Falcon Heavies (one to launch Dragonrider and a service module, the other to launch a lunar lander) would be quite sufficient for a manned moon landing. Those two scenarios are just conjecture on my part, since SpaceX has not yet announced the details of how they plan to accomplish either of those proposed missions. But they are real and tantalizing possibilities, given the capabilities and relatively low costs of the SpaceX projects.
But Congressional politics currently stand in the way of those possibilities. Certain U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pork-barrel politicians garner votes from constituencies in selected parts of the country through the short-sighted use of NASA's budget dollars. SLS and Orion are prime examples of this tendency. Unfortunately, the mainstream media have not yet reported this fact. Even network TV news anchors (some of whom claim to be space enthusiasts) seem unaware of this fleecing of the American taxpayer, which allows foreign competitors like China to gradually erode the huge technological advantage that the United States currently enjoys.
Despite all of that, private commercial companies are making innovations that will drastically lower the cost of spaceflight. When faced with this reality, it would seem the ultimate end of SLS/Orion is inevitable within the not-too-distant future.
It's time for U.S. citizens to insist that NASA's budget go toward advancing the entire nation's long-term future in space, not just short-term employment for certain areas of the country. By advancing more rapidly into space, the country will create many more American jobs in the future than will come from NASA spinning its wheels with SLS and Orion."
(http://www.space.com/24628-will-spacex-kill-nasa-sls.html)
Alien Summary
People have been looking for life on other planets for a very long time, but did people ever think about what they were looking for? Some people believe that Earth is hardly a habitable place and that it is a miracle that any life has continued to survive. Some scientists think that in order to find alien life we should not be looking for Earth like conditions and instead for more "habitable" pockets in space.
Are We Searching for Aliens in the Wrong Place?
"Earth may be a nice and cozy place for life as we know it to evolve, but is it really the best place for life to thrive? Probably not, say two researchers. In fact, Earth may be one of the more extreme examples of a “habitable” world where life was lucky to survive.ANALYSIS: Why the Hunt for Extraterrestrial Life is ImportantThe search for extraterrestrial life is fraught with uncertainly. Faced with a seemingly infinite Universe and an assumption that life beyond our planet is an inevitability, we focus on nooks and crannies that have similar habitable environments to Earth and exoplanets that resemble our world orbiting stars that resemble our sun. But finding these special places feels like we’re looking for a very specific needle in a very big haystack. What if our definition of “habitable” is just not all that, well, habitable?“The Earth just scrapes the inner edge of the solar system’s habitable zone — the area in which temperatures allow Earth-like planets to have liquid surface water,” said René Heller of McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. “So from this perspective, Earth is only marginally habitable. That led us to ask: could there be more hospitable environments for life on terrestrial planets?”Looking at the history of our planet, it may seem amazing that life was ever able to gain a foothold. Between the asteroid and comet bombardments, intense volcanic activity, frigid ice ages and often poisonous atmospheres, how were the conditions ever ripe for single celled lifeforms to form? Perhaps life was just really lucky to have found its way in such an inhospitable place.13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent AliensHeller and colleague John Armstrong of Weber State University think that we may be looking for life in all the wrong places and suggest that we should be looking not for “second-Earths” but a class of planet that is superhabitable.In an article published in Astrobiology in January, the researchers describe some of the characteristics a superhabitable planet may have. Some of the features — such as the necessity for a global magnetic field to protect life from ionizing solar wind particles — sound very familiar. But Heller and Armstrong highlight the need for a more efficient global “thermostat” that would avoid damaging ice ages. Also, a more massive planet with shallower oceans may be a more habitable solution.In their research, they highlight the nearby star Alpha Centauri B as an ideal candidate that could support a superhabitable world. Slightly smaller than our sun, Alpha Centauri B would be able to incubate hypothetical lifeforms on a superhabitable world for much longer owing to its longer lifespan. "You want to have a host star that can keep a planet in the habitable zone for 7 to 10 billion years," which would allow enough time for life to evolve and ecosystems to flourish, Heller told New Scientist.“We propose a shift in focus,” said Heller. “We want to prioritize future searches for inhabited planets. We’re saying ‘Don’t just focus on the most Earth-like planets if you really want to find life.’”Top 10 Places To Find Alien LifeThe researchers believe our hunt for extraterrestrial life is too set in its ways and blinkered toward worlds that we consider to be habitable because they resemble Earth. It’s a grand observational bias that may ultimately mean that while looking for second-Earths, we overlook far more habitable planets.While discussions like this are valuable, I think they can be counterproductive.Although it is very important to have “out of the box” thinking when it comes to the search for extraterrestrial life (whether that life be single-celled organisms hidden deep inside Mars’ crust or highly intelligent alien civilizations), using life as we know it as a template is no bad thing. After all, we are the only lifeforms we know of in the entire Universe, why would we ever consider Earth “barely habitable”?How life is sparked remains one of the biggest questions hanging over modern science and the search for extraterrestrial life is an offshoot from that. Perhaps Earth, in its barely habitable state, is actually the perfect environment for life to gain a foothold?Lacking evidence to the contrary, seeking out second-Earths probably isn’t such a bad idea."
(http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/are-we-searching-for-aliens-in-the-wrong-place-140203.htm)
(http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/are-we-searching-for-aliens-in-the-wrong-place-140203.htm)
Thursday
NASA Summary
NASA's International Space Station is not coming down into the ocean in 2016. The organization has decided, along with the President, that the station should stay in space for research, the growing space economy and tests for longer missions. It is very interesting to think about a space economy and commercial space taxis.
Companies:
http://www.spacex.com
http://www.orbital.com
Companies:
http://www.spacex.com
http://www.orbital.com
NASA Extends the Life of the International Space Station
William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the extra time would lead more scientists to propose experiments, spur a young commercial space industry and allow the space agency to solve health and technical challenges before sending its astronauts on more distant missions.
If the station were destined for destruction just six years from now, scientists and companies would be more reluctant to invest their time and money, Mr. Gerstenmaier said. “Potentially, that creates a new economy in space,” he said.
Two companies, SpaceX and the Orbital Sciences Corporation, fly cargo to the space station, and NASA is looking to hire commercial “space taxis” to take astronauts beginning in 2017. Mr. Gerstenmaier said he thought that more companies would now also look at how they could take advantage of the weightlessness of space for profit.
Last year, NASA studied the station and concluded that it could last until 2028. The other space agencies participating in it, including the European Space Agency and those of Russia and Japan, have not decided whether they, too, will continue beyond 2020.
“In general, they’re all pretty supportive,” Mr. Gerstenmaier said, adding that if necessary, NASA would go it alone.
This is the second time the Obama administration has extended the life of the orbiting laboratory.
When President Obama entered the White House, NASA was working to send astronauts back to the moon, and the space station, which was still being built, was to be nudged to a fiery ocean crash in 2016. The cost of operating the station, about $3 billion a year, could then be devoted to the moon program.
However, it always seemed unlikely that the station, which was built at a cost of $100 billion and completed just three years ago, would be discarded that soon, and when the Obama administration announced it wanted to cancel the moon program, it gave the first extension, stretching the life of the station to 2020.
Mr. Gerstenmaier said that unexpected challenges would still pop up at the station.
“This is going to be life on the frontier,” he said. Last month, a valve in a cooling pump failed, curtailing work on the station until astronauts installed a spare pump, an incident that illustrated the need for more reliable systems for deep space missions.
“If I’m going to go beyond low-Earth orbit, I have a lot of work that I still need to do,” Mr. Gerstenmaier said. “I need to understand how the human performs in spaceflight. How can I make sure I have a pump system for a three-year or two-year trip to Mars and back?”
A cargo rocket that was to be launched to the space station on Wednesday by Orbital Sciences was delayed until at least Thursday, because of an explosion on the sun and the torrent of charged particles that could have interfered with the spacecraft’s electron."
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/science/space/nasa-extends-the-life-of-the-international-space-station.html?_r=0)
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