Images show water ice?
Radar images from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter appear to show deposits of approximately 1.6 trillion pounds of water ice on the Moon.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Layoff notices in Florida
The United Space Alliance, which runs shuttle operations for NASA at Cape Canaveral, has announced layoffs roughly 900 effective October 1. Key quote: “Local workforce officials expect that up to 8,000 KSC employees could lose jobs by the time the shuttle program ends.”
Wolf says NASA budget passage bleak
The space war continues. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va) of the House Appropriations committee says that there is little chance the NASA budget will be approved until January.
Solar sail conference
Solar sail engineers from around the world gathered in Brooklyn last week for the Second International Symposium on Solar Sailing. Ben Diedrich, fellow caver, solar sail expert, and the man behind wiki.solarsails.info, gave two papers. He also emailed me to say that “Japan’s contingent gave several talks – many of which compared analysis of deployment, flight, or steering with actual flight data” of Ikaros. A review of the program [pdf] revealed some fascinating uses for solar sails. I like this paper title the best: “Deflecting Apophis with a flotilla of solar sails.” [ed. Apophis is an asteroid with the potential of hitting the Earth.]
Update: Japanese scientists have now announced that they have been able to adjust Ikaros’s attitude using sunlight.
Another update: Ben Diedrich emailed me the link to read the actual proceedings from the conference. See pg 103 to read the paper on using solar sails to deflect Apophis.
Lichens in space
An experiment flown in space for 10 days by the European Space Agency has found that three species of lichen can survive the hazards of outer space.
Asteroid impact threat
End of the world alert! Scientists have identified an almost half mile wide asteroid with a 1 in 1000 chance of hitting the Earth in 2182.
Russian astronauts lose tools during spacewalk
During a spacewalk at ISS yesterday, two Russian cosmonauts successfully replaced a broken camera and installed new wiring for the recently added Russian Dawn module. They also lost a washer and an “attachment fixture” used to fasten the wiring in place, both of which were spotted floating away.
GAO rules layoffs legal
The General Accountability Office has ruled that the Obama administration’s decision to require contractors to reserve money for the possible termination of the contract, thereby forcing them to cut back early on the Constellation program, was legal.
Scientist uncover fossil of biggest rat ever
A cave exacavation in East Timor has uncovered the bones of the largest rat species on record, weighing over 13 pounds and living approximately one to two thousand years ago. The dig also uncovered 11 previously unknown rat species.
Kepler finds more than 100 Earthlike planets
In its first six weeks of observation, the Kepler mission apparently found almost 150 planets similar in size to the Earth. The results, learned by accident because a talk given by one of the co-investigators was posted on the web, have not yet been officially announced because the project scientists feel a need for additional time to confirm them. Many of these so-called planets might turn out to be false positives, so some caution is in order.
Mann and the press
It’s not the crime but the cover-up: Michael Mann refuses to answer reasonable questions from a reporter for The Dailer Caller.
NASA’s ISS Twitter feed hacked
Spam is everywhere! Today NASA’s Twitter feed from ISS was hacked with unintended ads.
ISS and Chinese satellite debris
Russian mission control has indicated that the debris left over from destruction of a Chinese satellite in 2007 poses a “danger” to the International Space Station. Key quote from a Russian official:
“If the calculations show that the debris is approaching the station at an unacceptably close range, the six astronauts will receive the order to take shelter in the two Russian Soyuz spacecraft which are docked with the ISS.”
Comet hit Neptune 200 years ago
Astronomers have concluded that the high levels of carbon monoxide that they have detected in the upper layers of Neptune’s atmosphere are the leftover fingerprint of a cometary impact some 200 years ago.
Solar powered plane flies for two weeks
Zephr, a British-built solar-powered unmanned plane was ordered to return to Earth after flying continuously for two weeks without refueling. Key quote:
Zephyr is set to be credited with a new world endurance record (336 hours, 24 minutes) for an unmanned, un-refuelled aircraft – provided a representative of the world air sports federation, who was present at Yuma, is satisfied its rules have been followed properly.
Spudis on caves
On the subject of caves on the Moon, Paul Spudis has directed me to his very cogent October 2009 post for Air & Space magazine. Here he notes correctly that though lava tube caves on the Moon have value, they are unfortunately apparently not located in the best places for settlement.
Worries about JWST
Keith Cowing at NasaWatch notes quickly that the current budget battles over NASA have people in NASA concerned about the future of the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope has further cost overruns, and should NASA end up operating under a continuing resolution rather than a full budget, there won’t be enough money to keep the project above water.
New currency symbol for India
This Slate article not only describes the new symbol India has chosen for its currency, it also gives a nice thumbnail description of the origins of other currency symbols, such as the U.S. dollar sign and the English pound sign.
Impact crater in Egypt
Using Google Earth, a curator at an Italian museum has discovered a previously unknown, very young, and almost pristine impact crater hidden in the deserts of Egypt.
Space war update
This Orlando Sentinel analysis of the various Congressional NASA budget proposals working their way through the House and Senate right now concludes, as I have been saying for months, that the future for NASA is not good. Key quote:
The plan orders NASA to build a heavy-lift rocket and capsule capable of reaching the International Space Station by 2016. But it budgets less money for the new spacecraft — about $11 billion during three years, with $3 billion next year — than what the troubled Constellation program would have received. That — plus the short deadline — has set off alarms.