China launches 5th satellite in its own GPS system
China successfully launches the fifth satellite in its own GPS system.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Cooling system failure on ISS
A failure in the cooling system on the International Space Station yesterday has forced the astronauts to shut down some of their systems while ground control troubleshoots the situation.
Undersea adventure by robots
Undersea adventure by robot. An unmanned probe completed its first dive beneath the Arctic ice this week.
Burt Rutan on future of space
At an airshow on Thursday, July 29, in Oskosh, Wisconsin, Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, made some interesting remarks about the past and future of private space flight. Key quote:
Rutan said NASA should give 10 to 15 percent of its budget to new space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX without regulating how to spend the money. “That would allow them to not (have to) beg for commercial investment, while still working in an entrepreneurial mode.”
The winds of Titan
Scientists are beginning to unravel the wind patterns on Titan.
Spirit appears dead
After more than six years, it appears that the Mars rover Spirit has finally died. The rover was originally designed to only operate 90 days.
Who are the racists?
Who are the racists? Readers (and one former editor) respond with dismay because Essence magazine has hired a fashion editor who happens to be white.
Paperwork nightmare of healthcare
Law of unintended consequences strikes again. The new healthcare law has a provision, unrelated to healthcare, that involves a paperwork nightmare for small businesses.
Steny Hoyer and taxes
A political note: my Congressman happens to be Steny Hoyer, who waxed poetic recently about taxes and the coming expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Hopefully, this man will free Hoyer from such concerns.
House bill stalled?
The space war over NASA continues. The pushback from commercial space advocates and industry proponents seems to be having an effect. House aides have indicated that the House NASA authorization bill will not be voted on until September.
Hayabusa on display
The Japanese space agency JAXA has put Hayabusa’s heat shield, outer capsule, and parachute on public display, to large crowds.
The non-face on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter takes a picture of the non-face on Mars.
Foust reports on space war
The space war continues. Jeff Foust has two reports today on the political state of NASA’s budget. First, Congress has approved language that requires continuing funding of Constellation. Second, it looks like the House may vote on the new NASA authorization bill this week.
Opportunity sees its first dust devil
The Mars rover Opportunity has spotted its first dust devil after six-plus years of travel.
Themis satellites transferred to Moon
Two NASA probes, originally launched to study the Sun and having completed their mission, have had their orbits adjusted so that they can study the Moon instead.
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.
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.