February 28

SMART-1: Reporting For Scientific Lunar Duty

The European Space Agency's (ESA) SMART-1 spacecraft reached its operational orbit on February 27. The probe's electric propulsion engine has been switched off.

This week will be used to determine the exact whereabouts of the ESA lunar orbiter as it circuits the Moon, along with instrument checkout and calibration - all in preparation for an extensive lunar science data collecting phase, said Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist for ESA's science program.

ESA's SMART-1 mission was extended by one year, pushing back the mission end date from August 2005 to August 2006.

The European spacecraft is expecting company around the Moon. Probes from Japan, India, China, as well as from the United States are under development. "We hope that SMART-1 will indeed serve as precursor to the new lunar exploration fleet," Foing added.

SMART-1's electric thruster has worked very well, exceeding its specifications, noted Sven Grahn, Vice President Engineering & Corporate Communications for the Swedish Space Corporation, the prime contractor for SMART-1. "It is an extremely 'well-behaved' child of ours, Grahn told SPACE.com. The probe has had very few glitches, with all of those quickly solved. The spacecraft's autonomy - the ability to take care of itself on its own - "has worked like a dream," he said.

 -- Leonard David

February 25

Astronauts: Taking it in the Kidneys

A nasty nanobacteria has been identified that may put astronauts at high risk during their space travels.

Writing in the February issue of Kidney International, lead researcher Neva Ciftcioglu calls for a major initiative to investigate the nanobacteria.

As a novel self-replicating, mineralizing agent, nanobacteria is seen as a potential culprit in kidney stone formation among astronauts. More to the point, health is a major concern for space explorers, particularly given the prospect of future exploratory missions to the Moon and Mars and beyond.

Ciftcioglu, a Universities Space Research Association researcher at NASA's Johnson Space Center, reported that nanobacteria were found to multiply five times faster in microgravity compared to normal gravity on Earth. The finding supports earlier discoveries that microbes have radically different behavior in weightless environments. Nanobacteria could also possibly be an infectious risk for crew members living in close quarters.

Further testing for the presence of nanobacteria in human bodies, Ciftcioglu and her research colleagues report, can help reduce the risk for kidney stone formation in astronauts. Such research is sure to benefit the nearly one million Americans who are treated for kidney stones each year.

Leonard David

February 23

GlobalFlyer Attempt Delayed

The goal is to set an aviation world record for the first solo, non-stop, non-refueled circumnavigation of the world.

However, a hoped for liftoff this month of Virgin Atlantic's GlobalFlyer aircraft has now been pushed off into March.

The plane is set to depart from a Salina, Kansas airport. But the latest weather forecast there shows unacceptable ground winds and turbulence during the aircraft's ascent. Both present significant risks.

GlobalFlyer's pilot, adventurer Steve Fossett, said in a statement: "What a disappointment. As eager as I am to start this flight, everything must be right."

Once in the sky, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer is capable of speeds of over 285 miles per hour (250 knots). The around-the-world flight should be completed inside 80 hours. The route will begin from the Salina airfield and then follow the jet stream winds across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom.

From there, Fossett will head south-east across the Mediterranean and the Gulf before turning east towards Pakistan, India, China and Japan. The final leg of the journey will take the plane out over the Pacific towards Hawaii before crossing the west coast of the United States and returning to the Kansas launch site.

The next weather window for the attempt could be in the March 1-3 time period, according to project officials.

-- Leonard David

February 22

Poor Weather Delays Japanese Rocket Launch

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's space agency announced Tuesday it will postpone the launch this week of its H-2A rocket because of poor weather conditions at the launchsite.

The domestically designed H-2A rocket was scheduled for launch on Thursday from the southern island of Tanegashima. But the weather forecast calls for high winds and lightning that day, forcing the date to be set back to Saturday at the earliest, said Emi Takizawa, a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The launch is a crucial one for Japan's space program, which has been grounded since an H-2A carrying two spy satellites was detonated in mid-air after a malfunction shortly after liftoff in November 2003.

The H-2A launch vehicle is the workhorse of Japan's space program.

-- Associated Press

February 19

Return to Flight Launch Date Pushed Back

CAPE CANAVERAL - Shuttle program managers recommended Friday that NASA move the target launch for the first post-Columbia mission back one day to May 15 to get better lighting during flight.

Lighting conditions that day will enable NASA to capture the clearest images of the shuttle's redesigned external fuel tank during Discovery's nine-minute ride to orbit and as the tank falls away from the orbiter in space.

Senior NASA officials are expected to approve the change. The Space Flight Leadership Council is set to meet Friday to discuss the issue with shuttle program managers.

If the shuttle launches May 15, liftoff would happen at about 3:50 p.m. Lighting conditions will remain good enough to allow a launch through June 3. After that, NASA would have to wait until July.

NASA is hoping to get the first two shuttle missions off the ground, if possible, by then. That could free the agency to resume construction flights to the International Space Station later this year.

That's important because the agency faces a tight schedule to get in the 25 to 30 flights necessary to complete construction of the orbiting lab. President Bush has ordered the agency to finish that work and retire the space shuttles by 2010 as part of the new Vision for Space Exploration.

-- FLORIDA TODAY

Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2005 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.

February 15

A Falling Cry From Titan

Europe's probe to Saturn's moon Titan has delighted researchers seeking to learn more about the hazy satellite, returning home images of its surface and data on the local atmosphere.

But NASA's Cassini spacecraft - the mothership that relayed Huygens observations to Earth - also recorded sounds that, while no symphony, play a crucial role in reconstructing the probe's descent and landing at Titan.

Researchers compressed a four-hour signal tone heard by Cassini as Huygens plummeted to Titan's surface into an audio clip that spans about one minute. It spans a period of time beginning when Huygens deployed its main parachute and runs through about one hour after landing.

The Huygens audio clip begins with a choppy gurgling sound that eventually becomes a steady whistle rising in pitch about 43 seconds in. The signal's frequency changed as Huygens rocked and spun under its parachute canopy during descent, researchers said.

"After landing, the tone is far less rich because the probe has stopped moving," explained Ralph Lorenz, a co-investigator for the Huygens surface science package at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. "Overall the signal was very robust."

The Huygens probe was built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and landed on Titan on Jan. 14. The joint Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons is a cooperative effort between NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency.

Click here to listen to Huygens' Titan descent as heard by Cassini.

1. Huygens Loses Communication Line With Cassini Spacecraft

-- SPACE.com Staff

February 14

Moon Crater: A Mark of Respect for Deceased Lunar Scientist

Graham Ryder was a premier lunar scientist who pioneered many of our most important concepts about the Moon and its evolution. He passed away on January 5, 2002, as a result of complications from cancer of the esophagus.

At the time of his death, Ryder was a staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.

"I was a close friend of Graham's and when he passed away three years ago, I thought that he deserved a crater named for him on the Moon," said Paul Spudis, a space scientist at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. A candidate has to be deceased over three years to be considered, he said.

Spudis and APL colleague, Ben Bussey, had recently finished work on a new Clementine Atlas of the Moon. Clementine was a U.S. Defense Department probe that orbited the Moon in 1994, producing invaluable lunar imaging and data sets. In working with that information, the APL researchers were familiar with a number of craters that apparently did not have names.

"I noticed a nicely prominent, bright rayed crater on the floor of South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the Moon," Spudis told SPACE.com. "One of Graham's scientific interests was the cratering history of the Moon."

This particular feature, Spudis added, is a very bright ray crater -- meaning extremely young --formed on the basin floor of the biggest, oldest basin on the Moon - the South Pole-Aitken basin. "It seemed to nicely symbolize both Graham's scientific interests and his contributions to lunar science," he said.

Spudis suggested the crater to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) subcommittee through the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona - keeper of the nomenclature data bank. They approved it after a recent meeting, he said.

The crater name is headed for approval by the full IAU assembly in 2006.

-- Leonard David

February 10

NASA Shuffles Shuttle Crews

A former Kennedy Space Center engineer who is now a NASA astronaut will make her first space flight one mission earlier than previously planned, the agency announced Wednesday.

Joan Higginbotham, selected as an astronaut in 1996 after working as an engineer at KSC for nine years, has been assigned to a mission designated STS-116.

The mission, tentatively scheduled for spring 2006, will deliver the third port truss segment for the International Space Station.

Veteran astronaut Mark Polansky will be mission commander. Joining Polansky and mission specialist Higginbotham will be first-time pilot William Oefelein and mission specialists Robert Curbeam, Nicholas Patrick and Christer Fuglesang. Fuglesang is a Swedish astronaut from the European Space Agency.

Higginbotham and Polansky previously were assigned to a mission designated STS-117, a flight commanded by veteran astronaut Rick Sturckow. The crew for that mission now includes rookie pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists James Reilly, Richard Mastracchio, Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson.

The second starboard truss will be hauled to the station on that flight.

The shuffling among crews is because of shifting mission objectives after the 2003 Columbia accident and President Bush's directive to complete construction of the station and retire the shuttles by 2010.

-- Todd Halvorston, FLORIDA TODAY

Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2005 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.

Solar Sail Flight Slipped

The Cosmos 1 countdown clock has to be adjusted.

The Planetary Society's solar sail sendoff courtesy of a Russian submarine-launched rocket was targeted for liftoff in the March 1 to April 5 time frame. But the sail's blastoff "has slipped a bit", said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society.

In a project update, Friedman said that the sail -- dubbed Cosmos 1 -- will launch in April.

"The testing on the flight spacecraft has gone well, but some corrections and fixes have been required. To enhance reliability, extra precautions have been implemented in both the hardware and software of the spacecraft," Friedman reported. "We do not rule out other small slips if we take a few extra days here or there in flight preparations, testing or last-minute checks. Unlike launch windows for planetary missions, ours is not fixed by celestial mechanics, so we have much more leeway in setting a date.

Cosmos 1's mission goal is to perform the first controlled solar sail flight as the spacecraft is propelled by photons from sunlight. The Space Research Institute (IKI) in Moscow has overseen the creation of the flight electronics and mission control software while NPO Lavochkin, one of Russia's largest aerospace companies, built the spacecraft.

Once the spacecraft is in Earth orbit, a set of 8 triangular blades are to be deployed by inflatable tubes.

And from there, hopefully, it's smooth sailing!

-- Leonard David

February 9

Space Case for iPods and Cell Phones

About the only place today you can't spot an Apple iPod is on the International Space Station. Its therefore fitting that if the digital music player couldn't go to space, everQuest Design would bring space to the iPod... or at least its carrying case.

Adapting their Soyuz parachute-constructed messenger bags first introduced in April 2004, everQuest is offering smaller size holsters and cases specifically designed for cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras and yes, even iPods.

Like their larger cousins, the new compact Soyuz series features swatches of space-flown parachute that returned astronaut Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri from the ISS to terra firma. Black Cordura nylon exteriors and soft black cotton-nylon linings insure your device has its own safe touchdown. EverQuest is selling two models: a cell phone holster and a wider e-device case. Both the holster and case are held closed with velcro; the case also has elastic side panels for a snug fit. Each ships with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Kaleri testifying to the origin of the well-traveled front flap material. Additional details and ordering information can be found at collectSPACE.com.

February 8

ESA Gets Green Light to Deploy Mars Express Radar

The European Space Agency has given the green light for the MARSIS radar on board its Mars Express spacecraft to be deployed during the first week of May. Assuming that this operation is successful, the radar will finally start the search for subsurface water reservoirs and studies of the Martian ionosphere.

ESA's decision to deploy MARSIS follows eight months of intensive computer simulations and technical investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. These were to assess possible harmful boom configurations during deployment and to determine any effects on the spacecraft and its scientific instruments.

The three radar booms of MARSIS were initially to have been deployed in April 2004, towards the end of the Mars Express instrument commissioning phase. They consist of a pair of 20-metre hollow cylinders, each 2.5 centimetres in diameter, and a 7-metre boom. No satisfactory ground test of deployment in flight conditions was possible, so that verification of the booms' performance had to rely on computer simulation. Just prior to their scheduled release, improved computer simulations carried out by the manufacturer, Astro Aerospace (California), revealed the possibility of a whiplash effect before they locked in their final outstretched positions, so that they might hit the spacecraft.

Following advice from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which contributed the boom system to the Italian-led MARSIS radar instrument, and the Mars Express science team, ESA put an immediate hold on deployment until a complete understanding of the dynamics was obtained.

February 7

Let the Space War Games Begin!

The military's Super Bowl of space wargaming is underway at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, taking place February 5-11.

The objectives of the wargame will center on exploring options to employ space forces, command and control of those forces and examining space technologies and concepts.

The details of the scenario are classified and set in the year 2020. The game pits friendly "blue" forces against enemy "red" forces with a worldwide range of conflict that stresses space systems.

Dubbed the Schriever III wargame, the high-tech simulation is named after General Bernard Schriever, developer of America's ballistic missile program and the Air Force's initial space program.

Now underway, the Schriever III wargame is designed to explore critical space issues in depth and investigate the military utility of new space systems. The first two space wargames -- "Schriever 2001" held in January 2001 and "Schriever II" in February 2003 -- were significant successes identifying system capabilities and requirements, according to a U.S. Air Force Space Command news release.

The Space Warfare Center at Nellis is conducting this effort on behalf of the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense's executive agent for space.

Approximately 250 military and civilian experts from approximately 20 agencies around the country as well as Australian, Canadian, and Great Britain officials are invited to participate in the wargame, with the welcome list out to NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, the Department of State and the Department of Commerce.

-- Leonard David

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