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October 12

It Came from Outer Space…to Siberia

Search teams in Russia have got some sky-high backing that an object impacted near Bodiabo in Siberia. That’s according to fireball analyst, Peter Brown, an assistant professor in the Meteor Physics Group at the Univ. of Western Ontario in Canada.

U.S. military satellites picked up the fireball, screaming through the atmosphere on September 24. The object was detected by both visible wavelength and infrared sensors carried onboard spaceborne assets – the same hardware that keeps an eye out for missile launchings around the globe.

Pop Star Michael Jackson to Play Host to Air Force

He doesn't appear to be interested in flying in space, but some of the military members who work at the California base where things are launched into space got a chance to see Michael Jackson's personal playground on Saturday.

Some 200 Air Force members and their families were invited to visit Jackson's Neverland Ranch this weekend as guests of the famous singer. His theme park-like home is located near Vandenberg Air Force Base, the west coast launch site of Delta, Atlas and Titan rockets.

Minuteman missile tests and other missions are staged from Vandenberg as well. In fact, the next Minuteman test is set for launch between 10 p.m. EDT Monday and 2 a.m. EDT Tuesday (0200 to 0600 GMT Tuesday).

Jackson's invited guests returned recently from overseas deployments.

The Air Force said that Jackson opened his home as a gesture of appreciation to Air

Force members in his community who have served overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

October 11

World Space Congress: When 4 Means Death Call It Koreasat 5

Korea Telecom has launched three satellites since 1995 -- Koreasat 1, 2 and 3 respectively. But the firm's next satellite -- which has no launch date as yet -- will be called Koreasat 5.

Gwang-Ju Seo, vice president of the satellite business group at Korea Telecom, said the company will avoid that designation for cultural reasons. In Korea, he noted during a presentation at the World Space Congress, the
number 4 represents death.

Korea Telecom won't be the first to make such a decision. GE Americom, for example, went from GE 12 to GE 14 to avoid using the number 13, which Americans consider bad luck.

World Space Congress: Boeing Analyst: Space Commerce's Economic Outlook Has Become "Worse"

For the near-term, the health of space commerce is not doing well. "Even two years ago, there was better outlook. The reality is…it’s gotten worse," said Martin Cabaniss of The Boeing Company in Houston, Texas.

"There is over capacity and fierce competition. Most of this is keyed to the cost of reusable launch vehicles and being able to develop the new technologies," Cabaniss said, reporting the findings of his Boeing colleague, James Peters, at the World Space Congress.

At present, a "significant oversupply of launch capacity exists," Cabaniss said.

Cabaniss said that the next space race is a paradigm shift from tossing astronauts to the Moon. The space race kicked off in the late 1950s was politically driven, where cost was a low priority and public backing was high, he said.

The next space race will be economically driven, with return-on-investment priority #1.

Looking outward into the future, Cabaniss highlighted growth areas in remote sensing, as well as space-based energy. One futuristic commercial opportunity, he reported, is Helium-3 mining on the Moon, an activity to fuel fusion reactors expected to be "the major energy source of the 21^st century."

In concluding remarks, Cabaniss said that current projections indicate no growth over the next five years in commercial space markets. Overall, the market structure is moving from oligopoly to "perfect competition" with over capacity and fierce price competition. Long-term growth is tied to new technology and reduced payload-to-orbit launch costs to stimulate demand.

As for space tourism, Cabaniss is in a wait-and-see mode. "Again, the cost to orbit is the driver. It cost too much to get there. If that launch vehicle cost doesn’t come down, then space tourism won’t become a reality," he said.

-- Leonard David

World Space Congress: NASA Memo: Single Planet Species Do Not Last

A cosmic communiqué is floating around the World Space Congress, authored by NASA Johnson Space Center’s Associate Director (Technical). The man behind that memo is none other than former Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle astronaut, John Young.

Young’s message, obtained by SPACE.com, is direct to numbers of his NASA colleagues: "In order to save the human race we must develop the technologies that will allow us to live and work on other places in the Solar System." Moreover, the NASA official says that, this past year, new knowledge has shown that the human race is at significant risk from normal Solar System and Earth evolving events.

"The Moon is the very best place to establish the first human bases for living, working, and supporting Earth people in this century," Young’s memo declares. He recommends that NASA redo the risk statistics for civilization extinction events and get the word out on what must be done to save the human race over the short or long haul.

In addition, Young urges the space agency to begin development of advanced technologies to live and work on other places in the Solar System.

Why start immediate work on such technology? In bold caps, Young states: "SINGLE PLANET SPECIES DO NOT LAST and we have no idea how much time we have."

-- Leonard David

World Space Congress: Scientist to Ask U.N. to Declare Moon a World Heritage Site

A U.S. ecologist is prepared to throw a monkey wrench into those who want to develop space.

Richard Steiner is prepared next week at the World Space Congress to call for a "kinder and gentler" paradigm for space exploration. He will call for the United Nations to regulate all human activity in space. Furthermore, he wants to have the UN designate the Moon as a World Heritage Site – free from commercial development.

Steiner, a professor and conservation specialist at the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program wants to protect the Moon from "greedy industrialists, empire builders, or those with militant intention."

In a statement made available to SPACE.com, Steiner said: "If the Moon belongs to anyone, it belongs to everyone."

"If the Moon was defiled by some of the commercial development proposals in consideration at present, then humanity would be forever diminished," Steiner explains. "What goes on there should be the domain of not just the aerospace engineers and astronomers, but also the poets, musicians, artists, teachers…young and old…rich and poor."

-- Leonard David

World Space Congress: ESA’S Aurora Program Steps Ahead

One buzz among many at the World Space Congress is Europe’s go-ahead on spelling out a strategy for human and robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, as well as asteroids.

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to hone a multi-decade program under its Aurora initiative. Early this week, ESA approved the start of assessment studies for the first four robotic missions in the program: Two "Flagship" missions, and two "Arrow" missions.

For the lower costing, but technologically rich Arrow-class experiments, ESA green-lighted: A re-entry vehicle/capsule test in Earth orbit geared to validate how best to return samples from Mars to Earth. Also approved is a Mars Aerocapture demonstrator – hardware would enter Mars orbit by using friction with the planet’s upper atmosphere and a skill eventually to be used on piloted expeditions to the red planet.

For the up-scale, more costly Flagship-class endeavors, ESA approved the Exo-Mars mission – a fully equipped rover to search for Martian life. A second project, a Mars Sample Return mission also has been okayed.

The just approved studies will help clarify feasibility and mission requirements and open the way to the early phase of the industrial work in 2003.

As currently envisaged, the main milestones of the Aurora program are: two Mars Sample Return missions (2011-2017); the decision to go ahead with a human mission (2015); a robotic outpost on Mars and possible human mission to the Moon (2020 - 2025); and a human mission to Mars (2025 - 2030).

-- Leonard David

October 10

World Space Congress: Unreal Real Estate

Talk about a room with a view. Human spaceflight visionary for the Boeing Company, Brent Sherwood, predicts that low Earth orbit is sure to become a zone for increased foot traffic.

"I’m a big believer in big windows," Sherwood told an audience of space architects at the World Space Congress now underway in Houston, Texas. The space engineer envisions billions of dollars being spent on space housing over the years to come.

Sherwood sees the urbanism of space, but in three-dimensions. The Boeing space planner believes the public will expect artificial gravity, as well as microgravity environments – and the ability to easily move between them.

"If you can’t mix a martini or make an omelet in space, you can’t have a hotel up there," Sherwood advised.

Looking into the future, the Boeing planner said that huge Manhattan-sized structures could be built in Earth orbit, akin to a giant raft of streets and avenues.Sherwood sketched out unique, specially designed living quarters for space dwellers, where the view of Earth is a major marketing plus.

Those living aboard this space real estate will be afforded a substitute sky. "Planet Earth provides the sky canopy. The sky in space is the Earth," Sherwood said. "The view is so important."

-- Leonard David

SPACE.com Mailbag: Will Newfound Quaoar and Pluto Collide?

Russ writes: This may seem like a stupid question but here it is anyway. Since Pluto's orbit looks like it crosses Quaoar's sometimes, does this mean they may collide?

Robert Roy Britt replies: Not a stupid question at all. The orbits of Pluto and the newfound Kuiper Belt Object, Quaoar, do cross, as seen from "above." [Story and map] But if you could zip out beyond the solar system and look at it edge-on (and then pull up Phineas J. Whoopie's magic 3-D BB) you'd see that the orbits don't touch. They are in different locations with respect to the ecliptic, the plane in which the other eight planets generally travel around the Sun.

Things change, however. So we turned to Quaoar's co-discoverer, Chad Trujillo, for a look at the collisionary crystal ball. "Although orbits do change slowly over time, it would be unlikely for any two given objects to ever collide even if their orbits changed," Trujillo told us, "and if it did happen it would certainly not be in our lifetimes."

Too bad, we say. How cool it would be to telescopically observe Pluto collide with an object half its size!

October 9

White House Selects New OMB Science and Space Branch Chief

WASHINGTON — The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has appointed David Radzanowski to head its science and space branch, according to government and industry officials.

Radzanowski, until recently OMB’s chief liaison to the National Science Foundation, is filling a vacancy left by Steve Isakowitz, who left OMB earlier this year to serve as NASA’s comptroller.

As OMB’s science and space branch chief, Radzanowski will oversee the formulation of NASA’s annual budget requests.

-- Brian Berger, Space News

October 8

Jupiter's 'Ozone' Hole

Earth isn't the only planet with holes in its atmosphere. New observations show that Jupiter has a chilly vortex over its north pole that resembles cold polar region above Earth's South Pole that enables depletion of stratospheric ozone.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Above Jupiter, the hexagon-shaped cold air mass extends from the stratosphere down into the next layer of the atmosphere and rotates to make a complete circle every 300 days.

Composite images of the phenomenon were made from data collected by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (right) and Infrared Telescope Facility (left). They were presented Tuesday by Glenn Orton of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences, in Birmingham, Ala.

Scientists can refine models of how Earth's atmosphere works by comparisons with atmospheric dynamics on other planets, such as Jupiter, according to a NASA statement. [Learn about Wild Solar System Weather]

House Panel Approves $15.3 Billion NASA Budget

WASHINGTON — A House budget panel approved Oct. 7 a $15.3 billion budget for NASA for 2003. The amount is $300 million more than the White House had requested for the U.S. space agency.

The House Appropriations Veteran’s Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies subcommittee followed the lead of the U.S. Senate by including $105 million for a Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission that NASA has sought to cancel. House appropriators also included $40 million for a mission to Europa, another expedition cancelled by NASA in advance of establishing the New Frontiers outer plants exploration program.

The House version of the bill is scheduled to be taken up by the full Appropriations Committee Oct. 10.

Once the bill is approved by the House, a conference will be convened with Senate appropriators to work out differences between the two spending bills.

-- Brian Berger, Space News

Analyze This: Tricorder Technology in the Not So Far-Flung Future

Steve Mitchell sees a day when a Star Trek medical scanner would become reality. Writing in the October issue of Biologist, the researcher from the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine and his colleagues say two technologies are on the verge of converging to make it possible.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, discovered in 1945 but since developed into a sophisticated medical tool, analyzes the molecular contents of a cell. Meanwhile, understanding of the human genome is growing.

One day ... "an entire individual could be quickly scanned using a handheld device," the researchers write. "Extrapolating further, such a scan could provide a virtually instant readout of an individual’s biochemistry, revealing potential illnesses and providing a diagnosis, even before the emergence of any clinical manifestations."

Don't know about you, but we're standing in the virtual queue.

October 7

European Commission Announces Plans to Promote Nanotechnology

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ The European Commission gave US$685.4 million to research in nanotechnology Monday and announced plans to encourage European Union governments and industry to invest more in the science.

EU Research Commissioner Phillippe Busquin said nanotechnology promises molecular manufacturing of safer, cleaner, and more durable products with the help of diverse fields as engineering, chemistry and biology.

Nanotechnology _ nano means one-billionth _ refers to manipulating products at the molecular level. A nanometer is more than 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.

The research projects the European Commission wants to fund _ through aid worth 700 million euros _ would be aimed at improving drinking water quality, cure diseases, improve DNA analysis and create tougher car paints.

Nanotechnology is used in energy storage and distribution, detection, bio-analysis, robotics, prosthetics and many other fields.

One of Three PongSats Launched

FORT STOCKTON (AP) -- After a 3 1/2-hour wind delay, a private company successfully launched a 14-foot rocket Saturday night from a remote site on arid West Texas ranchland that organizers are calling Texas' newest spaceport.

The 50 or so people gathered for the launch cheered when the slim white rocket blasted off, then roared again when it came down five minutes later with a parachute.

The rocket traveled about 20,000 feet in 34 seconds and came down several miles away.

"The main purpose of this launch was to open the spaceport," said John Powell, president of JP Aerospace, a California company that hopes to make space more affordable and accessible. "With all the clearances and regulations that we've already accomplished, pushing the button today was really very exciting."

The launch site -- on treeless, scrubby ranchland about 9 miles south of Fort Stockton -- is a far cry from NASA.

About two dozen Angus cattle watched Saturday's proceedings from a few hundred yards away, and a GMC van served as mission control.

The launch was delayed because of high winds, which also forced the group to send only one experimental balloon into the sky. There were plans to send three.

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