Why Youngsters are not Impressed with NASA

A Dittmar Associates survey of 18-25 year olds found a depressing lack of interest in NASA's program. While ADD may explain some of it, that seems a pat answer.

Jeff Foust (the one man space press) thinks it may not be space but the message NASA is putting out. When asked about space tourism and other private ventures, the 18-25 year olds show much more interest.

So how can NASA capitalize on this? Well COTS is an obvious push. Just doing something exciting would help. Just my $0.02

Growing Concern over China's ASAT

Here a growing list of articles on China's test of ASAT technology on their own weather satellite:

Govt protests against China's space missile testABC Online - Australia

Chinese Test ASAT?ArmsControlWonk.com - College Park,MD,USA.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: DSG's John Clare is in as tough a space ...Independent - London,England,UK

Bold move escalates space war debateMSNBC - USA

Good news: China stuns US intel by testing anti-satellite missileHot Air - MD,USA

China Space Attack: UnstoppableHuffington Post - New York,NY,USA

China Tests Anti-Satellite Weapon, Unnerving USNew York Times - New York,NY,USA

US, China: Successful ASAT Test?Stratfor - USA11,

Race to the Moon오마이뉴스 - South Korea

India fourth-biggest M&A target in Asia-Pacific IT spaceZee News - Noida,India

China, Russia developing space weaponsWorld Peace Herald - Washington,DC,USA

China Tests anti-satellite weapon - US agenciesChina Daily - China

NASA News and Such

NASA is getting ready to launch five satellites to study magnetic storms and auroras. The launch should occur next month and is part of the THEMIS project. This will be the largest number of scientific satellites NASA has ever launched on a single rocket.
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NASA might move up the Atlantis Launch to March 15 in order to relieve strains on the ISS. It is currently set for March 16.
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The James Webb Space Telescopes prime contractor, Northrop Grumman, has reached a milestone with the passing of the mirror backplane.
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NASA has award a grant to UC Santa Barbra professor Luann Becker and his team to help find life on Mars.
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New Horizons, the Pluto bound probe, will make it closest approach to Jupiter on Feb 28, 2007. The flyby will allow NASA to test many of it's instruments before its 2015 encounter with Pluto. It will also allow scientists to get close of images of Jupiter.
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Misc Space News for Today

Progress has launched to take supplies to the ISS.
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Mike Griffin has an Oped piece: To the Moon and Beyond.
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China's New Space Weapons

China apparently, for all their hand wringing has developed an anti-satellite weapon of their own. I, quite frankly, am shocked at their deception.

Really?

No, Not Really.

Update: Here is the Aviation Weekly article about China destroying an aging weather satellite with their new toy.

Blue Origin's Updated Web Site

Blue Origin has a new web site with actual pictures and stuff. As most of you know, Blue Origin has been very secretive until recently about the space craft they are working on.

The New Shepard prototype, the Goddard, is shown in various stages of test and taking off in this video. There are four or five more videos on their site.

Another SpaceX Update

Update form Elon:

DemoFlight 2 Launch Update

The static fire has moved to Friday (California time) and launch to Monday, January 22. We have not encountered any new issues – the shift in timing is primarily to provide for additional risk reduction activities on site, as we continue to operate with a healthy paranoia.
As stated in the prior update, there is a high likelihood that the dates will continue to change, given the broad array of vehicle robustness upgrades. This will remain true all the way up to the final few seconds of the countdown, as our new health verification software executes hundreds of systems checks between engine ignition at T-3 sec and liftoff at T-0, when the hold down clamps release the rocket for flight. This is a critical phase for verification, given that the vehicle will have undergone substantial state changes throughout the first stage and avionics system.

---Elon---

SpaceX Launch; Mike Griffin's Speech;Idiotic Ideas about COTS

Space X has a launch window for January 21 and 22:

Going forward, a static fire is planned Thursday, January 18 (California time). We have a launch window on January 21 and 22 (California time) and are working with the range to secure a couple of additional days as contingency. Should we go beyond that, which is still a good possibility as we work with the upgraded vehicle, pad, and procedures, the next available launch window is mid February. There will be a live webcast and a media call in line for the launch. Details will be provided shortly.

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Mike Griffin talks with the Space Transportation Association about why NASA can't just "get out of the way of space development." He did make this quite amusing comment:

So, let me acknowledge that, yes, government is not usually very efficient. I am sure that you are shocked – shocked – to hear this. And while I like to think that we really try to do our best, NASA is part of government

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Jeffery Bell needs to fact check. I am trying hard not to resort to name calling.
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Bigelow Aerospace Genesis II Launch Delayed

Statement from Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert T. Bigelow

Las Vegas, NV 01/15/07 –

Unfortunately, we have recently received notification from our launch provider, ISC Kosmotras, that the launch of Genesis II will be delayed by at least 60 days. I know, we are disappointed too.

During a launch that occurred directly after the successful deployment of Genesis I, Kosmotras experienced its first failure in late July of last year. Since that time, Kosmotras engineers, as well as their Ukrainian partners at SDO Yuzhnoye, have conducted a thorough analysis of the Dnepr launch vehicle. The Kosmotras/Yuzhnoye team have successfully identified, evaluated and resolved the problem that caused the failure. Kosmotras has assured Bigelow Aerospace that the Dnepr will soon be prepared to safely and successfully return to flight.

Naturally, we are all disappointed because the spacecraft was and is ready to ship out to meet the original Jan. 30 launch date. Currently, our spacecraft is awaiting shipment to Russia with all your photos and personal items, etc. onboard. We now expect to ship the spacecraft for flight sometime in the early part of March for a launch on or about April 1.

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Genesis II stands ready for its mission and we are putting this additional time to good use by testing and retesting its systems. If Kosmotras can deliver on its current schedule, we expect to ship Genesis II to Russia as we said above at some point in early March for a launch on or about April 1st.

If this situation changes or we receive new or different information from Kosmotras, we will post additional announcements on the Bigelow Aerospace Website at www.bigelowaerospace.com.

We’re looking forward to doubling our footprint in space with the launch of Genesis II later this year, and, with all of you, taking another step forward in this bold adventure.

— Robert T. Bigelow

Dateline January 3, 2007

Hope everyone had a good holiday. On to 2007 and the stars -djs

• A run down of NASA's top exploration stories of 2006
• NASA is looking a an Ares IV and (gasp!) docking in lunar orbit.
• Lunar Gardens
• Alan Boyles Year in Space 2006.
• Lunar Probes from Asia are going up in 2007.
• Virgin Galactic considers design.

Bigelow News

Some stuff from Bigelow Aerospace who's Genesis II will launch early 2007.

Ace Up Our Sleeve
It's the workplace pastime for those taking a discreet break from work: Playing computer solitaire. In the best Bigelow Aerospace tradition of making spaceflight fun, a solitaire game with a Bigelow Aerospace twist has been launched today at www.bigelowaerospace.com.
Bigelow Aerospace Solitaire functions similar to the Klondike game that is one of the most frequently used files on a Windows computer. The BA game has a space theme with images throughout from the Bigelow Aerospace files. Players also have at their disposal different card backsides.
A running leaderboard is also included of the fastest 20 times worldwide.
Play Bigelow Aerospace Solitaire now at this link:
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/galaxy_games/flash/BASolitaire.php.


Winning a World View
Another ongoing and popular game at www.bigelowaerospace.com is “Where in the World?”
In this two-part game, Web site visitors try to solve an online slide puzzle to see one of the latest pictures beamed down from Genesis I.
The challenge doesn’t end there. The user then needs to figure out just where on Earth Genesis I was flying over when the picture was taken based upon land features and other landmarks seen in the photo. The first visitor to submit the correct answer is recognized on the Web site.
The latest Where in the World? winner — Robert Gutowski — has been announced at http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/galaxy_games/flash/BigelowsSlidePuzzle.php.

Private Space Tibbits

Benson Space has signed an agreement with SpaceDev to develop Phase I of the Dream Chaser space ship. Benson said: "It's official -- we've begun our countdown to what I expect will be BSC's first suborbital flights by the end of 2008."

Sounds good to me.
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The Astronaut Farmer was obviously written by the private space group I mentioned last week who thinks NASA is the great evil of the world.
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Michael Belfiore's new book Rocketeers is coming this summer.
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UGS will be building the software for the K-1 for RocketPlane Kistler.
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Curran R. Kemp thinks only private colonies will work. He thinks that is why we haven't settled Antarctica.

Shanan Dale on COTS

Deputy Director of NASA, Shana Dale, has an editorial out about vision and innovation. On the anniversary of the Wright Brother's flight (December 17th), she says:

NASA is leveraging the power of innovation to enable a viable commercial enterprise in space. This approach is a radical departure from tradition for NASA, which previously has relied on major aerospace contractors and its own engineering talent and resources to acquire their own space capabilities. The demands today, however, are for more efficient, more affordable access to space, something the Wright brothers of today are keen to deliver.

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With the Vision for Space Exploration, which includes human and robotic missions to the moon and Mars, NASA will need to free its resources to focus on long-range highly complex engineering challenges. Routine yet necessary missions to bring humans and supplies to the Moon, to service the International Space Station, and for other purposes will need to become more of a streamlined, turnkey operation. Building this essential infrastructure for space exploration, however, will require a dedicated and strong commercial sector.

Hard to argue with that.

Dan Rather is Excited about the Lunar Base

Never thought I would agree with Dan Rather on something...

FAA Private Space Requirements and other Priavet Space News

The FAA has released the official requirements for private space passengers and crew.
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An interview with T/Space and how they are continuing forward after loosing the COTS money.
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Beyond Earth Enterprises had their 8th successful "consumer based" launch
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Ideas on Lunar commercial markets
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Richard Branson's space travel agents are out and ready to take your order.
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NASA News and Such

NASA and Google have signed an agreement to work "on a variety of challenging technical problems" related to information management, distributed computing, and human-computer interaction. I guess the Google servers have reached sentience and are ready to leave Earth :)
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An idea to keep ISS going.
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Saddam Hussein was apparently saddened by the Challenger tragedy.
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Space Ties with India and what that could mean.

NASA Budget News

Congress can't get their act together. They only had a year to get the 2007 budget approved. But they have acted to continue funding everything at the 2006 level until Feb 15, when they can pull it together.

This screws the Exploration side of NASA, but aeronautics is happy. If I set up my budget this way, I would be bankrupt and in prison.

Private Space Tibbits

Bigelow has posted two articles on their website about the coming launch of the Genesis II.

• Life in a Box - development of a biobox for a select grop fo arthroponauts.
• Thinking Outside the Bingo Box: B-I-N-G-O! Aerospace Style - development of a mechanical game system that will allow the public to "play a game of space bingo on the Internet".

(hat tip to RLV and Space Transport News).

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An interview with Elon Musk on his interests in space and electric cars.

Focus of the VSE

Space Alumni.com thinks we need to talk up Mars more:

To attract the future generation of explorers, NASA needs to establish
itself as the agency of the future, not the agency of the past. A return to the
Moon is merely the stepping stone necessary to set foot on Mars and beyond, but
advertisements would have the audience think the return to the Moon is the main
goal of the VSE.

I would argue that the goal of the VSE is to get humanity into space permanently. If we get fixated on one destination, we sell ourselves short.
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Mike Griffin Responds on the Cost of Exploration

In the USA Today, Mike Griffin rebuts the idea that we can't afford to explore space:

Our great-great-grandparents accepted the challenge of their frontier. Will today's generation do less? And if so, why? To save 15 cents per day? To save six-tenths of 1% of the federal budget? Because that is the cost to the average citizen of our nation's space program. Whether we wish to explore space or not, to say that we cannot afford space exploration is ridiculous.

Today's investments in space exploration are, like the Louisiana Purchase, a down payment on our future. We are focusing NASA's investments on key technologies that will enable our nation to bring the solar system into our economic sphere and for scientific discovery. The geography of our solar system dictates that our first, halting steps will be to the moon — three days journey away from Earth. A lunar outpost might follow soon afterward, allowing us to exploit the resources and vantage point of the moon.
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Of course the robot guys come out in the comments.

Given ample evidence for Moore's Law of exponential computing power, it's not
unreasonable to conclude that humans will be eclipsed by A.I. in a few more
years. Why not let intellectually superior robots explore the cosmos and
report back what they find, the way same way the people currently bring back a
bone from the butcher to give to their dogs?

Are you crazy? We are no closer to true intelligence in AI than we were when Charles Babbage designed the Difference Engine. Besides why would we let our creation do something we want to do. Dogs did not create humans. Bad analogy. Besides, if the dog had the power, I am sure he would prefer to go to the butcher shop. By the way, Moore's law is really more of a rule of thumb and is just few years from a brick wall. You can only make wires and transistors so small before quantum mechanics starts mucking with your hardware.

Eventually, yes, we'll need to colonize. Let's figure out how we'll be able to
do that, put the research funds into that, then send people up.

Yeah, good idea. We will figure out how to live on the Moon on the Earth. Then once we know exactly what to do, we will do it. Good call. I know that works in city planning...