NASA mission to save the world may cause artificial meteor shower

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

May 14 2020

By NYT



New York: If all goes to plan, in September 2022 a NASA spacecraft, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, or DART, will slam into a space rock with the equivalent energy of 3 tons of TNT.

The goal is to nudge the orbit of its target object ever so slightly, a practice run to see if we could divert an asteroid from a catastrophic impact with our planet in the future.

The impact on that asteroid could produce the first meteor shower ever to result from human activities in space, according to a paper published this year in The Planetary Science Journal.

Observing the shower could let scientists on Earth study the composition of near-Earth asteroids.

But this cloud of debris would also mark a small irony for a space mission that has a goal of helping to protect our planet.

If this small shower of space rocks reaches our planet, it will create a minuscule amount of peril for orbiting satellites.

Fourteen sequential radar images of Didymos and its moonlet, taken in 2003.CREDIT:NASA

Although the risk is tiny, the study's author says, anticipating the effects of the spacecraft's operations could establish a template for future space missions to minimise their affect on Earth and the commons of space through which it travels.

NASA plans to launch the DART spacecraft in 2021.

Its target is Didymos, a pair of near-Earth asteroids that travel around the sun together.

DART is aiming for the smaller of the two, affectionately named Didymoon, which measures about 163 metres across and orbits the larger asteroid.

The force of the impact is expected to change Didymoon's 11.92-hour orbit by about 4 minutes, a big enough change for telescopes on Earth to detect. If it succeeds, the mission might help confirm that humanity's best defence against a rogue asteroid is to bump it into another orbit away from Earth.

Didymos makes passes of our planet at a minimum of 6.4 million kilometres — or 16 times the Earth-moon distance — approximately every 20 years. Its next close pass is scheduled for October 4, 2022, at a distance of about 6.6 million miles, just after DART is scheduled to impact on September 30, making observations from Earth easier.

The impact is expected to produce between (10,000 to 100,000 kilograms) pounds of centimetre-sized debris.

NASA's first planetary defence mission aims to knock an incoming asteroid off course to avoid a catastrophic collision with Earth.

"There's a fair amount of material that will be ejected," said Paul Wiegert, the paper's author and an astronomy professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Most of the wreckage should be ejected at less than about 3200 km/h and will follow the orbit of the asteroid, with no chance of reaching Earth for thousands of years. If some of the debris reaches more than about 20,000 km/h, which will depend on the structure of the asteroid and the angle of impact, it could make the relatively short jump to Earth in as little as 15-30 days.

The amount of material that could reach Earth is modest; Wiegert estimates perhaps a few grams, resulting in only "a few to 10" meteors visible in our night sky over a few days. But that could be enough to learn more about the composition of the asteroid as the meteors disintegrate.

"When they burn out, they emit some light," said Audrey Bouvier, a planetary scientist from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. And by analysing the spectrum of that light, Bouvier says, it is possible to "establish which elements were present."

The prospect that any of this debris will damage Earth-orbiting satellites is negligible. Tom Statler, the program scientist for DART at NASA, says the team's own analysis shows there is "no significant debris hazard."

But however remote the risks from the DART mission, Wiegert and other astronomers suggest that it will set an important precedent.

Aaron Boley, a planetary astronomer at the University of British Columbia, notes this would be the first time human activity on an asteroid ejected debris that reached Earth.

"Space is big, but what we do in space can affect us," he said.

Boley suggests that changes to the DART mission could avert debris reaching Earth in that 15- to 30-day time frame and set a precedent for future asteroid activities. According to Wiegert's calculations, if the impact occurs outside of a window one week before or after the asteroid's closest approach with Earth on October 4, no material would cross the planet's path this quickly.

"If it's the case that launching it two weeks later or earlier does not have any additional operational effect on the mission, then it would be worth it to set the precedent," Boley said.

Statler, however, says that the timing of the impact is "dictated by orbital dynamics and communication with Earth" and that the planned impact date will also allow for optimal viewing by ground-based observatories, so it would not be feasible to reschedule it.

While DART poses no meaningful risk, Wiegert says future asteroid missions should take the debris issue into account, just as missions closer to Earth need to better plan for space junk they leave in orbit. "It's the first of a possibly large number of meteoroid streams we might create in the solar system that could become a hazard," he said.

Asteroid news: A 4KM rock to make Earth 'close approach'

Source: Express

By SEBASTIAN KETTLEY

March 28 2020

The NASA-tracked asteroid will pay a visit to Earth's corner of space on April 29 this year. Astronomers have named the object Asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) and expect it to make what the US-based space agency know as a "close approach" of about 3.9 million miles (6.29 million km) from Earth.

According to Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, the asteroid was about 15.5 million miles (25 million km) from Earth on March 24.

But the space rock is already visible to some telescopes, appearing as a bright dot of light against the starlit sky.

Dr Masi will track and stream online the asteroid's flyby next month 

He said: "When we imaged it, Asteroid 1998 OR2 was about 25 millions of kilometres from us.

"This 1.8 to 4.1km large asteroid will come as close as 6.3 millions of kilometres from us next April 29 - more than 16 times the average lunar distance: it will not hit us - becoming bright enough to be seen with modest optical equipment."

Dr Masi photographed the asteroid on March 24, using a 17-inch telescope dubbed Elena.

The black and white photo is a single 300-second exposure.

The astronomer said: "The asteroid is in the centre of the image, marked by an arrow.

"The telescope tracked the apparent motion of 1998 OR."

But if the space rock will fly by from such a far distance, why is it considered potentially hazardous?

According to the US space agency NASA, asteroids and comets are considered potentially hazardous if they measure more than 492ft (150m) across.

The space rocks approach our planet's orbit from within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million km).

NASA said: "A relatively small number of near-Earth objects pass close enough to Earth and are large enough in size to warrant close observation.

"That's because the gravitational tug of the planets could, over time, cause an object's orbital path to evolve into an Earth-crossing orbit.

China's Growing Space Power

Πηγή: The National Interest
By Frank Klotz
July 26 2012

Commentators often refer to China as an “emerging space power.” This characterization understates China’s current space capabilities. China has in many respects already reached the top tier of spacefaring nations—with profound implications not only for America’s own interests in space, but also for the much-touted “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region.

While initially starting well behind the two original space powers, China has slowly but steadily added accomplishments to its space portfolio. In 2011, it conducted nineteen space launches—twelve less than Russia that year but one more than the United States. It has manufactured satellites for domestic use and marketed satellites for export, with customers in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. Chinese spacecraft already have orbited the moon, and Beijing has signaled its intention to land an unmanned probe and possibly even astronauts on the lunar surface.

In late June, China’s space endeavors captured headlines across the world when three Chinese astronauts manually docked their Shenzhou-9 spacecraft with the orbiting Tiangong-1 module. In doing so, China became only the third nation besides the United States and Russia to accomplish this complex maneuver. It also demonstrated a capability it will need to one day assemble and operate a permanently manned space station.

Western experts note that a fundamental purpose of the Chinese space program is to bolster the image of China—and the ruling Chinese Communist Party—both at home and abroad. It also aims to spur the development of Chinese science and technology.

Chinese activities in space also have an undeniable military purpose. By their very nature, certain space-related capabilities—launch, earth observation, long-distance communications, precision navigation—can serve both civil and military objectives. In China’s case, the overlap is substantial. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in fact directs major elements of the nation’s space program, including manned spaceflight.

As Dean Cheng of the Heritage Foundation has noted, Chinese military writings emphasize the roles space systems can play in supporting air, land and sea operations. These include finding and attacking American forces operating in the Asia-Pacific region. With this end clearly in mind, the PLA is expanding its current constellations of reconnaissance, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites.

Likewise, Chinese strategists understand the growing extent to which the United States and its allies depend upon space-related capabilities in conducting their own military operations. Accordingly, China appears intent on developing capabilities to disrupt an adversary’s ability to use space systems, either by attacking satellites directly or by interfering with the ground stations and the communications nodes essential to satellite operations.

For example, in 2007, China conducted a test of a direct-ascent antisatellite interceptor that literally blasted an aging Chinese weather satellite into thousands of metal shards. In the process, it created a cloud of debris that will pose a serious hazard to satellites flying in low-earth orbit for many years to come.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on China’s military stated that Chinese counter-space capabilities also include “jamming, laser, microwave, and cyber weapons” and that “China has also conducted increasingly complex close proximity operations between satellites while offering little in the way of transparency or explanation.”

In fact, China’s intentions in space, as with many aspects of its military modernization and cyber programs, are opaque. Washington has called for enhanced dialogue with Beijing on strategic issues and for military-to-military exchanges to help reduce uncertainty and potential misunderstandings. China has repeatedly blocked such efforts, usually in response to the announcement of U.S. military sales to Taiwan. In this respect, the recent visits by the Chinese defense minister to the United States and the commander of U.S. Pacific Command to China are encouraging developments.

Official discussions between U.S. and Chinese space experts are even more problematic and politically charged. In 2006, NASA administrator Michael Griffin made a “get-acquainted” visit to China—the first-ever by the head of the U.S. space agency. Four years later, his successor, Charles Bolden, followed suit.

However, in May of last year, the House inserted a provision into the NASA appropriations bill that prohibited it and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from spending any funds “to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company.” It also blocked the hosting of official Chinese visitors at facilities belonging to or used by NASA.

This legislative action reportedly reflected deeply held concerns about protecting American intellectual property and sensitive technologies in the face of aggressive Chinese attempts to glean scientific and technical information from abroad. However, in the process, it foreclosed one possible avenue for gaining greater insight into China’s intentions with respect to space.

It’s worth recalling that even in the darkest days of the Cold War, the United States and its archrival at the time—the Soviet Union—embarked upon cooperative efforts in space, most famously with the joint Apollo-Soyuz docking mission in 1975.

Today, despite the sometimes sharp policy disagreements at the political level, the United States and Russia work together closely on the International Space Station as well as in the commercial space sector. For example, the first stage of one of the rockets that currently lofts U.S. national-security satellites into orbit—United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V booster—uses the powerful RD-180 rocket engine, which is made in Russia.

The United States and Russia have succeeded over the years in collaborating on space projects because both countries have something significant to gain and, equally importantly, something significant to contribute. At the moment, potential areas of cooperation with China appear to be limited, particularly since Chinese space science currently takes a backseat to military programs. That, however, may be changing with plans for several ambitious science missions reportedly now in the works.

As the United States pursues its stated policy of devoting greater attention to the Asia-Pacific region and encouraging an increasingly powerful China to support constructive approaches to resolving political and economic differences, it’s certainly worth carefully considering whether aspects of the U.S.-Russian experience with space cooperation can be pursued with China in order to serve long-term American interests.

Frank Klotz is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, as well as the former commander of Air Force Global Strike Command and the former vice commander of Air Force Space Command.

Russia and Europe give boost to Mars robotic mission

Πηγή: Mars Daily
By Zakutnyaya Olga (Voice of Russia)
April 7 2012

Russia's participation in ExoMars program is approaching. A meeting of ESA and Roscosmos is scheduled for April, 6. The European landing mission to Mars may prove to be a salvation for the Russian planetary program. Russia is a natural partner for ESA after NASA terminated its participation in ExoMars program. Still, disputes on space exploration tasks are far from being resolved.

Mars dreaming

On April 6, Jean-Jacques Dordain, European Space Agency's (ESA's) Director General is meeting with Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). Although the exact program of the meeting has not yet been disclosed, Roscosmos officials made it clear that the future agreement on ExoMars program is most likely to come into focus.

ExoMars, former joint European-American project on Mars exploration, has been suspended after Americans announced last year their withdrawal from the project, thus leaving the mission without the launcher and appreciable part of the scientific payload.

NASA said they were going to develop a new integrated strategy of Mars exploration. In part, the mission was supposed to try and find the faintest traces of life's molecular building blocks on Mars, NASA said in a statement.

To save the rather ambitious project form cancellation ESA addressed Roscosmos, which has just lost Phobos-Grunt, its only planetary probe in more than 20 years, in the Pacific. The decision on Roscosmos participation in ExoMars mission comes at time when Russian space plans are being thoroughly re-considered.

Phobos lost

Just after the Phobos-Grunt disaster in January 2011, the Russian scientific community announced that the project should be revived, however ambitious it still remains for Russian space science industry. The chief motif underlying the claim was that a sample return from Solar system's small body has not been either made or even proposed by any of the world space agencies.

Shall Phobos-Grunt-2 prove successful, Russian scientific and technological results will remain unbeaten for quite a long time. Moreover, scientific tasks of the mission are still up-to-date, as Phobos soil studiesmay shed light on the Solar system's origins and Mars formation, which are topics of common interest.

On the other hand, numerous skeptics pointed out the immense complexity of the task and obvious lags in Russian space technologies for spaceresearch. It is hardly disputable, since the last planetary probe which landed on a planet Venus, was Venera-14 in 1982.

And, finally, the money issue. Phobos-Grunt mission came at a cost of about 5 bln rubles. The second iteration could be cheaper, since many components are already developed, but still considerable for Russian space budget, and even more so if Russia gets involved into ExoMars program.

The controversy around Phobos-Grunt was explicated by a recent statement by Vladimir Popovkin, who claimed that prior to Phobos-Grunt approval its importance for science should be proved.

Dr. Lev Zelenyi, director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the major player in the development of the Phobos-Grunt scientific payload, argued that despite the long time period until the second spacecraft can be launched, its scientific tasks will not wither.

Roving Mars

Up until now neither Russia nor Europe have ever managed to send a fully successful landing mission to Mars. ExoMars, which comprises an orbiter and a lander with a rover, is therefore quite a challenge for both parties.

According to Roscosmos officials, if Russian participation is agreed upon, it shall provide the mission with the launcher (Proton) and substitute the American part of the scientific payload, thus benefiting Russian scientists. Moreover, the data obtained during the mission shall be possessed jointly by Europe and Russia.

Such a scheme is latently and openly approved by many of those involved in planetary missions. Yuri Koptev, former head of the Roscosmos, now appointed to coordinate the work on a new Strategy of Russian cosmonautics development, has pointed out in an interview the reasonability of international cooperation for large projects, such as ExoMars.

Just a part of the future

The Strategy itself has swirled a heated debate over what kind of space program Russia needs. Shall it still be oriented on manned flights, or rather space applications promotion? According to recent statements made by Vladimir Popovkin, the latter option is more likely.

The head of the Roscosmos has even shocked a certain part of the space community by announcing that Russia should probably not spend everything on space industry, just to be on the top in the 'Space Club'. The GDP share allocated for the space industry in Russia, according to Popovkin, even now exceeds that of the US, but Russia still has a lot more problems to solve.

One can expect that many of those involved would not agree with the head of the Russian space agency. However, the steps towards Mars taken together with the Europeans would be perhaps reasonable, and even ambitious enough to start an outer space crusade.

US scientists discover new 'waterworld' planet

An artist's impression of GJ1214b, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.

Πηγή: Space Dalily
By AFP
Feb 21 2012

An astronaut attempting to visit recently discovered planet GJ1214b would land in hot water -- literally, US scientists say.

Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said they have identified an entirely new kind of planet, dominated not by rock, gas or other common materials, but water.

The planet is "a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere," they said in a statement, after scrutinizing the planet with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

"GJ1214b is like no planet we know of," astronomer Zachary Berta said. "A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water."

GJ1214b was discovered in 2009 by the ground-based MEarth Project. Described as a "super-Earth," it is about 2.7 times Earth's diameter and weighs almost 7 times as much.

Further studies in 2010 led to scientists suspecting that the planet, where the temperature is some 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 Celsius), was largely covered in water. This was confirmed by Berta and his co-authors using Hubble to study the planet when it crossed in front of its host star.

The light of the star, filtered through the planet's atmosphere, gave clues to the mix of gasses, backing up the water vapor theory.

"The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere," Berta said.

Further measurements and estimates led scientists to conclude that the planet has much more water than Earth and much less rock. That, together with high temperatures and pressure, likely produce some highly exotic results, including "hot ice," scientists say.

Our solar system contains three basic planet types: rocky, like Earth; gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn; and ice giants like Uranus.

Space Comrades: Russia seeks US and EU help in building collective moon base

Πηγή: yahoonews
By Amir Iliaifar (Digital Trends)
Jan 21 2012

Officials from Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos, are reportedly in talks with Europe’s ESA and NASA over possibly establishing a collective research base on–or above– the moon.

According to Russian news site RIA Novosti, while the country intends on making the moon its focal point, Russia’s plans calls for more than merely putting boots on the lunar surface. According to Roscosmos chief, Vladimir Popovkin, that leaves only two options: “setup a base on the Moon, or launch a station to orbit around it.”

“We don’t want the man to just step on the Moon,” Popovkin stated in an interview with Russian radio station Vesti FM.

He went on to add, “Today, we know enough about it, we know that there is water in its polar areas,” he said of the moon, adding “we are now discussing how to begin exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency.”

While Russia’s attempt to establish a base on the moon might seem new, it isn’t. During the late 1950’s Soviet and US. Scientists first began discussing the possibility of establishing a permanent manned outpost, but as the Cold War drew on, those plans never went any further.

Given the decades worth of both scientific and military competitiveness between the U.S. and Russia (and Soviet Union before that), not to mention the sometimes icy current relations between the superpowers, it’s encouraging to see Russia wanting to cooperate more readily with the United States on matters regarding outer space–especially since officials over at Roscosmos recently suggested that the U.S. could be to blame for the program’s recent difficulties in regards to its failed $170 million scientific probe headed towards a moon of Mars.

Given that NASA has more recently focused its attentions on Mars and left exploration and researchof the moon to the growing private space exploration and development sector, it’s hard to tell whether such a grand endeavor will indeed come to fruition.

China reveals its space plans up to 2016

In this undated photo shows researchers installing China's first space station module Tiangong-1 inside the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. China launched the experimental module on Thursday, Sept. 29 to lay the groundwork for a future space station underscoring its ambitions to become a major space power.

Πηγή: CTVnews
By AP
Dec 31 2011


BEIJING — China plans to launch space labs and manned ships and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to a plan released Thursday that shows the country's space program is gathering momentum.

China has already said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon. It has made methodical progress with its ambitious lunar and human spaceflight programs, but its latest five-year plan beginning next year signals an acceleration.

By the end of 2016, China will launch space laboratories, manned spaceship and ship freighters, and make technological preparations for the construction of space stations, according to the white paper setting out China's space progress and future missions.

China's space program has already made major breakthroughs in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in space technology and experience.

The country will continue exploring the moon using probes, start gathering samples of the moon's surface, and "push forward its exploration of planets, asteroids and the sun."

It will use spacecraft to study the properties of black holes and begin monitoring space debris and small near-Earth celestial bodies and build a system to protect spacecraft from debris.

The paper also says China will improve its launch vehicles, improve its communications, broadcasting and meteorological satellites and develop a global satellite navigation system, intended to rival the United States' dominant global positioning system (GPS) network.

China places great emphasis on the development of its space industry, which is seen as a symbol of national prestige.

Its space principles - including peaceful development, enhancing international cooperation and deep space exploration - are largely unchanged from its previous two documents detailing the progress of China's space missions, released in 2000 and 2006.

In 2003, China became the third country behind the U.S. and Russia to launch a man into space and, five years later, completed a spacewalk. Toward the end of this year, it demonstrated automated docking between its Shenzhou 8 craft and the Tiangong 1 module, which will form part of a future space laboratory.

In 2007, it launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, which orbited the moon, collecting data and a complete map of the moon.

Since 2006, China's Long March rockets have successfully launched 67 times, sending 79 spacecraft into orbit.

Some elements of China's program, notably the firing of a ground-based missile into one of its dead satellites four years ago, have alarmed American officials and others who say such moves could set off a race to militarize space. That the program is run by the military has made the U.S. reluctant to cooperate with China in space, even though the latter insists its program is purely for peaceful ends.

"China always adheres to the use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and opposes weaponization or any arms race in outer space," Thursday's white paper states.

The Chinese government's policy is to "reinforce" space cooperation with developing countries and "value" space cooperation with developed countries. The paper lists cooperation between China and countries including Russia, Brazil, France and Britain, and says of the United States: NASA's director visited China "and the two sides will continue to make dialogue regarding the space field."

Congress tells NASA to finish space telescope and build a new rocket

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Brian Vastag

Nov 16 2011

In the first NASA budget of the post-space shuttle era, a congressional deal will fund the agency’s top priorities, including a next-generation space telescope, a new giant rocket and a deep-space capsule to carry astronauts far beyond Earth.

In return, however, the quest to ferry astronauts to the international space station aboard American-built spacecraft took a budget hit that may delay launch of the vehicles beyond 2016, the target date proposed by NASA.

Senate and House negotiators reached the deal late Monday after two weeks of hammering out a “minibus” appropriations bill to fund the nation’s science agencies and keep the government operating past Nov. 18. The two chambers are expected to approve the bill by the end of the week.

With a national budget crunch underway, NASA presented an attractive target for House Republicans. The House had voted to provide $16.8 billion for NASA, while the Senate had sought $17.9 billion. Monday’s deal provides $17.8 billion for the agency, some $650 million less than last year and $924 million less than President Obama had requested in February.

The deal resolves a budget fight that erupted this summer over the skyrocketing costs of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. In July, NASA’s chief purse-string holder in the House, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)zeroed out funding for the project, which NASA now says will cost $8.8 billion to build and operate.

But the telescope’s champion in the Senate, Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), succeeded in restoring the funding, and the agreement will fund the telescope in fiscal year 2012. The bill caps total development costs at $8 billion and holds a NASA manager directly accountable for any further cost overruns.

“I wanted to make sure we were getting a handle on the Webb,” Wolf said Tuesday. “I never wanted to kill it.”

Debra Elmesgreen, president of the American Astronomical Society, is a key advocate for the telescope, slated for launch in 2018. “For this year, it looks like everything is on track,” she said. “This is exactly what we wanted.”

The telescope will receive a total of $529 million in 2012, $375 million more than NASA had originally projected for that year. The additional amount will be paid for via “commensurate reductions in other programs,” according to the congressional budget report released late Monday. Although the bill does not pinpoint which NASA programs will be cut, scientists planning robotic missions to Mars and other planets worry their programs will be squeezed.

Meanwhile, NASA’s plans to eventually send astronauts far beyond Earth received more than $3 billion. The budget provides $1.9 billion to develop a giant rocket called the Space Launch System and $1.2 billion for the Orion crew capsule. Last week, NASA announced an Orion test launch in 2014, but the big new rocket won’t fly until at least 2017.

Senate supporters ensured that the Space Launch System, which heavily relies on Gulf Coast factories that built the space shuttle, received full funding.

“This budget makes a major investment in the next generation of human space flight,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in a statement. Nelson and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) pressed House colleagues to support the rocket.

But their prize comes at a price: A likely delay in flights of American spacecraft to the space station. Obama asked for $850 million in fiscal year 2012 for NASA’s “commercial crew”initiative, which in April doled out $270 million to four American companies to develop rockets, capsules and space planes to ferry astronauts to the space station. Instead, NASA will get $406 million.

“We have a very, very tight budget,” Wolf said. “Everything is a compromise.”

The reduced funding will most likely push the launch of American-built space taxis beyond the 2016 target date, said William Gerstenmaier, the agency’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, during House testimony Oct. 26.

Such a delay will cost the agency $480 million per year beyond 2016, Gerstenmaier added. That’s because the agency buys rides on Russian Soyuz vehicles, which cost $63 million per seat. The current NASA-Russian deal expires in 2016.

Early Monday, American astronaut Daniel Burbank and two Russians rocketed toward the space station aboard a Soyuz, marking the first human trip into space since the final space shuttle mission ended in July.

Report: Cyber attacks targeted U.S. satellites

A draft government report details several occasions in 2008 when the NASA Earth-observation satellite, Terra EOS AM-1, seen here during its launch in 1999, was targeted by cyber attacks, presumably by the Chinese military. (NASA)

Πηγή: Federal Times
By NICOLE BLAKE JOHNSON
Oct 28 2011

Cyber hackers "achieved all steps required to command" a NASA satellite, which put the satellite at risk of being destroyed or damaged, according to a draft report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The Terra EOS AM-1 satellite, used to study climate and environmental changes, experienced nine or more minutes of interference in October 2008, according to the draft report, obtained by Federal Times.

The report also notes an earlier incident in June 2008 when the NASA satellite experienced two or more minutes of interference. The report did not say explicitly that the hackers were Chinese, but it said the techniques of the hackers "appear consistent with authoritative Chinese military writings."

A final version of the report will be sent to Congress on Nov. 16.

NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto confirmed that there was a "suspicious event" with the spacecraft in the summer and fall of 2008, but no data was manipulated.

Perrotto said no commands were successfully sent to the satellite, but NASA could not say whether hackers gained command of the satellite. NASA notified the Defense Department of the incidents, he said. DoD is responsible for investigating any attempted interference with satellite operations.

The draft report noted that hackers did not issue commands to the satellite, but the interference "poses numerous potential threats."

For example:

• Access to a satellite‘s controls could allow an attacker to damage or destroy the satellite.

• The attacker could deny or manipulate the satellite‘s transmission.

• An attacker could reveal the satellite‘s capabilities or information, such as imagery, gained through its sensors.

The U.S. Geological Survey was also a victim of cyber attacks, the report said.

In 2007 and 2008, a USGS satellite called the Landsat-7 experienced 12 or more minutes of interference, according to the report.

"The satellite continued its normal operations," USGS' Jon Campbell said, in reference to the 2007 incident. "There was no interruption of what the satellite would do normally."

Campbell said "interference" is not an accurate description of what the agency believes to have been a radio signal from the ground that was detected by the satellite. The signal "seemed to be an attempt to lock on to the satellite, a procedure that must be completed successfully before a command from a ground station can be received."

"In each case, the attempt failed," Campbell said.

Obama readies to blast NASA

Πηγή: Washington Times
By Robert Zubrin

Oct 27 2011

Word has leaked out that in its new budget, the Obama administrationintends to terminate NASA’s planetary exploration program. The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that will be it. No further missions to anywhere are planned.

After 2013, America’s amazing career of planetary exploration, which ran from the Mariner probes in the 1960s through the great Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Pathfinder, MarsGlobalSurveyor, MarsOdyssey, Spirit, Opportunity, MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter, Galileo and Cassini missions, will simply end.

Furthermore, the plan from the Office of Management and Budget(OMB) also leaves the space astronomy program adrift and headed for destruction. The now-orbiting Kepler Telescope will be turned off in midmission, stopping it before it can complete its goal of finding other Earths. Even worse, the magnificent Webb Telescope, the agency’s flagship, which promises fundamental breakthroughs in our understanding of the laws of the universe, is not sufficiently funded to allow successful completion. This guarantees further costly delays, with the ensuing budgetary overruns leading inevitably to eventual cancellation.

The administration’s decision to derail planetary exploration and space astronomy is shocking and portends the destruction of the entire American space program. As an agency, NASA is a mixed bag. It includes a large bureaucracy and wasteful, pork-driven spending. But it also includes departments that are technically superb and really deliver the goods. First and foremost among NASA’s most productive divisions are the planetary exploration and space astronomy programs. Kill those, and what is left will be indefensible.

NASA’s planetary and space astronomy programs are not merely good scientific work. They are epic achievements representative of humanity’s highest ideals in its search for truth. As a result of a string of successful probes sent to the Red Planet over the past 15 years, we now know for certain that Mars was once a warm and wet planet and continued to have an active hydrosphere for a period on the order of a billion years - a span fivetimes as long as the time it took for life to appear on Earth after there was liquid water here. Thus, if the theory is correct that life is a natural phenomenon emerging from chemistry wherever there is liquid water, various minerals and a sufficient period of time, life must have appeared on Mars. If we can find it, we will have good reason to believe we are not alone in the universe.

The Kepler observatory has discovered more than1,000 other solar systems, and if it’s allowed to continue operating, it could well find other worlds like ours. The Hubble Space Telescope discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, indicating the existence of a basic force of nature that previously was unknown. The Webb Telescope will be five times as powerful as Hubble. If it can be completed and flown, there is no telling what discoveries it could make. From the laws of gravity through nuclear fusion, many of our most important discoveries in physics were made through astronomy. We have no idea what the processes were that allowed for the creation of matter, energy and the universe. Webb might help us find out. The potential gains to humanity from such expanded knowledge are beyond calculation.

The ostensible reason for the administration’s decision to kill planetary exploration and space astronomy is budgetary discipline. Yet while federal spending has grown 40 percent since 2008, NASA’s funding has remained virtually the same. It is not NASA that is bankrupting America, but OMB. If the administration needs to cut budgets, it should start with those of the regulatory agencies that are strangling the nation’s businesses rather than NASA, which helps the economy through scientific discoveries, technological innovation and the inspiration of youth to pursue careers in engineering. Furthermore, if there were a need to cut NASA, it would make more sense to trim almost anywhere else in the agency. Instead, the administration’s goal seems to be to destroy the entire space program by hitting it in its most vital parts.

The desertion of America’s great exploration enterprise is an offense against science and civilization. It represents a radical departure from the pioneer spirit, and its ratification as policy would preclude any possibility of a human future in space. It is an inexcusable decision, and it needs to be reversed.

Robert Zubrin is the president of Pioneer Astronautics and author of “The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must” (Free Press, 2011, second edition).

Super Fast Internet Across The Solar System

Πηγή: Chanell 4
Oct 9 2011

A Surrey satellite firm is helping to establish an interplanetary internet system that could speed up the movement of data through space - and allow us to explore stars 30 trillion miles away.

The internet, so ubiquitous on earth, is now challenging the final frontier. Nasa astronaut Soichi Noguchi became a Twitter superstar during this stay on the International Space Station.

But the internet in space is not just being used for social media stunts. It is also being used to control unmanned craft, like those made here in Surrey.

From Surrey Satellite Technology they are beaming the existing terrestrial internet into space, to control 14 satellites currently orbiting the earth.

But the capability only extends so far because the internet we all know relies on a constant connection - something that is just not possible once a spacecraft leaves the earth's orbit.

Interplanetary internet

But that is now changing with a new interplanetary internet system being developed. The man who invented the internet on earth is now pioneering the internet in space.

Computer scientist Vint Cerf told Channel 4 News: "It's very early days yet, but the protocols have become sufficiently robust that we believe they can be standardised soon and that all space-faring nations could use them in order to grow an interplanetary backbone, in order to support both manned and robotic space exploration."

The next big step after interplanetary exploration is to consider sending a mission to the nearest star.Vint Cerf, computer scientist

Satellites orbiting the earth are close enough to maintain the constant internet connection needed for effective communications.

But further into space, the more likely it becomes that objects such as planets and the sun will break the connection.

The new interplanetary internet system will relay the signal to spacecraft spread across the solar system in bite-sized chunks, speeding up the time it takes to send data back to earth.

Dai Stanton of Surrey Satellite Technology told Channel 4 News: "In the deep space environment we have very long delays. You get to the outer planets, you're talking delays of days.

"The interplanetary internet allows us to move the data around in an efficient way, despite these long delays. That means more data, quicker data, and more accurate data."

Reaching to the stars

But it is not just the solar system. Vint Cerf is leading US government-funded research looking at how this network could even be used to guide a probe to the nearest star: Alpha Centauri.

"The next big step after doing interplanetary exploration," Mr Cerf said, "is to consider sending a mission to the nearest star, which should be Alpha Centauri.

We're going to need a network of sensors that literally span the solar system.Vint Cerf

"In order to get there, we have to go a lot faster than we know how to do today. And we also have to know how to signal. We're four light years away, which is a really long distance - about 30 trillion miles.

"To do that, we're going to need a network of sensors that literally span the solar system and can pick up this weak signal that's coming back from a robot near Alpha Centauri.

"It's like everything else: engineering turning science fiction into reality."

Surrey Satellite Technology will launch seven new craft connected to the interplanetary internet system this year, and the technology is already helping speed up communications to Mars as more spacecraft are reprogrammed.

If all countries were to adopt this system, it could transform deep-space communications, helping us understand our place in the universe.

'Suitcase' Nuclear Reactors To Power Mars Colonies

Πηγή: Discoverynews
By Ian O'Neill

Tue Aug 30, 2011

Nuclear power is an emotive subject -- particularly in the wake of the Fukushima power plant disaster afterJapan's March earthquake and tsunami -- but in space, it may be an essential component of spreading mankind beyond terrestrial shores.

On Monday, at the 242nd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Denver, Colo., the future face of space nuclear power was described. You can forget the huge reactor buildings, cooling towers and hundreds of workers, the first nuclear reactors to be landed on alien worlds to support human settlement will be tiny.

Think less "building sized" and more "suitcase sized."

"People would never recognize the fission power system as a nuclear power reactor," said James E. Werner, lead of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory.

"The reactor itself may be about 1 feet wide by 2 feet high, about the size of a carry-on suitcase. There are no cooling towers. A fission power system is a compact, reliable, safe system that may be critical to the establishment of outposts or habitats on other planets. Fission power technology can be applied on Earth's Moon, on Mars, or wherever NASA sees the need for continuous power."
WATCH VIDEO: New concepts for Mars-probing rovers would use Martian wind to move around the planet.

The joint NASA/DOE project is aiming to build a demonstration unit next year.

Obviously, this will be welcome news to Mars colonization advocates; to have a dependable power source on the Martian surface will be of paramount importance. The habitats will need to have a constant power supply simply to keep the occupants alive. This will be "climate control" on an unprecedented level.

Water extraction, reclamation and recycling; food cultivation and storage; oxygen production and carbon dioxide scrubbing; lighting; hardware, tools and electronics; waste management -- these are a few of the basic systems that will need to be powered from the moment mankind sets foot on the Red Planet, 24 hours 39 minutes a day (or "sol" -- a Martian day), 669 sols a year.

Fission reactors can provide that.

However, nuclear fission reactors have had a very limited part to play in space exploration up until now. Russia has launched over 30 fission reactors, whereas the US has launched only one. All have been used to power satellites.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), on the other hand, have played a very important role in the exploration of the solar system since 1961.

These are not fission reactors, which split uranium atoms to produce heat that can then be converted into electricity, RTGs depend on small pellets of the radioisotope plutonium-238 to produce a steady heat as they decay. NASA's Pluto New Horizons and Cassini Solstice missions are equipped with RTGs (not solar arrays) for all their power needs. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), to be launched in Nov. 2011, is powered by RTGs for Mars roving day or night.

RTGs are great, but to power a Mars base, fission reactors would be desirable as they deliver more energy. And although solar arrays will undoubtedly have a role to play, fission reactors will be the premier energy source for the immediate future.

"The biggest difference between solar and nuclear reactors is that nuclear reactors can produce power in any environment," said Werner. "Fission power technology doesn't rely on sunlight, making it able to produce large, steady amounts of power at night or in harsh environments like those found on the Moon or Mars. A fission power system on the Moon could generate 40 kilowatts or more of electric power, approximately the same amount of energy needed to power eight houses on Earth."

"The main point is that nuclear power has the ability to provide a power-rich environment to the astronauts or science packages anywhere in our solar system and that this technology is mature, affordable and safe to use."

Of course, to make these "mini-nuclear reactors" a viable option for the first moon and Mars settlements, they'll need to be compact, lightweight and safe. Werner contends that once the technology is validated, we'll have one of the most versatile and affordable power resources to support manned exploration of the solar system.

Sadly, I suspect the biggest hurdle facing space fission power won't be the viability of its technology, but the bad press nuclear power receives, on Earth and in space.