69862723
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
Officially, NASA has been charged with sending astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Toward that end, according to a story in Universe Today, space agency engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center are looking at an old concept for interplanetary travel, nuclear thermal engines. However, some doubts have been expressed whether NASA will be granted the budget to develop such engines.
69473749
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address was noted for many things, including a shout out or two directed at NASA, a government agency that has been the subject of some controversy during his administration, according to a Tuesday post in Space Policy Online. Astronaut Scott Kelly, who is preparing for a year-long stay on the International Space Station, had the pride of place as one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s 26 invited guests. His mission is said to be a preparation for an expedition to Mars, the ultimate goal of the president’s space program as announced in 2010.
The phrasing of the shout out was interesting. "pushing out into the Solar System not just to visit, but to stay." The phrase suggests some kind of space colony or base, perhaps on Mars, perhaps elsewhere. Such has not been mentioned before by the president. The Constellation program, which the president cancelled, aimed at a moon base, something that Obama disdained.
69401387
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
The War is Boring blog reported that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been obliged to cancel its nascent space program. This development means that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s dream of being the first astronaut to be launched into space by Iran have been dashed. Ironically, Anousheh Ansari, who was obliged to flee to the United States from Iran to avoid religious oppression, remains the only Iranian-born space traveler. She did it by going to Texas, making her fortune in the electronics business, and paying for her trip to the International Space Station.
69210467
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
As deliberations for the Keystone XL pipeline continue in the Senate, the new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has allowed any amendments any senator might offer to be considered and voted on. Taking full advantage of that indulgence, the independent senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders has proposed one of the strangest amendments ever to make its way to the United States Senate. The amendment will state that it is the opinion of the Senate that human-caused global warming is real, according to a Tuesday story in the Hill.
69077521
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
When President Obama first proposed visiting an asteroid in his now infamous 2010 speech at the Kennedy Space Center, many assumed that the mission would be a deep space mission to an Earth-approaching asteroid in its “native orbit” in voyage taking weeks. Then, NASA dropped the idea in 2013 favor of the Asteroid Redirect Mission in which a tiny asteroid would be diverted to lunar orbit to be visited by astronauts. Now, according to a Thursday story in Space News, the ARM might take place without redirecting an asteroid.
68927263
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
According to a Monday story in Medium, Dr. John Logsdon, considered the dean of space policy, addressed a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. The author of a book on President Kennedy’s decision to go to the moon and an upcoming book on President Nixon’s post-Apollo space policy decisions had some good news and some bad news about NASA funding. The good news is that funding for the space agency is not likely to be slashed below its current $18 billion a year. The bad news is that it is not likely to go up much beyond that.
If Logsdon is correct, static NASA funding will mean that beyond low Earth orbit human space exploration will remain an unrealistic aspiration. American astronauts will not return to the moon, not to mention go to Mars, in the foreseeable future. NASA will continue to drift, aimless, without a clear goal or mission.
68761539
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
According to a Wednesday story by the Catholic News Service, a recent study on religion and attitudes toward space exploration suggested that Jews, followers of Eastern religions, and Catholics tend to be more supportive of space exploration. However, evangelical Protestants tend to be least supportive of the idea of exploring space. The findings were recently presented by University of Dayton Joshua Ambrosius at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference in Indianapolis.
Possible reasons that evangelicals may not support space exploration include a belief in creationism, belief that the world may soon end as related in the Book of Revelations, and a general lack of knowledge of the benefits of exploring space. More evangelicals, for example, believe that Earth may be destroyed by an asteroid than humans may discover intelligent life in the universe.
68734241
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
According to a Wednesday article in Sputnik, a private Russian company called Lin Industrial has announced that it is capable of building a lunar base. However, according to information contained to a recent post in Parabolic Arc, this announcement may be more the result of idle braggadocio than an objective assessment of actual ability. Nevertheless, Lin seems to be one of the few entrepreneurial startups in Russia in the style of much more robust enterprises in the West such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
68408081
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
White House Science Advisor John Holdren recently held an online question and answer session in which he fielded questions from the general public. One question, according to a Tuesday story from MRC TV, concerned global warming. Is global warming, or as its acolytes prefer to call it, climate change, the result of human activity or the result of the natural cycles experienced by the Earth since before the dawn of time? Not surprisingly for an official of the Obama administration, Holdren hews very closely to the human beings are causing global warming orthodoxy. However, he also adds a little caveat. Global warming is holding off the next ice age.
68270179
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
The Houston Chronicle’s Eric Berger has published the seventh in his series of articles about the American space program and what ails it. The piece focuses on Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, who has two fascinating aspects. The first is that he is taking over the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA funding. The second is that he has a keen appreciation for the benefits of space exploration for its own sake and not just for his Houston area district.
Culberson wants to save NASA and the space program from his fellow politicians and return it to its true glory. He favors sending American astronauts back to the moon and a robotic space probe to Jupiter’s moon Europa. He would like to enact budget reforms that take funding decisions away from the Office of Management and Budget and gives them solely to Congress. He favors a steady increase in NASA funding to pay for a proper program of space exploration. To say the least, he has his work cut out for him.
67995237
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
Twitchy, a site that monitors interesting traffic on Twitter, took note on Sunday of a tweet by the celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson over how aliens might regard humans. He tweeted, “Aliens, seeing Humans kill over land, politics, religion, & skin color, would surely ask, ‘What the f*%k is wrong with you?’” As far as can be determined, Tyson is not personally in contact with aliens and does not have any basis to suggest that they are appalled at human behavior or that they used salty language. However, his views on morally superior aliens looking down on humans seem to track with those of C.S. Lewis, a Christian apologist.
66882557
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
As many have expected, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas has been elevated to chair the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, and Science.. The subcommittee has charge of NASA funding, something of keen interest for the congressman whose Houston district is close to the Johnson Spaceflight Center. Moreover, Culberson’s enthusiasm for space exploration goes far and beyond what would be expected from a Texas representative.
Culberson is a champion of a mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Europa is an ice-covered moon that is thought to conceal an ocean of water, warmed by tidal forces, which might contain life. Using the heavy-lift Space Launch System NASA could launch a large-scale probe to study Europa and ascertain whether it harbors alien life or not. Culberson’s elevation makes such a mission far more likely to occur.
66788471
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
The United States may have foresworn the moon, the venue of its greatest space triumph during the Apollo program, by presidential directive, but that does not mean that other countries and even private organizations are uninterested. The latest proposal for a private moon landing is a British effort called Lunar Mission One, according to a Wednesday story in the New Scientist. Its goal is twofold. The undertaking proposes to drill a 20 meter core sample below the lunar surface for analysis. Lunar Mission One will also deploy the first moon based time capsule. A Kickstarter effort has begun for initial funding.
66203047
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
One of the byproducts of the Republican takeover of the United States Senate will be the likely appointment of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to the chairmanship of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee. A Tuesday story in Scientific America looks upon this prospect with some trepidation. However, insofar as NASA is concerned, that fear may be misplaced. Cruz has expressed support for American leadership in space in the past as well as increased involvement of the private sector in space exploration.
Cruz, as ranking member of the subcommittee, has largely deferred to the current chairman, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida. The only clash that Cruz and Nelson had was when the former objected to the latter’s desire to increase the space agency’s authorization level. Cruz pointed out that the move would be meaningless since sequestration had already constrained NASA funding.
What course will space policy take now that Cruz is likely to be chairman of the Science and Space Subcommittee? A massive change that requires a large increase in NASA funding is likely not in the cards before the election of a new president. However, there are a number of things that can be done around the edges, which includes cancelling the Asteroid Redirect Mission and putting money into the Lunar CATALYST program to build commercial lunar landers,
65919633
submission
MarkWhittington writes:
Professor Richard Binzel published a commentary in the journal Nature that called for two things. He proposed that NASA cancel the Asteroid Redirect Mission currently planned for the early 2020s. Instead, he would like the asteroid survey mandated by the George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act of 2005, part of the 2005 NASA Authorization Act, funded at $200 million a year. Currently NASA funds the survey at $20 million a year, considered inadequate to complete the identification of 90 percent of hazardous near-Earth objects 140 meters or greater by 2020 as mandated by the law.
