From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Mon Jan 1 22:06:40 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2007 19:06:40 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission - Launch Date: October 31, 2008 Message-ID: <001001c72e1b$075b7f20$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission - Launch Date: October 31, 2008 http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/ Happy New Year. I know, it is 2007, not 2008, BUT, I think someone said, "WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK". Many folks have enjoyed looking at the down loaded images of Mars and through the Internet have participated in missions with spacecraft in orbit and rovers on the surface. Soon we will have some more images of the Moon to add to those of the Clementine mission and those from earlier orbiters and the Apollo images. So it should be an interesting year as we get closer to launching LRO. Will Congress continue to fund, will the public care, will you be interested, will I still be typing? All those questions, see should be an interesting year, YES? - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/ MISSION OVERVIEW The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission emphasizes the overall objective of obtaining data that will facilitate returning humans safely to the Moon and enable extended stays. Snip LAUNCH + Launch Date: October 31, 2008 + Launch Vehicle: Atlas 401 + Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center NASA announced the award of launch services for the LRO mission to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc. The spacecraft are scheduled for launch aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a launch window that opens on Oct. 31, 2008. http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/launch.html Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- So what is in your mind? What do you believe? What do you want to see achieved? Let me ask, what gets you churned up in your gut enough to talk to someone else about what you want to see happen with our leaving LEO? What do you really want me to report on? If I get to far a field, what would cause you to leave me talking to myself? I want this to be an exciting year that makes life interesting. Your ideas are greatly appreciated and I thank all of you that have sent me material over the years. This is your lunar-update list. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== The NSS website in the settlements section http://www.nss.org/settlement/ is being worked on and I have been reading emails from a growing group of volunteers. Having added my 2 cents worth, Gordon sent me a reply, which I would like to share with you. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Larry, The first thousands to at least a few millions of space settlers will probably take up residence on the Moon or Mars; being close to the resources is important until a substantial space economy exists. In the long run, the ability of the solar system to support humans is probably pretty large. As O'Neill pointed out, pressurized structures are much more economic of resources than planetary bodies in terms of tons of stuff per human life supported. But it will require a big space industry to make these things. The resources are plentiful. There is at least one large asteroid in the asteroid belt, Kleopatra, which is "about the size of the state of New Jersey" and it's believed to be mostly nickel-iron. That one asteroid has enough metals to build hundreds to thousands of O'Neill-type settlement vessels. Where we find enough nitrogen to fill them with breathable air is an interesting question (oxygen is, of course, plentiful). Oxygen condenses in the form of oxide-containing minerals, i.e. rocks. So there's lots everywhere. Nitrogen doesn't, it's a volatile. There is probably lots of nitrogen in cometary bodies in the outer solar system, but that's a long way to go to get it. It has been estimated that there are enough resources in the asteroid belt (with the possible exception of nitrogen) to build settlements that could support "hundreds of times Earth's population". The economics issues attendant to making this real are very complex and I don't think anyone understands them yet. I think a real settlement of only thousands, especially if growing, would excite a lot of people about the possibility of going. How many people play basketball for the NBA? On the order of hundreds, I think. How many kids are motivated to play street and gym basketball by the possibility, slim but real, that they could someday make it? The problem with today's space program is that the astronaut corps tends to be seen as an elite almost impossible to break into. Gordon W. p.s. Please feel free to forward to anyone on your list that would be genuinely interested. My ISP won't let me send an email to a long list, as they are trying to control spam. On Dec 31, 2006, at 17:40 , Larry Kellogg wrote: > Larry Kellogg here. > PLease use larry.kellogg @ gmail.com > as the SBC account will bounce shortly with an ISP > change. > > To the discussion, I think part of the problem with > getting a lot of people interested in any space > settlement is that there won't be that many > opportunities for them to go to one. > > In the little town of Tracy California there are > 74,000 residents and 4 years ago there were 70,000. > When you talk about a structure or place that will > only hold 10,000 and cost a bundle to get there, you > sort of pass over the idea with little thought. > > The idea that it is the emotions that move us fits. > Now how do you "MOVE" someone to act for someone else > who just MIGHT move off world to a rotating structure > in the sky/space? > > The length of time it has taken to build the ISS is > not encouraging either if you want to translate that > into figuring out how long it would take you to build > a structure in space. > > Maybe upcoming inflatable rooms in the sky will let > folks know that you could make and inflatable MOTEL in > the sky and from there SEE that you could build > something to live in as well. > > Those folks that are in the Navy, manning submarines > that stay under water for 90 days at a time, could > tell you what it is like to live in isolation. > > So what would cause you to move to a city in the sky? > > The answer to that question would be items worth > promoting. > > Larry Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Jan 2 14:20:14 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 11:20:14 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Year of the Moon: China, Japan Ready Lunar Probes for 2007 Message-ID: <000b01c72ea3$08dc7100$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Year of the Moon: China, Japan Ready Lunar Probes for 2007 Sounds fitting. Larry Klaes passed these two notes from space.com and I'll pass along. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Year of the Moon: China, Japan Ready Lunar Probes for 2007 A renewal of robotic lunar exploration is ready for liftoff in 2007 - and not by the United States. This year, China is set to launch its first lunar orbiter, followed by the summer sendoff of a mega-powerful mooncraft from Japan. http://www.space.com/news/070102_asia_moonprobes.html Full Moon Names for 2007 Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. http://www.space.com/spacewatch/061229_moonnames2007.html -------------------------------------------------------------- Where you are you probably have names for the full moons too. We have been looking up at the moon and marking the completion of cycle after cycle. Strange that the rising marked a different spot on the horizon that marched back and forth as the year marched on. As you thought about that you also noted the Sun rose at different spots on the horizon each day. Why was that? There was that itch you got in your head that made you question and search for answers to where we were and what was our place in the Universe. How would that itch change if you were on the Moon looking out into space? - LRK - Here is another link from L. Klaes. Thanks much. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Sputnik 4 Crashed Here Manitowoc, Wisconsin The galleries of the Rahr-West Art Museum contain paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Picasso, and Andy Warhol. They also contain a piece not even the Met or the Getty or the Louvre can equal -- a piece of space junk. It's not here because it's art. It's here because it crashed right outside. Full article with images and road map here: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/sights/sightstory.php?tip_AttrId=%3D12959 -------------------------------------------------------------- When I read the above I thought about how little we value the events in history when they happen and it isn't until later that we recognize what has happened. Pioneer 10 leaves the solar system, we toss the data, sputnik crashes with a piece landing in the street and is kicked into the gutter. Don't feel bad if you make history and it isn't recognized, but do it anyway. Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== In our discussions on how to interest folks in building for living in space you can do brain storming and just throw out ideas with no fear of reprisal for those that don't work. Creative ideas may show themselves. You can also look at what motivated folks in the past to leave their homes to strike out for new lands. The human has been an adaptive animal which has helped when things got rough. Looking for food and shelter may be the most important thing on your mind if you don't have the necessities. If you are secure, then there is room for innovative ideas to excel. Recognizing where you are in your ladder of needs can help in deciding what course to take. - LRK - http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html Maslow hierarchy of needs. -------------------------------------------------------------- A New Year and time to reflect and maybe, if too much bubbly - LRK - The weather changed, the mountains rose, Out Of Africa we see. The potatoes rotted, a new home for those who were left. The seas rose, the atoll is soon under, chip away at that log, we are going to a new island. The ore field, a result of direct hit, is being depleted, best we launch to find a new asteroid and pick away at it before it picks at us. Life is getting a bit crazy, let us take the inflatable to a new height, maybe we can add it to the new colony we see up there. What are my options in this New Year, 2007, aaah, here is to looking up. Larry Kellogg http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Thu Jan 4 13:19:28 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 10:19:28 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] January 3, 2007: Another meteor shower, another bunch of lunar impacts... Message-ID: <000f01c7302c$e2076c20$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> January 3, 2007: Another meteor shower, another bunch of lunar impacts... A day late and a shower short - once again I don't know what hit us or the Moon. Just bits of rock out there waiting for us to plow through the debris. If they aren't hitting us we are hitting them. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03jan_lunargeminids.htm January 3, 2007: Another meteor shower, another bunch of lunar impacts... "On Dec. 14, 2006, we observed at least five Geminid meteors hitting the Moon," reports Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL. Each impact caused an explosion ranging in power from 50 to 125 lbs of TNT and a flash of light as bright as a 7th-to-9th magnitude star. The explosions occurred while Earth and Moon were passing through a cloud of debris following near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon. This happens every year in mid-December and gives rise to the annual Geminid meteor shower: Streaks of light fly across the sky as rocky chips of Phaethon hit Earth's atmosphere. It's a beautiful display. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- While watching the news this morning they showed a video of streaks in the sky from meteors or space debris. Impressive. No holes in my roof, so no worry. They seldom hit you unless it is your car parked out front. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021118.html - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4210 Look northeast to catch falling star tonight Article published on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 By SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN Mirror Writer Clear skies are expected over Kodiak tonight. That's good news for stargazers as Earth's orbit is in the midst of an annual crossing of a band of rock, ice and dust known as the Quadrantid meteors. Quadrantids put on a notoriously short show, one most astronomers say peaks with just about four to six hours of action. "Meteor showers are actually bands of debris that orbit the sun," Denver, Colo. astronomer Larry Sessions said, "In the case of the Quadrantids, we pass through on a perpendicular path." Sessions' prediction for the peak viewing time falls at 4 p.m. Alaska Standard Time. Kodiakans could catch the tail end of the Quadrantids' peak over two to three hours following tonight's 4:37 sunset. Stargazers should look northeast for a chance to see the show. Local resident Carolyn Heitman reported two meteors sighted early Tuesday morning. Heitman said she awoke at about 4:30 and got out of bed for a glass of water, eventually deciding on water, chocolate and a bit of stargazing. She saw two distinct streaks across the sky bright enough to be visible even with city lights and the full moon. "Of course they were passing over Earth, but they were in that area where it looked like they were passing right over Pillar Mountain," Heitman said. Sessions said it's possible, but not likely, that Heitman saw the first of the Quadrantids arriving. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT, ME WORRY, WHAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT CAN'T HURT ME --- RIGHT! What I don't know about, can't hurt me, hurt me. Here we have a cushion of air to help slow the missiles. Best prepare for an exciting time on the Moon or your orbiting home away from home. Would help to know what is out there and a personal force field might be nice too. And GOOGLE says to [meteor protection force field] --- -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.buddhistinformation.com/a_protective_force_field_emitted.htm http://quest.nasa.gov/lunar/outpostchallenge/prelim/jamison.html http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/meteor.html http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Rifts/Rifts-PW-Vehicles/Elven_Celebrimbor_Cruise r.htm http://www.dcmstarships.com/site%20map.html Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Hmmmm. Need to work on that force field. Looks there would be a good market for one. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=meteor+shower+denver&ie=UTF-8 Key words search - meteor shower Denver - - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_004101829.html Meteor Shower Or Space Junk Fly Across Denver Sky cbs4denver.com, CO - 1 hour ago (CBS4) DENVER Brilliant streaks of light raced across the sky over Denver Thursday morning as either a meteor shower or space junk entered the Earth's ... http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=1961501&versi on=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 Watch Spectacular Video of A Meteor Shower My Fox Colorado.com, CO - 2 hours ago DENVER -- Here is something you do not get to see everyday. Absolutely amazing video of a meteor shower in the predawn sky. ... Spectacular Video of A Meteor My Fox Colorado.com all 3 news articles > http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5256178,0 0.html Meteors light up morning sky, or was it something else? Rocky Mountain News, CO - 50 minutes ago Chris Peterson, an astronomer and research associate with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, told CBS 4 News the event was most likely a meteor shower. Bright meteor a sight for Coloradans The Coloradoan all 2 news articles > Look northeast to catch falling star tonight Kodiak Daily Mirror, AK - 16 hours ago The Quadrantid shower is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, producing between 50 and 120 meteors per hour. One report from 1909 recorded 200 ... Snip ============================================================== http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-impact/ ============ ========= ====== IMPACT ALERT 4 JANUARY 2007 ============ ========= ====== Go to: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03jan_lunargeminids.htm for more details (I am stressing this part: "Soon, they plan to release software that will help amateur astronomers see these explosions for themselves") The next earthshine campaign runs from January 9 to 16, and any interested parties are encouraged to participate on at least one or two of these mornings (yes...they are predawn). I will probably only have time for a handful myself, but if we can get many doing a night or two, we can easily cover the interval... So far 5 lunar geminid impacts have been reported. I have not yet checked my videotape from the morning of the 14th and may not have a chance until after I return from the American Astronomical Society / American Association of Physics Teachers conference in Seattle, Washington 5 to 10 January. What follows are the times of impact from lunar Geminids, each occurring on 14 December. The number in parenthesis after the UT is the magnitude of the impact candidate. 8:12:40 (TBD), 8:50:36 (8.5), 8:56:43 (TBD), 9:03:33 (TBD), 10:56:42 (8.7), 11:28:08 (7.5). If you happened to have videotaped the moon during the Geminid run, please check your tapes...I was videotaping during part of this time. Cheers...Brian Cudnik Snip ============================================================== http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/#0701 Snip # Jan 01 -Hot[Dec 28] International Lunar Decade Begins # Jan 01 - Dwarf Planet Ceres Occults TYC 6388-00675-1 (11.6 Magnitude Star) # Jan 01 - Asteroid 5143 Heracles Closest Approach To Earth (0.380 AU) # Jan 02 - Comet P/2006 HR30 (Siding Spring) Perihelion (1.226 AU) # Jan 02 - Asteroid 2006 UQ17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU) # Jan 02 - Asteroid 2006 YD12 Near-Earth Flyby (0.092 AU) # Jan 03 -Updated[Jan 02] Earth At Perihelion (0.983 AU From Sun) http://www.space.com/spacewatch/301206_happy_perihelion.html # Jan 03 - Quadrantids Meteor Shower Peak http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/quadrantids.html # Jan 03-06 - Chapman Conference on Mid-latitude Ionospheric Dynamics and Disturbances, Yosemite National Park, California http://www.agu.org/meetings/cc07acall.html # Jan 04 - Comet C/2005 EL173 (LONEOS) Closest Approach To Earth (3.310 AU) # Jan 04 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults TYC 4972-00313-1 (10.6 Magnitude Star) # Jan 04 - Asteroid 2001 YE4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.033 AU) # Jan 04 - Asteroid 7853 Confucius Closest Approach To Earth (1.662 AU) # Jan 04 - Wilhelm Beer's 210th Birthday (1797) Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Fri Jan 5 14:21:44 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 11:21:44 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really) Message-ID: <000d01c730fe$befe1ee0$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606 Robert Bussard on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion (IEC) Once again I must thank Larry Klaes for including me on his posts. Do you have 1 hr 32 min 37 sec to view an on-line video of a talk given at Google by Robert Bussard on the work that he has done trying to develop fusion power with limited funding? If you do, then also listen between the lines as to why it is hard to get funding from government sources that have their own supporters. You will hear this in other science experiment settings as well. One other thread is that the youth that studied his field of physics are now old men and finding a good peer review team will be a problem. Also listen for who took over the equipment when the government funding stopped because the Navy R&D budget was reduced due to IRAQ. Hint: Space Ship One. Get mad, and if you know an angel investor, put a bug in their ear. Oh, oh, this was recorded at GOOGLE. :-) - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Bussard Robert W. Bussard >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Robert W. Bussard (born 1928) is an American physicist working primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. Recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004.[1] Fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics. Snip Recent activities On March 29, 2006, Bussard claimed on the fusor.net forum that EMC2 had developed an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion process that was 100,000 times more efficient than previous designs.[2] However, the company's funding ran out, and Bussard is looking for additional funding to develop a full-scale fusion power plant. On June 23, 2006, Bussard provided more details of the breakthrough and the circumstances of the shutdown of this work by the government.[3] In November of 2006, Bussard held a Tech Talk at Google on his research and development of IEC fusion reactors.[4] An informal overview[5] of the last decade of work was presented at the 57th International Astronautical Congress in October 2006. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606 Robert Bussard on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion (IEC) - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really) Google engEDU 1 hr 32 min 37 sec - Nov 9, 2006 www.google.com Google Tech Talks November 9, 2006 ABSTRACT This is not your father's fusion reactor! Forget everything you know about conventional thinking on nuclear fusion: high-temperature plasmas, steam turbines, neutron radiation and even nuclear waste are a thing of the past. Goodbye thermonuclear fusion; hello inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IEC), an old idea that's been made new. While the international community debates the fate of the politically-turmoiled $12 billion ITER (an experimental thermonuclear reactor), simple IEC reactors are being built as high-school science fair projects. Dr. Robert Bussard, former Asst. Director of the Atomic Energy Commission and founder of Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2), has spent 17 years perfecting IEC, a fusion process that converts hydrogen and boron directly into electricity producing helium as the only waste product. Most of this work was funded by the Department of Defense, the details of which have been under seal. until now. Dr. Bussard will discuss his recent results and details of this potentially world-altering technology, whose conception dates back as far as 1924, and even includes a reactor design by Philo T. Farnsworth (inventor of the scanning television). Can a 100 MW fusion reactor be built for less than Google's annual electricity bill? Come see what's possible when you think outside the thermonuclear box and ignore the herd. Speaker: Dr. Robert Bussard http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606 ============================================================== I don't belong to IEEE so have not read the paper. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=640696 Discharge characteristics of the spherical inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device Miley, G.H. Yibin Gu DeMora, J.M. Stubbers, R.A. Hochberg, T.A. Nadler, J.H. Anderl, R.A. Fusion Studies Lab., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL ; This paper appears in: Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on Publication Date: Aug 1997 Volume: 25, Issue: 4 On page(s): 733-739 Meeting Date: 07/21/1996 - 07/26/1996 Location: Berkeley, CA, USA ISSN: 0093-3813 References Cited: 12 CODEN: ITPSBD INSPEC Accession Number: 5719828 Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/27.640696 Posted online: 2002-08-06 21:10:46.0 Abstract The University of Illinois inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device provides 107 2.5 MeV D-D neutrons/second when operated with a steady-state deuterium discharge at 70 kV. Being compact and lightweight, the IEC potentially represents an attractive portable neutron source for activation analysis applications. The plasma discharge in the IEC is unique, using a spherical grid in a spherical vacuum vessel with the discharge formed between the grid and the vessel wall, while the -70 kV grid (cathode) also serves to extract high-energy ions. Two key features of the IEC discharge are discussed: 1) the breakdown voltage characteristics as a function of pressure-grid/wall distance (pd), and 2) the formation of ion "microchannels" that carry the main ion flow through grid openings Index Terms Available to subscribers and IEEE members. References Available to subscribers and IEEE members. Citing Documents Available to subscribers and IEEE members. Snip ============================================================== http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/iecworkshop/PDF/ANS_Newsletter_Dec_02.pdf Progress in Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement Fusion John F Santarius, Gerald L Kulcinski, and Robert P Ashley University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin Snip Alternative IEC concepts exist that aim to overcome the disadvantage of finite grid transparency, which leads to excessive grid heating at high power densities. These utilize either Penning-trap geometry [7] or magnetically trapped electrons as a virtual cathode [8]. In summary, U.S. IEC research programs explore neutron and proton production for detecting clandestine materials and generating radioisotopes, with longer range goals of electricity production and space propulsion. The Japanese and Australian IEC efforts primarily focus on neutron production for landmine detection. All groups use D-D fuel at voltages up to 80 kV for neutron production. The University of Wisconsin also uses voltages up to 170 kV to produce D-3He protons. The Los Alamos National Laboratory effort explores the periodically oscillating plasma sphere mode of IEC operation. Researchers have made considerable improvement in IEC parameters during the past few years, and experiments presently hover at the edge of economic attractiveness. References: [1] G.L. Kulcinski, "Non-Electric Applications of Fusion Energy-An Important Precursor to Commercial Electric Power," Fusion Technology 34, Part 2, 477 (1998). [2] G.L. Kulcinski, et al, "Alternate Applications of Fusion-Production of Radioisotopes," American Nuclear Society 15th Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Washington, D.C., 17-21 Nov 2002), submitted to Fusion Science and Technology. [3] W.C. Elmore, et al., "On the Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement of a Plasma," Physics of Fluids 2, 239 (1959). [4] P.T. Farnsworth, "Electric Discharge Device for Producing Interactions between Nuclei," U.S. Patent #3,258,402 (June 28, 1966). [5] R.L. Hirsch, "Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement of Ionized Fusion Gases," Journal of Applied Physics 38, 4522 (1967). [6] R.A. Nebel and D.C. Barnes, "The Periodically Oscillating Plasma Sphere," Fusion Technology 34, 28 (1998). [7] D.C. Barnes, R.A. Nebel, and L. Turner, "Production and Application of Dense Penning Trap Plasmas," Physics of Fluids B5, 3651 (1993). [8] R.W. Bussard, "Some Physics Considerations of Magnetic Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement: a New Concept for Spherical Converging-Flow Fusion," Fusion Technology 19, 273 (1991). Snip ============================================================== http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=mtgpaper&gID=70314 Search Results Returned 1 records matching your Advanced Search criteria. Score Title / Citation 1. 100% Fusion-electric propulsion for hypersonic flight FRONING, H. D., JR. (Flight Unlimited, Flagstaff, AZ) BUSSARD, R. W.(Energy/Matter Conversion Corp., Manassas, VA) AIAA-1993-2611 View first page. http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/1993/PV1993_2611.pdf AIAA-93-2611 FUSION-ELECTRIC PROPULSION FOR HYPERSONIC FLIGHT H.D. Froning, Jr. Flight Unlimited 2800 Saddleback Way #31 Flagstaff, Arizona 86004, U.S.A. R.W. Bussard EnergylMatter Conversion Corporation 91 00 A Center Street Manassas, Virginia 221 10, U.S.A. Abstract Recent studies by R.W. Bussard have shown that charged nuclei of certain light element isotopes can be electrostatically compressed to sufficient density for nuclear fusions to occur. And the resulting fusion reactions involving such nuclei emit no neutrons and induce no radioactivity at all. Such "clean" fusion reactions can develop 4 to 8 times more engine thrust per fuel flow rate than chemical reactions with attractive engine thrust-to-weight ratios - ratios in the 3 to 6 g range. This paper shows that such propulsion could enable a 2- to 5-fold improvement in the payload delivery efficiency of earth-to-orbit aerospace planes and the accomplishment of environmentally favorable hypersonic flight. Introduction The next breakthrough in manned space transportation may be accomplished by aircraft-like vehicles that can take off from runways, reach orbit, and return from space with a single fully reusable propulsive stage. Moreover, jet airliners derived from such hypersonic vehicles may enable extremely swift travel between the major cities of Earth. But adequate propulsive power for such flight is difficult to achieve with chemical combustion, and the exhaust products of chemical combustion pollute the atmosphere to some degree. In this respect, recent studies by Bussard show that inertial electrostatic confinement of light element isotopes, such as Hydrogen nuclei and Boron 11, could enable "clean", powerful fusion reactions that: emit no neutrons and cause no radioactivity and that develop 4 to 8 times more thrust per fuel flow rate than chemical reactions with significant ratios of engine thrust-to-weight. Furthermore, the hot electric discharge from such fusion produces significant ozone during high altitude flight, thereby enriching the upper atmosphere with ozone production in the vehicle wake. Thus, this paper explores use of such environmentally-favorable fusion propulsion for cost-effective hypersonic flight. Background The use of inertial-electrostatic confinement (IEC) of fusion fieis was first proposed by Elmore et al in (1) and IEC studies by Hirsch (2) showed that high fusion reaction rates could be achieved by compressing ions with grid potentials in a spherically concentric device. However, the amounts of fusion were severely limited by drive power losses due to collisions between particles and grids. Copyright 1993 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Maybe one of you belongs to AIAA and has read the whole paper. - LRK - ============================================================== http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=Paper&gID=32880 Returned 1 records matching your Advanced Search criteria. Score Title / Citation 1. 100% The Need for Fusion Propulsion Research R. Adams, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL; and J. Cassibry, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL AIAA-2005-4140 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, Tucson, Arizona, July 10-13, 2005 See First Page http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyMJPC2005_1177/PV2005_4140.pdf 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit 10 - 13 July 2005, Tucson, Arizona AIAA 2005-4140 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit AIAA-2005-4140 Tucson, Arizona July 10-13, 2005 The Need for Fusion Propulsion Research R. Adams1 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812 J. T. Cassibry2 University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), Propulsion Research Center, N239 Technology Hall, Huntsville, AL 35899 Fusion propulsion is inevitable if the human race remains dedicated to exploration of the solar system. There are fundamental reasons why fusion surpasses more traditional approaches to routine crewed missions to Mars, crewed missions to the outer planets, and deep space high speed robotic missions, assuming that reduced trip times, increased payloads, and higher available power are desired. A recent series of informal discussions were held among members from government, academia, and industry concerning fusion propulsion. We compiled a sufficient set of arguments for utilizing fusion in space. If the U.S. is to lead the effort and produce a working system in a reasonable amount of time, NASA must take the initiative, relying on, but not waiting for, DOE guidance. Arguments for fusion propulsion are presented, along with fusion enabled mission examples, fusion technology trade space, and a proposed outline for future efforts. Nomenclature a = acceleration Introduction In order to successfully fulfill the President's vision for space exploration, there must be a long term strategy to develop propulsion systems that enable routine manned trips to Mars and manned missions to the outer solar system. Technology to reach Mars is within near term reach in the form of chemical, nuclear thermal, and perhaps nuclear electric propulsion (NEP). However, if fast trips times of the order of 3-4 months are desirable then alternatives that permit high specific impulse (~5000 s) and high specific power (~10 kW/kg) are required. Those constraints limit the propulsion options to approaches such gas core fission and fusion. Beyond Mars, only fusion and perhaps other, more exotic systems like antimatter and solar sails can meet the performance criteria. 1 Professor, Propulsion Research Center, UAH member AIAA 2 Systems Engineer, Advanced Propulsion Technologies, senior member AIAA Copyright C2005 by AIAA. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission. 1 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit 10 - 13 July 2005, Tucson, Arizona AIAA 2005-4140 This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. ============================================================== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell Polywell >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Polywell is a gridless inertial electrostatic confinement fusion process designed by Robert Bussard under a Navy research contract, designed to overcome the losses in the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor and create a breakeven fusion reactor Design A traditional Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor consists of a vacuum chamber containing a positively charged outer grid and a negatively charged inner grid within; essentially a large vacuum tube with spherical grids. Fusable atomic nuclei are injected as ions into the system, repelled by the outer grid, and accelerated toward the inner grid. Most of the time, the ions miss the grid, but occasionally, given long enough, nuclei strike either the grid or another high-energy nucleus. Most strikes with other nuclei do not result in fusion, but occasionally fusion results. On a miss, the nuclei move outwards, are repelled by the outer grid again, and return through the core. Without the motion of electrons and magnetic fields, there are no synchrotron losses and low levels of bremsstrahlung radiation. The fundamental problem with the system is with the grid itself. Far too often, nuclei strike the grid. This damages the grid, wastes the energy that went into ionizing and accelerating the particle, and most critically, heats the grid. Even if the former problems were not critical, having a fine mesh grid in a reactor producing enough power to be used as a power plant would almost certainly mean that it would be rapidly vaporized. The Polywell concept is designed to avoid this problem. Most notably, it is a gridless inertial electrostatic fusor. Electromagnets in the shape of a truncated regular polyhedron (typically a truncated cube) create a cusped, quasi-spherical magnetic trap, which confines electrons in a slightly electron-rich plasma.[1] The electrostatic potential from the trapped excess electrons, not a negatively charged grid, confine the fusion fuel ions toward a dense focus in the center. The odds of collision with an electron are vanishingly small, and there is no grid to overheat. While this concept uses magnetic fields, which the original fusor managed to avoid, the fields do not need to confine nuclei - only electrons, which are orders of magnitude simpler to confine.[2] Despite initial difficulties in spherical electron confinement, at the time of the research project's termination, Bussard had reported a neutron rate of 109 per second (based on detection of three neutrons, giving a wide confidence interval). He claims that this is roughly 100,000 times greater fusion rate than Farnsworth managed to achieve at similar well depth and drive conditions.[3][4] He claims that, assuming superconductors for the coils, the only significant losses are electron losses, meaning that the fusion power output of the device scales as the seventh power of the radius, and the energy gain scales as the fifth power. If true, this would enable a model only ten times larger to be useful as a fusion power plant.[5] Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Jan 9 00:36:24 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 21:36:24 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] To The Moon, Mars and Beyond Message-ID: <000901c733b0$1b857420$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> To The Moon, Mars and Beyond Rick Fisher and Fred Becker mentioned an article written by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson - To The Moon, Mars and Beyond. http://www.southlaketimes.com/articles/2007/01/07/southlake_times/news/5insi de.txt -------------------------------------------------------------- http://hutchison.senate.gov/ccmoon.htm TO THE MOON, MARS, AND BEYOND Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson December 29, 2006 Since Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space in 1968, our nation has sent men to walk on the Moon, robots to chart the surface of Mars, and spacecraft to explore the far reaches of the universe. Driven by a spirit of exploration and discovery, the developments of the past few weeks remind us of the breadth and scope of our space program. Today we are on the verge of an exciting new phase of exploration. The recent return of Space Shuttle Discovery to Earth capped a period of accomplishment for NASA. In early December, NASA announced its intentions to establish a permanent settlement at the south pole of the moon. A few days later, NASA scientists announced that a spacecraft orbiting Mars had discovered compelling evidence of water on Mars within the past seven years. And on December 9, Space Shuttle Discovery launched into the night sky on the latest mission to the International Space Station (ISS). During NASA's 117th space shuttle flight, Discovery's seven-person crew rewired the ISS to establish a permanent electrical system. This new, more reliable power source will protect the groundbreaking scientific experiments being conducted in this unique national laboratory. Planning is underway to send astronauts back to the moon for the first time since 1972, and the proposed lunar settlement will serve as a ground station of sorts for future space travelers. NASA's goal to establish a permanent base on the moon is part of the long-range Vision for Exploration announced by President Bush in January 2004. NASA intends to build habitat and research facilities on the moon. The location currently under consideration is near the moon's south pole at the rim of the Shackleton Crater, aptly named for the legendary Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. As we develop self-sustaining habitats on the moon, we will use it as a base for observing both the Earth and the heavens beyond, and as a staging base for eventual human exploration of Mars. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- http://hutchison.senate.gov/ http://hutchison.senate.gov/commerce.htm Nice to see our elected, supporting the quest to explore space. Note though that Alan Shepard's flight into space was in May 5, 1961 not 68. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepard-alan.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shepard :-( - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Jeff Foust Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review: Parsimony and piecemeal: what future does Britain have in space? --- Some people in Great Britain are rethinking what role the country should have in space exploration. Andrew Weston makes the case for an effort that is more than just a minor contributor to ESA and other nations' programs. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/780/1 Bond, in orbit --- The concept of billionaires and their secret space programs, now a reality, has long been a staple of fiction, including several James Bond movies. Dwayne Day explores how space has been a part of Bond movies good and bad. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/779/1 NASA and America's youth --- Many young people in the US seem indifferent to space exploration, raising questions about the best ways to reach out to them and change their opinions. Taylor Dinerman argues that NASA and space advocates should focus not on reaching large numbers of people with little interest in space, but instead on the best and brightest. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/778/1 The will to go: can we build it? --- Building sustained, strong public support for the Vision for Space Exploration and other space ventures has been challenging. Frank Stratford believes that to be successful, space advocates have to communicate in ways the public will understand and find inspirational. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/777/1 Review: more tales from the Space Age --- While most of the major players in the early Space Age have already told their stories in their memoirs or biographies, there are still many other interesting tales to be told. Jeff Foust reviews two books by people with smaller, but still fascinating, roles in that era. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/776/1 Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Jan 9 12:54:51 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 09:54:51 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] MIT lecture by Chris Kraft Message-ID: <000001c73417$4506bc70$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> MIT lecture by Chris Kraft David Woods posted on ProjectApollo Yahoo groups http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ProjectApollo/ the following link to MIT World video with Chirs Kraft. It is 2 hours well spent if you want to know what goes into planning for Apollo and Shuttle missions and would like to do this again in going back to the Moon. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- MIT lecture by Chris Kraft Posted by: "David Woods" Mon Jan 8, 2007 2:26 pm (PST) Good streaming video here: of a lecture that Chris Kraft gave at MIT. He talks about pre-Apollo, Apollo, Shuttle and the VSE programme. He's his usual forthright self. Good stuff David ------------------------------- David Woods, from the Cogitorium Web: http://www.wdwoods.com/ Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/moonmeister -------------------------------------------------------------- It plays with a Real Player and you can select for different bandwidth. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Mission Control Operations Video Run Time: 2:00:32 Technical Notes on Video: Video length is 2:00:32. Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor of the Practice, Aero-Astro Department, and former shuttle astronaut, introduces Chris Kraft. At 3:06, Kraft begins. At 1:14:05, he invites questions. At 1:59:46, Hoffman thanks Kraft. -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://mitworld.mit.edu/index.php MIT WorldT is a free and open site that provides on-demand video of significant public events at MIT. -------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT MIT WORLD We thank you for the thousands of emails of appreciation and welcome your financial support. Contributions will offset our operating costs and allow MIT World to grow while remaining a free and open presence on the web. Give Now > STAY CONNECTED Receive email updates as new videos are added. http://mitworld.mit.edu/dsp_register.php Subscribe to our RSS feed. http://mitworld.mit.edu/what_is_rss.php Snip ============================================================== http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/339/ ABOUT THE LECTURE: Chris Kraft manages to present in a single event the ultimate in engineering case studies, as well as an insider's history of 20th century space missions and a pep talk for Aero-Astro students. This blunt raconteur describes the challenges of the earliest space pioneers. His story begins with Project Mercury in the 1950s, whose space task group of 35 included eight secretaries. "We were capable people but didn't know a damn thing about how to fly in space," recalls Kraft. How would they communicate with a man in orbit, or assess his health? Most doctors thought when an astronaut left earth's atmosphere, "he'd be a blithering idiot." Air to ground communication in those days consisted of 20 words of teletype. "How do you make real time decisions in those circumstances?" muses Kraft. He proudly describes assembling the Mission Rules book, "probably the smartest thing we ever did," which attempted to address all conceivable malfunctions on a space mission. This was an early example of systems engineering, says Kraft. When President Kennedy challenged NASA to get a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, "Chris Kraft did not know how to determine orbital mechanics from 30 seconds of radar at Cape Canaveral. I thought the president was a little daft." Suddenly, there were a whole new set of problems, such as how to make sure a craft aimed at the moon did not just hit it. In the Gemini and then Apollo programs, Kraft's team solved innumerable and breathtakingly difficult issues. "We did a lot of things by the seat of our pants because we didn't know any other way. We did it by feel, by having seen the past and doing things the right way." Kraft has some harsh words for the current state of space exploration. He can't countenance NASA's abandoning the space shuttle. "We seem to have a great propensity in this country for building something wonderful, great and high performance and throwing it away..Golly, my mother would have gone bananas!" He believes that NASA could have made the shuttle much more efficient to fly, and used it as a key element in the new race back to the Moon and to Mars. Kraft doesn't believe this program will get off the ground-mainly because NASA hasn't built anything new in 25 years, "and they've forgotten what it takes to do it." The next space mission, whatever it turns out to be, will depend on the current crop of young aerospace engineers. "Go do it, don't be frightened to fail," exhorts Kraft. "You learn more from your failures than from your successes." ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic University in 1944 and joined the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) the next year. In 1958, still at Langley, he became a member of the Space Task Group developing Project Mercury and moved with the Group to Houston in 1962. He was flight director for all of the Mercury and many of the Gemini missions and directed the design of Mission Control at what became the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in 1973. He was director of the JSC from 1975 until his retirement in 1982. Since then he has remained active as an aerospace consultant. Wikipedia profile of Kraft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft,_Jr. NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index): Video length is 2:00:32. Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor of the Practice, Aero-Astro Department, and former shuttle astronaut, introduces Chris Kraft. At 3:06, Kraft begins. At 1:14:05, he invites questions. At 1:59:46, Hoffman thanks Kraft. Snip http://www.astronautix.com/astros/kraft.htm ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Thu Jan 11 17:40:30 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:40:30 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Dr. Bussard's talk at Google, Should Google Go Nuclear? - follow up Message-ID: <000601c735d1$81d18f20$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Dr. Bussard's talk at Google, Should Google Go Nuclear? - follow up. Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606 Robert Bussard on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion (IEC) Did you spend the 1 hr 32 min 37 sec to view the on-line video of the talk given at Google by Robert Bussard? If you down loaded the file to play with the Google Video Player on your own computer you probably noted that you have used .5 GB of your disk space. Plays nice though. - LRK - You might like to look at the talk in a printed form by Mark Duncan at askmar, www.askmar.com as the PDF file is only 1.6 MB and you can look at the graphs and images at your leisure. - LRK - --------------------------------------------------------------http://www.ask mar.com/ConferenceNotes/Should%20Google%20Go%20Nuclear.pdf This is not your father's fusion reactor! Forget everything you know about conventional thinking on nuclear fusion: high-temperature plasmas, steam turbines, neutron radiation and even nuclear waste are a thing of the past. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Back in June of 2006, Dr. Brussard replied to some folks on the JREF Forum with material that you may now be familiar with. Still let me snag a snip as it is easier than trying to copy from PDF files that give you strange mappings. You may also like to read some of the comments above this post to see what they were saying. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.randi.org/forumlive/showthread.php?p=1722023 Dear SirPhilip!: I have read the threads on the Randi forum, and they are all intent and I am sure well-menaing. However, I have not been able to "log in" on this forum so am writing to you instead. Perhaps you can post this note as a reply and commentary to some of the issues raised by your forum correspondents. Snip As to our funding -- our USN contract still exists, and still has about $ 2M authorized in it. However, year-by-year funding was NOT provide for FY 2006, so that we knew we had to close down early in 2006.. What saved us was Adm Cohen (CNR) who put another 900 K into the program to try to get us down the road to where we DID go, and then we had to quit. It was not a cutoff of OUR funding, but the entire Navy Energy Program was cut to zero in FY 2006, and we were a part of this cut. The funds were clearly needed for the more important War in Iraq. So, as we cut down, we managed to save the lab equipment, by transfer to SpaceDev, which hired our three best lab people as well, and we are still trying to get the missing $ 2M restored and put into our existing but unfunded contract. IF this happens - which is improbable, given the politics of this election year, and the non-visionary people in Congress - we will redo WB-6 with an improved and better version (WB-7) which should give 5x more output, and run about 50 tests to quiet dissent. AND we will convene a review panel of very high-level and internationally distinguished people to spend about 6 weeks going over this to recommend for or against proceeding with a full scale demo. This may or may not happen. If it does, I have little doubt as to the panel recommendation, as the data and insight from WB-5/6 is just too clear. We really have solved the last engineering physics problem that has plagued our work for 12 year s or so. Yes, there is much left to do, especially in controls and diagnostics, but these are predictable things not dependent on beating the Paschen curve. And we still have to develop some reliable e-guns and i-sources, again predictable engineering that costs both time and money, but not new physics. Why a full-scale demo? Because the system scales oddly: Fusion output goes as the 7th power of the size and Gain goes as the 5th power. Thus there is very little to be gained by building a half-size model; it is too weak to give anything definitive about power production or gain. And our tests were always at about 1/8 to 1/10 scale of the full scale demo. We told the DoD from the beginning that the real program would cost about 150-200 M, since 1987, and they all knew this. However, since the DoD has no charter to do such work, and the political realities were that a big DoD program would attract the ire and power of the DoE to kill it, it was never funded beyond about 1/8 the level required. So we did what we could and finally DID prove the physics and associated engineering physics constraints, scaling laws, etc, albeit at 1/8-1/10 scale. So what? Doubling the size will not tell us anything we don't already know. The next intelligent and logical step is to build a machine big enough to make net power. And THAT is the same 200 M we have quoted to the DoD since the beginning. As for energy companies "stampeding" to support us - It is clear that a view like this is ignorant of the reality of energy companies. There is only one thing the oil companies want, and that is to sell oil, and more oil. So long as the fields pump, the oil companies will squeeze. They have NO, absolutely NO interest in anything new, ins spite of all their foolish ads in magazines for wind mills and solar-PV roofs. It is all just show and tell. I know these guys, and there is no way they would support anything that might get in the way of oil. The only way to stop oil, from their view, is when it does run out. And then they''ll go for deeper drilling, new fields, Gulf geopressure gas, LNG, etc, etc, and keep raising the price, until finally foolish solar and windmills become competitive. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- My thought on the above is that one needs to be aware of the politics of the time and do the best they can to persevere. It would be nice to have alternate sources of energy that are not tied to a cartel. What are you developing in your garage? May it become a Historical Landmark. http://www.siliconvalley-usa.com/about/terman.html FRED TERMAN, THE FATHER OF SILICON VALLEY Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606 Robert Bussard on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion (IEC) - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really) 1 hr 32 min 37 sec - Nov 9, 2006 www.google.com Google Tech Talks November 9, 2006 ABSTRACT This is not your father's fusion reactor! Forget everything you know about conventional thinking on nuclear fusion: high-temperature plasmas, steam turbines, neutron radiation and even nuclear waste are a thing of the past. Goodbye thermonuclear fusion; hello inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IEC), an old idea that's been made new. While the international community debates the fate of the politically-turmoiled $12 billion ITER (an experimental thermonuclear reactor), simple IEC reactors are being built as high-school science fair projects. Dr. Robert Bussard, former Asst. Director of the Atomic Energy Commission and founder of Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2), has spent 17 years perfecting IEC, a fusion process that converts hydrogen and boron directly into electricity producing helium as the only waste product. Most of this work was funded by the Department of Defense, the details of which have been under seal. until now. Dr. Bussard will discuss his recent results and details of this potentially world-altering technology, whose conception dates back as far as 1924, and even includes a reactor design by Philo T. Farnsworth (inventor of the scanning television). Can a 100 MW fusion reactor be built for less than Google's annual electricity bill? Come see what's possible when you think outside the thermonuclear box and ignore the herd. Speaker: Dr. Robert Bussard http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606 ============================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Bussard Robert W. Bussard >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Robert W. Bussard (born 1928) is an American physicist working primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. Recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004.[1] Fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics. Snip Recent activities On March 29, 2006, Bussard claimed on the fusor.net forum that EMC2 had developed an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion process that was 100,000 times more efficient than previous designs.[2] However, the company's funding ran out, and Bussard is looking for additional funding to develop a full-scale fusion power plant. On June 23, 2006, Bussard provided more details of the breakthrough and the circumstances of the shutdown of this work by the government.[3] In November of 2006, Bussard held a Tech Talk at Google on his research and development of IEC fusion reactors.[4] An informal overview[5] of the last decade of work was presented at the 57th International Astronautical Congress in October 2006. Snip ============================================================== http://www.askmar.com/ConferenceNotes/2006-9%20IAC%20Paper.pdf "The Advent of Clean Nuclear Fusion: Super-performance Space Power and Propulsion", Robert W. Bussard, Ph.D., 57th International Astronautical Congress, October 2-6, 2006 [30 pages, 4.7 MB - LRK -] ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Fri Jan 12 14:48:37 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:48:37 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Britain Plans Lunar Exploration - By Craig Brown Message-ID: <000901c73682$aac27eb0$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Britain Plans Lunar Exploration - By Craig Brown Jim McDade posted an article by Craig Brown on the Space Exploration Advocacy Group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SpaceADG/ - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- UK Wants To Lead Lunar Colonization Posted by: "Jim McDade" Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:58 am (PST) >from The Scotsman: Britain Plans Lunar Exploration By Craig Brown Scientists have outlined proposals for two all-British moon missions, paid for jointly by UK government and industry. The missions could provide the country with important footholds in the race toward moon colonization, say the proposals' authors. The U.S. has expressed interest in building lunar colonies, and the European, Indian and Chinese space agencies are all planning missions to the moon. Britain is striking out on its own in lunar exploration, with ambitious plans to carry out experiments on the moon using UK technology. A study conducted for the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) has outlined proposals for two all-British moon missions. The first, named Moonlight, could be launched by 2010 and would see four suitcase-sized darts fired onto the moon's surface from an orbiting probe. The darts, which carry geologically-sensitive equipment, would be shot into craters at 400 mph, penetrating to a depth of 6 feet, sending back information about possible "moonquakes" and the composition and temperature of the moon's core. If successful, the mission could be followed by another called Moonraker, named after the James Bond film. This would land a spacecraft on the moon and carry out physical geological studies that could be used in the search for suitable sites for manned bases. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a link to the article on the Internet at TechNewsWorld. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.technewsworld.com/story/space/55101.html Britain Plans Lunar Exploration By Craig Brown The Scotsman 01/11/07 8:39 AM PT Scientists have outlined proposals for two all-British moon missions, paid for jointly by UK government and industry. The missions could provide the country with important footholds in the race toward moon colonization, say the proposals' authors. The U.S. has expressed interest in building lunar colonies, and the European, Indian and Chinese space agencies are all planning missions to the moon. Snip 'Go-it-Alone' The study was prepared by professor Sir Martin Sweeting, founder and chief executive of Surrey Satellite Technology, a University of Surrey spin-off company with its headquarters in Guildford, England. The cost of space exploration had fallen sufficiently to allow Britain to mount a "go-it-alone" moon mission, paid for jointly by the government and industry, he said. Britain's space ventures have been carried out jointly with the American space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). "Current small missions to the Moon cost around 500 million [euros] (US$650 million)," Martin said. "With advances in small satellites, we could probably cut the cost by at least a fifth." Going solo to the moon would be a major boost to British industry. "In the UK, we have tremendous expertise in this area," he said. "A UK moon program would enable us to get a foothold in what could ... be an economically important area for a relatively low cost." Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Newspaper articles, a mission do not make. It will come down to funding, so will see if darting the Moon happens from the UK. - LRK - Others, like NASA Ames and the Japanese, have proposed dropping devices to the Moon to take readings. It reminds me of the early movie of a rocket ship stuck in the eye of the Moon by Georges M?li?s, (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon_(film) Can we call it a race to the Moon? Sounds good to me, let us race to the Moon. OK, I win, now what? Do I get to bring some of it back and sell at the local flea market? Step right up and get your Moon Dust here, and for you sir, a special price. Good for aches and pains, just sprinkle on ... - LRK - Ensure the human race goes on, send your genetic sample to our lunar cryogenic storage - well maybe -. - LRK - http://www.cryolab.com/Default.aspx?section=aboutus&page=introduction Maybe already there. -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/app3a.html http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4214/ch3-6.html APOLLO'S LUNAR EXPLORATION PLANS Woods Hole and Falmouth Conferences, Summer 1965 Snip One question that assumed increasing importance as planetary exploration became more realistic was the existence of life forms or their precursors on the moon or the planets. The working group on biology concluded that the evolution of organisms or prebiotic materials was most likely to have occurred on Mars. However, the group affirmed the necessity to avoid contaminating any celestial body, including the moon, with terrestrial organisms or organic materials that might invalidate later experiments attempting to detect life. As to the need for protecting earth from biological contamination by material from the moon, the group believed the hazards were small but that NASA should be safe rather than sorry: "the consequences of misjudgment are potentially catastrophic."47 Opinion on this point was not unanimous throughout the conference, however, for the working group on lunar exploration noted only a "minor possibility of finding prebiotic material, either buried or in sheltered locations."48 Snip http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4214/cover.html -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Google search of News with - Britain Plans Lunar Exploration - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US :official&hs=kxO&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wn&ncl=1112566377 All 97 News Articles for - Britain Plans Lunar Exploration - Here is one of them with a bit different spelling of the mission name. - LRK - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2541406,00.html The Times January 11, 2007 Britain plans twin Moon missions to seek the secrets of life on Earth Lewis Smith, Science Reporter # Crafts to probe surface with darts # Stepping stones to Mars and Jupiter Graphic: The two missions explained Britain could launch its own mission to the Moon by 2010 under plans outlined yesterday by leading space scientists. Two missions aimed at answering questions about how life began and the history of the universe are being considered by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), which funds Britain?s space research. Both are regarded as important stepping stones to reaching Mars and Jupiter because they would test technology required for future missions farther from Earth. One of the unmanned missions, called MoonRaker, would see a spacecraft land on the Moon to analyse dust and rocks in greater detail than before and search for evidence of water and organic traces. If successful it would mark the first soft landing by a European spacecraft and would provide unrivalled data on the age of different layers of the Moon. The other, MoonLITE, would see an orbiting craft fire four projectiles at the Moon to plunge into the surface. At least one probe would be sent to a pole and another to the equator. One or more would hit the dark side of the Moon. Seismic and temperature readings from the probes would measure the geological activity of the Moon and assess the make-up of its surface up to 2m (6ft 6in) deep. Each of the darts would weigh about 13.5kg (30lb) and, using military technology to protect the electronics, would survive an impact of 300m per second. Such probes are seen as having huge potential for exploring Europa, one of Jupiter?s moons, which is covered in ice and may have liquid oceans. The Moon mission would be a test run. The Moon is the most easily accessible extra-terrestrial body and is considered to have clues to the creation of Earth and the solar system preserved on and beneath its surface. Among the material scientists would hope to uncover is traces of organic material from meteorites that could support the theory that life started on Earth after being ?seeded? by an asteroid strike. Samples taken from the poles could establish if, as some scientists believe, there is ice on the Moon. The make-up of the ice could show if water was carried to Earth by asteroids or comets. Scientists involved in the project believe it is conceivable that remains of early Earth could be found on the Moon having been blasted there in a collision with an asteroid. John Zarnecki, of the Open University?s Planetary and Space Science Research Institute and a council member at PPARC, said that the Moon contained information waiting to be dug up. Speaking as the Moon mission proposals were announced in London yesterday, Professor Zarnecki said: ?It?s become quite clear in recent years that the Moon is perhaps unique in that it preserves a record of what was going on in the early years of the solar system. ?There?s even the possibility that one might even find some fossil traces of primitive Earth on the Moon. There are probably trapped samples of the Earth?s early atmosphere, which is very different from the way it is now.? Andrew Coates, from University College London, said at a briefing in London: ?Finding organic molecules would be a big discovery, because there?s no way life could have developed on the Moon. We know that comets played a big role in bringing water to the Earth, and they may have brought carbon compounds as well. Finding organic molecules on the Moon could give us clues about the origin of life on Earth.? Each mission is predicted to cost ?50 million to ?100million and, if they are approved, would be funded by a mix of government money and commercial investment. Scientists would like the project to be a solely British endeavour but accept that it is almost certain to end up as a joint venture with other nations, especially as an international launcher would be needed. Of the two Moon missions, MoonLITE is most likely to get approval as most of the technology required is available in Britain. A consortium of scientists and engineers from universities and industry presented the plans at a two-day space exploration workshop in Edinburgh. The proposals will be put before the European Space Agency?s ruling council. 671 mph Speed at which the darts would hit Moon?s surface Source: PPARC ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Fri Jan 12 16:49:02 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:49:02 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely Message-ID: <001101c73693$7bafce00$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely Well that was a short mission. Larry Klaes informed me of a link that says we were just talking. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.moondaily.com/reports/British_Plan_For_Solo_Moon_Missions_Unlikel y_999.html British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely by Staff Writers London (AFP) Jan 10, 2007 A senior British space official played down media reports on Wednesday that Britain is considering plans for its own mission to the moon. David Parker, the director of space science at the British National Space Centre (BNSC) told a news conference that such a plan was the "most unlikely outcome" of Britain's space plans. He was speaking after officials from the European and British space agencies presented the fruits of two days of work ending Tuesday by 170 scientists, industrialists and representatives of civil society in Edinburgh, Scotland. "It was not meant to be a conclusive workshop, but the beginning of a process that will develop in the next 18 months," Manuel Valls, a senior official for space exploration at the European Space Agency said. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- What was it that I said, "Newspaper articles, a mission do not make. It will come down to funding, so will see if darting the Moon happens from the UK." - LRK - And I thought there might be someone new heading towards the Moon but no problem there, as it was not meant to be a conclusive workshop. Hmmm, the scientists say they can do it, the people might want them to do it, BUT, just talking, not doing. No politics here. Go it alone, hmmmm. Well you folks in the UK almost had your mark on the Moon. Too bad, so sad, and I would smile but have heard the same kind of thing on this side of the pond. We can do it, we want to do it, BUT, not on my watch, spent too much money already on some foolishness. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Again, Google has a few links to this retraction. - LRK - "British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely" Results 1 - 10 of about 175 for "British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely". (0.27 seconds) -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.moondaily.com/reports/British_Plan_For_Solo_Moon_Missions_Unlikel y_999.html British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely London (AFP) Jan 10, 2007 - A senior British space official played down media reports on Wednesday that Britain is considering plans for its own mission to ... www.moondaily.com/reports/British_Plan_For_Solo_Moon_Missions_Unlikely_999.h tml - 26k - Jan 10, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages http://www.spacedaily.com/ Space News From SpaceDaily.Com British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely London (AFP) Jan 10, 2007 A senior British space official played down media reports on Wednesday that Britain ... www.spacedaily.com/ - 42k - Jan 11, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Jupiter_Encounter_Begins_For_New_Horizons_ Spacecraft_On_Route_To_Pluto_999.html Jupiter Encounter Begins For New Horizons Spacecraft On Route To Pluto British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely . Britain Considers Plans For Solo Moon Missions . Metric Moon . Moon shots: China, Japan in '07; U.S., ... www.spacedaily.com/reports/Jupiter_Encounter_Begins_For_New_Horizons_Spacecr aft_On_Route_To_Pluto_999.html - 27k - Jan 10, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages http://www.inboxrobot.com/news/mars-missions Mars Missions News - Inbox Robot British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely 11 Jan 2007 07:36 GMT ... British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely If the "Moonlight" mission were ... www.inboxrobot.com/news/mars-missions - Similar pages http://www.inboxrobot.com/news/asteroids Asteroids News - Inbox Robot British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely 11 Jan 2007 07:36 GMT ... led the scientific discussions at the Edinburgh meeting said that the Moon, ... www.inboxrobot.com/news/asteroids - Similar pages http://space.physorg.com/sub_Space+Exploration/ PhysOrg.com: Space & Earth science news British plan for solo moon missions 'unlikely': expert . Space & Earth science / Space Exploration. 18 hours ago | User rating: not shown ( 2 vote(s) ) ... space.physorg.com/sub_Space+Exploration/ - 34k - Jan 11, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages http://www.physorg.com/search/particle PhysOrg.com: + particle British plan for solo moon missions 'unlikely': expert. 4 hours ago | User rating: 1 / 5 after 1 vote(s) | pda version. A senior British space official ... www.physorg.com/search/particle - 18k - Jan 10, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages http://www.marsdaily.com/ Mars News from MarsDaily.com British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely . Britain Considers Plans For Solo Moon Missions . Metric Moon . Lunar Geminids ... www.marsdaily.com/ - 35k - Jan 11, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages http://spaceandmystery.tripod.com/ WWW Space and Mystery - Space News and Information 01/11/07 Space.com: Eavesdropping on ET Sooner Than We Think 01/10/07 SpaceDaily: British Plan For Solo Moon Missions Unlikely ... spaceandmystery.tripod.com/ - 55k - Jan 11, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages Snip - tsch, tsch - well at least some more links to look at items about space. - LRK - ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Sun Jan 14 19:36:58 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:36:58 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] THE SKY AT NIGHT: WATCH ONLINE - take a look - LRK - Message-ID: <000101c7383d$45430890$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Andrew Goffin, (and still looking up from the UK) sent me a link to THE SKY AT NIGHT: WATCH ONLINE http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/proginfo.shtml Thank you Andrew, it is a very nice interview. I hope others will take a look as well. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- hi Larry, Long time no speak, but still here looking up.... With the talk of the moon and things I thought I'd bring to your attention the following: - http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/ This has just celebrated the it's 50th anniversary a science programme on TV that's been going for 50 years. A bit of potted history the presenter is Sir Patrick Moore that help map the moon that was used for the apollo mission. Also the 50th anniversary programme which can be watched online has Dr. Peirs Sellars , yes the one thats been on the space shuttle done 42 hours of space walking around the ISS. It's worth a look.... Regards Andrew Goffin (and still looking up from the UK) -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/ Watch Online http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/proginfo.shtml Sir Patrick Moore http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/patrickmoore.shtml Programme History http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/patrickmoore_articl e2.shtml Multimedia Tribute http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/anniversarymedia.sh tml Newsletter http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/newsletter.shtml Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Jan 16 17:56:13 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:56:13 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Independent space colonization - questions and implications Message-ID: <003301c739c1$87f4b0a0$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Independent space colonization: questions and implications by Taylor Dinerman - Monday, January 15, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.thespacereview.com/article/784/1 The term ?space colonization? has been declared off-limits in polite society. The ?c-word? is supposed to invoke all the terrible aspects of old-fashioned imperialism, particularly European imperialism. One notes that neither the Japanese nor the Turks nor the Russians feel particularly guilty about their now-defunct empires. Even in Europe, the epicenter of the guilt trip questions are now being asked, there was a major debate in France last year over whether the ?positive aspects of colonialism? should be taught in schools. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Soooh, a Lunar Base is set up and returns some scientific data and you would like to see it expand. Some of those ideas for mining He3 begin to work and a space station at Earth-Moon L1 is constructed to handle transporting cargo to various destinations in space or to Earth. Your Lunar Base is growing in size and the numbers of personnel are increasing. You have satellites in polar orbits that have been checking for magnetic anomalies and for different mineral resources. You have investigated some of the meteor crater sites and located not only iron but some other metals like nickel and platinum. A rotating space station to house humans is being constructed in cislunar space and you are learning how to sling materials from your Lunar Base to the construction site with a recently completed magnetic rail launcher. This will take more robot mining machines and maintenance crews to provide the resources. You need a country store and some time out relaxation spots. You are going to be here for longer than six months and would like some comforts of home. Can you build a town? If so, who will run the place and have the force of law? We know that if you are in your spaceship that the country who owns the craft has the responsibility for seeing things go according to their law but now the number of "off world" built structures are springing up. Who controls that sintered regolith igloo you are living in? If you do any local trading, who will collect taxes and where will they go? - LRK - There is a flip side to this as well. What if you decide to permanently live off world and then have a change of heart and want to return to Earth, will you still be a citizen of Earth? What if you have kids born off world, will they be citizens of Earth? (Especially if you get the treaties changed to make an off world colony self governing.) Adriano Autino is an Italian that would like to see some constitutional amendments made that would ensure it is alright to live off world and return to Earth, and I was just worried about getting out of LEO. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Dear subscribers of the Right to Space Constitutional Clause Proposal, Cari firmatari della proposta costituzionale per il diritto allo spazio, (vedere anche la versione Italiana pi? avanti) ENGLISH ____________________________________________________ After a promising start, the collection of signatures now is steady. As it was logic to expect, after two mounths since the last newsletter, we need new initiatives, if we want to keep the attention alive around our proposal, to widen the area of knowledge of it and thus to solicit new signatures. We need in fact to acknowledge that an initiative like this shall be organized on the long term, and we have to setup accordingly. We wrote a letter to the EU functionair who deals about space, asking him to consider our proposal to be inserted in the European Constitutional draft, and he replied that he will do it. We will also look for some Italian politic channel, which can be receptive to our proposal. Likely in April we'll be in television, on RAI 2 in an evening program (9 pm), and it will be a very good opportunity to spread our message, and to give a kind of "political program" supporting the start of the space economy. I would like, for that time (three mounths since now) to setup a goal: that the signatures collection will reach at least the dimension of some hundreds (nowadays we are standing at 60 :'( ). Only in this way we can hope that the TV "booster" could count on a sufficient amount of "fuel", to take us at least at sub-orbit altitude ( :-) ) ! May I however ask to each one of you some small actions to support our proposal? Few and simple things, requiring few minutes, or to synergically exploit some opportunity you could already be involved in. 1) In case you publish and maintain a web site, you could put the logo of the campaign in your home page (just copy the logo from tha tdf home page http://www.tdf.it/ ), with the link to the page where people can sign (http://www.tdf.it/ constitution/sr-clause.htm) 2) If you run a mailing list or a blog, you could write to your participant friends, asking them to go on the above page, and sign. 3) If you have access to some media (newspapers, radio, tv), you could use some opportunity to make know our initiative. 4) If you have access to some political access in your country, and you think it could be open to our proposal, please feel free to talk with them, if you have a chance. 5) Any suggestion to better organize the campaign is of course welcome. Please post it to me or, for the ones who subscribed to the list, to the rts at tdf.it list. By our side (myself and Patrick Collins) we are obviously available for interviews by phone or by email and, should arise the opportunity, to participate to conferences and symposia, or however public opportunities where the communication about our constitutional proposal would be welcome. ITALIANO Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- I don't know if constitutional changes are necessary but I signed anyway. Might bring some attention to the World and get others thinking about going to space and covering all the bases should they get there and want to come back. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Just in case you didn't get Jeff Foust's "This Week in The Space Review - 2007 January 15", you can subscribe at http://www.thespacereview.com/ - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review: The Vision at three: smooth sailing or rough seas? --- Three years after President Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, the program appears to be alive and well, but is not without significant near-term challenges. Jeff Foust explains why the next two years are so critical to the future of the agency's long- term exploration plans. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/785/1 Independent space colonization: questions and implications --- The term "colonization" might have fallen out of favor in most audiences, but the concept is essential to the long-term future of humans in space. Taylor Dinerman discusses some of the legal issues of independent human settlements beyond Earth. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/784/1 Pay attention: get a free trip around the Moon --- FreeSpaceShot.com opens today offering advertiser-supported free trips around the Moon. Owner Sam Dinkin introduces the concept and its implications. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/783/1 The "base first" decision: crew survival and reusability --- NASA's announcement last month that it plans to develop a lunar base will shape the development of the vehicles that will take crews and supplies there. John Strickland examines the issues of crew survivability and the importance of reusable spacecraft. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/782/1 Celebrating Korolyov --- Friday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Russian space pioneer Sergey Korolyov. Lorne Ipsum reviews the life and accomplishments of the Chief Designer. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/781/1 Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Wed Jan 17 16:01:33 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:01:33 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] THEMIS MISSION TO PROVIDE NEW UNDERSTANDING OF SUBSTORM LIFE CYCLE Message-ID: <000801c73a7a$afc20e20$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> THEMIS MISSION TO PROVIDE NEW UNDERSTANDING OF SUBSTORM LIFE CYCLE -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/main/index.html The Mission THEMIS is a mission to investigate what causes auroras in the Earth's atmosphere to dramatically change from slowly shimmering waves of light to wildly shifting streaks of color. Discovering what causes auroras to change will provide scientists with important details on how the planet's magnetosphere works and the important Sun-Earth connection. -------------------------------------------------------------- I missed a news briefing today. There are links to images and more data on the Prelaunch Briefing Page. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- NASA will host a media teleconference to discuss the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 1 p.m. EST. Visit the event's briefing page for more information. + View Prelaunch Briefing Page http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/news/prelaunch_briefing.html -------------------------------------------------------------- Will be interesting to see how five probes do flying in orbit. Wonder if they could fly five probes around the Moon at the same time? Might happen if everyone decides to go at the same time. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Space Weather News for Jan. 17, 2007 http://spaceweather.com COMET UPDATE: Comet McNaught is emerging from the glare of the sun and, as expected, solar heating has turned it into a spectacular naked-eye comet. McNaught is visible from all parts of the Southern Hemisphere, sporting a curved tail and a head almost as bright as the planet Venus. Northerners can watch the comet's progress by browsing daily photo galleries at http://SpaceWeather.com . Southerners should go outside tonight at sunset, look west and see for themselves. VENUS AND THE MOON: Mark your calendar. On Saturday evening, January 20th, the slender crescent Moon will glide by Venus forming a beautiful ensemble in the western sky at sunset. This is something people in both hemispheres can enjoy. Hint: Look for the pair before the sky fades to black. Venus and the Moon surrounded by twilight-blue is a scene of special beauty. Visit http://spaceweather.com for observing tips and updates. ============================================================== http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/news/Themis_intro.html THEMIS Will Judge What Causes Highly Dynamic Aurora 01.09.07 On a clear night over the far northern areas of the world, you may witness a hauntingly beautiful light display in the sky that can disrupt your satellite TV and leave you in the dark. The eerie glow of the northern lights seems exquisite and quite harmless. Most times, it is harmless. The display, resembling a slow-moving ribbon silently undulating in the sky, is called the aurora. It is also visible in far southern regions around the South Pole. Occasionally, however, the aurora becomes much more dynamic. The single auroral ribbon may split into several ribbons or even break into clusters that race north and south. This dynamic light show in the polar skies is associated with what scientists call a magnetospheric substorm. Substorms are very closely related to full-blown space storms that can disable spacecraft, radio communication, GPS navigation, and power systems while supplying killer electrons to the radiation belts surrounding Earth. The purpose of NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission is to understand the physical instability (trigger mechanism) for magnetospheric substorms. A clash of forces we can't see with the human eye causes the beauty and destruction of space storms, though the aurora provides a dramatic symptom. Earth's molten iron core generates an invisible magnetic field that surrounds our planet. This magnetic field and the electrically charged matter under its control compose the Earth's magnetosphere. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_07011_THEMIS.html Jan. 17, 2007 Dwayne Brown/Tabatha Thompson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726/3895 Cynthia O'Carroll Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 301-286-4647 RELEASE: 07-011 THEMIS MISSION TO PROVIDE NEW UNDERSTANDING OF SUBSTORM LIFE CYCLE WASHINGTON - NASA's THEMIS, the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms mission, is set to venture into space and help resolve the mystery of what triggers geomagnetic substorms. For the first time, scientists will get a comprehensive view of the substorm phenomena from Earth's upper atmosphere to far into space, pinpointing where and when each substorm begins. Substorms are atmospheric events visible in the northern hemisphere as a sudden brightening of the Northern Lights. THEMIS also will provide clues about the role of substorms in severe space weather and identify where and when substorms begin. THEMIS' five identical probes will be the largest number of scientific satellites NASA has ever launched into orbit aboard a single rocket. This unique constellation of satellites will line up along the sun-Earth line, collect coordinated measurements every four days, and be ready to observe more than 30 substorms during the two-year mission. Data collected from the five probes will pinpoint where and when substorms begin, a feat impossible with any previous single-satellite mission. "For more than 30 years the source location of these explosive energy releases has been sought after with great fervor. It is a question almost as old as space physics itself," said Vassilis Angelopoulos, THEMIS' principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. "A substorm starts from a single point in space and progresses past the moon's orbit within minutes, so a single satellite cannot identify the substorm origin. The five-satellite constellation of THEMIS will finally identify the trigger location and the physics involved in substorms." Snip For more information about the THEMIS mission and imagery, visit: www.nasa.gov/themis -end- ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Thu Jan 18 22:32:06 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:32:06 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Improbable Events by Mike Combs Message-ID: <000d01c73b7a$6763ef80$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Improbable Events by Mike Combs http://members.aol.com/howiecombs/improbable_events.htm When you start up a large project, sometimes unexpected things happen. Should you participate in building a habitat in space will you know exactly how everything will go? Will you be able to improvise to adjust to the events that have not happened before? How will you handle adding animals to your home away from home now in orbit? I hope you took the time to read the short story by Mike Combs. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://members.aol.com/howiecombs/improbable_events.htm Snip Hickory Dickery Dare The pig flew up in the air. The man in brown Soon brought him down. Hickory Dickery Dare Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- You may already have been to Mike's website Space Settlement. http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/settle.htm http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/colonies.html Mike writes Hard Sci-Fi, that is, Science Fiction that is based on science. You might enjoy more of his stories. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://members.aol.com/howiecombs/hard_s-f.htm Snip I enjoy writing hard science-fiction stories. What is "hard" science-fiction, and how does it differ from "soft"? Well, hard sci-fi begins by defining sci-fi as that branch of literature which is written with science or technology as the main focus of the story. Since the name of the genre is "science-fiction", one might conclude this is how sf started out, huh? Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- We can use more stories of what it will be like to move out of LEO. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Mike's time line of what he has written and when it takes place. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://members.aol.com/howiecombs/timeline.htm A Time-Line for my Hard Sci-Fi Stories I have finally written enough fiction set in the same consistent future (or at least two possible futures) that I finally felt the need to write a time-line. Each entry is accompanied by a link to the story to which the entry refers. The following acronyms are used: Snip ============================================================== And some of Mike's articles. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://members.aol.com/howiecombs/articles.htm Articles ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Jan 23 19:03:55 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:03:55 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] A Moon Full of Opportunity Message-ID: <000f01c73f4b$266a8280$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> A Moon Full of Opportunity I believe this article is worth careful reading. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.thespacereview.com/ A Moon full of opportunity One of the biggest criticisms leveled against NASA's plans to return to the Moon and establish a base there is the lack of a clear rationale for doing so. Paul Spudis asserts that the primary reason for doing so is straightforward: to enable humanity's long-term future in space. Monday, January 22, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------- TO ENABLE HUMANITY'S LONG-TERM FUTURE IN SPACE. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- A Moon full of opportunity --- One of the biggest criticisms leveled against NASA's plans to return to the Moon and establish a base there is the lack of a clear rationale for doing so. Paul Spudis asserts that the primary reason for doing so is straightforward: to enable humanity's long-term future in space. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/791/1 -------------------------------------------------------------- And at -------------------------------------------------------------- -- A Moon Full of Opportunity http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.nl.html?id=1189 "The 2nd Space Exploration Conference held December 2006 in Houston outlined several reasons for a human return to the Moon. Remarkably, some complain that the reason for going to the Moon is still unclear. Possibly the sheer scope of the envisioned surface activities diffuses its impact. Almost 200 activities were described for the Moon, grouped under six major "themes" (as the agency calls them), including settlement, global cooperation, science and preparation for Mars. This diffusion is both deliberate and unavoidable." -------------------------------------------------------------- If you don't read the whole article, here is a snip. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- >From these statements, it is clear that the mission of going to the Moon is one of development: developing new techniques, procedures, and technologies, all with the aim of making spaceflight easier, routine and more capable. If this wasn't clear enough, the speech of John Marburger two years later clarified our ultimate objectives: President Bush's vision also declares the will to lead in space, but it renders the ultimate goal more explicit. And that goal is even grander. The ultimate goal is not to impress others, or merely to explore our planetary system, but to use accessible space for the benefit of humankind. It is a goal that is not confined to a decade or a century. Nor is it confined to a single nearby destination, or to a fleeting dash to plant a flag. The idea is to begin preparing now for a future in which the material trapped in the Sun's vicinity is available for incorporation into our way of life. And: We have known for a long time that a huge gap separates the objects trapped by the gravity of our star, the Sun, and everything else. Phenomena on our side of the interstellar gap, in what we call the Solar System, are potentially amenable to direct investigation and manipulation through physical contact, and can reasonably be described as falling within humanity's economic sphere of influence. As I see it, questions about the Vision boil down to whether we want to incorporate the Solar System in our economic sphere, or not. The administration clearly stated that we are going to the Moon to learn how to use what we find in space to create new spacefaring capability. The goal isn't simply to return to the Moon or even merely to send humans to Mars, but rather to extend human reach beyond low Earth orbit and ultimately to all possible destinations beyond. The Vision for Space Exploration is different from any previous space policy. By design it is incremental and cumulative. We make "steady progress" no matter how slowly we may be forced to proceed at any given time by fiscal constraints. Small steps that build upon each other create new capability over time. Our activities will teach us not merely how to survive, but how to thrive off-planet. Such a task includes inhabiting planetary surfaces, doing useful work while we are there, and extracting what we need from the material and energy resources we find. We will use these new skills and techniques to build a space transportation infrastructure that permits routine access to the Moon and all of cislunar space. The significance of this last point should not be underestimated; access to cislunar space will revolutionize the paradigm of spaceflight. Currently, we build disposable commercial space systems. They have a specific design lifetime, after which they are simply abandoned. Combined with the high cost of getting to low Earth orbit, this makes spaceflight difficult and costly. Hence, space largely has been left as the province of government, except for certain highly capitalized businesses such as global communications. With the Vision realized, satellites can be serviced, maintained, extended, and networked-space systems will be designed for an indefinite lifetime. Given existing launch costs, we cannot do this now. Even lowering such costs by an order of magnitude would still make even robotic servicing of platforms at geosynchronous orbit marginal at best. However, if we build a system that can refuel on the Moon using locally produced materials, we create the capability to routinely go anywhere in cislunar space. Exporting fuel extracted from lunar resources will permit us to go anywhere, anytime, with whatever capabilities we need. This is the beginning of true space-faring capability. Such an environment would unleash imaginations, realize potential and expand technology, science, exploration and commerce. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- And to add to current events, India recovered a space capsule they had launched earlier. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_070122_india_capsulereturn.html India's Experimental Space Capsule Returns to Earth By The Associated Press posted: 22 January 2007 12:37 p.m. ET NEW DELHI (AP) - An Indian space capsule splashed down in the Bay of Bengal on Monday, giving engineers a chance to test technology needed to return astronauts to Earth, an official said. The capsule orbited earth for 11 days before re-entering the atmosphere, S. Krishnamurthy, a spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organization, told The Associated Press. The 550-kilogram (1,210-pound) Space-Capsule Recovery Experiment was intended to test the organization's ability to track and recover a returning space capsule, he said Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- http://presszoom.com/story_123318.html India's SRE-1 Space Capsule Successfully Recovered -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070123/asp/nation/story_7297989.asp New Delhi/Chennai, Jan. 22: In 46 minutes, punctuated only by intermittent claps and cheering in a control room, India today guided a space capsule safely back home, propelling itself into the special club of three countries that can launch as well as recover spacecraft. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/11/MNGLMNGFEQ1.D TL (01-11) 04:00 PST New Delhi -- India's space agency launched a rocket Wednesday that represented two significant firsts for the country's fledgling space program -- the first multisatellite launch and the first attempt to retrieve a rocket from orbit around Earth. The 144-foot rocket carried four satellites: one each belonging to Argentina and Indonesia, and two belonging to India -- the space capsule recovery experiment and an advanced imaging satellite that will provide high-resolution pictures of India's land mass. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, should be an interesting year. Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040114-3.html President Bush Announces New Vision for Space Exploration Program NASA Headquarters Washington, D.C. THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm honored to be with the men and women of NASA. I thank those of you who have come in person. I welcome those who are listening by video. This agency, and the dedicated professionals who serve it, have always reflected the finest values of our country -- daring, discipline, ingenuity, and unity in the pursuit of great goals. America is proud of our space program. The risk takers and visionaries of this agency have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity. Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America's space program. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon, and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own. Snip ============================================================== http://www.ostp.gov/html/jhmGoddardSymp03-15-06Release.pdf 44th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium Greenbelt, Maryland March 15 Keynote Address John Marburger Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy Executive Office of the President It is a privilege for me to speak in this Symposium. My first job as a scientist, before I went on to graduate school, was at Goddard Space Flight Center. I had worked there during the summer of 1961, and returned as a full time employee in what was then called the Thermal Systems branch in the summer of 1962. Goddard was booming in those days, and the challenge of making scientific instruments work in the space environment attracted many fine scientists and engineers. I worked with a team trying to understand and optimize the properties of materials that could be used as thermoelectric generators for space applications, which shows you how broadly the spectrum of science and technology must extend to support missions in space. In the fall of 1963 I became a NASA graduate trainee in Stanford's then-new Department of Applied Physics, and ever since have combined my love of basic science with an interest in practical applications. The topic of this year's Symposium, ". Engineers, Scientists and the Vision" reflects the combination of mental attitudes needed to accomplish great things in space, and I am pleased to add a few thoughts of my own this morning on these topics. Snip ============================================================== http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/index.html Excerpt from speech of John Marburger http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=19999 Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy Executive Office of the President March 15, 2006 The Moon has unique significance for all space applications for a reason that to my amazement is hardly ever discussed in popular accounts of space policy. The Moon is the closest source of material that lies far up Earth's gravity well. Anything that can be made from Lunar material at costs comparable to Earth manufacture has an enormous overall cost advantage compared with objects lifted from Earth's surface. The greatest value of the Moon lies neither in science nor in exploration, but in its material. I am talking about the possibility of extracting elements and minerals that can be processed into fuel or massive components of space apparatus. The production of oxygen in particular, the major component (by mass) of chemical rocket fuel, is potentially an important Lunar industry. What are the preconditions for such an industry? That, it seems to me, must be a primary consideration of the long range planning for the Lunar agenda. Science studies provide the foundation for a materials production roadmap. Clever ideas have been advanced for the phased construction of electrical power sources - perhaps using solar cells manufactured in situ from Lunar soil. A not unreasonable scenario is a phase of highly subsidized capital construction followed by market-driven industrial activity to provide Lunar products such as oxygen refueling services for commercially valuable Earth-orbiting apparatus. Snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Thu Jan 25 13:07:16 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:07:16 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] How We Hit That Sucker: The Story of Deep Impact Message-ID: <000501c740ab$a7e77e60$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> How We Hit That Sucker: The Story of Deep Impact By William M. Owen Jr. http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXIX4/deepimpact.pdf Larry Klaes provided a link to the article about the Deep Impact mission. When you go there notice that this is the archive site for the Caltech Engineering and Science quarterly magazine and has a lot of interesting articles going back as far as 1997. They have been publishing since 1937. That is as long as I have been around too. :-) http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/ - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- >From Larry Klaes Caltech's Engineering and Science quarterly magazine has an article in its latest edition about Deep Impact. Go here and scroll down to the first Features section: http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/ESarchive-frame.html Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- My thanks to Larry Klaes for the above information. I found the article very interesting. There is information about Comet 9P or Temple 1 as it is known. There is information about how you figure out how to get to a target in space, as well as how you plan for things that can and will go wrong. All very nicely explained with diagrams and images in a light hearted way. Enjoy! - LRK - In the last post I had some links to India orbiting a space capsule and then retrieving it. One of the links was not all that correct as Gunjan pointed out. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- > From Gunjan Thanks for the updates Larry. Always fun to read. Just nitpicking- one of the reports about India coming from this link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/11/MNGLMNGFEQ1.D TL says: "the first multisatellite launch and the first attempt to retrieve a rocket from orbit around Earth." Actually, many of the previous PSLVs (see ISRO website) have carried multiple satellites in one shot-so half of the above statement is completely false- and the other half is kind of amusing - calling the capsule the rocket itself :-) Cheers, Gunjan -------------------------------------------------------------- I removed the link on the blog site post. Here is a better link with images that Gunjan provided. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- >From Gunjan Thanks Larry. Sure will keep commenting. Here is some more juicy stuff. Photos and pictures and an article from THE source on ISRO, ISRO news page itself :-) They recovered the capsule- seems to be in good shape: http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Jan22_2007.htm Cheers, Gunjan -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Larry Klaes says, " Go here and scroll down to the first Features section: http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/ESarchive-frame.html " Or select the link below. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXIX4/deepimpact.pdf How We Hit That Sucker: The Story of Deep Impact By William M. Owen Jr. "It's a big bullet with a small bullet hitting a comet. So Dr. Owen, how did they hit that sucker?" - Le Val Lund "YOU WANT TO DO WHAT??!!" In a fit of irrational exuberance on the Fourth of July 2005, our project manager Rick Grammier yelled out, "We hit that sucker!" How do we make a hit like that? To paraphrase the bridgekeeper in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we just had to answer these questions three: First, what was our quest, or where did we want to go? That falls under the general heading of mission design. Second, where in space were we, and where was our target? That's orbit determination, which is where I fit into the scheme. And what could we do about getting to our target? That's maneuver analysis. Before we get into how Deep Impact did it, we need a little bit of background. As always at the start of a mission, we begin with the science objectives. In our case, the requirements were, "We want to hit a comet." At JPL, the reaction was, "You want to do WHAT??!!" The principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn at the University of Maryland, planned this mission to improve our knowledge of key properties of a comet's nucleus by means of a massive impact at high velocity. In other words, he wanted to make a crater in order to directly assess the interior properties of a comet and figure out what it is made of. Every time a comet sails past the sun, it loses a little bit of material, which is what makes its tail. But if we could dig a hole deep enough, we would excavate to a pristine level that hasn't been perturbed the way the surface has. The underlying material preserves the primordial ingredients from which the planets of our solar system condensed some 4.5 billion years ago. Snip [11 pages, 985 KB] ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Thu Jan 25 15:23:23 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:23:23 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Caltech and UCLA Researchers Create Memory Circuit the Size of a Human White Blood Cell Message-ID: <001501c740be$ac0ebf40$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Caltech and UCLA Researchers Create Memory Circuit the Size of a Human White Blood Cell http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12942.html PASADENA, Calif.--Don't throw away your laptop yet, but there's a promising new high-tech invention being announced this week. Researchers have created a memory circuit the size of a white blood cell that has enough capacity to store the Declaration of Independence and have space left over. With 160 kilobits of capacity, it's the densest memory circuit ever fabricated. Announcing the achievement in the January 25 issue of the journal Nature, the team led by chemistry professor James Heath of the California Institute of Technology says that the memory circuit is a milestone in manufacturing, even if it's not anywhere near readiness for the market. "It's the sort of device that Intel would contemplate making in the year 2020," says Heath, who is the Gilloon Professor at Caltech. "But at the moment it furthers our goal of learning how to manufacture functional electronic circuitry at molecular dimensions." Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- This would seem to be a bit more dense than my COMPUPRO 64KB Z89 computer gathering dust in the garage. http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/andersod/CCS/resurrectionarticle?Article =5-7 http://www.thepcmuseum.net/hardware.php http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=651&st=1 or the Apollo Guidance Computer. -------------------------------------------------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Snip The Block I AGC initially had 12K words of fixed memory, but this was later increased to 24K. Block II had 32K of fixed memory and 4K of erasable memory. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Now for Asimov's Positronic Brain. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://forums.spacebattles.com/archive/index.php/t-94702.html Snip Earth might have settled the Moon as early as the late seventies. Robutt, who could hear him by radio, squeaked and bounded after. Jimmy, expert though he was, couldn't outrace Robutt, who didn't need a spacesuit, and had four legs and tendons of steel. Robutt sailed over Jimmy's head, somersaulting and landing almost under his feet. [...] Besides, how could it be dangerous racing through the dark when Robutt was right there with him, bouncing around and squeaking and glowing? Even without the glow, Robutt could tell where he was, and where Jimmy was, by radar. Jimmy couldn't go wrong while Robutt was around, tripping him when he was too near a rock, or jumping on him to show how much he loved him, or circling around and squeaking low and scared when Jimmy hid behind a rock, when all the time Robutt knew well enough where he was. Once Jimmy had lain still and pretended he was hurt and Robutt had sounded the radio alarm and people from Lunar City got there in a hurry. Jimmy's father had let him hear about that little trick, and Jimmy never tried it again. [...] He stood there on all fours, his little foot-long body quivering and glowing just a tiny bit, and his small head, with no mouth, with two large glassed-in eyes, and with a bump where the brain was. [...] "Not a real one, Jimmy. Robutt's just steel and wiring and a simple positronic brain. It's not alive." "He does everything I want him to do, Dad. He understands me. Sure, he's alive." "No, son. Robutt is just a machine. It's just programmed to act the way it does. A dog is alive. You won't want Robutt after you have the dog." [...] And the little robot-mutt, which had never been held so tightly in all its existence, squeaked high and rapid squeaks-happy squeaks. Description and capabilities of a primitive robot used as plaything and caretaker for children. It can operate in the vacuum, has a built-in radar and is at least as agile as a real dog. It is implied that the robot is sentient and not just cleverly programmed. Snip Robot AL-76 goes astray (circa 2005 AD). And at the central plant, a sudden explosion of near panic took place. For the first time in the history of the United States Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation, a robot had escaped to the outer world. It wasn't so much that the law forbade the presence of any robot on Earth outside a licensed factory of the corporation. Laws could always be squared. What was much more to the point was the statement made by one of the research mathematicians. He said: "That robot was created to run a Disinto on the moon. Its positronic brain was equipped for a lunar environment, and only a lunar environment. On Earth it's going to receive seventy-five umptillion sense impressions for which it was never prepared. There's no telling what its reactions will be. No telling!" And he wiped a forehead that had suddenly gone wet, with the back of his hand. Snip About the cost of robots. Unfortunately, the prices given are esentially meaningless without more knowledge about the economy. Payne paused doubtfully. "I don't think I can build one." He wondered if it would do any good to pretend he could. "That's all right." AL-76 could almost feel the positronic paths of his brain weaving into a new pattern, and experienced a strange exhilaration. "I can build one." He looked into Payne's deluxe doghouse and said. "You've got all the material here that I need." Randolph Payne surveyed the junk with which his shack was filled: eviscerated radios, a topless refrigerator, rusty automobile engines, a broken-down gas range, several miles of frayed wire, and, taking it all together, fifty tons or thereabouts of the most heterogeneous mass of old metal as ever caused a junkman to sniff disdainfully. A partial failure of its positronic brain and sheer single-mindedness makes AL-76 create its own "Disinto". This means that the robot has in-depth knowledge/schematics of the machine it is meant to operate and can build a reproduction with scrap electronics. >From a rusty and massive iron base that faintly resembled something Payne had once seen attached to a secondhand tractor, it rose upward in rakish, drunken swerves through a bewildering mess of wires, wheels, tubes, and nameless horrors without number, ending in a megaphone arrangement that looked decidedly sinister. [...] "It's the Disinto I'm making-so I can start to work. It's an improvement on the standard model." The robot rose, dusted his knees clankingly, and looked at it proudly. [...] There exists no adequate description of what occurred afterward, in spite of the presence of seventy eyewitnesses. [...] AL-76 pulled a switch. The Disinto worked, and seventy-five trees, two barns, three cows and the top three quarters of Duckbill Mountain whiffed into rarefied atmosphere. They became, so to speak, one with the snows of yesteryear. Description of an "improved" Disinto, which probably means Disintegrator. Considering the extremely destructive effects, the models used in the Lunar mines are probably a bit less impressive. He was yelling wildly and hoarsely, "Hey, you robot, you smash that thing, do you hear? Smash it good! You forget I ever had anything to do with it. You're a stranger to me, see? You don't ever say a word about it. Forget it, you hear?" He didn't expect his orders to do any good; it was only reflex action. What he didn't know was that a robot always obeys a human order except where carrying it out involves danger to another human. [...] Austin Wilde, Robotical Engineer, turned to Sam Tobe and said, "Did you get anything out of the robot?" Tobe shook his head and snarled deep in his throat. "Nothing. Not one thing. He's forgotten everything that's happened since he left the factory. He must have gotten orders to forget, or it couldn't have left him so blank. What was that pile of junk he'd been fooling with?" A simple order to forget makes a robot erase its full memory so completely that not even a qualified roboticist can recover the lost information. Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Hmmmmm. :-) Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://www.physorg.com/news88874126.html Toward Building Molecular Computers Don't throw away your laptop yet, but there's a promising new high-tech invention being announced this week. Researchers have created a memory circuit the size of a white blood cell that has enough capacity to store the Declaration of Independence and have space left over. With 160 kilobits of capacity, it's the densest memory circuit ever fabricated. A team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology chemists reports in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Nature the successful demonstration of a large-scale, "ultra-dense" memory device that stores information using reconfigurable molecular switches. This research represents an important step toward the creation of molecular computers that are much smaller and could be more powerful than today's silicon-based computers. The 160-kilobit memory device uses interlocked molecules manufactured in the UCLA laboratory of J. Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), who holds UCLA's Fred Kavli Chair in Nanosystems Sciences and who was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II less than a month ago. A bit, or binary digit, is the basic unit of information storage and communication in digital computing. A kilobit is equal to 1,000 bits and is commonly used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in one second between two telecommunication points. The research published in Nature describes the fabrication and operation of a memory device. The memory is based on a series of perpendicular, crossing nanowires, similar to a tic-tac-toe board, with 400 bottom wires and another 400 crossing top wires. Sitting at each crossing of the tic-tac-toe structure and serving as the storage element are approximately 300 bistable rotaxane molecules. These molecules may be switched between two different states, and each junction of a crossbar can be addressed individually by controlling the voltages applied to the appropriate top and bottom crossing wires, forming a bit at each nanowire crossing. The 160-kilobit molecular memory was fabricated at a density of 100,000,000,000 (1011) bits per square centimeter - "a density predicted for commercial memory devices in approximately 2020," Stoddart said. A rotaxane is a molecule in which a dumbbell-shaped component, made up of a rod section and terminated by two stoppers, is encircled by a ring. It has the potential to be a molecular abacus. The bistable rotaxanes behave as switches by incorporating two different recognition sites for the ring, and the ring sits preferentially at one of the two, said Stoddart, leader of the UCLA team. The molecule can act as a switch provided the ring can be induced to move from one site to the other site and then reside there for many minutes. The bistable rotaxane molecules used in the crossbar memory can be switched at very modest voltages from an "off" (low conductivity) to an "on" (high conductivity) state. The stoppers for the rotaxane molecules are designed to allow the molecules to be organized into single-molecule-thick layers, after which they are incorporated into the memory device, Stoddart said. Snip

Toward Building Molecular Computers from PhysOrg.com
Don't throw away your laptop yet, but there's a promising new high-tech invention being announced this week. Researchers have created a memory circuit the size of a white blood cell that has enough capacity to store the Declaration of Independence and have space left over. With 160 kilobits of capacity, it's the densest memory circuit ever fabricated. [...]

============================================================== Caltech and UCLA Researchers Create Memory Circuit the Size of a Human White Blood Cell http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12942.html PASADENA, Calif.--Don't throw away your laptop yet, but there's a promising new high-tech invention being announced this week. Researchers have created a memory circuit the size of a white blood cell that has enough capacity to store the Declaration of Independence and have space left over. With 160 kilobits of capacity, it's the densest memory circuit ever fabricated. Announcing the achievement in the January 25 issue of the journal Nature, the team led by chemistry professor James Heath of the California Institute of Technology says that the memory circuit is a milestone in manufacturing, even if it's not anywhere near readiness for the market. "It's the sort of device that Intel would contemplate making in the year 2020," says Heath, who is the Gilloon Professor at Caltech. "But at the moment it furthers our goal of learning how to manufacture functional electronic circuitry at molecular dimensions." The 2020 date assumes the validity of Moore's law, which states that the complexity of an integrated circuit will typically double every year. Current memory-cell size is .0408 square micrometers, so Moore's law assumes that the electronics industry will achieve a device density comparable to the Heath team's memory circuit in about 13 years. However, the Caltech-UCLA team points out in their Nature article that manufacturers can see no clear way at present of extending this miniaturization beyond the year 2013. The new approach of the Heath team, therefore, will show the potential for making integrated circuits at smaller and smaller dimensions. "Whether it's actually possible to get this new memory circuit into a laptop, I don't know," says Heath. "But we have time." The 160,000 memory bits are arranged like a large tic-tac-toe board: 400 silicon wires crossed by 400 titanium wires, with a layer of molecular switches sandwiched between the crossing wires. Each wire crossing defines a bit, and a single bit is only 15 nanometers wide, or about one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. By contrast, the most dense memory devices currently available are approximately 140 nanometers in width. The molecular switches, called [2]rotaxanes, comprise two interlocking components--a molecular ring encircling a dumbbell-shaped molecule--that together are similar to a wedding band on a finger. When the molecular switch is electronically triggered, the ring slides between two locations on the dumbbell. Switching, then, arises from the different conductivities of the molecular switch with respect to the ring position. Heath's group manufactured the memory circuit in a clean-room facility in their labs at Caltech, and the molecular switches were prepared by J. Fraser Stoddart, who holds UCLA's Fred Kavli Chair in Nanosystems Sciences, and his group. The circuit has a bit density of 100 gigabit per square centimeter, which Heath's fellow lead author Jonathan Green says sets the record for integration density in a man-made object. "We showed we can increase the density to nearly 1,000 gigabits per square centimeter, but, beyond that, there is almost no point, because you begin to run out of molecules," says Green, a Caltech graduate student in chemistry and applied physics. The capability to manufacture electronic circuitry at such extreme dimensions opens up a host of new applications, ranging from extremely sensitive chemical and biological sensors, energy-efficient logic circuits, and a class of high-performance energy-conversion materials known as thermoelectrics. The other lead author of the paper is Jang Wook Choi, a graduate student in chemical engineering at Caltech. The other authors are Akram Boukai, Yuri Bunimovich, Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Erica DeIonno, Yi Luo, Bonnie Sheriff, Ke Xu, and Young Shik Shin, all graduate students in Caltech's Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Hsian-Rong Tseng and Stoddart, both of UCLA. Contact: Robert Tindol (626) 395-3631 tindol at caltech.edu ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Fri Jan 26 18:22:52 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:22:52 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] INCORPORATING SPACE INTO OUR ECONOMIC SPHERE OF INFLUENCE Message-ID: <001501c741a0$e9041480$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> INCORPORATING SPACE INTO OUR ECONOMIC SPHERE OF INFLUENCE Michael D. Griffin Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration World Economic Forum Jan. 26, 2007 Received the above and copied below from the NASA News list. Here also is a link to it in PDF form. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/speeches/index.html ADMINISTRATOR GRIFFIN'S SPEECHES 01.26.07 - Remarks at World Economic Forum 2007 Some of us gathered here tonight grew up during the Apollo era of the 1960s, NASA's apotheosis. We watched science fiction movies and television shows that made us believe that we--all of us and not simply a few astronauts--could become space travelers. + View PDF (36 Kb PDF) http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/168156main_World_Economic_Forum_2007.pdf Snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Make it so! Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Received from NASA News - To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe at mediaservices.nasa.gov - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- RELEASE: Speech Transcript INCORPORATING SPACE INTO OUR ECONOMIC SPHERE OF INFLUENCE Michael D. Griffin Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration World Economic Forum Jan. 26, 2007 Good evening. Thank you for inviting me to speak tonight. It is not often that an aerospace engineer is invited to speak to an economic forum. However, I took a business degree along with my engineering and physics coursework, and I appreciate the economic impact that space has on our society, especially practical applications like communications, navigation, weather and remote sensing satellites as well as the economic, national security and scientific benefits. And this says nothing of the less-quantifiable benefits of intellectual inspiration. Some of us gathered here tonight grew up during the Apollo era of the 1960s, NASA's apotheosis. We watched science fiction movies and television shows that made us believe that we -- all of us and not simply a few astronauts -- could become space travelers. Arthur C. Clarke's and Stanley Kubrik's masterpiece of science fiction "2001: A Space Odyssey" projected onto the screen of our collective human consciousness a future for us where, by now, hundreds of people would be living and working in space stations orbiting the Earth and outposts would exist on our moon. We would be journeying to other planets in our solar system, just as our European forbears came to America looking for new beginnings. This space age vision of our future proved illusory for our generation for two fundamental reasons: the limitations of our economic resources and the limitations of technology. Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind" was not a journey that could be sustained without a more concerted investment of time, resources and energy than followed his seminal achievement on July 20, 1969. But I believe that there are economic and technological reasons why we can now begin to afford and sustain this Vision for Space Exploration in a fashion where we "go-as-we-pay," and why the nations of the world making such investments of time, resources and energy will find that the benefits far outweigh the costs and risks involved. We have the technology and economic wherewithal to incorporate the benefits of space into our sphere of influence -- to exploit the vantage point of space and the space environment, and the natural resources of the moon, Mars, and near-Earth asteroids. Space exploration is not simply this century's greatest adventure; it is an imperative that, if not pursued with some concerted effort, will have catastrophic consequences for our society. I realize this is a bold statement, so allow me to explain. On the day before he was assassinated in Dallas, President John F. Kennedy was in San Antonio, where he spoke about space exploration. He invoked Irish writer Frank O'Connor, who told the story of "how, as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside, and when they came to an orchard wall that seemed too high, and too doubtful to try, and too difficult to permit their voyage to continue, they took off their hats and tossed them over the wall -- and then they had no choice but to follow them." The United States, the European Union, Russia, China, Japan, India, and others have tossed our caps over the wall of space exploration. In that same speech, President Kennedy recited several technical advances from NASA's space program, explaining that "our effort in space is not, as some have suggested, a competitor for the natural resources that we need to develop the Earth. It is a working partner and a co-producer of these resources." And he finished this speech with the recognition of the costs and risks involved with space exploration: "We will climb this wall with safety and with speed -- and we shall then explore the wonders on the other side." Even an emotionless engineer can be moved by President Kennedy's poetic framing of the issues of space exploration, but since this is an economic forum, let me now turn to the "dismal science." When President Kennedy spoke those words in 1963, the Gross Domestic Product of the United States was approximately $2.8 trillion, in FY2000 dollars. In 2005 it was approximately $11 trillion in those same FY2000 dollars -- four times larger. In 1963, the U.S. federal government spent approximately $600 billion, again in FY2000 dollars, with NASA's allocation representing 2.3 percent of that amount. At the spending peak of the Apollo program, NASA represented 4.4 percent of the federal budget. Today, with a U.S. federal budget of almost $2.5 trillion, NASA's budget represents about 0.6 percent of that. Clearly our economy has grown, our society has changed, and our priorities for government spending have changed since 1963. Thus, in the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s, our nation's leadership decided that we should not sustain such a high percentage of investment in the space program. In these years, the priorities of the U.S. federal budget changed to accommodate the escalating costs of the war in Vietnam, defense spending for the Cold War, and Great Society programs. Today, the costs of the Global War on Terrorism, Hurricane Katrina recovery, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid dominate our federal government spending. The costs of our nation's entitlement programs alone are projected to double in the next 10 years, from more than $1 trillion per year today to more than $2 trillion per year, as the baby boomers like me begin to retire. By comparison, NASA's budget of $16.2 billion for this year is somewhere in the realm of what engineers call rounding error, at 0.6 percent of all federal spending. Because of the magnitude of these changes over the last four decades, it is important to view our nation's investment in our civil space and aeronautics research program from this larger economic perspective, because some critics have questioned the value proposition of even the current investment in NASA. I believe that we must recognize that the development of space is a strategic capability for our nations, and that we must bring the solar system into our economic sphere of influence. And equally, I believe that NASA must leverage the great economic engine of our nation and world. Thus, the companies and countries that many of you represent can take advantage of the trails we plan to blaze as we explore space, just as we leverage the capabilities you create. As a U.S. federal agency, NASA expects only inflationary growth in our annual budget. Thus, we have adopted a "go-as-we-pay" approach for space exploration, science missions and aeronautics research. Thus, the primary pacing item for new ventures is our nation's ability to afford such capabilities. Over the next three years, our highest priority is to complete assembly of the International Space Station and honor our agreements to our Russian, European, Japanese and Canadian partners in this venture. It will not be easy. The International Space Station is the world's greatest engineering project, akin to such feats as the Great Wall of China, the pyramids of Egypt, the Panama and Suez canals, or the sea walls of Venice. Friends of mine who worked on the Apollo program have conveyed to me their belief that the construction of the International Space Station is just as tough a job. There are many critics of this space station, just as there were critics of President Kennedy who called the Apollo program a "moondoggle." But I believe that the greatest achievement of the International Space Station partnership is the partnership itself, and that's a tough thing to criticize. For over six years, astronauts and cosmonauts have been living and working together onboard the space station. For the United States, the station is a national laboratory in space, where we will conduct research to make future exploration to other planets in our solar system possible. I hope this partnership will reap even greater dividends as we explore space together over many future generations. The unifying vision that forged this partnership during the 1990s, prompted by the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, is what we endeavor to carry forward today. Our partnership has endured some hardships along the way, not least of which was the Columbia accident. I hope and believe that those hardships have built stronger bonds between us. With the proper goals in mind, I believe the benefits of space exploration far outweigh the risks. Among the most practical of these is our work with hurricane-monitoring satellites, aircraft and sensors that allow meteorologists to track such storms and predict their severity and impact. Many people today do not even realize that their weather forecasts rely on information from space assets. Broader misconceptions exist. NASA spinoff technologies were never Tang, Teflon or space pens. But while we actually can cite tens of thousands of legitimate technology spinoffs, including medical devices, fuel cells and batteries and even cordless tools, I would like to discuss a more seminal point. I want people to realize the key areas where NASA's space endeavors have created entirely new industrial capabilities that improve our fundamental way of life. For example, NASA is one of the major consumers of liquid hydrogen to fuel our space shuttle and other rocket engines. Liquid hydrogen is also used in the manufacturing of metals, glass, electronics and even foods. When you hear the term "hydrogenated fats" applied to baked goods like pastries and bread, it means that liquid hydrogen was one of the ingredients. NASA is such a large consumer of liquid hydrogen that after Hurricane Katrina, we returned several hundred thousand gallons to the nation's reserve and delayed several space shuttle rocket engine tests to alleviate a national shortage when our nation's liquid hydrogen production facilities and supply lines were disrupted. Likewise, we are a major consumer of liquid oxygen. Our huge demand market for these propellants sparked fundmental improvements in the production and handling of these volatile substances. Today, the ready availability of liquid oxygen allows firefighters, emergency response teams and nursing homes to carry on their backs or in suitcases portable, hand-carried oxygen tanks. In the 1960s, only select hospitals could supply oxygen, in hazardous oxygen tents. I am sure that many of you would agree with me that the greatest revolution in our productivity and way of life has been the development of the personal computer, internet and various handheld communication devices. Thirty-five years ago, engineers like me used three pieces of wood and a piece of plastic that moved -- the slide rule -- to make calculations. Thirty years ago, 1,000 transistors could fit on a silicon chip; today, it's 100 million. The cost of such chips has dropped by a factor of 100,000. Few people know that the development of the first microprocessors was born of a competition between Fairchild and Intel in the 1960s, to build components small enough to fit in NASA spacecraft. This straightforward NASA technical requirement spawned a whole new industry that grew in ways few, except perhaps Gordon Moore, could predict. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I believe that we are at our most creative when we embark on bold ventures like the space program. So, with the economic growth and technology development we have seen since the 1960s, I believe that we are now entering a Renaissance period of space exploration where we can realize the vision that eluded us earlier. And as in the Renaissance, wealthy individuals will play a role in advancing the work of our architects, engineers and technicians. These will be entrepreneurs who have made their wealth in other endeavors -- Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Bob Bigelow from Budget Suites, Richard Branson from Virgin and Elon Musk of Paypal fame are examples. These gentlemen and others have put their personal time, resources and energy behind the notion that many more people can have personal experience in space than do so today. It is one thing to view pictures of Earth from the vantage point of space, even on an IMAX screen, but it is another thing entirely to see it with one's own eyes. Many friends of mine have spoken of the epiphany they experienced from this. But let me be clear. NASA's job is not to sponsor space travel for private citizens. That is for private industry. My hope is the reverse; that when the public can purchase rides into space, NASA can leverage this capability. Likewise, I hope that one day NASA can leverage the expertise of companies not unlike FedEx or UPS today, to meet our cargo needs for the space station and future lunar outposts. And one day, maybe, astronauts onboard our Orion crew exploration vehicle on their way to the moon and Mars can top off on liquid hydrogen from commercially available orbiting fuel stations. In the process of building these new space capabilities, these entrepreneurs, along with NASA and other companies, are hiring more aerospace engineers. I believe that a key measure of a society's economic growth is the extent to which we are educating a technically literate people who can build the infrastructure to advance that society. It is deeply troubling to me when education statistics for the United States indicate there are more bachelor's degrees in psychology being awarded than engineering degrees. I am sure that even the economics majors here can appreciate my concern! Again, NASA hopes to leverage, to the maximum extent possible, the capabilities that space entrepreneurs hope to create. A few years ago, when I was in the private sector working at InQTel, I helped fund a small software company seeking a better approach to visualizing satellite imagery. Over the years, that company grew into the backbone for Google Earth. Now, we hope to "spin-in" that capability to visualize imagery from other planets in our solar system, like the moon and Mars, using data from various NASA satellites and the Mars rovers. By invoking such commercial capabilities, NASA can leverage the funding of other investors to our mutual benefit. In conclusion, I would like to leave you with a final thought as to what might happen if we do not explore space, if we do not follow the cap we tossed over the wall in the 1960s. Last month in the journal Science, researchers examining the primordial material returned by NASA's Stardust space probe found that some of that material could not have come from the Kuiper Belt in the outer reaches of our solar system, but instead could only have come from our sun's core. Some of that material was even older than our own sun. The history of life on Earth is the history of extinction events, with evidence for some five major such events in the history of the Earth. The last of these occurred approximately 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs that dominated the Earth for over 160 million years suffered a catastrophic extinction. It is believed that this event was caused by a giant asteroid which struck Earth in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering tsunamis, tectonic shifts and radically changing Earth's climate. The brief history of humans is next to nothing compared to the history of other life on Earth, and even less so compared to the age of our solar system or of the universe. Our species hasn't been around long enough to have experienced a cataclysmic extinction event. But they will occur, whether we are ready for them or not. In the end, space exploration is fundamentally about the survival of the species, about ensuring better odds for our survival through the promulgation of the human species. But as we do it, we will also ensure the prosperity of our species in the economic sense, in a thousand ways. Some of these we can foresee, and some we cannot. Who could claim that he or she would have envisioned the Boeing 777, after seeing the first Wright Flyer? And yet one followed the other in the blink of an historical eye. For this and many other economic and scientific reasons, we must explore what is on the other side of that wall, walk in the footprints of Neil Armstrong, and make that next giant leap for mankind. Thank you. -end- ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Sat Jan 27 12:44:11 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:44:11 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] Apollo 1 Fire - 40 Years Ago Message-ID: <000201c7423a$c31a8520$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> Apollo 1 Fire - 40 Years Ago ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_747.html On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1's crew--Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee--was killed when a fire erupted in their capsule during testing. Apollo 1 was originally designated AS-204 but following the fire, the astronauts' widows requested that the mission be remembered as Apollo 1 and following missions would be numbered subsequent to the flight that never made it into space. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A time to remember. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Wed Jan 31 21:57:39 2007 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:57:39 -0800 Subject: [lunar-update] SELENE "Wish upon the moon!" Campaign Message-ID: <000701c745ac$bddb5d30$6501a8c0@LRKLUNARUPDATE> SELENE "Wish upon the moon!" Campaign http://www.jaxa.jp/event/selene/index_e.html Application Period: Friday, December 1, 2006 to Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Sponsor: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Cooperation: The Planetary Society of Japan and The Planetary Society (U.S.A) The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch the lunar orbiter "SELENE" on a H-IIA Launch Vehicle from Tanegashima Space Center in the summer of 2007. The SELENE is an artificial satellite that aims to collect closely featured scientific data on "The formation of the moon and its transitional history up to today," which is the biggest lunar exploration project since the Apollo Project. JAXA will accept from the public names and messages to deliver to the moon aboard the SELENE. Please send us your wishful messages. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ Snip # Jan 31 - Deadline To Submit Name to Selene - [extended to 28 Feb - LRK -] http://www.jaxa.jp/event/selene/index_e.html # Jan 31 - Asteroid 2006 CJ Near-Earth Flyby (0.026 AU) http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?des=2006+CJ Snip ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope we get to see our names go to the Moon this Summer with the Japanese. - LRK - I wonder how much we will see from the USA if the money for space gets diverted? Watch those folks with the quill pens. See SpaceRef clips below. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/index_e.html SELENE is the most sophisticated lunar exploration mission in the post-Apollo Era. SELENE consists of the main orbiter and two small satellites - the Relay satellite and the VRAD satellite. The main orbiter will observe the distribution of the elements and minerals on the surface, the surface and sub-surface structure, the gravity field, the remnant of the magnetic field and the environment of energetic particles and plasma of the Moon. The Relay satellite will relay the doppler ranging signal between the Main Orbiter and the ground station for the world's first direct measurement of he gravity field in the farside of the Moon. The differential VLBI Radio-Sources on board the Relay satellite and the VRAD satellite are used to determine the gravity field of the Moon most precisely. Mission Instruments X-Ray Spectrometer http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/01_e.html Four way doppler measurements by Relay satellite and Main Orbiter transponder, Differential VLBI Radio Source, Radio science http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/02_e.html Plasma energy Angle and Cmposition Experiment http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/03_e.html Lunar Radar Sounder http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/04_e.html Gamma Ray Spectrometer, Charged Particle Spectrometer http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/05_e.html Multi band Imager, Spectral Profiler, Terrain Camera http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/06_e.html Laser Altimeter http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/07_e.html Lunar Magnetometer, Upper-atmosphere and Plasma Imager http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/08_e.html High Definition Television http://selene.tksc.jaxa.jp/gaiyo/09_e.html Snip ============================================================== http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html February 1, 2007 Updated On February 1, the JAXA Website was reborn with the aim to become a website that is easier for users to view. A new function, "RSS distribution," enables us to transmit to users JAXA's latest information including "press releases" and "lists of updated items." (RSS reader is needed to receive the distribution.) We hope you enjoy the renewed JAXA website. Snip ============================================================== http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/forefront/index.shtml The Forefront of Space Science (24 January) Space Inflatable Structures http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/forefront/2006/higuchi/index.shtml Ken HIGUCHI - Associate Prof., Department of Space Structure and Materials, ISAS - Inflatable structures, a typical example of which is the Tokyo Dome, have many advantages, such as the provision of a large space, light weight and few mechanical components. These features are also effective and advantageous in space. This article outlines technologies for the three processes - deployment, inflation and curing - required to build the structure and also introduces future applications in space. Snip ============================================================== THE DAY IN SPACE __________________ In today's space news from SpaceRef: -- (NASA Excerpts) H. J. RES. 20 Making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2007, and for other purposes http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.nl.html?pid=23210 -- Democrats File Joint Funding Resolution for FY 2007 http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=21768 -- Weldon: Democrat Leadership Raids NASA Budget http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=21772 "Clearly, the new Democrat leadership in the House isn't interested in space exploration. Their omnibus proposal lists hundreds of new increases, including a $1.3 billion increase