The NASA inspector general (IG) recently excoriated the agency’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program, finding that the effort to locate potentially Earth-threatening asteroids and comets was poorly resourced and far behind its mandated detection goals. In 2005 Congress tasked NASA with locating 90 percent of NEOs 140 meters in size and larger, but currently only 10 percent of this population has been found.
The IG concluded that program management and funding for the planetary defense effort were insufficient for the task at hand. Unfortunately, the IG’s audit missed a much broader and far more important point: NASA is not looking for the right rocks. Click here. (10/27)
Construction Takes Wing at NASA Glenn in Brook Park (Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
NASA Glenn Research Center's first new office building in a few decades is a glassy, gleaming, energy-efficient sign of the federal government's continued commitment to Brook Park. The Mission Integration Center, which opened in late July, is the biggest result to date of a 20-year master plan approved in 2007. Construction crews are creating a "downtown Glenn" for key operations and moving other jobs, such as shipping and receiving, to the fringes.
The mission center cost $29 million, counting design, construction and furnishings. It provides common ground for workers from different Glenn enterprises, including space flight and conventional flight. Many of the building's roughly 300 occupants have labs elsewhere on campus but offices here. (10/27)
Film Review: ‘Interstellar’ (Source: Variety)
The date is an unspecified point in the near future, close enough to look and feel like tomorrow, yet far enough for a number of radical changes to have taken hold in society. A decade on from a period of widespread famine, the world’s armies have been disbanded and the cutting-edge technocracies of the early 21st century have regressed into more utilitarian, farm-based economies.
“We used to look up in the sky and wonder about our place in the stars,” Cooper muses. “Now we just look down and wonder about our place in the dirt.” And oh, what dirt! As “Interstellar” opens, the world — or at least Cooper’s Steinbeckian corner of it — sits on the cusp of a second Dust Bowl, ravaged by an epidemic of crop blight, a silt-like haze hanging permanently in the air.
And as the crops die, so the Earth’s atmosphere becomes richer in nitrogen and poorer in oxygen, until the time when global starvation will give way to global asphyxiation. But all hope is not lost. NASA (whose massive real-life budget cuts lend the movie added immediacy) still exists in this agrarian dystopia, but it’s gone off the grid, far from the microscope of public opinion. Click here. (10/27)
Wayward Boat Scrubs Antares Launch (Source: Space News)
A boat that entered restricted waters forced Orbital Sciences Corp. to postpone the launch of a Cygnus cargo spacecraft Oct. 27. The launch of the Antares rocket, scheduled for 6:45 pm EDT, was scrubbed when a sailboat entered a restricted zone off the coast from the launch site at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. The boat was not able to leave the zone before the ten-minute launch window closed.
There were no technical issues reported with the Antares rocket or the Cygnus spacecraft prior to the scrub, and weather conditions were favorable. Orbital Sciences and NASA announced the next launch attempt would be Oct. 28 at 6:22 pm EDT. Forecasts call for a 95 percent chance of acceptable weather at the new launch time. (10/27)
Mojave Spaceport Board Candidate Dies in Plane Crash (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Michael Hill, who was director of business operations at the National Test Pilot School at the Mojave Air and Space Port, was killed on Friday along with student pilot Ilam Zigante in the crash of a two-seat, single-engine aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash. Hill had been a candidate for one of two short-term seats on the Mojave Air and Space Port Board of Directors. (10/26)
Disruption and Destruction in the Launch Business (Source: Space Review)
One of the most popular business buzzwords today is "disruption"; does it apply to the launch business? Jeff Foust reports on the effect one company is having on the business and what its quest for reusability could mean for the industry. Visit http://ift.tt/1xwwTDd to view the article. (10/27)
The Space Pioneer Act (Source: Space Review)
Advanced in commercial space ventures have raised new questions about the need for property rights and ownership of resources in space. Wayne White makes the case for legislation that could accomplish this within the limitations of current treaties. Visit http://ift.tt/1tdbT5n to view the article. (10/27)
Why India is a Major New Market for Military Space Systems (Source: Space Review)
India has achieved major advanced in civil space systems, such as its recent Mars mission, but lags in military space systems. Kiran Krishnan Nair argues that improved relations between India and the US provide an opportunity to sell India reconnaissance and other military satellite systems. Visit http://ift.tt/1tdbSOV to view the article. (10/27)
Lessons from Apollo for Mars One (Source: Space Review)
The plan by Mars One to send people to Mars one-way has attracted its share of attention—and criticism. James C. McLane III examines what Mars One could learn from the challenges faces a half-century ago by Apollo. Visit http://ift.tt/1tdbQGU to view the article. (10/27)
Another View on Cubesats and Debris (Source: Space News)
In response to recent articles regarding cubesats and space debris, I would like to offer some input from a stakeholder in the cubesat community in order to provide balance and continue this important discussion on the sustainable use of the space environment.
ISIS — Innovative Solutions In Space has been active in the cubesat sector for nearly a decade, and the company has been involved in debris mitigation technology development, such as drag sails and deorbit motors, since 2007. Through our own missions and our ISILaunch Services, we are subject to various aspects of space debris; the sustained use of space is a daily aspect of our activities, and as such is a growing concern.
From the active debris removal studies we have been involved in, the key contributors to the debris problem were always large objects (defunct upper stages and large satellites) that still carry unused fuel with associated fragmentation risk. These objects have a large acceleration effect on the debris growth and are the prime targets for debris removal missions to curb the growing collision risk in low Earth orbit. Click here. (10/27)
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