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[aussiedonnie] 28/3/2018 09:12

Just to think that the Americans actually landed on the moon in a kitchen foiled lunar module ; ))

[the grumpy old men] 13/12/2017 06:26

Japanese start-up ispace raises funds for first two lunar missions starting in 2019

Japanese start-up ispace raised $90.2 million in its latest round of funding
The company will use the money to fund two exploration missions to the moon
Investors in the latest round include Suzuki Motor and Japan Airlines

Michael Sheetz | @thesheetztweetz
Published 1 Hour Ago CNBC.com









An artist's rendering of iSpace's Mission 2 landing on the moon's surface.
iSpace
An artist's rendering of iSpace's Mission 2 landing on the moon's surface.

Lunar exploration startup ispace announced Tuesday it raised $90.2 million in its latest round of funding, backed by a dozen investors.

The Japanese company will use the money to fund two exploration missions to the moon, with the first by the end of 2019 and the second by the end of 2020. The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan led the Series A round, which also included the Development Bank of Japan, Suzuki Motor and Japan Airlines.

"We needed to secure research and development and two missions with this money," CEO Takeshi Hakamada told CNBC. "We're going to bring scientific instruments to the moon, and then sell the right to use our data to space agencies and other institutions, as well as provide transportation services, for profit."

Founded seven years ago, ispace is now ready to step beyond its current involvement in the Google Lunar XPRIZE, Hakamada said. The company will continue supporting its 100-member HAKUTO team to pursue the March 2018 deadline for the prize, Hakamada said.

Google's Lunar XPRIZE competition will award $30 million to the first company that lands a commercial spacecraft on the moon, travels 500 meters across its surface and sends high-definition images and video back to Earth.

Team HAKUTO, which consists of 70 pro bono members and 10 Tohoku University students, is partnering with former competitor TeamIndus for the $30 million in prizes remaining. TeamIndus did not respond to requests for comment.

"Our investment is not for the Google Lunar XPRIZE," Hakamada said. "Our ultimate goal is resource utilization on the moon, primarily water resources."

The round ranks as the most known funding raised in a commercial space Series A, according to venture capital analysts at Pitchbook. Nearest competitor Planetary Resources raised a third of ispace's Series A, with $34.78 million, while Elon Musk's high-profile SpaceX raised $12.1 million in the same round.

Prominent space investor Dylan Taylor cautioned that the amount raised in a Series A round is not necessarily a comparable measure of a company's success, both for now or what is to come.

"It's more expensive to raise money the earlier a company is in the capital raising process," Taylor said. "Companies should only raise what they need and maybe only a little more, for buffer."

Taylor added that the new ispace funding should make it possible for the company to achieve its goals, saying he thinks "$45 million per launch is probably at market cost." His understanding was matched by Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux, who is a partner at Global Space Ventures, a venture capital firm.

She told CNBC the ispace announcement is "indicative of the growing investors' confidence in commercial space being able to unlock value well beyond the surface of the Earth."

"Ispace's plan … is now solidly in the purview of the next steps of human endeavors in space," de Cayeux said.

While the company is based in Japan, ispace opened a subsidiary office in Luxembourg in March, along with a small office at a research center in California. Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider, who highlighted ispace's work in November, told CNBC his country is eager to see how ispace continues to grow Luxembourg's space industry.

"We welcome that ispace will create in the near future further space resources expertise in Luxembourg by actively embarking on projects," Schneider added.
Michael Sheetz
Michael SheetzNews Associate for CNBC

[waldron] 12/12/2017 09:37

Trump to Direct NASA to Send Astronauts Back to Moon and to Mars
By Jennifer Jacobs
and Dana Hull
11 décembre 2017 à 19:45 UTC+1 Updated on 12 décembre 2017 à 04:44 UTC+1

White House doesn’t provide details about program funding
Directive changes one paragraph in Obama space policy

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is seen during the the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969. Photographer: NASA/Hulton Archive

President Donald Trump directed NASA on Monday to send American astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars, but eliminated his predecessors’ deadlines for such missions.

[waldron] 03/12/2017 18:08

Tonight will see the year’s brightest ‘supermoonR17;
Kai Schreiber / CC BY-SA 2.0 The so-called “supermoonR21; will rise high in the sky, as our Moon’s elliptical-shaped orbit comes close to Earth

This evening (Sunday) will see the “brightest and biggest moon of the year” in the Northern Hemisphere, with the planet Venus also visible ahead of Mars, Jupiter and Mercury later in the month.

Early December sees the so-called “supermoonR21; rise high in the sky, as our Moon’s elliptical-shaped orbit comes closest to the Earth.

This makes the Moon appear as a “glowing lamp”, appearing to reflect light and illuminate the sky much more brightly than usual, explains Autour du Ciel, the night sky blog from French newspaper Le Monde.

Tonight - around 1h00 GMT+1 on December 3 - will see the brightest moon of the year, as the winter solstice approaches, thanks to the moon’s orbit patterns.

The planet Venus will also be more visible than normal, especially around 40 minutes before sunrise, when it will appear as a small, golden globe on a west-northwest-facing horizon.

As December continues, Jupiter will also appear more visible, especially on a south-east-facing horizon, around 60 minutes before sunrise, as will Mars - the latter of which appears higher in the sky.

Throughout the month, Mars will appear to get closer to Jupiter, and, just before Christmas, the smallest planet - Mercury - will take Venus’ place on the horizon.

Further ‘supermoons217; are expected on 1 January and 31 January.

Last year the Moon came closer to Earth than at any point since 1948, and its orbit means it will not come as close as that again until November 2034.

Stay informed:
Sign up to our free weekly e-newsletter
Subscribe to access all our online articles and receive our printed monthly newspaper The Connexion at your home. News analysis, features and practical help for English-speakers in France

[m.t.glass] 09/1/2012 07:56

Ima - well I did hedge my header with reference to ridicule and sampling bias ;o)


Ten years later -- many a moon has past (but not many a post!)

Googling the words stockmarket moon effect produces plenty of (frequently skeptical) results, for anyone interested in pursuing it.


EDIT:
Eg: this 2009 reference to that old header report:


(30 years, 1973-2003)

[rb5] 11/3/2011 09:45

The Super Moon has struck again!

[ariane] 15/11/2009 19:09

'Significant' water found on Moon
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Nasa's experiment last month to find water on the Moon was a major success, US scientists have announced.

The space agency smashed a rocket and a probe into a large crater at the lunar south pole, hoping to kick up ice.

Scientists who have studied the data now say instruments trained on the impact plume saw copious quantities of water-ice and water vapour.

One researcher described this as the equivalent of "a dozen two-gallon buckets" of water.

"We didn't just find a little bit; we found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, chief scientist for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission.

No doubt

October's experiment involved driving a 2,200kg Centaur rocket stage into the 100km-wide Cabeus Crater, a permanently shadowed depression at the Moon's far south.

At the time, scientists were hoping for a big plume of debris some 10km high which could be seen by Earth telescopes.

The actual debris cloud was much smaller, about 1.6km high, but sufficiently large to betray the evidence researchers were seeking.

The near-infrared spectrometer on the LCROSS probe that followed the rocket into the crater detected water-ice and water vapour. The ultraviolet-visible spectrometer provided additional confirmation by identifying the hydroxyl (OH) molecule, which arises when water is broken apart in sunlight.

"We were able to match the spectra from LCROSS data only when we inserted the spectra for water," Dr Colaprete said.

"No other reasonable combination of other compounds that we tried matched the observations. The possibility of contamination from the Centaur also was ruled out."

Useful resource

The total quantity of H2O spied by the instruments was more than 100kg. It came out of a 20m-30m wide hole dug up by the impacting Centaur rocket.

The LCROSS scientists stressed that the results presented on Friday were preliminary findings only, and further analysis could raise the final assessment of the amount of water in Cabeus.

Peter Schultz, from Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission, said: "What's really exciting is we've only hit one spot. It's kind of like when you're drilling for oil. Once you find it in one place, there's a greater chance you'll find more nearby."

The regular surface of the Moon as seen from Earth is drier than any desert on our planet. But researchers have long speculated that some permanently shadowed places might harbour considerable stores of water, perhaps delivered by impacting comets billions of years ago.

If future investigations find the quantities to be particularly large, this water could become a useful resource for any astronauts who might base themselves at the lunar poles.

"It can be used for drinking water," said Mike Wargo, Nasa's chief lunar scientist for exploration systems.

"You can break it down and have breathable air for crews. But also, if you have significant quantities of this stuff, you have the constituents of one of the most potent rocket fuels - oxygen and hydrogen."


In September, data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, showed that very fine films of H2O coat the particles that make up lunar soil.

Scientists behind that finding speculated that this water might migrate to the even cooler poles, much as water vapour on Earth will condense on a cold surface.

This cold sink effect could be supplementing any water delivered by comets, they said.

If cometary material did reside in places like Cabeus Crater it would be fascinating to examine it, commented Greg Delory, from the University of California, Berkeley.

"The surfaces in these permanently shadowed areas, such as the one LCROSS impacted, are very cold," he told reporters.

"That means that they tend to trap and keep things that encounter them - compounds, atoms and so forth. And so they act as record keepers over periods as long as several billion years. They have a story to tell about the history of the Moon and the Solar System."

LCROSS was launched by Nasa on 18 June as part of a double mission which included the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

The latter, which continues to circle the Moon, measured a temperature of minus 230 Celsius at the base of Cabeus Crater.


[e-mail]

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/11/13 17:30:39 GMT

[rb5] 09/10/2009 10:12

I'd laugh if a huge plume of cheese powder was released.

Wonder what the odds are?

its live here

[springhead] 09/10/2009 09:11

LOL!
RB5, you do have a dark side don't you??

[ariane] 09/10/2009 08:53

they're on vacation

[rb5] 09/10/2009 08:22

Has anyone warned the Clangers?

[ariane] 09/10/2009 05:55

Water Discovery on Moon Spurs India's Lunar Ambition (Update1)

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By Jay Shankar

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- India, spurred by its role in finding water on the moon's surface, plans to spend $2.5 billion by 2015 to put a man into orbit and join China in the race to seek new sources of energy.

Data gathered from India's $82 million lunar mission, Chandrayaan I or "Moon Craft," showed water formation may be an ongoing process on the moon, project scientists said Sept. 24. India may equip a successor probe with an unmanned rover to drill into the lunar surface, Indian Space Research Organization chief Madhavan Nair said in an interview. "The water found is much larger than what was expected," he said. The government may approve a human space mission "within a couple of months."

At stake is a starring role in a global push for deep-space exploration that could enable astronauts to harvest life- supporting water, make permanent human settlements possible and exploit lunar reserves of resources such as helium-3, a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors.

The U.S.' National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to return to the moon by 2020, although President Barack Obama is considering other options such as landings on asteroids. NASA today plans to crash a rocket into a crater near the moon's south pole in the search for frozen water. China sees a 2012 unmanned landing on the moon, where it hopes to put an astronaut by 2020. Russia has set a date of 2025 for a moon touchdown, while Japan also has lunar ambitions.

Lunar Race

This is not "a 21st-century lunar race between China, Japan and India similar to the U.S. and former Soviet Union's efforts of the 1960s," Charles Vick, a former consultant to Russian and Chinese space and ballistic missile programs, said in an e-mail.

"The drivers are considerably different," said Vick, now a senior technical analyst at Globalsecurity.org. Space-faring nations must back lunar landings to develop technology that can propel a global effort to travel further and even "transfer human civilization to another planet," he said.

Astronauts haven't traveled beyond about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from Earth since the last Apollo mission to the lunar surface almost four decades ago. That program landed the first men on the moon in 1969, as the Cold War superpowers battled for technological supremacy.

If man ever makes a permanent home in space, Asia will likely play a leading role in building it. China sent its first man into orbit six years ago, and last year carried out the country's first space walk. Japan ended its first $562 million lunar probe mission on June 11 after 17 months. Even South Korea, which failed Aug. 25 in its first attempt to put a satellite in to orbit, is planning to orbit the moon by 2020.

Computer Failure

Scientists at ISRO's Bangalore headquarters lost contact with Chandrayaan I on Aug. 29, less than halfway through a two- year mission, as higher-than-expected temperatures on the moon's surface, 100 kilometers below the probe's orbit, triggered a computer failure, Nair said. Chandrayaan II, slated for launch before March 2013 at a cost of $87.5 million, will use its rover to search for minerals.

The discovery of water molecules in lunar soil by a NASA probe aboard the Indian craft has boosted the profile of the nation's space program, said B.N. Raghunandan, former chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science.

"The fact that India has done this job with the U.S. gives it a better standing for future missions. It gives India a shot in the arm," he said in an interview from Bangalore. NASA estimates the cost of transporting a bottle of water to the moon at $50,000.

Reactor Fuel

Scientists involved in lunar programs worldwide are searching for evidence of minerals such as uranium, iron, magnesium and helium-3, Seetharama Bhat, chairman of the department, said in a phone interview.

Helium-3 may be an ideal fuel if nuclear fusion becomes a viable way of generating energy, NASA geophysicist Paul Lowman wrote last year. An isotope rare on earth, it is present in large quantities in lunar soil and could be excavated. An alternative use would be to manufacture isotopes for cancer treatments and other medical uses, Lowman said.

That is unlikely to assuage critics of India's 46-year-old space exploration and satellite launch program. Chitra Choudhury of the Gram Vikas charity working in rural areas of eastern Orissa state, says it would be "wiser" to spend the money on improving basic services for the 456 million Indians the World Bank says live on less than $1.25 a day.

Weather Satellites

India's price tag for its space mission is just above the $2.4 billion it plans to spend on its AIDS control program in the five years from 2007. Up to 2.9 million Indians have HIV.

India hopes to use improved satellites to predict annual monsoon rains, the main source of irrigation for the nation's 235 million farmers. This year's rains have been 20 percent below average, trimming food production, forcing up prices and delaying an economic recovery, said Sherman Chan, an economist at Moody's Economy.com in Sydney. Better weather forecasts would allow farmers to switch crops or delay planting to make the most of weak rains.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at [e-mail]

Last Updated: October 9, 2009 00:04 EDT

[ariane] 09/10/2009 04:22

US spacecraft set for Moon crash
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

Nasa is set to crash two unmanned spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect the presence of water-ice.

A 2,200kg rocket stage will be first to collide, hurling debris high above the lunar surface.

A second spacecraft packed with science instruments will analyse the contents of this dusty cloud before meeting a similar fate.

The identification of water-ice in the impact plume would be a major discovery, scientists say.

Not least because a supply of water on the Moon would be a vital resource for future human exploration.


" There is hydrogen down in that crater, we're going to go dig some of it up "
Anthony Colaprete, Nasa
The existence of water-ice in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles had previously been postulated by scientists, but never confirmed.

The $79m (£49m; 53m euro) mission is called LCROSS (the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite).

There are two main components: the large Centaur rocket upper stage and a smaller "shepherding spacecraft".

These have been connected since they were launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in June.

The shepherding spacecraft is designed to guide the rocket to its target at the Moon's south pole, a shaded 98m-wide depression called Cabeus crater.

Rocket separation

In the early hours of Friday morning (BST), the Centaur and shepherding spacecraft will separate.

At a scheduled time of 1231 BST (0731 EDT), the rocket stage will hit the Moon's south pole at roughly twice the speed of a bullet, throwing an estimated 350 metric tonnes of debris to altitudes of 10km (6.2 mile) or more.

With an energy equivalent to one-and-a-half tonnes of TNT, the collision will carve out a crater some 20m (66ft) wide and about 4m (13ft) deep.

The shepherding spacecraft will follow in the Centaur's wake, descending through the debris plume to hit the lunar surface four minutes after the initial impact.


" We will have to be careful to keep some areas as 'protected parks' on the Moon "
Bernard Foing, chief scientist, Esa
It will use onboard spectrometers to look for signs of water, hydroxyl compounds (OH), salts, clays, hydrated minerals and organic molecules in the sun-lit plume.

The spacecraft will collect data continuously until it too slams into the Moon, generating a second, smaller debris cloud.

Permanently shadowed craters are very cold, receiving heat only from space and from the Moon's interior (which is geologically dead).

Here in the lunar "shadowlands", ice - perhaps delivered by cometary impacts - is protected from the Sun's rays and could remain stable over geological timescales.

In September, analyses of data from three spacecraft revealed that very fine films of water coat the particles which make up the lunar soil.

This water might also migrate to darkened craters, sublimating during the lunar day and condensing once it reached the cooler poles.

Excess hydrogen

"If ice is present in the permanently shaded craters... it could potentially provide a water source for the eventual establishment of a manned base on the Moon," said Dr Vincent Eke, from Durham University, UK, who is not a member of the LCROSS team.

But Dr Bernard Foing, chief scientist at the European Space Agency (Esa), said it would be desirable to protect some of this polar ice, if it indeed exists.

"We will have to be careful to keep some areas as 'protected parks' on the Moon. This is so that we could, for instance, send a lander, drill down and obtain a core sample a few metres in depth," he told BBC News.


"Then we could eventually study the history of delivery of water to the Moon and the Earth."

Dr Foing will work with the LCROSS team to compare the data from that spacecraft with those collected when Esa's Smart-1 probe which was brought down on the Moon's surface in 2006.

The idea that reserves of water-ice might persist in these dark craters was given a boost by Nasa's Lunar Prospector mission, which launched in 1998.

By looking at the energy of neutrons coming from the Moon, scientists found excess hydrogen at both poles.

This result does not confirm the presence of water-ice; the hydrogen could be in another form. But if it does exist in the form of ice, data suggest the lunar poles could hold hundreds of metric tonnes.

Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator on the LCROSS mission, said data received in the last few days from Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) supported the team's decision to target Cabeus crater.

"There is hydrogen down in that crater, we're going to go dig some of it up," he explained.

Professional astronomers will study the impacts using ground-based telescopes, including the Magdalena Ridge and Apache Ridge Observatories in New Mexico, US, and the MMT Observatory in Arizona.

The Centaur impact plume may be visible through amateur-class telescopes with apertures as small as 10 to 12 inches, mission scientists said.

Earth-orbiting satellites are also geared up to observe the collisions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Odin satellite, an astronomy and aeronomy mission led by Sweden.

In August, the mission was threatened when a problem caused LCROSS to lose a "substantial" amount of its propellant.

[e-mail]

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/10/09 01:04:56 GMT

[grupo] 24/9/2009 04:15

From The Times September 24, 2009

India's lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon

Jeremy Page in Delhi
50 Comments
Recommend? (23)
Dreams of establishing a manned Moon base could become reality within two decades after India's first lunar mission found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface.

Data from Chandrayaan-1 also suggests that water is still being formed on the Moon. Scientists said the breakthrough - to be announced by Nasa at a press conference today - would change the face of lunar exploration.

The discovery is a significant boost for India in its space race against China. Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission's project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore, said: "It's very satisfying."

The search for water was one of the mission's main objectives, but it was a surprise nonetheless, scientists said.The unmanned craft was equipped with Nasa's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, designed specifically to search for water by picking up the electromagnetic radiation emitted by minerals. The M3 also made the unexpected discovery that water may still be forming on the surface of the Moon, according to scientists familiar with the mission.

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"It's very satisfying," said Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director of Chandrayaan-1 at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore. "This was one of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-1, to find evidence of water on the Moon," he told The Times.

Dr Annadurai would not provide any further details before a news conference at Nasa today from Dr Carle Pieters, a planetary geologist of Brown University who oversaw the M3.

Dr Pieters has not spoken about her results so far and was not available for comment last night, according to colleagues at Brown University. But her results are expected to cause a sensation, and to set the agenda for lunar exploration in the next decade.

They will also provide a significant boost for India as it tries to catch up with China in what many see as a 21st-century space race. "This will create a considerable stir. It was wholly unexpected," said one scientist also involved in Chandrayaan-1. "People thought that Chandrayaan was just lagging behind the rest but the science that's coming out, it's going to be agenda-setting."

Scientists have long hoped that astronauts could be based on the Moon and use water found there to drink, extract oxygen to breathe and use hydrogen as fuel.

Several studies havesuggested that there could be ice in the craters around the Moon's poles, but scientists have been unable to confirm the suspicions.

The M3, an imaging spectrometer, was designed to search for water by detecting the electromagnetic radiation given off by different minerals on and just below the surface of the Moon. Unlike previous lunar spectrometers, it was sensitive enough to detect the presence of small amounts of water.

M3 was one of two Nasa instruments among 11 pieces of equipment from around the world on Chandrayaan-1, which was launched into orbit around the Moon in October last year. ISRO lost control of Chandrayaan-1 last month, and aborted the mission ahead of schedule, but not before M3 and the other instruments had beamed data back to Earth.

Another lunar scientist familiar with the findings said: "This is the most exciting breakthrough in at least a decade. And it will probably change the face of lunar exploration for the next decade."

Scientists are eagerly awaiting the results of two American unmanned lunar missions, which were both launched in June, that could also prove the existence of water on the Moon.

Early results from Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recorded temperatures as low as -238C (minus 396.4F) in polar craters on the Moon, according to the journal Nature. That makes them the coldest recorded spots in the solar system, even colder than the surface of Pluto, and could mean that ice has been trapped for billions of years, the journal said. The LRO has also detected an abundance of hydrogen, thought to be a key indicator of ice, at the poles.

The other Nasa mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), is due to crash a probe into a polar crater on October 9 in the hope of sending up a plume of ice that can be examined by telescope.

"We are on the verge of a renaissance in our thinking about the poles of the Moon, including how water ice gets there," Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for LCROSS, said in Nature.

Big bang

• The Moon is 4.6 billion years old, about the same age as the Earth

• It is thought to have formed from a giant dust cloud caused when a rogue planet collided with the Earth

• It is 238,000 miles from the Earth

• Gravity on the Moon is a sixth of that on Earth

[ariane] 19/6/2009 03:37

NASA Blasts Off Two Moon Probes





WASHINGTON (AFP)--NASA successfully blasted two probes into space Thursday on a landmark lunar exploration mission to scout water sources and landing sites in anticipation of sending mankind back to the moon in 2020.

The launch marked "America's first step in a lasting return to the moon," a NASA official said moments after a rocket carrying the probes launched at 5:32 p.m. (2132 GMT), one day after the U.S. space agency scrubbed the shuttle Endeavor launch for the second time in a week because of a nagging hydrogen fuel leak.

The liftoff of the dual LRO and LCROSS missions atop an Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to Kennedy Space Center, took place one month shy of the 40th anniversary of NASA's historic first landings on Earth's natural satellite in 1969.

Americans have been the only astronauts to walk on the moon - with the last such outing in 1972 - and the new mission is the first step on the long journey to launch manned missions further into our solar system, to the planet Mars and beyond, from lunar colonies.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said the program, dubbed the Constellation project, needs to be reviewed, but so far hasn't cast doubt on its goals.

"The robotic mission will give us information we need to make informed decisions about any future human presence on the moon," program manager Todd May told reporters earlier this week.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, separated from the Centaur upper stage rocket and the other probe, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, at 2216 GMT.

LCROSS in particular looks set to be one of NASA's most spectacular bids at discovery for years.

It will remain attached to the Centaur until October, when NASA sends the Centaur smashing into a crater on the side of the moon that never gets sunshine. LCROSS will analyze the lunar material blasted out by the impact for any sign of water ice - a critical component for any planning for manned lunar colonies.

After examining the lunar matter, LCROSS will follow the rocket's lead by also hurling itself into the moon at a speed of 5,580 miles per hour (9,000 km/h).

In total, NASA said, the two impacts will kick up some 500 metric tons of lunar material and begin the search for a long-frozen water source. The project will also examine the moon's mineral makeup.

The LRO hopes to learn more about the moon through a one-year stay at an orbit of about 31 miles - the closest continual lunar orbit of any spacecraft.

The orbiter is expected to reach the moon Tuesday at 0943 GMT, NASA said.

LRO's $500 million mission is designed to provide NASA with maps of unprecedented accuracy, which will be crucial for scoping out possible landing sites.

Both missions, May said, will help NASA model the nuances of lunar lighting and temperature range, and provide future moon travelers with information on the cosmic radiation the moon is exposed to due to its lack of atmosphere.

The probes' four-day, 238,000 mile return to the moon 40 years after humans first set foot on its surface is expected to illuminate our closest extraterrestrial neighbor like never before.

"Earth is subject to erosion processes from air and water," noted May. "The moon itself doesn't have this process...LRO will send back pictures daily on things we have barely seen before."

Hopes for the ambitious exploration of the moon and later Mars were dampened Wednesday by Senator Bill Nelson, who warned of grounded missions because of "unrealistic" funds allocated to NASA.

Nelson, a former space shuttle astronaut, told the first public meeting of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee in Washington that NASA "simply can't do the job it's been given" to return to the moon.

Inadequate funding, he said, "has led us to the point where we are now: with a space shuttle that's going to shut down but without the new rocket developed in time to pick up where the shuttle leaves off."

When Obama unveiled the federal budget last month, he ordered a review of the problem-plagued, budget-busting rocket that NASA hopes will be on launch pads by 2015 to replace its shuttle fleet, due to be retired next year.

The cost of the next-generation rocket has ballooned from an initial $28 billion to about $44 due to technical troubles and cost overruns.

[grupo guitarlumber] 11/4/2009 10:09

Standing watch over a crowded space
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

On 10 February this year, a defunct Russian communications satellite crashed into an American commercial spacecraft, generating thousands of pieces of orbiting debris.

At the time, some observers put the odds of such an event occurring at millions, maybe billions, to one.

But experts had been warning for years that useable space was becoming crowded, boosting the possibility of a serious collision.

They have argued both for better monitoring of the space environment and for policies aimed at controlling the production of debris.

Over the past two years, a number of incidents have drawn attention to the problem of space debris.

" We really have to understand the environment in which our space infrastructure operates "
Jean-Jacques Dordain, director-general, Esa
In January 2007, China tested an anti-satellite weapons system by destroying one of its own spacecraft.

According to the US military, the A-sat test created 2,500 new pieces of debris which have been jeopardising satellites in the vicinity ever since.

In February 2008, the US used a sea-launched missile system to shoot down a wayward spy satellite loaded with fuel.

Then on 12 March this year, a close approach by a piece of debris measuring about 1cm (0.3in) forced the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) to shelter in their Russian Soyuz escape capsule.

Found wanting

There are thought to be some 18,000 objects larger than 10cm orbiting Earth, but millions more that are smaller.

Intact satellites share Earth's orbit with everything from spent rocket stages, tools lost on spacewalks and spacecraft wreckage to paint flakes and dust. They are the flotsam and jetsam of more than half a century of human activities in space.

At orbital speeds of 27,000km/h (17,000mph), even tiny pieces of debris can knock out a satellite or kill a spacewalker. And as the number of pieces of debris grows, so does the threat of collisions.

Satellite shielding is effective for objects below 1cm. But beyond that size collision avoidance - commanding the satellite to move out of the way of debris - may be the most prudent option.

America has the most sophisticated system for tracking objects in orbit. Its military operates 25 centres around the world to track objects in space; together they comprise the US Space Surveillance Network (SSN).

Until now, Europe has been largely dependent on the US for knowing what is going on in space. But European observers have for some time regarded this situation as inadequate.

Space-based systems, which provide accurate weather data, telecommunications and satellite-navigation services, play an increasingly vital role in Europe's economy.

Referring to the threats facing these space-based assets, Jean-Jacques Dordain, director-general of the European Space Agency (Esa) says: "We cannot continue to develop operational space infrastructure and ignore these other elements."

He added: "We really have to understand the environment in which our space infrastructure operates."

Thus, in November 2008, space ministers approved a 49.5-million-euro proposal to prepare the way for a European system which will stand watch over orbital debris, near-Earth objects (NEOs) and solar activity.

Together these phenomena could threaten lives and infrastructure in space and on the ground. An advanced capability to monitor such threats is known as Space Situational Awareness, or SSA.

Officials will spend three years assessing what Europe needs to develop its capabilities in space situational awareness. They will need to formulate a data security policy as well as consider what infrastructure has to be built from scratch and how existing sensors might contribute.

Radars are generally used to track objects in low-Earth orbit, while optical telescopes are often used to observe objects further away from the Earth. Electronic eavesdropping can be used to assess whether or not satellites are active - a discipline known as signals intelligence, or SIGINT.

"In 2010 and 2011, we will deploy and validate the preliminary elements of this system. This will hopefully allow us to deliver some precursor services," Nicolas Bobrinsky, proposal manager for Esa's SSA Preparatory Programme, told BBC News.

"It is not our aim to have a fully operational system by 2011, but one which will act as an 'advanced demonstrator'."

Gaele Winters, Esa's director of operations and infrastructure, adds: "There are member states in Europe with their own facilities. Esa also has some facilities. If you combine [those resources] in an intelligent way, you can reach a point where it is possible to deliver precursor services."

SPACE DEBRIS

Comprises manmade "orbital debris" and "incident debris"
Incident debris includes particles from short-period comets
About 18,000 orbital debris objects larger than 10cm
The number between 1cm and 10cm in size estimated at 200,000
Number smaller than 1cm exceeds tens of millions
Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007 created 2,500 new fragments
A domino effect could create havoc for future space launches
These existing facilities might include France's GRAVES (The French acronym means large-scale system adapted for space monitoring) radar system, which can survey objects in low-Earth orbit up to distances of 2,000km, the Zimmerwald optical telescope observatory in Switzerland, and the Esa Space Debris Telescope in Tenerife, Spain.

These preliminary services should provide users with access to a catalogue detailing the orbits of functioning spacecraft and debris.

They should also alert satellite operators to potential collisions between their spacecraft and other objects in orbit.

In the event that a possible collision is identified, users could request a more detailed analysis of the objects' trajectories using a high power radar such as the Tracking and Imaging Radar (TIRA) in Wachtberg, Germany.

The fully fledged system is expected to provide many additional services. Richard Tremayne-Smith, a former head of space environment at the British National Space Centre (BNSC), told BBC News: "Space surveillance is one thing, but to get to space situational awareness you need more than either optical sensors for high altitudes and radar for low altitudes.

"You need details from satellite operators. Otherwise, you can only guess when they might carry out station-keeping with a satellite, or when they might do an impulse burn to change the orbit it is in."

Satellite operators overwhelmingly recognise the need for better data on the melee of objects whizzing over our heads.

The US already makes available data from its Space Surveillance Network on the internet. But this US Air Force data, known as two-line elements, is of relatively low quality, with satellite positions only accurate to within 20-30km (distances which are covered in 3-4 seconds at typical low Earth orbit velocities of 7.5 km/s).

Additional uncertainties are introduced when satellite orbits are extrapolated days or weeks ahead. This is because spacecraft are perturbed by drag, solar radiation pressure and the Earth's gravity field.

The more inaccurate the initial data on a satellite's position, the more inaccurate these predictions will be.

" If you just leave things up there, the statistics show they will start banging into each other "
Dr Stuart Eves, SSTL
In addition, for a satellite constellation in low-Earth orbit, two-line element data might throw up hundreds of potential collision alerts every day. Many satellite operators simply lack the financial resources to perform detailed analyses on each potential collision.

The US Air Force maintains a second, more precise database of information on the same orbital objects. But these more accurate data are deemed far too sensitive to share publicly - for fear the data could give away clues about the capabilities of US sensors.

However, keeping close tabs on all the junk up there is beyond even the resources of the US military. High accuracy surveillance is reserved only for a handful of high-value assets such as the space shuttle, the space station and multi-billion-dollar spy satellites.

In the longer-term, computer modelling work has identified a worrying effect called a "collision cascade", a kind of domino effect where collisions create more debris, which generates further collisions, creating even more debris.

"This is one of the reasons why the satellite operators and the community are quite deliberately trying to get their spacecraft down within 25 years from the end of the mission," says Stuart Eves, head of business development for military systems at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL).

NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS (NEOS)

NEOs are comets and asteroids which enter Earth's neighbourhood
About 1,050 NEOs are classed as potentially hazardous to Earth
An estimated 81% of NEOs bigger than 1km are catalogued
Nasa wants to log objects as small as 140m (460ft) in diameter
Tunguska object exploded with energy of 1,000 atomic bombs
Asteroid Apophis has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth in 2036
"If you just leave things up there, the statistics show they will start banging into each other. Eventually, you reach the point where you can't sensibly launch satellites into the orbits you want because they'll get pounded to pieces."

Esa might be able to rely on existing facilities for its precursor services, but some sensors are not capable of providing the very high accuracy data required for the fully fledged SSA system.

Beyond 2011, officials acknowledge the need to build new state-of-the-art facilities to achieve high performance, including the ability to track objects down to 10cm in size.

But for true space situational awareness, it will also be necessary to track objects more frequently. This means monitoring the locations of satellites multiple times each day.

The Sapphire satellite, being built by SSTL for Canada's Department of National Defense will carry an optical telescope for tracking satellites in high orbits, especially geosynchronous orbit (GEO).

"The advantage of a space-based sensor is that it is above the clouds and is unaffected by the day/night cycle, so its tracking can be far more frequent," says Stuart Eves.

The requirements decided under the European preparatory programme will be submitted for approval by space ministers when next they meet in 2011. Esa is looking at a ten-year timeline for development of the full system.

But how the system should be governed in future and by whom is still to be resolved. Esa has been holding discussions with the European Union about its involvement - specifically whether the EU might assume a greater role in managing and funding SSA beyond 2011.

Esa has also been talking to Nasa and the US Department of Defense (DoD) about the potential for making the European and American networks interoperable, or compatible.

"In short, we are trying to put together, with the Americans, requirements for the European system and future upgrades of the US system to have a better, more reliable source of information for all of us," says Gaele Winters.

The European network must be able to function independently of that used by America, he says, adding: "There is a certain level of independence Europe wants to have in its ability to protect its own space assets. But... it also offers the opportunity to get more out of two systems."

Good to talk

Insiders say officials are determined to avoid a repeat of the dispute with America over Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system, due to be operational by 2013. Fuelled by US concerns that the European network could be used by hostile nations in attacks on American targets, the row was only resolved after lengthy negotiations.

Sources say that, in principle at least, there is a willingness on both sides to work together on SSA, though some in Europe remain wary of US intentions.

"Any endeavour by Europe to enhance space situational awareness will only increase our ability to conduct safe and responsible operations in space," a DoD official told the magazine Space News earlier this year.

"The United States supports international cooperation in SSA."

Britain, meanwhile, has joined the preparatory programme, contributing one million euros at the Esa ministerial meeting last November. But participation presents particular questions for the UK because of its "special relationship" with America.

The UK already has some privileged access to American data and some national users might not want to see the status quo shaken up. Nevertheless, some commentators recognise a need for Britain to have more control over the space surveillance data it gets.

A policy directing how the data will be used is also important for Europe's system, given the sensitivities over sharing information from military sensors.

Richard Tremayne-Smith comments: "I personally believe one thing that would have to be done is to have data anonymity. People will be quite glad to put things in as long as you can't trace things back and work out the power and capability of the sensor.

SPACE WEATHER


Many space weather phenomena relate to the activity of the Sun
Solar storms may occur a few times a week or a few times a day
Caused by bubbles of plasma erupting from Sun's atmosphere
Bubbles pack a punch equivalent to about 100 hurricanes
Also known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs
Affect functioning of technology in space and on the ground
Solar activity monitored by Stereo and Soho satellites
"If you want to get as many people as possible to provide data, you want to give them a warm feeling that it's not going to be misused, or allowed to drift off to people who might use it for things they didn't want."

One way to address the issue, he said, might be to place a software application between the sensitive data and end users. Information provided by participating countries would be used to train this interface. Users would then obtain the answers they require without ever seeing details of the satellite positions.

Space debris was once the principal concern of space surveillance, but a different threat comes from near-Earth objects - the primordial rocks left over from the formation of the Solar System.

It has been difficult to find funding for facilities directed exclusively towards Neo discovery. But Mr Tremayne-Smith said existing ground and space telescopes used for astronomy or military activities are eminently suitable for logging asteroids and comets.

"The third big peak in discovery of near-Earth objects below the 1km size was with the US GEODSS system used for looking at satellites. The US military allowed those satellites to be used for NEO detection while they weren't being otherwise utilised," he explains.

Space weather is the third component of Esa's SSA programme. The bulk of this discipline is concerned with solar activity. Radiation from flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Sun may launch X-rays and high energy particles towards Earth.

These phenomena can interfere with the operation of space systems, especially those beyond the protective screen of the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth.

But officials acknowledge the potential threat from deliberate attempts to interfere with satellites.

In September 2005, a London-based radio station called Sowt al-Amel (Voice of Hope), began beaming into Libya via satellite with the aim of promoting political reform in the North African country.

Within minutes of Sowt al-Amel's first broadcast, a high-powered signal of garbled noise was unleashed on the satellite uplink, drowning out the dissident station. But in jamming the signal, several other broadcasters, among them CNN and BBC World, were also blocked out.

Esa is a civilian agency and is not mandated to deal with security matters. But Gaele Winters explains: "If you develop the system, it could contain additional capabilities.

He adds: "The first priority is to build ground-based infrastructure. But it is not to be excluded that later in the programme, space-based monitoring could take place.

"If there is a problem with our satellite, we would like to have the ability to analyse precisely what is wrong with it. One way of doing that is from the ground using telescopes. Another is to have a satellite in orbit which could approach the damaged satellite and carry out a close inspection to see what is happening."

In January, it was reported that the US DoD had commanded two covert inspection satellites to examine a failed US Air Force missile warning satellite in geosynchronous orbit.

Mr Winters says several organisations, including the European Defence Agency, are studying the SSA proposals and may come up with security-related requirements to be added to those being compiled by Esa.

He comments: "It could well be that in the future, the European Union will take a bigger role in managing and funding the development of this system because of these aspects that are outside the scope of Esa, but are inside the mandate of the EU."

Space situational awareness is also regarded as an important step towards the holy grail of space traffic management. A system analogous to that which currently governs the movements of aircraft is still some way off.

But Richard Tremayne-Smith thinks Europe should consider this objective in the design of its SSA programme.

He explains: "This is just a personal view, but if Europe does something, it should have a very ambitious target in the longer term that leapfrogs other capabilities and goes to what is really needed to do the job, rather than just getting to the current state of the art."

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Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/04/10 07:15:49 GMT

[rdlaing] 28/3/2009 12:08

THIS year?

[waldron] 26/3/2009 06:58

Tracked asteroid debris collected
Debris from an asteroid tracked as it fell to Earth has been recovered by scientists for the first time, says a report in the science journal Nature.

Nearly 50 fragments of the asteroid were collected from the desert in Sudan where it fell last October.

Scientists say the discovery offers a unique opportunity to study the asteroid's route and chemical make-up.

It will also give new insights into how to tackle any larger asteroids heading towards Earth in the future.

The car-sized lump of rock, known as 2008 TC3, was detected by astronomers in the US state of Arizona in October last year.

" To actually see this object before it gets to the Earth's atmosphere and then follow it in, that's the unique thing "
Douglas Rumble
It was tracked by telescopes around the world until it disintegrated in the atmosphere above the Nubian desert region of Sudan.

Peter Jenniskens, author of the report and a scientist at the Seti Institute in California, then travelled to Sudan with a team of researchers to try to locate what remained of the asteroid.

An extensive ground search turned up 47 meteorite fragments for analysis.

"This asteroid was made of a particularly fragile material that caused it to explode at a high 37km (23 miles) altitude, before it was significantly slowed down," said Mr Jenniskens.

"This was a meteorite that was not in our collection, a completely new material."

'Unique'

The report's co-author, Douglas Rumble of the Carnegie Institution, said many meteorites had been observed before as they burned up on entering the Earth's atmosphere.


"It's been happening for years, he said. "But to actually see this object before it gets to the Earth's atmosphere and then follow it in, that's the unique thing."

When meteorites which have fallen to Earth are studied, researchers rarely have direct information of where the asteroid came from or what type it was.

The researchers studying 2008 TC3 say it was one of a very rare type of meteorite called ureilites, which may have originated from a single parent body.

After comparing the data on the asteroid and the fragments found in Sudan, they say 2008 TC3 may be relatively young, having spent only a few million years in the inner solar system.


Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/03/26 02:10:28 GMT