Astro Space News 29 March 2010

David Reneke’s Astro Space News 2010-03-29

David Reneke is one of Australia’s most well known and respected astronomy educators and lecturers, having over 40 years experience in astronomy with links to some of the world’s leading astronomical institutions. David is the Editor for Australia’s Astro-Space News Magazine and is now affiliated as a writer and publicist for the prestigious ‘Australasian Science’ magazine. David teaches astronomy at college level, is an invited speaker at astronomy conventions throughout Australia, a feature writer for major Australian newspapers, and is a science correspondent for ABC and commercial radio stations. In these weekly radio interviews David regularly appears on over 60 networked stations across Australia with all the latest news and on general astronomy and space discovery issues. David’s audience numbers around 3 million listeners weekly! Click HERE or on the image below to visit his site

ASTRO DAVE ‘SOUNDS OFF’

You know, I speak on 16 diferent radio stations each week and invariably questions are raised from the listening audience. Of the most asked are things like what’s in the night sky, have we made ‘contact’ yet and why not and mundane stuff like “why don’t you get a real job” and the like. Just kidding. But, the big one always surfaces, ” Why are we (read the USA) spending money going into space when it should be used to help people here.” Well, the fact of the matter, as I point out time and time again, is that it is helping people here.

There are about 1,000 things that are a direct spin-off of the space program that you use everyday, in one form or another. Like to watch a live tennis match overseas? Sure, well ya wouldn’t be able to do it without a satellite. How about breaking news events? Yep, there goes another satellite. Hey, do you call people overseas? You guessed it, another satellite. Did you know they use miniature cameras to aid surgery by being able to go inside and expolore the human body… yep, all from the space program. Think about this next time the question comes up – for every $1 spent on the space program $7 is returned back to the economy. Good value huh?

Stories We’re Covering This Week

VSS Enterprise’s first ‘captive carry’ flight!

Virgin Galactic announced last week that VSS Enterprise has completed her inaugural captive carry flight from Mojave Air and Spaceport. This very first captive carry was a huge success and both the mothership and spaceship looked absolutely stunning against the blue back drop of the Mojave skies. Commenting on the historic flight, Burt Rutan said: “This is a momentous day for the Scaled and Virgin Teams. The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program.” Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic added: “Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly.

Flight plan confirming Armstrong’s first words on the moon to be auctioned

An original lunar flight plan which settles the debate about what astronaut Neil Armstrong meant to say when he first walked on the moon is expected to fetch as much as £55,000 at auction.The document carries an inscription by Armstrong that he had intended to say “one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind”. But the indefinite article was accidentally omitted and the erroneous phrase “one small step for man …” has gone down in history as one of the most memorable of the 20th Century.  Armstrong is said to have clarified his comment in writing while in quarantine after he returned from Apollo 11′s epic journey in July 1969. The document was authenticated by NASA.

Astrologer sues Nasa over probe

A Russian astrologer has sued Nasa for crashing a probe into a comet, claiming it has distorted her horoscope. Marina Bai is sought $300m (£170m) in damages, saying the probe’s impact on Comet Tempel 1 violated her “life and spiritual values”. She had tried to have a Moscow court prevent the experiment from taking place but her action was rejected. Nasa smashed the washing machine-sized “impactor” into the comet at a distance of 133m km from Earth years ago to discover what’s inside a comet. “It is obvious that elements of the comet’s orbit and associated ephemera will change after the explosion, which interferes with my practice of astrology and deforms my horoscope,” Ms Bai told the Izvestia daily newspaper.

Her lawyer, Alexander Molokhov, said the case was based on solid legal ground.

Nasa scientists hope the experiment will reveal new information on the Solar

Britain launches first space agency

Britain launched its own space agency Tuesday with the help of home-grown astronaut Major Timothy Peake, aimed at boosting the country’s multi-billion-pound space technology industry. The new agency will replace British National Space Centre (BNSC) and initially operate out of the BNSC headquarters in Swindon, west of London. While Peake may be its only astronaut, Britain is a world leader in areas such as robotics, satellites and telecommunications, which contribute about six billion pounds (nine billion dollars, 6.7 billion euros) a year to the economy. The new UK Space Agency will manage what is now a loose partnership of government departments and research councils dealing with space.

World Moon Bounce Day 2010  April 17th  CourtesyEOA)

I’m including this because it’s not only important but it’s from a group I have tons of respect for. Robert Brand is the man behind ‘Echoes of Apollo’ and I urge you to check out his site and give him and his team as much support as you can. Echoes of Apollo also support and run the news from my ‘Astro Space News’ site. This major event will add a new word to most people’s vocabulary – Moon Bounce. Moon Bounce has been happening for almost as long as the oldest of us can remember. From the early days when it was thought to be a means of communications that the military could exploit right through to today’s more peaceful use by amateur radio hobbyists. So what is moon bounce? It is simply bouncing radio waves off the moon’s surface and back to earth. 

Russia plans to resume space tourism

Russia says it could offer more seats than ever to space tourists when the program begins again in two to three years. Russian halted the program last year because all seats aboard its spacecraft were needed to ferry crew to the International Space Station. The nation’s RSC Energia now has the capability to build five Soyuz spacecraft per year instead of four, which means one spacecraft could be designated for space tourists after 2012, RIA Novosti reported Friday. Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, began ferrying wealthy tourists in 2001 with the flight of Dennis Tito, an U.S. businessman. In all, seven space tourists have made the journey, the latest, Canadian Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, who flew to the space station.

To see Mars, visit Australia

Ever wondered what it would be like on the planet Mars? You can see the next best thing right here on Earth in Australia’s vast and ancient desert regions, according to a new scientific study. The red-brown weathered rocky gibber plains of the Strzelecki and Sturt Stony Deserts, for example, bear a striking resemblance to the panoramas produced by several Mars landers, says a team of Australian researchers. Many features common to Australia’s desert regions have also been identified in images taken from Mars orbit. Yet few scientists have explored the potential of Australia’s quintessential desert landforms as research analogues for the surface of Mars, notes the team, which includes several researchers from the UNSW Australian Centre for Astrobiology.

Cosmos has billions more stars than thought

Astronomers may have underestimated the tally of galaxies in some parts of the Universe by as much as 90 percent, according to a study reported on Wednesday in Nature, the weekly British science journal. Surveys of the cosmos are based on a signature of ultraviolet light that turns out to be a poor indicator of what’s out there, its authors say. In the case of very distant, old galaxies, the telltale light may not reach Earth as it is blocked by interstellar clouds of dust and gas — and, as a result, these galaxies are missed by the map-makers.”Astronomers always knew they were missing some fraction of the galaxies… but for the first time we now have a measurement. The number of missed galaxies is substantial.

Swinburne – Searching for the ultimate wave

Swinburne University of Technology astronomers are engaged in a quest to discover the most elusive waves in the universe – Einstein’s gravitational waves – using the largest ‘instrument’ imaginable: an array of burnt-out giant stars that are spinning hundreds of times a second. A joint international project between Swinburne, the CSIRO and the universities of Manchester and Cagliari, the researchers plan to find signals from the fast-twirling pulsars to detect and study these waves. Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing Director Professor Matthew Bailes said the fastest of these pulsars produce a radio signal of exceptional regularity. Therefore, an extended distortion in the regularity of a pulsar’s signal could indicate the passage of a gravitational wave.

Will Discovery be ‘Go for launch’ or forced to ‘Roll Back’?

NASA engineers will conduct additional tests to determine if Discovery can launch “as is” or have to be rolled back for repairs — which would mean a three-month delay for the STS-131 mission. Helium regulator assemblies downstream from a failed isolation valve in the shuttle’s right rear maneuvering engine pod must work perfectly to provide a system redundancy that would justify proceeding with the flight. If they don’t, then the regulator assemblies and the valve would need to be repaired or replaced, and neither can be done at the launchpad – meaning Discovery would have to be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, de-mated from the SRBs and external tank, and sent to the Orbiter Processing Facility for repairs. But if the regulators check out, and no other problems arise, mission managers could give the ‘go’ to launch Discovery as is on April 5, 2010.

How To Impress An Alien (Or Not)

It’s about fifty years since Frank Drake sent out our first chat request to the wider universe. I say about as I think the official date is 11 April 1960. While no-one is really concerned that we haven’t had an answer back yet, it is a little despondent to have scanned the skies for someone else’s chat request all this time and found nothing. In a recent interview (actually January 2010 – they were really getting in early), Drake refers to his equation delivering an answer in the order of one in 10 million stars having an advanced civilization – and he uses that statistic to indicate it’s too early to think we have done a statistically adequate scan yet.Nonethe less, the chances of there being advanced civilizations near enough to enable a future United Federation of Planets already looks doubtful.

Drake’s initial communication efforts in Project Ozma were small scale.

Buzz Aldrin App Brings Space Program Down to Earth

With all deference to prime-time dancing competitions, Buzz Aldrin has done things vastly more important than competing on “Dancing with the Stars.” For those interested in the second man to walk on the moon or just space exploration in general, a new iPhone app can help answer questions.  The Buzz Aldrin Portal to Science & Space Exploration is a new app created by the aptly named App Company. The Buzz Aldrin Portal to Science & Space Exploration is a new app created by the aptly named App Company. According to the company website, “This must-have App for space enthusiasts will feature both nostalgic look-backs on Buzz’s famous space missions with video, photos and personal stories, as well as a comprehensive treatment of all major space initiatives and programs.” The 80-year-old Buzz Aldrin, a veteran of several space missions including the historic Apollo 11 moon landing of July 1969, takes a large role in the content