Because It Is There

Alan Hills 84001

2011-10-16T08:42:00.001-07:00

The Meteorite that started astrophysics.

Map of the Sky

2011-06-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Probably the best map of the night sky ever created.

Star Colors

2011-05-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

I accidentally took a pretty cool picture of Orion last year back in Cabo. I was looking that this picture more closely to see how well you can see the color of the stars, image below. There are definitely some cool colors there: Betelgeuse is clearly red and Rigel is very bluish purple. Some of the other ones are a little surprising, especially the green ones. I expect these all to be "bluish" by definition. I wonder if these colors are real or are due to the flicker of the atmosphere; if I took a few more pictures, I wonder if the color would be the same?

Bok Globules!

2011-05-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

Star Map

2011-05-15T16:02:00.001-07:00

Stars

2011-05-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Of the brightest stars in the night sky, which are the biggest? The smallest? How does their size compare to the sun? Which are closest? Furthest?

Some Messier Objects

2011-05-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

If you wanted to list and compare some of the most popular, most beautiful Messier objects in the night sky, how would you do it? Below is my attempt. The hardest thing about thinking about astronomy is that I have no concept about where things are, where they are placed. Useful astronomical maps are lacking. These is one that I found on wikipedia that I found useful (though way too cluttered). I sketched the constellations out (and didn't label them) and marked the Messier objects on that sketch (nebula in red and galaxies in blue). To give some info I included their distances (in the log of light years) and comparing the distances on a single line.

Visualization of Our Solar Systems Most Important Moons

2011-05-15T07:59:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to think of the best way to show the biggest / most important moons in our solar system. How do the following two visualizations help?

Main Tycho Remnant

2011-04-16T08:24:00.001-07:00

Apollo 15

2011-04-02T08:42:00.001-07:00

Types of Galaxies

2011-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Pleadies

2011-04-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Lovely Naming Convention for Stars

2011-03-20T06:45:00.001-07:00

Maps of the Apollo Missions

2011-03-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Giant Moon Day

2011-03-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Space Shuttle's Last Launch

2011-02-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

The Temperatures and Sizes of Earth and Others

2011-02-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

New Mexico Spaceport Open for Businesses

2010-12-24T08:34:00.001-08:00

Here.

October 11, 2010

2010-12-24T08:32:00.001-08:00

One step closer to space.

RU Cool Atlantic Crossing

2010-10-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

To Space!

2010-10-13T05:29:00.001-07:00

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Space X

2010-08-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

Space Exploration Technologies launched its Falcon 9 rocket into earth orbit on its inaugural flight lat month, a key milestone in the startup’s plan to take cargo into space once the last of the space shuttles retires.

Visualzing the Inner Planets

2010-07-13T06:35:00.001-07:00

here

Jupiter's Spots

2010-07-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Link here

Space Exploration

2010-07-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

What is the status of all these missions.

James Webb Telescope

2010-01-22T22:07:00.000-08:00

Current plans call for the telescope to be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in June 2014, on a five-year mission (10 year goal).[1] The JWST will reside in solar orbit near the Sun-Earth L2 point, which is on a line passing from the Sun to the Earth, but about 1.5 million km farther away from the Sun than is the Earth. This position, which moves around the Sun in exact orbital synchrony with the Earth, will allow JWST to shield itself from infrared from both Sun and Earth, by using a single radiation shield positioned between the telescope and the Sun-Earth direction.

Although JWST has a planned mass half that of the Hubble, its primary mirror (a 6.5 meter diameter gold-coated beryllium reflector) has a collecting area which is almost six times larger. As this diameter is much larger than any current launch vehicle, the mirror is composed of 18 hexagonal segments, which will unfold after the telescope is launched. James Webb had headed NASA from the beginning of the Kennedy administration through the Johnson administration (1961-68), thus overseeing all the manned launches in the Mercury through Gemini programs, until just before the first manned Apollo flight.

The Next Mission to Jupiter

2010-01-22T22:01:00.001-08:00

Last November, NASA announced it is officially proceeding with the Juno robotic mission to Jupiter. Scheduled to launch in August 2011 and reach the largest planet in 2016, the spacecraft will orbit the planet 32 times, skimming about 4,800 kilometers over the planet's cloud tops for about a year. The mission will focus on Jupiter's structure and evolution, and not on Europa or the other icy moons that may hide oceans under their surfaces — a disappointment if you ask me.

Manned Space Missions

2010-01-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

The Apollo program was undertaken by NASA during the years 1961 – 1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions. President John F. Kennedy announced this goal in 1961, and it was accomplished on July 20, 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission. Five other Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last one in 1972. These six Apollo spaceflights are the only times humans have landed on another world. Apollo was the third human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA, the space agency of the United States. It used Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicles, which were later used for the Skylab program and the joint American-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. These later programs are thus often considered to be part of the overall Apollo program. Looking back on what we got its difficult to justify another program besides the fact that it is our greatest accomplishment in the history of mankind.

Explorations of the Solar System

2010-01-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

First Underwater Volcano Eruption Video

2009-12-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Ares

2009-11-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

As part of the Constellation Program, in a move to make the heavy-lift vehicle more robust (predicting an increased launch thrust requirement) to send four astronauts, a lunar lander plus supplies, NASA has announced the Ares V rocket will be beefed up to cater for our future needs to get man back to the Moon. This huge vehicle is now designed to carry payloads of over 156,600 lb (71,000 kg), some 15,600 lb (or 10%) more than the original concept. Ares V was originally designed to be approximately the same length as the original Saturn V lunar rocket (361 feet or 110 metres long), but to accommodate an extra booster engine and extra payload volume, Ares V will be 381 feet (116 metres) long. This upgrade will be capable of sending far more instrumentation into space, an extra 15,600 lb (7,000 kg, or the equivalent mass of a male African elephant). Ares V had its successful first launch on October 28, 2009.

Photo of Orion

2009-11-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

My first picture of stars taken at the tip of the Baja penninsula. The stars identifiable include:

Meissa is a blue spectral type O giant star and is part of the Collinder 69 star cluster. It has an apparent visible magnitude 3.39. Meissa is actually a binary star system. The fainter star is of magnitude 6 and is 4.4 seconds of arc away from the brighter. It is a hot blue-white dwarf of spectral type B0.5 V.

Betelgeuse, known alternatively by its Bayer designation "Alpha Orionis," is a massive M-type red supergiant star nearing the end of its life. When it explodes it will even be visible during the day.

Rigel, which is also known as "Beta Orionis," is a B-type blue supergiant that is the sixth brightest star in the night sky. Similar to Betelguese, Rigel is fusing heavy elements in its core and will pass its supergiant stage soon (on an astronomical timescale), either collapsing in the case of a supernova or shedding its outer layers and turning into a white dwarf.

Gamma Orionis, is known colloquially as the "Amazon Star" and Bellatrix it is the twenty-second brightest star in the night sky.[7] Bellatrix is considered a B-type blue giant, though it is too small to explode in a supernova. Bellatrix's luminosity is derived from its high temperature rather than its radius,[8] a factor that defines Betelguese.

Mintaka garnered the name "Delta Orionis" from Bayer, even though it is the faintest of the three stars in Orion's Belt. It is a multiple star system, composed of a large B-type blue giant and a more massive O-type white star. The Mintaka system constitutes an eclipsing binary variable star, where the eclipse of one star over the other creates a dip in brightness.

Alnilam was named "Epsilon Orionis," a consequence of Bayer's wish to name the three stars in Orion's Belt (from north to south) in alphabetical order. Alnilam is a B-type blue supergiant, despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun as Mintaka and Alnitak, the other two belt stars, its luminosity makes it nearly equal in magnitude. Alnilam is losing mass quickly, a consequence of its size;[10] approximately four million years old.

Alnitak was designated "Zeta Orionis" by Bayer, and is the easternmost star in Orion's Belt. It is a triple star some 800 light years distant, with the primary star being a hot blue supergiant and the brightest class O star in the night sky.

Cursa, also known as Beta Eridani ) is the second brightest star in the constellation of Eridanus, located in the northeast end of this constellation. It has the traditional names Cursa and Dhalim. Eridani has an apparent visual magnitude which varies between 2.72 and 2.80 and a spectral type of A3III. It is approximately 90 light-years from the Earth.[1][2] It may be a member of the proposed Sirius Supercluster, along with other scattered stars such as Sirius itself, Beta Aurigae, Alpha Coronae Borealis, Zeta Crateris, and Beta Serpentis.

Johann Bayer named many of these stars in his star atlas Uranometria published in 1603

Ocean Exploration

2009-09-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

In contrast to the excitement of moon exploration and the colonization of outer space, there is less interest in a realm closer to home: the ocean. (Seaquest) Our oceans are less well known than the moon.When will ocean exploration be accessible to more people? When will ocean exploration become tourism? There is so much exploration left to be done, so many canyons, geolocgical strucutres (underwater volcanoes, sinkholes, mountains) and so many species left to discover and understand. There are lots of resources like minerals, energy, underwater forests. New species to be found and geological structures to be understood.

MIR submersibles, for example, can dive to a maximum depth of 6,000 metres (19,685 ft). This makes them two of only seven manned submersibles in the world that can dive beyond 3,000 metres (9,843 ft), the others being the US submersibles Alvin, Sea Cliff and Deepstar 20000, the Japanese owned Shinkai and the French owned Nautile. Up to 98% of the world’s oceans are under 6,000 metres deep.

In the mid 1990s and early 2000s, the MIR vehicles were used by American producer James Cameron to film the wreck of the RMS Titanic, resting at a depth of 3,821 metres, for his 1997 film Titanic and documentaries such as Ghosts of the Abyss, and to film the wreck of the Bismarck, resting at a depth of 4,700 metres, for his 2002 documentary film Expedition: Bismarck. In July 2008 both Mirs initiated a two-year expedition to Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater reservoir. The expedition is being led by the Russian Academy of Sciences.[10] During the expedition around 160 descents are planned to the bottom of the lake, which is largely unexplored to this point.

Another interesting research vessel is the RSS James Cook.

John Delaney at the University of Washington: The approach, dubbed the Neptune Project, would string 10 semiautomated geobiological labs across the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off Washington, 8,000 feet underwater. The approach, dubbed the Neptune Project, would string 10 semiautomated geobiological labs across the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off Washington, 8,000 feet underwater. Each would have cameras, lights, robots, and sensors, all connected to the surface via optical cable to transmit data on everything from the biomass of microbes to the effects of ocean temperature on weather

Astronomy Applets

2009-08-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

Solar System
Jupiter

Galaxies

2009-06-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

Understanding the motion, shape, structure, density and quantity of galaxies in the universe is the largest scale scientific pursuit of mankind with many questions still remaining.

At the level of the galaxy itself, astronomers have found that stars revolve around the center of galaxies at a constant speed over a wide range of distances from a galaxy's center. This behavior was not expected, assuming a free Newtonian potential. This contradiction has led scientists to speculate on the existence of extra mass called Dark Matter or the need for extra parameters in for Modified Newtonian Dynamics.

Other astronomical models predict that small galaxies in the early Universe evolved into the massive galaxies of today by coalescing. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have found some of these early galaxies, existing only 100 years after the big bang. Scientists were surprised to see their density so low raising many questions about how the early galaxies must have formed. Three of the galaxies appear to be slightly disrupted – rather than being shaped like rounded blobs, they appear stretched into tadpole-like shapes. This is a sign that they may be interacting and merging with neighbouring galaxies to form larger, cohesive structures. Other observations using wide field telescopes looking back to a time when it was a fifth of its present age have revealed an enormous string of galaxies about 300 million light-years long. This new structure defies current models of how the Universe evolved, which can't explain how a string this big could have formed so early.

Space X Launch

2009-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Space X successfully launched into orbit earlier this year, making it the first private industry to do so. I'm just a little late in reporting this.

Iran's Satellite Completes Mission

2009-03-22T11:46:00.001-07:00

here.

Sout Korea's First Rocket Launch

2009-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

here.

Space Elevator

2009-02-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

NASA offers $4M in prizes for bold technology that leads to space elevator.

Steep Terrain Rover

2009-02-06T11:15:00.001-08:00

The Past and Future of NASA

2009-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

The transition to a new president marks a new era for NASA and space exploration. While NASA begins to outsource more of its missions to private companies, current NASA projects are threatened due to possibly more urgent matters.

2008-12-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

Ah the sun, giver of light and heat and energy that sustains life on Earth. While the earth-sun system is ideally suited to support life, many other suns are not so fortunate.

What other types of "suns are out there? The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram describes much of the types of stars out there and the probabilities of each type.

A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.5–10 solar masses) that is in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower.
A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. As white dwarfs have mass comparable to the Sun's and their volume is comparable to the Earth's, they are very dense
Brown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects with a mass below that necessary to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, as do stars on the main sequence, but which have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth. Brown dwarfs occupy the mass range between that of large gas giant planets and the lowest mass stars; this upper limit is between 75[1] and 80 Jupiter masses (MJ).
A neutron star is a type of remnant that can result from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during a Type II, Type Ib or Type Ic supernova event. Such stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, which are subatomic particles with zero electrical charge and roughly the same mass as protons.
A quasar (contraction of QUASi-stellAR radio source) is an extremely bright and distant active galactic nucleus. They were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than extended sources similar to galaxies. While there was initially some controversy over the nature of these objects, there is now a scientific consensus that a quasar is a compact halo of matter surrounding the central supermassive black hole of a young galaxy

Enceladus via Cassini

2008-12-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Good stuff here.

Keck

2008-11-24T21:21:00.001-08:00

Keck Observatory

The Great Observatories

2008-11-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

The Great Observatories Program consists of:

* The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) primarily observes visible light and near-ultraviolet. A 1997 servicing mission added capability in the near-infrared range. It was launched in 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-31.
* The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) primarily observed gamma rays, though it extended into hard x-rays as well. It was launched in 1991 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-37. It was deorbited in 2000 after failure of a gyroscope.
* The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) was initially named the Advanced X-ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF). It primarily observes soft x-rays. It was launched in 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-93.
* The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) was called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) before launch. It observes the infrared spectrum, and was launched in 2003 aboard a Delta II rocket.

International Activity

2008-10-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

India isn't the only country involved in new space endeavors. The UK is due to continue its upgrade of military satellite communications systems with the launch of a new spacecraft. WHile Israel is poised to launch their own spy satellite, Russia plans to launch their own 13. China plans to build their own space station, aptly named: Project 921-2. Even countries like Nigeria can profit from space exploration. Sadly, Korea lost communication with the country's first multipurpose satellite launched last December.

Mars Lander Detects Falling Snow

2008-10-20T17:12:00.001-07:00

Article found here.

Saturn's Moons

2008-09-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Mars Soil

2008-09-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

The Pheonix Lander's wet chemistry lab has discovered that Mar's soil is mostly a percholate composed of chlorine and oxygen. This finding neither decreased nor increased the potential for life on Mars but does hint at the reason for the disappearance of water from the planet's surface.

Earlier news watched how quickly exposed patches of white (ice) evaporated:

Hello Mars!

2008-05-26T17:54:00.001-07:00

My favorite picture this year

Pheonix Mars Rover Update

2008-05-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

You can watch live coverage beginning today at 3 p.m. eastern time from NASA TV. The first successful transimssion is expected back at around 5 p.m. Fingers crossed...

Exploring Mars

2008-04-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Mars has enticed mankind since the dawn of civilization, but we have only recently begun to explore on missions including Viking and Pathfinder. Our most recent mission, Odyssey, which includes the Spirit and Opportunity rovers have had the greatest success in our exploring and aiding our understanding of the planet. However, these rovers face massive new challenges as the perilous third winter approaches and Nasa threatens to cut funding for basic operations.

Europe has been following close behind with the Mars Express orbiter mission and the planned ExoMars mission in 2013. Russia and China likewise have teamed up for a future joint mission.

The next U.S. mission, called Scout, has its first explorer, Phoenix planned to land sometime next month, as its makes small corrections in its trajectory. Following Phoenix, the next rover Scout has been delayed until 2013 from scheduling overlaps.

International Activity

2008-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

There has been considerable international buzz in space activity lately. For one the United Kingdon is upgrading its military communications system with the launch of a new spacecraft, the Skynet 5B. Sadly Korea has had its woes with its first multipurpose satellite when communications with it were lost earlier this year. Israel is planning to launch its own spy satellite while Russia plans to launch a whopping 13 satellites over the year. The Chinese are discussing prospects for building another space station. The increase in "outer space market" may even have significant advantages for third world countries like Nigeria.

Two Down, Four More To Go

2008-03-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

The 12 day mission of Endeavor included five spacewalks to install a Japanese laboratory to the ISS, before landing safely back in Florida.

How probable is a planet?

2008-03-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

The question of whether planets are the exception or the rule in the case of each and every star in our universe is fundamental. The Nebular Hyothesis helps explain some recently astonishing discoveries including a five planet system, potential habitable zones and a scaled down version of Jupiter and Saturn. Future research into the existence of planets lies on the shaky ground of TPF, SIM, CoRoT and Darwin. You can follow all of the planet finding activity at this blog.

The Private Satellite Industry

2008-03-08T21:22:00.001-08:00

The last two decades of the private satellite industry tells a rather sad story. After internet and mobile communications boomed in the mid 1990s, it seemed like there was no limit for satellites to provide the services through the S Band. But even the biggest companies: Teledesic, Globalstar and Iridium all faced near bankruptcy following the dotcom crash. Space Systems Loral seems to have fared best in persisting in this unpredictable market.

Earth Satellite Viewer

2008-02-28T10:20:00.001-08:00

This data visualization is really fantastic.

Saturn's Moon

2008-02-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

Mimas, a.k.a. "The Death Star".

How well do we know our own Solar System?

2008-01-15T23:58:00.000-08:00

Its difficult to appreciate that only for the past few decades have we made any attempt to explore and understand the worlds beyond planet earth that exist in our solar system. This includes planets as well as their moons, comets and asteroids that circle the sun. Most notable early explorations include the Mariner program folloed by the even more succesful Voyager missions. More recently, the Galileo probe and Cassini-Huygens probe. having gained deeper understanding of Jupiter and Saturn. Previous mission to comets such as Deep Impact and future mission such as EPOXI going to Comet Hartley and Rosetta. Future missions to Jupiter include Juno with expected launch in 2011 while other launches are still being considered. Finally, we have New Horizons is a mission headed to Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects. For a complete list of probes exploring our solar system, please see wikipedia's long list! These studies help us understand our own weather and geological systems as well as how the possibility for the existence of life on other worlds.

Polar Exploration

2007-12-31T09:20:00.000-08:00

As space exploration gains momentum, exploration of the Earth's least habitable environments gains increasing importance as kind of practice ground. For example, an international team of researchers has been sending robotic probes beneath the ice sheets of the Arctic to search for life near geothermal vents. This expedition will help scientists learn about how a robotic, sub surface expedition on Jupiter's moon, Europa might someday be carried out. Another project, using a robot explorer called Endurance, is exploring sub surface lakes in Antarctica. An unmanned aerial vehicle called Meridian is gearing up for several flights across Antarctica and Greenland beginning next year. Due to scarcity of natural resources in other parts of the globe and nations continue to argue over ownership, these exploratory missions on the poles may soon serve more practical purposes as well.

Armadillo Aerospace

2007-12-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

Armadillo is an aerospace company in Mesquite, Texas. Te company is funded heavily by John Carmack (creator of the video game Doom). They are a competitor in the space tourism industry with goals of orbital spaceflight. They were a competitor in the Lunar Lander Challenge where they failed to win the Level 1 prize after three failed attempts. Shown here is a successful attempt from another time.

Bigelow Aerospace

2007-12-26T14:39:00.001-08:00

Here is another space company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, focused on building expandable space station modules, based on devices developed at NASA. In the past year, Bigelow has shot two small prototype modules into space dubbed Genesis I and II, both of which are currently still in orbit. A shot over the Carribean from Genesis II shown here:

SpaceX

2007-12-16T15:21:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest wins in the near future for the private space industry would be a successful flight of Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 1 booster later in 2008. SpaceX is a company in El Segundo CA owned by Elon Musk, the founder of Zipf and Paypal. This following video is a second attempt launch of the Falcon 1 back in March of 2007, where the craft reached a final velocity of 11,000 km/hr at a time of 5:05 minutes into the launch when contact was lost.

To the Moon!

2007-11-20T22:40:00.000-08:00

As of October, Japan has successfully deployed a craft, Kaguya in orbit around the moon. Kaguya has recently returned some really awesome footage of the lunar terrain and the earth setting beyond the horizon. In a close second place, China has also launched their own lunar probe, Chang' e, into orbit last week. In similar fashion, South Korea has announced their own plans to reach the moon by 2020. Not to be out done, NASA's Vision for Space Exploration has U.S. astronauts scheduled to be back on the moon in 2020 and permanently staffing a base there by 2024 and Russia is planning a permanent moonbase by 2020. All the missions to the moon because of the potential He 3 to be mined? Or maybe it is just because it is there.

The Future of NASA

2007-10-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Early last month, NASA posted a hiring notice for astronauts who would fly aboard spacecraft other than the shuttle. The Orion moonship with assistance from the Ares Launch Vehicle will eventually replace the shuttle, but not until at least 2015 when Congress grants NASA adequate funding to serve its needs. Wll this be early enough to reach NASA's 2037 timeframe for a mission to Mars?

Trips to the IIS

2007-10-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Despite concerns over deteriorating wing panels on NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery, a 14 day space mission with a stop off at the International Space Station is still planned to begin October 23. They will be following Russia's Expedition 16 that also exchanged crew members of the IIS.

SpaceShip One

2007-10-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

Virgin Galactic's successful 40 mile trip into space in SpaceShip One, piloted by Mike Mellvil.

Launch of Blue Origin

2007-09-30T21:01:00.001-07:00

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com has his own private space company Blue Origin. Earlier this year, Blue Origin tested a space craft's rocket propelled launch capabilities, soaring to a nearly 300 foot summit before landing safely back to earth. This company has remained stealth over the past few years, making it difficult to ascertain the credibility of their endeavours.

Update on Private Space Companies

2007-09-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

Google has teamed up with the X Prize foundation to offer a 30 million dollar prize for anyone able to land a privately funded rover on the moon before the end of 2012.
Three workers from Scaled Composites were killed this summer when testing a rocket system for Virgin Galactic's ship.
Last summer, NASA announced that Rocetplane Kistler and SpaceX had been chosen to develop crew and cargo launch services for the international space station. Demonstation flights will begin in 2008 and the companies can receive over 200 million if all milestones were met.
The Galactic Suite hotel expects to be open for business in 2012 and will cost visitors 4 million dollars for a three day stay.
Construction for Virgin Galactic's Spaceport in southern New Mexico is coming along nicely

Mars Exploration

2007-09-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

In recent times, news headlines of Martian exploration have been frequent. After months of dust storms, the Opportunity Rover has begun its descent into the Victoria Crater. As part of NASA's Mars Scout Program the Pheonix explorer was successfully launched early this April. It is planned to land in the planet's carbon ice-capped northern polar region in May 2008 and use its robotic arm to dig into the Arctic terrain. The second part of the program with intended launch in 2011, has been narrowed down to two finalists that both intend to explore the Martian Atmosphere. For some competition, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been pushing forward with its design for a rover mission to send to Mars by 2013.

Back to the Moon!

2007-09-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Considering the current and planned space missions from nations all over the globe, all indicators are pointing to another race to the moon in the next decade. Following Bush's call for a return to the moon by 2020, NASA has released its plans for a new lunar orbiter to look for landing sites and a launch rocket to transport astronuats on future missions. The People's Republic of China has started the Chang'e space program with a launch set for early this fall. Just last week, Japan launched its own lunar orbiter SELENE in hopes of catching up with its Asian neighbor. To round off the edges, Russia plans a moon base by 2027 and India's Chandrayaan national space program project has its own ambitious goals. The sense of urgency that has overcome citizens across the globe is setting the stage for an astounding display of science, technology and discovery.

John F. Kennedy's Speech September 12, 1962

2007-09-17T00:04:00.000-07:00

President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief.

I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.

We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power.

Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.

This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward--and so will space.

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.

In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where the F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.

The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the the 40-yard lines.

Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.

The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 billion from this Center in this City.

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year¹s space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year--a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United Stated, for we have given this program a high national priority--even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.

But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.

I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. [laughter]

However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.

I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there."

Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.