RIP Eugene Cernan

U.S. Navy Captain Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, Jan. 16,

Previous to the final Apollo mission, Cernan piloted the Gemini 9 mission with Commander Thomas P. Stafford on a three-day flight in June 1966. Cernan logged more than two hours outside the orbiting capsule.

In May 1969, he was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 10, the first comprehensive lunar-orbital qualification and verification test of the lunar lander. The mission flew the lunar module to within eight nautical miles of the moon's surface.

for more click here

Listener Joe mentioned something of note concerning the most recent NASA crew to the ISS.

Peggy Whitson will be spending her next birthday aboard the ISS.  She will be 57 years old.  The oldest to date had been Barbara Morgan, who was 55 during her tour aboard the station. 

This of course is NOT Whitson's first tour of duty aboard the station.  Whitson first served a duty on the space station in 2012 and has accumulated a total of 377 days in space, plus a history of performing successful spacewalks. 

Aside from being the oldest female astronaut to reach the ISS, Whitson will also break the world record this expedition for the longest time spent in space, a record currently held by NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams with 534 days under his belt.

For more - click HERE

NASA Gets More Than a Few Good Men and Women

Far from being DOA, interest in NASA's astronaut program is alive and well and growing!

It seems that more than 18,300 people applied to join NASA’s 2017 astronaut class.  This is almost three times the number of applications
received in 2012 and far surpassing the previous record of 8,000 in 1978.

Former astronaut, now NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said "It’s not at all surprising to me that so many Americans want to contribute to our journey to Mars.  A few exceptionally talented men and women will become the astronauts chosen in this group who will once again launch to space from U.S. soil on American-made spacecraft.”

For complete NASA article you can click HERE

Daily Life of an Astronaut

Hey I know a lot of this material is kind of redundant, however it is just enough fun to make it diverting. I thought it was fun.

Mainer Selected for Granting of Life's Dream

Long time listener Leinad Ztrev (Yeah, who knew?!) found an article in a recent Press Herald.

This article talks about  and how NASA has granted one of  Jessica  Meir's   life long dream of being an astronaut

From the article:

• Jessica U. Meir, a 1995 graduate of Caribou High School who now works in Boston, could be among the leaders of a manned mission to an asteroid in the 2020s and to Mars in the following decade, according to a statement issued by NASA.
•  Meir, 35, is among eight astronaut trainees who were introduced  by NASA to be in its first training class in four years

The truly amazing fact about Meir's selection was NASA chose her from an astronaut pool of over 6,000 candidates!

If Meir can successfully complete the two year, intense training regiment, she could join fellow astronaut Chris Cassidy, the only other active astronaut from Maine. Cassidy, is now serving aboard the International Space Station.

RIP: Neal Armstrong

The commander and the first human to ever set foot on another world died 8/25/12 from complications from heart surgery. He was 82 years old.

Armstrong made his history making foot print July 21, 1969, this however was not his first space record. During his first mission in space, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft, during the Gemini 8 mission in 1966, with pilot David Scott.

Apollo 11 was his second and last space flight.

Armstrong's surgery took place on August 7, 2012, to relieve blocked coronary arteries. He died on August 25, following complications from the surgery. President Barack Obama released a statement calling Armstrong "among the greatest of American heroes – not just of his time, but of all time

Boeing to Use Its Own System to Lift Its Own Astronauts

Did you know Boeing has its own astronauts? Neither did I, however I was reading this article in Dvice about private companies due to take over a majority of the LEO work and there was Boeing's name right in the middle. From what I hear they were considered front runners to pick up a majority of the Low Earth Orbit flights to the ISS but then I saw a link to their crew lifter called the CST-100, for Crew Space Transportation vehicle, that every one thought was their bid to augment NASA's efforts. But over the past few days it has become clear that the CST-100 will be used for Boeing's own commercial spaceflight program.

From the article:

• To that end, Boeing is aiming at docking its CST-100 with the International Space Station with two of its own employees on board. The company plans to test its craft twice in 2015 before the manned mission attempt: the first time to see how it goes, followed by a second launch to test out the capsule's abort system.

And it seems that Boeing isn't the only company opting for its own Crew Transport System. Lockheed Martin is said to have a vehicle in the works.

Post Atlantis Soyuz Rides Cost What?!!

Well, since the shuttle Atlantis is home and NASA now completely dependent on Russia for rides to the ISS, I thought I would check to see if the figures I had been quoted for each ride were insanely wrong. So I checked an article Space Daily and this is exactly what I got from the article.

Get ready...here it comes:

• NASA has signed a deal worth 306 million dollars with Roskomos for six rides to the ISS in 2012 and 2013, or a charge of 51 million dollars per US astronaut.

I thought that was insane but now that Russia has a monopoly it plans on increasing those costs significantly. CBS Evening News site is quoting 60 million as the ongoing charge now for training and a ride.


Even crazier is the fact that the original plans were to decom the iss in 2015 and ditch it in the ocean. Luck has it that the other partner countries are negotiating the station life out to 2020 (glad someone has sense)

comments?

pic CBS evening News

Astronauts & Spacecraft captured by Amateur Astronomer

Shaun Saunders sends in a link to Wired which documents a site with absolutely amazing space photography. The site is called Telescopic Spaceflight Images and was produced and is hosted by Ralf Vandebergh.

Ralf writes on the web page about the images:

• Images are obtained by the use of a 25cm (0.25m) Newtonian reflecting telescope. Tracking is accomplished fully manually using a second smaller scope at low magnification. The best results occur mostly at times when lighting angle, viewing angle, distance and other factors for viewing the objects were favorable. But, as the site's author puts it, often it was surprise and happenstance obtaining quality shots.

Whatever the case, I love the results!

Wired article

Moon Astronauts May Have a GPSesk System When They Return

Gizmodo reports that the next astronauts to visit the moon will have one travel guide that the previous visitors didn't. A Global Positioning system. The new positioning system being developed by Ohio State researcher Ron Li will "rely on signals from a set of sensors including lunar beacons, stereo cameras, and orbital imaging sensors" to simulate GPS. NASA has awarded a $1.2 million grant to develop the LASOIS system over the next three years, in hopes that it will help the astronauts explore the lunar surface with a greater degree of confidence and be able to range further afield.
- More -

rats....sinkin ship...here are the signs

Well with the Shuttle missions winding down and the follow on program mostly pickup rides in a Soyuz, astronauts at NASA are starting to find ummm what's the term?... other gainful employment? NASA is reporting that veteran shuttle astronaut James Reilly has left NASA to accept a position in the private sector and Veteran space shuttle astronaut Barbara R. Morgan will leave NASA in August to become an educator at Idaho's Boise State University.

ain't sayin nuttin

<nasa story reilly>
<nasa story morgan>

Non Profit to study "gravity tractor"

Michael Reilly writing in IO9 writes a pretty scathing criticism of NASA's future plans as they concern NEOs and the possibility of impacts. As he writes: "While Griff and his Bush Administration cronies dust off their tie-dye shirts, smoke a bowl and try to relive NASA's Apollo golden years with their mission back to the Moon, it's good to know someone's paying attention to the Asteroid threat. " Who is the "someone" he mentions? That's Rusty Schweickart who is heading up the B612 Foundation. The non-profit is kicking $50,000 to a group of experts at Jet Propulsion Labs to study the "gravity tractor" method of deflecting Earth crossing objects or more accurately objects that are about to hit Earth.


The gravity tractor method is brilliant in its simplicity. Blowing up these objects is not an option. The only thing you change with that method is the difference of getting hit with a rifle bullet or a shotgun blast. Other methods rely on mounting engines on the objects. But this requires that you balance the engines exactly or fire the engines only when they are aligned properly. Also there are the size of the engines to consider. With our rocket tech at present, it would be like an ant pushing the QE2. So what makes the Gravity Tractor so attractive? Well in space you don't have to overcome friction only enertia. Also, no matter how big the mass differential, one mass will always atract another. So this is where the brilliant part kicks in. The idea is to build a fairly massive space craft. It could be build out of Lunar material or other small asteroids or whatever. It doesn't have to be unrealisticly huge, just as big as possible. The idea is to park this craft close to an incoming object. The masses will attract and what the tractor does is to keep the object at a constant distance with rockets or whatever. Its not mounted to the object at all. So the asteroid is allowed to spin and do whatever, but its never allowed to touch the tractor. Ever so slowly its pulled off its trajectory that would impact Earth. The real trick is that it has to be done early in its orbit. Because the attraction forces are light, it will take time to move the really massive objects. But once detected, setting the tractor up is the "easy" part.



<LiveScience.com via IO9>

Image: B612 Foundation

Space radiation may cause prolonged cellular damage to astronauts

With major implications for long-duration space travel, a study from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center demonstrates that the high-energy radiation found in space may lead to premature aging and prolonged oxidative stress in cells. The findings suggest that astronauts may be at increased risk of colon cancer due to exposure to the high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation found in space.

“Radiation exposure, either intentional or accidental, is inevitable during our lifetimes,” says Kamal Datta, M.D., assistant professor at Lombardi and the study’s lead author. “But with plans for a mission to Mars, we need to understand more about the nature of radiation in space. There is currently no conclusive information for estimating the risk that astronauts may experience.” Full release

Canada Recruiting New Astronauts

Canadian Space Agency will begin a national astronaut recruitment campaign at the end of May 2008, to select astronauts to join its Canadian Astronaut Corps.

Those selected will take part in long-duration spaceflights on the International Space Station. The application process will open at the end of May 2008. To apply, candidates will complete an application form on the Canadian Space Agency Website. Final selections in May 2009. Two astronaut candidates will be selected. A pool of qualified candidates will also be created for service in the future.

"This is an exciting career and we hope that many Canadians apply," said Guy Bujold, President of the Canadian Space Agency.

Firefly & Serenity in space

Hey this is neat! I was reading though the TVSquad blog entries and came across an article that was describing some of the things that astronaut Steven R. Swanson delivered to the ISS on his last shuttle mission. Among other essentials were copies of Firefly and Serenity DVDs!!! Seems Swanson is a die hard fan and just had to have the movies with him. A fan blog reporst that Steven also won over the rest of his shuttle flight astronauts during their 5 hour quarantine before the shuttle Atlantis launched earlier this month.

Space Pioneer Wally Schirra Dies At 84

From CBS news

Astronaut Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on all three of NASA's early space missions, has died at the age of 84. Schirra, commanded the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit, in 1962. Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours. He returned to space three years later as commander of Gemini 6-A and guided his two-man capsule toward Gemini 7, already in orbit. On Dec. 15, 1965, the two ships came within a few feet of each other as they shot through space, some 185 miles above the Earth. It was the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit. His third and final space flight in 1968 inaugurated the Apollo program. For the Apollo 7 mission in October 1968 — which followed the deadly Apollo launch pad fire which killed fellow Mercury teammate Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee — Schirra's crew ran a shakedown cruise, and for eleven days, they tested what was essentially a brand new spacecraft in every possible way. In all, Schirra logged nearly 300 hours in space.

Thanks to Nelson for bringing this to my attention

Space shield to block radiation

British scientists are planning to see whether a Star Trek-style deflector shield could be built to protect astronauts from radiation. They argue that magnetic shields could be deployed around spacecraft and on the surfaces of planets to deflect harmful energetic particles. Scientists hope to mimic the magnetic field which protects the Earth. There are a variety of risks facing future space explorers, not least of which is the cancer-causing radiation from cosmic rays and solar flares that astronauts will encounter when they venture beyond the Earth's protective magnetic envelope, or magnetosphere. To create the deflector shield around a spacecraft or on the surface of a planet or moon, scientists need to generate a magnetic field and then fill it with ionised gas called plasma. The plasma would held in place by a stable magnetic field (without the magnetic field, the plasma would simply drift away). This shield could be deployed around a spacecraft or around astronauts on the surface of a planetary body such as the Moon. As energetic particles interact with the plasma, energy is sapped away from them and they slow down.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

Lunar dust 'may harm astronauts'

Scientists are investigating the possible threat posed to astronauts by inhaling lunar dust.

A study suggests the smallest particles in lunar dust might be toxic, if comparisons with dust inhalation cases on Earth apply.

Teams hope to carry out experiments on mice to determine whether this is the case or not.

Nasa has set up a working group to look into the matter ahead of its planned return to the Moon by 2020.

The health effects of inhaling lunar dust have been recognised since Nasa's Apollo missions.

Astronaut Harrison H (Jack) Schmitt, the last man to step on to the Moon in Apollo 17, complained of "lunar dust hay fever" when his dirty space suit contaminated the habitation module after an energetic foray on the lunar surface.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

NASA's plan for unstable astronauts: Duct tape, tranquilizers

What would happen if an astronaut became mentally unstable in space and, say, destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard? It turns out NASA has detailed, written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say the astronaut's crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary. The crew members might have to rely in large part on brute strength to subdue an out-of-control astronaut, since there are no weapons on the space station or the shuttle. A mentally unstable astronaut could cause all kinds of havoc that could endanger the three crew members aboard the space station or the six or seven who typically fly aboard the shuttle. The checklist says astronauts can be restrained and then offered oral Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat agitation and mania, and Valium. If the astronaut will not cooperate, the drugs can be forcibly given with a shot to the arm.