MAIN ARTICLE: MoonDust = Water, Fuel, Oxygen.
If America is truly heading back to the moon to stay, utilizing lunar resources will be the number one priority. Learn what NASA is doing to make that a reality.
Poll Results: Yesterday's poll "Who should be the new Administrator of NASA?"
Star Trek: In the News. Guess what Star Trek actors will be presenting at the next Golden Globes? Scroll down to read the latest, click subscribe to keep informed.
Yesterday's Comments: "No - It's awful awful awful with plot holes large enough to fly V'Ger through." Hamilton Actor
Today's Poll: A strong email moves me to run another poll about "Who should be the Administrator of NASA?"
AMERICA'S VISION FOR SPACE EXPLORATION:
NASA is currently working on how to use local Lunar resources for a future outpost on Luna, Earth's closest neighbor. Today Space.Com had a great article on some tests that were recently being conducted in Hawai'i. I know what you must be thinking, "tests" conducted on some tropical beach holding some concoction of fruit juices and alcohol. Not the case this time, they were conducted on a volcano.
"On Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, which rises more than 13,000 feet above sea level, there is a mid-level base facility where scientists can pretend they are on the moon. Hawaii's volcanic terrain, soil and remote environment provide an ideal environment for testing instruments and equipment that someday may be used by astronauts at a lunar base.
Recently, a team of scientists working for the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) demonstrated its first field test for NASA's In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Project. Research Operations Manager John Hamilton supported the mission simulation to show how astronauts will be able to prospect for resources on the moon to make their own oxygen, fuel and water from lunar rocks and soil. A key motivation of these experiments is the fact that almost half the moon, by weight, is made of oxygen.
Representatives from four NASA space centers (Johnson, Kennedy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Glenn Research Center) were at the test site. Engineers from the Canadian and German space agencies also were at the site, as were representatives from Carnegie Mellon University, Lockheed Martin, and Michelin North America - making this field test a true global effort."
" "We know we have to do deal with lunar dust," said Jerry Sanders, ISRU Project Manager at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center. "We just didn't know we had to deal with it right now!" "
In situ is Latin meaning "in the place" and the ISRU project is designed for using resources that are in place on the moon.
Lunar Resource Utilization: Helping Astronauts "Live Off the Land"
"The In-Situ Resource Utilization Project consists of the following technology development areas:
- Excavation and Construction: harvesting lunar soil to produce oxygen and hydrogen; and perform construction tasks.
- Oxygen production facilities: establish processing plants on the moon that produce oxygen from lunar regolith at a rate of one metric ton (or more) per year.
Lunar Resource and ISRU Demonstration: RESOLVE (Regolith & Environment Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction): develop unit that characterizes mineral, volatile, and water/ice resources (and depth below surface) and demonstrates subscale oxygen extraction from regolith.
- Earth facilities/modeling: develop test facilities that simulate the lunar environment while considering the unique temperature, soil properties, dust particles and vacuum atmosphere on the moon."
The hardware to get us there is laid out in the ESAS:
"The Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) is the official title of a large-scale, system level study conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Summer of 2005 in response to American president George W. Bush's announcement on January 14, 2004 of his goal of returning astronauts to the Moon and eventually Mars — known as the Vision for Space Exploration (and unofficially as "Moon, Mars and Beyond" in some aerospace circles, though the specifics of a manned "beyond" programme remain vague)."
PAGE 2:
This was going to run as the main article today but, to be honest, was getting tired of the drama. As the 50 or so polls ran so far have shown, policy and hardware interests me more then personalities. Only four have been about people. (It is my hope the personality dramas will soon be over)
Two editorials, Orlando Sentinel, Florida Today and a letter to the editor by Gene Kranz. If you read the full letter by Gene you will see I didn't repeat the five paragraphs in a row he started of with " I ".
(thought it was supposed to be about support for Griffin not himself)
Brackets [ ] are mine.
EDITORIAL
We think: NASA's chief paved the way for his exit by dismissing other views
"Mr. Griffin's approach to NASA's next manned mission -- the moon and Mars program called Constellation -- has been my-way-or-the-highway. Coupled with his cavalier attitude toward chronic cost overruns in other programs, Mr. Griffin has become the wrong man to steer the agency forward. His impatience with criticism is a troubling throwback to the days when dissenting views at NASA were suppressed, with disastrous consequences.
Mr. Griffin has asserted that Ares I, a rocket he helped design from parts of the shuttle, is the best way to send astronauts back to the moon. But that assertion has been called into question in interviews and documents obtained by Sentinel reporters that indicate modified military rockets could do the job sooner and cheaper."
[ scrap Ares I, use EELV's ]
Reassessing Constellation will waste space resources
Obama should rename Griffin as NASA's leader by Gene Kranz
"Concluding my Senate testimony I spoke of the necessity to continue with the current NASA leadership team stating, "Mike Griffin is the finest leader I have seen at the helm of NASA for the last two decades."
He is the leader the agency deserves — one who has the respect of all levels of the organization, the respect of the congressional committees responsible for NASA oversight, and has the technical and program management ability to establish priorities, course correct as necessary, and make the "go, no go" decisions.
Space is an asset to inspire youth, expand space sciences, develop new technology, generate spin-off industries and assure our position for the future. The nation faces many challenges in the months and years to come. Regardless of whether President-elect Obama keeps Griffin as administrator (and I believe he should), Griffin has been the leader NASA needed at a critical time in the agency's history. If Griffin is not retained, I hope that the Obama administration will listen to his wise counsel and expertise."
[ Keep Griffin, Ares I & Ares V ]
Our views: NASA, post-Griffin
Obama and new administrator should stick to current return-to-moon plan
"For Constellation, the Obama administration should stick with the current plan of building a new fleet of Ares 1 rockets and Orion manned spacecraft and try to close the five-year gap between the time the shuttles retire and Ares-Orion become operational.
NASA still has to overcome development problems with Ares, which is three years down its design road. But the issues are hardly insurmountable or out of school for a new rocket that’s headed toward its first test flight this year from Kennedy Space Center.
Meanwhile, talk among some Obama advisers to drastically shift gears and possibly dump Ares — which is designed to carry just humans — and replace it with the Atlas 5 or Delta 4 rockets would open a large can of worms and should be dropped.
Those vehicles are currently used to launch satellites and would have to be redesigned to fly astronauts — not an easy task. NASA studies show the rockets would be more dangerous for astronauts to ride aboard than Ares 1, a point Griffin reportedly made with vehemence to the Obama team.
Furthermore, attempting to redesign the Atlas or Delta to meet strict manned spaceflight requirements could ultimately lengthen the five-year gap.
Trying to significantly extend the aging shuttle fleet’s life also is prohibitively expensive and far too risky"
[ Don't extend the Shuttle, keep the moon program. ]
POLL RESULTS:
Yesterday's poll "Who should be the new Administrator of NASA?" showed one clear favorite among those DKOS members taking part in the poll. Charles Bolden captured 74% with Sally Ride a distant second with 12% and the rest of the field in single digits.
STAR TREK: In the News.
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (Stars of New "Star Trek" Movie) Set as Presenters at Golden Globe Awards
"HOLLYWOOD, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Jan 8, 2009 -- Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, the actors starring as Captain James T. Kirk and Spock during their early Starfleet careers in the upcoming "Star Trek" movie, have been set as presenters and will make their first live television appearance at "The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards" to be telecast live on NBC Sunday, January 11 (8 - 11 p.m. EST) at The Beverly Hilton."
YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
"Re: your mention of a moon mission I was in college (and the convent) in 1969. We were allowed to stay up and watch the landing -- remarkable since we otherwise only saw 1/2 of news. One of the chemists at my small Catholic all women college was Sister Mary Ellen Murphy. She was asked by NASA to test some of the moon rocks for evidence of life or chemicals that could support life. We were pretty stunned to have our school be part of such an incredible adventure." - gchaucer2
Bill White: "Perfect timing for me ... Since my next diary is intended to be about using space exploration as a tool to advance the notion that the United States can be a team player as well as a gun slinging cowboy.
Project Apollo was all about proving our technology could stomp Soviet technology.
Today? Proving that again isn't all that useful, in geo-political terms.
However, proving we can be a team player (after Mr. Unilateral Gee Dubya Bush) is very much in our strategic geopolitical interest and space exploration gives us a venue for doing that.
Cue up Charles F. Bolden . . .
"I'd like to offer a closing thought on what I believe continues to be one of the greatest benefits of human space exploration – the incredible opportunity for international engagement and cooperation in a common goal of furthering our understanding of this universe in which we live. Experts site all kinds of reasons for the peaceful cooperation of Russia and the United States today, but I feel that a primary reason that Russia even exists today in relative peace and prosperity is due to the continued support and cooperation we gave to them from the days of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 through the fall of the Soviet Union continuing to today. We have an opportunity to forge the same kind of alliance with the people of China by fully welcoming them into the family of space-faring nations and opening opportunities to them to join with us in the peaceful human and robotic exploration of space. As is a common practice in our military, peaceful engagement with potential adversaries frequently makes them long- term partners in pursuit of the common goal of international peace and stability."
"bolden is great he has been a terrific ambassador for the space program with a great sense of humor.
he's a first rate choice; change i can believe in.
i just took the kids to the kennedy space center; bolden appears as the video guide for their shuttle launch simulation. my kids thought he was terrific.
about time we brought someone in to nasa that could inspire." - The Poet Deploreate
"But can he be an agent of change because that is what we need at NASA - someone who can transform it into an agency that not only inspires, but rather actually allows and encourages the average person to become involved in space development, directly." - Ferris Valyn
TODAY'S POLL:
Yesterday I received an email rebuking me on my choices on the poll for who should replace Dr. Griffin as the NASA Chief Administrator. Now if this had been some random email from a faceless name on DKOS I could have easily dismissed it and went on about my business. This was from a family member though and you know how that goes, if you have to live around them it is hard to ignore. I was chastised for not having more females on the list of replacements, namely, Lori Garver. As I have seen, not only in the comment section here, but on other space blogs, I explained to her Lori was not considered to be in the running. Her response was "If she wasn't a candidate she wouldn't have been the leader of the transition team!" So, here we are. I will run the poll again and include Lori and I will also include a no opinion option as one commenter would have liked that option.
(see yesterday's main article for a run down of potential candidates)
Other NASA Diaries on DKOS