MAIN ARTICLE: The Budget.
The acting NASA Administrator Chris Scolese was before the Committee on Science and Technology yesterday talking about President Obama's current NASA budget.
Page 2: Robots Could Build a Base on the Moon.
Page 3: Putin Says Russia Needs New Rockets To Increase Launch Market Share.
Poll Results: Yesterday's poll had a very strong turnout with mixed emotions. Scroll down for the latest results, click subscribe for more space news.
Star Trek: In the News. SDSU Professor Using "Star Trek" Episodes To Teach History.
Yesterday's Comments: "Sorry, Vladislaw. I'm a liberal. I prefer nuclear latte. (Imagine the foam.)" - Crashing Vor
Today's Poll: The NASA budget, moving in the right direction?
BUDGETS BUDGETS EVERYWHERE...
Yesterday's Statement of Christopher Scolese Administrator (Acting) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration before the Committee on Science and Technology - U.S. House of Representatives.
It held some great news, if of course it is followed up, for the space community, the science community and for those wanting to see more climate data collection.
Below are some excerpts from the 13 page PDF file:
The FY 2010 budget does a number of things: it supports the Administration’s commitment to deploy a global climate change research and monitoring system; it funds a strong program of space exploration involving humans and robots with the goal of returning Americans to the moon and exploring other destinations
Using the National Research Council’s recommended priorities for space-based Earth science research as its guide, NASA will develop new space-based research sensors in support of the Administration’s goal to deploy a global climate research and monitoring system.
The FY 2010 NASA request funds a robust program of space exploration involving humans and robots.
The Agency will create a new chapter of this legacy as it works to return Americans to the Moon by 2020. NASA also will send a broad suite of robotic missions to destinations throughout the solar system and develop a bold new set of astronomical observatories to probe the mysteries of the universe, increasing investment in research, data analysis, and technology development in support of these goals.
With the FY 2010 request, NASA will complete the International Space Station (ISS) and advance the development of new space transportation systems and the unique scientific research that can be conducted onboard the ISS. The FY 2010 budget request funds for the safe flight of the Space Shuttle to complete the ISS, incorporates an additional flight to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the ISS, and then retires the Shuttle.
Funds freed from the Shuttle’s retirement will enable the Agency to support development of systems to deliver people and cargo to the ISS and the Moon and explore other destinations. As part of this effort, NASA will stimulate private-sector development and demonstration of vehicles that may support the Agency’s human crew and cargo requirements for ISS.
At the request of the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, NASA is initiating an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities, with the goal of ensuring that the Nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space. This review will be conducted by a blue-ribbon panel of outside experts chaired by Norman R. Augustine. The panel will present its results in time to support an Administration decision on the way forward by August 2009. This Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans will examine ongoing and planned NASA human space flight development activities, as well as potential alternatives, and present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable human space flight program in the years following completion of the current Space Shuttle manifest and retirement. The independent review panel will seek input from Congress, the White House, the public, industry, and international partners. In addition, the review will examine the appropriate amount of R&D and complementary robotic activities needed to make human space flight activities most productive and affordable over the long term, as well as appropriate opportunities for international collaboration. It will also evaluate what capabilities would be enabled by each of the potential architectures considered. And it will evaluate options for extending International Space Station operations beyond 2016. We will keep the Congress informed, as appropriate, with the progress of the review.
It is important to note that the President has submitted a FY 2010 budget request for NASA Exploration Systems of $3.963 billion, an increase of $457.6 million above the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations level. During the review, the NASA workforce will continue to focus on the safe flight and operation of the Space Shuttle and ISS, and continue to work on all current exploration projects, including Ares I, Orion, and Commercial Crew and Cargo efforts
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NOTES ON QUOTES:
Q1: This fulfulls another campaign promise made by President Obama last year. He is once again showing that he considers climate change a priority and is backing it up with additional funding.
Q2: This means that while an authorization bill can say this is what America should do, the appropriation bills have not of late provided actual funds for hardward. This budget calls for funding of more monitoring satellites.
Q3: So much for the drumbeats of the rightwing talk machine on how President Obama would gut NASA and end human space flight.
Q4: This is good news for several flagship missions that are on the drawing boards. In particular missions to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. NASA has announced a deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) about a joint mission to Jupiter.
Q5: The current Vison for Space Exploration elements calling for the completion of the International Space Station (ISS) and the retiring of the Space Shuttle (STS) in 2010. It also calls for the launching of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). This has been a long delayed science mission and was glad to see the President supporting it's launch.
Q6: This was a big one for me as I have been advocating for fully funding COTS and COTS-D for a long time. It was only $80 million but I believe in the next budget, after the Augustine Commission makes it's report, it will see a bigger increase.
Q7: Here he is talking about the review that the President ordered for NASA's constellation program, Norm Augustine will chair the commission.
Q8: The last one says NASA will be going ahead with current systems until such time as a change is ordered. That will not come before the review is completed sometime in August.
PAGE 2:
Robots Could Build a Base on the Moon
"Establishing a permanent and continuously growing human presence on the surface of the Earth's moon could be a pivotal point in human cultural evolution. Humans could utilize the lunar regolith to produce oxygen for breathing and as a chemical component of water. Additionally 5 to 10 meters of lunar soil could be used to shield lunar habitats from the deleterious effect of cosmic radiation.
If humans living at a lunar facility for several years can remain healthy and perhaps even reproduce under the Moon's 1/6 hypogravity environment then humanity will no longer have to confine its existence to the surface of the Earth, allowing us to expand human civilization to the Moon, Mars, and perhaps Mercury which should greatly enhance the survival of the human species in the solar system."
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PAGE 3:
Putin Says Russia Needs New Rockets To Increase Launch Market Share
"Russia must strengthen its competitive positions on the global commercial space launch market by expanding its launch facilities and developing new types of carrier rockets, the prime minister said on Monday.
"We should not simply maintain but significantly strengthen our competitive edge in the space sector, not least by developing the Plesetsk and Vostochny space centers, and producing advanced rockets and a new-generation spaceship," Vladimir Putin said. He said this would enable Russia to provide high-quality, low-cost launch services on the international market.
"I believe that in the foreseeable future we'll have the ability to increase Russia's share of the international launch market by another 8-10%," Putin said. The increase would give Russia around 50% of the global commercial space launch market."
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POLL RESULTS:
If you missed yesterday's poll be sure and vote your opinion on this important topic.
SDSU Professor Using "Star Trek" Episodes To Teach History
"A San Diego State University professor is boldly going where no history class has gone before. He's using "Star Trek" episodes to teach his college students about American history.
The first episode of "Star Trek" aired in 1966. Since then, there have been five television series, 11 movies, and now a college history class.
"It is a history class and ‘Star Trek' is just a vehicle for me to explore it," John Putman said.
Putman first taught "Star Trek, Culture and History" last semester.
"I do own a ‘Star Trek' uniform top, which I did put on for class the first day of class," Putman said.
The upper division history class explores how "Star Trek" reflects American culture and political beliefs over the past 40 years. In one scene from 1968, Captain Kirk kisses his black lieutenant, one of the first interracial kisses aired on television.
"It was a very controversial scene. Some southern stations would not show this episode originally," Putman said.
The first "Star Trek" episodes were filmed during the Vietnam War.
"In the original series, Klingons were the Russians, in the Cold War, and the Federation and Star Fleet are the United States," Putman said."
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YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
"Ion Thrusters Are Go Ralphdog needs to join the 21st century. "Not ready for prime time?" Yeah, except of course for NASA's Deep Space 1, and Japan's Hayabusa probe, and the SMART 1, and the DAWN probe, and the the GOCE, and the increasing numbers of satellites using them.
I'm not surprised at the skepticism; ion drives have been theoretically possible for decades before DS1, but the old guard in the aerospace industry fought them tooth and nail, using language quite similar to Ralphdog's. The old guard seems to forget, the way you make something "ready for prime time" is by actually doing it, instead of knocking it down every time somebody proposes the solution" - petekwando
"Space debris clean up proposal Develop plastics that degrade into core components (CO2, H20 and so forth) in the presence of UV light.
Intercept space debris using retrograde orbits and look to make direct physical contact. For example, if a bolt is heading west to east at 28.5 degrees inclination have your debris killer satellite fire a stream of plastic particles in the opposite direction there by reducing the orbital energy of the target and drop the debris into the atmosphere." - Bill White
Yesterday's comments saw a fierce debate over nuclear power on the moon issue. You can read them here as there were to many to repost.
TODAY'S POLL:
Read other NASA and Space diaries on DKOS.