This week was kind of a light news week - Since most people were at NewSpace 2007. But we provide links and coverage of that in depth.
The other big news is Scaled Composites has been bought by Northrup Grumman.
And various small things happened, like Huckabee talking about space, we get to see more of the unreasonable rocket, and NASA might get a ticket for littering. And while we can get space water and energy drinks, no space beer
This week's news is kind of slow, since nearly everyone was at the NewSpace 2007 conference.
Also, don't forget to join the DKspace yahoo group. Currently, we have 3 members, but I know more people promised to do articles, and so if I can access your email, via DK, expect a gentle reminder this week to join, if you haven't. I'll start doing something with it later in the week.
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NewSpace 2007 - Special Report
=================== The big event this week was the NewSpace 2007 conference, hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation. There was a lot covered, and unfortantly, I can't really give any first hand reports, since I wasn't there. Therefore, I am just going to largely link to Clark Lindsey's excellent series dealing with NewSpace 2007. However, before I start that, I want to note that last week I mentioned that there would be a live-simulcast from the first panel, titled the overview effect. A series of nice videos have been put online from that event.
And now, a link to Clark's excellent coverage of it
Two other reports from the conference, that talk specifically about the overview effect - Dave Brody over at live science blogs talks about it, and also Wired had an article about it as well.
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News Worth Knowing
=================== After the NewSpace conference, perhaps the 2nd biggest News item to come out about Private space this week was Scaled Composites has been bought out by Northrup Grumman (NOC). This is obviously big news. Details are still fairly scarce, but we do know that NOC, prior to buying Scaled Composites, owned 40% of Scaled Composites. I am curious as to who owned the other 60%? Was it Burt himself? Anyone who has any knowledge, I'd like to know.
My personal take? The short answer is I think its too early to say whether this is a good deal or bad, and we don't really have enough information to decide. Jon makes some very excellent points in his post, and I've offered some comments in his comment section, as well as in the Hobbyspace section. Had this happened just a few years ago (especially if it had happened prior to the flight of SpaceShipOne), I probably would have been one of the people arguing that the sky is falling. But things have changed, in big part because of that flight, but also because there is a lot of actual hardware being produced by these companies. In addition, we also need to realize that NOC isn't a launch vehicle provider - they don't offer a single vehicle that will get you into orbit. So they really don't have any good reason to go out and try to bribe someone who isn't there competitor. That said, Big Aerospace has a history of making big promises, and not following through (VentureStar anyone?). And, even if their intentions are pure, deals can still go bad (remember AOL Time-Warner).
we may see the first paid for spacewalk by a tourist during on of those flights
there are serious discussions with Bigelow Aerospace to utilize their inflatable modules as a destination
Space Adventures is actually operating in the black (IE they are fully profitable)
All and all good news for Space Adventures.
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UP aerospace and Space Generation are offering to fly small student projects into space. You don't have a lot of room to use for this - for example, the smallest and cheapest one, costs $2000, and the dimensions are 182 cubic centimeters/11.1 cubic inches of usable volume and 42.5 grams/1.5 ounces of payload mass.
From the way I am reading it, Space Generation will be providing the money so that students can fly projects.
I am going to wait for the space beer.
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The Indian television station, UTV, in conjunction with launching a new youth theme channel, Bindass, is having a contest with the top prize being a flight on the Rocketplane XP.
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Vehicle Sightings
=================== Masten reports on why things seem so quiet there. They've been forced to rebuild the frame of their rocket, using welded steel instead of aluminum, and they believe they are zeroing in on why it hasn't been successful so far for actually flying.
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The Rocket Engine Report
=================== Paul Breed continues to make progress with his unreasonable rocket. Most of the work he reports about is software (which you can't ignore). He did however take a camera around and show us what his workspace looks like - have a look see
The final few seconds are very cool IMHO.
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Space Law Minutiae
=================== There was much discussed about Space Law at the conference, but otherwise, nothing happened. To see that stuff, scroll up and look in the conference section.
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Governmental Spaceflight corner
=================== Nasa threw away quite a lot of stuff from the station. However, I have to say, Clark Lindsey's comments about space recycling make a lot of sense.
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In 2003, Brazil suffered a huge setback in its attempt to build a space program when its 1st rocket blew up on the pad, killing 21 people, including scientists and engineers.
July 20, 1969 - when dreams still seemed possible - by teacherken (I admit, this isn't solely about space, but hey, its about dreaming big, and it involves space)
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Reviewing the Review
=================== The top story in this week's top story at the Space Review, NASA and the next administration, Jeff Foust gives an overview of the space in the 08 election, and some discussions that happened at the NewSpace 2007 Conferences.
The second story this week, Is a space elevator worth its weight in diamonds?, by Sam Dinkin, postulates using synthetic diamonds for the cables to be used in a space elevator. Most of the time, when there is talk about a space elevator, the material suggested to be used is carbon nano-tubes. However, these are not in mass production, and current synthetic diamonds are in mass production. He provides some back of the envelope to argue that the this can be done. Its an interesting idea.
This week Taylor Dinermann starts a series called The state of the RLV industry, 2007. For this first part, its mostly an overview, noting how there isn't really any governmental push to develop RLV technology (although there are some small programs here and there), but multiple private entities are looking at it.
In the forth story at the Space Review, Letter: solar power satellites and space radar, Dwayne Day talks about Taylor Dinermann's article last week about solar power and space radar. I think it can all be summed up by this sentence
Taylor Dinerman’s article about developing solar power satellites to power space radar satellites ("Solar power satellites and space radar", The Space Review, July 16, 2007) represents a solution in search of a problem.
On that, I have to largely agree. Its what I thought when I read it last week, and I remain convinced of that.
The final story in this week's Space Review is a review of the book Space as a Strategic Asset, reviewed by Eve Lichtgarn. The author of the book, Joan Johnson-Freese, doesn't strike me as someone who hasn't been particularly impressed with this administration, and prefers soft power over hard militarization.
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A few final points:
I don't think I've mentioned The Space Show, before, but its an internet radio show. This week's guests can be found here - of particular note, Elon Musk of SpaceX will be there on Wednesday.
Again, I wanna thank everyone whose blog I enjoy, and pull articles from, like Clark Lindsey and Jeff Foust, and everyone whose article I used.
Finally, , if you are planning on attending YearlyKos in Chicago, something else I wish I could attend but can't, I would ask that you try and get some of the candidates to speak about the issue (all save for Bill Richardson - his opinion, and actions, are already well known). Irsouth2 talked a little about needing the candidates to weigh in on manned spaceflight. Hopefully I can go to the YearlyKos 2008.
