MAIN ARTICLE: Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet
Page 2: Freedom to Fly.
Page 3: Space Shuttles Endeavour And Atlantis On Neighboring Launch Pads.
Poll Results: Yesterday's poll had twice the normal turn out, thanks to a diary rescue. Scroll down for the latest in space polling, click subscribe for more data.
Star Trek: In the News. New 'Star Trek' Cast Took Cues From The Classic Series.
Yesterday's Comments: "Hey! That is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile with a new paint job! Cant you tell?" - NellaSelim
Today's Poll: Is it time to revisit ITAR?
FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL:
Speaking at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science hosted at the University of Hertfordshire on Tuesday, astrophysicist Michel Mayor, talked about how a discovery of an exoplanet may fall into the "goldielocks zone". That spot in a solar system where the planet is "not to hot, not to cold" but located in the sweet spot where water can remain in a liquid state.
Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet
"HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.
"The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.
An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."
Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.
Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."
Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said."
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With over three hundred exoplanets discovered so far it is only a matter of time before we find "the one". That parent star that holds a small, rocky, planet in the habitial zone.
If America goes ahead and builds the Ares V heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV) we could build a new telescope that will greatly enhance imaging an alien planet.
PAGE 2:
BUSINESS WINS AGAINST ITAR:
Freedom to fly
"FOR many years, parts of America’s space industry have complained that the rules governing the export of technology are too strict. Understandably, the government does not want militarily useful stuff to fall into the hands of its foes. But the result is a system that is too strict in its definition of "militarily useful" and which favours lumbering dinosaurs such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which survive on fat government contracts, rather than nimble but small "furry mammals" that need every customer they can get, domestic or foreign. (image - Bigelow Aerospace Space Station.)
In December 2007 one of those mammals, a company called Bigelow Aerospace, filed the first legal challenge to America’s rules for exporting space technology. It disputed the government’s claim that foreign passengers travelling on a spaceship or space station were involved in a transfer of technology. The outcome suggests that there may be a chink in the armour of the export-controls regime.
Improbable as it sounds, Bigelow Aerospace makes and launches inflatable space-station modules and hopes, one day, to build a commercial space station. Under the existing rules, any non-American passengers on its space stations would have to comply with onerous export controls. These take months to satisfy and could plausibly even culminate in government monitors being present while the foreigner was near American space technology. Even training on the ground in a mock-up module was deemed a transfer of technology and therefore required export controls."
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Many advocates for commercial space development have been opposed to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or ITAR. Granted that America does not want to see it's technology put to a bad end but does riding on an airplane mean you can build one? So why should passengers riding on a suborbital hop into outer space have to be subjected to arms control export requirements.
PAGE 3:
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE REPAIR MISSION:
Space Shuttles Endeavour And Atlantis On Neighboring Launch Pads
"Friday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour completed its 4.2-mile trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B. With Atlantis on nearby Launch Pad 39A, this marks the final time that two shuttles will be on the launch pads at the same time, as the shuttle program draws to a close next year.
Atlantis is targeted for liftoff May 12 at 1:31 p.m. EDT, when the crew will begin the STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis' mission payload is set to arrive at the launch pad Saturday evening. (image-NASA, Atlantis and Endeavour)
Prior to its STS-127 mission to the International Space Station, Endeavour will remain on standby at the launch pad in the unlikely event that a rescue mission for the Atlantis crew members would be necessary during their mission. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue spacecraft, workers will move it to Launch Pad 39A in preparation for a targeted June 13 liftoff at 7:19 a.m. EDT."
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POLL RESULTS:
The poll offered yesterday: "With the rising cost estimates by OMB should we continue with returning to the moon?" had twice the normal turnout by DKOS members. It was a simple question and 70% of the members returned a simple answer: Yes, it is time to leave low earth orbit." with only 25% wanting America to stay in low Earth orbit (LEO). Three percent voiced no opinion.
WHAT MAKES A SCENE CLASSIC:
With everyone waiting in anticipation for the new Star Trek film it would be fun to know what DKOS member's opinion is as to what is a "classic" scene that can define Star Trek. If you have a favorite scene that says it best please leave a comment.
New 'Star Trek' Cast Took Cues From The Classic Series
"BEVERLY HILLS, California — When Gene Roddenberry launched "Star Trek" on its original mission, he envisioned the series as the depiction of a color-blind crew traveling the universe to find answers about the future, but respecting established traditions and customs. Now, as the new cast puts the final touches on the reboot, due May 8, they find themselves on the same mission.
"We made this movie from a place of respect and from a place of celebration for what came before," Zachary Quinto, the new Spock, explained. "But also with an idea that it is a different world we live in now. There are different expectations and different technological advances that we can utilize that don't resemble what came before. There is an energy of something really classic and something really modern [being mixed together] and I think it really suits our culture and it suits our industry. People are, hopefully, going to be pleased with it."
Virtually all the castmembers — from Simon Pegg to Karl Urban to John Cho — have expressed their love for the original cast. And, while they realize that the new movie's space-diving, special effects and sexiness would have been impossible for the classic "Trek," they knew that ignoring their predecessors would be as suicidal as confronting a Borg with phasers set to stun."
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YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
"Green space exploration I'm opposed to space exploration for the time being because it's so energy intensive. Between the depletion of fossil fuels and the concerns about greenhouse gases, my feeling is we should go slow with it until it can be more environmentally sustainable." - Demi Moaned
"The environmental impact of the space program is almost unmeasurably small compared to the impact of consumer lifestyle. And in the US, 50% of the impact of our lifestyle is pure waste, compared to the impact of an equivalent standard of living in Europe.
If we shut down all coal fired power plants, we put the climate crisis on hold and gain the room for a permanent solution. The money spent bailing out shady bankers could have replaced every coal plant in the US with climate-clean energy (solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, your choice), and made a decent dent in the situation in China and India.
Speaking here as someone who's developed telecommuter technology (takes cars off the road), worked on design engineering for utility-scale wind projects (300 MW, or about 1/3 of a nuclear plant equivalent), developed water conservation technology (20% reduction in indoor water use), and is fanatical about conservation in my own life (most recent electric bill was 104 KWH, and 33 therms of natural gas; and typical gasoline consumption is less than 10 gallons/month; I'm going to start measuring my solid waste output shortly but rough estimate is about 5 lbs. per week).
The LAST thing humans should give up is fundamental science, including space exploration and development." - G2geek
"Even If We had the technical ability to do it, a funny philosophical question would pop up from using the bloody thing. Is the person at the destination the same person that was beamed out from the point of origin? Or did the transporter just assemble a perfect copy, after killing the person while deconstructing their molecules?" - Rimjob
TODAY'S POLL:
ITAR REVISITED:
ITAR has long been a complaint by American space companies trying to sell our products to other Nations. Is it time to revisit ITAR?
"During the American presidential campaign, Barack Obama said that, if elected, he would review ITAR, focusing on space hardware. George Nield, associate administrator for commercial space transportation within the Federal Aviation Authority, says although he has not seen the new ruling, it was good news that the government "may now be willing to revise some of its export-control restrictions to enable American firms to be more competitive in their efforts to sell aerospace products and services globally"." - Freedom to fly
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