Gizmorama - April 29, 2013

Good Morning,

Today's issue is about all things space and space exploration. From a space shuttle substitute, planetary science missions, and monitoring possible asteroid collisions.

Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Space Shuttle substitute makes headway --*
WASHINGTON - Former NASA astronaut Lee Archambault will work with aviation and aerospace manufacturer Sierra Nevada Corp. to pursue the company's goal of producing a feasible replacement for the Space Shuttle. SNC's Dream Chaser aims to become the space vehicle of choice for transportation between Earth stations and the International Space Station. NASA is funding research and development programs at several companies aiming to come up a feasible successor to the Space Shuttle, which retired in 2011. SNC's Dream Chaser is designed to be lifted into a low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 12,000 feet. Return flights of the aircraft are likely to involve an autonomous re-entry and landing on a runway, as with the Space Shuttle. Once the program gets going, it's seen likely to generate lucrative private business transporting astronauts and possibly other individuals to the International Space Station and back. The Nevada company said Archambault joined its Dream Chaser team as a chief systems engineer and test pilot. Archambault will oversee planning and execution of Dream Chaser's flight test programs and SNC's design of the crew interfaces in the Dream Chaser cockpit. "As a crew member on two Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station, I was honored to be part of a great NASA team," Archambault said. "Now, I am fortunate to contribute to the design, development, and test of the next U.S.-built and launched crewed spacecraft, providing transportation to the ISS for our astronauts," he said. Archambault served as a fighter pilot, test pilot, and instructor pilot during a decorated 28-year career with the U.S. Air Force and NASA. Archambault is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, including STS-117 and STS-119, and logged 27 days in space and more than 5,000 hours in 30 or more different aircraft, including 22 combat missions in the F-117A Stealth Fighter during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. SNC space systems chief Mark Sirangelo said, "Lee's long history at NASA, in spaceflight and his expansive flight experience will add significantly to the Dream Chaser program." The Dream Chaser is about a fourth the size of the shuttle with a smaller wingspan than the shuttle. It is designed to carry up to seven passengers after a series of further tests likely to be scheduled during the summer. It may be a few years before manned flights aboard the Dream Chaser are undertaken. Other companies seeking to develop a successor to the Space Shuttle include Boeing and SpaceX. Their research is focused on developing space capsules rather than a smaller aircraft version of the Space Shuttle.


*-- NASA urged to preserve funding for planetary science missions --*
LOS ANGELES - Members of Congress say they've urged NASA to spare planetary science funding and resist pressures to make disproportionate cuts to the science budget. In a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., urged the space agency to protect the funding for missions to Mars and the outer planets allocated by Congress this spring. "While we fully understand that the funding levels ... are subject to change to reflect across-the-board and sequester cuts, we expect that the balance among programs will remain consistent with the structure directed by Congress," they wrote. NASA will have to move some money around to make up for shortfalls related to the automatic federal budget cuts that went into effect earlier this year. Schiff, whose district includes NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said the science funding could possibly see reductions in the space agency's new operating plan. "We're hearing disturbing sounds that they're going to raid planetary science, and seriously degrade Mars missions -- even though sample return is the highest priority" of the official plan for scientists in the field, he told the Los Angeles Times. Schiff expressed concern taking money away from ongoing, high-priority science projects could hamper institutions such as JPL in their efforts to hold on to experienced staff for future missions. "We lose the people who have the ability to land on the martian surface," he said. "It's a unique skill set. We're the only people who can do this. We don't want to be led on by NASA setting up the mission and then setting it up to fail."


*-- Monitoring of asteroid collision could help warn of Earth impacts --*
LOS ANGELES - U.S. scientist say a new way to monitor collisions between asteroids and other objects in our solar system could warn us of "rogue debris" from such events. Space scientists at UCLA said a new method to determine the mass of magnetic clouds that result from the impacts could help scientists better understand where to look first to find new meteoroid debris that could become dangerous to the Earth. "The passage by the Earth earlier this year of the small asteroid 2012 DA14 and the explosion the same week of an even smaller asteroid in the atmosphere above central Russia remind us that while space is mostly empty, the objects that are orbiting the sun do occasionally collide with other orbiting bodies, and the energy released in such collisions can be catastrophic to the bodies involved," Earth and space science Professor Christopher T. Russell said in a UCLA release Tuesday. The researchers described their development of a method for finding the mass of collision-produced magnetic clouds that contain fine, electrically charged dust. "We have found a way by which we can monitor such collisions in space by identifying the magnetic signature produced in these collisions," Russell said. "While the colliding objects may be only tens to hundreds of feet across, the resulting magnetic signature can be hundreds of thousands of miles in width and be carried outward from the sun by the solar wind for millions of miles." These dust clouds can weigh from about 10,000 to 1 million tons -- very similar in mass to the asteroids the Earth recently encountered over Russia, the researchers said.

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