Monday, November 29 , 2010, 2-3:30 PM PST. We welcome Reverend James Heiser to discuss his new book, “Civilization and the New Frontier: Reflections on Virtue and the Settlement of The New World.” He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Steering Committee of The Mars Society.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010, 7-8:30 PM PST. We welcome Dr. J. Richard Gott, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. He is known for his contributions to cosmology and general relativity and his Copernican argument for space colonization.
Friday, December 3, 2010, 9:30-11 AM PST. We welcome back Constance Adams who is a NASA consultant and space architect. Ms. Adams works on closed loop life support systems which we will be talking about during our discussion.
Sunday, December 5 , 2010, 12-1:30 PM PST. OPEN LINES DISCUSSION.
The late Rocketplane which was to have flown from Oklahoma.
Oklahoma State Rep. David Dank wants to shut down the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority as part of a broader consolidation of government, according to News on 6:
The agency is getting $424,289 from the state this year. Executive Director Bill Khourie’s salary is $86,005. Dank believes the agency should shut down.
Robin Snelson has put video and PowerPoint archives online from the Space Studies Institute’s Space Manufacturing 14 Conference, which was held in Silicon Valley at the end of October.
The video archive is here. You can view PowerPoint presentations here.
Brahmand.com takes a look at India’s step-by-step approach to developing reusable hypersonic launch vehicles:
The RLV will loft a satellite into orbit and immediately re-enter the atmosphere and glide back for a conventional landing. The RLV and the rocket booster will be recovered separately, with the former making a conventional landing on a runway and booster making a parachute landing.
Space Adventures has already sent eight paying passengers into space using Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin has placed a $5 million down payment and is first in line for a future flight into orbit. Now, the company is advertising a trip around the moon for two paying passengers, something the company’s president, Tom Shelley, says could happen in three to four years. At $100 million a seat, a trip to the moon is a bit steep, but it’s less than one Silicon Valley tycoon spent trying to get to Sacramento.
[Editor's Note: This last bit is a reference to former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who spent in excess of $160 million -- most of it her own money -- in a failed bid to become California's governor. Don't feel too bad for her, though; it was just a bit over 10 percent of her net worth.]
The Guardian reports that Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn was “hopping mad” over a recent study indicating that SpaceShipTwo might not be as clean as the company claims:
“The research was fundamentally wrong,” he says. “If you had a Virgin Galactic program running for ten years, if you assumed that we weren’t using biobutinol (which we will) we’re talking about less environmental impact over ten years than 1.5 shuttle launches.”
The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft will bring New Year presents to the International Space Station (ISS), commander Dmitry Kondratyev said, quoted by news media.
The Soyuz TMA-20, carrying cosmonaut Kondratyev, the U.S. and Italian flight engineers, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli, is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on December 15. The three astronauts will be on board the ISS for 152 days.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has been accepted as a full member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). This committee is an international governmental forum for the worldwide coordination of activities related to the issues of man-made and natural debris in space.
The primary purposes of the IADC are to exchange information on space debris research activities between member space agencies, to facilitate opportunities for cooperation in space debris research, to review the progress of ongoing cooperative activities, and to identify debris mitigation options. Being a member of this committee will provide the CSA with access to the latest research and activities related to space debris issues by the international members of the committee in order to mitigate and minimize potential threats to Canadian satellites and other space assets. It will also permit a strengthening of Canadian research activities into space debris related activities through enhanced cooperation with international partners.
In order to accomplish these objectives, Russian and Chinese experts have to work hard. One of the key points in the joint work is launch of Russian Phobos-Grunt mission [Phobos sample return] and Chinese Inkho-1 [a Martian sub-satellite]. More advanced projects are ahead.
Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov and CNCA Administrator Chang Kuifa exchanged their opinions on several topics. CNCA representatives will visit some Roscosmos companies.
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