ONLINE CASINO REPORTS PRESS RELEASE
10 July 2008
Online Casino Reports lays a bet on the future of casino gambling, and donates to charity on the way. The online gambling portal has taken odds betting to a new realm entirely by placing a predictive wager on futuristic odds betting site, Long Bets, stating that there will be a casino on the moon by 2040.
The prediction states that space tourism will be with us sooner than we think. And as gambling is gradually becoming more widespread and socially acceptable, it is not out of the question to expect a casino to arrive on the moon within the next thirty years.
Online Casino Reports Chief Editor Daniel O comments: “It’s our job to keep our users up to speed with the latest developments in online gambling. This includes tracking the best promotions on the web, as well as reporting the news in real-time. So we were keen to test out this new futuristic betting site. If the way gambling has conquered the web is anything to go by, we can assume that nowhere is out of reach, even space!”
This new phenomenon in odds betting has a charitable twist as visitors to the Long Bets site can comment on the space casino prediction and turn it into a competitive bet. All proceeds are directed towards the charity of the bettor’s choice. Online Casino Report’s lunar gambling prediction can be viewed at www.longbets.org/377.
New scans show evidence of water on the moon
Maggie Fox
Reuters
“Tiny green and orange glass balls brought back from the moon nearly 40 years ago by astronauts show evidence that water existed there from the very beginning, scientists reported on Wednesday….
“Their study, published in the journal Nature, could support evidence that water persists in shadowed craters on the moon’s surface — and that the water could be native to the moon and not carried there by comets.”
Brown-Led Team Finds Evidence of Water in Moon’s Interior
Brown University Press Release
“A Brown-led research team has for the first time found evidence of water deep within the Moon. In a paper published in the July 10 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers believe the water was contained in lunar magmas ejected more than 3 billion years ago. The discovery strongly suggests that water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence – and perhaps since it was first created…
“NASA plans to send its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later this year to search for evidence of water ice at the Moon’s south pole. If water is found, the researchers may have figured out the origin.”
ODYSSEY MOON PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC – Odyssey Moon, a commercial lunar enterprise, announced today that former NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Alan Stern has accepted a role with the Isle of Man-based company. Dr. Stern was a recognized engine of change and innovation as chief of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, championing new science programs while being a stalwart advocate of cost and value control when he served at NASA.
Dr. Stern has joined the Odyssey Moon executive team on an exclusive part time consulting basis as the company’s Science Mission Director, part of a new diversified career focus spanning many of his lifelong interests and activities. He expects that his blended understanding of science and business will help Odyssey Moon establish a commercial lunar business while pursuing the $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE. “I am a fan of public-private partnerships and building bridges to new markets,” he said. “I believe we are on the verge of a whole new era of space exploration and that the private sector can provide reliable cost effective services that can increase the value and leverage government space budgets.”
A veteran of space exploration with over 25 year experience, Stern’s alliance with the private space sector comes at a critical time when NASA and other space agencies are looking carefully at the value proposition in partnering with the commercial sector for space activities.
Continue reading ‘Former NASA AA Alan Stern Joins Google Lunar X Prize Team Odyssey Moon’
As the Bush Administration limps toward the finish line, analysts are trying to work out what the American space program should look like in the future. The Space Review has been examining these issues over the last few weeks.
The Vision for Space Exploration and the retirement of the Baby Boomers (part 3)
Charles Miller and Jeff Foust
In part 1 of this series, we made the case that the current plan to achieve the Vision for Space Exploration may well be unsustainable and unaffordable in the face of huge financial pressures created by the coming retirement of the baby boomers. In part 2 of this series, we suggested a Plan B strategy for achieving the goals of the VSE, which is credible even if NASA’s budget is significantly cut in the coming decade….Now, in part 3 of this essay, we make specific recommendations on “how” our nation should proceed to achieve cheap and reliable access to space (CRATS).
Space policy questions and decisions facing a new administration
Eligar Sadeh
The next president will face a number of major issues related to space policy upon taking office next January. Eligar Sadeh examines those issues as discussed at a forum earlier this year.
How to become a presidential hero
Greg Zsidisin
Promising to reexamine NASA’s implementation of the exploration vision, including such vehcles as the Ares 5 (above), could be a winning proposition for a presidential candidate.
The so-so space debate
Jeff Foust
Last Friday representatives of the three remaining major presidential candidates gathered in Washington to discuss space policy. Jeff Foust reports that the discussion ended with many of the questions about the candidates’ policies left unanswered.
The Times of India reports that engineers are making good progress in preparing that nation’s first lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, for launch later this year.
The spacecraft is being assembled at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s facility in Bangalore. Officials report that five instruments from the United States and Europe have been successfully tested.
The launch has slipped a couple of months. ISRO officials have said they expect to send the orbiter off on its mission sometime in the third quarter of the year.
Charles E. Miller and Jeff Foust have put forth Part II of their plan to save George Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration. (If you missed it, here’s the link to Part I.) It’s a little complicated, but their plan basically amounts to pursuing cheap and reliable access to space, whose acronym - CRATS - may well remind you of a domesticated pet, a Broadway musical, or a bodily function.
In the same edition of The Space Review, Greg Zsidisin takes a look at how we can avoid what he calls “another Apollo debacle” - developing massively expensive technology and then tossing it away for something much less useful.
Meanwhile, Rand Simberg analyzes both these posts at his Transterrestrial Musings blog.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON — NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft.
The Send Your Name to the Moon Web site enables everyone to participate in the lunar adventure and place their names in orbit around the moon for years to come. Participants can submit their information at http://www.nasa.gov/lro, print a certificate and have their name entered into a database. The database will be placed on a microchip that will be integrated onto the spacecraft. The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008.
“Everyone who sends their name to the moon, like I’m doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers,” said Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The LRO mission is the first step in NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?”
Continue reading ‘Send Your Name to the Moon with NASA’
NASA is partnering with construction giant Caterpillar to develop a remote-controlled “lunar truck” that will assist in the construction of a human base at the moon’s south pole. Caterpillar has a couple of videos on its website describing the program.
It’s an interesting project, and one that seems to have flown under the radar with the full-time space media since it began in 2006. A shout out to the Journal Star’s Paul Gordon, who wrote about the partnership for the Peoria, Illinois newspaper’s Sunday edition. It’s an excellent story that is worth checking out.
Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson was in Dubai this week, talking up his company’s $265 million spaceport in Ras Al Khaimah and its planned human circumlunar tourism flights, now set for launch in 2012.
Business 24-7 indicates that the $100 million flight will involve a 10-day stay aboard the International Space Station. The mission will require two separate rocket launches, one for the Soyuz and a second for a booster to send the spacecraft off to the moon.
The Soyuz will not orbit the moon but rather fly around it at an altitude of 160 kilometers (100 miles). The Soviets sent several robotic Soyuz-derived Zond missions on similar flights 40 years ago, but they have not flown any similar missions since then.
“We are in serious discussions with some clients from around the world, including Americans, Europeans and hopefully some Emiratis in the future,” Anderson said.
