STS-131 Moving Along

Shuttle Discovery is now docked at ISS and the crew has successfully transferred the Leonardo cargo module from the shuttle payload bay to the space station. The next task is to unload the equipment and supplies packed inside the module for the trip. Later in the mission, shuttle astronauts will perform a spacewalk to attach the module to ISS in its correct position.

NASA is also studying Discovery's heat shield. A piece of debris seems to have struck the orbiter during launch, and NASA is trying to determine if any of the tiles are damaged. So far, NASA doesn't seem too concerned, but it is continuing to work the potential problem.

Silicon Boones

President Obama's new approach for NASA could see a maturing of robotic technology. The plan calls for two missions a year to the Moon exploring the surface, finding water ice and learning how to utilize it, developing mining techniques, and preparing landing sites for future manned missions. Another program, a joint effort between NASA and GM, is developing a humanoid robot that will work alongside astronauts on EVAs, making the human part of the team more productive.

The plan also foresees using privately owned and operated robots for some work. That could give the companies involved in the Google Lunar X-Prize some place to go after that competition. A few of them already have business plans extending beyond GLXP, but the Obama approach might let more of the teams stay together at a profit.

After the Moon, there might also be asteroids and Mars. As Daniel Boone helped open the trans-Appalachian west to American settlers just a bit more than two centuries ago, so could our robots lead a wave of humanity into the Solar System.

UKSA

Britain hasn't taken a major role in space. It has cooperated with NASA-- there have been a few British astronauts-- and it has contributed to some of Europe's space efforts, but there's not been much beyond that level of engagement.

Well, that might change. Britain's government has now created the United Kingdom Space Agency to coordinate British space efforts and develop a national space program. There is talk of establishing a British manned spaceflight capability-- and a private British aerospace company may be leading the way in developing the first true spaceplane. That would change everything, putting Britain once again in a world leadership role. Parliament and Downing Street seems finally to be taking notice.

STS-131 Off

Space shuttle Discovery launched on time early this morning, creating a dramatic start for the STS-131 mission.

The mission got off to a rocky start, however, when the Discovery's Ku-band communications system failed to kick in. The Ku-band handles the shuttle's high speed, high density communications. The loss of the system should not hamper the execution of the mission, and the Ku-band can still be recovered, but it's not the way NASA wanted to begin the next-to-last flight of Discovery.

Who Should Speak For Earth?

The ongoing attempt to find signals from extraterrestrial civilizations raises an interesting set of questions. If we find such a signal, what, if anything, should we do? If we decide to put a message on the same wavelength that carried the alien signal to us, for example, what should our message say, and who should decide? Who should speak for Earth?

Government protocols exist laying out what should happen if a likely alien signal is detected, but once the news got out, the event would obviously become a matter of political judgment. In that situation, should the Secretary General of the United Nations speak for mankind? Should the President of the United States, as the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth? Should a committee speak for us, and if so, who decides who's on the committee? Will the people in direct control of the largest radio telescope complexes in the world become the most powerful people on Earth in this matter, because they would be able to send whatever message they wanted?

There is a school of thought that argues we should not reply so as not to give away the fact of our existence, by the way, but our broadcasts over the past eighty years or so have been leaking into space and already reached more than a few stars. That cat may already be out of the bag.

If we send a message, what should it say? Likely, that won't matter, because the alien at the other end won't understand human languages, anyway. Still, on the theory that an alien civilization might exhaustively analyze such a signal-- as we would-- we may want to send something suitably complex and internally coherent, to suggest we were capable of some fairly fancy thinking. The mathematical derivation of Einstein's theory of relativity, perhaps. Or maybe one of our grandest symphonies. After sending our message, the hard part would be waiting years or decades for a response.

Twilight Launch

If all goes as planned, space shuttle Discovery will launch Monday morning just before local sunrise. That should make the ascent to orbit easy to see across a large area. Increasing that opportunity will be the flight path. Instead of barreling out over the Atlantic as usual, this mission will fly up the East Coast, so many people from Florida to the Carolinas will be able to see it. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, saw the first flight of the Wright Brothers, and not quite 107 years later-- within a long human lifespan-- may glimpse one of the final space shuttle missions reaching for orbit.

NASA recently executed the last planned night shuttle launch, the last planned night landing, and now has the last planned twilight launch on tap. It's sending the shuttle into retirement in style.

Hibernating Spirit?

The Mars rover Spirit missed its scheduled communication with Earth this week. NASA engineers think the rover may have gone into hibernation mode to conserve power as it heads into winter. They note that the power reserves in the rover's batteries have been declining over several weeks and theorize the power may have reached the level at which Spirit's computer would shut down virtually every system in an attempt to keep the core system functioning until the power in the batteries can be restored.

The question is whether contact with Spirit will ever be restored. After six demanding years on Mars for a vehicle that originally had only a 90-day mission, the brutal Martian winter may finally be too much. We will need to wait several months to find out.