Russian Space Plans

Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, has laid out some ambitious plans for his nation's future in manned space exploration.

Perminov, according to a report on SPACE.com, said Russia is considering seeking an extension of the useful life of the International Space Station from 2015 to 2020, by which tim,e Russia will be ready to deploy its next generation station. Of course, the Russians/Soviets have more experience operating space stations than anyone else. Perminov also said they are developing a new manned spacecraft, after decades of flying the Soyuz.

That new spacecraft will carry cosmonauts beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in history. Russia plans to land cosmonauts on the Moon by 2025, establish a manned lunar outpost in the 2028-2032 period, and send cosmonauts to Mars in 2035.

Perminov's remarks come at a time when Russia seems to be trying to reclaim its position as a major power. Its economy is doing well, its vast natural resources promise a prosperous future, and Russian foreign policy is becoming more assertive. Those plans, of course, roughly mirror current U. S. plans. Does that suggest a new space race, or possibly exploring the Solar System as international partners?

Mars Rovers Rolling Again

As this blog has tracked over the past several weeks, a huge dust storm on Mars has been threatening to end the explorations of both of NASA's Red Planet rovers. Now, however, the storm is weakening, the rovers' power levels have been built up, and both will be on the move again shortly.

The danger to the missions is not over yet, however. Lots of dust is still in the atmosphere, cutting down on the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface. Some of that dust will settle on the rovers' solar panels, cutting their ability to collect energy. Ironically, the best thing for that settling dust would be a wind that blows the dust off the panels, as has happened earlier in these missions.

Strong winds, of course, can herald big storms. So it goes, on Earth, and on Mars.

NASA: No Drunken Astronauts

Earlier this summer, reports circulated that some astronauts over the years had flown while under the influence of alcohol. As those reports named no names or specific missions, NASA went through all its records for every flight over the past 20 years and found no evidence supporting such charges.

Of course, NASA finding no evidence of astronaut wrongdoing could be suspect in the eyes of some people. One of the reports stated that an unnamed American astronaut had flown in a Russian Soyuz to the ISS after drinking alcohol. A few days later, as reported in this blog, a spokesman for the Russian space agency and a cosmonaut both denied any such thing had ever happened. Again, some wouldn't be convinced.

There is an interesting point in this story concerning how journalism in America can operate. The national television networks were enthralled covering the space program in the 1960s, but for years, network news has largely ignored NASA-- even while NASA missuins were transforming our understanding of the Solar System and the universe-- except when something went wrong. There has certainly been little to no systematic coverage of NASA in recent years by ABC, CBS, or NBC. Along comes a story about inebriated astronauts that gives no names, no mission designation, and no verifiable facts-- and it makes at least one of the network nightly news broadcasts.

That seems an interesting way for journalists to approach keeping the public informed.

Virgin Galactic Post Mojave

Virgin Galactic has kept a low profile since the rocket firing accident July 26th that killed three Scaled Composites employees and critically injured three others. Scaled Composites, under Burt Rutan, is designing and building Virgin Galactic's suborbital tourist spaceships.

Virgin's public relations strategy seems to be to let Rutan take the lead in explaining what happened and calming nerves. That approach may be aided by the lack of coverage the accident received in the national televiosion news reports. A spokesperson for Virgun Galactic did say recently that the company has received no cancellations from ticketholders since the accident, and in fact some more tickets have been sold.

The nightmare of those trying to build a space tourism industry has to be the loss of a flight before the industry has had a chance to prove itself. The Mojave accident is a reminder of what's on the line. Virgin's strategy of studied silence may be sound in the short run, but to build a robust industry over the long run, making sure everybody understands the risks of spaceflight is in the interests of the companies involved.

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon

A giant hexagon-shaped storm sits over Saturn's north pole. Scientists first got a few looks at the bizarre formation during the Voyager flyby of the planet, and confirmed its existence with the arrival of Cassini to Saturn's system.

And yes, Virginia, it is a hexagon-- straight sides, clearly defined corners, the whole bit. It's also huge--7,500 miles to a side, it extends about 60 miles deep into Saturn's atmosphere. Since it was imaged by Voyager, the assumption is the storm has been raging for at least that long, and the possibility exists that it's been around for much longer.

Scientists have no idea how the shape came about, or how the shape is maintained. They hope to gather more data as the mission of Cassini continues. So far, the hexagonal storm on Saturn is unique in our universe.

Foam Fiddling at NASA

After the loss of Columbia, close monitoring of the ice and foam that flies off the shittle's external tank since, and the scare caused in the latest shuttle mission by a gouge in Endeavour's heat shield by foam shedding off the external tank, NASA is adopting new procedures before the next shuttle flies.

NASA will peel off a layer of foam around the brackets holding the external tank to the orbiter. The change is designed to further limit foam coming off during the launch phase and possibly damaging the orbiter.

To the extent that such tinkering with procedures this late in the shuttle program shows a weakness that has yet to be solved in the shuttle system, retiring the fleet in 2010, if not before, seems an imcreasingly good idea.

A Void in a Vaccuum

Science fiction authors writing space travel adventures sometimes use voids in space-- areas where nothing exists. Well, now scientists have found not simply the real thing, but the granddaddy of them all.

University of Minnesota astronomers using the VLA radio telescope facility near Soccoro, New Mexico, found a void in the universe nearly a billion light-years across. Only a few stars exist in the area. There also seems to be little to no gas, and not even any dark matter, that mysterious stuff scientists believe accounts for a good chunk of the mass of the universe.

The discovery caught astronomers by surprise. Astronomers knew of similar areas, but nothing remotely on the scale of this one, and they have no explanation for it. That is a good thing. After all, if today's scientists could completely explain everything, what would humans do for the next few thousand generations?