Mirror Bees

The Planetary Society, the space advocacy group founded by Carl Sagan among others, has always gone beyond simple advocacy to actually fund research and education projects around the world. No doubt the best known of those projects is the Society's support efforts to find extraterrestrial life, both by searching for radio signals (or perhaps optical signals) and by supporting research into the fundamentals of life with an eye towards establishing some parameters for possible life beyond Earth.

The Society is now tackling the problem of protecting Earth from large asteroid strikes by supporting early research into a concept called "Mirror Bees." It's a simple, elegant idea. Under it, if we found a dangerous body on a collision course with Earth decades, or at least many years before the event, we would dispatch a small fleet of small mirrors to rendezvous with it. The mirrors would be deployed in such a way as to allow them all to focus reflected sunlight on one tiny spot on the asteroid. That intense focus of energy would vaporize that part of the rock. The reaction of that vaporized rock jetting away into space would slowly push the asteroid into a new, harmless orbit. No nuclear bombs, no rockets, just mirrors.

There is still much work to be done on the idea. For instance, maintaining such a tight focus for several years in a dynamic situation would require some truly impressive formation flying of the mirrors. The approach may also work better on some types of bodies than others. Still, it's certainly well worth exploring.

Blue Origin Update, Sort of

It's an odd thing. Jeff Bezos made his billions founding and running Amazon.com, the online retailer that depends on a strong relationship with the public for its success, but Bezos' NewSpace company, Blue Origin, has been notable so far for the heavy veil of secrecy surrounding its operations. The secrecy has been so black it could inspire conspiracy theories and stories of aliens from other star systems.

A Blue Origin spokesman did appear at a conference regarding suborbital research recently, but he shed little light on the company or its plans. He did say the company has flown its Goddard prototype suborbital spacecraft several times, not just the once acknowledged publicly. He did say the company has a contract with NASA to develop a crew escape system that is superior to the old Apollo system. He did say the company is exploring research and applications opportunities for suborbital flight, not just space tourism. And he did say the company's New Shepard suborbital craft does not necessarily resemble Goddard, but it will launch and land vertically.

It's a start.

Bolden On Mars

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a skeptical, sometimes hostile Senate committee that sending astronauts to Mars was the ultimate goal of the U. S. manned spaceflight program. He argued that NASA doesn't have that capability now, but by directing resources towards developing the necessary technology to combat radiation and other health issues and to cut months off the mission, we could have the capability in as few as ten years.

The ten year time frame is interesting. First, it is much sooner than even most interested laymen probably would have put the opening of manned Mars exploration. Of course, Bolden said we might have the capability in ten years; he didn't say we would head out as soon as we had the capability. Second, if we assume we would go soon after developing the means, the ten year time frame suggests Bolden might be thinking of going directly to Mars. Perhaps there would be no lunar base to test technologies needed for Mars. Such a base could be considered part of the infrastructure the Obama administration proposes building to support a human spaceflight effort, but the administration has so far embraced no such program.

The Obama approach faces a tough road in Congress. Many members think relying strictly on commercial spacecraft to get NASA astronauts into space-- spacecraft that have yet to fly-- is a bad idea. They argue NASA needs its own launch capability, and its own ships. Many also still support Constellation. Congress repeatedly voted, in a bipartisan fashion with healthy majorities, to support the Bush program over the past five years, and many members don't want to abandon that. The debate is just being joined.

The Geysers Of Enceladus

In new images obtained by the Cassini spacecraft during its close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus last November 21, scientists got their best views yet of the water ice geysers that erupt from that body's south polar regions, in its "tiger stripe" terrain.

The images revealed many more geysers than had previously been found, and showed that some of those that were already known had "turned off," at least temporarily. The images also showed the geysers erupt along fissures in the surface. The fissures are warmer than the surrounding area, which makes sense. Geysers need a power source, and increased warmth implies energy.

Enceladus' south polar region will enter a fifteen year period of darkness before Cassini flies by again. If the geyser activity is related to solar energy, it might well stop during that long winter. If the geysers are powered strictly by an internal power source, however, they may continue erupting. Watching the north polar region as it turns to the Sun during that period might also be interesting. Geyser activity might develop there.

Falcon 9 Standing Tall

SpaceX's new 180-foot tall rocket, the Falcon 9, is standing on a launch pad at Cape Kennedy, awaiting liftoff. Tests remain to be conducted before that happens, but the flight might take place in or before May.

The Falcon 9 is designed to be the workhorse launcher of SpaceX. After the space shuttle is retired, Falcon 9 will deliver the cargo ship, Dragon, on its resupply missions to ISS.

STS-130 Home

The rain and low clouds over Florida's Space Coast proved insufficient to prevent the landing of space shuttle Endeavour at Kennedy Space Center last night, ending the STS-130 mission. It was the last scheduled night landing in the shuttle program.

There are only four shuttle missions left, and the odds are improving that NASA will be able to wrap up the program yet this year.

Weather, Again

Rain and low clouds around Cape Kennedy tonight may delay the landing of space shuttle Endeavour, or shift the landing to Edwards Air Force Base. The weather in California, however, may also be a problem.

Such problems have plagued the shuttle program throughout its run. The next phase of manned spaceflight will be capsule-based, so weather concerns about coming home will likely change to concerns about recovery teams being able to reach the capsule quickly after it reaches the surface, either in water or on land.