2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge
http://space.xprize.org/lunar-lander-challenge

Watching the future unfold in real time.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://spacefellowship.com/2009/09/13/armadillo-aerospace-claim-level-2-ngllc-prize/
Armadillo Aerospace Claim Level 2 NGLLC Prize
Published By Rob GoldsmithOn: 13 September 2009 9:02 AM CEST

Armadillo Aerospace have officially completed the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Level 2, on a rainy day at Caddo Mills, Texas. Reports came in from various locations during the day and spectators posted videos and images using social networking tools such as Twitter. The Space Fellowship earlier reporting that the team were getting ready to fly.

Level 2 requires the rocket to fly for 180 seconds before landing precisely on a simulated lunar surface constructed with craters and boulders. The minimum flight times are calculated so that the Level 2 mission closely simulates the power needed to perform a real descent from lunar orbit down to the surface of the Moon. First place is a prize of $1 million while second is $500,000.

Earlier on in the day John Carmack (Team Leader) had made jokes about the wet weather, saying “at least we don’t have to worry about grassfires today” As the rain eased away a window was expected to appear in which the team would attempt to win the prize. The team had a pre-flight meeting and got ready, Peter Diamandis posting “Team Armadillo on the move… rolling out to launchpad!“. The vehicle for level 2 is called Scorpious or the Super MOD.

The team completed the first flight, John Carmack on the radio saying “good nominal flight, one down, one to go“. The vehicle was refuelled and flight preparations were again underway. At 6.22pm EDT there was a problem with the igniter, however, eight minutes later it was reported that the problem was a software glitch and that the second leg had been flown successfully.

To complete the prize the team now needed to prep the vehicle and return to the finish line, they did it. Soon afterwards judges announced that Armadillo Aerospace had officially been confirmed as completing both flights within the rules.
snip
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Has been interesting watching these rocket fly.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2009/10/masten-qualifies-for-150000-level-1.html
The Launch Pad

NGLLC 09: Masten Qualifies for $150,000 Level 1 Prize Purse 10/07/2009 12:51:00 PM Masten Space Systems successfully flew their Xombie vehicle today, completing two flights and meeting the Level 1 requirements of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Masten had a previous attempt on September 16, 2009, but did not complete the second flight due to engine damage. Masten went back to their workshop and solved the engine problem, tested it over the last several weeks and today flew an aluminum engine, making this the first known flight of such an engine on a reusable launch vehicle (Armadillo Aerospace also flew a aluminum engine for their September 12, 2009 flight, although also utilized a graphite liner).

Amidst chants of "Fly Xombie, fly!", the first flight lasted about 93 seconds and the vehicle landed ~20 cm from the center of the pad; almost a perfect repeat of their first NGLLC flight. The second flight lasted 91 seconds and the vehicle landed 11 cm from the center of the pad -- an impressive feat indeed (all numbers preliminary until judges declare them official).
snip
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://masten-space.com/blog/
Masten Space Systems Qualifies for $1 Million Prize
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
admin on 10/30/2009 at 2:01 pm

Mojave, California – October 30, 2009 – Masten Space Systems successfully qualified for first place in Level Two of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Wednesday. Flying a brand new vehicle named XA-0.1E (nicknamed Xoie), Masten demonstrated their ability to build, debug and fly a vehicle on a very short timeline.

“To come from not flying at all last year to qualifying for level one AND level two of the LLC this year shows how far our technology has progressed,” Masten Space Systems CEO David Masten said. “After a short vacation we will start modifying Xoie for commercial payloads and begin work on Xoie’s successor.”

Xoie is a larger, lightweight version of Masten’s Level One vehicle Xombie and features an aluminum structure, larger tanks and a more powerful engine. Originally designed for only 750 pounds of thrust, Xoie’s engine produces over 1000 pounds of thrust. “Our engines go to 11! Now we go build the 2500 pound version,” stated MSS propulsion engineer Jonathan Goff. A visibly exhausted but happy Ian Garcia, guidance engineer, said, “We wrote our flight control system from scratch and it just does what I tell it to do! Making it work for supersonic flight is going to be a fun challenge.”

snip
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today live from the Mojave.
http://far.pyroinnovations.com/
Friends of Amateur Rocketry is a licensed non-profit organization dedicated to further innovation in the field of experimental rocketry. F.A.R. conducts launches once a month at the F.A.R. Rocket Test Facility (RTF) in the Mojave desert near Cantil, CA.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.youtube.com/user/xprize#p/a/0/lcys-t2thk8
Masten qualifies for Level2 of Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge From: xprize | October 31, 2009 | 216 views
On Oct 30, 2009, Team Masten qualified for Level 2 of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. Hear what Dave Masten, Team Leader and CEO of Masten Space Systems felt like after successfully putting Xoie on the trailer at the end of Flight #2. Find out more at: www.thelaunchpad.xprize.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcys-t2thk8&feature=channel


Live streaming for October 31, 2009 of the Unreasonable Rocket, Level 1 and Level 2 attempts for the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/northrop-grumman-lunar-lander-challenge

Back to the show.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg

=========================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=========================================

LRO - Apollo 17 Lunar Module Landing Site

It now seems we can see some pictures of the Apollo 17 landing site from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
- LRK -

------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20091028_apollo.html
LRO - Apollo 17 Lunar Module Landing Site

Apollo 17 Lunar Module Challenger descent stage comes into focus from the new lower 50 km mapping orbit, image width 102 meters. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/397620main_challenger_4x_350.jpg

LRO maneuvered into its 50-km mapping orbit on September 15. The next pass over the Apollo 17 landing site resulted in images with more than two times better resolution than previously acquired. At the time of this recent overflight the Sun was high in the sky (28° incidence angle) helping to bring out subtle differences in surface brightness. The descent stage of the lunar module Challenger is now clearly visible, at 50 cm per pixel (angular resolution) the descent stage deck is 8 pixels across (4 meters), also note that the legs are also now distinguishable. The descent stage served as the launch pad for the ascent stage as it blasted off for a rendezvous with the command module America on 14 December 1972.

Tracks are clearly visible and can be followed to the east, where astronauts Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan set up the Surface Electrical Properties experiment (SEP). Cernan drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) in an intersecting north-south and east-west course to mark positions for laying out the SEP 35-meter antennas (circle labeled "SEP" marks the area of the SEP transmitter). The dark area just below the SEP experiment is where the astronauts left the rover, in a prime spot for monitoring the liftoff.

snip
------------------------------------
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32693
LRO Image of Apollo 17 Landing Site

LRO maneuvered into its 50-km mapping orbit on September 15. The next pass over the Apollo 17 landing site resulted in images with more than two times better resolution than previously acquired. At the time of this recent overflight the Sun was high in the sky (28° incidence angle) helping to bring out subtle differences in surface brightness.

The descent stage of the lunar module Challenger is now clearly visible, at 50 cm per pixel (angular resolution) the descent stage deck is 8 pixels across (4 meters), also note that the legs are also now distinguishable. The descent stage served as the launch pad for the ascent stage as it blasted off for a rendezvous with the command module America on 14 December 1972.

------------------------------------
Also - http://www.onorbit.com/node/1658

A quick refresher on Apollo 17
- LRK -
------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17
Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch of a U.S. human spaceflight and the sixth and final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program. The mission was launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, and concluded on December 19. It remains both the most recent manned moon landing and manned flight beyond low Earth orbit. It also broke several records set by previous flights, including longest manned lunar landing flight; longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities; largest lunar sample return, and longest time in lunar orbit.

snip
------------------------------------

Maybe you would like to read about what Apollo 17 mission was about.
- LRK -

------------------------------------
http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/A17_PressKit.pdf
Press Kit
176 page PDF file

APOLLO 17 LAUNCH DECEMBER 6
The night launch of Apollo 17 on December 6 will be visible to people on a large portion of the eastern seaborad as the final United States manned lunar lhnding mission gets underway.
------------------------------------

We have had access to a lot of Apollo images from the actual mission time frame.
Off course some would probably say they were all part of lunar hoax. :-)
- LRK -

------------------------------------
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Apollo Image Atlas

Foreword
Scanning and Processing Information
Credits
The Apollo Image Atlas can be accessed in the following ways:

Browse Image Catalog
70mm Hasselblad
Mapping (Metric)
Panoramic
Apollo Lunar Surface Closeup Camera (ALSCC)
35mm Nikon
Search
Search by Feature Name
Search by Coordinate
Search by Description
Slideshows
70mm Hasselblad
Mapping (Metric)

The Apollo Image Atlas is a comprehensive collection of Apollo-Saturn mission photography. Included are almost 25,000 lunar images, both from orbit and from the moon's surface, as well as photographs of the earth, astronauts and mission hardware.

Other sites of interest: Apollo Surface Panoramas
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollopanoramas/
Consolidated Lunar Atlas of the Moon

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/cla/
Lunar Orbiter Photo Gallery
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunarorbiter/
Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/
Ranger Photographs of the Moon
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/ranger/
USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/
------------------------------------

When will a tourist be able to snap their own pictures at these historical sites?

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
==========================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==========================================

And now we wait - Why? - I ask.

The Augustine Commission final report is out and we wait to see when the government decides whether to fund or not to fund whatever it is they decide to fund or not!!!
- LRK -

--------------------------
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1499/1
And now we wait.
by Jeff Foust
Monday, October 26, 2009

For months the space community had been waiting for it, and on Thursday they finally got it: the final report of the Augustine committee. Jeff Foust reports on the reaction and how the report is the next step, but not the last step, in crafting a new space policy.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1499/1
--------------------------

I watched the press briefing on the Internet and have been reading through the 157 page PDF Augustine Report file.

I am not sure why we needed a blue ribbon panel of experts to tell us that Congress cut NASA's funding.

There is a cute interactive flash presentation for the Constellation program showing the Orion docking with the ISS as test of carrying astronauts to the ISS.

I guess that will just be another publication of proposed missions that never get completed.
Too many posters I have, of missions to nowhere.
- LRK -

Sort of hard to dock with the ISS if it is de-orbited before you have a rocket or a crew capsule to get there.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html
- LRK -

--------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/hsf/meetings/10_22_pressconference.html
Date and Time: October 22, 2009 - 1 pm EDT
Location Information:
Zenger Room of the National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, in Washington, D.C.

The Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee Chairman Norman Augustine will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT, on Thursday, Oct. 22, in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, in Washington.

Augustine will be accompanied by committee member Ed Crawley. Printed copies of the committee's final report will be available during the press conference.

Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee - Final Report (pdf, 7.7MB)
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf

snip
Video link here as well as on the NASA site - LRK - http://vimeo.com/7270323
Also Senate hearings - http://vimeo.com/user1955131
--------------------------

I copied part of the Executive Summary from the Augustine Commission before and it has been suggested that I should have copied a bit more.

I have done so and unacceptable I think the comment is, that if we can't afford the money to achieve the goals we should accept the disappointment of setting lesser goals.

Why should I accept the disappointment?

Maybe I should accept the resignation of those in Congress that don't wish to fund our ability to develop space properly and maybe THEY should just accept the disappointment of not being re-elected.
- LRK -

--------------------------
The Augustine Commission issued its final report.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf
[7.9 MB, 157 pages ]
Review of Human Space Flight Plans Committee

p9. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources. Space
operations are among the most demanding and unforgiving pursuits ever undertaken by humans. It really is rocket science. Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations. Such is the case today.

The nation is facing important decisions on the future of human spaceflight. Will we leave the close proximity of low-Earth orbit, where astronauts have circled since 1972, and explore the
solar system, charting a path for the eventual expansion of human civilization into space? If so, how will we ensure that our exploration delivers the greatest benefit to the nation? Can we explore with reasonable assurances of human safety? Can the nation marshal the resources to
embark on the mission?

Whatever space program is ultimately selected, it must be matched with the resources needed for its execution. How can we marshal the necessary resources? There are actually more options available today than in 1961, when President Kennedy challenged the nation to “commit itself to the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

First, space exploration has become a global enterprise.
Many nations have aspirations in space, and the combined annual budgets of their space programs are comparable to NASA’s. If the United States is willing to lead a global program of
exploration, sharing both the burden and benefit of space exploration in a meaningful way, significant accomplishments could follow. Actively engaging international partners in a manner adapted to today’s multi-polar world could strengthen geopolitical relationships, leverage global financial and technical resources, and enhance the exploration enterprise.

Second, there is now a burgeoning commercial space industry.
If we craft a space architecture to provide opportunities to this industry, there is the potential—not without risk—that the costs to the government would be reduced. Finally, we are also more experienced than in 1961, and able to build on that experience as we design an exploration program. If, after designing cleverly, building alliances with partners, and engaging commercial providers, the nation cannot afford to fund the effort to pursue the goals it would like to embrace, it should accept the disappointment of setting lesser goals.
snip
--------------------------

To fund or not to fund, that is the question.
Congress, are you listening?
To be re-elected, THAT is the question.
- LRK -

We need to learn to LIVE off world, NOT JUST GO CAMPING. - IMHO

Is this just going to be another web link that I have to go look up on the Web Archive? http://www.archive.org/index.php
http://web.archive.org/web/*hh_/www.nasa.gov/#

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/index.html
At the core of NASA's future space exploration is a return to the moon, where we will build a sustainable long term human presence.

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=======================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=======================================

NASA SETS ARES I-X PRELAUNCH EVENTS AND COUNTDOWN DETAILS

NASA SETS ARES I-X PRELAUNCH EVENTS AND COUNTDOWN DETAILS
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/oct/HQ_M09-206_Ares_I-X.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- News conferences, events and operating hours for the news center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are set for the upcoming Ares I-X flight test. The rocket is targeted to lift off at 8 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The launch will be carried live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's Web site.

A launch day blog will update the countdown beginning at 5 a.m. onTuesday, Oct. 27. Originating from Kennedy, the blog is the definitive Internet source for information leading up to launch. To follow the blog, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/aresIX
---------------------------

With all eyes on the test, I hope it goes well.
- LRK -

--------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/index.html
Launch Vehicle: Ares I-X
Targeted Launch Date: Oct. 27
Launch Window: 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. EDT
Launch Pad: 39B
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

NASA's first flight test for the agency's next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system, called Ares I-X, will bring NASA one step closer to its exploration goals. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I.

More Information
› Prelaunch Events and Countdown Details
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/releases/2009/release-20091023b.html

› Ares I-X Press Kit (PDF, 3.2 MB )
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396682main_Ares_I-X-pk.pdf

› Ares I-X Fact Sheet (PDF, 1.0 MB)
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/354470main_aresIX_fs_may09.pdf

› Ares I-X Mission Specifications (PDF, 8 MB)
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/271630main_aresIx_flyer_090408.pdf

› Management Bios
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/AresIX_Bios.html

› Ares I-X Integration Map (PDF, 4 MB)
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/283121main_IX_%20Integrated_Map_10_9_08_CMR.pdf
snip
--------------------------

Best be on good behavior, the boss is looking.
- LRK -

--------------------------
http://www.spacenews.com/launch/091022-bolden-garver-expected-for-flight.html
10/22/09 12:00 PM ET
Bolden and Garver Expected to Be On Hand for Ares 1-X Flight

By Amy Klamper

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver are planning to attend the unmanned suborbital test flight of the Ares 1-X rocket, targeted for Oct. 27 at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., according to NASA officials.

The test is a major early milestone for NASA’s Constellation program, a five-year-old effort to build new rockets and spacecraft capable of returning humans to the Moon by 2020.

The Ares 1-X test shot comes as Bolden and Garver mull the findings of a blue-ribbon panel tasked with determining a range of options for NASA’s manned spaceflight future. The panel, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, included completion of the Ares 1 rocket
in two of the five broad options detailed in its report. But the other options would scrap Ares 1 and make substantial changes to other aspects of the Constellation program, including dropping the Moon in favor of other destinations.

snip
--------------------------

Well the Augustine report is out.
What now?
- LRK -

--------------------------
The Augustine Commission issued its final report.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf
[7.9 MB, 157 pages ]
Review of Human Space Flight Plans Committee

p9. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources. Space
operations are among the most demanding and unforgiving pursuits ever undertaken by humans. It really is rocket science. Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations. Such is the case today.

The nation is facing important decisions on the future of human spaceflight. Will we leave the close proximity of low-Earth orbit, where astronauts have circled since 1972, and explore the
solar system, charting a path for the eventual expansion of human civilization into space? If so, how will we ensure that our exploration delivers the greatest benefit to the nation? Can we explore with reasonable assurances of human safety? Can the nation marshal the resources to
embark on the mission?

Whatever space program is ultimately selected, it must be matched with the resources needed for its execution. How can we marshal the necessary resources? There are actually more
options available today than in 1961, when President Kennedy challenged the nation to “commit itself to the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

snip
--------------------------

To fund or not to fund, that is the question.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=========================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=========================================

Sea Launch Files Chapter 11 to Address Financial Challenges - June 22, 2009

What was it I have heard, to develop space we need to have cheaper launch facilities. We need competition to bring down the cost of launching satellites.

Then there was/is Sea Launch, an international business, that could launch from the ocean cheaper than the big guys.
http://www.sea-launch.com/

Not all has gone smoothly. A bump in the road was a boom on the launch pad out there in the ocean back in January 2007.
--------------------------------------------------
Sea Launch Experiences Anomaly During NSS-8 Launch
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21766
--------------------------------------------------

The Sea Launch satellite launch schedules were disrupted and owners of satellites found other launch services for time critical launches.

Hughes Network Systems LLC wanted to collect a $52 million arbitration award made in connection with a canceled launch contract following the failed launching in 2007.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=BA:US&sid=aSApkl3mFF18

All of which has led to Sea Launch filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------
http://www.boeing.com/special/sea-launch/news_releases/2009/nr_090622.html
Sea Launch Files Chapter 11 to Address Financial Challenges
LONG BEACH, Calif., June 22, 2009 – Sea Launch Company L.L.C. and Sea Launch Limited Partnership and subsidiaries (“Sea Launch” or “Company”), a leading provider of launch services to the commercial satellite industry, has filed voluntary petitions to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington.

The members of Sea Launch have unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best interests of the Company, its customers, shareholders, employees and other related parties.

Sea Launch intends to continue to maintain all normal business operations after the filing for reorganization. Subject to court approval, Sea Launch will initially use its cash balance to meet
operational requirements during the reorganization process and is addressing Debtor in Possession financing, if necessary.

“We want to assure our customers, employees, suppliers and partners that Sea Launch intends to continue to operate after the filing,” said Kjell Karlsen, president and general manager of Sea Launch. “Chapter 11 reorganization provides an opportunity for us to continue operations and focus on building our future plans. We are grateful for the continued support of our customers and partners while we focus on reorganizing for the future.”

In the court filing, Sea Launch listed assets of between $100 million and $500 million against liabilities of between $500 million and $1 billion. Sea Launch’s restructuring counsel is Alston & Bird, LLP.

Contact: Paula Korn, 562.499.4729 or 562.254.5684 (cell),
paula.korn@sea-launch.com

snip
--------------------------------------------------

Sea Launch plans to continue operations but it won't be easy.
When you have to take time to regroup others can take advantage and pick up the slack.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124585981636148193.html
Sea Launch Bankruptcy Gives Advantage to European Rivals
snip
The filing underscores the financial weakness of the commercial satellite launch business in the U.S. The partnership's woes are in stark contrast to the expanding, government-supported launch operations aggressively marketed by Russia and the European launch consortium Arianespace.

Both Arianespace and Russian-supported International Launch Services benefit from billions of dollars in public investments because they also are part of strategic national-security priorities for Moscow and the European Union. Over the weekend, for example, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy announced a drive to develop a replacement for Europe's premier satellite launcher, the Ariane 5 rocket. Such plans are part of broader European ambitions to promote unmanned and eventually manned space exploration.
snip
--------------------------------------------------

Hmmmm, haven't heard of any bailout funds being offered. What is a billion or two among friends, yes?

--------------------------------------------------
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0906/24sealaunch/
snip
In the filing, the company said it is unable to repay debt or secure new financing, making bankruptcy reorganization the "best avenue" to keep the company afloat.

Officials say they intend to continue normal business operations, including the pursuit of new launch contracts to bring in new revenue.

Whether satellite operators will sign with a company in bankruptcy remains to be seen, but Sea Launch leaders attempted to ease their concerns.

"We want to assure our customers, employees, suppliers and partners that Sea Launch intends to continue to operate after the filing," said Kjell Karlsen, president and general manager of Sea Launch. "Chapter 11 reorganization provides an opportunity for us to continue operations and focus on building our future plans. We are grateful for the continued support of our customers and partners while we focus on reorganizing for the future."

Two more launches had been planned for this year. Sea Launch has contracts for 10 launches through 2012, officials said.

Sea Launch reported assets between $100 million and $500 million and estimated debt of almost $2 billion.

The company will explore the potential sale of one or more of its business units during the bankruptcy proceedings, officials said.
snip
--------------------------------------------------

Are there any CEO's who got bailout bonuses who would like to give a donation to help a multinational corporation lower the price of getting to space?
- LRK -

Why Sea Launch?
http://www.sea-launch.com/why_sea_launch.htm

What next? Ares 1-X launch.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------
http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/4720
Ares 1-X launch date moved up
Posted: Wed, Sep 23, 2009, 7:05 AM ET (1105 GMT)
NASA announced Tuesday that it was moving up next month's launch of a prototype of the Ares 1 launch vehicle by several days. The Ares 1-X launch, previously planned for October 31, is now scheduled for October 27, the agency announced; a backup date of October 28 is also planned. Officials said they moved up the launch because previous plans included buffer time they did not need, and that the range was available on those earlier dates. The Ares 1-X is a full-scale version of the Ares 1, but uses only a four-segment solid rocket motor in its first stage, versus the five-segment planned for the Ares 1; the second stage of the Ares 1-X is a dummy stage with no propulsion. The future of the Ares 1 is in question after a review of human spaceflight plans performed this summer by an independent committee:
several of the options in that committee's summary report did not
include the Ares 1.
snip
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/sep/HQ_09-219_Ares_I-X_Launch_Date.html
--------------------------------------------------

Will we see Space-X Falcon-9 launch November 29,2009.
- LRK -

-------------------------------------------------
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0909/24falcon/
snip
But according to an Air Force document first made public by the Orlando Sentinel, SpaceX has requested a launch date of Nov. 29 on the Air Force's Eastern Range. The range oversees launch operations and a network of required communications and tracking sites stretching from the U.S. East Coast across the Atlantic Ocean.

The range document lists a launch window on Nov. 29 between 1600 GMT and 2000 GMT (11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST).

Musk said not to read too much into that date.

"It is possible, but unlikely that we would be able to launch on Nov 29," Musk said in an email response to questions.
snip
-------------------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=================================================

LCROSS: Mission to HYPErspace

Paul D. Spudis wrote some comments about the LCROSS mission and the reactions to the lack of a plume.

- LRK -
--------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2009/10/12/lcross-a-mission-to-hyperspace/
October 12, 2009

LCROSS: Mission to HYPErspace

Early last Friday, the public and families of employees at Ames Research Center in California, where the LCROSS mission was conceived, built and operated, camped on the lawn in an all-night vigil. NASA’s educational outreach and public relations push about the pending lunar impact event was very effective, having reached a wide audience in the weeks leading up to the much hyped event. Alas, the promised giant plume of impact debris was invisible from Earth, leaving a receptive public feeling cheated and disappointed.

The understanding that a high-velocity impactor can yield important information about planetary composition and state is very old. The first probes to the Moon (both Soviet and American) were impactors. We know that when something strikes a planetary surface at high speed, target material is thrown up into space, some of it vaporized by heat generated in the energy of the impact. By studying this impact ejecta, we learn about the composition of the target object.

I didn’t post on it earlier, but as the LCROSS mission has successfully concluded, I think it is a good time to examine this mission, how it came about, and the lessons that hopefully it has taught NASA about public appeal and its involvement with space.
snip
--------------------------------------------------

Dr. Spudis mentions some of the history of how the LCROSS mission came about and how some had wanted to land rovers or hoppers. Even if water itself is detected more might have been detected with instrumentation on the ground. Then again, landing rovers or hoppers this early without more information from the LRO mapping might not have done any better.

The comments left on his blog are most interesting as well. You may find them informative.
- LRK -

So now the question will be, do we do it right and send rovers to the Moon later.
Missions get proposed and before they get far they may be switched, modified or dropped for others.

Just not enough money to do everything you would like. And then there is politics.

http://www.spacenews.com/archive/archive06/smalllanders_0814.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Precursor_Robotic_Program
http://moon.msfc.nasa.gov/background.html

Some have accused NASA of BOMBING the Moon. Not so, but is something to consider.
- LRK -
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/12/nasa-bombing-the-moon-opinions-contributors-kenneth-anderson-glenn-harlan-reynolds.html?partner=commentary_newsletter
Tiny URL for above link - http://tinyurl.com/yhdkzcn
Commentary
Bombing The Moon
Kenneth Anderson and Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 10.13.09, 12:00 AM EDT
Laws and treaties on explosions in space.

The rocket that NASA aimed at the Moon last week did not produce the public relations bonanza the agency was hoping for--a cloud of dust visible to amateur earth astronomers. But early accounts suggest the explosions did produce a wealth of scientific data on the presence and distribution of water-ice in the dust, which is an important practical factor if humans are ever to spend much time there. The presence of accessible lunar water would mean not having to haul all our own H2O out of Earth's deep gravity well.

The LCROSS mission is an important and expensive scientific experiment. Nonetheless, comments on Web sites such as Scientific American and Nature indicate that quite a few people thought the whole venture to be some sort of outer-space vandalism. Some even wondered whether NASA might have acted illegally or violated an international law or treaty by setting out to "bomb the Moon."

The answer is no. But while many might be surprised--dismayed, even--to hear that there is such a thing as "space law," there are treaties governing activities in outer space, including the Moon. The United States has joined four international agreements that regulate different questions about space activities. The Outer Space Treaty (dating back to 1967, not long before the first lunar landing) covers many aspects of humans in space, including the peaceful uses of space.

snip
--------------------------------------------------

The subject of space law is going to come up over and over. It will be a subject that needs to be dealt with as we inhabit off world places.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=============================================

NASA Glenn Research Center leads effort to design tiny nuclear plant

A few snippets from a long article that is quite informative.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------
http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2009/10/engineers_at_clevelands_nasa_g.html
Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center leads effort to design tiny
nuclear plant for moon outpost
By John Mangels, The Plain Dealer
October 10, 2009, 9:00PM

There are no electrical outlets on the moon. No power cables either, no transmission towers, no grid, no generating plants.
snip

Engineers at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are leading work on a possible solution: an ultra-compact nuclear power plant that can run for eight years or longer without maintenance, and can make more than enough electricity to meet the daily needs of the average
American house.

The whole rig could fold up to fit in a tractor-trailer with room to spare. The heart of the system is a reactor no bigger than an office trash bin.
snip

The lunar outpost's design is still evolving, and NASA's overall human space exploration program is in flux as the White House and Congress wrestle with the cost of building new spacecraft to send astronauts to the moon and Mars.
snip

Here's the Glenn-led team's basic plan: The small reactor would be buried about 6 feet deep in the lunar soil and shielded with a plug made of boron carbide, a material that blocks radiation as effectively as lead but is much lighter. Splitting uranium atoms in the reactor's core would release energy in the form of heat, as much as 1,200 degrees. A couple of gallons of
liquid metal – probably sodium or a sodium/potassium mix – piped around the core would transfer that heat energy to four Stirling engines mounted on a metal truss above the reactor.

The Stirling engines convert the reactor's heat into mechanical energy, driving an alternator that makes electricity. Together, the engines should put out 40 kilowatts.

Waste heat would be absorbed by coolant and pumped through a series of radiator panels that unfurl from the truss like giant bat wings. The fully extended panels would be 100 feet long, but when folded they're less than 5.

The whole system would weigh 11,000 pounds, about as much as a fully armored Humvee. NASA's Altair lunar lander conceivably could haul two at a time to the surface.

"The idea is to deliver [the nuclear power plant] in this nice, compact, stowed configuration, and once you install the reactor in the hole, you can deploy the radiators," said Mason. "You can do it
remotely from Earth, or from the habitat on the moon. It's meant to be a very simple setup."
snip

The radiation level of the reactor's individual uranium dioxide fuel pins is low enough that they can be safely hand-held, Palac said. If the rocket carrying the reactor exploded, its nuclear fuel would be dispersed, he said, and the remnants, although they would require cleanup, would not exceed normal background radiation levels.

Palac said he hopes people will react to the project like his wife's aunt, a member of several environmental groups. He'd been worried about her response to his research, and described it obliquely as developing fission surface power for the moon..

"She said, 'Oh, you mean nuclear,'" Palac recalled. "She said, 'You know, nuclear power has tremendous potential to be a solution to our global energy crisis, and how wonderful you're taking it to outer space, where I'm sure it's even more useful.' I was blown away by that."

snip
--------------------------------------------

Now if we can just get our act together and get back to the Moon while I am still around to see it happen, I would be most pleased. :-)

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=============================================

Where Has All The Water Gone? - LCROSS Strikes The Moon

I grew up with the Moon being dry, no water, magnificent desolation.

LCROSS strikes the Moon with an anticipated plume of water, but just a flash.
Still there are indications that the full story of water on the Moon has yet to be told.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn-091008-lcross-updates.html
LIVE LCROSS UPDATES: Reports Coming in on Moon Crash Results
By Stephen Clark posted: 08 October 2009 11:16 pm ET

2100 GMT (5 p.m. EDT)
A $79 million mission struck a lunar bullseye early Friday and collected a wealth of data to guide scientists seeking water on the moon, but the impact was a dud for observers hoping to catch a glimpse of space fireworks. See our full story.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/lcross/091009impact/index.html

1455 GMT (10:55 a.m. EDT)
The story coming out of the post-impact press conference is that scientists do not know exactly what LCROSS saw.

LCROSS gathered strong spectroscopic signals, but officials were expecting a dramatic visible ejecta plume from the Centaur impact that was not obviously observed by any sensor. Instruments also detected an unexpected sodium flash in the data.

Ground telescopes also observed suspected spectral data, but saw no apparent sign of a debris cloud.
snip
----------------------------------------

Instruments on lunar spacecraft register indications of water or at least the hydroxyl.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/pieters1.html
Water detected at high latitudes - 09.24.09

This image of the moon is from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 mission. It is a three-color composite of reflected near-infrared radiation from the sun, and illustrates the extent to which different materials are mapped across the side of the moon that faces Earth.

Small amounts of water and hydroxyl (blue) were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. This image illustrates their distribution at high latitudes toward the poles.

Blue shows the signature of water and hydroxyl molecules as seen by a highly diagnostic absorption of infrared light with a wavelength of three micrometers. Green shows the brightness of the surface as measured by reflected infrared radiation from the sun with a wavelength of 2.4 micrometers, and red shows an iron-bearing mineral called pyroxene, detected by absorption of 2.0-micrometer infrared light.

Image credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ./USGS

› Full resolution jpeg (1.8 Mb)
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/388698main_1-M3color-clean-full.jpg
----------------------------------------

We have been told that the Lunar regolith samples returned by the Apollo missions turned out to be dry.

Now we hear that the Russian missions that landed on the Moon and returned samples of the regolith have tested for signs of water.

If you try to submit your ideas in peer reviewed articles and it doesn't meet the expectations of the reviewers, you may find it hard to get your article published. Then when the word finally gets out, the unspeakable, is spoken, and things may change.

The Moon may not be completely dry, you just may have to dig deeper.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1485/1
Water on the Moon by Arlin Crotts - Monday, October 12, 2009

On August 9, 1976, Luna 24 launched toward the Moon on a Proton rocket, and nine days later landed safely in the southern part of the unexplored Mare Crisium. Within 24 hours, it deployed a drilling rig, extracted a core sample from two meters into the Moon, stowed it in its return capsule, and blasted off again with 170 grams of lunar soil. Four days later it successfully re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over Siberia, and the core sample was taken to Moscow intact and uncontaminated (as far as we now). It was the last lunar mission of the Soviet Union, and the last from Earth to soft-land on the Moon (as of this writing).

What it brought back was very special. The core sample was found by scientists M. Akhmanova, B. Dement’yev, and M. Markov of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytic Chemistry to contain about 0.1% water by mass, as seen by absorption in infrared spectroscopy (at about 3 microns wavelength), at a detection level about 10 times above the threshold. The trend was for the water signal to increase looking deeper below the lunar surface. The original title of their paper in the February 1978 Russian-language journal Geokhimiia translates to “Water in the regolith of Mare Crisium (Luna-24)?” and in the English-language version of the journal “Possible Water in Luna 24 Regolith from the Sea of Crises”—but the abstract claims a detection of water fairly definitively. The authors point out that the sample shows no tendency to absorb water from the air, but they were not willing to stake their reputations on an absolute statement that terrestrial contamination was completely avoided. Nonetheless, they claim to have taken every possible precaution and stress that this result must be followed up. The three Soviet lunar sample return missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24) from 1970 to 1976 brought back a total of 327 grams of lunar soil. The six Apollo lunar landing missions in 1969–1972 returned 381,700 grams of soil and rock. By 1978 it was widely held that the Apollo samples contained virtually no water, typically measuring in parts per billion, orders of magnitude less than the 1,000,000 parts per billion seen by Luna 24. The Soviet findings were completely ignored. (According to my searches, no other author has cited their work.)

Recently scientists learned that, for a major subclass of Apollo samples, the no-water result was seriously mistaken. Alberto Saal at Brown University and his collaborators showed, in the journal Nature in 2008 and other work in 2009, that volcanic glasses from magma originating deep in the lunar interior contain water at levels up to 70 parts per million. Furthermore, they calculate that most of this water was lost in the venting process, so probably started out at levels approaching one part per thousand, nearly at the level seen by Luna 24. Furthermore, the tendency has been for lunar scientists to think that the same processes that drove off most of the water from the Moon drove off other volatile, light elements. For this reason it is also surprising that Saal and collaborators are finding up to 0.09% sulfur (probably as sulfur dioxide), even before one accounts for loss processes. One could say, shockingly, that at least parts of the lunar interior are rich in sulfur, and hardly more depleted in water than many minerals on Earth, such as basalts along mid-ocean ridges. Few scientists have found cause to dismiss to the Saal et al. compositional measurements. They seem sound. Other researchers (such as Francis McCubbin and coworkers) have found supporting results.

snip
----------------------------------------

Will the talk about "Water on the Moon" be enough to encourage the funding of sending human missions back to the Moon?
Will there be enough water for my morning coffee?
Will there be enough to sustain a Lunar Base?


The Moon may not be the only place where water is hard to find.
How deep are we now drilling for water here on Earth where once there was much?
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article638
Water Shortage Cripples Palestinian Farming

http://westernfarmpress.com/news/water-shortage-0206/
Water shortage threatens to curb UC research - Feb 6, 2009 10:17 AM

http://www.environmental-expert.com/resulteachpressrelease.aspx?cid=28206&codi=37165
Groundwater overuse could cause severe water shortage
Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Sep. 15, 2008

http://www.eenews.net/public/Landletter/2009/04/09/7
7. WATER: Industrial farms could leave eastern Wash. with dry wells
(Land Letter, 04/09/2009)

http://www.mindfully.org/Water/China-Water-Shortage.htm
Worsening Water Shortages Threaten China's Food Supplies
Lester R. Brown / Earth Policy Institute 4oct01
-------------------------------------------------------

Take some of our experience with finding water here on Earth, up to the Moon.
Fine tune it and bring back some Spin Offs that can be used back here on Earth.
Hard to drink coffee without water. :-)

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=============================================

NASA SPACECRAFT IMPACTS LUNAR CRATER IN SEARCH FOR WATER ICE

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/oct/HQ_09-236_LCROSS.html
Oct. 9, 200
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grey Hautaluoma/Ashley Edwards
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668/1756
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov
ashley.edwards-1@nasa.gov

Jonas Dino
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-5612
jonas.dino@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 09-236

NASA SPACECRAFT IMPACTS LUNAR CRATER IN SEARCH FOR WATER ICE

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, created twin impacts on the moon's surface early Friday in a search for water ice. Scientists will analyze data from the spacecraft's instruments to assess whether water ice is present.

The satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed region near the moon's south pole. The spacecraft was launched June 18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The team is excited to dive into data."

In preparation for impact, LCROSS and its spent Centaur upper stage rocket separated about 54,000 miles above the surface of the moon on Thursday at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT.

Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.

"This is a great day for science and exploration," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The LCROSS data should prove to be an impressive addition to the tremendous leaps in knowledge about the moon that have been achieved in recent weeks. I want to congratulate the LCROSS team for their tremendous achievement in development of this low cost spacecraft and for their perseverance through a number of difficult technical and operational challenges."


Other observatories reported capturing both impacts. The data will be shared with the LCROSS science team for analysis. The LCROSS team expects it to take several weeks of analysis before it can make a definitive assessment of the presence or absence of water ice.

"I am very proud of the success of this LCROSS mission team," said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames. "Whenever this team would hit a roadblock, it conceived a clever work-around allowing us to push forward with a successful mission."

The images and video collected by the amateur astronomer community and the public also will be used to enhance our knowledge about the moon.


"One of the early goals of the mission was to get as many people to look at the LCROSS impacts in as many ways possible, and we succeeded," said Jennifer Heldmann, Ames' coordinator of the LCROSS observation campaign. "The amount of corroborated information that can be pulled out of this one event is fascinating."

"It has been an incredible journey since LCROSS was selected in April 2006," said Andrews. "The LCROSS Project faced a very ambitious schedule and an uncommonly small budget for a mission of this size. LCROSS could be a model for how small robotic missions are executed.
This is truly big science on a small budget."

For more information about the LCROSS mission, including images and video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

-end-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stay tuned for the data reduction - it will all be in the numbers.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

============================================

LCROSS - Lunar Impact coming up 7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT Friday Oct. 9, 2009

---------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html
LCROSS Lunar Impact 7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT Friday Oct. 9

A live NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at
6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The 1.5 hour broadcast includes:
Live footage from spacecraft camera
Real-time telemetry based animation
Views of LCROSS Mission and Science Operations
Broadcast commentary with expert guests
Prepared video segments
Views of the public impact viewing event at NASA Ames
Possible live footage from the University of Hawaii, 88-inch telescope
on Mauna Kea.
The live LCROSS Post-Impact News Conference will be 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m.
PDT on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.
---------------------

Geoff asked if the fuel used in LCROSS would contaminate the expected readings when the upper stage of the Atlas crashes into the Moon.

The Centaur burns liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) so sounds like a good question.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(rocket_stage)

I didn't know the answer so went looking and I must confess had not read the LCROSS blog site.

Here is their blog with a history time line and looks like they are trying to make sure their is no water on the booster stage.
- LRK -

----------------------------------
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/lcrossfdblog
snip
DOY 267 (September 24): Cold Side Bakeout #3 and a Test of the –Z MGA

Despite previous efforts to rid the Centaur outer skin of water on Cold Side Bakeout #1 and #2, our Navigation team continued to observe the accelerating effects of escaping water at the end of the second of those events. With the amounts of water remaining, the Science Team was no longer concerned that this water could interfere with water measurements at Impact – there was just too little left. However, Navigation was still concerned that remaining water might push our Centaur off course in the hours before Impact, after Separation when we no longer had any control over its orbit.

Recall that we had planned to execute Cold Side Bakeout #3 on DOY 234 (August 22), but our plans were thwarted by the discovery of the anomaly. Cold Side Bakeout #3 was unfinished business that had to be completed. In an unrelated thread, we also wanted to test the antenna we’d be using for Impact. LCROSS has two Medium Gain Antennas (MGA’s), one on the +Z axis, the other on the –Z axis, used to downlink high-speed science data to Earth. We had used the +Z MGA during Lunar Swingby, but had never tested the –Z MGA in flight. We didn’t want to discovera problem with this antenna in the hours before impact, so we devised a test that would expose any issues immediately, and that would couple very nicely with Cold Side Bakeout #3.

The combined Cold Side Bakeout #3 and –Z MGA Test took advantage of the fact that LCROSS was passing right through the ecliptic plane, the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. The LCROSS +X axis was perpendicular to the ecliptic plane at the time, and so by rotating about the +X (roll) axis, we could simultaneously face the “cold side” of the Centaur towards the sun, and the –Z MGA towards the Earth (required to test communications via this antenna). It was a
perfectly-timed opportunity.

On DOY 267 (September 24), we performed the maneuver. Unlike previous versions of Cold Side Bakeout, we stopped the spacecraft twice, once at 135 degrees rotation, and again at 225 degrees. The first position pointed the –Z MGA (which is canted by 45 degrees) straight at the
Earth, and warmed one side of the cold skin of the Centaur. After 20 minutes, LCROSS rotated another 90 degrees, moving the MGA off the Earth, and moving another part of the cold face of the Centaur into full sunlight. We characterized one “slice” of the –Z MGA antenna gain pattern, confirmed that it was operational and mounted according to specification, and removed more water from our impactor.

One of the risks of Cold Side Bakeouts is that we might induce athermal instability in our thrusters, as we had in Cold Side Bakeout #1, prompting our improvised fault management to fire the thrusters to keep them warm (see the post entitled “Our First Orbit Around the
Earth” for details). Happily, our thrusters remained thermally stable, and we avoided any additional propellant cost.

snip
------------------------
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/lcrossfdblog.blog/posts/index_2.html
Welcome Posted on May 09, 2009 02:53:46 PM | Paul.D Tompkins
Welcome everyone to the first installment of the LCROSS Flight Blog! LCROSS stands for Lunar Crater and Observation and Sensing Satellite. It is one of two spacecraft launching to the moon in June of 2009, as part of a coordinated effort to explore the moon in unprecedented detail, in preparation for human missions in the not-so-distant future. If you’re not familiar with the mission concept, I’d suggest you start with our project website:

http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov

or

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

What you may not know is that LCROSS does not fly all by itself. During our mission, a team, called the Mission Operations Team (or Flight Team for short), will remotely operate the spacecraft from NASA Ames Research Center in the Bay Area in California, as well as from
other operations facilities around the country and around the world.

My name is Paul Tompkins, and I’m the Flight Team Leader and one of the Flight Directors for the LCROSS mission. In this blog, I’ll do my best to describe what it’s like to be a part of this team. I’ll be posting as often as possible as the LCROSS launch date approaches, and during the mission to provide play-by-play updates of the mission. Above all, I hope I can convey the excitement all of us on the teamare all feeling, and to get you excited about the moon!

snip
---------------------------------

First time I had seen the blog. Looks like an interesting read.
Nothing like the thrill of a good anomaly. :-)
- LRK -

---------------------------------
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/lcrossfdblog.blog/posts/index.html
Once More Around the Earth: September 4 - October 5 Posted on Oct 05, 2009 03:14:59 PM | Paul.D Tompkins The anomaly robbed the LCROSS Flight Team of precious time to prepare
for Impact. But with a healthy spacecraft, and enough propellant to do the job, our team was all too happy to prepare for the future. Ahead of us were five more Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCM 6 – 10) to precisely refine our crater targeting, then Separation, Centaur
Observation, Braking Burn, and finally, Impact. In the midst of our TCM series, the Science Team continued refining their selection our target – the specific crater, and the point within the crater - based on the latest data from other missions. As a final confirmation of the payload instruments, the Science Team also wanted to look at Earth one last time before Impact. On top of all that, we needed topractice those final two critical days as much as we could.

DOY 247-251 (September 4 – 8): Housekeeping

Out of Emergency Status, we resumed operations gradually, monitoring spacecraft health and performing typical housekeeping duties. Of special note, as a result of the anomaly and our very small propellant margin, we decided to substitute Earth Look Cal 2, originally scheduled for DOY 250 (September 7), with a new, more propellant-efficient calibration maneuver that we termed “Earth Gaze”, on DOY 261 (September 18; see below).

snip
---------------------------------

Brings back memories I have of the Lunar Prospector Mission.
Marcie Smith wrote the lunar-update log which got posted to the lunar-update list, and here we are, just a few years later. :-)
- LRK -

--------------------------------
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/resources/mail.htm

Automatic Email sender: During the mission the lunar-update list provided weekly status reports. Now that the mission has ended the list is no longer being maintained.

The complete Status Report archive in an Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF file.
LPStatus.pdf (255 kb PDF file)
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/project/pdf/LPStatus.pdf
--------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
=============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

=============================================

Lunar Impact Viewer's Guide

A very early film had folks riding to the Moon in a shell that was shot from Florida, USA.
The Moon is shown with a big bullet hitting in its eye.

Coming up on October 9th, 2009, the Moon is going to get hit again, but maybe not in its eye.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/05oct_lcrossvg.htm?list965414

---------------------------------------------
Lunar Impact Viewer's Guide

NASA Science News for October 5, 2009
On Friday morning, Oct. 9th, you can watch a pair of spacecraft crash into the Moon with your own eyes. The purposeful impacts are the climax of NASA's LCROSS mission to unearth signs of water in lunar soil. Today's story tells how and where to look.

FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/05oct_lcrossvg.htm?list965414

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!
-----------------------------
snip
The impact site is crater Cabeus near the Moon's south pole. NASA is guiding the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite ("LCROSS" for short) and its Centaur booster rocket into the crater's floor for a spectacular double-impact designed to "unearth" signs of lunar water.

There are two ways to watch the show.

First, turn on NASA TV. The space agency will broadcast the action live from the Moon, with coverage beginning Friday morning at 3:15 am PDT (10:15 UT). The first hour or so, pre-impact, will offer expert commentary, status reports from mission control, camera views from the spacecraft, and telemetry-based animations.

The actual impacts commence at 4:30 am PDT (11:30 UT). The Centaur rocket will strike first, transforming 2200 kg of mass and 10 billion joules of kinetic energy into a blinding flash of heat and light. Researchers expect the impact to throw up a plume of debris as high as 10 km.

Close behind, the LCROSS mothership will photograph the collision for NASA TV and then fly right through the debris plume. Onboard spectrometers will analyze the sunlit plume for signs of water (H2O), water fragments (OH), salts, clays, hydrated minerals and assorted organic molecules.

snip

And that brings us to the second way to see the show: Grab your telescope.

"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through mid-sized backyard telescopes—10 inches and larger," says Brian Day of NASA/Ames. Day is an amateur astronomer and the Education and Public Outreach Lead for LCROSS. "The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth."

The Pacific Ocean and western parts of North America are favored with darkness and a good view of the Moon at the time of impact. Hawaii is the best place to be, with Pacific coast states of the USA a close second. Any place west of the Mississippi River, however, is a potential observing site.
snip
---------------------------------------------

A lot of folks had fun looking for signs of the Lunar Prospector crash into the Moon with little to show for it except the experience of looking up.

Maybe a better chance this time although the Moon will be bright in your telescope.
- LRK -

UNLESS -
====================================
Adios, Star People
---
NASA's LCROSS spacecraft is on track to hit a crater on the Moon early Friday. Dwayne Day imagines the mission as a cover for something more belligerent in this short story.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1478/1

snip
====================================

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

============================================

Why New Space - Why?

Jeff Foust publishes "The Space Review" and this week has some interesting articles.
I hope you have had a chance to read them.
- LRK -

------------------------------------
http://www.thespacereview.com/index.html
This week in The Space Review…

Which way is up? http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1484/1

The fact that NASA’s exploration program has run into budget and other difficulties is hardly surprising; the question now is how the White House and Congress will respond to the conclusions of the Augustine committee report. Dwayne Day summarizes a recent forum that brought together experts from government, industry, and elsewhere to tackle this issue.
Monday, October 5, 2009

A committee member speaks http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1483/1
With the Augustine committee’s work nearly done, some of its members are starting to speak individually about their work. Jeff Foust reports on a speech last week by a committee member who provided his own insights into the work on crafting a new direction for NASA’s human spaceflight plans. Monday, October 5, 2009

The other 40th anniversary http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1482/1
This summer marked the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, but this month marks a very different, yet important, 40th anniversary. Bob Werb recalls the work of Gerard K. O’Neill and how it set into motion a completely new way to look at spaceflight. Monday, October 5, 2009

snip [First three articles above. - LRK -]
------------------------------------

If I reach into the last one, The other 40th anniversary, Bob Werb says:
- LRK -

-------------
Less than three months after billions of people were transfixed by “one small step” a Princeton physics professor named Gerard K. O’Neill walked into a classroom with less than a dozen undergraduates and asked a seemingly simple question: “Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?”
-------------

And if I lift a bit from Jeff Foust's "A Committee Member Speaks".
- LRK -

-------------
“The trap with all of these justifications is that it’s not enough to say that if we spend money on space then we get these benefits,” he said. “If you’re justifying spending money on space because of this benefit or that benefit, you have to look not at the alternative of not doing it, you have to look at the opportunity cost: what else could you have spent that money on, and could you have gotten benefits out of that, too.”

All these things are benefits that you get as part of having a human spaceflight program, but what, then, is the key justification for it? “I knew that the reason why we go to space is because we’re going to live there someday,” he said. “We are opening a new frontier for humanity, we are creating new places and making them accessible for us. This is what the future is about.”
-------------

Then from the first article, Which way is up?, by Dwayne Day, this bit.
- LRK -

-------------
Pace finished with what he considers to be the biggest policy question: why do we have a human space program? What are we doing this for? He said that one of the questions he poses to his students is: is there anything economically advantageous for humans to do in space? If not, is there a future for humans beyond the Earth at all?
-------------

Sooooooh, Why New Space - Why?

Science is nice, toys are nice, thrills are nice, but nice doesn't help ensure that the human race will survive.

Donald F. Robertson wrote an editorial.
- LRK -

-------------
http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/lunar-base-critical-future-space commerce.html
09/21/09 10:43 AM ET
Lunar Base Critical to Future of Space Commerce
By Donald F. Robertson

The Human Space Flight Plans Committee, led by former Lockheed Martin chief executive Norman Augustine, argued in their Summary Report that “Planning for a human spaceflight program should begin with a choice of goals. Destinations should derive from goals.” Chartered by the White House to review U.S. human space policy, they added, “the ultimate goal of human exploration is to chart a path for human exploration into the Solar System.”

If so, the highest priority initial goal must remain a permanent lunar outpost. Nothing is more important to humanity’s future in space, especially a commercial future.
snip
-------------

Some more thoughts.
- LRK -

-------------
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/09/us_cannot_responsibly_avoid_a.html
Editorial, Real-Time News »
U.S. cannot responsibly avoid a significant investment in its space program -- an editorial
By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board September 24, 2009, 4:13AM

Since the moment Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin lifted off to come home from the moon in 1969, NASA has faced a problem that no engineer, no astronaut, no administrator has been able to solve: how to sell politicians of constrained vision on the necessity of exploring a limitless universe.

Human space exploration is an expensive "product," and over the many years since the end of the Apollo project, NASA's sales force has taken the path of least resistance: a space station here, an orbiting telescope there, a couple of rovers tooling around Mars. And really, NASA had no choice.

The pull just hasn't been there. No charismatic president has drawn the country into his vision of pioneering a new frontier, the way John F. Kennedy did with his challenge to land a man on the moon and return him safely home -- issued at a time when U.S. rockets had an unsettling tendency of blowing up on the launchpad.

The push hasn't been there, either. The United States won the sprint to the moon against the Soviet Union. Then the West won the Cold War. When the defense-related urgency of holding the "high ground" dissipated, NASA's budget followed suit.

Some of the unmanned projects of recent decades have done the expected and more -- the Mars rovers, still active years past their predicted service lives, and the Hubble telescope come to mind.

Manned projects, post-Apollo, have proven far less inspiring, outside of scientific and technical circles.

snip

The question is whether the United States will have a space program worthy of the name. It is time to end the long, post-Apollo retreat.
-------------

Let me ask again, "Why New Space - Why?"
Maybe we need to be going to space to save humankind before the window of opportunity closes.
- LRK -

-------------
http://groups.google.com/group/space-renaissance-initiative?hl=en
Space Renaissance is a new, global philosophy, having its basic ground on Earth, and its natural development in the extraterrestrial space. Our founding concepts are New Humanism and Astro Humanism. We look at the past Renaissance (1500) as an inspiration for patronage and capability to aim high, and to make great projects by means of good
will and mutual cooperation.
Among our scopes:
- to give birth to a Foundation
- to build a great school for graduates and post-graduate doctorates and masters
- to build the philosophy and the culture of the Space Age, to help
the New Renaissance of Humanity in Space
The Space Renaissance Initiative published a call for a world wide
forum -- the Space Renaissance Forum -- to be held one week before the
next G20!
READ AND SIGN THE CALL HERE: http://www.tdf.it/SRI/sri-call.htm
See also http://www.spacerenaissance.org/
http://www.tdf.it/
http://www.spacefuture.com/
-------------

Sooooh, One more time, "Why New Space"?
Answer is?
- LRK -

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1483/1
[All these things are benefits that you get as part of having a human spaceflight program, but what, then, is the key justification for it? “I knew that the reason why we go to space is because we’re going to live there someday,” he said. “We are opening a new frontier for humanity, we are creating new places and making them accessible for us. This is what the future is about.”]


How about we get our act together and set the the record straight - we want to make it possible for us to LIVE in space and think we should be developing a Lunar Base to help us make it happen. It just seems like that is something that is worth finding money for.

All our eggs in one basket just seems to be short sighted, at least that is what I think.

--------------------------------------
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Cradle-Exploring-Frontiers-Beyond/dp/0894807706/
Out of the Cradle: Exploring the Frontiers Beyond Earth (Paperback)
by William K. Hartmann (Author), Ron Miller (Author), Pamela Lee (Illustrator)
snip
--------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
==========================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==========================================

Augustine Space Flight Committee Announces Additional Meeting

----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=29300
Augustine Space Flight Committee Announces Additional Meeting

WASHINGTON -- The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee will hold a public teleconference on Thursday, Oct. 8, from approximately 1 to 2 p.m. EDT.

The only topic for discussion will be finalization of scoring of options the committee presented in their summary report on Sept. 8. This meeting will be held by teleconference only. The teleconference will be open to the public. The service limit is approximately 300 dial-in callers. Public participants will be in a listen-only mode.

The following numbers are available to hear the teleconference:
Toll-free number: 1-888-373-5705
Other number: 1-719-457-3840

Participant Passcode: 190078

The meeting must be held on this date for the committee's final report to support the time frame associated with the federal budget process. For this reason, it is not possible to accommodate the usual full public notice period. A notice in the Federal Register is expected to appear on or about Oct. 6.

For committee information, charter, biographies and other data, visit:
http://hsf.nasa.gov
For information about NASA and agency activities, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well one more meeting, for what it is worth.
I hope the numbers will show we need to develop space.
- LRK -

I hope folks will make themselves aware of what has been accomplished on the ISS and think about what might be accomplished at a Lunar Base.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/389388main_ISS%20Science%20Report_20090030907.pdf
NASA/TP–2009–213146–REVISION A

International Space Station Science Research Accomplishments During the Assembly Years: An Analysis of Results from 2000-2008

[262 pages, 3,850 KB - LRK -]
--------------------------------------

We do want to go to the Moon. Will help to know how to recycle on a Moon Base.
Why bother with a contest to interest students if you aren't going to go?
Will someone tell Congress we want to go back to the Moon, and if not
in person, we would at least like to watch.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/oct/HQ_09-227_Edu_Water_Recycling.html
RELEASE : 09-227 Oct 1 2009
NASA Sponsors Student Water Recycling Competition

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA is inviting fifth through eighth grade students to participate in a waste limitation management and recycling design challenge. Participants in the competition will design and test water recycling systems that could be used for future exploration of the moon. The top three teams will receive awards, and the first place team will receive an expense-paid trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Teams of up to six students and one teacher or mentor should submit their proposals and results to NASA for evaluation by Feb. 1, 2010.
Schools in the United States and its territories, science museums, science centers and home school groups may host teams.
The winning teams will be announced in May 2010. During the winning team's visit to Kennedy, students will gain first-hand knowledge about NASA's missions, receive behind-the-scenes tours of NASA's launch facilities, and learn about future aerospace and engineering careers.

The competition is designed to engage and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and math disciplines critical to NASA's missions.

For information about the challenge and how to apply, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/home

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education

- end -
--------------------------------------

Some other folks are trying to interest folks in going to space.
Just take a look at all the incentives.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------
http://spaceprizes.blogspot.com/2009/08/space-prize-roundup-elevator-postponed.html
Space Prize Roundup:

Elevator Postponed, GLXP LEGO MoonBots, NASA Lunabotics Mining, Conrad Award & AIAA, AUVSI, Apophes Round 2?, NGLLC, GLXP

Here are a few items that happened while I was away:
snip
--------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

============================================