Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Moon mission gets help in Congress

To the Moon or NOT to the Moon, that is a question.
How we get to the Moon, that is a question.
What will pay for going to the Moon, that also is a question.
- LRK -

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6780240.html
Moon mission gets help in Congress
Lawmakers insert wording into bill signed by Obama to get leverage over funds for manned spaceflights
By STEWART M. POWELL - HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Dec. 21, 2009, 8:29AM

WASHINGTON — Fearful that the White House might scale back manned space exploration, a bipartisan group of lawmakers slipped a provision into a massive government spending package last week that would force President Barack Obama to seek congressional approval for any changes to the ambitious Bush-era, back-to-the-moon program.

The little-noticed legislative maneuver could yield massive payoffs for the Houston area, which has tens of thousands of jobs tied to manned space exploration. The congressional action hands NASA supporters additional leverage in their behind-the-scenes campaign to persuade Obama to budget an extra $3 billion a year to finance the return of astronauts to the moon by 2020 rather than revamping — and cutting — the manned space effort.

“Congress' commitment to our nation's human spaceflight program is unwavering with respect to the path we have already charted,” says Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, whose congressional district includes Johnson Space Center. “The debate should not be if we are moving forward, but how we are going to pay for it.”

Democrats in the House and Senate joined forces with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., in the end-of-year legislative avalanche to insert language into a must-sign spending package that requires the president to ask Congress for all the money that would be needed to adjust the scope or timetable of human spaceflight.

None of the $18.7 billion given NASA to spend this year and in future years “shall be available for the termination or elimination” of any part of the Constellation program, the legislation declares, or to “create or initiate a new program” without “subsequent appropriations acts.”

snip
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And a few days earlier the speculation is that no decision from President Obama yet as to where we stand on going to the Moon.
- LRK -

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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0912/18whitehouse/
White House says no decision yet on NASA's future
BY STEPHEN CLARK - SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: December 18, 2009

White House officials say President Obama has not yet made a decision on the fate of NASA's moon program, two days after an Oval Office meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Obama and Bolden met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the space agency's work and the results of the Augustine commission, a panel of experts that submitted options in October for the future of the human space program.

A report by the online edition of Science magazine late Thursday said Obama plans to request a $1 billion increase in the NASA budget for 2011. The money would fund a new heavy-lift launch vehicle, and the agency's current Ares 1 rocket design would be scrapped in favor of commercial crew transportation services to Earth orbit, according to the Science report.

The Ares 5 rocket is currently NASA's design for a heavy-lift launcher. Engineers are also studying other designs more closely based on the space shuttle.

NASA and White House officials claim such reports are mere speculation, but they are providing no information on when a decision could be announced. The administration will file its fiscal year 2011 budget request in February.

"The meeting with Bolden was informational, not decisional," said Nick Shapiro, White House spokesman.
snip
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Decisions, decisions, my oh my, what shall we do?
And then all of those suggestions on how we should go.
- LRK -

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle-Derived_Launch_Vehicle

The Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle, or simply Shuttle-Derived Vehicle (SDV), is a term describing one of a wide array of concepts that have been developed for creating space launch vehicles from the components, technology and/or infrastructure of the Space Shuttle program. In 2005, NASA decided to develop the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, based in part on highly modified Shuttle components to replace the Space Shuttle and enable exploration of the Moon and Mars.[1][2] In early 2007, the agency confirmed that it was formally studying a third such vehicle, the Ares IV.

snip
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My stomach is quizzy, my head is dizzy, the ground under me feels not too solid.
I feel like I am watching a tennis match with the ball flying from one court to another.
Just back in 2008 a summary of launch concepts.
- LRK -

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http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=28514
NASA Background on Ares Vehicles versus the DIRECT Proposal
STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Thursday, July 3, 2008
Source: NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate -
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/index.html

Summary

NASA has spent substantial effort over several years to consider many launch concepts, and the Agency stands by its decision to develop the Constellation architecture, which includes the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. NASA has chosen these systems based upon significant analysis, and the Agency believes it has the best program in place to meet our Nation's future Exploration needs.

Shortly after arriving at NASA, Administrator Michael Griffin chartered the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) in May 2005, comprised of experts at NASA Headquarters and across the NASA field centers. All databases, expertise and analytical models were applied to this critical task. Particular emphasis was placed on the family of launch vehicles that would be needed to support future Exploration goals. A large number of options were evaluated, including quantitative comparisons on the basis of important measures of merit such as development cost, recurring cost, funding profiles, safety, reliability, development risk, schedule risk, and other factors. The launch families considered included various Shuttle-derived options, Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)-derived options and mixes of the two. Outside experts were brought-in to assess the ESAS results.

Several of the Shuttle-derived concepts that were considered during ESAS, and in other studies, were similar to the Jupiter system identified as part of the DIRECT proposal. However, using currentground rules and assumptions, and utilizing validated NASA and industry design and analysis tools, NASA has determined that the DIRECT proposal is unlikely to achieve its claims of improved performance, safety and development costs when compared to the Ares I and Ares V approach. In addition, the limited data available in the online DIRECT proposal do not support the claims of increased safety. Also, analysis shows that the DIRECT proposal would cost more than the Ares family in the near-term a nd also on a recurring launch basis. Finally, the DIRECT proposal would take longer to develop when compared to the Ares vehicles when factoring in the extensive core stage development effort and the associated acquisitions.

Since completion of the ESAS, NASA has continued to improve the baseline architecture to significantly lower life cycle costs of the Ares vehicles. NASA's analysis confirms that the Ares I and V vehicles enable the lowest cost and safest launch architecture which meets the Agency's requirements for support of the International Space Station, as well as lunar and Mars exploration. Several improvements have been made to the Ares ESAS baseline (such as the decisions to utilize the J-2X for both the Ares 1 and the Ares V Upper Stage engine and the RS-
68 instead of the Space Shuttle Main Engines for the Ares V core engine) which reduced life cycle costs by several billions of dollars.

snip
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It would be nice if we would affirm that we want to develop the Moon, Mars, Asteroids, and the use of space in general, and then follow through with the tasks needed to achieve the goals. Hmmmmmm, seems we do that - seems we do that - seems we do that, wish I didn't sound
like a broken record. - LRK -
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/CxEMM_SITE/index.html

Well 2010 is almost here, 2011, then I grow older. Looks like I am going to have to live as long as my mom, now 99, to see something happen.

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

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

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Innovators: X-Prize Effect

If you can watch Flash movies, this is a very nice presentation that Bob Richards tweet alerted me to..
- LRK -

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Bob_Richards

RT @lukebos: The X PRIZE Effect on Bloomberg, prominently featuring
@PeterDiamandis: http://bit.ly/1dNRad #xprize [30mins]
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Also linked at:

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http://spacefellowship.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11735&start=0
Nice link at hobbyspace

"This 27 minute video report about the X PRIZE and NewSpace developments includes interviews with Peter Diamandis, Dave Masten, John Carmack and others and lots of on-site clips from Mojave, Caddo Mills, etc."

http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=innovators&T=Innovators:%20X-Prize%20Effect&clipSRC=FLASH/innovators/innovators_broadcast-x-prize_effect.flv

Cool hey! :)

Rob
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Or at X-Prize

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http://www.xprize.org/media-center/news/bloomberg-news-the-x-prize-effect
BLOOMBERG NEWS - The X PRIZE Effect

Innovation Pays: Inspired by the Spirit of St. Louis, Peter Diamandis started the X-Prize Foundation with a $10 million prize for the invention of a private spaceship. Now, the X-Prize is inspiring designers of a lunar lander and research into genetic diseases.

* Read more http://tinyurl.com/ybd83tb

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If you found this interesting there are more to be found at the X-Prize web site.
- LRK -

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http://www.xprize.org/
X Prize Foundation

[Check out the latest blogs and the Top Stories - LRK -]
#
November 10, 2009
BLOOMBERG NEWS - The X PRIZE Effect
http://www.xprize.org/media-center/news/bloomberg-news-the-x-prize-effect
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Hope we have a New Year with more innovators.
- 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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
============================================

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

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

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas and a Wish for a Happy New Year

A tweet from Air and Space reminded me of the Apollo 8 Earth Rise image.
- LRK -

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airandspace - http://twitter.com/airandspace

Today in 1968: Apollo 8 astronauts, 1st humans to view Earth from lunar orbit, took famous "Earthrise" image:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/imagedetail.cfm?imageID=1931
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MSNBC has an excerpt from “Genesis” by Robert Zimmerman. Copyright ©1998 Robert Zimmerman. From the book published by Four Walls Eight Windows, New York that has an explanation of how the picture came to be taken. It is a good read and I hope you check it out.

Here I am just going to clip the prayer Frank Boman read as a Christmas wish to all.
- LRK -

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077909/
The genesis of Apollo 8’s ‘earthrise’
Decades later, ‘Genesis’ solves the mystery surrounding the image July 15, 1999 - Back in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 made the first around-the-moon flight — a Christmas mission that set the stage for the first moon landing less than a year later. In this excerpt from the book “Genesis,” Robert Zimmerman focuses on the events leading up to the “earthrise” picture, the first widely distributed picture of Earth as seen from the moon.

This excerpt begins just after the crew members of Apollo 8 — Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell — fired the Apollo spacecraft’s engines to enter lunar orbit on Dec. 24, 1968.

snip
The conversation soon turned serious. Borman really wanted to participate in that Christmas Day service, but didn’t have any idea what he could do. Fellow parishioner Rod Rose, an engineer at mission control, offered a solution. He would put together a short prayer that Borman could read from orbit, tape Borman’s recitation, and then play the tape back at church. For Borman, the practical test pilot, this plan was perfect. Rose cobbled together a prayer from a number of verses in the Bible, and went over it with Borman until both were happy.

Now, Borman waited until Lovell and Anders finished passing some new data to the ground. Then he began, a little self-consciously. “This is to Rod Rose and the people at St. Christopher’s, actually to people everywhere.” Borman took a breath. “Give us, o God, the vision which can see thy love in the world, in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us can do to set forth the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen.”

“Amen,” Mike Collins echoed softly.

Now Borman sheepishly added, “I was supposed to lay-read tonight, but I couldn’t quite make it.”

“Roger,” said Collins. “I think they understand.”

snip
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Another tweet is from Wayne Hale with his "Predictions and Wishes". Hope you read.
- LRK -

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waynehale - http://twitter.com/waynehale

Just posted a blog update for Christmas wishes:
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/waynehalesblog/posts/post_1261670536293.html
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Mike Verakmp passed a clip from NASA News Service which has a link to a nice Holiday Card
- LRK -

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Happy Holidays
Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:00:00 -0600
Wishing all the happiest of holidays, members of the Cassini-Huygens team offer their views of Saturn and its moons as gifts to the universe. Cassini-Huygens, a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, is a mission that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The Cassini orbiter (pictured at the bottom of this image) and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL

link: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1551.html

==
This NASA news has been delivered on behalf of the agency by GovDelivery (800-439-1420) · NASA Headquarters · Washington, DC 20546
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I just finished reading "COSMIC FISHING - An account of writing Synergetics with Buckminster Fuller", E.J. APPLEWHITE.
Let me quote from page 156
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------------
Cosmic Fishing
The information signals are forever bouncing
electromagnetically about the Universe, every so
often impinging on celestial entities and being either
tunably received or bounced off to travel elsewhere.
If we fail to catch a cosmic fish it may be a trillion
years before the opportunity comes again. It will come
. . . but it may not be in this Galaxy. Sumtotally, all
the fish will always eventually be caught and
rebroadcast, but not all at the same rebroadcasting
stations.
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In the next year will we be prepared to catch some cosmic fish?
Such as.....
- LRK -

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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/23dec_voyager.htm?list965414
December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.

"Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."

snip
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And if you had the right translator. :-)
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/2007/03/universal-translator-how-to-talk-to.html

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
============================================

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

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

Monday, December 21, 2009

World's First Fuel Cell Ship Docks in Copenhagen

Strange feeling, just began reading "Critical Path" by R. Buckminster Fuller where he is commenting on how we can change from energy wasteful consumption to energy efficient use by changing our ways and using our new technological advances to advantage.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------
R. Buckminster Fuller - "Critical Path", Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Adjuvant
Introduction p. xxiii-xxiv

... Continuing to attempt to fit our late-twentieth-century astronautical man-on-Moon-visiting capability into a ninetieth-century horse-and-buggy street pattern, house-to-house-yoo-hooing life-style (and a land baron racket) is so inefficient that the overall design of humanity's present social, economic, and political structuring and the physical technology it uses wastes ninety-five out of every 100 units of the energy it consumes. (Our automobiles' reciprocating engines are only 15-percent efficient, whereas turbines are 30 percent, jet engines 60 percent, and fuel cells used by astronauts 80 percent.) In the United States, throughout all twenty-four hours of every day of the year--year after year--we have an average of two million automobiles standing in front of red stoplights with their engines going, the energy for which amounts to that generated by the full efforts of 200 million horses being completely wasted as they jump up and down going nowhere. ...

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

And then I read Jun Okushi's Facebook post "World's First Fuel Cell Ship Docks in Copenhagen: Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com Can fuel cells and natural gas help reduce emissions from shipping? "
- LRK -

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-first-fuel-cell-ship&sc=CAT_SP_20091221
December 21, 2009
World's First Fuel Cell Ship Docks in Copenhagen
Can fuel cells and natural gas help reduce emissions from shipping?

By David Biello

COPENHAGEN—Pleasure yachts and tall ships line the wharves and quays of Nyhavn here in the Danish capital. Shipping in Denmark goes back to the Vikings and their long ships that made perilous sea crossings even beyond Greenland. Now what may be the future of shipping is docked around the corner from Nyhavn at Kvaesthusmolen pier, a bright orange and yellow North Sea supply ship from Norway dubbed "Viking Lady"—the first ship to employ a fuel cell in history.

As a result of flourishing world trade, shipping is now responsible for roughly three percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, or more than one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, along with smog-forming nitrogen oxides, acid-rain causing sulfur dioxides and soot. In fact, emissions of nitrogen oxides from one ship burning diesel in a year are greater than those from 22,000 cars. That's because ships burn bunker fuel or diesel to cleave through the waves but, according to Tor Svensen, CEO of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Maritime, "it is possible for shipping to reduce emissions, even taking into account growth in world trade."

snip

But in the case of the 5,900 metric ton Viking Lady, Norwegian shipping company Eidesvik and its partners have gone further, installing a 320-kilowatt molten carbonate fuel cell that operates on liquefied natural gas (and can be reconfigured, if necessary, to run on methanol). Storage tanks for the hydrogen and carbon dioxide that gets the fuel cell started press up against the stern of the 92.2 meter-long ship (in case of explosion) as do the machines to regasify the fuel. The fuel cell operates at 650 degrees Celsius and is warm to the touch, even on a blustery, frigid day in Copenhagen's harbor.

Already, liquefied natural gas is cheaper than diesel—if you can find it. Engineer and project developer Kjell Sandaker of Eidesvik notes there are as many as 15 such fueling stations along the Norwegian coast and the bright orange Viking Lady gases up once a week as its onboard turbines also directly burn the gas to supply electricity to the engines, though they can also burn diesel if necessary. The ship's 220 cubic meter tank can hold roughly 90 metric tons of liquefied natural gas at a time.
snip
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Fuel Cell, electric powered ships, what an idea. I hope the fuel cell test is successful and they actually use it to power the electric motors on the ship. Also note, when you read the article, that there is a motivation to use natural gas because of a tax on nitrogen oxide emissions.
- LRK -

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snip
But the investment was also made because Norway has a tax on nitrogen oxide emissions that paid an immediate return for installing gas rather than diesel engines, says Eidesvik CEO Jan Fredrik Meling. Compared to a traditional ship, even without using the fuel cell, the Viking Lady reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent, CO2 emissions by 20 percent and eliminates sulfur dioxide and soot emissions.
snip
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Now if they are to make a go of it they will need to have liquid gas stations at dockside. Slight paradigm shift required and as you might have guessed, aaaah, might need some government support.
- LRK -

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snip
Ultimately, whether the Viking Lady remains unique in the annals of shipping will depend on the political decisions that come out of the Copenhagen climate conference and in national capitals. "It will take 20 to 30 years for this technology without government support," says DNV's Tronstad. "If they want to act on climate soon, this is a technology that is available today."
snip
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I wonder what would happen if every home used some low tech skills to get us off the power grid? I shall continue to see what R. Buckminster Fuller has to suggest.
- 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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
============================================

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

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

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Indian scientists detect water on Moon

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3242164&page=0

Time has passed since the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) landed on the Moon November 14, 2008.
The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft ended its mission on 28 August 2009 and now we are hearing about the results.
- LRK -

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117132956.htm
India's Chandrayaan-1 Spacecraft Successful: Moon Impact Probe Hits Lunar Surface

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2008) — In a historic event, the Indian space programme achieved a unique feat on Friday (November 14, 2008) with the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon’s surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday. The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST.

snip

MIP’s 25 minute journey to the lunar surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. Information from the its instruments was radioed to
Chandrayaan-1 by MIP. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.

snip
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The Chandrayan-1 moon mission - discussion group is commenting on why it took so long for the word to get out that MIP had seen indications of water when in crashed into the Moon back in November 2008. This is the link they are talking about.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/ISRO-found-water-on-moon-10-months-ago/articleshow/5057854.cms
ISRO found water on moon 10 months ago
Prashanth G N, TNN 26 September 2009, 01:00am IST
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
Chandrayan-1 moon mission - discussion group
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4395&start=1680&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

-------
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/ISRO-found-water-on-moon-10-months-ago/articleshow/5057854.cms
quote
ISRO found water on moon 10 months ago

BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation may have stolen the thunder of discovering water on the Moon.

The Moon Impact Probe on Chandrayaan-I appears to have sensed water earlier than Nasa's Moon Minerolgy Mapper (M3) but protocol did not allow ISRO to declare the discovery. While MIP detected water molecules on November 14, 2008, just 22 days after Chandrayaan-1's launch, M3 did so in March 2009.

J S Goswami, principal investigator for Chandrayaan-1, told TOI: ``We had indications of water on November 14, the day MIP crash-landed on the Moon. It sensed some sort of water molecules. We were absolutely delighted but it had to be corroborated. Without international
examination and cross-examination and confirmation of the evidence, it would not have been right on our part to go public about it.''

Mylswami Annadurai, project director, Chandrayaan-1 and 2, explained why India did not go public with the discovery. ``International protocol requires us to discuss the evidence, cross-calibrate it with experts and it goes through a peer review and gets their approval. After all this, if it's a credible finding comes the go-ahead for its publication. This process can take three to four months, sometimes even seven. Only after publication can we speak about the evidence.''

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said the MIP showed indications as it was crash-landing - it caught signatures of water. ``As the MIP was landing, it took some pictures that indicated the water molecules eventually found by M3.''

The MIP had picked up strong signals of water particles towards the polar region from 70 degree latitude to 80 degree latitude, according to Goswami. While this was known in November 2008, the M3 discovery of water in March 2009 was confirmed only three months later ^ in June. That's because US scientists wanted to be sure they had indeed found water and it took three months of rigorous cross-examination to confirm it. Publication after the confirmation also took time.

Officials said India scientists waited all this while to make the discovery public as they wanted the findings of such global significance to be first published in a scientific journal.
-------
snip
----------------------------------------

More information and pictures at MSN.
- LRK -

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http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3242164&page=0
25/09/2009

India's own MIP detects water on moon: Nair, NASA thanks ISRO

Bangalore/Washington: India's own Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on board the country's maiden unmanned lunar craft had also detected evidence of water on the moon in a finding confirmed by US space agency NASA which too had an instrument onboard Chandrayaan-I.

snip

The NASA meanwhile thanked ISRO for enabling the discovery of water on Moon through Chandrayaan-I. "We want to thank ISRO for making the discovery possible. Moon till now was thought to be a very dry surface with lot of rocks," NASA director Jim Green told reporters in Washington.

snip

In Bangalore, a beaming ISRO Chief G. Madhavan Nair said the MIP while descending from Chandrayaan-I to the moon surface about a fortnight after it was launched in October picked up strong signals of water particles. Nair's remark has triggered speculation whether an Indian space mission was the first to discover water on Moon.

"Our Chandrayaan I has confirmed the presence of water molecules on the moon," he said.

Nair said "while the moon impact probe landed, it took nearly 25 minutes. It took some pictures that indicated these water molecules. Another instrument HYS1 to map minerals also helped NASA'S M3 in finding water."

Apart from India's MIP, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) of NASA on board Chandrayaan-I also confirmed the presence of water, he said. The "quantity found is much larger than what was expected which is a real finding", he added.

snip
ISRO Principal Scientist J P Goswami said the MIP had picked up strong signals of water particles towards polar region from 70 degree latitude to 80 degree latitudes.

The scientists, he said, significantly had indications of the finding "way back in June" but waited all these days to make it public as they wanted the findings of such a global significance to come out in a scientific journal first.

"This surprising finding(water on moon) has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organisation," Green said.

"We had indication way back in June but we did not want to announce it for the simple reason it had global significance and had to come out in a well established journal," Nair said.

The announcement of the finding has been timed with publication of the article in a journal.

"We have found signature on surface of water not in the form of sea, lake or even a poodle or even a drop you cannot pick it up just like that. It is embedded in surface in mineral and rock and we have clear indication OH and H20 are there on surface may be least for a few millimetre. The quantity was much larger than what was expeced, this is real finding", he said.

According to Goswami, whether there was water down below, the data got from the instruments were still being analysed.

"We have to wait for a while", he said. "Once we have solid results, we will talk to you at the point", he said.

"This is the first time in space research that (presence of) water is confirmed," he said, adding "we have contributed to significant discovery of water on the moon through the Chandrayaan."

Terming it "path breaking discovery" he said, it has "shattered the thought that the moon was bone dry.
snip
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Some graphics for the briefing.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.isro.org/news/pdf/ISRO-PRESS-BRIEFING.pdf [9 page PDF file - 2.44 MB]
Chandrayaan -1
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More information on the instruments carried on Chandrayaan-1
- LRK -

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http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/psexperiments.htm
snip
MIP http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/mip.htm
Moon Impact Probe (MIP) as piggyback on the main orbiter of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which will impact on the surface of the moon.
snip
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Next hopefully will be India's rover to the Moon with Chandrayaan-2 in 2013
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.chandrayaan-i.com/index.php/chandrayaan-2.html
snip
What is Chandrayaan-2

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning 2nd moon mission Chandrayaan-2 in 2013. Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) is joining with ISRO for development of Chandrayaan-2 Lander/Rover.

Chandrayaan-2 will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover.

The rover would move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.

The rover will weigh between 30 kg and 100 kg, depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing. The rover will have an operating life-span of a month. It will run predominantly on solar power.
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
============================================

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

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

Monday, December 14, 2009

Indian scientists detect signs of life on Moon - (Really? LRK)

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_indian-scientists-detect-signs-of-life-on-moon_1322785

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, finishing its mission at our Moon, sends a last bit of information from the probe mass spectrometer on board the Indian payload near the south pole, "Carbon, Carbon, I sense Carbon." What could it mean, what could it mean? Could there be, or have been, life on the Moon? What say you?
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_indian-scientists-detect-signs-of-life-on-moon_1322785
Indian scientists detect signs of life on Moon

Bhargavi Kerur / DNA - Saturday, December 12, 2009 1:48 IST
Bangalore: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are on the brink of a path-breaking discovery. They may have found signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon.

They believe so because scientific instruments on India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface, Surendra Pal, associate director, Isro Satellite Centre (Isac), said at the international radar symposium here on Friday.

Organic matter consists of organic compounds, which consists of carbon -- the building block of life.

It indicates the formation of life or decay of a once-living matter.

Pal said the signatures were relayed back to the Bylalu deep space network station near Bangalore by the mass spectrometer on board the Indian payload, the moon impact probe (MIP), on November 14, 2008.

The relay of data happened moments before it crashed near the Moon's south pole. The MIP was the first experiment of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, which was launched on October 22, 2008.
snip
----------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1

Some forum discussion about the statement of possible signs of/for life on the Moon.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.bautforum.com/space-exploration/98025-indian-scientists-detect-signs-life-moon.html
Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum
----------------------------------------

Did you see the movie, or read the book "The Andromeda Strain"?
I was on an airplane bound for Thailand while reading this "Top Secret" book and reports of slain animals were in the news. :-)
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
The Andromeda Strain (1969), by Michael Crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that rapidly and fatally clots human blood while, in other people, inducing insanity that mostly ended in the insane people committing suicide or murder-suicide. It became a New York Times Bestseller. This novel established Michael Crichton as a best-selling genre author.
snip
----------------------------------------

We have dust from space hitting us all the time, as would the Moon. Then there are meteors with hydrocarbons which may have struck the Moon as well.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/2008/Origins_of_life_research.html
NASA Identifies Carbon-rich Molecules in Meteors as the 'Origin of Life' 09.24.08

Tons, perhaps tens of tons, of carbon molecules in dust particles and meteorites fall on Earth daily. Meteorites are especially valuable to astronomers because they provide relatively big chunks of carbon molecules that are easily analyzed in the laboratory. In the past few years, researchers have noticed that most meteorite carbon are molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are very stable compounds and are survivors.

PAHs are the most common carbon-rich compound in the universe. They are found in everything from distant galaxies to charbroiled hamburgers and engine soot. When they are first formed, or found in space, their structures resemble pieces of chicken wire, fused six-sided rings. However, when found in meteorites, these aromatic rings are carrying extra hydrogen or oxygen.

Scientists at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. performed laboratory experiments that explain the process by which these meteoritic hydrocarbons attract the extra hydrogen and oxygen. They are very similar to the molecules identified as evidence of alien
microbes in an earlier Science paper (McKay et al 1996).

“Our findings are important because it is the first time anybody explained these carbon-rich molecules found in meteorites. They are similar to the molecules that make-up living things,” said Max Bernstein, a space scientist at NASA Ames.

As it happened, their findings were judged significant enough to be award-winning. Published in Science (1999) by Bernstein and fellow NASA Ames scientists Scott Sanford and Louis Allamandola, their paper won the 2008 H. Julian Allen Award at NASA Ames Research Center.
snip
----------------------------------------

And of course you can talk about rocks that may have come from Mars and might show there had been life there. Makes for much discussion, and helped along with "Follow The Water",
has us with missions to the Red Planet.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/nasa1.html
Meteorite Yields Evidence of Primitive Life on Early Mars

A NASA research team of scientists at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, TX, and at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, has found evidence that strongly suggests primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago.

The NASA-funded team found the first organic molecules thought to be of Martian origin; several mineral features characteristic of biological activity; and possible microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organisms inside of an ancient Martian rock that fell to Earth as a meteorite. This array of indirect evidence of past life will be reported in the August 16 issue of the journal Science, presenting the investigation to the scientific community at large for further study.

The two-year investigation was co-led by JSC planetary scientists Dr. David McKay, Dr. Everett Gibson and Kathie Thomas-Keprta of Lockheed-Martin, with the major collaboration of a Stanford team headed by Professor of Chemistry Dr. Richard Zare, as well as six other NASA and university research partners.

"There is not any one finding that leads us to believe that this is evidence of past life on Mars. Rather, it is a combination of many things that we have found," McKay said. "They include Stanford's detection of an apparently unique pattern of organic molecules, carbon compounds that are the basis of life. We also found several unusual mineral phases that are known products of primitive microscopic organisms on Earth. Structures that could be microsopic fossils seem to support all of this. The relationship of all of these things in terms of location - within a few hundred thousandths of an inch of one another - is the most compelling evidence."
snip
----------------------------------------

So I guess a question might be, will the present USA administration, find life on the Moon or at least put some there?

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
============================================

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

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

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Hello World, Meet Google Wave

This may not sound like a Moon, Mars, and Beyond topic, but I think that new ways to connect the population of this earth-bound world will play a part in getting us to space. Some may fear Google, like they fear Microsoft, or any other big and powerful corporation, still what they offer might be useful, especially if what they offer could help in uniting those with a common interest in developing space.

I was given an invitation to try Google Wave and have been looking at it.

At the moment it is still in the pre-Alpha stage so changes happen often and everything is not perfect, still the potential is there to make collaboration possible as more invitations are given out and the product matures.

Let me pass on a few links and let you see for yourself.
- LRK -

-----------------------------------------------------
http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/05/hello-world-meet-google-wave.html
Hello World, Meet Google Wave
Thursday, May 28, 2009

This morning at Google I/O we are unveiling a developer preview of Google Wave, a new collaboration and communication product. Google Wave introduces a new platform built around hosted conversations called waves--this model enables people to communicate and work together in new and more effective ways. On top of that, with the Google Wave APIs, developers can take advantage of this collaborative system by building on the Google Wave platform. We want to expand upon that platform, which is why we've put together the initial draft of the Google Wave Federation Protocol, the underlying network protocol for sharing waves between wave providers.

Yes, that's between wave providers: anyone can build a wave server and interoperate, much like anyone can run their own SMTP server. The wave protocol is open to contributions by the broader community with the goal to continue to improve how we share information, together. If you're interested in getting involved, here are a few things you should check out on www.waveprotocol.org:

* Draft Protocol Specification -- This is an early draft and will definitely change
http://www.waveprotocol.org/draft-protocol-spec

* Community Principles -- Understand how this open source project works
http://www.waveprotocol.org/wave-community-principles

* Architecture Whitepapers -- Learn more about the components of Google Wave
http://www.waveprotocol.org/whitepapers

This is just the beginning. To help potential wave providers get started, our plan is to release an open source, production-quality, reference implementation of the Google Wave client and server, as well as provide an open federation endpoint by the time users start getting access.

We're eager to hear your feedback, so please tell us about your interest, http://www.waveprotocol.org/get-involved

and drop a note on the technical engineering forum with your feedback.
http://groups.google.com/group/google-wave-api/?pli=1

Beyond the federation protocol, you may also be interested in learning more about the Google Wave APIs,
http://code.google.com/apis/wave/

as described on the new Google Wave Developers blog.
http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/

By Dan Peterson, Google Wave Team
snip
-----------------------------------------------------

If you are a programmer you may find that Google Wave doesn't do what you want, never mind, just use the Google Wave APIs and make your own gadget or bot. Put on your thinking cap and make the Wave work for you.
- LRK -

-----------------------------------------------------
http://code.google.com/apis/wave/guide.html
Google Wave API Overview

1. Welcome to Wave Development
2. Wave Entities
3. What is the Wave API?
4. Sandbox Development

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

We will have to wait and see if this turns out to be something useful for web users to communicate and collaborate. At least the tools are being made available to the public.
Let me know what you think.
- LRK -

-----------------------------------------------------
http://code.google.com/apis/wave/
What is Google Wave?

Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a
platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

For more information about Google Wave, please visit wave.google.com.

What is the Google Wave API?

The Google Wave API allows developers to use and enhance Google Wave through two primary types of development:

* Extensions: Build robot extensions to automate common tasks or
build gadget extensions to provide a new way for users to interact
* Embed: Make your site more collaborative by dropping in a Wave

Google Wave is currently available in a developer preview as the APIs
and product continue to evolve. Accounts on the developer sandbox will
be given out to people intending to build with the Google Wave APIs
prior to the public release.

For more information about the capabilities and use cases for each development option, consult the Wave Developer's Guide.
http://code.google.com/apis/wave/guide.html

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

If you are interested and don't already have a Google Wave account, you might try here. http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
============================================

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

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

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Japanese Kibo Mission - MAXI acquires all-sky X-ray image in the fastest time

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/11/20091126_maxi_e.html

I hope you are keeping up with what is happening with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

http://www.jaxa.jp/pr/mail/index_e.html
With this JAXA Mail Service, latest information from JAXA will automatically be e-mailed to your address.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------
Japanese Kibo Mission - MAXI acquires all-sky X-ray image in the fastest time
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/11/20091126_maxi_e.html
November 26, 2009 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) RIKEN

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and RIKEN have successfully acquired an all-sky X-ray image (Figure 1.) using the "Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI)" installed on the Exposed Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo." This quality image was achieved in the shortest period of time compared to other all-sky X-ray observation projects. In the future, it will be possible to repeatedly take this image every month or every few months.

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/11/20091126_maxi_e.html#pict1
Figure 1. All-sky X-ray image by the GSC of the MAXI
The image shows the all-sky in an oval shape on the "galactic coordinate" which indicates the Milky Way as a horizontal axis and the galactic center at the center of the image.

The image above was compiled using data acquired by the Gas Slit Camera (GSC), one of MAXI's onboard X-ray camera systems (Figure 3. in the Attachment), between August 15 and October 29, 2009 (Japan Standard Time.) (Please also refer to Figure 4. in the Attachment.)
Sources plotted in red in this figure radiate low-energy X-rays, and those in blue emit high-energy X-rays.

In this image, nearly 180 X-ray sources can be recognized by the eye.
Taking less than two months to complete, this is the world's quickest acquisition of an all-sky "color" X-ray image. This kind of all-sky X-ray image in a similar sensitivity and energy band was compiled by composing data obtained by the NASA satellite, HEAO-1, 30 years ago through its two-year survey.
(http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960102.html)

In addition, the MAXI reported to an international mailing list of astronomers on five X-ray sources that have suddenly increased their brightness since the beginning of its mission. (A0535+26, GRB090831A, GRB090926B, XTE J1752-223 and 4U2206+54 in Figure 2.)

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/11/20091126_maxi_e.html#pict2
Figure 2. Major X-ray sources and brightened sources detected by MAXI
(For more details, please refer to the Attachment)

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

--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/12/20091204_ikaros_e.html
IKAROS International Message Campaign for Mission Support

Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun (IKAROS)
International Message Campaign for Mission Support

December 4, 2009 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS)*1 by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle in Japan Fiscal Year 2010 (as a secondary payload to the main payload, Venus Climate Orbiter
"AKATSUKI.")
We would like to launch a mission support campaign together with The Planetary Society in the United States, which also plans to launch a solar sail spacecraft named "LightSail-1"*2 at the end of 2010. JAXA would like to encourage people all over the world to send us their supportive messages to be carried aboard the IKAROS and the LightSail-1 on printed aluminum plates or on a Mini-DVD. We sincerely hope that our campaign will accelerate this international collaboration, exchange and promote the public's understanding of solar sail research and development.

The following is the information about the campaign.

1. Campaign name
"Let's Set Sail for the Solar System on a Solar Yacht!"

2. Campaign period
December 4 (Fri.), 2009 through March 14 (Sun.),
2010 (Japan Standard Time) for the Mini-DVD,
December 4 (Fri.), 2009 through February 28 (Sun.),
2010 (Japan Standard Time) for printed metal plates.

3. How to apply
Please send messages through the following websites.
English site: http://www.jspec.jaxa.jp/e/index.html
Japanese site: http://www.jspec.jaxa.jp/index.html

Your names and messages will be recorded and printed.
We are looking forward to hearing from many of you.

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

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
Google Wave Invite info:
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/
https://wave.google.com/wave/
============================================

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

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

Sunday, December 6, 2009

The WOW Factor - Reading between the pixels of the Hubble's latest images

The WOW Factor - Reading between the pixels of the Hubble's latest images
By Joel Achenbach
Sunday, December 6, 2009

Dr. Gene Nelson sent me a link to an article in the Washington Post about the Hubble Telescope.
It is 4 long html pages and gives us something to think about. We have these WOW moments when we look at the Hubble images. Then again, having seen a lot of them, we may be in danger of burnout.
http://hubblesite.org/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

At the beginning of the Apollo missions it was all news and excitement, then things dropped to sound bytes. We are again at the Moon, will this too become sound bytes?
Check out the article.
- LRK -
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/30/AR2009113003590.html
The Wow Factor
Reading between the pixels of the Hubble's latest images

By Joel Achenbach
Sunday, December 6, 2009

By this point, we've all seen so many pretty Hubble pictures that we're in danger of pretty-Hubble-picture burnout. We've seen exploding stars galore. We've seen majestic pillars of gas that are spawning new solar systems. We've seen galaxies colliding, galaxies getting ripped apart, galaxies becoming mired in their own ennui. We've seen Mars and Jupiter and Saturn in such stark close-ups that we can detect the cosmetic surgery scars.

We've seen quasars, pulsars, brown dwarfs, exoplanets, globular clusters and assorted nebulosities. It feels as if we've seen it all. Literally. The whole cosmos, soup to nuts. It kind of makes you wonder if we'll run out of new things to discover. Here's a real headline on a November news release from Stanford: "High-precision measurements confirm cosmologists' standard view of the universe." All figured out; everyone go home now.

So, you can just imagine the challenge that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope scientists faced earlier this year. In May, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis flew to the Hubble and, defying a stuck bolt that nearly derailed the mission, removed an old camera and replaced it with a better one. They fixed two other instruments, even though these things were not designed for orbital maintenance. Crew members installed new gyroscopes and batteries. After five spacewalks and much derring-do, Hubble was, in effect, a brand-new space telescope.

But what to look at next? The Hubble people had to pick targets to demonstrate the revamped telescope's abilities. They would call these images the Early Release Observations, or ERO (at NASA, everything has an abbreviation). They wanted to produce pictures with lots of (their term) Wow Factor.

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

Dr. Nelson has been looking at the WFPC-2 which was recently retrieved from the Hubble Space Telescope and is at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) for a short time. He has seen many visible pits where space debris has struck the radiator surface while it was deployed. WFPC-2 will be on exhibit at NASM for about 2 months, then it will travel to JPL Maybe if you are in the Washington D.C. area you have a chance to visit NASM.

At the top of the above article there is a link to comments and Dr. Nelson posted one. There are a lot more of them now but I will leave you with what he wrote.
- LRK -

-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/30/AR2009113003590_Comments.html#
snip

The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the Mall had a special day-long symposium regarding the Hubble Legacy on 18 November 2009.
http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=1636

As a symposium attendee, I appreciated the thought-provoking presentations and panel discussions. There are some special artifacts from the Hubble Space Telescope including COSTAR and the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) that are on special exhibition at the NASM. Some of them will only be there until the end of December, 2009. Be sure and schedule a visit before then. The new "Moving Beyond Earth" Gallery has two of the three new Hubble artifacts - and plenty of "Wow!" with some innovative large scale moving graphics.

(The Hubble Legacy Symposium was made possible by financial support from the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.)
12/5/2009 9:49:59 PM
snip
-------------------------------------------------------------

Step back, take a breath, and prepare for a New Year and many more WOW events.
Don't let the excitement wane.
Give it away and watch it come back.

There is much, much, more to learn.
WOW!
- 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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
Google Wave Invite info:
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/
https://wave.google.com/wave/
============================================

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

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

Saturday, December 5, 2009

LCROSS Science Briefing November 13th 2009

One advantage to social networking is being able to see what others have seen that you may ave missed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xVlBa6YKH4
- LRK -
-----
Bob_Richards

RT @NASA_Ames: [News] @LCROSS_NASA team Press Conference http://bit.ly/6QW8wR
[splashdown results, intro by Pete @Worden]
-----
The LCROSS Press Conference on YouTube is an hour and 20 minutes with the first 31 minutes the presentation the rest devoted to questions and answers.

I found it interesting and you could sense the excitement of the preseters.

Watching it brought back fond memories of sitting in the same auditorium when I was working at NASA Ames Research Center.

A Facebook link about LCROSS
- LRK -

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=154478180006&share_id=175094893166&comments=1
Links on "LCROSS Lunar Impactor Mission"

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html
LCROSS Impact Data Indicates Water on Moon

It will be interesting to see what develops as a result of spacecraft orbiting the Moon and finding more about our nearest neighbor.

We will wait for the results from the LRO mission and how their data complements what is being seen from LCROSS.
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/

http://www.examiner.com/x-958-Tampa-Space-Program-News-Examiner~y2009m11d13-LROLCROSS-Mission-a-success--Water-on-the-moon
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/11/13/LRO_LCROSS_Mission_a_success_Water_on_the_moon_puts_moonfirs/
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/indias-lunar-mission-finds-water-on-moon-roundup_100251903.html

Exciting times and next year should be interesting too.

I hope the excitement finds its way into the ears of our Congress as well.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/344612main_Agency_Summary_Final_updates_5_6_09_R2.pdf
NASA FY 2010 Budget Request Summary

Mother may I have a cookie? Have you eaten all of your dinner?
Now where was the cookie jar hidden?

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
Google Wave Invite info:
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/
https://wave.google.com/wave/
============================================

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

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

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Pioneer Anomaly in the Light of New Data

Carl Walter asked me for an update on the Pioneer Anomaly and I had to check and see if anything new was being published.
I thought I would check and see if Dr. Slava Turyshev and Viktor Toth might have something and sure enough, google found this.
[Note: Viktor hosts my web site so maybe a bit biased. - LRK -]
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Pioneer Anomaly in the Light of New Data
Abstract
The radio-metric tracking data received from the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft from the distances between 20–70 astronomical units from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of a small, anomalous, blue-shifted Doppler frequency drift that limited the accuracy of the orbit reconstruction for these vehicles. This drift was interpreted as a sunward acceleration of aP = (8.74±1.33)×10−10 m/s2 for each particular spacecraft. This signal has become known as the Pioneer anomaly; the nature of this anomaly is still being investigated.

Recently new Pioneer 10 and 11 radio-metric Doppler and flight telemetry data became available. The newly available Doppler data set is much larger when compared to the data used in previous investigations and is the primary source for new investigation of the anomaly. In addition, the flight telemetry files, original project documentation, and newly developed software tools are now used to reconstruct the engineering history of spacecraft. With the help of this information, a thermal model of the Pioneers was developed to study possible contribution of thermal recoil force acting on the spacecraft. The goal of the ongoing efforts is to evaluate the effect of on-board systems on the spacecrafts’ trajectories and possibly identify the nature of this anomaly.

Techniques developed for the investigation of the Pioneer anomaly are applicable to the New Horizons mission. Analysis shows that anisotropic thermal radiation from on-board sources will accelerate this spacecraft by ∼41×10−10 m/s2.We discuss the lessons learned from the study of the Pioneer anomaly for the New Horizons spacecraft. Keywords Pioneer anomaly · gravitational experiments · deep-space navigation · thermal modeling.

Slava G. Turyshev
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA
E-mail: turyshev@jpl.nasa.gov
Viktor T. Toth
Ottawa, ON K1N 9H5, Canada
E-mail: vttoth@vttoth.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
We haven't always had spacecraft you know.
I just finished reading a chapter from "The YOUNG FOLKS TREASURY", Vol. VIII, "WONDERS OF SCIENCE AND INVENTION", entitled "The Motor Vehicle," by Herbert T. Wade, where he talks about cars that used steam, or electricity, or even a gas-engine. Oh, I failed to mention, the books were copyright 1909, a year before my mom started her life of living through all these technological advances. :-)
[Note to myself - I can still read a hundred year old book - Wonder if my Amiga computer still works.]
I can't wait to read the next chapter, "The Flying Machine," and then "The Gyroscope and Its Applications."
Could they have even thought about Cell Phones that show pictures that rotate to match which way you hold it?
Are we having fun yet? And what will we think of when we start developing the resources of the Moon?

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

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

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

Friday, November 20, 2009

What an interesting time we live in.

I am watching on cable TV the Numb3s program where mathematics is used to solve FBI crime cases.
I know, it is TV, but still, an interesting program that shows how mathematics can be useful, well if you are a math genius. :-)
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/numb3rs/

At the same time I am watching on my laptop the live TV of the STS-129 crew and the those on the ISS with a Bluetooth wireless headset so as not to bother others.
This has been from launch to docking to working on EVAs.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts129/
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
http://tinyurl.com/ykh2hb8 for Plantronics

Then there is Google's new Wave where a YouTube of NASA TV live has been made available to those that have received invitations to the pre-Beta release of Wave.
https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252BAAcnCi2UA

And a Wave that has useful links for the STS-129 mission.
https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252BNH3IxUaoG

We now have intelligent cell phones where you can send pictures, use GPS navigation, play games, search the Internet, and even call a friend by way of voice or text.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/index.html
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/pda-phones-smartphones.jsp
http://pocketpccentral.net/device_menus/android.htm
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphone-reviews/

Missions are now taking place at our nearest neighbor, the Moon or have recently ended.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_and_future_lunar_missions
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/17/MNJ41887O2.DTL
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-10268241-239.html
http://www.kaguya.jaxa.jp/index_e.htm
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/3240/early-end-to-indias-moon-mission
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/01/content_7523687.htm

And of course there have been and are deep space probes.
http://www.vttoth.com/probes/probes.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_probe
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/deepspace/index.html

Now when do we as Earth bound citizens learn to live off world and establish a human presence?
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/colonies.html
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explore/colonies/
http://www.nss.org/settlement/library.html

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
Google Wave Invite info: http://mashable.com/2009/09/29/google-wave-invites-2/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Deadly Debris

Back in February 2009, I posted to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond blog some items dealing with space debris.
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/2009/02/up-up-and-away-ping-ping-thunk-thud-and.html

Chad sent me a link to Mike Combs short story, "Deadly Debris" which it looks like DARPA should now read. A very riviting story.
http://writings.mike-combs.com/deaddebr.htm

In September DARPA released a Request for Information (RFI) regarding orbital debris removal capabilities. Tiny URL for
http://tinyurl.com/yl6j33v

Launchspace http://www.launchspace.com/editorials.html had an editorial September 28, 2009 entitled Space Debris Gets Some Respect, which mentions it.
----------------------
For the last few decades the international space community has freely used near-Earth space for many important applications without regard for the impact of artificial satellites on the space environment. Although space-faring nations have spewed trash from 200 km to beyond 36,000 km, the space below about 1,600 km has been severely abused. Recent events have finally persuaded the U.S. Government to start thinking about cleaning up this environmental "super fund site." No, it is not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has been given the task of figuring out how to remove space debris. It is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a part of the Department of Defense (DOD).

On September 17th, DARPA released a Request for Information (RFI) regarding orbital debris removal capabilities. This request is addressed to all potential domestic and foreign sources and it asks for innovative solutions that might lead to the eventual removal of orbital debris.
snip
----------------------

If folks would like to participate in on-line discussions of topics like Deadly Debris in space, Google has a way to do this with Google Wave.

It is by invitation only for now and MemphisDJ sent me an invitation so I have been reading up on Google Wave, watching videos, and looking at some conversations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

I thought I would post this to a New Wave and if you have a Google Wave account you can let me know what you think.
Title is: Deadly Debris
https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252B091sB_F2A.1

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
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
GoogleWave larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
Google Wave Invite info:
http://mashable.com/2009/09/29/google-wave-invites-2/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/
===========================================

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

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed

SpaceWarper sent me an alert for the recent information about the MESSENGER spacecraft third flyby of Mercury.

I must admit that I have not been following the mission closely.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php

My bad, as there are some interesting results and the spacecraft isn't even in orbit yet.
- LRK -
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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/03nov_hiddenterritory.htm?list1335507
Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed
11/03/2009

Nov. 3, 2009: The MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of the planet Mercury has given scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and revealed some dramatic changes in Mercury's comet-like tail.

"The new images remind us that Mercury continues to hold surprises," says Sean Solomon, principal investigator for the mission and director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The probe flew by Mercury on Sept. 29th, executing a critical gravity assist maneuver designed to help MESSENGER enter Mercury-orbit in 2011. Despite shutting down temporarily because of a power system switchover during a solar eclipse, the spacecraft's cameras and instruments revealed 6 percent of the planet's surface never before seen at close range, including this picturesque region pocked by impact craters and molded by volcanic activity:
snip
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IRON AND TITANIUM SURFACE

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1104/p02s10-usgn.html
NASA's Messenger probe reveals new clues about Mercury

Mercury, the oddest of the rocky planets, has been little understood by scientists. But on a swing by the planet, NASA's Messenger sent back intriguing data about Mercury's surface minerals and volcanic activity.

NASA's Mercury mission spacecraft, Messenger, is revolutionizing humanity's view of the first rock from the sun. And its primary science mission hasn't even started yet.

During its third and final flyby of Mercury, NASA's Messenger has found minerals on the planet's surface that current models say shouldn't be there in such abundance. And it appears that the planet was volcanically active – explosively so – for far longer than current ideas about its geological history suggest.

The flyby took place Sept. 29. Mission scientists unveiled highlights from the flyby during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.
snip
--------------------------------------------

Many images and much information.
- LRK -

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http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/presscon_multi6.html
MESSENGER Teleconference Multimedia Page

Presenter #1
Sean Solomon, MESSENGER Principal Investigator, The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.

A MESSENGER color observation of Mercury obtained as the spacecraft approached the planet for its third and final flyby on 29 September 2009. The 1000, 700, and 430 nm filters were combined in red, green, and blue to create this color image (approximately 5 km/pixel resolution), the last that will be acquired until MESSENGER goes into orbit around Mercury in March of 2011. Only 6% of Mercury's surface in this image had not been viewed previously by spacecraft, and most of the measurements made by MESSENGER's other instruments during this flyby were made prior to closest approach. The observations nonetheless revealed fresh surprises.

Presenter #2
Ronald J. Vervack, Jr., MESSENGER Participating Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

Illustration of the major source and loss processes that generate and maintain Mercury’s exosphere. The panels on the left summarize the three primary sources of exospheric material. Photon-stimulated desorption occurs when solar photons excite surface-bound atoms or molecules, releasing them to the exosphere. Sunlight also heats the surface, causing atoms and molecules to evaporate. These are both low-energy processes, so most of the released material reaches only low altitudes and usually returns to the surface. Ion sputtering occurs when ions from the solar wind or Mercury’s magnetosphere impact the surface, “knocking off” atoms and molecules. Meteoroid vaporization occurs when incoming meteoroids, generally small dust particles, impact Mercury’s surface at high speeds, causing the surface material to vaporize. Both ion sputtering and meteoroid vaporization are high-energy processes, and the released material can reach high altitudes. All material in the exosphere is accelerated in the anti-sunward direction by radiation pressure; atoms and molecules at sufficiently high altitudes for this force to overcome the gravitational influence of the planet enter Mercury’s neutral tail. Neutral constituents in the tail either escape the Mercury system or are ionized by solar radiation. The ionized material can also escape along open magnetic field lines, but some of the ions are returned to the surface by Mercury’s magnetosphere.
snip

Presenter #3
David J. Lawrence, MESSENGER Participating Scientist,
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

Schematic view of Mercury’s interior showing its large, iron-rich core, which constitutes at least ~60% of the planet’s mass.
Observations from Earth and by MESSENGER at visible and near-infrared wavelengths have shown that Mercury’s surface has a very low concentration of iron (Fe) in silicate minerals, leading to the common view that Mercury’s surface and crust are generally low in iron. A puzzle for investigations of Mercury’s formation and evolution is how a planet with such a large Fe-rich core could form with such an Fe-poor surface?
snip

Presenter #4
Brett Denevi, MESSENGER Imaging Team member and Postdoctoral Researcher, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

Combined image coverage map of Mercury after Mariner 10 and MESSENGER’s first two flybys of Mercury. Although 90% of Mercury’s surface had been imaged after MESSENGER’s second flyby, there was a gap in longitudinal coverage centered at about 60° E.
snip

[Note: your really want to go to the reference link to see all the images and information I left out. - LRK -]
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/presscon_multi6.html

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Why Mercury - First Rock from the Sun.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/why_mercury/index.html
Mercury: The Key to Terrestrial Planet Evolution

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are terrestrial (rocky) planets. Among these, Mercury is an extreme: the smallest, the densest (after correcting for self-compression), the one with the oldest surface, the one with the largest daily variations in surface temperature, and the least explored. Understanding this "end member" among the terrestrial planets is crucial to developing a better understanding of how the planets in our Solar System formed and evolved. To develop this understanding, the MESSENGER mission, spacecraft, and science instruments are focused on answering six key outstanding questions that will allow us to understand Mercury as a planet. For additional, detailed information about the driving science questions of the MESSENGER mission, check out some of the articles given on the MESSENGER publication list.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/publications.html
snip
--------------------------------------------

Read more about the mission.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/index.html
The Mission

To become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, MESSENGER must follow a path through the inner solar system, including one flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and three flybys of Mercury. This impressive journey is returning the first new spacecraft data from Mercury since the Mariner 10 mission over 30 years ago. Here you can find details about that journey, the MESSENGER spacecraft, and the instrument payload.
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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

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