Space station crew has close call with space junk

Bob, in Texas, sent me a heads up about a recent close call from space junk for the ISS.
Thanks Bob.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96SMFQ02&show_article=1
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
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MCC-Houston CAPCOM Kathy Bolt spoke with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke about the possible conjunction of an estimated 13-centimeter-diameter piece of space debris with the station. Listen to an edited clip of the highlights of the conversation including the first notification that went to the crew and the all-clear notification.

+ Listen to the audio clip of the conversation (2.1 Mb MP3)
http://www.nasa.gov/mp3/318202main_tca_highlights_clip3.mp3
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I suppose that with more satellite launches and more collisions of old satellites the chances of near misses will only increase.
- LRK -
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Orbital Debris Quarterly News - October 2008 - [1042 KB PDF]
http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv12i4.pdf
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Here we have seen another example of debris in Earth orbit causing problems.
I wonder what will happen when we start sending folks to the Moon?
Will we have debris in solar orbit drop in unexpectedly?
- LRK -

Where will all of our booster stages end up then?
In the ocean, in lunar orbit, in solar orbit to come back later?
Fly along with us and follow us to the Lunar surface?

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

More at:
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/

NASA's Kepler Mission Rockets to Space in Search of Other Earths

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/mar/HQ_09-052_Kepler_launches.html

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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/06mar_keplerlaunch.htm?list965414
NASA's Kepler Mission Rockets to Space in Search of Other Earths

*March 6, 2009:* NASA's Kepler mission successfully launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:49 p.m. EST, Friday. Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the planet's surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.

"It was a stunning launch," said Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our team is thrilled to be a part of something so meaningful to the human race -- Kepler will help us understand if our Earth is unique or if others like it are out there."
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Was glad to see the launch was successful.
It has been a long time in getting there with a number of proposals before getting accepted.

Just take a look at the news story time line, you will see it goes back to 1999.
http://kepler.nasa.gov/about/news.html

The Kepler web site has changed over the years.
You might care to check out what they have now.
http://kepler.nasa.gov/

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/

Kepler Launch Tonight 10:49:57

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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html
*Kepler Set to Launch Tonight*

The Kepler spacecraft and its Delta II rocket are "go" for a launch tonight that is expected to light up the sky along Florida's Space Coast at *10:49 p.m. EST* as the rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Weather predictions remain good, with a 95 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time and a temperature of 64 degrees.
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Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/

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The Threat Of IMPACT - A Special Report on NEOs.

If you are a member of the National Space Society you probably just got the latest issue of adAstra - The Magazine Of The National Space Society.
The cover has the above title on it and several articles about NEOs.
Here is the link to the table of contents even though the article is not linked.
http://www.nss.org/adastra/volume20/v20n4.html

Since we have recently been buzzed by nearby passing asteroids I took time to read the articles.

There is an upcoming conference in Spain in April on Planetary Defense which goes along with previous questions about how would you go about getting to these NEOs, both for defense or possibly for commercial interests.
- LRK -

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http://www.congrex.nl/09c04/
1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference:
Protecting Earth from Asteroids
27 - 30 April 2009
Granada, Spain

The International Academy of Astronautics will hold its first conference on protecting our planet from impacts by asteroids and comets the week of April 27, 2009 in Granada, Spain. The 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids, co-sponsored by the European Space Agency and The Aerospace Corporation, is the follow-on to two previous planetary defense conferences held in 2004 in Los Angeles and 2007 in Washington, D.C. Details on the 2004 and 2007 conferences are at www.planetarydefense.info
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Sometimes in our looking up for incoming hazards we fail to look at what we are doing right at our feet.
We live here and throw our trash away and we are thinking of going to space where we throw more trash away.
Today in my email was a notice of the latest TED Talks postings and one of the videos is by Charles Moore and his sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks

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http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html
Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch --
an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.
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Asteroid 2009 DD45

Another missed opportunity - asteroid 2009 DD45

John sent me the following request.
- LRK -

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Hey Larry!

Surely someone in your "fan club" could do the numbers on the item below:
--how much delta-v to get one of those fancy new Orion capsules to rendezvous?
--how much delta-v to send the rock to L-5, or other stable orbit?
--27000 cubic meters of SOMEthing is out there for the taking!
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ASTEROID FLYBY: There's no danger of a collision, but newly-discovered asteroid 2009 DD45 will come close enough today when it flies by our planet 72,000 km (0.00048 AU) away. That's only twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite. The asteroid measures 30 to 40 meters across, similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908. Closest approach occurs at approximately 1340 UT (5:40 am PST) on March 2nd.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for updates and ephemerides.
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J...in deepest, darkest, snowiest [!] SE GA
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My thought was that it might not make any difference if we knew how to get to this asteroid since we don't seem to have any launch vehicles poised to launch on a moments notice nor any plans on how to maneuver such an asteroid into capture orbits.

More at: BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/

Up, up, and away -- ping, ping, thunk, thud -- and I thought rush hour traffic was bad.

Recently we had an airline plane downed by bird strikes to both engines and a successful landing in the Hudson River.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/15/new.york.plane.crash/

For a rocket launching a satellite to space, things in your flight path can make for a bad day as well.
We think about going to the Moon with astronauts again and setting up shop on the Moon.
When that happens the number of launches to space will increase and the concern for where the latest space debris is will be on their minds.

Gunjan reports that India is still on track to put humans in orbit with their first manned spaceship around 2015.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090211-india-manned-spaceship.html

China has orbited their astronauts with their third space mission in September 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4333158.stm
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE48O9VL20080926

Pings on a satellite can be expensive and be a cause for more space debris.
Pings on a spaceship with humans aboard is even more concern.

We have had a few satellites break up and just recently two satellites collided.
This is not good and will add to the risk of launching to space.
Who keeps track of where our man made junk orbits?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-spacejunk0809feb08,0,7720847.story

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16584-satellite-collision-creates-copious-space-junk.html
Satellite collision creates copious space junk

Larry Kellogg

More at: BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/

Mars Technology Helps Create Inauguration Mega-Picture

Warning: links not suggested for cell phone viewing or those with slow Internet connections.
My apologies, still, hopefully we will get some of this kind of action when we go back to the Moon.
- LRK -

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NASA Science News for February 2, 2009

A private photographer has used NASA's Mars technology to create a 1,474 megapixel panoramic photo of President Obama's inauguration. The interactive mega-snapshot has become an international sensation, viewed by more than two million people in 186 countries. Today's story from Science@NASA presents the photo and tells how it was made.

FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/02feb_gigapan.htm?list965414

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!

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If you have the bandwidth then more info - LRK -
http://gigapan.org/

The inspiration for the above came from the Mars Rover's Pan-Cam.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft_instru_pancam.html

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

More at: BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/