Discovery Space: Next Generation

Celestial Roundup

Today, we'll have a little grab-bag of items. Fill up your plate, it's an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord!

Telescopes without mountains

You don't have to be on a high mountaintop in Arizona, Hawaii or Chile to do astronomy. Although more and more colleges and universities are now equipped to run distant observatories from computer consoles on campus, there's nothing quite like the experience of actually working at the telescope itself, and plenty of campuses have or are getting telescopes nearby, wherever they may be, to offer hands-on experiences to their students -- and the capability of doing real research. It's a big sky out there, and among the billions and billions of celestial objects to observe, there are plenty of worthwhile observing programs that can be conducted from less-than-optimal sites.
So, here's one new example: Purdue University Calumet, in Indiana, just announced last week that they are proceeding, with the help of a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, to get a 20-inch advanced Ritchy-Chretien telescope, which will be set up in an observatory in a nearby state park. It will be equipped for robotic observations from campus, but also can be used by students from the university, as well as special field trips by local high schools, to get that firsthand experience.
“Purdue Calumet students will soon have the ability to learn the science of astronomy through discovery from authentic data that they themselves obtain with the robotic telescope," says Shawn Slavin, a professor of astronomy at the university.

Portal to the Universe

It sounds like a device from a science-fiction story, sort of like the "stargate" in 2001. But no, this is a project, organized as part of the International Year of Astronomy (next year), to provide a comprehensive guide to the astronomy related websites, news, clubs, observatories, image sources, and so on. At their website, they are inviting people to contribute links and information on any sources that fit this bill.
They plan to launch the site at the end of the year. It looks like it will be a useful resource for all of us, if it works out. Good luck to them, and I envite everyone to help out by contributing information on sites, groups and facilities that you are involved in or know about.

Fly your Thesis

The European Space Agency has just announced a new program, similar to NASA's longstanding Microgravity University, which I described here in an earlier post (and gave a specific example of in another post).
ESA's program is smaller in scope -- far fewer students will get to participate, and they'll have to wait much longer to do so. But it's also structured to foster more ambitious use of the opportunity. As with NASA's program, students are invited to propose experiments that can be flown aboard an airplane that provides brief periods of weightlessness by flying on a roller-coaster-like trajectory of parabolic hills and valleys.
The NASA program is aimed at undergraduates, and students generally propose experiments that may be part of a class project, or may just be an ad-hoc idea that a group of students come up with. ESA, on the other hand, is looking for graduate students who want to do work that will actually be part of their thesis research.
I'm delighted to see that European students will now have an opportunity to share in the kinds of experiences that American students have been able to take part in for more than a decade. And although fewer will get to take part, it's an admirable idea to use these opportunities to foster advanced level serious research. I look forward to seeing what kinds of projects will result.

Students in the Dark

Finally, a footnote to the coverage by my fellow bloggers Dave Mosher and Alan Dyer about the August 1 total solar eclipse.
I was very envious reading their accounts of their adventures watching the eclipse from two different airplanes. I've see four total eclipses in my life, and they are definitely one of the two number-one all time greatest categories of skywatching experiences (see Alan Dyer's posting on his rating system of the top celestial sights) I've ever had the pleasure of seeing (the other category that equals it being an all-sky auroral display, which I saw in spring of 1988). But it's been a long time since the last one I saw -- which was awesome and spectacular, on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii in 1991, surrounded by the world's leading telescopes.
Anyway, I just read an item about a couple of lucky undegraduates, Katie Dupre and Marcus Freeman, who got a chance to see this latest eclipse in the company of the world's leading eclipse researcher, Jay Pasachoff of Williams College. For Jay, this was his 47th eclipse! The lucky dog. They watched it near Novosibirsk, Siberia, and took part in research on the sun's inner corona, which can only be observed during total eclipses.

(Photos: Top, observatory sketch courtesy of Purdue University Calumet; Middle, zero-g plane courtesy of ESA; Bottom, solar eclipse photographed by Luc Viatour, licenced under the GNU free documentation license.)

Setback for SpaceX is Setback for Student Space Projects

SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies, is one of the most interesting companies in the world right now to keep an eye on. If I were a billionaire -- and hey, I'm only a billion or so short of being one -- I would be pouring investment money into the company, and expecting a handsome return on it in a few years.
Yesterday, Space-X had their third launch failure in as many attempts. Or, as the company's founder Elon Musk prefers to describe it, their third "partial success." Ok, he has a point -- most of the innovative Falcon 1 rocket's parts worked perfectly. The first stage, using a brand-new rocket motor and structure and control system, worked without a hitch. But, for the second time, there was a problem with the separation between the first and second stages, and so the payload -- in this case, three separate satellites -- never made it to orbit.
Musk, who made his fortune in the Internet, by founding PayPal and then selling it to eBay, vows to keep on trying. In a letter posted on the SpaceX website, he declared flatly "There should be absolutely zero question that SpaceX will prevail in reaching orbit and demonstrating reliable space transport.  For my part, I will never give up and I mean never."
I admire Musk and his innovative plans, and I believe his commitment is real. And in addition to his personal fortune of a few hundred million, he says he has obtained substantial outside investment to keep the company's plans on track. And even NASA is backing him, as part of its COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) program to provide resupply services to the International Space Station.
Why does any of this matter to students? In fact, it matters in a big way, because SpaceX is one of about a half-dozen companies that are working hard to bring down the cost of sending things into orbit by at least an order of magnitude, and hopefully by two orders of magnitude, over the next few years. And if he or any of the others succeed (and frankly SpaceX is one of the top two or three candidates, and the one likeliest to succeed first), it will completely revolutionize the entire space business.
And among the very first people to benefit from that dramatic cost reduction will be students and academic researchers. A whole host of science and engineering research projects that would have been too costly to even attempt could suddenly open up as practical and within reach. And other projects that might have taken many years to get to the point of actually getting into orbit might be able to get there on a timescale of months instead. It will truly be a new era for university-based projects in astronomy, communications, materials research, biology in microgravity, and exploration.
In fact, Musk has specifically already offered cut-rate launch services to some of the student teams that are competing in the Google Lunar X-Prize challenge, including a team from Carnegie Mellon University.
So we should all be rooting very hard for SpaceX, as well as for the other companies competing in this arena: Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos; Xcor, a company based in Mojave, California that has the most explicit plans to make its planned low-cost launch services available for academic research; Armadillo Aerospace, founded by John Carmack, creator of the videogame Doom; and  Virgin Galactic, the partnership between X-Prize winner Burt Rutan and Virgin  Group founder Sir Richard Branson. While Virgin Galactic's business plan is mostly focused on the tourist market, it is clear that their vehicles -- both the SpaceShipTwo rocket, and its carrier plane White Knight Two -- could be a great platform for research as well.

Musk says that he has another Falcon 1 rocket ready to go, and he's also going full-tilt toward test flights of the much bigger Falcon 9, which will be the most powerful US rocket in existence. I wish him well, and will be keeping a close eye on his progress, and will keep you all posted on new developments here in this blog. (By the way, the best way to keep track of developments in real-time when there's a SpaceX launch about to take off is through a blog by Elon Musk's brother Kimbal, called Kwajalein Atoll and Rockets after the Pacific island site where the tests are conducted). There's also a good analysis of yesterday's failure, and of Musk's overall approach, on the blog Space Transport News.
Good luck to all of the new generation of space pioneers represented by these daring startup companies, that are poised to revolutionize the way the space business works.

(Photo: Falcon 1's second launch attempt from Kwajalein Atoll last year, courtesy of SpaceX)

Are Students Taking NASA's Place?

Well, not really. But in terms of performing some functions that used to be the exclusive domain of NASA and some major aerospace contractors, they may indeed be filling a significant void. That's the gist of a story a few days ago on Space Review, called "Student satellites: encouraging trend or a sign of panic?"

The story says that there is a growing crisis in the aerospace business: The business is booming, but not enough new people are entering the field to fill the needed jobs. Back in 2002, a national commission called the Walker Commission was formed to look into the problem. They wrote:

"In the 21st century, the U.S. must continue to have a highly skilled, stable, secure, and growing aerospace workforce, and a citizenry that is well prepared in mathematics and science.” But, according to surveys, they found that “Engineering students ... gave the aerospace industry low ratings for its physical work facilities, exciting and meaningful tasks, opportunities for professional development and growth, and supporting and encouraging management.”

So, increasingly schools are taking matters into their own hands, in the US and in other countries as well, the article says.

One major program that has been offering college students -- and even some high-school students -- a chance to go ahead and design, build and operate real space hardware on their own is one that I mentioned here in a previous post: the National Space Grant Student Satellite Program. Under this program, students build satellites that fit into a standardized shape and size but can have a wide variety of purposes. They are called Cubesats, and have so far been successfully designed and built by students at Cornell, California Polytechnic, the Universities of Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, and Hawaii, and Montana State, among others.

The satellites are small enough to be launched as "secondary payloads," sharing a ride to orbit as a piggyback add-on to major commercial satellite launches -- a very cheap way to get a ride to orbit.

"If these projects become widespread this may have a substantial impact on the 'enthusiasm gap'," the article says. Not to mention providing real, hands-on experience of the whole process of designing and building a satellite to survive the rigors of launch and the space environment, waiting for the launch and seeing what happens (some of these satellites were lost when a Russian rocket that was providing their piggyback ride crashed -- another lesson in the realities of the space business), and then actually controlling and operating the satellites if and when the do reach orbit.

In other countries, some students have had a chance to work on even more ambitious satellite projects, One of these was the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative Express satellite (SSETI), which was built by students across Europe working together through internet links. It was launched in 2005.

NASA is now going a step further, as I mentioned here in another post: NASA's Ames Research Center, under the direction of its head Pete Worden (a former Air Force officer who has been at the cutting edge in thinking about innovative approaches to space travel and research for a long time), has started a project to get students working on research satellites to go into orbit around the moon. The new project is called American Student Moon Orbiter (ASMO).

Apart from NASA, others have been initiating programs on their own. Numerous universities have initiated satellite projects on their own, and private agencies like the X-Prize Foundation have been offering additional opportunities (for example, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Arizona are collaborating with a student team working on an entry in the Google Lunar X-Prize, a prize of up to $30-million for the first independent (that is, not government funded) craft to reach the moon, travel at least 500 meters, and send back lots of pictures and data. The CMU and UAz students have vowed to achieve this by the time of the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. In other words, one year from today! (Happy Apollo 11 anniversary everyone! Read Ray Villard's blog entry today for some thoughts about the ever-popular ridiculous claims that the whole thing was faked).

NASA should probably be doing more to encourage, train, and offer interesting positions for the next generation of space engineers. But in the meatime, it's nice to know that there really are some chances for students to roll up their sleeves and do significant work that will actually get to fly.

(Photos: Top 2 pictures from University of Toronto, showing cubesats attached to rocket payload ready for launch, and a collection of cubesats going through final checkout. Lower photo: SSETI satellite, courtesy of ESA)

 

NASA Asks Students to Reach for the Moon

Wow, this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for college students everywhere.

In an unprecedented program, NASA has just announced that within the month it will be putting out a request for teams of students to propose plans for a research satellite to go into orbit around the moon.

Once the formal request is put out, students will have at least 90 days to submit their proposals for a satellite with scientific instruments that, although faculty and industry representatives can be involved, are to be entirely designed and developed by students. It will be called ASMO, for American Student Moon Orbiter.

In its announcement of the plan, NASA said that in this project, teams would learn directly from NASA mentors as part of a diverse, nationwide, higher education initiative that will enable students to "design, build, launch, operate and own a small spacecraft and its payload."

The students will get in-depth experience with satellite mission protocol and procedures, communications and project management. NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California and Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are leading the ASMO initiative.

"NASA is laying the foundation for a multi-generation exploration program that eventually will see humans settle our solar system," said Ames Center Director S. Pete Worden. "To sustain this vision, we need the next crop of scientists and engineers to engage their minds and get hands-on experience."

While NASA has never done a project quite like this before that combines exploration and education and allows students to carry a satellite project through from start to finish. It is loosely based on similar programs like the USAF University NanoSat Program and the CalPoly CubeSat Program, but this is the first time students will get a chance to send a satellite far beyond Earth's orbit, all the way to the moon.

More information on NASA's ASMO plan is available on the project's website. NASA says this is "a new form of a NASA-supported participatory education," and it seems like a brilliant idea and a great opportunity.

Sailing Through Space -- Or Something Like It

There are a lot of different aspects to traveling in space, especially the kinds of long-duration flights required to get to another planet, or to spend a stint on the International Space Station.

Some elements of those missions can be simulated on Earth, and many can't. But among those that can are the physical and psychological demands of spending a long time in a small space under challenging and occasionally life-threatening conditions.

A small sailing vessel from Australia called Berrimilla is going through a voyage right now that captures some of those elements -- it's making a long trip from Australia to England, by way of the Canadian Arctic. It's partly adventure, partly education (they're blogging all the way, and taking lots of pictures and videos, some of which can be seen in real time and some will be compiled into educational programs at the journey's end).

And because the interest of the two-person crew parallels with space exploration, it drew the attention of some friends in high places: They did a live video linkup with the crew of the ISS during an earlier voyage, to talk about some of their similar trials and joys. Following that journey, they were invited by the ISS astronauts to give a presentation to a symposium at Louisiana State University about risk and exploration, specifically drawing analogies between their voyage and a trip to Mars.

This latest trip, the two sailors say on their website, "seemed like a neat idea and there were lots of suggestions about how it could be used for educational purposes -- the whole concept is full of opportunities to demonstrate aspects of science, history, environmental change, planning and human relationships in difficult circumstances."

Soon, one of the journey's intended stops will be specifically geared toward astronomy and space travel.

They're aiming for a stopover at Devon Island, home of NASA's long-running research project and simulated Mars base at Haughton Crater, the Haughton Mars Project. In fact, the whole trip came about as a result of a suggestion from that project's leader, NASA-Ames scientist Pascal Lee, who drew the itinerary for the trip on a cocktail napkin and challenged the Berrimilla crew to carry it out.

And there's one more thing about that plan: They're aiming to get to Devon Island in time for a very special event. As luck would have it, on August 1 the Haughton Mars Project will get a rare treat, as the path of totality of a total eclipse of the sun passes right through the center of the island. Berimilla's crew hopes to get there just in time.

They're in Alaska right now, in the fishing village of Unalaska, on schedule to make it to Devon on time if the winds and the sea-ice cooperate. Good luck to the Berrimilla crew for their voyage, and to the team at Haughton crater for viewing the eclipse!

Photo: courtesy of Haughton Mars Project

CMU Students Test Lunar Drilling

It wasn't the moon, but it sure looked like it.

Teams of scientists from NASA centers and universities spent the last couple of weeks out in Moses Lake Sand Dunes, a stretch of very desolate desert in Washington state. On very lunar-like terrain, they were testing a whole range of prototype vehicles and equipment that might be used in the nest decade or so by astronauts on the moon. The lunar rovers, bulldozers, transporters, spacesuits and drills that went through their paces were an amazingly weird, otherworldly, and ingenious collection of devices, and the tests were a great success -- in spite of the fact that, just to add to the difficulty of the testing, they went through unprecedented swings of temperature for the area, and had to endure sand storms as well.

Which is fine for testing purposes, because whatever they go through here, the moon is bound to be even more harsh and difficult.

Drilling on the moon may one day turn out to be crucial for getting at the resources future lunar settlements will need to survive, such as ice that could provide a source of drinking water as well as oxygen to breathe and rocket fuel (by separating its molecules into oxygen and hydrogen). Drills might also be needed to extract important resources from the moon, minerals that might be used for construction there or might be valuable commodities to ship back to Earth. But drilling in such a harsh and unforgiving location is no easy task.

That's where a team of students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh come in. They were part of a team that developed a sophisticated automated drilling rig, mounted on a robotic vehicle, to carry out deep lunar drilling. Their machine was one of those tested this week in Utah, and it passed its tests with flying colors.

There's a nice gallery of pictures and a video from the desert tests, on the NASA website.

(photos courtesy of NASA)

Teams of scientists from NASA centers and universities spent the last couple of weeks out in Moses Lake Sand Dunes, a stretch of very desolate desert in Washington state. On very lunar-like terrain, they were testing a whole range of prototype vehicles and equipment that might be used in the nest decade or so by astronauts on the moon. The lunar rovers, bulldozers, transporters, spacesuits and drills that went through their paces were an amazingly weird, otherworldly, and ingenious collection of devices, and the tests were a great success -- in spite of the fact that, just to add to the difficulty of the testing, they went through unprecedented swings of temperature for the area, and had to endure sand storms as well.

Which is fine for testing purposes, because whatever they go through here, the moon is bound to be even more harsh and difficult.

Drilling on the moon may one day turn out to be crucial for getting at the resources future lunar settlements will need to survive, such as ice that could provide a source of drinking water as well as oxygen to breathe and rocket fuel (by separating its molecules into oxygen and hydrogen). Drills might also be needed to extract important resources from the moon, minerals that might be used for construction there or might be valuable commodities to ship back to Earth. But drilling in such a harsh and unforgiving location is no easy task.

That's where a team of students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh come in. They were part of a team that developed a sophisticated automated drilling rig, mounted on a robotic vehicle, to carry out deep lunar drilling. Their machine was one of those tested this week in Utah, and it passed its tests with flying colors.

There's a nice gallery of pictures and a video from the desert tests, on the NASA website.

(photos courtesy of NASA)