And Now A Word From The Lunatic Fringe

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Lost in Space, Fox News

"The U.S. has surrendered its advantage in space, conceding the high ground to others who are probably our enemies," said Jane Orient, a science policy expert and professor at the University of Arizona. "We are apparently leaving seven astronauts in space as hostages. Their loss would be a tragedy, but only a small part of the total disaster. It would symbolize the lack of respect that America has for its pioneers."

Keith's note: Huh? who is being left in space as a "hostage"? Who is "Jane Orient"? This whole article reads like a spoof that you'd expect to see on The Onion. Oh wait - its Fox News. Nevermind.

Alert: Career Changes Ahead for NASA HSF Workforce

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JSC leader fears tough transition, Houston Chronicle

"As NASA released more details Thursday about its restructuring under President Barack Obama's space proposal, the director of Johnson Space Center expressed optimism and concern. Though he welcomed the proposed addition of a five-year, $6 billion technology development program at the Clear Lake-area space center, director Mike Coats said he is concerned about job losses and not having a space vehicle to fly. "We have some challenges to confront here," Coats said. One of the big ones: Even contractors who will get jobs in the restructuring might find themselves out of work for up to a year as the new plans are being formulated."

NASA Announces Programs and Costs for Next 5 Years

"With all due respect to everybody," the general replied, "a serious and real concern for everyone is the jobs." As technology advances, there are fewer and "fewer manual-type jobs," he explained. Even with Constellation, several thousand jobs were going to be lost. "I think that is a significant issue for people," he said."

NASA to oversee space taxi development, USA today

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "In terms of NASA planning, Constellation as a program is dead." Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, whose district includes Johnson Space Center, said Bolden's plans don't "change the fact that the president seems willing to hand off American dominance in human spaceflight to nations like Russia and China." "The president has a say in the budget process but by no means the last word," Olson said in a statement. "Opposition to killing Constellation, the program of record, is growing by the day."

Beautiful Volcano Photography

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From Boing Boing:

What's better than a volcano? A volcano with the Northern Lights behind it. Photographer Albert Jakobsson took this awesome shot of Iceland's Eyjafjajokull (gesundheit) volcano. In the full series of photos, you can see Icelanders entertaining themselves by han

Fossils Offer 'Window' into Human Evolution

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From USATODAY.com Tech - Top Stories:

The discovery of a fossil pair in South Africa, reported by researchers Thursday, promises insights into early human origins about 1.95 million years ago. In two papers published in the journal Science, a team led by paleontologist Lee Berge

Rule on Lead Safety Set to Take Effect

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From NYT > Science:

After almost two decades of delays, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it was on track to implement a regulation requiring the construction industry to help prevent cases of lead poisoning among children. The agency said it expected more t

Jacobs Technology Joins the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

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Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce that Jacobs Technology, a division of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., has joined the Federation as an Associate Member, having received unanimous approval by the organization’s Board of Directors.

Mark Sirangelo, Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, commented, “On behalf of the member companies of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, we are proud to welcome Jacobs as an Associate Member. We look forward to working with Jacobs to further our organization’s goals of promoting the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursuing ever higher levels of safety, and sharing best practices and expertise throughout the industry.”

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, added, “Jacobs has a solid reputation and technical expertise in human spaceflight. As a valued member of the NASA team, Jacobs will help build the partnership between NASA and industry to develop commercial human spaceflight capabilities that are safe, reliable and cost effective, meeting both NASA’s needs and opening human spaceflight to non-government activities.”

“Commercial human spaceflight is an exciting, rapidly emerging industry, one in which we want to engage and joining the Commercial Spaceflight Federation presents a great opportunity for us to do so,” said Lon Miller, Jacobs’ sponsor for NASA Programs and General Manager of JSC’s Engineering and Science Contract Group (ESCG).

Jacobs’ Dr. Joy Kelly, ESCG Deputy General Manager and ESCG lead for Commercial Spaceflight added, “The rise of commercial human spaceflight, both suborbital and orbital, marks a milestone opportunity for the United States and NASA, and we are proud to support these efforts.”

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

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An evolving Armadillo

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John Carmack speaking at Space Access '10 in Phoenix.

John Carmack speaking at Space Access '10 in Phoenix.

Speaking at the Space Access ’10 conference in Phoenix yesterday, John Carmack noted that the evolution of Armadillo Aerospace from a group of hobbyists to a full-fledged business is nearly complete. “We’ve pretty much become the company we set out to be a number of years ago,” he said, with most of the core team now full-time employees and the company making an operating profit. But the business they’re doing with organizations ranging from the Rocket Racing League to NASA can be “distracting” to their core efforts. “It is kind of getting in the way of building the things we want to build for the vehicles we want to build,” he said. He said he didn’t want to become yet another small aerospace company, “always chasing around their friends and contacts” looking for work.

Carmack, though, has something going for him that many other companies in NewSpace or elsewhere don’t have: some personal wealth. He said his financial situation changed for the better when he sold id Software last year. “Armadillo really was operating at the limit of what I could personally provide,” he said. “It was the limit of what my wife would let me put into it.” He said he’s now able, and willing, to invest more into the company, even though he said he’s proud that it it’s operationally profitable now. “So I probably am going to step up” spending this year on internal projects, he said, even if that means not being profitable.

One area of focus for Armadillo will be resuming a series of “boosted hop” test flights of their vehicle. They started this after the Lunar Lander Challenge was complete, reaching altitudes of 4,000 feet (1,200 meters). “However, while the boost to 4,000 feet was successful, the landing wasn’t,” Carmack said, showing a video of the flight test. With the engine throttled down and the vehicle descending at a speed of about 120 mph (200 km/h), they lost attitude control and the vehicle fell, landing on its side with quite a thud, but no fireball. They now understand that problem and plan resuming boosted hops first at their home site, Caddo Mills airport in Texas, where they can go to 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). From there they’ll go to Spaceport Oklahoma for flights of up to at least 20,000 feet (6,000 meters); higher flights will require going to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Carmack expressed optimism that Armadillo was close to having all the key technologies needed for a complete suborbital vehicle. “What we’ve got, what we’ve been flying, is pretty damn close to what we need for a reusable suborbital vehicle,” he said.

Carmack also briefly addressed one controversial event from last year: finishing second in Level Two of the Lunar Lander Challenge after a judging decision gave Masten Space Systems one more flight attempt, which they used to make a flight that won first place and $1 million. Despite the experience, he heaped praise on the overarching Centennial Challenges program. “I have to say, Centennial Challenges has to be some of the best money that NASA has ever spent,” he said. But, he added, “I still am bitter about how things finally went down at the end there… No Christmas cards for them.”

NASAs Global Hawk Completes First Science Flight

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The Global Hawk can fly autonomously to altitudes above 60,000 feet -- roughly twice as high as a commercial airliner -- and as far as 11,000 nautical miles.
The Global Hawk can fly autonomously to altitudes above 60,000 feet -- roughly twice as high as a commercial airliner -- and as far as 11,000 nautical miles. Operators pre-program a flight path, and then the plane flies itself for as long as 30 hours. › Larger image
NASA has successfully completed the first science flight of the Global Hawk unpiloted aircraft system over the Pacific Ocean. The flight was the first of five scheduled for this month's Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac, mission to study atmospheric science over the Pacific and Arctic oceans.

The Global Hawk is a robotic plane that can fly autonomously to altitudes above 18,288 meters (60,000 feet) -- roughly twice as high as a commercial airliner -- and as far as 20,372 kilometers (11,000 nautical miles), which is half the circumference of Earth. Operators pre-program a flight path, then the plane flies itself for as long as 30 hours, staying in contact through satellite and line-of-site communications links to a ground control station at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California's Mojave Desert.

"The Global Hawk is a revolutionary aircraft for science because of its enormous range and endurance," said Paul Newman, co-mission scientist for GloPac and an atmospheric scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "No other science platform provides the range and time to sample rapidly evolving atmospheric phenomena. This mission is our first opportunity to demonstrate the unique capabilities of this plane, while gathering atmospheric data in a region that is poorly sampled."

GloPac researchers plan to directly measure and sample greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances, aerosols and constituents of air quality in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. GloPac's measurements will cover longer time periods and greater geographic distances than any other science aircraft.

During Wednesday's flight, the plane flew approximately 8,334 kilometers (4,500 nautical miles) along a flight path that took it to 150.3 degrees West longitude, and 54.6 degrees North latitude, just south of Alaska's Kodiak Island. The flight lasted just over 14 hours and flew up to 18,562 meters (60,900 feet). The mission is a joint project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

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The plane carries 11 instruments to sample the chemical composition of the troposphere and stratosphere, including two from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.. The instruments profile the dynamics and meteorology of both layers and observe the distribution of clouds and aerosol particles. Project scientists expect to take observations from the equator north to the Arctic Circle and west of Hawaii.

Although the plane is designed to fly on its own, pilots can change its course or altitude based on interesting atmospheric phenomena ahead. Researchers have the ability via communications links to control their instruments from the ground.

"The Global Hawk is a fantastic platform because it gives us expanded access to the atmosphere beyond what we have with piloted aircraft," said David Fahey, co-mission scientist and a research physicist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. "We can go to regions we couldn't reach or go to previously explored regions and study them for extended periods that are impossible with conventional planes."

The timing of GloPac flights should allow scientists to observe the breakup of the polar vortex. The vortex is a large-scale cyclone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere that dominates winter weather patterns around the Arctic and is particularly important for understanding ozone depletion in the Northern Hemisphere.

Scientists also expect to gather high-altitude data between 13,716 and 19,812 meters (45,000 and 65,000 feet), where many greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances are destroyed. They will measure dust, smoke and pollution that cross the Pacific from Asia and Siberia and affect U.S. air quality.

Global Hawk will make several flights under NASA's Aura satellite and other "A-train" Earth-observing satellites, "allowing us to calibrate and confirm what we see from space," Newman added. GloPac is specifically being conducted in conjunction with NASA's Aura Validation Experiment.

GloPac includes more than 130 researchers and technicians from Goddard, Dryden Flight Research Center, JPL, and Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Also involved are NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory; the University of California, Santa Cruz; Droplet Measurement Technologies of Boulder, Colo.; and the University of Denver.

NASA Dryden and the Northrop Grumman Corp. of Rancho Bernardo, Calif., signed a Space Act Agreement to re-fit and maintain three Global Hawks transferred from the U.S. Air Force for use in high-altitude, long-duration Earth science missions.

For more on GloPac, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/global-hawk.html . JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information on the GloPac instruments, see: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/research/GloPac/glopac_instruments.html

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NASA-Funded Research Suggests Venus is Geologically Alive

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Surface warmth on a Venus volcano
This video still shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons (at 46 degrees south latitude, 214.5 degrees east longitude) in the Imdr Regio area of Venus. › View video
For the first time, scientists have detected clear signs of recent lava flows on the surface of Venus.

The observations reveal that volcanoes on Venus appeared to erupt between a few hundred years to 2.5 million years ago. This suggests the planet may still be geologically active, making Venus one of the few worlds in our solar system that has been volcanically active within the last 3 million years.

The evidence comes from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission, which has been in orbit around the planet since April 2006. The science results were laid over topographic data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft. Magellan radar-mapped 98 percent of the surface and collected high-resolution gravity data while orbiting Venus from 1990 to 1994.

Scientists see compositional differences compared to the surrounding landscape in three volcanic regions. Relatively young lava flows have been identified by the way they emit infrared radiation. These observations suggest Venus is still capable of volcanic eruptions. The findings appear in the April 8 edition of the journal Science.

"The geological history of Venus has long been a mystery," said Sue Smrekar, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and lead author of the paper describing the work. "Previous spacecraft gave us hints of volcanic activity, but we didn't know how long ago that occurred. Now we have strong evidence right at the surface for recent eruptions."

The volcanic provinces, or hotspots, on which Smrekar and her team focused are geologically similar to Hawaii. Scientists previously detected plumes of hot rising material deep under Venus' surface. Those plumes are thought to have produced significant volcanic eruptions. Other data from the planet suggest that volatile gases commonly spewed from volcanoes were breaking down in its atmosphere. The rate of volcanism will help scientists determine how the interior of the planet works and how gases emitted during eruptions affect climate.

Something is smoothing Venus' surface, because the planet has only about 1,000 craters, a relatively small amount compared to other bodies in our solar system. Scientists think it may be the result of volcanic activity and want to know if it happens quickly or slowly. The Venus Express results suggest a gradual sequence of smaller volcanic eruptions as opposed to a cataclysmic volcanic episode that resurfaces the entire planet with lava.

Smrekar and her team also discovered that several volcanic features in the regions they studied show evidence of minerals found in recent lava flows. These mineral processes correspond to the youngest volcanic flows in each region, giving scientists additional support for the idea they formed during recent volcanic activity. On Earth, lava flows react rapidly with oxygen and other elements in the atmosphere when they erupt to the surface. On Venus, the process is similar, although it is more intense and changes the outer layer more substantially.

Scientists call Venus Earth's sister planet because of similarities in size, mass, density and volume. Scientists deduce that both planets shared a common origin, forming at the same time about 4.5 billion years ago. Venus also is the planet on which the runaway greenhouse effect was discovered. The planet is cloaked in a much less friendly atmosphere than that found on Earth. It is composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, which generates a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead, and a surface pressure 90 times greater than that on Earth.

The small group of worlds in our solar system known to be volcanically active today includes Earth and Jupiter's moon Io. Crater counts on Mars also have suggested recent lava flows. Scientists are studying evidence of another kind of active volcanism that involves ice-spewing volcanoes on other moons in our solar system.

NASA sponsored Smrekar's research. The European Space Agency built and manages Venus Express. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

To view the spacecraft data and images, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/pia13001.html

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Climate Science Resources Revisited

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It’s time to revisit the science of climate change, because the deniers and skeptics are still out in force.  Some of them are in our government, inexplicably.  It’s inexplicable because I once assumed that people in Congress are maybe a little bit smarter than the average Dude, but it’s now clear this is not the case at all.  So many people, including those in government, need to be educated on the basics of the climate crisis and the enormous, eventual threat to all life on earth it presents.

There are many other resources within Futurism Now for people to look at the climate science through links to various websites, on the Links page for starters.   There are also many links in the right-hand column. I rarely update it because there is already so much there and the science supporting climate change is very well-known and widely accepted. You would not know that by listening to or reading the writings of conservatives, however.  Keep in mind what motives them is politics, not science or facts.  The facts are clear and unequivocal.  Skeptics often have a political agenda, also.  Very few scientists, despite what some people say, are skeptical about climate change and what is causing it.

Still it’s a good idea to republish links to climate change sites that contain info, proof and data.  This is from Real Climate and then I have more to add after it.

There are a number of topics in climate science that are frequently misunderstood or mis-characterised (often by those trying to ’scientize’ their political opinions) that come up again and again in climate-related discussions. RealClimate tries to provide context on many of these issues, and commentaries on the 1970s ‘global cooling myth‘ or whether water vapour is a feedback or a forcing are among our most referenced pieces (see our FAQ category). However, our explanations of specific points have often appeared in the middle of a larger piece, or in the comment section and are not clearly referencable. Since many of these same points keep coming up in comments and discussions, having a clear and precise resource for these explanations would be very useful and we have thought about doing just that. But it now appears that we have been beaten to the punch by a new blog run by Coby Beck, a frequent commenter here and at sci.env. His new blog ‘A few things ill-considered‘ has a point-by-point rebuttal of almost all the most common ‘contrarian’ talking points. The list of topics by category is a good place to start, and it shows the huge amount of work done so far.

Another great site for publications and articles and other writings by preeminent climate scientist James Hansen is here on his website. Many more resources and a podcast below!

I’m always telling people to go to look at the NASA website, which you can find at that [...]