NASA Archives

February 16, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

New Theory: Bizarre Martian Deposits from Vast Ice at Equator

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Ice core from Mars? Not quite. But this aggregation of soil grains, from Antarctica ice, derived from the same process now proposed for the Red Planet (Credit: Hans Paerl, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

The puzzling Meridiani Planum deposits on Mars — discovered by NASA’s Opportunity rover — could be remnants of a massive ancient ice field, according to a new study online in Nature Geoscience.

Paul Niles of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Joseph Michalski, of Université Paris-Sud, analysed the chemistry, sedimentology and geology of the Meridiani Planum deposits using data from Opportunity. They suggest that sulphate formation and chemical weathering occurred within an ice deposit as massive as today’s polar ice caps on Mars. Once the ice sublimed away in a warmer climate, the remaining sediments kept their chemical signature, the authors suggest.

The new theory gets around a weakness in the previous belief, that the deposits were formed in a wet, shallow basin — because no evidence of such a basin has been found yet. But it comes with its own baggage: there’s not much evidence of massive ice in the region, either.

The Meridiani represent one of the flattest areas on the Martian surface, with long, rolling smooth plains, linear dunes and ridges. Based on the number of craters, scientists have speculated that it formed early in the Hesperian Era, roughly 3.8 billion years ago.

The intriguing place — right at the crosshairs of zero degrees longitude and zero degrees latitude — was initially spotted by the Mars Thermal Emission Spectrometer aboard NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (1996-2006). It was then chosen as the landing site for NASA’s rover Opportunity, in 2004.

“Immediately upon touchdown, when we turned on the cameras for the first time and looked out on the plains, it became obvious that it was a different kind of place on Mars than we’d ever been before,” Michalski said.

Since then, the place has been the object of numerous chemistry studies which have generated a handful of competing theories about how its odd sulfate deposits might have formed. The prevailing theory, fronted by scientists on the Mars Exploration Rovers team, has it that the Meridiani Planum was once a shallow evaporation basin which was periodically wet, where wind helped drive away the moisture and left the deposits behind. Other scientists have proposed a catastrophic event like a volcano or major impact, perhaps with volcanic aerosols altering layered rocks at the surface.

Microscopic image of Meridiani Planum sediments. Image of outcrop of sediments at Meridiani Planum inside Endurance crater taken by the microscopic imager on sol 145 (Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS).

But Michalski and Niles say the deposits formed when the area was covered with thick ice. Dust trapped within the ice would have warmed in the presence of sunlight, causing minor melting nearby. And because the ice also contained volcanic aerosols, the water that formed would have been highly acidic, and reacted with the dust, yielding the perplexing products in pockets within the ice that became the deposits when the ice sublimed. The same process happens to a limited extent in the Earth’s polar regions, Michalski said. The Meridiani Planum is near the equator, where large ice fields are lacking today. The authors propose that the ice could have formed in ancient times, when the poles were in a different place or when the Martian axis of rotation was at a different angle.

Michalski said the new theory gets around a lot of the sticking points in the older ones.

“It doesn’t require a basin to be present; it doesn’t require the groundwater,” he said. “We like a lot of aspects of the MER team’s hypothesis. One of the big problems is that you have to have a lot of acidic water in that situation.”

Brian Hynek, an atmospheric and space physicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, had proposed a volcanic origin for the deposits in the past, but he said there are strengths to the new theory as well. For starters, he said, the ice pocket hypothesis could explain why salts of varying water solubility co-exist so closely in the Meridiani Planum deposits.

“The volume of the Meridiani deposits is similar to the amount of sediment contained within the layered ice-rich deposits at Mars’s south pole,” he added. “And sublimation of a sufficiently large dusty ice deposit would provide a convincing source for all the sediment, which other models have failed to provide.”

But he said there are shortfalls to the new theory too: No model has allowed for the necessarily massive ice deposits at the Martian equator, for example, and it’s curious how the dust and aerosols “could aggregate into consistent sand-sized particles” in the examined bedrock.

Hynek said of all the theories that could explain the strange deposits in the Meridiani Planum, none has emerged yet as a clear winner: “All have their strengths and all have significant weaknesses. I don’t think we’ve solved this mystery yet.”

Michalski is less cautious about the implications of the new work.

“We’re able to propose this process for the Meridiani deposits because there are a lot of data,” he said. “We think that it’s likely that the other sulfate deposits on Mars could have been formed by the same mechanism.”

Sources: Joseph Michalski and Brian Hynek

February 10, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

Fermi, Swift spy outburst from gamma-ray star

Gamma-rays flares from SGR J1550-5418 may arise when the magnetar's surface suddenly cracks, releasing energy stored within its powerful magnetic field. Credit:NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

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NASA’s Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have keyed in on a rowdy stellar remnant 30,000 light-years away. The object, already known as a source of pulsing radio and X-ray signals, lies in the southern constellation Norma. It kicked out some moderate eruptions in October, but then it settled down again. Late last month, it roared to life.

“At times, this remarkable object has erupted with more than a hundred flares in as little as 20 minutes,” said Loredana Vetere, who is coordinating the Swift observations at Pennsylvania State University. “The most intense flares emitted more total energy than the sun does in 20 years.”

The new object has been cataloged as SGR J1550-5418. Because of the recent outbursts, astronomers will classify it as a soft-gamma-ray repeater. Only six such objects are known to science, and they share the trait that they unpredictably send out a series of X-ray and gamma-ray flares. In 2004, a giant flare from another soft-gamma-ray repeater was so intense it measurably affected Earth’s upper atmosphere from 50,000 light-years away.

The source of the wild emissions is probably a spinning neutron star — the superdense, city-sized remains of an exploded star. Measuring only about 12 miles (19 kilometers) across, a neutron star is more massive than the sun.

While neutron stars typically possess intense magnetic fields, a subgroup displays fields 1,000 times stronger. These so-called magnetars have the strongest magnetic fields of any known objects in the universe. SGR J1550-5418, which rotates once every 2.07 seconds, holds the record for the fastest-spinning magnetar. Astronomers think magnetars power their flares by tapping into the tremendous energy of their magnetic fields.

Fermi’s gamma-ray burst monitor is designed to investigate magnetar flares, and SGR J1550-5418 has already triggered the instrument more than 95 times since Jan. 22. Swift’s X-ray telescope captured the first “light echoes” ever seen from a oft-gamma-ray repeater when SGR J1550-5418 started exploding. Both the halo-like rings and their apparent expansion are an illusion caused by the finite speed of light and the longer path the scattered light must travel. NASA’s Wind satellite, the joint NASA-Japan Suzaku mission, and the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL satellite also have detected flares from SGR J1550-5418.

Swift's X-Ray Telescope (XRT) captured an apparent expanding halo around the flaring neutron star SGR J1550-5418. The halo formed as X-rays from the brightest flares scattered off of intervening dust clouds. Credit: NASA/Swift/Jules Halpern (Columbia Univ.)

Source: NASA

February 10, 2009April 26, 2016 by Ian O'Neill

The Journey of Space Exploration: Ex-Astronaut Views on NASA

Why has "one small step for man" turned into "one giant leap backward" for NASA? (NASA)

[/caption]It reads like the annual progress report from my first year in university. He lacks direction, he’s not motivated and he has filled his time with extra-curricular activities, causing a lack of concentration in lectures. However, it shouldn’t read like an 18 year-old’s passage through the first year of freedom; it should read like a successful, optimistic and inspirational prediction about NASA’s future in space.

What am I referring to? It turns out that the Houston university where President John F. Kennedy gave his historic “We go to the Moon” speech back in 1962 has commissioned a report, recommending that NASA should give up its quest for returning to the Moon and focus more on environmental and energy projects. The reactions of several astronauts from the Mercury, Apollo and Shuttle eras have now been published. The conclusions in the Rice University report may have been controversial, but the reactions of the six ex-astronauts went well beyond that. They summed up the concern and frustration they feel for a space agency they once risked their lives for.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to how we interpret the importance of space exploration. Is it an unnecessary expense, or is it part of scientific endeavour where the technological spin-offs are more important than we think?

John F. Kennedy speaking at Rice University in 1962. How times have changed (NASA)

The article published in the Houston Chronicle website (Chron.com) talks about the “surprising reactions” by the six former astronauts questioned about Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy recommendation for NASA. However, I’d argue that much of what they say is not surprising in the slightest. These men and women were active in the US space agency during some of the most profound and exciting times in space flight history, it is little wonder that they may be a little exacerbated by the current spaceflight problems that are besieging NASA. The suggestion that NASA should give up the Moon for more terrestrial pursuits is a tough pill to swallow, especially for these pioneers of spaceflight.

It is widely accepted that NASA is underfunded, mismanaged and falling short of its promises. Many would argue that this is a symptom of an old cumbersome government department that has lost its way. This could be down to institutional failings, lack of investment or loss of vision, but the situation is getting worse for NASA. Regardless, something isn’t right and now we are faced with a five year gap in US manned spaceflight capability, forcing NASA to buy Russian Soyuz flights. The Shuttle replacement, the Constellation Program, has even been written off by many before it has even carried out the first test launch.

So, from their unique perspective, what do these retired astronauts think of the situation? It turns out that some agree with the report, others are strongly opposed to it, whereas all voice concern for the future of NASA.

Kathryn Thornton, before a Shuttle mission (NASA)

Walt Cunningham flew aboard Apollo 7 in 1968. It was the first manned mission in the Apollo Program. At an age of 76, Cunningham sees no urgency in going back to the Moon but he is also believes the concerns about global warming are “a great big scam.” His feelings about global warming may be misplaced, but he is acutely aware of the funding issue facing NASA, concerned the agency will “keep sliding downhill” if nothing is done.

Four-time Shuttle astronaut Kathryn Thornton, agrees that the agency is underfunded and overstretched and dubious about the Institute’s recommendation that NASA should focus all its attention on environmental issues for four years. “I find it hard to believe we would be finished with the energy and environment issues in four years. If you talk about a re-direction, I think you talk about a permanent re-direction,” Thornton added.

Gene Cernan, commander of the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, believes that space exploration is essential to inspire the young and invigorate the educational system. He is shocked by the Institute’s recommendation to pull back on space exploration. The 74 year old was the last human to walk on the Moon and he believes NASA shouldn’t be focused on ways to save the planet, other agencies and businesses can do that.

“It just blows my mind what they would do to an organization like NASA that was designed and built to explore the unknown.” — Gene Cernan

Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan covered with moon dust (NASA) — Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan covered with moondust (NASA)

John Glenn, first US astronaut to orbit the Earth and former senator, is appalled at the suggestion of abandoning projects such as the International Space Station. Although Glenn, now 87, agrees with many of the points argued in the report, he said, “We have a $115 billion investment in the most unique laboratory ever put together, and we are cutting out the ability to do research that may have enormous value to everybody right here on the Earth? This is folly.”

Sally Ride, 57, a physicist and the first American woman to fly into space believes the risky option of extending the life of the Shuttle should be considered to allow US manned access to the space station to continue. The greater risk of being frozen out of the outpost simply is not an option. However, she advocates the report’s suggestion that NASA should also focus on finding solutions to climate change. “It will take us awhile to dig ourselves out,” she said. “But the long-term challenge we have is solving the predicament we have put ourselves in with energy and the environment.”

Franklin Chang Diaz, who shares world’s record for the most spaceflights (seven), believes that NASA has been given a very bad deal. He agrees with many of the report’s recommendations, not because the space agency should turn its back on space exploration, it’s because the agency has been put in an impossible situation.

“NASA has moved away from being at the edge of high tech and innovation,” said Chang Diaz. “That’s a predicament NASA has found itself in because it had to carry out a mission to return humans to the moon by a certain time (2020) and within a budget ($17.3 billion for 2008). It’s not possible.”

In Conclusion

This discussion reminds me of a recent debate not about space exploration, but another science and engineering endeavour here on Earth. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has its critics who will argue that this $5 billion piece of kit is not worth the effort, where the money spent on accelerating particles could be better spent on finding solutions for climate change, or a cure for cancer.

You did NOT just say that! Brian Cox's expression says it all... (still from the BBC's Newsnight program)

In a September 2008 UK televised debate on BBC Newsnight between Sir David King (former Chief Scientific Advisor for the UK government) and particle physicist Professor Brian Cox, King questioned the the importance of the science behind the LHC. By his limited reasoning, the LHC was more “navel-searching”, “curiosity-driven” research with little bearing on the advancement of mankind. In King’s view the money would be better spent on finding solutions to known problems, such as climate change. It is fortunate Brian Cox was there to set the records straight.

Prof. Cox explained that the science behind the LHC is “part of a journey” where the technological spin-offs and the knowledge gained from such a complex experiment cannot be predicted before embarking on scientific endeavour. Indeed, advanced medical technologies are being developed as a result of LHC research; the Internet may be revolutionized by new techniques being derived from work at the LHC; even the cooling system for the LHC accelerator electromagnets can be adapted for use in fusion reactors.

The point is that we may never fully comprehend what technologies, science or knowledge we may gain from huge experiments such as the LHC, and we certainly don’t know what spin-offs we can derive from continued advancement of space travel technology. Space exploration can only enhance our knowledge and scientific understanding.

If NASA starts pulling back on endeavours in space, taking a more introverted view of finding specific solutions to particular problems (such as finding a solution to climate change at the detriment to space exploration, as suggested by the Rice University report), we may never fully realise our potential as a race, and many of the problems here on Earth will never be solved…

Sources: Chron.com, Astroengine.com

February 9, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

LCROSS Gets Set for Lunar Smash-Up

Artist's rendering of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS at separation, courtesy of NASA

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Early next week, a NASA craft designed to hammer the moon will travel from California to the Kennedy Space Center — one step closer to the planned April 24 launch. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, will hitch a ride to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter carries a suite of instruments for taking detailed temperature readings, looking at the effects of radiation on the lunar surface and scoping out good landing sites for future missions, among other science goals.

Sound a little intrusive? That’s nothing compared to the 15-foot (4.5-meter) deep, 100-foot (30 meter) wide hole that LCROSS will gouge into the lunar surface.

The whole package will spend about four days in transit to the moon, and then will orbit for several months, searching for the best impact site and setting up a prime trajectory. Around the first of August, LCROSS will approach the moon in two parts. First, it will fire its car-sized rocket to separate from the orbiter, then quickly shed the rocket and send it pummeling into the moon — at a whopping 5,600 miles (9,000 km) per hour. The target is the permanently shadowed floor in one of the North Pole’s craters, where ice is most likely to be hiding. The impact is expected to dislodge 220 tons of material from the lunar surface. Debris will fly as far as 30 miles (50 km) from the impact site, providing a Deep-Impact-style explosion that should be visible with amateur telescopes on Earth.

Then, the LCROSS satellite itself will fly through the plume on a collision course with the lunar surface, sending information to Earth until the moment of its own demise. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be watching, along with India’s lunar orbiter, called Chandrayaan-1, Japan’s Kaguya (SELENE) and a host of Earth-bound professional telescopes. The sweet spot for observing the impact will be just after sunset in Hawaii, and possibly on the western coasts of the United States and South America — with countries along the moon’s course catching the aftermath.

Hints of water were sent to Earth in the 1990s, when the Naval Research Laboratory’s Clementine mission detected hydrogen signals at the lunar poles. The data did not reveal whether the element is contained in water or another hydrogen-bearing compound, such as hydrated minerals or hydrocarbons. LCROSS is the fourth mission to aim for the moon’s surface in the past decade. NASA’s 1999 impact with the Lunar Prospector failed to dislodge detectable water ice. The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 pummeled the lunar surface in 2006, while telecopes all over the world took data on the ejecta. India’s Moon Impact Probe detached from Chandrayaan-1 and crashed into the moon in October, with a goal of analyzing lunar dust and especially to find Helium 3, an isotope rare on Earth which could hold value for energy production. LCROSS will make the first definitive investigation for water within a permanently shadowed crater, the most likely place where it wouldn’t have evaporated over the moon’s history.

The $79 million, cost-capped mission is unusual because it utilizes commercially available technology for some of its software and scientific instruments. LCROSS could serve as a model for future missions that employ available technology, rather than relying on designs built from scratch, said Jonas Dino, a NASA spokesman at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Finding water on the moon would boost its usefulness for supporting infrastructure. The moon could, for example, serve as a launching site for manned exploration of Mars or destinations beyond. The moon’s gravity, just one-sixth the strength of Earth’s, would allow the use of much smaller rockets to go the same distance as missions from Earth. Hydrogen from the lunar surface could also be used in making rocket fuel, which would cut costs for space exploration.

Sources: LCROSS website and interviews with NASA spokesmen Grey Hautaluoma, in Washington, D.C. and Jonas Dino in California.

February 4, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Take a Spin Around the Altair Lunar Lander

Artist concept of Altair on the Moon. Credit: NASA

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What will NASA’s next generation of lunar landers be like? Well, right now the Altair lander is just a concept and the fine details of what the inside crew cabin will look like are still being figured out. But there are some general parameters the Altair program uses as a guideline, such as the lander needs to carry four astronauts to the lunar surface and serve as their home for up to a week. So that means Altair has to be much bigger than the Apollo lunar landers. (See below for a comparison of Altair and Apollo) There are Altair mock-ups already built at the Johnson Space Center in Houston where habitability teams are working inside, trying out different configurations. These teams are taking a look at how astronauts will live and work inside, so that Altair can be built in the best way possible for the mission. So what is their idea of how the inside will look? The folks at NASA have created a video depicting a 360 degree tour, just like the online home tours that realtors have for selling houses! So take a spin around inside! Click here for Windows Media, and here for RealPlayer.

NASA has a few other great videos of what landing on the moon will be like with Altair:

And check out this page on NASA’s website for an interactive Flash feature about Altair, and a concept video about landing, living and working on the moon.

How do Altair and the Apollo lander compare? One current concept for Altair is that it will stand more than 9.7 meters (32 feet) high and have a volume of 31.8 cubic meters (1,120 cu ft). The 1960’s-70’s Apollo lander stood 6.37 meters (20.9 ft) high and had an interior volume of 6.65 cubic meters (235 cubic feet).

Source: NASA Blogs

January 27, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Gigapan Inaugural Image Is NASA-Derived Rover Technology

Inaugeration photo. Credit: White House photo by Paul Morse

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If you’ve been oohing over CNN’s “The Moment” “photo-synth” image of last week’s presidential inauguration, there’s another version that might be even better because you don’t have to download Microsoft’s bulky Silverlight software to see it. And you can thank NASA and the Mars Exploration Rovers for it, too. NASA spinoff technology from the rovers’ cameras was used to create a “Gigapan” image from the festivities at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20. Photographer David Bergman used the Gigapan camera system to generate one huge image from a combination of 220 images,with an overall size of 1,474 megapixels. This is the same technology used to create the panoramic images of Mars from the rovers.

Explore the Gigapan image from Jan. 20.
You can zoom, pan, and go anywhere in the image.

More about the technology:

The Gigapan system is a NASA spinoff technology that can capture thousands of digital images and weave them into a uniform high-resolution picture of more than a billion pixels. The technology is the product of a two-year collaboration between NASA and Carnegie Mellon called the Global Connection Project. The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have used the Gigapan system to explore the Red Planet for more than five years.

The rover Pancams take small, 1 megapixel (1 million pixel) digital photographs, which are stitched together into large panoramas that sometimes measure 4 by 24 megapixels. The Pancam software performs some image correction and stitching after the photographs are transmitted back to Earth. Different lens filters and a spectrometer also assist scientists in their analyses of infrared radiation from the objects in the photographs. These photographs from Mars spurred developers to begin thinking in terms of larger and higher quality images: super-sized digital pictures, or gigapixels, which are images composed of 1 billion or more pixels.

Panoramic image from the Opportunity Rover. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Gigapixel images are more than 200 times the size captured by today’s standard digital camera, around 4 megapixels. Although originally created for the Mars missions, the detail provided by these large photographs allows for many purposes, not all of which are limited to extraterrestrial photography.

People on Earth can use it, too, and the Gigapan website is available for anyone to use and upload their pictures. Many users of Gigapan have uploaded standard panorama photographs, as well (although the site suggests photographs be at least 50 megabytes). This is just fine with the Gigapan and the Global Connection Project coordinators, whose aim is simply to encourage exploration and understanding of the various cultures in our world. Visit the Gigapan site for more information.

And for even more information visit the Global Connection project website.

Source: NASA

January 21, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA Does the Parade Wave and Moon Walk

Composit picture of NASA' Rover during the parade, as President and Michelle Obama look on. Credit: NASA

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If you didn’t get a chance to watch the inaugural parade yesterday in honor of the new US president, here are a few NASA-related pictures and videos. NASA seemingly made a good impression on President and Michelle Obama by bringing up the rear of the parade with the new Lunar Electric Rover. The LER pivoted, pirouetted, and performed flawlessly as the crowd cheered wildly and the Obamas seemed transfixed by the rover. Too bad many of the spectators in the Presidential booth had already left. Take a look:

Compare the new rover with the old “moon buggy” from the 1970’s Apollo missions:

UPDATE: Here’s a link to more images from NASA from the parade.

Check out NASA’s website for more information about the LER.

January 12, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Watch the New Moon Rover in Action

Small Pressurized Rover prototype. Credit: NASA

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The prototype for NASA’s new moon buggy will be part of the inauguration day parade on January 20 when Barack Obama becomes the new president of the US. The space agency is hoping the new president — and the rest of the viewing audience — will be impressed with the new concept for roving across the lunar surface. At the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., astronaut Mike Gerhardt will show off the rover’s capabilities of gliding smoothly, pirouetting and walking like a crab. Last Friday, NASA had a “test run” of the parade, showcasing the rover in a demonstration at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Watch a video from the Houston Chronicle to see the rover in action. Reportedly, the rover will bring up the rear of the parade and hopefully provide a lasting impression on the new president. Just what can this rover do?

In October 2008, NASA tested the rover and several other new concepts in a desert in Arizona (see related article.) The Small Pressurized Rover, has a module on top of a rover chassis where the crew can sit inside in a shirt-sleeves environment as they drive the vehicle. The wide windows provide a full view for the astronauts, making unobstructed observations easy from inside the rover. NASA is thinking the SPR could be the astronauts’ main mode of transportation on the Moon, and could also allow them the flexibility to work inside of it without the restrictions imposed by spacesuits.

The SPR during the October desert test. Credit: NASA

The adaptable vehicle features pivoting wheels that enable crab style movement to help the rover maneuver through difficult spots. Early concepts provide an exercise ergometer that allow crews to exercise while driving and simultaneously charge the vehicle’s batteries. The rover provides spacesuits, easily accessible from inside the rover whenever the astronauts need to get out of the rover.

Top speed is 15 mph, but engineers said it outpaced Hummers, trucks and Jeeps as it crossed lava flows in the Arizona desert.

According to the Houston Chronicle, at the end of the parade when the rover reaches President Barack Obama’s box, Gernhardt will stop the rover, and he and astronaut Rex Walheim, one of two people in white spacesuits attached to the rear of the buggy, will step away from the rover.

Then, carrying an American flag, he’ll stride several paces toward Obama, halt and salute the new president, ending the parade.

Said Walheim: “I hope he sees that NASA is looking forward, that we have some really exciting ideas on how to handle lunar exploration. I think he may get excited about it, too.”

Source: Houston Chronicle

January 9, 2009January 24, 2021 by Nancy Atkinson

Who Will Be the Next NASA Administrator?

While we’ve been overwhelmed with astronomical news from the AAS meetings this week, meanwhile back at the NASA ranch, Administrator Mike Griffin appears to be on his way to riding off into the sunset. He and all other political appointees from the Bush administration have submitted their letters of resignation as a matter of course, but it’s not expected that Griffin will be asked to stay on. Even though family and friends of Griffin’s have been petitioning to keep him on board, all indications are that Griffin will be replaced. His resignation is effective Jan. 20, the day Barack Obama is sworn in as the new president of the US. There are some lists developing of potential replacements. The trouble is, as happens most of the time, many of these lists are complete speculation. Keith Cowing over at NASA Watch is trying to keep track of it all, sorting out real from not-so-real. Then there’s another list, at Obamanasa.gov – and nothing about the authenticity of this site can be found — where you can actually vote for who you think would best serve as the new head of NASA. And guess who is currently (as of 11:30 am CST) leading the vote count: our very own good friend Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer. Right now he has a comfortable lead (2,614 to 695) over – you’ll never guess: Wil Wheaton, aka Wesley Crusher on Star Trek the Next Generation. OK, you’re probably seeing the legitimacy of this list. But it’s fun, nonetheless, to speculate. So who is really in the running for the NASA Administrator job?

Charles Bolden. A former astronaut who, if chosen, would be the first black NASA administrator. He currently seems to lead the list of potential candidates.

Pete Worden. Currently the Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, was Commander, 50th Space Wing, at Air Force Space Command, and a professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona

Sally Ride. The first American woman to fly in space in 1983. She served on the commissions that investigated both the Challenger and Columbia accidents, and wrote an editorial in support of Obama during the presidential election.

Alan Stern. The principal investigator the New Horizons mission to Pluto. He was the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters, but left abruptly, and later criticized NASA for ongoing cost overruns in space and planetary science missions.

Wesley Huntress. A former NASA space science chief, was key in getting the Hubble Space Telescope and the Galileo probe to Jupiter launched.

Scott Hubbard. Known for turning around NASA’s Mars program after back-to-back failures in the late 1990s, Hubbard was a key member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He went on to serve as a director of NASA’s Ames Research Center before leaving the agency for academia.

Don’t think this isn’t a big decision for Obama. The Government Accountability Office rated the impending retirement of NASA’s shuttle orbiter fleet as one of the top 13 issues the new president will have to deal with, and deal with soon. The administration is expected to nominate new NASA leadership before making any significant decisions regarding U.S. space policy and the future of the human spaceflight program.

So, who do you think should be the next NASA Administrator?

Source: Florida Today

December 12, 2008April 26, 2016 by Ian O'Neill

What About the Space Exploration Crisis? NASA Budget Could be Cut to Save Money

Obama is in for a rough ride to get the economy back on track, but NASA cutbacks are not the answer

[/caption]There’s no denying it, President-elect Barack Obama will have one of the toughest jobs in presidential history. The challenges the 44th President of the United States will face are deep and varied. Everything from the economy to housing, from health care to warfare, from energy to security; everything appears to be in a state of “crisis”. So, of the incoming administration’s priorities, getting man back to the Moon is low on the list. Unfortunately, the exploration of space is often viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity, policy changes interfere with long-term projects, and the NASA budget can become an easy target for cutbacks.

It will come as no surprise then, that news is surfacing about some friction between Obama’s new administration and the existing top brass in NASA. Some reports point to direct non-cooperation by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, an allegation that both NASA and the Obama transition team deny. Regardless, there is tension building, especially when it is becoming clear that the transition team may be eyeing up NASA budget cuts, postponing the Constellation program, possibly putting long-term US manned access to space at serious risk.

A space exploration crisis is on the horizon, but what damage would it cause?

Writing about NASA’s endeavours in space can be a frustrating experience. On the one hand, the US space agency is responsible for mankind’s biggest space-faring achievements. NASA has always led and the world has followed. NASA pushes back the frontiers of manned and robotic exploration, and now the agency’s expertise is being passed down to commercial spaceflight companies (such as SpaceX support through COTS contracts) to fill in the void behind NASA’s advances.

We are reaching an age where other nations are investing in space exploration too. The European Space Agency (ESA) is rapidly growing, Russia has one of the most robust launch systems on the planet, China is making huge leaps in manned spaceflight, India has sent a probe to the Moon; the list is growing by the month. Therefore, the US is beginning to feel competition from the international community, and although the US won’t be toppled as #1 in space any time soon, what about a decade from now? Will the playing field turn against NASA’s dominance in Earth orbit and beyond? Fortunately the US has close collaborative ties with ESA and Russia, but what happens if this situation changes?

NASA recently extended their use of the Russian Soyuz vehicle to fill in US manned access to space during the “5-year gap” between Shuttle decommissioning in 2010 and (proposed) Constellation launch in 2015. Although it is reassuring to know astronauts will still be able to fly with cosmonauts to-and-from the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2010, what happens if relations between the US and Russia chill even further (the South Ossetia conflict is a prime example of how the politics between the two nations can freeze solid)? The Russian government could very quickly pull the plug on US manned access to space.

Artist impression of the SpaceX Dragon approaching the space station (SpaceX)

And so, all eyes on US space companies accelerating their development of alternative means of transportation. Elon Musk’s SpaceX for example, is a front-runner when it comes to commercial manned spaceflight. In a recent interview I conducted with SpaceX, Diane Murphy (Vice-President of Marketing and Communications) was very optimistic about SpaceX’s Dragon module providing the answer to manned spaceflight. “I think we’ll surprise them [NASA] with how quickly we are moving so they can use us for crew as well. We’ll be ready!” she told me. Judging by the speed at which the company is developing, it certainly seems to be a possibility.

But, for now, we are stuck in an awkward position. NASA gets a minuscule budget when compared with other government departments. The US government has underfunded the agency for many years, and the funds it does receive are constantly open to erosion by changing administrations and space policy. Now Barack Obama’s administration must balance the needs of NASA with the worsening financial crisis hitting the world, so a transition team has been sent to look into NASA business to understand where work needs to be done.

Now it seems as if tensions are coming to a head. According to reports in the Orlando Sentinel, Michael Griffin, who was attending a book launch with members of the Obama transition team (including ex-NASA senior administrator Lori Garver), accused Garver as being “unqualified” to be assessing whether funds should be cut from the development of the Constellation Program. According to witnesses at the book launch, Garver tried to reason with Griffin saying, “Mike, I don’t understand what the problem is. We are just trying to look under the hood.”

Griffin apparently disliked this assertion and said, “If you are looking under the hood, then you are calling me a liar. Because it means you don’t trust what I say is under the hood.”

Associates who attended the book launch said the exchange between Griffin and Garver was not an argument, it was simply “a discussion about stuff.” Still, whatever tone the discussion was pitched at, there seem to be problems brewing. To calm rumours that he was not cooperating, Griffin wrote an email to NASA employees saying, “This report, largely supported by anonymous sources and hearsay, is simply wrong. We are fully cooperating with the [transition] team members.”

Hemorrhaging the NASA budget? Stern cites the MSL as a prime example of damaging overspending (NASA)

This could be the symptom of recent accusations by Alan Stern, ex-NASA Associate Administrator for Science, that there was a “cancer” in the administration’s management structure. According to Stern, the result of this “cancer” is zero-accountability for project budget overspending and wasteful practices. His words came when NASA announced it would be removing a sample storage box from the Mars Science Laboratory after it had been developed and constructed (thereby throwing away $2 million), then followed by an announcement about a two year postponement of the mission. Needless to say, Stern is highly critical of the mission, prompting him to say that the “Mars Program is slowly committing suicide before our very eyes.”

Putting government underfunding, and alleged NASA mismanagement to one side, it appears to be a continuing misconception that the exploration of space (whether it be manned or robotic) is an academic endeavour. Personally, I’d argue that manned exploration of space is essential for the long-term survival of our species, but politics only thinks about the next four-year term in office. Although politics is a fantastic motivator for space exploration in some cases (cue: Apollo Program during the Cold War in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s) to fulfil short-term goals, during periods of social and economic upheaval, space exploration becomes an unnecessary luxury and policies become a lot more introverted.

To finish off, let’s look at the European Space Agency. Although ESA is a completely different entity from NASA–it is not politically-driven (although some leaders want it to be), it is a consortium of many nations and its budget is smaller than NASA’s–its outlook for Europe’s efforts in space are far more optimistic. Rather than trying to cut funding to save money, ESA appears to have a renewed vigour toward using space exploration as a means to stimulate the economy:

These decisions have particular relevance at the present time, showing as they do Europe’s determination to invest in space as a key sector providing for innovation, economic growth, strategic independence and the preparation of the future. – ESA press release

To avoid any regrets in space policy, the upcoming US administration needs to look hard at ESA’s motivation. Investment in space provides independence, economic growth and preparation for the future. Alas, by making cutbacks to the Constellation Program, the US will start depending on Russia for manned access to space (if a commercial alternative isn’t available in time), economic influence of a manned space program will be cancelled out, and as for the future? Well, we’ll just have to hope for the best.

Sources: Seattle PI, FOX News, ESA