Section: Lunar
Howdy everyone!
Outstanding. That’s the only way to describe this year’s Moon Day at Frontiers of Flight.
From not even knowing if there was going to be one this year only three months ago, to what actually transpired, was quite a ride.
It’s hard to get an accurate attendance count, as museum members can just wander on in, and the birthday parties they run in the play area leads to an unknown number of extras. I do know that we surpassed last year’s count by 1pm, and if attendance didn’t get to 1,000 it got real frakin’ close.
The museum director noted that attendance at the Moon U. lectures was up a bit from prior years. The inflatable planetarium from the Museum of Nature & Science was a full house for every show but the very last one, and the presenter, Kyle, was singled out for many kudos. The stomp rockets that the Astronaut Training Center brought along were quite popular and there were foam rockets flying down at that end of the museum all day long.
The art show of Comics in Space was well-received, as was the comet-building exercise in one of the Moon Academy classes. All of the speakers seemed happy, and I even got a last minute addition of a local blogger who was at the last Shuttle launch for the Tweetup. Regular readers may remember that OotC got invited to a launch Tweetup back in 2009, which gave our own Rob an excuse to fly up from New Zealand and do a little space tourism while here. Jason of Lights in the Dark gave our last speech of the day, symbolically linking the last talk of Moon Day 2011 with the last Shuttle launch.
The Lunar Sample Bags were gone by early afternoon, but I saw a few towards the end, so people were making a day of it. We even made the 10 o’clock news on Channel 8. Apparently I was on for close to 15 seconds babbling about the event. The PR guy at work said I did a good job, so I should be happy. I don’t watch TV, haven’t for years, and so I miss out on that sort of thing.
I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback from the exhibitors, and everyone wants to come back next year. So planning has begun for next year.
Since I’ve got so much lead time I can think even bigger. You have to, because most of the plans fall through along the way. Crap happens. So the planning has to encompass massive failure while still providing a top-notch end experience. Being the ambitious sort that I am, I’ve started working a few angles.
The big draw that I want for next year is the ISS Trailers. Of course the e-mail to the address at the webpage bounced, so I’m currently waiting on an inquiry to NASA HQ about whom I should contact. Hopefully I won’t have to wait as long as for the rejection letter for the position of NLSI Director (3+ years and counting). I also want to get some of the display panels to put up on the mezzanine to help get people upstairs.
If I can get the ISS trailers that would be a huge draw and definitely newsworthy. It would also give me leverage to get the museum to ask both Richard Garriott and Anousheh Ansari to talk about their ISS experiences in the auditorium. And if I can get Richard at the event, that gives me leverage to push for more corporate participation to sell the space “business” side of things. Something I’m desperate to do.
My view is that we’re at the ‘Air Show’ stage of development of the space industry. The hardware is there and flying, but for the bulk of the population it’s still sci fi. So the companies need to show off their hardware not just to each other at trade shows, but also to the citizenry of the nation where this is happening. Having their goodwill behind the space industry is a very powerful intangible.
So my goal is to get three companies to participate. I’d love to have SpaceX haul an engine up from McGregor (about a 2.5 hour drive) and spend the day explaining to people how it works. It would be great to have AstroTech come up from Austin (~2.5 hours) and show off some of their flight hardware. I’d have unmentionable biological reactions in my unmentionables if Blue Origin were to show off anything.
If I can get corporate exhibitors, then I can put together something like a space business roundtable for Saturday afternoon, and have Rick Tumlinson of the Texas Space Foundation/Alliance lead the discussion. That’s the sort of thing that would let me advertise Moon Day in the Dallas Business Journal and Dallas CEO.
Speaking of advertisements, I also need a web ad. I know just the guy, from Dallas Mars Society who did the triptych cover (Texas frontier/Moon frontier/Mars frontier - Our theme was ‘From Old Frontiers to New’) for our ISDC program book. Gotta note that in the to-do list.
 Next year’s art show is going to be space-themed LP covers. I’ve already got a few dozen in the Lunar Library, Moon-themed of course. I anticipate spending six months DITC (that’s Diggin’ in the Crates) around the D/FW metroplex looking for appropriate covers. Remember - my focus is on rockets and astronauts and planets and Moon exploration. So a random Boston cover of a guitar-spaceship hovering over an alien planet would not be appropriate; the cover from ZZ Top’s Afterburner album would be appropriate. And I’m going to throw in Willie Nelson’s beautiful Stardust album cover well, just because. And somewhere I still have a card with his well-wishes that he sent while I was at Harvard Summer School back in high school, so there is a sentimental attachment.
Any comments suggesting ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ will be deleted. However, Easy Star All-Stars ‘Dubber Side of the Moon’ would be an appropriate suggestion. My brother-in-law, a bass player on the side, flipped when he saw Stan Clarke’s ‘Children of Forever’, a very cool cover that is going in the collection. That one’s getting ripped from the USB turntable in the not too distant future.
The goal is 150 covers. Not sure how many I’ll end up with, but I am being liberal and including laser discs so there is some padding there. There was a prior show up in Seattle that had 117 covers, but of course this is Texas, so everything is bigger and better here. I would dearly love to have that Mel Torme ‘Swinging on the Moon’ cover in the collection, but I doubt I’ll be able to find it around here.
“Why not go online?” you might ask. Too easy, and I like to spread the love around and try to keep small businesses going in my local community. As I would rather that folks were employed around here as compared to anywhere else. And weird things turn up. I was dropping off a flyer for the Comics in Space show at one of the local comic book stores where I had gone extensively through their stock as part of my work on this year’s show. I mentioned that I was working on a different show for next year using LP covers. They replied that they had just gotten over a dozen boxes of LPs for the online business they run in the back of the store. I asked for first dibs on any space-themed ones, so as they process the stock they’ll keep an eye out for appropriate covers and put them aside. How cool is that? Sweet as.
So yeah, I’m really excited about that part of next year’s Moon Day.
I got a call this week from the museum, which is just ecstatic about the turnout. That just doesn’t happen on a midsummer weekend unless there’s something special going on. Which there was, thanks in small part to yours truly.
You know, the Director said, the quality of our Moon U. (or Lunar U., as he prefers) talks is of a sufficient quality that we should look into getting Continuing Education (CE) credits for educators who attend. Good point, and exactly along the lines of my thought to get in contact with the Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) and see about having Moon rock and meteorite Lucite disks certification classes. Yours truly is certified, and I have the certificate framed and hanging above my desk, as well as our local prof from Brookhaven College who does the Moon rock family-friendly classes at Moon Day. I remember when we had those classes at the 2007 ISDC they were packed. I’m also trying to get the resident Moonatic to talk about looking at the Moon with a telescope, and the Astronomical League and American Lunar Society certification programs.
I also want to plant a Moon Tree at one of the upcoming Moon Days. There is one in the metroplex already, at a high school up in Plano, but I think it would be appropriate for the Frontiers of Flight museum to have a Moon Tree. Planting a sapling in the middle of July in Texas is probably a really bad idea. It needs to be nurtured to sufficient strength where it can either be planted at the event, or planted earlier in the year and dedicated at Moon Day. Hmm…there’s a garden center across the street from the museum. I wonder…
 As the beginning of August approaches, so does the close of the ballot box for The Moon Society. A fairly decent percentage of the membership voted, which is an encouraging sign. It looks like I’m a lock, unless there is a last minute stuffing of the ballot box with write-ins, which is always the risk I had when I insisted on being elected versus accepting a hand-off to the VP position after getting myself elected to that post. Next year, when I stand for office again under the normal election cycle for President (every other year), I run the risk of another candidate as well as write-in. Ah, the perils of elected office.
As part of the transition I just got an e-mail to TMS about First Step. This is a Space Renaissance International initiative to get folks celebrating July 20th. It seems this sort of thing is in the air, as NSS of North Texas got an e-mail from AIA encouraging us to celebrate National Aerospace Week from September 11-17. It’s doubtful we’ll be doing anything as I already have a speaker for the September meeting and we’re already committed to a Sci-Fact party room at the sci-fi con FenCon on the 24th. We hand out the same kind of space fact info we hand out at our regular outreach events, but with adult beverages and R-rated movies.
International Observe the Moon Night is October 8th. Not sure what we can do there. Last year the event corresponded with FenCon, which worked out well for us.
After that is Astronomy Day at the UTA Planetarium on October 22nd, in conjunction with the Texas Astronomical Society and this year the Fort Worth Astronomical Society as well, an example of the kind of cross-pollination that can occur at something like Moon Day. Another is the Dallas Mars Society partnering with NSS of NT for the FenCon sci-fact hospitality suite. Both events are also opportunities for our Science Fair Scholarship raffle, and this year we’ve got an early box for our Santa Space Toy Drive. This year’s goal is to match last year’s 100 space toys donated to the local Santa’s Helpers community toy drive.
It’s going to be a busy year.
Be very afraid.
The first part of my Moon and Back interview at the ISDC conference is now up. I haven’t watched it yet, as I’m a little worried that I said something phenomenally stupid.
Enjoy!
Interview With Ken Murphy, part 1 - Outreach For Space Awareness
Update: Wow, not half bad. Shows you the power of good editing. Too many ums and uhs, though. I need to work on that.
And here is part II:
Interview With Ken Murphy part 2 - Cislunar Space And The Business Case
And lastly part III:
Interview With Ken Murphy part 3 - The Children of Earth
Howdy everyone! I’m just taking a break here from my current project, the cobbling together of some kind of coherent program for this year’s Moon Day celebration on July 18th from 1-5 pm at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. That’s right, folks from elsewhere can fly in on Southwest Airlines, spend a couple bucks on a cab to take them around the corner (literally, the museum is at the south end of the runway), bask in all of the space goodness for a few hours, and then fly home in time for dinner.
The planning is marching ahead nicely for this year’s event, so I thought I’d share a bit of what I guess could be considered something of a systems engineering exercise. These are notes, and I tend to be overly optimistic in my planning with the expectation of many, many fails in the mix. In fact, I’ve already accumulated a few this year.
Last year, the museum’s Program Director, Bruce Bleakley, complained that I was throwing so much stuff at him for the event that it was like a three ring circus. I riposted that no, it was more like a three-ring-squared circus, which would be nine rings of space activity. This actually gave me an idea for organizing this year’s Moon Day on July 18th. I broke down the layout of the museum into zones (or rings) and then laid out the plan for each zone, being careful to avoid overlaps of thematic content.
 Zone 1 is Bruce’s favorite, the auditorium. Seating 200 and with state-of-the-art A/V equipment, this is where we host our big names, to the extent that we can dig up big space names for a non-NASA locale. The first person I approached was Anousheh Ansari, who did a book signing for “My Dream of Stars” at the local independent bookstore Legacy Books up in Plano. I asked her if she would be interested in speaking at our event, to which she answered in the affirmative, and I also suggested that she might consider offering a special award at the annual Science Fair. I didn’t know if either suggestion will work out, but I hoped they both would.
 The next person I approached was Richard Garriott, at the Space Economy Leadership Summit (SELS) earlier this month. He gave me a “maybe, let me check my calendar” response. I sent an e-mail, but haven’t heard back, so the museum is going to take over this one as they can offer perquisites that I don’t have a budget for. In fact, my budget for this event is $0.
It turns out that inviting two relatively local private space travellers to the ISS wasn’t necessarily a good idea. My thinking was that having the two of them would make the event more newsworthy, and offer a unique opportunity for the two of them to interact with the audience. The museum, though, is looking for balance in the content, and having both of them would, in their opinion, not be as good an idea as I thought. The museum is going to sort that little mess out. Oops.
 The last speaker for the day will hopefully be local Starman Ron DiIulio, one of the local Solar System Ambassadors. Last year’s presentation was really well received, as was the asteroid door prize, and so the museum has him as a priority for the event. Unfortunately, this year I have to now ask everyone I approach about the event for a door prize. Sucks for me, but should be really, really good for the attendees. I’ve already got autographed copies of Brian Fies’ “Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow” and Robert Black’s “Lunar Pioneers“.
 So that’s the glamorous stuff. Not quite so glamorous is Zone 2, the upstairs conference rooms. We make these into a single classroom, and get some folks to talk about grown-up space stuff that would bore the bejeesus out of younger attendees. Figure a junior college/university level type of talk. Last year we had Dr. James Carter talk about his formulation of regolith simulant used in abundant quantities by NASA, as well as Dr. John Hoffman, who had instruments on Mars, and was involved in the Lunar atmosphere experiments during Apollo.
This year I’ve blocked for three classes. For the first talk I’m trying to get a local meteorite hunter to talk about his experiences and how to look for meteorites. I met McCartney Taylor at a Mensa conference where we both gave space presentations, and he runs the Texas Meteorite Laboratory down in Austin. His talk will book-end nicely with Starman’s talk on meteorites in the auditorium at the end of the afternoon. Ron’s talk is going to be geared more towards how meteorites came to be and why we find them, compared with McCartney’s talk on how to hunt meteorites. McCartney will then spend the rest of the afternoon at a table on the main floor where he’ll have meteorites for sale. He’s just got to check his calendar.
The middle class will hopefully be someone that the museum knows, a cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center and space medicine enthusiast. I had been trying to find someone in the area who could talk about Space Medicine, and it turns out the museum may have had it covered. This is an area that doesn’t get as much coverage as it should, and so I really wanted the ISS-themed content in the classroom to be on that topic.
For the last class of the day I want to cover rocket motors. We’re going to have a rocket building class, so it would be cool to have a lecture on real rockets they could attend afterwards. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can work something out with Armadillo or SpaceX.
Zone 3 is the hallway and the mezzanine it leads to that overlooks the main floor. For the hallway we’re actually going to get an early start. The museum has asked me to have my Lunar art show ready the beginning of June, because they intend to leverage that for publicity for Moon Day. All of a sudden I have to finish getting stuff framed, and the local frame shop has gotten backed up. Plus I’m going to be out of town for the next two weeks to head up to the Space Investment Summit and International Space Development Conference in Chicago next week. That means the soonest I can hope to have it up is the first weekend in June, and I still need to catalogue everything.
The collection is from the Lunar Library, and will be about 20-25 pieces all told, breaking down into three broad themes:
-the Lunar surface
-Lunar tourism
-Lunar Industry
The Lunar surface will be pieces like the framed Lunar Quadrant Maps, “The Dark Side of the Moon“, and a poster of the program cover from “Dans les champs des etoiles“. Then there will be some showing rockets headed for the Moon, and some showing landings and folks getting out and exploring. This section will be things like “Lunar Adventures” and the cover from “Thrilling Wonder Stories”. Eventually you move to industry, and so I have a Lunar greenhouse, and some action shots of Moonbases. Some items are geared more towards kids, and will be hung at a lower level. Things like “The Ultimate Sandbox” and “One Small Step“. The last two items are Plinius Cemetary and one whose name I have to track down showing an image of footprints leading to the Lunar horizon, with a backdrop bespeckled with the stars twinkling in infinity. I think it was from “In the Stream of Stars”. I’ve also got a secret piece that I’m working on to add to the event.
 So that art show is going to be put on the local online art calendars and on the FoF website, which will draw people who can then be told about the Moon Day event. The big problem I’m having right now is coming up with a name for the show. It’s going to be “Something Something: Art from the Lunar Library”. I get stuff like Ars Selenica and Explorer’s Moon and so on bouncing around in my brain and none of it quite fits and falls into place. Any suggestions would be welcome in the comments, and should I select one I’ll send something from the Lunar Library like an extra copy of “Jour J: Les Russes sur La Lune“. I do have English language books as well.
For the open mezzanine area in Zone 3 I’ve suggested that the museum contact NASA about getting some exhibit panels on things like space food, ISS and meteorites. This is another relatively simple away to fill floorspace with space stuff.
Zone 4 is the downstairs classrooms where we’ll hold the kids classes. Local astronomy professor Chaz Hafey is going to hold a couple of classes. Last year he did the Lunar Sample Disks from JSC, and I’m hoping he’ll do the same again this year, but he does have a long pedigree in space education and outreach so I don’t want to limit him. I am going to have to pin him down on something at some point in the not too distant future.
The other classroom is being turned over to local Civil Air Patrol/Solar System Ambassador/NSS-NT member Cynthia Whisennand for her Toys in Space program. Last year she held it at a table, which was a bit awkward when a crowd built up in the through traffic of the displays. Having a classroom will let her stretch her wings a bit and focus on the kids.
Zone 5 is the kids area. I was hoping to use the play area, but the museum hosts birthday parties, and they pay for priority access to the play area. Looks like this one is going to get pushed off closer to the SR-71 cockpit trainer. What I envision for this area is picture book readings, arts & crafts, and things like crater-making and balloon rockets. My plan is to line up two or three NSS-NT chapter members to run this area.
Zone 6 is the workshop, where the local Dallas Area Rocket Society (DARS) has already agreed to conduct a rocket building class in the area where the museum builds its models. There is an extra fee for this class, but it’s structured so that participants get a rocket and one year membership in DARS. Plus, if they want to launch their brand new rockets they have to go to one of DARS’ monthly launches up in Frisco unless they find other accommodations. The workshop is like a fishbowl with windowed sides so that all of the attendees will get a chance to check out the young rocketeers.
Zone 7 is the main floor with all of the displays and booths, and really my main responsibility. Already lined up for displays are:
-NSS of North Texas - 6 tables, two each on ISS/Tech Transfer, Asteroids, and the Moon.
-DARS - at least two tables
-Dallas Mars Society - at least one table, probably more, because they’re hoping to make a bid to host the 2011 Mars Society annual conference in Dallas. NSS-NT is going to be supporting them in this, just as they supported NSS-NT during the 2007 ISDC in Dallas.
-Astronaut Training Center - at least one table, plus possibly a floater chair that rides on compressed air to illustrate Newton’s Laws. There aren’t just indemnification issues, but also acoustic issues from running an air compressor motor inside a big hangar.
-UTA Planetarium will once again have a table to sign folks up for their monthly Starry Messenger newsletter.
There are a lot of other feelers out as well, and some yet to be sent out. I have gotten one rejection, from the Monnig Meteorite Gallery, but they always have something else going on during my events so this wasn’t unexpected, but you still have to go through the motions.
The Noble Planetarium over in Fort Worth re-opened recently after an upgrade, so I want to invite them. The Planetarium at Fair Park is a venerable institution, and they do have a portable StarLab in which I’m definitely interested. UNT also has a planetarium, as does the town of Garland for their schools, and the St. Mark’s Academy in Dallas for their students. Richland College is in the process of giving their long closed planetarium a makeover as the new Buzz Aldrin Planetarium. So this is a rich field to mine here in the metroplex in regards to planetariums.
 We’re also trying to line up vendors for the event. I’ve already mentioned that the Texas Meteorite Laboratory down in Austin is interested in a table to sell meteorites. I’m talking to someone about having math & science t-shirts for sale, and the museum is going to be talking to Dallas-headquartered Half-Price Books (HPB) to see about having them bring a whole bunch of space books to the event to sell. I’m also going to try to contact the local The Observatory to see if they want to have a booth again. Their participation last year wasn’t particularly fruitful for them, so this one is 50/50.
I’ve sent out a lot of requests for materials, but have many more to go. These will take two forms - general distribution handouts for the main floor, and special stuff for the ‘Lunar Sample Bag’ that each youngster gets for attending the event. It will be stuffed with things geared toward a younger audience - stickers, bookmarks, posters, and so on. Last year, since we had no budget, the sample bags were white kitchen garbage bags, because they were ultra cheap per unit and large enough to contain even the posters. I want to do better this year, so I am making some special requests to see if I can get some funding to print up some tote bags with ‘Lunar Sample Bag’ and the corporate logo on them. Wish I could do it myself, but most folks won’t take $0 (my budget) for their goods or services.
On the corporate side, I’ve got a “let us think about it and we’ll get back to you” from Armadillo Aerospace, who just had a really nice write-up in the local Dallas Observer (a fine free alternative to the local daily). I managed to corner Ken Bowersox of SpaceX at the SELS conference, who indicated that it was totally unlikely that SpaceX would be willing to throw a rocket motor in the back of a pick-up and haul it all the way from McGregor to Dallas to show off. The stuff down there is all operational equipment, slated for actual use and so not available for gallivanting around North Texas. I’m still hoping to get a speaker about rocket motors from them. There are a couple of other space companies in Texas I’ve approached, but they’re a little farther afield.
 The museum already has a bunch of space stuff, so they’ll have their ‘Dr. Apollo’ giving explanations about the inside of the Apollo 7 capsule, there’s a Moon Walk exhibit to wander through, as well as display cases of artifacts, some Beal Aerospace relics, and even a model of the Sputnik hanging from the rafters.
Zone 8 is outside. I’d like to plant a Moon Tree at the museum for the event, but I’m also thinking that the middle of summer in Texas might not be the best time to plant a sapling. When the Texas Astronomical Society comes on board they will probably have telescopes with Solar filters out front. Unfortunately the last quarter Moon will have set before the festivities kick off at 1pm.
My big wish is that we can get the NASA ISS trailers, which would actually be parked there for a couple of weeks. Having that at the Moon Day event would just thoroughly overrun my personal goal of 1,000 attendees this year.
So there you have it, eight zones of chaotic space goodness. What’s amazing is that if you trust that everyone knows what they’re doing, and don’t get in the way of them doing it, then most of the time you’re right. There will be flubs. It happens and can’t be avoided no matter how much forethought and planning one puts into an event.
Planning and forethought, like wait, where’s the Moon stuff?
Zone:
1: ISS, ?, Asteroids
2: Asteroids, ISS, Rockets
3: Lunar art, Asteroids, ISS
4: Moon, ISS
5: Moon, Rockets
6: Rockets
7: ISS, Asteroids, Moon, Mars, Rockets, Apollo, Astronomy
8: Moon?, Sun, ISS?
So if it’s Moon Day, shouldn’t there be a lot more Moon stuff? The big blank is the question mark in the middle session in the auditorium. We’re unlikely to find a big name Moon person up here in the non-NASA hinterlands of North Texas. Unless Alan Bean decides to pop out of the studio, though frankly this isn’t an Apollo decadal anniversary so I’d like to focus on forward looking stuff like space commercialization.
I do see where there could be concerns about being overbalanced towards ISS subject matter, but I’m okay with that because I like the ISS and I think it will become a useful tool before it’s done. I also know that the delta-V to EML-1 from an ISS orbit is the same as for a station in a lower inclination orbit, which allows for some degree of transport standardization, even if one uses a free-return cycler, and so the ISS isn’t necessarily an albatross tied around the neck of NASA, even if there are plenty of people willing to proclaim it as such.
I could give a talk on cislunar space and the Moon, but no one knows who I am or why they should listen to me, so the museum is concerned that approximately 99% (or more) of the 200 seats in the auditorium would go unfilled were I to do so. Probably a valid concern, though I’d like to think it would be closer to 95% vacant.
The NASA Lunar Science Institute has just joined up with a couple boxes of materials, although they are concerned about getting materials specifically to educators. I had to tell them that if someone self-identifies as an educator at one of our displays then we can hook them up, but unless they say something then we have no idea. The McDonald Observatory is also going to be sending some nice postcards for the Lunar Sample Bags.
 Marketing of the event is going to kick off in early June once the art show is up, and will be a splash on the museum’s website. I then have to go around to all of the major online event calendars and post the event, with a pointer to the museum’s website. We’re going to print up a bunch of 8.5×11 mini-posters and try to get all of the members of the participating organizations to each post one at a library or used bookstore or record shop or anywhere else they can find a community bulletin board. Libraries are the big one here, as that’s the kind of self-motivated audience we’re looking for.
I may to try to see about getting announcements on local radio stations. Back in the early 90s when I was a volunteer DJ (DJ Ken) on WBER 90.5 FM (The Only Station That Matters) in upstate New York we used to have to read announcements and community calendar stuff every twenty minutes. I guess I’ll have to check around the bottom end of the dial here in the metroplex to see if anyone still does that kind of public service stuff.
 My big secret wish is to get a show on KERA’s Think with Krys Boyd. Back in 2007 when we had the ISDC here I kind of forced the issue with NSS HQ to get George Whitesides on the show to talk about the conference. Which he did, sort of. My intent was to have him mention that the ISDC was open to the public and that Day Passes were available, though that message didn’t get conveyed. They also got a show immediately after the conference with Rusty Schweickart to talk about his B612 Foundation. So there is some precedent. My guess is that they’ll have Bruce on, and perhaps myself (I do have a face for radio), though I’ve already asked Starman if he would be the standby in case they want someone actually important in the local space community to be on the show.
 And that, in a nutshell, is how I put together a public outreach space event that’s fun for everyone. It’s not entirely a flawless process, but the end result should work out well. I am seeing a certain receptiveness to sending outreach materials that I haven’t seen much before, and a lot more folks seem much more approachable about helping out. My hope is that this is in part a recognition that this is a local community grassroots effort. I suppose that makes me something of a ‘community organizer’, although that’s not an appellation I would use myself. I just like to think of myself as a Moon guy who wants his community to know a lot more about space and how important it can be for our economy, and Moon Day is a good way to do it.
Howdy everyone! Thing’s are certainly perking up for Spring, even with regards to our Moon, so I decided to throw together another Carnival of the Moon.
Recently, The Moon Society sent out a request to its members eliciting support for a book donation project to create a Lunar Resource Library in India. Moon interest is rather strong in India, and they’re the #6 visitor to Out of the Cradle, ahead of France but behind Australia and Germany. They have active chapters of The Moon Society and SEDS, and even have a Moon Miner’s Manifesto India Quarterly edition.
But they realize that the internet isn’t everything, and they’re looking to put together a physical library of reference books that can be used to develop Moon knowledge in India. Like a more focused version of the library at the Lunar & Planetary Institute down in Houston. My own personal collection overlaps that collection to some extent, but LPI has titles that I don’t have, though I do have a lot of stuff that they don’t have. The online Lunar Library (LL) catalogues almost the entirety of that collection (well over 2,000 items), and I have delusions of putting it to good use at a local university for a Lunar studies program before eventually bequeathing it to International Space University (ISU) for their eventual Lunar campus.
So India needs Moon books! It’s still kind of a nebulous project, because the organization, composed entirely of volunteers, needs to figure out things like aggregating the collection, clearing customs, and shipping it there. I’ve got a few dups in the LL that I’m going to forward. If you have an interest in this project, head on over to The Moon Society website and drop them a line.
Back here in the States, if you’re a student who wants to present research at a conference, but are coming up short of funds, LPI reminds us that the deadline for this year’s Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund 2010 Travel Grants (2x$500!) is coming up on April 15th. If you’re looking for other opportunities coming up, there are still a few left in the Scholarships for Space Studies article I posted back in November, including the Moon Art contest which also has an April 15 deadline for submissions.
If Moon art gives you a hankering for modern Moon stories, there are a variety of choices. Recently, Dr. Philip Harris donated the copyrights to both his original Moon settlement fiction story “Launch Out” as well as his brand new sequel, “Lunar Pioneers” to The Moon Society. “Lunar Pioneers” is currently exclusively to be found only in the Lunar Library. That’s right, folks, the entire text is available for free courtesy of the author, The Moon Society, and the Lunar Library. With the Moon settlement getting established, the young and restless start looking further beyond…
Another free source of modern Moon (and high frontier) fiction is the quarterly on-line magazine “Moonbeams“, which features short stories and is always looking for fresh submissions. Perfect for a portable electronic reading tablet. Still, if you’re an old-fashioned paper guy like I am, and you’re looking for some Moon stories for younger folks then you should stop by the Summer Space Reading Camp.
Over at The Once & Future Moon blog, Dr. Spudis articulates his belief that NASA has lost its way to the Moon under the new plans for how NASA is going to approach space. I don’t necessarily agree with his arguments, as I ask myself what is the destination of the U.S. Geological Survey? What is The Goal of the the Department of Energy? I don’t buy into the insistence that NASA needs to have a particular Goal or destination right at this moment.
I look at things like larger macroeconomic factors and how they interplay to look at what’s going to happen at NASA for it to keep or increase its relevance to generating value for the U.S. economy. The Old Guard is moving on, and reality is having to adapt to the fact that younger generations don’t necessarily do things the same way just because that’s the way it was done. I see the Apollo-architecture redux (throw everything away along the way) that was Ares I/V as an example of how this applies.
I saw it from a different perspective than most of the space-interested, though it was information that was available to those undertaking space outreach activities. NSS of North Texas periodically receives boxes of handout pamphlets relating to various NASA activities. These cover a variety of topics from ISS to Return to the Moon. We had numerous handouts for the Ares rockets, but people never took them, though the other topics rapidly disappeared. This left us lugging around large amounts of Ares handouts from event to event that folks in general just weren’t interested in.
This jibes with NASA’s own research from a couple of years ago, where they hired a communications consultant to help them figure out why NASA didn’t have more support in the general populace. One tidbit hidden in the results was that only about 14% of folks saw NASA as a rocket launching organization. This in spite of the fact that right now NASA is best known for the Space Shuttle.
So it’s time for NASA to stop trying to provide the National Space Transportation System (their own words), and instead help the U.S.’s industrial sector provide the solutions. That is a key way to grow the U.S. economy. This also taps into the demographic fact that those of Generation X have gone entrepreneurial at a rate twice that of the preceding generation, but current economic factors are driving an even stronger entrepreneurial urge in the succeeding generation. So we’re seeing a confluence of meta-factors that actually favors the new direction that NASA is going to have to undertake to make sure that the U.S. space industry grows ever stronger in contributing to GDP.
I don’t think you necessarily need a destination to work on aerospike engines for rockets. I do think you need work on custom alloys and foamed metal-ceramics that can likely only be produced in microgravity. I don’t think you need The Goal to work on things like orbital fuel depots scattered around cislunar space, or a Universal Docking Node that will allow for greater modular customization of orbital facilities, or a universal interface for the Atlas/Delta/Falcon/Ariane/Other 20mt class launchers. Let the market sort out what are the best crew vehicles to ride on top. Because I want mine with rich Corinthian leather seats.
Once you have infrastructure elements like orbital LEO facilities (at 51, 40, 28, and 0 inclinations, for example) and fuel depots on orbit, we can start thinking about vehicles that only travel in space and don’t necessarily need to lug around a heat shield for Earth return. Ditch the heat shield and beef up the radiation shielding. Modularity allows for things like a Bigelow module or two and a Progress module to set up shop at EML-1, or do free returns around the Moon for brief near-Moon visits. Once you have a facility at EML-1 and a ferry back and forth to LEO, then you have access to the entire Moon, and you can have a vehicle designed just for near-Moon operations. Once you’re on the Moon the first thing is to start getting oxygen, both to breathe, and to ship up to cislunar space so that shipments from Earth can be more valuable stuff instead.
Where NASA goes next is going to have a huge affect on where the U.S. space industry ends up. If it picks a goal, then we will end up with an optimized engineering architecture that ignores unnecessary (to that goal) technologies that may otherwise prove invaluable in developing cislunar space. We’ll end up with deadlines that get passed, and increased expenses from indulgent cost-plus contractors because NASA guys keep changing the specs.
Or, we can go with a more entrepreneurial approach where a variety of technologies are moved up the TRL ladder to help optimize how the U.S. approaches space development by letting the market determine the best approach.
Why the Old Guard can’t understand the kids today, courtesy of xkcd:
If you don’t think there is a generational shift that NASA is facing, I offer up a couple of slides courtesy of a presentation from the California Space Education & Workforce Institute. The first is an age distribution that is from calendar year end 2004 at the latest, so picture everything shifted to the right. I’m in the bracket (then 35-39, now 40-45) where you have the three lines intersecting, though an above average representation in the talent pool.
This second shows the age distribution of the aerospace workforce in general. I was trying to break into the field in the 2002-2003 timeframe, a time when that sector shed about 1/7th of its jobs (1/5th in the case of my demographic; I’m in the light blue bracket).
Any surprise that I went back into banking?
Like most folks, the closest I’m likely to ever get to space is to buy a piece of someone else’s adventure. Which can have its appeal. Heritage Auction Galleries is going to be holding a ‘Space Exploration Auction‘ on April 21st here in Dallas. Looking through the catalog I can see several items that would be interesting to add to the Lunar Library, I just wish more people would buy Moon books through the Amazon links so that I could have an acquisition budget for historical artifacts.
 Why would Lunar Library LLC want to acquire historical artifacts? Why to share, of course. An example is the art show I’m putting together for this year’s Moon Day event at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. I just got the go ahead to start putting together the pieces of the event, and since this is a non-decadal anniversary year I’m going to have to work extra harder to get to my goal of 1,000 attendees. I’ve finally accumulated enough Moon-related art and posters that I can actually put together the equivalent of a small gallery showing. The Lunar Quadrant Maps take up a fair amount of real estate now that they’re framed, but a perusal of the Cultura Lunaris section of the Lunar Library shows a lot of other goodies (Lunar Adventures, The Ultimate Sandbox, One Small Step, Asteroid Mine, Probe, Lunar Base, Plinius Cemetary, and more). I’m in the process of getting some of them framed over the next several months, and then the museum wants to exhibit them for 6-8 weeks.
The actual Moon Day event is on July 18th. Lots of planning to due for that one, and like last year I’m going to be posting about my planning efforts to help serve as a road map for those masochistic enough to to try to put together a space event with no budget in their own communities.
So what is the Egg Moon? It was one of the nicknames for the Full Moon in April back in Colonial days, an appellation that the Algonquins also used. The April Moon was more commonly known as the Planter’s Moon, reflecting the return of the fertility phase of the annual cycle. That’s why I’m looking forward, confident that the entrepreneurial phase we’re entering into in the human spaceflight sector offers fertile opportunity to accelerate the day when we’re transforming the grayfields of the Moon.
Welcome back to EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™ as we leave the Lunar Editions and return to Earth orbit. Our next guest is Hoyt Davidson, Founder and Managing Partner of Near Earth LLC. Near Earth specializes in providing Investment Banking and Advisory Services to companies and investors in the commercial Space, satellite, telecom and aerospace industries. Hoyt Davidson has extensive expertise in Space financing, and has many insights into the emerging commercial Space sector to share with us in this very informative discussion.
 EVA: Welcome Hoyt! I’m delighted to have you join us at EVA Interviews and Out of the Cradle. I am really looking forward to our conversation and hearing your unique perspective on Space commerce, the industry and Space investment activities! As these interviews are about Space, as well as the economic aspects of our exodus Out of the Cradle, I like to begin by asking about Space. You operate an investment bank specializing in, among other areas, satellites, and you write extensively about commercial Space activities in your newsletter. Which came first? Have you always had a interest in Space or was the creation of Near Earth LLC exclusively a business decision? How did you decide to open a firm with such a unique specialty?
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The space program announcement on Monday was, in my view, status quo shattering.
It engages a lot of risk, but if you look carefully at what it says (as opposed to what the mass media says it says), you will see that it unlocks an enormous realm of opportunity. In my view, the opportunity far outweighs the risks.
When NASA operates the only crewed vehicle to space, then NASA decides who gets to go. NASA’s choice is a select cadre of individuals, highly trained not only in the systems and environment of space, but also in how to keep it together when the crap hits the fan. Taking this training to the private sector will no doubt prove remunerative for many.
From a company perspective, not being able to send the employee you choose because NASA said no rather works against your business decisions. When a company can pay a launch provider to take their chosen employee to an orbital site to do whatever, then a barrier to entry has been removed, making it easier for a company to make the decision to send an employee to orbit to do research or production in space.
By choosing to end NASA’s monopoly on the provision of crewed transport to orbit, the President (via his advisors, I’m sure) has made the decision to open space commerce to all of the American enterprise.
The challenge is the provision of transport to orbit. I’ve seen a lot of negative comments regarding whether U.S. industry can step up to the plate and deliver on their potential. Given that Boeing and Lockmart are the legacies of the companies that have built our spacecraft, it seems a bit unreasonable to say that they cannot provide a crewed vehicle for their existing launch vehicles. They may choose not to take that route, but I have a strong feeling that they can in fact do so.
There are folks who say that we shouldn’t rely on the private sector, yet that is what everyone does every day. As I look around my apartment I the only thing that I can think of that is actually government-provided is my clean water. Sure the government has touched pretty much everything in my apartment in some way, shape or form, but for my DVD player I rely on Dynex. For my laptop I use Fujitsu. The bowl with all my pens in it is from Clark of the Navajo. My desk was made by Leopold Co. of Burlington, Ohio. My ride to work is a Volkswagen.
Let’s talk about rides to work for a minute. The shuttle and Soyouz are, right now, the rides to work for those on orbit. The Soyouz has a long track record of getting its passengers home alive. Not spotless, but definitely solid. The Shuttle has had two major stand-downs in the last quarter century, for a hair’s breadth over 20% of that time. In essence, one year in five was non-performing. Imagine if your car could only get you to work four days out of the standard five day work week.
So when people say that only government can provide transportation to orbit, they’re saying that the U.S. is limited to the transportation that NASA provides, when NASA can provide it, and who they say can go. I don’t know about other folks, but I tend to chafe under that kind of diktat.
“Oh, but there’s no business up in space!” cry the nattering nabobs of negativity. As if they have any clue of what business is about. Their lack of imagination should not be my burden.
So what kinds of things are there to do on orbit? My first suggestion would be to scrounge up a copy of the book “Space Industrialization Opportunities“, edited by Jernigan & Pentecost, and then actually read through it. Sure it’s long at 601 pages, and there’re sections that can be skipped over, but reading through it is absolutely eye-opening as far as seeing what kind of research still awaits us.
So there are going to be two initial approaches - a continuation of the existing Mid-Deck Locker (MDL) model, and infrastructure pieces that allow for more crewed work, the orbital equivalent of the lab bench. It’s unknown (or at least, I don’t know) whether the Bigelow facilities will conform to the ISPR standard (which the MDLs fit in), but my guess is that would be the decision of the lessor or the lessee and the terms of the contract.
Microgravity science research is not a make-believe industry. People paid Richard Garriott to take their experiments to orbit. The former SpaceHab (now AstroTech) is doing breakthrough research on orbit. Before Challenger, NASA had a long list of private companies queueing up to send their payloads to orbit. After Challenger, and then catching up with the military payloads, and then the NASA science payloads, and then the runs to Mir, and the private companies could never get back on board. You can’t blame them, they don’t have the capital to keep people on payroll on standby waiting for NASA to take their payload up maybe at some point. Business can’t operate like that, but that is where we have been for the last couple of decades.
And who’s going to provide human crewed transport to orbit in competition with NASA and Energia? That made no business sense, but everyone talked as if that was the way it had to be.
Now we have a different path to not only the ISS, but additional (thank you Mr. Bigelow) destinations on orbit. And Man, in the generic species-wide sense, does not live on science alone. What other things could we be doing in enclosed microgravity environments? I imagine part of the reason that Mr. Cameron wrote such a glowing editorial in support of the changes proposed is that he has his eye on a large hollow three-dimensional space with cameras everywhere, as could be provided by a Bigelow balloon. He could pay a company to take his team and equipment to orbit, and he would be able to film in a way that no one ever has before, although the IMAX films come close. I can also see Hong Kong filmmakers doing away with the wires and filming radical new combat scenes. I don’t know about the Apollo folks, but my generation grewup on Ender’s Game, and I was a huge fan of the Battle Room. Laser Tag in 3-D? You know that’s going to be a popular workout.
Habitation is a de rigeur requirement of humans in orbit, so there exists any number of opportunities in that domain. From the design of sleeping quarters to the provision of supplies, there are a number of niches for companies to exploit. Final Frontier Beef Jerky seems to have already cornered the market on dried beefstuffs on orbit, but there are lots of other things that go well with the microgravity environment.
What to do in space? Sightseeing is already a favored pastime on the ISS, so I have no doubt it will be popular in that regard amongst a broader audience. Certain adult recreational activities are oft cited, and if you want to do some research in that regard I would point you to the 3-DVD set “The Uranus Experiment” [Link absolutely totally not safe for work or children]. This is an adult film that is absolutely not for amateurs, but does contain the first cinematic instance in microgravity of what is colloquially referred to as the Money Shot. And no, things don’t behave the way they do here on Earth.
There’s actually an interesting story behind the movie. A German adult film company decided to make a science-fiction film sometime in the mid to late 1990s. They toured NASA, but when NASA found out what they wanted to film on the Vomit Comet, they declined to license their services. So the company went to the Russians, who said “You pay us how much? Okay! And you clean up afterwards!” Having flown on Zero-G, I have a great deal of respect for the professionalism of the actors and actresses who performed under unique and difficult circumstances. I’ve already got an idea for “Murphy Straps” to help facilitate the process, perhaps do a licensing agreement with Victoria’s Secret. So is there a market for that sort of stuff? Duh! Because in addition to The Uranus Experiment there is also Rocket Girls, Emmanuelle in Space, Space-Thing and others. Oh, can’t forget Wham! Bam! Thank you Spaceman!
One obvious piece of orbital hardware, part of the “infrastructure” that people talk about, is a Universal Docking Node (UDN). This would allow unlimited modularity of vehicles and modules. Setting universal interface standards is a key way to accelerate cislunar development. Provision of a UDN would more easily allow a private venture to cobble together a couple trans-LEO vehicles, some Bigelow balloons for habitation and storage, and sufficient fuel for a trip to take-your-choice destination. GEO, EML-1, LLO, a visit to an asteroid, maybe park out at L5 for a while to get some preliminary environmental readings. That’s the power of opening space to private interests. It allows for a much greater variety of projects, and more destinations can be explored.
That of course, is not enough to sustain a LEO economy, so let’s consider other ways to add value. One obvious way is post-launch inspection and repair of satellites. The roughest part of the trip for a satellite is the launch through the atmosphere of Earth. Stuff ends up not working right after launch, and being able to inspect and repair satellites may be a key part of the service sector in LEO. There’s also going to need to be an aggregation of materials in LEO for pushes further out. Things like research and development on propellant depots will help to accelerate this process. As will the availability of storage so that longer-term assets can be parked in orbit for a while.
So where would one have facilities in LEO? Given how tough it is to change inclination that deep in the gravity well, facilities are likely to spring up at inclinations of particular utility. Equatorial would provide a fair amount of GEO CommSat traffic that might be interested in a post-launch overhaul. Jon Goff over at the Selenian Boondocks (one of my old haunts) suggested something in the low-40s that would be readily accessible to most inland spaceports, making it of particular interest to the tourist trade. ISS has the benefit of passing over 85% of the land mass of Earth over the course of its orbits, making it an excellent platform for Earth observation. So different markets are going to be available.
Looking further out, the Earth-Moon L-1 point (EML-1) is the next logical destination, as it is indifferent to the LEO inclination. This is not necessarily intuitive, but the best way to think about it is like this - imagine the Earth and Moon in three dimensions, about 240,000 miles (384,000 km) apart. Now draw a line from the center-of-mass of the Earth to center-of-mass of the Moon. Hold that line fixed in 3-D space.
Now drop the Earth and Moon into gravity wells. The Earth’s gravity well is quite deep, the Moon’s a dimple in comparison. Perched about 86% of the way to the Moon along that fixed line is where those gravity wells peak, at EML-1. This is the lowest delta-V launch point in cislunar space to more places than anywhere else.
Now draw a Hohmann ellipse from LEO out to EML-1. This is traditionally done in the plane of orbit of the Moon, but we’re dealing with space, you have to think in three dimensions. Rotate that ellipse around the fixed line, and you have your map of orbits to EML-1, and they basically all cost the same delta-V, which helps to standardize fuel delivery requirements. Polar orbits are the exception, as the Earth is a bit pudgy around the middle and that messes things up a bit.
EML-1 serves as a crossroads in cislunar space, making it a key logistics point. It will also serve as a stockpiling point, enabling missions to the Moon, the asteroids, and even Mars. I would love to be the bartender on that facility.
Cargo and Machinery is going to be heading out to the Moon, eventually you want LOX to head back all the way down to LEO. Hydrogen we really need to be getting from asteroids, but the Moon’s polar deposits can help serve as a stopgap measure to supplement shipments from Earth.
Dropping back down to GEO, one long-term business plan is to provide near-constant Solar power as baseline electricity. It has been noted that we have been beaming Solar power to Earth for decades now, via our communications satellites, so to say that solar power satellites are a flight of fancy is patently false. What is a flight of fancy is to presume that terawatt-scale facilities are going to be launched from the surface of the Earth. That’s just not going to happen. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do space-based Solar power, we just have to consider alternate paths to that end.
One of the most valuable exports from the Moon is going to be mass. Luckily, it’s a lot easier to get stuff into cislunar space from the Moon than the Earth. LOX is the most frequently cited export, and it is one of the easier business cases to close, thanks to its manifold utility and abundant availability on the Moon, just locked up in minerals. LOX/LH is pretty much our best possible chemical propellant combo (unless you want to deal with some really, really nasty stuff), but oxygen represents about 7/8ths of the combined mass. Lifting that from the Earth’s gravity well is hard, and we could be sending more useful mass up instead. That’s why, over the long term, there is even a market for Lunar LOX in LEO.
A byproduct of Lunar oxygen production is slag. This could be exported to serve as radiation shielding for long-term facilities out beyond the Earth’s magnetosphere.
Another possible Lunar export could be the high-mass/low-value added components of a GEO Solar Power Satellite system, such as structural members and cheap and plentiful, if not terribly good, solar cell arrays.
The point is that the only thing you need to be lifting out of the Earth’s gravity well is the kind of high-value-added stuff like electronic components or high-precision parts. Earth is like the Switzerland of cislunar space; its contributions to commerce have to be small-mass/high-value-added items, at least until we can get a space elevator in place.
As capabilities grow on the Moon, more value-added can be brought to bear on the raw resources found there. Commerce will start stepping up the value-added chain. Foodstuffs is a good example. It’ll be easier to get foodstuffs from the Moon to LEO, even with a detour to EML-1, than to get it up from the Earth. Not by much, but it’s still a transport advantage. Given the unique terroir of the Moon, it’s not difficult to imagine a trade springing up in specialty food items, akin to the spice trade of yore.
If you’re interested in Lunar commerce, there are a few books I can recommend. First and foremost is Neil Ruzic’s “The Case for Going to the Moon“, written in 1965. Mr. Ruzic was editor and publisher of Industrial Research magazine, so he had a pretty good handle on what industry was all about. Decades have passed and the book is still relevant, as Mr. Ruzic understood the roles of things like vacuum and extreme temperatures in industrial processes. If you ever only read one book about Moon business, make it this one.
Another title I would highly recommend would be “The Once and Future Moon” by Dr. Paul Spudis. Dr. Spudis is one of the leading Lunar scientists in the world, and I’ve long considered him something of a Moon mentor. His book lays out a lot of geological background on the Moon, but also talks about how commerce and industry can take advantage of that. He blogs at “The Once and Future Moon” blog, and has, to my surprise, expressed a certain amount of disdain regarding the new policy. I can understand his point. The strategic objective of “Provide the tools and the processes to open up cislunar and translunar space to American enterprise” allows for a lot of interpretation. That’s not the NASA way. They want something like “Go to the South Pole of the Moon, explore, go to Asteroid B612, characterize, go to Phobos, set up base camp.” This makes it easier to design an optimized system, close out all the variables in the parametric models, and run some Monte Carlo simulations to nail down the budget.
However, as nice as those would be to have, that’s not the point of opening space to private industry. We don’t need a transport system optimized for going to the South Pole of the Moon. We need a transport system that allows for multiple destinations, because there’s no surer way to set off a rancorous frenzy in the space community than to assign a particular goal such as the Moon or Mars. I’m a known Moonatic. I have zero interest in Mars, and I don’t see it as THE Goal of our space efforts. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to help the folks who want to go to Mars to get there (for a fair price). But I’m not going there, so if Mars is set as NASA’s (and by extension the U.S.’s) goal, bypassing the Moon, then I’m being excluded and will react accordingly. This is no different from the resentment felt by Mars Advocates when they see the Moon, what they consider a cul-de-sac, given a priority over their goals. And then there’s the long simmering angst of the asteroid folks, who know that their destinations are the best (and they’re right), but everyone ignores them. There’re also the L-5 colonists, who think the gravity-well-bound-thinkers are ignorant and can’t understand the human cultural potential that could be unleashed by micro-cultures in the different L-5 colonies. (Sort of what the U.S. is supposed to be about with the different cultures in the different states) We also can’t forget those who thought we would be exploring the Jupiter Moons by now.
So while I think I understand Dr. Spudis’ perspective, I have to disagree with his conclusions. I have no doubt that if we set the folks at NASA on, say, optimizing the design of inflatable fuel depots that use straps to transfer propellant, what I call Murphy Bags, then they would blow our minds with their results. By using straps controlled by electric motors, you’re doing away with the need for pumps. And by having multiple electric motors used to tighten the straps, the failure of a couple of them doesn’t negate functionality of the propellant bag (whereas if your pump breaks you’re hosed). How do you best place the restraining guides for the straps so that they don’t tangle? What are the actions/reactions at work during that kind of transfer process? That’s the sort of stuff that the NASA folks eat for breakfast. They have much, much to contribute to where we’re going.
Another obvious book choice, and of much more recent vintage is “The Moon: Resources, Future Development, and Settlement“. Lots of good stuff in there on Lunar industries. A little more hardcore is “The Lunar Base Handbook“, and beyond that is the first ISU Summer Session Project, the “International Lunar Initiative Organization“, which contains the best discourse I’ve found on Lunar Medicine. There’re over 2000 pages of densely packed info in those three. Other good titles include “Moonrush” and “Return to the Moon“.
Given how extensively these questions have been examined over the past few decades, it amazes me that there is so much ignorance being displayed in the comments and responses around the blogosphere. It’s almost as if there is a national schizophrenia at work regarding space activities. No one ever really supports space activities that much. Public polls show that time and again. Were that not the case then NASA would have no problem getting funding from Congress each year, and certainly at a higher level than 0.5 - 0.7% of the regular budget. Yet those who follow the process can tell you it is a fight year after year. But have the media trumpet that “The Moon program is dead!” and people start coming out of the woodwork.
There are also the logical disconnects. Some people point to the cancellation of the Orion capsule as the end of trans-LEO human spaceflight. Never mind that Space Adventures has already sold one Lunar free-return trajectory visit to the Moon (they need two for the flight). It is claimed that Orion could be ready by 2014, and yet the vehicle on which it would ride won’t be ready for another 4-5 years. The original Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) (pdf) called for the Orion to have its first test flight in 2010 and operational by 2014. Here we are in 2010 about 4 years from test flight.
I can remember back to the heady days of 2004, when various space companies were proposing solutions for the CEV during the Concept Exploration & Refinement (CE&R) stage of the process. This was in line with what the VSE had proposed, and which had also stated, and I quote:
“NASA does not plan to develop new launch vehicle capabilities except where critical NASA needs - such as heavy lift - are not met by commercial or military systems.” [p. 15]
Which brings us to another topic - that of heavy lift. There is a widespread and ingrained belief in the space community that a heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLLV) is required to do anything in space. My guess is that it stems from the “economics for engineers” analysis which demonstrates that the best way to scale down the cost of a kilo to orbit is to scale up the volume launched on any one vehicle, thereby distributing the fixed and variable costs amongst a greater number of kilos. Which is a fine analysis as far as it goes, but bears little relationship to the actual existing market of space launch vehicles.
There is a vehicle that can take heavy payloads to orbit, the Energia rocket. The Russians looked at the global market and saw that there was no demand for that volume of mass to orbit in one shot, and so don’t manufacture the rocket for the marketplace. And apparently the NASA version, Ares V, won’t be ready until the late 2020s. If all of your budget is being sucked into the design and manufacture of the rocket, then what can you afford to put on top? This particular path of logic seems to assume that there will be NASA budget increases in the future to pay for the equipment to ride on top. I question that assumption.
What became the Ares rockets were proposed back in 2004 at about the same time that the CE&R studies were being reviewed. I know this because I have an ATK marketing DVD for the shuttle-derived rockets and the files on it are dated August 2004. But it wasn’t part of the CE&R process, even if it was marketed as Safe, Simple & Soon. My guess is that it was because the SS&S rockets were a solution to a requirement that NASA didn’t have, that of “develop[ing] new launch vehicle capabilities”.
So what did we get? A new rocket development program and not a trans-LEO CEV. NASA was supposed to be out of the launch business and back into the exploration business, but here we are five years later and it’ll be nigh on a decade before NASA can get us into LEO, and another decade still until the Ares V allows us to go trans-LEO. And private industry is supposed to wait on that before we’re ready to develop space? I think some folks are really, seriously underestimating the capabilities that exist in the U.S. Do I think the private sector can get us back to the Moon in less than two decades? Heck yes!
By refocusing NASA’s capabilities on accelerating the development of the tools necessary for cislunar, Lunar, and translunar space, we can ensure that it happens a lot faster.
I’m excited by this new direction. Especially because as an investor I can put some capital into the industry and, if I do it carefully, profit from where we are now going. That excites me a whole lot more than watching a cadre of select government employees planting a flag on [pick your celestial destination]. I want human spaceflight to be a growth industry for our economy, not a government program delimited one.
The U.S. is desperately in need of industries and trades that will lead to economic growth. We have no choice, as we are leveraging our existing future to an unsustainable level. Space is a domain in which the United States has a competitive advantage. We need to exploit that advantage, to the ends of providing energy and resources so that we can start remediating the damage we do to our own planet to get those things.
This new direction opens the door to more than just NASA to achieve those ends. Therefore I applaud the President’s choices, and look forward to American enterprise taking us into space.
From Russia, we welcome Team Selenokhod to EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™ in the fourth of this series of Lunar Editions. As one of the most recent entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, Team Selenokhod looks to build on Russia’s early lunar robotic successes of the 1970 Lunokhod-1 and 1973 Lunokhod-2 remote-controlled rovers in their efforts to win the prize. I’m excited to have Nikolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy, the CEO of Team Selenkhod, join us to discuss their team and activities to date.
EVA: Thank you so much, Nikolay, for participating in the Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™! Can you please tell us more about the formation of your team? How was your decision made to compete and what do you (and your team) hope to get out of your involvement? How is it going so far?
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Welcome to the third in this series of Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™. To start this series, EVA went directly to the source and interviewed the Moon about its expectations for future lunar commercial activities. Coming back down to Earth, the second interview focused on the organization whose actions and incentives are most helping to make business on the Moon a reality and talked to William Pomerantz Senior Director of Space Prizes for the X PRIZE Foundation about the exciting Google Lunar X Prize competition. Now we will talk to the teams themselves who are hard at work, taking the first steps necessary towards expanding commerce beyond Earth, and to the Moon.
The first team to reply is Next Giant Leap and its founder, Michael Joyce. I met Mike this summer at the Space Frontier Foundation NewSpace Conference and the NLSI (NASA Lunar Science Institute) 2nd Annual Lunar Science Forum, both at NASA Ames in July, and again at the Space Investment Summit 7 in Boston where Mike, along with other impressive members of his team, was one of the Business Plan presenters. I’m delighted to have Next Giant Leap and Michael Joyce as our first Team guest!
EVA: Thank you so much, Mike, for participating in the Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™! I am very interested to hear more about the formation of your team. How was your decision made to compete and what do you (and your team) hope to get out of your involvement? How is it going so far?
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Ah, your Lunar Librarian can well recall his student years, hitting the books and starving more often than not in the pursuit of knowledge. Ramen noodles, rice & beans, ravioli. I seemed to have a very R-rich diet.
So that you won’t have to suffer as I did in my space studies, I’ve gathered together a number of different scholarship and competition opportunities for all different fields.
There’s a lot of money out there for space studies, and one thing you should realize from the following list is that you need to be creative in seeking out funding and learning opportunities. The real question is how much scholarship fundage can be brought into the space field through creative application. That’s for y’all to find out.
And treat yourself to a nice dinner at least once per semester.
Nininger Meteorite Award
The 2009 application deadline is November 13, 2009.
http://meteorites.asu.edu/nininger
Recognizes outstanding student achievement in the meteoritical sciences as embodied by an original research paper. Papers must cover original research conducted by the student and must have been written, submitted or published between November 15, 2008 and November 13, 2009. Applicants must be the first, but not sole, author of the paper and must be studying at an educational institution in the United States. The Nininger Award recipient receives $1000 and an engraved plaque commemorating the honor.
Amelia Earhart Fellowship Program
All applications for 2010 Amelia Earhart Fellowships, recommendations, transcripts, and letter of current standing must be received or post-marked by 15 November 2009.
http://www.zonta.org/site/PageServer?pagename=zi_issues_programs_amelia_earhart_application
Women of any nationality pursuing a PhD/doctoral degree who demonstrate a superior academic record in the field of aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering are eligible. Please note that post-doctoral research programs are not eligible for this Fellowship.
The Fellowship of US $10,000 may be used at any university or college offering accredited graduate courses and degrees.
Conrad Foundation
Spirit of Innovation Awards
Team Nutrition Bar Submissions Due: November 20, 2009
http://www.conradawards.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=152&Itemid=183
Space Nutrition
Design and formulate a nutrition bar for use in space flight.
Finalists – top teams invited to participate in the final competition (selected January 8, 2010)
* $1000 travel stipend for Mattson Inc. manufacturing program.
* $1000 Matching Grant for Innovation Summit program.
Pete Conrad Scholars – winning teams chosen from finalists (selected April 12, 2010)
* 10,000 of the team’s Nutrition Bars
* Recognition medallions
* Promotional media opportunities
* Consideration for selection into the Conrad Portal to support the commercialization of their product.
* Sigma Xi Associate membership.
8C Business Plan Competition 2010
http://www.8cproject.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=20
Coming November 2009 - The 8th Continent Project will be accepting entries from around the globe for its 2010 Business Plan Competition for university students.
$50,000 in prizes will be awarded including cash and in-kind services, and an unforgettable ride on the Zero Gravity Corporation aircraft. Final Rounds will be held April 9-10, 2010, on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.
The 8C Business Plan Competition (formerly Lunar Ventures) challenges students in business, engineering and science to collaborate in creating business plans that employ space-derived technology in products and services with immediate commercial application here on Earth.
2010 CanSat Competition
Application forms due November 30, 2009.
http://www.cansatcompetition.com/Main.html
The mission is to launch an autonomous cansat carrying one large hen’s egg intact for the
entire duration from launch to landing. The descent control system must not use a parachute,
para-foil, or any similar device. During the flight and descent, data shall be transmitted once
every five seconds to a relay balloon station. The cansat must land without damaging the egg.
Launch Location for 2010 is Amarillo, Texas June 11 - 13
Society of Women Engineers
http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=222&Itemid=111
Scholarship information for the 2010-2011 school year will be available starting in December for undergradate/graduate students, and February for incoming freshman.
The SWE Scholarship Program provides financial assistance to women admitted to accredited baccalaureate or graduate programs, in preparation for careers in engineering, engineering technology and computer science.
Geological Society of America
Deadline of December 10, 2009
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2010/documents/lpsc2010.studentapp.pdf
Each year the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America (GSA) gives the Stephen E. Dwornik Planetary Student Paper Awards for the best student research presentations, one for an oral presentation and one for a poster presentation. The purpose of these awards is to provide encouragement, motivation, and recognition to outstanding future planetary scientists who are U.S. citizens. Winners will be introduced and awarded a plaque and a cash prize of $500.00 at the following years’ LPSC.
To apply for the award, students MUST complete the student award application form and MUST send the original application, with an original signature by their advisor, to LPI on or before the deadline of December 10, 2009.
SPACE CAMP/AVIATION CHALLENGE
Scholarship Program
The 2010 scholarship applications are due December 11, 2009.
http://www.spacecamp.com/details.php?cat=Scholarships&program=Scholarships
The scholarship program is managed by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. Full Scholarships cover tuition, room & board for any weeklong, age-appropriate camp and are good for one year. Transportation and incidentals are the responsibility of the scholarship recipient.
Applicants may apply in one of four categories - Financial Need/Disadvantaged, Special Needs, Academic Achievement, or General. Each applicant must answer an essay question, design a mission patch, describe a science project using the scientific method, and provide three letters of recommendation.
Moon Tasks
Notice of Intent is requested as soon as possible, or no later than December 15, 2009
http://moontasks.larc.nasa.gov/
The NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and the Exploration Technology Development Program encourage college students to design tools and instruments needed for future human and robotic exploration of the moon. Student projects will tackle real problems required for successful lunar missions.
All awards are subject to available funds. We expect to award prizes in the form of travel stipends to the NASA lunar rover analog testing in the fall of 2010.
Conrad Foundation
Spirit of Innovation Awards
Team Product Submissions Due: December 15, 2009
http://www.conradawards.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=182
Aerospace Exploration Category
The Aerospace Exploration category encompasses a wide variety of topics ranging from vehicles to spacesuits to planetary exploration to satellites, and many other related subjects including space medicine.
Finalists
* $1000 matching grant (pending matching funds raised by the team)
* Recognition certificates
* Promotional media opportunities
* Invitation to the Innovation Summit and final awards competition
Laureates
* $5000 Next Step grant.
* Access to online fundraising tools
* Recognition medallions
* Promotional media opportunities
* Conrad Portal selection consideration.
* AIAA student membership.
* Sigma Xi Associate membership.
$5,000 National Space Biomedical Research Institute Prize for Innovation in Space Exploration Health Care will be awarded to one team for the best aerospace-related human health product.
Each of the winning student-up to 30- will receive a 1 year student membership to AIAA.
IAU/Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
Gruber Cosmology Prize
Nominations for the Gruber Cosmology Prize 2010 will close on 15 December 2009
http://www.iau.org/grants_prizes/gruber_foundation/
The Cosmology Prize honors a leading cosmologist, astronomer, astrophysicist or scientific philosopher for theoretical, analytical, conceptual or observational discoveries leading to fundamental advances in our understanding of the Universe.
The Cosmology Prize of the Gruber Foundation is awarded annually to one or more scientists of any nationality working in the fields of astronomy, physics, mathematics, and philosophy of science, for scientific advances in our understanding of the Universe and how we perceive it.
The Cosmology Prize consists of a gold medal and a cash prize of, as of 2008, US$ 500,000.
NASA Great Moonbuggy Race
INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION ENDS JANUARY 1, 2010
US REGISTRATION ENDS FEBRUARY 1, 2010
http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov/compete.html
Students are required to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering problems that are similar to problems faced by the original Moonbuggy team.
Each Moonbuggy will be human powered and carry two students, one female and one male, over a half-mile simulated lunar terrain course including “craters”, rocks, “lava” ridges, inclines and “lunar” soil.
National Society of Black Physicists
Applications are due by January 8, 2010
http://www.nsbp.org/scholarships/
The organization seeks to develop and support efforts to increase opportunities for African Americans in physics and to increase their numbers and visibility of their scientific work. It also seeks to develop activities and programs that highlight and enhance the benefits of the scientific contributions that African American physicists provide for the international community. The society seeks to raise the general knowledge and appreciation of physics in the African American community.
EntryPoint 2010
Deadline for NASA applications is January 15, 2010
http://ehrweb.aaas.org/entrypoint/index.htm
ENTRY POINT! is a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) offering outstanding internship opportunities for students with apparent and non-apparent disabilities in science, engineering, mathematics, computer science, and some fields of business.
ACCESS (Achieving Competence in Computing, Engineering, and Space Science) is a summer internship program for students with disabilities sponsored by AAAS and NASA.
NASA Academy
Application Deadline: January 18, 2010
https://academyapp.com/
The NASA Academies are an immersive summer programs for highly motivated and successful undergraduate and graduate students. These summer NASA internships are intensive. Their purpose is to bring together the likely future leaders in space activity and train them in research, leadership, team building and networking. The program’s structure is set so that the work day is spent on an individual research project specifically working with a NASA Principle Investigator, the evenings are filled with work on the group project and weekends are devoted to traveling to different NASA centers, research institutes, and commercial space-related businesses so that the students learn at an early stage how NASA operates from the inside-out.
Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program
Deadline for Application: January 22, 2010
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar_intern/
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is hosting a special summer intern program to evaluate possible landing sites for robotic and human exploration missions. Four to six interns will work with LPI science staff and other collaborators to evaluate the best landing sites to address each of the NRC’s science priorities. This will be a unique team activity that should foster extensive discussions among students and senior science team members. This Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program will operate parallel with LPI’s regular summer intern program.
This program is open to graduate students in geology, planetary science, and related programs. It is also open to undergraduates with at least 50 semester hours of credit so that they, too, can participate in lunar exploration activities.
The 10-week program runs from June 1, 2010 through August 9, 2010. Selected interns will receive $5,000.00 and a $1000.00 travel expense reimbursement.
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Summer Intern Program in Planetary Science
Deadline for Application: Friday, January 22, 2010
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpiintern/
The Lunar and Planetary Institute invites undergraduates with at least 50 semester hours of credit to experience cutting-edge research in the lunar and planetary sciences. As a Summer Intern, you will work one-on-one with a scientist at the LPI or at the NASA Johnson Space Center on a research project of current interest in lunar and planetary science. Furthermore, you will participate in peer-reviewed research, learn from top-notch planetary scientists, and preview various careers in science.
The 10-week program runs from June 7, 2010–August 13, 2010. You will receive a $5,000.00 stipend plus $1000.00 U.S. travel stipend, or $1,500 foreign travel reimbursement for foreign interns.
The National Society of Black Engineers
Applications Due January 22, 2010
http://national.nsbe.org/Programs/Scholarships/tabid/84/Default.aspx
NSBE’s mission is ” to increase the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community. ”
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) with more than 30,000 members, is one of the largest student-managed organization in the country. NSBE is comprised of more than 233 chapters on college and university campuses, 65 Alumni Extension chapters nationwide and 89 Pre-College chapters.
NASA ESMD
Research Paper Competition
The deadline is midnight EST January 25, 2010.
http://education.ksc.nasa.gov/esmdspacegrant/ResearchPaper.htm
Join NASA’s mission to bring us to the moon, Mars and beyond by submitting a research paper on one of the four ESMD topics listed below. Your research may be used as the solution to current NASA challenges.
1. Spacecraft Landing and Recovery Architecture: Historical Approaches and Ideas for the Future
2. Synergistic degradation effects of materials exposed to radiation, micrometeors, thermal sinks and lunar dust
3. Loading of Cryogenic Propellant in Space Launch Vehicle
4. Determination of the Optimum Internal Cockpit Layout
Four 1st place prizes of $3500 cash scholarships–one for each research topic and VIP seating to an upcoming launch
AIAA
Deadline for applications: 31 January 2010
http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=211
The AIAA Foundation’s undergraduate scholarship program offers 30 scholarships of $2000 - $2500 to college sophomores, juniors, and seniors each year. All recipients can apply to renew their scholarship annually until they graduate. And through the annual graduate scholarship program, the AIAA Foundation presents ten graduate awards worth $5000 each and four graduate awards of $10,000 each.
NSBRI Summer Internship Program
Application deadline for the 2010 summer program is January 31, 2010.
http://www.nsbri.org/Education/SummerInternship.html
NSBRI has a summer program that provides the opportunity for undergraduate, graduate or medical students to join ongoing projects in laboratories at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Applicants must have completed their second year of undergraduate studies by the start of the internship. The program is open to U.S. citizens. Interns receive an hourly wage, but the program does not cover housing or travel.
ISU Space Studies Program
SSP10 applicants who are requesting financial aid must apply before the deadline of 31 January 2010.
http://www.isunet.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=61&Itemid=204
SSP 2010 lands in Strasbourg, France - 28 June to 27 August 2010
The SSP’s interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes international cooperation and provides students with varied perspectives on the world’s space activities—perspectives normally reserved for those with years of diverse professional experience. The program includes a wide variety of activities, including lectures by renowned experts, hands-on activities and projects, team work exercises and professional visits, and each year it evolves to better meet the needs of its students and their employers.
American Astronautical Society
http://astronautical.org/awards/scholarships/
The American Astronautical Society (AAS) is pleased to offer the $10,000 Lady Mamie Ngan Memorial Scholarship for students to attend the International Space University’s 2010 Space Studies Program in Strasbourg, France and Stuttgart, Germany, or the 2010-2011 Masters of Science (Space Studies or Space Management) programs conducted at the ISU Central Campus in Strasbourg.
Scholarship available for any progam (SSP, MSM, MSS)
National Space Society ISU Scholarship
http://www.nss.org/education/ISU_scholarship.html
For the 2010 scholarship, we are excited to support the Space Studies Program (SSP) to be hosted at the ISU University in Strasbourg France next summer (26 June - 28 August 2010.).
The 2010 scholarship will be available only for those applying to the Space Studies Program. The scholarship is worth up to $12,000, and may be allocated by the scholarship committee to meet the needs of one or more worthy students.
Applications for the 2010 scholarship will be coming soon.
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
SME Education Foundation online scholarship applications must be submitted by February 1, 2010.
http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/smeefhtml.pl?/foundation/scholarships/fsfstudp.htm&&&SEF&
Since 1998, the SME Foundation has provided over $3.5 million dollars in financial aid through its various scholarship programs. The Foundation awards scholarships to graduating high school seniors, current undergraduates and masters or doctoral degree students pursuing degrees in manufacturing and related fields at two-year and four-year colleges.
Mars Society
University Rover Challenge
Indication of Participation Deadline: February 1, 2010
http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/urc
The Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge (URC) is a competition for college students to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will work alongside astronauts in the field. Teams square off every June at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, Utah.
RASC-AL
REVOLUTIONARY AEROSPACE SYSTEMS CONCEPTS ACADEMIC LINKAGE
Deadline for Abstract submission: February 5, 2010
http://www.nianet.org/rascal/index.html
LUNAR OUTPOST TO SETTLEMENT
NASA’s goal for a lunar outpost is to gain experience that will reduce risk for future human missions to Mars and establish core infrastructure from which economic development and permanent settlement could occur.
* Utilizing lunar, space, and other planetary resources for infrastructure development, power, and consumables to minimize the logistics supply chain needed from Earth
* Converting lunar oxygen, hydrogen, and water ice into propellants and transfer to a propellant depot in lunar orbit or at a libration point
* Lunar transportation system(s) for routine access to the settlement and for exploration of remote regions for discovery of new resources.
* Durable lunar settlement designs and settlement layouts, including all required utilities and infrastructure
* Dramatically improved Earth-to-orbit and in-space transportation systems that can significantly reduce cost and improve safety.
* A business plan on how to develop a self-sufficient lunar economy with unique utilization of lunar resources
TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED HUMAN MARS MISSION
NASA is interested in eventual human mission to the Martian surface. Current Mars design reference architectures that use chemical or nuclear thermal propulsion require several years to complete, a large number of heavy lift launches and over 500 days on the surface the first time humans visit the planet. Approaches that lead to sustainable human Mars exploration leading up to the establishment of an outpost are encouraged.
BRINGING THE WORLD ALONG WITH PARTICIPATORY EXPLORATION
An important element of NASA’s exploration program is engaging the general public in human exploration missions. To capture the attention of a large cross section of the general population, NASA must use a variety of innovative and diverse approaches. The approach should yield a cultural shift in and outside of NASA that results in awareness and excitement about what NASA is doing at the moment, not what it did in the past.
COMMON LUNAR SORTIE / NEAR-EARTH OBJECT (NEO) MISSION DESIGN
NASA is interested in architecture approaches that provide cost-effective Earth neighborhood exploration with minimal infrastructure. Assuming that commonality with currently planned Constellation architecture elements is not required, what low-cost options are available to accomplish such a mission?
Teams presenting at the 2010 RASC-AL Forum June 7-9th will receive $5,875.00 for travel expenses and registration fees.
Rice University
Business Plan Competition
Intent to Compete: Friday, February 5, 2010
http://www.alliance.rice.edu/alliance/RBPC.asp?SnID=1375247303
The Rice University Business Plan Competition (RBPC) has become the premier intercollegiate business plan competition in the world. The three-day event is intended to simulate the real-world process of entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early-stage investors and venture capital firms. The Competition is hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.
Forty-two teams from top MBA programs will be selected to compete at Rice University, in Houston Texas, for more than $800,000 in prizes; including an investment opportunity of $125,000 for the grand prize winner
NASA ESMD
Lunabotics Mining Competition
Competition registration deadline: February 28, 2010
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/technology/lunabotics.html
The purpose of the Lunabotics Mining Competition is to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, in a competitive environment that may result in innovative ideas and solutions, which could be applied to actual lunar excavation for NASA.
Undergraduate and graduate student teams enrolled in a U.S. college or university are eligible to enter the inaugural Lunabotics Mining Competition.
1st place: $5,000 and VIP Kennedy launch tickets.
Space Medicine Association
Application Deadline: Postmarked by March 1, 2010.
http://www.asma.org/Organization/smb/scholar.htm
The Space Medicine Association of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) is pleased to announce an opportunity to apply for a scholarship award for 2010. The purpose of the SMA Scholarship is to encourage students, who have demonstrated academic achievement and shown an interest in Space Biology and Space Medical Operations to further pursue a career in Space Medicine.
A scholarship of $500 will be awarded.
Scholarship sponsored by Dr. Jeffrey R. Davis.
Society of Exploration Geophysicists Foundation
Scholarship Program
Applications and supporting documents must be received by 1 March.
http://www.seg.org/SEGportalWEBproject/portals/SEG_Online.portal;jsessionid=wvyLKzKBpRvl2TSZwWWBB2gcfTSPkb367Wv57NS2FlKVRgRvGvpR!1252845693?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_gen_content&Doc_Url=prod/SEG-Foundation/Foundation-Scholarship-Program/scholarship.htm
In 1956 the Society of Exploration Geophysicists began a program of encouraging the establishment of scholarship funds by companies and individuals engaged or interested in the field of geophysics. SEG saw the need for a more appropriate organization and caused the SEG Foundation to be organized.
The awards to recipients range from US$500 to US$14,000 per academic year, with average awards being approximately US$2,700 per academic year.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Applications for each academic year are accepted online each year only from February 1 through March 15, when our online application is closed.
http://www.asme.org/Education/College/FinancialAid/Scholarships.cfm
Over $100,000 in academic scholarships are awarded annually to ASME Student Members worldwide. You must be a current undergraduate ASME Student Member
AIAA Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
L2 Space Weather Monitoring Constellation
Letter of Intent — 19 March 2010
http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=221
Future observatories such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the ESA/NASA Hershel/Planck telescopes, are being placed away from Earth orbit, into heliocentric orbits at locations such as the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2 (see Figure 1). The advantages of L2 include a stable thermal environment, and low light pollution from Moon, Earth, or the Sun. However, these spacecraft must be placed into orbits around L2, since it is a quasi-stable gravitational point. Significant propulsion is needed to arrive at L2 and perform an orbit insertion maneuver. While a family of Lissajous orbits exists around L2, most observatories are scheduled to enter a long baseline halo orbit, some 100,000’s of km in semi-major axis. This means that the spacecraft may be entering and exiting the Earth’s magnetotail and magnetosheath.
It is of great interest and need to characterize the radiation environment at L2, not only to understand the strength and extent, but more importantly, to understand the time variability of magnetotail. With no less than 5 major observatories scheduled to be at L2 in the coming decade, concerns about its radiation and space weather environment will only increase. In addition, there is also intrinsic scientific value in monitoring activities on the magnetotail. Interactions at the magnetotail causes charged plasmoids to travel back up the tail and interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere.
First place-$2,500;
Second place-$1,500;
Third place-$1,000 (USD)
AIAA Undergraduate Team Space Transportation Design Competition
Design of a Human Asteroid Exploration System
Letter of Intent — 19 March 2010
http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=301
The goal of this project is to design a Human Asteroid Exploration System (HAES). The HAES should consist of a transportation system capable of sending two or more astronauts from Earth to a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) and returning them safely to the Earth. The transportation system should be designed for a mission opportunity to a specific asteroid during the 2018-2030 timeframe.
First place-$2,500;
Second place-$1,500;
Third place-$1,000 (USD)
NASA Ames/National Space Society
Space Settlement Design Competition
All submissions must be received by March 31, 2010.
http://www.nss.org/settlement/nasa/Contest/index.html
This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS), is for 6-12th graders (11-18 years old) from anywhere in the world.
The best submission wins the grand prize, consisting of the space colony submission being placed on the NASA Ames World Wide Web site.
Fabricators and Manufacturers Association
Applications available after Jan 1, due April 1.
http://www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org/Scholarships.cfm
Since 1990, FMA’s foundation has awarded scholarships annually to students in courses of study that may lead to careers in manufacturing.
College scholarships for non-members are $2,500 per school year and college scholarships for members are $5,000 per school year. Trade school and two-year college scholarships up to $2,000 require membership.
Moon Art 2009 -2010 Contest
Entries are due no later than April 15, 2010.
http://artcontest.larc.nasa.gov/
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration invites high school and college students from all areas of study to enter, including the arts, industrial design, architecture, computer design, and the fine arts. Students are asked to submit their work on the theme: Life and Work on the Moon. Artists are encouraged to collaborate with science and engineering students. Such collaboration is not required, but would help to ensure that the art is valid for the Moon’s harsh environment. Any full time student can enter, regardless of major or area of study. Entries will be accepted in three categories: two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and digital, including music and video.
For the first time, we will also accept entries in literature (poetry and short stories). Entries will be evaluated on creativity, artistic qualities, but also on whether they depict a valid scenario for the moon’s harsh conditions. Prizes include awards and exhibit opportunities. Cash prizes, certificates of achievement, and exhibit opportunities are planned.
The Barringer Family Fund
for Meteorite Impact Research
April 2010
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Awards/Barringer_Fund/index.html
The Barringer Crater Company has established a special fund to support field work by eligible students interested in the study of impact cratering processes. The Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research will provide a small number (3 to 5) of competitive grants each year in the range of $2,500 to $5,000 USD for support of field research at known or suspected impact sites worldwide. Grant funds may be used to assist with travel and subsistence costs, as well as laboratory and computer analysis of research samples and findings. Masters, doctoral, and post-doctoral students enrolled in formal university programs are eligible.
Mineralogical Society of America
Completed applications must be returned to the MSA Business Office by June 1, 2010.
http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/Awards/Min_Pet_Award.html
2011 MSA Grant For Student Research In Mineralogy And Petrology from an endowment created by contributions from the MSA membership. The grant comprises two awards of up to $5000 each for research in mineralogy and petrology. Graduate and undergraduate students, are encouraged to apply. However, all proposals are considered together. The award selection will be based on the qualifications of the applicant, the quality, innovativeness, and scientific significance of the research, and the likelihood of success of the project.
The grant is for research-related expenses only.
Starfleet - The International Star Trek Fan Association
The application period runs from January 1st through July 1st.
http://www.sfi.org/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=117
Ever since 1990, our organization has presented monetary scholarships to special active STARFLEET members who are attending community colleges, four-year colleges, most technical schools, junior colleges and universities or graduate school.
Scholarships are awarded in amounts of up to $500 based on number of applicants and availability of funds.
Eugene M. Shoemaker
Impact Cratering Award
Proposals for the 2010 research award will probably be due in early September 2010
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Awards/Shoemaker_Award/index.html
The Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award is for undergraduate or graduate students, of any nationality, working in any country, in the disciplines of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, astronomy, or biology. The award, which will include $2500, is to be applied for the study of impact craters, either on Earth or on the other solid bodies in the solar system, which areas of study may include but shall not necessarily be limited to impact cratering processes, the bodies (asteroidal or cometary) that make the impacts, or the geological, chemical or biological results of impact cratering.
American Astronomical Society
Deadline is October 1st 2010
http://aas.org/grants/awards.php
Has a number of Grants and Awards
includes
Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy
The Annie Jump Cannon Award is given to a North American female astronomer within five years of receiving her PhD in the year designated for the award. The Cannon Prize is for outstanding research and promise for future research by a postdoctoral woman researcher. The prize will amount to $1500 and the winner will give an invited talk at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society and travel expenses will be paid. Self nominations will be allowed.
L. RON HUBBARD’S ILLUSTRATORS OF THE FUTURE CONTEST
http://www.writersofthefuture.com/17/rules/ilofrules.html
All themes of science fiction and fantasy illustrations are welcome: every entry is judged on its own merits only. No entry fee is required and all rights in the entries remain the property of their artists.
There will be three co-winners in each quarter. Each winner will receive an outright cash grant of U.S. $500.00, and a certificate of merit. Such winners also receive eligibility to compete for the annual Grand Prize of an additional outright cash grant of $4,000, together with the annual Grand Prize trophy.
State Space Grant Consortium
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/spacegrant/home/Space_Grant_Consortium_Websites.html#VI
The 52 consortia fund fellowships and scholarships for students pursuing careers in science, mathematics, engineering and technology, or STEM, as well as curriculum enhancement and faculty development. Member colleges and universities also administer pre-college and public service education projects in their states.
Texas, e.g. has the Columbia Crew Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship Program with a $1,000 Stipend and a Graduate Fellowship Program with a $5,000 Stipend.
Each NASA Space Center typically runs a number of its own program opportunities
KSC
http://education.ksc.nasa.gov/students/undergrad.htm
GSFC
http://university.gsfc.nasa.gov/
JSC
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/johnson/classroom/index.html
GRC
http://newbusiness.grc.nasa.gov/university-affairs/
JPL
http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/higher_ed/index.html
SSC
http://education.ssc.nasa.gov/highered.asp
ARC
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/index.html
Full list of NASA programs at:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/descriptions/Students-rd.html
If you’re looking for some European travel, there are a couple of newer European programs:
EuMAS
European Masters Course in Aeronautics and Space Technology
http://www.aerospacemasters.org/
EuMAS is a two-year MSc programme jointly offered by five European aerospace schools: Università di Pisa (Italy), Technische Universität München (Germany), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), Institut Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-Supaero) of Toulouse (France), and Cranfield University (United Kingdom).
SpaceMaster
Joint European Master in Space Science and Technology
http://www.spacemaster.se/
The main objective of the Course is to combine the great diversity of space expertise at six European universities and two Third-Country universities to a common platform of competence within the guidelines of the Bologna process. The educational cooperation is supported by scientific and industrial organisations, thus providing direct contacts with professional research and industry.
Another objective is to give the students cross-disciplinary extension from laboratory and computer simulation environments to hands-on work with stratospheric balloons, rockets, satellite and radar control, robotics, sensor data fusion, automatic control and multi-body dynamics.
SUCCESS
A competition for European university students* from all disciplines to propose an experiment that could fly on board the International Space Station (ISS).
http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMU9TGHZTD_education_0.html
The goal of the competition is to make today’s students the International Space Station users of tomorrow. The first prize of the competition is a one-year internship at ESA’s space research and technology centre, ESTEC, in the Netherlands. At ESTEC, the winner of the contest can work on his/her experiment with the possibility of qualifying it for flight to the International Space Station.
A new SUCCESS Student Contest is currently foreseen for 2010.
FIRST Robotics Competition
http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/content.aspx?id=508
Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
Association for Women in Science
http://www.awis.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=69
AWIS is a vibrant, highly charged organization committed to helping women in STEM at every stage of their career achieve their greatest potential. We work on multiple levels to lower the barriers and create opportunties for success.
American Radio Relay League
http://www.arrlf.org/programs/scholarships
The American Radio Relay League Foundation offers a number of college scholarships to students who plan to study engineering and hold a valid ham radio license.
American Society for Metals
ASM International
http://asmcommunity.asminternational.org/portal/site/www/Foundation/Students/Scholarships/
Since 1953, the ASM Materials Education Foundation and leading ASM Chapters nationwide have awarded scholarships totaling over $1 million. Currently 37 scholarships are awarded annually through the ASM International Foundation.
Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
(for select schools)
http://www.astronautscholarship.org/scholarship.html
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created to ensure that the United States would maintain its leadership in science and technology by supporting promising students in science and engineering.
USRA
http://www.usra.edu/cs/usra_scholarship_program
The USRA Scholarship Program provides college scholarships to students who have shown a career interest in the physical sciences or engineering with an emphasis on space research or space science education.
An undetermined number of undergraduate scholarships are available in amounts up to $1,000. The McLucas Research Prize is $400.
National Space Club
http://www.spaceclub.org/goddard.html
Awards a $10,000 scholarship each year, in memory of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, America’s rocket pioneer. The scholarship is presented at the Goddard Memorial Dinner each spring, for the following academic year. The award is given to stimulate the interest of talented students in the opportunity to advance scientific knowledge through space research and exploration.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/students/scholarshipsawardscontests/SAG_homepage.html
IEEE offers a variety of awards, competitions, contests, scholarships and fellowships
International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine
Aviation Medicine Scholarship
http://www.iaasm.org/scholarship.cfm
The International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine has a well-established Scholarship Programme, the aims of which are to enable young physicians commencing a career in aerospace medicine to undertake training in the specialty. The Scholarship can be used to facilitate attendance at a formal training course, or participation in a work programme (one year or more, structured towards educational goals) in a recognized aerospace medicine institute. The scholarship is for US $15,000.
Aerospace Medical Association
http://www.asma.org/aboutasma/careers.php#AerospaceMedecine
Careers in Aerospace Medicine with information on scholarships and programs
American Institute
of Chemical Engineers
http://www.aiche.org/Students/Scholarships/index.aspx
Each year, students are awarded scholarships based on outstanding academic achievement and their involvement in AIChE programs and activities.
Howdy everyone!
Here in North Texas we had a treat this weekend as Armadillo Aerospace made its bid for the $1,000,000 purse of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Caddo Mills Municipal Airport just east of Dallas.
Festivities kicked off in the hangar shortly after 9am on Saturday as folks got registered and hung around waiting for the rain to let up. Anticipating such a wait I had brought my bag of Moon goodies with me, and after getting permission I set up a small display of genuine fake Moon rocks and real regolith simulant. Many a youngster was engaged for long stretches of time learning about Moon rocks and asteroids. One budding geologist was even curious about the smell and taste of anorthosite.
The delay turned out to be a long one, and it wasn’t until later in the afternoon that the weather cleared enough to make an attempt. This left some time to wander about the facilities and check out some fine American engineering.
Pixel is one of my favorites. It’s the hardware that Armadillo showed off at the ISDC here in Dallas back in 2007, and the most popular exhibit in the display room. It looks a little worse for wear now.
I didn’t expect to see an X-Racer there, but it was an opportunity to check out the plumbing and peek into the cockpit to compare the control panel with the one I had seen in the simulator at the last ISDC. Since I like taking pictures of the business end of rockets, here’s one of the Rocket Racer motor.
What’s interesting is to compare the scarring in the combustion chamber with the scarring in the combustion chamber of the Scorpius. I’m not an engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but the pattern in the Scorpius chamber appears to me to be a more efficient design, in the context that the ‘flares’ coming out from the center are more cleanly defined and regular. This tells me that the Armadillo team is getting better at what they do, and their success in this year’s Challenge is testament to that.
 Local families continued to wander through, and the police and fire department folks were hanging out as well. I went through my Moon spiel more times than I can remember, but at least all of the kids now know more about the Moon than their teachers. Most folks would have given up, but we Texans knew better. There’s an old saying here in North Texas that if you don’t like the weather, just wait around a bit and it’ll change. The local weather radar was on the mission control laptop, and experienced eyes were watching the patterns for breaks in the slow gentle rain. Periodically the VIPs would stop down to check on developments, but they mostly kept to themselves. Then, mid-afternoon, the tenor changed and we got the mission briefing. It was tough to hear with the rain still coming down on the hangar roof, and the video I took only seemed to pick up on baby wails and white noise.
 Concerned about the rain-slicked soil, the crane truck was fired up and the vehicle moved to a different trailer. The crane truck by itself was probably okay, but crane plus trailer plus rocket was just playing chicken with Murphy’s Law. Everyone moved out to the viewing area to wait while the rocket fueled up at the launch area. Then the countdown crackled out of the radio, and like something out of the movie “October Sky” the whole gaggle of spectators joined in - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0…ker-thunk. Hold up, wait a minute, main igniter issue, let’s try again…ker-thunk…okay, one more time - ker-whoosh, and away she went. Like a refined lady she delicately worked her way to altitude, precisely slid through the translation, then demurely descended to a soft landing. Cheers arose amongst the spectators as the first stage of the challenge was completed.
Believe it or not, this was my first rocket launch. I’ve never seen a shuttle launch, nor anything other than model rockets. I’ve gotta say, it was pretty darn cool. I should have stuck around for the second flight, but it was after 4 in the afternoon, my lower back was in severe pain from having stood at the display since 9:30am, and my throat was raspy from jabbering away about the Moon all day, and I could tell that some kind of illness was trying to set up shop in my chilled, damp body. My memory cards were all full, so I was pretty much done for the day.
I didn’t just talk with all the kids during the day; I did speak with many of the adults as well, though the message I try to convey is a bit more sophisticated. I don’t talk about inspiration and discovery, I talk about commerce and economics. The U.S. has a competitive advantage in this industry, and the space industry has very high barriers to entry. I think Armadillo is a great example of the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that will commercialize the space industry, and they’re clearly getting better at what they do, working their way up the learning curve.
So congrats to Armadillo on their successful run. These kinds of successes are crucial for the nascent commercial space industry, so a big thank you to Armadillo Aerospace for adding another success to the growing list.
Ad Astra!
NB: Alan Boyle has more details over at the Cosmic Log, and the local Dallas Morning News has video, as does Clark over at RLV & Space Transport News.
And speaking of refined ladies, here’s a video from the beautiful and talented Cariann over at SpaceVidcast:
Welcome to the second in a series of Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™. In the first of this series, EVA went directly to the source and interviewed the Moon about its expectations for future lunar commercial activities. Coming back down to Earth, this next interview focuses on the organization whose actions and incentives are helping to make business on the Moon a reality. My guest is William Pomerantz Senior Director of Space Prizes for the X PRIZE Foundation. With 19 teams now entered into the competition for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, these contestants and this prize are at the forefront of expanding commerce beyond Earth, and to the Moon.
EVA: Hi Will, I’m delighted to have you here at EVA Interviews and Out of the Cradle. I often assume that everyone is familiar with the Google Lunar X PRIZE, as you have received a great deal of publicity so far. In case that assumption is incorrect (or as a refresher, if true), could you please tell us how the Google Lunar X PRIZE came in existence and what the X PRIZE Foundation, and Google, are hoping to achieve with this prize?
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Welcome to this next, unique edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the New Space Age™. This conversation started on a cold winter day in January over 2 years ago. A friend of mine at NASA asked me to look over a matrix he was creating on commercial lunar opportunities. Could I think of any other potential businesses that might become economically viable within his planning time horizons, any other ideas that he might be missing? After giving my own feedback, I suggested to him that I talk to “the source” to see what more I could learn. This interview starts with those questions.
In the FAQs for EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™, remembering this conversation and thinking about a few other unusual ideas I had for interviewees, I included this disclaimer * While the main focus will be economic, we reserve the right to present the occasional fictitious, frivolous or marginally related interview. With that in mind (and with the risk of looking foolish), on a clear night recently, I went back to continue the conversation and expand it into an interview.
I hope you will enjoy this conversation with one of my favourite evening (and very occasionally, daytime) companions – our Moon.
***** January 2007 *****
EVA: So, my beautiful Moon, what will we be doing on you in @ 15-25 years from now?
The Moon: You’re coming to visit me?
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There are an increasing number of entrepreneurial space-related events and conferences happening, and here are a few that I’ve gotten notice of recently:
On short notice is the half-day symposium on THE SPACE ECONOMY, occurring next Friday morning, March 13th in D.C. The agenda can be found here. There are some interesting names supporting the event, from Cisco to Phillips & Co., in addition to the usual suspects like AAS, AIAA, CSE, GMU, ISU and SEC.
[Update: Robert Hoskins of Phillips & Co. uses some of the output of the event in an editorial in Florida Today in response to short-sighted political maneuvers, found here. Hoyt Davidson of Near Earth LLC also provides a nice summary in the June issue of From the Ground Up (pdf)]
Near Earth LLC, a capital advisory firm, has their March newsletter (pdf) out, From the Ground Up. This month they put the markets in the context of space developments, and are optimistic for the future.
Later this month, also in D.C., is the Satellite 2009 conference, from March 24-27. This is for industry, which means there’s quite a list of exhibitors. Eva and I bandied about the idea of her attending to get some interviews, but no one is buying any books, so there’s no capital to underwrite the trip. Plus, it’s unclear if we’d qualify for a media pass. And I’m going to be at the LPSC down in Houston that week.
The next week starts with the National Space Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, CO, running through April 2nd. This one also has an impressive list of exhibitors, making it a good place to look to put some money to work.
Filling out the week in early April, from the 2nd to the 4th, is the Space Access ‘09 conference in Phoenix, AZ. This is the conference where all the rocket guys get together to talk about access to space. There’s a strong entrepreneurial spirit to this one, making it a great place to scout for talent.
Back when I was co-chair of the 2007 ISDC, I campaigned hard to get as many pre-conferences as possible held just before the ISDC, so that the results could be presented at our citizen space conference. So in addition to the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG), we also had the Space Venture Finance Symposium (often considered the 2nd Space Investment Summit), and folks from both groups stuck around for our conference. That was repeated again in 2008 in D.C., and will be repeated again this year in conjunction with the 2009 ISDC in Orlando, FL. The 6th Space Investment Summit will be on Wednesday, May 27th. From the website:
Presentations will focus on the latest developments in the rapidly growing space tourism industry (vehicles, funding, destinations, timeframes, numbers of customers and more), as well as new cross-industry business.
Be sure to stick around for the International Space Development Conference, the largest citizen space conference in the world. From May 28-31, it will feature luminaries from all aspects of our space endeavours. I know from experience that the program will keep evolving right up to the last minute, so be sure to check regularly for updates.
Further out in the year is the NewSpace 2009 conference from the Space Frontier Foundation, from July 18-20 at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountainview, California. Waitaminit…that’s what I thought - the ISU Summer Session Program is going to be at NASA Ames from June 29 to August 28. OMG, I so have to be there for that party. I may need to bring lots of beer and Texas vodka to the festivities. Rick always appreciates a nice ice-cold Shiner Bock.
Still further out, September 14-17, is the AIAA SPACE 2009 conference & exposition in Pasadena CA. This one is a more technically oriented, and may not be as much fun as the NewSpace 2009 conference.
I’m sure there are a few that I missed, but this should give you a start on getting the lowdown on the business of space.
“Who Owns the Moon” by Virgiliu Pop. Published in 2009 by Springer as Vol. 4 in their Space Regulations Library, it weighs in at 175 pages all in. A handful of editing errors, mainly in the last half.
While this could be considered a follow-up to Virg’s earlier work “Unreal Estate”, which was as thorough a Title Search on who owns the Moon as you’ll find, really it stands alone by taking a different approach. While the prior book looked backwards at who was trying to do a land grab of Lunar real estate over the years, this one instead looks at how we can move forward by taking a look at how the law stands now, its context, including historical, and how it is interpreted.
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Librarian’s Note: This is a reprint of a blog post that I wrote for Selenian Boondocks, where I guest blog. I haven’t really needed to change the text, but I have updated it with some pictures and weblinks.
25 Good Reasons to Go to the Moon
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Howdy everyone! Welcome to this week’s spectacular Carnival of Space!
I’m your host Ken, the Lunar Librarian here at Out of the Cradle.
We don’t have to go far this week to find space. This last weekend in Washington, D.C., the National Space Society held their 27th annual International Space Development Conference. As the largest citizen space conference in the world it is open to all, even internet bloggers. And blog they did, extensively, over the three day period. The conference was even on C-SPAN! I’ve rounded up most of the links for the Lunar Library, which can be found here:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
The Space Cynics want you to be sure to get a dash of cold-water reality in the face, because, well, that’s their job. Several of them were at the conference and they did some recruiting in A Gathering of Cynics, which led to a very interesting discussion and an upcoming radio show on The Space Show.
Everyone’s favorite Babe…in the Universe was there for the Space Investment Summit as well as the main conference. She’s put up a number of blog posts on the event, starting with “ISDC”. Her latest post, Convergence, has her in slightly more traditional garb. As she summarized the event:
Aloha Carnival!
Thursday saw Elon Musk and announcement of the first Space Solar Power demonstration. At Friday’s dinner, a lifetime award was given to Burt Rutan. Saturday an enthusiastic crowd saw a documentary on Apollo and live coverage of Discovery’s launch to ISS. We end at the Air and Space Museum, seeing humanity converge on a future in Space.
Thank you for hosting this week’s Carnival.
Well you’re certainly welcome Ms. Riofrio, we’re always happy to see you here at the Carnival of Space.
One of the bloggers noted in the round-up, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame, and who also happens to be the co-author of the space law book “Outer Space: Problems of Law and Policy”, noted the increasing balance between the genders at these space conferences, something that I’ve noticed myself. In light of that fact, this week’s Carnival of Space is dedicated to:
The Women of Our Space Future
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Spring is in full bloom here in the metroplex, so I had to dig the rollerblades out of the closet. This will be my fifteenth year rollerblading, and I think the main reason that I continue to do so is that it is absolute joy. There’s a small park here in Addison Circle with a nice loop over by the airport that I like to blade around, in part because it reminds me of the ‘roller rink’ in Central Park, NYC.
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or: The quest for answers continues
In our quest to answer the question of whether plants can grow in Lunar regolith, the main obstacle to a definitive answer seems to be that we are limited in our research by the availability of actual Moon dirt to work with. This time around we’re going to look through NASA’s Lunar e-Library to see if we can find anything of interest, and also do a little speculating on what some of the possibilities might be for Lunar agriculture (cynthiculture?).
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or: Let’s consult the most comprehensive text to date.
Henninger et al’s “Lunar Base Agriculture: Soils for Lunar Plant Growth”, published in 1989 by the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America, weighing in at 255 pages. I’m not qualified enough to determine if there were factual errors hidden in the text, but no typographical errors were noted.
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or: How are we going to grow plants in sterile rock dust?
One of the key questions for early Lunar selenologists was whether or not the regolith of the Moon could support life. The results were pretty conclusively no, as most of the elements that we consider important for life such as carbon and nitrogen are scarce to be found. This would seem to make the Moon a pretty rotten place to try to grow plants, but there’s a strong likelihood that the Moon could turn out to be a fantastic place to grow the plants of Earth.
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Howdy Everyone! Welcome back to The Carnival of Space, which stops again here at Out of the Cradle with an all new show, its 31st ever!
[Update: Thanks to Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log for the heads-up on the broken links. They should all work now]
I’m Ken Murphy, the Lunar Librarian here at Out of the Cradle and your guest Ringmaster for this week. We’ve got an exciting show lined up, so let’s get started and blast off to Cislunar Space.
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Image by Clifford Geary from
‘The REAL BOOK about Space Travel’
Attention all readers!
Now that the Lunar Library is one year old, I’ve decided that it needs a logo for its first birthday present.
Since your friendly Lunar Librarian is sorely lacking in the Art arts (but appreciates them greatly), this is not a task I can easily or wisely undertake myself. I therefore call upon the space community at large to show me what you’ve got, and give me a logo that will eventually take the Lunar Library to the Moon! (I think this is what’s called a ‘bleg’)
In return I am willing to offer to the winner of the open competition the following duplicate copies from the Library:
“Moonrush” by Dennis Wingo (Apogee, 2004)
“The Once and Future Moon” by Paul Spudis (Smithsonian, 1996)
“Welcome to Moonbase” by Ben Bova (Random House, 1987)
“The Case for Going to the Moon” by Neil Ruzic (Putnam’s, 1965)
“You Will Go To the Moon” by Mae & Ira Freeman (Beginner Books Bookclub Ed., 1959)
This quintet represents some of the finest titles in the Lunar Library, and they’re for whomever comes up with the best logo that can be used on business cards and marketing materials.
Let’s say October 31st for the deadline. Submissions will be shared with Out of the Cradle readers for feedback. The winner would transfer all rights except for creator rights to the Lunar Library (i.e. you could still use it on your own website and portfolio materials, but couldn’t license or sell its use to anyone else. I could).
Caveats
All books are in fair condition or better. The first three are paperback, the last two are hardcover. Some wear and tear. Some markings from previous owners. Nothing major. I might throw in a poster or extra swag for a particularly pleasing result. No representations or warranties are express or implied in this solicitation. The Lunar Librarian indemnifies himself from all liability for any injury incurred or arising, physical or mental, as a result of this solicitation. If the Winning Logo is created using traditional media and rendered digitally for the competition, the original media will be submitted to the Lunar Library for future use. If there are any squawks about this solicitation being in violation of some statute or regulation then it will be terminated and all agreements shall be considered as rendered void (and I’d want my books back). Seriously, I’m just trying to have some fun with this. Hopefully everyone else will have fun as a result of this as well.
Submissions should be sent to my lunadyne address at gmail.com. I don’t want big honkin’ 10 meg files. It should be of a size where several of them in a blog post could be pulled up relatively quickly (by dial-up), but also look good on a business or post card.
Thanks in advance,and I look forward to the results.
Ken
Image by R.A. Smith from
“The Exploration of the Moon”
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Step right up ladies and gentlemen and prepare to be shocked and amazed at the wonders of the universe that await you here at the Carnival of Space. I’m Ken Murphy, custodian of the Lunar Library here at Out of the Cradle, and I’ll be your Ringmaster for this week. We have a full slate of submissions, so let’s dive right into the action. Our first attraction - Cislunar Space!
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“The Modern Moon: A Personal View” by Charles A. Wood
Published in 2003 by Sky Publishing Corp, it weighs in at 209 pages all in. No errors noted.
This was a recent acquisition to the Lunar Library, the result of a chance encounter at Half-Price Books. Flipping through it, I was immediately impressed with the variety of the information being displayed, and moved it up to the top of my to-read list. I’m glad I did. Mr. Wood has a long and distinguished background in Lunar science, and has contributed to many notable projects over the last several decades. He is best known now for his interview with Out of the Cradle, and also a little something known as the Lunar Photo of the Day (LPOD). He therefore brings a wealth of knowledge to this work, and what a work it is.
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| Howdy everyone, and welcome to the Best of the Moon 2007!
Each year we stop and take a look at the best additions to the Lunar Library over the course of the year. 2007 has been an unusual one for the Lunar Library, not least because your friendly Librarian was co-chair of the […]
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