Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight News

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 23, 2013 7:03:44 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - January 23, 2013 and JSC Today

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Tomorrow, Jan. 24: Day of Remembrance
2.            Revised Fire Protection System Outage Support
3.            Starport Spring Festival Flea Market and Craft Fair -- Register Now
4.            Electronics Recycling Event -- This Saturday
5.            2012 Career and Education Day at the GRB Convention Center
6.            SpaceUp Houston 2013 Unconference
7.            SpaceUp Houston Commercial Spaceflight Panel
8.            Aging Gracefully Part II: Later Life -- Postponed
9.            Physical Access Management (PAM) Replaces JSC CAA in IdMax
10.          Latest International Space Station Research
11.          Sustainability: Find Out How to Make a Difference TODAY
12.          Get Information About Financial Preparedness for Unanticipated Life Changes
13.          CoLAB: Microsoft Kinects and Gestural/Spatial Tracking
14.          Summer 2013 Interns
15.          Sam's Club Visit Tomorrow
16.          RLLS Translation Module WebEx Training Thursday, Jan. 24, at 10 a.m.
17.          Professional Engineering Ethics Seminar
18.          Investigating Aircraft and Flight System Mishaps: April 23 to 25
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
" We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. "

-- Martin Luther King Jr.
________________________________________
1.            Tomorrow, Jan. 24: Day of Remembrance
Tomorrow, Jan. 24, NASA will commemorate the men and women lost in the agency's space exploration program by celebrating their lives, their bravery and advancements in human spaceflight. All employees are encouraged to observe a moment of silence at their workplace or the commemorative tree grove located behind and adjacent to Building 110 to remember our friends and colleagues.
At 9 a.m., we will honor our NASA families and conclude by honoring the Columbia crew on the 10-year anniversary. A T-38 flyover is planned during the remembrance in the grove as tribute to the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia.
These astronauts and their families will always be a part of the NASA family, and we will continue to honor their contributions. Our Day of Remembrance commemorates not only the men and women lost in NASA's space exploration program and their courage, but celebrates human space exploration since then.
-- Apollo 1 (Jan. 27, 1967): Astronauts Roger B. Chaffee, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Edward H. White Jr.
-- Challenger (Jan. 28, 1986): Astronauts Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe
-- Columbia (Feb. 1, 2003): Astronauts Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark and Ilan Ramon
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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2.            Revised Fire Protection System Outage Support
Beginning Feb. 1, JSC, Sonny Carter Training Facility and Ellington Field fire protection system outage support and requests will be limited to Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please schedule all necessary and required outages for support at x36364 on these days only. The new policy will exclude fire protection outage support on Fridays. This is a NASA JSC directive to reduce manpower and budgetary requirements for supporting fire alarm outages on a daily basis.
Randy Armstrong x36363

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3.            Starport Spring Festival Flea Market and Craft Fair -- Register Now
On March 23, Starport will have one big spring event at the Gilruth Center. Not only will there be a crawfish boil and children's Spring Fling complete with Easter Bunny and egg hunt, but we will also host a Flea Market and Craft Fair. If you are interested in selling your unwanted items in the flea market or selling your homemade crafts, baked goods or new products at the craft fair, we are now accepting registrations. Click here for more information and the registration form.
Event Date: Saturday, March 23, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:2:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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4.            Electronics Recycling Event -- This Saturday
There will be an electronics recycling drive this Saturday, Jan. 26, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Clear Brook High School (4607 FM 2351, Friendswood).
Items being collected are PC towers, monitors, cables from computers and other electronics, cell phones, cell phone batteries, printers, cordless phones, surge protectors, old extension cords and Christmas lights, as well as laptops. Basically, anything with wires. ONLY LCD and PLASMA TVs can be accepted. Items are considered a donation, and a tax receipt will be given out for donations.
Event Date: Saturday, January 26, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:2:00 PM
Event Location: Clear Brook High School

Add to Calendar

Matt Lemke 281-435-1961

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5.            2012 Career and Education Day at the GRB Convention Center
The 27th Annual Career and Education Day is Saturday, Feb. 9, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center. JSC hosts a booth at the event where JSC folks interact with students from all backgrounds about NASA careers and the great work that NASA performs.
The JSC Hispanic Employee Resource Group is inviting ALL JSC team members to participate in this event, which is one of the largest of its kind with over 20,000 students (grades 6-12) and parents participating. This is a FREE event for everyone! So please share this with family and friends (career and education day flyer).
If you are interested in participating, please contact Mike Ruiz.
Event Date: Saturday, February 9, 2013   Event Start Time:8:00 AM   Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: George R Brown Convention Center

Add to Calendar

Baraquiel Reyna x46297

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6.            SpaceUp Houston 2013 Unconference
On Saturday, Feb. 9 (also at the Lunar & Planetary Institute), from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., we will be holding our third annual Unconference. A space unconference is where participants decide the topics of the event. Everyone who attends SpaceUp is encouraged to give a talk, moderate a panel or start a discussion. Sessions are proposed and scheduled on the day they're given, which means the usual "hallway conversations" turn into full-fledged topics. This year's event will feature four discussion sessions in which three rooms are active for each session. That's 12 space-related discussions that you can't get enough of.
Registration for the Unconference is $15 for adults, $5 for college students and free for kids 17 and under.
Event Date: Saturday, February 9, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:9:30 PM
Event Location: 3600 Bay Area Blvd.

Add to Calendar

Cindy Mahler 832-689-6979 http://spacepts.com/events/18/#.UPmJlb_DCJk

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7.            SpaceUp Houston Commercial Spaceflight Panel
We hope you will join us on Friday, Feb. 8, at the Lunar & Planetary Institute from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. for our fourth Commercial Spaceflight Panel. Suborbital and Orbital companies are returning to Houston to share with the SpaceUp Houston community about their progress since our last panel in June 2012. Our moderator is Jim Adams, NASA deputy chief technologist. Participating companies include Sierra Nevada, Orbital Sciences, XCOR, Southwest Research Institute and more. Stay up to date with our blog on additional speakers.
Event Date: Friday, February 8, 2013   Event Start Time:6:30 PM   Event End Time:9:30 PM
Event Location: 3600 Bay Area Blvd.

Add to Calendar

Cindy Mahler 832-689-6979 http://spacepts.com/events/17/#.UPmIib_DCJk

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8.            Aging Gracefully Part II: Later Life -- Postponed
The event that was scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 24, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium has been postponed until further notice.
Lorrie Bennett x36130

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9.            Physical Access Management (PAM) Replaces JSC CAA in IdMax
JSC is transitioning its current electronic JSC Controlled Area Access (CAA) application in IdMax to the agencywide Physical Access Management (PAM) tool. PAM will be listed in IdMax on the "Access Management" tab face page, with instructions at each tab addressing how to add, modify or close access areas for users. Request status will be available to the user/requester through a "View Request Status" link in IdMax. Individual records will have a different look, and current access will be listed in the user's "Assigned Access Level (s)" list. All current access will be grandfathered into the PAM system records, including access expiration dates.
Please note: No requests will be accepted for any CAA after close of business Thursday, Jan. 24. New requests will be submitted via PAM beginning Monday, Jan. 28. Questions regarding the agency PAM system may be submitted to: Marganette.m.williams@nasa.gov
Marganette Williams x46496

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10.          Latest International Space Station Research
What an inspired idea; let students teach and share with others the fascinating research astronauts perform on the International Space Station. After all, today's students are the future explorers and innovators of scientific discovery, space exploration and technological innovation. There is often nothing more gratifying to a kid or young adult than sharing what they know with others -- particularly their parents, teachers or friends.
The International Space Station Science Challenge is an excellent opportunity for students to learn more about the different types of investigations performed on orbit. At the same time, they can hone their scientific analysis skills and share what they learned with others.
Read more about the ISS Science Challenge here.
Liz Warren x35548

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11.          Sustainability: Find Out How to Make a Difference TODAY
Please join the Human Systems Academy in a lecture that introduces attendees to sustainability. What does "sustainability" mean? What can you do to be more sustainable at work and at home? Is sustainability a requirement? What can I do to make a difference right now? These questions and more are answered in the JSC Sustainability Engagement Strategy and will be addressed in this course.
For registration, please go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Event Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM
Event Location: B35/1958 Innovation Space

Add to Calendar

Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

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12.          Get Information About Financial Preparedness for Unanticipated Life Changes
Would you be able to maintain your quality of life if you or a loved one were suddenly permanently disabled? Learn about the fundamentals of financial planning for individuals with disAbilities who are seeking Social Security disability insurance benefits. The class will be held in Building 12, Room 134, on Thursday, Jan. 31. There are two sessions to choose from: 9 to 10 a.m. or 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Everyone is welcome. You must register to secure your spot by contacting Teresa Waite at teresa.l.waite@nasa.gov or 281-483-2402.
Accommodations for a specific disability are available upon request by contacting Janelle Holt at 281-483-7504 or janelle.holt-1@nasa.gov no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25.
Event Date: Thursday, January 31, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:10:00 AM
Event Location: Building 12, Room 134

Add to Calendar

Janelle Holt x37504

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13.          CoLAB: Microsoft Kinects and Gestural/Spatial Tracking
Join us tomorrow!
Are you working on or starting a project using Microsoft Kinects or any other type of gestural/spatial tracking hardware?
If so, you are invited to the new Collaborative Lab, or CoLab. CoLabs are collaborative lunches that will be held once a month in order to bring people and projects together. The goal of these lunches is to help individuals create a network of relationships and contacts centerwide with people who are working with similar technologies. CoLabs will provide a casual forum to share lessons learned and generate innovative new ideas and uses of technologies.
This will be the second meeting for CoLab: Kinect, but we are still looking for anyone to join us with their interest. It will be held tomorrow, Jan. 24, from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 30A/Room 2085A. Please bring your own lunch.
Event Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Buillding 30A/Rm 2085A

Add to Calendar

Elena Buhay 616-780-5013

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14.          Summer 2013 Interns
The Office of Education is now accepting intern project requests for summer 2013:
Session: Summer 2013 (college students)
Session Dates: May 20 to July 26
Submission Deadline: Feb. 1
All projects should be entered in NASA OSSI. As a mentor, you are now able to submit a description of your internship opportunity for summer 2013. All projects should be entered by the submission deadline of Feb. 1.
To upload your project and make student selections, click on this link and follow the instructions below:
1. Complete a mentor profile
o Provide or update contact information, primary area of expertise and job title
2. Submit your opportunities
o Create a new internship or fellowship opportunity, or modify an existing opportunity
o Submit the opportunity for approval by your organization
For system questions, contact: Diego Rodriguez at 281-792-7827 or diego.f.rodriguez@nasa.gov
Thank you for your support and dedication to the Office of Education at JSC.
Diego Rodriguez 281-792-7827 https://intern.nasa.gov

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15.          Sam's Club Visit Tomorrow
Sam's Club will be in the Buildings 3 and 11 cafés tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to discuss membership options for the JSC workforce. Sam's Club will also be out on Jan. 29 and Feb. 19 in case you can't make it tomorrow. Receive up to a $25 gift card on new memberships or renewals. Cash or check only for membership purchases.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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16.          RLLS Translation Module WebEx Training Thursday, Jan. 24, at 10 a.m.
TechTrans International (TTI) will provide a 30-minute WebEx training on Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. for the RLLS portal Translation support request module. This training will include the following elements:
o             Locating Translation support request module
o             Quick view of Translation support request
o             Create a new Translation support request
o             Translation submittal requirements
o             Adding an attachment and reference documents
o             Selecting document restrictions (export control, PII, confidential)
o             Adding additional email addresses distribution notices
o             Submitting Translation request
o             Status of Translation request records
o             View a Translation request record
o             Searching for documents in the archive
o             Contact RLLS support for additional help
Please send an email to James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign up for this RLLS Translation Support WebEx Training course. Classes will be limited to the first 20 individuals registered.
James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.tti-portal.com

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17.          Professional Engineering Ethics Seminar
Under the Texas Engineering Practice Act, each engineer licensed in the state must spend at least one professional development hour every year reviewing professional ethics and the roles and responsibilities for engineers.
The JSC Safety Learning Center invites JSC engineers to attend this one-hour Professional Engineering Ethics Seminar.
In this seminar, the student will:
o             Review portions of Chapter 137, "Compliance and Professionalism," and Chapter 139, "Enforcement," of the Texas Engineering Practice Act and Board Rules
o             Review some of the recent disciplinary actions taken by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers to enforce the Practice Act
o             Participate in class discussion regarding specific ethical questions
This seminar meets The Texas Engineering Practice Act yearly one-hour ethics requirement for continuing education.
Date/Time: Jan. 28 from 9 to 10 a.m.
Where: Safety Learning Center - Building 20, Room 205/206
Registration via SATERN required:
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
Aundrail Hill x36369

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18.          Investigating Aircraft and Flight System Mishaps: April 23 to 25
Class is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily in Building 20, Room 205/206. This course provides instruction in aviation and flight systems mishap investigation basics and policy. Topics discussed include: NASA NPR 8621.1B - mishap investigation requirements and terminology, investigator qualifications, board composition and field techniques. Evidence identification, recovery and protection, witness interviewing and site mapping, along with individual component systems and material failures, are key areas discussed during sessions on field investigation. The course contains extensive accident investigation information generally applicable to aviation accidents that can be applied to other areas of flight systems mishaps, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, rockets, balloons and other spaceflight systems mishaps such as Genesis. To register for this course, you MUST FIRST have completed the required four-part online prerequisite: (SMA-002-07) - Overview of Mishap Investigations; (SMA-002-08) - Mishap Investigation Roles and Responsibilities; (SMA-002-09) - Completing the Investigation and Mishap Report; and (SMA-002-10) - Root Cause Analysis. Update Profile First. SATERN Registration Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Polly Caison x41279

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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

NASA TV: 9:30 am Central (10:30 EST) – Martin Luther King Jr., Program

Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – January 23, 2013

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Scientists See Big Rewards (and Risk) in Private Spaceflight

Nola Taylor Redd - Space.com

Private spaceflight should create many opportunities for scientific progress, though risk will have to be minimized for the field to really take off, a panel of experts stressed earlier this month. The burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry should help develop new technologies and bring launch costs down, allowing more people and more scientific experiments to go up into space, panelists said Jan. 11 during an event at Caltech in Pasadena called "Science and the New Space Race: Opportunities and Obstacles."

NASA, ESA Expand Cooperation
Service module will propel the NASA test-flight of the Orion crew capsule in 2017

Amy Svitak & Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

Lacking the ability to finance costly manned space missions on its own, Europe has long had ambitions to serve as a junior partner in a collaborative campaign that would send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit. In January, the European Space Agency (ESA) found the right partner in NASA when the U.S. space agency announced plans to put Europe on the critical path for early development of its Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, a vessel designed for mission to cislunar space, near-Earth asteroids and perhaps Mars.

Blast from the past: NASA fires up historic engine parts for new rocket

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

NASA is reigniting its mighty moon rocket engine using parts retrieved from museums and displays. Engineers working this month at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are completing a series of test firings using recovered components from 40 year old F-1 engines. The 19-foot tall (5.8 meter) by 12-foot wide (3.8 meter) Apollo powerhouses launched the space agency's Saturn V rockets on voyages to the Earth orbit and to the moon. Between 1967 and 1973, a total of 65 F-1 engines were launched, five per flight, on 13 Saturn V boosters.

Company envisions asteroid mining

William Harwood - CBS News

Hoping to take the commercialization of space to a higher level, a second company has jumped into what the founders hope will be a lucrative emerging market, prospecting for raw materials among near-Earth asteroids using fleets of low-cost robotic spacecraft, senior executives said Tuesday. The long-range goal is to develop an in situ manufacturing capability, harvesting raw materials and building components in space using high-tech mini foundries built around sophisticated 3D printers.

Asteroid mining firm aims to raise $20 million in funding

Frank Shyong - Los Angeles Times

A group of private entrepreneurs is raising $20 million to fund the first stage of a mission to identify asteroids close to Earth and mine them for valuable materials. Deep Space Industries plans to launch three small crafts armed with cameras, called Fireflies, on an asteroid discovery mission as early as 2015. Three more spacecrafts, called Dragonflies, are expected to launch in 2016 to collect samples to be evaluated for mining potential. Planetary Resources, a Seattle company that launched its asteroid-mining operation last year, is developing a space telescope for spaceflight soon.

The Promise and Perils of Mining Asteroids
Virginia company has joined ranks of entrepreneurs looking to space for next economic opportunity

Marc Kaufman - National Geographic News

Encouraged by new space technologies, a growing fleet of commercial rockets and the vast potential to generate riches, a group of entrepreneurs announced Tuesday that they planned to mine the thousands of near-Earth asteroids in the coming decades. The new company, Deep Space Industries (DSI), is not the first in the field, nor is it the most well-financed. But with their ambition to become the first asteroid prospectors, and ultimately miners and manufacturers, they are aggressively going after what Mark Sonter, a member of DSI's board of directors, called "the main resource opportunity of the 21st century."

Asteroid mining: Second company announces plans. Time to stake a claim?

Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor

Asteroids aren't just for dodging anymore. Less than a year after a company called Planetary Resources announced plans to survey, then mine, asteroids, a second company has set out its plans to turn orbiting piles of cosmic rubble into rocket fuel, solar panels, and trusses for spacecraft hundreds to thousands of miles above Earth. Suddenly asteroid mining has the potential of becoming a competitive field.

Deep Space Industries' lofty asteroid ambitions face high financial hurdles

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Deep Space Industries' backers say that their newly revealed plan to seek out and dig into near-Earth asteroids has already attracted interest and investors — but they also admit they're looking for much more. "We have some investors on board," the company's CEO, David Gump, told journalists during Tuesday's briefing at California's Santa Monica Museum of Flying, "and one reason for having this press conference is to become findable by additional investors."

Into deep space: second U.S. firm takes aim at mining asteroids

Irene Klotz - Reuters

A team of entrepreneurs and engineers unveiled plans on Tuesday for a space mining company that would tap nearby asteroids for raw materials to fuel satellites and manufacture components in orbit. Deep Space Industries, based in Santa Monica, California, said its inaugural mission is targeted for 2015, when it would send a small hitchhiker spacecraft called "Firefly" on a six-month expedition to survey an as-yet-unidentified asteroid.

Is Space Big Enough for Two Asteroid-Mining Companies?

Mike Wall - Space.com

The latest company to launch into the asteroid-mining business isn't worried about competition from its biggest rival, saying that the resources of deep space are vast enough to support a bustling new industry off Earth's surface. The new company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., announced today (Jan. 22) that it plans to mine asteroids for metals, water and other resources, with the goal of helping humanity spread throughout the solar system. Another company with similar goals, the billionaire-backed Planetary Resources, unveiled its own plans last April. Both companies can coexist and prosper, Deep Space officials said during a press conference Tuesday.

Asteroid prospecting: what could we stand to gain?

Nick Collins - London Daily Telegraph

More than 9,000 asteroids whose orbit passes near Earth have already been discovered and another 900 or so are discovered every year. Many of the space rocks are thought to contain valuable resources such as industrial metals (nickel and iron, for example), valuable platinum-like metals, silicon, water and gases. Mining an asteroid and flying the material back for use on Earth would be wildly inefficient – the cost of returning metals from space would be greater than their terrestrial value.

Astronaut Snaps Beautiful Photo of 'Night-Shining Clouds'

Douglas Main - OurAmazingPlanet.com

Even when night blankets the land, some clouds high in the atmosphere may still glow, as seen in this photograph taken by a crewmember aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 5, looking down over French Polynesia in the South Pacific. Known as polar mesospheric or noctilucent clouds, these formations have been spotted from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres on ground, in airplanes and on spacecraft, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield drops puck from space for Maple Leafs' opener

Harrison Mooney - Yahoo Sports

Astronaut Chris Hadfield is the first Canadian to do just about everything in space, from walking in space to commanding a space station, to tweeting from space. Now, he's also the first to participate in a ceremonial faceoff from space. On Monday night, the Sarnia, Ontario native, a proud Toronto Maple Leafs fan, beamed in live from the International Space Station for the Leafs' home opener Monday night to propel the puck to center ice.

50 Years of Presidential Visions for Space Exploration

Mike Wall - Space.com

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced a bold new plan for NASA and the nation: To send an American to the moon, and to return him safely, by the close of the decade. Kennedy's speech, which came just six weeks after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to reach outer space, had a huge impact on NASA and space exploration. It jump-started the agency's Apollo program, a full-bore race to the moon that succeeded on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong's boot crunched down into the gray lunar dirt. Kennedy, of course, isn't the only leader who had a vision for the nation's space program. Since NASA's founding in 1958, every president from Eisenhower to Obama has left his mark. Take a look at how each U.S. commander-in-chief helped shape and steer American activities in space.

Virgin Galactic, trial lawyers reach agreement on spaceport liability bill

Milan Simonich - Las Cruces Sun-News

Southern New Mexico's $209 million Spaceport America is now better positioned to attract businesses and space travelers because of a deal limiting liability in case of a crash, Democrat leaders in the Legislature said Tuesday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez said Virgin Galactic, anchor tenant of the spaceport, and the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association had come to an agreement after rounds of negotiations that started last summer. Details were vague, but Sanchez said a bill outlining the liability limits would be ready for release Wednesday morning.
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COMPLETE STORIES

Scientists See Big Rewards (and Risk) in Private Spaceflight

Nola Taylor Redd - Space.com

Private spaceflight should create many opportunities for scientific progress, though risk will have to be minimized for the field to really take off, a panel of experts stressed earlier this month.

The burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry should help develop new technologies and bring launch costs down, allowing more people and more scientific experiments to go up into space, panelists said Jan. 11 during an event at Caltech in Pasadena called "Science and the New Space Race: Opportunities and Obstacles."

Space policy expert John Logsdon, for example, noted that current launch vehicles are still based on intercontinental ballistic missiles — which is 1950s-era technology.

"Private industry can be the driving force in creating new capabilities," said Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington University.

A growing industry

Steve Isakowitz, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Virgin Galactic, observed that developing new technologies is not the highest priority for his company.

"We're being as conservative as possible," he said, noting that the company is seeking to build on existing technology. Virgin Galactic aims to develop space tourism, and has already taken more than 500 deposits for suborbital flights.

Pioneering companies such as Virgin likely won't have the private spaceflight field to themselves for long.

"Once the frontier opens up, we hope other people will join us," Isakowitz said.

Along with carrying passengers on suborbital flights, Virgin Galactic also intends to carry satellites into space aboard its LauncherOne rocket, for $10 million per ride.

Virgin Galactic isn't the only company looking to enter the market. Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is one of the top contenders to take over the role of the space shuttle in ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX is already carrying cargo into space for NASA with its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket, having completed its first contracted resupply mission for the space agency late last year.

"We are looking to expand Dragon beyond cargo and crew," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said, discussing the possibility of attaching scientific payloads to the craft.

Risky business

Both Virgin Galactic and SpaceX acknowledge the risks inherent in the spaceflight industry. Failure comes in two types — the loss of scientific opportunities and the loss of human life.

The riskiness of unmanned scientific missions is a simpler challenge to grapple with. John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science and a former space shuttle astronaut, referred to the switch in paradigms the agency made in the 1990s.

After several costly failures, NASA switched to a "better, faster, cheaper" strategy of sending several smaller, less expensive scientific missions every few years, rather than large costly ones once or twice a decade. The new scheme helped mitigate the financial and scientific costs of failure.

Such a strategy will likely be continued as space travel became more privatized. NASA could continue to schedule larger missions as necessary, but major undertakings will probably be interspersed with smaller projects.

The trick is balancing cost and risk, experts say.

"The private sector is free to take those risks," Grunsfeld said, pointing out that it doesn't have to deal with government bureaucracy.

A work in progress

Because private industry doesn't spend taxpayers' money, it also faces less public scrutiny. Grunsfeld pointed to Felix Baumgartner's recent supersonic jump, which was privately funded, noting that the public accepted the risk taken by Baumgartner and his mission team, known as Red Bull Stratos.

But that doesn't mean that outrageous risks will be taken when it comes to astronauts.

"No one ever wants to lose a life," Shotwell said.

NASA has mandated that spacecraft carrying people contain an astronaut escape system to be used in the event of an emergency. At the same time, the Dragon spacecraft is outfitted with redundancies in its propulsion system, since loss of propulsion is the primary cause of failure in a launch.

"If you fail, it should be because you pushed to the frontier," Grunsfeld said. "Failure due to poor craftsmanship is not an option."

Still, space travel is inherently risky. How might the public respond if one of the first private flights results in a tragic loss of life?

"It would be really difficult for the industry to pick up after that," Shotwell said. "It would pick up after that, but it would be hard."

"Science and the New Space Race: Opportunities and Obstacles" was supported by the Keck Institute for Space Studies and the Caltech Y, a nonprofit organization that seeks to broaden the perspectives of the university's students.

NASA, ESA Expand Cooperation
Service module will propel the NASA test-flight of the Orion crew capsule in 2017

Amy Svitak & Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

Lacking the ability to finance costly manned space missions on its own, Europe has long had ambitions to serve as a junior partner in a collaborative campaign that would send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit.

In January, the European Space Agency (ESA) found the right partner in NASA when the U.S. space agency announced plans to put Europe on the critical path for early development of its Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, a vessel designed for mission to cislunar space, near-Earth asteroids and perhaps Mars.

Under the agreement announced Jan. 16, ESA will leverage its International Space Station experience with the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into a critical-path responsibility: an ATV-derived service module for one and possibly two test flights of the Orion atop the new Space Launch System (SLS) that NASA is developing for manned exploration of the moon and beyond.

Top officials at both agencies credit their long-standing partnership in the 15-nation International Space Station (ISS) as the basis of a budding alliance that could place European astronauts aboard future U.S.-led deep-space missions. Specifically, ESA's pledge to provide five ATV cargo resupply missions to the six-person orbiting space lab between 2008-14, a barter agreement that covers Europe's share of the ISS common operating costs through 2017.

Instead of continuing ATV production, elements of the EADS-Astrium ATV will be adapted for NASA's Exploration Space Mission-1, an unpiloted 2017 test flight of the Orion capsule and an initial version of the SLS on a flight to the lunar environs, says William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations. Spare service module components developed under the new agreement, if available, could be rededicated to the service module portion of Exploration Space Mission-2, a 2021 piloted test of the Orion and SLS on a similar trajectory.

The preliminaries, including hardware responsibilities and contractor roles, have been in the works for months. ESA ministers pledged a 60% commitment of their cost—about €455 million ($600 million) in late 2012. The balance could come in mid-2014 if ESA's 20 member states commit the remaining money in a new multi-year spending plan, says Thomas Reiter, a former astronaut who heads ESA's human spaceflight and operations division.

"This is the normal process," Reiter says. "There is a clear path forward and a clear commitment on a basic programmatic ground for the time until the end of this decade."

The service module contribution has strong backing from Germany, which has shouldered 40% of Europe's spending on the space station to date. Others, notably Italy, reduced their contribution to the program through 2014, while France—ESA's second-largest contributor—is cautioning only provisional support for ISS through the end of the decade.

"France is ready to pursue ISS to 2020 provided we are able to master the costs," Joel Barre, head of operations for French space agency CNES, said Jan. 15 in Paris. "We also believe there should be better balance between Europe and the U.S., and hope [Orion] could redirect our operation to a more balanced relationship in the decision-making process."

Still, the two agencies expressed cautious optimism about the future course of the partnership, the first international involvement in NASA's deep-space ambitions, which are focused on a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid in 2025.

"When we talk about international cooperation, it is not talked about lightly here," Gerstenmaier says. "We probably would not have done this without the experience we had on the space station. We have learned the real meaning of cooperation is not actually counting on your partner to be there. It's actually giving up a piece of the spacecraft. That was not done lightly."

Reiter agrees: "We are looking for synergies in technical and programmatic ways. ESA has proven to be a reliable partner in the context of the ISS. Based on that, especially the ATV, this is a good choice to make for exploration—synergies that have been developed in the past that can be beneficial for reaching a common objective."

Under the terms of the agreement, NASA will furnish the Orion capsule, launch-abort system and adapters that protect the capsule's heat shield. NASA will also merge the service module to the SLS as well as jettisonable fairings.

ESA—most likely through ATV industrial prime contractor Astrium Space Transportation—will provide the actual service module structure, holding propulsion and solar-power components as well as the life-support needs of the Orion crews. The first service module will integrate spare NASA shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System components. The Europeans will also provide sustaining engineering for their hardware, which could be used for the second Orion flight in 2021. Beyond that, however, Gerstenmaier says Europe's continued participation in Orion is unknown.

"We have made sure we have kept the right intellectual property that's available to us on the NASA/U.S.-government side so that we can manufacture the follow-on service modules if we need to on our side, or if we decide it is advantageous to us to continue on those future flights with the Europeans, we can work with the Europeans to do that," Gerstenmaier says. "We've really made no decisions about those future flights."

In the meantime, Bernardo Patti, ESA director of operations for the ISS, says industry will operate under a tight schedule to develop and integrate the service module hardware in time for NASA's planned 2017 test flight. Although industry contracts have not been awarded, he expects the project to achieve preliminary design review (PDR) in 2013.

"We are placing industrial contracts and we are facing the very challenging schedule that will bring us to PDR by the second part of the year," Patti says. "The team is extremely excited and enthusiastic [and] looks forward to the PDR to confirm that all the expectations we are building will materialize further."

Blast from the past: NASA fires up historic engine parts for new rocket

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

NASA is reigniting its mighty moon rocket engine using parts retrieved from museums and displays.

Engineers working this month at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are completing a series of test firings using recovered components from 40 year old F-1 engines. The 19-foot tall (5.8 meter) by 12-foot wide (3.8 meter) Apollo powerhouses launched the space agency's Saturn V rockets on voyages to the Earth orbit and to the moon.

Between 1967 and 1973, a total of 65 F-1 engines were launched, five per flight, on 13 Saturn V boosters.

To develop the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's next generation heavy-lift rocket, engineers are dissecting, refurbishing and re-firing components from the remaining F-1s to gain a better understanding of how the engine was designed and worked. Even four decades later, the F-1 is still the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever developed.

For these tests, which included a 20-second hot fire on Jan. 10, the team removed a gas generator from an F-1 engine that was stored at Marshall and another in almost pristine condition from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

From display stand to test stand

"Being able to hold the parts of this massive engine that once took us to the moon, restoring it, and then seeing it come back to life through hot firings and test data has been an amazing experience," Kate Estes, a NASA liquid propulsion systems engineer, said in an agency release.

The team decided to take apart the gas generator, the part of the engine responsible for supplying power to drive the giant F-1's turbopump, because its component parts were small enough to be tested in Marshall's laboratories. The gas generator is often one of the first pieces designed on a new engine because it is a key part for determining the size of the final engine assembly.

Once they had the artifacts-turned-test samples in hand, Marshall's team used a novel technique called structured light 3D scanning to produce three-dimensional, computer aided design drawings of the gas generator.

"This activity provided us with information for determining how some parts of the engine might be more affordably manufactured using modern techniques," Estes said. "We decided that using modern instrumentation to measure the generator's performance would provide beneficial [data] for NASA and industry."

The engineers then used a digital manufacturing technique called selective laser melting to quickly produce the metal parts they needed for the test and to determine the hot gas temperature and pressure inside the test article.

Old pad, new tricks

The series of hot-fire tests were conducted on Test Stand 116 in the Marshall Space Flight Center's East Test Area.

"We modified the test stand to accommodate a single kerosene gas generator component," test conductor Ryan Wall described. "These tests demonstrate the stand's new capabilities, which will be beneficial for future NASA and industry propulsion activities."

The most noticeable aspect of these firings is the sheer power when the gas generator ignites and creates roughly 31,000 pounds of force. When the original F-1 lit up, the gas generator powered the enormous turbomachinery that pumped almost three tons of propellant each second into the thrust chamber and accelerated through the nozzle, creating an incredible 1.5 million pounds of thrust.

"Modern instruments, testing and analysis improvements learned over [the past] 40 years, and digital scanning and imagery techniques are allowing us to obtain baseline data on performance and combustion stability," Nick Case, an engineer from Marshall's propulsion systems department, said. "We are even gathering data not collected when the engine was tested originally in the 1960s."

Since NASA conducted this work in-house, the data that was collected is not proprietary. It will be shared with the agency's industry partners and academic researchers.

More F-1 tests on the horizon

"This effort provided NASA with an affordable way to explore an engine design in the early development phase of the SLS program," Chris Crumbly, manager of the SLS Advanced Development Office, said.

The larger, evolved SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with more thrust than any existing U.S. liquid- or solid-fueled boosters. Last year, NASA awarded contracts aimed at improving the affordability, performance, and the reliability of the rocket's advanced booster.

Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., in collaboration with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif.— the same company that developed the F-1 engine — will use these early tests as a springboard for more gas generator testing at Marshall. Then, they will use modern manufacturing to build a new gas generator injector that also will be hot fired in Test Stand 116 and then compared to the baseline data collected during the earlier test series.

Additionally, Dynetics plans to fabricate and test several other F-1 engine parts, including turbine blades, leading to the testing of an entire F-1B powerpack including the gas generator and turbopump, the heart of engine operations.

Company envisions asteroid mining

William Harwood - CBS News

Hoping to take the commercialization of space to a higher level, a second company has jumped into what the founders hope will be a lucrative emerging market, prospecting for raw materials among near-Earth asteroids using fleets of low-cost robotic spacecraft, senior executives said Tuesday.

The long-range goal is to develop an in situ manufacturing capability, harvesting raw materials and building components in space using high-tech mini foundries built around sophisticated 3D printers.

"This is about the future. This is about making something happen," company chairman Rick Tumlinson told reporters during a news conference in Santa Monica, Calif. "Deep Space Industries is a space resources company. We are about prospecting, exploring, harvesting, processing and manufacturing based on the resources of space.

"Overall, our business plan, our idea, is to get into this field as it begins. And it is beginning today."

Deep Space Industries plans to begin initial operations in the 2015 by launching a trio of small satellites that will hitch rides to space as secondary payloads on missions to launch communications satellites and other large spacecraft.

The solar powered DSI FireFly spacecraft, equipped with propulsion systems, solar panels and a suite of compact sensors and cameras, then will head off on high-speed one-way trips to selected targets to characterize the makeup of the asteroids in question and their suitability for mining.

The FireFlies will weigh about 55 pounds and be based on designs currently used for low-cost Cubesat missions sponsored by universities and other researchers.

If all goes well, DSI will follow the FireFly deployment with slightly larger DragonFly spacecraft in the 2017 timeframe. Tipping the scales at about 70 pounds, the DragonFlies will be launched on missions lasting two to four years with the goal of retrieving 60 to 150 pounds of asteroid material.

DSI's long range plans include systems to grind up asteroid materials and a "MicroGravity Foundry" using a laser-driven 3D printer to build complex metal components in the absence of gravity.

Company officials did not discuss what it might cost to build and launch the envisioned spacecraft. But they stressed that no radically new technology is required to turn the dream into reality.

"You don't see any magic," said John Mankins, DSI's chief technical officer. "You don't see any space elevators, you don't see anti-gravity, you don't see warp drive. There is nothing in the business plan that Deep Space Industries is pursuing that cannot be done with technology research that has already been accomplished in laboratories across the planet."

While the technologies may not have been used in space, "the fundamental technologies are really at hand and it's really a question more of how to accelerate their application and deployment in a way that makes both scientific and business sense," Mankins said.

In April 2012, another company, Planetary Resources Inc., announced plans to identify near-Earth asteroids loaded with ice, precious metals and other raw materials and then to send robotic landers to selected targets to carry out mining operations.

Planetary Resources is focused on returning valuable ores to Earth or to convert ice into rocket fuel to dramatically lower the cost of space exploration.

Asked if the as-yet untested market could support multiple competitors, Tumlinson said "we all came up together, all of us in the different companies have sort of the same heritage."

"We see it as complimentary competition," he said. "And you know what? One company may be a fluke. Two companies showing up, that's the beginning of an industry. And so what you're witnessing right now is the beginning of a real industry that begins beyond low-Earth orbit.

"We look forward to working together with these guys. They've got slightly different aims than we do, but space is big. There's room for everybody."

Asteroid mining firm aims to raise $20 million in funding

Frank Shyong - Los Angeles Times

A group of private entrepreneurs is raising $20 million to fund the first stage of a mission to identify asteroids close to Earth and mine them for valuable materials.

Deep Space Industries plans to launch three small crafts armed with cameras, called Fireflies, on an asteroid discovery mission as early as 2015. Three more spacecrafts, called Dragonflies, are expected to launch in 2016 to collect samples to be evaluated for mining potential.

Planetary Resources, a Seattle company that launched its asteroid-mining operation last year, is developing a space telescope for spaceflight soon.

More than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids have been recorded, according to NASA. Some have a diameter larger than a kilometer and are packed with valuable materials such as nickel and rare earth metals used for electronics.

Experts believe that asteroid mining could become its own industry. The Keck Institute for Space Studies, a Caltech think tank, said in a study last year that the technology to capture and mine asteroids exists.

Deep Space Industries' founders called asteroid mining a potential "gold rush" during an unofficial launch event Tuesday at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying.
The company, based in McLean, Va., plans to pay satellite companies to allow its 55-pound Fireflies to ride piggyback on existing launches of commercial satellites at a cost of about $1 million per launch. In space, the Fireflies will fan out to take pictures of potentially valuable asteroids, soaring as far as four times the distance to the moon.

The yet-to-be-built Dragonfly spacecraft would grab samples of likely asteroids and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

Larger crafts then would be used to tow the best asteroids into Earth's orbit, where the materials could be mined to create products, such as heat shields and fuel, for space missions.

Deep Space Industries has a patent pending on a 3-D-printing process that can create high-strength metal objects from schematics in zero-gravity conditions. Co-founder David Gump, who negotiated and directed the first TV commercial filmed on the Mir space station, said that building a prototype of the printer is expected to cost about $500,000. Products from the printer could be used to repair spacecrafts and satellites.

The Firefly mission is expected to generate revenue by selling data on asteroids and sponsorship rights and by giving investors the opportunity to test their own technologies in space, Gump said.

The Promise and Perils of Mining Asteroids
Virginia company has joined ranks of entrepreneurs looking to space for next economic opportunity

Marc Kaufman - National Geographic News

Encouraged by new space technologies, a growing fleet of commercial rockets and the vast potential to generate riches, a group of entrepreneurs announced Tuesday that they planned to mine the thousands of near-Earth asteroids in the coming decades.

The new company, Deep Space Industries (DSI), is not the first in the field, nor is it the most well-financed. But with their ambition to become the first asteroid prospectors, and ultimately miners and manufacturers, they are aggressively going after what Mark Sonter, a member of DSI's board of directors, called "the main resource opportunity of the 21st century."

Prospecting using miniaturized "cubesat" probes the size of a laptop will begin by 2015, company executives announced. They plan to return collections of asteroid samples to Earth not long after.

"Using low cost technologies, and combining the legacy of [the United States'] space program with the innovation of today's young high tech geniuses, we will do things that would have been impossible just a few years ago," said Rick Tumlinson, company chairman and a longtime visionary and organizer in the world of commercial space [not sure what commercial space means].

"We sit in a sea of resources so infinite they're impossible to describe," Tumlinson said.

Added Value

There are some 9,000 asteroids described as "near-Earth," and they contain several classes of resources that entrepreneurs are now eyeing as economically valuable.

Elements such as gold and platinum can be found on some asteroids. But water, silicon, nickel, and iron are the elements expected to become central to a space "economy" should it ever develop.

Water can be "mined" for its hydrogen (a fuel) and oxygen (needed for humans in space), while silicon can be used for solar power systems, and the ubiquitous nickel and iron for potential space manufacturing.

Sonter, an Australian mining consultant and asteroid specialist, said that 700 to 800 near-Earth asteroids are easier to reach and land on than the moon.

DSI's prospecting spacecraft will be called "FireFlies," a reference to the popular science fiction television series of the same name. The FireFlies will hitchhike on rockets carrying up communication satellites or scientific instruments, but they will be designed so that they also have their own propulsion systems. The larger mining spacecraft to follow have been named "DragonFlies."

Efficiencies

It all sounds like science fiction, but CEO David Gump said that the technology is evolving so quickly that a space economy can soon become a reality. Providing resources from beyond Earth to power spacecraft and keep space travelers alive is the logical way to go.

That's because the most expensive and resource-intensive aspect of space travel is pushing through the Earth's atmosphere. Some 90 percent of the weight lifted by a rocket sending a capsule to Mars is fuel. Speaking during a press conference at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California, Gump said that Mars exploration would be much cheaper, and more efficient, if some of the fuel could be picked up en route.

Although there is little competition in the asteroid mining field so far, DSI has some large hurdles ahead of it. The first company to announce plans for asteroid mining was Planetary Resources, Inc. in spring 2012—the group is backed by big-name investors such as Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron, and early Google investor Ram Shriram. DSI is still looking for funding.

Owning Asteroids

While these potential space entrepreneurs are confident they can physically lay claim to resources beyond Earth, there remain untested legal issues.

The United Nations Space Treaty of 1967 expressly forbids ownership of other celestial bodies by governments on Earth. But American administrations have long argued that the same is not true of private companies and potential mining rights.

While an American court has ruled that an individual cannot own an asteroid—as in the case of Gregory Nemitz, who laid claim to 433 Eros as a NASA spacecraft was approaching it in 2001—the question of extraction rights has not been tested.

Moon rocks brought back to Earth during the Apollo program are considered to belong to the United States, and the Russian space agency has sold some moon samples it has returned to Earth-sales seen by some as setting a precedent.

Despite the potential for future legal issues, DSI's Gump said his group recently met with top NASA officials to discuss issues regarding technology and capital, and came away optimistic. "There's a great hunger for the idea of getting space missions done with smaller, cheaper 'cubesat' technology and for increased private sector involvement."

Everyone involved acknowledged the vast challenges and risks ahead, but they see an equally vast potential—both financial and societal.

"Over the decades, we believe these efforts will help expand the civilization of Earth into the cosmos, and change what it means to be a citizen of this planet," Tumlinson said.

Asteroid mining: Second company announces plans. Time to stake a claim?

Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor

Asteroids aren't just for dodging anymore. Less than a year after a company called Planetary Resources announced plans to survey, then mine, asteroids, a second company has set out its plans to turn orbiting piles of cosmic rubble into rocket fuel, solar panels, and trusses for spacecraft hundreds to thousands of miles above Earth.

Suddenly asteroid mining has the potential of becoming a competitive field.

The ultimate goal is to make space exploration and development more affordable by obtaining fuel and construction material from easy-to-reach sources that flit past Earth all the time, rather than the costlier method of hauling everything up from Earth.

As a start, representatives of Deep Space Industries (DSI) on Tuesday outlined the company's plans to launch small prospector missions to asteroids beginning in 2015. A year later, the firm plans to launch its first sample-return mission, which aims to bring back samples of an asteroid not by the cupful, but in 60- to 150-pound quantities.

Such amounts not only would present a bonanza for the research community. They also would provide pristine test material for mining, refining, and manufacturing techniques the company is developing for use in space.

To company chairman Rick Tumlinson, DSI's ultimate goals represent a logical next step beyond government-sponsored exploration programs. He drew an analogy between NASA's human-spaceflight program and the Lewis and Clark Expedition under Thomas Jefferson, which was followed by a westward flow of settlers.

"We are the settlers and shopkeepers" heading into this latest frontier, he added.

Over the past 32 years, astronomers have discovered about 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, largely with the goal of assessing the risk of a collision with Earth. But among those 9,000, about 1,700 require only about as much energy to reach as a trip to the moon – an alluring prospect for cosmic prospectors interested in exploiting the asteroids' resource potential.

For all the various elements asteroids may provide – from platinum to iron and silicon – perhaps the most immediately valuable resource they carry is water ice, which can be used to make rocket fuel.

Therein lies the early money, according to officials with DSI and with Planetary Resources.

One early market, DSI officials say, could well be communications satellites. These run out of fuel long before their hardware fails. Although in principle these satellites could be refueled, sending that fuel from Earth is prohibitively expensive. So, before their tanks run dry, they must be sent to graveyard orbits where they won't collide with other satellites and become space junk. Fuel manufactured in space from water ice liberated from asteroids, however, could extend the operating life of a satellite.

Each month of additional service is worth another $5 million to $8 million to a communications-satellite operator, notes David Gump, DSI's chief executive officer.

The ability to make and pump fuel in space also could cut the cost of a mission to Mars, he adds.

The near-term objectives DSI has set for its missions in 2015 and 2016 appear more aggressive than those Planetary Resources set for itself.

Where DSI plans to launch sample return missions beginning in 2016, Planetary Resources is focusing on two types of small but powerful space telescopes for use near Earth. One type would orbit continuously, alternating its gaze from space and the hunt for undiscovered asteroids and other cosmic objects to Earth for various remote-sensing tasks. Similar telescopes with added propulsion could be used to intercept asteroids that are discovered shortly before a close encounter with Earth. A third, more-capable class, would be sent to take the measure of distant asteroids.

For private mining enterprises to thrive in space, however, you need more than a few robotics engineers, deep-pocketed investors, an d a ride into space, some specialists say. You also need a legal framework that defines property rights in ways that give investors confidence that the stake you claimed won't get jumped, leaving you with no recourse.

Under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, for instance, no country can lay claim to another celestial body, including an asteroid. But it was silent on the issue of individual claims to a chunk of space rock.

The 1979 Moon Treaty was supposed to close that gap, notes Frans von der Dunk, a law professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln who specializes in space law. Among other things, the treaty bans individual or corporate ownership of any celestial object. The only organization that can claim jurisdiction must be international and governmental.

But the treaty "has remained a dead letter except for a few countries of minor space-faring status," he says. The big players want to keep their options open.

At the moment, outside of compliance with any applicable US laws, no law prevents either company from mining asteroids, Dr. von der Dunk explains. Nor is there a law to prevent anyone from landing a monster scoop next door and mining the same ice-rich deposit of rubble.

That could change as either company, or any additional entries into the moon or asteroid-mining arena, get much closer to scraping space dirt.

Indeed, the time to start crafting some form of property-rights regimes for space is now, rather than later when more capital has been invested in the mining business, von der Dunk suggests. Wait too long, and incentives to act could be thwarted by those vested interests who would prefer a more Wild West approach to mining.

The time to devise "a sensible and balanced regime" for exploiting space resources is well in advance of "the first actual activities," he says.

Deep Space Industries' lofty asteroid ambitions face high financial hurdles

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Deep Space Industries' backers say that their newly revealed plan to seek out and dig into near-Earth asteroids has already attracted interest and investors — but they also admit they're looking for much more.

"We have some investors on board," the company's CEO, David Gump, told journalists during Tuesday's briefing at California's Santa Monica Museum of Flying, "and one reason for having this press conference is to become findable by additional investors."

The event gave Gump and his partners a chance to lay out their vision for new in-space industries, ranging from asteroid reconnaissance to solar-power satellites and space settlement. However, they provided few details about their financial backers or their customers.

One potential customer is NASA, which might be interested in purchasing the data gathered by Deep Space's asteroid-hunting probes. NASA struck just such a data-purchase plan with some of the teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, which is aimed at encouraging the development of private-sector moon rovers.

Gump said he and other executives met with space agency officials to discuss Deep Space's plans to launch fleets of low-cost asteroid probes as early as 2015. "We found a great hunger for the idea that we can get space missions done for a much lower cost," he said. Such data could help the space agency fine-tune its plans to send astronauts to an asteroid in the mid-2020s.

Deep Space's development plan calls for launching three of its Cubesat-based reconnaissance satellites, known as FireFlies, as piggyback payloads on a yet-to-be-determined launch vehicle in 2015. Those 25-kilogram (55-pound) spacecraft would go on six-month, one-way missions to scout out near-Earth asteroids. In 2016, a 32-kilogram (70-pound) DragonFly probe would take on the first three- to four-year mission to bring up to 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of asteroid samples back to Earth.

Gump said commercial in-space processing could begin as early as 2020, facilitated by Harvestor spacecraft capable of bringing hundreds of tons of material back to Earth orbit. An industrial type of 3-D printer could turn the ground-up metal from an iron-nickel asteroid into tools and spacecraft components. More precious metals such as gold or platinum could be shipped down to Earth.

Another potentially profitable line of business would be to turn water and other material from asteroids into fuel for filling up the propellant tanks of existing communication satellites, thus extending their lives. Gump said Deep Space was discussing the concept with a major satellite operator that was "intrigued" by the idea.

John Mankins, Deep Space's chief technical officer, said the spacecraft concepts relied on existing technology. "You don't see any magic," he said. "You don't see any space elevators, you don't see any [artificial] gravity, you don't see any warp drive."

Gump said the price tag for the first three-probe mission to a near-Earth asteroid would be $20 million. If Deep Space finds a customer willing to pay that price, that would bring in a "good profit," said the company's board chairman, veteran space activist Rick Tumlinson.

In addition to the selling the data and the more substantial products generated by asteroid missions, Deep Space could bring in money through corporate sponsorships and branding, as well as extras such as "VIP access" to a launch site or mission control center, Gump said.

"The journey of a million miles begins with a business plan that closes in the next few years," said Gump, who previously has been involved in space ventures such as LunaCorp (which proposed sending rovers to the moon), Transformational Space Corp. (which was an early competitor in NASA's space commercialization effort) and Astrobotic (which is one of the teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize).

Will Deep Space's business plan take off? That was the big question hanging in the air after Tuesday's briefing. Planetary Resources, another commercial venture that was unveiled less than a year ago, has a business plan that's comparable to that proposed by Deep Space Industries. It also has an impressive list of billionaire investors, including Google's Eric Schmidt and Larry Page. If Planetary Resources holds to its previously announced schedule, its first prototype space telescope could be launched as early as next year.

Planetary Resources' president, Chris Lewicki, said this week that the company was "extraordinarily busy" with the task of building prototypes at its Seattle-area manufacturing facility. In contrast, Tumlinson said Deep Space Industries had not yet determined where its spacecraft would be built. "Literally, we are looking for somebody who wants to make a good offer to have this kind of budding industry there," he said.

Both companies are betting that the resources from asteroids will be valuable enough to go after in the next decade. It's entirely possible that both companies will lose that bet, particularly if space travel doesn't take off the way they expect. But if the bets pay off, both companies could be winners.

"There are 2 to 3 million near-Earth asteroids," Gump said. "There's room for everyone to prosper, I think."

Into deep space: second U.S. firm takes aim at mining asteroids

Irene Klotz - Reuters

A team of entrepreneurs and engineers unveiled plans on Tuesday for a space mining company that would tap nearby asteroids for raw materials to fuel satellites and manufacture components in orbit.

Deep Space Industries, based in Santa Monica, California, said its inaugural mission is targeted for 2015, when it would send a small hitchhiker spacecraft called "Firefly" on a six-month expedition to survey an as-yet-unidentified asteroid.

The 55-pound (25-kg) satellite, about the size of a laptop computer, would be launched as a secondary payload aboard a commercial rocket carrying a communications satellite or other robotic probe.

About 1,000 small asteroids relatively close to Earth are discovered every year. Most, if not all, are believed to contain water and gases, such as methane, which can be turned into fuel, as well as metals, such as nickel, which can be used in three-dimensional printers to manufacture components, David Gump, chief executive of Deep Space Industries, said.

Gump is a co-founder of three previous space and technology start-ups, including Astrobotic Technology, which is focused on exploration and development of lunar resources.

"There is really nothing in the business plan that Deep Space Industries is pursuing that cannot be done with technology research already accomplished in laboratories across the planet," said John Mankins, a former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory manager who is the start-up company's chief technical officer.

"The technology may not have been used in space for the exact purposes that we propose, but the fundamental technologies are really at hand," Mankins said.

Company officials, who unveiled their plans at a press conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle that was also webcast, did not comment on their financial backing except to say they were looking for investors.

Deep Space Industries is the second company to unveil plans to mine asteroids, rocky bodies of various sizes that orbit the sun. So far about 9,500 asteroids have been found in orbits that come near Earth. Small fragments of asteroids regularly pass through the planet's atmosphere, lighting up the night sky as they incinerate and occasionally surviving to become meteorites.

Last year, Planetary Resources, a Bellevue, Washington-based company backed by high-profile investors including Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and advisers like filmmaker James Cameron, announced a program that would begin with small, low-cost telescopes to scout for potentially lucrative asteroids.

Firefly, as well as a follow-on line of planned asteroid sample-return satellites called Dragonfly, would be based on miniature research spacecraft known as CubeSats that are built from commercially available, off-the-shelf electronic components.

The cost of a Firefly mission would be about $20 million, half of which the company expects will come from government and research institute contracts and half from corporate advertising, sponsorships and other marketing ventures, said Gump.

The follow-on Dragonfly missions, scheduled to begin in 2016, would entail returning 50 to 100 pounds (23 to 45 kg) of material from select, high-value asteroids, an endeavor that would take two to three years.

In addition to selling samples, Deep Space Industries wants to grind up some of the material, extract metals and other valuable commodities and develop the technology to produce fuel and components, such as solar cells, in space.

The company said it has a patent pending on a three-dimensional printer called a "Microgravity Foundry" that uses lasers to deposit nickel in precise patterns in zero gravity.

On Earth, similar printers produce three-dimensional components by depositing layers of nickel metal powder. The process is somewhat like the buildup of ink on paper in a traditional ink jet printer.

Gump said the patent was filed within the past 18 months and is not yet listed in publicly accessible databases.

The ultimate goal is to build a fleet of robotic ships to extract resources for fuel and to mine valuable minerals from asteroids.

"We're at an early stage," said Gump. "It'll probably be 2019 or 2020 before we'll have commercial quantities of propellant for sale."

Is Space Big Enough for Two Asteroid-Mining Companies?

Mike Wall - Space.com

The latest company to launch into the asteroid-mining business isn't worried about competition from its biggest rival, saying that the resources of deep space are vast enough to support a bustling new industry off Earth's surface.

The new company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., announced today (Jan. 22) that it plans to mine asteroids for metals, water and other resources, with the goal of helping humanity spread throughout the solar system. Another company with similar goals, the billionaire-backed Planetary Resources, unveiled its own plans last April.

Both companies can coexist and prosper, Deep Space officials said during a press conference Tuesday.

"We love Planetary Resources," Deep Space chairman Rick Tumlinson said. "Space is big. There's room for everybody."

Deep Space and Planetary Resources will go after near-Earth asteroids, many of which are rich in water and a variety of different metals.

Both firms aim to split asteroid water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, which are the chief components of rocket fuel. Asteroid-derived propellant could be dispensed from off-planet "gas stations," allowing satellites and journeying spacecraft to top up their tanks cheaply and efficiently.

Such off-Earth depots could extend the lives of satellites and make manned trips to far-flung destinations like Mars much more economically viable, advocates say.

The metals and other materials, meanwhile, could be used to construct habitats, solar-power satellites and other spacecraft, potentially jump-starting an in-space manufacturing industry. Precious metals such as platinum and gold could also be delivered to Earth for terrestrial use.

So far, astronomers have identified more than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, with about 1,000 being added to the rolls every year. Such numbers suggest there are more than enough to keep two mining companies busy for a long time, Deep Space officials said.

"There are two or three million near-Earth asteroids," said Deep Space CEO David Gump. "There's room for everyone to prosper, I think."

The startup of two asteroid-mining firms — along with the rise of private spaceflight companies such as California-based SpaceX — is a sign that humanity may finally be taking real steps toward the long-held dream of permanent space settlement, Tumlinson said.

"One company may be a fluke," he said. "Two companies showing up? That's the beginning of an industry."

Asteroid prospecting: what could we stand to gain?

Nick Collins - London Daily Telegraph

More than 9,000 asteroids whose orbit passes near Earth have already been discovered and another 900 or so are discovered every year.

Many of the space rocks are thought to contain valuable resources such as industrial metals (nickel and iron, for example), valuable platinum-like metals, silicon, water and gases.

Mining an asteroid and flying the material back for use on Earth would be wildly inefficient – the cost of returning metals from space would be greater than their terrestrial value.

But Deep Space Industries claims metals which would be worth just a few thousand dollars on Earth could be worth millions in space, where they could be used to manufacture parts for space stations and solar panel arrays.

A "3D printer" known as the MicroGravity Foundry will transform raw materials into complex metal parts using lasers to shape nickel into precise patterns, meaning it can create components in zero-gravity conditions, the company announced.

Mark Sonter, a director of DSI, said: "If you can retrieve some of this metal, manufacture it and deliver it to certain areas in space where it can be used, it is potentially extremely valuable material."

They could also provide fuel and equipment for the International Space Station and for future spacecraft on missions to Mars, avoiding the need to carry them from Earth.

Launching a "dry" mission to Mars which refills its fuel tanks after entering orbit would reduce costs by 90 per cent compared with a mission which is fully fuelled from the start, the company claimed.

Rare platinum-group metals could be harvested at the same time as other resources for sale back on Earth to generate additional profit, directors added.

Chairman Rick Tumlinson said: "We will only be visitors in space until we learn how to live off the land there.

"This is the Deep Space mission – to find, harvest and process the resources of space to help save our civilisation and support the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth – and doing so in a step by step manner that leverages off our space legacy to create an amazing and hopeful future for humanity."

Astronaut Snaps Beautiful Photo of 'Night-Shining Clouds'

Douglas Main - OurAmazingPlanet.com

Even when night blankets the land, some clouds high in the atmosphere may still glow, as seen in this photograph taken by a crewmember aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 5, looking down over French Polynesia in the South Pacific.

Known as polar mesospheric or noctilucent clouds, these formations have been spotted from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres on ground, in airplanes and on spacecraft, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.

The clouds, also called "night-shining" clouds, form about 47 to 53 miles (76 to 85 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, according to the Earth Observatory. They form near the boundary between two layers of the atmosphere called the mesosphere and the thermosphere, in a region called the mesopause.

The combination of low temperatures at this height and the cloud's position relative to the sun explains the glowing. At these altitudes, temperatures can drop below minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 130 degrees Celsius). Any water present in the atmosphere freezes into ice crystals. These sky-high crystals may then be illuminated by the sun, which has set from the point of view of people on the ground but can still backlight the clouds, the Earth Observatory reports.

The clouds are sensitive to changes in the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, as well as high-altitude temperatures. They may also be getting brighter as a result of climate change, according to a recent study, which suggests that the upper atmosphere is more humid, resulting in more and brighter clouds.

Such clouds are most often seen in the far northern and southern latitudes (above 50 degrees) in the summer when, counter-intuitively, the mesosphere is coldest.

The orange band below the clouds in the astronaut's photo is the atmospheric layer known as the stratosphere, according to the Earth Observatory. Below the stratosphere is the troposphere, the layer of atmosphere nearest the ground, in which the bulk of Earth's weather occurs.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield drops puck from space for Maple Leafs' opener

Harrison Mooney - Yahoo Sports

Astronaut Chris Hadfield is the first Canadian to do just about everything in space, from walking in space to commanding a space station, to tweeting from space.

Now, he's also the first to participate in a ceremonial faceoff from space. On Monday night, the Sarnia, Ontario native, a proud Toronto Maple Leafs fan, beamed in live from the International Space Station for the Leafs' home opener Monday night to propel the puck to center ice.

Propel is the right word, as Hadfield first went with the delightfully hammy and not-at-all unexpected joke of letting go of the puck, only to have it hang in mid-air due to the lack of gravity in his current digs. I knew that was coming. I still got a kick out of it. Then he tossed it down.

This is where the scientific accuracy came to an abrupt stop. You don't fool anyone, Felix Potvin. If that puck had survived a fiery plummet into the earth's atmosphere, you wouldn't be casually passing it to the next guy.

Frankly, there was no need to pass it from Potvin to Darcy Tucker to Darryl Sittler at all. Considering the speed and velocity at which that puck would have been traveling, Hadfield could have put it right through the roof of the Air Canada Centre.

Again, just in case it isn't clear how cool this is: Chris Hadfield dropped the puck from space, which is the Canadian equivalent of planting a flag on the moon. According to IIHF rules, all outer extraterrestrial beings are now eligible to play for Canada in international tournaments.

50 Years of Presidential Visions for Space Exploration

Mike Wall - Space.com

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced a bold new plan for NASA and the nation: To send an American to the moon, and to return him safely, by the close of the decade.

Kennedy's speech, which came just six weeks after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to reach outer space, had a huge impact on NASA and space exploration. It jump-started the agency's Apollo program, a full-bore race to the moon that succeeded on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong's boot crunched down into the gray lunar dirt.

Kennedy, of course, isn't the only leader who had a vision for the nation's space program. Since NASA's founding in 1958, every president from Eisenhower to Obama has left his mark. Take a look at how each U.S. commander-in-chief helped shape and steer American activities in space.

Dwight Eisenhower (in office 1953-1961)

President Dwight Eisenhower was president when the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in October 1957. This seminal event shocked the United States, started the Cold War space race between the two superpowers and helped lead to the creation of NASA in 1958.

However, Eisenhower didn't get too swept up the short-term goals of the space race. He valued the measured development of unmanned, scientific missions that could have big commercial or military payoffs down the road.

For example, even before Sputnik, Eisenhower had authorized a ballistic missile and scientific satellite program to be developed as part of the International Geophysical Year project of 1957-58. The United States' first successful satellite, Explorer I, blasted off Jan. 31, 1958. By 1960, the nation had launched and retrieved film from a spy satellite called Discoverer 14.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

President John F. Kennedy effectively charted NASA's course for the rest of the 1960s with his famous speech before Congress on May 25, 1961.

The Soviets had launched Sputnik I in 1957, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first person in space on April 12, 1961, just six weeks before the speech. On top of those space race defeats, the U.S. plan to topple the Soviet-backed regime of Cuban leader Fidel Castro — the so-called Bay of Pigs invasion — had failed miserably in April 1961.

Kennedy and his advisers figured they needed a way to beat the Soviets, to re-establish American prestige and demonstrate the country's international leadership. So they came up with an ambitious plan to land an astronaut on the moon by the end of the 1960s, which Kennedy laid out in his speech.

The Apollo program roared to life as a result, and NASA embarked on a crash mission to put a man on the moon. The agency succeeded, of course, in 1969. By the end of Apollo in 1972, the United States had spent about $25 billion on the program — well over $100 billion in today's dollars.

Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969)

President Lyndon Johnson was instrumental in both ratcheting up and scaling back the United States' space race with the Soviet Union.

As Senate majority leader in the late 1950s, he had helped raise the alarm regarding Sputnik, stressing that the satellite launch had intiated a race for "control of space." Later, Kennedy put Johnson, his vice president, in personal charge of the nation's space program. When Johnson became commander-in-chief after Kennedy's assassination, he continued to support the goals of the Apollo program.

However, the high costs of Johnson's Great Society programs and the Vietnam War forced the president to cut NASA's budget. To avoid ceding control of space to the Soviets (as some historians have argued), his administration proposed a treaty that would outlaw nuclear weapons in space and bar national sovereignty over celestial objects.

The result was 1967's Outer Space Treaty (OST), which forms the basis of international space law to this day. The OST has been ratified by all of the major space-faring nations, including Russia and its forerunner, the Soviet Union.

Richard Nixon (1969-1974)

All of NASA's manned moon landings occurred during President Richard Nixon's presidency. However, the wheels of the Apollo program had been set in motion during the Kennedy and Johnson years. So Nixon's most lasting mark on American space activities is probably the space shuttle program.

By the late 1960s, NASA managers had begun drawing up ambitious plans to set up a manned moon base by 1980 and to send astronauts to Mars by 1983. Nixon nixed these ideas, however. In 1972, he approved the development of the space shuttle, which would be NASA's workhorse space vehicle for three decades, starting in 1981.

Also in 1972, Nixon signed off on a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space agency. This deal resulted in 1975's Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a joint space mission between the two superpowers.

Gerald Ford (1974-1977)

President Gerald Ford was in office for less than 2 1/2 years, so he didn't have much time to shape American space policy. He did, however, continue to support development of the space shuttle program, despite calls in some quarters to shelve it during the tough economic times of the mid-1970s.

Ford also signed off on the creation of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in 1976. The OSTP advises the president about how science and technology may affect domestic and international affairs.

Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)

President Jimmy Carter didn't articulate big, ambitious spaceflight goals during his one term in office. However, his administration did break some ground in the area of military space policy.

While Carter wanted to restrict the use of space weapons, he signed a 1978 directive that stressed the importance of space systems to national survival, as well as the administration's willingness to keep developing an antisatellite capability.

The 1978 document helped establish a key plank of American space policy: the right of self-defense in space. And it helped the United States military view space as an arena in which wars could be fought, not just a place to put hardware that could coordinate and enhance actions on the ground.

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)

President Ronald Reagan offered strong support for NASA's space shuttle program. After the shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, he delivered a moving speech to the nation, insisting that the tragedy wouldn't halt America's drive to explore space. "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave," he said.

Consistent with his belief in the power of the free market, Reagan wanted to increase and streamline private-sector involvement in space. He issued a policy statement to that effect in 1982. And two years later, his administration set up the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which to this day regulates commercial launch and re-entry operations.

Reagan also believed strongly in ramping up the nation's space-defense capabilities. In 1983, he proposed the ambitious Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which would have used a network of missiles and lasers in space and on the ground to protect the United States against nuclear ballistic missile attacks.

Many observers at the time viewed SDI as unrealistic, famously branding the program "Star Wars" to emphasize its supposed sci-fi nature. SDI was never fully developed or deployed, though pieces of it have helped pave the way for some current missile-defense technology and strategies.

George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)

President George H.W. Bush (the first Bush in office) supported space development and exploration, ordering a bump in NASA's budget in tough economic times. His administration also commissioned a report on the future of NASA, which came to be known as the Augustine report when it was published in 1990.

Bush had big dreams for the American space program. On July 20, 1989 — the 20th anniversary of the first manned moon landing — he announced a bold plan called the Space Exploration Initiative. SEI called for the construction of a space station called Freedom, an eventual permanent presence on the moon and, by 2019, a manned mission to Mars.

These ambitious goals were estimated to cost at least $500 billion over the ensuing 20 to 30 years. Many in Congress balked at the high price tag, and the initiative was never implemented.

Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

Construction of the International Space Station began in late 1998, in the middle of President Bill Clinton's second term as president. And in 1996, he announced a new national space policy.

According to the policy, the United States' chief space goals going forward were to "enhance knowledge of the Earth, the solar system and the universe through human and robotic exploration" and to "strengthen and maintain the national security of the United States."

This latter sentiment was consistent with other space policy statements from previous administrations. However, some scholars argue that the 1996 document opened the door to the development of space weapons by the United States, though the policy states that any potential "control" actions would be "consistent with treaty obligations."

George W. Bush (2001-2009)

President George W. Bush issued his own space policy statement in 2006, which further encouraged private enterprise in space. It also asserted national self-defense rights more aggressively than previous administrations had, claiming that the United States can deny any hostile party access to space if it so chooses.

Bush also dramatically shaped NASA's direction and future, laying out a new Vision for Space Exploration in 2004. The Vision was a bold plan, calling for a manned return to the moon by 2020 to help prepare for future human trips to Mars and beyond. It also instructed NASA to complete the International Space Station and retire the space shuttle fleet by 2010.

To help achieve these goals, NASA embarked upon the Constellation program, which sought to develop a new crewed spacecraft called Orion, a lunar lander named Altair and two new rockets: the Ares I for manned missions and the Ares V for cargo. But it was not to be; Bush's successor, President Barack Obama, axed Constellation in 2010.

Barack Obama (2009-present)

In 2009, President Barack Obama called for a review of American human spaceflight plans by an expert panel, which came to be known as the Augustine Commission (not to be confused with the similarly named report President George H.W. Bush ordered two decades earlier).

A year later, Obama announced his administration's space policy, which represented a radical departure from the path NASA had been on. The new policy canceled George W. Bush's Constellation program, which the Augustine Commission had found to be significantly behind schedule and over budget. (Obama did support continued development of the Orion spacecraft for use as a possible escape vehicle at the space station, however.)

In place of Constellation, Obama's policy directed NASA to focus on getting humans to an asteroid by 2025 and then on to Mars by the mid-2030s. This entails, in part, developing a new heavy-lift rocket, with design completion desired by 2015.

The new policy also seeks to jump-start commercial spaceflight capabilitites. Obama's plan relies on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry NASA astronauts to the space station in the short term after the space shuttles retire in 2011.

But over the long haul, Obama wants this burden shouldered by private American spaceships that have yet to be built. So Obama promised NASA an extra $6 billion over five years, which the agency would use to help companies develop these new craft.

Virgin Galactic, trial lawyers reach agreement on spaceport liability bill

Milan Simonich - Las Cruces Sun-News

Southern New Mexico's $209 million Spaceport America is now better positioned to attract businesses and space travelers because of a deal limiting liability in case of a crash, Democrat leaders in the Legislature said Tuesday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez said Virgin Galactic, anchor tenant of the spaceport, and the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association had come to an agreement after rounds of negotiations that started last summer.

Details were vague, but Sanchez said a bill outlining the liability limits would be ready for release Wednesday morning.

Sen. Mary Kay Papen, who will be one of the sponsors, said the bill would make New Mexico's laws for limited liability for space travel similar to those in Colorado and Florida. This development means New Mexico will not be at a competitive disadvantage as it develops a space travel industry, she said.

Papen, D-Las Cruces, last year introduced a bill that essentially would have prevented space travelers or their survivors from filing negligence lawsuits against manufacturers or suppliers if a crash occurred.

Trial lawyers fought that bill, saying it would set a tone that companies could be immune from lawsuits, even if they did shoddy work or sold a dangerous product.

Papen's original measure died in the Senate Judiciary Committee. A companion bill failed in the House of Representatives.

Afterward, Gov. Susana Martinez, Papen and other legislators said the spaceport's ability to compete would be imperiled without protections from lawsuits.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said Sanchez was instrumental in getting representatives of Virgin Galactic and the trial lawyers to the negotiating table to reach an agreement. Smith said Sanchez was being pummeled during last year's campaign for supposedly hurting the spaceport, based in Sierra County. In fact, Smith said, Sanchez led the way to resolve the disagreements.

Sanchez, D-Belen, said he did not partake in the negotiations, but spurred along the process. The two sides splintered but then came back together to reach an agreement, he said.

"It was difficult. There was nothing easy about it," Sanchez said.

He, Papen and Smith announced the agreement with House Speaker Ken Martinez, also a Democrat. They said they were confident that Republican legislators and Gov. Martinez would find the new bill acceptable.

None of the legislators could say exactly what the bill would do.

But state Rep. Antonio Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said one thing is now assured because of the deal.

"There is no longer uncertainty in the market," Maestas said.

Businesspeople thinking of building hotels or restaurants to position themselves for the day the Spaceport attracts tourists and fliers can now do so, Maestas said.

He said the bill limiting liability of suppliers or manufacturers would become effect July 1, but the settlement announcement now would give businesses confidence that the spaceport has a secure future.

END

Keep the shuttle flying

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

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