space

Brazil and China Continue Space Cooperation

Philip Cho — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:08:19 -0700

Description

As the second China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite (CBERS-2) ends its five year mission, the new director of the Brazilian Space Agency, Carlos Ganem, professed a continued commitment to cooperate with China to fulfill Brazil’s ambitious space program. The two countries will jointly launch CBERS-3 and CBERS-4 by the end of 2008. Brazil will also depend heavily on Chinese experts in an effort to develop and launch a satellite transport rocket from the Alcantara launch facility by 2011. To this end, the BSA has just tested the second stage of a four-stage satellite launch vehicle.

Physics & Space Science

Source

India launching new satellite to map the moon

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:50:03 -0700

Description

India plans to launch a lunar satellite in late October 2008. According to New Scientist,

ISRO is set to launch an uncrewed spacecraft to map the Moon in more detail than ever before – a far cry from ISRO's beginnings in the 1960s, with a church in Kerala as their first office.

India's maiden Moon mission Chandrayaan may have cost less than other countries' lunar missions – $80 million as opposed to $140 million for the European Space Agency's SMART-1 – but its aims are no less ambitious.

"For the first time, we hope to have a comprehensive mapping of the entire Moon," says ISRO scientist Parameswaran Sreekumar.

The spacecraft, designed and built in India, will carry various instruments from around the world: for example, a radar made in the US will image the permanently shadowed regions of the poles to locate ice.

The launch will mark a significant advance in India's space program.

India & South Asia: Science & Technology

Source

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn15004-india-set-to-launch-its-first-moon-probe.html

China's Space Walk and Russian Advisors

Philip Cho — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:21:52 -0700

Description

China’s successful launch of the Shenzhou VII and subsequent spacewalk further reflect how the nation’s space program has risen on the bootstraps of Russian technology. Although the Chinese press has touted the supposedly home-grown Feitian space suit, the mission still relies on Russian advisors, who in addition to technical support provided Russian Orlan space suits. The Long March 2F rocket was also optimized with Russian assistance. The boosters use UDMH/N204 (nitrogen tetroxide) and consist of a two stage core vehicle with four strap-on stages. Four YF5-1 chamber motors with swinging nozzles have 75,500kg of thrust for the first stage. The second stage has a YF20-1 (75,600kg thrust) rocket motor with fixed nozzles and a YG21-1 swiveling venire motor with four chamber motors (4,813kg total thrust). The four strap-on stages are single 75,500kg thrust YF5-1 engines with fixed nozzles. The walk marks the second stage in China’s goal of building a spacelab by 2020. After the spacewalk, Chinese astronauts will attempt capsule docking. In 2010, Shenzhou VIII, IX, and X will be launched in rapid succession of one month intervals. The first two launches will be unmanned, carrying laboratory equipment.

China: Science & Technology

Source

Russia to raise space funding 13%, build new space center

Max Marmer — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:08:40 -0700

Description

Russia will increase funding for space projects by 13% and start the construction of a new space center this year, a first deputy prime minister said on Monday.

He said particular attention will be paid to Glonass (Global Navigation Satellite System), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), which is designed for both military and civilian use, and allows users to identify their positions in real time.

"The year 2008 will be a landmark year for the development of the space industry," Ivanov said.

Russia & Eastern Europe: Science & Technology

Source

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080121/97438434.html

Possibility of a new Indian-Chinese rivalry, this time in space

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:35:11 -0700

Description

The Times writes on a warming rivalry between India and China in space:

India and China are taking their rivalry into orbit, with Delhi determined to catch up with Beijing in what is starting to look like an Asian version of the Cold War “space sace”.

General Deepak Kapoor, India’s Chief of Army Staff, has spoken publicly for the first time of his fears about China’s military space programme and the need for India to accelerate its own.

“The Chinese space programme is expanding at an exponentially rapid pace in both offensive and defensive content,” he told a conference attended by India’s military top brass this week. “The Indian Army’s agenda for exploitation of space will have to evolve dynamically. It should be our endeavour to optimise space applications for military purposes.”

Describing space as “the ultimate high ground”, he called for the establishment of an interservices space command to supervise surveillance, reconnaissance and rapid response.

India & South Asia: Science & Technology

Source

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4182216.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

Google Contributes Funding to NASA Space Science Technology + Mission

Matt Daniels — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:21:21 -0700

Description

Google has contributed funding to the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a NASA spacecraft (smallsat) in cooperation with MIT and the Harvard Smithsonian Center that could potentially be launched in 2012.

Google, the Internet search powerhouse that in recent years has expanded to include mapping of the stars as well as the surfaces of the moon and Mars and which has an ongoing collaboration with NASA's Ames Research Center, provided a small seed grant to fund development of the wide-field digital cameras needed for the satellite. Because of the huge amount of data that will be generated by the satellite, Google has an interest in working on the development of ways of sifting through that data to find useful information.

It's interesting that private companies seem to be increasingly funding large science projects.... (N.B., I've noticed this mostly in the physical sciences...)

Engineering & Design

Source

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/google-planets-tt0319.html

China Launches Its First Telecommunications Relay Satellite for Future Shenzhou Missions

Philip Cho — Sun, 25 May 2008 03:44:45 -0700

Description

At 23:35 April 25, 2008, China launched the Tianlian 01 relay satellite from its Xichang launch center. In a geostationary transfer orbit, the satellite will serve as a telecommunications hub between the Shenzhou 7 capsule set for launch later this year and ground control. Coverage will be enhanced from 12% to 60%.

Source

Juan Collar on Dark Matter Detection | Response to Italian DAMA Experiment

Matt Daniels — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:15:49 -0700

Description

Criticism of the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration's conclusions regarding dark matter detection

From Cosmic Variance: You may have heard some of the buzz about a new result concerning the direct detection of dark matter particles in an underground laboratory. The buzz originates from a new paper by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration; David Harris links to powerpoint slides from Rita Bernabei, leader of the experiment, from her talk at a meeting in Venice.

The controversy surrounding the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration points to the fact that the search for evidence about the nature of dark matter (and WIMPs) is still wide open... particle physics has a ways left to go in unraveling this (despite claims made by the Italian/Chinese DAMA/LIBRA collaboration).

Selections from Juan Collar's guest post on Cosmic Variance regarding the claims made by DAMA/LIBRA collaboration (some editorials left intact):

* The modulation is undeniable by now. I don’t know of any colleagues who doubted these data were blatantly modulated already back in 2003, when “the lady” (DAMA) decided to keep mum for a while. However, to conclude from something this mundane that the experiment “confirms evidence of Dark Matter particles in the galactic halo with high confidence level” or that there is “an evidence for the presence of dark matter particles in the galactic halo at 8.2 sigma confidence level” is simply delusional. There is evidence for a modulation in the data at 8.2 sigma, stop. Compatible with what would be expected from some dark matter particles in some galactic halo models, full stop. Anything beyond this is wanting to believe, and it smears on the rest of us in the field.

* Someone should take the DAMA folks aside for a beer, make them see the following. If one day soon we are all convinced that this effect was DM-induced (see below for what that will really take), they will be recognized for one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science, without them having to look desperate or foolish today. Or making the rest of us in the field do, by association: thanks DAMA, for cheapening the level of our discourse to truly imbecilic levels.

* It is not DAMA’s fault that there is a penury of signatures in this field of ours, laboratory searches for particle dark matter. The one possible exception to this is a detector with good recoil directionality and sufficient target mass to be truly competitive, but we don’t know of a good enough way to do this as of today (“good enough” folds in the price tag). People are still trying. The diurnal modulation in the DM signal that would be sensed by such a device is wickedly rich in features, extremely hard for nature to imitate with anything else. The annual modulation resides on the other side of this spectrum of complexity. It is the poor man’s smoking-gun to DM “evidence”. Inspected carefully, it is disappointingly feeble: different models of the halo can shift the phase of this modulation completely, turning expected maxima into minima and vice-versa, changing the expected amplitude as well. Add to this the fact that essentially every possible systematic effect able to pass for a “signal” can be yearly-modulated, for one reason or another. That’s the ones we can presently think of, and the ones yet to be proposed. To grow convinced that we have observed dark matter in the lab we’ll require a number of entirely different techniques, using a variety of targets, all pointing at the same WIMP (mass, cross sections), with additional back-up information from accelerator experiments and from gamma-ray satellite observations (so-called indirect searches). All of those lines crossing at one point, so to speak. This I (for one) will call “evidence”. I know of no single existing or planned DM experiment, including those I participate in, that would be able to make anything close to a bulletproof claim on its own.

* I try to teach my students that a good experimentalist does not need any critics: he or she is his/her own worst enemy. If you don’t feel a sincere drive to debunk, test and revise your own conclusions, you should be doing something else for a living. This intent is seemingly absent from the DAMA collaboration. Sure, some obvious environmental parameters are kept constant and logged. But this is simply not enough. Again we see, like the last time, that the subject of a modulation in the photomultiplier (PMT) noise contaminating the data, which is on everyone’s mind, is treated in a quite unsatisfying, suspiciously ad hoc fashion.

* More rigorous versions: concentrate on blank runs with low-background non-scintillating or low-scintillation materials (synthetic quartz, acrylic, undoped NaI, etc.) in place of the sodium iodine crystals. The materials should still be as close as possible, optically speaking, to the original scintillator, to allow for PMT cross-talk effects such as dynode glow, etc. Acquire data (PMT noise, Cerenkov light in the envelope, and other known nuisances in this case) and demonstrate that the modulation is absent then, that the effect was in the NaI scintillation. Another possible test: you are sitting on almost 1000 kg-yr of data. This should provide DAMA with a sensitivity to diurnal modulations smaller than ~0.1%. It then seems statistically possible to find weak additional DM effects originating exclusively from the rotational speed of the laboratory around the Earth’s axis (see footnote in astro-ph/9808058v2), a far more complex piece of “evidence”. Such effects depend on the sidereal day (as opposed to the solar day) and are hard to mask by anything not of a galactic origin. Try, doggammit, try to put your experiment to the acid test instead of serving yesteryear’s cold leftovers again! DAMA can now proceed to do with this free advice the same as with the rest received from others. Too crude to print in this distinguished forum.

* Kudos to DAMA on more than a couple of fronts: they have really made it very hard for other experiments using the same target (ANAIS, NAIAD, etc.) to match their sensitivity. It seems urgent by now to repeat the experiment independently, using the same detection medium. DAMA has done an extraordinary job in removing radioactive contaminants from NaI, better than anyone else to date. I do go out and defend DAMA (believe it or not) when folks too far afield attempt to criticize the quality of the experiment itself. They have done a phenomenal job (the experiment is a class act, their reasoning and public relations…). Another area where they excel is in reminding us that the dark matter possibilities are actually many, and that not all doors are closed on a real effect. Not nearly. Through the years they have proposed and compiled dark matter alternatives capable of explaining their effect but not yet tested by other experiments. Nothing wrong with this, as long as you don’t confuse it with “evidence” for anything. This should encourage creative approaches in a field that is not particularly notorious for them: we are all looking for the same type of particle, focusing on a particular region of WIMP phase space, relying on the same mode of interaction. If anything, the history of particle physics teaches us that surprises abound: often, whenever a natural hypothesis prevailed (relatively heavy SUSY WIMPs or light axions in our case) incoming experimental data forced the community to regroup, rethink and come up with other explanations. These always look evident with the privilege of hindsight. We are a certifiable ship-o-fools, let us not forget.

Physics & Space Science

Source

Cosmic Variance post: http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/04/21/guest-post-juan-collar-on-dark-matter-detection/

More on dark matter: http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/02/27/whats-the-dark-matter/

DAMA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAMA/NaI
DAMA Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.2741

NYT: Physicists Renew Claim, in New Experiment, of Detecting Dark Matter Particles

Next Generation of Astronomical Observatories in Chile

Matt Daniels — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:12:46 -0700

Description

Several of the world's most prominent next generation observatories are being planned for construction in Chile's high desert regions. The dark skies, high fraction of clear nights, and ability to acquire high-quality images make Chile an ideal location for large telescopes.

Planned observatories include:

Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array: ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is an international astronomy facility. ALMA is an equal partnership between Europe and North America, in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, and is funded in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), and in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Spain. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and on behalf of Europe by ESO.

ALMA Science:
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will be the forefront instrument for studying the cool universe - the relic radiation of the Big Bang, and the molecular gas and dust that constitute the very building blocks of stars, planetary systems, galaxies, and life itself. This material typically resides at temperatures of 3-100 K, resulting in spectral energy distributions peaking at submillimeter through to far-infrared wavelengths. Most of the energy in the Universe lies in two thermal components - the cosmic background and the far infrared background - whose Earth-accessible spectrum lies within the ALMA frequency coverage. Indeed, the peak of the spectral energy distribution for dusty objects in the distant universe becomes redshifted entirely to submillimeter wavelengths. While a number of current and future telescopes will operate at submillimeter wavelengths in order to exploit the wealth of information available in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum, none will have the combination of sensitivity, resolution, and frequency coverage of ALMA.

From: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/

Giant Magellan Telescope: GMT

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)—the product of more than a century of astronomical research and telescope-building by some of the world’s leading research institutions—will open a new window on the universe for the 21st century. Scheduled for completion around 2017, the GMT will have the resolving power of a 24.5-meter (80 foot) primary mirror—far larger than any other telescope ever built. It will answer many of the questions at the forefront of astrophysics today and will pose new and unanticipated riddles for future generations of astronomers. ...The GMT project is currently focused on sites in central and northern Chile.

GMT Science:
The GMT will produce images up to 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Presently we are able to detect planets only by indirect means. The GMT will allow us to make images of planets around nearby stars and, possibly, discern their chemical compositions. Designed with high contrast imaging in mind, the GMT will have the ability to detect faint terrestrial-like planets in the presence of enormous glares from their parent stars. ...[Likewise,] the GMT, operating with adaptive optics to achieve its maximum resolving power, can probe the centers of distant galaxies in unprecedented detail.

Current ground-based telescopes cannot probe supernovae to sufficient distances to provide a definitive test of competing models of the Dark Energy. The GMT will allow us to observe Supernovae to the highest redshifts and will aid in the full characterization of the expansion history of the Universe.

From: http://www.gmto.org/

Physics & Space Science

Source

Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/

Giant Magellan Telescope:
http://www.gmto.org/

European Unmanned Vehicle Docks Autonomously with ISS

Matt Daniels — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:10:43 -0700

Description

Europe's Jules Verne docks successfully with ISS! From BBC Science:Jules Verne

Europe's sophisticated new space truck, the ATV, has docked with the International Space Station (ISS).

The unmanned vessel carries just under five tonnes of food, water, air, fuel and equipment for the orbiting platform's three astronauts.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle used its own computerised systems to make the attachment at 1445 GMT.

Ground control and the ISS crew were on alert just in case there was a problem - but it was a textbook docking.

What's next: Europe has demonstrated very capable launcher technology with its Ariane rockets; it has shown with the ATV it can build human-rated spacecraft that are highly navigable.

With further technological development - on re-entry systems, in particular - it would then have the complete package of engineering solutions needed to take people into space and bring them back safely.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7328816.stm

Methane Discovered in Exoplanet Atmosphere

Matt Daniels — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:11:31 -0700

Description

Researchers report in tomorrow's issue of Nature that a 40-minute gaze with the Hubble Space Telescope last May [2007] has revealed methane in the atmosphere of HD 189733b, a Jupiter-size planet orbiting close to its very bright parent star located 63 light-years away. The observation also confirmed last year's discovery by the Spitzer Space Telescope of water vapor in the planet's atmosphere (see: ScienceNOW, 11 July 2007).

ESA calls this a breakthrough [that] is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our Solar System.

Science/AAAS News:

Astronomers have detected the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet for the first time and have confirmed earlier observations of water vapor. Alas, the findings don't come close to suggesting that life has emerged on this other world, but they do contribute to a growing body of data about planetary evolution outside our own solar system.

Co-author Mark Swain of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, emphasized that HD 189733b is far too hot--average atmospheric temperature about 1000°C--to support life as we know it. But the presence of methane raises intriguing questions, he said, because the high temperature should have sequestered all of the carbon in the planet's atmosphere in the form of carbon monoxide (CO), not methane (CH4). That suggests a currently unknown chemical process is at work, he said.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/319/2

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMTZ1N5NDF_index_0.html

Europe launches its first re-supply ship (Jules Verne ATV) to the ISS

Matt Daniels — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:41:15 -0700

Description

Europe launches its first re-supply ship (Jules Verne ATV) to the ISS

9 March 2008
ESA PR 15-2008. Jules Verne, the first of the European Space Agency%u2019s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), a new series of autonomous spaceships designed to re-supply and re-boost the International Space Station (ISS), was successfully launched into low Earth orbit by an Ariane 5 vehicle this morning.

During the coming weeks, it will manoeuvre in order to rendezvous and eventually dock with the ISS to deliver cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the orbital outpost.

The most complex European spacecraft ever

Jules Verne ATV is now circling the Earth in the same orbital plane as the ISS but at an altitude of only 260 km, compared to 345 km for the Station. The vehicle is under constant monitoring by the dedicated ATV Control Centre in Toulouse, France.

Located within the premises of the French Space Agency CNES, the ATV Control Centre will ensure flight control throughout the mission in coordination with the ISS mission control centres in Moscow and Houston. After having demonstrated safety manoeuvres in free flight, the ATV will perform orbital ‘phasing’ manoeuvres in order to rendezvous with the ISS for a first docking slot scheduled for 3 April after the departure of NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Named after the famous French 19th century visionary and author, the Jules Verne ATV is the largest and most sophisticated spacecraft ever developed in Europe, combining the functions of an autonomous free-flying platform, a manoeuvrable space vehicle and a space station module. About 10 m high with a diameter of 4.5 m, it weighed 19,357 kg at launch. It incorporates a 45-m3 pressurised module, derived from the Columbus pressure shell, and a Russian-built docking system, similar to those used on Soyuz manned ferries and on the Progress re-supply ship. About three times larger than its Russian counterpart, it can also deliver about three times more cargo.

The ATV is also the very first spacecraft in the world designed to conduct automated docking in full compliance with the very tight safety constraints imposed by human spaceflight operations. It features high accuracy navigation systems and a flight software far more complex than that used on Ariane 5.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMDYOK26DF_index_0.html

Space tourism by 2010?

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:00:00 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/uod-stt022108.php

EurekAlert reports:

Outer space will rocket into reality as "the" getaway of this century, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza.

In fact, the "final frontier" could begin showing up in travel guides by 2010, they predict.

"In the twenty-first century, space tourism could represent the most significant development experienced by the tourism industry,' says Prof. Fred DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair, in UD's Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program.

"With the Earth under attack from a myriad of environmental impacts, including climate change concerns and pollution, outer space is the next viable frontier to explore and make longtime plans for," he notes. "While there are global policies to be determined relating to private ventures in space, the technology to make space travel safer and cheaper is moving forward."

DeMicco and Silvia Ciccarelli, a geoeconomist who was a recent visiting scholar at UD, co-wrote "Outer Space as a New Frontier for Hospitality and Tourism," which is in review for an upcoming issue of the Hospitality Educator. Ciccarelli is a consultant to the Italian Association of Aerospace Industries.

What kind of person will be lured to space travel? Is it those of us who've loved "The Jetsons," "Star Trek," or peering at the heavens through a telescope?... According to surveys of the demand for space tourism undertaken in 2001 and 2006 by Futron, a U.S. consulting company, the average age of the wannabe space tourist is 55 years old, 72% are males and 28% are females, 46% have above average or better fitness, 48% spend a month or more on vacation annually, and 41% work full-time and 23% are retired. The projected demand is 13,000 passengers in 2021, with the ability of the celestial industry to generate revenues of $700 million annually.

While only a few multimillionaires have been able to afford the current $20 million pricetag to go up in a Russian rocket for a two-week stay at the International Space Station, shorter, more affordable "suborbital" space flights, costing on the order of $80,000 per trip, likely will drive space tourism in the near term, according to Ciccarelli.

Modified Newtonian Dynamics in Galactic Rotation as an Alternative to "Dark Matter"

Matt Daniels — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:34:35 -0800

Description

A simple definition of MOND from Wikipedia:

In physics, Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is a theory that proposes a modification of Newton's Second Law of Dynamics, to explain the galaxy rotation problem. When the uniform velocity of rotation of galaxies was first observed, it was unexpected because the Newtonian theory of gravity predicted that objects that are farther out will have lower velocities. For example, planets in the Solar System orbit with velocities that decrease as their distance from the Sun increases. The MOND theory explains the observed revolution curves, by suggesting that the acceleration of a particle is not linearly proportional to the force, at low values of acceleration. This theory does not have wide support among the scientific community, who currently prefer the alternative dark matter theory. This assumes that a halo of dark matter surrounds each galaxy, causing all the stars in the galaxy disc to orbit with the same velocity.

Personally (editorial), the dark matter hypothesis seems to be gathering a lot more evidence and have a lot more buy-in...

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics

NASA investigates virtual space

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:59:05 -0800

Description

BBC News reports that NASA is investigating developing a massively multiplayer online game.

The virtual world would be aimed at students and would "simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions".

The agency has published a "request for information" (RFI) from organisations interested in developing the platform.

Nasa believe the game would help find the next generation of scientists and engineers needed to fulfil its "vision for space exploration"....

CoLab, as it is called, is the brainchild of scientists at the Nasa Ames Research Center in San Francisco.

The agency hopes that the environment could one day be used to allow the public to take part in virtual missions....

The document says that games are becoming increasingly important in education and could be useful for teaching a range of skills.

"Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity," it says.

The document calls for a game engine that includes "powerful physics capabilities" that can "support accurate in-game experimentation and research".

"A Nasa-based MMO could provide opportunities for students to investigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career paths while participating in engaging game-play."

Source

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7195718.stm

The rise of personal satellites

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:52:38 -0800

Description

Tiny satellites are enabling space research by small groups of scientists, and are moving out of academic circles into industry-- and eventually may reach hobbyists.

CubeSat is a small, Kleenex-boxed sized satellite platform. Developed for use by university researchers, CubeSat allows groups to build satellites for under $50,000. While the devices have long been regarded as curiosities, improvements in sensors, photovoltaics, batteries, and operating systems have increased the utility of "nanosats". Scientists are working on CubeSats that can swarm and collaborate, together giving them capabilities that might eventually match those of more conventional satellites.

Nanosats are becoming cheaper and more accessible. The KatySat project is developing nanosats for high school students, and established aerospace companies and the miliary-- and a small number of enthusiasts-- are beginning to experiment with CubeSat. As one developer puts it, "We think of the CubeSat as the personal computer of space."

Combined with the growth of private spaceports and lower-cost launch vehicles, nanosats could reach a wider audience within a few years.

Amateur, DIY, and citizen science

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat
http://del.icio.us/iftf/space

Private 'Rocketeers' reach for space -- science writer in Canada to explain

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:00:00 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/pift-pr_1020408.php

EurekAlert reports on the work of science journalist Michael Belfiore, author of the new book, Rocketeers: How A Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space:

In the "second space age," human spaceflight may no longer be the domain of governments. Dream-chasing entrepreneurs and clever engineers are aggressively blazing new trails into the heavens and preparing the world for an era of space tourism, ultra fast point-to-point earth travel and even orbiting hotels....

Having gained inside access into the top private space programs, Belfiore... [recounts] the history-making flights, the failures and fatalities, as well as the enduring passion and dreams of the real estate tycoons, dot-com billionaires, a video game programmer and other business mavericks for whom the sky is no longer the limit. They are fueling the highest-flying private rockets ever built, testing ‘vertical dragsters’, and preparing to launch an inflatable space station – with the mock-up already in earth orbit.

Amateur satellite spotters

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:31:34 -0800

Description

The New York Times reports on amateur "satellite spotters who, needing little more than a pair of binoculars, a stop watch and star charts, uncover some of the deepest of the government’s expensive secrets and share them on the Internet."

Thousands of people form the spotter community. Many look for historical relics of the early space age, working from publicly available orbital information. Others watch for phenomena like the distinctive flare of sunlight glinting off bright solar panels of some telephone satellites. Still others are drawn to the secretive world of spy satellites, with about a dozen hobbyists who do most of the observing....

John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a private group in Alexandria, Va., that tracks military and space activities, said the hobbyists exemplified fundamental principles of openness and of the power of technology to change the game.

“It has been an important demystification of these things,” Mr. Pike said, “because I think there is a tendency on the part of these agencies just to try to pretend that they don’t exist, and that nothing can be known about them."...

The Visual Satellite Observers Web site (http://www.satobs.org/satintro.html) describes the appeal of satellite spotting this way:

Amateur astronomers seeking new challenges, find that spotting faint, rapidly moving satellites, such as the tiny Vanguard 1 (America's second satellite), are comparable to spotting a distant galaxy. Tracking down a newly launched spy satellite in a secret orbit, tests analytical as well as observational skill. Observing the International Space Station transit the sun, moon or one of the planets, requires planning, perseverance, and often a bit of luck.

However, according to the Times, "The government’s relationship with the hobbyists is not a comfortable one. "

Spokesmen for the National Reconnaissance Office have stated that they would prefer the hobbyists not publish their information, and suggest that foreign countries try to hide their activities when they know an eye in the sky will be passing overhead.

The satellite spotters acknowledge that this may be so, though they doubt that such tactics are effective.... Mr. Pike said the officials who complained about the hobbyists “don’t like it, but they’ve got to lump it.” Despite the many clever ways that the spy agencies try to minimize the likelihood that their satellites will be spotted, he said, they will be. And that, he said, is a valuable warning: a world with so many eyes on the skies renders deep secrets shallow.

Amateur, DIY, and citizen science

Source

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/science/space/05spotters.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
http://www.satobs.org/satintro.html

NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter: August, 2006

Matt Daniels — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:42:10 -0800

Description

Galactic Collision
NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter:
(August 21, 2006)

Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter.

"This is the most energetic cosmic event, besides the Big Bang, which we know about," said team member Maxim Markevitch of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

These observations provide the strongest evidence yet that most of the matter in the universe is dark. Despite considerable evidence for dark matter, some scientists have proposed alternative theories for gravity where it is stronger on intergalactic scales than predicted by Newton and Einstein, removing the need for dark matter. However, such theories cannot explain the observed effects of this collision.

IFTF Workshop January 31, 2008

Source

http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html

Space tourism could lower launch cost for small sats

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:04:42 -0800

Description

The development of space tourism may also contribute to lower launching costs for small, low-mass satellites.

Satellites are just packages of electronics, and the price of electronics is falling without foreseeable end. It is the launch cost ($20m a time) that restricts their use. A successor to the SpaceShip/White Knight combination could deal with that. First, the whole system is more economical than using throw-away rockets. Second, rather than having to wait ages on the ground for the right launch window, an air-launcher can fly to a better location. Such changes could bring satellite ownership to cities, universities and companies. Ultimately, it may bring it within the purse of individuals. Who could resist having their own, private window on the world?

It is famously difficult to predict the market for disruptive technologies, whether they be computers, muskets, jet engines or digital cameras. But cheap access to space, and to the other side of the Earth, is likely to be revolutionary.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566717

After many false starts, space tourism is about to arrive

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:00:12 -0800

Description

After many false starts, space tourism is about to arrive, notes The Economist:

Cynics who were around at the time of the Apollo missions may be forgiven for thinking they have heard it all before. Then, everyone from Pan Am to British Rail imagined getting into space tourism. Indeed, British Rail took out a patent on a flying saucer. But British Rail then, like America's space agency, NASA, today, was a cosseted government bureaucracy and Pan Am, although commercial, hid behind the skirts of a protectionist American government. Both are now gone from the space race. In their place is real private enterprise: Rocketplane, EADS, Space Adventures and, of course, Virgin.

Flying 110km into space on Virgin's SpaceShipTwo, itself launched from a special aircraft, called White Knight Two (see article), is both a small step and a giant leap. It is small because, like NASA's first attempts, it is a quick, sub-orbital flight—and purists might argue that real spaceflight involves going into orbit. It is giant because no privately funded effort has come this far, nor seemed so likely to succeed.

For that success to be sustained, however, this project and its successors must bring down costs and open up new markets and different destinations. Some firms are already eyeing the moon, though that would require much more powerful rockets. Nearer to home, the antipodes also beckon. A system similar to Virgin's could be used to launch space planes that would travel from one side of the Earth to the other in 90 minutes, delivering businessmen and high-value goods: “Spacemail, when it absolutely, positively has to be there yesterday.”

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566717

NASA Invests in Private Sector Space Flight with SpaceX, Rocketplane-Kistler

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:49:13 -0800

Description

In 2006, NASA made an unprecedented investment in commercial space transportation services with the hope of creating a competitive market for supply flights to the International Space Station (ISS).

Two industry partners will receive a combined total of approximately $500 million to help fund the development of reliable, cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit. The agency is using its Space Act authority to facilitate the demonstration of these new capabilities. NASA signed Space Agreements Aug. 18 with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of El Segundo, Calif., and Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK) of Oklahoma City to develop and demonstrate the vehicles, systems, and operations needed to support a human facility such as ISS. Once the space shuttle is retired, NASA hopes to become just one of many customers for a new, LEO-transport service.

The venture marks a break with tradition for the 48-year-old space agency. “This is the first opportunity NASA has taken to engage entrepreneurs in a way that allows us to satisfy our needs and lets commercial industry gain a foothold. It could, and should, have profound impacts on the way NASA does business,” said Marc Timm, acting Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program executive in NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

Usually, the space agency issues detailed requirements and specifications for its flight hardware and it takes ownership of any vehicles and associated infrastructure that a contractor produces. For COTS, NASA specified only high level goals and objectives instead of detailed requirements where possible, and left its industry partners responsible for decisions about design, development, certification and operation of the transportation system. Because NASA has a limited amount of money to invest, it encouraged the partners to obtain private financing for their projects and it left them free to market the new space transportation services to others.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/news/COTS_selection.html

SpaceX: Development of Dragon Spacecraft

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:43:15 -0800

Description

Dragon Overview

The Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members. Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, Dragon will be utilized to fulfill our NASA COTS contract for demonstration of cargo re-supply of the ISS.

The Dragon capsule is comprised of 3 main elements: the Nosecone, which protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent; the Pressurized Section, which houses the crew and/or pressurized cargo; and the Service Section, which contains avionics, the RCS system, parachutes, and other support infrastructure.

In addition an unpressurized trunk is included, which provides for the stowage of unpressurized cargo and will support Dragon’s solar arrays and thermal radiators.

Dragon Highlights:

* Fully autonomous rendezvous and docking with manual override capability in crewed configuration
* Pressurized Cargo/Crew capacity of >2500 kg and 14 cubic meters
* Down-cargo capability (equal to up-cargo)
* Supports up to 7 passengers in Crew configuration
* Two-fault tolerant avionics system with extensive heritage
* Reaction control system with 18 MMH/NTO thrusters designed and built in-house; these thrusters are used for both attitude control and orbital maneuvering
* 1200 kg of propellant supports a safe mission profile from sub-orbital insertion to ISS rendezvous to reentry
* Integral common berthing mechanism, with LIDS or APAS support if required
* Designed for water landing under parachute for ocean recovery
* Lifting re-entry for landing precision & low-g’s
* Ablative, high-performance heat shield and sidewall thermal protection

To ensure a rapid transition from cargo to crew capability, the cargo and crew configurations of Dragon are almost identical, with the exception of the crew escape system, the life support system and onboard controls that allow the crew to take over control from the flight computer when needed. This focus on commonality minimizes the design effort and simplifies the human rating process, allowing systems critical to Dragon crew safety and ISS safety to be fully tested on uncrewed demonstration flights.

For cargo launches the inside of the capsule is outfitted with a modular cargo rack system designed to accommodate pressurized cargo in standard sizes and form factors. For crewed launches, the interior is outfitted with crew couches, controls with manual override capability and upgraded life-support.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.spacex.com/dragon.php

industrializing the moon: unlikely in the near-term

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:34:57 -0800

Description

The Economist observes with skepticism a Russian claim to be able to industrialize the moon...

Nikolai Sevastianov, head of RKK Energia, the spacecraft manufacturer that helped achieve these Russian successes, this week boasted that his rockets could be used to industrialise the moon.

One reason for the cynicism is that the idea is absurd. A United Nations treaty passed in 1967 bans potentially harmful interference with the Earth’s original satellite and requires international consultation before proceeding with any activity that could disrupt the peaceful exploration of space, including the moon. A second problem is that landing on the moon has proved beyond the budget of any state other than America and of any private company to date.

Russian rockets are perfectly capable of orbiting the Earth’s original satellite—as was proved 40 years ago—but landing involves a lot more capability and expense than is at present feasible. Moreover the proposals for “industrialisation” are woefully short on detail. Mr Sevastianov's particular claim is all to do with getting more money for his company.

The new designs, which have been stuck at the concept stage for many years, were not put together with the purpose of a lunar landing in mind. Nevertheless, they could be modified for that purpose. Hence Mr Sevastianov’s exaggerated claims that a Russian company could help to industrialise the moon, if only the investment were forthcoming. It is unlikely to succeed. Like companies offering trips to that other inaccessible and stateless wilderness, Antarctica, Mr Sevastianov would be better off concentrating on tourism.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9023355&fsrc=RSS

The Google Lunar X Prize | The next space race

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:26:27 -0800

Description

Wealth is accumulating in the hands of ambitious and visionary individuals, many of whom view space simultaneously as an adventure and a place to make money.

Recently, the X Prize Foundation joined with Google to announce a $30m Google Lunar X Prize, to be paid out to the first teams able to land on the lunar surface, rove for 500 metres and send back two video/photographic moon-casts. Within the first two weeks following the announcement, the X Prize Foundation received over 190 requests from 25 countries from prospective teams looking for registration materials.

This is the new generation of entrepreneurs who will reinvent space exploration the same way that Apple and Dell reinvented the computer industry...

Peter Diamandis observes:

NASA. ESA. JAXA. RKA. These are the world’s major national space agencies. They are the names that have dominated the past 50 years of space exploration. But over the next 50 years new names will emerge. The names that history will remember from the next five decades will be those of entrepreneurs, members of the private sector who saw in space an opportunity for expansion and vast wealth creation.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.economist.com/theworldin/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10105031&d=2008

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

NASA Details Cash Prizes for Space Privatization

Matt Daniels — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:14:23 -0800

Description

NASA announced in 2005 the first two cash prizes offered as part of the agency's Centennial Challenges program. Its mission is to encourage the commercialization of space transportation.

In the $50,000 2005 Tether Challenge, teams will compete to make the strongest tether of a specified diameter. Tethers will be stretched until they break, and winners will advance in a March Madness-like bracket system. The winner must then beat NASA's "house tether," made of existing material, to snare the cash.

The 2005 Beam Power Challenge will give $50,000 to the team that can use wireless technology to lift a weight off the ground. This technology might ultimately be used to build a space elevator that would beam payloads off the planet.

The prizes, which mark a subtle but important turning point in how NASA does business, are designed in part to help meet the ultimate goal of returning Americans to the Moon by 2020 and then sending them on to Mars under a vision laid out last year by President Bush.

Physics & Space Science

Source

http://www.space.com/news/050323_centennial_challenge.html

China's VLBI deep space network

Philip Cho — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:29:45 -0800

Description

China currently has a VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) network of four radio antennas: Shanghai (25m, all panel, X/S, est. 1987), Urumqi (25m, all panel, X/S, 1994), Kunming (40m, inner 25m panel, X/S, est. 2006), and Beijing (50m, inner 30m panel, X/S, est. 2006). These are linked via internet and optical fiber to a data center in the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory.

VLBI antennas receive extremely faint radio signals from celestial objects as far as several billion light years away. The relative three dimensional positions between antennas thousands of kilometers apart can be measured to an accuracy of a few millimeters by: 1. measuring the time difference (about 0 to .02 seconds, to a precision of 10 billionth of a second) a signal from a celestial object is received by different antennas; 2. multiplying this time delay by the velocity of the radio waves (app. 300,000 km/s); 3. repeating the procedure for three or more celestial objects (over 24 hours, one station can receive information for up to 500 celestial objects). Such systems are extremely important for both astronomical tracking and geodetic studies.

China primarily uses its VLBI network to track its Chang E lunar probe and plans to also use it for the Kuarfu solar activity and space weather program. In addition, China participates in a number of international projects such as SELENE (for measuring lunar gravity) and WSO/UV (World Space Observatory in the UV Band).

VLBI is of limited military and little commercial value. It is not surprising then, that China is willing to actively cooperate in a number of international VLBI research programs. This is in contrast to China’s abandoning the EU Galileo project. Here, commercial interests even trumped military ones. China continued to participate in Galileo even as other countries such as India objected over various national security issues. On the other hand, China pulled out of the Galileo project as soon as it announced plans to develop the Beidou-2 into a commercial GPS system. Looking over China’s different space science programs, it is necessary to compare the various factors influencing their continued cooperation or disengagement.

Signals

China's VLBI space network

China building two of the world’s largest telescopes

Philip Cho — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:12:50 -0800

Description

Under the National Major Scientific Projects program, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is building both the world’s largest spectroscopic and radio telescopes. With an investment of 230 million yuan, the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) is a quasi-meridian reflecting Schmidt telescope with an optical axis fixed in the meridian plane. LAMOST will have an aperture of 4m, focal length of 20m, and focal plane of 1.75m giving it a 5 degree field of view containing approximately 4,000 optical fibers. The telescope will have the highest spectrum acquiring rate in the world and provide Chinese researchers cutting edge facilities for large scale observation of optical spectra and wide field astronomy important for studying the evolution of galaxies and the early universe. The project is near completion and will begin operation next year.

In 2007, the CAS also set aside 600 million yuan for the next 6 years to construct the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), surpassing the US’s 305m Arecibo in Puerto Rico as the world’s largest radio telescope. The receiving dish will be composed of 4,600 triangular panels suspended in a limestone karst depression in southwest Guizhou Province.

Both telescopes will of course be major assets for basic research in galaxy formation, pulsars and the early universe. They will also be important for China’s ambitious space programs, and more generally symbolize China's ambitions to move into the front ranks of global science. However, the Field of Dreams mentality of, “If you build it, they will come” may run into problems concerning fixed operating budgets. Building world-class facilities does not necessarily translate into producing world-class research, especially without the flexibility to fund innovative research that central planners had not foreseen.

http://www.bao.ac.cn/index_cn.asp#
LAMOST：http://www.lamost.org/xoops/
FAST：http://www.cas.ac.cn/html/Dir/2004/07/30/6959.htm
http://tech.enorth.com.cn/system/2007/08/02/001799835.shtml

Signals

Star-tracking technology as Chinese GPS alternative

Philip Cho — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:22:16 -0800

Description

Celestial navigation, automatic tracking of stars to determine position, is an often overlooked technology in the current age of satellite navigation systems. Nevertheless, it is one of the key alternatives immune to the vulnerabilities of GPS. Along with inertial guidance, it is employed widely in missile guidance (US’s Snark, Poseidon, Polaris, Trident, MX; China’s CSS-N-4 Mod 0, CSS-NX-4 Mod I, CSS-NX-4 Mod II), satellite attitude determination (XTE, SWAS, STEX, DS-1, WIRE), aircraft (SR-71, RC-135, B2) and spacecraft (shuttle). Star trackers, such as the Lockheed Martin AST-201 are becoming lighter, cheaper, smaller, and more precise.

China is a leader in this area and its researchers are publishing an increasing number of papers both in international and domestic journals. For example, researchers at Qinghua University’s Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanics have developed an original “4-star matching” identification algorithm for a charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Tests of the algorithm using an on-board database (composed of a brightness independent guide mission catalog and K-vector star pair catalog) with a CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) star tracker resulted in a 99.9% success rate in identification to acquire 3-axis attitude when the angular measurement accuracy of the tracker is at least 0.01 degrees. Researchers in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics are looking to overcome the impracticality of CCD in small satellites and other craft, and instead are exploring the advantages of CMOS APS (no blooming, single power, low power consumption, small size, little support circuitry, simple system design, direct digital input, radiation-hard). They have developed a prototype ground-based star camera based on a STAR250 CMOS image sensor and a subpixel accuracy centroiding algorithm. The faculty of the Second Artillery Engineering College in Xian have been publishing papers on methods for determining attitude of missiles in free flight and others are examining FPGA-based submarine star tracking systems.

US GPS will continue to dominant navigation systems. However, like the personal computer’s challenge to the mainframe, ever smaller, cheaper, robust, and precise star trackers will weaken this advantage. As celestial navigation technology becomes more widely available and creatively applied in more platforms, it has the potential to become a cheap and reliable means of determining position, especially on ground systems, as the “poor man’s GPS.” This will weaken the US’s tactical advantage in both the battlefield and the marketplace. China, as a developer and manufacturer of such systems, stands to benefit greatly especially in sales to third world countries.

Advanced Materials and Devices for Sensing and Imaging II. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5633, pp. 536-542 (2005).

Tsinghua Science and Technology, Vol. 11, Issue 5, October 2006, pp. 543-548 (doi:10.1016/S1007-0214(06)70232-2 )

http://www.cn-jsmodel.com
http://www.pladaily.com.cn/gb/defence/2004/04/20/20040420017074.html

Signals

China extends soft power through space

Philip Cho — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:16:05 -0800

Description

China’s space industry is becoming an increasingly important means of extending soft power throughout the developing world. Like the ostensible civilizing missions of 19th century colonial powers over the savage, China’s push to link countries in Africa and South America to the digital age will consolidate its political influence and access to natural resources and markets in the developing world.

Satellite telecommunications is the cornerstone of China’s broad ambitions in building Africa. The Chinese Academy of Science and the Great Wall Industry Corporation built and launched for Nigeria the Nigcomsat-1, the first transcontinental communications satellite under the control of a sub-Saharan nation. The $450 million USD satellite was financed by the Nigerian government with $250 million USD investment from the Sudanese Elrased Electronic Trading and Investment Company Ltd. Prior to this, the Chinese government had pledged $66 million USD to develop Ghana’s telecommunications infrastructure.

In addition, China and Brazil freely provide African countries satellite images through the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program (CBERS). As leading regional trading partners, China and Brazil have sought to strengthen ties through space activities. CBERS is a successful long term cooperative program between the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE). Along with the US Landsat, French Spot, and Indian Resource Sat, it is one of the major satellite systems specialized to monitor the Earth’s environment, resources, forests, geology and hydrology. The China (%70 investment) and Brazil (%30 investment) treaty signed in 1988 has so far resulted in the launch of three satellites: CBERS-1 (Oct.1999), CBERS-2 (March 2002) and CBERS-2B (Sept. 2007) with two more satellites projected in 2010 and 2013. China reinvests the amount received from Brazil through the importation of Brazilian products. China and Venezuela will also soon launch a military and telecommunications satellite, dubbed after the revolutionary Simon Bolivar. In addition, China will train 90 Venezuelan technicians, 30 of whom will study in China. This follows Venezuela’s purchase of three Chinese military radars. On November 6th, 2007, China Development Bank signed an agreement with the Venezuelan government to create a USD 6 billion investment fund, 4 billion of which China will provide. In response, President Hugo Chavez has pledged to double oil exports to China, reaching 1 million barrels per day by 2010.

Capping these activities, China also hosts the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), a coalition of eight countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and China) to jointly develop space science, technology, and industry, especially in Earth observation, disaster prevention, environmental protection, and satellite navigation and communication.

China is strategically positioning itself at the center of satellite, telecommunications, and networking activities in the developing world, especially Africa and South America. The applications are far ranging from development of commerce, agriculture, and city planning to global monitoring of the environment and early warning of natural disasters. This will give China a global presence in the space industry across these regions. The most obvious and immediate benefits to China are access to natural resources and markets as well as political support of China’s policies toward Taiwan and Tibet. However, the long term effects are more subtle and pervasive.

Since the post-WWII time of Jay Forrester and the Club of Rome till now, the United States has been the dominant force in the development and maintenance of global models and data networks. These have fundamentally changed how people view the world and the meanings of globalization itself, pertaining to everything from changes in the environment, population, energy, agriculture and trade. In the coming two decades, China is the only other power with the reach, resources, and clear intent to rival the US in this often overlooked arena. The breakdown of the Galileo navigation system proves that the cosmopolitan vision (ala Ulrich Beck) of an EU balance to American hyper-power is untenable, at least in space. How long will it be before China extends its Beidou Satellite Navigation program from an Asia-Pacific regional system to one covering a patchwork of other critical areas through export and cooperative agreements with countries in South America, Africa, and the Middle East? A manned mission to the moon may capture the media’s attention but would have little significance to research, economic development and political power on Earth. On the other hand, China’s diplomatic and technological mission to bridge the digital divide in the developing world will give it a long lever from which to influence global environmental politics and other issues.

For information on the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program

www.cbers.inpe.br/en/index_en.htm

The China-Africa Cooperation Forum

www.china.org.cn/english/features/China-Africa/81869.htm

Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) link to Asia-Pacific Space Education Center

http://apsec.buaa.edu.cn/

Other interesting reading: Paul N. Edwards, “The World in a Machine: Origins and Impacts of Early Computerized Global Systems Models,” in Systems, Experts and Computers, Agatha Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes editors. 2000 The MIT Press.

Signals

Understanding dark matter and its place in the universe

Matt Daniels — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:18:36 -0800

Description

Progress is likely to be made in understanding the nature and effects of dark matter in our galaxy and elsewhere in the universe.

Most of the mass of our galaxy is dark matter -- the composition and origin of which is currently unknown. Objects known to us (humans, oceans, planets, stars) comprise less than 4% of the total mass of the universe. While ordinary matter determines gravity in our immediate neighborhood, therefore, dark matter controls the dynamic behavior of large objects, such as galaxies and superclusters of galaxies.
Cosmological Composition
Related to this strange situation is a second mystery: the presence of an invisible dark energy separate from dark matter, the gravitational force of which is repulsive, causing our universe to expand at an accelerating rate. The presence of these three key components of our universe (ordinary matter, dark matter, and dark energy) is not explicable by any current insight or theory. Improved theories regarding the total mass of the universe, therefore, have lent a fundamental significance to studies of 'dark matter.'

Given the current inability to observe directly dark matter, indirect observations through the measurement and quantification of galactic rotation present the most frequently-used methods for indicating the presence of non-luminous matter. Vera Rubin was one of the first to observe that the distribution of mass in many spiral galaxies does not necessarily correspond to either visible morphology or the distribution of luminous matter; she accomplished this through the use and study of galactic rotation curves (Rubin, 1985).

Studies of dark matter will clearly be important well into the future. New ways of detecting dark matter are also becoming available – such as observations of gravitational lensing to compare the total versus luminous mass of star clusters and other large objects (Rubin, 1998). As new methods for indirectly detecting dark matter increase in number, a correlated occurrence of attempts to put constraints on the nature of dark matter also increase. The current most widely-held theory for dark matter, for example, proposes the existence of massive exotic particles, which interact with normal matter only through gravitational forces (Clery, 2006).

It seems worth noting that even with substantial contributions since Vera Rubin's original work on the subject, establishing constraints on the nature of dark matter, before methods for direct observation and hypothesis-testing are available, will be approached with a fair degree of conservatism. This opens even greater importance, however, for further investigations into the subject.

This will be enabled by:
--Continuation and expansion of work by high-resolution optical, infrared, Radio, and X-ray observatories as well as high-energy particle detectors
--Continuing observation of radio emissions and cosmic background noise
--Advances in theoretical cosmology

Initial indicators include:
--Observations, from the structure and dynamics of galaxies, that in most galaxies the majority of mass consists of non-luminous matter (matter that neither emits nor absorbs radiation), rather than better-understood stars and nebulae

What to watch:
--Direct “observations” of dark matter, through effects such as gravitational lensing
--Theoretical breakthroughs leading to more accurate inference from optical observations.

Significantly improved cosmological models & understanding of universe
Improved ability to predict cosmic events
Possible discovery of new states of matter
Possible modification of general relativity

* Clery, Daniel. 2006, Science, 311, 758.
* Rubin, Vera. 1980, Astrophysical Journal, 238, 471.
* Rubin, Vera. 1985, Astrophysical Journal, 297, 423.
* Rubin, Vera. 1998, Scientific American (Special Edition Cosmos), 9, 106.
* Board on Physics and Astronomy, Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century (2003) Link
* Horizon: Most of Our Universe is Missing BBC TV (broadcast 9 Feb. 2006) Link
* Pedro F. González-Díaz, "You need not be afraid of phantom energy", Physical Review D, 68, 021303 (R), Link
* Geoff Brumfiel, "Cosmology Gets Real," Nature 422, 108-110, 2003, Link
* J I Davies et al, "The Existence and Detection of optically dark galacies by 21cm surveys," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2005 Link

Signals

NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter: August, 2006