Good evening.

Back from a trip to Las Vegas to visit friends and thought the shuttle would land while we were there but not until this morning. Weather bad in Florida so shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force base here in California.
- LRK -
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http://www.edwards.af.mil/
http://www.edwards.af.mil/news/index.html
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Edwards+Air+Force+Base,+California&spn=0.123545,0.180038&t=h&hl=en
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We drove by yesterday. Edwards is out in the desert and a place where strange objects have taken off in the past. The Mojave is also where our first civilian rocket made it to space.
- LRK -

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http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
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Tomorrow another expected launch to Mars. (slipped another day
- LRK -)

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NASA's Next Leap in Mars Exploration Ready for Launch
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17588
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Do you have kids that have questions about such things?
You might direct them to a web site that is positioned to answer questions.
Some folks I know would love to have you visit.
- LRK -

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Imagiverse
http://www.imagiverse.org/
Stephanie Wong has written about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
http://www.imagiverse.org/resources/exploration/missions/mro/reach.htm
Reaching Towards the Sky

Check out What's New
http://www.imagiverse.org/whats_new.htm
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Besides the Mars Rovers there are other missions coming on line to give us more information about Mars and its terrain.
- LRK -

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Mars Express radar collects first surface data
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17559
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We may see the International Space Station completed and new vehicles for going to space with humans. The robots will check out our Moon as they are doing with Mars.
Someone will take the tourist there for real or with a camera. Mars is too far a way for direct driving of a Tonka Toy Rover but the Moon is only about 3 seconds round trip light time for a joy stick control of some walker.

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http://www.lunacorp.com/
LunaCorp created several projects that engaged the public's interest in space, and that were aimed at enabling direct participation in space exploration. It was founded in 1989 and was dissolved in 2003 after working with NASA, the Russian space agency and commercial sponsors on visionary projects. The company's former president, David Gump, is now CEO of Transformational Space Corp.

http://www.lunacorp.com/Space_Station_Top.htm
Had Radio Shack sponsor, but now disbanded. You were going to be able to drive around on the Moon. Watch what you drive over. Didn't happen, but ..... You can go back and read, then compare below. - LRK -

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.lunacorp.com/

See next link. - LRK -
http://www.transformspace.com/index.cfm
http://www.transformspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.About%5Ft%2FSpace

Opening space to frontier settlement and development requires breakthroughs in lower costs and higher safety. The t/Space team is working toward these goals by combining the rapid-prototyping approach of its innovative aerospace partners with the in-space experience of key personnel drawn from the White House, NASA and large aerospace companies.
t/Space was formed in 2004 to respond to NASA's plans to implement the President's Vision for Space Exploration. The company was one of eight winners in NASA's "Concept Exploration and Refinement" competition to advise the agency on the best architecture for Moon-Mars exploration and the best initial design for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). The effort kicked off in August 2004 with a $3 million contract that was extended in March 2005 with another $3 million.

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- LRK -

Do you care where the next viewer goes?

Larry Klaes posted some links that makes one wonder if we had better clarify what the International Space Law should be in regards to protecting some historical sites on the Moon.
- LRK -

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http://www.archaeology.org/0411/etc/space.html
Space: The Final [Archaeological] Frontier Volume 57 Number 6, November/December 2004
by P.J. Capelotti
Illustrations by James Jean

Summer 2205

During a preliminary survey of late twenty-first-century mining outposts in the asteroid belt, Dr. Gan Shishu, director of the Institute for Space Archaeology at the China National Space Administration, recognized a unique opportunity. Leaving her field team as they continued to document the massive Halliburton gantry on asteroid Q36, she piloted her team's one-person archaeoprobe L.S.B. Leakey toward a strange-looking artifact nearby that had been drifting in heliocentric orbit for more than two centuries.

Science fiction? Not any longer. The notion of archaeological research and heritage management in space is an idea whose time has already arrived.
snip
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Will spray cans be allowed on the Moon? Kilroy was here. - LRK -
http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/kilroy/

Larry Kellogg
larry.kellogg at sbcglobal.net
https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

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NASA's Next Leap in Mars Exploration Ready for Launch
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17588

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is ready for a morning launch on Wednesday, Aug. 10. The MRO will arrive at Mars in March 2006 for a mission to understand the planet's water riddles and to advance the exploration of the mysterious red planet.

The mission's first launch opportunity window is 7:54 to 9:39 a.m. EDT, Wednesday. If the launch is postponed, additional launch windows open daily at different times each morning through August. For trips from Earth to Mars, the planets move into good position for only a short period every 26 months. The best launch position is when Earth is about to overtake Mars in their concentric racing lanes around the sun.
snip

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/
NASA Announces Mars Orbiter Launch Delay

The launch of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been postponed 24 hours. The new launch window is Thursday, August 11 from 7:50 to 9:35 a.m. EDT.

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Mars Express radar collects first surface data
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17559

Marsis, the sounding radar onboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, is collecting the first data about the surface and ionosphere of Mars.

This radar started its science operations on 4 July, the same day as its first commissioning phase ended. Due to the late deployment of Marsis, it was decided to split the commissioning, originally planned to last four weeks, into two phases; the second will take place in December. It has thus been possible to begin scientific observations with the instrument earlier than initially planned, while it is still Martian night-time. This is the best environmental condition for subsurface sounding, as in daytime the ionosphere is more 'energised' and disturbs the radio signals used for subsurface observations.

As from the start of commissioning, the two 20m-long antenna booms have been sending radio signals towards the Martian surface and receiving echoes back. "The commissioning procedure confirmed that the radar is working very well and that it can be operated at full power without interfering with any of the spacecraft systems," says Roberto Seu, Instrument Manager for Marsis, of University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Italy.

Marsis is a very complex instrument, capable of operating at different frequency bands. Lower frequencies are best suited to probing the subsurface, the highest frequencies are used to probe shallow subsurface depths, while all frequencies are suited to studying the surface and the upper atmospheric layer of Mars. "During commissioning we worked to test all transmission modes and optimise the radar's performance around Mars," says Professor Giovanni Picardi, Principal Investigator for Marsis, of University of Rome 'LaSapienza'. "The result is that since we started the scientific observations in early July, we have been receiving very clean surface echoes back, and first indications about the ionosphere."
snip

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Larry Klaes posted - Subject - Apollo lunar landing sites should be protected history

I hope that there will be some kind of international treaty to keep the
Apollo lunar landing sites left undisturbed - think of an interplanetary
version of the World Heritage sites.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/home/

By undisturbed I primarily mean by treasure seekers and tourists, both of
which will find their ways to the Moon one day. Look what has happened to
the Titanic since its discovery in 1985.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0604_040604_titanic.html

http://www.titanic-titanic.com/news/04/titanic_news_010504.shtml

Here is a recent article on space archaeology online:

http://www.archaeology.org/0411/etc/space.html

Larry

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Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE
- LRK -

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