Good evening, Which should come first, the orbital chicken, or the transportation egg?"
Reading others writings and thinking about my warm house as it rains outside, and I wonder who would like to live on the Moon or Mars or on a Spaceship to the stars.
I have lurked on various space oriented groups and see folks talk about how we might move off mother Earth and argue about what NASA is doing wrong or why we are still in LEO just going around this Blue Marble every 92 minutes.
I don't read in my little home town, Tracy, newspaper any interest in setting up "human settlements" on the Moon. We list the car crashes on I205, and the possible building of a bio-weapons lab at Lawrence Livermore Labs just down the road from me. (aaah to make sure no one uses them on us)
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=53463
Articles : The Why, What and When of a Permanent Manned Lunar Colony by Maurizio Morabito, on 18-Aug-05 12:11am
W.W.W. MOON? The Why, What and When of a Permanent Manned Lunar Colony by Maurizio Morabito
Snip
Background
A few points of note to explain the main assumptions: first of all by "human settlement" it is intended a self-sustaining permanently-manned colony, inhabited not only by scientists and astronauts. In the sense of being opposed to the idea of a "lunar outpost", the structure must be as far as possible from the old concept of "habitable tin cans" ('a la International Space Station).
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
A trip back to the Moon for an outing is not a "human settlement" and neither would a trip to Mars. If you never grew up living in an igloo or a house built on permafrost (now melting into the ocean) why would you want to go live in a lava tube on the Moon or an ice cave on Mars?
Why do you want a space elevator to climb to GEO and a tether system to sling shot you to the Moon?
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn8725
Space-elevator tether climbs a mile high
* 15:29 15 February 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* Kimm Groshong
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4202
Sling me to the Moon
1/18/2006 11:22:00 AM
By: Chris Bergin
NASA researchers are working on an alternative form of space travel to the Moon, involving a ride on a giant slingshot that utilises the technology of momentum-exchange tethers.
These giant structures - roughly 100 kilometres in length - would rotate end-over-end in space, catch a spacecraft, before "throwing" it on a path to take it to the Moon.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
The ISS is still under construction and we are complaining that it isn't going to assemble rockets to go to the Moon. Not in a good orientation anyway. The shuttle is going to be decommissioned and we haven't provided hotel accommodations or space taxis, and so what, that I can live a year under the protection of our magneto sphere. Where is my high view port at GEO? Are we afraid of getting radiation sickness from a solar flare?
Donald Robertson says in an article he wrote back in November 2001, "Which should come first, the orbital chicken, or the transportation egg?"
Think about it, was the Intercontinental Railroad built to make it possible for San Francisco to be built or was it built to make it easy to get goods and supplies to San Francisco after the gold rush made it expedient to do so? http://www.speakeasy.org/~donaldfr/sfmodel.pdf
What do you do to get all people looking up?
Maybe a Lunar Lab of some extended time will be noticeable. Maybe an orbit by the Chinese will perk up some ears. Maybe some college students micro-sat launched to orbit the Moon send back a CQ that some Earth bound Radio Hams will pick up and send the message over the Internet. (working on my Technician Ham license :-)
Add to that add an Indian Lunar Satellite. Maybe if we get enough missions to the Moon my home town paper will pick it up off the AP wire and print it.
It would help if you find some fossils in those cold traps along with some ice that you could melt to make my coffee.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.panspermia.org/zhmur2.htm
27 October 2000: Microorganisms from the Moon
On 24 September 1970, for the first time, an unmanned spacecraft delivered a lunar "soil" sample to Earth. The Soviet Union's Luna 16 spacecraft returned from the moon's Sea of Fertility with 101 grams of lunar regolith in a hermetically sealed container (1). In February 1972, only 120 kilometers from the Luna 16 site, Luna 20 used a drill with a ten-inch, hollow-core bit to collect another regolith sample that was also hermetically sealed on the moon (2). Back in the USSR, the sealed containers from the Luna missions would be promptly delivered to the laboratory for the contents to be examined and photographed. But even after hundreds of the pictures were published in an atlas in 1979 (3), the biological nature of some of the particles was not noticed.
Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------
You want a sample return from Mars, good, every two years or so. Want some sample return practice, stab the Moon and return in a week.
Quit dropping eggs from University Campus bell towers, build micro soil samplers with transmitters to radio back the results.
If you really want to go to space, find some ways to transport your egg and get that chicken out of orbit. :-)
- LRK -
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.spaceagepub.com/Daily.html
See image - LRK -
Credit: David Schrunk
'Malapert Mountain,' Possible Lunar Observatory And Science Research Center, Lies Situated On Near Side Of Moon Just Above Shackleton Crater And South Pole
Snip
http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2006/
European Geosciences Union 'General Assembly 2006' in Vienna, Austria on 02 Apr thru 7 Apr; lunar science
http://isdc.nss.org/2006/
'International Space Development Conf' on 4-7 May in Los Angeles CA to focus on tourism, Moon; Buzz Aldrin, Burt Rutan to speak
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20015
Intl Lunar Conf 2006 / 8th ILEWG Intl Conf on Exploration & Utilization of Moon' on 23-27 Jul in Beijing; abstracts due 20 Apr Snip
=============================================================
Maurizio Morabito sent a link to an article he presented about the reasons for a Permanent Manned Lunar Colony - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Larry
Let me point out some work on Lunar Bases I have done a couple of years ago, for a presentation at the British Interplanetary Society
You can read "The Why, What and When of a Permanent Manned Lunar Colony" at URL http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=53463
There are quite a few references. Of course one of my main sources was 'Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century'
By the way it includes my own proposal for a polar base called P.O.L.E.
Snip
=============================================================
A note from Donald F. Robertson and some discourse with link to one of his earlier writings (Nov 2001) have some thoughts to consider. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
A quick comment, Larry.
While I agree with Mr. Zubrin about the short-sightedness of abandoning the Methane-Oxygen engine, I think the current vision is the vision we get. The best way to make certain that nothing happens is to start fighting amongst ourselves. Let's return to Earth's moon and work on Mars as we can.
Second, Mr. Zubrin ignores one key resource that the moon can supply, which is oxygen. I think the moon is critical because it can supply low-cost oxygen for use on the moon, then later at the Space Station (which has a huge and growing oxygen requirement) and eventually at other application satellites in LEO. It could also supply the oxidizer, breathing, and (with
hydrogen) drinking requirements of future Mars missions.
This starts the earliest beginnings of a trading economy. A quick look at terrestrial history shows that trade has driven much of the human expansion across the globe. If we want space exploration to happen relatively soon, our first and highest priority should be to get that trading economy started. Delivering oxygen from the moon to LEO is the easiest and earliest thing we can do to achieve that -- and thus should be our single highest priority in space. NASA's current vision speaks directly to that goal . . .
and could more quickly lead to deep space missions to the Martian moons, nearby asteroids, and the Martian surface, and a permanent infrastructure for same, than any amount of front loaded government efforts.
My opinion, but based on what has worked in the past.
Thanks for listening!
-- Donald
=============================================================
My reply - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks much for your thoughts Donald.
May I pass them to the lunar-update list?
My feeling is that a permanent presence in space for humans needs to be justified and sold to the public.
A lot of chicken and egg problems. Inkjet printers was a similar problem.
Hewlett Packard wanted to make printers. No paper that would work with the early models, and paper manufactures didn't want to make special paper if there were no printers. HP ended up making paper and printers to start out.
Someone has to have the belief and vision and perseverance to follow through from invention to innovation to production.
Zubrin is pushing for Mars. Some pushing for the Moon. Need some pushing for the whole ball of wax.
Could make for some interesting times and a lot of new inventions to solve all the problems (opportunities :-)
Larry
=============================================================
You certainly may. However, I think we already have our chicken. In addition, you may want to distribute the link to this article, which was published several times and most recently in Spaceflight. It's a bit out-of-date, but I still think it's solution to the "Chicken-and-Egg"
problem is the correct one.
http://www.speakeasy.org/~donaldfr/sfmodel.pdf
-- Donald
=============================================================
http://www.speakeasy.org/~donaldfr/sfmodel.pdf (Nov 2001 - 267 KB PDF file)
Building a Place to Trade in Space: the San Francisco Model (an Acrobat
file) most recently appeared in Spaceflight. Why would anyone invest the hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars needed to develop routine transportation to space? After all, the only existing market each year is a few dozen communications, scientific, and military satellites. An unfortunate number of would-be entrepreneurial launch companies are finding themselves asking just that question. Humanity has never tackled a frontier as difficult as the Solar System before, so we cannot know the answer to that question with any certainty. But, history does provide some clues, at least to what has worked in the past.
-----------------------------------
Snip
Which should come first, the orbital chicken, or the transportation egg?
These are not new questions, but, in today's climate of slowly improving technology and rapidly decreasing funding, answers to them are more important than ever.
Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------
More of Donald's writings. - LRK -
http://www.speakeasy.org/~donaldfr/
=============================================================
Lord Kimberley sent the below links from the NewScientist magazine. If you have a subscription you can read the whole article. The snips at least give you an idea of what is of interest. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Larry,
For once the main feature in this week's New Scientist. Sadly only subscribers only for the magazine content.
http://www.newscientist.com/contents/issue/2545.html - I do get a print version.
It's time to go back
* 01 April 2006
* From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
In the 34 years since Eugene Cernan left the last footprint on the moon, our knowledge of the nature of the universe and the origins of life has expanded immeasurably, bringing us up against questions that are impossible to answer here on Earth. Now NASA and others are getting serious about harnessing the moon for science, and over the next 10 pages, we find out why.
We explore the opportunities available at the prime lunar locations and the challenges of working there. And we examine the apparently bizarre idea that going fossil hunting on the lunar surface is our best chance of discovering our own origins. For science, there's no place quite like the moon...
>From issue 2545 of New Scientist magazine, 01 April 2006, page 32
but some more is available at
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg19025450.300.html
and
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025450.200.html
--
Yours John.
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Good evening.
Gunjan Gupta asked if I would share Robert Zubrin's post to the Mars Society. If you are a Mars Society member you are well aware of Bob's feelings about going to Mars, and have probably seen his post.
http://www.marssociety.org/
If you are interested in only going to the Moon then you may not be interested in a Mars Direct or even using the Moon for testing our ability to live off World and further exploration of space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct
http://www.rps.psu.edu/0305/direct.html
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/65/1
If you are interested in finding ways to open a new frontier in space for humankind it might be worth looking at some of the arguments Bob puts forward about the latest cuts that are taking place.
I see NASA trying to deal with the funding that looks to be available. If it isn't enough to promote putting humans off world permanently it is because there isn't the monitory support or interest to do so.
The question needs to be asked what will be the motivation and support come the next presidential administration. The question might also be asked, "What are you interested in seeing happen?"
Science can be done with satellites, robots, rovers and the like all from the comfort of this Blue Marble. Is that enough? If you say yes, will that even be accomplished as the purse strings are tightened?
I don't hear any ground swell pushing for humans to permanently live off world. If that is where your interest lies, then you might want to dig into what Zubrin has to say and then go political yourself.
What I hear is still a divided audience with small ventures in mind.
I am 68 and I am not going off World. Who knows, tomorrow an asteroid might brighten the sky and make for a bad hair day. Houses slide off of rain soaked hill sides. To complicate things, nations argue about religion and whether they have the right to nuke their neighbors.
Seems like it would be nice if you could get a consensus on working on a global solution to where humankind is headed and how it will survie.
Seeding the solar system might be a worthwhile cause rather than having all our eggs in one spaceship that is orbiting the Sun with limited resources and the potential for going radio active at a moments detination.
Then again, it is raining and I need to go shut off the sprinklers.
- LRK -
Copied Bob's post below.
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
>To: marssocietynewsletter@yahoogroups.com
>From: "zubrin1" Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
>Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:27:40 -0000
>Subject: [marssocietynewsletter] Zubrin Op Ed in Space News
The Vision at Risk
Robert Zubrin
Space News, March 27, 2006
NASA's recent announcement that methane-oxygen propulsion would no longer be a requirement for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) has created great concern in the space community that the agency's commitment to the human exploration of Mars might be waning.
Because methane-oxygen can be readily manufactured on the surface of Mars out of local materials, it is the ideal propellant combination for Mars ascent propulsion. Its earlier prescribed development as part of the CEV program was therefore widely seen as evidence that the CEV was being pursued not merely as a thing in itself, but as part of a broader vision that would take America all the way to Mars.
Its abandonment has therefore been interpreted as indicating the collapse of that vision.
In some respects, this dark view is overdrawn. NASA's exploration office remains committed to the development of a heavy-lift launch vehicle, which is the primary hardware element needed for a human Mars mission, and as far as methane-oxygen propulsion is concerned, two contracts were recently awarded by NASA supporting its development outside of the CEV program, and should that technology be employed for lunar ascent but not CEV, that would still be timely enough to prepare it for Mars application.
Yet it must be said that the dropping of methane-oxygen from CEV, while not a fatal blow in itself, illustrates a dangerous trend that could well destroy the human exploration program. It is always easier to conduct any technology development program with a view towards meeting only immediate mission requirements, while ignoring those needed for evolutionary application.
This, in fact, is why methane-oxygen was dropped from CEV. Methane- oxygen offers superior performance to conventional storables on CEV itself, and becomes increasingly advantageous as applications for first lunar ascent and then Mars ascent are brought into play.
However in order to reduce immediate costs, its development has been deferred.
Now let us consider the lunar program that is supposed to follow CEV.
It will, perforce, be cheaper in the short term to design human lunar exploration systems without regard for potential application to Mars.
Thus a NASA adopting the view that it is best to solve one problem at a time will be driven in precisely that direction. The net result will be a Moon program that is just a Moon program, and not, as President George W. Bush specified in his national security document authorizing the Vision for Space Exploration, a Moon-Mars program in which lunar activities are conducted in order to "develop and test new approaches, technologies and systems.to support sustained human exploration to Mars and other destinations."
The consequences of allowing the vision to be degraded in this way would be grave. This is made nowhere more clear than in an op-ed article by Paul Spudis, senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab, that was published in the Dec. 27 edition of the Washington Post advocating precisely such a course.
A noted lunar geologist and space policy insider, Spudis' article is of great clinical interest because he is the most eloquent and informed advocate of a Moon-only vision for NASA. He argues that such a program could be justified on three grounds:
* First, that studying lunar cratering will allow us to understand the processes of mass extinctions on Earth;
* Second, that Lunar activities will provide us with practice for exploration of "other worlds;" and
* Third, the Moon base will provide an economic return by enabling the development of Lunar solar power stations that will beam electricity back to Earth.
However, these programmatic foundations have no basis.
Argument one is false because the Moon's lower gravity gives it a lower impact rate than the Earth, and its lack of an atmosphere or biosphere makes impossible any studies of the relevant post-impact terrestrial phenomenon that cause and shape mass extinction.
Argument two is false because while we can practice for operating on other worlds on the Moon, we can do much more in that line at 1/1000 the cost in the Arctic.
Argument three is false because a photovoltaic panel only receives twice the solar flux on the Moon as it does in Arizona, and all of its increased output would be lost in the inefficiencies of the transmission system. Thus the useful output of a photovoltaic power station on the Moon would only be equal to one on Earth, while logistics costs to support it would be 100,000 times as great.
Furthermore, the station would be blacked out two weeks at a time, and require three receiving rectenna and power distribution systems on Earth as well, each of which would be blacked out two-thirds of the day during the half of the month that the station produced any power at all.
In short, the programmatic justifications offered by the ablest advocate of a Moon-only vision have no valid basis at all. Under favorable political conditions, NASA might get by for a while by having its supporters chant such nonsense to entertain Congress, in the same manner as it used similar unsound "rationales" to justify the shuttle and space station programs. However, at the end of the day little of real value will have been accomplished at great expense.
The shuttle and station programs initially were proposed as bridges to an expansive evolutionary future. Yet because of design compromises to save costs on the programs themselves, without regard to how they would really serve a useful role supporting human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, neither have any such utility, and NASA's primary current concern with these programs is how to escape from them so it can get on with its mission.
Again, it was precisely because the design of the shuttle and station had been effectively detached from the need to play a useful role in the achievement of worthwhile goals beyond themselves, that NASA felt the need to grossly exaggerate their potential return as stand- alones. That pathology threatens to repeat itself.
We need to do better. Instead of organizing NASA's activities around projects conceived largely to give the agency and its contractors something to do, and then justifying those programs with whatever excuses someone can dream up, NASA needs to set a rational objective for its human spaceflight program and devote its efforts and expenditures towards that end.
That goal can only be humans to Mars.
In contrast to a Lunar return program supported by promises of electricity from Moon beams, human Mars exploration has a real rational purpose: the search to determine whether life is a general phenomenon in the universe and whether life as we know it on Earth is the pattern for all life everywhere, or whether we are just a particular example drawn from a much more diverse tapestry.
This is true, fundamental, science of a sort that bears on questions that thinking men and women have debated passionately for millennia.
It is a goal that can be truthfully and forcefully defended as worth risking life and treasure for.
It is a search that can only be accomplished by human explorers on Mars, because of the complexity of operations required to find, culture and characterize Martian life are far beyond the capacities of robotic devices.
Furthermore, since, unlike the carbon, nitrogen and water impoverished Moon, Mars possesses all the resources needed to support life and human settlement, if the objective of our space program is to extend human civilization into space, our goal needs to be to send humans to Mars. There is really no way around this.
There are legitimate reasons to send astronauts to the Moon, but just as was the case for the space station, these are in fact of insufficient worth to justify the huge cost and multidecade delay in the achievement of more important objectives that a stand-alone program must entail.
Therefore, since lunar activities can most rationally be supported as intermediate milestones in an effort to get humans to Mars, it should be clear that their hardware design requirements should be driven by the real goal. If we fail to take that approach, we will spend further tens of billions of dollars developing hardware, as exemplified by the shuttle and space station, that serves little useful purpose towards getting us where we want to go, and which will have to be set aside in order to accomplish anything real.
If we launch a lunar program with a hardware set designed for a Moon- only effort, the hardware will prove useless for Mars, and we will have to abandon the Moon while we spend many billions more and waste further decades to develop a second hardware set that can take us to the red planet. But if we intelligently design our hardware set for Mars, we can use a subset of that to reach the Moon.
By adopting such a rational approach, based upon real goals courageously embraced, NASA will be able be to achieve truly valuable accomplishments with its manned spaceflight program, and do it at much lower cost, risk and time than would be possible otherwise.
It will cut cost because only one hardware set will need to be developed instead of two. It will cut schedule, radically, for the same reason. It will reduce risk because the lunar missions will be used to exercise the Mars flight hardware directly. It also will strengthen the rationale for the lunar program itself, because in this case it would really pave the way to Mars, and because, with a common hardware approach, the Moon would not have to be abandoned for the Mars program to begin.
However, if instead the agency allows itself to devolve into an irrational Moon-in-itself project, then it will end up repeating the wasteful folly of shuttle and the international space station, and create yet another tollbooth blocking America's progress in space.
Upon that choice hangs the fate of the vision.
Dr. Robert Zubrin, an astronautical engineer, is president of the Mars Society and the author of The Case for Mars, Entering Space, and Mars on Earth.
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Gunjan Gupta asked if I would share Robert Zubrin's post to the Mars Society. If you are a Mars Society member you are well aware of Bob's feelings about going to Mars, and have probably seen his post.
http://www.marssociety.org/
If you are interested in only going to the Moon then you may not be interested in a Mars Direct or even using the Moon for testing our ability to live off World and further exploration of space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct
http://www.rps.psu.edu/0305/direct.html
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/65/1
If you are interested in finding ways to open a new frontier in space for humankind it might be worth looking at some of the arguments Bob puts forward about the latest cuts that are taking place.
I see NASA trying to deal with the funding that looks to be available. If it isn't enough to promote putting humans off world permanently it is because there isn't the monitory support or interest to do so.
The question needs to be asked what will be the motivation and support come the next presidential administration. The question might also be asked, "What are you interested in seeing happen?"
Science can be done with satellites, robots, rovers and the like all from the comfort of this Blue Marble. Is that enough? If you say yes, will that even be accomplished as the purse strings are tightened?
I don't hear any ground swell pushing for humans to permanently live off world. If that is where your interest lies, then you might want to dig into what Zubrin has to say and then go political yourself.
What I hear is still a divided audience with small ventures in mind.
I am 68 and I am not going off World. Who knows, tomorrow an asteroid might brighten the sky and make for a bad hair day. Houses slide off of rain soaked hill sides. To complicate things, nations argue about religion and whether they have the right to nuke their neighbors.
Seems like it would be nice if you could get a consensus on working on a global solution to where humankind is headed and how it will survie.
Seeding the solar system might be a worthwhile cause rather than having all our eggs in one spaceship that is orbiting the Sun with limited resources and the potential for going radio active at a moments detination.
Then again, it is raining and I need to go shut off the sprinklers.
- LRK -
Copied Bob's post below.
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
>To: marssocietynewsletter@yahoogroups.com
>From: "zubrin1"
>Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:27:40 -0000
>Subject: [marssocietynewsletter] Zubrin Op Ed in Space News
The Vision at Risk
Robert Zubrin
Space News, March 27, 2006
NASA's recent announcement that methane-oxygen propulsion would no longer be a requirement for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) has created great concern in the space community that the agency's commitment to the human exploration of Mars might be waning.
Because methane-oxygen can be readily manufactured on the surface of Mars out of local materials, it is the ideal propellant combination for Mars ascent propulsion. Its earlier prescribed development as part of the CEV program was therefore widely seen as evidence that the CEV was being pursued not merely as a thing in itself, but as part of a broader vision that would take America all the way to Mars.
Its abandonment has therefore been interpreted as indicating the collapse of that vision.
In some respects, this dark view is overdrawn. NASA's exploration office remains committed to the development of a heavy-lift launch vehicle, which is the primary hardware element needed for a human Mars mission, and as far as methane-oxygen propulsion is concerned, two contracts were recently awarded by NASA supporting its development outside of the CEV program, and should that technology be employed for lunar ascent but not CEV, that would still be timely enough to prepare it for Mars application.
Yet it must be said that the dropping of methane-oxygen from CEV, while not a fatal blow in itself, illustrates a dangerous trend that could well destroy the human exploration program. It is always easier to conduct any technology development program with a view towards meeting only immediate mission requirements, while ignoring those needed for evolutionary application.
This, in fact, is why methane-oxygen was dropped from CEV. Methane- oxygen offers superior performance to conventional storables on CEV itself, and becomes increasingly advantageous as applications for first lunar ascent and then Mars ascent are brought into play.
However in order to reduce immediate costs, its development has been deferred.
Now let us consider the lunar program that is supposed to follow CEV.
It will, perforce, be cheaper in the short term to design human lunar exploration systems without regard for potential application to Mars.
Thus a NASA adopting the view that it is best to solve one problem at a time will be driven in precisely that direction. The net result will be a Moon program that is just a Moon program, and not, as President George W. Bush specified in his national security document authorizing the Vision for Space Exploration, a Moon-Mars program in which lunar activities are conducted in order to "develop and test new approaches, technologies and systems.to support sustained human exploration to Mars and other destinations."
The consequences of allowing the vision to be degraded in this way would be grave. This is made nowhere more clear than in an op-ed article by Paul Spudis, senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab, that was published in the Dec. 27 edition of the Washington Post advocating precisely such a course.
A noted lunar geologist and space policy insider, Spudis' article is of great clinical interest because he is the most eloquent and informed advocate of a Moon-only vision for NASA. He argues that such a program could be justified on three grounds:
* First, that studying lunar cratering will allow us to understand the processes of mass extinctions on Earth;
* Second, that Lunar activities will provide us with practice for exploration of "other worlds;" and
* Third, the Moon base will provide an economic return by enabling the development of Lunar solar power stations that will beam electricity back to Earth.
However, these programmatic foundations have no basis.
Argument one is false because the Moon's lower gravity gives it a lower impact rate than the Earth, and its lack of an atmosphere or biosphere makes impossible any studies of the relevant post-impact terrestrial phenomenon that cause and shape mass extinction.
Argument two is false because while we can practice for operating on other worlds on the Moon, we can do much more in that line at 1/1000 the cost in the Arctic.
Argument three is false because a photovoltaic panel only receives twice the solar flux on the Moon as it does in Arizona, and all of its increased output would be lost in the inefficiencies of the transmission system. Thus the useful output of a photovoltaic power station on the Moon would only be equal to one on Earth, while logistics costs to support it would be 100,000 times as great.
Furthermore, the station would be blacked out two weeks at a time, and require three receiving rectenna and power distribution systems on Earth as well, each of which would be blacked out two-thirds of the day during the half of the month that the station produced any power at all.
In short, the programmatic justifications offered by the ablest advocate of a Moon-only vision have no valid basis at all. Under favorable political conditions, NASA might get by for a while by having its supporters chant such nonsense to entertain Congress, in the same manner as it used similar unsound "rationales" to justify the shuttle and space station programs. However, at the end of the day little of real value will have been accomplished at great expense.
The shuttle and station programs initially were proposed as bridges to an expansive evolutionary future. Yet because of design compromises to save costs on the programs themselves, without regard to how they would really serve a useful role supporting human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, neither have any such utility, and NASA's primary current concern with these programs is how to escape from them so it can get on with its mission.
Again, it was precisely because the design of the shuttle and station had been effectively detached from the need to play a useful role in the achievement of worthwhile goals beyond themselves, that NASA felt the need to grossly exaggerate their potential return as stand- alones. That pathology threatens to repeat itself.
We need to do better. Instead of organizing NASA's activities around projects conceived largely to give the agency and its contractors something to do, and then justifying those programs with whatever excuses someone can dream up, NASA needs to set a rational objective for its human spaceflight program and devote its efforts and expenditures towards that end.
That goal can only be humans to Mars.
In contrast to a Lunar return program supported by promises of electricity from Moon beams, human Mars exploration has a real rational purpose: the search to determine whether life is a general phenomenon in the universe and whether life as we know it on Earth is the pattern for all life everywhere, or whether we are just a particular example drawn from a much more diverse tapestry.
This is true, fundamental, science of a sort that bears on questions that thinking men and women have debated passionately for millennia.
It is a goal that can be truthfully and forcefully defended as worth risking life and treasure for.
It is a search that can only be accomplished by human explorers on Mars, because of the complexity of operations required to find, culture and characterize Martian life are far beyond the capacities of robotic devices.
Furthermore, since, unlike the carbon, nitrogen and water impoverished Moon, Mars possesses all the resources needed to support life and human settlement, if the objective of our space program is to extend human civilization into space, our goal needs to be to send humans to Mars. There is really no way around this.
There are legitimate reasons to send astronauts to the Moon, but just as was the case for the space station, these are in fact of insufficient worth to justify the huge cost and multidecade delay in the achievement of more important objectives that a stand-alone program must entail.
Therefore, since lunar activities can most rationally be supported as intermediate milestones in an effort to get humans to Mars, it should be clear that their hardware design requirements should be driven by the real goal. If we fail to take that approach, we will spend further tens of billions of dollars developing hardware, as exemplified by the shuttle and space station, that serves little useful purpose towards getting us where we want to go, and which will have to be set aside in order to accomplish anything real.
If we launch a lunar program with a hardware set designed for a Moon- only effort, the hardware will prove useless for Mars, and we will have to abandon the Moon while we spend many billions more and waste further decades to develop a second hardware set that can take us to the red planet. But if we intelligently design our hardware set for Mars, we can use a subset of that to reach the Moon.
By adopting such a rational approach, based upon real goals courageously embraced, NASA will be able be to achieve truly valuable accomplishments with its manned spaceflight program, and do it at much lower cost, risk and time than would be possible otherwise.
It will cut cost because only one hardware set will need to be developed instead of two. It will cut schedule, radically, for the same reason. It will reduce risk because the lunar missions will be used to exercise the Mars flight hardware directly. It also will strengthen the rationale for the lunar program itself, because in this case it would really pave the way to Mars, and because, with a common hardware approach, the Moon would not have to be abandoned for the Mars program to begin.
However, if instead the agency allows itself to devolve into an irrational Moon-in-itself project, then it will end up repeating the wasteful folly of shuttle and the international space station, and create yet another tollbooth blocking America's progress in space.
Upon that choice hangs the fate of the vision.
Dr. Robert Zubrin, an astronautical engineer, is president of the Mars Society and the author of The Case for Mars, Entering Space, and Mars on Earth.
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Good day, March 29, 2006
If you didn't see the Solar Eclipse today there are some images at NASA.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/index.html
Snip
03.29.06 - International Space Station Captures Images of Solar Eclipse Crew members onboard the International Space Station captured images of this morning's solar eclipse, as they witnessed the spectacle from their unique vantage point 230 miles above the Earth.
+ Read More
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_M06053_eclipse_images_available.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/sun_earthday2006.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
Others have pictures as well.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.spaceweather.com/
TOTAL ECLIPSE: The moon's dark shadow touched Earth today, tracing a path from Brazil to central Asia, cutting across Africa and Turkey, and finally returning to space west of Mongolia. Wherever the shadow fell, people witnessed a spectacular eclipse of the sun: photo gallery.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html
On March 29, 2006, a total solar eclipse will occur when the new moon moves directly between the sun and the earth. The moon's shadow will fall on the eastern tip of Brazil, speed eastward across the Atlantic, through northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, and into Turkey, where an Exploratorium team will be waiting.
Snip
Watch the ARCHIVED Webcast
Archived video will be available via these links approximately one hour after the LIVE event ends
http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2006/events/webcasts.php
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you had been in Washington D.C. today you might have attended the Astrobiology Conference where the Moon was in the spotlight. Take a look at who the presenters are in the snip I copied below.
- LRK -
And someone that is in the Washington D.C. area is Karen Shea who has several blog sites that have much to say about the Moon. She has a number of links to articles about the Moon and was gracious enough to mention this list. :-)
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://lunardevelopment.typepad.com/
Lunar Development
The Moonbase Portal: Commentary and Information on the Development of the Moon
Snip
March 03, 2006
Implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration: A decision that effects the 7000th Generation
The Iroquois, American Indians in the Great Law of Haudenosanee, which required chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on the Seventh Generation. The plan for a Return to the Moon will have effects on not just the Seventh Generation, the 70th generation or even the 700th generation, The decisions we make now will effect the 7000th generation.
We need to make decisions about the Return to the Moon with that in mind. We need to plan for settlement not for camping. Just because the plan includes lunar resource utilization doesn't mean it is not camping. Gathering firewood and fishing for dinner are using local resources but they are not settlement, they are camping.
Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://abscicon2006.arc.nasa.gov/
http://abscicon2006.arc.nasa.gov/abscicon2006.html
Snip
The Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon) 2006 will be held March 26-30, 2006 in Washington, D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (www.itcdc.com). All are invited to join the astrobiology community at this exceptional facility that lies in the heart of Washington, just off the Mall, blocks from the White House, and with easy access to all areas of the city via the Metro. The meeting will be held when the cherry blossoms (www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/) are nearing their peak at the Tidal Basin! A private evening tour and reception are scheduled at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, site of the United States meteorite collection.
Snip
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/index.html
Snip
03.28.06 - The Moon Gets Spotlight at Astrobiology Conference Scientists at the NASA Astrobiology Science Conference will discuss the moon's role in shaping life on Earth and what secrets it can tell us about the formation of the solar system.
+ Read More
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2006/06_18AR.html
Jonas Dino
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: (650) 604-5612 or (650) 207-3280
E-mail: jonas.dino@nasa.gov
March 28, 2006
RELEASE: 06_18AR
The Moon Gets Spotlight at Astrobiology Conference
WHO: The moon, our constant companion, has once again become a focus of the scientific community as NASA prepares to fulfill the Vision for Space Exploration. Scientists at the NASA Astrobiology Science Conference will discuss the moon's role in shaping life on Earth and what secrets it can tell us about the formation of the solar system. The session will also discuss the future of lunar exploration missions. The NASA Astrobiology Science Conference is being held in Washington, March 26 through 30.
Panelists:
* Norm Sleep - Moon as Biological Tape Recorder
* Paul G. Lucey - The Science of the Lunar Polar Volatile Deposits
* James B. Garvin - The Moon as a Natural Laboratory for Cosmic Collisions in Astrobiology
* Lynn Rothschild - The Role of the Moon in Shaping Life on Earth
* G. Scott Hubbard- Exploration Science at the Moon: Links to Understanding Life in the Universe
* Bernard H. Foing - International Lunar Missions: Results and Implications for Astrobiology
WHEN: The session will be held on Wednesday, March 29, at 3 p.m. to 5:40 p.m. EST.
WHERE: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Session location: Reagan Amphitheater
For more information about AbSciCon 2006, visit:
http://abscicon.arc.nasa.gov/
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
If you didn't see the Solar Eclipse today there are some images at NASA.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/index.html
Snip
03.29.06 - International Space Station Captures Images of Solar Eclipse Crew members onboard the International Space Station captured images of this morning's solar eclipse, as they witnessed the spectacle from their unique vantage point 230 miles above the Earth.
+ Read More
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_M06053_eclipse_images_available.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/sun_earthday2006.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
Others have pictures as well.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.spaceweather.com/
TOTAL ECLIPSE: The moon's dark shadow touched Earth today, tracing a path from Brazil to central Asia, cutting across Africa and Turkey, and finally returning to space west of Mongolia. Wherever the shadow fell, people witnessed a spectacular eclipse of the sun: photo gallery.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html
On March 29, 2006, a total solar eclipse will occur when the new moon moves directly between the sun and the earth. The moon's shadow will fall on the eastern tip of Brazil, speed eastward across the Atlantic, through northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, and into Turkey, where an Exploratorium team will be waiting.
Snip
Watch the ARCHIVED Webcast
Archived video will be available via these links approximately one hour after the LIVE event ends
http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2006/events/webcasts.php
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you had been in Washington D.C. today you might have attended the Astrobiology Conference where the Moon was in the spotlight. Take a look at who the presenters are in the snip I copied below.
- LRK -
And someone that is in the Washington D.C. area is Karen Shea who has several blog sites that have much to say about the Moon. She has a number of links to articles about the Moon and was gracious enough to mention this list. :-)
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://lunardevelopment.typepad.com/
Lunar Development
The Moonbase Portal: Commentary and Information on the Development of the Moon
Snip
March 03, 2006
Implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration: A decision that effects the 7000th Generation
The Iroquois, American Indians in the Great Law of Haudenosanee, which required chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on the Seventh Generation. The plan for a Return to the Moon will have effects on not just the Seventh Generation, the 70th generation or even the 700th generation, The decisions we make now will effect the 7000th generation.
We need to make decisions about the Return to the Moon with that in mind. We need to plan for settlement not for camping. Just because the plan includes lunar resource utilization doesn't mean it is not camping. Gathering firewood and fishing for dinner are using local resources but they are not settlement, they are camping.
Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://abscicon2006.arc.nasa.gov/
http://abscicon2006.arc.nasa.gov/abscicon2006.html
Snip
The Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon) 2006 will be held March 26-30, 2006 in Washington, D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (www.itcdc.com). All are invited to join the astrobiology community at this exceptional facility that lies in the heart of Washington, just off the Mall, blocks from the White House, and with easy access to all areas of the city via the Metro. The meeting will be held when the cherry blossoms (www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/) are nearing their peak at the Tidal Basin! A private evening tour and reception are scheduled at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, site of the United States meteorite collection.
Snip
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/index.html
Snip
03.28.06 - The Moon Gets Spotlight at Astrobiology Conference Scientists at the NASA Astrobiology Science Conference will discuss the moon's role in shaping life on Earth and what secrets it can tell us about the formation of the solar system.
+ Read More
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2006/06_18AR.html
Jonas Dino
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: (650) 604-5612 or (650) 207-3280
E-mail: jonas.dino@nasa.gov
March 28, 2006
RELEASE: 06_18AR
The Moon Gets Spotlight at Astrobiology Conference
WHO: The moon, our constant companion, has once again become a focus of the scientific community as NASA prepares to fulfill the Vision for Space Exploration. Scientists at the NASA Astrobiology Science Conference will discuss the moon's role in shaping life on Earth and what secrets it can tell us about the formation of the solar system. The session will also discuss the future of lunar exploration missions. The NASA Astrobiology Science Conference is being held in Washington, March 26 through 30.
Panelists:
* Norm Sleep - Moon as Biological Tape Recorder
* Paul G. Lucey - The Science of the Lunar Polar Volatile Deposits
* James B. Garvin - The Moon as a Natural Laboratory for Cosmic Collisions in Astrobiology
* Lynn Rothschild - The Role of the Moon in Shaping Life on Earth
* G. Scott Hubbard- Exploration Science at the Moon: Links to Understanding Life in the Universe
* Bernard H. Foing - International Lunar Missions: Results and Implications for Astrobiology
WHEN: The session will be held on Wednesday, March 29, at 3 p.m. to 5:40 p.m. EST.
WHERE: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Session location: Reagan Amphitheater
For more information about AbSciCon 2006, visit:
http://abscicon.arc.nasa.gov/
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Good day.
Since this is a "lunar-update" list, maybe we should look at the idea of a "Lunar Base".
Even before the present move to go back to the Moon, there were those that wanted to do so, it just wasn't in the politics to do much about it. In the USA, the time and money has been spent in LEO, and in sending probes to various heavenly bodies. Value to be had, but not on the Moon.
To talk about going to the Moon to set up permanent outposts was sort of back room talk while looking over your shoulder to see who was watching.
(well maybe not that dark)
We have mentioned books that have come out of meetings BACK WHEN, well a few years back anyway. Thought I would see what was readable on the Internet for the subject "Lunar Base", and Google was cooperative. 212,000 hits in
(0.06 seconds). For the key words "Lunar Bases", not quite as many, only 47,900 in (0.07 seconds).
I guess this would indicate that something has been written about the subject.
One of those books that was made from a conference back in 1984 (just seems like yesterday unless you were just born then) is -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century
Lunar Bases. and Space Activities of the 21st Century. coverpage, Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences ...
ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/ - 4k - Cached - Similar pages http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
-------------------------------------------------------------
I copied the material from the cover page and some information on the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), a NASA-funded project, which maintains three bibliographic databases.
You might want to look at those links if you are looking for material to read or your students are doing research.
Check out the Table of Contents for "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the
21 Century" and see what they were discussing.
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html
I am going to read some of the articles and see what was being talked about a year after I started supporting the space effort at NASA Ames. Memories.
If you don't have time for all that, you still might like to look at the "Prologue" as the problems with the politics of the time may still come back to hinder going back to the Moon. There is a future to be looked at.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lb
sa.conf....1.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000001.000.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000002.000.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000003.000.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000004.000.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
And speaking of the future Lunar Bases, Larry Klaes passed a reference to an article that www.spacedaily.com has. A few what ifs, and might be's, but something to consider. Even if China only goes around the Moon, it will show the World that others can do it. Putting down on the surface would just be in the details.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
DRAGON SPACE
- Fly Me To A Red Moon
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Fly_Me_To_A_Red_Moon.html
Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Mar 28, 2006 - The revisions to China's human spaceflight program in 2006 have been astonishing. China has completely revised its timetable and specific mission objectives for the next four launches in the Shenzhou program. But do the changes in the Shenzhou program run deeper than dates and technicalities?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Given a nudge last January, could you have whipped up a proposal to go to the Moon for $50 mil?
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_060327.html
NASA Considers Stowaway Finalists for LRO Launch
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
With extra room available on the rocket that will launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in late 2008, NASA is evaluating four proposals for low-cost spacecraft small enough to be stowaways on the mission.
NASA plans to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on either an Atlas
5 or Delta 4 rocket in October 2008. Mark Borkowski, director of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, said either rocket should have room for another 1,000 kilograms worth of secondary payloads.
Not wanting to waste what essentially amounts to a free ride to the Moon for one lucky spacecraft, NASA asked its 10 regional field centers in late January to submit proposals for low-cost hitchhiker missions beneficial to the U.S. space agency's lunar exploration goals.
"There are a lot of pieces of information we'd like to have about the Moon and if we can get any of that information sooner and at a lower cost, that would be an advantage," Borkowski said.
Snip
While the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's launch vehicle will have room for multiple secondary payloads, Borkowski said only one of the four finalists - if that - can expect to make the cut.
"It's ambitious to free up budget for one," he said. "Freeing up budget for two might be a bridge to far."
Borkowski said the field center-led teams were given a budget target of $50 million and an "absolute upper limit" of $80 million for doing their proposed mission. NASA would fund the mission out of the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program budget, which would grow to $272 million in 2007 under the agency's spending request now before Congress.
Neither Borkowski nor the field centers would say much
Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/
The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a NASA-funded project which maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 4.6 million records:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and ArXiv e-prints. The main body of data in the ADS consists of bibliographic records, which are searchable through our Abstract Service query forms, and full-text scans of much of the astronomical literature which can be browsed though our Browse interface.
Integrated in its databases, the ADS provides access and pointers to a wealth of external resources, including electronic articles, data catalogs and archives. We currently have links to over 4.6 million records maintained by our collaborators.
Please note that all abstracts and articles in the ADS are copyrighted by the publisher, and their use is free for personal use only. For more information, please read our page detailing the Terms and Conditions regulating the use of our resources.
In addition to its databases, the ADS provides the myADS Update Service, a free custom notification service promoting current awareness of the recent technical literature in astronomy and physics based on each individual subscriber's queries. Every week the myADS Update Service will scan the literature added to the ADS since the last update, and will create custom lists of recent papers for each subscriber, formatted to allow quick reading and access. Subscribers are notified by e-mail in html format. As an option, users can elect to receive updates on preprints published on the ArXiv e-print archive via daily emails or by subscribing to a custom RSS feed.
The importance of ADS's role in supporting the scientific community has been recognized by societies and individuals. If you wish to acknowledge us in a publication, kindly use a phrase such as the following:
``This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System."
Thanks!
=============================================================
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century
coverpage
Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29-31, 1984
edited by W.W. Mendell
published by
The Lunar and Planetary Institute
Houston
TL799.M6L83 1985 919.9'104 86-50
ISBN 0-942862-02-3
* Table of Contents
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html
* Index
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lb
sa.conf..863.
* Associate Editors
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/editors.html
Copyright C 1986 by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Made available electronically by the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
-------------------------------------------------------------
This work relates to NASA Contract Nos. NASW-3389 and NAS-9-17023. The U.S.
Government has a royalty free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for Governmental purposes. All other rights are reserved by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Published by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3303 NASA Road One, Houston, TX 77058-4399. Printed in the U.S.A. Library of Congress CIP data available from the Library of Congress, CIP Division, or from the publisher.
Cover illustration: two inhabitants of the Moon overlook an advanced lunar installation from a museum construction site. The original, primitive lunar base lies to the left of a large electromagnetic launch facility, which dominates the vista. An array of solar dynamic generators on the horizon supplement the power from a nuclear reactor to operate greenhouses, industrial processing plants, scientific research laboratories, and a spaceport. Artist: Pat Rawlings, Eagle Engineering Co., Houston, Texas.
-------------------------------------------------------------
. Online Books
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/
. Online Articles
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ads_articles.html
. ADS Home page
http://adswww.harvard.edu/
=============================================================
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000001.000.html
Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Title: Prologue
Journal: In: Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century. Houston, TX, Lunar and Planetary Institute, edited by W. W. Mendell, 1985, p.1 Bibliographic Code: 1985lbsa.conf....1.
[Looks like these are images of the pages so just go to their site. - LRK -] Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Since this is a "lunar-update" list, maybe we should look at the idea of a "Lunar Base".
Even before the present move to go back to the Moon, there were those that wanted to do so, it just wasn't in the politics to do much about it. In the USA, the time and money has been spent in LEO, and in sending probes to various heavenly bodies. Value to be had, but not on the Moon.
To talk about going to the Moon to set up permanent outposts was sort of back room talk while looking over your shoulder to see who was watching.
(well maybe not that dark)
We have mentioned books that have come out of meetings BACK WHEN, well a few years back anyway. Thought I would see what was readable on the Internet for the subject "Lunar Base", and Google was cooperative. 212,000 hits in
(0.06 seconds). For the key words "Lunar Bases", not quite as many, only 47,900 in (0.07 seconds).
I guess this would indicate that something has been written about the subject.
One of those books that was made from a conference back in 1984 (just seems like yesterday unless you were just born then) is -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century
Lunar Bases. and Space Activities of the 21st Century. coverpage, Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences ...
ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/ - 4k - Cached - Similar pages http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
-------------------------------------------------------------
I copied the material from the cover page and some information on the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), a NASA-funded project, which maintains three bibliographic databases.
You might want to look at those links if you are looking for material to read or your students are doing research.
Check out the Table of Contents for "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the
21 Century" and see what they were discussing.
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html
I am going to read some of the articles and see what was being talked about a year after I started supporting the space effort at NASA Ames. Memories.
If you don't have time for all that, you still might like to look at the "Prologue" as the problems with the politics of the time may still come back to hinder going back to the Moon. There is a future to be looked at.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lb
sa.conf....1.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000001.000.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000002.000.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000003.000.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000004.000.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
And speaking of the future Lunar Bases, Larry Klaes passed a reference to an article that www.spacedaily.com has. A few what ifs, and might be's, but something to consider. Even if China only goes around the Moon, it will show the World that others can do it. Putting down on the surface would just be in the details.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
DRAGON SPACE
- Fly Me To A Red Moon
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Fly_Me_To_A_Red_Moon.html
Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Mar 28, 2006 - The revisions to China's human spaceflight program in 2006 have been astonishing. China has completely revised its timetable and specific mission objectives for the next four launches in the Shenzhou program. But do the changes in the Shenzhou program run deeper than dates and technicalities?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Given a nudge last January, could you have whipped up a proposal to go to the Moon for $50 mil?
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_060327.html
NASA Considers Stowaway Finalists for LRO Launch
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
With extra room available on the rocket that will launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in late 2008, NASA is evaluating four proposals for low-cost spacecraft small enough to be stowaways on the mission.
NASA plans to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on either an Atlas
5 or Delta 4 rocket in October 2008. Mark Borkowski, director of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, said either rocket should have room for another 1,000 kilograms worth of secondary payloads.
Not wanting to waste what essentially amounts to a free ride to the Moon for one lucky spacecraft, NASA asked its 10 regional field centers in late January to submit proposals for low-cost hitchhiker missions beneficial to the U.S. space agency's lunar exploration goals.
"There are a lot of pieces of information we'd like to have about the Moon and if we can get any of that information sooner and at a lower cost, that would be an advantage," Borkowski said.
Snip
While the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's launch vehicle will have room for multiple secondary payloads, Borkowski said only one of the four finalists - if that - can expect to make the cut.
"It's ambitious to free up budget for one," he said. "Freeing up budget for two might be a bridge to far."
Borkowski said the field center-led teams were given a budget target of $50 million and an "absolute upper limit" of $80 million for doing their proposed mission. NASA would fund the mission out of the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program budget, which would grow to $272 million in 2007 under the agency's spending request now before Congress.
Neither Borkowski nor the field centers would say much
Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/
The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a NASA-funded project which maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 4.6 million records:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and ArXiv e-prints. The main body of data in the ADS consists of bibliographic records, which are searchable through our Abstract Service query forms, and full-text scans of much of the astronomical literature which can be browsed though our Browse interface.
Integrated in its databases, the ADS provides access and pointers to a wealth of external resources, including electronic articles, data catalogs and archives. We currently have links to over 4.6 million records maintained by our collaborators.
Please note that all abstracts and articles in the ADS are copyrighted by the publisher, and their use is free for personal use only. For more information, please read our page detailing the Terms and Conditions regulating the use of our resources.
In addition to its databases, the ADS provides the myADS Update Service, a free custom notification service promoting current awareness of the recent technical literature in astronomy and physics based on each individual subscriber's queries. Every week the myADS Update Service will scan the literature added to the ADS since the last update, and will create custom lists of recent papers for each subscriber, formatted to allow quick reading and access. Subscribers are notified by e-mail in html format. As an option, users can elect to receive updates on preprints published on the ArXiv e-print archive via daily emails or by subscribing to a custom RSS feed.
The importance of ADS's role in supporting the scientific community has been recognized by societies and individuals. If you wish to acknowledge us in a publication, kindly use a phrase such as the following:
``This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System."
Thanks!
=============================================================
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century
coverpage
Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29-31, 1984
edited by W.W. Mendell
published by
The Lunar and Planetary Institute
Houston
TL799.M6L83 1985 919.9'104 86-50
ISBN 0-942862-02-3
* Table of Contents
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html
* Index
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lb
sa.conf..863.
* Associate Editors
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/editors.html
Copyright C 1986 by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Made available electronically by the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
-------------------------------------------------------------
This work relates to NASA Contract Nos. NASW-3389 and NAS-9-17023. The U.S.
Government has a royalty free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for Governmental purposes. All other rights are reserved by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Published by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3303 NASA Road One, Houston, TX 77058-4399. Printed in the U.S.A. Library of Congress CIP data available from the Library of Congress, CIP Division, or from the publisher.
Cover illustration: two inhabitants of the Moon overlook an advanced lunar installation from a museum construction site. The original, primitive lunar base lies to the left of a large electromagnetic launch facility, which dominates the vista. An array of solar dynamic generators on the horizon supplement the power from a nuclear reactor to operate greenhouses, industrial processing plants, scientific research laboratories, and a spaceport. Artist: Pat Rawlings, Eagle Engineering Co., Houston, Texas.
-------------------------------------------------------------
. Online Books
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/
. Online Articles
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ads_articles.html
. ADS Home page
http://adswww.harvard.edu/
=============================================================
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/conf/lbsa./1985//0000001.000.html
Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Title: Prologue
Journal: In: Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century. Houston, TX, Lunar and Planetary Institute, edited by W. W. Mendell, 1985, p.1 Bibliographic Code: 1985lbsa.conf....1.
[Looks like these are images of the pages so just go to their site. - LRK -] Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Good day.
Was thinking about SMART-1 and wondering about the images and data it was getting from the Moon.
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMJHDO3E4E_0.html
SMART-1's first images from the Moon
------------------------------------------------------------
Wonder if we have found any evidence of water at the poles?
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120371_index_0_m.html
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=10
Maybe I need to go to some of the conferences to hear what is being found first hand.
- LRK -
Maybe the Moon doesn't have a high enough priority. Seem there is only so many hours in the day. Where do you point your antennas, to the Moon, Mars, Venus or the stars?
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38814
Snip
SMART-1 has been suffering from the high ground station usage of the other ESA science missions and the activities related to the launches of three ESA spacecraft in the past two months. To provide for extra downlink capabilities successful interface tests have been performed with the German Weilheim station.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
Let me know if you have seen any results that shed light on those dark recesses of the Moon.
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38855
Latest Operational Update
28 Feb 2006 16:47
Report for period 16 January to 19 February 2006
Smart-1 suffered another Double EDAC error on 19 of January. SSC requested ESOC to compile all addresses that have been subject of double EDAC errors and sent them to SSC to check for a possible correlation with a specific chip malfunction. This time ESOC tried a new procedure that prevents loosing any data, this was done on 20 January and proved to be successful.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
I have not taken the time to read all of the reports, guess I have some work cut out for me.
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34144
PDF Archive of SMART-1 Status Reports
All the Status Reports for the mission are available as pdf files. Click on the link to download the relevant file. Please note: to open the file you will need Adobe Reader, or a similar package that can handle pdf formatted files.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
Wonder what we will find on the next missions to the Moon and whether the news will be shared and pushed to the public to build good press for further missions?
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n3/dps2005/11.htm
37th DPS Meeting, 4-9 September 2005
Session 48 SMART-1
Invited, HAD Intro., Thursday, September 8, 2005, 9:00-10:30am, Music Concert Hall
[48.02] SMART-1 Mission Overview: Lunar Results and Perspectives B.H. Foing (Chief Scientist, ESA/SCI-S), SMART-1 Team
SMART-1 is the first ESA mission that reached the Moon. It is the first of Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology as part of ESA science programme Cosmic Vision. Its objective is to demonstrate Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEP) for future Cornerstones (such as Bepi-Colombo) and to test new technologies for spacecraft and instruments. The spacecraft was launched on 27 Sept. 2003, as Ariane-5 auxiliary passenger, left the inner radiation belt, and spiralled out towards lunar capture on 15 November 2004, and then towards lunar science orbit reached on 1 March 2005. The mission has been extended until August 2006. This will permit science but also to prepare future international lunar exploration. We shall present an overiew of the mission, and of the first lunar results from SMART-1's science and technology payload, featuring many innovative instruments and advanced technologies with a total mass of some 19 kg. Besides navigation to the Moon, the technology demonstration included an experiment (KaTE) for deep-space communications in the X and Ka-bands, a radio-science experiment (RSIS), a deep space optical link (Laser-Link Experiment), using the ESA Optical Ground station in Tenerife, and the validation of a system of autonomous navigation (OBAN). The payload includes a miniaturized high-resolution camera (AMIE) for lunar surface imaging, a near-infrared point-spectrometer (SIR) for lunar mineralogy investigation, and a very compact X-ray spectrometer (D-CIXS) measuring fluorescence spectroscopy and imagery of the Moon's surface elemental composition. SMART-1 lunar science investigations include studies of the chemical composition of the Moon, of geophysical processes (volcanism, tectonics, cratering, erosion, deposition of ices and volatiles) for comparative planetology, and high resolution studies in preparation for future steps of lunar exploration. The mission could address several topics such as the accretional processes that led to the formation of rocky planets, and the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n3/dps2005/220.htm
37th DPS Meeting, 4-9 September 2005
Session 48 SMART-1
Invited, HAD Intro., Thursday, September 8, 2005, 9:00-10:30am, Music Concert Hall
[48.03] First Results at the Moon from the SMART-1 / AMIE Experiment J.L. Josset, S. Beauvivre (SPACE-X), AMIE Team
The Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE), on board ESA SMART-1, the first European mission to the Moon (launched on 27th September 2003), is an imaging system with scientific, technical and public outreach oriented objectives. The science objectives are to image the Lunar South Pole, permanent shadow areas (ice deposit), eternal light (crater rims), ancient Lunar Non-mare volcanism, local spectro-photometry and physical state of the lunar surface, and to map high latitudes regions (south) mainly at far side (South Pole Aitken basin). The technical objectives are to perform a laserlink experiment (detection of laser beam emitted by ESA/Tenerife ground station), flight demonstration of new technologies and on-board autonomy navigation. The public outreach and educational objectives are to promote planetary exploration. We present here the first results obtained during the cruise phase and at the Moon.
Snip
=============================================================
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=10
THE MISSION:
ESA's SMART-1 will test miniaturisation technology while exploring the Moon from orbit. It is the first space probe ESA has ever sent to the Moon and it also is the first of ESA's missions to test advanced technology needed for future scientific planetary missions.
Snip
=============================================================
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=31053&farchive_o
bjecttypeid=15&farchive_objectid=30995&fareaid_2=10
Snip
SMART-1 update, coordinated campaign and impact Presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, Texas, special session on 15 March 2006.
Publication date: 15 Mar 2006
SMART-1 mission to the Moon: Status, first results and goals We present the first results from SMART-1's science and technology payload.
SMART-1 is Europe's first lunar mission and will provide some significant advances to many issues currently active in lunar science, such as our understanding of lunar origin and evolution. The mission also contributes a step in developing an international program of lunar exploration. The spacecraft was launched on 27 September 2003 on an Ariane 5, as an auxiliary passenger to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), performed a 14-month long cruise using the tiny thrust of electric propulsion alone, reached lunar capture in November 2004, and lunar science orbit in March 2005. SMART-1 carries seven hardware experiments (performing 10 investigations, including three remote sensing instruments, used during the cruise, the mission's nominal six months and one year extension in lunar science orbit). The remote sensing instruments will contribute to key planetary scientific questions related to theories of lunar origin and evolution, the global and local crustal composition, the search for cold traps at the lunar poles and the mapping of potential lunar resources.
Publication date: 02 Mar 2006
Snip
=============================================================
Two page pdf file with graphics. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1920.pdf
ESA'S SMART-1 MISSION: LUNAR SCIENCE RESULTS AFTER ONE YEAR B.H. Foing*, M. Grande, J. Huovelin, J.-L. Josset, H.U. Keller, A. Nathues, A. Malkki, G. Noci, B. Kellett, S. Beauvivre, M. Almeida, D. Frew, J.Volp, D. Heather, G. Schwehm, D. Koschny, J.Zender, P.
McMannamon, O. Camino, G.D. Racca, SMART1 Scienceand Technology Working Team, ESTEC/SCI-S, postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, NL, Europe,
(Bernard.Foing@esa.int)
Introduction: Thanks to the successful electric propulsion navigation, the SMART-1 spacecraft reached lunar capture on 17 November 2004, and has spiraled down to reach on 15 March 2005 a lunar is to orbit the Moon 300-3000 km for a nominal science period of six months, with 1 year science extension. We shall report at LPSC2006 on one year of lunar science results, and describe the plan for operations until end of mission impact in August 2006.
Overview of SMART-1 mission and payload:
SMART-1 is the first in the programme of ESA's Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology [1,2,3]. Its first objective has been achieved to demonstrate Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEP) for future Cornerstones (such as Bepi-Colombo) and to test new technologies for spacecraft and instruments.
The SMART-1 spacecraft has been launched on 27 Sept. 2003, as an Ariane-5 auxiliary passenger and injected in GTO Geostationary Tranfer Orbit.
SMART-1 science payload, with a total mass of some 19 kg, features many innovative instruments and advanced technologies [1]. A miniaturised highresolution camera (AMIE) for lunar surface imaging, a near-infrared point-spectrometer (SIR) for lunar mineralogy investigation, and a very compact X-ray spectrometer (D-CIXS) for fluorescence spectroscopy and imagery of the Moon's surface elemental composition.
The payload also includes two plasma experiments:
SPEDE (Spacecraft Potential, Electron and Dust Experiment, PI. A. Malkki) and EPDP (Electric propulsion diagnostic Package, PI G. Noci), an experiment (KaTE) that demonstrated deep-space telemetry and telecommand communications in the X and Ka-bands, a radio-science experiment (RSIS), a deep space optical link (Laser-Link Experiment), using the ESA Optical Ground station in Tenerife, and the validation of a system of autonomous navigation
(OBAN) based on image processing.
Snip
=============================================================
Six page PDF file with information about the instruments. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ssc.se/data/content/DOCUMENTS/200482093348473Lunar%20Conference%2
0%20%20Smart.pdf
PAYLOADS ON-BOARD THE SMART-1 SPACECRAFT S/C interface, integration, test and early operations Bo Ljung / Swedish Space Corporation
SMART-1 Payload Interface manager
Abstract
This paper focuses on the integration and test of the payloads onboard the
SMART-1 spacecraft. Swedish Space Corporation is prime contractor for ESA's SMART-1, Europe's first Lunar mission The spacecraft was successfully launched on 27 September from Kourou.
The LEOP test phase has now been completed and all systems are performing nominally. The primary mission objective is to test the efficiency of electric propulsion and its impact on instruments and support systems, acting as a precursor for future interplanetary missions. Some of the scientific payloads play a key role in this concept by characterising the motor performance and its side effects. Others will look at the Moon, performing in particular a mineralogical survey of the still much unexplored lunar South Pole region. Observations of the Sun and other astronomical objects, as well as tests of a deep space transponder, are also planned.
Although the constraints in terms of mass, power and size have been very strict it has been possible to house all the planned payloads on-board this small spacecraft by using state-of-the-art concepts and methods of miniaturisation. Seven payloads with a total mass of less than 19 kg and a typical combined operational power of 15 W will perform a very ambitious agenda of observations.
The philosophy of interfacing the various payloads to the spacecraft support systems as well as the integration and test of the payloads on the spacecraft is discussed. A description of each payload and planned observations then follows. Finally early results are discussed.
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Was thinking about SMART-1 and wondering about the images and data it was getting from the Moon.
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMJHDO3E4E_0.html
SMART-1's first images from the Moon
------------------------------------------------------------
Wonder if we have found any evidence of water at the poles?
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120371_index_0_m.html
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=10
Maybe I need to go to some of the conferences to hear what is being found first hand.
- LRK -
Maybe the Moon doesn't have a high enough priority. Seem there is only so many hours in the day. Where do you point your antennas, to the Moon, Mars, Venus or the stars?
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38814
Snip
SMART-1 has been suffering from the high ground station usage of the other ESA science missions and the activities related to the launches of three ESA spacecraft in the past two months. To provide for extra downlink capabilities successful interface tests have been performed with the German Weilheim station.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
Let me know if you have seen any results that shed light on those dark recesses of the Moon.
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38855
Latest Operational Update
28 Feb 2006 16:47
Report for period 16 January to 19 February 2006
Smart-1 suffered another Double EDAC error on 19 of January. SSC requested ESOC to compile all addresses that have been subject of double EDAC errors and sent them to SSC to check for a possible correlation with a specific chip malfunction. This time ESOC tried a new procedure that prevents loosing any data, this was done on 20 January and proved to be successful.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
I have not taken the time to read all of the reports, guess I have some work cut out for me.
- LRK -
------------------------------------------------------------
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34144
PDF Archive of SMART-1 Status Reports
All the Status Reports for the mission are available as pdf files. Click on the link to download the relevant file. Please note: to open the file you will need Adobe Reader, or a similar package that can handle pdf formatted files.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
Wonder what we will find on the next missions to the Moon and whether the news will be shared and pushed to the public to build good press for further missions?
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n3/dps2005/11.htm
37th DPS Meeting, 4-9 September 2005
Session 48 SMART-1
Invited, HAD Intro., Thursday, September 8, 2005, 9:00-10:30am, Music Concert Hall
[48.02] SMART-1 Mission Overview: Lunar Results and Perspectives B.H. Foing (Chief Scientist, ESA/SCI-S), SMART-1 Team
SMART-1 is the first ESA mission that reached the Moon. It is the first of Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology as part of ESA science programme Cosmic Vision. Its objective is to demonstrate Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEP) for future Cornerstones (such as Bepi-Colombo) and to test new technologies for spacecraft and instruments. The spacecraft was launched on 27 Sept. 2003, as Ariane-5 auxiliary passenger, left the inner radiation belt, and spiralled out towards lunar capture on 15 November 2004, and then towards lunar science orbit reached on 1 March 2005. The mission has been extended until August 2006. This will permit science but also to prepare future international lunar exploration. We shall present an overiew of the mission, and of the first lunar results from SMART-1's science and technology payload, featuring many innovative instruments and advanced technologies with a total mass of some 19 kg. Besides navigation to the Moon, the technology demonstration included an experiment (KaTE) for deep-space communications in the X and Ka-bands, a radio-science experiment (RSIS), a deep space optical link (Laser-Link Experiment), using the ESA Optical Ground station in Tenerife, and the validation of a system of autonomous navigation (OBAN). The payload includes a miniaturized high-resolution camera (AMIE) for lunar surface imaging, a near-infrared point-spectrometer (SIR) for lunar mineralogy investigation, and a very compact X-ray spectrometer (D-CIXS) measuring fluorescence spectroscopy and imagery of the Moon's surface elemental composition. SMART-1 lunar science investigations include studies of the chemical composition of the Moon, of geophysical processes (volcanism, tectonics, cratering, erosion, deposition of ices and volatiles) for comparative planetology, and high resolution studies in preparation for future steps of lunar exploration. The mission could address several topics such as the accretional processes that led to the formation of rocky planets, and the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n3/dps2005/220.htm
37th DPS Meeting, 4-9 September 2005
Session 48 SMART-1
Invited, HAD Intro., Thursday, September 8, 2005, 9:00-10:30am, Music Concert Hall
[48.03] First Results at the Moon from the SMART-1 / AMIE Experiment J.L. Josset, S. Beauvivre (SPACE-X), AMIE Team
The Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE), on board ESA SMART-1, the first European mission to the Moon (launched on 27th September 2003), is an imaging system with scientific, technical and public outreach oriented objectives. The science objectives are to image the Lunar South Pole, permanent shadow areas (ice deposit), eternal light (crater rims), ancient Lunar Non-mare volcanism, local spectro-photometry and physical state of the lunar surface, and to map high latitudes regions (south) mainly at far side (South Pole Aitken basin). The technical objectives are to perform a laserlink experiment (detection of laser beam emitted by ESA/Tenerife ground station), flight demonstration of new technologies and on-board autonomy navigation. The public outreach and educational objectives are to promote planetary exploration. We present here the first results obtained during the cruise phase and at the Moon.
Snip
=============================================================
http://smart.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=10
THE MISSION:
ESA's SMART-1 will test miniaturisation technology while exploring the Moon from orbit. It is the first space probe ESA has ever sent to the Moon and it also is the first of ESA's missions to test advanced technology needed for future scientific planetary missions.
Snip
=============================================================
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=31053&farchive_o
bjecttypeid=15&farchive_objectid=30995&fareaid_2=10
Snip
SMART-1 update, coordinated campaign and impact Presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, Texas, special session on 15 March 2006.
Publication date: 15 Mar 2006
SMART-1 mission to the Moon: Status, first results and goals We present the first results from SMART-1's science and technology payload.
SMART-1 is Europe's first lunar mission and will provide some significant advances to many issues currently active in lunar science, such as our understanding of lunar origin and evolution. The mission also contributes a step in developing an international program of lunar exploration. The spacecraft was launched on 27 September 2003 on an Ariane 5, as an auxiliary passenger to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), performed a 14-month long cruise using the tiny thrust of electric propulsion alone, reached lunar capture in November 2004, and lunar science orbit in March 2005. SMART-1 carries seven hardware experiments (performing 10 investigations, including three remote sensing instruments, used during the cruise, the mission's nominal six months and one year extension in lunar science orbit). The remote sensing instruments will contribute to key planetary scientific questions related to theories of lunar origin and evolution, the global and local crustal composition, the search for cold traps at the lunar poles and the mapping of potential lunar resources.
Publication date: 02 Mar 2006
Snip
=============================================================
Two page pdf file with graphics. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1920.pdf
ESA'S SMART-1 MISSION: LUNAR SCIENCE RESULTS AFTER ONE YEAR B.H. Foing*, M. Grande, J. Huovelin, J.-L. Josset, H.U. Keller, A. Nathues, A. Malkki, G. Noci, B. Kellett, S. Beauvivre, M. Almeida, D. Frew, J.Volp, D. Heather, G. Schwehm, D. Koschny, J.Zender, P.
McMannamon, O. Camino, G.D. Racca, SMART1 Scienceand Technology Working Team, ESTEC/SCI-S, postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, NL, Europe,
(Bernard.Foing@esa.int)
Introduction: Thanks to the successful electric propulsion navigation, the SMART-1 spacecraft reached lunar capture on 17 November 2004, and has spiraled down to reach on 15 March 2005 a lunar is to orbit the Moon 300-3000 km for a nominal science period of six months, with 1 year science extension. We shall report at LPSC2006 on one year of lunar science results, and describe the plan for operations until end of mission impact in August 2006.
Overview of SMART-1 mission and payload:
SMART-1 is the first in the programme of ESA's Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology [1,2,3]. Its first objective has been achieved to demonstrate Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEP) for future Cornerstones (such as Bepi-Colombo) and to test new technologies for spacecraft and instruments.
The SMART-1 spacecraft has been launched on 27 Sept. 2003, as an Ariane-5 auxiliary passenger and injected in GTO Geostationary Tranfer Orbit.
SMART-1 science payload, with a total mass of some 19 kg, features many innovative instruments and advanced technologies [1]. A miniaturised highresolution camera (AMIE) for lunar surface imaging, a near-infrared point-spectrometer (SIR) for lunar mineralogy investigation, and a very compact X-ray spectrometer (D-CIXS) for fluorescence spectroscopy and imagery of the Moon's surface elemental composition.
The payload also includes two plasma experiments:
SPEDE (Spacecraft Potential, Electron and Dust Experiment, PI. A. Malkki) and EPDP (Electric propulsion diagnostic Package, PI G. Noci), an experiment (KaTE) that demonstrated deep-space telemetry and telecommand communications in the X and Ka-bands, a radio-science experiment (RSIS), a deep space optical link (Laser-Link Experiment), using the ESA Optical Ground station in Tenerife, and the validation of a system of autonomous navigation
(OBAN) based on image processing.
Snip
=============================================================
Six page PDF file with information about the instruments. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ssc.se/data/content/DOCUMENTS/200482093348473Lunar%20Conference%2
0%20%20Smart.pdf
PAYLOADS ON-BOARD THE SMART-1 SPACECRAFT S/C interface, integration, test and early operations Bo Ljung / Swedish Space Corporation
SMART-1 Payload Interface manager
Abstract
This paper focuses on the integration and test of the payloads onboard the
SMART-1 spacecraft. Swedish Space Corporation is prime contractor for ESA's SMART-1, Europe's first Lunar mission The spacecraft was successfully launched on 27 September from Kourou.
The LEOP test phase has now been completed and all systems are performing nominally. The primary mission objective is to test the efficiency of electric propulsion and its impact on instruments and support systems, acting as a precursor for future interplanetary missions. Some of the scientific payloads play a key role in this concept by characterising the motor performance and its side effects. Others will look at the Moon, performing in particular a mineralogical survey of the still much unexplored lunar South Pole region. Observations of the Sun and other astronomical objects, as well as tests of a deep space transponder, are also planned.
Although the constraints in terms of mass, power and size have been very strict it has been possible to house all the planned payloads on-board this small spacecraft by using state-of-the-art concepts and methods of miniaturisation. Seven payloads with a total mass of less than 19 kg and a typical combined operational power of 15 W will perform a very ambitious agenda of observations.
The philosophy of interfacing the various payloads to the spacecraft support systems as well as the integration and test of the payloads on the spacecraft is discussed. A description of each payload and planned observations then follows. Finally early results are discussed.
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Good day
Lunar Standstill - or - is seeing believing?
Paul Slootweg sent the note below about the Moon being low in the horizon and probably thought to be seen as large.
He has two reference links which I have expanded some below his post.
(some other link that may be of interest as well)
So is what you see really there?
I took a picture once of the Moon in a day lit sky. Looked so big and yet the camera image is just a small ball in the sky.
Our senses give us information about the outside world and our computation about the information received, is what we perceive our reality to be.
There is a slight delay in getting the information processed but never mind.
For the most part we hit the brakes soon enough, maybe.
Our learned filters screen the information and help us make judgments about whether to take flight or fight.
We compare what is perceived with what is expected to be seen.
Which is remembered, the seen or the expected?
A solar eclipse is coming up. The Moon will be between Earth and the Sun.
For now it is big enough to block the Sun. Some day, as it moves slowly away from Earth, it will not appear big enough to block the Sun totally.
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/rotation.html
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityLast.html
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/astronomy/q0262.shtml
Check out the Moon and reflect on whether we can believe everything we see (and hear). :-)
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
Paul Slootweg sent this info. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
There's been no mention of it so far, but today sees the Moon the lowest on the horizon for 19 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill
This must be a good time to see the Moon Illusion.
http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/
Thanks for keeping us looking up :)
--Paul
=============================================================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill
Lunar standstill
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
At the major lunar standstill, which takes place every 18.6 years, the range of the declination of the Moon reaches a maximum. As a result, at high latitudes, the Moon appears to move in just two weeks from high in the sky to low on the horizon. This time appears to have had special significance for the Bronze Age societies who built the megalithic monuments in Britain, and it also has significance for some neo-pagan religions. The next major lunar standstill occurs in 2006.
Informal explanation
As the Earth spins on its axis, the stars above us appear to move in circles. It appears to us as if all the stars are fixed in a great sphere surrounding us. In the same way that we measure positions on the earth using latitude and longitude, we measure positions of stars on this sphere in Right Ascension (equivalent to longitude) and Declination (equivalent to latitude). If you stand at a place on the earth which has latitude 50°, then the stars directly above you have a declination of 50°.
Unlike the stars, the Sun and Moon do not have a fixed declination. As the Earth travels its annual orbit around the Sun, with its rotational axis tilted at about 23.5° from the axis of orbital motion, the Sun's declination changes from +23.5° in June to -23.5° in December. Thus, in the Northern hemisphere, the Sun is higher in the sky in June, causing summer, than it is in December, when the Sun is low in the sky and is only above the horizon for a short time, causing winter.
The Moon also changes in declination, but it does so in only a month, instead of a year for the Sun. So it might go from a declination of +25° to -25° in just two weeks, returning to +25° two weeks later. Thus, in just one month the moon can move from being high in the sky, to low on the horizon, and back again.
But, unlike the Sun, the maximum and minimum declination reached by the Moon also varies. This is because the orbit of the Moon's rotation about the Earth is inclined by about 5° to the orbit of the Earth's rotation about the Sun, and so the maximum declination of the Moon varies from (23.5°-5°)=18.5° to (23.5°+5°)=28.5°. The effect of this is that at one particular time (the minor lunar standstill), the Moon will change its declination during the month from +18.5° to -18.5°, which is a total movement of 37°. This is not a particularly big change, and may not be very noticeable in the sky. However, 9.3 years later, during the major lunar standstill, the Moon will change its declination during the month from +28.5° to -28.5°, which is a total movement of 57°, and which is enough to take it from high in the sky to low on the horizon in just two weeks.
[edit]
Detailed explanation
Snip
=============================================================
http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/
THE MOON ILLUSION EXPLAINED
Finally! Why the Moon Looks Big at the Horizon and Smaller When Higher Up
Don McCready, Professor Emeritus
Psychology Department
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Whitewater, WI 53190
Revised November 10, 2004.
Nearly all people will agree that the picture at the right represents approximately how the horizon moon's size looks when compared with how it looks later, with the moon higher up in the sky.
If you wonder why this famous moon illusion occurs, you should read the following article, for, as illusion researchers know, a new explanation is needed: The explanations currently offered by textbooks and the popular media (including virtually all the 'moon illusion' sites on the internet)
simply do not explain the moon illusion.
This article reviews a new theory previously presented (since 1983) only in some technical articles in specialized publications for vision researchers (cognitive psychologists).
This article is long because, first of all, it describes the moon illusion more completely and in a more logical way than do conventional discussions.
Most moon illusion researchers now accept this new description.
Secondly, this article reviews the currently best-known theories, and shows why vision scientists don't accept them.
Thirdly, this article reviews the new theory that the moon illusion is an example of the less familiar, but ubiquitous, "size" illusion known as oculomotor micropsia/macropsia.
Finally, in order to complete the theory, this article reviews an explanation for oculomotor micropsia.
In other words, the new theory for the moon illusion is not simple: But it currently is the most satisfactory explanation.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.inconstantmoon.com/
Explore the Moon... discover its dramatic features and phenomena - often beautiful, sometimes bizarre, always changing. Inconstant Moon will take you on a new tour each night, with maps, photos, explanations, animations, selected links and even music!
The Moon is the most easily observable astronomical object, and also the most rewarding. For the beginner, it is a breathtaking spectacle through even a modest optical instrument, and as the knowledge and resources of the astronomer increase, it will continue to provide fascinating new challenges and insights. Inconstant Moon is intended as both an introduction to lunar astronomy for the beginner, and an ongoing reference point for the more experienced observer.
Snip
=============================================================
http://fourmilab.to/earthview/moon_ap_per.html
Inconstant Moon
The Moon at Perigee and Apogee
One of my favourite science fiction stories is Larry Niven's Inconstant Moon, about a night when the full Moon shone brighter than ever before. I won't say any more about the story so as not to spoil it for those who have yet to discover this most atypical gem in Niven's vast treasure chest. Find it; read it; enjoy!
Everybody notices the phases of the Moon, but to most people every full Moon is alike--the rising or setting Moon looks large due to perspective's playing tricks on the eye, but surely the full Moon high in the sky is always the same, right? Wrong.
One of the most spectacular phenomena in naked-eye astronomy escapes notice by the vast majority of people simply because the the eye and brain can't compare the size and brightness of objects observed on separate occasions.
This page explores the inconstant Moon in our everyday sky. While not as dramatic as that conjured up by the imagination of Larry Niven, we'll discover in it a celestial phenomenon seen by everybody, yet observed by only a few individuals.
Earth's Eccentric Companion
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, with a substantial eccentricity (as major Solar System bodies go) of 5.49%. In addition, the tidal effect of the Sun's gravitational field increases the eccentricity when the orbit's major axis is aligned with the Sun-Earth vector or, in other words, the Moon is full or new.
The combined effects of orbital eccentricity and the Sun's tides result in a substantial difference in the apparent size and brightness of the Moon at perigee and apogee. Extreme values for perigee and apogee distance occur when perigee or apogee passage occurs close to new or full Moon, and long-term extremes are in the months near to Earth's perihelion passage (closest approach to the Sun, when the Sun's tidal effects are strongest) in the first few days of January.
The image above [see web site] shows how strikingly different the Moon appears at a full-Moon perigee and apogee. Most people don't notice the difference because they see the Moon in a sky that offers no reference by which angular extent may be judged. To observe the difference, you have to either make a scale to measure the Moon, or else photograph the Moon at perigee and apogee and compare the pictures, as I've done here.
The following table shows larger images of perigean and apogean full Moons, with details of the position of the Moon at the moment the pictures were taken. If your screen can't display the images one above another, use the side by side image above to appreciate the difference in size.
Snip
=============================================================
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.milner/books/inconstant_moon.htm
Inconstant Moon
by Larry Niven
What would you do if this were your last night on earth?
I.
I was watching the news when the change came, like a flicker of motion at the corner of my eye. I turned toward the balcony window. Whatever it was, I was too late to catch it.
The moon was very bright tonight.
I saw that, and smiled, and turned back. Johnny Carson was just starting his monologue.
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Lunar Standstill - or - is seeing believing?
Paul Slootweg sent the note below about the Moon being low in the horizon and probably thought to be seen as large.
He has two reference links which I have expanded some below his post.
(some other link that may be of interest as well)
So is what you see really there?
I took a picture once of the Moon in a day lit sky. Looked so big and yet the camera image is just a small ball in the sky.
Our senses give us information about the outside world and our computation about the information received, is what we perceive our reality to be.
There is a slight delay in getting the information processed but never mind.
For the most part we hit the brakes soon enough, maybe.
Our learned filters screen the information and help us make judgments about whether to take flight or fight.
We compare what is perceived with what is expected to be seen.
Which is remembered, the seen or the expected?
A solar eclipse is coming up. The Moon will be between Earth and the Sun.
For now it is big enough to block the Sun. Some day, as it moves slowly away from Earth, it will not appear big enough to block the Sun totally.
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/rotation.html
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityLast.html
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/astronomy/q0262.shtml
Check out the Moon and reflect on whether we can believe everything we see (and hear). :-)
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
Paul Slootweg sent this info. - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
There's been no mention of it so far, but today sees the Moon the lowest on the horizon for 19 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill
This must be a good time to see the Moon Illusion.
http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/
Thanks for keeping us looking up :)
--Paul
=============================================================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill
Lunar standstill
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
At the major lunar standstill, which takes place every 18.6 years, the range of the declination of the Moon reaches a maximum. As a result, at high latitudes, the Moon appears to move in just two weeks from high in the sky to low on the horizon. This time appears to have had special significance for the Bronze Age societies who built the megalithic monuments in Britain, and it also has significance for some neo-pagan religions. The next major lunar standstill occurs in 2006.
Informal explanation
As the Earth spins on its axis, the stars above us appear to move in circles. It appears to us as if all the stars are fixed in a great sphere surrounding us. In the same way that we measure positions on the earth using latitude and longitude, we measure positions of stars on this sphere in Right Ascension (equivalent to longitude) and Declination (equivalent to latitude). If you stand at a place on the earth which has latitude 50°, then the stars directly above you have a declination of 50°.
Unlike the stars, the Sun and Moon do not have a fixed declination. As the Earth travels its annual orbit around the Sun, with its rotational axis tilted at about 23.5° from the axis of orbital motion, the Sun's declination changes from +23.5° in June to -23.5° in December. Thus, in the Northern hemisphere, the Sun is higher in the sky in June, causing summer, than it is in December, when the Sun is low in the sky and is only above the horizon for a short time, causing winter.
The Moon also changes in declination, but it does so in only a month, instead of a year for the Sun. So it might go from a declination of +25° to -25° in just two weeks, returning to +25° two weeks later. Thus, in just one month the moon can move from being high in the sky, to low on the horizon, and back again.
But, unlike the Sun, the maximum and minimum declination reached by the Moon also varies. This is because the orbit of the Moon's rotation about the Earth is inclined by about 5° to the orbit of the Earth's rotation about the Sun, and so the maximum declination of the Moon varies from (23.5°-5°)=18.5° to (23.5°+5°)=28.5°. The effect of this is that at one particular time (the minor lunar standstill), the Moon will change its declination during the month from +18.5° to -18.5°, which is a total movement of 37°. This is not a particularly big change, and may not be very noticeable in the sky. However, 9.3 years later, during the major lunar standstill, the Moon will change its declination during the month from +28.5° to -28.5°, which is a total movement of 57°, and which is enough to take it from high in the sky to low on the horizon in just two weeks.
[edit]
Detailed explanation
Snip
=============================================================
http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/
THE MOON ILLUSION EXPLAINED
Finally! Why the Moon Looks Big at the Horizon and Smaller When Higher Up
Don McCready, Professor Emeritus
Psychology Department
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Whitewater, WI 53190
Revised November 10, 2004.
Nearly all people will agree that the picture at the right represents approximately how the horizon moon's size looks when compared with how it looks later, with the moon higher up in the sky.
If you wonder why this famous moon illusion occurs, you should read the following article, for, as illusion researchers know, a new explanation is needed: The explanations currently offered by textbooks and the popular media (including virtually all the 'moon illusion' sites on the internet)
simply do not explain the moon illusion.
This article reviews a new theory previously presented (since 1983) only in some technical articles in specialized publications for vision researchers (cognitive psychologists).
This article is long because, first of all, it describes the moon illusion more completely and in a more logical way than do conventional discussions.
Most moon illusion researchers now accept this new description.
Secondly, this article reviews the currently best-known theories, and shows why vision scientists don't accept them.
Thirdly, this article reviews the new theory that the moon illusion is an example of the less familiar, but ubiquitous, "size" illusion known as oculomotor micropsia/macropsia.
Finally, in order to complete the theory, this article reviews an explanation for oculomotor micropsia.
In other words, the new theory for the moon illusion is not simple: But it currently is the most satisfactory explanation.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.inconstantmoon.com/
Explore the Moon... discover its dramatic features and phenomena - often beautiful, sometimes bizarre, always changing. Inconstant Moon will take you on a new tour each night, with maps, photos, explanations, animations, selected links and even music!
The Moon is the most easily observable astronomical object, and also the most rewarding. For the beginner, it is a breathtaking spectacle through even a modest optical instrument, and as the knowledge and resources of the astronomer increase, it will continue to provide fascinating new challenges and insights. Inconstant Moon is intended as both an introduction to lunar astronomy for the beginner, and an ongoing reference point for the more experienced observer.
Snip
=============================================================
http://fourmilab.to/earthview/moon_ap_per.html
Inconstant Moon
The Moon at Perigee and Apogee
One of my favourite science fiction stories is Larry Niven's Inconstant Moon, about a night when the full Moon shone brighter than ever before. I won't say any more about the story so as not to spoil it for those who have yet to discover this most atypical gem in Niven's vast treasure chest. Find it; read it; enjoy!
Everybody notices the phases of the Moon, but to most people every full Moon is alike--the rising or setting Moon looks large due to perspective's playing tricks on the eye, but surely the full Moon high in the sky is always the same, right? Wrong.
One of the most spectacular phenomena in naked-eye astronomy escapes notice by the vast majority of people simply because the the eye and brain can't compare the size and brightness of objects observed on separate occasions.
This page explores the inconstant Moon in our everyday sky. While not as dramatic as that conjured up by the imagination of Larry Niven, we'll discover in it a celestial phenomenon seen by everybody, yet observed by only a few individuals.
Earth's Eccentric Companion
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, with a substantial eccentricity (as major Solar System bodies go) of 5.49%. In addition, the tidal effect of the Sun's gravitational field increases the eccentricity when the orbit's major axis is aligned with the Sun-Earth vector or, in other words, the Moon is full or new.
The combined effects of orbital eccentricity and the Sun's tides result in a substantial difference in the apparent size and brightness of the Moon at perigee and apogee. Extreme values for perigee and apogee distance occur when perigee or apogee passage occurs close to new or full Moon, and long-term extremes are in the months near to Earth's perihelion passage (closest approach to the Sun, when the Sun's tidal effects are strongest) in the first few days of January.
The image above [see web site] shows how strikingly different the Moon appears at a full-Moon perigee and apogee. Most people don't notice the difference because they see the Moon in a sky that offers no reference by which angular extent may be judged. To observe the difference, you have to either make a scale to measure the Moon, or else photograph the Moon at perigee and apogee and compare the pictures, as I've done here.
The following table shows larger images of perigean and apogean full Moons, with details of the position of the Moon at the moment the pictures were taken. If your screen can't display the images one above another, use the side by side image above to appreciate the difference in size.
Snip
=============================================================
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.milner/books/inconstant_moon.htm
Inconstant Moon
by Larry Niven
What would you do if this were your last night on earth?
I.
I was watching the news when the change came, like a flicker of motion at the corner of my eye. I turned toward the balcony window. Whatever it was, I was too late to catch it.
The moon was very bright tonight.
I saw that, and smiled, and turned back. Johnny Carson was just starting his monologue.
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Good day.
GOOGLE tells me that there is something interesting coming up. :-)
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in the process of orbiting Mars and will take some time to get that circularized.
Not to fear, images to start soonest, and then go to sleep for 6 months.
Will be nice to get a taste of what the HiRise instrument will be able to do.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19314
NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Team to Get First Mars Images Thursday Night
PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Source: University of Arizona
The University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to take its first images of Mars at 9:41 p.m. Mountain Time Thursday night, March 23.
According to the latest schedule, the HiRISE camera will take four images of Mars between 9:41 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Thursday. The camera will also take a second set of images during another orbit, between 9:15 a.m. and 9:22 a.m.
Mountain Time on Saturday, March 25.
"We could have our data in hand as early as an hour-and-a-half, or two hours after the observations," said Eric Eliason of UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, or as soon as 11:15 p.m. Thursday and 10:45 a.m. Saturday.
Eliason manages the HiRISE Operations Center (HiROC) in the C. P. Sonett Space Sciences Building, 1541 E. University Blvd, on the UA campus.
*** EDITORS - Media are welcome at HiROC as the team views the camera's first images. For more information, contact HiRISE team member Loretta McKibben, 520-626-7432, loretta @ lpl.arizona.edu, or Lori Stiles, University Communications, 520-626-4402, lstiles@u.arizona.edu. ***
HiRISE images taken during two orbits will be the camera's only photos for the next six months because the camera will be turned off while the spacecraft "aerobrakes." This involves dipping repeatedly into the upper atmosphere to scrub off speed and drop into successively more circular orbits.
The NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined. HiRISE is the most powerful telescope camera ever sent to another planet.
The first images will be highly experimental because the team is trying a number of algorithms and systems for the first time, so things could go wrong, said UA planetary sciences Professor Alfred McEwen, who leads HiRISE.
"However, we are sure to learn important lessons about how to operate the spacecraft and HiRISE."
Also, the geometries of the early orbits may be less than ideal for the HiRise camera's test-image swath. And there's a chance that atmospheric dust or ice hazes could obscure the surface because it's early fall in the southern hemisphere.
The camera's first images will be taken at middle latitudes of the southern hemisphere when the MRO is flying between 1,500 miles and 800 miles (2,500 km and 1,300 km) above the planet. After aerobraking, the camera will fly just outside the planet's atmosphere at only 190 miles (about 300 km) above the surface.
Some of the camera's first targets next fall will be of potential landing sites for UA's Phoenix Mission lander, which is slated to reach the Martian surface in May 2008. This Scout-class lander mission is led by LPL scientist Peter Smith. The Phoenix Mission will communicate with Earth using MRO's high-data-rate relay.
The MRO mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.
PIO Contact: Lori Stiles
lstiles@u.arizona.edu
520-621-1877
Contact Information
Alfred S. McEwen 520-621-4573 mcewen@lpl.arizona.edu Eric Eliason 520-626-0764 eeliason@lpl.arizona.edu Loretta McKibben 520-626-7432 loretta@lpl.arizona.edu
=============================================================
http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) will fly on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, planned for launch in August of 2005.
HiRISE will investigate deposits and landforms resulting from geologic and climatic processes and assist in the evaluation of candidate landing sites.
By combining very high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with a large swath width, it is possible to image on a variety of scales down to 1 meter, a scale currently afforded only in glimpses by landers. HiRISE will offer such views over any selected region of Mars, providing a bridge between orbital remote sensing and landed missions. Stereo image pairs will be acquired over the highest-priority locations with a vertical precision of better than 25 cm per pixel.
User-friendly web tools will be available to both the science community and the public to view/analyze HiRISE images and to submit observation requests.
Processed images will be released soon after acquisition to allow everyone to share in the scientific discovery process.
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/
=============================================================
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mro/050809instruments.html
Science instruments
FROM NASA PRESS KIT
Posted: August 9, 2005
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will carry six science instruments. Two additional investigations will use the spacecraft itself as an instrument.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment will photograph selected places on Mars with the most powerful telescopic camera ever built for use at a foreign planet. It will reveal features as small as a kitchen table in images covering swaths of Mars' surface 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) wide.
Combining images taken through filters admitting three different portions of the spectrum will produce color images in the central portion of the field of view. Paired images of top-priority target areas taken from slightly different angles during different orbits will yield three-dimensional views revealing differences in height as small as 25 centimeters (10 inches).
Snip
[More about the other instruments here as well. - LRK -] =============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
GOOGLE tells me that there is something interesting coming up. :-)
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in the process of orbiting Mars and will take some time to get that circularized.
Not to fear, images to start soonest, and then go to sleep for 6 months.
Will be nice to get a taste of what the HiRise instrument will be able to do.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19314
NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Team to Get First Mars Images Thursday Night
PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Source: University of Arizona
The University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to take its first images of Mars at 9:41 p.m. Mountain Time Thursday night, March 23.
According to the latest schedule, the HiRISE camera will take four images of Mars between 9:41 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Thursday. The camera will also take a second set of images during another orbit, between 9:15 a.m. and 9:22 a.m.
Mountain Time on Saturday, March 25.
"We could have our data in hand as early as an hour-and-a-half, or two hours after the observations," said Eric Eliason of UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, or as soon as 11:15 p.m. Thursday and 10:45 a.m. Saturday.
Eliason manages the HiRISE Operations Center (HiROC) in the C. P. Sonett Space Sciences Building, 1541 E. University Blvd, on the UA campus.
*** EDITORS - Media are welcome at HiROC as the team views the camera's first images. For more information, contact HiRISE team member Loretta McKibben, 520-626-7432, loretta @ lpl.arizona.edu, or Lori Stiles, University Communications, 520-626-4402, lstiles@u.arizona.edu. ***
HiRISE images taken during two orbits will be the camera's only photos for the next six months because the camera will be turned off while the spacecraft "aerobrakes." This involves dipping repeatedly into the upper atmosphere to scrub off speed and drop into successively more circular orbits.
The NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined. HiRISE is the most powerful telescope camera ever sent to another planet.
The first images will be highly experimental because the team is trying a number of algorithms and systems for the first time, so things could go wrong, said UA planetary sciences Professor Alfred McEwen, who leads HiRISE.
"However, we are sure to learn important lessons about how to operate the spacecraft and HiRISE."
Also, the geometries of the early orbits may be less than ideal for the HiRise camera's test-image swath. And there's a chance that atmospheric dust or ice hazes could obscure the surface because it's early fall in the southern hemisphere.
The camera's first images will be taken at middle latitudes of the southern hemisphere when the MRO is flying between 1,500 miles and 800 miles (2,500 km and 1,300 km) above the planet. After aerobraking, the camera will fly just outside the planet's atmosphere at only 190 miles (about 300 km) above the surface.
Some of the camera's first targets next fall will be of potential landing sites for UA's Phoenix Mission lander, which is slated to reach the Martian surface in May 2008. This Scout-class lander mission is led by LPL scientist Peter Smith. The Phoenix Mission will communicate with Earth using MRO's high-data-rate relay.
The MRO mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.
PIO Contact: Lori Stiles
lstiles@u.arizona.edu
520-621-1877
Contact Information
Alfred S. McEwen 520-621-4573 mcewen@lpl.arizona.edu Eric Eliason 520-626-0764 eeliason@lpl.arizona.edu Loretta McKibben 520-626-7432 loretta@lpl.arizona.edu
=============================================================
http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) will fly on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, planned for launch in August of 2005.
HiRISE will investigate deposits and landforms resulting from geologic and climatic processes and assist in the evaluation of candidate landing sites.
By combining very high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with a large swath width, it is possible to image on a variety of scales down to 1 meter, a scale currently afforded only in glimpses by landers. HiRISE will offer such views over any selected region of Mars, providing a bridge between orbital remote sensing and landed missions. Stereo image pairs will be acquired over the highest-priority locations with a vertical precision of better than 25 cm per pixel.
User-friendly web tools will be available to both the science community and the public to view/analyze HiRISE images and to submit observation requests.
Processed images will be released soon after acquisition to allow everyone to share in the scientific discovery process.
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/
=============================================================
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mro/050809instruments.html
Science instruments
FROM NASA PRESS KIT
Posted: August 9, 2005
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will carry six science instruments. Two additional investigations will use the spacecraft itself as an instrument.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment will photograph selected places on Mars with the most powerful telescopic camera ever built for use at a foreign planet. It will reveal features as small as a kitchen table in images covering swaths of Mars' surface 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) wide.
Combining images taken through filters admitting three different portions of the spectrum will produce color images in the central portion of the field of view. Paired images of top-priority target areas taken from slightly different angles during different orbits will yield three-dimensional views revealing differences in height as small as 25 centimeters (10 inches).
Snip
[More about the other instruments here as well. - LRK -] =============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Monday, March 13, 2006
Good day,
Some of you on the other side of the World from me may be able to see a total eclipse of the Sun on March 29.
Some links about same below.
I remember as a kid watching a Solar eclipse with smoked glass. Don't suggest you do that.
A pin hole method works well and looking at a projection won't burn holes in your retina.
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh11.html
WARNING!
Permanent eye damage can result from looking at the disk of the Sun directly, or through a camera viewfinder, or with binoculars or a telescope even when only a thin crescent of the Sun or Baily's Beads remain. The 1 percent of the Sun's surface still visible is about 10,000 times brighter than the full moon. Staring at the Sun under such circumstances is like using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight onto tinder. The retina is delicate and irreplaceable. There is little or nothing a retinal surgeon will be able to do to help you. Never look at the Sun outside of the total phase of an eclipse unless you have adequate protection.
Once the Sun is entirely eclipsed, however, its bright surface is hidden from view and it is completely safe to look directly at the totally eclipsed Sun without any filters. In fact, it is one of the greatest sights in nature.
There are five basic ways to observe the partial phases of a solar eclipse without damage to your eyes. We will describe each of them below. We'll also explain how to safely watch an eclipse with binoculars or a telescope.
Snip
The Pinhole Projection Method
One safe way of enjoying the Sun during a partial eclipse--or anytime--is a "pinhole camera," which allows you to view a projected image of the Sun.
There are fancy pinhole cameras you can make out of cardboard boxes, but a perfectly adequate (and portable) version can be made out of two thin but stiff pieces of white cardboard. Punch a small clean pinhole in one piece of cardboard and let the sunlight fall through that hole onto the second piece of cardboard, which serves as a screen, held below it. An inverted image of the Sun is formed. To make the image larger, move the screen farther from the pinhole. To make the image brighter, move the screen closer to the pinhole. Do not make the pinhole wide or you will only have a shaft of sunlight rather than an image of the crescent Sun. Remember, this instrument is used with your back to the Sun. The sunlight passes over your shoulder, through the pinhole, and forms an image on the cardboard screen beneath it.
Do not look through the pinhole at the Sun.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up with me. (or instead of me, since I don't get to see this time.)
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html
On Wednesday, 2006 March 29, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.
Snip
This web site has been established for the purpose of providing detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this important event. The material here is adapted from the NASA Technical Publication "Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March 29" (NASA/TP-2004-212762). The document was published in 2004 November and is now available for distribution in hard copy and as either a low resolution (5 MB) or high resolution (27 MB) PDF file . It is part of NASA's official eclipse bulletin publication series. Instructions and a form for ordering a hard copy of this publication can be found at:
Order Form for NASA Eclipse Bulletins.
NASA Goddard's Solar Data Analysis Center has made the complete 2006 total eclipse bulletin available online as a series of separate web pages, figures and tables. The link to the main page is: Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March29 .
Additional and supplemental material for the 2006 eclipse will be published here in the coming months.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=38354
Hi to all,
I made a website about TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 29 th March 2006. You can see it
here: http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipsetotal2006.html
(it´s huge but I think you will enjoy...) In special the ones that read Portuguese language, Brazilian and the Spaniard. And for all the curious ones, of course! I hope you enjoy! Thanks a lot.
I made with help of calsky.com a file *kmz which has the path of total solar eclipse. You can see it here:
http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipsesolartotal2006.kmz
For Brazilian I made an overlay that you can access here:
http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipse2006nordestebrasil.kmz
And I made other maps (for other countries) with Google Earth. See what I do (thanks to hermit eclipse) here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83233401@N00/83353766
(please use the browse to see more images)
Thank you for your attention.
Jorge Almeida
ps please feel free to contact me for any questions.
--
PER ARDUA AD ASTRA
Um abraço,
Jorge Almeida
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by jorgemotalmeida : 20-February-2006 at 04:38 PM.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipsetotal2006.html
Snip
Mapa 1: Mapa que mostra o plano geral do trajecto da sombra lunar sobre a superfÃcie terrestre. Este eclipse solar total de 29 de Março de 2006 faz parte do ciclo Saros 139 † . Cortesia de Fred Espenak.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.turkeyhotelguides.com/2_1_2.asp?id=83&q=2
SOLAR ECLIPSE March 29, 2006
Solar ECLIPSE in Cappadocia
Cultural Tour in the Land of Beautiful Horses
Tour Itinerary
March 25: Arrive Istanbul. Transfer and Overnight in Hotel.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.eclips2006.com/infocentrum.php?osCsid=f5987cf6032555575aa85bfa2fdf7d20
Welcome at the Eclips2006.com information center!
A total solar eclipse is a unique and very rare natural event that one can see maybe only once in a lifetime! When you are near, do not miss it! But please note: do not attempt to observe the partial or annular phases of any eclipse with the naked eye. Failure to use appropriate filtration may result in permanent eye damage or blindness!
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.alanya-holidays.com/FullEclipseOfSunTurkeyMarch2006.htm
Full Eclipse Of Sun Turkey In March 2006 Turkish Villa Rental Holiday The Best Luxury Villa Rental in Turkey
Witness one of nature's most dramatic sights: a total eclipse of the sun.
Experience the drama of the sun rapidly disappearing behind the disc of the moon with the amazing progression of events. You will experience the drop in temperature as the sun disappears, and possibly see Bailey's beads, sunlight passing through the valleys of the moon. Watch for the solar corona and solar prominences which become visible only during totality. We may even see a few planets and stars before the first bright burst of sun known as the diamond ring signals the end of totality and a rapid return to daylight. All of this is in Turkey.
Snip
Partial Eclipse: This is the most common eclipse where only a portion of the sun's disk is covered by the moon. This is also how the eclipse appears outside of the area of complete shadow (the umbra) during a total eclipse.
Annular Eclipse: When the moon is farther from the earth, the relative size of the moon appears to be smaller than the sun, allowing a small rim of sun to shine all the way around the disk of the moon. This is the rarest kind of eclipse.
Total Solar Eclipse: Because the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, and the sun is 400 times farther from the earth, the relative size appears to be the same. When this happens the moon is able to completely cover the sun, giving us the magic of a total solar eclipse. Only during totality is the sun's fainter corona visible to the naked eye. This is the only kind of eclipse that is safe to view without special filters.
Next Total Solar Eclipse in Turkey will occur on 29th of March 2006.
According to Kandilli Observatory of Bogazici University in Istanbul, duration of the centerline will be 3:48, and local times at cities are:
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Some of you on the other side of the World from me may be able to see a total eclipse of the Sun on March 29.
Some links about same below.
I remember as a kid watching a Solar eclipse with smoked glass. Don't suggest you do that.
A pin hole method works well and looking at a projection won't burn holes in your retina.
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh11.html
WARNING!
Permanent eye damage can result from looking at the disk of the Sun directly, or through a camera viewfinder, or with binoculars or a telescope even when only a thin crescent of the Sun or Baily's Beads remain. The 1 percent of the Sun's surface still visible is about 10,000 times brighter than the full moon. Staring at the Sun under such circumstances is like using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight onto tinder. The retina is delicate and irreplaceable. There is little or nothing a retinal surgeon will be able to do to help you. Never look at the Sun outside of the total phase of an eclipse unless you have adequate protection.
Once the Sun is entirely eclipsed, however, its bright surface is hidden from view and it is completely safe to look directly at the totally eclipsed Sun without any filters. In fact, it is one of the greatest sights in nature.
There are five basic ways to observe the partial phases of a solar eclipse without damage to your eyes. We will describe each of them below. We'll also explain how to safely watch an eclipse with binoculars or a telescope.
Snip
The Pinhole Projection Method
One safe way of enjoying the Sun during a partial eclipse--or anytime--is a "pinhole camera," which allows you to view a projected image of the Sun.
There are fancy pinhole cameras you can make out of cardboard boxes, but a perfectly adequate (and portable) version can be made out of two thin but stiff pieces of white cardboard. Punch a small clean pinhole in one piece of cardboard and let the sunlight fall through that hole onto the second piece of cardboard, which serves as a screen, held below it. An inverted image of the Sun is formed. To make the image larger, move the screen farther from the pinhole. To make the image brighter, move the screen closer to the pinhole. Do not make the pinhole wide or you will only have a shaft of sunlight rather than an image of the crescent Sun. Remember, this instrument is used with your back to the Sun. The sunlight passes over your shoulder, through the pinhole, and forms an image on the cardboard screen beneath it.
Do not look through the pinhole at the Sun.
Snip
------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up with me. (or instead of me, since I don't get to see this time.)
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html
On Wednesday, 2006 March 29, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.
Snip
This web site has been established for the purpose of providing detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this important event. The material here is adapted from the NASA Technical Publication "Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March 29" (NASA/TP-2004-212762). The document was published in 2004 November and is now available for distribution in hard copy and as either a low resolution (5 MB) or high resolution (27 MB) PDF file . It is part of NASA's official eclipse bulletin publication series. Instructions and a form for ordering a hard copy of this publication can be found at:
Order Form for NASA Eclipse Bulletins.
NASA Goddard's Solar Data Analysis Center has made the complete 2006 total eclipse bulletin available online as a series of separate web pages, figures and tables. The link to the main page is: Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March29 .
Additional and supplemental material for the 2006 eclipse will be published here in the coming months.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=38354
Hi to all,
I made a website about TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 29 th March 2006. You can see it
here: http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipsetotal2006.html
(it´s huge but I think you will enjoy...) In special the ones that read Portuguese language, Brazilian and the Spaniard. And for all the curious ones, of course! I hope you enjoy! Thanks a lot.
I made with help of calsky.com a file *kmz which has the path of total solar eclipse. You can see it here:
http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipsesolartotal2006.kmz
For Brazilian I made an overlay that you can access here:
http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipse2006nordestebrasil.kmz
And I made other maps (for other countries) with Google Earth. See what I do (thanks to hermit eclipse) here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83233401@N00/83353766
(please use the browse to see more images)
Thank you for your attention.
Jorge Almeida
ps please feel free to contact me for any questions.
--
PER ARDUA AD ASTRA
Um abraço,
Jorge Almeida
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by jorgemotalmeida : 20-February-2006 at 04:38 PM.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://astrosurf.com/ceu/eclipsetotal2006.html
Snip
Mapa 1: Mapa que mostra o plano geral do trajecto da sombra lunar sobre a superfÃcie terrestre. Este eclipse solar total de 29 de Março de 2006 faz parte do ciclo Saros 139 † . Cortesia de Fred Espenak.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.turkeyhotelguides.com/2_1_2.asp?id=83&q=2
SOLAR ECLIPSE March 29, 2006
Solar ECLIPSE in Cappadocia
Cultural Tour in the Land of Beautiful Horses
Tour Itinerary
March 25: Arrive Istanbul. Transfer and Overnight in Hotel.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.eclips2006.com/infocentrum.php?osCsid=f5987cf6032555575aa85bfa2fdf7d20
Welcome at the Eclips2006.com information center!
A total solar eclipse is a unique and very rare natural event that one can see maybe only once in a lifetime! When you are near, do not miss it! But please note: do not attempt to observe the partial or annular phases of any eclipse with the naked eye. Failure to use appropriate filtration may result in permanent eye damage or blindness!
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.alanya-holidays.com/FullEclipseOfSunTurkeyMarch2006.htm
Full Eclipse Of Sun Turkey In March 2006 Turkish Villa Rental Holiday The Best Luxury Villa Rental in Turkey
Witness one of nature's most dramatic sights: a total eclipse of the sun.
Experience the drama of the sun rapidly disappearing behind the disc of the moon with the amazing progression of events. You will experience the drop in temperature as the sun disappears, and possibly see Bailey's beads, sunlight passing through the valleys of the moon. Watch for the solar corona and solar prominences which become visible only during totality. We may even see a few planets and stars before the first bright burst of sun known as the diamond ring signals the end of totality and a rapid return to daylight. All of this is in Turkey.
Snip
Partial Eclipse: This is the most common eclipse where only a portion of the sun's disk is covered by the moon. This is also how the eclipse appears outside of the area of complete shadow (the umbra) during a total eclipse.
Annular Eclipse: When the moon is farther from the earth, the relative size of the moon appears to be smaller than the sun, allowing a small rim of sun to shine all the way around the disk of the moon. This is the rarest kind of eclipse.
Total Solar Eclipse: Because the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, and the sun is 400 times farther from the earth, the relative size appears to be the same. When this happens the moon is able to completely cover the sun, giving us the magic of a total solar eclipse. Only during totality is the sun's fainter corona visible to the naked eye. This is the only kind of eclipse that is safe to view without special filters.
Next Total Solar Eclipse in Turkey will occur on 29th of March 2006.
According to Kandilli Observatory of Bogazici University in Istanbul, duration of the centerline will be 3:48, and local times at cities are:
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Larry Klaes posted the below. Do you remember Comet Halley?
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Giotto’s brief encounter
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSZ0NVGJE_index_0.html
Twenty years ago, in the night between 13 and 14 March 1986, ESA’s Giotto spacecraft encountered Comet Halley.
-------------------------------------------------------------
It came by in 1910 when my mom was born and she wanted to live to see it again. (95 now)
It comes by every 76 years or so and this time it wasn't the best view as it went by the Sun on the far side from us in 1986.
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/halley.html
Where will you be in 2062 when it comes by again? :-)
O.K., what were you doing when it came by in 1986?
I was supporting the Pioneer missions at NASA Ames and we had Pioneer-Venus (Pioneer 12) going around Venus and it had just gone by the Sun on the far side from Earth. The project turned Pioneer-Venus so that it could view Comet Halley and gather information on its glow in the ultraviolet.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Small image
http://t2www.nasa.r3h.net/centers/ames/images/content/118550main_AC86-0107-5-m.jpg
Large image
http://t2www.nasa.r3h.net/centers/ames/images/content/118532main_AC86-0107-5.jpg
-------------------------------------------------------------
Well that was just one of many comets.
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/tour_def/comets/comets.html
And now we have brought some of one back.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Where do we go next? Ummm, if we don't cancel all the projects.
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSZ0NVGJE_index_0.html
Giotto’s brief encounter
10 March 2006
Twenty years ago, in the night between 13 and 14 March 1986, ESA’s Giotto spacecraft encountered Comet Halley. It was ESA’s first deep space mission, and part of an ambitious international effort to solve the riddles surrounding this mysterious object.
The adventure began when Giotto was launched by an Ariane 1 rocket (flight V14) on 2 July 1985. After three revolutions around the Earth, the on-board motor was fired to inject it into an interplanetary orbit.
After a cruise of eight months and almost 150 million kilometres, the spacecraft’s instruments first detected hydrogen ions from Halley at a distance of 7.8 million kilometres from the comet on 12 March 1986.
Giotto encountered Comet Halley about one day later, when it crossed the bow shock of the solar wind (the region where a shock wave is created as the supersonic solar particles slow to subsonic speed). When Giotto entered the densest part of the dusty coma, the camera began tracking the brightest object (the nucleus) in its field of view.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/halley.html
Snip
The average period of Halley's orbit is 76 years but you cannot calculate the dates of its reappearances by simply subtracting multiples of 76 years from 1986. The gravitational pull of the major planets alters the orbital period from revolution to revolution. Nongravitational effects (such as the reaction from gasses boiled off during its passage near the Sun) also play an important, but smaller, role in altering the orbit. Between the years 239 BC and 1986 AD the orbital period has varied from 76.0 years (in 1986) to 79.3 years (in 451 and 1066). The closest perihelion passage to the time of Jesus are 11 BC and 66 AD; neither event took place in Jesus' lifetime. Its most famous appearance was in 1066 when it was seen at the Battle of Hastings, an event commemorated in the Bayeux Tapestry.
Comet Halley was visible in 1910 and again in 1986. Its next perihelion passage will be in early 2062.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/comets1.html
Snip
Halley's Comet studied by Pioneer-Venus spacecraft: The next two images show Comet Halley in Lyman Alpha light from hydrogen ions. These images were created from data collected by the Ultra-Violet Spectrometer on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft during the days of February 2-6, 1986. During the six days, the spacecraft was maintained in a fixed attitude while the comet moved past, and the instrument scanned across the coma.
During the six days, telemetry data was collected from Deep Space Network (DSN) stations in Spain, Australia and California. The data was processed to assemble the scans into false color images where the lightest colors indicate the strongest signal.
These images show the cloud of hydrogen ions, which surrounded the comet during February 2-6. These images are actually a composite because different parts of the cloud were scanned each day, and also because individual ions moved from the nucleus to the edge in about four days. At the time that these images were acquired, the hydrogen coma was the largest object in the Solar System with a radius of about 0.1 Astronomical Unit. In ultra-violet light, the comet was the second brightest object in the Solar System (exceeded only by the Sun).
These images show asymmetry caused by radiation pressure from the Sun. Hydrogen ions initially leave the nucleus in all directions but eventually are deflected by radiation pressure and move away from the Sun. The size of the Hydrogen coma indicates that water was being evaporated from the nucleus at a rate of about 40 tons per second.
Snip
=============================================================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Halley
Comet Halley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, more generally known as Halley's Comet after Edmond Halley, is a comet that can be seen every 75-76 years. It is the most famous of all periodic comets, even though in every century many comets appear brighter and more spectacular. Halley's comet last appeared in the inner Solar System in 1986, and will next appear in the summer of 2061.
The most standard pronunciation of "Halley" - and the pronunciation that the astronomer himself probably used - is [hæli] (IPA), to rhyme with "valley". The once-standard alternate pronunciation [heIli] (to rhyme with "Bailey") led to rock and roll singer Bill Haley naming his band Bill Haley and the Comets.
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Giotto’s brief encounter
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSZ0NVGJE_index_0.html
Twenty years ago, in the night between 13 and 14 March 1986, ESA’s Giotto spacecraft encountered Comet Halley.
-------------------------------------------------------------
It came by in 1910 when my mom was born and she wanted to live to see it again. (95 now)
It comes by every 76 years or so and this time it wasn't the best view as it went by the Sun on the far side from us in 1986.
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/halley.html
Where will you be in 2062 when it comes by again? :-)
O.K., what were you doing when it came by in 1986?
I was supporting the Pioneer missions at NASA Ames and we had Pioneer-Venus (Pioneer 12) going around Venus and it had just gone by the Sun on the far side from Earth. The project turned Pioneer-Venus so that it could view Comet Halley and gather information on its glow in the ultraviolet.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Small image
http://t2www.nasa.r3h.net/centers/ames/images/content/118550main_AC86-0107-5-m.jpg
Large image
http://t2www.nasa.r3h.net/centers/ames/images/content/118532main_AC86-0107-5.jpg
-------------------------------------------------------------
Well that was just one of many comets.
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/tour_def/comets/comets.html
And now we have brought some of one back.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
Where do we go next? Ummm, if we don't cancel all the projects.
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
=============================================================
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSZ0NVGJE_index_0.html
Giotto’s brief encounter
10 March 2006
Twenty years ago, in the night between 13 and 14 March 1986, ESA’s Giotto spacecraft encountered Comet Halley. It was ESA’s first deep space mission, and part of an ambitious international effort to solve the riddles surrounding this mysterious object.
The adventure began when Giotto was launched by an Ariane 1 rocket (flight V14) on 2 July 1985. After three revolutions around the Earth, the on-board motor was fired to inject it into an interplanetary orbit.
After a cruise of eight months and almost 150 million kilometres, the spacecraft’s instruments first detected hydrogen ions from Halley at a distance of 7.8 million kilometres from the comet on 12 March 1986.
Giotto encountered Comet Halley about one day later, when it crossed the bow shock of the solar wind (the region where a shock wave is created as the supersonic solar particles slow to subsonic speed). When Giotto entered the densest part of the dusty coma, the camera began tracking the brightest object (the nucleus) in its field of view.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/halley.html
Snip
The average period of Halley's orbit is 76 years but you cannot calculate the dates of its reappearances by simply subtracting multiples of 76 years from 1986. The gravitational pull of the major planets alters the orbital period from revolution to revolution. Nongravitational effects (such as the reaction from gasses boiled off during its passage near the Sun) also play an important, but smaller, role in altering the orbit. Between the years 239 BC and 1986 AD the orbital period has varied from 76.0 years (in 1986) to 79.3 years (in 451 and 1066). The closest perihelion passage to the time of Jesus are 11 BC and 66 AD; neither event took place in Jesus' lifetime. Its most famous appearance was in 1066 when it was seen at the Battle of Hastings, an event commemorated in the Bayeux Tapestry.
Comet Halley was visible in 1910 and again in 1986. Its next perihelion passage will be in early 2062.
Snip
=============================================================
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/comets1.html
Snip
Halley's Comet studied by Pioneer-Venus spacecraft: The next two images show Comet Halley in Lyman Alpha light from hydrogen ions. These images were created from data collected by the Ultra-Violet Spectrometer on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft during the days of February 2-6, 1986. During the six days, the spacecraft was maintained in a fixed attitude while the comet moved past, and the instrument scanned across the coma.
During the six days, telemetry data was collected from Deep Space Network (DSN) stations in Spain, Australia and California. The data was processed to assemble the scans into false color images where the lightest colors indicate the strongest signal.
These images show the cloud of hydrogen ions, which surrounded the comet during February 2-6. These images are actually a composite because different parts of the cloud were scanned each day, and also because individual ions moved from the nucleus to the edge in about four days. At the time that these images were acquired, the hydrogen coma was the largest object in the Solar System with a radius of about 0.1 Astronomical Unit. In ultra-violet light, the comet was the second brightest object in the Solar System (exceeded only by the Sun).
These images show asymmetry caused by radiation pressure from the Sun. Hydrogen ions initially leave the nucleus in all directions but eventually are deflected by radiation pressure and move away from the Sun. The size of the Hydrogen coma indicates that water was being evaporated from the nucleus at a rate of about 40 tons per second.
Snip
=============================================================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Halley
Comet Halley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, more generally known as Halley's Comet after Edmond Halley, is a comet that can be seen every 75-76 years. It is the most famous of all periodic comets, even though in every century many comets appear brighter and more spectacular. Halley's comet last appeared in the inner Solar System in 1986, and will next appear in the summer of 2061.
The most standard pronunciation of "Halley" - and the pronunciation that the astronomer himself probably used - is [hæli] (IPA), to rhyme with "valley". The once-standard alternate pronunciation [heIli] (to rhyme with "Bailey") led to rock and roll singer Bill Haley naming his band Bill Haley and the Comets.
Snip
=============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=============================================================
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