TO THE MOON, MARS, AND BEYOND

Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Lunar water brings portions of Moon's origin story into question

A wet Moon in the news, well at least more water than expected.
Glass bubbles with interesting contents.
- LRK -

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Lunar water brings portions of Moon's origin story into question

Public release date: 26-May-2011


Washington, D.C.—The Moon has much more water than previously thought, a team of scientists led by Carnegie's Erik Hauri has discovered. Their research, published May 26 in ScienceExpress, shows that inclusions of magma trapped within crystals collected during the Apollo 17 mission contain 100 times more water than earlier measurements. These results could markedly change the prevailing theory about the Moon's origin.

The research team used a state-of-the-art NanoSIMS 50L ion microprobe to measure seven tiny samples of magma trapped within lunar crystals as so-called "melt inclusions." These samples came from volcanic glass beads—orange in appearance because of their high titanium content—which contained crystal-hosted melt inclusions. These inclusions were prevented from losing the water within when explosive volcanic eruptions brought them from depth and deposited them on the Moon's surface eons ago.

"In contrast to most volcanic deposits, the melt inclusions are encased in crystals that prevent the escape of water and other volatiles during eruption. These samples provide the best window we have to the amount of water in the interior of the Moon," said James Van Orman of Case Western Reserve University, a member of the science team. The paper's authors are Hauri; Thomas Weinreich, Alberto Saal and Malcolm Rutherford from Brown University; and Van Orman.

Compared with meteorites, Earth and the other inner planets of our solar system contain relatively low amounts of water and volatile elements, which were not abundant in the inner solar system during planet formation. The even lower quantites of these volatile elements found on the Moon has long been claimed as evidence that it must have formed following a high-temperature, catastrophic giant impact. But this new research shows that aspects of this theory must be reevaluated. The study also provides new momentum for returning similar samples from other planetary bodies in the solar system.

"Water plays a critical role in determining the tectonic behavior of planetary surfaces, the melting point of planetary interiors, and the location and eruptive style of planetary volcanoes," said Hauri, a geochemist with Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM). "We can conceive of no sample type that would be more important to return to Earth than these volcanic glass samples ejected by explosive volcanism, which have been mapped not only on the Moon but throughout the inner solar system."

Three years ago the same team, in a study led by Saal, reported the first evidence for the presence of water in lunar volcanic glasses and applied magma degassing models to estimate how much water was originally in the magmas before eruption. Building on that study, Weinreich, a Brown University undergraduate, found the melt inclusions, allowing the team to measure the pre-eruption concentration of water in the magma and estimate the amount of water in the Moon's interior.

"The bottom line," said Saal, "is that in 2008, we said the primitive water content in the lunar magmas should be similar to the water content in lavas coming from the Earth's depleted upper mantle. Now, we have proven that is indeed the case."

The study also puts a new twist on the origin of water ice detected in craters at the lunar poles by several recent NASA missions. The ice has been attributed to comet and meteoroid impacts, but it is possible that some of this ice could have come from the water released by past eruptions of lunar magmas.

These findings should also be taken into account when analyzing samples from other planetary bodies in our solar system. The paper's authors say these results show that their method of analysis is the only way to accurately and directly determine the water content of a planet's interior.
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And from Carnegie Science.
- LRK -

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Lunar water brings portions of Moon’s origin story into question


THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2011

Video Press Release
Washington, D.C.—The Moon has much more water than previously thought, a team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Erik Hauri has discovered. Their research, published May 26 in Science Express, shows that inclusions of magma trapped within crystals collected during the Apollo 17 mission contain 100 times more water than earlier measurements. These results could markedly change the prevailing theory about the Moon’s origin.

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Space .com has a some more to say and note that one of the authors is only a freshman.  Fresh eyes on a subject can make a difference.
- LRK -

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Moon's Interior Wet As Earth's, Rocks Indicate
http://www.space.com/11797-moon-interior-wet-lunar-origins.html

Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 26 May 2011 Time: 02:00 PM ET

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Hauri and his team looked at bits of rock brought back to Earth in 1972 by astronauts on NASA's Apollo 17 mission. Specifically, the researchers analyzed pieces called melt inclusions, which are minuscule globules of lunar magma encased within solid crystals. [Infographic: Inside Earth's Moon]

These crystals prevented the magma's water from gassing out during the eruption, thereby largely preserving the original water content of the underground rock.

"These samples provide the best window we have on the amount of water in the interior of the moon,"  study co-author James Van Orman, of Case Western Reserve University, said in a statement.

So melt inclusions are special. They're also rare, and finding the tiny structures in the small store of moon rocks available to researchers was by no means a given. But co-author Thomas Weinreich, at the time a freshman at Brown University, spotted some while poring over the Apollo 17 samples.

"A kid a year out of high school found these for us," Hauri told SPACE.com "That was pretty amazing in and of itself."

Other researchers had found melt inclusions in lunar samples before, but until now nobody had been able to measure their water content. Using a specialized ion microprobe, the team scrutinized seven melt inclusions, the largest just 30 microns across — smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

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Backscatter electron image of a lunar melt inclusion from Apollo 17 sample 74220, enclosed within an olivine crystal. The inclusion is 30 microns in diameter.
CREDIT: John Armstrong, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
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It takes time to study those small bits from our nearest space neighbor.
I wonder what you could do with a few more shovel fulls of lunar samples?
- LRK -

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Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2009

The volatile contents of the Apollo 15 
lunar volcanic glasses 
A.E. SAAL-1
, E.H. HAURI-2
, J.A. VAN ORMAN-3
AND M.J. RUTHERFORD-1

1 Brown University, Providence, RI 02192 
(*correspondence: asaal@brown.edu) 
2 DTM, Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC 20015 
3 Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 

The general consensus is that the Moon formed and evolved through a single or series of catastrophic heating 
events in which most of the highly volatile elements, especially hydrogen, were evaporated away. That notion has 
changed with the new report showing evidences of indigenous water in lunar volcanic glasses [1]
 Because these glasses are the most primitive melts erupted on the surface of the satellite, 
this result represents the best evidence for the presence of a deep source within the Moon relatively rich in volatile. Here we report new volatile data (C, H2O, F, S, Cl) for over 200 individual Apollo 15 lunar glasses with composition ranging from very-low to high Ti  contents (sample 15427,41; 15426,138; 15426,32). Our new SIMS detection limits  (~0.15 ppm C; ~0.4 ppm H2O, ~0.05 ppm F, ~0.21 ppm  S, ~ 0.04 ppm Cl by weight determined by the repeated analysis of synthetic forsterite located on each sample mount), represent at least 2 orders  of magnitude improvement over previous analytical techniques. After background correction the volatile contents have  the following ranges: C  0-0.14± 0.13 ppm is within background; 0-70 ± 0.4 ppm for H2O; 1.6-60 ± 0.1 ppm for F; 58-885 ± 1.3 ppm for S; and  0-3 ± 0.02 ppm for Cl. Our new values represent an increase in the volatile concentrations by a factor of 2 from previously reported data [1.]  Two outstanding features of the data are the significant correlation among H2O, Cl, F and S contents, and the clear relationship between the volatile and the major element contents of the glasses. The data support the hypothesis that there were significant differences in the initial volatile content, and/or the mechanism of degassing and eruption among these glasses was different. Most importantly, the data suggest that the measured H2O is indigenous to the Moon. Our results suggest that, contrary to the prevailing ideas, the bulk Moon is not uniformly depleted in highly volatile elements, and the presence of water, in particular, must be included to constrain models for the thermal and chemical evolution of the Moonís interior. 

[1] Saal et al. (2008) Nature 454, 192-195.
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Watch another video and more information.
- LRK -

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THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2011

Water on the Moon 100 X Higher Than Previously Measured: A Watershed Discovery

A team of NASA-funded researchers has measured for the first time water from the moon in the form of tiny globules of molten rock, which have turned to glass-like material trapped within crystals. Data from these newly-discovered lunar melt inclusions indicate the water content of lunar magma is 100 times higher than previous studies suggested. 

The inclusions were found in lunar sample 74220, the famous high-titanium "orange glass soil" of volcanic origin collected during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The scientific team used a state-of-the-art ion microprobe instrument to measure the water content of the inclusions, which were formed during explosive eruptions on the moon approximately 3.7 billion years ago. 

The results published in the May 26 issue of Science Express raise questions about aspects of the "giant impact theory" of how the moon was created. That theory predicted very low water content of lunar rock due to catastrophic degassing during the collision of Earth with a Mars-sized body very early in its history.


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"Water plays a critical role in determining the tectonic behavior of planetary surfaces, the melting point of planetary interiors and the location and eruptive style of planetary volcanoes," said Erik Hauri, a geochemist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington and lead author of the study. "I can conceive of no sample type that would be more important to return to Earth than these volcanic glass samples ejected by explosive volcanism, which have been mapped not only on the moon but throughout the inner solar system." 

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Anyone with a broom and dustpan handy.
Someone needs to go to the Moon and do some sweeping.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17 
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a crew of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the most recent manned Moon landing and the most recent manned flight beyond low Earth orbit.

Apollo 17 was the sixth Apollo lunar landing, the first night launch of a U.S. human spaceflight and the final manned launch of a Saturn V booster. It was a "J-type mission", missions including three-day lunar surface stays, extended scientific capability, and the Lunar Roving Vehicle. While Evans remained inlunar orbit above in the Command/Service Module, Cernan and Schmitt spent just more than three days on the lunar surface in the Taurus-Littrow valley, performing three EVAs or moonwalks during which they collected lunar samples and deployed scientific instruments. Cernan, Evans, and Schmitt returned to Earth on December 19 after an approximately 12-day mission.

Apollo 17 also broke several records set by previous flights, including the longest manned lunar landing flight; the longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities; the largest lunar sample return, and the longest time in lunar orbit. 

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Taurus–Littrow is a lunar valley located on the near side at the coordinates 20.0°N 31.0°E. It served as the landing site for the American Apollo 17mission in December 1972, the last manned mission to the Moon to date.[1][2] The valley is located on the southeastern edge of Mare Serenitatis along a ring of mountains formed between 3.8 and 3.9 billion years ago when a large object impacted the Moon, forming Mare Serenitatis and pushing rock outward and upward. Taurus–Littrow is located in the Taurus mountain range and south of Littrow crater, features after which the valley received its name. The valley's name, coined by the Apollo 17 crew, was eventually approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1973.[1]

Data collected on Apollo 17 show that the valley is composed primarily of feldspar-rich breccia in the large massifs surrounding the valley and basaltunderlying the valley floor, covered by an unconsolidated layer of regolith, or mixed materials, formed by various geologic events.[3] Taurus–Littrow was selected as the Apollo 17 landing site after the other candidates were eliminated for various reasons. The landing site was chosen with the objectives of sampling highland material and young volcanic material in the same location.[4]

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 Speech before a Joint Session of Congress

It has been 50 years since J. F. Kennedy said we should go to the Moon and we did.
Then the Apollo missions ended because of wars, budget problems and the political pressure to prove a point gone.

Sure Russia could launch satellites to the Moon and even land rovers on the Moon but we could get humans there and return them safely to mother Earth.
Now the question arises as to when humans will return to the Moon and who will they be.

What country or company will take advantage of the potential resources that are there?
Who will inspire the next generation to look up?

Some are speaking out with their opinions as we look back at 50 years since J. F. K.'s speech.
- LRK -

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By Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan


"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."—President John F. Kennedy, Joint Session of Congress, May 25, 1961

Was President Kennedy a dreamer, a visionary, or simply politically astute? We may never know, but he had the courage to make that bold proposal 50 years ago Wednesday. The Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin had completed an orbit of the Earth the previous month and electrified the world. The United States had taken only one human, Alan Shepard, above 100 miles altitude and none into orbit. Americans, embarrassed by the successes of our Cold War adversary, were eager to demonstrate that we too were capable of great achievements in space.

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A half century has passed since Kennedy challenged our citizenry to do what most thought to be impossible. The subsequent American achievements in space were remarkable: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab. Our efforts enhanced international cooperation with Apollo-Soyuz, the space shuttle and the International Space Station. The compelling fascination of our space achievements among young people spurred their interest in education.

By 2005, in keeping with President Kennedy's intent and America's resolve, NASA was developing the Constellation program, focusing on a return to the moon while simultaneously developing the plans and techniques to venture beyond, and eventually to Mars.

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The response to Kennedy's bold challenge a half-century ago has led to America's unchallenged leadership in space. We take enormous pride in all that has been accomplished in the past 50 years. And we have the people, the skills and the wherewithal to continue to excel and reach challenging goals in space exploration.

But today, America's leadership in space is slipping. NASA's human spaceflight program is in substantial disarray with no clear-cut mission in the offing. We will have no rockets to carry humans to low-Earth orbit and beyond for an indeterminate number of years. Congress has mandated the development of rocket launchers and spacecraft to explore the near-solar system beyond Earth orbit. But NASA has not yet announced a convincing strategy for their use. After a half-century of remarkable progress, a coherent plan for maintaining America's leadership in space exploration is no longer apparent.

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Harrison H. (Jack) Schmitt was the last man on the Moon as the Apollo 17 mission ended our sending humans to the Moon.

Jack has a lot to say about our present situation.  Much food for thought.
- LRK -

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46. SPACE POLICY AND THE CONSTITUTION #4

Harrison Schmitt

Former Senator Schmitt Proposes Dismantling of NASA and Creation of a New, National Space Exploration Administration (NSEA)
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced to a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American to the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of that decade. President Kennedy’s confidence that this Cold War goal could be accomplished rested on the post-Sputnik decision by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and, in January 1960, to direct NASA to begin the development of what became the Saturn V rocket. This release of a collection of essays on Space Policy and the Constitution [1] commemorates President Kennedy’s decisive challenge 50 years ago to a generation of young Americans and the remarkable success of those young Americans in meeting that challenge.

How notions of leadership have changed since Eisenhower and Kennedy! Immense difficulties now have been imposed on the Nation and NASA by the budgetary actions and inactions of the Bush and Obama Administrations between 2004 and 2012. Space policy gains relevance today comparable to 50 years ago as the dangers created by the absence of a coherent national space policy have been exacerbated by subsequent adverse events. Foremost among these events have been the Obama Administration’s and the Congress’s spending and debt spree, the continued aggressive rise of China, and, with the exception of operations of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, the loss of focus and leadership within NASA headquarters.
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The PDF file mentioned Is here.
- LRK -

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Downloads

Download Space Policy and the Constitution
By Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt. Preface: (“Is there a path forward for United States’ space policy? When a new President takes office in 2013, he or she should propose to Congress that we start space policy and its administration from scratch. A new agency, the National Space Exploration Administration (NSEA), should be charged with specifically enabling America’s and its partners’ exploration of deep space, inherently stimulating education, technology, and national focus. The existing component parts of NASA should be spread among other agencies with the only exception being activities related to U.S. obligations to its partners in the International Space Station (ISS).” — HHS). The Foreword was written by Michael D. Griffin, noted physicist, aerospace engineer and NASA Administrator (2005-2009): (“Jack makes the case for space as no one else can, and he shows how and why we are on the wrong path— leaving the rest of us with the question: what can we do to obtain the leadership we need instead of the leadership we have?”— MDG).

Download PDF (~2.2 Mb)
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You can watch a YouTube video of Schmitt talking  about a need to return to the Moon.
- LRK -


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Harrison Jack Schmitt: Return to the Moon: Science, Energy and the Future

Harrison Schmitt

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Geoff in New Zealand went to a dinner with the Discovery Astronauts who were visiting Christchurch.

He passed me a link to interview that was on their TV channel 3.
If you go to the link you will get a video after a short ad.
- LRK -


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Discovery's final crew chats to Campbell Live - Video
http://www.3news.co.nz/Discoverys-final-crew-chats-to-Campbell-Live/tabid/817/articleID/212461/Default.aspx
TUE, 24 MAY 2011 7:00P.M.
NASA called it one last reach for the stars.
For the 39th time this shuttle withstood enormous stresses as it was forced out of earth's atmosphere.

Discovery is NASA's workhorse.
It was Discovery that was pressed back into service after the Challenger and Columbia disasters.
She has spent 365 days in orbit, and circled the earth 5,830 times.
She is the spaceship that by carrying the Hubble telescope into space, gave us the most powerful images of what the universe looks like.
Meet the astronauts from that last flight.

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NASA has its opinions as well.
- LRK -



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http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/may/HQ_11-166_Kennedy_50th.html
NASA Commemorates Moonshot Moment's Golden Anniversary Agency Looks to the Future and Beyond Low-Earth Orbit



WASHINGTON -- Fifty years ago, a young president struggling with deepening international issues set a fledgling space agency on a course that would change the history of human exploration. NASA commemorates President John F. Kennedy's historic speech that sent humans safely to the moon with a series of activities and a commitment to continue the journey of discovery and exploration that started with a desperate race into space.

"We are moving into a bright new future that builds on a challenge presented to us 50 years ago," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "It is important that we remember our history but we must always look forward toward a brighter future. Our advantage now is that we have five decades of accomplishment and world leadership in space on which to build. The dreams President Kennedy helped make real for our world, and the dreams we still hold, may appear to be just out of reach but they are not out of our grasp."

On this date in 1961, Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress, with a worldwide television audience, and announced, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." This was seen as a bold mandate because America's experience up to this point was Alan Shepard's suborbital Freedom 7 mission, which launched just a few weeks earlier and lasted about 15 minutes.

"Today, we have another young and vibrant president who has outlined an urgent national need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build our competitors and create new capabilities that will take us farther into the solar system, and help us learn even more about our place in the universe," Bolden added. "We stand at a moonshot moment once again, where we have a chance to make great leaps forward to new destinations, develop new vehicles and technologies, and new ways of exploring."

To commemorate the address that launched NASA into history, the agency has scheduled several events and historic multimedia perspectives, including:

-- A special concert at 7 p.m. EDT tonight at the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The one-hour concert
will feature the Space Philharmonic, Administrator Bolden,
astronauts, Kennedy family representatives and special guests. There
are a limited number of tickets available for the public. For more
information, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/jTOKZt
-- Video and other multimedia material from President Kennedy's speech
are available on NASA Television and on the agency's Internet
homepage http://www.nasa.gov along with information about the
agency's future exploration initiatives.
-- A message from the administrator about NASA's next moonshot moment
and moving beyond Earth orbit is available on his blog at:
http://bit.ly/fNjTS2
-- An announcement later today that represents an important step in
executing the president's exploration objectives and could pave the
way for extending humanity's reach beyond low-Earth orbit and further
into space
-- NASA and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in
Washington present "NASA | ART," from May 28 to Oct. 9. The exhibit
features more than 70 paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures,
and other forms of art illustrating the agency's mission. Admission
is free, and the exhibit is located at the Air and Space Museum's
building at Sixth Street and Independence Ave. SW.

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If you live in the USA you may have your own opinions on what we should do to get back to the Moon.
If you live elsewhere I am sure you would at least like to see someone go there.

Someone might like to see our eggs in more than one basket before the lights get turned off here.
A new nest gives you a different view.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Marble
Thanks for looking up with me.
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Circling-the-Moon.html
Circling the MoonIn a new autobiography, an Apollo 15 pilot tells what it was like to fly solo.
  • By Al Worden With Francis French
  • Air & Space Magazine, July 01, 2011

  • The fourth mission to land men on the moon, Apollo 15 was also the first of Apollo’s extended science missions. After a smooth journey, which began on July 26, 1971, commander Dave Scott and lunar module pilot Jim Irwin stayed on the moon for 66 hours, longer than the two previous lunar landings combined. While Scott and Irwin explored the terrain with Apollo’s first lunar rover, command module pilot Al Worden, orbiting alone in the spacecraft Endeavour, photographed the moon and operated scientific instruments studying its surface. NASA’s then-administrator James Fletcher compared Apollo 15’s scientific return with discoveries Charles Darwin made on his five-year around-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, but the mission was marred by its crew’s bad judgment: The three men had flown postal covers to the moon, signed them, and sold them to a German stamp dealer. After the business arrangement was discovered, NASA management, embarrassed by the scrutiny the agency was receiving, did not fly the men in space again. In his new book, Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut’s Journey to the Moon, Al Worden recalls the pain of the scandal and recounts the unprecedented adventure of his mission. In this excerpt, Worden writes about his rendezvous with Scott and Irwin after three days of orbital solitude and describes making the first extravehicular activity—EVA—beyond Earth orbit. 
—The editors

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Welcome to the NASA Audio Collection. This collection is administered and maintained by the Houston Audio Control Room, at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The purpose of this collection is to make available the historic audio record of the history of Human Spaceflight at NASA, in an easily accessible and open manner. The audio contained in this collection has been digitized from original reel-to-reel tapes of varying format. Many tapes are the originals, from over 50 years ago. The original file format used to digitize and archive these historic audio tapes is WAV, at 48kHz / 24 bit. This WAV file is posted here, in the collection. Derivative formats are provided by the Internet Archive. Audio will be added to this collection as it is digitized. For requests regarding which missions are added, please email the Lead Audio Engineer at the Houston Audio Control Room, atjohn.l.stoll@nasa.gov.
Browse by Subject / Keywords

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NASA Images, created through a partnership between NASA and the Internet Archive, offers public access to NASA's image, video, and audio collections in a single, searchable online resource: http://www.nasaimages.org 

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK


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