Use an Asteroid as a Space Station

President Obama says we should visit an asteroid instead of the Moon. Read what Ray Villard worte about on Discovery.com "Let's Build an Interplanetary Space Station." Link is in the Ref section as always, but I have included a few paragraphs as a preview below...

The Obama administration has directed NASA to send a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025. This is attractive because very little fuel is needed to land on an asteroid, and the journey is shorter than a trip to Mars.

There are over 1,000 NEAs to choose from. They've been popping up in the news almost weekly. Just this week a small townhouse-sized asteroid designated 2010 TD54 skimmed by us at an altitude just a few thousand miles above our geostationary communication satellites.

But rather than simply visiting a co-orbital asteroid and bringing back rock samples, the mission could be used as a step toward the ultimate goal of space colonization.

A carefully selected asteroid with the right density and strength could be hollowed out for an underground base to be established. This would provide a stable temperature, and shielding from micrometeorites and solar radiation. Solar power would be plentiful. This kind of engineering was talked about for a moon colony, but the freight costs to land people and equipment on an asteroid are much lower.

For the rest, please visit Discovery.com.

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Ref. Discovery.com. "LET'S BUILD AN INTERPLANETARY SPACE STATION" by Ray Villard. October 14, 2010. (http://news.discovery.com/space/lets-build-an-interplanetary-space-station.html).

Does it Work Or Not? The US Antimissile Shield Program

The current President of the United States is all for the U.S. Antimissile Defense Shield. The one he critized under the previous Bush administration.

But now he is all for it. But it might not yet be really operational.

President Obama has his heart set on the SM-3 rocket-powered interceptor as part of his push to reduced this nations nuclear arsenal. But critics from M.I.T. and Cornell have their doubts about the new system.

Basically, the SM-3 has to hit the incoming warhead-problem might be with this is that the incoming nuclear warhead might still detonate when the impact takes place. Ooops!?

Say it ain't so Uncle Santa! For the rest of the article, use the link below.

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Ref. The New York Times, "Review Cites Flaws in U.S. Antimissile Program" By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, May 17, 2010 (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/world/18missile.html?pagewanted=1&hp).

Phobos is Ancient Spaceship in Orbit of Mars.

Phobos is an ancient spaceship in orbit around the planet Mars. Basically this is what some scientists and even former astronaut Buzz Aldrin appear to be say. In fact, Buzz takes any opening he can get to push the need for a trip to Phobos.

From Richard C. Hoagland's Enterprise Mission, the latest theory about Mars's moon Phobos being a hollow out asteroid due to two separate observations from two different government spacecraft.

Its impression that is why President Obama kinda reverse himself and says that the US will still go out into the solar system, but in baby steps.

Image of Phobos is from his website. And please read both parts of this story on the Enterprise Mission website.

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Ref. "For the World is Hollow.. And I have Touched the Sky" parts 1 & 2 (http://www.enterprisemission.com/Phobos.html) & (http://www.enterprisemission.com/Phobos2.html).

Capital Hill Coming to Moon Plan Rescue!

This past tuesday, NASA got a boost for it's return to the moon program. And from members on Capital Hill.

Basically, its a plea for an additional $3 billion dolalrs a year to NASA to keep the plan originally proposed by President George W. Bush.

Head of the President Obama's panel that review the space program proposal said, "With the resources available, the program I think is fatally flawed." So said Norman Augustine, the panel's head. Mr. Augustine is a retired chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp.

Congressmen from both parties, including the wife of a astronaut, came to the plan's defense - attacking the Augustine panel for their conculsions.

NASA has already spent $8 billion on the Constellation Project. By 2020, $100 billion would have been spent on that program.

"I don't see the logic in scrapping what the nation has spent years and billions of dollars to develope," House Space Subcommittee chairwoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Her husband Mark Kelly, is schedule to command a shuttle mission next year. She went on to add that there needs to be a very compelling reason to change the program.

Augustine told the Associated Press after the hearing that "the sunken costs argument doesn't carry much weight with us."

Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin - came to the defense of his pet project. Griffin agree with the Augustine reprot in saying there was not enough money in the current budget to explore space and go anywhere new. Griffin noted that Presidents Obama, Bush, and Bill Clinton all essentially cut NASA spending, with a drop of about 20 percent since 1993. Griffin in his wirtten testimony defended the Bush moon program technical design and emphasized that it should continue with the extra money. He asked that the Augustine Commission, Congress and President Obama should ask themeselves ,"exactly why does the policy which we established in law - twice - need to be changed?"

The Augustine commission recommened dropping the Aries I rocket and go straight to the Ares V booster system. Last week, the Ares I was test fired and it past that crucial test.

UPDATE (September 17, 2009). Added additional link in Ref section below.

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Ref. www.comcast.net, Sept 15, 2009. by Seth Borenstein, "Return-to-moon plan gets boost on Captial Hill" (http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20090915/US.SCI.NASA.Moon/).

The Space Advocate (http://thespaceadvocate.blogspot.com/2009/09/augustine-vs-congress-people-some-of.html).

Space Flight Now(http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0909/15augustine/)

Hubble Repaired! Charles Bolden - The NEW NASA Administrator

      I found this little bit of news embedded in an article on Reuters.com.  While focusing on NASA's wave off again for a landing in Florida - the decision to stay up an additional day due to bad weather, the Obama White House announced the following news.

President Barack Obama would nominate Charles Bolden, 62-year-old retired Marine Major General, and four-time space shuttle astronaut; to serve as the new NASA Administrator.

Now, speaking on the shuttle Atlantis.  Hubble Space Telescope repair mission was a success.  The shuttle still has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Monday.  If Kennedy Space Center doesn't clear up in the meantime, NASA is staffing its Edwards Air Force Base recovery team in case the shuttle must land in California in the Mojave Desert.

Repairs to Hubble included outfitting it with a new panchromatic wide-field camera.  This will hopefully let Hubble image objects formed about 500 million years after the birth of the universe according to current thinking.  It also has a new light-splitting spectrograph to check out the chemical composition of gas and dust between the galaxies.  

UPDATE:  from Reuters, I found a photgraph of Charles Bolden on May 24, 2009.

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Ref. "NASA cancels Saturday shuttle landing, to try Sunday" by Irene Klotz.  May 23, 2009. (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54E35D20090523).

( http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE54M0ZQ20090524).