Neil Armstrong Died Today At Age 82

First Man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong has passed away today at the age of 85.

Commander of the famous Apollo Eleven mission in July 1969, he and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent three hours out on the lunar surface.  Most famous for his quote "one giant leap for mankind."

I for one wish him Godspeed.


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Ref.
1. comiclog.nbcnews.com.com. "Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82" by NBC News. August 25, 2012. (http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/25/13478643-astronaut-neil-armstrong-first-man-to-walk-on-moon-dies-at-age-82?chromedomain=usnews).

Private Sector Space Dreams

The American bureaucracy of which NASA is a part of, has by force of congressional decree and presidential inattention except in election years, become affraid to take any bold moves in manned spaceflight.

They talk a good game, the public takes it hook, line, and sinker, and nothing really ever becomes of it. The shuttle was just suppose to be a part of a shuttle-station program. Towards the end of its career, it finally did that job. But in the beginning, it was nothing more than a glorified dump truck.

And it was paid for by the American taxpayer.

Back in the 1990s, there was a chance to replace the shuttle with a newer spacecraft. The VentureStar from Lochkeed Martin or the DC-X vertical take-off/landing, single-stage to orbit spacecraft. The DC-X was a sub-scale, flight tested piece of hardware. The VentureStar was a computer animation only. Guess which one the Clinton Administration went with? That's right: VentureStar.

Then Columbia broke up on reentry.

President Bush proposed shutting down the shuttle program and replacing it with the Apollo on steroids program known as Constellation. Now President Obama will cancel even that and hope that the private sector will take over.

Well, I (slightly) agree with President Obama that it would be better for the private sector to come into its own as far as transporting folks up into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). But, the government should have kept the Constellation Program going.

I remember in a Air Force ROTC classroom in my college days, my instructor was describing the problem faced by FDR in the Pacific War. He had General MacArthur promoting a campaign that would go through the Philippines. Admiral Nimitz wanted to go straight across the Pacific to the China coast cutting the Japanese supply line in two.

President Roosvelt decided that it would be in the best interest of the war effort to go with BOTH strategys.

I submit to the reader that the same thing could have been applied to the Constellation Program. I'm on record opposing the idea of Super-Apollo, but NO American manned spaceflight program is even worse to think about.

So where this this lead us to? Private Space Industry.

In fact, I think it is going to be up to men like Bigelow and Rutan to get American civilians back up into space (without government aid). And more important, get them to the surface of the moon and back to Earth on a regular flight schedule.

Eventually, a lunar base will be built. And maybe then, NASA will get funding from Congress to lease a base on the moon.

So, are there enough deep pockets in the worldwide civilian sector to make it possible for the non-government space program to make it to the moon and Mars ? And do it before the Chinese gets there.

Check out the article "Moon dreams" from The Economist website(February 18, 2010) for the article that inspired me to write this posting.

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Ref. The Economist, February 18, 2010, "Private-sector space flight. Moon dreams" (http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15543675).

Water Found on Both Moon and Mars

September 23, 2009. NASA announches that there are small amounts of water on the surface of the moon. For years, scientists thought that previous spacecraft might have had slight contamination from Earth and had sent back misleading indications that they had found water on the moon. It has long been suspected that there might be frozen ice in deep craters where sunlight never gets to them at the poles.

Planetary geologist Carle Pieters of Brown University said the following, "Widespread water has been detected on the surafce of the moon. What we're detecting is completely unexpected. The moon continues to surprise us."

Recent observations by several spacecraft such as the Indian Chandrayaan-1 satellite, NASA's Cassini, and NASA's Deep Impact probe have forced the world's scientists to reconsider what they know about the lunar surface. All three of these spacecraft detected the spectral signature of water (the wavelengths of light that it reflects) all across the lunar surface. The signal was strongest at the lunar poles. Signal strength also depended on the local lunar day.

"The entire surafce of the moon will be hydrated durning at least part of the lunar day." So says Jessica Sunshine, University of Maryland and the deputy principal investigator for NASA's Deep Impact extended mission and the co-investigator for the Moon Mineralogy Mapper(M3) which is carried by the Indian satellite Chandrayaan-1.

What form the water takes on the lunar surface is nto clear yet although several theories are now being developed. It is seeping from underground (and or former lunar underground ruins according to Richard C. Hoagland-guest Science Advisor to the Coast to Coast Am radio program).

And the findings keep coming in-the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the LCROSS impactor are set to explore the lunar south pole craters looking for water ice. The fluctuating signals seen throughout the day could indicate that the water is migrating across the surface toward colder, higher latitudes and eventually the poles.

Pieters are putting forth the theory that "If the water molecules are as mobile as we think they are - even a fraction of them - they provide a mechanism for getting water to those permanently shadowed craters."

There is similar migration seen on Jupiter's moon Ganymeded and on Saturn's moon Iapetus.

As for Mars, the news was just as good. NASA reports that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted ice at five new Martain craters, likely kicked up by meteor impacts. Megan Kennedy of the Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego said, "We now know we can use new impact sites as probes to look for ice in the shallow subsurface."

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago." Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona added.

The robot exploreres on ars have found ice on the surface before. Planetary scientists have seen what might be the shores of a giant river and seas on Mars. Louis Friedman, executive director of The Planetary Society said the following, "This is a real water resource."

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REF. Reuters.com. Chris Wilson, September 24, 2009. (http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2436167620090924)

Space.com. September 24, 2009. Andrea Thompson (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090924-moon-water-reaction.html).

One Year and One Month in the Blogosphere

WOW-

I cannot believe that I overlooked my one year anniversary in the blogosphere!

My first blog - Aerospace, Technology, Paranormal and UFOs news was created on July 26, 2008.

So this posting is actually the 1 year, and a few days shy of its 1 month anniversary for this blog. Just goes to show you that live and time moves on and one is caught up in the day-to-day struggles of living in what passes for the 21st century now.

We STILL have not sent anyone BACK to the moon nor landed humans on the planet Mars yet. Due to the recent findings of the President's commission on returning humans to the moon and the answer we got back that at current budget levels - we'll never get anyone back to the moon by 2028 even let alone 2020. This is the primary reason that I posted the "Gone" Barack Obama countdown clock widget on my blogs. Plus the fact that the political party in the United States that were (formerly) known as the Democrat Party - have taken the path of self-destruction by trying to force this country to move into the Socialist camp. Maybe I ought to say Socialist Labor Camp.

As for my personal life - still "officially" homeless. Working full time and cannot even afford a so-call cheap apartment in a city like Lubbock, Texas. If I ever get into a apartment - I'm more scare of not being able to ever have enough money saved up to get back into my own house again. I will become a permanent member of the wage-slave class. Like I'm not apart of it already - but play along with me for now ok?

I still plan on getting a repo mobile home if I can just get a bank to back me up. I don't want to keep spending my money to make other people rich. I want a house back on my own land again. A place that I can stay home all day. Sleep in late on my days off. To be able to watch a DVD whenever I damn well wish too. To have a fenced in yard to once again have a dog as a pet. It is amazing the simple pleasures one misses when they are gone.

As it is now, on my days off. I have to make plans to visit several bookstores or restaurants that have wi-fi capability to let me go online. Or visit friends to use their shower. As it is now, that is actually using up more cash than having my own place to stay in.

A real vicious Catch-22. Which is part of the reason that I totally forgot about the one year anniversary of this blog.

I now return you to your regulary running blog.

Thank you!

P.S. After I posted the above article, I thought about checking on how much money I have earned with google so far since this blog (and the others) were created. For the past year, the combine total of all three blogs have genereated the following amount... $5.69. And I will not get paid until I reach the $100.00 dollar mark. At this rate, I'll be 65 years old by the time I get that first check. Just a FYI.