The ISS tele is fixed

Sen. Inhope's “SKEPTIC GUIDE TO DEBUNKING GLOBAL WARMING”

I saw this on friday about Senator's Inhofe's guide to debunking Global Warming here.

Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the outgoing Chairman of Environment & Public Works Committee, is pleased to announce the public release of the Senate Committee published booklet entitled “A Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Global Warming Alarmism. Hot & Cold Media Spin Cycle: A Challenge To Journalists who Cover Global Warming.”

Click here to download the "Skeptic's Guide"


The color glossy 64 page booklet -- previously was only available in hardcopy to the media and policy makers -- includes speeches, graphs, press releases and scientific articles refuting catastrophe climate fears presented by the media, the United Nations, Hollywood and former Vice President turned-foreign-lobbyist Al Gore.

Too bad this Senator will step down from his committee in the new year.

Space Storm a'coming

It looks like we will have a space storm due to the sunspot 930 flare activity. So that means our cell's, telcoms and satellites will have difficulties Thursday afternoon. Those in the north will have a spectacular aurora activity. I wonder how the astronauts will do?

Space weather forecasters revised their predictions for storminess after a major flare erupted on the sun overnight threatening damage to communication systems and power grids while offering up the wonder of Northern Lights.

"We're looking for very strong, severe geomagnetic storming" to begin probably around mid-day Thursday, Joe Kunches, Lead Forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center, told SPACE.com this afternoon.

The storm is expected to generate aurora or Northern Lights, as far south as the northern United States Thursday night. Astronauts aboard the international space station are not expected to be put at additional risk, Kunches said.

Radio communications, satellites and power grids could face potential interruptions or damage, however.

Solar flares send radiation to Earth within minutes. Some are also accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CME), clouds of charged particles that arrive in a day or two. This flare unleashed a strong CME that's aimed squarely at Earth.

"It's got all the rights stuff," Kunches said.

Solar Flare warning

The Shuttle astornauts and ISS members took cover last night due to the big solar flare activity from sunspot 930 here.

This is what the astronauts do to take cover from the radiation (from the Flame Trench here):

NASA flight surgeons and agency radiation experts determined that the burst of highly energetic particles approached a limit that made preventative action prudent.

Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and shuttle skipper Mark Polansky were told to move their crews to the most shielded areas in either spacecraft.

They include the middeck of the shuttle's crew compartment and temporary sleeping quarters in the station's U.S. Destiny science laboratory.

The back ends of the American lab and a Russian command control center at the outpost also were options.

Back to the Moon

Unveiling the agency's bold plan for a return to the moon, NASA said it would establish an international base camp on one of the moon's poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts land there.

It is a sweeping departure from the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and represents a new phase of space exploration after the space shuttles are retired in 2010.


NASA chose a "lunar outpost" over the short expeditions of the '60s. Apollo flights were all around the middle area of the moon, but NASA decided to go to the moon's poles because they are best for longer-term settlements. And this time NASA is welcoming other nations on its journey.

The more likely of the two lunar destinations is the moon's south pole, because it's sunlit for three-quarters of the time. That offers a better locale for solar power, and the site has possible resources to mine nearby, said associate deputy administrator Doug Cooke.

"This is not your father's Apollo," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. "I think it's the only way to sustain something like this over decades. This is not a flag-and-footprints. This is the idea of starting an outward movement that includes long stays on the moon."

To get to the moon, NASA will use two vehicles — the Orion exploration vehicle and an attached all-purpose lunar lander that could touch down anywhere and be the beginnings a base camp, said exploration chief Scott Horowitz.

He likens the lander to a pickup truck.

"You can put whatever you want in the back. You can take it to wherever you want. So you can deliver cargo, crew, do it robotically, do it with humans on board. These are the types of things we're looking for in this system," Horowitz said at a news conference in Houston.

Last Great Launch from 39B

Another try for a launch

The shuttle astronauts are getting ready to board the Shuttle Discovery for another try to launch. Winds are a bit high 18 MPH and launch limit is 15 MPH. Lets hope they come down a bit.

I'll be a bit busy to live blog all of the launch stuff. But Flame Trench here and the NASA blog here do a better job. I have Christmas cards to do, dinner and keep an eye on the girls Christmas crafts (they can get a little bit carried over with glue and cut paper!)

Remember Pearl Harbor

Flag at half staff with Discovery on launchpad

Water Flowing out of Mars

I watched the press conference this morning. Before MGS was lost it captured pictures of water flows and new impact craters on Mars.

New photographs from space suggest that water occasionally flows on the frigid surface of Mars, raising the tantalizing possibility that the red planet is hospitable to life, scientists reported Wednesday.

The new images, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor before it lost contact with Earth, do not actually show flowing water. Rather, they show changes in craters that provide the strongest evidence yet that water coursed through them as recently as several years ago, and is perhaps doing so even now.

"This is a squirting gun for water on Mars," said Kenneth Edgett, a scientist at San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems, which operates a camera on the Global Surveyor.

The news excited scientists who hunt for extraterrestrial life. If the finding is confirmed, they say, all the ingredients favorable for life on Mars are in place: liquid water and a stable heat source.

In all of its Mars exploration missions, NASA has pursued a "follow the water" strategy to determine if the planet once contained life or could support it now.

Scientists believe ancient Mars was awash with pools of water. And at present-day Mars' north pole, researchers have spotted evidence of water ice. But they have yet to actually see water in liquid form.

"This underscores the importance of searching for life on Mars, either present or past," said Bruce Jakosky, an astrobiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who had no role in the study.

"It's one more reason to think that life could be there."

Shuttle crew at the Cape

Discovery Shuttle Astronauts Arrive at NASA Spaceport
By Ker Than
Staff Writer
posted: 3 December 2006
5:56 p.m. ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The astronaut crew of NASA's next shuttle mission arrived here at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) late Sunday, flying in aboard white and blue T-38 training jets.

The seven-member STS-116 crew was greeted by veteran astronaut Jerry Ross and Mike Leinbach, NASA’s launch director for the upcoming space shot. The astronauts’ family members also welcomed their Florida spaceport arrival.

"It was a beautiful flight out…I'm very, very excited to be here," the mission’s shuttle pilot, William Oefelein, said at NASA’s KSC Shuttle Landing Facility. "We seven certainly are very ready to go and we're looking forward to executing a great mission."

The astronauts are slated to launch aboard NASA’s shuttle Discovery on a 12-day construction flight the International Space Station (ISS) on Dec. 7 at 9:35:47 p.m. EST (0235:47 GMT). The planned liftoff will mark NASA's third shuttle mission this year and the agency's first night launch since 2002.

"We're going to go ahead and hopefully have one heck of a night show to give everybody this Thursday night," Discovery’s STS-116 commander Mark Polansky said.

The mission will include the delivery of a new portside piece of the ISS and a trio of spacewalks to rewire the outpost's power grid. It will also include the swap of Expedition 14 crewmember Sunita Williams for European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who is finishing up a nearly six-month stint aboard the orbital laboratory.

"I'm just really happy to be here. It's been a long time coming," Williams said, adding that she’s spoken with her Expedition 14 crewmate-to-be Mikhail “Misha” Tyurin. "Misha Tyurin called the other day and said 'Suni, we're waiting for you!', so I just can't wait to get to my new home."

STS-116 mission specialists and multilingual crewmembers Nicholas Patrick and Christer Fuglesang—Sweden's first astronaut to fly—added a few words in Spanish and Swedish, respectively.

Not to be outdone, Alaskan native Oefelein added a few words in his state's official language: English. "I'll start by saying a few words in Alaskan—It's warm out here," he said.

Mission specialist Robert Curbeam turned the attention away from his fellow astronauts.

"This is a tribute to the guys that got our vehicle ready, to get all of us ready as well, for our 12 day trip and Suni's six month trip," Curbeam said. "We appreciate it and thank all of them…Also thanks to our family and friends and coaches and relatives for all the years of motivating us to do our best. We hope to make all those people who helped get us here proud."

For mission specialist Joan Higginbotham, the flight to KSC was a return home of sorts.

"I'm very happy to be here…I actually began my career here at Kennedy Space Center," she said. "To finally come back as an astronaut and get to work and fly on the vehicle that I used to work on is absolutely beyond words.

"When I got out the plane, Mike said to me 'That's a megawatt smile,' and that's how I feel," Higginbotham added. "I'm not going to wipe this grin off my face until December 19 when we land and I'm sure you'll still have a hard time wiping it off my face."

ISS failed to raise up

The Russians failed to raise the ISS up to a corrected orbit hight.

Russian engineers failed to raise the orbit of the international space station by a planned distance Thursday and Russian and U.S. officials were discussing whether it would affect the upcoming launch of the space shuttle Discovery.

Federal Space Agency spokesman Valery Lyndin said the engines on the Progress M-58 cargo ship docked at the station were supposed to fire for around 17 minutes and push the station around 4 miles higher. However they unexpectedly shut off early, pushing the station just 1 mile up.

This might effect the upcoming shuttle mission in December. Engineers are looking at it now at NASA

Another problem I thought we faced during the Millenum:

NASA wants Discovery back from its 12-day mission by New Year's Eve because shuttle computers are not designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight.

The space agency has figured out a solution for the New Year's problem, but managers are reluctant to try it since it has not been thoroughly tested.

If the space shuttle is not back on the ground during the change into the new year, NASA officials want it docked to the space station and not flying.

Are the computers on the shuttle still operating on a pre-Win2000 operating system?

Night Launch Cleared for Shuttle on Dec. 7th

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Preparations are on schedule for NASA's first nighttime space shuttle launch in four years as the space agency readies Discovery for a mission to the international space station, managers said Wednesday.

NASA plans to launch Discovery at 9:35 p.m. EST on December 7 for the third shuttle flight of the year and the fourth since the Columbia disaster killed seven astronauts in 2003.

The agency required the three launches after the Columbia accident to be in daylight so clear images could be taken of the shuttle's external fuel tank in case foam falls off. Foam breaking off the tank and striking Columbia's wing at liftoff caused the damage that led to the disaster.

"There were really no dissenting opinions on the night launch," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator.

The space agency needs to start launching shuttles at night to take advantage of more launch opportunities and finish space station construction by 2010, when the shuttle program ends.

Humans must leave Earth someday

Drudge has this by Steven Hawking on man leaving Earth to colonize space here:

"The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet," he said. "Sooner or later, disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all out. But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe.

"There isn't anywhere like the Earth in the solar system, so we would have to go to another star.

"If we used chemical fuel rockets like the Apollo mission to the moon, the journey to the nearest star would take 50,000 years. This is obviously far too long to be practical, so science fiction has developed the idea of warp drive, which takes you instantly to your destination. Unfortunately, this would violate the scientific law which says that nothing can travel faster than light.

"However, we can still within the law, by using matter/antimatter annihilation, and reach speeds just below the speed of light. With that, it would be possible to reach the next star in about six years, though it wouldn't seem so long for those on board."

The science fiction series Star Trek has used matter/antimatter annihilation as an explanation for the warp drive. But, in reality, he said that scientists believe that the flash of radiation produced when matter and antimatter are brought together and destroy one another could in fact one day be used to drive craft to close to the speed of light.

Ring Sunspot

This was taken this morning in the Philippines by John Nassr. From SpaceWeather.com here.

Single impact killed the Dinosaurs

Via Drudge here:

A new study provides compelling evidence that "one and only one impact" caused the mass extinction, according to a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher.

"The samples we found strongly support the single impact hypothesis," said Ken MacLeod, associate professor of geological sciences at MU and lead investigator of the study. "Our samples come from very complete, expanded sections without deposits related to large, direct effects of the impact – for example, landslides – that can shuffle the record, so we can resolve the sequence of events well. What we see is a unique layer composed of impact-related material precisely at the level of the disappearance of many species of marine plankton that were contemporaries of the youngest dinosaurs. We do not find any sedimentological or geochemical evidence for additional impacts above or below this level, as proposed in multiple impact scenarios."

MacLeod and his co-investigators studied sediment recovered from the Demerara Rise in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of South America, about 4,500 km (approximately 2,800 miles) from the impact site on the Yucatan Peninsula. Sites closer to and farther from the impact site have been studied, but few intermediary sites such as this have been explored.

Mars Global Surveyor Lost?

- NASA's best effort to find a missing Mars space probe failed Monday night, as scientists at the space agency began to lose hope for the 10-year-old planet-mapping workhorse.

After more than two weeks of silence from the Mars Global Surveyor, NASA will make other tries, but scientists began to sound resigned Tuesday.

"We may have lost a dear old friend and teacher," Michael Meyer, the lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program said in a news conference.

The $154 million surveyor, which finished its work eight years ago, is the oldest of six different active space probes on or circling the red planet.

Among its accomplishments are its more than 240,000 pictures of the red planet, offering the best big-picture view of the red planet.

"Every good thing comes to an end at some point," said Arizona State University scientist Phil Christensen. "It certainly in my mind greatly exceeded our wildest expectations of what to hope for. It revolutionized what we were thinking about Mars."

On Monday night, NASA had hoped to catch a glimpse of the surveyor from the camera on the new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But the orbiter failed to spot it.

Now NASA will try an even less likely search effort. Engineers will send a signal to the silent spacecraft, asking it to turn on a beacon on one of the two Mars rovers below. If the rover beacon turns on, NASA could figure out where the lost Mars Surveyor is, said project manager Tom Thorpe.

Boxer to have hearings on Global Warming

How charming our own Senator is to have hearings on Global Warming. Is she going to call in William Gray and Max Mayfield on the carpet? (HT Drudge)

Automakers and manufacturers, beware: There's a new environmental policy boss in town, she scowls a lot, and two of her favorite phrases are "global warming" and "extensive hearings."

The Democrats' coming takeover of Congress is expected to feel pressure for policy change on a number of fronts, from Iraq to taxes, but the starkest change may come at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, when Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., will surrender the gavel to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Her appointment was announced Tuesday, but won't take effect until January.

Inhofe rejects a wide scientific consensus that human use of fossil fuels is largely responsible for catastrophic climate change, calling it "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." He's accused environmental activists of exploiting people's fears to raise money. And he's blocked legislation aimed at curbing global warming.

Boxer, in contrast, is a fiercely liberal environmental activist. She has railed against Inhofe, crusaded for cleaner drinking water and led wilderness protection efforts in her home state and for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Her likely counterparts in the House of Representatives - Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., incoming chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., of the Resources Committee - are less sympathetic to environmentalists. Dingell's constituents include the auto industry, and Rahall's include the coal industry. Then too, of course, George W. Bush remains president, and he's not exactly a global-warming crusader, either.

But Boxer said Tuesday that starting in January, her priority will be to begin "a very long process of extensive hearings" on global warming.

"I think there ought to be a global-warming bill that looks at all the contributors to carbon-dioxide emissions," she said. She cited California's legislation requiring automakers to reduce emissions as "an excellent role model."

Boxer also wants to boost the cleanup of Superfund toxic-waste sites by reinstating "polluter pays" fines, which lapsed under the Bush administration, and increase oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Inhofe couldn't be reached for comment; Boxer said he'd called to wish her well.

Melinda Pierce, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, cheered the coming change, saying Inhofe had been bad for the environment and that Boxer is an activist hero. But with a bare 51-49 Democrat majority in the next Senate and Bush in the White House, Pierce said, "We have no illusions that there's going to be some comprehensive global-warming bill signed by the president." Instead, she said, Boxer will likely "set an agenda and make modest gains for a time in 2009 when we have a new president."

Hank Cox of the National Association of Manufacturers said his group "will certainly have our door open," although he said Boxer "does represent a tougher stand on environmental issues than we've had in the past, and we can potentially see where there's going to be more vigorous debate."

"If you're going to make these assumptions about what is causing global warming, the whole world needs to participate together," Cox said. "The Chinese are opening a new coal-fired power plant every week, and within a few years they will pass us in terms of carbon-dioxide emissions. For the U.S. to impose severe, expensive economic restraints on our own economy, while the Chinese ignore it, would not have any appreciable impact on total global emissions."

Iran tests missiles

Iran test-fired dozens of missiles, including the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel, in military maneuvers Thursday that it said were aimed at putting a stop to the role of world powers in the Persian Gulf region.

The show of strength came as Iran remains locked in dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which Washington says is geared to producing atomic weapons but Tehran says is only for generating electricity. The maneuvers came three days after U.S.-led warships finished naval exercises in the Gulf that Iran branded as "adventurist."

Discovery rolled out to VAB

NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ROLLS TO VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING

NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery completed one milestone and is nearing
another as workers prepare the orbiter for a December launch to the
International Space Station.

On Tuesday night, drivers moved Discovery from the shuttle processing
facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. Discovery, perched on top of the giant, 76-wheel
orbiter transporter system, began moving out of the facility at 9:23
p.m. EST.

In the assembly building, technicians attached Discovery to its
propulsion elements, an external fuel tank and twin solid rocket
boosters. Following those operations, final integration, preparations
and closeouts began in preparation for flight.

Discovery's next milestone is the 4.2-mile trip to Launch Pad 39B in
preparation for its mission, designated STS-116. During the 11-day
mission, the shuttle's seven astronauts will rewire the station to
bring online new power supplies generated by solar arrays installed
in September.

Article from CNN here.

Hubble will be extended to 2013

Good news about the Hubble telescope! NASA will service the Hubble with the Shuttle in 2008.

NASA said Tuesday it will launch a final space shuttle mission to keep the aging, trailblazing Hubble Space Telescope in orbit and operational. The decision, announced by the chief of the US space agency, Michael Griffin, followed a review of safety concerns and appeals from the scientific community to extend the life of the Hubble. Without a repair mission, which will likely be carried out in 2008, the telescope would shut down in 2009 or even earlier.

Since it was launched into orbit 16 years ago, the telescope has helped astrophysicists peer deep into the universe free of the distortions from the Earth's atmosphere.

Orbiting 575 kilometers (360 miles) above the Earth, the Hubble has enabled scientists to better measure the age and origins of the universe, observe distant supernovas, and identify and study bodies in and outside the solar system.

In 2004, it conveyed pictures of the most distant parts of the universe ever observed by visible light, "the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind," said the Space Telescope Science Institute.

NASA had scheduled a mission for Hubble in 2003, but scrapped it after the Columbia shuttle disintegrated while returning to Earth. The accident raised serious safety questions for the NASA space program, particularly with the shuttle's heat shield. Tuesday's announcement comes after two of the last three shuttle missions were judged a success.

Griffin said the decision to go ahead was taken after a painstaking review of safety issues.

"We're not going to risk a crew in order to do a Hubble mission," he told staff at Goddard Space Center in Maryland outside of Washington.

In 2003 it was thought too dangerous a mission. But with the saftey issues worked out a mission is possible. I'm sure the science community will appeciate Hubble's extention to explore the heavens. Also, it is good news the last three Shuttle missions "were judged a success!" NASA worked the problems out with the tank foam and finish building the ISS.

Here is the crew slated for the mission:

Veteran astronaut Scott D. Altman will command the final space
shuttle mission to Hubble. Navy Reserve Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will
serve as pilot. Mission specialists include veteran spacewalkers John
M. Grunsfeld and Michael J. Massimino and first-time space fliers
Andrew J. Feustel, Michael T. Good and K. Megan McArthur.