I'm on vacation, taking some time to read First Man. Be sure to pause a moment today and remember humankind's first step on another world. If you want to mark the occasion formally, you can always use this.

Check out this movie taken by the spacecraft formerly known as Deep Impact:



That's our home, with our moon transiting (passing between) the spacecraft and the planet. To quote Neo from The Matrix, "Whoa."

Press release here.

I met Benton Clark a few years ago, when he gave a talk at Johns Hopkins. He's great to talk to, and this article hints at the reasons why. He's very soft spoken, yet knowledgeable. As the article puts it he's "hanging up the slide rule" for now, but he'll still be around.

I submitted a proposal for the Mars Project Challenge over at The Mars Society. Just announced in the finalists list, looks like I've got to put a presentation together for the conference.

Another challenge!

Here's an article about a study presented at a recent conference discussing Mars Sample Return (MSR). Note the snazzy name "iMars" used. The article links to the report. They're talking about flying in the 2018-2023 timeframe, and spend much of the report talking about gathering samples. The mission architecture (lander, orbiting Earth Return Vehicle, propellants carried all the way to Mars' surface and back) looks much the same as others proposed in the past.

I've only scanned through it so far, but they seem to be assuming that only their vehicle will land on the surface to gather samples. I didn't see any mention about the possibility of other rovers gathering samples and bringing them to the central point. I think some sort of prize system (award for safely delivered unique sample) that would do that could improve the science return of the mission in a huge way.

Here is an article about some people who are trying to build their own Gemini capsule and fly into orbit. They're looking for donations of $100M. Seems like a tall order.

Given my new imbedding power, I trolled a bit yesterday for some video footage to put up. I found a promising entry about 9/11's ground zero as seen from space, but when I watched it, there were text overlays about 9/11 conspiracies as part of the footage. Blech. If you want to go to YouTube to find it yourself, feel free, but it won't get a free link from here.

A spacewalk took place today to remove and examine pyro charges on the Soyuz vehicle which will take the crew home. There must have been some pretty serious concerns about those components, to risk this type of effort.

I still look forward to when this sort of thing is commonplace, including the standardized spare parts on orbit to fix them.

Saturday Update: Thinking about it, it's probably more remarkable that they used knives to do the work than the fact that they worked with the explosive charges. Explosives can be made pretty safe, but a knife near a space suit...

Let's see if this works. I first saw it at Bad Astronomy:

Looks like one of the many reasons to anticipate SpaceX's Falcon launch this summer (the launch date is under review again [the linked article is about a delay due to range conflicts. There's been talk of another due to an engine defect, but I can't find an article on that right now]) is the deployment of a solar sail named NanoSail D. Solar sails hold a lot of promise for an interesting set of space missions such as a pole-sitter (pdf document) satellite (I'm not sure if the term satellite fits in this case, since it doesn't actually orbit Earth), and an asteroid sample return mission.

Since the Falcon I flight is meant as a test of Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), the range conflict delay should be catching a lot of attention. Right now, it doesn't matter how quickly a rocket can launch, the infrastructure to support each launch is so fragile, and so ossified in a methodology requiring multiple days of tests before clearing a spacecraft to launch (and limited in personnel to do the same process any faster), that no significant tempo increase will take place. If launches are to become frequent, the idea has to take hold where the previous launch served as the test of the equipment for the current launch. That's a big philosophical jump.

I wonder if Elon has looked into building his own range support equipment? It would have to be manned by a civil servant or military range officer (don't want a SpaceX employee making the decision of whether or not to destroy a SpaceX booster), but I think the equipment could be owned by the company...

Recently, the Direct proposal has gotten some airplay as a possible alternative to NASA's Ares boosters to lift us back to the moon and on to Mars. NASA's felt the heat, and issued some statements about why Direct doesn't work. Some have said that the responses are arguing by assertion, not fact. A new, more detailed paper is now out, and this article links to it.

I think there's some goal post moving going on. This quote in particular:

The Ares V heavy lift launch vehicle will use two 5.5-segment solid rocket boosters and six RS-68s, thus enabling it to carry up to 70 metric tons (156,600 pounds) of payload to trans-lunar injection orbit

cites the payload capabilities of the latest Ares V, with 5.5 solid segments and 6 RS-68 engines. This change was made public only recently, based on evolving analysis at NASA. Direct hasn't responded to it yet.

Monday Update: In a discussion group that I'm a part of, a friend pointed out that NASA's set the architecture for getting 75 metric tons to trans-lunar injection. Their mission design does it with one (improved!) Ares V launch and one Ares I launch. Direct's concept utilizes propellant storage and transfer on-orbit. Point conceded.

Also: According to Clarke Lindsey and a NASASpaceflight post, Direct will respond to NASA's paper. Also, note Clarke's idea for a lift infrastructure for ESAS in a comment near the bottom. Save yourself frustration by paging down past gm's comments.

The Delta II launch has been granted a reprieve. There are enough boosters to fly until 2015 at NASA's projected launch rates, and a decision about restarting production can be put off until 2012.

...Canada's NEOSSat is a move in the right direction. It's a microsatellite with a telescope aboard designed to discover NEOs and track Earth-orbiting satellitess. I'll be curious to see how it performs compared to Earth-based platforms.

I'm watching In the Shadow of the Moon for the first time. The remaining Apollo astronauts are old. I didn't even recognize Mike Collins. I hope we still have people alive who walked on the moon when we do it again.

Of course, right after I talk about Jon Goff's series, he puts out part V.