NASA can’t pay for killer asteroid hunt

ASTEROID HUNT

WASHINGTON – NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn’t enough money to pay for the task so it won’t get done.

The cost to find at least 90 percent of the 20,000 potentially hazardous asteroids and comets by 2020 would be about $1 billion, according to a report NASA will release later this week. The report was previewed Monday at a Planetary Defense Conference in Washington.

Congress in 2005 asked NASA to come up with a plan to track most killer asteroids and propose how to deflect the potentially catastrophic ones.

“We know what to do, we just don’t have the money,” said Simon “Pete” Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

These are asteroids that are bigger than 460 feet in diameter – slightly smaller than the Superdome in New Orleans. They are a threat even if they don’t hit Earth because if they explode while close enough – an event caused by heating in both the rock and the atmosphere – the devastation from the shockwaves is still immense. The explosion alone could have with the power of 100 million tons of dynamite, enough to devastate an entire state, such as Maryland, they said.

Armadillo Aerospace, Rocket Racing Inc challenge Virgin Galactic

With a target price of $100,000 per ticket or less, launch vehicle developer Armadillo Aerospace and Rocket Racing League company Rocket Racing Inc are aiming to offer suborbital flights from New Mexico's Spaceport America from 2010
The image above is the rocket concept the two companies have released to the media

Rocket Racing Inc chief executive Granger Whitelaw says: "The price of space is coming down to Earth. And thanks to Armadillo's ships and New Mexico's spaceport, human beings will be treated to the most stellar views in the galaxy."

This design had been on Armadillo's website for some time although just checking the site now it has disappeared

I was expecting something new for the concept. It is interesting that this has come out after the non-arrival of a reportedly "imminent" deal between Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic

While Armadillo has "proven" technology with its Rocket Racer engine I am not entirely convinced that that powerplant, or a cluster of seven of them, could really push even a two-person transparent capsule to above 100km

For a start the design above is not very aerodynamic and will waste a lot of fuel just trying to overcome that hurdle in the first 30,000ft (9,150m) of atmosphere but they also want a vertical powered descent with all the structural inefficiencies and fuel requirements that will bring

I don't understand why they didn't opt for this design (see below) and build in a transparent section, assuming any existing transparent material is going to be able to cope with the aerothermodynamic loading on ascent

Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn's reaction is, "...for Armadillo/Rocket Racing league, good luck to them"

Coming back to the whole Spaceport America involvement, there has been very slow progress towards Virgin signing an anchor tenant contract for some time with a memorandum of agreement inked a while back

The New Mexico government even made getting an anchor tenant part of its legislation for the creation of the spaceport and with the MOA Virgin seemed destined to fill that role, but are they?

Contacting Whitehorn this evening (UK time) he emailed me to say, of the new 'imminent' agreement, "this is the new agreement for the actual lease and facilities to the Fosters/URS design now finalised, which will supersede the original MOA."

One has to wonder though if the New Mexico government is concerned that they will have an utterely empty $225 million spaceport, cum white elephant, on their hands if Virgin Galactic, which rolled out an empty WhiteKnightTwo mothership in July, doesn't start flying in 14-months time. They could still be test flying SpaceShipTwo in 2010 at Mojave air and space port

I also wonder about the likelihood of Armadillo test flying so soon. It seems rather challenging, to say the least, for any company to go from a concept that has a habitable section that has untested technologies, sub-systems, let alone a proof of concept test article, and no successful flights of anything that could be called a prototype propulsion module, to flight tests inside of 12-months, assuming they make their first flght in December 2009

So the Armadillo, Rocket Racing, New Mexico government link up probably is a step to shore up political support for the spaceport, to give that impression of a growing list of tenants that includes Up Aerospace and maybe even the UK's Starchaser Industries

Being here in the UK and not having anyone in New Mexico to attend the press conference on our behalf, I have submitted a bunch of questions by email. Let's see what they say!

Surrey’s Big Bang

BIG BANG

The British Science Festival, Europe’s largest and longest running science festival comes to Surrey from 5-10 September this year. With the theme of ‘Creativity, Innovation and Evolution’, the Festival will be showcasing science, technology and engineering to audiences ranging from scientists and academics to families and school children.

Hundreds of events will take place across Guildford and Surrey at a variety of venues including the University of Surrey campus, theatres, galleries, museums, libraries and beyond.

Programme highlights include:

• contributions to the national Darwin200 celebrations
• lectures and debates on space research in Surrey – linking in to the 2009 International Year of Astronomy
• discussions on environmental and sustainability issues from water bans to traffic jams
• a showcase of hi-tech industry and business projects with a science twist.

The Festival also features a schools programme aimed at students from key stages 2 to 5 and taking place on the University of Surrey Campus from 7-10 September. Through this students will have the chance to:

• explore the importance of the social and ethical aspects of science
• improve their overall understanding of the principles of science and its place in our society
• meet and question some of the UK's top scientists.

As well as enriching curriculum activity for students, the Festival also provides resources and ideas for teachers to use in the classroom

Organised by the British Science Association, the Festival is supported locally by the University of Surrey, SEEDA, Surrey County Council and Guildford Borough Council.

World Space Week launch at Intech

INTECH will be filled with a huge variety of exhibitions, displays and activities from Astrium and others.

INTECH will be filled with a huge variety of exhibitions, displays and activities from Astrium and others. There'll be special live planetarium shows presented by real space engineers, a chance to meet people who work in space science and the famous "Bridget" - Astrium's life-size prototype Mars rover robot! We will also be joined by Rebel Legion, the costumed Star Wars group.