ISS Sharack NX-15

It would be interesting to find out what kind of affect the reverse orbit has on the planet wasp-17..

Very Interesting, I agree with the Captain it would be interesting to see what effect this has.

US study finds that NASA cannot meet goal of spotting nearly all Earth-threatening asteroids

Seth Borenstein, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - NASA is charged with seeking out nearly all the asteroids that threaten Earth but does not have the money to do the job, a U.S. government report says.

That is because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says. Specifically, NASA has been ordered to spot 90 per cent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space by 2020.

Even so, NASA says it has completed about one-third of its assignment with its current telescope system.

NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats to Earth. They are larger than 460 feet (140 metres) in diameter - slightly smaller than a sports stadium in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are.

Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet (1,000 metres) in diameter can devastate an entire region but not the entire globe, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the near-Earth objects program. Objects bigger than that are even more threatening, of course.

Just last month astronomers were surprised when an object of unknown size and origin bashed into Jupiter and created an Earth-sized bruise that is still spreading. Jupiter does get slammed more often than Earth because of its immense gravity, enormous size and location.

Disaster movies like "Armageddon" and near misses in previous years may have scared people and alerted them to a serious issue. But when it comes to doing something about monitoring the threat, the academy concluded "there has been relatively little effort by the U.S. government."

And the U.S. government is practically the only government doing anything at all, the report found.

"It shows we have a problem we're not addressing," said Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, an advocacy group.

NASA calculated that to spot the asteroids as required by law would cost about $800 million between now and 2020, either with a new ground-based telescope or a space observation system, Johnson said. If NASA got only $300 million it could find most asteroids bigger than 1,000 feet (300 metres) across, he said.

But so far NASA has gotten neither sum.

It may never get the money, said John Logsdon, a space policy professor at George Washington University.

"The program is a little bit of a lame duck," Logsdon said. There is not a big enough group pushing for the money, he said.

At the moment, NASA has identified about five near-Earth objects that pose better than a 1-in-a-million risk of hitting our planet and being big enough to cause serious damage, Johnson said. That number changes from time to time, usually with new asteroids added and old ones removed as more information is gathered on their orbits.

The space rocks astronomers are keeping a closest eye on are a 430-foot (130-meter) diameter rock that has a 1-in-3,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2048 and a much-talked about asteroid, Apophis, which is twice that size and has a one-in-43,000 chance of hitting in 2036, 2037 or 2069.

Last month, NASA started a new Web site for the public to learn about threatening near-Earth objects.

very interesting Captain

Interesting article Captain. Makes one wonder if Congress will step up and provide the funding needed

SPACE SHUTTLE TO LAUNCH TUESDAY MORNING


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is fueling space shuttle Discovery for an early morning flight to the international space station.

Discovery is scheduled to blast off at 1:36 a.m. Tuesday with a full load of supplies. Forecasters put the odds of good launch weather at 80 percent.

Discovery's seven astronauts woke up at midafternoon Monday. An hour later, the launch team began fueling the space shuttle under sunny skies. NASA was worried storms might hold up the fueling.

Commander Rick Sturckow (STUR-koh) and his crew will deliver experiments and equipment to the space station, including a new treadmill named after TV comedian Stephen Colbert. Colbert originally wanted a space station room named after himself. The treadmill is in more than 100 pieces.

Thanks for the heads up on the launch Unica .. hope everything gos ok with it..

SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH DELAYED

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA called off the launch of space shuttle Discovery for a second time Tuesday after a critical fuel valve failed to work properly.

Launch officials halted the countdown midway through the fueling process. The seven astronauts had not yet boarded the shuttle for the scheduled early Wednesday morning flight to the international space station.

"Drats!" said astronaut Jose Hernandez in a Twitter update. Fellow astronaut Christer Fuglesang, a Swede, chimed in with this tweet: "Bad luck again."

Another attempt will not be made until Friday at the earliest. There are two possible launch times: 12:22 a.m. and 11:59 p.m.

NASA is up against a tight end-of-month deadline for launching Discovery. If Discovery is not flying by Sunday, the delivery mission will slide into October because of a pair of upcoming launches to the space station from Japan and Russia.

The problem cropped up while launch controllers were trying to shut the large fill-and-drain valve in Discovery's engine compartment. There was no indication the valve closed, and flight rules stipulated that the fuel tank be drained before moving the valve to figure out what went wrong.

Engineers suspect it may be a problem with instruments and that the valve itself could be fine, said Mike Moses, chairman of the mission management team. If that's the case, NASA will try again early Friday morning to launch Discovery.

"That's our success-oriented plan," Moses said late Tuesday night. "Between now and then, we'll learn a lot more."

If the valve is at fault, however, workers will need to get into the engine compartment to replace it. That would take a lot longer. Moses said it would be unlikely NASA could launch by Sunday's deadline and the flight would fall to mid-October.

The 8-inch valve, part of the main propulsion system, is used for the flow of liquid hydrogen from the external fuel tank to the main engines. It needs to be closed prior to launch, and open in order to drain the tank following a launch delay.

The valve worked fine during the first launch attempt, but thunderstorms prevented Discovery from blasting off early Tuesday morning.

The first launch attempt was scuttled in the wee hours of Tuesday. Sixteen hours later, try two ended with a surprising scrub.

Discovery is loaded with thousands of pounds of space station supplies and equipment, including a new treadmill named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert.

D rats that's got to be frustrating on them .. all that waiting and being suited up..

Wow their really not having much luck

SHUTTLE DISCOVER ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery pulled up and docked at the international space station on Sunday night, delivering a full load of gear and science experiments.

The linkup occurred as the spacecraft zoomed more than 200 miles above the Atlantic and ended a round-the-world chase of nearly two days. The astronauts cheered when the hatches swung open, and the two crews greeted each other with hugs and handshakes.

A thruster failure made the rendezvous all the more challenging for shuttle commander Rick Sturckow.

One of Discovery's small thrusters began leaking shortly after Friday's midnight liftoff and was shut down. None of the little jets was available for the rendezvous and docking, and Sturckow had to use the bigger, more powerful primary thrusters, making for a somewhat bumpier, noisier ride.

Struckow had trained for this backup method — never before attempted for a space station docking — well before the flight. Mission Control radioed up congratulations after his stellar performance.

"You'll be happy to know it occurred on the 25th anniversary of the maiden flight of Discovery," Mission Control said.

A few hours later, flight director Tony Ceccacci said at an early Monday news conference that Sturckow "flew it like a champ."

Discovery and its crew of seven are dropping off thousands of pounds of equipment, including a treadmill named for Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. The treadmill was launched in more than 100 pieces, and astronaut

Nicole Stott — the space station's newest resident — won't have time to put it together until the shuttle is long gone.

Earlier in the day, Stott sent "big space hugs" down to her 7-year-old son, Roman, from Discovery. "I just want to let him know I love him more than anything," she radioed. Stott will remain at the space station until another shuttle comes to get her in November.

Space station astronaut Timothy Kopra — whom Stott replaced late Sunday — peered at his shuttle friends through a porthole in the hatch as he waited for the door to swing open. Kopra has been on board since mid-July.

"He's not looking for a ride home or anything, is he?" Mission Control asked.

"He looks like he's ready," Sturckow replied.

Discovery will spend more than a week at the orbiting complex. Astronauts will perform three spacewalks to replace an ammonia tank and perform other outside maintenance, with the first one on Tuesday night.

Monday evening's action will involve lifting the huge cargo carrier out of Discovery's payload bay, using a robot arm, and attaching it to the space station.

This is only the second time 13 people have been together in orbit. The first was just last month during Endeavour's space station visit.

Discovery, meanwhile, seems to have fared liftoff well.

The chairman of NASA's mission management team, LeRoy Cain, said Sunday that a preliminary look at launch pictures and other data indicates the shuttle had no major damage. No significant pieces of foam insulation were spotted coming off the fuel tank.

Cain cautioned that another few days of analyses are needed. Engineers got even more data after Discovery arrived at the space station. The shuttle performed a slow backflip on final approach so the space station crew could photograph its belly in a search for damage. More than 400 pictures were captured.

Well Its good they finally got there

3rd AND FINAL SPACEWALK]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Two spacewalking astronauts took on shelving and antenna jobs at the international space station Saturday in their final trek outside.

For the second time in three days, lead spacewalker Danny Olivas and his partner Christer Fuglesang ventured out to work on the outpost, orbiting 220 miles above the planet.

They quickly made their way out along a girder and pulled open a shelf that will be used to store big spare parts later this year. Olivas helped install the framework on the right side of the space station two years ago.

"It's like old times, huh, Danny?" astronaut Patrick Forrester asked from inside.

"You're right, Pat, this is like being at home," Olivas replied.

An identical shelf on the opposite side of the space station jammed when astronauts tried to pull it open back in March. It took a special tool and another mission to get the shelf open. Olivas and Fuglesang had the tool with them in case they ran into trouble, but the job went smoothly.

NASA loaded Saturday night's spacewalk — the third and final one of Discovery's space station visit — with all sorts of odds and ends.

Besides the shelf work, the spacewalkers put up new Global Positioning System antennas and replaced some old electronic devices. Their last chore, coming up late Saturday, involved laying 60 feet of cable for a future space station chamber.

During the first two spacewalks, astronauts gave the orbiting complex a fresh tank of coolant.

Fuglesang, a Swede, is the only non-American on Discovery's seven-person crew. But the space station has one Belgian, one Canadian, two Russians and two Americans living on it. The combined crews make for a record-tying crowd of 13 in space.

Saturday night's spacewalk was the last major job for the seven shuttle astronauts before they depart Tuesday. Their 13-day flight is scheduled to end with a landing back in Florida on Thursday.

WATER FOUND ON THE MOON

WASHINGTON – The moon isn't the dry dull place it seems. Traces of water lurk in the dirt unseen.

Three different space probes found the chemical signature of water all over the moon's surface, surprising the scientists who at first doubted the unexpected measurement until it was confirmed independently and repeatedly.

It's not enough moisture to foster homegrown life on the moon. But if processed in mass quantities, it might provide resources — drinking water and rocket fuel — for future moon-dwellers, scientists say. The water comes and goes during the lunar day.

It's not a lot of water. If you took a two-liter soda bottle of lunar dirt, there would probably be a medicine dropperful of water in it, said University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine, one of the scientists who discovered the water. Another way to think of it is if you want a drink of water, it would take a baseball diamond's worth of dirt, said team leader Carle Pieters of Brown University.

"It's sort of just sticking on the surface," Sunshine said. "We always think of the moon as dead and this is sort of a dynamic process that's going on."

The discovery, with three studies bring published in the journal Science on Thursday and a NASA briefing, could refocus interest in the moon. The appeal of the moon waned after astronauts visited 40 years ago and called it "magnificent desolation."

The announcement comes two weeks before a NASA probe purposely smashes near the moon's south pole to see if it can kick up buried ice. Over the last decade, astronomers have found some signs of underground ice on the moon's poles. But this latest discovery is quite different. It finds unexpected and pervasive water clinging to the surface of soil, not absorbed into it.

"It is drier than any desert we have here," Sunshine said.

The water was spotted by spacecraft that either circled the moon or flew by. All three ships used the same type of instrument that looked at the absorption of a specific wavelength of light that is the chemical signature of only two molecules: water and hydroxyl. Hydroxyl is one atom of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen, instead of two hydrogen atoms in water.

Because of the timing during the daylight when some of that wavelength disappears and some doesn't, it shows that both hydroxyl and water are present, Sunshine said.

This light wavelength was first discovered by an instrument on the Indian lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1, which stopped operating last month. Scientists initially figured something was wrong with the instrument because everyone knew the moon did not have a drop of water on the surface, Pieters said.

"We argued literally for months amongst ourselves to find out where the problem was," Pieters said. Sunshine, who was on the team, had a similar instrument on NASA's Deep Impact probe, headed for a comet but swinging by the moon in June. So Deep Impact looked for the water-hydroxyl signature — and found it.

Scientists also looked back at the records of NASA's Cassini probe, which is circling Saturn. It has the same type instrument and whizzed by the moon ten years ago. Sure enough, it had found the same thing.

The chance that three different instruments malfunctioned in the same way on three different spaceships is almost zilch, so this confirms that it's water and hydroxyl, Pieters said.

"There's just no question that it's there," Pieters said. "It's unequivocal."

Scientists testing lunar samples returned to Earth by astronauts did find traces of water, but they had figured it was contamination from moisture in Earth air, Pieters said.

Three scientists who were not part of the team of discoverers said the conclusion makes sense, with Arizona State University's Ron Greeley using the same word as Pieters: unequivocal.

Lunar and Planetary Institute senior scientist Paul Spudis called it exciting and said it raises the logical question: Where did that water come from?

Pieters figures there are three possibilities: It came from comets or asteroids that crashed into the moon, those crashes freed up trapped water from below the surface, or the solar wind carries hydrogen atoms that binds with oxygen in the dirt. That final possibility is the one that Sunshine and Pieters both prefer.

If it is the solar wind, that also means that other places without atmosphere in our solar system, such as Mercury or asteroids, can also have bits of water, Sunshine said.

___

Interesting Information