Latest Update on Phoenix Mars Lander
05.24.08 — Get the highlights from the Phoenix News Briefing at JPL on Sat., May 24.
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[Via Forbes.com]
LOS ANGELES -NASA says it has absolutely no plan to turn off either of the Mars Rovers because of budget cuts.
NASA is saying Tuesday that it has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program to cover the cost of a next-generation rover on the Red Planet.
The move comes a day after scientists at the agency’s robotics center said they would need to hibernate one of the twin Mars robots and limit the duties of the other because their budget was being cut by $4 million.
That announcement was based on a letter NASA sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena last week.
But NASA is saying in a statement Tuesday that neither of the rovers will be shut down.
It would really have sucked if they shut them down. I am a huge space exploration geek and love to hear about finds, etc. By doing this, this would have limited our exploration needs and then we would never know whats out there. Good work NASA on keeping it alive! 
[View the Mars Section @ NASA.Gov]
Information Via CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military may try within days to shoot down a failed satellite using a missile launched from a Navy ship, officials announced Thursday
A Delta II rocket carrying a national reconnaissance satellite like the one officials want to shoot down.
Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that the window to accomplish the mission could begin in three to four days, and remain open for seven to eight.
While much space trash and debris have safely crashed to Earth after burning up in the atmosphere on re-entry, authorities said what makes this 5,000-pound satellite different is the approximately 1,000 pounds of frozen toxic hydrazine propellant it carries.
Without any intervention, officials believe the satellite would come down on its own in early March.
If it came down in one piece, nearly half the spacecraft would survive re-entry and the hydrazine — heated to a gas — could spread a toxic cloud roughly the size of two football fields, Cartwright said.
Hydrazine is similar to chlorine or ammonia in that it affects the lungs and breathing tissue, the general said.
The option of striking the satellite with a missile launched from an Aegis cruiser was decided upon by President Bush after consultation with several government and military officials and aerospace experts, said Deputyj National Security Adviser James Jeffrey.
“After further review of this option and, in particular, consideration of the question of saving or reducing injury to human life, the president, on the recommendation of his national and homeland teams, directed the Department of Defense to carry out the intercept,” Jeffrey said.
The goal is to hit the satellite just before it enters Earth’s atmosphere and blast it apart so that the hydrazine tank explodes. The smaller debris would be more likely to burn up in the atmosphere.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said there’s nothing the military can do to make the outcome worse.
“If we miss, nothing changes. If we shoot and barely touch it, the satellite is just barely in orbit” and would still burn up somewhat in the atmosphere, Griffin said.
“If we shoot and get a direct hit, that’s a clean kill and we’re in good shape,” he added.
Experts said that with three-quarters of Earth covered in water, there’s a 25 percent chance the satellite’s remnants will hit land — and a 1 percent chance they will hit a populated area.
There will be three Navy ships involved in the operation. The USS Lake Erie, an Aegis cruiser, will fire the missile, while trajectory information comes from a second ship. The third ship will be used as a backup, U.S. Navy officials said.
The Lake Erie has long been used as the platform for the sea-based missile defense program.
Cartwright said the satellite stopped working within hours of its launch, and has not responded to attempts to communicate with it. He brushed off blog theories that the military wants to shoot down the satellite with a missile to destroy any classified data it may have accumulated in its short life, or to prevent other countries from acquiring the technology.
In January 2007, China used a land-based missile to destroy a 2,200-pound satellite that was orbiting 528 miles above Earth.
But the impact left more than 150,000 pieces of debris floating above Earth, NASA estimates. The space agency characterizes nearly 2,600 pieces as “large,” meaning greater than 4 inches across, which pose a potential threat to satellites and spacecraft.
China is responsible for 42 percent of all satellite debris in orbit as of January 1, most of it from that Fengyun-C meteorological satellite.
NASA has called it the worst satellite breakup in history.
As expected, Sir Richard Branson has just unveiled the final designs of SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two, Virgin Galactic’s planned commercial “spaceliner” and its corresponding carrier plane. At today’s American Museum of Natural History launch event, Branson once again reiterated his lofty expectations for space tech in general and the six-passenger vehicle in particular, promising to promote privatization and more widespread research by offering outside organizations access to its launch system schematics. So far, Virgin has reportedly signed up 200 committed passengers willing to pay $200,000 for a 2010-or-later suborbital flight, but for now, all they can do is look at the pretty pictures in the gallery below.
[Via BBC]
In a landmark launch that will supposedly “contribute to bridging the digital divide within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world,” the continent’s first satellite successfully made it into orbit aboard a French-made rocket last night. The so-called RASCOM-QAF1 — named after the Regional African Satellite Communication Organization which is funding the venture — lifted off from the European space base in Kourou, French Guiana stowed inside an Ariane 5, the sixth such launch this year and 36th overall of that particular model, manufactured by Paris-based Arianespace. The new 3.2-tonne (7,055-pound) satellite is set to serve the large African rural market neglected by traditional cellphone carriers, and will allegedly save hundred of millions of dollars a year currently being paid to foreign operators.
[Via Engadget]
