Good call Buzz. From The Tech Herald:
Legendary Moon walker and NASA spaceman Buzz Aldrin has said the race to establish a permanent Moon base should be the result of international cooperation with the real focus on a manned mission to Mars.
Speaking in a lengthy interview with Popular Mechanics magazine, Aldrin said the next race to be the first to host a manned presence on the Moon should not be a financially damaging “space race” but an international effort combining the resources of China, Europe, India, Japan and Russia.
“By renouncing our goal of being first on the Moon (again), we would call off Space Race II with the Chinese and encourage them to channel their ambitious lunar efforts into the consortium,” Aldrin said.
He added that the Mark II mission to the Moon is, in fact, a “damaging” detour from what should be NASA’s principal objective — namely, the preparation for a manned mission to Mars.
“The agency’s current Vision for Space Exploration will waste decades and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reach the moon by 2020 — a glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago,” he said. “Instead of a steppingstone to Mars, NASA’s current lunar plan is a detour.”
Approaching his 80th birthday, Aldrin was in no mood to hold back on criticism of the American space administration’s plan. In its place, Aldrin proposed a radical program he named the “Unified Space Vision,” which, controversially, calls for a permanently manned presence on Mars by 2035.
“Here’s my plan, which I call the Unified Space Vision,” he told the magazine. “It’s a blueprint that will maintain U.S. leadership in human spaceflight, avoid a counterproductive space race with China to be second back to the moon, and lead to a permanent American-led presence on Mars by 2035 at the latest.”
“That date happens to be 66 years after Neil Armstrong and I first landed on the moon — just as our landing was 66 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight,” Aldrin said.
PARIS, FRANCE–(Marketwire - June 20, 2007) - Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast has awarded contracts totalling $12.7 million US to six companies on the island of Ireland. The announcement was made today at the Paris Airshow where Bombardier and some of the suppliers are participating.
Contracts, valued at just under $10 million US over a three-year period, have been signed with five existing Northern Ireland-based suppliers. The companies, confirmed as John Huddleston Engineering, Greyabbey; Dontaur Engineering Ltd., Ballymena; J.W. Kane Precision Engineering Ltd., Portadown; Moyola Precision Engineering, Castledawson; and Maydown Precision Engineering Ltd., Londonderry, will now supply components for the Bombardier Q400, CRJ700/900, Learjet 45 and Challenger 300 aircraft programmes.
EireComposites, based in Galway, Ireland, becomes a new supplier and will provide carbon-fibre components for Bombardier’s Global Express and nacelle programmes. This contract is worth $2.7 million US over a five-year period.
Michael Ryan, Vice-President, Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast said: “These contracts represent a significant step in Bombardier’s ongoing commitment to encourage the development of a competitive supply base throughout Ireland. Along with our links to universities and R&D programmes, contracts with suppliers on the island of Ireland which now total approximately $67 million US per annum, are an important part of our contribution to the island economy. We look forward to building these relationships which will play an important role in the success of Bombardier’s programmes going forward.”
About Bombardier
A world-leading manufacturer of innovative transportation solutions, from regional aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment, Bombardier Inc. is a global corporation headquartered in Canada. Its revenues for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2007, were $14.8 billion US and its shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). News and information are available at www.bombardier.com
MERRITT ISLAND, FL — (MARKET WIRE) — April 30, 2007 — KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Italy’s SPACELAND group, which organized the world’s first non-governmental zero gravity research flight in 2005, broke its own record for the oldest microgravity test subject when it flew 93-year-old Cesare Massano aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s (ZERO-G) G-FORCE ONE on April 28 from the Kennedy Space Center.Led by SPACELAND’s zero gravity veteran Doct. Eng. Carlo Viberti, a former European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut office engineer who also coordinated the ESA technology experiments on board the Russian space station MIR, the microgravity research and education flight focused on the oldest man to ever experience weightlessness. Mr. Massano, from SPACELAND’s headquarter town of Torino (Italy), served as test subject for Info-Communications Technology (ICT), biomedical and bioengineering experiments, with a special focus on monitoring and understanding cardiac behavioral patterns in elderly people under increased G-force conditions. The SPACELAND team of scientists and engineers used tele-medicine tools, webcam-controlled human computer interfaces as well as non-invasive acupuncture techniques to test and counteract space motion sickness. Started in 2005 with the world’s first disabled woman flying weightless for SPACELAND ICT experiments, the historic research flight program included participation from several VIPs including the Italian Parliament Dignitary Honorable Marco Airaghi.
NASA and Space Florida supports the SPACELAND research and educational flights, which have been organized by assembling the experimental hardware necessary, and training the selected candidates at SPACELAND’s training camp in the Alps (2,000 meters above sea level) within the 2006 Winter Olympic territory of Piemonte (Italy).
“Italy is a valued partner with the U.S. on various space programs, including the International Space Station,” said NASA Spaceport Development Manager Jim Ball. “We are pleased to host these experiments that take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility.”
“As also appreciated by the President of the Republic of Italy, our crew with its record-breaking 93-year-old test subject Cesare Massano proves the excellence of the SPACELAND experimental program, whose research activities in weightlessness are always carried out with crews composed of both scientists and laymen of all ages,” said SPACELAND President Carlo Viberti.
The experience offered by ZERO-G is the only commercial opportunity on Earth for individuals to experience true “weightlessness” without going to space and SPACELAND is the world’s first non-governmental organization to have carried out research flight campaigns in zero-gravity and lunar-gravity, benefiting from the synergy with ZERO-G and Houston’s PARU Services.
About SPACELAND Italia
Conceived in 1999 and launched at the beginning of the new century, SPACELAND (www.SpaceLand.it) is the first non-government association in the field. It organizes weightless and low-gravity research and educational flight campaigns in synergy with NASA and Space Florida, allowing the laymen to get involved in scientific research and scientists to improve the quantity of their state-of-art R&D activities. They can benefit from the SPACELAND’s “flying lab” to accelerate analysis, testing & qualification of methodologies, systems and products related to gravity-dependent chemical-physical interaction mechanisms, biotechnological applications, pharmaceutical drugs, acupuncture applications against space motion sickness, countermeasures for osteoporosis, muscular atrophy, cardiac, neuro-vestibular and other gravity-dependent pathologies.
SAN JOSE, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — April 03, 2007 — Representing a milestone for both the aerospace and embedded industries, LynuxWorks, Inc., a world leader in embedded software, today announced it has been selected to provide the real-time operating system (RTOS) for the European Space Agency’s Galileo project, a civilian-controlled global navigation system. This validates LynuxWorks’ unique approach to safety-critical systems and builds on the company’s two decades of innovation and leadership in embedded and real-time technologies. As part of the core element of the Galileo system, LynxOS-178, the first and only commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) RTOS to receive Reusable Software Component (RSC) acceptance for reusability from the FAA for DO-178B certification, will provide enhanced capabilities for communications across various devices and operating systems both on the ground and in space.The European Galileo global navigation satellite system is designed to provide an unprecedented degree of accuracy (determining location down to the meter) and not only will have guaranteed availability, but also will be compatible with the world’s other two positioning systems, GPS and Russia’s GLONASS. Galileo will be used for location-based services, as well as in situations where safety is critical, such as running trains and landing airplanes, and in search and rescue operations.
LynxOS-178 will be used in the critical Galileo Mission Segments (GMS), which lies at the heart of the system. The GMS is a network of Earth-based stations that monitor signals from the satellites and transmit navigation data to the satellites. LynxOS-178 offers unmatched openness in development platforms for safety-critical systems, offering support for both Pentium and PowerPC processors, both of which will be used in the overall Galileo project. LynxOS-178 showcases LynuxWorks’ long-standing commitment to broad support of open and industry standards, including POSIX compliance, ARINC 653 conformance and full support for C++ applications.
“For years, LynuxWorks has been at the forefront of the embedded aerospace market and the selection of LynxOS-178 for the Galileo satellite navigation system is further proof that we are the experts in this area,” said Gurjot Singh, CEO, LynuxWorks. “The Galileo satellite system is a landmark development for the global aerospace industry, just as LynxOS-178 was a landmark development in the embedded industry when it was first announced. LynuxWorks’ ability to remain at the leading edge of embedded technology makes it the clear choice for projects like Galileo.”
LynxOS-178 is designed specifically to fulfill the stringent needs of multithread and multiprocess applications in safety-critical real-time systems. The military and aerospace industry mandates rigorous testing and certification for safety-critical computing. In the United States and Europe these are expressed in the RTCA/DO-178B, RTCA/DO-278 and EUROCAE ED-12B guidance documents for the production of software for airborne and ground systems.
LynxOS-178 fully satisfies all the objectives of the highest levels of these guidance documents, providing a low-risk path to software certification for developers of software for safety-critical airborne and ground systems. The availability of LynxOS-178 allows developers to leverage software and artifacts that have been certified previously. In the end, LynxOS-178 provides high value to developers by enabling the rapid time-to-market delivery of safety-critical applications.
“With its certain certifiability and its support of both PowerPC and Pentium architectures, LynxOS-178 has been chosen as a result of a strict selection process,” said Bertrand Revol, sub project manager, Alcatel Alenia Space, which is overseeing the Galileo project. “LynxOS-178 will provide us with the ability to guarantee availability of the satellite system under any circumstance.”
LynuxWorks has a tradition of leadership in aerospace systems, offering the highest level of security and reliability of any COTS embedded operating system. LynuxWorks software has been deployed and is running in a wide array of mission-critical aerospace systems including the U.S. Department of Defense’s Network Centric Operations initiative, NASA’s Satellite Laser Ranging SLR, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s AVIRIS Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, radar control systems for the U.S. Air Force and many more.
About LynuxWorks
LynuxWorks is a world leader in the embedded software market, providing operating systems, software development products and consulting services for the world’s most successful communications, aerospace/defense, and consumer products companies. Established in 1988, the company is a technology leader in the real-time operating systems (RTOS) industry. LynuxWorks’ headquarters are located in San Jose, California.
X-ray images taken from a new international spacecraft show that the sun’s magnetic field is much more turbulent than scientists knew, NASA reported Wednesday.
They saw twisting plumes of gas rising from the sun’s corona and reacting with the star’s magnetic field, a process that releases energy and may power solar storms and coronal mass ejections, which in turn affect the Earth. A turbulent magnetic field would, in theory, generate more energy than a steady-state field.
“Theorists suggested that twisted, tangled magnetic fields might exist,” Leon Golub, senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement.
“With the X-Ray Telescope, we can see them clearly for the first time.”
The spacecraft, named Hinode from the Japanese word for sunrise, was launched in September with an array of carefully designed instruments, each looking at a different layer of the sun.
It is a joint project of the U.S., European and Japanese space agencies and Britain’s Particle Physics Astronomy Research Council.
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WASHINGTON, March 1 /PRNewswire/ — Arianespace announced today that it will launch the SPACEWAY 3 communications satellite for HughesAn Ariane 5 launch vehicle will deliver SPACEWAY 3 to Geostationary Transfer Orbit from Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, in August of 2007.
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) will operate the all Ka-band SPACEWAY 3 satellite as part of its new broadband satellite network that will provide multimedia services throughout North America. Its unique design incorporates on-board switching and spot beams, which will enable on-demand services. Built by Boeing Satellites Systems, Inc., SPACEWAY 3 will weigh approximately 6 000 kg at lift-off.
“This is a very exciting time for Hughes,” said Pradman KAUL, Chairman and CEO of Hughes. “With the launch of SPACEWAY 3, Hughes will enter a new era as a satellite system operator, augmenting our market leadership in delivering broadband satellite services worldwide. We are confident that Arianespace will provide a reliable launch service and eagerly anticipate providing new, value- added solutions to our customers in the coming months.”
Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves LE GALL said, “We are honored that Hughes has found Arianespace’s offer of launch Service & Solutions to be a convincing choice. Arianespace’s SPACEWAY 3 mission for Hughes will launch robust new broadband communications services delivered via satellite across North America.”
About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers. HughesNet(TM) encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 1.2 million systems to customers in over 100 countries. Its broadband satellite products are based on the IPoS (IP over Satellite) global standard, approved by the TIA, ETSI, and ITU standards organizations.
Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. . For additional information, please visit http://www.hughes.com.
About Arianespace
Arianespace is the commercial launch Service & Solutions leader, holding more than 50 percent of the international market for satellites launched to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Created in 1980 as the world’s first commercial space transportation company, Arianespace has signed contracts for the launch of more than 280 satellite payloads. For further information, see the Arianespace Web site at http://www.arianespace.com.
Space exploration is no longer a US-USSR affair:
A European spacecraft executed a close flyby of Mars on Sunday, a crucial maneuver in its meandering, 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet.
Applause broke out in the European Space Agency’s mission control center in western Germany as the Rosetta comet probe’s radio signal was picked up after 15 tense minutes of silence as the craft passed behind the Red Planet.
The maneuver sends the craft toward two similar flybys of Earth this year and in 2009, which will accelerate it toward its distant target comet.
“Rosetta is on its way,” said Manfred Warhaut, head of mission operations.
The craft passed barely 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Mars, using the planet’s gravity to change course. The navigation had to be precise, as a mistake could not be corrected.
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