Sunday, April 18, 2010
Top Stories From Science News
Not your grandfather's space program
Obama offers new road map for NASA
By Ron Cowen
Web edition : Thursday, April 15th, 2010
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Speaking at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center April 15, President Obama outlined a new plan for the space agency that would forgo sending astronauts back to the moon, but would send humans to an asteroid in 2025 and into orbit around Mars a decade later.
The strategy would rely on private aerospace companies to ferry crew and supplies into space. It would also cancel a program known as Constellation, which is aimed at developing a heavy-lift rocket and vehicles to carry astronauts back to the moon, in favor of pursuing a new rocket that would take humans beyond well beyond that destination.
“I am very happy about the introduction of new innovative commercial approaches in human space flight, because we’ve been trapped into a very bad cul-de-sac for 40 years,” says planetary scientist and former NASA associate administrator for science Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. Stern predicts that Congress is likely to approve Obama’s plan.
In Obama’s blueprint, NASA would get an additional $6 billion over the next five years to begin developing new space technologies, refocusing its efforts away from designing space transportation vehicles. The plan would, however, keep plans to develop the Orion crew vehicle, which would be the only U.S. space transport vehicle once the shuttle is retired later this year. And in 2015, the agency would evaluate plans for a rocket that would carry astronauts into deep space.
Early next decade, Obama said, “a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit,” culminating in the first human journey to an asteroid in 2025.
Journeys to Mars orbit in the mid-2030s would be followed by a landing on Mars, “and I expect to be around to see it,” the president told the cheering crowd.
Obama said he recognized that some experts have called it unwise to rely on the private sector for ferrying crews and supplies into space, but “by buying the services of space transportation rather than the vehicles themselves, we can continue to ensure rigorous safety standards are met but will also accelerate the pace for innovations as companies, from young start-ups to established leaders, compete, design, build and launch new ways of carrying people and materials into space.”
Norm Augustine, who chaired a committee that last year criticized the Constellation program and NASA funding, spoke after Obama. The former chairman and chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp. said the agency “was trapped in low Earth orbit” hauling cargo instead of trying to reach a loftier destination in space. He added that if the agency didn’t rely on U.S. companies to take astronauts into space, it would have no alternative but to rely on Russians.
Obama criticized the Bush administration’s program to send astronauts back to the moon and then eventually on to Mars as a blueprint that lacked both funding and specific goals. “There are also those who have criticized our decision to end parts of Constellation as one that will hinder space exploration beyond low Earth orbit,” Obama said. “But by investing in groundbreaking research and innovative companies, we have the potential to rapidly transform our capabilities.”
Space-policy analyst Howard McCurdy of American University in Washington, D.C., says he doesn’t see much difference in adherence to timetables and goals between Bush’s plan and that of Obama’s. But he says he’s intrigued by Obama’s willingness to “leapfrog” over smaller goals. According to McCurdy’s interpretation, Obama is telling the public “if we go the moon and concentrate on completing project Constellation, it’s going to be a dead end, but if we set our sights a little further out and skip those intermediate steps, we can have real accomplishments.”
It’s a high-risk proposition, says McCurdy, “but as long as NASA has a monopoly on space transportation, it’s going to be like the airline industry in the 1960s — high quality and very expensive.
“The real key in all of this is the ability of the private sector to do what NASA has been unable to do for about the last 30 years, and that is cut the cost to low Earth orbit. As long as NASA was spending $4 billion to $5 billion a year flying the space shuttle, [the agency] was going nowhere,” McCurdy says.
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Obama offers new road map for NASA
By Ron Cowen
Web edition : Thursday, April 15th, 2010
font_down font_up Text Size
Speaking at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center April 15, President Obama outlined a new plan for the space agency that would forgo sending astronauts back to the moon, but would send humans to an asteroid in 2025 and into orbit around Mars a decade later.
The strategy would rely on private aerospace companies to ferry crew and supplies into space. It would also cancel a program known as Constellation, which is aimed at developing a heavy-lift rocket and vehicles to carry astronauts back to the moon, in favor of pursuing a new rocket that would take humans beyond well beyond that destination.
“I am very happy about the introduction of new innovative commercial approaches in human space flight, because we’ve been trapped into a very bad cul-de-sac for 40 years,” says planetary scientist and former NASA associate administrator for science Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. Stern predicts that Congress is likely to approve Obama’s plan.
In Obama’s blueprint, NASA would get an additional $6 billion over the next five years to begin developing new space technologies, refocusing its efforts away from designing space transportation vehicles. The plan would, however, keep plans to develop the Orion crew vehicle, which would be the only U.S. space transport vehicle once the shuttle is retired later this year. And in 2015, the agency would evaluate plans for a rocket that would carry astronauts into deep space.
Early next decade, Obama said, “a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit,” culminating in the first human journey to an asteroid in 2025.
Journeys to Mars orbit in the mid-2030s would be followed by a landing on Mars, “and I expect to be around to see it,” the president told the cheering crowd.
Obama said he recognized that some experts have called it unwise to rely on the private sector for ferrying crews and supplies into space, but “by buying the services of space transportation rather than the vehicles themselves, we can continue to ensure rigorous safety standards are met but will also accelerate the pace for innovations as companies, from young start-ups to established leaders, compete, design, build and launch new ways of carrying people and materials into space.”
Norm Augustine, who chaired a committee that last year criticized the Constellation program and NASA funding, spoke after Obama. The former chairman and chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp. said the agency “was trapped in low Earth orbit” hauling cargo instead of trying to reach a loftier destination in space. He added that if the agency didn’t rely on U.S. companies to take astronauts into space, it would have no alternative but to rely on Russians.
Obama criticized the Bush administration’s program to send astronauts back to the moon and then eventually on to Mars as a blueprint that lacked both funding and specific goals. “There are also those who have criticized our decision to end parts of Constellation as one that will hinder space exploration beyond low Earth orbit,” Obama said. “But by investing in groundbreaking research and innovative companies, we have the potential to rapidly transform our capabilities.”
Space-policy analyst Howard McCurdy of American University in Washington, D.C., says he doesn’t see much difference in adherence to timetables and goals between Bush’s plan and that of Obama’s. But he says he’s intrigued by Obama’s willingness to “leapfrog” over smaller goals. According to McCurdy’s interpretation, Obama is telling the public “if we go the moon and concentrate on completing project Constellation, it’s going to be a dead end, but if we set our sights a little further out and skip those intermediate steps, we can have real accomplishments.”
It’s a high-risk proposition, says McCurdy, “but as long as NASA has a monopoly on space transportation, it’s going to be like the airline industry in the 1960s — high quality and very expensive.
“The real key in all of this is the ability of the private sector to do what NASA has been unable to do for about the last 30 years, and that is cut the cost to low Earth orbit. As long as NASA was spending $4 billion to $5 billion a year flying the space shuttle, [the agency] was going nowhere,” McCurdy says.
*
Embryo transfer technique could prevent maternally inherited diseases
A new technique transplants healthy nuclear DNA of cells carrying mutated mitochondria.
*
Intentional weight loss in old age not detrimental, study finds
Among obese group, those who shed pounds as part of diet study were less likely to die during follow-up years.
*
Lung function still impaired by dust from World Trade Center
Firefighters and emergency medical teams continue to have breathing problems years after the 2001 terrorist attack.
*
Science & the Public: Scientists offer compelling images of Gulf War illness
BLOG: Researchers have just rolled out a host of brain images — various types of magnetic resonance scans and brain-wave measurements — that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome.
*
Why a rotten tooth is hard to find
The brain can’t distinguish some kinds of pain coming from top versus bottom teeth.
:: More in Body & Brain
Why a rotten tooth is hard to find
The brain can’t distinguish some kinds of pain coming from top versus bottom teeth.
Insulin pump and computer mated to regulate blood sugar
A test in type 1 diabetes patients suggests that technology exists to create wearable, self-controlled “artificial pancreas.”
Mutation effects often depend on genetic milieu
Genetic background is at least as important as environment, fruit fly research shows.
Hiding patients in plain sight
A new technique could help make medical records available to researchers without compromising privacy.
Science & the Public: Breast implants may mask early cancer
Breast augmentation is the leading cosmetic surgery in North America, with roughly 400,000 procedures a year in the United States alone. A study now finds some evidence that breast implants may hinder early detection of breast malignancies. The good news: This didn’t affect survival.
:: Science News
4|10 Issue Links
Researchers find early autism signs in some kids
A long-term investigation raises the possibility of identifying 14-month-olds who will develop autism spectrum disorder almost two years later.
One key to teaching toddlers with TV: trickery
Kids under 3 can learn from educational videos if they believe what they’re seeing is real.
First complete look at families' genes
Comparing the complete genetic material of family members pinpoints genes involved in three rare inherited diseases.
To catch a thief, follow his filthy hands
Bacteria from a person’s hands may provide a new type of fingerprint.
Top Stories | April 18
*
access
Ash from Icelandic eruption may just be the start
A recently awakened volcano often goes off in tandem with a much bigger one nearby.
NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team
*
A fresh look at Mount St. Helens
Nearly 30 years after the peak’s major eruption, recovery has just begun.
*
Alaskan peatlands expanded rapidly as ice age waned
The rapid growth of Alaskan wetlands before 8,600 years ago was due to hotter summers and colder winters, which could spell trouble in a warmer world, a new study suggests.
*
Warmth in the dark age
Lower reflectivity kept Earth from freezing under a fainter young sun.
*
Signs of giant comet impacts found in cores
An uptick in ammonium may be evidence of a 50-billion-ton strike at the end of the ice age.
:: More in Earth
Signs of giant comet impacts found in cores
An uptick in ammonium may be evidence of a 50-billion-ton strike at the end of the ice age.
Tyrannosaurs lived in the Southern Hemisphere, too
Australian fossils suggest the kin of T. rex dispersed globally 110 million years ago.
Bacteria show new route to making oxygen
New discovery adds to the few known biological pathways for making and metabolically using the gas.
Fossilized poop bears tooth marks
Shark-bitten fecal matter probably came from an assault on an ancient croc.
Ice drilling nets shrimpy surprise
Underwater camera captures an Antarctic crustacean, as a serendipitous part of a larger ice shelf study.
:: Science News
4|10 Issue Links
Methane-making microbes thrive under the ice
Antarctica’s ice sheets could hide vast quantities of the greenhouse gas, churned out by a buried
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