New Manned Capsule Shows the Way of the Future

This week NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden announced that the nation’s space agency now plans to develop a manned spacecraft to carry astronauts up to earth orbit. Lockheed Martin has been busy at work developing a new capsule at NASA’s direction for several years. Bolden’s announcement of a new capsule will build on LockMart’s current work.

The capsule will be part of a launch system that will include a new launch vehicle currently under development. The launch vehicle’s design essentially will return to the pre-space shuttle configuration used during the Apollo era and known as the ‘big, dumb, booster’. Technologically simple, reliable and cheap, BDB’s are a technology that is and has been employed by space farers since the Chinese first invented gunpowder.  The new rocket booster is scheduled for completion in 2016. The announcement comes as the space shuttle program comes to a close with the final mission now scheduled for launch in early July.

In the same announcement, Bolden also stated that the capsule will be a significant part of NASA’s plan to concentrate on the big exploration challenges such as manned missions to an asteroid, the moon and eventually to Mars by the 2030's, while the more routine tasks such as ferrying cargo and astronauts to low earth orbit will be outsourced to the expanding compliment of commercial space service providers.

Bolden’s announcements underscore the changes underway in what should be regarded as the evolution of America’s space program, rather than the end or the ‘winding down’ of our program. If you take into account that we have been using the chemical rockets for more than 60 years to lift payloads and people to orbit and non-governmental space service contractors have adopted those same systems to launch payloads for profit for about 20 years, it makes sense that a large bureaucratic agency like NASA would consider outsourcing such a basic operation in an effort to cut its overhead and focus its attention and expertise on the bigger endeavors like manned interplanetary travel and exploration. When you think about it, outsourcing is what every major (and many minor corporations) have done to cut operational costs over the past decade.

So when you go out to see Space Station and Space Shuttle fly over your area during these last two missions of the shuttle program, don’t despair that our space program is coming to a close, it isn’t. It’s just evolving – like every other endeavor has had to do to remain current, vital, productive, innovative, and relevant. Why would we want a space program mired in past achievements and technologies anyway? Remember – evolution is good for technology also. After all, would you rather stay with a typewriter forever or move on to a laptop? I know what my answer is……what's yours?

Doomsday May 2011: From My Point of View

All last week I listened to the news stories about Harold Camping’s prediction that the world would end on Saturday, May 21st. I’m posting this on May 24th.  I almost feel like nothing more need be said. But I’m compelled to say more.

First, after 200,000 years of human existence on this planet, during which so many thousands of people have declared the end to be near, why would so many people today blindly believe Mr. Camping so completely as to divest themselves of all they would need to live should the world not end as he predicted? Didn’t we see this before when Jim Jones led so many to drink the poison Kool-Aid in Guyana? Isn’t this what happened when 39 Heaven’s Gate cult members ate poison applesauce so their souls could hitch a ride on an alien spacecraft concealed in the dust tail of Comet Hale-Bopp? After so many so-called ‘prophets’ have come and gone, how is it that Mr. Camping would be the one with the real truth? How is it that he could figure out a secret of God that has eluded thousands of holy men since the Bible was written? He’d already made an incorrect prediction of doomsday years ago. Wouldn’t that have been a hint that he’s not the guy? After all, predicting the end of the world is a pretty big thing. Shouldn’t he have started out with smaller predictions, working his way up to the big one? Even Moses demonstrated where he was coming from before he smote the Egyptians. Just to ‘pile on’, I would’ve expected that the word might instead have come from someone with a bit more humility, a little less entrepreneurial in the name of faith and, frankly, a little less crazy looking.

If it seems as if I’m full of rhetorical questions about this, it’s because there are so many simple questions to be asked that would completely derail anyone’s belief that Camping’s prediction had the least chance of being possible. I’m dismayed that people can be so misguided in their faith that they are willing to forgo the protection and well-being of their families. If the end were to come in the manner Camping described, the preparatory disposition of material goods wouldn’t matter.

Second, there have been some pretty dark times in the history of humanity. I of think: 9/11 and World War II – with the Holocaust and use of atomic weapons, just to name a couple. To me it would’ve been those times when the world might have needed a little correctional tweak to set us on the ‘right’ path – if there were such a pre-ordained path. The changing marital status of a former governor does not seem warrant the end of the world.

And then there’s the media. If Harold Camping’s lunatic prognostications had never been brought to the attention of the general public, only a very few people would’ve known about it and so much valuable time and energy would not have been wasted. Can I get 90 seconds of time on the national network news, reporting on how appalling it is that we Americans will tolerate how asinine our Congress behaves? I think not. But if I can come up with a hair-brained scheme…..well, that’s different!
Just my opinion folks….

Tonight's Lunar Eclipse - December 21, 2010

Total Lunar Eclipse - 21 December 2010
All times are Eastern Standard Time
Event: Total Lunar Eclipse – full moon moves through the earth’s shadow.
When: Tuesday, 21 December, 1:33 a.m. to 5:01 a.m.
Visibility: Throughout North America (eclipse begins at 10:33 p.m. Monday night on the west coast).

What Will You See:  Beginning at 2:41 a.m., the moon will take on a deep red color. The color is caused by sunlight bending through the earth’s atmosphere.  The color will begin on the left side of the moon and creep across the surface, completely immersing the moon in a deep red color.

Duration: The entire event lasts 4 hours, 28 minutes. The most visible portion (totality) begins at 2:41 a.m. and ends at 3:53 a.m. Mid-eclipse occurs at 3:17 a.m.

How Should It Be Viewed?: Lunar eclipses can be viewed directly without filters, telescopes or binoculars. If you have a telescope, you can watch as specific craters are engulfed in darkness. Other important equipment includes a reclining lawn chair, blankets, layered clothing, insulated boots, hot chocolate, binoculars (if available). Look for the moon high in the west.

What’s Happening?: The earth constantly creates a shadow that extends out into space from the night side of earth. As the moon orbits the earth, it occasionally passes through the earth’s shadow. The event begins as the moon first touches the edge of the Earth’s shadow at 1:33 a.m., and ends as the moon finally leaves the shadow at 5:01 a.m.

If the entire disk if the moon passes through the darkest portion of the earth’s shadow, called the umbra, the event is called a total lunar eclipse such as we’ll see on the 21st. If only part of the moon passes through the umbra, the event is called a partial lunar eclipse.

If the moon passes through the lighter portion of the earth’s shadow, the penumbra, we call the event a penumbral lunar eclipse and not much color is seen.

Don't want to be up all night? Just check for clear skies at 2:15 a.m. If it's clear, stay up until 4 a.m. to see the full maximum of the eclipse. Then go back to bed and catch a few winks before you have to get up for the day!

Be sure to check your weather conditions. The eclipse cannot be seen through clouds!

Last TLE : February 21, 2008;   Next TLE in this region: April 15, 2014.

For the most details go to: Fred Espenak's 'Mr. Eclipse' Page

Information Compiled by Derrick H. Pitts, Chief Astronomer, Franklin Institute Science Museum,
Ph: 215 448 1234, fax: 215 448 1188, e-mail: dpitts@fi.edu.