Saturday, December 26, 2015

Obama Trashes Space Program, Blames Congress | Frontpage Mag

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/259956/obama-trashes-space-program-blames-congress-daniel-greenfield


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Destruction of Preeminent Space Capabilities!

Ex-NASA KSC Scientist Blasts 
Obama Space Talk As Treason
By Clark McClelland
4-16-10

Wise UP America...WE ARE BEING SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYED as a NATION.
 
Our national Manned Space Program has been destroyed. 
 
Obama has made the national pride of all we have accomplished since our initial satellite, Explorer One in 1958, a thing of the past.  It is TREASON. I must wonder who among your readers understand what I just said.  Wise up America.
 
Obama said his administration has delivered a six billion dollar NASA budget allowance for robotic and INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS into space by the USA. Why International missions??
 
Yes, YOUR tax dollars will continue to finance foreign international missions, have Russian Cosmonauts and those of India, Japan, etc., flown to OUR International Space Station, yes, YOUR ISS.  You and your parents have paid about 97% of the construction and design of that ISS. Yet, FEW NASA Astronauts will be there in the future. The NWO! Wise up America. That is HIGH TREASON.
 
This supposed president in the White House who many say was NOT born in the USA, is destroying our world leading 50 + years of historic events in space exploration during his very short time in the White House.  It is a major FEDERAL CRIME.  How many recognize it as such??  Obama has a Shadow Secret Government controlling every move he makes to DESTROY YOU and OUR NATION.  Wise up America.
 
Do not allow the swift, smooth speaking, hypnotic delivery of Obama lead you to believe anything else. He has sided with Communist Russia and China to bring down the USA and our global lead in Space Science, industry, education, etc. YES, it is TREASON, but, none call it that. Our national security is in DEEP jeopardy. Wise up America.
 
Obama has gained support from, of all people, the terribly misguided Buzz Aldrin of the Apollo 11 mission and other so-called part-time astronauts such as Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.  He flew a single, political and NASA untrained Space Shuttle mission many years ago.  His "mission" delivered NO advances in science, etc.  Another waste of YOUR tax monies for political purposes only. Wise up America.
 
The Commander of the Apollo 11 and first man to step foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, James Lovell Commander of the ill fated Apollo 13 mission and Commander Gene Cernan of the Apollo 17 and final USA mission to land on the moon have all joined in attacking the Obama decision calling it a major DISASTER to DESTROY the US Manned Space Program which will place the US THIRD in Space Exploration, behind Russia and China. 
 
The Shadow Government is clearly giving Obama orders.
 
Others who have joined these TRUE HEROS in condemning Obama's statements are:  former NASA Astronauts Walter Cunningham, Jack Lousma, Vance Brand, Bob Crippon, Ed Gibson, Alan Bean, Alfred Worden, Scott Carpenter, Jim McDivitt, Joe Kirwin, Fred Haise, Gerald Carr, Charlie Duke, Bruce McCandless, Frank Borman, WHO SPOKE THE FIRST CHRISTAN PRAYER FROM THE MOON DURING Apollo 8, Paul Weitz, Harrison Schmitt, Dick Gordon, Chris Kraft, former Director of the Johnson Space Center, Michael D. Griffen, past NASA Administrator, Jim Kennedy, Past Director of the Kennedy Space Center, Glynn Lunney, Gemini Flight Director, Gene Kranz, Gemini, Apollo, missions Flight Director and Director of NASA Mission Operations, George Mueller, Past Associate Administrator for Manned Space flights, Senator Jake Garn, and myself, Clark C. McClelland, former ScO Space Shuttle Fleet, KSC, Florida 1958 to 1992 and many other intelligent Space Science experts far, far ahead of the knowledge of anything Obama or his advisors can claim. Buzz Aldrin and no one else can match the intelligence of all those mentioned above.   Wise up America.
 
To add insult to injury, Obama did not invite ONE, SINGLE KSC general aerospace contractor employee to his speech. These are the people who send Space Shuttles into orbit, Apollo to the moon, etc., and who will soon be without employment, according to Obama's remarks. Why were they barred from the speech?? Was it FEAR of a possible reprisal?  Wise up America
 
Following the Obama talk, I received an email from a friend of mine at the KSC.  This person said Obama spoke to a sparse crowd of political hacks, about fifty, and none were the general NASA or other aerospace workers at the O & C, the Operations and Checkout building there.  Security was overwhelming, to protect this traitor. Why were NO general NASA or contractor aerospace employees invited there to question this president?  Wise up America.
 
WISE UP AMERICA.  You are a major reason why OUR NATION is being DESTROYED. You placed this fraud in office.
 
 
- Clark C. McClelland, former ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet, Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1958 to 1992.
 
stargatechronicles@yahoo.com
 
www.stargate-chronicles.com

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Friday, December 25, 2015

Ex-NASA KSC Scientist Blasts Obama Space Talk As Treason

http://www.rense.com/general90/dxt.htm


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This capability critical to the USA!

Strange & Dangerous ADM.!! Disastrous to Manned Space Capabilities!

This is a strange adm, the deal with Iran, refugees we can't afford , refugees making the U.S. More dangerous, destruction of military, space preeminence, attitude toward Israel -- none of which makes any sense-- d'souza may be right!

None of the above in the best interest of this Country!


Fwd: Op-ed | We Do Need Russian Rockets, for a While Longer

Another adm failure---- we should not be in this situation!!




From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 24, 2015 at 11:20:29 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Op-ed | We Do Need Russian Rockets, for a While Longer

Very interesting history on the development of the Russian RD-180 by General Dynamics Space Systems Division.

 

 

http://spacenews.com/wp-content/themes/spacenews/assets/img/logo.png

Op-ed | We Do Need Russian Rockets, for a While Longer

by Jerry Grey — December 23, 2015

Atlas 5 Cygnus launchA United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket — powered by the Russian RD-180 engine — lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo tug on a commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. Credit: ULA

It's not easy to contradict Congress, but its legislation to bar the use of the Russian RD-180 rocket engine from launching U.S. security payloads, as Robert Bunn so eloquently points out, is truly a classic example of shooting oneself in the foot. The relatively minuscule economic benefit Russia gains from the sale of these engines is dwarfed by the loss their eradication created in operational capability of U.S. security systems.

It was on my recommendation to Michael Wynne, then president of the General Dynamics Space Systems Division (GDSSD), that he issued the purchase order to NPO Energomash to develop the RD-180 for the Atlas launcher, designed and then operated by GDSSD. My recommendation was based on the fact that there was then (over 20 years ago!) no U.S. engine of comparable quality, performance, cost and reliability. By the way, there still isn't.

Note that at that time, in 1992, the RD-180 did not exist. My recommendation was to convert the 1.7-million-pound-thrust, four-chamber RD-170, the well-proven boost engine for the Soviet Energia launcher, into a half-scale (850,000-pound-thrust) two-chamber engine that used all the same proven elements of the RD-170.

Here is a quote from my recommendation (I was then a member of the GDSSD Executive Advisory Board):

"The 2-chamber version [of the RD-170] could be derated by 20% and still deliver more thrust than you need for all Atlas configurations, including 2AS [the solid-propellant-boosted version of Atlas, then its highest-thrust configuration]. The extra thrust margin of the derated two-chamber configuration would be extremely useful in allowing simplification of other Atlas systems. It also provides for evolutionary payload growth via incremental upgrades to full rated thrust. … Because the two-chamber RD-170 engine provides more-than-adequate thrust at little or no additional cost, operating derated significantly increases its reliability, with attendant economic benefits to Atlas. …

"The next step would be for you … to write up a set of specifications for the propulsion system and solicit a proposal from Energomash to perform and deliver a preliminary design study which meets those specifications. The study should of course include the specifications, schedule, and cost of the development effort needed to deliver a flight-qualified engine to GDSSD, as well as production-phase data such as delivered engine prices, reliability information, performance and schedule guarantees, and details of the Atlas interface modifications GDSSD would need to provide. …

"I believe, incidentally, that the [then-current] political barriers to hardware transactions will fall (or at least be substantially weakened) within the next year."

RD-180 engine. Credit: NPO EnergomashRD-180 engine. Credit: NPO Energomash

The contract with Energomash was subsequently fulfilled, and when GDSSD later merged into Martin Marietta and then into Lockheed Martin, the RD-180 was integrated into the experimental Atlas 2AR ("R" for Russian), which evolved into the Atlas 3 and then into today's Atlas 5, which has now flown 59 times with 100 percent success. Wynne, who later became secretary of the Air Force, has often cited the RD-180 decision as the best one he made during his tenure at GDSSD.

Meanwhile, however, the U.S. Air Force had expressed concern over reliance on a Russian engine for its national security payload launches, so Energomash and (then) Pratt & Whitney created a joint venture, Amross, to develop and manufacture a U.S. version of the RD-180 (and meanwhile to serve as the contracting agent for RD-180 purchases from Energomash). I had then worked as a consultant to Pratt & Whitney on that "U.S. RD-180" effort, which never succeeded due primarily to the paucity of funding from the Air Force, exacerbated by what appeared to be irreconcilable differences in Russian and U.S. shop practices and materials specifications.

So what is arguably the best heavy-lift liquid-propellant rocket engine in the world today continues to be manufactured exclusively in Russia.

There's an interesting sidebar to the argument that the United States can and should develop such an engine, one that would be comparable to (or better than) the RD-180. When Orbital ATK suffered an engine failure on its Antares launch vehicle loss in October 2014, its intensive search for a replacement came up with the RD-181, another Russian engine (closely related to the RD-180) as the best choice. Moreover, the company's interim launch choice for the Cygnus capsule, until the RD-181 could be integrated into the Antares launcher, was the Atlas 5 — powered by the Russian RD-180. And Orbital ATK has a well-deserved reputation as a very technically savvy company.

I do agree with Mr. Bunn that the United States should devote maximum effort to the development of an indigenous heavy-lift rocket engine comparable to the RD-180. Despite the still-smooth coordination with Russia on the International Space Station and the successful post-shuttle use of Russian Soyuz vehicles to transport crew and supplies to the station, Congress' concern about reliance on Russia following its invasion of Crimea is certainly justified. But the development, integration and reliability demonstration of a new large U.S. liquid-propellant rocket engine cannot be accomplished for years to come. Therefore, Congress should recognize, as Mr. Bunn has so clearly stated, that until that happens, U.S. economics and national security require us to continue using the best large rocket engine in the world — the Russian RD-180.

Jerry Grey was a member of the General Dynamics Space Systems Division Executive Advisory Board when the RD-180 was created. He was a professor of aerospace engineering at Princeton University, director of science and technology policy at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and president of the International Astronautical Federation. He is an honorary fellow of the AIAA and a fellow of Great Britain's Royal Aeronautical Society.

 

 © 2015 SpaceNews, Inc. All rights reserved.

 


 

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Dinesh D’souza was Right, Obama Is Forming A Global Muslim Caliphate | Now The End Begins

This is a strange adm, the deal with Iran, refugees we can't afford , destruction of military, space preeminence, attitude toward Israel -- none of which makes any sense-- d'souza may be right!


http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/dinesh-dsouza-was-right-obama-is-forming-a-global-muslim-caliphate-video/


Sent from my iPad

Tragic waste for Taxpayers & USA Technology!

We can't take care of the whole world!

Re money spent on refugees!

Sent from my iPad

10 billion on refugees & we can't afford A MANNED Space program. & Shuttle

Report: Minimum of $1 Billion Spent on Refugee Resettlement; Total Cost Closer to $10 Billion | NumbersUSA

AND WE CAN'T AFFORD A MANNED Space program--- Shuttle in museum---PLAIN BS! Bm


https://www.numbersusa.com/news/report-minimum-1-billion-spent-refugee-resettlement-total-closer-10-billion


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Fwd: Update from Save Manned Space!



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Begin forwarded message:

From: The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration <noreply+feedproxy@google.com>
Date: December 24, 2015 at 12:02:47 PM CST
To: bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com
Subject: Update from Save Manned Space!
Reply-To: The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration <space@conservativeusa.org>

The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration

Update from Save Manned Space!


Christmas Greetings from Apollo 8

Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:09 AM PST



Forty seven years ago today, on Christmas Eve, 1968, Apollo 8 took man for the first time around the moon. One of the most famous photographs of all time is the "Earthrise" over the moon, shot by William Anders.

Watch the Christmas Greeting from the Moon:
A Reading of Genesis by Apollo 8 Astronauts

As they orbited the moon, the three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, took turns reading from the book of Genesis. Watch the above video for their historic broadcast.

From NASA.gov: "We were told that on Christmas Eve we would have the largest audience that had ever listened to a human voice," recalled Borman during 40th anniversary celebrations in 2008. "And the only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate."

"The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world's religions, not just the Christian religion," added Lovell. "There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that's how it came to pass."
Christmas Greetings from the Moon

Jim Lovell: "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth."

William Anders:
"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Frank Borman: "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth." 

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas from the Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration

Photo and video credits NASA

Historic Space X Rocket Landing

Posted: 23 Dec 2015 11:27 PM PST

Falcon 9 Landing
Space X made history this week with its successful landing of the Falcon 9 first stage after boosting eleven Orbcomm satellites to orbit. 

The significance of landing and reusing rockets can not be undervalued. Once the return and reuse of rockets becomes routine and dependable--and critically--as safe and reliable as new rockets, the cost of launches will drop dramatically.
Reusability has always been the 'gold standard' for the ideal rocket. Early designs for the space shuttle offered full reusability, though the 'bean-counters' chose a cheaper hybrid design that in the long run probably cost more per launch. More than 20 years ago, the X-30 National Aerospace Plane was almost built in the 1980's to replace the shuttles with a runway-to-runway reusable spaceplane. The DC-X was another important stepping stone. Blue Origin successfully landed their rocket a few weeks ago, and now Space X brings the light of dawn to reusability.

There may be many great successes and failures to come as the technology gets perfected, but at the end of the rainbow may be reusable rockets as dependable as new ones, as is the case with airplanes. 

The stresses of spaceflight and landing may limit the number of times a rocket can be reused--the comparison with airplanes is similar, however the forces are greater and possibility of crashes due to high winds or mechanical failures will be greater for the near future. 

Lessons to be learned over the next few years will include the amount of refurbishing necessary to assure a dependable relaunch. With the space shuttles, there was a always great deal of refurbishment, so we should not expect short turnarounds with minimal work. Also, for the near future Space X will be focusing on recovering first stages, and not the second stage.  

One day, you might ride on a reused rocket system to orbit, the moon or Mars for a fraction of the price imaginable today. And perhaps one day too disreputable used rocket lots will appear on the wrong side of the tracks, offering worn out 'fixer-uppers' to the handyman astronaut or the uninformed.

Congratulations and best wishes to Space X for the perfect landing, and to all the predecessors who helped pioneer the way.

Watch Space X's great video from launch to landing:

Full Launch and Return

Landing from Helicopter

Photo and video credits: Space X

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Fwd: Progress MS-01Automatically Docks With ISS



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 23, 2015 at 12:20:55 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Progress MS-01Automatically Docks With ISS


 

Inline image 1

 

The first new series Progress MS vehicle berthing to the ISS occurred

December 23, 2015

Today, on December 23 the first new modification Progress MS cargo transport vehicle developed and produced by RSC Energia successfully docked to the Russian Segment of the International Space Station (ISS).

The cargo vehicle docking to Docking Compartment (DC1) Pirs of Service Module (SM) Zvezda of the ISS is performed in the unmanned mode on December 23 at 13:27:01 Moscow Time in the 34-th orbit of the flight. The ISS crewmembers monitored the berthing process from the Station.

The Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle (LV) with the Progress MC CTV was launched from site No.31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 21 at 11:44:39 Moscow Time. The vehicle made a two-day rendezvous with the ISS.

Onboard the vehicle there are 2436 kg of different cargo including 1252 kg of "dry" cargo, 718 kg of propellant in the refueling system tanks, 420 kg of water and 46 kg of compressed gases (air and oxygen).

The vehicle delivered to the ISS more than a ton of cargo for Service Module (SM) Zvezda including a life-support system and the individual protection aids for cosmonauts, storage batteries for power supply system, sanitary-hygienic and medical equipment, consumables for gasanalytical equipment and thermal control system, onboard system maintenance and repair aids, fire extinguishers, etc.

For the Station crewmembers the following is prepared: containers with food rations, fresh food kit and parcels with personal things. In the cargo compartment of the vehicle there are sets of onboard documentation, completing parts and power supply components for video and photographic equipment, hard disks, hardware for science research and experiments.

Onboard the Progress MS CTV there are also 127 kg of the U.S and European cargo, in particular the habitable environment monitoring aids, equipment and instruments for extravehicular activity, the weightlessness prevention aids, science hardware, the U.S. food and clothes for the Russian crewmembers.

Transport vehicles of a new modification such as Progress MS and Soyuz MS are developed as a result of the great modernization of the Progress M and Soyuz TMA vehicles.

The onboard command-radio system Kvant-B is replaced by single command-telemetry system (SCTS) with an additional telemetry channel. A new command radio link provides the signal reception via the Luch-5 relay satellites, due to which the vehicle radio visibility zones will be considerably expanded – up to 70% of the orbit duration.

The new modification vehicles are completed with modern onboard radio system for rendezvous and docking Kurs-NA. As compared with more earlier Kurs-A version, it has the improved weight-dimension characteristics and allows to remove from the vehicle equipment one of three radio antennas.

Instead of analog television system Klest the following is used in vehicles: a digital television system which allows to maintain communication between the vehicle and the Station via board-to-board radio link.

A new digital reserve loop control unit (RLCU) developed by RSC Energia, modernized angular rate sensor unit ARSU-3A and light-emitting diode headlight SFOK became a part of the vehicle onboard equipment of the Soyuz MS and Progress MS modifications instead of the equipment taken out of production.

Due to the use of the new ground and onboard radio systems it became possible to use up-to-date protocols of information transfer, as a result of which the vehicle control system operation stability increased.

The majority of technical decisions inherent in the Soyuz MS and Progress MS structure will be used when creating a new generation manned transport vehicle (MTV) which is developed by RSC Energia.

 

OAO RSC Energia is a leading enterprise of rocket-space industry, the prime organization for manned space systems. The Corporation is working to develop unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and inter-orbital transfer), high-tech systems for various applications to be used in non-space fields. Since August 2014 the Corporation is headed by Vladimir Solntsev. 

RSC Energia press-center

© 2000 - 2015  S.P. Korolev RSC "Energia"

 


 

 

 

 

Progress MS-1 spacecraft

'We Have Contact!' First Progress MS-01 Ship Automatically Docks With ISS

© Photo: NASA

 

13:57 23.12.2015(updated 14:14 23.12.2015) 

114830

The new Russian Progress MS-01 cargo vessel docked with the ISS in an automatic mode. The process needed no manual override.

KOROLYOV (Sputnik) – The first Russian Progress MS-01 cargo vessel has docked automatically with the International Space Station, a commentator at the Mission Control Center said Wednesday.

"We have contact! We have mechanical docking!" the commentator announced.

 

© 2015 Sputnik All rights reserved. 

 


 

Progress spaceship docks with International Space Station

The Progress MS-01 spacecraft is seen on final approach to the space station's Pirs docking compartment. Credit: NASA TV

The Progress MS-01 spacecraft is seen on final approach to the space station's Pirs docking compartment. Credit: NASA TV

The first spacecraft in a new generation of Russian Progress cargo vehicles parked at the International Space Station on Wednesday, bringing a holiday delivery of more than 5,000 pounds of fuel, water and supplies for the research lab's six-person crew.

The Progress MS-01 supply ship arrived at the space station's Pirs module at 1027 GMT (5:27 a.m. EST) Wednesday after a two-day transit from a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Docking occurred as the space station sailed 407 kilometers (253 miles) over western Mongolia.

The uncrewed cargo carrier took 2,436 kilograms, or about 5,370 pounds, of equipment and fluids to the space station for the outpost's last supply delivery of the year.

According to a cargo manifest provided by Roscosmos — the Russian space agency — the Progress MS-01 mission took 880 kilograms (1,940 pounds) of propellant to the space station for refueling of the Zvezda service module and reboosts of the orbiting complex.

Also delivered Wednesday: 1,252 kilograms (2,760 pounds) of supplies and equipment in the Progress craft's pressurized cargo hold, 420 kilograms (926 pounds) of water, 24 kilograms (52 pounds) of oxygen and 22 kilograms (48 pounds) of air.

The cargo mission, known as Progress 62P in the space station's flight sequence, carried 379 kilograms (835 pounds) of Russian food rations, 199 kilograms (438 pounds) of napkins, waste containers and other sanitary equipment, 162 kilograms (357 pounds) of parts for the Russian power supply system, 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of medical and hygiene gear, and 35 kilograms (77 pounds) of batteries, hard drives and other support equipment.

The spacecraft blasted off aboard a Soyuz-2.1a rocket at 0844 GMT (3:44 a.m. EST) Monday, entering orbit less than 10 minutes later. The Progress MS-01 logistics freighter took a two-day trip to the space station — not the six-hour journey favored by Russian managers — to allow extra time test out new technologies installed on the spacecraft.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket sent the Progress MS-01 spacecraft toward the International Space Station with a successful launch Monday. Credit: Roscosmos

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket sent the Progress MS-01 spacecraft toward the International Space Station with a successful launch Monday. Credit: Roscosmos

The Progress MS series of cargo vehicles carry upgrades that will fly on Soyuz crew capsules will beginning in mid-2016.

While external views show little change from previous Progress supply ships, the Progress MS generation features an upgraded command and telemetry system, new digital communications equipment to improve video links with the space station during its rendezvous with the outpost, and a backup motion control system for the Progress spacecraft's manual control system, which cosmonauts on the station would use to take over if its autopilot failed during docking.

The Progress MS series of spacecraft also carry an improved Kurs rendezvous radar, which feeds range closure rate data to the capsule's computers during approach to the space station. A radio link with Russian data relay satellites in geostationary orbit is also installed on the new generation of Progress vehicles, allowing better communications between the spacecraft and ground controllers even when it is flying outside the range of ground stations on Russian territory, according to Roscosmos.

The spaceship's navigation system, space debris shielding and spotlight also see improvements, along with the mechanism that firmly latches the cargo capsule to the space station after docking.

Astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra cleared the way for the Progress docking with an unexpected spacewalk Monday to move a stuck robotic arm transporter along rails to a parking site on the space station's truss. Rules call for the transporter to be locked down for dockings of visiting spacecraft to caution against unsafe movement of the rail car.

The Progress MS-01 spacecraft will remain attached to the space station until early July, when it will undock and be guided to a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean with a load of the orbiting lab's trash.

 

© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 


 

 

Fwd: Chinese rover analyzes moon rocks: First new 'ground truth' in 40 years



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 23, 2015 at 12:16:35 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Chinese rover analyzes moon rocks: First new 'ground truth' in 40 years

 

22-Dec-2015

Chinese rover analyzes moon rocks: First new 'ground truth' in 40 years

Washington University in St. Louis

 

The moon was never a fully homogenized body like Earth, analysis of moon rocks made by the Chinese rover, Yutu, suggests. The basalts the rover examined are a new type, chemically different from those retrieved by the Apollo and Luna missions 40 years ago.

 

 

Inline image 1

Chinese rover analyzes Moon rocks: First new 'ground truth' in 40 years

Rover finds volcanic rocks unlike those returned by Apollo and Luna missions, tantalizing clues to the period of lunar volcanism

December 22, 2015

By Diana Lutz

 

 

CNAS/CLEP

The Chinese lunar rover, Yutu, photographed by its lander Chang'e-3, after the lander touched down in Mare Imbrium, a giant impact basin that had been filled by successive lava flows.

 

In 2013, Chang'e-3, an unmanned lunar mission, touched down on the northern part of the Imbrium basin, one of the most prominent of the lava-filled impact basins visible from Earth. 

It was a beautiful landing site, said Bradley L. Jolliff, PhD, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, who is a participant in an educational collaboration that helped analyze Chang'e-3 mission data. The lander touched down on a smooth flood basalt plain next to a relatively fresh impact crater (now officially named the Zi Wei crater) that had conveniently excavated bedrock from below the regolith for the Yutu rover to study.

Since the Apollo program ended, American lunar exploration has been conducted mainly from orbit. But orbital sensors mostly detect the regolith (the ground-up surface layer of fragmented rock) that blankets the Moon, and the regolith is typically mixed and difficult to interpret.

Because Chang'e-3 landed on a comparatively young lava flow, the regolith layer was thin and not mixed with debris from elsewhere. Thus it closely resembled the composition of the underlying volcanic bedrock. This characteristic made the landing site an ideal location to compare in situ analysis with compositional information detected by orbiting satellites.

"We now have 'ground truth' for our remote sensing, a well-characterized sample in a key location," Jolliff said. "We see the same signal from orbit in other places, so we now know that those other places probably have similar basalts."

NASA/GSFC/ASU

Chang'e-3 landing site is indicated with a white square in this lunar map, a mosaic made with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Wide Angle Camera. The landing sites of the Apollo missions are in red.

The basalts at the Chang'e-3 landing site also turned out to be unlike any returned by the Apollo and Luna sample return missions.

"The diversity tells us that the Moon's upper mantle is much less uniform in composition than Earth's," Jolliff said. "And correlating chemistry with age, we can see how the Moon's volcanism changed over time."

Two partnerships were involved in the collection and analysis of this data, published in the journal Nature Communications Dec. 22. Scientists from a number of Chinese institutions involved with the Chang'e-3 mission formed one partnership; the other was a long-standing educational partnership between Shandong University in Weihai, China, and Washington University in St. Louis.

A mineralogical mystery

The Moon, thought to have been created by the collision of a Mars-sized body with the Earth, began as a molten or partially molten body that separated as it cooled into a crust, mantle and core. But the buildup of heat from the decay of radioactive elements in the interior then remelted parts of the mantle, which began to erupt onto the surface some 500 million years after the Moon's formation, pooling in impact craters and basins to form the maria, most of which are on the side of the Moon facing the Earth.

The American Apollo (1969-1972) and Russian Luna (1970-1976) missions sampled basalts from the period of peak volcanism that occurred between 3 and 4 billion years ago. But the Imbrium basin, where Chang'e-3 landed, contains some of the younger flows — 3 billion years old or slightly less.

NASA/LPI

Four views of the Mare Imbrium basin and the Chang'e-3 landing site demonstrate how different the Moon looks to different types of remote sensing, underscoring the need for ground truth to calibrate the orbital observations. For a larger version of this image click here.

 

The basalts returned by the Apollo and Luna missions had either a high titanium content or low to very low titanium; intermediate values were missing. But measurements made by an alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer and a near-infrared hyperspectral imager aboard the Yutu rover indicated that the basalts at the Chang'e-3 landing site are intermediate in titanium, as well as rich in iron, said Zongcheng Ling, PhD, associate professor in the School of Space Science and Physics at Shandong University in Weihai, and first author of the paper.

Titanium is especially useful in mapping and understanding volcanism on the Moon because it varies so much in concentration, from less than 1 weight percent TiO2 to over 15 percent. This variation reflects significant differences in the mantle source regions that derive from the time when the early magma ocean first solidified.

Minerals crystallize from basaltic magma in a certain order, explained Alian Wang, PhD, research professor in earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. Typically, the first to crystallize are two magnesium- and iron-rich minerals (olivine and pyroxene) that are both a little denser than the magma, and sink down through it, then a mineral (plagioclase feldspar), that is less dense and floats to the surface. This process of separation by crystallization led to the formation of the Moon's mantle and crust as the magma ocean cooled. 

The titanium ended up in a mineral called ilmenite (FeTiO3) that typically doesn't crystallize until a very late stage, when perhaps only 5 percent of the original melt remains. When it finally crystallized, the ilmenite-rich material, which is also dense, sank into the mantle, forming areas of Ti enrichment.

"The variable titanium distribution on the lunar surface suggests that the Moon's interior was not homogenized," Jolliff said. "We're still trying to figure out exactly how this happened. Possibly there were big impacts during the magma ocean stage that disrupted the mantle's formation."

Another clue to the Moon's past

The story has another twist that also underscores the importance of checking orbital data against ground truth. The remote sensing data for Chang'e-3's landing site showed that it was rich in olivine as well as titanium.

That doesn't make sense, Wang said, because olivine usually crystallizes early and the titanium-rich ilmenite crystallizes late. Finding a rock that is rich in both is a bit strange.

But Yutu solved this mystery as well. In olivine, silicon is paired with either magnesium or iron but the ratio of those two elements is quite variable in different forms of the mineral. The early-forming olivine would be magnesium rich, while the olivine detected by Yutu has a composition that ranges from intermediate in iron to iron-rich.

"That makes more sense," Jolliff said, "because iron-enriched olivine and ilmenite are more likely to occur together.

"You still have to explain how you get to an olivine-rich and ilmenite-rich rock. One way to do that would be to mix, or hybridize, two different sources," he said.

The scientists infer that late in the magma-ocean crystallization, iron-rich pyroxene and ilmenite, which formed late and at the  crust-mantle boundary, might have begun to sink, and early-formed magnesium-rich olivine might have begun to rise. As this occurred, the two minerals might have mixed and hybridized.

"Given these data, that is our interpretation," Jolliff said.

In any case, it is clear that these newly characterized basalts reveal a more diverse Moon than the one that emerged from studies following the Apollo and Luna missions. Remote sensing suggests that there are even younger and even more diverse basalts on the Moon, waiting for future robotic or human explorers to investigate, Jolliff said.

© 2015 Washington University in St. Louis
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130


 

 

 

China's Yutu moon rover finds new kind of moon rock

The discovery suggests the moon's ancient molten insides weren't homogenized.

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Chinese scientists say they've discovered a new kind of rock on the moon. The rock was discovered by China's Yutu rover, part of the country's Chang'e 3 unmanned lunar mission.

The small rover, deployed in 2013, discovered the never-before-seen mineral composition in an ancient lava flow in the Mare Imbrium. The Mare Imbrium is a formation created when lava filled an ancient lunar crater.

A more recent impact in the middle of the Mare Imbrium, known as Zi Wei crater, exposed the ancient basalt beneath the mare's surface. When the layers of the mare's lava cooled, they formed a type of rock unlike anything geologists have ever seen on the moon.

The rock's composition is detailed in a scientific paper published in the journal Nature.

Scientists believe the lava flow recently sampled and analyzed by Yutu is about about 3 billion years old -- relatively young compared to previously studied lunar rocks.

Because the lava flow is relatively young, its composition hasn't been compromised by errant debris from space. Its mineral composition is likely similar to the deeper basalt. Data from lunar orbiters suggest this type of basalt may also be present in other regions of the moon.

"The diversity tells us that the Moon's upper mantle is much less uniform in composition than Earth's," Bradley Jolliff, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and the only American on the Chinese research mission, said in a press release. "And correlating chemistry with age, we can see how the Moon's volcanism changed over time."

Mineral composition is affected by how fast and at what temperatures magma cools. The latest discovery may lend clues as to the behavior of the moon's molten center billions of years ago.

© 2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

 


 

 

The USA needs shuttle like capability FLEET---- commercial can't do it!

Not remotely close to shuttle like capability. Gov involvement rqd to achieve shuttle like system, too big for commercial!

The third time proved to be the charm for SpaceX as their Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched into space on Monday night and then safely landed its booster back on Earth shortly thereafter. 
Such an achievement has been the goal of SpaceX since its inception in 2002, but proved to be an exceedingly difficult feat after failing twice over the last year.
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Patrick McGuire likes this.
Comments
John Warren Goerger
John Warren Goerger How many successful ones do they need to say it is OPERATIONAL?
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 7 hrs
Bobby Martin
Bobby Martin Good point, but even as great as it is, as far as the U.S. is concerned we are not even remotely close to shuttle like capability--- which we must have!


Sent from my iPad

Not remotely close to shuttle like capability!


The third time proved to be the charm for SpaceX as their Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched into space on Monday night and then safely landed its booster back on Earth shortly thereafter. 
Such an achievement has been the goal of SpaceX since its inception in 2002, but proved to be an exceedingly difficult feat after failing twice over the last year.
Patrick McGuire likes this.
Comments
John Warren Goerger How many successful ones do they need to say it is OPERATIONAL?
UnlikeReply17 hrs
Bobby Martin Good point, but even as great as it is, as far as the U.S. is concerned we are not even remotely close to shuttle like capability--- which we must have!
LikeReply14 hrs
John Warren Goerger U GOT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD, Bobby Martin!

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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Fwd: First stage booster landing



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 22, 2015 at 9:53:01 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: First stage booster landing

From: Charlie Mars  
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2015 11:57 AM
To:
Subject: First stage booster landing


Here is the video of last night's SpaceX launch. The unique and amazing part, the booster recovery on land, is about two thirds of the way through the video. It sure impresses me.                        

 

 

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/21/10640306/spacex-elon-musk-rocket-landing-success