Recently in Space Exploration Category

There are many good space news sources available, they include SpaceRef, Space.com, NASA Watch, The Space Review, Spaceflight Now etc. I'm compiling a list of all space news sources and assigning them an authority ranking based on several criteria including traffic, update frequency, citations etc. and your input on the following question would be very valuable.

My question for the community is what alternative or non-mainstream sources do you find useful? Post a comment or email me (marc.boucher < AT > hyperix.com) with your top sources and alternatives.

The clouds cleared just in time for me to see the lunar eclipse tonight. I've posted the pictures to my newly created Flickr account, yes I know it took me forever to break down and create one. Enjoy, follow the prompts for the larger versions. I used a Nikon DX40 with a Nikkor 18-135mm lens. For the close-up I had an aperture of f5.6 and shutter speed of 18 seconds. For the wide-angle I had an aperture of f4 and shutter speed of 30 seconds. For the background light shot I had an aperture of f3.5 and shutter speed of 18 seconds. I'm very much an amateur photographer and still learning and wish I had more lenses.

PS For some reason if click in the photo to get it larger Flickr isn't working. So you can visit the Lunar Eclipse large format slideshow by clicking here.

And you can zoom into the Moon on this one.

Yesterday's acquisition of Canada's MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is bad for Canada for so many reasons. It's reminiscent of when Avro Canada closed down and most of their talent headed to the US and were instrumental in helping them with the Apollo program. While MDA is not shutting down operations in Canada it should be asked what the long term viability is for them in Canada. After all the Canadian dollar is stronger than the US dollar and the Canadian government seems indifferent to sustaining a space sector made in Canada.

MDA is the leading space company in Canada. Best known for the Canadarm which it acquired from another Canadian company, Spar Aerospace in 1999, MDA has led the way in Canada for the space commercialization sector. It's also known for its satellite systems which included the recently launched Radarsat-2. Their planetary robotics division had been growing and the Canadian Space Agency had been hoping that it would be a key contributor to the European Space Agencies ExoMars rover by having Canada build the rover through MDA. Even if the government had changed its mind and approved this plan it seems unlikely to do so now that MDA would be under foreign control.

I've selected some of my better images taken at this years 2007 Spaceward Games to create The Space Elevator 2008 Calendar. I hope you enjoy it, orders yours today.

• Each page measures 11" x 8.5"
• Measures 11" x 17" when hung on wall
• Full bleed dynamic color
• 100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire-o bound
• January 2008 - December 2008, 2009 preview, US holidays marked

The 6th International Planetary Probe Workshop will be held at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on 23 – 27 June 2008. This looks to be an interesting workshop. It also includes an Extreme Environment Technologies course which will be held on the weekend preceding the workshop, 21-22 June 2008. Here's part of the blurb from the first announcement:

"The goal of the workshop is to bring together an international group of scientists, technologists, engineers, mission designers, and policy makers with an interest in the exploration of solar system bodies with substantial atmospheres. The workshop scope covers the technological challenges and scientific opportunities that are both enabled and constrained by entry, descent, landing and flight in planetary atmospheres.

The 6th workshop will build on the success of the previous workshops to promote international cooperation in probe missions to solar system moons and planets bearing atmospheres, and to provide the opportunity for students, the next generation of planetary scientists, spacecraft engineers, technologists, mission planners, and policy makers to participate in these endeavors.

The world’s space community is focused on expanding our knowledge of planetary atmospheres and their moons, as well as comets and asteroids. In addition to NASA’s studies to define the next major missions, and ESA’s focus on its Cosmic Vision program, the international community has numerous missions in various states of study and development that will target major destinations in our solar system. IPPW-6 is a timely event that welcomes your participation."

I've been at the Spaceward Games all week and am leaving tomorrow morning. All my video, pictures and posts are on the Space Elevator Reference. SpaceRef was a media sponsor and we had our webcams going for most of the week. I'll be a amking some time lapse movies when I get a chance. It's been fun but the weather has not been cooperating. The games are going an extra day and I won't be around to cover it though as I really do have to head home.

Working the weekend turned out to be quite productive with Keith and I coming up with new ideas for On Orbit as well me solving the programming puzzle of getting our content management system (CMS) Intercat working our new social news service Mercury. Now whenever one of our editors adds a story using our CMS it automatically gets categorized and added to Mercury. Along with our news stories being added to Mercury any member will be able to add stories and have users comment and vote on them.

One of the smaller services I'm trying to get ready for the launch is what I've called dTwitter. Basically this is Drupal module that allows users to view their Tweets on On Orbit as well as updating their Tweets.

Keith and I made the decision to move back the launch of On Orbit to September 12th. Since I'm on travel between the 5th and 11th it made no sense to launch on the 4th when I won't be around to closely monitor things.

Of note to those of you interested in NASA, the young crowd at Ames has started a new blog called Open NASA. It's an offsite blog geared towards "open content transparency and participatory engagement at NASA". It's worth keeping track of. They get it.

The countdown clock is reset, we are now at T-minus 16 days before On Orbit launch to our alpha users.

Lior Ron, Product Manager for Google Earth announced today on the Google LatLong blog the new release today of the Sky in Google Earth. In a break from programming I gave it a try. At first glance it works well.

"Today, I'm excited to announce we are launching Sky in Google Earth. You can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair. Zoom in to distant galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, witness a supernova explosion; it's like having a giant, virtual telescope at your command -- your own personal planetarium!"

I'm working weekends now to get On Orbit ready. This weekend I created the new Video area and made some breakthrough's with the Drupal code. I'm debating whether there's time to create some new modules. I'd post them as open source on the Drupal site if I do.

The biggest obstacle to launching the site, other than the time constraints, is that I want to launch with the new collaborative area ready. I'm still deciding on what tools to make available to participating organizations.

Unfortunately I can't spend as much time as I would like working On Orbit. Other responsibilities abound including the post HMP field season review with the Mars Institute team and then a meeting on September 6th in Montreal with the Canadian Space Agency.

Robert Richards was on the Space Show yesterday and touched on several topics including the upcoming Phoenix launch to Mars, the International Space University which he co-founded and the company he works for Optech which is participating in Phoenix as well as Canadian space industry topics.

I have to mention that one of the great products that Optech produces is a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). They just don't get enough credit for producing this great technology. LIDAR is a is an optical remote sensing technology that measures properties of scattered light to find range and/or other information of a distant target. The Phoenix mission incorporates a LIDAR into the Meteorological Station (MET) science instrument. An Optech LIDAR is currently being used by the NASA Ames K-10 rover team at the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island. As well a LIDAR is included in the PRIME (Phobos Reconnaissance and International Mars Exploration) mission instrument package that is in the concept study phase being undertaken by Optech, the Mars Institute (my institution), MDA for the Canadian Space Agency.

From the Space Show on the interview: