Two mid 50s films on space from Walt Disney

A bit dated but still entertaining.

Man in Space

1955

Part 1

Man in Space

1955

Part 2

Man in Space

1955

Part 3

Man in Space

1955

Part 4

Man in Space [Wikipedia]

Mars and Beyond

1957

Mars and Beyond [Wikipedia]

Ward Kimball [Wikipedia]

Fuel leak on space shuttle Discovery

Again a mechanical problem has delayed the shuttle and cost more millions.

"Space shuttle launch postponed again"

by

Irene Klotz

August 25th, 2009

Reuters

NASA delayed a Wednesday morning liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery because of an apparent problem with a valve in its fuel tank.

It was the second consecutive delay, after stormy weather postponed a launch attempt early on Tuesday. Discovery and its seven-member crew were preparing for a 13-day supply mission to the International Space Station.

The valve problem surfaced as technicians began fueling up the shuttle for a launch set for 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"It appears we have a broken fill-and-drain valve," said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel. "It may not be broken, it may be an indicator that was not giving a proper reading."

Managers did not immediately set a new launch date. NASA has until Sunday to get Discovery off the launch pad before the flight would likely be reset for October due to scheduling conflicts with other launches and tests at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

In addition, the International Space Station is preparing for its first cargo ship from Japan and cannot receive the shuttle and the new Japanese vehicle simultaneously.

Discovery is scheduled to deliver lab equipment, supplies and spare parts to the station.

Including Discovery's flight, NASA plans seven more shuttle missions to the space station. The 16-nation, $100 billion project is nearing completion after more than a decade of construction 220 miles above Earth.

The shuttles are being retired late next year or early 2011. NASA is working on a new type of spaceship called Orion that can travel beyond the station's orbit to the moon and other destinations.

After the shuttle program ends, the station will depend on Russian, European and Japanese vehicles, though none has nearly the lift capacity of the shuttle, which can haul 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg).

Discovery carries new science racks, a freezer, a sleep station, a second treadmill, food, clothing, supplies and spare parts for the station, including an 1,800-pound (800 kg) ammonia coolant tank that will be installed during two of the spacewalks.

Among the experiments planned for the station is a bone-loss study that uses genetically altered mice as subjects. The mice are flying to the station aboard Discovery and will be left aboard until the next shuttle mission in November.


Good reason to keep feet on the ground

Shuttle Discovery is ready to GO...finally

Man in space--common sense statement

Well, it appears that "common sense" and logic are settling in at NASA.

"Space review panel says moon, Mars out of reach"

by

Irene Klotz

August 14th, 2009

Reuters

The U.S. plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 will not happen without a big boost in NASA's budget, leaving only the International Space Station as a viable target for the country's human space program, according to a presidential review panel.

The Human Space Flight Plans committee, which presented its preliminary findings to the White House on Friday, concluded that a human mission to Mars currently would be too risky.

Developing new spaceships to replace the retiring space shuttle fleet and bigger rockets to reach the moon would require about $3 billion more per year, the panel headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine said.

The only human space program affordable under NASA's existing budget is an enhanced space station, one that has a side benefit of seeding a commercial passenger-launch services market, said the panel, which completed a series of public meetings this week.

NASA spends about half of its $18 billion annual budget on human space flight to fly the space shuttles, build and operate the space station and develop new vehicles in a follow-on program called Constellation.

The committee said the new U.S. exploration initiative -- aimed at landing astronauts on the moon by 2020 -- is doomed because its 10-year, $108 billion budget has been shaved by about $30 billion.

"We can't do this program in this budget," said panel member Sally Ride, a former astronaut. "This budget is simply not friendly to exploration."

ULTIMATE GOAL

Even with additional funds, heading to the moon may not be the best choice for human missions, the panel concluded. More economical and potentially more galvanizing to the public would be flights to asteroids and other destinations, it said.

The ultimate goal of future U.S. endeavors should be excursions to Mars, but the money and technologies needed to do so are not currently available, the panel said.

"We think to go direct to Mars with today's technology and money is riskier than we would want to be associated with," Augustine said. "It would likely not succeed."

NASA for decades has explored Mars with unmanned spacecraft and rovers that have roamed the Red Planet's surface.

NASA already has spent about $9 billion on Constellation, a project to build a capsule, rockets and lunar landers like those developed for the 1960s-era Apollo moon program.

The outlook for missions beyond Earth's orbit turned even bleaker when the committee added funding to keep the space station operational through about 2020, as the station partners, including the United States, have said they would do.

NASA currently has no funding in place after 2015 for the space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations.

Construction of the station is scheduled to be finished next year after seven more flights of the space shuttle, which orbits 225 miles above the planet.

After the shuttles are retired, NASA plans to pay Russia to transport crews to the station. The panel's recommendations include adding $2.5 billion into NASA's budget between 2011 and 2014 for commercial launch services to the space station.

"We'd like to get NASA out of the business of flying people to low-Earth orbit," Ride said.

The board's final report is due on August 31.

POSP stringer Tim sent this. NASA does need a new philosophy.

"A mess at NASA"

Obama faces dilemma on future in space

August 20TH, 2009

Union-Tribune

Even as NASA last month celebrated the 40th anniversary of its greatest triumph — putting men on the moon and bringing them safely back to Earth — experts quietly but correctly warned that America's space program today is a mess.

Its only vehicle capable of manned flight, the space shuttle, is a relic set for its final mission in less than 13 months. NASA is woefully underfunded compared to its glory days, with, given economic realities, little hope for a significant infusion. The International Space Station has a planned demise that is less than six years away.

Perhaps most important, the U.S. space program lacks a clear vision — a mission equivalent to JFK's famous promise to beat the world to the moon. NASA not only does not have a definitive plan for where to go next in space — the moon, or Mars, or the moons of Mars — it does not know whether to place its priority on manned flight, which is sexy to the public but very expensive, or robots, far cheaper but which fail to win public excitement.

In 2004, President George W. Bush proposed going back to the moon by 2020, using a station there as a launching pad for eventually going to Mars. But returning to the moon is of dubious scientific value and has a been-there-done-that feel to it.

To his credit, President Barack Obama this spring put together a panel of experts to review NASA's manned space program. The White House was reportedly hoping the panel would recommend a much cheaper way than the Bush plan to get back to the moon.

But what the panel told new NASA administrator Charles Bolden and White House officials in presenting its preliminary findings last week was that NASA's current budget of $18 billion a year offers no hope of manned flight beyond the International Space Station for at least another 20 years.

In other words, Obama must find billions more for manned space exploration or move ahead with an eviscerated — and pointless — program.

Perhaps this is a good dilemma. It will force the administration, and all policymakers, to confront the question of what the United States really wants from a space program in an era of trillion-dollar budget deficits.

The Obama panel concluded that a manned moon mission by 2020 is unrealistic but that there are alternatives, including pushing ahead with the next generation of vehicles for human space flight, extending the shuttle program and the space station and relying much more on commercial space flight.

There is another option suggested by at least one independent expert that we think makes sense.

President Kennedy used the moon-landing program as a foreign policy tool to put the Soviets in their place in terms of leadership in space.

Obama could use the space program as a foreign policy tool to significantly increase multinational participation. It could help pay the freight — and might even bring the world closer together.


Changing horizon of space exploration participants

Colonization or contamination?

In remembrance...our space travelers

Space ethics

Space exploration?...Stephen Hawking's perspective

Sex in space--amusing but a problem

Sex in space--redux

Sex in space taken seriously

Space tourism?

Space travel...real issues

Value of space exploration?

Good reason to keep feet on the ground

"Fuel leak" was what is was called this time...the time before was a fractured fuel valve. Shuttle Discovery has made 35 previous trips and despite retrofitting of the craft, it is getting fatigued and old. It has outlived its function. Fortunately the issues was found while all was on the ground. These are small but significant issues that could abort or totally jeopardize a mission. These missions are but a few hundred miles away but consider a small issue thousands or millions of miles away--then what. It just shows that the mechanicals of any system can fail and cause problems. Best to stay put and let probes, satellites, and unmanned vehicles do the work and take the risks...and done cheaper.

"Launching of Shuttle Postponed Again"

by

Kenneth Chang

March 12th, 2009

The New York Times

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The space shuttle Discovery will remain on the ground until at least Sunday after a hydrogen leak scrubbed a launch attempt on Wednesday.

"We're in the business of launching, not scrubbing," said Michael D. Leinbach, the shuttle launch director at a news conference Wednesday evening. "But our business requires perfection, and our vehicle was not perfect today."

Technicians will not be able to get a close look at the leak site, near the connection of a vent line to the external fuel tank, until Friday afternoon. The vent line carries away excess hydrogen pressure from the tank and the spacecraft to where it is safely burned.

If the fix is straightforward and quick, shuttle officials hope to launch the Discovery at 7:43 p.m. Sunday.

That will put a time crunch on the mission, because the Discovery has to undock to make room for the arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, scheduled to launch the next day.

If the Discovery launches Sunday, the mission would be shortened from 14 days to 12 days and one of the planned four spacewalks would be eliminated. If the launch is pushed back to Monday or Tuesday, then the mission would be further shortened with time for probably only one spacewalk.

But that would still accomplish the main objectives of the mission: to deliver the last segment of the space station's backbone truss, a replacement part for a water recycling system and Koichi Wakata, who will join the crew of the space station.

If the Discovery cannot launch by Tuesday, then the mission will likely be pushed to April, with repercussions on the schedule of future shuttle missions and the construction of the space station.

The countdown was proceeding smoothly toward a 9:20 p.m. liftoff under clear skies and full moon. But at about 2 p.m., when the hydrogen tank reached 98 percent full, sensors detected a hydrogen leak at the valve next to the external tank, creating a potential flammability problem. The launch was called off at 2:36 p.m.

Mr. Leinbach said he was 99.9 percent certain that the leak was in the ground equipment and in the shuttle itself, which would make it easier to fix.

"We'll replace what needs fixing," Mr Leinbach said. "We have spares on the shelf."

NASA officials said the leak was not related to three hydrogen gas valves that were inspected after a similar valve broke during the mission of the shuttle Endeavour in November. That failure had no effect on Endeavour’s ascent into orbit, but it did lead to concerns that if a larger piece broke off it could be catastrophic.

NASA postponed the launching of Discovery several times to analyze the valves, and the mission is now a month behind its original launching date.

Through experiments and computer simulations, NASA engineers concluded that it was highly unlikely that a piece from a valve would cause significant damage, and a new magnetic testing method convinced them that the three valves installed in the Discovery were free of cracks.

The Discovery's main cargo is a 45-foot-long, 31,000-pound truss segment with two sets of solar panels.

When the solar panels are unfurled and plugged in, the station’s power-generating capacity will rise to 120 kilowatts from 90 kilowatts.

Also aboard Discovery is a 180-pound replacement part for a water recycling system that the Endeavour took to the space station in November. But a key part in the apparatus that transforms urine into drinkable water failed almost immediately. NASA would like the recycling system fully functional before the expansion of the station of the station crew from three to six, planned for late May.


Changing horizon of space exploration participants

Colonization or contamination?

Deceased--Ernst Stuhlinger

Deceased--Konrad Dannenberg

Deceased--Thomas F. Rogers

In remembrance...our space travelers

ISS--"dump or keep" poll

"Manned space travel" poll

Space ethics

Space exploration?...Stephen Hawking's perspective

Sex in space--amusing but a problem

Sex in space--redux

Sex in space taken seriously

Space tourism?

Space travel...real issues

Value of space exploration?

Von Braun sketches for sale

"Manned space travel" poll

"Given the expense, complexity, and uncertainty of mankind traveling in space, should such enterprises be suspended and greater relevance be placed on unmanned instruments to garner data and knowledge."

I am a bit surprised by the results...4 [50%] think that man's sojourn into space should be suspended and reply on instruments and robots to gather more information while 4 [50%] wish to press on with man in space. I don't think the ones that voted against will be a deciding force to change the American, Russian, or Chinese plans. For some reason[s] the ISS will be occupied and supplied and politics will push man back to the moon with visions of Mars on the horizon. For some of us it is clear that money can be better spent with probes, satellites, robots...cheaper and safer. Too many lives have been lost working with a complicated and aged shuttle system. What has the ISS yielded for a dollar to dollar investment? While spectacular to see one dance on the moon coupled with global esteem and some political advantage, far more data about the moon has been gathered from other sources without human risk and cheaper.


Changing horizon of space exploration participants

Colonization or contamination?

Deceased--Ernst Stuhlinger

Deceased--Konrad Dannenberg

Deceased--Thomas F. Rogers

In remembrance...our space travelers

ISS--"dump or keep" poll

Space ethics

Space exploration?...Stephen Hawking's perspective

Sex in space--amusing but a problem

Sex in space--redux

Sex in space taken seriously

Space tourism?

Space travel...real issues

Value of space exploration?

Von Braun sketches for sale