Events: Web Articles
2nd Annual NASA STEM Educators Workshop Series - AESP
"Calling all teachers in the Charlotte area. NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are inviting educators to take part in free workshops Feb. 23-25. The second annual NASA STEM Educator Workshop Series will showcase science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education resources relating to studying the NASA mission to return to the moon."
This announcement is from a NASA-sponsored Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) located at Penn State. STEM education for teachers flows into our classrooms and helps stimulate creation of our future workforce, that includes commercial space enterprises.
Department of Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke's "States of Entrepreneurism" Address
"The United States has not adjusted to a new global marketplace where foreign countries and foreign companies have the ability to outpace their American counterparts. It’s not tenable for...[us] to continue with the status quo. In a world where innovation is critical to U.S. competitiveness, we must do everything in our power to optimize commercialization that stems from our nation’s vast research investments. This is an issue where the Commerce Department is working hard to find solutions.
Last fall, we launched the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, whose mandate is to drive policies and programs that help entrepreneurs translate new ideas, products, and services into economic growth, and to accelerate technology commercialization of federal R&D.
And today, I want to announce that on February 24 [2010], this Office will host a forum with university leaders and key stakeholders on the roles of universities in innovation, economic development, job creation, and commercialization of federally funded research."
Locke's analysis is dead on and includes references to NASA, aerospace and public-private collaboration in commercialization. The emerging suborbital space vehicle industry is a classic example of what he and the Obama administration are strongly promoting and they surely support STEM education as a critical lifeline essential to feed such entrepreneurial innovations.
Masten Building On X-Prize | AVIATION WEEK
"Masten Space Systems, fresh from a million-dollar win in the NASA-sponsored Lunar Lander X-Prize Challenge, hopes to use its vertical-takeoff-and-landing rocket technology to launch a commercial enterprise by the middle of next year.
Dave Masten, founder and CEO of the five-year-old Mojave, Calif., company, said Nov. 6 the company will use the $1.15 million it won by taking first place in the Level 2 lander competition and second place in Level 1 to upgrade its Xoie (pronounced "Zoey") vehicle for higher and faster flight (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 4)." Masten intends to fly payloads to the edge of space and not humans.
Lunar Lander Competition Awards $2 Million in Prizes | On Orbit
"The race for the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge (NGLLXPC) incentivized prize purse, funded by NASA and presented by the X PRIZE Foundation, has come to an exciting finish. Masten Space Systems, led by David Masten, will be awarded the top $1 million prize on Nov. 5 in Washington D.C. at the Rayburn House Office Building. This is the largest incentivized prize awarded by the X PRIZE Foundation since the 2004 Ansari X PRIZE competition." Three cheers for those great prizes and may they continue to leverage R&D progress in entrepreneurial space commerce.
DigitalGlobe Launches a New and Improved World Viewer: Satnews Publishers
"DigitalGlobe is a global provider of commercial, high-resolution, world imagery products and services. Sourced from their own advanced satellite constellation, DigitalGlobe's imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses from mapping and analysis to navigation technology. With advanced collection sources, a comprehensive Image Library and a range of online and offline products and services, clients are able to access and integrate imagery seamlessly into business operations and applications.
With a mission life of 7.25 years, and operating at an altitude of 770 km, the WorldView-2 system is expected to bring agility, capacity, accuracy and spectral diversity to commercial earth imaging.'
Regolith Excavation Challenge | Prize Funding Provided by the NASA Centennial Challenges Program
"Teams from across the country will design and build robotic machines to excavate simulated lunar soil, otherwise known as regolith, in hopes of winning a $750,000 prize funded by the NASA Centennial Challenges program. CSA will provide a Lunar Regolith Simulant Testbed, a sandbox containing a sand-like material that simulates the lunar surface. The testbed is used for various education and outreach activities, such as the Regolith Challenge."
2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Competition Winning Attempts Scheduled
"The X PRIZE Foundation announced today that three teams have registered to make attempts to win the $1.65 million still available in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The prize program is managed by the X PRIZE Foundation as part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program. The competition is designed to accelerate technological developments supporting the commercial creation of vertical take-off and landing rockets with enhanced safety and performance."
Spaceport Leaders Hosted by Space Florida at CSF Summit | Commercial Spaceflight Federation
"Space Florida hosted a group of spaceport leaders from around the globe to attend the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Spaceport Executive Summit, the first such event of its kind. The Spaceports Executive Summit, held in conjunction with the 2009 International Space Development Conference, provided a venue for global spaceport leaders to come together in one setting to discuss best practices and challenges they face in further developing their spaceports."
Astronomical Ink: Lunar reminiscences, or: we have a problem at 40 years | Knight Science Journalism Tracker
"It was a Cold War project that consumed a nation, defined a presidency and united the world". This collection of online articles on the 40th anniversay of the Apollo 11 mission from around the world is worth looking at. They were collected by the "Tracker" who is sponsored by the Knight Science Journalism project, and he is also a science journalist of some renown. He proposed three possible outcomes a decade hence at the 50th anniversary and for those of us still on the planet, it will be intersting to see which one emerges.
Leaders to Discuss Space Technology's Impact on the Economy | AIAA
"The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (7/21) announced that "aerospace industry leaders will meet on July 27 to discuss how the development of space technology has stimulated the national and global economy, and how space technology can drive future economic growth." The "Space: Stimulating Economic Growth Today and Tomorrow" event will "feature panelists from an array of private space technology companies, analyzing the past, present, and future effects of space technology development on the national and world economy." AIAA President David Thompson said, "Gatherings such as this provide us with the opportunity to reflect on the past influence of space technology on the world's economy, while also allowing us to examine what the future may hold."