Opportunities: Web Articles
SpaceX + Astrium: Falcon Finds European Possibilities (Launch Services) : Satnews Publishers
"Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Astrium have engaged in a commercial agreement to provide dedicated launch services to the European institutional small satellite market. Astrium intends to work with SpaceX to market Falcon 1 launch capabilities to various space agencies and other institutional customers in Europe for launches to take place through 2015.(SatNewsPublisher)"
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.
This Land - A New Exit to Space Readies for Business | NYTimes.com
Barry digs into the local scene and discovers some background stories about SpacePort America that's emerging from the barren flats of New Mexico.
"This is not a secret government project, or some NASA reception hall for alien dignitaries. This is Spaceport America, a $198 million endeavor by the State of New Mexico to plumb the commercial potential of the suborbital heavens — a place once known only to astronauts, dreamers and the occasional chimp.
Space tourism. Scientific research. Satellite deliveries. All possible up there, where the stars glitter like spilled coins. Who knows? One day you might decide to skip another two-week vacation in the Wisconsin Dells for a two-hour trip into space. Fly Virgin Galactic. See the sights from as high as 80 miles up. Five minutes of weightlessness guaranteed. Just $200,000."
Northrop Grumman Foundation Now Accepting Teacher Applications for 2010 Weightless Flights of Discovery Program - Yahoo! Finance
"The Northrup Gumman Foundation is accepting teacher applications for the 2010 Weightless Flights of Discovery program, a unique initiative that places teachers on micro-gravity flights to test Newton's Laws of Motion and energize students in the formative middle-school years. Middle-school math and science teachers in public schools are welcome to apply for the program."
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.
The End of Magical Climate Thinking | Foreign Policy
"The Obama administration succumbed, like many others, to a sort of magical climate thinking that promised a painless and even prosperous transition to a low-carbon future with the tools already at hand. The only official within his administration to accurately grasp the technology challenges faced, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, was sidelined at crucial moments. Here is the back story of how the Obama administration dramatically raised and then dashed America's -- and the world's -- hopes that 2009 would be a pivotal year for remaking our collective energy future." This article places blame on both government and green energy advocates for "magical thinking" about what will surely at minimum be a tough, expensive, decades-long slog. The importance of space infrastructure advancements, especially by the private sector, to developing innovative lower-cost solar power and biospheric and climate monitoring systems will be major. Earth and its environment are increasingly understood as one evolving macro-ecosystem traveling through space over eons.
Suborbital rocket test to carry Purdue experiment | PhysOrg.com
"Purdue University researchers are designing and building an experiment that will operate during a test flight of a new type of reusable rocket to be launched by aerospace company Blue Origin LLC. The experiment will be used to study how fluids behave in low gravity, providing information that could help engineers design better components for a variety of technologies used both on the Earth and in space, said Steven Collicott, a professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
It is one of three scientific research payloads recently selected by Blue Origin to be carried to suborbital altitudes during a flight test of the company's New Shepard rocket. The rocket enables researchers to study phenomena that cannot be effectively observed on Earth or during the relatively brief low-gravity periods that can be created in aircraft flights."
Innovation More Important for Future than in Past; U.S. Education is Lagging
"A recent survey found 78 percent of Americans believe innovation will be more important to the U.S. economy in the next thirty years than the previous thirty years. While the importance of innovation is recognized, 81 percent of Americans believe the quality of K-12 math and science education lags behind other countries. The survey of 1,200 U.S. respondents, commissioned by the Intel Corporation and Newsweek magazine, found that 33 percent of Americans said the U.S. will be the global leader in technology innovation during the next 30 years, while 30 percent said Japan, and 22 percent said China." The NASA CRuSR Program provides a great opportunity for innovation of all kinds, including student-driven suborbital research projects.
Bolden's NASA Advisory Council Adds Commercial Space | SpaceRef
"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden held his first meeting with the restructured NASA Advisory Council this week at the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Bolden has added four new committees to the council in key areas of importance to the agency's future: Commercial Space, Education and Public Outreach, Information Technology Infrastructure, and Technology Innovation." This is great news and portends well for the future for our community.
Space Industry Seen Facing Delayed Econ Crisis | AVIATION WEEK
"Government customers and long-lead planning has protected the global space industry from the worst effects of the ongoing economic crisis, but industry and government representatives at the International Astronautical Congress here worry there may be a downturn in a few years." A recovery could cause governments to "begin to balance their books again" to reduce their debt that accumulated to stem the crisis. A panel "that included both industry executives from Europe and Asia" noted "it will be important for the space industry to increase efficiency to deal with flat or falling government space budgets. That can be done in two major ways - reducing duplication inside companies by trimming staff, and reducing duplication across the industry with greater international cooperation." It also could be done by "finding terrestrial applications for space technologies." [summary provided by AIAA Daily Launch]