google lunar x-prizes 10-team startgoogle lunar x-prize ten teams are now competing for a $30...

WINTER/SPRING 2008

The Year of the Space ShipSSppaaccee FFoouunnddaattiioonn��ss PPuusshh ffoorr SSppaaccee

A Closer Look At Spacecraft Navigators

Google Lunar X-PRIZE�s 10-Team Start

The Year of the Space ShipSSppaaccee FFoouunnddaattiioonn��ss PPuusshh ffoorr SSppaaccee

A Closer Look At Spacecraft Navigators

2 SPACE LIFESTYLE WINTER/SPRING 2008

CONTENTSCONTENTSW I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 • I S S U E 2 N O . 1

Features

16

46

16 Changing of the FieldsCould something dire soon happen to Earth's magnetosphere that might affect life as we know it? Michael Ricciardi takes a look at how the magnetic field may change, debunking a few myths along the way.

24 Space FoundationWorking to promote space and space-related activities takes a lot of work. But it also can be very enjoyable. This leading space sector non-profit helps promote space commerce and education.

32 The International WaterManagement InstituteFind out how an international organization uses remote sensing tools from space to better collect and distribute water, despite growing global concerns of scarcity and usability of our most precious resource.

36 Google Lunar X-PRIZETen teams are now competing for a $30 million prize, vying to be first to land a smallcraft on the moon. Meet the contenders, and learn more about X-PRIZE Foundation.

WINTER/SPRING 2008 SPACELIFESTYLE 3

24

Departments

4 Editor’s Letter

6 New and Notable

22 Book Review

54 Op Editorial

59 Flip Side

60 BackPage

About the Cover

A promotional illustration for the GoogleLunar X-PRIZE. After landing on the moon'ssurface, a hypothetical team's rover gathersinformation to send back to Earth, complet-ing one of the requirements needed for acash prize. Image Credit: X-Prize Foundation

46 The NavigatorsIn the drivers seat of every robotic mission, navigators at the Jet PropulsionLaboratory and KinetX guide spacecraft to destinations in our solar system. Usingtechniques requiring extreme precision,these engineers have an excellent sense of direction.

e d i t o r ’ s l e t t e r

Editor-in-ChiefDavid Bullock

[email protected]

Creative DirectorMichael B. Delia

[email protected]

Managing EditorNancy Atkinson

[email protected]

Contributing WritersNancy Atkinson

Lois ElfmanKatherine Kline

William I. Lengeman IIIMichael Ricciardi

Talia Winch

Op-EdEligar Sadeh

InternKatherine Kline

Advertising SalesDavid Bullock

CartoonistsWes Oleszewski

T.J. Sullivan

(ISSN 1939-411X) Issue 3, SpaceL i fes t y le magaz ine i s pub l i shedquarter ly by New Forks, LLC 1115Almonte Ave , Lower Un i t , GrandForks , ND 58201 D ig i ta lsubscript ions are current ly free ofcharge. Indiv idual issues can bepurchased for the Amazon Kindle .Customer serv ice, p lease contactspacel i festy [email protected]

FFirst, I want to thank you for taking the time toread this issue. Your enthusiasm for thispublication has been remarkable. Thanks for thecriticisms, but mostly thanks for the positive

encouragement.In turn, I want to announce that this will be my last

issue as Editor-in-Chief. For the next issue, all editorialresponsibilities will be handed over to the currentManaging Editor Nancy Atkinson. I am going to be takingover the position of Publisher for Space LifestyleMagazine, and concentrate more on the business of thepublication.

Nancy is a strong writer, with an impressivebackground. She has consistently delivered reliable copyand relevant stories to the publication. Her work as aNASA Solar System Ambassador and as one of the staffwriters at Universe Today has proven her worth outsideof SLM.

I am sure that Space Lifestyle Magazine will only getbetter under her leadership.

For this issue, we may have brought you the standardfare for SLM, but there have been many newdevelopments since the last quarter. Most notably, VirginGalactic’s unveiling of SpaceShipTwo and our cover storyon the Google Lunar X-PRIZE.

So, enjoy this issue of Space Lifestyle Magazine. I hope to see you back again next quarter.

Starward dreams,

David BullockEditor-In-ChiefSpace Lifestyle Magazine

Hello, and welcome to another issue of Space Lifestyle Magazine


mailto:[email protected]




http://www.laurahiggins.com

http://www.imtooyoungforthis.org

http://www.imtooyoungforthis.org

n e w a n d n o t a b l e


NNAASSAA TToo BBeetttteerr BBrraannddSSppaaccee IInniittiiaattiivvee

AA ccording to anearly February2008 article in

The Washington Post,NASA has turned to aNew York-basedadvertising firm toenhance the image of theVision for SpaceExploration, and inparticular, the $230billion ConstellationProgram, to spur publicsupport. This comes at atime when somescientists and other spaceexperts have questionedthe VSE’s future plans tocolonize the moon andthen Mars, insteadfavoring a more directmission to Mars for theU.S. program. Moreinformation onConstellation can be foundon its website at:

NNAASSAA TToo BBeetttteerr BBrraannddSSppaaccee IInniittiiaattiivvee

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/constellation_front/.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/constellation_front/



WINTER/SPRIING 2008 SPACELIFESTYLE 7

ScaledCompositesFined forMojave DesertExplosion

II n an 11-page report during February 2008,Cal/OSHA claimed Scaled Composites LLC, thecompany known for launching the first privately-

funded manned rocket into space, failed to trainworkers on how to handle nitrous oxide properly,and as a result, fined the Northrop Grumman-owned company $25,870. In July 2007, threeworkers were killed and three injured during anexplosion at a remote testing facility in the MojaveDesert while building the rocket motor for VirginGalactic’s SpaceShipTwo, according to theAssociated Press. For the official PersonalSpaceflight Federation statement, visithttp://www.personalspaceflight.org/mojave2.htm

Airplane at Mojave Desert Airport.

http://www.personalspaceflight.org/mojave2.htm

FF ormer NASA astronaut John Herringtonresigned from the NewSpace companyRocketplane in December stating that, despite

their impressive technological innovations, he wasfrustrated by the company’s difficulty in raisingmoney. Filling Herrington’s position, Rocketplaneannounced that USAF pilot Paul Metz joined thecompany as Vice President and Chief Test Pilot inMarch 2008. Metz had once served as vicePresident for Integrated Test and Evaluation for aLockheed Martin fighter plane program. Also, DavidG. Faulkner, who has been with Rocketplane since2005 was promoted to Chief Technology Officer ofthe company.http://www.rocketplane.com



Herrington Departs;Metz On Board at Rocketplane

NASA States Astronauts Did Not Fly Intoxicated

NN ASA officially stated that they found no evidence to support two alleged cases of pre-flight intoxication of astronauts. The report comes from a NASA committee formed toevaluate medical and psychological screening processes, which were deemed

inadequate. For the detailed report, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/astronautreport.html.

http://www.rocketplane.com

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/astronautreport.html

MESSENGERDelivering NewImages of Mercury

TT he MercurySurface, SpaceEnvironment,

Geochemistry andRanging (MESSENGER)spacecraft recentlyreturned never-before-seen images of the firstplanet from the sun. Oneimage included amysterious, spider-like-impression. A return fly-byis set for October 6,2008. More imagesfrom Mercury areavailable on NASA’s onlinephotojournal athttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Mercury.


http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Mercury




On February 1, NASAcelebrated threeevents: It marked the

45th anniversary of its Deep SpaceNetwork, the 50th anniversary of NASAand the 40th anniversary of the Beatleshit ‘Across the Universe’ by beaming anMP3 of the song to the star, Polaris. At2.5 quadrillion miles away, this first-everbeamed song will reach its destination in431 years. For more information, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html

Beatles SongBeamed into

Space CelebratesNASA

Anniversaries

RR esearchers uncovered a solar systemsimilar to our own some 5,000 lightyears from Earth using a technique first

theorized by Einstein called gravitational lensing,on Valentine’s Day 2008. So far, scientistshave uncovered a total of six planets. Twoplanets are comparable to Saturn and Jupiterin density, size and distance from the sun. Forthe official National Science Foundation release,visithttp://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111093&org=NSF&from=news

Newly DiscoveredSolar SystemContains Jupiter andSaturn-like Planets


http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111093&org=NSF&from=news

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111093&org=NSF&from=news

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html

TT he international party to celebrate the first human to visit space, Russian Cosmonaut YuriGagarin, is set to take place on April 12, 2008 in several countries around the world,including Japan, Afghanistan, Chile and the United States. The parties mark the anniversary

of Yuri’s 1961 venture into space and the first U.S. space shuttle flight in 1981. For moreinformation on the event or to research party locations, visit http://www.yurisnight.net/

Yuri’s Night Only One Month Away


http://www.yurisnight.net/


Branson RevealsSpaceShipTwo

12 SPACE LIFESTYLE WITNER/SPRING 2008

RR ichard Branson, Virgin Airlines founder, revealed his latest project, Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwoat NYC’s Museum of Natural History and declared 2008, “the Year of the Space Ship.” Double thesize of its predecessor with a wingspan of 140 feet, the space tourism vehicle can hold six

passengers at $200,000 each. Despite the hefty price tag, SpaceShipTwo boasts a waiting list of 200customers. To reserve a spot for a 2009 trip, visit http://www.virgingalactic.com/.


http://www.virgingalactic.com/


14 SPACE LIFESTYLE WITNER/SPRING 2008

WW ith the theme of "The New Pace forSpace," the 2008 International SpaceDevelopment Conference sponsored by

the National Space Society will touch on everythingnew developing at NASA and the latest coming outof the commercial spaceflight community.Academic papers will be presented and speakerswill discuss the latest issues in space technology,science, policy, commerce, exploration and more.The goal of the conference is to engage the public,industry and decision-makers in an open andpositive discussion on the future of spaceexploration and development, especially during thiselection year. More information can be found athttp://www.isdc2008.org/

ISDC to Meet inNation’s CapitalMay 29-June 1 PP

rofessionalphotographersfrom around theworld have createdsome of the mostunique

astronomical photos, which nowcan be found on one website. OnThe World At Night (TWAN), onecan find photo and video galleriesthat give a global perspective toour night sky. Find out more andbe amazed at:http://www.twanight.org/

Dazzling,ArtfulAstronomy onT WAN Website

Dazzling,ArtfulAstronomy onT WAN Website

http://www.isdc2008.org/

http://www.twanight.org/


RR enowned science fictionwriter and space enthusiastArthur C. Clarke died early

March 19, 2008 in his Sri Lankanhome after a long battle with post-polio syndrome. The prolific writer,most notably known for co-authoring with Stanley Kubrick“2001: A Space Odyssey,” devotedhis life to exploring the unknown andto contemplating aquatic andcelestial complexities. At hisDecember birthday, the AssociatedPress quoted Clarke as wishing forthree things: The end of Sri Lanka’scivil war, the worldwide embrace ofcleaner sources of energy and thediscovery of extraterrestrial life.Visit the Arthur C. ClarkeFoundation athttp://www.clarkefoundation.org.

AArrtthhuurr CC.. CCllaarrkkeeDead atAge 90

SS pace Adventures, Ltd., one of theworld’s leading spaceflight companies,acquired the remaining stock of Zero

Gravity Corporation effective January 1,2008. The ownership comes with littlesurprise as X-PRIZE Chairman Peter H.Diamandis already serves as CEO of theZero-G operating unit and is co-founder ofSpace Adventures. The zero gravityexperience is now a part of SpaceAdventure’s offerings along with orbital andsuborbital spaceflights and lunar missions.

SpaceAdventuresacquiresZero-G

http://www.clarkefoundation.org

SA closer look at theEarth’s protective magnetic field, the solarwind, and the latest ‘catastrophic’ scenario

Since the early yearsof this decade, therehas been a sporadicstream of popular sci-ence articles reportingevidence that theEarth’s electromagneticfield, or magnetosphere,is weakening, and, infact, is beginning aprocess of reversingitself. In fact, if a reversalwere to occur one day,compass needles willpoint South, instead ofNorth!

The Earth’s electro-magnetic field isbelieved to result fromthe movement ofmolten rock in our plan-et’s outer core aournd

By Michael Anthony Ricciardi

THHEE CHHAANNGGIINNGGTHHEE CHHAANNGGIINNGG16 SPACE LIFESTYLE WINTER/SPRING 2008

A snapshot of the region where the fluid flow within the Earth is the greatest(yellow). The core-mantle boundary is blue, while the inner core boundary isdepicted red.

UC Santa CruzProf. Gary

Glatzmaier.Photo:

Glatzmaier.

its solid iron-nickel, inner core (a process aided bythe Earth’s spin). This movement of molten rockaround mostly solid iron-nickel produces a mas-sive, convective flow of electrons through andaround the planet. This fluid like movement ofmolten iron constitutes the basis of the ‘geody-namo’—the dynamic planetary mechanism thatgenerates our planet’s continuously fluctuating,protective, electromagnetic ‘field’. However, muchabout the nature of these ‘magnetohydro-dynam-ics’ (MHD) remains a mystery.

‘The full consequences of magnetos-pheric ‘flip’, or field reversal, are unknown.’Popular reporting has posited various sce-narios—all connected ultimately to intensi-fied solar activity—from damaged/disrupt-ed satellite communications, electronics,and power grids on the Earth, and thebehavior of the animals that live here, tomore dire effects, like the ‘boiling off’ of theEarth’s atmosphere and even mass extinc-tions.

An apparent weakening tendency ofthe field is believed to precede a reversal.This tendency has actually been known foralmost a hundred years, based upon paleo-magnetic evidence that has been collectedfrom rocks and hardened volcanic lava lay-ers buried in the earth. Only in recentyears has evidence accumulated enoughto warrant speculation that a possiblemagnetosphere reversal is “imminent”. But‘imminent’ to geologists and geophysicist isnot the same as ‘imminent’ to everyoneelse. The geologic record indicates, fairlyconsistently, that these field reversalsoccur every 250, 000 years or so.

However, the Earth has not experienced a rever-sal for over 700, 000 years—leading some toassert that we are long over-due for a reversalfrom the field.

Back in the 1940’s and ‘50’s, even Einsteinhad been preoccupied with the issues of time andlength for a electromagnetic reversal. It is adebate that continues to this day. The magneticfield reached its maximum strength around twothousand years ago and has been weakeningever since. A recent study by Gauthier Hulot of the


G OOFF TTHHEE FIIEELLDDGG OOFF TTHHEE FIIEELLDD

A 3D magnetic field structure simulated with the Glatzmaier-Roberts geody-namo model. magnetic field lines are blue where the field is directed inwardand yellow where directed outward.

Paris Geophysical Institute, usingsatellite data of field strength varia-tions over the past 20 years, seeksto find the cause of this weakening.

The study revealed huge ‘whorls’of electromagnetic energy near thepoles. Hulot believes that these‘eddies’ or vortices are compilingand significantly influencing the mag-netosphere’s polarity. Follow up com-puter modeling of this chaotic phe-nomenon supports his hypothesisthat an accumulation of these elec-tromagnetic eddies weakens thedominant field, and this weakening,it is believed, precedes a polarityreversal. Despite Hulot’s hypothe-sis, some geo-physicists remainunconvinced by the computer mod-els conclusions.

“Nobody can possibly tell from theavailable information whether or notthe Earth is heading for a polarityreversal,” said Paul Roberts ofUCLA’s Institute of Geophysics and PlanetaryPhysics. “The Earth’s fluid core is undoubtedly in ahighly turbulent state, and all characteristics of a

turbulent system fluctuate, including(in the case of an MHD –- magneto-hydrodynamic— system) the mag-netic field. Paleomagnetism hasshown that the strength of theEarth’s field has varied throughoutthe geologic past, by a factor of upto 4, and that it is a little above aver-age strength (author’s emphasis) atpresent. What is more natural thenthat it happens to be decreasingright now? It’s decreased very manytimes in the past without reversing,why should this time be any differ-ent?”

The ‘mechanics’ of electromag-netic field variation are highly dynam-ic and variable, but these propertieshave lead a few geo-physicists tospeculate that a complete fieldreversal’s duration could be as littleas a few weeks.

Robert Coe, a paleomageticist atUCSC, investigating Miocene basalt

flows at Steens Mountain, Oregon, has discov-ered some anomalous rock evidence that sup-ports this scenario, but even Prof. Coe is skeptical

FACTOIDS: Duringthe llast 220 mmillionyears tthe ffossilrecord sshows 660reversals, aand tthatthe pperiodbetween rreversalsseems tto bbe sslowlydecreasing aandgetting sshorter.

According tto tthepaleomagneticrecord, iin ttheCretaceous pperiod�late MMezozoicEra�, aa 4400 mmiilllliioonnyyeeaarr stretchoccurred iin wwhichthere wwere nnomagnetic ffieldreversals.


Earth’s magnetic field evolving for about 9,000 years before, during, and after the simulated reversal. The outer circle indicates the fluid outer core magnetic field contours directed clockwise (green) and counterclockwise (yellow). The right hemisphere shows contours directed westwestward (blueImage: Projects in Scientific Computing Archive.

about the ‘rapid reversal’ theory. “Episodes of veryrapid change in field direction (a few degrees perday) may occur during some polarity transitions,”said Coe, “The evidence suggesting this possibilityis two instances of large variation of direction ofmagnetization in a series [of] samples from bot-tom to top of a single lava flow. Each of these two[instances] is part of a long sequence of super-posed flows …that recorded a reversal that hap-pened 16.6 million years ago. The length of timefor each flow to become magnetized during cool-ing of these relatively thin flows is only a week ortwo. Thus, if the paleomagnetic directions we nowobserve were produced during cooling in theancient field, they would imply episodes of extraor-dinarily rapid change in field direction during theseveral thousand years that the [global] field tookto reverse polarity.”

While Coe’s data does indicate rapid variationin field direction in one of the lava flows, in theother flow, the changes detected suggest somenewer phenomena effecting the magnetization.“Our recent work revisiting this question”, contin-ued Coe, “indicates (indirectly) that the magnetiza-tion of one of these flows must have been affectedby later processes, whereas the magnetization inthe other flow still appears compatible with the

What is paleomagnetism?

Magnetite (a magnetic oreof iron) crystals in volcanicstrata preserve a recordof the earth’s polarity at

the time the crystal substrate (molten lava)was extruded onto the earth’s surface.There, the crystals quickly orient them-selves along the earth’s current polarity(the direction or flow of electrons aroundthe Earth; currently towards the northpole), and, as the lava cools, the crystalsbecome “fixed” into that orientation. Byanalysis of deeper (older) layers of volcanicrock, scientists can determine the polaritystate, and strength, of the magnetic field inthe remote geologic past.

This ‘geological memory’ has been knownfor nearly 100 years, but not until the late1950’s did scientists learn of magnetitecrystals in the brains and cells of animals.Evidence exists supporting the notion thatthese brain-based crystals’ polarity aresensed by certain animals (like whales, tur-tles, birds, wildebeests, and even bacteria)and help to guide their migratory patterns.

Humans also have magnetite in theirbrains, and it is still not clear to whatextent this impacts human behavior.However, in a recent experiment by Dr.Valerie Hunt, a room was constructed inwhich the magnetic field intensity could bemodified.

Dr. Hunt wrote in her book, Infinite Mind,“When the magnetism was decreased,gross in-coordination occurred. The entireneurological integrating mechanism wasthrown off. Subjects could not balance theirbodies; they had difficulty touching finger tonose or performing simple coordinatedmovements. They lost kinaesthetic aware-ness.”


e boundary; the inner circle, the solid inner core. the left hemisphere showsue) and eastward (red), out of and into the plane of the paper.

hypothesis of rapid-field-changeepisodes.”

This new data iscausing a bit ofexcitement in thegeophysics commu-nity. But it wouldseem to be the kindcaused every timenew/unexpecteddata emerges in ahighly specializedresearch field.Unfortunately it cansound provocative,even alarming. Coe’s data has even been used to‘prove’ a widely-discredited viewpoint that theEarth is only a few thousand years old.

Until more convincing evidence arises, mostgeo-physicists espouse a much longer timeframe for this reversal to complete itself.Although still relatively ‘short’ in terms of geologictime, most scientists estimate that a reversalwould take many thousands of years to completeitself. And despite the news stories, many are noteven sure that any field reversal is nigh. The prob-lem may stem in part from different scientistsconducting independent studies that are not yetintegrated into the larger body of geo-physicalknowledge that would support it—thus leadingsome to make generalized claims that lead tosensational headlines and the inevitable misre-porting of science facts.

So, it appears that there is a good amount ofdoubt in the scientific community—but is thereany evidence for a coming reversal?

“Perhaps the strongest argument for a com-ing reversal is that, in the recent geologic past,reversals have occurred on average every250,000 years, but the last reversal was about720,000 years ago. In this sense, maybe a rever-sal is ‘overdue’,” explained Paul Roberts. “Butimplicit in such an argument is that there is somekind of periodicity in this turbulent system, andthere is no evidence for that. (author’s emphasis)So I tend to think that that argument is not verystrong. However journalists (who have to producesomething to grab the readers’ attentions) and

some scientists(who should knowbetter, but want tograb a bit of freepublicity) tend tooverstate the casefor a coming rever-sal.”

Up until mid2004, there wassome disagreementover the duration ofany given ‘magneticflip’; none of the sci-entific experts hadhard data describ-

ing the temporal limitations to these reversals.Then, in April of that year, Brad Clement of FloridaInternational University published the results of hisreview of the last four such reversals. His findingsindicate that the average duration was 7,000years. But that the differences are not random—the duration varies with latitude (duration is a fewthousand years at low latitudes and every 10,000years at high latitudes). It is becoming rather clearthat use of the term ‘flip’ is misleading and inap-propriate.

So, this science would seem to support thecontention that any polarity reversal will take sev-eral thousand years or more to complete itself(assuming that the field is reversing, and notmerely fluctuating). But, whether the reversal willbe long or a rapid, is not clear if any major or last-ing impact will be felt here on the ground.

Some argue that it is a weakening of the elec-tro-magnetic field that should give us cause forconcern. Some computer model data shows thefield strength decrease can be as great as 90%.There have been claims the field could also ‘col-lapse’ and then, it may take the Earth many thou-sands of years to rebound. If this weakening peri-od were to coincide with a thinned atmosphereand an increase in solar activity—or perhaps anintensifying solar wind, and, (highly energetic, parti-cles, or solar plasma, flung out into space by oursun that continuously bombards the Earth)—thenplanet Earth could be in for a scorching, or sogoes the theory.

There is a more sober take on the weak field


Paleomagnetist Rob Coe and assistant using a portable magnetometerto test the polarity of a basalt sample. Photo. Coe

SL

hypothesis. It depends, a bit, onhow you define the weakeningperiod of the reversal.

“A polarity reversal does notmean that the geomagnetic fielddisappears,” said Roberts, “Evenwhen the dipole moment is zero,in the “middle” of a reversal, simu-lations suggest that the fieldstrength will be on the order of20% of what it was before andafter reversal. It is hard to defineprecisely what one means by say-ing that the Earth’s field is in aweakened state. Does one mean the time duringwhich the dipole is 50% of its pre- and post-rever-sal strength, or 30% (say)? The time you seek isobviously affected by your choice of percentage!Also, simulations suggest that the duration of theweakened state may be rather different for differ-ent reversals.

“Paleomagnetic records show that the mag-netic field strength has decreased much lowerthan today’s value many times in the past withoutreversing,” ‘adding to the understanding of fielddynamics.’ “Moreover, today’s field strength is 20to 40 percent greater than our best estimate ofthe average field strength for the past severaltens of millions of years [Italics ours]. Yes, the fieldintensity has decreased at the unusually high rateof about 8% per century..., and archeomagneticstudies show that it was about 40% stronger1500 to 2000 years ago, but I know of no com-pelling reason to believe that this time the fallingintensity is leading toward a polarity reversal.”

Gary Glatzmaier, a leading geophysicist atUCSC and collaborator with Paul Roberts (whosecomputer models of the Earth’s field are helpingscientists understand the complexities of the geo-dynamo), expressed some additional doubt thatCoe’s discoveries with lava flow records have anymajor bearing on the issue of a global polarityswitch. Glatzmaier stated, “There have been indi-cations of very rapid changes in the direction ofthe field at a given location on the Earth, recordedin lava flows. However, these changes probablydo not represent changes in the global dipolarfield.” Still, Glatzmaier is cautious about even thisassertion. “But we certainly do not understandeverything about the geodynamo and so we can’t

say a reversal couldn’t take muchless time than 5000 years.”

Some planetary physicistshave suggested that one way tosurmise the consequences of themagnetospheric weakening andreversal is to look at other planetsand their magnetic fields. Mars,our most earth-like neighbor, expe-rienced a ‘permanent failure’ of itsmagnetic field, which may haveresulted in the ‘boiling off’ ofMars’s atmosphere. The effect onplanet Earth of a prolonged weak-

ening coupled with a massive ‘solar storm’ couldbe chaotic and catastrophic. However, as withprevious cosmic catastrophe scenarios,Professor Roberts tends to dismiss this possibili-ty. “One can ask, if the solar wind is so well ableto blow away an atmosphere, why has it notblown away the Venusian atmosphere,” askedRoberts. “Venus is much nearer the Sun and thesolar wind is much stronger there. (Of course it isa lot hotter there too, so the lighter gases evapo-rate from its surface more easily).

Also one can ask, if the solar wind is so capa-ble to blow away the Earth’s atmosphere, why dowe have an atmosphere at all, considering thevery many times that the geomagnetic field hasreversed in the past?

Glatzmaier offers a somewhat more optimistic,long-term view; “A significant reduction in the mag-netic field intensity and the breakdown of the dipo-lar structure probably will allow a considerableincrease in cosmic radiation hitting the Earth’ssurface at low latitude. The Earth’s atmosphereprotects us from much of the cosmic radiation.However, by the time the next reversal occurs(probably no sooner than 2000 years from now) Iwould imagine people living on Earth will have fig-ured out a way to protect themselves.”

Lastly, looking at the most dire pole switch sce-nario, there is one major ‘sunny’ spot to be noted:the fossil record—Going back billions years,shows no correlation between periods of magnet-ic reversals (or declining field strength) and any‘mass extinctions’ of life forms.

Not such a bad day in the universe after all.


Geophysicist Paul Roberts of UCLA Photo: Roberts

B o o k R e v i e w

TThe opening epigraphs in the nonfiction spaceresource Living Off the Land in Space not only

sets the theme for each chapter, but can remind thereader of the fantasy and awethat once accompanied thecelestial musings of poets andscholars. The stanzas, many ofwhich were scribed byRomantic poets, reflect the ele-gant lure of distant worlds thathas captivated the human racethroughout its existence.

This intrinsic interest is thepremise of Gregory Matloff,Les Johnson and C. Bangs’book. They put forth thathumans began as a migratoryspecies destined to wander theEarth and colonize distantlands, and as a result are tiedinnately to venturing into entire-ly new worlds, regardless ofthe seeming impossibility of thetask.

The full title Living Off theLand in Space: Green Roads tothe Cosmos may be mislead-ing, especially during this timeof global climate change and environmentally-friendlymarketing. However, as the authors explain not-too-quickly, the dream of humans living on other planets,actually, is limited by their ability to develop sustain-able technology.

Through this notion, the authors explore the cur-rent theories and innovations in space exploration,travel and colonization, and perhaps in too technical

Living Off the Land in Space:Green roads to the CosmosBy Gregory L. Matloff, Les Johnson, C .BangsPublished by Springer Science and Business Media Reviewed by Katie Kline

SL

a manner, explain the economic, political and instru-mental shortcomings of each option. They candidlypropose several historical experiments and revolu-

tionary theories and also givenod to the majority of modernand dynamic spacecraft tech-nologies. These include: aero-assisted atmospheric reentry,atmospheric H-Bombs andelectrodynamic tethers.

Matloff, a physicist at NewYork City College of Technologyand a NASA Marshall SpaceFlight Center consultant, andJohnson, a NASA SpaceScience Programs andProjects Office manager,together provide detaileddescriptions of complex tech-nology complete with diagramsand mathematical equations.Additionally, Bangs, a consider-ably well-known artist in theNASA and NewSpace commu-nities, graces each chapterwith a collage of astronomicaland planetary illustrations.

While the book appears tolack a strong and definite coherence when mergingthe scientific with the fantastic, it still manages tocapture the intrigue and vastness of the Universe,and the comparable imagination of humans.

With kind permission of Springer Science andBusiness Media.


of facts (she clearly did her research), and toomany exclamations for anyone who is not a teen-ager. Nearly every informative nugget is followedwith an enthusiastic “Hot! That’s crazy! Let’s get

this party started!”In sum, the book is

informative, but anutterly embarrassingread for anyone who nolonger can refer to sexas hanky panky. Thebook will also be irritat-ing for those who havedifficulty tolerating alarge dose of feministbitterness.

It is unfortunatethat there are very fewother books about sexin space, although thisone does provide all theup-to-date and neces-sary information.

B o o k R e v i e w

Sex in Space is a short 136 pages, which,if read in one sitting, will leave readersfeeling like they’ve been up all night talking

to curious, unexperienced pubescents who aregiggling over a sneaky issueof soft porn at a slumberparty.

That said, author LauraWoodsmansee manages topack an impressive amountof information in-between allthe immature commentary.She delves into a thoroughhistory of sex in space(including sex among fruitflies), logistics, speculationon sex and space tourism,pregnancy, physical risks,suggested positions andtoys (diagrams included),psychological issues, andeven porn.

This book is full of simplepuns, imaginative “what if’s,”creative propositions, plenty

Sex in Space By Laura WoodmanseeReviewed by Talia Page

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MAAKKIINNGG ROOOOMMFOORR SPPAACCEE

By Lois ElfmanIllu

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O“Our mission: To advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable, and propel humanity.”Lofty goals for any organization, but over the past quarter-century the Space Foundation(www.spacefoundation.org) has unquestionably, as their tagline states, been able to “take upspace.” They’ve networked businesses in the industry, inspired teachers, created opportunitiesand helped foster space awareness. Now, as they prepare to mark the significant milestone oftheir 25th anniversary, the organization is poised to have a bird’s eye view on what will definethe space industry over the next two and a half decades.

The Space Foundationwas founded on March 21,1983 in the wake of the cre-ation of a military spacecommand in ColoradoSprings. There was a feelingthat a non-partisan, non-prof-it organization should existthat could communicate whyspace was in the nationalinterest. The three foundersremain involved: attorneyWilliam J. Hybl, now chair-man and CEO of the ElPomar Foundation; formerCongressman Kenneth B.Kramer, now Chief Judge ofthe U.S. Court of Appeals forVeterans Claims; andaccountant J. BraxtonCarter.

The founding three canattest to the foundation’stremendous growth and evo-lution—from a tiny staff work-ing in a donated office withused furniture, to 45 in full-time staff divided between headquarters in Colorado Springs, a Washington,DC office and a small office near Cape Canaveral in Florida. The SpaceFoundation has daily interactions with NASA and the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration, and individuals affiliated with the SpaceFoundation comprise one-third of the U.S. delegation to the United NationsCommittee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on which they serve with rep-resentatives of the State Department and NASA.

One of the decisive milestones in the life of the Space Foundation was itsparticipation in a 1986 study conducted by the Annenberg School forCommunications at the University of Southern California about the impact ofspace exploration on students. Were students really more inclined to studyif they felt a connection to space exploration?

“We found overwhelming evidence that if you get students—grade schoolthrough college—involved in space their interest level, their engagement and

The General James E. HillLifetime Space AchievementAward. This award is the highesthonor presented by the SpaceFoundation. The SpaceFoundation annually presents theHill award in honor of its late,long-time chairman, GeneralJames E. Hill, USAF (Retired). Itrecognizes outstanding individualswho have distinguished them-selves through lifetime contribu-tions to the welfare or bettermentof humankind through the explo-ration, development, and use ofspace, or the use of space tech-nology, information, themes, orresources in academic, cultural,industrial, or other pursuits ofbroad benefit to humanity.Nominations are solicited fromthroughout the space industryworldwide, and the board ofdirectors of the Space Foundationselects the honoree. 2008 marksthe seventh annual presentationof the General James E. HillLifetime Space AchievementAward. Previous award recipientsare Norman R. Augustine, Capt.James Lovell, Jr., USN (Retired),Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, USAF(Retired), Edward C. "Pete"Aldridge, Jr., Buzz Aldrin, Ph.D.,Col. USAF (Retired), and SimonRamo, Ph.D. The 2008 recipientis Hans Mark, Ph.D. This awardis permanently housed at theSpace Foundation headquarters.Each year the recipient’s name ispermanently etched on the largeaward and the recipient is pre-sented with a smaller, individualaward to keep.


http://www.spacefoundation.org

their academic performance goes right through theroof,” says Space Foundation president and CEOElliot G. Pulham. “Their math lesson isn’t some bor-ing math drill, it’s about how to launch a rocket.Their biology lesson isn’t just about cellular growth,it’s how would you do that in space. That was a big‘Aha!’ moment, because that told us as a foundationthat education had to become a primary mission.”

So in addition to doing trade association work,government affairs and policy work, and internation-al and economic work, education for both studentsand teachers comprises a significant component ofSpace Foundation activity.

Each summer the Space Foundation conductsfive weeks of space discovery institutes in ColoradoSprings, weeklong programs where teachers learnhow to bring space into their classrooms. In 2007,they also did two weeks in Maryland, which theyexpect to replicate in 2008. Subjects include earthscience, rocketry, the biology of living in space,astronomy, space technologies, space history andspace law. Some scholarship money is available todefray costs.

“We would like to take these summer institutesinto areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles andSeattle, so it opens up more opportunities for theseeducators, particularly educators in inner cityareas,” says Iain Probert, vice president of educationenterprise. “We also have outreaches such asSpace in the Classroom, where we bring space pro-fessionals into communities. This is how we excite

young people and get more diverse peopleinto space and science.”

Presentation of these programs isdependent on funding. In the past year, theybrought a program for teachers to a remotecommunity in Hawaii and a program for stu-dents that brought astronauts to visit anequally remote community in Alaska.

“We let them know that space is not lim-ited in regards to career paths,” Probertsays. “In fact, in space we need the samefolks we need down here on planet Earth.We need chemical engineers to developrocket propellant. We need pilots to fly thespace ships. We also need folks in the med-ical field. And we need people in the culinaryfield, as well as electricians and plumbers—alllevels of expertise.”

The Space Foundation is not an individualmember organization. There are, of course,numerous activities in which individuals canparticipate, but the membership is corpo-rate. With the mission of promoting spaceand space exploration, the foundation cre-ates opportunities where members can col-laborate and connect.

“It’s an interesting dichotomy in our busi-ness that companies that are operators andpartners on one project will be vicious com-petitors on another project,” says Pulham.“It’s part of the way of life in the space indus-

Picture from the opening ceremony of the 23rd National Space Symposium in April 2007


try. We put on the largest trade show conference inthe industry (the 24th National Space Symposiumwill take place April 7-10 in Colorado Springs), andwe bring the individuals together several times ayear to share ideas, have discussions on topics ofinterest, review what government is doing, reviewwhat’s going on in the private sector and havemeetings and dialogue. We’re a very key part of theglue that holds the industry together.

“We facilitate discussions—not only among U.S.companies, but also among our international part-ners,” he adds. “We work quite extensively in thePacific and in Europe.” Partners include theInternational Space University and the JapaneseAerospace Exploration Agency. Pulham comparesthe symposium to the Paris Air Show. Companiesactually negotiate contracts with one another whilethere. There is also significant intellectual contentpresented, both government and commercial.

The National Space Symposium includes acareer fair for college students (undergraduate,graduate and transitioning military personnel),where they can mingle with industry leaders fromaround the world and gain a greater understandinginto career options. There are specific educationevents, including an entire day of programs formembers of the foundation’s Teacher Liaison pro-gram, who attend the symposium free of charge.Members of the Teacher Liaison program gothrough a special selection process. “If they getselected, they commit to the Space Foundation thatthey are going to promote as much as they can andincorporate space activities into their classroomsand also among their colleagues and fellow faculty,”says Probert. They receive weekly communiqués onspace and science. Over the past five years, approxi-mately 200 teachers from all over the U.S. haveparticipated.

Two pictures from theexhibit center at the 23rd

National Space Symposium


In Washington, DC, the SpaceFoundation government affairs team lob-bies on Capitol Hill, keeping members ofCongress and their staffs informed onspace issues. “Providing a non-partisanevaluation and assessment of things thatare going on in space so that members ofCongress can make informed decisions,”says Pulham.

The Space Foundation reached out toall the presidential candidates and offeredto provide information and serve as aresource on the space-related issues anddecisions they may face if elected. SenatorBarack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton andSenator John McCain have all issued posi-tion papers on space. Pulham is pleasedthat Senator Obama, who just a fewmonths ago advocated taking money outof NASA, has now included a platform inhis campaign in favor of space exploration.

Each year, the foundation’s researchand analysis department publishes TheSpace Report, a comprehensive overviewon what went on in the space industry dur-ing the previous year. In contains econom-ic and revenue data along with informationabout the foundation’s education pro-grams.

Pulham says the gap between thosewho work in the space industry and spaceenthusiasts isn’t all that big. “I can’t tell youhow excited people in our industry are

about the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek moviein production,” he says. “As soon as that HDtrailer hit the Web, that thing was goingeveryplace. I am so excited the franchise iskicking back up again. People have beenhugely influenced by things like Star Trek,and we embrace that. We think there’s aplace for everybody in space—whetheryou’re a storyteller, an artist, a historian, amoviemaker, a scientist, or an astronomer.Space is common to all of us.”

Probert says space enthusiasts can par-ticipate in the Space Foundation’s virtual lab.A new one is coming online this spring. “The

2007 Space Technology Hall of Fame honorees and presenters

Student tour participants at the 22ndNational Space Symposium

2006 Hill Award recipient, Buzz Aldrin,Ph.D., looking at the Hill Award

28 SPACE LIFESTYLE WINTERSPRING2008


Established in 2005, The Space FoundationIndex (spacefoundation.org/spaceindex/) isa weighted index that tracks the market per-formance of 31 publicly traded companies

that derive a significant portion of their revenuefrom space-related endeavors and activities. Initiallyintroduced as an annual report, the Index went live,in December 2007, with a Web-based version.This version is updated each business day, just afterthe close of the markets. Performance compar-isons are given with the NASDAQ and S&P 500 indaily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual intervals.

“My former company, SpaceVest Capital, did alot of work during the ‘90s to try and characterizewhat the space industry is,” says JohnHigginbotham, a member of the Space Foundation’sboard and the initial force behind the Index. “AtSpaceVest, we started to look at various ways youcould create an index. When I officially retired fromSpaceVest Capital in early 2006, we donated all ofour intellectual property on the space industry stud-ies and the early work on the index to the SpaceFoundation.

“It is perfectly appropriate for the SpaceFoundation to do the Index,” he adds. “By virtue ofthis Index they are able to communicate to the mar-ketplace in a very efficient manner the performanceof the space industry, which is absolutely required tobe able to get credibility in the capital markets.”

“In my mind, it made sense to take the Index livebecause people watch the stock market on a dailybasis,” said Marty Hauser, vice president, researchand analysis. “The feedback so far is fairly positive.People appreciate having a way to track space andthe major companies that are players in the spacemarketplace. I also think it has room to grow.”

Kevin Leclaire, formerly a senior associate withSpaceVest Capital and now managing director ofISDR Consulting, did much of the research behindthe Space Foundation Index and now maintains it ona daily basis. The companies in the Index are dividedinto two distinct categories, each with two subcate-gories. Infrastructure Companies break down intoSpace Segment Sub-System Manufacturers &System Integrators and Ground Segment & SatelliteComponent Manufacturers. Satellite Service

Companies are broken out as Consumer/RetailServices and Enterprise/Government Services.

In terms of how a public company rates inclusionin the Index, Leclaire explains some factors. “Forsmall companies, about 40 percent of their rev-enues have to be related to space,” he said. “Forlarger companies, it’s tougher, because companieslike Lockhead, Boeing, Northrup and Raytheon allhave large components of their business that arenot related to space, but they’re very well known asspace companies. So, if they are large and they’vegot over a billion dollars a year in revenue fromspace, I will relax that 40 percent requirement downto around 25 percent.”

Periodic reviews take place where Leclairereviews the composition of the Index. Once a year,he’ll check that a company’s space revenue is in linewith the Index’s guidelines. On a regular basis, hechecks if any of the companies have changed theirtickers or if they’ve been acquired or acquired othercompanies.

Because the Index only tracks publicly tradedcompanies, Hauser explained, it cannot really giveinsight into cutting-edge private companies that arethe pioneers in commercial space travel. “Thepotential is there, but there are certainly some longpulls that the industry has to overcome,” Hausersaid. “It’s one thing to build a rocket that puts asatellite into orbit. It’s another thing to build a rocketor some other sort of space craft that is going toput a human being into orbit.” Last year, Northrupdid acquire Scaled Composites, which has a con-tract with Virgin Galatic to build SpaceShipTwo.

Leclaire also said there is a company in Europelisted on multiple European exchanges, EuropeanAeronautic Defense and Space Company, which hasproposed a vehicle for commercial space travel andspent money on the design concept. Should a U.S.company solely in that arena go public, Leclairewould track it. “After an appropriate period of time,assuming they meet certain criteria, they would beadded to the Index,” he says.

The Index has often outperformed the overallmarket, which Higginbotham attributes to growthsectors in the economy.

Tracking Orbital Businesses: The Space Foundation IndexBy Lois Elfman

virtual lab that’s available now is on the AsteroidApophis,” he explains. “Folks can learn about aster-oids and their history. They can take quizzes. Theycan also take part in a scenario and put forth somesolutions to Apophis. Should it slip through a certainkeyhole in 2029, there’s a fair chance it may slaminto Earth in 2036. A similar asteroid is what isbelieved to have wiped out the dinosaurs. This issomething that should be of interest to us all.”

Pulham notes that the Space Foundation willcontinue to work with both the public and privatesectors to push forward space exploration. “Spaceis a long-term investment,” he says. “It takes a vision-ary to put in place a plan and funding for the planthat will continue to assure U.S. leadership. I’mencouraged by what’s going on in the private sec-tor.” While in New York for meetings on an inaugu-ral conference of the financial community scheduledfor June, Pulham attended the unveiling of VirginGalactic’s SpaceShip Two model.

“Virgin Galactic is not measuring their perform-

ance on a day-to-day or quarter-to-quarter basis.They’re measuring on their 15-year plan and theyare making progress because they’re in this for thelong haul,” he says. “Government programs, by defi-nition, are extremely bureaucratically managed,because it’s public dollars involved. You can’t takethe kinds of risks with public dollars that you canwith private dollars.

“What we’re seeing today is a renaissance of pri-vate interest in space flight and in developing com-mercial, sustainable models for commercial activity

in space. In addition to spacetravel, we have to keep in mindall the space applications—GPS,satellite radio, satellite television,etc., that is already being doneon a commercial market….What NASA does is less than 8percent of what’s going on inspace. Space is already a com-mercial domain and it’s going tobecome more and more a com-mercial domain as we go ahead.

“The Space Foundationneeds to continue to foster thedialogue, which we do at ourtrade shows and conventions, sothat all parts of the industry con-tinue to talk to each other andparticipate in what’s going on.We have to continue to informpolicy makers of the needs andrequirements of these young

companies. Any time you create a business, the gov-ernment is going to want to regulate it. So we needto be there on the ground floor to make sure regula-tions don’t choke off the industry as it’s being born.Then we have to continue in the classrooms tomake sure that our kids are inspired enough to takethese jobs.”

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(Above Left) The Honorable Robert S. Walker presenting Eileen Collins with the 2007Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award. (This award recognizes outstanding contribu-tions toward increasing public awareness of and support for the exploration and develop-ment of space.) At the time Walker was the Chairman of the Space Foundation Board ofDirectors. His term concluded in January 2008 and he is now Chairman Emeritus of theSpace Foundation Board of Directors.)(Above Right) Walker with Robert Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace.Bigelow Aerospace was the recipient of the 2007 Space Achievement Award.

Students participating in tours of the exhibit center at the 23rdNational Space Symposium


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s economicand environ-mental pres-sures increasearound theworld, emerg-ing organiza-tions are help-ing many differ-ent countriessustain andprofit amidthese times ofchange.

One organi-zation, theInternationalWaterManagementInstitute (IWMI)

(www.iwmi.org), is using resources of the space sec-tor to help find solutions to maximize the potential forgathering what may be the Earth’s most preciousresource: water.

Working with other national and internationalinstitutes from around the globe such as the World

ABank, the IWMI hopes to show users of its datawhere there is variability in water productivity. TheInstitute accomplishes this goal through its collectionof data from a group of remote sensing satellitesorbiting Earth.

If finding oceans, lakes, or rivers seems to be anobvious task to someone walking around a givenarea, why would one need maps made from expen-sive satellites to show you where water is on theEarth? A lake is a lake, and a river is a river.Sounds simple. The search for water seems over.But, the IWMI is accomplishing more than the obvi-ous and finding what even traditional maps can’t tellus.

Led by Dr. Prasad S. Thenkabail , the Sri Lankanheadquartered institute has collected maps of theEarth from space to help its users find where watercan be managed, even if this means managingwater found from space, which is under the ground.

Issues related to where water is used and tokeeping food resources secure can easily be deter-mined, said Thenkabail, “by having a good irrigatedmap.” With 80% of water consumption currentlygoing to irrigated areas, this type of mappingbecomes very important.

But how does one find water, uncharted, or from

AGlobal irrigated areas (in blue and red) and rainfed areas (in orange and yellow) by color. Image provided by IWMI


http://www.iwmi.org

CCAANN TTHHEE RREEAALLMMOOFF TTHHEE SSTTAARRSSGGIIVVEE LLIIFFEE??

By David Bullock

CCAANN TTHHEE RREEAALLMMOOFF TTHHEE SSTTAARRSSGGIIVVEE LLIIFFEE??

By David Bullock

How Water Management on Earth IsAided by Space-Based Remote Sensing

How Water Management on Earth IsAided by Space-Based Remote Sensing


underneath the ground,using satellites, whichare far away in space,orbiting the Earth itself?

“We try to look atplant productivity,”Thenkabail gave as anexample. To look whereplants are thriving on theEarth, one can make astrong connection thatthose areas are thelocations where watercan be found. On theground, water manage-ment techniques canthen be used to maxi-mize that area’s waterpotential. “The idea,”Thenkabail emphasized,“is to grow more foodfrom a set amount ofwater.”

As an IWMI mapuser looks at irrigatedareas from space, theyare looking to eventually determine what the differ-entlevels of water productivity are for an entire coun-try or region. Thus, the technologies of space givemuch usefulness to scientists and decision-makers.“Remote sensing offers a globally consistent patternfor collecting data,” explained Thenkabail, “You arenot bound by the varying system [of information col-lection] across nations.” Before, scientists and ana-lysts would use data from the acquired from survey-ing an area on the ground, solely.

When ground data is used by itself, maps canbecome inconsistent with each other in many ways.Remotely sensed maps are different in that they aremade from captured reflected light wavelengthsbounced off the Earth and onto a satellite’s imagecapturing device, which operates much like a typicalcamera. The satellite’s “camera” however, can cap-ture not only visible light, but can be equipped to cap-ture infrared light. This allows for even better dis-tinctions of what can be found on the Earth. Furtheruse of computer algorithms applied to the maps gen-erated can bring even more distinctions of what auser is actually looking at on the Earth and maybeeven its properties. Traditional maps may havelooked at irrigated areas by counting crops, for exam-

ple. But remote sensingcan tell you not only thearea of cropland, but thedensity of crops andwhat crops are plantedfor a given area. Thedata, thus, becomes notonly consistent withother maps taken by thesame satellite within ashort time period, butover years.

And when looking atany form of globalchange, remote sensingbecomes an importanttool for other reasons.“Accurate and reliableinformation on variousparametes that con-tribute to global changeare essential for humansto adapt and mitigatesome of the effects,” saidDr. Santhosh Seelan ofthe University of North

Dakota’s Space Studies Department, “Remote sens-ing is the only way to obtain these parameters in aquick and reliable manner.” So in times of disaster,speed and reliability can help better save property,resources and even lives.

One of the maps systems used by the IWMI,called Global Irrigated Area Mapping, or GIAM, cov-ers all the irrigated areas of the world. The mappingsystem has within it images taken from many well-known satellites in the remote sensing world.

These include the United States givernmentowned satellites LANDSAT and MODIS and the pri-vately owned French satellite SPOT.

The IWMI has been a model of remote sensingand Global Information System (GIS) applications.“The International Water Management Institute, likemost other institutions working on global change ornatural resource studies, make excellent use of theremote sensing data,” said Seelan. But the IWMI, inparticular, beat out over 300,000 organizations thatuse GIS software and won the Special Achievementin GIS (SAG) Award at the 27th Annual ESRIInternational User Conference in San Diego,California, June 20, 2007. ESRI is a company thatis a leader for GIS software.

ImageprovidedbyIWMI


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The institute won the award for its DataStorehouse Pathway (DSP) website(www.iwmidsp.org). The site provides several ter-abytes of high scientific quality remote sensing andGIS products. Decision makers and scientists canuse this data to better help their countries. Forexample, in the year 2007 the site has helped over2,000 users analyze tsunami damage and assess

related recoveryneeds. Now thesite boasts 3,500users from morethan 80 coun-tries.

One of fifteenresearch centers,the IWMI, is sup-ported by a net-work of over 60governments,national and inter-national organiza-tions collectivelyknown as theCGIAR –Consultative

The president of the Global InformationSystem (GIS) software company ESRI,Jack Dangermond, awards Dr. PrasadThenkabail the Special Achievement inGIS (SAG) Award for the work theInternational Water ManagementInstitute (IWMI) made in creating itsData Storehouse Pathway (DSP) remotesensing information archives. Photoprovided by IWMI

ImageprovidedbyIWMI

Group for International Agricultural Research. TheIWMI also has regional offices in Asia and Africa.

Upcoming projects for the IWMI include the studyof linking approximately 20 large rivers in India.Called the National River-Linking Project in India(http://nrlp.iwmi.org/main/maps.asp), the IWMI istrying to study the ecological and environmentalimpacts of this project and help analyze food securityand water issues in India.

Most people tend to focus on large riverways, saidThenkabail, but there are 6,100 smaller riverways inthe Indian River Basin, for example. “(remote sensing”opens an eye for them,” he explained.

Currently working for the IWMI is Yale graduatestudent Noel Aloysius. He looks at the details of riverbasins and the amount of water they supply. Beforecoming to the IWMI he worked on smaller systemlevel projects. “As a next step, I [then] did somewater resource planning at the river basin level,” saidAloysius. He now looks at things from remotelysensed data giving him a broader picture from theindividual level work he originally performed.

Working for organizations like the IWMI, profes-sionals like Aloysius are changing the way water ismanaged here on Earth, using tools found, literally,amongst the stars.


http://www.iwmidsp.org

http://nrlp.iwmi.org/main/maps.asp

A NewRaceto theMoon:

A NewRaceto theMoon:

36 SPACE LIFESTYLE WINTER/SPRING008

Team Southern California Felene Group. Illustration Credit: Andrew Collis

By William I. Lengeman III

Competitors Gear Up For Google

Lunar X-PRIZE

Competitors Gear Up For Google

Lunar X-PRIZEBy William I. Lengeman III


In the annals of space exploration and human histo-ry as a whole, July 20, 1969 holds a particularplace of honor. It is, of course, the day that humanbeings - American astronauts Neil Armstrong andBuzz Aldrin - first walked on another world.

Another significant event – one could argue thatit was as important and perhaps even more so -came nearly a decade earlier. On September 14,1959, the Soviet Union's Luna 2 probe, which hadbeen launched two days earlier, impacted on theMoon's surface. Though it destroyed itself in theprocess, this marked the first time that mankindhad made contact with another world.

The excitement of lunar exploration dwindled


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The Pomerantz Report; Video Blog from Google HQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAg8VckFmdY

announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE. In the wordsof its founders, the prize is described as "a roboticrace to the moon to win a remarkable $30 millionprize purse."

The X PRIZE Foundation has been in place forover a decade and has drawn quite a bit of notice

during that time. It wasfounded in 1995 by spaceentrepreneur, Dr. PeterDiamandis. He wasinspired by pilot CharlesLindbergh, whom we knowbest for winning a similarprize in the field of aviationin the early part of lastcentury. The stated goal ofthe X PRIZE Foundation is"to bring about radicalbreakthroughs for the ben-efit of humanity" by creat-ing large incentive prizecompetitions.

Among theFoundation's projects: theArchon X PRIZE forGenomics, which gotunderway in 2006 andwhich will award $10 mil-lion to the first team to

considerably following Armstrong andAldrin's Apollo 11 moonwalk, but in recentyears the Moon is again being touted as apopular destination. In 2004, PresidentGeorge Bush announced that the UnitedStates would begin sending unmannedprobes to the lunar surface as early as2008, with manned missions to the Moonplanned for 2020.

The United States won't be alone as itattempts to reestablish a lunar explorationprogram. In late 2007, Japan launchedSelene - also known as Kaguya - a lunarorbiter that's expected to circle the Moonand collect data for up to a year. A few weeks laterthe Chinese launched a lunar orbiter called Chang'e1. India is expected to enter this scaled down ver-sion of the space race in April 2008, withChandrayaan I, a craft that will orbit the Moon for asmuch as two years and send out an impact probe.

One day before Japan's Selene was lofted moon-ward came an announcement of no small importfor the field of lunar exploration. In this case thenews came from the private sector. On September13, 2007, the X PRIZE Foundation and Google


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Members of the X PRIZE foundation and contenders in the GoogleLunar X PRIZE gather for a group shot.The following pages show an artists rendition for each of the entriesof the Google Lunar X Prize. Note that these designs may changethroughout the competition.

sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days. Theupcoming Automotive X PRIZE will go to the firstteam that wins a stage race for clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon-equivalent fuel economy.

The Ansari X PRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight,announced in 1996, is probably the X PRIZEFoundation's best-known award to date. Originallyknown as just the X PRIZE, it awarded $10 millionto the first privately financed team to build and fly athree-passenger vehicle 100 kilometers into spacetwice within two weeks. In all, 26 teams from sevennations invested more than $100 million in pursuitof the prize, which was awarded in 2004 to MojaveAerospace Ventures. The name of the prize waschanged to recognize a multi-million dollar donationfrom entrepreneurs Anousheh Ansari and AmirAnsari in 2004. Initial support for the prize camefrom the New Spirit of St. Louis, a group of 100

individuals who each contributed $25,000. The Google Lunar X PRIZE's top award of $20

million will go the first private company (all teamsmust be at least 90% privately funded) that lands avehicle on the Moon before the end of 2012 andsuccessfully completes a series of tasks, whichinclude traveling across the surface for at least500 meters, transmitting images and video back toEarth and collecting scientific data.

If there is no winner during this time frame, theprize drops to $15 million for any team that com-pletes the task before the final deadline - December31, 2014. The second company to reach the Moonalso takes home $5 million and there will be $5 mil-lion bonuses for other achievements, such as takingphotographs of man-made artifacts (such as equip-ment left by Apollo missions), driving at least five kilo-meters across the Moon's surface and survivingthe 14-day lunar night.


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In the six months follow-ing the rollout, the GoogleLunar X PRIZE received560 requests for informa-tion from more than 53countries. Of those, 11teams had started or com-pleted Letters of Intent. OnDecember 6, 2007, at theSpace Investment Summitin San Jose, California,Odyssey Moon became thefirst team to throw its hat inthe ring.

Odyssey Moon is a pri-vate commercial lunarenterprise headquartered inthe Isle of Man. It’s headedby Dr. Robert Richards, founder of the InternationalSpace University, which provides graduate-level train-ing to future leaders of the emerging global spacecommunity, and Dr. Ramin Khadem, former CFO atsatellite communications company INMARSAT.

A representative for Odyssey Moon said theteam isn't ready to share any concrete plans yet, butRichards said in a press release the company's goalis to lower the price of getting to the Moon by anorder of magnitude and in doing so help catalyze a

"Moonrush" to Earth's sister world. Richards likensthe Moon to an eighth continent rich in energy andresources floating just offshore. He said the group'slong-term vision is to make missions to the Moonaccessible and commercially viable. Odyssey Moon's

prime contractor will be MDAof Canada, a company withsubstantial experience in pro-viding robotics on the SpaceShuttle and International SpaceStation, among other things.

Lunar X PRIZE officialsspeculate the first successfullanding will come in the nextthree to four years, an esti-mate the Odyssey Moon teamagrees with. Most connectedwith the prize also agree thatthe cost of a successful projectwill be more then the value ofthe prize. Diamandis guesses itwill be in the $20-40 millionrange.

Odyssey Moon believes thecost of sending their craft,MoonOne (M-1), could reachthe $100 million mark. Given


Team Micro Space. Illustration Credit: Andrew Collis

Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards (left image) and Dr. RhaminKhadem.(right image) of Odyssey Moon at the podium during theOdyssey Moon Announcement at the Space Investment Summit inSan Jose. Photo Credits: X-Prize Foundation

NNot long after Google and the X PRIZE Foundationannounced the creation of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, on February 21, 2008 nine more teams

joined Odyssey Moon in the race. Of the nine new com-petitors, seven were based in the United States, and theother two were from Italy and Romania.

Quantum3, which is led by Paul Carliner, intends tolaunch a small craft from the East Coast and land theirMoondancer on the Moon at the Sea of Tranquility.According to Rachel MacKnight, CommunicationsDirector for Quantum3, the launch is planned for June2009. MacKnight says team members - Carliner,Courtney Stadd and Liam Sarsfield - bring more than 50years experience to thetable. "There is no institu-tional bureaucracy or bag-gage," MacKnight says."Together they can makedecisions and move quicklyas conditions and opportu-nities develop."

Pete Bitar, leader ofLunaTrex, feels that teamsaiming to launch in mid-2009 are setting a difficulttask for themselves. "Givingourselves 3 1/2 years todo this fits the budget, theengineering schedule, andthe overall parallel busi-ness model of small satellite launch as well." Among theindividuals, companies, and universities that make upLunaTrex are some who also competed for the Ansari XPRIZE.

Bitar expects that it will cost from $12 to $18 mil-lion to get their craft - Tumbleweed - to the Moon. "Weare attempting to ‘invent’ as little as possible, workingwith combining in a unique way, proven technologiesthat have already been space-tested. Since we arelaunching a prototype, there is no need to add unneces-sary engineering time and expense - and risk - to theequation."

Harold Rosen, leader of the Southern CaliforniaSelene Group, has credentials that include forming andleading the team that designed and built the first suc-cessful geostationary satellite, in 1963. Team membershold more than 130 space-related patents and haveparticipated in over 500 space missions.

According to SCSG Associate Team Leader,Deborah Castleman, the design of their Spirit of

Google Lunar X PRIZE Field Gets Crowded

Southern California is so simple that the spacecraftcould be available for launch in less than two years. "Theproblem," Castleman says. "Is that the lowest costlaunch vehicles may not be available in that timeframe."Castleman says the team is holding to their original $20million cost estimate, but that the $5 million cost mar-gin built into that estimate is "rapidly disappearing" dueto various factors.

Richard Speck, of Colorado-based Micro-Space, Inc.,says his is "one of only two teams (presently registered)which has significant rocket development and operationexperience, and the only one who has achieved the sortof rocket control necessary for a soft landing." Micro-Space also competed in the Ansari X PRIZE and the

Northrop Grumman LunarLander Challenge. Specksays the projected cost forsending their HumanLunar Lander to the Moonis $10 million.

One of two internation-al teams vying for the prize,Aeronautics andCosmonautics RomanianAssociation (ARCA) is anon-governmental organi-zation which promotesinnovative aerospace proj-ects and which is based inValcea, Romania. ARCA,which was one of the lead-

ing contenders in the Ansari X PRIZE, will attempt toland a craft called European Lunar Explorer on theMoon. The other international contender, Team Italia, iscollaboration between several universities under theleadership of Prof. Amalia Ercoli-Finzi. Team Italia is con-sidering many different possible rover designs, rangingfrom traditional wheeled rovers to more advancedrobotics.

Team Chandah – which is Sanskrit for “moon” - isheaded by Texas-based energy industry entrepreneur,Adil Jafry. He says he found out about the contest byrunning across a press release by chance. Though pos-sessing considerably less aerospace experience thanother competitors, the self-described "no-name immi-grant entrepreneur" suggests that he was also some-thing of an underdog when he launched an energy com-pany in 2002.

Jafry says his team is still being developed, but saysthat “In addition to defining the scope of the problem


The current team leaders of the Lunar Google X PRIZE.The current team leaders of the Lunar Google X PRIZE.

posed by the competition and its potential solutions, ourteam will analyze potential commercialization opportuni-ties for each discrete technology developed, and buildthe project capacity accordingly.” Chandah’s craft will benamed Shehrezade, for Jafry’s daughter.

As a measure of just how much interest there'sbeen in the Google Lunar X Prize, consider that at thesix-month point of the Ansari X PRIZE, there were onlytwo teams registered, as opposed to the ten teams whohave already registered for the Lunar X PRIZE. Given theamount of interest thus far, it's likely that this race willheat up even more as time goes on.

Team Web Sites:Odyssey Moonhttp://www.odysseymoon.com/

Team Astrobotichttp://www.astrobotictech.com/

FREDNEThttp://www.frednet.com/

Quantum3http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/quantum3

LunaTrexhttp://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/lunatrexhttp://www.lunatrex.com/

Southern California Selene Grouphttp://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/scsg

Micro-Spacehttp://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/micro-spacehttp://www.micro-space.com/

Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA)http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/arcahttp://www.arcaspace.ro/

Team Italiahttp://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/team-italiahttp://team-italia.com/english/

Chandahhttp://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/chanda

the cost of government-sponsored roboticmissions, M-1 is a relative bargain. The esti-mate is not farfetched, given that the AnsariX PRIZE winners spent more than two and ahalf times the amount of the $10 millionprize.

On February 21, 2008, the X PRIZEFoundation and Google announced that ninemore teams would be joining Odyssey Moonin the race, among them Team Astroboticand Team FREDNET. The seven other teamsinclude Aeronautics and CosmonauticsRomanian Association (ARCA), fromRomania; Team Italia, from Italy; andChandah, LunaTrex, Micro-Space, Quantum3and Southern California Selene Group, whoare all based in the United States (see side-bar).

Team Astrobotic, consisting of partici-pants from defense contractor Raytheon,Carnegie Mellon University and several otheruniversities, announced that they wouldattempt to send their Artemis Lander andRed Rover to the Moon.

Led by William "Red" Whittaker, this teamhas extensive experience in robotics.Whittaker has referred to the group as "arobotics and aerospace dream team." Asdirector of Carnegie Mellon's Field RoboticsCenter, Whittaker has overseen such robot-ics initiatives as searching for meteorites inAntarctica, retrieving gas samples frominside a volcano, and competing in DARPA'sUrban Challenge and Grand Challenge com-petitions for self-driving vehicles. Other proj-ects include Scarab, a rover produced forNASA to test robotic drilling on extraterrestri-al surfaces.

Whittaker said he's advocated sendingprivately financed robotics missions to theMoon for at least a decade. His team hopesto raise money by selling as much as $75million in advertising. The team wants to landnear the Apollo 11 site on July 20, 2009, 40years after Armstrong and Aldrin made histo-ry at the same location. The team's Web sitesays, "a modest rover aimed solely at winningthe Google Lunar X PRIZE could be launchedfrom the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport ona small booster."

David Gump, President of


http://www.odysseymoon.com/

http://www.astrobotictech.com/

http://www.frednet.com/

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/quantum3

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/lunatrex

http://www.lunatrex.com/

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/scsg

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/micro-space

http://www.micro-space.com/

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/arca

http://www.arcaspace.ro/

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/team-italia

http://team-italia.com/english/

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/chanda

Transformational Space Corporation and adviser tothe Carnegie Mellon participants, is forthright whenit comes to the group's intentions. "This is a race, soCarnegie Mellon intends to win it by moving out veryquickly. An initial functional model was designed, con-structed and put into testing by early January. Ourgoal is to land a rover with multiple high-definitionvideo cameras near the Apollo 11 site in July2009."

Gump said the team isn't ready to release morespecifics regarding funding yet, but says that theeventual cost for a successful mission will likely bedouble the prize amount and quite possibly a lotmore. Gump believes the launch vehicle is a key fac-tor and he will set weight and size limits on thedesign of the rover that are absolute. "We have visit-ed launch suppliers around the globe," Gump said."To determine what's available in the short timeframe we need, and at a cost that we can fit intoour budget. A decision will be made in the next fewmonths."

The disadvantages of doing such a mission inthe private sector, according to Gump, include theneed to attract investors, sign up customers, andthe possibility that a competitor may be smarterand faster. "In short," he said, "All the joys of impar-tially ruthless capitalism, which weeds out the bigtalkers and rewards those who are the most com-petent."

On the other hand, there are benefits that helpcounterbalance those points. ‘We can make a differ-ent assessment of risk vs. reward than a govern-ment planner,’ Gump pointed out. "There's almostno upside in the government to quick, decisiveaction; any short-circuiting of normal processes willearn a manager lots of enemies and almost norewards. Any acceptance of higher risk (from usingnewer gear that hasn't been used before in space)will be severely criticized if it should fail in operation.The fact that it would have improved the capabilitiesby 50% or saved 20% of the mission cost is prettymuch irrelevant in the government economy. In the

SPACE LIFESTYLE WINTER/SPRING 2008

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private sector we will get rewarded - we can sellmore capabilities to more customers and we canget the project rolling with less cash and/or earn ahigher return for investors."

You could probably call Team FREDNET the littleteam that could, or perhaps the team with a differ-ence. As they note at their Web site, they are "thefirst and only 100% Open Source Competitor forthe Google Lunar X PRIZE." In an interview posted atthe site, Fred Bourgeois - the Fred in FREDNET -says that as far back as 1984 he was dreamingabout constructing his own personal spacecraft andbuilding a city on the Moon.

Bourgeois goes on to say that "Team FREDNETis competing for the Lunar X PRIZE in what somemight call a dangerous format. Everything from thesystem specs to the operational source code will beposted on the project's web site for the world tosee. How can Team FREDNET remain competitivewhen the whole thing is 'out there' for every com-petitor to copy and use? That remains to be seen,but presumably other competitors will have theirown unique ideas and goals, many of which may beincompatible with our solutions."

Team FREDNET has created a prototype of theirrover that's about the size of a toaster and the finalproduct may be even smaller. They'll face the samehurdles as the other teams, but are more conserva-tive with their cost estimates. They've mentioned afigure of $12-15 million for the mission and havediscussed circumventing the costly launch phase of

SL

the project by catchinga ride on the SpaceShuttle or paying for aride on a Russian mis-sile.

Elaborating on thecost aspect, Bourgeoissaid that a successfulmission could rangeanywhere from $10 mil-lion to $1 billion, depend-ing on the approachtaken. “If someonewants to deposit anSUV on the Moon, thenthey are going to spendsomething closer to thelarger number. Ourapproach should comein somewhat closer to

the smaller number.”Bourgeois feels there could be substantial bene-

fits to doing such a mission in the private sector.“We foresee a variety of very profitable off-shoots inthe not-so-distant future,” he said. “Those would bemost difficult to pursue if this were a governmentproject. We have less overhead, more freedom,more creativity, and (being open source) a widervariety of talented and dedicated people to partici-pate in the development.”

The X PRIZE Foundation also announced thatSpace Florida will be the first preferred launch sitefor the competition. Space Florida will award anadditional prize of $2 million to the Grand Prize win-ner, if the winning flight is launched from Florida.Space Florida is the principal organization chargedwith promoting and developing Florida's aerospaceindustry. Preferred partners taking part in the com-petition will offer additional prizes or strategic servic-es to teams at a discounted rate.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE isn't currently the onlygame in town when it comes to competitionsdesigned to spur non-governmental space missions.America's Space Prize, put in motion by entrepre-neur Robert Bigelow in 2004, will award $50 mil-lion to the first competitor who can send five peopleinto Earth orbit twice within a 60-day span. Thedeadline for the contest is January 10, 2010. Withall this in mind, it looks like the next few years areshaping up to be an exciting time for privately fund-ed space exploration.

SPRING/WINTER 2008 SPACELIFESTYLE 45

Team Astrobotic. Illustration Credit: Andrew Collisthe X PRIZE foundation did not give illustrations for

Team Italia and Team Quantum3.

N46 SPACE LIFESTYLE WINTER/SPRING 2008

By Nancy Atkinson

avigating a spacecraft through the heavens hasbeen compared to sailing a ship on the open seasor driving a vehicle on a long, cross country journey.Analogies are necessary, since spacecraft naviga-tion is performed by a relatively small sampling ofthe human race, and the job usually involves doingthings that have never been done before. Those ofus who have trouble making sense of a road maphere on Earth stand in awe of what these celestialnavigators can accomplish.

In simplest terms, spacecraft navigation entails

THHEE NAAVVIIGGAATTOORRSS:

GUUIIDDIINNGGOUURR SPPAACCEECCRRAAFFTTTOO BEEYYOONNDD ((AANNDD BBAACCKK))

“All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” –English poet John Masefield

THHEE NAAVVIIGGAATTOORRSS:

GUUIIDDIINNGGOUURR SPPAACCEECCRRAAFFTTTOO BEEYYOONNDD ((AANNDD BBAACCKK))

determining where the spacecraft is and keeping it oncourse to the desired destination. But it’s not as easyas just getting from Point A (Earth) to Point B (a plan-et or other body in our solar system.) These are notfixed positions in space. Navigators must meet thechallenges of calculating the exact speeds and orien-tations of a rotating Earth, a rotating target destina-tion, as well as a moving spacecraft, while all aresimultaneously traveling in their own orbits around theSun.

Chris Potts, who helped lead the navigation teams


The Stardust Mission Navigation Team was presented with Popular Mechanics’ Breakthrough Award. Said Team Chief Ken Williams: “The day we took thispicture, I felt a strong sense of camaraderie with all these folks after everything had worked so well. They’re a very talented group of people who did atremendous job.” FRONT ROW – left to right:Tung-Han You, Ken Williams, Prem Menon. 2nd Row: Roby Wilson, Katherine Nakazono, Julie Kangas. 3RDRow: Daniel Lyons, Ram Ramachand, Bhat Shyam Bhaskaran, Cliff Helfrich, Jeff Tooley, David Jefferson, Dimitri Gerasimatos, Paul Thompson, NeilMottinger. Last row: Darren Baird, Jae Lee, Chris Potts, Tim McElrath, Brian Kennedy

for the Mars Exploration Rovers(MER), compared the target require-ments of landing the Spirit roverinside a specific crater on Mars tobeing able to shoot a basketballthrough a hoop 9000 miles away.“Not only do you have to make theshot perfectly without the ball touch-ing the rim, but the timing has to beperfect, so you make the shot exactlyas the buzzer sounds,” he said.

Ken Williams was the NavigationTeam Chief for the Stardust mis-sion’s return of pristine samples of acomet back to Earth. For a success-ful re-entry and landing at a preciselocation in Utah, the navigation teamhad to target the return capsule’sentry to a specific point in the Earth’s atmosphere towithin eight 100ths of a degree, a feat that’s beencompared to hitting the eye of a sewing needle with apiece of thread from across a room.

Literally, this is rocket science.Navigation is essential to every robotic mission,

and while mission success hinges onhow well the navigation team performs,navigators aren’t usually found in thelimelight, sitting up on stage for a pressconference. Typically that’s reserved forthe mission scientists and designers.The navigators, seemingly, work behindthe scenes, manning the trenches in rel-ative anonymity.

But I recently had the opportunity totalk to a few spacecraft navigators,learning more about their job and discov-ering the innate qualities of those whoguide our spacecraft to places beyond.

Neil Mottinger has been part ofnumerous missions since he startedworking at the Jet Propulsion Laboratoryin 1967. He assisted with some of the

early lunar and planetary missions, and developedsome of the software that navigators still use today.

There are several different sub-disciplines tospacecraft navigation, and one of Mottinger’s special-ties is orbit determination. “Orbit determination isknowing where the spacecraft is and where it’s

Ken Williams of KinetX, currentNavigation Team Chief for the MES-SENGER mission to Mercury.

going,” said Mottinger, who currently works with theMars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission andthe upcoming LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observationand Sensing Satellite) mission to the moon. “It startswith predicting the trajectory where the spacecraftwill be immediately after launch so that the DeepSpace Network (DSN) knows where to point theirantenna and on what frequency to expect the signal.”The DSN consists of a network of extremely sensitivedeep space communications antennas at three loca-tions: Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; andCanberra, Australia. The strategic placementapproximately 120 degrees apart on Earth’s surfaceallows constant observation of spacecraft as theEarth rotates.

Since there’s no GPS in outer space, navigatorsprocess the radiometric tracking data received fromthe DSN to determine the spacecraft’s position andvelocity. They also use optical data, where the space-craft takes a picture of the star background to helprefine the spacecraft’s trajectory.

For many years, Mottinger worked with a groupthat provided navigation support for the launch ofover 100 spacecraft. “I never got attached to anyone mission since right after a launch we moved onthe next mission,” Mottinger said. But now he’s been

with the MRO mission for the better part of threeyears, and Mottinger is thrilled with the scientific datathis mission has returned. “We have to provide accu-rate predictions of where the spacecraft is going tobe. Then the engineers know how to orient space-craft so that the scientists can make their observa-tions,” he said. “If we do our job, the scientists cansee a landslide on Mars or look at specific areas onthe planet. If our predictions are wrong, the cam-eras are pointed in the wrong direction. Navigation isintegral to the whole process of ensuring missionsuccess.”

Mottinger said that typically one doesn’t think ofnavigators as scientists, only as a means to an endfor the scientists to get results. However, sometimesscientific by-products come from navigation. Themost famous instance involved the Voyager missionwhen navigator Linda Morabito discovered a volcanoon Jupiter’s moon Io from looking at optical navigationimages. In the Lunar Orbiter missions, navigatorsrealized there were large concentrations of mass,(now called mascons) underneath the moon’s sur-face that were accelerating spacecraft in orbit.

Additionally, the science used in navigation hasimproved dramatically over the years. “When youlook at the types of things we didn’t understand when


Navigators ChrisPotts and NeilMottinger at JPLwith a model ofthe MarsExploration Rover.

I first started versus whatwe know now, it’s over-whelming,” said Mottinger.For example navigatorscan now create very accu-rate models of solar pres-sure – how particles ofsunlight push against aspacecraft and alter itstrajectory — whichincludes not only how sun-light is reflected from dif-ferent surfaces of thespacecraft, but also the re-radiation of energyabsorbed by the solar pan-els and radiated out theback side. Additionallyephemerides, the tables navigators use to obtain thepositions of astronomical objects, have also improvedin accuracy over the years. “The devil is in thedetails,” said Mottinger. “Navigation is getting to be anincredibly precise game.”

Like many who work at JPL, Mottinger enjoys talk-ing to schools or community groups to share theexcitement and recent discoveries of space explo-

ration. “It’s important to beout there telling our mes-sage to get people excitedabout what we’re doing,” hesaid. “And the public is enti-tled to be excited, becausethey’re paying the bill.”

Several years agoMottinger returned to hishometown of Oswego,Illinois to talk to studentsabout his job as a navigator.Sitting in the classroomwas a young Chris Potts,who decided spacecraftnavigation was the careerhe wanted to pursue. Potts,who has been at JPL since

1984, was the Deputy Navigation Team Chief forMER and now works with the Dawn Mission that isen route to orbit two asteroids, Ceres and Vesta.

Potts’ specialty is flight path control. This involvesfiring the propulsion system to alter the spacecraft’svelocity or trajectory, known as Trajectory CorrectionManeuvers (TCM). “That includes understanding thespacecraft’s control capabilities and determining any


Chris Potts at JPL’sannual open house.“I really enjoybeing able to shareour work with thosewho are interestedin space explo-ration, especiallykids. They askreally amazingquestions aboutspace exploration.”

The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit snapped this panoramic image of the "West Valley" region in Gusev Crater onMars. "Husband Hill," the highest point on the horizon is about 800 meters or half a mile away.

limitations,” said Potts. “You determine when you’regoing to fire the propulsion system, how often and theobjective of each maneuver. You also have to evalu-ate the delivery requirements, to make sure you canland within a crater on Mars, for example, and mini-mize risk along the way.”

The design aspect is Potts’ favorite part of the job.“You try to develop a strategy that puts all the piecestogether,” he said. “You have to talk with the missionscientists and understand what their requirementsare, and then know what the spacecraft can do. It’slike people who have an old car and they’ve beenaround it so long, they know how to get the most outof that vehicle. Taking advantage of what the space-craft does well and working around its limitations

feeds into the design of a strategy that pulls it alltogether to make it work.”

Much of Potts’ work involves simulations and test-ing. “We see how the spacecraft behaves, and tryout different strategies to improve it for our situation,”he said. “The navigation section has a whole ‘toolbox’of software that we’re able to use.”

The Dawn spacecraft uses an ion engine, and thisis the first time Potts has worked with a low thrustpropulsion system. “It’s quite a different mission,” hesaid. “The concerns are little bit different than othermissions because the thrust is so efficient. One of thethings you worry about is not having enough time tomake any corrections that are needed. Although thethrust is low, over time it builds up quite a velocity

change and you’re always designing trajectories andchanging commands to make sure the ion engine isfiring in the right direction. If there’s any kind of space-craft fault or hiccup along the way, you have to scram-ble, and some future events might have to be movedaround.” Dawn will arrive at Vesta in 2011.

Potts enjoys being part of the excitement of all thedifferent missions at JPL. “I really enjoy working withsome extremely intelligent and talented people hereand you can definitely sense the passion for the workthat they do,” he said. “Sometimes that can be intimi-dating, but you realize that everyone has their own tal-ent to offer, and everyone helps drive you to do yourbest here. We get to do a variety of interesting work,and it’s very challenging. No two days are the same.”

One of therewards of his job,Potts said, is seeingthe fruition of his workcome to light in scien-tific discoveries. “Withthe Stardust samplereturn, to watch thecapsule land rightwhere it was sup-posed to in Utah wasvery rewarding,” hesaid. “And to see thescientists get theirhands on that dataand start to performtheir investigations,you sense how thrilledand excited they areto finally get to work

on their lifelong ambition.”Potts and Mottinger both worked on the Stardust

mission under the leadership of Ken Williams.Williams worked at JPL for several years, but current-ly is employed by KinetX, a private engineering firmspecializing in aerospace technology and softwaredevelopment. At present, KinetX provides navigationsupport for the New Horizons mission to Pluto, aswell as the MESSENGER (Mercury Surface SpaceEnvironment Geochemistry and Ranging) mission toMercury, and Williams is MESSENGER’s navigationteam chief. Unlike Mottinger and Potts, Williamshasn’t always been involved in space missions and hiscareer in navigation evolved from a background inphysics. He worked at the Applied Physics Lab atJohns Hopkins University before coming to work at


Chris Potts pointsto Gusev Crater onMars on January 4,2004, after theMER navigationteam landed theSpirit rover onMars with unprece-dented accuracy.

JPL in 1994.Williams’ favorite part of being a navigator is find-

ing and solving interesting technical problems. “That’swhat gets my interest,” he said. “MESSENGER cer-tainly has a number of those. We flew by Earth once,Venus twice and Mercury once. We’ll have to fly byMercury two more times before we finally go intoorbit on the fourth encounter. Finding a trajectorythat does all those things successfully is a very inter-esting technical problem that I’m very glad to beinvolved with. We have to consider all sorts of con-straints, too, such as keeping the spacecraft pointedaway from the sun so that the components don’t gettoo warm.”

As a Navigation Team Chief, Williams coordinatesall the sub-disciplines of orbit determination, flight pathcontrol, and optical navigation along with the needs ofmission scientists in terms of observations when theyencounter a planet or comet.

Williams, too, enjoys the exhilaration of being inthe thick of the action in important space missions. “Isuppose it’s like being in a battle, or in a basketball orfootball game,” he said. “You feel the excitement ofseeing events unfold, and responding to any anom-alies or surprises that come up. And when it’s alldone you have a tremendous sense of satisfaction.”

His experiences with Stardust’s return to Earthstand out as a highlight. “Getting all that effort coordi-nated and getting the spacecraft down successfullywas probably the single most rewarding experience inall the time I was at JPL,” he said. “On nearly everymission I’ve worked on there has been a time whereyou have a sense of euphoria about having the space-

craft be in the right place at the right time. That’s agood feeling to have.”

Although leaving JPL was a difficult decision,Williams enjoys his experiences at a private company.“It would have been easy to stay at JPL and be whatthey call a ‘greybeard’ in terms of having experience,but after Stardust, I liked the challenge of leading anavigation team and growing in technical areas,” hesaid. “I thought there would be a better opportunity todo that with a small team in a small company, and Ithought KinetX was a good place to accomplish that.“

Quite the opposite of a ‘greybeard’ is navigatorEmily Gist. She has been at JPL for only 3 years andis part of the navigation team for the Cassini missionat Saturn. Like Potts, she works in flight path control,helping to plan the trajectory and estimate the futureposition of the spacecraft, and to control the correc-tions required to achieve the mission objectives.

She takes great satisfaction knowing she is help-ing to facilitate exploration. “The Saturnian system ismore beautiful than most would have imagined andmore diverse than previously known,” she said. “Theinformation Cassini has provided has enlightened usall. More specifically I love how much I learn each andevery day at JPL and working on the Cassini Mission.”

As part of the ‘next generation’ of navigators, Gistenjoys the challenging environment that JPL provides.“We had an Operations Readiness Test on Cassiniwhere the team was tested to see how we wouldreact to a failure or fault on the spacecraft in an oper-ational environment,” she said. “The senior engineersweren’t in play so the newer generation had to figureit out on our own and we did an excellent job. It mademe proud of all the folks I work with. They are truly tal-ented people.”

Gist said gender has never been an issue in herjob as a navigator. “JPL has a wonderfully diversestaff and while there are not very many female naviga-tors we are not treated differently,” she said. “I ampretty biased, but I think what we lack in quantity wemake up for in quality. I work with some amazingwomen.”

“Additionally, I feel fortunate to live in a time andsociety where regardless of gender one can find thething they want to do and do it to the best of their abil-ity. I love being an engineer and what I try to conveyto young women is that they can love anything theywant, even if it’s math and science, without fear thatit’s a less feminine job.”

The hardest question for all the navigators toanswer was if they had a least favorite part of the job.


The Cassini spacecraft recently took this image of Saturn'ssoftly glowing rings shine in scattered sunlight.

They cited the usual problems with any job: notenough time and too much paperwork. And stresscomes with the job. “Deadlines, especially working atJPL, are very real,” said Potts. “If you’re not preparedfor a critical event in the mission, you usually don’t geta second chance. There’s a lot riding on getting yourjob done properly.”

But all the navigators emphasized the importanceof the team aspect in their job. “You look for the inher-ent quality of the team,” said Mottinger. “I had a proj-ect manager who said that a team catches eachother’s mistakes and the whole is greater than thesum of the parts. Everything is done in a spirit ofcamaraderie, and there’s no such thing as a stupidquestion.”

But seeking individual limelight just doesn’t seemto be in a navigator’s makeup.

“I’m more comfortable working behind the scenesthan doing an interview,” said Potts. “When I know I’vedone my job, and contributed to the mission success,that’s enough for me.”

“I am fine with my work being behind the scenes,”added Gist. “However when I consider the work the

engineers before me and around me have done Isometimes feel they should get more recognition.”

Williams feels, in general, the field of navigationitself should get more recognition. “I think scientistsand people who do purely hardware systems under-estimate the difficulty of what navigators have to do,”he said. “It would be nice if we got more recognitionfrom our peers just from the standpoint of being ableto influence how missions are planned and designedto begin with so that navigation issues can beaddressed before launch and not only left for us todeal with after launch. I feel more strongly about thatthan any recognition of my own accomplishments.”

Williams said that what navigators do is more ofan art form. “It’s not reducible to a set of algorithmsthat can be stored on board a flight system likepower or propulsion, for example. It’s constant refin-ing.”

And are navigators bothered by the sometimeslong and odd hours their job requires? “No,” saidMottinger, “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There’snothing else like it.”

SL

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E d i t o r i a l

TT he economic prosperity and national securityof the U.S. depend on commercial spaceassets. These assets provide for transfers of

information, which enable economic transactionsacross the globe underpinning globalization.Commercial space assets allow for space launch,telecommunication, and remote sensing activities.These functions are critical for the U.S. economicinfrastructure and essential for more effectivewarfighting. It is important that a new AmericanAdministration and Congress will develop as part oftheir economic policies a robust commercial spacesector. The key issue is how to move forward into a“new” space age driven by space commercial activity.This presents a number of policy challenges.

Since the rise of the space age in the 1950s, theU.S. government sought the development of a com-mercial space sector. This led to the use of govern-mental subsidies of one form or another to fostercommercial space. One policy challenge is to deter-mine the “best” role for government. There is a regu-latory role in ensuring safe and reliable commercialspace activities, such as those directed at spacelaunch and remote sensing. The model of develop-ment for commercial space travel that is emerging isakin to the development of the aviation industry. Thepolicy challenge is to find the right way forward thatstrikes an appropriate balance between the need toregulate and the desire to create a political environ-ment that encourages future commercial spacedevelopment.

There are a number of policy options when think-ing about the “right ways forward.” The predomi-nance of the U.S. government as a user of space cre-ates economic opportunities in the form of lucrative,cost plus contracts that support a robust spaceindustrial sector. These contracts are leveraged totransfer technology and know-how acquired in devel-oping U.S. government space systems to commer-cial space systems and activities. This is the “tradition-

Commercial Space Challenges Facing a New American Administration in 2009By Eligar SadehEisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies United States Air Force Academy

al” way forward. A more cost-effective contractualrelationship will emerge in shifting contracts awayfrom cost-plus to fixed price and reward based.

Further consideration needs to be given to other,non-contracting ways. One way involves tax basedincentives. A number of legislative initiatives inCongress, e.g., Space Tourism Promotion Act, ZeroGravity Zero Tax Bill, Invest in Space Now Act, and theSpaceport Equality Act, have advocated thisapproach, although these initiatives have not becomepublic law. Prizes for technology development areanother way forward. Entrepreneurial or “new” spacehas advanced due to the Ansari X-Prize and the hopeis that same movement forward will take place withthe Google Lunar X Prize. There is Congressional sup-port to fund prizes, such as DARPA’s (DefenseAdvanced Research Projects Agency) GrandChallenge and NASA’s Centennial Challenges. Actingto establish public law aimed at tax incentives and thecontinued and expanded use of prizes are productiveways forward for commercial space.

A third way forward lies in public-private partner-ships. These partnerships need to be directedtoward developing “disruptive” technologies thatcould dramatically change the space commerce par-adigm. “Experimentation” in space, in areas like oper-ationally responsive space launch, smallsats, andpartnerships with both private space companies andnon-space companies, is crucial. DARPA contractingwith new space companies to develop disruptivetechnologies is one example. NASA is implementing

Dr. Eligar Sadeh is the Founder and President of AstroconsultingInternational that provides specialized assessment and educa-tional services to advance the development and exploration ofspace. Sadeh has more than twenty-five years of experience inthe space community and currently serves as Associate Directorof the Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies at theUnited States Air Force Academy. From 2001 to 2006, Sadehwas an Assistant Professor of Space Studies in the School ofAerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota. This is thefirst installment to a three part 'op-ed' series on space policychallenges facing a new American Administration in 2009.

The opinions express here on this page are solely the author’s own and do not reflect an opinion of Space Lifestyle Magazine, the magazine writers, or its staff.


partnerships with the private sector, e.g., NASACOTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services),Space Act Agreements with new space companies,and non-space partnerships with Goggle, Microsoft,Sun, and biotech firms. All this should be supported bya new Administration.

Further expansion of public-private partnershipspaves the way for space infrastructural development.A new Administration and Congress need to directsuch partnerships to enable development in emerg-ing space businesses and efforts in areas like spacetourism, reusable launch capability, and developingareas such as space based solar power, spacebased zero-gravity manufacturing research, propel-lant depots, point-to-point sub-orbital travel, and infor-mation technology repositories in space. These tech-nologies, if developed, will be huge contributors to thelong-term prosperity and success of the U.S. andglobal economy in the future. They will also providemotivation for the youth to pursue higher education insectors that have been waning in recent years, andprovide them with exciting employment opportunities.

A second policy challenge is to address the barri-ers to commercial space development. There arethree barriers that must be addressed: (1) evolvinglegal regimes to address space commercial develop-ment; (2) reforming export control polices and laws;and (3) prioritizing educational efforts and workforcedevelopment.

It is necessary to clarify international spacetreaties and laws, which prevent or inhibit commer-cial exploitation of space resources. Property rightsneed to be extended beyond Earth to coverresources harvested in the future from the Moon orasteroids. For the U.S. and other spacefaring nations,bringing space into the global economic sphere ofinfluence hinges on shifting the thinking in internation-al space law from space resources as a collective orcommon good to resources as a private good.

A new Administration and Congress must placethe government as an enabler of commercial and pri-vate space activities. The government should be acustomer of commercial space services and try tokeep a hands-off, noninterference attitude unless anduntil regulations for safety reasons are necessary.Any regulations need to consider the stage of theindustry and its potential for growth. The U.S. govern-ment should act on behalf of these industries to cre-

ate and ensure an open, free-market environment inglobal space commerce.

The space environment is another key issue thataffects space commerce. There is a mission cost tomitigate environmental dangers, like orbital debrisproliferation. Also, there are issues related to scarci-ty of resources and their efficient use, such as spec-trum allocations. International standards are a keytowards addressing many of the space environmen-tal issues and challenges, and also necessary forspace businesses to exercise due diligence in theirsafety and liability concerns and legal obligations.Space traffic management is another issue thatrequires attention as there is currently no U.S. gov-ernment policy or any set of “rules of the road.” Thisis of growing concern as space is more crowded withmore commercial (and governmental) players.

Better governance of space depends on the waysspace situational awareness data is shared betweengovernments and commercial entities. The currentU.S. approach to data sharing is the CFE(Commercial and Foreign Entities) program. Anadvance phase of this, CFE II, is now being implement-ed. This is all positive for commercial space, yet mov-ing this in the direction of integrated data architec-tures is still needed to move from a CFE “on a need toknow basis” policy approach with limited transparen-cy, to more full and open transparency, at least forcommercial (and civil) space assets.

There is a strong case to be made that space isin the national security interest, but a much weakercase is to be made that space is in the national eco-nomic interest. In the U.S., national security tends totrump commercial space concerns leading to poli-cies and laws, like export control, that underminespace commercial development. This approachneeds to change, i.e., space is in the U.S. national eco-nomic interest, and national security interests shouldnot override economic interests.

The current approach to export control of com-mercial space, namely ITAR (International Traffic inArms Regulations), is obtrusive, broken, and obsolete.ITAR has prevented international partnerships incommercial space, or made them exceedingly moredifficult and bureaucratic to implement. It has dra-matically reduced U.S. domestic manufacturing capa-bilities for vital space-related hardware and compo-nents. The great irony is that ITAR, in stark contrast

E d i t o r i a l continued


to its intended goal of retaining domestic preemi-nence in the aerospace and defense fields, is havingexactly the opposite effect. ITAR is not only harmful tocommercial space, but it also damages nationalsecurity by placing legal and bureaucratic restrictionson the U.S. military use of commercial space assetsthat rely on a robust satellite industry and spaceindustrial base. America’s leadership in commercialspace capabilities has eroded, while Russian,European, and Asian entities have expanded anddeepened their growing dominance. The U.S. has fall-en behind in the global space commerce competitiondue in no small part to its counterproductive exportcontrol regime.

A new Administration must address this exportcontrol issue at the level of policy by reforming the“rule set” for how ITAR is applied. The currentPresidential Directive on export control reform is astart. But, much more needs to be done. This encom-passes a reassessment of what technologies need tobe controlled, and dealing with issues of timing,review processes, transparency, and cost. A newCongress needs to take on the issue by updatingexport control laws to better match 21st centuryglobal space commerce. This starts with reformingthe current approach to ITAR by moving jurisdictionon all dual-use commercial space technologies from

the Department of State to the Department ofCommerce, to legislating new export control lawsthat update and replace the antiquated “Cold War”legislation that is still in place, e.g., Arms ExportControl Act and Export Administration Act.

Education and workforce issues are critical forspace commerce development and foundational foranything the U.S. wants to do in space. Where willspace commerce get the next generation technicalworkforce? High-percentages, more than 50% insome cases, of STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering, and Math disciplines) graduate studentsin U.S. universities and colleges are foreign nationals.Unless the U.S. desires to establish a policy thatdepends on foreign nationals as a future workforcesolution, there is a need to emphasize a national com-mitment to STEM education at all levels. A fruitfulmodel to examine is that of the National DefenseEducation Act of 1958 that led to STEM educationalreforms and fostered education in these foundation-al disciplines for space. Another option is to focus onaddressing global infrastructural challenges, likealternative energy production from space, i.e., spacebased solar power, as a national goal. A challenge ofthis magnitude can then motivate and inspire STEMeducation, as the Apollo program did in the1960s.

E d i t o r i a l continued

SL


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