stunning

The photo here was taken on March 16 by the imaging camera onboard the Cassini spacecraft, presently in orbit around Saturn. Even though the spacecraft is 1.3 million miles from the planet, giant Saturn still fills the view. Before I point out particulars, this image has to first be appreciated for the staggering beauty it captures. The coloring shown here is approximately what the human eye would see. The almost imperceptible changes in color across Saturn reveal the complicated chemistry at work in the clouds. The famous rings of Saturn are seen edge-on, cutting through the middle portion of the image. Intricate shadows of the rings are cast across the northern hemisphere. Notice that the sunlit portion of Saturn is at an angle to our view in the image. Like the Earth, Saturn has a rotational tilt that produces seasons. In this image we can see that Saturn's northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun. The tilt allows the rings to shadow the northern hemisphere and may produce the noticeable "bluing" of the clouds in the northern hemisphere. Think of it as a cold "wintering" effect. The hairline detail of the ring shadows easily shows us how complicated yet finely tuned the rings are. Countless particles ranging in size from that of smoke to a small car have a particular place in this ring system. Finally, the very intriguing moon Enceladus can be seen skirting the ring plane on the right of the image. Cassini has found that Enceladus has an abundance of water that is actively involved in surface processes there. This makes Enceladus an important target in our understanding of the role water plays in the origin of life. Click on the image, and enjoy.

space station golf

We learned this week that NASA and the Russian Space Agency may allow a Russian cosmonaut on the International Space Station to hit a golf ball from the station. The idea originates with a Canadian golf club manufacturer that is clearly looking for some out of this world product placement. The company paid the Russian Space Agency for the stunt and the necessary equipment has already been brought to the station. The RSA has already approved the activity from a safety standpoint and NASA is currently performing an independent safety review. Of course, hitting a golf ball in space has precedent. Alan Shepard famously hit a golf ball on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971 (picture). The Canadian company wishes to commemorate that lunar swing with the space station one this summer. I imagine they are more interested in the advertising though. Consider some pros and cons.

• Any money flowing into space endeavors is good. Budget problems in the United States and Russia have forced funding for some space activities into corporate hands (significant space shuttle servicing is now performed by a private aerospace company). Corporate funding could someday form a significant percentage of overall space exploration spending.

• The stunt is a very visible physics demonstration that the public can make sense of from their own experience. Such demonstrations are a vital component of turning the general public (especially children) on to science.

• A stunt like this does nothing to help the public perception that the International Space Station is an orbiting tin can that eats up taxpayer dollars and returns no science of value to the public.

• Corporate money for space activities quickly leads to the exploitation of said activities for product advertisement.

The Russian Space Agency has already allowed a Pizza Hut logo on one of their rockets. Logos are generally harmless, but when corporate money dictates that an astronaut spend precious time in orbit hitting a golf ball, it conflicts with why the government asks taxpayers to fund space exploration in the first place. The public wants to know that their taxes are funding research in space that could potentially change their lives for the better. If the government is going to claim it is using our tax dollars to explore space for the betterment of mankind, then it cannot allow distractions, even if those distractions contribute to the bottom line. All that aside, I think the ultimate problem with this stunt is safety. The government does not allow American soldiers to promote soft drinks in the middle of combat. The circumstances are different, but space is an extremely dangerous place and hitting a golf ball is an unnecessary safety risk. I would rather see corporate funding additions to the space program disappear than see astronauts put in harm's way for a 5 second piece of promotional video on the nightly news.

So, I think you can see where I stand on this topic. As long as our space exploration activities are under the umbrella of government funding, corporate publicity stunts that involve serious risk should not be permitted. Go ahead and float a can of Coke through the crew cabin in zero g, but don't have an astronaut on the exterior of the space station swinging a golf club that could potentially damage the station itself and jeopardize the lives of the crew.

man in space

Today marks 45 years since the Soviet Union put the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Many people younger than about 50 may not realize that the Soviets were the leaders in space firsts starting in the late 50's. Among their successes were the first satellite to orbit the Earth (1957), the first man in space (1961), the first woman in space (1963), and the first controlled landing of a spacecraft on the moon (1966). American counterparts to these achievements usually followed shortly after the Soviet accomplishments, establishing another front in the Cold War. The "victories" of the Soviet Union in space milestones played a major part in President Kennedy announcing plans in 1961 to put an American on the moon before 1970. We did so, and remain the only nation to put men on the moon. You can thank your enemy for making you stronger. The achievements that the American space program enjoys today are a direct result of our early response to Soviet successes in space.

back to the moon

After 34 years, the United States finally has plans to return to the moon. I was not alive the last time a man walked on the moon, but I certainly hope to be the next time. The Bush administration announced a real paradigm shift in our country's space exploration goals a few years back. Robotic exploration of the solar system was to be scaled back in favor of manned missions to the moon and eventually, Mars. My field of study in graduate school, magnetospheric physics, was directly affected by this decision. As I was finishing my studies, funding for certain programs in magnetospheric physics began to dry up in favor of moon and Mars initiatives. While I am bothered by this because it could damage important research efforts into how the universe works, I also believe it is imperative that we push our manned explorations of space beyond near-Earth activities.

Our return to the moon will leverage off the Apollo and space shuttle programs, drawing on some of the best design elements of those two systems. The Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV, looks a lot like the Apollo spacecraft that carried men to the moon over 30 years ago. The command module is cone shaped, the service module is cylindrical, the lunar module is spidery (see picture). It's not Star Trek, but the Apollo spacecraft design was forged under immense time and political pressures that resulted in an incredibly robust and reliable spacecraft. It just makes sense to build off that heritage, especially while some of the engineers who made it happen are still alive. One major difference between the Apollo spacecraft and the CEV is size. The Apollo spacecraft could support 3 men for about a week, with the lunar module supporting 2 men for the lunar landing (usually no more than 2 days). The CEV will be much larger, supporting a crew of 4 for upwards of 2 weeks with a lunar module capable of carrying the entire crew to the lunar surface and housing them for up to a week on the surface.

As for shuttle design elements, the CEV will be launched using solid rocket boosters much like those used to launch the space shuttle. In addition, the CEV will be launched in two stages. One launch will put the lunar module and a "departure" rocket stage into Earth orbit. The second launch will carry the astronauts in the command and service module. The astronauts would then dock with the lunar module and the departure rocket already in Earth orbit. The departure stage provides the propulsion that sends the spacecraft off to the moon. The two-phase launch eliminates the need for a single immense launch rocket like the Saturn V, the Apollo launch vehicle.

The space shuttle era is over. With the loss of two crews and two orbiters, the American public has lost confidence in shuttle safety. It's a shame, because despite being the most complex transportation system ever devised, the shuttles performed and still maintain a respectable safety record. They've simply been overextended. The shuttle program is currently slated for retirement in 2010, at which time CEV activities will ramp up for a lunar landing in 2018. For me, it can't come soon enough. While it won't be the first time we land on the moon, it will be the first time I get to watch it happen live, with all the uncertainty that entails. I also look forward to the first female steps on the moon.

It saddens me that in all likelihood only a few of the men who visited the moon between 1968 and 1972 will be alive when the next lunar landing occurs. They are all in their 70's these days, and in another 12 years we can expect to lose many of them. I think it's important that we strive to make that 2018 target in the hopes that a few of these men will be around to usher us into the next era of moon exploration. The continuity will soften the disappointing fact that we retreated from the moon in 1972 and almost forgot how to go back in the 30 years since. The moon is waiting, it's time to get to work.