110th Carnival of Space - the Phobos-Grunt, Liberty and Pants-on-Fire edition

Thanks Fraser for giving Kentucky Space a chance to host the Carnival of Space for a third time!

Two quick updates on Kentucky Space before we get to the action. First, we just finished a week-long program at the brand new Morehead State University space sciences facility that featured guest lectures from Bob Twiggs, familiarization of a new round of competitively-selected Kentucky Space students with the technologies developed for KySat-1 and plenty of night sky viewing.

Second, we continue to fly stuff. Graduate assistant student Samir Rawashdeh sent the following information about an upcoming Wallops suborbital mission in support of KySat-1, which we hope will go to orbit early next year.

ADAMASAT is the Antenna Deployment and Mono-filament Actuator Satellite. It's a sub-orbital payload by Kentucky Space scheduled to be launched this summer. With about 8 minutes in space, it will test the KySat-1 antenna deployment mechanism and actuator circuit. The idea is to gain confidence of the antenna deployment mechanism that consists of a mono-filament wire wrapped around the satellite to hold down it's antennas, and a Nichrome cutter that burns the monofilament line to release the antennas. ADAMASAT will perform four tests of this mechanism while in space.

I'll keep you posted. You can also follow us on twitter.

Now, on to the rest of the Carnival!

At Cosmic Log, Alan Boyle pointed out Moonshots on your computer: Top 10 Apollo Web sites and asks you to get out your red glasses for a look at Space in 3-D.

21st Century Waves asks, "Was the 1960s Apollo Moon Program an Anomaly?" It's incredible - and incredibly sad - to think that no humans have ventured beyond Earth orbit since 1972. But the optimist in me says that it's only a matter of time.

For a welcome change in perspective, Lounge of the Lab Lemming shows us where Earth will appear to Martian astronomers.

And Nancy Atkinson, Senior Editor at Universe Today says that even though Spirit is stuck in loose soil and going nowhere, she's making the most of her boost in energy from a wind event that cleaned off her solar panels. This has provided enough energy to keep her "awake" with her heaters running at night to take observations of the twilight and night sky, something she did previously, back in 2005.

Now that Spirit and Opportunity have spent the majority of their existence on the Red Planet, are they the first Martians?

Long before the current LRO/LCROSS mission to the moon, David S. F. Portree writes that NASA had planned for "eight automated spacecraft to the moon by 1991, including four automated moon rovers, two of which might launch to Earth the first samples from the moon's hidden far side." Check out Portree's "LPO" history - it's a great read.

In "Crescent Moon," thespacewriter wonders how long it would have taken us to figure out that other worlds exist if we had inhabited a planet without a moon.

Though Constellation as it's currently constituted could be in some doubt, NASA is still working on Orion. At Astroengine, Ian O'Neill writes about the seat shock absorbers being developed for the crewed vehicle and posts a smashing picture.

Cheap Astronomy provides a podcast on a new Russian interplanetary mission with grunt - that's Phobos-Grunt.

David Bigwood points out that the latest issue of the Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin is now available, and that Selenology Today now has an RSS feed.

Astronomers have discovered a young binary star system in the process of forming planets according to Phil Plait, who wonders what kind of life and view any future inhabitants of those worlds might have.

Centauri Dreams contributed "Of Technological Lifetimes and Survival" to this week's carnival. Paul Gilster speculates on the survivability of long term digital data storage. The trend of technology is not necessarily always be up - we've experienced 'dark ages' before. Let's hope we never need a Digital Rosetta Stone.

Linking to the very cool JPL small-body orbit simulator, Mang's Bat Page says "forget stars." The easiest way for amateur astronomers to name a celestial object is to discover an asteroid. Check out "Pet Rocks? Naming things in Space".

At one point, all of the normal matter in the entire Universe was just free protons, electrons and neutrons. How did we get all the elements we know and love, from Helium up through Plutonium?  From two sources, according to Ethan Siegel: the big bang and from stars.

Discovery Channel blogger and news director for the Hubble Space Telescope, Ray Villard, hands out his first Pants-on-Fire Award over video allegations that there is a hidden alien moon base, while Astroinfo has much more credible July-August Night Sky information.

And, finally, technology blog Nextbigfuture has more on space-based solar power and the concept behind a reactor with almost zero nuclear waste and unspent fuel.

That's it for the 110th Carnival of Space. If I've left anyone out, it was entirely inadvertent. Please leave a note in the comments. And please come back frequently to Kentucky Space blog for the latest on our grass roots space program!

Wayne

Comments

[gaetano marano - ghostNASA.com]

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just posted my suggestion #10 for the Human Space Flight Plans Committee and NASA:

"absolutely don't adopt the SERIOUSLY FLAWED Direct concept"

http://ow.ly/f3vQ

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[Ivan Pankov]

Space-based solar power is a good idea, unfortunately they don't say in the video how much does it cost comparing to current coal or nuclear based power. Probably still too expensive.