50th anniversary of Explorer 1

Fifty years ago today, America's first satellite, Explorer 1, roared into space from Cape Canaveral atop a Jupiter C booster (a heavily modified Redstone missile with three solid-fuel upper stages). The satellite made the first measurements of cosmic radiation and led to the discovery, confirmed by Explorer 3, of the Van Allen radiation belts.
Erika Lishock and I are proud of our contribution to chronicling this even in our book The First Space Race (Texas A&M University Press, 2004)

For a good collection of NASA and other links to all facets of this story, see today's NASAWatch (www.nasawatch.com.

Excerpt from review in the military professional journal PARAMETERS:
From PARAMETERS, the Army War College Quarterly
Available at: http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/06summer/sum-rev.htm

The First Space Race: Launching the World’s First Satellites. By Matt Bille and Erika Lishock. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004. 214 pages. $40.00 ($19.95 paper). Reviewed by Dr. James R. Downey, Professor of Science and Technology, US Army War College.

....Matt Bille and Erika Lishock address this early history with their book titled The First Space Race. Packed with copious details and several first-person accounts, the book provides an excellent understanding of how the space race began and the effects it had on the world. In particular, for the national security audience the book provides a historical insight into the developing competition between the United States and the former Soviet Union, such that where we are today can reasonably be traced to the race to space....
In sum, this book provides a superb insight into the early space race and the overall effects this race had on both the United States and the Soviet Union. Understanding how efforts in space began is a lens into the space programs we have today, both military and civilian. Matt Bille and Erika Lishock’s The First Space Race reveals the story of this world-changing journey.

New fishes from the deep

Dragging a trawl thought the depths of the Southern Indian Ocean, the the Royal Research Ship Discovery netted a wide variety of specimens. One of the experts on board, Dr. Nikki King, thought several of these looked unusual. After three years of work with taxonomists, she confirmed that no fewer than six were new species. Naming a new species is always a high point for scientists: naming six of them is like an extra Christmas. And if you get six on one expedition, you know there are many more still down there.

Thanks to Dale Drinnon for pointing me to this item.

Challenger: A Solemn Anniversary

On this 22nd anniversary, there's not much to say about the Challenger disaster that has not already been said. Just spare a moment today to to think of the seven men and women, all accomplished, some brilliant, all brave. In their memory. we carry on in the exploration of the universe.

A small new mushroom is a big deal to science

From the Rogue River in Oregon comes news of a new species of mushroom that breaks boundaries for its genus by living underwater. Psathyrella aquatic looks like a common land-living gilled mushroom, about 10 cm high, but mycologists know of no mushroom, past or present, that grows underwater. Oregon State University’s Matt Trappe enthused, "We're not aware of anything at all like this in mycology where the reproductive mushroom structure appears to be perennially underwater. If this evolved in Oregon, what are the odds it can be found in streams and rivers around the world? This raises all kinds of questions about spore disbursement and evolution."

TacSat-2 Signing Off

The USAF is shutting down its pioneering TacSat-2 technology demonstration spacecraft after over a year on orbit, in a mission marked by technical success contrasted with infighting reported by Space News between the USAF and intelligence communities that limited use of its imaging capability (the kind of thing that people should work out BEFORE launching a satellite). The compact intelligence spacecraft demonstrated new technologies and techniques for getting information to combat forces. The 370-kg, $50M spacecraft is hardly a low-cost microsatellite by most definitions, but it is significantly smaller and cheaper than previous American military spacecraft with similar functions, and its success bodes well for continued progress in the military applications of smaller spacecraft.

THEMIS microsatellites celebrate a year on the job

NASA’s five-satellite THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) constellation has finished its first year on orbit and is still operating well. The fleet of five ATK-built microsatellites have been gathering data simultaneously from their different orbital positions to isolate the origins of the elusive but important magnetospheric events known as substorms.

Remembering Vanguard I

The first American satellite program, Vanguard, is often remembered only for its spectacular failure on December 4, 1957. That's unfair: the program, while not a model of efficiency, went on to launch three satellites, make important scientific contributions, and create advances in launch vehicle technology, tracking systems, and other areas that still pay dividends today. Vanguard program veterans have created this site, which includes a paper by myself and Erika Lishock titled, "Vanguard - Setting the Record Straight."

Roll out the spaceplanes!

Virgin Galactic unveiled the designs for what will likely be the first commercial passenger service to space: the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane and WhiteKnightTwo mothership. The WhiteKnight has grown considerably, with four engines and two cabins, allowing space for paying passengers who just want to ride the first portion of the trip of space. Many of these will likely be family members come to watch their loved ones launch in the SpaceShipTwo. SpaceShipTwo will carry two pilots and six
passengers. As Alan Boyle reports here, designer Burt Rutan acknowledged safety concerns by saying he was aiming to make the craft "hundreds of times safer" than an airliner. The project's financier, Richard Branson, would like to see test flights being this year, though the date for commercial service is uncertain.

Biofuels - no free lunch

A UN report warns that the rush to switch to biofuels is raising the cost of staple foods like corn, will likely worsen water shortages in some areas, and will lead to the destruction of more rain forests in Indonesia for palm oil plantations, among other effects.
COMMENT: The point here is that decisions like this are complicated. People in office, or running for office, are always tempted to offer simple solutions. With a problem like this, there aren't any. It's like Congress' recent move to mandate the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs without paying attention to the increased mercury pollution certain to be a result. It's a complex, interrelated world out there.

Report closes case on "drunk astronauts"

NASA has finished its probe of the sensational allegations about inebriated astronauts and found... Nothing. Surveying astronauts backthrough the 1990s, they found one incident where an astronaut unwisely mixed alcohol and a prescription drug in the pre-launch period, but that was it.
COMMENT: This makes sense. Whatever the lingering effects of fighter-pilot culture may be on the astronaut corps, it's important to remember that these people train and compete for years for every opportunity they get to fly in space. To jeopardize an oh-so-rare flight opportunity with prelaunch drinking would require an enormous lapse of judgment.

Whither the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker?

An article from the NY Times (free registration may be required) explores how the initial burst of interest (and commerce) in the Big Woods section of Arkansas which erupted in 2005 when an ivory-bill was apparently videotaped is flagging now that scientists have been unable to get stronger evidence the iconic bird is still alive.

Thanks to Chad Arment for bringing this to my attention.

Two more Presidential candidates speak on space

In the nation's most space-conscious state, Florida, candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have expanded on their views on space flight in general and human spaceflight in particular. Giuliani asserted strongly that the U.S. needed to bolster its human spaceflight program, while Romney agreed it was a priority issue but didn't commit to specifics.

Review of Shadows of Existence

Terry Colvin, with permission of WIlliam Corliss (an indefatigable collector of oddities and publisher of Science Frontiers newsletter) has passed along this review of my 2006 book Shadows of Existence. I'm flattered, to say the least. Thanks, Terry.

Shadows of Existence: Discoveries and Speculations
in Zoology
M.A. Bille, 317 pp., 2006, $19.95p

Rarely does one find a book so densely packed with
information. This subject is cryptozoology, and Bille
divides his book into five fascinating parts:

*New Creatures: 29 essays on the newest whales,
the mammals of Vu Quang, the unknown horses,
and so on.
*In the Shadows of Existence: 13 essays on the
thylacine, monk seals, woolly squirrels, and
so on.
*The Classic Mystery Animals: 10 essays on
Nessie, the Yeti, Bigfoot, lake creatures, and
so on.
*Miscellanea: 18 essays on the Yarri, the giant
octopus, weird fish, and so on.
*Resources: the basic library of cryptozoology,
reviews of many indispensible books, major
periodicals, internet sites, pertinent
organizations.


SCIENCE FRONTIERS is a bimonthly collection of digests
of scientific anomalies in the current literature.
Published by the Sourcebook Project; P.O. Box 107;
Glen Arm, MD 21057. Annual subscription: $8.00.

Loss of a rocket pioneer

Wernher K. Dahm, a longtime associate of Wernher von Braun who worked on the V-2 and made important contributions to US ballistic missile programs, has died at 90. Dahm's career included serving as chief of the aerophysics division and later chief aerodynamicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He did not fully retire until last year, when he was the last of the von Braun team still working for NASA.

Thanks to Loren Coleman for pointing out this news item.

10 real-life Star-Trek technologies

Some of these are still experimental, but in many ways we're getting surprisingly close to future Gene Roddenberry and company predicted in 1966.

Personally, I want the phaser (the non-lethal one, of course).

Ares booster problems: how serious?

There's been a lot written (including material in this blog) about the known and theorized problems with the extremely elongated Ares I/Orion stack NASA plans to use in returning astronauts to orbit after the Space Shuttle is retired. This article describes the biggest problem, oscillation that could cause the stack to shake severely in the first minutes of flight. NASA does not expect this to delay the Constellation plan to return humans to the Moon by 2020, but it's increasingly hard to believe that problems with the rocket originally sold as a "safe, simple, soon" solution will not damage the schedule or cause potentially crippling cost overruns.

Also see www.nasawatch.com, where Keith Cowing posted some detailed questions to NASA about Ares/Orion problems and got new answers, some of them clear and to the point and some very fuzzy. Cowing reports it's increasingly clear from internal documents that the first Ares flights will be delayed, even though NASA has denied that looking at an extended schedule was anything but a contingency exercise.

COMMENT: I support the Vision for Space Exploration and believe NASA can get the job done. But the agency seems to be going out of its way to insist all Area/Orion problems can be solved without major budget or schedule impacts. As a student of history, specifically the history of space programs, I've stopped believing them. NASA should be much fore forthright and forthcoming.
USUAL REMINDER: These are my personal opinions as a freelance science writer, nothing more.

Shooting down space conspiracy theories

An idiotic book called Dark Mission (I won't dignify it by giving the author's name), has sold very well with its bizarre and provably false conspiracy theories about how, among other coverups and conspiracies, NASA faked the loss of three Mars probes to avoid disclosing information about the nonexistent "face on Mars." Here James Oberg dismantles the book while pointing out the damage such fiction can cause.

New trees are still found, too

Despite being 18m high, a palm tree just described as Tahina spectabilis was never noticed until it piqued the curiosity of a plantation owner on a family picnic in Madagascar. British biologist Bill Baker compared the discovery to a finding a new species of elephant. He said, “It’s the most astonishing new palm in the last 50 years. It’s absolutely enormous.”

A new moray eel - right under scientists' noses

Gymnothorax baranesi, a new species of moray eel, was just described from the Gulf of Aquaba in the Red Sea. The most interesting part is that this sizable fish was found very near a marine institute in waters thought to be thoroughly studied and known. Mother Nature still has her surprises.

Thanks to Loren Coleman for posting this item.

More on Debbie Martyr's work

Loren Coleman, who has long corresponded with Debbie Martyr concerning her pursuit of the elusive orang-pendek of Sumatra, here offers a profile of her work and the results to date.