Future Of USA Moon Program To Be Highlighted At 2009 Inauguration

Five years since outgoing USA President George W Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), new USA President Barack Obama will face the challenge of seeing it through to reclaim America's greatest advance and the defining achievement of the 20th Century – putting humans on the Moon. NASA's participation in the 56th Inaugural Parade in Washington DC on Jan 20 will include the leading prototype of the space agency's next-generation Moon rover, dubbed Chariot (T), as well as the crew of the most recent Space Shuttle mission, Endeavour STS-126 (B), which returned to Earth on Nov 30. The small pressurized rover will be driven in the parade by veteran NASA astronaut Michael Gernhardt (C), who in 2001 participated in 3 spacewalks during the STS-104 mission (CR) and also led the 1st NASA / NOAA NEEMO mission to the Aquarius undersea lab (CL). According to the VSE, a version of the 12-wheeled concept rover will soon carry astronauts across the lunar surface, exploring for new resources to support the first permanent off-Earth outpost at the south pole of the Moon. The challenge awaiting President Obama is to carry forward development of the Constellation Moon vehicles amid critical economic conditions at home and reduce the gap in USA human spaceflight capabilities between the planned retirement of the Shuttle in 2010 and expected operation of the new Orion crew exploration vehicle around 2014. (Credit: NASA)

Global warming and the threat it poses to Earth's biosphere is one of the major crises facing humanity in the 21st Century. Most researchers agree that global warming is directly related to increasing levels of greenhouse gases caused by human activity. Presently there are only 260 unevenly distributed ground observation points studying global warming. Thus current climate-change predictions vary and may not be accurate, making it difficult to create and enforce international emissions standards. Japan is now taking the lead in solving this problem with the launch of the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), or 'Ibuki,' along with 7 small satellites on Wednesday aboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 15 (BL). Ibuki will use 2 high precision sensors and about 56,000 observation points in every region of the world to measure the density, movement and absorption of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, while also establishing a commonly shared criterion for greenhouse gas research. ESA will contribute to the mission in the field of data transmission in exchange for free access to the data, and NASA's upcoming Orbital Carbon Observatory will use common observation standards, data format, and possibly data utilization systems. Ibuki Project Manager Takahashi Hamazaki (BR) hopes to create a dynamic video of the Earth breathing so that children can better understand the process of global warming. (Credit: JAXA)