State Of The Union And America's 21st Century: Individual Enterprise, International Collaboration, Interglobal Opportunity; 1% Budget for NASA

President Obama has a historic opportunity to advance America's 21st Century space leadership with the upcoming State of the Union Address, when he could announce to restore NASA's funding to 1% of the national budget. This boost would be enough to welcome a new era in space exploration, enable the programs and destinations set forth by the Constellation Program's Earth, Moon, Mars and Beyond vision and catalyze individual, commercial, private NewSpace ventures. Several Executive Branch Cabinets would also benefit should NASA be revived, most notably the US Department of Education. One of the leading and most prominent advocates of this effort is Apollo Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, who turns 80 years old on 20 January -- the same day Obama passes the one year mark in office. Aldrin over the past several months has pushed for a plan to go to Mars, the solar system beyond and establish a permanent human base on the Moon. He also encourages international collaboration and government integration of private space industry to build affordable spaceships using existing, proven technologies. Pictured: Arne Duncan (BC). Bottom Left Clockwise: VP Joe Biden, Steven Chu, Ray Lahood, Gary Locke. Bottom Right, Lori Garver, Charles Bolden. (Credit: Aldrich Commission, Rick Stiles, nasa.gov, wikipedia.org, trueslant.com, Buzzaldrin.net)

3rd Europa Jupiter System Mission Workshop to Address Radiation Challenges of Jupiter Moon Exploration

ESA will hold the 3rd Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) Instrument Workshop on January 18-20 at the European Space & Technology Center in Noordwijk, Netherlands. This will mark the 1st time the workshop is held in Europe. The EJSM is a joint ESA / NASA space mission slated to launch NET 2020 to explore Jupiter moons, Europa and Ganymede. The Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO) is currently being developed by ESA while NASA is focusing on the Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO). At the workshop, scientists and engineers will address the technical challenges, particularly the engineering challenges posed by the high radiation levels emitted by Jupiter. Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s 60 plus moons and the largest moon in the solar system, is believed to contain a saltwater ocean nearly 200km below its surface. ESA Scientist Christian Erd will present the technical overview of activities of EJSM / JGO development and Karla Clark of NASA will be discussing the status and design of GEO. (Credit: ESA, NASA)