Features

Current Private Space Boom Leading Out of Atmosphere, Toward Moon. If all goes as planned, tomorrow will see the long-awaited completion of the first half of a US$10M Ansari X Prize attempt. Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne (SS1) team is optimistic the craft will attain the required altitude and reach it again on 4 Oct to win the prize due to its SpaceDev-provided engines being more powerful than the ones it used before. SpaceDev isn't the only private enterprise to get a boost from the X prize and SS1. The Canadian da Vinci team has seen extended publicity as it plays David to SS1's Goliath and expects to take humans to space soon regardless of the SS1 results. Bigelow Aerospace is constructing space habitats (which can apply to lunar bases) and has formed a new prize to develop a transport for them. Days before, SpaceDev announced it will be developing such a vehicle, which they call "Dream Chaser." X Prize founder Peter Diamandis' Zero-G Corp. begins providing $3,000 weightless parabolic flights 9 Oct. NASA and the military are paying more attention to the private space sector than ever before. One low-cost rocket provider, SpaceX, has just signed a contract with the new Malaysian Space Agency and has separate deals with Bigelow and DARPA. Related article: aviationnow.com.

Human & Robotic Technology (H&RT) Proposal Deadline Extended to 29 Sep. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has announced the extension for offerors impacted by recent hurricane activity. Offerors now have until 16:30 EDT 29 Sep to send electronic proposals. The original due date was 17 Sep. The H&RT Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) was released 29 Jun to support research and development of NASA's human and robotic missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The focus of the proposals will be in the Advanced Space Technology Program (ASTP) and the Technology Maturation Program (TMP). The TMP is designed to advance key technologies required to enable MMBV, such as high energy space systems, advanced space systems and platforms, advanced space operations and lunar & planetary surface operations. The ASTP's goal is to validate these new technologies and to transition them for application in NASA's Exploration Systems Enterprise. comspacewatch.com.

Moon Seen as Main Potential Source of Energy and Asteroids as Source of Material Resources. Vladislav Shevchenko from the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute wants to use celestial bodies for the production of minerals and fuels by the middle of this century. By 2050, the Earth's population will be 9 billion and energy consumption will double to 34 trillion watts, he estimates. If the trend prevails, by the end of the 21st century, energy consumption will reach 50 trillion and exceed 90 trillion watts by 2140. Humanity will have to deal with the depletion of natural sources of energy and the destruction of the environment will become irreversible. Thus, Shevchenko maintains, the critical level of energy production on the Earth will be exceeded before the end of the next century and humanity must look to extraterrestrial sources. The Moon can indirectly pass solar energy to the Earth through ultra high-frequency radiators and energy can also be produced from Helium-3 in lunar rock. He3 can be used by thermonuclear reactors on Earth with almost no radioactive waste. Asteroids contain metallic, carbonic, chondrite and basalt elements. They can produce at least iron, nickel and cobalt. The advantages of asteroids include close to Earth orbits and small mass. en.rian.ru/rian.