Washington, U.S.A. – NASA and the Interior Department Monday, July 23 marked the 40th anniversary of the Landsat program, the world’s longest-running Earth-observing satellite program. The first Landsat satellite was launched July 23, 1972, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The 40-year Landsat record provides global coverage that shows large-scale human activities such as building cities and farming. The program is a sustained effort by the United States to provide direct societal benefits across a wide range of human endeavors, including human and environmental health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture.

Landsat images from space are not merely pictures. They contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum. A single Landsat scene taken from 400 miles above Earth can accurately detail the condition of hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland, agricultural crops or forests.

“Landsat has given us a critical perspective on our planet over the long term and will continue to help us understand the big picture of Earth and its changes from space,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “With this view we are better prepared to take action on the ground and be better stewards of our home.”

In cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a science agency of the Interior Department, NASA launched six of the seven Landsat satellites. The resulting archive of Earth observations forms a comprehensive record of human and natural land changes.

“Over four decades, data from the Landsat series of satellites have become a vital reference worldwide for advancing our understanding of the science of the land,” said Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar. “The 40-year Landsat archive forms an indelible and objective register of America’s natural heritage and thus it has become part of this department’s legacy to the American people.”

Remote-sensing satellites such as the Landsat series help scientists to observe the world beyond the power of human sight, to monitor changes and to detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources.

“With its entirely objective, long term records for the entire surface of the globe, the Landsat archive serves as the world’s free press, allowing any person, anywhere, to access vital information without charge,” said Interior’s Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science. “Landsat has been a game changer for agricultural monitoring, climate change research and water management.”

NASA is preparing to launch the next Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), in February 2013 from Vandeberg. LDCM will be the most technologically advanced satellite in the Landsat series. LDCM sensors take advantage of evolutionary advances in detector and sensor technologies to improve performance and increase reliability. LDCM will join Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites in Earth orbit to continue the Landsat data record.

“The first 40 years of the Landsat program have delivered the most consistent and reliable record of Earth’s changing landscape,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “We look forward to continuing this tradition of excellence with the even greater capacity and enhanced technologies of LDCM.”

NASA and USGS will highlight the accomplishments of the Landsat program in a televised news briefing 11 a.m. EDT, Monday at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in Washington. During the briefing, the agencies will announce the 10 most significant images from the Landsat record; the U.S. regions selected for the “My American Landscape” contest showing local environmental changes; and the top five Landsat “Earth As Art” images selected in an online poll. The public is encouraged to participate in the briefing’s question-and-answer sessions by using the Twitter hashtag #asknasa.

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Washington, U.S.A. – NASA is seeking proposals from accredited U.S. universities focused on innovative, early-stage space technologies that will improve shielding from space radiation, spacecraft thermal management and optical systems.

Each of these technology areas requires dramatic improvements over existing capabilities for future science and human exploration missions. Early stage, or low technology readiness level (TRL) concepts, could mature into tools that solve the hard challenges facing future NASA missions. Researchers should propose unique, disruptive or transformational space technologies that address the specific topics described in this new solicitation.

“Both science and human deep space missions pose serious challenges that require new, innovative technological solutions,” said Space Technology Program Director Michael Gazarik at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Radiation, thermal management and optical systems were all identified in the National Research Council’s report on NASA Space Technology Roadmaps as priority research areas. This call seeks new ideas in these areas.”

Space radiation poses a known danger to the health of astronauts. NASA is seeking proposals in the area of active radiation shielding (such as “shields” of electromagnetic force fields surrounding a spacecraft to block incoming radiation) or new, multifunction materials that are superior to those that exist today are sought. NASA also is interested in new technologies for active monitoring and read-out of radiation levels astronauts receive during long space trips.

Current space technology for thermal management of fuels in space is limited. NASA is seeking early-stage technologies to improve ways spacecraft fuel tanks and in-space filling stations store cryogenic (very low temperature) propellants, such as hydrogen, over long periods of time and distances. NASA also is seeking novel, low-TRL heat rejection technologies which operate reliably and efficiently over a wide range of thermal conditions.

The next generation of lightweight mirrors and telescopes requires advanced optical systems. NASA is seeking advancement of early-stage active wavefront sensing and control system technologies that enable deployable, large aperture space-based observatories; technologies which enable cost-effective development of grazing-incidence optical systems; and novel techniques to focus and detect X-ray photons and other high-energy particles.

NASA expects to make approximately 10 awards this fall, based on the merit of proposals received. The awards will be made for one year, with an additional year of research possible. The typical annual award value is expected to be approximately $250,000.

Image Courtesy of  NASA

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Imagine packing your suitcase for spring break and booking a round trip ticket to outer space. It may sound a bit like something out of the Jetsons, but space tourism is closer than you might think. Ever since NASA first took it’s “giant leap”, the private sector has been trying to find a way to make spaceflight marketable to civilians.

Virgin Galactic is one among several companies that are currently competing for a stake in the futuristic industry of space tourism — if the name reminds you of a certain wireless company, you’re correct, they are connected. In 2004, it seemed the goal was finally within grasping distance when SpaceShipOne, which had been licensed by Virgin Galactic, successfully flew over the Mojave desert and entered history as the first privately financed aircraft in space.

Shortly after, the company announced plans for a commercial version and immediately began taking reservations. At the time, Richard Branson, owner of the spaceline, predicted that the first commercial flights would begin in 2007. Now 2011, progress has been slower than was originally anticipated.

Although the promise of commercial flight has yet to be realized, powered test flights are scheduled to begin sometime within the next year. 75-year-old venture capitalist, Alan Walton, requested a refund on his $200,000 ticket deposit earlier this year.

Walton, who has traversed the North Pole and skydived over Mt. Everest, admits, “This was a decision I wish I didn’t have to make,” but that he’s not as young as he once was and, “it was time.” Virgin Galactic, however, is only one in a cluster of organizations set on privatizing space travel.

A few others include Blue Origin, XCOR Aerospace, Armadillo Aerospace, and Scaled Composites, whom many consider the leader of the pack. All of these companies are privately held with no shareholders, and keep most of the details of what they’re planning out of the public eye.

Then there’s also SpaceX, a corporation with even more far-reaching goals than mere space tourism. CEO Elon Musk claims that their distant, “holy grail objective” is to one day make mankind a multi-planet species. Musk is quoted in Ira Flatow’s 2007 book, Present at the Future:

It sounds a little odd to contemplate, but I think there actually is a business model, potentially, if you can make it cost somewhere around a few million dollars to move to Mars and become one of the founding people of a new planet.

But even if no future technical drawbacks were to appear to impede the private sector’s progress into space, many still worry that such an expensive form of tourism would not (forgive the pun) take off in such a poor economy, never mind the price of actually living outside of orbit.

The fact that Virgin Galactic’s fee of $200,000 is considered rather a good deal seems to support the theory that the market might not currently be as large as developers would like to hope. Space policy expert John Logsdon begs the question, “In the current economic climate, how many people have that level of discretionary money?”

Not very many, but more than you might think. Virgin Galactic currently has approximately 450 ticket-holders in line to fly. If you have a couple hundred thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to check out their website. Once there, you can conveniently book a ticket directly through them or, “with your local accredited space agent.”

vicspacewalker / Shutterstock.com

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