NIAS SPACEPORT

Iran announced on Wednesday that it successfully launched a domestically manufactured satellite-carrier rocket.

The Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer 3 in English), carried one rodent, two turtles, and several worms into space and returned them to Earth alive, the Iranian Students News Agency reported.

The 10-foot-long research rocket can also transfer electronic data and live footage back to Earth.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced the successful launch of the spacecraft during a ceremony held in Tehran to commemorate the country’s Aerospace Technology Day.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taqipour, Science, Research and Technology Minister Kamran Daneshju, and Education Minister Hamidreza Hajibabaii attended the event.

In addition, three new domestically manufactured satellites, the Tolou (Sunrise), the Mesbah 2 (Lantern 2), and the Navid (Promising Sign) as well as a new satellite-carrier engine, the Simorgh 3, were unveiled during the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad said the new satellites demonstrate Iran’s technological expertise.

Addressing scientists and government officials who attended the Aerospace Technology Day ceremony, he said, “Those people whose contributions have made all this possible deserve praise.”

He described the scientific breakthroughs as the dawn of a new era of national development.

He went on to say that Iran hopes to send astronauts into space one day.

The president also stated that Iran would like to start technological cooperation with other countries.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadinejad said the enemy cannot impede Iran’s progress.

Science and technology is the arena for ending the global hegemonistic system, he observed.

--------- Simorgh 3 will launch Iran’s new satellites into space

The Iranian defense minister said the launch was a success and added that Iran’s space program is totally peaceful.

""Iran will not tolerate any un-peaceful use (of space) by any country,"" Vahidi stated.

He also said the newly unveiled satellites will be launched into space by the Simorgh satellite carrier

NASA is proposing to build a robotic rocket-plane to explore Mars from the air, and has advertised for help building it.

The Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Surveyor (ARES), around the size of a small plane, will be folded into a rocket and launched to the red planet. It would be the first aircraft ever to fly over another world.

After entering the atmosphere in a capsule, the aircraft would deploy parachutes and unfold its wings and tail, before firing its rocket motor and flying around a mile above the surface of Mars for around an hour and a quarter.

The idea is that an atmospheric craft like ARES can explore far more ground than existing rovers, like Spirit and Phoenix, but in much more detail than an orbital spacecraft. It is hoped that it could cover as much as 600 square miles in its short flight.

While the idea was tabled several years ago, with suggestions it could even have launched by 2007, no progress has so far been made.

However, now NASA has issued a “teaming opportunity”, offering private companies and designers the chance to help create the craft.

The team behind the concept hopes that it will be accepted as one of the space agency’s “Discovery” missions, aimed at swiftly and (relatively) inexpensively exploring other worlds in our solar system.

Other recent proposals that been put forward for Discovery include a nuclear-powered robot sailing-boat to plough the seas of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Similarly, a proposal by scientists at the California Institute of Technology has suggested that armies of flying, sailing and driving robots will one day explore other planets.

Astronom berhasil mengambil foto vampir ruang angkasa yang mengarah pada adanya perluasan semesta. V445 mengalami ledakan setelah menelan bagian bawah tetangganya.

Menggunakan Very Large Telescope dan teknik optik adaptif, ilmuwan di Observatorium Eropa Selatan (ESO) berhasil mengambil gambar dan faktor kabur dari atmosfir bumi.

Teknik ini memungkinkan untuk mengambil gambar setajam seperti diambil dari ruang angkasa sehingga memungkinkan untuk mengambil foto dengan sangat rinci dan mengurangi tapak karbon.

Bintang Vampire sebenarnya adalah sistem bintang biner di mana satu materi bintang menarik yang lain. Sistem bintang biner yang menarik ESO adalah V445 dalam konstelasi Puppis.

“V445 mengalami ledakan setelah menelan bagian bawah tetangganya," kata Dr Henri Boffin dalam rilis ESO.

Ledakan itu hanya sebuah nova, bukan yang lebih keras atau supernova. Sistem V445 juga dapat menyebabkan supernova tipe Ia, bebas hidrogen yang sangat penting kata, Patrick Woudt, penulis utama laporan itu.

"Salah satu masalah utama dalam astrofisika modern adalah kenyataan bahwa kita masih belum tahu persis jenis bintang meledak supernova Tipe Ia," kata Woudt.

"Saat ini supernova memainkan peran penting dalam menunjukkan bahwa ekspansi alam semesta saat ini dipercepat, didorong oleh energi gelap misterius," tambahnya.

Go here for NASA's picture of the Mini-Research Module (MRM) 2 "Poisk" module that docked with the Russian International Space Station segment Zvezda's zenith docking port on 12 November. In the photo you can only really see the propulsion module

According to the US space agency Poisk is a Russian word that can mean search, seek or explore while you can read about Poisk's arrival and the fact that it it delivered 750kg (1,650lb) of cargo here at the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) website

Go here for a picture of MRM 2 under construction. Roscosmos says of the Poisk, "Its original name was Docking Module 2 (Stykovochniy Otsek 2 (SO-2)), as it is almost identical to Pirs already on the station. It will be added to the zenith port of the Zvezda module, and will serve as an additional docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and as an airlock for spacewalks. Poisk will also provide extra space for scientific experiments, and provide power-supply outlets and data-transmission interfaces for two external scientific payloads to be developed by the Russian Academy of Sciences."

Poisk will be joined by MRM 1 in May 2010 when Space Shuttle Atlantis delivers it, a mission that was previously scheduled for April 2010 and using the Discovery orbiter. The arrival of MRM2 marks a new phase in Russia's contribution to the ISS

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Suborbital tourism passenger market demand projections remain high in a new report released this afternoon by Bethesda, Maryland based-Futron Corporation entitled "Suborbital Space Tourism Demand Revisted" 24 August 2006.

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No-so-peacefully rising China is actively pursuing an "Assassin's Mace" (shashoujian) space warfare program--the elusive term refers to an astonishing array of futuristic technologies--while advocating arms control accords aimed at preventing the United States from developing and deploying defensive and offensive space-based weapons.

And the US anti-missile defense crowd is cooperating with the Chinese strategy, effectively playing into the hands of America's enemies and paving the way for eventual Chinese military dominance of the planet.

We dare to call this perfidy by its real name--treason--for the betrayers and saboteurs of America's defense are aware of the evidence of China's space warfare program, but choose to deny or downplay the information.

The amazing thing is just how much of the proof of what China is up to is in the public domain, along with thorough, insightful analyses by American experts. The work of a brilliant US Defense Department consultant, Michael Pillsbury, is a prime example of the latter. He says his concerns that China may decide to develop space weapons for use against the US stem from books written by three Chinese military colonels over the past six years.

The People's Liberation Army officers advocate the use of secret anti-satellite weapons, without warning, against the US.

"What they are doing in their books is saying that if China faces a hostile United States in the future, we Chinese may need to have some way to deter the United States from either attacking us, or coming to the defense of Taiwan," Pillsbury tells Voice of America. "If we Chinese ever face that situation, one good way to deter the United States - they use the term "bring America to its knees" - is to have a "shock attack," or a "shock and awe" attack, to borrow a term we [Americans] used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, on US-based satellites."

Pillsbury says the colonels imply that no such system exists in China today. Let's hope he's right.

In testimony to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (commonly called the China Commission) Thursday, Pillsbury said even a small-scale Chinese attack against US satellites could have a catastrophic effect on US military forces and the US economy. He said it is not clear how quickly, if at all, Washingtoncould launch replacement satellites for those that had been incapacitated in orbit by such an attack.

"We could be better prepared, is how I would put it," he said.

In January, China test fired a ground-based missile that pulverized one of its own satellites. The test was believed to be the first of its kind in two decades by any nation and raised concerns about the vulnerability of US satellites and a possible arms race in space.

Pillsbury's research is beyond chilling; it is terrifying, despite his reasoned, academic approach to a topic that natrually lends itself to popular exploitation. His in-depth report, commissioned by the China Commission and submitted in January of this year, covering such weapons as high-energy laser guns and orbiting ICBMs capable of striking targets on earth at any time, could inspire a slew of fact-based comic books, novels, movies and TV programs. If only the research would also inspire our so-called leaders to wake up to the looming threat.

Ecerpts from "An Assessment of China's Anti-Satellite and Space Warfare Programs" appear below:

"Twenty articles and three books published during the target period were selected as significant. From these books and articles, thirty specific recommendations for strategies or specific Chinese space weapons to employ against US vulnerabilities were identified and translated.... The following conclusions may be made from this report:

"While China has publicly assumed a leadership position in international activities to ban space weapons, there is an active group within China not only advocating the weaponization of space but also putting forth specific proposals for implementation of a Chinese space based weapons program.

"The individuals authoring the source works cited herein represent the Chinese space war “hawk” group and may constitute the bulk of it, although the extent to which these proposals are being accepted sympathetically is not known.

"The recommendations cited in this report are courses of action being proposed publicly within China. Common threads of logic and approach, shared assumptions, use of similar expressions in key areas, and the scope of the work represented are indications of collusion among these individuals and possibly of organization.

"There may be covert activity in the development of space weaponry and space warfare plans which is not represented in open source literature, in fact the literature suggests that this might be so.

"Chinese development and deployment of systems and doctrines for space warfare may be partially in response to a perceived US threat, but US resistance to weaponization of space seems irrelevant in the articles cited.

"Chinese attitudes toward weaponization of space have been widely studied by the US, and several models have been proposed, based at least partially on consideration of some of the documents cited in this report. Other than common source material, these models share little and are even contradictory.

"There is an immediate opportunity for diplomatic action to forestall an inappropriate Chinese response to a perceived US threat and to engage elements of the Chinese policy forming community in productive and mutually beneficial confrontation.

"There are profound military preparedness implications associated with Chinese public advocacy of pre-emptive or deterrent attacks on specific US targets, both military and civilian, both independently and in support of theater combat operations.

"This open source literature survey found no assertion that China currently possesses any type of ASAT weapons, or that the government of China has ordered the production of any such weapons. However, an unattributed interview in October 2006 at the Zhuhai air show that appeared in a Chinese owned newspaper bluntly stated China has such weapons now...."

The Barcelona-based Galactic Suite Ltd. says it will be ready to serve space tourists in the first space hotel by the year 2012.

It would cost $4.4 million for a three-night stay at the Galactic Suite Space Resort, including an eight-week training course on a tropical island.

Guests would be able to see the sunrise 15 times a day and travel around the Earth every 80 minutes, Reuters reported.

It would take a day and a half for travelers to arrive at the pod where they would be able to move by using velcro suits and sticking to the walls.

Galactic Suite Ltd. officials hope their project will pave the way for the future of space tourism.

"It's very normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could spend a weekend in space," Galactic Suite Ltd. CEO and former aerospace engineer Xavier Claramunt told Reuters Television.

Galactic Suite Ltd. will start the multi-billion-dollar project with a single pod in orbit 450 km above the earth, traveling at 30,000 km per hour and the capacity to hold four guests and two astronaut-pilots.

"When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for 3 days, rocket and capsule," Claramunt explained.

"With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he hasn't been abandoned. After 3 days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth."

According to Claramunt, an anonymous billionaire has donated $3 billion to the project and the company says it will transport its guests in Russian rockets from a spaceport to be built on an island in the Caribbean.

At least 43 people have reserved rooms at the hotel so far.

Russia laid out its ambition to gain an edge in the space race by building a nuclear-powered spaceship.

But the plan outlined to a government meeting Wednesday left key questions unanswered, U.S. engineers were skeptical, and a Russian Greenpeace activist voiced concern.

Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told the meeting that the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it would then take nine years and 17 billion rubles ($600 million, euro400 million) to build the ship.

At the meeting on new communications and space technologies, televised live, President Dmitry Medvedev hailed the plan and ordered the Cabinet to find the money for it. But the stated ambition contrasted with slow progress on building a replacement to the mainstay Russian spacecraft, sounding more like a plea for extra government cash than a detailed proposal.

"It's a very serious project," said Medvedev. "We need to find the money."

"It's one of a series of sucker-bait trial balloons looking for some government or corporation in the West with more dollars than sense," said James Oberg, an engineer in Houston who is an expert and consultant in the Russian space program.

Perminov said his plan was "a unique breakthrough project" that would put Russia ahead of foreign competitors in space. But he offered few details or make clear what the nuclear-powered ship's mission would be: whether it would be used near Earth like the existing Soyuz spacecraft, or for voyages into deep space.

Stanley Borowski, a senior engineer at NASA specializing in nuclear rocket engines, said that in deep space they are twice as fuel-efficient as conventional rocket fuel and would have many advantages on such missions as taking astronauts and gear to Mars.

But launched from Earth, they could expose crew and people near the blastoff site to potential radiation that would escape the confines of the rocket, he said.

"We never talk about using them for Earth-to-orbit launch," Borowski told The Associated Press. "The way they have always talked about it in NASA missions is for use in deep space."

Perminov said the ship will have a megawatt-class nuclear reactor, as opposed to reactors in Cold-War era Soviet satellites that produced just a few kilowatts of power and lasted about a year.

One of them, the derelict Cosmos-954 nuclear-powered satellite, scattered radioactive debris over northern Canada on its fiery re-entry in 1978, but caused no injuries in the lightly populated area.

"It's dangerous to put nuclear materials in space. They pose risks at re-entry."said Greenpeace's Vladimir Chuprov.

The U.N. outer space treaty, in force since 1967 and ratified by 105 countries including Russia and the U.S., was designed to keep outer space free of nuclear weapons. It makes no mention of using nuclear energy for nonmilitary purposes.

NASA also used small amounts of plutonium in deep space probes, including those to Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and beyond.

Upcoming NASA missions powered by plutonium include the over-budget and delayed Mars Science Laboratory, set to launch in 2011, and a mission to tour the solar system's outer planets scheduled to go up in 2020.

The only planetary mission considered by Russia is a probe to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos. It was set to launch this year, but was delayed.

The Russian space agency also has weighed missions to the moon and Mars but has set no specific time frame.

Perminov and other officials have previously said the Soyuz craft need a successor model for missions in Earth orbit, but so far have only talked about a ship powered by a conventional fuel.

Russia sends crews to the International Space Station using Soyuz capsules and booster rockets developed 40 years ago. Development of a replacement vessel using conventional propellant has dragged on with no end in sight.

But Russia stands to take a greater role in space exploration in the coming years. NASA's plan to retire its shuttle fleet next year will force the United States and other nations to rely on the Russian spacecraft to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station and back to Earth until NASA's new manned ship becomes available.

The Defense Ministry will forge technological cooperation with countries including Germany to secure at least four spy satellites by 2012.The ministry yesterday said multipurpose satellites either in use or set for launch are unfit for military activities. This is according to an internal document on military satellites and the Space Exploitation Act obtained by The Dong-A Ilbo.

The military will spend 600 billion to 700 billion won (514 million to 600 million U.S. dollars) by 2020 to purchase four spy satellites.In the document, the ministry said Korea could acquire its own spy satellites with a relatively small budget before 2020 if it joins forces with nations that have developed spy satellites.

Australia in Space section consists of sections on Launch Vehicles and Woomera Space Port. The rest of the section is dedicated to Australian related Space and Astronomy Links.

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Built to support the UK-Australian Weapons Research Establishment, Woomera airfield served as a base for manned and unmanned flight trials, and a base for aerial supply for personnel at the trials site. Although the RAAF withdrew from Woomera in 1967, flying continued at the site, and today the RAAF now use the range for weapons testing with detachments from the Edinburgh-based Aircraft Research and Development Unit.

Sungguh beruntung masyarakat di belahan bumi sebelah utara karena bisa menyaksikan hujan meteor Perseid lebih jelas dibanding Indonesia. Di Tanah Air, posisi paling pas untuk menyaksikan momen tahunan itu adalah di Medan dan Manado.

"Tentu yang relatif paling jelas adalah daerah Indonesia bagian utara, seperti Medan dan Manado," ujar peneliti utama Astronomi-Astrofisika Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional (Lapan), Thomas Djamaluddin, saat dihubungi detikcom, Rabu (12/8/2009).

Bagaimana di Jakarta? "Di Jawa dan Jakarta bisa, tapi masih rendah dan tergantung bagaimana cuacanya (cerah atau tidak), walaupun terganggu dengan cahaya bulan," jelas Thomas.

Thomas menjelaskan, meski meteor Perseid tidak terlalu jelas terlihat, komunitas di LAPAN akan menyelengarakan malam antariksa di Sumedang guna menyambut fenomena alam itu. Hujan meteor Perseid yang berasal dari debu komet Swift-Tuttle ini akan berlangsung Kamis (13/8) pukul 01.00 WIB hingga subuh.