Astrocast.TV

Archive for the ‘Greg Redfern’ Category

Rich put the 2011 NASA Budget on our blog yesterday and I have had time to read and mull this over. I must say that I have mixed feelings since there are good and not so good dynamics involving this budget. What follows is my own PERSONAL reflections and thoughts.

The second man on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin, the 1st US woman in space, Sally Ride, have come out in support of the proposed budget and issued statements claiming such. Other blog/web sites have commented extensively as well.

One especially poignant comment is by lunar scientist Chuck Wood at www.lpod.org….I highly recommend that you read it.

For me it comes down to the supposed fact that America cannot afford $3 billion a year, or just $10 for every man, woman, child per year to fund going to the Moon and beyond. That is what it would take according to the Augustine Commission to keep the Constellation Program moving forward. We can’t afford that?????
Once again we have the lack of political and National will keeping us from the Moon. This happened back in the 1970′s when Apollo was axed just as the J missions were getting scientifically interesting and we had paid for the hardware and everything else to get us there and just literally threw it all out.

I am FOR commercial space exploration and their development of manned spaceflight capabilities. But I am also FOR going to the Moon via Constellation or some functional form of it.

We will watch other Nations go and stake their claims on the Moon and see potential advesaries once again gain the high ground over us just as happened in the 1950′s. All for the lack of a very, very small amount of money in terms of the overal budget.

Congress will not let this go as is without fighting it tooth and nail in some NASA oriented states. We will follow this as the story – and budget develops.

Hey Fellow Astrocasters!

The Sun is FINALLY showing signs of activity that MAY signal the end of this historic solar minimum….historic in the length of time that solar sunspots and related activity have been absent.

STEREO A & B twin spacecraft caught the view of an active region that has delighted solar observers since rotating into our face on view of the Sun.

In our current episode I talk about Solar Tsunamis on the Sun. With perhaps the beginnings of Solar Maximum and associated solar activity not far away, we may get more Solar Tsunamis on the Sun.

For more info check out NASA/SOHO: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/

Greg

December 1, 2009 Episode 21 – Embed Astrocast.TV in your site.

Greg talks about NASA’s LCROSS and it’s plung into Cabeus A crater on the Lunar surface. Greg also reports on the third fly-by of Mercury by the NASA MESSENGER spacecraft.

This episode of A Green Space – A Green Earth (GSGE in the menu tab) Bente reports on Earth observation from Space and how observing from a distance gives us an overview and a better understanding of large scale features of our Earth.

The Astronomer’s Universe, Carolyn Collins Petersen takes a closer look at Betelgeuse the Red Giant star in Orion’s right shoulder.

This month in Our Night Sky, Dr. Harold Geller gives us Our Night Sky for December. Our Moon, planetary allignements and occultations of Jupiters Moons are just a few of Our Night Sky wonders for December. What is an occultation? What is a Blue Moon?

- See our coverage of the International Symposium for Personal & Commercial Spaceflight on Astrocast.TV. “Spaceflight for all Mankind”

Check out Touring The Universe with Binoculars from TUBA Software.  Available free from Phil Harrington and Dean Williams at: http://www.philharrington.net/tuba.htm

November 1, 2009 Episode 20 – Embed Astrocast.TV in your site.

Greg talks about NASA’s LCROSS and it’s plunge into Cabeus A crater on the Lunar surface. Greg also reports on the Shiva Basin and new theories are appearing that the impacted origin of the Shiva Basin may be the smoking gun that killed the Dinosaurs.

This episode of A Green Space – A Green Earth (GSGE in the menu tab) Bente reports on Earth observation from Space and how satellites measure Ocean currents and Gravity helping determine weather patterns, climate change and more.

The Astronomer’s Universe, Carolyn Collins Petersen takes a closer look at the first Stars in our Universe.

This month in Our Night Sky, Yvonne Garcia filling in for Tavi Greiner, reports on the what’s up in our November night sky. Venus, Mars, Jupiter all visible in the northern hemisphere in November. On November 16th Europa will occult (pass in front of) Ganymede. More in Yvonne’s report…

Check out Touring The Universe with Binoculars from TUBA Software.  Available free from Phil Harrington and Dean Williams at: http://www.philharrington.net/tuba.htm

Hey Fellow Astrocast.TV’ers!

Here is the link to the Augustine Summary Report:

 http://www.nasa.gov/offices/hsf/related_documents/summary_report.html

Greg

Hey Astrocast.TV’ers!

NASA has changed the target crater for LCROSS. The new crater is Cabeus (proper) instead of the adjacent Cabeus A. The change was made due to updated information. As stated by NASA: “The decision was based on continued evaluation of all available data and consultation/input from members of the LCROSS Science Team and the scientific community, including impact experts, ground and space based observers, and observations from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Prospector (LP), Chandrayaan-1 and JAXA’s Kaguya spacecraft. This decision was prompted by the current best understanding of hydrogen concentrations in the Cabeus region, including cross-correlation between the latest LRO results and LP data sets.”
See more at :

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/features/2009/LCROSS_new_crater.html.

Greg

Hey Fellow Astrocasters!

Here is the link to read the report I reference in our latest episode. It makes for good, thought-provoking reading. Tell us what you think.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/download/NRC-Aug12InterimReport.pdf

Greg

Look into the depths of perpetual night – full story http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/95-Eternal-Darkness-Near-the-North-Pole.html#extended

Greg

Hey Fellow Astrocast.tv’ers!

Take a look at this picture closely. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090823.html

See ALL OF THOSE GALAXIES? Each contains hundreds of billions of stars and who knows how many mysteries, planets and life forms. And all of them are under the influence of dark matter, gravity and who knows what else just as we are.

Many of the blue objects you see are images of the SAME distant blue galaxy but are formed by the gravitational influence of the foreground galaxy cluster – a gravitational lens.

I just want to remind everyone that beyond our speck of dust we call home there is an incredible and mysterious Universe.

Greg

Hey Fellow Astrocast.tv’ers!

 Check out this link to see how India and the US are cooperating on the determining whether there is ice at the north pole of the Moon. Both the Chanrayaan-1 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have advanced on board radar that is probing the lunar soil within permanently shadowed regions(PSRs) -craters - to see if the radar return can yield some clues.

http://lpod.wikispaces.com/August+22%2C+2009

I’ll post the results as soon as I hear of them.

Greg