NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011 THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY ISSUE 6 VOLUME 50 SPACE TIMES • November/December 2011 1 AAS OFFICERS PRESIDENT Frank A. Slazer, Aerospace Industries Association EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011 Lyn D. Wigbels, RWI International Consulting Services VICE PRESIDENT–TECHNICAL David B. Spencer, Pennsylvania State University VICE PRESIDENT–PROGRAMS ISSUE 6–VOLUME 50 J. Walter Faulconer, Strategic Space Solutions, LLC VICE PRESIDENT–PUBLICATIONS Richard Burns VICE PRESIDENT–STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E A M E R I C A N A S T R O N A U T I C A L S O C I E T Y Ken Davidian, Federal Aviation Administration VICE PRESIDENT–MEMBERSHIP Randall Correll, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE VICE PRESIDENT–EDUCATION No time to feel complacent 3 Dustin Doud, SpaceX VICE PRESIDENT–FINANCE Carol S. Lane, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. FEATURES VICE PRESIDENT–INTERNATIONAL Lance Bush, Paragon Space Development Corporation Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX-2) and Michigan Multipurpose VICE PRESIDENT–PUBLIC POLICY Minisatellite (M-Cubed): Two CubeSats from the Michigan Marcia Smith, Space and Technology Policy Group, LLC Nanosatellite Pipeline Launch Together 4 LEGAL COUNSEL Franceska O. Schroeder, Fish & Richardson P.C. On October 28th, the University of Michigan sent two CubeSats which EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR had shared laboratory space into outer space. James R. Kirkpatrick, AAS by Allison Craddock and James Cutler AAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Space Hogwarts: Summer at the International Space University 8 TERM EXPIRES 2012 Through a joint award by the American Astronautical Society and the A. William Beckman, The Boeing Company International Space University, Jake Gamsky participated in the ISU’s Steven Brody, International Space University Space Studies Program in Graz, Austria, during the summer of 2011. Juergen Drescher, German Aerospace Center Paul Eckert by Jake Gamsky Steven D. Harrison, National Reconnaissance Office Felix Hoots, The Aerospace Corporation 50th ROBERT H. GODDARD MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM 10 Nicole Jordan Kim Luu, Air Force Research Laboratory Clayton Mowry, Arianespace, Inc. 2ND USA SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FESTIVAL 12 TERM EXPIRES 2013 Ronald J. Birk, Northrop Grumman TECHNICAL CONFERENCE Vince DeFrancisci, USRA 1st International Academy of Astronautics Conference on Dynamics Peggy Finarelli, George Mason University/CAPR Rebecca L. Griffin, Rebecca Griffin Space and Control of Space Systems, Porto, Portugal 13 Hal E. Hagemeier, Invertix Corporation Susan J. Irwin, Euroconsult USA, Inc. Molly Kenna Macauley, Resources for the Future UPCOMING EVENTS 14 Kathy J. Nado Lesa B. Roe AAS ANNUAL AWARDS 16 Woodrow Whitlow, Jr. TERM EXPIRES 2014 AAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS 17 Peter M. Bainum, Howard University Robert H. Bishop, Marquette University Mark K. Craig, SAIC OBSERVATIONS FROM THE VON BRAUN SYMPOSIUM 18 J.R. Edwards, Lockheed Martin Patrick McKenzie, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. NOTES ON NEW BOOKS Neil Milburn, Armadillo Aerospace Suneel Sheikh, ASTER Labs, Inc. John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon 22 Patricia Grace Smith, Patti Grace Smith Consulting 2010 AAS Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award Winner Gregg Vane, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Reviewed by Donald C. Elder III SPACE TIMES EDITORIAL STAFF The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957 23 EDITOR, Jeffrey P. Elbel, Earth Resources Technology, Inc. 2010 AAS Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award Winner PHOTO & GRAPHICS EDITOR, Allison B. Craddock, University of Michigan Reviewed by Rick W. Sturdevant PRODUCTION MANAGER, Diane L. Thompson, AAS SPACE TIMES is published bimonthly by the American Astronautical Society, a professional non-profit society. SPACE TIMES is free to ON THE COVER members of the AAS. Individual subscriptions may be ordered from the AAS Business Office. © Copyright 2011 by the American FRONT: The Delta II rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 28, Astronautical Society, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. 2011. (Source: Ben Cooper/LaunchPhotography.com) ISSN 1933-2793. BACK: The Delta II rocket on its way to orbit, carrying the NPP climate and weather observatory along with six CubeSats from universities across the United States. This long-exposure image shows PERIODICALS the launch sequence from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. ( Source: Ben Cooper/ SPACE TIMES, magazine of the AAS, bimonthly, volume 50, LaunchPhotography.com) 2011—$80 domestic, $95 foreign The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, quarterly, volume 58, 2011—$180 domestic, $200 foreign To order these publications, contact the AAS Business Office. 6352 Rolling Mill Place, Suite 102 REPRINTS Springfield, VA 22152-2370 USA Tel: 703-866-0020 Fax: 703-866-3526 Reprints are available for all articles in SPACE TIMES and all pa- pers published in The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. [email protected] www.astronautical.org 2 SPACE TIMES • November/December 2011 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE No time to feel complacent The recent successful launch of the Mars Science Lab (MSL), Curiosity, stands in sharp contrast to the bold but unsuccessful Phobos-Grunt mission which became trapped in low Earth orbit. Curiosity’s success is not yet assured. It has a very challenging descent to the Martian surface ahead of it since it is the largest soft landing mission ever attempted. But NASA’s track record and, more specifically, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) record with Mars missions have been excellent for over a decade, and so the mission’s prospects are bright as this is written in the waning weeks of 2011. Yet MSL’s success is no reason to be complacent that all is well with America’s planetary science program. I regret that the Phobos-Grunt mission failed, and I wish Russia’s space program well in its next planetary effort. But while JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, has been the lead organization for six Mars missions in the past 12 years, Phobos-Grunt was the first Mars mission by Russia in fifteen years. As in music, sports, or anything else humans attempt to do, repetition brings success. So far, only the U.S. has successfully landed spacecraft on Mars. The experienced knowledge base of our scientists, workforce, and contractors that enabled these successes are national treasures that we should not give up lightly. Sadly, the next logical step that NASA/JPL has been trying to take, a 2016 joint mission with the European Space Agency (ESA), the first of two Mars missions under the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative agreement signed in 2009, is on hold because NASA has been unable to get White House approval to commit the required funds. For the 2016 mission, NASA would supply a launch vehicle, four science instruments, and a communications system. ESA would provide the cruise stage/orbiter and an EDL demonstrator. The following 2018 Joint Rover Mission, involving roving, drilling, and in situ science, would advance U.S. surface rover capabilities beyond MSL and prepare for a future Mars sample return mission. The Joint Mars Exploration Program is consistent with the National Academy of Science decadal plan for planetary science. It is the type of innovative approach that is essential if NASA is to continue to maintain its capabilities and do great science while our nation works to reduce the federal budget deficit. In the months ahead, as NASA’s FY2013 budget proposal is unveiled and debated, I hope this will be revisited and that NASA will be allowed to proceed. Those who would blame other programs or NASA’s overall priorities miss the point. NASA is an infinitesimal part of the federal budget and has barely grown in the past decade while federal expenditures and deficits have increased greatly. It is not the cause of budget problems, but if we do not find the resources to allow NASA to proceed with Source: NASA JPL Mars Program Office this next step in Mars exploration, we may find to our regret that MSL was our high water mark in robotic exploration. Unfortunately, this is but one example of how our nation risks making short term budget choices that will have long term deleterious impacts on our prior investments and future capabilities. At JPL, while a half dozen or so missions, including MSL, are being launched this year, the future beyond these is very uncertain and contingent on winning some of the few Discovery class missions being competed annually with a great deal of competition. Similar hard choices likely are facing other NASA centers and the space stakeholders associated with them. As our nation grapples with our current fiscal challenges, we need to keep a perspective on the need for sensible investments. The Joint Mars Exploration Program is exactly the kind of smart, cost effective approach that we should support. AAS – Advancing All Space Frank A. Slazer [email protected] SPACE TIMES • November/December 2011 3 Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX-2) and Michigan Multipurpose Minisatellite (M-Cubed): Two CubeSats from the Michigan Nanosatellite Pipeline Launch Together by Allison Craddock and James Cutler At 2:48 a.m. on October 28th, two CubeSats that often shared laboratory space during development shared a rocket ride into orbit. The Michigan Multipurpose Minisatellite (M-Cubed) and the second Radio Aurora Explorer CubeSat (RAX-2), both assembled at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California. RAX-2 and M- Cubed are both products of the Michigan Nanosatellite Pipeline, which was established to create a support network across individual small satellite projects within the University of Michigan. The Pipeline is a point of intersection where students, faculty, and industry customers come together to propose, design, develop and build novel small satellite missions. It organizes technical knowledge with facility support, resources, and personnel within the university and its industry partners.