Kepler's Search for Earth-Likeplanets
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AAcover-1.25spine.qxd:AA Template 12/15/09 11:12 AM Page 1 1 AEROSPACE AMERICA January 2010 JANUARY 2010 Kepler’s search for Earth-likeplanets Conversation with Gen. Norton A. Schwartz New capabilities for GPS II/III APUBLICATIONOFTHEAMERICANINSTITUTEOFAERONAUTICSANDASTRONAUTICS toc.JAN2010.qxd:AA Template 12/14/09 11:48 AM Page 1 January 2010 DEPARTMENTS Page 8 EDITORIAL 3 Mitigation and adaptation INTERNATIONAL BEAT 4 Page 16 Europe looks to outsourcing. WASHINGTON WATCH 8 Money woes take center stage. CONVERSATIONS 12 With Gen. Norton A. Schwartz. VIEW FROM HERE 16 Page 20 A safer path to orbit. AIRCRAFT UPDATE 20 Aircraft industry rides out the recession…so far. ELECTRONICS UPDATE 24 Future tactical communications: Moving slowly. ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK 28 Seeking other Earths. OUT OF THE PAST 42 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 46 FEATURES SMALL EXPLORERS WITH BIG BENEFITS 32 Although larger spacecraft with high-profile missions draw more attention, NASA’s Small Explorer satellites often bring bigger scientific returns. Page 28 by J.R.Wilson KEPLER’S SEARCH FOR EARTH-LIKE PLANETS 36 NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which searches for Earth-like planets in our part Page32 of our galaxy, has already had its first success. by Leonard David BULLETIN AIAA Meeting Schedule B2 AIAA Courses and Training Program B4 AIAA News B5 Meeting Program B15 Calls for Papers B27 COVER This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the telescope's full field of view—a star-rich patch of sky in the Page 36 constellations Cygnus and Lyra.To learn about this effort to find Earth-like planets,turn to page 36 Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. at 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, Va. 20191-4344 [703/264-7577]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S. and Canada, $163, foreign, $200. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription orders to address above, attention AIAA Customer Service, 703/264-7500. Periodical postage paid at Herndon, VA, and at additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2010 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 40,000 copies of this issue printed. This is Volume 48, No. 1. jan.edit.qxd:AA Template 12/18/09 9:52 AM Page 1 ® is a publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Elaine J. Camhi Editor-in-Chief Patricia Jefferson Associate Editor Mitigation and adaptation Greg Wilson Production Editor Jerry Grey, Editor-at-Large Christine Williams, Editor AIAA Bulletin For 12 days last December, government representatives from 190 nations came together in Denmark to participate in the United Nations Framework Correspondents Convention on Climate Change. The convention, according to its official site, Robert F. Dorr, Washington Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Europe “sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge Michael Westlake, Hong Kong posed by climate change. It recognizes that the climate system is a shared re- source whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of car- Contributing Writers bon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.” Richard Aboulafia, John Binder, James W. Canan, Marco Cáceres, Edward Flinn, The end product of the meeting was to be known as the Copenhagen Pro- Tom Jones, Théo Pirard, David Rockwell, tocol, supplanting the Kyoto Protocol that has been ratified by 184 parties but Frank Sietzen, J.R. Wilson is due to expire in 2012. Squabbling arose over targets, and politics often drove the debate, but while no party attending the meetings argued about the Fitzgerald Art & Design Art Direction and Design need for greenhouse gas mitigation, the final outcome was far from certain. But that these discussions could be held at all is in no small measure thanks Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution to the data provided by instruments aboard satellites from many nations. David W. Thompson, President During the convention, representatives from a broad spectrum of space Robert S. Dickman, Publisher agencies attended a side event, hosted by the European Space Agency, entitled STEERING COMMITTEE Global Monitoring of our Climate: the Essential Climate Variables. Speakers Michael B. Bragg, University of Illinois; there highlighted the vital role these satellites play in climate change research. Philip Hattis, Draper Laboratory; Mark S. These spacecraft measure not just carbon dioxide emissions levels, but changes Maurice, AFOSR; Laura McGill, Raytheon; in the atmosphere, oceans, and ice caps that collectively describe the state of George Muellner, Boeing; Merri Sanchez, our planet. National Aeronautics and Space Administra- Monitoring the changes in the color of the seas, for example, can tell us tion; Mary Snitch, Lockheed Martin about chlorophyll pigment and sediment concentration, which affect the life EDITORIAL BOARD that thrives within the waters. Instruments aboard a newly launched ESA satel- Ned Allen, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics; lite, SMOS, will be measuring ocean salinity, which contributes to ocean circu- Jean-Michel Contant, EADS; Eugene lation patterns. These data are crucial, because the health of Earth’s oceans Covert, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- dictates the health and welfare of its inhabitants. ogy; L.S. “Skip” Fletcher, Texas A&M Uni- On a positive note, recent satellite images show the Earth’s ozone layer to versity; Michael Francis, United Technologies; be healing. According to NASA, “Researchers have no doubt that the increase Christian Mari, Teuchos; Cam Martin, in ozone is because nations followed the 1987 Montreal Protocol on the Sub- NASA Dryden; Don Richardson, Donrich Research; Douglas Yazell, Honeywell stances that Deplete the Ozone.” At the same time that these efforts at mitigation are being made, steps are ADVERTISING also being taken to adapt to the changes that have already taken place. As we National Display and Classified: search for methods to slow down or halt man-made changes to the global cli- Robert Silverstein, 240.498.9674 mate, we must also find mechanisms to adapt to those that have already taken [email protected] place and that are, for the most part, irreversible. Once again, satellites and West Coast Display: Greg Cruse, other Earth-monitoring devices can play a significant role. 949.361.1870 / [email protected] As wind patterns evolve, for example, farmers can alter where, and per- Send materials to Craig Byl, AIAA, 1801 haps even what, they plant. As changes in ocean circulation and salinity be- Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500, Reston, VA come clear, fisheries may be relocated; rises in sea levels can be monitored 20191-4344. Changes of address should be and buildings and roads rethought or relocated; changing herd migrations sent to Customer Service at the same address, can be observed and accommodated. Weather changes can be predicted with by e-mail at [email protected], or by fax at greater accuracy, allowing people more time to prepare for cataclysmic events. 703/264-7606. As the nations of the world strive to mitigate the negative effects of some Send Letters to the Editor to Elaine Camhi at the same address or [email protected] modern human activity, aerospace advancements enable us to measure them, halt their progress, and adapt to what cannot be undone. January 2010, Vol. 48, No. 1 Elaine Camhi Editor-in-Chief BEATlayout.qxd:AA Template 12/14/09 4:01 PM Page 2 Europelookstooutsourcing OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS, EUROPE’S DE- ing initiatives, with East European coun- scale single-sourcing strategy should be fense departments will increase the tries more reticent. Continental Euro- used cautiously….Because of poor plan- amount of non-front-line services they pean military organizations have tended ning, the military sometimes pushes too outsource to private companies. to prefer combining services with their much responsibility onto the contractor, “A combination of budgetary pres- neighbors rather than outsourcing to the thus creating unbalanced risk/reward sit- sures and the fact that the nature of war- private sector. uations for the contractor, which then fare has changed will mean European delivers unsatisfactory services.” defense departments will have to look Learning from failure But the lessons are being learned increasingly at outsourcing as a future But the outsourcing process has not from all sides on how government de- option,” says Peter Howson, director of been universally successful. The crash of partments and private contractors should London-based consultants AMR, special- an RAF Nimrod MR2 aircraft with the best work together. There is now a grow- ists in this area. “There are other factors, loss of 14 military personnel while on in- ing understanding that an excessive fo- such as an end to conscription, also in- telligence gathering operations in Af- cus on price can lead to poor contracting volved. In labor-intensive areas such as ghanistan during 2006 occurred because performance. facilities management, where you need a of “a systemic breach of the military cov- “A great deal of the knowledge in large workforce involved in cleaning and enant brought about by significant fail- maintaining ordnance and equipment maintenance of facilities, it makes no sense to tie up troops in these activities, especially at times of turbulence.” “Adaptation to requirements for change, even when they clearly reflect the wishes of the taxpayers and the armed Mapping the trend forces, is not always as easy as we could imagine.” The degree to which European countries have already outsourced military train- ing, logistics, and facilities management ures on the part of the MOD [Ministry of lies with the original equipment manu- services to private companies is surpris- Defence], BAE Systems, and QinetiQ,” facturers [OEMs] anyway,” according to ingly extensive. according to an accident report commis- Howson.