Lunar Development

Site Moved

This site has moved and will no longer be updated here.

The new site is at lunardevelopment.org and lunardevelopment.net
sorry for any inconvience.

Please Book mark new site

Thank you,

Karen Shea

Neil Armstrong Biography

First Man - The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James Hansen has just been published.

Collect Space and space.com have articles about the book.

Review from Quest /  Space Business (PDF)

Read First Chapter on NT Times Website (free registration required).

NASA Marshall Safety Breakfast Game Distracting From Saftey

An Article in the Huntsville Times  titled The breakfast club NASA senior managers never talk about safety in same restaurant twice By Rebbecca Sallee.

A group of managers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has more than one item on its plate when it meets each month to talk about safety over breakfast.

Roger Herdy, a site manager for Allied Aerospace in Marshall's Engineering Science and Technical Services group, said about 20 senior managers take part in the monthly meetings, which started in 1990.

Managers take turns leading a safety briefing and choosing the breakfast site. "The rules are that you cannot go back to the same place," Herdy said. "Over the years, it's been more and more difficult to find a new restaurant. That's part of the game."

I find this very disturbing from the point of view of one who has studied the Psychology of Group Dynamics.  This breakfast game ignores the importance of space when dealing with group dynamics, the seriousness of the issue they are dealing with as well as the fact that they are wasting a lot of public employees time playing this game.

The functioning of a group is highly dependent on the space they meet in. There are of course obvious things like lay out, lighting and  temperature but there are other factors as well. Meeting in the same space is important for group therapy because it automatically puts participants in the proper frame of mind and means they don't have to think about the room. While a safety group gathers for a different purpose, constantly changing meeting space undercuts the purpose of the meeting and the functioning of the group. I am sure many times they have met in rooms not really conducive to a meeting because of the rules of the game.

The playful attitude is also disturbing to me when dealing with the subject of safety.  Written later in the article,

this month with Lon Miller's discussion of "safety as an attitude," Herdy said. "It is a very serious thing when you are in the manned spaceflight business that things are safe. There can be spills, accidents, things of that nature. We want to be sure everybody goes home."

The breakfast club does not seem to have the safety attitude.

Finally, how much time an effort goes in to finding a new restaurant, telling everyone when and where the meeting will be  and having 20 people find this month's location. That is not even considering how much extra time is spent on the road because the distance required drive to a new spot because the group has already been to all the nearby ones.  Consider this meeting has been going on every month for 15 years. That means they have meet in 180 different places. I who live close to 10 restaurants would be hard pressed to play this type of game for long.

It is time this group get serious and remember the importance of safety and the fact they are all either directly or indirectly being paid by the government and stop wasting tax payer dollars on a silly game.

Keith Cowing Needs a Civics Lesson

From  NASA WATCH

September 30th

GRIFFIN STEPS IN IT AGAIN

NASA chief: U.S. may end flights with Russians, AP

"NASA's top official said today that the future of U.S participation in Russian space flights is in doubt due to a congressional measure that aims to punish Moscow for its cooperation with Iran."

Editor's note:Who is advising Griffin on this issue? The last time I checked Congress was looking forward to revising the INA to help NASA.

Keith, until Congress does revise The Iran Non-proliferation Agreement (INA), it is the law of the land and Griffin would be in violation of it if he tried to use Russian space flights. Griffin's back is against the wall, don't criticize him.

Blame Congress for not fixing it sooner.

Blame Rohrbacher for writing the problem provisions in the first place.

Griffin had no part in putting us in this Hobson's choice of choosing weakness on weapons of  mass destruction technology proliferation to Iran or the Space Station. The fault for this situation lies squarely at the feet of Representative Dana Rohrbacher.

Michael Griffin-The Bravest Man on Earth

An article by Traci Watson in  USA TODAY stated

The space shuttle and International Space Station — nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades — were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

Finally someone in power in the Aerospace community willing to admit turning away from the Moon was a major error. And it was the NASA Administrator no less. This man has guts. This is what we needed to change NASA culture to go forward without the blinders which make safe operation impossible.  This admission is getting down to bed rock honesty and breaking the denial that has plagued NASA for decades. Also see Florida Today and .

Thank you and Congratulations Dr. Griffin.

Keith Cowing on  NASAWATCH

Mike Griffin speaks for the President. The reactions take one (or more) of three directions: Griffin is unable to articulate his ideas clearly; there is a serious disconnect between stated White House policy and its implementation; or the White House no longer (and perhaps never did) care about space.

First, being a head of an agency doesn't mean you speak for the President.   There are very few people who do that. An agency head saying that a mistake was made decades ago by the previous management of that agency bears absolutely no bearing on the President or his policies.  In fact the Presidents Policy has been to reverse the error for the last 18 Months.  Second, Griffin articulated his ideas very clearly.  Third, I see no disconnect at all with the White House.  Forth, NASA is only 1% of the Federal Budget, NASA should be well run enough  and be able to form appropriate goals and implement them well enough that the president doesn't have to care, except when he is taking credit for their successes.

I talked to Dr. Griffin last night at the Women in Aerospace (WIA) awards reception before this story came out , I wish I had known about it so I could have thanked him personally for his courage. We talked about NASA's Lunar planning,,  he said they are working on the plan for the lunar surface now, he thought energy was among the justifications for going to the Moon. I suggested that Mid January would be a prime time to push the lunar energy justification in the Media as that is when the sky high heating bills will hit, estimated to be 250% of last years. I also suggested that NASA should establish a strong community of groups interested in using the Moon so that it is less likely that the return to the Moon will be victim of the next election.   

Magnificent Desolation - Truly Magnificent

Tom Hanks new IMAX movie is stunning. This is just what the country needs as we are turning back to the Moon.

Thank you, Tom for contributing so much by bringing the history of the greatest human accomplishment to life with Apollo 13, From Earth to the Moon and now with Magnificent Desolation.

Report on opening with pictures.

The Moon in Art, Culture and Events

August -  Darkside- A play about a fiction Apollo 18 where the LM rocket engine fails to ignite

September 23  - Magnificent Desolation Opened: a new IMAX Movie by Tom Hanks

September 24 - John Young's 75th Birthday- Happy Birthday- Live Long and Prosper

October 3 - Annular solar eclipse Visible from Africa

October 4 - Moon occults Mercury

October 17 - Partial Lunar Eclipse

October 20 - 35th anniversery of the Launch of the USSR's Zond 8  which flew by the Moon

October 22 Octogon Moon Rise Event in Ohio - Poster

March 29, 2006  Solar Eclipse can be seen Turkey, Georgia and Russia

Regolith Excavtor Contest

NASA Centennial Challanges prize competition  has a new challange worth $250,000 to theteam that can build an autononomously operated excavtor which can deliver the most regolith to a collector within 30 minutes in a head to head competiton to be held in late 2006 or 2007.

MoonToday.net

Space.com

Exploration Systems Arichtechture Study (ESAS)

The results are in on NASA's current planning for How We'll get back to the Moon, the next step toward making President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) a reality.

I like that it has up to 6 flight s a year and can land 4 people at at time on the Moon. I like that Dr. Griffen talks about all the science that can be done on the Moon.  While there are few details on what exactly we will do on the Moon at least we haven't been limited by small ideas.

I do have some concerns.

1. Two launches required per lunar Mission - I believe this will be more dangerous than single launch missions do to the pressure to launch so as not to waste the equipment from the first launch. Also 2 launches have twice the failure rate as one launch.

2. The launch system is shuttle derived- The shuttle is not safe, this new system uses the same hard ware and maintains the same culture.   The hardware and culture which has cost us 14 lives.

3. Polar  site for base- The light conditions seem to make this a less than idea spot to put a base.

4. Crew Excursion vehicle reuseable 10 times- is this worth making it reusable, is it worth the required inspections?

5. Methane fueled lunar lander- this is great for Mars but how good is it for long term use of lunar derived fuels? how hard would it be to switch to something which could be lunar derived after this system has been thoroughly tested for Mars.

Lunar Events: September & October 2005

To Moon and beyond

15-16 September Bremen, Germany

Sunday, September 18^th is the Moon Festival a time for reading poetry, watchingt he Moon and having family reunions among the Chinese People.

The NASA roll out of Exploration Systems Architecture Study Results on Monday, September 19 at11 a.m.at NASA HQ

Moonbases USA October 11-12 Wshington, DC

Space Resources Round Table VII: The LEAG conference on Lunar Exploration October 25-28 in League, Texas (near Houson)