Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was awarded a $1.8 billion contract to build the first stage rocket motors for the Orion space vehicle. The first stage motors from Alliant will be a departure from the solid/liquid combination in use today and will instead employ only solid fuel.

People from NASA and UNAM University in Mexico are studying the feasibility of growing trees on Mars. Growing trees on Mars is currently considered one of the first steps towards terraforming the planet. By pumping a lot of heavy gases onto the planet, such as methane and nitrous oxide, it might be possible to heat the surface of Mars to around 41 °s; F. Certain tree species in Mexico are known to grow at that temperature on a mountain called Pico de Orizaba. Trees are considered to be the 'engine of the biosphere'. Once they start growing, it is believe that the process of terraforming will begin to take care of itself.

Four teams competed in NASA's Regolith Excavation Challenge this week for a chance to win a prize of $250K. The four teams all attempted unsuccessfully to build a robot that was able to dig 330lbs of regolith in under 30 minutes. Technology Ranch of Pismo Beach did the best with 143 lbs collected in the 30 minute time frame. All other machines broke down before the 30 minutes expired.

Regolith is the "loose heterogeneous material covering solid rock". On the moon this layer of material can be several meters thick.

The Phoenix probe has been delivered to NASA by Lockheed Martin. The Phoenix probe is the next generation of scientific probe scheduled to study Mars. This particular Martian mission is dedicated to looking for, and possibly testing, water under the surface of the planet. The probe is set for launch in August.

A nice documentary that lays out NASA's plan to build a space colony and the technology involved in the venture. In the video they cover the development and testing of new space suits, lunar habitats, mining the surface of the moon, extracting water and oxygen from lunar soils, and how the O

NASA is testing a portable surgery robot in an underwater testing environment. The test will involve a remote surgeon sewing a tear in a rubber tube and conducting a skill test used for student doctors. The delay time between the movement of the robot and the feedback to the surgeon will be about 1 second. The connection will travel via 'a commercial Internet connection' from Seattle to Key Largo, FL. Then by wireless connection to a bouy. The Raven portable medical robot is tethered to the bouy. There is no further description of the internet connection used in the article...ISDN? IP2 with standard of service protocol?

NASA is being directed by the US congress to continue with a project to put a robot on the moon. I wonder if this decision has anything to do with plans from China, Japan, India, et al to re-visit the moon for mapping and data gathering missions. Probably, huh?

The Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter was originally scheduled to land on the moon in 2011. It is part of the Lunar Precursor and Robotics Program that was originally planned to pre-date the installation of a moon colony.

The article contains a lot more information in ways that Congress is changing around the proposed NASA budget.

NASA is engaging the Second Life crowd through an online emissary of sorts. Thus far they have created a replica of the Space Shuttle in the online world. They call their emissary the 'CoLab' complex, which exists on it's own island within the game. Some of the in-game personalities are working on lava tube habitats, others on Martian habitat's and terraforming. There is talk of creating worlds that look and feel like the moon or other heavenly bodies.

NASA is testing some new improved space suits. The new suits are expected to be lighter and smaller than current suits. The also sport a science fiction looking porthole. The picture is of a suit from ILC Dover that looks very much like the one pictured by the AP in the news article.

According to this article from the Guardian, NASA is getting ready to close the Atlanta based Institute for Advanced Concepts (Niac). The Niac was responsible for several notable ideas including growing crops on Mars, the Space Elevator, and a planet finder (which has been incarnated as COROT, among other projects). Budgetary shortfalls are claimed as the culprit for the possible closing of the division.

The inflatable structure is made of multilayer fabric and looks like an ungainly white robot with legs. The main unit is 12 feet in diameter and 18 feet tall. It has a volume of about 1,600 cubic feet and is connected to an airlock, also inflatable. The two spaces are essentially pressurized cylinders, connected by an airtight door. The concept design has been delivered to NASA Langley by ILC Dover for testing.

Scientists are hoping to explain what they call the Pioneer Anomaly by digitizing and analyzing the 10 gigs of data stored on magnetic tape drives. The MSNBC space article on the subject is very vague about what the Pioneer Anomaly actually is. Apparently something at the edge of our solar system is 'pushing back' the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes. The probes were launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively. Apparently the probes are closer to the sun than people involved in the project think the probes should be. About 240,000 miles closer to the sun.