History > 2006 > USA > 2006 > Space (IV)

Editorial

Flexing Our Muscles in Space

October 21, 2006
The New York Times

The Bush administration has adopted a jingoistic and downright belligerent tone toward space operations. In a new “national space policy” posted without fanfare on an obscure government Web site, and in recent speeches, it has signaled its determination to be pre-eminent in space — as it is in air power and sea power — while opposing any treaties that might curtail any American action there.

This chest-thumping is being portrayed as a modest extension of the Clinton administration’s space policy issued a decade ago. And so far there is no mention of putting American weapons in space. But the more aggressive tone of the Bush policy may undercut international cooperation on civilian space projects — a goal to which the new policy subscribes — or set off an eventual arms race in space.

The new policy reflects the worst tendencies of the Bush administration — a unilateral drive for supremacy and a rejection of treaties. And it comes just as the White House is desperately seeking help to rein in the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran. That effort depends heavily on cooperation from China and Russia, two countries with their own active space programs.

The administration regards the policy as a necessary update to reflect how important space is becoming for the American economy and defense. But outside experts who have parsed the language are struck by how forceful and nationalistic it sounds.

Whereas the 1996 policy opened with assurances that the United States would pursue greater levels of partnership and cooperation in space, the new policy states: “In this new century, those who effectively utilize space will enjoy added prosperity and security and will hold a substantial advantage over those who do not. Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power.”

The only solace is that the new policy does not endorse placing weapons in space or fighting in, through or from space, as the Air Force has been urging. But neither does it rule out these activities.

In keeping with the more muscular stance, the administration is also opposing any negotiations on a treaty to prevent an arms race in outer space — arguing that it may impede America’s ability to defend its satellites from ground-based weapons. That seems shortsighted. An international treaty to keep space free of weapons might well provide greater security than a unilateral declaration that we will do whatever we have to do to preserve our own space assets.

Michael Griffin, the NASA administrator, insisted he did not intend to sound jingoistic when he addressed a conference in Spain this month — but he sure came across that way. He wondered aloud what language future settlers of the Moon and Mars would speak. “Will my language be passed down over the generations to future lunar colonies?” he asked. “Or will another, bolder or more persistent culture surpass our efforts and put their own stamp on the predominant lunar society of the far future?”

We fear the old notion that space might provide the perfect arena for international cooperation may be yielding to a new era of competition — one not seen since the cold war race to the moon.

    Flexing Our Muscles in Space, NYT, 21.10.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/opinion/21sat1.html

Mars Rover Visits Crater, Then Poses for a Picture

October 7, 2006
The New York Times
By WARREN E. LEARY

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover spent 22 months trekking almost six miles to a large scientifically promising crater. Like a tourist who asks a passer-by to take a picture for proof he made it to a famous site, the robot rover has had another spacecraft snap an image of it sitting on the rim.

Scientists said Friday that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a powerful explorer that just settled into its ideal scientific orbit, had used its high-resolution camera this week to spot the golf-cart-size rover sitting on the side of Victoria Crater.

The remarkably detailed picture, taken on Wednesday from 186 miles above Mars’s surface, shows the rover and its five-foot-high camera mast at the edge of the big impact crater and the robot’s tracks.

“This is a tremendous example of how our Mars missions in orbit and on the surface are designed to reinforce each other and expand our ability to explore and discover,” Douglas McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA, said at a news conference.

Alfred S. McEwen of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for the orbiter’s high-resolution camera, said the picture of Victoria Crater and its visitor was one of the first images taken. Mr. McEwen said the image of the crater’s jagged rock formations was made on the first effort to take a picture away from the spacecraft’s direction of travel. “It worked fabulously well,” he said.

The orbiter, the most advanced craft sent to Mars, arrived in March and has been refining its orbit and testing its six instruments designed to study Mars for years during a $720 million mission. These include the most powerful telescopic camera ever sent to another planet, a mineral mapper to identify water-related areas, radar to investigate for buried ice and water and a weather camera to monitor the planet daily.

Even after nearly three years on the surface and as new craft arrive to study Mars, NASA’s durable twin rovers, the Opportunity and the Spirit, are making major discoveries. Steven Squyres of Cornell, the principal investigator for the rovers, said the aerial views would enhance operations on the ground, particularly exploration of Victoria Crater.

“If you were a geologist driving up to the edge of a crater in your jeep, the first thing you would do would be to pick up the aerial photo you brought with you and use it to understand what you’re seeing from ground level,” he said. “That’s exactly what we’re doing here.”

Both rovers have lasted more than 10 times their 90-day mission-design life, Mr. Squyres said, and scientists decided to send the Opportunity on the trek to Victoria Crater after it had spent months exploring two other craters. Victoria Crater, more than a half mile across and hundreds of feet deep, is five times larger than any other explored crater and may hold evidence of a longer span of the planet’s history, he said.

Rover researchers are formulating a plan for how the Opportunity will tackle the crater. The craft will role to the edge of different promontories and do stereo imaging of the layered cliffs and boulders dotting the depression, Mr. Squyres said.

Then the robot will do a partial circumnavigation of the crater, aided by images from the orbiter, to find the best pathway for it to go into the depression and return without becoming stuck in sand dunes, he said.

“I’m not interested in making a suicide dive into this crater,” Mr. Squyres said. “It’s perilous terrain, and we want a safe way in and out.”

No one knows how long the Opportunity or the Spirit, which is at Gusev Crater on the opposite side of the planet, will last, he said, so scientists want to move quickly but carefully in their explorations.

    Mars Rover Visits Crater, Then Poses for a Picture, NYT, 7.10.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/07/science/space/07rover.html

Americans Win Nobel Prize in Physics

October 3, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:38 a.m. ET
The New York Times

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and deepen understanding of the origin of galaxies and stars.

Mather, 60, works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Smoot, 61, works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

The scientists discovered the nature of ''blackbody radiation,'' cosmic background radiation believed to stem from the ''big bang,'' when the universe was born.

''They have not proven the big-bang theory but they give it very strong support,'' said Per Carlson, chairman of the Nobel committee for physics.

''It is one of the greatest discoveries of the century. I would call it the greatest. It increases our knowledge of our place in the universe.''

Their work was based on measurements done with the help of NASA's COBE satellite launched in 1989. They were able to observe the universe in its early stages about 380,000 years after it was born. Ripples in the light they detected also helped demonstrate how galaxies came together over time.

''The COBE results provided increased support for the big-bang scenario for the origin of the Universe, as this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave background radiation measured by COBE,'' the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said in its citation.

The big-bang theory states that the universe was born billions of years ago from a rapidly expanding dense and incredibly hot state.

Reached at his home in Berkeley, Smoot told The Associated Press he was surprised when he got the call from the Nobel committee in the middle of the night.

''I was surprised that they even knew my number. After the discovery I got so many calls I unlisted it,'' he said.

''The discovery was sort of fabulous. It was an incredible milestone. Now this is a great honor and recognition. It's amazing,'' he said.

Mather said he was ''thrilled and amazed'' at receiving the prize.

''I can't say I was completely surprised, because people have said we should be awarded, but this is just such a rare and special honor,'' Mather said in a telephone interview with the Nobel committee.

He said he and Smoot did not realize how important their work was at the time of their discovery.

The COBE project gave strong support for the big-bang theory because it is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave radiation measured by the satellite.

The academy called Mather the driving force behind the COBE project while Smoot was responsible for measuring small variations in the temperature of the radiation.

With their findings, the scientists transformed the study of the early universe from a largely theoretical pursuit into a new era of direct observation and measurement.

''The very detailed observations that the laureates have carried out from the COBE satellite have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science,'' the academy said.

Phillip F. Schewe, a spokesman for the American Institute of Physics, said he had expected the two to win the honor.

''It's just a really really difficult experimental measurement to make. ''It's the farthest out we can see in the universe and it's the farthest back in time,'' he said in a telephone interview.

Since 1986, Americans have either won or shared the physics prize with people from other countries 15 times.

Last year, Americans John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber and German Theodor W. Haensch won the prize for work that could improve long-distance communication and navigation.

This year's award announcements began Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine going to Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes, offering new hope for fighting diseases as diverse as cancer and AIDS.

The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry will be named Wednesday. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced Oct. 9.

The winner of the peace prize -- the only one not awarded in Sweden -- will be announced Oct. 13 in Oslo, Norway.

A date for the literature prize has not yet been set.

Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who endowed the prizes, left only vague guidelines for the selection committee.

In his will, he said the prize should be given to those who ''shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind'' and ''shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics.''

The prizes, which include a $1.4 million check, a gold medal and a diploma, are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Associated Press writers Matt Crenson in New York, Mattias Karen in Stockholm and Brooke Donald in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

    Americans Win Nobel Prize in Physics, NYT, 3.10.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Nobel-Physics.html?hp&ex=1159934400&en=5b48cb3db2a2f5d6&ei=5094&partner=homepage