February 22-28, 2016 / Vol 35, No 8 / Hawai`i Island, USA

ILOA Galaxy Forum 21st Century Education and Partnership Development in Southeast Asia

The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) is hosting a variety of public Galaxy Forum events and private meetings across the Southeast Asia region this week. SEA is an increasingly organized association of 11 sovereign states with combined total land area of almost 4.5 million km², population of more than 622 million people and GDP exceeding US$2.5 trillion (ASEAN, 2014). Galaxy Forum SEA 2016 Jakarta on February 24 is an ILOA collaboration with Among Putro SKYWORLD Indonesia, a private space/aerospace, astronomy and related science/technology institution located on a national semi-governmental cultural conservation, education and recreational park called “Taman Mini Indonesia Indah” (Wonderful Indonesian Miniature Park). It includes participation of the Indonesia national space agency LAPAN and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand. Galaxy Forum SEA 2016 Kuala Lumpur on Feb 27 is organized in cooperation with the Space Science Centre at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) a multidisciplinary research institute conducting teaching at postgraduate level and research in the fields of Space Science, Space Technology and Applications, as well as Space Governance. The program includes a presentation by Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, the Malaysia Astronaut who flew aboard Soyuz TMA-11 to the ISS in 2007. Galaxy Forum is the primary education and outreach initiative of ILOA designed as an architecture to advance 21st Century science, education, enterprise and development. 65-70 Galaxy Forums with a total of almost 300 presentations have been held in 26 locations worldwide. ILOA is projecting the development in the near future of a Southeast Asia Space Agency, combining assets from across the region into a cohesive entity modeled in part on ESA. (Image Credit: LAPAN, Skyworld, UKM, ANGKASA, ILOA)

MONDAY

Feb 22 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 46 six-member crew preparing for change of command / three person departure early next week (1-year members Kelly & Kornienko to return to Earth), will remain as 3-person crew for 2.5 weeks, harvesting plants for Veggie experiment, working with ocular, bone marrow, cardio, bone density experiments; Russia working on robot Cosmonauts to send to ISS.

Feb 22 — Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan), Highly-Elliptical Mars Orbit: Being tracked by Spacecraft Control Centre & Indian Deep Space Network, ISRO first interplanetary mission, costing a mere US$73M total, orbiting planet every 77 hours, collecting data on methane, CO2, effects of solar wind, and surface morphology, topography,  mineralogy.

 Feb 22 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: To perform next trajectory control maneuver May 31, craft now 133 days and ~80M km from Jupiter; will orbit gas giant 33 times after insertion; mission named after goddess Juno who was able to peer through clouds & reveal Jupiter.

Feb 22 — Rocket Lab, Auckland, New Zealand & Las Angeles CA: NewSpace company developing Electron rocket & 2 launch pads in New Zealand, has contracts to launch 3 (possibly up to 5) Moon Express Lunar missions, 12 Spire launches, won US$6.9M contract with NASA.

Feb 22 — Bigelow Aerospace, Las Vegas NV: Inflatable BEAM BA-330 habitat now to be launched to ISS in April, planning to validate & improve technologies in order to develop 2250 cubic meter Olympus habitat able to house crew, cargo, lunar landers.

Feb 22 — SpaceX, Hawthorne CA: With Elon Musk as CEO & CTO, hopes to launch more than 12 Falcon 9 rockets and debut Falcon heavy from KSC this year, testing Dragon capsule with parachutes & assessing spacecraft design with Astronauts, progressing toward reusable rockets, Falcon 9 currently estimated at ~US$60M per launch.

Feb 22-24 — IRAP Institute, Midi-Pyrénées Observatory (OMP), Toulouse, France: ‘Europa Initiative’ 2016 Workshop.

Feb 22-25 — Physics Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (IF-UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil: 8th Workshop on Planetary Science.

Feb 22-25 — Applied Technology Institute, Cocoa Beach FL: Space Environment & Its Effects On Space Systems course; with instructor Dr. Vincent L. Pisacane.

TVIW 2016 in the Midst of Galaxy Mapping, Exoplanet Hunting, Budding Space Technologies 

Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW) 2016 From Iron Horse to Worldship: Becoming an Interstellar Civilization is being held February 28 to March 2 in Chattanooga TN at the Choo-Choo Hotel. With attendance over 100 people, the agenda includes 4 three-hour lessons on Terraforming 102 (Ken Roy), Conflict in Space (Brent Ziarnick), Geoengineering 101 (Robert Kennedy III) and Space Propulsion 101 (Les Johnson); as well as 4 working tracks: Worldship, Space Solar Power, Homo Stellaris, and Space Mining. A keynote speech “Cutting the Umbilical Cord to Earth” will be given by John Lewis of Deep Space Industries. Other lectures will be on “Power Beaming Leakage Radiation as a SETI Observable” (Jim Benford, 100 YSS), “SETI, Interstellar Diffusion & Stability Equilibrium Hypothesis in Galactic Civilizations” (Kelvin Long, Initiative for Interstellar Studies), and “Life System Engineering in the Worldship” (led by Cassidy Cobbs, moderated by Michel Lamontagne, Icarus Interstellar). The phenomena of interstellar focus in the 21st Century is proving this to be a true Starship Century. Along with TVIW, awareness and excitement are also being promoted by Icarus Interstellar StarShip Congress, 100 Year Starship Symposium, British Interplanetary Society, Tau Zero Foundation, Centauri Dreams, Global Starship Alliance, Ad Astra Kansas, Kepler / Hubble / Space Telescopes, popular media (Interstellar film, 2014), and Humankind’s farthest spacecraft Voyager 1 traveling in Interstellar space since 2012. (Image Credit: TVIW, NASA, ILOA, Space Age Publishing Co., AstroBob)

Feb 22-26 — Sexten Center for Astrophysics, Sexten, Italy: Conference: Astrophysics of Dark Matter.

Feb 22-26 — Lorentz Center International Center for Workshops in the Sciences, Leiden, The Netherlands: Workshop: Globular Clusters and Galaxy Halos.

Feb 22 — Moon: 2.4° SSW of Regulus, 02:00; Full (Snow Moon) 08:20.

Feb 22 — Aten Asteroid 2010 WD1: Near-Earth flyby (0.032 AU).

Continued from…

Aug 28 – Aug 28, 2016 — NASA, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Mauna Loa HI: Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission 4; at 2,440-meter altitude.

Jan 25 – Feb 24 — Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston TX: 2016 Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) Campaign; 4 volunteers to spend 30 days in HERA 148-cubic-meter capsule simulating a mission to asteroid.

Feb 21-23 — Space Exploration Alliance, NSS, AIAA, Moon Society, Federation of Galaxy Explorers, Planetary Society, SEDS, et al, Washington DC: SEA Legislative Blitz 2016; advocating for the exploration and development of Space.

Feb 21-27 — National Society of Professional Engineers, AIAA, Boeing Co., SAE International, Nationwide USA: 65th Annual Engineers Week (2016); held during week of George Washington’s birthday, observed by more than 70 engineering, education, cultural societies & more than 50 corporations and government agencies.

TUESDAY

Feb 23 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Lecture: The Breakthrough Initiative – Listen and Megastructures at KIC 8463; Andrew Simeon of UC Berkeley.