STATE DEPARTMENT REPRESENTATIVE REMARKS ON SPACE "SUSTAINABILITY"

The following excerpt is from the U.S. State Department:
Sustaining the Space Environment for the Future
Remarks Frank A. Rose
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance American Center
Hanoi, Vietnam
March 8, 2012
I am pleased to join you here today to discuss space, its importance to our daily lives, and the need for international cooperation to maintain the long-term sustainability of the space environment. I’ll explain what I mean by that during the course of my talk. Of course, I speak from an American perspective, but I am also here to gain a better understanding of Vietnam’s interests in space.

As we’ve just discussed, space plays a vital role in almost every aspect of our daily lives worldwide. Space systems enable us to communicate around the world; facilitate financial operations; enhance weather forecasting and environmental monitoring; and enable navigation globally and locally on highways and streets in personal automobiles. Space also expands our scientific frontier; warns us of natural disasters; and helps us monitor arms control treaties and increase stability among nations.

Just as our use of space has evolved in the past fifty-five years since the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched from Earth, the space environment has also been transformed by actors and their actions. When the space age began, the opportunities to use space were available to only a few nations, and there were limited consequences for irresponsible behavior or accidents. Today, space is the domain of a growing number of satellite operators; approximately 60 nations and government consortia operate satellites, including Vietnam, as well as numerous commercial and academic satellite operators. This great transformation of the space environment has greatly benefited the global economy and has brought people around the world closer together, but it also presents challenges.

While it is becoming increasingly easier to access, as well as to benefit from, space is also becoming increasingly congested. Many countries and space operators have great plans to increase their space capabilities in the near future. Vietnam, for example, plans to put approximately 14 satellites into orbit by 2020, a feat which will make Vietnam the fastest growing space power in Southeast Asia. However, decades of space activity have littered Earth’s orbit with debris. As the world continues to increase its activities in space, the possibility of collisions in space also increases. This situation means we need to think carefully through how we can all operate there safely and responsibly so that we can ensure that your generation, and the generations that follow you, can also benefit from space as well. The interconnected nature of space capabilities and the world’s growing dependence on them mean that irresponsible acts in space can have damaging consequences for all of us.

You’re probably wondering how a big, seemingly empty environment like space could be so crowded that we worry about collisions. While it’s true that a lot of space is relatively empty, most of our operations are conducted close to Earth, including the operations of Vietnam’s communication satellite Vinasat 1. It is this environment that is becoming increasingly congested. The U.S. Department of Defense tracks roughly 22,000 objects in various orbits, of which only 1,100 are active satellites. That’s about 6000 metric tons of debris orbiting the Earth, and these numbers do not include the hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris smaller than 10 centimeters that are too small to track, but just as potentially deadly to satellites and manned spaceflight when traveling at speeds of up to 17,000 kilometers an hour.

Some pieces of debris are simply “dead” satellites or pieces of the rockets that got them there, but others are the results of accidents or mishaps, such as from the 2009 collision between two satellites. Some debris, however, is the result of intentionally destructive events, such as China’s test in space of an anti-satellite weapon in 2007. Experts warn that the current quantity and density of man-made debris significantly increases the odds of future damaging collisions. Unless the international community addresses these challenges, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us.
The international community is more reliant on space than ever and the long-term sustainability of our space activities is at serious risk from space debris, as I just described, and from irresponsible actors and their actions. Irresponsible acts against space systems would not just harm the space environment, but would also disrupt services that the citizens, companies, and militaries around the world depend on. Ensuring the long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space environment is in the vital interests of the United States and the entire global community.

Improving the long-term sustainability and stability of space begins first with enhancing our shared situational awareness and understanding of what is in space, sharing information to avoid collisions of space objects, and working internationally to minimize the problems of orbital debris. To that end, the United States works with other nations, commercial entities, and intergovernmental organizations to improve our shared ability to rapidly detect, warn of, characterize, and attribute natural and man-made disturbances to space systems. Such improvements illustrate the ongoing commitment of the United States to promoting the safety of flight for all space-faring nations.

The United States also collaborates with industry and foreign nations to improve space object databases and warn of dangerous approaches between orbiting objects that could potentially lead to collisions. This is particularly important given collisions such as the February 2009 collision between a privately operated Iridium communications satellite and an inactive Russian military satellite, as well as a lot of near-collisions. To help prevent future collisions, the United States has improved its capacity to analyze objects in space and to predict potential hazards to spacecraft. The United States also provides notifications to other government and commercial satellite operators when U.S. space analysts predict that an operator’s satellite may pass within a close distance of another spacecraft or space debris.

To address the growing problem of orbital debris, the United States has expanded its engagement within the United Nations and with other governments and non-governmental organizations. The United States has adopted international standards to minimize debris that are stricter than the U.N. Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines. We are also working to develop stricter international and industry standards to slow down the accumulation of debris in space, and to develop and implement international “best practices” of responsible behavior in space that will put us all on a more sustainable path.

Finally, the United States is also pursuing pragmatic transparency and confidence-building measures – or TCBMs – to strengthen stability in space and promote safe and responsible operations in space. TCBMs are a means by which governments can address challenges and share information with the aim of creating mutual understanding and reducing tensions. Through TCBMs we can address areas such as orbital debris, space situational awareness, and collision avoidance, as well as undertake activities that will help to increase familiarity and trust and encourage openness among space actors.

Perhaps one of the most beneficial TCBMs for ensuring sustainability and security in space could be the adoption of “best practice” guidelines or a “code of conduct.” On January 17th of this year, the United States announced that it had decided to join with the European Union and other spacefaring nations to develop an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. In the Asia-Pacific Region, both Japan and Australia have also endorsed developing such an International Code of Conduct. In her statement announcing the decision, Secretary of State Clinton said,

“The long-term sustainability of our space environment is at serious risk. […] Unless the international community addresses these challenges, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us.”

The United States views the European Union’s draft Code of Conduct as a good foundation for working with other spacefaring nations to develop a non-legally binding International Code. An International Code of Conduct, if adopted, would help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust in space by establishing guidelines to reduce the risks of debris-generating events and to avoid the danger of collisions. As more countries field space capabilities, it is in all of our interests to work together to establish internationally-accepted “best practices” to ensure that the safety and sustainability of space is protected.

Today, the world is increasingly inter-connected through space, and we are increasingly dependent on space systems. The risks associated with irresponsible actions in space mean that ensuring the long-term sustainability and stability of the space environment is in the vital interest of the entire world community. As the U.S. National Space Policy says, “All nations have the right to use and explore space, but with this right also comes responsibility. […] [I]t is the shared interest of all nations to act responsibly in space to help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust.” The United States calls on governments around the world to work together to adopt approaches for responsible activity in space in order to preserve this right for the benefit of future generations.
Thank you very much.”

THIRD KEPLER CATALOG CONTAINS 1,091 NEW PLANET CANDIDATES

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

"Since science operations began in May 2009, the Kepler team has released two catalogs of transiting planet candidates. The first catalog (Borucki et al, 2010),released in June 2010, contains 312 candidates identified in the first 43 days of Kepler data. The second catalog (Borucki et al, 2011), released in February 2011, is a cumulative catalog containing 1,235 candidates identified in the first 13 months of data.

Today the team presents the third catalog containing 1,091 new planet candidates identified in the first 16 months of observation conducted May 2009 to September 2010. These are the same candidates that the team discussed at the Kepler Science Conference held at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2011.

Here are the highlights of the new catalog:
Planet candidates smaller than twice the size of Earth increased by 197 percent, compared to 52 percent for candidates larger than twice the size of Earth.
Planet candidates with orbital periods longer than 50 days increased by 123 percent, compared to 85 percent for candidates with orbital periods shorter than 50 days.
Since the last catalog was released in February 2011, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 88 percent and now totals 2,321 transiting 1,790 stars.

The cumulative catalog now contains well over 200 Earth-size planet candidates and more than 900 that are smaller than twice Earth-size. Of the 46 planet candidates found in the habitable zone, the region in the planetary system where liquid water could exist, ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size.

The number of planetary systems found with more than one planet candidate also has increased. Last year, 17 percent, or 170 stars, had more than one transiting planet candidate. Today, 20 percent, or 365, stars have more than one.

"With each new catalog release a clear progression toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods is emerging, " said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University in California. "This suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant."

Nearly 5,000 periodic transit-like signals were analyzed with known spacecraft instrumentation and astrophysical phenomena that could masquerade as transits, which can produce false positives. The most common false positive signatures are associated with eclipsing binary stars- a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other from the vantage point of the spacecraft.

The Kepler space telescope identifies planet candidates by repeatedly measuring the change in brightness of more than 150,000 stars in search of planets that pass in front, or "transit," their host star. Kepler must record at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

The findings are published in the "Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler III: Analysis of the First 16 Months of Data". The catalog is available at the Kepler data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute and can be downloaded from theNASA Exoplanet Archive.

NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission's development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington "

NASA TESTS ORION PARACHUTES

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“NASA CONTINUES ORION PARACHUTE TESTING FOR ORBITAL TEST FLIGHT
HOUSTON --
On Feb. 29, NASA successfully conducted another drop test
of the Orion crew vehicle's entry, descent and landing parachutes
high above the Arizona desert in preparation for the vehicle's
orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry astronauts deeper into
space than ever before, provide emergency abort capability, sustain
the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing.

An Air Force C-17 plane dropped a test version of Orion from an
altitude of 25,000 feet above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in
Arizona. Orion's drogue chutes were deployed between 15,000 and
20,000 feet, followed by the pilot parachutes, which deployed the
main landing parachutes. Orion landed on the desert floor at a speed
of almost 17 mph, well below the maximum designed touchdown speed of
the spacecraft.

The test examined how Orion's wake, the disturbance of the air flow
behind the vehicle, would affect the performance of the parachute
system. Parachutes perform optimally in smooth air that allows proper
lift. A wake of choppy air can reduce parachute inflation. The test
was the first to create a wake mimicking the full-size Orion vehicle
and complete system.

Since 2007, the Orion program has conducted a vigorous parachute air
and ground test program and provided the chutes for NASA’s successful
pad abort test in 2010. All of the tests build an understanding of
the chutes’ technical performance for eventual human-rated
Certification.”

SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE SHOWS STAR WITH TWO GAS JETS

“NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image of a baby star sprouting two identical jets (green lines emanating from fuzzy star). The jet on the right had been seen before in visible-light views, but the jet at left -- the identical twin to the first jet -- could only be seen in detail with Spitzer's infrared detectors. The left jet was hidden behind a dark cloud, which Spitzer can see through. The twin jets, in a system called Herbig-Haro 34, are made of identical knots of gas and dust, ejected one after another from the area around the star. By studying the spacing of these knots, and knowing the speed of the jets from previous studies, astronomers were able to determine that the jet to the right of the star punches its material out 4.5 years later than the counter-jet. The new data also reveal that the area from which the jets originate is contained within a sphere around the star, with a radius of 3 astronomical units. An astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the sun. Previous studies estimated that the maximum size of this jet-making zone was 10 times larger. The wispy material is gas and dust. Arc-shaped bow shocks can be seen at the ends of the twin jets. The shocks consist of compressed material in front of the jets. The Herbig-Haro 34 jets are located at approximately 1,400 light-years away in the Orion constellation. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech “

The above picture and excerpt are from the NASA website:

SATURN MOON DIONE HAS OXYGEN IN UPPER ATMOSPHERE

The following excerpt is from the National Science Foundation website:
"Discovery could mean ingredients for life are abundant on icy space bodies
LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO, March 2, 2012—Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists and an international research team have announced discovery of molecular oxygen ions (O2+) in the upper-most atmosphere of Dione, one of the 62 known moons orbiting the ringed planet. The research appeared recently in Geophysical Research Letters and was made possible via instruments aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which was launched in 1997.

Dione—discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini (after whom the spacecraft was named)—orbits Saturn at roughly the same distance as our own moon orbits Earth. The tiny moon is a mere 700 miles wide and appears to be a thick, pockmarked layer of water ice surrounding a smaller rock core. As it orbits Saturn every 2.7 days, Dione is bombarded by charged particles (ions) emanating from Saturn’s very strong magnetosphere. These ions slam into the surface of Dione, displacing molecular oxygen ions into Dione’s thin atmosphere through a process called sputtering.
Molecular oxygen ions are then stripped from Dione’s exosphere by Saturn’s strong magnetosphere.

A sensor aboard the Cassini spacecraft called the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) detected the oxygen ions in Dione’s wake during a flyby of the moon in 2010. Los Alamos researchers Robert Tokar and Michelle Thomsen noted the presence of the oxygen ions.
“The concentration of oxygen in Dione’s atmosphere is roughly similar to what you would find in Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 300 miles,” Tokar said. “It’s not enough to sustain life, but—together with similar observations of other moons around Saturn and Jupiter—these are definitive examples of a process by which a lot of oxygen can be produced in icy celestial bodies that are bombarded by charged particles or photons from the Sun or whatever light source happens to be nearby.”
Perhaps even more exciting is the possibility that on a moon with subsurface water, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa, molecular oxygen could combine with carbon in subsurface lakes to form the building blocks of life. Future missions to Europa could help unravel questions about that moon’s habitability.

Two sensors aboard Cassini built by Los Alamos National Laboratory are expected to come into play beginning later this month, and again in April and May, when the Cassini spacecraft flies by the moon Enceladus. The moon is one of the brightest objects in our solar system, reflecting back nearly all of the sunlight that strikes it, thanks to a shimmering surface of snowy ice crystals. The moon also unleashes plumes of material from its south polar region. Los Alamos’ ion-beam spectrometer and ion-mass spectrometer may help answer key questions about the composition of these plumes."

NTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION HEADS OF AGENCIES JOINT STATEMENT

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

I
“WASHINGTON -- The heads of the International Space Station (ISS)
agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met
in Quebec City, Canada, on March 1, 2012, to review the scientific,
technological, and social benefits being produced through their
collaboration, and to discuss plans for further broadening these
benefits by continuing to advance the human exploration of space.

In reviewing the history of ISS development and the recent transition
to a productive research and applications phase, three major areas of
success were discussed: the historic engineering achievements, the
unprecedented international partnership, and the ongoing progress
being made through science. The heads noted that human exploration of
space continues to yield valuable benefits to society and is
strengthening partnerships among space-faring nations.

The heads also recognized the new opportunities for discovery made
possible by maximizing the research capabilities of the ISS, as well
as the growth in commercial endeavors and positive educational impact
brought about by this permanent human presence in space. Biology,
biotechnology, and human physiology research are producing new
insights into human health on Earth with the development of promising
applications supporting future medical therapies. Also a wide range
of fluids and materials research yields a promising way for better
and smarter materials and production processes on Earth. Observations
captured from the ISS in the fields of x-ray astronomy, high-energy
particle physics, and Earth remote sensing hint at discoveries to
come as the ISS is increasingly used as a platform for the
installation and operation of a wide variety of instruments
supporting Earth and Space Sciences. Technology demonstrations in
environmental control, robotic servicing, and advanced
telecommunications and teleoperations are making it possible to
eventually further extend human presence in space and continue to
broaden improvements to the quality of life on Earth.

Recognizing the inspirational nature of the ISS as a human-tended
outpost in space, the agency leaders applauded its strong role in
motivating young people around the world to learn about science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. More than 40 million
students have participated in human spaceflight to date through
communications downlinks and interactive experiments with station
crew members.

Highlighting the continued growth in the international user community,
the first biannual “International Space Station Utilization
Statistics” was released. The partnership also published
“International Space Station Benefits for Humanity,” illustrating
specific successful humanitarian accomplishments in education, human
health, Earth observation and disaster response that will improve the
lives of many throughout the world.

The ISS partnership began considering long-range opportunities to
further advance human space exploration, so benefits from the ISS
program will continue to grow through future exploration missions. In
the near term, the heads of agencies committed to increase use of the
ISS as a test bed in space for the demonstration of critical
technologies and the mitigation of human health risks for exploration
as a joint effort. For the long-term, they discussed opportunities to
use the ISS as a foundation for the development of future exploration
capabilities. The ISS partnership has created a global research
facility in space that is unprecedented in capability and unique in
human history. The heads of agency re-confirmed the importance of
using the facility to benefit society today and provide a
technological basis for continued human exploration of space in the
Future.”

NASA LOOKING FOR WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS TO LEARN HOW TO LAUNCH EXPERIMENT INTO SPACE

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

WASHINGTON -- University faculty and students are invited to join a
weeklong workshop June 16-21 to learn how to build and launch a
scientific experiment to space. Registration is open through May 1.

RockOn! 2012 will be held at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia. The annual workshop is held in partnership
with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia.

"This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to learn how
to build an experiment for space flight," said Phil Eberspeaker,
chief of the sounding rocket program office at Wallops. "The hope is
this experience will encourage them to participate in more ambitious
payload programs, including someday building instruments for orbital
spacecraft and beyond."

During the program, participants will work together to build
experiment payloads for a NASA Terrier-Orion sounding rocket
predicted to fly to an altitude of 73 miles. The flight will take
place June 21, the last day of the workshop, weather permitting.

"During the week, the participants will gain an understanding of what
it takes to build a basic scientific payload," said Chris Koehler,
director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. "Through hands-on
learning, they will learn how to develop circuit boards, program
flight code and work together as a cohesive team."

Since the annual workshop began in 2008, 150 students and instructors
have participated. It has been a successful program, with all
experiments completed on time, launched and recovered. In addition,
48 of the 50 payloads have worked as intended.

For more information and to register online, visit:

http://spacegrant.colorado.edu/rockon

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPEECH REGARDING UTILIZATION OF SPACE

The following excerpt is from the U.S. State Department website:

Space Sustainability Through International Cooperation
Remarks Frank A. Rose
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance International Symposium on Sustainable Space Development and Utilization for Humankind: Orbital Space Debris -- Challenges and Opportunities
Tokyo, Japan
February 29, 2012

Thank you for your kind introduction. It is my pleasure to be back in Tokyo today for this Symposium on “Sustainable Space Development and Utilization for Humankind” with a particular emphasis on orbital space debris. I would like to thank the Japan Space Forum for the invitation to speak at this symposium. I’d also like to thank the Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy of Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies for their support in organizing this timely event.

This symposium comes almost one year following the earthquake and resulting tsunami. I would like to offer my deepest condolences for the great tragedy that Japan faced and is still recovering from. The cooperation between the U.S. and Japan during this tragedy reaffirmed the significance of the alliance between our two countries. In addition, Japan’s use of space assets during the disaster sheds light on the vital importance of space assets for disaster monitoring and mitigation. Remote sensing and disaster monitoring satellites enabled Japanese authorities and aid workers to see the affected areas to assist their response. Additionally, since many ground based communication networks were destroyed in the disaster, satellite communications proved to be an essential alternative in providing secure, reliable communication between the search and rescue operators, ground forces, and senior officials. Finally, positioning, navigation, and timing services, such as those derived from the U.S. Global Positioning System, aided in the coordination of disaster relief and search and rescue of disaster victims.

The use of space capabilities during this disaster is one example of how the world is becoming increasingly inter-connected through, and increasingly dependent on, space systems. As a result of the critical benefits it offers, the United States considers the sustainability, stability, and use of space vital to its national interests.

There are a number of challenges that have emerged as a result of increased space activity by an unprecedented number of spacefaring nations. As a result, the space activities that have provided us with a multitude of benefits have also created a space environment littered with space debris. Threats to the space environment have also increased as more nations and non-state actors develop and deploy counter-space systems. Today space systems and their supporting infrastructure face a range of man-made threats that may deny, degrade, deceive, disrupt, or destroy assets.

The increasingly congested and contested nature of the space environment offers critical challenges, which threatens the long-term sustainability of our space activities, and will continue to present challenges in the decades to come. But this symposium intends not only to discuss challenges, but also opportunities, and in particular, opportunities for international cooperation. Such opportunities include cooperation to mitigate orbital debris, share space situational awareness information, improve information sharing for collision avoidance, and develop transparency and confidence building measures. Today, I will discuss how collaboration in each of these areas has the potential of enhancing the long term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space environment.

Cooperation to Mitigate Orbital Debris
The key issue that we are here to discuss today is the growing presence of debris in space. After 50 years of space exploration and utilization, a comedian might even say there’s not as much space up there as there used to be! But the problem of potentially hazardous debris is not a joke, but rather an increasingly greater and greater danger. As my colleagues from the Department of Defense will discuss later, there are approximately 22,000 pieces of large debris (>~10 cm) in various Earth orbits. Some of this debris is simply “dead” satellites or spent booster upper stages still orbiting. Another type of debris results from accidents or mishaps, such as the 2009 Cosmos-Iridium collision. Other accidents that have occurred are when objects slipped the grasp of our astronauts including a glove, cameras, a wrench, pliers, a tool bag, and even a toothbrush. Still another type of debris results from intentionally destructive events, such as China’s test in space of an anti-satellite weapon in 2007 that intercepted its own weather satellite, thus generating long-lived debris, some of which will not re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for over 100 years.

Experts warn that the quantity and density of all of these types of debris significantly increases the odds of future dangerous and damaging collisions. This debris also poses a direct threat to the International Space Station. In fact, less than two months ago, the United States and Russia orchestrated a debris avoidance maneuver of the International Space Station in order to avoid a series of collision threats posed by a fragment of debris created by China’s 2007 anti-satellite weapons test.

To address the growing problem of orbital debris, the United States has expanded its engagement within the United Nations and with other governments and non-governmental organizations. We are continuing to lead the development and adoption of international standards to minimize debris, building upon the foundation of the U.N. Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines. I’ll also note that the U.S. guidelines on debris mitigation are even stricter than those that were established by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and then adopted by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and endorsed by the United Nations. Space debris is also a topic currently being discussed within the multi-year study of “long-term sustainability” within the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, or COPUOS, which I’ll discuss in greater detail later in my remarks.

Cooperation in Space Situational Awareness
International cooperation is also necessary to ensure that we have robust situational awareness of the space environment. No one nation has the resources or geography necessary to precisely track every space object. The U.S. National Space Policy implicitly recognizes this fact and thus directs us to collaborate with foreign governments, the private sector, and intergovernmental organizations to improve our space situational awareness – specifically, to improve our shared ability to rapidly detect, warn of, characterize, and attribute potential disturbances to space systems, whether natural or man-made.

An example of our efforts to cooperate in the area of space situational awareness is our collaboration with Europe as it develops its own space situational awareness, or SSA system. The U.S. State Department, in close collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, is currently engaged in technical exchanges with experts from the European Space Agency, European Union, and individual European Space Agency and European Union Member States to ensure interoperability between our two respective SSA systems. Looking ahead, we also see opportunities for cooperation on SSA with our allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, especially Japan.

Cooperation to Prevent Satellite Collisions
International cooperation is also essential to enable satellite owners and operators to have the information necessary to prevent collisions in the future. As a result, we are seeking to improve our ability to share information with other space-faring nations as well as with our industry partners. Such cooperation enables us to improve our space object databases as well as pursue common international data standards and data integrity measures.

As my colleagues in the Department of Defense will explain, the United States provides notifications to other governments and commercial satellite operators of potentially hazardous conjunctions between orbiting objects. The State Department continues to be extremely supportive of U.S. Strategic Command’s efforts to establish two-way information exchanges with foreign satellite operators and to facilitate the urgent transmission of notifications of potential space hazards.

The United States is constantly seeking to improve its ability to share information with other space-faring nations as well as with our commercial sector partners. For example, the Department of State is currently reaching out to all space-faring nations to ensure that the Joint Space Operations Center, or JSpOC, has current contact information for both government and private sector satellite operations centers.

Cooperation in Developing TCBMs
Another key opportunity to cooperate to enhance the long term sustainability of the space environment is through the development of near-term, voluntary, and pragmatic space transparency and confidence building measures, or TCBMs for short. TCBMs are means by which governments can address challenges and share information with the aim of creating mutual understanding and reducing tensions. TCBMs, also have the potential of enhancing our knowledge of the space environment, by addressing important areas such as orbital debris, space situational awareness, and collision avoidance, as well as undertake activities that will help to increase familiarity and trust and encourage openness among space actors. The United States, as guided by President Obama’s National Space Policy, will work with other space actors to pursue TCBMs to encourage responsible actions in, and the peaceful use of, space.

An International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities
An example of a TCBM to ensure sustainability and security in space could be the adoption of “best practice” guidelines or a “code of conduct.” As many of you are aware, on January 17, 2012, the United States announced that it had decided to join with the European Union and other spacefaring nations to develop an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. In her statement announcing the decision, Secretary Clinton said, “The long-term sustainability of our space environment is at serious risk from space debris and irresponsible actors. […] Unless the international community addresses these challenges, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us.” We were pleased that Japan, Australia, and other countries have also stated their support for the development of a space Code of Conduct.

The United States views the European Union’s draft Code of Conduct as a good foundation for developing a non-legally binding International Code of Conduct focused on the use of voluntary and pragmatic TCBMs to help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust in space. As more countries field space capabilities, it is in all of our interests that they act responsibly and that the safety and sustainability of space is protected. An International Code of Conduct, if adopted, would establish a political commitment not to conduct debris-generating events and would increase the transparency of operations in space to avoid the danger of collisions.

I want to stress that the Obama Administration is committed to ensuring that an International Code enhances national security and maintains the United States’ inherent right of individual and collective self-defense, a fundamental part of international law. That said, we would encourage spacefaring nations to consider playing an active role as we prepare to multilaterally discuss a Code of Conduct. All spacefaring nations, both established and emerging, will have the opportunity to participate actively in multilateral meetings of experts in 2012 that the European Union will schedule. We look forward to engaging with you on this initiative in the months to come.

Group of Government Experts on Outer Space TCBMs
An additional opportunity to cooperate with the international community to enhance the long-term sustainability of our space activities is through the Group of Government Experts (or GGE) on Outer Space TCBMs, established by UN General Assembly Resolution 65/68. It is our hope that the Group of Governmental Experts will serve as a constructive mechanism to identify and examine the range of voluntary and pragmatic TCBMs in space that have the potential to mitigate the dangers and risks in an increasing contested and congested space environment. For example, TCBM proposals could include measures aimed at enhancing the transparency derived from exchanging national security space policies, strategies, activities and experiments or notifications regarding environmental or unintentional hazards to spaceflight safety. International consultations to prevent incidents in outer space and to prevent or minimize the risks of potentially harmful interference could also be a helpful TCBM to consider.

Over the past five years, there have been various U.N. General Assembly resolutions inviting all U.N. Member States to submit to the Secretary-General concrete proposals on international TCBMs. In July 2010, the U.N. Secretary-General compiled a report including all the contributions received from almost 25 different countries. It is our assumption that this report will be the starting point for the work of this GGE. While the United States may not be able to accept all TCBMs listed in this report, we can accept those that are voluntary, pragmatic, work to solve concrete problems, and enhance the stability and security of the space environment for all spacefaring nations. We look forward to working with our international colleagues in a GGE that serves as a constructive mechanism to examine voluntary and pragmatic TCBMs that enhance stability and safety, and promote responsible operations in space.

UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
Finally, in addition to “top-down” cooperative initiatives, the United States believes there is also great value in efforts to adopt space TCBMs through “bottom-up” initiatives developed by government and private sector satellite operators. Therefore, the United States is taking an active role in the Working Group of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of UNCOPUOS on long-term sustainability.

This Working Group on the Long-Term Sustainability of Space Activities will be a key forum for the international development of “best practices guidelines” for space activities. We believe that many of the best practice guidelines addressed by this working group are integral to our efforts to pursue TCBMs that enhance stability and security in space. In fact, the United States is serving as the co-Chair of the Expert Group on Space Debris, Space Operations, and Space Situational Awareness, demonstrating our commitment to making progress to enhance spaceflight safety and to preserving the use of space for the long-term.

The United States is playing an active role in all of the expert groups, including the expert group led by Japan on space weather. Space weather is of particular concern to the long term sustainability of our space activities. Besides the direct hazard it poses to earth-orbiting satellites, space weather events greatly complicates SSA and collision prevention. We are pleased at the progress of these expert groups and believe the guidelines they develop will help to reduce risks to all space systems.

Sustaining Space for Future Generations
As you can see, there are a variety of international fora currently looking at how the international community can cooperate to enhance the long-term sustainability of the space environment. Given the broad range of discussion focusing on space, I believe 2012 will be a defining year for space security, and the work we all will do in responding to the challenges of, and the threats to, the space environment. In fact, we believe that this is such a pivotal period, that the United States has introduced discussions on the long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space environment in the Group of Eight or G8. We believe that the G8, which contains a number of major spacefaring nations, could play a useful role in this field and will draw further attention to the importance of ensuring space for future generations.

I would like to conclude by emphasizing that now it is our opportunity to cooperate with established and emerging members of the space-faring community and with the private sector to work together to preserve the space environment for the benefit of all nations and future generations. The support of governments in the Asia-Pacific region is critical to our success. However, if we do not take action, the congestion in space will only increase, and we will lose valuable time in solving the problem. We cannot let the wide range of opportunities we have to cooperate now to sustain our use of space pass us by.
Thank you very much.”

NASA NAMES ORLANDO FIGUEROA TO LEAD NEW MARS PROGRAM PLANNING GROUP

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“WASHINGTON -- NASA' s associate administrator for the Science Mission
Directorate, John Grunsfeld, has named former veteran NASA program
manager Orlando Figueroa to lead a newly established Mars Program
Planning Group (MPPG) tasked to reformulate the agency's Mars
Exploration Program. Figueroa's first assignment is to develop a
draft framework for review by March 15.

Grunsfeld made the announcement at an annual gathering of Mars
scientists and engineers in Dulles, Va. Figueroa, a consultant with
more than 30 years of aerospace experience, will lead the scientific
and technical team to develop an integrated strategy for NASA's Mars
Exploration Program in light of current funding constraints. The
team's initial focus will be on a possible 2018-2020 robotic mission.
The program's official framework will be developed in consultation
with the science community and international partners and is expected
to be released for full review as early as this summer.

"The team will develop a plan that advances the priorities in the
National Research Council's Decadal Survey, which puts sample return
as the top scientific goal, and leverages NASA's research in enabling
technology," Grunsfeld said. "Our investments in the new Mars program
will incorporate elements of advanced research and technologies in
support of a logical sequence of missions to answer fundamental
scientific questions and ultimately support the goal of sending
people to Mars."

The MPPG will report to Grunsfeld, a physicist and five-time flown
space shuttle astronaut. Grunsfeld is chairing the overall,
agency-wide reformulation strategy along with William Gerstenmaier,
associate administrator for the human exploration and operations
directorate, NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and NASA Chief
Technologist Mason Peck. The MPPG will ensure that America maintains
the critical technical skills developed over decades needed to
achieve the highest priority science and exploration objectives.

NASA has a recognized track record of successful Mars missions. The
rover Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004, is still operating
despite an official mission timeline of 90 days. There are also two
NASA satellites orbiting the Red Planet; the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. The duo continue to return unprecedented
science data and images. This August, NASA will land the Mars Science
Laboratory, "Curiosity," on the planet's surface. This roving science
laboratory will assess whether Mars was or is today an environment
able to support life. In 2013, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere
and Volatile Evolution orbiter, the first mission devoted to
understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

NASA will continue to gather critical information to help scientists
understand the Red Planet. These data will be used in future years to
meet President Obama's challenge to send humans to Mars in the
mid-2030s.

"We'll look at all of the assets NASA is developing to reach, explore
and study Mars, as well as spacecraft at or on its way to Mars,"
Figueroa said.

NASA already has been developing technology that will improve
precision in landing, the ability to conduct scientific analysis
remotely, handle and collect samples, and transmit larger volumes of
data back to Earth.

"The science and engineering communities have worked continuously over
a decade to define our knowledge gaps for Mars exploration, so we
have a solid starting point," Grunsfeld said.

Mars exploration is a top priority for NASA. America's investment in
exploring Mars during the past decade totals $6.1 billion. NASA
Administrator Charlie Bolden directed Grunsfeld to lead the
agency-wide team in order to optimize a coordinated strategy of Mars
exploration and continue America's leadership role in the exploration
of the Red Planet within available future budgets.”

RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTION CREW WORK IN SPACE

"This image of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov, both Expedition 30 flight engineers, was taken during a spacewalk on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. During the six-hour, 15-minute spacewalk, Kononenko and Shkaplerov moved the Strela-1 crane from the Pirs Docking Compartment in preparation for replacing it in 2012 with a new laboratory and docking module. The duo used another boom, the Strela-2, to move the hand-operated crane to the Poisk module for future assembly and maintenance work. Both telescoping booms extend like fishing rods and are used to move massive components outside the station. On the exterior of the Poisk Mini-Research Module 2, they also installed the Vinoslivost Materials Sample Experiment, which will investigate the influence of space on the mechanical properties of the materials. The spacewalkers also collected a test sample from underneath the insulation on the Zvezda Service Module to search for any signs of living organisms. Both spacewalkers wore Russian Orlan spacesuits bearing blue stripes and equipped with NASA helmet cameras. Image Credit: NASA" 

STAR READIES FOR SPECTACULAR SUPERNOVA

“NASA's Hubble Telescope captured an image of Eta Carinae. This image consists of ultraviolet and visible light images from the High Resolution Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 30 arcseconds across. The larger of the two stars in the Eta Carinae system is a huge and unstable star that is nearing the end of its life, and the event that the 19th century astronomers observed was a stellar near-death experience. Scientists call these outbursts supernova impostor events, because they appear similar to supernovae but stop just short of destroying their star. Although 19th century astronomers did not have telescopes powerful enough to see the 1843 outburst in detail, its effects can be studied today. The huge clouds of matter thrown out a century and a half ago, known as the Homunculus Nebula, have been a regular target for Hubble since its launch in 1990. This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys High Resolution Channel, is the most detailed yet, and shows how the material from the star was not thrown out in a uniform manner, but forms a huge dumbbell shape. Eta Carinae is one of the closest stars to Earth that is likely to explode in a supernova in the relatively near future (though in astronomical timescales the "near future" could still be a million years away). When it does, expect an impressive view from Earth, far brighter still than its last outburst: SN 2006gy, the brightest supernova ever observed, came from a star of the same type, though from a galaxy over 200 million light-years away. Image Credit: ESA/NASA”

The above picture and following excerpt is from the NASA website:

NASA: "STUDENTS SHAPING AMERICA'S NEXT SPACECRAFT PROGRAM"

“Students from Texas A&M University visited the Orion Medium Fidelity Mockup as part of the SSANS, or Students Shaping America’s Next Spacecraft, program. The students, who are Industrial Engineering majors at Texas A&M, partnered with the Orion Program on two senior design projects: Orion Lighting System hardware for the Orion Full-scale Mockup and the Orion Budget and Planning Project. During their visit on Feb. 22, 2012, the students presented their work as part of the Preliminary Design Review at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. While at the center, they had an opportunity to see the Orion mockups and tour center facilities. Image Credit: NASA “

The above excerpt and picture are from the NASA website:

NASA ANNOUNCES SOLID BUCKYBALLS FOUND IN SPACE

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“NASA'S SPITZER FINDS SOLID BUCKYBALLS IN SPACE
WASHINGTON -- Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid
form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon
spheres had been found only in gas form.

Formally named buckminsterfullerene, buckyballs are named after their
resemblance to the late architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic
domes. They are made up of 60 carbon molecules arranged into a hollow
sphere, like a soccer ball. Their unusual structure makes them ideal
candidates for electrical and chemical applications on Earth,
including superconducting materials, medicines, water purification
and armor.

In the latest discovery, scientists using Spitzer detected tiny specks
of matter, or particles, consisting of stacked buckyballs. They found
them around a pair of stars called "XX Ophiuchi," 6,500 light-years
from Earth.

"These buckyballs are stacked together to form a solid, like oranges
in a crate," said Nye Evans of Keele University in England, lead
author of a paper appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society. "The particles we detected are miniscule, far
smaller than the width of a hair, but each one would contain stacks
of millions of buckyballs."

Buckyballs were detected definitively in space for the first time by
Spitzer in 2010. Spitzer later identified the molecules in a host of
different cosmic environments. It even found them in staggering
quantities, the equivalent in mass to 15 Earth moons, in a nearby
galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud.

In all of those cases, the molecules were in the form of gas. The
recent discovery of buckyballs particles means that large quantities
of these molecules must be present in some stellar environments in
order to link up and form solid particles. The research team was able
to identify the solid form of buckyballs in the Spitzer data because
they emit light in a unique way that differs from the gaseous form.

"This exciting result suggests that buckyballs are even more
widespread in space than the earlier Spitzer results showed," said
Mike Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "They may be an important form of
carbon, an essential building block for life, throughout the cosmos."


Buckyballs have been found on Earth in various forms. They form as a
gas from burning candles and exist as solids in certain types of
rock, such as the mineral shungite found in Russia, and fulgurite, a
glassy rock from Colorado that forms when lightning strikes the
ground. In a test tube, the solids take on the form of dark, brown
"goo."

"The window Spitzer provides into the infrared universe has revealed
beautiful structure on a cosmic scale," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer
program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "In yet another
surprise discovery from the mission, we're lucky enough to see
elegant structure at one of the smallest scales, teaching us about
the internal architecture of existence."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., manages
the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.”

MASSIVE BLACK HOLE SUCKS IN GAS FROM ANOTHER STAR

The above picture and following excerpt is from the NASA website:

This artist's impression shows a binary system containing a stellar-mass black hole called IGR J17091-3624, or IGR J17091 for short. The strong gravity of the black hole, on the left, is pulling gas away from a companion star on the right. This gas forms a disk of hot gas around the black hole, and the wind is driven off this disk. New observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory clocked the fastest wind ever seen blowing off a disk around this stellar-mass black hole. Stellar-mass black holes are born when extremely massive stars collapse and typically weigh between five and 10 times the mass of the Sun. The record-breaking wind is moving about twenty million miles per hour, or about three percent the speed of light. This is nearly ten times faster than had ever been seen from a stellar-mass black hole, and matches some of the fastest winds generated by supermassive black holes, objects millions or billions of times more massive. Another unanticipated finding is that the wind, which comes from a disk of gas surrounding the black hole, may be carrying away much more material than the black hole is capturing. The high speed for the wind was estimated from a spectrum made by Chandra in 2011. A spectrum shows how intense the X-rays are at different energies. Ions emit and absorb distinct features in spectra, which allow scientists to monitor them and their behavior. A Chandra spectrum of iron ions made two months earlier showed no evidence of the high-speed wind, meaning the wind likely turns on and off over time. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

In this image taken on Jan. 25, 2012, the Aurora Borealis steals the scene in this nighttime photograph shot from the International Space Station as the orbital outpost flew over the Midwest. The spacecraft was above south central Nebraska when the photo was taken. The image, taken at an oblique angle, looks north to northeast. Image Credit: NASA