Pioneering Galaxy Enterprise, Education Vital for Humanity
Galaxy Enterprise and Galaxy Education in the 21st Century will now emerge as an individual, global endeavor advancing opportunities and destinations as well as energies and riches on the spacefaring frontier. With the advent of NewSpace and Space Tourism, Galaxy Enterprise may now become the ‘Next Big Thing.’ The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and Space Age Publishing Company continue to support 2 vital Galaxy enterprises with its pioneering ILO Galaxy First Light Imaging program to observe and communicate from the Moon and the robust ILOA Galaxy Forum architecture to advance 21st Century Education in every class – all over Hawai’i (Galaxy Central), across the USA and around the World. Galaxy-named businesses and themes have strongly influenced our pop culture since the Ford Galaxy of the 1950’s. In the 21st Century, Virgin Galactic, the most robust of the Galaxy-named businesses, continues to set the standard of Galaxy Enterprise: “It’s the first step on our pathway to the stars…” affirms CEO George Whitesides. “Space tourism is the root through which we’ll be able to access the Solar System and eventually the rest of the Galaxy.” (Credit: Virging Galactic, NASA, galaxygarden.net, kollewin.com, iloa.org)
Solar System Exploration Advancing with Juno Launch, Mars Society Convention, Vesta Fiesta
2011 is one of the busiest years of planetary exploration ever with NASA launching planetary missions to Jupiter / Juno, Moon / GRAIL and Mars / Curiosity. Juno, scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral FL on 5 Aug, is the 1st of the 3. A 5-year journey will bring Juno to Jupiter in July 2016. The spacecraft will then get closer to the solar system’s largest planet than any before, orbiting Jupiter 32 times from 5000km above the planet’s cloud tops over its 1-year mission. Highly elliptical polar orbits will help the spinning solar-powered spacecraft avoid the higher radiation Jovian regions. 7 instruments will allow Juno to garner information about the composition, temperature, cloud motions, magnetic and gravity fields of Jupiter, while a color camera will provide the first glimpse of the planet’s poles. Mars also remains a destination of prime interest for planetary scientists. Experts on the Red Planet will come together in Dallas TX on 4-7 Aug for the 14th Annual International Mars Society Convention. On 5-7 Aug, astronomy groups around the USA will be hosting Vesta Fiestas, celebrating the arrival of the Dawn spacecraft at the asteroid Vesta. (Credit: NASA)
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Morning Planets: Mars (ENE), Jupiter (SE) / Evening Planets: Saturn (WSW).
MONDAY
Aug 1 — International Space Station, LEO: E-28 crew members focus on preparations for upcoming 6-hour spacewalk on Wednesday when Flight Engineers Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev will work to install a communications terminal, a materials science experiment and deploy a micro-satellite.
Aug 1 — NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Orbit: All systems nominal in scientific phase of mission as LRO continues to make digital elevation and terrain maps that will be a fundamental reference for future human exploration.
Aug 1 — Mars Rover Opportunity & Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Red Planet: NASA rover Opportunity continues successful trek to Endeavour Crater while NASA continue research on chosen landing site Gale Crater for US$2.5B MSL mission slated to launch NET Nov.
Aug 1 — Deep Space, Main Asteroid Belt: NASA Dawn Spacecraft continues successful orbit around Asteroid Vesta; NASA to host news conference on at 12:00 EDT to unveil the first full-frame images from Dawn Spacecraft framing camera.
Aug 1-3 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, San Diego CA: ‘47th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit.’
Aug 1-5 — Teachers in Space, NASA, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, et al, Palmdale CA: ‘Teachers in Space Program: Suborbital Flight Experiment Workshop,’ held at the NASA Dryden AERO Institute, teachers will gain hands-on experience with space hardware as they build experiments to fly aboard an unmanned suborbital experiment as part of the Excelsior STEM mission.
Aug 1-5 — Goddard Space Flight Center, Tempe AZ: ‘Lunar Workshops for Educators.’
Aug 1-5 — Chandra X-Ray Center, Cambridge MA: ‘2011 X-Ray Astronomy School.’
Aug 1 — Alpha Capricornids Meteor Shower Peak: This meteor stream includes a groups of meteoroids originating from dust grains ejected from Comet 169P / NEAT.
Aug 1 — Asteroid (Closest Approach to Earth): 2063 Bacchus (0.902 AU); 4 Vesta (1.227 AU).
Continued from . . .
May 31 — NASA Lunar Science Institute, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: ‘Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program,’ 10-week program to evaluate possible landing sites for robotic and human exploration missions; through Aug 5.
Jun 9 — New Mexico Museum of Space History, Alamogordo NM: ‘New Mexico Space Academy Summer Camp;’ through Aug 5.
Jun 27 — Google Lunar X Prize Foundation, LEGO Group, Playa Vista CA; Online: ‘LEGO Moonbots 2.0;’ through Aug 15.
Jul 11 — International Space University – Space Studies Institute, Graz, Austria: ‘24th Space Studies Program;’ through Sep 9.
Jul 26 — The Moon Society, Milwaukee WI: ‘Apollo 15 Moon Party 40th Commemoration;’ through Aug 7.
Jul 30 — Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Baltimore MD: ‘2011 ASP Education and Public Outreach Conference: Connecting People to Science;’ through Aug 3.
Jul 31 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, San Diego CA: ‘9th Annual International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference‘ / ‘47th AIAA / ASME / SAE / ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit;’ through Aug 3.
Jul 31 — American Astronautical Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Girdwood AK: ‘Astrodynamics Specialist Conference;’ through Aug 4.
Jul 31 — Adler Planetarium, Chicago IL: ‘Technology Camp 2.0,’ for 5-7th graders to advance skills learned in Technology Camp and implement advanced sensors / programming techniques to tackle new challenges with Lego Mindstorms Robots; through Aug 4.
TUESDAY
Aug 2-3 — Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility, Palmdale CA: ‘Climate Change Adaptation Workshop.’
Aug 2-5 — The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Ames Research Center, et al, Palo Alto CA: ‘4th IEEE International Conference on Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology,’ featuring invited Keynote Speakers William Borucki, Benjamin Cichy, Seth Shostak and Pete Worden.
Aug 2 — Moon: At Perigee (Distance 57.35 Earth-Radii); 11:00.
Aug 2 — Asteroid 4433 Goldstone: Closest Approach to Earth (1.118 AU).
WEDNESDAY
Aug 3 — The SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Colloquium Series Lecture: ‘Rethinking the General Circulation of the Atmosphere of Mars,’ Scot Rafkin.
Aug 3-5 — The National Academies, Washington DC: ‘Meeting: Evaluation of Space Radiation Cancer Risk Model.’
Aug 3 — Venus: 0.3° S of Center of Beehive Cluster; 09:00.
Aug 3 — Moon: 7.2° SSW of Saturn; 20:00.
THURSDAY
Aug 4 — NASA Headquarters, Washington DC: Media interviews with Endeavour STS-135 crew members and Expedition 26 crew who will give a presentation about their 16-day mission; 10:00 EDT.
Aug 4 — American Geophysical Union, San Francisco CA: Abstract deadline for ‘AGU Fall Meeting 2011.’
Aug 4 — Federal Aviation Administration Operations Working Group of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Council, Washington DC: ‘FAA Advisory Committee Public Teleconference.’
Aug 4-5 — Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral FL: NASA to host 2-day launch Tweetup for 150 of its Twitter followers on Aug 5 launch of the Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft aboard an Atlas 5 rocket.
Aug 4-7 — The Mars Society, Dallas TX: ‘14 Annual International Mars Society Convention: Mars, The Next Frontier.’
Aug 4 — Asteroid (Closest Approach to Earth): 88292 Bora Bora (0.673 AU); 2991 Bilbo (0.838 AU).
FRIDAY
NET Aug 5 — ULA, Launch Atlas 5 / Juno, Cape Canaveral FL: ULA Atlas 5 rocket set to launch NASA’s Juno spacecraft to Jupiter to investigate giant planet’s formation, evolution and structure from an elliptical orbit.
NET Aug 5 — Arianespace, Launch Ariane 5 / ASTRA 1N & BSAT 3c, Kourou, French Guiana: An Ariane ECA rocket VA203 set to launch the ASTRA 1N and BSAT 3c communications satellites.
Aug 5-7 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Nationwide: ‘Vesta Fiesta,’ a celebration of NASA Dawn spacecraft’s year-long exploration of asteroid Vesta with the opportunity to host an event with your club, society, school group and connect with Dawn mission scientists.
SATURDAY
Aug 6-7 — SpaceUp, SpaceX, AIAA, Downey CA: ‘SpaceUp LA 2011.’
Aug 6 — Southern Iota Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak: This stream consists of 2 diffuse branches of meteors radiating from constellation Aquarius.
Aug 6 — Moon: At First Quarter; 01:08.
Aug 6 — Asteroid 4769 Castalia: Closest Approach to Earth (0.463 AU).
SUNDAY
Aug 7-11 — Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, San Francisco CA: ‘The 25th Conference on Artificial Intelligence.’
Aug 7-11 — Shanghai Astronomical Observatory – Satellite Navigation & Remote Sensing Group, Shanghai, China: ‘International Workshop on GNSS Remote Sensing for Future Missions and Science.’
Aug 7 — Moon: 3.6° N of Antares; 21:00.
Aug 7 — Asteroid 1566 Icarus: Closest Approach to Earth (0.909 AU).