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Space Exploration Strategy laid out by Charles Bolden, NASA’s next administrator

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http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id…

“The government cannot fund everything that we need to do, but we can inspire and open the door for commercial entrepreneurial entities to become involved, to become partners with NASA in this needed development that will enable things to come about. So no, you can’t make enough money for NASA to do the things that I think you want to do. But together . . . I think we will go back to the Moon and eventually on to Mars.”

What do you think of NASA’s new strategy to become a “middle man” for the commercial space industry?

Concept refinement: Worldwide hackerspace network for sattelite ground stations

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Motivation:  To help facilitate the operations of manned orbital spacecraft and increase communication and telemetry coverage.  The distributed nature of hackerspaces make them good candidates to increase the opportunities of ground-station contact with orbiting spacecraft.

Ideas:

  • Approach hackerspaces that meet minimum requirements to help Mach 30
  • Compile an instructions kit and directions for setting up a remote ground tracking station
  • “Employ” thier help with the tracking and communications for orbital operations.

Needs:  sky visibility, roadio communication, spacecraft telemetry tracking

SpaceX first successful commercial launch!

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For the complete story click the link:http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon/005/

Commercial launch of SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket a success
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 14, 2009

A Malaysian satellite rode a Falcon 1 rocket into orbit Monday night, marking the first time the privately-developed booster has successfully launched an operational spacecraft. The 70-foot-tall rocket was making its fifth flight. Three of its four previous launches failed, dooming two small military satellites.

(more…)

Take pics from space for $150???

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That is just what some MIT students did with entirely off the shelf gear.  Check out the story here, and their website here.  They go into some detail about how they did it, but I wonder if they would consider posting the full plans as an open design project.

Update 9/15/ 2009

Here is an update from Andy about this project:

“RE Pcsw from Space:  Their website has an update today saying that they plan to post a step-by-step soon and hope to have the stop action series of photos on youtube tonight.”

Also, on a technical note, “from space” is a slight over statement.  Turns out the pics are from an altitude of about 17.5 miles, or about 25% of the way to space.  However, the pics are of the edge of space (you can see the curvature of the Earth and the blackness of space).  I wonder what night photos pointing down would look like (or up for that matter).

Update:   09/16/2009

This same story was picked up on the NPR Marketplace Morning report this AM.

In addition to general coolness I want to point out how quickly this went viral.  Stories about groups of people doing cool things with just a little bit of money are crazy contagious.  I think this could be an important lesson for us–when we are ready to move forward, what can we do to emphasize rather than hide our small group with a big dream identity.

Update:  09/24/2009

Here is another team’s flight report, this time in HD Video.

So, I have been thinking, what could we do along these lines?…  and I had an idea.  What about launch two just a few seconds apart so one takes pictures of the other?  How cool would it be to have pics of the mission at altitude, in addition to the pics of the Earth and space?  Any takers?

Update:  03/22/2010

Check it out, Arduino used in high altitude balloon.  The project is call the Ferret (project page).

Update:   02/07/2010

Another cool link…  Arizona Near Space Research

Notes from “Introduction to Fundraising Planning” workshop

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Update: Added highlights from the workshop.

On May 1, I went to a workshop on fundraising planning at the Dayton Metro Libray.  The workshop was held by the Foundation Center, and was based on the book Securing Your Organization’s Future.  A recorded version of this workshop is available here and the more material on the subject of fundraising planning is available from the Foundation Center here.

Fundraising planning has several key benefits for organizations (emphasis added):

  1. Helps prioritize programs and fundraising efforts
  2. Increases board awareness and involvement in programs and fundraising
  3. (more…)