Tech Talk

The Dallas FOX-affiliate roasted journalists’ use of social media. It is worth watching:

Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s an asteroid!

A small asteroid is expected to fly extremely close to Earth early Tuesday morning — and miss the planet by just a few thousand miles. But don’t fire up your rescue rocket yet.

2010 TD54, as the asteroid is known, is forecast to approach our planet’s surface at an altitude of about 27,960 miles at about 6:50 a.m. — which is well within the Eart-moon system.

The asteroid is expected to fly over southeastern Asia near Singapore, NASA reports. However, the American space agency is quick to note that it has a zero probability of actually striking the planet.

ITWire reports that the car-sized asteroid is expected to fly through the constellations Aquarius and Pisces en route to skimming the third rock from the sun.

What might surprise many space novices is that the 16- to 33-foot wide rocky body was only discovered in the early hours of Oct. 9 by a NASA-sponsored telescope in Tucson, Arizona. If the asteroid did strike the Earth, it would likely burn up high in the atmosphere and would cause no damage to the planet’s surface.

And speaking of close pieces of space debris, mark your calendars as Oct. 20 will be a night space aficionados will not want to miss.

Green comet 103P/Hartley 2 will have a close encounter with earthlings on that day when it is only 11 million miles from our planet and should be dimly visible to the naked eye, NASA reports.

Folks with access to backyard telescopes should already have a great view.

For more information about asteroids, check out NASA’s asteroid watch Web page or Twitter account.

8:30 a.m. UPDATE: NASA seems to be correct. The world does not appear to have ended.

In this NASA photograph, Neil Armstrong is seen on the moon.

Forty-one years ago, one American stepped out of a small lunar module known fittingly as “Eagle,” and realized the dreams of the world.

After hundreds of thousands of years of gazing toward the heavens and at the large heavenly body, man had finally stepped foot on it — a men with an American flag embroidered on his arm.

Despite trailing the Soviets in the space race for the larger part of a decade, the United States successfully soared past its rivals to score an awe-inspiring come from behind victory.

At 4:18 p.m. Eastern Time, Neil Armstrong announced to an anxious world: “The Eagle has landed.”

Less than seven hours later, he secured his place in human history when he hopped down a small ladder and onto the moon — and said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin followed shortly thereafter.

Five Apollo missions would follow before the sun set early on the program. Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon on Dec. 14, 1972.

A successful Apollo 11 mission, however, was by no means a given.

Any of the astronauts could have become trapped on the barron landscape unable to ever return home — and yet that did not keep America or NASA’s courageous men from taking the leap.

The dangers of the Apollo 11 mission were so serious that a speech had been crafted for President Richard Nixon that would have been delivered if Armstrong and Aldrin were marooned.

Revealed in 1999, the address stated:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

America needs to to remember and recapture that drive. We must again dare to send our sons into the unknown so that the people of the world are stirred and can feel as one. It is a continuation of our manifest destiny. Staying at home, playing it safe and passing the keys to space exploration to the rest of the world be a major disappointment. We must continue the work of Armstrong, Aldrin, Cernan and the others — they looked risk in the face and did not blink and neither should we.

At a time when NASA’s future — and America’s role in space exploration — is in question, President Barack Obama, Congress and indeed the American people by in large should come together to ensure our leading role.

We mustn’t allow any nation or entity — whether it be Russia, China, Japan, India or the European Union — overshadow the dreams, ambitions or progress of this great nation.

The United States should be committed to returning to the moon by decade’s end — and to Mars early into the next decade. It will be as dangerous as it will be expensive and challenging as it will be ambitious, but we must persevere — an untold number of advancements, pride and jobs are at stake.

In the words of the late President John F. Kennedy:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Let’s let the dream live.

From the Tech Talk archives:

• Do you know where your moon rocks are?
• Remembering an out-of-this-world walk
• Rocket launch marks significant step forward
• Take an out-of-this-world tour of the Olympics cities
• NASA launches commemorative shuttle patch
• We can’t stop now
• One small step for tweeters, one giant leap for mankind?

While many people worked Friday afternoon, space history was made.

The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, known simply as SpaceX, launched a privately-developed 180-foot, 735,000-pound Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force station in Eastern Florida.

The rocket may one day carry cargo and astronauts to space.

The nine first-stage engines ignited at 2:45 p.m., and after burning for three minutes, the first stage dropped off into the Atlantic Ocean while the second-stage engine burned for about six minutes to propel a capsule 155-miles into orbit, the New York Times reported.

Check out the take-off:

NASA praised SpaceX’s efforts.

“Congratulations to SpaceX on today’s launch of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. “SpaceX’s accomplishment is an important milestone in the commercial transportation effort and puts the company a step closer to providing cargo services to the International Space Station.”

The launch comes after some delays.

The successful mission will likely help President Barack Obama push his proposal to turn over the launching of astronauts into space to private industry.  The debate over the future of NASA’s human space program will likely continue through the summer as the White House works with Congress toward a compromise.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder, told reporters that exciting, innovative times are ahead.

“This is the dawn of a new era in space exploration,” the Associated Press quoted Musk as saying. “I think a very exciting era and one which I think will lead to the democratization of space, making space accessible to everyone eventually … Yeah, I think this is really a historic moment.”

SpaceX plans to launch a second Falcon 9 in the coming months, according to the Times. The launch will be an effort to show the space agency its abilities to transport cargo and supplies to the International Space Station.

SpaceX will attempt to use use the Falcon 9 to compete against United Launch Alliance — a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, according to Wired. The company was awarded $3.5 billion in contracts by the American space agency to deliver cargo to the International Space Station through 2016, the technology publication reported. Other companies are also vying to secure a government contract to transport people and supplies to the ISS and elsewhere in space.

Flights carrying cargo to the ISS are scheduled to begin in 2011,  the Times reported. SpaceX has has indicated that it could build a version capable of transporting people within three years of getting a contract.

“This launch of the Falcon 9 gives us even more confidence that a resupply vehicle will be available after the space shuttle fleet is retired,” Bolden said.

The shuttle program will end later this year. NASA will then focus its efforts to sending man to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars by the mid 2030′s.

From the Tech Talk archives:

• NASA launches commemorative shuttle patch
• One small step for tweeters, one giant leap for mankind?

Exciting news is emerging from the moon.

Three different spacecraft have discovered “unambiguous evidence” of water on the moon, Space.com reports.

The article explains:

The moon remains drier than any desert on Earth, but the water is said to exist on the moon in very small quantities. One ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, researchers said.

A Brown University planetary geologist told the Web site that the revelations “opens a whole new avenue [of lunar research].

The discovery could bring potential future lunar bases closer to reality.

Please click here to read the full report.

One of the greatest things about America is our constant desire to go farther than we have ever gone before – we love pushing our boundaries.

In this NASA image, earth is seen rising over the lunar horizon. It wasn't until we left our planet that were first able to truly see it.

The approach began with this nation’s ambition to break free of the world’s most powerful empire and have self-rule, it continued through manifest destiny when we expanded our great country from sea to shining sea and then blasted off beyond our planet at the dawn of the space age.

And then, we stopped.

For once, we were restrained — and worst of all, by our own doing.  We gave up.

And now, just a half decade after President George W. Bush offered a JFK-esque challenge of seeing a man return to the moon again — followed by Mars and then who knows where — comes news that the chances of it happening are very, very slim.

What gives, America?

According to an article in the Miami Herald, NASA doesn’t have enough funding to put astronauts back on moon by 2020 — or anywhere really beyond the International Space Station.

Really? We are giving up because of money?

We are the country who gives billions of dollars to countries and organizations around the world.  And yet we aren’t reaching for the stars because of money?  What we will gain from our efforts to reach the stars will far outweigh what we spend to get there.

The newspaper reported:

“The Human Space Flight Plans Committee, appointed by President Barack Obama and headed by retired aerospace executive Norman Augustine, has been trying to stitch together some kind of plausible strategy for America’s manned space program. The panel has struggled to find options that stay under the current budget and include missions worthy of the cost and effort.”

According to the article, the committee members are prepared to tell the administration that “there is no realistic way to get Americans back on the moon by the target date of 2020…”

The article continues:

“Landing on the moon by 2020 would require such drastic budgetary maneuvers as de-orbiting the International Space Station — crashing it into the South Pacific — in 2016.”

The committee endorses a so-called “deep space” strategy — which “emphasizes getting astronauts far beyond Low Earth Orbit but not necessarily plunking them down on alien worlds.”

I would support this.  It’s not where we go as much as it is that we go. We need to continue to reach for what is just beyond our grasp.  That is what has made this country a winner, and what, I fear, is holding us back now.

When is the last time we did something because we wanted to, not just because we had to.

Remember what President John F. Kennedy proclaimed:

“We choose to go to the moon, not because it’s easy but because it’s hard.”

It’s time to stop playing catch-up.  We need to go on the offensive.

We have visited the moon several times — and gained unprecedented insights from our exploration of it and journey to it.  What I fear, however, is if we can’t reach the moon again, will our space program have any plausible future?

The committee plans to advise the president in a report to be delivered at the end of the month, the Herald reports, that astronauts should be sent to “near-Earth asteroids and to gravitationally significant points in space, known as Lagrange points, that are beyond the Earth’s protective magnetosphere. Astronauts might even go all the way to Phobos, a tiny moon of Mars, where the spaceship wouldn’t land so much as rendezvous, in the same way that a spacecraft docks at the International Space Station.”

How great would that be?

Of course there are nay-sayers to the space program. But these people are often misguided and ill-informed of exactly how much our space program has really advanced our society and tiny blue planet.

Remember, NASA is required by law to share its discoveries and inventions with the public.

Among the advancements, as cross-checked through educational, government and other reputable sources:

• Development of lightweight materials
• Refined recycling processes
• Microwave ovens
• Tang — mmm!
• Devices designed to keep track of the astronauts’ health are now used in hospitals to monitor patients
• Laser surveying
• Aircraft controls
• Lightweight CDs
• Microcomputers
• Enriched baby food
• Water purification system
• Scratch-resistant lenses
• Portable warmers/coolers
• Athletic shoes
• Shock-absorbing helmets
• Home security systems
• Smoke detectors
• Flat panel television sets
• Trash compactors
• Fogless ski goggles
• Art preservation
• Solar energy
• Air tanks
• Storm warning technology
• Doppler radar
• Robotic hands

Granted not every advancement listed above has radically changed how we live, but collectively they have saved countless lives and altered the way we do live our daily lives.  Can you even imagine what life would be like today if we didn’t attempt to lasso the moon?

We can’t stop now. We have to keep going. Or else… well, I don’t even want to consider the alternative.