Moroccan and Algerian Teens on Race to Space

Race to Space, a US Embassy-sponsored competition and summer camp, will announce its finalists in the upcoming days.

The program invites Moroccan and Algerian teens to participate in a summer program known as Space Camp, which the website describes as “an interactive educational experience that brings theory to life through simulated training aboard the NASA Space Shuttle.” Of the 25 Moroccan and 25 Algerian students currently left in the running, only six from each country will be selected to attend the Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The program is looking for high school students aged 15-18 who “excel in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics” and will award a scholarship covering all expenses. It applies to Moroccan and Algerian citizens only, excluding dual US citizens. In addition to high academic standing in subjects related to astronomy, students are expected to have strong English language skills, as the program will take place entirely in English.

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Ramadan and Space Science in Tunisia

The Tunisian Association of Astronomy has announced that the 6th of July will be the first day of Eid el Fitr, the festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

According to the Association, the crescent of the new moon will become visible from Tunisia and its neighboring countries on the 5th July, bringing with it a close to the end of Ramadan and the first day of the festival of Eid el Fitr.

According to the Islamic tradition, months are measured by the cycles of the moon, meaning that Ramadan, occurring within the ninth lunar cycle of the year, runs from the first to the final sighting of the new moon’s Crescent. The month itself marks the first revelation of the Qu’ran to the Prophet, Muhammad, the observation of which is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Hicham Ben Yahya, secretary general of the Tunisian Association of Astronomy explained how the end of Ramadan is determined, “When we see the conjunction of the sun with the moon, we cannot detect the moon resent as they are on the same alignment, which is called the marriage phase. However, once the decoupling phase is over, and the crescent of the moon is visibly separate from the sun, we can announce if it is either the first day of Ramadan, or the first day of Eid.” He added

According To Ben Yahya, the new moon will be born upon the 4th of July, but will remain below the horizon for Arab countries until the 5th July. This data is passed to the Grand Mufti, who holds ultimate responsibility for determining the first and final days of the holy month.

Ramadan can fall between different dates on the standard calendar, depending upon which part of the world it is celebrated in, explaining the reasons Ben Yahya said that it was, “because of the different angles and the varying visibility of the moon’s crescent.” However, despite this, there is also the possibility of some countries starting and ending their celebrations to the same announcement. “For instance, Tunisia shares its nighttime hours with Nambia, so we could follow their announcement if we wanted to,” Ben Yahya said.

According to Ben Yahya, an initiative designed to unify both the scientific and Islamic calendar is currently under consideration. However, so far its development does not appear to have pleased either the religious or scientific camp and it remains a work in progress.

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Space Science in Mali: The Dogon Tribe

In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star which is invisible to the human eye. This companion star has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the visible Sirius and is extremely heavy. It also rotates on its axis.

This legend might be of little interest to anybody but the two French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen, who recorded it from four Dogon priests in the 1930's. Of little interest except that it is exactly true. How did a people who lacked any kind of astronomical devices know so much about an invisible star? The star, which scientists call Sirius B, wasn't even photographed until it was done by a large telescope in 1970.

The Dogon stories explain that also. According to their oral traditions, a race people from the Sirius system called the Nommos visited Earth thousands of years ago. The Nommos were ugly, amphibious beings that resembled mermen and mermaids. They also appear in Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian myths. The Egyptian Goddess Isis, who is sometimes depicted as a mermaid, is also linked with the star Sirius.

The Nommos, according to the Dogon legend, lived on a planet that orbits another star in the Sirius system. They landed on Earth in an "ark" that made a spinning decent to the ground with great noise and wind. It was the Nommos that gave the Dogon the knowledge about Sirius B.

The legend goes on to say the Nommos also furnished the Dogon's with some interesting information about our own solar system: That the planet Jupiter has four major moons, that Saturn has rings and that the planets orbit the sun. These were all facts discovered by Westerners only after Galileo invented the telescope.

The story of the Dogon and their legend was first brought to popular attention by Robert K.G. Temple in a book published in 1977 called The Sirius Mystery. Science writer Ian Ridpath and astronomer Carl Sagan made a reply to Temple's book, suggesting that this modern knowledge about Sirius must have come from Westerners who discussed astronomy with the Dogon priests. The priests then included this new information into the older traditions. This, in turn, mislead the anthropologists.

This is a possibility considering Sirius B's existence was suspected as early as 1844 and seen was through a telescope in 1862. It doesn't seem to explain a 400-year old Dogon artifact that apparently depicts the Sirius configuration nor the ceremonies held by the Dogon since the 13th century to celebrate the cycle of Sirius A and B. It also doesn't explain how the Dogons knew about the super-density of Sirius B, a fact only discovered a few years before the anthropologists recorded the Dogon stories.

It is also important to remember that although many parts of the Dogon legends seem to ring true, other portions are clearly mistaken. One of the Dogon's beliefs is that Sirius B occupied the place where our Sun is now. Physics clearly prohibits this. Also, if the Dogon believe that Sirius B orbits Sirius A every 50 years, why do they hold their celebrations every 60 years?

Sirius A is the brightest star in our sky and can easily be seen in the winter months in the northern hemisphere. Look for the constellation Orion. Orion's belt are the three bright stars in a row. Follow an imaginary line through the three stars to Sirius which is just above the horizon. It is bluish in color.

Sirius is only 8.6 light years from Earth. Astronomer W.Bessel was the first to suspect that Sirius had an invisible companion when he observed that the path of the star wobbled. In the 1920's it was determined that Sirius B, the companion of Sirius, was a "white dwarf" star. The pull of its gravity caused Sirius's wavy movement.

White dwarfs are small, dense stars that burn dimly. Sirius B is, in fact, smaller than the planet Earth. One teaspoon of Sirius B is so dense that it weighs 5 tons.

So did alien fish-men pay a visit to ancient Earth and give the Dogon their knowledge? Or was the Dogon's culture contaminated by western visitors? Or could the Dogon's have had ancient technical or non-technical means to find this information out? Or is the whole thing just a matter of coincidence?

The question maybe settled as larger and more powerful telescopes take a look at the Sirius system. According to the legend there is a third star: Sirius C, and it is around Sirius C that the home planet of the Nommos orbits. Most scientists do not consider any part of the Sirius system a prime candidate for life, though.

When Temple first issued his book in the 1970's there was no solid evidence of a Sirius C. In 1995, however, two French researchers, Daniel Benest and J.L. Duvent, authored an article in the prestigious journal Astronomy and Astrophysics with the title Is Sirius a Triple Star? and suggested (based on observations of motions in the Sirius system) there is a small third star there. They thought the star was probably of a type known as a "red dwarf" and only had about .05 the mass of Sirius B.

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Ethiopia Space Ambition

For young people there is no limit, and in Addis Ababa dreams fly about classrooms with as much abandon as anywhere else in the world.

Seventeen year-old Meron Mekonnen wants to be a particle physicist. Demekel Demto a rocket scientist. Dagem Teresse is interested in inventing things and wants to become a robotics engineer.

Mekonnen is quick to note that Einstein was young when he published his Theory of Relativity, a 26 year-old university student. A single equation of his "changed the history of science," she points out: "I have plenty of thoughts..."

Today's youth are always told to reach for the stars. But thanks to the country's first space observatory, some Ethiopians might just get there.

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Uganda Space Shuttle

It would be easy to laugh at Chris Nsamba, founder of the African Space Research Programme.

For a start, his research centre is based in his back garden where there's not much evidence of the type of sophisticated tools and machinery I'd imagine you need for this kind of work. When I was there, most of the engineers were equipped with just sandpaper and paint brushes.

They haven't even started work on the shuttle yet, at the moment it's more of a theoretical project.

They have begun to build an aircraft though, apparently to test their engineering skills before they begin work on a shuttle which they hope will send a Ugandan cosmonaut into space.

The plane they've built is sandwiched tightly, nose-to-tail, between two single-storey buildings which house Chris and his team. It is painted blue and white and has the Ugandan flag proudly displayed on the side of the cockpit.

It's far from complete, there's still no engine - just a pile of bricks to simulate weight, and a mass of wires hang out underneath.

But it still seems like quite an achievement and if this hadn't been a space programme I'd have been pretty impressed. Chris believes that if his team is successful, this will still be the first aeroplane designed and built in Uganda.

Jackfruit tree

Chris's team is made up of volunteers, mainly engineering students, and when I visited all of them were busy at work, each furiously rubbing away at the fuselage with sandpaper. All except for one man whose job appeared to be to paint the same spot on top of the cockpit over and over again.

I asked Chris how far away he thinks he is from his dream of sending a manned shuttle into orbit.

"Let me tell you", he replied, "building a space shuttle is a big job." He thinks he'll have it done in four to six years.

Standing in the garden, watching the team labouring away beneath a jackfruit tree, tarpaulin fence gently flapping in the breeze, I was fighting back cynicism pretty hard.

Uganda is not known to be a big player in space exploration. In fact, Chris will need to certify the would-be cosmonauts himself as there's no-one else in the country able or qualified to do so.

He's even having to do the training himself. His course draws heavily on his background as a student of astronomy - he's been teaching them how to calculate the distance between planets for example, telling them what the Karman line is, and educating them about the dangers of re-entry.

A lack of local facilities is hampering the project and I asked Chris how he plans to simulate zero gravity, for example, in Kampala.

"Easy" he said. "I've got a jet engine on order so I'm planning to build a tunnel, put the engine at one end and when I throw a guy in he'll float in a similar way to how he would in space."

Admiration

Another challenge is finance. A recent decision in the US to reduce funding to Nasa provoked a public outcry, yet the space agency will still receive many billions this year and next.

The African Space Research Programme relies on donations from its members, of whom there are 600 or so, mainly in Uganda. They'd need to give pretty generously for Chris's craft just to get off the ground, never mind make it into orbit.

So, it's easy to mock, and to dismiss Chris as a dreamer, and to say that an African space shuttle is a fantasy. But many Ugandans feel differently, and they look with pride to the country's contribution to space exploration.

Until last month, the first black flight director at Nasa was Kwatsi Alibaruho, a Ugandan national. The country's president has been known to refer to Alibaruho as an example of what his country's people are capable of achieving. His father is an academic at a Ugandan university, and according to President Museveni the achievements of his son confound the world's view of Uganda as underdeveloped and backward.

Walking away from the African Space Research Programme, I had to feel some sneaking admiration for Chris's ambition, if not a great deal of confidence that Uganda's first manned space shuttle will be lifting off from Kampala within the decade.

It made me think of a line from a Robert Browning poem: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

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Phobos and Deimos would Allow SpaceX to Practice Interplanetary Flight

An outpost on Earth’s moon will not be as easy as many think, but if the “already done” moon seems too easy for Mr. Musk, there are other destinations more realistic than the Martian surface. The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos would allow SpaceX to practice interplanetary flight without the enormous added risk and expense of landing. Mars is not an easy world to land on, and doing so should not be taken lightly. Such a “PhD” strategy would allow SpaceX to operate around and on asteroid-like bodies, which could ultimately lead to main belt mining operations, another potential long-term strategy to make money.

A PhD outpost would enable scientists to efficiently operate rovers on Mars without the time delay from communicating with Earth. This would provide reconnaissance useful for later scientific expeditions with geologists on the surface. Most importantly, lunar and PhD destinations do not require development of a new rocket. The Delta 4 Heavy, or if successful the Falcon Heavy, will do just fine.

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Lockheed-Boeing Rocket Venture Cuts 350 Jobs

A rocket company owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing said on Friday it cut 350 jobs, with another 400 to 500 layoffs expected in 2017.

The staff reductions amount to a quarter of the workforce at United Launch Alliance LLC, the Centennial, Colorado-based company that supplies the U.S. Air Force with Atlas and Delta rockets to launch military and spy satellites into space.

ULA wants to position itself to better compete against technology entrepreneur Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies and other upcoming commercial launch service companies, such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Paul Allen's Stratolaunch Services.

SpaceX, as Musk's privately owned Hawthorne, California-based firm is known, in April broke ULA's 10-year monopoly on military satellite launch contracts with an $83-million Air Force award to deliver a GPS spacecraft into orbit in 2018.

The price for a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch is 40 percent less than what the Air Force expected to pay for a ULA Atlas 5 rocket ride, Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, head of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, told reporters on a conference call after the contract announcement.

About two-thirds of ULA's layoffs were voluntary, with another 110 workers receiving notice on Thursday of an involuntary layoff, Rye said.

The cuts impact employees in Colorado, Texas, California, Alabama and Florida.

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NASA wants to grow potatoes on Mars

GAZA AEROSPACE -- NASA has teamed up with the International Potato Center in Peru. They want to develop a potato that could be grown on Mars.Mariana Sanchez reports from the Atacama desert.

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Gaza Astronomical Club

GAZA AERSOPACE -- Gaza Astronomical Club. See here

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Successful China rocket launch, recovery a step forward in its plan to reach Mars

GAZA AEROSPACE -- CHINA has recovered an experimental probe launched aboard a new generation rocket, marking another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space program that envisions a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.

Space program authorities said the spaceship’s landing of the on the vast Inner Mongolian steppe keeps China on schedule to place its second space station into orbit later this year.

The launch of the spaceship aboard the newly developed Long March 7 rocket on Saturday was hailed as a breakthrough in the use of safer, more environmentally friendly fuels. The launch also marked the first use of the massive new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan.

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China launches new carrier rocket

GAZA AEROSPACE -- China blasted off its Long March-7 new generation carrier rocket on a successful inaugural voyage on Saturday from a new launch centre, state media reported, as the country races ahead with an ambitious space program.

The medium-sized, two-stage rocket is expected to become the main carrier for China’s future space missions.

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Gaza Ambassadors of Mars: Palestinian Mission to Outer Space

GAZA AEROSPACE -- Gaza Ambassadors of Mars: Palestinian Mission to Outer Space

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Russia to test launch new spacecraft from Baikonur in 2015

Russia will test launch a new spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2015, the head of the manned space program at Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said on Thursday.

"Competition for building new manned spacecraft is growing so we must ensure we hold the first test launch in 2015," Alexei Krasnov said.

The new-generation six-seated spacecraft is currently being developed by Russian spacecraft manufacturer Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. The preliminary design has been presented to Roscosmos.

"The spacecraft will be multimodular and multivariate. One task will be to deliver the six crew members to the International Space Station," Krasnov said. "The shuttle will also be fitted with a living compartment and reinforced insulation for returning to the Earth's orbit and entering the atmosphere at the second cosmic speed, in case it needs to fly to a distant orbit." .

He said the first test flight of the new manned space shuttle is only possible from the Baikonur Cosmodrome since infrastructure at Russia's new Vostochniy Cosmodrome will not be ready until 2018.

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UAE to include EIAST projects in curriculum

The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has signed an agreement with the UAE Ministry of Education as per which its key findings will become part of the secondary school curriculum of Geography and Social Studies.

As per the agreement, EIAST will provide the ministry with detailed information on its vision, mission, researches and main programmes, in addition to the images received by DubaiSat-1 to be included in the geography text book of the tenth grade next year, said a statement from UAE Ministry of Education (MoE).

This initiative is part of the ministry’s efforts to strengthen the student curriculum with contemporary subject materials to enhance the knowledge base of students, and complements EIAST’s efforts in sharing its concrete contributions for the benefit of the UAE student community.

A delegation from the Ministry of Education headed by Shaikha Kholood Saqr Al Qassimi, director of Curriculum Department, MoE, recently visited EIAST to identify its workflow, future development plans and programmes, as well as to discuss aspects of cooperation between them.

Adnan Mohammed Al Rais, team leader of Ground Systems and Image Processing, gave a detailed presentation on the launch process of DubaiSat-1, how the Ground Control Station is connected to the satellite for receiving images and updates on DubaiSat-2.

The delegation also visited the Ground Control Station connected to DubaiSat-1, the Image Processing and Data Analysis lab, and the Assembly Integration and Test room.

Shaikha Kholood lauded the efforts of UAE nationals in achieving the historic accomplishment.

“We are pleased to co-operate with the EIAST and share their knowledge base with the student community of the UAE. By incorporating EIAST’s achievements as part of the student curriculum, we aim to further positioning the UAE on the international map of innovation and excellence by promoting stronger interest in the young minds about the country’s scientific accomplishments.”

Ahmed Al Mansoori, director general, EIAST, said the joint initiative was important given the vital role that the ministry plays in strengthening and developing the skills of future generations.

'We are pleased to co-operate with the ministry and we hope that EIAST’s activities, especially the achievements of DubaiSat-1, will be a catalyst for UAE high school students to pursue the path of advanced technology for the overall welfare of the nation,' he added.

The delegation from the Curriculum Department, MoE, included Mariam Kamal, head of Humanities curricula; Fatima Ahmed Al Muhairi, art director, and Dr Jassim Mohammed Abdel Karim, a specialist in geography - Social Studies Division.

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Arabsat 5A Satellite Shipped To Launch Site

The first Arabsat 5th generation satellite today left the Astrium facilties in Toulouse and was loaded in Blagnac airport on an Antonov cargo airplane that will transport it to French Guyana in view of an April launch into geostationary orbit.

Arabsat-5A, a multi-mission satellite, will provide additional capacity at the Arabsat 30.5 degrees East position for a large range of satellite communications services such as television backhauling and broadcasting, telephony, business communications, Internet trunking and the provision of VSAT and other interactive services, over sub-Saharan Africa, the North-Africa and Middle East (MENA) region, and beyond.

Arabsat 5A was built by an industrial team of Astrium and Thales Alenia Space acting as co-prime contractors. Astrium, the team leader, supplied the Eurostar E3000 platform and assembled and tested the spacecraft.

Thales Alenia Space supplied the communications payload featuring 26 active transponders in C-band and 24 in Ku-band. The Launch and Early Orbit Phase will be conducted from the Astrium spacecraft control centre in Toulouse.

Arabsat-5A will have a launch mass of 4,800kg and a spacecraft power of 11kW at the end of its 15-year designed lifetime. Arabsat 5A is the 4th Eurostar built for the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the 1st Eurostar E3000 in a series of four Arabsat 5th generation satellite ordered to date. A sister spacecraft, Arabsat 5B also known as Badr 5, is undergoing final testing in Toulouse.

Arabsat 5A is planned for launch by an Ariane 5 which will also carry another Astrium-built satellite, COMS, for the South Korean space agency KARI. Launch of Arabsat 5A and COMS is scheduled for the end of April.

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China announces second lunar probe

China Thursday announced plans for its second lunar probe in October ahead of its launch of an unmanned space module set for next year.

The Chang'e-2 lunar probe in October would be launched on a Long March 3-C carrier rocket, said Liang Xiaohong, party chief of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Liang's announcement came a day after Qi Faren, former chief designer of China's Shenzhou spaceships, announced plans for the launch of the Tiangong-I unmanned space module next year.

Tiangong-1 is designed for the country's first space docking and is seen as an essential step toward building a space station, Xinhua said.

A spokesman for the Chinese space program had said a year ago the unmanned module launch would be launched this year but the report blamed the delay until next year on technical reasons but gave no details.

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