A space conference like no other, IMAGINE ’09 will explore remarkable ideas making a difference that could transform the space enterprise.  Some of the world’s most creative, productive and compelling individuals will actively engage attendees, providing knowledge and inspiration and encouraging breakthroughs in thought.  More than a conference, IMAGINE ’09 is a cultural event, designed to both spark imagination and to unleash it. An event about remarkable ideas, that is itself a remarkable idea. Mark your calendars for December 2-3 at the JSC Gilruth Center in Houston and register now!

Click here for confirmed and invited speakers.

Click here to register for the conference online.

Click here for sponsorship options.

Special $89 room rate for conference attendees at the Hilton NASA Clear Lake – reserve your room online.

The 2nd Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium is your opportunity to share in and shape our future.  “Looking Ahead: The Next Chapter in Space,” will feature top officials from NASA and the space industy.  We’ll discuss the progress of next-generation launch systems, opportunities for their utilization, and options for the Constellation Program.  The emerging commercial space travel industry, COTS, international partnerships and the intensifying international focus on the Moon will also be addressed. 

Join us October 20-21, 2009, at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  Click here to register and for program, hotel and sponsor information.

The Boeing-built WGS-2 satellite was launched on April 3 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and handed over to the Air Force on June 15 for extensive on-orbit testing.  The first WGS satellite began supporting U.S. and allied operations across the entire Pacific in April 2008 and has met and exceeded the Air Force’s expectations.

“With its outstanding capacity, operational flexibility and performance, WGS is fast becoming the satellite communications workhorse for the U.S. armed forces,” said Col. Bill Harding, Vice Commander of the Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing at the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles. “The smooth handover of WGS-2 earlier this summer and the successful start of operations clearly demonstrate the government and contractor team’s effective plan for the WGS system.”

In this issue:

• Special web sites mark historic lunar landing 40 years ago
• NASA seeking ideas from public about Wernher von Braun collection
• On bookshelves:  Is space a “wild west” or global commons?
• Review of graphic novel “Laika”
• Call for papers
• Calendar with Apollo 11 40th Aniversary events
• Spotlight: Steven J. Dick
• AAS History Series: Volume 30 now on sale
• Member activities
• Obituaries

The fifth annual Student CanSat Competition was held June 12-14, 2009 in Amarillo, Texas. The event is hosted by the American Astronautical Society and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The results of the competition:

1st Place:    University of Maryland Black & Gold Team
2nd Place:  University of Michigan Team 2
3rd Place:   University of Alabama in Huntsville Team Megatron
4th Place:   Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Team 2
5th Place:   Kapi’olani Community College Team O’hia

The event was sponsored by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Naval Research Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ball Aerospace & Technology Corporation .  The Panhandle of Texas Rocketry Society (POTROCS) provided the launch site and support for the CanSat payloads.

Details of the 2010 CanSat Competition will be released in August.   Photos are posted on the AAS Flickr page.

LRO safely separated from LCROSS 45 minutes later. LCROSS then was powered-up, and the mission operations team at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., performed system checks that confirmed the spacecraft is fully functional.

LCROSS and its attached Centaur upper stage rocket separately will collide with the moon at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2009, creating a pair of debris plumes that will be analyzed for the presence of water ice or water vapor, hydrocarbons and hydrated materials. The spacecraft and Centaur are tentatively targeted to impact the moon’s south pole near the Cabeus region. The exact target crater will be identified 30 days before impact, after considering information collected by LRO, other spacecraft orbiting the moon, and observatories on Earth.

“LCROSS has been the little mission that could,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We stand poised for an amazing mission and possible answers to some very intriguing questions about the moon.” 

The 1,290-pound LCROSS and 5,216-pound Centaur upper stage will perform a swing-by maneuver of the moon around 6 a.m. on June 23 to calibrate the satellite’s science instruments and enter a long, looping polar orbit around Earth and the moon. Each orbit will be roughly perpendicular to the moon’s orbit around Earth and take about 37 days to complete. Before impact, the spacecraft and Centaur will make approximately three orbits.

On the final approach, about 54,000 miles above the surface, LCROSS and the Centaur will separate. LCROSS will spin 180 degrees to turn its science payload toward the moon and fire thrusters to slow down.

The spacecraft will observe the flash from the Centaur’s impact and fly through the debris plume. Data will be collected and streamed to LCROSS mission operations for analysis. Four minutes later, LCROSS also will impact, creating a second debris plume.

“This mission is the culmination of a dedicated team that had a great idea,” said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames. “And now we’ll engage people around the world in looking at the moon and thinking about our next steps there.”

 The LCROSS science team will lead a coordinated observation campaign that includes LRO, the Hubble Space Telescope, observatories on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea and amateur astronomers around the world.

 Ames manages LCROSS and also built the instrument payload.  Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, Calif., built the spacecraft.

The American Astronautical Society is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2009 scholarship to the International Space University (ISU).

Sara M. Langston received the $10,000 Lady Mamie Ngan Memorial Scholarship to attend the 2009 Space Studies Program at the NASA Ames Rsearch Center.  Sara holds an LLM (advanced) degree in Air & Space Law from Leiden University and is a member of AAS.  

AAS is among several organizations offering annual scholarships to the annual ISU Summer Session and Masters Programs.  Applications will be accepted for the 2010 scholarships later this year; preference is given toward applicants who are members of AAS and/or the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS).  For information on ISU programs, check www.isunet.edu

The new flyover maps show, for the first time, the 3-D topography and height of the 1,200-meter (4,000-foot) mountain tops, the north polar lake country, the vast dunes more than 100 meters (300 feet) high that crisscross the moon, and the thick flows that may have oozed from possible ice volcanoes.

The topographic maps were made from stereo pairs of radar images. They are available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

Cassini radar team member Randy Kirk with the Astrogeology Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., created the maps. He used some of the 20 or so areas where two or more overlapping radar measurements were obtained during 19 Titan flybys. These stereo overlaps cover close to two percent of Titan’s surface. The process of making topographic maps from them is just beginning, but the results already reveal some of the diversity of Titan’s geologic features.

“These flyovers let you take in the bird’s-eye sweeping views of Titan, the next best thing to being there,” said Kirk. “We’ve mapped many kinds of features, and some of them remind me of Earth. Big seas, small lakes, rivers, dry river channels, mountains and sand dunes with hills poking out of them, lava flows.”

Kirk will present these results today at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.

High and low features are shown in unprecedented detail at about 2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) resolution. The maps show some features that may be volcanic flows. These flows meander across a shallow basin in the mountains. One area suspected to be an ice volcano, Ganesa Macula, does not appear to be a volcanic dome. It may still have originated as a volcano, but it’s too soon to know for sure. “It could be a volcanic feature, a crater, or something else that has just been heavily eroded,” added Kirk.

The stereo coverage includes a large portion of Titan’s north polar lakes of liquid ethane and methane. Based on these topographical models, scientists are better able to determine the depth of lakes. The highest areas surrounding the lakes are some 1,200 meters (about 4,000 feet) above the shoreline. By comparing terrain around Earth to the Titan lakes, scientists estimate their depth is likely about 100 meters (300 feet) or less.

More 3-D mapping of these lakes will help refine these depth estimates and determine the volume of liquid hydrocarbons that exist on Titan. This information is important because these liquids evaporate and create Titan’s atmosphere. Understanding this methane cycle can provide clues to Titan’s weather and climate.

Launched in 1997, Cassini completed its primary four-year mission in 2008 and is now in extended mission operations, which run through September 2010. Over the course of the mission, Cassini plans to map more than three percent of Titan’s surface in 3-D. About 38 percent of Titan’s surface has been mapped with radar so far. On March 27, Cassini will complete its 52nd targeted flyby of Titan.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a corporate member of the American Astronautical Society.