Students take a turn at space outreach

The Coalition for Space Exploration , an aerospace industry lobbying group, has partnered with the Texas Space Grant Consortium to sponsor the 2007 NASA Means Business Competition. The competition seeks innovative public outreach plans including three finished promotional pieces to illustrate the concepts. Teams of university students compete for $1000, behind-the-scenes tours of NASA facilities, and the opportunity to present their work to top NASA officials.

The competition has run for eight years and produced some results that have made it into NASA promotions. The 2004 Special Creativity Prize was awarded to the Art Center College of Design for their "Reach" video. After receiving praise from the space community, it was eventually integrated into the tour video at Kennedy Space Center. [full disclosure: Karen Lau was Creative Director for the video and co-manages this site]

Check out the competition and see the future of PR for space exploration!

Virgin Galactic + NASA

NASA Ames Research Center signed a memorandum of understanding today with well-known suborbital space tourism company Virgin Galactic. This is not the first high-profile partnership for Ames: Google signed a somewhat similar MOU in 2005 and solidified their relationship with a formal Space Act Agreement in late 2006.

This new arrangement allows Ames and Virgin Galactic to explore areas that could be good for research collaboration including space suits, heat shields for spaceships, hybrid rocket motors and hypersonic vehicles. The two-year agreement was was negotiated through NASA’s Space Portal, a newly formed organization in the NASA Research Park at Ames. The agreement does not require NASA nor Virgin Galactic to pay any fees or provide funds to support the areas of possible collaboration.

Solid Rocket Booster Video

If you've ever wanted to ride a solid rocket booster all the way down Slim Pickens style, here's your chance. Sort of. Be sure to watch all the way to the end to see the other nose cone splashdown in frame.

First Couple to Honeymoon in Space on Virgin Galactic

Washington, D.C.- February 14, 2007- Loretta and George Whitesides, the first couple to honeymoon in space, launched a new website on Valentine's Day to share the excitement of their upcoming adventure with the public.

"Growing up, we both had the dream to go to space," said George Whitesides, newlywed and Executive Director of the National Space Society. "We feel incredibly lucky to be able to achieve that dream together."

Loretta and George are two of 100 Virgin Galactic 'Founders'- the people who have paid in full to be the first to fly on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Spaceline.

"We hope that with our flight, we can help bring love and peace to a place that is very important to us – space," said Loretta, who is the Executive Director of Yuri's Night, a worldwide celebration of spaceflight.

The sub-orbital spaceflight will launch the couple over 100 km high, past the boundary of space. The flight will include several minutes of weightlessness, a view of the blackness of space and the curvature of the Earth.

The Space Love website will document the preparation and lead-up to the flight, and include suggestions for others who wish to celebrate their own honeymoons, anniversaries or even weddings in space.

George and Loretta are no strangers to weightlessness, with both having flown as crew for Zero G Corporation's weightless flights. "We have even had our first Zero G kiss," commented Loretta, adding, "weightlessness just has a magic to it."

For more information on their space honeymoon and pictures, please visit www.spacelove.org.

For more information on Virgin Galactic please visit www.virgingalactic.com .

181 Lunary Things to Do

Most would say space geeks are a bit loony, but NASA has taken the moon craze to the next level. NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has "consulted more than 1,000 people from businesses, academia and 13 international space agencies to come up with a master list of 181 potential lunar objectives." From a radio telescope on the far side of the moon, a regolith laboratory to remotely-controlled rovers, the complete list is here. From this master list, NASA will select a few high priority goals for the initial return to the moon.

Over 1,000 minds and a survey and only 181 ideas?

NASA's Plans to Woo Youth, Congress, to Space Culture

The executive summary of NASA’s new Strategic Communications Framework is a very telling document. If you’re interested in working to inspire the next generation of space explorers - and Congress - check it out!

Thanks to Keith Cowing at NASAwatch.com for posting these documents.

--L.W.

Popular Science Magazine is 'Calling All Inventors!'

(And you thought I was going to blog about that astronaut love triangle in the news?)

Anyone got a cool space-related invention to pitch to Popular Science Magazine? Details from the Popular Science web site are pasted in below:

Calling All Inventors
Think you've created the next big thing? Submit your work for PopSci's Invention Awards issue by February 15th!

Think you’ve created the next amazing, breakthrough invention or know someone who has? We want to hear about it! PopSci is searching for the most original and clever inventions of the past year for an upcoming issue. Here’s what we’re looking for:

- Must be an item (not a service, concept or idea) that’s aimed toward commercialization; not a one-off build.

- Must be truly inventive—something original that solves a real problem in an elegant and clear way, not just an improvement on another existing product.

- Should be mainly the work of one person or a small group—industry- or university-affiliated inventors are fine (as are garage-based inventors), as long as the invention reflects the passionate vision of one inventor or a small team.

- Must have a working prototype.

How to submit: Send no more than 300 words describing your invention and the story behind it, as well as a photo (or links to photos) to h20@time4.com by Feb 15, 2007. Please include the best way to reach you in case we need more information.

Superbowl Space Ad

Shipping company FedEx paid for this spot during the Superbowl on Sunday, February 4. Humor is definitely the biggest focus of the piece, but they highlight some of the everyday office tasks that would be difficult to perform in a reduced-gravity environment.

Cool science show debuts on PBS

"Wired Science", an hour long science news show co-produced by Wired and KCLA for PBS, is extending the high-gloss styling of Wired Magazine onto the airwaves. Their first foray into the series was Jan 3.

The pilot episode includes an interview with Elon Musk where he talks about transportation technologies: specifically, Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies. You can view the interview online and see how Elon moves seamlessly between 'backing up' the biosphere and saving the planet from oil over-indulgence.

Apollo documentary wins Sundance award

In the Shadow of the Moon

The story of the men who went to the Moon, told in their own words.

Between 1968 and 1972 twenty-four Americans journeyed to the Moon. They remain the only human beings to have visited another world. In this film the Apollo astronauts tell their own story, and share their reflections on what these great voyages of exploration meant to them and to humanity. The film-makers have shot intimate and revealing interviews with prime crew members from every Apollo mission from Apollo 8, the first voyage around the Moon, to Apollo 17, the last lunar landing, during which two men lived on the surface for more than three days and nights. The interviews are interwoven with re-mastered NASA film footage, much of it never used before.

- from the director's website

The film was screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival. where it won the Audience Award in the category of World Cinema - Documentary.