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Showing posts from June, 2013

Looking for Permafrost on Hawaii and Mars

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Originally posted on 6/28/2013 Permafrost is frozen ground that forms where the subsurface mean annual temperature is colder than the freezing point of water. It should come as no surprise that permafrost underlies most of the Arctic and Antarctic regions on Earth. However, even close to the Equator, if you climb high enough in elevation, it will get cold enough for permafrost to form. The peaks of several mountains in tropical regions around the globe have permafrost, and one of them is in my backyard atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. I went there last week to help conduct a geophysical field survey to study Hawaii's frozen feature and gain some insights about low latitude permafrost on Mars . University of Hawaii meteorologist Dr. Alfred Woodcock first discovered permafrost on the north-facing slope of the Mauna Kea summit crater Pu'u Wekiu in 1969 (elevation 4,200 meters) and returned several times to study it throughout the early 1970's. He found that even though t

NASA Selects 2013 Astronaut Candidates

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NASA announced the 2013 Class of Astronaut Candidates (ASCAN's) today. I want to extend a hearty congratulations to them all and wish them well in the intensive training that lies ahead. Without further ado, I present NASA's newest ASCAN's: Josh A. Cassada, Ph. D. , 39, is originally from White Bear Lake, Minn. Cassada is a former naval aviator who holds an undergraduate degree from Albion College, and advanced degrees from the University of Rochester, N.Y. Cassada is a physicist by training and currently is serving as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Quantum Opus. Victor J. Glover , 37, Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy, hails from Pomona, Calif., and Prosper, Texas. He is an F/A-18 pilot and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. Glover holds degrees from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Air University and Naval Postgraduate School. He currently is serving as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress. Tyler

Launching Research at NSRC 2013

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The 2013 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) took place earlier this week in Broomfield, Colorado. This year's suborbital science meeting had some big shoes to fill after featuring a keynote by Neil Armstrong last year , but it did not disappoint. NASA's Deputy Administrator Lori Garver surprised everyone by stating the space agency may start funding researchers to fly with their spaceflight experiments, as this Space News article by Jeff Foust so eloquently summarized: "NASA officials said this week that, for the first time, they are open to funding flights of people, and not just experiments, on commercial human suborbital launch vehicles expected to enter service as early as next year." For over a year, my colleague in Astronauts4Hire has been navigating the tricky policy ground between NASA's desire to accelerate the commercial human spaceflight industry with its conservative need to minimize liability to achieve research resul