A little known movement has been afoot for many years to find a way to protect the Apollo lunar landing sites and the flags, footprints and everything else left behind by the astronauts from intentional or unintentional destruction. As lunar exploration becomes popular once again – if not by the United States government (we will find out for sure on Monday), then by China, India and other countries and even commercial interests – protecting these sites is becoming a more urgent matter. The State of California took a small step yesterday towards protecting Apollo 11 artifacts.

Since no one owns the Moon – in accordance with Article II of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty – identifying a binding method to protect the sites themselves has been a challenge. “Objects” are somewhat easier to protect because Article VIII of the Treaty says that “Ownership of objects launched into outer space, including objects landed or constructed on a celestial body, and of their component parts, is not affected by their presence in outer space or on a celestial body or by their return to the Earth. Such objects or component parts found beyond the limits of the State Party to the Treaty on whose registry they are carried shall be returned to that State Party, which shall, upon request, furnish identifying data prior to their return.”

The California State Historical Resources Commission took a step in the direction of preserving Apollo 11 artifacts on the Moon yesterday, voting unanimously to add what the New York Times derisively called “Moon junk” to its list of protected resources.

Preserving the Apollo landing sites, however, is more difficult. What entity is empowered to designate a location on the Moon as an historical site to be preserved? The late Tom Rogers, well known in space policy circles for, among other things, his early and sustained enthusiasm for space tourism, published an article in Space Policy in February 2004 calling on the United Nations to designate the Apollo 11 landing site as a “U.N. World Heritage Site.” The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is responsible for such designations.

According to MSNBC, California’s move yesterday was part of a five-state effort to achieve that very goal. The other states, all key players in the Apollo program, are Alabama, Florida, New Mexico and Texas, according to the report. The Lunar Legacy Project at New Mexico State University is trying to preserve Apollo 11 archeological information and get the World Heritage designation for its lunar landing site.

One question sure to be raised is how far this historical preservation on the Moon should go. Perhaps all of the Apollo landing sites, but what about the robotic Lunokhod rovers that the Soviet Union landed there? They also are historic. Or the many other spacecraft that made soft landings. What about debris fields from those that impacted the surface? The debate is likely to intensify when and if trips to the Moon are close at hand.

UPDATE: This article is updated to reflect NASA’s changes in its budget roll-out. The 3:00 press briefing on Monday has been canceled; a 12:30 teleconference with the media has been substituted. The briefing at the Press Club on Tuesday at 10:00 will include Presidential Science Adviser Holdren.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. For more details, see our calendar on the right menu or click on the links below. All meetings are in Washington, D.C. unless otherwise noted and all times are EST. Note that times, dates and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change; check with the relevant committee for more information.

Monday, February 1

THIS IS IT!!!! BUDGET DAY

The FY2011 President’s Budget Request to Congress will be officially released at 10:00 am. It should be available on the Office of Management and Budget’s website about that time.

• 12:30 pm: NASA Administrator Bolden will hold a teleconference with the media. NASA plans to post its budget request on its website (probably here).
• 1:00 pm: White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) press briefing on the budget request for federal research and development (R&D), auditorium of the AAAS building, 1200 New York Ave., NW. NASA Deputy Administrator Garver will participate.
• 1:00 pm: DOD press briefing on its FY2011 budget request at the Pentagon, Briefing Room 2E579
• 3:00 pm: NSF press briefing on its FY2011 budget request, NSF headquarters in Arlington, VA

Tuesday, February 2

• 10:00 am: Press conference at the National Press Club, Washington, DC. with Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden to “introduce new commercial space pioneers, launching a game-changing way of developing technology to send humans to space.”

Wednesday, February 3

• 10:00 am: House Science and Technology Committee Hearing on “Key Issues and Challenges Facing NASA: Views of the Agency’s Watchdogs,” 2318 Rayburn
• 10:00 am: House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing on STEM Education (Part 1), H 309 Capitol
• 10:00 am: House Armed Services Committee Hearing on the FY2011 Budget Request for National Defense, 2118 Rayburn
• 11:00 am: Telecon meeting of the planetary science subcommittee of the Science Committee of the NASA Advisory Council to discuss the FY2011 budget request and get an update on the Mars Science Laboratory. (For call-in info, see our calendar)

Thursday, February 4

• 10:00 am: House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing on STEM Education (Part 2), H 309 Capitol
• 10:00 am: House Armed Services Committee Hearing on DOD’s Quadrennial Defense Review, 2118 Rayburn
• 10:00 am: House Science and Technology subcommittee hearing on STEM Education, 2318 Rayburn

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden visited Israel this week and spoke at the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, named in honor of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon who perished in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia tragedy. Israel’s Arutz Sheva news service posted a video of remarks Gen. Bolden apparently made in response to a question about whether there will be another opportunity for an Israeli to fly into space. In those remarks he talks about upcoming “dramatic changes” to the U.S. human spaceflight program.

First will be termination of the space shuttle program. Gen. Bolden said that NASA would be looking to commercial entities and foreign entities “to come up with other vehicles we can use.” NASA will be working with Israel and other partners to “determine how we get people into space in the future, who are the appropriate people to fly into space in the future” because he is convinced that questions will arise as to why NASA needs astronauts at all.

While he did not provide specifics of what will be in the FY2011 budget request, he said that any human return to the Moon would have to be an international undertaking, and human exploration of Mars will not take place until it can be accomplished safely. As for trips to the International Space Station, “we have got to find another way to get humans there” and NASA will focus on “facilitating the success of … entrepreneurial interests.” Bottom line: “We’re going to have to adapt to change.”

Gen. Bolden also revealed that President Obama was briefed on the recent impact of an asteroid with Jupiter, the after effects of which were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The impact highlighted the threat to Earth by asteroids and comets, or Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Consequently NASA will devote more attention to NEOs than in the past, he said, though he could not quantify how much more.

Meanwhile, the Orlando Sentinel published another article today speculating about what will be in the FY2011 NASA budget. This one was based on a teleconference between Washington officials and a “few select Florida reporters” that the Sentinel said was set up in response to an earlier story it ran.

On this day in 1986, seven brave astronauts — five NASA astronauts, a payload specialist from the private sector, and a school teacher — lost their lives in the space shuttle Challenger tragedy (STS 51-L).

• NASA Commander Dick Scobee
• NASA Pilot Mike Smith
• NASA Mission Specialist Judy Resnik
• NASA Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka
• NASA Mission Specialist Ron McNair
• Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis (from Hughes Aircraft)
• “Teacher in Space” Christa McAuliffe

Fate ordained that the three tragedies that have taken the lives of astronauts in mission-related accidents occurred within a few days of each other on the early winter calendar: Apollo 204 on January 27, 1967; the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986; and the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. NASA has a “Day of Remembrance” for all three jointly on January 29, but it seems fitting to mention each of them individually here.

Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff when a rubber “O-ring” in one of its Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) failed because of unusually cold temperatures. A Presidential Commission chaired by former Secretary of State William Rogers found that the O-ring failure was the technical cause of the tragedy, but flawed decision-making was a contributing cause:

“The decision to launch the Challenger was flawed. Those who made that decision were unaware of the recent history of problems concerning the O-rings and the joint and were unaware of the initial written recommendation of the contractor advising against the launch at temperatures below 53 degrees Fahrenheit and the continuing opposition of the engineers at Thiokol after the management reversed its position. They did not have a clear understanding of Rockwell’s concern that it was not safe to launch because of ice on the pad. If the decisionmakers had known all of the facts, it is highly unlikely that they would have decided to launch 51-L on January 28, 1986.”

The tragedy resulted in far reaching changes not only to the shuttle program, but to U.S. space launch policy (see “From Shuttle Only to Mixed Fleet” in this CRS report for a brief synopsis of the policy changes).

The families of the Challenger astronauts created the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, which has 47 Challenger Learning Centers in the United States and other countries.

STS 51-L was the 25th space shuttle launch. Beginning with the 10th shuttle launch, NASA had instituted a numbering system in which the first number designated the fiscal year in which the mission was supposed to launch (in this case FY1985), the second number designated whether the launch was from the east coast (“1”) or west coast (“2”), and a letter sequentially in the alphabet. Since launch schedules often changed so the first number sometimes did not match the fiscal year in which the launch actually occured and the letter might not be sequential, and plans to build a west coast launch site for the shuttle were abandoned after this accident, NASA returned to a simple numbering system when flights resumed after Challenger.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education will be the subject of three House hearings next week: a two-parter by a House Appropriations subcommittee and one by a House Science and Technology subcommittee.

• The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce-Justice-Science will hold a two-part hearing on February 3 and 4.
  • Part 1: February 3, 10:00 am, H-309 Capitol. Witnesses are Dr. Oliver Hill, Virginia State University and Dr. Eleanor Miele, Brooklyn College
  • Part 2: February 4, 10:00 am, H-309 Capitol. Witnesses are Dr. Julie Luft, Arizona State University and Dr. Craig Strang, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California-Berkeley
• The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education will hold a hearing on “Strengthening Undergraduate and Graduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education” on February 4 at 10:30 am in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses are:
  • Joan Ferrini-Mundy, NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources
  • Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Karen Klomparens, Michigan State University
  • Robert Mathieu, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Rick Stephens, The Boeing Company and chair of the Aerospace Industries Association Workforce Steering Committee

Times, dates and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change. Check with the relevant committee for up to date information.

Not that we aren’t just as curious as everyone else, but SpacePolicyOnline.com is exhausted by all the media stories speculating on NASA’s FY2011 budget. We will actually know what is in NASA’s budget on Monday. That is soon enough. We will be delighted to report any publicly-releasable news that comes out between now and Monday, but will leave the rumors to others.

The KEY POINT is that whatever comes out on Monday is just the opening shot. NASA’s budget and its future have a long way to go after the President sends his budget request to Congress. As we have noted before, it is only a request. Congress must decide what to do with it. Readers who have strong points of view about what NASA’s future should be — whatever that viewpoint is — are well advised to write to their elected representatives to let them know. Congress is where the action will be after Monday.

Members of Congress really do listen to the people who elected them and, for those running for reelection this fall, hopefully will do so again. If you don’t know who your Congressperson and Senators are, well, shame on you, but you can find out by going to the websites of the House and Senate where you need only type in your zip code (for the House) or state (for the Senate) to find out. Don’t bother writing to anyone else’s Congressperson or Senator, just your three (two Senators, one Congressperson).

In a media teleconference held today, NASA announced that after several failed attempts to extricate the Mars rover Spirit from its Martian “sand trap,” the rover will become a stationary platform for further science exploration. The Mars rover team is now preparing to reposition Spirit to give it the best chance to survive the upcoming Martian winter.

“This is not a day to mourn Spirit. This is not a day of loss” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters. Despite the fact that “its driving days are over,” the six-year-old rover will continue to make contributions to understanding Mars. As a reminder, he said that the rover program consists of two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and the latter is still mobile and positioned to make further discoveries in its trek between the Victoria and Endeavor craters.

John Callas, project manager of the Mars Exploration Rovers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explained that the loss of functionality in Spirit’s right rear wheel represented “yet another setback” and efforts now are focused on repositioning the tilted rover towards the north in order to survive the fast-approaching Martian winter. The rover is powered by solar arrays and the Sun is in the northern sky on Mars during the winter. In the past, rover managers have adjusted to decreasing solar energy levels by pointing the rovers so their solar arrays face the Sun, but Spirit’s current position – tilted 9 south – means that decreasing solar energy levels may prompt the rover to assume a “low-power fault mode,” essentially putting it into hibernation. Callas explained that until the batteries are charged, the rover may wake up periodically, but will fall back into this inactive posture “like a polar bear hibernating.”

NASA also is concerned that the rover’s internal parts may not stay warm enough to survive harsh winter temperatures. When new, a Mars rover is designed to withstand temperatures of about -45 C. Unfortunately, Spirit finds itself in a situation where “there is no good guarantee that the rover will be able to survive.” To increase its chances, Ashley Stroupe, a rover driver at JPL, said that the focus is on maneuvering the rover to improve energy levels, increase its internal temperature, and thus reduce the time it will be in hibernation.

Meanwhile, Spirit can continue to study Mars from a stationary position as long as it has sufficient power. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, who is considered the “father” of the rovers, said that the current situation relaxes the “imperative to drive and allows us to do some science that we can’t do from a moving platform.” The three scientific initiatives he discussed are:

• Determining the internal structure of Mars’ core (either solid or liquid) by tracking the radio signal from Spirit and studying the way the planet “wobbles” on its axis;
• Characterizing the interaction between the Martian atmosphere and surface by having the rover stir up soil and watch how the surface around it changes; and
• Characterizing the swell in the vicinity of the rover and the “strange soil” that surrounds it that is particularly high in sulfates.

The possibility of this “groundbreaking” science convinces Dr. Squyres that “we got stuck here for a reason.” Welcoming the new phase of the rover’s mission, he said that “we’ve squeezed every last bit of science out of these rovers,” a strategy they hope to continue. To date, the missions have generated 91 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 407 abstracts at professional conferences.

With an average yearly cost of $20 million, the question remains whether an upcoming NASA “Senior Review” in February will recommend continued operations for the now stationary rover. Senior Reviews assess whether operating missions are producing sufficient scientific results to warrant their continuing costs. Considering their popularity, it seems unlikely that the agency would decide to terminate either Spirit or Opportunity if there is any chance of scientific return. In the meantime, the Mars rover team will try to take advantage of the next three weeks to ready Spirit for the winter, which begins between March and April. If Spirit survives the winter, it will resume its scientific studies in the Martian spring between August and September.

On this day in 1967, three brave astronauts lost their lives in the Apollo 204 tragedy. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chafee were killed when a fire erupted in their Apollo capsule during a pre-launch test of what was to have been the first Apollo launch. Hence this is sometimes referred to as Apollo 1, but it had the designation Apollo-Saturn 204 (AS-204) and traditionally is called Apollo 204.

Fate ordained that the three tragedies that have taken the lives of astronauts in mission-related accidents occurred within a few days of each other on the early winter calendar: Apollo 204 on January 27, 1967; the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986; and the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. NASA has a “Day of Remembrance” for all three jointly on January 29, but it seems fitting to mention each of them individually here.

Many in the space community wistfully remember the Apollo era for its “can do” spirit and its successful accomplishment of a seemingly impossible task — landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth within just 8 years of President John F. Kennedy announcing that goal. The memory of the sacrifices made to achieve that goal — especially of these lives lost — seems to have faded for many. It should not.

The cause of the fire was never conclusively determined, but is thought to have been electrical arcing that ignited combustible materials in the capsule. The test was conducted in an atmosphere of 100% oxygen at 16.7 pounds per square inch (psi) pressure, an environment perfect to feed a fire. The hatch was designed to open inward and could not be opered with the pressure inside higher than that outside. The crew could not escape and died from asphyxiation by toxic gases and from burns. Subsequently, the hatch was redesigned to open outwards and ground tests were no longer conducted in 100% oxygen, along with many other changes.

While his colleague Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) is aiming to keep the Constellation program on track, Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL) is continuing his fight to keep the space shuttle operating beyond its current planned retirement this year. He wants to close the multiyear “gap” between the end of the shuttle and the availability of Constellation by filling it with occasional shuttle flights.

Posey’s press release today reminded readers that during the Presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama promised Floridians that he would close that gap. If media reports are even “half accurate” about the President’s plans for human space flight, said Posey, Obama’s plan would be a “devastating reversal of that commitment” that is “bizarre and misguided.” He added:

“My biggest fear is that this amounts to a slow death of our nation’s human space flight program; a retreat from America’s decades of leadership in space, ending the economic advantages that our space program has brought to the U.S., and ceding space to the Russians, Chinese and others. I will do all that I can to stop this ill-advised plan.”

Rep. Posey’s congressional district includes NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The area stands to lose thousands of jobs when the shuttle is terminated. He introduced legislation last year (H.R. 1962) to authorize shuttle flights through 2015 and wrote a letter to the President last week advocating an extension of the program.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) warned against extending the shuttle program unless the shuttle goes through a recertification process as recommended by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board after the Columbia tragedy in 2003. ASAP chair Joe Dyer is scheduled to testify to the House Science and Technology Committee next week.

Release of President Obama’s FY2011 budget request is just days away and speculation over what it will hold for NASA is heating up. Whether NASA will get no increase or a small increase (less than the $1 billion earlier rumored) and what it will say about the future of the human spaceflight program remain topics of conjecture. The budget is scheduled to be sent to Congress on Monday (February 1).

The New York Times quotes an unnamed source as saying that a technical review is being planned to put “meat on the bones” of the options identified by the Augustine committee last year. It also quotes White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro as saying that “The President is committed to a robust 21st-century space program” and the budget request “will reflect that dedication to NASA.”

Whatever is in the request on Monday, it is only a request. Congress holds the purse strings and the fate of NASA and the human spaceflight program will not be known until it completes action on NASA’s FY2011 appropriations bill.