MichSpace

As many of you may know, the Falcon 9 launch date is closely approaching. Right now, it seems SpaceX has settled on an April 12 launch date, but this may or may not change to a later date. I bring this up to put the event into some perspective, especially in regards to Obama’s recent “change” to the space program. On a side note: maybe random acts of “change” aren’t so great after all? Did you ever think about that, Obama? Healthcare… Alright, I’ll stop there.

Back to space. What this new direction does entail is pushing space more and more into the private sector. In the short term, this could potentially mean layoffs within NASA and more budget issues, but looking ahead it gets better.

Some people are comparing this to how the computer industry shifted from being government managed to being privately managed. This, of course, spawned all sorts of goodness including the Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. Similarly, with regards to the future of space, we’ll see reduced costs, improvements in design, and most importantly, more interest in space! With the Falcon 9 launch around the corner, we are that much closer to seeing the reality of these benefits. Plus, you’ll be that much closer to going to space. Which is what really matters.

Be sure to check out the launch.

Source: TheDailyGalaxy

So, I bet you thought there wasn't much in the way of arts & culture, as it relates to space.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you - Modern Space Dance

So, what did you do for your spring break? Go to Florida? Cancun? How about going to Washington DC, to lobby Congressman for Space?




















Yes, my name is Aaron Oesterle & I am a Space Geek

So, this year, for my spring break, I attended the ProSpace March Storm lobbying event. It consisted of us going to different Congressional offices, talking about the March Storm agenda. This year's agenda included:
ITAR reform

Hello,

I'd like to announce that the University of Michigan's RASC-AL team, Nergal, has been accepted into the RASC-AL competition. Team Nergal is investigating a manned mission to Mars. More information about the competition can be found here.

Nergal

Enrico Landi
Astrophysicist, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
Thursday, March 18, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm, 2246 Space Research Building

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are among the most dramatic and violent dynamic events occurring in the solar atmosphere, and have significant impact on the near-Earth environment, human activities and commercial and military communications. So far, the physical processes responsible for their release and acceleration have not been completely understood, in part because of the lack of direct measurements of the CME plasma physical parameters and evolution during the CME onset. In my talk I will describe the analysis of multiwavelength observations from Hinode, SOHO and STEREO of the very early phases of a CME observed during the Whole Heliospheric Interval campaign. I first use SECCHI/EUVI, SECCHI/COR1, SOHO/EIT and SOHO/LASCO images to reconstruct the 3D trajectory of the CME, and to measure its velocity and acceleration up to 20 solar radii. I then use Hinode/EIS and Hinode/XRT high resolution EUV spectra and X-ray images to measure the physical properties and the thermal structure of the core of the CME ejecta as a function of time at 1.1 solar radii. The physical properties of the active region location where the CME erupted are also monitored with time before, during and after the event.