The Year In Space - Sample Newsletter

Dear Year In Space readers, Occasionally I'd like to use this space to talk a bit about events and anniversaries that I couldn't elaborate on in the desk calendar because of space constraints. For example, this week's photo-essay focuses on the birth anniversary of Asaph Hall (featured below and in the desk calendar), but this week also marks the fifty-second anniversary of the Dyna-Soar project. For space buffs like me, Dyna-Soar is near the top of the list of very cool "what-might-have-been" projects, right alongside the canceled Apollo missions, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, and Lunar Gemini. These types of programs have a special place in history, somewhere between science fact and fiction. Thoroughly based on sound engineering principles and utilizing existing technology, they fell victim to more mundane concerns like budget cuts and political support (or lack thereof). These potentially alternate histories remind us that the space exploration path we are currently traveling is only one of many that might have been. I hope you enjoy The Year In Space. Please forward it to anyone you think might be interested. And be sure to e-mail me with your comments and suggestions for improving this newsletter. Until next week... Steve Cariddi Publisher, The Year In Space
	The Week in Space October 12-18, 2009 A Very Select Club The only person to have discovered all the moons of one planet was Asaph Hall, an American astronomer born 180 years ago this week. During the Mars opposition of 1877, when Mars came unusually close to Earth, Hall undertook a search for a Martian moon. Frustrated and on the verge of giving up, Hall was urged on by his wife, Angeline. The following evening he discovered Deimos, and six nights later, Phobos. Deimos and Phobos (Greek for “terror” and “fear”) are still the only known moons of Mars. When Phobos was finally imaged up close in 1971, its largest feature, a six-mile-wide crater, was named Stickney, Angeline’s maiden name. In this Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2008 image of Phobos, Stickney is the huge crater on the right, covering nearly half the surface of the Phobos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona Weekly Calendar October 12-18, 2009 Holidays - Sky Events - Space History Monday 12 Thanksgiving Day (Canada) Columbus Day 1964: Voskhod 1 launched, first three-person space flight 1977: Shuttle Enterprise’s first glide test without aerodynamic tailcone 2008: ISS Expedition 18 crew launched Tuesday 13 Moon at perigee Jupiter appears stationary Venus 0.6° south of Saturn 1773: Charles Messier observes M-51 1933: British Interplanetary Society founded 1968: Apollo 7 first live TV broadcast from space 2004: ISS Expedition 10 crew launched Wednesday 14 1947: World’s first supersonic flight 1957: USAF announces X-20 Dyna-Soar project 1983: Venera 16 arrives in orbit around Venus Thursday 15 1829: Asaph Hall born 1997: Cassini-Huygens launched 2003: Shenzhou 5 launched, Yang Liwei becomes first Chinese astronaut Friday 16 Saturn 7° north of Moon Venus 7° north of Moon Saturday 17 Sunday 18 New Moon 1:33 am 1967: Venera 4 makes first direct studies of Venus’s atmosphere 1989: STS-34 Atlantis launched 1993: STS-58 Columbia launched 2003: ISS Expedition 8 crew launched