Reporting on a White House and NASA meeting last Wednesday, sources say that the President has decided to give NASA an additional $1 billion in 2011. The extra funding will serve to create a new, simpler heavy lift rocket, as well as to increase the fleet of satellites controlling Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere.

The objective is to have the heavy rocket ready for a 2018 launch, while Europe, Japan, and Canada would develop a lunar lander and moon base modules with their own billions. While this may make some NASA fans sad—after the US single-handely arrived to the Moon—I'm convinced that the collaboration with other countries is the only way to move forward in manned space exploration.

I mean, the Klingons will be here any minute, people! Let's get on with the program. And where the fuck is Kirk? [Science Magazine]

It works! I've never designed an app in my life, but that didn't stop me from creating a masterpiece in, like, four minutes.

As far as I can tell this is something like a full development SDK, insofar as the regular MojoSDK can be considered a full developement SDK. That is to say, while anyone with any development experience will have no problem creating apps with it—in fact, a layperson with a few spare afternoons could probably make something—they're still going to be of the same web-app-like caliber we've gotten used to in the App Catalog. Games, modal UIs, and a lot of the advanced features that make Android and iPhone apps shine are a little beyond Ares' reach, I think. Still, pretty cool stuff. [Palm]

In October NASA said they would need $3 billion more per year to go forward with meaningful human space exploration, i.e. not just sending more robots up. For a while there were rumors going around that Washington was going to severely scale back the program's budget, but now according to Washington insider John Logsdon, "there will be more money."

He's also saying that Obama doesn't want to be that president who cuts a future oriented program. So he'll keep it alive, but he'll only give them a budget somewhere between their current spending and the $3 billion per year increase NASA is looking for. But all that means is that NASA will have to buddy up with international space programs a little more.

Let's face it, we weren't going to get to Mars on our own anyway. As long as NASA is still alive, and there's still a remote chance of me seeing a mission to Mars in my lifetime, I'm a happy camper. [New Scientist, image via Matthew Simantov]

In a way, software written in Ares is the purest kind of web app: It's designed in a browser, written in web languages and rendered like a webpage. In another, it's not, because the tools packages these things like native apps. As weirdly hybrid as the results are, Palm reasoning is straightforward: They want to "help Web developers make the leap to becoming mobile developers." You know, by making web development into app development, even moreso that webOS and the Mojo SDK already do. Ok!

The tool will be available by the end of the year, Palm says, but it's not clear what effect it'll actually have. The hope is that it'll spur development for a platform that runs the risk of scaring would-be developers away with its limited user base. The fear is that by encouraging the development of nicely-wrapped web apps before they have a steady stream of regular apps, Palm is dooming the Pre and Pixi to wallow in a sea of $1 farts and spam. I'm taking bets, in the comments. [PC World]

OK, so it looks like a flying condom.

NASA says that the six minute flight was a success. In fact, they said the vehicle flew better than expected. Good work, my dearest space boffins. Watch the video here.

Images by the AP

The first stage of the Ares I rocket—a five-segment solid engine developed mainly by ATK Space Systems and NASA—was successfully tested today in Utah's desert, scorching the land during two minutes while 650 sensors evaluated its performance. According to Alex Priskos—first stage manager for the Ares Projects at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama—the test was a success:

With this test, we have taken lessons learned from many years of experience in solid rocket motor development and have built on that foundation. Our team collected data from 650 sensors today to evaluate the motor's performance. This test and those that follow are essential to understanding as many aspects of our motor as possible, including strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately delivering the safest and most reliable motor possible.

There is another test planned for summer 2010. Hopefully, as we don't know yet what will really happen to the Ares program. [NASA]

Wired's Bob Parks, toolman extraordinaire, describes the process far better than I ever could:

Stir welding plunges a rapidly rotating pin about the size of a pencil into the joint between two panels with more than 5,000 pounds of force per square inch; the friction makes the alloy pliable, and the rotation forces grains of metal to mingle behind the pin as it crawls up the joint. The resulting welds are strong, defect-free, and actually shave material (and weight) from the craft rather than leaving a bulky seam.

The process is necessary because the ultralight aluminum-lithium 2195 alloy becomes too brittle when melted by a traditional blowtorch. [Wired, photo by Brent Humphreys]

This test unit was loaded into a C-5 transport to the Kennedy Space Center, where it will be launched this summer to an altitude of 25 miles (40.2 kilometers) during a two-minute flight test of "Ares I first stage performance, and its first stage separation and parachute recovery system".

Image Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

These teams weren't sanctioned by NASA top brass, so in a way they are effectively going rogue, not unlike an Alaskan governor in a Saks Fifth Avenue. They were also not towing the company line about the future of the space program. In fact, they argued that NASA should scrap the upcoming Ares rocket program in lieu of a new program called Jupiter Direct, which relies heavily on proven current-gen space shuttle program technologies and rocket parts.

On paper at least, the Jupiter Direct program appears cheaper. Using a smaller and less cool-sounding rocket than the Ares 1, called the Jupiter 120, the program would require the modified external tank from the space shuttle, which would be shot into space by two RS-68 liquid-fuel engines. Liftoff would occur thanks to the two four-segment solid rocket boosters engineers would bring over directly from the existing shuttle program (which is obvious once you see that image).

And better yet, the Jupiter Direct program has longevity built right in. Because its engine configuration is theoretically more powerful than Ares, the 120 rocket would have the extra oompf necessary for a lunar flyby. A larger Jupiter 232 rocket would allow man (and woman) to land on the moon after a hookup with NASA's Orion lander capsule, which the program leaves unchanged.

Ultimately, the plan is about saving money and keeping space flight missions ongoing after the shuttle program is retired, not usurping NASA. The Obama transition team provided no comment on the rogue meeting, or on the Ares program, for that matter. [Popular Mechanics]

While the written piece prods and pokes at the budgetary and bureaucratic challenges (shocker!) NASA is jumping through to get their plan for Constellation (which includes the Apollo-like Orion capsule, a lunar lander and two rockets, the Ares I and larger Ares V) off the ground, the graphic is a great 90-second summary of what will probably be our main space vehicle system for many years to come. [NYTimes]

Estimate the feasibility of designing a resized Orion capsule that could be launched by international launch vehicles such as the [European] Ariane 5 or the [Japanese] H2A.

I don't know about the feasibility of that, I—even while I am not American—doubt about its convenience. After all, even if the economy is broken, wouldn't government investment in the aerospace industry help it come back and help the US as a whole, just like the Apollo program did, generating thousands of jobs and creating new technologies that put the US ahead of every other country in the planet?

Fortunately, it seems that some people think this is not really a setback, even while the questionare doesn't ask about the cancellation or scaling of any other programs currently under progress or in the drawing table. John Logsdon, a space expert at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, has hope:

After all, these are the questions that everyone is asking, and the transition team certainly must get NASA's best answers to them. I would not overinterpret and come to any conclusion regarding what direction the team may be headed — after all, there is still almost two months left in the transition.

Maybe he is right, maybe he is not. After all, during the campaign, Obama pledged to inject two billion dollars into NASA. However, he may not be interested in taking us to Mars but improving our understanding of Earth climate, beaming solar energy from space, and defend Earth against asteroids and comets. I hope his space advisors are aware about the fact that it only takes a bunch of guys from an oil perforation rig to do that. I mean, even Dick and Condi know that the oil industry are the only ones who can save us against global scale wars and doomsday meteors. [Space News via Slashdot]

November 9, 1967, T-minus 8.9 seconds: Thousands of gallons of kerosene and liquid oxygen begin coursing through the giant center F1 rocket engine: The Saturn V's ignition sequence has begun. Next, two outer engines are lit, followed 300 milliseconds later by the other two, ignited in pairs to avoid toppling the 364-foot rocket above. Nine seconds after all five engines go to full thrust, the first Saturn V rocket begins to lift from the launchpad, taking the unmanned Apollo 4 check-out module into space.

The launch was flawless. Forty-one years ago to the day, the Saturn V became the biggest, tallest, largest-payload rocket ever to be sent into space. Even more amazingly, it still is.

If you talk about the Moon landings, some people remember Armstrong and Aldrin landing on the moon, and may think of the photo of that famous footprint, or the planting of the flag. I choose to remember the rocket that enabled it all, the Saturn V, a pretty shocking mechanical masterpiece all by itself.

Nearly everything about it is monumental in scale and historic in importance:

• At 364 feet high, it was roughly as tall as a 36-story building.

• Its launch weight of 6.7 million pounds was equal to about 2,200 average late '60s cars.

• Its orbital payload of 260,000 pounds is the equivalent of about 1,500 average people.

It was designed under the supervision of the rocket man, Wernher von Braun, and was chosen in 1963 from a list of potential systems proposed to make good President Kennedy's promise that a man would visit the moon within a decade.

The rocket was so very large that it required NASA to build the Vertical Assembly Building, one of the world's largest buildings. It had to be constructed in three stages, could hold four Saturn Vs at the same time, and was reportedly so large that it had its own weather systems. It's still used to put Space Shuttle stacks together, and will house the upcoming Ares series rockets too. It's also home to the four largest doors in the world.

The Saturn V's first-stage rockets—five F1s made by Rocketdyne—are the most powerful single-nozzle liquid fueled rocket engines ever to see service. The engine bell for each was over 12 feet across. Each engine developed 1.5 million pounds of thrust, drinking over 670 gallons of fuel mixture per second: That's enough to empty your typical 30,000-gallon swimming pool in around 45 seconds. The F1 even makes the more modern Shuttle seem wimpy, since each F1 had more thrust than all three Shuttle main engines combined.

Its second-stage rockets—five J2s, also by Rocketdyne—were the largest liquid-hydrogen rocket engines in their day, and remained so until the Space Shuttle's main engines were built. The J2s were also the first rocket engines that were able to restart in mid-flight.

In comparison, America's first manned rocket, the Redstone, was about the same length as the final stage of the Saturn V. Redstone was actually less powerful than the emergency escape rockets on the manned capsule atop the Saturn V. (I suppose it's important to note, too, that those escape rockets never had to be used.) And Redstone's maiden liftoff was only 14 years before the Saturn V's, which shows the tremendous speed of NASA's rocket program in the '50s and '60s.

Here's a great comparison chart of the world's biggest and best rockets:

Even the Space Shuttle, deemed by some the most complex machine humans have yet built, doesn't compare to the Saturn V. And if you're wondering what the unlabeled black rocket in the middle is, it's Saturn V's competitor, the Soviet N1 moon-shot rocket. This had four attempted launches, none successful. Part of this was due to lack of management and funding, but part had to do with its incredibly complex first-stage design, which required the synchronized firing of 30 separate rocket engines.

Perhaps most amazing of all facts about the Saturn V is that each of its 12 main Saturn V launches was successful. Two of them suffered in-flight problems including engine cutoffs, but the on-board computers were able to compensate, resulting in a successful mission. The rocket was even considered at one point to act as a prototype for the first stage of the Space shuttle, thereby requiring no solid-rocket boosters. If that had happened, the 1986 disaster that befell Challenger would never have happened.

There were also plans for several post-Saturn V projects on the drawing boards. The best was a super-massive variant with eight engines in each of the first two stages, capable of launching all the International Space-Station hardware to orbit in one shot. Sadly, for political and financial reasons, all variants were canceled.

Today, there are other contenders as NASA suits up for the next moon shot. Though not as tall as its predecessor, the massive Ares V rocket, child of NASA's somewhat troubled Constellation program, is technically able to put 414,000 pounds of payload into low Earth orbit.

But until the Ares V flies, the Saturn V remains king of rockets. Call me overly nostalgic (or pessimistic, seeing as Ares is well underway), but I'm inclined to think the Saturn V may well keep that title forever.

During the development and early testing of the smaller Ares I rocket, there've been fears that uneven fuel burning in the motor could lead to high-g shaking when in flight. If the shaking builds to a high enough intensity, it could be deadly to both the crew and vehicle.

So Ares Is will have an adaptive damping system built into the rocket base: essentially spring-mounted weights, with smart springs that can be adjusted so the system compensates for severe vibrations—a little like some anti-earthquake systems employed in modern buildings.

Apparently the design team has enough margin in the power-weight ratio of the rocket's current configuration to accommodate the extra safety equipment. "I'm comfortable that they'll be able to absorb the mass impact that these things imply, with no problem," said the Constellation program manager. Though whether or not this adds more delays to the development of the rockets remains to be seen. [New Scientist]

The Jupiter design would require two separate launches to get to the moon (one with payload, one with astronauts), but both rockets would utilize the old shuttle fuel tank at the core. Its backers claim that it could save NASA $19 billion in development costs and another $16 billion in operating costs over two decades. However, NASA formally reviewed the plans last fall and determined that the design was not feasible—a claim that some are disputing. At least one engineer and former NASA contractor has come forward saying that he believes NASA is suppressing information that Jupiter would perform better than Ares. As a result, he is calling for an independent review—something that he is not likely to get when you consider how far along NASA is with the Ares project. [Space via DVICE]

Rather than building a huge, expensive, and very complicated rocket carrying a smaller space ship—like the powerful Saturn did in the Apollo missions—the Constellation program will use two rockets to send a larger spacecraft. The first rocket will carry the lunar lander along with a propulsion stage into Earth orbit. The second one, the Ares I launch vehicle, will carry the Orion spaceship with the astronauts on board, which will be rendezvous with the lunar lander in orbit and dock. Once docked, the propulsion stage will push the combined craft to the moon and some lucky, smart, and courageous astronaut would be able to say: "It may not be the first step, and it certainly won't be the last one." Or "Oh boy, whooooopeeeee-doooo!"

Both work for me. [Constellation Program]

Roaring inside (quietly thanks to liquid cooling) this beastly is a Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, three-way NVIDIA SLI, and up to four terabytes of storage, powered by dual power supplies. If you take the frame rate you would get ripping through the original Doom on this thing and multiply it by 20, you should get a number roughly approximating the price. Alienware and Voodoo can consider the gauntlet thrown down and blasted apart into little itty bitty pieces, methinks. [Engadget via Gadget Lab]