Sorry Rich, but the promise of the liquid ocean of Europa beats out the promise of exotic methane based life forms on Titan.

Search for Life Heads to the Outer Solar System

"Does life require liquid water as the liquid medium, or are other liquids possible hosts for, if not life as we know it, some kind of organized chemistry?" asks Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and a member of the team pushing for a Titan mission. "You'd be testing the limits of what the word 'life' really means in the cosmos."

In any case, cool beans.

I apologize for the missing reports over the holidays, but not much has been happening anyway

Luna

The US DoD has proposed the idea of using Atlas and Delta rockets as a platform for launching manned missions to the moon.  Both rockets have been in service for decades and have a proven flight record, but neither is "man rated".  They have never been used to launch astronauts that is.  however, the safety record has been proven by hundreds of successful launches, and they are probably as safe as or safer than the space shuttle.  the big advantage would be cost.  With such a long program history, NASA could save as much as $3.4 billion over the proposed Ares program.

Also, a NASA instrument on Chandrayaan-1 has detected the signature of iron bearing minerals on the moon.  This is mildly exciting.  lunar materials containing aluminum and titanium are already known, this discovery may add iron as a potential material available from resources on the moon.

Mars

Lets give it up for the little rovers that could as they celebrate their 5th anniversary on Mars.  As I'm sure everyone remembers like it was just yesterday, Spirit landed on 1/3/04, and Opportunity landed 1/24/04.  Those little robots have surely exceeded all expectations of success by a wider margin than any other program in NASA history.  Of course there is Voyager, still going, but voyager was DESIGNED to last decades, not mere months.  The MER program is a shining example of success that should be used as a model for future NASA programs.

Jupiter

University of Arizona Professor Richard Greenberg has published a new book on his thin ice theory for Europa, and the implications this has for the possibility of life there.  The more conventional theory is that, if Europa has an ocean at all, it is covered by a thick mantle of ice, tens of kilometers thick.  Greenberg's thin ice theory, which is supported by his analysis of surface features on the moon, is the ice is no more than a few kilometers thick.  This would allow more flexing and cracks which reach the surface, allowing material to be exchange more easily between the surface and the deep ocean.  The theory also supports periodic melt troughs, where the liquid ocean would be exposed directly to the surface.

Saturn

According to Dr. Rosaly Lopes, new data collected from Titan supports the theory that the moon may have active cryovolcanoes.

Human Space Flight

MIT has released a comprehensive independent review of NASA's future plans for manned space exploration.  MIT's review actually calls for a much more aggressive program of exploration, with more international cooperation, clearer stated goals, and less pressure on NASA to do more with less. 

Deep Space Report 1.12

Luna

China's Chang'e-1 space probe has adjusted its orbit to just 200 km above the surface of the moon.

Mars

After last week's discussion of the possibility of long term climate cycles, and maybe even life on Mars, this week researchers at Cal Tech published a new study indicating that Mars' axial tilt could produce climate cycles on the order of 100,000 years in length, that's just under 50,000 mars years, by the way.  Glad to see great minds think alike.

Asteroids

Bulgarian astronomers have discovered a new asteroid this week, 2008 WN96.  The asteroid is estimated to be 2 km diameter, which is pretty large for an asteroid discovered so recently, with an orbital period of 3.2 years.

Jupiter

In a new report, University of Washington oceanographer Robert Tyler has calculated the heat required to maintain a liquid ocean on Europa could come from waves generated from the ocean itself.  An axial tilt of less than one degree would be sufficient to produce enough heat to keep the ocean liquid.

Deep Space

CO2 has been discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, HD 189733b, 63 light years away.

 Deep Space Report 1.11

Mars

Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Russian Space Agency have announced plans to develop a joint mission to Mars.  The mission plans to land a spacecraft on Phobos and sample the surface material directly.  This may confirm the presence of water ice on Phobos.

Jupiter

A sophisticated computer simulation has predicted that Jupiter may have solid core of water ice and other rocky materials.  NASA and ESA have also announced plans to work on a joint mission to Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede, the Europa-Jupiter System Mission (EJSM).

Saturn

Measurements of Encleadus' mysterious plumes have shown the material is moving at 1360 mph.  It is difficult to imagine how to achieve this velocity without liquid water near the surface of the tiny moon.

Alberta Meteorite Update

The spectacular fireball seen last week over Alberta, Canada has now been estimated to have been an approximately 10 ton asteroid which entered the atmosphere at approximately 14 km/s.  This is relatively slow, compared to an average velocity of around 20 km/s.  Several security cameras recorded the event.  Dr. Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario hopes to find as many video recordings as possible, as this will help to determine the original orbit of the asteroid.  Although no fragments of the actual meteorite have yet been recovered, it is likely that some will be found.  Only 9 other meteorites have been associated with a known orbit prior to impact.  With any luck this will be the tenth.

Noting that meteorites have substantial commercial value, under Canadian law, meteorites are the property of the landowner of the property on which they are found.