of NYC --- MAY 2012

"People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth." - National Space Society **** Humans now in Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station: JOE ACARA [NASA], OLEG KONONENKO [RUSSIA], ANDRE KUIPERS [ESA], GENNADY PADAUKA [RUSSIA], DON PETTIT [NASA] & SERGEI REVIN [RUSSIA] **** "People of the world, let's safeguard and enhance its beauty, not destroy it." - Yuri Gagarin, 1961 **** "Wow, that view is tremendous!" - John Glenn, 1962 *** "To boldly go where no one has gone before!" - Capt. Picard **** "Space is the Place." - Sun-Ra

A NEWS & EVENTS WEBSITE FOR COSMO-POLITAN NYC SPACEFARERS

Metropolitan New York City is the Big Space Apple, thriving with events, places, groups, activists, art, writers, work and new concepts about space! This independent news website by a journalist and space exploration activist who works for a major daily city newspaper provides a selection of those activities for public participation and information. In realizing the need to sustain the welfare of home planet Spaceship Earth, facing severe environmental challenges, as essential and absolutely vital to the creative and peaceful exploration of space, "ASTRO-GAIA NEWS of NYC" also provides a "HOMEPLANET REPORT of NYC" website on page two of this site relating to Metro-NYC environmental events, activities and news. SUSTAIN SPACESHIP EARTH --- AD ASTRA!

TAKE A TRIP TO MARS.... IN NYC AT "SPACE PROGRAM: MARS!"

Mars, here we Earthlings come! The Park Avenue Armory at East 66th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side will be the spacey venue (it's very big) at 55,000-square-feet for a simulated trip to red planet Mars, "Space Program: Mars" conceived and organized by Soho performance artist Tom Sachs with the armory and the public arts Creative Time organization, from May 18 to June 15.

The "moumental space nerd amusement park," as described by journalist Randy Kennedy in "The New York Times" on Sunday, May 13 in an Arts & Leisure front page feature article "From Earth To Mars, At the Armory," provided by the famed armory, is the setting for the Mars mission and earthly adventurers. as Sachs described the installation plans in his You-Tube video posted below.

Fascinated and inspired by NASA's adventurous crewed Apollo lunar missions of 1968-72, Sachs, 45, regards those nine thrilling historic Moon journeys as "performance art pieces," according to Kennedy's story. Those astounding feats of human ingenuity and determination, now 40 years in the past, gave rise to his first "Space Program: Moon" installation in 2007 at a gallery in L.A.

[Mars photo courtesy of NASA.]

"BEYOND PLANET EARTH: THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION" DAZZLES & INSPIRES AT AMNH

...... Spacefarers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains to Earth's gravity! -- In 2011 and 2012 the vision of human space travel and settlement looms large and lively in NYC, "the Big Space Apple" with two major exhibitions keeping the dream of humanity's space destiny alive with the opening "Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration" featured exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History from November 19, 2011, to August 12, 2012. On May 18 for a month, it will be supplemented by a separate venture, the "Space Program 2.0: Mars" art-science installation and performance art of a fictional planetary mission by NY artist Tom Sachs at the Park Avenue Armory.

With "Beyond Planet Earth" the AMNH invites visitors to "step into the future in this new exhibition that boldly predict's humanity's next steps in space." The practical forward and outward vision the exhibition depicts informs, dazzles and inspires visitors! For more information visit www.amnh.org/beyond or call 1-212-769-5100. The exhibition was announced in The New York Times Weekend Arts on Friday, October 14.

It features an original Vostok space capsule from the Soviet Union's first cosmonaut spaceflights of the early 1960s (it's like a big thick metal ball), a full-sized Sputnik I Earth satellite duplicate, a Mars terraforming demonstration (it would involve a 1,000-year project for the job), the deflection of NEO asteroids and future astronaut visits to them, Mars robo-rovers, a section on possible Europa acquatic life, old books and magazines about space travel, a lunar colony representation, a scale-sized inflatable space habitat, solar system exploration video, and a cosmic shop, among other exciting setups.

[Illustration from NASA.]

NSS's 2012 International Space Development Conference at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC on Memorial Day weekend May 24-28 is one of the nation's largest and most exciting such event. NSS-NY was host chapter of the 1996 ISDC at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan.

The much anticipated conference includes a full and wide array of presentations and speakers covering all aspecs of spaceflight progress. They include Charles Bolden, Lori Garver, Eric Anderson, Jeff Gedua, Tom Shelley, Michael Lopez-Algria and Rick Tumlinson. Full information, details and much more are on the ISDC website above. People from the metro-NYC area are attending, including some NSS members.

VENUS TRANSITS THE SUN JUNE 5, LAST UNTIL 2117 -- NYSKIES ASTRONOMY VIEWING BY INTREPID MUSEUM Astro-excitement is mounting around the city and worldwide over the upcoming Venus solar transit on Tuesday, June 5, with astronomy clubs throughout the metropolitan region making plans for viewing. Read all about this rare special "one touch of Venus" event, not to be repeated until 2117, on the NYSkies Astronomy link below in an article by NYSkies astronomer and moderator John Pazmino with updates as the event nears at www.nyskies.org/temp.htm. He presented a briefing on the Venus transit at the NYSkies seminar on May 4. NYSkies Astronomy was invited to an Intrepid Museum transit viewing on the pier next to the museum on West 45th Street, reachable by the M42 and M49/50 crosstown buses. Pazamino can be contacted at nyskies@nyskies.org for more information and viewing reservations. There are also excellent articles on this last-chance-of-a-lifetime-for-105-years Venus transit and previous ones in the June issues of ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE and SKY & TELESCOPE, the later magazine with a riviting article on the first major worldwide astronomical expeditions in 1761.

NYC WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL, MAY 30-JUNE 3

The highly anticipated annual NYC World Science Festival happens May 30 through June 3 with numerous programs, performances and activities at several venues, including programs on cosmology and exoplanets. NYSkies Astronomy will have a booth at The Ultimate Science Street Fair in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Vilage on Sunday, June 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., which will include full information on the June 5 Venus solar transit and current iissues of "Ad Astra Magazine."

"The root theme of the WSF is to show that science is a significant element in the intellectual, cultural and educational (ICE) life in this city," said NYSkies Astronomy leader John Pazmino, also NSS-NY chapter science writer. "This is the ICE economy into which NYC is rapidly evolving." The WSF is the topic of the free, public NYSkies Astronomy Seminar at the McBurney House Y on 14th Street in Chelsea on Friday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. Seminar details are posted in BOLD LETTERS in its notice on this front page.

For more information and events details, visit www.worldsciencefestival.com.

"GOING INTERSTELLAR: Build Starships Now!" from LES JOHNSON & edited with JACK MCDEVITT Out MAY 29

"Going Interstellar: Build Starships Now!" by Les Johnson, Deputy Manager of Advanced Concepts Office of the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and co-edited by NY Times bestselling author Jack McDevitt, will be released on May 29. Johnson, who wrote a story and a science essay in the book, is known for co-authorships with Professor Greg Matloff of City Tech-CUNY in downtown Brooklyn of books such as "Paradise Regained" with artwork by C. Bangs also of Brooklyn.

Johnson was formerly the NASA Manager for Interstellar Travel Propulsion Resources until the budget funding was eliminated. Among recent books about starflight in previous years was "Centuri Dreams."

For more on this very exciting new book of essays by famous scientists and engineers, including two by Matloff, a NSS member who has spoken with C. Bangs at NSS-NY Space Society meetings and who co-author "The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel" over 20 years ago, visit www.lesjohnsonauthor.com and the two links below.

CALL FOR STAR TREK ENTERPRISE-TYPE SPACESHIP TO BE BUILT IN 20 YEARS An enterprising visionary engineer, with stars in the eyes and blueprints on hand, issued a call on May 11 through a newly launched website www.buildtheenterprise.org to actually build the first generation of spaceships that could lead to interstellar spaceflight within the next several generations. The concept was announced May 11 on "Universe Today" in the article on the link below. The first Enterprise, modeled on the Star Trek design, would be assembled in orbit at what the group claims could be done on a reasonable budget plan. Powered by ion propulsion along with a nuclear reactor, the saucer section would rotate to create one-g of Earth gravity. A flight to Mars would take only 90 days -- shades of Dr. Freeman Dyson's Project Orion! -- and speedy trips to other worlds in the solar system could result in robotic probes and spaceplane surveys. About every 30 years, that is, one generation, an upgraded and improved version of the Enterprise could be built as new means of proplusion and secure, safe space travel advancements are discovered and made. This could lead into a true Enterprise-type starship perhaps as early as the next century. Coincidently, the announcement came shortly after the notice of the upcoming May 29 release of the Johnson-McDevitt book "Going Interstellar: Build Starships Now!" Along with last year's DARPA "100-Year Starship Study" project that made front page news on The New York Times, it is clear that the curiosity exploration itch to reach out to nearby stars is mounting, although non-visionary and short-sighted government budget cutbacks are the tempo of the times while enterpreneurs are on the verge of opening suborbital space travel to the public. Ad Astra!

NYC ASTRONOMER HAMILTON's "OUR NEIGHBOR STARS, INCLUDING BROWN DWARFS" BOOK OUT NOW!

A new book -- "Our Neighbor Stars, Including Brown Drawfs" -- by retired Staten Island astronomer Thomas William Hamilton, a Columbia University graduate who worked on translunar orbital dynamics for the Apollo Moon Project at Grumman in the 1960s, was published by Strategic Book Publishing and Rights, Inc. at the end of April. The book, he said, "presents all known information on the 100 nearest stars to Earth, including brown dwarfs within the range covered by the stars."

The first link below describes Hamilton's latest book with a press release, and includes other books such as his recent "Useful Star Names" and an earlier sci-fi time traveling thriller novel, the acclaimed "Time For Patriots."

Hamilton was among the first to help track the first orbital Earth satellite Sputnik I through space in October 1957 from Columbia University and was an early advocate of astronaut spaceflights, in the 1960s, to NEO asteriods, now a stated goal of President Obama for NASA in the 2020s.

A National Space Society member, he gave a talk at a NSS-NY Space Society seminar at NYU a few years ago, and spoke at the chapter's "Yuri's Night" daytime conference at CUNY on East 34th Street also. Last year he launched the Hamilton Planetarium Scholarship Foundation to encourage planetarium careers. It recently awarded its second year scholarship. [More details of the fund on this site's next page.]

Hamilton, who has written planetarium programs and papers as well as serving as Wagner College's planetarium director and astronomy instructor in Staten Island, is the "Space Bytes" columnist for this "ASTRO-GAIA NEWS of NYC." A selection of his earlier columns are on a link below, and the most recent columns will be posted soon.

A book review by Harold Egeln will soon appear after the links below.

DANCING WITH "OUR NEIGHBOR STARS" -- A Book Review of Thomas Wm. Hamilton's Stellar Book

By HAROLD EGELN

Want to get to know your fascinating and diverse stellar neighbors within 20 lightyears of Earth? Then retired astronomer Thomas Wm. Hamilton of Staten Island is your ideal informative and delightful tour guide and his touring vehicle is his newest book, the third in recent years, "Our Neighbor Stars, Including Brown Dwarfs" published by Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. [ISBN #978-1-61897-132-6.]

Hamilton's book presents all the information currently known about the 100 stars, including brown and red dwarfs, in Earth's immediate neighborhood, and he conveys that information in such an engaging way that I had to read the book in one sitting in a spirit of enjoyable learning.

As he goes in order from the closest star systems to those out to about 20 lightyears, Hamilton takes us on an armchair star trek. Included in his information are these facts about the stars: their lightyear distances from Earth, apparent and absolute magnitudes, mass and diameters, spectral type classifications, surface temperatures, colors, flares if any, age and expected lifespans, planets if any, possible Goldilocks habitable zones, constellation location and their own nearest neighbors.

Hamilton, with a lifetime of astronomical experience and knowledge in astronomy education along with planetarium field and the Apollo Project work, includes some of their discoverers and their discovery stories, unless because of brightness they were always known. He peppers his accounts with additional tidbits, at times using his well-known cosmic comical flare for humor to tickle own funny bones.

Before he introduces us to "The Closest Stars" in Part 2, Hamilton in Part 1 tells how star distances, all guesswork until the early 19th century, were first determined by the astronomers of the 1800s, and how advances were made throughout the 20th century. The later role of space probes, such as WISE (Wide-firld Infrared Survey Explorer) in getting distances perfected.

With "Our Neighbor Stars" Hamilton, who is also a science fiction writer and author of the time travel thriller "Time For Patriots," has written a book appeals to several levels of interest. It can inform the astronomy novice from the general public, help the astronomy literate and space fans, as well as put our stellar neighborhood together in an essential handbook for amateur and professional astronomers.

Hamilton, with his new book, sings "Getting to Know You" to our starry companions as he makes readers truly dance with the stars.

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NY-SKIES ASTRONOMY FREE PUBLIC SEMINARS!!! THE NEXT NY-SKIES ASTRONOMY FREE PUBLIC SEMINAR IS ON FRIDAY, MAY 18 AT 6:30 P.M. IN CHELSEA @ THE MCBURNEY HOUSE "Y" IN THE FIRST FLOOR FUNCTION ROOM, 125 WEST 14TH STREET BET. 6TH & 7TH AVENUES. SEMINAR TOPIC: "THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL IN NYC!" NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY & NEW YORK SPACE SOCIETY MEMBERS WELCOMED! SEMINARS ARE HELD TWICE MONTHLY ON THE FIRST & THIRD FRIDAY EVENINGS OF EVERY MONTH AT THE MCBURNEY HOUSE "Y." Visit www.nyskies.org for more NYSkies Astronomy information and one can join its Yahoo Group there for its alerts. On EARTH DAY NY 2012 @ GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL on the afternoons of APRIL 20-21, NY-Skies Astronomy had a booth in the Earth Day Street Fair on Vanderbilt Avenue. For more information visit www.earthdayny.com NYSkies Astronomy Leader John Pazmino was the starry-eyed guide for the group's Annual Grand Central Terminal's "STATION AT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE" free guided tour on March 7. **************************************************

FOR COMPLETE SPACE & ASTRONOMY NEWS & EVENTS IN COSMO-POLITAN NEW YORK, READ ALL ABOUT IT IN "SPACEWALK" NOW!

TEACHERS IN SPACE: A SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION PROJECT

NYC resident Elizabeth Kennick, organizer of the Yuri's Night NYC Party. is project manager of the Teachers in Space (TIS) Project of the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF), with a major metro-NYC base [see links below].

The opening of suborbital spaceflight to the public by private ventures in this decade opens the wide vistas for teacher astronauts, Kennick explained on the project webpage, noting that the first vision of such direct space education in schools at the start of the Space Age 50 years ago went unrealized -- until now. "Imagine thousands of astronaut teachers, in classrooms across the country, sharing their spaceflight knowledge and experiences with millions of students. That vision can become a reality within the next ten years."

She was interviewed by the Moon-and-Back organization [www.moonandback.com] about this thrilling project at the recent Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, and you can LISTEN to the exciting and informative interview at the link below. The links include a Teachers in Space Project full description and the latest information on the upcoming SFF's NewSpace 2012 Conference on July 25-28 at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

For information on TIS/SFF workshops, visit www.tis.spacefrontier.org/workshops.html

CURRENT SPACEFARING CREW ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NOW IN EARTH ORBIT

Returning to Earth on April 27 were ISS Expedition #30 crew members NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank with two Russian cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin to replace the then current ISS crew, which included a NASA astronaut. Launched into space aboard a Soyuz on November 14 from Baikonor Cosmodrome. they were in the first such launch -- and a well-publicized launch at that -- since NASA ended its space shuttle program and occured soon after a Chinese uncrewed craft docked with a prototype space station module, setting the stage for a three-astronaut spacelight and eventual crewed lunar missions, perhaps by 2020.

On December 23 another Soyuz docked at the ISS with Russian Oleg Kononenko, Dom Pettit of NASA and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers of ESA. It docked with the ISS on December 23.

On May 15 Expeditiion #31 crewmates were launched by Russia to the ISS to join the three spacefarers in orbit: Joe Acara of NASA with Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin.

The ISS has given humankind an unbroken stretch of over a dozen years of low Earth orbital space habitation out of 50 years of spaceflights, with only space station Mir in the 1990s giving lengthy space occupation after earlier Russian Almaz and American Skylab space station flights.

For current ISS reports, visit www.nasa.gov/station and for Human Space Flight [HSF] Orbital Tracking, visit www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking. Current and past ISS crew and expedition information is on the link below:

NASA TV NOW!

Watch real-time and archived NASA television, including live television from the ISS, and checkout NASA TV schedules at: www.nasa.gov/ntv,

MARTIAN MOVIE MUSIC!

"Mars, The Bringer of Music" was the title of the hour-long "Movies on the Radio" weekly program hosted by musicologist and science fiction fan David Garland on WQXR 105.9 FM, the public Classical Music Station in NYC on Saturday evening, March 10.

Among movie music selections played were from the new "John Carter (on Mars)" flick by composer Michael Giaochino based on the 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, "The War of the Worlds" (1953), "Rocketship X-M" (1950) composed by Ferde Groffe (of the "Grand Canyon Suite") as arranged by Albert Glasser, "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" (1964), "Mars Attacks!," "Red Planet," "Total Recall," "Mission to Mars" and Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" 1979 NBC-TV movie by composer Stanley Meyers. There is also music from the early 1960s TV sitcom "My Favorite Martian" series.

You can LISTEN NOW or anytime to the full program at www.wqxr.org/programs/movies/2012/mar/10/

The site also includes the original movie trailer from the 1953 "War of the Worlds" movie and a 10-minute scene from "John Carter" along with a poster image from the new movie. Program host Garland has past shows featuring science fiction movies and television programs. ENJOY!

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"THE GALILEO PROJECT - MUSIC OF THE SPHERES" by TAFELMUSIK

In honor of the International Year of Astrronomy in 2009 marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope, the famed Tefelmusik Baroque Orchestra created "The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres," a multimedia music and image work performed worldwide. In March "The Galileo Project" CD album and DVD were released.

From March 19 through March 25 it was "The Album of the Week" on WQXR 105.9 FM, NYC's and Newark's Classical Music Public Radio Station [www.wqxr.org/articles/album-week]. For more on The Galileo Project" click-on Tafelmusik's link below.

SPACESHIP EARTH & THE COSMIC CONNECTION -- WHERE GAGARIN MEETS GAIA "Our Vision: People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity." -- the National Space Society "We must turn to the heavens -- and as soon as possible -- so we may begin solving some of the very real ecological and energy problems we face." -- Physics Professor Dr. Gregory Matloff of NYC College of Technology-CUNY "Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship, I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance its beauty, not destroy it." -- Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human traveler in space, April 12, 1961

The Astro-Gaia News of NYC Web Counter is freely provided by the www.digits,com service. YOU ARE FIRST-TIME VISITOR NUMBER....

ASTRO-GAIA NEWS of NYC saw first light on July 20, 2006. UPDATED REGULARY

The ASTRO-GAIA NEWS of NYC freely lists and reports on space and environmental events in the NYC metropolitan area.This independent informational web site was created and is maintained by professional journalist and writer HAROLD EGELN, a member of the National Space Society [www.nss.org], the Planetary Society [www.planetary.org], the National Air & Space Society [www.nasm.si.edu], the SETI Institute [www.seti.org], the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian, S.P.A.C.E. and a lifetime member of the Sierra Club [www.sierraclub.org], as well as a member of a few NYC arts and cultural institutions such as Thirteen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and WQXR. He is also a longtime buyer and subscriber to "Astronomy Magazine" [www.astronomy.com] since its 1973 launch and to "Sky & Telescope Magazine" [www.skyandtelescope.com] for four decades, among other publications.

This website is one of 18 websites through the MSN Web-TV support system he has created and maintains since 1999.

From late 2007 to early 2012 Egeln was a reporter for the historic "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" newspaper founded in 1841. Over the past 30 years he has worked as executive director of the NYC Council for a SANE Nuclear Policy (now Peace Action); a reporter for the "Home Reporter," "Brooklyn Spectator," "Courier-Life," "Brooklyn's Progress," and "Guardian Radical Weekly," as well as "Downtown" as its environmental columnist. He was also briefly a media aide to a NYC City Council member and a host of the "Jobs-TV" program on Brooklyn Community Access Television.

"ASTRO-GAIA NEWS of NYC" is copyright2012©Harold Egeln. All Rights Reserved

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"HOMEPLANET REPORT-NYC" -- ECO-WEBSITE ACCENTUATES THE "GAIA" IN "ASTRO-GAIA"

In February 2010 the "ASTRO-GAIA NEWS of NYC" expanded its "GAIA" Spaceship Earth environmental component with the launching into cyberspace of an additonial web site: The "HOMEPLANET REPORT-NYC" to highlight selected "green" activities, news and events in the NYC metro region.

SPACE UPDATES FROM AROUND THE EARTH -- READ ALL ABOUT IT IN.... THE SPACE CALENDAR! SPACE.COM! SPACE NEWS! SPACE TODAY! SPACE REVIEW! SPACEFLIGHT NEWS! AW&ST ON SPACE! SPACE-REF! UNIVERSE TODAY! HOBBY SPACE! SPACE POLITICS!

Check the SPACE CALENDAR for its weekly listing of space e-related events and items in the nation, around the world and in space beyond. To access the calendar visit www.spacecalendar.com.

As always, visit www.SPACE.com based here in NYC for the latest space news and features, including a link to the NSS "Ad Astra" on-line digital magazine. Be sure to regularly visit www.SpaceNews.com, www.spacetoday.net, www.thespacereview.com, www.spaceref.com, www.spaceflightnews.net, AW&ST's "On Space Blog" at www.AviationWeek.com/onspace, www.universetoday.com, www.hobbyspace.com and www.spacepolitics.com.

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