abluegirl:

An aerial tour of conservation issues facing Colorado and Wyoming, by photographer Dave Showalter.

LightHawk volunteer pilot Mike Conway (Fort Collins, CO) flew me over wind farms so I could photograph their footprint on the land, the scale of which is impossible to see from ground level.

Foote Creek Rim, in southeastern Wyoming, takes advantage of Elk Mountain’s world-class wind and provides renewable energy, but at a price. In an increasingly fragmented West, each development (even renewables) must be scrutinized for habitat loss, and risks to wildlife, human health, and recreation.

Full Article

(via scinerds)

Source: National Geographic

sagansense: NASA Must Pay for Plutonium Production to Fuel Deep-Space Probes NASA will now foot the entire bill for the United States’ production of plutonium-238 spacecraft fuel, which recently started up again for the first time in a quarter-century. The space agency had been splitting costs for the reboot with the U.S. Department of Energy, which actually produces plutonium-238. But NASA is the only projected user of the stuff, so the arrangement changed in the White House’s federal budget request for 2014, which was unveiled earlier this month. “Since the [Obama] Administration has a ‘user pays’ philosophy, we are now in a position to pay for basically the entire enterprise, including the base infrastructure at DOE,” NASA chief financial officer Beth Robinson said in an April 10 press conference. “We’ll be partnering with DOE in the next couple of months to figure out how to best do this, and how to streamline the program to produce plutonium-238.” Plutonium-238 is not a bombmaking material, but it is radioactive, emitting heat that can be converted to electricity using a device called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. For decades, RTGs have powered NASA probes to destinations in deep space, where sunlight is too weak and dispersed to be of much use to a robot. For example, the agency’s twin Voyager spacecraft, which are knocking on the door of interstellar space, are both RTG-powered. So is the Mars rover Curiosity, whose observations recently helped scientists determine that the Red Planet could once have supported microbial life. The DOE stopped producing Pu-238 in 1988, after which NASA began sourcing the fuel from Russia. But the agency received its last Russian shipment in 2010, and supplies have been dwindling ever since, worrying many scientists and space-exploration advocates. So NASA and the DOE have been working together on a Pu-238 restart, which officials from both agencies have estimated will cost between $75 million and $90 million over five years. This effort has made significant progress. NASA officials announced last month that researchers at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee had irradiated targets of neptunium-237 with neutrons, successfully generating small amounts of plutonium-238 — the nation’s first in 25 years. Scaling up from these early test activities shouldn’t be too much of a chore, officials said. “By optimizing the production process, it is estimated that 1.5 to 2 kilograms [3.3 to 4.4 pounds] per year will be produced by 2018. This amount will be enough to meet NASA’s projected needs for future planetary missions. The Science budget request fully funds this requirement,” NASA officials wrote in the agency’s 650-page explanation of its 2014 budget request. “For the first time, NASA’s request also includes $50 million to support the radioisotope power system development infrastructure through full-cost recovery mechanisms at the Department of Energy,” they added. Why Plutonium-238? It’s Powering ‘Curiosity’ | Watch Video Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration
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sagansense:

NASA Must Pay for Plutonium Production to Fuel Deep-Space Probes

NASA will now foot the entire bill for the United States’ production of plutonium-238 spacecraft fuel, which recently started up again for the first time in a quarter-century.

The space agency had been splitting costs for the reboot with the U.S. Department of Energy, which actually produces plutonium-238. But NASA is the only projected user of the stuff, so the arrangement changed in the White House’s federal budget request for 2014, which was unveiled earlier this month.

“Since the [Obama] Administration has a ‘user pays’ philosophy, we are now in a position to pay for basically the entire enterprise, including the base infrastructure at DOE,” NASA chief financial officer Beth Robinson said in an April 10 press conference. “We’ll be partnering with DOE in the next couple of months to figure out how to best do this, and how to streamline the program to produce plutonium-238.”

Plutonium-238 is not a bombmaking material, but it is radioactive, emitting heat that can be converted to electricity using a device called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. For decades, RTGs have powered NASA probes to destinations in deep space, where sunlight is too weak and dispersed to be of much use to a robot.

For example, the agency’s twin Voyager spacecraft, which are knocking on the door of interstellar space, are both RTG-powered. So is the Mars rover Curiosity, whose observations recently helped scientists determine that the Red Planet could once have supported microbial life.

The DOE stopped producing Pu-238 in 1988, after which NASA began sourcing the fuel from Russia. But the agency received its last Russian shipment in 2010, and supplies have been dwindling ever since, worrying many scientists and space-exploration advocates.

So NASA and the DOE have been working together on a Pu-238 restart, which officials from both agencies have estimated will cost between $75 million and $90 million over five years.

This effort has made significant progress. NASA officials announced last month that researchers at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee had irradiated targets of neptunium-237 with neutrons, successfully generating small amounts of plutonium-238 — the nation’s first in 25 years.

Scaling up from these early test activities shouldn’t be too much of a chore, officials said.

“By optimizing the production process, it is estimated that 1.5 to 2 kilograms [3.3 to 4.4 pounds] per year will be produced by 2018. This amount will be enough to meet NASA’s projected needs for future planetary missions. The Science budget request fully funds this requirement,” NASA officials wrote in the agency’s 650-page explanation of its 2014 budget request.

“For the first time, NASA’s request also includes $50 million to support the radioisotope power system development infrastructure through full-cost recovery mechanisms at the Department of Energy,” they added.

Why Plutonium-238? It’s Powering ‘Curiosity’ | Watch Video

Learn about nuclear power used on NASA space probes in this SPACE.com infographic.
Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

pennyfournasa: Ever since the release of its famous “Earthrise over the Moon” image, NASA has provided exceptional views of our planet that captivate the imagination. As Neil deGrasse Tyson points out, NASA has allowed us to see the Earth as it was meant to be seen, without political borders or color-coated countries. There is perhaps no concept more humbling and motivating than visualization of Earth, as a whole, sustaining life in the vast, empty, black backdrop of space.Archives of Earth Observatory images:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/We Stopped Dreaming (episode 2) video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFO2usVjfQcTell Congress that you support doubling funding for NASA:http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/
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pennyfournasa:

Ever since the release of its famous “Earthrise over the Moon” image, NASA has provided exceptional views of our planet that captivate the imagination. As Neil deGrasse Tyson points out, NASA has allowed us to see the Earth as it was meant to be seen, without political borders or color-coated countries. There is perhaps no concept more humbling and motivating than visualization of Earth, as a whole, sustaining life in the vast, empty, black backdrop of space.

Archives of Earth Observatory images:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

We Stopped Dreaming (episode 2) video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFO2usVjfQc

Tell Congress that you support doubling funding for NASA:
http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

(via itsfullofstars)

Source: pennyfournasa