TOM JONES

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Latest articles from Astronaut Tom Jones

October 16, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

October has been a productive month for getting some of my interests into print. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics publishes “Aerospace America” every month, and in October my “View from Here” column appeared. My topic was dealing with the impact hazard from Near Earth Objects: 2008 TC3 collided with Earth on October 7th, making my report on the need for a decision-making agreement to deal with a future rogue asteroid a timely one. You can read Asteroid Deflection: Planning for the Inevitable online and in the October issue of Aerospace America.

Speaking of 2008 TC3, I reported on its collision with Earth and the need to prepare for a future rogue asteroid in Why the World Needs Asteroid Insurance: Resident Astronaut on Popular Mechanics‘ web site, October 9, 2008. Keep an eye out for my continuing space comments at their site.

My article on the early space race and the US effort to put a man in space, Mercury Rising, appeared in Invention and Technology‘s fall 2008 issue. I interviewed Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter for the article, which is beautifully illustrated with mission photos and developmental drawings of the Mercury design. I’ll post a pdf version of the article shortly at my website, AstronautTomJones.com.

All of these intriguing topics are sure to be featured in my upcoming astronaut speaker talks, and I’ll post my upcoming appearances in a future entry here at Flight Notes.

Filed Under: History, Space

Small NEO strikes Earth early on Oct. 7, 2008

October 7, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

A small asteroid, 2008 TC3, entered Earth’s atmosphere last night, October 6, at 10:46 pm EDT (October 7, 0246 UTC). The rock, 1-5 meters in diameter, burned up harmlessly over northern Sudan. The crew of a KLM jetliner about 750 miles away reported seeing the flash from the fireball, which released about a kiloton of explosive energy into the atmosphere. No damage was expected on the ground.

Such fireballs, or bolides, enter Earth’s atmosphere routinely. What marked this Near Earth Object‘s demise was that it was detected and its entry predicted through the efforts of the Spaceguard Survey team in Tucson, AZ. Warning time was a mere 24 hours or so, and there are hundreds of thousands of such objects, bigger than about 40 m (large enough to strike the surface) trooping through the inner solar system within reach of Earth’s orbit. We know of only 5600 or so of these Near Earth Objects. As our telescopes get better, we’ll be finding thousands more, and of those, a few dozen will be found to pose an uncomfortably high probability of hitting Earth with enough force to cause damage to lives or property.

To address that unseen but certain threat, the Near Earth Object Committee of the Association of Space Explorers submitted a report, prepared by its Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation, to the United Nations on Sep. 25, 2008. The Panel proposes a decision-making process to deal with threatening asteroids for adoption by the international community, working through the existing structures of the United Nations.

An excerpt of that report is available at the Association of Space Explorer site, here. As a member of the Committee, I worked with the Panel through its two years of deliberations, ending in the delivery of the report last month. Now it’s up to the United Nations and the world’s peoples to prepare for some future asteroid strike, potentially much more dangerous than the harmless light show put on by 2008 TC3.

Video of 2008 TC3 here:

An earlier video of an Australian fireball:

NASA diagram of 2008 TC3 impact trajectory.

Meteosat 8 image of fireball

Meteosat 8 image of fireball (Image credit: Zdenek Charvat, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute)

Filed Under: Space

October Sky Festival: Coalwood with Homer Hickam

October 7, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Last Saturday, October 4, I was a guest in Coalwood, WV, at the 10th annual October Sky Festival, hosted by Coalwood citizens and best-selling author Homer Hickam. The day was blessed with beautiful early autumn weather: temperatures about 70 under a cloudless blue sky. The forested ridges surrounding the little town (population, 180, down from 2000 sixty years ago) where Homer grew up were brushed lightly with the first traces of yellow, orange, and rust-red. The mining town’s main street was lined with art and craft vendors, food stalls, and plenty of happy families.

Along with Homer’s boyhood pals, I participated in a series of model rocket launches just after lunch at “Cape Coalwood,” where Homer and the Rocket Boys once lofted their home-built missiles. Most of Saturday’s rockets managed to parachute back into the former mining dump site without damage, although the surrounding tall trees claimed a few reentering vehicles.

Homer’s latest book is Red Helmet, and he always had a line out front of the Methodist Church for signing. My table was on the church’s front lawn, where I signed copies of Hell Hawks! and Sky Walking through the day. With both my grandfathers having worked in the coal mines of Wilkes-Barre, PA, my visit to Coalwood was a glimpse into their lives 75 years ago. For a day, at least, I could trace a direct path from the mines to the stars. Plan on visiting the October Sky Festival in 2009.

Rocket launches at Cape Coalwood (credit D. Kilpatrick)

Rocket launches at Cape Coalwood (credit D. Kilpatrick)

Signing "Sky Walking" and "Hell Hawks!" at Coalwood (D. Kilpatrick)

Signing "Sky Walking" and "Hell Hawks!" (credit -- D. Kilpatrick)

Coalwood Main -- October Sky Festival (credit D. Kilpatrick)

Coalwood Main -- October Sky Festival (credit D. Kilpatrick)

Filed Under: Space

Hell Hawks! in Houston

September 24, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

I’ll be appearing in Houston this Saturday, September 27, 2008, for a talk and book signing of Hell Hawks! from 2-4 pm at the Borders — Baybrook location in Webster, Texas.

Looking forward to seeing many old friends and learning of their experiences in Hurricane Ike. Best wishes to all there for a smooth clean-up and a quick recovery from the extensive damage inflicted by Ike.

Spread the word and join me Saturday for the extraordinary tales of the 365th Fighter Group, the Hell Hawks! This band of young pilots and airmen had an extraordinary impact on winning victory in WWII Europe.

P-47s at Yankee Air Museum -- 2005

P-47s at Yankee Air Museum -- 2005

Filed Under: History

High Praise from Wenatchee

September 21, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

After my visit on Sept. 17th to the elementary school students of Wenatchee, Washington, I received this note from the mother of a certain second grader:

“He is in the 2nd grade and getting him to tell me ANY details about his day is like pulling teeth!  Today his first words when he got off the bus were, “Mom we had a real-life astronaut at our assembly today”, I even got a few details regarding your time on the space station. You must do a pretty fantastic presentation to get a reaction like that from him. He’s a tough audience unless you are a yellow cartoon sponge!”

Those kids sure recharged my own enthusiasm for space flight. Go out and inspire a future explorer today.

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: Space

Association of Space Explorers — Exploration and Planetary Stewardship

September 21, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Speaking to students in Wenatchee, Wash. -- Newberry Elementary School

Speaking to students in Wenatchee, Wash. -- Newberry Elementary School

I joined the Association of Space Explorers after my third shuttle flight in 1996. This past week in Seattle, astronauts and cosmonauts from around the world met in Seattle to discuss space exploration, education, and planetary stewardship. Our technical sessions dealt with human space exploration, astronaut observations of Earth and its geological links to our neighboring worlds, health for long-duration spaceflight, fundamental research on the space station, and the latest developments in world space programs, including the NASA effort to return to the Moon with Ares and Orion. My talks dealt with how astronauts contribute to the science of Planetology with their Earth-orbital observations, and opportunities to journey deep into space with astronaut voyages to nearby asteroids.

Our community day activities brought 50 space fliers to schools all over the State of Washington, reaching 42,000 students, all of whom had a chance to meet and ask questions of a space traveler. My visits took me to four elementary schools in Wenatchee, where I addressed 1,800 future explorers, aged 5 to 11.

The week of September 22 brings a few of those space travelers together with our ASE Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation, for final edits to our decision-making document, “Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response.”  We will complete our document, sign it, and submit our work to the United Nations for debate and adoption of an international program to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth. The Association of Space Explorers’ theme of planetary stewardship is the impetus behind this effort to use our space technology and international cooperation in space to prepare for a future threat from a Near Earth Object.

Of course, while in Seattle I didn’t miss the opportunity to sign copies of “Hell Hawks!“, at the Seattle Museum of Flight, a great venue for this aerial band of brothers story about a heroic group of Thunderbolt pilots.

Seattle Museum of Flight's P-47D Thunderbolt, "Big Stud"

Filed Under: History, Space

Night Flight

September 9, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Tom with Sky Walking editor John Ross on an earlier Diamond flight

Tom with Sky Walking editor John Ross on an earlier Diamond flight

Last night was a beautiful September evening, with thin high clouds and mild breezes. Needing to practice night landings for future instrument flying, I took off in the Diamond DA-40 from Leesburg Airport just at sundown. I could just glimpse the fields and farms below me as I headed west from Leesburg, over Purcellville, and on to the dark mass of the Blue Ridge. With just a few lights glinting off the Shendandoah River, I got in two landings and an ILS approach at Winchester, then dropped in at Martinsburg to touch-and-go alongside the hulking C-5 Galaxies lining the parking ramp. My landings were actually more gentle than my last round in the daytime!

I finally returned to Leesburg on a GPS approach just after 9 p.m. local, settling onto the brilliantly outlined runway and taxiing in to a quiet airport. I was the last pilot to tie down my plane and head back to the parking lot. The flight was a perfect end to a nearly perfect late summer day.

Although I was usually traveling no faster than 110 knots, the flight reminded me of the many night flights over West Texas I enjoyed in the back seat of a NASA T-38. I can only contrast my exhilarating mission last evening with what the P-47 Thunderbolt pilots of the Hell Hawks experienced every time they strapped on a P-47.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Extending the Space Shuttle

September 8, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

NASA finds itself in a terrible dilemma. It has cash enough only to fund shuttle ops through 2010. The administration and Congress have flatlined NASA’s budget and so the new Orion cannot appear sooner than 2015. We will rely totally on Russian Soyuz transport to the ISS after 2011, and Congress has not even granted authority for NASA to purchase those services. Russia now seems a shaky partner to entrust with the key to the space station for 4+ years. Yet that is the prospect.

Mike Griffin’s latest interview is technically astute: we need to retire shuttle to free up funds to build and test Orion. There seems little prospect Congress will bump up the budget top line. A new administration will have a stark choice:  surrender US access to ISS by relying solely on Russia, or keep flying the shuttle, which is risky to crews and will eat up the funds for Orion and other major NASA programs. A new administration may decide to choose the short term expedient of keeping shuttle flying, and not increase the NASA budget. Result — long-term disaster. We would squeeze Orion and delay its debut, defer the heavy Ares V cargo rocket and the Altair lander, and essentially delete the deep-space goals set for NASA by the administration and Congress in 2004.

Such a move would guarantee that the US will surrender leadership in human spaceflight, expressing a lack of will to keep Americans on the exploration frontier. The only solution I see is to educate a new administration that maintaining US leadership in space will now be expensive, the result of four years of fiscal neglect. The NASA budget will have to be increased if we are to maintain Americans on the station, and yet accelerate Orion to minimize our reliance on a risky Russian monopoly.

The question: will our leaders care?

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: Space

In the air with a Fortress

September 4, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

I was up flying out of Leesburg, VA, on Sat. Aug. 30, during the Leesburg Airport (KJYO) Open House. In the traffic pattern with me, while I was practicing Cessna 172 touch-and-go’s–was the Experimental Aircraft Association’s B-17 Flying Fortress, Aluminum Overcast. What a sight, and what a pleasure, to share the sky with such a classic airplane. On the ground I had a chance to see the -17up close, too. Salutes to all Eighth Air Force (and other Command) B-17 crewmen, for flying this great aircraft in combat.

This was the first time this “old” bomber pilot (B-52, 1978-83) had shared the local sky with such a beautiful B-17.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Hell Hawks! interview posted

September 4, 2008 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Last Sunday’s (Aug. 31) Hell Hawks! radio interview on the John Batchelor show, broadcast from Los Angeles, is now posted on my web site and at Batchelor’s podcast page. Col. Dave Harmon tells the story of his miraculous survival from a direct hit on his main fuel tank by a dead German gunner. I added the overall context for this 14-minute story about the Hell Hawks! Thanks to John Batchelor for featuring this important story and gripping new book.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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