21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FALL/WINTER 2012-13 www.21stcenturysciencetech.com $20.00 Planetary Defense • Energy Flux Density • U.S. Fusion Report 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Vol. 25, Nos. 3&4 | Fall/Winter 2012-13 Features PLANETARY DEFENSE 6 Introduction - Jason Ross 8 Threat Assessments - LPAC Research Team 16 Observation Systems - LPAC Research Team 20 Deflection and the Energy-Flux Density Factor - Benjamin Deniston CONFERENCE REPORT 26 International Global Monitoring Aerospace Systems INTERVIEWS 38 SDE: Hypervelocity Asteroid Deflection - Brent Barbee and Professor Bong Wie 42 Space Exploration and Physics Breakthroughs - General Vladimir Popovkin 44 Protecting Mankind from Extra-Terrestrial Threats - Claudio Maccone, PhD KRAFFT EHRICKE AND THE FUTURE OF MANKIND 48 Why Mankind has an Extraterrestrial Imperative - Marsha Freeman SPACE POWER 54 The Space-Time of Increased Energy Flux Density - Creighton Jones INTERVIEWS 57 An Inside Look at Russia’s Nuclear Propulsion System - Academician Anatoly Koroteyev 60 With Committed Funding, We Could Develop a Nuclear Rocket - Stanley Borowski, Ph.D. 69 Developing Fusion Rockets to Go to Mars - Professor John Slough News 4 NEWS BRIEFS SPACE 72 Space Scientists Meet Amidst Uncertainty and Hope FUSION 78 Scientists Launch A Fight to Save the U.S. Fusion Program ENVIRONMENT 79 Lessons of the L'Aquila Earthquake Sentence Departments 2 EDITORIAL - Jason Ross BOOKS 81 Global Aerospace Monitoring and Disaster Management by V. A. Menshikov, et al. Reviewed by William Jones 85 Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist Directed by Peter Brown. Reviewed by Gregory Murphy 87 A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer. Reviewed by Liona Fan-Chiang 88 Books Received On the Cover: Artist's rendition of a threat to Earth from space. Illustration by Chris Jadatz, cover design by Alan Yue. EDITORIAL: The Fight Over Knowledge by Jason Ross In the wake of the over $50 billion in damages caused by superstorm Sandy, and the very lengthy reconstruction and rebuilding process, many media outlets and government figures have blamed climate change for this damaging storm. As only one example, Al Gore wrote on October 30th that “Hurricane Sandy is a disturbing sign of things to come. We must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis. Dirty energy makes dirty weather.” Leaving aside the fact that the inflation-adjusted damage due to Sandy was far surpassed by hurricanes in the first few decades of the last century, we must ask: which advancements in our understanding of the global climate and weather system have made it possible to determine with total certainty that man-made emissions of CO2, accounting for a portion of one out of every 10,000 molecules in the atmosphere, were the reason that hurricane Sandy struck with the force that it did? Among all the uncertainties in life and science, such as the inability to reliably forecast the weather more than a week in advance or figure out what we really ought and ought not to eat, it is nothing short of remarkable that such a complicated process as global climate and weather is claimed to be within our ken! The many factors involved in the behavior of Sandy—such as the early midwest winter storm, and the high pressure zone over the north Atlantic which prevented the storm from moving out to sea—apparently these were caused by carbon dioxide emissions as well? Al Gore's statement about “dirty energy” fits well with self-styled religious groups who blame various natural catastrophes on God’s wrath at our national moral turpitude. Yet, questioning the science underlying the climate change forecasts of such groups as the IPCC, leads to being branded a heretic, a “climate denier” (the resemblance to “Holocaust denier” is not accidental), and being compared to those who continue to insist that the Earth is flat. “The science is settled,” we are told; but, when is science ever settled? Now let’s look at another field of science, where the prevailing official view is that knowledge is not possible: quantum mechanics. In the field of climate science, we are told, ex cathedra, that the science is settled on what causes changes in climate, while in the field of quantum mechanics, we are told that our standard idea of causality does not exist. After Max Planck’s hypothesis of the emission and absorption of heat energy in discrete “quanta,” Einstein demonstrated, in his work on the photoelectric effect, that all radiative energy exists in such quanta. As quantum science progressed, very eerie aspects of the behavior of the physical universe in the very small began to emerge. One behavior of physics at the quantum level reopened the dispute between the wave and particle views of light, considered definitively decided on the side of waves after the interference experiments of Thomas Young at the turn of the 19th century. With the work of Einstein, the quantization of light was beyond dispute, but how quantized energy units could then act as waves produced quite a bit of trouble. Later experiments, such as that performed at Hitachi in 1989, demonstrated that even individual photons, sent one at a time through a double-slit apparatus apparently interfered with themselves, as though they went through both slits. With Heisenberg’s interpretation, as codified in the wake of the Fifth Solvay International Conference of 1927, the accepted view was that the quanta did not have such physical parameters as location or momentum, but had a variety of locations and dispositions they could take, when called upon to do so by a suitable experimental interaction that forced the particle nature of the quantum to the fore. The older view, that particles and waves propagated through space gave way, as a statistical view, which stated that the probability of finding a particle in a certain location was itself propagating, became hegemonic. Probability was reality, and phenomena in the small were considered inherently random in their nature. In 1964, John Stewart Bell proposed an experiment that he thought would conclusively demonstrate whether it were possible for such particles to have local “hidden variables,” as-yet-unknown (or potentially unknowable) characteristics that would determine their later behavior, which only seemed random. Many experimental tests of Bell’s hypothesis have been performed (with a few assumptions), generating the apparent result that among two entangled particles, one affected the other in a way that precluded their future behaviors having been pre-determined at the time of the particles’ formation. Some take this to indicate that indeterminateness is essential, and that Einstein’s view of causality was wrong – there is no cause in the very small, in the typical sense of cause, meaning predetermination of the future based on present conditions. Yet, this is to put words into Einstein’s (and Planck’s) mouths. In a discussion printed in Planck’s Where is Science Going, Einstein expresses himself: "I believe that events in nature are controlled by a much stricter and closely binding law than we suspect today, when we speak of one event being the cause of another. Our concept here is confined to one happening within one time section. It is dissected from the whole process. Our present rough way of applying the causal principle is quite superficial. We are like a child who judges a poem by its rhyme, and not by its rhythm. Or, we are like juvenile learner at the piano just relating one note to that which immediately precedes or follows. To an extent, this may be very well when one is dealing with simple compositions, but it will not do, for the interpretation of a Bach fugue. Quantum physics has presented us with very complex processes, and to meet them, we must further enlarge and refine our concept of causality." Planck, similarly, states that: "Where the discrepancy comes in today, is not between nature and the principle of causality, but rather, between the picture which we have made of nature, and the realities in nature itself. Our picture is not in perfect accord with the observational results, and, as I have pointed out, over and over again, it is the advancing business of science to bring about a finer accord here. I am convinced that the bringing about of that accord must take place, not in the rejection of causality, but in greater enlargement of the formula and a refinement of it, so as to meet modern discoveries." Surely this refinement must take, as a sine qua non, Vernadsky’s concepts of the biosphere and noösphere. The quantum experiments described here have all been performed with abiotic experimental apparatus (and not without reason), but the concepts of time required in such biological processes as evolution, and in human thought and art, can serve to dramatically enrich our notions of “causality,” and make possible the refinements that the scientists (and musicians!) Planck and Einstein believed to exist. For example: free will, which undoubtedly exists in the universe, is neither indeterminate, nor random; and national economic policy looks to the future which is to be, when setting current policies. Let us develop our minds in other fields, continuing to expand our presence as an active force of nature, and return to quantum phenomena with a reservoir of refinements to the nature of causality. NEWS BRIEFS ERICE SEMINAR ON 'EARTHQUAKE EARLY WARNING FROM SPACE' On October 21-24, 2012, the “Ettore Majorana” Foundation and Center for Scientific Culture (EMFCSC) in Erice, Italy, hosted a seminar on “Earthquake Early Warning from Space.” Although earthquake forecasting is still an emerging field, the benefits of space-based observation provide great advantages towards its realization. Because the entire planet can be continuously measured from space, large data sets of atmospheric and ionospheric conditions can be gathered and analyzed, helping to identify even weak interactions between the Earth’s crust and the upper layers of the atmosphere and the ionosphere, interactions which can be signs of an oncoming seismic event. The seminar was directed by Roberto Battison (University of Perugia) and Shen Xuhui (China Earthquake Administration), and featured some of the key figures in the international community of researchers in earthquake precursors and earthquake forecasting. The EMFCSC itself, run by scientist Antonino Zichichi, is also known for its series of International Seminars on Nuclear War (and on “Planetary Emergencies”), which included the 1983 conference on “Technological Bases for Peace” where Edward Teller, Lowell Wood, and U.S. President Ronald Reagan (by personal message) made a major intervention for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) at the time. RUSSIAN CENTER ISSUES FIFTH SUCCESSFUL EARTHQUAKE FORECAST On December 3rd, Russia’s Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring issued another successful earthquake forecast. Their release (in Russian) describes the forecast they issued, warning of a magnitude 7.2 (± 0.2) earthquake, in the Japan region, on either December 7th or 14th (± 2 days). The U.S. Geological Survey website confirms that there was indeed a 7.3 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Japan on December 7th — four days after their warning, and matching their forecast. According to their release, this marks the fifth successful forecast of the Center, which is focusing on large earthquakes in the Japan/Kamchatka Pacific region for a trial run of their earthquake forecasting program. The initial successes of the program, as well as their forecasting methods and the parameters they monitored, were elaborated by representatives of the center in two presentations at the September 2012 IGMASS conference, “Space and Global Security of Humanity,” held in Yevpatoria, Ukraine, as discussed more fully in this issue, in the article on page 26. BRAZILIAN SCIENTISTS ARE PLANNING A MISSION TO AN ASTEROID “Going Where No One Has Gone Before,” is the cover story on the November 2012 issue of the magazine Ciencia Hoje, published by the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, which describes the proposed “Aster Project,” to travel to and land on the largest of a triple-body asteroid, named 2001-SN263. The mission is being designed by three Brazilian and one Russian scientist, with a proposed launch date in 2017. Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, and Russia’s premier Institute of Space Research, are the responsible institutions for the mission, with the spacecraft to be provided by Russia, and an ion propulsion system and scientific instruments to be provided by Brazil. It would be Brazil’s first mission into deep space. MINISTERS MEET IN DOHA TO, ONCE AGAIN, SQUEEZE MOONBEAMS FROM CUCUMBERS From November 26 through December 8, leaders of almost every nation on the planet assembled in Doha, Qatar for the 2012 UN Climate Change Conference. The mission of the subdued meeting was to secure legally binding agreements by all nations to limit their carbon dioxide emissions, with the purported goal of preventing the Earth from heating by more than 2 degrees Celsius over the next few decades, while ignoring the fact that carbon emissions may not even significantly affect global temperature, and that significant research into other areas of climate science is routinely rejected out of hand by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One goal of the conference, to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, failed, as only 37 of the 195 parties supported the proposed new treaty. Near the end, Lord Monckton challenged the unproven warming assumptions before being ejected from the conference. PLANETARY DEFENSE: Introduction By Jason Ross This double issue of 21st Century has a large set of feature articles on the theme of planetary defense and mankind’s place in the Solar System and the universe. The treatment of this broad-ranging subject here encompasses everything from detecting precursors to extreme weather, volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes, to detecting and deflecting incoming asteroids and comets, to the required social outlook to make these missions a reality, to developing the nuclear technologies of fission and fusion propulsion required for efficient access to the Solar System and increased control over heavenly bodies. Leading our coverage of this topic is an article on the International Global Monitoring Aerospace System (IGMASS) concept, “Toward Collaboration in the Defense of Mankind.” This article reports on the proceedings of a fall conference held in Yevpatoria, Ukraine, “Space and the Global Security of Humanity.” Discussions at the conference covered the main topics in this feature report as a whole: a global organization for integrating various monitoring systems, located both on the ground and in space, to provide a unified real-time capability to monitor the planet and its environs to forecast a broad range of potential threats to life on Earth. A three-part development of the specific features of planetary defense follows. The first addresses the terrain: some half-million near-Earth objects (NEOs) are estimated to exist, of various sizes, ranging from those which would destroy an entire metropolitan area, to those large enough to eliminate all human life on the planet. Among these hundreds of thousands of bodies, a scant 10,000 have been discovered as this issue goes to press. The second article treats observation and detection. The third article concludes with a summary of deflection and destruction methods, highlighting energy-flux density. Interviews include Professor Bong Wie and Brent Barbee on Hypervelocity Asteroid Deflection; Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin on Russian initiatives; and Dr. Claudio Maccone of the International Academy of Astronautics. Additional features cover Krafft Ehricke's 'Extraterrestrial Imperative', nuclear thermal rocket propulsion with Dr. Stanley Borowski, and fusion rocket technology with Professor John Slough. PLANETARY DEFENSE: Threat Assessments Adapted from a 2012 LaRouchePAC pamphlet. It is difficult to gain a visceral sense of the immensity of energy involved in an asteroid or comet impact on Earth. Although asteroids and comets can range anywhere from meters to many kilometers in diameter, the actual effect of an impact is greatly enhanced by the enormous speeds involved. The total kinetic energy released in such a collision is the product of the mass of the impactor multiplied by the square of the velocity, and the impact speeds range from 10 to 70 km/second, or 20,000 to 150,000 miles per hour! Two notable cases: 1) The Chicxulub impact (~10 km object, ~65 million years ago, creating a 180 km crater in Yucatan, Mexico), releasing ~100 million megatons TNT energy (20,000 times the global nuclear stockpile), generating mega-tsunamis, massive ejecta, global shockwaves, and an impact winter. 2) The Tunguska event (Siberia, 1908), caused by an object only 30-50 meters across that exploded in the atmosphere, leveling 80 million trees over 2,150 sq km. Table I: Impacts, Energy Release, and Effects - 30 m: 2 Megatons TNT - Fireball, Shockwave, Minor Damage - 50 m: 10 Megatons TNT - Comparable to Largest Thermonuclear Weapon in Existence - 200 m: 600 Megatons TNT - Destruction on a National Scale - 500 m: 10,000 Megatons TNT - Destruction on a European Scale - 1,000 m: 80,000 Megatons TNT - Global Effects, Many Millions Dead - 5,000 m: 10 Million Megatons TNT - Global Climate Change, Billions Dead - 10,000 m: 80 Million Megatons TNT - Complete Extinction of the Human Species Structure and Composition: Asteroids vary from solid iron-nickel to solid rock and loose 'rubble piles'. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) vs. Long-Period Comets (LPCs): NEOs orbit in the inner Solar System and can cross Earth's path. Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) come within 0.05 AU of Earth. Long-period comets spend most of their orbits far out in the Oort cloud (trillions of comets larger than 1 km), perturbed by galactic dynamics, and enter the inner solar system at speeds up to 70 km/s with minimal warning time. Table II: NEO Population and Completion Rates (April 2012 / NASA data) - 1 km+: Estimated 900, Found 850 (94%) - 300m to 1km: Estimated 4,800, Found 2,400 (50%) - 100m to 300m: Estimated 21,000, Found 2,100 (10%) - 30m to 100m: Estimated ~500,000, Found ~1,950 (0.4%) Sidebar: The Mystery of Tunguska (by William Jones) Summarizes the June 30, 1908 explosion, Vladimir Vernadsky's 1930s hypothesis that a comet entered the atmosphere, and modern confirmation from soil/resin analysis and shuttle-plume atmospheric dynamics showing noctilucent ice cloud formations. PLANETARY DEFENSE: Observation Systems Adapted from a 2012 LaRouchePAC pamphlet. Existing observation programs like NASA's Spaceguard have cataloged ~90% of large NEOs (>1 km), but over 99% of smaller asteroids (30-100m) remain undiscovered. Observations from global telescopes are processed by the Minor Planet Center, NASA JPL's Horizons system, and the NEODyS system at the University of Pisa. Infrared Space Observatories: Visible light observations only show reflected light (which depends on surface albedo). Space-based infrared telescopes (such as WISE) measure thermal emission directly related to physical size. Placing dedicated infrared observatories inside Earth's orbit (such as near Venus's orbit) provides far superior viewing angles looking away from the Sun. Long-Period Comet Early Warning: Detecting LPCs requires massive aperture space telescopes (25 to 75 meters in diameter) to provide 6 to 16 years of advance warning. The Limits of Statistics: Statistical return periods (e.g. 30m impact every 200 years) do not predict individual deterministic events. A physics-based, dynamic comprehension of the solar system as an integrated harmonic unit is required. PLANETARY DEFENSE: Deflection and the Energy-Flux Density Factor by Benjamin Deniston Mitigation Methods: 1. Slow-Push-Pull: Gravity tractors, attached thrusters, laser ablation, alteration of reflective/thermal properties (albedo painting), mass drivers. 2. Quick Methods: Kinetic impactors, nuclear explosive devices (stand-off detonation or subsurface disruption). Energy-Flux Density in Propulsion: To intercept high-speed or short-warning threats, chemical rockets (specific impulse ~450s) are inadequate. Higher energy-flux density systems are critical: Table I: Energy Density of Fuels (J/g) - Wood: 1.8 x 10^4 - Coal: 2.7 x 10^4 - Petroleum (Diesel): 4.6 x 10^4 - H2/O2 combustion: 1.3 x 10^4 (combined mass) / 1.2 x 10^5 (H2 only) - Typical Nuclear Fuel: 3.7 x 10^9 - Direct Fission of U-235: 8.2 x 10^10 - Deuterium-Tritium Fusion: 3.2 x 10^11 - Matter-Antimatter Annihilation: 9.0 x 10^13 Table II: Rocket Fuel Specific Impulse and Mass Ratios - Chemical (O2/H2): Isp 4,300 m/s (450 s), Mass Ratio 15:1 - Fission (2,700 K - 20,000 K): Isp 9,600 - 66,000 m/s, Mass Ratio 3.2:1 to 1.2:1 - Thermonuclear Fusion: Isp 36,000,000 m/s (100,000 s), Mass Ratio 1.0003:1 - Matter-Antimatter: Isp 300,000,000 m/s, Mass Ratio 1.00003:1 Advanced Propulsion Types: - Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP): Megawatt-class systems providing continuous thrust for rendezvous and gravity tractors. - Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP): High-thrust systems doubling chemical Isp for fast intercepts. - Thermonuclear Fusion Propulsion: Enabling 1-g continuous acceleration interplanetary travel. CONFERENCE REPORT: Toward Collaboration In the Defense of Mankind by Benjamin Deniston, Pavel Penev, and Jason Ross Report from the International Specialized Symposium “Space and Global Security of Humanity” held in Yevpatoria, Ukraine (Sept. 3-6, 2012). The conference focused on the International Global Monitoring Aerospace System (IGMASS) and Russia's Strategic Defense of Earth (SDE) proposal. Key Presentations: - Prof. Anatoly Perminov (Former Head of Roscosmos, IGMASS Committee Chair): Outlined the multi-tier 'system of systems' combining satellite constellations, ground stations, and atmospheric monitoring to provide predictive early warning for industrial disasters, seismic events, extreme weather, and asteroid/comet threats. - Prof. Valery Menshikov (Chief Designer of IGMASS): Presented the 3-stage realization plan from exploratory R&D (2007-2011) to operational deployment (2015-2017). - N.N. Novikova & L.N. Doda (Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring / Project ES SFM): Reported on successful multi-parameter short-term earthquake forecasts (including May, June, July, and August 2012 seismic events in Japan and Kamchatka) using seismo-tectogenic precursors (gravimetric, telluric, cloud cover, ionospheric, and solar-geomagnetic interactions). - Prof. Sergey Pulinets (Russian Space Systems): Presented the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) Model explaining radon emissions, atmospheric ionization, latent heat release, and ionospheric perturbations preceding major earthquakes. - Sabit Saitgarayev (Makeyev State Rocket Center): Proximity echelon defense systems against NEOs. - Anatoly Koroteyev (Keldysh Research Center): Space nuclear power and propulsion development roadmap. - M.S. Chubey (Pulkovo Observatory): Orbital Stereoscopic Observatory at Earth-Sun L4 and L5 Lagrange points. INTERVIEW: SDE: Hypervelocity Asteroid Deflection Interview with Brent Barbee (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) and Prof. Bong Wie (Iowa State University) on their Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle (HAIV) concept presented at the NASA NIAC symposium. Key Concepts: - Short-warning planetary defense requires hypervelocity interceptors (5 to 30 km/s relative speed). - Two-body vehicle design: a leading kinetic impactor creates a shallow crater on the asteroid, followed milliseconds later by a trailing vehicle carrying a nuclear explosive device into the subsurface cavity to maximize energy coupling and disperse the object. - Discusses the necessity of flight-testing technologies, resolving political decision-making lead times, and developing international collaboration frameworks. INTERVIEW: Space Exploration and Physics Breakthroughs Interview with Gen. Vladimir Popovkin (Head of Russian Federal Space Agency - Roscosmos). Key Points: - Russian initiatives to coordinate asteroid/comet monitoring across Roscosmos, the Ministry of Defense, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. - Proposal for international cooperation on Strategic Defense of Earth (SDE) and unified space optical monitoring. - Plans for returning to the Moon with robotic lunar orbiters/landers and establishing Moon-based observatories. - Development of megawatt-class nuclear power and propulsion engines for deep space exploration and need for breakthroughs in theoretical physics. INTERVIEW: Protecting Mankind From Extra-Terrestrial Threats Interview with Dr. Claudio Maccone (Technical Director, International Academy of Astronautics). Key Points: - Current asteroid tracking limitations and mathematical orbit uncertainty due to Newtonian n-body orbital integration parameters. - The necessity of heavy-lift launch vehicles and nuclear stand-off detonation for massive NEO deflection. - Broader cosmic threats: nearby supernovas within 3,000 light-years and rogue planets entering the Solar System. - Embracing Krafft Ehricke's 'Extraterrestrial Imperative' for long-term interstellar expansion and species survival. WHY MANKIND HAS AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL IMPERATIVE by Marsha Freeman Detailed examination of Krafft Ehricke's philosophy and technological roadmap for human space colonization: Three Fundamental Laws of Astronautics (1957): 1. Nobody and nothing under the natural laws of this universe impose any limitations on man except man himself. 2. Not only the Earth, but the entire Solar System, and as much of the universe as he can reach under the laws of nature, are man's rightful field of activity. 3. By expanding through the universe, man fulfills his destiny as an element of life, endowed with the power of reason and the wisdom of the moral law within himself. Open World vs. Closed World: Ehricke's rebuttal to the Club of Rome's 'Limits to Growth' ideology, demonstrating that human progress requires transitioning from a 2D terrestrial society to a 3D polyglobal civilization. Stages of Infrastructure: - Cislunar space industrialization and Selenopolis (an urban lunar civilization powered by nuclear fission and fusion). - Astropolis: Large orbital space cities with artificial gravity and Space Universities. - Androcells: Self-sufficient, self-propelled artificial mini-planets roaming the solar system, evolving humanity into Homo Extraterrestris. THE SPACE-TIME OF INCREASED ENERGY FLUX DENSITY by Creighton Jones Explores how mastery over increasingly microscopic physical domains (from chemical molecular bonds to atomic nuclear fission, thermonuclear fusion, and matter-antimatter annihilation) dramatically expands humanity's macroscopic reach into the universe. Propulsion Comparisons: - Chemical exhaust velocity: 3,000 m/s (Isp 450 s) - Fission exhaust velocity: 50,000 m/s (Isp 1,000 s) - Fusion exhaust velocity: 100,000,000 m/s (Isp 100,000 s) Human Biological Considerations: Reducing Mars transit time from months to 7-10 days via 1-g continuous acceleration/deceleration fusion rockets mitigates cosmic radiation and microgravity hazards, making deep space travel safe and viable. INTERVIEW: Academician Anatoly Koroteyev (General Director, Keldysh Research Center) Discusses Russia's Megawatt-Class Nuclear Power Propulsion System (NPPS), development of gas-cooled high-temperature reactors, electric propulsion ion thrusters, and orbital tug concepts planned for 2018. INTERVIEW: Dr. Stanley Borowski (NASA Glenn Research Center) Details NASA's Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (NCPS) and Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) research, composite and CERMET fuels, NTREES testing at Marshall Space Flight Center, borehole underground testing (SAFE), and lunar/Mars mission architectures. INTERVIEW: Professor John Slough (University of Washington / MSNW) Explains magnetic compression fusion rocket concepts using imploding lithium metal shells around deuterium-tritium plasma, bypassing heavy energy conversion equipment to achieve direct energetic exhaust and enabling 30-day missions to Mars. SPACE: Space Scientists Meet Amidst Uncertainty and Hope (by Marsha Freeman) Coverage of the 2012 International Astronautical Congress in Naples, focusing on open space station architectures, Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange gateway platforms, and international lunar landing missions (Luna-Glob, Chang'e 3, SELENE-2, RESOLVE). FUSION: Scientists Launch a Fight to Save the U.S. Fusion Program (by Marsha Freeman) Opposition to FY2013 budget cuts threatening domestic research at MIT Alcator C-Mod and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to fund the ITER project. ENVIRONMENT: Lessons of the L'Aquila Earthquake Sentence (by Claudio Celani) Analysis of the manslaughter conviction of the Italian Commissione Grandi Rischi members following the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and the urgent need for institutional multi-parameter precursor monitoring. BOOK REVIEWS: - Global Aerospace Monitoring and Disaster Management (V.A. Menshikov et al.) - Reviewed by William Jones - Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist (Dir. Peter Brown) - Reviewed by Gregory Murphy - A Planet of Viruses (Carl Zimmer) - Reviewed by Liona Fan-Chiang - Books Received (Comprehensive listing of recently published science, space, and policy literature).