The International Space University (ISU) will be conducting a 10-day auction on eBay, beginning on October 4th - the 50th anniversary of the former Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 launch…way back in 1957.

Lots of ISU goodies - like a museum-quality Sputnik 1 replica, the opportunity to fly a one-kilogram payload in space, even lunch with former astronauts will be up for eBay bid.

Also on the auction block are coffee-table books, space art, and other items autographed by astronauts.

Proceeds from the auction will be used for scholarships to enable prospective students to attend the International Space University.

For the auction, visit “ISU auction” under Stores on eBay.com, or link to it from the ISU website at: www.isunet.edu

The nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has escalated in cost. It’s now an outlay of loot hovering at $1.7 billion.

NASA senior Mars management has directed the project to — among a suite of actions — expend no additional funds on a remote-sensing laser instrument called ChemCam, take off a descent imaging camera, and cost-cap a couple of other instruments at their current budgets.

The MSL “required some focused and prudent reductions in scope in order to better ensure project success,” according to a NASA statement on the large Mars rover project.

From higher-ups at NASA Headquarters, the marching order is for the MSL project team to dig into their collective science and engineering pockets and cover the $75 million cost overrun to “clean up the mess” so as not to “slaughter the innocent,” I’ve been advised.

Translation, and in tough love language: MSL gets no more money from NASA Headquarters.

Those actions have incensed some Mars scientists, particularly the implementation of measures so late in the launch game of the one-of-a-kind MSL - headed for liftoff in 2009.

“It’s especially frustrating to see such far-reaching cuts to the scientific payload made so late in the development process,” notes Jim Bell, a space scientist and Mars exploration expert at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

“Many of the instruments that are being cut back or removed are nearly complete. NASA’s planned cuts have a ‘penny wise, pound foolish’ feel to them, which is extremely frustrating and surprising,” Bell told me.

Bell said that NASA officials discuss the MSL hits as relatively minor cuts that will only have small effects on science, but “the reality is that these proposed cuts will have a large and negative influence on Martian science and on the rover’s ability to achieve mission success.”

Bell added that “it’s a sad situation that the next Mars rover appears to be getting cut back towards having less scientific capability than a single MER (Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit or Opportunity), but still at four times the price!”

Some scientists angrily point to a new add-on to the MSL - a sample cache device now being designed to be placed on the rover. That gear is being touted as a way to kick-start a larger effort to collect bits and pieces of Mars for return back to Earth by robotic means.

Cash for the cache hardware for MSL comes from a different pot of NASA money, not from the robotic Mars program. That device is under development at NASA Ames Research Center. Basically, it’s a single chamber container with open mesh sides so that dust can fall out.

Initially, the add-on gear was priced at some $2 million, but sources now tell me that its cost has dropped substantially - down to roughly $1 million.

Bottom line to all of this - MSL now means Money, Sanity, and Leftovers. But stay tuned.

Japan’s planned launch of the Kaguya moon orbiter tonight may be half a world away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t listen in.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has a dedicated website for its Kaguya lunar mission that includes launch countdown updates and, as tonight’s 9:31 p.m. EDT (0131 Sept. 14 GMT) liftoff approaches, live video broadcast and webcast information. The spacecraft is already at its launch pad in anticipation for tonight’s liftoff, according to the most recent update.

Kaguya, formerly known as SELENE, is a three-ton lunar orbiter equipped with 14 instruments and two baby satellites to study the moon’s surface, subsurface and gravitational field. JAXA officials are touting the probe as the largest lunar mission since NASA’s Apollo manned flights in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

The lunar orbiter will launch atop a Japanese H-2A rocket from the country’s island-based Tanegashima Space Center. JAXA’s live broadcast coverage will begin about an hour before the planned launch and run until an hour after the liftoff, the space agency said.

You can access JAXA’s live launch coverage here. More information on the broadcast itself is available here.

Click here for SPACE.com’s look at Kaguya and its moon-watching mission.

The launch of Japan’s hefty SELENE moon probe this week has been delayed one day due to weather concerns.

Nicknamed Kaguya after a princess in a Japanese fairy tale, the three-ton lunar orbiter is now slated to launch spaceward late Thursday at 9:31 p.m. EDT (0131 Sept. 14 GMT). It will be Friday morning at the probe’s Tanegashima Space Center launch site in Japan.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Kaguya probe carries 14 different science instruments to study the lunar surface and its gravity field as part of Japan’s SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (SELENE) mission. Kaguya carries a pair of mini-satellites to aid its planned one-year study of the moon.

Anticipated bad weather at Kaguya’s launch site was expected to hinder prelaunch preparations, JAXA officials said. Liftoff was slated for Wednesday night at 9:35 p.m. EDT (0135 Sept. 13 GMT).

“We will reexamine weather and other conditions tomorrow for launch on the 14th,” JAXA officials said.

Kaguya is the first of a flotilla of moon-bound probes from Japan, China, India and the U.S. to be launched in 2007 and 2008.

The search for aero-adventurer, Steve Fossett, continues after the pilot has been lost since September 3. Search teams have failed to find Fossett and evidence of his downed plane for nearly a week.

A number of organizations have banded together to provide use of GeoEye satellite photos of Nevada territory over which Fossett flew, but failed to return to his takeoff point. GeoEye is a private Earth remote sensing satellite imagery provider.

Now, using Google Earth and a special file to access newly snapped satellite imagery of Fossett’s last whereabouts, you too can join in on the search via your computer.

For more details, go to:

http://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=9TSZK4G35XEZJZG21T60&kw=Flash

The hunt for evidence that a 980-foot long feature on Mt. Ararat in Turkey might be the remains of Noah’s Ark has taken on a new dimension, quite literally.

Satellite Imaging Corporation of Houston, Texas has created a 3D terrain model of the so-called “Mt. Ararat anomaly” - making use of stereo IKONOS satellite image data to create a flyover of the site in remote northeastern Turkey.

The high-tech effort involves GeoEye, INTA Space Turk, along with the talents of Satellite Imaging Corporation.

Porcher Taylor, an associate professor at the University of Richmond’s School of Continuing Studies, has been at the forefront of utilizing Earth orbiting remote sensing spacecraft to study the Ararat Anomaly from on-high. In a press statement, he explained: “To be best of my knowledge, to date, only 2D satellite missions had been flown over the anomaly, not stereo missions.”

Taylor notes that GeoEye’s IKONOS satellite serves as a “space-based Indiana Jones” over the anomaly. Furthermore, the GeoEye-1 — to be launched early next year — will make the controversial anomaly almost twice as visible due to that spacecraft’s ultra-powerful 0.4 meter resolution.

The purported anomaly lies surrounded by rugged strato-volcanic rock at the northwestern corner of Mt. Ararat’s western plateau. It sits mostly buried underneath a permanent glacier and drew attention because of its relatively smooth surface texture and unusual physical composition, according to some interpretations. The site occupied by the anomaly is located at 15,300 feet above sea level.

To take your own flyover of the site courtesy of Satellite Imaging Corporation, go to:

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/gallery/quicktime-mt-ararat-low.html

Also, check out:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/9/prweb550721.htm