Exploring Space

Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster?

2006-06-29T14:07:00.000-05:00

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft winds its way on a nine-year journey toward Pluto and the outer solar system, at least one expert wonders why such missions need to take so long.

Paul A. Czysz, a 30-year veteran of the industry, continuing consultant to the U.S. military and professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at St. Louis University, thinks NASA can curb the travel time to the outer planets from nearly a decade to a matter of weeks - something he considers critical for the human exploration of the solar system. What's required, he said, is a renewed commitment to nuclear propulsion.

Czysz, who with Claudio Bruno has just published the book, "Future Spacecraft Propulsion Systems" (Springer-Verlag Telos) explored this possibility recently in an interview with SpaceDaily.com.

Read more at...

Internation Space Station as Seen From Earth!

2006-06-16T11:49:00.000-05:00

A team at the Public Observatory in Munich, Germany, use professional equipment to capture spectacularly detailed images, some of which even show the Station’s communication antennae. This image was captured early in the morning on 12 June 2006.

Source

It's Raining Aliens!

2006-06-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis’s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens. In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples—water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis’s home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001—contain microbes from outer space.

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600˚F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250˚F.) So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

Last winter, Louis sent some of his samples to astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at Cardiff University in Wales, who are now attempting to replicate his experiments; Wickramasinghe expects to publish his initial findings later this year.

Meanwhile, more down-to-earth theories abound. One Indian government investigation conducted in 2001 lays blame for what some have called the “blood rains” on algae. Other theories have implicated fungal spores, red dust swept up from the Arabian peninsula, even a fine mist of blood cells produced by a meteor striking a high-flying flock of bats.

Louis and his colleagues dismiss all these theories, pointing to the fact that both algae and fungus possess DNA and that blood cells have thin walls and die quickly when exposed to water and air. More important, they argue, blood cells don’t replicate. “We’ve already got some stunning pictures—transmission electron micrographs—of these cells sliced in the middle,” Wickramasinghe says. “We see them budding, with little daughter cells inside the big cells.”

Louis’s theory holds special appeal for Wickramasinghe. A quarter of a century ago, he co-authored the modern theory of panspermia, which posits that bacteria-riddled space rocks seeded life on Earth. “If it’s true that life was introduced by comets four billion years ago,” the astronomer says, “one would expect that microorganisms are still injected into our environment from time to time. This could be one of those events.”

Source

Saturn's Length of Day Determined

2006-05-25T14:51:00.000-05:00

We all know Earth rotates every 24 hours, but scientists have long had difficulty pinpointing how long the day is on Saturn. The magnetometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft has, for the first time ever, measured a periodic signal in Saturn's magnetic field, key information to finally understanding the length of a Saturn day and the evolution of this gaseous planet.

The latest research suggests a Saturn day is 10 hours, 47 minutes, 6 seconds (plus or minus 40 seconds). That's 8 minutes slower than NASA Voyager results from the early 1980s, and slower than previous estimates from another Cassini instrument. The magnetometer results provide the best estimate of the Saturn day to date, because it can see deep inside Saturn. These Cassini results are in the May 4 issue of the journal Nature.

"Measuring the rotation period of a rocky planet like Earth is easy, but measurements for planets made of gas, such as Saturn, pose problems," said the lead author of the paper, Dr. Giacomo Giampieri, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Planets rotate around their "spin" axes as they orbit about the sun. Rocky planets like Earth and Mars have rotation periods that are easy to measure because we can see surface features as they go by, such as the continents as viewed from space. Gaseous planets do not have a solid surface to track.

The magnetic field is generated deep inside Saturn's liquid metallic core by flowing electric currents. By measuring the field, researchers can determine the length of the day on Saturn.

"Making this measurement has been one of the most important science goals for the mission," said Professor Michele Dougherty of Imperial College London. "Finding a distinct periodic rhythm in the magnetic field helps us understand the internal structure of Saturn that in turn will help us understand how it formed."

Knowing the length of a day or how fast the planet rotates is critical to understanding the internal structure of the planet and modelling the weather patterns on Saturn.

On approach to Saturn, Cassini's radio and plasma wave instrument measured radio signals and predicted that the day on Saturn was 10 hours, 45 minutes, 45 seconds. That was considered a very good estimate at the time.

Since the Voyager days scientists have been seeing changes in the period of radio observations. They knew that it was virtually impossible to slow down or speed up a mass as large as Saturn. As Cassini's measurements of the rhythms of natural radio signals from the planet continued to vary, scientists began to realize these signals were probably not a direct measurement of the internal rotation rate. Suddenly the length of Saturn's day became uncertain. Measurements of the magnetic field help scientists "see" deep inside Saturn and may have finally solved this puzzle.

"Our magnetic field measurements have remained constant since Cassini entered orbit almost two years ago, while radio measurements since the Voyager era have shown large variability. By monitoring the magnetic field over the rest of the mission, we will be able to solve this puzzle," Giampieri.

In addition to Giampieri the other authors are: Michele Dougherty, from Imperial College, London; Edward Smith also from JPL; and Christopher Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The magnetometer team is based at Imperial College in London, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.

Voyager Reaches The Edge of Our Solar System

2006-05-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

As the 28-year-old Voyagers 1 and 2 spacecraft approach the edge of interstellar space, they have found that the heliosphere, the "bubble" within which the sun dominates, bulges outward in the northern hemisphere and is pressed inward in the south. Voyager 1, flying about 34 degrees north of the equator, crossed the termination shock and entered the outermost layer of the heliosphere about 9 billion miles from the sun. Meanwhile Voyager 2, about 26 degrees south of the equator, finds that the shock may be nearly a billion miles closer to the sun.

Scientists believe that the observed discrepancies may be attributed to an interstellar magnetic field pressing inward on the southern hemisphere. Voyager 2 will determine the exact location of the shock in the south when it crosses it sometime before the end of next year. Then scientists will have a better idea of how strong the magnetic field is outside of the heliospheric bubble.

Voyager 2 is also finding that the shock in the south is a source of low energy ions as was discovered by Voyager 1 in the north. Contrary to earlier predictions, however, neither Voyager 1 nor 2 have found the source of higher energy anomalous cosmic rays.

Both Voyager spacecraft were launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida: Voyager 2 on Aug. 20, 1977 and Voyager 1 on Sept. 5, 1977 on a faster, shorter trajectory than its twin. The mission is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology.

What is it like?

A trio of surprise discoveries from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft reveals intriguing new information about our solar system's final frontier. The findings appear in the Sept. 23 issue of Science.

The surprises come as the hardy, long-lived spacecraft approaches the edge of our solar system, called the heliopause, where the sun's influence ends and the solar wind smashes into the thin gas between the stars.

"These are just the most recent of many surprises Voyager has revealed in its 28-year journey of discovery. They tell us that the interaction of our sun with the surrounding interstellar matter from other stars is more dynamic and complex than we had imagined, and that there is more yet to be learned as Voyager begins the final leg of its race to the edge of interstellar space," said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Voyager 1 is expected to pass beyond the heliopause into interstellar space in eight to 10 years, with Voyager 2 expected to follow about five years later.

Voyager 1 has already passed the termination shock, where the million-mile-per-hour solar wind abruptly slows and becomes denser and hotter as it presses against interstellar gas. It was expected the wind beyond the shock would slow to a few hundred thousand miles per hour. But the Voyager scientists were surprised to find that the speed was much less, and at times the wind appeared to be flowing back inward toward the sun.

"This could mean that the outward pressure of wind was decreasing as the sun entered the less active phase of its 11-year cycle of sunspot activity," said Stone.

Another surprise: the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field in the outer solar system varied more slowly beyond the termination shock. As the sun rotates every 26 days, the direction of the field alternates every 13 days. That field is carried out by the solar wind, with the alternating directions forming a pattern of zebra stripes moving outward past the spacecraft. One could imagine a zebra with giant "magnetic stripes" running past the spacecraft and Voyager 1 "observing" an alternating stripe every 13 days. After the shock, the "zebra" with its stripe pattern was moving at nearly the same speed as Voyager, so that it took more than 100 days for the stripe to pass the spacecraft and for the magnetic field to switch directions.

Perhaps the most puzzling surprise is what Voyager 1 did not find at the shock. It had been predicted that interstellar ions would bounce back and forth across the shock, slowly gaining energy with each bounce to become high speed cosmic rays. Because of this, scientists expected those cosmic ray ions would become most intense at the shock. However, the intensity did not reach a maximum at the shock, but has been steadily increasing as Voyager 1 has been moving farther beyond the shock. This means that the source of those cosmic rays is in a region of the outer solar system yet to be discovered.

More information and visuals about Voyager are available online at http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/voyager_agu.html .

Still operating in remote, cold and dark conditions billions of miles from the sun, the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft owe their longevity to radioisotope thermoelectric generators which produce electricity from the heat generated by the natural decay of plutonium.

Caltech manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which built and operates Voyager 1 2. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., built the magnetometers.

May The Force Be With Them

2006-05-22T14:15:00.000-05:00

Michael Foale holds the SPHERES Beacon on the ISS. If there are bowling-ball size satellites flying in formation inside the International Space Station, where's Luke Skywalker?

What may sound like a scene straight from a "Star Wars" movie is actually an experiment that will test how well spacecraft can fly in formation and then rendezvous and dock without the aid of a human pilot.

Astronaut Jeff Williams won’t need the Force or a lightsaber May 18 when he unveils the first of three free-flying nano-satellites and releases it for a test flight inside the U.S. Destiny Lab.

Developing autonomous formation flying and docking control algorithms is an important step in making future space missions possible. Today, the ability to coordinate and synchronize multiple unmanned spacecraft in tightly controlled spaces can only be done through the magic of movies. But, SPHERES could someday make it a reality.

SPHERES stands for Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Re-orient Experiment. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., developed the experiment to test formation flying and multi-spacecraft control algorithms for the Air Force and NASA.

The first SPHERES satellite arrived aboard the 21 Progress vehicle on April 26.

Each satellite is about 8 inches in diameter, weighs about 7 pounds, and has its own internal avionics, software, and communications systems. They are powered by two AA batteries and will use carbon dioxide gas thrusters to maneuver through the Destiny Lab.

As the satellites fly through the station, they will communicate with each other and an ISS laptop through a wireless link.

ISS008-E-19132 - The SPHERES Beacon / Beacon Tester floats on the ISS. Image to right: The SPHERES Beacon / Beacon Tester floats in the Unity node of the space station. Credit: NASA

During Expedition 8 and 9, ISS crewmembers performed tests without the satellite to evaluate the ultra-sound and infrared beacons the satellites will use to determine their position.

During Expedition 13, Williams will initiate and monitor a series of test flights in which the satellite performs 10 to 15 pre-planned maneuvers, each lasting 5 to 10 minutes.

Between test flights, Mission Control and the MIT ground team will evaluate the satellite’s flying performance and make any needed software modifications. It will be tested for attitude control, station keeping, re-targeting, collision avoidance and fuel balancing algorithms. A simple Velcro docking system will be used to test its rendezvous and docking capability.

Williams also may manually fly the satellite using keyboard commands issued from a laptop.

The lessons learned from this experiment could also be used to develop free-flying robotic assistants capable of helping astronauts on future spacewalks.

The second satellite is scheduled to launch to the station on STS-121 in July 2006. The third will be launched on STS-116. Three will also remain on the ground for testing.

Moon Rocket Engines Chosen

2006-05-19T12:46:00.000-05:00

NASA has chosen the RS-68 engine to power the core stage of the agency's heavy lift cargo launch vehicle intended to carry large payloads to the moon.

The announcement supersedes NASA's initial decision to use a derivative of the space shuttle main engine as the core stage engine for the heavy lift launch vehicle.

The cargo launch vehicle will serve as NASA's primary vessel for safe, reliable delivery of resources to space. It will carry large-scale hardware and materials for establishing a permanent moon base, as well as food, fresh water and other staples needed to extend a human presence beyond Earth orbit.

Recent studies examining life-cycle cost showed the RS-68 is best suited for NASA's heavy-lift cargo requirements. The decision to change the core stage engine required an increase in the size of the core propulsion stage tank, from a 27.5-foot diameter tank to 33-foot diameter tank, to provide additional propellant required by the five RS-68 engines.

The RS-68 is the most powerful liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen booster in existence, capable of producing 650,000 pounds of thrust at sea level. In contrast, the space shuttle main engine is capable of producing 420,000 pounds of thrust at sea level. The RS-68, upgraded to meet NASA's requirements, will cost roughly $20 million per engine, a dramatic cost savings over the shuttle main engine.

The prime contractor for the RS-68 engine is Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is the same company that manufactures the shuttle main engine.

The RS-68 is used in the Delta IV launcher, the largest of the Delta rocket family developed in the 1990s by the U.S. Air Force for its evolved expendable launch vehicle program and commercial launch applications.

The cargo launch vehicle effort includes multiple project element teams at NASA centers and contract organizations around the nation and is led by the Exploration Launch Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The project office is part of the Constellation Program led by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Constellation is a key program of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.

For information about NASA's exploration efforts, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

Explore Mars Now

2006-05-18T12:52:00.000-05:00

There is a really cool website that I just found, that lets you explore a Mars base, rover and more while on the red planet. It is completely interactive so you feel like you are actually there! Check it out at www.exploremarsnow.org

Discovery Connected to Tank and Boosters

2006-05-17T16:33:00.000-05:00

NASA technicians attached space shuttle Discovery to its external fuel tank and solid-fuel booster rockets over the weekend, the agency announced Tuesday.

The mating continues preparations for Discovery's next launch on the STS-121 mission to the International Space Station, currently scheduled for no earlier than July 1.

During that flight, NASA will continue to evaluate safety procedures to assure that the three remaining orbiters have returned to a satisfactory level of reliability for the five years and 17 missions left in their operational lifetimes.

Discovery also will deliver materials for future station expansion, including the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo, itself carrying more than two tons of equipment and supplies.

Steve Lindsey will command the mission, flying with pilot Mark Kelly, spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers and mission specialists Stephanie Wilson and Lisa Nowak.

ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter is also part of the crew and will remain on the station for several months. Reiter's arrival will give the station its first three-person crew since May 4, 2003.

Source

NASA Exploration Strategizing Starts

2006-05-16T13:33:00.000-05:00

Why are we going to the moon? What will we do when we get there? Approximately 200 participants from 13 countries grappled with these questions during NASA's Exploration Strategy Workshop, which concluded Friday.

The four-day workshop was the first in a series of activities planned for 2006 focusing on defining a strategy for lunar exploration, including the role of the moon as a stepping stone to Mars and other destinations.

Attendees included participants from federal agencies, aerospace companies, academia and entrepreneurial space commercialization companies. International participation brought attendees from Australia, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India, Italy Japan, South Korea, Russia and Ukraine.

After an initial day of background briefings, participants were assigned to one of seven multidisciplinary teams to identify the themes and objectives for lunar exploration and develop a list of issues and constraints requiring further consideration.

"The collection of ideas, perspectives and justification for lunar exploration themes gathered from this workshop will be a blueprint anyone can use whenever a new opportunity for a lunar mission or activity arises," said NASA's Deputy Administrator Shana Dale.

NASA will be working throughout the summer to integrate the output from the workshop with several other sources, including submissions received through a Request for Information issued earlier this month.

Pre Big Bang Physics

2006-05-15T15:11:00.000-05:00

Here is some new interesting information concerning the big bang theory and what happened before it.

Researchers using quantum gravitational calculations are attempting to find threads of data that could lead to an understanding of what happened before the universe was born in the event known as the Big Bang, some 13.7 billion years ago.

"General relativity can be used to describe the universe back to a point at which matter becomes so dense that its equations don't hold up," said physicist and lead researcher Abhay Ashtekar of Penn State University. "Beyond that point, we needed to apply quantum tools that were not available to Einstein."

According to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, the Big Bang represents the birth of not only matter, but also of space-time itself.

By combining quantum physics with general relativity, however, Ashtekar and colleagues report they have been able to develop a model that describes a transition from a previous universe, through the Big Bang to an expanding universe that exhibits physics similar to the one that exists today.

Reporting in the current issue of Physical Review Letters, the team said their calculations reveal that prior to the Big Bang, there was a contracting universe with space-time geometry otherwise similar to the current expanding universe.

As gravitational forces pulled this previous universe inward, it reached a point at which the quantum properties of space-time cause gravity to become repulsive, rather than attractive.

"Using quantum modifications of Einstein's cosmological equations, we have shown that in place of a classical Big Bang there is in fact a quantum bounce," Ashtekar said. "We were so surprised by the finding that there is another classical, pre-Big Bang universe that we repeated the simulations with different parameter values over several months, but we found that the Big Bounce scenario is robust."

The idea of another universe existing prior to the Big Bang has been proposed before, but this is the first time scientists have developed a mathematical description that systematically establishes its existence and deduces space-time geometry in that universe.

The team used loop quantum gravity, a leading approach to the problem of the unification of general relativity with quantum physics. The concept was pioneered at Penn State's Institute of Gravitational Physics and Geometry, which Ashtekar heads.

Source

LEMUR Robots Going to Hitchhike to Space

2006-05-12T13:29:00.000-05:00

Lemurs, those wide-eyed, active, monkey-like animals running around the island in the movie "Madagascar," are known for their ability to leap. A robotic lemur being tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory moves more slowly, but might someday take its own giant leap - by going into space with astronauts.

"Lemur," short for the Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot, was originally conceived to help maintain future spacecraft and space stations. It weighs in at just 26 pounds (12 kilograms) and is small enough to hitch a ride on the space shuttle or NASA's planned crew exploration vehicle.

"Lemur could be an astronaut's pet monkey," says JPL engineer Brett Kennedy, principal investigator for the robotic project. "It can perform tasks that are too small for astronauts to do easily. It's built to get into the nooks and crannies of a structure."

To make Lemur flexible and versatile, Kennedy and his team combined the body styles and abilities of an octopus, a crab and a primate into a six-limbed robot with Swiss army knife tendencies. Attachable tools fit onto each limb and perform a variety of functions. Lemur can support itself evenly on three legs while two other limbs are freed up to work. And the sixth limb? "It's a bonus, and besides, five limbs would look funny," Kennedy says.

Since there's no gravity in space, Lemur could work upside down, as long as one limb is anchored. Astronauts could instruct Lemur to perform simple fixes inside or outside a spacecraft, eliminating the need for a human spacewalk.

Lemur's circular body enables it to move in any direction. Its "eyes," two stereo cameras on a circular track mounted on top, can swivel freely, which means the base of the robot doesn't have to rotate. "It saves time, because we can turn the cameras in the direction we want to move and then go," explains Kennedy. Lemur also has a palm-sized camera that doubles as a microscope.

In JPL test labs, Lemur has already learned some impressive tricks. For example, one limb has fastened a screw into a structure, with another limb shining a flashlight on the operation. In one experiment, engineers attached an ink pen to one of Lemur's limbs and developed a set of computer programs to teach the robot how to write its name.

With all its gadgetry and talents, Lemur might have a bright future not only as an assistant astronaut, but also as a Martian rock climber. Lemur could scamper up much steeper hills and cliffs than the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that are currently wheeling around on Mars. "We built Lemur with limbs so it can use both arms and legs just as a biological primate would," Kennedy said.

Kennedy and his colleagues hope Lemur and its sibling, Lemur IIb, will be ready to make the leap to space travel within the next decade. At that point, back on Earth, Kennedy and his colleagues will also be leaping for joy.

NASA Will Work With India on Moon Mission

2006-05-10T13:31:00.000-05:00

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Indian Space Research Organization Chairman G. Madhavan Nair signed an agreement today to put two NASA scientific instruments on India's maiden voyage to the moon. The Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter is expected to luanch in late 2007 or early 2008.

Griffin is touring Indian Space Research Organization facilities this week. He will visit its satellite development center, its launch vehicle production center, and its launch site.

"It is my hope and belief that as we extend the reach of human civilization throughout the solar system, the United States and India will be partners on many more technically challenging and scientifically rewarding projects," Griffin said at a ceremony in Bangalore.

"I very much look forward to the opportunity to see first hand India's impressive space facilities, to meet with your scientists and engineers and to learn more about your remarkable work."

Chandrayaan-1 is a truly international mission, with payloads from Europe as well as the United States. NASA's contribution includes the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, designed to look for lunar mineral resources, and an instrument known as Mini-SAR, which will look for ice deposits in the moon's polar regions.

Data from the two instruments will contribute to NASA's increased understanding of the lunar environment as it implements the Vision for Space Exploration, which calls for robotic and human exploration of the moon's surface.

Lunar Lander Analog Competition

2006-05-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

NASA announced Friday the agency's Centennial Challenge program has teamed with the X PRIZE Foundation to offer a $2 million Lunar Lander Analog Challenge.

"NASA's Centennial Challenge program is using the tool of prize competitions, so successfully demonstrated by the X-PRIZE, to plant the seeds for future space commercial activities," said Shana Dale, the agency's deputy administrator.

"We're confident the Lunar Lander Analog Competition will stimulate the development of the kinds of rockets and landing systems that NASA needs to return to the moon, while also accelerating the development of the private sub-orbital space flight industry."

Dale made the announcement at the International Space Development conference. The challenge will take place at the X PRIZE Cup Expo in Las Cruces, N.M., Oct. 20-22.

NASA is sponsoring the challenge, offering the competition's largest cash prize yet for developing a space vehicle that could support exploration of the Moon.

The X PRIZE Foundation is administering and executing the competitions at no cost to NASA, providing the venue for the competition and encouraging involvement by a diverse field of competitors.

"The X PRIZE Foundation is pleased to collaborate with NASA in this important milestone of space flight," said Peter H. Diamandis, the foundation's chairman. "This is a collaboration that works because the X PRIZE Foundation and NASA share the goal of pushing new technologies for space exploration. We look forward to hosting this competition at our X PRIZE Cup Expo."

The Lunar Lander Analog Challenge will take place in the vicinity of the Las Cruces (Calif.) International Airport. Competing teams will demonstrate their vehicle's ability to launch vertically, hover in mid-air, land on a target more than 100 yards away and then repeat the feat.

Source

NASA's New Spacecraft video

2006-05-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

Check out NASA's new spacecraft in a video that will start you off on earth, take you to the moon, and then return you back to good old earth in their new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). Video link

"Good Luck Mr. Gorsky"

2006-05-07T21:22:00.000-05:00

On July 20, 1969, as commander of the Apollo 11 lunar module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on the moon, "that's one small step for Man, one giant leap for mankind," were televised to earth and heard by Millions. But just before he reentered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark "good luck, Mr. Gorsky."

Many people at nasa though it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet cosmonaut.However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the "good Luck, Mr. Gorsky... Statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled. On july 5, 1995, in Tampa bay, Florida , while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the Question.

In 1938 when he was a kid in a small mid-west town, he was playing Baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbor's yard by the Bedroom windows. His neighbors were Mr. And Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "sex! You want sex?! You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on The moon!"

Update: According to About.com, this is not a true story. Pretty funny though so I will keep it up.

Titan Moon Video - See the Planet

2006-05-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

NASA has just released a video of the Titan moon, filmed from the Huygens probe that landed there January 14 of 2005. Check it out by clicking on one of the links below.

Play Movie - No Audio
Play Movie -With Narration

This movie was built with data collected during the 147-minute plunge through Titan's thick orange-brown atmosphere to a soft sandy riverbed by the European Space Agency’s Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer on Jan. 14, 2005,

In 4 minutes and 40 seconds, the movie shows what the probe “saw” within the few hours of the descent and the landing. On approach, Titan appeared as just a little disk in the sky among the stars, but after landing, the probe's camera resolved little grains of sand millions of times smaller than Titan.

At first, the Huygens camera just saw fog over the distant surface. The fog started to clear only at about 60 kilometers (37 miles) altitude, making it possible to resolve surface features as large as 100 meters (328 feet). Only after landing could the probe's camera resolve the little grains of sand. The movie provides a glimpse of such a huge change of scale.

A music-only version of the video is available at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08118

The Huygens probe was delivered to Saturn's moon Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, which is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. NASA supplied two instruments on the probe, the descent imager/spectral radiometer and the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The descent imager/spectral radiometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Gravitational Impulse Generator

2006-05-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

Dr. Evgeny Podkletnov began publishing a series of scientific papers in 2001, detailing the experimental results of what he called an "impulse gravity generator". This device reportedly produced hundreds of pounds of gravitational force in a non-diverging beam, capable of "punching holes through concrete and warping metal like hitting it with a sledgehammer". Podkletnov further added that this beam produced no recoil on the superconducting emitter itself, and that a radiation had been produced behind the device creating a molecular juxtaposition between plastics, metals, and living tissues similar to that described in the Hutchison Effect...

From Podkletnov: "My latest experiment is a device called the "gravity impulse generator", which utilizes a Marx-Generator discharge through a superconducting emitter in a high-magnetic field to create a wave in time-space with properties very close to gravity-waves. The similarities are apparent enough we're almost positive that it actually is a form of gravity. These impulses can be directionally projected in any direction in space, and they exert a force on any object in the path of propagation.

The force of the impulse depends entirely on the structure of the superconducting emitter and the voltage that we apply to it. Given the materials & voltages we currently have available, we can obtain large impulses capable of deforming metal plates with a thickness of a couple of inches, and we've also been able to demonstrate punching holes in thick concrete walls. The impulse deforms metal in the way that a hydraulic press might do it.

We also recorded a strange kind of non-focused radiation emanating from the back of the impulse-generator that was very harmful to biological tissue -- fortunately for us; the impulses were very short in time. It was very harmful to living organisms; we also observed a melting or molecular-juxtaposition effect of biological tissues with plastic materials, and even with metals to some extent."

This is yet another invention, in my opinion, that is paving the way for future space craft. Personally I hope this scientist is given funding by someone to continue his work.

Source link

Mini-Satellite Test Begin on May 18

2006-05-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

A satellite no bigger than a volleyball has lofty goals aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where its exploits could lead bigger and better robots for orbital work.

ISS Expedition 13 flight engineer Jeffrey Williams, currently aboard the station, is slated to deploy the first of three self-contained, free-flying satellites designed to hunt out a target for docking on May 18, NASA officials said.

The experiment is part of the SPHERES project led by David Miller, director of the Space Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to develop a network of mini-satellites capable of formation flying.

“To a large extent, this will give us a good shakedown to tell us that the software works,” said Jonathan How, an MIT aeronautics and astronautics associate professor participating in the study. “We’re all hoping that it works.”

The rudimentary docking tests on tap for the SPHERES project could help develop larger, more sophisticated systems to refuel satellites, coordinate positions among formation-flying space telescopes and enhance future spacecraft rendezvous systems, How told SPACE.com.

This month’s initial SPHERES tests have been a long-time coming for Miller and his team of graduate students.

The small satellites were initially slated to reach the ISS in 2004 – then ISS Expedition 8 commander Michael Foale installed a rendezvous beacon for the free flyers in the station’s Unity Node for their arrival. But the 2003 Columbia accident and subsequent shuttle delays prevented their launch. The first SPHERES unit arrived at the ISS on April 26 aboard the unmanned Russian Progress 21 cargo ship.

NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem told SPACE.com that 26 pounds (11 kilograms) of SPHERES supplies, including one satellite, 10 battery packs, seven gas cartridges, a beacon and one laptop computer are now aboard the ISS. Two additional satellites will be delivered during NASA’s STS-121 shuttle mission set to arrive at the ISS in July, she added.

Link

Comet Fragments Will Not Hit Earth

2006-05-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

Whew, that was a close one! There will be no tsunamis, firestorms or mass extinctions to spoil your Memorial Day weekend. Although the Internet is rife with speculation that a fragment of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will strike the Earth on May 25, neither the main comet nor any of its more than 40 fragments pose a danger to Earth. "We are very well acquainted with the trajectory of Comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3," said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. "There is absolutely no danger to people on the ground or the inhabitants of the International Space Station, as the main body of the object and any pieces from the breakup will pass many millions of miles beyond the Earth."

However, you can see the comet falling apart right before our eyes, thanks to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Recent Hubble images have uncovered many more fragments than have been reported by ground-based observers. These observations provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the demise of a comet nucleus.

None of the comet's fragments will come closer than 5.5 million miles to Earth during its closest approaches May 12 - 28. That's more than 20 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

The main fragment, designated fragment C, will pass closest to Earth on May 12 at a distance of approximately 7.3 million miles. It will be visible to small telescopes during the morning hours in the constellation Vulpecula. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope will observe the comet in May.

Astronomers have been observing the comet for more than 75 years. The trajectory of this comet has been monitored and refined over time, and its path around the sun is well understood. Amateur and professional astronomers around the world have been tracking its spectacular disintegration for years.

The comet is currently comprised of a chain of fragments, named alphabetically, stretching across several degrees on the sky. (The sun and moon each have an apparent diameter of about 1/2 of a degree.) Ground-based observers have noted dramatic brightening events associated with some of the fragments (as seen in the image below) indicating that they are continuing to break-up and that some may disappear altogether.

Hubble caught two of the fragments, B and G, shortly after large outbursts in activity. Hubble also photographed fragment C , which at the time was less active. The resulting images reveal that a hierarchical destruction process is taking place, in which fragments are continuing to break into smaller chunks. Several dozen "mini-fragments" are found trailing behind each main fragment, probably associated with the ejection of house-sized chunks of surface material that can only be detected in these very sensitive and high- resolution Hubble images.

Sequential Hubble images of the B fragment, taken a few days apart, suggest that the chunks are pushed down the tail by outgassing from the icy, sunward-facing surfaces of the chunks, much like space-walking astronauts are propelled by their jetpacks. The smaller chunks have the lowest mass, and so are accelerated away from the parent nucleus faster than the larger chunks. Some of the chunks seem to dissipate completely over the course of several days.

Deep-freeze relics of the early solar system, cometary nuclei are porous and fragile mixes of dust and ices. They can be broken apart by gravitational tidal forces when they pass near large bodies. For example, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was torn to pieces when it skirted near Jupiter in 1992, prior to plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere two years later. They can also fly apart from rapid rotation of the nucleus, break apart because of thermal stresses as they pass near the Sun, or explosively pop apart like corks from champagne bottles due to the outburst of trapped volatile gases. "

Catastrophic breakups may be the ultimate fate of most comets," says planetary astronomer Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who led the team that made the recent Hubble observations and who used Hubble previously to study the fragmentations of comets Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1993-1994, Hyakutake in 1996, and 1999 S4 (LINEAR) in 2000. Analysis of the new Hubble data, and data taken by other observatories as the comet approaches the Earth and Sun, may reveal which of these breakup mechanisms are contributing to the disintegration of 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

German astronomers Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann discovered this comet during a photographic search for asteroids in 1930, when the comet passed within 5.8 million miles of the Earth (only 24 times the Earth-Moon distance). The comet orbits the Sun every 5.4 years, but it was not seen again until 1979. The comet was missed again in 1985 but has been observed every return since then.

During the fall of 1995, the comet had a huge outburst in activity and shortly afterwards four separate nuclei were identified and labeled "A", "B", "C", and "D", with "C" being the largest and the presumed principal remnant of the original nucleus. Only the C and B fragments were definitively observed during the next return, possibly because of the poor geometry for the 2000-2001 apparition. The much better observing circumstances during this year's return may be partly responsible for the detection of so many new fragments, but it is also likely that the disintegration of the comet is now accelerating. Whether any of the many fragments will survive the trip around the Sun remains to be seen.

Mars Baby Boomers

2006-05-03T18:59:00.000-05:00

In human years, Spirit and Opportunity are baby boomers -- in their 50s and 60s. In dog years, they are over 350 years old! The rovers “keep on keeping on” despite having to drag squeaky wheels, losing full range of motion in stiff arms, and needing to reboot the ol’ computer brains every now and then to cure memory problems.

“I’m an old boomer at 58-years-old, and I’ve had to walk with a cane for arthritic problems in the past,” says Engineering Team Chief Jake Matijevic. The rovers have similar “arthritic” problems in their joints. The motor in Spirit's front right wheel no longer works. Opportunity's stuck heater circuit causes shoulder and elevation joints in its robotic arm to experience temperature cycles from -94°F to +158°F (-70°C to +70°C), resulting in wear and tear.

Yet, like most boomers, the rovers are young at heart. Their longevity and success continue to set high expectations for future generations of robots--and even human explorers--who will brave extreme conditions on Mars.

Keeping Warm and Flexible

Bundled in protective thermal blankets designed for the red planet's harsh climate, the rovers experience daily surface temperature changes of 150°F (66°C). Those extremes will make it difficult for future humans to dress appropriately for their adventures on Mars. Luckily, doctors are already looking into what humans would need to wear to survive on Mars.

Dr. Jeff Jones, a NASA Flight Surgeon from Johnson Space Center in Houston, has lived in simulated martian conditions in the Arctic for NASA’s Haughton-Mars Project, which uses the polar desert as a testing ground for future human exploration on Mars.

Jones has tested spacesuits that will protect planetary explorers from extreme temperature cycles and cancer-causing radiation that passes through the thin martian atmosphere. This past summer, Jones and the Haughton-Mars Project team donned “concept” space suits for real science experiments in the martian-like environment.

The adventurer scientists discovered suits made for Mars must be more flexible than current suits used to build the International Space Station. “Astronauts on Mars will need to be able to bend down to collect rock samples . . . and stand back up without falling,” laughs Jones.

Opportunity can relate. The rover is feeling the pain of constrictive joints and is at the brink of losing the ability to bend its arm down and reach rocks on the surface. From afar, diehard engineers are working around the rovers' aging problems, taking preventative measures and proper care of parts that have long passed their original three-month warranties.

"Mindful of the risk of losing the motor on the shoulder joint entirely, we came up with a plan that allows us to drive occasionally with the arm 'unstowed.' With care, the vehicle can move with the arm kind of dangling out there in the breeze," explains Matijevic. "I can’t remember anyone ever saying, 'This is hopeless.'"

Clean Living

Astronauts and rovers are far out of doctors' and engineers' reach, so the best way to solve a medical or mechanical problem is to prevent it from happening. Jones prescribes old-fashioned exercise to keep bodies working. "Astronauts on the International Space Station exercise for two hours a day to keep their heart and muscles strong," says Jones.

Mother Nature on Earth also provides anti-aging, body-cleansing agents. "I encourage everyone to eat things they don't like -- like broccoli and Brussels sprouts -- to keep your body healthy with antioxidants that sweep away toxic particles in your system," says Jones. "A challenge for astronauts is that we don’t yet have a dedicated spaceship refrigerator that will keep fruits fresh, so we're developing antioxidant supplement formulas they can take to stay healthy on their way to Mars," says Jones.

Mother Nature on Mars has a different system-cleansing solution for rovers. Turns out, the martian breeze has been helping the rovers age gracefully by sweeping dust off the energy-producing solar cells. Both vehicles have benefited from dust storms that have acted like heart and lung surgeries on humans, unclogging vital organs. "The dust storm cleaning events have revitalized the rovers," says Matijevic.

Setting Expectations for Future Generations

That's important, because the rovers depend on sun intake for their health. Like many boomers, they will be seeking the sunniest places to face winter, which is once again approaching on Mars. Having already lasted over a martian year - almost nine times longer than planned! - no one is sure just how much longer they will last. "Once the rovers stop working, I'll miss seeing new pictures every day, but since I don't consider myself ancient, I hope to work on the Mars Science Laboratory mission after the rovers die," smiles Matijevic.

And, as new generations of rovers continue driving faster and farther on Mars, future generations of astronauts--perhaps the grandchildren of today's Baby Boomers--will begin to head farther away from Earth. On the horizon is a whole new era for a human-robotic partnership, with the young-at-heart rovers raising the bar for all who follow.

Cloud Satellites Launched

2006-04-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

prep a week of postponements, NASA launched its CloudSat and CALIPSO missions Friday. Originally scheduled for liftoff April 21, the double satellite enterprise had experienced nasty weather, unavailability of refueling aircraft and a erroneous temperature sensor.

This time, however, the Delta II rocket carrying the two satellites lifted off at 3:02 a.m. quiet Time without a snag.

CALIPSO and CloudSat are fitted to provide a three-dimensional purview on planet's clouds and aerosols, and to study how clouds and the airborne particles order, evolve and affect water donate, climate, weather and air aura.

CloudSat's cloud-profiling radar is accessory than 1,000 times more sensitive than emblematic weather radar. It can discover clouds and distinguish between cloud particles and precipitation.

CALIPSO - which stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite observance - carries an machine that can unearth aerosol particles and can distinguish between aerosol and cloud particles.

"with the high resolution solemnization that CALIPSO leave provide, we leave get a ameliorate understanding of aerosol expatriate and how our climate system plant," vocal David Winker, the voyage's principal snooper at NASA's Langley analysis Center in Hampton, Va.

Mission plans motion for the satellites to be launched into a 705-kilometer (438-mile) circular, Sun-synchronous nippy orbit, where they will fly in formation just 15 seconds separate as members of NASA's A-train constellation, which includes three other Earth Observing system satellites.

A-Train includes NASA's Aqua and Aura satellites and France's Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with matter from a Lidar satellite.

Mission managers allow the data from CloudSat, CALIPSO and the variant A-familiarize satellites pass on be much new profitable when associated. Their measurements should improve insights into the global giving and extension of clouds, and lead to better weather forecasting and climate prediction.

Comet Near Earth Continues to Break Up

2006-04-27T15:23:00.000-05:00

Periodic comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has now broken into more than 30 different pieces as it approaches the Sun, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory report.

The comet, discovered May 2, 1930, by Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Wachmann at the Hamburg Observatory in Germany, was the third periodic comet discovered by the pair and the 73rd comet to be recognized as periodic.

Because of poor observing conditions, the comet was not recovered during its next return to perihelion in 1935-1936. As a result, calculations of the comet's orbit were rough and its close passes by Jupiter in October 1953, at 0.9 AU, and November 1965, at 0.25 AU, further degraded astronomers' predictions.

Source

New Space Station to Be Built

2006-04-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

China will launch Shenzhou VII with three astronauts in September 2008, after the Beijing Olympic Games, said Song Zhengyu, deputy director-designer of carrier rocket F of March II and research fellow of the first institute of the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp (CASTC).

The preparation work goes smoothly, with the rocket to be ready at the end of this year. The selection and training of the three astronauts is getting under way.

Different form Shenzhou VI, the astronauts of Shenzhou VII will step out of the module for a space walk, operation, tightening up screws, and installment of equipment, with the aim to get ready for the building of a space station.

After the launch of Shenzhou VII, a space station with 20 tons will be built, Song said, adding that Shenzhou VII will also be launched at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northweat China's Gansu Province.

Source

Spitzner Captures "Mountains of Creation"

2006-04-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

Captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared eyes, a new majestic image resembles the iconic "Pillars of Creation" picture taken of the Eagle Nebula in visible light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. Both views feature star-forming clouds of cool gas and dust that have been sculpted into pillars by radiation and winds from hot, massive stars.

The Spitzer image shows the eastern edge of a region known as W5, near the Perseus constellation 7,000 light-years away. This region is dominated by a single massive star, whose location outside the pictured area is "pointed out" by the finger-like pillars. The pillars themselves are colossal, together resembling a mountain range. For comparison, the pillars in the Eagle Nebula are less than one-tenth their size.

Source