August 13, 2009
May 27, 2008
Phoenix lands
W00T! The Phoenix lander successfully landed on Mars late yesterday. From Space.com, a stunning picture taken by the Mars Orbiter caught Phoenix on its' way down:
...and then Phoenix sent back this shot after landing:
Just. Wow.
April 04, 2008
Discovery prep
April 25, 2007
Stargates needed
WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."
The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.
There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth's with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards.
"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."
Paging Sam and O'Neill...
h/t Glenn
March 12, 2007
Major geek moment
from Dave at Garfield Ridge. I'm so jealous I can hardly frakking stand it.
January 29, 2007
The Real Reasons
This is why I'm a big fan of Stargate SG-1.
via Insty
...and no, I haven't forgotten the pics from the opening, just haven't gotten around to 'webifying' them. It'll happen soon :^)
September 27, 2006
ISS transits sun
This is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time
September 15, 2006
Ah, the beauty
...of a cool crisp day in Alabama. Tonight-
:^)
September 01, 2006
August 31, 2006
Dang bureaucrats
He copies the Instaman...
Heh.
August 27, 2006
You knew it was going to happen
August 25, 2006
The first picture sent back from the ISS
...is cool
Like I have said before, just because it's pretty.
click pic for full-size. Photo courtesy NASA.
August 03, 2006
Just because
...it's pretty. A neutron star explosion we saw in 2004 that blinded every x-ray satellite in orbit.
Image courtesy NASA
July 24, 2006
Jupiter
July 20, 2006
What a day
"On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body."
I will never forget that day. In the midst of war and protest America achieved one of the greatest, if not the greatest feat of technological excellence and human bravery of all time.
37 years ago. My mind boggles.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
July 19, 2006
Private spaceflight
Genesis 1 is working so well that the Bigelow folk have more data on their plate than they can handle. I'ma think'n that's a good problem to have. Ad Astra!
via Samizdata
July 18, 2006
A perfect touchdown
For those who didn't see it, yesterday's Discovery landing
July 04, 2006
STS-121
Discovery was successfully launched just now. There is no sight quite as awe-inspiring as a Space Shuttle launch!
June 13, 2006
That Special Geek Moment
When Picard met Darth...
via Rand Simberg
April 25, 2006
Scopefantastic
Calloo callay oh frabjous day! Late last afternoon I had a visit from the UPS guy and he left two BIG boxes, containing this. Don't expect to be able to contact me after dark for a while...
UPDATE 02:30 PM: Naturally, it's started raining and will probably continue until the end of the week. Sigh.
March 24, 2006
The Falcon has flown (Update- but not far)
From Space.com -
The first SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket roared skyward from its island launch site Friday marking the inaugural spaceflight for El Segundo, California's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
The two-stage rocket launched spaceward at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) from its Kwajalein Atoll launch site in the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands.
The rocket is expected to deploy the FalconSat-2 satellite built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The $800,000 spacecraft is designed to study the effect of space plasma on navigation and communications satellites. The U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are funding the planned spaceflight.
FalconSat-2 is a cube-shaped spacecraft that measures 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) per side and weighs about 43 pounds (19.5 kilograms). The Falcon 1 rocket is expected to deliver FalconSat-2 into an orbit about 279 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth.
The rocket's launch was delayed from a planned 4:00 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) launch due to the errant position of SpaceX's first stage booster retrieval ship, which was inside the launch's hazard area. The ship's placement was due to a misunderstanding between SpaceX officials and launch range managers, SpaceX said.
Way to go guys!
Update: KREP
After years of development and no less than three scrubbed attempts, a solitary rocket Falcon 1 rocket roared toward space Friday only to be lost just after liftoff, its SpaceX builders said.
The private launch firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) launched the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) in a space shot staged from the U.S. military's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands. But seconds after ignition, the video from the rocket showed a rolling motion and the feed was lost.
"I did have word that we did lose the vehicle," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president of business development. "Clearly this is a setback, but we're in this for the long haul."
The rocket was expected to deploy the FalconSat-2 satellite built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The $800,000 spacecraft was designed to study the effect of space plasma on navigation and communications satellites. The U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are funding the planned spaceflight.
The ill-fated launch marked SpaceX's fourth attempts to loft the first Falcon 1 after glitches prevented three earlier efforts.
Just damn.
March 23, 2006
SpaceX tries again
Woohoo! They're gonna give it another go
After three failed attempts, the private launch firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is once more set to debut its Falcon 1 rocket in a Friday space shot.
SpaceX officials delayed the launch 24 hours to allow additional time to system checks and reviews.
“We are feeling more and more confident with each countdown attempt,” said Elon Musk, founder of the El Segundo, California-based SpaceX, via e-mail from the firm’s launch site. “It is also worth noting that four countdown attempts is actually a small number for a brand new rocket from a brand new launch site.
Go Falcon! And, bring on the Dragon...
March 10, 2006
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
More action going on above Barsoom-
“It’s pretty exciting,” NASA researcher Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, a science team member for MRO’s HiRISE camera, said Thursday of the planned orbital arrival. “I am just going to be a basket of nerves.”
Larger than any of the three other orbiters currently studying Mars, NASA’s $ 720 million MRO mission carries a hefty suite of science tools to study the red planet with unprecedented detail.
The 4,806-pound (2,180-kilogram) probe is equipped with a six-instrument package that includes the ultra high-resolution HiRISE camera, a ground-penetrating radar and several other climate, atmosphere and surface scanning tools to tracking Mars’ water history and pinpointing potential landing sites for future missions.
“It’s the most technologically advanced payload that we’ve ever sent to another planet,” said James Graf, NASA’s MRO project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a March 8 mission update. “I think we’re ready.”
Space.com has the whole story. In related news, water geysers have been spotted on Saturn's moon Enceladus-
Saturn’s moon Enceladus may have pockets of liquid water lurking beneath its surface, feeding great jets that spew from the satellite and hinting at the possibility of a habitable environment, researchers said Thursday.
Observations from the Cassini spacecraft currently studying Saturn and its myriad moons shows Enceladus, one of the brightest objects in the Solar System, to be a geologist’s dream, with an active plume spewing water and other material spaceward, as well as a hot spot of thermal activity at its south pole.
“This finding has substantially broadened the range of environments in the solar system that might support living organisms, and it doesn't get any more significant than that,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in an e-mail interview. “I'd say we've just hit the ball right out of the park.”
Porco led one of nine studies of Enceladus, all of which are detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Science, based on Cassini’s observations from three flybys past the moon – each closer than the last – in February, March and July of 2005.
It just gets cooler and cooler. Just try and tell me we're not going to meet intelligent life out there sometime. We better get ready...
UPDATE 3:56 CT: Looks like we have a successful slowdown and orbital insertion. I can't wait to see the first pictures...
February 15, 2006
Space Elevator
How frickin' cool is this-
A slim cable for a space elevator has been built stretching a mile into the sky, enabling robots to scrabble some way up and down the line.
LiftPort Group, a private US company on a quest to build a space elevator by April 2018, stretched the strong carbon ribbon 1 mile (1.6 km) into the sky from the Arizona desert outside Phoenix in January tests, it announced on Monday.
The company's lofty objective will sound familiar to followers of NASA's Centennial Challenges programme. The desired outcome is a 62,000-mile (99,779 km) tether that robotic lifters – powered by laser beams from Earth – can climb, ferrying cargo, satellites and eventually people into space.
The recent test followed a September 2005 demonstration in which LiftPort's robots climbed 300 metres of ribbon tethered to the Earth and pulled taut by a large balloon. This time around, the company tested an improved cable pulled aloft by three balloons.
Rock solid
To make the cable, researchers sandwiched three carbon-fibre composite strings between four sheets of fibreglass tape, creating a mile-long cable about 5 centimetres wide and no thicker than about six sheets of paper.
We are truly fortunate to live in such times.
via Glenn
January 27, 2006
Shiny
| You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com |
January 19, 2006
Mission to Pluto- New Horizons
Woohoo- we're off to Pluto
NASA’s first probe bound for the planet Pluto and beyond rocketed toward the distant world Thursday after two days of delay due to weather.
A Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 5 rocket flung the New Horizons spacecraft spaceward at 2:00 p.m. EST (1900), sending the probe speeding away from Earth at about 36,250 miles per hour (58,338 kilometers per hour)– the fastest ever for a NASA mission. The probe should pass the Moon at 11:00 EST (0400 Jan. 20 GMT) on a nine-year trek towards Pluto.
"The United States has a spacecraft on its way to Pluto, the Kuiper Belt and on to the stars," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern during a post-launch press conference. "I have July 14, 2015 emblazoned on my calendar."
Godspeed.
December 04, 2005
Beautiful
Earth at night from space.
Click picture to see full size.
December 02, 2005
Just Because It's Beautiful
From HubbleSite.org: The Crab Nebula is a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans. This composite image was assembled from 24 individual exposures taken with the NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000. It is one of the largest images taken by Hubble and is the highest resolution image ever made of the entire Crab Nebula. (Image from NASA and ESA)
Wow.
November 23, 2005
Cool
SpaceX is lighting it's first candle on Friday. Wish I was there.
May 16, 2005
Trekkiness
James Lileks writes a paean to Star Trek- all of them. If your geek factor is near mine, read and weep.
April 18, 2005
Near miss
Just when you thought you already had enough to worry about, from the Times of London-
A HUGE asteroid which is on a course to miss the Earth by a whisker in 2029 could go round its orbit again and score a direct hit a few years later.
Astronomers have calculated that the 1,000ft-wide asteroid called 2004 MN4 will pass by the Earth at a distance of between 15,000 and 25,000 miles — about a tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon and close enough to be seen with the naked eye.
Although they are sure that it will miss us, they are worried about the disturbance that such a close pass will give to the asteroid’s orbit. It might put 2004 MN4 on course for a collision in 2034 or a year or two later: the unpredictability of its behaviour means that the danger might not become apparent until it is too late.
As a safety precaution, some experts are calling for 2004 MN4 to be “tagged” with a transponder that would constantly radio its position. Scientists hope that this would provide enough warning to allow emergency action if necessary, possibly by diverting the object away from the Earth.Other instruments on the probe could provide information about its composition.
Thanks to Glenn for the head's up. Tell me again why we're not spending enough on manned spaceflight? It's time to start leaving the cradle...
June 30, 2004
Titan Turns
More from Cassini-
bq. Cassini's piercing vision reveals a never-before-seen level of detail on Titan's surface as the moon executes nearly one complete rotation under the spacecraft's watchful gaze.
bq. Complex surface markings are visible. Dark, often linear markings, with seemingly preferred orientations, cover the moon's equatorial region, except throughout the large, bright Xanadu region. Such trends in surface features are often indicative of complex internal processes. Several individual bright regions, some with faint radial patterns, can be seen upon close inspection of the images, candidates for large recent cratering events. A persistent bright feature is also observed in the movie near the South polar region where ground-based astronomers had previously detected clouds.
Go here for the full story and more pics.
BTW, sorry for the light posting recently, but life and work had to come first...
June 21, 2004
They did it!
SpaceShipOne made its first successful flight this morning, piloted into space by Mike Melvill, who is now the world's first private sector astronaut. This changes everything, folks- the door is open now and there's no telling what is on the other side...
Ad Astra per Aspera!!
UPDATE: Wretchard, as usual, says it best-
bq. SpaceShipOne has successfully carried a man into outer space. Sixty two years-old old test pilot Mike Melvill has become the first person to win his astronaut's wings on a private aircraft. He will be old enough to remember this message from Centauri (.wav file). The stars were never made for those who refuse to look up; nor are they vouchsafed to those enslaved by ancient hatreds. Well done.
Well done, indeed!
FURTHER UPDATE: Dale Amon at Samizdata comments-
bq. SpaceShipOne is not a Commercial tourist spaceship. It is the pre-cursor. The success we have seen today makes it clear to the investment community that the regulatory problems are manageable; the risk is manageable... Most importantly they now know we are not all stark raving bonkers. We really can do this.
bq. The investors will come now. The decades of the Pyramid builders is nearly at an end. Linear growth via government funding will now be replaced by the exponential power of the market.
bq. This is indeed what free men and women can do.
Picture courtesy Fox News Channel
June 18, 2004
Counting Down
I found this on VodkaPundit in the comments to a post by Will Collier talking up the upcoming flight of SpaceShipOne-
bq. The word from some of my fellow homebuilders is that Mojave has turned into a modern woodstock for the technorati for this event. All hotel space, RV space and key locations on the roadside have already either filled up completely or they have scant space left. To say the air is electric with anticipation doesnt begin to catpure what the feeling is like there.
bq. We live in a country where entire cable networks are dedicated to the "do it yourself" industry where average people take on projects far beyond their skills and temperment. We crave customization, we pride ourselves in our ability to create our own vision of the world ( I say this while our host is engaged in the process of creating a new kitchen). No where else in the world do people think that they can just "do things".
bq. At the Air and Space museum in DC there are two aircraft that you see as you walk inside, one is the kitty hawk flyer, built not by scientists or government funds but by two ohio bicycle mechanics. That aircraft changed the world.
bq. Behind that, you see the voyager, first to fly around the world nonstop without refueling, designed, built and flown by two brothers. The fact that the voyager team accomplished its goal without the use of government funds, set the ground work for what will surely be the next entry into the air and space museum - SpaceShipOne.
bq. Only in America - would people think they could just go and 'Do things".
It's going to take FOREVER for Monday to get here...
June 17, 2004
Soon, Now, Soon
Burt flies SpaceShipOne Monday-pray. Wretchard has some thoughts.
June 14, 2004
Phoebe
The latest from Cassini-
bq. Phoebe delivers on its promise to reveal new wonders to Cassini by showing probable evidence of an ice-rich body overlain with a thin layer of dark material. The sharply-defined crater at above center exhibits two or more layers of alternating bright and dark material. Imaging scientists on the Cassini mission have hypothesized that the layering might occur during the crater formation, when ejecta thrown out from the crater buries the pre-existing surface that was itself covered by a relatively thin, dark deposit over an icy mantle. The lower thin dark layer on the crater wall appears to define the base of the ejecta blanket. The ejecta blanket itself appears to be mantled by a more recent dark surface lag.
bq. This image was obtained on June, 11 2004 at a phase, or Sun-Phoebe-spacecraft, angle of 79 degrees, and from a distance of 13,377 kilometers (8,314 miles). The image scale is approximately 80 meters (263 feet) per pixel. No enhancement was performed on this image.
Just outstanding. More at JPL
June 07, 2004
Woo Hoo!!
From Scaled Composites-
bq. Mojave, CA: A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world’s first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth’s atmosphere.
bq. SpaceShipOne will rocket to 100 kilometers (62 miles) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, it will demonstrate that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise. This event could be the breakthrough that will enable space access for future generations.
Buck Rogers, here we come!
May 26, 2004
Yow!
From JPL-
bq. Saturn's rings cast threadlike shadows on the planet's northern hemisphere. Note the translucent C ring, and thin outermost F ring. The image was taken with the Cassini narrow angle camera in visible light on May 10, 2004, at a distance of 27.2 million kilometers (16.9 million miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 162 kilometers (101 miles) per pixel. Contrast in the image was enhanced to aid visibility.
bq. 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 Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
May 25, 2004
Eye on the sky
bq. Celebrating one year since the launch of GALEX on April 28, 2003, this ultraviolet image of Messier 81 and Messier 82 (M81 & M82), a pair of galaxies lying 10 Million Light Years distant, illustrates the satellite's unique window on the Universe. The diameter of the image on the sky is 1.2 degrees, or more than twice the diameter of the full moon.
bq. The great spiral galaxy M81, similar in size and brightness to our Milky Way galaxy, is in the lower half of the image. The stars in its spiral arms have formed within the last 100 million years, as have most of the stars in a nearby dwarf galaxy just to the left of M81.
Gorgeous, huh? RTWT here
May 24, 2004
10000 Orbits
While the rovers get all the bandwidth in the news about Mars, another record was quietly set this weekend-
bq. Like a sweet, older sibling standing quietly to the side as the baby of the family gets all the "ooh's" and "aah's," the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter has blended into the background noise of cheers for the Mars Exploration Rover discoveries. But Odyssey deserves her own praise and applause this Saturday as she reaches a major milestone. At 5:29 p.m. PDT on May 22, 2004, Odyssey is scheduled to complete her 10,000th science mapping orbit around the red planet.
bq. "You know, we often take big numbers for granted in the business of exploring space: light years of distance, terabytes of data, millions of pounds of thrust," said Gaylon McSmith, Mars Odyssey Science Office Manager. "Believe me, to the scientists of this project, 10,000 orbits and everything it took to achieve this milestone is truly a BIG number. Odyssey's science return has been outstanding and 10,000 orbits has provided an absolute treasure trove of information that will benefit researchers for many years to come."
RTWT here and marvel at the kind of year space exploration is having in 2004...
May 11, 2004
Endurance Shines
From JPL-
bq. This approximate true-color image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the impact crater known as "Endurance." Scientists are eager to explore Endurance for clues to the red planet's history. The crater's exposed walls provide a window to what lies beneath the surface of Mars and thus what geologic processes occurred there in the past. While recent studies of the smaller crater nicknamed "Eagle" revealed an evaporating body of salty water, that crater was not deep enough to indicate what came before the water. Endurance may be able to help answer this question, but the challenge is getting to the scientific targets: most of the crater's rocks are embedded in vertical cliffs. Rover planners are currently developing strategies to overcome this obstacle.
bq. Presently, Opportunity is perched 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) away from the crater's edge. Endurance is roughly 130 meters (430 feet) across.
This image mosaic was taken by the panoramic camera's 480-, 530- and 750-nanometer filters on sols 97 and 98. It consists of a total of 258 individual images.
bq. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell (click on image above to see full-size version)
The performance of the two rovers is nothing short of astounding. NASA and JPL should get their props for this...
April 30, 2004
Saturn
From JPL-
bq. Saturn and its rings completely fill the field of view of Cassini's narrow angle camera in this natural color image taken on March 27, 2004. This is the last single 'eyeful' of Saturn and its rings achievable with the narrow angle camera on approach to the planet. From now until orbit insertion, Saturn and its rings will be larger than the field of view of the narrow angle camera.
Absolutely stunning. What a year this is being for space buffs...
March 26, 2004
Just for Fun
From JPL-
bq. The engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, home of some of the best six-wheeled exo-atmospheric off-roaders anywhere, have really done it this time. Their 2004 series MERs (Mars Exploration Rovers) are jam-packed with so many cutting-edge technologies (several literally with cutting edges) it takes a stack of owner's manuals the height of a Sherman tank to do them justice. Suffice it to say, the MER design team seems to have covered all their off-road/off-planet bases: active cruise control and roll stabilization, satellite radio, multi-zone climate control system, stability management, not two but four airbags, and an advanced onboard navigation system that not only provides excellent route management but also makes parallel parking between hematite outcroppings a veritable martian breeze.
Read entire here
March 15, 2004
Sedna
It appears that scientists have dicovered a new planet or planetesimal, named Sedna, in a highly elliptical orbit outside Pluto. They're giving a NASA press briefing right now, I'll update as I get new info. This is being quite a year for space buffs, eh?
Update: go here for more pictures
Update: Here's something from NASA-
bq. The object is three times farther away from Earth than Pluto, making it the most distant known in the solar system.
bq. "The Sun appears so small from that distance that you could completely block it out with the head of a pin," said Dr. Mike Brown, Caltech associate professor of planetary astronomy and leader of the research team. The object, unofficially named "Sedna," is 13 billion kilometers (8 billion miles) away from Earth.
bq. This is likely the first detection of the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud," a faraway repository of small icy bodies that supplies the comets that streak by Earth.
Update: more here
March 11, 2004
Just because
I thought this was a particularly artistic picture from the Spirit rover, so here it is...
March 10, 2004
Bunny ears on Mars
Now this is just cool-
bq. Like a rabbit in a hat, the identity of an oddity that looks like "bunny ears" in a picture from Mars has eluded the science and engineering teams. The public, also fascinated with the mysterious object, has asked in a slew of e-mails: What is it?
bq. It is a yellowish object measuring about 4 to 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) long that made its debut when Opportunity's eyes welcomed Earth to a new neighborhood on Mars in her mission success panoramic image. Meridiani Planum is a landscape unlike any other stop on our decades-long tour of the red planet. Still, it wasn't the conspicuous bedrock outcropping near the horizon that initially fascinated many people. It was the "bunny ears."
Go here and read the whole thing- a fascinating story- and be sure to view the high-res image. The two rovers are a runaway success, and I for one am damn proud of NASA, JPL, and the whole team that pulled this off.
bq. Like a rabbit in a hat, the identity of an oddity that looks like "bunny ears" in a picture from Mars has eluded the science and engineering teams. The public, also fascinated with the mysterious object, has asked in a slew of e-mails: What is it?
bq. It is a yellowish object measuring about 4 to 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) long that made its debut when Opportunity's eyes welcomed Earth to a new neighborhood on Mars in her mission success panoramic image. Meridiani Planum is a landscape unlike any other stop on our decades-long tour of the red planet. Still, it wasn't the conspicuous bedrock outcropping near the horizon that initially fascinated many people. It was the "bunny ears."
Go here and read the whole thing- a fascinating story- and be sure to view the high-res image. The two rovers are a runaway success, and I for one am damn proud of NASA, JPL, and the whole team that pulled this off.
March 02, 2004
Water on Mars?
Hot damn-
bq. Rover Finds Mars Was Wet Enough for Life
bq. WASHINGTON - Mars rover Opportunity has found evidence that the Red Planet was once wet enough for life to exist there, but the robot has not found any direct traces of living organisms, NASA (news - web sites) scientists announced Tuesday.
bq. A study of a fine, layered rock by the rover detected evidence of sulfates and other minerals that form in the presence of water. The finding suggests that if there had been life present when the rocks were formed, then the living conditions could have permitted an organism to flourish. The study, however, has found no direct evidence of life.
bq. "NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rover mission specifically to check whether at least one part of Mars had a persistently wet environment that could possibly have been hospitable to life," James Garvin, a lead NASA scientist, said in a statement. "Today we have strong evidence for an exciting answer: Yes."
Life on another planet. We should be finding evidence of that soon. Then maybe intelligent life... the mind reels.
February 27, 2004
Wow
Saturn, imaged by Cassini-
bq. The narrow angle camera onboard the Cassini spacecraft took a series of exposures of Saturn and its rings and moons on February 9, 2004, which were composited to create this stunning, color image. At the time, Cassini was 69.4 million kilometers (43.1 million miles) from Saturn, less than half the distance from Earth to the Sun. The image contrast and colors have been slightly enhanced to aid visibility. The smallest features visible in this image are approximately 540 kilometers across (336 miles).
-------------------------------
bq. The composite image signals the start of Cassini's final approach to the ringed planet and the beginning of monitoring and data collection on Saturn and its environment. This phase of the mission will continue until Cassini enters orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. 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 mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
I can't wait until we get there. This ha been a banner year for us space-nuts :-)
February 11, 2004
Stone Mountain
Scientists at JPL have named this rock "Stone Mountain" and it does bear a striking resemblance to Georgia's own piece of granite. They are concentrating on a particular area of the rock that they've nicknamed "Robert E" in deference to the carvings on the side of the namesake...
bq. This color image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the part of the rock outcrop dubbed Stone Mountain at Meridiani Planum, Mars. Scientists are examining Stone Mountain with the instruments on the rover's instrument deployment device, or "arm," in search of clues about the composition of the rock outcrop.
January 29, 2004
Spirit's Working Again
bq. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took and returned this image on January 28, 2004, the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. (Jan. 28, 6 pm PST)
This pic lifted from JPL's website. We now have two working rovers on Mars; take that ESA!
January 23, 2004
More Mars News
As Opportunity heads for a 9:05 Saturday night landing on the other side of Mars, Spirit communicated again with JPL/NASA at about 8:26AM EST this morning sending data at about a 120 bits/second rate for about 20 minutes. My jaw is aching from gritting my teeth. Imagine what the Opportunity team is going through, knowing that the same troubles could come to them (the two rovers are identical). Check here for the latest news.
January 22, 2004
Bad News
Just heard from CNN that NASA has not heard from Spirit for 24 hours. This is NOT good news...
UPDATE 01/22/04 16:10:
bq. Flight-team engineers for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission were encouraged this morning when Spirit sent a simple radio signal acknowledging that the rover had received a transmission from Earth. However, the team is still trying to diagnose the cause of earlier communications difficulties that have prevented any data being returned from Spirit since early Wednesday. (Jan. 22)
Think positive thoughts, think positive thoughts...
UPDATE 01/23/04 10:04:
bq. Washington - The US Spirit Mars rover communicated with Earth for 10 minutes overnight, one day after suffering a serious breakdown that cut off reception, Nasa said on Friday.
bq. Data sent by the rover was captured by one of the antennas of the international Deep Space Network near Madrid, Spain at 12.34GMT, Nasa said.
bq. The communications came about 90 minutes after the start of the Martian day at a transmission speed of 10 bits per second, which is considered very weak.
bq. Nasa engineers were to send Spirit several commands in the coming hours hoping to get some information about its condition and determine the source of its communication trouble.
WOOHOO! Maybe there's hope yet....
January 20, 2004
Just Wow
bq. A landscape gashed with valleys is revealed in the first image from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. It shows an aerial view of part of the Solar System's grandest canyon, the Valles Marineris.
RWTW here. Too bad the Beagle 2 failed, but Mars Express seems to be working quite nicely, thank you. Way to go ESA!
January 12, 2004
All Mars, 24/7/365
This latest picture from Spirit was created by compositing several shots into this 3-D rendering. Looks a lot like north Georgia to me (minus the beer cans of course).
This from SpaceDaily-
bq. NASA's Spirit rover now has its arm and all six of its wheels free, and only a single cable must be cut before it can turn and roll off its lander onto the soil of Mars. As that milestone is completed, scientists are taking opportunities to take extra pictures and other data.
During the past 24 hours -- the rover's 8th martian day on the planet, or "sol 8" -- pyro devices were fired slicing cables to free the rover's middle wheels and releasing pins that held in place its instrumented arm. The arm was then locked onto a hook where it will be stowed when the rover is driving.
bq. Because one airbag remains adjacent to the lander's forward ramp, the rover will turn about 120 degrees to its right and exit the lander from the side facing west-northwest on the planet -- also the direction of an intriguing depression that scientists have dubbed Sleepy Hollow.
Off we go!
January 09, 2004
My Name on Mars
This is a pic of the DVD containing my and several hundred thousand other names that went to Mars with Spirit. Thanks to RedRoverGoesTo Mars.org for the picture.
January 07, 2004
How it happened
A fascinating post on how Spirit got to Mars is here. Thanks to spacecraft for the link. Lotsa tasty links on both places...
We live in wonderful times, sometimes.
Blue Origin
Looking for a job? Looking for new horizons? Into Avionics? Check into Blue Origin and help us get into space- privately, permanently.
In Memoriam
This plaque was carried to Mars on the Spirit rover. They also sent an Israeli flag. Time for moonbat barking to begin from the jihadists... but to me it's a fitting memorial.
"Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the might ocean deep
It's own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea. "
Update: By the way, my name along with the names of all the other Planetary Society members is now on a DVD carried by Spirit. Makes me proud...
January 04, 2004
They Did It!
WOOHOO! The Mars Rover "Spirit" has landed and is up and running...
bq. Members of the Mars Exploration Rover team react upon getting the confirmation signal that Spirit was 'alive and well' on the surface of Mars.
Image: JPL/NASA
(click on image to expand)
SpaceDaily reports-
bq. NASA's Spirit rover has sent photographs of the site where it landed on Mars, officials said here late Saturday after receiving the newly transmitted images.
NASA's Spirit rover has sent photographs of the site where it landed on Mars, officials said here late Saturday after receiving the newly transmitted images.
bq. The images show part of the robot resting on a rocky plain, in front of an enormous boulder. The images are of excellent resolution, and were shown on screens in the mission control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.
bq. Spirit landed in the Gusev Crater, 15 degrees south of the Martian equator.
bq. Shortly before, NASA announced that the robot had successfully deployed the solar panel that will power its equipment and protect it from Martian temperatures, which can drop to minus 100 degrees C.
bq. A NASA announcer said the rover was now in "safe mode," signalling the start of the most ambitious exploration of the red planet ever undertaken -- three months searching for signs of water that would indicate present or past life on Earth's neighbor.
Let the exploration of Mars begin! Ad Astra per aspera.
bq. Members of the Mars Exploration Rover team react upon getting the confirmation signal that Spirit was 'alive and well' on the surface of Mars.
Image: JPL/NASA
(click on image to expand)
SpaceDaily reports-
bq. NASA's Spirit rover has sent photographs of the site where it landed on Mars, officials said here late Saturday after receiving the newly transmitted images.
NASA's Spirit rover has sent photographs of the site where it landed on Mars, officials said here late Saturday after receiving the newly transmitted images.
bq. The images show part of the robot resting on a rocky plain, in front of an enormous boulder. The images are of excellent resolution, and were shown on screens in the mission control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.
bq. Spirit landed in the Gusev Crater, 15 degrees south of the Martian equator.
bq. Shortly before, NASA announced that the robot had successfully deployed the solar panel that will power its equipment and protect it from Martian temperatures, which can drop to minus 100 degrees C.
bq. A NASA announcer said the rover was now in "safe mode," signalling the start of the most ambitious exploration of the red planet ever undertaken -- three months searching for signs of water that would indicate present or past life on Earth's neighbor.
Let the exploration of Mars begin! Ad Astra per aspera.
December 31, 2003
Beagle 2 Update
Space.com has the skinny-
bq. LONDON (AP) -- Scientists trying to find Europe's Beagle 2 Mars probe ruled out weather problems and a faulty onboard clock for its five-day silence, but considered a new possibility Monday -- a crater that may be blocking its signal.
bq. A new, detailed picture of the area of Mars where the Beagle 2 is believed to have landed revealed a crater a little more than a half-mile wide. It is possible -- although unlikely -- that the Beagle may be unable to communicate because it landed inside, chief Beagle scientist Colin Pillinger said at a news conference.
bq. ``This would be an incredibly unlucky situation,'' Pillinger said.
bq. Several attempts to contact the Beagle 2 so far have failed five days after it was to descend to Mars. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has passed four times over the spot where scientists hope Beagle landed, without picking up a signal. Pillinger did not reveal the results of another overflight that happened at 2:40 a.m. EST on Monday, while he was speaking.
bq. A British radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory struck out again early Monday after sweeping the planet's surface for the craft's call sign, composed by the British band Blur.
bq. The 143-pound probe, which has a robotic arm to take soil and rock samples, was supposed to unfold its solar panels and transmit a signal confirming its arrival within hours of landing on Christmas Day. An ``analysis and recovery think tank'' at Britain's space center considered several reasons for its silence.
bq. They discounted two possible theories. One was that the weather may have played a role, and the other was that the lander's internal clock wasn't working, mission manager Mark Sims said.
bq. The vessel is programmed to transmit its signal when its orbiter or telescopes on earth are in position to receive it. If the clock had been damaged, the Beagle could have been ``talking'' and staying quiet at the wrong times.
bq. Sims said, however, a problem with the clock's software was still possible. The team planned to send the clock a reset command Wednesday.
bq. The European Space Agency will get a better idea about the Beagle 2 when the its mother ship, Mars Express, enters a lower orbit around Mars and tries to contact it on Jan. 4. Mars Express, which carried Beagle into space, is orbiting the planet as high as 117,00 miles above its equator.
bq. ``They are keeping up their spirits,'' Peter Barratt, spokesman for the British government's physics and astronomy research agency, said Sunday. ``The big crunch will be when Mars Express comes into the frame. That was always the prime chance for communication. But if we get negative responses after a few tries, we will start to become concerned.''
Think positive thoughts, think positive thoughts...
Spirit On Final Approach To Mars
Space Daily reports here on the Mars rover Spirit-
bq. NASA's Spirit rover spacecraft fired its thrusters for 3.4 seconds on Friday, Dec. 26, to make a slight and possibly final correction in its flight path about one week before landing on Mars.
Radio tracking of the spacecraft during the 24 hours after the maneuver showed it to be right on course for its landing inside Mars' Gusev Crater at 04:35 Jan. 4, 2004, Universal Time (8:35 p.m. Jan. 3, Pacific Standard Time.) Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars three weeks later.
bq. "The maneuver went flawlessly," said Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
bq. This was Spirit's fourth trajectory correction maneuver since launch on June 10. Two more are on the schedule for the flight's final three days, if needed. Adler said, "It seems unlikely we'll have to do a fifth trajectory correction maneuver, but we'll make the final call Thursday morning after we have a few more days of tracking data. Right now, it looks as though we hit the bull's-eye."
Woohoo, I'm so jazzed. After the apparent failure of the Beagle 2, this is our next best chance to see Mars from the surface. Think positively, think positively...
December 29, 2003
Where's Beagle?
Well, I'm back from the Redneck Riviera (65 degrees, sunshine, beach, heated pool, hot tub, eat your heart out). Here's where they're looking for the lost Beagle 2-
bq. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image released December 24 shows a small portion of the vast Isidis Planitia, the region in which the British-built Beagle 2 fell onto during the evening of December 24 in the United States. It was released by the European Space Agency's Mars Express, an orbiter that is now safely circling the planet and undergoing system checkout.
bq. Much of Isidis Planitia has low hills and mounds - many that are remnants of a layer (or group of sub-resolution layers) that once more extensively covered Isidis Planitia, but was later stripped away, revealing previously-buried meteor impact craters.
The current opinion is that the lander is down in a crater, and they're going to have a hell of a time finding it. Oh well, let's hope our two landers (one of which is landing later this week) will have better luck. Of 30 missions to Mars so far, only 5 have been successful...
Via Space.com
bq. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image released December 24 shows a small portion of the vast Isidis Planitia, the region in which the British-built Beagle 2 fell onto during the evening of December 24 in the United States. It was released by the European Space Agency's Mars Express, an orbiter that is now safely circling the planet and undergoing system checkout.
bq. Much of Isidis Planitia has low hills and mounds - many that are remnants of a layer (or group of sub-resolution layers) that once more extensively covered Isidis Planitia, but was later stripped away, revealing previously-buried meteor impact craters.
The current opinion is that the lander is down in a crater, and they're going to have a hell of a time finding it. Oh well, let's hope our two landers (one of which is landing later this week) will have better luck. Of 30 missions to Mars so far, only 5 have been successful...
Via Space.com
December 19, 2003
SpaceShipOne goes supersonic!
bq. To mark the 100th year of powered flight X Prize entrant Scaled Composites used the occassion to fire up the company's experimental rocket SpaceShipOne and accelerate to Mach 1.2 (930 MPH) in a fully powered climb.
The test flight marked not only the first powered test of SpaceShipOne itself, but also the first time a non-government funded plane has broken the sound barrier.
bq. In 1947, fifty-six years ago, history's first supersonic flight was flown by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 rocket under a U.S. Government research program. Since then, many supersonic aircraft have been developed for research, military and, in the case of the recently retired Concorde, commercial applications. All these efforts were developed by large aerospace prime companies, using extensive government resources.
bq. "Our flight this morning by SpaceShipOne demonstrated that supersonic flight is now the domain of a small company doing privately-funded research, without government help," said a company official in a press statement issued after the flight ended.
So much is happening so quickly now- Europe's Beagle 2 has successfully separated from Mars Express, and is landing on Mars Christmas day, the two Rovers, Spirit and Sojourner, are landing on Mars January 4 and 24, and Cassini is speeding towards Saturn for a July 1 rendezvous, and much more will be happening over the entire span of 2004. These are the best of times, these are the worst of times...
Thanks to SpaceDaily for the link.
December 04, 2003
Hooray!
Calloo callay, oh frabjous day-
bq. When President Bush delivers a speech recognizing the centenary of heavier-than-air-powered flight December 17, it is expected that he will proffer a bold vision of renewed space flight, with at its center a return to the moon, perhaps even establishment of a permanent presence there. If he does, it will mean that he has decided the United States should once again become a space-faring nation. For more than 30 years America's manned space program has limited itself to low Earth orbit; indeed, everyone under the age of 31 — more than 125 million Americans — was born since an American last set foot on the moon.
bq. The speech will come at a time when events are converging to force some important decisions about the future of American efforts in space. China has put a man in orbit, plans a launch of three Sinonauts together, and has announced its own lunar program. The space shuttle is grounded, and its smaller sibling, the "orbital space plane," may not be built. The International Space Station, behind schedule, over budget, and of limited utility, has been scaled back post-Columbia.
bq. The content of the speech does not appear to be in doubt; the only question is timing. While those who have formulated it have argued that it be delivered on the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first powered flight, there exists a slight possibility that it will instead be incorporated in the State of the Union address at the end of January. This has its own, less triumphant, significance, which is in the form of a chilling coincidence. Every American who has died in a spacecraft has done so within one calendar week: The Apollo 204 fire on January 27, 1967; the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986; and the loss of Columbia on February 1, 2003.
bq. If the president goes ahead with the plan to announce an ambitious new program to carry Americans beyond Earth's immediate gravitational pull, he will argue that the new lunar explorations are justified not only for what they themselves might produce but also as a means of developing the technology and skills necessary for a mission to Mars, which is expected to be mentioned, though in less-specific terms, in the address.
We're.Going.Back.To.The.Moon!!! In my lifetime! I may not sleep for a week...
RTWT here.
Ad Astra!
November 03, 2003
Spock Lives!
October 21, 2003
X-Files redux
Sc-Fi Channel may be suing NASA over UFO documents, reports NASA Watch, wity typically trenchant commentary-
bq. "The group said it expects to file the suit against NASA within a week. Representatives from NASA and the Department of Defense were not immediately available for comment. NASA was chosen as the first agency to be sued because SCI FI and the groups' attorney, Lee Helfrich of the Washington, DC-based firm, Lobel, Novins and Lamont, believe that they've fully exhausted their administrative options with the agency, a prerequisite for a judge to agree to hear the case."
bq. Editor's note: DUH maybe the lawyers have "exhausted their administrative options with the agency" since there is nothing there to be released in the first place. This is a classic case of lawyers watching their client's programming - and then falling for it.
I'm as big a sci-fi fan as there is, but- please. Get a life or something.
October 14, 2003
A Little Bit of Mars
Keith Cowing's journal of his time at the Devon Island Mars Habitat project is up on Nasa Watch- follow the link and scroll down to "14 October 2003: Keith Cowing's Devon Island Journal - the missing entries". Here's a taste-
bq. In the aftermath of Columbia, the fifth time humans have died preparing for, embarking upon, or returning from a space mission - and one of many, many more where lives were put at risk, we come again to the core tenet of why humans fly in space. Yes, robots can do a lot - but only so much. And yes, humans can do things that robot can't - but that is not the prime reason we have flown humans in space - nor should it be,. We fly humans in space because it is in our nature to go to improbable places, and some great risk to life and limb, to see the wonders that lie out there with our own eyes. In so doing, those explorers see things with eyes for all of us who must stay behind.
bq. Last year I went to a marvelous place and was personally enraptured by the experience. This year, I did so again, yet the experience was somewhat routine. Last year I came home with personal experiences that I was bubbling to convey. This year I came home, chastened and inspired by the Columbia accident - and somewhat angry.
bq. Angry at what we could have done, had we not walked away from human exploration of space after Apollo. To be certain, learning to live - permanently - in space is interesting. But it is only a means toward a greater end. I want to see that end re-established once again. We had such a beacon during Apollo and it shone so bright that we did things bold an improbable.
bq. It is time we ventured forth to do bold and improbable things once again.
RTWT, of course, and follow all the other links for this fascinating project. Real work is being done and real accomplishments are being made- it's just completely off the media's radar.
Ad Astra Per Aspera!
October 09, 2003
And the Beat Goes On
NASA Watch has posted a link to the following story-
bq. After a decade of preparation, China will launch its first human being into space on October 15 in a 90-minute flight that will orbit the Earth once, a top government rocketry official said.
bq. Xie Guangxuan, director of China Rocket Design Department, were reported by Sina.com, China's leading website.
bq. The report implied that the flight, the Shenzhou V, would carry one human being in its bid to make China the world's third space-faring nation.
bq. "China's space technology has been created by China itself. We may have started later than Russia and the United States, but it's amazing how fast we've been able to do this," Xie was quoted as saying. Xie said that he was "full of confidence" about the success of the much-expected launch.
bq. The flight would take place a day after the closing of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's 3rd plenum, a major political meeting. That schedule - coupled with the National Day holiday last week - illustrates China's long-held desire to hold up its space program as a patriotic endeavor, the Associated Press said in a reported filed from Beijing.
bq. The launch of the 8-ton craft will be televised nationally on China Central Television Channel 4 and 9, the report said. If the launch is completed successfully, China would join the United States and the former Soviet Union, the only countries that have sent manned craft into space.
Mankind's march to the stars continues apace. Hopefully Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne is next.
October 07, 2003
Mars Eye Candy
We continue to get astounding images like this from the Mars Global Surveyor-
bq. This is a wide angle view of the martian north polar cap as it appeared to the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) in early northern summer. The picture was acquired on March 13, 1999, near the start of the Mapping Phase of the MGS mission. The light-toned surfaces are residual water ice that remains through the summer season. The nearly circular band of dark material surrounding the cap consists mainly of sand dunes formed and shaped by wind. The north polar cap is roughly 1100 kilometers (680 miles) across.
bq. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
RTWT here, courtesy Space.com.
September 23, 2003
Engines to Warp Speed, Scotty
Another milestone in Burt Rutan's quest for the X-Prize has been passed-
bq. SpaceDev will now be the sole supplier of operating components for Scaled's hybrid motor. SpaceDev's highly innovative hybrid rocket motor technology uses nitrous oxide (N2O) or laughing gas, as an oxidizer, and hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), or rubber, as the fuel. Both of these are inexpensive and can be safely transported and stored without special precautions, and will not explode when combined, thus making the ideal propulsion system for manned space vehicles.
bq. Rutan's SpaceShipOne is competing for the worldwide X-Prize, a $10 million purse to be awarded to the first person or team to fly a privately-funded suborbital spaceship 100km (62 miles) to the edge of space, return safely, and then fly again within two weeks.
Still on schedule as near as I can tell for the first flight before Christmas.
To the Universe, and beyond!
RTWT here.
September 19, 2003
Shuttle Stuff
Space Daily has an interesting article about what we've learned from the Space Shuttle after Columbia's demise-
bq. The clock is ticking on the Space Shuttle program. Although the CAIB is publicly insisting that the Shuttle is "not inherently flawed", a close reading of their report reveals that they essentially share the views of the Shuttle's most extreme critics (such as its original chief designer Max Faget) who hold that it has reached the end of its safe life. Consequently, the Board has levied a requirement that the whole Shuttle system be retested and requalified by 2010. This would be impossibly expensive, given that many of its components and fuels are so old and dangerous that they would have to be replaced.
I'm not sure we have either the will or the cash to do this, or even if we should-
bq. Like the zeppelin, the spaceplane can be just barely made to work with an immense amount of skilled labor and public funding, but is so inefficient and dangerous that it would never compete with a vehicle designed specifically for the new medium of space from a clean sheet of paper.
bq. The basic problems with airplane-like designs are numerous and crippling. Many of these problems are so bad that the Space Shuttle's engineers and flight controllers (the only people who deal with a real nuts-and-bolts spaceplane instead of an idealized fantasy vehicle) have developed well-justified phobias about them. These phobias were well in evidence during the doomed last flight of Columbia, and made significant but little-noted contributions to that catastrophe.
Maybe with a little more input from the private sector we could actually make some progress instead of having a huge welfare program for cutting-edge 70's technology. Read the whole thing here, and be sure to read the follow-on article linked at the bottom.
September 12, 2003
Someone Gets It
U.S. Representative Nick Lampson has re-introduced his Space Exploration Act, citing-
bq. "America's human space flight program is adrift, with no clear vision or commitment to any goals after the completion of the International Space Station. The intent of the Space Exploration Act of 2003, is to provide a vision and a concrete set of goals for the nation's human space flight program after the International Space Station," said Lampson. "This legislation sets forth specific incremental goals that are challenging, exciting and that build capabilities and infrastructure needed for an ultimate human mission to Mars."
Alist of the actual goals is both interesting and ambitious-
bq. Space Exploration Act of 2003 Fact Sheet
bq. Requires the NASA Administrator to set the following goals for the future activities of NASA's human spaceflight program:
bq. Within 8 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low earth orbit to the L 1 and L 2 Earth-Sun libration points and back, to the Earth-Moon libration points and back, and to lunar orbit and back.
bq. Within 10 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to and from an Earth-orbit crossing asteroid and rendezvousing with it.
bq. Within 15 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back, as well as the deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the lunar surface.
bq. Within 20 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans to and from Martian orbit, the deployment of a human tended habitation and research facility on the surface of a Martian moon, and the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from Martian orbit to the surface of Mars and back.
The bill establishes an Office of Exploration within NASA, headed by an Associate Administrator, which will be responsible for planning, budgeting, and managing activities undertaken to accomplish the above goals.
bq. The bill establishes an Office of Exploration within NASA, headed by an Associate Administrator, which will be responsible for planning, budgeting, and managing activities undertaken to accomplish the above goals.
Who knows how far this bill will get, but at least the effort is being made. The only issue I have with it is it is not more proactive in getting the private sector involved.
September 05, 2003
More Eye Candy
From Space.com-
bq. A new Hubble Space Telescope image, released yesterday, shows what a little patience can produce. The picture is of a spiral galaxy named NGC 3370, about 98 million light-years away.
bq. The galaxy was imaged for the purpose of ferreting out variable stars. To do so, astronomers needed to make pictures frequent and often. Over time, a lot of photons were collected -- the combined exposure time amounted to about 24 hours.
bq. So Hubble officials decided to put it all together for what they say is one of the deepest images Hubble has ever made.
The width of the picture is about 95,000,000 light-years. Hubble, by the way, is to be deorbited and burn up in the atmosphere sometime during 2010. That will be a sad day indeed.
September 02, 2003
Sundials for Mars
This is cool-
bq. Leave it to Bill Nye "the Science Guy" to turn a traditional piece of calibration equipment into a really cool, state-of-the-art scientific instrument.
As he was looking over the designs for instruments to be carried aboard NASA's 2001 Mars Surveyor Lander, Nye noticed that the solar-panel calibration device for the lander's Pancam panoramic camera -- a small aluminum square with an upright post in the center of it -- looked familiar.
bq. "I said, 'Hey you guys, this has got to be a sundial. It'll be great.' They said, 'Bill, this is a space program. We have a lot of clocks. Thanks for your input.' Everybody was skeptical at first, but later thought it would be kind of cool," Nye recalls.
bq. The launch of the Surveyor Lander was canceled after the disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in December 1999 following its descent into the Martian atmosphere for a landing on the planet's south polar region. But the first interplanetary sundial finally is expected to make it to the red planet on Jan. 4, 2004. Identical sundials, each about 3 inches square, are being carried by the two Mars Exploration Rovers, the first of which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 10. The second rover launched one month later, on July 7.
bq. **********
bq. The sundials, positioned on each rover's rear solar panel, are there not only to tell the hours but also to help the Athena team adjust the rovers' panoramic cameras. Scientists will use the colored blocks in the corners of the sundial to calibrate the color in images of the landscape so that Mars can be seen in its true colors. And pictures of the shadows that are cast by a sundial's center post -- in sundial terminology, the gnomon -- will allow scientists to properly adjust the brightness of each Pancam image.
bq. "On Mars, you don't know what color anything is," Nye points out. "The Martian sky is so pink that it makes everything pink, and so you want to know if the object you're looking at is really pink or if it's pink light bouncing off the sky."
Mars, here we come!
August 29, 2003
Europe from Space
Though I care very little for the people who inhabit the continent right now, I was struck by this picture-
View 1024x768 image
bq. As most Europeans breathe a sigh of relief as this record-breaking summer draws to a close, the extreme weather conditions experienced in recent weeks have given us a rare view of an almost cloud-free Europe, taken by Europe's weather satellite MSG-1, launched a year ago this week.
Read all about it here.
View 1024x768 image
bq. As most Europeans breathe a sigh of relief as this record-breaking summer draws to a close, the extreme weather conditions experienced in recent weeks have given us a rare view of an almost cloud-free Europe, taken by Europe's weather satellite MSG-1, launched a year ago this week.
Read all about it here.
August 28, 2003
NASA needs a Guide
It seems I'm not the only one who sees a need for a sea change at NASA-
bq. The proximal culprit in February's Columbia space-shuttle accident (the foam did it) was already well known before this week's report of the investigation board, led by retired Admiral Harold Gehman.
bq. So was the general charge that NASA kept the shuttle flying with hairpins and twine, metaphorically speaking. It knew that insulating foam had a habit of breaking off the external fuel tanks during launch, but the agency never rigorously examined the problem before concluding it was a nuisance, not a threat. Why? Because of a mindset, we're told, that didn't go out of its way to look for reasons to throw shuttle launches off schedule.
bq. Admiral Gehman has been especially keen for the public to understand how closely his findings hew to those of the Rogers Commission, which examined the Challenger accident of 1986. Maybe what we needed this time instead was a report on the thoughtless accretion of thoughtless priorities inflicted on the space agency by outside policy makers that has led to NASA's persistent high-risk juggling act.
bq. The Gehman report at least semaphores in the right direction, noting that a coherent rationale has been lacking for manned space flight since Apollo. But for all of its hard-hittingness, the report ultimately gets on board and paddles furiously in the same direction that 10 Congresses and five Administrations have been moving for two decades. It endorses the international space station as "the major destination for human space travel for the next decade or longer." This effectively endorses the shuttle's return to the workhorse role that the Gehman report itself finds so inconsistent with the craft's "developmental" nature.
bq. ****************
bq. The Columbia astronauts were brave and accomplished and died prematurely doing the nation's work. Despite its drubbing this week, NASA itself is a can-do agency: It's not about to go on strike, saying we can't work in these conditions, with these tools, with these priorities. But changing the "culture" of NASA will take outside leadership to craft a new and more compelling space mission.
bq. In their inchoate way, the politicians are on to something in their unwillingness to pull the plug on manned space flight. The public may not be glued to the tube, but flying in space has become part of who we are. Perhaps we fear that if we don't keep going forward we'll lose the knack and begin the long retrograde crawl back to the primordial ooze. If the U.S. decides to give up that ambition, sooner or later some other country will take it up--perhaps China.
Getting the private sector more involved (and I don't mean putting Pizza Hut signs on the side of the Shuttle) will be, in the end, all that makes these programs any more than ISS and Shuttle caretakers.
Go here for the whole WSJ article.
August 26, 2003
Shuttle Report
The CAIB report on the loss of the shuttle Columbia is out, and it's not pretty. You would have thought that in the wake of the Challenger disaster there would have been more cooperation within the agency, but that apparently wasn't so-
bq. A 34-page section of the report, "Decision-Making During the Flight of STS-107," recounts the now familiar tale of missed signals, botched imagery requests, and a mission management team largely oblivious to the mortal danger Columbia and her crew were in. The report details eight separate "missed opportunities" during the 16-day flight, from NASA engineer Rodney Rocha's unanswered e-mail four days into the mission asking Johnson Space Center if the crew had been directed to inspect Columbia's left wing for damage to NASA human space flight chief William Readdy's failure to accept the U.S. Defense Department's offer to obtain spy satellite imagery of the damaged shuttle.
bq. The report excoriates NASA management decisions during Columbia's last flight. "Perhaps most striking is the fact that management . . . displayed no interest in understanding a problem and its implications. Because managers failed to avail themselves to the wide range of expertise and opinion necessary to obtain the best answer to the debris strike question . . . some space shuttle program managers failed to fulfill the implicit contract to do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of the crew."
bq. Although the report names the key personal who participated in the debris strike decision, the board does not single anyone out for blame or explicitly call for their ouster. "It is tempting to conclude that replacing them will solve NASA's problems," the report says. "However, solving NASA's problems are not quite so easily achieved. People's actions are influenced by the organizations in which they work, shaping their choices in directions that even they may not realize."
Shameful. It is time to get the government out of all but the most advanced research on space flight, and let the private sector go to work.
Read it and weep here.
August 25, 2003
Mars is Coming!
Put this up just 'cause I can. Mars closest approach to Earth in hundreds of years happens Wednesday- so get out and look!
Thanks to Space.com for the image.
August 15, 2003
China into Space?
The Shenzhao-5 manned mission to space from China could be becoming a reality-
bq. A yuhangyuan ("astronaut") could make history and become an instant hero in China with the launch of Shenzhou-5 (SZ-5) that may take place on October 10, an aerospace forum posted the unconfirmed information on Tuesday (Aug. 12).
One of the posts on the forum cited the launch date from news that originated from the Xi'an Satellite Control Centre (XSCC) in Shaanxi Province. The poster emphasized, however, that the accuracy of the information could not be guaranteed.
bq. But a report in Wednesday's (Aug. 13) Wen Wei Po appears to support the timeframe of the launch. The local newspaper said that the launch of SZ-5 would happen after the weeklong celebration of the National Day, which is on Oct. 1.
bq. The report also said that news of the purported launch on National Day was not accurate.
bq. On Sunday (Aug. 10), the 24-hour satellite news channel Phoenix TV quoted information from the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) that SZ-5 would be launched on time in October. But the TV news report did not mention a specific date.
bq. Another post on the aerospace forum wrote that SZ-5 would be a mission involving only a single yuhangyuan. The information came from an unidentified technician at the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the manufacturer of the Changzheng-2F (Long March-2F) launcher that would send SZ-5 into space.
bq. The selection of this yuhangyuan, according to the CALT technician, would come in two stages. Space officials would choose three candidates from the corps of twelve yuhangyuans when the launch is near.
bq. Then on launch day the candidate with the best condition would receive the honour to pilot the historic and the most important mission to date in the Chinese space program.
bq. A week ago on Aug. 3, another Hong Kong-based newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported that the launch window of SZ-5 might be around 6 a.m. Beijing Time (2200 UTC on previous day).
Ad Astra Per Aspera!
Read it here.
August 11, 2003
Closer and Closer...
Private space flight has taken a further step towards reality. On August 9th, Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne flew it's first test glide-
bq. A project to create a passenger-carrying suborbital rocket took a major step forward on Thursday, with the first glide flight of SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif. The spaceship was hauled skyward attached to the White Knight carrier craft, then released from altitude to glide under a pilot’s control to a desert landing.
This project has created more excitement in me than I have felt since the Apollo program. You go, Burt!
Read it all here.
August 07, 2003
When Stars Collide
From Space.com-
bq. Astronomers have discovered what they think are the remains of colliding stars in this new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.
bq. Stars are packed tight in what's known as a globular cluster. While the nearest neighbor to our Sun is more than 4 light-years away, stars near the center of NGC 6397 are only a few light-weeks apart. Gravitational interactions are common.
bq. Collisions probably occur about one every few million years or so, researchers said.
bq. So how do you find the scene of an accident? Stars in globular clusters are typically ancient, having formed very early in the evolution of the universe. Collisions would cause a terrific merger, theorists say, leaving behind a hot, bright and young-looking star that should stand out. Some do, and they appear blue in the new picture, released today. Astronomers call them blue stragglers.
bq. NGC 6397 sits 8,200 light-years from Earth, within the Milky Way Galaxy. The observations were led by Adrienne Cool of San Francisco State University.
August 06, 2003
Martian Dilemma
The possibiliy of humans colonizing Mars is looking more probable every day, and this has brought up an ethical dilemma- how do we treat any indigenous lifeforms that may exist there, even though they might be nothing but bacteria?
In his post on SpaceDaily, John Carter McKnight writes
bq. Should intelligent extra-terrestrial life be discovered, presumably through a deep-space signal, the scientific community has a well-developed set of protocols for determining its response. No such protocols exist for responding to a discovery of microbial life (through there is a proposal to formulate them). Oddly, the prospect of primitive life is the more controversial: our concept of the appropriate response is shaped by our views on environmental ethics, where profound disagreements on basic assumptions divide us in our daily lives as much as in our views of a future on Mars.
bq. There are three broad positions in environmental ethics (drawn from Randolph, Race & McKay, "Reconsidering the Theological and Ethical Implications of Extraterrestrail Life,"):
bq. 1. Preservation is the belief that humans should minimize their actions in nature. In Terrestrial environmentalism, this belief is often accompanied by the views that humans stand apart from nature, and are negative and destructive agents. But another familiar formulation of this view is Star Trek's Prime Directive, holding that non-interference with primitive alien life is the highest wisdom. A preservationist view would have us leave Mars alone, certainly if there is life, and also even if there is not - "all we could do is screw it up" is a sentiment commonly heard.
bq. 2. Stewardship is a human-centered, utilitarian approach. Stewardship sees humans as the only moral objects, with nature as resources and objects rather than as moral agents with their own rights. Often founded in Biblical concepts of man's dominion over nature, the only constraints on human actions that stewardship recognizes are against the illogic of waste and the self-demeaning effects of wanton cruelty or destruction. Stewardship would support our propagation on Mars unless indigenous life represented some uniquely valuable resources, e.g. as a source of pharmaceuticals (as in Paul McAuley's novel The Secret of Life).
bq. 3. Intrinsic Worth holds that humans are not the only things with rights and moral standing, that others are equal to humans in the eyes of moral law. Those others could include all sentient beings, all life, or all of nature including the inanimate as well. Depending on how broadly the net of rights is cast, this position could either have us preserving Mars out of respect for the rights of the inanimate, leaving it to its indigenous organisms, or terraforming it in the name of sentience.
I tend to lean towards a utilitarian approach, as I see man as the steward of the Earth and by extension, Mars. But the debate is thought-provoking to say the least...
Read it all here.