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.
May 27, 2008
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-