View Full Version : NASA News Thread (non-Columbia related)
Who should explore space, man or machine? (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/18/sprj.colu.space.future/index.html) (Richard Stenger, CNN, 02-19-03) - The Russians and Americans may have ended their rivalry beyond Earth, but another contest for dominance in space remains, one that pits biology and brains against circuits and chips.
The loss of seven space shuttle astronauts this month again brought home the serious risk that humans face into the hostile environs beyond our sheltered planet, reviving the question of whether exploring the heavens should be left to unmanned missions.
Although less glamorous, such missions pose no risks to humans. And already robots have an impressive list of accomplishments compared to the their flesh and blood counterparts. "Unmanned missions are all about specifically targeted scientific explorations of the universe around us. Without exceptions, these efforts rise out of intense competition where the most compelling, and answerable, questions are posed," said Marc Buie, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Robots have dug in the dirt on Mars, flown in the atmosphere of Jupiter, driven by the moons of Neptune and plopped down on an asteroid. A few are even flirting with the boundary of the solar system. Humans, on the other hand, have been relegated mostly to going in circles, barely above the surface of the planet. Besides the brief Apollo mission triumphs on the moon, almost 250,000 miles away, humans have never strayed farther than 400 miles from the planet, less than a day's drive, albeit straight up.
Humans fly near home for several reasons. There is the logistics of sending humans and what they need, like water, air and food, in a closed environment that keeps them alive. Robotic probes can travel with a fraction of the luggage, and therefore cost. A typical shuttle mission, for example, runs between $400 million and $500 million. A satellite can reach orbit for $20 million. Unmanned landers have touched down on Mars for as little as $250 million. But the estimated price tag for a manned journey to the red planet runs anywhere from $50 billion to $500 billion.
Muscle into mush
Second are the hazards: Sudden bursts of solar radiation can kill an unprotected spacewalker. Collisions with small space flotsam can obliterate a ship. And as the shuttle Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 painfully illustrate, launch and landing glitches can turn deadly in an instant. Then there is the question of weightlessness, which over months can seriously weaken human bones, muscles and immune systems. And a roundtrip to Mars using current rocket power technology could take several years. "Until we lick extended weightlessness, radiation and high-energy propulsion for us humans, [long-distance manned spaceflight] is a still a scientific dream. For the foreseeable future, robots offer our best scientific reality," said Wesley Ward, chief space geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
Critics of manned flight suggest an even more daunting challenge, lack of focus. To them, the flagship of NASA's current manned space program is drifting. "The international space station, like the shuttle, is an instrument in search of a purpose," Ward said. "[We] are doing a variety of piddley experiments with little larger application to anything," he said. The station, envisioned as an ambitious laboratory with a permanent crew of seven, has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. The eventual price tag, including shuttle deliveries of major additions, could reach between $60 billion and $100 billion. For now, it hosts a crew of three, who have little time to devote to experiments. According to a National Research Council report, three astronauts can perform only 20 hours of science a week. The remainder of their time is spent keeping the station afloat. Given the danger, the costs and the setbacks, why send humans into space at all? Some would argue the scientific value.
Cordless drills, bouncing bras
For decades, NASA has gone to lengths defending the science of manned missions, presenting the billions spent on sending a few people into space as a worthwhile investment to the billions of people on the ground. Cordless drills, fire detectors, CT scans and ionized water filters can trace their origin to the U.S. space program, according to NASA. The agency's publication "Spinoff" goes further, boasting of shuttle tubing that makes better golf clubs, shuttle netting that improves racing boats, even spacesuit fabrics used in sports bras that reduce "mammary bounce."
Critics contend that NASA has exaggerated the link between the space program and Earth-based technologies. Besides, they say, the spinoffs have come not from research in space but brainstorming on the ground; engineers could have thought up fire detectors without actually building rockets. Nonetheless, many agree the most important scientific legacy of the manned space program, in particular the space station, is the astronauts themselves. Dotted with sensors and given a battery of tests before, during and after months-long journeys, they provide a wealth of data about how to counteract the effects of weightlessness.
"There is widespread agreement, even among those otherwise critical of the station science, that it is an essential platform for research related to the impacts on humans of long duration spaceflight," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Logsdon contends reasons other than science justify sending people off the planet. "We do not give parades for robots," he quipped. "There are intangible benefits from human presence in space -- national pride, role models for youth -- that are real if not measurable."
Parades are given to heroes, those who risk their lives for what they consider the higher good, whether for their nation or the world. In his first public comments since the loss of Columbia, space station commander Ken Bowersox explained: "The reason I come up here to space is because I believe ... that we're laying the foundation for our children, and their children to leave the planet someday." Added crew mate Don Pettit: "You don't say, I will accept an increased risk so I can collect one particular piece of scientific data." "You accept the risks for the sake of exploration, which is what's going to provide resources to use and places to live for our babies and grandbabies."
Universe or bust
So who should explore space? When grilled by Capitol Hill lawmakers last week, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe expressed support for both man and machine. "It's not a question of either or, robotics or humans," O'Keefe said. "The strategy we try to employ is not an either or but the best of both." He cited shuttle missions to the Hubble Space Telescope as an example. Several times visiting astronauts, including from Columbia in 2002, performed major surgery on the orbiting observatory, each time improving its vision. "It was considered a piece of space junk 10 years ago," O'Keefe said. "Human intervention was needed to fix the telescope."
Interestingly, robots might someday take over some spacewalking chores. NASA is working on a prototype called Robonaut to handle more mundane tasks of astronauts in space. But Robonauts would supplement, not replace, the work of humans, whose depth and breadth of performance is beyond current robotics capability, according to Chris Culbert, a robotics researcher at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Likewise, observatories might scan the heavens for distant planets. And probes might visit shrouded moons to find what lurks beneath. But for some nothing can replace the human experience beyond the confines of Earth.
"Manned missions are about expanding the boundaries of the human presence and experience. This comes from a deep-seated drive to see what's out there. This drive is what led early explorers to brave the oceans in frail little boats," Buie said. "I personally believe that to keep thriving, the human race must go on expanding and exploring new frontiers. If we are doomed to remain on this planet, we will eventually die out."
<img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/TECH/space/02/20/sprj.colu.nasa.orbiter.ap/story.concepts.jpg" align="left" hspace="2"><b>NASA advances space station lifeboat (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/20/sprj.colu.nasa.orbiter.ap/index.html) (02-20-03)</b> - As investigators search for the cause of the Columbia disaster, NASA is moving ahead with plans to develop a new craft that would replace shuttles on space station missions by 2012 and respond quickly to space station emergencies.
The space agency released the first set of mission needs and requirements Wednesday for the orbital space plane, which would be designed to transport a crew of four to and from the international space station.
Although it includes few specifics, the plan stipulates the orbiter will be safer, cheaper and require less preparation time than the shuttle. It would be able to transport four crew members by 2012 -- though it would be available for rescue missions by 2010. NASA says the craft should be able to transport injured or ill space station crew members to "definitive medical care" within 24 hours.
The release of the requirements showed NASA remains focused on the long-term priorities of space exploration, even as questions linger concerning the loss of Columbia and its seven-member crew on February 1.
Experts at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have been working for years on a successor to the shuttle. The project, known as the Space Launch Initiative, was divided last year into two parts -- one focusing on a future launch vehicle, the other on a space station orbiter. The orbiter is expected to be ready sooner.
The program's managers say NASA officials have told them not to alter Space Launch Initiative in light of the Columbia disaster.
"Obviously when the Columbia tragedy happened, it makes complete sense for us to go back and look at, is there anything we didn't think of, anything we could do faster?" Dennis Smith, manager of the orbital space plane program, said earlier this month. "But, I'll tell you, we were looking at that anyway. Our NASA leaders have been very clear to us we need to keep moving."
President Bush asked Congress for about $1 billion for Space Launch Initiative in 2004, funds that would be almost equally split between the Orbital Space Plane and Next Generation Launch Technology.
However, that money was requested before the February 1 Columbia disaster, and some lawmakers -- particularly those from Alabama -- are concerned Congress might try to cut funds for future NASA programs to funnel more money into the shuttle. Alabama Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions say the program needs a funding boost.
"We're going to need more money," said Shelby, a member of the Appropriations Committee that oversees federal spending. "I've always said NASA was drastically underfunded considering the promise and all the good things that could come out of it. Many people realize we cannot compromise safety in any way, and I don't think we can compromise the future."
NASA is expected to release more detailed requirements of the new system later this year.
NASA Working at International Space Station Solutions (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_iss_030220.html)
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 06:55 pm ET
20 February 2003
HOUSTON -- NASA managers will know within days how they plan to operate the International Space Station until shuttle flights resume, space agency chief Sean O'Keefe said Thursday. Decisions to be made include how many crewmembers will remain onboard, when they will be launched and returned to Earth, who will make up those crews and whether Russia will be asked to build additional spaceflight hardware to support the effort. "We're looking at all those options," O'Keefe said during a stop at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss. "We'll be looking at a conclusion here within a matter of a few days as to which direction we want to go."
While the final choice has yet to be announced, the option that has two people launching to the station on a Russian Soyuz rocket and spacecraft in late April seems to be the odds-on-favorite. The two crewmembers -- one American and one Russian -- would dock to the station and the Expedition Six crew now in orbit would return to Earth in the Soyuz capsule presently docked to the outpost. The station would then remain occupied by rotating two-person crews on Soyuz spacecraft every six months until shuttle flights resume.
At the same time, unmanned Progress supply ships would be launched to the station as previously scheduled in June, September and January. But current Expedition Six skipper Ken Bowersox wasn't so sure even a two-person crew could be sustained that long without an increase in Progress supply missions. "If we were to keep the same number of Progresses we have per year in the current plan, it would be difficult to maintain the station as we currently are running it," Bowersox told CBS News in a space to ground interview Thursday. "We'd probably have to back off a lot from what we're doing, maybe even go to less than two people on board. But if we increase the number of Progresses, we should be able to maintain operations, at least from all the data we've seen from the ground. And of course, that's still being studied."
Financial issues in Russia and U.S. laws about buying hardware from the Russians are complicating the picture and adding stress to the decision making process on how to operate the ISS during the next few months. Russia could accelerate its assembly and launch of Progress and Soyuz spacecraft if needed, but would need the cash to do it -- cash that would either be given directly to Russia or come from the sale of seats on the Soyuz spacecraft.
Russian news media have reported the current asking price for a full Progress supply mission is roughly $22 million. But a U.S. law enacted in response to Russia selling technology to Iran forbids NASA from buying any new Russian space hardware beyond that which is already contracted and procured. And NASA officials have said this week they would not seek loopholes to thwart the intent of that law. Moreover, the two-person caretaker crews would have to be made up of a Russian Soyuz commander and American astronaut fully trained in ISS systems, so it's not likely any space tourists or professional astronauts from the international partners are going to fly. O'Keefe did not directly characterize the discussions among Russia and the partners as being tense or difficult, offering a diplomatic summary instead. "Every partner is acting like a partner, a very strong participant in what the solutions on this should be," he said. "How we treat each other and work through this in times of challenge like we see today is the reason this kind of partnership was put together."
O'Keefe's visit to the site where space shuttle main engines are test fired was preceded by a stop at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, where the shuttle's external tanks are made. His message to workers at both places was to keep safety the first priority, cooperate with investigators but most importantly to know that there is a future with manned spaceflight and what they're doing is important. O'Keefe also used the visits -- like the Columbia Accident Investigation Board did last week -- to learn more about the hardware and discuss some of the theories as to why Columbia was lost that involved the foam insulation on the external tank. A piece of foam was seen falling from Columbia's external tank some 80 seconds after its Jan. 16 launch from the Kennedy Space Center. The material appeared to strike Columbia's left wing and shatter into a shower of debris. It's possible that incident was a factor in whatever happened to allow superhot air to get inside Columbia's left wing and eventually lead to the break up of the vehicle and the loss of the crew over Texas. O'Keefe once again stressed that every possibility is being considered. "The NASA position since Day One, and to this date, has been there is no favorite theory. There is no one cause that we believe is more likely than another," he said.
Pioneer 10 Spacecraft Falls Silent (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1879-2003Feb25.html)
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 25, 2003; 7:44 PM
Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to venture out of the solar system, has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, NASA said Tuesday. What was apparently the spacecraft's last signal was received Jan. 22 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network. At the time, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at the speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive. The signal and the two previous signals were very faint. The Deep Space Network heard nothing from Pioneer 10 during a final attempt at contact on Feb. 7. No more attempts are planned.
Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972, on a 21-month mission. It became the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to obtain close-up images of Jupiter. In 1983, it became the first manmade object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of distant Pluto. Although Pioneer 10's mission officially ended in 1997, scientists continued to track the TRW Inc.-built spacecraft as part of a study of communication technology for NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission. Pioneer 10 hasn't relayed telemetry data since April 27. "It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our money's worth," said Larry Lasher, Pioneer 10 project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Pioneer 10 carries a gold plaque engraved with a message of goodwill and a map showing the Earth's location in the solar system. The spacecraft continues to coast toward the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. It will take 2 million years to reach it.
Pistol Pete
02-26-03, 08:38 PM
I've got a cassette tape of Pioneer 10's signal when it was leaving the solar system back in the early 80s (I don't remember the day). NASA set up a 1-800 number for people to listen to it so I called and stuck one of those suction cup mics on the phone and recorded it.
Now that we've lost contact with it, I wonder if it got smacked by something, batteries went dead, or has become part of an alien probe. "You are the Kirk. You are the Creator."
MUST STER-RI-LIZE!
The impression I got from this article and others I read today is that they've gradually been losing signal strength from Pioneer for around a year. My guess is the transmitter just can't hack it. Pretty amazing it's worked this long when you think about it.
Wow, that is the coolest thing I've read all day. Amazing! I wish I could see what "it" is seeing way out there.
I imagine you wouldn't see a lot from it's position. Even the sun is very small from Pluto. Pioneer is well beyond that.
I have a really cool astronomy program called Starry Night Pro. What's really neat is you can select an object and select "go to it" from the menu. It doesn't just pop you there, it zooms you there and then you can pan your view around from the object's position. The zooming effect makes you feel like you're traveling the distance, albeit very quickly. Going to anything in our neighborhood is a pretty boring trip in that you don't pass much along the way.
Where we are in the galaxy is very.... rural. *LOL* Our stellar neighbors would be like your neighbors if you lived in North Dakota... they're a long ways off. ;) We're a little more than halfway out on one of the spiral arms.
Towards the center is where all the action is! Millions of stars and very densely packed. There would be no nightime if you were even close to the center.... of course the radiation would flash fry you in an instant, but it is very cool to think about the view! :D
I had an altogether different image, Eagle, but thank you for bringing it's reality so close to home! LOL
I've always been fascinated with space and "what might be out there." Perhaps because it's so unknown. The mystery of it all that has intrigued me so much.
It sounds as though you know quite a bit about our universe and what's beyond it. I've often wanted to do a little reading up on the subject just for shits n' giggles, but haven't. Armegeddon and Contact really don't provide the in-depth information one might need, but they sure are entertaining. :rolleyes:
Pistol Pete
02-26-03, 09:54 PM
He should know about it, he's still trippin fom 1972 :smokin:
commonsenseisnt
02-27-03, 12:08 AM
I *think* Pioneer was what Khan destroyed in Rath of Khan.....?
Pistol Pete
02-27-03, 12:21 AM
Originally posted by commonsenseisnt
I *think* Pioneer was what Khan destroyed in Rath of Khan.....?
I thought he destroyed any chance of a guest appearance in future Star Trek movies. ;)
Originally posted by Laurie
I had an altogether different image, Eagle, but thank you for bringing it's reality so close to home! LOL
LOL... I don't mean to dash your vision of the universe! It's just the vastness of it all that blows me away..... and saddens me. To be able to see what's out there through a telescope and then know that even if you headed out there as fast as we're able to travel you wouldn't get "anywhere" for thousands of years.
I've always been fascinated with space and "what might be out there." Perhaps because it's so unknown. The mystery of it all that has intrigued me so much.
That's always been my facination as well. I was an avid reader of SciFi in HS. Nothing helps you develope an open mind better than SciFi. LOL
It sounds as though you know quite a bit about our universe and what's beyond it. I've often wanted to do a little reading up on the subject just for shits n' giggles, but haven't. Armegeddon and Contact really don't provide the in-depth information one might need, but they sure are entertaining. :rolleyes:
It's a hobby. There are some really interesting ideas coming out lately on the Universe, it's composition, how it started, how it might or might not end. When I see any articles I'll post them to a general Space / Astronomy news thread.
Hey! I like Armegeddon... I just try not to think too much when I'm watching it. :hehe:
Originally posted by Pistol PeteHe should know about it, he's still trippin fom 1972 :Pimp:
Ahhhhh... 1972.... 7th grade..... my first George Carlin LP. Everything I know I learned from George. :D
LOL Eagle! I was just funnin' ya about the reality check. Any articles you can post on the subject will definately be read with great enthusiasm. :thumbsup:
Armegeddon was great entertainment. No movie can suck with Steven Busemi riding da nuke! ;)
Originally posted by Laurie
Armegeddon was great entertainment. No movie can suck with Steven Busemi riding da nuke! ;)
or going through a wood chipper. :laugh:
Originally posted by eagle3
or going through a wood chipper. :laugh:
LOL Fargo! You betcha!
shotglass
02-27-03, 07:59 AM
Originally posted by eagle3
LOL... I don't mean to dash your vision of the universe! It's just the vastness of it all that blows me away..... and saddens me. To be able to see what's out there through a telescope and then know that even if you headed out there as fast as we're able to travel you wouldn't get "anywhere" for thousands of years.
Also consider, what Hubble is showing us is millions/billions of years in the past. What we see here and now happened, in some cases, before the Earth was created. Just think of what may be going on at the fringes of the universe right now that will not be visible here for a few billion years.
Kinda makes you feel insignificant in the overall scheme of the universe.
This is one of the scenerios I mentioned earlier. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
Lawmaker to offer bill for funding spacecraft (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/space/1796954)
By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A Texas congressman plans to introduce legislation today that could clear the way for the United States to pay Russia to build additional spacecraft to ferry astronauts and supplies to the international space station while NASA's three remaining shuttles are grounded.
Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont, said his bill would amend the Iran Nonproliferation Act, which bars the United States from providing extra financing to the Russians until they prove they are not aiding Iran's ballistic missile programs.
"Right now our hands are tied, and we're in a situation where we rely on Russia, who owns the only other vehicles that can get to the space station," Lampson said Wednesday. "I want to make sure there are no complications with being able to make a commitment to Russia in the event we need to do something out of the ordinary to make sure our people on the space station are safe."
Lampson, who serves on the House Science Committee and the space subcommittee that oversees NASA, described his bill as a precautionary move. He said neither NASA nor any of its 15 international partners in the space station project had asked him to remove the funding barrier.
Debbie Rahn, a spokeswoman for NASA's division of international relations, declined to comment on the draft legislation.
Rahn noted, however, that the nonproliferation act already includes an escape clause that allows the administration, in a crisis situation, to waive the law and ask Congress for funding to Russia if it becomes necessary to ensure the space station crew's safety.
Lampson's legislative director, David Lofye, said Lampson's bill would go further. It would rewrite the act to say that any time the U.S. shuttle fleet is grounded, the United States could move forward quickly to pay Russia to provide additional Soyuz crew vessels or Progress cargo spacecraft, either to address safety issues or to provide for space station maintenance.
The $100 billion space station, only half-built, is home to American astronauts Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin, who have been in space since November. The three were scheduled to return home on space shuttle Atlantis next month, with another crew taking their place. But after space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry over Texas Feb. 1, killing all seven astronauts aboard, the spring shuttle launch was put on hold.
An unmanned Russian Progress has since docked with the station and delivered enough food, water and fuel to keep a crew in space through June, when the next Progress mission is planned.
A planned Soyuz launch, tentatively scheduled for April 26, could be converted into a mission to deliver a two-person "caretaker crew" -- possibly an American and a Russian -- to keep the station running until it could be fully staffed again. The current crew would return on a Soyuz vessel that is already docked at the space station, leaving the new Soyuz to serve as an emergency lifeboat for the new crew.
Looks like they're already comitted to using Russian hardware in the near term at least.
Russian craft to bring space station crew home (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/space/1797619)
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- A Russian space capsule now docked at the international space station will be used to bring the space station crew back to Earth now that the U.S. shuttle fleet is grounded, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said today.
O'Keefe told a congressional committee that the 16 countries participating in the space station had agreed to use the docked Soyuz capsule to ferry the crew home. Two new residents, one American and one Russian will go up on a fresh Soyuz that will remain attached to the station for the next six months.
With space shuttle flights on hold because of the Columbia disaster, the Russian craft is "the sole means of support for the space station until the shuttle fleet returns to service," said Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Texas, who introduced legislation to allow NASA to help Russia purchase additional spacecraft if President Bush notifies Congress that the vehicles are needed to ensure the safety of the space station crew.
O'Keefe told the House Science Committee that the next long-term crew was in training at the cosmonaut headquarters in Star City, Russia, to be proficient in Soyuz systems. A NASA spokesman said the space agency was not yet ready to identify the two crewmen.
Another Soyuz will be launched in October with the follow-on station crew, O'Keefe said. He added that the station partners have agreed to accelerate the flights of unmanned cargo ships, called Progress. An additional Progress will be launched this year and an extra one next year, he said.
Only one American has ever returned to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft: the world's first paying space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito.
The Feb. 1 Columbia space shuttle accident, which killed the seven astronauts, forced NASA to ground the entire shuttle fleet. The shuttle is used to ferry astronauts from Earth to the space station, and a crew change-out flight had been scheduled for March. That flight is indefinitely suspended until the Columbia accident investigation is completed.
The NASA astronauts returning in late April or early May will be Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit, O'Keefe said. Their Russian crewmate, Nikolai Budarin, a former resident of his country's Mir station, has landed in a Soyuz before.
Lampson's bill would exempt NASA from the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000, which forbids payments to Russia. The proposed legislation would allow NASA to make such payments to cover the cost of additional spacecraft.
Damn. If we can't trust the integrity of the US built hardware, who in the hell thinks we should trust that shoddy communist equipment either?:what:
*drives to Beaumont and kicks Rep. Nick in the nuts*
Well, it's better than jury-rigging a French Arianne. Those have a common tendency to go *BOOM!!!!!*
I feel it was a huge mistake that we put all of our eggs in the shuttle basket and not maintain the ability to at least put a crew in orbit using an expendable capsule.
Getting a Delta, Atlas, or Titan rocket man-rated wouldn't have been that big a problem and they could have continued to use a modified Apollo capsule.
I know eagle. I guess I'm just horrified that we've let it get to this point, as are you, I'd imagine. They need to come up with a new plan fast, because it would really break me to see us counting on someone else for something that we are so capable of doing well.
I'm afraid the days of getting something from drawing board to orbit in a year or two are long gone. Any replacement system is going to be a ways down the road.
I'd be just as scared getting in a Soyuz as the shuttle. Russian's had one blow up not too long ago. It was just a payload hauler and not man-rated. It ended up being a quality control issue.
One dead as Russian Soyuz blows up (http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/16/russia.soyuz/)
Originally posted by shotglass
Also consider, what Hubble is showing us is millions/billions of years in the past. What we see here and now happened, in some cases, before the Earth was created. Just think of what may be going on at the fringes of the universe right now that will not be visible here for a few billion years.
Kinda makes you feel insignificant in the overall scheme of the universe.
Here's a cool article on how Hubble is using a cluster of galaxies 2.2 billion light years away as a gravitation zoom lens to see objects beyond it.
Biggest 'Zoom Lens' in Space Takes Hubble Deeper into the Universe (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/01/)
http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2003/01/images/a/formats/web.jpg
The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has used a natural "zoom lens" in space to boost its view of the distant universe. Besides offering an unprecedented and dramatic new view of the cosmos, the results promise to shed light on galaxy evolution and dark matter in space. Hubble peered straight through the center of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689. For this observation, Hubble had to gaze at the distant cluster, located 2.2 billion light-years away, for more than 13 hours. The gravity of the cluster's trillion stars — plus dark matter — acts as a 2-million-light-year-wide "lens" in space. This "gravitational lens" bends and magnifies the light of galaxies located far behind it, distorting their shapes and creating multiple images of individual galaxies.
Full Text (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/01/text)
Eddy's Geist
03-02-03, 07:32 AM
I don't know, JDub... up until the mid 90's, the Russians were definitely ahead of America with regards to the construction and engineering of permanent orbit space craft. Where our technology surpassed the commies was in the efficiency to launch and return to earht, i.e. the shuttle vs. traditional payload launched by throw away rockets.
Here's a funny commentary that illustrates the different approches that were taken to solve issues.
Back in the 60s, American astronauts encountered problems with ball point ink pens in zero grav. With out gravity the vacuum that pushed the ink to the tip of the pens wasn't present and naturally the pens wouldn't operate. NASA spent tens of millions of dollars to solve this problem and came up with a design that allows these pens to write upside down, under water, etc... we've all seen these "space pens" advertised at one time or another.
After Glasnost, scientists and engineers from both the US and USSR got together to share knowledge and experiences. An engineer on the US side asked the Soviets if they had encountered the problem and if so.. how did they solve it?
The Soviets admitted that they too encountered the problem and their solution was to replace the ball point pens with pencils! ;)
Originally posted by JDub
Damn. If we can't trust the integrity of the US built hardware, who in the hell thinks we should trust that shoddy communist equipment either?
Originally posted by Eddy's Geist
we've all seen these "space pens" advertised at one time or another.
Seinfeld. ;)
I gotta admit replacing the problem ink-pens with pencils was just so simple that it was overlooked. Very genius. I'll bet NASA engineers were sitting at their desks banging their heads and thinking....."Why didn't I think of that?"
Not correct.
First of all, the pen was desirable over pencil because of concern that the pencil dust or broken tips could flow into electronics causing a short. So, it was a crew safety issue that made NASA look to an alternative to the pencil.
Second, it's an urban legend that NASA spent ten's of millions of dollars developing it.
From Snopes (http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/spacepen.htm)
" NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's] atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen atmosphere. Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized ink cartridge. Fisher sent the first samples to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Houston Space Center. The pens were all metal except for the ink, which had a flash point above 200°C. The sample Space Pens were thoroughly tested by NASA. They passed all the tests and have been used ever since on all manned space flights, American and Russian. All research and developement costs were paid by Paul Fisher. No development costs have ever been charged to the government.
Because of the fire in Apollo 1, in which three Astronauts died, NASA required a writing instrument that would not burn in a 100% oxygen atmosphere. It also had to work in the extreme conditions of outer space:
1. In a vacuum.
2. With no gravity.
3. In hot temperatures of +150°C in sunlight and also in the cold shadows of space where the temperatures drop to -120°C
(NASA tested the pressurized Space Pens at -50°C, but because of the residential [sic] heat in the pen it also writes for many minutes in the cold shadows.)
Fisher spent over one million dollars in trying to perfect the ball point pen before he made his first successful pressurized pens in 1965. Samples were immediately sent to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Manager of the Houston Space Center, where they were thoroughly tested and approved for use in Space in September 1965. In December 1967 he sold 400 Fisher Space Pens to NASA for $2.95 each.
Lead pencils were used on all Mercury and Gemini space flights and all Russian space flights prior to 1968. Fisher Space Pens are more dependable than lead pencils and cannot create the hazard of a broken piece of lead floating through the gravity-less atmosphere."
Eddy's Geist
03-02-03, 10:13 PM
Cool! Good post!
Teach me to read Reader's Digest ;)
I think Russia's days of space dominance are waning. The Chinese are the one's to watch.
China aims for the moon with space project (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=118&art_id=qw1046678401289S522&set_id=1)
March 03 2003 at 11:07AM
Quickwire
Beijing - China, which aims to send a man into space later this year, has already set its sight on the next step in its fledgling space programme - the moon, state media reported on Sunday.
Once the first Chinese astronaut has orbited the earth, the next big challenge will be moon exploration, the Beijing Daily reported, citing Luan Enjie, director of the State Space Administration.
China will soon start research into practical technologies that will make moon exploration possible, Luan said.
China's moon programme is divided into three phases. The first is the dispatch of a satellite that will explore the physical properties of the moon.
During the second phase a rocket will blast off from Earth and land on the moon, and finally, a space shuttle will collect samples from the moon's surface.
Huang Chunping, general director of the rocket system designed for the space programme, last month said he believed China had the ability to send astronauts to the moon.
State media said last year that China wanted to establish a moon base, while space exhibitions have suggested that Beijing has ambitions to eventually explore Mars as well.
China has so far launched four unmanned spaceflights, the last of which successfully returned to earth on January 5 after a 162-hour mission. This was considered by many to be the final dress rehearsal before a manned spaceflight.
If the attempts are successful, China will be the third country to send a human into orbit following the former Soviet Union and the United States. - Sapa-AFP
Pistol Pete
03-04-03, 02:54 PM
Here's a shot of Europe going to sleep. Looks enhanced to show the Atlantic floor.
In a first, real stardust identified (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/03/03/stardust.reut/index.html)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Microscopic grains of stardust "shine like a beacon" when scanned by a powerful new instrument, proving for the first time they do indeed come from beyond our solar system, according to U.S. scientists.
Collected by comets and asteroids, the dust ended up in the Earth's stratosphere where it was collected by NASA and has been scrutinized for decades. Scientists believed some of it must be from outside the immediate neighborhood, but it was so intermixed with matter from the solar system that it was impossible to prove.
Using a new French instrument called a NanoSIMS ion microprobe, Scott Messenger from Washington University in St. Louis, NASA's Lindsay Keller and colleagues were able to pick out the specks of star matter from the black sprinkles of dust. The instrument ferreted out the tiniest molecules of stellar sand and glass, which carried a form of oxygen foreign to the Earth's solar system. These oxygen isotopes -- carrying a different number of neutrons from native oxygen -- lit up under the scanner, Messenger said.
"It's shining like a little beacon," Messenger, whose group's work is reported in this week's issue of the journal, Science, said in a telephone interview. "They are these little glass balls that are shot full of little beads of iron, nickel, metal and iron sulfides," Messenger added. "A colleague of ours has been looking at these things for years and found a lot of intriguing similarities with what astronomers think interstellar grains should look like."
But they could not prove it until their lab got hold of a NanoSIMS, a new scanner made by French firm Cameca in Paris. Its narrow beam was able to pick out individual specks from the black dust. "At least some of these are actually stardust, which is pretty satisfying," Messenger said. Some are crystalline, while others look more like glass. The dust has been collected for years at 100,000 feet (20 km) by high-altitude aircraft.
"Something like 40,000 metric tons per year of this stuff is falling on Earth," Messenger said. It is thought to come from the tails of comets and from asteroids, which collected the dust as they spiraled into the sun. It dates from before the solar system was formed and is the same dust that swirls and forms suns and planets across the universe.
"Astronomers have been studying stardust through telescopes for decades," Messenger said. "And they have derived models of what it must be like, based on wiggles in their spectral recordings. But they never dreamed it would be possible to look this closely at a grain of stardust that has been floating around in the galaxy."
So far the team's sample is as tiny as the bits of silicate matter they are looking at -- they have identified just six pieces of genuine stardust. But the team has analyzed the bits and think three came from red giants or asymptotic giant branch stars, a fourth from a metal-poor star and the fifth and sixth possibly came from a metal-rich star or a supernova.
Pistol Pete
03-07-03, 11:22 PM
Does anyone remember a download animation about 4 or 5 years ago that was about Mars? You could move your cursor around and glide over the planet surface. It was a full 3D fractal image.
Mars scientists hope to avoid rocky start (http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1009164&t=Nation+%2F+World&c=26,1009164)
By LOS ANGELES TIMES
In a chandeliered ballroom at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Arcadia, Calif., a roomful of men and women are seeking the perfect piece of real estate but rejecting nearly everything they see. Some sites are too cold, others too windy, and most aren’t sunny enough. A few are just plain boring, and a handful turned out to have too many triangular-shaped rocks. It’s never easy to find the perfect place to land. It’s even harder when you’re looking on Mars. “The good news is, it’s Mars,’’ said Jet Propulsion Laboratory geologist Matt Golombek. “The bad news is, there’s not much to choose from.’’
In May and June, NASA engineers plan to hurl two spacecraft toward Mars — brawny 400-pound rovers dubbed “robot geologists.’’ They are on a mission to find out whether water needed to sustain life once existed on the planet’s surface. First, however, they need a place to land. Although Mars is about half the size of Earth and has no pesky oceans to avoid, much of the planet is out from the start.
The landers must touch down in a thin strip along the equator where there is enough sunlight to keep solar arrays juiced. Within this band — less than 10 percent of the planet — huge swaths with yawning chasms, steep volcanic slopes and sudden windstorms are off-limits. Of the 185 sites first chosen, only four remain. For its landing cushioned by air bags, each spacecraft requires an ellipse of land the size of Cape Cod that’s free of stiff winds and lander-crushing hazards such as snaggletoothed rocks.
The stakes for the $800 million mission are high. Only three other spacecraft have successfully landed on Mars, the major focus of NASA’s robotic space exploration program. The recent loss of the space shuttle Columbia, along with the loss of two Mars spacecraft in 1999, are reminders of the perils of space. Two-thirds of all missions sent to Mars by the United States and Russia since 1960 have failed.
In choosing a site, tension bubbles between the project’s engineers, who are responsible for making sure the landers do not crash, and the project’s scientists, who are eager to get to the most geologically promising parts of the planet: steep-sided volcanoes, chasms that dwarf the Grand Canyon and wind-whipped fields of boulders that may hold evidence of a watery past for the Red Planet. “It’s always the same,’’ said Mike Carr, a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., who has participated in nearly every Mars mission to date. “Scientists want to go to places that are interesting, and engineers want to go to places that are safe.’’
In 1976, Carr helped choose landing sites for the Viking missions. Back then, the landing site team had nothing to go on except fuzzy, 1960s-era images. Luckily, the two Viking spacecraft had the luxury of orbiting to check out the neighborhood before they touched down. It was a good thing they did. The landing site that Carr and others had chosen from Earth was full of potentially lethal rocks. “We looked at the landing site and were horrified,’’ Carr said.The new Mars Exploration Rovers cannot orbit first; their landing sites must be chosen in advance. The same was true of Pathfinder, the lander and small rover that reached Mars in 1997. In that project, a three-person crew had only low-resolution pictures from the Viking missions to work with. “The engineers were saying, ‘I don’t want any rocks bigger than the chair I’m sitting on,’ and all I could see were things larger than a football stadium,’’ said Golombek, a leader of the team selecting new landing sites.
Because two spacecraft now orbit Mars — Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor — the landing team has tens of thousands of pictures showing the Martian landscape in detail. Some would say excruciating detail. Instead of peering at hazy images, Golombek can order crisp photos of areas of Mars that have never been seen by human eyes. A team of 50 is helping analyze them all. “It’s the first time science has been used to triage landing sites,’’ he said. Amid the stretches of chaotic terrain, massive volcanoes and deep canyons as long as the United States, scientists can see hazardous rocks about the size of a football huddle.
But geologists want to land close enough to rocks to study them. With an average speed of about half an inch per second, the six-wheeled rovers are expected to travel just one-third of a mile in their three-month life spans. Scientific success depends on their landing very close to something interesting. Many of the new pictures show potential geological pay dirt. But hazards are everywhere.
In his office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Tim Parker has spent thousands of hours piecing together high-resolution maps in search of “fresh, scary craters’’ and “pathologically shaped rocks’’ that could disable the landers. The maps are so data-rich they leave Parker’s powerful desktop computer sluggish. But he won’t stop until the decision on where to land is completed next month. “Scientists are like baby birds,’’ he said. “You feed them, and they still want more.’’ The gigabytes of data, and their many interpretations, have made for lots of quibbling — and very long meetings, like the Arcadia gathering in January. It produced a set of rankings now dubbed “the Consumer Reports guide to landing sites.’’ Landing engineer Mark Adler’s favorite sites are those with the least wind shear, not necessarily ones with the best rocks, or even with any rocks at all. While geologists describe rocks on Mars as “the planet’s history books’’ and “treasure troves,’’ landing engineers call them “scary,’’ “pointy’’ and “bad.’’
The air bag landing system, a similar but improved version of what was used on the Pathfinder mission, is tough enough to withstand quite a beating. But the wrong rock in the wrong place could prove disastrous.
The finalists for the landing sites are:
Meridiani: This site, a favorite of scientists and engineers, is flat with little wind and few rocks. Geologists are excited because the area contains large amounts of hematite, a mineral that forms in water.
Isidis: This site, a flat plain at the base of the Martian Highlands, has little wind and few large rocks. It may contain rocks that tumbled from the mountainous highlands but is not considered of high scientific interest.
Elysium: This site, similar to Isidis, is favored by engineers because it has even less wind.
Gusev Crater: This massive crater may once have been filled with a lake. Channels show where water might have entered and exited. But it is windy and rocky and has steep terrain.
In April, NASA officials will pick the two final landing sites. The landers, to be launched in May and June, are expected to reach Mars in January 2004. The Meridiani site seems a shoo-in because it is safe and has the best shot of producing evidence of surface water. The real question is where the second lander will go. The smart money is on Gusev Crater. It has the potential of helping prove that water existed on the planet and features a wide variety of terrain. And its dramatic crater walls, carved channels and expansive views are sure to please the masses back on Earth. walls, carved channels and expansive views are sure to please the masses back on Earth.
Hubble Spies Evaporating Planet (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000EE645-B011-1E6F-A98A809EC5880105)
Scientists have determined that a planet orbiting a sun-like star 150 light-years from Earth is evaporating. According to a report published today in the journal Nature, much of the hot gas giant may eventually disappear, leaving a dense core behind.
The planet in peril is dubbed HD209458b and orbits a star in the constellation Pegasus in such a way that it passes between the star and Earth once every revolution. This arrangement allowed researchers to develop a new method for examining the planet's atmosphere. By analyzing light from the star as it passes through the atmosphere, astronomers can determine its chemical composition. An international team led by Alfred Vidal-Madjar of the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris examined spectroscopic data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope during three passes of the planet and found a startlingly drop in the amount of hydrogen detected. Study co-author Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, also of the Institute of Astrophysics, explains that "the atmosphere is heated, the hydrogen escapes the planet's gravitational pull and is pushed away by the starlight, fanning out in a large tail behind the planet--like that of a comet."
SETI homes in on alien signals (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8286)
ALIEN WATCHERS in the SETI@home project haven't yet found any alien life forms in four years of scanning the skies and getting folk to use their PC downtime to process the results.
But their endeavours have turned up a few leads - five billion, in fact, according to the team.
Now the SETI scientists will revisit 200 of the most likely hotspots in the sky using the Arecibo radio telescope, the largest in the world, which is based in Puerto Rico. For eight hours each day, from March 18th to March 20th, the SETI@home scientists will target between 100 and 200 locations in the sky where the "strongest, clearest, and most promising candidate signals have previously been detected". The team says that only a candidate signal that has been revisited and confirmed in this manner can be considered to be a potential intelligent transmission from the stars.
SETI usually uses a radio receiver piggybacking the giant telescope, but this time around the alien watchers will have full use of the main telescope, with which to carry out their searches.
The scientists have produced a map of the most likely targets, published here. (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/bestcands.html)
Nice! Thanks, eagle.:thumbsup:
Barb101
03-13-03, 11:17 AM
Eagle I had been using the SETI@Home screensaver for my computer/s for over two years now. I had logged over 200 data units on one. I had a few gaussian spikes that got my attention. Let's hope they find something in all this data they've collected. I'm very interested to find out if they have real signal/s from somewhere! :alien: I want to believe ;)
No prob Jdub.
I just loaded the screensaver the other day. It's something I had been meaning to do for a lonf time and that article just reminded me. I leave my work PC on all the time so it's crunching away quite a bit. :)
evereno
03-13-03, 06:50 PM
Hubble detects a new, distant planet
John Noble Wilford The New York Times Friday, March 14, 2003
The Hubble Space Telescope has detected an extensive atmosphere of hydrogen enveloping and escaping from a newfound planet of a distant star, scientists have reported.
.
The discovery comes as no surprise, astronomers say, but it is important nonetheless as apparent confirmation that the extrasolar planets observed so far not only are much like the solar system's Jupiter in size but also are similarly huge gaseous bodies.
.
In an announcement Wednesday by the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a French-led research team said three separate observations by the Hubble telescope had revealed a hot and puffed-up hydrogen atmosphere surrounding a planet orbiting the star HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasus, 150 light-years from Earth. Details are described in the Thursday issue of the journal Nature.
.
The most astonishing aspect, said the team leader, Alfred Vidal-Madjar of the Astrophysics Institute of Paris, is that the planet is so close to the searing heat of its parent star that the dense atmosphere reaches temperatures of about 10,000 degrees centigrade and is boiling off and evaporating at a rate of perhaps 10,000 tons a second.
.
The escaping hydrogen was detected extending over the space of 125,000 miles (200,000 kilometers), trailing the planet like a comet's tail.
.
In the journal report, the scientists said analysis of the observations showed that hydrogen atoms in the extended atmosphere had large velocities relative to the planet. Thus, they concluded, the hydrogen "must be escaping the planetary atmosphere."
.
As a result, astronomers said, the planet may already have lost a considerable amount of its mass. Much of it may eventually disappear, leaving only a dense core about 10 times the mass of Earth.
.
"The implication is that planets initially located even closer to their stars would not survive long," David Charbonneau of the California Institute of Technology said in an accompanying article.
.
That, he added, "agrees with the observed paucity of extrasolar planets in such orbits."
.
The newfound planet, designated HD 209458b, is one of more than 100 extrasolar planets detected since 1995. None have been seen directly. In nearly all cases, their presence has been inferred from the wobbling effect of their gravitational tug on the star they orbit. From this, astronomers can estimate the planet's mass and orbital pattern.
.
Like several of these planets, HD 209458b is known as a "hot Jupiter," an object that orbits precariously close to its star. These objects presumably formed in the cold outer reaches of the star system and then spiraled into their close orbits.
.
This particular planet - with a diameter 1.3 times that of Jupiter, and two-thirds its mass - orbits its star at a distance of only 4 million miles, so close that it makes a complete circuit every 3.5 days.
.
By comparison, Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, orbits at a distance of 36 million miles, completing its orbit every 88 days. Jupiter, the closest gas giant in the solar system, is almost half a billion miles from the Sun.
.
The atmosphere study was based on observations by the Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph. As the planet passed across the face of its star, causing a slight dimming of the star's light, the spectrograph measured how the planet's atmosphere filters that light. During such a transit, the starlight is scattered and acquires a signature from the intervening atmospheric atoms.
.
Two years ago, Charbonneau and colleagues had the first success with the transit method of detecting and identifying extrasolar planetary atmospheres. They observed traces of sodium in HD 209458b's lower atmosphere.
.
Charbonneau, who was not involved in the new research, said the detection of hydrogen, the major constituent of the planet's atmosphere, "has much greater diagnostic potential" in the effort to learn more about the formation and the dynamics of the hot Jupiters.
< < Back to Start of Article The Hubble Space Telescope has detected an extensive atmosphere of hydrogen enveloping and escaping from a newfound planet of a distant star, scientists have reported.
.
The discovery comes as no surprise, astronomers say, but it is important nonetheless as apparent confirmation that the extrasolar planets observed so far not only are much like the solar system's Jupiter in size but also are similarly huge gaseous bodies.
.
In an announcement Wednesday by the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a French-led research team said three separate observations by the Hubble telescope had revealed a hot and puffed-up hydrogen atmosphere surrounding a planet orbiting the star HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasus, 150 light-years from Earth. Details are described in the Thursday issue of the journal Nature.
.
The most astonishing aspect, said the team leader, Alfred Vidal-Madjar of the Astrophysics Institute of Paris, is that the planet is so close to the searing heat of its parent star that the dense atmosphere reaches temperatures of about 10,000 degrees centigrade and is boiling off and evaporating at a rate of perhaps 10,000 tons a second.
.
The escaping hydrogen was detected extending over the space of 125,000 miles (200,000 kilometers), trailing the planet like a comet's tail.
.
In the journal report, the scientists said analysis of the observations showed that hydrogen atoms in the extended atmosphere had large velocities relative to the planet. Thus, they concluded, the hydrogen "must be escaping the planetary atmosphere."
.
As a result, astronomers said, the planet may already have lost a considerable amount of its mass. Much of it may eventually disappear, leaving only a dense core about 10 times the mass of Earth.
.
"The implication is that planets initially located even closer to their stars would not survive long," David Charbonneau of the California Institute of Technology said in an accompanying article.
.
That, he added, "agrees with the observed paucity of extrasolar planets in such orbits."
.
The newfound planet, designated HD 209458b, is one of more than 100 extrasolar planets detected since 1995. None have been seen directly. In nearly all cases, their presence has been inferred from the wobbling effect of their gravitational tug on the star they orbit. From this, astronomers can estimate the planet's mass and orbital pattern.
.
Like several of these planets, HD 209458b is known as a "hot Jupiter," an object that orbits precariously close to its star. These objects presumably formed in the cold outer reaches of the star system and then spiraled into their close orbits.
.
This particular planet - with a diameter 1.3 times that of Jupiter, and two-thirds its mass - orbits its star at a distance of only 4 million miles, so close that it makes a complete circuit every 3.5 days.
.
By comparison, Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, orbits at a distance of 36 million miles, completing its orbit every 88 days. Jupiter, the closest gas giant in the solar system, is almost half a billion miles from the Sun.
.
The atmosphere study was based on observations by the Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph. As the planet passed across the face of its star, causing a slight dimming of the star's light, the spectrograph measured how the planet's atmosphere filters that light. During such a transit, the starlight is scattered and acquires a signature from the intervening atmospheric atoms.
.
Two years ago, Charbonneau and colleagues had the first success with the transit method of detecting and identifying extrasolar planetary atmospheres. They observed traces of sodium in HD 209458b's lower atmosphere.
.
Charbonneau, who was not involved in the new research, said the detection of hydrogen, the major constituent of the planet's atmosphere, "has much greater diagnostic potential" in the effort to learn more about the formation and the dynamics of the hot Jupiters.
http://www.iht.com/articles/89782.html
The Delta IV is a new launch vehicle using a Boeing built Russian RS-68 main engine. It is capable of putting a 28,950lb payload in geometric orbit. Now thats a rocket! Boeing's Delta IV site (http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/delta/delta4/delta4.htm)
Delta 4 launches Air Force satellite (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/03/11/rocket.launch.ap/index.html)
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/TECH/space/03/11/rocket.launch.ap/story.deltalaunch.ap.jpg
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- After more than a month of delays, the Air Force launched a defense satellite that will allow faster communication between U.S. defense officials and battlefield commanders.
The blast off on Monday of the Boeing Delta 4 rocket was the first space launch in the United States since space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas on February 1. The $200 million satellite will become part of the United States' national security communications network, which relays secure data to the White House, U.S. embassies and military personnel. The launch was also the first military mission of an Air Force program designed to produce and launch rockets in a more efficient and less expensive manner.
The launch had been scheduled for February 7, but was postponed out of respect for the Columbia astronauts. It was postponed again February 10 to give engineers a chance to check for potential problems in a steering mechanism. Saturday, a problem with a fuel pump housing and a countdown glitch postponed the launch again. High winds forecast for Sunday night pushed the launch to Monday.
Very cool article though a bit lengthy. I'll just post a part of it. If you want to read more check out the link.
A Case For Orion
http://www.spacedaily.com/images/rocket-nuclear-bg.jpg
"Orion" was the project name of a spacecraft design study so absurd that it stood absolutely no chance of success from the very outset. The drive mechanism was to be an atomic bomb machine gun. Ridiculous as the idea seems it was still given a shoestring budget and a team of top scientists to work on it. The results of that research which ended about two generations ago are still largely classified, but what is known raises some startling questions.
Authorities at the time were no doubt influenced by many factors in their decision to eventually cancel Orion. Chief among them perhaps, with the bombing of Japan still fresh in peoples minds, was the sheer craziness of it.
Yet the scientists working on the project had no doubts about its feasibility. Years of experimentation had persuaded them it was not only a possible goal but the only really practical method of exploring space.
They talked of sending men to Mars by 1965 and Saturn by 1970. Apollo engineers struggled with weightsaving technologies such as five stage rockets for a moon shot carrying three astronauts.
Meanwhile the Orion planners routinely discussed such endeavours as establishing a large permanent moonbase in a single mission.
The scientists and engineers involved with Orion were no fools. Among their many supporters were Wernher Von Braun. Acclaimed as the father of NASA. Originally opposed to such a bizarre idea he changed his mind after seeing a test model fly using TNT. Reportedly falling out of his chair in surprise at seeing such undeniable evidence of pulse propulsion demonstrated.
The original idea of "nuclear pulse propulsion" is attributed to renowned super genius Stanislaw Ulam....
For More:
SpaceDaily.com (http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclearspace-03h.html)
How Bright Was History's Brightest Supernova? (http://skyandtelescope.com/news/current/article_891_1.asp)
March 10, 2003 | The brightest star seen in recorded human history was the supernova of the year 1006, which appeared in the constellation Lupus south of Scorpius. Accounts from China, Japan, and Arab lands describe a new star that was so bright it lit the landscape. It took three years to fade from view.
Now astronomers have pinpointed the distance of Supernova 1006 and, they think, its true brightness.
All that's visible now is an extremely faint, expanding circular shell ½° wide. Astronomers first detected the supernova remnant by its radio emission in 1965, then by X-rays in 1976. That same year astronomers first reported finding traces of visible-light wisps at the remnant's edges.
Now P. Frank Winkler (Middlebury College) and two colleagues have measured sharp digital images, taken in 1987, 1991, 1998, and 2002, to track the remnant's expansion (see animation; 3.2 MB QuickTime movie). The shell is expanding at an apparent rate of 0.28 arcsecond per year. Other astronomers, using spectral evidence, had already determined the shell's physical expansion rate: 2,900 kilometers per second. Equating these values equal gives the shell's distance: 7,100 ± 280 light-years.
This value finally offers a good answer to an old mystery: How bright was Supernova 1006, really?
Several lines of evidence indicate that it was a supernova of Type Ia — the kind caused by a white-dwarf star exploding completely in a runaway thermonuclear reaction. All of these explode with very nearly the same brightness, making them excellent "standard candles." A Type-Ia supernova at the newly determined distance would shine with a peak brightness between magnitude –7.1 and –7.9, taking all uncertainties into account.
That's more than a dozen times brighter than Venus and on the way to the brightness of the quarter Moon. It's in the middle of the wide range of estimates for the supernova that have been based on the rather vague historical accounts.
What would a star that bright actually look like? Compare brilliant Jupiter shining overhead these evenings with the relatively dim stars of Orion's Belt. "At its peak," says Winkler in a statement, "the supernova of 1006 would have appeared about as much brighter compared to Jupiter now, as Jupiter is in comparison to the faintest star in Orion's Belt."
And considering its low altitude in the south, he says, "It must have been twinkling like crazy."
Doomed Matter Near Black Hole Gets Second Lease on Life (http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Chartas3-2003.htm)
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Images/Chartas/accretion_disk-sm.jpg 25 March 2003 -- Supermassive black holes, notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars, might also help seed interstellar space with the elements necessary for life, such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and iron, scientists say.
Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton satellite, scientists at Penn State and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found evidence of high-speed winds blowing away copious amounts of gas from the cores of two quasar galaxies, which are thought to be powered by black holes.
"The winds we measured imply that as much as a billion suns' worth of material is blown away over the course of a quasar's lifetime," said Dr. George Chartas of the Penn State Astronomy and Astrophysics Department, who led the observations.
The winds might also regulate black hole growth and spur the creation of new stars, according to the science team, which includes Drs. Niel Brandt and Gordon Garmire of Penn State and Dr. Sarah Gallagher of MIT.
These results are presented today in a press conference at the meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society at Mt. Tremblant, Quebec. Different from high-speed jets shooting off subatomic particles, the newly identified gusts arise from the disk of matter orbiting the black hole, called the accretion disk, once thought to be a one-way ticket into the black hole
Black holes are objects so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape their gravitational attraction. But this only applies once matter crosses the theoretical border of a black hole, called the event horizon. Outside the event horizon, the tug of gravity is strong, but matter and light can escape.
Theorists have suggested that a wind could blow away material from its accretion disk and pepper the interstellar region with heavier elements. The wind is created by radiation pressure, analogous to earthly winds created by varying high and low air pressure systems.
Chartas and his colleagues observed two quasars, which are exceedingly distant star-like objects thought to be the bright cores of galaxies fueled by a supermassive black hole. With Chandra, the team observed a quasar called APM 08279+5255; and with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, they observed a quasar named PG1115+080.
Both quasars are billions of light years away from Earth. However, APM 08279+5255 was naturally magnified by a factor of about 100 and PG1115+080 by a factor of about 25 through a process called gravitational lensing. Essentially, their light, while en route to us, was distorted and magnified by the gravity of intervening galaxies acting like telescope lenses.
With the natural boost in magnification, coupled with the X-ray observatories' abilities, the scientists could ascertain several key properties in the quasar light, such as the speed of the gas that absorbed the light, as well as the material's proximity to the black hole.
The team found the first observational evidence of a wind component transporting a substantial amount of carbon, oxygen and iron into the interstellar and intergalactic medium. The wind was moving at 40 percent light speed, considerably faster than predicted.
Brandt said the observation may spur new theoretical work about black hole winds and their effect on their environs. For example, Brandt said, "the wind might provide insight to the relationship between black hole mass and the central bulge of its host galaxy."
Chandra, launched in July 1999, is the third in NASA's Great Observatory series, a sister craft to the Hubble Space Telescope. ESA's XMM-Newton was launched from French Guiana in December 1999 and carries three advanced X-ray telescopes.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program, and TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass., for the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, Washington.
http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/hf_light_echo2_0327_01.jpg
Hubble Chronicles Mysterious Outburst with 'Eye-Popping' Pictures
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 02:00 pm ET
26 March 2003
An eruptive star that brightened to 600,000 times its initial intensity and briefly outshone all others in the Milky Way Galaxy has astronomers amazed and puzzled over what happened.
The star's light bounces off surrounding dust clouds, creating a spectacular "light echo" in a series of new images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The echo is seen to grow over time as the light races out to fresh layers of material, presumed to have been cast into space long ago by one or more eruptions of the star. The light bounces off that dust and is reflected toward Earth.
That is not the strange part.
The star, named V838 Monocerotis, has suddenly grown so big that if placed in the center of our solar system it would engulf Jupiter.
Oddly, it isn't hot and eruptive in the manner of a supernova or nova, both of which toss off outer layers in explosive fits. Instead, V838 Mon, as astronomers call it, achieved remarkable brilliance while swelling to gargantuan size and remaining cool at its surface.
"A supernova would have been much brighter than V838 Mon, so that is ruled out," said Howard Bond, a Space Telescope Science Institute researcher who led the observations. "V838 Mon was roughly as bright as an ordinary nova, but its behavior was very different."
When a nova ejects its outer layers, a hot core is exposed, Bond explained. V838 Mon did not explosively eject its outer envelope, so it remained cool throughout the event, which was observed from April to December 2002.
"In fact, at present it is one of the coolest stars known," Bond told SPACE.com.
More.... (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/light_echo_030326.html)
JBMoney
03-27-03, 07:58 AM
Originally posted by eagle3
http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/hf_light_echo2_0327_01.jpg
Mysterious Outburst with 'Eye-Popping' Pictures
NSFW???
Hey, how else am I going to get anyone to read these posts? ;)
Carl Spackler
03-27-03, 08:20 AM
Originally posted by eagle3
http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/hf_light_echo2_0327_01.jpg
Goatse?
NASA posts thousands of new Mars images (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/04/05/mars.images.reut/index.html)
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/TECH/space/04/05/mars.images.reut/story.mars.jpg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Sand dunes that look like the scales of a giant fish and rare, wispy clouds are among more than 11,000 new images of Mars posted on the Internet, NASA said on Friday.
The photographs, which scientists will examine to glean new clues about how much water there is on Mars and where, are posted at www.msss.com/moc_gallery.
They were taken by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor.
"The new batch, taken between February and July 2002, brings the total number of images in the online gallery to more than 123,800," NASA said in a statement.
MGS, orbiting Mars since 1997, has provided valuable insights that have helped planetary experts and geologists to conclude that liquid water may exist just under the surface of Mars. That is important news for future explorers as well as to scientists trying to understand the Red Planet's dynamics.
"Indeed, there remain new discoveries to be made about the history of water, climate variability, and character of future landing sites from the continuing flow of images, spectra, and related measurements from the Global Surveyor," said James Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars Exploration.
"Without the new perspectives provided by MGS, the critical scientific and engineering assessment of potential landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rovers would not have been possible."
Malin Space Science Systems: Mars Orbiter Camera gallery (http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/)
Rough Seas in Sagittarius (http://skyandtelescope.com/news/current/article_939_1.asp)
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/4985.jpg
By Bud Sadler
April 24, 2003 | Looking like the roiling ocean in a Winslow Homer seascape, this seething mass of glowing gases is being lit by a flood of ultraviolet radiation emanating from young, massive stars out of the picture to the upper left. The radiation warms the cold clouds of hydrogen, shaping them into wavelike structures and causing them to fluoresce. The colors represent light from various gases: red for sulfur, green for hydrogen, and blue for oxygen.
This image, spanning about 3 light-years, depicts a small area of M17 (which goes by several aliases, including NGC 6618, the Omega Nebula, the Horseshoe Nebula, and the Swan Nebula), an active stellar nursery about 5,500 light-years away in Sagittarius.
The shot was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on May 29-30, 1999, and released on the 13th anniversary of Hubble's launch (April 24, 1990). High- and full-resolution views are available from the Hubble Heritage Project site. (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/13/)
Barb101
08-11-03, 08:44 AM
By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer
LOS ANGELES - An instrument aboard one of the two NASA (news - web sites) rovers en route to Mars has malfunctioned, prompting worries it could harm the robot's information-gathering ability, a scientist said Wednesday.
If left unfixed, the instrument could still determine the presence of iron-bearing minerals in the rocks and soil on the Martian surface, but not their relative abundance, said Steve Squyres, of Cornell University. Some of that information could be derived from the rover's other instruments, however.
Scientists hope that testing the minerals will help solve the riddle of whether Mars was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of sustaining life.
"We would be able to extract some science from the data — not everything, but some," said Squyres, lead scientist on the package of instruments carried on the rover, Spirit, and its twin, Opportunity.
Scientists do not understand the cause of the glitch, but have five months to come up with a remedy before the rover lands, Squyres said. Spirit is expected to make a Jan. 3 landing on Mars, followed by Opportunity on Jan. 24.
The instrument, called a Mossbauer spectrometer, malfunctioned during tests last week.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will continue to work on a long-distance fix to Spirit's instrument during the balance of its cruise to Mars.
"We will do the best we can to adjust the instrument so it delivers the maximum science," Squyres said.
The $800 million pair of rovers otherwise remain in excellent health, according to NASA.
AP (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=753&e=10&u=/ap/20030807/ap_on_sc/mars_rover)
If I ever make it out to Kansas I'd like to check this place out. They restored Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule too.
Space Museum on the Plains (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/08/13/travel.kansas.cosmosphere.ap/index.html)
HUTCHINSON, Kansas (AP) -- A moon rock. The only Soviet Vostok spacecraft in the Western world. The Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey. An SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.
These are among hundreds of items -- from a piece of Dentyne gum flown on the Apollo-Soyuz mission to the gloves Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin used to touch the moon -- at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.
It's a world-class museum, a repository for important artifacts from the nation's space program, and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution -- and it's located in a town of 40,000 on the Kansas plains, an hour's drive from Wichita.
The Cosmosphere traces its roots to a local planetarium, built in the 1960s. A space expert who'd once worked there, Max Ary, happened to be serving on a Smithsonian committee to find homes for artifacts released after the Apollo program ended, when the planetarium board asked whether he had any ideas for a museum.
Under Ary's direction, the Kansas Cosmosphere was launched in 1980, and that local planetarium was transformed into a nationally recognized space museum.
In addition to viewing objects on display in the Hall of Space Museum, guests can also take in a planetarium show, an IMAX movie, and a trip to Dr. Goddard's Lab, where an instructor performs experiments and provides an introduction to rocket science, designed for all ages. A T-shirt in the gift shop even says: "Actually, I am a rocket scientist."
The Cosmosphere also restores spacecraft, and visitors can catch a glimpse of that work being conducted in the Hall of Space Museum.
Space exploration began, as the museum's exhibits explain it, with Germany's rocket program during World War II. Displays include a set of German production documents along with a V-2 rocket -- the first long-range ballistic missile to be used in combat, launched by the Nazis in 1942 -- that was restored at the Cosmosphere.
"We try to wrap every piece in some kind of historical, sociological context," said Jeff Ollenburger, president and chief executive of the Cosmosphere.
In the Cold War gallery, the museum even has sections from the wall that separated East and West Germany at the towns of Boeckwitz (East) and Zicherie (West). There are also examples of early U.S. and Soviet spacecraft, including Vostok and Mercury spacecraft.
The Odyssey is displayed so that visitors can walk around it and appreciate the damage done to the heat shield of the Apollo 13 command module. The spacecraft carried the mission's three astronauts safely to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded while en route to the moon. The incident was depicted in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," for which the Cosmosphere helped build props. A video of the film runs continuously as part of the exhibit.
The museum also has a temporary exhibit dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the final moon mission in 1972. That's where the moon rock is displayed, along with one of Ollenburger's favorite items: the cuff checklist worn by Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. The cheat sheet, which was literally affixed to the cuff of his spacesuit, contains the last words ever spoken on the moon: "We leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
Another set of Cernan's words are displayed near the IMAX theater. "Some of the most exciting space education going on in this country is not coming out of Washington or New York or California, or even Texas," he said. "It's coming from a place in Kansas called the Cosmosphere."
Crucial moment approaches for Saturn probe
10:44 29 June 04
NewScientist.com news service
On Thursday, one of the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built will reach probably the most beautiful planet in the Solar System. While skimming over the rings of Saturn, the Cassini mission will fire its main engine to slow down and enter orbit, beginning a planned four-year tour of the planet and its moons.
After a seven-year journey, this is the critical moment for the $3 billion spacecraft. At 0047 GMT, Cassini will fly through a gap in Saturn's rings, using its large main antenna as a shield against possible debris.
Then, at 0112 GMT, the engine should start a 96-minute burn to cut Cassini's speed by 2250 kilometres per hour, or around 10 per cent of its speed relative to Saturn. That is just enough to put it in an elongated orbit.
If something goes wrong, Cassini will fly right past Saturn and into the void. Mission control, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, would be helpless to intervene because it takes more than an hour for signals from Earth to reach Saturn.
But the team are very confident. The rocket has been tested recently, and there is even a spare engine if the first one fails.
Complete Article (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996084)
Follow Cassini's insertion to orbit and check out the latest news and photos.
http://saturn1.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Rguess21
11-15-04, 10:34 PM
Updated: 9:02 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2004LOS ANGELES - After an apparent electronic glitch, NASA officials on Monday postponed for a day the launch of an unmanned experimental jet that would have attempted to shoot out across the Pacific Ocean at a record speed of more than 7,000 mph (11,265 kilometers per hour).
The X-43A aircraft was to have been carried aloft by a larger jet from Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles and set on its way by a booster rocket over the Pacific Ocean.
NASA officials said they would try again to launch the craft sometime Tuesday. Troubleshooting on the electronics delayed the flight to the point where it risked missing its narrow launch window for the day, officials said.
“All indications are now that we should be go for tomorrow,” Griff Corpening, X-43A chief engineer, said during a NASA TV broadcast.
The test flight will be the final of three planned launches for the X-43A jet and its supersonic “scramjet” engine. A scramjet takes in oxygen from the air for combustion rather than carrying liquid oxygen in a tank like a conventional rocket.
Scramjet technology, NASA has said, could allow cheaper and safer flights into the upper atmosphere and into orbit around Earth, with smaller and lighter craft.
NASA plans for the X-43A flight to reach speeds of Mach 10, or about 7,000 mph, which the agency said would be a world record for an air-breathing, jet-powered aircraft.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6490966/
Rguess21
11-17-04, 03:00 PM
LOS ANGELES - An unmanned experimental jet broke a world record for speed on Tuesday, cruising over the Pacific Ocean at just under 7,000 mph (11,000 kilometers per hour) in a NASA test of cutting-edge “scramjet” engine technology.
The X-43A aircraft flew at a speed of around Mach 9.6 — nearly 10 times the speed of sound — after a booster rocket took it to around 110,000 feet (33.5 kilometers) and then separated.
A modified B-52 airplane had carried the experimental plane and its booster aloft.
It was the last of three test launches for the X-43A series and its supersonic-combustion ramjet or “scramjet” engine. The scramjet scoops up oxygen from the air rather than carrying liquid oxygen in a tank like an ordinary rocket.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6504898/
Pistol Pete
02-19-05, 09:26 PM
Here's a nifty link for those of you who haven't seen it before. It lets you track in real-time anything humans have orbiting the Earth. You will get the main page and then a window for tracking. Let it load and then choose your time options at the top. Using 'Shift' & clicking the screen will let you zoom in. Using 'Ctrl' and clicking will zoom out. Clicking on a satellite will bring up information. Clicking and holding your mouse on the screen will let you turn your perspective in space. You can get back far enough to see all of the satellites, or see Ivan taking a dump aboard the ISS. ;)
J-Track (http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/3D/JTrack3D.html)
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