Orbit 17 +++ Space and beyond
galaxies, science, exploration, astronomy (blog)
Technology
NASA’s Kepler mission looks for new planets – just like Johannes wanted
Dec 26th
“…we must choose between two assumptions: either the souls which move the planets are the less active the farther the planet is removed from the sun, or there is only one moving soul in the center of all the orbits, that is the sun, which drives the planet the more vigorously the closer the planet is, but whose force is quasi-exhausted when acting on the outer planets because of the long distance and the weakening of the force which it entails.” (in ref. 1, p 261)
As the story goes, on Christmas night 2,000 years ago, wise men followed a star in the night sky to reach the baby Jesus. NASA-Ames is following the stars too, looking for life on other worlds, and astronomers have a new celestial tool to help them.
“If we’re going to be looking for planets, earth-like planets are the key,” Foothill College Astronomy Department Chair Andrew Fraknoi said.
Fraknoi has loved astronomy since childhood. He says NASA’s Kepler mission is one of the most exciting in quite some time.
“In the last 16 years, we’ve discovered over 400 planets going around other stars, but the methods so far that we have been using only allowed us to find big planets like Jupiter,” Fraknoi said.
Kepler is a telescope designed to find planets orbiting other stars by looking for a break in the star light as a planet moves in front of it.
The challenge now is to find planets that are half to twice the size of the earth in the habitable zone of their stars, where it is possible that water and even life might exist.
NASA crashes MD-500 helicopter to test new shield for cars
Dec 26th
NASA has intentionally crashed a 3,000-pound MD-500 helicopter loaded with dummies to test a new safety shield, which could someday be used to make the cars we drive safer.
According to a report in Discovery News, the small helicopter, donated by the US Army for NASA’s research program, survived a 35-foot plunge to the ground intact, thanks to a lightweight honeycomb structure that bore the brunt of the impact.
The honeycomb shield, made of Kevlar 129 – the same material used to make bulletproof vests – was attached to the underside of a 3,000-pound MD-500 helicopter at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
The shields can be made of any material, as it is the structure of the honeycomb that provides the strength and flexibility to cushion the impact.
“The beauty of the honeycomb is that it will allow you to customize,” said project engineer Sotiris Kellas.
“We like composites because we have more options for tailoring, but they can be made out of any material you want,” he added.
For the test, which took place earlier this month, the craft was suspended in the air with cables. Restraints were released, allowing the helicopter to fall, and just before it hit the ground, explosive devices fired to break the cable.
Army unmanned aircraft operators see their next-generation aircraft being built
Dec 25th
Soldiers who will soon take the controls of one of the Army’s most sophisticated unmanned aircraft recently visited with workers building the planes in California.
The Extended-Range/Multi-Purpose UAS is built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and is set to deploy with the Army operators next fall. In addition to collecting images and intelligence, the ER/MP will also pack a deadly punch: It can carry four laser-guided Hellfire missiles.
“We call it around here ‘the sexiest program in the Army,’ ” said Lt. Col. Kevin Messer, ER/MP product manager in the Army’s UAS Project Office on Redstone Arsenal.
The visit to General Atomics certainly wasn’t his first look at the aircraft – “I’ve got most of it memorized,” Messer said – but it was a rare experience for the group of men training to fly the ER/MP.
“Seldom does the Army soldier ever get an opportunity to go to a plant to see where their item is being built and what it’s all about and what it takes to build it,” he said. “They now see how it’s all put together. They can see the different skill sets needed to be able to build the airframe and the skill sets needed for all the electronics.”
Obama Gives NASA Bigger Budget, Backs New Rocket, Cancels Ares 1
Dec 25th
President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft.
The current NASA plan for human exploration is built around the $3.5 billion Constellation program, which would provide a way to get humans to the space station and beyond. But its initial launcher, Ares 1, has faced a string of cost and technical problems, and it was excluded from several options for future space flight put forth earlier this year by an outside panel chaired by retired aerospace executive Norman Augustine. Although that panel suggested a $3 billion boost to NASA’s $18.7-billion-a-year budget in order to take a firm next step in human space flight, Obama’s support for a $1 billion bump next year represents a major coup for the agency given the ballooning deficit and the continuing recession. And NASA just won a $1 billion boost from Congress for 2010 in a bill signed by the president.
Forget almost everything you ever thought you knew about the moon
Dec 25th
NASA’s latest unmanned missions to the moon have scientists rethinking their concepts of Earth’s closest neighbor.
Forget almost everything you ever thought you knew about the moon.
NASA’s latest missions indicate the moon is much more than a dead, unchanging satellite orbiting Earth. It’s a dynamic environment, with changes occurring by the day and week, not over millions of years.
The space agency says the missions are rewriting lunar science text books and revolutionizing what scientists know about Earth’s closest neighbor.
An announcement in November probably rivaled Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the surface more than 40 years earlier: There’s water on the moon.
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or L-CROSS, and its companion spacecraft crashed into a crater at the moon’s south pole in October and discovered water in a very dark and very cold place. L-CROSS researchers said about 25 gallons of water were detected in the crater, which measured about 60 feet wide by a few feet deep.
The maiden flight of Boeing’s 787 presages good things for the aircraft maker
Dec 21st
Boeing’s new 787 wide-body jetliner made its maiden flight on December 15. However, rollout of the aircraft has been dogged by a series of development delays, which will cost the company millions of dollars in compensation to customers. Getting the 787–Boeing’s main new contender in the key high-margin wide-body market segment and a platform for several new technologies–back on track is vital to securing the company’s future in its ferocious competition with Airbus.
Smoking Philippine volcano seen from space as it threatens to erupt
Dec 19th
The Mayon volcano in the Philippines was captured in an image taken by a NASA satellite Credit: NASA
The Mayon Volcano in the Philippines has shown a disturbing increase in activity in recent days. The mountain is the country’s largest volcano and the threat of an eruption has forced the evacuation of 50,000 people from the surrounding area.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) reported that lava continues to flow from the volcano and has spewed ash on the neighboring communities. Officials are concerned that an eruption may be imminent.
NASA Uses Algae to Turn Sewage into Fuel
Dec 19th
NASA may concern itself largely with space exploration, but it also wants to keep Earth on a steady course in the face of rising energy costs and climate change. Now the U.S. space agency has thrown its weight behind a clever method of growing algae in wastewater for the purpose of making biofuel.
The OMEGA system consists of algae grown in flexible plastic bags floating offshore, where cities typically dump their wastewater. Oil-producing freshwater algae would naturally clean the wastewater by feeding on nutrients in the sewage. The cleansed freshwater could then release into the ocean through forward-osmosis membranes in the sides of the plastic bags.
NASA maps Mercury, plans for 2011 orbit extravaganza
Dec 19th
NASA’s Mercury planet exploration team this week said they have created critical tool for the first orbital observations of the planet – a global map of Mercury that will help scientists pinpoint craters, faults, and other features that will be essential for the space agency’s extensive 2011 mission.
That’s when NASA’s satellite MESSENGER (The Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER) will become the first spacecraft to actually orbit Mercury — about 730 times — beaming back pictures and never-before-available pictures and information on the planet. To get into its proper orbit, MESSENGER has taken the scenic route through the solar system, including one flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and three flybys of Mercury.
Five NASA space shuttle flights remain
Dec 19th
NASA says space shuttle Endeavour will begin the last year of shuttle flights by delivering the final U.S. module of the International Space Station.
That STS-130 mission is targeted for launch Feb. 7 from the Kennedy Space Center.
NASA officials said they will preview the mission during a series of briefings Friday, Jan. 15, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television and the agency’s Web site will broadcast the briefings live.
Five shuttle missions are planned during 2010, with the final flight currently targeted for launch in September.