Space exploration thread

[ScienceRocks]

New telescope will be 10 times sharper than Hubble

Scientists are currently hard at work on a new telescope that promises to have 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope — but we're going to have to wait awhile.

So far, only one of an eventual seven massive mirrors has been completely cast and polished for the Giant Magellan Telescope. Each mirror is 27 feet across, weighs 20 tons, and takes a year to polish, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The project's cost? $700 million, reports Space.com.


Assuming things go as planned, the GMT will be installed in Chile's Atacama Desert in 2022. If that sounds a long time to wait for better space photos, good news: The current Magellan telescope has just been upgraded to be twice as sharp as the Hubble.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/08/25/newser-telescope-magellan/2696955/

 

[Mr. H.]

Why don't they make all 7 mirrors at the same time?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Why don't they make all 7 mirrors at the same time?

They seem not to have the common sense to do such a thing.

 

[Mr. H.]

Why don't they make all 7 mirrors at the same time?

They seem not to have the common sense to do such a thing.

Maybe we'll see beyond the edge of the universe!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Why don't they make all 7 mirrors at the same time?

They seem not to have the common sense to do such a thing.

Maybe we'll see beyond the edge of the universe!

Certainly would hope so I'd think it would be better to look for extrasolar planets We have found maybe 4,000 out of possibly 300,000,000,000 within our own galaxy.

What we already know is simply amazing.

I really like what Ion musk is doing with the grass hopper concept.

SpaceX believes a fully and rapidly reusable rocket is the pivotal breakthrough needed to substantially reduce the cost of space access. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket currently carries a list price of about $54 million. However, the cost of fuel for each flight is only around $200,000—about 0.4% of the total. The majority of the launch cost comes from building the rocket, which flies only once. Compare that to a commercial airliner. Each new plane costs about the same as Falcon 9, but can fly multiple times per day, and conduct tens of thousands of flights over its lifetime. Following the commercial model, a rapidly reusable space launch vehicle could reduce the cost of reaching Earth orbit by a hundredfold.

Reusability: The Key to Making Human Life Multi-Planetary | SpaceX


This is the kind of space research that can advance space within a direction for everyone.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Major volcanic eruption seen on Jupiter's moon Io

Recent observations of Jupiter's moon Io has revealed a massive volcanic eruption taking place 628,300,000 km (390,400,000 miles) from Earth. Io, the innermost of the four largest moons around Jupiter, is the most volcanically active object in the Solar System with about 240 active regions. But this new one definitely caught the eye of Dr. Imke de Pater, Professor of Astronomy and of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California in Berkeley. She was using the Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii on August 15, 2013 when it immediately became apparent something big was happening at Io.

Read more at: Major volcanic eruption seen on Jupiter's moon Io

 

[BlueGin]

Strange magnetic monster found lurking inside dead star

Hiding in the recesses of a dead star is an ultra-strong magnetic field bursting from its surface in the form of X-rays, astronomers report.

The surprising nature of the object SGR 0418+5729 was revealed after three years of observations by several telescopes that initially showed a weak magnetic field there.

Uncovering the "magnetic monster," as European Space Agency officials described the star in a statement, required a new analytical technique. If confirmed, the find could rewrite scientists' understanding of how magnetic fields form and are amplified in other neutron stars, which are the leftovers from star explosions.

Strange magnetic monster found lurking inside dead star - NBC News.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA'S Mars Curiosity Debuts Autonomous Navigation

Aug. 27, 2013 — NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has used autonomous navigation for the first time, a capability that lets the rover decide for itself how to drive safely on Mars.
This latest addition to Curiosity's array of capabilities will help the rover cover the remaining ground en route to Mount Sharp, where geological layers hold information about environmental changes on ancient Mars. The capability uses software that engineers adapted to this larger and more complex vehicle from a similar capability used by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which is also currently active on Mars.

NASA'S Mars Curiosity debuts autonomous navigation

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX To Test Reusable Booster Technology During Launch of Canadian Space Weather Sat

WASHINGTON — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) will test its flyback booster technology during the maiden launch of its Falcon 9 1.1 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California later this year, according to the company’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial launch license.

In the first of a planned series of reusability tests, SpaceX plans to maneuver the first stage of the Falcon 9 1.1 rocket — an upgraded of version of the current Falcon 9 — after it separates from the rest of the vehicle during the flight. The stage would be brought down in the Pacific Ocean for what is being called a soft water landing.

SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk alluded to the test back in March, after the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company completed its second cargo delivery mission to the international space station.

SpaceX To Test Reusable Booster Technology During Launch of Canadian Space Weather Sat | SpaceNews.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA tests limits of 3-D printing with powerful rocket engine check

3 minutes ago

The largest 3-D printed rocket engine component NASA ever has tested blazed to life Aug. 22 during an engine firing that generated a record 20,000 pounds of thrust.

This test is a milestone for one of many important advances the agency is making to reduce the cost of space hardware. Innovations like additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, foster new and more cost-effective capabilities in the U.S. space industry.

Read more at: NASA tests limits of 3-D printing with powerful rocket engine check

 

[ScienceRocks]

Milky Way gas cloud causes multiple images of distant quasar

For the first time, astronomers have seen the image of a distant quasar split into multiple images by the effects of a cloud of ionized gas in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Such events were predicted as early as 1970, but the first evidence for one now has come from the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope system.

Read more at: Milky Way gas cloud causes multiple images of distant quasar

 

[BlueGin]

Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground

Evidence of water spotted on the moon's surface by a sharp-eyed spacecraft likely originated from an unknown source deep in the lunar interior, scientists say.

The find — made by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 probe — marks the first detection of such "magmatic water" from lunar orbit and confirms analyses performed recently on moon rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts four decades ago, researchers said.

"Now that we have detected water that is likely from the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface," study lead author Rachel Klima, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., said in a statement.

Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground

 

[ScienceRocks]

China gets set to launch its first moon lander by year's end


Ben Blanchard, Reuters

3 hours ago

BEIJING — China will land its first probe on the moon by the end of this year, state media reported on Wednesday.

The Chang'e 3 mission to the lunar surface would mark the next step in an ambitious space program that includes eventually building a space station.

In 2007, China launched its first moon orbiter, Chang'e 1, named after a lunar goddess. That probe took images of the surface and analyzed the distribution of elements. Chang'e 2 was launched in 2010, orbited the moon for several months, then headed out to reach the Earth-Sun L2 gravitational balance point and fly by asteroid Toutatis.

China gets set to launch its first moon lander by year's end - NBC News.com

GO CHINA GO!!! China is going to leave America in the dirt within the next decade.

 

[jon_berzerk]

Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground

Evidence of water spotted on the moon's surface by a sharp-eyed spacecraft likely originated from an unknown source deep in the lunar interior, scientists say.

The find — made by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 probe — marks the first detection of such "magmatic water" from lunar orbit and confirms analyses performed recently on moon rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts four decades ago, researchers said.

"Now that we have detected water that is likely from the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface," study lead author Rachel Klima, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., said in a statement.

Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground

that is cool thanks for posting that

 

[BlueGin]

Curiosity rover snaps best Mars solar eclipse photos ever


NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has captured the sharpest-ever images of a solar eclipse as seen from the Red Planet.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover snapped pictures with its telephoto lens as Phobos, the larger of Mars' two tiny moons, blotted out much of the solar disk on Aug. 17.

"This event occurred near noon at Curiosity's location, which put Phobos at its closest point to the rover, appearing larger against the sun than it would at other times of day," Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, a co-investigator for Curiosity's Mastcam instrument, said in a statement. "This is the closest to a total eclipse of the sun that you can have from Mars."

Read more: Curiosity rover snaps best Mars solar eclipse photos ever | Fox News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Martian soup may have been tasty to early life

Martian minerals dissolved in groundwater are much more likely to yield a key building block for life – phosphate – than dissolved minerals on Earth. At least, that's the finding of a lab-based physical simulation designed to work out the habitability of ancient environments on the Red Planet.

The news comes just a few days after a prominent chemist aired his theory that only on Mars were the right chemical elements – specifically boron, molybdenum and oxygen – present at the right time to produce RNA molecules. RNA is widely thought to be the precursor to DNA and therefore to life as we know it.

Both studies have brought renewed attention to the idea that life on Earth was seeded from space, a theory known as panspermia. However, they can't both be right. One idea requires Mars to be covered in liquid water, while the other needs it to be as dry as a desert.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...ve-been-tasty-to-early-life.html#.UiPYrH7n_VI

 

[BlueGin]

Here is something we did today. Viewed photos taken by the Hubble telescope at the Natural History and Science Museum. Way cool!

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[ScienceRocks]

Here is something we did today. Viewed photos taken by the Hubble telescope at the Natural History and Science Museum. Way cool!

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We spend 17 billion discoverying 99.999999% of everything and 99.99999999% of all resources.
and 700 billion on war and defending a little bit of resources.

Humanity is weird.

 

[BlueGin]

Why our galaxy's black hole is a picky eater

(CNN) -- You might think of black holes as indiscriminate eaters, hungrily gobbling up everything in their vicinity.

But the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A, is not exactly like this, new research suggests. Instead, this black hole -- and likely other black holes in the centers of galaxies -- must spit out a lot in order to swallow a little.

It's been a mystery why black holes at the centers of galaxies in the present universe appear so much dimmer than quasars, extremely bright objects from the early universe that have black holes at their centers, too.

As Albert Einstein noted in his famous formula E=mc², energy is equivalent to mass times the speed of light squared. In a black hole, crushed mass gets converted into energy. Black holes in quasars eat a lot, creating the spectacular brightness associated with them. But we don't find as much radiation emanating from Sagittarius A, or other black holes in the centers of galaxies in the present universe.

So what's going on? Is the hot gas that Sagittarius A is eating just not radiating as much as the colder gas that quasars capture?

Why our galaxy's black hole is a picky eater - CNN.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceFab: 3D printing and robotic assembly in space

SpiderFab, a series of technologies under development by Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI), combines 3D printing and robotic assembly to build and create spaceship components and structures in orbit. The groundbreaking systems are being designed to enable on-orbit construction of antennas, booms, solar arrays, trusses and other multifunctional components, ten to hundreds of times larger than currently possible with existing technology.

http://www.gizmag.com/spacefab-3d-printing-in-space/28898/