Space exploration thread

[BlueGin]

Astronomers spot ‘cosmic caterpillar’ 6 trillion miles long




The Hubble Heritage Project on Thursday released a photo of what it calls a cosmic caterpillar that stretches 6 trillion miles long. It’s actually a protostar, a mass of gas and dust that eventually produces a star. This one, called IRAS 20324+4057, is in the very early evolutionary stage. It has also been described as a “tadpole in an interstellar pond.”

Astronomers spot ?cosmic caterpillar? 6 trillion miles long

 

[BlueGin]

Did Ancient Earth-Chilling Meteor Crash Near Canada?

A meteor or comet impact near Quebec heaved a rain of hot melted rock along North America's Atlantic Coast about 12,900 years ago, a new study claims.

Scientists have traced the geochemical signature of the BB-sized spherules that rained down back to their source, the 1.5-billion-year-old Quebecia terrane in northeastern Canada near the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. At the time of the impact, the region was covered by a continental ice sheet, like Antarctica and Greenland are today.

"We have provided evidence for an impact on top of the ice sheet," said study co-author Mukul Sharma, a geochemist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. The results were published today (Sept. 2) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Did Ancient Earth-Chilling Meteor Crash Near Canada?

 

[BlueGin]

Spacecraft aims to solve 50-year-old moon mystery of 'strange glow'

A NASA spacecraft launching to the moon on Friday could help scientists solve some age-old mysteries of the solar system.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is expected to investigate lunar dust and the moon's extremely thin atmosphere once the craft makes it into orbit around Earth's closest celestial neighbor about 30 days after launch.

It's an ideal time to conduct LADEE's unique kind of science on the moon, according to LADEE program scientist Sarah Noble. Relatively few probes have landed on the surface of the natural satellite in recent years, leaving the moon's atmosphere somewhat undisturbed.

Spacecraft aims to solve 50-year-old moon mystery of 'strange glow' - NBC News.com

 

[BlueGin]

Spectacular Fireball Outshines Moon Over American Southeast


A dazzlingly bright fireball lit up the skies over the American South last week, and NASA caught the dramatic action on video.

The meteor blazed up in the predawn hours of Aug. 28, putting on a brief but spectacular show for night owls in several southeastern states.

"Recorded by all six NASA cameras in the Southeast, this fireball was one of the brightest observed by the network in 5 years of operations," Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., wrote in a blog post Tuesday (Sept. 3). "From Chickamauga, Georgia, the meteor was 20 times brighter than the full moon; shadows were cast on the ground as far south as Cartersville." [See video of last week's super-bright meteor]

The asteroid that sparked the sky show was probably about 2 feet wide and weighed more than 100 pounds, Cooke added. The space rock hit Earth's atmosphere above the Georgia/Tennessee border at 3:27 a.m. EDT (0727 GMT) on Aug. 28, moving northeast at 56,000 mph.

Spectacular Fireball Outshines Moon Over American Southeast (Video)

Video at link

 

[ScienceRocks]

Russian Space Industry to Be Consolidated Within Year – Rogozin

MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin confirmed plans on Wednesday to consolidate Russia’s space industry under a single state-controlled corporation within a year.

The United Rocket and Space Corporation, to be formed as a joint-stock company, will contain all organizations in the aerospace industry, with the exception of a few defense companies, he said. Plans for the restructuring were first announced in July.

Consolidation will help the government pursue a “unified technical policy” in the space sector as well as remove current redundancies and avoid potential ones, Rogozin said, adding that the new corporation would absorb 33 space organizations, including 16 enterprises.

Russian Space Industry to Be Consolidated Within Year ? Rogozin | Russia | RIA Novosti

 

[ScienceRocks]

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Soars in 2nd Rocket-Powered Flight Test

MOJAVE, Calif. — A private Virgin Galactic spaceship built to carry passengers on suborbital joyrides aced its second powered test flight Thursday (Sept. 5), breaking the sound barrier as it roared through the skies here over the Mojave Desert.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo soared skyward on a column of bright orange flames and white smoke after being released from its WhiteKnightTwo mother ship.

In a blog post published after the test, Virgin Galactic's founder, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, said the spaceship was released at 46,000 feet (14,000 meters) and burned its hybrid rocket engine for 20 seconds, which was four seconds longer than on the previous flight. The craft reached a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet (19,812 m) and a top speed of Mach 1.6, Virgin Galactic officials said in a statement. [See more photos of SpaceShipTwo's 2nd rocket-powered test flight]

"This is a giant step," Branson wrote on his blog. "Our spaceship is now the highest commercial winged vehicle in history! We also successfully tested its feather system for carefree re-entry too — the first time that’s happened on a rocket-powered flight."

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Soars in 2nd Rocket-Powered Flight Test | Space.com

Cool sub-obritibal space plane. Doubt it takes people to space before July of next year.

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX to build spacecraft parts with motion tech and 3D printers

Elon Musk's new endeavor to build rocket ship parts with Leap Motion hand gesture technology, Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, and 3D laser metal printers makes sci-fi look antiquated.
A new initiative by SpaceX founder Elon Musk would make science fiction author Issac Asimov proud.

In a SpaceX YouTube video (see below), Musk describes how he's endeavoring to build new rocket ship parts using only hand and finger movements and a high-grade 3D laser metal printer. He won't use a typical desktop computer, he won't use a keyboard.

SpaceX is a private company founded by Musk in 2002; it designs, builds, and launches spacecrafts and rockets into low-Earth orbit. The company's goal is to one-day send humans into space so that they can live on other planets.

"At SpaceX, we love to play with cutting-edge technology and are always looking for ways to turn science fiction into reality," the SpaceX YouTube video description reads. "It not only advances our work, but it's also fun."

SpaceX to build spacecraft parts with motion tech and 3D printers | Cutting Edge - CNET News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Super-Earth Gliese 1214b Has Water-Rich Atmosphere, Japanese Astronomers Say

Sep 5, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from Japan using NAOJ’s Subaru Telescope have found that the extrasolar planet Gliese 1214b has a water-rich atmosphere.

Discovered in 2009 by the MEarth Project, this alien world is about 2.7 times Earth’s diameter and is almost 7 times as massive. It is located 42 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Dr Michitoshi Yoshida of Hiroshima University and his colleagues used the Suprime-Cam and the FOCAS optical camera aboard the Subaru Telescope to look for the Rayleigh scattering feature in the atmosphere of Gliese 1214b.

The new observations, reported in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org), showed that the exoplanet’s atmosphere does not display strong Rayleigh scattering.

According to the astronomers, this finding implies that Gliese 1214b has a water-rich or a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere with extensive clouds.

Super-Earth Gliese 1214b Has Water-Rich Atmosphere, Japanese Astronomers Say | Astronomy | Sci-News.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA launching robotic explorer to moon from Va.

NASA is poised to return to the moon.

An unmanned rocket is scheduled to blast off late Friday night from Virginia with a robotic explorer that will study the lunar atmosphere and dust. Called LADEE (LA'-dee), the moon-orbiting craft will measure the thin lunar atmosphere.

Scientists want to learn the composition of the moon's ever-so-delicate atmosphere and how it might change over time. Another puzzle: whether dust actually levitates from the lunar surface.

Unlike the quick three-day Apollo flights to the moon, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, will take a full month to get there. An Air Force Minotaur rocket, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., is providing the ride from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. It's the first moonshot from Virginia.

Read more at: NASA launching robotic explorer to moon from Va.

 

[BlueGin]

Is Comet ISON a UFO? Hubble's scientists do a reality check

It's not at all certain that Comet ISON will turn out to be the "comet of the century," as hoped, but a couple of things are certain: It's not an alien spaceship, and it hasn't split up into three pieces.

Those were apparently questions on the minds of some folks last month, thanks to a flurry of videos and blog postings based on imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope's archives. The hoohah got hot enough to merit an official response, posted to the Space Telescope Science Institute's archive website and its ISON Blog.

Is Comet ISON a UFO? Hubble's scientists do a reality check - NBC News.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

Iranian rocket to take another monkey into space


Iranian rocket to take another monkey into space - The Times of India

TEHRAN: Iran plans to send its second monkey into space onboard home-made rocket Pishgam (Pioneer) II within 45 days, a top official said.

In January, Iran sent a capsule containing a monkey onboard the Pishgam (Pioneer) I into space, Xinhua reported.

 

[ScienceRocks]

If Spacex gets a reusable booster they will be able to lower cost per launch by 25 per cent or more

SpaceX's latest Falcon 9 version 1.1 is 60 percent longer than the company’s five previous Falcon 9 boosters. Its launch is scheduled for Sept. 14.

The rocket’s extension, which makes it more susceptible to bending during flight, is the most visible of several upgrades intended to increase the booster’s lift capacity and simplify operations.

In addition to a new 5-meter payload fairing, the rocket has upgraded avionics and software as well as a new stage-separation system that cuts the number of attachment points from 12 to three.

Because it is a demonstration mission, SpaceX offered launch services at a cut-rate price. MDA Corp. of Canada bought the ride for its 500-kilogram Cassiope spacecraft, built in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and Technology Partnerships Canada.

“Cassiope is a very small satellite. It takes up just a tiny fraction of the volume of the fairing. They paid, I think, maybe 20 percent of the normal price of the mission,” he added.

Once the payloads are put into orbit, SpaceX may try to restart the rocket’s upper-stage motor, depending on how much fuel is left. Also on tap is a highly experimental restart of the Falcon’s boost stage to slow its crash landing into the sea.

“Just before we hit the ocean, we’re going to relight the engine and see if we can mitigate the landing velocity to the point where the stage could potentially be recovered, but I give this maybe a 10 percent chance of success,” Musk said.

In a related program called Grasshopper, SpaceX has been developing a booster stage that can fly itself back to a launch pad.

“We’ve never attempted to land Grasshopper on water. We don’t know if the radar system will detect the water surface level accurately. We don’t know all sorts of things, so I really give it a very tiny chance of success. But we’re going to see what data we can learn,” Musk said.

If Spacex gets a reusable booster they will be able to lower cost per launch by 25 per cent or more

 

[ScienceRocks]

Pew! Pew! Pew! NASA Moon Probe Carries Space Laser for Big Tech Test

A NASA probe launching toward the moon tonight (Sept. 6) is carrying a high-tech laser experiment designed to improve deep-space communications.

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft — which is slated to blast off from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia today at 11:27 p.m. EDT (0327 GMT Sept. 7) — aims primarily to study the moon's wispy atmosphere. But it also totes laser gear to see how well two-way communications can go between a moon-bound spacecraft and the Earth.

The laser experiment may end up helping out a variety of future missions, NASA officials say.

"We can even envision such a laser-based system enabling a robotic mission to an asteroid," Don Cornwell, manager of LADEE's lunar laser communication demonstration at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. "It could have 3D, high-definition video signals transmitted to Earth providing essentially ‘telepresence’ to a human controller on the ground," Cornwell added.

NASA Moon Probe Carries Space Laser for Big Tech Test | Space.com

 

[Bill Angel]

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Soars in 2nd Rocket-Powered Flight Test

MOJAVE, Calif. — A private Virgin Galactic spaceship built to carry passengers on suborbital joyrides aced its second powered test flight Thursday (Sept. 5), breaking the sound barrier as it roared through the skies here over the Mojave Desert.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo soared skyward on a column of bright orange flames and white smoke after being released from its WhiteKnightTwo mother ship.

In a blog post published after the test, Virgin Galactic's founder, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, said the spaceship was released at 46,000 feet (14,000 meters) and burned its hybrid rocket engine for 20 seconds, which was four seconds longer than on the previous flight. The craft reached a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet (19,812 m) and a top speed of Mach 1.6, Virgin Galactic officials said in a statement. [See more photos of SpaceShipTwo's 2nd rocket-powered test flight]

"This is a giant step," Branson wrote on his blog. "Our spaceship is now the highest commercial winged vehicle in history! We also successfully tested its feather system for carefree re-entry too — the first time that’s happened on a rocket-powered flight."

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Soars in 2nd Rocket-Powered Flight Test | Space.com

Cool sub-obritibal space plane. Doubt it takes people to space before July of next year.

Rocket Cyclist at Artscape 2013
Her rocket is labeled Virgin Galactic Launcher One
Image taken in on July 19, 2013

 

[ScienceRocks]

Scramspace scramjet arrives in Norway for test flight

A revolutionary jet engine capable of operating at eight times the speed of sound has arrived in Norway. Designed and built in Brisbane, Australia by the University of Queensland (UQ), the Scramspace is a hypersonic scramjet that will be fired by rocket in the Arctic Circle, where it will very briefly fly fast enough to travel from London to Australia in two hours. It’s part of a project to develop hypersonic technology that may one day be used to put payloads into orbit at a much lower cost than is possible today.

Scramspace is three-year research project by an international research team of 13 partners and sponsors from five countries led by Scramspace Director and Chair for Hypersonics at UQ, Professor Russell Boyce. Its AUD$14 million (US$13.7 million ) “shoestring budget” is small compared to similar American hypersonic project budgets that run into the hundreds of millions, but it draws on two decades of Australian hypersonic research into new engine designs and materials.

Scramspace scramjet arrives in Norway for test flight

 

[ScienceRocks]

Upgrade to Mars rovers could aid discovery on more distant worlds

Smart as the Mars Curiosity mission has been about landing and finding its own way on a distant world, the rover is pretty brainless when it comes to doing the science that it was sent 567 million kilometers to carry out. That has to change if future rover missions are to make discoveries further out in the solar system, scientists say.

The change has now begun with the development of a new camera that can do more than just take pictures of alien rocks – it also thinks about what the pictures signify so the rover can decide on its own whether to keep exploring a particular site, or move on.

"We currently have a micromanaging approach to space exploration," said senior researcher Kiri Wagstaff, a computer scientist and geologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "While this suffices for our rovers on Mars, it works less and less well the further you get from the Earth. If you want to get ambitious and go to Europa and asteroids and comets, you need more and more autonomy to even make that feasible."

Read more at: Upgrade to Mars rovers could aid discovery on more distant worlds

 

[BlueGin]

Venus and Moon Share Spectacular Close Encounter


Venus and moon shared a dazzling celestial meet-up that wowed stargazers around the world Sunday evening (Sept. 8).

Skywatchers snapped photos and at least one time-lapse video of Venus and the moon as the pair shined together in the night sky.

Venus and the moon shared what astronomers call a "conjunction," when two celestial objects appear near each other when viewed from Earth. The Venus-moon sight occurred about 45 minutes after sunset on Sunday (Sept. 8) in what was their closest encounter of the northern summer, fall or winter. [Amazing Photos: Venus and the Moon Together on Sept. 8]

"The sun set behind a veil of clouds, some of which reached the ground," skywatcher Victor Rogus of Jadwin, Mo., told SPACE.com in an email. "An eerie sound of the creatures of the night began to fill the air. A bit of a surreal and spooky setting as the moon began to make itself seen now with its friend, the planet Venus. A beautiful pairing of the two most romantic objects in the night sky. The two ducked in and out of the cloudy sky like a pair of shy lovers meeting in the dark."

Photographer Mike Black of New Jersey captured amazing close-ups of the Venus and the moon as they set Sunday night. it was Black who created the time-lapse video of the two brilliant night sky objects.

Venus and Moon Share Spectacular Close Encounter (Photos)

 

[BlueGin]

Meteorite Brought Surprising Ingredient for Life to Earth In 2012


Scientists have discovered unexpected ingredients for life — organic molecules never seen before in meteorites — inside a chunk of space rock that fell to Earth over California last year, scientists say.

The discovery comes from an analysis of the so-called Sutter's Mill meteorite, which lit up the California night sky with a dazzling fireball in April 2012. Meteorite fragments from the event may shed light on the primordial ooze that helped give rise to life on Earth, researchers said.

Meteors that streak across Earth's sky mostly are fragments of the asteroids that lie between Mars and Jupiter. Meteorites can be rich in organic compounds, including some found among life on Earth.

Meteorite Brought Surprising Ingredient for Life to Earth In 2012

 

[idb]

Iranian rocket to take another monkey into space


Iranian rocket to take another monkey into space - The Times of India

TEHRAN: Iran plans to send its second monkey into space onboard home-made rocket Pishgam (Pioneer) II within 45 days, a top official said.

In January, Iran sent a capsule containing a monkey onboard the Pishgam (Pioneer) I into space, Xinhua reported.

At last!
Someone's doing something about all those damn monkeys!!!
I'm knee-deep in them here!

 

[BlueGin]

Dwarf Planet Ceres Could Harbor Ice Underground

In March of 2015, NASA's Dawn missionwill arrive at the dwarf planet Ceres, the first of the smaller class of planets to be discovered and the closest to Earth.

The dwarf planet Ceres, which orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is a unique body in the solar system, bearing many similarities to Jupiter's moon Europaand Saturn's moon Enceladus, both considered to be potential sources for harboring life.

On Thursday, August 15, Britney Schmidt, science team liaison for the Dawn Mission, and Julie Castillo-Rogez, planetary scientist from JPL, spoke in an Google Plus Hangout titled 'Ceres: Icy World Revealed?' about the growing excitement related to the innermost icy body.

Dwarf Planet Ceres Could Harbor Ice Underground