Space exploration thread

[ScienceRocks]

Mars One to launch first test mission

Mars One will launch its first unmanned mission to the Red Planet in 2016, its co-founder says.

The firm plans to establish a human settlement on Martian soil in 2023, by offering passengers a one-way ticket.

Mars One will send "a small craft that will demonstrate the technologies we need for our human colony" and is inviting partners to join the mission.

Bas Lansdorp revealed details of the test mission at the International Space Commerce 2013 Summit, in London.

BBC News - Mars One to launch first test mission

 

[ScienceRocks]

ESA unveils Martian "box of delights"

A mission to return samples from the planet Mars is still many years away and, officially, not on the calendar. That hasn't stopped the ESA from producing a proof-of-concept prototype of the scientific “box of delights,” which could one day bring bits of the Red Planet back to Earth for study.

Returning samples from Mars would be a technological achievement only exceeded by actually landing astronauts there. It would involve a small fleet of unmanned spacecraft operating in concert. Key to this is the development of a multifunctional sample container that can keep Martian samples safe and in pristine condition at sustained temperatures of less than -10° C (14° F).

ESA unveils Martian "box of delights"

Primary GOES-R instrument ready to be installed onto spacecraft

A key instrument that will fly on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R (GOES-R) spacecraft, NOAA's next-generation of geostationary satellites, is cleared for installation on the spacecraft.

The Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI, is GOES-R's primary instrument for scanning Earth's weather, oceans, and environment and is a significant improvement over instruments on NOAA's current geostationary satellites. The ABI will offer faster imaging with much higher detail. It will also introduce new forecast products for severe weather, volcanic ash advisories, fire and smoke monitoring and other hazards.

"The United States is home to some of the most severe weather in the world including tornadoes, hurricanes, snowstorms, floods, and wildfires," said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. "The ABI offers breakthrough technology that will help NOAA develop faster and more accurate forecasts that will save lives and protect communities."

Read more at: Primary GOES-R instrument ready to be installed onto spacecraft

 

[ScienceRocks]

Scientists announce first results from LUX dark matter detector

Published: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 12:37 in Astronomy & Space

In its first three months of operation, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment has proven itself to be the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world, scientists with the experiment announced today. "LUX is blazing the path to illuminating the nature of dark matter," Rick Gaitskell, professor of physics at Brown University and co-spokesperson for LUX. The detector's location, more than a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, offers a "supremely quiet" environment to detect the rare, weak interactions between dark matter particles and ordinary matter, Gaitskell said.

The first results from the experiment's initial 90-day run were announced today during a seminar at the Sanford Lab in Lead, S.D.

Scientists announce first results from LUX dark matter detector | e! Science News

 

[ScienceRocks]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKYdoOyduq0]United Nations Developing Asteroid Defense Plan - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ScienceRocks]

Astronomers answer key question: How common are habitable planets?

UC Berkeley and University of Hawaii astronomers analyzed all four years of Kepler data in search of Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of sun-like stars, and then rigorously tested how many planets they may have missed. Based on this analysis, they estimate that 22 percent of stars like the sun have potentially habitable Earth-size planets, though not all may be rocky or have liquid water, a presumed prerequisite for life.

Read more at: Astronomers answer key question: How common are habitable planets?

 

[ScienceRocks]

India counts down to launch of mission to Mars

46 minutes ago by Katy Daigle

India is counting down to the launch of its first journey to Mars, a complex mission that it hopes will demonstrate and advance technologies for space travel.

Mangalyaan, which means "Mars craft" in Hindi, will ride a powerful rocket first into an elliptical orbit around Earth. There, it will perform a series of technical maneuvers and short burns to raise its orbit before it slingshots toward Mars.

Read more at: India counts down to launch of mission to Mars

 

[longknife]

Astronomers answer key question: How common are habitable planets?

UC Berkeley and University of Hawaii astronomers analyzed all four years of Kepler data in search of Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of sun-like stars, and then rigorously tested how many planets they may have missed. Based on this analysis, they estimate that 22 percent of stars like the sun have potentially habitable Earth-size planets, though not all may be rocky or have liquid water, a presumed prerequisite for life.

Read more at: Astronomers answer key question: How common are habitable planets?

I didn't copy the link, but many websites report astronomers are now estimating BILLIONS of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone.

 

[Steven_R]

It almost makes me think we'll need a redefinition of planet before too much longer. It's kind of started with the reclassification of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. I wonder if maybe we'll just eliminate planet outright and start classifying by some other means than just rocky and gas as subcategories.

 

[ScienceRocks]

A planet is a planet.

As long as it doesn't fuse fusion + spherical = planet.

GRAIL mission puts a new face on the moon

(Phys.org) —Scientists using data from the lunar-orbiting twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are gaining new insight into how the face of the moon received its rugged good looks. A report on the asymmetric distribution of lunar impact basins is published in this week's edition of the journal Science.

Read more at: GRAIL mission puts a new face on the moon

 

[Steven_R]

Simple hydrostatic equilibrium (when there is enough mass and gravity to cause roundness) isn't a good enough indicator of what makes a planet a planet and not something else. I seem to recall the IAU conference in 2006 also considered if the body had cleared its neighborhood and if it had a barycenter with any moons outside of the planet itself and no real consensus was reached.

As it is, just based on the minor planets like Eris and Makemake and Pluto we could end up with dozens and perhaps hundred of planets if we make round as the definition of planet.

It's an interesting question to consider and right now the best we can do is "we know it when we see it" and that's not really scientific enough.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Let's just make Pluto the lower limit

We're going to find millions of such objects mercury to Jupiter sized NOT orbiting a star.

 

[Steven_R]

Except that then we're left with bodies that are larger than Pluto but not planets. Planet is an arbitrary designation anyways, but as time goes on I think it needs a better definition and maybe at some point we'll need to ditch the term outright and come up with some new vocabulary.

 

[Vikrant]

After a successful launch on Tuesday, India's Mars spacecraft has carried out the first of six crucial engine firings in Earth orbit.

BBC News - India Mars probe makes first engine burn

 

[ScienceRocks]

To Mars and back quickly: Improved propulsion technology in works
To Mars and back quickly: Improved propulsion technology in works - NBC News.com

Mike Wall, Space.com

New propulsion technologies may blast astronauts through space at breakneck speeds in the coming decades, making manned Mars missions much faster and safer.

Souped-up electric propulsion systems and rockets driven by nuclear fusion or fission could end up shortening travel times to the Red Planet dramatically, proponents say, potentially opening up a new era in manned space exploration.

"Using existing rocket fuels, it's nearly impossible for humans to explore much beyond Earth," John Slough of the University of Washington, leader of a team developing a fusion-driven rocket, said in a statement earlier this year. "We are hoping to give us a much more powerful source of energy in space that could eventually lead to making interplanetary travel commonplace."

Possible but as long as the LOSERTERIANS have so much power = probably not going to happen. China may????

 

[ScienceRocks]

Scientist finds medium sized Kuiper belt object less dense than water

(Phys.org) —Michael Brown, a planetary scientist with California Institute of Technology, has found a medium sized object in the Kuiper belt (dubbed 2002 UX25) that doesn't appear to conform to theories of how such objects came to exist. In his paper to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, Brown notes that the mid-sized object appears to be less dense than it should be if it followed conventional thinking that suggests the larger the objects are in the belt, the more dense they should get.

Read more at: Scientist finds medium sized Kuiper belt object less dense than water

 

[slava]

Longknife
Thank you for sharing these stuningly beautiful images of space. Getting back to the topic of the latest space news and discoveries, what do you personally think about the possibility of sending humans to the red planet one day. I guess it's feasible but the endevour like that involves so many decisions that need to be made on a super high level that a flight to Mars is still in our dreams only and might never happen. Besides, the current global economic system is quite unstable and there's no country that would invest big bucks into space exploration if it's not sure that returns will exceed costs

websites report astronomers are now estimating BILLIONS of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone

From what I read the existence of millions and millions of earth sized planets doesn't prove that we may find intelligent life elsewhere. One celled organisms can survive in extreme conditions. They can be cast into space, orbit our planet and return back safe and sound. On the contrary, intelligent life is so fragile - it can be wiped out by a natural disaster, destroy itself or throw itself back into the dark ages. it took billions of years for the life on our planet to evolve. We are smart and able to create tools to be a dominant species on Earth. Still we are making just tiny little baby steps in exploring our sollar system. And the brightest minds of the human kind are just kids who know nothing and are totally unaware of many secrets of the universe...
Besides, It's just a pretty rough calculation that makes scientists believe we are not alone in the vacuum of space. . There may be technologically advanced civilizations in our galaxy or beyond who knows. But in oder to reach our region of space they must be " Gods of science"

 

[ScienceRocks]

Nasa's Maven Mars mission launches

The US space agency's (Nasa) Maven mission has set off for Mars.

The orbiter was launched on an Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 13:28 local time (18:28 GMT).

Assuming the $671m (£416m) mission stays on track, the probe will have a 10-month cruise to the Red Planet.

Maven is going to study Mars' high atmosphere, to try to understand the processes that have robbed the world of most of its air.

Evidence suggests the planet was once shrouded in a thick blanket of gases that supported the presence of liquid water at its surface. Today, the air pressure is so low that free water would instantly boil away.

Maven was released from the Atlas V's upper-stage some 53 minutes after leaving the Cape Canaveral pad. The probe then had to open its solar panels and orientate itself into a cruise configuration.

BBC News - Nasa's Maven Mars mission launches

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX postpones launch of SES TV satellite

BBC News - SpaceX postpones launch of SES TV satellite

The US SpaceX company had to postpone its latest launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Monday.

It was trying to put a 3.1-tonne TV satellite in orbit for the Luxembourg-based operator SES.

Three attempts were made to get the Falcon off the ground in the allotted 65-minute window, but on each occasion controllers were thwarted by a glitch.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA’s Next Frontier: Growing Plants On The Moon


NASA?s Next Frontier: Growing Plants On The Moon | Singularity Hub

A small team at NASA’s Ames Research Center has set out to “boldly grow where no man has grown before” – and they’re doing it with the help of thousands of children, a robot, and a few specially customized GoPro cameras.

In 2015, NASA will attempt to make history by growing plants on the Moon. If they are successful, it will be the first time humans have ever brought life to another planetary body. Along the way, they will make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of biology, agriculture, and life on other worlds. And though they may fail, the way they are going about their mission presents a fascinating case study of an innovative model for public-private collaboration that may very well change space entrepreneurship.



It is quite unusual to hear of a significant NASA project that is so simple, small-scale, and low-cost. Thanks to the rapid advances in consumer electronics over the last few years, parts that would have once cost millions of dollars now cost just hundreds. But what really made this project feasible was an unexpected opportunity: the Google Lunar X Prize, the search giant’s twenty-million-dollar incentive prize for a private company to launch a robotic spacecraft that lands on the moon, travels across the surface, and transmits back two “Mooncasts” by December 31, 2015. Multiple teams are competing – and whoever ends up winning will likely fly with this special payload on board.



With this model NASA doesn’t have to spend tens of millions of dollars or wait years for the next mission to the Moon. According to Dr. Chris McKay, a well-renowned planetary scientist, this project would have cost $300 million two decades ago – now, NASA can build and launch it for under $2 million. It serves as a win for both NASA and private space industry. Dr. McKay compared it to the early days of airplanes and airmail, “Just like we buy tickets on commercial airlines, why shouldn’t we buy space on commercial flights?”

 

[ScienceRocks]

Black hole birth captured by ‘armada of instruments’

"A Rosetta-Stone event ... may require physicists to modify existing theories about radiation"

November 25, 2013

“Los Alamos’ RAPTOR telescopes in New Mexico and Hawaii received a very bright cosmic birth announcement for a black hole on April 27,” said astrophysicist Tom Vestrand, lead author of a paper n the journal Science Nov. 21 that highlights the unusual event.

“This was the burst of the century,” said Los Alamos co-author James Wren. “It’s the biggest, brightest one to happen in at least 20 years, and maybe even longer than that.”

The RAPTOR (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response) system — designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory — is a network of small robotic observatories that scan the skies for optical anomalies such as flashes emanating from a star in its death throes as it collapses and becomes a black hole, an object so dense that not even light can escape its gravity field.

Black hole birth captured by ?armada of instruments? | KurzweilAI