Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

NASA releases video of Orion re-entry
By David Szondy
December 21, 2014
3 Pictures

Proving that not all the space spectaculars are on the big screen at Christmas, NASA has released video taken from inside the Orion spacecraft during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere earlier this month. The ten-minute video shows the final minutes before its December 10 splashdown as it made a fiery descent ahead of a parachute landing in the Pacific ocean.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Russia successfully test-launches new rocket
6 minutes ago

Russia on Tuesday successfully test-launched its newest heavy-class Angara rocket, which has been developed with a view to launching manned spacecraft, the defence ministry said.

President Vladimir Putin oversaw by video link the launch of the Angara-A5 from Plesetsk in northern Russia at 0557 GMT, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The test launch of the light version of the Angara rocket ended in embarrassment in June due to a sudden automatic launch abort.

Designed to succeed Proton and other Soviet-era launchers, the Angara is billed as the first rocket to have been completely built after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Read more at: Russia successfully test-launches new rocket

 

[ScienceRocks]

Students aim to put cyanobacteria on Mars to generate oxygen
7 hours ago by Tomasz Nowakowski, Astrowatch.net

Cyanobacteria Spirulina. Credit: cyanoknights.bio

Mars is a very harsh and hostile environment for future human explorers and like any other known planet it has no breathable air. That could change someday, and it may be soon enough for our generation to witness it, as the student team from Germany has a bold vision to make a first step to terraform the Red Planet, turning it more Earth-like. The plan is to send cyanobacteria to Mars to generate oxygen out of carbon dioxide which is the main component of Martian atmosphere (nearly 96%). "Cyanobacteria do live in conditions on Earth where no life would be expected. You find them everywhere on our planet!" team leader Robert P. Schröder told astrowatch.net. "It is the first step on Mars to test microorganisms." The project is participating in the Mars One University Competition and if it wins, it will be send as a payload to Mars, onboard the Dutch company's mission to the Red Planet. Now everyone can vote to help make it happen by visiting the CyanoKnights.bio webpage.

Read more at: Students aim to put cyanobacteria on Mars to generate oxygen

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX reaches latest milestone

http://www.valleymor...177aea36fb.html

Space Exploration Technologies — SpaceX — has reached the first milestone in its quest to launch crews to the International Space Station from U.S. soil, through a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract with NASA.

The space agency announced Dec. 19 that it had approved the milestone, which basically entailed SpaceX describing to NASA its “current design baseline,” including how the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket will be manufactured, launched, landed and the crew recovered.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Here is another of the one above.

NASA approves first SpaceX milestone for Crew Dragon spacecraft
By David Szondy
December 25, 2014

At the moment, if you want to fly to the International Space Station, you're only option is to hitch a lift on one of Russia's 1970s-vintage Soyuz space capsules. That may not be the case for too much longer, with NASA announcing that it has approved the first milestone for the manned version of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Scientists develop cost-effective & time-saving method to reach Mars

Submitted by Safar Haddad on Thu, 12/25/2014 - 12:49

A new method developed by a pair of scientist for transporting robotic rovers, satellites and astronaut-carrying spacecraft to Mars claims to be much more economic as well as time-saving than the existing method.

Under the existing method, called Hohmann transfer, a space craft, after rocketing through Earth's atmosphere, makes a beeline for Mars while barreling through space at a very high speed. As it approaches the Red Planet, its thrusters fire in the opposite direction to slam on the brakes and swing the craft into the planet's orbit.

While the current method has been tested and has proved to be reliable, it is also very expensive and time consuming. Moreover launches are quite limited to a very brief period when Earth and Mars are in an apt position for the mission launch.

However, a new method, called ballistic capture, can help solve al those issues. It would do away with the fuel-guzzling that Hohmann transfer method's high-speed braking requires. Rather than rocketing direct at the Red Planet, a craft using the ballistic capture technique would launch out ahead of the planet's orbital path.

The craft would gradually reduce its speed, hold in a place, and wait for the Red Planet to swing by. Eventually the gravitational power of Mars will pull the craft into its orbit as it approaches the right point.

Edward Belbruno, a longtime NASA scientist who co-authored the research paper with Francesco Topputo of the Polytechnic University of Milan, said, "This results in a substantial savings in capture from that of a classical Hohmann transfer under certain conditions. This transfer type may be of interest for Mars missions because of lower capture costs, moderate flight time and flexibility."

- See more at: Scientists develop cost-effective time-saving method to reach Mars Perfect Science

 

[ScienceRocks]

Innovative use of pressurant extends MESSENGER's mission, enables collection of new data
12 hours ago

Artist depiction of the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury. Credit: NASA / JHU/APL

The MESSENGER spacecraft will soon run literally on fumes. After more than 10 years traveling in space, nearly four of those orbiting Mercury, the spacecraft has expended most of its propellant and was on course to impact the planet's surface at the end of March 2015. But engineers on the team have devised a way to use the pressurization gas in the spacecraft's propulsion system to propel MESSENGER for as long as another month, allowing scientists to collect even more data about the planet closest to the Sun.

Read more at: Innovative use of pressurant extends MESSENGER s mission enables collection of new data

The passenger spacecraft where you can sit in the cockpit for $95,000: New pictures reveal the XCOR Lynx space plane is getting close to completion

The tourist spacecraft that could blast passengers into space for just $95,000 and let them sit in the cockpit is nearing completion, the firm behind it has revealed.

Passengers in the XCOR Lynx will be able to view the earth from over 330,000ft above the Earth in the two seater craft.

These pictures reveal the Spacecraft is entering the final stages of production - and is expected to blast off in 2016, despite fears that the tragic accident that hit rival Virgin Galactic could delay the industry as a whole.

Read more: The passenger spacecraft where you can sit in the cockpit for 95 000 New pictures reveal the XCOR Lynx space plane is getting close to completion Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[ScienceRocks]

Venus Gets Weirder: CO2 Oceans May Have Covered Surface
Venus Gets Weirder CO2 Oceans May Have Covered Surface
by Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | December 28, 2014 08:37am ET

This image shows the surface of the northern hemisphere of Venus as observed by NASA's Magellan radar-mapping spacecraft, which peered through the planet's thick clouds during a mission that ended in 1994. Scientists now suspect Venus may have once harbored oceans of carbon dioxide in the ancient past.

Venus may have once possessed strange oceans of carbon dioxide fluid that helped shape the planet's surface, researchers say.

Venus is often described as Earth's twin planet because it is the world closest to Earth in size, mass, distance and chemical makeup. However, whereas Earth is a haven for life, Venusis typically described as hellish, with a crushing atmosphere and clouds of corrosive sulfuric acid floating over a rocky desert surface hot enough to melt lead.

Although Venus is currently unbearably hot and dry, it might have once had oceans like Earth. Prior research suggested that Venus possessed enough water in its atmosphere in the past to cover the entire planet in an ocean about 80 feet deep (25 meters) — if all that water could somehow fall down as rain. But the planet was probably too warm for such water to cool down and precipitate, even if the planet did have enough moisture.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Earth-like planets in Milky Way hint at 'possibility of ancient life'
By Eric Mack

December 29, 2014

2 Pictures

The KOI-3158 system compared to other known planets (Image credit: Tiago Campante)

A team of scientists have found what they claim is the oldest Earth-sized planet in the Milky Way, hinting at the possibility of life elsewhere in our galaxy that is even more ancient than our own sun.

Dr. Tiago Campante, an Asteroseismology Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham (UK) who led the research team, presented their findings at a symposium in France earlier this year. The work centered on a system of five terrestrial-sized planets observed by the Kepler space telescope transiting the star KOI-3158, about 117 light years from us in the constellation Lyra.

KOI-3158 is actually part of what's called a hierarchical triple system including two smaller M dwarf stars. Kepler observed the five Earth-sized planets transiting the larger primary star, KOI-3158, which Campante says makes it the closest and brightest multi-planet system detected so far by Kepler.

But perhaps more interesting is the fact that the star system is estimated to be 11.2 billion years old, give or take 900 million years or so. "Which makes KOI-3158 the oldest known system of terrestrial-size planets," Campante told the symposium audience in the video below.

For some perspective, our own sun and solar system is believed to be less than 5 billion years old.

The planets circling KOI-3158 are also familiar in terms of their size, with the innermost being about the size of Mercury, followed by three Mars-sized intermediate planets and a fifth and largest planet that is bigger than the other four, but a bit smaller than Venus.

This system is far from being a total doppelganger for our own, however. It is super compact, with the planets' orbits around KOI-3158 as short as under 10 days. In fact, the orbits of all five planets would fall well within the orbit of Mercury around our own sun if you were to overlay the systems on top of each other.

Earth-like planets in Milky Way hint at possibility of ancient life

 

[ScienceRocks]

Starscraper aims at cheaper, gentler suborbital rocket
By David Szondy
December 30, 2014
56 Pictures

The International Space Station (ISS) may get all the glory, but suborbital rocket flights still play a vital part in space research. The problem is that even though such flights only go to the edge of space, they are expensive, few in number, and put massive stresses on experiments. Partly funded by a Kickstarter campaign, students at Boston University are developing an inexpensive suborbital rocket for educational purposes that uses new engine designs to create a cheaper, reusable suborbital rocket that's easier on the payload.

Starscraper The Next Generation of Suborbital Rockets by BU Rocket Propulsion Group mdash Kickstarter

 

[ScienceRocks]

Dawn begins Ceres approach for orbital rendezvous
By David Szondy
December 30, 2014

Like the end of a very long and eventful road trip, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has its main goal in sight. The space agency says that the unmanned probe has emerged from behind the Sun as it uses its ion propulsion to catch up with the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt and that mission control was able to re-establish contact. The craft has received instructions for executing a series of maneuvers that will take it on its final approach phase, which will end with it going into orbit around Ceres.

Mystery of ‘Metallic Frost’ in Venusian Mountains Deepens
Dec 29, 2014 by Sci-News.com
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| Mystery of Metallic Frost in Venusian Mountains Deepens Space Exploration Sci-News.com

According to a new analysis of twenty-year-old data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, mountainous regions in the Venus’ highlands are covered in an unidentified ferroelectric material.


Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

The idea that the Venusian highlands are covered in a ‘metallic frost’ dates back to 1995, when Dr Raymond Arvidson of the Washington University’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and his colleagues were analyzing the rich archives of data taken from Magellan mission.

Magellan’s primary objective was to map the surface of Venus using a technique known as synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

SAR images taken of mountainous regions in the planet’s highlands revealed a mysterious brightening effect.

Scientists surmised that this effect was due to a metal-containing ‘frost’ only a few millimeters in thickness frosting the mountains’ rugged surfaces.

Also observed were a handful of radio dark spots at the highest elevations. Both mysteries have defied explanation.

“There is general brightening upward trend in the highlands and then dark spots at the highest locations,” said Elise Harrington of Simon Fraser University, a co-author on the new study.

“Brightening, in this case, means the radio waves reflect well. Dark means the radio waves are not reflected. In other words, the higher you go on Venus, the more radio reflective the ground gets until it abruptly goes radio black. Like on Earth, the temperature changes with elevation. And the cooler temperatures at altitude lead to ice and snow, which create a similar pattern of brightening for Earth – but in visible light.”

“Among the possibilities on Venus are a temperature dependent chemical weathering process or heavy metal compound precipitating from the air – a heavy metal frost,” Ms Harrington said.

Getting to the bottom of these mysteries has been very hard because Venus has not been revisited since Magellan and no better data is available.

So Ms Harrington and her colleague, Dr Allan Trieman of Lunar and Planetary Institute, made do by re-purposing the old data.

 

[Judicial review]

This is better use of our money than the libs green projects.

 

[Old Rocks]

Don't worry about it. Wind and Solar are both kicking the shit out of conventional fossil fuels on price, and, with the advent of the grid scale battery, will, in a generation, become the primary source of electricity in our nation. Based on economics alone.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA’s Dawn commences approach phase towards dwarf planet Ceres

US space agency NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has already commenced its approach phase towards dwarf planet Ceres. This would be for the first time when any spacecraft will land on the dwarf planet.

Recently, Dawn had emerged from solar conjunction during which it was on the sun’s opposite side that resulted in limiting the communication with antennas on the planet Earth.

 

[ImGoing2Heaven]

The Almighty never gave us permission to trespass into the Heavens.
Space exploration is of the devil!

 

[ScienceRocks]

The Almighty never gave us permission to trespass into the Heavens.
Space exploration is of the devil!

The all almighty never gave us permission to have knowledge, think for our selfs or fuck pussy. think about it.

IF everything is gods plan. Well, space exploration like fucking pussy has been granted without saying a word. No go along and become educated.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Corot-35b : discovery of a planet in a polar orbit

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA team hacks Opportunity to treat Mars Rover's amnesia
1 hour ago by Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this southward uphill view after beginning to ascend the northwestern slope of "Solander Point" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has been working well into its golden years - after nearly 11 years roaming the Red Planet, it has survived more than 40 times past its warranty. But now, this trusty veteran explorer is experiencing some worrisome memory loss.

The long-lived rover has been having some senior moments, according to John Callas, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover mission (as Opportunity and its defunct twin Spirit are formally known). The episodes of amnesia stem from faulty flash memory - the kind of memory in your digital camera that allows your pictures to stay saved even after your device is turned off.

But flash memory doesn't last forever - and the seventh, final bank in the flash memory appears to be malfunctioning.

Nasa rules! 40 times longer than it was even planned to last and still moving!


Read more at: NASA team hacks Opportunity to treat Mars Rover s amnesia

 

[ImGoing2Heaven]

It's a waste of $

 

[ScienceRocks]

The urge to seek knowledge and explore is what makes us humans better than animals. Animals are forced to stay on this planet and wait to die. Believe me, 99.9% of all living things that has ever lived = dead.

NASA Dawn Spacecraft Nears Dwarf Planet Ceres and New Horizon begins observing Pluto Jan 15

NASA Dawn has entered its approach phase toward Ceres. The spacecraft will arrive at Ceres on March 6, 2015. NASA's Dawn spacecraft has entered an approach phase in which it will continue to close in on Ceres, a Texas-sized dwarf planet never before visited by a spacecraft. Dawn launched in 2007 and is scheduled to enter Ceres orbit in March...
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