Monday, February 4, 2008
Space News - Iran's first Space Center
TEHRAN (AFP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday inaugurated Iran's first space centre from where the Islamic republic intends to launch research ... http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFpohlpSs7iLXpyOB9MalGwKRIgQ
Bush Hails Kalpana Chawla, Columbia Crew's Courage
NEWSPost India
US President George W. Bush has hailed the courage of India born Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts who died when space shuttle Columbia exploded while ... http://newspostindia.com/report-35027
NASA to broadcast The Beatles into deep space
Christian Science Monitor
The transmission of the Fab Four's 'Across the Universe' to the North Star marks the US space agency's 50th anniversary ... http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0204/p25s03-stss.html
Kiwi space hopefuls at Virgin Galactic unveiling (+photos)
New Zealand Herald - New Zealand
Two New Zealanders who hope to become the first Kiwis in space were in New York last week for the unveiling of Virgin Galactic's launch system ... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10490588
Junk in Space
Times of India - India
The use of space for military purposes could be the next goal for the government if it acts on a suggestion of the founder-chairman of the
Society of ... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Junk_in_Space/articleshow/2753621.cms
Mumbai to add a Bandra Kurla in office space
Business Standard
Mumbai and its suburbs will add 15.4 million square feet of office space, more than the commercial space now available at the
sprawling ... http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=lmnu1&subLeft=1&autono=312490&tab=r
SCARED SPACE: The Missing Link
Times of India - India
I will remember then the great river that turned, turning with the fire of the first sun, away from the old land of red robed men and poisonous
ritual, ... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/SCARED_SPACE_The_Missing_Link/articleshow/2753609.cms
Iran launches rocket from new space center
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran fired a rocket from its newly inaugurated space center Monday, laying the groundwork for what it says will be the future launch of its first domestically produced satellite, the semi-official FARS news agency ... http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/04/iran-launches-rocket-from-new-space-center/
The CNN Wire - http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com
Man Blasts Himself Into Space
A 67-year-old American billionaire is believed to have become the first person to have launched himself into space using only a home-made rocket and without the assistance of any major space agency it was reported by the SFTR last week ... http://digg.com/space/Man_Blasts_Himself_Into_Space
Digg / Science - http://digg.com/view/science
Cool Spacedust Survey Goes Into Orbit
Nottingham, UK (SPX) Feb 04, 2008 - University of Nottingham astronomers will be studying icy cosmic dust millions of light years away - using the biggest space telescope ever built. Scientists at the School of Physics and Astronomy ... http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cool_Spacedust_Survey_Goes_Into_Orbit_999.html
Space News From SpaceDaily.Com - http://www.spacedaily.com/
NASA sends The Beatles Across the Universe
NASA to broadcast The Beatles into deep space - Christian Science Monitor /-- SETI Battle of the Bandwidth: Beatles Outsignaled by Bob
Marley - LiveScience/Leonard David - Feb.3.08 /-- NASA and The Beatles Celebrate Anniversaries by ... http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/HSblog.php?itemid=5329
Space For All - The HobbySpace Log - http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/HSblog.php
Monday, January 22, 2007
NASA provides Google with space images
The collaboration marks another step in a partnership announced 15 months ago when Google unveiled plans to build a 1 million-square-foot campus at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., a few miles south of the Google's headquarterr in Mountain View.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said "This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars,".
Google already uses NASA's Mars images to provide interactive tours of Mars in Google Earth software.
In 2008 2 Koreans will go into space
In a gala ceremony broadcast nationwide on SBS television Monday, the Ministry of Science and Technology picked a pair of candidates: Ko San, 30, a researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, and Yi So-yeon, 28, who is working on a Ph.D. at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Beginning February, the two finalists will go for training 14 months, including a year-long session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.
Then one of the two will have the chance to feel the emptiness of space in person as the priority candidate while the other will be a reserve.
The successful candidate will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan, aboard a three-seated Soyuz spacecraft in late March or early April 2008 together with two other crew members, a pilot and an engineer.
Ko or Yi are poised to conduct a total of 18 experiments in micro-gravity during his or her short stay there including evaluating a zero gravity weighing device and Korea's traditional foods adapted for space travel, among others.
Labels: space
Monday, December 18, 2006
Space: News around the globe - 18 Dec 2006
Google will boldly go where no search engine has gone before, joining NASA's space program to make wealth of space data and imagery more easily available to ...
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8170/53/
FAA: Space tourists must be told of risks
... This is what would-be space tourists will have to be warned before they set off on sub-orbital jaunts, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/18/space_risks/
ROK, Ukraine sign agreement on space technology co-op
... agreement, signed by South Korean Science Minister Kim Woo-sik and Valeriy Komarov, Ukraine's first deputy director general of the National Space Agency, will ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/18/content_5503341.htm
Discovery team prepares for fourth space-walk
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and her nine companions spent a quiet Sunday at her new home in space preparing for a fourth space-walk to try once ...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1871253,00050001.htm
Japan Sends Its Largest Satellite Into Space
... The 5.8-ton, domestically developed Kiku Number 8 lifted off on board an H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Centre in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima ...
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_5570-ROUNDUP-Japan-Sends-Its-Largest-Satellite-Into-Space.html
4Th Walk In Space
Chicago native Joan Higginbotham has scored another day floating in the cosmos aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/4945042.html
Federal Aviation Administration Sets Rules for Space Travel
... As private companies race to send private citizens into space, the Federal Aviation Administration has begun to lay out rules for commercial space travel ...
http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/item/federal_aviation_administration_sets_rules_for_space_travel_20061217/
Report: Space Junk An Increasing Threat To Satellites
There's no such thing as a free lunch, though... for the same effect also increases the threat that space junk poses to satellites.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=7fb737c1-fbb4-4fff-bb69-0497eaa1641a
Labels: around-the-world, space
Monday, December 11, 2006
Space: News around the globe - 11 Dec 2006
... and other satellite navigation systems are proving more and more indispensable on Earth, it is becoming obvious that their uses for deep space operations are ...
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/762/1
Shuttle to dock with space lab Monday
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After receiving a clean bill of health, space shuttle Discovery early Monday raced toward a ...
http://www.leadingthecharge.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=33758&source=2
Shuttle closing in on space station
Space shuttle Discovery was closing in on the International Space Station on Monday as astronauts prepared for a series of complicated jobs ...
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-12-11T194137Z_01_B663107_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-SHUTTLE.xml&WTmodLoc=SciNewsHome_C1_%5BFeed%5D-2
Isro set to test reusable space vehicle
Come January, and India's space programme will soar into a new hi-tech era creating history. Between January 10 and 15, 2007 ...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Isro_set_to_test_reusable_space_vehicle/articleshow/779971.cms
Mass. native readies for space station stint
The Needham High School graduate is scheduled to spend the next six months on the international space station. Williams and the ...
http://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5797982&nav=F2DO
Researchers study space weather conditions
A US science team is creating instruments and techniques designed to help scientists more accurately predict space weather conditions ...
http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1232118.php/Researchers_study_space_weather_conditions
Gujarat celebrates perfect launch of Sunita in space
Sunita Williams, second Indian woman to go into space, has become a media celebrity in Gujarat as she belongs to Gujarat. http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php?id=2031&cattype=NEWS
Russia faces problems in developing space technology
... of astronautics and formulator of the jet propulsion theory, as well as the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's launch of the first space satellite in ...
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20061211/56749730.htm
Labels: around-the-world, space
Space: Space rocks are smashing into the Moon a lot more often
Small space rocks are smashing into the moon a lot more often than was expected, according to a NASA study.
"We've now seen 11 and possibly 12 lunar impacts since we started monitoring the moon one year ago. That's about four times more hits than our computer models predicted." said Bill Cooke, chief of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.
If further study proves the pace to be accurate, it could figure into plans for putting people on the moon, according to a NASA statement issued today.
A collision with a spacesuit or a habitation module, even from a small object, could be fatal.
Most meteoroids that enter Earth's atmosphere burn up harmlessly. The bulk of shooting stars are caused by stuff no bigger than sand grains and a few pea-sized objects. But even something as big as a basketball will usually burn up, in a spectacular fireball, before hitting Earth's surface.
The moon, with no atmosphere, sees it all rain down.
Bill Cooke and colleagues spotted a very bright lunar impact last December. They documented two impacts during last month's Leonid meteor shower.
Leonid meteor shower are leftover chunks from a comet and they are particularly dangerous because they move against the path of our own orbit around the sun, so we hit them head-on at greater speed than much other debris. This results in a greater release of energy at impact.
"The flashes we saw were caused by Leonid meteoroids 2 to 3 inches in diameter," Cooke said in a NASA statement. They hit with energies equal to 150 to 300 pounds of TNT.
"We need to spend more time watching the moon. With more data, we can draw stronger conclusions about the impact rate." Bill Cooke said.
Labels: space
Friday, December 1, 2006
Science: Postcards from Mars by Jim Bell
Postcards from Mars: The First Photographer on the Red Planet
by Jim Bell, a new book that has done what many authors could not do, and that is presenting Mars (the Red Planet), like how it is and not with exotic pictures. By using a high-tech camera mounted on top of the Mars rovers, Jim Bell, the scientist who led the photography team for the Mars rovers' missions, has compiled a book with over 150 high quality photos, that puts our neighbor planet colors and textures in a new light.
Self-portrait at Erebus
The tracks and landing craft of Opportunity in the Eagle Crater.
Opportunity snapped a picture of the Rainbow Dunes.
The panoramic cameras mounted on the rovers Spirit and Opportunity take pictures at a resolution of about 1 mega-pixel, or a million pixels per image, this is not much, but when more pictures are combined, the results are amazing. Jim Bell points out that the original mission was only estimated to last for 90 days. Spirit landed on 3 January 2004, and has now spent over 1,000 days rolling across the Martian terrain; Opportunity also reached that mark too.
Spirit is currently analyzing salty deposits in the soil that may indicate the presence of water long ago.
Opportunity recently arrived at the half-mile wide Victoria Crater and is trying to find a safe way in. According to Jim Bell, the rovers continue to surpass everyone's expectations.
Source: USA Today
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Science: Extinction of the dinosaurs study led to Shiva Crater
The Shiva Crater, according to the Astrobiology Magazine Web site, measures 600 kilometers by 400 kilometers, and was made by a meteorite that measured 40 kilometers across.
"The publication of his study regarding the crater and its possible implications is expected to receive national attention in the near future", said William Glen, scientist and historian of the U.S. Geological Survey.
The study on the Shiva Crater suggests it is the result of a meteorite impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Before the Shiva Crater was suggested as the reason for the mass extinction, it was believed that another crater, the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, was the cause, Chatterjee said.
However, the Chicxulub Crater is 300,000 years older than when the extinction occurred, Chatterjee said, which led to the search for another explanation of the mass extinction.
"From the very beginning, we knew this is the killer meteorite, the cause of the extinction," he said. "This is just the beginning of the whole study."
read more
Monday, July 3, 2006
Space: Stephen Hawking said that humans must colonize space to survive
Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40, the British scientist said. "We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, greeted here Monday with a rock star's welcome. Tickets for his lecture Thursday are sold out. Hawking said that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."
The 64-year-old scientist, author of the global best-seller A Brief History of Time, uses a wheelchair and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. One of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation, Hawking has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe, proposing that space and time have no beginning and no end.
However, Alan Guth, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said Hawking's latest observations are something of a departure from his usual research and more applicable to survival over the long-term.
"It is a new area for him to look at," Guth said. "If he's talking about the next 100 years and beyond, it does make sense to think about space as the ultimate lifeboat."
But, he added, "I don't see the likely possibility within the next 50 years of science technology making it easier to survive on Mars and on the moon than it would be to survive on Earth. I would still think that an underground base, for example in Antarctica, would be easier to build than building on the moon."
Joshua Winn, an astrophysicist at MIT, agreed. "The prospect of colonizing other planets is very far off, you must realize," he said. Hawking's "work has been highly theoretical physics, not in astrophysics or global politics or anything like that," Winn added. "He is certainly stepping outside his research domain."
Sunday, July 2, 2006
Science: The mystery of Enceladus, Saturn's outermost moon
Enceladus is a bizarre and small world of white, circumnavigating peculiarly in Saturn's outermost ring. It measures at only 504 kilometres (315 miles) across, therefore defying its name as a giant of Greek mythology, and it has a luminous shell of ice that is immaculate with the exception of some odd-looking grooves and pockmarks from the latest space impacts.
While its exterior is a freezing nightmare, counter-intuitively, underneath the ice Enceladus appears to be quite pleasant. Fly bys via the US probe Cassini have displayed plumes of water vapor that escape from its surface, discharge crystal jets upwards for hundreds of kilometers (miles). One theory is that these "cryo-volcanoes" are sourced by a phenomenon called tidal heating.
Gravitational draw from giant Saturn and the nearby satellites of Dione and Janus clutches and extends the moon's geological interior, instigating resistance that heats the sub-surface water. However, astonishingly, Enceladus' hotspot can only be found in a polar region - at its south pole.
A couple of American space scientists feel that they have the answer for this. Spiraling bodies are mainly stable when most of their mass is close to the equator. Any reorganization of mass that is within a spinning object causes the axis of spin to be changed to unstable.
In the case of Enceladus's, the big splotch of low-density material while either warm water or hot silicate at its rocky core would cause the moon to turn over. The spin axis would linger fixed, yet the splotch, which is known as a diapir, would wind up on the South Pole. This would explain both the geysers but so-called tiger stripes, or fault lines, in the ice that originate from the southern polar region and measure around 130 kilometers (80 miles) long. Enceladus may not be the only thing in being reoriented this way. A similar process could have happened on other small moons, such as the Uranian satellite Miranda, according to their theory.
Lear More About: Enceladus
Source: HalfLifeSource
