Tag Archives: NASA

July 19, 2013 · 3:27 pm

NASA Tests 3D Printed Rocket Engine Injector

NASA Successfully Tests First 3-D Printed Rocket Engine Injector

Another step toward the day when 3-D printers spit out entire spacecraft.
By Shaunacy FerroPosted 07.12.2013 at 1:00 pm3 Comments

Rocket Engine Injector NASA Glenn Research Center

We’ve seen 3-D printed aircraft and drone parts, and even plans for a printable private jet. Now NASA has demonstrated another 3-D printing first: The agency has just finished successful tests of a 3-D printed rocket engine injector at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, marking one of the first steps in using additive manufacturing for space travel.

In conjunction with rocket manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne, NASA built the liquid-oxygen and gaseous-hydrogen rocket injector assembly using laser melting manufacturing. This sci-fi-sounding technique involves melting metallic powders down with high-powered laser beams, then fusing them into shape. Previous manufacturing methods for these type of injectors required more than a year. Being able to 3-D print the parts reduces the time frame to four months, at a 70 percent price reduction.

 

Installation In The Rocket Combustion Laboratory

Installation In The Rocket Combustion Laboratory:  NASA Glenn Research Center 

Eventually, 3-D printing is likely become a staple of the aerospace industry, as Davin Coburn describes in our July issue.

NASA has already expressed interest in putting 3-D printers in space, so astronauts could have easier access to spare parts and, most importantly, pizza.

Michael Gazarik, the associate administrator for space technology at NASA, even suggested entire spacecraft could one day be made with 3-D printing, calling it “game-changing for new mission opportunities.”

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June 19, 2013 · 5:21 am

SHIELD created to protect Earth

SHIELD Act to protect from solar catastrophes, electromagnetic pulses

By Jeremy A. Kaplan

Published June 18, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • solar-flare-dec31-2012-sdo

    This still from a NASA video shows the New Year’s Eve sun eruption of Dec. 31, 2012, to kick off the New Year. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the video. (NASA/SDO via Camilla Corona SDO)

  • spectacular-solar-prominence-photos-august-31-2012-2

    This image shows the Earth to scale with a colossal solar filament eruption from the sun on Aug. 31, 2012 as seen by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Note: the Earth is not this close to the sun, this image is for scale purposes on (NASA/SDO/GSFC)

It’s among the greatest threats facing America today, U.S. Congressman Trent Franks states bluntly: a tremendous electromagnetic pulse, either naturally occurring or from a small nuclear device detonated outside the atmosphere.

A large enough pulse (EMP) could destroy the electric grid, notably the rare and very expensive transformers that form the grid’s backbone. Without them and the power they deliver, a vast swath of American technology and every system that relies upon it would go dark for months or even years, some fear — essentially sending the country back to the stone age.

And we’re utterly unprepared for this potentially catastrophic threat, said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy and former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.

‘[Cities] become dead zones in a matter of weeks or at most months.’

– Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy 

“A pre-industrial society, which is what we would be reduced to, would not have the ability to sustain itself as we do today,” he told FoxNews.com.

A 2004 panel bluntly described the effects of a “Carrington Event,” named for the largest solar storm in history, an 1859 solar blast that shook the planet. Bill Graham, chairman of the panel, said as many as 9 out of 10 of could be killed in the aftermath, Gaffney said.

“Think of people in cities with no access to food or water, no sewage, no access to transport to get out of there … those become dead zones in a matter of weeks or at most months. And the population living off the land elsewhere may be able to sustain itself, but nowhere like what we have at the moment,” Gaffney said.

“It’s really grim,” he told FoxNews.com.

To address this threat, Congressman Trent Franks and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich introduced a bill Tuesday to protect the grid. Called the SHIELD Act, or the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage, the bill would push the federal government to install grid-saving devices, surge protectors that could save the transformers and power system from EMPs.

The main source of these wicked pulses are storms on the surface of the sun — giant, rope-like strands of plasma hundreds of thousands of miles long that have been rolling off the surface of that boiling star overhead in increasing numbers. The sun hurls these gas and magnetic fields millions of miles across space, disrupting satellite communications, navigation and power, explained NASA head Charlie Bolden at a conference on space weather June 4.

“Space weather impacts can be seen throughout the solar system,” Bolden said. “Given the growing importance of space to our Nation’s economic well-being and security, it is of increasing importance … to understand and predict space weather events.”

In other words, the sun sneezes and the economy shatters, as one article recently put it.

It’s no idle threat, either: in March 1989, the power grid in Quebec went from normal to shutdown in 92 seconds during a huge magnetic storm, according to a recent report by insurance giant Lloyds of London. It took 9 hours to restore normal operations, during which time five million people were without electricity. Total cost: about $2 billion.

The bill centers on protecting modern high-voltage transformers, which can weigh up to 400 tons, cost millions of dollars, and are made in only a handful of facilities in the U.S. A June 2012 report a June 2012 report by the Dept. of Energy called them a key failure point in the grid, citing volatile raw-material pricing – copper and electrical steel – and a lead time for manufacturing that can stretch to 20 months.

“It’s critical that we protect our major transformers from cascading destruction. The SHIELD Act encourages industry to develop standards necessary to protect our electric infrastructure against both natural and man-made EMP events,” Franks said, according to the Washington Examiner.

Franks has been pursuing the bill since early 2011, when he first introduced H.R. 668. At the time, he called it “the single greatest asymmetric capability that could fall into the hands of America’s enemies.”

Gaffney agrees, noting that anyone aware of the system understands it’s something we need to take action on.

“If we can at least insure that the backbone of the electric grid survives — these transformers — you have a basis upon which to rebuild the rest of the country. If you lose those, you’re toast,” he told FoxNews.com.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/06/18/shield-act-to-protect-from-solar-catastrophes-electromagnetic-pulses/?intcmp=features#ixzz2WdWgteB7

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June 5, 2013 · 8:19 am

Our Sun Has a Huge Hole In It

There’s a hole in the sun, NASA says

By Ian O’Neill

Published June 04, 2013

Discovery News

  • Coronal hole May.jpg
    NASA/SDO
  • Coronal Hole May 2.jpg
    NASA/SDO
During the latter part of last week, a huge void rotated across the face of the sun.
But never fear, it isn’t a sign of the “end times” or some weird sci-fi stellar malnourishment: This particular hole is a coronal hole. Though it may be a well-known phenomenon, it is noteworthy — it’s the largest coronal hole to be observed in the sun’s atmosphere for over a year.

Snapped through three of NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory‘s (SDO) extreme ultraviolet filters, this coronal hole is caused by a low density region of hot plasma.

The sun’s lower corona is threaded with powerful magnetic fields. Some are looped — or “closed” — very low in the corona, creating the beautiful, bright coronal loops that trap superheated gases that generate vast amounts of extreme ultraviolet light, radiation that is produced by multimillion degree plasma (the bright regions in the image, top).

However, there are also “open” field lines that have one end of their magnetic flux anchored in the solar photosphere. These lines fire solar plasma into interplanetary space at an accelerated rate, often intensifying space weather conditions. These regions of open field lines, or coronal holes, act like fire hoses, blasting plasma into space. These regions are the source of the the fast solar wind that accelerates solar material toward Earth, which often only takes 2-3 days to travel from the sun to Earth.

Through the SDO’s eyes, coronal holes appear dark as there is a very low density of the multimillion degree plasma generating the EUV radiation. And as this dramatic observation demonstrates, to the eyes of the SDO, the sun really does appear to have a hole.

We are currently going through an uptick in solar activity as our nearest star experiences “solar maximum” — the peak of its natural 11-year cycle. At this time, we can expect an increased frequency of solar flares and coronal mass ejections as the sun’s magnetic field becomes increasingly stressed. Although this solar maximum is less active than predicted, it is producing some powerful flares and CME’s. 

Now we’re seeing huge coronal holes, all a consequence of the twisted turmoil our sun is currently enduring.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/06/04/there-hole-in-sun-nasa-says/?intcmp=features#ixzz2VJuHzoVj

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June 3, 2013 · 4:23 pm

Rover radiation data poses manned Mars mission dilemma

Rover radiation data poses manned Mars mission dilemma

Art work of humans on the surface of Mars
A single mission to Mars is going to take the astronauts close to or beyond their current career limits for radiation exposure. Scientists say getting to Mars as quickly as possible would lower the risks

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has confirmed what everyone has long suspected – that astronauts on a Mars mission would get a big dose of damaging radiation.

The robot counted the number of high-energy space particles striking it on its eight-month journey to the planet.

Based on this data, scientists say a human travelling to and from Mars could well be exposed to a radiation dose that breached current safety limits.

This calculation does not even include time spent on the planet’s surface.

When the time devoted to exploring the world is taken into account, the dose rises further still.

This would increase the chances of developing a fatal cancer beyond what is presently deemed acceptable for a career astronaut.

Cary Zeitlin from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and colleagues report the Curiosity findings in the latest edition ofScience magazine.

They say engineers will have to give careful consideration to the type of shielding that is built into a Mars-bound crew ship. However, they concede that for some of the most damaging radiation particles, there may be little that can be done to shelter the crew other than to get them to Mars and the partial protection of its thin atmosphere and rocky mass as quickly as possible.

At the moment, given existing chemical propulsion technology, Mars transits take months.

“The situation would be greatly improved if we could only get there quite a bit faster,” Dr Zeitlin told BBC News.

“It is not just the dose rate that is the problem; it is the number of days that one accumulates that dose that drives the total towards or beyond the career limits. Improved propulsion would really be the ticket if someone could make that work.”

New types of propulsion, such as plasma and nuclear thermal rockets, are in development. These could bring the journey time down to a number of weeks.

Curiosity travelled to Mars inside a capsule similar in size to the one now being developed to take astronauts beyond the space station to destinations such as asteroids and even Mars.

Aeroshell separates from cruise stage
The rover travelled to Mars tucked inside a protective capsule. Its RAD instrument was turned on for most of the journey

For most of its 253-day, 560-million-km journey in 2011/2012, the robot had its Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument switched on inside the cruise vessel, which gave a degree of protection.

RAD counts the numbers of energetic particles – mostly protons – hitting its sensors.

The particles of concern fall into two categories – those that are accelerated away from our dynamic Sun; and those that arrive at high velocity from outside of the Solar System.

Radiation exposures comparison

  • Annual average (all sources, UK) – 2.7mSv
  • Whole-body CT scan – 10mSv
  • Nuclear power worker (annual, UK) – 20mSv
  • 6 months on the space station – 100mSv
  • 6 months in deep space – 320mSv

Source: UK HPA / Nasa

This latter category originates from exploded stars and the environs of black holes.

These galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) impart a lot of energy when they strike the human body and will damage DNA in cells. They are also the most difficult to shield against.

Earth’s thick atmosphere, its magnetic field and its huge rock bulk provide protection to people living on its surface, but for astronauts in deep space even an aluminium hull 30cm thick is not going to change their exposure to GCRs very much.

The RAD data revealed an average GCR dose equivalent rate of 1.84 milliSieverts (mSv) per day during the rover’s cruise to Mars. (The Sievert is a standard measure of the biological impacts of radiation.) This dose rate is about the same as having a full-body CT scan in a hospital every five days or so.

Number reassessment

Dr Zeitlin and his team used this measurement as a guide to work out what an astronaut could expect on a Mars mission, assuming he or she had a similarly shielded spacecraft, travelled at a time when the Sun’s activity was broadly the same and completed the journey in just 180 days – Nasa’s “design reference” transit time for a manned mission to Mars.

They calculated the total dose just for the cruise phases to and from Mars to be 660mSv. The team promises to come back with the additional number from surface exposure once Curiosity has taken more measurements at its landing location on the planet’s equator.

But even this 660mSv figure represents a large proportion of the 1,000mSv for career exposure that several space agencies work to keep their astronauts from approaching. Reaching 1,000mSv is associated with a 5% increase in the risk of developing a fatal cancer. There would likely be neurological impairment and eyesight damage as well. Nasa actually works to keep its astronauts below a 3% excess risk.

“If you extrapolate the daily measurements that were made by RAD to a 500-day mission you would incur exposures that would cause most individuals to exceed that 3% limit,” explained Dr Eddie Semones, the spaceflight radiation health officer at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center, who added that experts were reviewing the restriction.

“Currently, we’re looking at that 3% standard and its applicability for exploration-type missions, and those discussions are going forward on how to handle that and what steps need to be taken to protect the crew.”

All this should be set against the dangers associated with space travel in general, such as launching on a rocket or trying to land on another planet. It is a dangerous business.

It also needs to be considered in the context of the risks of contracting cancer during a “normal” lifetime on Earth, which is 26% (for a UK citizen).

Complex calculation

The space agencies have quite deliberately set conservative limits for their astronauts but it seems clear they would have to relax their rules somewhat or mitigate the risks in some other way to authorise a Mars mission.

Does the glory of visiting Mars outweigh the health risks?

However, the scenario for commercial ventures could be very different. Two initiatives – Inspiration Mars and Mars One– have been announced recently that propose getting people to Mars in the next 10 years using existing technologies.

Privateer astronauts that participate in these projects may regard the extra risks associated with radiation to be an acceptable gamble given the extraordinary prize of walking on the Red Planet.

Dr Kevin Fong is director of the Centre for Space Medicine at University College London, UK, and has written about the dangers associated with space exploration. He said that what Dr Zeitlin and colleagues had done was help remove some of the uncertainty in the risk assessment.

“Radiobiology is actually really tricky because how the body will respond to exposure will depend on many factors, such as whether you’re old or young, male or female,” he told BBC News.

“What’s important about this study is that it characterises the deep space radiation environment for the first time in a vehicle whose shielding is not orders of magnitude different from that which you would expect to put a human crew inside.”

Position of RAD instrument on Mars
The RAD instrument continues to gather data on the surface of Mars

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June 2, 2013 · 5:06 am

NASA confirms history of water on Mars

NASA confirms Curiosity rover found evidence of ancient stream on Mars

Published May 31, 2013

FoxNews.com

  • gravel river mars.jpg

    The Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (left) with similar rocks seen on Earth (right). The image of Link, obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover, shows rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches within the rock outcrop. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI)

  • marsstream12.jpg

    This image taken by the NASA rover Curiosity shows sediment at the bottom of an ancient streambed on Mars. (AP/NASA)

A new analysis of pebble-containing slabs investigated by NASA’s Curiosity rover confirms a stream once ran through Gale Crater on Mars.
During a pit stop last year, Curiosity came upon hundreds of smooth, round pebbles that look strikingly similar to deposits in river banks on Earth.

‘Most people are familiar with rounded river pebbles. Seeing something so familiar on another world is exciting.’

– Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute 

Scientists believe the rover rolled onto an ancient streambed, but needed to study the stones in more detail. So Curiosity snapped high-resolution pictures and fired its laser at several pebbles to analyze the chemical makeup.

Researchers say the roundness of the stones was shaped by a fast-flowing stream that probably was ankle to waist-deep. Curiosity landed in the crater near the equator last summer.

Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute, the lead author of the new report, said that researchers were able to determine the depth and speed of the water that once flowed at the site.

“These conglomerates look amazingly like streambed deposits on Earth,” Williams said. “Most people are familiar with rounded river pebbles. Maybe you’ve picked up a smoothed, round rock to skip across the water. Seeing something so familiar on another world is exciting and also gratifying.”

Sanjeev Gupta, a co-author of the report, said that analysis of the amount of rounding on the pebbles indicates that the stream was flowing at a sustained, vigorous speed.

“The rounding indicates sustained flow. It occurs as pebbles hit each other multiple times. This wasn’t a one-off flow. It was sustained, certainly more than weeks or months, though we can’t say exactly how long,” Gupta said.

The stream carried the gravel at least a few miles, the researchers estimated.

The analysis appears in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/31/rounded-pebbles-on-mars-reveal-past-flowing-water/?intcmp=features#ixzz2V24BCUAn

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May 14, 2013 · 6:04 pm

Faster than light drives a reality?

Warp speed, Scotty: Faster than light drives a reality?

By Jillian Scharr

Published May 14, 2013

TechNewsDaily

  • The 100 Year Spaceship

    NASA appears to be debating a way to permanently colonize another planet, boldly going where no one has ever gone — and where no one could come back, some fear. (Paramount)

In the “Star Trek” TV shows and films, the U.S.S. Enterprise’s warp engine allows the ship to move faster than light, an ability that is, as Spock would say, “highly illogical.”

However, there’s a loophole in Einstein’s general theory of relativity that could allow a ship to traverse vast distances in less time than it would take light. The trick? It’s not the starship that’s moving — it’s the space around it.

In fact, scientists at NASA are right now working on the first practical field test toward proving the possibility of warp drives and faster-than-light travel. Maybe the warp drive on “Star Trek” is possible after all. [See also: Warp Drive: Can It Be Done? (Video)]

‘Nature can do it. So the salient question is, can we?’

– Physicist Harold ‘Sonny’ White, with NASA’s Johnson Space Center 

According to Einstein’s theory, an object with mass cannot go as fast or faster than the speed of light. The original “Star Trek” series ignored this “universal speed limit” in favor of a ship that could zip around the galaxy in a matter of days instead of decades. They tried to explain the ship’s faster-than-light capabilities by powering the warp engine with a “matter-antimatter” engine. Antimatter was a popular field of study in the 1960s, when creator Gene Roddenberry was first writing the series. When matter and antimatter collide, their mass is converted to kinetic energy in keeping with Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence formula, E=mc2.

In other words, matter-antimatter collision is a potentially powerful source of energy and fuel, but even that wouldn’t be enough to propel a starship to faster-than-light speeds.

Nevertheless, it’s thanks to “Star Trek” that the word “warp” is now practically synonymous with faster-than-light travel.

Is warp drive possible?
Decades after the original “Star Trek” show had gone off the air, pioneering physicist and avowed Trek fan Miguel Alcubierre argued that maybe a warp drive is possible after all. It just wouldn’t work quite the way “Star Trek” thought it did.

Things with mass can’t move faster than the speed of light. But what if, instead of the ship moving through space, the space was moving around the ship?

Space doesn’t have mass. And we know that it’s flexible: space has been expanding at a measurable rate ever since the Big Bang. We know this from observing the light of distant stars — over time, the wavelength of the stars’ light as it reaches Earth is lengthened in a process called “redshifting.” According to the Doppler effect, this means that the source of the wavelength is moving further away from the observer — i.e. Earth.

So we know from observing redshifted light that the fabric of space is movable. [See also: What to Wear on a 100-Year Starship Voyage]

Alcubierre used this knowledge to exploit a loophole in the “universal speed limit.” In his theory, the ship never goes faster than the speed of light — instead, space in front of the ship is contracted while space behind it is expanded, allowing the ship to travel distances in less time than light would take. The ship itself remains in what Alcubierre termed a “warp bubble” and, within that bubble, never goes faster than the speed of light.

Since Alcubierre published his paper “The Warp Drive: Hyper-fast travel within general relativity” in 1994, many physicists and science fiction writers have played with his theory —including “Star Trek” itself. [See also: Top 10 Star Trek Technologies]

Alcubierre’s warp drive theory was retroactively incorporated into the “Star Trek” mythos by the 1990s TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

In a way, then, “Star Trek” created its own little grandfather paradox: Though ultimately its theory of faster-than-light travel was heavily flawed, the series established a vocabulary of light-speed travel that Alcubierre eventually formalized in his own warp drive theories.

The Alcubierre warp drive is still theoretical for now. “The truth is that the best ideas sound crazy at first. And then there comes a time when we can’t imagine a world without them.” That’s a statement from the 100 Year Starship organization, a think tank devoted to making Earth what “Star Trek” would call a “warp-capable civilization” within a century.

The first step toward a functional warp drive is to prove that a “warp bubble” is even possible, and that it can be artificially created.

That’s exactly what physicist Harold “Sonny” White and a team of researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas are doing right now.

NASA’s warp drive project
According to Alcubierre’s theory, one could create a warp bubble by applying negative energy, or energy created in a vacuum. This process relies on the Casimir effect, which states that a vacuum is not actually a void; instead, a vacuum is actually full of fluctuating electromagnetic waves. Distorting these waves creates negative energy, which possibly distorts space-time, creating a warp bubble.

To see if space-time distortion has occurred in a lab experiment, the researchers shine two highly targeted lasers: one through the site of the vacuum and one through regular space. The researchers will then compare the two beams, and if the wavelength of the one going through the vacuum is lengthened, i.e. redshifted, in any way, they’ll know that it passed through a warp bubble. [See also: How Video Games Help Fuel Space Exploration]

White and his team have been at work for a few months now, but they have yet to get a satisfactory reading. The problem is that the field of negative energy is so small, the laser so precise, that even the smallest seismic motion of the earth can throw off the results.

When we talked to White, he was in the process of moving the test equipment to a building on the Johnson Space Center campus that was originally built for the Apollo space program. “The lab is seismically isolated, so the whole floor can be floated,” White told TechNewsDaily. “But the system hadn’t been [activated] for a while so part of the process was, we had the system inspected and tested.”

White is now working on recalibrating the laser for the new location. He wouldn’t speculate on when his team could expect conclusive data, nor how long until fully actuated warp travel might be possible, but he remains convinced that it’s only a matter of time.

“The bottom line is, nature can do it,” said White. “So the salient question is, ‘can we?'”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/14/warp-speed-scotty-star-trek-ftl-drive-may-actually-work/?intcmp=features#ixzz2TJpE9oFk

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April 15, 2013 · 9:53 pm

Planetary Defense Conference

I don’t know the author for this story, but I found his comedic tone inappropriate.  I, for one, am happy to know that we have a Planetary Defense Conference to get the ball rolling on developing future defenses of mankind against the inevitable strikes of celestial items against our planet.

Planetary Defense Conference to meet (no word from Justice League)

  • International Academy of Astronautics conference.jpg
    International Academy of Astronautics
It sounds straight out of comic-book fantasy, but a real-life group of concerned scientists — the Planetary Defense Conference — will gather this week at a desert compound with the goal of protecting humanity from one of the destructive forces of the universe: asteroid impact.

The leaders of the B612 Foundation will meet for the week-long Planetary Defense Conference beginning Monday (in Flagstaff, Ariz., not the Fortress of Solitude) to debate what may be one of the biggest planetary threats civilization faces today.

‘We simply do not know when the next catastrophic asteroid impact will be.’

– Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu 

In testimony last week before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, Ed Lu — a former NASA astronaut who flew three space missions and CEO of the Foundation — explained that this is no comic-book hazard. It’s real.

“We simply do not know when the next catastrophic asteroid impact will be, because we have not yet tracked the great majority of asteroids,” Lu said.

A rogue meteorite that struck out of the brilliant blue morning skies over Russia in February illustrates the real risk that even tiny asteroids pose. That hunk of rock exploded with nearly 500 kilotons of energy over the Ural Mountains, creating a tremendous thunderclap that shook a nearby city, shattering windows and injuring over a thousand.

The spectacle deeply frightened many Russians, with some elderly women declaring that the world was coming to an end. And that was just a small object, scientists say, close to 10,000 tons and all but invisible to our current radar systems.

“It doesn’t take a very large object. A 10-meter size object already packs the same energy as a nuclear bomb,” Andrew Cheng of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, told FoxNews.com at the time.

Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), head of the committee, noted that most such asteroids have yet to be detected.

“Most troubling to me is the fact that of the up to 20,000 asteroids that could be labeled as ‘city destroyers,’ we have identified only 10 percent.  And we are unlikely to have the means to detect 90 percent until 2030,” he said in a statement.

Lu told Smith’s Congressional committee that his Silicon Valley non-profit plans to build, launch and operate the Sentinel Space Telescope by 2018, to find and track those threatening asteroids, and ultimately destroy them to save the Earth.

“We have the technology to deflect asteroids to prevent an impact on Earth, but this technology is useless until we find asteroids first,” Lu said.

Asteroids are not only small but often dark as charcoal and difficult for telescopes on land to detect. Infrared optics can do a better job than optical ones, he said, picking up on the warmth of the streaking bits of matter. But those observations can only be made from space.

The concept for the Sentinel scope was completed in September. This fall, the B612 Foundation aims to hit its next major milestone, called the Systems Definition Review.

With any luck, we won’t need to wait for Green Lantern to arrive.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/04/15/planetary-defense-conference-to-meet-no-word-from-justice-league/?intcmp=features#ixzz2QbBIrp7P

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April 14, 2013 · 5:46 pm

Comet may hit Mars in 2014

‘Virgin’ comet may hit Mars in 2014

By Joe Rao

Published March 05, 2013

Space.com

  • comet-sliding-spring

    This NASA diagram shows the location and estimated orbit of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), discovered on Jan. 3, 2013, by astronomer Robert McNaught. (NASA/JPL)

A newfound comet is apparently on course to have an exceedingly close call with the planet Mars in October 2014, and there is a chance — albeit small — that the comet may even collide with the Red Planet.

The new comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) was discovered Jan. 3 by the Scottish-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught, a prolific observer of both comets and asteroids who has 74 comet discoveries to his name.

 

It is apparently a new or ‘virgin’ comet, traveling in a parabolic orbit and making its very first visit to the sun.

 

McNaught is a participant in the Siding Spring Survey a program that hunts down asteroids that might closely approach the Earth. He discovered the new comet using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, New South Wales, Australia.

Pre-discovery images of the comet from Dec. 8, 2012 by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona were quickly found. Because the comet was discovered as part of its survey for asteroids, it bears the name of the observatory, Siding Spring. Officially it is catalogued as C/2013 A1.

When it was discovered, Comet Siding Spring was 669 million miles from the sun. Based on its orbital eccentricity, it is apparently a new or “virgin” comet, traveling in a parabolic orbit and making its very first visit to the vicinity of the sun. It is expected to pass closest to the sun (called perihelion) on Oct. 25, 2014 at a distance of 130 million miles.

But, less than a week earlier, on Oct. 19, 2014, the comet — whose nucleus is estimated to be anywhere from 5 to 30 miles in diameter — is projected to cross the orbit of Mars and pass very close to that planet. Preliminary calculations suggest that nominally at closest approach, Comet Siding Spring will come to within 63,000 miles of Mars.

However, because the comet is currently very far out in space and has been under scrutiny for less than three months, the circumstances of its orbit will likely need to be refined in the coming weeks and months. As such, the comet’s approach to Mars might ultimately end up being farther or closer than what current predictions suggest. In fact, last Wednesday (Feb. 27) observations made by Leonid Elenin, a reputable Russian astronomer who works at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics,suggested that the comet could pass even closer — just 25,700 miles from the center of Mars.

According to Elenin: “On the 19th October 2014, the comet might reach apparent magnitude of -8 to -8.5, as seen from Mars!” (This would make the comet 15 to 25 times brighter than Venus). “Perhaps it will be possible to acquire high-resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO),” he added.

Then there is also the small possibility that the comet could collide with Mars.

Moving at 35 miles per second, such a collision could create an impact crater on Mars up to ten times the diameter of the comet’s nucleus and up to 1.25 miles deep, with an energy equivalent up to of 2 × 1010 megatons!

Most readers will recall Comet Shoemaker-Levy’s plunge into Jupiter in July 1994 which left dark telltale scars on Jupiter’s cloud tops for many months thereafter.

Collision or not, Comet Siding Spring will definitely come extremely close to Mars less than 20 months from now. Incredibly, this will actually be the second close shave of Mars by a passing comet within a time span of just over a year.

On Oct. 1 of this year, the much awaited Comet ISON is due to pass 6.5 million miles from Mars on its way toward a grazing encounter with the sun in November. That rendezvous is close enough in its own right to be categorized as exceptional and yet, Siding Spring will approach about 100 times closer.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/05/new-comet-potential-mars-collision-in-2014-explained/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2QUL8lgts

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January 29, 2013 · 7:01 pm

2013 comet may be brightest ever

2013 comet may be brightest ever seen

By Joe Rao

Published January 13, 2013

Space.com

  • fireball photo.jpg

    A fireball meteor over Groningen. (Robert Mikaelyan / NASA)

  • comet-c-2012-s1-ison-color

    Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) photographed at the RAS Observatory near Mayhill, NM on Sept. 22, 2012, by amateur astronomers Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Nick Howes of the Remanzacco Observatory. (Remanzacco Observatory/Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero & Nick Howes)

  • comet-c-2012-s1-ison-sky-map

    This star map (calculated for latitude 46 deg. north, time about 45 minutes before sunrise) for Nov. 10, 2013 shows the comet position of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). Image released Sept. 24, 2012. (rnesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero & Nick Howes)

Excitement continues to rise among both professional and amateur astronomers about Comet ISON, which on Nov. 28 of this year might become one of the brightest comets ever seen, outshining such recent dazzlers as Comet Hale-Bopp (1997) and Comet McNaught (2007).

Fortunately, Comet ISON was discovered 14 months before this perihelion passage — its closest point to the sun — while still distant and faint, thus giving observers time to plan. Another major advantage is that this fine object will be favorably placed for viewing, first in the morning sky before perihelion passage on Nov. 28, and then both in the morning and evening sky afterward.

Comet ISON was discovered photographically last Sep. 21 by Russians Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok, who detected it using a 15.7-inch (0.4 meters) reflecting telescope of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) which is located near Kislovodsk at the northern foot of the Caucasus range in Russia.

Subsequently, pre-discovery images dating back to December 2011 were found by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona and by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PANSTARRS) in Hawaii from January 2012. ISON’s discovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Sep. 24; it’s officially catalogued as C/2012 S1. [Spectacular Comet Photos (Gallery)]

Still far out

When first sighted, this very faint and distant comet was 625 million miles (1 billion kilometers) from Earth and 584 million miles (939 million km) from the sun, within the zodiacal constellation of Cancer (The Crab).

It was then shining at magnitude 18.8 on the scale used by astronomers to measure the brightness of sky objects (the lower the number, the brighter the object). That made the comet about 100,000 times fainter than the dimmest star that can be seen with the unaided eye.

Currently, the comet is among the stars of Gemini (The Twins) and will pass only about a half-degree south of the bright star Castor on Jan. 16. But it’s still very faint and distant at 474 million miles (762 million km) from the sun, tucked just inside the orbit of Jupiter.

Grazingly close, dazzlingly bright?

According to astronomer Gareth Williams at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, improved orbital elements based on 1,000 observations from Dec. 28, 2011 through Dec. 24, 2012 continue to show that Comet ISON will pass through the perihelion point of its orbit on Nov. 28 at 3:10 p.m. Eastern time .

At that moment, the comet will be describing a hairpin curve while whipping around the sun at a speed of 425,000 mph (684,000 kph). It will be just 732,000 miles (1.18 million km) above the sun’s blazing photosphere, literally grazing the solar surface.

Just how bright the comet will become at that moment cannot yet be forecast reliably. In his 2013 Astronomical Calendar, Guy Ottewell writes: “Using what formulas we can for magnitude, we have it reaching -12.6, the brightness of the full moon!” [Gallery: Photos of 2012’s ‘Supermoon’]

If this is correct, it might result in the view of a lifetime: A bright comet with a stubby silvery tail visible next to the sun in broad daylight, visible to the naked eye simply by screening the sun with an outstretched hand.

Ottewell imagines the comet as possibly resembling “. . . a lighted match at the sun’s edge.” Only on nine other occasions dating back to the late 17th century has a comet become bright enough to be seen in the daytime.

Mark your calendars!

As it approaches the sun, Comet ISON will pass just 6.5 million miles (10.5 million km) from Mars on Oct. 1, perhaps providing a worthy target for imaging by the NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity.

ISON will take exactly one month to cross from the orbit of Mars to the orbit of Earth, reaching us on Nov. 1. The comet will be steadily brightening during this time from magnitude +10 to +6. It will be in the morning sky, and during the first half of the month will be keeping pace just to the north of Mars as the pair slides eastward in the sky through the stars of Leo (The Lion).

On Oct. 14 and 15, Mars and ISON will line up closely with Leo’s brightest star, the blue first-magnitude Regulus. By the end of October, the comet should be easily visible in binoculars and quite possibly even with the unaided eye.

During November, as the comet races toward its rendezvous with the sun, it should brighten dramatically as it drops lower in the dawn twilight. A tail may begin to appear at this time, perhaps becoming noticeably longer with each passing morning.

On the morning of Nov. 18, ISON — now possibly as bright as 3rd magnitude — will stand less than 1 degree from the first-magnitude star Spica in the constellation Virgo. (Your outstretched fist held at arm’s length measures about 10 degrees.)

Five days later, the comet will shine perhaps as brightly as zero magnitude as it zips past the similarly bright planets Mercury and Saturn.

Finally, the comet will arrive at the sun on the Nov. 28. ISON will pass through the inner corona of the sun, experiencing temperatures of up to 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius)

Having been in a cosmic deep freeze for countless thousands of years, ISON will suddenly be subjected to unbelievable heat. Perhaps the comet’s nucleus will shatter, as sometimes happens when you pour hot tea into a cold cup.

But this is not a certainty; some sungrazers like the Great Comet of 1882 and Comet Ikeya Seki in 1965 indeed broke into several fragments and headed back out into deep space literally in shambles. Others like Comet Lovejoy in 2011 somehow emerged from out of the solar furnace still pretty much in one piece. [Photos: Comet Lovejoy’s Dive Through the Sun]

A spectacle at dusk and dawn        

If it does survive, Comet ISON will rapidly sweep around the sun and will then head north, becoming a spectacle both at dusk and dawn. The head of the comet will gradually fade in the days and weeks after its exceedingly close brush with the sun, but its potential daylight apparition might only serve as a prelude to an even more spectacular show.

As ISON slows its course and recedes back out into space, the comet will now be buffeted at close range by the solar wind, driving particles from the comet’s head (called the coma) out into a long stream preceding the comet.

The result? A tail, stretching perhaps for tens of millions of miles, might protrude from above the horizon like some ghostly searchlight beam. And while it will be moving away from the sun, ISON will now be approaching Earth, passing closest to us on the day after Christmas, vaulting over our planet at a distance of 39.6 million miles (63.7 million km).

By then the comet will be a circumpolar object for those in north temperate latitudes, neither rising nor setting, but instead remaining perpetually above the horizon all through the night!

Sizzler or fizzler?

One reason for the great excitement surrounding Comet ISON is the fact that its orbit is rather similar to the Great Comet of 1680, begging the question of whether both objects are one and the same or at the very least somehow related.

Discovered on Nov. 14, 1680 by German astronomer Gottfried Kirsch, this was the first comet ever discovered by telescope. By Dec. 4, the comet was visible at magnitude +2 with a tail 15° long. On Dec. 18 it arrived at perihelion at a distance of 312,000 miles (502,000 km) above the sun’s surface.

A report from Albany, N.Y., indicated that the comet could be glimpsed in daylight passing above the sun. In late December of 1680, it reappeared in the western evening sky, again at magnitude +2, and displaying a long tail that resembled a narrow beam of light that stretched for at least 70 degrees — more than one-third of the way across the sky. The comet faded from naked-eye visibility by early February 1681.

But now a word of caution: Some comets are notoriously fickle actors, and occasionally the actual performance falls far short of what had been scripted.

Those of a certain age might remember Comet Kohoutek in 1973. Like ISON, it was discovered when still remarkably far from the sun, suggesting that it was a giant among comets and would become extremely brilliant. Brightness predictions ranged up to magnitude -10 — as bright as a first or last quarter moon — and some astronomers announced (as also has been the case with ISON) that Kohoutek could be “the comet of the century.”

The news media took them at their word and ballyhooed the approach of a comet so bright it might be visible in broad daylight.

Sound familiar?

But Kohoutek turned out to be much fainter than the initial forecasts had indicated and, in fact, most people missed it entirely. The recriminations were nasty to say the least, with astronomers and the news media blaming each other and the public blaming both. Reporters shied away from comets thereafter, almost totally ignoring the truly spectacular Comet West in the spring of 1976.

So remember this anecdote from 40 years ago as a disclaimer.

Meanwhile, Comet ISON is still on its way and has a seemingly bright future. Here at SPACE.com, we’ll be monitoring it all through this year and will provide periodic updates on how it is developing, so stay tuned!

Editor’s note: If you have an amazing of Comet ISON or any other night sky view that you’d like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New YorkTimes and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/13/comet-2013-among-brightest-ever-seen/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2JQ6bUDHW

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January 18, 2013 · 9:36 am

Inflatable Space Station Plans

Alpha Station: plans for an inflatable space station

By Leonard David

Published January 17, 2013

Space.com

  • bigelow-expandable activity-module.jpg

    Artists conception of the private-sector supplied Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) to be launched around the summer of 2015. (Bigelow Aerospace)

  • bigelow-alpha-station.jpg

    Artists view of the Bigelow Alpha Station comprised of two BA 330 expandable habitats built by private spaceflight company Bigelow Aerospace. (Bigelow Aerospace)

The formal unveiling Jan. 16 of a NASA deal to add an inflatable room developed by commercial company Bigelow Aerospace to the International Space Station is a forerunner of things to come. The private space firm has its eyes on setting up its own commercial space outpost, which it is calling Alpha Station.

The new room to be attached to the International Space Station — a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) — will remain part of the orbiting laboratory for at least two years. During that time, astronauts will monitor the environment inside the module, recording a variety of parameters including temperature, pressure and radiation levels.

According to company details provided to SPACE.com, Bigelow Aerospace officials intend to use the BEAM to further validate the promise and benefits of expandable space habitats.

Space industry in orbit

The benefits of an expandable space habitat would be fully manifested by the Bigelow Aerospace’s BA 330 module, far larger than the BEAM. A single BA 330 expandable habitat would offer 330 cubic meters of internal volume and be able to support a crew of up to six astronauts, Bigelow says. [Photos: Bigelow’s Inflatable Space Station Idea]

‘Countries with no human spaceflight experience could take their first bold steps into space in a rapid and affordable fashion.’

– Bigelow Aerospace documents 

Bigelow Aerospace is pushing forward with Alpha Station, which it bills as the “historic first commercial space station.“ The station initially would consist of two BA 330s. The company plans to have the two BA 330s ready by late 2016.

Alpha Station would be the first of a number of commercial Bigelow space stations deployed as demand grows and the on-orbit industry matures.

Bigelow Aerospace is open to entering into joint ventures with interested partners, be they governments, corporations or even individuals, for future stations.

“Nations such as Japan, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden could secure the future of their human spaceflight programs and dramatically increase the size of their astronaut corps. Smaller countries with no human spaceflight experience such as Singapore or the United Arab Emirates could take their first bold steps into space in a rapid and affordable fashion,” according to a Bigelow Aerospace document.

Private space station costs

“The key to unlocking the potential of such opportunities is affordability,” the company observes, and is rolling out a description of costs “that represent a sea change from historic aerospace pricing.”

That pricing is being categorized as:

  • Astronaut Flight Costs: $26.25 to $36.75 million for a 60-day stay, depending on taxi selected.
  • Lease Block Cost: $25 million for exclusive use of and control over 110 cubic meters of volume for a two-month period.
  • Naming Rights: Full Alpha Station yearly for $25 million; half of Alpha Station (one BA 330 module) yearly for $12.5 million.

Customer base for space

Bigelow Aerospace would be able to transport an astronaut to Alpha Station for $26.25 million for countries, companies or even visiting individuals that wish to utilize SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule. Using Boeing’s CST-100 capsule and the Atlas 5 rocket, astronauts can be launched to Alpha Station for $36.75 million per seat, company officials said.

For clients that wish to enjoy exclusive access to and control over their own on-orbit volume and facilities, Bigelow Aerospace customers can lease a third of a BA 330 habitat (roughly 110 cubic meters, equal to an entire International Space Station module) for a period of 60 days for $25 million.

“Whether the customer is NASA, international clientele, corporations or even wealthy individuals, Bigelow Aerospace stands ready to leverage its robust, affordable technology to implement exceptional human spaceflight missions,” the Bigelow Aerospace document concludes.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/17/alpha-station-private-inflatable-spacebase/#ixzz2IJJAcrkP

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