The Most Precise Measurement of an
Alien World's Size (Source: Space Daily)
Thanks to NASA's Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, scientists have
made the most precise measurement ever of the radius of a planet
outside our solar system. The size of the exoplanet, dubbed Kepler-93b,
is now known to an uncertainty of just 74 miles (119 kilometers) on
either side of the planetary body. The findings confirm Kepler-93b as a
"super-Earth" that is about one-and-a-half times the size of our
planet. (7/28)
NSBRI Establishes Space Radiation
Center (Source: Space Daily)
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) will
establish, fund, and operate the Center for Space Radiation Research
(CSRR) under the leadership of Marjan Boerma, Ph.D. Dr. Boerma is an
Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences within the University of
Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy Division of
Radiation Health. (7/28)
NASA Explores Additional Undersea
Missions With NEEMO (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) is gearing up for
two underwater projects, 18 and 19, off the coast of Florida during the
months of July and September. Aquanauts participating in the NEEMO
project will conduct activities on the ocean floor that will inform
International Space Station and future exploration activities. The
NEEMO project sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to
live in an underwater habitat for up to three weeks at a time.
The crew members, called aquanauts, live in the world's only undersea
laboratory: Florida International University's Aquarius Reef Base
undersea research habitat. These studies provide information that
correlates directly to life aboard the space station, where crew
members must frequently perform critical tasks that present
constraining factors similar to those experienced in an undersea
environment. Editor's
Note: Embry-Riddle will support multiple projects during these
NEEMO missions. (7/28)
Expert Says Launch Business Overblown
(Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Florida and other states appear eager to catch the next wave of the
rocket-launch business. But before they throw big public money at
private commercial space interests, state officials should do a serious
reality check, a top expert says. While the space industry's commercial
future may promise riches, there are still many unanswered questions
about the costs vs. benefits, said Dr. Henry R. Hertzfeld at George
Washington University.
"There is a sort of war between the states for the next big thing in
the space business," he said. "They are all jockeying for position. But
nobody really knows how big this thing is going to be in terms of jobs
and all the rest of the economic impact — which might actually turn out
to be not that significant." He insists that expectations for jobs and
revenue growth may be overblown. Demand for launch services has been
flat, he said. Potentially blockbuster new businesses — such as space
tourism – could take decades to develop. Meanwhile, starting and
maintaining a new spaceport would be very expensive.
Editor's Note:
Hertzfeld is right. Florida's space push has historically been aimed at
protecting the (largely federal) jobs and investment at the Cape
Canaveral Spaceport, in response to several other states attempting to
take portions of this business away. These other states are learning
that the prize is not as shiny as they had hoped. Sure there's
opportunity for launch industry growth in Florida and elsewhere, but
the real goal here has been to leverage the launch industry to attract
other higher value space industry jobs, like satellite and launch
vehicle manufacturing, other value-added R&D and design engineering
activity. (7/28)
Innovation Earth: Bringing NASA
Technology Back to Earth (Source: Huffington Post)
Harnessing asteroids. Sending humans to Mars. NASA has laid out some
pretty sci-fi sounding plans for the next 20 years of space travel, but
a more critical mission -- at least for the sustainability of human
life here on earth -- may be the one it launched in Mountain View,
California, just over two years ago: The Sustainability Base at the
NASA Ames Research Center. Click here.
(7/25)
UAE’s Space Program Could Inspire
Innovation (Source: The National)
The UAE’s space program could inspire innovation and spur further
diversification of the country’s economy. A mission to Mars would
promote a focus on making breakthroughs in the development of new
technologies, which could be patented and sold to foreign space
agencies. It could also inspire thousands of Emiratis to pursue careers
in the space industry, opening the door to new research bodies and
university courses in aerospace engineering. (7/27)
South Africans Hitching a One-Way
Ticket to Mars (Source: Tech Central)
The Mars One program is offering civilians, including South Africans,
the opportunity to create a human colony on Mars. Is this a revival of
the golden age of discovery, when explorers left their homes to begin
new civilizations? Or is it a “suicide mission” in which people die in
space while we watch from Earth, more than 200 million kilometers away?
Adriana Marais, a PhD student in quantum biology at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal, is one of the candidates shortlisted for a one-way
ticket to the planet. “What the first colonizers will do on Mars is
really the pinnacle of four billion years of evolution,” she told me.
In her Mars One video, she explains: “I would volunteer to leave my
life on Earth behind to see what’s out there. I’m prepared to sacrifice
my personal joys, sorrows and day-to-day life for this idea, this
adventure, this achievement that would not be mine but that of all
humanity.” (7/28)
Canucks Shooting to Colonize Mars
(Source: Sudbury Star)
Mars One — a not-for-profit foundation — plans to establish a colony of
humans on the Red Planet. The foundation recently created a shortlist
of applicants — reducing the number of volunteers from 200,000 to just
705. During the next phase of elimination, candidates will meet
face-to-face with members of the Mars One selection committee. The
interviews will happen over the summer.
The journey to Mars will take seven months. Earthlings hoping to leave
the planet will be handed a one-way ticket as there’s no way to bring
them back. Mars One plans to send four people every two years —
starting in 2024 — with astronaut training expected to begin within a
year. There are 54 Canadians still left in the running. Click here.
(7/28)
Does Canada Need its Own Rockets to
Launch Satellites? (Source: Leader-Post)
For decades, Canadian space specialists have debated whether the
country needs its own fleet of rockets so it can launch satellites
without being beholden to other nations. As relations with Russia, one
of the world's top providers of such launchers, further deteriorates
over the Ukraine crisis, some are reviving that call.
The Canadian government decided in late April to scuttle the launch of
one of its satellites on a Russian rocket to protest that country's
actions in Ukraine. It is still looking for another nation or company
to put the spacecraft into orbit. And with more Canadian sanctions
brought in against Russia, the likelihood of future launches on Russian
rockets seems remote. "The sanctions on Russia are increasing and they
are going to come back and bite us when it comes to our space efforts,"
said Chuck Black.
"Building our own (launcher) is something that Canada could do and
something that would be a worthwhile investment for the country." Such
a capability would be designed for small and micro-satellites, not
full-sized spacecraft, Black and others have suggested. Small
satellites are around the size of breadbox, while micro-satellites are
about milk-carton size. (7/28)
Random Bits, True and Unbiased, From
Atmospheric Turbulence (Source: Nature)
Random numbers represent a fundamental ingredient for secure
communications and numerical simulation as well as to games and in
general to Information Science. Physical processes with intrinsic
unpredictability may be exploited to generate genuine random numbers.
The optical propagation in strong atmospheric turbulence is here taken
to this purpose, by observing a laser beam after a 143 km free-space
path. In addition, we developed an algorithm to extract the randomness
of the beam images at the receiver without post-processing. The numbers
passed very selective randomness tests for qualification as genuine
random numbers. (6/30)
Modifications Underway in Vehicle
Assembly Building for Space Launch System (Source: NASA)
History was made in the 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)
at Kennedy Space Center. It was inside the VAB that NASA's
Apollo/Saturn V rockets and space shuttles were prepared for their
rollout to Launch Pads 39A and B to begin their missions. Today, the
Ground Systems Development and Operations Program and support
contractors at KSC are busy upgrading the massive building for the next
chapter in human exploration.
The Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's new heavy-lift rocket, will be
the largest launch vehicle ever built and more powerful than the Saturn
V rocket. The SLS will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to
explore deep space destinations including an asteroid and eventually
Mars. "We have a lot of work to complete, and now is the time to
refurbish and upgrade the VAB before we begin processing launch
vehicles," said Steve Starr, a senior project manager with Vencore on
the Engineering Services Contract. (7/24)
Camden County Manager to be Part of
Georgia Space Summit (Source: Jacksonville Times-Union)
Camden County manager Steve Howard will travel to Atlanta on Tuesday to
attend a meeting of aerospace industry professionals, state politicians
and academic leaders. Howard has been invited to sit on a panel at the
Georgia Space Leadership Summit where he will provide a local
government’s perspective as to how to attract businesses from the
aerospace industry to the state.
“This is an exciting opportunity to promote Camden County and its
assets,” Howard said of his decision to attend. The summit, presented
by the Georgia Tech Center for Space Technology and Research, will
consist of three panels, scheduled to speak for about an hour each. The
panels will address issues the aerospace industry faces in the state
from the academic, investor and government or legal perspectives. (7/27)
End Dawns for Europe's Space Cargo
Delivery Role (Source: Space Daily)
Europe will close an important chapter in its space flight history
Tuesday, launching the fifth and final robot ship it had pledged for
lifeline deliveries to the International Space Station. The 20-tonne
Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) dubbed Georges Lemaitre, the size of a
double-decker bus, is set to blast off from South America with fuel,
water, oxygen, food, clean clothes and 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of
coffee for six Earth-orbiting astronauts.
Named for the father of the Big Bang theory of how the Universe was
formed, the heaviest ATV yet follows on the hi-tech trail of four
others sent into space by the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2008.
"Georges Lemaitre may be the last ATV, but the programme is just the
first important step in ESA's human space adventure," said the agency's
director of human spaceflight and operations, Thomas Reiter. (7/27)
Will SpaceX Land Falcon-9 on a Barge?
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Blogger Rand Simberg spoke with SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and
was told they will conduct their next landing attempt on a barge.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the next few flights of the uprated
Falcon 9 v1.1 would fly without the landing gear that the rocket has
used during the April 18 and July 14 2014 flights. The rationale for
the lack of this new system on these flights has been suggested to be
due to the request of the payload’s customer.
Simberg added in another tweet that there would be “No more water
landings.” SpaceX has stated that it plans to have the Falcon 9′s first
stage conduct a return to the launch site. If the company can get this
system to work – it would mean that the cost to launch to orbit would
plummet and that the booster cores produced by SpaceX could be reused.
Given the prices charged to launch payloads, this could serve to be a
game-changer in terms of how missions are conducted.
Editor's Note:
So what does this mean for Spaceport America, where SpaceX has been
planning follow-on (post-Grasshopper) tests of its Falcon-9 (and
Dragon?) landing system? Spaceport America was to offer higher altitude
testing with greater flexibility than was available at SpaceX's Texas
test site. Among Simberg's tweets -- presumably based on discussions
with Shotwell -- was one suggesting that "Spaceport America has
cost more and taken longer than expected." (7/27)
Flashback: Blue Origin Holds Patent
for Barge Landings (Source: SPACErePORT)
In March 2014, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin's patent for "Sea landing of
space launch vehicles and associated systems and methods" was
published, after the original filing in June 2010. Could this impact
SpaceX's plans for barge landings off the Florida (and ultimately
Texas) coast? Maybe not, since Blue Origin's concept features some
active positioning technology that might apply to SpaceX's plans. Click
here. (7/28)
SAMI Is Like Google Earth for the
Universe (Source: Daily Beast)
In just 64 nights, SAMI, an instrument attached to the Anglo-Australian
telescope in Sydney, Australia, has recorded demographic information
for 1,000 galaxies. Its goal is 3,400 galaxies over the next two years.
The observable Universe contains 100 billion galaxies, give or take
(not that we’ve mapped all of them, not least since many of them are
too far for reliable imaging). Many astronomical projects are dedicated
to the task of placing as many galaxies as possible in the atlas, to
complete our understanding of the history and evolution of the cosmos.
But there’s a complementary task as well: understanding the variety of
galaxies in themselves. If galaxy mapping is like doing a population
map, the complementary study is like a demographic survey. Galaxies are
products of their location in the cosmos, but also of their individual
histories and local environments. Any galaxy we observe is the product
of its dark matter, the gas and dust inside it, the age and types of
its stars, and the history of any smaller galaxies that merged to
create it. Click here.(7/27)
Massive Impacts Show Asteroid has Deep
Crust (Source: Ars Technica)
A new study shows that the asteroid 4 Vesta may have a different
internal structure than previously thought. Vesta, the second largest
body in the asteroid belt after the dwarf planet Ceres, is notable for
two gigantic craters, so big that they partly overlap despite being on
opposite poles of the asteroid. The first, chronologically speaking, is
called Venenia (Named for a priestess of the goddess Vesta in Roman
mythology), the result of an impact some 2 billion years ago.
The crater is 395 kilometers in diameter, but only penetrated about 25
kilometers deep into the surface of Vesta. And then there’s Rheasilvia.
Also named for a priestess of Vesta, Rheasilvia is a whopping 505 km in
diameter (Vesta is only 525km in diameter), and the rim of the crater
is also one of the tallest mountains in the solar system. Rheasilvia
was probably created about one billion years ago, and it obliterated
part of Venenia where the two overlap. (7/27)
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