SpaceX: Finally a successful liftoff for Falcon9 and Dragon Capsule to ISS!

NASA approves:

SpaceX Launches Falcon 9/Dragon on Historic Mission

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered into space and delivered a Dragon cargo capsule into orbit on May 22, 2012. The launch began an ambitious mission to show that the company is ready to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

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"We're now back on the brink of a new future, a future that embraces the innovation the private sector brings to the table," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "The significance of this day cannot be overstated. While there is a lot of work ahead to successfully complete this mission, we are off to a good start."

Working with an instantaneous launch window, SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif., proceeded through a flawless countdown. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida came at 3:44 a.m. EDT, just as the station was crossing 249 miles above the North Atlantic.

"Every bit of adrenaline in my body released at that moment," said Elon Musk about the moment the rocket lifted off the pad. Musk is the founder, CEO and chief designer of SpaceX. "People were really giving it their all. For us, it was like winning the Super Bowl."

The launch came three days after the rocket aborted a previous launch attempt. William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, lauded the company for getting the craft ready for the successful launch.

"They stayed focused and kept moving forward," Gerstenmaier said. "Things are moving in the right direction."

Dragon is carrying about 1,200 pounds of supplies for the crew of the station and experiments designed by students. The spacecraft can hold 7,300 pounds of material for delivery to the station, but since this is a test flight, the manifest was limited to important but not critical materials. Food and clothing make up the bulk of the supplies.

The launch put the Dragon on a course to rendezvous with the space station in three days. A detailed series of navigation and other systems tests will be performed in space before the capsule is allowed to move close enough to the station for astronauts to grab it with the robot arm and connect it to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

The tests include a careful approach to the station that calls for the spacecraft to pause several times. The space station crew also will show that they can communicate directly with the uncrewed Dragon capsule. If all the testing goes well, they will go ahead with the rendezvous and berthing.

"There's still a thousand things that have to go right, but we are looking forward to this exciting mission," said Alan Lindemoyer, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.

The Dragon will remain connected to the station for about three weeks, allowing astronauts to empty it before loading used scientific equipment inside for the return to Earth. Reversing the process of connecting the spacecraft to the station, astronauts will use the robotic arm to remove the Dragon capsule. The Dragon will then de-orbit and return to Earth under parachutes, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

Steven Siceloff NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center


Source: NASA.gov

Space Shuttles moving to the museums

It's time to say goodbye! The USA have a hard time sending the Space Shuttles to museums. But in the end, that's where they belong nowadays. Now it's time to make way for way more efficient and innovative private space enterprises to make us move ahead the Earth.

Space.com article:
Space Shuttle Museum Delivery Flights Get 'Final Mission' Patch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It may not be heading back into space and its crew members aren't astronauts, but space shuttle Discovery's final flight has its own mission patch.


Pilot Jeff Moultrie in the captain's seat of NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Moultrie designed a ‘final mission’ patch for his crew’s shuttle museum deliveries, as shared with collectSPACE.com. CREDIT: NASA/collectSPACE.com

The emblem, which was shared with collectSPACE.com, was designed by the captain of the modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet that will fly Discovery to Washington, D.C. next week. It will also serve as the official insignia for the similar deliveries of orbiters Enterprise and Endeavour later this month and year, respectively.

"We do have a crew patch for this series of missions," Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) chief pilot Jeff Moultrie told collectSPACE. "There's an approved NASA patch that we are going to be using for all three shuttle ferries."

Moultrie, together with fellow pilot Bill Rieke and a crew of flight engineers, are scheduled to fly Discovery, mounted atop the 747, to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday (April 17), weather permitting. Landing at Dulles International Airport, the orbiter will then be offloaded by crane and towed to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center for its permanent display.

A week later, the same flight crew will fly the test shuttle Enterprise, which had been on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center since 2003, to New York. Then in September, the 747 will leave on its final ferry flight carrying Endeavour to Los Angeles for the California Science Center. [How NASA Flies Shuttles on 747 Jets (Photos)]

The flight crew's patch, which mimics in style the mission emblems that represented the shuttle program's 135 trips into Earth orbit, will fly on each of the museum deliveries.

"We will have them to fly on the airplane and we will all be wearing them," Moultrie said, adding he expected to first see the embroidered patches Friday (April 13).


NASA space shuttle Columbia hitched a ride on a special 747 carrier aircraft for the flight from Palmdale, California, to Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on March 1, 2001. CREDIT: NASA/Jim Ross

'The Final Mission'

Moultrie came up with the idea for the design of the patch, taking input from his crew members, and then worked with NASA artist Cindy Bush at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to finalize the insignia for flight.

The emblem's artwork incorporates the three shuttles and three different types of aircraft that will take part in the ferry flights, including the SCA, known by its tail number NASA 905. [Video: End of the Shuttle Ferry Flight Era]

"It has all three orbiters names on there, has the American flag, and has the shuttle up on top of NASA 905," Rieke described. "We also have the C-9 Pathfinder on there and T-38s, which will be our videography craft flying with us."

The aircraft, including the pair of T-38 trainer jets, the C-9 Pathfinder that will fly ahead of the SCA, and the 747, are rendered in gold on the patch.

The three orbiters are represented in their iconic black and white, with one mounted on the SCA. The shuttle names, Discovery, Enterprise and Endeavour, are inscribed along the top border of the patch in the order they will be ferried to museums.

The phrase "The Final Mission" is inscribed along a tab on the bottom of the emblem. "I think it looks really, really good," Rieke said.

Dryden designs

While Moultrie's mission patch is the only official emblem for the ferry flights, it's not the only NASA patch produced for the shuttles' museum deliveries.

Dryden Flight Research Center photographer Tony Landis, who designed the mission markings added to NASA 905's fuselage prior to its final flights, was also behind a logo for the team working on the orbiters' transition and retirement. He also designed a set of three patches for Discovery's, Enterprise's and Endeavour's museum delivery flights.

Landis' "Orbiters On Display" logo, which has appeared on NASA internal documents, technicians' safety vests, lapel pins and souvenir medallions, adapted the original Space Transportation System (STS) program logo used since the late 1970s.

The triangular, blue and gold emblem originally featured a full shuttle stack, including two solid rocket boosters and external tank. The "Orbiters On Display" logo retained the orbiter but added a scene depicting the shuttle atop of the SCA being hoisted by cranes to either side of the aircraft.

Landis' trio of ferry flight patches will also fly on the SCA, but won't be worn by the flight crew.

First limited to 300 sets but due to popular demand further extended to 700, the patches each feature the orbiter-SCA combination in flight.

Discovery's patch art features the Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, as well as the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Donald D. Engen Tower at its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center where the shuttle will go on display.

Enterprise's patch adapts the same design and colors as the 1977 Approach and Landing Test program logo, which first paired a shuttle with the SCA.

And Endeavour's patch features an overhead view of the shuttle riding piggyback atop the 747 as they soar into the sunset, completing 90 shuttle ferry missions over the past 35 years.

Visit shuttles.collectspace.com for continuing coverage of the delivery and display of NASA's retired space shuttles.


Source: Space.com

Space Shuttle Enterprise Lands in NYC on April 23

After several technical issues, this blog finally is back on track! Aloha!

The Space Shuttle era is over, still it of course won't end in many ways.
Museums will keep the legend alive. Though, as far as my personal opinion is concerned, I'm glad we got rid of this money burning machine. Time to give private entrepreneurs a go and make room for more economical, ecological and in general more competitive solutions!


Article about the Enterprise coming to New York City, by Space.com:

Space Shuttle Enterprise Lands in NYC on April 23
by Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor
Date: 02 March 2012 Time: 11:47 AM ET

NASA's space shuttle Enterprise, which never flew in space but did pave the way for the United States' historic 30-year shuttle program, will arrive in New York City on April 23, local space museum officials announced Thursday (March 1).


Conceptual rendering of space shuttle Enterprise as it will be displayed on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in the summer of 2012. CREDIT: Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

The prototype orbiter's arrival in the Big Apple will start its journey to a new display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, a converted World War II aircraft carrier-turned-museum complex.

Enterprise, which since 2003 has been on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, will be flown atop NASA's shuttle carrier aircraft, a Boeing 747, from Dulles Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

Weather permitting, the ferry flight will come less than a week after NASA's most-flown shuttle, Discovery, arrives at the Udvar-Hazy Center to take Enterprise's place within the Smithsonian's collection.

"We are immensely excited about Enterprise's landing at JFK, and are readying the Intrepid for her arrival," Susan Marenoff-Zausner, museum president, stated. "Introducing Enterprise to New York is a landmark occasion."
"Its touchdown marks the beginning of Enterprise's next mission, which is to inspire a new generation of scientists, engineers and researchers and serve as a reminder that anything is possible," Marenoff-Zausner said. [Photos: A Space Shuttle Called 'Enterprise']


The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free of NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) during one of five free flights carried out at the Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California in 1977 as part of the Shuttle program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT). CREDIT: NASA/DFRC

Air, sea and space

Enterprise's final flight to New York will be the first time it has been in the air since it was flown to the Smithsonian in 1985. For the past two years, NASA shuttle technicians have inspected and prepared the orbiter to make sure it was ready for the trip from Washington, D.C., to New York City.

The flight will mark a reunion with NASA 905, the modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, which first flew Enterprise for a series of atmospheric approach and landing tests in the late 1970s. The tests proved the reusable winged space shuttles could return to Earth as a glider.

Enterprise will stay about two months at the airport before being loaded onto a barge and shipped to the Intrepid. On its way down the Hudson River, it will pass by New York landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and the site of the World Trade Center.

"When the Enterprise touches down at JFK Airport, it will signify the first step of its final journey to educate and inspire millions of people around the world about the groundbreaking work of the NASA space program," said U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). "Once it lands next month, the Enterprise will immediately become an iconic and must-see destination in New York."


A model of the space shuttle Enterprise is seen in the foreground as NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver speaks during a ceremony celebrating NASA’s transfer of title and ownership of the space shuttle Enterprise to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011 at the museum in New York City. The transfer is the first step toward Intrepid receiving Enterprise in the spring of 2012. CREDIT: NASA/Bill Ingalls

All decked out

Once at the Intrepid, Enterprise will be lifted off the barge by crane and placed onto the aircraft carrier's flight deck where it'll be on exhibit to the public starting this summer.

To protect the orbiter from the elements, the Intrepid will erect a temporary, climate-controlled steel and fabric tent that will cover Enterprise. According to the museum, the pavilion will feature "innovative elements in an exciting and immersive experience for visitors."

The flight deck display will give visitors the chance to see Enterprise until a permanent exhibition hall can be built. The Intrepid is advancing on its plans for a new facility to be located across the street from the aircraft carrier to showcase the shuttle and enhance the museum's space related exhibits and educational displays.

The proposed $85 million facility is planned to reside on what is now an empty lot owned by the state.

NASA awarded space shuttle Enterprise to the Intrepid in April 2011 when it also selected the display sites for its three space-flown orbiters. In addition to giving Discovery to the Smithsonian, the agency assigned Endeavour to the California Science Center in Los Angeles and retained Atlantis for its own visitor complex at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA signed over ownership of Enterprise to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum last November. The museum held a ceremony celebrating the title transfer the following month with state and space agency officials present.

"The arrival of Enterprise is a monumental occasion for all of us," said Intrepid's co-chairmen, Charles de Gunzburg and Richard Santulli, in a statement. "Not only can we marvel at her greatness firsthand, but she will enrich the city of New York, its inhabitants, and millions of visitors from around the world."


Source: Space.com

NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star

We're getting there! Finally something really worth posting and getting excited about, after some evil tidings connected to Phobos Grunt and other missions.

NASA article:

NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
12-05-11

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.


(By NASA) This artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth, making it the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star like our sun.
Scientists do not yet know if the planet has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition. It's possible that the world would have clouds in its atmosphere, as depicted here in the artist's interpretation. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely resembling those of Venus and Mars.

"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Kepler's results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA's science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe."


(By NASA) Kepler-22b -- Comfortably Circling within the Habitable Zone - This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first "habitable zone" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The habitable zone is the sweet spot around a star where temperatures are right for water to exist in its liquid form. Liquid water is essential for life on Earth.
Kepler-22's star is a bit smaller than our sun, so its habitable zone is slightly closer in. The diagram shows an artist's rendering of the planet comfortably orbiting within the habitable zone, similar to where Earth circles the sun. Kepler-22b has a yearly orbit of 289 days. The planet is the smallest known to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It's about 2.4 times the size of Earth. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Kepler discovers planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets that cross in front, or "transit," the stars. Kepler requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., who led the team that discovered Kepler-22b. "The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review observations on planet candidates the spacecraft finds. The star field that Kepler observes in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can only be seen from ground-based observatories in spring through early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which candidates can be validated as planets.

Kepler-22b is located 600 light-years away. While the planet is larger than Earth, its orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star resembles that of our world. The planet's host star belongs to the same class as our sun, called G-type, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed. This milestone will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The Kepler team is hosting its inaugural science conference at Ames Dec. 5-9, announcing 1,094 new planet candidate discoveries. Since the last catalog was released in February, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 89 percent and now totals 2,326. Of these, 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size, 1,181 are Neptune-size, 203 are Jupiter-size and 55 are larger than Jupiter.

The findings, based on observations conducted May 2009 to September 2010, show a dramatic increase in the numbers of smaller-size planet candidates.

Kepler observed many large planets in small orbits early in its mission, which were reflected in the February data release. Having had more time to observe three transits of planets with longer orbital periods, the new data suggest that planets one to four times the size of Earth may be abundant in the galaxy.

The number of Earth-size and super Earth-size candidates has increased by more than 200 and 140 percent since February, respectively.

There are 48 planet candidates in their star's habitable zone. While this is a decrease from the 54 reported in February, the Kepler team has applied a stricter definition of what constitutes a habitable zone in the new catalog, to account for the warming effect of atmospheres, which would move the zone away from the star, out to longer orbital periods.

"The tremendous growth in the number of Earth-size candidates tells us that we're honing in on the planets Kepler was designed to detect: those that are not only Earth-size, but also are potentially habitable," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif. "The more data we collect, the keener our eye for finding the smallest planets out at longer orbital periods."

NASA's Ames Research Center manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes the Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters.


Source: NASA.gov

Solar flares documentation video

Let's learn something about solar flares today.

Thanks and credits to NASA and SpaceRip for this!

Extreme Solar Flares

Link & HD video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmDZhQAIeXM

Video description:
"From NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. Solar flares may seem like far-away events, but they can damage satellites and even ground-based technologies and power grids. Every 11 years, as the sun reaches its maximum activity they become bigger and more common, and that increases the chances that one will significantly affect Earth.

So what are these solar eruptions? A solar flare is basically an explosion on the surface of the sun ranging from minutes to hours in length. Large flares can release enough energy to power the entire United States for a million years. Flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the sun reconnect. They're usually associated with active regions, often seen as sunspots, where the magnetic fields are strongest.

Flares are classified according to their strength. The smallest ones are B-class, followed by C, M and X, the largest. Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a ten-fold increase in energy output. So an X is 10 times an M and 100 times a C. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from 1 to 9. C-class flares are too weak to noticeably affect Earth.

M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts. It's the X-class flares that are the real juggernauts. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9. The most powerful flare on record was in 2003, during the last solar maximum. It was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. They cut out at X17, and the flare was later estimated to be about X45.

A powerful X-class flare like that can create long lasting radiation storms, which can harm satellites, and even give airline passengers flying near the poles small radiation doses. X flares also have the potential to create global transmission problems and worldwide blackouts.

The seriousness of an X-class flare pointed at Earth is why NASA and NOAA constantly monitor the sun. NASA's Heliophysics fleet of spacecraft can now see the sun from every side and in many different wavelengths. This unprecedented coverage is enabling scientists to predict and detect space weather events like flares and CMEs with ever greater accuracy. With advance warning, governments and companies can take steps to protect their technological infrastructure, so that the worst scenarios will never happen."

DNA in space? Biological building blocks found in meteorites!

New evidence life on Earth may have come from space objects like meteorites or comets?

Time Article:

SPACE
DNA scraps found in meteorites

By Michael D. Lemonick Thursday - Aug. 11, 2011

Scientists have been finding evidence of life inside meteorites for well over 100 years — that, or the building blocks of life. The claims of life have been debunked every time, most recently just this past March. It always turns out to be a wishful interpretation of chemicals, minerals and tiny structures inside the meteorite that could be the fossilized husks of long-dead bacteria — but almost certainly aren't.


Meteorites contain a large variety of nucleobases, an essential building block of DNA. Credit: Chris Smith / NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The building blocks, though, have proved a lot more convincing. As far back as the 1960s, it was clear that amino acids, which link up to form proteins, can and do form in space. And now scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are claiming that another set of molecules crucial to life have also rained down on Earth: adenine and guanine, two of the four so-called nucleobases that, along with cytosine and thymine, form the rungs of DNA's ladder-like structure. (See pictures of meteors that fell from the sky.)

By itself, that wouldn't mean much, says Michael Callahan, lead author of a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "People have been finding nucleobases in meteorites since the late 1960s," he says. But they've always been among the handful of nucleobases common to organisms on Earth, so contamination on the ground after the meteorite landed has been the most likely explanation. "When I picked up on this research," says Callahan, a chemist with Goddard's Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, "I was convinced that it was all contamination."

But once he and his collaborators got hold of samples from 12 meteorites that had landed mostly in Antarctica and ran them through the lab's liquid chromatograph and mass spectrometer, they discovered all sorts of other molecules — substances that were similar in structure but not biologically useful. That was a surprise; if a meteorite picked up its biological traces on the ground, the adenine and guanine would have been accompanied by other, equally familiar molecules — not these substances that were not quite nucleobases but not quite not either. (See TIME's photo-essay "The Hubble Telescope's Greatest Hits.")

"That," says Callahan, "argues against the idea that someone sneezed on the meteorites." Another argument against earthly contamination is that when the scientists took samples of ice and soil from the sites where the meteorites were found, they saw the usual terrestrial mix of organic molecules but not their nonbiological cousins. If the molecules came from the landing sites rather than from space, you'd expect to see the nonbiological cousins as well.

A third line of evidence comes from the fact that life-related substances are common in space. Hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and water — critical to building biology — are known to exist throughout the cosmos, and when you mix them together in a lab, says Callahan, "it's pretty easy to make nucleobases." It's not even a little bit of a stretch to imagine that the same processes could happen on, or in, a meteorite. It's also at least plausible that life would never have arisen on our planet without a liberal dose of space chemicals, delivered to Earth on a barrage of meteorites billions of years ago. (See "Space Discovery: Asteroids May Have Served as Incubators of Life.")

The new research doesn't address the question of panspermia, the not entirely crazy idea that life arrived on our planet fully formed as viruses or bacteria that developed on another world. If that turns out to be the case — if we find microbes on Mars or on a meteorite, for example, with DNA identical to ours — we might face the disturbing fact that we're the contamination on a formerly pristine planet.

What the new research does is reinforce an idea that astronomers and biologists — and, increasingly, the people who call themselves astrobiologists — find very convincing: since the raw materials of life are common in the universe, and since we now know that planets are common as well, it's hard to imagine how the Milky Way could not be teeming with life. Our species may continue to be special in a lot of ways — but perhaps a little less so than we thought.


Source: TIME health magazine

Perseids meteor shower - great time to gaze into space!

The night of Friday, August 12 into the early morning of Saturday, August 13 will certainly be the best time of the year to watch meteor showers. Everyone, get your telescopes out of the garret!

Article:

Stay 'Up All Night' to Watch the Perseids!

08.12.11 - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Looking for a good reason to enjoy an August evening? This year's Perseid meteor shower peaks on the night of Friday, Aug. 12 and into the early morning of Saturday, Aug 13. The Perseids are considered the best meteor shower of the year by many, but with the full moon washing out all but the brightest meteors, rates will probably only be 20-30 per hour at most -- weather permitting. The Perseids rate in the southern hemisphere is quite a bit lower, since the Perseid radiant doesn't climb above the horizon.


Perseid meteor shower. Image credit: NASA / Michael Menefee. Full resolution.

Watch the Perseids! Live Video/Audio Feed

A live video/audio feed of the Perseid shower will be embedded below on the night of the chat. The camera is mounted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. During the day, you'll see a dark gray box -- the camera is light-activated and will turn on at dusk each evening. At night you'll see white points, or stars, on a black background. You can also access these links to more all sky cameras to have other views of the sky.

Before the camera activates, you can still hear the audio of meteors passing through the sky, creating blips, pings and whistles. The meteors themselves don't make sounds, but they ionize the air around them as they burn up. These ionized air molecules reflect radio waves back to our antenna.

More About the Perseids

The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. Each year in August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet's debris. These bits of ice and dust -- most over 1,000 years old -- burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, but the best viewing opportunities will be across the northern hemisphere. Those with sharp eyes will see that the meteors appear to radiate from the direction of the constellation Perseus.


Source: nasa.gov

Liquid flowing water discovered on Mars

Could we take a bath once we managed to land a manned capsule on Mars? Recent observations show evidence for possible liquid water on the planetary surface. Now thath probably comes quite unexpected and might be another indicator life could exist somewhere on Mars.

Water Flows Discovered on Mars

Link & HD version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBam6B9wrdI

Article by NASA:

Warm-Season Flows on Slope in Martian Newton Crater
This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today. Evidence for that possible interpretation is presented in a report by McEwen et al. in the Aug. 5, 2011, edition of Science.

These images come from observations of Newton crater, at 41.6 degrees south latitude, 202.3 degrees east longitude, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In time, the series spans from early spring of one Mars year to mid-summer of the following year. The images have been adjusted to correct those taken from oblique angles to show how the scene would look from directly overhead.

The features that extend down the slope during warm seasons are called recurring slope lineae. They are narrow (one-half to five yards or meters wide), relatively dark markings on steep (25 to 40 degree) slopes at several southern hemisphere locations. Repeat imaging by HiRISE shows the features appear and incrementally grow during warm seasons and fade in cold seasons. They extend downslope from bedrock outcrops, often associated with small channels, and hundreds of them form in rare locations. They appear and lengthen in the southern spring and summer from 48 degrees to 32 degrees south latitudes favoring equator-facing slopes. These times and places have peak surface temperatures from about 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit to 80 degree above zero Fahrenheit (about 250 to 300 Kelvin). Liquid brines near the surface might explain this activity, but the exact mechanism and source of the water are not understood.

The series is timed to dwell two seconds on the first and last frames and one second on intermediate frames, though network or computer performance may cause this to vary.


This image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona / space.com / Full resolution

Other imagery related to these new findings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/gallery/gallery-index.html.

The legend on each image gives the exact HiRISE observation number (e.g. ESP_011428_1380 for the first image) so that additional image products from the observation and information about the observation can be found on the HiRISE website (e.g., the first image of the series is from ESP_011428_1380, at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_011428_1380).

The legend also marks the Mars year and seasonal identifier (Ls) for each image. The Mars years begin with the first years of Mars exploration by robot spacecraft. This sequence includes images from Mars Year 29 and Mars Year 30. Ls stands for longitude of the sun, dividing the year into 360 degrees to mark the seasons. Ls = 180 is the beginning of southern spring, Ls = 270 is the beginning of southern summer, and Ls = 360 (or 0) is the beginning of southern autumn.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.


Source: nasa.gov

Liftoff! Juno Sets Sail for Jupiter

Today the Juno probe managed a successful liftoff and is now heading towards Jupiter. It will certainly bring many interesting insights of this gas giant, like we have never seen it before. All the coverage around the mission to be found there: NASA website of the Juno Mission

The launch today, in case you missed to watch it live:


Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl77aJmuZtg


"NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spreads its solar wings". Full resolution. Source: spacecoalition.com.


A Juno mission overview by NASA:

Link & HD version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bVNYLE5PFQ

Vesta spins your head while rotating!

"In this movie, strung together from a series of images provided by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, we see a full rotation of Vesta, which occurs over the course of roughly five hours." - Source.

Vesta Full Rotation Movie

Link & HD video: YouTube

Look, we have a chaser! Trojan asteroid sharing Earth's orbit

NASA's WISE mission (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) made an astonishing discovery: The Earth has an asteroid following its orbit!

Article:

NASA's WISE Mission Finds First Trojan Asteroid Sharing Earth's Orbit

PASADENA, Calif. - 27-7-11
Astronomers studying observations taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission have discovered the first known "Trojan" asteroid orbiting the sun along with Earth.


This artist's concept illustrates the first known Earth Trojan asteroid, discovered by WISE. The asteroid is gray and its extreme orbit is shown in green. Image credit: Paul Wiegert, University of Western Ontario, Canada. Source, full screen & caption: NASA

Trojans are asteroids that share an orbit with a planet near stable points in front of or behind the planet. Because they constantly lead or follow in the same orbit as the planet, they never can collide with it. In our solar system, Trojans also share orbits with Neptune, Mars and Jupiter. Two of Saturn's moons share orbits with Trojans.

Scientists had predicted Earth should have Trojans, but they have been difficult to find because they are relatively small and appear near the sun from Earth's point of view.

"These asteroids dwell mostly in the daylight, making them very hard to see," said Martin Connors of Athabasca University in Canada, lead author of a new paper on the discovery in the July 28 issue of the journal Nature. "But we finally found one, because the object has an unusual orbit that takes it farther away from the sun than what is typical for Trojans. WISE was a game-changer, giving us a point of view difficult to have at Earth's surface."

The WISE telescope scanned the entire sky in infrared light from January 2010 to February 2011. Connors and his team began their search for an Earth Trojan using data from NEOWISE, an addition to the WISE mission that focused in part on near-Earth objects, or NEOs, such as asteroids and comets. NEOs are bodies that pass within 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) of Earth's path around the sun. The NEOWISE project observed more than 155,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and more than 500 NEOs, discovering 132 that were previously unknown.


Asteroid 2010 TK7 is circled in green, in this single frame taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA. Source, full screen & caption: NASA

The team's hunt resulted in two Trojan candidates. One called 2010 TK7 was confirmed as an Earth Trojan after follow-up observations with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

The asteroid is roughly 1,000 feet (300 meters) in diameter. It has an unusual orbit that traces a complex motion near a stable point in the plane of Earth's orbit, although the asteroid also moves above and below the plane. The object is about 50 million miles (80 million kilometers) from Earth. The asteroid's orbit is well-defined and for at least the next 100 years, it will not come closer to Earth than 15 million miles (24 million kilometers). An animation showing the orbit is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=103550791.

"It's as though Earth is playing follow the leader," said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NEOWISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Earth always is chasing this asteroid around."

A handful of other asteroids also have orbits similar to Earth. Such objects could make excellent candidates for future robotic or human exploration. Asteroid 2010 TK7 is not a good target because it travels too far above and below the plane of Earth's orbit, which would require large amounts of fuel to reach it.

"This observation illustrates why NASA's NEO Observation program funded the mission enhancement to process data collected by WISE," said Lindley Johnson, NEOWISE program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We believed there was great potential to find objects in near-Earth space that had not been seen before."

NEOWISE data on orbits from the hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets it observed are available through the NASA-funded International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

JPL manages and operates WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The mission was selected under NASA's Explorers Program, which is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah.

The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more WISE information visit: nasa.gov/wise.


Source: nasa.gov

Houston, we have feedback from 4 Vesta!

The asteroid mission DAWN is now delivering closeup images of the asteroid 4 Vesta.


Source: NASA / Wiki - Full resolution (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 17, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 9,500 miles (15,000 kilometers) away from the protoplanet Vesta. Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 0.88 miles (1.4 kilometers). Vesta has a mean diameter of 529 km.

Article by space.com:

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has beamed home the first close-up photo of the huge asteroid Vesta, just days after entering orbit around the distant space rock.
The new photo, which Dawn snapped for navigation purposes on Sunday (July 17), shows Vesta in greater detail than ever before, researchers said. Astronomers have been observing the gigantic space rock for 200 years, first with ground telescopes and later orbiting observatories, but have never been able to see it so clearly, they added.

"We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," said Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell, of UCLA, in a statement. [Photos: See the first close-up photos of Vesta]
"This region of space has been ignored for far too long. So far, the images received to date reveal a complex surface that seems to have preserved some of the earliest events in Vesta's history, as well as logging the onslaught that Vesta has suffered in the intervening eons," Russell added.


This composite image shows the comparative sizes of eight asteroids. Until now, Lutetia, with a diameter of 81 miles (130 kilometers), was the largest asteroid visited by a spacecraft, which occurred during a flyby. Vesta, which is also considered a protoplanet because it's a large body that almost became a planet, dwarfs all other small bodies in this image, with diameter of approximately 330 miles (530 km). CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JAXA/ESA


Read more: NASA Spacecraft Snaps First Close-Up Photo of Huge Asteroid Vesta

How a manned asteroid mission could look like

Let's have a look at this imaginative NASA animation, that illustrates a possible future mission to an asteroid - with astronauts:

Near-Earth Asteroid - Mission Animation

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhaqEVd29io

Source & Date: 15th July 2011, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html

"This artist's concept animation depicts a mission to a near-Earth asteroid. In this animation, astronauts in the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) dock with an asteroid, perform a spacewalk, and return to the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) for the journey back to Earth."

From Dusk till DAWN: Going to Vesta, the big asteroid

NASA's Dawn Asteroid Mission now reaches the level of recognizable visual results and interesting explorations.

We now get to see more of the 2nd largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt:

Source: NASA (with article)

Image description by behindtheblack.com:
Another image of Vesta from Dawn has been released. This image was taken on July 9 from a distance of 26,000 miles away. It is definitely an improvement over the previous image, with more small details becoming visible. However, I once again wonder about the softness of the image. Look at the limb of the planet. It is soft against the black sky. This is not what one would expect from perfectly focused camera. Dawn goes into orbit around Vesta next week.

An info graphic on the DAWN mission for exploring Vesta: How NASA's Dawn Asteroid Mission works (space.com)