Earth-Based Photos From 2014

The Huffington Post recently posted some photos under the title 24 Of The Most Awe-Inspiring Astrophotos Of 2014.  I reposted some of my favorites above and below.

NASA's 2015 Budget: What Does the Future Look Like?

Luckily, we did not experience a government shut down this year, which may be a sign that Congress understands the need for a functioning government regardless of its political differences.  Three cheers for common sense, which has never been very common in Washington, DC.  But now that we are left with a 1,600 page signed "Cromnibus" bill, what is in this document and how did NASA fare? It seems NASA will get $18.01 billion this year for its operations and programs, an increase from what the Agency proposed earlier this year in the White House's budget request.

And what programs will be funded?  Spaceflight Insider put together a list of winners:

•  Orion will be funded at $1.194 billion, roughly $150 million more than NASA requested.
• The Space Launch System, the rocket upon which Orion will be launched in coming years, received an additional $320 million over the White House’s budget submission for a total of $1.7 billion for the rocket and an additional $350 million for ground systems.
• Planetary sciences received a startling bump of $100 million specifically to begin developing a probe to land on Jupiter’s Europa moon. Europa’s hypothesized vast subterranean oceans have long caught the eye of astro-biologists as a favorable location for the development of life.
• An infrared telescope housed inside a Boeing 747, named SOFIA, was allocated a substantial $70 million to rescue it from a proposed grounding.
• The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project and the Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research were both fully funded to a combined total of $58 million.

It would seem the infrastructure for manned missions is well funded in the year to come, an encouraging sign.  However, it also appears Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz could chair the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology subcommittee overseeing NASA's programs.  As a result, this may be the start of a rocky year at NASA.

You can find all of the FY 2015 NASA budget documents here. 

Image Credit: Artist concept of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) 70-metric-ton configuration launching to space. (NASA/MSFC)

More Crowdfunding, But This Time to Mars

It appears crowd funding may be a whole new avenue for space missions.  In an earlier post I mentioned the Lunar Mission One campaign on Kickstarter (which, by the way, reached its funding goal), whereas I recently read of a new crowd funding project for a Mars mission for about the same price tag.  However, this one may not have the same luck. 

Thoth Technology has proposed what it is calling its "Northern Light mission," which has the goal of placing a mini-rover (called Beaver, shown above) on the surface of Mars in 2018.  This little rover will roam the surface and grind away at rocks to learn more about the early atmosphere of Mars.  And unlike other rover missions, the rover will think for itself during much of the 90-day mission.  

Here is how Thoth Technology describes its planned mission:

Over the past few years, we've developed and tested the engineering models for the Northern Light mission. We have created and flown in space infrared instruments to explore the surface, subsurface and atmosphere of Mars.  And we have refurbished Canada's largest radio antenna at the Algonquin Radio Observatory (ARO) to serve as the Northern Light ground station. The 46 meter radio telescope at ARO is one of the largest fully steerable dishes in the world, In 2008, Thoth acquired and refurbished ARO to provide the crucial link to Northern Light on Mars.

The purpose of this campaign is to raise support for the development of the Northern Light flight hardware and operations. We want to be ready to piggyback a ride to Mars in April 2018. We're also going to make the Northern Light systems available commercially for others to use at the same low cost.

So what does the company need to make this mission a reality?  About CAD$1.1million by January 3rd, which is a very tall order given less than CAD$10,000 has been pledged to date on the Indiegogo site.  Hence, while it seems like a great idea to involve the public in such space missions, Thoth Technology may want to extend the pledge period or find an additional source of funding. 

Noteworthy Quote: Send the International Space Station to a Watery Grave?

"NASA has an important role to play in advancing our nation’s interests in space, but it needs reform. The place to start is by ending U.S. support for the international space station, which at $100 billion holds the Guinness World Record for “most expensive man-made object.” Instead, Congress should direct the agency’s funding toward something more productive."

- Statement by retiring Senator Tom Coburn in a Wall Street Journal editorial titled "NASA is Lost in Space."  In the same piece, the Senator has a other ideas for NASA, noting "What if NASA were directed to focus solely on getting Americans back to the moon, or developing a plan for humans to reach Mars? The resulting innovation would be tremendous for the nation, the aerospace industry and educational opportunities."

Image Credit:  NASA

Eta Carinae: Star of Wonder

With Christmas here and the accompanying story of the Star of Bethlehem, it may be worth thinking about another star that could speak to the future, though it may not be something to celebrate.  Eta Carinae, a massive star 7,500 light years away that only 170 years ago was the second brightest star in the sky, could be a real problem in our future.  As Scientific American magazine noted recently,  

...a direct hit by an extremely bright [gamma-ray burst] generated by Eta Carinae could devastate our planet in a manner similar to but far worse than full-scale thermonuclear war. For several searing seconds, the planetary hemisphere facing the faraway star would be bathed in intense high-frequency radiation. The skies would fill with light much brighter than the sun, bright enough to ignite enormous continent-scouring wildfires on half the globe. The energetic burst of light would kick off atmospheric showers of highly penetrating radioactive subatomic particles called muons, which would stream down to poison life on the surface as well as that some distance underground and underwater. Even the far side of the planet facing away from Eta Carinae would not be spared, as the GRB’s intense energy would destroy the entire ozone layer while also sending superstorms rippling around the world. In the aftermath blackened, soot-filled skies would unleash torrents of acid rain, clearing only to soak the surface with damaging ultraviolet radiation. In a literal flash the Earth would become a planetary charnel house, and the shattered biosphere would require millions of years to piece itself back together.

The magazine is citing the worst case scenario outlined in a scientific paper back in 2001.  Of course, nothing at all could happen as well, though some have speculated that past gamma-ray bursts may have accounted for mass extinctions in the Earth's past, such as 450 million years ago.  The article has a good discussion on the various theories surrounding the demise of Eta Carinae.  Of course, the star may have already gone supernova and we have yet to see the results (and potentially feel the results). 

We live in a fascinating and dangerous universe.  Keep that in mind as you enjoy your Christmas meal. 

Kepler is Back!

It's great to see NASA has put the Kepler spacecraft back in action after a hiatus and some retooling.  Under its  second phase, called the K2 mission, Kepler has already detected a new exoplanet.  According to NASA, the planet was discovered during a test run of the K2 mission earlier this year: 

The newly confirmed planet, HIP 116454b, is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our sun, making the planet too hot for life as we know it. HIP 116454b and its star are 180 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Pisces.

While this may not be a livable planet for our purposes, it shows Kepler is back at work and helping us to expand our knowledge of other planetary systems.  With the costs of new spacecraft and related missions running ever higher, it is nice to know that recycling existing spacecraft can help us to do great science in the meantime.  

Project Orion Re-Imagined

For three nights this week you can watch SyFy's mini-series Ascension that takes a look at what might have been if Freeman Dyson's earlier Project Orion ever took off. The program started last night (December 15th) and runs until tomorrow night (you can also watch the episodes at the SyFy website).  If it is successful, you may be seeing the start of a new series.  Here is the basic premise:

In 1963, the U.S. government launched a covert space mission sending hundreds of men, women and children on a century-long voyage aboard the starship Ascension to populate a new world. Nearly 50 years into the journey, as they approach the point of no return, a mysterious murder of a young woman causes the ship’s population to question the true nature of their mission.

Yes, the 1950s idea of powering a spacecraft with nuclear bombs was around many years ago and creates a good premise for this science fiction series.  Some estimated that Project Orion could have taken us to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, in as little as 44 years (the SyFy program appears to be using the older calculations estimating a 133 year voyage).  Pretty impressive. We have already gone about that long since the last moon mission in 1972.  And now we need decades just to figure out what to do besides low Earth orbit. 

Great Image: New Stars Form Thousands of Light Years Away

The image above shows almost magical stars about 3,000 light years away in a less than magically named NGC 7822, brought to you by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer.  Here is NASA's description: 

Hot, young stars and cosmic pillars of gas and dust seem to crowd into NGC 7822. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, this glowing star forming region lies about 3,000 light-years away. Within the nebula, bright edges and complex dust sculptures dominate this detailed skyscape taken in infrared light by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. The atomic emission by the cluster's gas is powered by energetic radiation from the hot stars, whose powerful winds and light also sculpt and erode the denser pillar shapes. Stars could still be forming inside the pillars by gravitational collapse, but as the pillars are eroded away, any forming stars will ultimately be cut off from their reservoir of star stuff. This field spans around 40 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 7822.

Image Credit: WISE, IRSA, NASA; Processing & Copyright : Francesco Antonucci

Preparing to Live on Mars

With all the talk about rocketing to Mars, we need to ensure we conduct studies as well regarding how we will live on Mars.  And this is where the Mars Society's MarsDesert Research Station comes into the picture.  The stations are "laboratories for learning how to live and work on another planet."  Various prototypes house four to six crew members and give scientists a chance to see how humans will fare in an harsh, isolated environment.  Crew members include geologists, astrobiologists, engineers, mechanics, physicians and others, who may live in the habitat for weeks or even months. 

Here is how Crew 140, which served a mission from April to August this year, wrote about some of the lessons learned in the final missionreport: 

The greenhouse on Mars will be the main power source of life of the first inhabitants on the Martian surface. Due to the strong ultra violet rays on the Red Planet, Luciana Tenorio (Crew Journalist & EVA Engineer), considered a fabric/filter 100% UV, besides the material of the fabric is a nonwoven polyester which covers the aluminum frames (icosahedrons). This small shelter from the harmful UV rays was born from the need for shade during the days of solar intensity on Mars, in the Utah desert, where the greenhouse plants die burned by the strong intensity through the skin of polycarbonate (actual covering of the greenhouse). The project of Luciana was testing this second skin over the fourth rib of the greenhouse structure to see how the plant growing developments takes place during our two weeks of the research. During the first week the temperature inside the greenhouse lowered a little bit, but in the second week the temperature grew much more outside. As the project spanned only a very small portion of the greenhouse, we feel that it would have been very successful in achieving its goals if it had been placed over the entire surface of the Greenhab.

I am glad eager volunteers are adding to our knowledge about how to live on Mars.  You can volunteer to join a mission or simply donate to these missions. 

It's Nice to Hear from Carl Sagan Again

Erik Wernquist has created a fascinating short film Wanderers combining the voice of Carl Sagan, images from NASA, and his own imagination to share his dream about a solar system explored and occupied by our descendents.  Here is his story:

The film is a vision of our humanity's future expansion into the Solar System. Although admittedly speculative, the visuals in the film are all based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. All the locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available. For those interested in learning more of the places featured in the film, I recommend turning to the gallery section.

The title WANDERERS refer partly to the original meaning of the word "planet". In ancient greek, the planets visible in the sky were collectively called "aster planetes" which means "wandering star". It also refers to ourselves; for hundreds of thousands of years - the wanderers of the Earth. In time I hope we take that leap off the ground and permanently become wanderers of the sky. Wanderers among the wanderers.

There is no apparent story - other than what you might imagine for yourself - and the idea is primarily to show a glimpse of the fantastic and beautiful nature that surrounds us on our neighboring worlds - and above all, how it might appear to us if we were there.

As some may notice I have borrowed ideas and concepts from science fiction authors such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Arthur C. Clarke, just to name a few. And visually, I of course owe many tips of my hat to painter Chesley Bonestell - the legendary master of space art.

More directly, I have also borrowed the voice of astronomer and author Carl Sagan to narrate the film. The audio I used are excerpts from his own reading of his book 'Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space' (1994) - needless to say, a huge inspiration for this film.

I believe Carl Sagan would be very pleased with this film and the idea that we continue to dream and develop steps to explore our solar system and beyond. 

Image Credit:  Erik Wernquist's image "Cape Verde" on Mars.

Orion: Mission Accomplished

The Orion mission has been a complete success.  NASA's press release said it all:

It was just the kind of mission NASA hoped for, all the while knowing that the first mission by any spacecraft often turns up significant glitches. That was not the case this time though. The cone-shaped Orion held up to all the pressures of launch and ascent into orbit, then made two passes through the high radiation of the Van Allen belts before facing the searing plunge into Earth's atmosphere and splashing down under three billowing parachutes.

Watching the spacecraft descend through the sky over the Pacific Ocean in real time via an unmanned aircraft system dispatched from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Orion managers and NASA's senior leadership seemed to hold their breath until the first drogue parachutes deployed from the nose of Orion. Gasps turned quickly to applause and hugs moments later when the huge main parachutes opened to slow the capsule to a gentle 20 mph splashdown 270 miles west of Baja California.

 Here is a NASA video showing the countdown, launch, and ascent. 

Good News for U.S. Rocket Makers

With the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, it was only a matter of time before Congress finally understood that our continued reliance of Russia for many parts of our space program, including Rocket parts, was untenable.  According to Space News, the Hill is close to an agreement on banning Russian rocket engines:

U.S. lawmakers have finalized legislation that will prohibit the future use of a Russian-built rocket engine that is routinely used to launch U.S. national security satellites. 

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015, recently finalized by House and Senate negotiators, also requires the Defense Department to replace the Russian engine, dubbed RD-180, with an American-made propulsion system by 2019.

This could be great news for SpaceX, or it could mean another large government-funded project to build a new rocket engine.  I prefer we use the private-sector talents we have at the moment to keep things moving. The Pentagon appears to agree.  In a letter to Congress, the Department of Defense stated:

The Department firmly believes that it should not allocate resources to develop yet another engine that would fail to be integrated into a viable launcher, especially when it can meet the assured access to space requirement with existing privately funded vehicle families.

I am glad the Congress is moving in this direction. It may be disruptive for a period, but the Department of Defense still has a few years worth of Russian rockets in storage to provide it with some breathing space.  

All Eyes Are Watching Orion

Is Orion the start of great things? The controversial and expensive spacecraft is NASA's best hope at the moment to get to Mars and beyond (and maybe an asteroid before that).  And the test tomorrow may bring us closer to those goals.

In its press release, http://www.nasa.gov/content/orion-poised-for-first-trip-to-space, NASA stated:

From the launch on a gigantic United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy on Dec. 4 from Florida to the expected splashdown under billowing parachutes, the mission will test many of the riskiest events Orion will see when it sends astronauts to an asteroid and onward toward Mars in the future.

"Orion is the exploration spacecraft for NASA, and paired with the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket it will allow us to explore the solar system," said Mark Geyer, program manager of Orion, which is based at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

After the recent U.S. spacecraft mishaps, we need a success story. And while we might have been able to develop cheaper systems steered towards other destinations, this is what we have at the moment. All the government eggs for a manned space mission are now in one basket. 

Godspeed, Orion.

Update:  Weather issues have delayed the launch by a day.   If the weather cooperates, the launch should occur Friday morning at 7:05am ET.

Second Update:  The Friday launch was successful (as shown below). At the time of this posting the mission was still ongoing.