Great Image: Milky Way with Ariane Rocket Launch

You cannot do much better than this fantastic view of the Milky Way, meteor streak, and Ariane rocket plume.  The image is from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.  Here is the accompanying story from the website:

Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal? Perhaps classifiable as serene in the above panoramic image taken last Friday are the faint lights of small towns glowing across a dark foreground landscape of Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, as well as the numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape. Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of zodiacal light on the image left. Unusual events are also captured, however. First, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a common sight, appears here to hover surreally above the ground. Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right. Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor. That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket, launched a few minutes before from Kourou, French Guiana. How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the rocket launch in his image? Pretty lucky -- the image was not timed to capture the rocket. Also lucky was how photogenic -- and perhaps surreal -- the rest of the sky turned out to be.

Image Credit and Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham

17th International Mars Society Convention

If you are looking for more information on Mars, from past rover programs to ideas for future settlements, you may want to attend the 17th International Mars Society Convention at the South Shore Harbour Resort in League City, Texas from August 7-10, 2014.  

Last year's conference covered a number of interesting topics, including:

-- Latest Findings from the Mars Probes
-- Plans for Human Mars Missions
-- Martian agriculture/aquaculture and greenhouse/greenhab technology
-- Terraforming - Creating an Ecology for Mars
-- The One Way Mission to Mars
-- Asteroid Missions: A Bridge to Mars?

For example, Bas Lansdorp, the co-founder and CEO of Mars One, discussed his idea of organizing a mission to Mars.  If you want to view this presentation and others, you can view them at the Mars Society's page on YouTube.  And if you want to learn more about the projects of the Mars Society, I recommend you visit their website as well as view their past quarterly reports. 

Russian Olympics: A New Potemkin Village

Speaking of the Olympics, it is clear the Sochi games ending this weekend were basically a $50 billion modernized Potemkin village.  Not only does Putin's Russia have some pretty horrible internal problems, as well as a few problems on its border (be it Georgia or Ukraine), but the "village" itself is plagued with corruption and construction issues.  I believe Russia would have been much better off investing that money in its future, including education, science, and needed infrastructure.

The New Yorker magazine had a good article titled the "Sochi Effect," calling this Winter Olympics the "greatest financial boondoggle in the history of the Games."  The article goes on to state:

But an economic boost based on corrupt spending is an illusion, the equivalent of a sugar high... in a pathbreaking study nearly twenty years ago, [IMF economist] Mauro found that countries with high levels of corruption spent little on education. In economist-speak, corrupt politicians put too much money into physical capital and not enough into human capital. Crony construction capitalism leaves us with too few teachers and too many ski jumps to nowhere.

Sadly, the Olympics have become window-dressing for bad actors, be it Russia, China, or even Greece (which spent plenty of money it clearly did not have).  How much better would it have been if Russia took care of things at home and spent some of these funds on longer-term projects, such as a space program that does more than shuttle cosmonauts to the International Space Station?  Yes, many countries have wasted their treasure on such white elephants, but I look forward to the day the human race has greater designs for the future than winning a medal n figure skating. 

Extra Special Medals in Sochi

Last Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor hitting Russia, the largest such strike since 1908 in another part of Russia (yes, one lucky country).  To commemorate the event, the Russians provided special gold medals to athletes at the Sochi Olympics with pieces of the meteorite integrated into the design (pictured above).  

And to further commemorate the event, another meteor was streaming towards the Earth today just in case we were not paying attention to the medals.  This meteor is the size of three football fields and should miss us by about 2 million miles.  As you may recall, we were watching another close flyby when the Chelyabinsk meteor came out of nowhere.  I imagine a number of Russians are looking skyward now. 

A New Cosmos is Coming, But Not on PBS

Like millions of people, I am a fan of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series from 1980.  The program, Cosmos: A Personal Journey, brought a fascinating and understandable form of astronomy into America's living rooms.  The program was viewed by more than 750 million people and won both Emmy and Peabody awards. 

Dr. Sagan put the universe, and our place in it, into a context that continues to fascinate today, particularly the cosmic calendar.  The calendar demonstrated that, if all time was condensed to a year, we humans would have first appeared on December 31st during the remaining 8 minutes of the year, with our written history appearing in the last 13 seconds. Certainly a mind-blowing way to show our place in time.

So is it time for an updated version of Cosmos?  It seems the Fox network and the National Geographic Channel feels it is and it has brought in Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, to renew the role of Dr. Sagan.  The new program, to be broadcast next month, is called Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey. You can view a trailer for the show here.

It is a wise choice in terms of a popular scientist who can make the complex fun.  However, I am more comfortable with PBS, the creator of NOVA and Frontline, taking the helm than Fox, the creator of the Simpsons and Fox News.  In fact, Fox is bringing in the animation skills of Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy.  Does this mean a talking dog will explain the process of searching for exoplanets?  I hope not.

The original Cosmos is one of those television jewels that most likely will never be duplicated, but time moves on (yes, that last second of the year) and new stories need to told.  Let's hope Dr. Tyson can create a whole new generation of fans staring at the stars for answers. 

Update:  The new Cosmos series premieres on Fox and the National Geographic Channel on March 9th.

Jade Rabbit: “Hi, anybody there?”

Reports of the little guy's death were premature.  China's Moon rover, the Jade Rabbit, is showing signs of life again.  On Thursday, the little craft communicated with the Chinese space agency. 

London's The Guardian reported 

Concerns were raised that the vehicle would not survive the bitter cold of the lunar night. An unverified Weibo user “Jade Rabbit Lunar Rover”, which has posted first-person accounts in the voice of the probe, made its first update since January, when it had declared: “Goodnight, Earth. Goodnight, humans.”

“Hi, anybody there?” it said on Thursday, prompting thousands of comments within minutes.

The question now is whether it can continue with its original science mission or will need a more truncated set of tasks due to the mechanical issues. 

More on Kepler from the 2013 Kepler Science Conference II

After discussing Kepler in my recent post, I wanted to learn more about the status of the Kepler mission.  You can find numerous papers from the November 2013 Kepler Science Conference II held at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California.  At this link you can view the agenda and get further links to papers and videos. 

One topic that was covered was the future of the Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009.  While its primary mission may be over (though much data analysis remains), NASA believes it can still do some science with the damaged craft.  One of the slides from the Kepler Deputy Project Manger Charlie Sobek's presentation is shown below. 

The issue is finding a way to stabilize the orbit of the Kepler spacecraft with its two remaining wheels while also staying away from the "annoying" shine of the sun.  This next phase is called "K2."  The theory is that NASA can stabilize the spacecraft 4 days at a time before firing the thrusters so it continue with its science.  Luckily, most of this can still be done within budget since new funds are tight. 

NASA has been very creative in its efforts to salvage past missions, so hopefully Kepler can still do some great work in the years to come.

New Impact Crater on Mars

Earlier this week NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported on a new impact crater on Mars.  The crater was spotted last November using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.  The impact happened sometime between July 2010 and May 2012.

About 100 feet in diameter, the crater produced a beautiful spread of colors, including an odd powder blue that you would not associate with Mars.  In the accompanying text, JPL explains "Because the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color of the image, due to removal of the reddish dust in that area." 

China: Problems on the Moon

After a successful landing on the moon last December, the Chinese rover Yutu ("Jade Rabbit') has experienced some "mechanical control abnormalities" during a routine power-down, according to ReutersNews. The little rover and the Chang'e 3 probe that took it to the moon's surface is a significant accomplishment for the Chinese nation, though this latest difficulty could certainly threaten the scientific benefits of the mission. 

Just prior to the rover problems, the Chinese Academy ofSpace Technology was inventorying the scientific successes thus far (as noted in the news story in English.news.cn):

The probe radar has surveyed the moon's surface and collected two sets of data about the structure of lunar soil beneath the surface within 140 meters and 10 meters respectively, the statement said.

 The panoramic camera and infrared spectrograph have sent back clear images of the moon's surface and data collected by a particle X-ray device has helped scientists identify 11 types of chemical elements such as magnesium, aluminum, calcium and yttrium on the moon, it added.

 Data collected from observations of the plasmasphere over the Earth will provide more information about the impact of solar activities to the Earth, according to the statement.

Another story from English.news.cn was quick to point out that such lunar failures were not unprecedented: 

 Lunar probe mission failure is not rare. In April 1962, the U.S. lunar probe Ranger 4 crashed into the dark side of the Moon after equipment failure prevented it from returning pictures and scientific data. 

Japan launched a lunar probe in 1990, which soon moved off course. It failed to transmit any data and crashed into the Moon in 1993.

India managed to send a lunar probe into space in 2008, but an equipment in the main craft malfunctioned several months later, leading to the loss of contact with the unmanned spacecraft.

Of course one can also read about these problems and quickly note that China has only progressed to where the United States was 52 years ago, but I don't think that was the story's intent.  Nonetheless, for the same of science, let's hope the little rabbit is bouncing around again real soon.

Great Image: Colliding Spiral Galaxies

The image above is from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website and represents the combination of galaxies, a process that will continue for billions of years.  Our own Milky Way galaxy has abosorbed other galaxies in the past and is expected to have more collisions in the future.  Here is the story for the image above:

Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the left, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the right. In the most recent encounter that about peaked 40 million years ago, the smaller galaxy is swinging around counter-clockwise, and is now slightly behind the larger galaxy. The space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them usually do not collide.

Image Credit: Debra Meloy Elmegreen (Vassar College) et al., and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)

Opportunity Rover: A Cry for Attention?

With the Curiosity rover getting all of the attention these days, it was only a matter of time before the older Opportunity rover would pull a stunt to let us know she is still there (unlike her sister, Spirit, who is no longer functioning).  The two photos above are 12 days apart as Opportunity explores the Murray Ridge on the rim of Endeavour Crater (see bottom image).  Within that time a new rock appeared on the surface.

CNN and others were quick to report on a doughnut-sized rock that mysteriously appeared on the surface of Mars. The most likely explanation is that Opportunity kicked up the rock while traveling about.  But theories will always abound.  My theory is that Opportunity was getting a little lonely and wanted to let us know she is still working hard after all these years.

Luckily, NASA will hold a press conference later today to discuss the 10 year anniversary of the Opportunity mission on Mars.  The rover arrived on January 24, 2004.  Maybe that was all Opportunity really needed - a little appreciation. 

Note: For more images from Opportunity, visit the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Update:  And now, another cry for attention.  For some odd reason, someone is now suing NASA over the presumably dislodged rock.  A private citizen, Rhawn Joseph, filed a petition January 27th in U.S. District Court in northern California.  In his petition, Mr. Joseph stated,

Any intelligent adult, adolescent, child, chimpanzee, monkey, dog or rodent with even a modicum of curiosity would approach, investigate and closely examine a bowl-shaped structure which appears just a few feet in front of them when 12 days earlier they hadn't noticed it...But not NASA and its rover team who have refused to take even a single close-up photo. 

An interesting approach to science.  And you too still have time to sue NASA for all of the craters and rocks missed by the Apollo crews during their Moon visits many decades ago.  I do not believe there is a statute of limitations on craziness.  

NOVA: A Story About Exoplanets

Earlier this month PBS's NOVA had an good program on exoplanets called Alien Planets Revealed.  You can still view the show on NOVA's website, and here is a quick summary from that same site:

It’s a golden age for planet hunters: NASA's Kepler mission has identified more than 3,500 potential planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun. Some of them, like a planet called Kepler-22b, might even be able to harbor life. How did we come upon this distant planet? Combining startling animation with input from expert astrophysicists and astrobiologists, “Alien Planets Revealed” takes viewers on a journey along with the Kepler telescope. How does the telescope look for planets? How many of these planets are like our Earth? Will any of these planets be suitable for life as we know it? Bringing the creative power of veteran animators together with the latest discoveries in planet-hunting, “Alien Planets Revealed” shows the successes of the Kepler mission, taking us to planets beyond our solar system and providing a glimpse of creatures we might one day encounter.

Sadly, the Kepler space telescope is no longer searching the heavens after a mechanical failure in May 2103, but the wealth of information that it provided between 2009 and 2013 will keep scientists busy for many years to come.  The NOVA program discusses some of the finding, including Kepler 62F, the first promising earth-like planet to be discovered (see NASA artist concept below).  Kepler 62F is about 1,200 lights years away and the program makes it clear that it would take "many million years" for us to get there with our current spacecraft.  Given NASA cannot get a budget one year out, it is unlikely this Congress will be contemplating such missions (though I still vote we send a CODEL - or congressional delegation - on the mission anyway).  

The NOVA program also discusses how about 75 percent of the stars in the galaxy are red dwarves, which means the nature of life around other suns may be quite different from ours based on the light received on the surface of the exoplanets.  Some of the ideas about flora and fauna on these red dwarf exoplanets was pretty interesting. 

Another discussion point was how our own planet's life was nothing but microbes for billions of years, and therefore this is what we should probably suspect in terms of "life" on these exoplanets if there is life at all.  And the idea that intelligent life would evolve on such exoplanets is not a given.  NOVA uses the shark as an example of non-intelligent life staying pretty much the same over 400 million years.  Hence, life may be abundant in the universe without much or any of it being intelligent or at a stage of intelligence that can communicate with us.

After all of that, the program still leaves us with the point that one out of every six stars in our galaxy has an Earth-sized planet orbiting it, which puts the number of Earth-sized planets at about 17 billion for the Milky Way.  That gives us plenty of exoplanets to explore even with all the caveats above. 

Top Image Credit:  Exoplanet Eclipse/Bill Lile, quoted from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blile59/313907609

A Rocket Tower to Nowhere

At a time when NASA is struggling to find the necessary funds to cover planned space missions, why is the Agency spending $350 million on a tower that is no longer needed?  The A-3 test stand tower at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi is a piece of pork that local legislators insisted must be completed even though it is designed for rockets that will never be built since they are part of the canceled Constellation program.  Businessweek magazine reported that NASA's inspector general has been highlighting such waste of funds:

Testifying before the House space subcommittee in September, Martin highlighted the A-3 as an example of how lawmakers, looking to keep federal dollars flowing to their states, can block efforts to cut unnecessary spending. “The political context in which NASA operates often impedes its efforts to reduce infrastructure,” he said.

You can find more such stories of wast in the February 2013 NASA IG report, NASA's Efforts to Reduce Unneeded Infrastructure and Facilities. The report noted:

During our fieldwork we identified a variety of facilities at multiple NASA Centers that the Agency was not utilizing or for which Agency officials could not identify a future mission use. These facilities ranged from smaller, low value post-World War II era thermal vacuum chambers to newer rocket test stands that cost several hundred million dollars to construct.

We concluded that previous efforts by NASA to reduce its underutilized facilities have been hindered by: 1) fluctuating and uncertain strategic requirements; 2) Agency culture and business practices; 3) political pressure; and 4) inadequate funding. The combination of these forces has frustrated NASA’s efforts over the years to make meaningful reductions in the size of its real property portfolio. 

Either we want a space program or a jobs program, but trying to do both ties our hands and limits our reach as a nation.  We will always have some level of politics in anything that requires the involvement of Congress, but it may be time to let NASA focus on the future and not be hindered by leftover from the past.

Image Credit:  Bloomberg Businessweek

Extra Life for the International Space Station

The White House recently announced that the International Space Station (ISS), set to be decommissioned in 2020, will now get an extra 4 years of life through 2024.  In the press release, the White House stated:

[The extension] will allow NASA to complete necessary research activities aboard the ISS in support of planned long-duration human missions beyond low-Earth orbit—including our planned human mission to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s.  NASA has determined that research on ISS is necessary to mitigate fully 21 of the 32 human-health risks anticipated on long-duration missions.  A related critical function of ISS is testing the technologies and spacecraft systems necessary for humans to safely and productively operate in deep space.  Extending ISS until 2024 will give us the necessary time to bring these systems to maturity.

On January 9th, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden reemphasized the role of the ISS in future space endeavors, making the following statement:

NASA is committed to the space station as a long-term platform to enable the utilization of space for global research and development. We’re committed to implementing a unified strategy of deep space exploration, with robotic and human missions to destinations that include near-Earth asteroids, the moon and Mars. And we are committed to our international partnerships and the continued peaceful uses of outer space and unlocking the mysteries of our vast universe.

Of course, Congress will still need to agree.  And at $3 billion a year in maintenance costs, added to the recent scares, will not make this an easy argument.  That said, the station represents a major piece of the American space program and after more than $100 billion in construction over more than a decade, to allow the station to become space junk earlier than necessary would be foolish. 

The extension would also benefit smaller start up firms, such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, that are still getting their legs as they build new spacecraft and begin the privatization of space (or at least low Earth orbit).  In fact, earlier today Orbital Sciences' Cygnus capsule successfully docked with the ISS to resupply its occupants.  The only question now is whether we will have space partners down the road.  China is already building its own space station and Russia has been thinking of doing the same. 

Abandoned Astronomy

Like the wrecked Mayan remains one finds centuries later in the Latin American jungle, this Bloomington, Indiana, space observatory represents time moving on even with the most modern of endeavors.  The Knightridge Space Observatory pictured above is a four-ton telescope built in 1936 and 1937.  You can see many more images like this one and the one below (the Pip Ivan Observatory in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine) at io9.

Top Astronomy Stories in 2013

This is the time of year to highlight some of the great discoveries of the last year, and we have plenty to ponder.  CBS news highlights events such as the discovery of the Higgs Boson, life in Antarctic lakes, more evidence of water on Mars, and the Chinese moon landing.  I would add the Indian mission to Mars as another key event.

CNN’s list of 2013 scientific stories included the stray asteroid that hit the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013 (notice this is a story rather than a discovery, though the people in Russia certainly discovered something new about the risk of life here on the third rock from the sun).

Wired magazine covered both discoveries and stories, with discoveries including estimates that our galaxy may contain about 10 billion Earth-like planets (using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope).  Top stories included Mars One, the plan to send humans one-way to Mars in 10 years, and the mysterious environment encountered by Voyager 1 at the edge of the Sun’s heliosheath.  Wired also discusses the diminishing availability plutonium-238, which may impact out ability to repeat Voyager-like missions in the future.

Great Image: The Cape of Good Hope

Below is NASA’s Earth Observatory description of this ISS photo:

Nelson Mandela took the long view of South Africa. He saw the potential for prosperity and peace through equality during a time of repression, turmoil, and inequality. In tribute to Mandela, astronaut Chris Hadfield offered up his version of South Africa’s long view.

This photo was taken from the International Space Station on May 9, 2013, looking across the southwestern tip of the country. The image focuses on the mountainous Western Cape, dominated by the Great Escarpment, a 5,000-kilometer long mountain chain that marks the edge of the African plateau. The Cape of Good Hope hooks out from the mainland, with the city of Cape Town coloring the top in cement gray. To the east is Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.

The view from above helps us see the geographic connections that bind humanity together on a single planet. Writing in Wired, Hadfield said: “While I was on the space station, I used Twitter to ask hundreds of thousands of people what they would like me to take a picture of. Resoundingly, the answer was ‘home.’ After millennia of wandering and settling, we are still most curious about how we fit in and how our community looks in the context of the rest of the world.”

Connection is something that Nelson Mandela understood on many levels. Speaking at Mandela’s memorial service on December 10, 2013, President Barack Obama stated: “Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa—Ubuntu—that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.”

As the world pauses to lay Nelson Mandela to rest on December 15, we salute the power of connections.

Recreating the Famous Earthrise

NASA has issued an interesting video that recreates the famous Apollo 8 “Earthrise” photography that occurred this Christmas week 45 years ago.  Updated images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter were critical to providing a precise capture of the same angles and shots.  This, plus the old audio clips of the banter between the three astronauts, provides us with a blow-by-blow retelling of the background to this forever-famous Earth image. Think of it as a remake of a great old film that never ceases to amaze.

The Drama is Over, For Now

Luckily, NASA is going into the new year with a functional International Space Station (ISS).  The recent space walks were a success (see the final installation above) and a new ammonia pump is being integrated in the station to ensure proper cooling.  This is not the first nor the last maintenance emergency for the ISS.  Given its aging components, we should expect to see more space walks and part replacement. 

Dueling Versions of Space Safety

With all the drama related to repairs to the International Space Station (ISS), one can see NASA finally trumping Hollywood.  While we do not see space debris tearing the station apart as in Gravity, in this case real lives are a stake on a multi-billion dollar platform miles above our heads.  While both stories fascinate the public, I hope to use this blog (again, after a little time away) to bring together various images and ideas to build a better understanding of space science and our potential future as we use it, hopefully, to improve our future.