Award Winning Images from the STS-123 Gallery

The images coming down from the STS-123 mission have been nothing short of spectacular. The pictures have included amazing EVA shots, images of the astronauts hard at work (and having fun, too) and stunning photos of the ever-growing International Space Station. Here are just a few of the latest images from the mission, and they’re all so great, I’ve decided to give each one an award. This one gets the award for Best Group Photo Ever of the Shuttle, ISS and Earth. On Monday, shuttle Endeavour undocked from the ISS, and after the obligatory fly-around, the astronauts snapped this picture as the shuttle separated from the station. In my mind, this is one of the most amazing images from space ever. And there’s more….

ISS.  Image Credit:  NASA

This image gets the award for Best Color Contrast Image of the ISS. Backdropped by the airglow of Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space, the ISS hangs on Earth’s limb. What an awesome view that must be live and in person.

Moon shot.  Image Credit:  NASA

Obviously, this image gets the Best Moon Photo for the STS-123 Mission. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Framed by different components of the International Space Station, a full moon is visible in this view above Earth’s horizon and airglow. I’d like to give credit where credit is due and say which astronaut snapped this image, but NASA only says the picture was taken by an STS-123 crewmember who was on the station while Space Shuttle Endeavour was docked with the ISS.

STS 123 Aurora

This has to be one of the Best Aurora Picture Ever Taken From Space. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around having the chance to look down to see an aurora. The Aurora Borealis glows beautifully green in this images that looks northward across the Gulf of Alaska, over a low pressure area (cloud vortex). This image was taken on March 21, 2008 at 09:08:46 (GMT) with a 28 mm lens from the nadir point of 47.9 degrees north latitude and 146.8 degreees west longitude.

STS 123 & Station Crews.  Image Credit:  NASA
Let’s give a round of applause for the crews of STS-123 and the ISS who accomplished so much during the mission with five EVA’s, adding the Japanese Logistics Module to the station and constructing Dextre the robot handyman. Plus they are responsible for all the great images from the mission, too. Shuttle Endeavor will attempt to land on Wednesday, March 26 at 7:05:08 p.m EDT. As of now, the weather looks good for landing in Florida.

Pictured are Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, US astronauts Greg Johnson, Rick Linnehan, Garrett Reisman, Dom Gorie, Peggy Whitson, Mike Foreman, Bob Behnken, European astronaut Leopold Eyharts, and Japanese astronaut Takeo Doi.

See all the images from the STS-123 mission here.

Dextre vs. HAL

As Endeavour departs from the International Space Station on Monday, the space shuttle crew leaves behind a two-armed robot, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), which the astronauts affectionately refer to as Dextre. Any reference to robots in space brings to mind other famous, albeit fictitious, machines that have interacted with humans on board a spacecraft. And, with the recent passing of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, one famous machine named HAL particularly comes to mind, especially when you factor in that Dextre is what’s called a “telemanipulator.” Any chance the space station crew needs to worry about the robot lurking right outside their hatch?

Endeavour crewmember Rick Linnehan said, don’t worry, there is no comparison between Dextre and HAL, the famous malfunctioning computer who killed astronauts in the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“I’m a big Arthur C. Clarke fan and I have to tell you Dextre just isn’t as smart as HAL,” said Linnehan in new conference from the ISS on Sunday. “He’s built to be brawn not brains and he’s going to serve a big purpose up here in terms of moving a lot of hardware around.”

HAL 9000.  Image credit:  Wikipedia

Dextre, the two-armed, $200-million robot will reduce the amount of time astronauts must spend outside the space station, and could eliminate the need for up to a dozen spacewalks a year, said Daniel Rey, head of the Canadian technical team that prepared Dextre for his mission on board the space station.

“He will free up astronauts so they can do more science and more research rather than maintenance,” said Rey. Dextre will perform exterior construction and tasks like changing batteries and handling experiments outside the space station. Dextre also comes equipped with a tool holster which allows the robot to change equipment as needed “like any good handyman.”

Rey also concurred that 3.7-meter robot Dextre can’t be compared to HAL. “He doesn’t have an artificial intelligence. . .he can be remote controlled from the ground or from the space station.” Dextre will be able to manipulate items “from the size of a phone book to a phone booth,” Rey added.

As for HAL, in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” he maintains all systems on an interplanetary voyage, plays chess, and has a special penchant for lip reading. Those capabilities just aren’t in Dextre’s database. However, HAL was programmed with the objective to ensure mission success. That’s one area where HAL and Dex do have something in common.

Original News Source: NASA TV and the Canadian Press

Does a Boomerang Work in Space?

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Testing a boomerang in space might look and sound trivial, but it’s an exciting physics experiment that helps scientists to understand the dynamics of flight in microgravity. And now, one aspect of the “boomerang in space” question has finally been tested and answered. Japanese astronaut Takao Doi “threw a boomerang and saw it come back” during his free time on March 18 at the International Space Station, said a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. “I was very surprised and moved to see that it flew the same way it does on Earth,” the 53-year-old Doi was quoted as saying. This test was done inside a pressurized module of the ISS. But, one big question about boomerangs in space remains:

Will it work in the vacuum of space?

No, says boomerang expert and designer Gary Broadbent. The boomerang that was used in the experiment on board the ISS was a design of Broadbent’s called a “Roomerang,” a small, tri-blade boomerang intended for use indoors in a small area or outdoors in light winds. It travels 5 to 8 feet before returning to the thrower.

Broadbent told Universe Today that a boomerang would not work in the vacuum of space. “You need air molecules to generate the lift to make the boomerang turn,” Broadbent said.

But he also added that in the pressurized environment of the ISS, “microgravity has very little effect on the boomerang flight. The boomerang is so versatile, it can be tuned to fly in a perfect path back to the thrower, with gyroscopic precession and angular momentum over-compensating the lack of gravity.”
space boomerang.  Image courtesy of Gary Broadbent

Doi decided on boomerang tests after he received a request from Yasuhiro Togai, a world boomerang champion who helped Doi train to throw a boomerang correctly. Broadbent said that he has part of the preparations as well, and has been to Florida 3 times in the past month, working on the experiment with Doi.

The wings of a boomerang are set at a slight tilt and they have an airfoil design (rounded on one side and flat on the other, just like an airplane wing), which gives the wing lift.

The uneven force caused by the difference in speed between the three wings (two wings on a regular boomerang) applies a constant force which forces the boomerang to turn. So, just as if you lean in one direction while riding a bicycle, and the bike turns in that direction, the boomerang is constantly turning with force in one direction, so that it travels in a circle and comes back to its starting point.

Even though Broadbent says boomerangs wouldn’t work in a vacuum, it still would be fun to test it. The only problem of doing this experiment out in space is that the boomerang would just become another piece of potentially dangerous space junk in Earth orbit.

A videotape of the experiment performed during the STS-123 mission will likely be released in the near future.

Original News Source: Physorg.com and email interview with Gary Broadbent. For more information on Broadbent’s Boomerang’s see Gary’s website

Delays For Shuttle Program?

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With the current shuttle mission going so well, this news is a little depressing. Future space shuttle missions may be delayed because a backlog of work is developing on external fuel tanks for the shuttles. The tank used by Endeavour for the current mission was the last in the inventory of ET’s built before the 2003 Columbia disaster. The next shuttle flight, scheduled for late May, will use the first of the new design of tanks that include improvements to help eliminate foam shedding. But production issues with subsequent tanks may force delays for future missions, including Atlantis’ STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, currently targeted for August 28. If the delays amount to more than a couple of months, it’s possible the Hubble could give out before the shuttle could get there because of failing batteries and gyroscopes.

Since for the Hubble mission, the shuttle wouldn’t be going to the International Space Station, there would be no safe haven option for Atlantis’ crew if major heat shield damage occurs. The station and Hubble are in different orbits and the shuttle does not have the ability to move from one to the other. As a result, NASA approved plans to have a second shuttle, Endeavour, ready for launch on a rescue mission just in case.

That means NASA needs two ready-to-fly external tanks for the Hubble mission. One should be ready, no problem, but the second one is the issue. Manpower and production issues are the main problems. The people at Michoud had to redo much of the work on existing fuel tanks, and then they took a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Some workers moved elsewhere, and the program has not been at peak production since. Additional unplanned work has also caused delays, such as the upgrade to the fuel sensors that plagued the last shuttle tank, used for the STS-122 mission.

For now, the Hubble mission remains officially scheduled for August 28, but some sources say the mission could be delayed to October. More on this as the picture becomes clearer and the story develops.

Original News Source: CBS News Space Place

Rocketplane Gets a New Pilot

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The commercial space company Rocketplane Global announced today that Paul Metz has joined the company as Vice President and Chief Test Pilot. Metz fills the spot vacated by former NASA astronaut John Herrington, who left Rocketplane at the end of last year. Perhaps things are looking up for Rocketplane. News from the company has been sparse since Herrington’s departure, as well as since word came out that NASA terminated its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with the Kistler side of Rocketplane (RpK) last year because the company failed to meet financial milestones. The one hopeful piece of news came in October 2007 at the X Prize Cup, when Rocketplane announced a major redesign of it’s XP Spaceplane.

Rocketplane also announced on Friday that David Faulkner has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer for the company. Faulkner has been with Rocketplane since 2005 and was Program Manager. He now will manage and direct the development of the company’s technology and vehicle programs. A press release from Rocketplane Global indicated that Faulkner’s promotion and the addition of Metz emphasizes the importance the company is placing on the development of the Rocketplane XP suborbital space vehicle as well as its plan to develop technologies and concepts that will lead to future vehicles.

Metz had previously been one of Lockheed Martin’s chief test pilots, but also recently served as Vice President for Lockheed’s flight test program for different types of aircraft.

Rocketplane Global, Inc. was formed in 2001 to develop, build, and operate vehicles to serve the suborbital space tourism market. Since 2004, Rocketplane has been developing the Rocketplane XP suborbital space vehicle. The vehicle will take passengers beyond 100km in altitude during its flights to space where the passengers will experience more than three minutes of weightlessness and a view of the earth previously only available to astronauts. Rocketplane Kistler is designing the K-1 reusable aerospace vehicle, designed to deliver payloads to orbit and provide a low-cost alternative to single-use launch vehicles.

New Source: Rocketplane Global press release

Astronauts Test Shuttle Tile Repair Techniques

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Two astronauts tested a special applicator and “goo” to see how well techniques developed for repairing damaged shuttle tiles work in orbit. Shuttle astronauts Mike Foreman and Bob Behnken used a T-RAD, or Tile Ablator Dispenser to squirt a pink, caulk-like substance called Shuttle Tile Ablator-54 into intentionally damaged shuttle tiles during their six and a half hour spacewalk to test how the tool and material behaves in the weightless vacuum of space. “I’m thrilled with what we saw today,” said ISS flight director Dana Weigel after the spacewalk, adding that T-RAD could also be used to mend torn shuttle insulation blankets. “It behaved very similar to what we saw on the ground, so that gives me a lot of confidence.”

The sample tiles and tools will be returned to Earth to undergo extensive testing on the ground. NASA engineers developed the shuttle tile repair tool after the 2003 Columbia disaster to fix dings in the thousands of ceramic tiles on the shuttle’s underside. “We’ve tested this material on the ground, but have not been able to test it in weightlessness and vacuum at the same time, so we hope to characterize how it performs,” said astronaut Mike Foreman before the spacewalk.

“It’s going to be really valuable to have actually have a test of this in case we ever need this in our bag of tricks for repairing a shuttle, particularly with the Hubble mission upcoming,” astronaut Bob Behnken said from orbit.
STA-54 sample.  Image Credit:  NASA
One of the compounds making up STA-54 causes bubbles to form. On Earth, those bubbles typically rise to the top. The spacewalkers found that with the absence of air or gravity, the bubbles tended to spread throughout the material causing it to bulge slightly in a phenomenon known as “bread loafing.”

Engineers were worried that it might bulge too much, and could cause the material to swell up over the surface layer of surrounding tiles, disrupting air flow during re-entry and causing excessive downstream heating. But during the tests in Thursday’s spacewalk, however, the STA-54 appeared not rise or bubble as much as was anticipated. While bubbles formed, the astronauts were able to use pads to tamp the material down and as the STA-54 “set up,” the swelling seemed to diminish.

“It goes down really well,” Foreman said as he tamped down the thick goop with a sponge-like tool. “It really is like a loaf of bread with a lot of little bubbles in there.”
Parazynski tile repair.  Image credit:  NASA
The astronauts did the tests on the nadir or underside of the Destiny module, using a suitcase-like kit filled with tile samples. There were several different samples with both big and small holes. The spacewalkers worked on this task for several hours, which took up the majority EVA’s duration.

The spacewalkers also performed a few other get-ahead tasks and replaced a failed Remote Power Control Module – essentially a circuit breaker – on the station’s truss. They were unable, however, to unplug a stuck electrical connector from a patch panel in the station’s Z1 truss that would have re-routed power to one of four control moment gyroscopes that helps stabilized the stations attitude. CMG-2 and CMG-3 were wired into the same circuit in the wake of an earlier failure and the cable change was needed to hook CMG-2 back up to its own power supply, restoring lost redundancy. But with the spacewalkers unable to make the change, a single failure could take out both CMGs, a situation NASA wanted to correct.

This was the 108th spacewalk for station construction and maintenance. Behnken and Foreman will begin the mission’s fifth and final spacewalk Saturday at 5:23 p.m EDT.

Original News Sources: NASA TV and CBS Space Place

Incredible SRB Video

Take a look at this amazing video shot from the cameras located on the solid rocket boosters on space shuttle Endeavour’s recent launch. The fact it was a night launch really highlights all the flames and sparking. Most interesting, however, is that during the first two and a half minutes of acsent while the SRB’s are attached, the leading edges of the shuttle’s wings are fully visible. I know hindsight is 20/20, but if these cameras had only been in place for Columbia’s last launch….

But we’re learning from experience. These cameras not only give engineers good information and views of the shuttle’s thermal protection system, but they provide some spectacular footage for us all to enjoy.

Video Source: Reel NASA

Ancient Asteroids Discovered

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Way back in the beginning of the solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, the first materials began to condense from gasses into solid particles. These materials were rich in calcium and aluminum. Astronomers have thought that at least some of the solar system’s oldest asteroids should have plenty of these two elements, but no asteroids had ever been found that were particularly rich in them. Until now. A team of scientists recently identified three previously unknown asteroids that appear to be among the oldest objects in our solar system.

Using visible and infrared data from telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, astronomers from the University of Maryland found asteroids that appear to relatively unchanged since they formed in the early stages of our solar system’s development. “We have identified asteroids that are not represented in our meteorite collection and which date from the earliest periods of the Solar System,” said research astronomer Jessica Sunshine. “These asteroids are prime candidates for future space missions that could collect and return samples to Earth, providing a more detailed understanding of the Solar System’s first few millions of years.”

Meteorites found on Earth do contain small amounts of calcium and aluminum. Called calcium aluminum inclusions (CAIs) these white, millimeter-sized objects are found in meteorites, often together with chondrules, which are small balls of iron or magnesium.

In 2002, an international team of scientists accurately dated CAIs at 4.57 billion years, making them the oldest known objects in the solar system. When the famous Allende meteorite was found in 1969, scientists first recognized these inclusions matched many properties expected to be found in the early solar system.

Sunshine’s team used the SpeX instrument at the NASA Infrared Telescope facility to look at the surface of asteroids, looking for “fingerprints” indicative of CAIs. Sunshine said that several asteroids have been found that contain 2-3 times more CAI materials than any known meteorite. “It appears ancient asteroids have indeed survived, and we know where they are,” she said.

Original news source: Eureka Alert

Great Images From the STS-123 Mission

There have been some outstanding images coming in from the current space shuttle mission at the International Space Station. The crews of Endeavour and the ISS continue their near-frantic pace of spacewalks and outfitting of the station during the STS-123 mission. During the 3rd spacewalk, astronauts Rick Linnehan (right) and Bob Behnken work on the new Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM). This image highlights how big the station is getting, as the astronauts are almost dwarfed by this one area of the truss section.

Spacewalk 3.  Image Credit:  NASA

Bob Behnken continues his work on Dextre during his EVA. During the 6-hour, 53-minute spacewalk, Linnehan and Behnken installed a spare-parts platform and tool-handling assembly for Dextre. They also checked out and calibrated Dextre’s end effector and attached critical spare parts to an external stowage platform. The new robotic system is scheduled to be activated on a power and data grapple fixture located on the Destiny laboratory today.

Dom Gorie. Image Credit:  NASA

All the astronauts have had to juggle lots of different activities during the current mission. Here, Dominic Gorie, STS-123 commander, reaches for a procedures checklist floating freely on the aft flight deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Window Spacewalk.  Image Credit:  NASA
Can you imagine looking out a window and seeing one of your best friends floating by? Visible through a window on Endeavour’s aft flight deck is astronaut Rick Linnehan during spacewalk #3 for the mission.

For Wednesday, the astronauts are scheduled to take a half-day off to rest up for two more spacewalks. They also are continuing their work to outfit the Japanese module that was attched to the Harmony node earlier in the mission. They’ll do a round of media interviews this evening, and get ready for another spacewalk on Thursday.

Link here for more STS-123 images.

Arthur C. Clarke Dies

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Sir Arthur C. Clarke, writer, inventor and visionary, has died from heart failure at age 90. A master of science fiction, Clarke was known most for his futuristic book “2001” published in 1968, which was made into the landmark movie. Clarke wrote scores of fiction and non-fiction books, more than 100 short stories, and numerous articles and essays.

Some of his early books included Interplanetary Flight (1950), Prelude to Space (1951), and The Making of a Moon (1957). He wrote a series of “Odyssey” books: 2010: Odyssey Two (1985) –also made into a movie—and 2061: Odyssey Three (1988) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1996). His last book was published in 2005, The Last Theorem.

Clarke foresaw many technological advances in his writing, describing, among other things, cell phones, the internet, and moon landings using a mother ship and a landing pod. He was also known as the “godfather of the telecommunications satellite.” In a 1945 article in Wireless World magazine, he outlined a worldwide communications network based on fixed satellites orbiting at 22,240 miles (42,000 km) – a geosynchronous orbit – often referred to as the Clarke Orbit.

Clarke was born December 16, 1917 in Somerset, England. From an early age he was interested in astronomy and science. During World War II he was a pioneer in using radar with the Royal Air Force. Later, he completed a college degree, with honors, in physics and mathematics at King’s College in London. He was an editor for the journal Physics Abstracts when his first science fiction books were published.

Clarke spent most of his life promoting science and space exploration. He was an American Astronautical Society Fellow, the British Science Fiction Association President, an International Academy of Humanism Laureate, was on the National Space Society Board of Governors and Planetary Society Advisory Council, was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and was Knighted by the British Empire in 2000. He has a nebula and an asteroid named after him.

Clarke suffered from post-polio syndrome since 1988 and sometimes had to use a wheelchair, but until recently, he still continued to scuba dive, one of his lifelong passions. His love of scuba diving brought him to Sri Lanka, where he lived since the 1950’s. Clarke once said he was “perfectly operational underwater.”

On his 90th birthday, Clarke released a video, in which he talked about his life and accomplishments. “Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered,” Clarke said. I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer.”