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.”

Mars’ Violent, Volcanic Past … and Possible Future?

Planetary geologists have a relatively simple method for calculating the age of a planet’s surface: count the number of impact craters in a region. The older the surface, the more craters there will be from meteorites that have struck the planet over the ages. Areas with fewer craters are generally interpreted as younger surfaces where other geological processes such as volcanic activity or plate tectonics, have erased the impact scars. A new analysis of impact cratering using images from the Mars Express has revealed that Mars has undergone at least five violent, global volcanic upheavals, shaping the surface of Mars we see today.

Using the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, planetary scientists are learning more about Mars’ past. “We can now determine the ages of large regions and resurfacing events on the planet,” says Gerhard Neukum. Resurfacing occurs when volcanic eruptions spread lava across the planet’s surface. But unlike Earth, where resurfacing happens gradually and slowly, Mars has had a series of violent volcanic periods. This occurred more than 3.8 thousand million years ago. In between these episodes, the planet has been relatively calm.

Mars Chronology Model.  Credits: Neukum and HRSC Team, 2008, chronology: Neukum & Hartmann, 2001
During these volcanic episodes, eruptions of lava flowed across Mars. The internal heat generated by the volcanic activity also caused water to erupt from the interior, causing wide-scale flash flooding.

Why did Mars behave like this? Geophysical computer-based models suggest that the planet has been trying to establish a system of plate tectonics, as there is on Earth where the crust is broken into slowly moving plates. On Mars, the volcanic episodes represent the planet almost, but not quite, developing plate tectonics.

We recently saw a landslide on Mars. Could we possibly see a volcanic eruption? “The interior of the planet is not cold yet, so this could happen again,” says Neukum.

Original News Source: ESA Press Release

Happy Birthday Vanguard 1, and Welcome Home?

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Jim Oberg has written a very interesting article at MSNBC.com, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of mankind’s fourth artificial satellite, Vanguard 1. While it is no longer functioning or communicating, it is the oldest satellite still in orbit. Jim says, “Vanguard 1 was the first artificial earth satellite powered by solar cells, and its small suite of instruments provided unprecedented information on Earth’s size and shape, air density and temperature ranges, and the micrometeorite density in space. Tracking its orbit helped geophysicists realize that Earth is not round but slightly pear-shaped, with a slight, symmetric equatorial bulge.”

Jim has a lot of good history included in the article, but most intriguing, Jim reports Vanguard 1 could become the first satellite brought home, for museum display, by a new generation of robotic space vehicles. That would be incredible! Such an attempt would be a demonstration of robotic space vehicles’ capabilty, in addition to providing an Earth orbit (and highly exciting) version of retrieving Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor. Do check out Jim’s article.

Jim Oberg, of course, is a noted journalist, author, linguist (sorry, inside joke) and space consultant for NBC News.

Making Lunar Soil Usable

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Based on what we currently know about the makeup of the lunar regolith, future colonists on the moon will not be able to use the soil on hand to grow food. But in a new experiment, bacteria called cyanobacteria grew quite well in simulated lunar soil. While this wouldn’t be a food source for humans, it would enable lunar soil to be broken down to extract resources for making rocket fuel and fertilizer for crops. This could help with the feasibility of setting up a base on the moon, aiding in reducing costs for certain supplies.

Lunar soil isn’t conducive for growing plants from Earth because many of the nutrients in the soil are locked up in tough minerals that the plants cannot break down. But a group led by Igor Brown of NASA’s Johnson Space Center added the cyanobacteria taken from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (US), to materials designed to approximate the lunar soil. They found that when water, air and light were supplied, the cyanobacteria grew quite well. Cyanobacteria were found to produce acids that work very well to break down tough minerals, including ilmenite, which is relatively abundant on the moon.

Breaking down the same minerals artificially would require heating them to very high temperatures, which would use precious energy, Brown said. Cyanobacteria, on the other hand, use only sunlight for energy, although they do their extraction work more slowly than heating the soil artificially.

Cyanobacteria typically grow in water-rich environments. They are technically a type of bacteria, but like plants, they produce their own food via photosynthesis.

Brown says he envisions growth chambers for cyanobacteria being set up on the Moon, as part of a multi-step process for making use of the resources bound in the lunar soil. The chambers would be supplied with water, sunlight and lunar soil to allow the cyanobacteria to grow.

Cyanobacteria harvested from the chambers could then be further processed to make use of the elements they extract from the lunar soil. For example, they could be broken down by other bacteria, resulting in a nutrient-rich soup that could be used as fertilizer for food plants grown in hydroponic greenhouses. Methane given off by the breakdown of the cyanobacteria could be used as rocket fuel.

Original News Source: New Scientist

Space Junk, Toxic Fuel Rains Down on Siberian Region

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People from the normally quiet and picturesque republic of Altai, Siberia keep their eyes on the sky when a launch occurs from the nearby Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. This region is regularly littered with debris and toxic fuel from space launches, as Altai lies along the flight path of rocket launches to space. Unlike rockets launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which shed excess stages into the Atlantic Ocean, sections from rockets launched from Baikonur crash back on land, usually landing in the Altai region of the Kazakh steppe.

Two incidents of falling debris in the past two weeks prompted farmers to file claims against the Russian space agency for damages. Four horses were reportedly killed from traces of toxic fuel in found in space debris that landed on grazing land and another 4.5 meter chunk of metal landed very close to a house.

According to the Moscow Times, the Russian Federal Space Agency and Altai authorities have designated a strip of land where rocket debris is supposed to fall. People who live in the zone are given at least 24 hours’ notice of falling debris. Only those outside the zone are entitled to any compensation for damage caused by the launches.

The two recent incidents both occurred outside the zone, an official said.

In 2007, 27 people in the Ust-Kansky region were hospitalized with cancer-related illnesses they said were linked to contamination from falling debris. Also, in September 2007, a Proton-M rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned around two minutes after takeoff, crashing near another Kazakh city, Zhezkazgan. No one was injured in the incident, but Russia paid Kazakhstan more than $2 million in compensation, after admitting that the rocket had been filled with higher-than-permissible levels of toxic heptyl fuel.
Space Junk.  Image credit:  Jonas Bendiksen/Eurasianet.org
In cases where there is a rocket malfunction, the procedure is for ground control to destroy it, often spreading debris outside the expected area.
People from the region say that the Soviets thoroughly cleaned up debris from the discarded stages, but clean-up efforts have scaled back considerably since the Soviet Union fell. The pictures used here are from a 2002 photo essay by Norwegian photographer Jonas Bendiksen showing the large pieces of debris laying lying around the Altai region.

Original News Source: New York Times

STS-123 Photo/Video Journal

The crews of space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station have been busy during the current mission and here’s a few pictures and a video to update what’s been happening. Early Sunday, Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Mike Foreman completed the second spacewalk of five scheduled for STS-123. The two spacewalkers assembled Dextre, the final element of the International Space Station’s Mobile Servicing System, attaching two arms to the robot-like tool designed for station maintenance and service. Above is a picture of Linnehan during the first spacewalk. He’s anchored to the Canadarm2 mobile foot restraint as it moves him into position for a construction task. Isn’t that something we’d all like to do….be out in space and pretend to be flying? This image is the embodiment of the human spirit.

2nd spacewalk.  Image credit:  NASA TV

Here’s an image from the second spacewalk, with the two astronauts working on constructing the stick-figure like Dextre. With its two arms, Dextre will remove and replace smaller components on the Station’s exterior. It will be equipped with lights, video equipment, a tool platform and four tool holders. Each of the arms are 11 feet long and have seven different joints.

Dextre can perform dexterous tasks, and can sense forces and movements of objects it is manipulating, and can automatically compensate its movements to ensure the payload is manipulated smoothly. Dextre will be used to load and unload objects, use robotic tools, attach and detach covers and install various units of the Space Station.

Entering Kibo.  Image Credit:  NASA TV

The other important task for this mission is attaching the Japanese Logistics Module’s Pressurized Section (JLP), the first component of the Japan’s Kibo laboratory. This is an image from NASA TV showing Japanese astronaut Takao Doi as he and Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson open up the module and go inside for the first time.

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Astronaut Garrett Reisman, Expedition 16 flight engineer works during the first spacewalk of the mission. Among other tasks, he and Linnehan prepared the Japanese logistics module for removal from Space Shuttle Endeavour’s payload bay and installed equipment on Dextre.

Working with the ISS arm.  Image Credit:  NASA

NASA astronauts Greg Johnson (foreground), STS-123 pilot; and Bob Behnken, mission specialist, work the controls of the station’s robotic Canadarm2 in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Endeavour is docked with the station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Leopold Eyharts, mission specialist, looks on.

Wake-up calls are a long-standing tradition of the NASA program. Each day during the mission, flight controllers in the Mission Control Center will greet the crew with an appropriate musical interlude. This video from flight day 4 gives us chance to get to know Garrett Reisman (aka Mr. Saturday Night) who will stay on board the ISS for 6 months.

Galileo Returns to the Vatican

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Four centuries after Galileo Galilei was ordered by the Catholic Church to come to Rome and stand trial on suspicion of heresy, a statue of the Italian astronomer will be erected at the Vatican. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, which celebrates 400 years since Galileo first used a telescope to study the heavens, and the Vatican plans to join in commemorating the anniversary. Galileo was condemned to house arrest by the Catholic Church in 1633 because his belief that the sun was at the center of the solar system, and not the Earth, contradicted the bible.

The statue was commissioned by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and was paid for with private donations. The president of the Academy, Nicola Cabibbo, said the statue shows Galileo standing and gesturing as if he were teaching. Cabibbo, a particle scientist, said honoring Galileo in this way is important because the Academy considers Galileo to be one of the oldest members of their group. Galileo was a member of the National Academy of Lincei, from which the Pontifical Academy began.

At his trial, Galileo argued that his heliocentric beliefs and writings did not oppose the church’s teachings, and stated that the bible was not meant to provide scientific explanations. He once wrote that scripture does not reveal what is in the heavens, but rather how to get to heaven.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II acknowledged that that the church made a mistake when it condemned Galileo for maintaining that the Earth revolved around the sun. At that time the church officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary. The pope also said that theologians should keep informed on scientific advances to determine if there would be cause for “introducing changes in their teaching.”

The exact location for the statue has not yet been determined, but Cabibbo was confident that the details would be worked out in time for the start of the anniversary celebrations in early 2009.

Original News Source: The Catholic Times

Google Sky Takes You There

OK, I think I have my feet back on the ground now. But I may have gotten lost in the Small Magellanic Cloud’s Open Star Cluster. I’ve just been playing around with Google Sky, and have traveled around the universe, seeing dramatic astronomical images as never before. Anyone interested in astronomy, or those of you who just like awe-inspiring images will enjoy Google Sky. Just like Google Earth, Google Sky allows you to search for specific locations, zoom in and out of images, and pan around areas to look at nearby features. But Google Sky teams up with some of the largest ground- and space-based astronomical surveys to allow you to explore the far reaches of the universe.

You can select from the thumbnail images at the bottom of the display to bring up planets, constellations, highlights from the Hubble Space Telescope, famous stars, galaxies and nebulae, and views of the universe in the x-ray, ultraviolet and infrared. There’s also podcasts about upcoming astronomical events, and plenty of information about the images, including direct links to the Hubble’s comprehensive website about the specific image you are viewing.

What I found most interesting is the infrared images, particularly the ones from Spitzer. Initially, you see them in the visible spectrum, but then it quickly changes to infrared. Being able to compare the two spectrums is one of my favorite aspects of Google Sky. And other features allow you to play with the transparency to blend between all the different wavelengths and see how different parts of the universe light up at different wavelengths.

There’s also a view of the microwave sky from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which shows the universe as it was 380,000 years after the big bang.

Also very interesting is the “Historical” feature, seeing the sky as drawn by Giovanni Maria Cassini (printed in 1792) showing the constellations in their classical form.

You can also use Google Sky to observe your own view of the sky, and zoom in for a closer look.

Start gallivanting around the universe with Google Sky here.

Cassini Survives Close Flyby of Enceladus

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The Cassini spacecraft’s audacious flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on March 12 has provided scientists more information about the geyser-like jets of ice shooting from the moon’s southern hemisphere. It also highlighted the drastic geologic differences between the moon’s north and south pole. While the data collected from the geysers is still being analyzed, images from the flyby showed a north polar region that is older and pitted with fractured craters, compared to the relatively newer cracks in south pole area from which water jets are emanating. The spacecraft came within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of the surface at closest approach and 200 kilometers (120 miles) while flying through the plume.

“These new images are showing us in great detail how the moon’s north pole differs from the south, an important comparison for working out the moon’s obviously complex geological history,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader. “And the success of yesterday’s daring and very low-altitude flyby means this coming summer’s very close encounter, when we get exquisitely detailed images of the surface sources of Enceladus’ south polar jets, should be an exciting ‘next big step’ in understanding just how the jets are powered.”

Cassini was traveling about 15 kilometers per second (32,000 mph) through plumes from the geysers. The flyby was designed so that Cassini’s particle analyzers could dissect the “body” of the plume for information on the density, size, composition and speed of the particles.

Cassini scientists are pouring over the data being returned, which will give them a better understanding of the unique plume environment of Enceladus and possibly how the geysers are being formed.

The images show the north polar region is much older and pitted with craters of various sizes. These craters are captured at different stages of disruption and alteration by tectonic activity, and probably from past heating from below. Many of the craters seem sliced by small parallel cracks that appear to be ubiquitous throughout the old cratered terrains on Enceladus.

Future close flybys may bring Cassini even closer to the surface of Enceladus. The spacecraft will come close to Enceladus again in August, and skim even closer to the moon’s surface in October.

Original News Source: JPL Press Release

Endeavour’s Launch Lights Up the Night Sky

With a spectacular and rare nighttime launch, space shuttle Endeavour lit up the dark sky and rocketed flawlessly to orbit. The shuttle launched at 2:28 am EST to begin its chase of the International Space Station. During the planned 16-day mission, the crew’s two prime objectives are to deliver and attach to the ISS the first component of Japan’s new laboratory called Kibo, as well as Canada’s new robotics system, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre. STS-123 is the 25th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

The launch of the first section of the Kibo lab is Japan’s first contribution to the space station. For the first time since space station construction began nearly 10 years ago, all five major partners will have hardware as part of the orbiting complex.

NASA astronaut Dominic Gorie commands a crew of six, including Pilot Greg Johnson and Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan, Robert Behnken, Mike Foreman, Garrett Reisman and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi. Johnson, Behnken and Foreman are making their first spaceflight. The crew has a busy flight, with five spacewalks for station construction. They will also test different repair techniques for damaged shuttle tiles.

Reisman will stay on board the station, replacing Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Leopold Eyharts, who arrived at the ISS aboard Atlantis in February, and he will return to Earth with the Endeavour crew.

Original News Source: NASA