Volunteers Sweat for NASA

For three weeks, 23 volunteers spent time helping NASA test a new life support system for the spacecraft that will replace the shuttle. Five volunteers at a time would squeeze into a special room the size of a walk-in closet for eight hours. Sweating and heavy breathing was encouraged, as scientists at Johnson Space Center wanted to measure the amount of moisture and carbon dioxide absorbed by a new system designed to control carbon dioxide and humidity inside a crew capsule in order to make air breathable and living space more comfortable. The tests took place from April 14 to May 1 of this year and are some of the first to use human subjects in support of NASA’s Orion crew capsule, Altair lunar lander and lunar rovers.

“We’re moving from paper studies to tests with hardware that will evolve and become part of the spacecraft that will fly back to the moon,” said test volunteer and NASA engineer Evan Thomas at Johnson.

Known as the Carbon-dioxide and Moisture Removal Amine Swing-bed, or CAMRAS, the new system will help sustain life on exploration vehicles and reduce the dependence on resupply from Earth.

“Our goal for CAMRAS is to develop a simple, regenerative, lightweight device that will work for both the Orion crew capsule and the Altair lunar lander,” said lead researcher Jeff Sweterlitsch.

The Exploration Life Support project also is developing technologies that will recover oxygen and water vapor, recycle spacecraft wastewater into drinking water and recover usable resources from wastes.

This series of tests put volunteers inside a test chamber scaled to be the size of the Orion crew capsule, about 570 cubic feet. The volunteers, who were selected and grouped to replicate a typical crew, were asked to sleep, eat and exercise during test sessions that lasted from a few hours to overnight.

“The air smelled a little artificial, like on a plane, and it was a little crowded,” said Aaron Hetherington, one of the volunteers and a director for the test. “But the air was fine; the temperature comfortable. My biggest observation is that it was unremarkable, which is good because that means the hardware was working.”

Two additional phases of testing on CAMRAS are planned.

Video of the tests are available on NASA TV

Original News Source: NASA Press Release

The Space Traveler’s Guide to Surviving Without a Spacesuit (Part 1)

In a few decades from now, when we’ve got interplanetary space travel perfected and all of us Average Joes can hop in our own personal spacecraft or grab the local express line of the Milky Way Transport Service, visiting other planets and moons is going to be a blast. Just imagine it: kicking back for a relaxing weekend on Mars, or heading out for a diving expedition on Europa, or possibly week of mountain climbing on Titan. But there are a few safety rules we’ll need to know, especially in the event of a spacesuit failure. Unfortunately, unless someone is able to figure out how to do some serious terraforming, we’ll all be stuck wearing spacesuits in order to survive on the other worlds in our solar system. And just how bad would it be if your spacesuit malfunctioned? Well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Here’s a look at some problems you might encounter without an operational spacesuit on other worlds.


We’ll start with Mercury. Lack of air is going to be a serious problem here if your spacesuit quits working. So far, no discernable atmosphere has been detected on Mercury, except for trace amounts of helium, so maybe you could amuse your companions by doing a Munchkin voice for a short while before you passed out. A spacesuit designed for Mercury would have to withstand high temperature fluctuations, as temperatures range from -150 C to 425 C. Without your spacesuit, you’d either freeze or instantly turn into a carbon briquette, depending on which side of the planet you were standing. Moving about on Mercury would be fairly easy, since the gravity is about 1/3 that of Earth, and Mercury has smooth plains, plentiful craters and high cliffs that would be fun to explore. But if you were stuck on Mercury with a malfunctioning spacesuit, it would be a very long bad day, since one day on Mercury is equal to 59 days on Earth.


Venus. Why anyone would want to visit Venus is a mystery. It’s too hot, too cloudy and the atmospheric pressure is downright depressing. A spacesuit designed for Venus would need to be constructed of titanium or some other material that could withstand Venus’ high surface pressure, which is 90 times that of Earth’s. Without a strong spacesuit, you’d be instantly squashed. The Russians tried several times to land a robotic spacecraft on Venus, and most never made it to the surface without being crushed. The Venera 8 lander, however, lasted 50 minutes. So, if your titanium-strength spacesuit was working, and you, too could survive for at least 50 minutes, there are 1600 major volcanoes, lots of mountains, large highland terrains, and vast lava plains to explore. Before landing on Venus, you’d want to do a thorough checkout of your spacesuit’s Primary Life Support Subsystem (PLSS) which contains oxygen tanks, carbon dioxide scrubbers, cooling water, communications, and ventilating fans. You’ll need all of those things to be working at peak efficiency. Venus’ atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide (96%), with some carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide thrown in just to keep the riffraff out. Suffice to say, without a spacesuit, you wouldn’t last long and you might not even make it to the surface. And a bad day on Venus would be even worse than on Mercury: it’s about 230 Earth days long.


If you plan just to take a day trip and visit our Moon, you’re probably going to be in pretty good shape, as we’ve had the chance to thoroughly test out spacesuits designed for the lunar surface. Again, you’re going to need your PLSS, since there’s no air on the moon. Just the opposite of Venus, there’s no air pressure on old Luna, so you’ll need your spacesuit to keep your innards inside your body. Surface temperatures can vary dramatically over the course of a day, from 100° C at noon to -173° C at night, so a malfunctioning spacesuit might cause a predicament. But hopefully there’ll be a moon base just around the corner if you run into any problems.

Let’s head back to the safety of Earth now before we head on out to the rest of our solar system.

Sources: (9) 8 Planets, Windows to the Universe

Atmosphere of Venus



Earth and Venus share many physical characteristics. Atmosphere is not one of them. The atmosphere of Venus is so harsh that it is the main reason that no one has ever been able to make optical observations of anything other than the planet’s upper atmosphere.

Visualization of the planet is made impossible be the high amounts of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. Clouds in the upper atmosphere are full of sulfuric acid droplets. Sulfur is highly reflective of visible light, thus preventing observation much deeper than the upper limits of the clouds themselves.

The next challenge that the atmosphere of Venus presents is its composition. It is made up of 96% carbon dioxide. Oxygen can not be detected even as a trace element. At the surface the atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of Earth. If you were able to find a way to survive the intense pressure and had enough oxygen, you would be standing on a surface that is hot enough to melt lead. The temperature across Venus, from pole to pole, is a steady 462°C as a result of the atmosphere’s greenhouse qualities. In the hottest parts of the hottest deserts here on Earth, the temperatures never top 50°C.

The sweltering surface of the planet is covered by volcanoes, impact craters, and old lava flows. There are 1,000 volcanic craters and crater remnants that are over 20 km in diameter. The surface has never been impacted by a small meteorite. The atmosphere burns up anything small. It could take an asteroid in excess of 50 km to survive long enough to hit the surface and then it would have lost close to half of its mass in the atmosphere. The entire planet was resurfaced by volcanic flows between 300 and 500 million years ago.

Several spacecraft have entered the atmosphere of Venus. The first successful probe was the Soviet mission Venera 3, but its instruments failed before entry. Venera 4successfully deployed a number of science experiments. They showed a surface temperature of almost 500°C and an atmosphere that was 90 to 95% carbon dioxide. The atmosphere was much denser than anticipated and its slower descent caused its batteries to run down before reaching the surface. NASA’s Mariner 5 reached the planet one day after Venera 4, but only flew by. The data from the two missions were compared and were an early step in international space exploration cooperation. The Soviet space agency also launched Venera’s 5 and 6. They returned a great deal of information, but were crushed by atmospheric pressure within 20 km of the surface.

There have been over a dozen missions to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus since the Venera program. Currently, the Venus Express mission is in orbit. Bepicolumbo and the Venus in-Situ Explorer are planned. Each mission returns new data, it is hard to imagine what mysteries may be unraveled with a surface explorer.

We have written many articles about Venus for Universe Today. Here are some interesting facts about Venus, and here are some pictures of planet Venus.

If you’d like more information on Venus, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Venus, and here’s a link to NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Venus.

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Venus. Listen here, Episode 50: Venus.

References:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_The_Planet_Venus_5-8.html
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Venus&Display=OverviewLong

History of Planet Venus



Venus is one of the 5 planets visible to the unaided eye, and so it has been seen in the sky since prehistoric times. After the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky – brighter than any stars.

Venus is the Roman name for the Greek goddess of love; Aphrodite. But there are references to Venus as far back as Babylonian cuneiformic texts, like the Venus table of Ammisaduqa which could be as old as 1600 BC. Ancient Egyptians thought that Venus was actually two separate objects… a morning star, and then a completely different evening star. The tradition carried on with the ancient Greeks, as well.

The early mathematician Pythagoras was one of the first to recognize that the morning and evening stars were actually the same object: Venus. So perhaps he was the first to “discover Venus”.

The Maya civilization held Venus in high regard, and the planet figured prominently in their religious calendar.

Once he built his first rudimentary telescope, Galileo turned it towards Venus, was was astonished to find that the planet goes through phases like the Moon, going from crescent to gibbous to full and then back again. This was one of the strongest pieces of evidence that Venus goes around the Sun, and not the Earth as others originally believed.

Because Venus has always been obscured by thick clouds, science fiction writers have been free to imagine whatever they wanted existed on the surface of Venus. The clouds helped them to imagine a warm tropical world with constant rainfall and lush vegetation. The truth, of course, is that Venus is a hellish hot world, devoid of life.

Spock’s Astronomy Quiz

Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock. Credit: CBS Television

Have you ever wanted to test your astronomy knowledge against the best? Then take the warp speed jump to Spock’s Astro Quiz. It’s more than just astronomy trivia, it’s a great way to test your astronomy knowledge, learn more about astronomy related topics and interact via live chat with others interested in astronomy…

Welcome to Spock’s Astro Quiz, a great place to see just how much you know about astronomy and to enjoy the company of astronomy minded individuals. No special knowledge, secret passwords, or fancy hoops to jump through to enjoy the fun… All you have to do is click Log In and get started!

While you’re there, this interactive site will not only allow to test your astronomy skill against Spock’s, but to chat live with astronomy-minded visitors and play against each other as well. Just a word of caution though… Spock plays a clean astronomy game. Use a swear word and you’ll be warned once. Do it again and you’re permanently beamed out. The astronomy quiz and astronomy chat board is continually monitored and safe for players of all ages. Solicitors of any type will be immediately banned.

Test your astronomy skill… Enjoy the company of other astronomy friends during cloudy nights… And live long and prosper!

Brought to you by Macedon Ranges Observatory.

Pictures of Planet Venus

Venus is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, so it’s not surprising that it’s been photographed many times. Some pictures of Venus have been taken from here on Earth, while other Venus pics have been taken from spacecraft orbiting the planet. You might be surprised to know that spacecraft have even landed on Venus (they didn’t last long), and took images of Venus from the surface.

Surface Image of Venus
This is a picture of Venus captured by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft. It shows the entire surface of the planet, imaged by the spacecraft’s radar instrument, which can penetrate the thick clouds to reveal the surface below. Magellan was launched from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis in May 1989, and arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. It orbited the planet for 4 years before plunging to the surface.


3-D Image of Venus’ Surface
This is another photograph of Venus taken by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft. Planetary scientists used the radar data captured by Magellan to build up 3-dimensional images of the planet’s surface. This is an image of the Eistla Regio region, which contains volcanos and impact craters.



Photo of Venus from Pioneer Venus Spacecraft
This was one of the first ever close-up photographs of Venus, captured by NASA’s Pioneer Venus spacecraft. It’s actually a false color image made from ultraviolet images of the planet Venus by the spacecraft. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter went into orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978, and released several probes into Venus’ atmosphere to study it.


The Surface of Venus by Venera
You might be amazed to know that spacecraft have actually landed on the surface of Venus and sent pictures back. The Soviets sent a fleet of Venera spacecraft to Venus, and several actually made it down to the surface. Here’s a color photograph of Venus captured by the Venera 13 spacecraft, which landed on the surface of Venus on March 3, 1982.



Picture of Venus by Venus Express
This is a false-color image of Venus taken by the Venus Monitoring Camera on board ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft. It’s showing the planet’s southern hemisphere, including its south pole. The spacecraft captured the image when it was 35,000 km from the surface of Venus.

Photos of the Earth and Moon – From Other Worlds

Image taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, showing Earth and the Moon. Credit: NASA/JPL

We’re familiar with the close-up images of Earth captured by orbital satellites and astronauts on the International Space Station. But here are a few pictures of the Earth and Moon captured at a distance, while passing around the Moon, or orbiting distant Saturn. In the words of Carl Sagan, “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.”

Since Sagan commented on Voyager 1’s image of Earth, several more pics of the Earth and Moon have been captured that really put our tiny spot in the Universe into perspective.


Voyager 1 – the Pale Blue Dot
This image, captured by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft on February 14, 1990, is the one Sagan was talking about. It was taken when Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometres (4 billion miles) from Earth. In this image, the entirety of the planet takes up less than a single pixel; in fact, NASA calculated that we’re only 0.12 pixel in size. Sagan pushed the agency to capture images of all the planets in the Solar System, to create a family portrait seen from Voyager’s distant position.



Cassini – the Earth from Saturn
This is easily the best picture ever captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, and in the running for the best space pictures of all time. It shows Saturn in all its glory, backlit by the Sun. From this view, the rings glow with an ethereal light.

But this image is extra special. Take a look towards the upper left of the image, and you’ll notice a tiny blue-white dot. Once again, there’s Earth, seen from a distance of 1.4 billion km (1 billion miles).


Mars Express – the Earth and Moon from Mars
ESA’s Mars Express captured this image of Earth and the Moon on July 3, 2005 when it was 8 million km (5 million miles). This was actually the first observational data sent back by the probe. A fitting introduction to Martian system. Of course, Mars Express was designed to image the relatively nearby surface of Mars, and not such distant objects, so the resolution of the image isn’t very good. And yet, they’re instantly recognizable as the Earth and Moon.

Opportunity Rover – the Earth from the Surface of Mars

Here’s an image of Earth captured from the surface of another planet. In this case, we’re seeing Earth from Mars, as photographed by NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity on April 29, 2005. Normally operating only in the Martian day, Opportunity woke up a little after sunset, and captured this image of Earth as the stars were starting to come out. The image of Earth looks a little elongated because it was moving slightly during the 15-second exposures. Imagine what some future Martian might see, stepping out onto the surface of the Red Planet in the dusky twilight to see our bright planet in the sky.


Rosetta – Earth and Moon during a flyby

Now this is what you might have been expecting to see. A picture of Earth, with the continents clearly visible. This photograph of Earth and the other of the Moon were taken by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft during a flyby on November 15, 2007. Rosetta’s primary mission is to visit Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014, but this flyby was a great opportunity for Rosetta to test out its OSIRIS camera system. The image of the Moon was taken separately.


Earthrise – seen from the Moon
This is the classic “Earthrise” photograph, captured by astronaut William Anders during the historic Apollo 8 mission – the first human mission to the Moon. This photograph was taken on December 24, 1968. If you’re standing on the surface of the Moon, the Earth doesn’t actually “rise”. Since the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, our planet always hangs in exactly the same point of the sky. It takes an orbiting spacecraft to see the Earth actually rise from the horizon.

This photograph was recreated by the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft, which captured a similar sequence of the Earth using its high-definition video camera.

Earth from Galileo
And finally, I think I’ve saved one of the best pictures for last. This is a photograph of the Earth and Moon (not to scale) captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft as it was speeding away towards Jupiter. Galileo captured these images in 1992, and finally reached the Jovian system in 1995-97. You’re looking at the Pacific Image, with South America visible as well as the Caribbean.

Lightning Storm Generated by Chilean Volcano (Images)

The Chaiten volcano erupting during storms in the middle of the night (Daily Mail - UK Newspaper)

It could be the scene from a movie: huge plumes of ash and gas rising during a ferocious volcanic eruption, sparking off a dazzling lightning storm; lightning bolts thundering to life inside and out of the hot cloud. However, this is the reality down on the ground for the people living near the Chaiten Volcano, southern Chile, who have been evacuated since the volcano erupted on Friday. Activity continues to increase, producing these terrifying, yet mesmerizing scenes…

Bolts of lightning erupt as the plume rises (Daily Mail/UPI/Carlos Gutierrez)

Lightning can happen as a result of a volcanic eruption. As the hot ash rises through the cooler atmosphere, transfer of charge occurs. This excess of electrons within the cloud makes it act like a capacitor, and should the conditions be correct, huge electrical discharges may be observed as bolts of lightning during volcanic eruptions. It seems that the Chaiten volcano’s recent activity has created the perfect conditions for such a show, allowing photographers in the region to capture some stunning images.

The eruption as viewed from orbit, probably from the ISS (Daily Mail)

I actually saw the picture shown at the top of this article in a double page spread in today’s edition of the UK’s Daily Mail. At first I couldn’t work out what I was seeing but on reading the caption I soon realized it was connected with the recent eruption in Chile. Fortunately the Daily Mail also posted the article on their website, giving me the opportunity to share these incredible images on the Universe Today.

The eruption looms (AP)

This region of South America has some very active plate tectonics and has been dubbed “Andean Arc” region of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia containing around 200 to 300 volcanoes. Volcanologists are highly concerned as many of these volcanoes are located in densely populated areas, so they are studying the Chaiten eruption very carefully. The small town of Chaiten is being threatened by this particular eruption, but fortunately the surrounding area is otherwise unpopulated.

Sources: Physorg.com, Daily Mail

Snow on Mercury?

No, not that kind of snow, but scientists say deep inside the planet Mercury, iron “snow” forms and falls toward the center of the planet, much like snowflakes form in Earth’s atmosphere and fall to the ground. The movement of this iron snow could be responsible for Mercury’s mysterious magnetic field, and Mercury may be the only body in our solar system where this occurs.

Mercury and Earth are the only local terrestrial planets that possess a global magnetic field. But Mercury’s is about 100 times weaker than Earth’s, which scientists have been unable to explain.

Made mostly of iron, Mercury’s core is also thought to contain sulfur, which lowers the melting point of iron and plays an important role in producing the planet’s magnetic field.

To better understand the physical state of Mercury’s core, the researchers in a lab recreated the conditions believed to exist at Mercury’s core, and melted an iron-sulfur mixture at high pressures and high temperatures.

In each experiment, an iron-sulfur sample was compressed to a specific pressure and heated to a specific temperature. The sample was then quenched, cut in two, and analyzed with a scanning electron microscope and an electron probe microanalyzer.

As the molten, iron-sulfur mixture in the outer core slowly cools, iron atoms condense into cubic “flakes” that fall toward the planet’s center, said Bin Chen, University of Illinois graduate student and lead author of a paper published in the April issue of Geophysical Research Letters. As the iron snow sinks and the lighter, sulfur-rich liquid rises, convection currents are created that power the dynamo and produce the planet’s weak magnetic field.

The researchers say their findings provide a new context for the data that will be obtained from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which will flyby Mercury for a second time on October 6, 2008. It will pass by the planet again in September of 2009, and go into orbit in March of 2011.

Original News Source: Eureka Alert

Here are some interesting facts about Mercury.

Where In The Universe? #4

Here’s this week’s “Where In The Universe?” mystery image. Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to guess what location in the universe is depicted here. No peeking below before you make a guess. Give yourself an extra point if you can name the feature shown here, and another point or two if you can name the spacecraft that took this image. I have to admit, I was drawn to this image strictly by the color: blue is my favorite, and especially this shade of blue. Kind of electric, don’t you think? Let’s see, could this be a moon, or a planet, or even a portion of a planetary nebula, or perhaps a photo from somewhere on our home planet? Make your guesses now, or maybe you knew what this was the moment you saw it….

Have you made your guess?

This spectacular image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s a close-up view of an electric-blue aurora that is eerily glowing on the planet Jupiter. It was taken by HST’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) using an ultraviolet filter.

Auroras are curtains of light resulting from high-energy electrons racing along the planet’s magnetic field into the upper atmosphere. The electrons excite atmospheric gases, causing them to glow. The aurora is centered on Jupiter’s magnetic north pole.

Although this aurora resembles the same phenomenon seen at Earth’s polar regions, this image shows unique emissions from the magnetic “footprints” of three of Jupiter’s largest moons. These points are reached by following Jupiter’s magnetic field from each satellite down to the planet.

Auroral footprints can be seen in this image from Io (along the left hand limb), Ganymede (near the center), and Europa (just below and to the right of Ganymede’s auroral footprint). These emissions, produced by electric currents generated by the satellites, flow along Jupiter’s magnetic field, bouncing in and out of the upper atmosphere. They are unlike anything seen on Earth.

This ultraviolet image of Jupiter was taken with the on November 26, 1998. In this ultraviolet view, the aurora stands out clearly, but Jupiter’s cloud structure is masked by haze.

So, how’d you do?

Image credit: NASA/ESA, John Clarke (University of Michigan)

Link to image on the Hubble Site.