September 25, 2008
NASA Chief hits a home-run. . .
I imagine that being the administrator of NASA is one of the toughest jobs in government). I also think that Michael Griffin has done an admirable job considering the rapidly changing environment that NASA finds itself in today.
I've quoted Griffin before, and I'm going to do it again.
"The single overarching goal of human space flight is the human settlement of the solar system, and eventually beyond. I can think of no lesser purpose sufficient to justify the difficulty of the enterprise, and no greater purpose is possible."
Click here for the interview with AFP. (via BB)
Did you know that NASA was 50???
NASA - One of the best sites on the internet.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:57 PM | TrackBack
July 5, 2008
Real Universe vs. Star Trek
Here's an image of an "object" in our universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA-IOTD):
And here's an image of an object in the Star Trek "universe":
That's just damn creepy.
--Jason
Hat-tip: Lileks
PS - Ok, you twisted my arm, the Hubble image is of a shockwave from a super-nova.
Posted by JasonColeman at 5:31 PM | TrackBack
January 29, 2007
Today's Grab a Cup of Coffee - NASA Director Griffen's Speech
This is worth reading, on a number of levels. The quote below is pulled from the speech NASA Director Michael Griffin's speech accepting the Quasar award on Jan. 17.
"Let's think for a moment about national security. What is the value to the United States of being involved in enterprises which lift up human hearts everywhere when we do them? What is the value to the United States of being engaged in such projects, doing the kinds of things that other people want to do with us, as partners? What is the value to the United States of being a leader in such efforts, in projects in which every nation capable of doing so wants to take part? I would submit that the highest possible form of national security, well above having better guns and bombs than everyone else, well above being so strong that no one wants to fight with us, is the security which comes from being a nation which does the kinds of things that make others want to work with us to do them. What security could we ever ask that would be better than that, and what give more of it to us than the space program? "
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:55 AM
May 19, 2006
Let's get ready to rumble. . .
The Space Shuttle Discovery is currently making it's way out to Lauch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle makes the four mile journey from the Vechicle Assembly Building to the Pad at the snail's pace of less than one mile per hour. An similar journey has already been made by the STS-121 Payload Canister already where it will await the shuttle's arrival before it is loaded aboard.
Payload canister on it's way to Launchpad 39B.
Click here for high res image.
Nasa TV is currently streaming video of Discovery's journey to the pad. Click here to view.
Shuttle Mission STS-121 will launch a 7 member crew into orbit with Mission Commander Col. Steve Lindsay, USAF taking his second trip as commander (Lindsay has also been Mission Pilot on STS-87 and STS-95). STS-121 will be piloted by Navy Cmdr. Mark Kellly in his second shuttle mission. Other crew members on STS-121 include Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter (representing the European Space Agency and who will remain aboard the International Space Station).
The primary mission tasks for STS-121 include testing a number of new safety measures integrated into the shuttle system after the failure of Columbia upon re-entry including redesigned components of the external rocket boosters and main fuel tank which shed insulating foam leading to the destruction of Columbia. Additional tasks include delivering a Leonardo logisitics module to the ISS which will carry equipment and supplies to the station, and two scheduled spacewalks with the possibility of a third.
The first of the two scheduled spacewalks will test a 50 ft. extension of the robotic arm system and it's suitability for a work platform, the spacewalk will also work to repair or replace a cable cutter unit which was damaged and is necessary for future space station construction.
The second spacewalk will continue the tasks of the first and reattach a cable on the stations exterior which was inadvertantly cut on a previous mission. This second spacewalk will also deliver and install spare parts for the International Space Stations thermal contol system so that they will be available if needed in the future.
A third spacewalk may be carried out if time permits which would be centered around in-space repair techniques for possible damaged carbon-fiber panels or heat shield elements. Should inspection with the new Orbital Boom Sensor System, OBSS (which looks for damaged elements of the heat shield) detect a problem, we can expect a restructuring of mission tasks to make this third spacewalk a priority over the two scheduled.
I'm sure I'll be posting more about STS-121 and the Shuttle Program in general over the coming weeks, as we get closer to launch which will occur sometime after July 1, 2006. (Exact dates for the launch window have yet to be announced.)
Images courtesy of NASA and you can visit the STS-121 mission website here.
--Jason
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:06 PM | TrackBack
March 9, 2006
Meet Enceladus. . .
I would like to introduce you all to Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn and, apart from the Sun, one of the "brightest" objects in our solar system (Enceladus has an albedo of >0.9, in contrast the Earth has an albedo of about 0.3.)
Enceladus is making news today because NASA's Cassini spacecraft is making it's closest approach yet to Saturn's satellite, and Cassini has made some remarkable discoveries in the small (approx. 500 km across) moon. Volcanic forces are present on Enceladus, forces which are warming the interior of the small moon and in turn warming the liquid under the sheet of ice which encapsulates the moon. Further, all the evidence indicates that this liquid is actually water. That's right kiddies, liquid water, not ice, not liquid methane, not liquid sulphur, but actual liquid water is believed to have been found and confirmed, not just theorized, on another body in our very own solar system.
Astronomically speaking, this is the equivalent of man's discovery of fire. This is the big one, a discovery that may forever change how we look at the night sky and a discovery which brings the possibility of life exterestrial life out of the realm of science fiction and closer to the realm of science fact.
Since it's discovery by Herschel in 1789, it was tought that Enceladus was just another rocky, icy orb out in the "middle part" of our solar system. Enceladus was too small for radioactive decay to heat the little planet's core and it was though to be just another rock with an icy crust.
Enter Dione, another of Saturn's moons and one which is locked in resonance with Enceladus. Dione's close proximity to Enceladus has caused perturbations in it's partners orbit and gravitational forces have been tugging away at the moons inards and in turn producing heat, heat which causes volcanism, volcanism which keeps the subsurface sea of Enceladus warm enough to keep liquid water stable.
This is truely a remarkable event, and I'll be updating more today as this story develops.
--Jason
UPDATE: The story of Enceladus has all the earmarks of a great detective thriller. Late last year, scientists began to notice that Enceladus was geologically active. As mentioned above, this was curious because of Enceladus' small size, but it was the interference of Dione which turned out to be the culprit.
Next we find that there's fresh snow on Encelaus' surface, as the liquid beneath the ice caps escapes as vapor only to be frozen solid in the cold of space and fall back onto the tiny world. When scientists turned their attention to this bizarre little world, more and more startling discoveries awaited.
The Saturn system was awash in Oxygen molecules, a very strange occurance to find so far out into the solar system. Turns out, Enceladus was outgassing water vapor which breaks down into, of course, hydrogen (very common out in the ether) and oxygen (very unusual to find out in the inky black). Following the oxygen back to it's source led to the discovery of liquid water on Enceladus.
Images: Enceladus via Voyager - "false-color" enhance image from Cassini
Solarviews.com page on Enceladus.
NASA's Cassini-Huygens page on Enceladus.
In Janurary 2002, Enceladus hit the APOD with the headline "Ski Enceladus".
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:52 PM | TrackBack
March 1, 2006
A 33 minute "mystery" explosion. . .
Ok, I'll be the first to admit that space is big, I mean really really big, so mind boggling BIG. . . . OK OK, I know, Douglas Adams admitted it first, and probably someone before him, but I'm just saying here that "space is big".
Being that space is so big, there's alot, and by alot, I almost all, that we DON'T know about space and what's out there in the inky black.
So it's no surprise that there are "mysteries" out there that Earthly science can't explain, but this little tid bit made me sit up and take a minute to say. . . "Uh oh, this can't be good."
Now you can dismiss this as paranoia, or whatever, but I'll be frank. The first thing I thought about when I read this article was that some civilization 440 million light years from us decided that they REALLY REALLY REALLY had had enough with those guys over there on the other side of their planet and decided to nuke them into oblivion. This resulted in a counterstrike by the other guys which effectively obliterated the civilization.
What did it for me was the time, 33 minutes. Just about the amount of warning you get when you fire a ballistic missile from one hemisphere of the planet at the opposite hemisphere. So one side popped off, the other side saw it coming, and they popped off, the result???? 33 minutes of gamma rays bursting out into the universe.
I'm comforted in a way. Comforted by the thought that there's one less civiliation out there ahead of us looking for other civilizations (like ours) to enslave. I, for one, DO NOT welcome any new Intergalactic Imperial Overlords, thank you.
In another way I'm deeply disturbed. If in fact, this was an alien civilization blowing itself away 440 million years ago, that means that 440 million years ago, there was a civilization out there playing with nuclear weapons. That definately doesn't make me feel good on any level. It only means we're WAY BEHIND in the galactic arms race and for every civilization out there blowing itself away, there's probably one, two, ten or 600 million that figured out that there were little green blue orbs (like ours) out there pumping out reruns of I Love Lucy and the phrase "Lucy! I'm home!" in their language actually means "Hey you, come kick our ass!" The thought of Andy Griffith being a beacon for little green men with nasty dispositions has kept me up at night more than once.
Yes, my dear readers, when I look up in the night sky I don't see pretty stars and friendly constellations, I see big interplanetary battle cruisers manned by really pissed off aliens from some star like 51 Pegasi looking for semi-intelligent bipedal ape-like creatures to enslave.
Ok Ok, I'm half kidding, but I'm also half serious. I'm in no way shape or form under the impression that we're alone out there in the inky black. I'm actually quite certain that we're not alone. I'm also not one of those that subscribes to a theory that any intelligent alien civilization would be friendly to us. In fact, I think that the odds are much better that they'd just want our rock and we'd just be cockroaches to them until we master some form of faster than light travel and can build our own interstellar battle cruisers. Until then, I feel comfortable embracing my fear of aliens coming to waste us.
That's why I'm smiling just a little bit at the thought of some alien civilization blowing itself to smithereens. It just means the odds of us making it went up just a tiny bit. Of course then I think about the insects that survived nuclear armageddon on that rock 440 million light years ago/away and I wonder how far along the Army is in developing the Starship Trooper's Powered Armor.
--Jason
**Comments for this entry are now closed. If you'd like to add something, please email me.**
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:15 AM
October 11, 2005
B15A - Another Update
One of the other "things" on this blog is the "Saga of B15A". B15A is an iceberg, once the largest iceberg on Earth, and B15A had an attitude problem, specifically an attitude problem with Penguins. You see, when B15A broke off the Antarctic Ice Shelf, the currents took it to the Ross Sea, where it blocked in the "fast ice" (ice that formed each Antarctic winter and broke up and floated out to sea each Antarctic summer). The "fast ice" remained trapped in the Ross Sea and caused problems for the Penquin rookery nearby, the Penguins had to walk an extra 20km to reach open water and a source of food, and they had to do this on two inch legs.
Additional difficulties were caused by the berg with regard to the resupply of McMurdo Research Station, the berg and trapped "fast ice" prevented the traditional resupply vessels from reaching the isolated base and the small community there. A broken down icebreaker added to the problem, but where there's a will there's a way, and the U.S. and Russia sent additional icebreakers to clear a path to the base.
B15A has been biding it's time in darkness over the Antarctic winter, but now the sun is shining again and MODIS has a great image showing the berg and it's position relative to the Ross Sea.
Click for larger image
If you look in the top center of the image, you'll see a flat rectangular piece of ice within a larger field, that's B15A. You can see that the berg has moved away from the Ross Sea and shouldn't be causing a problem for the Penguins or McMurdo this year. The "fast ice" should break up and move out to sea as normal, and with a little luck, B15A will also move out to sea where it will eventually melt and raise the levels of the worlds oceans by a miniscule fraction of an inch.
So there's an update on B15A for you iceberg fans, and in case you're wondering why I keep coming back to B15A here and here and here and here and here and here, it's simply because the search phrase "B15A" has brought more visitors to this blog than any other single google search term. Which ain't saying a whole lot, but you gotta play to your audience, ya know.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 7:35 PM | TrackBack
August 8, 2005
Round and round she goes. . .
Here is the NASA mission report announcing that Discovery will stay in orbit another day due to unpredictable cloud cover. Boy do they have this stuff planned out in detail:
Preparations are now focused on the first opportunity to land Tuesday which would begin with an engine firing by Discovery at 3:01 a.m. CDT and lead to a touchdown at KSC at 4:07 a.m. CDT. The additional landing opportunities include: a 4:33 a.m. Shuttle engine firing leading to a 5:39 a.m. landing at White Sands; a 4:37 a.m. engine firing leading to a 5:43 a.m. touchdown at KSC; a 6:06 a.m. engine firing leading to 7:12 a.m. touchdown at Edwards; a 6:09 a.m. engine firing leading to a 7:13 a.m. landing at White Sands; and a 7:44 a.m. engine firing leading to a 8:47 a.m. landing at Edwards.
But HEY, that's what they do.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:36 AM | TrackBack
August 7, 2005
Catching up. . .
I haven't blogged much about the Space Shuttle other than the launch, links to Mission Reports and my thoughts on what to do if the shuttle was damaged. I'm waiting until Discovery lands before I comment any more on the mission.
However, if you're looking for the all the mission reports, they are HERE, and I promise to write an extended post about the shuttle mission and space exploration in general after Discovery returns safely. The shuttle is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:45 (EDT).
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:01 AM | TrackBack
Things that make me feel small. . .
At 6'4" I rarely feel "small", but when I see things pictures like this, it puts it all in perspective:
Clicking on the picture will open
high resolution image in new window.
From Astronomy Picture of the Day:
Explanation: Stars are battling gas and dust in the Lagoon Nebula but the photographers are winning. Also known as M8, this photogenic nebula is visible even without binoculars towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The energetic processes of star formation create not only the colors but the chaos. The red-glowing gas results from high-energy starlight striking interstellar hydrogen gas. The dark dust filaments that lace M8 were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernovae explosions. This spectacular portion of the Lagoon Nebula was created in scientifically-assigned colors from light emitted in very specific colors by hydrogen, silicon, and oxygen. The light from M8 we see today left about 5000 years ago. Light takes about 50 years to cross this section of M8.
I highly recommend making APOD part of your daily internet surfing.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:46 AM | TrackBack
August 5, 2005
I love NASA propaganda. . .
Because it's so damn inspiring. Remember kiddies, propaganda is not always BAD!!!!
Click play to watch the video, then if you're interested, check out:
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:47 PM | TrackBack
August 4, 2005
Catching up. . .
The MSM has done a good job of covering the Discovery's mission, but the mission reports give a few more details.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 7:37 AM | TrackBack
July 30, 2005
Discovery Mission Updates
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:44 AM | TrackBack
July 29, 2005
Water on Mars????
The ESA announced the discovery of a "disk of ice" within an impact crater on the surface of Mars. The discovery was made by the Polar Express spacecraft and scientists have ruled out that the disk is frozen CO2. The long awaited discovery redefines the possibility of life, past or present, on our red neighbor. [Official ESA article with images]
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 6:11 PM | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
Discovery Watch
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:33 PM | TrackBack
Discovery Mission Reports 3 and 4
More news from the mission, including a report on the inspection of the heat shield tiles and the upcoming rendezvous with the ISS.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:29 AM | TrackBack
July 27, 2005
Shuttles Grounded
The Discovery appears to be fine, but the fleet has been grounded.
More to come...
UPDATE: NASA officials announced that after reviewing images from the launch, that "significant" amounts of insulating foam did break free, and while no damage to the orbiter is evident, for safety regions, the fleet is grounded.
This is a huge setback, but not insurmountable. Hopefully this will prompt a rapid development program for the CEV, or prompt a retasking of the shuttle's role in space operations.
UPDATE 2: Full story from SpaceDaily.com
Posted by JasonColeman at 6:01 PM | TrackBack
Discovery Mission Report - First Full Day in Space
VIA NASA -- Mission Report #1 is HERE
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 – 12 a.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
07.27.05
STATUS REPORT: STS-114-02
STS-114 MCC Status Report #02
The crew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery has awakened to its first full day in space. Today it will focus on thermal protection system inspections, preparing for docking to the International Space Station and getting spacesuits ready for three spacewalks.
Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialists Soichi Noguchi, Steve Robinson, Andy Thomas, Wendy Lawrence and Charlie Camarda received a wakeup call at 11:39 p.m. CDT. The song played for the crew was music from the movie "Groundhog Day," which was for the entire crew to commemorate its first day out of quarantine.
For most of the day, Thomas, Camarda and Kelly will work together on Discovery’s aft flight deck to inspect key components of the orbiter's heat shield. For the majority of the inspections the new Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) laser-scanner will be used. The Shuttle's robotic Canadarm will be used to maneuver the 50-foot boom extension after checkout of the system is completed.
In its debut performance, the boom will be used to methodically inspect the leading edges of Discovery's wings and the orbiter's nose cap to insure that they did not incur any damage during launch. The Laser Dynamic Range Imager (LDRI) on the boom will provide two-and three-dimensional imagery. The data will be downlinked to the ground for engineering evaluation.
After those surveys are complete the boom will be placed back on the starboard sill of the payload bay. The Shuttle robotic arm and its cameras will then be used to survey Discovery's crew cabin. Additionally, using handheld digital cameras the crew will photograph tiles on the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pods and the orbiter’s tail.
During Tuesday’s ascent to orbit, the enhanced imaging capability gave flight controllers and mission managers views of the Shuttle Orbiter never seen before. With this heightened ability, engineers were able to see two so-called "debris events." A camera mounted on the external tank caught what appeared to be a small fragment of tile coming from Discovery's underside on or near the nose gear doors. A later image about the time of Solid Rocket Booster separation showed an unidentified piece departing from the tank and exiting away, apparently not striking the orbiter. The crew was notified of these observations and told that imaging experts would be analyzing the pictures.
Mission managers will review the information gathered yesterday and today, including imaging and sensor data, to help determine the health of Discovery’s thermal protection system over the next four days before it is cleared for landing later in the flight. Data from the new wing leading edge sensors was downlinked overnight to Mission Control for assessment.
Flight Day Four has time reserved for additional surveys, if required, using the OBSS, either to complete parts of the survey that time would not allow today, or to supplement the survey with “stop-and-stare” scans of sites of potential interest.
Meanwhile, on the middeck, spacewalkers Noguchi and Robinson, assisted by Lawrence, will check out the airlock, spacesuits and tools they will begin using on Saturday. They will also prepare Shuttle systems for docking to the Space Station.
Today Collins will fire Discovery’s thrusters twice to refine its approach to the Station. At about midnight, Discovery was trailing the Station by 6,516 statute miles. The two are scheduled to link up at 6:18 a.m. CDT Thursday.
Today the Space Station crew, Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer John Phillips will prepare the complex for Discovery’s arrival. They will configure the digital cameras they will use during Discovery’s approach, gathering additional imagery of the Shuttle’s heat shield. They also will pressurize the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA 2) that Discovery will dock to Thursday.
The next STS-114 mission status report will be issued Wednesday evening, or earlier, if events warrant.
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:20 PM | TrackBack
Shuttle Decisions. . .
Yesterday's launch of the Shuttle Discovery was the most heavily monitored launch yet. The Columbia tragedy confirmed yet again that Space Exploration is a dangerous task, and every launch has the potential for disaster.
Hundreds of cameras were trained on every inch of the orbiter, external fuel tanks and solid rocket boosters that make up the launch vechicle, and as with the Columbia, pieces of the components that make up the launch system flaked off under the rigors of launch.
It's yet to be discovered whether the pieces that fell off did any damage to the Discovery. NASA is currently analyzing the film of the launch and preparing to implement inspection, evaluation and if necessary, repair procedures they have been practicing for months.
The orbiter will be scrutinized by spy satellites which have been retasked to examine the heat shield of tiles that protect the orbiter upon re-entry, and a new 50-foot extension to the Canadian robot arm will be called into service to take pictures of the entire surface of the shuttle. Spacewalks will follow for further close up inspection if anomolies are detected and patches may be applied if warranted.
The Shuttle Atlantis is also being prepped for launch if it becomes apparent that the Shuttle Astronauts and ISS crew cannot repair the Discovery to engineers standards, the Atlantis could serve as a taxi for the Discovery astronauts, or may ferry additional replacement parts to the ISS for outfitting on the Discovery.
All of this leads one to serveral alternate scenarios that may dramatically effect the way NASA operates in the low earth orbit that is the realm of the ISS and Shuttle orbiters.
There's no need at this point to begin calling for a grounding of the Shuttle fleet again, there are other options that may actually improve the safety of the entire orbiter fleet, reduce the cost of accessing Earth orbit and also expand our overall presence in space.
The shuttle was designed to ferry cargo and Astronauts into low Earth orbit. The technology in the Shuttle is quite old, regardless if it is in fact the cutting edge of space exploration, it is on it's way out. The shuttle is due to be replaced by the Crew Exploration Vechicle being developed by NASA and private entities are designing new craft that are promising to open up small scale access to space. The newest generations of heavy lift rockets like the Delta and Progress are more efficient lifting engines for cargo and new systems like DART will make connecting with the ISS and Shuttle in orbit much easier.
Now is the time to consider a radical change in the way we manage traffic to and from orbit and operate in space. Perhaps it's time we considered keeping an orbiter docked with the ISS and rotate it out once another is ready to take it's place. This would open up all sorts of possibilities. Most directly, having a tugboat in permanent orbit could prove very handy for satellite retrieval and resupply in orbit. Wayward satellites, or those in need of changing out film canisters or power supplies or even major repairs, could be captured with the shuttle, brought to the ISS and parked while repair, replenishment or adjustment was made by Astronauts. After repairs are made, the orbiter could then insert the satellites back into orbit. We've practiced captures and retrievals before with great success, saving the taxpayers significant amounts of money and adding to the lifespan of decaying satellites. Currently, many of our satellites have limited lifespans that are the result of consumables on board rather than simply the life of the powersupply, replenishing these satellites may be much more efficient than sending up new ones.
Beginning to more effecively manage our assets in space is a great step forward for NASA, it also provides valuable experience for construction techniques and maintenance protocols while in orbit. This is a step we need to take and this may be just the unplanned event that turns from handicap to windfall quickly.
Such a redesign of the Shuttle's role in orbital operations would need to be accompanied by a ramping up of the construction timeline of the ISS. Keeping an orbiter at the ISS would require also stationing a crew on board to pilot the shuttle and act as mechanics and spacewalkers during operations. New habitation modules would need to be sent up sooner than currently planned, but using lower cost rockets to send up the modules could provide the extra budgetary dollars to fund a more rapid timeline.
The change in role would also be a much needed shot in the arm to our partners in the ISS and space exploration in general. While the ISS and shuttle's missions are being redefined, Russia, the ESA and even the Brazilians could step up to the plate and offer access through their respective rocket fleets, increasing their footprint in orbit and pumping dollars into national space programs for continued development.
The move would spur development in the private entities that are beginning to eplore the possibilites offered by developing spaceplanes and new rocket designs promising to reduce the cost and frequency of access. The day could be just around the corner where private carriers begin ferrying crew members into orbit to rendezvous with the shuttle that could then transport personnel to the ISS or other destinations. We don't want to make the shuttle a bus, but option may be too good to resist in the short term.
There would be new problems to overcome, for sure. Fuel for the orbiter itself would be among the first issues. The three main engines of the orbiter would probably not have to be fueled, but the "retro" rockets that the orbiter uses to move about while in orbit would certainly have to be replenished. Mechanisms for recharging fuel cells would have to be developed, and resupply of the shuttles consumables would need to be handled by unmanned resupply missions.
There may also be issues with keeping the orbiter in space for extended periods. The extreme conditions may produce unknown effects on it's systems over time. Hopefully this would could be offset by mothballing certain systems and the development of a program of maintence for the orbiters while they are parked in orbit.
All in all, this is just idle speculation, most probably, the Discovery is just fine and will be able to return as scheduled safely to Earth. However, NASA has planned for the shuttle to remain parked while options with the Atlantis are explored; I'm just suggesting we take it one step further and plan on leaving it orbit to increase our ability to manage our assets in space, move the scope and scale of habitable space forward and incorporate our favorite little space tug into our plans to return to the Moon and venture beyond.
If there's anything that space exploration has shown is the tremendous ability of our NASA engineers and Astronauts to make the most out of the situation and adapt to safety and operational concerns when they arise. Setbacks in our program of manned and unmanned space flight will continue to occur, no matter how much money we pour into new designs and how much time we spend planning for every possible scenario. Pushing the envelope is a dangerous task, it's important to not allow the envelope to push back. We must turn every disappointment into a learning experience and develop every possibility to move our program forward.
The American space program is a source of national pride, but it's more than that, it's the inevitable future of our species to one day live among the stars. Space exploration and development promises a source of unlimited energy and an almost inexhaustable supply of mineral resources. Mars and the Moon are waiting for us, and it's time we begin to make expansion of footprint in space a priority.
Developing the CEV and other vechicles should remain a priority given the aging condition of the shuttles, and I don't recommend we divert resources from these programs to re-task the shuttle. The opportunity is there to re-think the shuttles role, and it's possible that in this case we can take what many consider to be a lemon and make lemonade.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:04 AM | TrackBack
July 26, 2005
Up, up and away
Slighty more than two years after the tragedy of Space Shuttle Columbia, the Shuttle Discovery is now in orbit.
Today's launch follows on the heels of the House passing a bill supporting the President's policy of a return to the Moon and NASA's mission to expand exploration and scientific discovery missions. This is the first NASA specific bill to come out of the House in five years.
While much of this shuttle mission is dedicated to testing new safety measures and procedures, it's larger goal is to return a "spirit of discovery" to America. Once again, our ability to look beyond the problems of life on this terrestrial sphere and reach out for something more rises to the fore.
You can keep track of mission reports for STS-114, and here's the link for NASA TV.
The Shuttle Atlantis is already being prepped for a launch next month. We've got alot of catching up to do.
--Jason
In case you missed it, here's a video of the launch.
I'll put more links to video and images here as I come across them.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:53 PM
Take Two. . .
Despite not determining the cause for a fuel sensor malfunction that scrubbed last weeks launch, NASA is set to fly again. The malfunctioning sensor was one of 4 redundant sensors and even if the sensor malfunctions again, the launch will not be scrubbed unless other more serious problems arise.
Godspeed to some of America's best and bravest.
Official NASA countdown clock (served by NASA)
NOTE: The countdown may seem "off" but it's not. There are mandatory pre-determined "HOLDS" where the clock is stopped for checks, tests, etc.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:33 AM | TrackBack
July 20, 2005
Raving Penquins and icebergs. . . .
One of the bigger traffic drivers here, is the iceberg B-15A. I've written about it here, here, here, here, and here. I'm not sure though, if people are interested in the iceberg, or the chance that I may post more penquin pictures.
So? In order to satisfy both camps, here's an updated picture of B-15A (enhanced thermal image, dark equals really damn freaking cold, light equals just plain cold):
You can see B-15A, which looks like an aircraft carrier deck, has moved up and away from the Ross Sea. Currents may bring the iceberg back down to block the sea again this Antarctic summer, but it looks like the danger to the penguins (which was overblown in the first place) has passed.
You can tell the penquin in THIS VIDEO is excited about B-15A's departure. I never knew Penquins were ravers????
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:14 AM | TrackBack
July 13, 2005
Launch Scrubbed!
DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!
Horrible news. NASA has scrubbed todays launch and the Shuttle's return to Space.
A fuel problem of some sort. (Back up fuel flow sensor failed pre-launch test)
To troubleshoot, they'll have to drain the external fuel tank. In theory they could be up tomorrow, but to drain and refill the tank is a BIG DEAL, quite dangerous and takes quite a bit of time.
Theres a five minute window for launch tomorrow, then again on Friday and Saturday.
--Jason
UPDATE: Apparently it's two fuel sensors that failed.
Link to the Virtural Launch Control Center.
Doesn't look like the shuttle will be able to go again until Monday.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:34 PM | TrackBack
3:51 PM, Wednesday July 13, 2005
Is the scheduled launch time for the Shuttle Discovery. Be sure to watch the shuttle's Return to Space.
Official NASA countdown clock (served by NASA)
NOTE: The countdown may seem "off" but it's not. There are mandatory pre-determined "HOLDS" where the clock is stopped for checks, tests, etc.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:03 AM | TrackBack
July 10, 2005
Shuttle set to fly. . .
Hurricane Dennis has actually made weather conditions for next weeks launch of the Space Shuttle better. The calm air moving in after the hurricane passes almost ensures that we'll return the Shuttle to space.
A lot of new tools and techniques will be tested on this mission to service the Internation Space Station(ISS) including a Canadian extention to the robotic arm which doubles it's reach and allows a millimeter by millimeter examination of the shuttles heat shield. Shuttle astronauts will also be able to repair almost any damage found or in the even that they cannot, plans are in place for the shuttle to remain docked at the ISS until another shuttle or a progress capsule can be launched to bring the crew back safely.
All this bodes well for U.S. space exploration programs and the completion of the ISS. So to all the astronauts preparing at Kennedy, I wish them a heartfelt, Godspeed!
For more info, check out this SpaceDaily.com article.
--Jason
UPDATE: The coundown has started.
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:14 PM | TrackBack
July 4, 2005
Reach out and touch. . .a comet
Phenonmenal success for the Deep Impact crew. From our little blue-green marble, we designed a craft that could reach across the Solar System and hit a comet at combined speeds of millions of miles per hour.
The MSM has done a good job of following this one, so I'm just going to point people at NASA's Deep Impact Project Site it's got write-ups, pictures and animations for ya.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:45 AM | TrackBack
July 2, 2005
Another response. . .
This time, I'm responding to the comment by William on this response to Half Sigma, and his related blog entry ---
I agree that the Shuttle needs to be replaced, and the current administration is racing toward that goal faster than anyone since Kennedy.
NASA has been quietly squirreling money away (legally) for a return to the moon (and permanent base) since the Reagan administration. NASA Administrator Griffin and Tom Delay recently announced in Houston that we now have sufficient financial reserves to make the return. It's very important to note that this time we don't have to invent the computer or the fuel cell or a rocket program from scratch. We have experience living and working in space and many of the hazzards of occupying space have been overcome.
Realize that we still haven't lost anyone actually IN space.
The first lift of the Space Elevator is scheduled for 2018, not that far off. The SE will replace rocket insertions for all manner of missions, greatly reducing the need for a rocket powered tugboat.
The moon was a "katie bar the door" race into the unknown. Much money and brain power was used trying to accomodate all the unknowns of travel to the moon. Today we know that landers won't sink up to their antennae, and we understand the needs of humans in low gravity environments for long periods of time.
Just like Columbus striking out for the new world, the unknown, the first moon missions were ones of discovery. Probes, if you will. We knew that we had much to learn about the process and ourselves before we could make a sustained "go" of it.
The ISS has gone a long way to teaching us how to live and work in space. Spacelab and Mir were testbeds, the ISS is the prototype and now were at the stage that we can turn the ISS into the working model.
Yes the ISS looks like the old Mir and Skylab projects on steroids, but realize that the design is COMPLETELY modular. ISS-1 will be completely replaced in the coming decade with new modules built by our partners (who are significantly behind us in motivation and technology), who we are "dragging up" along with us.
The political necessity of our partners ensures a long term interest in the program and hopefully can prosper into a new "higher order" of cooperation and communication.
It seems as though most supporters of the space program complaints stem because we're not moving as fast as people would like. I agree. I think we should take more risks and run faster, but politically that's impractical when each setback is met with calls to scrap whole portions of the space program for political gain. Imagine if each time a British ship sank, the Admiralty ordered all it's ships back to port for an investigation. Then called for a new frigate design and numerous safety evaluations (we'd still all be in Europe weaving textiles by hand and using horse drawn plows for farming).
Politics (particularly the Clinton administration which was downright scared of NASA except as a feelgood program) has kept the program down, but this administration has taken off the shackles and is running NASA at a higher clip than ever before (even moreso than the Apollo program).
Private and Public partnerships are developing finally, we're going back to the moon, back to Mars, and exploring farther out and in more detail than ever before. The political and financial capital being spent on NASA now, won't mature until the early part of the next decade, but when it's realized, it will still be too little for those in the know, and too much for those who don't understand the necessity of it for mankind. The reality will be a balance between the two camps.
If you take some time to look through NASA current mission profiles and the big picture,Moon, Mars and Beyond you'll see that there's direction to NASA, it's no longer scraping the financial crumbs thrown at it to piece together a continued presence in space. Our presence is now expanding, with each piece of the ISS, with each probe to Mars and with each deep space exploratory mission. All of this is coming together to give us the tools and knowledge necessary to plant a flag out there in the vacuum of space and stay. Expanding the human footprint is our one true calling in the universe. It's the calling mankind to answer the questions the vastness of space offeres. It's our destiny and obligation to strike out into the unknown, see what's there and learn to live in it and use it for our ends.
The Space program promises economic viability for more people than any other initiative of mankind. Abundant, clean, cheap energy is there waiting for us just above our atmosphere, precious resources are waiting to be plucked from the asteroids between our nearest neighbor and us. A new world awaits us on Mars, one which we already have the ability to mold in our image, promising an outlet for our burgeoning population. New discoveries in space promise to make us live longer, and healthier than ever before, and the promise of Space's rewards may well give humanity a common reference and goal so that one day we may put our petty differences behind us in a unified human voyage of discovery.
Finally, I agree that the shuttle is not too sexy anymore. It'd be nice to replace it. The ISS needs to be bigger and modernized, we need to be on the moon and we need to have human Martian explorers on their way within a decade or two. I disagree that it's going too slow however, I posit that in comparison with the development of the Americas, it's moving forward at a breakneck speed given the obstacles and distances involved. We've become accustomed to the Sci-Fi view of space where we should be jumping off the planet with ease, and overcoming difficulties within the scope of an hour with commercial breaks. The realities are far different. We're entering into a hostile environment. We've just begun to understand the dynamics of low-earth permanent settlement, and just beginning to leap out to high Earth orbit again.
If you really want it to go forward faster, write your Congressmen and Senators, drop a line to the White House. Point out that Space Exploration and Exploitation makes America money, increases American morale and makes us look better on the world stage. Point out also that we NEED to do this in the spirit of exploration that led to the very creation of America, her democracy and her place as leader of world community. Point out that we need the Space program for the sake of solving many of the worlds most difficult problem, namely energy production.
People write their leaders everyday because they want a bigger Social Security check, they hate the war in Iraq, they despise the vitriol of American politics, they are concerned about education or complain about corruption. Very few people write to support NASA, and we all know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so if you really want NASA to move forward, Start Squeaking! Let your elected representatives know that you understand the value of the space program to America, the world and mankind. Explain that "you get it" that the Space program strengthens the economy and provides for a better quality of life, and point out that around the globe, people look at our spaceshots with sense of awe and faith in mankind, and by tranferrence, America.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:20 AM | TrackBack
July 1, 2005
A response. . .
Via trackback, Half Sigma disagrees with me about the value of the Space Shuttle returning to space. I wanted to offer a proper response.
The big disagreement is "why we need to get off this rock" and everything else stems out of that.
There's alot wrong with our little blue marble when you look at it over time. Look far enough out and you come to the biggie. One day the Sun will expand to encompass the Earth. Life on Earth will end long before that, and if we're gonna be around as humans, we're gonna have to be someplace other than this particular rock orbiting this particular star.
It doesn't get any simpler than that. One day the Sun will destroy this planet and all life on it.
YES, YES, I know that's a LONG LONG LONG ways away, but it's a fact. One that we "as a species" have to deal with. I'm doubting that we'll find a way to stop our Sun from cooking us, so the other alternative is to leave.
Long before that happens though, there are just as real and dangerous threats to the survival of our species right here on Earth. Not the least of which is us; the little human jackasses that roam the planet. We like to devise new and better ways of blowing ourselves up. It'd make sense to realize that nuclear holocaust is just the tip of the iceberg of the threat we'll become to ourselves if left unchecked. Neutron bombs will be as primitive as a flint spear one day.
Beyond blowing ourselves up, we may or may not be turning up the heat on this planet and regardless, in just under 1500 years or so I believe we are scheduled for another Ice Age anyway.
All the while we're breeding quite fast. We're growing some pretty nasty bugs in our planetary biologic soup, many of which like to kill humans.
So that's why I want off. I'm speaking for the species here, that getting off the rock is a pretty important task that we've gotta undertake folks.
We know we can probably get to Mars with people within a couple of decades, we know there are other rocky planets out there in the galaxy. We know that if we establish a working permanent platform in space we can solve alot of problems down here on Earth (fossil fuels and global warming for starters).
All of this is why we have to get the shuttle going again. I'm not saying that the shuttle shouldn't be replaced. I'm all for that!!!! 200%, but we've got modules for the ISS down here that need to get up there. Modules that fit in the shuttle.
We've got to get the James Webb Telescope up to replace the Hubble, that's set up for the shuttle. The shuttle isn't sexy anymore, and it's not supposed to be. What the shuttle was supposed to be was a low-orbit crewboat, a role it's only now beginning to see.
We've got an International Space Station to service, we've got projects on the books that we shouldn't scrap because our rocket ship isn't sexy enough. In two decades we won't need rocketships at all, we'll have construction of the Space Elevator begin sometime next decade and then it's only a few decades after that before we're terraforming mars and have a permanent moon colony.
Think of it as ensuring the viability of the species for the long term. Think of it as a getting a short term lifeboat colony to avoid ecological disaster or war. I don't care which you choose, they're the best reasons to keep moving forward. Get off the rock, and it doesn't matter how sexy the rocketships are.
Beyond all that though, the Space Program is a great economic driver for the planet. Yep, I did just say that. Because it's true. Satellite techonology now effects every person on the planet via communication, plastics developed for the space program are in millions of products of all shapes and sizes, new drugs are being created and new hybrid crops are being developed.
Every dollar that the United States has spent on the space program has come back over and over, just the taxes on telecom in the U.S. has paid the entire space program bill. Thousands of other industries have been created, creating thousands of jobs (jobs that pay taxes and provide an economic stimulus themself).
In Short, the Space Program is a money MAKER for the United States.
So I say move forward with all current plans for space exploration, lets get the ISS caught up, let's put up the Webb, get moving on the Space Elevator, get a permanent base on the Moon, develop microwave power transmission (solving the world's engery crisis), get moving on Mars, and look at ways to mine the Asteroid belt.
It may very well take us decades to reach the nearest star, but every journey begins with that first step, and we also know that exploration has generally turned out to be profitable throughout history for the nations that practiced it.
Honestly, I can't think of a reason for us not to be clamoring over ourselves to get off this rock.
Half Sigma says that nothing will be as grand as Kennedy's quest for the moon, and he's right. Never again will Orville or Wilbur's flight be duplicated either, nor Newton's apple, nor any child's first step.
The Moon wasn't a monument to our achievement, it was the first step to realizing our potential as a species. To reach out and fill the vast voids and experience the discoveries that lay before us in this galaxy and the galaxies beyond.
--Jason
PS I may fill this post up with cool links tomorrow. Check back.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:35 AM | TrackBack
June 30, 2005
Get back in the game . . .
Transterrestrial Musings points us to a media roundup on the recent NASA safety panel findings.
LOOK! Space travel is dangerous. We little humans have developed to live on this little blue green marble, third planet from the sun. For us to up and decide to leave this rock is a huge step and totally alien to our previous experiences on the planet (ok, small pun noticed, but not intended). Strapping humans to rockets and accelerating them to speeds faster than a rifle bullet, exposing them to the vacuum of space, and then dropping the back through the atmosphere in a firery descent, then finally fly amost a quarter of the way around the world as the worlds biggest glider. THAT'S A CRAZY DANGEROUS STUNT. It's a battle against physics.
The FACT that people have and will continue to DIE exploring space is something that we have to come to grips with. The Astronauts KNOW that they are "strapped to a rocket with over 30,000 moving parts all made by the lowest bidder". They understand that thousands of systems, checklists, and safeguards must be followed to the letter and missing any one of them may wind up in a dramatic snuffing. The Astronauts also understand that no space vechicle system is 100% safe.
A close family member of mine called her former NASA boss when the Challenger blew up. She figured that since he was a prominent figure in the development of the shuttle program, he'd have an idea. As one would expect, he was quite busy in the chaos, but he took her call.
"It was the O-rings."
That was his comment just hours after the Challenger disaster. The thing is folks, and the media needs to realize this. We know where ALOT of the weaknesses in the Space Program are. We know that a joint in a solid rocket booster is a potential point of failure. We know that if a enough heat-shield tiles fall off the shuttle it'll burn up in re-entry. We also know that 10's of thousands of other major and minor systems coud fail along the way and create disaster.
We'll never make space exploration 100% safe. In fact, for some time now IT WILL BE VERY DAMN DANGEROUS. More people will DIE in very dramatic fashion as we continue to figure out how to get off this rock. There's a concept called "acceptable risk" and every day we use it consciously and un-consciously. We decide to accpet the risk of an auto-accident when we drive to the store, we accept risks bungee jumping, playing golf, knitting a sweater.
The calls for NASA to be "safer" are a little overdone. A "safe" program wouldn't be a useful one. We can have an eye to "safety" and work for a safe return of every explorer, but we've also got to take risks. That's an inherent part of exploration. We're travelling into the great unknown, facing new, seen and unforseen dangers. This is a necessary evil of exploration.
People need to accept this, because we need to get off this rock for a number of reasons, too many for this post, and these pioneers know how dangerous it is, and they analyze the acceptable risks. The media needs to back off and let us move forward, get the shuttles flying again (even if we lose another one in a few years), and keep our space program moving forward.
It's been too long since we've seen a video of intrepid American asronauts pushing the envelope of manned exploration of the heavens. For me, the site of the shuttle roaring off the pad is an affirmation that humans as a species are moving forward. I can't wait to feel that way again.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:15 PM
June 22, 2005
Cosmos 1 Update
Check the Cosmos 1 Mission Blog for more info, but here it is in a nutshell. The Russians confirmed that their launch vehicle shut down early. They've had 3 low level signals from the craft, but no hard data telemetry. Space Command hasn't found it yet.
My conclusion given the available info - The spacecraft is in a very low level Earth orbit that is probably not very stable. If they can find the little spacecraft buzzing around the planet, they'll be able to track it and lock in on any signals it's transmitting. If they can establish communication, they may still be able to deploy the sails and even pull it up into a higher stable orbit. Unfortunately, once they deploy the sails, atmospheric drag could catch the spacecraft and destroy it. It all depends on exactly how low or high (depending on your perspective) the orbit actually is.
I'm rooting for the little machine, but I have to admit it doesn't look to good. All and all though, even if the mission is a failure, it's still a step forward for civilian space exploration. You have to fall off a bike once or twice to get good at riding one, ya know.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:18 PM | TrackBack
So this is what we know. . . .
along with what we don't know. Apparently it's looking like the Russian launch vechicle may have inserted the Cosmos 1 spacecraft into a lower, more eliptical obrit. This would mean that A) the craft is going faster than planned, and B) that the eliptical orbit means that "finding" the little bugger is gonna be hard. Remember, SPACE, even just that region right around our little blue marble is VERY BIG.
It does seem that they've gotten more signals and that the craft has made one orbit at least. Now we just have to wait and see as Russian ground stations, Planetary Society mission control and U.S. Strategic Command look for, and hopefully, can find the little bugger.
Keep checking the Cosmos 1 Mission Blog for updated info.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:53 AM | TrackBack
June 21, 2005
Launch!!!!
The Russian Navy has confirmed that Cosmos 1 lifed off at 3:46 PM eastern time. So far they haven't confirmed any more details other than to say, everything seems to be going fine.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Click here!
Further updates will be in this thread.
UPDATE: The Planetary Society Cosmos 1 blog is up at the moment, it's been up and down all day as the MSM picks up the story. Right now they are waiting for acquisition of signal at Panska Ves (a ground station).
UPDATE: Looks like the spacecraft was lost between the final burn and orbital insertion. They got a little more data over Kamchatka, but nothing since then. Spacecomm can't see it, so it's probably not where it should be. They're still looking for it, and sending commands for it to "talk". Check out the blog for more.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:33 PM | TrackBack
Sailing Away . . .
Later today, sometime around 3:45 PM Eastern, The Planetary Society will launch Cosmos 1. The spacecraft will be launched form a Russian submarine and hopefully climb to an altitude of about 500 miles. Once there, it will deploy 8 solar sails. These sails will begin harnessing the solar wind and if all goes well, the craft will be able to change orbit using only the motive forces provided by photons streaming out of the sun. The spacecraft will literally ride on winds of light.
Click to enlarge.
It's an ambitious undertaking, especially for a private foundation comprised almost entirely of individuals with a strong enthusiasm for space exploration. If the mission is a success it will pave the way for private and corporate space exploration and hopefully light another fire under the governmental space exploration agencies to work on solar sail exploration projects.
It's all very exciting and I'd made a bigger post about how solar sail spacecraft could reach some truely impressive speeds and bridge the distances between the stars in decades rather than centuries, but I opened to many windows getting supporting links, so that will have to come later. Maybe when I finally get around to finishing the big Space Elevator post.
I'll probably update on this more after the successful launch, keep your fingers crossed, OK!
--Jason
PS - Here are some guidelines if you want to see the spacecraft yourself.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:13 AM | TrackBack
June 20, 2005
Mars Pics
A couple of images for ya here. First we have an image from the Mars Express orbiter of the Coprates Chasma, a major trough running through Valles Marineris canyon system. The picture has a resolution of approximately 49 meters per pixel. It makes a great desktop.
Click image to enlarge.
The second is a picture from one of our rovers, the Spirit. It's amazing to just sit and stare at. At least to me it is.
Click image to enlarge.
Oh yeah, before you conspiracy theorist get going, YES, those are tire tracks. Remember, I said it's from one of our rovers.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:23 AM | TrackBack
Glad these are going bye bye. . .
Russia has decided that it's time to take the BZHRK trains off the tracks. The 36 BZHRK trains were one of Russia's most feared weapons platforms during the Cold War. Each train consisted of a command post, and up to 5 nuclear tipped SS-24 ICBM's. The trains kept on the move constantly during the Cold War, each was capable of traversing 1000 miles over 24 hours.
These moving missile silos were very difficult for American and NATO intelligence analysts to track. The rail cars housing the weapons were very difficult to disguinish from standard rail cars and they were frequently "lost" in railyards and during bad weather. In the 1990's the U.S. struck a deal to keep the trains stationary.
The Russians say that the systems are no longer guaranteed reliable, and I supposed that's as good a reason as any for getting rid of them. Regardless, I'm happy that these are being retired. The world just became a slighty safer place.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:04 AM | TrackBack
If Vonage goes public . . . .
I'm buying their stock. Here's Why! Plus they have that catchy jingle. Do, Dooo, Do, Do, Do -- You know the one!
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:00 AM | TrackBack
Geek Stuff and a Paranoid Rant about Aliens coming to kill us all.
I usually have a computer running 24/7 that performs a whole load of automated tasks for me. It runs spiders, manages downloads, keeps offline copies of certain websites and collects program updates. I've also run SETI@Home for years on it. Normally I don't pay much attention to this computer, but when I decided to check up on it today, I noticed there have been some major changes to the SETI@Home service and I haven't been helping the SETI Project for the last couple of weeks. Ooops.
After a quick download, I'm proud to announce that I've got it back up and running. Also, that the new SETI@Home service, powered by BIONIC is a great improvement over the old set-up.
I like that BIONIC can shift programs from SETI programs to other NASA distributed computing projects without having to require the user to make adjustments. I've tagged onto other NASA distributed projects before and I like that I can now set-up my account to automatically make the switch when needed.
Ok, this is gonna turn into a space rant from here on out, so to spare some readers that would be totally lost by it, you'll have to continue to the extended entry.
Ok, time to "Space Rant" a bit.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a tiny, tiny portion of the NASA budget, I've never checked the actual figures, but I'd imagine that if you account for all the computing cycles donated by individuals and private donations, that SETI probably gets more cash from the private sector than it does from the government. I can't really complain about that too much. SETI is the proverbial needle in the haystack and given the choice I'd rather see new dollars go into exploration and research programs.
I am pretty realistic about the SETI project and don't "expect" anything to develop from it in my lifetime. That doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow though. It' a scary thought to think that tomorrow we might catch an ET's "I Love Lucy", or black and white test signal.
When I talk to people about SETI, they usually imagine that the "first contact" will be like some science fiction movie where we are actually in two way communication with some benevolent superior life form. It's unlikely that's what we'll see. More than likely, the first things will be more of a "first discovery" nature. Some of our first powerful radio and television transmissions would be quite confusing to an outside observer. Variety shows, news broadcasts and music would all paint a strange and distorted picture of our world. We'd likewise discover something similar upon "first discovery".
From what I understand, our best chance to discover an exterrestrial intelligence is to be looking and listening in just the right spot at just the right time. The spot, of course, is where the developing ET society is was located in the universe at the the time that it was technologically advanced enough to have discovered the radio but not so technologically advance that it's using mostly digital broadcasts and has a ring of communication satellites around it. So roughly, compared to Earth time, we're looking at a 75 to 100 year window.
If we observe the alien planets location too early, they aren't pumping out anything to detect, and if we come along too late, we lose the opportunity for discovery as recognizable signals become lost in a haze of overlapping broadcasts turning into a sea of white noise. There's also the problem of an alien intelligence migrating to a communications protocol that we simply haven't fathomed yet.
So lets ponder a bit. Suppose we're looking at the right place at the right time? What might we find? We could get really lucky and find ourselves staring at an alien version of Alex Trebec playing Jeopardy with a panel of tentacled blue squishy things. This would be ideal!!! We'd be able to learn the language both written and spoken and learn about their history, culture and trivia, that's all probably a little much to ask though.
We'll probably get a snapshot pretty similar to what we've cranked out. We'll see news that we cannot understand, entertainment that baffles us and images presenting the extremes of whatever society we get to observe. We'll probably get to eavesdrop on a war or two and alot of toally incomprehensible audio and data. Then we'll hit a wall.
This first discovery will be very frustrating because we'll have no context to put the data in. Once discovery is made, we're only moving forward from that point, and only one day at a time. That's kinda hard to wrap your brain around, but I'll try to clarify. Once we discover the source, we're only able to watch and listen from that point forward. Every day we'll get more and more data which will certainly keep everyone interested, but then we have to tackle the problem of "where are they now" and more importantly "what are they doing".
The most probable scenario is that we'll catch some ET's that are hundreds, if not thousands, of light years away from us. We'll also be catching them at a period of time when they are remarkably like us technologically. We'll be catching them as they migrate into their information age. They will probably be mastering some sort of powered flight, fighting about energy and resources, and in the infant stages of leaping off their rock. Remember though, that they'd be hundreds, if not thousands of years ahead of us though.
So now I get to my reasons for using the SETI@Home service. I look at it as our only "Early Warning System" for a War of the Worlds type scenario. I most certainly do not believe that our first interaction with any sort of ET's will be a pleasant one AT ALL. In fact, I'd suspect that if a bunch of ET's were to roll up on us tomorrow, that'd either kill us right off the bat because of the threat we represent or that we'd wind up shooting at them in some way, and then they'd kill us.
I'm not joining the tin foil brigade here, I'm just saying that if an alien society were advanced enough to pay us a visit, they'd probably be pretty damn scared of us. Not because we'd be an actually threat, but more the "virus-like" quality we'd represent. If someone handed us warp-drives and rayguns today, we'd be pretty dangerous.
So I'm promoting the SETI@Home project so that we may get a jump on these bastards; before they find us and kill us all. If we can catch up to them by eavesdropping on their past, we may be able to drive our efforts to get off the rock along quicker, enhancing our ability to survive when the human-virus does get discovered. Eventually we may be able to sneak up on them and kick their ass first.
I'm sure you're shaking your head right now. Make no mistake though, once we get off this rock it'll be no picnic. Interactions with other biological systems will not be pretty. War will be the outcome of more of these meetings than peace. We'll get beat down by more technological systems and we'll be beating down those below us on the ladder.
Now I know that this flies in the face of tradional science ficion lore about who altruistic we'll be in the future and how as societies advance they get less and less warlike. I totally disagree though. When we do get out there in big spaceships that have some independence (which is inevitable), it'll be the wild west all over. I can imagine that some alien societies might be peaceful and it could wind up as a "Ok, I'm over here, and you're over there. Let's keep it that way" scenario. In those situations we might even be able to trade a bit and do some technology transfers. I'm not thinking we'll be too interested in getting too close to them, nor they us. After all there will be viruses and disease to worry about, quite serious concerns actually. We really couldn't trust them, nor they us when it comes to sharing resources or anything for that matter. We'd be looking out for humans first and they'd be looking out for whatever they are first.
Then we'll probably run into quite a few hotheads, the shoot first, ask later types. I'm pretty sure that out there in the universe there will be quite a few Hitler types that acutally succeed in their warped world view creating societies that are 100% confident that they are the #1 life form on the block and are ruthless about keeping in that way. There will probably be interactions with alien societies that have been burned by trans species peace deals before. These alien cultures may have decided long ago that bipeds are evil and they may just vaporize us on sight.
I don't think it's a question of "if" there are ET's out there, I believe it's a question of "when" we'll meet them, and at in what stage of our and their technological development do we meet. Finding someone now, through a program like SETI will scare the living bejezzus outta me, because that means we're way behind in the game, could we catch up to a society that's thousands of years ahead of us? Have they seen us yet? Are they coming to kick our ass?
So there you have it, what I'm sure is an almost incomprehensible rant about blue squishy aliens that are going to kill us all one day. You can take it for what it's worth, but this is my blog and I just felt like "going off for a bit".
Oh yeah, for the protection of mankind, go to the new SETI@Home page, create an account, download the software and let your puter turn an eye to the sky and make us all a little safer . . . maybe.
--Jason
PS In all seriousness tho' please check out the SETI sites and think about helping out with their distributed computing project. It helps the program along, doesn't really cost you or them anything and we're a small step forward to the future.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:22 AM
June 15, 2005
The Phoenix is arising . . .
Scheduled for a March 2007 launch aboard a Delta II rocket, the Phoenix will be headed to Mars to look for water, that ever elusive necessity for human missions to Mars. While astronauts travelling to Mars will bring with them a finite quantity of water. For long term success or eventual colonization of the Martian surface, a method of extracting or producing water must be found.
In 2002 the Mars Odyssey Orbiter discovered significant amounts water trapped beneath the surface of the Martian polar regions and a surface ice cap at the Martian poles. The Phoenix lander intends to investigate this region and actually physically extract some of the subsurface ice and analyze it.
While all the Martian landers and orbiters are important to the long term goals of exploring the solar system, Phoenix serves double duty by specifically being designed to lead the way for a human presence on Mars. The data retrieved from this mission will open up many new research avenues directly related to human survival on Mars. Extra-terrestial agriculture scientists will be able to develop models for the possible transplantation of oxygen producing plants as a first step toward terraforming the planet. Mission planners will be able to have hard data about the ability of astronauts to extract enough water to feed bio-habitats producing food and consumable oxygen on the surface. Such habitats will mean the difference between months long Martian visits and days long visits.
The lander itself is a stationary platform this go round. There won't be any spify videos of little rovers zipping around the surface. Some very impressive technology is being sent up instead of a remote controlled rover, not the least impressive is the spacecraft itself, combining off the shelf, previous mission and brand new engineering. Coupled with a robotic arm and camera, the craft will scoop up material do a depth sufficient to collect ice and water samples. On board analyzers will conduct extensive testing on the samples to give a picture of the polar subsurface makeup.
Special cameras will record the terrain in stereoscopic 3-D giving us some of the best views to date. Additionally a weather station and special imaging devices will record and examine the atmospheric conditions in the region.
All in all, this mission will be the most complete look at what NASA considers to be the prime location for a manned mission landing site. Those scientists and mission controllers working on manned missions to Mars will be using this data as their keystone for building their missions off of.
The key to Mars will be water and power. Power is relatively easy to bring to Mars via fuel cells and solar generation, eventually to be replaced with some sort of nuclear power. Water on the other hand is a problem. Massive quantities will be needed for any long term habitation, far too much for us to transport to Mars and far too heavy to land on the surface. We know that there's water there though, so hopefully Phoenix can get a good look at it and give us some indications of whether or not it's in a condition that we can use easily.
The Phoenix is abandoning the familiar balloon ball landing approach opting instead for a more complicated controlled landing on the surface. You can view an animation of the landing and deployment sequence of by clicking here (will take some time to load).
It's a very exciting mission and I hope there's nothing around the bend that could derail it. Maybe we are actually moving forward as a species just a bit.
--Jason
PS - While I love that we're moving forward with Martian exploration, I can't help but wonder what would have happened if NASA would have run with Wernher Von Braun's 1952 outline of a manned Mars mission by 1965.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:57 AM
It's about time . . . .
NASA officials delayed the roll out of Discovery until today. FOXNEWS just reported that the shuttle Discovery is now moving out to pad. It's about time that we get the shuttles flying again.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:42 AM | TrackBack
June 8, 2005
The little rover that could.
Earlier I mentioned, that our little rover Opportunity on the Martian surface had freed itself from a sand dune it was stuck in on the Red Planet. Now JPL has released a video of robot extracting itself, watch it here (it's a quicktime video). As you watch it, remember, THIS IS HAPPENING ON MARS. Boggle!
Being a good 'ole Southern boy, I can't help but thinking "YEE HAW!" as I watch the wheels spin and bury themselves in the sand then grind their way out.
This gives way to thoughts -
I think I can,
I think I can,
I think I can. . .
Woo Hoo, have a GREAT DAY! Don't forget to read about "tiny penquins' legs" below.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 7:04 AM | TrackBack
June 7, 2005
Time to talk about that berg again - B15A
Well, it's been a while, and since I'm still waiting for my "Live from Iraq" CD (see below, or click here), I thought I'd update folks a bit on the saga of B15A. After all, I am on Google's first page of results when you search for "B15A" and for some reason, the search phrase "sexy bergy bits" always seems to show up in my keyword search list results. Go figure.
SO? Don't know anything about B15A? That's ok, here are my earlier pictures and posts about it, be sure to check out "The Ice Dance". Briefly tho', B15 was an iceberg down in Antarctica that at one time held the title of "World's Largest Iceberg", was vilified as a penguin killer, and some media outlets tried to make it out like B15A was threatening the survivability of our Antarctic outposts. Some penguins probably did die as a direct result of the berg, but our outpost was never in "danger".
So what's B15A doing now??? Ok, take a look at the picture. YES, I know it's pink, that's because it's Winter down there and it's DARK. Not exactly good for picture taking. So this is a satellite thermal image of the region. For reference, the PINK areas are COLDEST, about -43 degrees C. The BLUE areas are WARMER, about -13 degrees C, downright tropical by comparison, right???
The iceberg is the rectangle (or aircraft carrier) shaped pink object close to the center of the picture.
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Click here for a larger version
If you've been following it, you'll notice that the berg has moved away from the Drygalski "ice tongue" and is a bit offshore. Hopefully, it'll stay out there and begin breaking up rather than forcing those poor little penguins to walk 200km on two inch legs.
So there you have it, another B15A update.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:12 PM | TrackBack
June 5, 2005
Opportunity knocking again . . . .
One of our little buddies on Mars is on the move again. After been stuck in a sand dune for weeks, NASA Mission Controllers have finally been able to free the little rover named Opportunity from the sand and let it continue on it's mission.
Ya gotta hand it to the engineers, NASA, JPL and all the others that contributed to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, both are going strong a full year after they completed their primary missions. Both rovers were designed to last longer than the three month's planned mission time, but the longevity of the little bots has surpassed everyones hopes.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 6:26 PM
June 1, 2005
Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
All I can say about this is - IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME.
Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton's abandonment of the Moon is nothing short of utter stupidity. I can't express how happy I am to hear that we've got the money put aside and budgeted to return to the moon. Our nearest celestial neighbor should have a full time occupancy moon base already. The scientific advances we could gain by having a permanent moon base are impossible to quantify. Telescopes for exploring the universe, drug labs for research, Earth focused climatology research, vacuum and micro-gravity construction techniques and much much more are just but a scratch to the surface of the knowledge awaiting us up there. I can't even begin to talk about getting humans to Mars right now I'm so giddy.
Go Griffin, Go!!!!!
Until I calm down you might want to check out my Space Archives.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:30 PM
May 10, 2005
Up, Up and away
I've mentioned the Space Elevator before, and the Space Elevator Blog has been on my blogroll since I started this blog. Today though, the frontrunner in the "slow" race to space is making news. Liftport group, based in Seattle is in the news talking about their carbon nanotube ribbon and the climber design they are working on.
Liftport plans to have their first lift in just under 5000 days, they're shooting for April 12th, 2018.
Check them out at Liftport.com and take a look around their site.
In other related Space Elevator news, NASA, who also wants to develop the Space Elevator has set up two contests for design issues related to the project. The Tether Challenge and the Power Beam Challenge are both part of President Bush's return to space initiative.
Both challenges are encouraging private entities to design a system that beats what NASA's engineers are proposing. If a private design team can beat the current NASA technology, they get $50,000. Not much in terms of cash, but the design will be worth millions. The contests will be conducted again in 2006 with a prize of $150,000. The goal is to keep the pressure on NASA engineers and infuse the project with new ideas as it moves forward. NASA is looking at 2010 as a date to begin construction of the elevator.
NASA has over $80 million set aside for what they call "Centennial Challenges", contests designed to bring more private sector research into the US Space Program. While not as flashy as the "X-Prize" the contests are great motivators for private engineers and university teams to get those thinking caps warmed up.
IF you have no clue what a Space Elevator actually is, take a look at this short video.
The NASA Space Elevator program is part of the Advanced Space Transportation office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, right here in Alabama. Yeah, we got more rocket scientists down here than anyplace else, not to mention the best public high school in the nation.
Yeah, that last one surprised the hell outta me too.
--Jason
**Comments are closed for this entry, if you'd like to add something, contact me via email.**
Posted by JasonColeman at 10:06 AM
March 30, 2005
Icebergs and sunsets
Strangely enough, the one solitary thing that has driven more people to this blog from the "outside" (meaning google searches or stumblers from people I don't know either in the real world or online) is the iceberg B15A.
I'm not exactly sure what prompted me to first mention it back on December 16th, but I'd read some articles about it when it originally broke off an became the "world's biggest iceberg". I can remember conversations and ponderings about the potential for icebergs to provide water to irrigate the world's deserts, change local climates and other harnessing schemes to make use of thes bo-hee-muths of frozen fresh water floating in the briny sea.
Over the weeks and months, I've periodically checked back on B15A and it's antics as it played havoc with penguin colonies and even threatened (not really, but it made for good news) the resupply of McMurdo Station on the icy southern continent. I've even made an online acquaintence with Brien Barnett, who was the editor of The Arctic Sun, the newspaper for McMurdo, and we've exchanged emails about B15A and life on that big block of ice known as Antarctica (he was kind enough to explain what "Fast Ice" actually is and the real story of the penguin's long walks on 2 inch legs). More about him later.
So here's a picture from two days ago showing the position of B15A, you may want to go back and look at some of the earlier posts about this big berg to get some perspective if you're new to the blog or just have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. If you're too lazy to look at the earlier posts, B15A is the large block near the center of the photo that looks similar to an aircraft carrier.
As you look at the picture, notice that the Ross Sea "Fast Ice" (the ice that forms each winter then breaks up each summer) is solidifying once again as winter takes hold down there. Most of this "Fast Ice" breaks up and floats out to sea in the summer, this year however, this ice was bound up by the presence of B15A and remained in the Ross Sea. Now that it's freezing up again, it seems to be pushing the big berg up and away from the continent. However, if you look closer to the right side of B15A, you can see that more ice is forming up and will be hampering the exit of the berg. What the berg will do is anyone's guess, but thanks to modern technology we can keep tabs on it and follow it's progress. I'll continue to post about it until it melts away to nothing or gets out of the available satellite views.
But what about sunsets??? Well, I did say I'd get back to Brien Barnett later didn't I. You see, Brien was the editor of The Arctic Sun. The paper doesn't publish during the winter because the station is basically abandoned of personnel when the Arctic winter sets in. This year however, our faithful correspondent has secured employment at the South Polar Station, where he's now an assistant cook or something like that. I'm sure he has a few hospitality electives in his C.V. that are serving him well now. Brien will be spending the winter at the South Pole (how cool is that) and just the other day, those intrepid souls down south got to watch the sun set for the winter. He captured a nice photo of the event and put it on his blog. Which I must add is an excellent read (much better than mine, both in style and content). Be sure to take a look at his photos and videos and some first hand accounts of life WAY down under.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:04 PM
March 12, 2005
New NASA chief to be nominated
President Bush is set to announce the nomination of Dr. Michael Griffin for the top slot at NASA. Griffin would be filling the shoes of John O'Keefe, who left NASA for a gig at Louisiana State University, GEAUX TIGRES!!!!
Griffin isn't a "surpise" nomination, but he was not one of the people considered front-runners for the job. Selection of Griffin says alot about The President's vision of NASA. Griffin was formerly the head of NASA's exploration program and is known in the space community of more of a do-er when it comes to getting things done. He consistently thinks out of the box and looks up and down for unique solutions to challenges in technology, costs and platforms.
The President's Moon, Mars and Beyond vision will be well served by Griffin, and private sector space access is an important goal of Griffin's. Griffin has in the past advocated for private investment in space delivery vechicles and specifically, a private space station. All in all, this appears to be a very very good nomination for NASA and the future of American Space Exploration.
Griffin has a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering as well as five(yep, count them FIVE) master's degrees in aerospace science, electrical engineering, applied physics, civil engineering, and business administration.
Griffin is currently director of the Space Department at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University and will be resigning that position shortly.
Godspeed Dr. Griffin!!!
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:28 PM
February 17, 2005
I'm a slacker
Yes, yes, I know. Some of you have even emailed me. I haven't been posting lately and I feel bad about it.
One of the reasons I've been slacking is work, which is legitimate. Another reason is that I've found what could quite possibly be the coolest computer program/tool I've ever seen. It's called World Wind and it's freeware from NASA. The program basically combines the Big Blue Marble, LandSat, MODIS and USGS Satellite images into one simulation of the planet earth. You start viewing the composite Big Blue Marble image and from there you can rotate around the Earth and then ZOOM all the way in to the USGS images.
It's a great tool if you're a space geek (and I am). It's also something that anyone can easily use to get satellite images of your house, neighborhood, local lake, hunting area or whatever. Documentation is pretty scarce, and you need some play-time with it to get the hang of it, but it's still super-cool. I'm sure as I learn to use it, I'll be posting more about it and the cool things it can do.
It's a big download, about 170 megs, and it needs about 2 Gigs of harddrive space to work effectively. You also really have to have a broadband connection to the internet for it to work. The images are quite big and it just doesn't function on dial-up.
So that's what I've been Geeking out on lately. If you want to give it a shot, you can DOWNLOAD WORLD WIND.
More a little later, I'm going to clean up my office now.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:23 PM
February 10, 2005
The NEW E.T.'s
When a person says "E.T.", images of the "Phone Home!" puppet come to mind for most. Others think of Grey's and Green's and world domination conspiracy theories emanating from the not so secret "Area 51".
Full Disclosure: I have been "removed" from area of the "secret base" in the past. Three times actually.
But there's another E.T. out there that people should take notice of. It's not Extra-Terrestial life, it's Exo-Terrestrial Life. Life on Earth that's not like "life as we know it." We generally consider "life" to be carbon based forms that use oxygen as it's primary fuel to keep all the various cellular structures running and giving us "life".
For a few decades now we've known about organisms on the ocean floor, clustered around volcanic vents that use sulphur compounds as their primary fuel. The discovery of such organism sent waves, not ripples, through the scientific community proving that life can exist in a variety of environments. The organisms were as different from other Earth life-forms as an IPod is from a glass of orange juice. It was a great day for science and revealed in a very real way that "we are most probably NOT alone."
Now we've got another player in the Universal Definition of Life-Forms. Organisms that are based on carbon, but use hydrogen as their basic fuel. Scientists have identified microbes in Yellowstone Hot Springs that use the most basic of all elements as their primary source of life sustaining energy. On a scarier note, similar organisms living on hydrogen have been discovered INSIDE THE STOMACH of other living beings, including humans.
The discovery is epic in that it adds yet another possibility for life to exist outside the planet Earth. After all if nature has developed THREE (and probably more yet undiscovered) very different life forms on our little blue green planet, it's almost certain that on other worlds, and not necessarily those similar to ours, life forms have developed in ways we can only imagine.
It's a great day for science. However, every time I read about stuff like this I feel so very very small. That's ok though, I'd rather be a small fish in a big pond than a big fish in a small pond.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:04 PM
Stellar Escapee
There's a star making a break for it! It's hightailing it, trying to escape the very bounds of our universe. Interesting read.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:00 PM
February 9, 2005
B15A Update
It's been a little while, so I thought it might be time to look back at what's happening with B15A, that rogue iceberg that's been killing off the Antarctic penguin population. (Ok, that's a little alarmist. The iceberg is causing problems, but it's not anything unusual. This process repeats itself at least once a decade.)
The big news is that U.S. and Russian icebreaker ships have cleared a seaway to McMurdo station and a U.S. fuel tanker ship and a cargo vessel have made it to dock down at that southernmost continent. Their arrival ensures that the scientific community will have the supplies needed to make it through the Antarctic winter, namely the food, equipment and fuel they need prior to the "travel blackout" that the harsh winter conditions mandate. (Air travel to Antarctica in the Winter is basically for medical emergencies only.)
The annual pre-winter clearing was made more difficult by the B15A iceberg that ran aground a few weeks ago and which has been playing havoc with the "fast ice" that builds up in the Ross Sea. This ice builds up every winter and then breaks up every summer to float out to sea. With B15A parked in the sea-ocean boundary, fast ice that broke up was unable to make it's way out to sea. This ice jamms up the Ross Sea and adds to next years collection of "fast ice" making transit to McMurdo even more difficult than it already is.
Ice clearing operations were made more difficult by the loss of one of the U.S. Coast Guards icebreakers to regular routine maintenance. The Polar Sea is currently in drydock, leaving all the work down south to the Polar Star. Furthermore, the Polar Star had recent problems that required her to be docked for repairs for approximately two weeks. Luckily, the Russian icebreaker Krasin was able to be contracted to conduct icebreaking operations with the repaired Polar Star.
So the Antarctic bases are resupplied, but the Penguins still have to walk 80km (on two inch legs) to reach the ocean. Looks like the well dressed bird population is going to take a hit. It will recover though, no worries there.
Here's what you've been waiting for (or maybe not), a new picture of B15A:
There's some light cloud cover, but you can see the build up of fast ice in the Ross Sea being blocked by the aircraft carrier shaped berg.
Older photos are also in this post.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:36 PM
February 4, 2005
Close call
Astronomer's are tracking the closest ever fly-by of an asteroid that Earth has seen in the modern age. The Asteroid, named MN4, will pass so close to the Earth that it will be inside the orbit of many geo-stationary satellites orbiting the Earth. It will also be visible to the naked eye by observers in Europe, Africa and West Asia. It's not a tiny rock, but it's not huge either. Scientist's estimate that if the rock were to strike the Earth, local devastation would be sever, but not enough to create dramatic climate change. There appears to be little risk of the object striking us, however, it's a very, very close call.
UPDATE: I should note that this fly-by is in 2029. Also, in case you didn't realize (I didn't), there's a Torino Scale that measures the severity of impact, kinda like a Richter Scale on steroids.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:26 PM
January 30, 2005
That damn berg again
Well it's time that I give people an update about that big ole iceberg B15A that's been terrorizing penguins and people both down Antarctic way. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this post and this post that give a brief rundown on what's been happening.
Then you should probably read this article from The New Scientist, that brings us up to speed. I forwarded the article down to someone actually there on the scene (the editor of the McMurdo Research Station newspaper) for his comments:
Hey Jason .... read the article, it's pretty right on ... I noticed one thing in it regarding the penguins plight that actually is true ... the bergs changed the currents, which seems to have led to a large amount of "fast ice" (sea ice that is connected to land). That has meant that the penguins have to leave the water earlier, stop feeding earlier and then return across that same patch of ice once their chicks hatch or the winter starts and they have to leave. That means that they probably won't get a chance to eat for several months. Penguins that summer at colonies close to the ice edge probably will be fine. Those with nests near Scott Base are some 80km from the edge and walked the entire way, on two-inch legs. They probably won't make it back and will starve to death on the return trip. On the far side of Ross Island from McMurdo is a place called Cape Crozier. The penguins there have had a hard time because the bergs and bergy bits have continually spiralled around in that area and have both swept up plankton and other nutrients or caused them not to grow. That kills the food chain at the beginning and eventually there's less fish for the penguins to eat. That means they have to spend more time hunting, probably eat less and can't care for their chicks as long. If one of the mates dies, the other will stay with the nest until right before they starve to death, then they will abandon the chicks. These feeding-starving cycles have been playing out for the last 3-5 years and probably repeats many times over a century.
So that seems to be the current situation down there with the big berg, that bully block of ice is killing off the cuddly little penguins. Damn that sucks!
I'd be failing if I didn't give you a current satellite photo of the scene, so here it is (taken on the 29th and courtesy of NASA):
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:31 PM
January 21, 2005
Moon Power
President Bush has laid out an agenda for NASA that includes returning humans to the Moon and constructing a permanent base there as a jumping off point for further exploration of our Solar System and the greater cosmos.
Building a permanent lunar colony is probably one of the most daunting tasks that humanity will ever undertake. The prospect on estabilishing a permanent settlement requires whole new streams of thought and engineering theory in order to bring the project to fruition. Bringing all the materials necessary to build a base from Earth to the Moon is currently just not a feasible option. We will have to get back up to our celestial sibling and build a colony with materials available there.
Science Fiction writers have long theorized that we'll be tunneling into the rocky crust of the moon, hollowing out areas to live in that protect us from the harmful cosmic rays that bathe Earth's satellite, and others have suggested large domes under which we'll grow new crops to create oxygen to breath, food to eat and develop biomass projects for waste conversion and heat. All of these theorized plans for creating a habit in the hostile environment of the Moon will require massive amounts of material for construction.
It's well known that we can, in fact, find all the materials necessary to build and sustain a colony by extracting them directly from the Moon itself. Sure, we'll have to send up alot of material in advance with unmanned landers, we'll have to set up obiting "transit points" or a moon orbit space station where local landers can shuttle colonists and fabricated modules down to the surface, and we'll certainly have to ship vast initial quantities of water and oxygen to the Moon before we can generate and refine our own on the surface. The most important issue however, is POWER, electricity is the key to the moon. We must develop a way to generate electricity on the moon in large quantities and maintain a steady flow of energy from a local source. A nuclear reactor simply isn't politically viable and the dangers and infrastructure necessary for such a powerplant is just not doable in the beginning. After the "power problem" is solved, everything else is just a matter of time. With enough power, we can mine the moon, extract the raw materials necessary and construct the physical plant necessary for us to travel to the moon and stay.
The "power problem" is one step closer to being solved as researchers from the University of Houston (originally presenting their case in 2002) have come up with a plan are are currently testing robotic rover technology that will be able to journey to the moons surface, then create new solar panels with materials easily scooped up from the layer of fine "moon dust" or regolith covering the Moon.
Picture a little rover, the wayward cousin of the Opportunity and Spirit rovers currently running around the surface of Mars, a little mechanical crawler that will scoop up the fine regolith, cook the material in it's own small oven and then leave behind a trail of linked solar panels that will immediately begin converting solar rays into usable electricity. The process will be slow at first, but as the little rover begins to lay out the panels, it will be increasing it's own available power supply, speeding up the process considerably. With each foot of travel, the rover becomes more and more efficient, eventually creating a vast solar array just waiting for astronauts to arrive and link up living and work space modules to this pre-configured power grid and get straight to work building a permanent presence.
The concept works because the Moon's regolith is almost one half silicon dioxide, the remainder being made of various compounds and elements including aluminum, magnesium and iron. These metals can be extracted and used in the construction of the panels themselves while the remaining excess materials can be simply deposited on the surface awaiting collection from a second rover, or the astronaut/colonists themselves following behind the rover "picking up the crumbs".
This material will be refined to a state where it can then be easily used by the astronaut/colonists when they arrrive to construct other necessary items.
Currently the technology for the rover is being tested in vacuum chambers at the U of H TcSAM (Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials) and NASA is watching with keen interest the progress of the "next little rover that could".
For more information, you'll have to wait for an article to be released tomorrow in the New Scientist. I'll make sure to post the updated link tomorrow when the story is published.
UPDATE: I'd hope that this article wouldn't be limited to subscribers, but the dice rolled against us, dear readers. Check the link to the article anyway, it may go to the general public any day now.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:44 PM
January 18, 2005
More Commercial Space Flight Rumblings
Following on the heels of Space Ship One's first private space flight, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com has announced bits and pieces of his plan to develop a private commercial space flight company.
Bezos is planning to locate his venture in West Texas near the town of Van Horn. He also believes that commerical flights could begin in as little as six or seven years. He's calling the new project Blue Origin, and he's developing his own private Cape Canaveral on a property known as the Corn Ranch.
Hmmm, I wonder if he'll sell tickets through Amazon?
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 6:36 PM
The Ice Dance - Collision of B15A
I've blogged twice now about that wayward havoc-wreaking iceberg, B-15A, first when it was menacing penquins and researchers in the McMurdo Sound, and again when it was threatening to put on a show by colliding with an "ice tongue" extending from a larger glacier. Well the "show" has commenced, and I've pulled some satellite images down an put them into a format where this extraordinary event is easier to witness, please follow on into the extended entry to see the "Ice Dance".
Oh yeah, don't miss the animation at the end, I contacted a photojournalist down at McMurdo and he was gracious enough to put it up for us.
The "Collision" as viewed from space.
All Images courtesy of NASA's MODIS Rapid Response System.
The first image we have was taken on January 3rd, B15A is clearly visible and looks remarkably like a very large American-style Aircraft Carrier.
UPDATE: It should be noted that in reality, no "collision" has taken place. Rather the presense of B15A is altering currents, which is, in turn, causing this activity. Thanks Brien Barnett.
Images from Jan. 4-8 are obscured by cloud cover and don't really give much indication of what's going on, but I won't leave you hanging, if you want to see the raw images from NASA, here they are, Jan. 4, Jan. 5, Jan. 6, Jan. 7, Jan. 8.
Then on the 9th there's a break in the cloud cover and we can see that the show has begun, through the clouds at the top left edge of the berg, you can see where it's altered the currents in the area and is busting up the "fast ice" or "sea ice" that forms in the winter. I've been told that this is not the ice shelf, which is thousands of feet thick but rather this "fast ice" that's ten's of feet thick. This ice forms every winter and breaks up in the Antarctic summer (now) it's possible that B15A has altered the currents in the region keeping this ice close to shore in the sound.
More cloud cover on the 10th, but you can still see more of the "fast ice" is breaking up.
Clouds on the 11th, but here is the raw image.
On the 12th we get a break in the clouds, and the picture is quite stunning.
On the 13th, we see the "tongue" more clearly and the fractures beneath the tongue as B15A approaches.
Clouds move in on the 14th, but luckily, the snapshot from space is just before the clouds obscure the site. Keep in mind that B15A is 80 MILES LONG.
Images from the next three days shows further break up of the "fast ice". It also shows part of the ice tongue beginning to break off.
January 15th
January 16th
January 17th
Finally, today's image looks as if the currents are changing and B15A is starting to move away a bit. The majority of the tongue seems to have dodged a rather big bullet for now. It should be noted that the smaller round berg that is breaking away from the tongue has been named B16J.
The danger to this ice structure isn't over yet, and I'll keep watching it. NASA says that the currents in the area will cause this process to repeat itself as B15A moves away only to circle back. I guess B15A is just eager to give this tongue a lashing (horrible pun, I know).
B16J
I'll update this entry over the next few days or until the action is over. Ain't it cool tho'!
UPDATE: Brien Barnett, a photojournalist down in Antarctica and I have exchanged a few brief emails and he's providing a Quicktime Video of the MODIS images and the journey of B15A. Click here for the movie.
PLEASE ALSO VISIT HIS SITE AT WWW.BRIENBARNETT.COM
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:26 PM
January 17, 2005
Last Titan Post - For now
Since the ESA and NASA sites seem to have stabilized over the weekend as demand to see the Titan images decreases and the images themselves get spread around to numerous sources. I'm going to stop posting the ESA/NASA images. I'm not abandoning you completely though, if new revelations become apparent or something drastic happens I'll probably post about it. For now though I'm going to leave you with the links to:
The Official ESA Cassini-Huygens site (images can be found here)
The Official NASA Cassini-Huygens site
I'd also like to give you a link to private Titan image processing, as reported by Saturn Daily. With the transparency of the various space agencies in giving out the raw images, scientists and hobbyists around the world are taking the raw data from the mission and processing it themselves. While this is not "official" data, alot of it is quite valid and all of it is informative. So if you're interested in the Huygen's Titan images and views from this new world, check out the private efforts to process the data.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:33 PM
January 15, 2005
More Images from Titan
I don't have time to make a post right now, but they are going to be releasing new images from Titan all day so I'll post them here as they release them.
NOTE: Images are getting bigger as they crunch the data, so you may have to wait a bit for them to load.
A boundary between high, lighter-coloured terrain and and darker lowland area on Titan.
Raw image of Titan's surface with scale captions added
First colour view of Titan's surface
Composite of Titan's surface seen during descent
Images Courtesy NASA/ESA
I've posted sounds from Space before, but here is the Audio from the Huygens' descent. Keep in mind this is a composite of the sounds heard by the probe's orbiter, so the audio levels vary. Essentially though, you're listening to the weather around the probe and the air passing by it as it descends. Here is the Radar Echo conversion of Huygens descent. The earlier returns are radar waves bouncing off cloud formations and strong wind/weather bands in the distance, as the clip continues, you begin to get ground echos leading up to touchdown.
Audio Courtesy ESA.
You can also visit the ESA Gallery page, but with the heavy traffic it may be hard to download the new images.
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:27 AM
January 14, 2005
The Huygens has landed.
That's the word from the European space agency. The little probe "that might" has become the little probe that "could and did."
"The baby is alive." Was the official first word from the Cassini-Huygens mission manager as the small probe beamed it's first message back from Saturn's moon Titan, indicating that it had entered the atmosphere, shed it's various heat shields and was descending on it's 2-stage descent parachute.
The tiny probe deployed as part of the tandem Cassini-Huygens mission sampled the Methane and Nitrogen rich atmosphere on it's way down to the planets surface. Huygens will conduct about two scheduled hours of sampling and recording of the distant moons atmosphere, which is believed to be similiar to the early stages of our Earth's own atmosphere. Video is also being recorded, compressed and beamed back to Earth along with the atmospheric data.
The plan at this time is for the Cassini mother ship to collect and store the full data broadcast from the Huygens probe. Cassini will create 4 simultaneous copies of the data as it's received, then rotate in space to turn it's main antennae array our way and begin cycling the full data set back to Earth.
Given the hostile nature of the moon's atmosphere, grabbing the full data set is more important that streaming real time data back to us. Once the Huygens probe shuts down, the relay will begin.
Given the 1.7 hour lag in communications from half-way across the solar system, the data set should be almost complete and broadcast back of the should begin shortly.
UPDATE: Following the successes of the Mars rovers that are operating far beyond their scheduled life-span, the little Huygens probe is transmitting beyond it's scheduled timeline. The batteries still seem to be going strong (remember the 1.7 hour lag). Cassini has recorded the expected block of information, but Huygens is still transmitting new data that our ground and satellite receivers can pick up and collect. Unfortunately, Cassini is speeding away from Titan, but we'll still get this extra data from Huygens, just without the redundant recording from Cassini.
All in all though, the Cassini-Huygens mission is a RESOUNDING SUCCESS!!!!
CLICK HERE for the NASA/JPL/ESA page giving video updates of the mission.
The Little Probe That Could!
Image Courtesy: NASA/ESA
UPDATE:
First Images from Titan
This is one of the first raw images returned by the ESA Huygens probe during its successful descent. It was taken from an altitude of 16.2 kilometres with a resolution of approximately 40 metres per pixel. It apparently shows short, stubby drainage channels leading to a shoreline.
Image Courtesty: NASA/ESA
14 January 2005
This raw image was returned by the ESA Huygens DISR camera after the probe descended through the atmosphere of Titan. It shows the surface of Titan with ice blocks strewn around. The size and distance of the blocks will be determined when the image is properly processed.
Image Courtesy: NASA/ESA/University of Arizona
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:30 AM
January 11, 2005
This will change EVERYTHING
Harvard Center for Astro-Physics Press Release
The implications of this discovery will open up a whole new strain of scientific thought and could possibly lead to a whole new branch of physics, not to mention the possibilities for energy production, matter synthesis and of course, destruction.
The discovery of complex matter (in this case the Iron Gas) existing in a stable form riding along a ripple in the very fabric of space time could very well be the key to Faster Than Light (FTL) travel.
Until now, this little understood phenomenon was merely theorized by Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. Now that we have an actual example of a ripple in space time that can be observed and analyzed, a whole new understanding of the underlying fabric of the universe can be theorized and explored.
The revelations that light can in fact escape the regions surrounding a black hole also will force a new examination of the forces that hold the universe together.
Coupled together, the discoveries can only be described with one word - Incredible.
Artist's Conception 1
Artist's Conception 2
Artist's Animation of the Phenomenon
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:26 AM
January 10, 2005
B15A Causing problems again
Back on Dec. 16th I mentioned an iceberg that was terrorizing penquins and causing some difficulties for our Antarctic researchers.
Well, B15A is at it again, this time it's threatening a glacier (actually the ice tongue of a glacier) with catastrophic destruction.
Ok, Ok, I'm putting too much dramatic emphasis on this event. However, it's kinda cool to watch this huge iceberg running amok around down there wreaking havoc, terrorizing penquins and giving everyone what could prove to be a spectacular show, again and again. It seems that if the model holds true and the collision does occur it'll probably happen again and again, until B15A is obliterated.
Click the links above, watch the animated GIF's and marvel at the intricate Antarctic dance. The big .tif files at the bottom of the article are cool too.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 6:52 PM
December 13, 2004
Godspeed, Sean O'Keefe
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has resigned. While his tenure has overall been positive for NASA, it's time for new blood to carry us to the stars. Plus, LSU really wants the guy and hopefully they'll get him and pull some R&D research dollars to Baton Rouge. Tigers in space, YAY!!
But seriously, there's a short list of five candidates to replace O'Keefe in the top slot at NASA. First on the list is Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish. Kadish has been the champion of the missile shield for the US. I personally support the missile shield development programs, not necessarily because I think N. Korea will start chucking missiles at us, but rather because the program funnels lots of money into rocket research. Rockets may be inefficient, but it's proven technology and provides for heavy lift capacity.
However, I think Kadish may not be the right guy for this job at this time. I think his history with rocket programs may lead to more groupthink at NASA (which we DO NOT need) and focus our efforts on building bigger and better rockets when we need to be building space planes and the space elevator.
Also on the list is Congressman Robert Walker. I like the guy, but again, I don't think he's the right guy for the job at this juncture. The Vice President is really in charge of NASA and I think from that point down we really don't need any more politicians involved. Lets continue down the list.
Ron Sega, Charles Bolden and Robert Crippen are all former shuttle astronauts, and they're the ones that should be most seriously looked at for the top slot. All three have actually been in space, experienced the wonder and excitement of "slipping the bonds of earth" and travelling where few men have gone before. I think that each of these individuals will bring to the agency a sense of wonder and excitement for the future. All three are strong proponents of replacing the ageing space shuttle and all three are anxious to get the ball rolling on finishing the ISS, returning to the Moon and getting a manned mission to Mars.
The downside of putting an astronaut in the captain's chair is that they'll be political novices when it comes to dealing with Capitol Hill and budget matters. They won't be anxious to spend time in Washington lobbying for more funding, they'll be down at the cape pushing the engineers and rocket scientists to solve problems and develop mission profiles.
I would really like to see one of these three make it to the top job, and I'm putting letters in the mail today promoting such, but I fear that politics will win and we'll see Walker get the nod. We'll see.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:32 PM
December 10, 2004
Opening the New Frontier
** Don't forget to listen to the audio clip at the end of this post. **
Lots of movement today in the space exploration arena today. NASA has confirmed that there's a developing food shortage on the International Space Station. The occupants aren't in any danger as of yet, but the provisions have had to be rationed out and if there's a delay in resupply, then come of the astronauts may have to leave early.
It's ironic that this was announced today, or maybe it was planned. The coincidence lies Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's, R-Calif., Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, or H.R. 5382. The bill has passed both houses and awaits President Bush's signature, there does not appear to be any reason this bill won't pass into law.
The new law opens up the way for commercial entities like Virgin Airways to move forward with their space tourism plans with vechicles like Spaceship One. The oversight for commercial space tourism will reside with the FAA who will protect the public interest for the next 8 years, then in 2012 the FAA will begin to regulate commercial space tourism industry with an eye toward passenger safety.
I like the fact that they're giving the breathing room for the industry to get off the ground, although I agree with the Space Access Society that 8 years may be not long enough for a viable industry to develop.
I'm excited about this legislation. I'm sure that numerous companies will partner with existing space agencies to develop cheaper and cheaper rocketry and space planes. Planes that get bigger and bigger, carrying more people higher and higher.
I'm sure that soon we'll be seeing retrofitted B-52 or maybe even B-1 bomber frames being put out by the large aeronautic giants such as Boeing, Lockheed or Northrop. These large plane will serve as space plane launchers inserting commerical craft into low earth orbit.
Maybe in the coming years we'll see commercial entities bidding on the freight contracts to the ISS and other orbital platforms. Space Hotels are just around the corner.
I support any legislation, companies or governmental agency which works to get humans into space. I think that man has a "NEED" to explore and I firmly believe that only space colonization can distract attention away from the age old passtime we humans share, war.
Yes, that's it, I said it, I firmly believe that colonization of other worlds and the nearer orbital space around with will lead to world peace. Having a place new frontier to explore will allow us to focus outward with an eye toward the future rather than simply sit around and stew in our nationalist, and religious soups. Getting off the rock is a cause to rally around. It's sexy and exciting, and the economic potential is simply astounding. I think that every dollar spent on space exploration will return 100 fold in the near future.
--Jason
While I'm at it, heres a link to a good video clip about George Bush's view on future space exploration.
HERE's a bonus sound clip from SETI, those are the kiddies that are looking for E.T.'s cellphone signal. The audio clip is of an "Anomalous Signal" that SETI and some other researchers are trying to figure out. I've listened to it about 10 times. I'm hoping it's not something like GPS constellation interference or Moonbounce. It's VERY cool nonetheless.
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:28 AM
November 24, 2004
The Final Frontier. . .
The latest omnibus spending bill bodes well for NASA. Go George Go! Get us off this rock!!!
For more NASA on the future course of NASA, click here.
Today it seems everyone is gearing up for a new race to the moon.
Posted by JasonColeman at 1:32 PM
November 15, 2004
Home away from home?
Scientists have found the first extra-solar (outside of our local solar system) planet that could possibly be habitable by humans at some point. At the very least, this is the first extra-solar planet upon which a probe from Earth could actually "touch down".
For the last few years, scientists have been scrambling to look at nearby stars in the hopes that planets would be discovered orbiting. So far about 125 such planets have been found and until now they've mainly been "gas giant" planets similar to Saturn and Jupiter.
Finding these gargantuan planets was the first step to looking for smaller rocky planets. Such smaller planets could one day be landed upon by probes sent from Earth.
Well the jackpot just hit, a rocky planet has been found orbiting around the star mu Arae, which is a mere 50 light years away from us. Mu Arae is a star similar to our sun in it's intensity and the as yet unnamed planet orbits in a region similar to Mars and Earth's in our solar system. The planet itself is about 14 times the size of Earth (about the size of Uranus), and does possess an atmosphere which makes up about 10 percent of the planets mass. Unlike Uranus (which is a smaller version of the gas giant Jupiter) this new rocky world may very well lie in the so called "goldilocks zone" which is a narrow temperature band where liquid water can exist on a planet with a suitable atmosphere. Also remarkable about this planet is it's obital velocity. The planet is rocketing around it's solar parent in just 9.5 days.
While it's unlikely that humans will ever set foot on this particular new world, the discovery is a milestone in the search for new planets that could support life and possibly one day be visited by humans or probes from Earth. As we refine our search techniques and can now positively identify smaller and smaller worlds, it's just a matter of time before we can find a new "home away from home".
I'll keep ya'll informed about any new developments with our new neighbor.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 4:24 PM
