Technomaly » NASA

Giant Space Hand!

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:21:26 +0000

The hand of God? An alien breaching the walls of our galaxy? The giant space hand you see here is actually pulsar PSR b1509-58.This neutron star spins seven times per second and is relatively young by pulsar standards – the light of the supernova that caused it would have first reached our planet about 1,700 years ago.

The Space Hand is located about 17,000 light years away from the constellation Circinus and is approximately 100 light years long. According to NASA, the “low energy X-rays are in red, medium energies in green, and high energies in blue. The pulsar itself is in the bright central region.”

Source: NASA via Gizmodo

What’s Next for NASA?

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:00:12 +0000

Interesting article from the Washington Post this morning – so the White House has called off a plan to go to the moon, and the space shuttles are mere months away from being decommissioned. For the first time in decades, NASA has no specific location it’s headed to next.

Where NASA heads next seems to be dependent on where rocket technology is. Obama’s plan to divert money from George W. Bush’s moon mission to better rocketry could pay off in as little as a few years, finally bringing us the breakthrough it’d take to get to Mars.

Here’s a list of destinations, as listed by the Washington Post, in order of easiest to hardest:

A flight to the moon, without a landing
Points in space where the gravitational pull between the earth and the moon is equal – such points would be ideal for telescopes or other space science platforms
A near-earth asteroid
Landings on mars & a martian moon

My vote for a next stop? Asteroid. We’ve gotta learn how to blow those things up in case a planet-killer asteroid stops by planet earth to say hey.

Source & Photo Source: Washington Post

1.3 Trillion Pounds Of Ice Found On Moon

Nick Upton — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:09:32 +0000

An Indian satellite doing a flyover with a NASA radar spotted tons, and tons, and tons of ice — 600 million metric tons worth.

The 1.3 trillion pounds of ice are very interesting to moon scientists and NASA explorers who could potentially use the ice to create water and to eventually create oxygen for future explorers.

“The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon,” said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
“The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought.”

The ice was found mostly on the northern pole in craters likely created by icy asteroids smashing into the moon. NASA has to figure out a good way to collect, purify and split the water into oxygen and hydrogen (which they can then use for fuel) but it’s a good start. Figuring out the problems associated with using the space ice close to home is a great stepping point toward making technology for future missions to Mars.

[Via NASA]

Obama To NASA: ‘No Moon For You!’

Geoffrey Golden — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:00:53 +0000

In the 50s, a common vision of the future went like this: an American family packs up the car, drives to their local Spaceport, hops in the 10:35 am rocket and gets ready for a relaxing day-trip to the moon. Well, now it is the future — the year 2010 — and not only are we not vacationing on the moon, but we’re not sending astronauts there anymore either.

President Obama’s 2011 budget calls for a cancellation of Constellation, the billion-dollar NASA program whose goal was to get humans back on the moon in 2020. Obama wants to spend more money on pressing concerns like job creation and tax relief for businesses, so in order to keep the budget somewhat balanced (though it clocks in at almost $4 trillion), something had to go. Sorry, astronauts.

“It’s almost like a reboot of NASA’s human space flight program,” said Tariq Malik, Space.com’s managing editor.

So what happens now? If NASA really wants to make another trip to the moon, they’ll likely need to rely on wealthy investors and corporate underwriting. So don’t be surprised if NASA’s next spacecraft is called “The NASA/Frito-Lay Jalapeno Cheetos Flavor Rocket.” Space travel has never tasted so bad for you.

Source: CNN

Image Source: Mentalfloss

Obama’s Budget Proposal Funds NASA, Cuts Moon Landings

J. Matthew Zoss — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:21:47 +0000

On February 1, President Obama unveiled his new budget proposal. Not found in its pages was funding for a Department of Socialism. On the other hand, an increase for NASA was included. The space agency would receive an additional $6 billion over the next five years, but funding for return trips to the moon.

According to the budget draft, NASA’s Constellation program, which “was planning to use an approach similar to the Apollo program to return astronauts back to the Moon 50 years after that program’s triumphs,” would be canceled. An independent panel found that the program was behind schedule and over-budget, and the Obama budget proposes turning over much of future space exploration to the private sector.

The new funding, which would increase NASA’s operating budget to $19 billion in 2011, would refocus the agency towards general science and away from space exploration. As long as I can still get my freeze-dried ice cream and Tang, I’m okay with that.

Source: Associated Press

Satellite Spots Solar Eclipse From Space

Nick Upton — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:42:24 +0000

An earth-orbiting satellite got a front row seat for the latest solar eclipse.

As the video shows, the event is very interesting and a bit unnerving when sped up so quickly.

The European Space Agency’s Proba 2 satellite was designed to observe the sun with new technology, so more stunning views like this are on the horizon.

[Via Space.com]

NASA’s New Telescope Spots Near-Earth Asteroids

Asterios Kokkinos — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:00:28 +0000

NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is hard at work on its task of mapping the entire sky with infrared light. Why? Planet-killing asteroids, that’s why! They’re out there, and I’m terrified! And guess what? WISE’s already brought home the bacon:

That red dot is WISE’s first find – a .6-mile asteroid NASA’s designated 2010 AB78. Will it collide with the planet, killing billions? Thankfully, no – due to its tilted orbit, it won’t come near earth for centuries – but thanks to the WISE we can now keep an eye on it.

How does WISE work? Well, I could tell you about it’s onboard telescope with a 16-inch aperture, a telescope designed to continuously sweep the sky at four infrared wavelengths as it spins about the earth. I could tell you about its four detector arrays, capible of scanning ONE MILLION PIXELS each.

I could tell you all that, but I’d just be regurgitating nonsense words, as I have no idea what any of that means. Let me put this in words even I can understand: big telescope help save planet! Earthlings grateful! Asteroids bad!

NASA Set To Outsource Space Travel Tech

Nick Upton — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:02:06 +0000

NASA and the Obama administration says the future of space travel will depend more on private companies to do the legwork in creating new technology and building the technology for future space travelers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the move is expected to be a part of President Barack Obama’s next budget. After the success of the various X-prizes, these types of deals are becoming more and more intriguing.

The idea of outsourcing a portion of NASA’s manned space program to the private sector gained momentum after recommendations from a presidential panel appointed last year. The panel, chaired by former Lockheed Martin Corp. Chairman Norman Augustine, argued that allowing companies to build and launch their own rockets and spacecraft to carry American astronauts into orbit would save money and also free up NASA to focus on more ambitious, longer-term goals.

The plan does come with its critics, and some of them have very valid points. NASA brass says that while these private initiatives can help in some areas, every dollar taken from NASA’s budget makes it harder to pursue the future of space travel. Putting science funds in private hands could be great for things like space ferrying to and from the International Space Station, but the critics are right. Space exploration is difficult and fraught with unseen problems. If NASA cuts its margins with private exploration, that is less money for projects that exceed budgets — nearly every project.

These smaller margins aren’t likely to spark great ideas from NASA scientists, it’s bound to spark panic and the cutting of corners.

A more academic approach to NASA funding seems to be much more preferable, allowing scientists to ponder, fail and move on or change direction. The greatest technology comes from imagination and time, not a business plan. So dumping funds into private companies can tweak existing technology, but there won’t be the grand leaps that academia can create.

[Via Wall Street Journal]

NASA Engineer Unveils Personal Aircraft

Nex — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:48:13 +0000

Electricity. It lights our homes, zaps our stupidest infants, aids the elderly in their crimes, and, if aerospace geek Mark Moore has his way, will propel us into an era where we all fly to work in personal aircraft like so many fleshy George Jetsons.

Meet the Puffin. This new bird boasts Vertical Take-Off and Landing capabilities, maximum flying speeds of nearly 300 miles per hour, and a range of just over 9,000 meters before it has to land and recharge. What’s more, since it uses electric motors, it boasts efficiency levels that fossil fuel engines can only dream of and operates so quietly that shadowy military types have expressed interest in using the Puffin as a mobile reconnaissance platform.

“If you’ve ever seen a puffin on the ground, it looks very awkward, with wings too small to fly, and that’s exactly what our vehicle looks like,” Puffin inventor and NASA engineer Mark Moore told Scientific American. “But it’s also apparently called the most environmentally friendly bird, because it hides its poop, and we’re environmentally friendly because we have essentially no emissions. Also, puffins tend to live in solitude, only ever coming together on land to mate, and ours is a one-person vehicle.”

Despite the golden age of personal aircraft I promised in the first sentence, watching Moore’s mock-up video makes the Puffin seem more like a flying coffin than anything. What happens if you need to pee during mid-flight? It’s a simple enough process to evacuate your bladder while driving a car, but the Puffin’s cramped cockpit doesn’t leave much room for a handy piss bottle, let alone a window to toss it out of.

Source: Scientific American

NASA Has Big, Big Savings On Shuttlecraft

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:00:23 +0000

NASA’s prices on used space shuttles are so low, they’re in-sane!

Last Friday, NASA slashed prices on the Atlantis and Endeavour from $42 million dollars to the low, low price of $28.8 million dollars. Who’s buying? Well, not the people you’d want – namely, angry ex-astronauts seeking revenge – it’s schools and museums.

Potential customers have until Feb. 19 to put in a request for the shuttle, so I’m putting mine in now:

“Dear NASA,

My name is Asterios Kokkinos, and I would like to buy your Shuttlecraft on layaway. I can pay you $100 dollars now, and $28.7999 million over the course of the net hundred years. I am currently employed by a blog, which is incredible job security, so I’m a great credit risk.

Also, does the shuttle come with lasers, or must I provide the lasers myself? Because I feel that you should provide the lasers.

Sincerely,

Asterios Kokkinos”

Is The Phoenix Mars Lander Still Alive?

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:31:12 +0000

On November 2nd, 2008, the Phoenix Mars Lander made it’s last transmission – the results of an arctic survey. It then powered down for the harsh Martian winter, with nobody at NASA expecting it to survive.

The Phoenix’s power down site has experienced fall, winter, and part of a spring – temperature fluctuations the rover was never designed to withstand. All expect that it is dead. Just in case, the Mars Oddysey Orbiter will make 30 sweeps of the area from January 18th-20th. Longer search campaigns will be undertaken in February & March.

Dr. Tom Pike, who worked on the Phoenix Lander, had this to say:

“If it does come back up, I will be very surprised – very pleasantly surprised. I think we will beg, steal or borrow the money to get back out to Arizona, into mission control and back into our old seats to get the show on the road again.”

Source & Photo Source: BBC

Only One Of These Three Missions Will Be The Next NASA Idol!

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:18:58 +0000

Discovery.com hosted an article this morning about the next three missions NASA’s considering for it’s money saving “New Frontiers” program. All three proposals have merit, but only one can be…The Next NASA Idol! Your three finalists are

1) Sending a probe Venus to find out why it’s unlivable.

2) Landing a rover on the moon’s southern pole to examine moonrocks thought to come from the moon’s core.

3) Sending a craft near an asteroid, grabbing two grams of said asteroid and bringing that sample back for extensive testing.

To sum up, your finalists are: crashing a probe into a planet that sucks anyway, send yet another rover to the moon to look at some boring rocks, or create a robot that’ll skin an asteroid, and return to tell the tale.

And the winner of the next NASA idol is…oh, we’re out of time! Tune in next week, or whenever NASA makes it’s decision!

Source: Discovery.com, Photo Source: NASA

Supermassive Black Holes ‘Waltzing’ Through Space

Nick Upton — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:28:13 +0000

An image of the galaxy COSMOS J100043.15+020637.2. The tidal tail of stars, gas, and dust shows that this galaxy recently merged with another galaxy, which brought two supermassive black holes into this galaxy. (NASA/ASA)

Our galaxy will soon (3 billion years) get into the universal dance party and join the other 33 known galaxies containing a pair of supermassive black holes — we will, of course, be annihilated.

Scientists with Berkeley unveiled new research showing that the phenomenon is actually much more common than once thought.

The numbers “show that dual supermassive black hole systems are much more common than previously known from observations,” Dr. Comerford, a postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, said via press release.

Researchers spotted the dancers by watching redshifting (traveling away) light and blueshifting (traveling away from the black hole) at the center of neighboring galaxies. Just as the Kepler probe spots a gap between the sun and orbiting planets, Berkeley researchers saw a gap between the celestial giants.

The two black holes pull against each other and tug at nearby stars, making a huge mess of the galaxy but also making for a very interesting glimpse into the depths of our universe.

Via Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy.