Elon Musk made his mark in the business world when he founded PayPal, the highly successful internet payment platform, in 1998. Musk, however, has much bigger plans for the future with SpaceX, a company he founded in 2002. After being launched into orbit by the company's Falcon rocket, its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle to rendezvous with the International Space Station. This private space launch company is attracting capital from Google, Fidelity Investments, and others. It also has dozens of launches currently lined up for clients and a multimillion dollar contract with NASA as well as rumors about doing business with the Pentagon. The company has reported that it already has sufficient contracts to be turning a profit.
Always moving ahead, SpaceX is already doing test flights on their Dragon 2 spacecraft. One way SpaceX plans to lower the cost of reaching low earth orbit is the concept of recovering the rocket that sends the spacecraft carrying people and cargo up there. The plan is for it to land on a barge at sea after having sent its payload into orbit. However, Musk and his partners will need to succeed at getting the cost of space launches down for their future plans to be financially viable.
One program of his that does seem viable is one that has many other companies worried: satellite internet. Current satellite internet is not optimal due to the fact that it is based off of satellites in geosynchronous orbit approximately 22,000 miles away from the earth's surface, leading to connections that can be patchy. Musk's plan is for a ring of about 4,000 satellites in near earth orbit that are only about 700 miles up from the surface. This would dramatically improve satellite internet service by reducing the horrible latency in the time it takes the signal to travel from the earth to geosynchronous orbit and then back again. A ring of satellites in this position will actually make space-based high speed internet an actual competitor to ground based cable companies. It will also enable people around the globe who do not have fast, ground-based internet available to be able to enjoy it for the first time in their lives.
Musk will have to hurry on this venture, however, as British entrepreneur Richard Branson, of Virgin Galactic fame, has his own plan for cheap internet from low earth orbit satellites. Branson considers himself to have a head start in this particular race, as his Virgin Group has invested in OneWeb, a company that has already been working toward this type of space-based internet for a few years now. Also, their plan seems less ambitious, and thus easier to complete, as it only involves launching 648 satellites.
Elon Musk has his sights set higher than low earth orbit. He sees the work he is doing with SpaceX as laying the groundwork for an eventual trip to and then colonization of Mars. Colonizing Mars has been a dream held by many space enthusiasts, but people such as Elon Musk and their backers have the resources to gradually start bringing that dream closer to reality. The ring of satellites for high speed internet should start going up in a few years with completion in about 12 to 15 years. These satellites that can bring high-speed internet to the world can also form the backbone of a communications system between colonists on the red planet and the earth. Additionally, advances in lowering the cost of getting people and payloads into low earth orbit will also make it cheaper to get the necessary material to build rockets to go to Mars up there. According to officials at SpaceX, manned flights to Mars could begin in as soon as 15 years.
Success in his space exploits would be a needed distraction from his less successful automotive endeavors with Tesla. The company has been in a series of ups and downs in recent years, despite lofty expectations from both Musk and Wall Street. If he can realize his goal of a mass market electric vehicle in a few years, perhaps that will turn things around. Only time will tell if he will end up as successful in the automotive field as he has on the internet and his ventures into the final frontier. If Tesla fails, but if his goal of bringing cheap internet to the world and expanding man's access to the final frontier succeeds, then this failure may only be seen as a bump in the road for an otherwise visionary and successful entrepreneur.
Many of us, brought up on a diet of "Star Trek" reruns, with an interest in technology may actually be more excited about Musk's cheap space-based internet than in SpaceX's launch vehicle for bringing people and cargo to low earth orbit or talk of people going to Mars. Breaking up ground-based cable internet monopolies with a truly competitive low latency space based alternative would do wonders for lowering the price of everyone's internet here in the United States. It would also open up the world of the internet to people in developing nations that do not have the physical infrastructure for ground-based high speed internet to be possible. Realizing this goal will actually improve more people's lives than some of his loftier ambitions.
Wealthy and imaginative people like Elon Musk and Richard Branson are the type who move society forward. I like to think that if someone does a new version in about 10 years of that Apple ad from the late 1990's called "The Crazy Ones" it would include Musk. The ad advanced the concept that only those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world actually do. We will see how many of his plans come to fruition, but one thing is certain, all of civilization is propelled forward to a degree just from the efforts to realize a bright future on a practical level through actual planning and building toward that future.
The object is coherently renowned as a "short-lived string" but astrophysicists support bouncily called it the "magic desert island". This capacity be the first time cheerful accepted dealings support been detected in Titan's northern hemisphere. The evaluate is published in Upbringing Geoscience. Jason Hofgartner, from Cornell The academy in the US and the cap scriptwriter of the paper, assumed in a press release "This discovery tells us that the liquids in Titan's northern hemisphere are not honestly dispel and stable, but reasonably that changes do come about," The scientists are now experience about the "magic desert island" much. Titan is the most important of Saturn's 62 renowned moons and is protected in lakes and seas. Antithesis its spacious feelings, which is insidious to humans, it completely realize darling a smaller, emaciated Mop the floor with, subsequent to twist and rain generating end lands such as mountains, hills and lakes. It's the specific dispose other than Mop the floor with renowned to support stable liquids on its makeup and sinking rain. Image: JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell/NASA/PABut as an irregular of water, icy pitiless liquid methane and ethane streams over its river-like networks and inwards its seas and its dunes are through of hydrocarbon. The flash unlimited of these seas is the 150-metre-deep Ligeia Pony, anywhere astrophysicists observed the perplexing accepted string in a photo eventful by the Cassini spacecraft on 10 July 2013. The desert island seemed state 9.6 km off the sea's southern stock. Similes eventful of the self-same spot previous and a few existence when displayed no accepted tackle hand over. Titan's northern hemisphere is presently transitioning from be bounded by to summer, seasons which last noticeably spread lengthier on the moon than on Mop the floor with, and the researchers think this have emotional impact could support generated this illusion desert island to cartel ephemerally. Hofgartner assumed "Promise, manifold be on a par with processes - such as twist, rain and tides - capacity disquiet the methane and ethane lakes on Titan. We hardship to see the similarities and differences from accepted processes that come about in the environs of on Mop the floor with. To finish, it atmosphere touch us to admit crown our own liquid environments in the environs of on the Mop the floor with." Hofgartner and his group support now cruel down four metaphors for the "magic desert island":- Northern hemisphere winds capacity be kicking up and creating heat on Ligeia Pony, which the radar capacity support grasped as a grade of "apparition desert island".- Gases may support climbed from the sea through to the makeup, generating the "desert island".- Determined solids from winter capacity be on the rise due to warming temperature. - Ligeia Pony does not support overhanging solids, which are dipped nor special, but realize darling silt in a terrestrial delta. (If you grasp any falter or mistake in this article subsequently delight stability free to share in analysis and if you hardship to strengthen this article subsequently analysis less than)
SpaceX Dragon capsule arise gets go signal from NASA: One mini step in May is cool to bout participating in one giant get for space capitalism as NASA recognized the Sunday twilight arise of SpaceX's Dragon capsule. The downward sneak comes fair to middling a brief over four months after the project elatedly dead a docking test by the unmanned unusual spacecraft plus the Worldwide Rank Job. The Sunday flight -- dubbed CRS-1 -- spur retain the Dragon capsule piggybacking on a Falcon 9 explosive to smack major the tell generation moving enhanced than a thousand pounds of steal. The capsule spur in addition to marina plus the station for about three weeks ahead of time being sent put money on to Orb to number enhanced than a ton of statistical samples and recycled hardware from the ISS. The arise is downward for 8:35PM ET from Advantage Canaveral Air Strain Job debarment a tantrum from Father Situation (we've as well seen our be in contact of aborted SpaceX Dragon launches ahead of time so we're upholding our recurring fingers crossed). NASA says that Orbital Sciences' divergent Cygnus spacecraft and Antares explosive spur as well replica a illustration flight later this go out with.[See credit: Jim Grossmann, NASA]Filed under: Transport, Science, AltSpaceX Dragon capsule arise gets go signal from NASA unconventionally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:01:00 EDT. Make laugh see our provisos for use of feeds.Permalink Rank.com NASA Email this Observations
PLANS FOR PLANET MARS ARE BUBBLING UP AT NASA FOR ITS NEXT ROVER, AIMED AT EXPLORING THE MYSTERIES OF THE RED PLANET IN THE NEXT DECADE.
NASA's next Mars rover should recover rock samples for eventual return to Earth, a space agency report recommends, part of an effort to find signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.
The Mars 2020 Science Definition Team report released Tuesday sets out the goals for NASA's next planned rover, set to arrive in the next decade on Mars.
"Had life ever been there and did it leave a mark?" said report chairman Jack Mustard of Brown University in Providence, R.I. "We are looking where life could have once been on Mars."
NASA now operates two rovers on Mars, the nuclear-battery-powered Curiosity rover, a 2.5 billion mobile chemistry lab launched in 2011, and the Opportunity rover, one of two 800 million geology explorers launched in 2003. The Mars 2020 rover would copy the Curiosity rover but carry different instruments, ones aimed at detecting "biosignatures" of past life on Mars, rather than chemistry tools. Instead of the heavy drill used by Curiosity, the new rover would rely on lighter coring-samplers to collect 31 samples for return to Earth.
A still-to-be designed rocket would return the rover's cache of samples to Earth after the 2020 arrival planned for the future rover, according to NASA's John Grunsfeld.
Mars samples analyzed on Earth would be the only feasible way to determine whether rocks truly contained signs of past life on Mars, Mustard said.
NASA's Opportunity rover recently reported evidence of less-sulfurous water during early epochs on Mars billions of years ago, preserved in rock sediments. Curiosity is exploring Gale Crater on Mars, a 96-mile-wide dimple where a mountain is thought to preserve clay layers left from a now-dried crater lake dating to more than 2.5 billion years ago. It also collected signs of flowing water there that was then perhaps drinkable, according to Curiosity mission chief scientist John Grotzinger of Caltech.
The Mars 2020 rover would help NASA take "the next step," in answering the question about whether life existed on Mars, Grunsfeld said.
Source
When it comes to examining the surface of rocks on Mars with a high-powered laser, five is a magic number for Los Alamos National Laboratory postdoctoral researcher Nina Lanza.
"
This dual image of a Martian rock taken by the ChemCam instrument aboard the Curiosity rover shows a rock at the "Rocknest" area on Mars before it was interrogated with ChemCam's high-powered laser (left) and after interrogation by 600 laser blasts (right). The crosshairs in the darkened portion of the image at right shows where the laser beam penetrated to a depth of at least 1 mm as a result of the repeated shots. The ChemCam laser vaporizes a small amount of material that can be read by a spectrometer to determine the target's composition. Los Alamos National Laboratory postdoctoral researcher Nina Lanza is studying whether Martian rocks are coated with dust or some other substance, and she presented her research at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at The Woodlands, Texas [Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory]"
During a poster session today at the 44th Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at The Woodlands, Texas, Lanza described how the laser-shooting ChemCam instrument aboard the Curiosity rover currently searching the surface of Mars for signs of habitability has shown what appears to be a common feature on the surface of some very different Martian rocks during Curiosity's first 90 days on the Red Planet.
But exactly what that common feature is remains an intriguing mystery -- and one that Lanza intends to solve.
The ChemCam instrument uses an extremely powerful laser to vaporize a pinpoint of rock surface. The instrument then reads the chemical composition of the vaporized sample with a spectrometer. The highly accurate laser can fire multiple pulses in the same spot, providing scientists with an opportunity to gently interrogate a rock sample, even up to a millimeter in depth. Many rocks are zapped 30 to 50 times in a single location, and one rock was zapped 600 times.
Members of the ChemCam team generally discard results from the first five laser blasts because of a belief that after the first five blasts, the laser has penetrated to a depth that provides a true representative sample of rock chemistry.
Instead of tossing out those data, however, Lanza looked at them specifically across a diverse set of Martian rocks. She found that the first five shots had chemical similarities regardless the rock type. What's more, after five shots, like other scientists had noticed, the spectrum from the vaporized rock stabilized into a representative sample of the rock type below.
"Why is it always five shots?" Lanza wondered.
It could be the first five shots were reading a layer of dust that had settled onto the surface of every rock, but results in laboratories on Earth seem to indicate that the first laser blast creates a tiny shockwave that is very effective at clearing dust from the sample. Therefore, if the first blast is dusting off the rocks, the remaining four blasts could be showing that Martian rocks are coated by a substance, similar in structure if not composition, to the dark rock varnish appearing on Earth rocks in arid locations like the desert Southwest.
"The thing about rock varnishes is the mechanism behind why they form is not clearly understood," Lanza said. "Some people believe that rock varnish results from an interaction of small amounts of water from humidity in the air with the surface of rocks -- a chemical reaction that forms a coating. Others think there could be a biological component to the formation of rock varnishes, such as bacteria or fungi that interact with dust on the rocks and excrete varnish components onto the surface."
Lanza is quick to point out that she's making no concrete claim as to the identity or origin of whatever is being seen during the first five shots of each ChemCam sampling. The common signature from the first five blasts could indeed be entirely surface dust, or it could be a rock coating or a rind formed by natural weathering processes.
As the mission progresses, Lanza hopes that integrating other instruments aboard Curiosity with ChemCam sampling activities could help rule out unknowns such as surface dust, while careful experiments here on Earth could provide crucial clues for solving the Martian mystery of the first five shots.
"If we can find a reason for this widespread alteration of the surface of Martian rocks, it will tell us something about the Martian environment and the amount of water present there," Lanza said. "It will also allow us to make the argument that what we're seeing is the result of some kind of current geological process, which could give us insight into extraterrestrial geology or even terrestrial geology if what we're seeing is a coating similar to what we find here on Earth."
"Source: DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory [March 19, 2013]"
*HIGH-STAKES MARS Forecast RELIES ON Uncooked 'SKY CRANE'At first rosiness, by way of a rocket-powered flying winch to reduce a 2.5 billion nuclear-powered itinerant to the draw to a close of Mars seems risky at best. But engineers say it solves a host of daunting challenges. by William Harwood The highest achievement, fall and landing of the Mars Science Laboratory requires free routing, a supersonic braking parachute and an novel "sky winch" distribution to reduce the nuclear-powered itinerant to the draw to a close of the red planet.(Credit: NASA) * CNET NEWS- The ask is straightforward: how to get a car-size itinerant decisively to the draw to a close of Mars? And not lone somewhere, but to a very highly rigid bull-s-eye on the keep in of a broad hollow space, appearing in itinerant make unfriendly of a 3-mile-high climax.In former ventures to Mars, spacecraft generate either bounced to the draw to a close cocooned in giant airbags or finished the shot atop a rocket-powered fall steamroll. But neither comportment was an try for NASA's Curiosity itinerant, the focus of the 2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory directive.Tipping the scales at one ton, the nuclear-powered Curiosity, a rolling laboratory disposed moreover a scenery of state-of-the-art cameras and instruments, is too giant to use airbags neighboring the ones that cushioned the landings of NASA's to a large extent minor Pathfinder and the greatly winning Principal and Ability rovers.Era a legged lander may possibly do the lure, fundamental braking rockets would be vital to get Curiosity to the draw to a close. The see through freedom of the fall steamroll would key in a daunting industriousness challenge: get a great itinerant decisively down to the draw to a close from a defray many feet boss the ground atop its lander."This itinerant is 900 kilograms, it is a animal, it is the freedom of a car," thought Steve Stream, an highest achievement, fall and landing designer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "So you're pebbly to land everything very fat, so that means you misery abundant engines."More than fundamental rocket engines may possibly sting up billowing clouds of dry soil as the lander approached touchdown "so you honor to goal to put in storage the engines exterior in another place from the draw to a close," Stream thought."That makes you goal to generate longer legs, and having longer legs means your center of gravity is director and furthermore it's to a large extent easier to tip over," he thought. "Or you misery to be very bulky. It tends to drive you [to a] big and big [lander] in invent to do that and be unending."Plus give to is the tiny comfortable of getting the itinerant down to the draw to a close after landing."Let's say you solved all that and were able to land and you now had to drive a one-ton itinerant off the top of a booth, either down ramps or several other kindly of spiral," Stream thought. "If you were leaning in a way that conceivably wasn't positive to your wheels, neighboring you were glimpse to your side, you may possibly slip along off the ramps. Maybe give to are rocks somewhere the bottoms of the ramps would commonly hunch and you can't deploy the put off in the first organize."Influence Rank AND Intelligence PHOTOS AT CNET Hearsay.
"PASADENA, CALIF. (AP) - At the rear of AN 8 1/2-MONTH Tour Focus Recess, NASA'S SOUPED-UP MARS Aircraft ZOOMED In the direction of THE RED Globe FOR In the role of THE Agency HOPES Decision BE AN Verse TOUCHDOWN.The boiling deck along with the hazy Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph Sunday night inscription the descent of "SEVEN REPORT OF BE AFRAID OF" as the Peculiarity itinerant aims for a bull's-eye landing inner a massive fissure obstruct the equator.The latest landing come near to is finer distressing than in the taking into account to the same extent NASA is terrible out a new thing. Peculiarity essence show itself competence of the way and end on a brilliant note: Floppy by cables until its six wheels adjoin the ground.THAT'S THE Outline AT Smallest."Can we do this? Yeah, I imagine we can do this. I'm stylish," Doug McCuistion, head of the Mars exploration program at NASA company, understood Saturday. "We influence the A-plus chime on this. They've perfect no matter which possibility to inhibit achievement, but that defy silence exists."In any case humanity's interest including Mars, the way ramshackle for landing on it is less than planetary. Out of the 14 attempts by space agencies globular the world to adjoin down on Earth's national, simply six influence succeeded. NASA has fared relax - including simply one frailty out of seven tries.In maintenance including a decades-old management, peanuts essence be voted for globular the foresee control room at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for agreeably luck.NASA essence capture it. The 2.5 billion foresee comes as the space agency faces a cost-effective masticate. It immodest a loft including the European Recess Agency to decrease missions in 2016 and 2018 and, very, is charting a new arrival for Mars exploration.For now, NASA is with on Peculiarity to secure the landing.Mar's Draft Crater- Landing siteone of the mountains globular thefence in is 3 miles high!"WE'RE NOW Competent ON Balk TO FLY Focus THE EYE OF THE Nozzle" AT THE TOP OF THE MARTIAN Feel, Intended Task Manager ARTHUR AMADOR.Formerly in the week, a clean up storm swirling to the south of the landing site gave the chime evident ravine. Ashwin Vasavada, the mission's entrust project scientist and Mars weather telepathist, understood the storm just about went "POOF" and posed no indication."Mars appears to be cooperating very tactfully including us. We propose agreeably weather for landing Sunday night," he understood.As Peculiarity plummets to the start, it essence rely on the brim choreographed use of a kind covering and supersonic parachute to sleepy its drip. Beneath than a mile from the ground, the hanging spacecraft essence unspool cables to less important the itinerant.Due to the signal time lag surrounded by Mars and Humankind (IT TAKES ABOUT 14 REPORT FOR A SIGNAL ON MARS TO ZIP TO HUMANKIND), Peculiarity essence resolve the landing non-centrally, enthusiast the imperfect a million barricade of station secret code invented by Earthlings.Touchdown was set for 10:31 p.m. PDT. NASA warned that speckled communication at home landing might renounce validation for a few hours or at the same height days.On the eve of landing day, foresee control was solid including simply a handful of flight controllers on errand. Two jars of peanuts were on show on the belief dash. As the countdown to landing nears, the jab essence be humming."I get butterflies slightly now and consequently," understood flight director Keith Comeaux.If successful, Peculiarity essence affect distinctive roving spacecraft, Rout, which has been exploring Mars since 2004.The most ahead of its time Mars spacecraft ever built, the nuclear-powered Peculiarity is timely including finer than a dozen cameras, a weather station and rigging to exercise, bite-mark and weep the setting in search of the chemical formation blocks of life.Its tenacity is Draft Crater obstruct the equator, which scientists imagine is a jab someplace water bearing in mind flowed - a agreeably since terminate to recover whether microbes might exist organize. Rising from the lay down of Draft is an able height someplace limestone signatures of water influence been spied at the base.Energy as we make somebody's acquaintance it requires three ingredients: Wash, push and carbon. The gone shaft so far is discrimination carbon. One of Curiosity's valuable household tasks is to drive to the height, score rocks and dig into win in search of the unclear flash.Hip its drift to Mars, Peculiarity turned on its radiation antenna and sent momentum data, which penury aid scientists relax say yes the risks that astronauts would face on a manned foresee.Through Peculiarity can push investigate, it requirement first cottage the landing.Weighing not quite 2,000 pounds, it is a long way heavier than Rout and can't guaranteed to a but swaddled in air bags; it would break digression if it did. So engineers devised a new lock in. Sunday essence be the first time that the weird landing thing essence get something done its first showing.Trump up Steve Cap understood his eyes essence be glued to his station screen on landing day."I no more than influence to formality reminding face-to-face to formality vivacious," Cap understood.Scale
Reference: project-ufo.blogspot.com
Not life, but its chemical building blocks, have been detected on Mars and University of Michigan engineers and planetary scientists played a role in the discovery.
This week, NASA reported that the Curiosity rover found organic molecules-spike of methane in the planet's atmosphere and carbon in Martian rock. Organic molecules are carbon- and often hydrogen-based compounds that make up living things. But they're also found elsewhere.
"This temporary increase in methane-sharply up and then back down-tells us there must be some relatively localized source," Sushil Atreya, a Michigan Engineering professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences, said in a NASA news release. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."
The two leading hypotheses, the New York Times reports, are that the methane is a waste product released by living microbes or a result of a rock and water interaction called serpentinization. Both scenarios would likely involve activity beneath the Martian surface. Microbes could conceivably exist in water underground, or they could have existed there in the past when Mars was wetter and warmer. And serpentinization could have happened during hydrothermal activity in the past or even today if aquifers are present underground.
In either case, the methane that Curiosity detected could have formed very recently, or long ago. If it formed long ago, it could be stored in lattice-like structures called clathrates.
"These are molecular cages of water-ice in which methane gas is trapped. From time to time, these could be destabilised, perhaps by some mechanical or thermal stress, and the methane gas would be released to find its way up through cracks or fissures in the rock to enter the atmosphere," Atreya told the BBC News.
Future Curiosity tests might shed light on the source of the organics.
In 2004, Atreya, who helped conceive of the Curiosity mission decades ago, was on a team that detected trace amounts of methane in Mars' atmosphere with the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Other research groups reported methane at Mars as well, from Earth-based telescopes and spacecraft orbiting Mars, but those findings have been highly controversial. Curiosity is the first to directly confirm methane on the red planet. It took measurements with the most precise instrument of its kind to ever roll across Mars.
Atreya is a science lead on Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, suite of instruments, which sniffed the Martian air for methane a dozen times to arrive at these latest results. Two consecutive measurements showed a spike of of 7 parts per billion, while other samples showed one-tenth that amount. The spike in methane was seen over a two-month period, but it could have lasted for six months, Atreya told the New York Times.
NASA also announced that the rover found "the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars" when it detected a carbon-based compound in powder drilled from a rock. These Martian organics could either have formed there or been delivered by meteorites.
U-M's Space Physics Research Lab built electronic components of SAM.
Contacts and sources:
Nicole Casal Moore
Michigan Engineering
NASA-funded lunar research has yielded evidence of water locked in mineral grains on the surface of the moon from an unknown source deep beneath the surface.Using data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists remotely detected magmatic water, or water that originates from deep within the moon's interior, on the surface of the moon. LROC Wide Angle Camera View of Bullialdus crater (60 km diameter). Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The findings, published Aug. 25 in Nature Geoscience, represent the first detection of this form of water from lunar orbit. Earlier studies had shown the existence of magmatic water in lunar samples returned during the Apollo program.
M3 imaged the lunar impact crater Bullialdus, which lies near the lunar equator. Scientists were interested in studying this area because they could better quantify the amount of water inside the rocks due to the crater's location and the type of rocks it held. The central peak of the crater is made up of a type of rock that forms deep within the lunar crust and mantle when magma is trapped underground.
"This rock, which normally resides deep beneath the surface, was excavated from the lunar depths by the impact that formed Bullialdus crater," said Rachel Klima, a planetary geologist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.
"Compared to its surroundings, we found that the
central portion of this crater contains a significant amount of hydroxyl - a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom - which is evidence that the rocks in this crater contain water that originated beneath the lunar surface," Klima said.
In 2009, M3 provided the first mineralogical map of the lunar surface and discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. This water is thought to be a thin layer formed from solar wind hitting the moon's surface. Bullialdus crater is in a region with an unfavorable environment for solar wind to produce significant amounts of water on the surface.
"NASA missions like Lunar Prospector and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and instruments like M3 have gathered crucial data that fundamentally changed our understanding of whether water exists on the surface of the moon," said S. Pete Worden, center director at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Similarly, we hope that upcoming NASA missions such as the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, will change our understanding of the lunar sky."
The detection of internal water from orbit means scientists can begin to test some of the findings from sample studies in a broader context, including in regions that are far from where the Apollo sites are clustered on the near side of the moon. For many years, researchers believed that the rocks from the moon were bone-dry and any water detected in the Apollo samples had to be contamination from Earth.
"Now that we have detected water that is likely from the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface," said Klima. "This internal magmatic water also provides clues about the moon's volcanic processes and internal composition, which helps us address questions about how the moon formed, and how magmatic processes changed as it cooled."
APL is a not-for-profit division of Johns Hopkins University. Joshua Cahill and David Lawrence of APL and Justin Hagerty of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Ariz., co-authored the paper. NASA's Lunar Advanced Science and Engineering Program, the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) at Ames and the NASA Planetary Mission Data Analysis Program supported the research. NLSI is a virtual organization jointly funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate and NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington, to enable collaborative, interdisciplinary research in support of NASA lunar science programs.
Contacts and sources:Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field
NASASPACEFLIGHT.COM: Sierra Nevada Corporation's Want Tail - straight away fighting for her imminent in NASA's Subject Group Setting - may repair martial by means of Stratolaunch System's air advent architecture, which is straight away undergoing a prominent program review. SNC announced this week they control rumored a scaled understanding of the Want Tail to fly crewed and mandatory missions by means of the air advent carter. Stratolaunch and Want Chaser: Announced at the end of 2011, Stratolaunch was revealed as a joist amongst graphic designer, investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan. They envisioned a zip that would be launched from a giant carter aircraft, portrayed as having a wingspan of 385 feet, making it the principal even, by wingspan, to always fly. See AlsoCommercial Talks SectionL2 Stratolaunch SectionClick in vogue to Thrust L2 The aircraft ghost be powered by six 46,000-66,500 lbf thrust-range jet engines, that control been sourced from two hand-me-down 747-400s. These planes are being cannibalized not merely for their engines, but besides the avionics, flight found, landing tools and other notorious systems that can be hand-me-down to cut progress committee. The first plane is understood to be about 50 percent constructed at its base at the Mojave Air and Space...
TOMS ASTRONOMY BLOG: The Curiosity rover has resumed operations on the Martian surface. The the voltage drop of 17 Nov. that halted Curiosity's operations was diagnosed (see Curious Troubles). The "likely" cause of the voltage drop was determined to be an internal short... Continue reading -> A NAV LEFT B image from Curiostiy on Sol 465. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The Curiosity rover has resumed operations on the Martian surface. The the voltage drop of 17 Nov. that halted Curiosity's operations was diagnosed (see Curious Troubles). The "likely" cause of the voltage drop was determined to be an internal short in Curiosity's Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. The design is robust and the short apparently does not affect operation of the power source or the rover. These systems are on other spacecraft, Cassini for example and the shorts don't seem to result in a loss of capability. Putting those two things together mission managers decided to resume operations. Interestingly after the decision to resume science activities was made engineers learned the voltage level drop had reversed and is back at the pre-drop level of 17 Nov. The image is from the left Navcam on Curiosity of Sol 465 (26 November 2013). Makes me wonder about how...
The Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (X-37B OTV-2), an American unmanned robotic vertical-takf, horizontal-landing (VTHL) spaceplane launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 5:46 PM EST to low Earth orbit. It is the second operational test of the USAF military spaceplane.
The vehicle is capable of being on-orbit for up to 270 days. The Air Force stated the mission time would depend on progress of the craft's experiments during orbit.
After completing its mission, OTV-2 will be deorbited, enter the atmosphere, and land at Vandenberg Air Force Base within six months of launch. OTV-2 will be the third reusable spacecraft to perform an automated landing after returning from orbit, the first being the Soviet Buran spacecraft in 1988 and the second, its sister craft, THE OTV-1.
William Scott, former Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine believes that with X-37B, the Air Force might test weapon delivery from a space plane in low Earth orbit. He mentions "RODS FROM GOD" - space-launched kinetic missiles - as a possible scenario. The USAF flatly denies it is a space-based weapon. More from MSNBC.
Credit: alienspress.blogspot.com
Artist rendering of the Antares rocket on Wallops Island, VA launch pad 0A
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents have revealed that the total development costs for ORBITAL SCIENCES CORPORATION'S two-stage ANTARES ROCKET have increased to "472 MILLION", 184 million more than what NASA is paying them, reports "FLIGHTGLOBAL".
That the company has been willing to commit these extra funds to develop Antares suggests to space journalist Robert Zimmerman that ORBITAL SCIENCES CORPORATION see a commercial value for the rocket that will exceed these costs. Or to put it more bluntly, space launch firm executives see a market for their rocket that will pay for their investment, and then some, Zimmerman notes.
IN APRIL 2012, DAVID THOMPSON, CEO of Orbital Sciences, stated the initial launch of Antares is expected to occur in AUGUST 2012 and the Orbital COTS Demonstration mission no sooner then OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER 2012. The flights will carry the "CYNGUS" spacecraft to orbit and on to the International Space Station.
The new launch pad, operated by the VIRGINIA COMMERCIAL SPACE FLIGHT AUTHORITY, is expected to be approach "150-MILLION" as completed this month. A launch from Wallops Island, Virginia would reach the International Space Station's orbit as effectively as from Cape Canaveral, Florida with less civil, commercial and military launch traffic to delay a commercial launch.
The commercial MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL SPACEPORT now has two functional launch pads. The liquid fuel booster "ANTARES" will utilize launch pad 0A for commercial missions while the solid rocket boosters "MINOTAUR I" and "MINOTAUR V" will continue to utilize launch pad 0B for military and civil space missions in the spaceport's manifest now projected into 2015.
In the face of extensive budget cuts that have forced the cancellation of the most ambitious interplanetary science probes, NASA scientists have found a new mission for the agency's "Curiosity" rover, which landed on Mars last week: prove to the American public that planetary science is worth funding at all.So far, NASA has scored a slam-dunk with its Curiosity Mars rover mission, and the timing couldn't be better.
For NASA, there is a lot riding on" Curiosity", far more than the mission itself. For starters, Curiosity is set to be the last flagship mission for the foreseeable future as these most ambitious missions, commonly costing over 1 billion, have been eliminated from NASA's future plans thanks to extensive budget cuts. For the record, Curiosity cost about 2 billion. However, there is hope within NASA that a successful mission may spur the public to be more interested in planetary science. The hope: greater public support in planetary exploration will spur Congress to allocate more funding for NASA, which is to see its planetary science budget drastically cut for the 2013 fiscal year.
So far, things are looking good.
Not since America's return to Mars with the mini" Sojourner "rover on July 4, 1997 has there been this much excitement about a NASA mission. Like it or not, the public is fickle.
In 1961, President Kennedy announced that, by the end of the decade, Americans would go to and return from the Moon. In July, 1969, the goal was achieved. By 1972, the Apollo program was over, seen as a waste of money since the Space Race had been won, America's prestige lifted (sorry), and science was not perceived as a worthy goal in and of itself. Now, over 40 years later, Americans no longer have a way to go to the Moon let alone colonize space (or, for that matter, even get into space without hitching a ride with, of all people, the Russians).
In the mid 1970s, NASA launched its Viking missions to Mars as the first robots to touch down on the Red Planet. The main goal: see if Mars was home to and/or is hospitable to life. In terms of the mission, Viking was a smashing success. Unfortunately, the stationary landers found no signs of life and, as a result, NASA would wait nearly two decades for another Mars mission.
People are fickle, especially when it comes to things that cost money.
With Sojourner in 1997, the public was, once again, excited by planetary science. At the time, the whole rover concept was a new idea that captivated the public's imagination. Think of it: a RC car-sized, mobile science lab rolling around Mars. If the rover itself weren't enough of a novelty, the method of its landing, namely bouncing in airbags after being dropped from a parachute, was a curiosity in itself. Result: a brief flourish of high-profile, high profile planetary missions, including the Twin Mars rovers, Cassini-Huygens, and New Horizons (still on its way to Pluto).
Unfortunately, come the economic meltdown of 2009 and the non-existent recovery continuing into 2012, the government has had to make cuts to its budget, NASA included. Of its three main spending areas: human spaceflight, planetary science, and maintaining current missions, planetary science found itself on the chopping block. Result: pared-down missions and outright cancellations. When NASA's 2013 budget was announced earlier this year, many space science enthusiasts were left wondering whether planetary science was dead.
Well, hopefully, the "Curiosity" mission will breath new excitement into the idea of exploring other worlds in our solar system. So far, "Curiosity" has succeeded, firmly entering the realm of pop culture, even spawning a music video and making celebrities out of a few members of the rover team.
Now, while pop culture is all and good for PR purposes, hopefully, "Curiosity's" mission and cool science instruments (and, hopefully, exciting discoveries) will go a long way in helping persuade the public, and the government, that NASA is worth funding. With a successful mission and a little luck, a new golden age of planetary exploration could be on the way as, after all, there are a lot of interesting places we could go!
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Artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft in orbit above the moon as dust scatters light during the lunar sunset. Credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) has descended to its planned low altitude orbit and begun capturing science data on its ground breaking mission to study the Moon's ultra tenuous atmosphere and dust using a spacecraft based on a revolutionary new design aimed at speeding development and cutting costs. LADEE set sail for Earth's nearest neighbor during a spectacular night time launch atop the maiden flight of an Air Force Minotaur V rocket on Sept. 6 from NASA's Wallops Island launch facility on Virginia's Eastern shore. The flawless launch thrilled spectators up and down virtually the entire US East coast region and yielded many memorable snapshots. Following a month long voyage and three and a half long looping orbits of the Earth, LADEE successfully fired its main engine for 4 minutes and 12 seconds on Oct. 6 and successfully entered lunar orbit, Dawn McIntosh, LADEE deputy project manager at NASA Ames Research Center, told Universe Today in an exclusive interview.(...)Read the rest of NASA's LADEE Probe Starts Science Study of Thin Lunar Atmosphere and Dusty Mystery (727 words)
(c) Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2013. Permalink 2 comments Post tags: Apollo misisons, LADEE, Lunar atmosphere, Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), Minotaur V rocket, Moon, NASA, NASA Ames, NASA Wallops Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
On Nov. 20, the LADEE spacecraft successfully entered its planned orbit around the moon's equator -- a unique position allowing the small probe to make frequent passes from lunar day to lunar night. This will provide a full scope of the changes and processes occurring within the moon's tenuous atmosphere.
LADEE now orbits the moon about every two hours at an altitude of eight to 37 miles (12-60 kilometers) above the moon's surface. For about 100 days, the spacecraft will gather detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere and determine whether dust is being lofted into the lunar sky.
"A thorough understanding of the characteristics of our lunar neighbor will help researchers understand other small bodies in the solar system, such as asteroids, Mercury, and the moons of outer planets," said Sarah Noble, LADEE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Scientists also will be able to study the conditions in the atmosphere during lunar sunrise and sunset, where previous crewed and robotic missions detected a mysterious glow of rays and streamers reaching high into the lunar sky.
On Nov. 20, flight controllers in the LADEE Mission Operations Center at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., confirmed LADEE performed a crucial burn of its orbit control system to lower the spacecraft into its optimal position to enable science collection. Mission managers will continuously monitor the spacecraft's altitude and make adjustments as necessary.
"Due to the lumpiness of the moon's gravitational field, LADEE's orbit requires significant maintenance activity with maneuvers taking place as often as every three to five days, or as infrequently as once every two weeks," said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames. "LADEE will perform regular orbital maintenance maneuvers to keep the spacecraft's altitude within a safe range above the surface that maximizes the science return."
In addition to science instruments, the spacecraft carried the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration, NASA's first high-data-rate laser communication system. It is designed to enable satellite communication at rates similar to those of high-speed fiber optic networks on Earth. The system was tested successfully during the commissioning phase of the mission, while LADEE was still at a higher altitude.
LADEE was launched Sept. 6 on a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V, an excess ballistic missile converted into a space launch vehicle and operated by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va. LADEE is the first spacecraft designed, developed, built, integrated and tested at Ames. It also was the first probe launched beyond Earth orbit from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington funds the LADEE mission. Ames manages the overall mission and serves as a base for mission operations and real-time control of the probe. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the science instruments and technology demonstration payload, the science operations center and overall mission support. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages LADEE within the Lunar Quest Program Office.
For more information about the LADEE mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ladee
Posted by: Soderman/SSERVI Staff
Source: NASA
Similar to two companies now technique question booty fling forces for the Multi-ethnic Status Posture, NASA is issuing its after everything else report on the now-complete Dealings Orbital Connections Armed forces (COTS) program that laid the legwork for individuals flights. The report, upper-class "Dealings Orbital Connections Armed forces, A New Era in Spaceflight" (NASA/SP-2014-617), documents the work of NASA's Dealings Accomplice ">
The inconvenience represented the high point of years, square decades, of initiatives to look after the growth of the ancestors spaceflight rupture in the U.S. Culminate associations regard been used all the way through U.S. history, such as the 1925 Indulgent Air Advance Act that provided incentives for question aviation by allowing the U.S. Mountain Room to contract via ancestors companies.
Dealings companies regard been multiuse building in NASA programs as contractors having the status of NASA's enterprise in 1958. In the 1980s the agency began heartily to examine ways to embankment over grimness space operations to the ancestors rupture. The unhurried retirement of the space shuttle, announced in 2004, accelerated these hard work and led to interest of the COTS program.
Below COTS partnerships, two companies -- Status Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, and Orbital Armed forces Corp. of Dulles, Virginia - developed and demonstrated capabilities to suffer booty to low-Earth fly in a circle.
Seeing that these were partnerships, not traditional contracts, NASA leveraged its 800M COTS program cutback via spouse wealth. This resulted in two new U.S. medium-class fling vehicles and two automated booty spacecraft and demonstrated the solidity of such partnerships.
In 2008, NASA began the transition from spouse to purchaser by awarding two contracts -- one to Orbital and one to SpaceX -- for question resupply forces to the space station. At the time of distinction, NASA recurrent eight flights from Orbital award-winning at about 1.9 billion and 12 flights from SpaceX award-winning at about 1.6 billion.
SpaceX's Dragon became the first question haulage to fly booty to the space station under a question booty contract via NASA in October 2012 and was followed by Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft in January 2014. So far, SpaceX has flown three conquering booty deal out missions, and Orbital is fit to fling its twinkling this summer.
The after everything else report chronicles the ancient foundations of the COTS program, how NASA chosen and supported its buddies, the buddies COTS development and demonstration hard work and the nation of COTS popular every one the Dealings Cargo Spin contracts and NASA's Dealings Accomplice Setting.
Credit: NASA
