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Mars Base

Tiny Worlds Around a Tiny Star (Infographic) | Smallest Alien Planets & KOI-961 Solar S... - 0 views

www.space.com/ets-tiny-star-infographic.html

scibyte29 exoplanet small Kepler

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • 11 January 2012
  • astronomers announced the discovery of a miniature solar system made up of three tiny planets - all of them smaller than Earth
  • 130 light-years from Earth
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • using NASA's Kepler
Mars Base

Russians desperately try to save Mars moon probe (Update) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...cientists-mars-moon-probe.html

mars scibyte21 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure Wednesday, and scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down.
  • successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday
  • separated from the booster about 11 minutes later and was to fire its engines twice to set out on its path to the Red Planet, but never did
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • probably due to the failure of the craft's orientation system
  • Phobos-Ground was Russia's first interplanetary mission since a botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars, which failed when the probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure
  • Depending on the actual root of the failure, this is not an impossible challenge
  • the effort to restore control over the probe is hampered by a limited earth-to-space communications network that already forced Russian flight controllers to ask the general public in South America to help find the craft
  • Amateur astronomers were the first to spot the trouble when they detected that the spacecraft was stuck in an Earth orbit
  • About seven tons of nitrogen teroxide and hydrazine, which could freeze before ultimately entering, will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever
  • billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control
  • The spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons), with fuel accounting for a large share of its weight
  • Scientists had hoped that studies of Phobos' surface could help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system. Some
Mars Base

Japanese Satellite to Write Morse Code in Sky | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ats-space-station-fitsat1.html

scibyte56 FITSAT-1

shared by Mars Base on 25 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • robotic Japanese cargo vessel now en route to the International Space Station is loaded with food, clothes, equipment — and a set of tiny amateur radio satellites, including one that will write Morse code messages in the sky
  • slated to arrive at the station
  • July 27
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • ultrasmall satellites it's carrying, which are known as cubesats, will likely remain on the orbiting lab until September
  • using the Kibo module's robotic arm.
  • One of the cubesats, FITSAT-1, will write messages in the night sky with Morse code, helping researchers test out optical communication techniques for satellites, researchers said.
  • One of FITSAT-1's experimental duties is to twinkle as an artificial star
  • just under 3 pounds (1.33 kilograms
  • high power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that will produce extremely bright flashes.
  • hope, will be observable by the unaided eye or with small binoculars
  • the cubesat's high-output LEDs will blink in flash mode, generating a Morse code beacon signal.
  • contains a neodymium magnet that forces it to always point to magnetic north, like a compass.
  • Mars Base on 25 Jul 12
     
    FITSAT-1
Mars Base

Eye implants make vision-restoring progress - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...implants-vision-restoring.html

Scibyte55 RestoringVision

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Second Sight’s Argus II, a retinal prosthesis already on the market in Europe
  • Bio-Retina from NanoRetina, which is to start clinical trials next year
  • Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System was developed to provide electrical stimulation of the retina to induce visual perception
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • system includes an antenna, an electronics case, and electrode array
  • designed to bypass damaged photoreceptors altogether
  • video camera in the glasses captures a scene
  • video is sent to a small patient-worn computer VPU where it is processed and transformed into instructions sent back to the glasses via a cable
  • transmitted wirelessly to the antenna in the implant
  • signals are sent to the electrode array, which emits small pulses of electricity. The pulses bypass the damaged photoreceptors and stimulate the retina’s remaining
  • Users of the Argus II bionic eye say that they can see rough shapes and track the movement of objects; they can slowly read large writing.
  • Anticipation is high, meanwhile, for a bionic retina that has been designed to restore sight at less cost and with a different technique
  • Bio-Retina developed by Nano Retina does not make use of an external camera
  • vision-restoring sensor is placed inside the eye, on top of the damaged retina
  • 24×24-resolution (576-pixel) sensor atop the damaged retina. The device generates a grayscale image
  • implant is inserted through an incision in the eye
  • procedure takes 30 minutes and requires only local anesthesia
  • transforms naturally received light into an electrical signal that stimulates the neurons, which send the pictures received by Bio-Retina to the brain
  • rechargeable, battery-powered mini-laser on a pair of eyeglasses powers the implant wirelessly
  • anticipated recover time is up to one week
  • patients able to distinguish faces and to be able to look from side to side with their eyes rather than needing to turn their heads
Mars Base

Space Shuttle Enterprise Opens to Public in NYC | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/le-enterprise-exhibit-nyc.html

scibyte55 enterprise

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • On Thursday (July 19), the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Manhattan's west side opened its new "Space Shuttle Pavilion" to the public
  • NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined a dozen of his fellow shuttle-era astronauts — including three of the four pilots who flew Enterprise during its atmospheric approach and landing test program in 1977
  • Enterprise, which never flew in space, is presented in a darkened display with dramatic blue lighting, evoking the atmosphere of flight
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • raised platform at the front of the vehicle allows guests to come nose-to-nose with the Enterprise, as well as look into its crew cabin's windows and down the length of the 122 foot (37 meter) prototype spacecraft
  • During the opening ceremony, Marenoff-Zausner, together with Mosler and Fisher, presented the Enterprise veterans with plaques commemorating that their names would be displayed alongside the shuttle in the form of star-shaped displays
  • Also on hand
  • Karol "Bo" Bobko, who served as prime chase plane pilot for Enterprise's approach and landing test (ALT) program
  • The entire Intrepid team is working hard to raise the funds and develop a plan for the permanent home for Enterprise, on the grounds of this museum but not on the flight deck
Mars Base

Movement-limited toddler gets 3-D-printed magic arms (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...dler-d-printed-magic-arms.html

MedicalDevice GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 07 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • A disabled toddler suffering from Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC)
  • thanks to the technology of 3-D printing, which enabled her to use a magical arms device to move freely for the first time.
  • 3-D printed device is based on the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX), an orthopedic apparatus made from hinged bars and resistance bands.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • WREX was constructed to help children with little residual strength from muscular and joint disorders to move their arms in space
  • while WREX was able to help arthrogryposis sufferers as young as six years old, the child in this case study, Emma, was only two and weighed twenty-six pounds
  • team on Emma’s case turned to what they knew about and had available in 3-D printing, which they put to use to suit Emma
  • used a Dimension SST 1200es 3D printer and Stratasys production system. so as to create a prosthetic light enough for young Emma to continue moving around freely.
  • makes use of medical-grade materials that contributed to the success of the device. The ABS plastic material for the magic-arms device was described as “human friendly, strong, and durable.”
  • using a robust 3-D printing technology means that doctors can rely on a system to accommodate wide-ranging specifications for patients
  • allow the doctors to keep adjusting her prosthetic; it will evolve
  • Creating a lightweight exoskeleton by hand would be extremely difficult, and 3-D printing technology enabled the researchers to customize WREX to exact specifications
Mars Base

Mars Forecast: Dry Skies and Calm Winds for Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing | Popular Sc... - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...-mars-rover-curiositys-landing

scibyte57 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 06 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • About 34 hours from the Mars rover Curiosity's landing
  • NASA brought us the latest weather forecast from the surface -- dry and cold, with a slight chance of dust
  • Earlier this week, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a dust storm south of Gale Crater, the rover's targeted landing site
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and Curiosity rover is designed to handle dust and winds, so a light storm wouldn't have been a huge problem
  • could have caused added turbulence, interfering with the spacecraft's guided entry and landing
  • could still land safely
  • with a little less accuracy
  • latest imagery from the Mars orbiters shows the dust storm clearing
Mars Base

NASA - Curiosity Spotted on Parachute by Orbiter - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...pia15978b.html

scibyte57 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 06 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • The image scale is 13.2 inches (33.6 centimeters) per pixel
  • The parachute appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute, such as the band gap at the edges and the central hole, are clearly seen. The cords connecting the parachute to the back shell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of NASA's Phoenix lander descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles. The bright spot on the back shell containing Curiosity might be a specular reflection off of a shiny area. Curiosity was released from the back shell sometime after this image was acquired.
Mars Base

Moon Eats a Chunk Out Of The Sun: Big Pic : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...r-eclipse-sun-moon-120221.html

scibyte35 sun

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Orbiting the Earth at a distance of 36,000 kilometers in geosynchronous orbit, the SDO usually has a spectacular, uninterrupted view of our nearest star
  • The sharp edge of the lunar limb helps researchers measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope
  • how light diffracts around the telescope's optics and filter support grids
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen the images even more than before
  • this eclipse can bring the lunar landscape into focus -- mountains and valleys on the moon show up as a raggedy edge when viewed at high resolution.
Mars Base

Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ttery-replacement-surgery.html

scibyte36 heart health

shared by Mars Base on 04 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A new power scheme for cardiac pacemakers turns to an unlikely source: vibrations from heartbeats themselves.
  • a device that harvests energy from the reverberation of heartbeats through the chest and converts it to electricity to run a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator.
  • new energy harvester could save patients from repeated surgeries. That's the only way today to replace the batteries, which last five to 10 years.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • use ambient vibrations that are typically wasted and convert them to electrical energy
  • researchers haven't built a prototype yet
  • made detailed blueprints and run simulations demonstrating that the concept would work
  • A hundredth-of-an-inch thin slice of a special "piezoelectric" ceramic material would essentially catch heartbeat vibrations and briefly expand in response
  • Piezoelectric materials' claim to fame is that they can convert mechanical stress (which causes them to expand) into an electric voltage.
  • have precisely engineered the ceramic layer to a shape that can harvest vibrations across a broad range of frequencies
  • incorporated magnets, whose additional force field can drastically boost the electric signal that results from the vibrations.
  • new device could generate 10 microwatts of power, which is about eight times the amount a pacemaker needs to operate
  • originally designed the harvester for light unmanned airplanes, where it could generate power from wing vibrations
Mars Base

10 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do | NASA, Mars Science Laboratory & Curio... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-rover-curiosity-science.html

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 20 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Mast Camera (MastCam)
  • capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian landscape, which scientists will study and laypeople will gawk at
  • Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
  • ...43 more annotations...
  • will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass
  • instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns — smaller than the width of a human hair
  • MAHLI sits on the end of Curiosity's five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm
  • Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
  • small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface
  • will click on a mile or two above the ground, as soon as Curiosity jettisons its heat shield. The instrument will then take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down. The footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity's Red Planet rovings, and it should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site, the 100-mile-wide
  • Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
  • makes up about half of the rover's science payload.
  • a suite of three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer
  • will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it
  • look for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
  • The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an inlet on the rover's exterior
  • Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
  • CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance
  • will help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet
  • CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm
  • will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract
  • Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)
  • This instrument will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits
  • help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform
  • The laser sits on Curiosity's mast, along with a camera and a small telescope
  • Three spectrographs sit in the rover's body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics
  • spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt
  • APXS will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei. This barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays. Scientists will be able to identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays
  • Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)
  • located near the back of Curiosity's main body, will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath the Martian surface
  • The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they bounce back. Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground water or ice
  • should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m).
  • Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
  • instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays
  • designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars
  • will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars
  • Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
  • partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station
  • measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.
  • integrated into daily and seasonal reports
  • MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)
  • MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments
  • will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky
  • will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory, performed
  • data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft
Mars Base

Discovery of historical photos sheds light on Greenland ice loss - 0 views

phys.org/...wledge-glaciers-greenland.html

scibyte49 GlobalWarming

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers at the National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark
  • had been storing the glass plates since explorer Knud Rasmussen's expedition to the southeast coast of Greenland in the early 1930s.
  • Ohio State University researchers and colleagues in Denmark describe how they analyzed ice loss in the region by comparing the images on the plates to aerial photographs and satellite images taken from World War II to today.
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • imagery shows that glaciers in the region were melting even faster in the 1930s than they are today
  • A brief cooling period starting in the mid-20th century allowed new ice to form, and then the melting began to accelerate again in the 2000s.
  • we now have a detailed historical analogue for more recent glacier loss
  • confirmed that glaciers are very sensitive indicators of climate."
  • cleaning up in the basement and had found some old glass plates with glaciers on them
  • The reason the plates were forgotten was that they were recorded for mapping, and once the map was produced they didn't have much value."
  • They contained aerial photographs of land, sea and glaciers in the southeast region of the country, along with travel photos of Rasmussen's team.
  • researchers digitized all the old images and used software to look for differences in the shape of the southeast Greenland coastline where the ice meets the Atlantic Ocean
  • calculated the distance the ice front moved in each time period.
  • Over the 80 years, two events stand out: glacial retreats from 1933-1934 and 2000-2010
  • 1930s, fewer glaciers were melting than are today, and most of those that were melting were land-terminating glaciers, meaning that they did not contact the sea.
  • were melting retreated an average of 20 meters per year - the fastest retreating at 374 meters per year
  • Fifty-five percent of the glaciers in the study had similar or higher retreat rates during the 1930s than they do today.
  • more glaciers in southeast Greenland are retreating today, and the average ice loss is 50 meters per year. That's because a few glaciers with very fast melting rates - including one retreating at 887 meters per year - boost the overall average.
  • From 1943-1972, southeast Greenland cooled - probably due to sulfur pollution, which reflects sunlight away from the earth.
  • Sulfur dioxide is a poisonous gas produced by volcanoes and industrial processes. It has been tied to serious health problems and death, and is also the main ingredient in acid rain.
  • deadly pollution caused the climate to cool, but rather that the brief cooling allowed researchers to see how Greenland ice responded to the changing climate.
  • glaciers responded to the cooling more rapidly than researchers had seen in earlier studies
  • Sixty percent of the glaciers advanced during that time, while 12 percent were stationary
  • now that the warming has resumed, the glacial retreat is dominated by marine-terminating outlet glaciers, the melting of which contributes to sea level rise.
  • we see that the mid-century cooling stabilized the glaciers," Box said. "That suggests that if we want to stabilize today's accelerating ice loss, we need to see a little cooling of our own."
Mars Base

16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code - 0 views

phys.org/...rean-mummy-clue-hepatitis.html

scibyte49 health

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 12 - No Cached
  • discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B virus
  • may be used as a model to study the evolution of chronic hepatitis B and help understand the spread of the virus,
  • may shed further light on the migratory pathway of hepatitis B in the Far East from China and Japan to Korea as well as to other regions in Asia and Australia where it is a major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Carbon 14 tests of the clothing of the mummy suggests that the boy lived around the 16th century during the Korean Joseon Dynasty
  • viral DNA sequences recovered from the liver biopsy enabled the scientists to map the entire ancient hepatitis B viral genome.
  • researchers compared the ancient DNA sequences with contemporary viral genomes disclosing distinct differences
  • changes in the genetic code are believed to result from spontaneous mutations and possibly environmental pressures during the virus evolutionary process
  • analysis suggests that the reconstructed mummy's hepatitis B virus DNA had its origin between 3,000 to 100,000 years ago.
  • In recent years, universal immunization of newborns against hepatitis B in Israel and in South Korea has lead to a massive decline in the incidence of infection.
Mars Base

SpaceX's First Mission to the Space Station: How It Will Work | Dragon COTS 2/3 Flight ... - 0 views

www.space.com/agon-space-station-flight.html

scibyte47 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule is due to deliver food, supplies and science experiments
  • SpaceX is one of two companies with NASA contracts for robotic cargo delivery flights (Virginia's Orbital Technologies Corp. is the other), but is the first to actually try a launch
  • Here's how the robotic mission is expected to play out:
  • ...50 more annotations...
  • Step 1: Launch
  • from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX has use of the facility's Space Launch Complex 40
  • The initial ascent is powered by Falcon 9's first stage, consisting of nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines
  • Step 2: Main Engine Cut Off/Stage Separation
  • At a little before 180 seconds into the flight, the Falcon 9's first stage engines will cut off, and the first stage will drop off, falling back to Earth
  • the booster's second stage engines should start, further propelling the vehicle into orbit.
  • Step 3: Payload Separation
  • Around 9 minutes into the flight, the Dragon capsule should separate from Falcon 9's second stage and orbit on its own
  • capsule will deploy its solar arrays to start soaking up energy from the sun
  • Dragon is on its own and must maneuver using its onboard thrusters
  • Step 4: Orbital Checkouts
  • Dragon will begin a series of checkouts to make sure it's functioning as designed and ready to meet up with the station
  • test out its abort system to prove it can terminate its activities and move away from the space station if something goes wrong.
  • demonstrate its performance in free drift phase, with thrusters inhibited
  • Teams on the ground will lead the vehicle through tests of
  • Absolute GPS (AGPS) system, which uses global positioning system satellites to determine its location in space
  • Step 5: Fly-Under
  • fire its thrusters to perform a fly-under of the International Space Station
  • to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) below the outpost
  • make radio contact with the station using a system called the COTS Ultra?high frequency Communication Unit to communicate.
  • Dragon will also test a secondary locator system called the relative GPS system, which uses the spacecraft's position relative to the space station to establish its coordinates
  • the six-person crew inside the orbiting laboratory will be monitoring their new visitor
  • use a crew command panel onboard the station to communicate with the capsule and send it a command to turn on a strobe light.
  • After completing the fly-under, Dragon will loop out in front, above and then behind the space station to position itself for docking.
  • Step 6: Rendezvous
  • during Dragon's fourth day of flight, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters again to bring it within 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) of the space station
  • there, NASA's Mission Control team in Houston will run through a "go-no go" call to confirm all teams are ready for rendezvous
  • If everyone is "go," Dragon will inch closer, to about 820 feet (250 meters) away from the space station.
  • series of final checkouts will be performed to make sure all of Dragon's location and navigation systems are accurate
  • If all looks good, Dragon's SpaceX control team on the ground will command the vehicle to approach the space station
  • When it reaches 720 feet (220 meters), the astronauts onboard the outpost will command the capsule to halt.
  • After another series of "go-no go" checks
  • approach to 656 feet (200 meters), and then 98 feet (30 meters), and finally 32 feet (10 meters), the capture point.
  • Step 7: Docking
  • Mission Control will tell the space station crew they are "go" for capturing Dragon
  • astronaut Don Pettit will use the station's robotic arm to reach out and grab Dragon, pulling it in to the bottom side of the lab's Harmony node, and then attaching it.
  • The next day, after more checkouts, the crew will open the hatch between Dragon and the station.
  • Over the coming weeks, the astronauts will spend about 25 hours unpacking the 1,014 pounds (460 kilograms) of cargo that Dragon delivers
  • none of the cargo is critical (since this is a test flight),
  • capsule will arrive bearing food, water, clothing and supplies for the crew.
  • Step 8: Undocking
  • Dragon is due to spend about 18 days docked at the International Space Station.
  • the station astronauts will use the robotic arm to maneuver the capsule out to about 33 feet (10 meters) away, then release it. Dragon will then use its thrusters to fly a safe distance away from the laboratory.
  • Step 9: Re-entry
  • About four hours after departing the space station, Dragon will fire its engines to make what's called a de-orbit burn
  • will set the capsule on a course for re-entry through Earth's atmosphere
  • spacecraft is equipped with a heat shield to protect it from the fiery temperatures of its 7-minute re-entry flight.
  • Step 10: Landing
  • due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean to end its mission
  • There, recovery crews will be waiting to collect the capsule about 250 miles (450 kilometers) off the West Coast of the United States
  • Mars Base on 21 May 12
     
    Mission Overview
Mars Base

Mars Snowflakes Are as Tiny as Red Blood Cells | Mars Weather | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/mars-snowflakes-tiny-snow.html

scibyte52 mars

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Snowflakes on Mars are smaller than their Earth counterparts, having roughly the same diameter as a human red blood cell, a new study reports.
  • analyzed observations made by two Mars-orbiting spacecraft to calculate the size of snowflakes
  • composed of carbon dioxide rather than water
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • team looked at temperature and pressure profiles taken by MRO to determine where and when conditions would allow carbon dioxide snow particles to form
  • analyzed measurements from MGS' laser altimeter, which gauged the topography of Mars by timing how long laser pulses took to bounce back from the planet's surface
  • Occasionally, the laser beam returned faster than anticipated, after ricocheting off cloud particles in the Martian atmosphere.
  • analyzing how much light these clouds reflected, the researchers were able to calculate the density of carbon dioxide in each one.
  • figured out the total mass of snow particles hovering above Mars' poles by examining earlier measurements of tiny, seasonal shifts in the planet's gravitational field.
  • put all of this information together to calculate the number and size of individual snow particles in the polar clouds at various times
  • found that particle size differed from pole to pole, with flakes in the north measuring between 8 to 22 microns and those in the south just 4 to 13 microns.
  • about comparable to the width of a human red blood cell, the researches said.
Mars Base

Water on the Moon in Pictures | Lunar Ice | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/on-water-lunar-ice-photos.html

LunarWater

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • In July 2008, water was found conclusively for the first time inside ancient moon samples brought back by Apollo astronauts
  • gathered by the Apollo 15 mission
  • new analytic technique to detect water
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • strongly suggests that water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence – and perhaps since it was first created
  • 2009 discovery of water on the moon
  • images show a very young lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth
  • NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft
  • distribution of water-rich minerals (light blue) is shown around a small crater
  • 2009, observations from three spacecraft showed signals of water across moon's surface
  • stream of charged hydrogen ions carried from the sun to the moon by the solar wind
  • might explain the possible presence of hydroxyl or water on the moon.
  • NASA's Mini-SAR instrument, which flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to 15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice. The red circles denote fresh craters; the green circle mark anomalous craters.
  • NASA's Mini-SAR instrument
  • aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft
  • found more than 40 small craters with water ice
  • total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater
  • estimated there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice
  • the moon's permanently shadowed regions may hide stores of water
  • photo of the moon's south pole
  • January 2011 study suggested that water on the moon most likely came from comets that pelted the lunar surface after its formation
  • In October 2010, scientists reported that a frigid crater called Cabeus at the moon's south pole is jam-packed with water ice, with some spots wetter than Earth's Sahara desert
  • NASA's LCROSS probe discovered beds of water ice at the lunar south pole when it impacted the moon in October 2009. This visible camera image shows the ejecta plume at about 20 seconds after LCROSS's impact on the moon.
  • Recent studies have found vast amounts of water ice at or near the lunar surface. But the inside of the moon is bone dry, an August 2010 study found.
Mars Base

Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres - 0 views

phys.org/...spies-plumes-dwarf-planet.html

scibyte117 Asteroid Ceres

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Scientists
  • have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
  • Plumes of water vapor are thought to shoot up periodically from Ceres when portions of its icy surface warm slightly
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.
  • "This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,"
  • Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain
  • NASA's Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now after spending more than a year orbiting the large asteroid Vesta
  • Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest look ever at its surface.
  • will map the geology and chemistry of the surface in high resolution
  • International Astronomical Union, the governing organization responsible for naming planetary objects
  • Ceres was known as the largest asteroid in our solar system
  • reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter
  • When it first was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter
  • Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is present on all of Earth
  • The materials making up Ceres likely date from the first few million years of our solar system's existence and accumulated before the planets formed.
  • Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on Ceres but had not been detected conclusively
  • far-infrared vision to see, finally, a clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But
  • did not see water vapor every time it looked
  • spied water vapor four different times, on one occasion there was no signature.
  • what scientists think is happening
  • when Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in plumes
  • a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) per second
  • When Ceres is in the colder part of its orbit, no water escapes
  • The strength of the signal also varied over hours, weeks and months
  • water vapor plumes rotating in and out of Herschel's views as the object spun on its axis
  • This enabled the scientists to localize the source of water to two darker spots on the surface of Ceres
  • previously seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to outgas because dark material warms faster than light material.
  • "The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids," said Seungwon Lee of JPL
  • Paul von Allmen, also of JPL. "We knew before about main belt asteroids that show comet-like activity, but this is the first detection of water vapor in an asteroid-like object."
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