Skip to main content

Home/ SciByte/ Group items tagged rotation

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

Asteroid's troughs suggest stunted planet - 0 views

phys.org/...id-troughs-stunted-planet.html

scibyte65 Vesta

shared by Mars Base on 27 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Scientists have been trying to determine the origin of these unusual troughs since their discovery just last year
  • new analysis supports the notion that the troughs are faults that formed when a fellow asteroid smacked into Vesta's south pole. The research reinforces the claim that Vesta has a layered interior, a quality normally reserved for larger bodies, such as planets and large moons.
  • ggest of those troughs, named Divalia Fossa, surpasses the size of the Grand Canyon by spanning 465 kilometers (289 miles) long, 22 km (13.6 mi) wide and 5 km (3 mi) deep
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • The complexity of their formation can't be explained by simple collisions
  • New measurements
  • taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft last year
  • indicate that a large collision could have created the asteroid's troughs
  • would only have been possible if the asteroid is differentiated – meaning that it has a core, mantle and crust
  • By saying it's differentiated, we're basically saying Vesta was a little planet trying to happen
  • previous research has found signs of igneous rock on Vesta, indicating that rock on Vesta's surface was once molten, a sign of differentiation
  • If the troughs are made possible by differentiation, then the cracks aren't just troughs, they're graben
  • graben is a dip in the surface that forms when two faults move apart from each other and the ground sinks into the widening gap
  • Vesta's troughs have many of the qualities of graben
  • observations indicate that Vesta is also unusually planet-like for an asteroid in that its mantle is ductile and can stretch under a lot of pressure
  • not yet fully convinced that Vesta's troughs are graben
  • There are other qualities of Vesta that could be clues to how the troughs formed
  • unlike the larger asteroid Ceres, Vesta is not classified as a dwarf planet because the large collision at its south pole knocked it out of its spherical shape
  • if Vesta has a mantle and core, that would mean it has qualities often reserved for planets, dwarf planets and moons—regardless of its shape
  • believes the south pole collision knocked Vesta into its current speedy rate of rotation about its axis of about once per 5.35 hours
  • may have caused the equator to bulge outward so far and so fast that the rotation caused the troughs, rather than the direct power of the impact
  • enigma why Vesta rotates so quickly
  • Dawn has already left to explore Ceres, so all the data it will retrieve on Vesta is in hand
  • scientists will continue to sort that data out and improve on computer simulations of Vesta's interior
Mars Base

A Big Magnet in a Small Fish - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...ig-magnet-in-a-small-fish.html

scibyte54 Fish

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • After spending 3 years at sea and traveling up to 300 kilometers away from home, a rainbow trout can swim straight back to its original hatching ground, following freshwater streams inland and rarely heading in the wrong direction
  • likely relies on many senses; the fish have superb eyesight and smell
  • trout also seem to rely on Earth's magnetic fields, which point them in the right direction
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • the first time in any animal, scientists have isolated magnetic cells in the fish that respond to these fields
  • may help researchers get to the root of magnetic sensing in a variety of creatures, including birds.
  • Previous research has shown that many species of fish, as well as migratory birds, have the ability to detect differences in magnetic field strengths, which vary around the
  • magnetism in each cell was tens to hundreds of times stronger than researchers had hypothesized
  • suggests that the fish may be able to detect not only the direction of North based on magnetism, but small differences in magnetic field strength that can give them more detailed information about their precise latitude and longitude
  • between one and four cells that rotated in turn with the rotating magnetic field. The team transferred the rotating cells to individual glass slides to study them further under the microscope.
Mars Base

Mystery of Moon's Lost Magnetism Solved? | Magnetic Moon Rocks Caused by Lunar Dynamo |... - 0 views

www.space.com/gnetic-field-lunar-dynamo.html

moon magnetism scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • One of the abiding mysteries of our moon is why it apparently once had a magnetic field
  • When Apollo astronauts brought back samples of moon rocks from their lunar landing missions
  • some of them shocked scientists by being magnetic.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • This can happen to rocks with the right minerals inside them, if they cool in the presence of a magnetic field
  • A magnetic field is generated by what's called a dynamo, which is caused by the fluid motion of a conducting material, such as liquid iron
  • the moon isn't large enough for convection to take place
  • In one new proposal
  • The strength of this stirring is determined by the angle between the core and the mantle
  • researchers think this happens because the moon's core and its mantle rotate around slightly different axes
  • suggest that the moon's solid-rock middle layer, called its mantle, stirs up its liquid iron core
  • because the tidal gravitational tug from the Earth causes the moon's mantle to rotate differently than the core
  • This model would explain why the moon used to have a magnetic field, but no longer does
  • researchers estimate the lunar magnetic field might have lasted for about a billion years
  • isn't the only possible solution to the moon's mystery
  • another explanation for the ancient lunar magnetic field.
  • suggests that the moon's mantle might have stirred up the liquid in its core
  • Instead of tidal interactions between the Earth and the moon, the researchers posit that impacts by large space rocks slamming into the moon have changed its rotation rate
  • would induce brief periods of especially strong stirring of the core, creating spikes of a magnetic field on the moon
  • either option may be correct, it's also possible that both mechanisms played a role in causing an ancient magnetic field on the moon
Mars Base

ScienceShot: Hubble Spots Auroras on Uranus - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...shot-hubble-spots-auroras.html

AprMedia scibyte43 hubble uranus

shared by Mars Base on 18 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • auroral glows in the atmosphere above our planet can flicker for hours
  • those seen on the planet's sunlit side—apparently last for only a couple of minutes
  • Researchers caught their first glimpse of the brief auroras from our planet's neighborhood with the Hubble Space Telescope in November 2011, 3 months after a strong gust in the solar wind raced past Earth on its way to Uranus
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Previously, scientists had observed the planet's auroras only once, during a Voyager flyby in 1986
  • instruments had a much better view of the glows
  • lasted longer, covered a larger area, and festooned the unlit side of Uranus
  • other factors were different
  • planet's rotational axis was pointed almost directly at the sun
  • in 2011 the axis lay almost perpendicular to the flow of solar wind
  • new observations should help scientists better understand Uranus's odd magnetic field, whose axis is both offset from the center of the planet and tilts at an angle of 60° from the rotational axis.
Mars Base

Busy Sunspot Unleashes New M-Class Solar Flare | Space Weather & Solar Storms | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/spot-eruption-solar-flare.html

scibyte38 solar flare sun

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • sun unleashed a new solar flare Tuesday (March 13) from the same region that has been actively brewing for the past week.
  • M7.9-class eruption
  • hurled a wave of plasma and energetic particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), into space
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • not heading in Earth's direction
  • The Solar Radiation Storm promptly reached S2 (Moderate) levels, but now should slowly decline
  • sunspot region called AR 1429,
  • already unleashed three strong X-class solar flares and several weaker M-class eruptions
  • , X-class flares from region 1429 triggered the strongest solar storm in eight years.
  • Region 1429 has been rotating across the solar disk and is no longer facing Earth
  • solar physicists will continue to monitor it and other developing sunspot regions for new outbursts.
Mars Base

Long-lived NASA Rover Begins Probing Interior of Mars | NASA & Mars Rover Opportunity |... - 0 views

www.space.com/pportunity-winter-science.html

scibyte30 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • rover is allowing scientists to begin investigating the mysterious interior of the Red Planet
  • beaming radio signals home to Earth
  • analyzing these signals, researchers hope to get "a handle on the structure of the interior of the planet
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • distribution of mass, and perhaps how large the core might be
  • the rover won't sleep
  • , it will investigate the rocks at Greeley Haven, take panoramic photos of its surroundings
  • most important — send radio signals back to Earth.
  • mission team will track those signals
  • using Opportunity's motion relative to Earth as a proxy for the rotation of Mars
  • Scientists should thus be able to get very precise measurements of the planet's spin.
  • learning how Mars' spin axis has changed, or precessed, since NASA's Viking mission made similar measurements back in the mid-1970s
  • Knowing the precession rate should allow scientists to get a much better handle on the Red Planet's interior structure
  • keen to study Mars' nutation, which is a smaller-period variation in the planet's rotation. Such information might help reveal whether the Red Planet's core is solid or liquid
  • mission team will be tracking Opportunity's radio signals almost daily. After three to six months, researchers expect to have enough data to start getting an in-depth picture of the Martian interior
Mars Base

This Insect Has The Only Mechanical Gears Ever Found in Nature | Surprising Science - 0 views

blogs.smithsonianmag.com/...cal-gears-ever-found-in-nature

scibyte102 BiologicalGear ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 16 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • To the best of our knowledge, the mechanical gear
  • evenly-sized teeth cut into two different rotating surfaces to lock them together as they turn
  • was invented sometime around 300 B.C.E. by Greek mechanics who lived in Alexandria
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • Issus coleoptratus
  • juveniles
  • have an intricate gearing system that locks their back legs together, allowing both appendages to rotate at the exact same instant, causing the tiny creatures jump forward.
  • , is believed to be the first functional gearing system ever discovered in nature
  • The finding,
  • used electron microscopes and high-speed video capture to discover the existence of the gearing and figure out its exact function.
  • To jump, both of the insect’s hind legs must push forward at the exact same time
  • The reason for the gearing, they say, is coordination
  • The researchers’ high-speed videos showed that the creatures
  • cocked their back legs in a jumping position, then pushed forward, with each moving within 30 microseconds
  • jump at speeds as high as 8.7 miles per hour
  • 30 millionths of a second
  • the skeleton is used to solve a complex problem that the brain and nervous system can’t
  • The gears are located at the top of the insects’ hind legs
  • and include 10 to 12 tapered teeth, each about 80 micrometers wide (or 80 millionths of a meter).
  • In all the Issus hoppers studied, the same number of teeth were present on each hind leg, and the gears locked together neatly
  • adults of the same insect species don’t have any gearing—as the juveniles grow up and their skin molts away
  • the adult legs are synchronized by an alternate mechanism (a series of protrusions extend from both hind legs, and push the other leg into action).
  • hypothesize that this could be explained by the fragility of the gearing
  • if one tooth breaks, it limits the effectiveness of the design
  • isn’t such a big problem for the juveniles, who repeatedly molt and grow new gears before adulthood
  • for the mature Issus, replacing the teeth would be impossible
  • There have been gear-like structures previously found on other animals
  • but they’re purely ornamental
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Maneuver Prepares for Drilling - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte70 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 01 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • placed its drill onto a series of four locations on a Martian rock and pressed down on it with the rover's arm, in preparation for using the drill in coming days.
  • carried out this "pre-load" testing on Mars
  • (Jan. 27
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • ctions for what would result from the commanded motions.
  • next step is an overnight pre-load test, to gain assurance that the large temperature change from day to night at the rover's location does not add excessively to stress on the arm while it is pressing on the drill
  • air temperature plunges from about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (zero degrees Celsius) in the afternoon to minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 65 degrees Celsius) overnight
  • Over this temperature swing, this large rover's arm, chassis and mobility system grow and shrink by about a tenth of an inch (about 2.4 millimeters), a little more than the thickness of a U.S. quarter-dollar coin
  • Remaining preparatory steps will take at least the rest of this week
  • Some of these steps are hardware checks. Others will evaluate characteristics of the rock material at the selected drilling site on a patch of flat, veined rock called "John Klein
  • We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity's first drilling. This is challenging. It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mar
  • "drill-on-rock checkout" will use the hammering action of Curiosity's drill briefly, without rotation of the drill bit, for assurance that the back-and-forth percussion mechanism and associated control system are properly tuned for hitting a rock
  • the surface of the rock while penetrating less than eight-tenths of an inch (2 centimeters).
  • "mini-drill" is designed to produce a small ring of tailings -- powder resulting from drilling
  • will not go deep enough to push rock powder into the drill's sample-gathering chamber
  • The rover team's activities this week are affected by the difference between Mars time and Earth time
  • To compensate for this, the team develops commands based on rover activities from two sols earlier
  • the mini-drill activity cannot occur sooner than two sols after the drill-on-rock checkout.
  • Martian sol lasts about 40 minutes longer than a 24-hour Earth day.
Mars Base

Planet-Hunting Kepler Spacecraft Shut Down Temporarily After Glitch | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/cope-alien-planets-glitch.html

scibyte78 Kepler

shared by Mars Base on 22 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • The Kepler telescope went into safe mode on Jan. 17 for a planned 10 days, during which time the telescope's reaction wheels — spinning devices used by the observatory to maintain its position in space —will be rested
  • after researchers detected an unexpected increase in the amount of torque needed to rotate
  • "Resting the wheels provides an opportunity to redistribute internal lubricant, potentially returning the friction to normal levels," Kepler officials
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Once the 10-day rest period ends, the team will recover the spacecraft from this resting safe mode and return to science operations
  • When the Kepler spacecraft launched in March 2009, it had four functional reaction wheels — three for immediate use, plus one spare
  • One of the wheels failed last
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Preparatory Drill Test Performed on Mars - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte81 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 11 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity used both percussion and rotation to bore about 0.8 inch (2 centimeters) into a rock on Mars and generate cuttings for evaluation in advance of the rover's first sample-collection drilling.
  • this "mini drill" test in preparation for full drilling was confirmed in data
  • The test was performed on a patch of flat, vein-bearing rock called "John Klein."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Pre-drilling observations of this rock yielded indications of one or more episodes of wet environmental conditions
Mars Base

Supersonic Skydive's 5 Biggest Risks: Boiling Blood, Deadly Spins, and Worse - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...sound-barrier-joseph-kittinger

scibyte66 RedBullStratos

shared by Mars Base on 06 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • history's largest helium balloon—55 stories tall and as wide as a football field
  • s team estimates the Austrian sky diver and helicopter pilot will reach Mach 1.2—roughly 690 miles (1,110 kilometers) an hour
  • Originally scheduled for Monday but postponed due to projected high winds
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • atmosphere above 12 miles, or 63,000 feet (19,200 meters)
  • is so thin that, if not protected, human blood will literally boil
  • , Baumgartner's airtight suit and the capsule around him will be continuously pressurized to create a personal atmosphere that isolates him from the void surrounding him
  • The smallest crack in this protective layer would cause almost immediate death
  • It is assumed this is what occurred on previous attempts to break Kittinger's record. Russian Pyotr Dolgov (1962) and American Nick Piantanida (1966) both died, most likely due to depressurization at extreme altitude
  • Baumgartner's balloon will be stressed by the cold, constructed as it is from plastic film just 0.0008 inch (0.02 millimeter) thick, to optimize weight-to-lift ratio
  • his balloon and capsule will pass through an atmospheric layer called the tropopause
  • Wind Could Blow Baumgartner off Course
  • Baumgartner Could Spin Uncontrollably, Even Fatally
  • flat-spin risk can be mediated with a technology first developed for Kittinger: a stabilization parachute to prevent further increase in rotation, deployed on command, or automatically if -3.5 G's are achieved.
  • Baumgartner has his eyes on a new speed record
  • won't open automatically
  • he will assume a rigid aerodynamic body position for the entire free fall—head first, arms at sides—and hope for the best.
  • Sonic Boom Could Do Unknown Damage
  • If Baumgartner becomes the first human to achieve supersonic speed with just his body—and without breaking his body—he will break new scientific ground.
Mars Base

Opportunity rover rolling again after fifth Mars winter - 0 views

phys.org/...rtunity-rover-mars-winter.html

scibyte46 mars opportunity rover

shared by Mars Base on 10 May 12 - No Cached
  • NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove about 12 feet (3.67 meters) on May 8, 2012, after spending 19 weeks working in one place while solar power was too low for driving during the Martian winter.
  • While at Greeley Haven for the past 19 weeks, Opportunity used the spectrometers and microscopic imager on its robotic arm to inspect more than a dozen targets within reach on the outcrop
  • Radio Doppler signals from the stationary rover during the winter months served an investigation of the interior of Mars by providing precise information about the planet's rotation
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Opportunity will look back with its panoramic camera to acquire multi-filter imaging of the surface targets it studied on Greeley Haven.
  • rover team will also check that the power supply still looks sufficient with the rover at a reduced tilt.
  • first drive since Dec. 26, 2011, took the rover about 12 feet (3.67 meters) northwest and downhill on Tuesday, May 8.
  • exploring the Meridiani region of Mars since landing in January 2004
  • arrived at the Cape York section of the rim of Endeavour Crater in August 2011
  • studying rock and soil targets on Cape York since then.
  • next goal is a few meters farther north on Cape York, at a bright-looking patch of what may be dust
  • haven't been able to see much dust in Meridiani
  • Endeavour Crater offers Opportunity a setting for plenty of productive
  • crater is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter
  • Unless wind removes some dust from Opportunity's solar array, allowing more sunlight to reach the solar cells, the rover will need to work during the next few weeks at locations with no southward slope
  • kept a northward tilt of about 15 degrees in recent months at its winter haven
  • favorably angled toward the winter sun low in the northern sky
Mars Base

Solar Tornadoes Dance Across Sun's Surface in NASA Video | Sun Tornado & Solar Flares |... - 0 views

www.space.com/-tornadoes-nasa-video-sdo.html

FebMedia

shared by Mars Base on 18 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • The tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun.
  • shows swirling fountains of plasma creeping across the surface of the sun during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8.
  • unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are wind-driven phenomena, the sun's plasma tornadoes are shaped by the powerful magnetic field of our star.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma
  • particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces
  • tracking along strands of magnetic field lines
  • cooler plasma material appears as darker spots on a bright background
  • SDO spacecraft recorded the video in the extreme ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, giving the movie an eerie yellow hue.
  • released
  • SDO video
  • mark the second anniversary
  • on a five-year mission to record high-definition videos of the sun to help astronomers better understand how changes in the sun's solar weather cycle can affect life on Earth.
  • launched on Feb. 11, 2010
Mars Base

Race is on to lure new SpaceX launchpad - 0 views

phys.org/...-06-lure-spacex-launchpad.html

scibyte52 SpaceX

shared by Mars Base on 22 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • A record-breaking mission to the International Space Station has triggered another space race back on Earth, with Florida competing against Texas and Puerto Rico for the chance to land a new launchpad for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, and its ambitious line of Falcon rockets.
  • none of the rivals has made public the incentives each is offering, the numbers are certain to be in the millions of dollars.
  • The stakes are high: hundreds of good-paying jobs at SpaceX and supporting companies that would pop up around its operation, as well as the prestige - at a time when NASA is no longer flying its own rockets - of serving as home to the commercial space industry's most successful startup.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Musk met last week with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to discuss locating a launchpad at the southernmost tip of the Lone Star State.
  • SpaceX has not disclosed what incentives it has been offered or the timing of its decision
  • Musk recently indicated that Texas might have the inside track
  • Florida officials acknowledge the competition is keen. They're hoping to leverage the fact that SpaceX already has one launchpad at Cape Canaveral
  • SpaceX officials said the one Florida pad isn't enough to handle both its government work and flights for commercial customers
  • d a deal with Intelsat, a major satellite operator, for a future launch aboard a massive new rocket that is still under developmen
  • manifest already shows more than a half-dozen commercial flights through 2014 in which SpaceX will carry satellites to orbit.
  • Florida officials also note they have a track record of helping the company. Space Florida, the state's aerospace booster, has invested more than $8.5 million so far to help establish the company at Cape Canaveral.
  • Florida faces one obstacle that has no immediate solution. The Air Force and NASA already use Cape Canaveral for launches - of government satellites and space probes - and SpaceX at times could be forced to wait its turn until the range is clear.
  • autonomous as possible, having
  • Puerto Rican officials are making geography a core argument in their pitch.
  • Puerto Rico is closer to the equator than Cape Canaveral or Brownsville, which means SpaceX rockets would use less fuel (and thus cost less to launch to orbit) because rockets get more of a "boost" from Earth's rotation near the equator.
Mars Base

Effects of Einstein's Elusive Gravity Waves Observed - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...elusive-gravity-waves-observed

scibyte61

shared by Mars Base on 29 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • According to Einstein, space-time is a structure in itself
  • also predicted that exceptionally massive, rapidly rotating objects — such as a white dwarf binary pair — would create outwardly-expanding ripples in space-time that would ultimately “steal” kinetic energy from the objects themselves. These gravitational waves would be very subtle, yet in theory, observable.
  • Originally observed in 2011 eclipsing each other
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • once every six minutes, the stars now eclipse six seconds sooner
  • equates to a predicted orbital period reduction of about 0.25 milliseconds each year
  • Although this isn’t “direct” observation of gravitational waves, it is evidence inferred by their predicted effects… akin to watching a floating lantern in a dark pond at night moving up and down and deducing that there are waves present
  • Based on these measurements, by April 2013 the stars will be eclipsing each other 20 seconds sooner than first observed.
Mars Base

Huge Dust Devil on Mars Captured in Action - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...vil-on-mars-captured-in-action

scibyte37 mars

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  • Mars orbiters, rovers and landers have all captured devils in action before
  • whirlwind on Mars lofting a twisting column of dust more than 800 meters (about a half a mile) high, with the dust plume about 30 meters or yards in diameter.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • on Feb. 16, 2012
  • Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars
  • Evidence of many previous whirlwinds, or dust devils, are visible as streaks on the dusty surface shown in the image
  • like on Earth, winds on Mars are powered by solar heating
  • Mars is now farthest from the Sun,
  • though the exposure to the Sun’s rays is now less, even so, the dust devils are moving dust around on Mars’ surface
  • Dust devils occur on Earth as well as on Mars
  • spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground
  • Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day
  • ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground
  • eated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above i
  • the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right.
Mars Base

Full Titanic site mapped for 1st time - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-03-full-titanic-site-1st.html

scibyte37 Titantic

shared by Mars Base on 09 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • April 10, 1912 file photo, the Luxury liner Titanic departs Southampton, England
  • Researchers have pieced together what's believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by-5-mile Titanic debris field
  • Marks on the muddy ocean bottom suggest, for instance, that the stern rotated like a helicopter blade as the ship sank, rather than plunging straight down
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • sonar imaging and more than 100,000 photos taken from underwater robots to create the map
  • Explorers of the Titanic
  • have known for more than 25 years where the bow and stern landed
  • previous maps of the floor around the wreckage were incomplete
  • mapping took place in the summer of 2010 during an expedition to the Titanic led by RMS Titanic Inc., the legal custodian of the wreck
  • joined by other groups, as well as the cable History channel
  • Details on the new findings
  • are not being revealed yet
  • the network will air them in a two-hour documentary on April 15, exactly 100 years after the Titanic sank
  • high-resolution photos - 130,000 of them in all
  • self-controlled robots known
  • along the ocean bottom day and night
  • moving at a little more than 3 miles per hour as they traversed back and forth in a grid along the bottom
  • photos were stitched together on a computer to provide a detailed photo mosaic of the debris
  • layout of the wreck site and where the pieces landed provide new clues on exactly what happened
  • Computer simulations will re-enact the sinking in reverse, bringing the wreckage debris back to the surface and reassembled
Mars Base

A Close-up Look at the Massive Solar Storm that Shook the Sun - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...solar-storm-that-shook-the-sun

scibyte37 sun

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • large X5.4 solar flare that erupted on the Sun on March 7, 2012 at 00:28 UT, (7:28 PM EST on March 6).
  • high-definition views from the Solar Dynamics Observatory also show the subsequent solar tsunami that rippled across the Sun, appearing as though the Sun ‘shook’ from the force of the flare.
  • NASA Goddard’s Space Weather Lab and NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center say surely there will be aurorae from this blast
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • After the first big blast, about an hour later, at 01:14 UT (8:14 PM EST, March 6) the same region let loose an X1.3 class flare. An X1 is 5 times smaller than an X5 flare
  • the region had already produced numerous M-class and one X-class flare,
  • region continues to rotate across the front of the sun, so these latest flares were more Earth-facing than the previous ones
  • big blast did trigger a temporary radio blackout on the sunlit side of Earth that interfered with radio navigation and short wave radio.
  • that solar tsunami
  • waves move at over a million miles per hour
  • one side of the Sun to the other in about an hour
  • movie shows two distinct waves. The first seems to spread in all directions; the second is narrower, moving toward the southeast
  • waves are associated with, and perhaps trigger, fast coronal mass ejections, so it is likely that each one is connected to one of the two CMEs that were associated with the flares
  • Close-up Look at the Massive Solar Storm
1 - 20 of 26 Next ›
Showing 20▼ items per page