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Weird World! 'Oozing' Alien Planet Is a Super-Earth Wonder | Exoplanets & 55 Cancri e |... - 0 views

www.space.com/net-55-cancri-super-earth.html scibyte30 exoplanet
shared by Mars Base on 20 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • A new look at an alien planet that orbits extremely close to its parent star suggests that the rocky world might not be a scorching hot wasteland, as was thought
  • The exotic planet 55 Cancri e is a relatively close alien planet, just 40 light-years away from Earth
  • long thought to harbor surface temperatures as high as 4,800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2,700 degrees Celsius
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • 55 Cancri e could be a wetter and weirder place than   though
  • 55 Cancri e has a mass 7.8 times that of Earth, and a width just over twice that of our planet
  • observations suggest that about a fifth of the planet's mass must be made up of light elements and compounds, including water
  • experiences such extreme temperatures and high pressure, these elements and compounds likely exist in what is known as a "supercritical" fluid state,
  • Supercritical fluids can best be imagined as liquid-like gases in high pressure and temperature conditions
  • water becomes supercritical in some steam turbines
  • supercritical carbon dioxide is used to scrub caffeine from coffee beans
  • supercritical fluids could be seeping out from the planet's rocks. And, while conditions on the strange world are not suitable to host life, 55 Cancri e does give exoplanet hunters an interesting example to study
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New Horizons Web Site - 0 views

pluto.jhuapl.edu/...piPerspective.php scibyte30 newhorizons
shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • January 19, 2012
  • launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on January 19, 2006
  • sixth anniversary
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • nine-year flight from launch to the beginning of Pluto encounter in January 2015 is two-thirds over
  • summer’s wakeup will be a “24 hour” near-encounter rehearsal
  • execute a (nearly) daylong segment of our Pluto encounter sequence on the spacecraft
  • New Horizons will make every maneuver, every scan and every observation that it actually will do around closest approach in 2015
  • ’ll check out every system (and its backup) on New Horizons
  • check out each of the seven scientific instruments
  • collect more science data than we have in any previous wakeup
  • update the software for our primary spacecraft command and control computer
  • removing a bug that occasionally causes it to reset
  • uplink almost two-dozen improvements to our onboard autonomous fault detection and automatic response software
  • Horizons team will use a wide variety of telescopes to intensively probe the space between Pluto and Charon for possible satellites, rings and other kinds of debris structures
  • begin to work through some 260-plus malfunction and contingency scenarios that we’ve identified as possible “gotchas” at Pluto
  • data New Horizons sends back — maps, spectra, plasma data, radio science and more — will provide a detailed view of Pluto and its system of moons
  • knowledge of Pluto will literally expand from a single fact sheet’s worth of information, to textbook-length tomes.
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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
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Solar Flare May Spark Weekend Northern Lights Show | Solar Flares & Northern Lights | S... - 0 views

www.space.com/kend-northern-lights-show.html scibyte30 sun solar flare CME
shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • A powerful flare erupted from the sun Thursday (Jan. 19
  • solar flare occurred at about 11:30 am EST (1600 GMT
  • coronal mass ejection
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • aimed at Earth
  • sun explosion should reach Earth by Saturday night (Jan. 21), and could amp up northern lights
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Delay for space station's 1st private cargo run (Update) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...tation-1st-private-hookup.html scibyte30 SpaceStation SpaceX
shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • SpaceX planned to launch its unmanned supply ship from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 7
  • company said more testing was needed with the spacecraft, named Dragon
  • confirmed the launch would not occur until late March.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • as much as he'd like to take part in the historic event, it's important that SpaceX fly when it's ready. Burbank will return to Earth in mid-March.
  • Just over a year ago
  • Space Ex
  • launched a test version of the capsule
  • NASA is counting on companies like SpaceX to keep the station stocked, now that the shuttles are retired.
  • Russian, European and Japanese space agencies - all government entities - are picking up the slack as best they can, sending up regular shipments to the orbiting outpost
  • It may take a little more time, but when it happens, it's going to be amazing
  • first Dragon capsule to visit the space station will carry several hundred pounds of astronaut provisions - nothing crucial, in case of a failure
  • Astronauts aboard the space station will use a huge robot arm to grab and berth the Dragon
  • it will be able to return scientific samples to Earth, Burbank noted. None of the other countries' supply ships can do that; they burn up on re-entry.
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Seaweed Study Fuels Bioenergy Enthusiasm - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...udy_fuels_bioenergy_enthusiasm scibyte30 BioEnergy
shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Seaweed has long made biofuel prospectors drool
  • hadn’t figured out how to efficiently chew through the stuff
  • Researchers have engineered a bacterium that can break down and digest seaweed’s gummy cell walls to yield ethanol and other useful compounds
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Unlike corn and many other biofuel feedstocks, seaweed doesn’t need arable land, fertilizer or freshwater
  • If seaweed can be efficiently munched into ethanol, it broadens the biofuel horizon
  • the team took the workhorse bacterium E. coli and within it, patched together the genes and other parts needed for superior seaweed-to-fuel conversion
  • The system yields 80 percent of the theoretical maximum amount of ethanol for a given amount of biomass,
  • scientists noted, and with further tweaking will probably be even more efficient
  • initial breakdown products can easily be harvested for creating useful compounds such as precursors to nylon or plastics
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Sun shoots a fastball at Earth, but minimal impact expected on satellites, power grid -... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...gIQA5KiBEQ_story.html sun power grid
shared by Chris Fisher on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • A huge sunspot unleashed a blob of charged plasma Thursday that space weather watchers predict will blast past the Earth on Sunday.
  • But, he added, “We’re not looking at an extreme event here.”
  • “At first glance, it was, ‘Oh my God, it’s at the center of the [sun’s] disk, it ought to go right to the Earth,’ ” Kunches said. But upon further review and “head-scratching” Thursday, NOAA’s space weather team calculated that most of the plasma blob should pass harmlessly over the top of our planet.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “It’s more of a glancing blow,” Pulkkinen said.
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Frontiers | Do Dolphins Rehearse Show-Stimuli When at Rest? Delayed Matching of Auditor... - 0 views

www.frontiersin.org/...full scibyte30 dolphins
shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • recordings made before the whale sounds started being broadcast revealed that they had never emitted such sounds before
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Russia wants to build manned base on moon - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - ... - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/...technology_and_science-space russia base moon
shared by Chris Fisher on 22 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Russia is talking to NASA and the European Space Agency about building manned research colonies on the moon, according to Russian news reports.
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NASA Honors Fallen Astronauts in Solemn Ceremony | Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger &... - 0 views

www.space.com/-ceremony-space-tragedies.html scibyte31
shared by Mars Base on 27 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 27 Jan 12
     
    Gus" Grisson
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Mars-Bound NASA Rover Carries Coin for Camera Checkup - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 0 views

www.jpl.nasa.gov/...news.cfm scibyte33
shared by Mars Base on 09 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 09 Feb 12
     
    instruments. The spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, will deliver Curiosity to a landing site inside Mars' Gale Crater in August to begin a two-year investigation of whether that area has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. The "hand lens" in MAHLI's name refers to field geologists' practice of carrying a hand lens for close inspection of rocks they find. When shooting photos in the field, geologists use various calibration methods. "When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of known scale in the photographs," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "If it is a whole cliff face, she'll ask a person to stand in the shot. If it is a view from a meter or so away, she might use a rock hammer. If it is a close-up, as the MAHLI can take, she might pull something small out of her pocket. Like a penny."
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New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 0 views

www.jpl.nasa.gov/...news.cfm scibyte33 Archeology
shared by Mars Base on 09 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 09 Feb 12
     
    New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers
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Darpa's Legged Squad Support System (LS3) to lighten troops' load - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...s-legged-squad-ls3-troops.html FebMedia Darpa
shared by Mars Base on 09 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Darpa's Legged Squad Support System (LS3)
  • The Army has identified physical overburden as one of its top five science and technology challenges
  • DARPA is developing a highly mobile, semi-autonomous legged robot, the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), to integrate with a squad of Marines or Soldiers.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Recently the LS3 prototype underwent its first outdoor exercise
  • Over the course of the next 18 months, DARPA plans to complete development of and refine key capabilities to ensure LS3 is able to support dismounted squads of warfighters.
  • Features to be tested and validated include
  • ability to carry 400lbs on a 20-mile trek in 24-hours without being refueled
  • refinement of LS3’s vision sensors to track a specific individual or object, observe obstacles in its path and to autonomously make course corrections as needed
  • the addition of “hearing” technology, enabling squad members to speak commands to LS3 such as “stop,” “sit” or “come here.”
  • serves
  • mobile auxiliary power source— troops may recharge batteries for radios and handheld devices while on patrol
  • DARPA seeks to demonstrate that an LS3 can carry a considerable load from dismounted squad members, follow them through rugged terrain and interact with them in a natural way, similar to the way a trained animal and its handler interact.
  • LS3 seeks to have the responsiveness of a trained animal and the carrying capacity of a mule
  • The tests culminate in a planned capstone exercise where LS3 will embed with Marines conducting field exercises.
  • based on mobility technology advanced by DARPA’s Big Dog technology demonstrator, as well other DARPA robotics programs which developed the perception technology for LS3’s “eyes” and planned “ears.”
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Dead Spacecraft on Mars Spotted in New Photos | Phoenix Mars Lander, Spirit & Opportuni... - 0 views

www.space.com/aft-photos-spirit-phoenix.html Archeology
shared by Mars Base on 14 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 14 Feb 12
     
    a
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Robonaut: Home - 0 views

robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp scibyte34 robonaut
shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • A Robonaut is a dexterous humanoid robot
  • challenge is to build machines that can help humans work and explore in space
  • Working side by side with humans, or going where the risks are too great for people
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • expand our ability for construction and discovery
  • capability we call dexterous manipulation
  • currently four Robonauts
  • others currently in development
  • The value of a humanoid over othe
  • designs is the ability to use the same workspace and tools - not only does this improve efficiency in the types of tools, but also removes the need for specialized robotic connectors
  • Robonaut 2 or R2, launched to the International Space Station on space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-133 mission
  • first dexterous humanoid robot in space
  • deployed on a fixed pedestal inside the ISS
  • Next steps include a leg for climbing through the corridors of the Space Station, upgrades for R2 to go outside into the vacuum of space, and then future lower bodies like legs and wheels to propel the R2 across Lunar and Martian terrain
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Spray-on antenna gets great reception at Google event - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...na-great-reception-google.html scibyte34 spray-on-antenna
shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • A Utah startup has introduced a spray-on signal booster in a can that promises an improved signal
  • tested the spray on a tree, among other tests, and the team was able to send a VHF signal up to 14 miles away using only the treated tree
  • promoting it as a multi-purpose antenna, simple and quick to assemble, mountable on almost any surface, for use in any environment. "Any" bears quite a range of possible end uses.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • upbeat over successful tests that were run to examine the spray's signal performance underwater
  • is not to say the idea of a spray-on antenna on surfaces does not have a history
  • February 14, 2012
  • could be used by weather and oceanographic researchers and underwater welders.
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Spray-on Antennas Make Their Mark - SIGNAL Magazine - 0 views

www.afcea.org/...SIGNAL_Article_Template.asp scibyte34 spray-on-antenna
shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • July 2001
  • radio antennas that are sprayed onto a surface
  • consist of a conductive substance sprayed over a template with a radio aerial pattern on
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • the antenna material is available in the form of metal-based paints such as nickel or silver and carbon-graphite-based paints. To create an antenna, a template is placed on the desired surface, the paint is sprayed over it and a connector is attached.
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NASA - Robonaut 2 - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...robonaut.html scibyte34 robonaut
shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Robonaut 2 completed its initial checkouts on board the International Space Station Wednesday, February 15, 2012
  • history with the first human/robotic handshake to be performed in space
  • message sent down in sign language. “Hello World,” the robot signed in American sign language
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • launched to the International Space Station almost a year ago
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NASA - Historic Handshake for Robonaut 2 - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...r2_handshake.html scibyte34 robonaut
shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Following the tests, R2 was powered down and put back into storage until time for the robot’s next task
  • The suite of cameras in its head not only provide R2’s operators in space and on the ground with a view of what it’s working on, they can also be used by the robot to verify the configuration of a switch its flipped or ensure that other work it has done is correct
  • After the vision characterization, the robot will be able to work with the taskboards sent into space
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Robot Space 'Gas Attendant' Could Salvage Old Satellites by 2015 | Satellite Refueling ... - 0 views

www.space.com/ation-satellite-refueling.html scibyte34 satellite
shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • middle of the decade
  • possible to salvage satellites that run out of fuel or suffer minor malfunctions in orbit
  • Canada-based aerospace firm
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • designing a spacecraft that will serve as an orbiting gas station and mechanic.
  • will be able to top off satellites' fuel tanks
  • perform minor repairs as needed
  • first servicing satellite could be ready to go by 2015 or 2016
  • Currently, most satellites last only as long as their stores of onboard propellant allow
  • When a spacecraft runs out of fuel, it essentially turns into a very expensive piece of space junk, adding to the massive cloud of debris already clogging Earth orbit.
  • servicing spacecraft would be controlled from the ground
  • could operate with varying degrees of autonomy
  • when the SIS spacecraft itself runs low on fuel, a separately launched "tanker" would replenish its supply of propellant, allowing the vehicle to continue servicing satellites far into the future.
  • MDA thought it found that customer last year.
  • However, the two companies announced last month that the deal is off
  • I guess we were not able to meet those datelines for the original plan, due to various factors
  • isn't the only business or organization working to develop satellite-servicing technology
  • Aerospace firm Vivisat, for example, is designing a spacecraft called the Mission Extension Vehicle, which would dock to satellites and provide propulsion and attitude control.
  • The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has started a program called Phoenix, which seeks to recycle still-functioning pieces of defunct satellites and incorporate them into new space systems for low cost.
  • 16 February 2012
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