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Mars Base

Commercial Spaceship Builders Ponder Future Without NASA Funding | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-space-taxis-nasa-funding.html

scibyte47 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • SpaceX is one of several aerospace firms who are competing for NASA funding under the third and final phase of NASA's commercial crew development program
  • Proposals for this stage of the competition, called Commercial Crew integrated Capability(CCiCap), require companies to present a complete launch system — rocket and vehicle — for consideration
  • company is facing some stiff competition from other aerospace firms, including Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • NASA is expected to announce at least two recipients for CCiCap funding awards in August.
  • even if SpaceX is not selected for the final round of NASA funding, a crewed version of the Dragoncapsule will not be mothballed
  • Boeing
  • willing to continue that at that level? I doubt it — maybe at some lower level, but I really don't know."
  • Alliant Techsystems (ATK)
  • the company will not stop developing the launch system if they are not selected by NASA.
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

Space Exploration By Robot Swarm - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ace-exploration-by-robot-swarm

scibyte47 robot space exploration AsteroidMining

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • one researcher from Stanford University is suggesting we unleash a swarm of rover/spacecraft hybrids that can explore en masse.
  • been developing a concept under NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program that would see small spherical robots deployed to small worlds, such as Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos, where they would take advantage of low gravity to explore — literally —  in leaps and bounds.
  • similar to what NASA has done in the past with the Mars rovers, except multiplied in the number of spacecraft (and reduced in cost.)
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • were one spacecraft to fail the entire mission wouldn’t be compromised
  • robots would be deployed from a “mother” spacecraft and spring into action upon landing, tumbling
  • hybrid rovers could also help prepare for future, more in-depth exploration.
  • exploration of small bodies would help unravel the origin of the solar system and its early evolution
  • evaluate the resource potential of small bodies in view of future human missions beyond Earth.”
Mars Base

Crowdsourcing the Hunt for Potentially Dangerous Asteroids - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...otentially-dangerous-asteroids

scibyte47 Asteroid crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • new partnership between the European Space Agency and the Faulkes Telescope Project, which will encourage amateur astronomers to look for asteroids
  • providing educational opportunities that will allow students to discover potentially dangerous space rocks, too.
  • ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program is part of an international effort to be on the lookout for space hazards – not only asteroids but disruptive space weather and space debris objects in Earth orbit
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • asteroids pose a problem
  • hard to see because they can be very dark
  • can approach rather too close before anyone sees them
  • often spotted only once and then disappear before the discovery can be confirmed.
  • ESA is turning to schools and amateur astronomers to help as part of Europe’s contribution to the global asteroid hunt
  • UK’s Faulkes Telescope Project will become the latest team to formally support the SSA program
  • Spain’s La Sagra Sky Survey, operated by the Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca, began helping SSA earlier this year
  • The Faulkes project has two telescopes where you can sign up for observing online: Haleakala, Hawaii
  • and Siding Spring, Australia
  • For European students, collaborating on exciting ESA activities and possibly detecting new NEOs is very appealing, as its engagement with one of the world’s great space agencies doing critical scientific work.”
  • While the Faulkes project focuses on schools
  • amateurs will be able to freely access the data archives
  • archives are also open to all, and they work
  • Since starting their SSA-sponsored survey work in January 2010, the TOTAS amateur astronomers have identified hundreds of asteroid candidates, over 20 of which have been confirmed and named.
Mars Base

Ancient sea reptile with gammy jaw suggests dinosaurs got arthritis too - 0 views

phys.org/...ent-sea-reptile-gammy-jaw.html

scibyte47 dinosaur arthritis

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • scientists at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur, an ancient sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago
  • Such a disease has never been described before in fossilized Jurassic reptiles.
  • has been kept since its discovery in the collections of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • 8 metre long pliosaur was a
  • crocodile-like head, a short neck, whale-like body and four powerful flippers to propel it through water in pursuit of prey.
  • huge jaws and 20 cm long teeth
  • this particular individual was the unfortunate victim of an arthritis-like disease.
  • eroded its left jaw joint, displacing the lower jaw to one side
  • evidently lived with a crooked jaw for many years, because there are marks on the bone of the lower jaw where the teeth from the upper jaw impacted on the bone during feeding
  • the animal was still able to hunt in spite of its unfortunate condition.
  • signs on the skeleton to suggest that the animal could have been an old female who had developed the condition as part of the aging process
  • large size, and the fused skull bones
  • possibly female because its skull crest is quite low – presumed males had a higher crest.
  • In the same way that aging humans develop arthritic hips, this old lady developed an arthritic jaw, and survived with her disability for some time
  • unhealed fracture on the jaw indicates that at some time the jaw weakened and eventually broke
  • With a broken jaw, the pliosaur would not have been able to feed
  • They were at the top of their food chains, so there would not have been any predators to take advantage of an aging, disabled pliosaur – except for another pliosaur.
  • You can see these kinds of deformities in living animals, such as crocodiles or sperm whales and these animals can survive for years as long as they are still able to feed
Mars Base

This 'mousetrap' may save lives: Students create mechanism to regulate IV fluids for ch... - 0 views

phys.org/...dents-mechanism-iv-fluids.html

scibyte47 MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • team of Rice University freshmen took a mousetrap and built a better way to treat dehydration among children in the developing world.
  • goal was to regulate the amount of fluid delivered to children so we could prevent over-hydration and under-hydration
  • designed to be used in severely underdeveloped parts of the world, where conditions can be pretty primitive and they may not even have electricity."
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • physicians have mentioned to us that they would like a tool that can better moderate IV-fluid delivery to children, who are often connected to adult IV-bags
  • it is of critical importance that the appropriate amount of fluid is delivered."
  • In understaffed medical settings, monitoring IV-fluid delivery to patients can be a challenge
  • device designed by the IV DRIP team is inexpensive; it costs about $20 to manufacture
  • mechanical, durable, autonomous and simple-to-operate volume regulator that uses a lever arm with a movable counterweight similar to a physician's scale to incrementally dispense IV fluid.
  • uses the change in torque as an IV bag is drained of fluid to set off a mousetrap-like spring that clamps the IV tube and cuts off the flow of saline solution or other prescribed fluids
  • Tests have shown the device dispenses fluid within 12 milliliters of the desired volume in increments of 50 milliliters.
  • device can be mounted on a wall or attached with clamps to a portable hospital IV pole
  • the clamp goes off and it folds the tubing in a V-shape, the way you would crimp a garden hose to make the water stop coming out
  • most time-consuming part of assembling the device was calibrating the counterweight and determining the precise spacing of the notches the counterweight falls into and holds as the fluid drains
  • This summer
  • four of their prototypes to Malawi and Lesotho, respectively, to test them under practical field conditions
Mars Base

Easter Island statues have full bodies and contain ancient petroglyphs | The Sideshow -... - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...ent-petroglyphs-235631403.html

scibyte47 EasterIsland

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • Explorers have long known there was more to the 887 statues on Easter Island—some 2,000 miles west of Chile—than just the statue heads made famous in photographs.
  • most people think of the renowned monolithic statues, they think of the heads only
  • October 2011, the Easter Island Statue Project began its Season V expedition, revealing remarkable photos showing that the bodies of the statues go far deeper underground than just about anyone had imagined.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Slideshow of the Easter Island excavation photos]
  • technically full-bodied statues have been known to exist on Easter Island for hundreds of years, some of the new petroglyph writings on the recently excavated statues appear fairly unique
  • many statues have individual petroglyphs
  • these and only one other statue—of over 1,000 we have documented—have  multiple petroglyphs carved as a composition on their backs
  • the excavation sites offer some new "strong evidence" of how the Rapa Nui ancestors managed to manipulate the heavy statues into place with limited technological resources
  • wrote that her team has found tuna vertebrae near the bottom of a recent excavation
Mars Base

Easter island heads have bodies!?? | Thinkbox - 0 views

www.thethinkbox.ca/...aster-island-heads-have-bodies

scibyte47 EasterIsland

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • Excavations of the bodies have been going on for many years
  • generally accepted that the statues were made sometime between 1250 and 1500 AD
  • controversy surrounding why the bodies are buried. Was it time and erosion, or were they buried on purpose
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • soil surrounding the bodies for so long has preserved interesting carvings
Mars Base

NASA - Meals, Equipment Top Cargo List for Dragon - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...spacex_cargopreview.html

scibyte47 SpaceX dragon iss

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • about 1,200 pounds of cargo
  • including commemorative patches and pins, 162 meals and a collection of student experiments
  • Most of the cargo's weight, 674 pounds, is in food and crew provisions, including the meals, crew clothing and batteries and other pantry items. A laptop and its accompanying accessories will also make the journey.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Tucked inside the Dragon capsule are two NanoRacks dedicated to student experiments that will study a range of microgravity-related areas from microbial growth to water purification.
Mars Base

SpaceX Launching Student Experiments & Emblems on ISS Flight | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/aunch-student-experiments.html

scibyte47 SpaceX dragon iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 17 May 12 - No Cached
  • then the 15 experiments comprising "Aquarius"
  • will be among the first payloads delivered to the station on a commercial cargo craft.
  • competition among students to fly experiments
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • to design their mission patches
  • A total of 779 student teams submitted proposals for the 15 science slots and nearly 5,000 students offered 2,299 insignia ideas from which just 22 were chosen.
  • Ironically, none of the almost two dozen student mission patches that were selected to fly depict the vehicle that their experiments are riding on.
  • The designs, which range from crayon-colored creations to computer-assisted drawings, also include representations of the Earth, moon and Mars and the American flag.
  • Aquarius, which utilizes liquid mixing tube assemblies that function similar to commercial glow sticks
  • two similar student flight opportunities
  • on NASA's final two space shuttle missions
  • was first slated to fly on a Soyuz spacecraft.
  • When the students' experiments were re-manifested, they went from launching on the Russian rocket to the SpaceX Dragon.
  • The Aquarius package will stay in space for just under six weeks before coming back to Earth on Soyuz TMA-03M, the same spacecraft returning three ISS crew members on July 1.
  • The students' patches will also make the round trip, and will be embossed with a certification stating that they flew in space.
Mars Base

Astronomer urges researchers everywhere to study Venus transit - 0 views

phys.org/...nomer-urges-venus-transit.html

scibyte48 venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 17 May 12 - No Cached
  • during this transit, our sun will be displaying sun spots
  • allows for comparing changing light patterns of suspected exoplanets with those that occur much closer to home
  • Information gathered during the transit, he points out, could very well reveal pertinent information later on
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • regardless of area of interest
  • more people studying the transit the better, in as many ways as possible, even if there doesn’t seem to be any immediate payoff
Mars Base

SpaceX May Try to Launch Private Spacecraft Tuesday | SpaceX Dragon | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-space-capsule-launch-2nd.html

scibyte47 SpaceX PrivateSpaceTravel iss

shared by Mars Base on 21 May 12 - No Cached
  • engine glitch on its Falcon 9 rocket in the last second before liftoff forced an abort
  • Engineers traced the issue to a failed check valve in the engine,
  • Mars Base on 21 May 12
     
    SpaceX Hopes to Launch Private Spacecraft to Space Station Tuesday
Mars Base

SpaceX Replaces Faulty Rocket Valve for Space Station Flight | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ate-rocket-engine-repairs.html

scibyte47 SpaceX PrivateSpaceTravel iss

shared by Mars Base on 21 May 12 - No Cached
  • engineers have replaced a faulty engine valve
  • aborted its launch attempt a half-second before liftoff
  • Software did what it was supposed to do, aborted engine five, and we went through the remaining engine shutdown
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Technicians went out to the rocket's launch pad at the Air Force station's Complex 40 Saturday to examine the engines for signs of the issue's root cause
  • During rigorous inspections of the engine, SpaceX engineers discovered a faulty check valve on the Merlin engine
Mars Base

SpaceX Aborts Launch of Private Space Capsule to Space Station | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/pace-capsule-launch-abort.html

scibyte47 SpaceX PrivateSpaceTravel iss

shared by Mars Base on 21 May 12 - No Cached
  • countdown reached zero and the engines of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying Dragon ignited, only to be cut off seconds later because of an excessive pressure reading in one of the engines
Mars Base

SpaceX Engineers Race to Repair Engines for May 22 Launch - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...pair-engines-for-may-22-launch

scibyte47 SpaceX PrivateSpaceTravel iss

shared by Mars Base on 21 May 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 21 May 12
     
    SpaceX Engineers Race to Repair Engines for May 22 Launch
Mars Base

How One Faulty Nitrogen-Purge Valve Forced SpaceX to Abort | Autopia | Wired.com - 0 views

www.wired.com/...cex-nitrogen-purge-valve-abort

scibyte47 SpaceX PrivateSpaceTravel iss

shared by Mars Base on 22 May 12 - No Cached
  • SpaceX engineers were able to trace the high-pressure problem to a valve that controls the flow of nitrogen used to purge the engine before ignition
  • check valve that allows the nitrogen purge prior to ignition in the Merlin engine was stuck open just before launch
  • stuck valve allowed “liquid oxygen to flow from the main injector [for the rocket engine itself] into the gas generator injector
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • stuck valve meant the liquid oxygen flowed into the gas generator injector, which led to the high pressure in engine five’s combustion chamber. The high pressure caused the flight computer to shutdown the engines, aborting the launch
  • the Falcon 9 may have been okay even if it had launched with the high pressure
Mars Base

Local transit times | Venustransit - 0 views

transitofvenus.nl/...local-transit-times

scibyte48 venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • Your local circumstances are computed below. You can change the location by either dragging the marker on the map or searching for an address. From the menu on the top right you can specify the year of the transit (1639 to 2125). Clicking the icon at the top right corner of the map, you can switch the area of visibility on and off. Click on the icon on the lower right for more detailed information, including times of sunrise and sunset.
Mars Base

Phone app | Venustransit - 0 views

transitofvenus.nl/...phone-app

scibyte48 venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • Practising the timing of the contacts
  • Features of the phone app
  • Predicted
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Predicted times of contact
  • The phone app has a tab which gives you the predicted times of contact for your location, as well as the times of sunset and sunrise.
  • Contacts that cannot be viewed from your location (because the sun is below the horizon) are indicated in grey.
  • Using the timer, just tap the phone’s screen at the moment of internal contact (when Venus appears within the sun, just touching the sun’s edge).
  • As you are looking through the eyepiece and not at the screen, the phone will vibrate when you log your times to let you know the time was successfully recorded
  • app will record the exact GPS time and your location, which then will be sent to the global database.
  • you are also asked to enter your email address. Although this is optional, you will be able to add more info to your entry later if you send your address along with the data.
Mars Base

Historic Launch 'Like Winning Super Bowl,' SpaceX CEO Says | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/on-launch-musk-super-bowl.html

scibyte48 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • If Dragon performs well during the 10-day mission, the first of SpaceX's contracted cargo flights to the station could lift off later this year
Mars Base

SpaceX Dragon Spies Earth - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...spacex-dragon-spies-earth

scibyte48 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • released the picture above of the Earth as seen by a thermal imager that Dragon will use in its upcoming approach to the International Space Station
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