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Mars Base

NASA - NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...msl20120927.html

scibyte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 27 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind
  • sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow
  • can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars
  • transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of
  • finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crat
  • Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate
  • rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the rim
  • channel named Peace Vallis feeds into the alluvial fan.
  • abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.
  • discovery comes from examining two outcrops, called "Hottah" and "Link," with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's mast camera during the first 40 days after landing
  • observations followed up on earlier hints from another outcrop, which was exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, touched down
  • Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed
  • gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded
  • shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind
  • team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits
  • stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.
  • slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination
  • sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life
Mars Base

Curiosity Finds Evidence of An Ancient Streambed on Mars - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...f-an-ancient-streambed-on-mars

scibyte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 28 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • said the rover has found “surprising” outcrops and gravel near the rover landing site that indicate water once flowed in this region, and likely flowed for a long time.
  • Too many things that point away from a single burst event
  • This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The discovery comes from examining two outcrops, called “Hottah” and “Link,” with the telephoto capability of Curiosity’s mast camera during the first 40 days
  • exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity touched down
  • We are getting better about integrating the orbital data,” said Grotzinger. “We see an alluvial fan and debris flow from orbit, and then see these water-transported pebbles from the ground
  • abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years
  • Glenelg area marks the intersection of three kinds of terrain: bedrock for drilling, several small craters that may represent an older or harder surface, and also terrain similar to where Curiosity landed
  • can do comparisons
Mars Base

Temperatures measured at Gale Crater higher than expected - 0 views

phys.org/...atures-gale-crater-higher.html

scibte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 28 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Preliminary weather reports from the Curiosity's Remote Environment Monitoring Station (REMS) are showing some surprisingly mild temperatures during the day
  • Temperatures have risen above freezing during the day for more than half of the Martian Sols since REMS started recording data.
  • At night the air temperatures sink drastically, reaching a minimum of -70 degrees just before dawn
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • ología in
  • seeing temperatures this warm already during the day is a surprise and very interesting
  • If this warm trend carries on into summer, we might even be able to foresee temperatures in the 20s
  • REMS pressure sensors have also been recording slightly higher pressures than expected
  • the first three weeks after landing to around 750 pascals – a tiny fraction of the average pressure at sea level on Earth.
  • pressure data show a very significant daily variation of pressure
  • The minimum is near 685 pascals and the maximum near 780 pascals. The majority of the variation is due to large scale waves in the atmosphere called tides
Mars Base

For the first time, astronomers have measured the radius of a black hole - 0 views

phys.org/...onomers-radius-black-hole.html

scibyte65 black holes

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • an international team
  • , has for the first time measured the radius of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy—the closest distance at which matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole.
  • scientists linked together radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a telescope array called the "Event Horizon Telescope" (EHT) that can see details 2,000 times finer than what's visible to the Hubble Space Telescope.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • , the team observed the glow of matter near the edge of this black hole—a region known as the "event horizon."
  • , not everything can cross the event horizon to squeeze into a black hole
  • "cosmic traffic jam" in which gas and dust build up, creating a flat pancake of matter known as an accretion disk
  • disk of matter orbits the black hole at nearly the speed of light, feeding the black hole a steady diet of superheated material
  • Over time, this disk can cause the black hole to spin in the same direction as the orbiting material
  • Caught up in this spiraling flow are magnetic fields, which accelerate hot material along powerful beams above the accretion disk
  • resulting high-speed jet, launched by the black hole and the disk, shoots out across the galaxy, extending for hundreds of thousands of light-years
  • jets can influence many galactic processes, including how fast stars form.
  • . Because M87's jet is magnetically launched from this smallest orbit,
  • astronomers can estimate the black hole's spin through careful measurement of the jet's size as it leaves the black hole
  • Until now, no telescope has had the magnifying power required for this kind of observation
  • team used a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry, or VLBI, which links data from radio dishes located thousands of miles apart.
  • , taken together, create a "virtual telescope" with the resolving power of a single telescope as big as the space between the disparate dishes
  • enables scientists to view extremely precise details in faraway galaxies.
  • Using the technique
  • team measured the innermost orbit of the accretion disk to be only 5.5 times the size of the black hole event horizon
  • According to the laws of physics, this size suggests that the accretion disk is spinning in the same direction as the black hole
  • first direct observation to confirm theories of how black holes power jets from the centers of galaxies
  • The team plans to expand its telescope array, adding radio dishes in Chile, Europe, Mexico, Greenland and Antarctica, in order to obtain even more detailed pictures of black holes in the future.
  • www.eventhorizontelescope.org/
Mars Base

Japanese Team Claims Discovery Of Elusive Element 113, And May Get To Name It | Popular... - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...lement-113-and-may-get-name-it

scibyte65 elements

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Japanese researchers claim they’ve seen conclusive evidence of the long-sought element 113, a super-heavy, super-unstable element near the bottom of the periodic table
  • not yet verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
  • if the IUPAC grants its blessing, the researchers could be the first team from Asia to name one of nature’s fundamental atoms.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Super-heavy elements do not occur in nature and have to be discovered in the lab, using particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, ion separators and other complex equipment
  • Science have been hunting for 113 for nine years, and have claimed to see it a few times already — but the evidence has never been this clear,
  • the team used a customized gas-filled recoil ion separator paired with a semiconductor detector that can pick out atomic reaction products
  • created element 113 by speeding zinc ions through a linear accelerator until they reached 10 percent of the speed of light.
  • ions then smashed into a piece of bismuth. When the zinc and bismuth atoms fused, they produced an atom with 113 protons
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Images - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...images

scibte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 30 Sep 12
     
    HighlightBo
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Longest Drive Yet - 0 views

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

scibyte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • On Sol 50 (Sept. 26), Curiosity completed its longest drive yet, rolling about 160 feet (48.9 meters)
  • total distance driven has now reached one-quarter mile (416 meters).
  • Sol 50, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ends at 4:29 p.m. Sept. 25, PDT (7:29 p.m. EDT).
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Near Possible Target for Use of Arm Instruments - 0 views

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

scibte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • reach a location for first use of the rover's capability to scoop up soil material and deliver a sample of it into laboratory instruments
  • Activities on Sol 52 included the usual monitoring of the environment around Curiosity with the Radiation Assessment Detector, the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument, and the Rover Environmental Monitoring
Mars Base

Cyclone Center - 0 views

www.cyclonecenter.org

scibyte65 crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • The global intensity record contains uncertainties caused by differences in analysis procedures around the world and through time. Scientists are enlisting the public because patterns in storm imagery are best recognized by the human ey
Mars Base

Year-Long Missions Could Be Added to Space Station Manifest - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...dded-to-space-station-manifest

scibyte66 iss

shared by Mars Base on 03 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • announced an agreement to send two crew members to the International Space Station on a one-year mission
  • designed to collect valuable scientific data needed to send humans to new destinations in the solar system
  • (10/5/12
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • NASA announced
  • the international partners
  • one American astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut
  • are scheduled to begin their voyage in spring 2015
  • “If the mission proves to be effective, we will discuss sending year-long missions to ISS on a permanent basis
Mars Base

An apple a day lowers level of blood chemical linked to hardening of the arteries - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...day-lowers-blood-chemical.html

scibyte66 MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 03 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • In a study
  • consumption of one apple a day for four weeks lowered by 40 percent blood levels of a substance linked to hardening of the arteries.
  • Taking capsules containing polyphenols, a type of antioxidant found in apples, had a similar, but not as large, effect.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The study
  • , found that the apples lowered
  • "bad" cholesterol. When LDL
  • , the cholesterol is more likely to promote inflammation and can cause tissue damage.
  • tremendous effect against LDL being oxidized with just one apple a day for four weeks
  • difference was similar to that found between people with normal coronary arteries versus those with coronary artery disease
  • the polyphenol extract did register a measurable effect, but not as strong as the straight apple
  • could either be because there are other things in the apple that could contribute to the effect, or, in some cases, these bioactive compounds seem to get absorbed better when they're consumed in foods
  • eating apples had some effects on antioxidants in saliva, which has implications for dental health
Mars Base

Station-Bound Dragon Spacecraft's Mission Patch Unveiled | | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ace-capsule-mission-patch.html

scibyte66 SpaceX

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • The first of NASA's contracted cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station now has its own mission patch, courtesy of the company launching the spacecraft.
  • The flight, referred to as Commercial Resupply Services-1 (CRS-1), is the first of a dozen resupply flights for which NASA is paying SpaceX $1.6 billion to fly.
  • The CRS-1 mission patch, which borrows its shape from the Dragon capsule, shows the solar-powered spacecraft grappled by the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm as it is being brought in to connect with the orbiting outpost's Harmony module
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Almost camouflaged with the patch's green-colored North American continent is a four leaf clover. The symbol for luck, the clover has become a regular feature on SpaceX's insignias since the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company's first successful Falcon 1 launch in September 2008
  • Based on pre-launch photos, the CRS-1 emblem does not appear on the Falcon 9 rocket or the Dragon capsule
  • embroidered versions of the patch may fly to the space station and back as part of the mission's Official Flight Kit (OFK) of mementos to be presented to NASA and SpaceX team members for a job well done.
Mars Base

Liftoff! Delta IV Launches Next Generation GPS Satellite - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-next-generation-gps-satellite

scibyte66 GPS

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • A Delta IV rocket launched
  • sending a next-generation Global Positioning System satellite into orbit
  • satellite that will be part of the GPS system that is used by both civilians and the military
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • will replace a 19-year-old navigation satellite in the global system that includes 31 operational satellites on-orbit which broadcast position
  • the third of 12 planned launches to provide improved GPS signals
  • featuring improved anti-jam technology, more precise atomic clocks, an upgraded civilian channel for commercial aviation and on-board processors that can be reprogrammed in flight
Mars Base

Newest Fusion Engine Is Powered On Star Trek Like Dilithium Crystals - Business Insider - 0 views

www.businessinsider.com/ike-dilithium-crystals-2012-10

scibyte66 WarpDrive

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers at University of Huntsville in Alabama say they are using "Dilithium Crystals" in a new fusion impulse engine that could cut the travel time to Mars down to as little as six weeks, not the six months it takes now
  • "The fusion fuel we're focusing on is deuterium [a stable isotope of hydrogen] and Li6 [a stable isotope of the metal lithium] in a crystal structure.
  • researchers say that this type of engine is what NASA needs to propel human beings outside low-Earth orbit, out to places like Mars and even beyond.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • the military will probably get first dibs
  • projects is only possible from repurposing military nuclear testing equipment, essentially stuff America used to test nuclear weapons
  • , the sponsors of the fusion engine project have ties to military funding—the Aerophysics
  • still a few kinks to work out though
  • issue of harnessing fusion is prominent
  • also the question of turning the power generated by fusion into thrust for an engine
  • craft using the impulse drive would also need to be assembled in space
  • the technology has applications far beyond military or space exploration
Mars Base

How Supersonic Skydiver Will Freefall Through Earth's Atmosphere | Felix Baumgartner Sp... - 0 views

www.space.com/-skydive-earth-atmosphere.html

scibyte66 RedBullStratos

shared by Mars Base on 06 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Earth's atmosphere starts 430 miles (690 kilometers) up.
  • upper boundary of the thermosphere, the outermost layer of the atmosphere
  • Solar radiation bombards this layer, striking its sparse air molecules and causing them to emit flashes of light: the auroras
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • altitude of 53 miles (85 km), the thermosphere transitions into the mesosphere, an atmospheric layer known for its faint clouds, as well as electrical discharge events called red sprites and blue jets.
  • e stratosphere extends from an altitude of 6 miles (10 kilometers) up to about 30 miles (50 km) above the surface. The air pressure drops from 10 percent of its value at sea level to just 0.1 percent
  • , unlike in the layers above and below, absorption of ultraviolet sunlight by ozone causes the temperature to increase as you move up in altitude
  • coupling of temperature with altitude prevents convection from happening, and so the air in this layer is dynamically stable.
  • troposphere, which includes everything from an altitude of 6 miles down over most of Eart
  • re all weather happens, as well as longer-term processes such as the jet stream. In this layer, temperature and pressure both drop as you move up in altitude
Mars Base

Record-Breaking Supersonic Skydive Attempt Delayed to Tuesday | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/nic-skydive-attempt-delay.html

scibyte66 RedBullStratos

shared by Mars Base on 06 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • an incoming cold front is expected to bring cooler temperatures, strong winds and a bit of rain to the launch site on Monday
Mars Base

Well-preserved mammoth carcass found in Siberia - 0 views

phys.org/...d-mammoth-carcass-siberia.html

scibyte66 mammoth

shared by Mars Base on 06 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • the carcass of a 16-year-old mammoth that was possibly killed by humans tens of thousands of years ago and was excavated on the North Siberian Taimyr peninsula in late Sept. 28, 2012
  • one of the best-preserved bodies of a grown mammoth yet found
  • excavated from the Siberian permafrost in late September near the Sopochnaya Karga cape, 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • n named Jenya, after the 11-year-old Russian boy who found the animal's limbs sticking out of the frozen mud
  • 2 meters (6 feet 6 inches) tall and weighed 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).
  • what killed Jenya was
  • t a missing left tusk that made him unfit for fights with other mammoths or human hunters
  • proved that the massive humps on mammoths seen on Ice Age cave paintings
  • e were not extended bones but huge chunks of fat that helped them regulate their body temperatures and survive the long, cold winters
  • , its DNA has been damaged by low temperatures and is "hardly" suitable for possible cloning
  • an earlier mammoth discovery might be able to help recreate the Ice Age elephant.
  • in early September that an international team of researchers had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow some 328 feet (100 meters) underground
  • Scientists already have deciphered much of the genetic code of the woolly mammoth from balls of mammoth hair found frozen in the Siberian permafros
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

'Star Trek' fusion impulse engine in the works | Crave - CNET - 0 views

news.cnet.com/...on-impulse-engine-in-the-works

scibyte66 WarpDrive

shared by Mars Base on 07 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • the scientists are hoping to make impulse drive a reality by 2030
  • deuterium [a stable isotope of hydrogen] and Li6 [a stable isotope of the metal lithium] in a crystal structure
  • basically dilithium crystals
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • prominent
Mars Base

Astronaut Ice Cream: Frozen Dessert Launching to Space Station | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ream-spacex-dragon-launch.html

scibyte66 SpaceX

shared by Mars Base on 07 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • The vanilla with swirled chocolate sauce ice cream cups won't melt on their three-day journey to the space station thanks to a freezer on board the Dragon capsule
  • e first time we are taking powered cargo up. We are taking up a GLACIER freezer, which has refrigerated science samples in it
  • The mini-fridge sized freezer previously flew aboard the space shuttle.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • GLACIER, or General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator, is primarily used to preserve science samples that require temperatures between minus 301 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 160 and 4 degrees Celsius
  • The brand of ice cream flying in the Dragon's GLACIER is Blue Bell Creameries, a Texas dairy that has a strong fan base in Houston
  • Blue Bell ice cream has been flown to the space station before. The creamery's cups first launched to the orbiting laboratory in 2006 on board the space shuttle Atlanti
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