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Mars Base

Never-Before-Seen Alien Planet Imaged Directly in New Photo | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/alien-planet-direct-image.html

scibyte96 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A newly discovered gaseous planet has been directly photographed orbiting a star about 300 light-years from Earth
  • this world may be the least massive planet directly observed outside of the solar system,
  • released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO)
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • June 3) depicts the suspected gas giant (called HD 95086 b) circling its young star (named HD 95086) in infrared light
  • HD 95086 b was sighted by ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Based on the planet's brightness, scientists estimate that it is only about four or five times more massive than Jupiter
  • Only a few planets have been directly observed so far
  • The blue circle in the photo represents the distance between the sun and Neptune.
  • The planet orbits its star at about twice the distance from the sun to Neptune and about 56 times the distance between Earth and the sun
  • is relatively young star at only 10 million to 17 million years old, making the formation of the exoplanet and the dusty disc surrounding the star potentially intriguing to researchers
  • It either grew by assembling the rocks that form the solid core and then slowly accumulated gas from the environment to form the heavy atmosphere
  • started forming from a gaseous clump that arose from gravitational instabilities in the disc
  • Interactions between the planet and the disc itself or with other planets may have also moved the planet from where it was born
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Data From NASA Rover's Voyage To Mars Aids Planning - 0 views

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

scibyte96 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft
  • The findings,
  • indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA's career limit for astronauts if current propulsion systems are used.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Two forms of radiation pose potential health risks to astronauts in deep space. One is galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), particles caused by supernova explosions and other high-energy events outside the solar system. The other is solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun
  • NASA has established a three percent increased risk of fatal cancer as an acceptable career limit for its astronauts currently operating in low-Earth orbit
  • The RAD data showed
  • Only about three percent of the radiation dose was associated with solar particles because of a relatively quiet solar cycle and the shielding provided by the spacecraft
  • In terms of accumulated dose, it's like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days
  • Current spacecraft shield much more effectively against SEPs than GCRs. To protect against the comparatively low energy of typical SEPs, astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on a spacecraft or on the Martian surface, or employ other countermeasures
  • GCRs tend to be highly energetic, highly penetrating particles that are not stopped by the modest shielding provided by a typical spacecraft.
  • RAD data collected during Curiosity's science mission will continue to inform plans to protect astronauts as NASA designs future missions to Mars in the coming decades.
Mars Base

Conductive paint lands in pens and pots for creatives - 0 views

phys.org/...13-05-pens-pots-creatives.html

scibyte96

shared by Mars Base on 28 May 13 - No Cached
  • The substance allows the painting of "liquid wiring" on any surface. Except for skin
  • Nontoxic and drying at room temperature, the product has caught on with educators, DIY makers and inventors
  • Radio Shack stocks their paint pen
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • they hope to appeal to a wide creative gamut of hobbyists, artists, and engineers for innovative ways to use their products
  • are Paint, they emphasized, is the first non-toxic electrically conductive paint available
  • the substance is child friendly, which opens the door to educational projects, including toys, and touch-sensitive paper drawings that play sounds
  • According to the company, Bare Paint has a surface resistivity of approximately 55 ohms/square at 50 microns layer thickness
  • The product is water-based but it is not waterproof
  • generally split applications into two simple classifications, signaling and powering
  • Signaling could include using the Paint as a potentiometer while interfacing with a micro-controller, as a conduit in a larger circuit or as a capacitive sensor
  • Powering a device would include lighting LED's or driving small speakers
Mars Base

Space Telescope Crowdfunding Project Raises $167,000 | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/e-telescope-raises-167000.html

scibyte96 CrowdSourcing

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 13 - No Cached
  • A commercial asteroid-mining company aiming to launch a crowdfunded space telescope raised more than $200,000 on the first day of its campaign
  • Planetary Resources, a private venture aiming to mine near-Earth space rocks
  • announced
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • May 29) that it would build and launch a space telescope for public use if it could raise at least $1 million in 33 days.
  • The telescope will be a twin copy of the Arkyd spacecraft the company is developing to detect, track and study asteroids in preparation for its mining mission
  • A test version of the spacecraft is set for its maiden trial flight in April 2014, while the crowdfunded model would launch in early 2015
  • public backers would use it to study celestial objects of their choice
  • also have the option of sponsoring research projects at schools, universities or museums that could use the instrument.
  • The telescope will also take
  • self portraits that show the telescope in orbit, with a user-submitted photo displayed on the instrument's screen
  • A camera mounted on the hull of the spacecraft will snap the photo.
  • Already more than 200 backers have ordered selfies for $25 and above.
  • But if the crowdfunding campaign fails to reach its $1 million goal by June 30, the company will receive none of the money it has raised
Mars Base

Contest Challenges Students to Design Next Mars Rover | University Rover Challenge | Sp... - 0 views

www.space.com/niversity-rover-challenge.html

scibyte96 MarsSociety

shared by Mars Base on 28 May 13 - No Cached
  • The competition is hosted by the Mars Society, a non-profit research organization dedicated to promoting the exploration and eventual settlement of Mars
  • The competition site is located at the society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), a rocky barren landscape that's about as close to Martian terrain as you can get on Earth
  • Each team was allowed to spend up to $15,000 on their rovers, which can weigh no more than 50 kilograms — about 110 lbs.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • vehicles
  • compete in four challenges, designed to replicate the activities of NASA's rovers on Mars.
  • teams will guide their rovers to collect the subsurface soil samples most likely to contain photosynthetic bacteria, lichen and other bits of living material
  • specific tasks change each year, but the most difficult ones continue to be those that need rovers to do humanlike work
  • team members must guide their rovers via a remote connection, such as a computer in the back of a truck, as long as it's shielded so the team can't see their rovers
  • The URC is based on the assumption that the rovers are telerobots, which means they would be operated by astronauts on or orbiting Mars
  • In addition to collecting soil, the rovers will deliver a series of packages, such as emergency supplies to "astronauts" (URC staff) in the field, fix a dust-covered solar panel (without water, of course) and finally, navigate an obstacle course that will include climbing steep grades, getting over boulders and passing through PVC pipe gates, aimed to test each rover's maneuverability.
  • This year's teams represent universities and colleges in Canada, India, Poland and the United States
  • including two-time returning champions Toronto's York University (2012 and 2009) and Oregon State (2010 and 2008).
Mars Base

Mosses frozen in time come back to life | Life | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...ozen_in_time_come_back_to_life

scibyte96 FrozenLife

shared by Mars Base on 28 May 13 - No Cached
  • After hundreds of years buried under ice, mosses can regrow
  • The revived plants come from Canada’s Ellesmere Island, where the Teardrop Glacier has retreated since the end of a cold period in 1550 to 1850 known as the Little Ice Age
  • On recently exposed ground
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • found clumps of mosses that looked dead. But among the brown tangles, the team noticed a few green sprigs
  • The team took brown moss samples back to the lab and used radiocarbon dating to determine that they had lived about 400 years ago
  • Based on the glacier’s retreat rate, the researchers estimated the plants had been uncovered for less than two years.
  • the team ground up some of the plants and gave them nutrients, water and light
  • From seven of 24 samples, a total of four moss species grew
  • The budding plants didn’t come from seeds or spores
  • In moss
  • any cell can be reset, almost like a stem cell, to grow a new plant
  • how long a moss cell can stay viable is “anyone’s guess,”
  • the findings suggest that the regenerated mosses may help repopulate ecosystems after glaciers retreat
Mars Base

Wooly mammoth blood recovered from frozen carcass, Russian scientists say | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...carcass-russian-scientists-say

scibyte96

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 13 - No Cached
  • the temperature at the time of excavation was -7 to – 10 degrees Celsius [19.4 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit
  • It may be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryoprotective properties
  • The reason for such preservation is that the lower part of the body was underlying in pure ice, and the upper part was found in the middle of tundra
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Wooly mammoths are thought to have died out around 10,000 years ago
  • scientists think small groups of them lived longer in Alaska and on Russia's Wrangel Island off the Siberian coast.
  • Scientists already have deciphered much of the genetic code of the woolly mammoth from balls of mammoth hair found frozen in the Siberian permafrost
  • Those who succeed in recreating an extinct animal could claim a "Jurassic Park prize
  • the concept of which is being developed by the X Prize Foundation
Mars Base

Russian scientists make rare find of 'blood' in mammoth - 0 views

phys.org/...ntists-rare-blood-mammoth.html

scibyte96 WollyMammoth

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 13 - No Cached
  • Russian scientists claimed
  • the rare find could boost
  • chances of cloning
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Russian scientists claimed
  • they have discovered blood in the carcass of a woolly mammoth
  • An expedition led by Russian scientists earlier this month uncovered the well-preserved carcass of a female mammoth on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean
  • the head of the expedition, said the animal died at the age of around 60 some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago
  • it was the first time that an old female had been found.
  • what was
  • surprising was that the carcass was so well preserved that it still had blood and muscle tissue.
  • broke the ice beneath her stomach, the blood flowed out from there, it was very dark
  • the muscle tissue is also red, the colour of fresh meat
  • the lower part of the carcass was very well preserved as it ended up in a pool of water that later froze over. The upper part of the body including the back and the head are believed to have been eaten by predators
  • The discovery
  • gives new hope to researchers in their quest to bring the woolly mammoth back to life.
  • gives
  • a really good chance of finding live cells which can help
  • clone a mammoth
  • Previous mammoths have not had such well-preserved tissue
  • Last year,
  • signed a deal with cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, who in 2005 created the world's first cloned dog.
  • mammoth specialists from South Korea, Russia and the United States are expected to study the remains which the Russian scientists are now keeping at an undisclosed northern location
Mars Base

Mars Society Proposes A Year-Long Arctic Mission To Better Prepare for the Red Planet - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ter-prepare-for-the-red-planet

scibyte95 MarsSociety

shared by Mars Base on 26 May 13 - No Cached
  • The proposed Mars Arctic 365 (MA365) mission on Canada’s Devon Island would take place at Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station
  • The Arctic’s a lot like Mars, according to the Mars Society. It’s cold, it’s isolated, and it’s kind of dangerous
  • The society is asking for $50,000 from supporters in the next 24 days before starting the first phase (basically retrofitting the station and adding equipment) in July
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • More information on MA365 — perhaps with information on crew selection — should come in August, when members of the Phase 1 crew issue a report at the 16th Annual International Mars Society Convention
Mars Base

Opportunity Discovers Clays Favorable to Martian Biology and Sets Sail for Motherlode o... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...il-for-motherlode-of-new-clues

scibyte95 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 26 May 13 - No Cached
  • Opportunity,
  • has just discovered the strongest evidence to date for an environment favorable to ancient Martian biology
  • Opportunity’s analysis of a new rock target named “Esperance” confirmed that it is composed of a “clay that had been intensely altered by relatively neutral pH water – representing the most favorable conditions for biology that Opportunity has yet seen in the rock histories it has encountered
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Water that moved through fractures during this rock’s history would have provided more favorable conditions for biology than any other wet environment recorded in rocks Opportunity has seen
  • Opportunity accomplished the ground breaking new discovery by exposing the interior of Esperance with her still functioning Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) and examining a pristine patch using the microscopic camera and X-Ray spectrometer on the end of her 3 foot long robotic arm.
  • “Esperance was so important, we committed several weeks to getting this one measurement of it
  • Esperance stems from a time when the Red Planet was far warmer and wetter billions of years ago.
  • made the discovery at the conclusion of a 20 month long science expedition circling around a low ridge called “Cape York”
  • What’s so special about Esperance is that there was enough water not only for reactions that produced clay minerals, but also enough to flush out ions set loose by those reactions
  • Opportunity can clearly see the alteration
  • Esperance is unlike any rock previously investigated by Opportunity; containing far more aluminum and silica which is indicative of clay minerals and lower levels of calcium and iron.
  • Most, but not all of the rocks inspected to date by Opportunity were formed in an environment of highly acidic water
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