NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will spend the long Martian winter at a rocky outcrop on the rim of Endeavour Crater dubbed Greeley Haven by the rover team. The spot will allow Opportunity to keep its solar panels trained on the Sun through the winter, as well as providing some interesting rocks for study in the immediate vicinity.
Greeley Haven is named for Ron Greeley, a planetary scientist involved in the exploration of Mars since the early days of Mariner. Greeley died last October.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Infiniti Commercial
A television commercial for Infiniti cars starts out: "If no one ever challenged the status quo, the Earth would still be flat....."
Well, no. Earth was never flat. Dark Ages Europeans may have thought so, but they were an uneducated lot, on the whole. Even then, educated Europeans interested in such things, and Moslem scholars, and others in the world, understood Earth is round.
Yes, the only point of the commercial is to sell cars, and yes, the flat Earth notion is commonly accepted in our culture, but its still fair to point out when mass media is sloppy.
Well, no. Earth was never flat. Dark Ages Europeans may have thought so, but they were an uneducated lot, on the whole. Even then, educated Europeans interested in such things, and Moslem scholars, and others in the world, understood Earth is round.
Yes, the only point of the commercial is to sell cars, and yes, the flat Earth notion is commonly accepted in our culture, but its still fair to point out when mass media is sloppy.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Finding Life Bearing Exomoons
Of the thousands of exoplanets found so far by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, 37 Neptune-sized worlds and 10 more that are Jupiter-sized orbit within the habitable zone of their parent stars. While they are not necessarily good candidates to be the home of life (though Carl Sagan once imagined life flourishing in more benign layers of the huge atmospheres surrounding such planets), possible terrestrial type moons orbiting those worlds could support life.
Astronomers are now developing techniques that will allow them to detect such moons. Just as Kepler finds planets by observing dips in starlight signifying a planet could be crossing the star's disk, astronomers are refining that approach so they can see the even tinier dips caused by a moon. They believe they can detect moons about one-third the size of Earth. Any smaller than that and the world probably couldn't hold a life-supporting atmosphere in any case.
Astronomers are now developing techniques that will allow them to detect such moons. Just as Kepler finds planets by observing dips in starlight signifying a planet could be crossing the star's disk, astronomers are refining that approach so they can see the even tinier dips caused by a moon. They believe they can detect moons about one-third the size of Earth. Any smaller than that and the world probably couldn't hold a life-supporting atmosphere in any case.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Testing Orion MPCV
Last month, NASA conducted a flight test of its Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into deep space. The flight dropped an Orion from an aircraft to test how it would survive a landing on only two parachutes instead of the standard three. Orion hit the ground at the top of the predicted speed range and made it through intact.
NASA is aiming for a first, unmanned spaceflight of Orion in 2014, but the first manned deep space mission may not be until 2021.
By then, if all goes extremely well, there could be one or more private companies with a similar deep space manned capability-- that seems to be the goal of Obama administration policy. So why should NASA build Orion and the huge rocket meant to launch it? Are those efforts largely job programs for aerospace workers who might otherwise swell the already unhealthy number of the unemployed? Will Orion ever fly beyond low Earth orbit? We'll know in a few years.
NASA is aiming for a first, unmanned spaceflight of Orion in 2014, but the first manned deep space mission may not be until 2021.
By then, if all goes extremely well, there could be one or more private companies with a similar deep space manned capability-- that seems to be the goal of Obama administration policy. So why should NASA build Orion and the huge rocket meant to launch it? Are those efforts largely job programs for aerospace workers who might otherwise swell the already unhealthy number of the unemployed? Will Orion ever fly beyond low Earth orbit? We'll know in a few years.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Eight Years Ago Today
Eight Earth years ago today NASA's Spirit rover landed on Mars. Seventeen days later, on the other side of the Red Planet, Opportunity bounced to a stop.
Those two events marked the beginning of a remarkable exploration. Slated for 90 day missions, both rovers far exceeded that. Spirit only gave out last year, and Opportunity is still rolling along. Together, they have helped scientists build a new understanding of Mars, making a strong case that water once flowed on the surface of the planet.
Those two events marked the beginning of a remarkable exploration. Slated for 90 day missions, both rovers far exceeded that. Spirit only gave out last year, and Opportunity is still rolling along. Together, they have helped scientists build a new understanding of Mars, making a strong case that water once flowed on the surface of the planet.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Planetary Lake Lander Project
The Planetary Lake Lander Project is developing technology to explore the depths of two mountain lakes in the central Andes of Chile. One of the lakes is crystal clear, while the water of the other is brown with silt, thus furnishing different challenges.
A major goal of PLLP is to study the effects of climate change on the lakes, but another goal is to develop techniques of remote robotic exploration, and possibly even technology, that could be used to explore the methane lakes of Saturn's moon Titan.
A major goal of PLLP is to study the effects of climate change on the lakes, but another goal is to develop techniques of remote robotic exploration, and possibly even technology, that could be used to explore the methane lakes of Saturn's moon Titan.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Oldest Galaxy?
Astronomers, after taking two years to confirm their data, recently announced the discovery of what could be one of the first galaxies to form. It is 12.9 billion light years away, which means it may have formed only 750 million years after the Big Bang.
A galaxy so early on surprised astronomers, but they had another shocker coming. The galaxy is also producing stars at a prodigious rate-- another fact that goes against current theories about the early universe and the earliest galaxies.
Possibly, the first galaxy found in that early epoch happens to be an anomaly. If further research finds the earliest galaxies were in fact energetic, dynamic places, however, theory will have to change.
A galaxy so early on surprised astronomers, but they had another shocker coming. The galaxy is also producing stars at a prodigious rate-- another fact that goes against current theories about the early universe and the earliest galaxies.
Possibly, the first galaxy found in that early epoch happens to be an anomaly. If further research finds the earliest galaxies were in fact energetic, dynamic places, however, theory will have to change.
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