Fraser Cain, Author at Universe Today

November 6, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

First Look at the Orion Crew Module

I know it seems like we’ve had the space shuttle forever, and will have it forever, but the program will actually be shut down in just a few short years. What comes next? The Constellation program will continue the US human spaceflight efforts, eventually bringing people back to the Moon. As part of the program, workers at NASA unveiled a mockup of the Orion crew module.

The lifesize Orion crew module was build by engineers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center’s Fabrication Branch. No, this aluminum mockup won’t actually be flying. It won’t even be used for aerodynamic testing. It’s just going to help engineers figure out how to cram everything in.

As the engineers are developing the various avionics systems, instrumentation, wire harness routing, etc, they’ll want a life-size mockup of the module to test how things fit together. Eventually, you can imagine future astronauts crawling inside, and giving engineers their feedback on the placement of the instrumentation, the feel of the controls, and cushiness of the seats.

This mockup will help engineers until the first abort flight test vehicle, called “Boilerplate 1” arrives for testing. This next testing vehicle is a flying simulator that will mimic the flight characteristics of the actual vehicle. Boilerplate 1 will have the same mass, dimensions, and aerodynamic properties of the Orion capsule, so it can be tested in wind tunnels and atop rockets.

NASA is planning two pad abort, and four ascent tests of the launch abort system as early as 2008, and continuing on through 2011.

So, don’t worry, the age of the space shuttle is almost over, and the age of the Constellation program is almost here. Look out Moon, here we come.

Original Source: NASA Dryden News Release

November 6, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Fifth Planet Found Orbiting 55 Cancri

Our Solar System has 8 planets, but another, 55 Cancri, is catching up fast. Astronomers today announced the discovery of a 5th planet in the system, located 41 light-years away. This newly discovered planet weighs in with 45 times the mass of the Earth, and might look similar to Saturn in composition and appearance. But the news gets better, it’s in the star’s habitable zone, and could have water-covered moons.

The discovery of a 5th planet around 55 Cancri was made by astronomers from UC Berkeley, and several other collaborating universities, with funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation. Their research will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers used the radial velocity technique to find the planets. This is where the velocity of the star is carefully measured. Periodic changes in this velocity mean that a large planet’s gravity is yanking the star back and forth. In this case, the discovery was even more difficult, because there were already known planets in the system, polluting the data.

“It is amazing to see our ability to detect extrasolar planets growing,” said Alan Stern, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “We are finding solar systems with a richness of planets and a variety of planetary types comparable to our own.”

Perhaps the coolest part of this whole discovery: the planet orbits its parent star once every 260 days. This places it within its star’s habitability zone, where liquid water can be present. It’s a little closer than our Earth is to the Sun, but its star is also a little fainter, so it all evens out.

Obviously, this rules out the planet itself, but it could have a collection of moons, just like Saturn. Instead of Saturn’s icy moons, this 5th planet of 55 Cancri could have ocean moons.

Finding this planet was an enormous challenge. The discoverers have been making observations of 55 Cancri for 18 years, before the first extra solar planets were ever found. They had to make more than 320 velocity measurements to disentangle the 5 planets from the data.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

November 6, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for November 6th, 2007

For the photo… it’s Comet Holmes! I know, a big surprise, but I’m going to keep on hitting you with cool Holmes pics until it starts to fade. This one comes from tegwilym on the forum.

ESA has an interesting article about the different ways they peer at stars through planetary atmospheres.

astropixie Amanda Bauer took these amazing photos from the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, and talks about her experience viewing for Comet Holmes.

Alan Boyle explains why it’s hard to know when a volcano is going to explode.

Astronomy.com’s blog reviews Brave New Words, the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction.

A little bit of good news to an otherwise depressing view of global warming. Heat-trapping cirrus clouds may be disappearing as temperatures rise.

In case you missed it, the DARPA Urban Challenge was won by Carnegie Mellon University’s SUV, “Boss”. I want my robot car!

November 6, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Podcast: Saturn’s Moons

We know that delaying this show one more week would be too dangerous, so here you go: Saturn’s moons. These are some of the most interesting objects in the Solar System, from the spongy Hyperion, to the geysers on Enceladus, to the rainy, misty, oceany Titan. They’ve kept Cassini busy for years, and scientists will likely be pondering them for decades.
Click here to download the episode

Saturn’s Moons – Show notes and transcript

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

November 5, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Chang’e-1 Enters Lunar Orbit

Chinese space officials announced that their Chang’e-1 spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Monday, completing a new milestone in the country’s goals of space exploration. The spacecraft is scheduled to begin scanning the lunar surface on Wednesday, but first, it has to complete two additional braking maneuvers.

Mission controllers gave the command at 11:15 local time from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) for Chang’e-1 to make its braking maneuver – when it was 300 km from the Moon. It completed the maneuver 22 minutes later, entering a true circumlunar orbit.

This braking maneuver was critical. If it braked too early, the probe wouldn’t have been captured by the Moon’s gravity, and it would have drifted off into space. If it braked too late, it would have just crashed onto the lunar surface.

The spacecraft’s speed was slowed from 2.3 km/second to 1.9 km/second. It’s now traveling in a 12-hour elliptical orbit around the Moon, getting as close as 200 km above the surface, and then swinging out to 8,600 km.

Two more braking maneuvers are planned to lower its orbit; one on November 6th, and another on the 7th. When it’s all said and done, Chang’e-1 will be going a mere 1.59 km/second, in a 127-minute orbit. It will then begin its science operations.

If all goes well, Chang’e-1 will provide detailed images and data on the lunar surface. China has announced their plans to send a robotic lander to the Moon by 2012 years, and humans within 15 years.

It should remain in lunar orbit for about a year.

Original Source: Xinhua News Release

November 5, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

What if a Child is Born on the Moon?

As humanity becomes a spacefaring civilization, we’re going to come up with tricky situations that challenge current laws and concepts of nationality. For example, what’s your country if you’re born on the Moon? Or if two astronauts get into a fight while in orbit, whose laws are followed? If you break a piece of an international module, where do you send the cheque? During a recent conference in Europe, scholars and space scientists met to propose unusual circumstances that might happen in space exploration

Law in space is currently covered by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. It’s been ratified by 98 states, and follows the tradition of maritime law – states have legal jurisdiction within their own spacecraft. But what happens when a spacecraft has been built by several nations, such as the Columbus laboratory module, due to fly to the International Space Station in December.

The recent conference, called Humans in Outer Space â€“ Interdisciplinary Odysseys was held on October 11-12 in Vienna, Austria.

The partner nations working to build the International Space Station have already rejected a proposal that the entire station falls under US law.

“It was agreed that each state registers its own separate elements, which means that you now have a piece of the US annexed to a piece of Europe annexed to a piece of Japan in outer space, legally speaking”, said Dr Frans von der Dunk of the International Institute of Air and Space Law at the University of Leiden.

Since each module is operated by a different nation, that sort of works. But in the case of the Columbus module, it was built and operated by several European nations. Since it’s a collaboration, it can’t be registered to any single state since there isn’t an entity called “Europe”.

There are issues of criminal law; what if one astronaut from one country punches another while in an international module? There are also patent law problems; where should an invention be patented? And there are civil law concerns; what happens if an astronaut damages a part of the station?

The meeting looked far into the future too, when bases are established on the Moon and Mars. Since the 1967 treaty defines the Moon for the good of all humanity, it can never be considered a territory of any country back on Earth. So what nationality would a child have?

The 1979 UN Moon Agreement provides rules on how nations should explore the Moon, but doesn’t go beyond to issues of civil and criminal law.

For now, if you’re born on the Moon, you’re from nowhere on Earth.

Original Source: ESF News Release

November 5, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Discovery Ends 11 Days at the Station

The space shuttle Discovery pulled away from the International Space Station Monday morning, wrapping up an eventful 11-day visit. The 7 astronauts completed their scheduled events as well as an unplanned fix to the station’s torn solar panel – created when the solar array was moved to a new location and opened up.

After pulling away, Discovery made one last flyby of the station, taking photographs that NASA engineers can study back on Earth. Then the shuttle retreated to perform one final inspection of the shuttle’s heat shield.

If all goes well, Discovery will land back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:02 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

The astronauts completed one last spacewalk on Saturday, repairing the torn solar wing. This was critical. With the solar panels damaged, the wing couldn’t be fully deployed. And without being fully deployed, NASA couldn’t risk continuing the station’s construction.

Astronaut Scott Parazynski attached himself to an extension boom brought by Discovery, and was maneuvered out to the repair site on the solar array. He installed five homemade braces – “cufflinks” – that helped support the array, and realign the torn panels. In addition to reconnecting the torn panels, he also cut the guidewires that had snagged on the unfolding array in the first place.

The repair job was quite dangerous, because the solar array was charged, and would have given Parazynski a shock if he accidently touched it. He did have insulated gloves and boots, but he worked carefully, mindful of the risks.

“What an accomplishment,” he said, after fixing the panel and then watching it reach its full 33 metre (110 feet) length.

Original Source: NASA Shuttle News

November 5, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for November 5th, 2007

First the photo. Take a careful look, and you’ll see that Comet Holmes has a tail now. Thanks to RickJ for the amazing photo.

Emily at the Planetary Society Blog has dug up some cool videos of Saturn’s moons.

X-Prize founder, Peter Diamandis speaks with Popular Science about the future of the X-Prize Cup.

Colony Worlds has an interesting story about a group of angel investors coming together to pour money into clever ideas for space exploration.
First the picture. Comet Holmes has got a tail! It’s not much of a tail, but it’s there… Thanks to RickJ for the photo.

Astronomers thought that 10% of the Universe was missing. Oh wait, it’s been found.

The 2007 Weblog award nominations have been announced. Once again, Bad Astronomy has been nominated for the best science blog, as well as several others. Vote early, vote often.

Scientific American’s 60 Second Science has gotten so popular, all on its own, they’ve decided to give it a website.

November 2, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Podcast: Rising Winds from Supermassive Black Holes

Astronomers now believe there’s a supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of every galaxy. When these monsters are actively feeding, an accretion disk of material builds up around them, like swirling water waiting to go down the drain. For the first time, astronomers have detected winds rising up from this disk of doomed material. And it turns out, these winds have a profound impact on the surrounding galaxy.

Dr. Andrew Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Andrew was part of a team that detected these winds, announced this week in the journal Nature.

Click here to download the podcast.

November 1, 2007April 27, 2020 by Fraser Cain

Carnival of Space

If you run a space/astronomy related blog, and would like to get more awareness, participate in the Carnival of Space. Every week, a different webmaster or blogger hosts the carnival, showcasing articles written on the topic of space. It’s a great way to get to know the community, and to help your writing reach a wider audience. If you’d like to be a host for the carnival, please send email to [email protected]

Here’s an archive of all the past Carnivals: