Ian O'Neill, Author at Universe Today

March 16, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Heavy ATV Must Learn to Apply the Brakes Before Docking with the ISS

Although ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will be approaching the International Space Station (ISS) at a rate slower than tortoise-pace, what would happen if the 20 tonne space truck didn’t slow down as it docks with the station? It wouldn’t be pretty. In all likelihood, the large mass of supplies and metal would cause significant structural damage to the ISS and could be life-threatening to the astronauts on board. To avoid a very big dent in the manned outpost, the ESA’s partners insist that the ATV carry out some practice runs of the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (a.k.a. the “emergency brake”)…

The ATV “Jules Verne”, still sitting in an orbital holding pattern awaiting the departure of Space Shuttle Endeavour from the ISS, still must prove its robotic worth. The unmanned supply vehicle is the most advanced spaceship theÂ ESA has ever launched into space and it appears to be performing well. Recent engine problems were quickly and neatly solved and the re-supply mission of the ISS appears to be progressing nicely.

Worked into the schedule of the ATV’s orbit of Earth are some practice manoeuvres – after all, the robot has a lot of time on its hands, a bit of activity should be welcomed.

First up is the spaceship equivalent of an emergency brake. The ATV project will have never been allowed near the space station without an emergency procedure should there be a problem during docking. Although the relative speed between the station and approaching ATV will be exceedingly slow, the orbital velocity of both will be approximately 27,000 km/h, so any unforeseen collision or misalignment could be highly dangerous.

So, the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre will be carried out on Friday, before the ATV is anywhere close to the station to make sure the operation is successful at preventing a mock collision.

The ATV carries countless failsafe measures; critically the robot runs three parallel flight-control computers with an independent computer overseeing them. If something should go wrong, the flight-control computers can be overridden and an avoidance manoeuvre enacted. Also, mission control in Toulouse, France can manually initiate the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre and so can the ISS astronauts inside the docking module watching events as they unfold. A big red button has even been installed in the Russian Zvezda module to raise the alarm and force the ATV to stop and reverse at 5 km/h.

Source: BBC

The astronauts do it by hitting a big red button on a panel positioned in the Russian Zvezda module.

March 16, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Genesis Scientists Finally Have Some Luck: Clues to Oxygen Content of Solar Wind

As the parachute failed on re-entry, a man hanging out of a helicopter wielding a big hook didn’t have chance to grab the falling object. Instead, it entered the atmosphere and thudded into the crusty layer of sand in the Utah Desert. This isn’t some Monty Python sketch, it was the demise of the Genesis sample return probe as the descent mechanism failed to release its parachutes on September 8th 2004. Hope to analyze any of the pristine samples of the Sun’s atmosphere quickly dissipated as scientists realized the precious cargo was likely destroyed and contaminated. But now, with a bit of luck and a lot of patience, mission scientists have recovered some samples from the wreckage and hope most of the Genesis mission goals will be accomplished regardless…

Launched from Earth on August 8th 2001, the Genesis spacecraft was sent on its way to the Earth-Sun First Lagrangian (L₁) point to collect solar wind particles in the aim of understanding our Sun and solar system development. All was going very smoothly for this Discovery-class NASA mission (consisting of a spacecraft and sample return probe piggybacking) and the probe collected solar wind particles from December 2001 to April 2004 by exposing an array of sample collectors.

Task accomplished, the spacecraft returned toward Earth and the sample return probe separated from the Genesis “bus”. The probe fell through the atmosphere to begin its parachute deployment. It should have deployed the parachute as sensors detected a sudden deceleration as the Earth’s atmosphere thickened. But due to a technical fault, this didn’t happen. The parachute should have allowed the probe to glide slowly through the atmosphere, and using a unique helicopter capture technique (guy with a hook hanging out of a helicopter swooping down to collect the probe mid-glide), there would be very little impact the probe would experience. TheÂ smaller the force of impact, the better the chance of retrieving the very delicate solar wind particles.

But to their horror, Genesis scientists could only watch as the 600lb sample return probe thudded into the Utah desert at 193 miles per hour.

Surprisingly, the probe wasn’t totally destroyed and much of the contents were protected on impact as the soft mud and sand of the desert lessened the blow. Also, the collector arrays allowed solar wind particles to be deeply embedded within the material, keeping them clear of any terrestrial material that may have contaminated the samples as the probe crashed. Still, the outlook looked bleak for any analysis of the samples the $264 million mission hoped to bring back in one piece.

Fortunately, the Genesis mission was lucky – there are enough samples left uncontaminated by terrestrial debris and these tiny solar particles are beginning to help scientists understand the particles existing in the ultimate clean room: interplanetary space. Not only that, these particles hold the key to the development of our solar system (hence the “Genesis” mission name) and provide clues to the development of stars, nebulae and planets in other systems.

“One would not normally characterise the Genesis mission as being lucky, but in this case we were.” – Kevin McKeegan, UCLA

Of particular interest will be the measurement of the primordial form of oxygen as it is emitted from the Sun in the solar wind. If we can measure the quantities of oxygen isotopes in the solar wind, we will have a starting point from which other oxygen isotopes are formed from. The Earth, Moon and meteorites have vastly differing quantities of oxygen-16, oxygen-17 and oxygen-18. Why this is the case is a mystery to scientists. Using the Genesis data as a foundation to this work will help us understand how the oxygen isotopes evolved so differently in different parts of the solar system.

Source: BBC

March 13, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Could AA Tauri Hold the Biochemical Key to Extra-Terrestrial Life?

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has measured huge quantities of water and organic compounds surrounding the star AA Tauri, 450 light years from Earth. AA Tauri is a young star, only a million years old, not too dissimilar to our Sun when it was a baby. What makes AA Tauri even more special is that it appears to have the “spectral fingerprint” for a system that could allow life to form. Finding a star system similar to our own, with organic compounds was always bound to cause excitement, but finding a star so close to us provides a fantastic opportunity to study AA Tauri. This will, in turn, help us understand the evolution of our own solar system and how life is able to form…

AA Tauri is slowly evolving. Gas and dust surrounds the star and recent observations suggest there are abundant organic chemicals (the ones responsible for binding together and creating amino acids). Although NASA’s announcement isn’t claiming that ET is out there (you can sit back into your seats), it is significant that a star should have all the building blocks for life as we know it laid out for the spectrometer on board Spitzer to observe.

The basic organic chemicals in question are possibly located within the “Goldilocks Zone” for planetary/life development from AA Tauri. Although AA Tauri is young, the surrounding flat disk of planetary-forming materials should eventually coalesce to form rocky bodies such as planets, asteroids and possibly gas giants (along the lines of “failed star” Jupiter). The abundance of organic chemicals and water will add to the intrigue surrounding the star.

These observations were collected by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope which is able to probe deep into the chemical structure of stars hundreds of parsecs from Earth. John Carr (Naval Research Laboratory, Washington) and Joan Najita (National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, Ariz.) are developing a new technique, applying Spitzer’s infrared spectrograph. The spectrograph is able to read the chemical composition of the dust contained within a protoplanetary disk. The team has been able to push Spitzer to a new level of precision by analysing the chemical composition of dust particles rather than the gas surrounding the star.

“Most of the material within the disks is gas, but until now it has been difficult to study the gas composition in the regions where planets should form. Much more attention has been given to the solid dust particles, which are easier to observe.” – John Carr of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington.

So far abundances of hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, carbon dioxide and water vapour have been discovered, allowing scientists to see whether these organic chemicals are enriched or lost during the violent period of planetary formation. Observations such as these highly accurate measurements allow us a chance to glimpse back in time to see what our protoplanetary solar system may have looked like, clearly a very exciting time for the quest to find the origins of life in our galaxy.

Source: NASA/JPL

March 12, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Orion Crew Module to Begin Testing in Run-up to 2020 Mission (Gallery)

The first tests of Constellation Program technology will start toward the end of 2008. In the first tests, a mock-launch will demonstrate the safety measures worked into the design. The crew module will blast away from the rocket boosters and take the (unmanned) capsule away to safety from the launch pad. This is an important design implication as NASA demonstrates the Constellation Program’s safety measures should the crew inside Orion get into difficulty as man is launched back into space, to the Moon and Mars, starting in 2020…

The Constellation Program is NASA’s vision for the future of space exploration. The Orion module has been developed over many years, and now the module is set for extensive testing, beginning at the end of this year. The Orion module, intended for a four to six-person crew, will be launched by an Ares 1 rocket and sent into Earth orbit, lunar expeditions and, ultimately, Mars missions. It is also expected to become NASA’s principal “shuttle” to and from the International Space Station. Although 2020 is the projected launch date of a Constellation manned mission, preparations need to be started as soon as possible. All areas of the new Constellation technology will need to be tested here on Earth before an astronaut sets foot inside the new space vehicle.

Gallery: The development of the Orion module mock-up being readied for tests in New Mexico.

First up are safety tests on a mock-up Orion module. The module will be launched during a 90-minute “Pad Abort-1” test to test the effectiveness of an ejection system where the Orion module will be blasted clear of the booster rockets during this critical phase of any space mission – when the rocket tanks are full of fuel prior to blast off. This will allow the safe return of astronauts should there be any problems before launch. These first tests will stay within the atmosphere above the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, firing the dummy Orion module a mile high and a mile wide of the launch pad.

The mock-up cone-shaped Orion module is almost complete and awaits the installation of all its systems before testing begins.

“The next step is to ship the completed crew module simulator to Dryden, where they will outfit it with the smarts — the computers, the electronics, the instrumentation — all the systems that need to work in conjunction with the structure.” — Phil Brown, Manager, Langley Orion Flight Test Article Project.

Once the module is kitted out, it will be shipped to White Sands some time during the summer so it can be mounted on the Pad Abort-1 tower with escape rocket motor and a guiding rocket motor that will be used to steer Orion clear. This test bed will be fine-tuned and optimized for use when Orion and the Ares rocket go into operation at the end of the next decade.

Source: NASA Constellation Project

March 12, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Relief as Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Propulsion System is Fixed

Problems struck the brand new ESA Automatic Transfer Vehicle (A T V) at 260km above the Earth shortly after it was launched into orbit on Sunday. Seven of the 28 attitude control jets and a main engine shut down unexpectedly, forcing the craft to switch to backup systems. The panic has now subsided as commands sent from mission control fixed the glitch and the thrusters switched back online…

Although the ATV has to wait around for NASA’s STS-123 mission to complete after it un-docks with the International Space Station (ISS) in a few days time, “Jules Verne” still has some manouvering to do. After its launch on board an Ariane-5 rocket from South America on March 9th, all systems appeared to be functioning normally. However, problems struck as the ATV began to thrust its way from its original 260km orbit to the ISS orbit of 340km.

ATV project manager John Ellwood gave a statement in Kourou as the troubles surfaced, but appeared undaunted by the problem:

“We’re sitting and thinking about this; we’re not in a rush to do manoeuvres […] We have the 10-day margin before we need to start going into [demonstration manoeuvre] days at the end of the month.”

After all, the ATV has over three weeks to stay in orbit and wait for Space Shuttle Endeavor to leave on March 24th and then dock at the station on April 3rd. Mission engineers had a lot of time on their side. It appears that they only needed a few hours to iron out the problem; all systems appear to be functioning well as of March 12th after new commands were transmitted from mission control.

It appears the problem started after data was received on the ground indicating there was a large difference in pressure between the oxidiser and the fuel entering the ATV’s complex network of pipes and valves connecting the fuel tanks and thrusters. Reacting to the warning, the chains of pipes were shut down, stopping fuel from entering the thrusters. The problem was solved by slowly turning on fuel supplies to each thruster and one of the main engines. The fix appears to be a total success.

The ATV will now carry out practice manoeuvres to prepare it for the ISS docking sequence at the start of next month.

Source: BBC

March 11, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Germs Living in Space “Almost Three Times as Likely to Cause Disease”

In one experiment on board Space Shuttle Endeavor (STS-123) launched early this morning (at 2:28 am EST), the reaction of terrestrial bacteria to zero-G will be tested. When compared with test bacteria bred here on Earth, previous studies suggest that germs bred in space are far more potent and are more likely to cause illness to people in space. The Endeavor mission will continue this experiment in the aim to find some way to prevent these microscopic astronauts causing too many problems to the continuing missions on board the International Space Station and future space tourism companies. Until a solution is found, don’t go ordering fish off the in-flight menu on your next spaceship ride…

Wherever humans go, a whole zoo of bacteria will follow. Most of the bacteria hitching a ride on our skin and inside our bodies live in symbiosis with us, but occasionallyÂ problem bugs like salmonella orÂ Escherichia coli (E-coli) can get out of control, causingÂ problems such as common food poisoning to more serious, life-threatening ailments such as tetanus, diphtheria, syphilis, cholera… (the list is pretty long.)

So, as humans venture into space, it is inevitable that bacteria will come too – the whole symbiotic and parasitic jungle – exploring space with us.

Bacteria will mutate, often very quickly, adapting to the environment surrounding the little microbes. Mutation is the difference between a bacteria being harmless to becoming deadly. Mutations help bacteria to survive and as an example, they can become antibiotic resistant. This is a huge problem in places where antibiotics are used very regularly (such as hospitals); genetic information is passed down the generations of bacteria (often doubling in population in a matter of minutes). If just one microbe has the genetic ability to survive a type of antibiotic, its number will multiply, creating a strain of “superbug” that can avoid being killed by antibiotics – one of the most basic examples of “natural selection”. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one particular nasty strain of the otherwise benign Staphylococcus genus which has mutated to resist commonly used antibiotics.

It is of paramount importance to understand how bacteria react to space conditions, so problems with potentially dangerous forms of bacteria, such as MRSA,Â can be avoided.

Scientists have discovered that the fairly common salmonella bacteria, usually responsible for terrible food poisoning outbreaks here on Earth, is far more likely to cause serious disease in space and has a much faster rate of reproductionÂ in zero-G. The virilence of salmonella increases drastically in the absense of gravity. The findings from the 2006 Space Shuttle Atlantis mission showed that space-borne bacteria are three times more likely to cause harm to humans in space than humans on the ground, further work was obviously needed to address this potentially deadly barrier to the success of space missions.

The project leader of these experiments, Dr. Cheryl Nickerson (at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute), hopes to find ways of blocking potentially deadly bacteria from multiplying so quicklyÂ in space and find out why zero-G is such a good environment for bacteria to grow. She headed the 2006 experiments on Atlantis.

“We are very fortunate to get a follow up flight opportunity, because in spaceflight, you only get one shot for everything to go just right […] We saw unique bacterial responses in flight and these responses are giving us new information about how Salmonella causes disease. NASA is giving us the opportunity to independently replicate the virulence studies of Salmonella typhimurium from our last shuttle experiment and to do a follow-up experiment to test our hypothesis about new ways this bacteria causes disease in this unique environment.” – Cheryl Nickerson.

This is obviously a high priority experiment for NASA and the future of manned missions into space. More precautions and safeguards need to be put into place so humankind can adapt to this new, microscopic threat, not from unknown alien bacteria, but from our own germs.

Source: EurekAlert

March 9, 2008April 26, 2016 by Ian O'Neill

Jupiter has Van Allen Belts too, Just Bigger; Implications for Space Weather Prediction

Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than the Earth’s. It is therefore of no surprise that the highly energetic and damaging particles flying around in the Earths Van Allen Belts can be found within Jupiter’s magnetosphere too. But are the mechanisms energizing these particles the same for both planets? New research suggests that the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Earth may have more in common than previously thought…

As previously reported on Universe Today, there is a possible source to the magnetospheric “hiss” that energizes protons and electrons within the Earth’s Van Allen Belts. The discovery that low frequency “chorus” waves propagating through the upper atmosphere evolve into waves that can interact with charged particles is significant in that it helps to solve a 40 year debate as to where these waves come from. Now, the nature of Jupiter’s highly energetic particles trapped in its strong magnetic field has been brought into question.

The Galileo spacecraft (pictured) measured radio wave activity inside the magnetosphere as it orbited the gas giant over eight years. According to the scientific collaboration including researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Iowa (UI), similar low frequency radio waves may be responsible for electron energization in the Jovian high energy particle belts as in the terrestrial Van Allen Belts.

Although details on the source of Earth’s “chorus” waves are sketchy (we know they originate outside of the plasmasphere surrounding Earth and evolve into a radio wave “hiss” inside the Van Allen Belts), the source of low frequency radio waves around Jupiter comes from the interactions between the moon Io and the Jovian magnetic field.

“On Jupiter, the waves are powered by energy from volcanoes on the moon Io, combined with the planetâ€™s rapid rotation â€“ once every 10 hours. Volcanic gasses are ionized and flung out away from the planet by centrifugal force. This material is replaced by an inward flow of particles that excite the waves that in turn accelerate the electrons.” – Dr Richard Horne, lead author of research, British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The interaction of Jupiter’s moons with its atmosphere is highlighted when analysing the pattern of the polar auroral regions on the planet. As the magnetic field is so strong on Jupiter, massive regions of bright emission can be seen in the UV wavelengths (pictured top). This is emission from huge auroral displays as highly energetic particles funnel down magnetic flux and interact with Jupiter’s atmosphere (similar to Earth’s auroral displays, only much bigger). There are some strange patterns in the auroral “crown” – “footprints” of the Jovian moons, Io, Ganymede and Europa. The moons emit particles which get directed down to Jupiter by the gas giant’s magnetic field. These footprints appear as little spots in Jovian polar regions, rotating with the moons as they pass through the magnetosphere.

By far the strongest influence on Jupiter’s magnetosphere, Io is constantly erupting with material, firing it through the Jovian magnetic field. Thanks to Galileo data, it appears this fastÂ orbiting moon generates low frequency radio waves, driving the high energy particles trapped within Jupiter’s plasmasphere through wave-particle interactions.

“For more than 30 years it was thought that the electrons are accelerated as a result of transport towards Jupiter, but now we show that gyro-resonant wave acceleration is a very important step that acts in concert.” – Dr Horne

These results will have a huge impact on space weather forecasting. As the Sun erupts during periods of heightened solar activity (i.e. during “solar maximum”), the reaction of the Earth’s plasmasphere is critical to understanding the quantities of damaging high energy particles that may influence space missions, damaging satellites and causing harm to astronauts. Looking into Jupiter’s huge magnetosphere will aid understanding of our own magnetosphere, hopefully improving solar storm predictions.

Source: British Antarctic Survey

March 9, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle Blasts Into Space (Video); See the ATV Mission Animation

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has been successfully launched into orbit. The ATV, also known as “Jules Verne”, is Europe’s largest and most complex spaceship ever. Weighing in at 20 tons, the ATV needed a big push to get it into space, so the largest member of the Arianespace-built rocket family was called into use, the Ariane-5. The unmanned ATV is now en-route to the International Space Station, to make some deliveries…

(Including a cool little animation of the entire mission courtesy of ESA.)

Launched from French Guiana (South America) at 0403 GMT, March 9th, the Ariane-5 rocket lifted the heavy vehicle into orbit to send cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the International Space Station (ISS). This is the largest payload ever lifted by Arianespace, and the new Ariane-5 performed excellently. After 66 minutes from blast-off, the launch was declared a success as the ATV separated from its Ariane-5 boosters to begin its mission.

The ATV is a unique spacecraft. It has been called a “barge”, “truck”, “freighter”, “tug” and its mission is pretty unglamorous. Primarily it will take about 7.5 tons of supplies to the ISS, docking (automatically) with the Russian service module. Then, it will act as a waste disposal module for six months, remaining attached to the station, being filled with rubbish from the stations crew. When full with over six tons of trash, it will separate and then kill itself by falling through the Earth’s atmosphere, insuring all the waste gets incinerated. It will be the ultimate single-use product.

The ATV now has to hang around in an orbital holding pattern to wait for Space Shuttle Endeavour to launch (on March 11th), dock and then leave the ISS on March 24th before it can approach the station. See “Traffic Jam at the Space Station” to find out how busy it’s getting up there.

Source: ESA

March 8, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Greedy Supermassive Black Holes Dislike Dark Matter

It is widely accepted that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) sit in the centre of elliptical galaxies or bulges of spiral galaxies. They suck in as much matter as possible, generating blasts of radiation. Stars, gas and everything else nearby forms a compact “halo” and then falls to a gravitationally enforced death spiral. The greedy nature and the sheer size of these black holes have led to the idea that dark matter may supply (or may have supplied) the SMBH with some mass during its evolution. But could it be that dark matter may not be significantly involved after all? ThisÂ might beÂ one cosmic phenomenon dark matter can’t be blamed for…

Black hole accretion disks are compact halos created as dust, gas and other debrisÂ are pulled toward a black hole event horizon. Accretion disks radiate electromagnetic radiation, and the frequency of which depends on the mass of the black hole. The more massive it is, the higher the energy of radiation emitted into space. In the case of a SMBH, the huge mass causes very bright emission as the matter from the accretion disk falls into the event horizon (the point at which gravity becomes so strong that even light cannot escape). As accretion disk matter falls toward the event horizon, approximately 10% of the mass is converted into energy and ejected as X-rays. This is a far more efficient energy conversion rate than the most efficient nuclear fusion reaction (approximately 0.5%). This X-ray emission can then be observed, creating a quasar, signifying a SMBH is driving the active galaxy.

Interestingly, an SMBH is not thought to be formed from single dead massive star. They are thought to have been created from a “seed” and then grown over billions of years. The source of the mass feeding the growing SMBH comes from its accretion disk, but it is uncertain what form the matter comes in and at what rate it “feeds” the black hole. There are several possibilities as to how the largest black holes were seeded, but two are the most widely accepted:

Intermediate black holes (with masses of several thousand Suns) are created by vast clouds which collapse to a single point. Black holes form and accretion disks grow.
Massive primordial stars (the first stars, formed only 200 million years after the Big Bang) of a few hundred Sun masses may have collapsed to create smaller black holes, again forming accretion disks and growing over billions of years.

The mechanisms affecting the rate of accretion disk growth are not so clear-cut. Some theories suggest that huge quantities (most of the black hole mass) comes from dark matter.Â However, as dark matter is “non-baryonic” (i.e. the opposite to baryonic matter – the matter we know, love and observe in our universe) it will emit very little radiation as it falls into the black hole event horizon.Â IfÂ thisÂ is the case, SMBHs would grow disproportionately when compared with radiation emitted from galactic centres (only baryonic particles will emit X-rays).

New research headed by Sebastien Peirani (at the Institut dâ€™Astrophysique de Paris, France) suggests only a very small fraction of a SMBH is composed from dark matter as itÂ evolved. Dark matter is predicted to be collisionless and will be scattered very easily by baryonic gas clouds and stars. It seems unlikely that dark matter will be able to stay inside the black hole’s accretion disk for very long before it is repelled by all the “normal” matter being pulled toward the event horizon.

By modelling a “typical” accretion disk and comparing the results with observations of quasar luminosity, the French group found that most of the matter fuelling the SMBHs is relativistic baryonic matter. At a critical distance, outside the black hole, baryonic matter from the accretion disk is accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light, emitting radiation. Comparing this with simulations of a collisionless disk (i.e.Â the characteristics of dark matter), the baryonic model fits observations the best.

“Application of our results to black hole seeds hosted by halos issued from cosmological simulations indicate that dark matter contributes to no more than [approx.] 10% of the total accreted mass, confirming that the bolometric quasar luminosity is related to the baryonic accretion history of the black hole.” â€“ Abstract from “Dark Matter Accretion into Supermassive Black Holes“

Source: arXiv

March 6, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

The Ultimate Fund-Raising Scheme: Transmit Adverts To Aliens

OK, so there have been some strange things going on between us Earthlings and aliens lately. The deep-space Pioneer and Voyager probes carried images and artefacts of our culture into the cosmos decades ago. This plan has now been upstaged by the Deep Space Network transmitting a Beatles tune in the direction of the star Polaris. Both are different methods in an attempt to achieve the same thing – to contact alien civilizations. Extraterrestrials might even be trying to communicate with us by playing around with stars or blasting neutrinos at us…

But, in the next episode of this epic saga, as the human race feels more and more alone in a seemingly lifeless, but expanding universe… [break – this programme will be continued after a message from our sponsors]

Advertising is everywhere. It comes in many shapes and sizes, and in many forms. I just deleted four pieces of spam in my email account (one trying to sell me non-prescription pain killers, one notifying me that I have won the Russian lotto and another two with subjects I’d rather not repeat), I can hear an ad on the radio chatter (something about double-glazed windows), on my desk I can count ten magazine ads, newspaper classified ads, business cards and logos, all set out to do pretty much the same thing: to sell a product and, ultimately, to make money. Advertising is so embedded into our commercial society, it can be difficult to work out what is advertising and what isn’t.

Now it seems there is another kind of advertising on the horizon: Space Spam.

As UK physics and astronomy researchers have experienced recently, the problem with scientific research is that it mainly depends on government funding. Government funding comes and goes and can depend on who is in power and who isn’t. To avoid this, many researchers leave academia in search of better pay in industry. There is nothing wrong with this choice, but often academic institutions and universities lose their top minds to better financial conditions elsewhere.

In an attempt to save the beleaguered astronomy community in the UK, astronomers have come up with an intriguing idea. To rescue the world famous Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, astronomers intend to transmit adverts into space. This is truly the final frontier for terrestrial advertising, but is it possible that British scientists have finally lost their marbles? How can we expect alien races to pay attention to our attempts at selling them Nacho Cheese Doritos? If they did buy our products, I wouldn’t want to be in charge of the shipping department…

But there is a very serious reason for this off-beat plan. The UK is currently undergoing a funding crisis as the main funding body for UK physics and astronomy struggles to fill a Â£80 million ($160 million) hole in their finances. No help has been offered by the British government. This new fund-raising scheme is already attracting a lot of attention. The snack manufacturer Doritos has stepped in, donating an undisclosed sum in exchange for transmitting their ad. Many more companies are expected to follow suit. The publicity from helping out struggling observatories seems to be enough for big companies wanting to get involved (after all, they won’t be expecting extraterrestrial orders for at least 84 years).

The signal will be sent to the Ursa Major constellation some 42 light years away by the European Incoherent Scatter Radar System (EISCAT) in Svalbard, located in the High Arctic. EISCAT is more commonly used to measure emissions from the aurora and ionospheric dynamics. It can also be used in conjunction with other EISCAT installations in Sweden and mainland Norway to track the velocity and composition of the solar wind. Now, it seems, the powerful radar transmitter will be used to shoot commercials into space.

The first transmission will be 30 seconds long and members of the public will be invited to participate. TV advertising will also be aired in support of the project. If anyone thought UK researchers were going to stay quiet and accept the latest round of financial turmoil, they’d be wrong. Scientists and the public, backed up by advertising revenue, are about to make a very big noise.

If the Beatles tune didn’t agitate the aliens, an enforced ad break probably will, let’s just hope they are sympathetic to the UK funding crisis (and want to make a donation).

Source: Doritos.co.uk, Jodrell Bank Observatory press release