Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

STS-124: A Mission in Pictures

Always a beautiful sight, the space shuttle Discovery touched down safely at 11:15 a.m. EDT, on Saturday, June 14, 2008, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the 13-day mission, Discovery and the crew of STS-124 delivered the new component Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module, to the International Space Station. Mission managers say Discovery looks to be in good shape following the mission, and the crew is doing well, too. Even Garrett Reisman, who spent over 90 days on the ISS, joined the rest of the crew in walking around on the runway and surveying the shuttle. After a successful mission, its always fun to look back at some of the great images, so here’s a few…


Astronaut Ron Garan, STS-124 mission specialist, participates in the mission’s first EVA to get ready to add the Kibo Japanese Pressurized Module to the space station.

That’s two domes and two space helmets. Mark Kelly (right), STS-124 commander, and Garrett Reisman, assist astronauts Mike Fossum (left) and Ron Garan in the Quest Airlock of the International Space Station to help them get ready for an EVA.

A good look at two of the ISS solar arrays, which provide power to the station.

The ISS keeps growing, and with the addition of the Kibo lab, its actually getting pretty spacious on board the station.

The crew of the ISS took this image of the shuttle as it departed from the station, showing the now empty payload bay.

And likewise, the shuttle crew took this image of the ISS, showing the new configuration with Kibo now part of the station.

And here’s where it all started: the launch of Discovery on May 31, 2008.

See all the images from the mission here.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Latest Phoenix Images: Ice or Salt?

The Phoenix lander team revealed the latest images from the mission at a press briefing on Friday. This first image shows an area dug by Phoenix’s scoop, which disclosed a bright surface just a few inches down, which may be ice. “There’s still some debate about the bright material,” said Phoenix Principle Investigator Peter Smith. “Not everyone is sure that this is ice. So there’s been some debate on our team, centering around that perhaps there’s a salt layer just under the soil that also would be bright. Everyone does believe there’s ice under the surface, and whether this is ice or not is the question. The other question is, is this thick ice that goes down deep beneath the surface, or is this a thin layer and we’ll be able to scrape through? So being able to scrape with our scoop is a high priority for us.”


This pair of images taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander offers a side-by-side comparison of an airfall dust sample collected on a substrate exposed during landing (left) and a soil sample scooped up from the surface of the ground beside the lander. In both cases the sample is collected on a silicone substrate, which provides a sticky surface holding sample particles for observation by the microscope.

Similar fine particles at the resolution limit of the microscope are seen in both samples, indicating that the soil has formed from settling of dust.

The microscope took the image on the left during Phoenix’s Sol 9 (June 3, 2008), or the ninth Martian day after landing. It took the image on the right during Sol 17 (June 11, 2008).

The scale bar is 1 millimeter (0.04 inch).


This is the latest color image of Phoenix, its surroundings and the scoop with soil.


While we can’t look inside the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) oven which will “bake” the Martian soil to test the type of gases that are released, we can see that some of the soil has gone into TEGA. “We were finally successful and some of the material has slid down over the screen” said Smith, “sort of like material going over a cheese grater, and some of the material has slid down and filled the oven. We sent the commands for the first operation of TEGA last night, but we don’t have our data back yet, so we can’t report on any results. That will be coming later next week. So this is a very exciting time for us. We find the soil is very clumpy, it’s sticky, it’s an unusual soil not at all like the types of soils we used in our tests, which worked just fine with all the instruments. So we’ve developed another method of collecting samples, which is to tilt the scoop and vibrate it, and so it shakes down a small amount of material onto the instruments.”


And finally, here’s the latest weather report for Mars, on the 17th sol of Phoenix’s stay on Mars.

Sources: Phoenix News, NASA TV

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Thinking About Time Before the Big Bang

What happened before the Big Bang? The conventional answer to that question is usually, “There is no such thing as ‘before the Big Bang.'” That’s the event that started it all. But the right answer, says physicist Sean Carroll, is, “We just don’t know.” Carroll, as well as many other physicists and cosmologists have begun to consider the possibility of time before the Big Bang, as well as alternative theories of how our universe came to be. Carroll discussed this type of “speculative research” during a talk at the American Astronomical Society Meeting last week in St. Louis, Missouri.

“This is an interesting time to be a cosmologist,” Carroll said. “We are both blessed and cursed. It’s a golden age, but the problem is that the model we have of the universe makes no sense.”

First, there’s an inventory problem, where 95% of the universe is unaccounted for. Cosmologists seemingly have solved that problem by concocting dark matter and dark energy. But because we have “created” matter to fit the data doesn’t mean we understand the nature of the universe.

Another big surprise about our universe comes from actual data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) spacecraft which has been studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) the “echo” of the Big Bang.

“The WMAP snapshot of how the early universe looked shows it to be hot, dense and smooth [low entropy] over a wide region of space,” said Carroll. “We don’t understand why that is the case. That’s an even bigger surprise than the inventory problem. Our universe just doesn’t look natural.” Carroll said states of low-entropy are rare, plus of all the possible initial conditions that could have evolved into a universe like ours, the overwhelming majority have much higher entropy, not lower.

But the single most surprising phenomenon about the universe, said Carroll, is that things change. And it all happens in a consistent direction from past to future, throughout the universe.

“It’s called the arrow of time,” said Carroll. This arrow of time comes from the second law of thermodynamics, which invokes entropy. The law states that invariably, closed systems move from order to disorder over time. This law is fundamental to physics and astronomy.

One of the big questions about the initial conditions of the universe is why did entropy start out so low? “And low entropy near the Big Bang is responsible for everything about the arrow of time” said Carroll. “Life and death, memory, the flow of time.” Events happen in order and can’t be reversed.

“Every time you break an egg or spill a glass of water you’re doing observational cosmology,” Carroll said.

Therefore, in order to answer our questions about the universe and the arrow of time, we might need to consider what happened before the Big Bang.

Carroll insisted these are important issues to think about. “This is not just recreational theology,” he said. “We want a story of the universe that makes sense. When we have things that seem surprising, we look for an underlying mechanism that makes what was a puzzle understandable. The low entropy universe is clue to something and we should work to find it.”

Right now we don’t have a good model of the universe, and current theories don’t answer the questions. Classical general relativity predicts the universe began with a singularity, but it can’t prove anything until after the Big Bang.

Inflation theory, which proposes a period of extremely rapid (exponential) expansion of the universe during its first few moments, is no help, Carroll said. “It just makes the entropy problem worse. Inflation requires a theory of initial conditions.”

There are other models out there, too, but Carroll proposed, and seemed to favor the idea of multi-universes that keep creating “baby” universes. “Our observable universe might not be the whole story,” he said. “If we are part of a bigger multiverse, there is no maximal-entropy equilibrium state and entropy is produced via creation of universes like our own.”

Carroll also discussed new research he and a team of physicists have done, looking at, again, results from WMAP. Carroll and his team say the data shows the universe is “lopsided.”

Measurements from WMAP show that the fluctuations in the microwave background are about 10% stronger on one side of the sky than on the other.

An explanation for this “heavy-on-one-side universe” would be if these fluctuations represented a structure left over from the universe that produced our universe.

Carroll said all of this would be helped by a better understanding of quantum gravity. “Quantum fluctuations can produce new universes. If thermal fluctuation in a quiet space can lead to baby universes, they would have their own entropy and could go on creating universes.”

Granted, — and Carroll stressed this point — any research on these topics is generally considered speculation at this time. “None of this is firmly established stuff,” he said. “I would bet even money that this is wrong. But hopefully I’ll be able to come back in 10 years and tell you that we’ve figured it all out.”

Admittedly, as writer, trying to encapsulate Carroll’s talk and ideas into a short article surely doesn’t do them justice. Check out Carroll’s take on these notions and more at his blog, Cosmic Variance. Also, read a great summary of Carroll’s talk, written by Chris Lintott for the BBC. I’ve been mulling over Carroll’s talk for more than a week now, and contemplating the beginnings of time — and even that there might be time before time — has made for an interesting and captivating week. Whether that time has brought me forward or backward in my understanding remains to be seen!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Wilkins Ice Shelf Continues Break-up, Even During Winter

Satellite images reveal the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica has experienced further break-up with an area of about 160 square kilometers breaking off during May 30 -31, 2008. ESA’s Envisat satellite captured the event. This is the first ever-documented episode to occur during the Antarctic winter. The animation here, comprised of images acquired by Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) between May 30 and June 9, highlights the rapidly dwindling strip of ice that is protecting thousands of kilometers of the ice shelf from further break-up.

Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad plate of floating ice south of South America on the Antarctic Peninsula, is connected to two islands, Charcot and Latady. In February 2008, an area of about 400 square km broke off from the ice shelf, narrowing the connection down to a 6 km strip; this latest event in May has further reduced the strip to just 2.7 km.

According to Dr. Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces, Bonn University, and Dr. Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics, Münster University, who have been investigating the dynamics of Wilkins Ice Shelf for months, this break-up has not yet finished.

“The remaining plate has an arched fracture at its narrowest position, making it very likely that the connection will break completely in the coming days,” Braun and Humbert said.
Long-term satellite monitoring over Antarctica is important because it provides authoritative evidence of trends and allows scientists to make predictions. Ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula are important indicators for on-going climate change because they are sandwiched by extraordinarily raising surface air temperatures and a warming ocean.

The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced extraordinary warming in the past 50 years of 2.5°C, Braun and Humbert explained. In the past 20 years, seven ice shelves along the peninsula have retreated or disintegrated, including the most spectacular break-up of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002, which Envisat captured within days of its launch.

News Source: ESA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Doritos In Space

I’m all for the commercial use of space, but this might be a bit overboard. Back in March of this year, Ian reported on a fund raising scheme to help the United Kingdom’s physics and astronomy money woes. The scheme involved soliciting commercial companies to pay for advertising being beamed into space, supposedly directed towards potential extra terrestrial life. The manufacturer of Doritos snack chips stepped up, donating an undisclosed sum in exchange for transmitting their ad. But the Doritos people decided to turn the advertisement into a contest, and created the Doritos Broadcast Project, which invited the UK public to create a 30 second video clip that could be beamed out to the universe offering a snap shot of life on earth to anyone ‘out there’. According to a poll, 61% of the UK public believe this is just the start of communication with ET life and that we will enter into regular communication with an alien species at some stage in the future. See the winning commercial:

The winning space-ad entitled ‘Tribe’ was voted for by the British public and directed by 25-year-old Matt Bowron. It will officially be entered into the Guinness Book of Records and will be aired on the more conventional medium of television in the UK on Sunday, June 15th.

Does this really offer a “snapshot of life on Earth?” Is this the impression of ourselves we’d like to give to extraterrestrials?

The message is being pulsed out over a six-hour period from high-powered radars at the EISCAT European space station in the Arctic Circle. The University of Leicester has also been involved in the project from its inception.

EISCAT Director, Professor Tony van Eyken who will oversee the transmission said: “The signal is directed at a solar system just 42 light years away from Earth, in the ‘Ursa Major’ or Great Bear Constellation. Its star is very similar to our Sun and hosts a habitable zone that could harbor small life supporting planets similar to ours.”

Peter Charles, Head of the Doritos Broadcast Project said: “We are constantly looking to push the boundaries of advertising and this will go further than any brand has gone before. By broadcasting the winning ad to the Universe, Doritos is delivering a world first and Matt Bowron, the winner, will go down in advertising folklore. We also shouldn’t be too surprised if the first aliens start arriving on planet Earth immediately demanding a bag of Doritos.”

Wow.

Dr Nigel Bannister thinks the idea might stimulate extra public interest. “The idea of transmitting an ad into space is somewhat controversial but still of scientific interest,” he said.

“This could be a test for future very long range communications and it gives us an opportunity to tell the Universe we are here (in case someone out there is listening – like reversal of the SETI programme!).

“There could also be potential commercial interest in enterprises like this. Imagine one day that companies on Earth might wish to advertise to other planetary colonies within our solar system -for example if man ever moves to colonise Mars!”

Source: Space Daily

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Crew Sees Object Float Away From Shuttle (Update)

Update: After a quick but thorough analysis of photos and video of the object and the “protuberance” on the shuttle tail fin, NASA officials say neither should pose any problem for the shuttle landing on Saturday. The object floating away was determined to be one of three thermal clips that are inside the rudder speed brake on the tail fin. They are normally fixed to the back end of the rudder, and NASA astronaut Terry Virts said it is common for these clips to be missing following a mission. Image analysts compared previous images of the clips to telephoto images taken by the crew today to determine it was one of the clips. The “protuberance” on the tail fin is considered to be “nominal” or normal, and was just a separation in the tail’s thermal cover that was enhanced by the lighting from the sun at that time, and does not pose a problem.
This morning around 6:30 am EDT, the crew of STS-124 activated the shuttle’s auxiliary power units to test the shuttle’s re-entry systems for Saturday’s scheduled landing. Everything checked out fine, but shortly afterward the crew reported seeing an object floating away from the shuttle. The crew was able to capture video of the object as it tumbled away. “We observed an object depart aft of the starboard wing,” Commander Mark Kelly said. “Looked like, and obviously it’s hard to tell dimensions and size looking out the aft windows, but it looked like it might have been a foot to a foot and a half in width. And we’ve got a pretty reasonable image of it.”

Additionally, the crew also noticed a protuberance on the shuttle’s tail fin, thought to be a small piece of thermal insulation. NASA TV reported that NASA officials are not currently overly concerned about the protuberance, but additional images are being taken by the crew and downloaded for review by experts in Houston.

NASA TV commentator Rob Navias it is not uncommon for objects to become dislodged from the payload bay or for ice from the engine bell to become dislodged after the shuttle has unusual movements, such as when auxiliary power units are activated or tested. However, the object is large enough that further review of the incident is warranted. There is no concern about the object re-contacting the shuttle, but it is being tracked from the ground.

NASA is also studying video plus digital stills of the area on the shuttle’s tail fin, at the intersection of the lower and top sections of the rudder that meet to form the speed brake, used during landing. All the aero surfaces of the rudder and speed brake were tested this morning, with five movements in either direction, and no unusual data was detected. NASA reports that all the landing systems appear to be in good shape to support entry and landing.

The area in question on the tail fin is covered with a reusable thermal protection system and it does have a thermal barrier seal. That seems to be where the slight “bump” as the crew called it, or protuberance is.

This morning Kelly, Pilot Ken Ham and flight engineer Ron Garan are honing in on their piloting skills by conducting a computer simulation of landing the shuttle.

There will be media interviews with the shuttle crew at about 11:50 this morning, where details of the object and protuberance might be discussed. Look for updates here.

News Sources: NASA TV, Spaceflightnow.com

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ulysses Mission to End After 17 Years

For more than 17 years the Ulysses spacecraft studied the sun, pioneering solar science and defining our knowledge of the sun’s heliosphere. But on July 1, the mission will end. The spacecraft has been slowly “dying” due a dwindling power supply which can no longer keep the spacecraft warm enough. But Ulysses lasted almost four times its expected lifespan and has forever changed the way scientists view the sun and its effect on the surrounding space.

Ulysses ends its career after revealing that the magnetic field emanating from the sun’s poles is much weaker than previously observed. This could mean the upcoming solar maximum period will be less intense than in recent history.

“Over almost two decades of science observations by Ulysses, we have learned a lot more than we expected about our star and the way it interacts with the space surrounding it,” said Richard Marsden, Ulysses project scientist and mission manager for the European Space Agency (ESA). “Solar missions have appeared in recent years, but Ulysses is still unique today. Its special point of view over the sun’s poles never has been covered by any other mission.”

Ulysses is in a six-year orbit around the Sun. Its long orbital path carries it out to Jupiter’s orbit and back again. The further it ventures from the Sun, the colder the spacecraft becomes. Once it drops to 2ºC, the spacecraft’s hydrazine fuel will freeze.

This has not been a problem in the past because Ulysses carries heaters to maintain a workable on-board temperature. The spacecraft is powered by the decay of a radioactive isotope and over the 17-plus years, the power it has been supplying has been steadily dropping. Now, the spacecraft no longer has enough power to run all of its communications, heating and scientific equipment simultaneously.

The spacecraft and its suite of 10 instruments had to be highly sensitive, yet robust enough to withstand some of the most extreme conditions in the solar system, including intense radiation while passing by the giant planet Jupiter’s north pole.

Ulysses was the first mission to survey the environment in space above and below the poles of the sun in the four dimensions of space and time. It showed the sun’s magnetic field is carried into the solar system in a more complicated manner than previously believed. Particles expelled by the sun from low latitudes can climb to high latitudes and vice versa, sometimes unexpectedly finding their way out to the planets. Ulysses also studied dust flowing into our solar system from deep space, and showed it was 30 times more abundant than astronomers suspected. In addition, the spacecraft detected helium atoms from deep space and confirmed the universe does not contain enough matter to eventually halt its expansion.

Ulysses has traveled over 8.6 billion kilometers (5.4 billion miles) during its lifetime.

“Ulysses has been a challenging mission since launch,” said Ed Massey, Ulysses project manager at JPL. “Its success required the cooperation and intellect of engineers and scientists from around the world.”

Ulysses has been a joint mission between NASA and ESA.

“When the last bits of data finally arrive, it surely will be tough to say goodbye,” said Nigel Angold, ESA’s Ulysses mission operations manager. “But any sadness I might feel will pale in comparison to the pride of working on such a magnificent mission. Although operations will be ending, scientific discoveries from Ulysses data will continue for years to come.”

News Source: JPL Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The Latest in Space Fashion from NASA

NASA unveiled a new design of spacesuits for the Constellation program today. Astronauts will be donning the new suits on the first flights of the Orion spaceship, scheduled for 2015, on trips to the International Space Station, with additional EVA suits ready for the first missions to the moon, scheduled for 2020. The spacesuits feature rear entry, enhanced shoulder mobility and modular, interchangeable parts. The spacesuits will be designed and produced by Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston, Texas, which received a contract worth $183.8 million for 2008-2014.

NASA required two spacesuit system configurations for the Constellation program. The first type of spacesuit (Configuration One) will be used for launch and landing operations, as well as inside the spacecraft during an emergency like loss of pressurization of the Orion crew compartment.


Configuration Two will build upon Configuration One and will support lunar surface operations. While preparing to walk on the moon, the astronauts will be able to build their own personal Configuration Two spacesuits by replacing elements of Configuration One with elements specialized for surface operations.

Suits and support systems will be needed for as many as four astronauts on moon voyages and as many as six space station travelers. For short trips to the moon, the suit design will support a week’s worth of moon walks. The system also must be designed to support a significant number of moon walks during potential six-month lunar outpost expeditions. In addition, the spacesuit and support systems will provide contingency spacewalk capability and protection against the launch and landing environment, such as spacecraft cabin leaks.

Video of the new Constellation spacesuits.

Video of spacesuit tests.

Pdf. file for more info on the new spacesuits and the contract award.
Original News Source: NASA Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Alien Mineral From Comet Dust Found in Earth’s Atmosphere

Astoundingly, about 40,000 tons of dust particles fall to Earth each year which originates from space “leftovers,” mostly from disintegrating comets and asteroid collisions. Scientists are very interested in this dust because of its pristine nature –it is made of the original building blocks of the solar system. Some of that dust also resides in Earth’s atmosphere, and for years, NASA has routinely collected cosmic and interplanetary dust from Earth’s stratosphere with high-altitude research aircraft. NASA announced today that a new mineral has been found from this atmospheric research, in material that likely came from a comet.


Usually, any unique dust particles found in the atmosphere are difficult to trace as far as their origin, and whether it came from a comet or other space debris. But this new mineral, a manganese silicide which has been named “Brownleeite,” was discovered within an interplanetary dust particle, or IDP, that appears to have originated from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The comet was discovered in 1902 and reappears every 5 years. A new method of collecting IDPs was suggested by space scientist Scott Messenger, from Johnson Space Center. He predicted comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup was a source of dust grains that could be captured in Earth’s stratosphere at a specific time of the year.

In response to his prediction, NASA performed stratospheric dust collections, using an ER-2 high-altitude aircraft flown from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The aircraft collected IDPs from this particular comet stream in April 2003. The new mineral was found in one of the particles. To determine the mineral’s origin and examine other dust materials, a powerful new transmission electron microscope was installed in 2005 at Johnson.

“When I saw this mineral for the first time, I immediately knew this was something no one had seen before,” said Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, also from Johnson Space Center. “But it took several more months to obtain conclusive data because these mineral grains were only 1/10,000 of an inch in size.”

“Because of their exceedingly tiny size, we had to use state-of-the-art nano-analysis techniques in the microscope to measure the chemical composition and crystal structure of Keiko’s new mineral,” said Lindsay Keller, Johnson space scientist and a co-discoverer of the new mineral. “This is a highly unusual material that has not been predicted either to be a cometary component or to have formed by condensation in the solar nebula.”

The mineral was surrounded by multiple layers of other minerals that also have been reported only in extraterrestrial rocks. There have been 4,324 minerals identified by the International Mineralogical Association, or IMA. This find adds one more mineral to that list.

Brownleeite, is named after Donald E. Brownlee, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle. Brownlee founded the field of IDP research. The understanding of the early solar system established from IDP studies would not exist without his efforts. Brownlee also is the principal investigator of NASA’s Stardust mission.

Brownlee says he’s always been intrigued by minerals and now “it’s great to be one.”

Original News Source: PhysOrg, AP

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Where In The Universe Challenge #8

Its time for another “Where in the Universe” challenge. I’ll admit, this one is a little unusual. And I’ll also admit, the picture here is just part of of a larger image. But, showing the entire image might give it away. Can you guess what this is? This challenge requires high energy for our readers to undertake, I know, and I appreciate everyone who has written to say how much they enjoy “Where in the Universe.” We search across the sky, across the galaxy, and across the universe to find unique images, and hopefully this challenge provides a welcome diversion to your day. Have you made a guess, formulated a speculation, or deduced a deduction? Or do you just know what this is? No peeking below until your guesses are in….

In honor of the successful launch of GLAST today, this image is in memory of the last orbiting gamma ray telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. This is the all-sky map produced by the EGRET instrument, or the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope. Here’s the full image:

This image shows the emissions from interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar gas along the plane of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Some point sources in this map are pulsars along the plane. For example, the Crab and Geminga pulsars are found near the extreme right side of the EGRET all-sky map. One of the major discoveries made by EGRET is the class of objects known as blazars – these are quasars that emit the majority of their electromagnetic energy in the 30 MeV to 30 GeV portion of the spectrum.

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was the second of NASA’s Great Observatories. Compton was launched on April 5, 1991 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, and was safely deorbited and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on June 4, 2000.

How’d you do?

Image source: Compton Gamma Ray Observatory site