Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Job Posting: Apply Today to Become an Astronaut

Looking for a new and exciting job that will take you places? Now is the time to take the leap, as everyone is looking for astronauts. Here’s how to become an astronaut. The European Space Agency today opened applications for talented individuals wishing to become an astronaut. There hasn’t been a call for new applicants for the European Astronaut Corps since 1992, and so the ESA says this is a rare opportunity to be at the forefront of Europe’s human spaceflight programs including future missions to the ISS, the Moon and beyond. Four European astronauts will be selected from the applicants. But if you’re not from Europe, don’t lose hope. NASA also has openings, as does Canada and Japan.

“As a former astronaut I have been looking forward to the start of the selection procedure with a great deal of anticipation”, says Michel Tognini, Head of the European Astronaut Center. “With the recent additions of ESA’s Columbus laboratory to the ISS and the Automated Transfer Vehicle serving as an ISS logistics spacecraft, European human spaceflight has now entered a new era with respect to science and operations. Building on the past 30 years of experience of ESA astronauts, we now need high-calibre people to spearhead ESA’s vision of ISS exploitation and future human exploration of our solar system.”

For the ESA astronaut positions, candidates from all 17 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) are welcome to apply.

Those Europeans interested can take the first step by filling out a preliminary application online.

NASA is accepting applications until July 1, 2008. Click here for more information.

Canada’s application process will open at the end of May 2008. More info.

And JAXA, the Japanese space agency, announced on April 1, 2008 they are looking for astronauts, too.

The usual procedure for astronaut selection goes something like this: Those making the first cut will go through a series of additional selection procedures such as psychological and professional aptitude evaluations, and a medical evaluation. At the end of that process, potential candidates are invited for interviews, after which the final selections are made.

To everyone with high aspirations: Go for it!

Original News Source: ESA Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Satellite Images of China Earthquake

Some of the first satellite images have been released of areas in China hit by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12, 2008. This image shows Beichuan, one of the worst-hit areas in Sichuan Province of southwest China. The pictures reveal a large forest, a school and clusters of residential houses along a river that has been destroyed out by the quake. A road along the river was also severely damaged. The images were taken by Taiwan’s FORMOSAT-2 satellite. A “before” image is also available, taken in two years ago in May of 2006:

The pictures are expected to be used as references in China’s efforts in searching and rescuing people still missing in Sichuan.

Harry Chang, a professor of National Taiwan Normal University said the images have been given to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Chang said that in Beichuan, the earthquake also caused landslides, evident in the top photo, covering some 1,500 hectares (3,705 acres), which had blocked the river.

“Accordingly, several new lakes have been formed. What is dangerous is that should the new lakes burst, the residents living in the low-lying areas of the river would be in danger,” he said.

Chang also warned of mudslides caused by rain, saying “it would make the rescue work more difficult.” As of May 15, officials estimated the death toll could reach 50,000.

Monday’s earthquake began at 2:28 p.m. local time (06:28 UTC). The quake was felt throughout much of China, as well as parts of Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. This elevation map above shows the region where the earthquake struck. Green indicates the lowest elevations, and beige the highest. The data for this map were collected by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000. Overlain onto the map are earthquake magnitude indicators. The earthquake’s epicenter was approximately 90 kilometers (55 miles) west-northwest of the city of Chengdu. Smaller magnitude events occurred northeast of the epicenter, and generally followed the edge of the Longmen Shan mountain range.

Original News Sources: The China Post, NASA Earth Observatory

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Strange, Super-Sized Pulsar Stumps Scientists

Astronomers have discovered a fast-spinning, super-sized pulsar in a stretched-out orbit around an apparent Sun-like star. This combination (as well as that many hyphenated words in one sentence) has never seen before, and astronomers are puzzled about how this bizarre system developed. “Our ideas about how the fastest-spinning pulsars are produced do not predict either the kind of orbit or the type of companion star this one has,” said David Champion of the Australia Telescope National Facility. “We have to come up with some new scenarios to explain this weird pair.”

Pulsar J1903+0327, a rotating neutron star, is unusually massive for its type. It spins on its axis 465 times every second, while typical pulsars spin a few times a second. Located nearly 21,000 light-years from Earth, its elongated orbit takes it around its companion star once every 95 days. And the companion star is quite unusual as well: many pulsars pair up with a white dwarf star or another neutron star, but infrared images of the system show a Sun-like star along with the pulsar.

“This combination of properties is unprecedented. Not only does it require us to figure out how this system was produced, but the large mass may help us understand how matter behaves at extremely high densities,” said Scott Ransom of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The image above shows the size and shape of Earth’s orbit around the sun compared to the orbits of Pulsar J1903+0327 and its possible Sun-like companion star. The sizes of the Sun and the possible companion star have been exaggerated by a factor of about 10, while that of the Earth has been exaggerated by a factor of about 1000. The pulsar, with its magnetic field and beams of radiation, is too large by a factor of about 100,000.

This pulsar was first detected in 2006 with the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, with subsequent observations by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, the Westerbork radio telescope in the Netherlands, and the Gemini North optical telescope in Hawaii.

It’s possible that the pulsar may be part of a triple, not a double, star system. In this case, the pulsar’s 95-day orbit is around a neutron star or white dwarf that’s not been detected yet, not the Sun-like star seen in the infrared image. The Sun-like star would then be in a more-distant orbit around the pulsar and its close companion. But this, too would be highly unusual.

“We’ve found about 50 pulsars in binary systems. We may now have found our first pulsar in a stellar triple system,” Ransom said.

Further studies are underway to get a better understanding of what seems to be a highly unusual system.

“This is a fascinating object that has a lot to teach us about physics. It’s going to be exciting to peel away the mystery of how this thing came to be,” Champion said.

Original News Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ultimate Recycling on the ISS: Urine to Water

Right now, the crews on board the International Space Station consist of three people. But by late next year, the crew size will grow to six. That means more food, more water and ultimately more waste. But NASA has been working on a recycling system to transform urine and other liquid wastes into water that can be used in space for drinking, food preparation and washing. Agency officials say the water from the system will be cleaner than U.S. tap water. Not only does this help manage wastes on board the station, but its also a cost-saving measure. Water is heavy and launching it on board the shuttle or Progress re-supply ship is expensive.


The Water Recovery System recycles liquid wastes — which can consist of urine, sweat, or leftover water used for bathing or food preparation — by filtering it through a series of chemical processes and filters, making it safe to drink. Urine, for example, first passes through a distillation process to separate the liquid phase from the gaseous phase, after which it is mixed with other water waste and is treated with the help of a water processor.

After removing the remnant gaseous and solid phases, the liquid is filtered for additional purification and undergoes a high-temperature catalytic reaction, in order to destroy unwanted organic contaminants.

The system is scheduled to be brought to the ISS on the STS-126 mission, planned to launch this fall.

“Recycling will be an essential part of daily life for future astronauts, whether on board the space station or living on the Moon. Delivering this hardware is an important step in achieving the station’s full potential, allowing for additional crew members and more scientific research”, said NASA’s station program manager, Mike Suffredini.

Recycling will reduce the amount of consumables needed on board the space station by as much as 6,800 kilograms per year.

Original News Sources: Softpedia, USA Today

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

7 Minutes of Terror for Phoenix Spacecraft (Video)

Are you ready for the Phoenix spacecraft to land on Mars? At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Entry, Descent and Landing team for Phoenix has been hard at work getting ready, performing simulations to prepare for the real landing, scheduled for May 25, 2008 in a region above Mars’ Arctic Circle. Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society has an excellent post about Phoenix’s landing elipse, with some great information from JPL’s Rob Manning about all the variables the EDL team has to take into account for the landing, such as the spacecraft itself, its entry point, and the properties of the atmosphere. But if you’re a more visual-type person, JPL has also put together a couple of videos about the 7 minutes of terror the spacecraft (and the EDL team!) endures from when the vehicle hits the top of the atmosphere, through parachute deploy, to touching down on Mars surface. The amount of anxiety is an upgrade from the six minutes of terror the Mars Exploration Rovers experienced, and it really is a scary time!

This video includes commentary from the engineers at JPL, describing all the events that take place during EDL:

And this video is visual only, no audio of EDL:

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Unusual Crater in Mars’ Mamers Valles (Gallery)

The Mars Express Spacecraft captured several images of an unusual crater in the Mamers Valles area on Mars with its High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The crater is at the end of the long, winding valley, and contains a remarkable dark area. Scientists are not certain whether the dark colored material could have formed in-situ or if it may have been transported by the wind. Some of the structures shown here are thought to be ice-rich debris flows, and they show some resemblance to block glaciers seen on Earth.


Scientists call a region like Mamers Valles ‘fretted terrain’ because it shows numerous deep and wide labyrinth-like valleys and circular depressions which often show structures formed by flowing liquid on their even floors.

The patches of rock at the center of the depression are thought to be remnants of rock that were detached from the sides of the depression and transported to the center.

This false color image shows the differences in elevation. The image was made using elevation data obtained from an HRSC-derived high-resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM), which is used to create elevation maps on Mars. Elevation data from the DTM has been color-coded and combined with the HRSC image so that elevation data and the image itself are displayed in a single scene.

The depression is approximately 30 km wide and 1400 m deep. It lies at the south-eastern end of Mamers Valles. The data was obtained on August 5, 2006 with a ground resolution of approximately 14 m/pixel.

The images are centered at approximately 39° north and 17° east on the planet. The valley of Mamers Valles is approximately 1000 km long, running along the boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands in the region of Deuteronilus Mensae.

Original News Source: ESA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Mapquesting the Solar System

Pictures of all the objects in the Solar System. Image credit: NASA/JPL

Map generators like Mapquest and Yahoo! Maps have bailed me out quite a few times, helping me get where I needed to go. So imagine in the future, navigating on other bodies in our solar system and having the ability to find landmarks and destinations to point you in the right direction. This type of technology is now under development and could create three-dimensional “super roadmaps” of other planets and moons. In addition it could also provide robots, astronauts and engineers details about atmospheric composition, biohazards, wind speed and temperature, and could help land future spacecraft and more effectively navigate roving cameras across a Martian or lunar terrain.

The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory (RIDL), in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory are developing a new type of detector that uses LIDAR (LIght Detection and Ranging), a technique similar to radar, but which uses light instead of radio waves to measure distances.

This is a new generation of high resolution, low power consuming optical/ultraviolet imaging LIDAR detectors that will significantly extend NASA’s science capabilities for planetary applications by providing 3-D location information for planetary surfaces and a wider range of coverage than the single-pixel detectors currently combined with LIDAR.

The LIDAR imaging detector will be able to distinguish topographical details that differ in height by as little as one centimeter.

“The imaging LIDAR detector could become a workhorse for a wide range of NASA missions,” says Donald Figer, director of the RIDL. “You can have your pixel correspond to a few feet by a few feet spatial resolution instead of kilometer by kilometer,” Figer says. “And now you can take LIDAR pictures at fine resolutions and build up a map in hours instead of taking years at comparable resolution with a single image.”

The device will consist of a 2-D continuous array of light sensing elements connected to high-speed circuits. The $547,000 NASA-funded program also includes a potential $589,000 phase for fabrication and testing.

LIDAR works by measuring the time it takes for light to travel from a laser beam to an object and back into a light detector. The new detector can be used to measure distance, speed and rotation. It will provide high-spatial resolution topography as well as measurements of planetary atmospheric properties: pressure, temperature, chemical composition and ground-layer properties. The device can also be used to probe the environments of comets, asteroids and moons to determine composition, physical processes and chemical variability.

The imaging LIDAR detector will be tested at RIDL in environments that mimic aspects of operations in NASA space missions.

Orginal News Source: EurekAlert

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Elusive Molecule Found in Venus’ Atmosphere

Hydroxyl, an important but difficult-to-detect molecule, has been found in the upper atmosphere of Venus by the Venus Express spacecraft. This is the first time this molecule has been detected on another planet, and even though it is thought to be an “atmospheric cleanser,” knowing that it is part of Venus’ thick, greenhouse-like atmosphere will help scientists better understand the environment on our next-door planet. “Venus Express has already shown us that Venus is much more Earth-like than once thought. The detection of hydroxyl brings it a step closer,” said one of the Principal Investigators of the VIRTIS experiment on the Venus Express, Giuseppe Piccioni.

Hydroxyl is thought to be important for any planet’s atmosphere because it is highly reactive. On Earth it has a key role in cleaning pollutants from the atmosphere. On Mars, scientists believe it helps stabilize the carbon dioxide in Mars’ atmosphere, preventing it from converting to carbon monoxide. Also, hydroxyl is thought to play a vital role in sterilizing the Martian soil, making the top layers hostile to microbial life.

Hydroxyl is made up of a hydrogen and oxygen atom each. It has been seen around comets, but the method of production there is thought to be completely different from the way it forms in planetary atmospheres.

On Earth, the glow of hydroxyl in the atmosphere has been shown to be closely linked to the abundance of ozone. From this study, the same is thought to be true at Venus.

Venus Express has shown that the amount of hydroxyl at Venus is highly variable. It can change by 50% from one orbit to the next and this may be caused by differing amounts of ozone in the atmosphere.

“Ozone is an important molecule for any atmosphere, because it is a strong absorber of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun,” says Piccioni. The amount of the radiation absorbed is a key parameter driving the heating and dynamics of a planet’s atmosphere. On Earth, it heats the stratosphere (layer of the atmosphere) making it stable and protecting the biosphere from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Computer models will now be able to tell how this jump and drop in ozone levels over short intervals affects the Venus’ restless atmosphere.

Original News Source: ESA Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

“Fusionman” Soars the Skies (Gallery)

A Swiss adventurer who calls himself Fusionman tried out a new jet powered carbon wing, and successfully flew for 5 minutes on May 15 before landing with a parachute. Yves Rossy, a 48-year-old former air force pilot lit the jets on his wing and then jumped from a plane over Bex, Switzerland. He is the world’s first man to fly with jet powered wings.

Rossy performed his first official demonstration of his wings, which are 2.5 meters in diameter and comes with four tiny jets. Once in full flight, Rossy can reach speeds of up to 200km/hr, but he can only stay in the air for a maximum of ten minutes due to the small fuel capacity of his jets.

Rossy, who now works for the Swiss airline, first unveiled his design in 2004. Today he flew like a rocketeer above the Swiss Alps.

Rossy hasn’t always had an easy ride though — during one jump in 2005, he lost control of his wing and didn’t open his parachute until he was just 500 meters above ground.

Since first designing his wing, Rossy has performed more than 30 motorized flights, improving this first prototype with the help of his team. He’s looking to one day have take-off capability with his jet-powered wings. His motto for his test flights: “Always have Plan B ready.”

For more information about Fusionman, see his website. , or the English version

Original News Source: Brisbane Times, AFP