Universe Today

September 20, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Curiosity Rover Finds No Methane On Mars. What’s Happening?

Curiosity Rover snapped this self portrait mosaic with the MAHLI camera while sitting on flat sedimentary rocks at the “John Klein” outcrop where the robot conducted historic first sample drilling inside the Yellowknife Bay basin, on Feb. 8 (Sol 182) at lower left in front of rover. The photo mosaic was stitched from raw images snapped on Sol 177, or Feb 3, 2013, by the robotic arm camera - accounting for foreground camera distortion. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Marco Di Lorenzo/KenKremer (kenkremer.com).

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover can’t find any sign of methane on the red planet, but the agency emphasized that methane would be only one indicator of possible life. There could be others.

“It reduces the probability of current methane-producing Martian microbes, but this addresses only one type of microbial metabolism,” stated Michael Meyer, NASA’s lead scientist for Mars exploration. “As we know, there are many types of terrestrial microbes that don’t generate methane.”

Curiosity (which can look for habitable conditions, but not life itself) sniffed the atmosphere six times for methane between October 2012 and June 2013. It didn’t see any sign of the molecule, which has been detected in other parts of Mars. The instrument being used, the tunable laser spectrometer, would be able to detect minute concentrations. Scientists today estimate methane on Mars must be 1.3 parts per billion at the most, which is only one-sixth as much as earlier estimates.

The results are intriguing given that other teams have spotted methane on Mars as far back as 1999. The Mars Global Surveyor, which was working for more than 10 years, charted the evolution of Martian methane over three years, for example. NASA Earth-bound observations using spectroscopic measurements reported even greater amounts in the Martian atmosphere in 2009, based on observations in 2003 and 2006.

This image shows concentrations of Methane discovered on Mars in 2009, from an Earth-based observatory. Credit: NASA — This image shows concentrations of Methane reported on Mars in 2009, from an Earth-based observatory. Credit: NASA

On Thursday, NASA pointed out that reports of the highest concentrations of Mars methane came from Earth-based observatories, which seems to imply that they think peering through Earth’s atmosphere may have distorted the measurements. Some Earthly measurements indicated local regions with methane as high as 45 parts per billion.

“There’s no known way for methane to disappear quickly from the atmosphere,” stated Sushil Atreya, a professor of atmospheric and space science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

“Methane is persistent. It would last for hundreds of years in the Martian atmosphere. Without a way to take it out of the atmosphere quicker, our measurements indicate there cannot be much methane being put into the atmosphere by any mechanism, whether biology, geology, or by ultraviolet degradation of organics delivered by the fall of meteorites or interplanetary dust particles.”

Researchers estimate only 10 to 20 tons per year of methane enter the atmosphere of Mars, which is 50 million times less than what occurs on Earth. You can read more details in the paper in Science Express.

What do you think is happening? Leave your ideas in the comments.

Source: NASA

September 20, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

‘I Didn’t Think He Would Drown’: Spacewalking Crewmember on Spacesuit Leak

Astronaut Chris Cassidy works with Luca Parmitano's spacesuit, which had a water leak on July 16, 2013. Credit: NASA

Safely back on Earth on Sept. 10, astronaut Chris Cassidy happily chatters about his daily trips to the gym — “I feel real solid with my walking”, he says — and cracks one-liners during one of a series of media interviews on Thursday.

“It was such a treat being up there with [Chris] Hadfield, and I think I need to get credit for filming some of those videos,” joked Cassidy in a phone interview from Houston with Universe Today. His favorite video with Canada’s Expedition 35 commander? A remake of David Bowie’s Space Oddity that got props from Bowie himself.

Cassidy’s half-year voyage in space was full of these light moments, such as his decision to shave his head in homage to his bald crewmate, Luca Parmitano, who arrived on the International Space Station as a part of Expedition 36 on May 29. Weeks later, however, the men’s mood turned serious during a July 16 spacewalk; Parmitano reported water pooling at the back of his head.

“I was watching out when we were face to face outside,” Cassidy said. “Once it got onto his eyebrow hair area, it whipped across the top of his forehead and then sort of slid around his eyeballs. It migrates from hair to hair, and the little wispy hairs around your eyes, kind of, and then it travelled towards his eyelids and eyelashes. That was the scary part.”

Cassidy is a former Navy SEAL who passed, first try, the grueling “hell week” all recruits go through. In 5.5 days, SEAL trainees get just four hours of rack time while having to move for up to 200 miles. A veteran of shuttle mission STS-127, Cassidy also accumulated more than 18 hours of spacewalking experience across three excursions. All of his knowledge was brought to bear as he watched the water travelling across Parmitano’s head.

Luca Parmitano during a a spacewalk on July 16, 2013. An hour into the spacewalk, he reported water in his helmet and NASA cut the spacewalk short. Credit: NASA

“From my experience in the military, I know bad things don’t get better fast, but they get worse fast. I wanted to get as quickly to the airlock as we could,” Cassidy said. NASA prudently ended the spacewalk and told Parmitano to head back to the hatch. Cassidy quickly did a cleanup at the work site and followed Parmitano.

“When we left each other at the work site and we had to go our separate ways back, at first I wasn’t too concerned,” Cassidy said. “And then when we left each other, the sun set. It was dark. His comm was going in and out and I could tell from his voice he was getting less and less comfortable … He didn’t have a whole lot of EVA experience, and it was nighttime, which is significant. It was pitch dark. You just have to know your way back, and he couldn’t see that well.”

Back in the hatch, Cassidy and Parmitano communicated through hand squeezes as the water was soaking Parmitano’s communications system. Cassidy carefully watched Parmitano’s mouth to see if the water was getting near there.

“I didn’t think he would drown, to be honest … but if it got close to his mouth I was going to immediately open the valve that equalizes pressure [inside the hatch.]” Cassidy added that usually, NASA goes slow during repressurization for ear safety and some technical reasons, but in this case he was prepared to flood the compartment if necessary. But it wasn’t. The rest of the crew then opened the hatch and got Parmitano out of his spacesuit as quickly as they could.

ISS Astronauts had to scramble to get Luca Parmitano out of his spacesuit after water leaked inside the suit, covering his face. Via NASA TV.

“Just from a human interest point of view, it was a lot of water,” Cassidy said. “When you try to describe an amount of water it’s difficult to put it in terms that people get it. But it was definitely more than a softball or two softballs of water inside the helmet.”

You can read Parmitano’s blogged account of the spacewalk here. The astronaut is currently unavailable for interviews while he is in orbit, the European Space Agency told Universe Today. NASA is still investigating the cause — the agency, in fact, also has a parallel investigation to look at spacewalk safety procedures in general. Cassidy attempted to change a filter and do other repairs in orbit, but the leak still happened, as these videos show. More detailed analysis will happen when the spacesuit goes back to Earth on a future SpaceX Dragon cargo flight, Cassidy said.

Cassidy also performed an emergency spacewalk in May when a coolant leak was discovered on the station itself as Hadfield’s Expedition 35 crew was set to return home. In just days — a typical spacewalk takes at least months to plan — NASA swiftly implemented a successful fix. Cassidy said his work was the easiest bit of all. “All I had to do was go out there and change the pump,” he said.

Despite the mishaps, however, science productivity on the station has reached a high when compared to maintenance activities. Expedition 35 reportedly had the most productive science mission to date, and Cassidy said Expedition 36 will likely show similar results. “We had a real nice successful six month stretch there where things were just working, and that allowed us to do a lot of science,” Cassidy said. One experiment involved playing with rovers.

The K10 Black planetary rover during a Surface Telerobotics Operational Readiness Test at NASA's Ames Research Center. Credit: NASA/Dominic Hart — The K10 Black planetary rover during a Surface Telerobotics Operational Readiness Test at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
Credit: NASA/Dominic Hart

Cassidy, Parmitano and Karen Nyberg each took turns operating the K10 rover prototype, a NASA Ames Research Center project. The goal is to simulate how astronauts could control a rover on an asteroid, the moon or Mars rather than heading down to the surface themselves.

“That was really cool to know we were on the space station, flying around the planet, with this actual real thing in California moving around,” Cassidy said. “It was more testing of what user interfaces are most intuitive and most useful for this kind of application … and in my opinion they pretty much nailed it, it was so intuitive.”

Now back on Earth, Cassidy said he generally feels great from a health perspective. His first set of exercises came about an hour after landing. He was carried into a medical tent and asked to do a quick series: sit in a chair and then stand up for 10 seconds. Lie on the ground for about a minute, then try standing for three minutes.

“My legs got wobbly for fatigue. They weren’t used to holding that weight,” Cassidy said, but observed that he readjusted to Earth’s gravity quickly during his first day back, which was mainly spent flying from Kazakhstan back to Houston.

The new in-the-field experiments will be the first of a dataset on astronaut health, meant to provide more information ahead of the first one-year trip to the International Space Station.

September 19, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

Feast Your Mind on This: Strange “Brain Terrain” on Mars

HiRISE image of lobate landforms called "brain terrain" that wrap around a small hill on Mars

It doesn’t take much thought to understand why this landscape on Mars is called “brain terrain” — the swirling lobes of ice, part of a large glacial deposit in Mars’ northern hemisphere, uncannily resemble the texture of a brain — or at the very least a brain coral!

What causes this strange landscape? Find out below:

It’s suggested that brain terrain is the result of the thermal stress and contraction, followed by sublimation, of these large ice deposits, laid down during a mid-latitude glaciation period ten to 100 million years ago. (Read more in this 2009 paper by Brown University’s Joseph Levy et al.)

This image was obtained by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter on August 23, 2013. See the original RGB color scan here.

Source: University of Arizona’s HiRISE site

September 19, 2013March 16, 2017 by Fraser Cain

What is a Dyson Sphere?

As long as humans survive, we will likely be increasing our energy consumption. We want better transportation, faster computers, and stuff we just can’t imagine yet.

That’s going to take energy, and lots of it.

If you plot our overall use since the industrial era, you can see it’s a line that just goes up and up. There will come a time in the future when we’ve exhausted all the fossil and nuclear fuels. And once we’ve harvested as much wind, solar and geothermal energy as our planet can produce, we’re going to need to move out into space and collect energy directly from the Sun.

We will construct larger and larger solar arrays, beaming the energy back to Earth. Inevitably, we’ll enclose the entire Sun in a cloud of solar satellites, allowing us to make use of 100% of the radiation it’s emitting.

This is a Dyson sphere.

The concept was developed as part of a research paper in 1960 by the physicist Freeman Dyson. In a thought experiment, he assumed that the power needs for civilizations never stops increasing.

If our descendents could actually figure out how to enclose our star in a rigid shell, we’d have 550 million times more surface area than Earth has right now, and generate 384 yottawatts of energy.

Sounds great, lots of living space and free energy. But there are a host of problems.

There wouldn’t be any gravity to keep anything stuck to the surface of sphere – it would all drop down towards the star and be destroyed. The sphere would be free floating in space, and unless you could keep it balanced in relation to the star, it would eventually collide with it.

Finally, there might not be enough material to build a shell. This advanced civilization would need to make use of all our planets, asteroids and comets. In fact, even if you dismantled everything in the Solar System, you’d only have enough to build a shell about 15 cm-thick.

The physical strength of this material would have to be immense; otherwise the sphere itself would just implode and collapse into the star.

Dyson himself freely admitted that the idea of a rigid shell surrounding a star is unfeasible. Instead, he and others have proposed that civilizations would probably build a dense swarm of objects on independent orbits around their star – a Dyson cloud, or maybe a Dyson ring.

Each solar satellite would be stable on its own, and capable of beaming its energy back to some planet.

Artist's impression of a solar sail. Image credit: NASA — Artist’s impression of a solar sail. Image credit: NASA

You could also build a cloud of solar sails. These objects would be held in perfect balance between the gravity pulling them inward, and the light pressure from the Sun pushing them outward. They wouldn’t need to orbit at all to maintain a static distance from the Sun.

A full Dyson Sphere is probably impossible, but if we assume that alien civilization’s energy needs will continue to grow like ours, it makes sense to search the galaxy for megastructures. Just in case.

Even though the shell would absorb the light and high energy radiation from the star, it would still emit infrared radiation which would be detectable in our telescopes. Even a partial Dyson cloud would give off a telltale light signature as it obscured the light from a star.

This gives us yet another way we could search for extraterrestrial civilizations. And if we did find a full Dyson sphere, out there in the Milky Way. Well, let’s just hope they’re nice aliens.

Update: And as it turns out, we may be closer to finding one that previously thought. Using data obtained by the Kepler probe, a group of planet hunters associated with the Planet Hunters project recently observed light fluctuations coming from KIC 8462852. This F-type main-sequence star, located in the constellation Cygnus, is approximately 1,480 light years (454 parsecs) from Earth.

In their paper, submitted to arXiv, the team offered possible explanations for the light fluctuations, most of which are admittedly problematic. Using high-resolution spectroscopy, spectral energy distribution fitting, and Fourier analyses of the Kepler light curve, they conclude that the most likely scenario is the passage of a family of exocomet fragments.

Another possible explanation that has been ventured is that the light fluctuations could be caused by the presence of mega-structures, which would indicate the presence of sentient extra-terrestrial life. The SETI institute has since conducted radio reconnaissance of KIC 8462852, and their initial findings provided no indications of technology associated with radio signals.

Still, the mere possibility that this could be the first-ever indication of a possible Dyson Sphere in our galaxy is exciting, and has triggered a great deal of speculation and excitement. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

September 19, 2013December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

More ISON Craziness: Tales of Popes, a Prophet and a Comet

Comet Halley as seen from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory in 1986. (Credit: NASA).

There’s an astronomical tall tale from the Middle Ages that seems to get recycled as factual every time a “great” comet rolls around. This week, we thought we’d look at a story that just won’t die, as well as a new twist in comet conspiracy that’s rolling around ye’ ole ‘Net.

We’ve debunked the current craziness surrounding ISON recently, but apparently our work isn’t finished! Comets seem to bring ‘em out of the woodwork. Today, we’ll discuss how that old prophet of doom Nostradamus may have “predicted” Comet ISON being part of the ‘end times,’ but first, let’s look at an astronomical tale of the past. Did a pope really excommunicate the most famous of all comets?

The mid-15^th century was a trying time for Medieval Europe. The Black Death had decimated the population of Europe a century prior, and the armies of the Ottoman Turks were advancing from the east. A bright comet could only bear ill will in the minds of the superstitious.

Pope Callixtus III: the ecommunicator of comets? (Credit: Museo de la Catherdral de Valencia). — Pope Callixtus III: the excommunicator of comets? (Credit: Museo de la Cathedral de Valencia).

It was into this setting that Pope Callixtus III came into power in 1455. Callixtus was the first of two popes fielded by the Spanish Borgia family, which would later include his nephew Rodrigo who became Pope Alexander the VI, as depicted in the Showtime series The Borgias.

A fine the apparition of Halley’s Comet occurred in June and July 1456. Belgrade was to come under siege by the Ottoman Turks from July 4^th to 22^nd of that year, and the Fall of Constantinople on May 29^th, 1453 to Mehmed II was still fresh on everyone’s mind.

Astronomical signs and omens were a hot topic as well. The partial lunar eclipse of May 22nd, 1453 was seen by many to have fulfilled prophecy that an eclipse would mark the fall of Constantinople. Of course, there are from 4 to 7 eclipses that can be seen on any given year, and lunar eclipses are visible from the entire moonward facing side of the Earth. It’s not too tough to find one to fit any given bill of gloom and doom.

Keep in mind, Halley’s Comet wasn’t even identified in the 15th century as the same comet that was returning once every 75.3 years. That fact wouldn’t be uncovered until Edmund Halley successfully predicted the return of the comet that now bears his name on Christmas Day 1758.

Halley’s Comet would’ve been a spectacular sight in the early summer of 1456, unfurling a tail that was said to have been 60 degrees long and spanning the constellations of Cancer and Leo. The brilliant comet would’ve been a conspicuous object for up to three hours after sunset, and it’s certain that observers around the Mediterranean, including a Rome-based pope would’ve seen it.

A depiction of the passage of Comet Halley through the constellations of Cancer & Leo in 1456. (Wikimedia Commons image in the Public Domain).

But did the pope actually excommunicate the comet to assuage the fears of the European populace of an invasion from the east?

While a quixotic story, the idea that a pope could’ve banned a heavenly body from salvation is apocryphal as best. The Papal Bull issued by Callixtus III on June 29^th, 1456 called for prayers and penance and the ringing of church bells in light of the cruelty visited upon Eastern Europe by invaders from the east, but makes no mention of the comet. In fact, no primary source for the tale exists.

The story seems to have gotten its start with a historian named Platina, who wrote a biography of Callixtus III in 1471. Here we find the appearance of:

“A hairy reddish comet appearing for several days… Callixtus, in order to avert the wrath of God, ordered processions to be held…”

No out right excommunication per se, but the Pope and the comet were now forever linked in the eye of history.

The pitched Battle of Nandorfehervar during the 1456 Siege of Belgrade. (Wikimedia Commons scan in the Public Domain). — The pitched Battle of Nandorfehervar during the 1456 Siege of Belgrade. (Painting by Rubens in the Public Domain).

French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace later gave the excommunication tale a boost in the late 18^th century, and further embellishment followed from astronomer François Arago writing in 1832.

Keep in mind, these are historical works written down some years after the fact, often translated from Latin to French to English—ideas such as LaPlace’s “conjurer la comete” can easily come across as to “exorcise” or “excommunicate” a comet. Also, political satire of popes, both alive and dead, was common after the start of the Protestant Reformation. Halley’s Comet also made a fine apparition in 1835, and Arago may have been looking for something to captivate the public with in anticipation.

But although this story was debunked over a century ago, it still makes its rounds. None other than Carl Sagan repeated the excommunication story in his book Comet (sorry Carl!) although he also notes that the tale is apocryphal. Although the story of the excommunication of Halley’s Comet has been debunked time and again, a search of the Internet reveals about an even split between the credulous and the skeptical.

But there is also a current mythos being born around Comet ISON, Pope Francis and Nostradamus on ye ole web. For the most part, it has to do with — you guessed it — the end of the world. As per the usual, great comets are harbingers of catastrophic events. Combine the words of Nostradamus with the fact that 2013 has been hyped as “The Year of the Comet,” along with Pope Benedict’s unusual resignation, and that equals The End of Time.

If you don’t believe me, search of Comet/ISON/Pope and see what turns up. The gist of the prophecy cites a quatrain stating that:

“the great star for seven days shall burn

So nakedly clear like two suns appearing

The large dog all night howling

While the great Pontiff shall change his territory.”

Of course, the quatrains of Nostradamus, like all prophecies, are suitably vague enough that they could be interpreted almost in whatever fashion suits the reader. And again, we’re looking at the old 16^th century French translated into modern English.

And like eclipses, there are a handful of comets every year. Most reach binocular visibility, and a few may go on to become visible to the naked eye. We’ve already had two comets that crossed this threshold this year, comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS and C/2012 F6 Lemmon.

Comet ISON as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope- no popes were harmed in the taking of this image! (credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA). — Comet ISON as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope… no popes were harmed or forced to flee in the taking of this image. (credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA).

And Comet ISON’s “greatness” is still very much in question. Its currently only at 12^th magnitude and probably won’t be a naked eye object until at least early November. And it certainly won’t have the appearance of a second Sun!

I’ll leave it to the armchair predictors of comet doom to decipher what “the large dog howling” even means. The chief logical fallacy evoked by the adherents of Nostradamus is what is known as retrofitting— it’s easy to take a cryptically predicted disaster and find an earthquake, eclipse, and yes, even a comet that falls roughly near the given date.

Of course, if ISON kicks into high gear, then we could really be in for a grand show, along with an accompanying upswing in comet hysteria. And thus, the tireless vigilance against comet-mania continues. Hey, we’re all after “link juice” and the almighty SEO, right? Of course, the real harm comes when something like the 1997 Heaven’s Gate mass suicide, inspired by rumors of an alien spacecraft following comet Hale-Bopp occurs.

Halleys March 9 2062 — Halley’s Comet as seen on the morning of March 9th, 2062. (Created by the author using Starry Night Education software).

In short, enjoy the show as ISON approaches, read the online tales of popes and comets past… but as rapper and surreptitious promoter of skepticism Chuck D of Public Enemy implores us, don’t believe the hype.

Maybe we’ll finally be an enlightened and rational species when Halley’s Comet pays us a visit again starting in the summer of 2061 through the spring of 2062!

-For an exhaustive look at the myth of the excommunication of Halley’s Comet, Read An Historical Examination of the Connection of Callixtus III with Halley’s Comet published in 1910.

-To see a (mostly) woo free version of the current Comet ISON versus Pope Francis mythos, (with quatrains) check out this article from news.com.au. Hey, we sift through woo so you don’t have to!

September 19, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

New U.S. Climate Map Shows Temperature Changes In HD. How To Prepare?

Average temperatures in the United States. Top, what they were in the 1950s. Bottom, the predictions for the 2090s. Credit: NASA

If you’re interested to see how warm your neighborhood will look like at 2090, here’s a chance. There’s new data available that has monthly climate projections for the continental United States at the size of a neighborhood, or about a half-mile (800 meters).

Readers who have moderate to advanced knowledge of how to manipulate datasets can see instructions for how to get the raw information here. As for everyone else, NASA briefly summarized how the information could be used for community planners to deal with the effects of climate change.

The map charts how rain and temperatures in the United States will be affected based on greenhouse gases. Because, of course, this is a projection, the researchers ran four different scenarios for the period between 1950 and 2099. Climate projections came from global climate models from the upcoming Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report and historical surface observations.

The projections “may make it easier for resource managers to quantify anticipated climate change impacts on a wide range of conditions and resources important to local communities,” NASA stated.

The agency then provided a long list of research areas that would benefit, including “water supplies and winter snow packs, public health and the spread of insect-borne diseases, flood risk and potential impacts to critical urban infrastructure, wildfire frequency and severity, agricultural production, and wildlife and biodiversity.”

On this map of Nevada - northern California are superimposed graphics representing the average temperatures in the 1950s (top) and projected temperatures for the 2090s. Credit: NASA — On this map of Nevada – northern California are superimposed graphics representing the average temperatures in the 1950s (top) and projected temperatures for the 2090s. Credit: NASA

As you can see from the climate map above, Nevada and California are highly affected by the projections, and officials in the region are paying attention, according to NASA.

“We are using the 800-meter downscaled datasets for conservation planning and resource management in the San Francisco Bay Area,” stated Stuart Weiss, a researcher at the Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Collaborative in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“They provide an indispensable, if necessarily hazy, crystal ball into hydrological and ecological responses through the 21st century. It will be a very useful tool for climate change planning and adaptation that will be exported to the remainder of California and eventually the western United States.”

The data was crunched using supercomputers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, allowing the team to “produce the downscaled, high resolution climate dataset for the U.S. within months of release of the final global climate scenarios prepared for the next IPCC assessment report,” NASA added.

Source: NASA

September 19, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Q & A with Homer Hickam: Rocket Boys and Science Experiments Gone Wrong

Homer Hickam. Courtesy HomerHickam.com.

Homer Hickam — you probably know the name from “October Sky,” the movie based on his memoir, “Rocket Boys.” But Hickam is also the author of several other books, crossing many genres and subjects. In addition to being an author and hobby rocket builder, he’s also been a miner, a soldier in Vietnam, a NASA engineer, and a SCUBA instructor, with interesting hobbies like hunting for dinosaur bones. We recently talked to Hickam about his latest book, Crescent (read our review here), but had the chance to talk about his life and career as an author.

Universe Today: Homer, with all the different books you’ve written, you are truly a man for all seasons!

Homer Hickam: I like to switch genres. Publishers hate that! What they’d really like me to do is to write Rocket Boys over and over again in some guise. I’d probably sell more books that way, but it’s not as much fun! And I like to write about different things and try to stretch myself.

UT: Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

HH: My early teachers were pretty sure I was going to be a writer because I had no inclination towards math and science at all. And they knew I had some writing capabilities. If it hadn’t been for Sputnik, I probably would have ended up as an English professor! I had to work really hard to become an engineer. The way I looked at NASA was that it was an agency that was doing something adventurous and moving us outward into space, and what could be more fun than working with an outfit like that! But I didn’t know that Vietnam would come along and distract me and my generation for quite some time.

I was always open to doing many different things. When I came back from Vietnam I made up my mind that I wanted to live a life of adventure. But I also wanted to have some security in my life, and I have to say I’ve done both of those. I had day jobs that I really loved, but I also allowed myself to go out and do some dangerous stuff, and also do research and turned that into a writing career.

UT: Did you ever in your wildest dreams imagine that one of your books would be made into a musical?

HH: No, or a movie either! When you are a new writer, you think, all I have to do is get published and everyone is going to love what you’re saying and a movie will be next. But the truth is, it once you become a published author, you realize the odds of getting your book made into a movie are pretty slim – there are many more books coming out than movies being made, or musicals for that matter.

Rocket Boys was a phenomenon that I didn’t really realize how popular it was going to be and neither did the publisher. It kind of transcends the author. The story kind of hit at the right time – in 1998 the world was desperate for a story like that. I’ve tried to kill it several times but I can’t – people come up to me and say “I love your books!” and I ask which one – and usually they say, “Oh, you’ve written more than Rocket Boys?”

So, especially when you’ve written about your life, you tend to get pigeonholed into that. But I am grateful for Rocket Boys and its success and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Rare footage of Homer Hickam and zincoshine-propelled Auk rocket:

UT: What parts of Rocket Boys/October Sky being so successful has meant the most to you, personally?

HH: Shuttle astronauts used to watch it before their flight, which I thought were pretty cool, especially since I was the training manager for science flights, especially for Spacelab flights and I set up the curriculum for International Space station shuttle flights.

However, when astronauts would write and tell me how much the movie meant to them, as ungracious as it sounds, I ask them if they read the book! The book is different form the movie.

UT: One question I’ve always wondered … were you disappointed that the name of the movie wasn’t Rocket Boys, or did you like that the book and the movie were different names?

HH: Actually, I hated that, and I still hate it. The real story of how the movie was made was that the movie was made before the book came out, so it was actually a race to see which came out first. The movie people had no respect for the title because the book hadn’t proven itself. Even though they made the movie as Rocket Boys –(the script said Rocket Boys, the director’s chair said Rocket Boys — but at about the same time another movie came out called Rocket Man, which was a stupid comedy, and there was also the movie The Rocketeer, and the marketing people were worried about that.

The film people used anagram software, taking the words ‘Rocket Boys’ and turning it into ‘October Sky.’ They asked me what I thought of the new title, and I said, “I hate that title, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s dumb,” and they replied, “Great, we knew you’d like it.”

But I’m very proud of how October Sky worked out. I hear from engineers, technicians, doctors, and scientists from many different occupations who tell me that they are what they are because of October Sky.

I think every substitute teacher shows October Sky, and it has inspired many people to go into some kind of technical field. That’s not why I wrote the book, or agreed to do the movie, but that’s how it worked out. People see it and say, “If someone from Coalwood, West Virginia can do something like that, then so can I.” And I hear that from people from around the world.

Home video from Homer’s youth:

UT: Who would have thought that the book, the movie and now the musical would have inspired so many people!

HH: But for me, as the author, the primary story line was the father-son story, a boy who so craves the love of his father that you think he’d do anything. But when the father does put his hand out and says to follow in his profession, the boy has to say no. And I think that came out well in the movie. And I’m happy to say I’ve heard from a lot of adults who have either read the book or seen the movie and that’s what they got out of it.

UT: I have to ask you about your recent involvement with the science experiment gone wrong for the girl from Florida, Kiera Wilmot, whose exploding science experiment got her in trouble (read more about it here). What you did for her was just wonderful, by the way! How much of yourself did you see in what happened with Kiera?

HH: It was almost like it was taken out of my book, really. You have kids trying to do something scientific and messing up, as kids will do, and getting in trouble. Back in the 1950’s when the Rocket Boys and I got in trouble in a similar way, we knew it would only go so far, that we’d get in trouble with our parents. But now with the zero tolerance rules this young lady ended up locked up in a room for hours and threatened with two felonies and might be sent to prison.

I had to do something. I’m not a lawyer so I couldn’t get her off the hook, but I wanted something positive to come out of this. I live here in Huntsville, Alabama where Space Camp is and that was just a natural, that Kiera could come here and come to Space Camp and meet other kids that are interested in the sciences.

So I contacted her mother and asked if that was OK, and she said yes. Then I found out Kiera has a twin sister Kayla, and so for her we raised funds through a crowdsourcing site. We were looking to raise about $1,200 and we got almost $5,000.

And so, we were able to have their mother come as well, with some funds left over for their schooling back home and to help them prepare and apply to colleges. Additionally, with all the publicity, Kiera and Kayla are already getting some scholarships, and Kiera has been offered an internship with SpaceX.

As someone said, if it weren’t for experiments blowing up…there would be no Nobel Prize.

UT: Homer, thanks so much for spending some time with us today!

HH: Great to talk to you!

For more information about Homer Hickam, see his website.

September 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Ken Kremer

Antares Picture Perfect Blastoff Launches Commercial Space Race

Antares rocket lifts off at 10:58 a.m. EDT Sept 18 with commercial Cygnus cargo resupply ship bound for the International Space Station (ISS) from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)
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WALLOPS ISLAND, VA – The new ‘Commercial Space Era’ received a resounding boost today when a privately developed Antares rocket lofting the first ever Cygnus commercial cargo resupply craft thundered to space from America’s newest launch pad at NASA Wallops along the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

The history making launch marks the first time that a spacecraft launched from Virginia is blazing a path to the International Space Station (ISS) – thereby scoring a milestone achievement to keep the orbiting lab complex stocked up with supplies and science experiments from American soil. This is the maiden flight of Cygnus.

Move over SpaceX ! Your space competition from Orbital Sciences has arrived!

It was a ‘picture perfect’ blastoff for the two stage Antares booster at 10:58 a.m. EDT this morning (Sept. 18) from the commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The blastoff of Antares was stunningly beautiful with intensely bright flames spewing from the rockets rear. And the incredibly loud roar of the first stage engines reverberated widely and wowed hoards of spectators gathered throughout the local viewing area in Chincoteague, Va. – and woke late sleepers some folks told me later today!

The rumbling thunder of Antares sounded as loud as a space shuttle.

Launch of the Antares rocket at 10:58 a.m. EDT Sept 18 with Cygnus cargo resupply ship bound for the ISS NASA Wallops, VA. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com) — Launch of the Antares rocket at 10:58 a.m. EDT Sept 18 with Cygnus cargo resupply ship bound for the ISS NASA Wallops, VA. LADEE Moon shot launch pad at right. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

Antares and Cygnus were built by Orbital Sciences Corporation and its team of industrial partners using seed money from NASA’s COTS commercial transportation initiative aimed at fostering the development of America’s commercial space industry to deliver critical and essential supplies to the ISS.

America lost 100% of its capability to send humans and cargo to the ISS when NASA’s space shuttles were retired in 2011. Orbital Sciences and their competitor SpaceX, were awarded NASA contracts to restore the unmanned cargo resupply capability.

Thales Alenia Space in Italy designed and constructed the 17 foot ( 5 meter) long Cygnus module under contract with Orbital.

“Thales Alenia has actually built 50% of the pressurized modules currently comprising the ISS,” said Luigi Quaglino, Thales Alenia Senior Vice President.

“This is a historic accomplishment for commercial spaceflight with the picture perfect launch of Antares and Cygnus headed for the space station,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA’s program manager for commercial crew and cargo, at a post launch briefing for reporters at NASA Wallops.

In fact this was the heaviest cargo load ever delivered to the ISS by a commercial vehicle, said Frank Culbertson, former astronaut and now Orbital’s executive Vice President responsible for the Antares and Cygnus programs.

A revolutionary new day has dawned in space by opening up new pathways enabling space exploration And it’s not a moment too soon given the continuing significant reductions to NASA’s budget.

COTS was aimed at revolutionizing how we reach space by privatizing routine space operations that thereby allows NASA to focus more on exploration beyond low earth orbit, getting people back to the Moon and beyond to deep space destinations including Asteroids and Mars.

Today’s Antares launch is the culmination of the COTS contract that NASA awarded to Orbital back in 2008.

Antares launch on Sept. 18 from NASA Wallops. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

“Today marks a milestone in our new era of exploration as we expand the capability for making cargo launches to the International Space Station from American shores,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement.

“Orbital’s extraordinary efforts are helping us fulfill the promise of American innovation to maintain our nation’s leadership in space.”

The Cygnus spacecraft is healthy and successfully unfurled its life giving solar panels starting 1.5 minutes after separation from the second stage that took place about 10 minutes after launch, said Culbertson.

Antares placed Cygnus into its intended orbit of about 180 x 160 miles above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator, Orbital said.

Cygnus is traveling at 17,500 MPH and is on its way to rendezvous with the space station Sunday, Sept. 22. The cargo vessel will deliver about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing, water, science experiments, spare parts and gear to the Expedition 37 crew.

The flight, known as Orb-D1 is a demonstration mission to prove that Cygnus can conduct a complex series of maneuvers in space safely bringing it to the vicinity of the ISS.

Mission controllers at Orbital will guide Cygnus to the vicinity of the ISS on Sept. 22.

Antares and Cygnus soar to space on a plume of smoke and ash from NASA Wallops on Sept. 18, 2013 at 10:50 a.m. EDT. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

But its only after carrying out a series of 10 complicated maneuvering tests proving that the vehicle can safely and reliably approach the station up close that NASA and the ISS partners will grant permission to dock.

ISS astronauts Karen Nyberg (NASA) and Luca Parmitano (ESA) will then grapple Cygnus with the station’s Canadian built robotic arm and berth the capsule at an earth facing docking port on Sunday, Sept 22. will then grapple Cygnus with the station’s robotic arm and berth the capsule at an earth facing docking port.

NASA and Orbital Sciences officials brief reporters at the Antares post launch press conference on Sept 18; Robert Lightfoot, NASA Associate Administrator, Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA’s program manager for commercial crew and cargo, Frank Culbertson, Orbital Sciences Executive VP. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com) — NASA and Orbital Sciences officials brief reporters at the Antares post launch press conference on Sept 18; Robert Lightfoot, NASA Associate Admisistrator, Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA’s program manager for commercial crew and cargo, Frank Culbertson, Orbital Sciences Executive VP. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

The Antares first stage is powered by dual liquid fueled AJ26 first stage rocket engines that generate a combined total thrust of some 750,000 lbs – originally built in the Soviet Union as NK-33 model engines for the Soviet era moon rocket.

The upper stage features an ATK Castor 30 solid rocket motor with thrust vectoring. Antares can loft payloads weighing over 5000 kg to LEO. The 2nd stage will be upgraded starting with the 4th Antares flight.

“Antares next flight is scheduled for December sometime between the 8th and 21st”, said Culbertson.

Ken Kremer
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Learn more about Cygnus, Antares, LADEE, Curiosity, Mars rovers, MAVEN, Orion and more at Ken’s upcoming presentations

Sep 17/18: LADEE Lunar & Antares/Cygnus ISS Rocket Launches from Virginia”; Rodeway Inn, Chincoteague, VA

Oct 3: “Curiosity, MAVEN and the Search for Life on Mars – (3-D)”, STAR Astronomy Club, Brookdale Community College & Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ, 8 PM

Oct 8: LADEE Lunar & Antares/Cygnus ISS Rocket Launches from Virginia”; Princeton University, Amateur Astronomers Assoc of Princeton (AAAP), Princeton, NJ, 8 PM

1st operational Cygnus pressurized cargo module from Orbital Sciences Corp. & Thales Alenia Space sits inside high bay clean room facility at NASA Wallops Flight Facility, VA for preflight processing. This Cygnus spacecraft arrived from Italy and may launch to the ISS as early as December 2013 from Wallops launch pad 0A. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA’s program manager for commercial crew and cargo at pre-launch rollout of Antares rocket to pad 0A at NASA Wallops. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

September 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

Rocket Frog, Space Bat, and Now… a Launch Armadillo?

At 4:10 a.m. EDT this morning an Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-3) communications satellite into orbit. The early morning launch may have gone unwatched except by the most determined space fans (like this guy) but it definitely didn’t go unnoticed by one particular creature: an armadillo, spooked out of hiding by the thundering Atlas V engines and caught on GoPro camera by Matthew Travis.

Watch the video above — or better yet, go to YouTube and watch in fullscreen HD — and pay attention to the foreground field around the 2-minute mark… you’ll see something running across the grass toward the exhaust cloud. Sure looks like an armadillo to me!* (And yes, they’re that quick!)

Armadillos are ubiquitous across much of the southern U.S. and it’s not unusual to spot one on the Space Coast — but they’re not normally included in launch videos!

This little guy joins the ranks of unlucky critters caught in the way of rocket launches, the most recent being an amphibian sent airborne by the launch of NASA’s LADEE mission from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Prior to that, a freetail bat was spotted clinging to the STS-119 external fuel tank during countdown on March 15, 2009 (and then there was the turkey vulture struck by a rising shuttle stack… ugh.)

The fates of those last animals most likely weren’t good, but who knows… maybe this armadillo had better luck. They’re pretty tough.

Google+ HT and video credit: Matthew Travis. Check out Matthew’s site Zero-G News here and follow him on Twitter @spacearium.

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ALSO: the Antares/Cygnus launch at 10:58 a.m. EDT from Wallops today also had an animal visitor: a bald eagle, which had happened to be perched atop one of the four lightning towers. See photos here. (Tip of the feather to Tom Wolf.)

*Update 9/19: Some (like launch photographer Ben Cooper) have suggested that this might be a hog rather than an armadillo. Both can be found in the area and can run pretty fast, and considering its apparent size in a wide-angle lens that may be the case. Hard to tell exactly, but it’s certainly got a close-up view of the launch!

September 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Shannon Hall

New Molecules Detected in Io’s Atmosphere

An image of Io taken by the automated spacecraft: Galileo. Image Credit: NASA

Io – Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon – is the most geologically active body in the Solar System. With over 400 active volcanic regions, plumes of sulfur can climb as high as 300 miles above the surface. It is dotted with more than 100 mountains, some of which are taller than Mount Everest. In between the volcanoes and mountains there are extensive lava flows and floodplains of liquid rock.

Intense volcanic activity leads to a thin atmosphere consisting mainly of sulfur dioxide (SO₂), with minor species including sulfur monoxide (SO), sodium chloride (NaCl), and atomic sulfur and oxygen. Despite Io’s close proximity to the Earth the composition of its atmosphere remains poorly constrained. Models predict a variety of other molecules that should be present but have not been observed yet.

Recently a team of astronomers from institutions across the United States, France, and Sweden, set out to better constrain Io’s atmosphere. They detected the second-most abundant isotope of sulfur (34-S) and tentatively detected potassium chloride (KCl). The latter is produced in volcanic plumes – suggesting that these plumes continuously contribute to Io’s atmosphere.

Expected yet undetected molecular species include potassium chloride (KCl), silicone monoxide (SiO), disulfur monoxide (S₂O), and various isotopes of sulfur. Most of these elements emit in radio wavelengths.

“Depending on their geometry, some molecules emit at well known frequencies when they change rotational state,” Dr. Arielle Moullet, lead author on the study, told Universe Today. “These spectral features are called rotational lines and show up in the (sub)millimeter spectral range.”

These observations were therefore obtained at the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) antenna – a radio telescope located 16,700 feet above sea level in northern Chile. The main dish has a diameter of 12 meters, and is a prototype antenna for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).

The Atacama Pathfinder (APEX) antenna. Image Credit: ESO

Following 16.5 hours of total observation time and months of data reduction and analysis, Moullet et al. made a tentative detection of potassium chloride (KCl). Io’s volcanic ejecta produce a large plasma torus around Jupiter, which inlcudes many molecular species including potassium. This detection is therefore considered the “missing link” between Io and this plasma torus.

The team also made the first detection of one of Sulfur’s isotopes known as 34-S. Sulfur has 25 known isotopes – variants of sulfur that still have 16 protons but differ in their number of neutrons. 34-S is the second most abundant isotope with 18 neutrons.

Previously, the first-most abundant isotope of sulfur, 32-S with 16 neutrons, had been detected. Surprisingly the ratio between the two (34/32 S) is twice as high as the solar system reference, suggesting that there is an abundance of 34-S. A fraction this high has only been reported before in a distant quasar – an early galaxy consisting of an intensely luminous core powered by a huge black hole.

“This result tells us that there probably is some fractionation process that we haven’t yet identified, which is happening either in the magma, at the surface, or in the atmosphere itself,” explains Dr. Moullet. Something somewhere is producing an unexplained abundance of this isotope.

Other expected yet undetected molecules including silicone monoxide and disulfur monoxide remain undetected. It is possible that these molecules are simply not present, but more likely that the observations are not sensitive enough to detect them.

“To perform a deeper spectral search with a better sensitivity, our group has been awarded observation time with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, a cutting edge interferometric facility in Chile, which will eventually include more than fifty 12-meter wide dishes,” explains Dr. Moullet. “We are in the process of analyzing our first dataset obtained with sixteen antennas, which is already much more sensitive than the APEX data.”

While Io is certainly an extreme example, it will likely help us characterize volcanism in general – providing a better understanding of volcanism here on Earth as well as outside the Solar System.

The paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and is available for download here.