Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

US Astronauts May Have to Leave Space Station in 2012

A Soyuz approaches the ISS. Credit: NASA

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Because of stalled legislation that is needed to allow NASA to pay the Russian Space Agency to ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz spacecraft, the US section of the space station may have to go unmanned in at least part of 2012. In an interview with CBS’s Bill Harwood, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said because of the of the three-year lead time needed to build Soyuz vehicles, contracts must be in place by early 2009. But because of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, Congress is unlikely to extend an exemption that allows money to be paid to Russia for high technology goods. Griffin said the problem is very serious, and new legislation would have to be approved within the next few weeks to prevent an interruption in NASA astronauts being on board the ISS.

With the exemption to the Iran-North Korea-Syria Non-Proliferation Act, NASA has been able to buy Soyuz seats for U.S. and international astronauts. While the exemption doesn’t expire until the end of 2011, Congress must approve an extension now in order for NASA to place contracts with the Russians by early next year.

Griffin said NASA has been working all year on getting the needed legislation passed. Congress has been aware of the need for a renewal of the exemption for quite some time, as Griffin talked about the importance of the exemption in his testimony during budget hearings last winter.

NASA also is counting on using the Soyuz to bridge the five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations in 2010 and the debut of the Constellation program in 2015. In addition, NASA still needs the Russian Soyuz for rescue capability for the ISS.

“Where it stands is right now,” Griffin said of the exemption, “it’s dead stalled. Because there’s no legislation which is going to come out of the Congress, other than the continuing resolution package, before they recess to go home for elections. And so right now, we’re just on dead stop. And of course, the invasion of Georgia didn’t help.”

“So here’s what will happen. The first and most obvious possibility is there won’t be any American or international partners on the space station after Dec. 31 of 2011. That’s a possibility. Another possibility is that we will be told to continue flying shuttle and we would be given extra money to do so, in which case our Ares and Orion could be kept on track and we would no longer have a dependence on Russia.

“A third possibility is we could be told to keep flying shuttle, not be given any extra money, in which case we don’t get Ares and Orion anytime soon and we still have a gap, it’s just further out in time.”

Asked if he has any optimism a waiver can be in place in time to avoid a gap in U.S. space station operations, Griffin said simply, “no.”

“My own guess is at this point we’re going to have some period in 2012 where there’s no American or international partner crew on station, that there’s only the Russians there,” he said. “That period always ends three years from when we have a contract with the Russians. So if we can get through all this by June of next year and have a contract with the Russians, then in the latter part of 2012 we can fly a Soyuz flight and restore things to normal.”

A transcript of the entire interview is available from CBS News here. In the interview, Griffin also talks about the upcoming mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the recently announced delays for the Constellation Program.

Source: CBS News Space Place

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Communicating Via the Cepheid Galactic Internet

Cepheid Variable Star. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

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If an alien species wanted to communicate with Earthlings, or any other civilization that might be out there, how might they do it? Some have proposed microwaves, neutrinos or lasers, or even moving stars around into patterns. But why wouldn’t aliens just use the internet? The Cepheid Galactic Internet, that is. A group of scientists has proposed that a sufficiently advanced civilization could use Cepheid variable stars as beacons to transmit information throughout the galaxy and beyond. These stars can be seen from long distances and, the scientists say, any technologically advanced civilization would likely observe Cepheid variables as distance markers. The group of physicists and astronomers from Hawaii and California propose that Cepheids and any other regular variable stars should be searched for signs of phase modulation and patterns which could be indicative of intentional signaling.

In their paper, the group of scientists proposes that advanced civilizations hoping to communicate would want to use a form of communication with a high data rate, just as everyone on Earth would prefer broadband for their internet. Microwaves and lasers have problems with resolution and noise, while photons or neutrinos would take an enormous amount of power to send messages long distances. And moving stars around? Well, that sounds pretty difficult if not labor intensive. So how about something akin to a T1 line that is already established? All that would need to be done is to “tickle” the star, as the scientists call it, or tweak the Cepheid, to send a message. The researchers write, “Recently, some authors have driven home the point that it is far more energetically practical for transmitting large amounts of data to place long lasting artifacts in stellar systems to which the ETI (extra terrestrial intelligence) may wish communicate information (their history for example) as intelligent life matures and becomes capable of decoding this ‘Rosetta stone.’”

By “tickling” the star, with the delivery of a relatively small amount of energy via neutrinos or other forms of power pulses at the right time could trigger the Cepheid to a specific variability, and a message could be encoded within that variability.

The researchers admit the civilization attempting this would have to be highly advanced. But if some civilization has in fact created a message and sent it via the Cepheid Galactic Internet, all we have do to is open our inbox.

Who knows, they could be on to something. They’ve even discussed their proposal with Freeman Dyson. “It may be a long shot,” they write, “but should it be correct, the payoff would be immeasurable for humanity. The beauty of this suggestion seems to be simply that the data already exists, and we need only look at the data in a new way.”

Sources: arXiv, On Orbit

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

NASA Reaches Out to Design Students to Confront Lunar Dust Problem

The RISD Moon Buggy concept (Kevin Hand)

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Last year, students from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) were set one of the best coursework projects I’ve ever heard of. The project title was called “Design for extreme environments” and it was sponsored by NASA. By extreme environments, we are talking about the Moon, and by design, we are talking about arriving at new concepts as to how to prevent lunar dust contamination inside future lunar habitats. Since the task was first set, the enthusiastic RSID team have arrived at a concept that NASA will be using in the planning of the 2020 return to the lunar surface…

The Moon is a dirty place. During the Apollo missions, dust from the lunar surface got everywhere. The biggest problem for astronauts came when the tiny, sharp shards of regolith (pulverized bits of rock from billions of years of meteorite impacts) was disturbed by the moon buggy as the lunar explorers travelled across the dusty surface. One event in particular stands out as the problems lunar dust can cause. In 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt had accidentally damaged the wheel arch of their moon buggy. The result was a dreaded “rooster tail” was they drove, kicking up dust into the vacuum, causing it to cover everything, including spacesuit visors. This would lead to vision impairment, scratches of the protective visor coating and ultimately respiratory problems when transported inside the lunar module (“LEM”). Fortunately Cernan and Schmitt managed to repair their moon buggy with a roll of duct tape, possibly saving the lunar surface mission.

Lunar dust contamination covering Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan inside the lunar module after an EVA (NASA)
Lunar dust contamination covering Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan inside the lunar module after an EVA (NASA)

Moon dust contamination was inevitable however, even inside the sealed LEM. So, with the possibility of extended manned exploration of the Moon and Mars from the year 2020, NASA is re-evaluating the challenges astronauts will face when combating this potentially dangerous foe. Many scientists are especially worried about the health of manned settlements should lunar dust be allowed into habitats. Breathing the stuff in could be as dangerous as breathing in asbestos. When working with the dusty cancer-causing material down here on Earth, specialist breathing apparatus must be worn at all times. If this were to be the case on the Moon, to fight the health risks associated with breathing in moon dust, short-term and long-term damage could be inflicted on the young colony.

This is where the RISD project comes in. In preparation for a possible manned return to the Moon in just over a decade, NASA decided to tap into the ingenuity of students from the design school to arrive at some novel ideas as to how eliminate the risk of letting lunar dust into a future moon buggy. Several design and engineering students and graduates from RISD’s Industrial Design Department took part in a RISD/NASA research internship focusing on elements of a future lunar module – the descent stage, habitat and ascent stage. The 2007 summer internship focused on the dust problem.

The RISD designers demonstrate their mock-up airlock concept (RISD)
The RISD designers demonstrate their mock-up airlock concept (RISD)

The students investigated a “suitlock” design, an airlock that uses the astronauts’ space suits as part of the operation to remove any contaminants. To make access to the lunar surface quick and routine, the research focused on using an existing rear-entry space suit that would be stored inside an air- and dust-tight seal, but the astronauts would be able to slide into the suit whilst keeping the suit itself separate from the habitat interior. To see how the RISD concept works, view the full-scale mock-up video of the demonstration session.

The RISD concept was taken from paper and consolidated into a full-scale rigid mock up. The design can now be evaluated by NASA for possible inclusion in the future exploration of the Moon. This project for the RISD interns is obviously a valuable experience for the students taking their vision and turning it into a “real-world” application, but NASA has the chance to learn from the fertile imaginations of design and engineering graduates, possibly taking the exploration of space in an unexpected but advantageous direction…

Sources: RISD, Popular Science

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Where In The Universe Challenge #19

Here’s another “Where In The Universe” challenge, and in keeping with the Mission:Impossible theme from the previous post, your mission, should you choose to accept, is to identify where in the universe this image was taken. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. Does everyone have their watches synchronized and secret decoder image detectors ready? It’s fairly certain this website will not self destruct in five seconds, so take your time looking at the image. As always, no peeking below before you make your guess.

This is an image of a dune field on Mars in Wirtz Crater, and yes, the white material is actually frost on the dunes. It was taken by the HiRISE Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. I came across this image while searching for more evidence of frost on Mars, other than what the Phoenix and Viking Landers had imaged. Just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I checked in with Nathan Bridges from JPL and the HiRISE Team about this image. He explains, “The white material is frost, composed of water and/or carbon dioxide. When this image was taken, it was winter in this part of Mars and it gets cold enough for water to condense out of the atmosphere and even for the atmosphere itself to freeze (the atmosphere is made of CO2) The color is approximately what you would see on Mars, but is enhanced to bring out detail.”

This image was taken on January 7, 2007 at about 3:50 in the afternoon, Mars local time, as HiRISE was 254 km (158.7 miles) above Mars’ surface. Wirtz Crater is located at -48 degrees latitude and 334.6 degrees longitude east.

For more information about this image, or to get higher resolution versions of the entire image swath, check out HiRISE’s website.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Asteroid Imposters

Are some asteroid masked of their true identity?

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A frequent plot device in the old “Mission: Impossible” television show was the special masks the IMF team used so they could impersonate anyone. Viewers were often surprised to find out who ended up being an imposter. Similarly, astronomers and planetary scientists are considering that a fair amount of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) aren’t what they appear: they could be comets impersonating asteroids. Paul Abell, from the Planetary Science Institute says between five and ten percent of NEOs could be comets that are being mistaken for asteroids, and Abell is working on ways to make unmasking them a mission that’s possible.

Some NEOs could be dying comets, those that have lost most of the volatile materials that create their characteristic tails. Others could be dormant and might again display comet-like features after colliding with another object, said Abell. He is using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility at the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii and the MMT telescope on Mount Hopkins, south of Tucson, Ariz., to uncover observational signatures that separate extinct/dormant comets from near-Earth asteroids.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, dormant comets in near-Earth space could become supply depots to support future exploration activities with water and other materials. Second, like other NEOs, they could pose a threat to Earth if they are on a collision course with our planet. Third, they can provide data on the composition and early evolution of the solar system because they are thought to contain unmodified remnants of the primordial materials that formed the solar system.
Comet Tempel 1. Credit: NASA/U of Maryland
Unlike rocky asteroids that blast out craters when they slam into Earth, comets are structurally weak and likely to break up as they enter the atmosphere, leading to a heat and shockwave blast that would be much more devastating than the impact from an asteroid of the same size.

Low-activity, near-earth comets flashed onto the planetary-science radar screen in 2001, when NEO 2001 OG108 was discovered by the Lowell Observatory Near Earth Asteroid Search telescope. It had an orbit similar to comets coming in from the Oort Cloud, but had no cometary tail. But in early 2002 when it came closer to the sun, the heat vaporized some of the comet’s ice to create the clouds of dust and gas that make up the comet’s coma and tail. It was then reclassified as a comet.

“That’s what started me on this line of reasoning and scientific investigation,” Abell said.
By combining orbital data with spectra and the albedos (brightness) of these objects, Abell hopes to identify which are low-activity comets and where they are coming from.
“Are all these comets made of the same type of material or are they different?” Abell asked. “If they’re composed of different materials, they may have different spectral signatures, and our preliminary work on Jupiter-family comets and Halley-type comets shows that this may be true. Why is that? Is it something to do with the initial conditions of their formation regions? Or is it due to the different environments in which they spend most of their time?”

“All this is important to understanding their internal makeup, which will give us data on the material composition and evolution of the early solar system,” he added.

Source: PSI Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Astronomers Link Telescopes to Zoom In On Milky Way’s Black Hole

Computer simulation of what a "hot spot" of gas orbiting a black hole would look like in an extremely high-resolution image. Credit: Avery Broderick (CITA) & Avi Loeb (CfA)

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An international team of astronomers has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers linked together radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across that is capable of seeing details more than 1,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope. The target of the observations was the source known as Sagittarius A* (“A-star”), long thought to mark the position of a black hole whose mass is 4 million times that of the sun.

Using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the astronomers studied the radio waves coming from Sagittarius A*. In VLBI, signals from multiple astronomy telescopes are combined to create the equivalent of a single giant telescope, as large as the separation between the facilities. As a result, VLBI yields exquisitely sharp resolution.

They detected structure at a tiny angular scale of 37 micro-arcseconds – the equivalent of a baseball seen on the surface of the moon, 240,000 miles distant. These observations are among the highest resolution ever done in astronomy.

“This technique gives us an unmatched view of the region near the Milky Way’s central black hole,” said Sheperd Doeleman of MIT, first author of the study that will be published in the Sept. 4 issue of the journal Nature.

Computer animation illustrating a spinning black hole. Credit: NASA
Computer animation illustrating a spinning black hole. Credit: NASA

Though Sagittarius A* was discovered three decades ago, the new observations for the first time have an angular resolution, or ability to observe small details, that is matched to the size of the black hole “event horizon” — the region inside of which nothing, including light, can ever escape.

With three telescopes, the astronomers could only vaguely determine the shape of the emitting region. Future investigations will help answer the question of what, precisely, they are seeing: a glowing corona around the black hole, an orbiting “hot spot,” or a jet of material. Nevertheless, their result represents the first time that observations have gotten down to the scale of the black hole itself, which has a “Schwarzschild radius” of 10 million miles.

The concept of black holes, objects so dense that their gravitational pull prevents anything including light itself from ever escaping their grasp, has long been hypothesized, but their existence has not yet been proved conclusively. Astronomers study black holes by detecting the light emitted by matter that heats up as it is pulled closer to the event horizon. By measuring the size of this glowing region at the Milky Way center, the new observations have revealed the highest density yet for the concentration of matter at the center of our galaxy, which “is important new evidence supporting the existence of black holes,” said Doeleman.

“This result, which is remarkable in and of itself, also confirms that the 1.3-mm VLBI technique has enormous potential, both for probing the galactic center and for studying other phenomena at similar small scales,” said co-author Jonathan Weintroub.

The team plans to expand their work by developing novel instrumentation to make more sensitive 1.3-mm observations possible. They also hope to develop additional observing stations, which would provide additional baselines (pairings of two telescope facilities at different locations) to enhance the detail in the picture. Future plans also include observations at shorter, 0.85-mm wavelengths; however, such work will be even more challenging for many reasons, including stretching the capabilities of the instrumentation, and the requirement for a coincidence of excellent weather conditions at all sites.

Source: Harvard Smithsonian press release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Understanding the “Superotation” Winds of Venus

Venus observed by Venus Express. Credit: ESA

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Astronomers observing Venus back in the 1960’s discovered that the top level of Venusian cloud layers moved very rapidly, orbiting the planet in only four Earth days, compared to the planet’s own rotation of 243 Earth days. This phenomenon is called the “superotation” of Venus. The winds carrying these clouds travel at 360 km/hr, while winds at the planet’s surface are just a breeze at a few km/hr, and there have been indications that at times there’s no wind on Venus’ surface. This unique characteristics have been perplexing, but new observations carried out with ESA’s Venus Express, in orbit around Venus since April 2006, are offering insights to the planet’s atmosphere. Scientists have been able to determine in detail the global structure of the winds on Venus at the different levels of clouds while, at the same time, observe unexpected changes in the wind speeds, and which will help to interpret this mysterious phenomenon.

Venus is similar to Earth in size, and sometimes is called Earth’s sister planet. Nevertheless, it is quite different in other aspects. It’s slow rotation is also retrograde, or in the opposite direction to that of our planet, i.e. from East to West. It’s dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide with surface pressures 90 times that of Earth (equivalent to what we find at 1000 meters below the surface of our oceans), causes a runaway greenhouse effect that raises the surface temperatures up to 450ºC, to such as extent that metals like lead are in a liquid state on Venus.

At a height of between 45 km and 70 km above the surface there are dense layers of sulfuric acid clouds which totally cover the planet. Our continued explorations and observations of Venus seemed to indicate that the “superotation” was a permanent phenomenon. A team led by scientists and the University of Basque Country used images recorded by both day and night on Venus with the VIRTIS spectral camera on board the Venus Express, to measure these clouds over several months and have discovered new aspects of the “superotation.”

First, between the equator and the median latitudes of the planet there dominates a superotation with constant winds blowing from East to West. The wind speeds within the clouds decrease with height, from 370 km/h to 180 km/h. At these median latitudes, the winds decrease to a standstill at the pole, where an immense vortex forms. Other aspects of the superotation are that wind movements from north to south, or meridional, are very weak, about 15 km/h.

Second, unlike what was previously believed, the superotation appears to be not so constant over time. “We have detected fluctuations in its speed that we do not yet understand,” said the team of scientists, led by Agustín Sánchez Lavega. Moreover, for the first time they observed “the solar thermal tide” effect at high latitudes on Venus. “The relative movement of the Sun on the clouds and the intense heat deposited on them makes the superotation more intense at sunset than at sunrise”, they stated in their paper, which was published in Geophysical Research Letters.

“Despite all the data brought together, we are still not able to explain why a planet than spins so slowly has hurricane global winds that are much more intense than terrestrial ones and are, moreover, concentrated at the top of its clouds,” said Lavega. “This study has enabled advances to be made in a precise explanation of the origin of superotation in Venusian winds as well as in the knowledge of the general circulation of planetary atmospheres.”

Source: University of Basque Country press release

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Observing Alert: Possible New Dwarf Nova In Andromeda

NvAnd08

[/caption]According to AAVSO Special Notice #122 prepared by M. Templeton, there’s a possible new WZ Sge-type dwarf nova located in Andromeda. The alert was posted yesterday and intial observations were sent in within the last 48 hours. For more information, read on…

AAVSO Special Notice #122

Multiple observers have confirmed the detection of an optical transient in Andromeda whose photometric behavior is thus far consistent with its classification as a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova system. The object was submitted to the CBAT unconfirmed objects list (D. Green, editor) by an unidentified observer on 2008 September 01.6.

A comprehensive list of the numerous follow-up observations made in Russia was published and an announcement of apparent very short period superhumps (P ~ 0.055 days) was made in vsnet-alert 10478. A comparison of the field with archival POSSII plates by D. Denisenko et al suggests the progenitor is very faint, with a blue magnitude of 21 or fainter. The reported outburst magnitudes of approximately V=12.5 then suggest an amplitude of at least 8 magnitudes.

M. Andreev (Terskol, Russia) obtained the following coordinates for the object using a 28-cm telescope:

RA: 02h 00m 25.42s , Dec: +44d 10m 18.4s (J2000)

Finder Chart
Finder Chart

Several other sets of coordinates have been published by Russian observers on the page noted above, and most are within a few tenths of an arcsecond.

Observations of this new object, including time-series photometry, are encouraged. The object has not been formally named, and the WZ Sge classification has not been definitively confirmed. Observers are asked to follow the object during the next several weeks. The object may fade and rebrighten, so please submit all observations including “fainter-than” estimates. Instrumental time-series observations are also encouraged to confirm the presence of superhumps and (if possible) define the period.

Please submit all data to the AAVSO using the name and/or AUID pair VSX J020025.4+441018 , AUID 000-BFT-799.

Nova Andromeda Photo courtesy of AstroAlert.

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

NGC 7023 – ‘Iris From The Dust’ by Kent Wood

NGC 7023 - Kent Wood

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As the very last of the summer flowers bloom in the dusty grasses of the northern hemisphere, so a cosmic flower blooms in the dusty star fields of the northern constellations. While this image conjures up a vision of an iris delicately opening its 6 light year wide petals some 1300 light years away in Cepheus, this bit of flora is anything but a pretty little posey…

NGC 7023 was first discovered by Sir William Herschel on October 18, 1794 and since that time it has had a rather confusing catalog history. As usual, Herschel’s notes made the correct assumption of “A star of 7th magnitude. Affected with nebulousity which more than fills the field. It seems to extend to at least a degree all around: (fainter) stars such as 9th or 10th magnitude, of which there are many, are perfectly free from this appearance.” So where did the confusion come in? It happened in 1931 when Per Collinder decided to list the stars around it as a star cluster Collinder 429. Then along came Mr. van den Berg, and the little nebula became known as van den Berg 139. Then the whole group became known as Caldwell 4! So what’s right and what isn’t? According to Brent Archinal, “I was surprised to find NGC 7023 listed in my catalog as a star cluster. I assumed immediately the Caldwell Catalog was in error, but further checking showed I was wrong! The Caldwell Catalog may be the only modern catalog to get the type correctly!”

But what isn’t wrong is the role molecular hydrogen plays in formations like the Iris nebula. In a gas rich interstellar region near a a hot central object such as the Herbig Be star HD 200775, atomic and molecular excitation occurs. The resulting fluorescence produces a rich ultraviolet and infrared spectrum… and interstellar emissions. Just what kind of interstellar emissions might occur from a region like the Iris Nebula? According to the 2007 Micron Spitzer Spectra Research done by Sellgren (et al) at Ohio State: “We consider candidate species for the 18.9 µm feature, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, fullerenes, and diamonds.”

Now, we’re not only bringing you space flowers… but diamonds in the rough.

The discovery of aromatic hydrocarbons, diamonds, and fullerenes in interstellar space is a new puzzle to space science. According to the work of K. Sellgren; “Emission from aromatic hydrocarbons dominates the mid-infrared emission of many galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy. Only recently have aromatic hydrocarbons been observed in absorption in the interstellar medium, along lines of sight with high column densities of interstellar gas and dust. Much work on interstellar aromatics has been carried out, with astronomical observations and laboratory and theoretical astrochemistry. In many cases, the predictions of laboratory and theoretical work are confirmed by astronomical observations but, in other cases, clear discrepancies exist that provide problems to be solved by a combination of astronomical observations, laboratory studies, and theoretical studies. …Studies are needed to explain astrophysical observations, such as a possible absorption feature due to interstellar ‘diamonds’ and the search for fullerenes in space.”

What this comes down to is carbon nanoparticles are out there in the interstellar medium. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – or PAHs – are molecules constructed of benzene rings that look like segments of single layers of graphite. If you were here on Earth? You’d find them everywhere… coming out of your car’s exhaust, stuck to the top of your grill, coating the inside of your fireplace. Apparently we’re picking up the signature of PAHs in Unidentified Infra-Red emission bands, Diffuse Interstellar Bands and a UV extinction bump in NGC 7023 – but what the heck is it doing there?

According to research, it’s entirely possible these PAHs may have formed in the dust when the grains collided and fractured – releasing free PAHs. They could have grown between smaller unsaturated hydrocarbon molecules and radicals in the remnants of carbon rich stars. Science just doesn’t really know. But one thing they do know… Once a PAH is there, it is extremely stable and extremely efficient at rapidly re-emitting the absorbed energy at infra-red wavelengths.

Take the time to view the Iris Nebula yourself. Located in Cepheus (RA 21:00.5 Dec +68:10) and around magnitude 7, this faint nebula can be achieved in dark skies with a 114-150mm telescope, but larger aperture will help reveal more subtle details since it has a lower surface brightness. Take the time at lower power to reveal the dark dust “lacuna” around it reported so many years ago, and to enjoy the true beauty of this Caldwell gem. Remember your astronomy lesson, too! According to O. Berne, who also studied NGC 7023 just this year, “Unveiling the composition, structure and charge state of the smallest interstellar dust particles remains one of today’s challenges in astrochemistry.”

We would like to thank AORAIA member, Ken Wood for this incredibly inspiring image!

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Russian Progress Supply Ship is Dropped from Space Station to Burn Next Week

A previous Progress approach to the Space Station over Earth (NASA)

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In a dress rehearsal for the disposal of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) in two days time, the Russian Progress 29 resupply ship was undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday from its Earth-facing berth on the station’s Russian Zarya control module. The vessel, having performed its resupply duties back in May, has now been filled with waste from the crew and sent on its week-long journey toward a fiery re-entry. But the tough automated resupply ship still has some work to do, it will carry out some experimental rocket tests before it makes its final plunge over the Pacific Ocean…

The Russian automated resupply vessel has been overlooked recently. This unmanned craft has a long history of space supply tasks, ferrying food, water, equipment and other supplies to the orbital crews and then being filled with rubbish to be disposed of during re-entry. The current expendable Progress vehicle, the Progress M (interestingly based on the manned Soyuz design), was first launched in 1989 to service the Mir Space Station. 43 flights later, it was chosen as the principal resupply vehicle for the ISS. The current Progress mission, Progress 29, marks the 29th Progress flight to the orbital outpost, but unfortunately, like all the Progress flights before it the ship has undocked and it will begin deorbit manoeuvres to burn up in the atmosphere.

According to NASA, the undocking procedure was completed as expected at 3:46 pm EDT, Monday afternoon. “It went very well, exactly as planned,” stated NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Russian Federal Space Agency officials added that Progress 29 will remain in orbit until September 9th to carry out experiments on the plasma environment surrounding its engines. Once complete, the craft will be instructed to begin its final kamikaze task and plunge into the atmosphere over the South Pacific. Should any charred remains be left over after the burn, the debris will fall safely into a pre-designated area of the ocean.

Progress 29 was launched on May 14th and docked with the ISS two days later. This mission replaced Progress 28, which in April had also been unceremoniously dropped from space. Progress 29 delivered 2.3 tonnes of supplies to the ISS crew which currently include cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko with astronaut Greg Chamitoff.

But this is only the first part of ISS dumping duties this week. On Friday, ESA Jules Verne will end its work (the first ever ATV mission), be filled with station trash and also dropped from orbit. I’m sure the ATV looked down nervously on Progress 29 as it disappeared from view knowing it’s only two days from the long drop back to Earth…

Source: Space.com