Universe Today

December 19, 2007December 26, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Day of Troubleshooting Leads to Clues for Shuttle and ISS

Tuesday, December 18 was a day of major troubleshooting for NASA, as the space agency tries to hunt down the causes of problems plaguing both the shuttle and the International Space Station. While the day ended with few definitive answers, NASA officials said the data they gathered — and even what they didn’t find — will help them make strides towards solving the issues.

A tanking test on the shuttle’s external fuel tank helped narrow down a problem with the engine cutoff sensors to a “pass-through” connector in the system, but shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said the exact problem is not yet known.

“Exactly what we’ve got to do and where in this three-part connector we have to do it is a little bit of work ahead of us,” he said. “I’m just pleased as punch we know it’s in the connector and not some other place in the 100 feet or so of wiring and sensors and electronic boxes so we know what area to concentrate our efforts.”

But how much work the fix will entail, or how the repairs might affect the proposed January 10 launch date is also in question.

“I do not have any information about a launch date today,” Hale said. “Where the troubleshooting and replacement and repair work leads us will determine what the launch date’s going to be. We are not going to be driven by schedule on this one. We need to get to the bottom of this, fix it and make sure it’s fixed once and for all and then we can fly safely through the rest of the program, at least in this area.”

However, Hale said he felt the problems could be turned around in fairly short order.
He said the problem appears to be temperature related, or perhaps related to the tightly sealed, almost vacuum like conditions the connector operates in.

The 1 1/2-by-3 inch connector is called a pass-through connector because it is located both inside and outside the tank. The part that will be difficult to get to is the socket connector on the inside of the tank. Engineers would have to go inside the ET through a “man-hole cover” in the bottom of the tank, and that would entail a longer time to fix the problem.

Engineers are still troubleshooting some issues in bench tests away from the shuttle, and more data will be presented to program managers on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, two ISS astronauts conducted a seven hour spacewalk on Tuesday, inspecting problems with two unrelated mechanisms that allow the station’s solar wings to track the sun for power. It was the 100th EVA in support of station construction and maintenence.

Station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Dan Tani first looked at a malfunctioning beta gimbal assembly that tilts the the starboard solar arrays to face the sun. Engineers thought that perhaps a micrometeoroid hit may have damaged the device, but the astronauts found no evidence of any impacts. The spacewalkers temporarily disconnected cables and a subsequent test found that the motor most likely is the problem. A new motor will be installed during the next shuttle mission.

The issues with the solar array rotary joint, a huge mechanism that also automatically rotates the solar arrays to face the sun, will require more work, contemplation and likely several spacewalks to fix. No “smoking gun” was found as to what is causing the joint to vibrate and display electrical spikes. In addition, metal shavings were found during an earlier inspection of the SARJ. Space station program manager Mike Suffredini said repairs probably won’t begin until next fall after a station crew can be trained to repair the joint. The shuttle crews “to-do” lists are already filled for the remaining shuttle flights in order to finish the construction of the ISS.

Mike Suffredini said the station team is “challenged” by the issues they are facing in the two repairs.

“The fact that it (the SARJ) looked as we expected is an enormous amount of information for us,” said Sufradini. “It would be really nice if something stood out and said ‘hey, I’m the cause of your problem,’ but we didn’t get that.”

Original News Source: NASA TV

December 18, 2007January 24, 2021 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for December 18, 2007

Your astrophoto of the day is another image of Comet Holmes, captured by John Chumack.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has made a series of astronomy lectures available for podcast and download. There are some really cool speakers in there, like Dr. Frank Drake (SETI Institute): “Estimating the Chances of Life Out There”.

Sean from Visual Astronomy let me know about his new blog. And so now you know too.

Maybe the space shuttle won’t be ending flights so soon after all.

Did you ever wonder how astronauts do their laundry in space? Pamela has the answer.

And if you want to actually see the space station with your own eyes, it’s getting brighter with every mission. Visual Astronomy has some suggestions to find it.

Dwayne Day has a great article on the Space Review about his experience at a Richard Hoagland press conference. I highly suggest you read it; it’s comedy gold.

Did Uranus and Neptune switch places?

And finally, here are two great lists of the top astrophotos in 2007, from Bad Astronomy and Astronomy Picture of the Day.

December 18, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Mysterious Explosion Comes Out of Nowhere

When astronomers find a gamma ray burst, they can usually locate the culprit’s home galaxy. But in the case of an explosion that went off earlier this year, there’s no galaxy to be found – even with the most powerful telescopes on Earth.

The gamma ray burst GRB 070125 was first detected on January 26th, 2007 by NASA’s Swift telescope in the constellation Gemini. One of the brightest bursts of the year, astronomers scrambled to observe the explosion and then the slowly fading afterglow.

Gamma ray bursts occur when a massive star runs out of fuel. Without the light pressure, the star collapses inward on itself, turning into a black hole. This newly formed black hole spins at an enormous rate, generating enormous magnetic fields. These fields catch infalling material and spew it out again into powerful jets. And it’s those jets where the burst comes from.

One of the normal activities in observing GRBs is the identify the host galaxy so that astronomers can measure its distance. It’s also important to know what kind of galaxy the burst exploded within to better understand the kinds of environments can lead to these massive stars.

In the case of GRB 070125, though, no originating galaxy was obvious. Astronomers from Caltech/Penn State used the 60-inch Palomar Observatory to watch the afterglow, and then called in the even larger Gemini North and Keck 1 telescopes, located on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea.

Even with the power of Keck, they couldn’t find a galaxy.

So how could you get a gamma ray burst without a galaxy? Astronomers know that colliding galaxies can throw off enormous tidal tails that stretch away for hundreds of thousands of light-years. The original star could have been within one of these tidal tails, many light-years away from its parent galaxy.

If their theory is correct, a long duration exposure from the Hubble Space Telescope should reveal the dim tidal tail.

Original Source: NASA News Release

December 18, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Mars at its Closest Approach

Okay, now you can tell your friends and family that Mars is making its closest approach, and not August like that annual hoax email that goes around. This image of Mars, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, was captured when the planet was only 88 million km (55 million miles) away from Earth. Their closest point occurs on December 18th at 1145 UTC (6:45 p.m. EST).

This close encounter between the Earth and Mars happens every 26 months. That’s because Earth makes more than two orbits for every one Martian trip around the Sun. As the Earth catches up with Mars in orbit, the planet brightens in our skies until it becomes one of the brightest objects we can see.

Since both Earth and Mars have elliptical orbits, the point of their closest approach changes from year to year. Back in 2003, when that closest approach between Earth and Mars actually happened, the two planets were 32 million km closer (20 million miles) than today. (Of course, Mars never looked as large as the Moon in the sky, it was always just a bright red star.)

The image attached to this story was made up of a series of photographs captured by Hubble over the last 36 hours. They were then stitched together on computer to make up this composite photograph.

The large triangular dark shape on Mars is Syrtis Major, and the region on the left is called Sinus Meridani. That’s roughly where NASA’s Opportunity rover is currently rolling across the Martian landscape.

When Hubble took this photograph, the planet was largely free of the dust storms that plagued the Mars rovers earlier this year. Although, you can see clouds near the northern and southern poles.

Original Source: Hubble News Release

December 18, 2007December 26, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Enceladus: Cold Moon With a Hot Spot

enceladusfountains_med.thumbnail.jpg — Geysers spew from Enceladus in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Cassini mission.

Saturn’s tiny moon Enceladus is a cold and icy place. But somehow, there’s enough heat being generated on Enceladus’ south pole to eject plumes of ice and vapor high above the moon. These plumes are extremely intriguing to the Cassini mission scientists and they want to know more about this hot spot on a very cold moon. In fact, Enceladus has become a major priority for study by the Cassini team and they are anticipating learning more about the moon in an upcoming fly-by.

The temperature at Enceladus’ south pole is about -220 degrees Celsius, but the hot spot is at least 100 degrees warmer. The leading model for the cause of the plumes on Enceladus is that the moon’s tides cause its crust to ratchet, or rub back and forth, in a set of faults near the south pole. The forces between Enceladus, the big planet Saturn and another moon, Dione cause what’s called dynamical resonance, and Enceladus is continually squeezed under this gravity field. This process creates a small hot spot, in relative terms, for an icy satellite.

Cassini has actually flown through the plumes, giving scientists a glimpse of the plume’s make-up.

“The plume particles are like smoke, ice smoke,”said William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “If you were standing on Enceladus’ surface you wouldn’t even be able to see the plumes. The particles are just larger than the wavelength of light, about one-thousandths of a millimeter. Most icy bodies of this size are geologically inert, but this is a clear indication of geological activity. Cassini has found active venting of water vapor. This leads to scientifically intriguing speculations and questions.”

The scientists are pondering if Enceladus has active ice volcanism, and if so, is it due to ice sublimating, like a comet, or due to a different mechanism, like boiling water as in Old Faithful at Yellowstone. Even though there may be water on the moon, McKinnon doesn’t believe there is the possibility of life on Enceladus. This is because measurements made from Earth don’t indicate there is enough sodium present in the plumes to warrant the “life” question.

“The emerging view is that there’s not obvious evidence for a subterranean ocean in contact with rock, no boiling or venting,” said McKinnon.

The Cassini science team has made Enceladus a major priority and there will be seven additional close fly-bys of the moon by the spacecraft through mid-2010 (provided the mission is extended to that period.) The next fly-by will be on March 8, 2008 and Cassini will approach Enceladus at an incredibly close 25 km in altitude at the low latitudes and fly over the south pole at 580 km altitude. The spacecraft will actually fly through the plumes and should be able to take high-phase images of the plumes, map the temperatures of that region, search for any activity at other latitudes as well as image other interesting features on Enceladus, such as “tiger-stripe”-like fissures found near the south pole.

“We still can’t say how truly ‘hot’ the hot spots are,” said McKinnon. “We’ll probably learn this in March.”

Original News Source: Washington University Press Release

December 17, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Galactic Black Hole Fires a Jet at a Nearby Neighbour

Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. A new photograph captured by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory shows a powerful jet blasting out of one galaxy, and colliding with another. As the jet tears through the galaxy, it could have serious implications for planetary formation, and trigger a wave of new star formation.

The image contains two galaxies, collectively known as 3C321, in orbit around one another. X-ray images from Chandra show that they both have supermassive black holes at their centres.

The black hole in the larger galaxy is actively feeding, and has an enormous jet of radiation and material blasting out into space. Unfortunately, the smaller galaxy has gotten caught right in the crossfire of this jet.

“We’ve seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we’ve seen one punch into another galaxy like we’re seeing here,” said Dan Evans, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the study. “This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling.”

So what kinds of problems? For starters, the jet has a tremendous amount of radiation, especially high-energy X-rays and gamma-rays. An ongoing blast of this radiation could strip away planetary atmospheres and blow away newly forming stellar nurseries. In other cases, the jet could cause a cloud of gas and dust to collapse in the first place, setting the stage for new star formation.

Since the two galaxies are only 20,000 light years apart – the same distance of the Solar System to the middle of the Milky Way – the effect of the jet will be extreme. One bright part of the image shows where the jet is colliding with the galaxy, and then getting disrupted and deflected away.

This event is probably very short-lived. Astronomers estimate that the jet only began impacting the galaxy about a million years ago; a blink of the eye in cosmological terms.

Original Source: Chandra News Release

December 17, 2007December 26, 2015 by Mark Mortimer

Best Space and Astronomy Books for 2007

Universe Today’s resident book reviewer, Mark Mortimer, recalls his favourite space and astronomy books of 2007.

Books inflame the imagination or flame into ashes. Such is their lot. A bookseller, complaining about the inability to even give away books, torched his stash this year. Whether to generate advertising or clear storage space, he barbecued away. I’m a book lover and this image frightens me. Though the Internet is an amazing electronic library, I prefer the sensuous nature of the pages, the soft glow of the ambient light and the quiet strains of music drifting across the room. I need the solidity of paper and the warmth of my reading environment to help channel the authors’ ideas. Books are precious, have done much to raise our civilization and are worth all the respect we can muster.

During this calendar year, over 200 000 books were published in North America. I read only a smattering of these, though I felt well rewarded upon completing each. Some of these were large tomes that addressed broad ranges of recent scientific results. In others, though technically detailed, equations were few and far between. This is a shame, as many paragraphs may be necessary to fully explain the equivalent of a couple of simple mathematical relationships. Yet, I suspect this reflects more the publisher’s impression of the readership than the author’s ability. This reflects a fundamental divide in the books I reviewed. Some authors expect their readers to have sufficient background information or initiative to learn, and so write accordingly. I also suspect these fascinating but technical books suffer in the sales department. Such is the fate of many science books.

My favourite of the year surprisingly has less to do with outer space or astronomy. Gotz Hoeppe’s book, Why the Sky is Blue says so much about how regular people did and still can add to science that I highly recommend it.

Michael Michaud, in his book Contact with Alien Civilizations also wonderfully keeps the reader thinking, but pushes them into realms well off our planet.

For those readers who enjoy the rewards of science and may not have the training, there’s Lives of the Planets by Richard Corfield. In it, he succinctly tells the reader why we benefit from the research that’s gone before us and why we might benefit in the future.

And, as if to emphasize the need to keep going, there’s A.J. Meadows’ book The Future of the Universe within which he really lays out how our specie’s survival is more fortunate than predetermined. These, and the remainder, have all been a joy for me to read.

I have one honourable mention that wasn’t reviewed for Universe Today during the year. I greatly enjoy science fiction, as writers have no limits on the worlds that base their story. The annual anthology The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois is a regular treat for me. In it, are his selections of short and medium length stories from a variety of sources. All stories are ‘hard’ science in that the physics is often as fascinating as the characters. Enjoy!

Again this year, comets have dazzled our skies and robots have scurried across foreign landscape. In additional to the superficial enjoyment of these events, we’ve used them to build upon our knowledge of our existence and where we may be heading. Books distill this into common lore according to the author’s prerogative and for the benefit of the reader. To all, happy reading and let’s keep the flames upon the candles and off of the books.

Just in case you want to go back through all of Mark’s reviews, you can access them all here.

December 17, 2007December 26, 2015 by Astronomy Cast

Podcast: Building a Career in Astronomy

With all the enthusiasm that’s being generated with astronomy, it’s had a bit of a strange side-effect. We’ve been causing some of our listeners to have midlife crises about their careers. We’ve had other people who just want advice â€“ they’re moving into college for the first time and they want to direct the courses theyâ€™re going to be taking into astronomy. Some other people already have skills that are very useful and have wondered how they can help up or even change their career to be working in the field. We thought weâ€™d try and answer everyone’s questions all at once and just run through the major career paths you can take that relate to astronomy and space, and the kinds of things youâ€™ll need to do to actually make yourself a good candidate for that field.

Click here to download the episode

Building a Career in Astronomy – Show notes and transcript

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

December 17, 2007December 26, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

What’s Up this Week: December 17 – December 23, 2007

Monday, December 17 – Tonight there are craters galore to explore: Plato, Aristotle, Eudoxus, Archimedes… But let’s head to the north of Sinus Medii and have a look at a pair we’ve not yet encountered on our lunar travels – Agrippa and Godin. The larger of the two, Agrippa, measures around 46 kilometers in diameter and drops to a depth of 3070 meters. To the south is Godin, which is somewhat smaller at 35 kilometers in diameter, but a bit deeper at 3200 meters. Note how Godin’s interior slopes towards its central peak.

With deep sky studies improbable for the next few days, why don’t we try taking a look at another interesting variable star? RT (star 48) Aurigae is a bright Cepheid that is located roughly halfway between Epsilon Geminorum and Theta Aurigae. This perfect example of a pulsating star follows a precise timetable of 3.728 days and fluxes by close to one magnitude.

Located 1600 light-years away, RT was first discovered in 1905 by T. H. Astbury of the British Astronomical Association. Like all Cepheids, it expands and contracts rhythmically – for reasons science is not completely sure of. Yet, we do know that it takes about 1.5 days for it to expand to its largest and brightest and 2.5 days for it to contract, cool, and dim.

Tuesday, December 18 – Tonight on the south shore of the emerging Mare Nubium, look for ancient craters Pitatus and Hesiodus right on the terminator. During this phase, something wonderful can happen! If you are at the right place at the right time, sunlight will shine briefly through a break in Hesiodus’ wall and cast an incredible ray across the lunar surface! If you don’t catch it, you can still enjoy one of the few concentric craters on the Moon.

Want a challenging double this evening? Then let’s have a look at Theta Aurigae located on the east side of the pentagonal shape of this constellation.

Located about 110 light-years away, 2.7 magnitude Theta is a four star system, whose members range in magnitude from 2.7 to 10.7. Suited even to a small telescope, the brightest member – Theta B – is itself a binary at magnitude 7.2, and was first recorded by Otto Struve in 1871. The pair moves quite slowly, and may take as long as 800 years to orbit each other at their separation of about 110 AU. The furthest member of this system was also noted by Struve as far back as 1852, but it is not a true member – the separation only occurring thanks to Theta’s own proper motion.

While you are there, be sure to note Theta’s unusual color. While it will appear “white,” look closely at the diffraction caused by our own atmosphere which acts much like a prism… You’ll notice a lot more purple and blue around this star than many others of the same spectral type. Why? Theta is a silicon star!

Wednesday, December 19 – While the mighty Copernicus on the terminator will draw the eye like no other crater tonight, it’s time to pick up another study which you may not have logged – Crater Davy. You will find it just west of the large ring of Ptolemaeus on the northeastern edge of Mare Nubium. It will appear as a small, bright ring, with the large crater Davy A on its southern border. Now skip across the grey sands of Nubium further west and let’s take a look at the crater on the peninsula-like feature Guericke. Named for Dutch physicist Otto von Guericke, this 58 kilometer diameter crater has all but eroded away. Look for a break in its eastern wall and notice how lava flow has eradicated the north!

Now, for apparently no good reason, let’s head for Alpha Persei (Mirfak). While there’s nothing particularly interesting about this 570 light-year distant star, what is incredible is the field in which it resides! Take a look at lowest power with a rich field telescope or binoculars and be prepared to be blown away…

This is the Alpha Persei moving group – a fantastic field of main sequence stars that contains a little over 100 members. Even though it will take 90,000 years before any perceptible change is seen in this bright collection, they are happily moving at a pace of about 16 kilometers per second towards Beta Tauri! Enjoy this fine group also known as Melotte 20…

Thursday, December 20 – Tonight is the peak of the Delta Arietid meteor shower. While most showers are best after midnight, this is an early evening shower that must be viewed before the radiant sets. The fall rate is modest – about 12 per hour.

On the lunar surface, we’re going to head to the deep south as we pick up one of the last of our lunar studies – Longomontanus. Named for the Danish Astronomer Christian Longomontanus (an assistant to Tycho Brahe), this wonderland of details stretches around 145 kilometers across the surface. Look for a great collection of interior craters along its northwest interior wall and note how it has eradicated a much older crater which still shows an edge to the east.

Today marks the founding of Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory. It officially opened its doors in 1904. We also celebrate the birth of Walter S. Adams on this date. Born in 1876, Adams was the astronomer at Mt. Wilson who revealed the nature of Sirius B, the first known white dwarf star. Sirius B was first seen by Alvan Clark in 1862 and most recently, the Hubble Space Telescope precisely measured the mass of B for the first time. While Sirius is far too low at an early hour to study its white dwarf, we can have a look at a similar star when we view Omicron 2 Eridani located roughly a handspan west of Rigel. As the southernmost of the Omicron pair, it is sometimes known as 40 Eridani, and you’ll find it to be an interesting multiple star system that’s very worthy of your time.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1783, this 16 light-year distant system is the eighth nearest of the unaided visible stars. Well spaced from the primary, the companion star is also a double for high powers and will reveal a red dwarf discovered by Otto Struve. Now, look closely at the 9th magnitude B star. This is the only white dwarf that can be considered “easy” for the backyard telescope. Its diameter is only about twice the size of Earth and its mass is about that of our Sun. Power up and locate the 11th magnitude companion…for it’s one of the least massive stars known! And this white dwarf may be the smallest stellar object visible in an amateur telescope – it would be like spotting a tennis ball…on the moon!

Friday, December 21 – Ah, yes… Is there any more beautiful crater on the Moon than graceful Gassendi? While we have visited it before, take the time to power up and enjoy its features. Look for rimae which crisscross the shallow floor, and the strong A crater which mars its northern wall. How many of its interior features can you resolve?

While we’re out, let’s have a look at one of the best known double stars in the night – Gamma Arietis (RA 01 53 31.81 Dec +19 17 37.9).

Also known as Mesarthim, this combined magnitude 4 beauty was unintentionally discovered in 1664 by Robert Hooke who was following a comet. While no real change has been spotted in the more than 343 years since that time, there has been a slight difference detected in the components’ radial velocities. Roughly 160 light-years away, you’ll enjoy this almost matched-magnitude pair of white stars – but look carefully: in 1878, S. W. Burnham found a third star nearby that might not be a physical member, but is also a double!

Saturday, December 22 – Up early? Fantastic! In the pre-dawn hours of this morning, I have a treat for you – the Ursid meteor shower! Cruising around the Sun about every thirteen and a half years, Comet 8P/Tuttle sheds a little skin. Although it never passes inside of Earth’s orbit, some six years later we pass through its debris stream. Not so unusual? Then think again, because it takes as much as six centuries before the meteoroid trail is affected enough by Jupiter’s gravitation to deflect the stream into our atmosphere.

With little interference from the Moon while watching this circumpolar meteor shower, the hours before dawn could see activity of up to 12 per hour. By keeping watch on the constellation of Ursa Major, you just might spot one of these slow moving, 600 year old travelers that make their path only halfway between us and Selene!

Today marks Winter Solstice – for the northern hemisphere, the shortest day and the longest night of the year – and the point when the Sun is furthest south. Now is a wonderful time to demonstrate for yourself our own movements by choosing a “solstice marker.” Anything from a fence post to a stick in the ground will suffice! Simply measure the shadow when the Sun reaches the zenith and repeat your experiment in the weeks ahead and watch as the shadow grows shorter…and the days grow longer!

And be sure to look at the Moon tonight as well, for it is at perigee – its closest point to the Earth. While you might hear a tall tale or two about it being brighter than normal since it is also close to Full, judge for yourself! And be sure to look for signs of libration while you’re there…

Sunday, December 23 – While the Moon will command tonight’s skies, we can still have a look at a tremendous star as we head 150 light-years away to Menkar…

Better known as Alpha Ceti, you’ll find this nearly second magnitude giant orange beauty just west of Orion’s “bow” (RA 03 02 16.77 Dec +04 05 23.0). With even a small telescope, you will also see 5th magnitude 93 Ceti in the eyepiece as well! Although they are not a true physical pair (the blue 93 is 350 light-years further away), they make a wonderful color contrast which is well worth your time. Just think… If 93 were as close as Menkar, it would be 250% brighter. But up the magnification and see if you can spot another true double in the field!

Tonight in 1672, astronomer Giovanni Cassini discovered Saturn’s moon Rhea. Although you will have to wait until a little later in the evening to catch the ringed planet, why not try your hand at finding Rhea as well? A well-collimated scope as small as 4.5″ is perfectly capable of seeing Tethys, Rhea and Dione as they orbit very nearly to the edges of the ring system. All it requires is steady skies and a little magnification!

December 17, 2007December 26, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Heavy Construction on the Moon

Take a look at any construction project or surface mining operation here on Earth and likely there will be bulldozers, loaders, and trucks; all essential in excavating and building structures. But as we look to the future with NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration which calls for a return to the Moon to build bases and habitats, how will heavy construction and excavation be accomplished on the lunar surface?

Caterpillar Inc., a company known for their heavy earth moving machines and the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, is looking to tackle that issue. They’ve partnered with NASA to create technology that could benefit construction and mine workers everywhere in the future, whether they grab a hard-hat or a space helmet on their way to work.

Caterpillar was one of 38 companies awarded seed funds as part of NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP). Projects are selected for this program because of their potential to advance key technologies that will help meet NASA’s critical needs for the future.

Caterpillar has proposed a multi-terrain loader for lunar surface development. Currently, they are working with NASA to develop the technology to augment existing earth moving equipment with sensors and on-board processors to provide time-delayed tele-operational control.

The loader would be able to undertake regolith moving such as grading, leveling, trenching, strip-mining, excavating and habitat covering. It also could be used for construction of lunar bases, the deployment or relocation of surface assets, as well as for mobility on the Moon.

Why is a down-to-earth company like Caterpillar interested in the Moon?

“The way we looked it, there are technologies that are needed on both the Earth and the moon,” Michele Blubaugh, Manager of Intelligence Technology Services at Caterpillar, told Universe Today. “We looked at autonomous operations of equipment as being the same type of technology that could be used on the moon as well as in a mining application. We have the same end result as NASA.”

That end result is to remove operators of construction equipment from a dangerous situation, whether it’s a machine operator in a dangerous mine environment or whether the operator is an astronaut on the lunar surface trying to excavate habitat sites.

There are two types of tele-operation. One is remote operation, where control of the machine is done with a remote operating system. There would be either a vision system on board or someone could actually see the machine as its operating. The other is autonomous operation, where the desired work is programmed and offloaded onto the machine and then the machine carries out the work without anyone interfacing with the machine, either remotely or directly. The machine would read the program at the site, positions itself, have avoidance capabilities to avoid rocks or any object that might be in the way, operating on its own to complete the given mission.

Caterpillar is working on both types of operation. “It’s one step to the next,” said Blublaugh. “You need both of those technologies developed, with remote operations first, and then the ultimate is autonomous operations.”

They are also investigating working remotely or autonomously on the Moon from Earth, and dealing with the six second time delay between the earth and the moon.

Currently, there are two multi-terrain loaders, the Caterpillar 287 C Skid Steer loader, outfitted with duplicates of the remote technology. One is located at Caterpillar’s proving grounds near their headquarters in Peoria, Illinois and the other is at the rock yard at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “That way we can develop it together,” said Blubaugh. “When we’re doing something, we each have a machine so we know how something reacts.”

The technology is still in the development stage. “We did some initial basic demonstrations when we delivered the machine in May of 2007 at JSC,” Blubaugh said. “A group of us went down, and the people at JSC were taught to use the machine and what the capabilities were, and we discussed the interfaces between the different types of technology.” In the summer of 2008, the group from Caterpillar will return to JSC to do an interim demonstration at a desert site.

Both machines have been undergoing tests. “Within the contract, NASA is responsible for some of the development and Caterpillar is responsible for other portions,” said Blubaugh, “and then there are things that we do jointly to move the technology along faster, so everyone benefits. JSC gets benefits of our facilities and our engineers working on technology, and vice versa, CAT gets benefits from the folks working at JSC and the technology they have and their facilities, so it’s a mutually beneficial relationship between Johnson and CAT.”

Caterpillar has another contract proposal going to JSC shortly that takes the project to the next level.

“We’ll look to do berming, which is building an earthen berm around a site, leveling and sensing the position of the blade,” said Blubaugh. “We take the technology that we have accomplished today and take it to the next level. It’s almost an annual step by step process in the development and our target date for having a signature demo showcasing this type of technology autonomy, being able to load a program into the machine and having it operate all by itself is targeted for 2012.”

Since the 287 C skid loader is extremely heavy and runs on a diesel engine, it couldn’t be used on the moon. A prototype of a lunar loader-type vehicle is being developed by NASA and Caterpillar is assisting with developing the blade. “So, we’ll be involved in the project all the way along as it develops,” said Blubaugh.

The one-year IPP projects involve collaboration between NASA and a company from the private sector, academia or another government laboratory. All IPP companies address technology barriers with cost-shared, joint-development programs.

Other examples of NASA IPP research areas include the pursuit of improved engine performance and reduced emissions for aeronautics research; high-temperature materials for lunar lander engines, optics to lower error rates of future space telescopes, and a glass bubble insulation demonstration for cryogenic tanks.

With a total cost of the Caterpillar project of just under $1,000,000, Caterpillar is estimated to contribute about 45% and NASA 55%. For the entire NASA’s Innovative Partnership Program $9 million in funding comes from NASA’s Technology Transfer Partnerships budget, $13 million is provided by NASA sources in programs, projects, or field centers, and $12 million from external partners for a total combined financial commitment of $34 million.

“A lot of us at Caterpillar grew up in the time of the first space development,” said Blubaugh, “it’s quite exciting for us to be a part of this. Plus, it’s just a good investment in the future.”