Posted on by Fraser Cain

Build Big by Thinking Small

Artist’s conception of a bio-nanorobot. Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge
When it comes to taking the next “giant leap” in space exploration, NASA is thinking small — really small.

In laboratories around the country, NASA is supporting the burgeoning science of nanotechnology. The basic idea is to learn to deal with matter at the atomic scale — to be able to control individual atoms and molecules well enough to design molecule-size machines, advanced electronics and “smart” materials.

If visionaries are right, nanotechnology could lead to robots you can hold on your fingertip, self-healing spacesuits, space elevators and other fantastic devices. Some of these things may take 20+ years to fully develop; others are taking shape in the laboratory today.

Simply making things smaller has its advantages. Imagine, for example, if the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity could have been made as small as a beetle, and could scurry over rocks and gravel as a beetle can, sampling minerals and searching for clues to the history of water on Mars. Hundreds or thousands of these diminutive robots could have been sent in the same capsules that carried the two desk-size rovers, enabling scientists to explore much more of the planet’s surface — and increasing the odds of stumbling across a fossilized Martian bacterium!

But nanotech is about more than just shrinking things. When scientists can deliberately order and structure matter at the molecular level, amazing new properties sometimes emerge.

An excellent example is that darling of the nanotech world, the carbon nanotube. Carbon occurs naturally as graphite — the soft, black material often used in pencil leads — and as diamond. The only difference between the two is the arrangement of the carbon atoms. When scientists arrange the same carbon atoms into a “chicken wire” pattern and roll them up into miniscule tubes only 10 atoms across, the resulting “nanotubes” acquire some rather extraordinary traits. Nanotubes:

– have 100 times the tensile strength of steel, but only 1/6 the weight;
– are 40 times stronger than graphite fibers;
– conduct electricity better than copper;
– can be either conductors or semiconductors (like computer chips), depending on the arrangement of atoms;
– and are excellent conductors of heat.

Much of current nanotechnology research worldwide focuses on these nanotubes. Scientists have proposed using them for a wide range of applications: in the high-strength, low-weight cable needed for a space elevator; as molecular wires for nano-scale electronics; embedded in microprocessors to help siphon off heat; and as tiny rods and gears in nano-scale machines, just to name a few.

Nanotubes figure prominently in research being done at the NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology (CNT). The center was established in 1997 and now employs about 50 full-time researchers.

“[We] try to focus on technologies that could yield useable products within a few years to a decade,” says CNT director Meyya Meyyappan. “For example, we’re looking at how nano-materials could be used for advanced life support, DNA sequencers, ultra-powerful computers, and tiny sensors for chemicals or even sensors for cancer.”

A chemical sensor they developed using nanotubes is scheduled to fly a demonstration mission into space aboard a Navy rocket next year. This tiny sensor can detect as little as a few parts per billion of specific chemicals–like toxic gases–making it useful for both space exploration and homeland defense. CNT has also developed a way to use nanotubes to cool the microprocessors in personal computers, a major challenge as CPUs get more and more powerful. This cooling technology has been licensed to a Santa Clara, California, start-up called Nanoconduction, and Intel has even expressed interest, Meyyappan says.

If these near-term uses of nanotechnology seem impressive, the long-term possibilities are truly mind-boggling.

The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), an independent, NASA-funded organization located in Atlanta, Georgia, was created to promote forward-looking research on radical space technologies that will take 10 to 40 years to come to fruition.

For example, one recent NIAC grant funded a feasibility study of nanoscale manufacturing–in other words, using vast numbers of microscopic molecular machines to produce any desired object by assembling it atom by atom!

That NIAC grant was awarded to Chris Phoenix of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

In his 112 page report, Phoenix explains that such a “nanofactory” could produce, say, spacecraft parts with atomic precision, meaning that every atom within the object is placed exactly where it belongs. The resulting part would be extremely strong, and its shape could be within a single atom’s width of the ideal design. Ultra-smooth surfaces would need no polishing or lubrication, and would suffer virtually no “wear and tear” over time. Such high precision and reliability of spacecraft parts are paramount when the lives of astronauts are at stake.

Although Phoenix sketched out some design ideas for a desktop nanofactory in his report, he acknowledges that — short of a big-budget “Nanhatten Project,” as he calls it — a working nanofactory is at least a decade away, and possibly much longer.

Taking a cue from biology, Constantinos Mavroidis, director of the Computational Bionanorobotics Laboratory at Northeastern University in Boston, is exploring an alternative approach to nanotech:

Rather than starting from scratch, the concepts in Mavroidis’s NIAC-funded study employ pre-existing, functional molecular “machines” that can be found in all living cells: DNA molecules, proteins, enzymes, etc.

Shaped by evolution over millions of years, these biological molecules are already very adept at manipulating matter at the molecular scale — which is why a plant can combine air, water, and dirt and produce a juicy red strawberry, and a person’s body can convert last night’s potato dinner into today’s new red blood cells. The rearranging of atoms that makes these feats possible is performed by hundreds of specialized enzymes and proteins, and DNA stores the code for making them.

Making use of these “pre-made” molecular machines — or using them as starting points for new designs — is a popular approach to nanotechnology called “bio-nanotech.”

“Why reinvent the wheel?” Mavroidis says. “Nature has given us all this great, highly refined nanotechnology inside of living things, so why not use it — and try to learn something from it?”

The specific uses of bio-nanotech that Mavroidis proposes in his study are very futuristic. One idea involves draping a kind of “spider’s web” of hair-thin tubes packed with bio-nanotech sensors across dozens of miles of terrain, as a way to map the environment of some alien planet in great detail. Another concept he proposes is a “second skin” for astronauts to wear under their spacesuits that would use bio-nanotech to sense and respond to radiation penetrating the suit, and to quickly seal over any cuts or punctures.

Futuristic? Certainly. Possible? Maybe. Mavroidis admits that such technologies are probably decades away, and that technology so far in the future will probably be very different from what we imagine now. Still, he says he believes it’s important to start thinking now about what nanotechnology might make possible many years down the road.

Considering that life itself is, in a sense, the ultimate example of nanotech, the possibilities are exciting indeed.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Water Ice in a Martian Crater

Perspective view of crater with water ice. Image credit: ESA Click to enlarge
This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA?s Mars Express spacecraft, shows a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole.

The HRSC obtained this image during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 metres per pixel. The unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars’s far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5? North and 103? East.

The crater is 35 kilometres wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometres beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the centre of the crater is residual water ice.

This white patch is present all year round, as the temperature and pressure are not high enough to allow sublimation of water ice.

It cannot be frozen carbon dioxide since carbon dioxide ice had already disappeared from the north polar cap at the time the image was taken (late summer in the Martian northern hemisphere).

There is a height difference of 200 metres between the crater floor and the surface of this bright material, which cannot be attributed solely to water ice.

It is probably mostly due to a large dune field lying beneath this ice layer. Indeed, some of these dunes are exposed at the easternmost edge of the ice.

Faint traces of water ice are also visible along the rim of the crater and on the crater walls. The absence of ice along the north-west rim and walls may occur because this area receives more sunlight due to the Sun?s orientation, as highlighted in the perspective view.

Original Source: ESA Mars Express

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Martian Fossil Finder in the Works

NUGGET instrument. Image credit: NASA Click to enlarge
Astrobiologists, who search for evidence of life on other planets, may find a proposed Neutron/Gamma ray Geologic Tomography (NUGGET) instrument to be one of the most useful tools in their toolbelt.

As conceived by scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., NUGGET would be able to generate three-dimensional images of fossils embedded in an outcrop of rock or beneath the soil of Mars or another planet. Tomography uses radiation or sound waves to look inside objects. NUGGET could help determine if primitive forms of life took root on Mars when the planet was awash in water eons ago.

Similar to seismic tomography used by the oil industry to locate oil reserves beneath Earth?s surface, NUGGET would look instead for evidence of primitive algae and bacteria that fossilized along the edges of extinct rivers or oceans. As on Earth, these remains could lie just a few centimeters beneath the surface, compressed between layers of silt. If a mechanical rover that explores planet surfaces were equipped with an instrument like NUGGET ? capable of peering beneath the surface ? then it might be able to reveal evidence of life beyond Earth.

?This is a brand new idea,? said Sam Floyd, the principal investigator on the project, funded this year by Goddard?s Director?s Discretionary Fund. If developed, NUGGET would be able to investigate important biological indicators of life, and quickly and precisely identify areas where scientists might want to take samples of soil or conduct more intensive studies. ?It would allow us to do a much faster survey of an area,? Floyd said.

The proposed instrument, which could be carried on a rover or a robot lander, is made up of three fundamentally distinct technologies ? a neutron generator, a neutron lens, and a gamma-ray detector.

At the heart of NUGGET is a three-dimensional scanning instrument that beams neutrons into a rock or other object under study. When the nucleus of an atom inside the rock captures the neutrons, it produces a characteristic gamma-ray signal for that element, which the gamma-ray detector then analyzes. It?s also possible to plot the location of the elements.

After this process, information can then be turned into an image of the elements within the rock. By seeing images of certain existing elements, scientists could tell whether a certain type of bacteria had become fossilized inside the rock.

Although the concept of focusing neutrons is not new, the ability to focus them is. Thanks to a Russian scientist who devised the method in the 1980s, scientists today can direct a beam of neutrons through a neutron lens made up of the thousands of long, slender, hair-size glass tubes. The bundle of tubes is shaped so that the neutrons flowing down them can converge at a central point. Since the method?s invention in the 1980s, manufacturing practices have made this type of optical system feasible for space exploration.

The advantage of this technology is that it can create a higher intensity of neutrons at a central point on the object. This increased intensity allows a higher-resolution image to be produced.

Floyd and his co-investigators, Jason Dworkin, John Keller, and Scott Owens, all from NASA GSFC, plan to conduct experiments this summer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) using one of NIST?s neutron-beam lines. By focusing neutrons into various samples (one of which is a meteorite), they hope to make a three-dimensional image of the meteorite’s internal structure.

?If we?re successful, we?ll be in position to say whether a space flight instrument is feasible,? Floyd said, adding that his research should give Goddard the lead role in developing a new class of instruments to support missions for NASA’s search of life in the future.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

NASA’s Prototype Solar Sail Inflates Perfectly

20-meter solar sail. Image credit: NASA/MSFC Click to enlarge
NASA has reached a milestone in the testing of solar sails — a unique propulsion technology that will use sunlight to propel vehicles through space. Engineers have successfully deployed a 20-meter solar sail system that uses an inflatable boom deployment design.

L’Garde, Inc. of Tustin, Calif., deployed the system at the Space Power Facility — the world’s largest space environment simulation chamber — at NASA Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. L’Garde is a technology development contractor for the In-Space Propulsion Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., provided instrumentation and test support for the tests.

Red lights help illuminate the four, outstretched triangular sail quadrants in the chamber. The sail material is supported by an inflatable boom system designed to unfold and become rigid in the space environment. The sail and boom system is extended via remote control from a central stowage container about the size of a suitcase.

L’Garde began testing its sail system at Plum Brook in June. The test series lasted 30 days.

Solar sail technologies use energy from the Sun to power a spacecraft’s journey through space. The technology bounces sunlight off giant, reflective sails made of lightweight material 40-to-100-times thinner than a piece of writing paper. The continuous sunlight pressure provides sufficient thrust to perform maneuvers, such as hovering at a fixed point in space or rotating the vehicle’s plane of orbit. Such a maneuver would require a significant amount of propellant for conventional rocket systems.

Because the Sun provides the necessary propulsive energy, solar sails require no onboard propellant, thus increasing the range of mobility or the capability to hover at a fixed point for longer periods of time.

Solar sail technology was selected for development in August 2002 by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Along with sail system design projects, the Marshall Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are collaborating to investigate the effects of the space environment on advanced solar sail materials. These are just three of a number of efforts undertaken by NASA Centers, industry and academia to develop solar sail technology.

Solar sail technology is being developed by the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program, managed by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and implemented by the In-Space Propulsion Technology Office at Marshall. The program’s objective is to develop in-space propulsion technologies that can enable or benefit near- or mid-term NASA space science missions by significantly reducing cost, mass and travel times.

For more information about solar sail propulsion, visit:
http://www.inspacepropulsion.com

For more information about L’Garde, Inc. and its solar sail system, visit:
http://www.lgarde.com/

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Stars Have More Neon Than Previously Believed

Illustration of Convection in Sun-like Star. Image credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss. Click to enlarge
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory survey of nearby sun-like stars suggests there is nearly three times more neon in the sun and local universe than previously believed. If true, this would solve a critical problem with understanding how the sun works.

“We use the sun to test how well we understand stars and, to some extent, the rest of the universe,” said Jeremy Drake of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. “But in order to understand the sun, we need to know exactly what it is made of,” he added.

It is not well known how much neon the sun contains. This is critical information for creating theoretical models of the sun. Neon atoms, along with carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, play an important role in how quickly energy flows from nuclear reactions in the sun’s core to its edge, where it then radiates into space.

The rate of this energy flow determines the location and size of a crucial stellar region called the convection zone. The zone extends from near the sun’s surface inward approximately 125,000 miles. The zone is where the gas undergoes a rolling, convective motion much like the unstable air in a thunderstorm.

“This turbulent gas has an extremely important job, because nearly all of the energy emitted at the surface of the sun is transported there by convection,” Drake said.

The accepted amount of neon in the sun has led to a paradox. The predicted location and size of the solar convection zone disagree with those deduced from solar oscillations. Solar oscillations is a technique astronomers previously relied on to probe the sun’s interior. Several scientists have noted the problem could be fixed if the abundance of neon is in fact about three times larger than currently accepted.

Attempts to measure the precise amount of neon in the sun have been frustrated by a quirk of nature; neon atoms give off no signatures in visible light. However, in a gas heated to millions of degrees, neon shines brightly in X-rays. Stars like the sun are covered in this super-heated gas that is betrayed by the white corona around them during solar eclipses. However, observations of the sun’s corona are very difficult to analyze.

To probe the neon content, Drake and his colleague Paola Testa of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., observed 21 sun-like stars within a distance of 400 light years from Earth. These local stars and the sun should contain about the same amount of neon when compared to oxygen.

However, these close stellar kin were found to contain on average almost three times more neon than is believed for the sun. “Either the sun is a freak in its stellar neighborhood, or it contains a lot more neon than we think,” Testa said.

These Chandra results reassured astronomers the detailed physical theory behind the solar model is secure. Scientists use the model of the sun as a basis for understanding the structure and evolution of other stars, as well as many other areas of astrophysics.

“If the higher neon abundance measured by Drake and Testa is right, then it is a simultaneous triumph for Chandra and for the theory of how stars shine,” said John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. Bahcall is an expert in the field who was not involved in the Chandra study. Drake is lead author of the study published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.

Original Source: Chandra News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Shuttle Mission is Safe So Far

Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off Launch Pad. Image credit: NASA/KSC Click to enlarge
NASA’s Space Shuttle Return to Flight mission (STS-114) is under way. Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 10:39 a.m. EDT.
“We know the folks on planet Earth are just feeling great right now,” said Discovery’s commander Eileen Collins from orbit.

During their 12-day mission to the International Space Station, Collins and her six fellow astronauts will test new techniques and equipment designed to make Shuttles safer. They’ll also deliver supplies and make repairs to the Space Station after Discovery docks on Thursday.

“I want you to think about what it takes to get millions of different parts from thousands of vendors across the country to work together to produce what you saw here today and to realize how chancy it is, how difficult it is, at what a primitive state of technology it still is,” said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. “This team managed to do it, and I think a large debt of appreciation is due to them. They have worked as hard as any team in NASA history.”

Discovery’s first launch attempt July 13 was postponed because of problems related to a liquid hydrogen low-level fuel sensor inside the external fuel tank. Hundreds of engineers across the country worked to analyze and understand the issue. The sensor system was repeatedly tested during today’s launch countdown, and it performed without a problem.

The STS-114 Return to Flight mission is the first step in realizing America’s Vision for Space Exploration, which calls for a stepping-stone strategy of human and robotic missions to achieve new exploration goals. The Shuttle will be used to complete assembly of the International Space Station. The Station remains a vital research platform for human endurance in space, a test bed for technologies and techniques that will enable the longer journeys to the moon, Mars and beyond.

For the latest information about the STS-114 mission on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Astronomy Camp Adventures

A view of the observatories atop Mount Lemmon’s summit. Image credit: Yvette Cendes. Click to enlarge.
Welcome to the world of astronomy camp. Every year, the University of Arizona astronomy camps host teenagers, adults, and educators from around the world. Taking place on Mount Lemmon, a mountain with numerous astronomical instruments near Tucson, Arizona, the camps allow the participants to become ?guest astronomers? from being housed in the professional astronomers? dormitories to learning how to use the various computer programs. The campers even get to do their own research using telescopes and instruments that would turn most professionals green with envy: a 12? equipped with a CCD camera, a 40? with a photometer, a 60? with an imager, and even a 61? with a spectrometer on nearby Mount Bigelow.

This year, the 2005 Advanced Teen Camp took place for nine days in late June and early July. The campers were diverse: 28 campers evenly divided between male and female, ranging from age 14 to age 18, from sixteen states and one foreign country. Each camper had to write an essay and have a letter of recommendation to be accepted, and all the campers arrived in Tucson excited but nervous about what to expect. ?We want this to be the best week of your life,? said Dr. Don McCarthy, a Steward Observatory astronomer and director of astronomy camp. By the last day, most campers agreed that it had been just that.

Before astronomy camp began, the campers were encouraged to begin brainstorming project ideas for research they would like to conduct during the week. The campers then had two days to refine ideas before they were written as proposals and submitted to the camp?s Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC), which then figured out an observing schedule on each telescope for the remainder of the week. After all the data had been collected and analyzed, the camp culminated on the last day with a miniature conference where each group presented their findings.

The projects that were carried out during astronomy camp varied in incredible amounts and showed just what the campers were interested in from imaging galaxies to finding the properties of planetary nebulae. One group was on the 61? every night taking data from quasars, which yielded things such as the distance and velocity of each object after careful calculation. Another group, which became all too painfully aware that astronomy is filled with problems, went through three different types of instrumentation before finally getting usable data on an asteroid?s light curve.

The campers even made observations that contributed to cutting edge astronomical research. Armed with the imaging capabilities of the 60? and the help of the Catalina Sky Survey, the campers tracked the movements for several Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and conducted a search for Near Earth Objects (NEOs). The KBO group was successful in tracking the KBOs and even recovered a previously lost object. The NEO group topped even that: after ?blinking? several hundred images taken of the same parts of the sky at various times the group not only recovered several lost NEOs but discovered a completely new one themselves! The newly discovered asteroid, 2005 MG5, was discovered on the nearest point of its orbit to Earth, and was followed up on by several other observatories around the world. Not bad for a few teenagers still in high school!

When not observing or sleeping off the effects of staying up all night (to the excitement of any teenager, the campers did not have to wake before noon) the days were filled with lectures on various astronomical topics from the camp counselors on everything from the properties of reflecting telescopes to the Deep Impact mission. There was also time to observe our nearest star, the Sun, through numerous safe ways including pinhole projection and through a hydrogen alpha filter. The days were rounded off with other interesting activities, such as watching astronomy-related Simpsons episodes and numerous chess duels.

In the middle of camp, there was a break from the usual schedule for an overnight trip to Mount Graham International Observatory, which houses the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), the Sub-Millimeter Telescope (SMT), and the Vatican Observatory (jokingly referred to as the ?pope scope?). This caused great excitement among the campers for good reason: the LBT will become the largest telescope in the world upon completion with its twin 8.4m mirrors, the first of which saw first light in 2004. Not only did the campers sleep in the telescope building, they got to see the building open up at sunset! To top it off, the campers had the opportunity to use the SMT telescope, observing various objects throughout the night in radio wavelengths not available on Mount Lemmon.

Before the campers knew it, it was the last day of camp and graduation was being held in downtown Tucson in the additional company of camper relatives. While handing out the certificates, however, the campers were roasted a little by the counselors, who singled out campers for everything from ?The Falsetto Award? to ?Greatest Fruit Lover? and ?Best Impersonation of Spock.? After numerous hugs all around and sorrowful goodbyes, the campers left for homes scattered around the globe. Would there be another reunion sometime in the future? It is likely: down the line most campers end up in the most top-notch universities, and many continue on in similar engineering and science fields. Not surprisingly, many even go on to become the next generation of astronomers, citing their week in Arizona as the primary inspiration in their decision.

What does the future hold for astronomy camp? It appears the program will soon be expanding: numerous plans are in the works for Mount Lemmon, including a brand-new 2.4 meter telescope exclusively for camp use. In the world of astronomy camp, the sky is truly the limit.

Visit the Astronomy Camp website

Written by Yvette Cendes

Posted on by Mark Mortimer

Book Review: Einstein’s Miraculous Year

Einstein and his works need little explanation. Suffice it to say that he almost jumped out of nowhere to stand tall in the field of physics. His five papers of 1905, by themselves, could stand together on their own as a worthwhile publication. In them, Einstein apparently argues what some consider two sides of the same coin. On side has things composed of particles. Therefore, Newtonian mechanics can provide great insight. On the other side, fields, especially magnetic and electric, cause an effect over distance without the support of a median. Altogether, the papers in the book include; his dissertation on the determination of molecular dimensions, molecular-kinetic theory of heat (Brownian motion), the electrodynamics of moving bodies, the inertia of a body depending on its energy content, and the production and transformation of light.

The forward by Roger Penrose highlights the different thought processes necessary for Einstein to consider both particle and field effects. And herein is the true benefit of this book. Both Penrose and Stachel emphasize the scope, significance and importance of Einstein’s contributions in light of the status of knowledge of physics at that time. The names of other people doing investigations, as well as the state of their progress, provides powerful insight into Einstein’s originality and capability. For example, Penrose draws upon the history of luminaries like Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, and Bohr for his depiction of the significance of Einstein’s amazing insight and prescience,

In addition to this forward, John Stachel provides a brief biography of Einstein. He mostly bases this on written records with the intent of portraying Einstein’s thought process and his method of achieving his advances. Also, to address some controversy, he adds a section discounting the contributions of Einstein’s wife, Mileva Maric. To instill a feeling of authenticity, Stachel includes many references either directly from source (Einstein’s personal letters) or from people who had first hand interactions with Einstein himself.

Don’t forget that Einstein was German. Hence, all his papers needed translation and they were freshly redone for this publication. The translator’s goal was ‘to render Einstein’s scientific writings accurately into modern English but to retain the engaging and clear prose style of the originals’. Accompanying the papers are ‘the historical essays and notes that deal with his contributions to relativity theory, quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics’. The translator seems to have done a superb job, as the papers are simple and easy to read, with little evidence of having been originally authored in another language.

This ease in reading may be surprising given the aura that surrounds Einstein. But don’t let this discourage you. The book mostly uses qualitative imagery with equations only copied directly from Einstein’s papers. Einstein himself gives a thorough and readily comprehensible explanation, as demonstrated by his frequent use of mental imagery to solve and depict problems. This is likely the true source of the ease. There is no need for the reader to have a strong background in physics to understand the concepts. The math is neither overwhelming nor extensive and does not pose an impediment to comprehension. As well, given Einstein’s aura, it is interesting to note the number of errors in the original papers as clarified by the endnotes.

In all, this is a great compilation. The shear scope of the papers themselves is truly captivating. Their implications given the state of the art at the times and even today is quite astounding. The bravery and nervousness of Einstein the person comes out quite clearly. This book succinctly captures one amazing step for humankind, the challenges of the physical sciences and the onward march of our comprehension. The reader can’t help but be left in awe with the realization that all the contents were completed by one of our human race and all within the time frame of one year.

The name of Einstein brings to most everyone’s mind, the image of a stellar individual who almost singled handedly made significant advances in physics. A hundred years later, we can appreciate his contributions even more. For those seeking to grasp some more of the man and a lot more of the science, read John Stachel’s book, Einstein’s Miraculous Year. Read it to grasp the credence of the ability of our species and the contributions that we continually make to our comprehension of the universe within which we live.

Click here to visit Amazon.com and read more reviews online or purchase a copy.

Review by Mark Mortimer

Posted on by Fraser Cain

On Saturn’s Darkside

Saturn’s splendid rings made visible by sunlight. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI. Click to enlarge
This view shows the unlit side of Saturn’s splendid rings made visible by sunlight filtering through the rings from the lit side. Light from the illuminated side of the rings brightens the night side of the planet’s southern hemisphere with “ringshine” (seen here at lower right). The feeble glow from transmitted light dimly illuminates the planet’s northern half.
Saturn’s shadow stretches across the rings toward lower left.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 8, 2005, at a distance of approximately 477,000 kilometers (296,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 25 kilometers (15 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Original Source: NASA/JPL/SSI News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Space Telescope Could Unfold in Space

Collimation testbed of the Dobson telescope. Image credit: Tom Segert. Click to enlarge
A novel suitcase-sized telescope could revolutionise the way we see the Earth and other planets. ESA has supported the work of a group of students in developing the Dobson Space Telescope, being tested this month aboard ESA’s parabolic flight campaign aircraft.

This experimental prototype launches in a compact configuration and then unfolds to provide a cost-effective space telescope. It could lead to fleets of low-cost telescopes, bigger than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Large payloads are difficult to put into space because they are usually heavy and expensive to launch. Now a revolutionary design of unfolding telescope, inspired by telescopes used by amateur astronomers, is ready to enter a phase of detailed testing. If successful, it could dramatically reduce the cost of placing telescopes in space.

The telescope is a project of the Department of Astronautics at the Technische Universit?t Berlin, Germany. “We called our project the Dobson Space Telescope because we borrowed the idea from the Dobsonian telescopes used by amateur astronomers,” says project manager Tom Segert, who has recently completed his degree at TU Berlin. Dobsonian telescopes are often comprised of two mirrors, held the correct distance apart by long poles. They can be dismantled and transported by car to a good observing site, where there are reassembled with nothing more complicated than a screwdriver.

In space, however, a screwdriver is useless unless you have an astronaut to turn it and so Segert plans to use a motor to unfold his telescope. Working on a shoestring budget, his first prototype used inflatable bicycle tyres to push the mirrors into position. When this proved incapable of aligning the telescope optics, Segert turned to metal truss rods and micromechanics to unfold everything into its correct place.

Using a grant from ESA’s General Studies Programme, Segert and other TU Berlin students have written a full technical report and built a prototype for testing in this month aboard ESA’s parabolic flight campaign aircraft. As the aircraft flies special manoeuvres, the prototype will experience periods of free-fall that mimic the conditions in space. During this time, Segert will test the telescope?s ability to unfold. Eventually, Segert hopes for a demonstration mission in space.

Currently, space-based observations account for just one tenth of the commercial Earth observation market. The rest is supplied by aeroplane reconnaissance, which is much cheaper. Space observations cost 20 Euros per kilometre whereas aeroplane data is twenty times cheaper. Segert believes that cost-effective Earth observation microsatellites, based on his telescope design, will allow all users access to space images.

There is also nothing to stop a Dobson Space Telescope from turning its attention from Earth to the wider cosmos. In fact, Segert imagines the first missions could ‘timeshare’ between Earth and astronomical observation. “When the telescope flies into the shadow of the Earth and so can’t take pictures of the ground, we could turn it around and observe astronomical targets,” he says.

Future versions could be sent to other planets. As the telescope is so lightweight, it could be mounted on a Mars Express-sized spacecraft and used to take pictures showing details as small as 30 cm across on the Martian surface.

Although the prototype contains a respectable 50 cm-diameter mirror, Segert believes that it can scaled up in the future to achieve space telescopes bigger than the Hubble Space Telescope but still at a fraction of the cost. “If we did that,” says Segert, “the astronomers would be in heaven.”

Original Source: ESA Portal