Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Mini-Detector Could Find Life on Mars or Anthrax at the Airport

Image credit: ESA
Dr. David Ermer, with his company, Opti-MS Corporation, is currently constructing a miniature Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer that can detect biological signatures at a very high resolution and sensitivity, but yet be small enough to be used for robotic and human applications in space exploration.

Ermer is using an innovative system that he developed at Mississippi State University, and he has received a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to continue his research to build and test his device.

A mass spectrometer is used to measure molecular weight to determine the structure and elemental composition of a molecule. A high-resolution mass spectrometer can determine masses very precisely, and can be used to detect such things as DNA/RNA fragments, whole proteins and peptides, digested protein fragments, and other biological molecules.

A Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (TOF-MS) works by measuring the time it takes for ions to travel through a vacuum area of the device known as the flight tube. Time of flight mass spectrometry is based on the fact that for a fixed kinetic energy, the mass and the velocity of the ions are interrelated. “Electric fields are used to give ions a known kinetic energy,” Ermer explained. “If you know the kinetic energy and know the distance the ions travel, and know how long it takes to travel, then you can determine the mass of the ions.”

Ermer’s device uses Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization, or MALDI, where a laser beam is directed at the sample to be analyzed, and the laser ionizes the molecules which then fly into the flight tube. The time of flight through the tube correlates directly to mass, with lighter molecules having a shorter time of flight than heavier ones.

The analyser and detector of the mass spectrometer are kept in a vacuum to let the ions travel from one end of the instrument to the other without any resistance from colliding with air molecules, which would alter the kinetic energy of the molecule.

A typical sample plate for a TOF-MS can hold between 100-200 samples, and the device can measure the complete mass distribution with one single shot. Therefore, huge amounts of data are created within a very short time interval, with the time of flight for most ions occurring in microseconds.

Ermer’s TOF-MS combines a relatively simple mechanical setup with extremely fast electronic data acquisition, along with the ability to measure very large masses, which is essential in doing biological analysis.

But the most unique aspect of Ermer’s device is its size. The commercial mass spectrometers that are currently available are at least one and a half meters long. That’s a fairly large volume to include on an in-situ scientific vehicle such as the golf car-sized Mars Exploration Rovers or even the larger Mars Science Laboratory Rover scheduled to launch in 2009. Ermer has devised a way to miniaturize a TOF-MS to an amazing 4? inches long. He estimates that his device will have a volume of less than 0.75 liters, a mass of less than 2 kilograms and require less than 5 watts of power.

Ermer used a non-linear optimization technique to create a computer model of a mass spectrometer. There were 13 parameters he input that had to be selected, including the spacing of the different elements in the TOF-MS and the ion acceleration voltages. Using this technique Ermer was able to find some unique solutions for a very short TOF-MS.

“I’m trying to build a Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer that is small enough to actually go in space,” Ermer said. “The main application that NASA is looking at is searching for biological molecules, to find evidence of past life on Mars. They also want to be able to do molecular biology on the space station, although the Mars application has a higher priority. My device should come in under all the requirements that NASA has, as far as the power, size, and weight requirements.”

Ermer also sees potential for his device to be used commercially as well. “What I have is a portable device to measure biological molecules,” he said. “If you were at an airport and found a white powder you’re going to want to know if it is anthrax or chalk dust fairly quickly. So you want a small, fairly cheap, portable device to be able to do that.” In his proposal to NASA, Ermer stated, “The main (commercial) application for miniature TOF-MS is the screening of infectious disease and biological agents. We also believe that the superior performance of our design will allow penetration into the general TOF-MS market.”

Ermer received the $70,000 SBIR award in mid-January, and has already built and tested a larger proof of concept design, which validates the technology that he designed for his TOF-MS. “So far, the tests have gone extremely well,” Ermer said. I have detected molecules up to 13,000 Daltons (Dalton is an alternate name for atomic mass unit, or amu.) The device is operating as designed for masses up to 13,000 Daltons and has mass resolution somewhat better than a full sized device at 13,000 Daltons. We are currently working on detecting mass out to 100,000 Daltons and initial results are promising.”

“Getting the device up and running is probably the biggest hurdle,” Ermer said about the challenges of this project. “A lot of the hard things are done, but the electronics are really difficult. For this device you have to generate high voltage pulses of about 16,000 volts. That was probably the hardest thing we’ve had to do so far.”

The electron multiplier detector is specially designed for miniature time of flight spectrometry by an outside company. Ermer and his own company designed most of the other parts of the device, including the vacuum housing and the laser extractor. Since it’s so small, creating these parts requires very high tolerance machining, which was also done by an outside company.

The NASA SBIR program “provides increased opportunities for small businesses to participate in research and development, to increase employment, and to improve U.S. competitiveness,” according to NASA. Some objectives of the program are to stimulate technological innovation, and to use small businesses to meet federal research and development needs. The program has three phases, with Phase I receiving $70,000 for six months of research to establish feasibility and technical merit. Projects making it to Phase II receive $600,000 for two more years of development, and Phase III provides commercialization of the product.

Ermer is a professor at Mississippi State University. He has been doing research in fields related to mass spectrometry since 1994, and for his PhD thesis at Washington State University, he looked at the energy distributions of ions that are generated in different materials by a laser. For his postdoctoral research at Vanderbilt, he studied the MALDI technique using an Infrared Free Electron Laser. More information about Opti-MS can be found at www.opti-ms.com.

Nancy Atkinson is a freelance writer and NASA Solar System Ambassador. She lives in Illinois.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Sea Launch Delivers XM-3 to Orbit

Sea Launch Company today successfully delivered XM Satellite Radio’s XM-3 satellite to orbit from its ocean-based platform on the Equator, in its first mission of the 2005 manifest. Early data indicate the spacecraft is in excellent condition.

The Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket lifted off at 7:51 pm PST ( 03:51 GMT , Mar. 1), precisely on schedule, from the Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned at 154 degrees West Longitude. All systems performed nominally throughout the flight. The Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 4,703 kg (10,346 lb) XM-3 satellite into an optimized geosynchronous transfer orbit of 2468 km x 35786 km, on its way to an orbital location for routine testing prior to placement in its final orbital position at 85 degrees West Longitude. A ground station in South Africa acquired the spacecraft’s first signal an hour after liftoff, as planned.

Built by Boeing Satellite Systems, International, Inc., the XM-3 satellite is a 702 model spacecraft, one of the most powerful satellites built today, designed to provide 18 kilowatts of total power at beginning of life. Like its sister spacecraft, XM-1 and XM-2 ? also launched by Sea Launch – XM-3 will transmit more than 150 channels of digital-quality music, news, sports, talk, comedy and children’s programming to subscribers across the continental United States.

Immediately following the mission, Jim Maser, president and general manager of Sea Launch, said, “I want to congratulate Boeing Satellite Systems and XM Satellite Radio on today’s successful mission. We are extremely proud to be able to provide another launch for both XM and Boeing and we look forward to continuing our long and mutually beneficial relationships. I also want to congratulate the entire Sea Launch team and thank each individual for their enormous contribution to today’s mission.?

Sea Launch Company, LLC, headquartered in Long Beach, Calif., and marketed through Boeing Launch Services (www.boeing.com/launch), is the world’s most reliable heavy-lift commercial launch service. This international partnership offers the most direct and cost-effective route to geostationary orbit. With the advantage of a launch site on the Equator, the reliable Zenit-3SL rocket can lift a heavier spacecraft mass or provide longer life on orbit, offering best value plus schedule assurance. For additional information and images of this successfully completed mission, visit the Sea Launch website at: www.sea-launch.com

Original Source: Sea Launch News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Supply Ship Blasts Off With Special Camera

Carrying more than two tons of supplies, a Russian cargo spacecraft began a two-day trip to the International Space Station today after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ISS Progress 17 resupply ship launched at 1:09 p.m. CST. Less than 10 minutes later, it settled into orbit and automatic commands deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas.

As the Progress launched, Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov were wrapping up their work day. The Station was flying over the southern Atlantic Ocean west of Cape Town, South Africa at an altitude of 225 statute miles at the time of liftoff.

Engine firings are scheduled later today and tomorrow to raise and refine the Progress’ orbit and its path to the Station for an automated docking at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. CST. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the linkup beginning at 1:30 p.m. CST.

The Progress is carrying more than 2 tons of food, fuel, oxygen, water, spare parts and personal items for the crew. It is filled with 386 pounds of propellant, 242 pounds of oxygen and air, 1071 pounds of water, and more than 2932 pounds of spare parts, life support system components and experiment hardware. The manifest also includes an additional six-month supply of food in 86 containers to replenish the Station pantry. Among the items being carried on the Progress is a new heat exchanger device to replace a faulty component in the U.S. airlock that is needed for the resumption of spacewalks in U.S. space suits this summer.

Also in the Progress are cameras and lenses that will be used by the Expedition 11 crew to capture digital images of the thermal protection system on the Shuttle Discovery during its approach to the Station for docking during the STS-114 mission in May. The photos will be part of the imagery-gathering effort for Return to Flight to insure that the Shuttle has incurred no threatening damage to its tiles or the reinforced carbon-carbon coating on its wings during ascent.

Chiao and Sharipov are scheduled to open the hatch to the Progress a few hours after docking Wednesday to begin unloading its contents.

The Progress spacecraft that had been at the Station since Christmas night was undocked yesterday at 10:06 a.m. CST as the two vehicles flew over eastern Asia. Filled with discarded items, the ship fired its engines after undocking to move to a safe distance away from the Station for 10 days of engineering tests by Russian flight controllers. It will be deorbited on March 9 and will burn up in Earth?s atmosphere.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

What’s Up This Week – Feb 27 – Mar 6, 2005

Image credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF
Monday, February 28 – Let’s start tonight enjoying the early dark skies and go to our maps west of the M36 and M38 to identify AE Aurigae. As an unusual variable, AE is normally around 6th magnitude and resides approximately 1600 light years distant. The beauty in this region is not particularly the star itself but a faint nebula in which it resides known as IC 405, an area of mostly dust and very little gas. What makes this view so entertaining is that we are looking at a “runaway” star. It is believed that AE once originated from the M42 region in Orion. Cruising along at a very respectable speed of 80 miles per second, AE flew the “stellar nest” some 2.7 million years ago! Although the IC 405 is not directly related to AE, there is evidence within the nebula that areas have been cleared of their dust by the rapid northward motion of the star. AE’s hot, blue illumination and high energy photons fuel what little gas is contained within the region as well as reflects off the surrounding dust. Although we cannot “see” with our eyes like a photograph, together the pair form an outstanding view for the small backyard telescope and it is known as “The Flaming Star.”

Tuesday, March 1 – George Abell was born on this day in 1927. Abell was the man responsible for cataloging 2712 clusters of galaxies done with the Palomar sky survey completed in 1958. Using these plates, Abell put forth the idea that the grouping of such clusters distinguished the arrangement of matter in the universe. He developed the “luminosity function”, which shows relationship with brightness and number of members in each cluster, giving rise to distances. Abell also discovered a number of planetary nebulae and developed the theory (along with Peter Goldreich) of their evolution from red giants. Mr. Abell was a fascinating lecturer and a developer in many television series dedicated to explaining science and astronomy in a fun and easy to understand format. Abell was also a president and member of the Board of Directors for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as well as serving on the American Astronomical Society, Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union, and accepted editorship of the Astronomical Journal just before he died.

Would you like to study an Abell galaxy cluster? Then let me sweep you away to Abell 426 just two degrees east of previous study star – Algol. I caution you that this is not an area that can be seen with the average telescope, but for those of you with very large aperture you will find a study region incredibly worth your time and attention. The brightest of this group of galaxies in the NGC 1275 at magnitude 12.7. As an incredible radio source, the NGC 1275 is thought to be two galaxies actually in the process of passing through one another. Depending upon both your seeing conditions and aperture, Abell 426 may reveal anywhere from 10 to 24 small galaxies that range to close to magnitude 15. Given the fact that there are around 233 galaxies in this cluster alone, it’s a privilege to be able to spot a few!

Abell 426 has been a longstanding favourite of mine. It is a curious galaxy cluster in the respect that the finer the night, the more galaxies will reveal themselves. The first study lays right in the field with a star and the NGC 1224 requires wide aversion. It is faint, round, and shows some concentration toward the nucleus with patience. Held indirect, this small galaxy has a UGC-like signature. Next stop on the hop is the NGC 1250 which is very diffuse, small and requires wide aversion. While allowing the eye to bounce around the field, it is possible to make out a slight north/south tilt to this galaxy that may indicate it to be a spiral. Curiously enough, it is during this motion that a pinprick of a nucleus can be detected. Pushing on toward the heart of the Perseus Galaxy cluster, the next destination is a chain of three. First study mark is the NGC 1259. Extreme aversion only… Very, very diffuse and faint, it can only be caught by focusing attention on the tiny star in the westward drift. The NGC 1260 only requires slight aversion, however. It is small and somewhat diffuse – definitely ovoid in structure – as well as the easiest to see of these three! The NGC 1264 also requires very wide aversion. Very faint and diffuse, very round – and very challenging! Now, triangulating with this series, it’s time to go for the NGC 1257 – very faint, diffuse and small with a concentration toward the core, it holds a little surprise – there’s a tiny star at the northeast end that allows one to see upon wide aversion that the galaxy itself seems to migrate to the northeast/southwest.

From here we have the option of continuing on the same trajectory or doing a lateral “move”. Past experience dictates that maps don’t always reveal everything there is to be seen in such a cluster including galaxies that masquerade as stars. The “heart” of Abell 426 is so dense that identification is extremely difficult! The NGC 1271 skirts the most populated part of this Abell cluster and requires super wide aversion to detect a very faint, very small patch that is barely visible. Even experience can draw nothing more than a slightly regular contrast change in this area. Next up is an extremely challenging triple – the NGC 1267, NGC 1268 and NGC 1269 are three incredibly tiny, very diffuse round gems that would be totally indistinguishable at lower power. NGC 1273 is faint – it requires aversion, but the brighter core region holds up to indirect vision. The NGC 1272 is also round – almost planetary in appearance. The NGC 1270 is very diffuse and takes wide aversion. It contains a very small, almost stellar nucleus. NGC 1279 is faint, diffuse, and stretches just ever so slightly, like a thin smear held at slight aversion to the north/south. It is even with no nucleus present. The NGC 1274 is very faint and very diffuse, even, and is best seen while concentrating on the NGC 1279 – revealing an incredibly small, misty oval. The NGC 1275 is very bright compared to all the previous studies. It most definitely has a bright and easily held direct nucleus. Going for a pair, we find the NGC 1282 to be diffuse, slight in size and quite ovoid – very even in structure with no hint of a nucleus even a full avert. The companion, NGC 1283, is very diffuse and we probably couldn’t see it except for there are some small field stars that triangulate in this area that leads to its foggy apppearance. Now for the NGC 1294 and NGC 1293 – wide aversion shows two round fuzzies with prickly nucleus structure. The pair looks like two impossibly small dandelions waiting to be scattered on the cosmic winds…

Best of luck on your Abell quest!

Wednesday, March 2 – How about tonight if we relax a bit and look for an open cluster that is viewable in binoculars and small scopes for the majority of both the northern and southern hemispheres? Our marker for this hop will be Xi Puppis and you will find M93 approximately two finger-widths (two degrees) northwest and almost right on the galactic equator.

Cataloged by Charles Messier in March of 1781, this wonderfully bright grouping (overall magnitude 7) of around 80 stars contains a wealth of various stars types that are roughly around 3400 to 3600 light years away. In binoculars the view is incredibly rich, but a telescope adds so much more! Towards the center, the viewer will note a wedge-shaped collection. At the heart of this is an easy double star and another on the western edge. The very brightest of these stars are young, hot and blue with a stellar population quite similar to the Plieades. How old you ask? A very modest one million years….

Thursday, March 3 – Get up early! There will be occultations galore for North America! Starting with the east coast, the Moon will occult Sigma Scorpii in the wee hours. Check out IOTA for specifics. On a broader note, (and the same morning!) the Moon will also occult Antares just a few hours later. It doesn’t matter if you are not into critical timing, you really should take advantage of this opportunity. Watching this kind of event is incredibly inspiring – even if you just view it with your eyes!

Tonight let’s try something a bit different! We’ll be heading about a degree and a half south/southwest of Alpha Monocerotis to find a magnitude 10 open cluster known as Melotte 72. Achievable in a good 6 to 10 inch scope, this loose collection of around 50 or so stars appears in a wonderful “delta wing” pattern! Continuing another degree and a half south will bring you to 7th magnitude Melotte 71. Easily capturable in the small scope, this unique small cluster contains around 100 stars. Remember where you found them, for this will be our guide to other studies!

Friday, March 4 – In 1835, Giovanni Schiaparelli opened his eyes for the very first time and opened ours with his accomplishments! As the director of the Milan Observatory, Schiaparelli (and not Perceval Lowell) was the fellow who popularized the term “Martian canals” somewhere around the year 1877. Far more importantly, Schiaparelli was the man who made the connection between the orbits of meteoroid streams and the orbits of comets almost eleven years earlier!

How about if we take a look at some comets tonight?

C/2004 Q2 Machholz is still holding strong and still viewable with just binoculars. Happily turning around Polaris, the “Magnificent Machholz” will be quite near the Cepheus/Camelopardalis border. C/2003 K4 LINEAR is still within large binocular range and can be found north of Tau 5 Eridanus. C/2005 A1 LINEAR makes a spectacular morning appearance for the small scope just south of Alpha Apus. In the north, comet C/2003 T4 LINEAR should have brightened to magnitude 9 and be very near Kappa Delphini in the hours before dawn. 141P/Machholz scoots into Aquarius for those around 40 degrees just after sunset, but will be a challenge at magnitude 10. Break out the big scopes and see if you can pick out 12th magnitude 78P/Gehrels so close to Theta 1 and Theta 2 Tauri… And since you’ve got the power out, take a look at 32P Comas/Sola just a few degrees from the Plieades!

Saturday, March 5 – Today is the birthday of Gerardus Mercator, famed mapmaker, who started his life in 1512. Mercator’s time was a rough one for astronomy, but despite a prison sentence and the threat of torture and death for his “beliefs”, he went on to design a celestial globe in the year 1551. If you are up early this morning, you can see the lunar feature named for Gerardus! While the most prominent crater of all will be Gassendi, we will use it as our starting point and head south. The dark expanse of Mare Humorum comes next and south of it and on the terminator you will find a heart-shaped area known as Palus Epidemiarum. On its northern shore you will see the outlined circle of crater Campanus. On this crater’s southeast border and mostly shadowed is the remains of Mercator!

Tonight let’s head back to Alpha Monocerotis. Remembering our “drop” for Mel 71 and 72, continue south about 2 more degrees. In the finderscope, you will see an L-shaped collection of 4 stars. Going to the eyepiece at low power – wide field, you are in for a double treat as we view two open clusters. The northernmost is NGC 2423, but the most interesting (and bright!) is more commonly known as M47.

M47 was known long before Messier’s time because it approaches unaided eye visibility. When Charles discovered this 5th magnitude beauty February 19, 1771 he described it as a brighter neighbor of the M46, but incorrectly logged its position! Thus was born the “missing Messier” until 1934 when Oswald Thomas identified it. It’s rather funny to note that because of a “messy mistake” that William Herschel also discovered it some fourteen years later! Even the later Herschel and Dreyer had problems with this one… But you won’t have any problems as you view this bright cluster in either binoculars or telescope! It is a loose open cluster around 78 million years old that contains around 50 stars of various magnitudes in a region about the same size of the full moon. At roughly 1600 light years away, you might even get a glimpse of an orange giant or two, along with beautiful double Sigma 1121 in its center!

Sunday, March 6 – Although almost no one likes to get up early on a Sunday morning, set your alarm for around 5:00 am. and carpe diem! This morning the splendid remaining crescent of the Moon will put on a spectacular showing called a “conjunction” with the Red Planet – Mars! You’ll find the stars of summer have quietly moved since since we viewed them last and Mars is now in Sagittarius. Shining every bit as brilliant as its namesake, Antares, Mars will be just a bit more than a fist’s width (6 degrees) above the Moon. Don’t miss it!

If you get a chance to see sunshine today, then celebrate the birthday of Joseph Fraunhofer who was born in 1787. As a German scientist, Fraunhofer was truly a “trailblazer” in terms of modern astronomy. His field? Spectroscopy! After having served his apprenticeship as a lens and mirror maker, Fraunhofer went on to develop scientific instruments, specializing in applied optics. While designing the achromatic objective lens for the telescope, he was watching the spectrum of solar light passing through a thin slit and saw the dark lines which make up the “rainbow bar code”. Fraunhofer knew that some of these lines could be used as a wavelength “standard” so he began measuring. The most prominent of the lines he labeled with letters that are still in use today! His skill between optics, mathematics and physics led Fraunhofer to design and build the very first diffraction grating which was capable of measuring the wavelengths of specific colors and dark lines in his solar spectrum. Did his telescope designs succeed? Of course! His work with the achromatic objective lens is the design still used in modern telescopes!

And for our “pasta resistance” of the week? Let’s head right back to the area we’ve been studying and go about a degree and a half east/south east of the M47. Tonight we’ll be studying an object that once again is viewable to most of the northern and southern hemisphere and is bright enough to be caught in binoculars. Its name? M46!

Discovered on February 19, 1771 by Charles Messier, the M46 opened a new chapter for our hero as he had just published his first list. At a visual magnitude of 6, this rich galactic cluster could contain up to 500 members and is around 300 million years old. Slightly smaller than a lunar diameter, it will appear as a “dust ball” (along with the M47) to binoculars, but holds a wonderful surprise for the telescope! On its northern border is a “bright star” which under power turns into planetary nebula, NGC 2438. Is it actually part of the M46? Well, science thinks not. The planetary nebula is actually receding far faster than the stars around it. On the average, the M46’s distance is about 4600 light years, while the nebula is around 2900. The planetary itself takes more than a billion years to reach this point in evolution and our stellar “swarm” just isn’t quite that old! No matter how we “slice and dice” this particular deep sky object, the fact remains… We get two for the price of one! Two Messiers in the field for binoculars – and two DSOs in the field of view for telescopes!

Hey! Isn’t it great to enjoy dark skies again? I love the Moon, but there’s no place like space! Until next week? May all your journeys be at light speed! … ~Tammy Plotner

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Cargo Ship Ready for Liftoff with Station Supplies

The crew members aboard the International Space Station are winding down a week that saw them preparing for the arrival of a new cargo spacecraft and helping achieve a milestone in Station robotics operations, which has the potential for long-term exploration applications.

Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov spent part of the week packing the Russian Progress supply spacecraft with trash and other items no longer needed on the Station. They closed the hatch between Progress and the Zvezda Service Module this morning in advance of the ship’s undocking Sunday.

The unpiloted spacecraft will be undocked Sunday at 11:06 a.m. EST. A pair of engine firings will place the vehicle in an orbit a safe distance away from the Station to allow Russian flight controllers to conduct engineering tests before it is commanded to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on March 9 and burn up. The Progress arrived at the Station in December, bringing food and supplies to Chiao and Sharipov.

The next Progress that will be sent to the Station, will be moved to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan tomorrow for final preparations for its liftoff Monday at 2:09 p.m. EST. After a two-day journey, docking is scheduled on Wednesday, March 2, at 3:15 p.m. EST. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the docking beginning at 2:30 p.m. EST. This will be the 17th Progress to dock with the Station.

The new Progress is loaded with more than two tons of supplies and food, including 2,932 pounds of spare parts, equipment, experiment hardware and life support system gear, 386 pounds of propellent, 242 pounds of oxygen and air, and 1,071 pounds of water. Eighty six food containers are also loaded into the Progress, good for more than 160 days of additional provisions in the Station’s pantry above what is already on board.

Among the other key U.S. items being carried to the Station on the supply ship is a new heat exchanger device for the cooling of U.S. spacesuits in the Quest Airlock. It will replace a heat exchanger that introduced rust in the suits last year, canceling Station spacewalks out of the U.S. segment. The new component will be installed by Chiao next month and checked out by the next crew, Expedition 11, to permit the airlock to be used again this summer. Also being delivered are digital cameras and lenses that the Expedition 11 crew will use to collect imagery of the heat-protective tiles of the Shuttle Discovery during its approach to the Station during this spring’s Return to Flight mission, STS-114, prior to docking. That imagery will assist in helping mission managers determine whether Discovery’s thermal protection system is intact and able to support a safe return to Earth.

Earlier today, engineers completed a two-day test of new software that was loaded into the Canadarm2 robotic arm last month to allow remote control operation of the space crane from Mission Control, rather than by the crew on board. The test was declared a success.

Chiao stood by at the robotic work station in the Destiny laboratory, ready to take over manual operation of the arm if necessary, but the automated commands loaded into the arm enabled Canadarm2 to move effortlessly throughout the demonstration. Its shoulder and wrist joints and its latching end effector were all exercised, verifying a new capability that may yield valuable data for designers of more complex robotic hardware for spacecraft that will support the Vision for Space Exploration.

Chiao also installed a rotor pump in one of the U.S. space suits on the Station today to configure it properly for its return to Earth on the STS-121 Shuttle mission to the outpost targeted for mid-July.

On the research front, Chiao conducted a session this week with the Dust and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test, or DAFT. The experiment, developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is designed to test the effectiveness of a device that counts ultra-fine dust particles in a microgravity environment. This is a precursor to the next generation of fire detection equipment for space exploration vehicles.

The device, called a P-Trak®, counts the dust particles by passing dust-laden air through a chamber of vaporous isopropyl alcohol. When a droplet of alcohol condenses over an ultra-fine dust particle, the particle becomes large enough to break the light beam and be counted. NASA’s payload operations team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center coordinates science activities on Space Station.

Information about crew activities on the Space Station, future launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from Earth, is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

The next International Space Station Status report will be issued on Monday, Feb. 28 following the ISS Progress 17 launch, or earlier if events warrant.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Mark Mortimer

Book Review: Patrick Moore: The Autobiography

For those unaware, Patrick Moore or officially, Sir Patrick Moore, is the host of British Broadcasting Corporation’s “The Sky at Night”. He has been hosting this live television show regularly for in excess of 45 years, consisting to date of more than 600 programmes. He brought eclipses, lunar landings, and sinking eggs to a couple of generations of avid space buffs. He started on this trail well before rocketry came into vogue, and, by being in the right place at the right time (or putting himself there), he has managed to get acquainted with many of the luminaries of the field. But like any true person, he has a less than stellar side that he’s not afraid to show. He remains very opinionated about Germans and Italians because of his experiences in World War II. He worships cricket despite his noted lack of distinction. And he has a particular loathsome appreciation for things bureaucratic. The resulting open and honest self-appraisal, coupled with an energetic and vivid writing style, makes this book a real treat.

For the most part, the text follows a chronological sequence. An apparently difficult childhood is glossed over though the source of his love for astronomy appears to have started from reading a related book when he was six year old. Apparently he was about 30 when astronomy became part of his career. Thereafter follows a steady progression of book writings, speeches, occasional forays into directing a planetarium and, of course, presentations on the television show. Remember that while rocketry was in its infancy, television was not significantly further along. This, coupled with a live performance, made for many hilarious sounding spectacles. Studio sessions were perhaps a bit more sedate, but challenges arose. Imagine having a last minute guest star that, as it turns out, cannot speak English or any other language known by the host. Field sessions were, understandably enough, much more open to the elements. Clouds covered eclipses moments before totality, or camera operators focussed on their own subject instead of the sun’s dancing chromosphere. But it isn’t the events that take the spotlight in the book, it is Sir Patrick’s reflections of them which if not always humourous are, nevertheless, vibrant.

For those who know a bit about Sir Patrick because of his very public presence, the book can provide a deeper insight. A fair amount of his involvement with cricket gets in, though I must admit that with my lack of understanding of the game, I was usually at a loss. Still when he describes his throwing style as likened to that of a wallaby doing a barn dance, I get the picture. Also, there are many references to British leaders, activities of the European Union and changes to British society that I, as a North American, probably don’t appropriately appreciate. However, I can certainly feel the sorrow and loss Sir Patrick describes upon the enforced cessation of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. His other pastimes include playing musical instruments, especially the xylophone, and performing in amateur theatre productions. With all this, a reader can readily appreciate that Sir Patrick had a much fuller and rounder life than purely reporting on astronomical topics.

There is a slight sense of choppiness in the writing style. Perhaps because it is due to Sir Patrick typing the full manuscript on a typewriter that is older than he was. Nevertheless, the many years experience of writing books, papers and presentations serves him well because the result is a pleasant, easy reading prose that can often leave the reader laughing out loud. Seldom seen words like ‘bowdlerized’ appear, but quite rarely. Also, though ostensibly chronological, there is some jumping to and fro as well as the occasional repetition. In spite of this, there is no difficulty in reading, rather much enjoyment.

Autobiographies can and should give a glimpse into a person’s soul. Patrick Moore in his book Patrick Moore, The Autobiography does this in style. In noting down opinions and conjectures rather than emphasizing facts and events, the reader can readily understand who Sir Patrick is. And given the lack of self import and the flavourful writing style, there is both fun and insight of a principal character who undertook and is still undertaking solid service in the outreach of space and astronomy.

To get your own copy, visit Amazon.co.uk.

Review by Mark Mortimer

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Rainbows on Titan

When the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe visited Saturn’s moon Titan last month, the probe parachuted through humid clouds. It photographed river channels and beaches and things that look like islands. Finally, descending through swirling fog, Huygens landed in mud.

To make a long story short, Titan is wet.

Christian Huygens wouldn’t have been a bit surprised. In 1698, three hundred years before the Huygens probe left Earth, the Dutch astronomer wrote these words:

“Since ’tis certain that Earth and Jupiter have their Water and Clouds, there is no reason why the other Planets should be without them. I can’t say that they are exactly of the same nature with our Water; but that they should be liquid their use requires, as their beauty does that they be clear. This Water of ours, in Jupiter or Saturn, would be frozen up instantly by reason of the vast distance of the Sun. Every Planet therefore must have its own Waters of such a temper not liable to Frost.”

Huygens discovered Titan in 1655, which is why the probe is named after him. In those days, Titan was just a pinprick of light in a telescope. Huygens could not see Titan’s clouds, pregnant with rain, or Titan’s hillsides, sculpted by rushing liquids, but he had a fine imagination.

Titan’s “water” is liquid methane, CH4, better known on Earth as natural gas. Regular Earth-water, H2O, would be frozen solid on Titan where the surface temperature is 290o F below zero. Methane, on the other hand, is a flowing liquid, of “a temper not liable to Frost.”

Jonathan Lunine, a professor at the University of Arizona, is a member of the Huygens mission science team. He and his colleagues believe that Huygens landed in the Titan-equivalent of Arizona, a mostly-dry area with brief but intense wet seasons.

“The river channels near the Huygens probe look empty now,” says Lunine, but liquids have been there recently, he believes. Little rocks strewn around the landing site are compelling: they’re smooth and round like river rocks on Earth, and “they sit in little depressions dug, apparently, by rushing fluids.”

The source of all this wetness might be rain. Titan’s atmosphere is “humid,” meaning rich in methane. No one knows how often it rains, “but when it does,” says Lunine, “the amount of vapor in the atmosphere is many times that in Earth’s atmosphere, so you could get very intense showers.”

And maybe rainbows, too. “The ingredients you need for a rainbow are sunlight and raindrops. Titan has both,” says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley.

On Earth, rainbows form when sunlight bounces in and out of transparent water droplets. Each droplet acts like a prism, spreading light into the familiar spectrum of colors. On Titan, rainbows would form when sunlight bounces in and out of methane droplets, which, like water droplets, are transparent.

“Their beauty [requires] that they be clear….”

“A methane rainbow would be larger than a water rainbow,” notes Cowley, “with a primary radius of at least 49o for methane vs 42.5o for water. This is because the index of refraction of liquid methane (1.29) differs from that of water (1.33).” The order of colors, however, would be the same: blue on the inside and red on the outside, with an overall hint of orange caused by Titan’s orange sky.

One problem: Rainbows need direct sunlight, but Titan’s skies are very hazy. “Visible rainbows on Titan might be rare,” says Cowley. On the other hand, infrared rainbows might be common.

Atmospheric scientist Bob West of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains: “Titan’s atmosphere is mostly clear at infrared wavelengths. That’s why the Cassini spacecraft uses an infrared camera to photograph Titan.” Infrared sunbeams would have little trouble penetrating the murky air and making rainbows. The best way to see them: infrared “night vision” goggles.

All this talk of rain and rainbows and mud makes liquid methane sound a lot like ordinary water. It’s not. Consider the following:

The density of liquid methane is only about half the density of water. This is something, say, a boat builder on Titan would need to take into account. Boats float when they’re less dense than the liquid beneath them. A Titan-boat would need to be extra lightweight to float in a liquid methane sea. (It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Future explorers will want to visit Titan and boats could be a good way to get around.)

Liquid methane also has low viscosity (or “gooiness”) and low surface tension. See the table below. Surface tension is what gives water its rubbery skin and, on Earth, lets water bugs skitter across ponds. A water bug on Titan would promptly sink into a pond of flimsy methane. On the bright side, Titan’s low gravity, only one-seventh Earth gravity, might allow the creature climb back out again.

Back to boats: Propellers turning in methane would need to be extra-wide to “grab” enough of the thin fluid for propulsion. They’d also have to be made of special materials resistant to cracking at cryogenic temperatures.

And watch out for those waves! European scientists John Zarnecki and Nadeem Ghafoor have calculated what methane waves on Titan might be like: seven times taller than typical Earth-waves (mainly because of Titan’s low gravity) and three times slower, “giving surfers a wild ride,” says Ghafoor.

Last but not least, liquid methane is flammable. Titan doesn’t catch fire because the atmosphere contains so little oxygen–a key ingredient for combustion. If explorers visit Titan one day they’ll have to be careful with their oxygen tanks and resist the urge to douse fires with “water.”

Infrared rainbows, towering waves, seas beckoning to sailors. Huygens saw none of these things before it plopped down in the mud. Do they really exist?

“…there is no reason why the other Planets should be without them.”

Original Source: Science@NASA

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Cassini Images Saturn’s Radiation Belts

Using an innovative camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have captured images of a radiation belt inside the rings of Saturn and have the clearest picture yet of the planet’s giant magnetosphere, according to a mid-year report of the spacecraft published today in the journal Science.

The Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit in July 2004, kicking off a four-year study of the sixth planet from the sun. Among the 12 science instruments on the spacecraft is the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) — developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) — which scientists are using to study the energetic charged particle environment at Saturn and obtain images of the ringed planet’s magnetosphere.

“Every time we fly a new instrument in space, it reveals new vistas of whatever object we happen to be studying,” says Dr. Stamatios (Tom) Krimigis, principal investigator for the MIMI experiment, of APL.

This time, says Krimigis, the MIMI instrument has enabled scientists to “visualize the invisible” — to “see” the plasma and radiation belts in Saturn’s environment in an image; to discover that the belts are more intense on the night-side of the planet; that there is an unexpected radiation belt inward of the “D” ring, the fourth major ring closest to the tenuous upper atmosphere of the planet; and that there is a virtual soup of ions that derive from the dissociation of water, most likely due to radiation impacting the rings.

These images were captured during Saturn orbit insertion with MIMI’s Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA), which measures the three-dimensional distribution, velocities and rough composition of magnetospheric and interplanetary ions for regions in which the energetic ion fluxes are very low. It also provides a global view of the energetic neutral emission of hot plasmas in the Saturnian magnetosphere, measuring the composition and velocities of those energetic neutrals for each image pixel.

“By detecting various energetic particles and discriminating among them according to energy and mass, the camera is able to obtain remote images of the global distribution of these particles,” says Dr. Donald Mitchell of APL, who leads the camera science team.

“Using INCA, we also discovered a radiation belt in a place where no spacecraft can go — inside the planet’s rings,” says APL’s Dr. Ed Roelof, a coinvestigator on the MIMI team. “We never knew this belt existed, but we saw it and were able to determine some of its properties and characteristics.”

The properties of the main radiation belts are perhaps among the more significant of the findings, says Dr. Doug Hamilton of the University of Maryland , College Park, who led the instrument team measuring the composition. “It’s comprised mostly of oxygen and water products,” he says. “That is most likely the result of the bombardment of the planet’s rings and the icy moons by the radiation trapped in Saturn’s magnetic field. And by this bombardment, the water is released and it becomes charged.”

According to Krimigis, the ability to visualize a planet’s magnetosphere will enable scientists to better monitor space weather. “This will benefit science and, in the case of Earth, may lead to space weather forecasts that will give advance warning of electromagnetic storms, which in the past have disrupted communications and crippled electrical power grids.”

In addition to Krimigis, Mitchell and Roelof, research team members at APL and co-authors on the Science paper, “Dynamics of Saturn’s Magnetosphere from MIMI During Cassini’s Orbital Insertion,” include Stefano Livi, Barry Mauk, Christopher Paranicas, Pontus Brandt, Andrew Cheng, Teck Choo, John Hayes, Stephen Jaskulek, Edwin Keath, Martha Kusterer, David LaVallee, Richard McEntire, Joachim Saur, Franklin Turner and Donald Williams.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA. The MIMI team includes investigators and expertise from APL; the University of Maryland, College Park; University of Kansas, Lawrence; University of Arizona, Tucson; Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J.; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Lindau, Germany; and the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in Toulouse, France.

Original Source: JHU News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Saturn Has Oxygen But No Life

Image credit: Hubble
Data from the Cassini-Huygens satellite showing oxygen ions in the atmosphere around Saturn’s rings suggests once again that molecular oxygen alone isn’t a reliable indicator of whether a planet can support life.

That and other data are outlined in two papers in the Feb. 25 issue of the journal Science co-authored by University of Michigan engineering professors Tamas Gombosi, J. Hunter Waite and Kenneth Hansen; and T.E. Cravens from the University of Kansas. The papers belong to a series of publications on data collected by Cassini as it passed through the rings of Saturn on July 1.

Molecular oxygen forms when two oxygen atoms bond together and is known in chemical shorthand as O2. On Earth, it is a continual byproduct of plant respiration, and animals need this oxygen for life. But in Saturn’s atmosphere, molecular oxygen was created without life present, through a chemical reaction with the sun’s radiation and icy particles that comprise Saturn’s rings.

“That means you don’t need biology to produce an O2 atmosphere,” Waite said. “If we want indicators to use in the search for life on other planets, we need to know what to look for. But oxygen alone isn’t it.”

Because Saturn’s rings are made of water ice, one would expect to find atoms derived from water, such as atomic oxygen (one atom) rather than O2, Waite said. However, the paper, called “Oxygen Ions Observed Near Saturn’s A Ring,” suggests the formation of molecular oxygen atmospheres happens more often in the outer solar system than expected. There is earlier evidence of molecular oxygen atmospheres elsewhere in the solar system?for instance above the icy Galilean moons of Jupiter?he said.

Four U-M College of Engineering faculty members are involved in the Cassini mission to explore Saturn’s rings and some of its moons. Waite leads the team operating the ion and neutral mass spectrometer, the instrument that detected and measured the molecular oxygen ions. Other team members are J.G. Luhmann of the University of California, Berkeley; R.V. Yelle, of the University of Arizona, Tuscon; W.T. Kasprzak, of the Goddard Space Flight Center; R.L. McNutt of Johns Hopkins University; and W.H. Ip, of the National Central University, Taiwan.

A second, viewpoint paper called, “Saturn’s Variable Magnetosphere,” by Hansen and Gombosi, who is chair of the College of Engineering’s department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, reviews key findings from the other Cassini teams, including new information that contradicts data gathered 25 years ago, when the space craft Voyager passed by the planet.

Original Source: UMICH News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Wallpaper: Panoramic View of Saturn

While cruising around Saturn in early October, Cassini captured a series of images that have been composed into the largest, most detailed, global natural color view of Saturn and its rings ever made.

This grand mosaic consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering one end of Saturn’s rings to the other and the entire planet in between. The images were taken over the course of 2 hours on October 6, 2004, while Cassini was approximately 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Saturn. Since the view seen by Cassini during this time changed very little, no re-projection or alteration of any of the images was necessary.

Three images (red, green and blue) were taken at each of 42 locations, or ?footprints?, across the planet. The full color footprints were mosaicked together to produce a final product that is 8,888 pixels across and 4,544 pixels tall.

The smallest features seen here are 38 kilometers (24 miles) across. Many of Saturn’s splendid features noted previously in single frames taken by Cassini are visible in this one detailed, all-encompassing view: Subtle color variations across the rings, the thread-like F ring, ring shadows cast against the blue northern hemisphere, the planet?s shadow making its way across the rings to the left, blue-grey storms in Saturn’s southern hemisphere to the right and tiny Mimas and even smaller Janus (both faintly visible at lower left).

The Sun-Saturn-Cassini, or phase, angle at the time was 72 degrees; hence, the partial illumination of Saturn in this portrait. Later in the mission, when the spacecraft?s trajectory takes it far from Saturn and also into the direction of the Sun, Cassini will be able to look back and view Saturn and its rings in a more fully-illuminated geometry.

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 Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.

Original Source: NASA/JPL/SSI News Release