Universe Today

Children Will Pilot Rover on Mars

Mars Surveyor 2001 will contain a rover piloted by a group of children on Earth. Over 100 children will be selected for this project, some of whom will be able to pilot the rover, and others who’ll design micro-experiments attached to the outside of the rover.

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Pink Black Holes Discovered

Australian astronomers have discovered a strange category of black holes which appear pink in telescopes. What’s causing this pink glow is unknown, but the astronomers suspect it has something to do with the violent effect black holes have on nearby stars as they suck streams of gas away.

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Controllers Attempting to Recover Orion 3

Stuck in the wrong orbit, Orion 3 is next to useless, and may re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. Ground controllers are attempting to raise the satellite, and put it into a stable (although still useless) orbit. Investigations also continue to determine why the launch failed.

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Russian Service Module Gets a New Name

The Russian Service Module for the International Space Station was recently renamed to Zvezda, which is Russian for “star”. This follows the tradition of colorful names for all the ISS modules, and so Zvezda joins renamed Unity, Zarya, and Kibo.

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Another Asteroid Belt Could be Close

British Astronomers feel that there’s a possibility that there’s another asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Earth. Possibly ejected from the more stable belt between Mars and Jupiter, these could pose a significant threat to our planet.

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Lockheed Martin Orders Inquiry into Launch Failures

Hot on the heels of the official US Air Force investigation into the recent rash of launch failures, Lockheed CEO Peter Teets has ordered wide-ranging review of the company’s launch programs. The names of dozen members of the investigation group will be announced next week.

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Why Isn’t the Universe Anti-Matter?

Scientists around the world are planning a group of experiments to better determine the nature of anti-matter. Particle accelerators in California, Chicago, and Japan will each perform experiments to investigate the key differences between matter and anti-matter, which could answer why the universe is mostly made of matter, and not the reverse.

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All US Rockets Grounded

After a terrible string of launch failures – six failures in nine months – the US space industry has undertaken a detailed investigation to learn what could be causing the problems. The failures have cost US taxpayers billions of dollars. No further launches will happen until the investigations are complete.

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Space Station Relations Improve

Despite a difference of opinion regarding Yugoslavia, Russia is completely onside with the development of the International Space Station – it just lacks the money. Although it suffered a year-long delay, the station’s living quarters are now complete, and will be launched into space this fall.

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Mercury Salvage Crew Loses Submarine

Rough Atlantic seas snapped a cable to the Mercury salvage team’s remote-controlled submarine, sending it to the bottom with the capsule. Plans are now underway to rescue the submarine first before continuing the salvage of the capsule.

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Dark Globule Found in Milky Way

Astronomers have discovered an extremely dark region of the Milky Way where there are no visible stars. It’s likely to be a dark cloud of gas and dust which astronomers have termed “dark globules”. This particular region is known as Barnard 68.

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Delta III Launches Incorrectly

The third launch mishap in less than a month, the Orion 3 satellite was placed into an incorrect orbit by the upper stage of its Delta III rocket. This launch was delayed 5 times, and the previous launch ended in disaster when the rocket exploded shortly after takeoff.

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Insurance too Expensive for Russian Module

Although it’s completed the newest component of the International Space Station, Russia can’t afford the $125,000 it will cost to insure it, and plans to launch without insurance. Perhaps not so wise considering the recent rash of mislaunches.

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Mexican Satellite Failure

Mexican satellite Solidaridad I developed a problem stopping pager service for clients of the telecommunications company. Pager traffic has been transferred to other satellites while engineers fix the problem.

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Getting to Mars on Anti-Matter

NASA scientists are considering this Star Trek fuel for the first manned mission to Mars. Although such a journey is many years away, the scientists believe they’ll have a working system within 2 years. With anti-matter, a single gram of fuel would provide the same boost as 23 Space Shuttle tanks.

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Moonbase Sites Considered

Searching for the best spot for a future moon base, ESA researchers believe that a spot near the moon’s south pole is ripe for colonization. Potentially located near patches of comet ice, and under near continual sunlight, the spot is a relative oasis.

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Mercury Capsule Found!

A Florida salvage operation has found the prize they were searching for: Gus Grissom’s Mercury space capsule. The Liberty Bell 7 was found 3 miles under the ocean, 300 miles off shore. The salvagers will return within a few weeks to raise the capsule to the surface.

Texan Considers Caribbean Spaceport

Texas entrepreneur, Andy Beal, is investigating the potential of developing a remote Caribbean island into a new spaceport, capable of launching rockets as large as the Ariane 5. The plans are controversial; however, as the island is a key nesting ground for Caribbean seabirds.

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Titan Mishaps Affecting Other Launches

Because of the three Titan IVB launch disasters, the Air Force has postponed the launch of the Delta III as well. This is because both rockets share the same upper stage engine system, which caused satellites to be placed into incorrect orbits.

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Landsat Pictures Arrive

Only newly-launched, Landsat 7 is already delivering high-resolution images of our planet. The satellite has twice the resolution of its predecessors, and will be able to map changes in the environment with great detail.

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Surveyor Finds Magnetic Stripes on Mars

Mars Global Surveyor has found formations of magnetic rock on Mars that closely resemble magnetic streaks on Earth. Although it’s now geologically a dead planet, these formations indicate the Mars could have had plate tectonics in the past.

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New Space Shuttle Cockpit Installed

NASA recently unveiled a completely new Space Shuttle cockpit for Atlantis. Similar to a Boeing 777, the instrument panels are now LCD display screens which give the pilots much easier access to the Shuttle’s many functions.

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Milstar Satellite Failure

Officials announced that the latest Air Force launch has ended in complete failure. The Defense Department’s Milstar satellite, launched on a Titan Four-B rocket was stranded in a lopsided orbit, 15,000 miles too low. The $1.2 Billion cost for the satellite and rocket was completely wasted.

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NASA Unveils X-34 Space Plane

NASA’s new X-34 robotic space plane was unveiled on Friday. Designed as a testbed for new technologies, the X-34 will launch from an airliner and travel 8 times the speed of sound, and rise to an altitude of 76 kilometers. There are 27 flights planned for the first year of operations.

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IKONOS Never Made it to Orbit

Telemetry from the recent launch of the IKONOS 1 space imaging satellite indicates that it was never placed into orbit, and likely burned up in the atmosphere, or crashed into the South Pacific Ocean. This is the first unsuccessful launch of an Athena II rocket since they were first operational in 1997.

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Weather Satellite Preparing for Launch

The latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GEOS) is being prepared for a May 15th launch from Cape Canaveral. Designed to provide forecasters with advance warning of weather conditions, the satellite will act as a backup for the two GEOS already in orbit.

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New Evidence Shows Galactic Collisions More Common

A new imaging technique has allowed astronomers to discover a greater number of galactic collisions than was previously known. Astronomers believe that spiral galaxies with thick bars of stars are formed from these hits (and near misses).

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Congress Considers Launch Insurance Coverage

Commercial launch companies are currently required to pay several hundred million dollars of insurance in case there’s an accident on launch – the government extends this with an additional $1.5 billion of coverage. Congress is considering how long to continue this coverage, if at all.

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Businessman May Pay for Mir Flight

To help cover maintenance costs, Russian officials have agreed to let a British businessman pay $100 million for a week-long trip on the Mir spacestation. There is some confusion about the status of the deal, though, and it could have been prematurely announced by eager Russian dealmakers.

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IKONOS Goes Missing

Technicians lost contact with the IKONOS high-resolution imaging satellite shortly after liftoff. The satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, was launched from Vandenberg Air Base on an Athena II rocket, and it’s unknown whether the satellite made it to orbit intact.

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Chandra Delay Announced

Because it was designed to use the same Inertial Upper Stage as the Air Force’s misplaced satellite, NASA has decided to delay the launch of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory until a detailed investigation has been completed. Chandra was originally planned for launch July 9th.

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Next Delta Launch Attempt Scheduled

In the ongoing soap opera of launch attempts to get the Orion 3 satellite into orbit, Boeing has rescheduled the Cape Canaveral facility for May 3rd. This will be their 4th attempt to loft the satellite – a software glitch aborted the Delta III rocket from firing last time.

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High-Resolution Satellite to Launch

The first commercial high-resolution imaging satellite it due to launch tomorrow. Launching on a Lockheed Martin Athena II four-stage booster, the IKONOS will be capable of resolving images down to 1 square meter. With its polar orbit, the IKONOS will revisit the same territory every 3 days.

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Mir’s Staying Up, Service Module Complete

Following its announcement of raising Mir’s orbit, and synched up with the completion of the International Space Station service module, Russian officials have confirmed that the space station will stay in space. Work on the ISS has been delayed 18 months due to Russian financial difficulties.

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Spaceports Looking for Construction Locations

Entrepreneurs are vying for a chance to build the commercial hub for the next century – a spaceport. With over 1,700 satellites planned for launch in the next 10 years, developers are eyeing many US sites for future spaceports.

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Japanese Space Station Module Named

The Japan National Space Development Agency has found a name for its addition to the International Space Station. Previously the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), it has been renamed to “Kibo”, the Japanese word for “Hope”.

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Blanket Could be Blocking Surveyor’s Hinge

Engineers are trying to determine what’s causing the malfunctioning hinge on the Mars Global Surveyor – the latest suspect is a thermal blanket that could be restricting the hinge’s movement. Whether or not they fix the problem, Surveyor will start a mapping mission of Mars next week.

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Mir Moving to Higher Orbit

Plans are being drawn up by Russian space officials to move Mir to a higher orbit. This indicates Russia’s willingness to continue operating the ancient spacestation, even though NASA is pressuring them to abandon it, and focus development on the International Space Station.

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Scientists Search for Extreme Life

Scientists are travelling to Antarctica to find life living in extreme conditions around our South Pole – such as creatures that dwell in thermal vents, 4 miles under the surface of the ocean. The research study is part of the National Science Foundation’s “Life in Extreme Environments” (LExEn) program.

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May Will Bring Mars Closest in 9 Years

A rare astronomical event will occur in May – Mars will be the closest it ever gets, only 52.8 million miles. In addition, the Red Planet is in opposition, which means its face is completely lit up by the Sun. Amateur astronomers will be able to see normally obscure features like the polar caps and canyons.

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