Astronomy Portal: Most Recent Blog Posts

PTTU Blog Posts

• Flooding in Pakistan
  NASA: Earth Observatory News: Acquired on July 30, 2010 (top), and June 5, 2010 (bottom), these images show flooding along the Indus River in Pakistan.
  
  
• Earth from the Moon
  NASA: Earth Observatory News: Orbiting the Moon 372,335 kilometers away from Earth, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of Earth on June 12, 2010.
  
  
• Briefs: Commercial spaceflight assessment; NASA's quiet chief
  HobbySpace RLV Space & Transport News: A report from NewSpace 2010 on attitudes in the commercial space industry about the legislative in the administration's plan for commercial crew: Advocates Assess Legislative Setback for Commercial Space - SpaceNews.com - July.30.10 === Despite the on-going battle over the NASA budget recently, Charles Bolden has continued to keep a very low profile following the hoopla over his comments about NASA outreach to Muslim countries. A reader notes,though, that at least we can be certain that he will be visible by September - in Prague: Space Generation Congress 2010.
  
  
• Galaxies spiralling out of control
  Galaxy Zoo Blog: Today’s OOTW features Alice’s OOTD, posted on the 29th of July. AHZ40004wr from Hubble Zoo This is AHZ40004wr, a galaxy residing in the constellation Taurus around 3 billion light years away. It’s a wonderful spiral galaxy, and following its spiral arms is a large dust lane, a place full of young stars and stars that are only just being formed. AHZ40004wr by Swengineer Zooite Swengineer gave us a wider view of AHZ40004wr and the surrounding galaxies by working with the FITS images and revealed the mess of galaxies above. The main spiral galaxy in the background is 2MASS J03324999-2734330, an X-ray source according to SIMBAD, and it is also around 3 billion light years away. You can view more images of these galaxies here and here, and to work with the FITS files I recommend DS9 or Aladin, which I used to find the other galaxies details. And to highlight a request from Alice’s OOTD, Alice would very much like to know if anyone could write any FITS and image editing tutorials on the galaxy zoo forum.
  
  
• NASA Ames Makes Payloads Out of Phones and Toys
  NASA Watch : Cheaper, Better Satellites Made From Cellphones and Toys, Wired "Instead of investing in their own computer research and development, engineers at the NASA Ames Research Center are looking to cellphones and off-the-shelf toys to power the future of low-cost satellite technology. The smartphone in your pocket has about 120 times more computing power than the average satellite, which has the equivalent of a 1984-era computer inside. "You can go to Walmart and buy toys that work better than satellites did 20 years ago," said NASA physicist Chris Boshuizen. "And your cellphone is really a $500 robot in your pocket that can't get around. A lot of the real innovation now happens in entertainment and cellphone technology, and NASA should be going forward with their stuff."
  
  
• Space showdown sidetracked
  Cosmic Log: The showdown over America's space policy will have to wait until September at the earliest: House Democrats had considered rushing through passage of a $19 billion NASA authorization bill today, before the start of Congress' August recess. But the leadership decided instead to keep the bill in limbo, in part because Democratic members from California protested. One factor might have been the strong opposition to the House version of the bill that came from advocates of space commercialization. The House bill would have made deep cuts in the Obama administration's request for $6 billion over five years to support the development of private-sector spaceships capable of bringing crew to the International Space Station. However, that's only one factor. Revisions in the measure, sparked by the Congressional Budget Office's criticism of a proposed loan guarantee program for launch companies, complicated efforts to suspend House rules and fast-track the bill to a vote by the full House. What's more, two unions - the American Federation of Government Workers and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers - came out with a jointly written letter that sharply criticized the House bill for its "many serious shortfalls." They urged lawmakers not to try ...
  
  
• House NASA Vote Likely Stalled Until September
  Parabolic Arc: Vote on NASA Bill Appears Unlikely Before September Space News A controversial House NASA authorization bill that appeared headed for a floor vote July 30 has stalled, and it appears unlikely the measure will be taken up before lawmakers leave town for a six-week summer break that begins Aug. 2. (...)Read the rest of House NASA Vote [...] International Space Station Vote on NASA Bill Appears Unlikely Before September Space News A controversial House NASA authorization bill that appeared headed for a floor vote July 30 has stalled, and it appears unlikely the measure will be taken up before lawmakers leave town for a six-week summer break that begins Aug. 2. (...)Read the rest of House NASA Vote Likely Stalled Until September (231 words) © Douglas for Parabolic Arc, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
  
  
• Earth from the Moon
  NASA: Earth Observatory News: Orbiting the Moon 372,335 kilometers away from Earth, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of Earth on June 12, 2010.
  
  
• The Air Force in 2030
  The Daily Planet: Forecasting technology is a notoriously tricky business. In spite of all the predictions, we still don’t have fusion power or flying cars, but in 2010 you can kick around a virtual soccer ball using a handheld camera phone, and who saw that coming? It’s the job of the Air Force Chief Scientist and his colleagues to [...] Brainwave-controlled machines, just one of many changes on the way. Forecasting technology is a notoriously tricky business. In spite of all the predictions, we still don’t have fusion power or flying cars, but in 2010 you can kick around a virtual soccer ball using a handheld camera phone, and who saw that coming? It’s the job of the Air Force Chief Scientist and his colleagues to look around periodically, see what technology is current and what lies just ahead, and try to extrapolate as best they can. The last such planning exercise was in 1995. Now, after a year-long study, the Chief Scientist has come out with a new “Technology Horizons” report, a roadmap to navigating the technological landscape the Air Force can expect between now and 2030. There are enough visionary gizmos in the 171-page report to make any gadget freak’s heart ...
  
  
• USA Begins Process of Mass Space Shuttle Layoffs
  Parabolic Arc: Some space shuttle workers get layoff notice Reuters NASA’s prime space shuttle contractor, United Space Alliance, sent layoff notices this week to more than 15 percent of its 8,100-member shuttle work force, officials said on Tuesday. (...)Read the rest of USA Begins Process of Mass Space Shuttle Layoffs (124 words) © Douglas for Parabolic Arc, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
  
  
• SpaceX Merlin 2 engine, heavy lift designs
  HobbySpace RLV Space & Transport News: Ken Davidian has posted some interesting items on the Commercial Space Wiki: /-- Tom Markusic - SpaceX Overview - Joint Propulsion Conf. - July.28.10 (pptx) History of SpaceX plus some info on plans for heavy lift Falcon X HLV and super heavy Falcon XX /-- Tom Markusic - SpaceX Propulsion - Joint Propulsion Conf. - July.28.10 (pptx) - some details on Merlin 2 engine.
  
  
• More Cool Xombie Video…
  Parabolic Arc: You were expecting the Zombies? Well, as a Friday afternoon treat, here they are…. © Douglas for Parabolic Arc, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
  
  
• It Powers, it Speeds, Now it Steers
  Aviation Week: On Space: Japan's small solar power sail demonstrator, Ikaros, has shown it can steer itself using liquid-crystal devices along its edge that can either reflect or diffuse sunlight. The spacecraft has already proved it's accelerating under light pressure and generating power from solar cells covering its surface - so it's three for three so far.Photo: JAXAThe Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says two things are important for a spinning solar sail like Ikaros: to generate a small attitude control torque constantly without causing the flexible membrane to oscillate; and to control the large angular momentum of a spinning membrane without using propellant.By turning the power to the liquid-crystal devices on and off as the sail spins, to control their reflectivity, Ikaros is able to generate a tiny amount of torque to change its attitude. When reflectivity is reduced, the sunlight pressure on that edge of the sail is reduced, creating a difference in thrust between one side and the other and generating the torque.JAXA confirmed the devices could provide attitude control by measuring the angle between the sail's spin axis and a line connecting Ikaros and the Sun. Before the devices were activated, this Sun angle was gradually increasing. When they were ...
  
  
• It Powers, it Speeds, Now it Steers
  Aviation Week: On Space: Japan's small solar power sail demonstrator, Ikaros, has shown it can steer itself using liquid-crystal devices along its edge that can either reflect or diffuse sunlight. The spacecraft has already proved it's accelerating under light pressure and generating power from solar cells covering its surface - so it's three for three so far.Photo: JAXAThe Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says two things are important for a spinning solar sail like Ikaros: to generate a small attitude control torque constantly without causing the flexible membrane to oscillate; and to control the large angular momentum of a spinning membrane without using propellant.By turning the power to the liquid-crystal devices on and off as the sail spins, to control their reflectivity, Ikaros is able to generate a tiny amount of torque to change its attitude. When reflectivity is reduced, the sunlight pressure on that edge of the sail is reduced, creating a difference in thrust between one side and the other and generating the torque.JAXA confirmed the devices could provide attitude control by measuring the angle between the sail's spin axis and a line connecting Ikaros and the Sun. Before the devices were activated, this Sun angle was gradually increasing. When they were ...
  
  
• 100 million Earths and speculation that the Wow! signal was real
  Alien Life: Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Abodes - A leader of the Kepler planet-hunting team has created a slow-moving scientific stir by telling an audience at a high-tech conference that our galaxy could harbor 100 million Earths, based on the space mission's raw data. The resulting buzz focuses not only on the findings, but also on the means by which they came to light. See article.g Message - Several times over the past 50 years, searchers have picked up radio signals that flashed once or twice, then disappeared. The best known of these is called the "Wow!" signal, because that's what an astronomer who picked it up wrote on a printout from a radio telescope at Ohio State University in the 1970s. SETI searchers went back to the star in question immediately, but heard nothing. It may be well be, suggests scientist Gregory Benford, that we detected extraterrestrials more than three decades ago — and because we weren't taking into account what E.T. would do, failed to confirm it. See article.g Cosmicus - A large asteroid in space that has a remote chance of slamming ...
  
  
• Crew Cleans Up After First Spacewalk, Prepares for Second
  Space Fellowship: As Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko cleaned up after Tuesday morning’s spacewalk, Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson prepared for an August 5 spacewalk. After a successful six-hour, 42-minute spacewalk Tuesday morning Yurchikhin and Kornienko reconfigured tools, the Pirs docking compartment and the Zvezda service module’s transfer compartment. They outfitted the Rassvet module’s Kurs automated rendezvous system, installed cables a [...]
  
  
• JPL begins actively hailing Spirit -- but is trying to manage your expectations (an editorial)
  The Planetary Society Blog: How's this for a heart-stopping headline? NASA's Hibernating Mars Rover May Not Call Home Spirit hasn't talked to Earth since March 22 -- so what new information could they have received that would make them pronounce Spirit's possible death? Is there some new analysis of the last bit of telemetry? Some new model indicating Spirit's survival was less likely than previously thought? Click to enlarge >Spirit at TroySpirit is just a tiny insect ....
  
  
• Blowing in the Wind: Cassini Helps with Dune Whodunit
  Space Fellowship: The answer to the mystery of dune patterns on Saturn's moon Titan did turn out to be blowing in the wind. It just wasn't from the direction many scientists expected. Basic principles describing the rotation of planetary atmospheres and data from the European Space Agency's Huygens probe led to circulation models that showed surface winds streaming generally east-to-west around Titan's equatorial belt. But when NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained the first images of dunes on Titan in 2005, the [...]
  
  
• The Complete Animated Shakespeare
  In the Dark: While I was blathering on about Shakespeare a couple of days ago, I suddenly remembered this marvellous animated film I saw when it was first released over 20 years ago. I couldn’t remember the name so it took me a bit of time to find it, but I got there in the end. It’s by Aardman Animations (best known for the later Wallace and Gromit films) and it was part of a splendid series of animated shorts called Lip-synch commissioned by Channel 4 and broadcast in 1990. It’s hard to imagine Channel 4 doing anything this good nowadays. This film, called Next, is only 5 minutes long yet it manages to refer to every single one of Shakespeare’s plays by having the immortal bard himself do them all as an audition. It’s not only clever and visually appealing but also a lot of fun…
  
  
• Flooding in Pakistan
  NASA: Earth Observatory News: Acquired on July 30, 2010 (top), and June 5, 2010 (bottom), these images show flooding along the Indus River in Pakistan.