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About NASA’s Curiosity Rover Mission @ Mars ….

June 25, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

The Curiosity rover mission team celebrates the landing of the car-size robot on the surface of Mars at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012.

On Aug. 5, 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down on the surfaceof Mars. Its mission: To find out if Mars could have once supported life. Nearly two years later, the car-size rover’s prime mission officially came to an end on Tuesday, June 24.

That doesn’t mean Curiosity will be put out to pasture. She’ll still be doing science on Mars and returning crucial data about the atmosphere and surface of the cold, red planet.

As the main investigation comes to a close, we spoke to chief scientist John Grotzinger, who has been directing the mission from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He talked about Curiosity’s biggest discoveries and one of the darkest moments during the mission.

[A lightly edited transcript of the interview follows]

Business Insider: How are you feeling now?

John Grotzinger: We feel really great about what we’ve been able to do. We’re hopeful that NASA will continue the mission. We are in the stretch of the fastest driving that we’ve done the entire mission so far. Now we’re trying to get toward Mount Sharp. We’ve had 16 papers published and two papers in Science magazine. We met all of the goals in advance. It doesn’t feel like mission over.

This is the first self-portrait Curiosity took after landing on Mars. It’s a bit fuzzy, but the pictures got better as the mission progressed.

BI: The last two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, also outlived their prime mission, by many, many years. Why is the main investigation so short if you know the machines can beat these expectations and how long do you expect Curiosity to last?

JG: NASA defines a set of objectives that the spacecraft is supposed to achieve within a timeframe, which was one Mars year or a little less than two years for Curiosity. The warranty on Curiosity expires in June, but we can see Curiosity’s vital signs working really well so we expect it to keep going. Curiosity is different than past rovers because it doesn’t have solar power, it has nuclear power. The way we generate power is that the radioactive device generates heat. There’s a device called the thermocouple, which converts heat to electricity. We can monitor its lifespan. We know we are going to get another good five years. After another seven years, we are going to be generating enough power to keep vehicle going, but not too much more. In 10 years, we expect to see significant degradation.

BI: What is the Curiosity team going to do now?

JG: A lot of team is now going to transition over to the Mars 2020mission. That’s the year it’s going to launch. I’m going to stick with Curiosity and make sure we make it to the base of Mount Sharp.

BI: How do you feel attached to Curiosity besides being the lead investigator?

JG: You can’t help but become emotionally attached to these robots even though they are mechanical devices. When something happens to Curiosity we not only feel the impact of the vehicle on Mars, but also on collective collaboration here. We watch everything she does. We watch the previous Mars rover, Opportunity, as she gets older and the same thing will eventually happen to Curiosity.

BI: Can you sum up the top three discoveries of the prime mission?

JG: The number one thing would be discovering evidence of habitability, meaning that we found an ancient environment where microorganisms could have lived and reproduced. If life ever evolved on Mars, this would have been place of it.

The second would be discovering and confirming something that had been guessed at in the 1970s: Mars lost a lot of its atmosphere billions of years ago. It became the planet it is today probably around 3 billion years ago.

Third, the place that we discovered that was habitable was younger than what we thought. What we though had been the “goldilocks window,” the time when the planet was habitable, was broader than what we thought before.

BI: Is there one day throughout the mission or challenge you faced that you would never want to relive again?

JG: Back in December, we had just published a series of papers that had proven the evidence of habitability early on. It even made the cover of Science. Two days later, I was alerted of pictures that showed thewheels had holes in them. The place we had landed in was very hazardous to the wheels. We got a flat on Mars. We developed a strategy to work around it and now are safely driving. But I would not want to go through that again. We had to stop driving when what we wanted to be doing was driving. We went from the greatest emotional high to the greatest emotion low in two days. It would have been nice to bask in glow of success a little longer.

The red circles highlight tears in one of Curiosity’s tires.

BI: In the first year of the mission you said something to a reporter about a discovery that Curiosity made, which got picked up by other media (including us) and somewhat blown out of proportion. What have you learned about the power of social media in this process?

JG: Social media is a wonderful thing. The overwhelming majority is so positive because the things you discover can be shared. We made the decision to return all images so people get to enjoy Mars the way they want. You do have to learn to be careful and explicit about what you mean.

BI: How soon do you think we’ll be able to put a person on Mars?

JG: The first thing we have to do is figure out how to bring rocks back. The difference between the moon and Mars is that the moon is a small body. With propulsion, it doesn’t take much energy to get off he surface. But Mars is big and it has gravity. You have to learn how to build a vehicle that can go to Mars, land successfully, and then lift off. But first we have to figure out the simple challenge of taking a 20 kilogram rock and lifting it off the surface of the planet.

BI: Do believe in programs like Mars One?

JG: In principle it’s possible.

BI: How are celebrating the end of the prime mission?

There’s going to be a big celebration on June 26. Engineers feel like they have delivered on their promise and built a vehicle that lasted a long time. Yes, there will be champagne.

Curiosity weighs about 1 ton and is around the size of SUV.

BI: Where is Curiosity going now?

We have 4 to 6 months of driving and are making great progress. We’re going to try to get to Mount Sharp by the end of the calendar year.

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Source::::Business Insider AU

Natarajan

Image of the Day…” Brazil at Night ” !!!

June 24, 2014Natarajan1 Comment

View from space: Brazil’s World Cup cities at night

Here’s a satellite view of the 12 Brazilian cities hosting World Cup games.

View larger. | Image credit: NASA

Hey World Cup addicts … Where are all those cities we’re hearing about?

This satellite view of Brazil at night shows the 12 cities hosting World Cup games this summer: Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Fortaleza, Cuiabá, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.

Brazil is big, by the way. It’s the largest country in South America and the fifth largest in the world by area (8.5 million square kilometers). Brazil stretches more than 4,000 kilometers (2500 miles) from north to south and from east to west.

Via NASA Earth Observatory

Source:::: earth sky news site

Natarajan

Image of the day… Laser Message From ISS…

June 23, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

International Space Station sends a laser message from space

On June 5, astronauts aboard ISS used a beam of laser light to send an HD video to researchers waiting below.

Anyone who remembers dialup internet can sympathize with the plight of NASA mission controllers. Waiting for images to arrive from deep space, slowly downloading line by line, can be a little like the World Wide Web of the 1990s. Patience is required.

A laser on the International Space Station (ISS) could change all that. On June 5, 2014, the ISS passed over the Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, California, and beamed an HD video to researchers waiting below. Unlike normal data transmissions, which are encoded in radio waves, this one came to Earth on a beam of light. Matt Abrahamson, who manages the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said:

It was incredible to see this magnificent beam of light arriving from our tiny payload on the space station.

Better known as OPALS, the experimental laser device was launched to the space station onboard a Space-X Dragon spacecraft in the spring of 2014. Its goal is to explore the possibility of high-bandwidth space communications using light instead of radio waves. If successful, researchers say OPALS would be like an upgrade from dial-up to DSL, achieving data rates 10 to 1,000 times higher than current space communications.

So far so good.

The entire transmission on June 5 lasted 148 seconds and achieved a maximum data rate of 50 megabits per second. It took OPALS 3.5 seconds to transmit a single copy of the video message, which would have taken more than 10 minutes using traditional downlink methods. The message was sent multiple times during the transmission. Abrahamson said:

The video is an homage to the first output of any standard computer program: ‘Hello, World.’

Because the space station whips around Earth at 17,500 mph, laser-tagging a telescope on the fast-moving ground below can be tricky. To accomplish the precision tag-up, a laser at the ground station illuminated the station. OPALS responded by sending its own 2.5 watt encoded laser signal right back in the same direction, carrying the HD video. During the 148-second transmission, OPALS maintained pointing to the ground station within 0.01 degrees while tracking at speeds up to 1 degree per second. Abrahamson commented:

NASA missions collect an enormous amount of data out in space. Laser communications is a faster alternative for getting those data to the ground.

With this demonstration, we’re paving the way for the future of communications to and from space.

Bottom line: On June 5, astronauts aboard ISS used a beam of laser light to send an HD video to researchers waiting below. The experimental laser device aboard ISS is known asOPALS. Its goal is to explore the possibility of high-bandwidth space communications using light instead of radio waves.

Via NASA

Source::::earth sky news site

Natarajan

Image of the Day… Earth Seen From Mars & Mars Seen From Earth !!!

June 20, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Click on the picture for a larger view. To learn more about viewing Earth in Mars’ sky, see the postCuriosity rover sees Earth and moon from Mars. To learn more about viewing Mars in Earth’s sky, see EarthSky’s February 2014 guide to the five visible planets.

Source::::Earth sky news site

Natarajan

Have a Look at The Customozied Jumbo Jets of Billionaires !!!

June 18, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Boeing

Boeing 747-8 custom interior with 4786 sq. ft. of space.

The $65 million Gulfstream G650 may be the pinnacle of the private jet market, but it just doesn’t do the job for billionaires who prefer to fly with more than a dozen or so passengers.

For that, the uber wealthy turn to Airbus and Boeing, who are more than happy to customize their jets — even the widebodies that can carry hundreds of people — for private use.

Commercial jet manufacturers have been replacing the rows of economy seats in their aircraft with sofas and entertainment centers since the late 1990s. A recent influx of billionaires from Russia, the Middle East, and China has led to a new focus on this part of the business. Since opening the private jet branch in 1997, Airbus has sold over 170 aircraft. Boeing got started in 1996, and has delivered on 195 of 217 total orders received.

The main reason to go with an Airbus A380 or a Boeing 747 over a puny Gulfstream or Bombardier? According a “Billionaires Study” commissioned by Airbus, the wealthiest among us like to travel with family members and business associates. (This, apparently, is particularly true for Middle Eastern oil magnates.)

That’s not to say outfitting a jumbo jet for personal use is always a rational economic decision. For some, the bigger and more luxurious the plane, the better. That’s why Airbus and Boeing don’t just sell their planes, they offer a wide variety of customization options to give customers exactly what they want.

So how much does a personalized widebody plane cost? The manufacturers don’t exactly publish price lists, but we’ve seen figures between $80 million for a Boeing 737, $280 million for a Boeing 747-8, and up to $300 million for an A380.

Here’s a look at what’s available for billionaires ready to spend that big a pile of dough:

Boeing

Boeing 787 interior ready for conversion.

Airbus

Airbus A319 Corporate Jet.

Deer Jet

Deer Jet owned Boeing with bedroom suite and shower.

Boeing

Boeing interior with shower and king-sized bed.

Boeing

Boeing 747-8 with sleeping space for 8.

Airbus

Airbus A318 Corporate Jet.

Airbus

Airbus Asian market interior with mahjong table.

Boeing

Boeing interior shower.

ACJ319_Acropolis_Aviation_on_VVIP _angled_view_1

Airbus

Airbus A319 custom interior.

Source:::: Business Insider Select.au

Natarajan

Image of the Day …

June 13, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

View from space: New York City

Astronaut’s view of New York, New York.

View larger. | Image credit: NASA

Check out the way the narrow island of Manhattan, between the Hudson River and the East River, looks from the International Space Station (ISS). The photo was taken on May 5 by the Expedition 39 crew. Central Park looks pretty green – playing fields appear as white dots. The two darker zones are where the tallest buildings of Midtown and the Financial District cast long shadows even in this early afternoon view.

Via NASA Earth Observatory

Source:::: earth sky news site

Natarajan

Watch the Earth’s Orbit Flash by in Seconds….First Ever Vine video From ISS !!!

June 10, 2014June 10, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Vine was created by Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman over the weekend
Timelapse condenses 92-minute orbit into the span of around six seconds
Sun never sets because ISS’ orbit is in alignment with the ‘terminator’ line
Terminator line marks barrier between light and dark on Earth’s surface
This happens up to four times a year but is most common around the time of the summer solstice

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) can see as many as 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24-hour period.

But on some occasions, the location of the station means the sun never sets at all, providing stunning views for the crew on board.

Now, Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman has revealed this incredible sight from orbit, in the first ever Vine video to be sent from space.

The timelapse condenses a 92-minute orbit into the span of around six seconds showing the space station hurtling around the planet at 17,500 mph (27,600 km/h).

WHAT CAUSES A NEVER-SETTING SUN?

In certain orbits of the Earth, the sun never sets on the ISS because the space station is in alignment with the day/night terminator line.

This line marks the barrier between light and dark on the surface of the Earth.

In this scenario, something known as the ‘beta angle’ increases. This is the imaginary line between the sun and the path of the ISS around Earth.

When beta angle exceeds 69º, it is in constant sunlight. This happens two to four times a year and is most extreme near the summer solstice on June 21.

The timelapse condenses a 92-minute orbit into the span of around six seconds showing the space station hurtling around the planet at 17,500 mph (27,600 km/h).

The sun never sets because the space station’s orbit comes into alignment with the day and night terminator line.

This marks the barrier between light and dark on the surface of the Earth.

In this scenario, something known as the ‘beta angle’ increases. This is the imaginary line between the sun and the path of the ISS around Earth.

Writing in the Weather Centre blog, Tony Rice explained that as the beta angle gets higher, the time the ISS is in sunlight also increases.

The sun never sets because the space station’s orbit comes into alignment with the day and night terminator line. This marks the barrier between light and dark on the surface of the Earth

During this period, the so-called ‘beta angle’ increases. This is the imaginary line between the sun and the path of the ISS around Earth. As the beta angle gets higher, the time the ISS is in sunlight increases. When beta angle exceeds 69º, it is in constant sunlight

‘When beta angle exceeds 69º, it is in constant sunlight, and mission control keeps an even closer around-the-clock watch on power production and temperatures,’ he said.

‘This happens two to four times a year but is most extreme near the summer solstice coming on June 21.’

Previous space shuttles would enter something known as a ‘barbeque mode’ which would cause them to do slow barrel rolls to avoid overheating.

On the ISS, an Active Thermal Control System transfers heat through to large radiators extending under the station that can then be released into space.

Reid Wiseman from Baltimore (pictured) is currently serving as flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41. Wiseman’s space Vine has gained over 4,000 likes and nearly 2,000 retweets since it was posted on Saturday

‘1st Vine from space! Single Earth orbit. Sun never sets flying parallel w/terminator line,’ Wiseman explained in the clip, which he shared over the weekend.

Vine is a mobile service that creates short looping videos which are six seconds or less. So far, Wiseman’s Vine has gained over 4,000 likes and nearly 2,000 retweets.

The 38-year-old from Baltimore is currently serving as flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41.

The last time Twitter saw a space ‘first’ was when astronaut Mike Massimino sent the first tweet from orbit in 2009.

‘My parents were waving in Maryland at sunrise, so I took a picture of them,’ Wiseman wrote with this shot

Source:::: y ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD in Daily Mail Australia

Natarajan

Image of the Day…

June 9, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Stars reflecting in Unity Pond, Maine

A four-shot panorama featuring the springtime arc of our Milky Way galaxy reflected in the calm water of Unity Pond, Maine.

Stars reflecting in Unity Pond, Maine by Mike Taylor. Thank you, Mike. Visit Mike Taylor Photography.

Mike Taylor contributed this image, which he captured on May 7, 2014 at 2:45 a.m. He wrote:

This image is a four-shot panorama featuring the springtime arc of our Milky Way galaxy reflected in the calm water of Unity Pond, Maine. The structure on the left is a train trestle located on the unused train tracks. This is a tough spot to shoot from because of the rocky and marshy terrain but well worth it.

There is quite a bit of green airglow in the sky and the orange hue on the horizon is light pollution.

Source:::: earth sky news site

Natarajan

A Plane in Space for 500 Days… How and Why ?… No Answer !!!

June 2, 2014June 2, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Featured Image for A plane has been in space for 500 days, and no one knows why

The X-37B is a kind of robotic space plane, built by the US. It’s been in Earth’s orbit for more than 500 days. And its real purpose is a complete mystery. Intrigued?

Here’s what we do know about X-37B

Constructed in California, the Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Space Vehicle was built for the US Air Force as a test vehicle; not intended to reach production. It is a quarter the size of the Endeavour Space Shuttle. It is equipped with heat-shield protection for re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.

Currently the X-37B is orbiting at 28,044km/h, at a distance of around 350km in the sky. It can land, but no one will say when that will be.

It’s been in the sky before, after being launched on April 22, 2010, on a rocket. It then landed on December 3, 2010 – blowing a tire and suffering minor damage to its underbelly.

It took off again from Cape Canaveral on December 11, 2012 – now reaching 500 days in orbit.

The Air Force also launched a second model of X-37B on March 5, 2011. Described by the U.S. military as an “effort to test new space technologies”, it landed safely at Vandenberg Air Force Base on June 16, 2012, after 469 days in space. This third mission has now smashed this previous record.

X-37B’s actual functions are still heavily classified.

As you’d imagine, conspiracy theorists are having a field day, and here’s why:

Powered by a solar panel that unfurls once in orbit, X-37B can open with small, shuttle-like payload bay in its middle – think of a clamshell opening from underneath. There’s room for more than just a solar panel too. Exactly what items it carries, and why they need to be in space so long, has proved elusive for analysts, the space community, and the media.

To add further intrigue, the plane is classified as a secret project, yet maker Boeing has released pictures and more than two pages of details on the X-37B. That’s not how secrets are usually dealt with. By contrast, the secretLockheed SR-71 Blackbird was not declassified until decades after it had been flown in the Vietnam War.

The X-37 started life way back in 1999 when NASA asked Boeing’s Phantom Works division to develop an orbital test vehicle. This was a civilian project, and the X-37 was originally spec’d as an unmanned, robotic spacecraft that would rendezvous with satellites to refuel, repair them, or crash them back to Earth once their lifecycle was complete. But, in 2004, the project was transferred to DARPA and since then, it has been highly classified.

The amateur skywatching community that documents satellites say it’s orbiting between 43.5 degrees north latitude to 43.5 degrees south latitude. That’s a band around the middle of Earth that takes in much of the US, Middle East, and Asia, but is away from Russia, and Europe. Spotters suggest that at the altitude of 350km, it is ideal altitude for spying, but too low to refuel or fix other satellites.

It’s versatile, and has worked well enough that Boeing is contracted to create the next model, the X-37C. It will be at least 65% larger and have the ability to carry up to six astronauts, while operating unmanned.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle

What we can guess

The two most popular theories suggest the vehicle is simply running an extended duration test – a marathon in space. The other theory is that the two previous missions prove the testing phase is complete, and it is now on an extended operation running a mission, or multiple missions.

The long endurance run theory has credit; proving that new, experimental critical components can work reliably for a long-duration in space, close to Earth.

The running-mission has credit too – with two previous missions complete, X-37B can now operate at length. And perhaps it is – observing, spying, experimenting, hosting space-weapons, or collecting data for the NSA. We just don’t know.

Both theories are plausible.

What it isn’t

Plenty of conspiracy theorist have posed the question of X-37B carrying a nuclear payload, to guarantee a ‘first strike’ opportunity (or to have a counter-option in place).

If you have any hope for humanity, that can’t be right. The US is a signatory to The Space Treaty, which is no joke. Space-based weapons of mass destruction are banned.

(One curious example of a space-based weapon that isn’t banned is a Kinetic strike, where objects whizzing around the Earth at great speed are intentionally sent to the ground, causing a meteorite-like impact and widespread damage. This type of attack is also known as ‘Rods from God’.)

An artist's conception of the X-37 Advanced Technology Demonstrator as it glides to a landing on earth.

source:::: Tristan Rayner in Exhale …. http://www.techly.com.au

Natarajan

Image of the Day…

May 29, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Kelvin Helmholtz clouds

It looks like someone painted the sky with breaking ocean waves. They are called Kelvin Helmholzt clouds, aka as billow clouds or shear-gravity clouds.

View larger. | Photo credit: Paul Chartier

Here’s a special kind of cloud known to scientists as a Kelvin Helmholtz cloud. They look like breaking ocean waves, with the rolling eddies seen at the top of the cloud layers usually evenly spaced and easily identifiable. Kelvin Helmholtz clouds are named for Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied the physics of the instability that leads to this type of cloud formation.

How Kelvin Helmholtz clouds form. A Kelvin Helmholtz instability forms where there’s a velocity difference across the interface between two fluids: for example, wind blowing over water. You’ll often see the characteristic wave structure in this type of cloud when two different layers of air in our atmosphere are moving at different speeds. The upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds and will often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these wave-like rolling structures.

The clouds often form on windy days, when there’s a difference in densities of the air, for exmaple, during a temperature inversion.

These clouds are often good indicators of atmospheric instability and the presence of turbulence for aircraft.

source::::Earth sky news site

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