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Carnivals arrived
2007-10-12 09:57:00
Articles about space (detecting exoplanet atmospheres, how lunar exploration was imagined, benefits of colonizing Ceres, an imaginative history of evolution up to the MERs; percieved appeal of space tourism, if it makes the ISS useful - probably not enough. Also, remembering Robert Bussard. ..and more)and articles about scepticism (too tired to list, lots of articles of puzzle-solving and myth-debunking).
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JWST model
2007-10-11 12:36:00
Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope (more photos here), on tour since 2005. JWST is going to be the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, but much larger (with a primary mirror of 6.5 meters), and more complex.All of these (even the segmented mirror) are going to be automatically unfolded in space
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How do mishaps happen?
2007-10-10 16:07:00
It is estimated that minor and major mishaps between 1996 and 2006 cost NASA more than $2 billion in direct costs only. The NOAA-N' weather satellite, that fell during assembly, because of a misunderstanding between two teams of technicians. The cost of this accident doesn't even fit here, but i'd mention that the spacecraft cost more than $200 million, and exactly 4 years later it still hasn't been fully rebuilt.So obviously it's important to study the numerous Ways of Failure. I've found this presentation about the topic slightly interesting. After all, given how complex any space mission can be, it's a miracle that they don't all end in a spectacular - or boring - failure. Or rather, the result of hard job, as the presentation shows.More on this subject at this website, dated in the future. (NASA Projects Management Conference)

Sounds of an aurora
2007-10-09 15:38:00
Often we forget that we're not alone. Our planet is surrounded by satellites we built, and usually they are the first to notice when the weather in space changes, like when the Sun sends us large flares. But even though we're quite well protected from these particles, nature provides a way for us too to see them, as they enter the upper atmosphere: the polar lights. And sometimes, on very rare occasions, to hear them too.However, even if you travel north and catch an aurora, the chances of hearing it are apparently very slim - actually some even doubt that they have sound at all, and believe it's an "aural" illusion (if not auroral), tinnitus, or something similar, created by your brain. The other problem is, it's very hard to explain, as the atmosphere is so thin above 60km, where auroras reside, that no substantial amount of sound would be able to propagate down to the human listener. A theory is that the waves are brought to the ground as radio waves, that are generated in th...
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Fairies, aliens and sociology
2007-10-06 17:36:00
I've found an interesting article in Swift, the newsletter of the James Randi Educational Foundation. It's contemplating on the similarities of the fairy folklore and the modern folklore of aliens. There may be interesting similarities - probably it'd worth a thorougher study.The Evolution of the Little Green Man
More About: Aliens , Sociology , Liens

UFOs seen during Apollo missions
2007-10-04 16:42:00
One of the legends of the space age is that during their flight to the moon, Apollo astronauts saw UFOs, or objects they couldn't identify but which were obviously floating in space somewhere close to them. This is rather a fact than a legend, as Buzz Aldrin confirmed it in numerous interviews. Just let him explain:The spacey music, the commentator's style ("it could only have been on thing... a UFO!") and the "expert" may be a little annoying, but the fact remains that Aldrin says they saw something out there. Is there an official explanation? I quote from a NASA website:What does NASA have to say in response to this? What were those objects they all saw?I just talked to Buzz Aldrin on the phone, and he notes that the quotations were taken out of context and did not convey the intended meaning. After the Apollo 11 crew verified that the object they were seeing was not the SIVB upper stage, which was about 6000 miles away at that time, they concluded that they were probably seeing...
More About: Missions , Ufos , Missi

Carnival of space #22
2007-10-04 15:39:00
The 22nd carnival of space is out. Also, happy 50th birthday for Sputnik-1!
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Carancas meteorite, Peru
2007-10-02 15:37:00
This meteorite fell on September 15 in a very remote area of Peru , near the community of Carancas, 800 miles from Lima. Claims rose of 200 locals falling ill after visiting the site (they saw the thing on the sky and heard it as well, that's why they were searching for it). Discussion started on many forums about1 can this be a meteorite crater at all?2 if yes, what type of meteorite was it?3 can it really make people ill?Part of a BBC article:"Increasingly we think that people witnessed a fireball, which are not uncommon, went off to investigate and found a lake of sedimentary deposit, which may be full of smelly, methane rich organic matter," said Dr Caroline Smith, a meteorite expert at the London-based Natural History Museum. "This has been mistaken for a crater."However, it's not so easy to tell without actually being there.After some scientists visiting the site and taking samples there are some answers. It is said that the water in the crater was boiling and sending a colum...
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Sputnik 1
2007-10-02 11:26:00
PS-1, or "simplest satellite" with a technicianOct. 4, 1957 - Sputnik 1 is launched into Earth orbit. A project basically pushed by one man, Sergey Korolyov, one of the later chief designers. On the day of the launch, he was the only one who could understand that history came to a turning point. Space age - and also the space race - had begun.

Martian cave confirmed by HIRISE camera
2007-08-31 13:23:00
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter discovered several "holes" on Mars in May, that stirred a lot of interest. Here is the close up view of one of them (Jeanne).A 500-feet... hole?It's quite obvious that it isn't simply a crater, but what is it then? Is it a caldera filled with extremely dark matter, like the Wau Namus, that appears as a hole in the deserts of Lybia? Is it a lake of oil? Is it caused by sandworms?The Sun's angle wasn't too low when the image was taken, so the fact that we can't see the walls means it can't really be a pit. The most likely explanation is that it is a sort of skylight, a hole in the ceiling of a cave, that also occur on Earth. If the cave is very deep and large, the illuminated floor can't be seen from exactly above, and we just see a black hole instead.A skylight (photo by Gus Frederick)The hole - and 6 others - lie on the slopes of one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, Arsia Mons. (More context here, but Arsia Mons is so large it stil...
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Aurora on Ganymede
2007-08-30 13:06:00
So aurorae have been observed on Earth, the gas giants, and even Jupiter's moon Io. And there are even more! In 1972, it was discovered that the largest Jovian moon, Ganymede has a tenuous oxygen atmosphere. Its source is thought to be not plants, as on Earth, but the solar radiation splitting water ice into oxygen and hydrogen (and the latter then escapes into space more easily). Since the visit of the Galileo orbiter, we also know that Ganymede has its own magnetic field (the only satellite known to have one!). So with both an own magnetic field and atmosphere, it's no surprise that Ganymede also has aurorae! The green glow on this picture, on and above this moon, has the same source as the green glow in the polar lights on Earth - transitions of excited oxygen.
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Space-X update
2007-08-24 10:59:00
Merlin engine testElon Musk has a long update about the activities of Space -X, and a lot about Falcon-9. And also cool pictures and the above video of a Merlin (1C) engine firing on the test stand. With cool sound!
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A mission to Phobos: Fobos-Grunt
2007-08-22 18:40:00
Apart from the well known Mars Exploration Rovers, the current Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the soon to arrive Phoenix Mars Lander, and ESA's Mars Express, and the various planned future Mars missions (even non-governmental ones, like the Archimedes balloon probe i mentioned earlier, apart from all those, there is also a plan to (re)visit a Martian moon, Phobos.Russia, after having a lot of bad luck with Mars, planned a double Phobos mission in 1988. One of the two spacecraft did eventually reach Phobos, but then fell silent (the computers went wrong, likely because of insufficient shielding of the electronics). In 1989, money ran out, and all subsequent plans were shelved (except from a failed launch in 1996).An image of Phobos and Mars, taken by Fobos-2 in 1989Now it seems that new plans are on the drawing board again, with probably (hopefully) serious political backing. The new Phobos mission is called Фобос-Грунт (Fobos-Grunt, meaning "Phobos Soil"). As ...
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Armadillo's rocket crashed during testing
2007-08-22 18:14:00
Another accident at a private space company - no one is hurt, but Arma dillo Aerospace' Texel craft is apparently destroyed during a test flight. The New Scientist has the full story.No pictures have been released, these two videos show Pixel (Texel's twin) at the X Prize Cup in 2006 (which they nearly won):
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