It worked. There was talk that at the end it started to spin or something, then the feed cut off, but for the most part it worked great and has probably brought us into a new chapter in space exploration. I'm guessing less than 30 years before we are mining the moon and the asteroid belt for materials.
Here is a link to the launch for those that missed it. Hopefully CNN doesn't move it anytime soon.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/04/spacex.rocket.test/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
The cut off just after the second stage fires though.
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2010
Space X launch
Watching the space X launch today, it was aborted earlier right before liftoff. They have now restarted the countdown. If NASA had been running this it would take a few days to figure out the problem and get another window. Since they aren't, it has been only an hour since the last attempt.
T - 12:00 minutes.
T - 12:00 minutes.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Kepler update
This is a little late, the news came on January 4th that Kepler has found 5 planets orbiting other stars.
http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=16
From the press release:
NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.
"These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the mission's science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our science instrument is working well. Indications are that Kepler will meet all its science goals."
Known as "hot Jupiters" because of their high masses and extreme temperatures, the new exoplanets range in size from similar to Neptune to larger than Jupiter. They have orbits ranging from 3.3 to 4.9 days. Estimated temperatures of the planets range from 2,200 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than molten lava and much too hot for life as we know it. All five of the exoplanets orbit stars hotter and larger than Earth's sun.
http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=16
From the press release:
NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.
"These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the mission's science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our science instrument is working well. Indications are that Kepler will meet all its science goals."
Known as "hot Jupiters" because of their high masses and extreme temperatures, the new exoplanets range in size from similar to Neptune to larger than Jupiter. They have orbits ranging from 3.3 to 4.9 days. Estimated temperatures of the planets range from 2,200 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than molten lava and much too hot for life as we know it. All five of the exoplanets orbit stars hotter and larger than Earth's sun.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Latest on launch of Ares rocket
The latest info is that it is scheduled to launch at 9:30 CST do to weather concerns, everything else is clear.
For live video go here http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
For live video go here http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Monday, October 26, 2009
Ares test launch on for tomorrow
The first test launch of the new Ares rocket is set for tomorrow morning at 8am EST. Should be pretty interesting to see how this thing goes. Apparently 40% of all new rockets fail on launch.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091026-ares-IX-launch-preview.html
More info at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/index.html
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091026-ares-IX-launch-preview.html
More info at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/index.html
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Over 400
(PLANETQUEST) -- European astronomers this week announced the discovery of 32 new worlds - including a handful of so-called "super Earths" - bringing the total exoplanet tally to over 400.
The latest batch of exoplanets was discovered by an international team of astronomers using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), the spectrograph for ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in La Silla, Chile. With more than 75 exoplanet discoveries to its credit, the instrument has become a powerful tool for planet hunters.
Perhaps even more exciting to scientists than the big numbers are the increasingly small planets being found. Several of the worlds recently discovered with HARPS are just a few times larger than Earth, marking progress toward the ultimate goal of detecting small, terrestrial planets. However, none of the planets announced last week are considered habitable.
Finding small, rocky planets that might resemble Earth is a key goal for NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which is currently scanning thousands of distant stars for signs of transiting exoplanets.
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/news/exoplanets400.cfm
The latest batch of exoplanets was discovered by an international team of astronomers using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), the spectrograph for ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in La Silla, Chile. With more than 75 exoplanet discoveries to its credit, the instrument has become a powerful tool for planet hunters.
Perhaps even more exciting to scientists than the big numbers are the increasingly small planets being found. Several of the worlds recently discovered with HARPS are just a few times larger than Earth, marking progress toward the ultimate goal of detecting small, terrestrial planets. However, none of the planets announced last week are considered habitable.
Finding small, rocky planets that might resemble Earth is a key goal for NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which is currently scanning thousands of distant stars for signs of transiting exoplanets.
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/news/exoplanets400.cfm
Mars trip simulation
Starting next year the ESA will simulate a trip to Mars. They are currently looking for volunteers. While the simulation will take place here on earth they will be isolated from the rest of the world.
The crew will follow a programme designed to simulate a 250-day journey to Mars, a 30-day surface exploration phase and 240 days travelling back to Earth. For the ‘surface exploration’, half of the crew will move to the facility’s martian simulation module and the hatch to the rest of the facility will be closed.
Candidates should be aged 20-50, motivated, in good health and no taller than 185 cm. They should speak one of the working languages: English and Russian. Candidates must have a background and work experience in medicine, biology, life support systems engineering, computer engineering, electronic engineering or mechanical engineering.
http://www.physorg.com/news175252902.html
The crew will follow a programme designed to simulate a 250-day journey to Mars, a 30-day surface exploration phase and 240 days travelling back to Earth. For the ‘surface exploration’, half of the crew will move to the facility’s martian simulation module and the hatch to the rest of the facility will be closed.
Candidates should be aged 20-50, motivated, in good health and no taller than 185 cm. They should speak one of the working languages: English and Russian. Candidates must have a background and work experience in medicine, biology, life support systems engineering, computer engineering, electronic engineering or mechanical engineering.
http://www.physorg.com/news175252902.html
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Saturn, the mini solar system
It's been long known that Saturn and Jupiter have lots of moons. Both have rings, although Saturn's are obviously easier to see. Recently though it was found that Saturn also has its own asteroid belt, sort of.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20091006/
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.
The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). One of Saturn's farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its material.
Saturn's newest halo is thick, too -- its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20091006/
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.
The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). One of Saturn's farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its material.
Saturn's newest halo is thick, too -- its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring.
Friday, September 11, 2009
What was it?
I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks. On the night of August 21, 2009 we were camping at Clinton Lake in Kansas (near Lawrence), the night was unbelievably clear with no city lights ruining the view of the night sky. No moon was out, it wouldn't rise for sometime. The Milky Way was clearly visible stretching from one side of the sky to the other. I was looking for shooting stars even there wasn't a forecasted shower (that was the week before). While telling my family about the different stars and where they were and showing them different constellations I happened to glace toward the southwest sky when up above a bright single point of light got really bright then vanished. It lasted only a couple of seconds. The time was about 10:30pm. I have been trying to figure out what it was since then. I thought I had seen a star at that point earlier, but am not 100% on that. It could have been a meteor that would have been coming straight at us. But the way it acted was strange. While I watched it, it started small although very bright (it hadn't been there a few seconds before at that brightness) and grow in size and brightness until it disappeared. I did see 3 meteorites that evening and they were small short streaks in the sky. There was no plane in the area of the light and nothing moved from that point after the flash. My only guess and I am not sure on this is that it was a nova or super nova. Although I wonder if a pulsar would do the same? What ever it was, it was cool.
The coordinates that we were at when we saw it are as follows: Latitude 38°54'22.22"N Longitude 95°22'26.18"W
My main reason for posting this is for any one else that saw it and is searching for information on it.
The coordinates that we were at when we saw it are as follows: Latitude 38°54'22.22"N Longitude 95°22'26.18"W
My main reason for posting this is for any one else that saw it and is searching for information on it.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Stellarium
Have you ever wanted a good astronomy application and didn't want to pay a lot of money?
Stellarium is what you want. Go to http://www.stellarium.org/ to download it. It is free and a great program. The other day when we were camping I was pretty sure the bright object in the sky to the south west was Jupiter, but wasn't for sure. Last night I checked it out on Stellarium and sure enough it is. I also couldn't find the little dipper or Polaris (the North star). I know 2 of the stars in the big dipper pointed to it, but wasn't sure which ones. With Stellarium I found that it was the 2 stars on the end of the dipper that point north to Polaris which is part of the little dipper. But because of the light of the city, it is hard to see.
It might run slow on a low end system, so it might not be for everyone. But just so you know, it does run on Windows 7.
Stellarium is what you want. Go to http://www.stellarium.org/ to download it. It is free and a great program. The other day when we were camping I was pretty sure the bright object in the sky to the south west was Jupiter, but wasn't for sure. Last night I checked it out on Stellarium and sure enough it is. I also couldn't find the little dipper or Polaris (the North star). I know 2 of the stars in the big dipper pointed to it, but wasn't sure which ones. With Stellarium I found that it was the 2 stars on the end of the dipper that point north to Polaris which is part of the little dipper. But because of the light of the city, it is hard to see.
It might run slow on a low end system, so it might not be for everyone. But just so you know, it does run on Windows 7.
Kepler ready to go
After being launched in March of this year the kepler space telescope is ready to find worlds. Recently it under went some tests to see if it could detect exo-planets (planets orbiting other stars). It passed its test by finding a planet that orbits its host star every few day. Yes, it was an already know planet, but kepler was able to find it and because of the precise data and clearer view that it has in space it was able to tell that it has an atmosphere.
The graph above shows when the planet passes in front of the star and how we would see it in phases as it did so if we could actually see it. But kepler is only going to detect and find the planets, another telescope to launched in a couple of years will hopefully get the first real pictures of an exo-planet. Keplers mission is to find earth sized planets in the parent star's habitable zone.
The current count on the number of exo-planets is 357. Most being huge gas gaints even larger than Jupiter.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler-discovery.html
The graph above shows when the planet passes in front of the star and how we would see it in phases as it did so if we could actually see it. But kepler is only going to detect and find the planets, another telescope to launched in a couple of years will hopefully get the first real pictures of an exo-planet. Keplers mission is to find earth sized planets in the parent star's habitable zone.
The current count on the number of exo-planets is 357. Most being huge gas gaints even larger than Jupiter.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler-discovery.html
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