The industrial team that aims to make an astronaut launcher by marrying parts of the US space shuttle and Europe's Ariane rocket says it now has a complete system.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is developing the launcher, called Liberty, as one of the competing designs to get the U.S. back in the manned spacecraft business.
"James Webb telescope's 'first light' instrument ready to ship" [www.bbc.co.uk]
One of Europe's main contributions to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is built and ready to ship to the US.
The Mid-Infrared Instrument (Miri) will gather key data as the $9bn (£5.5bn) observatory seeks to identify the first starlight in the Universe.
Of course, this is assuming Congress doesn't kill the funding for the JWST.
That really, really looks like a scaled-up firework. Which it is, of course, but I wouldn't want to be reminded of that if I was riding into space on one :) #observationdeck(Edit comment)
Spitzer detects light from a super Earth that's 2000 Kelvin hot! It has detected other planets in the past, but those were gas giants. This one is just a few times larger than the Earth. [strakul.blogspot.com]
"Oetzi the Iceman's blood is world's oldest" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Researchers studying Oetzi, a 5,300-year-old body found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991, have found red blood cells around his wounds... It is just the latest chapter in what could be described as the world's oldest murder mystery.
Delegates to the European Space Agency are expected to approve a billion-euro mission to Jupiter and its icy moons when they meet in Paris on Wednesday... One further issue needs to be resolved: the name of the mission. The "Juice" label was dreamt up by the science team who devised the mission concept, but the researchers acknowledge there was a touch of humour in its creation... It is quite likely however that Esa will run a public competition to find a suitable mission name.
In case you're wondering, JUICE stands for JUpiter ICy moon Explorer.
"Key tests in search for life in frozen Antarctic lake" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Scientists and engineers are rehearsing the most challenging stages of the drilling operation planned for Lake Ellsworth.
The goal is to gather samples of water and sediment in a hunt for microbial organisms and clues about past climate...
The equipment has to remain sterile to avoid polluting the lake - believed to have been isolated for up to 500,000 years - and to preserve the value of the samples.
Depending on your literary preferences this is either the beginning of something by H.P. Lovecraft or Dan Brown.
"Scientists and engineers are rehearsing the most challenging stages of the drilling operation planned for Lake Ellsworth" Screaming and dying? Or Running away from some monster freshly awoken and starving? #observationdeck(Edit comment)
Have you heard about the transit of Venus this June? If you miss it the next one will be in 2117! Most of the world will be able to witness at least part of it so you don't want to miss this rare event: [strakul.blogspot.com] The transit won't be seen in Chile (where I'm currently at), but lots of astronomers are going to Easter Island for it: [www.das.uchile.cl]
The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X is on "PIG watch"... which circles the globe at an altitude of 500km, is returning regular images of the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) ice shelf.
A crack in the shelf was noticed in October and is being observed to obtain data for ice shelf modeling.
"SpaceX's Dragon ship set for station visit" [www.bbc.co.uk]
The first cargo resupply mission to the space station to be carried out by a commercial operator is likely to be on 30 April, the US space agency says...
The upcoming mission will be performed by the SpaceX company of California.
It has been given tentative clearance to launch Dragon on 30 April at 12:22 EDT (16:22 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
For some reason it never occurred to me that Cape Canaveral is an Air Force Station but it is.
"Pretty pictures: Can images stop data overload?" [www.bbc.co.uk]
In a lab in Sussex a group of people have had their brainwaves scanned while completing a series of tasks, individually and in groups, to see if data visualisation - presenting information visually, in this case a series of mind maps - can help.
The results showed that when tasks were presented visually rather than using traditional text-based software applications, individuals used around 20% less cognitive resources. In other words, their brains were working a lot less hard.
So if done right, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Well - let's just hope Dragon works... I'm still not a fan of privatizing space exploration, but if it has to be done, I hope it will be done right.... Right now, the lack of effecient spacefaring is a bit depressing.... #observationdeck(Edit comment)
Efficient in what way though? Efficient in not providing lots of employment?? All these NuSpace companies are doing what they're doing with far fewer workers to actually have beneficial economic impacts on society. #observationdeck(Edit comment)
"US space companies prepare for space station docking" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Two US rocket companies are readying the first private space missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX and Orbital both have multi-billion dollar Nasa contracts to supply cargo to the station, filling the void left by the retirement last year of the space shuttle.
I'll leave it to you dirty minded folks to consider the merits of each launch vehicle.
"Space station used for Ardbeg distillery experiments" [www.bbc.co.uk]
An island distillery has taken to space in a bid to discover the taste of the future.
Experiments using malt from the Ardbeg distillery on Islay are being carried out on the International Space Station to see how it matures without gravity.
Now when someone asks you why space research is important you can tell them it's to make a better whiskey.
...there was a line in a book by Daniel Keys Moran in one of the Emerald Eyes books about zero-G whiskey... written a couple decades ago. Nice! #observationdeck(Edit comment)
The largest telescope facility on the Earth -- ALMA in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile -- has been recently started carrying out observations. Here is a discussion of some of the impressive data for the circumstellar disk in the Fomalhaut star system: [strakul.blogspot.com]
I had to read the article to find out they meant nuclear powered drones and not nuclear armed ones. I suppose it would still be bad if a nuclear powered drone crashed in your backyard.
"H5N1 bird flu research to be published in full" [www.bbc.co.uk]
You may remember the paper that showed how to mutate bird flu to make it more infectious for humans.
The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) ruled Prof Fouchier's work, and that of Dr Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, posed no threat to public health or national security.
British soldiers' uniforms could soon use electrically conducting yarn woven directly into the clothing, replacing cumbersome batteries and cabling.
The "e-textiles" could provide uniforms with a single, central power source...
Currently, separate batteries may be required for each piece of a soldier's equipment, which adds to their carrying load as well as being costly. This is one reason why a centralised battery pack is so desirable.
Of course American soldiers will quickly figure out how to rig this to recharge their cellphones as well.
Also on the drawing board is a fabric keyboard for use with the computer that will inevitably be integrated into the uniform.
The European Space Agency is starting what it expects to become a regular series of small science missions...
Esa hopes particularly to encourage young scientists and research teams from smaller member states.
"We see a dearth of people being trained in space science in satellites, and this can pick those people up and help bring them on so that by the time they get to work on some of our big missions they already have experience," said Prof Mark McCaughrean, head of Esa's Research and Scientific Support Department.
"Is the Six-Million-Dollar Man possible?" [www.bbc.co.uk] (If you don't know who the Six Million Dollar Man is, go look it up then come back. I'll still be here.)
"Well, first of all, it's going to cost a lot more than six million dollars," says Richard Yonck, foresight analyst with Intelligent Future in Seattle, "but there's an awful lot of technologies underway that will come very close to achieving that."
Iran is an earthquake zone, so its engineers have developed some of the toughest building materials in the world. Such materials could also be used to protect hidden nuclear installations from the artificial equivalent of small earthquakes, namely bunker-busting bombs.
Does it make me a horrible person that whenever I read about Europeans being just as stupid as Americans that I feel a little relieved? #observationdeck(Edit comment)
It always seems to be Britain though, doesn't it? I've just moved from there to Canada, and I feel like Britain is getting to be more and more America-lite. But really only picking up its worst excesses. Anti-intellectualism and reality TV being the most obvious ones. Hopefully radicalization of religion isn't next (although I think most Britons are too apathetic for that!) (Edit comment)
Check out the neat animation of supernova 1987A lighting up its circumstellar ring material. In APOD: [apod.nasa.gov] and a brief discussion: [strakul.blogspot.com]
A research group from IBM Research Zurich have published the first ever image of electrical activity within a single Molecule, as part of their research into charge transfers in nanotechnology.
A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.
It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.
I often wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep then toss and turn for at least an hour or so before falling asleep again. Apparently the two sleep period pattern is more natural than the eight hour single sleep block but was a casualty of technological advance (candlelight, gas lamps, electric lighting).
In a followup to a previous post about the Frankenburger:
"Could vegetarians eat a 'test tube' burger?" [www.bbc.co.uk]
I'm a proud meat-eater but it's an interesting philosophical question.
I've actually heard of this in historic context. Families in the middle ages would go to bed at sunset, then all wake in the middle of the night, tell stories and keep each other company for an hour or two, then all go back to sleep together. #observationdeck(Edit comment)
The article mentions numerous historical references to this type of sleep pattern. It's anecdotal but still lends credence to the theory. #observationdeck(Edit comment)
Left to my own devices - without pesky stuff like alarm clocks or work or commitments in general - I tend to adopt that kind of sleep pattern. Sleep for several hours, wake up and do stuff for a while, go back to sleep. If I just lie in bed during that waking period I have enormous difficulty getting back to sleep, which can be very frustrating if I have to get going at 7 AM or something. I really have to do something, and it's often when the kitchen gets tidied.
Many years ago I shared a house with a bunch of people, and we'd often seem to meet in the kitchen at 3 AM. #observationdeck
Two items today:
"ATK's Liberty rocket targets 2015 debut" [www.bbc.co.uk]
The industrial team that aims to make an astronaut launcher by marrying parts of the US space shuttle and Europe's Ariane rocket says it now has a complete system.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is developing the launcher, called Liberty, as one of the competing designs to get the U.S. back in the manned spacecraft business.
"James Webb telescope's 'first light' instrument ready to ship" [www.bbc.co.uk]
One of Europe's main contributions to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is built and ready to ship to the US.
The Mid-Infrared Instrument (Miri) will gather key data as the $9bn (£5.5bn) observatory seeks to identify the first starlight in the Universe.
Of course, this is assuming Congress doesn't kill the funding for the JWST.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Spitzer detects light from a super Earth that's 2000 Kelvin hot! It has detected other planets in the past, but those were gas giants. This one is just a few times larger than the Earth.
[strakul.blogspot.com]
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Two items today:
"Oetzi the Iceman's blood is world's oldest" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Researchers studying Oetzi, a 5,300-year-old body found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991, have found red blood cells around his wounds...
It is just the latest chapter in what could be described as the world's oldest murder mystery.
I smell a new CSI show.
"Esa to decide on Juice mission to Jupiter" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Delegates to the European Space Agency are expected to approve a billion-euro mission to Jupiter and its icy moons when they meet in Paris on Wednesday...
One further issue needs to be resolved: the name of the mission. The "Juice" label was dreamt up by the science team who devised the mission concept, but the researchers acknowledge there was a touch of humour in its creation...
It is quite likely however that Esa will run a public competition to find a suitable mission name.
In case you're wondering, JUICE stands for JUpiter ICy moon Explorer.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
"Key tests in search for life in frozen Antarctic lake" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Scientists and engineers are rehearsing the most challenging stages of the drilling operation planned for Lake Ellsworth.
The goal is to gather samples of water and sediment in a hunt for microbial organisms and clues about past climate...
The equipment has to remain sterile to avoid polluting the lake - believed to have been isolated for up to 500,000 years - and to preserve the value of the samples.
Depending on your literary preferences this is either the beginning of something by H.P. Lovecraft or Dan Brown.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
#observationdeck (Edit comment)
Screaming and dying? Or Running away from some monster freshly awoken and starving? #observationdeck (Edit comment)
Two items today:
"China launches two more Beidou navigation satellites" [www.bbc.co.uk]
China has moved a step closer to completing its own navigation and positioning satellite network with the launch of two more navigation satellites...
Now partially operational, Beidou makes China only the third country in the world, after the US and Russia, to have its own navigation system.
Everyone doesn't want to be dependent on U.S. satellites for their GPS needs? I'm shocked.
"Wind farms affect local weather" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Wind farms can affect weather in their immediate locality, raising night-time temperatures on the ground, researchers working in Texas have shown.
They used satellite data to show that land around newly constructed wind farms warmed more than next-door areas.
There are a lot of caveats to the conclusion so read the article for yourself.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
new Skylon rocket engine
[www.bbc.co.uk]
#tips
(Edit comment)#sciencetalk
Have you heard about the transit of Venus this June? If you miss it the next one will be in 2117!
Most of the world will be able to witness at least part of it so you don't want to miss this rare event: [strakul.blogspot.com]
The transit won't be seen in Chile (where I'm currently at), but lots of astronomers are going to Easter Island for it: [www.das.uchile.cl]
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Two items today:
"GPS network is quick quake sensor" [www.bbc.co.uk]
The US space agency NASA is set to test a real-time network of GPS sensors that it hopes will lead to faster, more accurate earthquake analysis...
The system is called Real-time Earthquake Analysis for Disaster Mitigation Network, or READI.
The system will use about 500 sensors in Washington, Oregon and California to provide information in minutes for disaster response.
"German satellite on 'berg watch'" [www.bbc.co.uk]
The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X is on "PIG watch"... which circles the globe at an altitude of 500km, is returning regular images of the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) ice shelf.
A crack in the shelf was noticed in October and is being observed to obtain data for ice shelf modeling.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
About glacial cracks -
"When they break, they break really quite fast - typically, at one third the speed of sound."
Damn #observationdeck
(Edit comment)Two Items today:
"SpaceX's Dragon ship set for station visit" [www.bbc.co.uk]
The first cargo resupply mission to the space station to be carried out by a commercial operator is likely to be on 30 April, the US space agency says...
The upcoming mission will be performed by the SpaceX company of California.
It has been given tentative clearance to launch Dragon on 30 April at 12:22 EDT (16:22 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
For some reason it never occurred to me that Cape Canaveral is an Air Force Station but it is.
"Pretty pictures: Can images stop data overload?" [www.bbc.co.uk]
In a lab in Sussex a group of people have had their brainwaves scanned while completing a series of tasks, individually and in groups, to see if data visualisation - presenting information visually, in this case a series of mind maps - can help.
The results showed that when tasks were presented visually rather than using traditional text-based software applications, individuals used around 20% less cognitive resources. In other words, their brains were working a lot less hard.
So if done right, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
#observationdeck #tips #sciencetalk
(Edit comment)Two items today:
"US space companies prepare for space station docking" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Two US rocket companies are readying the first private space missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX and Orbital both have multi-billion dollar Nasa contracts to supply cargo to the station, filling the void left by the retirement last year of the space shuttle.
I'll leave it to you dirty minded folks to consider the merits of each launch vehicle.
"Space station used for Ardbeg distillery experiments" [www.bbc.co.uk]
An island distillery has taken to space in a bid to discover the taste of the future.
Experiments using malt from the Ardbeg distillery on Islay are being carried out on the International Space Station to see how it matures without gravity.
Now when someone asks you why space research is important you can tell them it's to make a better whiskey.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
The largest telescope facility on the Earth -- ALMA in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile -- has been recently started carrying out observations. Here is a discussion of some of the impressive data for the circumstellar disk in the Fomalhaut star system: [strakul.blogspot.com]
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Two items today:
"US draws up plans for nuclear drones" [www.guardian.co.uk]
I had to read the article to find out they meant nuclear powered drones and not nuclear armed ones. I suppose it would still be bad if a nuclear powered drone crashed in your backyard.
"H5N1 bird flu research to be published in full" [www.bbc.co.uk]
You may remember the paper that showed how to mutate bird flu to make it more infectious for humans.
The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) ruled Prof Fouchier's work, and that of Dr Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, posed no threat to public health or national security.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
"Smart fabric for new soldier uniform" [www.bbc.co.uk]
British soldiers' uniforms could soon use electrically conducting yarn woven directly into the clothing, replacing cumbersome batteries and cabling.
The "e-textiles" could provide uniforms with a single, central power source...
Currently, separate batteries may be required for each piece of a soldier's equipment, which adds to their carrying load as well as being costly. This is one reason why a centralised battery pack is so desirable.
Of course American soldiers will quickly figure out how to rig this to recharge their cellphones as well.
Also on the drawing board is a fabric keyboard for use with the computer that will inevitably be integrated into the uniform.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Another step towards fusion as a team in California fire a 1.875 Megajoule laser pulse. [www.newscientist.com]
#sciencetalk
(Edit comment)Two items today:
"Esa to start mini space mission series" [www.bbc.co.uk]
The European Space Agency is starting what it expects to become a regular series of small science missions...
Esa hopes particularly to encourage young scientists and research teams from smaller member states.
"We see a dearth of people being trained in space science in satellites, and this can pick those people up and help bring them on so that by the time they get to work on some of our big missions they already have experience," said Prof Mark McCaughrean, head of Esa's Research and Scientific Support Department.
"Is the Six-Million-Dollar Man possible?" [www.bbc.co.uk]
(If you don't know who the Six Million Dollar Man is, go look it up then come back. I'll still be here.)
"Well, first of all, it's going to cost a lot more than six million dollars," says Richard Yonck, foresight analyst with Intelligent Future in Seattle, "but there's an awful lot of technologies underway that will come very close to achieving that."
No word on robotic Sasquatch.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
A reminder that a lot of mundane technology has dual use (civilian and military applications).
"Smart concrete" [www.economist.com]
Iran is an earthquake zone, so its engineers have developed some of the toughest building materials in the world. Such materials could also be used to protect hidden nuclear installations from the artificial equivalent of small earthquakes, namely bunker-busting bombs.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Three items today:
"'Twisted' waves could boost capacity of wi-fi and TV" [www.bbc.co.uk]
A striking demonstration of a means to boost the information-carrying capacity of radio waves has taken place across the lagoon in Venice, Italy.
The technique exploits what is called the "orbital angular momentum" of the waves - imparting them with a "twist".
"US researchers build 'waste water generator'" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Researchers in the US have built a prototype device which they say can generate electricity from waste water.
The team at Pennsylvania State University says the technology would simultaneously treat the water.
They suggest the process could be adopted in developing countries, providing clean water and power for homes.
And at the other end of the spectrum:
"Poor numeracy 'blights the economy and ruins lives'" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Poor numeracy is blighting Britain's economic performance and ruining lives, says a new charity launched to champion better maths skills.
The group, National Numeracy, says millions of people struggle to understand a payslip or a train timetable, or pay a household bill.
I'm sure this isn't just a British problem so I won't throw the first stone.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
I've just moved from there to Canada, and I feel like Britain is getting to be more and more America-lite. But really only picking up its worst excesses. Anti-intellectualism and reality TV being the most obvious ones. Hopefully radicalization of religion isn't next (although I think most Britons are too apathetic for that!) (Edit comment)
Check out the neat animation of supernova 1987A lighting up its circumstellar ring material.
In APOD: [apod.nasa.gov]
and a brief discussion: [strakul.blogspot.com]
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
[www.bbc.co.uk]
A research group from IBM Research Zurich have published the first ever image of electrical activity within a single Molecule, as part of their research into charge transfers in nanotechnology.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
"The myth of the eight-hour sleep" [www.bbc.co.uk]
A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.
It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.
I often wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep then toss and turn for at least an hour or so before falling asleep again. Apparently the two sleep period pattern is more natural than the eight hour single sleep block but was a casualty of technological advance (candlelight, gas lamps, electric lighting).
In a followup to a previous post about the Frankenburger:
"Could vegetarians eat a 'test tube' burger?" [www.bbc.co.uk]
I'm a proud meat-eater but it's an interesting philosophical question.
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
Left to my own devices - without pesky stuff like alarm clocks or work or commitments in general - I tend to adopt that kind of sleep pattern. Sleep for several hours, wake up and do stuff for a while, go back to sleep. If I just lie in bed during that waking period I have enormous difficulty getting back to sleep, which can be very frustrating if I have to get going at 7 AM or something. I really have to do something, and it's often when the kitchen gets tidied.
Many years ago I shared a house with a bunch of people, and we'd often seem to meet in the kitchen at 3 AM. #observationdeck
(Edit comment)"Path of tsunami debris mapped out" [www.bbc.co.uk]
Modellers provide daily forecasts of the likely spread of floating debris washed out into the Pacific by last year's Japanese tsunami.
A mass of debris was washed out to sea as floodwaters receded from the land, and some of that wreckage continues to float around the ocean.
Most of it headed eastwards, according to modelling work by the Hawaii-based International Pacific Research Center...
"We can only use our model to make projections," explained International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) scientific computer programmer Jan Hafner.
"So far, the debris field has spread in length more than 2,000 nautical miles, and is more than 1,000 nautical miles wide," he told BBC News.
They predict most of the debris will end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch [en.wikipedia.org] .
#observationdeck
(Edit comment)#tips
#sciencetalk
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