By using the superconductors titanium nitride and niobium titanium nitride as the core of their new amplifier, researchers at Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be able to collect signals from black holes and quantum particles alike with little-to no noise mucking up the sensitive data. More »
SpaceX has been NASA’s most successful commercial space partner. SpaceX became the first company to successfully dock a private spacecraft with the International Space Station and return its ship to Earth safely. SpaceX has announced that it has now completed the design review of its Dragon space capsule. This marks the conclusion of both the primary and secondary design element review for the spacecraft, which is also designed to carry astronauts into orbit.
The key focus for the review was safety with SpaceX presenting NASA with an analysis of how the SuperDraco launch abort system would perform in an emergency. While SpaceX has completed its design review for the Dragon capsule, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson has announced that the company’s first spaceflight will be a family affair.
Branson has announced that his two adult children will join him on Virgin Galactic’s first space flight next year. The flight will take Branson and his two adult children 62 miles above the Earth aboard SpaceshipTwo. Branson and his company have about 120 other tourists signed up to take the $200,000 two-hour trip into space.
SpaceX completes Dragon design review, Branson to take his kids on first spaceflight next year is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Lightning doesn’t always shoot downwards. Just occasionally, a thunderstorm will be accompanied by a red sprite: a huge, momentary electrical explosion that occurs around 50 miles high and fires thin tendrils many miles further up into the atmosphere. Sprites have been caught on camera before, but a fresh photo taken by arty astronauts on the ISS helps to show off their true scale. Captured accidentally during a timelapse recording, it reveals the bright lights of Myanmar and Malaysia down below, with a white flash of lightning inside a storm cloud and, directly above that, the six mile-wide crimson streak of the rare beast itself. Such a thing would never consent to being bottled up and examined, but somehow observers at the University of Alaska did manage to film one close-up at 1000 frames per second back in 1999 — for now, their handiwork embedded after the break is as intimate as we can get.
Continue reading NASA captures red sprite, puts it in a jar
Filed under: Science
NASA captures red sprite, puts it in a jar originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dvice, National Geographic | 
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A NASA astronaut is on her way to the International Space Station. But the craft didn’t launch from the US. Obviously. Now that the organization’s shuttle program has been shut down, Sunita Williams had to go into space on a Russian rocket. And she was joined by fellow space travelers from Russia as well as Japan, one from each country.
From Russia is Yuri Malenchenko and from Japan is Akihiko Hoshide. The launch today coincided with the anniversary of the very first inernational space mission. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project began on July 15, 1975. On this 37th anniversary, it is of course very refreshing to see an astronaut and a cosmonaut on the very same spacecraft serving the same purpose.
Among the group’s tasks are performing space station maintenance and a whole bunch of science experiments that can only be achieved in space. During a preflight briefing, Williams said, “Unfortunately our mission is only four months — I wish it would be years and years and years. I’m really lucky to be flying with Yuri and Aki. I think we’re going to have a great time.”
[via MSNBC]
Russian Soyuz rocket launches American, Russian, Japanese to space station is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Richard Branson has long said that he’d be on board Virgin Galactic’s first commercial space tourism flight, and he’s now confirmed that will take place sometime next year with his two adult children along for the ride (a bit of a delay from the company’s original 2011 target). That trip will of course be made with the company’s SpaceShipTwo craft, which has already completed a number of test flights, and which is capable of flying 100 kilometers (or just over 60 miles) above the Earth for a planned two and a half hour flight with five minutes of weightlessness. As the AP notes, some 529 people have already signed up for the $200,000 per person rides into space, each of whom will have to take part in a week of training prior to their trip. Bookings can still be made on Virgin Galactic’s website.
Filed under: Transportation
Richard Branson confirms Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism flight will launch next year with him on board originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BAE Systems’ ASTRAEA isn’t a new concept — the company’s been playing up its unmanned potential for quite some time now — but it’s all seeming entirely less pie-in-the-sky now that the Farnborough Airshow has kicked off. Typically, UAVs are thought to be smaller, drone-type apparatuses; these things are typically used in military exercises where remote gunfire or reconnaissance is required. Clearly, it’s about time someone asked the obvious: “Why?” Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, Engineering Director Systems and Strategy, Military Air and Information at BAE and ASTRAEA Program Director recently spoke at the aforesaid event, noting that this particular aircraft could “open up a new market.” He continued: “Current search and rescue aircraft are limited by human endurance, however with a UAV there’s no reason why they can’t stay up for weeks.” Sadly, he also affirmed that there aren’t any plans to ship actual humans up in the air without a pilot onboard, but if you’re rich and mettlesome enough to pull it off yourself… well, be sure to send us the video. Also, Godspeed.
Filed under: Transportation
BAE Systems speaks about unmanned ASTRAEA: no reason it can’t stay in air ‘for weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 01:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Yesterday, a solar flare set off from the sun, launching a coronal mass ejection (CME) heading toward Earth, and it’s set to make an appearance in our fair skies this Saturday. While the wave of charged particles headed our way is much weaker than the most powerful solar flares (like the X28+ gust from 2003), it ranks in the extreme (X) class, and it’s already caused a wave of UV radiation that interfered with radio signals, not to mention an uptake in solar protons swarming around Earth. According to SpaceWeather.com, the flare could cause some geomagnetic storms, which could endanger satellites and astronauts in space in addition to possibly interfering with communication signals. That (relatively minor) risk aside, those of you living up north could be in for a pretty sweet light show, so check the skies for the aurora borealis.
Filed under: Science
‘Extreme’ class solar flare heading toward Earth, hopefully bringing nothing but auroras originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sci-fi fantasies have long predicted that we might live on the moon. But while the lack of atmosphere poses a problem for lunar living, there may be an even bigger sticking point: new research suggests that the moon’s surface is itself toxic to humans. More »
A red sprite has nothing to do with a soft drink or paranormal phenomenon. A red sprite is an atmospheric phenomenon that is associated with powerful lightning discharges inside storms. The mechanism or mechanisms that create this red and very brief optical phenomenon are unknown.
An astronaut aboard ISS Expedition 31 took photograph on April 30 of a powerful thunderstorm over Myanmar. The lightning inside the storm was strong enough to create the red sprite phenomenon, which can be seen in the photo at approximately 1 o’clock position from the lightning inside the cloud. The sprite phenomenon is very difficult to observe from the ground because it occurs above the clouds.
The phenomenon has been described for decades by pilots flying above storms, but the first photographic evidence of a red sprite wasn’t recorded until the 90s. The red tendrils of sprite reach upward from the region of lightning flash and can sometimes extend as high as 55 miles into the atmosphere. The brightest portion of the sprite is typically around 40 to 45 miles above the ground and may last only 3 to 10 ms. Sprite can be as bright as moderate auroral activity and can emit radio noise.
[via discovery.com]
ISS astronaut shoots image of mysterious red sprite during lightning storm is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The DARPA Tactical Technology Office wants swarms of small spacecraft that would go to space, attach to dead satellites, and use their components to create new working satellites. The idea is fascinating—although it seems too wild to become real anytime soon. More »
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