Back in April, we heard that NASA was preparing for its IRIS mission to the sun by getting the satellite ready for the launch. NASA announced that IRIS (short for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) will be launching on June 26 and will be put in Earth’s orbit where it will have a peek into the
It’s been a few years since we’ve heard about O3b’s mission to provide affordable internet access where it’s not currently available, and for a while we thought we’d never see it happen. Thankfully, the company’s plans didn’t fall by the wayside: O3b is finally slated to launch its first four satellites on June 24, with the next four shooting into orbit sometime in September. The company aims to send a total of 16 medium-earth orbit (MEO) satellites to space that small ISPs in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Africa can tap into. Once they’re operational, O3b claims the previously unconnected can experience max download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps, giving Google Fiber a run for its money. The satellites will begin their journey from French Guiana, but you don’t need to fly there to be part of the event — just kick back and monitor it live online via Ariane Space.
[Thanks, Vicki]
Filed under: Internet
There’s really nothing better than an insanely large image, and NASA created a large one of their own, except this isn’t an panorama of a landscape here on Earth. It’s an image of our nearest galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Astronomers at NASA and Pennsylvania State University used NASA’s Swift satellite to create the magnificent
NASA is determined to bring the final frontier closer than ever — or at least a small, photographic slice of it. Using NASA’s Swift satellite, astrophysicists at Goddard Space Flight Center and Pennsylvania State University were able to create a stunningly detailed survey of the two galaxies closest to us: the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. The 160-megapixel image was painstakingly stitched together using thousands of smaller photographs captured with Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. Rendering the galaxies in UV wavelengths allows researchers to study details unseen in visible light images, like individual stars surrounding the Tarantula Nebula in the LMC (the large pink cluster in the photo above). This high-res mosaic provides ample opportunity to study the life cycles of stars, from birth to death, in detail astrophysicists could previously only dream about. Fancy a tour? Check out the video after the break — or journey on past the source link to download the 457MB TIFF.
Source: NASA
NASA has published a series of images taken of the asteroid 1998 QE2, which were snapped yesterday via the Deep Space Network Antenna in California. Although the asteroid was located 3.75 million miles away, its relative distance was quite close, and it brought with it a moon, which is smaller in diameter and visible in the images as the white spot. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory took the opportunity to observe the asteroid, led by Marina Brozovic.
According to NASA, the asteroid is a binary asteroid, as shown by the radar images that were taken. About 16-percent of asteroids measuring in with a minimum diameter of 655-feet are of the binary variety. Based on the images, the space agency says the asteroid is about 1.7-miles in diameter, rotating in less than 4 hours and featuring multiple concavities.
Aside from the asteroid is one of its more interesting feature – the moon, which is said to be about 2000 feet in diameter. At about 2PM today, the asteroid was at its closest point to Earth, measuring in at about 15x the distance between our planet and the moon. Such was a notable event, with the asteroid not being slated for coming this close again within the next 200 years, possibly longer.
As you might have guessed from its name, the asteroid was discovered back in 1998. While it is no longer as close to us as it was today, it will still be hanging around in the vicinity for awhile, and as such researchers in both California and Puerto Rico will observe and image the space rock until June 9. Says NASA, in the coming days we may get to see clear, more detailed images of 1998 QE2.
Keeping an eye on the asteroid is part of a bigger plan that involves tracking the space rocks, helping to ultimately protect Earth – or at least help anticipate, at this point – when an asteroid might collide with our planet. Many projects are underway looking into various methods on how to redirect or destroy near-earth objects that pose a danger to our planet.
SOURCE: NASA
Asteroid 1998 QE2 passes Earth with moon in tow is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The Moon is quite an interesting piece of rock, and while it’s the only planet-like object that we’ve explored by putting astronauts on it, there are still many things that have remained a mystery about the Moon, just as much as any other planet that we’ve explored with satellites. However, NASA says they’ve solved one big mystery particularly.
Ever since NASA sent satellites to the Moon to scout out landing spots for the Apollo missions, scientists have noticed that the gravitational pull on these satellites was extremely unstable, especially when they would travel over craters and impact basins. The satellites would periodically veer off course, plummeting toward the Moon’s surface, but would eventually climb back up into the intended orbit.
It’s quite obvious at this point to know these craters and basins have a stronger gravitational pull than other parts of the Moon, and scientists have suspected that it has to do with a surplus distribution of mass below the Moon’s surface. However, it’s been a mystery as to how this excess distribution of mass came to be, until now.
To find out more, NASA and researchers at MIT and Purdue University mapped out the gravitational fields of several lunar craters and impact basins to discover that the gravitational fields resemble a dartboard, where there’s a small center of strong gravitational pull surrounded by alternating rings of strong and weak gravity. NASA used high-res imagery from their Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) missions to map out the gravitational fields.
The agency discovered that this is caused by the way asteroids hit the Moon upon impact. When there’s an impact, the asteroid sends debris flying outward, and the impact sends a shockwave through the moon’s interior that creates a counterwave that attracts dense material from the Moon’s interior toward the surface of the crater at the center. This is what makes the bulls-eye, if you will. Pretty cool, right?
SOURCE: NASA
NASA solves mystery over moon’s unique gravitational pull is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
As humankind ramps up efforts to send its first fleet of astronauts to Mars, research into the various effects of such a trip are being studied extensively, including the psychological state of those who travel and live on the Red Planet. It has been known that radiation levels on Mars are high, and as such radiation shields will be used to protect against its negative effects. Current research, however, shows that the risk of developing cancer is higher than currently acceptable for NASA astronauts.
In order to determine the levels of radiation astronauts would be exposed to on Mars from within a radiation-shielded spacecraft, NASA used the Radiation Assessment Detector on Curiosity rover. Such a tool is designed to provide valuable data on radiation and shielding efforts, to allow the agency’s researchers to determine the effectiveness of different methods.
Said NASA’s Associated Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier: “As this nation strives to reach an asteroid and Mars in our lifetimes, we’re working to solve every puzzle nature poses to keep astronauts safe so they can explore the unknown and return home … we’ll continue to make the advances we need in life sciences to reduce risks for our explorers. Curiosity’s RAD instrument is giving us critical data we need so that we humans, like the rover, can dare mighty things to reach the Red Planet.”
NASA has a career limit in place for the amount of radiation an astronaut can be exposed to, a measure in place to minimize the astronaut’s chance of developing cancer as a result of the exposure. What the study conducted with RAD revealed was a possible radiation exposure level for Mars travelers that exceeds this limit, which means either new better shielding is needed or the lifetime limit needs to be increased.
A single Sievert measurement of radiation exposure represents a 5-percent increased risk of developing a fatal cancer, which is higher than NASA’s 3-percent lifetime exposure limit. The average radiation exposure measured by RAD came in at 1.8 milliSieverts per day, most of which was not the result of solar activity. According to one researcher, this is equivalent to getting a whole-body catscan every 5 – 6 days.
SOURCE: NASA
Mars astronauts have higher chance of cancer is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We’ve written about the Mars One project extensively, a plan to select, train, and send astronauts to Mars, where they will live out the rest of their lives. Other future projects won’t necessarily involve a permanent life on Mars, but all will require a substantial number of years, and as such will require a very stable psychological state to handle. For its part, NASA is looking into monitoring the psychological state of its astronauts with a sensor-based “badge.”
Imagine for a moment the nature of life on Mars. Residents will live in special – and likely cramped – housing, devoid of the vast majority of comforts they’ve spent their lives enjoying, and perhaps not the kind of comforts you are imaging. Things like a stroll in the park, a drive across the state, and other things we do to relax – and decompress when stressed, angry, or hurt – are no longer an option.
Because everyone responds to certain situations differently, and because humans living on Mars is unprecedented, it can be hard to anticipate the psychological effects of these planned missions and projects. A lot of research is being done in the area by NASA, which has reportedly paid $1.3 million to Michigan State University psychologists, who will work on the development of a sensor-based badge that the agency’s astronauts will wear while on Mars.
The sensors would serve as a kind of quasi mental-social warning apparatus, monitoring such things as conversation length and vocal patterns. Such a badge could advise a wearer when he or she is acting in a manner that is interpreted as aggressive, could advise someone that their actions are inappropriate, watch for signs of depression, and other such things. If the sensor picks up particularly worrisome signals, such that indicates the wearer could be in or heading towards a precarious mental state, it could relay the information to a ground crew, who could then take steps to intervene.
In addition to the sensor, NASA is also helping fund a project that creates a digital therapist, which the astronauts would be able to utilize as necessary. Work is also being done in determing how to best select compatible teams, as well as trying to anticipate what things might stress the teams and individuals so they can be dealt with ahead of time.
SOURCE: The Verge
NASA to use sensor-based badge to monitor Mars astronauts’ mental state is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Elon Musk is a busy man. He’s also a man who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, as we found out during his SXSW keynote earlier this year. This evening, he’s capping off a day of interviews at D11 with one of his own. As CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, he knows a thing or two about transportation — both within this atmosphere and beyond. Grab a cup of cocoa and join us after the break as we cover it live, won’t you?
Filed under: Transportation
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