Hasta La Gadget!

Today the SpaceX capsule that’d three weeks ago visited the International Space Station has splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. This trip was planned and executed precisely, with NASA’s announcement of a landing (today) being issued back on the 22nd of this month. What we’ve got inside of this lovely machine is a set of science samples from the space station from areas of human research, biology and biotechnology studies, and physical science investigations, as well as education activities.

The landing was called successful this morning and right around the full 2,668 pounds (1,210 kilograms) will be collected and studied into the future. One of the areas these particular samples are being used is in the study of long-lasting spaceflight’s impact on the human body. Another is the study of plants as they’ve been grown on the space station, these samples being set for aiding in growing better and more fruitful plants in the future both on the space station and here on our planet’s surface.

Also onboard the ship – and shipped back this month – were a collection of crystals grown aboard the ship. With these crystals, NASA scientists hope to aid in the development of new more efficient solar cells as well as semiconductor-based electronics. As NASA reminds us, the SpaceX capsule Dragon “is the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return to Earth intact.”

Elon Musk himself Tweeted at 11:59 AM CST that the recovery ship had secured Dragon. He went on to note that as they powered down all secondary systems, it was apparent that all cargo looked “A ok”. According to the official SpaceX Twitter account, the Dragon capsule made its splashdown at 9:34AM PST – now it’s time to watch the research and see SpaceX and NASA head upward once again!

[Photo via SpaceX]

SpaceX Dragon capsule returns to Earth: what’s in that 2,668 pounds of cargo? is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he would be hiring a team of explorers to locate the remains of the Apollo 11 rocket and recover them from the ocean floor. Almost an exact year later, Bezos has announced that the Apollo 11 rockets have indeed been recovered and are in the process of making their way back to land where they’ll be put on display.

The F-1 engines, as they’re called, came off of the famous Saturn V rocket that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon. It was the mission that allowed humans to step foot on the moon for the first time on July 20, 1969. The rockets have been lying on the bottom of the ocean for more than 40 years, and Bezos and his team have recovered two out of the five engines.

However, Bezos is not 100% sure that the engines are, in fact, from Apollo 11, since the corrosion of the serial numbers will make it difficult to verify, but there’s certainly confidence that the recovered engines are from Apollo 11. Bezos wants to display the engines at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, although NASA may be involved in the decision on where they will ultimately be displayed.

The Saturn V is still the largest and most powerful rocket that was ever built in the US, and each engine is almost 20 feet tall and 13 feet wide. Each engine also weighs over 17,500 pounds. The massive size of the engines produced quite the thrust — around 7.7 million pounds of thrust to be exact, and it had a top speed of over 6,000 mph.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recovers Apollo 11 rockets from the ocean is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve talked about the Voyager 1 spacecraft in the past, and it’s most known for being the farthest man-made object from the Earth, and it’s been announced that the 1,600-pound space probe has exited our solar system, as well as the heliosphere beyond the influence of the Sun. However, the probe has been experiencing drastic changes in radiation levels since leaving the solar system.

It’s said that back in August, levels of galactic cosmic rays, which is cosmic radiation from outside of the solar system, spiked to levels that haven’t been seen since Voyager’s launch back in 1977. It was reported that radiation levels spiked by twice as much as they previously were. However, since leaving the solar system, scientists that the intensity has decreased but the cosmic ray levels are still high.

However, many astronomers and scientists are arguing whether or not Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space or simply just entered a separate, undefined region that’s located beyond the solar system. Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University, argues that Voyager 1 is “outside the normal heliosphere” as we speak, which means that the spacecraft has entered interstellar space.

So far, Voyager 1 has been active for 35-and-a-half years, and it’s still communicating with NASA, making it the oldest spacecraft to still be active. The probe’s primary mission officially ended in November 1980 after it successfully explored Saturn and Jupiter, as well as both of the planets’ various moons.

Voyager 1 exits solar system, experiences massive changes in radiation levels is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today during a NASA news briefing on the progress that the Curiosity rover is making on Mars, scientists have revealed evidence that point to conditions of habitable life on the Red Planet. An analysis of rock samples that were collected by the Curiosity rover shows that Mars could have supported living microbes at one point in time.

Scientists have identified some key components in the rock samples that are critical to sustain life, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon. The sample is from the hole that Curiosity drilled near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater last month. The rover took the dust that was produced from the hole in order to test it effectively.

The image above compares two rocks, the one on the left seen by NASA’s Opportunity rover and the one on the right seen by the Curiosity rover at two different locations on Mars. Scientists think the particles in the rock on the left were formed from water, as were the darker bumps all over the rock.

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program says that based on the evidence found and from what scientists know so far, Mars could have very well likely supported a habitable environment at some point. Scientists found a mixture of oxidized and non-oxidized chemicals, which provides evidence that proves a similar method of how microbes on Earth live.

Mars Curiosity rover finds evidence of habitable life on Mars is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

SpaceX released a video detailing its most recent launch of its Grasshopper reusable rocket. The video demonstrates the continuous advancements SpaceX is making, and how Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, is working hard to achieve his goal of making space travel much more cost friendly. On March 7th, 2013, the Grasshopper was able to hover 262.8 feet, which is over twice the amount it was able to hover back in December.

The SpaceX Grasshopper was tested at the company’s rocket development facility located in McGregor, Texas. The Grasshopper has come a long way since its first test, where it only flew up about 8.2 feet. SpaceX is also improving Grasshopper’s landing, with this latest test showing Grasshopper’s most accurate landing results as of late. This is all progress for SpaceX, who wants to be able to create a rocket that can survive re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere and be able to land back on the launch pad intact.

Elon Musk has high hopes for SpaceX’s reusable rockets. He believes that reusable rockets will provide a “hundred-fold decrease in the cost of space flight”, and that they will open up the possibility of humanity becoming a multi-planetary species. He says that it isn’t the cost of fuel and oxygen that’s holding back the future of space travel, but the wasted cost of having to throw away a rocket after one use.

SpaceX hopes to get more businesses interested in the space industry. With demonstrations like these, the company hopes to get businesses excited about the future of space travel, which would result in more funding for future projects. Currently, 1/4 of SpaceX’s launches are composed of NASA assignments, while the other 3/4 are for commercial use. With the advancement of creating reusable rockets, Musk hopes that in his lifetime, man will have stepped foot on Mars at least once.

[via Space Answers]

SpaceX shows impressive Grasshopper rocket demonstration is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.