Virgin Galactic Lands Legal Protection Against Space Tourists

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Enter at your own risk–or so should read a sign on the door of every passenger spaceship in the future.
Space tourism operators like Virgin Galactic have won a legal reprieve against potential litigation by surviving family members in the event of passenger injuries or death during flight, according to Space.com.
“This helps give us a really solid insurance foundation” for the business, Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said in the report regarding the new legislation, which was signed into law on February 27 by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. “It includes the principle of informed consent. Participants will be required to sign a waiver before flight.”
The possibility of lawsuits with staggering sums attached is only higher in the space tourism industry’s early years, thanks to the high costs that will invariably draw enthusiasts with very high net worth statements. The law won’t hold in the event that the space tourism operator is found guilty of gross negligence or willful misconduct, according to the report.

Hubble IMAX 3D: The Next Best Thing to Being in Space

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Astronaut Andrew Feustel spacewalks to perform repairs on the Hubble; click to enlarge.

Take a number of the Hubble Space Telescope’s most stunning images, give them a 3D look, and display them on an IMAX screen–what’s not to love? Yet Hubble 3D, an IMAX and Warner Brothers film made in cooperation with NASA, manages to go far beyond that.

Much of the film focuses on last May’s mission of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) to repair the Hubble. The astronauts brought an IMAX 3D camera with which they were able to capture spectacular sequences of the grueling and dangerous spacewalks the crew undertook to conduct the repairs. Coupled with stunning views of Earth, this section of Hubble 3D provides an immersive experience that astronauts who have seen the video have termed the closest thing yet to actually being in orbit. Hubble 3D will open in selected IMAX theaters March 19, but we were fortunate enough to get a preview this week.

The movie, narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio, opens with the STS-125 crew suiting up and talking about the importance of the mission and their growing excitement about it in the hours before liftoff. Among them is Mike Massimino (@Astro_Mike), who on that mission became the first astronaut to tweet from space. The film cuts away to a history of Hubble and a tour of its images (some of which you’ll find after the jump) but always returns to the saga of the repair mission.

You, Too, Could Own a Working Jetpack for $90,000

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Near the top of the list of “unfulfilled science fiction concepts,” you’ll find the jetpack, a staple of future transportation that somehow hasn’t arrived yet. (Well, we did get the Segway.)
Nonetheless, Martin Aircraft Company wants to change that with the Martin Jetpack, a $90,000 carbon fiber model that can generate 600 pounds of thrust. Wired reports that the jetpack is self-righting; you can let go of the controls and just hover.
The Martin Jetpack runs on gasoline, and burns through its five-gallon tank in about half an hour. It’s classified as an ultralight aircraft, so you don’t need a pilot’s license, although the company enforces its own training program.
Anyone who wants one faces a 12-month wait; to get on the list, you’ll need to put 10 percent down ($9,000).

Wheres Spock? Physicist Says Warp Speed Will Kill You

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Last year, a group of physicists figured out that achieving warp speed had the potential–depending on how we did it, at least–to create a black hole that would suck up Earth and destroy us all.
Putting aside that cheery bit of news for a moment, another physicist recently said that even if that particular scenario didn’t come to pass, the simple matter of traveling warp speed could kill you–all because of some stray hydrogen atoms.

NASA Mars Orbiter Transmits 100 Terabits, Still Going

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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has now transmitted 100 terabits of information back to Earth, as it completes its fourth year circling the Red Planet next week, according to ScienceDaily.
Here’s another way of looking at it: 100 terabits, or 100 trillion bits, is equivalent to three times the amount of data from every other deep-space mission past the moon combined, the report said. It’s also equivalent to about 35 hours of uncompressed, high-definition video–not bad for a planet that’s anywhere from 36 million to 250 million miles away from Earth.
The orbiter’s 10-foot dish antenna can transmit data at 6 megabits per second. The craft contains three main cameras, a radar instrument that can see through the surface, an atmosphere sounder, and a spectrometer for identifying minerals, according to the article.
To date, the orbiter has discovered evidence that water moved across the planet’s surface for hundreds of millions of years. It has also detailed acidic and alkaline watery environments, either of which could indicate past life on the planet (if it ever existed).

Jen Scheer, Twitter Space Advocate, Wins Shorty Science Award

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I was very pleased to find, among the winners of the Shorty Awards given to exceptional or groundbreaking Twitter users, that Jen Scheer, aka @flyingjenny, had won the Shorty in the Science category. She’s a Space Shuttle technician and artist who founded the Space Tweep Society, a space advocacy group for Twitter users.

Although it exists thanks to Twitter, the Space Tweep Society is anchored in its Web site, which encourages member participation and networking. Each person has his or her own blog space, and their posts appear on the site’s main blog as well. There are also forums, chat, a photo gallery, and more. Naturally, Space Tweep Society members gather on Twitter, marking relevant posts with the hashtag #spacetweeps. Members use both the site and Twitter to organize mini-tweetups and other local events.

Mars Express Spacecraft Visits Phobos, No Sign of Cyberdemons

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The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express orbiter will soon pass within about 30 miles above Phobos–one of Mars’ two moons made famous in id Software’s Doom franchise, among other places.
Discovery reports that scientists hope to learn more about the potato-shaped rock: where it came from, how its gravity works, and whether or not the interior is actually hollow–a theory scientists have been tossing about for decades.
To figure this all out, scientists plan to track minute changes in the probe’s flight path via a radio signal, in an attempt to indirectly correlate Phobos’ gravitational tugs with its internal structure. No word yet on when we’ll finally learn about all those creepy “scientific” experiments. (Image credit: ESA/NASA/HiRISE)

Report: Moons North Pole Contains Massive Amounts of Water Ice

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It turns out the LCROSS spacecraft’s discovery of water ice at the moon’s south pole wasn’t the whole story.
Scientists now have detected massive amounts of ice deposits near the moon’s north pole as well, using data from a NASA radar aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft–and this time, it’s much more ice.
NASA said in a statement that the Mini-SAR instrument, which is a lightweight, synthetic “aperture radar,” discovered over 40 craters filled with water ice between one and 9 miles in diameter.
The agency estimates that there could be 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tons) of water ice in those craters. Along with other recent water ice discoveries on the moon, the latest one has implications for future manned moon missions (assuming they ever happen again), or even extended moon colonizations.

ESOs Very Large Telescope Survives Earthquake in Chile

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The European Southern Observatory said in a statement that all of its employees are safe and unharmed following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck central Chile on February 27, 2010, and that none of its telescopes were damaged.
The only effect seen was a power outage that cut observations for one night at La Silla, according to Universe Today. Paranal Observatory, the APEX telescope, and the ALMA Operations Support Facility and Array Operations Site were all unaffected, according to the report. That includes VISTA, plus the ‘Very Large Telescope‘ we’ve covered on numerous occasions, which includes four separate optical telescopes in an array (pictured).
The Gemini South Observatory also said that their employees were fine, and that the main 27-foot optical/infrared hybrid telescope located there suffered no damage, according to the same report. (Image credit: ESO/2009)

NASA Moves Closer to VASIMR Rocket Testing

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Remember that new ion propulsion rocket that could slash the time it takes to travel from Earth to Mars to just 39 days? According to AFP, NASA plans to center its future strategy around MIT scientist Franklin Chang-Diaz’s design, called the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), according to AFP.

We’ve also got some more specifics on how the rocket works. VASIMR uses electricity to transform fuels like hyrodgen, helium, or deuterium into plasma gas, which is then heated to 51.8 million degrees Fanrenheit and sent into tailpipes via magnetic fields, the report said. The rocket will be capable of reaching speeds of 35 miles per second (126,000 miles per hour).
NASA worked on the design along with Ad Astra and Canadian firm Nautel. NASA plans to contract with more private firms as it reels in costs following the Obama Administration’s cuts to its Constellation program, which would have returned humans to the moon by the end of the decade. Chang-Diaz is planning for an orbital deployment by the end of 2013, according to the report, and is already working with private space firms SpaceX and Orbital Science Corporation. (Image credit: Ad Astra)