NASA : A New Lunar Impact Observatory

Note added in press: The Walker County Observatory recorded its first lunar impact on Sept. 19, 2007.

Sept. 28, 2007: NASA scientists are proving that you can go home again – if you bring a telescope with you. "Home" is north Georgia's Walker County, where astronomers Bill Cooke and Rob Suggs have just set up a research-grade observatory for their old school system.

Right: Rob Suggs poses by the new lunar impact telescope in Walker County, Georgia.

Years ago, they won't say how many, Cooke and Suggs attended the same high school in Walker County and after school they volunteered at the Walker County Science and Technology Center. The center's telescopes fueled their fire for astronomy. They learned to operate the instruments, find their way around the night sky, and they took their first pictures of the Moon.

Now, photographing the Moon is something they do professionally for NASA.

Cooke and Suggs work at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Cooke heads up the Meteoroid Environment Office and Suggs leads the Space Environments team. Together with a half-dozen assistants and colleagues, they specialize in "lunar impact monitoring." In other words, they watch meteorites hit the Moon and explode.

"We've recorded about 30 strikes this year so far," says Cooke. Keeping track of these numbers is important to NASA as the agency lays plans to return to the Moon. "We need to know the odds of habitats and spacecraft getting hit."

Which brings us back to Georgia. Installing a telescope in Walker County not only benefits the local Science Center but also it solves a thorny problem for the lunar monitoring team. Cooke explains:

"At our main observatory in Huntsville, we see a fair amount of man-made space junk passing between us and the Moon. If the junk is tumbling and catches sunlight, it looks like an impact flash."

Above: A meteorite hits the Moon--recorded from the MSFC's lunar observatory in Huntsville, Alabama, in May 2006. The Walker County Observatory will soon be detecting similar flashes. [More]

"But suppose you have two observatories separated by some distance—say, one telescope in Alabama and one in Georgia. Then we can tell the difference between a tumbling satellite and a genuine impact. A real impact flash would be seen by both telescopes at the same location on the Moon. A tumbling satellite, on the other hand, will glint differently at the two locations."

Using the internet, NASA will monitor Walker County telescope data remotely ten days each month when the Moon is properly situated for viewing impacts. The Science and Technology Center will use the telescope the rest of the time.

"It opens up a whole new world of potential science fair projects for them," says Cooke.

The Meteoroid Office chose this rural county as a home for the telescope because it was a perfect fit. For one thing, Cooke knew that the Science and Technology Center had won a Space Telescope Science Institute grant to help build a new planetarium. "The old planetarium I used as a kid was bull-dozed," says Cooke. "We felt the telescope would be a natural adjunct to the new planetarium."

"The center also has beautifully flat horizons – no trees. It's all clear for viewing. And Rob and I have known the Walker County School District's Science and Technology Coordinator, Wayne Robinson, for years. He can fix the telescope if anything breaks down. It's a win-win situation."

Robinson agrees.

"Having the NASA lunar observatory at our center will pay tremendous dividends for years to come," he says. "Images from the telescope will inspire our students to know more about space science and astronomy. We'll also project the images on to a 40 foot diameter dome, providing audiences with a combination of simulated night sky and real time images. If there ever was a win-win situation, this is it."

Right: Star cluster M13 photographed by the lunar impact telescope in Walker County. More sample images: Ring Nebula, Lagoon Nebula.

The $15,000 telescope has a 14-inch diameter mirror and will observe from within an 8-foot by 8-foot building with a roll-top roof.

End of story? Not quite. Robinson won't let you go without sharing a tale about Cooke's younger days.

"We used to put on Christmas programs in the old planetarium," recalls Robinson. "I remember one in particular. The planetarium director turned on a black light to reveal wise men and camels. But the black lights revealed something else too. Bill and some other volunteers had secretly placed big signs that said, Wise Men on Strike and Demand Better Camels."

"Needless to say, the event is legendary to this day."

Warning to the next generation: Cooke is back, and he's bringing a telescope with him

ESA : First SpaceWire conference a resounding success

Conference participants 28 September 2007 The first conference devoted to SpaceWire, a leading data-handling network for use on board spacecraft, was held in Dundee (UK) from 17 to 19 September. Over 100 spacecraft designers from around the world took part, examining the current state of the technology and preparing for its future evolution. Representatives from the major space agencies, including ESA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) attended the conference. They were joined by delegates from across Europe, and from Russia, Israel, Japan, the USA, Canada and Argentina. The three-day SpaceWire conference was hosted by the University of Dundee.

Conference participants The conference attracted many spacecraft design specialists, including product designers, hardware engineers, system developers and space mission specialists. It provided a unique opportunity for leading professionals from both space agencies and space industry to meet and discuss the latest developments in the specialised field of SpaceWire technology. More than fifty papers were presented during the three days. Session topics included: SpaceWire missions and applications components onboard equipment and software test and verification networks and protocols standardisation There was also an industrial exhibition featuring major international suppliers of SpaceWire technology.

SpaceWire exhibition Space Wire development SpaceWire is a leading data-handling network for use onboard spacecraft. It has already been used on many space missions and by many nations. SpaceWire development was initiated by ESA and has led to a state of the art solution for implementing on-board networks for spacecraft. The cooperation between three entities, namely space agencies, universities and industry, has been instrumental in achieving the present results and reaching a high level of usage of the technology around the world. This development method has enabled the creation of small companies, leading to an increase in European equipment supplier competitiveness.

Participants alongside RRS Discovery ESA is now accompanying the deployment of SpaceWire networks by defining, in coordination with NASA, JAXA and Roscosmos, higher level protocols aimed at further extending the capability of SpaceWire to build modular and easy to assemble on-board data systems. As part of a sustained commitment, ESA is already preparing for the future by supporting a smooth evolution towards higher data rates and capabilities. This conference undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of a suitable path towards this challenging goal.

ESA : Business ideas for space technology

Satellite operation control systems to monitor oil and gas installations

26 September 2007
ESA is calling for proposals from entrepreneurs with new ideas on how space technology can be turned into business opportunities in non-space sectors. The deadline for the last round of proposals for this year is 31 October for the Business Incubator at ESTEC, the Netherlands.

To date, more than 50 entrepreneurs have been hosted at one of ESA’s three Business Incubation centres to start their companies. ESA’s support has led to new businesses providing innovative solutions in non-space fields based upon space technology and satellite supplied services.

Business incubation

As part of its endeavour to encourage the transfer and commercialisation of space technologies, ESA has set up business incubators at ESTEC in the Netherlands, ESOC in Germany and ESRIN in Italy.

The centres support selected entrepreneurs, named ‘incubatees’, with comprehensive commercial and technical assistance to help them start up business that use space technology in non-space industrial, scientific and commercial fields.

Three start-up successes

Roland Haarbrink joined the ESA Business Incubator in 2005 to start his company called Miramap to develop novel solutions for airborne surveys of land and water surface installations over large areas such as water barriers and dykes. The technology, originally developed for satellites, uses passive microwave remote sensing technology. Today Miramap has several clients, including the Dutch Ministry for Traffic and Water Management.

Satellite navigation brings real world car racing into game consoles

After winning the South Holland regional Galileo Masters 2006 competition, Andy Lürling was hosted at ESA’s Business Incubator to develop his idea of integrating world car racing into the virtual world of games console racing by using satellite navigation data.

“Gamers can participate in the excitement and suspense of a real race and try to beat professional racing drivers and other virtual gamers from their own homes,” explains Andy Lürling. His idea turned out to be a great success and today his company iOpener employs seven people and recently won the Ernst & Young Best Business Case Award 2006/2007. End of October iOpener will present their Real-time Games product at a press conference to be held at the Dutch racetrack of Zandfort.

Remote sensing space technology to survey large area installations

Alexandre Van Damme’s idea was to use the advanced monitoring concepts and systems used in satellite operation control to monitor oil and gas installations. With the support of ESA’s Business Incubator he started the company EATOPS to develop and market a new generation of real-time data monitoring and failure analysis systems called RIVOBS.

His system processes the massive amount of data coming from offshore platforms, pipelines and regional production facilities and converts the information into innovative 3-dimensional displays to support operators in their decision making and enable predictive maintenance analysis to become a reality.

Deadline for 2007: 31 October for ESA’s Business Incubator at ESTEC

For more information and how to apply, see:
ESA Business Incubation: Applications.

	Space tech insulates tomographs

About ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO)

The main mission of the ESA TTPO is to facilitate the use of space technology and space systems for non-space applications and to further demonstrate the benefit of the European space programme to European citizens. The TTPO is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for the transfer of space technologies including the incubation of start-up companies and their funding.

Space.com : Space Station Crew Takes Short Soyuz Trip

By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 27 September 2007 6:01 p.m. ET

Three astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took a short trip Thursday to move their Russian-built lifeboat to a new parking spot.

ISS Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson spent only 20 minutes flying their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft between docking ports, but the successful move primed the station for the October arrival of its next crew.

"Nice work," Anderson told Kotov, who commanded the brief Soyuz flight, after the orbital hop.

The short Soyuz spaceflight clears the space station's Earth-facing Zarya docking port to receive a new Russian spaceship on Oct. 12. That spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-11, will ferry the station's new Expedition 16 crew and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor -- Malaysia's first astronaut -- to the ISS after an Oct. 10 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Kotov undocked the 24-foot (7.3-meter) long Soyuz TMA-10 from its Zarya berth at 3:27 p.m. EDT (1937 GMT) as the two spacecraft passed high above the southeast Pacific Ocean. He deftly piloted the eight-ton Soyuz along a graceful arc to the station's aft-mounted docking port on the end of the Russian-built Zvezda service module.

The two spacecraft reconnected at 3:47 p.m. EDT (1947 GMT) as they flew 211 miles (339 kilometers) above western Africa.

"Congratulations," radioed Russia's Mission Control Center, located just outside Moscow, after the successful docking.

Long hours ahead

But the Expedition 15 astronauts still have a long way to go before completing what will ultimately be a 21-hour work day.

The spaceflyers are expected to reenter the station at about 6:55 p.m. EDT (2255 GMT) tonight, then reopen hatches between the outpost's modules and power up its space toilet, life support and other systems. The Expedition 15 astronauts closed the hatches and powered down some systems as a precaution against the chance that their Soyuz spacecraft would not be able redock with the ISS, forcing the crew to return to Earth early, NASA said.

Yurchikhin and his crew are not expected to completely reactivate the space station until about 8:55 p.m. EDT (0055 Sept. 28 GMT). After taking time out for dinner and other activities, the Expedition 15 crew will go to sleep at 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) early Friday, NASA said.

Space station mission managers have given the crew some time off Friday and a relaxed weekend schedule to allow time for rest, NASA said.

Yurchikhin and Kotov are nearing the end of a six-month tour aboard the ISS. They will hand over control of the station to Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson, of NASA, and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, of Russia, before returning to Earth with Shukor on Oct. 21. Anderson will stay aboard to join the Expedition 16 crew for the first few weeks of its six-month mission.

As the ISS astronauts complete their Soyuz relocation tasks in Earth orbit, Russian flight controllers are preparing for the Friday morning retraction of two older solar arrays reaching out from the station's Zarya module.

Retracting the solar arrays will provide clearance for a set of ISS radiators that will be unfurled later this year, mission managers have said.

ESA : The best map of our galaxy yet

Spiral Galaxy

27 September 2007
It has been ten years since the release of the Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues, the first astrometric catalogues produced from observations in space. The Hipparcos catalogue has since been re-processed and fine-tuned, providing the best map of our galaxy to date.

ESA’s Hipparcos (High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite), launched in 1989, was the first, and so far only, space-based astrometry mission. Designed to determine the position and distance of more than 100 000 stars, its accuracy exceeded ground-based observations by a factor of 10 to 100. The mission also collected data on the proper motion and variability of stars and identified multiple star systems.

Hipparcos was managed and run exclusively by ESA and a consortium of European scientists. It resulted in the Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues which were first published in 1997. The catalogues provide information fundamental to all subjects in astronomy and remain unrivalled to this day.

The Hipparcos catalogue contains about 120 000 stars and can be used to study not only individual stars, but also the behaviour of stellar groups as well as the formation of our galaxy. The Tycho catalogue, an unplanned product of the mission, is a bigger source for the study of stars (about one million stars) and its data is also used for orientation of satellites in space.

	Hipparcos

“When Hipparcos was launched, astrometry was an obscure area and no one could have foreseen the surprises coming,” said Michael Perryman, ESA’s Project Scientist for Hipparcos. “The mission provided insight on a wide spectrum of subjects and opened up vast, unexplored pastures.”

The quality and quantity of information contained in the two catalogues will not be superceded until Gaia, ESA’s next space-based astrometry mission, launches in 2011 and releases its catalogue in 2020.

Thanks to the patient fine-tuning of Hipparcos data by Floor van Leeuwen, of the University of Cambridge (UK), a member of the Hipparcos Science Team, a new version of the Hipparcos catalogue is now available. With upgraded technology, computer models used to process data have been refined and re-run, revealing much more.

Van Leewen’s efforts have resulted in an improvement by a factor of two on the original Hipparcos catalogue, with larger improvements for a number of specific cases.

Notes for editors:

The Hipparcos catalogue contains information on 118 218 stars, the majority of which (97%) are also classified in the Tycho catalogue. Hipparcos contains precise astrometric or movement and location and limited photometric single-colour information for a small number of stars. The original Tycho catalogue provided two-colour photometric data and less precise astrometric data (compared to Hipparcos) for more than a million stars. In 2000, a new reduction of the star mapper data resulted in the Tycho-2 catalogue, containing more than 2.5 million stars.

Due to limitations of the computer models used for processing the data first obtained years ago, it was not possible to incorporate some of the effects of micrometeoroids on satellite pointing and observations. The movement of solar panels with respect to the spacecraft, although tiny, also introduced some subtle errors.

Now, with upgraded technology, a task that used to take 6 months to run twelve years ago now takes about a week on a desktop computer. The models have been refined and rerun, revealing much more.

The printed version of the new catalogue is due for release today, 27 September 2007 in the book ‘Hipparcos, the new reduction of the raw data’. The data from the new reduction will be available online in early 2008.

The new reduction of the Hipparcos catalogue has resulted in an improvement by a factor of two on the original. Larger improvements have resulted in specific cases: distances of open clusters are 2 to 3 times more accurate than before; a good solution can now be found for about 1000 ‘troublesome’ stars in the original catalogue; improved parallaxes for Cepheid stars have led to a better estimate for the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud.

ESA : Colloquium on scientific and fundamental aspects of the Galileo programme

26 September 2007
A key meeting to enhance the scientific use of Galileo and contribute to the science-based development of Global Navigation Satellite Systems is being held at the 'Cité de l'Espace' in Toulouse on 1 to 4 October. This is the first colloquium on scientific and fundamental aspects of the Galileo programme.

The colloquium has stimulated interest throughout the worldwide scientific community. Scientists are coming from China, India, Korea and the USA, as well as from Europe, to present their work and views about the scientific exploitation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in general and Galileo in particular.

By bringing together leading members of the European scientific community and their international partners, this colloquium will be an opportunity for Galileo partners to discover the numerous uses of satellite navigation and the very sophisticated aspects of this cutting edge area.

Organised by the Air and Space Academy, the Bureau des Longitudes, the Académie de Marine and ESA, this colloquium is also intended to contribute to the 50th anniversary celebrations of the launch of Sputnik.

Three major areas will be addressed:

• the fundamental aspects of navigation by satellites and Galileo: geodetic and temporal reference frames, relativistic frame, on-board and ground clocks, orbits, radiation environment in orbit, inter-satellite links, fundamental aspects of propagation, tropospheric and ionospheric corrections, calibration and validation, relations with international organisations (BIPM, IGS)
• scientific applications in meteorology, geodesy, geophysics, space physics, oceanography, land surface and ecosystem studies, using either direct or reflected signals, differential measurements, phase measurements, occultation measurements, using receivers placed on the ground, in airplanes or in scientific satellites
• scientific developments in physics and dealing with future systems, particularly in testing fundamental laws, in astronomy, in Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, in quantum communication, new quantum clock synchronization protocols, and in advanced scientific utilization of future generation of atomic clocks on board GNSS

The purpose of the colloquium is to review the various possibilities for using navigation satellite systems such as Galileo for scientific purposes, to investigate how these scientific requirements can contribute to making the most of the present systems and to define their possible future evolution.

The conference will be conducted as a series of plenary talks and two parallel half-day sessions. Its scientific content has been organised by a European committee led by Dr. Jean-Francois Minster.

During the conference a round table discussion will take place with two main objectives:

• identification of the key scientific issues for GNSS in general and Galileo in particular
• expression of recommendations to ensure the best environment for the scientific exploitation of Galileo

The round table is planned to include 17 representatives drawn from industry, ESA, CNES, DLR, from the conference's Scientific Committee, and from the initial promoters of the conference.

Universe Today : Exotic Collision Releases a Blast of Radio Waves

Written by Fraser Cain

It's not every day that you see something completely new in the night sky. But that's what Australian and US researchers have announced this week. They uncovered a mysterious burst of radio energy that came from outside our galaxy. It was incredibly bright, emanating from a tiny object, and lasted for only 5 milliseconds. Blink and you would have missed it (actually, don't bother blinking, you'd still miss it). So, the big question is: what was that?!

Astronomers from Swinburne University and West Virginia University announced their unexpected discovery this week, with an article in the journal Science.

Their discovery was made by chance. The researchers were analyzing radio observations of rotating pulsars - the corpses of massive stars - when they noticed a brief, bright flash of radio waves in their images. They were looking at the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy, and were fortunate to have the flash occur in their field of view; off to the side away from the galaxy.

Based on their further analysis, whatever made the flash of radio waves is millions of light-years away, well outside the galaxy, and tiny; probably less than 1,500 km across. Objects at this distance should be very faint, but what they found overwhelmed the radio telescope's detectors.

So what was it?

There are two theories on the table right now. One is a collision between a binary pair of neutron stars. These exotic objects were once stars much larger than our own Sun. After both detonated as supernovae, they spiraled inward towards one another, eventually merging. Astronomers think this event can also cause a certain kind of gamma ray burst, but a flash of radio waves has never been seen before.

Another, even more exotic explanation is the death of black hole. Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes can actually evaporate, losing mass over long periods of time. As the black hole loses mass, the evaporation speeds up, and the last few moments of a black hole could actually go quite quickly, perhaps with a flash of radio waves like this.

Based on the fact that the discovery was a total coincidence, the astronomers are hopeful that this kind of event is happening all over the sky, all the time. Astronomers have just never thought to look for them. It's possible that this discovery could even open up a whole new field of astronomy, just like when gamma ray bursts were first discovered 30 years ago when the military orbited satellites designed to see nuclear explosions on the Earth.

Original Source: Swinburne University News Release

Universe Today : Opportunity is Now Working Inside Victoria Crater

Written by Fraser Cain

When last we saw our plucky rover, it was tentatively crawling down into the massive Victoria crater on the surface of Mars. Well, NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has been making some serious progress since then. In fact, it's already gotten down to do some science. The rover is currently several metres down inside the rim of Victoria crater, balancing on a steep slope, and peering at an ancient slab of exposed bedrock.

Opportunity is now slowly descending down into the 800-metre-wide Victoria Crater; slowly, and carefully. Its first stop is a patch of exposed bedrock. Even though it's still on the slope, Opportunity was able to reach over with its robotic arm and use some of its tools to examine the bright outcropping.

Controllers had Opportunity make a few extra safety checks, since it's currently driving down a 25-degree slope, and stretching out the arm too far could unbalance it. The rover drove down 2.25 metres (7.38 feet) to get the rock within easy - and safe - reach. This was the third drive the rover has made since it entered the crater on September 13th.

NASA is watching the rover's traction very carefully. This 25-degree angle is the steepest the rover is going to see. And so far, the worst slippage has only been about 10%. So it should be able to get down into the crater, and still be able to crawl back out again. Fortunately, Victoria crater won't be Opportunity's final home on Mars.

Researchers are hoping the rover will find older and older patches of rock, exposed when an asteroid impacted the surface of Mars millions of years ago. These ancient rocks will tell a story of Martian history much older than the fragmented pieces scientists have been able to put together so far. Were there long periods where the planet was covered by liquid water?

It's your job Opportunity. Don't come out of your hole until you've got some answers.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

NASA : Voyage to the Giant Asteroids--Liftoff!

Sept. 27, 2007: The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is like the solar system's cluttered old attic. The dusty, forgotten objects there are relics from a time long ago, each asteroid with its own story to tell.

These are stories planetary scientists are eager to hear. Much is still unknown about our solar system's beginnings. We learn the basic story in school: A vast disc of gas and dust around the sun slowly gathered into larger and larger chunks, eventually forming the planets we know today. But how exactly did this happen, and why did it produce the kinds of worlds that it did, including a certain blue planet well-suited for life?

Right: NASA's Dawn spacecraft lifts off from Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2007. [More]

To answer these questions, today (Sept. 27th) NASA launched a robotic probe named Dawn. Its mission: Fly to two giant asteroids, Ceres and Vesta, and explore them up close for the first time. Shortly after launch, Dawn signaled ground control to say that all is well: the spacecraft is oriented properly and receiving power from its massive solar arrays. "Dawn has risen, and the spacecraft is healthy," says the mission's project manager Keyur Patel of JPL.

Vesta, for starters

Dawn's first stop is Vesta—an asteroid that may implicate ancient supernovas in the solar system's birth.

Telescopic observations of Vesta and studies of meteorites believed to have come from Vesta suggest that the asteroid may have been partially molten early in its history, allowing heavy elements like iron to sink and form a dense core with a lighter crust on top.

"That's interesting--and a bit puzzling," says Dawn's principal investigator Christopher Russell of UCLA. Melting requires a source of heat such as gravitational energy released when material comes together to make an asteroid. But Vesta is a small world—"too small," he says--only about 530 km across on average. "There would not have been enough gravitational energy to melt the asteroid when it formed."

Right: A Hubble Space Telescope photo of Vesta. [More]

A supernova may provide the explanation: Some scientists believe that when Vesta first formed, it was "spiced up" by aluminum-26 and iron-60 created in possibly two supernovas that exploded around the time of the solar system's birth. These forms of iron and aluminum are radioactive isotopes that could have provided the extra heat needed to melt Vesta. Once these isotopes decayed, the asteroid would have cooled and solidified to its present state.

This idea would explain why Vesta's surface appears to bear the marks of ancient basaltic lava flows and magma oceans, much as Earth's moon does. The supernovas would also change the sequence of events involved in planet formation:

"When I went to school, the thought was that the Earth got together, heated up, and the iron went to the center and the silicate floated on top, producing a core-forming event," Russell says. This view assumes that smaller planetoids that collided and merged to form Earth were amorphous masses that hadn't yet formed their own iron cores. But if chunks of rock the size of Vesta could melt and form dense cores, "it would affect the way the planets and their cores grew and evolved."

If all goes as planned, Dawn would reach Vesta and enter orbit in the year 2011. Detailed images of Vesta's surface will reveal traces of its molten past, while spectrometers catalog the minerals and elements that make up its surface. Vesta's gravitational field will be mapped out by the motions of Dawn itself as the probe orbits the asteroid, and that should settle once and for all whether Vesta indeed has an iron core.

On to Ceres

After orbiting Vesta for about 7 months, Dawn will undertake a maneuver never before attempted: leave the orbit of one distant body, and fly to and orbit another.

This kind of "asteroid hopping" would be practically impossible if Dawn used conventional rocket fuel. "We would need one of the largest rockets that the US has to carry all the propellant," says Marc Rayman, Project System Engineer for Dawn at JPL. Instead, Dawn uses ion propulsion, which requires only one-tenth as much propellant.

Right: A Hubble Space Telescope photo of Ceres. [More]

Dawn's fuel-efficient ion engines--famously nicknamed "the Prius of Space"--will propel the craft from Vesta, arriving at Ceres by 2015.

Measuring 950 km in diameter, Ceres is by far the largest object in the asteroid belt. Remarkably, it is not a rocky world like Vesta, but one covered in water ice. "Ceres is going to be a real surprise to us," says Russell. Because it appears to harbor a layer of ice 60 to 120 km thick, the surface of Ceres has probably changed more dramatically over time than Vesta's, obscuring much of its early history. But while Ceres may not offer such a clear window onto the earliest epoch of planet formation, it could teach scientists about the role that water has played since then. For example, why can some rocky worlds like Ceres and Earth hold on to large amounts of water, while others, like Vesta, end up bone dry?

"Vesta will tell us about the earliest epoch, and Ceres will tell us about what happened later," Russell says. Together, they offer two unique stories from our solar system's past, and who-knows-how-many lessons about how the planets came to be.

Universe Today : Tether to Keep Asteroid Explorers Grounded

Written by Fraser Cain

Here on Earth, gravity keeps us firmly on solid ground. But when astronauts set foot on some of the more exotic objects in the Solar System, just walking is going to be a struggle. In the microgravity of an asteroid, every step astronauts take will send him flying up in a long arc, and maybe out into space. It would be almost impossible to get around. Fortunately, MIT researchers have developed a tether system that could keep astronauts firmly anchored to the surface, but still let them walk around.

When humans first set foot on the Moon, they learned right away that the lower gravity was going to cause problems getting around. It took a few missions, but astronauts finally perfected a silly-looking hop that allowed them to skip around in the 1/6th gravity. But on an asteroid which can be only a few kilometres across, the wrong step could put an astronaut into orbit; the gravity's that low. As long as the asteroid is above 8 km or so, a wrong footed astronaut would eventually return to the surface, but it would make exploration infuriating.

What the MIT researchers have developed is a tether system that astronauts would attach to the surface of the asteroid. The ropes would be strung completely around the asteroid, sort of like putting a rubber band around a ball. Once the lightweight ropes were in place, they would apply pressure downward on the astronauts, giving them a sort of artificial gravity. The idea will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Acta Astronautica.

Previous researchers have suggested that astronauts could bolt themselves to the surface of the asteroid, but that might not be possible. Researcher Ian Garrick-Bethell describes the flaw in that plan, "it would be like trying to bolt yourself to a pile of gravel or sand."

The team envisions a rocket that would fly around the asteroid, unraveling a spool of rope. Once the spacecraft completes an orbit of the asteroid, the loop is formed and then tightened.

Nobody still really knows what the surface of an asteroid will be like. Even this might now work, as the rope might cut into the surface of the asteroid and not be usable to hold an astronaut down. But at least they could use it as a handhold to drag themselves along without flying away.

Original Source: MIT News Release

Universe Today : Book Review: The Telescope

Written by Mark Mortimer

The big bad wolf had big eyes to see better. But big eyes are only part of the solution for improving vision. Geoff Andersen in his book, The Telescope – Its History, Technology and Future shows there's so much more to bringing small things into focus. No wolf would have had any problem finding prey if they had some of these ultra-fine instruments to help them do the searching.

Telescopes, however, aren't for finding lost girls ambling around the forest. They're for pumping in every last iota of detail from objects millions of light years away. Things too small or too faint have hidden themselves from humanities eyes for so many years that many people still can't envision a galaxy. But continuing space observations and broadcasting amazing new discoveries keeps raising the background knowledge of everyone. Telescopes are the main tool for this and they have rich heritage in their own right.

Geoff Anderson's book showcases these tools that have made so many astounding discoveries. He targets his book at an audience that's had little knowledge of telescopes and less information on optics. With such, he begins with a very quick overview of our past accomplishments, made purely without optical aid. However, he quickly bounces on over to some clever Dutchmen and, of course, Galileo, who began our ascent into the finer reaches of the night sky. Keeping with this chronological frame, Anderson progresses through the advances in lenses, telescope design, observatory location and image collecting. There's no surprise in his book, though he includes some unexpected, pleasant asides, such as the basis for gamma ray observatories.

With this chronology, Anderson's addressed the history of this piece of equipment. But, his book is much more than an historical journey. Interspersed throughout the chapters on history are some high level details on the physics related to the optics. These don't get into any great detail and the forward even makes apologies for the slight amount of equations present. Suffice it to say that the Airy spot is about as particular as the information gets. Because of this, Anderson meets his obligation to make the technical contents digestible.

And, as evident from the title, this book peers into the telescope's future. Even when considering the future, Anderson stays in safe, complacent territory. His book extends out to a couple of the proposed next generation terrestrial and space based telescope platforms. He adds their purpose and chance of success. However, he doesn't play any games with contemplating far into the future, except for noting that if current trends continue, telescopes will get more capable and we will be further astounded by more amazing discoveries.

Staying safe with the subject is a constant theme in this book. The book's content is thorough, informative, well written and colourfully illustrated, but it doesn't add much to astronomy or the field of telescope equipment. The book is like a marketing brochure; it skims over using highlights and pretty pictures and a 'trust-me' approach to most of the written work. Thus, it will be pleasing to those who know little and want to get introduced to the subject. But, it won't take long for a reader to 'eat' their way through and be ready for another dish.

The big bad wolf never got the meal he wished. But, astronomers have been satiating their appetites with a continuing feast of more capable equipment. Geoff Andersen's book, The Telescope – Its History, Technology and Future provides a background for these amazing tools. The hungry wolf was out of luck, but, as the book shows, people are very fortunate that astronomers' hunger is continually satisfied.

Read more reviews online, or purchase a copy from Amazon.com.

Universe Today : These are Tough Microbes, But They Don't Come from Mars

Written by Fraser Cain

You know the cliche, wherever we find water here on Earth, we find life. But what if the environment is really hostile? So hostile that any living creature would almost never see water. And even when there was water, they were constantly being blasted with radiation. Amazingly, there's a microbe out there, Deinococcus geothermalis, that can handle some of the harshest environments on the planet - favoured habitats include nuclear power plants. Scientists once suspected that microbes like this might have evolved on Mars. Nope, they're homegrown.

Of all the different strains of bacteria on Earth, those in the genus Deinococcus are a hardy bunch. They're extremely resistant to ionizing radiation, they laugh at ultraviolet light, extreme, heat, cold and they don't mind being completely dried out for long periods. Bathed in acid? Boring.

D. geothermalis is actually a cousin of another microbe called Deinococcus radiodurans. D. radiodurans is capable of withstanding 500 times the radiation that will kill a human - with no loss of viability. The Guiness Book of World records calls D. radiodurans the toughest bacteria in the world, and some scientists have proposed that it actually evolved on Mars and somehow journeyed to Earth.

Researchers have recently sequenced the bacteria's cousin, D. geothermalis' entire genome sequence, providing some valuable clues into how a microbe can be so tough, and how they two are related (no Martian explanation necessary).

Their paper describing the results of their sequencing efforts, entitled Deinococcus geothermalis: The Pool of Extreme Radiation Resistance Genes Shrinks will be published in the September 26th issue of the journal Public Library of Science.

The microbe was first discovered in a hot pool at the Termi di Agnano, in Naples, Italy. Other scientists have turned it up in other nasty locations, such as industrial paper machine water, deep ocean subsurface environments, and subterranean hot springs in Iceland.

While working with the microbe, the researchers noted, "the extraordinary survival of Deinococcus bacteria following irradiation has also given rise to some rather whimsical descriptions of their derivation, including that they evolved on Mars."

In fact, the US Department of Energy is considering D. geothermalis as a possible solution to break down radioactive waste. Which would be good, since it's often a pest; adhering to the surface of steel, and causing problems in nuclear power plants.

Currently, scientists have no idea why bacteria like D. geothermalis are so hardy to radiation. They're just as susceptible to normal bacteria to have their DNA broken up by radiation, but they use some kind of efficient repair mechanism to fix the damage quickly.

The big surprise with this research is that it overturns previously held theories about how D. radiodurans protects itself. The two strains of bacteria are both extremely resistant to radiation, and yet D. geothermalis lacks the genes that scientists thought D. radiodurans was using. By comparing genome sequences between the two strains, the researchers were able to narrow down the genes which are likely contributing to the microbes' tolerance.

This research also overturns the intriguing possibility that D. radiodurans comes from Mars; evolving on the Cosmic Ray blasted surface of the Red Planet. These two strains have enough in common, with traceable evolutionary steps, that the researchers can see how they evolved right here on Earth.

Here's Dr. Michael J. Daly, an associate professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, "the thermophile Deinococcus geothermalis is an excellent organism in which to consider the potential for survival and biological evolution beyond its planet of origin, as well as the ability of life to survive extremely long periods of metabolic dormancy in high-radiation environments. The current work reinforces the notion that resistance to radiation and desiccation readily evolved on Earth, and that the underlying resistance systems are based on a universal set of repair genes. The work underscores the vulnerability of potential life-inhabiting environments on Mars to contamination by human exploration; and how the efficiency of ordinary DNA repair proteins could be increased, which might be important to astronauts. The growing awareness that there is hardly a habitat on Earth not harboring life is now changing our consensus of consequences for possible life on Mars."

Sorry Mars, go evolve your own microbes.

Original Source: PLOS Journal article

Universe Today : Black Hole Mission Returns from the Dead

Written by Fraser Cain

You can't keep a good mission down. I guess you can. Actually, it seems like most good missions are kept down (Terrestrial Planet Finder, anyone?). But once, it looks like the good guys are going to win. A cool mission to search for black holes has been resurrected, and will fly in space after all. Wise move NASA, send a spacecraft to help solve one of the most puzzling mysteries in modern astronomy.

The mission is called the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. NASA was originally planning this mission, capable of detecting nearby black holes with unprecedented sensitivity, but they decided to shelve it because of funding pressures back in 2006.

NuSTAR is part of NASA's Explorers Program. These are low-cost, regular missions to help solve a specific challenge in astronomy. Previous missions include Swift (for tracking down gamma ray bursts), and GALEX (which performs ultraviolet astronomy). Another mission, WMAP, told us that the Universe is 13.7 billion years old.

If all goes well, NuSTAR will be launched in 2011, bridging the gap between the 2009 launch of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and the 2013 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Once in space, it'll perform deep observations in hard X-rays, searching for the telltale signature of black holes of various sizes and other exotic and extreme objects.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait was actually involved with the program and gives a personal history about it here.

Original Source: NASA News Release

ESA : ESA and India tighten relations at IAC 2007

IAC inauguration ceremony

25 September 2007
The 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) is taking place this week from 24 to 29 September in Hyderabad, India, with the theme 'Touching humanity: Space for improving quality of life’.

One of the major space events of the year, this congress brings together some 2000 international space specialists providing a crossroad uniting the world’s space agencies, astronautics institutes, aerospace scientific associations, firms involved in space activities and students.

The congress was inaugurated yesterday, Monday 24 September, by Prithviraj Chauhan, Minister of State in the Indian Prime Minister’s Office.

	Prithviraj Chauhan, Minister of State

ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and a delegation of ESA experts in various disciplines is taking part in this international gathering. During the congress, a series of top level meetings will involve him and other key players in the field, ranging from bilateral meetings between Heads of Space Agencies (US, Russia, Japan, China Canada and, in particular, India) to specific meetings at working level with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) representatives. The aim is to present on-going and planned activities and to identify areas of possible future cooperation beyond the fields of Space and Earth Sciences, in which cooperation between ESA and India is already a reality.

Founded in 1969, ISRO is India's national space agency. With its headquarters in Bangalore, ISRO employs 16 000 people with a mandate for developing technologies related to space as well as their applications to India's development. The current Chairman of ISRO is Dr G. Madhavan Nair.

Together with China and Japan, India stands as one of the leading Asian nations in space activities. Since the pioneering space days in the early sixties, India has managed to develop a consistent national space programme capable of satisfying the needs of its population in areas such as telecommunications, TV broadcasting, meteorology, disaster warning, resource monitoring and management. In parallel, two launch vehicle systems have been developed to allow for indigenous launching capability, also helping to promote national research and development and the encourage the construction of the necessary infrastructure to implement the space programme.

Today India has a vast national network of specialised space research centres to satisfy the growing technological needs of the national space programme. The country has a well-demonstrated capability in the indigenous development of several technologies.

ESA's Director General at IAC

The first cooperation agreement between ESA and ISRO was signed in 1978 and has subsequently been renewed four times. The latest renewal is of January 2007, for a period of five years.

The first milestone in the development of the relations between the two organisations dates back to over 25 years ago when ISRO was selected to provide a satellite to be launched on the third qualification launch of Ariane: India’s first telecommunication satellite, APPLE, was successfully launched together with ESA’s Meteosat 2 on 19 June 1981. Since then, India has turned to Ariane for several more launches.

	Artist's view of Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe

Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar mission slated for launch in the first quarter of 2008 on board an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PLSV launcher, is a more recent example of bilateral cooperation that will see three European instruments flying on board India’s first scientific mission to the Moon under an Agreement signed in 2005.

India has built and launched 12 Earth Observation satellites (more than any other space faring country). Earth Observation activities are managed mainly by ISRO and the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) based in Hyderabad. An agreement between ESA and NRSA of 1993 allowed the latter to receive ESA’s ERS-1 radar data, and it was extended in 1995 to cover ERS-2 data. Exchange of data between Indian EO satellites such as IRS P6/Ressourcesat-1 and the future Risat-1 and ESA satellites such Envisat and the upcoming Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS) are either already on-going or foreseen.

India is a member of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and, since 2002, party to the International Charter on “Space and major Disasters” which was initiated in October 2000 by ESA and the French Space Agency (CNES).

India has recently outlined its ambitions for its future space activities, including a manned space programme under evaluation as well as exploration activities which are high in ISRO’s agenda. In January 2007 India launched an experimental space capsule (SRE-1) which was successfully recovered after orbiting for 12 days around the Earth. All this may open new cooperation opportunities and give rise to new shared efforts between ISRO and ESA.

In view of these outstanding accomplishments, India is considered as an important space-faring nation, and ESA fosters closer relationships with ISRO to explore further cooperation in order to support and diversify European space programmes.

Space.com : Huygens Data Paint Turbulent Picture of Titan

By Dave Mosher Staff Writer posted: 26 September 2007 06:32 am ET

The Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, but it never encountered chilly seas of liquid methane as mission scientists had hoped--it landed in a mud field.

In spite of the disappointment, scientists have recreated a turbulent picture of Titan's atmosphere using data from sensors intended to measure oceanic properties. In addition to showing Huygens probably plunged through turbulent methane ice clouds, the research may aid in the design of balloon probes for future Titan missions.

"We knew Huygens had a bumpy ride down to Titan's surface. Now we can separate out twenty minutes of air turbulence--probably due to a cloud layer--from other effects such as cross winds or air buffeting," said Mark Leese, a Huygens project manager at The Open University in the U.K.

Turbulent Titan

The Huygens probe jettisoned off of the Cassini probe on Dec. 25, 2004 and reached Titan's surface in Jan. 14, 2005, deploying a parachute after entry into the moon's planet-like atmosphere to begin a 2.5-hour descent.

Huygens engineers did not intend to precisely measure the minor, chaotic changes in air known as turbulence, but Lorenz and his team gleaned such data by looking at information from two of the probe's sensors. One of the two, a "liquid density sensor," was designed to measure the properties of Titan's purported methane seas if the probe had floated on one.

"Although never designed with atmospheric measurements in mind, this device works as a weakly damped accelerometer," write the study's authors in an upcoming issue of the journal Planetary and Space Science. Accelerometers measure changes in speed at extremely minute scales. NASA, for example, uses one on NASA's space shuttle leading wing edges to detect vibrations caused by micrometeoroid impacts, among other phenomena.

Lead author Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Lorenz and his colleagues partnered the density sensor's data with that from a pendulum-like "tilt sensor" to create a play-by-play picture of Huygens' atmospheric dive.

"Such information may offer insights into the meteorological processes prevalent on Titan, a world believed to share many characteristics with the Earth," Lorenz said.

The researchers found that Huygens may have plunged into icy methane cloud layer--which scientists have proposed to create a chilly methane "rain" --about 12 to 19 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) above the moon's surface.

Balloon boon?

Although the turbulence findings may not give airline passengers on Earth relief from the nauseating buffets of wind, the information could be used to help design balloon-like probes.

"Future Titan exploration might use lighter-than-air vehicles, which would have to compensate for wind gusts in order to keep above targets of interest for sampling," the study's authors said.

Scientists imagine such balloons would be outfitted not only with cameras to detail out the moon's surface, but also spectrometers that could map mineral deposits on Titan. NASA, however, has neither approved nor scheduled such a mission.

Lorenz and his colleagues hope to use more Huygens data, including that from radio emissions, to create a more detailed reconstruction of Huygens' descent as well as Titan's nitrogen-thick atmosphere.