NASA will of course investigate the data from launch in an attempt to determine cause. It’s too early to tell what future plans regarding similar efforts might be. To my knowledge, I don’t think NASA or climate researchers have an operating satellite that can do what OCO was designed for. It took eight years to plan and build this satellite, so any future replacement wouldn’t be ready for quite some time.
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has had it’s pre-ship checkout and delivery to Cape Canaveral milestones completed. It is designed to search for Earth-like planets around other stars – 140,000 stars are on tap to be examined. The mission is currently scheduled to last 3.5 years, but if other recent NASA spacecraft are a guide, that mission could be extended. Just look at Hubble or the Mars rovers. Launch is set for March 5.
Methane plumes have been found by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter (starting in 2003 and seen every Martian spring to summer since). They do not automatically mean microbes are outgassing them. Their source has not been positively identified. One planetary science team is planning to develop a new device for a future rover to track the origin of the methane (some details here). To do so, the future rover would have to be sent to a site where methane has been detected.
The most recent American Geophysical Union conference ( late Dec. 2008 ) was a venue where numerous climate change study results were presented. I’ll post what I can – which is likely to be the more noteworthy results. One such result is the following:
For every degree Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in average ocean surface temperature, the team observed a 45-percent increase in the frequency of the very high clouds. At the present rate of global warming of 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the team inferred the frequency of these storms can be expected to increase by six percent per decade.
Also on the increase has been annual global rainfall. Projected rainfall by the IPCC report’s “worst-case scenario” has already been surpassed by observations. That isn’t a knock on the value of the IPCC report – it is instead making the point that that worst-case scenario is underestimating the effects of climate change that have already occurred in recent years. It is the opposite of what most climate change deniers/delayers have criticized about the state of climate change research. While they waste time claiming scientists are purposefully and unnecessarily alarming the public about climate change, the reality is scientists and policy makers aren’t relaying the growing threat of climate change enough.
This especially makes a difference to policy makers. The 2009 U.S. Congress and President have the opportunity to aggressively address our climate forcing actions. If they falsely think climate change isn’t the threat the IPCC detailed, not only will future corrections prove more expensive than corrections taken today, those future corrections could be even more expensive than many were discussing in 2008. Every ton of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, every 0.1 degree Centigrade, every mm of sea level rise carries with it an associated cost. Aggressive action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions must begin today, not tomorrow.
Just a teaser for now as I’m getting too hungry to keep blogging for the moment: the Energizing America session was very good. I’ll have to provide only a short summary later tonight as I continue to digest the swarm of information provided. Three good energy candidates were present, as well as three prominent bloggers.
Okay – I was too tired after the Drinking Liberally/Daily Kos party last night at Maggie May’s to blog any more. I’m still quite tired this morning. So for now, a short update will have to suffice. I attended the Markos Zuniga & Harold Ford Jr. lunch discussion on party infrastructure. After eating, the floor was opened to questions. From my perspective, the questioners were overly rude to Mr. Ford. I don’t agree with the man’s approach to politics, but that doesn’t mean I or anybody else in that room should have been rude. We have similar interests, just different strategies of accomplishing our goals. Trashing his distracts from those goals.
I attended a science policy session after lunch. That was very informative: evolution, stem-cells and global warming censorship were on the table. I received a nice piece of advice as part of a discussion with one of the panelists afterward that I can put to immediate effect.
My last session of the day was establishing a progressive NASA and space policy. Interestingly, the FAA officials (former and current) were on the panel. If we can figure out how to frame space as an opportunity and prevent neoconservative militarization thereof, we’ll be happy folks. Prominent blogger Chris Bowers was there, so I imagine much more on this will be written in the future.
I met up with some folks last night to watch a large group of bats come out from underneath a bridge in Austin. It’s quite the sight, though we were debating right before it happened if it was really a locals’ favorite to get a bunch of tourists to look at a nondescript bridge for an hour. I’ll post pictures later.
Finally, the Drinking Liberally/Daily Kos party. Good times there! Every TV screen in the place was playing Bill O’Reilly’s F*!% It, We’ll Do It Live episode on Live Edition in an endless loop. Hilarious! Met up with some folks that were at last year’s YearlyKos in Chicago and traded additional strategies and information.
NASA launched a newer satellite that will map Earth’s oceans. Topex-Poseidon and Jason-1 are the current satellite’s predecessors. This satellite, Jason-2, was built for the French space agency, CNES, and NASA. Support was also provided by the U.S. and European meteorological agencies, which made financial contributions to the project. Uninterrupted observations of the oceans are necessary as the threat climate change poses rises. Unfortunately, NASA hasn’t indicated support for Jason-2′s replacement, citing their mission as a research agency. I don’t agree with this assessment. NASA could support future ocean observing satellites with new technologies. Needless to say, support for these kinds of missions will require a pro-science administration and Congress working together.
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One proposed method for dealing with a potential major asteroid strike on Earth in the future is to send a spacecraft to the space object well in advance of the strike and utilize the gravitational attraction between to two bodies to nudge the asteroid off the impact course. A study of such a venture has now been funded. A detailed performance analysis will be performed, including required stability, maneuvering capability and fuel assessments.
Thewater ice story from Mars via the Phoenix lander is still very intriguing. I’ve got a couple friends totally hooked on what Phoenix is doing.
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This piece of news about the Shuttle program is new: the U.S. House has approved a bill for an extra Shuttle flight in 2010. That flight would be used to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. We’ll see if the Senate approves the 2009 NASA budget the House set forth in their bill.
NASA has decided to slightly delay the launch of GLAST – the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope. Engineers would like extra time to check the observatory’s rocket.
Plans to transition the International Space Station to a national lab are moving forward. The plan would open up about half of the U.S.’s science facilities aboard the ISS to non-NASA researchers by 2010.
Continued testing of NASA’s Phoenix landers instruments and software has revealed that the lander could have uncovered a large patch of ice just below the martian surface. Black and white photos taken earlier this week showed the ground beneath the landers Vastitas Borealis landing site suggested the vehicle was resting on splotches of ice. The robotic arm is expected to begin its first digging operations after additional testing.
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Astronomers have discovered what may be the smallest alien planet yet — a rocky “super-Earth” only four times heavier than our home planet. That’s the opening paragraph of an exciting article, a version of which can be found here. Just as exciting: the object is one of 45 potential planets in our own Milky Way galaxy that were discovered by the European Southern Observatory’s 140-inch telescope at La Silla, Chile. Confirmation of the objects will need to be made. But if they’re real, this find will be the biggest single group of extra-solar planets reported in over ten years of discoveries.
The super-Earth is reported to exist in the habitable zone of the star that it orbits. This region is also sometimes referred to as the Goldilocks zone: just right for liquid water to exist.
I just got home from my local natural science museum’s efforts to bring NASA’s Phoenix probe landing into the public. It was a success – both the museum’s agenda for the evening and the good news that Phoenix is in good health and operating nominally from Mars.
The Museum had Dr. Steve Lee, Curator of Planetary Science at the museum and a Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute present a mission overview. Kris Walsh, Director of NASA and Commercial Programs for Delta Launch Vehicles, United Launch Alliance, followed by talking about the Delta II launch system. Tim Halbrook finished the first part of the evening (prior to landing). He is a Senior Engineer, Remote Sensing & Exploration Systems at Lockheed Martin. Mr. Halbrook has been involved with every U.S. mission to Mars over the past 20 years.
The landing activities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were broadcast over NASA TV and shown in multiple locations within the museum. Just as the coverage of Spirit and Opportunity, the two rovers that landed in January 2004, the coverage of Phoenix was very thrilling to experience. A lot of hard work went into ensuring a success and this team very nearly pulled off a perfect landing. Every aspect was well within operational ranges. The planning and practice paid off as no last second corrections or adaptations had to be exercised. Relief and excitement were evident from the team as each stage of the EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing) was checked off.
First up, there was some severe weather in Colorado on Thursday and Friday. A long-lived but relatively weak tornado (EF-2, preliminary) hit south of Greeley and traveled up east of Fort Collins. One death has been blamed on the storm, which did something like $200 million of damage. Other cells also produced tornadoes, but they weren’t as damaging.
I went storm chasing both days. I didn’t get out until after the big-news tornado, which touched down at 11:30A and traveled north-northwest. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much on Thursday. On Friday I went out to the far eastern plains and even poked into Kansas a little bit. I ended up backtracking north and west into Colorado. I think if I had kept going into Kansas, I would have seen more action. Tornadoes were reported pretty consistently with those storms. Oh, and while I was out, another tornado hit near Greeley. Some luck. This storm season is setting records for number of confirmed tornado reports and deaths.
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Remember that NASA’s Phoenix Lander is scheduled to land on Mars tonight. I’m going to my local museum to watch NASA’s live feed of the event. It’s a tricky landing, so I really hope everything goes well.
NASA, Europe Explore Joint Mission to Outer Planets. Currently, the Cassini spacecraft continues to examine the Saturnian system. NASA and the European Space Agency are considering a probe to either Jupiter or Saturn. The Jupiter mission would also send a secondary probe to Europa. The Saturn mission would send a secondary probe to Titan. Both Europa and Titan are interesting targets in the quest to understand solar system formation dynamics as well as potential sites where life might exist. Russia has expressed interest in joining the Jupiter mission.
Space Station Commander Sets New U.S. Record. Peggy Whitson has set the U.S. record for most cumulative time spent in orbit: 377 days over two spaceflights. She landed back on Earth this past Saturday. She also holds the world record for most spacewalking time by a female astronaut. The 377 days in orbit places her 20th on the world-wide list of most experienced spaceflyers. The all-time leader? Sergei Krikalev has spent over 803 days in space!
Spaceship Prototype Flown in New Mexico. A new type of automated and reusable spaceship is a step closer to being able to transport payloads into space in the near future. Lockheed Martin, the designer and operator, recently inked a Memo of Understanding with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to carry out future testing at the spaceport. It is high time for private companies to develop and deploy space payload delivery systems.
Earth to Mars Missions Continue Development. Just over one month from now (May 25th), the Phoenix Lander will land at the north pole of Mars. The next probe being readied for launch is NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory. It should arrive in 2010. The European Space Agency is getting in on the act with their ExoMars mission scheduled for touchdown in 2014. When Spirit and Opportunity landed at Mars, I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. They had set up live feeds from NASA as the landings occurred. In an incredible display of support for science, the two original rooms were filled beyond capacity hours before the official landing even occurred. Museum officials were scrambling to set up people in other rooms across the museum with additional TVs and such. I can’t wait to see the crowds for Phoenix!
