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.
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!
The asteroid that led the way for mammalian dominance hit more water than previously thought. Results include: 6.5 times more water vapor was jettisoned into the atmosphere and sulfur rich sediments were also included. The upshot of the sulfur sediments? They fell out of the atmosphere as acid rain. They also would have contributed to a climate cooling process. Bio-engineers are discussing releasing sulfur compounds into our atmosphere now to cool our climate down. I’m not convinced acid rain is something we want more of.
An asteroid between 500 feet and 2,000 feet in diameter is going to pass close to Earth in four nights’ time. How close? Just 100,000 miles further than our moon. A rock that size hitting Earth would devastate a region. If it hit in the ocean, a massive tsunami would be generated. Thank goodness for the Catalina Sky Survey – still working to locate and track these objects. (This particular rock was found last October.)
So a report came out yesterday that describes something cool that Voyager 2 recently found:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/
071210-squashed-solarsystem.html
There are interactions between the outwardly moving gas from our sun and the ‘stuff’ in interstellar space. The heliosphere is the bubble of gas from our sun. The region where that bubble meets the interstellar gas is called the ‘termination shock’.
In December 2004, Voyager 1 crossed that boundary. Earlier this yea, Voyager 2 crossed it. The difference? Voyager crossed it more than once. Which means as Voyager 2 continued to speed out from the solar system, the termination shock moved in towards our solar system and back away from it more than once. So Voyager 2 got multiple readings of the boundary. It also allowed scientists to make the observation that instead of a perfect;y spherical or ovoid heliosphere, the southern (bottom) portion is more dented than the northern (top) portion that Voyager 1 traveled through.
Pretty cool, huh?
Click on the link and look down the page a bit – there’s an artist’s figure that shows what’s going on.
Oh, this also means that despite traveling for nearly 31 years, neither probe has officially moved into interstellar space. We’ll have to wait a while longer for that monumental event.
