NASA’s Curiosity Rover lands on Mars Sunday night
August 2, 2012
You’d have to have been under a rock to no know that NASA’s latest and greatest Mars rover is about to land on the Red Planet. It’s been all over the news lately… but here are a few more deets that you may not know, including when and how to watch the coverage.
As usual, Universe Today is on top of the coverage, and this infographic was particularly interesting. They will also be teaming up with Google, CosmoQuest, and the SETI Institute to do a live webcast via Google+ to cover the event. Among the cast of hosts is one of my favorite fellow science enthusiasts/skeptics Dr. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy. That begins at 10pm central time. The actual landing is scheduled for 12:31am central time. For more on the webcast check out the post on Universe Today.
Some random cool facts:
- This is the most complex landing procedure ever carried out by a NASA interplanetary mission.
- The supersonic parachute that slows the lander during the descent phase is a whopping 51 feet in diameter.
- The rover itself is about the size of a Mini Cooper.
- The rover weighs 1,982 pounds (on earth… on Mars it weighs about 747 pounds)
- The rover is powered by a small nuclear reactor.
- Curiosity will land inside Gale Crater, near the base of Mount Sharp, which has layers of exposed minerals that the rover will sample and study.
- The total cost of the mission is $2.5 billion.
Scientific eye candy
July 24, 2012
Two pieces of eye candy for your viewing pleasure today:
Over the past 40 years the US Geological Survey and NASA have teamed up on the LANDSAT mission, a series of imaging satellites that have taken some breathtaking photos of our planet. They recently posted a series of images and got the public to vote on the top 5. Those 5 can be seen in the video below, and the full gallery can be seen on the USGS website.
Secondly, I came across this set of amazing weather photos by photographer Camille Seaman last week. Feast your eyes on these simultaneously gorgeous and terrifying views of storm clouds over the great plains.
(Credit: Camille Seaman) Click through to view the full gallery.
These are both Mars-related stories that popped up across the blogosphere over the past week:
The first bit of news is that NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is getting ever closer to its destination, and the dreaded “Seven Minutes of Terror” entry and landing sequence. They recently produced a video that does a pretty good job of conveying just how hard it is to land anything on Mars, and especially how insane this particular landing sequence is. It’s CRAZY HARD to do what they’re attempting to do. I’ve seen many other animations of this many times over, and it STILL blows my mind just how tedious and difficult this is from a scientific and engineering perspective. Seeing the video is essential, so here it is. Just watch:
The second bit of Mars-related news is a little crazier and far-fetched. A group of private investors are pooling their resources and claim that we can have humans on Mars by 2023. This project is called Mars One, and I have to be honest… the whole thing sounds utterly insane. They want to create such a huge media spectacle that the public interest and avenues for profit are such that they can raise the massive amount of cash it’ll take to make this happen. The craziest part of the whole thing is that it will be a one-way mission for the people who actually go to Mars. I think the ethics of such a thing are mostly subjective- I have no problem with a one-way mission if the people going are truly, honestly 100% dedicated to it. I think it’s honorable, and who am I to judge them for making such a profound decision. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and the rest of the Apollo astronauts all knew the extremely high risks involved with what they were doing. They accepted it and went on to accomplish arguably the greatest feat in the history of mankind thus far- walk on the moon. I hope they pull it off, I really do, and without all the oversight and red tape of a government agency like NASA, the likelihood of this happening so soon is greater. But still. 2023 is REALLY REALLY soon to put humans on Mars. Here’s their promo video:
Crazy? Or just crazy enough to make it happen?
Exoplanets: xkcd scores a home run
June 21, 2012
I’ve written a lot about exoplanets, planet-hunting missions such as Kepler, and various other topics related to the search for other worlds in the universe. Never have I seen any one image that could really sum up my feelings about it. But that time has come, and the brilliant Randall Munroe who does the well-known nerdy web comic xkcd is the man who did it. I can’t really say any more- just look and read for yourself. Be sure to click through to enlarge it enough to read the small text.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard about our planetary next door neighbor Venus transiting the sun tomorrow.
- What does this mean?
It means that from Earth’s perspective, Venus will appear as a small black dot moving across in front of the sun. It will be visible with out magnification, HOWEVER YOU MUST USE SPECIALLY DESIGNED EYE PROTECTION TO LOOK AT THE SUN. Seriously, you should never, EVER look directly at the sun- it could permanently damage your eyes! Here’s NASA’s page dedicated to safe sun viewing. Go read and learn how to do this safely! The transit will begin a little after 5pm Central Daylight Time and still be in progress when the sun sets on the western horizon. There are also tons of websites which will be streaming a live image of the sun, so you can watch it online quite easily. The best place is probably NASA’s website dedicated to this transit, but there’s also Bad Astronomy. Also of interest: 5 Weird Facts about Venus, and this guy who seems confident the space tourism industry will become cheap enough during most of our lifetimes that average middle class people will be able to afford a ride to a spot in space where we can see another transit, along with many other interesting things. I sure hope so! I think he might be a bit too optimistic, however… - Why should you care?
Well, you should care because you probably won’t be alive the next time it happens (from Earth’s view at least, 105 years from now). The reason it’s so rare is that despite what a lot of 2-D diagrams would have you believe, the planets in our solar system aren’t all exactly on the same plane, and none have a perfectly circular orbit. The orbits range from slightly elliptical to very elliptical, and all are at some degree of angle compared to the plane of Earth’s orbit. Therefore, the angle of Venus’ orbit causes it to only pass directly between the sun and Earth very rarely. The transits occur in pairs about 8 years apart, and those pairs only occur every 105 or 121 years.
So at the very least watch it happen online if you don’t have access to a telescope with a sun filter or sun safety glasses. It won’t be as spectacular as a comet in the night sky, or a solar or lunar eclipse, but it’s still a very rare event and worth seeing.
Success! Astronaut Don Pettit successfully captured SpaceX’s Dragon capsule today at 9:56am EDT with the space station’s robotic arm. They will now bring the Dragon capsule in and dock it with the ISS. This is an historic moment- the first time a commercial spacecraft has ever docked with the ISS. Hopefully within a few years, these amazing private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX can fully take over the duties of ferrying cargo and people to and from the ISS. More at NASA.gov.
(Fast forward to about 2:30 to get to the actual launch.)
SpaceX successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Dragon capsule filled with supplies and experiments bound for the International Space Station this morning at 3:44am EDT. This mission is far from complete, however, and with the capsule now in orbit the company must also prove their capsule can be docked with space station, unloaded, reloaded with used experiments, and splash back down safely in the pacific ocean. This flight is historic because it will be the first private, non-NASA rocket to complete a full mission to the ISS.
SpaceX has thus far been the leader among the various private companies vying for the top NASA contract to ferry cargo and astronauts to the ISS. The Dragon capsule will catch up to the ISS and perform a few maneuvers before slowly and incrementally approaching until the crew of the ISS can latch onto the capsule with the station’s robotic arm. They will then bring it in for docking using that arm this Friday May 25th. I really hope this mission is successful because as I’ve said all along, I’m a big fan of private companies taking over the low earth orbit duties for NASA. Keep your eye on the NASA website for updates. (Video via Universe Today)
Credit: Planetary Habitability Laboratory at UPR Arecibo, NASA, EUMETSAT, NERC Satellite Receiving Station, University of Dundee.
As you probably already know, there was an annular solar eclipse that was visible to parts of the Pacific rim last night/this morning. Because of the international dateline, I had the days mixed up and thought it was happening today (Monday May 21st) for the western U.S., when in fact for us it was at sunset last night. But it was Monday May 21st when it began for areas like Japan, because for them it happened early in the morning. Confusing right? It’s like the eclipse time-traveled. Anyway, the above photograph gives you a different perspective on it. The dark dot over the northern Pacific Ocean is the shadow of the moon! (Photo via Universe Today)
In other space-related news: SpaceX scrubbed the launch of their Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday morning due to a faulty check valve in one of the nine Merlin main engines. Their system has a computer that runs a full diagnostic check on everything right as the engines fire, and if even the slightest problem is detected the system shuts off everything immediately. Engineers are working diligently to get the valve replaced and run diagnostics with the rocket still on the launch pad. The new target launch date is May 22nd at 3:44am Eastern Daylight Time. I hope this all works out- I’m a fan of commercial spaceflight and feel that it is essential that NASA be able to rely on private companies to handle all their low-Earth orbit operations so that it can focus its main efforts on exploring asteroids and Mars. For more info see SpaceX’s website, and NASA.
Space X ready to launch historic mission May 19th/Andy Warhol gets a crater named after him
May 17, 2012
Friends/readers- my apologies for being a bit behind on the blog this week. I’m juggling a lot this week and have been stretched pretty thin. But here are a couple of tidbits I’ve rounded up that piqued my interest.
Credit: SpaceX
The current leader in the commercial spaceflight race for ferrying NASA’s astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station is Elon Musk’s SpaceX. They decided to combine the next two missions into one sometime last year, but the combined mission has faced several delays recently. Originally scheduled to launch late last year, this mission will be the first commercial mission to launch and dock with the ISS. That’s why this flight is so important and why they are double and triple checking to make sure they’ve dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s. If all goes well the Falcon 9 rocket will blast off from Cape Canaveral at 4:55 AM EDT Saturday morning. For more visit NASA or Bad Astronomy.
In other space-related news, NASA’s Messenger mission has been busy orbiting and making detailed maps of planet Mercury. Having no atmosphere, Mercury’s blistering surface is nothing but craters, and thus the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has been busy naming those craters. Andy Warhol was the latest celeb to get a crater named after him, and to celebrate, the mission managers created this image of the Warhol crater in the style of the pop art screen prints he’s famous for:
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Credit: Google/NASA Meteor Watch
California and Nevada residents may have been terrified by the loud sonic boom that shook their houses Sunday morning, but now that we know what caused it, they should feel privileged to have experienced such a rare event. We now know that the cause was a fairly large meteor that entered our atmosphere with the energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion. I’ve read other estimates for the energy, but that is the official number from NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office. That puts it entering our atmosphere at a blistering speed of over 33,000 mph. This meteor was about the size of a minivan, so it was easily visible during the daylight, and that fact that it caused a massive sonic boom means that it made it all the way down to the troposphere, the lowest level of atmosphere, or the level in which clouds and weather occur. Most meteors are much MUCH smaller, and even if they did cause a sonic boom, they burn up far too high in the atmosphere for us to hear it, not to mention that that the air up there is much thinner and doesn’t carry sound waves as well. Because of this meteor’s size and density there’s a decent chance that some fragments of it may have made it to the ground. Once they hit the ground they’re called meteorites, and there are people who make it their living to hunt for them. The rarity of this event is why I think the people who got to see it or hear it are very lucky. I’d give anything to witness something like that. Meteors of this size only occur about once a year, and the simple fact that earth is about 75% covered in water means that us land-dwellers only have a 25% chance of seeing one when they do hit. (Other sources: Universe Today and Discovery News)
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