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January 1st, 2015
Credit: NASA
Fareed Zakaria is the host of CNN’s Global Public Square (GPS).
“Americans used to understand moonshots inspire us, but also power America’s future: My take on this week’s special,” Zakaria notes in a recent tweet.
The GPS special airing called “Moonshots” on Sunday, January 4 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on CNN.
A CNN opinion column was adapted from Moonshots and expresses Zakaria’s personal views.
Credit:Fareed Zakaria
Titled “Reagan’s big lesson for America,” Zakaria contends:
— Ambitious scientific projects are worth pursuing
— Federal funding for research and development is barely keeping up with inflation
— Funding basic science research didn’t use to be a partisan issue
— Today’s politicians should follow Ronald Reagan’s advice and invest in future
Go to:
http://us.cnn.com/2014/12/26/opinion/zakaria-moonshots-technology/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Also, check out this video:
Fareed interviews NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on NASA’s plans to send a human mission to Mars in the 2030s. Why do it?
Go to:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/gps-moonshots-sending-astronauts-to-mars/vp-BBh7ww5
Posted in 
Image taken by China’s Chang’e 3 Moon lander: M101 Spiral.
lmage Credit: NAOC & International Lunar Observatory Association; University of Hawaii Hilo; Canada France Hawaii Telescope.
China’s Chang’e-3 lunar lander remains operational, in evidence by a newly distributed image taken by the spacecraft from the Moon’s surface.
According to the informative Lunar Enterprise Daily, the Chinese lander made the first observation of a galaxy from its landing site: M101 Spiral. [SEE NOTE BELOW]
The lander’s Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT) made the observation on December 2.
China’s Chang’e 3 Moon lander, imaged by Yutu lunar rover.
Credit: NAOC
The Moon-based telescope image is to be “refined further” by the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) in Beijing.
The work has been done in collaboration with the International Lunar Observatory Association – an interglobal enterprise incorporated in Hawaii – and the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lunar Astronomy Team on Hawai`i Island.
China scored its first robotic lunar landing in mid-December 2013. The large lander deployed the Yutu lunar rover.
NOTE: According to Walter Kiefer of the Lunar and Planetary Institute:
“The Chang’e 3 image is not the first galaxy imaged from the Moon. During the Apollo 16 mission in 1972, astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke operated the Far UV Camera/Spectrograph from the lunar surface. One of the astronomical targets that they imaged was the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy. According to the Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report, the imagery of the Large Magellanic Cloud revealed evidence of active star formation regions.”
Credit: Virgin Galactic
Eager to take to space? Here are some encouraging words.
A new story from me up on Space.com:
http://www.space.com/28133-commercial-spaceflight-health-requirements.html
This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Right B (FHAZ_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 853 (2014-12-30 18:30:54 UTC).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover continues to gather evidence of lake currents within its current exploration zone.
Observations the robot, as interpreted by scientists, indicate Mars’ Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years.
This interpretation of Curiosity’s finds in Gale Crater suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many locations on the Red Planet.
A set of new photos shows the robot busy at work, on the prowl since its landing on the Red Planet in early August 2012.
This image was taken by Navcam on Sol 853 (2014-12-30).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Using an onboard focusing process, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. Curiosity performed this imagery merge on December 30, 2014, Sol 853 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Skyfall over Brazil.
Photo: Direto das Ruas via Campo Grande News
In the early morning hours of December 28, large numbers of people in Brazil witnessed what appears to be a spectacular reentry of space hardware, flashing through the sky while producing a roar and several bangs.
Reports from Campo Grande say one of the reentering pieces has been found in a farm field, an object that came to rest not too far from a house.
A selfie image posted on Facebook shows the object that, say locals, came from the sky.
Selfie photo posted on Facebook shows purported piece of space junk associated with objects reentering over Brazil.
Credit: Via Facebook
Worldwide network
Jumping into action as to what caused the event is a worldwide network of amateur satellite watchers. These sky detectives piece together and share video, photographs, local news accounts, as well as satellite tracking reports to help categorize reentering objects, posting their updates on the SeeSat-L website of satellite watchers.
The object that fell in the countryside of Santa Rita do Rio Pardo, about 166 miles (268 kilometers) from Campo Grande is now believed to be a composite overwrap pressure vessel type.
The location of the object was roughly 985 feet (300 meters) from the city’s urban area.
Close-up photo of space debris believed to be associated with skyfall over Brazil.
Credit: Via Facebook
Rocket body?
There is growing but guarded belief that the bit of returned-to-Earth flotsam may well have been associated with the reentry of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket body.
Still, according to lead skywatcher, Ted Molczan of Canada, there remains the possibility that some other reentering candidate will emerge that has been overlooked.
“So, there is work remaining to be done,” he said.
Also active in identifying the source of the heavenly hubbub is Cees Bassa and Joseph Remis, each contributing data on the SeeSat-L website. Paul Maley, an experienced satellite observer, is also on the trail of what was behind the recent reentry.
Leftovers from a Falcon 9 second stage is one candidate as the object found in Brazil – or is it? The red tanks on this image of the Falcon 9 second stage appear to match the recovered debris in shape and size.
Photo credit: Chris Thompson, SpaceX via Cees Bassa.
Caught on camera
Flagging early information on the skyfall on the SeeSat-L website was Carlos Bella in Brazil, living in Goiânia city – far north of the trajectory of the reentry fireball.
Bella told Inside Outer Space that he’s quickly alerted of events like the recent incident by friends because he’s founder of the BRAMON (Brazilian Meteor Observation Network), the first video meteor network in the country.
Check out these reentry videos, this one published on Dec 28 by Dourados Agora:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_uhV23JUk
And a new YouTube vídeo from Navirai city, south of city of Dourados in Brazil, published by Fabiano Barbosa da Silva:
China’s new spaceport on Hainan Island is set to be the departure point for new classes of Long March boosters. Model of the complex depicts layout of the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center.
Credit: China Space website
China’s new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan will soon be the test site of the country’s Long March 7 booster.
According to the State-owned China Daily, the booster is near completion for a set of compatibility – fit checks – with the launch complex.
Tao Gang, general manager of the Tianjin Long March Launch Vehicle Manufacturing Co Ltd. is quoted as stating:
“The Long March 2 and Long March 3 families, the backbones of our launches, are scheduled to retire within the next 10 years,” Tao said, “so the Long March 7 and Long March 5 will become the pillars of China’s space program.”
Static testing
Four Long March-7 rockets have been made to date, and three of them are being used for static and thruster tests, said Zhang Beijun, a senior executive at the company.
Ma Zhonghui, a China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology engineer detailed to the Long March 7’s development said that the rocket has new engines and uses eco-friendly propellants.“It can be widely used in commercial launch service,” she said, adding that a number of orders have already been placed for the rocket from domestic users.
Maiden flight
A Long March 7 is designed to boost a 13.5-ton payload into low Earth orbit and a 5.5-ton payload into a sun-synchronous orbit.
The maiden launch of the Long March 7 and a cargo spacecraft is reportedly slated for around 2016. Once in service it will support China’s Tiangong 2 space laboratory, scheduled to be in orbit by the end of 2015.
Earlier this month, Lei Fanpei, chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, stated that along with the Long March 7, three other new types of rockets – including the Long March 5, a heavy-lift rocket — will take to the air for the first time in the next two years.
Mars meteorite, ALH84001.
Credit: NASA
It’s the Mars rock that keeps on giving!
Snowmobilers plucked from an Antarctic ice field 30 years ago this month the infamous, controversial, and tell-all Alan Hills meteorite – later identified as ALH84001.
Those making the find on December 27, 1984 were part of the ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites), a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.
Credit: Case Western Reserve University
Based on chemical analyses, the meteorite is believed to have originated on Mars from a period when liquid water existed on the now bleak planet’s surface.
In 1996, a group of scientists at NASA Johnson Space Center, led by the late David McKay, Everett Gibson and Kathie Thomas-Keprta, published an article in Science announcing the discovery of biogenic evidence in the ALH84001 meteorite.
Jump to today, according to one of those NASA researchers – Everett Gibson – he remains steadfast that, even after 18 years, “there were signatures of possible biogenic activity within selected Martian samples,” he told Inside Outer Space.
An elongated structure resembling a fossil microorganism (centre of image), revealed in a photomicrograph of a sample of the Martian meteorite ALH84001. The finding has been used in support of a controversial suggestion by some scientists that the meteorite contains microscopic and chemical evidence of ancient life indigenous to Mars.
Credit: NASA
Ancient chemistry
The new analysis of the Martian rock reveals a record of the planet’s climate billions of years ago, back when water likely washed across its surface and any life that ever formed there might have emerged.
“Minerals within the meteorite hold a snapshot of the planet’s ancient chemistry, of interactions between water and atmosphere,” said Robina Shaheen, a project scientist at University of California, San Diego and the lead author of a new work reported in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “Carbonate Formation Events in ALH 84001 Trace the Evolution of the Martian Atmosphere.”
ALH84001 is the oldest meteorite found on Earth from Mars, a chunk of solidified magma from a volcano that erupted four billion years ago. Since that period something liquid, probably water, seeped through pores in the rock and deposited globules of carbonates and other minerals.
Ozone signal
In the new study, scientists from the UC San Diego, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution report detailed measurements of minerals within the meteorite.
This team measured a pronounced ozone signal in the carbonates within the meteorite, suggesting that although Mars had water back then, vast oceans were unlikely. Instead, the early Martian landscape probably held smaller seas.
As noted in a UC San Diego press statement, carbonates can be deposited by living things that scavenge the minerals to build their skeletons. “But that is not the case for the minerals measured by this team.”
“The carbonate we see is not from living things,” Shaheen said. “It has anomalous oxygen isotopes that tell us this carbonate is abiotic,” she said, that is, factors that are essentially non-living components.
By measuring the isotopes in multiple ways, the chemists found carbonates depleted in carbon-13 and enriched in oxygen-18. That is, the atmosphere of Mars in this era — a period of great bombardment — had much less carbon-13 than it does today.
The change in relative abundances of carbon and oxygen isotopes may have occurred through extensive loss of Martian atmosphere. A thicker atmosphere would likely have been required for liquid water to flow on the planet’s chilly surface.
Mars life: Yes, no, maybe, could be, might have been.
Credit: NASA/USGS
A family of four?
For NASA’s Gibson, basically, the new research “does not change our earlier hypothesis.”
“From the published literature, there are now four unique Martian meteorites with possible signatures of past Martian biogenic activity,” Gibson said. Along with ALH84001, he points to Nakhla, Yamato 000593, and Shergotty meteorites.
In fact, Gibson said, that micro tunnels found in Yamato 000593 – reported by Lauren White at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — are identical to those produced by microbial bacterials in terrestrial submarine basalts and glasses – and adds evidence for potential biogenic activity on Mars in moderate times.
“Yes, Charlotte, there are reduced carbon phases present on Mars. No surprise that the Curiosity SAM instrument has recently re-discovered ‘reduced carbon compounds’ that terrestrial laboratory studies have shown from the study of Martian meteorites,” Gibson said.
“Perhaps the Curiosity team members should look at the Martian meteorite literature about what has been done,” research that has, he said, laid the foundation for understanding reduced organic materials on Mars.
“I have said for a long time, we can solve a lot of Mars’ problems by studying Martian meteorites,” Gibson concluded.
Courtesy: Mojave Air and Space Port Newsletter
A new story I’ve written, posted today on Space.com:
After SpaceShipTwo Tragedy, How Will Virgin Galactic Return to Flight?
by Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
December 24, 2014 11:42am ET
http://www.space.com/28088-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-crash-aftermath.html
Work is underway on SpaceShipTwo, number two.
Credit: Virgin Galactic
Credit: NASA
The voice of the late Carl Sagan echoes through a new video produced by Space City Films.
This video is sharply focused on the recent NASA test of the Orion capsule.
According to Marc Havican of Space City Films: ‘I wanted to share the kickoff film with you before we release it for Christmas. This first installment is a tribute to Orion and EFT-1, and to the impact that human space exploration has had on humanity.”
The new video is titled Humans Explore: We Are Capable of Greatness.
As noted by the company, Humans Explore will be a series of short films and live experiences that they are producing in-house and will be distributing through a dedicated website and various digital outlets.
The video can be viewed at:
Angara-A5 liftoff.
Credit: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
Russia has launched its new heavy-weight-class launch vehicle – the Angara-A5.
Liftoff took place on December 23 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north-west Russia.
The Angara rocket series consists of light, middle, and heavy weight types of boosters.
The Angara-A5 rocket can hurl spacecraft up to 24 tons into a low Earth orbit and up to 4 tons into a geostationary orbit. The Angara-A5 uses non-toxic fuels: oxygen and kerosene.
Initial word is that the booster did lob into orbit a dummy spacecraft. A Briz-M upper stage is to boost the dummy spacecraft into geostationary orbit.
Last July, a lighter version of the Angara was test flown on a suborbital trajectory.
The family of boosters is being produced by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center.
Video of launch available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsQOpD4TIZM
Note: For a Russian video on the suborbital test of the Angara, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WegrjmrP6MU
