Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

Citizen science is blazing a trail into Earth orbit.

Onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon capsule soon to be headed for the International Space Station (ISS) are microbes collected from across the United States.

The effort is known as Project MERCCURI. It investigates how microbes from different places on Earth compare to each other and to those found on the ISS.

Project MERCCURI is a citizen science collaboration between UC Davis, Science Cheerleader and SciStarter.com. Thousands of people have participated in the endeavor.

Swabbed: shoes and cell phones

For example, led by the Science Cheerleaders — current and former NFL and NBA cheerleaders pursuing science and technology careers — several Pop Warner cheer teams swabbed practice fields, shoes, and cell phones for microbes.

Other people collected microbial samples at NFL, NBA, and MLB stadiums; from schools; from landmarks like the Liberty Bell, Sue the T-Rex, the statue of Ben Franklin in Philadelphia, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum; and during events including Yuri’s Nights – a series of gatherings across the country to commemorate the first human in space, Soviet space pioneer, Yuri Gagarin.

Selected were 48 microbes. Given approval from NASA, those microbes are set to ride inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule, blasting off from Florida toward the ISS on March 16^th.

Big insight from microbes

Scientists hope to gain insights into what is living at the space station, how microbes vary between different places on Earth and in space, and to compare growth of microbes on Earth and in microgravity.

Understanding how microbes behave in microgravity is critically important for planning long-term human spaceflight said David Coil, a microbiologist at UC Davis, “but also has the possibility of giving us new insight into how these microbes behave in built environments on Earth.”

Project MERCCURI is coordinated by Science Cheerleader, SciStarter.com, and UC Davis, in conjunction with the Argonne National Laboratory. The Project is made possible by Space Florida, NanoRacks, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

NOTE: Want to keep your space eye on Project MERCCURI as it continues over the next several months?

Go to: http://www.spacemicrobes.org/

 

Take a walk on Mars…without leaving Earth!

Check out the third annual MarsFest in Death Valley National Park, being held March 28-30 within the breathtaking desert valley located in Eastern California.

Visitors of all ages are invited to MarsFest 2014 – to elevate public awareness about planetary analog research taking place at special spots on Earth.

MarsFest 2014 is a collaboration of the National Park Service, the SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Death Valley National Park has several planetary analog research sites within its boundaries.

This event brings together the public, scientists, and national park enthusiasts to explore the research being done in this field.

MarsFest 2014 will be opened by a key note speaker and will feature scientist-led field trips to analog sites such as Mars Hill, Badwater Basin, Ubehebe Volcanic Field, and Mesquite Sand Dunes, as well as guest lectures and special presentations at the park’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center.

A key component is the NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover mission team, represented by the Sample Analysis at Mars education and public outreach team.

The first two MarsFest weekends were held in 2012 and 2013 and were well received, setting the stage for MarsFest 2014.

For more information contact:

Rosalba Bonaccorsi at NASA Ames Research Center:

rosalba.bonaccorsi-1@nasa.gov

Terry Baldino at Death Valley National Park :

terry_baldino@nps.gov

For information on Death Valley National Park, go to:

http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm

Mars return sample back to Earth – with a SpaceX twist!

My new story up on SPACE.com:

Project ‘Red Dragon’: Mars Sample-Return Mission Could Launch in 2022 with SpaceX Capsule

http://www.space.com/24984-spacex-mars-mission-red-dragon.html

 

Up on SPACE.com – a revealing look at this concept:

‘Faxing’ Life from Mars: Craig Venter’s Wild, Digital Space Exploration Idea

http://www.space.com/24923-faxing-life-from-mars-craig-venter.html

A top-notch team of MIT engineers has scoped out orbiting way stations – one such depot placed somewhere between the Earth and the Moon.

Once in place, this type of filling station could reduce the fuel a spacecraft needs to carry from Earth. That means, with less fuel onboard, a rocket could launch heavier payloads, such as large scientific experiments.

The MIT team proposes using contingency propellant from past missions to fuel future spacecraft.

For instance, as a mission heads back to Earth, it may drop a tank of contingency propellant at a depot before heading home. The next mission can pick up the fuel tank on its way to the Moon as its own emergency supply.

If it ends up not needing the extra propellant, it can also drop it at the depot for the next mission — an arrangement that the team refers to as a “steady-state” approach.

Study team

Leading the study is former astronaut, Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Hoffman and his students — Koki Ho, Katherine Gerhard, Austin Nicholas, and Alexander Buck – have outlined their depot architecture in the journal Acta Astronautica.

A depot may also accumulate contingency propellant from multiple missions, part of an approach the researchers call “stockpiling.”

Lagrange points

In the MIT study, spacecraft heading to the Moon would carry contingency propellant as they normally would, dropping the tank at a depot on the way back to Earth if it’s not needed; over time, the depot builds up a large fuel supply.

This way, if a large lunar mission launches in the future, its rocket wouldn’t need a huge fuel supply to launch the heavier payload. Instead, it can stop at the depot to collect the stockpiled propellant to fuel its landing on the Moon.

The MIT team came up with two depot designs to improve the efficiency of the basic scenario, according to an MIT press statement.

In both designs, depots would be stationed at Lagrange points — regions in space between the Earth, Moon, and Sun that maintain gravitational equilibrium. Objects at these points remain in place, keeping the same relative position with respect to the Earth and the Moon.

By Leonard David

My new SPACE.com story can be found here:

Futuristic Moon Elevator Idea Takes Aim at Lunar Lifts

http://www.space.com/24905-moon-elevator-lunar-exploration-liftport.html

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided look-see views of China’s Chang’e 3 lander and the Yutu moon rover.

A block of four Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera views have been released showing the Chang’e 3 landing site: A) before landing, taken on June 30, 2013, B) after landing, snapped on December 25, 2013, C) on January 21, 2014, and D) on February 17, 2014.

Each image is enlarged by a factor of two, width of each is 200 meters (656 feet).

Thanks to the imagery, you can follow Yutu’s path clockwise around the lander in panel D.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Here’s a new story from me, up today on SPACE.com:

Meteorite Fragments from Russian Fireball on Display 1 Year After Space Rock Explosion

By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
February 26, 2014 06:34am ET
http://www.space.com/24813-russian-meteor-fragments-museum-display.html

WHAM!

A meteorite with the mass of a small car crashed into the Moon last September.

Catching the event were astronomers in Spain, reporting the event in the journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The impact on the Moon — in Mare Nubium, an ancient lava-filled basin with a darker appearance than its surroundings — produced a bright flash and would have been easy to spot from the Earth.

The unusually long and bright flash was witnessed on September 11, 2013. An afterglow remained visible for a further eight seconds.

MIDAS touch

The Spanish telescopes are part of the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS) system that monitors the lunar surface.

This project is being undertaken by Jose Maria Madiedo, from the University of Huelva (UHU), and by Jose L. Ortiz, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).

The September event is the longest and brightest confirmed impact flash ever observed on the Moon, according to Madiedo.

New crater formed

Since these impacts take place at huge speeds, the rocks become molten and are vaporized at the impact site instantaneously.

These impacts produce a thermal glow that can be detected from Earth as short-duration flashes through telescopes.

According to the astronomers, the rock slammed into Mare Nubium at about 61,000 kilometers per hour and created a new crater with a diameter of around 40 meters. The impact energy was equivalent to an explosion of roughly 15 tons of TNT.

NOTE: For more information on this event, go to a short clip that shows the impact flash itself, at:

http://youtu.be/zCFDkj2JtyA

Also, a longer movie that includes an explanation of the impact and the MIDAS observatory can be viewed at:

http://youtu.be/perqv4qByaI

Progression of images taken Feb. 21-22 show NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars inspecting an interesting feature on the red planet. Using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, ultra up-close imagery of the feature has been obtained.

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech with MAHLI imagery credited to NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS