Project Icarus

Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth

Excerpt:

And on September 2, the go-it-alone pair floated a balloon-camera high enough into the atmosphere to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the deep black of space, all on a lunch-money budget of $148.

More below:

Welcome to space.1337arts.com — Project Icarus, home of the original $150 near-space launch!

Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth


Comment: Very very cool! Check out the pics!

Earth from 31 million miles

Movie shows alien's-eye view of Earth and Moon

Excerpt:

The two brief sequences show the Moon passing in front of the Earth as it orbits.

"Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, who leads the project using NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft.

"Our video shows some specific features that are important for observations of Earth-like planets orbiting other stars," added Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"A 'sun glint' can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected from Earth's oceans, and similar glints to be observed from extrasolar planets could indicate alien oceans," Deming added.

Comment: Very very cool. More links below:

NASA's Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World

Movie 1

Movie 2

Astronaut Clay Anderson

Zero gravity can be heavy burden

Excerpt:

In video footage shown this week, the astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis gleefully float tools and a miniature football in midair. They look like they're having fun.

They're also coping with the million-and-one annoyances of the weightless lifestyle. The truth about zero-g, as the astronauts call it, is that it's a major pain.

In weightlessness, "two things are easier" — carrying heavy items and fitting into small spaces — and "everything else is more difficult," says astronaut Scott Kelly, who last flew on the shuttle in 2007.

The problems posed by zero gravity can make it harder for the crew, especially rookies, to get things done. That's no small matter now that shuttle missions are jammed with so much work that the astronauts have little time for sleep and meals.

"Prosteishiy Sputnik" — the Simplest Satellite

Russians tell the real story behind spur-of-the-moment Sputnik

Excerpts:


... 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age.
....
As described by the former scientists, the world's first orbiter was born out of a very different Soviet program: the frantic development of a rocket capable of striking the United States with a hydrogen bomb.

Because there was no telling how heavy the warhead would be, its R-7 ballistic missile was built with thrust to spare _ "much more powerful than anything the Americans had," Georgy Grechko, a rocket engineer and cosmonaut, told AP.
....
The Soviet Union already had a full-fledged scientific satellite in development, but it would take too long to complete, Korolyov knew. So he ordered his team to quickly sketch a primitive orbiter. It was called PS-1, for "Prosteishiy Sputnik" — the Simplest Satellite.
....
The satellite, weighing just 184 pounds (84 kilograms), was built in less than three months. Soviet designers built a pressurized sphere of polished aluminum alloy with two radio transmitters and four antennas. An earlier satellite project envisaged a cone shape, but Korolyov preferred the sphere. "Earth is a sphere, and its first satellite also must have a spherical shape," Chertok, a longtime deputy of Korolyov, recalled him saying.
....
The first official Soviet report of Sputnik's launch was brief and buried deep in Pravda, the Communist Party daily. Only two days later did it offer a banner headline, quoting the avalanche of foreign praise. Pravda also published a description of Sputnik's orbit to help people watch it pass. The article failed to mention that the light seen moving across the sky was the spent booster rocket's second stage, which was in roughly same orbit, Chertok said.


Comments: Image from Allposters.com. Kathee and I discussed this on the way into work. She was in the 1st grade. Sputnik is one of her earliest memories!

Sputnik: 50th annivesary

Newsweek: The Real Sputnik Story

Excerpt:

Far from being a bitter blow, Sputnik furthered one of Eisenhower's cherished military goals. Called "open skies," the policy would allow any nation to undertake aerial reconnaissance of any other. "The administration welcomed Sputnik," says McDougall. "The Soviets could hardly deny the right to launch satellites over the territory of other countries if they did it first."

Wikipedia: Sputnik 1

Comment: I am dating myself, but I was in the 3rd grade. I remember the event clearly!

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672

Comment: Latest pic from the Hubble!

Hubble: Stellar Nursery in the arms of NGC 1672

Science Daily: Spectacular Hubble Image Of Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672

Excerpt:

NGC 1672, visible from the Southern Hemisphere, is seen almost face on and shows regions of intense star formation. The greatest concentrations of star formation are found in the so-called starburst regions near the ends of the galaxy’s strong galactic bar. NGC 1672 is a prototypical barred spiral galaxy and differs from normal spiral galaxies in that the spiral arms do not twist all the way into the centre. Instead, they are attached to the two ends of a straight bar of stars enclosing the nucleus.

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Lord,
         How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
         Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
       
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
         You have ordained strength,
         Because of Your enemies,
         That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
       
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
         The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

What is man that You are mindful of him,
         And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
         And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
       
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
         You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen—
         Even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air,
         And the fish of the sea
         That pass through the paths of the seas.
       
O LORD, our Lord,
         How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Suspected meteorite hits Bloomington home

James Day, a professor of Geology at Illinois State University examines a space object that fell through the atmosphere and crashed through the window of a Bloomington home, Monday, March 5, 2007. The scientists believe the object may be a meterorite but must run more tests to be conclusive. (Pantagraph, David Proeber)

A computer desk absorbed the impact of a space object that fell through the atmosphere and crashed through the window of a Bloomington home, Monday, March 5, 2007. The scientists believe the object may be a meterorite but must run more tests to be conclusive. (Pantagraph, David Proeber)

Suspected meteorite hits Bloomington home

Excerpt:

A Bloomington couple caught a falling star Monday morning, not quite in their pockets but in a bedroom of their house.

A chunk of metal that crashed through the bedroom window of David and Dee Riddle’s home, 25 Partner Place, just after 9:30 a.m. appears to be a meteorite, but it also could be a piece of space junk, according to preliminary analysis by several Illinois State University geology professors.

However, the professors who had a look at it agree that whatever the heavy, gray object that crashed through their window is, it definitely came from space.

Robert “Skip” Nelson, a professor of geology at ISU, came out to Riddles’ home to take a look at the object, which is about the size of deck of cards.



Metal fragment that hit home not a meteorite

Excerpt:

The chunk of metal that crashed though a Bloomington couple’s home last month was not a meteorite but something man-made.

But Robert “Skip” Nelson, a professor of geology at Illinois State University, said the theory may be just as unique as he pieces together how the piece of metal made its way March 5 into David and Dee Riddle’s house at Partner Place.

Nelson said the metal object appears to have been ejected from a wood grinder from Twin City Wood Recycling. “That’s almost as amazing as it being a meteorite,” Nelson said.

Blinding Saturn

NASA: Blinding Saturn

New images of Saturn from NASA:

Excerpt:

The view is a mosaic of 36 images -- that is, 12 separate sets of red, green and blue images -- taken over the course of about 2.5 hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system.

This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 40 degrees above the ring plane.

The images in this natural-color view were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.23 million kilometers (764,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 70 kilometers (44 miles) per pixel.

The latest call for supra-national (UN) action

U.N. urged to take action on asteroid threat

Excerpts:

An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday.

Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036.

Schweickart, a member of the Apollo 9 crew that orbited the earth in March 1969, wants to see the United Nations adopt procedures for assessing asteroid threats and deciding if and when to take action.

Mission costs are estimated at $300 million.

Comments:

1. First "global warming" ... a nation should surrender its sovereignty and have a supra-national organization tax resource use
   
2. Now "asteroid threat" ... the U.N. should have a space program to push asteroids out of the way.
   
3. Estimated costs of $300 million ... you can probably quadruple this amount! Space projects open in scope like this are doubtful to come in at forecast!