Category: Space

Cosmos 1 Set to Test Solar Sail

Solar Sail

I remember reading about the failure of the first solar sail tests, I hope this one will be better.
I find it amazing that somthing that was a concept only found in science fiction books is now being tested for real.

The keys to Cosmos 1’s innovative propulsion system are its eight triangular sails, made from highly reflective, 50-foot-tall Mylar sheets. Mylar is the material commonly used for novelty helium-filled balloons. Once the sails are unfurled in orbit at an altitude of about 500 miles, photons streaming away from the sun will bounce off them, giving the spacecraft a little push as they go. Though these tiny pushes won’t amount to much at first, they are expected to add up over time, propelling Cosmos 1 faster and faster. With each day that passes, the spacecraft is expected to gain another 100 mph in speed. Eventually, it will be able to fight Earth’s gravitational pull and move into a higher orbit

Cosmos 1 set to test Solar Sail

space, Russia, solar sail, Cosmos

FREE!

Free at last

Opportunity is once again free of the sand dune and can continue on its extended mission.

The Mars rover Opportunity has successfully escaped from a sand trap. JPL engineers cheered when images returned from Mars showed the rover’s wheels were free. Engineers worked for nearly five weeks to carefully maneuver the rover out of the sand dune

The Latest News from Mars

Mars, Opportunity, NASA, space

Phoenix Mars Lander

Phoenix lander

I hope that this project isn’t plauged by the “faster, better, cheaper – choose two” thinking that the some space probes have had in the few years.
I think that the science that can be gathered from the polar regions of Mars will answer a lot of questions that scientists have about where the water might have gone.

The Phoenix Mars Mission, scheduled for launch in August 2007, is the first in NASA’s “Scout Program.” Scouts are designed to be highly innovative and relatively low-cost complements to major missions being planned as part of the agency’s Mars Exploration Program. Phoenix is specifically designed to measure volatiles (especially water) and complex organic molecules in the arctic plains of Mars, where the Mars Odyssey orbiter has discovered evidence of ice-rich soil very near the surface.
Similar to its namesake, Phoenix “raises from the ashes” a spacecraft and instruments from two previous unsuccessful attempts to explore Mars. The 2001 lander, administratively mothballed in 2000, is being resurrected for the Phoenix Mission. Similarly, many of the mission’s scientific instruments have already been built, requiring little or no modification for flight to Mars.
Phoenix is a fixed lander, using a robotic arm to dig to the ice layer and analyze samples with a suite of sophisticated on-deck scientific instruments.

Phoenix Mars Lander

space, mars, phoenix, NASA

Sitting Duck

Oops

We may not think of it every day, but Earth is a sitting duck in space. The planet that we call home has been enduring impacts of space debris for countless eons, the only reason that your back yard doesn’t look like the surface of the moon is that we have this nifty thing called ‘weather‘ to fill in the holes so to speak. Generally the planet does a good job at spackling over the odd scrape and bruise it picks up once in a while however, not everything thing has been patched up just yet. Scientists have found to date not less than 170 impact sites dating as far back as 2.5 billion years ago. Many of these craters has assumed role of lakes or bays or the odd depression in the country side, and for the most part, don’t stand out. There are a few that do. A prime example is Barringer Crater in northern Arizona. That has been preserved by the arid conditions of the area. With so many impact sites around the world, and more being discovered as mankind’s advances in Earth imagery, it’s no wonder that scientists are warning that ‘the big one‘ could hit us in the near (geologically speaking) future.

space, earth, science, asteroid, extinction

Voyager 1 Enters the Heliosheath

Voyager

Way to go! Now hopefuly the funding will stay with the program so scientists will be able to use the new data received.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled so far in our Solar System that it’s reached the heliosheath. This is an area just past the termination shock region, where the solar wind crashes into the thin interstellar gas of the galaxy. It was difficult to detect exactly when Voyager 1 passed through the termination shock and into the heliosheath, because we have no data about interstellar space yet, just calculations.

Voyager 1 Enters the Heliosheath