July 2006 - Posts
NASA |
After months of preparation, the Stardust @ Home treasure hunt kicks off on Tuesday, with tens of thousands of Internet users primed to look for grains of dust from beyond the solar system. The research effort adds a human touch to the grand tradition of distributed-computing projects such as SETI @ Home.
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A bouncing baby girl has been born to the Russian-American couple who took part in the world's first "space wedding," according to the wedding planner who helped arrange the ultra-long-distance ceremony nearly three years ago.
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Science News: Oceangoing rover gathers unprecedented data •
National Geographic: Giant dinosaur found in Argentina •
Flight Int'l: ESA offers space tourism help with business plans
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MeaningofLife.TV: Edward O. Wilson on intelligent design
Sex sells ... even when it comes to buying a ride in space. "As Laura Woodmansee, the author of "Sex in Space," put it last weekend at the NewSpace 2006 conference, sex could be "the killer app for space tourism."
Of course, it will be years before spaceships offer the right environment for romance. We still don't even know exactly how candlelight works in zero-G. But the questions surrounding how we might conduct our lives in space - ranging from birth to childhood to sex to family life to aging to death - ought to be a "killer app" for space research.
Here are some of your thoughts on the subject of space sex:
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• X Prize Cup unveils its 2006 Web site
• 'Nova' on PBS: 'This Old Pyramid'
• The Economist: The not-so-shocking electric car
• Bigelow Aerospace: The latest photos from Genesis 1 in orbit
• NASA: Crash landing on the moon
• The New Yorker: Know it all
Rocketplane Kistler |
Space entrepreneurs like to draw a line between "old space," referring to established aerospace firms such as the Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin; and "new space," referring to themselves. As we found during last weekend's NewSpace 2006 conference, the pioneers of new space are trying to push the envelope - and get a piece of the old-space pie in the process.
But the line between the two is getting fuzzier, thanks to alliances like the one announced this week between Orbital Sciences ("old space") and Rocketplane Kistler ("new space").
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• Wired.com: Parsing the puffin's patois
• Univ. at Buffalo: Fingertip device helps computers read gestures
• MIT: Researchers watch brain in action
• Project P.R.O.V.E.: Saucer sighting during shuttle mission?
Rocket Racing League |
Rocket engines will be blazing away in New Mexico this October at the X Prize Cup, but as the big day approaches, rocketeers are adjusting their plans to accommodate engineering realities. Some of the vehicles will look much different from what was originally planned, and others just might have to sit this one out. It all goes to show why “rocket science” is the stereotypical term for anything difficult to do.
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• Engadget: Researchers use waves to write on water (via Slashdot)
• AutoblogGreen: SpaceX's Elon Musk on the Tesla Roadster
• The Guardian: Flight of the bumblebee is 8 miles long
• The Onion: Sparrow Aviation Administration probes 'invisible killer'
EAA AirVenture |
If you're a fan of SpaceShipOne, the world's first privately developed manned spacecraft, it's pretty hard to beat last year's act at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis., when the historic rocket plane was flown in for an appearance on the way to the Smithsonian. But today, AirVenture is unveiling a replica in its Oshkosh museum that can do something the original is no longer able to accomplish.
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• Univ. of Wash.: One nearby star system could host Earthlike planet
• NASA/Caltech: Planet-forming disks may put the brakes on stars
• Science News: Physics reveals winning game strategies
• N.Y. Times (reg. req.): Authors take on God and science
The latest batch of photos from inside Bigelow Aerospace's orbiting Genesis 1 spacecraft may look like merely sharper versions of previous snapshots, with cards and trinkets floating around in zero-G. But a few added features stand out: the corporate logos for Bigelow Aerospace itself and another of billionaire Robert Bigelow's ventures, Budget Suites of America, plus a veritable outbreak of pixellated spots on the image.
Those logos hint at another small step toward a giant leap in space commercialization: the first ads to be beamed down from a privately developed spacecraft in orbit.
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CSI |
The idea behind NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, is that the space agency would add a healthy dash of entrepreneurship to the task of keeping the international space station supplied with cargo and crew. Over the next four years, NASA plans to make $500 million available for demonstrations of new ways to service the station as the shuttle fleet nears its retirement.
That's a nice plum for the space industry's entrepreneurs - but unfortunately, COTS is creating its share of disappointments and delays as well.
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CollectSpace reports that NASA is favoring "Project Orion" as the 21st-century equivalent of Project Apollo. The name, which evokes the well-known constellation as well as the huntsman of Greek mythology, would refer to the yet-to-be-built Crew Exploration Vehicle as well as the overall effort to return to the moon - just as Apollo referred to the moon program of the 1960s and early 1970s as well as the craft that carried astronauts from Earth to the moon.
CollectSpace's Robert Pearlman figured out the moniker by doing a search for NASA's recent trademark applications. Last month, we found "Ares," referring to the launch vehicle - and sure enough, "Orion" was added to the database on July 14 (Click here and do a search for registration number 78929845). Pearlman says his NASA sources have confirmed that Orion is the name, but it ain't official till it's official.
• Wired.com: Meet the remote-control self
• The Guardian: Baby cloning experiment revealed
• New Scientist: Relic neutrinos join dark-matter hunt
• The Onion: Name an atom after a loved one
Laura Rauch / AP
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Robert Bigelow
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On a 50-acre spread in North Las Vegas, near the intersection of Warp Drive and Skywalker Way, the prototypes for future space stations are being built from strips of fortified fabric, supertough inflatable skin and lattices of metal.
Today a gaggle of journalists and space entrepreneurs got a rare look inside Bigelow Aerospace's industrial-park production facility and mission control center, just a week and a day after the company's launch of its Genesis 1 orbital test module. We were treated to three and a half hours of talk and tours, led by billionaire Robert Bigelow and his top engineers.
With the success of Genesis 1, Bigelow has become much more willing to show off the facilities he's built as part of his $75 million space investment. There are limits, of course: I had to delete one of my pictures under the watchful eye of a security guard because I pointed the camera in the wrong direction. But we ended up with plenty of pictures, and plenty of good quotes from "Mr. B" during a question-and-answer session in the company's hangarlike Building A. Here's a sampling:
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Today marks two crowning achievements of America's space program: the 37th anniversary of the first moon landing, and the 30th anniversary of America's first landing on Mars. Where will the next such triumphs come from? For the next decade or so, the most interesting ventures to watch might not be at NASA, but among the emerging cadre of space entrepreneurs here in Las Vegas, where I'm attending the NewSpace 2006 conference.
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Take a flying leap on World Jump Day •
NASA: Xanadu looks a bit like Earth |
QuickTime movie •
Nature: Atomic clock clocks in at record time •
LiveScience: First delta-wing fighter was a reptile
MIT |
Researchers are working on baseball-sized robotic probes that could be thrown down by the swarmful to explore deep canyons and lava tubes on Mars - or look for disaster survivors amid ruins on Earth. The NASA-funded project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology serves as one more reminder that robotic technologies developed for space exploration come in handy on the home planet as well.
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Thirty years after Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci wowed Olympic judges at the Montreal Olympics, a tribute to that "Perfect 10" performance has been beamed toward the stars via the Deep Space Communications Network.
The transmission was arranged by Romanian-Gymnastics.com as a publicity exercise to mark the anniversary. Deep Space, which is based in Cape Canaveral, Fla., uses TV transmission equipment usually devoted to space coverage to beam signals up into clear space instead - in hopes that the telecast will someday come within range of an extraterrestrial civilization. So will Comaneci's performance ever thrill an alien audience?
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Science News: Flirting with the impossible •
N.Y. Times (reg. req.): Race to the swift? Not necessarily •
Wired.com: Busting burglars with spit and vomit •
BBC: Scientists to build 'brain box'
After the shuttle Discovery landed today, I asked NASA Administrator Mike Griffin a rather flip question: Doesn't an admittedly unemotional space agency chief feel even a little bit of emotion over such a successful space mission? In response, I got an answer that wasn't flip at all, but instead sounded like a heartfelt rationale for taking on the risks of human spaceflight.
For the benefit of all those who have been debating the merits of space exploration, here's Griffin's answer, plus some comments in the same vein from Discovery commander Steve Lindsey. After you've read them - or after you've seen the video versions - feel free to weigh in with your own comments.
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Bigelow Aerospace |
Another couple of images from the world's first private-sector space station were released today, signaling that we could expect a stream of fascinating snapshots from orbit, just as the company behind the Genesis 1 inflatable spacecraft promised. And it's just as fascinating to read the stream of reports about Genesis 1 and Bigelow Aerospace, including claims that the company could be seen as privately funded "mini-Skunk Works" for NASA's exploration efforts.
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Bigelow Aerospace |
Bigelow Aerospace has released the first image taken by cameras aboard its Genesis 1 orbital spacecraft, showing the exterior of the inflatable module itself in flight. Future snapshots may be prettier, but there's nothing like that first baby picture - especially when the baby is "happy and healthy."
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NASA |
Thar's gold in them thar comets - fool's gold, that is, also known as iron sulfides. Thar's also clay and chalk, which are far more interesting to the scientists behind the latest effort to figure out the recipe for a comet.
Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, gathered during last year's Deep Impact encounter with Comet Tempel 1 and reported this week in Science Express, have turned up a couple of surprise ingredients in the recipe. To explain the presence of clay and chalk, researchers have bought into a theory that may be unorthodox - but isn't at all foolish.
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Kippa Matthews / Partners Leisure Ltd. via AP |
The 2006 York Maize Maze pays tribute to characters from the "Star Trek" saga.
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If you build it, will they beam down? "Star Trek" fan Tom Pearcy cut this maze in a cornfield on his farm near York in northern England, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the science-fiction classic's first TV show. Pearcy claims it's the largest such labyrinth in the world. In its report, the Reuters news service says Pearcy used satellite imagery as a guide for the maze, which takes in 1.5 million corn plants. Fascinating.
Can you recognize the "Trek" references? Feel free to geek out in the comments section.
• Defense Tech: Will it be lasers vs. rockets in Middle East?
• Discover magazine: Does E.T. have cousins in the Arctic?
• Forbes: Will manufactured DNA lead to artificial life?
• Cosmos: Does evolution dictate our celebrity obsession?
• Astroseti.org: ¿Habla Cosmic Log en Español?
Bigelow via AP |
Real-estate billionaire Robert Bigelow, the head of the world's newest orbital space program, says he thinks of his Genesis 1 inflatable module as "our baby" - and lies awake at night wondering how "she" is doing. On the day after the big launch, Bigelow chatted with me about the regulatory hoops he and his team had to jump through, the bugs and jumping beans that are aboard Genesis, and the road ahead to human orbital flight.
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• The Guardian: Poetry makes the heart beat faster
• Biomapping your emotions (via New Scientist)
• Wired: This is a computer on your brain (via Slashdot)
• Independent: On the trail of the ninki-nanka (via Daily Grail)
Christie's Images Ltd. via AP |
This model of the Starship Enterprise-A, used for visual effects in the film "Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," will be among the items put up for auction.
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October's sale of "Star Trek" memorabilia has already touched off a Warp Factor 7 buzz, and the Christie's auction house is hoping that a new online bidding system will boost participation. The system, known as Christie's Live, passed its first test during a home-furnishings auction today - but will the setup be satisfactory for legions of online Trekkers?
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Archaeology magazine's Mark Rose sends along a link to an interview with the University of Pennsylvania's Victor Mair, about a DNA analysis done on the remains of workers who built the tomb for China's first emperor about 2,200 years ago. "One of them at least was not Chinese!" Rose writes. Researchers say the genetic signature indicates the worker's roots went back to western Eurasia, perhaps Iran.
Mair says the presence of guest workers in ancient China wouldn't be too surprising. "After all, at this time and even earlier, we've got Iranian peoples - Wusun, Scythians, and others - running all over the Eurasian steppes from the Black Sea to what is now northern China," he's quoted as saying. Nevertheless, the findings open a new frontier for genetic genealogy.
"I don't think anybody has picked this up," Rose says. Now somebody has.
• Nature: Sun helps clean the sky
• European Space Agency: Science updates from cloudy Venus
• Senators to introduce emergency NASA funding measure
• Improbable Research: Flatulence cushion for the chair-bound
NASA |
Imagery from last week's launch of shuttle Discovery shows that it'd be a real blast to ride on one of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, each of which packs 1 million pounds of heavy-duty explosives. Video cameras mounted on the boosters, recovered over the weekend, show the whole three-minute rise to separation from the orbiter and its tank - plus the four-minute fall to an Atlantic splashdown. It's must-see NASA TV.
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• New Scientist: Bacteria made to sprout conducting nanowires
• Wired: Code of the caveman
• Defense Tech: Marines in space!
• BBC: Bigger dinosaurs had warmer blood
Bigelow via AP |
It's taken months longer than he hoped, but real-estate billionaire Robert Bigelow might just see his first orbital spacecraft take flight at last on Wednesday, courtesy of a converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missile.
If Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis 1 inflatable space module lifts off successfully, the test mission could mark a significant step toward an era of hotels and even sports complexes in space.
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• Edge: The energy of empty space that isn't zero
• Boston Globe: NASA's X-ray vision matches Superman's
• S.F. Chronicle: Astrophysics taking off on Superman
• Science News: Bending a soccer ball
Princeton |
The same mathematical principles that physicists use in string theory can be applied to analyze a string quartet, a music theorist writes in this week’s issue of the journal Science. He’s devised a new geometrical model that just might serve as a “theory of everything,” at least when it comes to Western musical traditions.
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• 'Nova' on PBS: Return to 'The Elegant Universe'
• N.Y. Times (reg. req.): It's an auction, Jim, but not as we know it
• Personal Spaceflight: A 'rocket city' in New Mexico? Maybe
• The Economist: The big sleep
NASA TV via AP |
German astronaut Thomas Reiter flashes a smile and a thumbs-up sign for the
camera Thursday after entering his new home, the international space station.
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German astronaut Thomas Reiter became an official member of the international space station's crew today and started a five-month tour of duty, cooped up with two other guys in the equivalent of a three-bedroom house bristling with cameras and computers. Think "Big Brother" in orbit.
It may sound like a claustrophobic nightmare in the making, but instead Reiter compares it to a fishing trip. A really, really long fishing trip.
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Every time we run a "Month in Space" roundup of cosmic images, we get e-mail from readers asking where they can see the original, downloadable pictures that were adapted for the slideshow. So here's a list of links to further details about the images, plus bigger versions.
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• Carnegie Mellon Univ.: 'Pokerbot' figures out Texas Hold 'Em
• N.Y. Times (reg. req.): Physics awaits new options
• National Geographic: Noah's Ark discovered in Iran?
• The Guardian: Hot news for the embarrassingly itchy
Les Bossinas / NASA |
The X Prize Foundation is working to bring regular folks up to the edge of space, NASA is aiming for the moon, and the Mars Society is pushing for trips to the Red Planet. So who's focusing on the incredibly far frontier beyond the solar system? Scientists and dreamers from NASA and elsewhere have established a new foundation to focus on the real-life prospects for interstellar flight.
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• Discovery.com: Red-eye tech gauges your age
• Prospect: The return of nuclear fusion?
• Fortean Times: Dispatches from the Ghost Fest (via Daily Grail)
• Nature: Top five science blogs
It might not be a giant leap on the order of the duct-tape contraption that helped save Apollo 13, but a snake-eyed camera used by launch-pad inspectors helped NASA take one small step toward the shuttle Discovery's launch on Independence Day.
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• Discover magazine: No-mow grass
• Science News: T-rex vision was among nature's best
• BBC: Spaceflights from a base in Scotland?
• Wired: Six trends driving the global economy
