Category Archives: Space participation

A space program in Amish country?

May 10, 2013 TopSpacer

An update from Joe Latrell of Photos To Space, a HobbySpace sponsor:

A Space Program In Amish Country?

Strasburg firm brings Space access to the public

[Strasburg, PA – May 10th, 2013] Surrounded by tranquil fields, the idyllic town of Strasburg, PA seems an unlikely place for a Space company. Tucked into a tiny corner just off the downtown square sits the headquarters for a company that wants to make Space ‘available’ to anyone.

“Currently our primary products are digital photo packages,” says Joe Latrell, the company’s CEO. “We send images, videos and an assortment of small items both to near-space and on suborbital flights. We want 2013 to be the year of personal space.”

“This is a great way to get students and teachers involved in space travel,” continues Latrell. “What better way to start a child exploring real world math and science than to participate in a real space mission? What a great introduction to STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) courses.”

Photos To Space partners with existing launch firms for the actual flights. While the company does launch small vehicles for testing flight hardware at a nearby local farm, they don’t launch space-bound rockets from Pennsylvania. Says Latrell, “We work with several companies to handle the actual launch duties. They get to do the really cool part of the mission while we handle the customer support end of things.”

Two different launches are rapidly approaching. The first is a near-space launch to 20 miles occurring at the end of May. The second is a sub-orbital flight launching out of Spaceport America in NM in late June or early July. Additional flights are planned throughout the remaining year.

“It’s an inexpensive and fun way to get involved in Space. Where else can you get directly involved in Space for less?” he asks. Prices for the company’s offerings start at $1.49 for a near-space flight.

For more information about Photos To Space’s various opportunities visit their website at http://www.photostospace.com.

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About Photos To Space
Based in Lancaster County, PA, Photos To Space was created with the goal of getting people involved and interested in space and to provide opportunities for the general public to take part in space travel. Through its website, www.photostospace.com., customers can participate directly in incredible Space adventures.

Near Space, Space participation

Video: JP Aerospace mission highlights

May 9, 2013 TopSpacer

This video shows highlights of the six April 2013 JP Aerospace high altitude flights, which carried a total of 2400 PongSats for students: Mission Highlights Video – JP Aerospace Blog

Activism, Astronomy, Space participation

Looking in on the Zooniverse citizen science space projects

May 8, 2013 TopSpacer

A scan of of what’s happening with the space related citizen science projects at Zooniverse:

Galaxy Zoo – To understand how galaxies formed participants help to classify them according to their shapes.
- Next GZ Hangout: Thursday, May 9th, 15:00 GMT – with special guests! – Galaxy Zoo – there is a regular Google hangout where participants can hear about and discuss the project.
- How to Translate Galaxy Zoo | Galaxy Zoo – “now possible for anyone to translate the Galaxy Zoo website into their own language”
The Milky Way Project – Look for bubbles and other unusual features in the Milky Way
- The Milky Way Project | Talk – participants discuss latest objects of interest
Moon Zoo – classification of features on the lunar surface
- 3,553,346 images classified to date by 20,627 users
- Thank you Moon Zoo! – Moon Zoo – “to date, around 8.5 million craters in total have been marked by MoonZoo citizen scientists , with around 670,000 (~8%) relating to the [Apollo 17] region”
Planet Four – examination of images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to identify and measure features on the surface of Mars
- 70,670 participants worldwide, 3,772,479 MRO images classified
- Brand New Images – Year 1 Data – Planet Four Blog – more MRO images added.
Planet Hunters – look for exoplanets in Kepler space observatory data
- Planet Hunters | Talk – discussions of latest candidate signals
SpaceWarps – look for gravitational lenses (see earlier post).

Update May.9.13: Here is a report by Katy Maloney about a recent Zooniverse workshop held n Chicago at the Adler Planetarium :

Astronomy, Space participation

Search for Space Warps in new citizen science project

May 8, 2013 TopSpacer 1 Comment

A new citizen science project from Zooniverse is titled Space Warps.

This project is a gravitational lens discovery engine. Large astronomical surveys can use Space Warps to find gravitational lenses in their data through the collaborative efforts of citizen scientists.

Here is an animation of the gravitational lenses effect:

http://youtu.be/6hxFV-LvlrU

More information about the project is described here: New Project: Join the Search for ‘Space Warps’ – Zooniverse

Gravitational lenses – or ‘space warps’ – are created when massive galaxies cause light to bend around them such that they act rather like giant lenses in space. By looking through data that has never been seen by human eyes, our new Space Warps project is asking citizen scientists to help discover some of these incredibly rare objects. We need your help to spot these chance-alignments of galaxies in a huge survey of the night sky. To take part visit www.spacewarps.org.

Gravitational lenses help us to answer all kinds of questions about galaxies, including how many very low mass stars such as brown dwarfs – which aren’t bright enough to detect directly in many observations – are lurking in distant galaxies. The Zooniverse has always been about connecting people with the biggest questions and now, with Space Warps, we’re taking our first trip to the early Universe. We’re excited to let people be the first to see some of the rarest astronomical objects of all!

The Space Warps project is a lens discovery engine. Joining the search is easy: when you visit the website you are given examples of what space warps look like and are shown how to mark potential candidates on each image. The first set of images to be inspected in this project is from the CFHT (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) legacy survey.

[See above video.]

Computer algorithms have already scanned the images, but there are likely to be many more space warps that the algorithms have missed. We think that only with human help will we find them all. Realistic simulated lenses are dropped into some images to help you learn how to spot them, and reassure you that you’re on the right track. Previous studies have shown that the human brain is better at identifying complex lenses than computers are, and we know at the Zooniverse that members of the public can be at least as good at spotting astronomical objects as experts! We’re going to use the data from citizen scientists to continuously train computers to become better space warp spotters.

This is a really exciting project and you can read more on the Space Warps blog. As with our other projects it can also be found on Twitter (@SpaceWarps), on Facebook and you can discuss any interesting objects you find on Space Warps Talk. We’re really excited about this project and think you’ll be able to make some amazing discoveries through it.

Activism, Space participation, Space Science

SGAC opens “Find an Asteroid” competition

May 8, 2013 TopSpacer

The SGAC (Space Generation Advisory Council) has opened a Find an Asteroid project:

SGAC gives you the opportunity to take part in an Asteroid Search Campaign. Partnering with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration, and supported by the Minor Planet Center, SGAC has slots available for 10 -15 teams to participate. Team up with your SGAC friends and start hunting!

Registration is now open.