The latest SETI Google+ Hangout dealt with the question, “Are we ready to build a spaceship to explore nearby stars?”
Category Archives: Space Systems
Bion M1 returns safely but many test animals did not survive the flight
The Russian Bion M1, launched on April 19, 2013 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and returned on May 19th. The biology mission appears to have been a mixed success:
- Crew of Bion M1 Found Dead upon Landing – Space Safety Magazine
- Russian mice, gerbils dead in 30-day space ordeal; lizards live – latimes.com
- Lessons from Bion M Failures – Citizens in Space
More background info about the project:
Project Morpheus tests – May.16.13
The Project Morpheus team at NASA JSC was out testing their new lander on a tether Thursday. See the postings at Morpheus Lander (MorpheusLander) on Twitter as in these two examples:
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Thanks for watching! Not tomorrow, but NEXT WEEK for sure! Soon we should have a live video feed to the world as well!
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At 3ft in the air, I just had another successful test fire! I’m feeling good… now I get to do some RCS tests before we wrap for the day!
Mars colony basics + 3-D printing a Moon base
A look at some of the ideas discussed at the recent Human to Mars Summit on how to create sustainable Mars colonies: How to build a Mars colony that lasts – forever – New Scientist
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One technology that looks very important for making things, both small and large, in space colonies, wherever they might be, is 3-D printing: 3-D Printing Could Build Moon Base In-Situ – Aviation Week
Kepler space telescope loses reaction wheel – exoplanet searching crippled
With the loss of another reaction wheel, he Kepler space telescope has lost the ability to maintain the stable orientation needed for observing stars to detect transits of exoplanets: Kepler Mission Manager Update – NASA.
The managers of the project, however, insist that the mission is not finished and they will still be able to do some interesting science with the spacecraft. There is also a lot of data left to analyze.
Nevertheless, for small planets with orbit periods like the earth or Mars, the longer the observation time the better. A earth sized planet only decreases the star’s light by about 0.01% when it transits across the face of the planet. So the more transits, the better. At least three transits are needed for confirmation of an exoplanet. Kepler began observations in 2009 so there would have been 3-4 transits at an earth size orbit but only 1-2 for a Mars orbit.
There was a NASA briefing this afternoon on the situation and some notes were posted at
Examples:
Alan Boyle : “[Principle Investigator William Borucki] bristles at suggestion that @NASAKepler‘s planet-hunting mission is over. “Reasonable possibility” of resuming data collection.”
Jeff Foust: “Bill Borucki: well on our way to determining “eta Earth”, fraction of stars with Earth-sized planets in hab zones. (key goal of mission)”
Jeff Foust: “Borucki: we’ll declare the mission over when there’s no possibility of getting critically important science.”