Pam Hoffman’s Everyday Spacer blog hosts the latest Carnival of Space.
Carnival of Space #362 – Everyday Spacer
Pam Hoffman’s Everyday Spacer blog hosts the latest Carnival of Space.
Monthly Archives: July 2014
Video: Earth to Ground weekly report on ISS
A new episode of Earth to Ground from NASA about the latest activities on board the International Space Station:
Square Kilometre Array to include 100s of radio telescopes in two countries
The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project
is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area. The scale of the SKA represents a huge leap forward in both engineering and research & development towards building and delivering a unique instrument, with the detailed design and preparation now well under way. As one of the largest scientific endeavours in history, the SKA will bring together a wealth of the world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers to bring the project to fruition.
Unprecedented Scale
The SKA will use hundreds of thousands of radio telescopes, in three unique configurations, which will enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and survey the entire sky thousands of times faster than any system currently in existence. The SKA telescopes will be co-located in Africa and in Australia. South Africa’s Karoo desert will cover the core of the high and mid frequencies of the radio spectrum which will have telescopes spread all over the continent, with Australia’s Murchison region covering the low frequency range and hosting the survey instrument.
Continue…
http://youtu.be/49TLZR4FfDM
Is it time to search for life on Mars? – panel debate, American Univ, July 31, 2014
An upcoming event in Washington DC with a live webcast :
[There will be a] special panel debate called “Is It Time to Search for Life on Mars?” This panel will take place at American University on July 31, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. EDT and will be preceded by a reception at 5:00 p.m. This event is being co-sponsored by Explore Mars, Inc. and American University and will feature a stimulating discussion on whether life has been detected on Mars and what we will need to do to confirm the existence of past or present life on the red planet.
Participants will include:
- Moderator: Rebecca Keiser (American University, Executive-in-residence at the School of Public Affairs; NASA)
- Dr. Gil Levin (Arizona State University; Principal Investigator, Labeled Release experiment, Mars Viking Lander mission)
- Dr. Chris McKay (Planetary Scientist, NASA Ames)
- Dr. Pamela Conrad (NASA: Deputy Principal Investigator, SAM investigation, Mars Science Laboratory; Research Space Scientist)
- Dr. Chris Carr (Research Scientist, MIT).
Rebecca Keiser, executive-in-residence at the School of Public Affairs, said the investigation into whether life exists on Mars is important for the development of space policies that contribute to understanding the universe. Kaiser and Howard McCurdy, professor of public administration and policy at the School of Public Affairs, are setting up a research group at American University on space policy analysis.
The session will be followed by special announcements regarding Explore Mars’ project, EXOLANCE, which will build and test an innovative method of searching for life from the surface to a considerable depth below the surface where life may be better shielded from the harsh radiation hitting the surface. EXOLANCE was first previewed at the April 2014 Humans to Mars Summit conference at The George Washington University. The July 31st presentation will be led by Joe Cassady (Aerojet Rocketdyne; Explore Mars board member).
“The search for life is one of the primary reasons why we explore Mars,” commented Explore Mars Executive Director, Chris Carberry. “Whether we have detected indicators of life yet on Mars or not, Mars provides us with an environment that may be suitable for life.”
ISEE-3 Reboot Project investigating possible solution to propulsion failure
The ISEE-3 Reboot Project (see posts here, here, and here) appeared to suffer a serious and irreversible setback this week when they were unable to fire the propulsion system to change the spacecraft’s trajectory. While hydrazine fuel still remained in the tank, there did not appear to be any nitrogen to push the fuel into the engine : Curtain Falls on ISEE-3 Reboot Project as Propulsion System Fails – SpaceNews.com.
Now there is some hope that the nitrogen has not leaked out but has dissolved into the hydrazine. The group is asking for help from anyone who might know how to deal with this:
- Fresh Hope for an Abandoned NASA Spacecraft – IEEE Spectrum
- ISEE-3 Reboot Project Seeks Your Help To Solve a Technical Problem – Space College
The team asks:
Did the Nitrogen pressurizing gas dissolve in the Hydrazine in the tanks?
This is something that we would like to research and for efficiencies sake and to get the job done quicker, we would like our project fans out there to help us in this research. I am reading an old USAF document on this now and it may be nothing, but it also may be something. We need to research the following:
– What is the solubility of Nitrogen in Hydrazine?
– What is the temperature dependence?
– Most important, what is the time required to dissolve 1 kg of Nitrogen in 15 kg of Hydrazine? This is an approximation for both tank systems of course.
This is important. Don’t just throw stuff on the wall, help us research this.