Asteroids & Comets, Eyes in the Sky, Multiple media

The Chelyabinsk meteor in weather sat images + Glorious earth images

October 5, 2013 TopSpacer

Here’s an interesting account of tracking down images from the Russian Elektro-L weather satellite showing the trail of the fireball meteor that struck over Chelyabinsk last February: On space kindness and the Chelyabinsk meteor – The Planetary Society.

And here is a GIF animation of the meteor created from images made by the EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 geostationary satellite : Trails of Chelyabinsk viewed from space – The Planetary Society.

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Here is a sequence of beautiful full color images of earth produced by Elektro-L over January 2013:

The satellite images the earth every 30 minutes. Twice a year during an equinox, it captures an entire hemisphere in a single shot with no night terminator line in view.

Space camps & hands on sims, Space participation

A report on a trip to the Adult Space Academy at Space Camp USA

October 5, 2013 TopSpacer

The author of this article gives an entertaining account of participating in the Adult Space Academy program at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama: From ‘moonwalking’ to landing a space shuttle, the Adult Space Academy in Huntsville, Ala., gives the starry-eyed a taste of what it’s like to train as an astronaut. – latimes.com.

Science and Technology

Sci-Tech: Elon Musk responds to Tesla Model S fire

October 5, 2013 TopSpacer 3 Comments

As you may have heard, a Tesla Motors Model S vehicle caught on fire in Seattle on Thursday after striking metallic debris on the freeway: Elon Musk defends Tesla electric car after fire – USA Today [incl. video report].

A video of the fire (see below) caused quite stir, as stockholders and analysts imagined Tesla might be entering a Boeing 787 battery fire-like crisis. The rave reviews and high rankings of the Model S have sent the stock price soaring in the past few months and this is the first significant negative news that the company has encountered recently.

However, in a response from Elon Musk, he explains that the puncture led to a fire in a small section of the battery pack and it was isolated as planned by the firewall design. Similar damage to a gasoline car could have created a much bigger conflagration : Model S Fire – Tesla Motors Blog

Exoplanets, Future space, Space Systems

Video: Interstellar flight on the SciShow

October 4, 2013 TopSpacer

Hank Green gives his take on interstellar flight:

From the caption:

You like space exploration, and we like space exploration. So why aren’t we investigating our closest to galactic neighbor, the triple star system Alpha Centauri? Is it time to give interstellar travel a shot? How would we do it? Hank explains our options, and lays out the challenges. Short version: You’re gonna have to be patient!