Copenhagen Suborbitals reports on low cost wind tunnel testing of their capsule design: DIY Space Capsule Wind Tunnel Testing – One More Time Please – Wired Science/Wired.com.
House hearing on the NEO threat + John S. Lewis on the Year of the Comets
A Congressional hearing on the threat of asteroid impacts was held on Tuesday. Alan Boyle reports:
Congress got the word from NASA on Tuesday about its options for dealing with the threats posed by asteroids and comets: Lawmakers can either provide adequate funding for detecting and characterizing near-Earth objects, and diverting them if necessary — or they can pray.
- Congress hears options for asteroid defense: Pay now or pray later – Cosmic Log
- Smith: Avoiding Asteroid Threats Requires Innovation, Commitment and Diligence | Committee on Science – U.S. House of Representatives
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John S Lewis writes about comets and about their possible impact threat to earth: The Year of the Comets .
Antipodes – views from opposite ends of the earth
The Antipodes Webcams project will juxtapose real-time images from cameras on exact opposite points of the glove:
Film and Video Umbrella presents:
Antipodes
By Layla Curtis
A new online art project launching at www.antipodes.uk.com on 20 March 2013 with photographic exhibition at Spacex, Exeter from 18 May – 13 July 2013.
Imagine digging a hole right through centre of the earth to the other side of the planet – where would you end up? If you were in Hamilton, Bermuda you would come out in Perth, Australia and if you were in Porto Alegre, Brazil you would arrive near Nagasaki, Japan. A hole through the earth from London would end up in the South Pacific Ocean, about 800km off the coast of New Zealand.
Layla Curtis’ Antipodes is an online and photographic project which pairs webcam images from places on opposite sides of the globe. Only 4% of the earth’s surface has land antipodal to land but it offers rich terrain for fascinating parallels. As far away from each other as it is possible to be, these distant ‘twins’ often possess surprising affinities. Having researched multiple webcam sources from myriad international locations, Curtis revels in drawing out these points of connection: finding topographical echoes in the landscape, as well as architectural and cultural similarities. A number of photographic diptychs, distilled from the stream of webcam footage, press the point home. Highlighting both the distance and the difference between us, they also remind us how technology is bringing us closer together.
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Image by Layla Curtis showing antipodes views of South Georgia and Russia
Layla Curtis Antipodes launches online on 20 March at www.antipodes.uk.com
The launch date coincides with the northward equinox and will be an ongoing online project, lasting for one year.
The exhibition of photographic prints runs at Spacex, 45 Preston Street, Exeter, Ex1 1DF from 18 May until 13 July 2013.
About Layla Curtis
Layla Curtis received her BA Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art (1998) and her MA Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art (2000). Her work, featuring in collections including the Tate Collection, and the Government Art Collection, is exhibited widely. Solo exhibitions include those at Milton Keynes Gallery (2000), New Art Gallery Walsall (2006) and Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (2008). In 2005 Curtis was awarded an Arts Council England International Fellowship and undertook a three-month journey to Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey. Her work has also been included in exhibitions at Tate Modern, London; Tate Liverpool; Pavilhão Lucas Nogueira Garcez-Oca, São Paulo, Brazil and Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, Canada. Recently her work was included in the Revolver series of exhibitions at Matt’s Gallery, London (2012).
Antipodes is commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella in association with Spacex. Technical support by Cuttlefish. Supported by Arts Council England.
Film and Video Umbrella commissions, curates, produces and presents film, video and other moving-image works by artists that are staged in collaboration with galleries and other cultural partners. Since the late 1980s, Film and Video Umbrella has been at the forefront of this vibrant and expanding area of practice, promoting innovation through its support of some of the most exciting figures on the contemporary scene. During this time, the organisation has commissioned and produced over 100 different artists’ projects, ranging from ambitious multi-screen installations to shorter film and video pieces, as well as online commissions. www.fvu.co.uk
Cuttlefish have been innovating with technology since 2001. Based in the UK’s East Midlands, the Cuttlefish team create web and mobile apps for a wide variety of organisations and have a particular passion for arts, cultural and community projects.
Curiosity rover returning to action after period in safe mode
NASA JPL reports on the status of Curiosity’s computer:
Curiosity Rover Exits ‘Safe Mode’
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has returned to active status and is on track to resume science investigations, following two days in a precautionary standby status, “safe mode.”
Next steps will include checking the rover’s active computer, the B-side computer, by commanding a preliminary free-space move of the arm. The B-side computer was provided information last week about the position of the robotic arm, which was last moved by the redundant A-side computer.
The rover was switched from the A-side to the B-side by engineers on Feb. 28 in response to a memory glitch on the A-side. The A-side now is available as a back-up if needed.
“We expect to get back to sample-analysis science by the end of the week,” said Curiosity Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Engineers quickly diagnosed the software issue that prompted the safe mode on March 16 and know how to prevent it from happening again.
Other upcoming activities include preparations for a moratorium on transmitting commands to Curiosity during most of April, when Mars will be passing nearly directly behind the sun from Earth’s perspective. The moratorium is a precaution against interference by the sun corrupting a command sent to the rover.
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the rover’s 10 science instruments to investigate environmental history within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
More information about Curiosity is online at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .
SEDS opens crowd-sourcing projects
SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) has opened a crowd sourcing page at Give for Youth with several projects to which you can donate: Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, USA – Projects.
Examples include:
- High Altitude Balloon Outreach Project – GlobalGiving
- Shuttle Tile Subsidy Distribution Outreach Project – GlobalGiving
- SEDS Business Development & Public Outreach – GlobalGiving
- High Powered Rocketry Competition – GlobalGiving
- Student Sub-Orbital Space Flight Video Competition – GlobalGiving
- Student NewSpace Business Plan Competition 2013 – GlobalGiving