Want to take your event’s wow factor up a notch? Astro Live Experiences (ALE) will soon be able to create on-demand shooting star shows as well as on-demand aurora. It’s a new way of utilizing space for incredible art and entertainment. Added bonus, it helps grow the space industry via launches and infrastructure while also getting people talking!
Dark Matter and Dark Energy make up over 80% of the universe and yet we still don’t fully understand what they actually are. We are joined by Sophia Nasr AKA @Astropartigirl to talk about why dark matter is important to physics.
Mat Kaplan (@planrad) joins us to talk about the Planetary Society, LightSail 1, 2 and beyond. Jared and Mat dive deep in to why the Planetary Society matters and how it can impact you!
This video is about Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico and the efforts by ISS crew member and Puerto Rican native Joe Acaba to boost the morale of youth on the island:
When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, it had a profound effect upon the youth of the island. High above on the International Space Station, the astronauts living and working took notice. Joe Acaba, NASA’s first astronaut of Puerto Rican descent, heard the heartbreaking stories of the island’s youth and did all he could to connect. What transpired provided hope to thousands in a way that only the International Space Station could deliver.
A view of Hurricane Florence from the ISS as the storm made landfall off the East Coast of the US in September:
Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views of Hurricane Florence on Sept. 14 at 7:41 a.m. EDT minutes after the storm made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina packing winds of 90 miles an hour. The National Hurricane Center said Florence is moving very slowly to the west at only 6 miles an hour, then is expected to turn to the southwest, increasing the threat for historic storm surge and catastrophic flooding to coastline areas and inland cities in North Carolina and South Carolina.
The new company Decron Club will soon begin selling collectible coins made from metals flown in space:
Rocket Launch Flight SL-11 leads to the Launching of the Opportunity
to Touch Space with Your Own Hands
On the day when the world learned the name of the first private lunar passenger, who paid a hundred million dollars for the honor, new American startup Decron Club made a step realizing towards thousands of dreams “to touch Space for a dollar.”
SPACEPORT AMERICA, NM – On Monday, September 17th at 08:09 a.m. MT, Up Aerospace successfully launched the SL-11 sound rocket from launch pad #1 in the New Mexico desert.
Together with NASA’s experimental payloads aboard, Decron Club integrated it’s own precious metals ingots (1 kg Silver 999, 1 kg Copper, 2 Gold 999 ingots (200 grams), 3 Platinum 999 ingots (220 grams) in the nose cone sections of NC 1 and NC 2.
The flight surpassed the Karman line, the border between the Earth and space, reaching an altitude of 357,800 feet (109 km) at a speed of 6 times higher than the speed of sound – 2058 meters per second. After floating in zero gravity the payloads were safely returned back to the Earth.
“It’s the great conclusion of the flight. We’ve been working on this payload for NASA for a long time. It’s nice to finally get it flown. We look forward to getting all the data from NASA and posting our analysis”
– said Jerry Larson, the president of the UP Aerospace company.
The launching of flight SL-11 involves much more than the pride of a successful Up Aerospace program, as it also includes one giant leap for Decron Club company, who has diligently worked to produce products that only a few imagined possible. Decron Club is one step from mass production of unique coins. Also, scientific research is going to be conducted to see how the physical and chemical metal structure changes after being in space.
With the help of Decron Club, people across the world will be able to grasp things in the palms of their hands that they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity. Decron Club works to deliver treasures from out of this world to you and your homes.
“The First Space Coin will become not a coin about space, but a part of it. Space is in its DNA. Today Decron Club became the first non-space company that made space affordable to thousands of people without paying a fortune for it”
– said Dennis Rudenko, CEO of Decron Club.
With these items paving the way into a new era in the evolution of collectible coins, products are expected to go fast as a result of the high demand to hold a piece of space in their hands.
Coin sales will start in October of 2018, with options consisting of platinum, gold and silver. For pre-orders check updates on the company’s official website Decron Club. Decron Club also welcomes customers to follow its social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Two titanium plaques etched with thousands of miniaturised drawings made by children have been fixed to the CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite, Cheops. Each plaque measures nearly 18 cm across and 24 cm high. The plaques, prepared by a team at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Burgdorf, Switzerland, were unveiled in a dedicated ceremony at RUAG on 27 August 2018. Credits : G. Bucher – Bern University of Applied Sciences
27 August 2018:Two plaques etched with thousands of miniaturised drawings made by children have been unveiled in a dedicated ceremony held today in Switzerland.
Three years ago, thousands of children were inspired by the study of planets beyond our Solar System and translated their imagination into beautiful drawings, which feature a variety of planets and other cosmic settings. Out of the many excellent entries, over 2700 were selected to fly on ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops.
Cheops will make high-precision measurements of stars, monitoring the small changes in brightness due to the transit of a planet across the star’s disc, in order to determine the planet’s size. Combined with known information about the planet’s mass, Cheops will enable the density of the planet to be calculated, and as such determine if it is a rocky, icy, or even a water-world for example – a first step to characterise exoplanets.
“Cheops is ESA’s first small-class science mission and its task is big. The first step characterisation of the Earth-to-Neptune size planets that Cheops will target is an essential step to piecing together what these planets are made of, and towards the long-term search for habitable worlds beyond our own Solar System,”says Jan Wörner, ESA Director General.
“This unique satellite, the product of European collaboration, has already inspired the young generation, seen in the drawings engraved on the plaques unveiled today as Cheops begins its final stages of preparations before moving to the launch site.”
While the satellite was being assembled earlier this year, a team at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Burgdorf, Switzerland miniaturized the drawings and engraved them onto two titanium plates. Each plaque measures nearly 18 cm across and 24 cm high.
The spacecraft has recently completed a series of tests at RUAG Space in Zurich, Switzerland, and today was presented to media and invited guests with the two plaques now attached.
Cheops will soon travel to ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands where the satellite will undergo acoustic and radio-frequency compatibility tests during September, concluding the environmental test campaign. The spacecraft will then return to Airbus Defence and Space, Spain for final tests before shipment to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The satellite, which is implemented as a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, is on track to complete all planned test activities by the end of the year.
Once in Earth orbit Cheops will begin to characterise some of the many extrasolar worlds already discovered, many of which are similar to those depicted in the inspired artwork that will fly into space with this exciting mission.
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