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3

Ulysses to study Sun's south pole

 Posted Feb 08, 2007 at 01:54AM by Karl B. Listed in: NASA, Celestial Bodies, Spacecraft Tags: protons, NASA, European Space Agency, MPH, magnetic field, spacecraft
Artist's impression of Ulysses (David Hardy/ESA) - Image 1Before Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott braved the harsh environment of the South Pole, it pretty much equated to one of those areas on old maps where the only description is, "Here Be Dragons."

A recent article from NASA reveals that the situation on the sun is much the same today. According to solar physicist Arik Posner of NASA headquarters, "The sun's south pole is uncharted territory." It can barely be seen from Earth, and most of NASA's sun-studying aircraft have a poor view of it. Except for Ulysses, that is, and today the spacecraft is making a rare South Pole flyby.

"On February 7th, the spacecraft reaches a maximum heliographic latitude of 80oS—almost directly above the South Pole," says Posner who is the Ulysses Program Scientist for NASA. The spacecraft, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, has flown briefly over the sun's poles only twice before--in 1994-95 and 2000-01.

Ulysses's south pole flyby will attempt to bring solar physicists closer to solving the following mysteries:
  • The sun's north magnetic north pole sticks out the south end of the sun. Magnetically, the sun is upside down. The Earth actually has the same situation. On the sun, the flipping happens every 11 years on the sun in synch with the sunspot cycle. On Earth, it happens every 300,000 years or so, but scientists have no idea yet what the flipping is in synch with. They that studying the sun's polar magnetic field will lead to a better understanding of the Earth's own magnetic field.
  • There are holes over the sun's poles--"coronal holes." These are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. "Flying over the sun's poles, you get slapped in the face by a hot, million mph stream of protons and electrons," says Posner. Ulysses is experiencing and studying this polar wind right now.
  • There is evidence from earlier flybys that the north pole and the south pole of the sun have different temperatures. "We're not sure why this should be," says Posner, "and we're anxious to learn if it is still the case." Ulysses will also be flying over the sun's north pole in early 2008 for a direct comparison of the sun's two poles.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate dedicates its efforts during the Ulysses' South Pole flyby to Ronald Amundsen, Robert F. Scott and Richard E. Byrd - brave explorers who dared to defy nature and the elements and learn more about the South Pole. Much like Scott, whose entire team - including him - never made it home again after reaching the South Pole, Ulysses will never come home either. It will remain in space when its internal power sources fail.


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10

iPod sighting aboard the ISS

 Posted Dec 11, 2006 at 07:31AM by Remi M. Listed in: International Space Station Tags: European Space Agency, International Space Station, apollo, ESA, Belkin

ISSiPod in ISS


This just goes to show that no matter how high and mighty we view astronauts, at the end of the day, they are human too. This image was taken from NASA and yup, it is the inside of the International Space Station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Thomas Reiter (who'll be heading home soon), is going about with his work. Seems like a pretty ordinary picture, right?

So what do you do for fun while you're in space? You could listen to your favorite music tracks. This photo is getting popular over at Digg because of a fifth generation iPod sighting. The Apple creation is neatly attached to a Belkin external battery pack on the equipment rack in front of Thomas Reiter. (Reminds me of a scene in the movie Apollo 13 wherein Lovell and his crew brought a transistor radio on board, times have really changed).

Heck if I get sent to space, I would bring my mp3 player too. And a couple of other gaming thingamajigs of course.


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3

NASA's Discovery shuttle performing next space station mission

 Posted Dec 10, 2006 at 09:12PM by Victor B. Listed in: International Space Station, News, NASA, Space Missions Tags: NASA, European Space Agency, International Space Station, Space Shuttle, ESA
Taken from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.htmlThey're already up in space, and we can only wish this new group of astronauts well. On Saturday evening, NASA's space shuttle Discovery began its mission for the International Space Station (ISS): upgrading the ISS' power generation capabilities.

The 12-day mission, known as STS-116, tasks the crew with installing a new truss to the station that will allow future solar panels to rotate. Doing so will allow the ISS to make the most out of sunlight by allowing the panels to track the sun and keep picking up energy from it.

The mission will also be doing some work on the wiring of the ISS. The astronauts will be reconfiguring the power system, which will make the solar arrays delivered during the last mission fully operational. The rewiring will also allow for a permanent cooling system to be put in place on the station.

Lastly, they'll be doing a shift change in space. Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency (ESA) will finally get to go home, as his shift in space is taken over by Sunita Williams, who'll be staying there for six months. Let's wish them all luck in this venture, shall we? That way, we can get hyperdrive before the 25th century and see some exotic alien people, like we were supposed to.


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17

First Zero-G surgical operation a success

 Posted Sep 28, 2006 at 08:38AM by Ian C. Listed in: Biomedical Technology Tags: European Space Agency, International Space Station, France, Airbus, Zero-G
ZeroGFrench doctors have successfully carried out the first zero gravity operation. During the 3 hour flight from Bordeaux in southwest France, the team of surgeons and anaesthetists removed a benign tumor from the forearm of a 46-year-old volunteer.

The experiment was backed by the European Space agency and was designed to develop techniques for robotic surgery aboard the International Space Station or at a future Moon base.

According to the team, they weren't really trying to perform a great technical feat, they were just really carrying out a feasibility test. Well, now that the whole thing is a success we now know that a human being can be operated on in space without too many difficulties.

To create a Zero-G environment, the Airbus 300 aircraft they were in did a series of parabolic swoops, creating about 20 seconds of weightlessness at the top of each curve. Remember that weird feeling when you get to the top of small hills in a rollercoaster? Well, this is sort of similar to that, but the forces are great enough to simulate Zero-G.

According to reports, the parabolic swoops were repeated 32 times. Because of that, the surgeons picked an operation where they can afford to get interrupted. Experts say that the next step is to perform a Zero-G operation using a remote controlled robotic surgeon. Commands will be routed from the ground to the robot via satellite. They predict that this should be possible within a year.


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6

First human operation in zero-gravity to be performed

 Posted Sep 26, 2006 at 12:17AM by Mabie A. Listed in: News, Biomedical Technology, Medical Devices Tags: European Space Agency, ESA, Europe, France, Dominique Martin
esaSince February, French surgeons have been rehearsing for the first human operation in zero-gravity. The team is to be led by Dominique Martin of the Bordeaux University Hospital in southwestern France.

Using the Zero-G aircraft, designed and built by Europe to simulate gravity-free conditions, the team of French doctors will have their surgical tools harnessed to the walls and moored down with magnets. Miniature surgical tools, held in place with magnets, will be placed around the patient's stretcher, and will be used to adapt to the reduced size of the operating theater.

The plane will have a custom-made operating block where three surgeons, backed by two anaesthetists and a team of army parachutists, will remove a fatty tumour from the forearm of an intrepid volunteer over the course of a three-hour flight this Wednesday.

Martin's team started groundwork for the operation in October 2003, with an operation on a 0.5 millimeter-wide (.01 inch) rat tail's artery. "Since February, we have been rehearsing this operation on the ground and in the plane. It is all crystal-clear in our heads," he said.

If this works well, this will definitely be good news for those travelling to space. To date, there are about more than 400 people who have already travelled into space, and the chances of injuries occurring during missions will become even greater. Having to bring a wounded person back to Earth for treatment is both risky and expensive for them.

Anaesthetist Laurent de Coninck believes that zero-gravity surgery offers huge promise for space exploration. Although for now, it would most probably be limited to treating simple, accident injuries. There are no current plans yet for doctors to fly on spacecraft, but the operation is part of a project to develop surgical robots in space that are guided via satellite by Earth-based doctors.

The project is expected to be completed in 2007 with backing from the ESA">European Space Agency (ESA).


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7

Face The Truth: The Face On Mars Isn't A Face

 Posted Sep 21, 2006 at 07:12PM by Chris L. Listed in: Space Exploration, Celestial Bodies, Space Missions Tags: European Space Agency
The Face On Mars Pic (NASA)It was the Face that launched a thousand conspiracy theories. A 1976 picture of a Martian mountain, taken by Viking 1, that eerily looked like a face of sorts. For thirty years a few people have latched on to this Face On Mars - not because they were in love with it, but because it became their fodder for little-green-men conspiracy theories. "Artifact of an ancient and sentient civilization on Mars," and stuff like that.

Well, Face that launched a thousand conspiracy theories, meet a European Space Agency probe that may sink them all. ESA's Mars Express carries a High Resolution Stereo Camera, that provides scientists with data that can be transformed into colorized perspective images. These simulate the scene as though the observer were flying over the terrain, providing both perspective and depth to the picture - the elements of three-dimensional imaging. (By the way, "perspective" and "depth" also happen to be the elements of critical and rational thinking, and the cure to any delusional conspiracy theory).

So ESA scientists aim the HRSC on the Face of Mars, and what do they get?

A new perspective on the Face On Mars - Image 1 A new perspective on the Face On Mars - Image 2 


Pictures of a natural mountain, from different angles (from ESA). Nothing like the "ancient pyramids" or man-made structures that are the core of myths surrounding the Face On Mars. This isn't even the first time we've gooten a better look of this mountain - there have been better-resolution pictures from previous probes, such as the Mars Global Surveyor in 1998. Nice to see it in 3-D, though.

Well, data like this might not convince the little-green-men die-hards (there is an old saying,"You'll believe anything if you want to believe in it so badly"). Why is it that it was so easy to call the Face On Mars a "face" on Mars in the first place? A recent study showed that people can recognize features "that aren't really there" because we've "over-learned" that feature. In short, we know the human face so much, we see faces everywhere - even when it isn't a face.


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6

SMART-1 Space Probe All Set For Suicide Moon Mission

 Posted Aug 31, 2006 at 02:04AM by Alaric S. Listed in: Spacecraft Tags: European Space Agency, ESA, smart-1

SMART-1


Keifer Sutherland's 24 may have walked off with the Emmy for Best Drama series but even that would be eclipsed this Sunday when SMART-1, Europe's first probe to the Moon, deliberately slams itself on the surface of the moon.

Scheduled for 0542 GMT (1542 AEST) on September 3, the European Space Agency (ESA) chose this kamikaze ending over the other alternative: let the spacecraft crash anywhere on Earth or at any time due to orbital decay and lack of fuel.

Mission scientist Bernard Foing said "It's possible that much of the probe's structure will be preserved from the impact, accidentally creating a sculpture or a monument for future generations which says 'there you are, that was Europe's first attempt to explore the Moon'."


But SMART-1 will be remembered for other things as well. It has been hailed as the the vanguard of future space missions. It is powered by the revolutionary ion thruster, an engine only been used by US craft Deep Space 1 for its rendezvous with an asteroid and a comet.

Other SMART-1 innovations include seven miniaturized instruments weighing only 41 lbs (19 kilos): a new communications system, new-generation solar panels and a package of sensors and scanners. SMART-1 also explored locations at the moon's poles that where there could be water.

Launched into orbit in September 2003, SMART-1's final resting place will be the lunar plain known as Lake of Excellence.


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13

Enigma Found in Supernova's Heart

 Posted Jul 07, 2006 at 07:46AM by Remi M. Listed in: Astronomy Tags: European Space Agency, neutron star, supernova
RCW103 with 1E in the middleThis one just goes to show how little we know of our universe. Recently, astronomers discovered a mysterious site: supernova RCW103, which is 10,000 light years away from Earth and contains a stellar object the likes of which astronomers have never seen before in our galaxy.

This object could be found at the heart of the supernova. At first sight, they dismiss it as a neutron star surrounded by a bubble of ejected stellar material, exactly what would be expected in the wake of a supernova explosion.

Upon closer look though, thanks to the European Space Agency's XMM Newton X-ray satellite, the very giddy X-ray emissions of the blue, point like mystery object cycles every 6.7 hours — thousands of times longer than expected for a freshly created neutron star. The object, now tagged as 1E161348-5055 and nicknamed 1E, is smacked right at the center of the supernova. Astronomers are now hypothesizing that 1E and RCW103 were both born in the same catastrophic event.

The team who have been studying this oddity isn't crossing out the possibility that the object may indeed be a neutron star after all. Apparently, one explanation for a neutron star's strange behavior is that it might be a magnetar, an exotic subclass of highly magnetized neutron stars. Of the magnetars that are known and documented, most usually spin several times per minute—much faster than 1E. But if the magnetar is surrounded by a debris disk, then that could be helping to slow down the neutron star's spin.

Another hypothesis that entered the picture is the possibility that 1E is a part of a binary system with a normal, low-mass star with only half the mass of our Sun. Binary systems such as those have been documented, but they usually involve systems that are millions of times older than 1E.

One thing is for sure though, the research team still do not have a scientific explanation about 1E's existence and its behavior. But surely, if they ever figure this one out, then this may lead to more information about supernovae, neutron stars and their evolution.


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4

Earth Surrounded by Giant Fizzy Bubbles

 Posted Jun 21, 2006 at 06:51AM by Remi M. Listed in: Celestial Bodies Tags: European Space Agency, University of California, California, George Parks
PlasmaIt seems that our Earth is surrounded by champagne-like fizzy bubbles. Scientists announced this recently and thery also said that these bubbles are from that of superhot gases that constantly grow and pop around the Earth. Astronomers also added that they found the activity up where Earth's magnetic field meets a constant stream of particles flowing out from the Sun.

These newly discovered bubbles have been technically tagged as density holes. In them, gas density is 10 times lower. The gas in the bubbles is 18,000,000 Fahrenheit (10,000,000 Celsius) instead of the 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit of the surrounding hot gas, which is known as plasma. The bubbles expand to about 620 miles and probably last about 10 seconds before bursting and being replaced by the cooler, denser solar wind.

These bubbles were found through the tireless data-gathering effort by the Cluster mission (a small fleet consist of 4 spacecrafts) of the European Space Agency. When the fleet first passed into these fizzy bubbles, researchers thought that they had a minor instrument glitch. According to University of California, Berkeley professor, George Parks, after passing the bubbles "I (he) looked at the data from all four Cluster spacecraft. These anomalies were being observed simultaneously by all the spacecraft. That’s when I believed that they were real."

The researchers as of now, still do not have an idea as to how the bubbles are created although they suspect that the reason behind this is when the solar wind collides with the magnetic field, which forms a boundary called the bow shock. The discovery, if given enough time, attention, and funding, will greatly help astronomers in their quest to have a better understanding of the interaction between solar winds and the magnetic field.


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5

Ariane 5 Rocket Launches Communications Satellite Pair

 Posted May 29, 2006 at 06:55AM by Remi M. Listed in: News Tags: European Space Agency, ESA, arianespace, ariane-5, jean yves le-gall, thaicom 6, satmex 6, soyuz
Ariane 5 Take-offEven if the weather seem to not want to cooperate with them, one of the rockets of Arianespace - the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, blasted off just this last Saturday with two satellites. The rocket, tagged as the Ariane-5, cruised through the skies thanks to the power that came from its cryogenic main engine and from its two boosters.

It was launched from the Kourou launch center, about 40 miles from French Guiana's capital, Cayenne, at about 6:10pm (2210 GMT). When the rocket reached an altitude of 1,400 kilometers (27 minutes after takeoff), it released one of its two satellites - Mexico's Satmex 6. After five minutes, the other satellite - Thaicom 6 - followed suit. This one was for a private Thail telecommunications company.

The blastoff was orginally scheduled to occur last May 26, 2006 (Friday), it was postponed because of equipment alerts. This was Ariane's heaviest payload to date, and Arianespace chief Jean Yves Le-Gall  promised that they will get better soon.

The commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, has scheduled four more Ariane rockets to launch this year, the next one in August. The company is also building a launch pad for Russian Soyuz rockets in Kourou, and the first Soyuz takeoff is set for November 2008.



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