Unlike rockets solar sails work by tapping into the power of the sun. The first person to propose a solar sail was Johannes Kepler in the seventeenth century, although it wasn’t until 1984 when an article by engineer and science fiction author Robert L. Forward stirred serious interest in the subject. In 2001 and 2005 the Planetary Society made two attempts as testing the concept, but the mission was scuttled due to malfunctioning rockets.
But solar sails may be set to become reality shortly as NASA is getting ready to test the concept again with an ultra-thin, 100-square-foot sail called the NanoSail-D. The sail was developed in less than six months and features xtremely lightweight gossamer fabric designed to glide into space. The NanoSail-D is set to sail into orbit on July 29th and you can follow the progress with this mission dashboard and get updates via Twitter too:
“I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to.” — Amelia Earhart
Amelia is a real hero to me, I see her as a true pioneer in every sense of the word. We tend to forget today that once upon a time that aviation was once the stuff of cutting edge technology. But back in the 30s aircraft were very futuristic, so much so that in the 1936 film Things to Come H. G. Wells has a band of united airmen saving the world from the next dark age. Amelia Earhart was very much the face of not just aviation but the notion of progress itself. She wasn’t only exploring the frontiers of flight, but of equal rights for women as well. I think today, 71 years after she disappeared that we can still learn a great deal from her.
“Some Martian dirt has the same basic chemistry as garden soil, a new analysis from the Phoenix lander suggests. The find widens the range of organisms that might be able to live on Mars. Although the analysis is not yet complete, the lander has already found trace levels of nutrients like magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride. Although these ingredients were known to exist in Martian soil, until now no one was sure whether they would be soluble in water and thus potentially available for life.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 21, 2008 in Science
So far we’ve discovered over 300 planets outside of our solar system, it makes one start to wonder if we might find alien life forms sooner than later (or at least a planet that might support life):
“Japan’s biggest astronomical observatories are teaming up for an unprecedented quest to find out whether there is life in outer space. The project, led by Japanese astronomers, will bring together a dozen or more observatories from all over the country to study one star that researchers see as a potential home to an extraterrestrial civilization.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2008 in Science
It’s amazing to think in just a few short years we’ve discovered over 300 planets outside of this solar system, it’s only a matter of time until we come across Earth-like which are known as “Class M Planets” to us Star Trek fanboys:
“European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three “super-Earths” orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well. They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 12, 2008 in Science
Frankly until we’re able to see a few more planets outside of our solar system up close it’s a bit early to make judgement calls on what is and isn’t a planet. I say we go to the Star Trek model and start to classify different types of planets by letter:
“Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway.
Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 10, 2008 in Science
This is an interesting article: It seems that since we are in the middle of the galaxy it’s very complex to reverse engineer what we’re seeing — until now that is thanks to computer aided astronomy. And it seems that the results are changing the way we think about the shape of the our galaxy, it seems that the Milky Way is two large spiral arms rather than four:
“Astronomy concepts are always changing as new information comes to light. The latest theory to undergo revision is our concept of the structure of the Milky Way. As we reside in the thick of it, it’s tough to see the proverbial forest for the trees. New findings may make a compelling case that the Milky Way has two major spiral arms, rather than four that have been theorized in the past.
A team led by Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin used the recently completed Spitzer Space Telescope infrared survey of the Milky Way, spanning 120° of sky. Previous studies led astronomers to conclude the galaxy has a pronounced central bar and four major spiral arms named for the constellations we see in their directions: Sagittarius-Carina, Scutum-Crux, Perseus, and Norma-Cygnus.”
The United States hasn’t had a serious investment in NASA since the early 70s. Both Republicans and Democrats have never seen the spin off benefits which have been a boom to our economy. Well maybe a little bit of shock treatment might help NASA get some over due funding:
“Here’s one Olympic-style event that China is likely to win: landing the next humans on the moon. Chinese astronauts are on schedule to beat the United States back to the moon by two or three years, the head of NASA’s lunar exploration program said Wednesday. “If they keep on the path they’re on, they can” land before Americans do, said Rick Gilbreth, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems.
The goal of NASA’s Constellation program is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, as proposed in President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration. Gilbreth said the Chinese could accomplish that by 2017 or 2018. The Chinese lead will be even longer if the American schedule slips, as some space experts predict.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 3, 2008 in Science, Tech
Recently I was wandering through on of my favorite local bookstores here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and I came across a beautiful coffee table book which featured some delicious photos of vintage computers:
What blew me away about the book was the sharp design and the photographs by Mark Richards. What’s amazing to me about these artifacts is that theyshow just how fast everything has changed in the world of computers in the last few decades. If you look at an automobile from 1970 the industrial design may be a bit different, but what’s under the hood is pretty much the sam car that you’d see today. However with computers what would take up a room and require a team of experts to operate can now fit into a cell phone which can be operated by a child.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 28, 2008 in Science
It looks like the International Space Station is having some issues with its only toilet which is seven years old at this point, NASA is trying to send up parts for a replacement on the next shuttle launch but Discovery is currently overloaded with another payload:
“The international space station’s lone toilet is broken, leaving the crew with almost nowhere to go. So NASA may order an in-orbit plumbing service call when space shuttle Discovery visits next week. Until then, the three-man crew will have to make do with a jury-rigged system when they need to urinate.
While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off. Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally. Russian officials don’t know the cause of the problem and the crew has been unable to fix it.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 26, 2008 in Science
The year is 1976 and there is no such thing as a cell phone, the web, DNA testing, or cloned animals: Yet the Viking spacecraft lands on Mars and takes some photos. I’m sorry but thirty years later I’m not going to get excited about the Phoenix landing on Mars. We’ve been there and done that already. If you want to get me excited then have a team of humans building sandcastles on the Martian surface and then I’ll be impressed. The state of NASA is depressing, never mind having a moon base — we can’t even find a replacement for the space shuttle. In thirty years we’ve made so little progress with space exploration it’s disheartening.
The only silver lining to these gray clouds is the amazing discoveries made by astronomers of planets outside of our solar system. But how can we even dream of interstellar space travel when a fellow earthling can’t take a stroll on Mars? As a kid I grew up watching science fiction TV shows like Space:1999 and Star Trek — as I get old I fear that I was just watching fantasy and didn’t know it. As a global civilization humanity is slipping…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 26, 2008 in Science
Those of us fanboys who work at our day jobs in the computer biz are well aware of the concept of Moore’s Law which is that as time goes on more sophisticated hardware becomes cheaper to manufacture at an incremental rate. Well it seems that now some folks who develop photovoltaics (PV for short) think that they may see their technology reach a turning point by 2015 which is only seven years away:
“In recent years, global PV production has been increasing at a rate of 50 percent per year, so that accumulated global capacity doubles about every 18 months. The PV Moore’s law states that with every doubling of capacity, PV costs come down by 20 percent. In 2004, installing PV cost about $7 per watt, compared to $1/W for wind, which at that time was beginning to stand on its own feet commercially, Last, year, as recently noted in this blog, average global solar costs had come down to between $4 and $5 per watt, right in line with the PV Moore’s law. Extrapolate those gains out six or seven years, and PV costs will be below $2/W, making photovolatics competitive with 2004 wind.”
“The technology needed to send a robotic probe to another solar system is far in the future at best. But one scientist says it’s not too soon to start thinking about how to avoid contaminating extrasolar planets with hitchhiking microbes from Earth. Even today’s fastest spacecraft would take tens of thousands of years to reach the Sun’s nearest neighbours, Proxima and Alpha Centauri, which lie just over 4 light years away and may host an Earth-like planet. But some proposed technologies – such as nuclear propulsion, solar sails, and antimatter drives – could theoretically get a spacecraft to other solar systems in a human lifetime.”
“The name of Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong is etched into U.S. history books as the first human to walk on the moon, and it may be set for an encore. A new bill, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 6063), that cleared the House Science and Technology space and aeronautics subcommittee on Monday carries an interesting caveat. If passed into law, NASA apparently MUST name its first lunar outpost after Armstrong – the first human to set foot on another world during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.”
“Europe’s first crewed spaceship may be on the horizon. The European Space Agency may build a new spaceship – based on its recently launched cargo ship – that could transport humans to the International Space Station and possibly the Moon. Until recently, Europe had relied on NASA’s space shuttles and Russia’s Soyuz and Progress vehicles to transfer goods and astronauts to the space station.
The Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which successfully transported supplies to the ISS in April, gave Europe its first taste of autonomy. But it can transport only goods, not people, and some experts have called for a crewed craft to build on this success.”
“US airliners’n’armaments colossus Boeing announced today that one of its prototype aerial laser cannon planes has fired its first energy bolts in ground testing. “First firing of the high-energy laser aboard the ATL aircraft shows that the program continues to make good progress,” said Boeing blast-cannon biz boss Scott Fancher.
The so-called Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) programme is one of two flying raygun projects underway at Boeing. The other is the Airborne Laser, or ABL, a monstrous jumbo-jet mounted energy ray intended to disintegrate threatening nuclear missiles from hundreds of kilometres away. Both ATL and ABL use toxic chemical fuels to generate higher-intensity laser beams than can currently be produced by electric equipment.”
“Curved features on Jupiter’s moon Europa may indicate that its poles have wandered by almost 90°, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and University of California, Santa Cruz in the 15 May issue of Nature. Such an extreme shift suggests the existence of an internal liquid ocean beneath the icy crust, which could help build the case for Europa as possible habitat for extraterrestrial life.
The study has implications for liquid water inside Europa. Scientists have hypothesized that Europa has an extensive subsurface ocean based on spacecraft photos that revealed its fractured, icy surface. The ocean beneath the crust would be kept liquid by heat generated by tidal forces from Jupiter’s gravity. The presence of heat and water may make life possible, even though the subsurface ocean is cut off from solar energy.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 17, 2008 in Science
I’ve been geeking out tonight listening to a great podcast by Dr. Moira Gunn where she interviews theoretical physicist and author Michio Kaku. They talk about the science side of everything from the transporter from Star Trek to time travel.
“The prevailing thinking is that Mars is a planet whose active climate has been confined to the distant past. About 3.5 billion years ago, the Red Planet had extensive flowing water and then fell quiet – deadly quiet. It didn’t seem the climate had changed much since.
Now scientists think Mars’ climate has been much more dynamic than previously believed. After examining stunning high-resolution images taken last year by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers have documented for the first time that ice packs at least 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) thick and perhaps 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) thick existed along Mars’ mid-latitude belt as recently as 100 million years ago.
In addition, the team believes other images tell them that glaciers flowed in localized areas in the last 10 to 100 million years – akin to the day before yesterday in Mars’ geological timeline. This evidence of recent activity means the Martian climate may change again and could bolster speculation about whether the Red Planet can, or did, support life.”
Countless science fiction films from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Alien (my favorite was Planet of the Apes) have used the idea of suspended animation as a technique to allow for prolonged missions in outer space. Well now it looks like that concept may become reality:
“Dr Warren Zapol and colleagues report in the latest issue of the journal Anesthesiology how hydrogen sulfide slows mouse metabolism without cutting blood flow to the brain. There are many questions and years of research before healthy people like astronauts would be put into hibernated states. But the procedure could find an earlier application in cases of traumatic injury when life itself is at risk. Zapol plans additional experiments on larger mammals, probably sheep. “Before you use it on astronauts, you want to make sure it’s very, very safe,” he says.”
“The ancient catastrophe that gave birth to the Moon may have produced additional satellites that lingered in Earth’s skies for tens of millions of years. A new model suggests moonlets may have once occupied the two Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, regions in space where the gravitational tug of the Earth and the Moon exactly cancel each other out. Objects trapped in these points are called Trojans and can remain stationary forever if left undisturbed.
Scientists think the Moon was created when Earth was struck by a Mars-sized object some 4.5 billion years ago. “The giant impact that likely led to the formation of the Moon launched a lot of material into Earth orbit, and some could well have been caught in the Lagrangian points,” says study team member Jack Lissauer of NASA Ames Research Center in California, US.”
“The sun’s movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system – coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth, a new study claims. Scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology built a computer model of our solar system’s movement and found that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the galaxy. As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. The comets plunge into the solar system, some of them colliding with the earth.
The Cardiff team found that we pass through the galactic plane every 35 to 40 million years, increasing the chances of a comet collision tenfold. Evidence from craters on Earth also suggests we suffer more collisions approximately 36 million years. The periods of comet bombardment also coincide with mass extinctions, such as that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Our present position in the galaxy suggests we are now very close to another such period.”
