Archive for the ‘Business Network’ Category

Perseids Over Chickamauga

Friday, August 13th, 2010

 

 

 

Composite Perseids view on the night of Aug. 11, 2010, combined from 39 single station events over Chickamauga, Ga. (NASA/MSFC/D. Moser, NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office) 

Thanks, Bill.

The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. Each year in August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet’s debris. These bits of ice and dust — most over 1,000 years old — burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere to create one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, but the best viewing opportunities will be across the northern hemisphere. Those with sharp eyes will see that the meteors radiate from the direction of the constellation Perseus.

 

Death Near Dillingham

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

 

 

 

We were about to write about GCI‘s loss of Internet access for 35,000 users in Alaska, as their service on Galaxy-18 was about to be interfered with by G15, the world’s favorite zombie satellite.

As many as 35,000 people in rural Alaska may lose Internet access, long-distance phone service or both for hours at a time this week because of a "zombie" satellite that has wandered off course and is expected to scramble the signals of the Bush’s main telecommunications provider.

"Almost every single person out in rural Alaska uses one of those services somehow," said David Morris, spokesman for General Communication Inc.

GCI is airing radio ads, posting fliers and plans to send text messages to cell phone customers warning residents in roughly 100 communities — mainly in Western and Northern Alaska — of the potential outages.

The disruptions to GCI service are expected to begin Wednesday morning and continue until Saturday morning in blocks of time that will last 90 minutes to 5 1/2 hours, mostly in the morning and at night.

Picture the YouTube droughts. The silent cell phones and unanswered e-mails. Virtual "FarmVille" gardens withering and neglected on Facebook.

For Gordon Brower Jr., the 19-year-old son of a whaling captain, the outages mean exile from the online battlefields of what he calls Barrow’s favorite Xbox game — "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."

"It makes me a couch potato anyways," Brower said.

Instead, we hear news of a deadly plane crash near Dillingham, AK. On board the aircraft, owned by GCI, was former Senator Ted Stevens and former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe. Five of the nine people were killed, and KTUU is reporting that one of them was indeed Ted Stevens…

Dave Dittman, a former aide and longtime family friend of former Sen. Ted Stevens, says Stevens was killed in a plane crash near Dillingham Monday night. Dittman says he received a call overnight Monday that said the former senator was dead, but no official confirmation has been made.

Nine people were on board, including former NASA Chief Sean O’Keefe. Five people were killed in the crash, but other identities were not known, nor are the conditions of the survivors.

GCI released a statement Tuesday morning that confirmed it owned the plane that went down, but did not confirm or deny any fatalities.

Late through the night rescue crews were battling bad weather conditions to reach the scene, where Good Samaritans had already arrived and were providing medical assistance, said Air National Guard spokesperson Maj. Guy Hayes.

A military C-130 and a Pave Hawk helicopter were waiting in Dillingham for the weather to break and reached the site just after 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The Air Guard received the call about the crash 17 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. Monday night.

Many will remember Mr. Stevens for what he did for Alaska while he served in the U.S. Senate. I’ll always remember him from the time I worked for the Smithsonian. Sen. Stevens, a harsh critic of the Enola Gay exhibit, lashed out at Smithsonian Secretary Adams in 1992: "I’m going to get people to help me make sense of what you’re saying."

Stevens received the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying behind enemy lines, the Air Medal, and the Yuan Hai Medal awarded by the Chinese Nationalist government. Peace.
 

 

 

Hayabusa’s Hot Today

Monday, June 14th, 2010

 

 

 

Beautiful video footage, courtesy of NASA, of Hayabusa’s re-entry after a 7-year mission and 6 billion kilometers.

 

Officially…

 日本時間6月13日19時51分に「はやぶさ」は無事カプセルを分離し、日本時間6月13日22時51分頃には大気圏に突入しました。
 2003年5月9日にM-Vロケットで打ち上げられてから約7年間、イトカワに着陸し、サンプル採取作業を行い、再び地球に帰還するという難事業を、幾多の困難を乗り越え成し遂げることができました。
 これまで応援していただいた皆様に感謝いたします。

 引き続き、豪州において地球に帰還したカプセルの回収作業を進めてまいります

 

 

 

In other words, via JAXA

Hayabusa separated the capsule at 7:51 p.m. and reentered the atmosphere at 10:51 p.m. on June 13th, 2010 (JST).
Hayabusa was launched on May 9th, 2003 by M-V rocket and operated for approximately seven years. During its operation, JAXA was able to achieve the difficult mission including Hayabusa’s sample capture attempt after its touchdown on the asteroid named Itokawa, and Hayabusa’s return to the earth overcoming many hardships. JAXA would like to appreciate every support to JAXA leading this mission to a great success.

The Hayabusa capsule has just returned to Woomera, Australia. As the next step, JAXA will move forward to the capsule recovery.

So what did it look like on the ground? Somebody from Wakayama University Institute for Education on Space was pretty excited to capture it on video, on the ground in Australia…

 

VASIMR: Hammer-down in Space

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

 

 

Very cool technology being developed by Ad Astra Rocket Company: using plasma engines to reach Mars in 39 days. Hammer-down: space truckin at 110,000 MPH.

Excellent piece in SpaceflightNow.com on the VASIMR engine…

The company’s main project is the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, a highly-efficient space engine running on electricity and argon gas instead of conventional solid or liquid propellants.

Franklin Chang-Diaz, the project’s chief architect, says the VASIMR engine is the most flight-ready high-power electric propulsion system anywhere in the world.

"It is transformational technology that we are developing," Chang-Diaz said. "It always has been my view that chemical approach to space transportation really was not going to get us very far."
 
Chemical rocket engines require spacecraft to carry all of its propellant during its mission. The VASIMR engine burns small amounts of argon gas, one of the most stable elements on the periodic table. But one of the most revolutionary features of the VASIMR design is its reliance on electricity, a renewable resource in space.

"It’s very robust, but in order to get beyond the moon, and move on to Mars and beyond, we really need completely new transportation technology," Chang-Diaz said. "We view the VASIMR as the workhorse for that transportation infrastructure."

Electrically-powered plasma rockets could cut travel times for missions across the solar system. One concept championed by Chang-Diaz involves a 39-day mission to Mars, but it assumes leaps in nuclear energy production in space. 

 

 

 

Yeah, it works alright. Watch this engine test…

 

Here’s a video clip about the company…

 

And a simulation of the trip to Mars…

 

 

Moving Museums

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

 

 

Think the world of top-flight museums is a calm, respectable place to work? Like most workplaces, there’s some behind-the-scenes posturing and socially-awkward behavior going on. Comes with the territory, especially where people tend to stay at their jobs longer.

As we climb out of The Great Recession, museums and other cultural institutions are fighting for more revenue and scarce development dollars and it’s getting rough out there. Case-in-point: getting the old space shuttles from NASA after retirement. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Dayton, Ohio, has the Wilmington News Journal on its side

 Throughout the shuttle program, the Air Force has played an essential role in its success. Besides infrastructure and operational support, the Air Force provided NASA with many highly skilled astronauts. The cooperation between NASA and the Department of Defense on the shuttle program dates back to 1969. The Air Force’s satellite launch requirements largely determined the shuttle’s design, and the Air Force saved the shuttle program in lean budget years during development. Recognizing that long partnership, the Secretary of the Air Force has requested a shuttle orbiter be added to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

The museum already receives more than one million visitors each year. The addition of a shuttle is a rare opportunity for the museum which would significantly increase that attendance and be a substantial boost to the economy of Dayton and the region. Museum officials are planning for what we hope will be a favorable decision by NASA. The Air Force Museum Foundation is supporting a major construction program that would expand the museum’s current one million square feet of exhibit space by another 200,000 square feet. That building would also house other impressive related exhibits.

Many who have visited the National Museum of the Air Force regard it as an unforgettable experience. There are aircraft from the early years of flight — such as the Wright 1909 Military Flyer and the Curtiss 1911 Model D — and aircraft used in the modern era. There also is an Air Force One display, including the Boeing VC-137C that served as Air Force One on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The public can also enter presidential aircraft of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. These are only a few of the many aircraft and educational exhibits on display. The addition of a shuttle orbiter would enhance the significant investment that has already been made in the National Museum of the Air Force.

The reality of manned fight was born from the minds of Wilbur and Orville Wright, two Ohioans who worked in Dayton and developed and tested their aircraft at Huffman Prairie, near what today is Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the National Museum of the Air Force. Fast forward to today and the shuttle Atlantis is orbiting the Earth on a mission to support the international space station. It is the last scheduled flight of Atlantis. The orbiter is closing in on flying 120 million miles throughout its career. It is appropriate that Atlantis or Endeavour spend their retirement in Dayton for current and future generations of local residents and visitors to see at the place where aviation was born.

 Any others out there? You bet! Vik Saini put together a great list. Sorry, the Space Farms Museum & Zoo in Beemerville, NJ, is not on the list — nothing to do with space; it’s the dude’s name.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the world’s most popular, always get the best space stuff. You can’t beat the actual back-up lunar module…

 

 

 

 

 

STS-132 Launch

Friday, May 14th, 2010

 

Likely the last mission for Atlantis. Beautiful launch this afternoon; working it already…

After a successful launch Friday at 2:20 p.m. EDT, the STS-132 crew of space shuttle Atlantis began on-orbit operations. Saturday, the six astronauts will survey the shuttle’s heat shield, checkout the spacesuits for the upcoming spacewalks and prepare for docking to the International Space Station on Sunday.

After reaching orbit the crew also was told that a preliminary debris assessment looks good. The assessment looks at debris that can shake loose and hit the shuttle’s heat shield during its ascent to space.

Space Bacteria

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

 

 

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a "go" for launch on Friday, 14 May 2010 (STS-132). The mission will be the last for Atlantis and include two spacewalks…

Atlantis’ 12-day mission will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 that will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. MRM-1, also known as Rassvet, which means dawn in Russian, will be permanently attached to the bottom port of the station’s Zarya module. MRM-1 will carry important hardware on its exterior including a radiator, airlock and a European robotic arm. Atlantis also will deliver additional station hardware stored inside a cargo carrier. Three spacewalks are planned to stage spare components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a Ku-band antenna and spare parts for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm.

One aspect of the mission not featured is the Micro-2 experiment, led by Asst. Professor Cynthia Collins of RPI. Get a sense of what this is about from Laboratory Equipment:

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will send an army of microorganisms into space this week, to investigate new ways of preventing the formation and spread of biofilms, or clusters of bacteria, that could pose a threat to the health of astronauts.

The Micro-2 experiment, led by Cynthia Collins, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer, is scheduled to launch into orbit on May 14 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. The microorganisms will spend a week in space before returning to Earth aboard the shuttle. Within just a few hours after the shuttle’s return, Collins will be able to examine the bacteria and resulting biofilms to see how their growth and development were impacted by microgravity. The samples also will be returned to Rensselaer, to be examined using the core facilities of the Institute’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.
“We know that gravity plays a key role in the development of biological systems, but we don’t know exactly how a lack of gravity affects the development of bacteria and biofilms,” Collins says. “This means while certain bacteria may be harmless on Earth, they could pose a health threat to astronauts on the International Space Station or, one day, long space flights. Our goal is to better understand how microgravity affects the relationship between humans and bacteria, so we can develop new ways of reduce the threat of biofilms to spacecraft and their crew.”

Partnering with Collins on the Micro-2 project are nanobiotechnology expert Jonathan Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer and director of the Univ.’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and thin films expert Joel Plawsky, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. NASA is funding the experiment.

Biofilms are complex, three-dimensional microbial communities. Bacteria commonly found in nature are often in the form of biofilms. Most biofilms, including those found in the human body, are harmless. Some biofilms, however, have shown to be associated with disease. Additionally, biofilms in locations such as hospitals — or confined locations like space shuttles — have exhibited resistance to antibiotics. This could pose a problem for astronauts, who have been shown to have an increased susceptibility to infection while in microgravity.

Collins and her team will send up eight devices, called group activation packs (GAPs) and each containing 128 vials of bacteria, aboard the shuttle. While in orbit, astronauts will begin the experiment by manipulating the sealed vials and introducing the bacteria to different membranes. At the same time, Collins will perform the same actions with identical GAPs still on Earth at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After the shuttle returns, her team will compare the resulting biofilms to see how the behavior of bacteria and development of biofilms in microgravity differed from the control group. The experiment uses BioServe Space Technologies flight-certified hardware.

The Micro-2 research team will also test if newly developed, nanotechnology-based antimicrobial surfaces – developed by Dordick at Rensselaer – can help slow the growth of biofilms on Earth and in microgravity. If successful, these new antimicrobial surfaces could one day be used in hospitals and spacecraft to help reduce the impact of biofilms on human health.

Collins’ experiment is the third Rensselaer research project to be launched into space over the past year. In August 2009, an experimental heat transfer system designed by Plawsky and Rensselaer Professor Peter Wayner was installed in the International Space Station (ISS), where it will remain for three years. In November 2009, wear-resistant, low-friction nanomaterials created by Professor Linda Schadler were blasted into orbit aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, attached to the outer hull of the ISS, and exposed to rigors of space.

 Cool experiment, but it reminds me of the 1971 film "Andromeda Strain," which I found fascinating and fearsome.

 

 

Yeah, I know: that’s the guy who played the Mad Hatter on the Batman TV show in the 1960s.

 

 

 

To Venus With AKATSUKI

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

 

 

 

JAXA’s AKATSUKI launches in a couple of weeks.

"AKATSUKI" means "dawn" when Venus shines most brightly as the first graying of dawn appears in the east sky just prior to sunrise. The AKATSUKI is scheduled to arrive at Venus, which beautifully shines as the "morning bright star" at dawn, in the winter of 2010. The name also reflects the purpose of the PLANET-C project to newly create planetary meteorology by exploring Venus. The word "AKATSUKI", which indicates the start of a day, implies not only a beautiful scenic image, but also the power of achieving a goal, thus the name carries the thoughts and determination toward the success of the mission.

I found the video interesting…

 

Here Comes The Flood

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

 

 

Excellent review of Peter Gabriel’s performance at Radio City Music Hall last night. "Here Comes The Flood," from his first solo album, was not part of the playlist, but Randy Newman’s "I Think It’s Going To Rain Today" was. I like his approach, doing all covers on his new "Scratch My Back" album.

Think songwriting, and Nashville comes to mind. It’s not called "Music City" for nothing. I’m expecting somebody to write a song on the terrible flooding of the past few days.

NASA’s Earth Observatory site has published satellite imagery showing before & after pics…

 …before, on 29 April 2010…

 

 

 

…and after, on 4 May 2010…

 

 
 

 

 Record-breaking rain triggered severe and widespread flooding across Tennessee starting on May 1, 2010. This false color image provides a cloud-free view of the region’s swollen rivers as seen by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on May 4, 2010. Terra MODIS acquired the lower image on April 29, 2010, just two days before the storm.

The images combine infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water is black or blue, while plant-covered ground is bright green. Bare earth around the Mississippi River is tan, and clouds are pale blue.

A comparison between the two images reveals flooding on nearly every river system. The landscape is marbled blue from countless swollen streams that aren’t normally visible. The Tennessee River and Cumberland Rivers and their tributaries are wider on May 4 than they were on April 29. In the west, the Obion, Forked Deer, and Hatchie Rivers are also notably swollen.

Flooding across middle Tennessee was at record or near-record levels, said the National Weather Service. The Cumberland River crested at 51.86 feet in Nashville on May 3, the river’s highest level since the Cumberland River dam system was built in the early 1960s. Four other Tennessee Rivers also reached record highs, said the National Weather Service. By May 4, when this image was taken, the rivers had started to slowly recede.

Space to Schools

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

 

 

 

Great idea for the AIAA to support HR 5903, introduced by Rep. Suzanne Kosmas:

Robert Dickman, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, today issued the following statement in support of HR 5903, the “Space to Schools Act of 2010”

“On behalf of AIAA’s 35,000 members, I urge the passage of HR 5903, the ‘Space to Schools Act of 2010.’ This legislation addresses the critical teacher shortfalls in the ‘STEM’ subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, by encouraging veteran scientists and engineers, and other experts, to enter the classroom and help educate the next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technology workers. The bill will provide our nation’s schools with a direct infusion of qualified, motivated, and able talent.

“The recently released ‘2010 Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes’ conducted by Dr. Annalisa Weigel of MIT demonstrates that students become interested in engineering careers throughout their primary and secondary school years. The study reports that a primary inspiration for pursuing a STEM degree is the student’s interaction with a STEM professional in the classroom. This legislation will make it possible for more students to benefit from those inspiring interactions.”

The Space to Schools Act of 2010, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday by Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (Fla.-24), creates an opportunity for former NASA employees and aerospace engineers to teach STEM subjects in grades K–12. Participants in the Space to Schools program would be required to sign a three-year contract and to take necessary classes to obtain teacher licensure in their state. The Act would provide Space to Schools participants with a $5,000 stipend to defray the costs of classes needed to obtain teaching credentials. In addition, a $5,000 bonus would be paid to participants who have earned their teaching credentials when they commit to teach in a STEM subject field for at least three years.