A New Way of Telling the Age of Stars: Gyrochronology

This article is an interesting announcement. Scientists have found another method of dating stars, gyrochronology, that is much more accurate. This may not seem like much, but it allows scientists to better understand the evolution of the universe. The new method is heavy on the math and uses the rotation period and color of the star to determine age with an accuracy of 15%, as opposed to the old method with an accuracy of 50%. Apparently the rotation of a star is related to its age and color (which has to do with its class). By having the two other measurements, scientists can find the age of stars. What is exciting about this new method is that it works very well on stars like our sun, a feat that the other methods well bad at. Of course this is currently the only type of stars that the method is good for, but scientists expect this to change, and for this new method to useful for all stars. When the Keplar mission is up and running scientists will have plenty of data to work with, since one of the products of of looking for extrasolar planets (the purpose of the Keplar mission) is a very good measurement of the star's rotation. Color is easy to get from a telescope and often already known, so all of this new information is basically coming for free.

EMCORE

EMCORE was awarded the contract to build the solar panels that will be used on the Mars Cruise Stage spacecraft that will carry the Mars Science Laboratory. They're getting $2M dollars to do this! Take a look

The Phoenix Mission

People are predicting that the Phoenix mission could be a total disaster, while others walk on the brighter side and hope that it will be the mission that answers all the questions: was there life on Mars? Is there water? Will life be sustainable? All these questions need to be answered and some hope that this mission will answer them all once and for all. Check it out!

FMARS for Four Months

This article talks about the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (finally an acronym that makes sense) is about to embark on a four month isolation mars simulation mission. The team of seven will be in an eight meter wide 'silo' that looks like two tuna cans on top of each other (echoing zubrin's words). The wind chill temperatures get to about -40C, and they will be in a rock strewn field, similar to Mars, when there isn't snow covering the ground, which apparently is frequent because the snow gets blown off. They'll wear mock space suits outside of the habitat, and perform tasks that would be used on Mars. Overall, its a social experiment to see what to expect from four months of isolation.

Why the Global Surveyor Died

According to this article, the Mars Global Surveyor lost contact due to a computer glitches before the battery died. Go take a look!

Universe Has a New End, After a Fashion

I am not sure this article announces goof news about the end of the universe or not. Scientists have determined that when the universe "ends" it will not be so full of radiation that life will have already been exterminated. Instead dark energy, which is fueling the universe's expansion, is also going to ensure that matter outweighs radiation as well. This just means that the matter will be separated by such distances that we cannot even see other galaxies. So, we will have matter all over the universe that is not radioactive, but is too far away to make use of. This is assuming that dark matter is stable. So, either they are wrong and radiation from dark matter will kill us first or radiation will not kill us and we will basically run out of fuel and die. Neither of these are great options, and I am not sure this new theory is better than the radiation idea.

Mars and Venus Yield Clues as to Climate Change

The article deals with the necessity of studying the climate and weather on Mars and Venus to provide clues as to how and why the planets underwent rapid climate change (they think the planets started off like earth). Pretty interesting argument.

Canadians Teaming Up to Develop Mars Mission Concepts

http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=295049

The canadian space agency announced funding for five teams to develop a mission to mars proposal. They hope to use a radar satellite to study mars' surface, a rover to look for water, an orbiter to study to climate and atmosphere, and a satellite to map the magnetic field.

The Phoenix Lander, Boulders, and You

So, as we all know by now, its hard to land Mars landers in a boulder field, not just hard, but also bad, expensive, and risky. We have also learned about the whole shoot (pictures) first, and land later approach as the landers orbit Mars. However, what you may not have heard about is the incredible oppritunities the JPL is granting college students in the new and exciting field of Rock Counting! To find a suitable sit for the Phoenix lander, they have gained the help of UW student Tabatha Heet, who's job is to look at pictures of Mars taken from HiRISE, and count boulders. I can't decide whether this would be the coolest job ever, or so tedious and eye-exhausting that my eyeballs would dry up and fall out of my head.

The Real Story Behind Mars Global Surveyor

So, remember when we said that the Surveyor fell out due to "complex errors"? Well, that might still be true, but apparently, there is a new culprit, I wonder what it could be...Yup, you guessed it, this article says that human error was the source of a sequence of events that eventually ended in the loss of our most durable, most loveable Martian satelite. Apparently, some engineers uploaded "faulty" software that shutdown the solar panels on Surveyor, and it only went downhill from there. R.I.P. Mars Global Surveyor, man-kind has let you down again.

Mars' Face Seems to Have Windows

NASA recently released some new super-hi-res pictures of the famous face on Mars. Some people are saying they now see windows and beams and stuff that indicates that yes, it is an artificial structure. I don't think it's very convincing, as the only reason people are looking at it because the first shoddy images made it look like a face; yet the second set of hi-res images shows it to obviously not be a face, or at least anything we can recognize as a face. This just seems to show that there are pits and grooves in the rocks, which is distinctly possible - just look in southern Utah , such as arches national park, tons of weird rock formations - totally natural. Article also discusses a lot of the theological issues to discovering artificial structures on Mars, but that seems not to be relevant if the face isn't artificial.

Scientists Find a Planet with Liquid Water

We have finally found a planet that is a true candidate for life. This article announces the discovery of a planet only twice the size of the Earth. It orbits the sun Gilese 581 20.5 light-years away. The planet appears to have liquid water on it, and its mass also indicates that the planet is either rocky or covered in oceans. As far as we know water is necessary for life to arise, and this planet fits the bill. It is even within the habitable zone of its star. In this system that is a lot closer than the Earth to the Sun, but this star is a red dwarf and therefore is a lot colder. The planet discovered orbits in 13 days, which is quite short. Its close orbit is the reason we could find it. Astronomers found the planet in the same way that other extrasolar planets have been found: by their effect on the parent star. This makes it extremely unlikely that we will find a planet as far out from it star as the Earth. To find those we will need a new method. Also, we cannot find anything else out really about the planet. We will have to go there to actually see if there is life there, so ultimately, all of these discoveries of possibly habitable planets is just a tease as we probably will not be going outside the solar system any time soon.

Dying Stars Help Create New Stars

This article is somewhat interesting. It discusses a new understanding of how stars behave when they die. When a star dies, it loses control of its outer layers of gases. These layers apparently become eddies and whirlpools around the star. They star mixing with interstellar gas, and are dispersed quite a distance. The significance of the discovery is that it helps to explain how new stars can then form. If the old star's material gets mixed back in with interstellar space and is spinning at the time, it helps the next generation of stars to start forming. Basically, the dying star starts its outer layer spinning like a top, shoots them off, and they collect other interstellar gases into their spinning vortex, thus triggering the creation of a new star(s). Knowing this is useful as it has long been a question how the universe recycles the material from dead stars. This looks like a pretty good answer for some of the process at least.

Duff software patch sealed Mars probe's fate

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426004.100-duff-software-patch-sealed-mars-probes-fate.html

The reason why the mars global surveyor lost contact in november has now been revealed. A command, which was meant to fix a problem with the antenna, was sent to the wrong memory address. This caused the the spacecraft to reorient itself, which then left a battery directly exposed to the sun. The battery overheated and did not finish charging, so when the other onboard battery ran out of power, the mgs was lost.

UK tests moon lander technology

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6573729.stm?ls

British engineers are testing technology for a new lander that may one day be used to land on mars. The hope is that the new technology will be able to retrieve a soil sample from the planet.

Simulated Mars

Here on Earth, seven scientists will live in the Canadian Artic, in a 900 mile wasteland as if they were living on the surface of Mars. Check it out

Black Holes Do Good Too

This article mentions an aspect of black holes of which I was unaware. Not all of the material around the black hole gets sucked inside. Some actually is accelerated and thrown far away from the black hole. This bit of escaping molecules may be the key to life in the universe. The black hole mixes things up and projects heavier molecules that often end up in stellar nurseries and form a new generation of stars. The article did not make it clear how helpful the black holes really are (I would guess that we do not really know), but it did point out that at the very least black holes do something at least mildly useful.

Scientists to Create an Artificial Magnetosphere

I love that science and science fiction merge so often. This article talks about how scientists are attempting to overcome one of the main problems with space travel: radiation. Apparently, we were very lucky on all of our previous missions that no astronauts were killed by a sudden solar flare (with its accompanying radiation). The scientists are attempting to make an artificial magnetosphere, one of the things on Earth that protects us from radiation. So, basically we are recreating what was envisioned in science fiction four decades ago. I am not sure it is going to be as effective as on TV, since I doubt we can create a field that is strong enough to block all radiation, but who knows, they might be able to do that by the time we make it off planet again. Any field will help either way.

Earth's Magnetic Field May Cause a Problem for Going Back to the Moon

This short article brings up an interesting problem for returning to the Moon. While the article does not give nearly enough detail or much of a scientific explanation, it does explain that astronauts may have trouble on the Moon if they arrive during the time period (2020) predicted by most countries. At that time, the Moon will be in an orbit which passes it through the densest portion of the plasmasheet (a portion of the Earth's magnetic field). Passing through the plasmasheet basically charges portions of the lunar surface with static electricity. Such charges could damage or ruin equipment astronauts need (like the systems on the return craft). They could also affect the dust, a major concern for astronauts on the Moon. If these predictions prove to be valid concerns, all is not lost. The Moon shifts its orbit on an 18 year cycle. This is why our last visit was not a problem. We got lucky and landed at a time when the fields were weak. To repeat our lucky landing, we would just have to wait a few more years, probably ten at most, before going back to the Moon is safe for astronauts. Well, as safe as it ever is.

Einstein Proved Right

Scientists have finally confirmed that Einstein's theory of relativity is, in fact, correct. This article details a very long mission to detect both the amount that the mass of the Earth warps the local space-time and the amount that the rotating Earth drags local space-time around with it (frame-dragging). Both of these effects are predicted by the theory of relativity, but could never before be measured. The Gravity Probe B, armed with a multitude of gyroscopes, has confirmed both of these effects. The article does caution that the data analysis is not yet complete, but preliminary finds match Einstein's predictions. What is more amazing than proving Einstein correct once again is that this project has been going on since 1959. That is 47 years of research and funding. I guess proving Einstein right is high on the list of NASA goals for it to be funded for so long. Especially as it was only three years ago that a spacecraft was actually launched and able to measure the effects. All that time before was figuring out how to do it (and coming up with some interesting technologies along the way like the GPS system). It is impressive that NASA would be so patient.

All good satelites must come to an end

So, after spending a few lectures talking about failed spacecraft, it is good to know that our good old Global Surveyor "succumbed to ...a complex sequence of events..." Take that, all you NASA nay-sayers! No failed metric-standard conversion, or parachute jostling for the Surveyor, no sir! It took 10 years and huge failures to take this baby down! RIP Mars Global Surveyor.

Russia to Send Three Missions to Mars

Russia released their plans to send three missions to mars within the next 8 years, the first of which, a mission to Phobos, is scheduled for 2009. The second will fly by, the third will be a rover which will land on the surface. There is also some resent about losing the space race, which I thought was interesting. When asked why the USSR lost the moon race, the article quotes some Russian space official as saying "we did not lose it, judging by the exploration’s results."

Spirit Sees a Dust Devil

This article has a very fun picture of a dust devil on Mars. It also explains how they got this sequence of images of the dust devil in action. Apparently this is the best look we have gotten at a dust devil on Mars. I am not sure that there is any interesting information to get out of knowing about dust devils, but it is a very interesting animation.

Eclipse of a Black Hole

Eclipses are a lot more useful than I would have thought. In this article scientists explaint that they used an eclipse of a black hole by a dust cloud to learn more about the black hole itself. What they mostly discovered was the size of the disk surrounding the black hole. This dust is the matter that will eventually be swallowed by the black hole. The measeument made agrees with theoretical predictions, always a plus. The other thing they figured out was the location of the dust cloud causing the eclipse, and it is a lot closer to the black hole than previously thought. This means that the black holle will capture the cloud much sooner than thought.

Water Outside the Solar System

This article is interesting in that we have now finally found water on a planet outside the solar system. What is strange to me about it, is that the planet in question is extremely close to its star. It orbits every 3.5 days. I would have thought the water would have boiled away from the heat. Apparently it has not. Scientists used a model to predict the presence of water and then compared it with readings of the planet. So, assuming that the model is correct, an extra-solar planet has water. This means that water may be more common on planets than previously thought. Hence the possibilities for life may be greater than previously thought, if water is a requirement for life (or at least a great help).

Toddler Robots

Robots still need large quantities of guidance and help if they are to remain safe and out of trouble. Spirit and Opportunity have entire crews to help guide them to where they want them to go. If robots are to ever actually be of assistance to people on Mars or the Moon, then they are going to have to be much more autonomous, being able to find their way around using sonar and infrared will be very important.

Global Supply Chain to Incorporate Moon and Mars

This talks about how the supply chain has changed since industrialization, and is now functioning on a global scale, but will eventually have to work on a multiple planet scale. If permanent bases get set up on the moon, something NASA hopes to complete by 2024, and eventually on Mars, then there will have to be a constant supply of goods, and perhaps some goods coming back here to Earth.

Question of Red Space Glow Solved

While I wish that this article was a lot longer, it does get across the pertinent point. Apparently galaxies glow red and no one has been able to explain why, until now. Scientists now think that the coloring is due to molecular forces on a very, very small scale. The glow comes from carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have been bombarded by UV radiation to make them red. Normally such molecules would disintegrate under such conditions, but the scientists pulled out some complicated math to determine that there should be a way for this to actually occur. So, one more mystery of the universe (even though I never knew about it before now) probably solved.

Safe Landings Are Good

The last article I posted was also about MER-A and -B but this one is a bit different. This new article discusses how the mission is getting down to the wire in terms of time but the folks working on the project are feeling pretty confident especially now that they think they can successfully land the MER rovers. Probably a good thing to check off the to do list.

European scientists to land a man on Mars

http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=49465&src=site-marq

The ESF is planning a new mission that will further investigate the moon and mars. The program has just been announced but specifics will not be revealed until may. The first part of the mission will be a robot that will launch in 2013. Then, it may send a probe that will collect a sample of martian soil and return it to the earth.

Phoenix Mars Lander Mission

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=6337564

After five years, the phoenix mars lander is in its final stages as it prepares for its launch in march. At this time, 250 scientists and engineers are working to make sure that everything is ready for launch. Starting next week, simulations will take place at ASU where the lander will preactice digging through ice and dirt.

Nasa Plan cuts moon lander, Boosts mars rover

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/nass040607.xml&headline=NASA%20Plan%20Cuts%20Moon%20Lander,%20Boosts%20Mars%20Rover

Budget cuts to a moon lander has left more money available to focus on the Mars Space Laboratory. The rover recieved 62.7 million dollars, which will keep it on track to be launched in 2009.

Twins on Mars

NASA has been working on a new Mars exploration mission that will take two twin rovers to Mars to search for signs of liquid water past and present.

Mars Heating Up

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1890339.htm

Scientists have announced that changes in solar radiation is throwing dust and winds at mars, which may be melting the planets southern polar ice caps. They believe that the dust traps heat on the surface of mars, and raises the planets temperature. It is predicted that the planet has warmed by .65 degrees Celsius from the 1970-1990.

Satellite Refueled By Another Satellite in Space

This event is interesting. Two satellites have successfully come together so that one can refuel the other. The ASTRO satellite was designed with this in mind, but this is the first test of its capabilities. Besides a few minor glitches, it appears that we may now be able to refuel satellites in space (well orbit). This is a huge improvement, as it means that satellites will no longer have to die. They can continue to be used until something actually breaks rather than running out of energy. Now, I cynically believe that NASA will still want to send up satellites, because they will have newer, better or just different technology, but the more prosaic satellites like the GPS satellites will benefit from this new technology. Anything that doesn't become obsolete will be able to work up there longer, if not forever. This is probably cheaper than sending up a duplicate, although maybe not, depending on how costly it is to send ASTRO up to refuel another satellite.

Mars is Undergoing Global Warming

A new study shows that Mars is experiencing a period of global warming. This article explains that the massive dust storms on Mars are heating up the planet quite a bit. The increase in temperature ironically, then increases the rate and serverity of the dust storms, so Mars is on an increasing self-perpetuating cycle. THe study showed that in 20 years Mars has warmed up almost as much as Earth has in the last hundred, and Mars has no fossil fuel emissions to blame. No one knows why the dust storms started, but it is clear that they are having an effect. The southern pole is steadily losing its ice, helping the dust storms to become more violent and releasing what little is left of Mars' carbon dioxide and water.

Earth Has Had a Magnetosphere Longer Than Previously Thought

This article is actually another hint as to why Mars probably does not have life now even though it is about the Earth's magnetosphere. Apparently, recent tests have shown that Earth has had a strong magnetosphere longer than previously thought. This means that Earth's atmosphere was protected earlier from radiation and the solar wind. Mars was not so lucky most scientists think. This discovery about Earth, however, deflates any arguments that Earth may have somehow been able to survive for a while without protection (and hence so could have Mars). It proves that a planet reallly needs a magnetosphere in order to keep its atmosphere. The same scientist is now looking to see if the magnetosphere was around even longer ago, which more obliterate any hope that Mars could have kept its atmosphere without also having a magnetosphere.

Scientists suspect Mars might have caves

http://www.playfuls.com/news_006144_Scientists_Suspect_Mars_Might_Have_Caves.html

Mars Odyssey has taken pictures of black spots on mars, and scientists now believe that these black spots may be caves and not impact craters. It is estimated that these caves are the size of football fields. This is exciting because if life exists on mars, it is very likely that it will be found in caves, because the insides of the caves are protected from radiation.

A Dwarf can still annihilate WIMPS

So, score one for interesting titles and double meanings, but seriously, this is some heavy stuff (hehe, ok, the puns are done, I promise). So apparently, there is a bunch of Weakly Interacting Masive Particles that like to hang out near the edges of black holes, and scientists are trying to figure these babies out. Their theory right now is that these WIMPS contribute tons of dark matter to the universe, and that when a white dwarf star (a super dense, super bright star) passes near the black hole, the fly-by 'annihilates' the WIMPS.

Tibetan Microbe Mats

This describes the first comprehensive search for life in one of Tibet's mountain deserts, the Taklimakan Desert, which scientists believe could be similar to conditions present or once present on Mars. They say that the way in which water came to the bacteria, whether in rainfall or snowfall/melt, spring, etc. really characterized how the microbes lived and where they accumulated.

A Simulation of a Martian Mission

This article is interesting, because it shows how serious people are getting about going to Mars. The EAS is going to participate in a 500 day simulation of a Mars mission in Russia. The point of the simulation is to determine what being in a confined space with a group of people for so long is really going to do to people. The article claims, via quotations, that such a study is the only way to really know what things are going to be like. Fortunately, the study is also planning on doing useful work, so we may get some new scientific data as well as some idea of how people will react. What's truly fun about this program is that all of the people participating will be volunteers. So, if you're interested, or have nothing to do if you're graduating, you can try to become a crew member. The article even says they will lower the physical requirements from those usually used for astronauts. You'll actually have better odds of getting on this mission than any other.

Follow Up on the Seven Martian Caves

Now that NASA has discovered what they strongly believe are caves on the surface of Mars, they are trying to take full advantage of this opportunity. They are now trying to identify possible earth analogues, or places on earth that are similar to those caves on Mars, in both arid and cold environments. This article discusses robotics that might be able to explore caves on Mars, possible human establishments in the caves, communication problems in the caves, and the future of the Earth-Mars Cave Detection Program.