KySat

Voyager: heliosphere is lopsided

Voyager 2, on its way out of our solar system toward interstellar space, has relayed new information about the boundary region where the sun's solar wind, which dominates that heliosphere, ebbs, and the heliosheath begins.

The heliosphere appears to be lopsided.

If all goes well, the two Voyager craft should still have enough energy to transmit their findings as they make their way across the heliosheath and toward the heliopause, which marks the beginning of intersteller space, and area where our sun loses all influence.

NASA engineers believe that they have enough power onboard to return data until 2025, perhaps long enough to provide information after the two craft have left the solar system for good.

Wayne

Video: Cooling electronics on the Moon

Astrobotic, one of the teams in the Google Lunar X-Prize discusses the thermal challenges for its rover design in this YouTube video. How will it remove heat from the on-board electronics?

The most recent stories from teams competing from the prize may be found here.

Wayne

Mars soil contains nutrients for life

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has performed its first wet chemistry experiment on the collected Martian soil, returning data showing that it contains many nutrients. It might just be suitable for... asparagus?

Wayne

ESA: Future of Space Exploration

Mentioning roving laboratories and a Mars sample return mission, this European Space Agency video on the future of space exploration goes into some length on human exploration of Mars. There is, as the director of ESA suggests, no opposition between human and robotic exploration of the planet.

Wayne

Google X-Prize on YouTube

Space Prizes provides a list of Google X-Prize videos on YouTube that haven't shown up on the official X-Prize Foundation web site.

Wayne

Phoenix a Twitter hit

In case you weren't already following along, the Phoenix's Twitter page is climbing the Twitterholic rankings and currently is the 42 most popular according to Nature.

Wayne

Do we need to send humans to explore space?

What's your space IQ? Referencing a 10 question quiz hosted elsewhere, New York Times science writer John Tierney has added three "extra credit" questions of his own, one of which is the title to this post. He promises to publish the most cogent argument - for or against - human space exploration in an upcoming TierneyLab, his regular "ideas in science" column in the Times.

Wayne

Space elevator competition: winner must go higher

The Space Elevator blog points out that the rulebook for the climb has been posted and the climb for the power-beaming event has been increased to one kilometer.

If you're not familiar with the idea of a space elevator, originally proposed by science fiction Arthur C. Clarke, check this out.

Wayne

Image: Wikipedia

Nanosatellite communications fleet planned

According to Information Week, working with a partner NASA is planning a fleet of nanosatellites, each weighing between 5 and 45 kilograms, in an effort to build a 5G communications platform in space.

NASA will lend its expertise in nanosensors, wireless networks, and nanosatellite technologies, while M2mi [a systems intelligence company] will apply its abilities in software technology, sensors, global system awareness, adaptive control, and commercialization.

Wayne

India: space power

The BBC follows up the record launch of 10 satellites by India with a closer look at the Indian space program. Thanks Tyler for the link!

Wayne

Bronze Titan

This picture was posted by CICLOPS, the team responsible for Cassini imaging, on a page describing Cassini's current, and brief, 66th orbit around Saturn. Since I hadn't seen this image of Titan before, I wanted to share.

Wayne

Spiderweb solar sail

NewScientist has posted this animation of a new kind of solar sail that might use spun, positively charged wires to repel positively charged ions to move through space. A written summary can be found here.

Wayne

 

Robot prizes

Linking to an article on improvements in robotics that we might anticipate in the coming years, Space Prizes mentions a couple of different robot prizes being offered in addition to the Google Lunar X-Prize, which understandably, is garnering a great deal of press these days.

The goal of one of the competitions, the Robot Hide and Seek competition, is to develop a robot that might find a child with intellectual disabilities who might panic in fire and hide in a burning house.

Wayne

Parachuting to Mars

Unlike previous craft to land on Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory is big - very big. The Universe Today describes the challenge of lowering it through the planet's thin atmosphere to the surface of the planet.

MSL will be the first planetary mission to use precision landing techniques, using a rocket-guided entry with a heat shield to steer itself toward the Martian surface similar to the way the space shuttle controls its entry through the Earth's upper atmosphere. In this way, the spacecraft will fly to a desired location above the surface of Mars before deploying its parachute for the final landing. MSL will use a scaled-up version of parachutes used for the Viking and Mars Exploration Rovers mission. Called a Disk-Gap-Band parachute, the name describes the construction of the parachute: a disk forms the canopy, then a small gap, followed by a cylindrical band.

Carrying a science lab on board, the job of robotic craft will be to uncover evidence for whether the Martian environment could once have been favorable for microbial life.

USA Today also carries a story about the difficulties of the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Wayne

49th Carnival of Space online

The 49th and very latest Carnival of Space is up at the site of English astrophysicist and full time science writer Will Gater. There are a great many good links to follow and good stories to read, so please, go check them out.

Wayne

Video from high altitude balloon ascent

Found via the DIY Drones blog, here is some YouTube video shot during the ascent of a high altitude balloon. It is missing some time, but you get the idea. The site is a creation of Chris Anderson, Wired's editor in chief.

Wayne