Kentucky Space

Navigating Relativity

Pointing to a paper recently accepted for publication, Paul Gilster explains how the best ideas for fast space travel must cope with another, non-technological, constraint.

For example, while "sundiving" missions designed to place a solar sail-powered craft near the sun for maximum outward acceleration - one study suggests that deployment at .1 AU could send such a craft to 200 AU in only 2.5 years! - might be accomplished, designers would have to account for General Relativistic effects in their craft's navigation or find it potentially millions of kilometers off course by the time it reaches the Oort Cloud. As one commenter points out, MESSENGER's flight calculations have also taken General Relativity into account. And another points to this Technology Review blog entry on "relativistic navigation."

Wayne  

Hitching an Asteroid ride to Mars

Finishing a conference in Italy on outer solar system and deep space exploration, Paul Gilster reports on one of the many papers he pledges to blog about in the future - using near Earth objects (NEOs), asteroids in this case, as convenient transfer points:

"The idea here is that the astronauts can use the NEO as a radiation shield, digging in to its surface and exploiting its resources on the way to the red planet. Greg presented a table showing candidate objects that could fill the bill, including two — 1999YR14 and 2007EE26 — that have one Earth-Mars transit time amounting to one year or less."

See the entire post at the highly recommended blog Centauri Dreams.

Reading Paul's entry, my mind immediately wandered to the mission to the moon Phobos, which may or may not be an asteroid captured by Mars, and the Rosetta mission to orbit and land on Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. Rosetta has already flown past the asteroid 2867-Steins (video is available on YouTube) and will encounter 21-Lutetia at roughly this time next year.

And the artist's image of the lander, Philae, lashed to the comet (above) has to be one of my favorite space images ever. Click to enlarge.

Now for a bit of housekeeping: Kentucky Space blog will be on hold for the next week as I spend some time away from the computer monitor on vacation with my family. See you a bit later.

Wayne

Credits: ESA, image by AOES Medialab

Robots roam Eden: Herschel and Planck to launch this week

At the highly recommended blog Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster notes the pending launch of Herschel and Planck this week. Check it out.

Herschel image credit: ESA – D. Ducros, 2009

Wayne

Now where did I put my keys?

[Cross-posted from the IdeaFestival] One of the most astounding facts about the universe is that we can only observe four percent of it from our perch on Earth. Electromagnetic radiation carried along in microwaves, or in the color spectrum visible to the human eye, or by gamma rays, can be detected with the right instrumentation, either on earth or from stationary points near Earth. Roughly 23 percent of the cosmos is constructed of a mass that we can't directly detect.

Seventy-two percent of the cosmos' total mass-energy is "dark energy," the so far mysterious force pushing the observable universe outward at fantastic speeds.

Using one ready example to illustrate why that latter fact should interest us - or least the absent minded among us - Astronomer Adam Riess, MacArthur Fellow for 2008, explains his work.

Reiss is working on ways to experimentally discover the nature of dark energy.

Wayne

Encounter with asteroid "Steins" to be streamed over Web

As pointed out by Paul Gilster, beginning tomorrow the robotic spacecraft Rosetta will be maneuvering past the asteroid Steins, which will serve as a reference point for mission control.

Steins is Rosetta’s first nominal scientific target. The spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid in the course of its first incursion into the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, while on its way to comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Beginning in 2014, Rosetta will be the first craft to undertake the long term exploration of a comet at close quarters, and will deliver a lander, called Philae (this image has been my Macbook desktop for a while now), to the comet's surface.

Pictures from the Steins' flyby will be streamed beginning Sept. 6. The newly-created Rosetta blog is here.

Wayne

Artist's impression of the comet encounter: ESA, image by AOES Medialab

High energy observatory, GLAST, is launched

GLAST, which will scan the heavens for high energy bursts, and perhaps help solve the mystery of dark matter, has successfully launched according to Wired. A nice graphic illustrating the electromagnetic spectrum accompanies the article.

From NASA:

After a 75-minute flight, the GLAST spacecraft was deployed into low Earth orbit. It will begin to transmit initial instrument data after about three weeks. The telescope will explore the most extreme environments in the universe, searching for signs of new laws of physics and investigating what composes mysterious dark matter. It will seek explanations for how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed, and look for clues to crack the mysteries behind powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.

Wayne

Carnival of Space 57 online

The very latest Carnival of Space, this one with an emphasis on space economies and intersteller space, has been posted.

Wayne

GLAST's "new physics" search begins next week

GLAST has a launch date of next Tuesday, June 2. The telescope is now on the launch pad atop a Delta II rocket. The space-borne observatory

"will open a wide window on the universe through the study of Gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. GLAST data will enable scientists to answer persistent questions across a broad range of topics, including supermassive black-hole systems, pulsars, the origin of cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics."

GLAST could help scientists get closer to answering what Dark Matter is made of. A more complete list of the science that this instrument will undertake is here.

Above right, workers add the payload fairing around the observatory in preparation for launch.

Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Wayne

Wikipedia: Gamma Rays, Dark Matter

Name that satellite

NASA is asking the public to name its Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST. The telescope is designed to peer at "extreme environments," looking for "signs of new laws of physics," including what dark matter might be.

To name that satellite, go here. According to NASA:

Anyone who drops a name into the "Name That Satellite!" suggestion box on the Web page can choose to receive a "Certificate of Participation" via return e-mail. Participants also may choose to receive the NASA press release announcing the new mission name. The announcement is expected approximately 60 days after launch of the telescope.

Wayne

Deep survey finds star makers

Astronomers have uncovered evidence that black holes lie at the center of most galaxies. NASA has published an artist's conception, above, of the imagery taken by the Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes. 

According to the agency press release:

Scientists now believe most massive galaxies spent their adolescence building up their stars and black holes simultaneously. The Spitzer observations were made as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey program, which aims to image the faintest distant galaxies using a variety of wavelengths

A higher resolution image is here. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

Wayne