Science And Technology

(Giraffe/41420) From the moon and every other opaque body.

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:31:00 -0600

From the moon and every other opaque body.

(Egregious/41419) Isn't there always a solar eclipse in space from the moon, if yo...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:22:00 -0600

Isn't there always a solar eclipse in space from the moon, if you're in the
right spot?

(Gespalder/41418) Space Weather News for Feb. 21, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:57:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Feb. 21, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

SOLAR ECLIPSE FROM SPACE: Earlier today the new Moon passed in front of the
sun, producing a solar eclipse visible from space.  High-resolution images of
the event captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory are featured on the
Feb. 21st edition of http://spaceweather.com.

(Gespalder/41417) Space Weather News for Feb. 19, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:11:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Feb. 19, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

AURORA SURPRISE:  A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on  Feb. 18th,
sparking a surprisingly widespread display of auroras.  Northern Lights crossed
the Canadian border and descended as far south as Nebraska in the United
States.  Photographs of the display and speculation about what made the solar
wind impact so potent are featured on today's edition of
http://spaceweather.com

(Gespalder/41416) Jonathan's Space Report

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:38:00 -0600

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 654                                       2012 Feb 18  Somerville, MA USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-

Space Station
-------------


Expedition 30 continues with Soyuz TMA-22 docked at Poisk and Soyuz
TMA-03M docked to the Rassvet module. At about 0h on Feb 12 a switching
unit reset on the truss cut off power to solar array 3B and to one of
the Z1 control gyros; the systems were restored later that day.

Flight Engineer-3 Kononenko and FE-1 Shkaplerov made a spacewalk from
the Pirs module on Feb 16 using suits Orlan-MK No. 4 and No. 6
respectively. They relocated the `Strela' GStM-1 crane from Pirs to
Poisk and installed the Vinoslivost materials exposure experiment.
Installation of some SMDP space debris protection panels on Zvezda was
deferred to a later occasion because the crane move took longer than
expected. The Pirs airlock was depressurized from 1408 to 2049 UTC
(6hr41min) and the hatch was open from 1431 to 2046 UTC (6h15min). At
1904 UTC the MLI cover for the Poisk Strela baseplate was jettisoned
into orbit; it has not yet been cataloged.


Book Note  - "Rockets and People"
----------------------------------

The fourth and final volume of Boris Chertok's memoirs, with a
NASA-sponsored English translation edited by Asif Siddiqi, has now been
published. This volume covers the Soviet side of the race to land humans
on the Moon, with inside stories of the N-1/L-3 launch attempts.
All four volumes are highly recommended.


Iranian satellite
------------------

Iran reports that it has launched the Navid-e Elm-o Sanat satellite into
low orbit on Feb 3. It carries a panchromatic imager, possibly developed
by the Iranian Univ. of Sci. and Technology (IUST, or in Persian,
Daneshgah Elm-o Sanat Iran), Tehran. Another report says that the
satellite was built by Tehran's  Sharif University of Technology
(Daneshgah-e Sanati-ye Sharif).

The satellite's name means something like "Promise (Herald, Gospel, Good
News, Harbinger)  of Science and  Technology".

Orbital data from US tracking shows Navid and the Safir second stage
rocket in a 275 x 374 km x 56.0 deg orbit, and analysis indicates
a launch at around 0004 UTC on Feb 3.

Vega
----

ESA's new small satellite launch vehicle, Vega, made its first flight
successfully on Feb 13.

Vega has three solid motor stages, P80FW, Zefiro 23, and the Zefiro 9A
third stage. The Zefiro stages are built by Avio spA of Colleferro,
Italy. Avio's main space motor plant was  originally the Bombrini Parodi
Delfino explosives factory (1912-1994) and later part of Fiat
(1994-2003); I believe their first space motor was a communications
satellite apogee motor built for the Europa rocket and later used for
ESA's Geos-1. A Ukrainian-built RD-869 engine is used in the Avio fourth
stage, the Attitude and Vernier Upper Module (AVUM), which uses liquid
propellants (UDMH/N2O4). P80FW is  developed by the Europropulsion joint
venture (Avio plus France's SNECMA). The overall launch vehicle is
produced by ELV SpA, a joint venture of Avio and the Italian space
agency ASI.

The LARES 'Laser Relativity Satellite' is the primary payload. The 390
kg, 0.38m dia. tungsten sphere studded with 92 laser retroreflectors
will be used as a test particle to probe relativistic effects in the
Earth's gravitational field. Stefan Barensky informs me that LARES is
claimed to have the lowest ballistic coefficient of any satellite
launched to date (this means its orbit will be very stable); I estimate
the BC is around  0.0011 m**2/kg but would be interested to hear other
estimates.

The next largest payload is AlmaSat-1, a 12.5 kg student satellite
from the University of Bologna, which will test a cold gas microthruster system
and the platform for a future Earth observing satellite.

The Lares Support System, attached to the AVUM, can be considered an
additional payload, as it includes extensive instrumentation to monitor
the launch. It also deployed seven 1U Cubesats from three P-POD
deployers. P-POD 1 contained XaTcobeo, from the University of Vigo;
`e-st@r' from the Politecnico di Torino; and ROBUSTA from the
Universite' de Montpellier 2. P-POD 2 ejected MaSat-1 from the Budapest
University of Technology and Economics; Goliat from the University of
Bucharest; and PW-Sat-1 from the Warsaw Inst. of Technology
(Politechnika Warszawska). P-POD 3 carried UNICubeSat-GG, from U. Roma
La Sapienza, which has a gravity gradient experiment.


The Vega booster took off from the Ensemble de Lancement Vega (ELV) at
Kourou and headed northeast. The Zefiro 9A third stage burnt out at 1005
UTC and entered a marginal orbit (one estimate is around -30 x  775 km;
another solution from the limited data available is around 50-60 km x
250-500 km; I asked ESA but they haven't responded yet). The stage
probably reentered at first perigee at around 1112 UTC south of New
Zealand, and has not been cataloged. The AVUM stage first burn was
completed at 1008 UTC and probably reached an orbit of around 180 x 1450
km (ESA have not annouced the details of the ascent trajectory). At 1048
UTC the AVUM second burn began and resulted in a 1435 x 1452 km x 69.5
deg orbit; LARES was released into this orbit at 1055 UTC. At 1106-1110
UTC AVUM's third burn lowered the perigee resulting in an orbit of
around 310 x 1441 km. At  1110 UTC the three P-PODs released their
cargo. Finally at 1111 UTC AlmaSat was ejected, and the AVUM vented its
remaining propellant, ending up in a 272 x 1431 km x 69.5 km orbit.


SES-4
-----

The SES-4 satellite was launched on Feb 14 aboard an ILS Proton from
Baykonur. The 6180 kg Loral-1300 spacecraft will replace NSS 7 at 22 West.
The satellite is owned by SES Satellite Leasing (UK) and will be transferred
to SES World Skies (based in the Hague) once in its target orbit.
The Briz-M stage reached a 3640 x 35762 km x 24.5 deg orbit; by Feb 17
SES-4 was in an 8946 x 35759 km x 13.4 deg.

Suborbital launches
-------------------

Armadillo Aerospace launched its LOX/ethanol STIG-A rocket from New Mexico's
Spaceport America on Jan 28, reaching the edge of space at 82 km.

The Swedish SSC agency's MASER 12 microgravity payload
made a suborbital flight from the ESRANGE site at Kiruna, Sweden,
using a Brazilian VSB-30 rocket launched from the old Skylark launch
tower first used in 1968.

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                         DES.
Jan  9 0317   ZY-3        )     Chang Zheng 4B     Taiyuan           Imaging  
01A
             Vesselsat 2 )                                          Comms    
01B
Jan 13 0056   FY-2(07)          Chang Zheng 3A     Xichang           Weather  
02A
Jan 20 0038   WGS 4             Delta 4M+(5,4)     Canaveral SLC37B  Comms    
03A
Jan 24 2318   Chibis-M          -                  PM-13M, LEO       Science  
62C
Jan 25 2306   Progress M-14M    Soyuz-U            Baykonur LC1      Cargo    
04A
Feb  3 0004?  Navid             Safir              Semnan            Imaging  
05A
Feb 13 1000   LARES   )         Vega               Kourou ELV        Geodesy  
06A
             Almasat )                                              Tech     
06B
             XaTcobeo )                                             Tech     
06
             ROBUSTA  )                                             Tech     
06
             e-st@r   )                                             Tech     
06
             Goliat   )                                             Tech     
06
             PWSat-1  )                                             Tech     
06
             MaSat-1  )                                             Tech     
06
             UNICubeSat-GG )                                        Tech     
06
             LARES Support Sys)                                     Tech     
06K
Feb 14 1936   SES-4              Proton-M/Briz-M   Baykonur LC200/39 Comms    
07A

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------

Date UT     Payload/Flt Name  Launch Vehicle  Site                   Mission
Apogee/km


Jan 11 1325   NASA 12.074GT    Terrier Malemute   Wallops             Test
  500?
Jan 12 1451   S-520-26         S-520              Uchinoura           Atm Sci
  298
Jan 28 1815   STIG-A-III       STIG-A             Spaceport America   Test
   82
Feb 10 0440   Target           Prithvi            Chandipur           Target
  100
Feb 13 0932   MASER 12         VSB-30             ESRANGE             Micrograv
  260

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |          jcm@cfa.harvard.edu       |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html                                 |
| Back issues:  http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back                  |
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'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

(Gespalder/41415) http://news.discovery.com/space/earth-has-two-moons-111222.html

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:51:00 -0600

http://news.discovery.com/space/earth-has-two-moons-111222.html

EARTH MUST HAVE ANOTHER MOON, SAY ASTRONOMERS
The way our planet temporarily captures asteroids suggests Earth should have at
least one extra moon at any one time.

Thu Dec 22, 2011 09:15 AM ET
Content provided by FoxNews.com/SciTech
(16)B Comments
THE GIST
        b"      Asteroids captured by our planet essentially become extra
moons, say astronomers.
        b"      At any given time, there should be at least one extra
"temporary moon" in our orbit.

enlarge
Is there another "moon" out there? Astronomers say yes...sort of. Click to
enlarge this image. b(
Maybe Frank should have sung "Fly Me to the Moons."
Scientists studying satellites orbiting the planet have come to an astounding
conclusion: Earth has multiple moons at any given time, the MIT Technology
Review reported.
Mikael Granvik, along with colleagues at the University of Hawaii, first
discovered a mysterious body orbiting the Earth in 2006. The object -- or RH120
as it was known -- turned out to be a tiny asteroid just a few meters across.
Moreover, it was a natural satellite just like our moon.
NEWS: Earth May Have Had Two Moons
Since then, the researchers have been studying how this "Earth-Moon"
gravitational system captures bodies into its orbit while also modelling their
frequency and duration. The asteroid RH120 for instance was captured in
September 2006 and orbited the planet until June 2007.
But how often do these "temporary moons" actually occur? Quite often, the
astronomers found.
"At any given time, there should be at least one natural Earth satellite of
one-meter diameter orbiting the Earth," Granvik, Jeremie Vaubaillon and Robert
Jedicke wrote in "The Population of Natural Earth Satellites," a paper
published in online physics journal ArXiv.org.
In other words, at this very moment, our planet likely has a secret moon
orbiting us (no word as to whether it's a blue moon). Such objects typically
stay for about 10 months, making three revolutions around the planet.
NEWS: Subterranean Living May Await Moon and Mars Colonists
Given that these tiny captured orbitals are only a meter or two in diameter, it
may seem a stretch to officially call them "moons" -- but the scientific
implications of the discovery are vast. Outside of assisting private
spaceflight and exploring deep space, the other major thing on NASA's list of
things to do is send astronauts to an asteroid.
"The scientio,c potential of being able to o,rst remotely characterize a
meteoroid and then visit and bring it back to Earth would be unprecedented,"
the research team concluded.
Read more about Earth's second moon at the MIT Technology Review.

(Gespalder/41414) http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/02/new-alien-planet-is-pe...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:49:00 -0600

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/02/new-alien-planet-is-perfect-for-life-
scientists-say/?intcmp=obinsite

New alien planet is perfect for life, scientists say
By Denise Chow
Published February 02, 2012
| Space.com
                b(Carnegie Institution for Scienceb(An artist's conception of
the alien planet GJ 667Cc, which is located in the habitable zone of its parent
star.
A potentially habitable alien planet -- one that scientists say is the best
candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface -- has
been found around a nearby star.
The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow
circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for
liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.

"It's the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star
orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all
its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven
Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told
SPACE.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone -- there's no question or
discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."
Vogt is one of the authors of the new study, which was led by Guillem
Anglada-EscudC) and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a
private, nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C.
"This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps,
life as we know it," Anglada-EscudC) said in a statement.
An alien super-Earth
The researchers estimate that the planet, called GJ 667Cc, is at least 4.5
times as massive as Earth, which makes it a so-called super-Earth. It takes
roughly 28 days to make one orbital lap around its parent star, which is
located a mere 22 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Scorpius
(the Scorpion).
"This is basically our next-door neighbor," Vogt said. "It's very nearby. There
are only about 100 stars closer to us than this one."
Interestingly enough, the host star, GJ 667C, is a member of a triple-star
system. GJ 667C is an M-class dwarf star that is about a third of the mass of
the sun, and while it is faint, it can be seen by ground-based telescopes, Vogt
said. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]
"The planet is around one star in a triple-star system," Vogt explained. "The
other stars are pretty far away, but they would look pretty nice in the sky."
The discovery of a planet around GJ 667C came as a surprise to the astronomers,
because the entire star system has a different chemical makeup than our sun.
The system has much lower abundances of heavy elements (elements heavier than
hydrogen and helium), such as iron, carbon and silicon.
"It's pretty deficient in metals," Vogt said. "These are the materials out of
which planets form -- the grains of stuff that coalesce to eventually make up
planets -- so we shouldn't have really expected this star to be a likely case
for harboring planets."
The fortuitous discovery could mean that potentially habitable alien worlds
could exist in a greater variety of environments than was previously thought
possible, the researchers said.
"Statistics tell us we shouldn't have found something this quickly this soon
unless there's a lot of them out there," Vogt said. "This tells us there must
be an awful lot of these planets out there. It was almost too easy to find, and
it happened too quickly."
The detailed findings of the study will be published in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters.
An intriguing star system
Another super-Earth that orbits much closer to GJ 667C was previously detected
in 2010, but the finding was never published, Vogt added. This planet, called
GJ 667Cb, takes 7.2 days to circle the star but its location makes it far too
hot to sustain liquid water on its surface.
"It's basically glowing cinders, or a well-lit charcoal," Vogt said. "We know
about a lot of these, but they're thousands of degrees and not places where you
could live."
But, the newly detected GJ 667Cc planet is a much more intriguing candidate, he
said.
"When a planet gets bigger than about 10 times the size of the Earth, there's a
runaway process that happens, where it begins to eat up all the gas and ice in
the disk that it's forming out of and swells quickly into something like
Uranus, Jupiter or Saturn," Vogt explained. "When you have a surface and the
right temperature, if there's water around, there's a good chance that it could
be in liquid form. This planet is right in that sweet spot in the habitable
zone, so we've got the right temperature and the right mass range."
Preliminary observations also suggest that more planets could exist in this
system, including a gas giant planet and another super-Earth that takes about
75 days to circle the star. More research will be needed to confirm these
planetary candidates, as well as to glean additional details about the
potentially habitable super-Earth, the scientists said.
Finding nearby alien planets
To make their discovery, the researchers used public data from the European
Southern Observatory combined with observations from the W.M. Keck Observatory
in Hawaii and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II
Telescope in Chile.
Follow-up analyses were also made using a planet-hunting technique that
measures the small dips, or wobbles, in a star's motion caused by the
gravitational tug of a planet.
"With the advent of a new generation of instruments, researchers will be able
to survey many M dwarf stars for similar planets and eventually look for
spectroscopic signatures of life in one of these worlds," Anglada-EscudC) said
in a statement. Anglada-EscudC) was with the Carnegie Institution for Science
when he conducted the research, but has since moved on to the University of
Gottingen in Germany.
With the GJ 667C system being relatively nearby, it also opens exciting
possibilities for probing potentially habitable alien worlds in the future,
Vogt said, which can't easily be done with the planets that are being found by
NASA's prolific Kepler spacecraft.
"The planets coming out of Kepler are typically thousands of light-years away
and we could never send a space probe out there," Vogt said. "We've been
explicitly focusing on very nearby stars, because with today's technology, we
could send a robotic probe out there, and within a few hundred years, it could
be sending back picture postcards."
                Gallery: The Smallest Alien Planets
                Kepler Reveals Lots of Planets: Some Habitable?
                A Galaxy Full of Alien Planets (Infographic)
Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

(Gespalder/41413) http://dsc.discovery.com/gear-gadgets/nasa-finds-lost-spacecraft...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:24:00 -0600

http://dsc.discovery.com/gear-gadgets/nasa-finds-lost-spacecraft-on-dark-side-o
f-the-moon.html#mkcpgn=otbn1

NASA Finds Lost Spacecraft on Dark Side of the Moon


By Jerry James Stone
Mon Aug 8, 2011 04:21 PM ET
(44)B Comments


Photo via NASA
NASA scientists have found the crash site, pictured above, of a spacecraft set
into orbit during the early 60s. This one-thankfully-is not crawling with
Decepticons. They believe it is the missing Lunar Orbiter 2 which disappeared
back in 1967 during a passage over the far side of the moon, when the craft
went out of telescope and radio range.
Lunar Orbit 2b2s primary function was documenting areas of the moon that would
be most hospitable to the Apollo and Surveyor missions. During its run, it
returned a total of 609 high resolution images and 208 medium-sized frames.
This includes the Copernicus crater (pictured below) which is considered by
many to be the Picture of the Century.

Photo via NASA
While the spacecraft was intentionally downed on October 11, 1967, scientists
had yet to find the crash site-til now.
The wreckage is thought to have been located by the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter (LRO) which is currently mapping the lunar surface in unprecedented
detail. During its mission so far, the spacecraft has gathered more than 192
terabytes of data; that's nearly 41,000 DVDs worth of data, images and maps!
One of its key findings is our solar system's coldest spot: a crater near the
moon's north pole was recorded at minus 415 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrr!
Some of the images LRO has captured can be seen below, but you can also find
more here.
Follow me @jerryjamesstone or friend me on Facebook.

Photo via NASA

Photo via NASA

(Gespalder/41412) Jonathan's Space Report

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:51:00 -0600

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 653                                       2012 Jan 30 Somerville MA USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-

Space Station
-------------

Expedition 30 continues with Soyuz TMA-22 docked at Poisk and Soyuz
TMA-03M docked to the Rassvet module. Progress M-13M undocked from the
Pirs module on Jan 23 at 2210 UTC into a 375 x 405 km orbit. It made two
burns to reach a 493 x 508 km orbit, and ejected the Chibis-M scientific
microsatellite at 2318 UTC on Jan 24. Progress M-13M was then deorbited at
0225 UTC on Jan 25 into a 56 x 514 km orbit. It entered
the atmosphere at 0304 UTC, with the debris falling in the South Pacific at
0318 UTC. Progress M-14M was launched on Jan 25 and docked with the
Pirs module at 0009 UTC on Jan 28.

FOBOS-GRUNT REENTRY
-------------------

At 1636 UTC on Jan 15, FG's orbit was 112 x 124 km x 51.4 deg.
According to the Russian `space control network' the spacecraft was
expected to have reentered about 1745 UTC on Jan 15, over the Pacific
Ocean. Other reports from the Russian `ballistics' calculations
suggested a slightly later reentry predicted at 1759 UTC over Goias
state in Brazil.   On Jan 23 Space-Track released an estimate reported
that entry at 80 km was at 1746 UTC +/- 1 min, off the coast of Chile at
46S 87W; this estimate seems likely to be reliable and is probably
derived from DSP infrared sensors (and at least gets credit for quoting
an error bar). The quoted location matches the final element set's
ground track at about 1746:40 UTC - I will combined that estimated
time with the quoted 1 minute error bar.

On Jan 25 ESA announced a reentry time at 10 km of 1745
UTC, with an uncertainty of +/-7.5 min (1 sigma; personal communication
from Heiner Klinkrad). Adopting ESA's estimated descent time of 7
minutes from 80 km to 10 km, this corresponds to an 80 km reentry at
1738 UTC +/- 7.5min, consistent with the Space-Track value within the quoted
uncertainties,

Unfortunately you can't use the standard orbit propagators to figure out
what geographical position the 10-km-altitude time corresponds to, since
the atmosphere slows the debris down a lot. Models of the UARS reentry
suggested that the denser debris, which might survive reentry, impacts
800 to 1200 km downrange from the 80 km point. Taking that as a model
for FG, and including the +/- 1 minute error range for the initial
starting point around 1746:40UTC,  I derive a range of 84W 45S to 71W
38S for the likely position of dense debris impact based on the
Space-Track (USSTRATCOM) data. This region is in the south-east Pacific
and stretches  across the Chilean coast north of Valdivia and across the
Araucania region. to just short of the Chilean/Argentine border
northeast of Temuco. Taking the centers of the relevant ranges gives a
point just off  the Chilean coast, near 76W 41S.

I believe it is likely that all the debris hit the ocean, but it's also
entirely possible that some pieces reached the ground in the Araucania
region of Chile. Only about 100 kg of the 13000 kg satellite was
expected to reach the Earth's surface according to Russian sources,
while the remainder would have burned up and melted high in the upper
atmosphere.

As you can see, even ten days post-reentry for a well studied event, it
can be tough to figure out exactly where a  spacecraft came down when it
has undergone natural reentry from an atmosphere-skimming circular
orbit. This may be contrasted with deliberate deorbits from higher
altitude, like the Progress M-13M entry, where the steep angle of entry
into the atmosphere yields a well-understood time and location.

WGS 4
-----

The 4th Wideband Global Satcom satellite was launched on Jan 20
into supersynchronous geostationary transfer orbit. The Boeing 702 satellite
provides high bandwidth communications for the US military
and is operated by US Army Space Command.

Chinese launches
----------------

On Jan 9 the zi yuan san hao (ZY-3) mapping satellite was launched,
together with the small 28 kg VesselSat 2, built by LuxSpace for
Orbcomm's AIS (maritime vessel tracking) system. On Jan 13 ZY-3 was in a
498 x 506 km x 97.5 deg orbit, Vesselsat-2 in a 489 x 500 km orbit and
the CZ-4B third stage in a 219 x 487 km orbit. The second Chinese launch
this month was the fengyun erhao 07 xing (FY-2 satellite 07), also
called FY-2F. This geostationary weather satellite was launched to a 362
x 35773 km x 24.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit.

GRAIL and NPP
---------------

The two GRAIL lunar satellites have been renamed Ebb and Flow, following
a competition in which school students suggested names. The NPP weather
satellite has been renamed Suomi NPP after Verner Suomi (1915-1995) who
was a pioneer of NASA's early weather satellites and flew the
first cloud cover sensors on Vanguard 2 and Tiros 1.

Passing rock
-------------

Asteroid 2012 BX34 made a close approach to Earth in a 59023 x -80873 km
x 80.18 deg hyperbolic orbit (C3 = 87.7 km**2/s**2) at 1525 UTC on Jan
27, over about 150W 56S. This is sufficiently above GEO altitude that it
probably didn't come too close to any satellites (the closest pass
I've found was to OGO 1 at 19000 km distance). It missed Chandra
by 173000 km - phew!


Suborbital launches
-------------------

The second Terrier/Improved Malemute flight was launched on Jan 11. The
T/IM is an uprated version of the Terrier Malemute developed by Sandia
Labs, which made at least 46 flights between 1974 and 2004. I'm still
waiting to hear what apogee the new flight reached. JAXA's S-520-26
launch from Uchinoura released three lithium clouds for upper atmosphere
studies.

In the last JSR I missed the Dec 10 launch of Webster Cash's CODEX mission,
NASA 36.274UH, which was flown to get soft X-ray spectra of the Vela
region.

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                         DES.
Dec  1 2107   Beidou DW10       Chang Zheng 3A     Xichang           Navsat   
73A
Dec 11 1117   Amos  5  )        Proton-M/Briz-M    Baykonur          Comms    
74A
             Luch 5A  )                                             DataRelay
74B
Dec 12 0121   JSE Reda-3 gouki  H-IIA 202          Tanegashima       Radar    
75A
Dec 17 0203   Pleiades HR1 )    Soyuz ST-A         CSG ELS           Imaging  
76A
             Elisa 1      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Elisa 2      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Elisa 3      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Elisa 4      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Fasat-Charlie)                                         Imaging  
76
Dec 19 1641   Nigcomsat 1R      Chang Zheng 3BE    Xichang LC2       Comms    
77A
Dec 21 1316   Soyuz TMA-03M     Soyuz-FG           Baykonur LC1      Spaceship
78A
Dec 22 0326   ZY-1 02C          Chang Zheng 4B     Taiyuan           Imaging  
79A
Dec 23 1208   Meridian          Soyuz-2-1B         Plesetsk          Comms    
F04
Dec 28 1709   Globalstar M084)  Soyuz-2-1A         Baykonur LC31     Comms    
80A
             Globalstar M080)                                       Comms    
80B
             Globalstar M082)                                       Comms    
80C
             Globalstar M092)                                       Comms    
80D
             Globalstar M090)                                       Comms    
80E
             Globalstar M086)                                       Comms    
80F
Jan  9 0317   ZY-3        )     Chang Zheng 4B     Taiyuan           Imaging  
01A
             Vesselsat 2 )                                          Comms    
01B
Jan 13 0056   FY-2(07)          Chang Zheng 3A     Xichang           Weather  
02A
Jan 20 0038   WGS 4             Delta 4M+(5,4)     Canaveral SLC37B  Comms    
03A
Jan 24 2318   Chibis-M          -                  PM-13M, LEO       Science  
62C
Jan 25 2306   Progress M-14M    Soyuz-U            Baykonur LC1      Cargo    
04A

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------

Date UT     Payload/Flt Name  Launch Vehicle  Site                   Mission
Apogee/km


Dec  2 2200   VS30 V08         VS-30              Natal               Space
sci?   173?
Dec  3 0721   ICI-3            VS-30/Orion        Svalbard            Auroral
  354
Dec 10 1030   NASA 36.274UH    Black Brant IX     White Sands         Astronomy
  300?
Dec 19?       MR-30 payload    MR-30              Kapustin Yar        Test
  304
Dec 20 0848   S-310-40         S-310              Uchinoura          
Ionosphere   180
Dec 23        RV x 6?          Bulava             K-535, White Sea    Salvo
test  1000?
Dec 23        RV x 6?          Bulava             K-535, White Sea    Salvo
test  1000?
Dec 27 1200   RV x 6?          UR-100NU           Baykonur            Test
 1000?
Jan 11 1325   NASA 12.074GT    Terrier Malemute   Wallops             Test
  500?
Jan 12 1451   S-520-26         S-520              Uchinoura           Atm Sci
  298


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |          jcm@cfa.harvard.edu       |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html                                 |
| Back issues:  http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back                  |
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(Gespalder/41411) Space Weather News for Jan. 27, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:20:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Jan. 27, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

X-FLARE:  Earth-orbiting satellites detected a powerful X2-class solar flare
today, Jan. 27th, at 1837 UT (1:37 pm EST). The source was departing sunspot
1402.  The blast produced a spectacular CME (not Earth directed) and
accelerated energetic protons toward Earth.  A low-level radiation storm is now
in progress around our planet. Visit http://spaceweather.com for images and
updates.

(Vlad Tepes/41410) i don't understand why usa governments keep saying they have to ...

Vlad Tepes@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:19:00 -0600

i don't understand why usa governments keep saying they have to "explore" new
forms of transportstion energy when it has existed for years.

"Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan and Toyota also produced limited numbers of
electric cars for drivers in California, USA. In 2003, upon the expiration of
GM's EV1 leases, GM crushed them. The crushing has variously been attributed to
1) the auto industry's successful federal court challenge to California's
zero-emissions vehicle mandate, 2) a federal regulation requiring GM to produce
and maintain spare parts for the few thousands EV1s and 3) the success of the
oil and auto industries' media campaign to reduce public acceptance of electric
vehicles.

A movie made on the subject in 2005-2006 was titled Who Killed the Electric
Car? and released theatrically by Sony Pictures Classics in 2006. The film
explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, oil industry, the U.S.
government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers, and each of their
roles in limiting the deployment and adoption of this technology."

it would be a simple matter to pull out the blueprints and rebuild the cars, et
voila.

(The After Party/41409) Giraffe

The After Party@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:59:00 -0600

Giraffe

  Yeah. Was off of chile. Just wondering if I could have seen in streaking
  across the sky...oh well.

(Giraffe/41408) I think the impact was on the other side of South America -- off...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:45:00 -0600

I think the impact was on the other side of South America -- off of Chile. But
the reports are not specific.

(The After Party/41407) Phobos-Grunt

The After Party@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:54:00 -0600

Phobos-Grunt

  Damn, I'm in Brasil (near Rio) and I forgot about this. I wonder if
  I could have seen anything..probably not.

(Gespalder/41406) NASA Science News for Jan. 13, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:10:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Jan. 13, 2012
A distant super-Earth named "55 Cancri e" is wetter and weirder than
astronomers thought possible. The discovery has researchers re-thinking the
nature of alien worlds.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/13jan_r
ethink/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_CZCmJ2om0

(Gespalder/41405) NASA Science News for Jan. 12, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:20:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Jan. 12, 2012
Astronomers are still scratching their heads over Comet Lovejoy, which plunged
through the atmosphere of the sun in December and, against all odds, survived.
The comet is now receding into the outer solar system leaving many mysteries
behind.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/12jan_c
ometlovejoy/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w75lBn1QIaI

(Peccavimus/41404) Awww! How cute!

Peccavimus@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:26:00 -0600

Awww!  How cute!
Can we keep it?  Huh?  Can we?

(Gespalder/41403) NASA Science News for Jan. 11, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:14:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Jan. 11, 2012
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered the tiniest solar system so far: a red
dwarf star with three rocky planets smaller than Earth.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/11jan_s
mallestexoplanets/

(Gespalder/41402) Jonathan's Space Report

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:51:00 -0600

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 652                                        2012 Jan  8  Austin, Texas, USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
The Earth made its annual closest approach to the Sun at about 0030 UTC on Jan
5.
A happy perihelion to all my readers!

Space Station
-------------

Launch of the Soyuz TMA-03M spaceship from Baykonur with Oleg Kononenko,
Andre Kuipers and Don Pettit occurred on Dec 21. The ship docked
with the Rassvet module at 1519 UTC on Dec 23.

Meridian failure
-----------------

Launch of the fifth Meridian military communcations
satellite from Plesetk failed on Dec 23, once again putting the
Soyuz-2-1b launch vehicle in doubt. The Blok-I third stage
malfunctioned 7 min 1 s after launch, a couple of minutes short
of orbit insertion. Blok-I with the Fregat upper stage and the payload
crashed near Novosibirsk.

It has been reported that this was the first launch under the auspices
of the VVKO  (Voyska Vosdushno-Kosmicheskoi Oborona, Aerospace Defence
Forces), which on Dec 1 officially replaced the KVR (Russian Space
Forces), although Aleksandr Zheleznakyov (personal comm.) says that
the Nov 28 launch was actually the first for Voiska VKO. (The intermediate
launches were civilian ones performed by the Roskosmos).

GRAIL
-----

The GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Dec 31 and Jan
1. The planned capture orbits were 88 x 8378 km x 87.2 deg for GRAIL-A,
and 111 x 8359 km x 88.3 deg for GRAIL-B. According to
spaceflightnow.com the actual orbit for GRAIL-A is 90 x 8362 km.
The GRAIL probes will now maneuver close to each other to begin their
gravity mapping mission.


Globalstar
-----------

Six Globalstar low orbit telecom satellites were launched on Dec 28 on a
Soyuz-2-1a from Plesetk. The successful launch by Roskosmos was a relief
coming only days after the Soyuz-2-1b failure, which may - perhaps -
be isolated to the RD-0124 engine that's unique to the 1b variant.
I don't yet have the serial numbers for the six satellites.


PSSC-2
------

The Aerospace Corporation's  PSSC Testbed 2 picosatellite, ejected from
mission STS-135, reentered on Dec 8. The 4 kg satellite carried four
tiny model-rocket motors to raise its orbit. One of those was fired on
Nov 4 at around 1530 UTC and raised the orbit slightly from 90.9 min,
317 x 319 km to 91.0 min, 316 x 329 km, delaying decay by about 4 days.
Based on the otherwise steady orbital decay rate, it appears that the
remaining motors were not fired.

ZY-1 02C
--------

China launched the Ziyuan yihao 02C satellite from Taiyuan on Dec 22.
The satellite carries imaging cameras with a resolution of 2.4m.
The two earlier ZY-1 satellites were launched as part of a joint
Sino-Brazilian program (CBERS), but this one appears to be all-Chinese.
China also has a ZY-2 series, thought to be used for defense related
imaging, while ZY-1 is used for civilian mapping and resource monitoring.

Tiangong and X-37
-----------------

The USAF's X-37B OTV spaceplane launched in Mar 2011 remains in orbit.
However, contrary to some recent media reports, its mission is unrelated
to observations of the Tiangong-1 spacelab; the orbital planes of
the two vehicles are perpendicular.


Erratum
-------

Of course, Cassini's been in Saturn orbit since 2004 Jul 1, not 2005 - that
should teach me not to send out JSR at 3am in future.


Suborbital flights
------------------

On Dec 23 the Russian Navy carried out a launch of two Bulava missiles
from the submarine Yuriy Dolgorukiy, according to Pavel Podvig's
site russianforces.org. Each missile carried
several (probably six) reentry vehicles which flew from the White Sea to
the Kura test range in Kamchatka.
On Dec 27, a UR-100NU rocket was launched from Baykonur to Kura
carrying an experimental reentry vehicle.


Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                         DES.
Nov  4 1251   Glonass-M No. 43) Proton-M/Briz-M    Baykonur LC81     Navsat   
64A
             Glonass-M No. 44)                                      Navsat   
64B
             Glonass-M No. 45)                                      Navsat   
64C
Nov  8 2016   Fobos-Grunt       Zenit-2SB          Baykonur LC45    Mars probe
65A
Nov  9 0321   Yaogan Weixing 12) Chang Zheng 4B    Taiyuan           Imaging? 
66B
             Tianxun 1        )                                     Imaging  
66A
Nov 14 0414   Soyuz TMA-22      Soyuz-FG           Baykonur LC1      Spaceship
67A
Nov 20 0015   Shiyan Weixing 4 ) Chang Zheng 2D    Jiuquan           Tech?    
68B
             Chuanxin 1-03    )                                     Tech     
68A
Nov 25 1910   Asiasat 7         Proton-M/Briz-M    Baykonur LC200/39 Comms    
69B
Nov 26 1502   MSL               Atlas V 541        Canaveral SLC41  Mars probe
70A
Nov 28 0826   Glonass-M No. 46  Soyuz-2-1B         Plesetsk LC43     Navsat   
71A
Nov 29 1850   Yaogan Weixing 13 Chang Zheng 2C     Taiyuan           Radar?   
72A
Dec  1 2107   Beidou DW10       Chang Zheng 3A     Xichang           Navsat   
73A
Dec 11 1117   Amos  5  )        Proton-M/Briz-M    Baykonur          Comms    
74A
             Luch 5A  )                                             DataRelay
74B
Dec 12 0121   JSE Reda-3 gouki  H-IIA 202          Tanegashima       Radar    
75A
Dec 17 0203   Pleiades HR1 )    Soyuz ST-A         CSG ELS           Imaging  
76A
             Elisa 1      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Elisa 2      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Elisa 3      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Elisa 4      )                                         Sigint   
76
             Fasat-Charlie)                                         Imaging  
76
Dec 19 1641   Nigcomsat 1R      Chang Zheng 3BE    Xichang LC2       Comms    
77A
Dec 21 1316   Soyuz TMA-03M     Soyuz-FG           Baykonur LC1      Spaceship
78A
Dec 22 0326   ZY-1 02C          Chang Zheng 4B     Taiyuan           Imaging  
79A
Dec 23 1208   Meridian          Soyuz-2-1B         Plesetsk          Comms    
F04
Dec 28 1709   Globalstar  )     Soyuz-2-1A         Baykonur LC31     Comms    
80A
             Globalstar  )                                          Comms    
80B
             Globalstar  )                                          Comms    
80C
             Globalstar  )                                          Comms    
80D
             Globalstar  )                                          Comms    
80E
             Globalstar  )                                          Comms    
80F

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------

Date UT     Payload/Flt Name  Launch Vehicle  Site                   Mission
Apogee/km


Nov  2 0750   RV               Jericho III        Palmachim           Test
  300?
Nov  3 0645   RV               Topol'             Plesetsk            Test
 1000?
Nov  6        NASA 36.264UH    Black Brant 9      White Sands         Astronomy
  250?
Nov 15 0330   Agni RV          Agni IV            Chandipur           Test
  900
Nov 17 1130   AHW Flight 1A    STARS              Kauai LC42         
Hypersonic  1000?
Nov 25 2300   Orion V05        Orion              Natal               Test
  100?
Nov 27 0910   TEXUS 48         VSB-30             Kiruna              Micrograv
  270?
Dec  2 2200   VS30 V08         VS-30              Natal               Space
sci?   173?
Dec  3 0721   ICI-3            VS-30/Orion        Svalbard            Auroral
  354
Dec 19?       MR-30 payload    MR-30              Kapustin Yar        Test
  304
Dec 23        RV x 6?          Bulava             K-535, White Sea    Salvo
test  1000?
Dec 23        RV x 6?          Bulava             K-535, White Sea    Salvo
test  1000?
Dec 27 1200   RV               UR-100NU           Baykonur            Test
 1000?

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |          jcm@cfa.harvard.edu       |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html                                 |
| Back issues:  http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back                  |
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(Gespalder/41401) Interesting. But can it really succeed?

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:21:00 -0600

Interesting. But can it really succeed?

3. DARPA plans to make space trash into treasure
By Molly Bernhart Walker         Comment |  Forward | Twitter | Facebook |
LinkedIn

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency hopes to reduce the cost and
shorten the deployment-time of defense communication systems with a new plan to
repurpose the valuable components in retired, non-operating satellites. And
according to a broad agency announcement posted to FedBizOpps.gov Dec. 22,
DARPA plans to spend approximately $36 million in contracting dollars in order
to do so.

satlets,' that will latch onto the antenna of retired satellites, essentially
creating a new space system. In order to deliver satlets to orbit economically,
DARPA says they would travel in payload orbital delivery system, or PODS, that
can "ride along" on a commercial satellite launch.

"The tender plans to be equipped with grasping mechanical arms for removing the
Satlets and components from the PODS using unique robotic tools to be developed
in the program," says DARPA.

According to the presolicitation, space is a rich salvage yard: "With over
1,300 satellites launched to [geosynchronous orbit] since the 1960's, it
estimated over $300B worth of hardware and approximately 20,000 kg of apertures
are in the GEO belt today."

Development will culminate with an on-orbit demonstration of at least one
successful aperture repurposing by 2015 or 2016, says DARPA. Responses to the
announcement are due to DARPA by Feb. 6 at 4:00 pm EST.

For more:
- see the solicitation on FBO

Related Articles:
NASA unprepared to deal with mounting orbital debris

(Gespalder/41400) Space Weather News for Jan. 5, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:02:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Jan. 5, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

MARS PROBE PHOTOGRAPHED: Phobos-Grunt, a Russian Mars probe stuck in Earth
orbit since November, is sinking back into the atmosphere.  Best estimates
suggest re-entry will occur on Jan. 15th or 16th. Meanwhile, citizen scientists
can see the probe moving through the night sky sometimes shining as brightly as
a first-magnitude star.   French astrophotographer Thierry Legault recently
photographed Phobos-Grunt through a 14-inch telescope, revealing its outlines
and perhaps a clue as to why the probe has had difficulty communicating with
Earth.  His images and video are highlighted on today's edition of
http://spaceweather.com .

Local flyby times for Phobos-Grunt may be found using SpaceWeather's online
satellite tracker (http://spaceweather.com/flybys) or on your smartphone:
http://simpleflybys.com

(Gespalder/41399) Space Weather News for Jan. 3, 2012

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:06:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Jan. 3, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

FIRST METEOR SHOWER OF 2012: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on
Wednesday morning, Jan. 4th, when Earth passes through a narrow stream of
debris from a comet thought to have broken apart some 500 years ago.  The
shower is expected to be strong (as many as 100 meteors per hour), but elusive,
with a peak that lasts no longer than a couple of hours.  The shower's radiant
near Polaris favors observers in the northern hemisphere.  Images, live audio
from a meteor radar, and more information are available on today's edition of
http://spaceweather.com.

(Gespalder/41398) NASA Science News for Dec. 30, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:32:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Dec. 30, 2011
The discovery of a towering mountain on Vesta could solve a longstanding
mystery: How did so many pieces of the giant asteroid end up right here on our
own planet?

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/30dec_s
pacemountain/


and

NASA Science News for Dec. 30, 2011
NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft, on a mission to map the Moon's gravitational
field, are nearing their New Year's Eve and New Year's Day main-engine burns to
place the duo in lunar orbit.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/30dec_g
rail/

(Gespalder/41397) NASA Science News for Dec. 23, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:02:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Dec. 23, 2011
On Dec. 26th, Venus and the crescent Moon will gather together for a beautiful
night-after-Christmas sky show.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/23dec_n
ightafter/

and

Space Weather News for Dec. 23, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station have seen sungrazing Comet
Lovejoy from Earth orbit.  ISS commander Dan Burbank describes the comet's
green-glowing tail as "the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space." Video
from the ISS and updated images from Earth are highlighted on today's edition
of Spaceweather.com.

(MoonToad/41395) Right, that was the post I was refering to, but the original pos...

MoonToad@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:05:00 -0600

Right, that was the post I was refering to, but the original poster took it
down.

(QUITTNER/41394) Ask any theologians and they'll tell you! [LAUGHS]

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:37:00 -0600

Ask any theologians and they'll tell you! [LAUGHS]

(Gespalder/41392) NASA Science News for Dec. 20, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:12:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Dec. 20, 2011
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant
sun-like star. These alien worlds are intermingled in their star system with
other much larger planets, an arrangement which challenges orthodox ideas of
how planets are formed.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/20dec_e
arthsized/


And we need to once again rethink how solar systems form.

(Gespalder/41391) Space Weather News for Dec. 20, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:01:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Dec. 20, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

SUNRISE COMET: Comet Lovejoy is receding from the sun, remarkably still intact
after its Dec. 16th plunge through the solar atmosphere. Multiple observers in
the southern hemisphere are now reporting that they can see and photograph the
comet's tail shining through the twilight of sunrise.  Pictures of this rare
apparition are highlighted on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.

(QUITTNER/41390) It's a matter of priorities: Compare with the various countries ...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:06:00 -0600

It's a matter of priorities: Compare with the various countries that have too
many debts as a result of too many deficits withou surpluses, such as Greece
and Italy and Britain; their governments cut spending (at the wrong time?);
what to cut back and what to leave as is?

(Xenos/41389) American businesses. That's why America is in so much doogy doo...

Xenos@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:48:00 -0600

American businesses.  That's why America is in so much doogy doo.

(Cyanide/41388) Xenos> Actually you are wrong. Businesses cut back on R&D, and i...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:33:00 -0600

Xenos> Actually you are wrong. Businesses cut back on R&D, and increase
advertising for their current products. :) ,

(Xenos/41387) Especially since science is an area where you have established s...

Xenos@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:52:00 -0600

Especially since science is an area where you have established scientists
training/teaching new scientists (i.e. research professors lecturing new
students).  So if you cut back on, let's say, university funding and grants,
you will likely reduce the number of older scientists available to teach/train
younger ones, AND reduce the number of student places.  And you may say, "so
what?".  But be assured that other countries, particularly China and Japan, are
doing the exact oposite.  So the net result is that your country becomes
increasing reliant on foreign technology, which isn't a good position to be in
in the long term.

(Odd/41386) QUITTNER> yeah, timing is important. And laying off people in ...

Odd@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:15:00 -0600

QUITTNER>  yeah, timing is important.  And laying off people in one industry
(science) just before a crisis is just as bad as when it happens in another
industry (e.g. cars).  In which case the government likes to spend MORE to save
the industry.

Rather shortsighted to think you can just cut funding to science for a couple
of years, and pick it back up later without consequences.

(Gespalder/41385) Space Weather News for Dec. 16, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:58:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Dec. 16, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

SUNGRAZING COMET SURVIVES: Sungrazing Comet Lovejoy has confounded the experts
and survived its close encounter with the sun.  Last night, NASA's Solar
Dynamics Observatory recorded amazing movies of the comet entering and exiting
the sun's atmosphere. Comet Lovejoy's scorched remnant is now receding from the
sun in full view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.  Visit
http://spaceweather.com for the latest movies and discussion.


and

NASA Science News for Dec. 16, 2011
Sungrazing Comet Lovejoy has shocked astronomers by surviving its "death
plunge" into the sun. Must-see movies of the comet's passage through the sun's
atmosphere are featured in today's story from Science@NASA.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16dec_c
ometlovejoy/

(Xenos/41383) Pecc is right - you can't move forward if you don't conduct rese...

Xenos@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:58:00 -0600

Pecc is right - you can't move forward if you don't conduct research.  All
(successful) businesses in the technology industries will cut back everything
and anything before they cut back on research.  You don't know what you don't
know.  A million techological inisights might arise from some piece of blue-sky
research.  We wouldn't have the internet if not for CERN (the European
Organization for Nuclear Research), for example.

(Peccavimus/41382) It's called investing in the future. In hard times, you invest ...

Peccavimus@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:52:00 -0600

It's called investing in the future.  In hard times, you invest more, not less.

Your argument would be stronger if you didn't say things like "deficit after
deficit keeps the debts going up," which is essentially meaningless.

(QUITTNER/41381) Proper timing is important. At a time when deficit after deficit...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:50:00 -0600

Proper timing is important. At a time when deficit after deficit keeps the
debts going up and up scientific research can wait for better times until
surpluses are replacing deficits - hopefully soon?

(Gespalder/41380) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/europe/boris-chertok-rus...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:07:00 -0600

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/europe/boris-chertok-russian-rocket-eng
ineer-dies-at-99.html?src=recg

Boris Chertok, Engineer With Russian Space Program, Dies at 99
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: December 15, 2011

Boris Chertok, a Russian rocket engineer who played a central role in designing
the navigation systems for Soviet spacecraft during the race to the moon, among
them the one that carried the first human into space, died Wednesday in Moscow.
He was 99.

Natalia Kolesnikova/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images
Boris Chertok's navigation systems guided spacecraft.

Russia's state-controlled spacecraft manufacturer, RKK Energiya, for which Mr.
Chertok was a consultant in his later years, said the cause was pneumonia.

For more than 20 years, Mr. Chertok was a deputy to Sergei Pavlovich Korolev,
known as the father of the Soviet space program. Under Mr. Korolev, who died in
1966, Mr. Chertok was the primary designer of control systems for one of the
world's first intercontinental ballistic missiles, the R-7, and the Soviet
Union's earliest manned spacecraft, the Vostok, the Voskhod and the Soyuz.

"It's difficult to think of any major event in the Soviet space program that he
didn't contribute to," said Asif Siddiqi, a history professor at Fordham
University and the chief translator of Mr. Chertok's four-volume memoir,
"Rockets and People," published between 2004 and this year.

The Soviet Union seemed predominant in the early years of the space race. Mr.
Chertok's systems guided the rocket that bore Sputnik 1, the first artificial
satellite to orbit Earth, into space on Oct. 4, 1957; and, on April 12, 1961,
the rocket that took the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. (Less than a month
later, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space.)

The Soviets embellished their earlier feats. In August 1962, they launched two
manned space capsules that would orbit at the same time. On June 16, 1963, they
sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova. In October 1964, three
cosmonauts orbited Earth; it was the first space mission with a multiperson
crew, five months before a two-man American flight.

By 1969, however, the United States stepped up to the challenge issued by
President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961, to send an American to the moon by
the end of the decade.

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, an
unmanned robot probe that Mr. Chertok and his colleagues had launched a week
earlier was stuck in orbit around the moon, stalled by a technical problem. It
later crashed into the surface.

In his memoir, Mr. Chertok called the American moon landing a "personal defeat"
for his country.

Boris Yevseyevich Chertok was born in Lodz, now part of Poland, on March 1,
1912, the son of an accountant. The family later moved to Moscow. Information
about his survivors was not available.

Mr. Chertok was an electrician at 17, and by 1930 was working in an aircraft
factory. He graduated from the Moscow Energy Institute in 1940. After World War
II, he was a member of a team of experts sent to Germany to mine records of the
German rocketry program. Another member of that team was Mr. Korolev. They
brought back the blueprints of the German V-2, which became the basis for the
Soviet missile and space programs.

Mr. Chertok longed to go into space.

In 2001, a Soyuz-U booster blasted two Russian astronauts and an American
millionaire, Dennis A. Tito, into orbit for a rendezvous with the International
Space Station. Mr. Tito paid $20 million for the trip.

Interviewed at Russia's mission control center at the time, Mr. Chertok said,
"I am a little bit under 90, and if someone presented me with $20 million I
would gladly spend it on a ticket to space."

(Egregious/41379) There'a Neil De Grasse video somewhere on YouTube I'm too lazy t...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:46:00 -0600


There'a Neil De Grasse video somewhere on YouTube I'm too lazy to find
right now, but Einstein wasn't planning on bar code scanners when
working on the photoelectric effect.  He was working on science, and
the stuff we can do with lasers came later.

As someone who is more of an engineer than a scientist, I say, "let
the scientists do science."  If there's something in the world they
don't understand, let them go off and figure it out.  It'll be the
engineers' jobs to make something useful out of it for people later.

(Peccavimus/41378) The results will be that human beings will have a deeper underst...

Peccavimus@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:38:00 -0600

The results will be that human beings will have a deeper understanding of the
nature of universe than they have ever had before.

I think that's worth a few million, at the very least.

(The After Party/41377) QUITTNER: DOWN WITH SCIENCE!

The After Party@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:57:00 -0600


  QUITTNER: DOWN WITH SCIENCE!

(The Great Godzilla/41376) With that view, it's a damn shame that we went to all the extrem...

The Great Godzilla@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:23:00 -0600

With that view, it's a damn shame that we went to all the extreme expense to
put a man on the moon. When we started the Apollo program, we didn't know what
we'd get out of it (other than beating the Soviets to it).
Of course, the innovations that came out of the space program include
technology that we take for granted today.

(QUITTNER/41375) I hope that the RESULTS will be worth all the money that was spe...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:53:00 -0600

I hope that the RESULTS will be worth all the money that was spent, is
continuing to be spent. Maybe it reduces the unemployment of affected personel.

(DesCartes/41374) Apparently, Lederman wanted to name his book "The Goddamn Partic...

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:28:00 -0600

Apparently, Lederman wanted to name his book "The Goddamn Particle" because it
was so hard to find. He doesn't like that term.

(Giraffe/41373) I wish people would stop calling the Higgs the God Particle. Tha...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:34:00 -0600

I wish people would stop calling the Higgs the God Particle. That's just
stupid.

(Gespalder/41372) http://www2.electronicproducts.com/5_Things_to_Know_Higgs_Boson_...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:58:00 -0600

http://www2.electronicproducts.com/5_Things_to_Know_Higgs_Boson_and_the_LHC-art
icle-fajb_higgs_LHC_dec2011-html.aspx


This article was posted on 12/14/2011.

5 Things to Know: Higgs Boson and the LHC

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider believe they may have identified the
elusive "God particle"

BY JEFFREY BAUSCH
Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) believe they've identified the
Higgs boson, the most sought after prize in particle physics.

The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. (Credit: boston.com)
If you're unfamiliar with the Higgs boson and LHC, here are five things to know
to help you follow this developing story:
1. The Standard Model and the Higgs boson

The Standard Model is, essentially, an instructional booklet that describes how
subatomic particles and forces interact. It's made up of 16 particles total: 12
matter particles and four force-carrier particles.
It's worked fairly well in the world of physics so far, but there are some
issues that researchers need to resolve in order to attain a more complete
understanding of the Universe. For one, the Standard Model cannot explain one
of the most fundamental forces out there -- gravity. Also, it describes only
ordinary matter which, in the big picture of things, makes up just a small
portion of the total Universe (dark matter is much more dominant). Then,
there's the Higgs boson issue.
The Higgs boson, or "God particle," is based upon a theory first proposed in
1964 by physicists Peter Higgs, Francois Englert, and Robert Brout. In it, they
stated that particles acquire mass through their interactions with an
all-pervading field, called the Higgs field, and are carried by the Higgs
boson. In other words, the Higgs boson is responsible for everything in the
Universe obtaining mass. Identifying it is important to the Standard Model
because it would explain why other elementary particles (except photon and
gluon) have mass. Particle masses, and the differences between electromagnetism
and weak force, are significant to many aspects of the structure of
microscopic, and thus macroscopic, matter.

2. The LHC -- in a nutshell
The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research in order to
test high-energy physics theories like the Higgs boson. It took more than 15
years to build, with over 10,000 scientists from 40+ countries contributing to
the effort.
It is, essentially, a "Big Bang Machine." The LHC is a Super Proton Synchrotron
built in a tunnel roughly 12.5 feet in diameter that stretches 17 miles in
circumference. It lies several hundred feet below the France-Switzerland border
near Geneva, Switzerland.


The Large Hadron Collider underground beam line. (Credit: physicsworld.com)
The LHC collides two counter rotating beams of subatomic particles (protons) or
lead ions at 99.9999999% the speed of light, in conditions colder than the
space between the stars. By crashing them together, researchers are able to
study the subsequent release of unstable, high-energy particles.


An example of proton-proton collision. (Credit: nsf.gov)
3. Record speeds
The proton beams move around the LHC ring inside continuous vacuum chambers. In
order to get them traveling fast enough, scientists and engineers generate a
powerful magnetic field using 1,740 superconducting magnetics, which needed
approximately 40,000 leak-tight welds and 65,000 splices of specially designed
superconducting cables.

In order to avoid excessive resistive losses, the magnets are kept at just a
few degrees above absolute zero. This is achieved using an enormous, incredibly
intricate cryogenics system: eight above-ground refrigeration plants which,
altogether, pump approximately 400,000 liters of liquid helium a year.
4. Enormous detectors
The LHC proton beams can be stored at high energy for 10 to 20 hours. Over the
course of 10 hours, they'll make four hundred million revolutions, with
collisions taking place inside LHC experiment zones, or detectors. These
detectors are capable of pinpointing a particle with an accuracy of 15 microns;
that's 20 times thinner than a piece of your hair.
There are six detectors total. They're all housed in strategically located,
underground caverns. Two -- the ATLAS experiment and Compact Muon Solenoid
(CMS) -- are large, general purpose detectors, while A Large Ion Collider
Experiment (ALICE) and LHCb have more specific roles. The other two, TOTEM and
LHCf, are smaller and set up for very specific research.
A summary and pictures of the four main detectors:
b" ATLAS
Looks for signs of new physics, including origins of mass and extra dimensions.


ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. (Credit: lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/)
b" CMS
Hunts for the Higgs boson and look for clues to the nature of dark matter.

CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. (Credit: lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/)
b" ALICE
Studies a "fluid" form of matter called quark-gluon plasma that existed shortly
after the Big Bang.

ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. (Credit: lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/)
b" LHCb
Equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created in the Big Bang the LHCb
investigates what happened to the "missing" antimatter.

LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. (Credit: lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/)
5. Putting it all together

Due to their enormity, detectors were assembled in bits. ATLAS was lowered in
pieces over several years, and assembled almost entirely underground. When its
largest part -- the barrel toroid magnet -- had to be brought down a shaft, it
had just 10 cm of clearance. And that's just the heavy lifting! There was also
all of the fine engineering work that needed to be done in order to actually
assemble these detectors. Layers of electronic sensors were wired and connected
by hand, with up to 300 people a day working in the cave up against one
another.

Meanwhile, the CMS was assembled mostly above ground in units, including the
world's largest-ever electromagnet. It took 10 hours to be lowered down a
330-foot shaft, with a clearance of just 20 cm on either side. Adding to the
stress of this endeavor was the fact that its cylindrically arranged silicon
wafer detectors contain a vast network of micro-circuitry including 73,000
radiation-hard, low-noise microelectronic chips, 40,000 analog optical links,
and 1,000 power supply units. One wrong move and the detector could suffer some
fairly severe damage.
So what did the LHC researchers see?
At a seminar yesterday, the heads of ATLAS and CMS said that they saw "spikes"
in their data at roughly the same mass: 124-125 gigaelectronvolts (GeV). Guido
Tonelli, spokesperson for the CMS detector, summarized the state of the
experiment: "The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the
vicinity of 124 GeV and below, but the statistical significance is not large
enough to say anything conclusive.
As of today, what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or
with the presence of the boson."

Further complicating the validity of this story is that these stats come from
just a few events among the billions of particle collisions that get analyzed
at the LHC. The team will need many more events to occur in order to lend some
credence to this claim.
Regardless though, the possibility that the Higgs boson might have been
discovered has generated a ton of excitement in the world of science and
engineering. b

References for this story:
1. bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16158374
2. lhc-machine-outreach.web.cern.ch

(Gespalder/41371) NASA Science News for Dec. 9, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:54:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Dec. 9, 2011
NASA's Dawn probe, now orbiting Vesta in the asteroid belt, has found some
surprising things on the giant asteroid--things that have prompted one
researcher to declare Vesta "the smallest terrestrial planet."

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/09dec_v
estaplanet/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JBNkts5YXA

(Egregious/41370) It's harder to see smaller things than bigger things, so we will...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:24:00 -0600


It's harder to see smaller things than bigger things, so we will find
the planets that a 2.4x the size of Earth before we find the ones that
are within 20% or so of Earth.

To be more Bayesian, I'd want to know when we _expected_ to find a
planet of this size if we assumed that Earth like planets were common
(for whatever definition of "common" you want).

(Cyanide/41369) You need to watch Brad Meltzer's Decoded on the history channel ...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:56:00 -0600

You need to watch Brad Meltzer's Decoded on the history channel about UFOs :)
If you combine that with some string theory, the planet is much bigger. :)

(Steppenwolf/41368) I threw out that mini-definition not because it purports to be a...

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:32:00 -0600

I threw out that mini-definition not because it purports to be a definition for
all life, but simply because those are extremely interesting in their
complexity, particularly in the way that selection pressures cause them to
change and adapt once self-replication is achieved.

So neener. :)

"Likewise, I suspect that our "search for life" is similarly humorous to
larger,
much more intelligent forms of life that probably exist around us or even
amongst us, but we are too stupid and blind to even realize it."

I can see how this _could_ be the case, but I have no reason to believe that
this IS the case. Whence comes your statement that this is probable?

"I do think that searching for "life" is fun and cool , if for no other reason
than to put yet another bullet into the whole "god created us, we are special,
we are unique" ridiculousness."

Yeah, I didn't want to come out and say it directly, but that too.

(The After Party/41367) JL

The After Party@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:10:00 -0600

JL

  Ah, "dark life". heh

(JL/41366) "naturally arising self-replicating complex structures"

JL@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:59:00 -0600

"naturally arising self-replicating complex structures"

Hmm, far too vague to define "life", IMO :)

I do think that searching for "life" is fun and cool , if for no other reason
than to put yet another bullet into the whole "god created us, we are special,
we are unique" ridiculousness.


I'm always intrigured by the idea of the worm, in his simple and non-complex
world. If he were to search for life around him on a street crowded with
people, he would probably conclude that no other intelligent life exists.
Because his perspective prohibits him from seeing the giant humans around him
with the complex motion, and his lack of intelligence prevents him from even
recognizing such a vastly superior intelligence.

Likewise, I suspect that our "search for life" is similarly humorous to larger,
much more intelligent forms of life that probably exist around us or even
amongst us, but we are too stupid and blind to even realize it.

(Steppenwolf/41365) Thanks for the math, Vanity. I wonder, though, if a super-earth ...

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:47:00 -0600

Thanks for the math, Vanity. I wonder, though, if a super-earth wouldn't in
fact be denser as well, due to further compression.

(Vanity/41364) A planet 2.4. times the mass of Earth would, if it had the same ...

Vanity@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:42:00 -0600

   A planet 2.4. times the mass of Earth would, if it had the same density of
Earth, have only 1.34 times the surface gravity of Earth. This is because while
gravity goes up with mass, it also falls off with distance from the center of
gravity, so that a larger super-earth with 2.4 times Earth mass would have
substantially less than 2.4. times Earth gravity.  (By contrast, an Earth-mass
planet which was denser and had a smaller radius, would have a higher surface
gravity than Earth.)
   1.34 Earth gravity would be something that human beings could easily adjust
to by growing additional muscle fibers. You pull more Gs than that just turning
the corner in a car.

(Steppenwolf/41363) Well, there are two worthy scientific goals:

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:45:00 -0600

Well, there are two worthy scientific goals:

1) Answer the question, "How likely is our existence--that is, intelligent
life?"

2) Find other intelligences to chat with.

We can learn a whole lot about ourselves by finding life--or, if you prefer,
naturally arising self-replicating complex structures--on other planets.

(JL/41362) Personally, I think we're a bit too focused on looking for life ...

JL@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:28:00 -0600

Personally, I think we're a bit too focused on looking for life that looks like
us. Hell, we don't even have a good definition of "life". What exactly are we
looking for?

To me, the universe is alive. Everything is life, on a big sliding scale. To
segment it off at an arbitrary point and define life as something that is
chemically like what we have on this planet, that just seems so narrow-minded.

But I suppose you have to look for something.

(Steppenwolf/41361) While there's some of that, I think it's fair to say that it's m...

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:07:00 -0600

While there's some of that, I think it's fair to say that it's more likely that
life has arisen on planets like ours, where we know it's possible, than on
planets utterly unlike ours, where we have no reason to think it's possible.
Where would you go to look for life first, places like the Earth or places like
Mercury? You only have limited resources, after all.

(JL/41360) We're so vain, to think that we understand life well enough to a...

JL@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:00:00 -0600

We're so vain, to think that we understand life well enough to assume it must
be chemically similar to us, and that our world is a 'model' for where we'll
find life elsewhere.

(Steppenwolf/41359) IIRC, even this planet seems to have a mass of 2.4x Earth's, whi...

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:29:00 -0600

IIRC, even this planet seems to have a mass of 2.4x Earth's, which is quite a
lot... but I can't imagine that would stop at least primitive forms of life.

(Vanity/41358) Not the first planet in the 'habitable zone', but the first in t...

Vanity@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:55:00 -0600

   Not the first planet in the 'habitable zone', but the first in the habitable
zone whose size is approximately that of Earth.
   Of course, being in the 'habitable zone' isn't a guarantee of being
habitable.  The Moon has the same orbital distance from the Sun as the Earth,
but is completely hostile to life.
   Gliese 581 g is in its star's habitable zone, but has a mass 3-4 times that
of Earth. It was discovered in 2010.

(Gespalder/41357) NASA Science News for Dec. 5, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:00:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Dec. 5, 2011
In a significant milestone on the road to finding Earth's "twin" elsewhere in
the galaxy, NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the
habitable zone of a distant sun-like star.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/05dec_f
irstplanet/

(Vanity/41356) Classifications like "planet" and "asteroid" are purely arbitrar...

Vanity@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:23:00 -0600

   Classifications like "planet" and "asteroid" are purely arbitrary.  There is
no hard and fast limit at which something stops being a planet and starts being
an asteroid.  "Dwarf planet" merely muddles up the boundary between the two
arbitrary classifications further.  The current criteria are
self-contradictory, and by bringing in dynamic criteria would make an identical
object be either a "planet" or a "dwarf planet" depending on where it was in
the solar system.  (For instance, if the Earth, or any Earth-sized object, were
found out at the distance of Sedna, it would be a "dwarf planet"). The stuff
about 'clearing the orbit' is gobbledygook; they are not looking at whether the
orbit is actually 'cleared' (hint: no orbit is 'cleared', every orbit is
crossed by millions of small objects) but at the distance from the Sun. The
definition is reverse-engineered from the requirement that there be only eight
planets; in other words, it begs the question.
   "Hydrostatic equilibrium" is another illusion. There is no exact limit at
which objects start being in equilibrium; and the shape of an object is
governed by lots of things other than size or mass: icy objects tend to relax
more easily than rocky objects, and objects under tidal strain (e.g., those
orbiting close to a larger planet) flex, liquefy, and relax into a equilibrant
shape, while larger and more massive objects may remain irregular. And an
object that started out with an equilibrant shape can be damaged by impacts and
become irregular.
   In other words, the present 'planetary' criteria are no more scientific than
the old ones.  I don't much care whether people talk about 8 or 9 or 10 planets
-- it's arbitrary -- but I hate hearing people say things like 'scientists
proved Pluto wasn't a planet'.  Nothing was proved; the classification was
simply changed so that Pluto no longer fit.  Pluto didn't cross the border; the
border crossed Pluto.

(Giraffe/41355) It's always been a planet. But is no longer counted as one of th...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:48:00 -0600

It's always been a planet. But is no longer counted as one of the major
planets. It's now classified as a dwarf planet. It's not even the largest dwarf
planet.

(Steppenwolf/41354) "dwarf planet."

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:48:00 -0600

"dwarf planet."
Which is what it along with a few asteroids were reclassified as.

Basically, something with enough gravity to become spherical yet not enough
oomph to clear its orbit of other objects.

(Miser/41353) Pluto is a planet again?

Miser@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:48:00 -0600

Pluto is a planet again?

(Gespalder/41352) NASA Science News for Dec. 3, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:35:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Dec. 3, 2011
NASA's New Horizons mission has reached a special milestone on its way to
reconnoiter the Pluto system, coming closer to the dwarf planet than any other
spacecraft.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/03dec_n
ewhorizons/

(Gespalder/41351) NASA Science News for Nov. 26, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:26:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Nov. 26, 2011
On Saturday morning, Dec. 10th, sky watchers in the western United States and
Canada will witness a total lunar eclipse swollen to super-sized proportions by
the Moon illusion.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/02dec_l
unareclipse/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtNgD45OB4

(Gespalder/41350) It was in my new National Geographic

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:47:00 -0600

It was in my new National Geographic
Probably missed hitting the August issue due to press time constraints

(Vanity/41349) That was announced back in July.

Vanity@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:08:00 -0600

   That was announced back in July.

(Gespalder/41348) Scientists have discovered a fourth moon orbiting Pluto. Tempora...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:13:00 -0600

Scientists have discovered a fourth moon orbiting Pluto. Temporarily designated
P4, the moon is only about 8-21 miles in diameter.

(Gespalder/41347) NASA Science News for Nov. 26, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:48:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Nov. 26, 2011
NASA's biggest and most capable Mars rover ever left Earth this morning in a
picture perfect launch from Cape Canaveral. The new rover, named "Curiosity",
is due to reach the Red Planet in August 2012.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/26nov_m
sllaunch/

To learn more about Curiosity's landing site on Mars, check out the video "The
Strange Attraction of Gale Crater": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNqeftciRFA

(Gespalder/41346) Space Weather News for Nov. 26, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:46:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Nov. 26, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

CME AND RADIATION STORM: A solar radiation storm is in progress around Earth.
At the moment (the late hours of Nov. 26th), the storm is classified as minor,
which means it has little effect on our planet other than to disturb HF radio
transmissions at high latitudes. Bigger effects, however, could be in the
offing.  The same blast that caused the radiation storm also hurled a CME into
space, and this CME appears set to deliver a blow to Earth's magnetic field on
Nov. 28th.  Geomagnetic storms and auroras are possible when the cloud arrives.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information and updates.

(Giraffe/41345) Googling around, it looks as if Pittsburgh Automotive makes seve...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:53:00 -0600

Googling around, it looks as if Pittsburgh Automotive makes several inexpensive
vacuum pumps that would fit your needs.

(Giraffe/41344) Yes, you could, but I doubt very much it would get down to 0.1 b...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:44:00 -0600

Yes, you could, but I doubt very much it would get down to 0.1 bar.

(Cyanide/41343) Can you do a "homemade" vacuum pump.. It could be as simple as t...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:31:00 -0600

Can you do a "homemade" vacuum pump.. It could be as simple as two jars,
connected via a hose and one filled with water.. Then suck the water out of the
jar to drop the pressure with like a big syringe. You might be able to
stabilize it if you put a weight on the "syringe" to keep a constant pressure.

(Egregious/41342) Something like a bell jar, for doing middle-school science exper...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:10:00 -0600


Something like a bell jar, for doing middle-school science experiments
on plants in partial vacuums.  I'm trying to see if this is practical
to even consider, or if most of the work would go into maintaining the
low air pressure.

(Giraffe/41341) HVAC units are designed for high volume and modest vacuum, which...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:27:00 -0600

HVAC units are designed for high volume and modest vacuum, which is not useful
for most science-y experimental situations. But it would be good to know just
what application we are talking about. Are we talking about evacuating a bell
jar or a house?

(Cyanide/41340) Harbor Freight sells a vacuum pump for AC units for like 20 buck...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:20:00 -0600

Harbor Freight sells a vacuum pump for AC units for like 20 bucks not sure if
it will work or not though..

(SledgeHammer/41339) A nice, tight venturi "pump" (injector, eductor, whatever- they ...

SledgeHammer@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:23:00 -0600

A nice, tight venturi "pump" (injector, eductor, whatever- they go by a dozen
names) will get you ~28"Hg, maybe 29-29.5" if it's running really well. On the
downside, you either need a heck of an air compressor (if using air as the
working fluid) or you'll waste a lot of water (if using water), unless you have
one of those fancy-pants standalone systems which just recirculate the water.
As with any vacuum system, losses will really fuck you over, so good seals are
critical.

http://www.amazon.com/Humboldt-Aspirator-Filter-Pump/dp/B0047ENUVG/ref=pd_sbs_i
ndust_3

Or just go to Amazon and look up "faucet aspirator." Someone sells the right
adaptor on eBay (again, "faucet aspirator" to get that listing).

(Giraffe/41338) Most homes have vacuum cleaners but I doubt they get down to 0.1...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:47:00 -0600

Most homes have vacuum cleaners but I doubt they get down to 0.1 bar. There are
laboratory vacuum pumps that probably get down that far. I have no idea whether
you could find a second-hand unit. How large a chamber do you need evacuated?

(Egregious/41337) Is there a good way to generate vacuums at home? I want to get ...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:41:00 -0600


Is there a good way to generate vacuums at home?  I want to get about
1% atmosphere for a science project.  How hard will this be?

(Giraffe/41336) Probably because it large amounts of it are available for mining...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:49:00 -0600

Probably because it large amounts of it are available for mining and
processing. Higher content ores (or even near-pure native copper) are not
useful if they are more difficult to find or more expensive to mine and
process.

(Gespalder/41335) Nov 16, 2011 03:41 from Gespalder

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:46:00 -0600

Nov 16, 2011 03:41 from Gespalder
OK, question

I saw this: Chalcopyrite is the most important copper ore.
However, it is not the highest % copper when pure being only 34.5%
(Tetrahedrite can be lower as it ranges from 32-45%)

So why is Chalcopyrite deemed so important?
Most every other copper ore has a higher % of copper when pure.

(JL/41333) It doesn't appear to me to actually be on the surface. It looks ...

JL@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:14:00 -0600

It doesn't appear to me to actually be on the surface. It looks like it was
added later, in post-processing.
The white lines almost appear to be at a certain height, like it's slipping
under parts of the terrain, and over other parts.

My official guess is that it's a test from Google, of an algorithm to embed
overlay data on a map at a given altitude, to be obscured by anything higher
than it.

(Egregious/41332) There are people who have put QR codes on roofs specifically for

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:05:00 -0600

There are people who have put QR codes on roofs specifically for
Google Maps are the like.  This isn't that.

(DesCartes/41331) I was thinking it was possibly a test pattern, but I was thinkin...

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:03:00 -0600

I was thinking it was possibly a test pattern, but I was thinking more in terms
of testing to see if a satellite could pick it up. I hadn't considered the
possibility of a missile target.
It is in the middle of nowhere, which makes the missile target thing likely.

(The After Party/41330) 40.452727,93.742733

The After Party@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:02:00 -0600

40.452727,93.742733

  That's a SmartCode, point your smart phone at it and it will take you to
  a URL...probably goatsie...

(SledgeHammer/41329) There was discussion elsewhere that there are similar patterns u...

SledgeHammer@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:54:00 -0600

There was discussion elsewhere that there are similar patterns used in the
United States; they are for testing pattern recognition by cruise missiles,
IIRC. It's nice to know the Chinese are working on being able to obliterate the
right neighborhood.

(Egregious/41328) If the cut-off lines were all in a line, I'd say a camera artifa...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:49:00 -0600


If the cut-off lines were all in a line, I'd say a camera artifact.  But
they seem "natural," in the context of computer photos.

(DesCartes/41327) Whatever that is, it's pretty old. You can see silt from the riv...

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:39:00 -0600

Whatever that is, it's pretty old. You can see silt from the riverbeds (they
look like dry beds to me) have washed over it. There are lots of straight lines
which suggest, to me, airplane runways. On the other hand, looking at the
northwest side of it, it loos like it follows the texture of the ground, which
suggests that maybe it's just painted.
The vehicle tracks seem to follow the markings, not cross them. (Occasionally,
they cross, but most of the time, they're alongside the markings.) To the west
of it (if you zoom out a little), you can see similar markings but to a less
extensive scale. These appear to be an airplane runway (it's definitely made up
of thin strips of something--the color's off, though, so it doesn't appear to
be cement, but the color appears off elsewhere, too, as if this were a heat
map, or something.)
To the west of that is something else that has a very similar shape, but is
also over-run by silt, which may just be an older version of that.

The abruptness with which the original location ends (it's very much contained
within a rectangle) is odd, but it kind of looks like it may have just been
test construction of one of the things to the left. Or possibly something done
with leftover material, although at the scale, there would have been a lot of
leftovers. If the satellite image is actually a heat map of some sort, it may
just be large swaths of pavement reflecting heat up. That may be for a planned
community (lots of roads) that never got built.

(DesCartes/41326) If you zoom out one click, on the south end, you see something t...

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:26:00 -0600

If you zoom out one click, on the south end, you see something that by their
shadows look like those electric towers for supporting high-voltage wires. I'm
guessing this is some sort of power station or something. It's probably not an
athletic field, because if you zoom out, there's nothing in the area. No
population suggests no teams or sports.

(Tom Brady/41325) Whoops, wrong coordinates. 40.452727,93.742733 ... that's the o...

Tom Brady@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:26:00 -0600

Whoops, wrong coordinates.  40.452727,93.742733 ... that's the odd one.

(Egregious/41324) Looks like a sports field of some kind to me.

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:18:00 -0600

Looks like a sports field of some kind to me.

(Tom Brady/41323) Google maps Satellite image for 40.404575, 93.636947

Tom Brady@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:26:00 -0600

Google maps Satellite image for 40.404575, 93.636947
Zoom in... what the heck is that pattern?

(Gespalder/41322) NASA Science News for Nov. 14, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:11:00 -0600

NASA Science News for Nov. 14, 2011
How can a world without air have an ionosphere? Somehow the Moon has done it.
Lunar researchers have been struggling with the mystery for years, and they may
have finally found a solution.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/14nov_l
unarionosphere/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zSrP4MacFE

(Gwark/41321) Here (at 57N) the sun doesn't even get to 10 degrees above the h...

Gwark@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:13:00 -0600

Here (at 57N) the sun doesn't even get to 10 degrees above the horizon on the
winter solstice.
http://www.sitkanature.org/wordpress/2008/12/26/solstice-sun/

(Egregious/41320) http://www.solarsystemscope.com/

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:33:00 -0600

http://www.solarsystemscope.com/

Okay, I'm doing the panoramatic view, from New York, and according to
that the sun is in the southwest right now, less than 30 degrees up
from the horizon.

Is that right?  It seems the sun should be higher at 2pm.  Even at
noon it's only 30 degrees up.

(Gespalder/41319) Space Weather News for Nov. 7, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 03:28:00 -0600

Space Weather News for Nov. 7, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

ASTEROID FLYBY: NASA radars are monitoring 2005 YU55, an asteroid the size of
an aircraft carrier, as it heads for a Nov. 8th flyby of the Earth-Moon system.
There is no danger to our planet. At closest approach on Tuesday at 3:28 pm PST
(23:28 UT), the space rock will be 324,600 kilometers away. Nevertheless,
professional astronomers are eagerly anticipating the flyby as the asteroid
presents an exceptionally strong radar target.  Even amateur astronomers might
be able to photograph it during the hours around closest approach.  Check
http://spaceweather.com for observing tips and more information.

OWN YOUR OWN SPACE ROCK: They came from outer space--and you can have one.
Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store:
http://www.shopspaceweather.com/ownameteorite.aspx

(Gespalder/41318) NASA Science News for Oct. 24, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:56:00 -0500

NASA Science News for Oct. 24, 2011
NASA's MESSENGER probe has discovered a surprise on Mercury: Something is
digging "hollows" in the surface of the innermost planet.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/24oct_s
leepyhollows/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqg8PR2mVvc

(Gespalder/41317) Space Weather News for Oct. 24, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:55:00 -0500

Space Weather News for Oct. 24, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

CME IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct.
24th around 1800 UT (2 pm EDT).  The impact strongly compressed our planet's
magnetosphere and may have exposed geosynchronous satellites to solar wind
plasma.  Mild to moderate geomagnetic storms are possible in the hours ahead as
Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the hit.  Sky watchers in
Scandinavia, Canada, and northern-tier US States should be alert for auroras,
especially during the hours around local midnight.  Check
http://spaceweather.com for updates.

WOULD YOU LIKE A CALL when geomagnetic storms are in progress? Storm alerts are
available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and
http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice).

(Gespalder/41316) Space Weather News for Oct. 21, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 05:30:00 -0500

Space Weather News for Oct. 21, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

WEEKEND METEOR SHOWER: Today Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley's
comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the
shower to peak on Saturday morning, Oct. 22nd, with more than 15 meteors per
hour.  Check http://spaceweather.com for links to a live meteor radar, sky maps
and observing tips.

MASSIVE SATELLITE NEARS RE-ENTRY: The massive ROSAT X-ray space telescope is
making its final spiralling orbits around Earth. Most experts agree that
re-entry will occur during the early hours of Oct. 23rd over a still-unknown
region of our planet.  Sky watchers report that the descending satellite can be
as bright as a first magnitude star and it occasionally "flares" to even
greater intensity.  For last-chance sightings of ROSAT in your area, please
check SpaceWeather's online satellite tracker (http://spaceweather.com/flybys)
or turn your smartphone into a ROSAT tracker: http://simpleflybys.com .

(Gespalder/41315) NASA Science News for Oct. 20, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:49:00 -0500

NASA Science News for Oct. 20, 2011
Earth is about to pass through a stream of debris from Halley's comet, source
of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on
Saturday morning, Oct. 22nd, with more than 15 meteors per hour. Earth isn't
the only world in the debris stream; NASA researchers will also be watching for
meteoroid strikes on the Moon.

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/20oct_o
rionids/

(Gespalder/41314) NASA Science News for Oct. 19, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:36:00 -0500

NASA Science News for Oct. 19, 2011
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in
an alien solar system. The downpour resembles our own solar system several
billion years ago during a period known as the "Late Heavy Bombardment."

FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/19oct_c
ometstorm/

(Gespalder/41313) Space Weather News for Oct. 14, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:01:00 -0500

Space Weather News for Oct. 14, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

ROSAT RE-ENTRY: The ROSAT X-ray observatory, launched in 1990 by NASA and
managed for years by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will return to Earth
within the next two weeks. Current best estimates place the re-entry between
Oct. 22nd and 24th over an unknown part of Earth. ROSAT will produce a
spectacular fireball when it re-enters, but not all of the satellite will
disintegrate.  According to the DLR, heat-resistant fragments as massive as 1.7
tons could reach Earth's surface.  Check http://spaceweather.com for more
information.

LAST-CHANCE SIGHTINGS:  As ROSAT slowly descends it is growing brighter. During
favorable passes, the satellite can now be seen shining as brightly as a first
magnitude star in the night sky.  Local flyby times may be found using
SpaceWeather's Satellite Tracker: http://spaceweather.com/flybys .   Or turn
your smartphone into a ROSAT tracker using our Simple Flybys app:
http://simpleflybys.com .

(Gespalder/41312) Space Weather News for Oct. 7, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:51:00 -0500

Space Weather News for Oct. 7, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

DRACONID METEOR SHOWER: On Saturday, October 8th, Earth will pass through a
network of dusty filaments shed by Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. Forecasters
expect the encounter to produce anywhere from a few dozen to a thousand meteors
per hour visible mainly over Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. The
meteors will stream from the northern constellation Draco--hence their name,
the "Draconids." Check http://spaceweather.com for full coverage of the event
including observing times and a live audio stream from a meteor radar.

(QUITTNER/41311) Maybe somebody should be assigned to dust off all the comets tha...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:03:00 -0500

Maybe somebody should be assigned to dust off all the comets that could get
close to Earth? [LAUGHS]

(Pluck Duck/41310) Im beginning to believe that, for the most part, if you can imag...

Pluck Duck@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:33:00 -0500

Im beginning to believe that, for the most part, if you can imagine it somehow
existing in the universe, it probably does somewhere out there. ;-P

(Gespalder/41309) NASA Science News for Oct. 4, 2011

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:28:00 -0500

NASA Science News for Oct. 4, 2011
Forecasters say Earth is heading for a stream of dust from Comet
21P/Giacobini-Zinner. A close encounter with the comet's fragile debris could
spark a meteor outburst over parts of our planet on October 8th.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04oct_draconids/

A video version of this story is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNqeftciRFA

(Erkki/41308) Yeah I love that comparison

Erkki@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:58:00 -0500

Yeah I love that comparison
Except that this is a gas giant outside the habitable zone, its just like
Tatooine!

(Stepwood/41307) It seems that Tatooine is real. NASA has a found a planet that o...

Stepwood@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:19:00 -0500

It seems that Tatooine is real. NASA has a found a planet that orbits two suns.
More explanation here: http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2011/09/15/coren-l
aurance-doyle-two-suns-intv.cnn

(Gespalder/41306) The loss of the Russian Soyuz that was taking supplies to the IS...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:23:00 -0500

The loss of the Russian Soyuz that was taking supplies to the ISS may lead to
the ISS having to be temporarily evacuated despite earlier claims that the ISS
was well stocked.

(Darkhaven/41305) wow, how many carots is that?

Darkhaven@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:28:00 -0500

wow, how many carots is that?

also, "I don't imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we're
looking at here." so, how much light is the oxygen likely to filter? and what
does radiation (as given off by the pulsar) do to a latice structure? how can a
planet have heavier elements (carbon and oxygen) and not lighter ones like
hydrogen and helium (especially with a radiation source so close that i figure
would break down these elements)? i also noticed they didn't mention it having
any other compounds other than crystol - like co2 - is this because a climate
like this wouldn't allow this bond to form or does a spectrum look the same
with the atoms as it does with the elements?

(DesCartes/41304) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/us-planet-diamond-idUS...

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:22:00 -0500

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/us-planet-diamond-idUSTRE77O69A201108
25

Diamond planet! Scientists suspect--it's made of carbon and is incredibly
dense.

(Darkhaven/41303) i think this was expected no matter where they went. one would h...

Darkhaven@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:07:00 -0500

i think this was expected no matter where they went. one would hope that people
could do something more productive than just *cry*. that doesn't seem to be the
way people work though.

(Gespalder/41302) NASA says the process to determine which museums got the shuttle...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:06:00 -0500

NASA says the process to determine which museums got the shuttles was not
influenced by politics.
No word yet on the inquiery regarding this as some museums who applied have
cried "Foul!" as they went to east coast museums and 1 west coast museum.

(Gespalder/41301) PG>

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:43:00 -0500

PG>
Why is that?
We went from Lead Acid to NiCad to NiMH to Lithium Ion with each claiming to be
better than the previous ones.


Egregious> Thanks for the reply. From what I have read the batteries will only
be used when extra power is needed.

(Egregious/41299) Lithium ion batteries need little maintenance. You can charge o...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:04:00 -0500


Lithium ion batteries need little maintenance.  You can charge or
discharge them however you want and they won't suffer.  That's why
they're so popular.

If you have a professional on-hand to take care of your batteries,
including their charge/discharge cycles, the other types can
outperform and outlast lithium.

Like all engineering decisions, there are trade-offs everywhere.

(Peccavimus/41298) Four times: the matter of the battery itself also stores energy,...

Peccavimus@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:25:00 -0500

Four times: the matter of the battery itself also stores energy, which can be
released if it undergoes fusion or if it meets an antimatter battery.

(Cyanide/41297) A battery being thrown and hitting someone is a battery 3 times ...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:07:00 -0500

A battery being thrown and hitting someone is a battery 3 times over. :)

(DesCartes/41296) And a battery in a gravity well is a battery two times over!

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:35:00 -0500

And a battery in a gravity well is a battery two times over!

(Peccavimus/41295) If that's the case, then any object in a gravity well is a batte...

Peccavimus@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:26:00 -0500

If that's the case, then any object in a gravity well is a battery.

(QUITTNER/41294) come to think of it, a container of any fuel, for example, could...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:44:00 -0500

come to think of it, a container of any fuel, for example, could be called "a
battery" because it has stored energy in it!

(Paladin Grendel/41293) in terms of eneegy density, no. also not as good in terms of bat...

Paladin Grendel@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 01:09:00 -0500

in terms of eneegy density, no. also not as good in terms of battery memory.

(Gespalder/41292) Since science is involved....

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:33:00 -0500

Since science is involved....

When speaking of energy storage options (batteries) an article I read only
touched on Lead Acid batteries and then went on and on about Lithium Ion
batteries being superior to Lead Acid batteries.
Why no mention of the pros and cons on NiCad or NMH batteries? Are they viable
options?

(Giraffe/41291) Antiprotons have been discovered (being annihilated, I assume) t...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:06:00 -0500

Antiprotons have been discovered (being annihilated, I assume) trapped within
the Van Allen radiation belts. Courtesy the PAMELA detector on a Russian
satellite.

All we need now are dilithium crystals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14405122
http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/final_report/1071Bickford.pdf

(QUITTNER/41290) Ah the chip technologies. After I got my Z80 I never had to worr...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:45:00 -0500

Ah the chip technologies. After I got my Z80 I never had to worry about
MOSFETs.

(KalTorak/41289) (I was gonna ask that, too; I don't think there's anything in a ...

KalTorak@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 05:32:00 -0500

(I was gonna ask that, too; I don't think there's anything in a MOSFET that
needs QM to describe it, at least for a big MOSFET.  Now when ya make the gate
oxide a couple atoms thick, different rules clearly do apply.)

(Gespalder/41288) Cyanide> You described the whole patent issue quite well. Did yo...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:51:00 -0500

Cyanide> You described the whole patent issue quite well. Did you catch that
segment on NPR?

And I agree, unmanned robotic ships/probes are very useful. The ones we built
in the past are very rugged. More than one of the Pioneers are still working as
are the Voyagers. You cannot say our more current stuff is as rugged.

(QUITTNER/41287) Unmanned space vegicle can photograoh quite well those "little g...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:48:00 -0500

Unmanned space vegicle can photograoh quite well those "little green men" out
there in space, before these people will destroy that "enemy" vehicle
 and its contents completely! [LAUGHS] ^vehicles^

(Cyanide/41286) We have a societal problem. We don't value education. We don't r...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:01:00 -0500

We have a societal problem. We don't value education. We don't respect
educators, We don't respect knowledge. We think we know better. If we screw up
it is someone elses fault and the government should bail us out and give us
free hand outs.

Who has the most money is more important then who is technically right or can
make a good societal advancement. Corporations don't invent things. Corporate
espionage is a multi-trillion dollar business and they just steal from each
other. Then they lobby congress to make sure what they are doing is legal. Even
if it is ripping off the original inventor.

So the bottomline, it isn't what you know, it is who can you steal it from and
that has become our society.

(Darkhaven/41285) in the end Giraffe is right. we had better do as much unmanned e...

Darkhaven@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:31:00 -0500

in the end Giraffe is right. we had better do as much unmanned exploration as
we can before we send manned missions to places. because as soon as we start
sending humans there, i'm pretty sure we'll contaminate the environment. as
soon as we colonize the place, we'll destroy the environment. i'm pretty
certain we've left more than foot prints on the moon and we'll do the same to
any other place.

however, *i* personally want to go to places that aren't earth bount - fuck
mars - i want to go to titan or even pluto. i want to check another earth like
planet in another solar system, i want to live 500 years longer than most
people currently do. but, i might not be able to do this. why? because we don't
have people with the immagination, creativity, and will to make it happen? no.
because richeous fuckers think it's their duty to cut research funding. there
are tons of engineers who would love to work on cool projects (and keep their
homes) and tons more biochemists who might enjoy the same. but, they are either
working on finding any job that pays or reinventing wheels (i'll need a new
$300+ bike wheel soon - err i'll buy one anyway, but is the guy who engineered
it really helping humanity?).

experimental data is all good. i will never argue against it - fund the allen
array (seti), or finish the atom smasher in texas, or do something. point is,
any way you look at it, this sucks.


oh, and i wonder who will be the new world super power after we loose our aaa
credit rating. maybe it will be a chinese ship that flies me to pluto.

(Tanj/41284) yes, yes. research and the quest for knowledge has been a Good T...

Tanj@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:13:00 -0500

yes, yes. research and the quest for knowledge has been a Good Thing. but if
you are asking the general public to cough up bazillions of dollars on it, 
then
you better give them something to covet. because they didnt give the number
theorists billions of dollars. in general, they starved.

(DesCartes/41283) Number theory is an old, old branch of mathematics. (Euclid had ...

DesCartes@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:41:00 -0500

Number theory is an old, old branch of mathematics. (Euclid had some number
theory stuff among his works.) It was thought more-or-less useless. (G.H. Hardy
reveled in this; he didn't want any of his work to be used for evil.) Until the
1970s, or so--then number theory became quite practical.

(Giraffe/41282) I'm not holding my breath for string theory to "mature."

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:30:00 -0500

I'm not holding my breath for string theory to "mature."

(Steppenwolf/41281) My understanding is that QM was necessary to conceive of even th...

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:49:00 -0500

My understanding is that QM was necessary to conceive of even the original
transistors, but I certainly could be wrong.

But if you like, I think lasers need QM too, don't they? :)

(Egregious/41280) We need QM for the scale that transistors are built at now, but ...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:45:00 -0500

We need QM for the scale that transistors are built at now, but we didn't need
them for the first transistors, did we?  And it was mostly a predictable path
from there.

(Steppenwolf/41279) And quantum mechanics led directly to transistors and the integr...

Steppenwolf@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:43:00 -0500

And quantum mechanics led directly to transistors and the integrated chip,
which are kind of important these days.

Don't knock a field of inquiry till it's mature.

(Vanity/41278) I dare say the Theory of Relativity appeared to have "zero pract...

Vanity@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:11:00 -0500

   I dare say the Theory of Relativity appeared to have "zero practical
applications now or in the future" in 1905.  A hundred years later, the
practical applications are ubiquitous.

(Vanity/41277) We do exploration because the very best way of finding out wha...

Vanity@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:02:00 -0500

   We do exploration because the very *best* way of finding out what a strange
place is like is to send people there.  People have been doing this for
millennia.  Robots are a helpful prelude to human exploration, but they're not
an acceptable substitute.  Everything that *all* of our robotic expeditions to
Mars have accomplished could have been done by a small team of humans in a
couple of weeks -- with better and more certain scientific return.  We can only
send robots to answer certain limited questions, and if we didn't think of the
right questions before we sent the robot, we have to send another one.
   We didn't acquire our understanding of the relationship of the Earth and the
Moon (which told us, inter alia, how old the Earth really was) by sending
robots.  Robotic craft just paved the way for human exploration, and it was the
ability of trained scientist-explorers to survey the landscape with educated
eyes, pick out the interesting materials, grab them, and take them home, that
made the difference.  Robots can't do that.  There is absolutely no comparison
between robotic exploration and human exploration; the return of useful data
from the latter is orders of magnitude greater.
   That's why we don't explore Antarctica using rovers.   That's why we don't
send robots to climb mountains. That's why we get our best data on ocean life
from divers, not from remote submersibles. There's absolutely nothing like a
hands-on encounter with the unknown to make sense of it.

(Tanj/41276) that's our deal to the scientists: we will give you hundreds of ...

Tanj@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:04:00 -0500

that's our deal to the scientists: we will give you hundreds of bilions
of dollars to chase your dreams as long as you also give us the means
to live our dreams: man on another planet.  Yeah, you don't really agree
with our dream (manned space flight), but we don't really agree with yours
(data collection to advance our answers of fundamental questions of
physics), so there ya go.

I mean, look at the ridiculous amount of money that we're spending on
string theory research, which has (as far as I know) zero practical
applications now or in the future (please let me know if I'm wrong).

(Egregious/41275) How would you falsify that?

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:00:00 -0500


How would you falsify that?

(Giraffe/41274) I guess I don't see the urgency that you do to do it right now. ...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:47:00 -0500

I guess I don't see the urgency that you do to do it right now. I'd rather we
figured out how to not fuck up one planet before we spread our sentience to
other worlds.

(Egregious/41273) Because I value spreading life and sentience.

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:13:00 -0500


Because I value spreading life and sentience.

(Giraffe/41272) Why do you want humans on other planets?

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:24:00 -0500

Why do you want humans on other planets?

(Egregious/41271) I want a manned mission for reasons that include more than just

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:54:00 -0500


I want a manned mission for reasons that include more than just
science, which include gettig humans onto other planets.  I doubt
that NASA has the risk-tolerance for doing that these days, though,
so it keeps on doing these half-assed measures like the ISS, which
don't do good human missions or good science missions.

(Giraffe/41270) Why do you want a manned program? Manned programs are orders of...

Giraffe@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:42:00 -0500

Why do you want a manned program?  Manned programs are orders of magnitude more
expensive and result in dead astronauts. Risk of life might be acceptable if
the scientific objective were sufficiently important, but I don't see what that
vital scientific objective might be.

(SledgeHammer/41269) NASA didn't lose the Saturn V plans. They're on microfilm. One r...

SledgeHammer@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:42:00 -0500

NASA didn't lose the Saturn V plans. They're on microfilm. One reporter gets
lazy, and for the rest of recorded history, people wail the plans are lost.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080517060452/http://www.space.com/news/spacehistor
y/saturn_five_000313.html
or:
http://tinyurl.com/3deq9qa

(Egregious/41268) The Space Shuttle wasn't expensive because of fuel costs. It wa...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:40:00 -0500


The Space Shuttle wasn't expensive because of fuel costs.  It was
expensive because of labor.  Unless/until the market demand
increases, cutting costs _has_ to mean cutting jobs.

I want a manned program, but NASA doesn't seem capable of running
one.  They do a bang-up job on their unmanned stuff, though.

(QUITTNER/41266) As long as politicians cannot or don't want to raise enough mone...

QUITTNER@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:46:00 -0500

As long as politicians cannot or don't want to raise enough money by raising
taxation rates, and there is therefore a shortage of money, and that therefore
many cuts will have to be made (very painfully), I am not surprised that NASA
is to be cut severely or completely. Blame the politicians for that, and
ultimately blame the voters who voted these politicians into power over the
past very many years with continual deficits.

(Gespalder/41265) I had heard that the EU and Japan are looking to get more into t...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:44:00 -0500

I had heard that the EU and Japan are looking to get more into the game with
supply missions and maybe future astronaut missions. No idea how far off any of
that is though. Also, India has expressed some interest and of course we all
know China's plans.