NASA continues alien hunt

NASA's Kepler Mission is to continue. Image: NASA

Good news for alien hunters. NASA’s Kepler Mission has been approved for extension through fiscal year 2016 based on a recommendation from the agency’s Senior Review of its operating missions.

The extension provides four additional years to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone – the region in a planetary system where liquid water could exist on the surface of an orbiting planet – around sun-like stars in our galaxy.

“Kepler has revolutionized our understanding of exoplanets and the study of stellar seismology and variability,” said Roger Hunter, Kepler project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “There is currently no other mission in development that can replace or surpass the precision of Kepler. This extended mission will afford Kepler a unique opportunity to rewrite our understanding of the galaxy and our place in it.”

Launched in March 2009, the Kepler spacecraft identifies planet candidates by repeatedly measuring the tiny change in brightness of more than 150,000 stars to detect when a planet transits the face of the star. The size of the planet can be derived from these periodic dips in brightness. At least three transits are required to verify a signal as a planet.

“Kepler offers a new technical capability, opening a new measurement parameter space, and as often happens with such developments, that has led to unexpected results. There has been a continuous stream of new findings – the assimilation and exploitation of new opportunities is just beginning,” as stated by the committee in the 2012 Senior Review report.

The mission’s discoveries beyond our solar system include the first unquestionably rocky planet; the first multiple-transiting planet system; the first small planet in the habitable zone; the first Earth-size planets; the smallest Mars-size planets; and the confirmation of a new class of double-star planetary systems.

Ames Research Center manages Kepler’s ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, managed the Kepler mission’s development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado, developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data.

Kepler is NASA’s 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
 
• The Review report is available at: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/2012-senior-review

• For more information about the Kepler mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

Terraforming Mars – FOCUS points the way

Ever wondered what we’re going to be up to in a couple of centuries time? Science fiction author extraordinaire Stephen Baxter reckons we could have colonised Mars by then, in a feature for the current issue of the BBC science magazine FOCUS which has been out for a couple of weeks but I only spotted it on my way out of the UK for a well-earned break.

In the April issue, ace science fiction author Stephen Baxter writes on how we’d terraform the Red Planet, while Stuart Clark delivers a piece called “Mining the Moon”, looking at the resources we could get – and how. Plus, there’s an interview with a man who researches warp drive and hyperspace travel and a great piece on what our alien neighbours might look like.

Focus is the BBC’s science and technology monthly magazine, described as jargon-free and accessible, so “you don’t need a PhD in particle physics to enjoy reading it”. All you need is a quizzical mind that wants to understand the world around you, and gain a fact or two to keep up your sleeve in a pub quiz emergency.

The issue is well worth picking up if you’re interested in space exploration.

NASA explores inner space

Learning how to walk again after long-duration space flights is a problem astronauts face as they readjust to Earth’s gravity. To learn how microgravity affects human space travelers, NASA scientists studied the nanomechanics of hair cells in the inner ear.

Their research may also help solve more down to Earth medical problems for ordinary people, such as motion sickness.

Using the toadfish (Opsanus tau) as their model, scientists tested whether hair cells amplify stimuli from very small head movements, and if so, can the brain regulate this enhanced sensitivity and shift this function on or off?

Test results showed that an organism’s ability to maintain equilibrium is regulated by hair cell sensory organs, including hearing organs.

“These hair cells are specialized mechanical sensors that are used to understand sound in the environment, and countermove the head for balance and coordination,” said Richard Boyle, a space bioscientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “Understanding the fundamental physiology of the hair cell in the inner ear is critical to identifying the impact of spaceflight on an organism.”

Boyle is an author of “Mechanical amplification by hair cells in the semicircular canals,” scheduled for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, this week.
The inner ear organs are designed and precisely attuned to changes in the environment: for the hearing organ, a change in the sound pressure, such as caused by a car horn, can deform the ear drum and rapidly lead to the recognition and location of the sound. For the balance organ, movement of the head, such as unexpectedly stepping off the curb, is sensed and rapidly leads to motor reflexes to maintain equilibrium. The more sensitive our ability is to detect these changes, the more acute our sensation. This remarkable tuning and amplification to detect the slightest stimuli, allows us to adjust our posture.

For large movements this amplification is not evident. It is over the very small head movements that the amplification process benefits our ability to sense movement. But this places the hair cell systems at the blink of instability.

Fortunately, the amplification process is not all-or-nothing, but actually controlled by the organism. According to the organism’s intended behaviour, this instability can be turned off through a pathway from the brain back to the inner ear organs. For example, during a large, self-generated movement of the head, as one rapidly turns to view the location of the car horn, the amplification process can be turned off.

Fossil evidence, dating from at least the Devonian Period 400 million years ago, shows that the elaborate sensory structures used to sense the organism’s movement are remarkably conserved among vertebrata. The results demonstrate an active process in the hair cells of an ancient bony fish, thus suggesting that the mechanism is ancestral, and may underlie the broad appearance of active hair cell processes in amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, including humans.

During orbital missions, organisms on board the spacecraft are exposed to microgravity. Microgravity exposure causes severe disorientation or “space adaptation syndrome” for many human travelers, a condition similar to what we on Earth experience as motion sickness. The possible cause is a miscommunication of information provided by various sensory systems.

“A change in gravity has a profound effect on how organisms maintain coordination and balance,” said Boyle. “This information is essential to understanding the human condition on Earth, and may contribute to the science that will eventually lead to improved diagnostics and treatment of disorders, such as dizziness and motion sickness,” he added.

• For more information about NASA visit: www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Could Britain Ever Have Its Own Spaceport?

The Constellation Program's Ares I-X
test rocket roars off Launch Complex 39B
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Florida.
Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

With the recent launch of the new US Aries rocket, I was reminded that Britain has its own space program – but of course we never had a “space base” like Cape Kennedy in the UK. However, given the number of space companies based in the Isle of Man, might the UK ever have its own rocket launch site, as seen in comic strips such as Eagle’s Dan Dare? Perhaps even on the Isle of Man?

Sadly, Ex Astris tech genius Jeremy Briggs, who wrote a piece on the British Rocket Programme for Spaceship Away (it’s in issue 12 if you would like to read it – back issues are still available) tells me the answer is almost certainly no.

The problem mainly boils down to Britain’s location on our planet. Most satellites are put into an orbit that spins with the planet and the planet spins anticlockwise looking down on it from the north pole. This spin of the Earth to the east is used by rockets to get a little extra momentum for free by launching them to the east.

Therefore you need a launch site which is clear to the east (normally ocean) like NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre or the European Space Agency’s Kourou, which both allow spent stages to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

“Launching from the Isle of Man would leave spent stages or failed launches falling on England,” our resident boffin expands. “The UK does not have any good potential launch sites because of our geographical location – Shetland is the only likely candidate and that is very remote but even then, the Scandinavian countries would complain.

“The rocket engine test sites used for the Blue Streak, Black Knight and White Arrow rockets were Spadeadam near Carlisle and the Isle of Wight because they were accessible but poorly populated,” he continues. “There was never any suggestion that launches would take place from either of them.

“The spin of the Earth is used by rockets to get a little extra momentum for free and the most spin occurs where the surface of the planet is spinning the fastest – the equator. However, most of the equator is ocean and the land is mainly third world countries. Therefore, most of the space countries set up rocket launch sites which are as close to the equator as is possible in their own territory. This was a problem for the USSR, who also needed their site to be secret ie far away from NATO spy planes, and they ended up building in a desolate land locked area at Tyuratam instead.

Tas and the Space Machine, the first of
two "Tas" books
published in 1955 and set at Woomera.
Image via www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

“Since we didn’t have anywhere desolate enough in the UK for non-orbital rocket flight testing in the 1950s the British Empire came into play and Outback Australia was the best candidate – hence the range at Woomera, which is about the size of England. Reginald Alec Martin, writing as EC Eliot, set his two 1955 Tas books, illustrated by Eagle comics artist Bruce Cornwell, there.”

So, no spacebase near Blackpool then, although of course Britain does contribute to the ESA and British-born astronauts have gone into space. Plus, of course, private space company Virgin Galactic‘s owner Richard Branson is both British and a Dan Dare fan!
Fictional private space companies, of course, play a major part in Ex Astris…

Web Links

• The British Space Program: Wikipdia
• British National Space Centre
• History of British Rocketry
• Information on Blue Streak
• Virgin Galactic
• Author Reginald Alec Martin on Collecting Books and Magazines

NASA’s Hitch Hiker Fans ‘Tweet’ Their Praise

Penguin Books and NASA have very different ideas about celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
NASA did it by having their LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) vehicle tweeting lines from Hitchhiker’s, just before it slammed into the moon’s surface earlier this week.Quoting the lines from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide as a whale, brought accidentally and improbably into existence by last Earthman Arthur Dent, falls towards the surface of the planet Magrathea, it tweeted:

# “And what’s this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round,
about 4 hours ago from web
# it needs a big wide sounding name like ‘Ow’, ‘Ownge’, ‘Round’, ‘Ground’!”
about 4 hours ago from web
# “That’s it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it’ll be friends with me?”
about 4 hours ago from web


Then it hit the moon, to mixed responses, with something of a ‘plop’, rather than the ‘blam’ some people thought it would (with the more extreme declaring NASA was ‘bombing’ the moon, as if one more crate would actually make any difference given the number already created every day by meteors that still hit it.)

Penguin, on the other hand is marking this occasion in what’s been argued by some as a controversial way by publishing a sixth volume in the ever-more increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy on Monday (12th October). This isn’t, however, a lost Douglas Adams manuscript but an entirely new novel by internationally best selling author of the Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer.

Adams final book in the Hitchhiker’s series ended (as it began) with the complete destruction of Earth. Everyone is dead, which doesn’t leave much of an opening for Eoin to start the sixth book in the series. So how does Eoin bring the eternal pessimist Arthur Dent, his alien best friend Ford Prefect and the two headed Galactic President Zaphod Beelbebrox back from the dead?

For a sneak preview and a chance to join in the anniversary celebrations yourself, London’s Southbank Centre and Penguin Books have joined forces to create Hitchcon’09: a day of celebration, spectacle and delight voyaging deep into the Hitchhiker’s Universe on Sunday 11th October.

The 30th anniversary of Hitchhiker’s and the publication of Eoin’s new book will be celebrated across the world in a whole manner of ways and in different mediums – for information, visit the official web site at www.6of3.com.

But NASA’s tweets have definitely sent the anniversary celebrations from global to intergalactic.

Water on the Moon

The findings of an Indian space mission supports other evidence that there is water on the moon, raising hopes that a manned base could be established there within the next two decades.

Although the mission was not a complete success and was cut short, data from India’s Chandrayaan-1, launched last year, allegedly found clear evidence of water there, apparently concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind.

The findings back up evidence of water on the moon found by two NASA probes – Deep Impact and Cassini – and the research from the three missions will be published in the journal Science on Friday.

What’s more, the Guardian and other newspapers report, water appears to still be forming, advancing the possibility that human life could be sustained there. Scientists hope that astronauts could one day not only drink the water but extract oxygen from it to breathe and hydrogen to use as fuel.

The moon has long held a fascination for Indians, not just in terms of space exploration.
Launched last year, the Chandrayaan-1 mission aimed to deliver high-resolution remote sensing of the moon in visible, near infrared (NIR), low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions, preparing a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon.

The mission was, unfortunately, cut short due to problems caused by the underestimated effects of direct solar heat and reflected lunar heat, with Indian press blaming their own scientists for not ensuring there was enough insulation inside and outside Chandrayaan-1 for its failure. Despite this, European scientists praised the mission and the water finds are a bonus for the Indian Space Research Organisation, which took a lot of flack earlier this month for its apparent shortcomings.

“It’s very satisfying,”  Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, told the Times of the water finds. “This was one of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-1, to find evidence of water on the moon.”
Carle Pieters, of Brown University on Rhode Island, and colleagues reviewed data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission and found spectrographic evidence of water, apparently thicker closer to the poles.

“When we say ‘water on the moon,’ we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles,” Pieters said in a statement. “Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl (hydrogen and oxygen) that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimetres of the moon’s surface.”

Previously, infrared mapping from NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft had been used to show water all over the moon, while Roger Clark of the US Geological Survey and colleagues used a spectrometer – which breaks down light waves to analyse elements and chemicals reflecting them – from the Cassini spacecraft to identify water.

Next month, Nasa’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS mission will try to detect water by deliberately crashing a large spacecraft on to the moon.
Although its life was cut short, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 was a “fantastic success”, according to Detlef Koschny, European Chandrayaan-1 project scientist. He told the Times of India Chandrayaan-1 had carried three scientific payloads of the European Space Agency (ESA).
“I think (the) Indian press should stop trying to put ISRO down,” he told the paper. “You should rather acknowledge the fantastic achievements your space agency did,” he said, listing many of the achievements.

“You sent a spacecraft to the Moon and entered a low lunar orbit — a very high challenge which is already a fantastic success.

“Secondly, all scientific instruments were commissioned and worked flawlessly. The data came down, over a distance of about 400,000 km and it was put together into images, atomic counts etc.”

Web Links
• Indian Space Research Organisation
• Chandrayaan Mission Page


• If you’re having an “Impact Night” event on 8th October and/or 9 the tools @ http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/impactkit/ can help you. Let NASA know via  @ arc-dl-ameswebteam@mail.nasa.gov if you are putting on an event so we can help disseminate the information to the public. Additional Resources are available at: http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/resources/

ITV1 Marks Moon Landing with ‘Moonshot’ Doc

ITV1 broadcasts Moonshot, a powerful new documentary charting next Monday (20th July), marking the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon back in 1969.Starring Hotel Babylon‘s Daniel Lapaine as Neil Armstrong, James Marsters (well known for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Smallville) as Buzz Aldrin and Afterlife‘s Andrew Lincoln as Michael Collins, this drama documentary weaves the story of the men who undertook the mission with HD Nasa footage of Apollo 11 to bring together a unique testimony of this historic event.

The documentary, a co-production between ITV and indie producers Dangerous and other partners is written by Tony Basgallop, (Hotel Babylon), and directed by Richard Dale, (Diana: The Last Days of a Princess, 9/11: The Twin Towers).

Moonshot is the compelling story of the moment that united 600 million people around the world in 1969, dramatising key moments and events in the years spent preparing for their mission. The film builds a picture of the astronauts’ lives on the ground and how they shaped what happened in space and on the moon.

In 1961 President Kennedy told the world that that the United States would land on the moon by the end of the decade. This began the series of Apollo missions that would culminate with Apollo 11 – the first moon landing, one of the most watched events ever.
Moonshot follows the astronauts as they go through NASA’s intense selection procedures and reveals the arduous Apollo training process that has such an impact on their families and friendships.

Along with other key moments, the film captures the deliberations involved in selecting the crew. In one scene, the NASA official leading the process tells Neil Armstrong that Buzz Aldrin has a reputation for speaking his mind. He gives Neil a choice between Aldrin and fellow astronaut Jim Lovell, forcing him to think about who he would be able to work with – and who he could trust with his life. Armstrong chooses Aldrin, but which of them would take the first steps on the moon would be decided by NASA.

NASA discusses the merits of the two men, acknowledging that the first man on the moon would be a hero and would shoulder the responsibility for the rest of his life.

One of the officials says: “Neil’s calm, quiet, resolute – Neil’s what it says on the label. Buzz is … well you never know what you’re going to get from one day to the next.”

Another responds by saying: “Buzz wants it more.”

Prompting the reply: “Which is a reason not to give it to him.”

The decision goes in favour of Armstrong.

Also revealed is the strain of the mission, which causes tension between Aldrin and Armstrong when a simulated moon landing practice goes wrong – meaning in a real situation they would have crashed, and, later, before the launch, the families have to come to terms with the fact that the astronauts might not come back if things go wrong.

Included is a powerful scene where Armstrong shows his wife the message that will go out to the public if they fail to take off from the moon. It reads: ‘Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin know that there is no hope for their recovery.’
Stunned, she asks Neil if this is the first she would hear of it. He tells her that she will get a call from the President if anything happens. She says: “Nixon? Nixon will call me? Wow. I hope he doesn’t.”

After a successful launch Apollo 11 became a huge media story around the world. The Pope asked for a colour television to be installed in his summer residence, while West Germany announced they were calling the day of the landing ‘Apollo Day’ and schoolchildren in Bavaria were given the day off. The world held its collective breath as the lunar module approached the moon… and breathed a sigh of relief as it touched down safely on 20th July 1969. Then Armstrong said the famous words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

After a succesful mission and return to Earth, Apollo 11 splashed down safely on Earth the famous American newscaster Walter Kronkite said: “The date is now indelible. It is going to be remembered as long as man survives – July 20 1969 the day man reached and walked on the moon.”

Moonshot is bound to prompt many memories from those who were alive to witnes the dramatic events, and, hopefully, give those too young to remember the dramatic time a taste of how exciting space exploration once was – and, if humankind does return to the moon in 2020, will be again…


• Moonshot screens at 10.50pm on Monday 20 July on ITV1. It will also be shown by the History Channel.

Mission to the Moon: News of 1969

UK broadcaster ITV1 will begin screening its mini series, Mission to the Moon: News of 1969, today.The programme celebrates the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, taking the form of a news bulletin to report each day’s momentous events in the run up to the anniversary of the first Moon landing with a modern twist. The majority of each programme will be a ‘news report’ about a day of the mission, mixing ITN’s archive material plus contemporary interviews and graphics with the best of NASA’s pictures.

Former ITN presenter John Suchet will front the series, with Peter Snow, who was an ITN correspondent at the time of the moon landing, on hand to look at the technology behind the mission.

In addition, Julie Etchingham will present ITV News at Ten from Cape Canaveral on 20th and 21st July to mark the anniversary of the moon landing. She will be interviewing key personnel involved in the mission, reporting how America is marking the anniversary and asking experts whether man will walk on the moon again.

• Mission to the Moon: News of 1969 transmits 15th, 16th, 17th, 19th and 20th July at 10.35pm each night.

Joint Mars Mission by NASA, ESA?

On 29th and 30th June, the ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David Southwood, met NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science, Ed Weiler, in Plymouth, UK, to establish a way for a progressive programme for exploration of the Red Planet. The outcome of the bilateral meeting was an agreement to create a Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) that will provide a framework for the two agencies to define and implement their scientific, programmatic and technological goals at Mars.Discussions between ESA and NASA began last December, driven by the ESA Ministerial Council’s recommendation to seek international cooperation to complete the ExoMars mission and to prepare further Mars robotic exploration missions. At the same time, NASA was reassessing its Mars Exploration Program portfolio after the launch of its Mars Science Laboratory was delayed from 2009 to 2011.

This provided ESA and NASA with an opportunity to increase cooperation and expand collective capabilities. To investigate the options in depth, a joint ESA/NASA engineering working group was established, along with a joint executive board to steer the efforts and develop final recommendations on how to proceed.

At the bilateral meeting in Plymouth, the executive board recommended NASA and ESA establish MEJI spanning launch opportunities in 2016, 2018 and 2020, with landers and orbiters conducting astrobiological, geological, geophysical and other high-priority investigations, and leading to the return of samples from Mars in the 2020s. The Director and Associate Administrator agreed, in principle, to establish the Initiative and continue studies to determine the most viable joint mission architectures.

ESA and NASA also agreed to establish a joint architecture review team to assist the agencies in planning the mission portfolio. As plans develop, they will be reviewed by ESA member states for approval and by the US National Academy of Sciences. This unique collaboration of missions and technologies will pave the way for exciting discoveries at Mars.