NASA is giving an opportunity again to send your name to Mars. This time will be on NASA’s InSight lander. All you need to do is go to this site (click here) and enter your information. The launch is scheduled for March, 2016! With your submission you get a Boarding Pass similar to mine shown below. Make sure to invite your friends to participate and check out the world participation map to see all the countries represented.
Ideas Put to Work!
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Franklin Chang’s Second Book
On a prior post, I had already written about Franklin Chang’s First Book. I am now happy to say that the wait for the second book is over. Last week I received by mail the copy I purchased online.
Dr. Chang’s second book is titled “Dream’s Journey” and in contrast to his first book, his second book is in English. He tells us that he has decided to share his memories in the language in which they were lived.
I am looking forward to reading this book and I encourage all dreamers out there to pick up copy and read it. I have said it before; Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz has always been a hero of mine and he has inspired me in many stages of my life. Thank you Dr. Chang Diaz for sharing your memories with us.
Costa Rica from Space
I typically enjoy looking at pictures of earth taken from space. I often hear from those who have had the opportunity to see earth from space that it is an incredible feeling.I could not agree more with the fact that we discovered earth when we flew into space. I would like to thank Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz @FranklinChangD for sharing this amazing picture of Costa Rica from space which he took in 1996. This is not only a great picture of my country but, I also appreciate that it was taken by a heroe of mine.
Full Moon Thu Sep-19, 2013
Here are a few shots of the moon on Thursday September 19, 2013 at around 9:35 pm. According to this website, the moon was 99% full at the time. The view was looking east from Wilsonville, OR.
LADEE Launch
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) successfully launched last night from NASA Wallops onboard of a Minotaur V rocket.
I am very happy to have had the opportunity to participate in the testing of the nutation characteristics of the spin-stabilized stage of the mission (minute 2:07 from video below) with the world-known rocket scientist Dr. Harrison at Applied Dynamics Laboratories. Last night launch adds one more success to over 35 years of Dr. Harrison’s work in spin-spacecraft attitude dynamics.
LADEE Mechanical Testing
On an earlier post I briefly described the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). The LADEE observatory has now been transported to the National Technical Systems facility where it will undergo mechanical testing.
During mechanical testing LADEE will face conditions that simulate the environments which are expected to occur during launch and operation such as acoustic, vibration, shock, and thermal-vacuum conditions. These type of test often reveal possible problems with the spacecraft. For more information, click here.
Jupiter and the Moon on Dec 25th 2012
On December 25th 2012, the Moon and Jupiter appeared very close together during the evening time. At the time, I was not aware that this was happening. However, I did happen to notice a relatively large body next to the moon and decided to take a few pictures using a simple digital camera. Here are a couple of them:
Perhaps the pictures above do not fully represent how amazing this was at the time. Maybe the panoramic picture below of the full view that day will help convey the feeling
Curiosity Self-Portrait
So, this is how a man made robot looks on the surface of an extraterrestrial planet. Cool! It almost sounds like science fiction. Click on the image below and enjoy a full size view.
Photo Credit: NASA
NASA and Oregon State University
Kudos to Oregon State University, my former advisor, Dr. Vinod Narayanan, and former labmates in this amazing accomplishment along with our friends at Auburn University. It is great to see this type of collaboration being established to work on the development of new technologies that will significantly impact the advancement of space exploration. I couldn't be more happy to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazing team.
Find the full article here!
Curiosity Rover Images
It amazes me to see all the images that the Curiosity Rover is sending back to earth. Sometimes I have to remind myself that these are images taken in a planet that is roughly 183 millions miles away from earth where no human being has ever been before.
Photo Credit: NASA
The quality and resolution of some of these images allows to see Mars in a way we have never seen before. I am very happy that NASA is sharing these images with all of us. In a way, these images allow all of us to be explorers of a new land. I strongly encourage you all to carefully look at these images and see what looks familiar and what looks different compared to Earth. Like the old saying states: an image is worth a thousand words. Those thousand words can be very different for different observers and maybe you will make a discovery yet to be found.
Here a some useful links to Curiosity’s Images:
Curiosity’s Power Source
We’ve all heard by now the exciting news of Curiosity safely landing on the surface of Mars at Gale crater. This rover is about the size of a small SUV, weights nearly 2000 pounds (900 Kg), and carries a variety of science instruments including a geology lab, a rock-vaporizing laser, and of course, lots of cameras. The prime mission is expected to last for one Mars year which is nearly equivalent to 23 months on Earth. So, where is the energy coming from that is required to move the rover and operate all its instruments? Solar panels would be a good guess, but if you look carefully at a picture of Curiosity you will see that there are none.
Curiosity’s power is in fact nuclear and it comes from an onboard Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). The MMRTG provides electrical power by directly converting the heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 dioxide into electrical energy using thermocouples at an operational efficiency of 6 to 7 percent. The MMRTG carries 10.6 pounds (4.8 Kg) of plutonium-238 dioxide and produces 110 Watts of electrical power (twice as much as the maximum power provided by the charger on a 13-in MacBook Pro). The MMRTG also provides heat to maintain a proper operating temperature of all the instruments and systems in the rover. Here is a schematic of a MMRTG
So, where is the MMRTG in the Rover? Take a look and see if you can find it
The MMRTG in Curiosity is capable of producing power for over 14 years, it weights 99 pounds(45 Kg), and it measures about 63.5 cm in diameter and 66 cm long. A great advantage of thermoelectric generators is that there are no moving parts associated with them. However, typical energy conversion efficiencies are quite low.
(Photo credits: NASA)
Curiosity’s power is in fact nuclear and it comes from an onboard Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). The MMRTG provides electrical power by directly converting the heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 dioxide into electrical energy using thermocouples at an operational efficiency of 6 to 7 percent. The MMRTG carries 10.6 pounds (4.8 Kg) of plutonium-238 dioxide and produces 110 Watts of electrical power (twice as much as the maximum power provided by the charger on a 13-in MacBook Pro). The MMRTG also provides heat to maintain a proper operating temperature of all the instruments and systems in the rover. Here is a schematic of a MMRTG
So, where is the MMRTG in the Rover? Take a look and see if you can find it
The MMRTG in Curiosity is capable of producing power for over 14 years, it weights 99 pounds(45 Kg), and it measures about 63.5 cm in diameter and 66 cm long. A great advantage of thermoelectric generators is that there are no moving parts associated with them. However, typical energy conversion efficiencies are quite low.
(Photo credits: NASA)
Curiosity’s Landing on Mars
After a journey of over eight months, Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars this Sunday, August 5th at 10:31 pm PDT. Check out this video that explains how exciting, challenging, and complex this landing will be. All I can tell you is that the 7 minutes that it takes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars are being described as the 7 minutes of Terror. When will we know if we made it to the surface safely or not? It will take 14 minutes for a communication signal to travel from Mars back to Earth!
It might look like science fiction but it truly is just real science and engineering
LADEE
It may come as a surprise to most people but it has been nearly 40 years after the Apollo missions and we do not yet fully understand the composition, structure, and variability of the Lunar Atmosphere. This and many other questions regarding the moon’s atmosphere remain unanswered. A further understanding of the lunar atmosphere is required prior to future lunar science missions. Even the suggested existence of water on the lunar atmosphere needs to be studied further.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, LADEE, is a NASA mission that seeks to orbit the Moon with the main objective of characterizing the lunar atmosphere and dust environment. The instrument payload of the mission includes a Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS), an Ultraviolet/Visible Spectrometer (UVS), and the Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX). In addition, the payload will also include the space terminal of Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) to demonstrate the technology.
LADEE is scheduled to launch on May 2013 out of the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and will be the first mission based on the Ames Modular Common Bus Design which for this mission consists of a Minotaur V vehicle with a spin-stabilized upper stage.
References:
Solar Eclipse
Find here Six Easy Ways to Watch the 2012 Solar Eclipse in the Northwest. This will be the first time since 1994 that we will have this opportunity. Next opportunity won’t be until 2017 so don’t miss it!
edX: An MIT and Harvard Partnership
Free online classes from MIT and Harvard. Doesn’t get much better than that! I encourage all of you to take advantage of this new resource. As a current MITx student enrolled in 6.002x, I can tell you first hand that these online education opportunities will eliminate geographical and socio-economical boundaries for education and will revolutionize they way we all learn.
ONE-ON-ONE with Franklin Chang Diaz
Maria Hinojosa interviews Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz, former NASA astronaut and world known rocket scientist. These are the words of wisdom from a man that has seen and experienced the world in a rather unique way. I really enjoy carefully listening to what Franklin has to tell us and I always find a lot to learn from him.
Dryden Drop Tower
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Dryden Drop Tower located in Portland State University. This facility is a great research resource for investigators looking to study different phenomena in a micro-gravity environment. Several areas of research such as fluid mechanics and heat transfer benefit greatly from drop tower facilities like this one, to further develop our understanding on these important fields. The Dryden Drop Tower is without a doubt a state-of-the-art drop tower facility and it will significantly impact micro-gravity research in the state of Oregon. The tower height is about 31m with an approximate free fall distance of 22.2 m for an anticipated low-gravity time just over 2 seconds. The facility is equipped with a drag shield to reduce the effect of hydrodynamic drag on the experiments and milli-g testing gravity levels are anticipated. The average deceleration for the falling experimental capsule is about 8.5g. This drop tower also includes an automated retrieval system which significantly helps expedite the repetition of experiments. For more information check out these links and make sure to check some of the pictures I have included.
Major Financial Contributors
Drop Tower seen from above
Drag Shield
Foam Pads + Neon Lights
Tracks
Pneumatics and Data Control
Live Webcam on Network
Fluid Experiment
Retrieval System Motor
Release Mechanism
Braking System
Computer Controls
“Houston, we have a problem here”
These were the words of famous NASA astronaut John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. as he informed Mission Control in Houston of the oxygen tank explosion during the moon flight mission Apollo 13 on which he was the command module pilot. These words have become famously known to the general public after the widely seen movie Apollo 13, which depicts the great challenges that the Apollo 13 crew overcame to safely return to earth. Here is a picture of the statue that is located in Denver International airport to commemorate John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. who was born in Denver in 1931.
ISS Brand New Node
Here is an amazing picture tweeted by ISS Expedition Flight Engineer 22/23 Soichi. In this picture you can see node 3, newly added to the International Space Station. This node is also known as the Tranquility node and it is the node with the cupola attached. The space shuttle Endeavour, which delivered the Tranquility node, is also shown in this picture as it prepares for its journey back to earth.
Source :Astro_Soichi twitter
I recommend you look at the full image here
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