Polar caps wane as Mars tries global warming
Global warming and melting polar ice caps are not just problems here on Earth. Mars is facing similar global changes, researchers say, with temperatures across the red planet rising by around 0.65 degrees over the last few decades.
Monday, April 30, 2007
There Will Be Cooking on Mars
Phoenix mission will take and heat samples that could contain life
The search for life is the holy grail of Mars exploration. Yet oddly, only one mission was ever sent to Mars equipped with the kind of scientific instrumentation needed to identify signs of life—NASA’s 1976 twin Viking lander mission—and that mission yielded conflicting results. Since Viking, most scientists have thought that the liquid water almost certainly needed to support life could not exist on Mars because of its low atmospheric pressure, which is about one-hundredth that of Earth. Within the last year, however, the conventional wisdom about the Viking experiments and life on Mars has changed radically.
The search for life is the holy grail of Mars exploration. Yet oddly, only one mission was ever sent to Mars equipped with the kind of scientific instrumentation needed to identify signs of life—NASA’s 1976 twin Viking lander mission—and that mission yielded conflicting results. Since Viking, most scientists have thought that the liquid water almost certainly needed to support life could not exist on Mars because of its low atmospheric pressure, which is about one-hundredth that of Earth. Within the last year, however, the conventional wisdom about the Viking experiments and life on Mars has changed radically.
Space 50
With just under six months to go before the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and the generally accepted beginning of the Space Age, one can expect the bookshelves to get crowded with books about the history of spaceflight and its future. (“Crowded” is used here in a relative sense; one can expect far more books about politics, finance, or even chicken soup for the souls of various groups, than for space history.) Some will be celebratory in tone, while others, perhaps, more critical; some will gloss over the basics of the history of spaceflight while others will drill deep into specific topics. One of the first books about the first fifty years of spaceflight, Space 50 by Piers Bizony, offers a basic and lavishly-illustrated, but not overly simplistic, review of the last fifty years.
NASA Sets New Shuttle Launch Targets for 2007
NASA Sets New Shuttle Launch Targets for 2007
NASA aims to launch four space shuttle missions by the end of the year, some aboard different orbiters than originally planned, in order to continue assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), mission managers reported late Monday. The U.S. space agency released new launch targets for three ISS-bound missions in 2007 following the planned June 8 liftoff of the Atlantis shuttle’s STS-117 station assembly flight. The shuttle’s 11-day mission to deliver new solar arrays to the space station has been delayed beyond its initial March 15 target following hail damage to the orbiter’s foam-covered external tank
NASA aims to launch four space shuttle missions by the end of the year, some aboard different orbiters than originally planned, in order to continue assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), mission managers reported late Monday. The U.S. space agency released new launch targets for three ISS-bound missions in 2007 following the planned June 8 liftoff of the Atlantis shuttle’s STS-117 station assembly flight. The shuttle’s 11-day mission to deliver new solar arrays to the space station has been delayed beyond its initial March 15 target following hail damage to the orbiter’s foam-covered external tank
Never on Time
The sun's predicted set of storms is going to arrive later than originally predicted. Since the last fall the sun's 11 year storm was assumed to start March 2008- not so anymore. The peak will come in 2011.
"By giving a long-term outlook, we're advancing a new field - space climate - that's still in its infancy," said retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. David Johnson, director of NOAA's National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado. "Issuing a cycle prediction of the onset this far in advance lies on the very edge of what we know about the Sun."
"By giving a long-term outlook, we're advancing a new field - space climate - that's still in its infancy," said retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. David Johnson, director of NOAA's National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado. "Issuing a cycle prediction of the onset this far in advance lies on the very edge of what we know about the Sun."
Sunday, April 29, 2007
New View of Ancient Mars Water System
New View of Ancient Mars Water System
Groundwater once bubbled up from beneath the surface of Mars to form transient, shallow pools before evaporating and leaving behind thick layers of salty minerals, a new computer model suggests.The new model provides an alternative explanation for sulphate-rich “evaporite” deposits discovered on Mars’ Meridiani Planum, hailed by some scientists as the desiccated remains of an ancient ocean covering the planet’s Northern Plains. It also suggests Mars in its early history had a globally connected groundwater system.
Groundwater once bubbled up from beneath the surface of Mars to form transient, shallow pools before evaporating and leaving behind thick layers of salty minerals, a new computer model suggests.The new model provides an alternative explanation for sulphate-rich “evaporite” deposits discovered on Mars’ Meridiani Planum, hailed by some scientists as the desiccated remains of an ancient ocean covering the planet’s Northern Plains. It also suggests Mars in its early history had a globally connected groundwater system.
Space technology and very poor nations
One significant fact about space technology in this decade is the way that developing nations, such as China and India, have been able to use it to enable them to accelerate already impressive rates of economic growth. Other nations, such as Nigeria and Algeria, are following suit by buying and operating small spacecraft from Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in order to jumpstart their national space expertise. Space technology is effectively contributing to the long-term development of these nations. There are plenty of obstacles to their economic, social, and political improvement, but lack of appropriate technology is not one of them.
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