Category: Space Exploration

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Space Exploration Earth from Space Moon Landing

Going to Space to benefit Earth (Jeff Bezos)

O'Neill cylinders as illustrated in The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space
O'Neill cylinders as illustrated in The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space, a 1976 book by Gerard K. O'Neill, a road map for what the United States might do in outer space after the Apollo program, the drive to place a man on the Moon and beyond. It envisions large manned habitats in the Earth-Moon system, especially near stable Lagrangian points. Three designs are proposed: Island one (a modified Bernal sphere), Island two (a Stanford torus), and Island 3, two O'Neill cylinders. These would be constructed using raw materials from the lunar surface launched into space using a mass driver and from near-Earth asteroids. The habitats were to spin for simulated gravity and be illuminated and powered by the sun. Solar power satellites were proposed as a possible industry to support the habitats. Image: Wikipedia

On May 9, 2019, Jeff Bezos, the founder of the American aerospace company, Blue Origin, discussed his vision to go to space to benefit Earth. In addition, he also announced the Blue Moon lunar lander, which is capable of taking people and payloads to the lunar surface. Here is the full replay of the event below. You’ll find more information about these announcements.

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Space Exploration This Day in Science, Technology, Astronomy, and Space Exploration History

The First Tweet from Space was posted on May 13, 2009

Mike Massimino during the STS-125 Hubble Space Telescope EVA 4
On May 11, 2009, Space shuttle Atlantis with its seven-member crew launched on the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched on April 24, 1990. The STS-125 mission was the 126th shuttle flight, the 30th for Atlantis. It was referred to as Servicing Mission 4, although it is technically the fifth servicing flight to the space telescope. During the mission's fourth spacewalk, Michael Good and Michael Massimino faced a curious challenge: a stripped screw delayed the removal of a handrail (pictured inside the telescope to the upper right of Good's helmet in this photo) on the outside of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). After nearly four hours of troubleshooting, Good, Massimino, the rest of the crew and a team back on Earth found a way to remove the handrail and continue the mission.

On May 13, 2009, NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino composed the first tweet from space as he and the crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis zoomed to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino wrote, “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”.

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Space Exploration Earth from Space Places

Venice from space [amazing photo]

Venice from space (cropped)
This perfectly-timed image of Venice from space was captured by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. A blanket of clouds approaches from the east the historic city's famous lagoon but seemingly stops short against the Lido sandbar (Lido di Venezia)! You can easily spot the S-shaped Grand Canal (Canale Grande). This is a cropped image.

This perfectly-timed image of Venice from space was captured by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. A blanket of clouds approaches the historic city’s famous lagoon but seemingly stops short against the Lido sandbar (Lido di Venezia)! You can easily spot the S-shaped Grand Canal (Canale Grande).

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Mars Space Exploration

InSight captures a sunrise, sunset, and clouds on Mars

Sunset on Mars (InSight image)
Sunset on Mars (InSight image) NASA's InSight lander used its Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft's robotic arm to image this sunrise on Mars on April 24, 2019, the 145th Martian day (or sol) of the mission. This was taken around 5:30 a.m. Mars local time. Image source: NASA

NASA’s Mars InSight lander captured a series of sunrise, sunset, and cloud images. On April 24 and 25, 2019 (the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission), Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft’s robotic arm captured sunrise and sunsets.

Another camera, called Instrument Context Camera (ICC) beneath the lander’s deck captured drifting clouds across the Martian sky at sunset.

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Earth from Space Climate Environment Global Warming Life on Earth Plants Space Exploration

GEDI: NASA’s Laser Mission to Measure Trees

GEDI is NASA's Laser Mission to Measure Trees
GEDI is NASA's Laser Mission to Measure Trees. It is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and weighs about a thousand pounds (454 kg) and looks like a refrigerator. It has a telescope of about 80 cm (31 in) in diameter. It has three laser ports and shoots out four laser beams that are then dithered, really quickly, in between shots. It makes one laser look like two. So GEDI is a laser altimeter. We have lasers that emit pulses of light, they travel down to the Earth, they get reflected from the Earth, and then we receive the reflection. We time how long it gets there, which allows us to measure the range to the surface. When the pulse of light hits the surface, it gets distorted and stretched out by any structure that is there.

NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) on the International Space Station (ISS) beams laser light down to Earth to reveal the height and density of trees and vegetation.

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Astronomy Moon Landing Physics Planet Earth Solar System Space Exploration

Timelapse of the future [an amazing video!]

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud
A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. A star is type of astronomical object consisting of a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its own gravity. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of about 50 kiloparsecs (~163,000 light-years), the LMC is the second or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal (~16 kpc) and the possible dwarf irregular galaxy known as the Canis Major Overdensity. Image: Wikipedia. The image is from the European Space Agency. It is listed as the LH 95 star forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope (ESA/Hubble).

Melodysheep published an amazing video titled “Timelapse of the future: a journey to the end of time”. This experience takes us on a journey to the end of time, trillions of trillions of years into the future, to discover what the fate of our planet, our sun, and our universe may ultimately be.

If this video won’t give you goosebumps, I don’t know what will.

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Places Earth from Space Space Exploration

On Earth Day, NASA wants to see the Earth around you

A misty lake in the Belgrade Forest, İstanbul, Turkey
A misty lake in the Belgrade Forest, İstanbul, Turkey. But why there is a forest in İstanbul named "Belgrade Forest"? According to common belief, Belgrade Forest was named after a Serbian village that was forcibly relocated to the forest to manage the city's water supply system during Ottoman times. The people of the village were captives from Suleiman's (the Magnificent) Serbia campaign. Apparently they were known for being good at that sort of thing, and the sultan decided he'd prefer to have no one but the best looking after his aqueducts and dams. The water from the Belgrade Forest dams ended up along the European Bosporus shore all the way down (you can still see the remnants of the aqueducts in Bahcekoy) before getting terminated in the famous Taksim Square, where it was then distributed further. This is actually how Taksim got its name - "taksim" is Turkish for "distribution".

NASA tweeted this morning and said that “Good morning Europe and Africa! Celebrate Earth Day today by sharing with NASA a photo of the gorgeous planet we call home. Show us how you #PictureEarth around you.”

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Earth from Space

Amazing weather balloon flight to the Stratosphere

Earth from a weather balloon
Weßel wrote on Reddit that: "I was a member of a team that sent 4 balloons to 20-30 km. (they sent more since then, but I left them). What we did (in Poland) is coordinate with the "FAA" that coordinated with ATC. We had a launch window, and had to call them after launching. You retrieve it by simply following the balloon and picking it up. We had 2 different trackers in the balloon, but there was a flight or two where they both failed (I don't know why we had such problems with the trackers). You find out wherever it landed, and go pick it up. One time we had to go to another country, that was fun."

An amazing video showing a weather Balloon flight to the Stratosphere. Cameras were installed in a box attached to a weather balloon to get high-altitude images of the Earth. Published by the J. W. Astronomy channel.

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

Salar de Uyuni salt flat from space

Salar de Uyuni from the ISS
While orbiting over South America, an astronaut on the International Space Station shot this photograph of the Atacama Desert and the numerous salt flats in the Andes Mountains along the border of Chile and Bolivia. The centerpiece is the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on Earth. It regularly captures the attention of astronauts due to its high contrast against the brown landscape. Salar de Uyuni and its smaller neighbor, Salar de Coipasa, have darker tones along their edges in this image. These dried lake beds are typically bright white in color, but rainfall can bring an influx of dark volcanic sediments. The region experienced rainfall in early February 2019, which caused temporary discoloration of the salars. By the time this image was taken in March 2019, the flats had started to shift back to their lighter colors. Nearby, the much smaller Laguna Colorada displays bright hues thanks to algae that thrive in the salty water. To the west and northwest of the lake, some of the white dots are snow-capped volcanoes and mountains. The salars receive less than 200 millimeters of rainfall per year. In contrast, the cloud-covered parts of Bolivia (north of the salars) see more than 1,750 mm of rain annually. The Andes Mountains create a rain shadow effect along the coast of northern Chile and western Bolivia, as air masses carrying moisture from the east drop most of their water before cooling and moving up over the mountains. Along the coast, the Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, sometimes going years without rainfall. NASA uses the Atacama Desert to test rovers and other instruments because the area is a good analogue for future astrobiological exploration of Mars. Image source: NASA Earth Observatory webpage

While orbiting over South America” on March 17, 2019, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) shot this photograph of the Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert in the world, and the numerous salt flats in the Andes Mountains along the border of Chile and Bolivia. The centerpiece is the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on Earth.

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Space Exploration

SpaceX launches the second Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy Launch on April 11, 2019
On April 11, 2019, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon Heavy rocket, the partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle's second flight, and its first commercial launch. The mission deployed Arabsat-6A, a Saudi Arabian communications satellite into orbit.

On April 11, 2019, the American space company SpaceX launched its second Falcon Heavy rocket, and this time, landed all three boosters successfully.

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