Category: Space Exploration

Categories
Space Exploration

RemoveDEBRIS satellite deploys a Net and Captures Space Debris for the First Time in History (video)

RemoveDEBRIS satellite captures artificial space junk
On June 20, 2018, the International Space Station deployed the NanoRacks-RemoveDEBRIS satellite into space from outside the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. This technology demonstration was designed to explore using a 3D camera to map the location and speed of orbital debris or "space junk." The NanoRacks-RemoveDEBRIS satellite successfully deployed a net to capture a nanosatellite that simulates debris.

In this amazing video, the RemoveDEBRIS satellite deploys a net and captures space debris, a defunct nanosatellite – and this has happened (capturing space junk in space) happened for the first time in space exploration history.

Orbital debris is a really big problem: it can cause collisions in space, and these collisions could have serious consequences for the International Space Station and satellites. The space junk literally can end space exploration and destroy the modern way of life. And the problem is getting worse each year as we are slowly filling the most important part just above us, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), with junk.

Continue reading “RemoveDEBRIS satellite deploys a Net and Captures Space Debris for the First Time in History (video)”
Categories
Space Exploration

How far beyond Earth will we go to safeguard our species?

Bruce McCandless II performs the first untethered spacewalk on February 7, 1984
NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless during the first untethered spacewalk in history. In this photograph taken on February 7, 1984 by his fellow crewmembers aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-41B mission, McCandless II approaches his maximum distance (98 meters/320 feet) from the vehicle. McCandless became the first astronaut to maneuver about in space untethered, during this first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). Not long afterward, NASA discontinued such actions and decided to perform only tethered spacewalks for safety reasons. In 1994, NASA unveiled a new backpack called Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue, or Safer, and tested it with an untethered spacewalk, the fourth, and thus far last untethered extra-vehicular activity it has performed. Every astronaut at the International Space Station wears Safer, which is smaller and lighter than the manned maneuvering units, for use during an emergency. You can see this image with max. resolution on NASA.gov

The human future in the cosmos could be all but limitless if we don’t destroy ourselves first. The same would be true of intelligent aliens elsewhere in the Universe, assuming they exist: how far they travel depends strongly on how long they survive as a species. That survival variable, which the US astronomer Frank Drake incorporated into his famous equation on the likelihood of technological civilizations beyond Earth, is unknowable at present because we are the only such civilization yet identified.

Let’s be optimistic and assume that humans are persistent, working their way through the manifest problems of mastering their tools – or at least mastering them long enough to plant colonies off-world so that our destruction in one place doesn’t mean the death of the species.

Continue reading “How far beyond Earth will we go to safeguard our species?”
Categories
Astronomy Space Exploration

Top 21 Common Misconceptions about Space

Common misconceptions about space: a spacecraft is navigating through space rocks like depicted in movies.
Common misconceptions about space: An asteroid belt does not look like this. Despite Hollywood depictions of dense asteroid fields -like in Star Wars or 65- the real Asteroid Belt is incredibly sparse. The average distance between objects is about 600,000 miles (965,606 km), which is over 2.5 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. In reality, a spacecraft wouldn't need to dodge swarms of rocks; the belt is mostly empty space. Flying through it is far safer and less dramatic than movies suggest, making scenes of perilous asteroid-dodging highly unrealistic.

There are countless misconceptions about space, fueled by science-fiction movies with poor science and sensational tabloid headlines. These myths distort our understanding of the universe. Here are 21 common space myths that we need to stop believing.

Continue reading “Top 21 Common Misconceptions about Space”
Categories
Space Exploration

Kessler Syndrome: Space junk can end space exploration [and destroy the modern way of life]

Kessler Syndrome: Explosions of satellites and rocket bodies
In 1978, Donald J. Kessler proposed a scenario: since the spent rockets, satellites and other space trash have accumulated in orbit increasing the likelihood of collision with other debris, these collisions create more debris creating a runaway chain reaction of collisions and even more debris. This scenario is now known as known as the Kessler Syndrome. This domino effect and feedback runaway can create a physically impassable barrier in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to space exploration that occurs in higher orbits. Donald J. Kessler, then an astrophysicist working at NASA, demonstrated that once the amount of debris in a particular orbit reaches critical mass, collision cascading begins even if no more objects are launched into the orbit. Once collisional cascading begins, the risk to satellites and spacecraft increases until the orbit is no longer usable. Kessler proposed it would take 30 to 40 years for such a threshold to be reached. Today, interestingly exactly 40 years later Kessler demonstrated his theory, some experts think we are already at critical mass in low-Earth orbit (LEO). So far, about 200 explosions and at least 5 collisions in space have occurred. Further explosions and collisions are very likely. The explosions are mainly caused by onboard energy sources, either due to pressure build-up in propellant tanks, battery explosions, or the ignition of hypergolic fuels. Each explosion creates thousands of small debris objects. Image Credit: ESA

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first human-made object to orbit Earth. This event marks the beginning of humanity’s space exploration history. After that, humanity went to the moon, astronauts and cosmonauts performed countless spacewalks, and since the arrival of Expedition 1 on November 2, 2000, the International Space Station station has been continuously occupied. To date, this is the longest continuous human presence in space, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir.

But, maybe even more important, we launched thousands of artificial satellites into the Earth’s orbit. These artificial satellites shape our modern life: weather forecasts, broadcasting, communication, and GPS are just a few examples. But, there’s a side effect: just like here on the Earth, we are slowly filling the most important part just above us, with junk.  And this junk can end space exploration, and destroy our modern way of life. This (very possible) scenario known as the Kessler Syndrome, proposed by the American astrophysicist and former NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978.

Continue reading “Kessler Syndrome: Space junk can end space exploration [and destroy the modern way of life]”
Categories
Space Exploration Earth from Space

Spacewalker [Story of the First Spacewalk – Movie]

The Spacewalker
The 2017 movie successfully tells the story above, the story of humanity's first-ever spacewalk. Two men in a tiny spaceship, without proper testing, facing the complete unknown. Voskhod 2 (English: 'Sunrise-2') was a Soviet manned space mission in March 1965. The Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft with two crew members on board, Pavel Belyayev, and Alexey Leonov, was equipped with an inflatable airlock. On March 18, 1965, it established another milestone in space exploration when Alexey Leonov became the first person to leave the spacecraft in a specialized spacesuit to conduct a 12-minute 9-seconds "spacewalk".

I recently watched the 2017 Russian film “The Spacewalker”. It tells the story of humanity’s first spacewalk. On March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov stepped out of the Voskhod 2 spacecraft into the void of space and became the first spacewalker ever.

Continue reading “Spacewalker [Story of the First Spacewalk – Movie]”
Categories
Space Exploration Mars Scientific method

Why it’s only science that can answer all the big questions

Mars Sunset. April-15, 2015
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this view of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater. This was the first sunset observed in color by Curiosity. The image comes from the left-eye camera of the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam). The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. Mastcam sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are. Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun's part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. The effect is most pronounced near sunset, when light from the sun passes through a longer path in the atmosphere than it does at mid-day. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. This is a cropped image. You can see the full-size image on NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.

Science has proved itself to be a reliable way to approach all kinds of questions about the physical world. As a scientist, I am led to wonder whether its ability to provide understanding is unlimited. Can it in fact answer all the great questions, the ‘big questions of being’, that occur to us?

Continue reading “Why it’s only science that can answer all the big questions”
Categories
Space Exploration Solar System

Lunar Landmarks meets Debussy’s “Moonlight” in this Amazing NASA Video

NASA Lunar landmarks video "Moonlight"
NASA's Lunar landmarks video "Moonlight". NASA has published an amazing video titled "Moonlight (Clair de Lune)", which attempts to capture the mood of the French composer Claude Debussy's (22 August 1862 - 25 March 1918) best-known composition, Clair de Lune (moonlight in French). The piece's name comes from the French poet Paul-Marie Verlaine’s (30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) poem Clair de lune, “moonlight” in French. It is written in 9/8 meter, marked andante très expressif, and to be played mostly pianissimo.

NASA has published an amazing video titled “Moonlight (Clair de Lune)”, which attempts to capture the mood of the French composer Claude Debussy’s (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) best-known composition, Clair de Lune (moonlight in French).

Continue reading “Lunar Landmarks meets Debussy’s “Moonlight” in this Amazing NASA Video”
Categories
Space Exploration Animals Earth from Space Life on Earth

A cosmonaut’s view, just after launching a tiny satellite into the orbit

Cosmonauts deliver a tiny satellite from the ISS (August 15, 2018)
Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Oleg Artemyev deliver a tiny satellite into Earth orbit from the ISS (August 15, 2018). During the 7-hour 46-minute spacewalk, the duo manually launched four small technology satellites and installed a German-led animal-tracking project named ICARUS (short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space) onto the Russian segment of the space station. Image: Oleg Artemyev on Twitter

On August 15, 2018, two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station performed one of the longest spacewalks in the history of space exploration. During the spacewalk lasting 7 hours and 46 minutes, Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Sergey Prokopyev and Oleg Artemyev manually launched four small technology satellites and installed a German-led animal-tracking project named Icarus onto the Russian segment of the space station. Two of the satellites were only the size of tissue boxes.

Continue reading “A cosmonaut’s view, just after launching a tiny satellite into the orbit”
Categories
Planet Earth Earth from Space Oceans Space Exploration

NASA Has Published Statistics About the World’s Sandy Beaches

Sandy beaches of the world
About 31 percent of the world’s coastlines are sandy. Africa has the highest proportion of sandy beaches (66%) and Europe has the lowest (22%).

NASA has published some interesting statistics about the world’s sandy beaches on the Earth Observatory website. According to the images taken by Landsat satellites (see notes 1) (Landsat 5 and Landsat 8, see notes 2 and 3), about 31 percent of the world’s coastlines are sandy. Africa has the highest proportion of sandy beaches (66 percent) and Europe has the lowest (22 percent).

Continue reading “NASA Has Published Statistics About the World’s Sandy Beaches”
Categories
Earth from Space Space Exploration

ISS Over New Zealand (Video)

ISS passes over New Zealand
ISS passes over New Zealand. The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the slightly larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand. It is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook at 3,724 meters (12,218 ft), making it 9th-highest island, with the high Kaikoura Ranges to the northeast. There are eighteen peaks of more than 3000 meters (9800 ft) in the South Island.

An amazing video of our beautiful Blue Marble from the International Space Station, titled “ISS over New Zealand”, was published by the NASA Crew Earth Observations channel.

Continue reading “ISS Over New Zealand (Video)”