SpaceExploration
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NASA's Kepler discovers three potentially habitable planets
NASA's Kepler telescope has discovered three "super-Earth-size" exoplanets that are close enough to their stars to make them possibly suitable for water. Two of the planets (Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f) orbit a K2 dwarf estimated to be around 7 billion years old. Measuring at two-thirds the size of our sun, this cosmic lantern is orbited by a total of five planets, three of which are too close to be habitable for life. Kepler-69c, the biggest of this newly discovered trio is estimated to be 70 percent larger than Earth and takes 242 days to revolve around its sun-like star Kepler-69. While there's great excitement surrounding these new findings, this isn't the first time we've spotted a potentially habitable planet. A little over a year ago Kepler discovered Kepler-22b, an exoplanet about 600 light-years away from Earth believed to be covered in liquid. Like their predecessor, NASA has yet to determine if these newfound planets actually have water or a rocky composition. Until then, Ridley Scott might want to hold off on naming them as locations for his sequel to Prometheus.
Electron showers could create the nano-spacesuit of the future
Historically, whenever man or beast's been bombarded with massive amounts of radiation the results have either been gruesome or wholly fantastical (see: any superhero origin story). But recent research out of Japan indicates that a barrage of electrons could actually help scientists revolutionize microbiology and, more excitingly, space travel. The experiment, conducted by a team from the Hamamatsu University of Medicine, found that the larvae of fruit flies hit with this electron rush were able to withstand an electron microscope's hostile vacuum unharmed and even grew to be healthy adults. The results weren't so rosy for the untreated group which, understandably, suffered a grislier fate: death by dehydration. The magic, it turns out, is in that subatomic spray, as the group treated with an electron shower benefited from a polymerizing effect or, more plainly, a bonding of molecules just above the skin's surface that yielded a tough, protective nano-layer measuring between 50- to 100-billionths of a meter thick. Finesse that technique some and it's easy to why one NASA scientist thinks this could lead to the creation of a super-thin "space shield... that could protect against dehydration and radiation." The process is still far from foolproof, however, seeing as how an increase in the microscope's resolution requires an equal boost in radiation -- all of which is fatal to the insects. So, in order to go deeper and get a more close-up view of the larvae's internals, the team's currently exploring new methods of fabricating these "nano-suits" using an array of chemicals. If you're wondering just how far-off we are from practical human application, then consider this: the amount of radiation required to form the bonded layer is akin to "sunbathing naked on the top of Everest under a hole in the ozone." Which is to say, keep dreaming. And get Jeff Goldblum on the phone while you're at it... we have a promising idea for a Return of the Fly sequel.
Curiosity rover finds radiation levels on Mars are safe for humans
It's been three months since NASA's Curiosity rover set foot wheels down on Martian terrain, and now the space agency has divulged what it's learned about radiation on Mars. Marking the first time radiation has been measured from the surface of another planet, preliminary data collected using the rover's Radiation Assessment Detector (or RAD for short) revealed that levels on the ground are similar to what astronauts encounter on the International Space Station. What's that mean for space travel? "The astronauts can live in this environment," Don Hassler, principal investigator on Curiosity's RAD hardware, said in a press conference. However, humans would still experience higher levels of radiation on the way to and from the red planet than on its surface. The results are encouraging, but they're just one of many developments left before Homo sapiens set foot on Mars. For more details on the RAD's findings, look below for the press release.
Visualized: Curiosity rover's self-portrait
No, Disney isn't working on Wall-E the live action movie. Pictured above is a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover resting in the Gale crater of Mars. Showcasing some extreme detail, this high-res photo was captured by the Red Planet roller's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), with its native image clocking in at 5,463 x 7,595 pixels. The picture's Martian backdrop consists of a trail of freshly made tire tracks with a glimpse of Curiosity's future destination Mount Sharp hanging out in the distance. If you gaze deeply into the unmanned craft's soulless robotic eye, you'll catch a reflection of Mars staring right back at you. To get a closer look at our favorite Martian in all of its uncompressed glory, you can snag the 125MB image file from the second source link below. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems]
9-gigapixel image of the Milky Way reminds us just how small we truly are
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this just leaves us speechless. Pictured above is a compressed 108,500 x 81,500 pixel image of 84 million stars across central parts of the Milky Way. Taken by the VISTA survey telescope at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, this 9-gigapixel photo is the result of thousands of individual images being meshed together. If it were printed out at the average resolution of a standard book it would measure a mind-boggling 9 x 7 meters. Using three separate infrared filters, VISTA is able to see through dust fields that normally obscure the view of an optical telescope. By studying this monumental image, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. If you'd like to take a look at this galactic work of art in its entirety, you can do so by visiting the source link below. (Image credit: ESO/VVV Consortium)
NASA and IHMC building X1 exoskeleton to give us a lift, keep us fit in space and on Earth
It's hard to deny the appeal of a space-bound robot like NASA's Robonaut 2, fears of subversion notwithstanding. The space agency and Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition know it, and they want to put that technology into an exoskeleton with a nobler purpose than performing chores on space stations. The in-development X1 (not yet pictured) adapts the Robonaut's skills to a body-hugging frame with 10 points of movement that might give humans an assist when they need it the most. In space, the X1 could automate and add challenge to exercise for astronauts in low gravity, or provide the extra muscle for that fabled day we return to manned surface exploration. NASA envisions its exoskeleton having more grounded uses as well, such as rehabilitation for leg injuries or walking for those who never had the chance. Although we're not expecting a rapid turnaround knowing NASA's lengthy schedules, we might see the X1 in use sooner than most such products in the wake of a purposefully quick development cycle -- and, no doubt, a few interested customers here on Earth.
Space Shuttle Atlantis hands-on: a look inside (video)
Space Shuttles Discovery, Endeavour and Enterprise have all left Kennedy Space Center for new homes, but Atlantis? She's staying. Come November 2nd, the orbiter will be wheeled out to a 65,000-square-foot exhibit, which is still being constructed at KSC's visitor complex. Though the craft's cargo bay doors will be open and its remote manipulator arm extended when its displayed, visitors won't be able to climb aboard it -- or any of the other shuttles, for that matter. However, we got the chance to visit Bay 2 of the Orbiter Processing Facility, step inside Atlantis and give it the hands-on treatment. Look out below for the gallery or hit the jump for the full video tour.
NASA's Curiosity rover checks in on Foursquare, gives Mars its first mayor
Yes, seriously. NASA announced on Wednesday that its Curiosity rover had "checked in" on Mars via Foursquare. Marking the first check in from another world, the robotic rover will utilize the location-minded social network to share updates and pictures while visiting the Red Planet. While Curiosity will continue to explore the possibilities of Mars being able to sustain life, it would appear that the fourth planet from the sun just got a brand new mayor. Something tells us the universe's rarest badge is about to be bestowed.
NASA's Curiosity rover finds ancient streambed on Mars, evidence of 'vigorous' water flow
Curiosity may have spent a while limbering up for the mission ahead, but now it's found evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars that once had "vigorous" water flow. Photos of two rock outcroppings taken by the rover's mast camera between the north rim of Gale Crater and the foot of Mount Sharp reveal gravel embedded into a layer of conglomerate rock. The shape of the small stones indicate to NASA JPL scientists that they were previously moved, and their size (think from grains of sand to golf balls) are a telltale sign that water did the work instead of wind. Evidence of H2O on Mars has been spotted before, but this is the first direct look at the composition of riverbeds NASA has observed from above. According to Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich, it's estimated that water flowed at the site anywhere from thousands to millions of years ago, moved at a clip of roughly 3 feet per second and was somewhere between ankle and hip deep. "A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger said. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."
Space Shuttle Endeavour hitching a ride atop a 747 to its new home on September 17
Space Shuttles Discovery and Enterprise have already settled into their new homes, and now Endeavour is scheduled to depart for its future abode at the California Science Center on September 17th. Taking to the skies atop a modified Boeing 747, the shuttle will make pit stops in Texas and at Edwards Air Force Base in the Golden State before touching down at Los Angeles International Airport on the 20th. During the journey out west, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft will buzz certain cities and NASA sites along its flight path at roughly 1,500 feet in altitude. After its voyage, Endeavor will head to the science center on October 13th, but won't be on display until the end of the month. Yearning to catch a glimpse of the historic vehicle before it reaches its final resting place? Head past the jump for its flight schedule and flyover details.
NASA's Voyager 1 marks 35th anniversary of its launch, gets photo retrospective in tribute
It's hard to believe at times that the Voyager 1 probe is older than many of us reading this article, but it's true. The official first part of NASA's Voyager program launched just over 35 years ago on September 5th, 1977, carrying not just cameras and sensors to capture the trip but the famous Golden Record documenting humanity for any curious aliens. To mark the occasion, Wired has gathered together one heck of a photo album that covers both Voyager 1's trip as well as that of Voyager 2, which technically launched earlier (August 20th the same year) but took a more roundabout route through the solar system. The gallery reminds us of the amazing scenery beyond Mars and puts our tiny blue ball of a planet in perspective; Earth was just a speck at best when photographed late into Voyager 2's journey. Perhaps the best news surrounding the milestone is simply that both Voyager probes are still running. At 11 billion miles from the Sun, Voyager 1 may be on the cusp of interstellar space and easily represents the most distant human object ever made, not to mention a record-setter for signal transmissions. There's even a chance we'll still be hearing back from the probe for its 50th anniversary -- its power could keep it chatting up to roughly 2025.
NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft
NASA has always used the desert as its own personal playground, and we'd imagine that its team had a blast in Arizona yesterday, as a mock parachute compartment of the Orion spacecraft was dropped from 25,000 feet above Earth. The dart-shaped object experienced free fall for 5,000 feet, at which point, drogue chutes were deployed at 20,000 feet. This was then followed by pilot chutes, which then activated the main chutes. As you'd imagine, these things are monsters: the main parachutes -- three in all -- each measure 116 feet wide and weigh more than 300 pounds. Better yet, the mission was successful. Naturally, all of this is in preparation for Orion's first test flight -- currently scheduled for 2014 -- where the unmanned craft will travel 15 times further than the ISS and jam through space at 20,000 mph before returning to Earth. Yesterday's outing is merely one in a series of drop tests, and yes, it's important to remove any unknowns from the situation: eventually, humans will be along for the ride.
Pioneering astronaut Neil Armstrong dies at 82
It's a story that we hoped we'd never have to report. Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on Earth's Moon, has died at the age of 82 after complications from heart surgery three weeks earlier. His greatest accomplishment very nearly speaks for itself -- along with help from fellow NASA astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, he changed the landscape of space exploration through a set of footprints. It's still important to stress his accomplishments both before and after the historic Apollo 11 flight, though. He was instrumental to the Gemini and X-series test programs in the years before Apollo, and followed his moonshot with roles in teaching aerospace engineering as well as investigating the Apollo 13 and Space Shuttle Challenger incidents. What more can we say? Although he only spent a very small portion of his life beyond Earth's atmosphere, he's still widely considered the greatest space hero in the US, if not the world, and inspired a whole generation of astronauts. We'll miss him. [Image credit: NASA Apollo Archive]
Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised (but not broken)
You can't win 'em all. Such is the case with the Curiosity rover, anyway, as diagnostics have revealed that its wind sensors have sustained damage. NASA engineers aren't fully sure what caused this minor setback to the otherwise successful landing, but hypothesize that stones might've been kicked up during the rocket-powered landing, which then struck the sensor's wiring. Fortunately, there's already someone on the job, as Javier Gomez-Elvira is investigating the damage with the intent of restoring the lost functionality. Another NASA scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, believes the issue is rather minor: "It degrades our ability to detect wind speed and direction when the wind is blowing from a particular direction, but we think we can work around that." The broken instrument was initially discovered as part of NASA's routine power-cycling of all instrumentation, so as to determine an overall bill of health for the rover. Now that Curiosity has earned its battle scars, it can hold its head high during its journey to Glenelg and Mount Sharp.
Scientists create simulation of the universe, reenact 14 billion years in a few months (video)
Are animations of Curiosity's Mars landing not enough to feed your space exploration appetite? Try this on for size: a group of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have generated what's billed as a full-fledged simulation of the universe. Arepo, the software behind the sim, took the observed afterglow of the big bang as its only input and sped things up by 14 billion years. The result was a model of the cosmos peppered with realistically depicted galaxies that look like our own and those around us. Previous programs created unseemly blobs of stars instead of the spiral galaxies that were hoped for because they divided space into cubes of fixed size and shape. Arepo's secret to producing accurate visualizations is its geometry; a grid that moves and flexes to mirror the motions of dark energy, dark matter, gasses and stars. Video playback of the celestial recreation clocks in at just over a minute, but it took Harvard's 1,024-core Odyssey super computer months to churn out. Next on the group's docket is tackling larger portions of the universe at a higher resolution. Head past the jump for the video and full press release, or hit the source links below for the nitty-gritty details in the team's trio of scholarly papers.
Curiosity survives brain transplant, prepares for first drive
If you thought your OTA update took too long, how about four days? That's how long the Curiosity "brain transplant" took, and is now finally complete. This now means that the main computers have switched over from landing mode, to surface mode -- and thus we hope -- meaning the rover's good to go. That said, it's still a painfully slow process, with Curiosity's wheels likely remaining steadfastly motionless for at least another week -- and even then we're looking at a trip of just a few meters. When it comes to interplanetary travel, though, slow and steady definitely wins the race -- in the meantime, you can soak up the view.
China's new liquid oxygen and kerosene-fueled rocket engine lights up for testing
Liquid oxygen and kerosene, that's what fuels China's new -- and freshly tested -- rocket engine. When fired up on Sunday, it withstood temperatures as high as 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius) for 200 seconds and powered through almost 20,000 revolutions per minute in a rotational test. "The successful tests confirm the reliability of China's LOX / kerosene engine," test commander Lai Daichu told China Daily. According to China Central Television, the engine is non-toxic, pollution-free and the first of its kind for which China holds proprietary intellectual property rights -- though similar engines have been used by other space agencies. The engine is on track to lend the upcoming Long March 5 rocket a total of 118 tons of thrust, giving it enough oomph to launch a 25-ton payload into low-earth orbit or 14-ton cargo into geostationary orbit. Its expected to haul additional portions of the country's space station and aid lunar exploration, but the first voyage isn't slated until 2014. [Image Credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation]
Inside NASA's Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center
At the dawn of the Space Shuttle program, NASA's Launch Control Center (LCC) was placed off limits for public tours. On June 15, however, busses embellished with Kennedy Space Center (KSC) decals began whisking visitors off to the control complex for the first time in more than three decades – nearly a year after the final shuttle mission last summer. More Info NASA opens up Launch Control Center for public tours The end of an era: what the space shuttle means to Engadget Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off one last time (video) After clearing a security checkpoint, our bus wheels its way deep into Kennedy Space Center, NASA's 240,000-acre property on Merritt Island, Fla., that doubles as a wildlife refuge. The monolithic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) comes into view and grows larger as we approach. Referred to by NASA employees as the heart of the operation, the VAB houses spacecraft as they're pieced together. Once complete, a 6-million-pound crawler-transporter sidles up to the structure, gets fitted with the craft and ferries it over a gravel roadway to the launch pad 3.4 miles away. The LCC, which staff dubbed the brains of the system, is adjoined to the VAB by a slim corridor protruding from its boxy, white exterior.
Mars Rover game hits Xbox Live, tasks you with safely landing the Curiosity with Kinect
NASA has already made it clear that the Curiosity's touchdown on Mars is a nerve-wracking experience, what with the seven minutes of radio silence, zero margin of error and all. To drive that point home, the organization partnered with Microsoft to offer Xbox Live players the experience of controlling the nerve-wracking descent. Starting Monday, you'll be able to download the free Mars Rover Landing, NASA's first Xbox Live game. The title uses the Kinect motion controller to simulate the many phases of landing, including dropping the heat shield and deploying the supersonic parachute, with players' movements controlling the speed and direction of the craft as it approaches the Red Planet. You'll get three scores -- one for each of the landing process -- not to mention some newfound appreciation for what employees at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be going through on August 5th.
Chinese astronauts go hands-on, manually dock with orbiting module
Looks like China continues to add to its space cred after recently joining the rarefied ranks of countries that have successfully docked craft in the final frontier. Fresh off from the recent joining of the Shenzhou 9 capsule with the Tiangong 1 orbiting module, China's three astronauts have now replicated the feat manually, according to the Washington Post . For the uninitiated, the first docking was done via remote control from the ground. The mission has had plenty of firsts for China so far, including the country's first female astronaut. It also serves as a precursor to establishing China's first permanent space station, a 60-ton facility that's about a sixth of the size of the International Space Station but is slightly bigger than NASA's old Skylab. 'Cause sometimes, you just gotta have your own space in space, you know? [Image credit: Associated Press]
