Category Archives: Space

Hubble’s main camera dies

Posted on January 30, 2007 | Comments Off on Hubble’s main camera dies

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The Sombrero Galaxy in infrared/by Hubble Space Telescope, NASA.  An electrical failure on the Hubble has put its main camera which is responsible for pictures like these out of action until at least 2008 when the space shuttle is scheduled to make repairs on the orbiting telescope.

"The [Advanced Camera for Surveys] actually consists of three sub-cameras that detect and filter light from the ultraviolet to the near infrared. Astronomers can continue to use Hubble’s other instruments – which include the Field Planetary Camera-2 and the Near Infrared Camera Multi-Object Spectrograph – but the loss of its primary camera is being mourned by the scientific community."

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space

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Iran’s new calling card

Posted on January 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Iran’s new calling card

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Think the Iranians pose no immediate threat to the American homeland? Think again. This missile, 18 of which Iran is believed to have purchased from North Korea, so far can only reach Europe, Israel and targets throughout the Middle East. But Debkafile says it is believed to be the missile that Allaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, says is being modified to launch a 300 kilogram spy satellite. "Once Iran learns how to put 300 kg into earth orbit," says Uzi Rubin, the former head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, "it could adapt the satellite launcher into an ICBM that could drop more than 300 kg anywhere in the world, for instance, on Washington, D.C….every time the Iranian satellite passed above the U.S., it would remind America of Iran’s potential to strike it." 

UPDATE Aviation Week’s slightly different take on this is here predicting a different rocket to be used for the Iranian space launch, and soon. 

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Posted in Space, The War

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Metric moon

Posted on January 26, 2007 | Comments Off on Metric moon

Put away your inches and miles, Americans, and start thinking along with the vast majority of the world in centimeters and kilometers. If, that is, you plan to go to the moon after 2020 when American space policy says we’ll have a base there. NASA has so decreed, deciding only the metric system will be in use on our portion of lunar soil. Set aside the fact of it being thirteen years in the future, far enough away that the current Congress won’t have to worry about justifying spending tax money for it, which suggests it may not, in fact, become reality. In which case maybe it won’t actually ever influence our continued stubborn use of English measurement (which not even the English officially use anymore, but only us, Liberia and Burma). Which might be a good thing when you think of all the vehicle mechanics and home handymen who would have to switch out their inch-based wrenches, nuts, screws and other devices for metric ones. But there’s already some betting that the residents of any future moon base may, in fact, be speaking Chinese, and they use the metric system, so maybe it’s a good time to start prepping for the inevitable. Me? I’m too old to worry about it.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Space

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Today’s pretty picture

Posted on January 25, 2007 | Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture

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Can’t stop thinking about Orion. This is Orion’s Cradle, the area of new star formation in the Great Orion Nebula, 1,500 light years away/image by Tony Hallas for NASA 

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Feathery comet tail

Posted on January 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Feathery comet tail

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Comet McNaught’s feathery tail, visible mainly after sunset in the Southern hemisphere, but also reported visible low on the western horizon after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere. One of the brightest comets ever, McNaught is fading as it speeds away toward the outer solar system/image by Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, Australia

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The comet’s tail

Posted on January 19, 2007 | Comments Off on The comet’s tail

Comet McNaught has left the sun behind but it isn’t through with the inner solar system yet, and although it’s no longer fully visible in the northern hemisphere, a part of it can still be seen low on the western horizon: the comet’s extravagant tail, according to Space Weather:

"Even experienced astronomers say they’ve never seen anything quite like it.  McNaught’s tail materializes at sunset in the southern hemisphere and is visible to the unaided eye as a majestic fan of pale streamers…but its tail sweeps all the way back into northern skies. People in California, Colorado and Hawaii have seen it peeking above the western horizon about an hour after sunset. This ‘northern tail’ is faint but pretty, and resembles a pale aurora borealis. (Dark skies are absolutely required.)"

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Chinese sat killer?

Posted on January 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Chinese sat killer?

The Chinese apparently have developed a missile that can attack satellites as far as 530 miles into the black, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology:

"Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center."

Interesting, of course, and probably important, but it’s hard to believe the Chinese would want to upset their biggest world market, i.e. us, with an attack on our satellites, when the rest of their military ain’t much to crow about. 

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