Category Archives: Space

Today’s pretty picture

Posted on October 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture

swan_candy_c69.jpg

Comet Swan, photographed by Italy’s Cimini Astronomical Observatory. The comet is now visible in the Northern Hemisphere through binoculars on the northwest horizon, where the sky is dark enough.

Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture

Posted in Space

Tagged ,

Sensor web

Posted on October 26, 2006 | Comments Off on Sensor web

A new way for satellites and rovers to study a planet. Today, Earth. Tomorrow, the moon, Mars and beyond.

"EO-1 is a new breed of satellite that can think for itself. ‘We programmed it to notice things that change (like the plume of a volcano) and take appropriate action,’ Chien explains. EO-1 can re-organize its own priorities to study volcanic eruptions, flash-floods, forest fires, disintegrating sea-ice—in short, anything unexpected."

Comments Off on Sensor web

Posted in Space

Tagged , ,

Climbing the beanstalk

Posted on October 25, 2006 | Comments Off on Climbing the beanstalk

The official results of the Space Elevator Games are in.

"…the competition was obviously a huge success. It was the first full-form competition, and we already had 7 major universities participate, three professional engineering teams, and one aerospace company. We’ve had very good press coverage, and a spectator crowd of 20,000 people."

The climber definitely has improved. The beanstalk still needs work. Next year’s prizes will be increased to $500,000. 

Comments Off on Climbing the beanstalk

Posted in Space

Tagged

Elevating space

Posted on October 22, 2006 | Comments Off on Elevating space

Getting a few hits today from people looking for Space Elevator news from Las Cruces. Not a lot to tell, except that the tether and crawler competitions didn’t amount to much: "Saturday’s Space Elevator Games…showed that they are still a long way off."

Ted Semon has the latest:

"The Tether Challenge ended just about a half-hour ago and NASA’s Prize money for the Tether Challenge is safe for another year."

Alas. 

UPDATE  It wasn’t all a bust. The crawler of the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team (USST) made the fastest ascent (just not quite fast enough) and is expected to do better next year.

Comments Off on Elevating space

Posted in Space

Tagged , ,

View from the black

Posted on October 20, 2006 | Comments Off on View from the black

earthlights2_dmsp_big.jpg

Scrunching this up took a while, but it still conveys the essential detail. Increasing small amounts  of the incandescent planet are dark at night, except for the oceans, of course. /NASA 

Comments Off on View from the black

Posted in Space

Tagged ,

The space elevator games

Posted on October 19, 2006 | Comments Off on The space elevator games

Ted Semon’s informative blog is the best way to keep up with the entrants preparing their crawlers for the games that start tomorrow in Las Cruces. University of Michigan, Germans, Canadians. They look like toys, but proof of concept is the aim.

Comments Off on The space elevator games

Posted in Science/Engineering, Space

Tagged , , ,

Today’s pretty picture — sor’ a thing.

Posted on October 19, 2006 | Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture — sor’ a thing.

sweeps11_hst.jpg

Congestion near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. More than 180,000 stars. And you thought your neighborhood was crowded. Sweeps field (upper left corner) refers to Hubble Space Telescope’s sweep of the area hunting for possible solar systems–looking for brief, periodic changes in brightness when a Jupiter-size planet passes in front of its parent star–candidates for which are within the green circles. /NASA

Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture — sor’ a thing.

Posted in Space

Tagged , , ,