After a series of delays, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) began its mission Monday morning, rocketing toward orbit at 9:09 A.M. (Eastern Standard Time). WISE's launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was initially delayed because of a scheduling conflict with a satellite launch on the east coast, then twice pushed back due to an anomaly in a steering engine on its booster rocket.
WISE is an infrared astronomy platform charged with mapping the entire sky from a polar orbit around Earth. Following a monthlong checkout, the satellite is designed to spend nine months surveying the sky in the infrared wavelengths that are largely blocked by the planet's atmosphere and hence inaccessible to ground-based observers. Among the tasks WISE may accomplish on orbit are cataloguing dim, failed stars known as brown dwarfs, some of which may lie closer to the sun than the nearest presently known stellar neighbors; giving sky watchers a better idea of the threat presented by near-Earth asteroids; and singling out interesting targets both near and far for larger telescopes to study in greater detail.
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NASA Infrared Surveyor
5th spy satellite of Japan
TOKYO – Japan launched its fifth spy satellite into orbit Saturday in a bid to boost its ability to independently gather intelligence, the government said.
The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the $565 million satellite lifted off from a space center on the southern island of Tanegashima, said Hisashi Michigami, an official at the Cabinet Office.
"The satellite will gather intelligence for our defense and diplomatic purposes," Michigami said. "We hope to upgrade our ability to gather intelligence on our own. Intelligence gathering is vital to our national security."
Michigami said the launch was successful.
Japan has long relied on the United States for intelligence. But it launched its first pair of spy satellites in 2003, prompted by concerns over North Korea's missile program.
North Korea shocked Tokyo in 1998 when it test-fired a missile over Japan. Since then, Japan has launched spy satellites primarily to watch developments in North Korea.
In April this year, a North Korean long-range rocket flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Michigami said Japan has three working spy satellites. The fourth spy satellite became unresponsive in 2007 due to apparent electrical problems. Each spy satellite will last around five years, he said.
Japan has long been one of the world's leading space-faring nations, having launched its first satellite in 1970. But it has been struggling to get out from under China's shadow in recent years.
While China put its first men into orbit in 2003, Japan has yet to send astronauts on its own, though Japanese have joined U.S. space missions.
Last year, Japan's parliament voted to allow the nation's space programs to be used for defense for the first time as part of Tokyo's push to give its military a greater international role.
In January this year, Japan launched its first satellite to monitor greenhouse gases, a tool to help scientists better judge where global warming emissions are coming from, and how much is being absorbed by the oceans and forests.
The country also plans to have a two-legged robot walk on the moon by around 2020.
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The First Hotel in Space to be Scheduled, 2012
Barcelona, Spain: The company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says they are still on target to accept the first paying guests in 2012.
The Barcelona-based architects of Galactic Suite say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing €3 million, or $4.5 million, for a three-night stay. During that time guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 90 minutes.
Galactic Suite's CEO said the project will put them at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it. Company Director Xavier Claramunt believes that within a few years space travel will become a common occurrence.
"It is very normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could spend a weekend in space," he added.
A nascent space industry is beginning to take shape with construction underway in New Mexico of Spaceport America, the world's first facility built specifically for space-bound commercial customers and fee-paying passengers.
British tycoon Richard Branson's Space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to propel tourists into suborbital space at a cost of $200,000 a ride.
Galactic Suite hopes to start its project with a single pod in orbit 450 km above the earth, travelling at 28,000 km per hour. It will take a day-and-a-half to reach the pod - which Claramunt compared to a mountain retreat - with no staff or receptionist to greet the traveller.
"When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for three days, rocket and capsule. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he has not been abandoned. After three days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth," a statement from Galactic Suite read.
More than 200 people expressed an interest in travelling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already made reservations.
The numbers are similar for Branson's Virgin Galactic with 300 people already having paid up or signed up for the trip. But unlike Branson, representatives of Galactic Suite say they will use Russian rockets to transport their guests into space.
They say the space dream is near and say their first launch in 2012 will herald the start of space as tourist destination, not just for the super-rich.
TRIP TO SPACE: A trip to the hotel will costs three million euros for a three-night stay in space.
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Kepler's Exoplanet Hold The Hunt Until 2011
Just when the extra-solar planet hunt seemed to be going so well, NASA has announced that the orbital Earth-like exoplanet hunter will not be able to detect a world like our own until 2011 at the earliest.
The Kepler space telescope was launched in March and the hope is that in the small patch of sky (containing 100,000 stars) it is focussing in on, Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting within the "habitable zones" of their parent stars will be discovered. However, there's a problem: Kepler has noisy amplifiers.
Keep in mind that the sensitive equipment on board Kepler has been designed to detect the slightest change in brightness of a star as an exoplanet passes in front, thereby slightly dimming the starlight that is falling on Kepler's charge-coupled devices (CCDs). If you're looking at a star many light years away, you can expect this dip in brightness to be infinitesimally small.
The amplifiers in the space telescope's electronics are used to boost the signal from the CCDs. If there is any electronic noise between the light being received and the data being sent to Earth, the signal of transiting exoplanets may be lost in the fuzz. Unfortunately, three of these amplifiers are producing unacceptable levels of noise, prompting the Kepler team to evaluate their options.
The other amplifiers appear to be functioning well, but the noisy amplifiers really upset the balance. Ideally, if the instrument was on the ground, scientists could replace the amplifiers. But Kepler is in an Earth-trailing orbit (it orbits the sun at 1AU, following behind our planet), so there's no chance of an in-situ repair job.
To counteract this noise, scientists are working on a software solution. Although only a small portion of observations will be affected by the amplifier glitch, it would be too hard to remove the bad datasets when they are sent to mission control. Instead, the Kepler team must put the mission on hold until they devise a software solution that can automatically remove the noise soon after the data is received by the CCDs. The kicker is that the software isn't likely to be prepared until 2011.
Ouch.
So what can we do in the mean time? Actually, this Kepler glitch has presented an opportunity (and perhaps even an incentive) for other exoplanet hunting teams down here on the ground. Although Kepler can gain information about an exoplanet's size (the bigger the exoplanet, the more light it will block out), ground based observatories look out for a star's "wobble" to derive an exoplanet's mass (as the exoplanet orbits, it pulls the star slightly, producing a detectable shift in position). Looking out for an exoplent wobbling its parent star is known as the radial velocity measurement technique.
Astronomer Greg Laughlin from the University of California at Santa Cruz agrees that the delay for Kepler makes it "more likely that the first Earth-mass planet is going to go to the radial-velocity observers".
Although the Kepler news is frustrating, it doesn't mean the Earth-like exoplanet hunt is over, not by a long shot.
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Magnetic Field on Earth Flawed
Add particularly nasty solar storms to the list of woes facing the planet in the coming years.
Scientists have learned that it's not just the size and the strength of the sun's eruptions that threaten power grids, disable satellites and scramble radio signals on Earth. In a startling reversal of generally accepted theory, researchers using a fleet of solar-watching satellites have learned that thick gobs of solar plasma have easy and regular access into Earth's magnetosphere, thanks to a trick of nature.
Scientists previously believed that when sun's magnetic field was aligned with Earth's, the planet was safely cocooned within its protective bubble. Not so, report researchers at this week's American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
"It's exactly opposite of the way we thought," said David Sibeck, with NASA's Space Weather Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "If all of this is true it should be that we're in for a much tougher time in the next 11 years than we have been in the past 11."
The sun has an 11-year cycle, which is next expected to peak in 2011 or 2012. During maximum periods of activity, the sun produces more flares and geomagnetic storms, which can blast Earth with powerful streams of electrically charged plasma.
The sun's magnetic field flips direction every cycle, and the next solar maximum will occur when the field is unfavorably aligned with Earth's, scientists said.
With data taken by the five-member THEMIS satellite network, scientists have learned that huge blankets of solar particles -- 4,000 miles thick -- stream into Earth's magnetosphere via solar magnetic field lines that wrap around Earth, north to south, "like an octopus wraps its tentacles around its prey," said Jimmy Raeder, with the University of New Hampshire's Physics and Space Science Center.
Earth adopts the field lines as its own, incorporating the stowaway plasma into its sphere of space. When a solar storm strikes, the particles are energized.
"We had always thought the shields would be completely closed if the fields were aligned. There would be virtually no plasma coming in. What this shows is that it's really the opposite," Rader said.
The discovery will be incorporated into computer models and simulations used to predict adverse space weather.
"We'll have more confidence in the future that when we observe things coming from the sun we'll come to a (forecaster), provide those observations and ask him 'What's going to happen next?'" Sibeck said.
"We're moving toward the capability to predict these troublesome intervals. If we can do that, we can protect our spacecraft; we can notify astronauts in space that this is not a good time to spacewalk; we can tell a power line company, 'You're likely to experience a transformer blowout.'," he said.
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Tracking CO2 on Earth
The occasionally acrimonious debate about the planet's climate has been missing a key component: accurate measurements of how much carbon dioxide is in the air and how it is being recycled by Earth.
That is the heart of a new NASA mission called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which is set to launch early next year.
"We will uncover all kinds of patterns and cycles in carbon dioxide that people never thought existed. It'll be just like when the first ozone measurements were made," said project scientist Chip Miller, with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"We get at the question of the sources of carbon dioxide and see how much is pulled out (of the atmosphere) by land and how much by seas," he said.
Many scientists consider carbon dioxide to be the telltale gas of global warming. Once it is released into the air, there is little chemistry to remove it. Its presence traps reflected sunlight. Plants, soils and the oceans of Earth reabsorb the gas, but that takes a while. Miller says that the average lifetime for carbon dioxide is about 300 years. About 20 percent of atmospheric carbon dioxide, however, lasts for 10,000 years or longer.
Most carbon dioxide -- about 97 percent -- comes from natural sources. That's roughly 300 billion metric tons per year of CO2 gas from breathing animals, decaying plants, forest fires, volcanic eruptions and other naturally occurring phenomena.
Human activities, like driving cars, burning coal, farming, industrial production and other practices, account for 3 percent, or about 8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide production per year.
That may not sound like much, but it is widely believed that it is the human endeavors which are responsible for resetting Earth's temperature.
"It's such a small portion, but it does seem to be tilting the balance," Miller said.
What is missing, however, are precise measurements of how much carbon is being put into the atmosphere and how much is coming out. It's a measurement that is extremely difficult to make. Data so far comes from about 100 ground sites spread throughout the world and from extrapolations from reports such as oil, coal and natural gas sales.
The presumption is that these fossil fuels will be burned, emitting carbon dioxide in the process.
Scientists believe the economic data is accurate to about 10 percent. Not all countries will provide the information, however.
"When we add together what we know about the system, we can't account for about 2 billion metric tons from the atmosphere," Miller told Discovery News. "Balancing the carbon budget is one of the key things that scientists are trying to do now."
"This is an absolutely critical question," added David Crisp, the lead scientist for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO. "Where is the other half of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the air going over
time and will the Earth continue to absorb (it) as we go into the future?"
Measuring carbon dioxide is not an easy task. OCO will attempt the work by using three high-resolution spectrometers to study sunlight reflected off Earth at the precise wavelengths that reveal the presence of carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen.
The observatory is sensitive enough to identify columns of carbon within an area as small as about three square kilometers. The goal is to find the areas where the concentration of carbon dioxide is less than 1 part per million different than overall background levels of carbon dioxide, which are about 383 parts per million.
"Our goal is to identify, on regional scales, where this atmospheric CO2 is actually going," said deputy project manager Ralph Basilio.
"These measurements have never been made from space before with this accuracy," Miller added. "We are a pathfinder, we are the first to try to demonstrate how this could be done."
OCO will fly over the planet in 16-day cycles from a 483-mile-high orbit in sync with the sun so that it is always the same time of day on the ground below -- 1:26 p.m. On cloudy days, the measurements will not be able to reach all the way to the ground, but over time, scientists expect to collect enough data to identify particular sources of carbon dioxide and absorption spots, known as sinks.
Information will be stored on the spacecraft and radioed once a day to a collecting station in Alaska, then relayed to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for processing. Analysis will take place at JPL and other science centers involved in the project.
Once in position, OCO will operate in formation with five other Earth-monitoring spacecraft that comprise what is called the "A-Train," or afternoon constellation, which cross the equator shortly after noon every day.
"We'll be able to create new and even more interesting data products," Miller said.
NASA is paying about $270 million for the observatory, its launch on an Orbital Sciences' Taurus booster and two years of operation. Launch is targeted for Jan. 30 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
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Hubble Space Telescope Live 2009
One last shot at new life; that’s what the Hubble Space Telescope will be given in May of 2009, as the Shuttle Atlantis takes it some brilliant new upgrades and replacement parts.
On Monday May 11, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. EDT - 12:30 p.m. CDT there will be a live event on the Discovery Science Channel. Hubble Live 2009 will show NASA astronauts in the Shuttle Atlantis as they launch from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FL on their final upgrade mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
You can also watch prelaunch activities and the mission live on the web from NASA TV. The NASA TV schedule can be found at NASA TV Schedule. Coverage includes a web cast the day before the launch at 12:30 p.m. EDT - 11:30 a.m. CDT, news conferences as well as status briefings.
Another good documentary to watch about this mission will be Inside Hubble's Final Missionrevealing inside information aboutNASA making this final attempt to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. This one will be on the National Geographic Channel on May 14, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. EDT - 8:00 p.m. CDT.
This 11 day mission has the ambitious goal of replacing Hubble's current primary camera, as well as replacing the batteries, replacing one of its stabilizing sensors, installing some gyros, and installing some spiffy new equipment. This mission known as Servicing Mission 4, (SM4), will be the last Shuttle mission bound for the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is expected to serve for at least an additional five years with these replacement parts and upgrades in place.
The Wide Field Camera 3, (WFC3), and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, (COS), are among the new instruments planned for installation.As its name indicates the WFC3 is able to span a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the near ultraviolet through the optical, then into the near infrared. WFC3 is the only Hubble instrument capable of "seeing" such a panchromatic range. The COS is a completely new Hubble instrument that will explore how the universe evolved from its ancient beginnings. The COS has an extraordinary sensitivity with its far-ultraviolet channel, increasing beyond previous spectroscopic instruments more than thirty times. This device will be able to detect extremely low light levels, making for greater detail in sampling the chemical composition of gases in distant galactic halos, and providing important insights into the building blocks and growing processes of early galaxies as well as revealing increased knowledge of the production of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium over cosmic time.
Another one of the new instruments added to Hubble will be the Soft Capture Mechanism, (SCM), which is a compact device planned for attachment to the Hubble's aft bulkhead, where it will enable and assist in the safe de-orbit of Hubble, when the end of its useful life is reached. It is essentially a next-generation docking mechanism designed for easy capture and guidance of the telescope into a controlled atmospheric re-entry. In other words this device will make it possible to retrieved Hubble from orbit and bring it back to Earth, after its mission is complete in 2013.
The Advanced Camera for Surveys, (ACS), will be replaced, due to an ACS failure of key channels in 2007 on the Hubble. Upon being repaired successfully, ACS will once again provide the most sensitive images at the visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
Among the more critical replacements will be the new battery modules. These six batteries will replace the original battery modules, which have been in continuous operation for more than 18 years, and are now in a degraded state. The replacement of Hubble's two battery modules (each consisting of three batteries) will rejuvenate Hubble's electrical power system. This replacement, combined with the power system enhancements made on the earlier Servicing Mission 3B, will make for ample power the remainder of Hubble's lifespan.
Also amid the critical replacements will be a new Fine Guidance Sensor, (FGS). Hubble currently has 3 of these sensors, which are essential components of Hubble's "pointing control system". Two of the current FGS units are degrading, while the third is still in excellent health. The replacement of one of the degrading units will bring Hubble back into great target pointing efficiency. Two FGS units are really all that is required. The third is a redundant system. This mission will also include the installation of gyroscopes. These gyroscopes together with the FGS units will give Hubble remarkable stability, 0.007 arc-seconds of a "jitter", which would compare to being so stable as to be able to hold a laser beam on a dime 200 miles away. This level of stability will make it possible for Hubble to aid in finding more extra solar planets or to provide additional data to augment the work of NASA's new Kepler probe.
As a final measure, the Shuttle crew will install new thermal blankets onto Hubble, giving it added protection during its next five year mission. At the end of this 11 day mission, the Hubble Space Telescope will have new life and will bring to us an even clearer picture of the marvelous Universe in which we all live.
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