Far side of the moon filmed by Nasa

This amazing video has been publish by Nasa this week:



This images shows the dark side of the moon, an area of the moon that due to the rotational movement of the moon and the Earth couldn´t be observed.

But one of the twin GRAIL spacecraft launched by Nasa last September has returned its first video of the Moon's hidden side.

This video and all the data collected had been use to reconstruct a topographic map of the dark and unknown area wich is the dark side as haven´t done before.

The images show a more leaky than the visible part because it recives more impacts. In adition, we could observe the Drygalski crater, wich have acurious star form inside. This crater can be seen in the second 29 of the video in the bottom right side.

At end, an amzing image from dark side:

VIa: NASA

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NASA to place a washing machine in the ISS

One of the hardest matters astronauts in the ISS have to deal with, is actually laundry. There's no possible way of washing their clothes. Besides, after spending long hours working, doing the washing up becomes more than necessary, space for clothes is limited and sending anything to the space, pretty expensive. More than a decade after the ISS programme was launched, the NASA is now determined to solve this problem.

For this task, UMPQUA has been chosen. It's an enterprise which is going to develop a machine that by using microwaves as well as steam will wash all what necessary, and no big amounts of energy or water will be required.

Maybe in some years' time, we'll all do the washing up with this new machine, as many other space designed gadgets are used, who knows?

Via: Gizmodo

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Coming back down to our fragile oasis

Time lapse made by the astronauts Ron Garan and Mike Fossum with the help of a Nikon D3s. It's the nearest way of looking at the Earth as it's done by astronauts.

Space: primary concern for Europe

After the recent launch of the first Galileo satellites –an event of paramount political importance for Europe– politicians, policymakers, space agency managers, industrialists, satellite operators and members of civil society gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels on 8–9 November for the 4th Conference on EU Space Policy. The Conference, organised by Business Bridge Europe and devoted to the benefits of space to citizens and society, confirmed that space is high on Europe’s political agenda by including European authorities of the highest level.

Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, confirmed the importance of Galileo and the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative as the EU’s two flagship programmes.

Mr van Rompuy expressed his commitment to ensuring that policies of the future are safeguarded and strengthened –and space will be one of those policies. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, noted that, with the launch of the first two Galileo navigation satellites on 21 October, Europe had taken a step of critical importance for the competitiveness of its industry and for Europe’s independence in space technology.

Mr Barroso confirmed that space is a key component of Europe’s 2020 strategy and reiterated that Galileo and GMES are the EU’s two flagship programmes. He recalled that €7.9 billion is planned for Galileo in the EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework for 2014–20. In addition, the Commission will issue a communication soon on the development and deployment of GMES, for which €5.8 billion is needed. Mr Barroso concluded by reasserting his ambition for the EU to be a world leader in space.

Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, noted that the space sector is also being affected by the economic crisis. Mr Dordain continued that it is a sector where most of the industrial activities are undertaken in Europe. It is a sector of knowledge and technology, a key element of competitiveness and one of the few sectors where the transfer between knowledge and services is systematic and quick. Space is one of the few sectors where Europe is both a world leader and a model. It is a leader in the commercial market, in technology and in the provision of services. It is a model for using space to benefit the citizens of Europe and the world, and as a reliable partner in international cooperation. Mr Dordain also highlighted the fact that Europe’s leadership is not linked to security and defence drivers, unlike all other space powers in the world. He praised the Polish government’s willingness to address that issue during its current presidency of the EU.

Mr Dordain reaffirmed the importance of having GMES and Galileo included in the EU’s Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014–20. They need to be ensured in that community context because they are not just space programmes but services to Europe’s citizens. Mr Dordain stressed that the current uncertainties in the continuity of GMES weaken the overall space sector in Europe. With two major decisions facing Europe –the ESA Council at Ministerial level in late 2012 and the MFF– Mr Dordain appealed for a greater effort to ensure that they become instruments for a Europe with an even greater role for space than it has today for all citizens of Europe and the world.

Via: 4th Conference on EU Space Policy

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First High Resolution Global Topographic Lunar Map revealed

Despite the closeness between the Moon and the Earth, no global lunar map had been made until just two days ago.

On the 16th of November the dataset we had been waiting for since the Apollo era, according to Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator of the LROC, was revealed. The LROC (Lunar Recconnaissance Orbiter Camera) is the responsible for taking the pictures. This instrument belongs to a robotic spacecraft orbiting the Moon since 2009 with the aim of identifying safe landing sites, locating potential resources on the Moon, characterizing the radiation environment, and demonstrating new technology.

The LROC is made up of three cameras: two narrow and one wide angular one. A very similar camera to this last (WAC) is being used in another parallel programm around Mars.

The camera orbits at an average altitude of 50km and has a pixel scale of about 75 meters, so a WAC image swath is 70km wide around the ground-track, so it nearly covers the entire lunar surface in around one month. However we don't obtain the same images every month, but with tocks reflecting light under different conditions. This collection of stereo images are the ones that -after being treated- lead as to the final model. 69000 stereo images are need to get it. In spite of this huge amount of information, there are presistent shadows near the poles, but the spacecraft includes a laser altimeter (LOLA) that provides a precise topographic reconstruction since the spacecraft orbits converge at the poles therefore the "pole holes" can be filled.

The model is called GLD100 and covers 98,2% of the lunar surface and it was obtained this way:

The WAC stereo images arecompared one against another by pattern-matching a moving box of pixels until the best fit was found between two images with different viewing angles. Best fit pixel positions are combined with the LRO orbit position and the WAC viewing angles to define two 3D rays (lines of sight). The intersection point of these rays defines the location and the elevation of the point on the surface. Since the correlation box is bigger than 100 meters, surface details at the 100-meter scale are not fully resolved in a single stereo pair. However, each 100 meter square has an average of 26 stereo points within it , which helps to sharpen the elevation estimate. The accuracy of the elevations is estimated to be about 10 to 20 meters. Anyway, this map was built from the first year of stereo imaging, but there is already data corresponding to another year, what will make possible a more accurate model.

This project is related to our CanSat secondary mission, also consisting on creating a 3D map from previously treated images.

Via: NASA

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Which are the selected teams for the 2012 cansat competition?

The following winning teams will be joined by the winners of the Irish, Italian and Scottish national CanSat competitions.

• Yes, we Cansat! Technical Hight School for Information Thechology. Austria
• DJ AUXAL Tation, Sint-Pieterscollege Jette, Brussels, Belgium.
• Jecnaci, Secondary Technical School SPSE Jecna, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Stella Nova Viking Red One, Haderslev Katedralskole, Haderslev, Denmark.
• SatElite, Lycée Alfred Kastler, Talence, France.
• Icaromenippus 3D, 3rd General Lyceum of Mytilini, Strati Myrivili, Greece.
• The Flying Dutchcan, American International School of Rotterdam (AISR), The Netherlands.
• Navican, Heimdal Videregaende Skole, Trondheim, Norway.
• Azorean Shearwater, EBS Santa Maria, Vila do Porto (Azores), Portugal.
• Bolyai, Székely Mikó Theoretical Hight School, Saint George, Romania.
• DeLaCosa, Colegio Retamar, Pozuelo, Spain.

In adition, two back-up teams have been selected:

• ENFoRCE, Istituto Tecnico Industriale Enrico Fermi, Roma, Italy.
• Aspire, St. Paul's School, London, United Kingdom.

 

You can find more information in http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEMP9AHURTG_0.html

DARPA to introduce a new concept of satellite launch

Currently, there's only one way of launching a satellite: from the ground on a booster rocket. This is an expensive, long process, as it can take several weeks or even months to prepare the launchpad. Furthermore, an unforeseen weather change can scrap the whole preparation.

That's why the ALASA program (Airborne Launch Assist Space Access) by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) seeks to reduce cost, time and weather constraints.

“Current small satellite payloads can cost up to $30,000 per pound to launch, which is unsustainable over the long haul. Even when our increasingly capable small satellites are launched, they are obliged to go to orbits selected by the primary payload on current launchers, rather than to the orbits their designers and operators would prefer,” said Mitchell Burnside Clapp, DARPA program manager.

The vision is for an aircraft to carry the small satellite and its host-booster either inside the aircraft or externally. At the desired altitude and direction the aircraft releases the satellite and booster, which continue their climb into space. A key benefit of such a system is responsiveness to an immediate need. Within a day of being called up, a satellite launch mission could be conducted from a runway anywhere in the world. Another advantage is the flexibility of an aircraft to deliver a satellite into any desired orbit at any time.

Innovative technologies required for the ALASA program include propellant systems, possible in flight liquid oxygen production, flight controls and nozzle designs amongst others.

Among the significant limitations stand the restricted aircraft payload capacity and safety issues related to highly explosive chemicals.

Via: DARPA Press Release

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Saint Albert The Great: Patron of Science

On the occasion of the feast of Saint Albert The Great: Patron of Science, we have decided to include in the blog a short biography about this incredible saint and scientific.

Beginning of Saint Albert The Great's live
Saint Albert was born in Launingen, Bayern in the year 1193.
He studied aristotellic philosophy at the university of Padua, where he took his habits of the Saint Domingo of Guzmán's order. He taught in the most prestigious universities of the whole Europe and worked in many convents all over Germany.
In the university of Paris he translated, commented and clasified thosands of old books, mainly related to Aristoteles.

Saint Albert The Great and science
Saint Albert The Great changed completly the idea of experimentation. For him, experimentation consisted on obseving, describing and clasifying. Saint Albert The Great realized and enormous enciclopedic work, constructing with this the basis for his most famous pupil: Saint Tomas of Aquino.
He also worked on Botany and Alchemy, highlighted by the discovery of arsenic in 1250.
In the fields of Geography and Astronomy, he explained that Earth was an sphere.

Bishopric and death
Between 1259 and 1260, he was ordered bishop of Ratisbona, chagethat he would leave soon.
In 1263, The Pope Urbano IV accepted his resignation, letting him return to his old life in the Wurzburg´s community, teaching in Cologne.
He died at the age of 87.
He is buried in the crypt Saint Andrew´s church in Cologne

 Saint Albert The Great canonification
He was beatified in 1622.
In 1872 and 1927, the German bishops asked unsuccesfully for his canonization.
On December 16, 1931, The Pope Pius XI, Proclaimed Saint Albert The Great Doctor of the Churchwich is equivalent to the canonification.

Video from ARLISS 2011

Video from ARLISS 2011

The ARLISS Project is a collaborative effort between students and faculty at Stanford University Space Systems Development Program and other educational institutions, and high power rocketry enthusiasts in Northern California, to build, launch, test and recover prototype satellites, miniaturized to fit inside a soft drink can (hence "CanSats") in preparation for an Earth orbit or Mars orbit space launch.

What is our CanSat going to do?

The principal function that any CanSat has to realize is to take information of pressure and temperature. Every team must develop a secondary function in its CanSat. In our case, the CanSat is going to open two arms with two cameras to take images of the zone where it lands. Once these images are taken, we are going to treat them to make a 3D map.

Due to the fact that last year the rocket in which the CanSat was thrown crashed in a mountain, and they couldn't recover it, this year we are going to place a buzzer that will be sounding since we put the CanSat in the rocket until we recover it, in order not to lose it. In addition, we will add an accelerometer. If it is possible, we will also add a sensor of magnetic field in order to know the orientation of the CanSat all the time.

What is a CanSat?

A CanSat is a recreation of a real satellite designed to be as small as a soft drink can. There are competitions all over the world, challenging students to build their own one. These small satellites feature some of the main characteristics and subsystems of a major satellite, such as ground communication, data collection and flight missions.

Intruder Rocket carrying some CanSats

Last year's Spanish CanSat, from DeSoto Team

The European Space Agency (ESA) hosts an European competition in which high-school and university students face a real space mission. Design, integration, testing, launching, data collection and analysis are some of the activities involved. This platform is intended to develop skills as soldering, building electronics, programming, testing, design, and specially teamwork.

Teams representing their countries will meet next April in Andenes.

Via Esa CanSat