Taking satellites to the operating theatre

We all know how hard it is the existing problem of a satellite stopping working to solve, as there's nearly no way of fixing it, especially now that the space shuttle has been retired. But some engineers at Johns Hopkins University have had a bright idea and they have it successfully applied using a remotely controlled robot as part of a NASA research grant program.

This happened two weeks ago and was carried out by students Tian Xia and Jonathan Bohren by using a modified Da Vinci medical use intended robot to manipulate another robot.

“The long-range goal is to be able to manipulate a space robot like this from any location to refuel satellites, for instance,” Bohren said. “A lot of satellites have the potential to have their lives extended if we can do that.”

Though this is a wonderful opportunity to save millions of dollars as we'll be able to repair the satellites instead of sending new ones and to reduce the space junk, there are still some constraints to be solved; for instance, how to take this complex robot to where the satellite is and arrive to where the breakdown is.

Further information can be found here.

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Lunar eclipse

Today, a great number of people had seen how the last lunar eclipse from the year transforms the moon in a huge red ball as seen in the image:



This eclipse, the last of the year, could only be observed from Australia, Asia and north-east Ameica.

Luckly, lots of web pages such as AstronomyLive had retransmitted it so people from all the world could saw it.

I expected alll of you had been delighted with this magnific astronomicall event wich would not be repited until 2014.

Via: ABC

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New satellite to test Albert Einstein's theories

Next January, a new satellite aiming to test General Relativity Theory will be launched from the Kourou -French Guyana- on board the brand new European designed Vega rocket. It will be indeed Vega's maiden flight. This satellite, called LARES (Laser Relativity Satellite) has been developed by the Italian Space Agency and it is completely passive -it has no sensors inside. It is a tungsten sphere covered with 92 retroreflectors, which are used to measure the time light needs reach the Earth again with an awesome accuracy and with the help of the laser stations located around the globe belonging to the International Laser Ranging Service. Though the ball's diameter is only 36 centimetres long, it weighs nearly 400 kg. This program was also intended to measure the braneworld DGP model as well as to get an orders-of-magnitude improvement of the current limits in the equivalence principle. Unfortunately, these goals were later dismissed due to their complexity.

The measure of the Lense-Thirring effect (also known as frame dragging) describes the distortion caused by the rotation of a body -here, the Earth. Previous tests to measure this effect were launched in 1976 and 1972. Called LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 they were made of alluminium in order to reduce the effect of the Earth's Magnetic Field by an italoamerican colaboration and they are still today working. These satellites provided an accuracy of a 10% and according to the designer of the LARES, his satellite will get an accuracy of a 1%, but this has been harshly called into question.

Via: ASI

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