SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: December 2005
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Pluto probe prepares for decade-long mission
(Dec 21, 2005)
NASA is taking extra precautions to ensure its first mission to Pluto
blasts off successfully, postponing the opening of its launch window
by six days to 17 January 2006. But any further delays could add years
to the mission. The 35-day launch window for the New Horizons spacecraft
was set to begin on 11 January. But NASA postponed it to recheck the
fuel tank on the first stage of its Atlas 5 launcher, following the
failure of a similar tank during factory tests in September 2005.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Beagle 2 probe 'spotted' on Mars
(Dec 20, 2005)
The scientist behind the British Beagle 2 mission to the Red Planet
says the craft may have been found in pictures of the Martian surface.
Colin Pillinger says the images suggest the mission very nearly worked,
but Beagle somehow failed to contact Earth. He thinks the craft may
have hit the ground too hard - as the atmosphere was thinner than
usual because of dust storms in that region of Mars. This may have
damaged onboard instruments, preventing the call home.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Extinct mammoth DNA decoded
(Dec 19, 2005)
Scientists have pieced together part of the genetic recipe of the
extinct woolly mammoth. The 5,000 DNA letters spell out the genetic
code of its mitochondria, the structures in the cell that generate
energy. The research, published in the online edition of Nature, gives
an insight into the elephant family tree. It shows that the mammoth
was most closely related to the Asian rather than the African elephant.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Space-X announces launch date for Falcon
1 rocket
(Dec 17, 2005)
The first launch of the new Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled for 19 December
at 1900 GMT, during an eight-hour launch window. Space Exploration
Technologies (Space-X), the company that built the rocket, had said
the launch could happen around 20 December, depending on US Army missile
testing on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean atoll, from which
they are launching. Falcon 1 will carry an experimental satellite
called FalconSat-2 into space for the US Air Force Academy and the
US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Observatory spots galaxy's most energetic
gamma rays
(Dec 16, 2005)
Physicists have measured the highest energy photons ever seen emerging
from our galaxy, the Milky Way. Previous observations with the orbiting
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory had found very high energy (VHE) gamma
rays emanating from the equator of the galactic disc at up to 30 billion
electronvolts. Now, using three years’ worth of data from the Milagro
Gamma Ray Observatory in New Mexico, US, physicists from nine institutions
have found gamma rays with an average energy of 3.5 trillion electronvolts.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Alien search merges with other home projects
(Dec 16, 2005)
SETI@home, a downloadable screensaver that lets the public donate
their unused computer time to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence,
switches off today. But it is not going away: it is simply joining
forces with similar distributed-computing projects on topics from
climate models to cures for diseases. The move should boost the number
of users, upping the computing power available to search for messages
from alien life.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Space 'spiders' could build solar satellites
(Dec 15, 2005)
A mission to determine whether spider-like robots could construct
complex structures in space is set to launch in January 2006. The
spider bots could build large structures by crawling over a "web"
released from a larger spacecraft. The engineers behind the project
hope the robots will eventually be used to construct colossal solar
panels for satellites that will transmit solar energy back to Earth.
The satellites could reflect and concentrate the Sun's rays to a receiving
station on Earth or perhaps beam energy down in the form of microwaves.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Virgin Galactic announces its first 100
space tourists
(Dec 14, 2005)
The first 100 space tourists scheduled to take suborbital flights
from the spaceport being built by Virgin Galactic were announced on
Tuesday. Although its putative tourist spacecraft may not be off the
drawing board yet, a confident Virgin Galactic revealed the “founder’s
group” will be flying from the port near Roswell, New Mexico –
fabled as the site of a supposed UFO crash in 1947. The 100 people
include a woman in her nineties (who learned to skydive when she was
85), and a honeymooning couple from Washington DC.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Strange new object found at edge of Solar
System
(Dec 14, 2005)
A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit
tilted by 47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system. Astronomers
are at a loss to explain why the object's orbit is so off-kilter while
being almost circular. Researchers led by Lynne Allen at the University
of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, first spotted the object
in observations made with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in December
2004. Since October 2005, they have made follow-up observations that
have revealed the object's perplexing path. Tentatively named 2004
XR190, the object appears to have a diameter of between 500 and 1000
kilometres, making it somewhere between a fifth and nearly half as
wide as Pluto.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Hopes fade for troubled Japanese asteroid
probe
(Dec 13, 2005)
Hope that Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft will return to Earth is fading
as mission controllers remain unable to regain complete control of
its orientation. The spacecraft was designed to bring the first-ever
asteroid samples back to Earth for analysis. But recent data suggest
that, during a landing attempt on 26 November, it did not fire metal
pellets into the 600-metre-long asteroid Itokawa to draw up material
for collection. Now mission controllers have little hope the spacecraft
will be able to get back to Earth – even without its quarry
– because of continuing problems with its fuel thrusters.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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