Watch: First Ever 360 Video of Earth From ISS

                                                           

In a new episode of RT’s ground-breaking 360° video documentary from the International Space Station, cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko demonstrates the first-ever panoramic view of Earth from the Cupola module which is attached on the Earth-facing side of the ISS.

The Cupola module was completed in 2010. From here the crew can best operate the robotic arm that is visible directly from it, together with the Russian segment of the station [often with a Soyuz craft attached] and the US and Japanese labs.

The view from the Cupola leaves the astronauts totally spellbound, as Borisenko said that once he is in the Cupola, he keeps staring back at Earth, marveling at the view.

He recently arrived at the station for his second six-month shift. “Though actually, there isn’t really that much free time here,” the astronaut added.

In the video, the astronaut shows the audience the inside of Cupola and the windows which show the magnificent view of Earth to the astronauts.

RT will be regularly uploading videos from the show with Andrey Borisenko as host and tour guide.

The special project Space 360 is available in six languages [Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic] as well as on a special RT360 mobile app.

With many thanks to Sputnik News

Supermoon To pass by Earth on 14 November

                                                        

THE last time a celestial event of this magnitude happened the Cold War was just beginning to warm up.

When it happens again next week, those of a superstitious nature will be hoping it doesn’t mark the beginning of another unsettling era.

So-called supermoons are the stuff of legend have been linked to everything from causing earthquakes to political catastrophe.

On Monday 14 November, the largest supermoon for almost 70 years will be visible in the night sky.

It’s so rare that more than 60,000 people in Sydney have indicated they will be heading down to the city’s beaches to watch the supermoon rise above the ocean.

Professor Miroslav Filipovic, an astronomer at Western Sydney University, told news.com.au supermoons were actually quite regular occurrences, but the coming one was something special.

“Supermoon is not actually not a scientific term, it’s been used by astrologers and we astronomers aren’t exactly a big fan of these guys,” Prof Filipovic said.

“In astronomy the word is ‘perigee’ and it means the closest point the moon is to Earth.”
Roughly every four weeks the moon circles the Earth. However, the orbit is not circular at all, but elliptical so once a month the moon will be at its closest point to Earth and once a month at its farthest.

Rarely, these rotations fling the satellite so close to the Earth it produces a supermoon. A particularly distant orbit is, naturally, a “micro moon”.

Three supermoons are due to occur in 2016. One happened last month and another is due in December.

But what makes Monday’s supermoon so special is it will be a full moon plus it will do its closest fly-by since 1948.

A super-dooper-moon, if you like.

What’s more, it won’t come as close again until 2034. In astronomical terms, the moon will get so close to the Earth it’s basically an interplanetary air kiss.

“During a micro moon, the moon is 400,000km from the earth but during this supermoon it will be only 360,000km away,” said Mr Filipovic.

“That’s 12 to 14 per cent closer or 40,000km, so that’s not a small distance.
“It will not be difficult to see with the naked eye, it will be both bigger and brighter,” he said.

Western Sydney University is one of the only Australian campuses to house its own observatory, the doors of which will be flung open for amateur star gazers to grab a look at the lunar landscape.

Meanwhile, supermoon parties are being held across Australia, including at Sydney’s Bronte Beach organised by Balmain schoolteacher and children’s author Gavin McCormack.

Currently some 50,000 people have decided to watch the supermoon rise out of the Pacific at Mr MCormack’s shindig, which he admitted to news.com.au he was a little surprised by.
“I invited a few friends around to watch the super moon and suddenly there’s 50,000 people going, it’s insane.”

The author of Are These Your Glasses?, the story of a bullied penguin, said the idea for the event came when he was researching a new kids book about a cow that becomes an astronaut and heads to the moon.

Now’s he’s had frantic calls from Bronte residents concerned at the dusk deluge of moon gazers, “but the council said it’s all good”.

Other events included a moon walk from Bondi Beach along the costal cliffs.

Mr McCormack said he remembered gathering around the TV to watch the moon landings and it was an “amazing spectacle”.

His lessons that feature the moon and space are the most popular with students.

“We’re studying space in my class at the moment and I think it’s the unknown, the intangible. When it dawns on them at that every star is a sun and planets go around the sun it’s mind boggling, they’re gripped.”

Dr Michael Brown, an astronomer at Monash University and a member of the Astronomical Society of Australia, said without professional photographic equipment, the best way to appreciate the supermoon was when it was rising and it could be compared to other objects.

“When the moon is close to the horizon and you can see it next to trees it does look bigger than when it’s up in the sky in isolation.”

Monday’s moonrise in Sydney will be at 7.07pm and 7.40pm in Melbourne. In Brisbane the moon will rise at 5.51pm and at 6.33pm in Perth. The supermoon should be visible from anywhere in Australia, cloud permitting.

“It’s nice to appreciate how the size of the moon — It’s like its own planet. The dark patches are basalt plains and if you have a telescope you can see the larger craters.”

Dr Brown said a mythology had grown up about the supposed powers of the moon, particularly the supermoon.

“There’s a long history of people claiming earthquakes follow the alignment of the planets and the position of the moon.

“My favourite is an author from New Zealand who talks about the supermoon’s power to cause earthquakes but he also wrote a book on cat palmistry so it’s pretty weird,” said Dr Brown.

However, Prof Filipovic said when the last moon of this size swept by the Earth — before the term supermoon had even been coined — its effect certainly had tongues wagging.

“I remember the stories from 1948, there were a number of events. It was the first fight between the Russians and American in the United Nations. It was a crazy year 1948, the beginning of the cold war.”

Nevertheless, neither said that had time for such tall tales.

“When anyone does statistical analysis (on natural disasters and the moon’s passing) there’s no correlation at all,” said Dr Brown.

That’s not to say the supermoon won’t have an effect, he said. The closeness of the satellite and the alignment of the Sun will lead to higher Spring perigean tides as the sea is pulled upwards towards the moon.

The coming of the supermoon would be a good opportunity for those intrigued by celestial beings to come face-to-face with a lunar rarity, said Dr Brown.

But for diehard astronomers, there were more interesting events to study, he said.

“We get excited about supernovas, comets and gravitational waves. Supermoons are nice but they don’t get us leaping out of bed.

“For us, they’re not particularly super.”

By Benedict Brook
With many thanks to News.Com

Scientists Have Detected A Crack In Earth's Magnetic Shield

                                                                          

Earth is such a habitable place, thanks in no small part to the vast magnetic field that surrounds our planet, shielding us from harsh solar winds and cosmic radiation.
But scientists have been investigating one of the most powerful geomagnetic storms in recent history, and they’ve discovered that our protective barrier isn’t as secure as we thought it was. Turns out, our magnetosphere has been cracked.

Researchers have been analysing data from the GRAPES-3 muon telescope in Ooty, India, which recorded a massive burst of galactic cosmic rays on 22 June 2015. 

For 2 hours, Earth’s magnetosphere was being bombarded by these particles, which emit immensely high-energy radiation, and travel through space at nearly the speed of light. 
These things are so powerful, they can easily penetrate the hull of a spacecraft, and Earth’s magnetic shield is our first line of defence against them. 

About 40 hours before the June 22 event, a giant cloud of plasma was ejected from the Sun's corona (or outer atmosphere), and eventually struck the magnetosphere at speeds of about 2.5 million kilometres per hour.

That’s not exactly news, because at the time, it triggered a severe geomagnetic storm that was responsible for radio signal blackouts in many high latitude countries in North and South America.

It also resulted in a supercharged aurora borealis - which is created when charged particles from outer space reach Earth’s atmosphere.

                                                               

But now researchers have finally realised the full extent of that relentless bombardment of cosmic rays. 

A team from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India performed numerous simulations based on the GRAPES-3 data from that day, and the results indicate that the magnetosphere had been temporarily cracked, and that’s why things went so haywire in our radio systems.

In fact, the team says the bombardment was so relentless, it caused a severe compression of the magnetosphere, forcing it to shrink from 11 to 4 times the radius of Earth.
The researchers suspect that the geomagnetic storm was powerful enough to actually 'reconfigure' our magnetic shield, prising open weak spots to let radiation and cosmic rays slip through.

"This vulnerability can occur when magnetised plasma from the Sun deforms Earth’s magnetic field, stretching its shape at the poles and diminishing its ability to deflect charged particles," Katherine Wright explains on the American Physical Society website.
The fact that this happened at all is a concern, say the researchers, because it suggests that our magnetic field is changing - or rather, weakening - in certain parts.

"The occurrence of this burst also implies a 2-hour weakening of Earth’s protective magnetic shield during this event," the researchers report.

"[This] indicates a transient weakening of Earth’s magnetic shield, and may hold clues for a better understanding of future superstorms that could cripple modern technological infrastructure on Earth, and endanger the lives of the astronauts in space."

So the good news is our magnetosphere was only temporarily cracked, but the bad news is that it can be cracked at all.

There's not a whole lot we can do about that, but the researchers hope that by continuing to search for these cracks as they happen - and in past events - we'll be better prepared to deal with the next time those cosmic rays burst through and wreak havoc.

By Bec Crew

With many thanks to Science Alert

13 Not 12 Constellations In The Zodiac, NASA Points Out

                                                                   

Have you noticed you've been feeling a little differently lately? Perhaps you used to be curious and indecisive. Now suddenly you're making rash decisions and not feeling any twinges of curiosity.

Two explanations arise. One is that you're a normal person who feels many things and acts in diverse ways. The other is that your astrological sign has changed, and our individual and collective identities have fractured irreparably. 

It's obviously the latter, because NASA went ahead and recalculated the zodiac to not only change our star signs, but to also add a new one we didn't even know existed. Perhaps that's why you saw the internet freaking out that NASA turned our personalities inside out.  

One issue. 

We don't necessarily have to get into the nitty-gritty of whether astrology is "real" or not, but rest assured that even if it was (it's not), NASA is not in charge of it. In fact, as NASA points out on the very page that everyone was citing as source, "Astrology is not astronomy." NASA studies astronomy, which is a science. Astrology is what your flaky friend does to justify the super unreliable guys she chooses to date. 

But let's humor your friend and talk about how astrology "works," but from an astronomical perspective. Your zodiac sign is determined by imagining a straight line drawn between Earth, the sun and whatever constellation the line points to on your birthday. 

So now that we've established that, let's dive into what NASA wrote about. The essay explained that the zodiac was based on the Babylonians' understanding of the world, three millennia prior. They created the zodiac for their convenience, using a 12-month calendar based on moon phases and leaving out a 13th sign that didn't "fit." The zodiac was also created using the physical placement of Earth 3,000 years ago. NASA named Ophiuchus as the 13th constellation that the Babylonians recognized, and pointed out that our star signs have actually changed over the course of a few thousand years. 

What did NASA not do? Try to "reconfigure" the zodiac or "add" another sign. Because Earth's axis has shifted a bit, the vertical line between Earth, the sun and the constellation isn't pointing in the same direction it used to. So while the Babylonians looked up to see one constellation on a specific date, we might be seeing quite another. NASA was just explaining astronomy, in other words. 

This, as you might have figured, is not earth-shattering news, nor was a page devoted to science for kids the first to point this out. Heck, our own Cristen Conger wrote about it in 2011. Instead, this can be chalked up to a more modern mystery: how a viral beast can grab a story and run with it.   

By Kate Kershner

With many thanks to How Stuff Works 

 

Galaxy Torn Apart By Rival Black Holes

                                                               

Every kid knows that stars twinkle. Now scientists who have ­discovered an entire galaxy flickering say they could be witnessing the muzzle flashes of two supermassive black holes at war. 

An Australian-led study has found that the galaxy Markarian 1018, which astronomers were forced to reclassify when it suddenly brightened in the 1980s, has darkened again. While space ­gazers have detected other galaxies changing intensity, few have done so twice or so ­dramatically.

The team says the huge black hole at the centre of the galaxy, more than a million times as massive as our sun, could be ­running out of stars and gas to feed on. But University of Sydney PhD student Rebecca McElroy, who discovered the latest change, said the data suggested something else was afoot. One possib­ility is another black hole has crashed the feast, disrupting the fuel supply and throwing the entire galaxy into cosmic mayhem.

Astronomers believe that within the last billion years — which is recent, in astronomical terms — Mrk 1018 merged with a neighbouring galaxy.

“When galaxies get close to one another they begin to orbit together and eventually coal­esce,” Ms McElroy said. “Most galaxies have supermassive black holes, and if you throw two galaxies at each other there are going to be two black holes that will eventually sink to the centre.”

By John Ross
With many thanks to The Australian

Jupiter Photos: 'Like Nothing We Have Seen Or Imagined Before'

                                                                      

                                                                         
Highly anticipated data from Juno's first flyby of Jupiter has arrived and the data is shattering expectations.

After careening through space for five years, NASA's Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter on July 4 of this year. With all systems go, the orbiter completed its first of 36 orbital flybys on Aug. 27. The craft's first six-hour-long sweep from Jupiter's north pole to south pole has yielded some startling results, including storms "unlike anything previously seen on any of our solar system’s gas-giant planets," a peculiar hexagon at the north pole, the first-ever glimpse of the planet's southern aurora, and "ghostly-sounding transmissions emanating from above the planet."

"First glimpse of Jupiter's north pole, and it looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, in a NASA press release. "It's bluer in color up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms. There is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts that we are used to – this image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter. We're seeing signs that the clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features."

Scientists are particularly intrigued by the appearance of a hexagon on the north pole. NASA's Voyager and Cassini missions have spotted a similar hexagonal cloud pattern at Saturn’s north pole, but nothing quite like it had every been spotted on any other world, Space.com reported in 2015. 

Saturn's hexagon turned out to be 60-mile-wide churning storm that is hemmed in by winds below the cloud level. It will be a while yet before scientists are able to determine what is going on inside Jupiter’s hexagon.

The first-ever view of Jupiter's southern aurora comes courtesy of Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), supplied by the Italian Space Agency. JIRAM offers infrared views that reveal temperature differentials throughout the planet.

"JIRAM is getting under Jupiter's skin, giving us our first infrared close-ups of the planet," said Alberto Adriani, JIRAM co-investigator from Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome, in the release. "These first infrared views of Jupiter's north and south poles are revealing warm and hot spots that have never been seen before. And while we knew that the first-ever infrared views of Jupiter's south pole could reveal
the planet's southern aurora, we were amazed to see it for the first time. No other instruments, both from Earth or space, have been able to see the southern aurora. 

Now, with JIRAM, we see that it appears to be very bright and well-structured. The high level of detail in the images will tell us more about the aurora's morphology and dynamics."
The capture of eerie radio transmissions may be the least surprising finding, as scientists have known about them since the 1950s, but the dataset collected by the Radio/Plasma Wave Experiment (Waves) is sure to enchant astronomy hobbyists.

"Jupiter is talking to us in a way only gas-giant worlds can," said Bill Kurth, co-investigator for the Waves instrument from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. "Waves detected the signature emissions of the energetic particles that generate the massive auroras which encircle Jupiter’s north pole. These emissions are the strongest in the solar system. Now we are going to try to figure out where the electrons come from that are generating them."

With nearly three dozen more flybys to go, scientists are anticipating a great deal more of Juno's bounty in the next year as the craft sends more data to Earth.

By Noelle Swan
With many thanks to CSM

Jupiter’s Spot Gives It A Hot Flush

                                                                    

It is the biggest storm in the solar system. Now scientists have found it acts as an underfoot heater for a mysterious hotspot high above our sun’s biggest planet.

US astronomers have discovered that Jupiter’s “great red spot”, a swirling morass of shifting colours up to three times as wide as Earth, is teleporting heat to the sparse air 800km above it.

The discovery, reported this morning in the journal Nature, explains why Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is ferociously hot despite being so far from the sun. The findings suggest a previously unknown form of energy transmission may be lighting up some of the coldest places in the cosmos.

Scientists have long wondered why the upper atmospheres of the gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are hundreds of degrees hotter than models say they should be. Lead author James O’Donoghue, of Boston University, told The Australian that temperatures above Jupiter exceeded 600C — roughly on par with Earth’s outer atmosphere, even though Jupiter is about five times as far from the sun and receives only 3 per cent as much sunlight.

The mystery, which astronomers have termed the “energy crisis”, has baffled them for more than 40 years. The Boston team tackled it by sampling temperatures in different zones of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, compiling nine hours of infra-red readings from a telescope on a Hawaiian mountain.

“We could see almost immediately that our maximum temperatures at high altitudes were above the great red spot,” Dr O’Donoghue said.

Discovered in the 17th century, the spot is a massive hurricane thought to have been raging for more than 300 years. It spins at up to 360kmh, with no land to stop it, although its size and colour have varied over the centuries.

The team believes sound waves above the giant storm are radiating upwards and heating the atmosphere far above. A similar phenomenon has been observed above thunderstorms in the Andes Mountains, it says.

Dr O’Donoghue said the acoustic waves appeared to be teaming up with “gravity waves” in a combination never previously observed.

 Gravity waves, which are distinct from Einstein’s gravitational waves, are oscillations caused by gravity’s effects in atmospheres and oceans.
He said the densities of the upper atmospheres of any planet were incredibly low, making very high temperatures “easily achievable”. “You wouldn’t burn your hand in these atmospheres because not enough gas would be in contact with you,” he noted.

By John Ross
With many thanks to The Australian

Juno Set For Date With Jupiter After Five Years And 2.8bn Km

                                                                  

                                                                      

A solar-powered spacecraft is spinning towards ­Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is ­expected to fire its main rocket ­engine at 1.18pm today (AEST) to slow itself down from a speed of 250,000km/h and slip into orbit around Jupiter.
With Juno on autopilot, the delicately choreographed move comes without any help from ground controllers.

Juno is travelling through a hostile radiation environment, “but it should be able to withstand it”, said Kenny Starnes, program manager for Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft.

Juno’s camera and other ­instruments were switched off for the arrival so there won’t be any pictures at the moment the spacecraft reaches its destination.

Scientists have promised close-up views of Jupiter when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $US1.1 billion ($1.5bn) mission. The fifth rock from the sun and the heftiest planet in the solar ­system, Jupiter is what’s known as a gas giant — a ball of hydrogen and helium — unlike rocky Earth and Mars.

With its billowy clouds and colourful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

Named after Jupiter’s cloud-piercing wife, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for 14 years, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.

Juno’s mission is to peer through Jupiter’s cloud-socked ­atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiter’s southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

There’s also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter’s atmosphere is shrinking.

The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 2.8 billion kilometres, took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt ­between Mars and Jupiter.

Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise this far out powered by the sun, beating Europe’s comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments. Plans called for Juno to swoop within 5000km of Jupiter’s clouds — closer than previous missions — to map the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields.

Juno is an armoured spacecraft — its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation.

Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission. Like Galileo before it, Juno meets its demise in 2018 when it dives into Jupiter’s atmosphere and disintegrates — a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet’s ­potentially habitable moons.

With many thanks to The Australian

Hubble Spots Dramatic Auroras On Jupiter

                                                                       

                                                             

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of glowing auroras over Jupiter just days before NASA's new Juno spaceship arrives to orbit the gas giant.

"These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen," said Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, UK, and principal investigator of the study. 

 

"It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a fireworks party for the imminent arrival of Juno," Nichols said in press release.

 

The new Hubble images show bluish lights that appear to dance over Jupiter's poles. NASA says the observations of the auroras were supported by measurements made by Juno, which starts orbiting Jupiter on Monday, July 4.

 

The auroras were photographed by Hubble during a series of observations of Jupiter made in far ultraviolet-light. The full-color disk of Jupiter used in the image was photographed separately by Hubble at an earlier time.

 

Unlike auroras on Earth, NASA says the ones on Jupiter never cease. They are huge and "hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth," the agency said.

 

The new observations and measurements from Hubble and Juno will help scientists understand how the sun and other sources influence auroras on Jupiter. Hubble will continue to monitor Jupiter's auroras for the duration of the Juno mission.

 

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. The planet is a giant ball of gas 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times more massive than our home world. It's easy to see in the night sky -- appearing as a bright, unblinking star. 

 

It's best known for its Great Red Spot and colorful storm bands. If you have a telescope, you can see four of Jupiter's largest moons.

 

By Amanda Barnett

With many thanks to CNN

 

NASA Announces Discovery Of 1284 New Planets Beyond Our Solar System

                                                                 

                                                                    

Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope announced they have confirmed the existence of 1284 newly discovered planets around distant stars, doubling the number of alien worlds detected by the agency’s planet-hunting probe. 

Nine of these newly verified worlds are potentially habitable, orbiting their stars in a zone warm enough for water to pool as a liquid, which is considered essential for life as we know it, the scientists said.

Nearly 550 of the newly verified worlds could be rocky planets like Earth. More than 100 of them are about the size of Earth or smaller.

“This is the most exoplanets that have ever been announced at one time,” said Princeton University astrophysicist Timothy Morton. “This more than doubles the number of known Kepler exoplanets.”

The new findings were announced at a media briefing by researchers from Princeton University, Columbia University, the California Institute of Technology and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in California. A research paper supporting their conclusions was published in the Astrophysical Journal.

So far, however, these alien worlds verified by the Kepler scientists haven’t been confirmed by independent observations from ground-based telescopes. Until April 1994, there was no other known solar system, but in recent years astronomers have detected thousands of planets orbiting around different stars — so many, in fact, that some astronomers have calculated that each of the stars in the Milky Way is likely to have at least one planet in orbit around it. Many of them are likely to be suitable for life.

“You quickly realise that there are 10 billion such potentially habitable planets in our galaxy,” said Kepler mission scientist Natalie Batalha at the Ames Research Center.

Just last week, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory discovered three planets with sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth, orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light years from Earth.

The announcement came barely a month after the Kepler spacecraft, orbiting more than 75 million miles from Earth, recovered from engineering problems that briefly threatened its continued operations. NASA launched the $US600 million Kepler mission in 2009 to search for potentially habitable Earth-size planets. For four years, Kepler monitored 150,000 stars in a single patch of sky near the constellation Cygni, measuring the tiny, telltale dip in the brightness of a star that can be produced by a transiting planet. In the latest study, astronomers analysed 4302 potential planets identified by the Kepler telescope.

For 1284 of those candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 per cent — the minimum required to earn the status of “planet” — the scientists said. “We now know that exoplanets are common,” said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Knowing this is the first step toward addressing the question: Are we alone in the universe?”

By Robert Lee Hotz
With many thanks to The Australian 

Elon Musk Plans Mission To Mars As Early As 2018

                                                            

                                                                   
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has disclosed plans to send an unmanned capsule to Mars, perhaps as soon as 2018, revealing the first details of his long-term vision for a private enterprise to colonise the red planet. 

The announcement, made through Twitter, didn’t include any specifics about the potential mission, and left unanswered all the major technical and funding questions surrounding Mr Musk’s oft-repeated concept to ultimately set up habitats on Mars. Over the years, he has repeatedly said his top-priority goal — more important than the economic success of his separate space and electric-car companies — is to build colonies on Mars, envisioning thousands of inhabitants served by airline-like flights to and from earth.

In the past, Mr Musk has basically stayed away from describing even the early steps toward what many detractors consider a far-fetched, sci-fi ambition. But today’s messages indicate Mr Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp, known as SpaceX, has crafted some definite preliminary plans, and suggest the company is further along than many outsiders had believed in developing versions of its Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets aimed at eventually exploring deep into the solar system.

SpaceX, based in California, tweeted that a Mars mission could come “as soon as 2018.” It also said “Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture,” adding “details to come,” without elaborating further.

The next-generation Dragon 2 spacecraft presumably would be blasted on its months-long voyage toward Mars by some version of the company’s heavy-lift Falcon 9 rocket. Neither the craft nor the rocket has yet flown, and the Falcon 9 Heavy, years behind schedule, is now slated to have its maiden blast-off late this year. The heavy version has 27 engines, versus nine for the current Falcon model.

Today’s developments highlight SpaceX’s continued emphasis not just on Mars — but on devising hardware capable of gently landing on its surface. Mr Musk, who founded closely held SpaceX and has built it into a multibillion-dollar space transportation company, sent two separate tweets discussing the plans. One said “Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system,” adding that “Red Dragon Mars Mission” is intended to be “the first test flight” of the upgraded capsule.

A major challenge facing SpaceX is devising a system to safely slow a large capsule during its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. Dragon 2 is expected to weigh substantially more than the unmanned rovers the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has landed on the plant.

Previously, Mr Musk has telegraphed that he expects to unveil some details of his long-term Mars vision at an international conference in Mexico slated for late September. The 2018 timetable is significant because a launch at that time could take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime close approach of the orbits of Earth and Mars.

If all goes well, SpaceX will start transporting US astronauts to the international space station for NASA starting next year. But as the station orbits relatively close to the earth, much more advanced technology will be required for deep-space missions, including those targeting Mars or even its vicinity. Until now, Mr Musk has been practically silent about ways to upgrade today’s Dragon capsules or specifics about potential test flights to begin charting a course for Mars voyages.

NASA, which has sketched out its own vision of eventual human exploration of Mars, has said it would need at least two decades, likely well over $US100 billion and extensive international co-operation to send astronauts to circle and then land on the planet. Today’s messages didn’t clarify what Mr. Musk’s timeline might be for manned missions. In the past, he has indicated SpaceX’s efforts could come as early as 2025.

In an email, a SpaceX spokesman said sending Dragons to Mars “will help demonstrate the technologies needed to land large payloads” on the planet, using engines or other technologies that generate thrust. Such missions will “help inform the overall Mars colonisation architecture SpaceX will reveal later this year,” he added.

The company plans to fund the mission itself, according to the spokesman, “though NASA will offer some technical support” such as space-based government communication networks. The preliminary plans are far enough along that SpaceX and NASA have signed a formal cooperative agreement, which the company spokesman said doesn’t call for any federal dollars flowing to Mr Musk’s team. The estimated cost of the initial test flight wasn’t disclosed.

The glimpse into SpaceX’s plans comes as the international space community appears increasingly split about the best approach to sending manned missions to Mars. Such voyages would expose astronauts to unprecedented levels of radiation and long stretches of isolation. Providing adequate food and oxygen also creates major technical challenges, well beyond those NASA has faced since it began sending man into space in 1961.

The European Space Agency, for example, has emphasised setting up a manned Moon base as the next major space venture. Likewise, China has focused its expanding manned space program to getting crews on the surface of the moon before the end of the decade.

Current NASA plans envision various types of interim missions leading to Mars — both manned and robotic — including plans for a spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet and perhaps extract a sample of it around 2025. But the agency has opposed long-term settlements on the moon. So far, Congress has been lukewarm about many of NASA’s interim steps, and the outcome of the 2016 presidential election could disrupt efforts already under way.

Mr Musk has never wavered from his commitment to colonise Mars, repeating that goal in interviews, speeches and other public statements. According to Mr Musk, whose company has surprised many aerospace veterans by managing to vertically land spent Falcon 9 boosters next to a launch pad as well as on a floating platform, reusable rockets are the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionise access to space.

“It’s a fundamental decision we have to make as a civilisation,” Mr. Musk said at a conference in Hong Kong this year. Mars is “the next, natural step” because “it’s the only planet” on which “we really have a shot at establishing a self-sustaining city,” he said.

In a 2013 interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, he said would be happy to make the trip himself. Asked what his tombstone might say if he died there, Mr. Musk said it should proclaim: “I’m on Mars, can you believe it?”

                                                                

By Andy Paztor
With many thanks to The Australian