Mercury Looms

September 29, 2009

At 5:55 pm EDT today, the Mercury probe MESSENGER will make its closest approach to the planet, shooting over the surface at an altitude of a little under 142 miles. Above is the planet from MESSENGER's point of view on Sept. 28 when it was 337,000 miles from flyby.

From the MESSENGER mission website:

This NAC image of a sunlit crescent Mercury was taken 44 hours before the spacecraft's closest pass to the surface. Visit the interactive visualization tool to examine in detail the instrument observations planned for the flyby. Starting at 3:45 pm EDT today, the visualization tool can be run in real-time, showing the planned observations on the website at the same time that the MESSENGER spacecraft will be performing the actual observations. The images and other measurements collected by MESSENGER during the flyby will begin to be transmitted to Earth just before midnight tonight.

Keep an eye on the MESSENGER website, that will be the place to see the first new images of the Solar System's smallest planet...

Ares Tests Continue Despite NASA Uncertainty

August 26, 2009

It seems that good news about NASA's future is very hard to come by these days. Although the development of the Constellation Program seems to be pushing ahead quite nicely, there are some huge (HUGE) question marks hanging over whether the space agency can deliver on its goal to get man back to the moon in a little over a decade...

Celebrating July 13, "Skylab-Esperance Day"

July 10, 2009

In November 2008, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper dropped her tool bag during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the International Space Station.

This was unfortunate, as you can't pick space tools up from your local hardware store, these things are custom-made, hi-tech pieces of kit, so it's little wonder Stefanyshyn-Piper exclaimed, "Oh great!" as she saw the bag drift out of her reach toward Earth. On that day, the spacewalking astronaut became a record breaker for all the wrong reasons; this was one of the the biggest pieces of kit accidentally dropped by an astronaut.

This event, in the grand scheme of things, was pretty inconsequential (apart from being an expensive and frustrating mistake), but it was the beginning of a unique adventure for Scott Barley, a DJ for the California-based Highway Radio...

A Vivid Look Into The Apollo Era

It's always great to come across images from historical events that you've never seen before. We've all seen the iconic fuzzy freeze frame of Neil Armstrong's "One Small Step," we've also seen Buzz Aldrin with the US flag on the lunar surface. Also, who can forget the picture of Armstrong just after his first moonwalk inside the lunar module, Tranquility Base.

So today, @NASA_HSF pointed me in the direction of a new set of Apollo images posted on the photo sharing site Flickr. The famous pictures are all present and looking undeniably sharp (Flickr seems to have that effect on photos), but there's a huge number of fascinating images that rarely see the light of day. Have a look at the Apollo gallery, you will be impressed...

Image: "Interior of the Apollo Lunar Module Mission Simulator (LMMS) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) during Apollo 9 simulation training. In the foreground is astronaut James A. McDivitt, prime crew commander; and in background is astronaut Russell L. Schweickart, lunar module pilot." --from NASA_HSF on Flickr

Should NASA Return to the Moon? 73% Said "Yes"

July 06, 2009

This was a very interesting answer to a comparatively simple question. From the get-go, the survey was very general, and fairly unscientific, but I think it gauged the general feeling toward the planned NASA return mission to the lunar surface. As you may have guessed, the timing was no coincidence, as Discovery Space launched our Wide Angle: The Lunar Landings on Monday to celebrate the upcoming Apollo 11 mission 40th anniversary.

The majority (73%) of participants replied "Yes -- the Moon first, then we can use it as a stepping stone to Mars, later," 20% replied "No -- been there, done that, it's a waste of money, we should be focusing on Mars, now!" and 7% replied "Neither -- what's the point?"

956 people placed a vote, a much larger number than I was expecting!

Obama Confirms Charles Bolden as NASA Administrator

May 23, 2009

It's been a long, long wait, but President Barack Obama has finally chosen the new NASA administrator.

If you've been keeping up with the news over the past week, you may have already had a good idea as to who might be the prime candidate for the job.

Retired Marine general and veteran space shuttle astronaut, Charles "Charlie" Bolden Jr. will be the next leader of the U.S. space agency.

In my opinion, I'm very excited to have such an experienced administrator on board. Not only has he flown on the shuttle four times (notching up an impressive 680 hours in Earth orbit), he also delivered the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 when he was the pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery.

Also, being a retired general of the Marine Corps, I'm thinking he's a strong leader. During these tough times for NASA, that is exactly what we need: leadership and direction.

To help him out, Lori Garver has been named Deputy Administrator. You may remember Garver from her highly publicized stand-off with ex-Administrator Mike Griffin when she was heading Obama's transition team back in December 2008. Griffin accused Garver of being "unqualified" to assess NASA funding. It turns out President Obama thinks the complete opposite of the space consultant's abilities.

"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said in a statement.

So far, there appears to be a great deal of support for Obama's choice, but with any political appointment, I don't think we can truly evaluate how the Bolden-Garver leadership will influence NASA's direction for a long while yet. It will be very interesting to see how the duo deal with the nagging space budgetary problems and the growing issues facing the future of manned NASA spaceflight.

However, these problems can be faced after the Memorial Day weekend, so for now, congratulations Charles and Lori!

Update: With a special thanks to eagle-eyed James Moore (a.k.a. @QuarkSpin - follow him on Twitter. Do it) who pointed this out, Dave had already mentioned Charles Bolden in the Space Disco post back in January: My Vote for NASA Administrator.

Charlie actually came in at a rather disappointing position #12 (out of 25 administrator hopefuls) in a public vote. Competition was stiff, but Bad Astronomer Phil Plait won the vote, followed closely by Wil "Westley Crusher" Wheaton. Even rollin' Rick Astley stumbled in at #9. Although having Phil Plait at the helm of NASA would have been a good move in my books, Obama ultimately decided on someone with a few more hours in space...

Sources: Universe Today, Reuters

Houston, This Is Proving To Be Very Popular: The Rise of the Twitternaut

May 22, 2009

In today's ultra-fast world of microblogging (i.e. Twitter), the more followers you have, the better. Well, that's what Ashton Kutcher would have you believe anyway (nearly 2 million followers? Isn't that known as 'stamp collecting'?).

Personally, I'm a strong believer in online communities, so rather than quantity, it's more about quality. In short, I'd much rather have a community on Twitter I can have a two-way conversation with, rather than the population of a small country vying for my attention 24/7.

Collecting followers on Twitter has become a hobby for celebrities... but why do people want to follow them? It seems to have little to do with their personalities, and it has even less to do with the quality of their tweets (believe me, I tried following a few, but quickly tired of "this is what I'm eating" photos and profound quotes from lifestyle gurus).

However, should a person do something important, I might be inclined to follow them on Twitter so I can read about their experiences, whether they are deemed famous or not.

So, when an astronaut decides he's going to tweet from space, while carrying out a historically significant, brave and outright awesome mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope, you might find me following said astronaut.

Michael Massimino (a.k.a. @Astro_Mike) took the opportunity of being the first human to ever tweet from space. At the moment, I don't think we can fully evaluate what this means, as Twitter could just as quickly disappear as it appeared (after all, Web 2.0 moves fast... who's to say Web 3.0 will include Twitter anyway?), it may just be a short-term trend. Still, Massimino was the first man to tweet from space, and that is Internet history.

But this goes way beyond the Internet, @Astro_Mike is providing the world with an intimate view of what it's like to be an astronaut orbiting the Earth. And he's doing it in 140 characters or less.

"As I closed my eyes to sleep last night I thought, 'These eyes have seen some beautiful sights today.'" - @Astro_Mike

His tweets range from the routine, to the inspiring, to the incredible, to the personal; but all of them provide an important viewpoint from life in space. What's more, @Astro_Mike has gathered quite a following. Before the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, Massimino had 100,000 people looking out for his tweets, today he has well over 300,000.

At a time when NASA's outstanding endeavours need to be shouted from the rooftops, we have an astronaut, in orbit, telling a global online community exactly what it's like to live in space. And he's proving to be rather popular. I think we can expect many more astronaut Twitter accounts in the future, which is no bad thing...

Galaxies Crash, Dino-Killing Asteroid, Twin Space Shuttles (Video)

April 27, 2009

Up to bat for this week's Discovery Space Wrap Up: Four-way galaxy cluster crash spied by Hubble and Chandra telescopes, Asteroid collision predates dinosaur extinction by 300,000 years, The last time you'll see two space shuttles out at NASA launch pads -- ever:

Asteroid Tsunamis, Kepler's 1st Photo, Mission to Ceres (Video)

April 20, 2009

Saddle up for this week's Discovery Space Wrap Up, ladies and gents: Asteroid tsunamis aren't as bad as we thought, Kepler planet-hunting telescope sees first light, Scientists want to land on Ceres in the Asteroid Belt, and Colbert gets "treaded" by NASA:

Mars 500, Hubble's Winning Image, Yuri's Night Craziness (Video)

April 06, 2009

In this week's Discovery Space Wrap Up:
Mars500 trial run begins (aka 6 guys stuck in a tube for 105 days), Hubble Space Telescope's winning image of Arp 274 taken, and last but not least some crazy fun Yuri's Night parties: