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Tag: NASA

  • NASA Takes Delivery Of Orion Space Capsule

    NASA’s plan for the immediate future is quite simple. Go to the Moon, go to an asteroid, go to Mars. Not in that specific order but that it what we are looking at as the essential missions in the next 30 years for the space agency. Since the retirement of the shuttle the question has continually been, how? Well that question was answered on the 28th when the Orion space capsule was delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center by Lockheed Martin.

    “This starts a new, exciting chapter in this nation’s great space exploration story,” said Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator. “Today we are lifting our spirits to new heights.”

    The first flight of the spacecraft will take place in 2014 and will be uncrewed. Called Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, it will be loaded with a wide variety of instruments to evaluate how the spacecraft behaves during launch, in space and the through the searing heat of reentry. This spacecraft will also be the most advanced space craft ever designed with features that include emergency abort capability, sustain astronauts during space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to Mars,” proclaimed U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who joined Garver and other officials to welcome the Orion spacecraft. “We know the Orion capsule is a critical part of the system that’s going to take us there.”

    The capsule will be launched into orbit by the Space Launch System (SLS) and the launch is scheduled to take place in 2017. The SLS is not without controversy though. This is a rocket system that was neither asked for or wanted by NASA but was forced upon them by congress. The huge rocket is capable of lifting up to 130 metric tons to orbit. The current rocket, and the one that will be used for the test flight, the Delta IV-Heavy, is more than powerful enough to get the job done.

    “The systems on this spacecraft, it’s bigger than Apollo and it has to stay in space longer than Apollo, so it has to be better than Apollo,” said Bob Cabana, director of Kennedy and a former shuttle commander.

    For now, the focus for NASA and Lockheed Martin is preparing this capsule for space in 2014. During the EFT-1 mission, a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from United Launch Alliance will lift the spacecraft into orbit. Its second stage will remain attached to the capsule and will be fired to raise the Orion’s orbit to 3,600 miles, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The mission will last only a few hours, which is long enough to make two orbits before being sent back into the atmosphere to test it at deep-space reentry speeds.

  • The Republicans Want To Kill NASA, Says White House

    You remember the White House’s “We the People” initiative, right? Back in September of 2011, they launched the site as an online forum for user-submitted petitions. In short, a petition will receive an official response from the White House if it receives enough signatures. In the past, we’ve seen petitions ranging in topic from student loan forgiveness to the legalization of marijuana, and from internet freedom to NASA funding.

    And although many have derided the White House for their oftentimes politically safe responses, and many feel that the petitions are absolutely pointless, the White House claims that the citizens’ ideas and questions do not fall on deaf ears.

    The aforementioned NASA gets a lot of play on the We the People site, as concerns mount over the program’s shrinking budget. A recent petition that hit the signature threshold has just received an official White House response. The petition, which asks the administration to help double NASA’s annual budget reads as such:

    Currently, NASA’s budget barely surpasses 0.5 percent of the Federal budget, and has seen a steady decline in the proportions of its funding, now reaching all-time lows. The cultural mindset brought on by NASA has allowed us to reap the benefits of economic growth, creating an influx of people wanting to become scientists and engineers.

    There is no question that the government has money to fund NASA: $850 billion was spent on the bank bailout, several hundred billion dollars more than the 53 year running budget of NASA. If we want to invest in our future, we must fund NASA at higher levels.

    After garnering nearly 28,000 signatures, the White House has issued a lengthy response that, among other things, blames the lack of NASA love on the Republicans. After explaining the key features of their plan to “push the boundaries of inspriation and discovery,” here’s what White House spokesman Phil Larson has to say:

    Unfortunately, not everyone is supportive of this ambitious effort. Rather than making bold, targeted investments in our space future and embarking on new partnerships with the private sector to ensure every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely, the proposed Republican House budget plan, if spread evenly, would significantly cut NASA’s budget, forcing the deepest cuts to the space program since just after we landed on the Moon.

    The response, which you should check out in its entirety here, is drawing the ire of some, in part because it sort of passes the buck to private companies like SpaceX. Plus, it really doesn’t give any assurances that current projects are safe from budget cuts.

    For instance, here’s how one redditor summarizes the response paragraph-by-paragraph:

    1) Thanks, we think NASA is cool too, bro.
    2) ‘Free market enterprise’ means we don’t need to give them any more money.
    3) Like those SpaceX guys, right? They totally got this shit. We don’t need to rely on NASA anymore.
    4) And hey, look at the pretty telescope and mars rover! That’s totally enough to satiate you, right?
    5, plus list) And here’s a bunch of other projects, which the budget totally covers guys, honest. They aren’t in any danger at all!
    6) Republicans are the ones shitting on all this, blame them.
    7) We’re totally heroes for just holding to the status quo rather than cutting them like a leetle peegy.
    8) Suck it.

    Can’t really argue with him on much of that translation.

    In terms of progress on NASA’s most recent expedition of looking for bacteria on the surface of Mars, it’s about 40 days away from touching down.

    Thoughts?

  • NASA’s Curiosity Mission Only 40 Days Till Touchdown

    The Curiosity mission is now only 40 days away from touchdown, or complete destruction. The highly risky landing of the Curiosity probe is why this mission is so exciting. Oh, and the fact that the rover’s main mission is to search for bacteria on the surface of Mars. Thats right, this rover is going to look for life with todays technology. This hasn’t really been tried in years. So hopefully with todays technology, we will be able to find life.

    The scariest part of this mission is the descent of the rover. The highly technical landing will feature a heat shield, a rocket booster, and a supersonic parachute. This part is known as the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” This is due to the fact that information takes 14 minutes to get to earth from Mars. So from the time the probe reaches the atmosphere to the time we get the info, the probe will have either been destroyed or landed safely for 7 minutes. Here is the video released by NASA about the landing:

    This is one of a couple of high profile missions that humans on Earth are up to. Some of these include the planning phases of missions to an asteroid and a permanent base on the moon.

  • NASA Releases New Photo From Apollo 17

    In December of 1972, Apollo 17 left the moons surface and to this date no human has been back to step foot on the lunar surface. Moves have been made in the last few years to solve this problem with things going as far as Newt Gingrich calling for a permanent colony on the moon by the year 2020.

    After all of this time, NASA decided to release a new color photo of Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt. He is one of the last two men to ever step foot on the moon. The gorgeous shot was taken by fellow astronaut Eugene Cernan, who was on the surface with Schmitt, while the third man on their mission, Ronald Evans, orbited the moon.

    The Apollo 17 astronauts brought home 110Kg of moon rocks which is by far the most of any Apollo mission. Schmitt and Cernan’s lunar rover is perched at the edge of Shorty Crater, near the spot where geologist Schmitt discovered orange moon soil.

    Check out this link to see a huge hi-res version of this photo from NASA.

  • NASA’s Newest Video Details Curiosity Mars Descent

    NASA is in the middle of a very important mission right now as they are always in the middle of something these days. This mission is a little different as it is one that will put a new rover onto the surface of Mars. The rover “Curiosity” is a new kind of rover that is a lot heavier than past rovers are so the guys at the NASA JPL had to come up with a new and creative way to put this rover on the surface of Mars.

    The descent starts a tie frame known as the seven minutes of terror. Because once the Rover starts it’s descent, it is 14 minutes until NASA knows what happens to it. It could be running and successful, or completely destroyed. This is very risky and in the comments section for the video on NASA’s website, someone asked that very question of why are they using the new system. NASA’s response was, “it’s too heavy to use previous techniques. It’s very risky and bold. The odds are against us, but it’s the best way to do it given the size and weight of the vehicle. Seven minutes of terror!”

    I want to feel good about this mission because I’m fairly certain that the smartest and most resourceful people in the entire world work at NASA. But this seems like a very expensive risk. The purpose of this mission is very important to our future as humans. The rover’s objectives include searching for past or present life, studying the Martian climate, studying Martian geology, and collecting data for a future manned mission to Mars.

    Fingers crossed that they are able to find little Martian bacteria!

    Check out this crazy video and realize that this is a huge gamble and it might be a while till we are able to send another one if it fails:

  • SpaceX Tests Its New Rocket “Merlin 1D” [Video]

    SpaceX Tests Its New Rocket “Merlin 1D” [Video]

    SpaceX continues to push its space dominating agenda forward with its newest test of the ‘Merlin 1D” rocket propulsion system. Building on the technology from its previous 3 launches, including the historic launch and recovery of the Dragon capsule, the Merlin 1D has achieved a full mission duration firing and multiple restarts at target thrust and specific impulse (Isp). In other words, the test was highly successful.

    “This is another important milestone in our efforts to push the boundaries of space technology,” said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk. “With the Merlin 1D powering the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, SpaceX will be capable of carrying a full range of payloads to orbit.” The Merlin 1D will indeed knock out 2 birds with 1 stone. It will offer the pure power that the Falcon Heavy needs to do its missions, but it will also offer performance improvements to the Falcon 9.

    With nine Merlins on the first stage, the Falcon 9 rocket will produce nearly 1.5 million pounds of thrust in a vacuum. An enhanced design makes the Merlin 1D the most efficient booster engine ever built, with a vacuum thrust-to-weight ratio exceeding 150, while still maintaining the structural and thermal safety margins needed to carry astronauts. All of this is important going forward because SpaceX really wants the NASA contract to put astronauts on the ISS and maybe even the moon one day.

    The new design of the Merlin also will fulfill an extensive manifest of launches and the new engine is designed for improved manufacturability by using higher efficiency processes. It also has increased robotic construction and reduced parts count. Look for SpaceX to continue to push forward and try to cut costs through improved technology in only the way that a private company can. This is why it is important for the private sector to get involved in things that are extremely expensive like the space program.

    SpaceX

    SpaceX19 hours ago

    Firing of the SpaceX Merlin 1D engine! 
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    photo and video courtesy of SpaceX

  • “Son of Concorde” To Fly Twice As Fast As Concorde

    Until the fatal 2000 crash that signaled the beginning of the end for the Concorde, it was widely considered the pinnacle of consumer based aviation. The Supersonic plane could fly from London to New York in half the time that a typical jet did it because it flew at supersonic speeds. The trip was not inexpensive though. Since the grounding and retirement of the great plane, the need and want for another commercial plane that travels faster than the speed of sound is both wanted and needed.

    Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream and NASA are working on a collaborative effort called the “Son of Concorde” that has the potential to get from London to Sydney in 4 hours! The plane would obviously have to be a Scramjet hypersonic plane that NASA and the Air Force are currently working on and would have to be able to go into the low atmosphere.

    The biggest obstacle that the companies are facing is overcoming the sonic boom problem that planes face when they go faster than the speed of sound. According to the Daily Mail a Gulfstream engineer described the sound the new jet will make as “closer to a puff or plop.” The new aircraft Codenamed X-54, will ‘prove that an aircraft can be shaped for low sonic boom’

    The 12-seat planes are expected to cost $80 million each and are being marketed to European and Middle East buyers under the slogan, ‘To the USA and back in a working day.’ Look for the jets to be in use by 2020-2030 if they are ever in use at all!

    Picture comes courtesy of the Daily Mail and is an artists rendition

  • Huge South Pole Moon Crater Could Hold Frozen Water

    The moon still holds some mysteries. One of those being whether or not there is any discernible amount of ice on the surface. While we have been to the moon, we have only visited a very small area. The way of knowing without actually going there are hit and miss too. For instance, the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya saw no discernible signs of ice within Shackleton Crater, but NASA’s LCROSS probe analyzed Cabeus Crater near the moon’s south pole and found it measured as much as 5 percent water by mass.

    The way they check this is by having a spacecraft illuminate the interior of the crater with infrared laser light, measuring how reflective it was. The scan of The crater’s floor was more reflective than that of other nearby craters, suggesting it had ice. “Water ice in amounts of up to 20 percent is a viable possibility,” study lead author Maria Zuber told SPACE.com. Don’t get your hopes up, though she cautioned. The amount of ice in Shackleton Crater “can also be much less, conceivably as little as zero.”

    Zuber noted that the measurements only look at a micron-thick portion of Shackleton Crater’s uppermost layer. “A bigger question is how much water might be buried at depth,” Zuber said, adding that NASA’s GRAIL mission will investigate that possibility. And with that possibility we get the reality of a permanent base on the moon. If there is water in massive amounts, which some suspect there could be. We would have the ability to make rocket fuel and potable water for human settlement.

  • Pluto May Hold Key To Discovering Alien Worlds

    A recent space discovery has turned some heads. The once 9th planet that we all miss has a hidden moon that no one knew about until recently. Last year scientists decided to point the Hubble Space Telescope at the not forgotten furthest neighbor uncovered a new solar body that is stuck in between Pluto and it’s sister Charon. The new moon owns the title P-4 being that it is the 4th such moon orbiting Pluto.

    “I was very surprised that they found a new moon in between the other two. It basically meant that it was getting kicked around by these other moon. I thought about what the effects of being kicked around like that and wondered what we could learn about them,” astronomer Andrew Youdin, with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told Discovery News. “This is generally an issue with extrasolar planets,” he added. “One tries to study the stability of their orbits over time scales of billions of years.”

    What makes this discovery so special is that the whole system takes up less room than the span between Earth and our moon. Providing a delicate orbital ballet that has implications for finding planets around dual-star systems beyond the solar system. Basically by studying the way the Pluto and its moons interact with each others gravity, we can blow up the calculations to better help us find planets outside our own solar system.

    The scientists are setting up a computer simulation to help them out, but they only need to wait a little longer because next year NASA is launching the New Horizons probe to the outer corner of the solar system to study Pluto, Charon and the small moons, as well as other objects in the Kuiper Belt region. “We’ll know in a few years if we’re right or wrong,” Youdin said. “You can study the (moons’) motion through images by Hubble, but it is not as precise as what you can find by going there even on a single flyby.”

    Here is a zoomed in photo from Hubble showing Pluto and its 4 moons:

  • NASA Unveils New Rover Prototype

    NASA Unveils New Rover Prototype

    Yesterday the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the prototype for their new lunar rover that they want to help in future missions. Together with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA is teaming on a project called RESOLVE which stands for Regolith and Environmental Science and Oxygen and Lunar Extraction.

    The hopes is that the new rover will be able to mine the resources and gather oxygen to be used for human consumption and for fuel. The Lunar rover will hopefully go to the North Pole of the moon. It will then take some of the Lunar soil and heat it up to 900 degrees Celsius. They will then take hydrogen that it takes with it and flow it over the superheated soil to create water. That water can then be used to create oxygen or can be used for human consumption, or to make rocket fuel.

    Daniel Lefevbre of the Canadien Space Agency said that the next stop for the rover is for it to be shipped off to Hawaii to be tested on the slopes of the Big Island’s volcanoes. The hopes are that the tests can help ring out some of the problems so it will be space ready when someone is ready to launch it into space.

    The rover is worth about 300 million dollars and is controlled by what looks like a Logitech gamepad for PC. Kind of a cool job.

    Video and photo courtesy of Florida Today.

  • China Planning Manned Mission To Its Space Station

    China has a problem. They have such a fairly long history of blatantly stealing technology from other companies, that they were not invited to participate in the International Space Station program. So, to stick their tongues out at everyone, they decide to take the Soviet approach and make their own. Now they are ready to man that space station.

    Today the Chinese news agency called Xinhua is reporting that China is preparing to launch a manned space flight to the station called “Tiangong-1” later this month. According to Wikipedia, Tiangong-1 is an experimental testbed to demonstrate the rendezvous and docking capabilities needed to support a space station complex. It will be deorbited in 2013 and replaced with different modules to make a true space station by 2020.

    This falls in line with China’s pledge to have a greater space presence and their goal of putting a man on the moon by 2017. China’s hunger and wiillingness to spend the massive amount of money on a space program is kind of where we were 45 years ago. I think now is the time to push new manned missions to the Moon and eventually Mars before the Chinese can. Not only would it give Americans a sense of national pride that they havent felt since the 60’s, but it will show that it is going to be a long time before another country can pass the United States technology wise.

    Photo courtesy of english.people.com.cn

  • SpaceX’s Success May Lead To Military Contracts

    SpaceX’s Success May Lead To Military Contracts

    SpaceX made history 2 weeks ago becoming the very first private company to launch a capsule into space and have it dock with the International Space Station. Now that the Dragon has successfully returned to earth, SpaceX can start working on it’s contract through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The resupply contract for the International Space Station has it making 12 runs, and since it is reusable, they will have the ability to ferry items back and forth, not just trash but experiments.

    This launch was the second one for the Falcon 9 and after a third successful one they will be allowed to bid for military contracts to launch satellites into space. “The new entrant criteria did say three launches are required (for Falcon 9) before certification can happen for national security payloads,” said SpaceX Communications Director Kirstin Brost Grantham.

    “If the new entrant has a launch vehicle with a more robust, demonstrated successful flight history, then we may require less technical evaluation for certification. But, it also depends on the risk assessment of the mission,” Air Force spokeswoman Tracy Bunko said. Which basically means that it is at the Air Forces discretion as to whether the launch vehicle (Falcon 9) is sound enough to launch national security payloads into space. If it isn’t then more testing of the technology will take place.

    All of this is great news for the taxpayers because right now there is only one company certified to launch the satellites and that is United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. In the mean time ULA will remain the sole provider of heavy and medium lift commercial launch services to the U.S. military with its Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets. But watch for SpaceX to start getting some of those contracts once its Falcon 9 Heavy is ready. Once the Falcon 9 Heavy is ready it will be the most powerful rocket currently in use in the world and the second most powerful rocket of all time behind the Saturn V rockets used to take the astronauts to the moon.

    “The one market that we have not yet been successful with is launching Defense Department satellites, although we’re hopeful that we’ll win one or two demonstration launches this year,” CEO Elon Musk said after Dragon’s return from orbit. “Hopefully the successive flights of Falcon 9 in a row will give them the confidence they need to open up the defense contract for competition.”

    picture courtesy of SpaceX

  • Mars One To Put Man Permanently On Mars In 2023

    Mars One To Put Man Permanently On Mars In 2023

    Mars One has a goal. That goal is to put 4 humans on a one way trip to Mars. Thats right, one way, as in no one is coming back home. The idea is from Holland, isn’t that weird? The company has letters of interest from companies like SpaceX who want to help put these living capsules on the surface of Mars.

    But how will they pay for it? Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp has a very modern approach to funding the project: media exposure. “We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it.” He said in a company video, adding, “Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars.”

    Here is the Mars One proposed timeline:

    – 2016 a communications satellite and a supply mission will be sent to mars.

    – 2018 a large planetary rover will be sent to the surface of Mars with the intention of plotting out a good landing site.

    – 2020 Living units, life support units, more supplies, and another rover will be delivered to the surface. The rovers will prepare the site for human arrival by extracting the inflatable section from the living unit. The life support unit will the prepare the outpost for the arrival of the humans.

    – 2022 The crew will depart in September when the settlement is fully operational and habitable. They will fly to Mars in a transit habitat with a lander attached to it.

    – 2023 The humans will arrive on Mars in April.

    Here is the accompanying video for the journey:

  • NASA New Discovery: Microscopic Plants Found in Arctic Waters

    NASA new discovery: In case you were wondering, it’s not space-oriented. No, according to the folks at Space Ref, an expedition to the Arctic Ocean has uncovered an area saturated in microscopic marine plant life, one that’s richer than any other ocean on Earth. ICESCAPE (Impacts of Climate on EcoSystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment) took a good, hard look at the waters around Alaska’s western and northern using optical technology. What they found was nothing short of astounding.

    “Part of NASA’s mission is pioneering scientific discovery, and this is like finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave Desert,” said NASA’s ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager Paula Bontempi. “We embarked on ICESCAPE to validate our satellite ocean-observing data in an area of the Earth that is very difficult to get to. We wound up making a discovery that hopefully will help researchers and resource managers better understand the Arctic.”

    After drilling a three-feet thick hole into the ice, scientists uncovered phytoplankton, which are the base of all marine life. Originally, authorities on the subject believed these plants grew only after the sun-soaked summer months had thinned the ice. However, thanks to recent shifts in climate, the phytoplankton are thought to grow in areas where they were once absent. The discovery has caused quite a stir.

    “At this point we don’t know whether these rich phytoplankton blooms have been happening in the Arctic for a long time and we just haven’t observed them before,” ICESCAPE mission leader Kevin Arrigo explained. “These blooms could become more widespread in the future, however, if the Arctic sea ice cover continues to thin.”

    The downside: Animals that rely on the plant life for food may miss their opportunity to consume the phytokplankton since these creatures have timed their life cycles around the blooming season. “If their food supply is coming earlier, they might be missing the boat,” Arrigo stated.

  • Mars Orbiting Satellite Catches Breathtaking Images

    The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on August 12, 2005 with the express mission of taking hi-resolution photos of the Martian surface. The first photos were returned on September 29 2006 of the Martian surface. The photos below are of the sun rising over Mars over several days and they are breathtaking.

    The views of crepuscular rays sprayed across an alien planet makes one wonder about Mars and what mysteries it has. Did Mars have life millions of years ago that was destroyed? Is it as desolate now as it was a billion years ago? These are questions that we are looking to answer as we edge closer and closer to landing on Mars.

    The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera took this image of the Earth and the Moon at a distance of 88 million miles away from Mars.

  • Venus Transit: One Of The Most Beautiful Things Ever

    A lucky few in the U.S. got to witness the transit of Venus yesterday, when the planet traveled across the fiery face of the sun. Unfortunately for me and a lot of my fellow Kentuckians, it was too cloudy for us to see properly. And yes, I’m still bitter about it.

    Because the transit won’t happen again until 2117, this was our last chance to witness history in the making firsthand; however, NASA, as always, had our backs. They documented the whole thing and compressed the 6-hour journey into a 3-minute video, which is one of the most breathtaking things I’ve ever seen. At first glance, some will say, “Big deal. Looks like a dot moving across a bigger dot.” But when you think about the enormity of what you’re seeing, it boggles the mind. If you aren’t completely fascinated every time you look up at the night sky, I dare say there’s something wrong with you. At the very least, you’ve maybe been jaded by the accessibility our generation has and has had to images of outer space since astronauts first began making trips on our behalf. On that note, I’m leaving you to look at this video and ponder the limitless, vast, terrifying, awesome, out-of-our-hands events the universe gets up to, all while we sit at our desks or drive our cars, oblivious to it all.

    And keep in mind that Venus is roughly the same size as Earth.

    venus transit
    Image credit: NASA

    venus transit

  • NASA And VA To Host Second Open Source Summit

    Last year, NASA, the U.S. State Department and the Veteran Affairs Innovation Initiative held an open source summit to advance the use of open source software in government. They are announcing that registration is now open for the second annual summit! The purpose of the summit is to get leaders form the public and private sectors as well as software developers to discuss development, release, and use of open source software.

    At this years conference there will be many topics being discussed including the current and future state of the government open source community, how-to insights for open source projects in government, real-world projects and their successes and challenges, and government procurement of open source software.

    As the role of open source in government expands and matures, the relationship between technology, policy and culture will be increasingly important.

    Open source brings numerous benefits to government projects that involve software. Included in this is increased software quality, reduced development costs, faster development cycles and reduced barriers to public-private collaboration through new opportunities to commercialize technology.

    The hope is that this inherently transparent, participatory, and collaborative approach will revolutionize the way software is created, improved and used. If this policy can be adopted then it has the possibility to reduce costs in government by billions over the long haul.

  • NASA Reveals Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda

    Using sophisticated math and the Hubble telescope, NASA has determined that the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies are on a collision course…..in 4 billion years. Computer simulations taken from Hubble’s data show that it will take an additional two billion years after the collision for the two galaxies to completely merge and reshape into a single elliptical galaxy.

    “In the worst-case-scenario simulation, M31 slams into the Milky Way head-on and the stars are all scattered into different orbits,” said Gurtina Besla of Columbia University in New York. “The stellar populations of both galaxies are jostled, and the Milky Way loses its flattened pancake shape with most of the stars on nearly circular orbits. The galaxies’ cores merge, and the stars settle into randomized orbits to create an elliptical-shaped galaxy.”

    Throughout all of this though, there is no real danger for our sun or solar system. It is more likely the sun will be flung into a new region of our galaxy. Maybe when this happens we can finally get an answer to the “Is there life in our Galaxy other than us?” question. But by then we will probably be gone…..

    Here is a computer simulation of the collision made by NASA:

    photo courtesy of space.com

  • Super Secretive X-37B Space Plane To Land [Infographic]

    After the shuttle program ended, spaceflight dominance for the United States looked to be in jeopardy. Then came the X-37B. This mini space shuttle looks like it could be the future of what we can look forward to in the near future for military space aircraft. The X-37B is a reusable shuttle with a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck. The shuttle which is about to come back down is also unmanned and has been orbiting the earth for over a year.

    With this new highly secretive space plane, the Air Force has a highly reusable and very sturdy aircraft to help protect the interests of the United States. The exact mission the X-37B was on is a mystery, but according to General William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command it was a success saying this: “Although I can’t talk about mission specifics, suffice it to say this mission has been a spectacular success.”

    At this time it is not exactly sure how exactly the X-37B will be used, or how often it will be used. All we do know is that it keeps America at the top of the Earth based space food chain.

    The X37-B is the latest in a fairly long line of space vehicles. Check out this informative infographic on the subject:

  • SpaceX Dragon Space Capsule To Return Home

    SpaceX Dragon Space Capsule To Return Home

    Earlier today the Dragon space capsule departed from the International Space Station and began its trip back down from the heavens. The Dragon capsule spent 5 days connected to the ISS and it was able to deliver supplies and is returning nearly 1,400 pounds of old space station equipment and some science samples, a little more than it took up. Because it is a test flight, NASA did not want to load it with anything valuable.

    Last week SpaceX became the first private company to connect to the ISS in a feat that could change spaceflight forever. This is the final testing point for the Dragon and will mean that going forward NASA can further trust SpaceX with experiments and hopefully will be putting people up there soon because the Dragon is capable of moving both cargo and people. In fact, Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder, expects to have astronauts riding his Dragons in three or four years.

    The targeted splashdown zone is 560 miles southwest of Los Angeles and it will parachute down like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft did way back in the 60’s and 70’s.

    The next Dragon supply mission will be in September and a Falcon 9 rocket is already at Cape Canaveral awaiting launch. This will be part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract through NASA. The resupply contract for the International Space Station has it making 12 runs in total. Mix that in with the news yesterday that SpaceX signed a deal to launch satellites into space, and the future looks very bright for them.

    photo courtesy of SpaceX

  • NASA Celebrates Dream Chaser With Sierra Nevada Commercial Crew

    NASA’s new Commercial Crew Program has yielded a partnership with Sierra Nevada Space Systems and Tuesday the duo tested their full-scale Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle with a “captive carry test”.

    The flight vehicle was carried beneath an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter to assess the vehicle’s aerodynamic flight properties. The test will save as a basis for future tests on the craft.

    The test was approximately an hour long and took place near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Jefferson County, Colorado. The Dream Chaser is designed to carry up to seven astronauts into space, but more importantly, it is a first step toward commercial companies working with NASA to design and deliver technology capable of taking man into space.

    NASA CCP Program Manager Ed Mango comments on the milestone:

    “This is a very positive success for the Dream Chaser team and their innovative approach,”

    “I applaud and encourage the designers and engineers to continue their efforts in meeting the objectives of the rest of their CCDev2 milestones.”

    Steve Lindsey, former NASA astronaut and head of Dream Chaser’s flight operations for SNC also comments on the success of the tests:

    “The successful captive carry flight test of the Dream Chaser full scale flight vehicle marks the beginning of SNC’s flight test program, a program that could culminate in crewed missions to the International Space Station for NASA,”

    Take a look at a spectator’s YouTube video of the captive carry test:

    (Lead Image courtesy of Sierra Nevada Corp: Artist’s rendering shows Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft docking at the International Space Station)