Sometimes is a bit hard to have enough actualized information about one topic, and much more about the space missions and technology. That is why I want to recommend you this website:
http://www.space.com/ , where you have the last news of the most important events and missions. I have just recently found it, through a friend in my university, and I can not give you a totally precise opinion about it, but seems to be really well organized, in order to catch the most important news at first glance.
Of course, If you want to check for more detailed information of one specific mission, it is worth to visit http://www.nasa.gov/ or http://www.esa.int/ . The information there is really complete, with maybe some specifications, documents and multimedia presentations.
This mission consisted in launching a SpaceCraft (Cassini, created by NASA) and one probe attached to it (Huygens, created by ESA). The spacecraft had to fly by Saturn and one of its satellites, Titan. The Cassini-Huygens was launched in 1997, and in 2004, they reached Titan. There, the probe Huygens was launched from the Cassini to the Titans surface.
The landing system was based on a parachute, because in Titan the atmosphere is really dense, composed of mostly nitrogen, but there is also methane and many other organic compounds. In the moon for example, this landing system would not be suitable, due to the no existence of atmosphere.
There are many aspects to comment about that mission, that will be surely topics on following posts. But the most amazing one is this video:
Well, the Voice-over explains all that you must know to enjoy that video. I simply add one thing. The images of the descendant are a reconstruction, a put together of data from the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer. Those data where only about 12 Megabytes, limited by the temporal radio link with the Cassini Spacecraft. And with only that amount of data, the produced that sequence of video! (Compared with a single Picture taken with a digital camera, 900KB for example, 12 MBytes allows only 13 Pictures)
About the Cassini, it is now orbiting around Saturn. Since 2004, when the Huygens was launched, Cassini will complete in 4 years 74 orbits of the Saturn, 44 close flybys of the hazy moon Titan, and numerous flybys of Saturn's other icy moons.
One picture in true color of Saturn, simply cool! True color means that is a real picture, taken with a camera, wich has a sensibility equal to the human eye. That means that this is how you would see Saturn if you were inside the Cassini Spacecraft.
For those sceptical persons, who do not believe on the landing of Apollo XI on the Moon, I dedicate this post. Certainly the human has not been once in the moon, but many times. From Apollo XI to Apollo XVII,the NASA has sent human beings to the lunar surface ( except in Apollo XIII due to a failure of the oxygen system). That is equal to 6 times! And not only humans, also rovers with them! Maybe not so many people are aware of this fact, as I was one year ago.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/AS15-86-11603.jpg This is from Apollo XV mission. That picture is much more amazing than any other of the famous Apollo XI, but does anyone comment about them? At that moment, the Apollo missions had no interest any more for the TV and the common people, and it seems that they never were realized, or at least, they had not such a diffusion as the ApolloXI. But those astronauts were there, the seme as Neil Armstrong!
I strongly recommend you to download (with FlashGet or any Download program) all the pictures of any of the missions (Apollo XI, for instance). And then slide all the pictures... simply awesome.
Thats the first part of a really interesting documentary. It is about the Pathfinder robot that took samples in Mars. The interesting about the documentary is not the skills of the robot or the Mission description. It goes about how a small group of people designed that mission and finally accomplished a fantastic goal. Nothing would be better than having such a Job!
Have you ever thought about constructing such a big tower, so high so high, that it even reaches the space? Well, its possible. Instead of a tower, place a cable made of a special nanomaterial, called nanotubes, and you will have one.
Would it be useful? When you want to send a Spaceship to the space its neccessary to scape to the strong forces of the earth gravitation. The actual method is using expensive rockets, and needing big amounts of fuel. But using that cable we would have a different option. An elevator, attached to the cable, would lift the spaceship really far away of the Earth, where the gravitational forces are really low. There the spaceship could use its own propulsion system to easily travel through the space.
That proyect of constructing that tower is not something utopic. The technology nowadays is good enough to allow it. Even there is a Company that will do it. LiftPort is the name of the proyect, and they have a date for the first launch. 27 oct 2031. The main problem now is the financial support.
Its also amazing the way of sending energy to the lift. Take a look in the official website. More information here: http://www.liftport.com/
In my opinion, its basic having something like this, that will allow a much bigger transportation of elements to the space, with a notorious lower price. Its only a neccesary and big step in our Conquest of Space!
PD. As a friend of mine says, isnt that suspicious? Did Akira Toriyama predict something?
Contest: The group that first sends a robot to the moon and it goes over 500 m. will win 20 mill. dollars, thats all. Official Agencys,like NASA or ESA, dont participate.
Why all this? Motivate the industry and the enterprises to develope new technology. They try to make a new revolution in the way of researching and creating new technologies, making more accesible and atractive to the companys the investisment on space techonlogy. The group who wins will pay more than 20 mill. for achieving the goal, but in the researching and developing proccess will generate more invetions and new technics, that will provide also a lot of patents and money. Its a kind of WEb. 2.0 revolution, where everybody has something to say. There is a lot to say about the benefits of having our presence on the moon. That will be a topic for future posts.
Why do I comment that today? Maybe I will participate with my actual University, in Würzburg in Germany. We have made 4 groups: Orbit calculation and System Design, Landing,Robot, Management. Maybe the most complicated part, in order to find partner companys or any kind of external investments.
The leader is Prof.Schilling, who has participated in many spatial missions for the ESA, like the Huygens probe. If he is participating, and creating that group, he maybe is sure about his skills and possibilities. I will provide more information about our development in the future. At the moment we have made only the groups.
In the year 1977, the space probe Voyager I and II were sent to the "space". Since then, both probes are travelling through the solar system, being almost in the limits right now. What is interesting is the fact that each Voyager has inside an Album, called "Sound of Earth". The album is made of Gold and has different kinds of songs and human sounds, that should represent the whole humanity. It is amazing that a NASA proyect, with mainly scientifical purpouses, also takes into account that kind of issues, about a possible Alien's Rendevouz. Carl Sagan was involved in the creation of that album. Sincerely, this topic about creating such an album with all the relevant information of the humanity is one of the most fascinating tasks that it has been ever done.
Another fascinating fact is that Voyager I is the most distant artifact, created by the humanity. They are still transmitting information, after 30 years... awesome. The picture shows the images that the Voyager I captured nearby Jupiter in the 80's (click on the image, is an animated GIF). Now Voyager I is almost out of the solar system, without no influence of the solar radiaton. But it carries an own battery, with radioactiv energy and will run out in 2020. After that, goodbye Voyager I! no more contact with it.
I strongly recommend you to read all the information related to Voyager probes in the Wikipedia. I took the information from there and does not make sense to copy everything here.
And please, do not forget to comment everything related to the Voyagers or the "Sound of Earth" album. I am really impressed about that mission.
First of all, i took the decision of writing here in English. I know that my style and my English in general is pretty bad, but in somehow i will improve it in that way.
New blog, new hopes ... The aim of this blog is to inform my friends about special matters, mainly about the Spatial Topics. Maybe at the end i use the blog with a different porpouse, but first, lets see if I still write something here after one month. I hope that I continue writing then.
Another issue, i will try not to speak about me, ill try to inform about relevant and interesting topics!
