Cosmo.Sphere

Falcon 9 successfully launches!

jkugler — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:07:00 GMT

At 2:45 PM CDT today, SpaceX successfully launched their Falcon 9 medium-lift rocket for the first time. I watched the live feed online myself and it was gorgeous.

The Falcon 9 rocket had a clean separation between the first and second stages and successfully delivered a Dragon capsule structural test article into Low Earth Orbit.

Critics of the new direction for NASA to move towards contracting out LEO access to commercial service providers put a lot of weight on this launch, expecting it would fail spectacularly. Instead, SpaceX broke the mold with a picture-perfect first launch.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, today's success is just one step forward. SpaceX still has a lot of work to do to continue to validate their systems and begin making cargo deliveries to the International Space Station.

However, this launch now stands as an example of what American industry can accomplish through ingenuity, dedication, and hard work. My colleagues at SpaceX have universally said they are in this to help America push the boundaries of what is possible and enable NASA on its mission of exploration.

Hopefully, our leaders will have the foresight to help them do just that and not stand in their way. Congratulations to the SpaceX team. You've earned it.

Hubble 3D Imax

sclayworth — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:40:00 GMT

Last night my wife and I saw the new Hubble 3D Imax presentation at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Eric Berger, our own SciGuy, had arranged the viewing for his blog readers, and what a show it was!

I have to say this -- they know how to use a mile of film.

The 45 minute movie, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, presents us with a history of the Hubble, from its launch back in 1990. It covers the controversies about its checkered optical history, the ingenious fixes, and the suspense over whether a final mission would be mounted to make urgently needed repairs.

The launch sequences of the Shuttle, with the full bore sound and 3D you-are-there verasimilitude, are amazing -- and deeply moving.

Using Hubble pictures as a starting point, the film blends real and synthetic imagery in stunning tours of the Orion Nebula (penetrating deep into the valleys and canyons of interstellar gas and dust) and infant solar systems. It pushes into and through the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, thousands of galaxies that were born not long (relatively speaking) after the universe started its expansion over 13 billion years ago.

One of the things I took from the movie is a greater appreciation of the efforts of the thousands of people it takes to do something like this, The sheer ingenuity and hard work required to build a spaceship and carry out a mission is staggering. My hat's off to all the people who make it possible -- from the engineers to the console workers to the directors and to the astronauts. Well done!

Before I knew it, 45 minutes had flown by. And I want to see it again.

My thanks to Eric and his wife, Amanda, and to the other blog readers. It was a pleasure to meet you all, and to particpate in the discussion about space travel afterwards.

Now go see this movie!

Wolf Moon (and an exploding Earth)

sclayworth — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:45:00 GMT

Tonight's full Moon (if you can see it, which doesn't look likely) is the Wolf Moon, and it's also the biggest and brightest full moon of 2010.

The Moon's orbit is an ellipse, and perigee (the closest approach to earth) will sometimes coincide with the full phase. Tonight's Moon will be 14% wider and 30% brighter than other full Moons that occur at other points in its orbit.

Speaking of the Moon, there's a new theory that it could have been formed when the Earth underwent a natural nuclear explosion billions of years ago.

The leading contender for the origin of the Moon has been the Impact Theory, which says that a Mars-sized planet collided with the Earth after it's initial formation, and that the debris remaining coalesced into the Moon.

Now Dutch scientists Rob de Meijer and Wim van Westrenen have proposed that after the early formation of the Earth, it was spinning very rapidly while partially molten, and this created a bulge of material barely held on by gravity. Radioactive elements could have gone supercritical and exploded, blowing the mass into space and thence orbiting around earth.

More information about this here.

Whether through a collision or a huge natural nuke, the formation of the Moon would have been a spectacular sight to behold -- from a safe distance!

Star Party Preparation

sclayworth — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:41:00 GMT

Although the Texas Star Party starts in May, pre-registration is already underway. There are a limited number of slots available to attendees, and it's best to get your name in by January 16, the pre-registration cutoff.

The Texas Star Party is one of the most well-attended in the US. Held on the grounds of the Prude Ranch, near Fort Davis, you have access to some of the darkest skies in the nation.

This will be my third year to attend it, and this time I talked my wife into coming along. (Note: there are activities for the non-astronomically inclined).

Soon after January 16, the organizers will hold a drawing to parcel out accommodations. There are motel rooms, family cabins, bunkhouses (seperate ones for men and women), and RV slots. Tent camping is also permitted. Lunch and dinner are also available.

Even if you don't get your accommodation of choice, there are always cancellations, so be optimistic. There is also the option of taking hotel rooms in Fort Davis, which you would have to arrange on your own.

As a taste of what it's like, here's a video of the Milky Way rising at TSP.

If you could design the ISS website, what would it look like?

jkugler — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:33:00 GMT

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

This is what the NASA web portal for the International Space Station currently looks like. Go take a look. Check out the various links. Think about the layout, the presentation, the quality of the information, et cetera. Then, come back to this post.

Did you take some time for a really good look?

Okay, good.

I’d like to pick your brain now. First, please tell me a little bit about who you are and why you would be interested in the ISS web portal. Then, get into the nuts and bolts. Tell me what you liked about the site. Tell me what you didn’t like. Tell me both how the layout works and how it doesn’t. What is the site missing that it should have? How could it be laid out to make navigation easier and more intuitive?

In other words, what would “your” ISS web portal look like?

I’m listening… and so will the team working on the redesign.

Cross-posted at OpenNASA