Space station

Space station astronauts Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide are working on one of today's major spacewalk tasks, replacing a Main Bus Switching Unit, one of four such units that route power to parts of the space station.

Photo: Space station astronauts Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide are working on one of today's major spacewalk tasks, replacing a Main Bus Switching Unit, one of four such units that route power to parts of the space station.

Reducing salt in your food can cut cancer risk

Cutting down on salty foods such as bread and breakfast cereals may reduce the risk of developing stomach cancer, a study has found.
Eating too much salt is not all about sprinkling it over fish and chips or Sunday lunch, the vast majority is already inside food.

WCRF, a UK charity that gives advice on how cancer can be prevented through diet, physical activity and weight, said that people should take less salt and the content of food should be labelled more clearly.
Too much salt is bad for blood pressure and can lead to heart disease and stroke, but it can also cause cancer, the 'BBC New' reported.
The recommended daily limit is 6 g, about a level teaspoonful, but the World Cancer Research Fund said people were eating 8.6 g a day.
Some food labels list the sodium content instead of the amount of salt sodium is a component of salt.
To work out how much salt a food contains, multiply the sodium content by 2.5.
"Stomach cancer is difficult to treat successfully because most cases are not caught until the disease is well established," Kate Mendoza, head of health information at WCRF, was quoted by the BBC News as saying.
"This places even greater emphasis on making lifestyle choices to prevent the disease occurring in the first place such as cutting down on salt intake and eating more fruit and vegetables." Mendoza said.
The WCRF has called for a "traffic-light" system for food labeling red for high, amber for medium and green for low.

NASA's WISE Survey Uncovers Millions of Black Holes

 

With its all-sky infrared survey, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has identified millions of quasar candidates. 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies.
Images from the telescope have revealed millions of dusty black hole candidates across the universe and about 1,000 even dustier objects thought to be among the brightest galaxies ever found. These powerful galaxies, which burn brightly with infrared light, are nicknamed hot DOGs.
"WISE has exposed a menagerie of hidden objects," said Hashima Hasan, WISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We've found an asteroid dancing ahead of Earth in its orbit, the coldest star-like orbs known and now, supermassive black holes and galaxies hiding behind cloaks of dust."
WISE scanned the whole sky twice in infrared light, completing its survey in early 2011. Like night-vision goggles probing the dark, the telescope captured millions of images of the sky. All the data from the mission have been released publicly, allowing astronomers to dig in and make new discoveries.
The latest findings are helping astronomers better understand how galaxies and the behemoth black holes at their centers grow and evolve together. For example, the giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, has 4 million times the mass of our sun and has gone through periodic feeding frenzies where material falls towards the black hole, heats up and irradiates its surroundings. Bigger central black holes, up to a billion times the mass of our sun, may even shut down star formation in galaxies.
In one study, astronomers used WISE to identify about 2.5 million actively feeding supermassive black holes across the full sky, stretching back to distances more than 10 billion light-years away. About two-thirds of these objects never had been detected before because dust blocks their visible light. WISE easily sees these monsters because their powerful, accreting black holes warm the dust, causing it to glow in infrared light.
"We've got the black holes cornered," said Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead author of the WISE black hole study and project scientist for another NASA black-hole mission, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). "WISE is finding them across the full sky, while NuSTAR is giving us an entirely new look at their high-energy X-ray light and learning what makes them tick."
In two other WISE papers, researchers report finding what are among the brightest galaxies known, one of the main goals of the mission. So far, they have identified about 1,000 candidates.
These extreme objects can pour out more than 100 trillion times as much light as our sun. They are so dusty, however, that they appear only in the longest wavelengths of infrared light captured by WISE. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope followed up on the discoveries in more detail and helped show that, in addition to hosting supermassive black holes feverishly snacking on gas and dust, these DOGs are busy churning out new stars.
"These dusty, cataclysmically forming galaxies are so rare WISE had to scan the entire sky to find them," said Peter Eisenhardt, lead author of the paper on the first of these bright, dusty galaxies, and project scientist for WISE at JPL. "We are also seeing evidence that these record setters may have formed their black holes before the bulk of their stars. The 'eggs' may have come before the 'chickens.'"
More than 100 of these objects, located about 10 billion light-years away, have been confirmed using the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, as well as the Gemini Observatory in Chile, Palomar's 200-inch Hale telescope near San Diego, and the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory near Tucson, Ariz.
The WISE observations, combined with data at even longer infrared wavelengths from Caltech's Submillimeter Observatory atop Mauna Kea, revealed that these extreme galaxies are more than twice as hot as other infrared-bright galaxies. One theory is their dust is being heated by an extremely powerful burst of activity from the supermassive black hole.
"We may be seeing a new, rare phase in the evolution of galaxies," said Jingwen Wu of JPL, lead author of the study on the submillimeter observations. All three papers are being published in the Astrophysical Journal.

RBSP Launches Successfully

The Atlas V carrying the twin RBSP satellite launched successfully at 4:05am EDT. Credit: NASA

NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes are on their way into orbit following their successful liftoff aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The vehicle lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex-41 at 4:05 a.m. EDT following a remarkably smooth overnight countdown that saw good weather and no technical problems.

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RBSP on Pad - Launch Weather 70 Percent "Go"

08.29.12

The Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes arrives at Space Launch Complex 41 once again. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

At Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex-41, loading of the RP-1 fuel aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage was finished last night. Though it was completed late, at 9:30 p.m. EDT, due to weather conditions, launch preparations are on schedule this morning. The launch of NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) has been confirmed on the Eastern Range for 4:05 a.m. Thursday. NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center is responsible for launch management.

NASA Television coverage of RBSP launch will begin at 1:30 a.m.

The terminal countdown to load the cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the rocket will begin at 1:35 a.m. The launch weather forecast has improved with a 30 percent chance of not meeting the launch weather criteria on Thursday morning due to cloud conditions.

RBSP L-1 Day Launch Weather Forecast

Launch Day: The Probability of Violating Launch Weather Constraints: 30%
Primary Concern: Cumulus Cloud, Thick Cloud

Hurricane Isaac is near the Louisiana coast and will slowly track Northwest and North over the next several days. Although some drying is expected today, afternoon and evening thunderstorms are expected. Over the next 24 hours, a trough pushes into South Georgia and North Florida and becomes stationary. For launch, the stalled trough to the North causes concerns for isolated showers and thick clouds during the count and window. Our primary concerns for launch Thursday morning are cumulus clouds and thick cloud. Friday, the trough washes out and easterly flow sets in causing concern for morning coastal showers. The primary concerns for launch Friday are cumulus clouds and thick cloud.

RBSP will explore changes in Earth's space environment caused by the sun -- known as space weather -- that can disable satellites, create power-grid failures and disrupt GPS service. The mission also will provide data on the fundamental radiation and particle acceleration processes throughout the universe.

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Atlas V, RBSP to Return to Launch Pad Today

08.28.12

On August 22, workers helped guide the United Launch Alliance with the Radiation Belt Storm Probes spacecraft aboard as it moved to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Activity at Space Launch Complex-41 is on schedule for the rollout of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes. First motion today is planned for 2 p.m. EDT. Once at the pad, preparations will begin for the loading of storable propellant aboard the Atlas booster. The first-stage fuel is RP-1, a highly refined kerosene. Liquid oxygen is planned to start flowing into the Atlas V when the terminal countdown begins at 1:35 a.m. on Thursday.

Liftoff is targeted for 4:05 a.m. at the start of a 20-minute window. At this time, there is a 60 percent chance favorable weather criteria at launch time, with clouds the primary concern.

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RBSP Launch Postponed Until Aug. 30

08.25.12

Screen capture from NASA TV of the Atlas V carrying RBSP on the launch pad at the time of the announcement that the launch would be scrubbed. Credit: NASA TV

The launch of an Atlas V carrying NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) payload was scrubbed today due to weather conditions associated with lightning, as well as cumulus and anvil clouds. With the unfavorable weather forecast as a result of Tropical Storm Isaac, the leadership team has decided to roll the Atlas V vehicle back to the Vertical Integration Facility to ensure the launch vehicle and twin RBSP spacecraft are secured and protected from inclement weather. Pending approval from the range, the launch is rescheduled to Thursday, Aug. 30 at 4:05 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

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Weather Scrubs RBSP Launch - Next Attempt Aug. 26

08.25.12

Unfavorable weather conditions in and around Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida prompted launch managers to halt today's attempted launch of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes.

The next launch attempt currently is scheduled for Sunday at 4:07 a.m. EDT. Launch managers will meet today at 6 a.m. to assess future launch opportunities and evaluate all of the factors, including the status of the rocket and spacecraft, and the weather. An update will be provided at the conclusion of the meeting..

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RBSP Launch Rescheduled for Aug. 25

08.24.12

Launch managers at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida have scrubbed the planned liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V carrying NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes due to an issue with Eastern Range beacon indications. The next launch attempt is scheduled for tomorrow, Aug. 25, at 4:07 a.m. EDT. Like today, the launch window will extend for 20 minutes.

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RBSP Launch Delay, Now Set for Friday, Aug. 24

The launch of an Atlas V carrying NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes satellite is being delayed 24 hours. An anomalous engine condition was identified during testing of another Atlas vehicle at the Factory in Decatur, Ala., and the delay will allow additional time for engineers to complete their assessments and verify that a similar condition does not exist on the RBSP launch vehicle engine.

The launch is rescheduled for Friday, Aug. 24 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The opening of the launch window is 4:07 a.m. EDT. The forecast for Aug. 24 shows a 60 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch.

Vitamin E may help cut liver cancer risk

High consumption of vitamin E either from diet or vitamin supplements may lower the risk of liver cancer, a new study has revealed.
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin, which is considered an antioxidant, and numerous experimental studies have suggested that vitamin E may prevent DNA damage.
Liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer mortality in the world, the fifth most common cancer found in men and the seventh most common in women.
Approximately 85 percent of liver cancers occur in developing nations, with 54 percent in China alone.
To determine the relationship between vitamin E intake and liver cancer risk, Wei Zhang, M.D., MPH., Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed data from a total of 132,837 individuals in China who were enrolled in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study (SWHS) from 1997-2000 or the Shanghai Men’s Health Study (SMHS) from 2002-2006, two population-based cohort studies jointly conducted by the Shanghai Cancer Institute and Vanderbilt University.
Using validated food-frequency questionnaires, the researchers conducted in-person interviews to gather data on study participants’ dietary habits.
Participants were asked how often they ate some of the most commonly consumed foods in urban Shanghai and whether they took vitamin supplements.
The investigators then compared liver cancer risk among participants who had high intake of vitamin E with those who had low intake.
The analysis included 267 liver cancer patients (118 women and 149 men) who were diagnosed between two years after study enrolment and an average of 10.9 (SWHS) or 5.5 (SMHS) years of follow-up.
Vitamin E intake from diet and vitamin E supplement use were both associated with a lower risk of liver cancer. This association was consistent among participants with and without self-reported liver disease or a family history of liver cancer.
“We found a clear, inverse dose-response relation between vitamin E intake and liver cancer risk,” the authors write, noting a small difference between men and women in the risk estimate, which is likely attributable to fewer liver cancer cases having occurred among male participants due to the shorter follow-up period.
“Overall, the take home message is that high intake of vitamin E either from diet or supplements was related to lower risk of liver cancer in middle-aged or older people from China,” Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, said.
Conversely, participants who had the highest vitamin C intake from supplements and who had a family history of liver cancer or self-reported liver disease were more likely to develop liver cancer. There was no link to liver cancer among participants who had the highest levels of vitamin C or other vitamins from food.
The study was recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Now, a smartphone case that helps reduce cancer risk

  

 

A new smartphone case, made up of same material as NASA spacecraft, claims to reduce cellphone radiation and cancer risks as it cuts the exposure by up to 95 per cent.
Although it still remains unclear as to exactly how bad the problem of cellphone radiation is, the WHO has already reclassified it as "potentially carcinogenic for humans."
The manufacturer claims to resolve the problems associated with mobile devices of emitting microwave energy as majority of it is absorbed by the heads and bodies of phone users while making calls.
The accessory, which is available for a range of different smartphones, claims to redirect radiation away from the user and reduce exposure by up to 95 per cent.
According to the company's Chief Technology Officer, Ryan McCaughey, their invention doesn't make mere empty promises to ward off those deadly radiations, and the case has been rigorously tested to check its effectiveness.
"The scale we base our research is the industry standard of SAR, or specific absorption rate. All cell phones are measured to this standard, and what we do is compare the effect of a cellphone on SAR with and without the Pong case," McCaughey was quoted by news.com.au as saying.
"Our lab tests, including independent lab tests, which we feel are a very important validation, show that we reduce SAR by up to 95 per cent below current safety limits," he said.
But even McCaughey admitted that the smartphone case by Pong isn't a complete solution, because not enough known is yet known about how safe even small levels of radiation are.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity sends first recorded human voice

In yet another landmark achievement, NASA's Curiosity rover has sent back the first recorded human voice that traveled from Earth to another planet and back.
In spoken words radioed to the rover on Mars and back to NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth, the space agency Administrator Charles Bolden, according to a press statement, noted the difficulty of landing a rover on Mars, congratulated
NASA employees and the agency's commercial and government partners on the successful landing of Curiosity earlier this month, and said curiosity is what drives humans to explore.
"The knowledge we hope to gain from our observation and analysis of Gale Crater will tell us much about the possibility of life on Mars as well as the past and future possibilities for our own planet. Curiosity will bring benefits to Earth and inspire a new generation of scientists and explorers, as it prepares the way for a human mission in the not too distant future," Bolden said in the recorded message, released by NASA Monday.
"Since the beginning of time, humankind's curiosity has led us to constantly seek new life, new possibilities just beyond the horizon," he said.
Terming the development as another "small step" marking human presence beyond Earth, NASA Curiosity program executive Dave Lavery said it will bring the experience of exploring remote worlds a "little closer" to everyone.
"As Curiosity continues its mission, we hope these words will be an inspiration to someone alive today who will become the first to stand upon the surface of Mars. And like the great Neil Armstrong, they will speak aloud of that next giant leap in human exploration," Lavery said.
The telephoto images, taken from the 100-millimetre telephoto lens and the 34-milllimetre wide angle lens of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument, beamed back to Earth show a scene of eroded knobs and gulches on a mountainside, with geological layering clearly exposed.
Mastcam has photographed the lower slope of the nearby mountain called Mount Sharp.
"This is an area on Mount Sharp where Curiosity will go," said Mastcam principal investigator Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
"Those layers are our ultimate objective. The dark dune field is between us and those layers. In front of the dark sand you see redder sand, with a different composition
suggested by its different colour. The rocks in the foreground show diversity some rounded, some angular, with different histories. This is a very rich geological site to look at and eventually to drive through," Malin said.
NASA officials said a drive early yesterday placed Curiosity directly over a patch where one of the spacecraft's landing engines scoured away a few inches of gravelly soil and exposed underlying rock.
Researchers plan to use a neutron-shooting instrument on the rover to check for water molecules bound into minerals at this partially excavated target, they said.
Curiosity, which is three weeks into a two-year prime mission on Mars, will use 10 science instruments to assess whether the selected study area ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life, NASA officials said.

NASA's Kepler Discovers Multiple Planets Orbiting a Pair of Stars

 

 
Sharing the Light of Two Suns: This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-47, the first transiting circumbinary system.

 
Orbiting in the Habitable Zone of Two Suns: This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-47, a double-star system containing two planets, one orbiting in the so-called "habitable zone."
 
The planets Kepler-47b and Kepler-47c: Kepler-47b has three times the radius of earth and orbits the pair of stars in less than 50 days while Kepler-47c is thought to be a gaseous giant, slightly larger than Neptune with an orbital period of 303 days.

Coming less than a year after the announcement of the first circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, NASA's Kepler mission has discovered multiple transiting planets orbiting two suns for the first time. This system, known as a circumbinary planetary system, is 4,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

This discovery proves that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star and demonstrates the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.

Astronomers detected two planets in the Kepler-47 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other every 7.5 days from our vantage point on Earth. One star is similar to the sun in size, but only 84 percent as bright. The second star is diminutive, measuring only one-third the size of the sun and less than 1 percent as bright.

"In contrast to a single planet orbiting a single star, the planet in a circumbinary system must transit a 'moving target.' As a consequence, time intervals between the transits and their durations can vary substantially, sometimes short, other times long," said Jerome Orosz, associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University and lead author of the paper. "The intervals were the telltale sign these planets are in circumbinary orbits."

The inner planet, Kepler-47b, orbits the pair of stars in less than 50 days. While it cannot be directly viewed, it is thought to be a sweltering world, where the destruction of methane in its super-heated atmosphere might lead to a thick haze that could blanket the planet. At three times the radius of Earth, Kepler-47b is the smallest known transiting circumbinary planet.

The outer planet, Kepler-47c, orbits its host pair every 303 days, placing it in the so-called "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. While not a world hospitable for life, Kepler-47c is thought to be a gaseous giant slightly larger than Neptune, where an atmosphere of thick bright water-vapor clouds might exist.

"Unlike our sun, many stars are part of multiple-star systems where two or more stars orbit one another. The question always has been -- do they have planets and planetary systems? This Kepler discovery proves that they do," said William Borucki, Kepler mission principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "In our search for habitable planets, we have found more opportunities for life to exist."

To search for transiting planets, the research team used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars. Additional ground-based spectroscopic observations using telescopes at the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin helped characterize the stellar properties. The findings are published in the journal Science.

"The presence of a full-fledged circumbinary planetary system orbiting Kepler-47 is an amazing discovery," said Greg Laughlin, professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the University of California in Santa Cruz. "These planets are very difficult to form using the currently accepted paradigm, and I believe that theorists, myself included, will be going back to the drawing board to try to improve our understanding of how planets are assembled in dusty circumbinary disks."

Ames manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's tenth Discovery Mission and funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

Sugar found in space around a Sun-like star

A team of astronomers have spotted sugar molecules in the gas surrounding a young Sun-like star.
Researchers led by Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found sugar in space around such a star for the first time.
The astronomers found molecules of glycolaldehyde – a simple form of sugar in the gas surrounding a young binary star, with similar mass to the Sun, called IRAS 16293-2422.
IRAS 16293-2422 is located around 400 light-years away, comparatively close to Earth.
"In the disc of gas and dust surrounding this newly formed star, we found glycolaldehyde, which is a simple form of sugar, not much different to the sugar we put in coffee," Jes Jorgensen , the lead author of the paper, said.
"This molecule is one of the ingredients in the formation of RNA, which - like DNA, to which it is related - is one of the building blocks of life," Jorgensen said in a statement.
Glycolaldehyde has been seen in interstellar space before, but this is the first time it has been found so near to a Sun-like star, at distances comparable to the distance of Uranus from the Sun in the Solar System.
This discovery shows that some of the chemical compounds needed for life existed in this system at the time of planet formation.
"What it is really exciting about our findings is that the ALMA observations reveal that the sugar molecules are falling in towards one of the stars of the system," team member Cecile Favre from Aarhus University in Denmark, said.
"The sugar molecules are not only in the right place to find their way onto a planet, but they are also going in the right direction," Favre said.
The study will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

NASA CURIOSITY  :

Rover Leaves Tracks in Morse Code

 

This image shows a close-up of track marks from the first test drive of NASA's Curiosity rover. 

The straight lines in Curiosity's zigzag track marks are Morse code for JPL, which is short for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover was built and the mission is managed. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech




NASA's Curiosity rover took its first test stroll Wednesday Aug. 22, 2012, and beamed back pictures of its accomplishment in the form of track marks in the Martian soil. Careful inspection of the tracks reveals a unique, repeating pattern, which the rover can use as a visual reference to drive more accurately in barren terrain. The pattern is Morse code for JPL, the abbreviation for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover was designed and built, and the mission is managed.
"The purpose of the pattern is to create features in the terrain that can be used to visually measure the precise distance between drives," said Matt Heverly, the lead rover driver for Curiosity at JPL.
This driving tool, called visual odometry, allows the rover to use images of landscape features to determine if it has traveled as far as predicted, or if its wheels have slipped. For example, when the rover drives on high slopes or across loose soil, it will routinely stop to check its progress. By measuring its distance relative to dozens of prominent features like pebbles or shadows on rocks -- or patterns in its tracks -- the rover can check how much its wheels may have slipped. If Curiosity has not slipped too much, it can then re-plan the next leg of its drive, taking its actual position into account.
"Visual odometry will enable Curiosity to drive more accurately even in high-slip terrains, aiding its science mission by reaching interesting targets in fewer sols, running slip checks to stop before getting too stuck, and enabling precise driving," said rover driver Mark Maimone, who led the development of the rover's autonomous driving software.
The Morse code imprinted on all six wheels will be particularly handy when the terrain is barren. Curiosity won't be able to read the Morse code symbols in the track marks directly, but it will note that the pattern is a high-contrast feature. This will give the rover the anchor it needs in an otherwise featureless terrain.
"Imagine standing in front of a picket fence, and then closing your eyes and shifting to the side. When you open your eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell how many pickets you passed. If you had one picket that was a different shape though, you could always use that picket as your reference," said Heverly. "With Curiosity, it's a similar problem in featureless terrain like sand dunes. The hole pattern in the wheels gives us one 'big picket' to look at."
NASA's Mars Exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity also used visual odometry to ensure accurate driving in difficult terrains. Their wheels had been bolted to their landing platform, leaving holes that left distinguishing marks in their tracks. Those marks proved critical for the visual odometry system on Opportunity when it traversed the relatively featureless terrain at Meridian Planum. Opportunity is still trekking on Mars more than eight years after setting down on the Red Planet.
Curiosity likewise has holes in its wheels, only in the shape of Morse code letters.
"Even though Curiosity didn't need to be bolted down, we wanted to have the holes anyway. The mechanical team suggested multiple smaller holes rather than one large one like the Mars Exploration Rovers had, and one earlier design had spelled out letters in a cleat pattern, so I proposed using a Morse code version," said Maimone. "And the rest is history."

India aims to crack methane mystery with Mars mission

India proposed mission to Mars in November next year will attempt to crack the "methane mystery", a veteran space scientist has hinted.
Speaking to PTI here, former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, Prof U R Rao noted that when the country undertook the Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, "we didn't know we are going to detect water (on the moon)."
"First time it has happened (detecting water on the moon) in spite of the fact that we were a late entrant (on exploring moon)," said Rao, a globally respected figure in the field of space.
Rao, Chairman of the selection committee which finalised experiments to be conducted vis-à-vis the Mars orbiter mission, said: "We have selected very good experiments. One of the experiments is essentially to look for methane, where the methane comes from (what could be producing methane gas detected in the Martian atmosphere)."
He said there are many open questions vis-à-vis the Red planet. Right now, there is life only on earth. "Venus is so near to earth, yet it's so inhospitable. Mars is so near to the earth, yet it has very, very thin atmosphere, very little of oxygen. Mars has some magnetic materials all over but it does not have a magnetic field, why? There is very little known of Mars," Rao observed.
Rao said Mars has a great amount of relevance because
in about "500 years or lesser, we might be able to use Mars as a resource for earth."
"We are running out of resources in the world," he said. "There are many people who believe Mars can be made hospitable and of course it requires a lot of efforts."
ISRO aims to do quite a good number of scientific experiments with its Mars mission.
"Some experiments have been selected and some are on the waiting list. The weight capability is not high. Total weight of the experiments selected can't be more than 15 kg," he added.
According to ISRO officials, the cost of the proposed unmanned Mars orbiter mission is Rs 450 crore. The orbiter is planned to be launched using India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

Nasa rover Curiosity moves closer to mission’s ultimate driving destination

On Tuesday, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity drove eastward about 52 feet (16 meters), beginning its journey towards a science destination about a quarter-mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill.
This third drive was longer than Curiosity’s first two drives combined. The previous drives tested the mobility system and positioned the rover to examine an area scoured by exhaust from one of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft engines that placed the rover on the ground.
“This drive really begins our journey toward the first major driving destination, Glenelg, and it’s nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels,” said mission manager Arthur Amador of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
“The drive went beautifully, just as our rover planners designed it,” he stated.
Glenelg is a location where three types of terrain intersect.
Curiosity’s science team chose it as a likely place to find a first rock target for drilling and analysis.
“We are on our way, though Glenelg is still many weeks away. We plan to stop for just a day at the location we just reached, but in the next week or so we will make a longer stop,” said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena.
During the longer stop at a site still to be determined, Curiosity will test its robotic arm and the contact instruments at the end of the arm.
At the location reached Tuesday, Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) will collect a set of images toward the mission’s ultimate driving destination, the lower slope of nearby Mount Sharp.
A mosaic of images from the current location will be used along with the Mastcam images of the mountain taken at the spot where Curiosity touched down, Bradbury Landing. This stereo pair taken about 33 feet (10 meters) apart will provide three-dimensional information about distant features and possible driving routes.
Curiosity is three weeks into a two-year prime mission on Mars. It will use 10 science instruments to assess whether the selected study area ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTION

ANSWER THIS QUESTION TO SHOW YOUR ABILITY

FROM GENERAL SCIENCE

1.	Brass gets discoloured in air because of the presence of which of the following gases in air?
	A. Oxygen B. Hydrogen sulphide C. Carbon dioxide D. Nitrogen

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2.	Which of the following is a non metal that remains liquid at room temperature?
	A. Phosphorous B. Bromine C. Chlorine D. Helium

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3.	Chlorophyll is a naturally occurring chelate compound in which central metal is
	A. copper B. magnesium C. iron D. calcium

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4.	Which of the following is used in pencils?
	A. Graphite B. Silicon C. Charcoal D. Phosphorous

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5.	Which of the following metals forms an amalgam with other metals?
	A. Tin B. Mercury C. Lead D. Zinc

Brain breakthrough that could help Stephen Hawking speak again

Paralysis sufferers could soon learn to talk again after scientists discovered how the brain allows humans to pronounce vowels, a new study has claimed.
Scientists are investigating the use of brain waves to create a new form of communication which could return the power of speech to paralysis sufferers like Physicist Stepehen hawking.
Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease at 21, Hawking, now 70, relies on a computerised device to speak.
The new research could pave way for prosthetic devices in the brain returning the power of speech to those paralysed by injury or disease.
Researchers followed 11 epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains to pinpoint the origin of their seizures, with neuron activity as they uttered one of five vowels or syllables containing the vowels recorded.
They found two areas, the superior temporal gyrus and a region in the medial frontal lobe, that housed neurons related to speech and attuned to vowels.
Neurons in the superior temporal gyrus, responsible for processing sounds responded to all the vowels, whereas those that fired exclusively for only one or two vowels were found in the medial frontal region involved in memory.
The unravelling of vowels in the superior temporal gyrus reflected the anatomy that made speech possible, specifically the tongue's position inside the mouth, the Nature
Communications study says.
"We know that brain cells fire in a predictable way before we move our bodies." Dr Itzhak Fried, of the University of California Los Angeles, said.
"We hypothesised that neurons would also react differently when we pronounce specific sounds. If so, we may one day be able to decode these unique patterns of activity in the brain and translate them into speech," Fried said.
"Once we understand the neuronal code underlying speech, we can work backwards from brain-cell activity to decipher speech. This suggests an exciting possibility for people who are physically unable to speak," said Fried. 

Glory Drain Hole

it is called "Glory Drain Hole" Glory holes are used for dam's to drain excess water during dry seasons. This is the largest one of them all in the world, it is located in Lake Berryessa.

It is used very rarely, but it is quite the sight to see it being put to use. Located in Napa County, California, USA this glory hole was constructed between 1953 and 1957. The hole diameter is 72ft (22m) wide whilst the critical drop is 280ft (86m).

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NASA CURIOSITY TOUCHED GROUND

New NASA Missions to Investigate How Mars Turned Hostile

 

This artist's concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars. 

This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life.


This oblique, southward-looking view of Gale crater shows the landing site and the mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate. The landing site is in the smooth area in front of the mound (marked by a yellow ellipse, which is 12.4 miles [20 kilometers] by 15.5 miles [25 kilometers]). Credit: NASA
 Maybe because it appears as a speck of blood in the sky, the planet Mars was named after the Roman god of war. From the point of view of life as we know it, that's appropriate. The Martian surface is incredibly hostile for life. The Red Planet's thin atmosphere does little to shield the ground against radiation from the Sun and space. Harsh chemicals, like hydrogen peroxide, permeate the soil. Liquid water, a necessity for life, can't exist for very long here—any that does not quickly evaporate in the diffuse air will soon freeze out in subzero temperatures common over much of the planet.

It wasn't always this way. There are signs that in the distant past, billions of years ago, Mars was a much more inviting place. Martian terrain is carved with channels that resemble dry riverbeds. Spacecraft sent to orbit Mars have identified patches of minerals that form only in the presence of liquid water. It appears that in its youth, Mars was a place that could have harbored life, with a thicker atmosphere warm enough for rain that formed lakes or even seas.

Two new NASA missions, one that will roam the surface and another that will orbit the planet and dip briefly into its upper atmosphere, will try to discover what transformed Mars. "The ultimate driver for these missions is the question, did Mars ever have life?" says Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Did microbial life ever originate on Mars, and what happened to it as the planet changed? Did it just go extinct, or did it go underground, where it would be protected from space radiation and temperatures might be warm enough for liquid water?"

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission features Curiosity, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to the Red Planet. The Curiosity rover bristles with multiple cameras and instruments, including Goddard's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite. By looking for evidence of water, carbon, and other important building blocks of life in the Martian soil and atmosphere, SAM will help discover whether Mars ever had the potential to support life. Scheduled to launch in late November or December 2011, Curiosity will be delivered to Gale crater, a 96-mile-wide crater that contains a record of environmental changes in its sedimentary rock, in August 2012.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, scheduled to launch in late 2013, will orbit Mars and is devoted to understanding the Red Planet's upper atmosphere. It will help determine what caused the Martian atmosphere—and water— to be lost to space, making the climate increasingly inhospitable for life.

"Both MAVEN and Curiosity/SAM will determine the history of the Martian climate and atmosphere using multiple approaches," said MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "Measurements of isotope ratios are an approach shared by both missions."

Isotopes are heavier versions of an element. For example, deuterium is a heavy version of hydrogen. Normally, two atoms of hydrogen join to an oxygen atom to make a water molecule, but sometimes the heavy (and rare) deuterium takes a hydrogen atom's place.

When water gets lofted into Mars' upper atmosphere, solar radiation can break it apart into hydrogen (or deuterium) and oxygen. Hydrogen escapes faster because it is lighter than deuterium. Since the lighter version escapes more often, over time, the Martian atmosphere has less and less hydrogen compared to the amount of deuterium remaining. The Martian atmosphere therefore becomes richer and richer in deuterium.

The MAVEN team will measure the amount of deuterium compared to the amount of hydrogen in Mars' upper atmosphere, which is the planet's present-day deuterium to hydrogen (D/H) ratio. They will compare it to the ratio Mars had when it was young—the early D/H ratio. (The early ratio can be measured from the D/H ratio in ancient Martian minerals and estimated from observations of the D/H ratio in comets and asteroids, which are believed to be pristine, "fossil" remnants of our solar system's formation.)

Comparing the present and early D/H ratios will allow the team to calculate how much hydrogen (and, therefore, water) has been lost over Mars' lifetime. MAVEN will also determine how much Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the isotope ratios of other elements in the very high atmosphere, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and noble gases like argon.

MAVEN is expected to reach Mars in 2014. By then, SAM on board the Curiosity rover will have made similar measurements from Gale crater, which will help guide the interpretation of MAVEN's upper atmosphere measurements.

Measuring isotopes in the atmosphere will reveal its present state. To find out what the Martian atmosphere was like in the past, scientists will use what they discover with MAVEN about the various ways the atmosphere is being removed. With that data, they will build computer simulations, or models, to estimate the condition of the Red Planet's atmosphere billions of years ago.

Scientists estimate Gale crater may have formed more than three billion years ago. Curiosity will grind up Gale crater minerals and deliver them to SAM so the isotope ratios can be measured, giving a glimpse at the Martian atmosphere from long ago, perhaps when it could have supported life. "SAM's inputs from the surface of past Martian history will help the MAVEN team work backwards to discover how the Martian atmosphere evolved," said Joseph Grebowsky of NASA Goddard, MAVEN Project Scientist.

"For example, MAVEN will focus primarily on how solar activity erodes the Martian atmosphere," adds Mahaffy. Things like the solar wind, a tenuous stream of electrically conducting gas blown from the surface of the Sun, and explosions in the Sun's atmosphere called solar flares, and eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections can all strip away the upper atmosphere of Mars in various ways. "If we figure out how much atmosphere is removed by changes in solar activity, we can extrapolate back to estimate what the isotope ratios should have been billions of years ago. However, if the measurements of the ancient ratios from SAM don't match up, this suggests that we may have to look at other ways the atmosphere could have been lost, such as giant impacts from asteroids," says Mahaffy, who is Principal Investigator for SAM and Instrument Lead for the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer instrument on MAVEN. Some scientists believe giant impacts could have blasted significant amounts of the Martian atmosphere into space.

Also, Curiosity will carry a weather station, which will help the MAVEN team understand how changes in the upper atmosphere are related to changes at the surface. "For example, if the rover detects a dust storm, it may have an effect higher up because of the winds and the gravity waves (the bobbing up and down of a parcel of air) it sets up," says Grebowsky.

"Curiosity will focus on geology and minerals to determine if the environment on Mars in the distant past had the potential to support life," said Mahaffy. "It will be digging in the dirt trying to understand the habitability issue in a place where water may have flowed, where there could have been a lake. Habitability is also the basic theme of MAVEN—it will be trying to understand from the top down how the atmosphere evolved over time and how it was lost, which ties back to how clement it was early on."

MAVEN is part of NASA's Mars Scout program, funded by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The project is led out of the University of Colorado and managed by NASA Goddard. The Mars Science Laboratory is managed for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C., by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena

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Planetary Scientists Use Hubble to Spot Oxygen-Rich Soil on Moon

The Moon's surface is covered with oxygen-rich soils, Hubble Space Telescope images show. Planetary scientists believe the oxygen could be tapped to power rockets and be a source of oxygen to breathe for future astronauts.

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ORLANDO, Fla.--The moon's surface hasn't been stepped on since the Apollo missions in the 1970's. Now, for the first time in more than 30 years, NASA is going back to the moon.
When the last astronaut took the final step on the moon, many people thought we'd never visit it again. Jim Garvin, a planetary scientist at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., says, "We went. We came. We saw. We conquered ... And we left."
Now, planetary scientists are going back, but this time through the eyes of the Hubble telescope. Brand new images show a side of our moon we've never seen.
"This is the first time we've looked at the moon with Hubble's spectacular vision to understand things about the moon that today we haven't fully understood. This is why exploration's so exciting," Garvin says.
The amazing pictures were captured using ultra-violet light reflected off the moon's surface. They reveal signs of oxygen-rich soils that scientists believe can be used to power rockets and be a source of oxygen to breathe for future life on the moon.
Garvin says, "So, finding resources, learning where they are, and how much there are, and learning then how to use them for people and utilization of human beings on the moon -- women and men -- is really our long-term goal."
A goal that may seem like light years away -- but thanks to these helpful images, living on the moon may be a closer reality. "We're going to learn to live there, we're going to learn to put human exploration and robot exploration together," Garvin says.
The Hubble telescope is normally meant to look at objects light years away, and researchers found focusing Hubble on the moon -- a mere 250,000 miles away -- was more challenging than expected.
BACKGROUND: For years, the Hubble Space Telescope has given scientists spectacular photographs of the farthest reaches of space, but recently the telescope turned its attention a bit closer to home, taking images of the moon. These images -- the first taken with ultraviolet light -- reveal new information about the composition of the moon, with implications for future lunar exploration.
HOW HUBBLE WORKS: Hubble has a long tube that is open at one end, with mirrors to gather and focus light to its "eyes" -- various instruments that enable it to detect different types of light, such as ultraviolet and infrared. Light enters the telescope through the opening and bounces off a primary mirror to a secondary mirror, which reflects the light through a hole in the center of the primary mirror to a focal point behind the primary mirror.
Smaller mirrors distribute the light to the various scientific instruments, which analyze the different wavelengths. Each instrument uses the same kind of array of diodes that are used in digital cameras to capture light. The captured light is stored in on-board computers and relayed to Earth as digital signals, and this data is then transformed into images.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN: Astronomers can glean a lot of useful scientific information from these images. The colors, or spectrum, of light coming from a celestial object form a chemical fingerprint of that object, indicating which elements are present, while the intensity of each color tells us how much of that element is present. The spectrum can also tell astronomers how fast a celestial object is moving away or towards us through an effect called the Doppler shift. Light emitted by a moving object is perceived to increase in frequency (a blue shift) if it is moving toward the observer; if the object is moving away from us, it will be shifted toward the red end of the spectrum.
NEW INSIGHTS: Thanks to Hubble's high resolution and sensitivity to ultraviolet light, astronomers are able to search for minerals in the lunar crust that may be critical for establishing a sustained human presence on the moon. These include titanium and iron oxides, both of which are sources of oxygen. Since the moon lacks a breathable atmosphere (as well as water), the presence of such minerals is critical. This new data, along with other measurements will help NASA scientists identify the most promising sites for future robotic and human missions.

Curiosity Stretches Its Arm

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The 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm maneuvers a turret of tools including a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and mechanisms for sieving and portioning samples of powdered rock and soil.
"We have had to sit tight for the first two weeks since landing, while other parts of the rover were checked out, so to see the arm extended in these images is a huge moment for us," said Matt Robinson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, lead engineer for Curiosity's robotic arm testing and operations. "The arm is how we are going to get samples into the laboratory instruments and how we place other instruments onto surface targets."
Weeks of testing and calibrating arm movements are ahead before the arm delivers a first sample of Martian soil to instruments inside the rover. Monday's maneuver checked motors and joints by unstowing the arm for the first time, extending it forward using all five joints, then stowing it again in preparation for the rover's first drive.
"It worked just as we planned," said JPL's Louise Jandura, sample system chief engineer for Curiosity. "From telemetry and from the images received this morning, we can confirm that the arm went to the positions we commanded it to go to."
The image of Curiosity's arm is online at: http://1.usa.gov/OSyG3B.
The turret has a mass of about 66 pounds (30 kilograms). Its diameter, including the tools mounted on it, is nearly 2 feet (60 centimeters).
"We'll start using our sampling system in the weeks ahead, and we're getting ready to try our first drive later this week," said Mars Science Laboratory Deputy Project Manager Richard Cook of JPL.
Curiosity landed on Mars two weeks ago to begin a two-year mission using 10 instruments to assess whether a carefully chosen study area inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project, including Curiosity, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover. The Space Division of MDA Information Systems Inc. built the robotic arm in Pasadena.

           7 minutes of terror

The Curiosity rover prepares to plunge down to Mars

After an eight-month journey to Mars, success for NASA’s Curiosity rover will hinge on a few crucial moments. The largest and most complicated piece of machinery ever sent to the red planet, Curiosity will begin its seven-minute fall through the wispy atmosphere at 05:24 UTC on 6 August. On Earth, mission scientists will be un­able to do anything but wait and hope for the signal that the six-wheeled remote laboratory is resting safely in the feeble Martian sunlight.
If Curiosity lands successfully in Gale Crater, it will eventually trundle over to a 5.5-kilo­metre-tall stack of layered deposits ringed by water-altered minerals. Ascending the mound, the rover will chart hundreds of millions of years of geology and help researchers to deduce whether life could ever have existed on Mars.

But first it has to arrive. On its way down, the spacecraft will fire 76 charges, adopt 6 configurations and slow from 6 kilometres per second to a standstill. It will be the first craft since the Apollo Moon programme of the 1960s and 1970s to use a guided-entry system, and the final leg of the descent will mark the first use of a ‘sky crane’. At 900 kilograms, Curiosity is too heavy to land in airbags like earlier rovers, and retrorockets like those used in the Viking Mars landings of the 1970s would kick up damaging dust. Instead, a hovering platform will unspool the rover. “All sorts of things can go wrong,” said NASA administrator Charles Bolden at a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council on 25 July. “That’s what makes it a real nail-biter.”

NASA officials told the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, to ensure a 95% chance of landing success. Engineers say they have surpassed that: the current assessment, based on millions of simulations, finds only a 1.7% risk of failure. But that holds only if the models have assessed every possible vagary of environment and machine. What’s worrisome are the unknown unknowns, says Steven Lee, the mission’s guidance, navigation and control-systems manager at the JPL. “Probably the overall biggest risk is our lack of imagination.”