Thought Patterns

(insert sexy Monroe singing Happy Birthday)

Sent into space on April 24, 1990, Hubble is now old enough to be drafted, but not old enough to drink. Would it want to drink, given that it is already so high and aimed toward the wonders of the universe? Or is that a good enough reason onto itself?

At any rate, the best thing about Hubble, and the fact it is operated by NASA, is that the images it takes are public domain.

much larger version which shows the wonder and awe of Hubble

Linkage:
Space.com - All About Hubble Telescope | Complete Hubble Coverage
LiveScience.com's Space - Hubble Photographs Dozens of Colliding Galaxies
Wikipedia - Hubble Space Telescope | List of Hubble links
Wikimedia Commons - Hubble images
Space Telescope Science Institute - HubbleSite.org
NASA - Main Hubble page | Multimedia

Messenger sent back an excellent photo of Mercury already.

link to much much much larger (1024×1024px) version

I first saw the image in a Wired News article. It had a link to the news release page for the spacecraft. Oh, and it was on today's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day).

Personally, I think it is awesome. Perhaps we can exploit other planets just before we officially kill our own. Yeah, sarcasm is today's theme.

At any rate, here's linkage:

Messenger home page | image gallery | news center
NASA's Messenger site
Astronomy Picture of the Day | Messenger and Mercury (1/16/08) - this has a bunch o' links in it

Way to go NASA! This opens the door for a lot of possibilities. The more minds into a project, the better it can become. It cannot become stale, static.

On the other had, too many cooks in the kitchen results in everyone talking about food and no one cooking it.

From WiredNews:

Young Scientists Design Open-Source Program at NASA
Aaron Rowe

NASA scientists plan to announce a new open-source project this month called CosmosCode — it's aimed at recruiting volunteers to write code for live space missions, Wired News has learned.

The program was launched quietly last year under NASA's CoLab entrepreneur outreach program, created by Robert Schingler, 28, and Jessy Cowan-Sharp, 25, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Members of the CosmosCode group have been meeting in Second Life and will open the program to the public in the coming weeks, organizers said.

"CosmosCode is … allowing NASA scientists to begin a software project in the public domain, leveraging the true value of open-source software by creating an active community of volunteers," said Cowan-Sharp, a NASA contractor.

CosmosCode is indicative of a larger shift at NASA toward openness and transparency — things for which complex and bureaucratic government labs are not known. The software project is part of CoLab, an effort to invite the public to help NASA scientists with various engineering problems. The space agency is also digging into its files from previous missions and releasing code that until now remained behind closed doors. Together, these projects are creating a sort of SourceForge for space.

link to article

From the Planetary Society:

The darker image is from December 2001. The one with the white path is from April 2005.

Mars Global Surveyor Discovers Current Liquid Water Activity on Mars
MOC Images Also Reveal New Impact Craters
By Emily Lakdawalla
December 6, 2006

Newly released images from Mars Global Surveyor contain telltale deposits left behind by liquid water flowing on the surface within the few years that the spacecraft surveyed Mars. Scientists had previously announced the discovery of features that must have been carved by water within the last several million years, but this is the first evidence that water has flowed on Mars' surface while humans have been studying it. "Ten years ago, Mars scientists were talking about water billions of years ago. Five years ago, [Mike Malin and Ken Edgett] were talking about water millions of years ago. I think now we can honestly talk about liquid water on the surface of Mars today. And that revolution in our thinking truly has changed how we view Mars and how we should think about exploring Mars," said scientist Phil Christensen at a press conference held today at NASA Headquarters.

link to article

…Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor in 1941.

larger version

larger version

More images on the Pearl Harbor page at Wikipedia Commons.

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… in 1995, the spacecraft Galileo reached Jupiter after taking 6 years to get there. It was launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis on October 18, 1989. Galileo was sent into the atmosphere of Jupiter on September 21, 2003, after fourteen years of service.

larger version

More images can be found on the Galileo Mission page at Wikipedia Commons and on the Galileo Project: Image Gallery at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) site.

I ventured over to NASA's section about the space shuttle and saw where the Ares rocket, or part of it, had been successfully test fired. I mentioned the Ares and the Orion back in October.

Rocket Motor Test Helps NASA's Shuttle and Ares I

PROMONTORY, Utah - NASA's Space Shuttle Program successfully fired a reusable solid rocket motor Thursday, Nov. 16, at a Utah facility. The two-minute test provided important information for nighttime shuttle launches and for the development of the rocket that will carry the next human spacecraft to the moon.

The static firing of the full-scale, full-duration flight support motor was performed at 6 p.m. MST at ATK Launch Systems Group, a unit of Alliant Techsystems Inc. in Promontory, Utah, where the shuttle's solid rocket motors are manufactured.

The flight support motor, or FSM-13, burned for approximately 123 seconds, the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during an actual space shuttle launch. The Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Project Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages these tests to qualify any proposed changes to the rocket motor and to determine whether new materials perform as well as those now in use.

The motor firing also provided the Space Shuttle Program with data on how image quality is affected by night launch conditions. The data will help determine camera settings and techniques that are most suitable for future night shuttle launches and those which could possibly enhance imagery gathered during a day launch.

full article

I think the Orion concept (part of the Constellation Program) is a step backwards in space flight. Instead of re-working the shuttle and maintaining the controlled landing aspect, they retreated back in time. But hey, I can only hope that they know what they are doing. I've always had great faith in NASA. I agree they got too relaxed about the shuttle program which lead to the loss of the Columbia. But the wake-up call and the resulting house cleaning, was handled well.

I read an article on ScienceDaily and went over to NASA's Orion page to check it out. I've been watching the progress on this with interest. The shuttle craft was/is a great idea; it is the fuel system that needs working on. The shuttle is capable of carrying heavy and bulky loads.

NASA says the Orion capsule, the crew vehicle (the CEV), will be 2.5 times larger than the Apollo capsules and can carry 6 passengers vs the three of the Apollo. NASA also says the Orion can carry cargo but it doesn't say how much compared to the current shuttles. The cargo (the CaLV) is a seperate unit. Both use Ares rockets to reach low earth orbit.

The crew capsule goes up alone using the Ares I rocket. Then the cargo and lunar lander (the LSAM) goes up together using the Ares V rocket.

I think it is great that the moon program is being started again. It is the ideal training ground. How else to get people used to life in space? 15 second drops in a plane just isn't the same, don't you think?

They have some cool concept images.

NASA website
NASA missions
Constellation program
ScienceDaily article