Cop Car's Beat

LAGEOS I

By courtesy of NASA:

LAGEOS I, 1976

The LAGEOS I, Laser Geodynamics Satellite, was launched on May 4, 1976 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The two-foot diameter, 900-pound satellite orbited the Earth from pole to pole and measured the movements of the Earth's surface relative to earthquakes, continental drift, and other geophysical phenomena.

The mirrored surface of the satellite precisely reflected laser beams from ground stations for accurate ranging measurements. Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. came up with the idea for the satellite and built it at the Marshall Center.

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC

________________

I recall marveling at the sight of Echo 1A, one of the first people-made shiny things in the sky  orbiting through the night sky over our home in 1960. Fantastic!

Need a soothing interlude?

With the compliments of NASA comes this video of the sun spinning, accompanied by soothing music. (Found through Slashdot.org.)

If you are inclined toward watching whole episodes of TV programming online, please note the addition of The Universe (TV Series): Season 1, a play list, to the "For Enlightenment" typelist in the left hand sidebar.

Technical postings from Slashdot.org

Crowdsourced Effort May Have Found Soviet Mars Mission's Remains11

Posted by timothyon Saturday April 13, @07:20AM
from the crispy-on-the-outside dept.

A story at Slashgear says that the remains of a Soviet mission to Mars may have been spotted — on Mars — by enthusiasts poring over old photos taken by a NASA orbiter. The article points out that the find must be confirmed by further imaging, but matches the seekers' expectations. From the article: "The community at VK.com/Curiosity_Live crowdsourced a mission to find the Soviet Union’s long-lost Mars 3 spacecraft, with the site’s leader, Vitali Egorov of St. Petersburg, Russia, creating models of what hardware from the spacecraft should look like. With this reference, the community combed through a large image taken five years ago by NASA’s MRO, identifying what is believed to be the craft’s parachute, lander, terminal retrorocket, and heat shield."

 

Stephen Hawking Warns Against Confining Ourselves To Earth165

Posted by Soulskillon Saturday April 13, @09:30AM
from the universe-won't-mourn-a-mote-of-dust dept.

alancronin writes with this excerpt from CNet:"Stephen Hawking, one of the world's greatest physicists and cosmologists, is once again warning his fellow humans that our extinction is on the horizon unless we figure out a way to live in space. Not known for conspiracy theories, Hawking's rationale is that the Earth is far too delicate a planet to continue to withstand the barrage of human battering. 'We must continue to go into space for humanity,' Hawking said today, according to the Los Angeles Times. 'We won't survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.'"

 

Ask Slashdot: What Should Happen To Your Data After You Die?111

Posted by Soulskillon Friday April 12, @05:17PM
from the it-is-your-solemn-duty-to-clear-your-departed-best-friend's-browsing-history dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "Death is Nature's way of telling you it's time to get off the Internet. But when you finally shuffle off this mortal coil, you leave something behind: all your email and other digital assets. That's a huge problem not only for the deceased — once you're on the wrong side of the Great Beyond, there's no way to delete those incriminating messages — but also any relatives who might want to access your (former) life. And it's a problem Google's seeking to solve with the new Inactive Account Manager. (In an April 11 blog posting, Google product manager Andreas Tuerk suggested that Inactive Account Manager wasn't a 'great name' for the product, but maybe the company shouldn't be so hard on itself: it's a way better name than, say, Google Death Dashboard.) Inactive Account Manager will delete your Google-related data (Gmail, etc.) after a set amount of time, or else send that data to 'trusted contacts' you set up before your untimely demise. Which raises an interesting, semi-Google-related question: What do you want to have happen to your data after you die? Give it to loved ones, or have an automated system nuke it all? Should more companies that host email and data offer plans like Inactive Account Manager?"

 

From the third (last) article, "...Google product manager Andreas Tuerk suggested that Inactive Account Manager wasn't a 'great name' for the product, but maybe the company shouldn't be so hard on itself: it's a way better name than, say, Google Death Dashboard."

I disagree. I think that "Google Death Dashboard" has a certain flair!

Valentine

Supplied by the good folks at NASA:

Celestial Valentine

Generations of stars can be seen in this infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be seen as blue dots in the centers of the two hollow cavities (other blue dots are background and foreground stars not associated with the region). Younger stars line the rims of the cavities, and some can be seen as pink dots at the tips of the elephant-trunk-like pillars. The white knotty areas are where the youngest stars are forming. Red shows heated dust that pervades the region's cavities, while green highlights dense clouds.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian

4th Grader making good

Were NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity a human child, s/he would be a fourth grader in the USA. NASA posted a piece concerning Opportunity's 9th anniversary of landing on Mars. A photo, its caption, and excerpts from the posting are provided, below.

'Matijevic Hill' Panorama for Rover's Ninth Anniversary

As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity neared the ninth anniversary of
its landing on Mars, the rover was working in the 'Matijevic Hill' area seen in
this view from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam). Opportunity landed Jan.
24, 2004, PST (Jan. 25 UTC). The landing site was about 12 miles (19
kilometers), straight-line distance, or about 22 miles (35.5 kilometers)
driving-route distance, from this location on the western rim of Endeavour
Crater.

Matijevic Hill is an area within the "Cape York" segment of
Endeavour's rim where clay minerals have been detected from orbit. This view is
centered northwestward, toward the crest of Cape York. It extends more than 210
degrees from left to right. The field of view encompasses most of the terrain
traversed by Opportunity during a "walkabout" in October and November 2012 to
scout which features to spend time examining more intensely. Two of the features
investigated at Matijevic Hill are "Copper Cliff," the dark outcrop in the left
center of the image, and "Whitewater Lake," the bright outcrop on the far right.

Opportunity's Pancam took the component images for this mosaic during
the period from the mission's 3,137th Martian day, or sol, (Nov. 19, 2012)
through Sol 3150 (Dec. 3, 2012).

The image combines exposures taken
through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers
(near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is
presented in approximate true color. This "natural color" is the rover team's
best estimate of what the scene would look like if humans were there and able to
see it with their own eyes.

Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, one of the twin rovers that bounced to airbag-cushioned safe landings on Mars nine years ago this week, is currently examining veined rocks on the rim of an ancient crater. Opportunity has driven 22.03 miles (35.46 kilometers) since it landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004, PST (Jan. 25, Universal Time). Its original assignment was to keep working for three months, drive about 2,000 feet (600 meters) and provide the tools for researchers to investigate whether the area's environment had ever been wet. It landed in a backyard-size bowl, Eagle Crater. During those first three months, it transmitted back to Earth evidence that water long ago soaked the ground and flowed across the surface.

....

Opportunity has operated on Mars 36 times longer than the three months planned
as its prime mission.

....

For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

2013-030 

 

Well done, NASA and JPL teams!

Wouldn't it be nice if...

From Slashdot.org comes a posting reflecting how science fiction might become science fact - within our lifetimes, perhaps! (Well...probably not within my lifetime, but within the lifetimes of some of you.)

NASA Plans To "Lasso" Asteroid and Turn It Into Space Station120

Posted by samzenpuson Monday December 24, @10:36AM
from the rock-roping dept.

SternisheFan writes "NASA scientists are planning to capture a 500 ton asteroid, relocate it and turn it into a space station for astronauts to refuel on their way to Mars. From the article: 'The 1.6bn-pound plan will be considered by the White House's Office of Science and technology in the coming weeks, as it prepares to set its space exploration agenda for the next decade, the Daily Mail reported. According to a report prepared by NASA and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientists, a, 'asteroid capture capsule' would be attached to an old Atlas V rocket and directed towards the asteroid between the earth and the moon. Once close, the asteroid capsule would release a 50ft diameter bag that wrap around the spinning rock using drawstrings. The craft would then turn on its thrusters, using an estimated 300kg of propellant, to stop the asteroid in its tracks and tow it into a gravitationally neutral spot. From here space explorers would have a stationary base from which to launch trips deeper into space.   Though NASA declined to comment on the project, it is believed that technology would make it possible within 10-12 years. The technology would also open up the possibility of mining other asteroids for their metals and minerals.  Some are full of iron which could be used for in the making of new space stations, others are made up of water which could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to make fuel. t is hoped that the project will increase our understanding of asteroids, and even shed new light on the origin of life on Earth.'"

Project SPUDS

The following are excerpts from an Associated Press news article (linked by the title).

Boeing Engineers Use Spuds to Improve in-Air Wi-Fi

by Jason Keyser, Associated Press

CHICAGO December 23, 2012

....

While major airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi on many flights, the signal strength can be spotty. Airlines and aircraft makers have been striving to improve this with the growing use of wireless devices and the number of people who don't want to be disconnected, even 35,000 feet up.

Engineers at Chicago-based Boeing Co. used sacks of potatoes as stand-ins for passengers as they worked to eliminate weak spots in in-flight wireless signals. They needed full planes to get accurate results during signal testing, but they couldn't ask people to sit motionless for days while data was [sic] gathered.

....

It turns out that potatoes — because of their water content and chemistry — absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same way as the human body does, making them suitable substitutes for airline passengers.

....

In a nod to the humor in using a tuber to solve a high-tech problem, researchers dubbed the project Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution, or SPUDS.

....

A hat tip to Hunky Husband for emailing me a link to the article. In the interest of full disclosure, HH spent just shy of 35 years (Feb 1959 - Sep 1993) with Boeing. HH, being a pharmacist student gone bad, did most of his university work in electronics engineering and worked in avionics* engineering (1959 - 1974) and program management (1975 - 1993).

_____

* Avionics = code for electronics used on aeronautical platforms

Hi-def model of aerosol distributions

Addition of December 16, 2012 - just for Joared - from Slashdot.org:

Solar Impulse Announces Flight Across America For 201340

Posted by timothyon Sunday December 16, @01:02AM
from the no-checked-baggage dept.

cylonlover writes "Flush with success from their 6,000-km (3,728-mile) Europe-to-Africa round-trip flight earlier this year, the duo behind the Solar Impulse solar-powered aircraft are now planning on flying it across America next spring. It will mark the first time that a solar-powered plane has traversed the country. Solar Impulse partners Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg made the official announcement this Tuesday, although the logistics of the flight have yet to be finalized. They have stated that the trip will be broken into 20-hour legs, starting at San Francisco and proceeding to New York City. As with their previous multi-leg flights, the two pilots will take turns flying the aircraft." You can read about it straight from the doers, too.

Original posting - November 14, 2012

Portrait of Global Aerosols

High-resolution global atmospheric modeling provides a unique tool to study the role of weather within Earth's climate system. The Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) is capable of simulating worldwide weather at resolutions of 10 to 3.5 kilometers (km).

This portrait of global aerosols [Note: not used, in this instance, to denote hydrofluorocarbons and other man-made aerosols - CC] was produced by a GEOS-5 simulation at a 10-kilometer resolution. Dust (red) is lifted from the surface, sea salt (blue) swirls inside cyclones, smoke (green) rises from fires, and sulfate particles (white) stream from volcanoes and fossil fuel emissions.

Image credit: William Putman,
NASA/Goddard

Nearly new earth

Here are more jewels from NASA - one still shot and a short (2 minutes, plus) video. I don't normally remind people that clicking on an image may bring up an enlarged version; but, this still shot begs to be enlarged. I further suggest that the video be watched at the "full screen" setting (second "button" from the right hand edge at the bottom of the icon).

             

Earth at Night

This new global view of Earth's city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.

The image was made possible by the satellite's "day-night band" of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires and reflected moonlight.

The day-night band observed Hurricane Sandy, illuminated by moonlight, making landfall over New Jersey on the evening of Oct. 29. Night images showed the widespread power outages that left millions in darkness in the wake of the storm.

Image credit: NASA's Earth Observatory/NOAA/DODB

LASERs are a threat to pilots and others

By way of Slashdot.com, I found this video (embedded, above) posted on Ars Technica. In the posting that accompanied the embedded video from YouTube, Nate Anderson wrote:

"You may not be the kind of person who gets his kicks by standing at the end of a runway and firing a small laser into the cockpit of jets during their takeoffs and landings—but plenty of other people are. In 2005, the FBI only heard about 283 such incidents; this year, it expects to record 3,700."

....

"What does it look like when a helicopter tracks down a guy with a laser? The FBI released the video we included at the top of this post to show you exactly what happens. Those caught could face up to five years in jail and up to an $11,000 fine."

Below is embedded a video from YouTube with information on this serious problem from the FBI and the St Louis Police Department.