Slashdot Mirror

For fun!--- "The Planetary Society invites you to make your best guess on how big the hole will be when NASA's Deep Impact mission releases an impactor projectile in the path of Comet Tempel 1..." -- http://planetary.org/deepimpact.

Even better, how about some Non-governmental, non-profit space agency that gets funded by a bunch of geeks with nothing better to spend their money on? (and by the way, avoid paying taxes altogether) I bet there's already a web site...

Like the Planetary Society? On May 31, they'll be launching Cosmos 1, the first solar sail spacecraft. Here's a Nature article. According to the page, it'll be "the first space mission ever flown by a non-governmental advocacy group."

Another interesting philanthropic project was Elon Musk's Mars Oasis project to put an experimental greenhouse on the surface of Mars. He hired a team to do some preliminary designs and cost analysis, and found that actually building the thing was pretty affordable for him. However, the launch costs weren't as affordable as he wanted (they would've been the most expensive part of the entire project), so he decided to redirect his efforts towards SpaceX to lower those costs. I suspect the Mars Oasis project is still on the back-burner, and he may pursue it again once he gets launch costs low enough.

(4/3)pi160^3 = 17157284.679m^3

4.6E^10kg/17157284.679m^3 = 2681.077kg/m^3

(4/3)pi160^3 = 17157284.679m^3

4.6E^10kg/17157284.679m^3 = 2681.077kg/m^3

Oh, and I hadn't heard this before: apparently it carried a rover! A little less sophisticated than the modern version ...

I'm not sure if their rovers are still drivable, but the sites for The Planetary Society's LEGO® rovers are still up.

Read the budget: Here

Yes, smaller programs have been cut 20 to 30 percent, from 300 million to 200, etc. Yes it hurts, that education and some long term missions are being toned down. But the manned space exploration budget is being doubled. Doubled to the tune of billions of dollars.

Read Extending Human Presence into the Solar System if you want to really know how we are going to do this. It includes the plans for the new Crew Exploration Vehicle.

This should make you very happy.

kulakovich

As it happens, another solar sail is due to be launched in less than a month - Cosmos 1. Hopefully this one will get to do its thing!

He did get elected Vice President of the Planetary Society in January. That has to be worth something.

http://www.letstalkstars.com/
http://www.planetary.org/audio/planetaryradio.html

Both are hit and miss. Depends on the guest. But they're worth a look. And then, of course, there's NPR's Science Friday:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/

Devon

Hm... I went through three rounds of rejected submission attempts earlier trying to submit this story, several hours before this version was posted. In any case, here's my version of the submission, which has many more links:

NASA Watch, New Scientist, and Space Ref report that Dr. Michael D. Griffin has been nominated as the next administrator of NASA, to replace Sean O'Keefe. As NASA head, Griffin will be tasked with implementing the Vision for Space Exploration. Griffin is currently head of the Space Department at the Applied Physics Laboratory at JHU, is president-elect of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and has a doctorate in aerospace engineering. He's noted for being passionate about space exploration and having strong management experience. His nomination has been praised by a number of groups, including the Planetary Society, the National Space Society, and House Science Committee Democrats and Republicans. In the past, Mike Griffin has testified to Congress on the future of human spaceflight, the vision for space exploration, and the danger of asteroid impacts. He was also rebuked in the early 90s for pointing out problems with the space station's review process.

As for my own thoughts, I think Griffin is an excellent pick. I'm amazed that they were able to find somebody with as much technical expertise as him who also has such a large amount of experience with managing large organizations. According to the space.com article, Griffin can be expected to make maximum use of the emerging commercial spaceflight industry.

In the past he's also said the following, which I approve of highly: "What is needed is to retire the Shuttle Orbiter, and its expensive support infrastructure," Griffin wrote. "It simply does not serve the needs of exploration and it is too expensive, to logistically fragile, and insufficiently safe for continued use as a low Earth orbit transport vehicle."

In the past he's been highly in favor of the government constructing a new heavy-lift launch vehicle, which I somewhat disagree with. Such an endeavor could easily end up being a bottomless money pit. Hopefully SpaceX's low-cost launches in the coming months will help raise awareness of frequently-launched smaller vehicles.

Geeze, I can't believe I just read through this entire thread and haven't seen a single mention of what people (at least those who are US citizens) can actually do about this. Go here:

http://www.congress.org/

Type in your zip code. Look at the list of your elected officials. Call them or send them a paper letter (even better if you include a donation in it). I did it, and you can too. Believe it or not, congresspeople actually listen to their constituents.

That said, I hope in the future more and more science-related projects get handled by private groups, like the Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 launch of the first solar sail spacecraft next month. That way, instead of whining to congresscritters about using other people's money for projects we care about, we can just give the money ourselves. I'm sure the actual Voyager space program would be able to raise at least as much money as the Enterprise television show.

The Planetary Society is probably one of the better places to send money for the advancement of space science. Charitable contributions to The Planetary Society are tax-deductible in the United States.

A donation of your time would also be very worthwhile. Tell your congress folk how you feel about Nasa's proposed plan. Also tell others you know(that don't read slashdot, e.g. parents) about Nasa's lame plan and suggest they drop a line to their congress folk.

But private enterprise won't even bother if there's not a bottom line.

I'm not sure I'm completely agree. The way I see it, there's going to be three different types of space endeavours in the future:

* Government-run: Pretty much mostly what we have now. Governments sending things up for science, prestige, and military purposes.

* Private for-profit (commercial): Right now this is mostly satellites, but should expand to things like space tourism, mining, orbital power satellites, shipment, manufacturing, space porn, etc.

* Private non-profit (altruism): This is the one which everyone seems to overlook, mostly because it really hasn't been done so far. These are done for prestige, to attract more donations, to assure a place in history, to advance mankind, to pad one's ego, etc.

This last one I think has a lot of potential. The best near-term examples is the Planetary Society's Cosmos I, which will launch the first solar sail spacecraft lin April of this year. It'll also be the first-ever space mission by a non-profit group (I think).

Another example I often cite is Elon Musk, who had a "Mars Oasis" project for launching an experimental greenhouse on the surface of Mars. There wouldn't be any direct payback from this -- just an entry in the history books and the knowledge that he'd advanced mankind. However he put this on hold when he did a thorough analysis and found that launch costs would be the dominant part of the price tag. Instead, he's invested his efforts in SpaceX; hopefully once he gets launch costs down he'll return to the Mars Oasis project.

Correct URL is http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/huygens_dwe_res ults_0209.html.

Perhaps you should RTFA, or perhaps even this article?.

1: The DWE consisted of two modules. One on Huygens, and one on Cassini. Without the activation of the Huygens module, we would have had no data for earth-based telescopes to detect.

2: The DWE carrier signal did double duty as a channel for image transmission. Not only did the receiver screw-up result in loss of DWE data, but it also resulted in the loss of 350 images as well.

3: Reception by Earth-based radio telescopes was uncertain at the time the DWE was designed. In addition, at the time the DWE was developed, it was thought that Earth-based radio telescopes would only be able to detect one axis of motion. The second axis of motion would have to come from the Cassini data.

First let's get a working solar sail. Just one measley working
prototype. THEN regale us with how bright the future is. The fact is, this is not a proven technology. And at least one scientist has had the balls to stand up and say that maybe it won't work. This March we'll know for sure.

The Planetary Society held a Huygens art contest.

I cannot find it now, but I remember reading that they were also going to award another prize for the best match to actual images.

Assuming the select only from the existing set of prize winners (those shown on the webpage), I would pick either Steve Munsinger's work or Emile Raphael Franco's.

Steve's show the "coastlines" (assuming it is liquid, which we don't know yet). Franco's shows some of the river-like arteries we see.

I think it would be more fair to re-inspect all entrants for the match prize, though. Not just the existing winners.

It sounds like a billion crickets chirping at once!! A function of the density, pressure, temperature. Truly exotic. Sounds of Titan

While reading various coverage of the Huygens descent to Titan, they were talking about one of the two channels not working correctly (Jan 14, 08:57PST).

Is this because they applied the fix discussed in the "persistent troubleshooter" link to only one of the two channels? Leaving the other channel as it was originally (that is, broken?)

Can't help but wonder.

The sounds of Titan are now online at The Planetary Society site.

Unfortunately, there will be no real sounds. The mike is more of a sensor than a recording device and due to the limited time and bandwidth available to Huygens for data transmission, there is no space for more than using it to detect thunder rather than hearing it.
They will however be creating sound files from the low resolution sonograms for the those of us with vivid imaginations. ;)
More info here

Unfortunately, there will be no real sounds. The mike is more of a sensor than a recording device and due to the limited time and bandwidth available to Huygens for data transmission, there is no space for more than using it to detect thunder rather than hearing it.
They will however be creating sound files from the low resolution sonograms for the those of us with vivd imaginations.
More info here

She's on a weekly mp3 radio show, too. You can hear her dulcet tones here.

People might want to know where they can read this blog - the address is here.

Thanks for the info though I did not know the blog existed, and it's always fun to get more intimate details than news reports or press releases can provide.

Crap, I'm an idiot and forgot the actual blog link. Here you go:

http://planetary.org/news/2005/huygens_blog.html

Scientists are holding tight whether they good telemetry from the probe. The ESA designers forgot to correct for the doppler shift of the changing velocity between the Huygens probe and the Cassini mother ship. There is a chance that some of the signal could shift outside of the attenna frequency range and be lost. The landing was changed to slower trajectory orbit to hopefully compensate.

From http://planetary.org/news/2005/huygens_blog.html/ it seems that Huygens has been transmitting it's carrier signal for over 5 hours, initially it was monitored from the US until Titan went below the horizon when an Australian telescope picked up.

The Planetary Society's has a Huygens blog going from the European Space Operation Centre in Darmstadt, Germany through January 15. Latest update is huygens' signal kept going after landing.

The Planetary Society's has a Huygens blog going from the European Space Operation Centre in Darmstadt, Germany through January 15. Latest update is huygens' signal kept going after landing.

First images from the probe are very curious indeed.

This time the Italian space agency forgot to account for Doppler frequency shift. Luckily they found a workaround, so not all is lost.

Fortunately the landing isn't the only science the probe is designed for. Unlike Beagle, the probe will be transmitting measurements throughout its descent. So even if it smacks down like NASAs Genesis most of the mission goals will have been achieved.

Well, if you want an ample source of views of what it might be like if you were there, you can visit the Planetary Society's Huygens Art Contest. Full disclosure: I am an entrant, so I'm a bit biased toward the entry "Land Or Sea" ;)

The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla is running a weblog from Huygens mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. This weblog will be updated as events happen, so it should be interesting to watch.

It also looks like NASA TV will have live coverage for much of Friday. You can access their video and audio streams here.

The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla is running a weblog from Huygens mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. This weblog will be updated as events happen, so it should be interesting to watch.

It also looks like NASA TV will have live coverage for much of Friday. You can access their video and audio streams here.

The Planetary Society will also begin blogging from Huygens Mission control in Darmstadt Germany. Look for a link on their homepage later today.

Hrm??? One theory, still under discussion, is that life on Earth was originated by amino acids and other elements found on meteors and comets that impacted the planet, one article. Experiments have already shown that these elements can survive the re-entry and impact forces, what's left is to see if these elements actually exist on comets. This probe may do that.

Waste of money? Not a chance. It's a bit sad to see that NASA is using such a brute force approach. But this can be very crucial in answering the origins of life on Earth, and the probability that it exists on other planets.

The all-sky optical SETI system at Harvard receives its funding from The Planetary Society and the Bosack-Kruger Charitable Foundation.

There are also companies that partner with Russian airbases to take wealthy Westerners up in basically anything with wings. Having a Yankee in the back seat pays for the gas and maintenance, and helps the pilot get some flight hours.

Hey, if you're short on hard currency to pay your troops, why not take some Western cash and make someone happy (whether it be through launching a space probe or giving 'em the ride of a lifetime) while your troops are getting their training.

They already knew where the heat shield was. They had a picture from the Mars Orbiter camera that let them know exactly how far away it was. There's actually been several pictures. I forget how long ago they knew, but they've known for some time where it was.

I don't think anyone thought either rover would last this long, so it's only now that they get around to looking at it.

I hope the probe does well because I have recently been informed that Titan artwork I submitted for an art contest has been selected to be part of the planned exibit after the probe's mission is done. My work is far more likely to have its day in the sun if the probe is successful than if it fails.

http://planetary.org/saturn/images_spacecraft.html

Does anyone remember the concern in Sept 2002 when an object dubbed "J002E3" was initially believed to be an Earth-crossing asteroid or previously-unknown moon was discovered? [ref: Slashdot, Planetary Society, CNN] It turned out to be the Apollo 12 3rd stage rocket body. The mistake was made because an object as bright as it was, if as reflective as a rock, would have been huge. But it wasn't a dark rock - it was a shiny metal cylinder. It had been re-captured into Earth orbit after decades in solar orbit.

Probably every lunar probe and manned mission has sent a rocket booster into solar orbit as space junk. While probabilities of a 2004 MN4 collision in the future are computed, astronomers with the proper data should also try to project it back to see where it was during the Apollo era. Check if it may have come from Earth.

Actually, I'm pretty sure astronomers are already projecting 2004 MN4's orbit back in time to see if there were any other observations of the object before. So this is something else for them to check.

Usually people imagine solar sails as being made of a very VERY thin film,on the order of a few micrometers thick... the point being that there's very little additional mass created by the sails themselves since you need so much surface area to create any appreciable force. Also, the less mass that's used for the sails, the more mass that's available for payload (or just plain not there, which means greater acceleration).

Here's a few links (thanks Google and the obligatory Wikipedia):
A geocities-looking site with some usefull info
Planetary Society has some more info
Wikipedia entry

There are indeed a few ideas - solar sails, magnetic sails, laser propulsion. These all basically require something external to push on the spacecraft (eg photons, a magnetic field) rather than ejecting mass. But rockets have more flexibility in general - eg you couldn't use a laser system for a return voyage, unless there was a big laser in place at the other end to send you back. But certainly it seems likely that these methods will have niche uses, especially in the inner solar system.

This may be a little late, but the Planetary Society is running an art contest, challenging contestants to create a piece of artwork (including the computer-generated sort) depicting what they think Titan will be like. Entries can be submitted online, and the deadline is this Sunday.

Here's the official text from the contest announcement:

What lies beneath the hazy atmosphere that envelops Saturn's moon, Titan? Is the surface of the moon dotted with seas of liquid ethane? Do icy crags stretch towards a dim orange sky where high noon is only as bright as 1/1000th the level of daylight on Earth? No one knows -- yet.

On January 14, 2005, The European Space Agency's probe Huygens will plummet through the atmosphere to give us our first detailed look at Titan. Before the probe breaks through the clouds to image this mysterious moon, we invite you to imagine what Huygens will find and enter The Planetary Society's art contest.

HOW TO ENTER:
Create an artwork representing what you imagine Titan looks like underneath its haze. Base your perspective on Huygens' journey. Are you viewing the planet from the air after Huygens breaks through the cloud or on the surface after the craft has parachuted to a landing? Did Huygens land on solid ground, or is she floating in an ethane sea? Send us your vision of what lies beneath the veil when you imagine Titan.

Once you've finished your artwork, you can enter the contest online--you don't have to mail your artwork in! Just create it on the computer, or take a digital photo or scan your artwork. If you are not able to enter the contest digitally, you can mail your artwork to us.

CONTEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Who can enter?
Anyone aged 10 and above may enter. You can enter as a Youth (aged 10-17) or Adult (18 and over).

What kind of art can I create?
You can use any medium to create your artwork, and then show it to us by submitting a digital image through the online entry form.

Or, if you choose, you can mail your art to us. If you mail your art, it cannot be larger than 1 by 11 by 17 inches (2.5 by 28 by 43 cm), and we will not return it to you. Send your entry to: Huygens Art Contest, The Planetary Society, 65 N Catalina Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106, USA. Click here for a donloadable entry form in PDF format.

When does the contest end?
Sunday, November 28, 2004 at 23:59 Pacific time.

What can I win?
Four First Prizes (two Youths, two Adults) and up to twenty Second Prizes will be awarded. A Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from among the First Prize Winners.
The Grand Prize is a trip to Darmstadt, Germany to be on site at ESA's Space Operations Centre for the descent of the Huygens probe!
All Winners' artworks will be displayed at ESA's European Space Operations Centre during the Huygens mission to Titan. All Winners will also receive a Planetary Society Prize Package including one year free Planetary Society membership, a Certificate of Honor, a Cassini-Huygens Mission Patch, an ESA poster, pin, and keychain, and a "Nine Planets" lithograph set.
Two Special Prizes (one Youth and one Adult) will also be awarded for that art most closely resembling any portion of the actual Titan panoramic landscape taken by the Huygens probe during its final stages of descent. These awards will be made within 30 days following the return of the actual Titan image data, and will each consist of a framed and autographed Huygens photo of the Titan landscape.

This may be a little late, but the Planetary Society is running an art contest, challenging contestants to create a piece of artwork (including the computer-generated sort) depicting what they think Titan will be like. Entries can be submitted online, and the deadline is this Sunday.

Here's the official text from the contest announcement:

What lies beneath the hazy atmosphere that envelops Saturn's moon, Titan? Is the surface of the moon dotted with seas of liquid ethane? Do icy crags stretch towards a dim orange sky where high noon is only as bright as 1/1000th the level of daylight on Earth? No one knows -- yet.

On January 14, 2005, The European Space Agency's probe Huygens will plummet through the atmosphere to give us our first detailed look at Titan. Before the probe breaks through the clouds to image this mysterious moon, we invite you to imagine what Huygens will find and enter The Planetary Society's art contest.

HOW TO ENTER:
Create an artwork representing what you imagine Titan looks like underneath its haze. Base your perspective on Huygens' journey. Are you viewing the planet from the air after Huygens breaks through the cloud or on the surface after the craft has parachuted to a landing? Did Huygens land on solid ground, or is she floating in an ethane sea? Send us your vision of what lies beneath the veil when you imagine Titan.

Once you've finished your artwork, you can enter the contest online--you don't have to mail your artwork in! Just create it on the computer, or take a digital photo or scan your artwork. If you are not able to enter the contest digitally, you can mail your artwork to us.

CONTEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Who can enter?
Anyone aged 10 and above may enter. You can enter as a Youth (aged 10-17) or Adult (18 and over).

What kind of art can I create?
You can use any medium to create your artwork, and then show it to us by submitting a digital image through the online entry form.

Or, if you choose, you can mail your art to us. If you mail your art, it cannot be larger than 1 by 11 by 17 inches (2.5 by 28 by 43 cm), and we will not return it to you. Send your entry to: Huygens Art Contest, The Planetary Society, 65 N Catalina Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106, USA. Click here for a donloadable entry form in PDF format.

When does the contest end?
Sunday, November 28, 2004 at 23:59 Pacific time.

What can I win?
Four First Prizes (two Youths, two Adults) and up to twenty Second Prizes will be awarded. A Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from among the First Prize Winners.
The Grand Prize is a trip to Darmstadt, Germany to be on site at ESA's Space Operations Centre for the descent of the Huygens probe!
All Winners' artworks will be displayed at ESA's European Space Operations Centre during the Huygens mission to Titan. All Winners will also receive a Planetary Society Prize Package including one year free Planetary Society membership, a Certificate of Honor, a Cassini-Huygens Mission Patch, an ESA poster, pin, and keychain, and a "Nine Planets" lithograph set.
Two Special Prizes (one Youth and one Adult) will also be awarded for that art most closely resembling any portion of the actual Titan panoramic landscape taken by the Huygens probe during its final stages of descent. These awards will be made within 30 days following the return of the actual Titan image data, and will each consist of a framed and autographed Huygens photo of the Titan landscape.

According to the official website:

Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails.

Also in another section of the website:

For a while after deployment the giant blades will be kept in a fixed position, giving mission controllers a chance to carefully observe the spacecraft's behavior. Only after a few days will the Cosmos 1 team begin shifting the blades' angles towards the Sun or perpendicular to it, in a controlled program to increase the orbit energy. Gradually, the continuous pressure of reflecting sunlight will raise the spacecraft into a higher orbit above the Earth.

The flight of Cosmos 1 will not last long. Within a month the mylar sails will begin to degrade in the harsh sunlight, and the tubes supporting the blades will be losing pressure. It is possible that by this time the spacecraft will have risen to a high enough orbit that it will remain there, forever orbiting the Earth. It is more likely, however, that the orbit will slowly decay, and Cosmos 1 will end its days as a fireball in the Earth's atmosphere.

According to the official website:

Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails.

Also in another section of the website:

For a while after deployment the giant blades will be kept in a fixed position, giving mission controllers a chance to carefully observe the spacecraft's behavior. Only after a few days will the Cosmos 1 team begin shifting the blades' angles towards the Sun or perpendicular to it, in a controlled program to increase the orbit energy. Gradually, the continuous pressure of reflecting sunlight will raise the spacecraft into a higher orbit above the Earth.

The flight of Cosmos 1 will not last long. Within a month the mylar sails will begin to degrade in the harsh sunlight, and the tubes supporting the blades will be losing pressure. It is possible that by this time the spacecraft will have risen to a high enough orbit that it will remain there, forever orbiting the Earth. It is more likely, however, that the orbit will slowly decay, and Cosmos 1 will end its days as a fireball in the Earth's atmosphere.