Archive for the ‘Space’ Category

Hayabusa Space Probe May Contain Asteroid Dust, or Just Normal Dust [Space]

See that? It might be a dust particle from an asteroid! Or it might be a flake of dried skin from a man in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency factory that built the Hayabusa probe. No one knows yet. More »










Hayabusa – Space – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency – Asteroid – Technology

What Is This? [Image Cache]

At first I thought this image was a tattoo under a powerful microscope. One near some feminine naughty bits. But no, there are no tattoos as weird and wonderful as what this image really is. Not in this planet, anyway.

These are Martian dust devils, running over the soil of the Red Planet. Taken by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, they are responsible of marking its surface with strange, capricious shapes. According to NASA:

This portion of a recent high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light colored terrain on the martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing martian mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet – martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth.

In Mars, however, they can be up eight kilometers high. But why do they leave those marks? Easy: The wind picks up the red dust, leaving the dark sand beneath on its place. The Universe, my dear armchair cosmonauts, is a wondrous place. [NASA]

Newly Discovered Hole On Moon Leads To Network Of Tubes [Space]

Images have revealed a hole on the Moon’s surface that is at least 260 feet deep and may lead to an underground tunnel more than 1,200 feet wide which is part of an entire network of such winding tubes.

Scientists are hoping for clearer shots from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, but the impression so far is that such a tunnel network could provide shelter for astronauts or potential future Moon colonists. I just plain wonder if they could combine it with the recent discovery of water for one kickass underground waterpark. [New Scientist via Pop Sci]

Volunteers Wanted For 520-Day Pretend Trip To Mars [Space]

The European Space Agency is looking for volunteers to spend 520 days isolated a Moscow facility where they’d simulate traveling to, living on, and coming back from Mars. Not bad, except the pretend travel lasts 250 days each way.

There are plenty of necessary qualifications to meet including fluency in Russian, background in medicine, various engineering, and for whatever reason you may not be taller than 185cm (that’s just under 6′1″). Interested? Apply on the ESA website. [ESA via PhysOrg]

Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate [Data Visualization]

Mars. There have to be little green men with ACME weapons living there. Or we have some incredibly bad luck when it comes to sending spacecrafts to the Red Planet. Most of them fail, for one reason or the other.

Zoom in to enjoy the graphic in HD

Out of 42 missions, only 20 have succeeded. That’s less than 50% chance of survival. And it gets worse: Of those, only eight were actually programmed to land on Mars, which is actually the theoretically difficult part.

While the success rate increased after 1971, I would be very nervous if I were a budding astronaut wanting to go up there—and still, I wish I was that astronaut. Better go in style while trying to reach the glory, than staying down here, slowly turning to dust. [Shnelll via Fastcompany]

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