Space Scan

I always wondered what the astronauts cooked up for lunch in space. It seems like my staple food Ramen, has sneaked it’s way in the Astronaut menu. Along with Top Ramen and Nissin products, Japanese astronauts will also be able to munch on rice balls and green tea. But, wondering what flavor of Ramen is going to go to space? Try Soy sauce, tonkotsu or pork flavored Ramen or curry versions of Ramen will be served for lunch and other meals. These flavors of Ramen make up the Space Ram bunch. “Space Ram” basically referred to Space Ramen. Not only Ramen, but also 29 other dishes will tag along with these brave astronauts. There will be simmered mackerel, Japanese curry and other hot soups for these space people. These foods will be specially prepared by Nissin food products in collaboration with JAXA. A Japanese astronaut Souichi Noguchi loves Top Ramen. It’s my favorite food as well. Besides the Japanese astronauts and Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station rely on Ramen as well. Bonus packs are sometimes served on board. Image Credit: NASA Explores and NASA gov

Are you guys fed up by going to a beach or a hill station on vacations…? How about a trip to the moon…? If you really are an adventure freak and want to go to the nearest celestial neighbor of Earth, then you surely are in good luck. Space Adventures is planning private trips to the Moon aboard Russian spacecraft Soyuz. The trip which will cost you a whooping $100 million will carry two passengers at a time along with a crew member. Eric Anderson the president and CEO of Space Adventures stated that he is confident that the tickets for the first mission will be sold by the end of the year. The company will conduct the missions on the trusted Russian technology, its Soyuz spacecraft. A pilot and two passengers will leave Earth in the spacecraft, which will ferry them to orbit. Later they will be linked up with an unpiloted kick stage for a boost that will finally take them to Moon. The mission seems simple on paper but actually it will make use of the most advanced technology present on the planet. Continue reading “Space Adventures elucidate the future of tourism; plans paid trips to Moon” »

According to a team of experts at NASA, Jupiter is changing its stripes, a process which can be due to the change of seasons on this giant planet. These dramatic changes are being captured by the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The changes are due to the change in the color of the planet’s cloud bands which are turning brown from white. Scientists at the space center have also stated that this is not the first time that the planet is changing its rings. According to these researchers Jupiter does not stay in the same color all the time and they are lucky to witness the belts and the bands change color at the same time. Since Jupiter’s year is twelve times that as on Earth the climatic changes are also slow. The difference in the heat of the Sun as received by the planet is the main cause of this change on the surface of Jupiter and along its rings. Since planets orbit in an elliptical orbit their distance from the sun keeps on changing which further changes the amount of heat and light received by the planets. Via: CNN

According to a latest theory developed by some scientists it could be possible to glimpse the Universe before the start of everything that is before the Big Bang. The Big Bang is often thought as the start of everything even time, but this has raised many questions as to what could have been there before that. Recently some scientists have proposed an idea that the Big Bang might have been the explosive beginning of the Universe as we see it today however the era before that can be a totally different one. To get back into that era scientists are depending on the theory of loop quantum gravity, a theory that gives one of the many possible ways our Universe became as it is today. Earlier research suggested that before the Big Bang the universe was a surprisingly small ball, but it was very dense and packed infinite energies and space-time warping. It was a place where all the theories of Physics fail making it impossible to peer before that explosive beginning of everything. The new research on the other hand believes that the levels of energy and space-time warping were incredibly high but were finite and not infinite. Looking at the cosmos today can help in finding clues as to what the whole thing must have looked before the Big Bang. Researchers also believe that this picture of the Universe before the event will be fuzzy due to a kind of ‘cosmic forgetfulness’. This means that some properties of the universe before the Big Bang will be present in the current universe but will be having such a weak influence on the current Universe that we are not even able to determine them. Researchers also commented that this ‘cosmic forgetfulness’ could have totally changed the universe and since history does not repeat itself similarly our universe would have completely forgot its previous state. Image Read

NASA has already stated that the space agency will be retiring the Shuttle program sometime in 2010 and will be working on a next-gen spacecraft, which they call Orion. This spacecraft will be able to taxi crew from and too the Moon. Some months ago this decision of NASA developed some fear among the Russians as they thought that their highly honored space craft, Soyuz will be playing the role of a space cabbie till the time NASA makes their new spacecraft and after Orion is complete, no one will want to launch in a Soyuz as everyone will prefer the latest technology to take them to the ISS or even beyond. Now some industrial groups in Europe are thinking of some new ideas to develop a launch system that can compete with NASA’s Orion and make them a strong contender in space travel. Some meetings have also been held by the ESA under a development study that also involves brains from Russia and Japan. The discussions at the industrial level will commence this month. Continue reading “After NASA, ESA too eyeing a next-gen spacecraft” »

Ceres, initially an asteroid and recently a dwarf planet is all set to be explored by Dawn. Ceres a newly made dwarf planet some 590 miles is big enough that it has a gravitational field which has made it round. However, it also has failed to pass the planet definition passed by the IAU. Ceres was discovered in 1801 and at that time was declared a planet since it occupied a place in the solar system where astronomers were confident of finding a planet. But after this discovery more and more so called planets were found in the same region which later took the planet status away from Ceres. Later when Pluto was demoted then astronomers developed a new class of planets known as “Dwarf Planets” and Pluto, Eris and Ceres were all classed under this category. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will explore these dwarf planets. The spacecraft is set to be launched atop a Delta II rocket. Initially the spacecraft will visit Vesta, in October 2011 and then depart in April 2012 to Ceres where it will reach in February 2015. Continue reading “NASA’s Dawn all set to be launched, will explore Vesta and Ceres” »

Scientists have always shown us the future by telling us something about future machines and gadgets. Space hotel is one such dream which Bigelow Aerospace has promised. The company has moved another step to fulfill the dream by launching Genesis II a prototype of an inflatable space hotel. The prototype launched atop Dnepr rocket on Thursday from the SC Kosmotras Cosmodrome in Russia. Shortly after the launch the module reached orbit and transmitted signals to mark its arrival into the orbit. The next day Genesis II deployed its solar panels and inflated itself to achieve its maximum width of 2.4 meters. Similar to Genesis 1, Genesis II is also a one-third scale prototype of the actual space hotel. Aboard the Genesis II are 22 cameras and some new systems that were not aboard the earlier Genesis 1. Scientists associated with the technology have stated that the eventual plan is to put a habitat fit to sustain human life by 2015. When this main module is in space it will be further be connected by additional modules to build up a space station. This dream once accomplished will surely fetch some more space tourists who will want to stay in a hotel that makes use of the best technology ever developed by man. Via: Universetoday

According to the standard theory of star formation, stars are formed in cloudy nebulas and shortly after their birth they consume most of the gas that is present at their birthplace. The surrounding dust and gas can now be used to form planets. This gas and dust then collapses and forms a rotating “Circumstellar disk”, which then draws the planet towards the star. Till now scientists were not aware of the reason behind this inward spiral motion of the planets towards their parent stars. Scientists have now developed a new model that suggests that this disk hosts some magnetic instability that is the reason behind this inward spiral motion. This motion drags these newly formed planets into their final orbits. Gas left over from the planet and the star formation process falls back on the surface of the star since they star emits ultraviolet radiation which attracts these particles of dust and gas. However, the main reason that could explain this transit of the gas from the disk to the stars was not available. Now a new model has been developed by some researchers that can explain why some stars love to orbit quite close to their parent stars. They state that the gas in this disk orbits at different speeds depending on its distance from the star. This changes the magnetic field of the disk somewhat like a stretched rubber band which binds the inner and the outer rings together. The inner ring rotates faster than the outer one, so the magnetic field “rubber band” stretches in the direction of the rotation. This phenomenon pulls back the inner rings and speeds the outer one. This slows the inner ring causing it to lose momentum and spiral inward to crash onto the star. This inflow of gas drags objects such as planets closer to the star. The same process also explains as to why some gas giant planets orbit much closer to their star and as a result have a much higher surface temperature. Image Via: usatoday

NASA has been trying all ways to find life or even traces of it on the red planet. NASA has tried to find clues of life on Mars with its twin rovers that are currently operating on Mars. But unfortunately none of them has been able to find any traces of present or past life on the planet. Now the space agency will try to find some life with its new envoy to the red planet. This Mars Lander is called Phoenix and is due to launch sometime between August 3 and August 24 from Florida. If all goes well then the Lander will reach the surface of Mars on May 25, 2008. The three-month long mission will mainly try and find any clues of a possible microbial life on the planet. NASA wants to land the Lander at a site which is devoid of boulders and should be at a latitude equivalent to Northern Alaska on Earth. Considering the altitude and conditions on the planet, the Lander will have to complete its missions at a temperature of about minus 148 Fahrenheit or minus 100 Celsius. This mission will now add to the latest mission of the space agency to seek a deeper understanding of Earth’s closest planet. This mission is expected to answer some questions that have been troubling astronomers for long. If all goes according to the plan of NASA then the Lander will reach Mars in 2008 and will then wield a robotic arm 7.7 feet long. This arm can dig up to 3 feet to get a sample of the buried soil and frozen water that is thought to be present under the surface of Mars. Continue reading “NASA all geared up to launch Phoenix, will dig the Martian surface for clues of life” »

GTC or the Gran Telescopio Canarias is the world’s largest telescope that has been under construction for seven years. Till now the telescope is not fully complete, but complete enough to look into the Universe for the first time. The ceremony called the “First Light” will be held on Friday. The telescope will cost about $175 million when fully complete. The University of Florida will be the only U.S. institution with a stake in the massive telescope. Till now the telescope is not fully complete and only 12 out of the 36 mirrors that will collectively compose its 34.1-foot primary mirror have been installed. Dow now the telescope will just peep into the Universe and only after the telescope is fully complete it will be able to deliver scientific-quality observations. The test run of the telescope will involve Prince Felipe, who will train the telescope on Polaris for a ceremonial observation that will be attended by around 300 people. Image Via: UPI