The New
Horizons spacecraft is currently traveling
towards the dwarf planet Pluto and will
pass it in Aprli 2015. The main goal is,
of course, the study of Pluto and its moons
but if there is sufficient funding they
hope to study other objects in the Kuiper
belt, which extends far beyond Pluto.
However, they need to find something interesting
that will come close enough to the spacecraft
to do useful observations. The citizen science
program Ice
Hunters was started to get the public
to help in finding such objects:
After passing Pluto and Charon, pending
NASA approval of an extended mission,
the spacecraft can retarget itself for
an encounter with a KBO. The KBO target
will not be selected until shortly before
the Pluto encounter, but scientists hope
to find one or more that the spacecraft
can reach that are at least 30 miles (about
50 kilometers) across. This encounter
would be similar to the Pluto-Charon encounter;
the spacecraft would map the KBO with
high resolution images, investigate its
composition using infrared spectroscopy
and four-color maps, and look for an atmosphere
and moons.
This is where you come in. To find these
icy KBO targets we need your help poring
over thousands of ground based images,
taken specially for this purpose using
giant telescopes. Hiding within these
images are undiscovered slow-moving Kuiper
Belt Objects, asteroids zipping through
the foreground, and millions of background
stars.
Here is the third episode of a Virtual
SpaceTV 3D series on the feasibility of interstellar
travel. Virtual host Amanda Bush describes one theoretical
means of travel that is similar to the way a popular
TV starship gets around the galaxy. The series was created
by BINARY
SPACE and follows the Warp
Drive, When? material at NASA Glenn Research
Center.
These videos are intended as demonstrations of an experimental
technique for generating animated presentations. The
show was generated autonomously by software according
to a text script. The project is described in the Virtual
Producer whitepaper (pdf). For further information
contact info@binary-space.com.
Here are the two previous shows in the Interstellar Travel series:
SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches
Dragon for Cargo Delivery to the ISS
Last May SpaceX
launched its Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon
capsule on top. The Dragon went on to a
sucessful docking with the ISS, followed
a few days later by a return to earth with
a sea landing off the coast of California.
That flight was a test of the Falcon 9/Dragon
cargo delivery service for NASA. SpaceX
has a contract with NASA to provide 12 cargo
delivery flights over the next few years.
The first such regular cargo deliver mission
began on October 7th when a Falcon 9 lifted
off from Cape Canaveral.
..
The launch of the Falcon 9/Dragon on Oct.7,
2012 from Cape Canaveral
Credits SpaceX.
One of the nine engines on the first stage
failed early in the flight but the redundancy
of the system allowed for the Dragon to
reach its proper orbit nevertheless. (A
secondary prototype satellite from Orbcomm,
however, could not be put into its target
orbit.)
A couple of days later Dragon made a successful
rendezvous and approach to the ISS. Japanese
astronaut Akihiko Hoshide then used the
station's Canadian-built robotic arm to
grab the Dragon. Expedition 33 Commander
Sunita Williams later carried out the berthing,
i.e. attaching, of the Dragon to the station.
..
Here is an update (Oct. 22, 2012) from
SpaceX on the Dragon's stay at the ISS.
Run the Satellite
Tracking Tool from BINARY
SPACE right here at HobbySpace
in your browser. The program allows you to track a large
set of satellites in both low earth and geostationary
orbits. (Note: the program requires Microsoft
Silverlight, Version 5 or higher, as well as the latest
version of your browser. Currently the program works on
the Microsoft® Windows® platform only.) The Satellite
Observing section provides additional information
and web resources about the hobby of satellite tracking
and watching.
Real-Time
Space Viewers
Earth
Weather maps, remote sensing
and spysat images.
Space
Weather
Sun, solar wind, aurora images
and the latest data