Amateur and professional astronomers work
together to create a beautiful image of
the M106 galaxy using a mosaic of Hubble
telescope images. See Space-for-All
post for more info.
"to help planetary scientists identify
and measure features on the surface of
Mars... the likes of which don’t exist
on Earth. All of the images on this site
depict the southern polar region, an area
of Mars that we know little about, and
the majority of which have never been
seen by human eyes before!"
The goal is
to find and mark ‘fans’ and ‘blotches’
on the Martian surface. Scientists believe
that these features indicate wind direction
and speed. By tracking ‘fans’ and ‘blotches’
over the course of several Martian years
to see how they form, evolve, disappear
and reform, we can help planetary scientists
better understand Mars’ climate. We also
hope to find out if these features form
in the same spot each year and also learn
how they change.
The Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows are created by BINARY
SPACE (www.binary-space.com)
with story content from HobbySpace.com.
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 preceding two shows in the Virtual SpaceTV
3D series:
Deep Space Industries Aims
for Asteroid Mining and Space Construction
On January 22nd, the new company Deep
Space Industries helpd a press
briefing to announce theirplans for
prospecting and eventually mining asteroids.
Their
goals areto obtain materials such as
platinum that could be returned to earth
profitably and also to provide to in-space
users resources such as water, which can
also be splt into oxygen and hydrogen for
fuel. In addtion, they are developing a
3D printing system that could operate in
weightless conditions and would use nickel
metals from the asteroid to build large
structures.
Like the company Planetary
Resources which opened last year, Deep
Space Industries will not go directly to
an asteroid and start digging. Instead DSI
plans to send small
low cost probes, which they call Fireflies,
to visit asteroids and investigate their
composition. After this prospecting phase,
DSI will send larger scale spacecraft called
Dragonflies to those asteroids that were
found to be particularly promising. A Dragonfly
will return to earth with up to 65 kilograms
of asteroid materials.
To save on launch costs, the Fireflies
and Dragonflies will ride as secondary payloads
on launches of big commercial communications
satellites. Unlike Planetary Resources,
Deep Space Industries does not currently
have any billionaiire moguls backing their
plans. They are seeking investors and will
need several hundred milion dollars at least
to get theire project off the ground.
This video illustrates their near, medium
and long term goals:
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