Godspeed SpaceX

I was worried yesterday , i had a bad night sleep, after i saw the news on Mr. Elon Musk ambitions to Mars.

Honestly my first reaction was , science is not for playboys and  he is planning to invade mars, we are not sure 100% there is no life there !

Then i went to bed and i remembered Asimov , Arthur C Clarke, Sagan and many others and today i'm at peace again.

I'm sure this project of going to Mars will take in consideration many philosophical , religious , social , scientific and economical aspects of such
endeavor.

Mars should be, must be the next step in our path to evolve as a species.
We will be on earth , i hope, for many thousands of years, but it's time to start
thinking that one day we will need to leave home, as we do on our normal lives today.

Elon Musk said , and i think it's clear to anyone , that it's going to be difficult and dangerous the road ahead, but the true is, someone has to give that step
and dream on a time that dreams are most needed.

SpaceX has shown that dreams can be made real.

However i still have some issues on this matter. The timeline set by Mr.Elon Musk seems too short and ambitious. Probably the moon should be considered
as platform to reach farther desinations, also making thinks faster can result in mistakes , that in this case , my cause people to die.

As for the destination, i'm sure all considerations about the importance of whether there is life or not on Mars will be taken in account before the first boot sets on the marcian soil. Putting people on Mars with the intent to colonize make it mandatory that we are sure that no life, even microbial , exists on Mars.

I'm aware that Earth life may already reached Mars result of asteroids impact 
but still is important to be sure.

As for cooperation, NASA and other space agencies , are very important for SpaceX goals, and fundamental to get there. They're history of Mars exploration are important to avoid mistakes necessary to avoid. They're technical knowledge will be of most importance on achieving good results.

I hope, after a night of nightmares , that Space X and Mr.Elon Musk succeed on this fantastic endeavor, Godspeed !

Meteorite kills human for the firt time in record history!

Mystery over an explosion in Vellore district has been solved after the Tamil Nadu government confirmed that a meteorite fell on a private engineering college premises on Saturday killing a bus driver and injuring two gardeners and a student.

Chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday announced a solatium of Rs 1 lakh for the family of Kamaraj, a bus driver of Bharathidasan Engineering College at Natrampalli, who was killed and Rs 25,000 for three others, who were injured in the explosion. more  Here

THIS may be the first official confirmation of an object from space killing a living thing on earth this side of the 20th century.
On Sunday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa issued a statement saying the death of a man on the premises of a private engineering college in Vellore district the day before had been caused by a meteorite.

“A mishap occurred yesterday when a meteorite fell in the campus of a private engineering college in Vellore district’s K Pantharappalli village…,” she said in a release here, adding that she had ordered the district administration and hospital officials to offer the best treatment to the three injured.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jayalalithaa-vellore-explosion-tamil-nadu-cm/#sthash.HRVxqa8T.dpuf

THIS may be the first official confirmation of an object from space killing a living thing on earth this side of the 20th century.
On Sunday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa issued a statement saying the death of a man on the premises of a private engineering college in Vellore district the day before had been caused by a meteorite.

“A mishap occurred yesterday when a meteorite fell in the campus of a private engineering college in Vellore district’s K Pantharappalli village…,” she said in a release here, adding that she had ordered the district administration and hospital officials to offer the best treatment to the three injured.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jayalalithaa-vellore-explosion-tamil-nadu-cm/#sthash.HRVxqa8T.dpuf

THIS may be the first official confirmation of an object from space killing a living thing on earth this side of the 20th century.
On Sunday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa issued a statement saying the death of a man on the premises of a private engineering college in Vellore district the day before had been caused by a meteorite.

“A mishap occurred yesterday when a meteorite fell in the campus of a private engineering college in Vellore district’s K Pantharappalli village…,” she said in a release here, adding that she had ordered the district administration and hospital officials to offer the best treatment to the three injured.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jayalalithaa-vellore-explosion-tamil-nadu-cm/#sthash.HRVxqa8T.dpuf

Some Part of Comet Ison survived!

Comet ISON flew through the sun's atmosphere on Nov. 28th and the encounter did not go well for the icy comet. Just before perihelion (closest approach to the sun) the comet rapidly faded and appeared to disintegrate. This prompted reports of ISON's demise. However, a fraction of the comet has survived.

Comet ISON seems to be falling apart as it approaches the sun. Indeed, researchers working with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory said they saw nothing along the track that ISON was expected to follow through the sun's atmosphere. Nevertheless, something has emerged.

Whether this is a small scorched fragment of Comet ISON's nucleus or perhaps a "headless comet"--a stream of debris marking the remains of the comet's disintegrated core--remains to be seen. 

Comet Ison did not Survive !

Evidence is mounting that comet ISON did not survive its brush with the sun earlier today. Nov. 28th, Thanksgiving Day in the USA, the comet was supposed to pass a little more than a million miles above the surface of the sun. As themovie from SOHO shows, the comet had already disintegrated. Click to set the scene in motion, and pay careful attention to the head of the comet.

In the movie, Comet ISON is clearly falling apart as it approaches the sun. Researchers working with the Solar Dynamics Observatory report that they are saw nothing along the track that ISON was expected to follow through the sun's atmosphere.

The movie spans a day and a half period from Nov. 27th (01:41 UT) to 28th (15:22 UT). We see that Comet ISON brightened dramatically on Nov. 27th before fading on Nov. 28th. That brightening might have been the disintegration event, in which the comet cracked open and spilled its vaporizing contents into space.

There is still a slight chance that some fraction of Comet ISON has survived.

Comet ISON Still Intact

Comet ISON appeared in the higher-resolution HI-1 camera on NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft. Dark "clouds" coming from the right are more dense areas in the solar wind, causing ripples in Comet Encke's tail. Using comet tails as tracers can provide valuable data about solar wind conditions near the sun.

Image Credit: 

Karl Battams/NASA/STEREO/CIOC

Comet ISON entered the field of view of the HI-1 camera on NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, on Nov. 21, 2013, and the comet shows up clearly, appearing to still be intact.

Something falls from Apollo 17 LEM when leaving the moon

An interesting finding on the NASA video , showing the departure from Apollo 17 from the moon.

I cannot identify what is the piece falling on the video, i would like to have your comments

S.Sousa

NASA Hubble Finds New Neptune Moon

This composite Hubble Space Telescope picture shows the location of a newly discovered moon, designated S/2004 N 1, orbiting Neptune. The black and white image was taken in 2009 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 in visible light. Hubble took the color inset of Neptune on August 2009.

Image Credit: 

NASA, ESA, M. Showalter/SETI Institute

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new moon orbiting the distant blue-green planet Neptune, the 14th known to be circling the giant planet.
The moon, designated S/2004 N 1, is estimated to be no more than 12 miles across, making it the smallest known moon in the Neptunian system. It is so small and dim that it is roughly 100 million times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the naked eye.

Anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder Landing

Mars Pathfinder was launched on Dec. 4, 1996 at 1:58:07 am EST on a Delta II rocket. After an uneventful journey, the spacecraft safely landed on the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997. The first set of data was received shortly after 5:00 p.m. followed by the release of images at 9:30 p.m.

The Sojourner rover, with three Lewis components, then began its Martian trek and returned images and other data over the course of three months.

NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge

NASA announced Tuesday a Grand Challenge focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them.

The challenge, which was announced at an asteroid initiative industry and partner day at NASA Headquarters in Washington, is a large-scale effort that will use multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry, academia, and citizen scientists. It complements NASA's recently announced mission to redirect an asteroid and send humans to study it.

"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near the Earth's orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."

X-37B Secret Mission

The U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane has quietly passed the five-month mark on its latest secret mission in Earth orbit.
 

The X-37B looks a bit like a miniature space shuttle. The vehicle is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 m) wide.

Flights of the spacecraft are conducted under the auspices of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, an organization that performs risk reduction, experimentation and concept-of-operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.