'SPACE' in news

• Cloud Computing Is Making A Leap In Space Technology

Writing six ginger bytes of data every 1/60th of an hour is a daunting task. It might even sound mind-boggling for those outside the scientific community. However, the reality is true of a current mission in Europe that endeavors to chart the universe in its entirety using advanced servers. The mission will compute biological issues like biometrics, study rocks beyond the Milky Way, and explore planets in and outside the Solar System. What is the tying factor to all these? It is, undeniably, cloud computing.
Mars Rover: a fresh example
The most recent example of how cloud computing is changing the outlook of far-flung science for ordinary mortals is the Mars Rover project. It is now possible to create forums that can follow the exploits of the space probe vehicle on its maiden career on the rocky, uninhabitable terrain. It is no longer the fiction of Ray Bradbury about a Martian invasion that people will be reading. Rather, they will be reviewing real-time pictures of the Martian terra firma to disclose how to chart the fourth planet from the sun. Indeed, people can use these forums to debate how to alter earlier boundaries of craters that early missions to Mars showed post-2004.
One of the mysteries that have always surrounded Mars, which cloud computing can help resolve, is the crater that resembles a humanface staring into the stars. The most recent photos from the current probing mission show even more stark details about this phenomenon.
Cloud computing as a spatial collaboration
Other than Mars, there are many more lands of opportunities at the behest of would-be scientists. People can use video teleconferencing to showcase experiments and discuss important discoveries.
As a collaborative effort, the cloud acts as a perfect channel for storing data without fearing that the magnitude of the research will exhaust server memory. Indeed, this need not be so, since cloud computing thrives on tenancy. One only uses the space when there is need to. This is why the Americans have maintained their earliest rovers on the ‘red planet’ even after the times of these special vehicles are over. They can still rent room in datacenters dedicated to scientific research for the probing vehicles when need be and not always.
The frontier in space is expanding day by day due to keen interest by every brilliant mind out there. Years are gone when a select team in a national space agency not only made policies but implemented them entirely. Cloud computing now welcomes the views of independent researchers in space technology. They can perpetuate their views forward using their private clouds. Who knows; maybe the leading space agencies may discover them one day.
Another inspiring advancement in the cloud is nanotechnology. Micro physicians are challenging themselves with the query: if a toothbrush can fix a problem that would take months on earth to do on a space craft in space, why not them? Interestingly enough, large corporations in the computer industry are joining in. They make model programs that can act as a benchmark for future space studies. For example, there is now a new platform that is affording upcoming science graduates from the US to trace the Rover as it sends reports back to earth. This PowerPoint-like software will allow them to take pictures and inscribe them with maps, and captions. These efforts by graduates may later prove to be the quintessential charts for Mars.
Cloud computing is also according the satellites circling the globe independence from their human makers. These satellites relay information using standards that are easy to assimilate. Scientists can track them, but do not need to stay with eyes open because the objects have a semi-autonomous model of checking weather patterns, analyzing rock formation and helping with radio signals. They send reports back to the surface in preset times, meaning that they are in a private cloud that operates on its own, though the larger public can take advantage of their byproducts including clear radio signals and satellite television reception.
Becoming space citizens
It is inspiring to note that a site that has come in the wake of the recent missions to the red planet has attracted a virtual world of its own. The federal site has now a population of fifty-four thousands citizens. The citizens exchange notes, in forums and via chat. They discuss the latest reports from Rover that seem to come from their own planet. They can even improvise ways for the space rover to look for more evidence about the existence of water in the craters of Mars by offering suggestions. The NASA scientists behind the project may take a look at some brilliant suggestions and feed this into the craft’s program.
Sciencefiction movies and novels are no doubt becoming a stable reality through the interactions of cloud computing. The majority who know that they are some of the 99.9% who will never leave earth as space tourists can now live the experience when hidden behind their computer servers. They merely need to interact with other knowledgeable minds whenever a new rocket launches. They can follow it using the fruits of nanotechnology and cloud computing.  (Source)

• Extraterrestrial “Iron Man”: Buddhist Statue, Discovered By Nazi Expedition, Is Made Of Meteorite, New Study Reveals

September 26, 2012 -  Priceless thousand year old Buddhist statue known as the Iron Man is the first carving of a human in a meteorite

It sounds like an artifact from an Indiana Jones film; a 1000 year-old ancient Buddhist statue which was first recovered by a Nazi expedition in 1938 has been analysed by scientists and has been found to be carved from a meteorite. The findings, published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science, reveal the priceless statue to be a rare ataxite class of meteorite.

The statue weighs 10kg and is believed to represent a stylistic hybrid between the Buddhist and pre-Buddhist Bon culture that portrays the god Vaisravana, the Buddhist King of the North, also known as Jambhala in Tibet. The statue was discovered in 1938 by an expedition of German scientists led by renowned zoologist Ernst Schäfer. The expedition was supported by Nazi SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and the entire expeditionary team were believed to have been SS members.
Schäfer would later claim that he accepted SS support to advance his scientific research into the wildlife and anthropology of Tibet. However, historians believe Himmler’s support may have been based on his belief that the origins of the Aryan race could be found in Tibet.
It is unknown how the statue was discovered, but it is believed that the large swastika carved into the centre of the figure may have encouraged the team to take it back to Germany. Once it arrived in Munich it became part of a private collection and only became available for study following an auction in 2007.
The first team to study the origins of the statue was led by Dr Elmar Buchner from Stuttgart University. The team was able to classify it as an ataxite, a rare class of iron meteorite with high contents of nickel.

“The statue was chiseled from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which crashed into the border areas between Mongolia and Siberia about 15,000 years ago,” said Dr Buchner. “While the first debris was officially discovered in 1913 by gold prospectors, we believe that this individual meteorite fragment was collected many centuries before.”

Meteorites inspired worship from many ancient cultures ranging from the Inuit’s of Greenland to the aborigines of Australia. Even today one of the most famous worship sites in the world, Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is based upon the Black Stone, believed to be a stony meteorite. Dr Buchner’s team believe the Iron Man originated from the Bon culture of the 11th Century.

“The Iron Man statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite, which means we have nothing to compare it to when assessing value,” concluded Dr Buchner. “Its origins alone may value it at $20,000; however, if our estimation of its age is correct and it is nearly a thousand years old it could be invaluable.”
The fall of meteorites has been interpreted as divine messages by multitudinous cultures since prehistoric times, and meteorites are still adored as heavenly bodies. Stony meteorites were used to carve birds and other works of art; jewelry and knifes were produced of meteoritic iron for instance by the Inuit society.

 Approximately 10.6 kg of the Buddhist sculpture (the “iron man”) is made of an iron meteorite, which represents a particularity in religious art and meteorite science. The specific contents of the crucial main (Fe, Ni, Co) and trace (Cr, Ga, Ge) elements indicate an ataxitic iron meteorite with high Ni contents (approximately 16 wt%) and Co (approximately 0.6 wt%) that was used to produce the artifact.

 

In addition, the platinum group elements (PGEs), as well as the internal PGE ratios, exhibit a meteoritic signature. The geochemical data of the meteorite generally match the element values known from fragments of the Chinga ataxite (ungrouped iron) meteorite strewn field discovered in 1913. The provenance of the meteorite as well as of the piece of art strongly points to the border region of eastern Siberia and Mongolia, accordingly. The sculpture possibly portrays the Buddhist god Vaiśravana and might originate in the Bon culture of the eleventh century. However, the ethnological and art historical details of the “iron man” sculpture, as well as the timing of the sculpturing, currently remain speculative.

Citation: “Buddha from space—An ancient object of art made of a Chinga iron meteorite fragment”, Meteoritics & Planetary Science, September 2012, DOI: 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2012.01409. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2012.01409.x/abstract

• Aliens To Invade Titan, Plans Disclosed, Ships Revealed

September 28, 2012 - Humanity has landed a rover on Mars. Now, say scientists, it’s time to land a boat on Titan. This outlandish scenario could become reality, according to engineers who presented their proposals at the European Planetary Science Congress on 27 September.  Of course, when humans go to another world, we are the aliens, you will please forgive the poetic license taken for the title of this story.

Image on the left shows the river networks draining into lakes in Titan's north polar region. I mage was produced by the Cassini mission.

The Cassini-Huygens mission, which studied Titan extensively in the 2000s, confirmed that lakes, seas and rivers of liquid hydrocarbons (similar to household gas) exist, covering much of the satellite’s northern hemisphere. Although it eventually landed on solid ground, the Hugyens lander was designed to be able to float for a short period.

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is one of the most Earth-like bodies in the Solar System. With a thick atmosphere, a diameter between that of Earth and the planet Mercury, and a network of seas, lakes and rivers, it is in many respects more like a planet than a moon like the Earth’s.

The new plans, called the Titan Lake In-situ Sampling Propelled Explorer, proposes a boat-probe, propelled by wheels, paddles or screws. The probe would land in the middle of Ligeia Mare (the biggest lake, near Titan’s north pole), then set sail for the coast, taking scientific measurements along the way. The mission would last around six months to a year.

Screw concept for TALISE probe: This rendering of the proposed TALISE probe shows one possible means of propulsion: screws on either side of the probe.  

Paddle concept for TALISE probe: This rendering of the proposed TALISE probe shows one possible means of propulsion: paddle wheels on either side of the probe.
 
Wheeled concept for TALISE probe: This rendering of the proposed TALISE probe shows one possible means of propulsion: wheels on either side of the probe.

“The main innovation in TALISE is the propulsion system,” says Igone Urdampilleta (SENER), a member of the TALISE team. “This allows the probe to move, under control, from the landing site in the lake, to the closest shore. The displacement capability would achieve the obtaining of liquid and solid samples from several scientific interesting locations on Titan’s surface such as the landing place, along the route towards the shore and finally at the shoreline.”

Titan’s environment is too cold for life as we know it, but its environment, rich in the building blocks of life, is of great interest to astrobiologists. The satellite’s atmosphere is made up largely of nitrogen (like Earth’s), is rich in organic compounds and hydrogen cyanide, which may have played a role in the emergence of life on Earth.
The TALISE concept is being developed as a partnership between SENER and the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, Spain. This mission concept is the result of a ‘Phase 0′ study. In the following phases the feasibility study and a preliminary mission architecture would be realised to consolidate a possible technical proposal for future space science mission call.
For many years, Titan’s thick, methane- and nitrogen-rich atmosphere kept astronomers from seeing what lies beneath. Saturn’s largest moon appeared through telescopes as a hazy orange orb, in contrast to other heavily cratered moons in the solar system Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer has imaged a huge cloud system covering the north pole of Titan.  This composite image shows the cloud, imaged at a distance of 90,000 kilometers (54,000 miles) during a Dec. 29, 2006, flyby designed to observe the limb of the moon. Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer scanned the limb, revealing this spectacular cloud system. It covers the north pole down to a latitude of 62 degrees north and at all observed longitudes.

SENER is a private engineering and technology group founded in 1956, which seeks to offer its clients the most advanced technological solutions and which enjoys international recognition, thanks to its independence and its commitment to innovation and quality. SENER has a workforce of more than 5,200 professionals and a turnover of €1.16 billion (2011 figures). SENER engages in the specific activities of Engineering and Construction, and also has industrial holdings in companies involved in Energy and Environment, as well as in Aeronautics. 

In 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft — a probe that flies by Titan as it orbits Saturn — penetrated Titan’s haze, providing scientists with their first detailed images of the surface. Radar images revealed an icy terrain carved out over millions of years by rivers of liquid methane, similar to how rivers of water have etched into Earth’s rocky continents.
While images of Titan have revealed its present landscape, very little is known about its geologic past. Now researchers at MIT and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville have analyzed images of Titan’s river networks and determined that in some regions, rivers have created surprisingly little erosion. The researchers say there are two possible explanations: either erosion on Titan is extremely slow, or some other recent phenomena may have wiped out older riverbeds and landforms.
Oded Aharonson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, says analyzing geologic processes on Titan may help scientists understand how rivers form. “Besides Earth, Titan is the only world where we see active river networks forming as a result of an active hydrologic cycle,” Aharonson says. “The finding suggests the process of river erosion on Titan is currently responding to resurfacing or resetting of the surface.” 

“It’s a weirdly Earth-like place, even with this exotic combination of materials and temperatures,” Taylor Perron, the Cecil and Ida Green Assistant Professor of Geology at MIT ays. “And so you can still say something definitive about the erosion. It’s the same physics.

SENER is a global leader in the Space industry, with over 208 devices launched to date in 48 satellites and space vehicles: for the space agencies of the US (NASA), Europe (ESA), Japan (JAXA) and Russia (Roscosmos), all without a single recorded failure. Its latest noteworthy projects include the Solar Orbiter joint mission between NASA and the ESA, a scientific satellite for studying the sun’s upper latitudes and poles, where SENER provided the entire antenna subsystem, along with other components; and NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, where SENER supplied the pointing mechanism for the antenna, which enables bi-directional communication between the rover Curiosity and the mission’s tracking stations on Earth. Curiosity successfully reached Mars’ surface on August 6, and since then its broadband communication with Earth has been functioning normally thanks to the precision of SENER’s mechanism. Video on River network on Titan 

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