NASA to launch drought-tracking satellite to track droughts and to study moisture

As per the Statement released by NASA, it is all set to launch a  new satellite in January 2015 to improve drought monitoring around the world. The Satellite is named Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite.

The satellite will be probably launched on January 29, 2015 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is going to take the pulse of a key measure of our water planet. The mission will provide the most correct, highest-resolution global maps that ever attained from space of the moisture present in the top 2 inches of Earth's soils.

Data from SMAP is going to be utilized to improve scientists' knowledge of the processes that connect Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles. It is going to detect and map whether the ground is frozen or thawed.

"With data from SMAP, scientists and decision makers around the world will be better equipped to understand how Earth works as a system and how soil moisture impacts a myriad of human activities, from floods and drought to weather and crop yield forecasts", said Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate's Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Christine Bonniksen said that Global soil moisture measurements of SMAP will offer a new ability to enhance their knowledge of Earth's climate. There are various reasons that researchers want to measure soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state better. Data from SMAP will increase confidence projections of how Earth's water cycle is going to react to climate change.

SMAP will also improve capability to monitor droughts, forecast floods and mitigate the associated impacts of these extreme events. It will also enable to monitor regional deficits in soil moisture. High-resolution observations of soil moisture are going to enhance flood warnings. It will give information on ground saturation conditions before rainstorms. Two advanced instruments of SMAP work together in order to produce soil moisture maps.

Expected Features of the Satellite

>The satellite will provide the best maps yet of soil moisture levels from pole-to-pole

>The satellite will be carrying a loft by a Delta II rocket

>Data from the satellite will track global soil moisture levels for the top two inches of the Earth's surface every two to three days

>The satellite will enable scientist to get a bird's-eye view of drought patterns; for instance, it will watch where droughts begin and end, and how droughts spread across large areas

>The soil moisture maps will supposedly help farmers who depend on rain to irrigate crops

>The SMAP satellite's feature rotating mesh antenna, which measures nearly six metres across - the largest ever deployed in space

It should be noted that the Soil moisture is one of the key factors in estimating drought severity; it also influences local weather, adds to hazards such as flooding, and plays a role in how plants store and release carbon.

The satellite mission costs around 916 million dollars and is planned to last for at least three years whereas the instruments will last for several years.

SMAP is one of five Earth observation satellites that NASA targeted for flash in 2014.

Read More

Unknown 08:15  No comment

Can PM Narendra Modi work his magic on Indian science?

Can PM Narendra Modi work his magic on Indian science? 

Prime ministers' speeches are seldom discussed beyond a day or two, and their addresses at the annual Science Congress are discussed still less. Successive prime ministers have waxed eloquent many times at the Science Congress, praising Indian scientists and promising better funding for their research. But without any specific proposals and follow-up action, their speeches and ideas were forgotten quickly, to be remembered and forgotten again in the next Science Congress. This year, however, seems to be different.

At the Science Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not promise to increase funding for science. Instead he listed the main challenges for the country — water, energy, healthcare... — and talked about how they should determine our national priorities in science. He spoke of international collaboration in science and how he was personally involved in developing them. He also hinted, in generous terms, of what he intended to do for Indian science. "This is the best speech I have heard from a prime minister at the Science Congress," says T Ramasami, former secretary at the Department of Science and Technology (DST). 

Many scientists now sense a real opportunity to communicate what they want to the prime minister, and expect quick measures from him to invigorate research in India. They are hoping Modi will rapidly address their biggest pain point in doing research: excessive control from finance departments. Specifically, the scientific community is excited by Modi's articulation of their most serious problem, in words that could not have been more eloquent: "We want our scientists and researchers to explore the mysteries of science, not of government procedures." 

This statement was the result of communication from scientific departments and leading scientists about how badly bureaucratic control is stifling science, and how the problem has rapidly deteriorated in recent times. Modi has been meeting scientists on and off, privately in his office and on the sidelines of public functions. Although he has focussed on economic matters most of the time, his mind reportedly has not gone away completely from science and technology. To many scientists in the country, it seemed that Modi was keenly aware of what needed to be done to energise Indian science: de-bureaucratise, stimulate demand for scientists, and bring in the youth. "I was awestruck by his speech," says National Research Professor RA Mashelkar. 

Read More

Unknown 08:12  No comment

ISRO wins US award for 'Mangalyaan' mission

The 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the category of Science and Engineering will be given to India's Mars Orbiter programme responsible for the development and deployment of "Mangalyaan," said US based National Space Society (NSS).

A representative from ISRO will receive the award in the National Space Society's 2015 International Space Development Conference that will run from May 20 till May 24. It will be held in Toronto, Canada.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) was launched on November 5, 2013 that was placed into Mars orbit on September 24, 2014.

The mission accomplished two significant firsts, the first one being that an Indian spacecraft had been positioned into orbit around the red planet in the first attempt. No other nation has ever achieved this.

Secondly, the spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit with a high apoapsis, and also has a high resolution camera that is clicking full-disk colour pictures of the red planet.

The statement read that Mylswamy Annadurai leads the Mars Orbiter programme team located in Bangalore.

The NSS is an autonomous non-profit educational membership organisation committed to the establishment of a spacefaring civilization.

Read More

Unknown 08:08  No comment

India Rank Decreasing in Innovation Index : CSIR

India Rank Decreasing in Innovation Index : CSIR 


Mumbai: R.A. Mashelkar, one of the top Indian scientists in the country right now has said that the country is lagging in innovative ideas. His assertion comes merely days after the Indian Science Congress became a laughing stock across the world when absurd claims were made by many during the otherwise very respectable science body in the country. The country has fallen 10 ranks down from being No. 66 in 2013 to No. 76 now, revealed eminent Indian scientist and former CSIR director general Raghunath Anant Mashelkar. Dr Mashelkar disclosed this while delivering a lecture on 'Reinventing India as an Innovation Nation' on Monday at International Management Institute Kolkata. 

Scientific validation of traditional knowledge

He said the public debate over BT brinjal was largely misplaced and skirted a rational approach. On the other hand, Mashelkar said, scientific validation of traditional knowledge like ayurvedic medicines was the key to reinventing innovations – bringing the past into the future.

Mashelkar, who backed creation of a digital library for India traditional knowledge, felt that Global Innovation Index needed to take note of business process innovations as one of the intrinsic elements of the aggregation. “Think about open heart surgery, made 20 times cheaper by Narayana Hrudayalaya through innovation in the processes”, he said. He felt there are many other areas where India excelled in innovating businesses processes, which increased their affordability many fold.

India would not have slipped in the global innovation scale from the 64th place in 2012 to 76th in 2014 had there been cognition of the business process innovation element.

Mashelkar said for corporation investment in R&D and innovation was an opportunity to stay competitive.​

Read More

Unknown 08:51  1 comment

Scientists map bowhead whale’s genome; discover genes responsible for long life

Scientists in the US and UK have mapped the genome for the world’s longest-living mammal, the bowhead whale, and have also discovered the unique genes responsible for giving the whale a lifespan of more than 200 years.

The genome mapping is a result of two separate studies carried out in the US and UK allowing scientists to identify a small number of genes linked to cancer resistance, DNA damage repair and increased longevity.

Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, the lead researcher of the UK-based study at Liverpool University, said the discovery could lead to those genes being used to help humans enjoy a longer life.

The work, conducted in the Liverpool Centre for Genomics Research was done in collaboration with scientists in Alaska, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and South Korea, and compared the bowhead’s genes with a minke whale, which typically lives for only 30-50 years.

Using this method, the researchers found that the bowhead had unique mutations in two genes linked to lifespan in animals.

These are the ERCC1 gene, which is believed to repair DNA, increase cancer resistance and slow ageing, and the PCNA gene, which is also linked to DNA repair.

Magalhaes is now seeking funding for a project that will insert the whales’ genes into mice to see if that improves their resistance to disease, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported.

If that is successful, the scientist hopes to test its effects on humans either by using drugs that activate the genes already inside the body or by incorporating the bowhead’s genes into human cells and inserting them back into people.

Magalhaes’ work follows a study published in October by Harvard Medical School researchers which also analysed the bowhead’s genes and made similar findings.They proposed that similar genetic patterns also existed in other remarkably long-lived animals such as the naked mole rat and the Brandt’s bat.

Read More

Unknown 03:08  No comment

Global warming changing taste of wine

London: The taste of some of the world's finest wines is changing as global warming alters the way grapes mature, scientists have found.

Grapes such as pinot noir, Merlot and chardonnay are now growing more quickly, subtly changing the compounds produced as they ripen and the ssynchronization between maximum flavor and the ratio of sugar to acid, scientists said.

An increasing number of vineyards are thus struggling to identify the perfect moment for picking the grapes to ensure their wines retain their characteristic flavors, according to research by Kimberly Nicholas, associate professor of sustainability science at Lund University in Sweden.

"Climate change is beginning to affect the singular flavors that people expect from different wines - the experience you come to know and trust from your ffavoritereds and whites," Nicholas said in a report published in the journal Scientific American.

"As a grape matures, its sugar level rises and its acid level falls. The ideal ratio for picking occurs at around four months. Overall flavor should also peak at that time, creating a tight window for the best harvest time," she said.

Climate change is making the identification of the harvest window more difficult, Nicholas was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.

"As the atmosphere warms, the desired ratio of acid to sugar occurs earlier in the season," she said.

"The optimal flavor moment may occur earlier too - but not as much - leaving a gap between the ideal sugar-to-acid ratio and the ideal flavor. Grapes may also ripen too fast to accumulate flavor or color," she added.  

Read More

Unknown 03:07  No comment

Communications with Mangalyaan to get blocked for 15 days in June

Communications with Mangalyaan to get blocked for 15 days in June

After the success of Mangalyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on developing the technology to send a manned mission into space, said K Radhakrishnan who recently retired as chairman of the space agency.

“The technology available in India needs to take a few more steps to be able to send human beings to space. ISRO is working on them,” he said while speaking at an interaction with senior space scientist Pramod Kale at the 102nd Indian Science Congress hosted by Mumbai university at its Kalina campus on Saturday.

While confirming that the data sent back by the Mars orbiter was of very good quality, Radhakrishnan said the autonomy technology developed for the Mangalyaan mission could be adapted for navigation satellites and communication satellites in the future as well.

However, for a fortnight in June 2015, the orbiter spacecraft developed will be out of reach of ground control when the Sun will obstruct the space between Earth and Mars. “At that time, it will be a major challenge to keep the spacecraft functioning on autonomy mode,” he said.

Sun to block communication between Mangalyaan and ISRO in June

Bengaluru, Jan 5: Come June and the ISRO team would lost its communication with its ambitious space project Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) for 15 days. According to report in Times of India, former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said at the Indian Science Congress that this will be the first such long communication break between ISRO team and MOM since its launch on Nov 5, 2013.

Radhakrishnan further told that the blackout will be the result of an eclipse and it will be from June 8 to 22. MOM project director Subbiah Arunan said that the blackout will happen because the Sun will come between Earth and Mars, blocking the view of the red planet. He said that during the blackout, data cannot be transmitted to the spacecraft or downlinked.

"There have been many manoeuvres when there has been a communication blackout, but this is the first time it is happening for as long as 14 day," Arunan has been quoted as saying in the report. The Mars Orbiter launched on November 5, 2013 onboard ISRO's PSLV C25 from Sriharikota entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 after a nine-month long odyssey, making India the first country in the world to succeed in such inter-planetary mission in the maiden attempt itself. Since then, the spacecraft has been sending data, including pictures of the terrain of the Red planet to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which are being received at Bangalore and being sent to Space Application Centre and Physical Research Laboratory, both located at Ahmedabad for analysis.

Read More

Unknown 03:03  No comment

Gizmag Robot learns to cook by watching YouTube

 Gizmag Robot learns to cook by watching 

YouTube

Our future is promised to be filled with robots equipped to perform all sorts of jobs, and artificial intelligence will pave the way to making that reality possible. Deep learning has received a lot of attention as of late -- we've detailed it a few times in the past -- and latest among it is a project by researchers using YouTube videos of people cooking to teach robots how to use tools. The efforts were recently detailed in a report available to the public.

You've likely heard about deep learning artificial intelligence in relation to Facebook, which is using the technology to increasing degrees for many things, which could one day include protection mechanisms to keep you from embarrassing yourself.

More than just Facebook is using deep learning, however, and as part of it researchers at NICTA and the University of Maryland have demonstrated using freely available YouTube videos to help robots learn to use tools, including both recognizing what the tool is and how to use it properly.

In this case, a total of 88 YouTube videos on cooking were used, with data from them ultimately being spun into commands for a robot to use. In the future, this could pave the way for robots to become smarter by watching YouTube videos the same way their human counterparts do.

A team of American and Australian researchers claim they have created algorithms that enable robots to learn operational skills by watching human activities. They "taught" their robot to cook by showing it some YouTube videos.

Researchers from the University of Maryland and the Australian research center NICTA have been “educating” their robot using the so-called “deep learning” method of artificial intelligence training.

This method implies that a robot receives large chunks of information through a number artificial neural networks, be it audio and video images recognition or other information inputs, then sums the new data up and acts in accordance with the freshly obtained experience.

The robot employs recognition techniques that make it capable of recognizing specific objects, the way they are grasped by the human hand, and even predicting the next action most likely to be made with the object. This means that the robot could analyze and learn how to handle instruments and tools.

Modern robots could thus be “taught” to mechanically repeat a certain operation, e.g. painting a vehicle, yet a machine capable of analyzing the process to learn “how it works” has an invaluable importance for the future of robotics.

The scientists claim that the AI robot created by the researchers was trained to cook using 88 videos of people cooking found on the web. Once the robot analyzed the videos, it was able to generate the commands it would need to cook food.

Read More

Unknown 02:57  No comment

Ancient Sanskrit text mentioned air travel’

Ancient Sanskrit text mentioned air travel

The retired principal of a pilot training centre said at the Indian Science Congress Sunday that the country’s scientists should use technology listed in an ancient Sanskrit text to build indigenous aircraft and promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative.

Captain Anand Bodas, who was presenting a paper on ‘Ancient Indian Aviation Technology’, claimed that the science of building and flying a plane was recorded by Maharshi Bharadwaj in Brihad Vimana Shastra, written between 6000 BC and 7000 BC, several millenia before the Wright Brothers built an aeroplane. “Maharshi Bharadwaj said air planes were used to travel from one city to another, from one country to another and from one planet to another,” Bodas said.

“The science should now be used by Indian scientists to build our own planes,” he added. Bodas further said building such planes would be in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India programme.

He also said a Mumbai couple pulled off a demonstration flight on Chowpatty beach before the Wright Brothers went up the air.

Bodas claimed that manuscripts recovered by Mysore’s International Academy of Sanskrit Research in 1952 discard records that Wright Brothers flew the first plane in 1903.

He said planes built centuries ago were nearly 60 feet X 60 feet and were made using 11 alloys, 407 melting pots and 532 furnaces. “Brihad Vimana Shastra had vivid details of 32 systems built in the plane with seven systems for navigation, eight for operational purposes and remaining for war-time purposes. The planes in the scripts also had flexible exhausts called ‘shundaas’ which are absent in modern technology,” he added.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the scientific community should use Sanskrit for human development. He added that Germans were the first to acknowledge Sanskrit’s importance, but Indians are yet to do it.

Ayurvedic physician Dr Ashwin Sawant, who presented a case study on ancient surgery, indicated that plastic surgery was found in India 3,500 years ago and dentistry was practised 7,000 years ago. “The surgical instruments, about 101 blunt and 20 types of sharp instruments, are used with little variation today. For instance, ‘swastik yantra’ is modern day’s forceps while ‘sharaari shastra’ is today’s scissors. Medical use of leeches for blood-related diseases was mentioned in Sanskrit scripts. It was only recently that US Food and Drug Administration acknowledged use of leeches. It is time Indian medical science makes use of ancient scripts for innovation in medicine,” said Sawant.

Scientist Dr Vijay Bhatkar pointed out that Indian scientists should start studying the texts before the US recognises accuracy of ancient Indian sciences.

Most speakers at the session stressed on the use of Sanskrit texts to forward the Make in India initiative.

Read More

Unknown 02:50  No comment

Modi's Make in India campaign forward?

Will jingoism dressed up as science take Modi's Make in India campaign forward?

On Sunday, the Indian Science Congress that is currently underway in Mumbai had 14 sessions covering a wide range of subjects from number theory to environmental health, but what hogged the headlines was an outlandish claim that 7,000 years ago India had planes that could travel between planets.

The speaker who made the claim didn't stop with that. He went on to add finer details of these planes such as their size, number of engines and a RADAR system that could show the shape of a plane and not just the blip.

What's more, there were also assertions that ancient Indians were proficient in surgery and had produced surgical instruments which looked like the modern tools. The claims on surgery were of course attributed to names that are familiar to us - Charaka and Sushruta.

The revelations were not based on any empirical evidence that researchers dug out, but were apparently drawn from ancient texts. The source for the aviation invention was "Vaimanika Prakarana", the details of which abound on the internet, while for surgery, the speaker quoted "Sushruta Samhita" that practitioners of Indian medicine often refer to lend authenticity to their work.

The session that sought to make India proud of its ancient proficiency on science and technology was titled Ancient sciences through Sanskrit and obviously the speakers freaked out. And it was the first time that the century old Indian Science Congress Association, incidentally founded by two British chemists, featured anything like this.

What distinguishes science from pseudosciences is evidence and peer review. Both start with a hypothesis. While science rigorously scrutinises the evidence for and against the hypothesis, pseudoscience looks only for suitable evidence. It either abandons or hides the conflicting evidence. Science needs reproducible results and pays no attention to anecdotes, while pseudoscience relies largely on exceptions, personal testimonies and stories.

And most importantly, science is peer reviewed and it’s progressive - more and more is found on the invention as time progresses, while in pseudoscience, the revelation is static and it adds no value to human life. As the famous Anglo-Irish physicist George Johnston Stoney had noted, "a theory is a supposition which we hope to be true, a hypothesis is a supposition which we expect to be useful; fictions belong to the realm of art; if made to intrude elsewhere, they become either make-believes or mistakes".

The grand proclamations on ancient science at the Science Congress, unfortunately belong to the realm of art. And it was not new either, because we have read it many times in Indian mythology which is full of mind-blowing ideas, limitless imagination and philosophic wisdom. They do have tremendous value for human life and even scientific exploration, but they are not science, but only a work of art. Claiming authorship of technological inventions because they were once fantasised by ancient Indians is against the principle of science that the Indian Science Congress seeks to pursue.

Unfortunately, the claims on ancient science on Sunday reeked of mythology, a certain ideology and pure jingoism. What's the purpose of the claims that India possessed 40-engine inter-planetary planes when the National Aerospace Laboratory is unable to produce even a prototype of an usable passenger aircraft after so many years of its expensive existence? In contrast, Brazil and China, which make no claims to ancient wisdom on aeronautical engineering have thriving aerospace industries. About 96 percent of the component cost of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, reportedly, is on imported items.

The status of technological advances is similar in many other national undertakings such as the DRDO and the Indian nuclear energy sector. Besides the plane, ancient science experts also claim that Indian were pioneers of rocket technology although most of its present successes had to rely on imported expertise and materials.

What's the purpose of the tall claims made by people such as Anand Bodas (the author of the plane story) at the Science Congress? Whatever is the objective, it will certainly not encourage scientific exploration because real scientists and students of science know the primacy of evidence and peer review.

So who does it excite? Charlatans, pseudoscientists and ultra-nationalists. Such a pity that an institution such as the Indian Science Congress Association had been misused for this purpose.

Karl Marx had said in his Das Kapital: "There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.” That is the message the Science Congress should sent out if India wants to catch up with the rest of the world in scientific excellence and not jingoism dressed up as science.

Will ancient knowledge help Indians make everything in India?

Read More

Unknown 02:47  No comment

Supercomputer simulates the Universe

Supercomputer simulates the Universe 

For several years, astronomers have tried to develop the computer-simulated models of the Universe; but without the desired success. The galaxies formed in computer simulations were typically extremely massive, sometimes too small or too old. The computers would generate galaxies of very spherical shape; which haven't been observed. However, a research group comprising of researchers from the Durham University and the Leiden University have succeeded in developing a simulation that is like the real thing! 

Professor Richard Bower of Durham University says that the simulation of the Universe his team created has galaxies everywhere, of various shapes sizes and even colors that have been actually observed by the largest of the telescopes. The galaxies created by the computers are like those in the EAGLE simulation aka the Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments. Bower says that in the EAGLE universe simulation, he can just press the button and make the time run backwards. This achievement is expected to allow the researchers to study the formation of individual galaxies in detail.

The team used COSMA aka the Cosmology Machine, which is the DiRAC2 Data Centric System commissioned about 2 years ago at Durham University along with 'The Curie' supercomputer in Paris. These supercomputers worked for several months to simulate the Universe with impressive results. The picture above is a close-up of the galaxy formed using EAGLE simulation method with blue, green and red colors indicating the increasing temperature of the cosmic gases. Do check out the video that shows the entire process of formation of Universe -

Read More

Unknown 09:38  No comment

ZERO GRAVITY DAY IS TOTALLY FALSE

ZERO GRAVITY DAY IS TOTALLY FALSE 

It is the Nigerian-prince email of the astrophysics world -- a persistent rumor that a rare planetary alignment involving the Earth, Jupiter and Pluto will cause a momentary fluctuation of gravity here, rendering us all weightless and able to briefly float in the air, or at least land more slowly should we attempt to dunk a basketball at that perfect moment.

The latest iteration of this rumor tells us that this historic moment will occur Sunday morning at 9:47 a.m. Pacific Time. But if your memory is sharp enough to recall that the exact same rumor circulated about 12 months ago, then never came to fruition, perhaps you can join me in not strapping down all fragile and/or sharp objects as a precaution in advance of "zero G day."

Like many a chain letter assuring you that Bill Gates or an African royal has some extra money just waiting for you to claim it, the notion that we will be temporarily granted a reprieve from the mysterious force that tethers us to this wonderful marble is nothing more than a hoax that has been passed down 

 First of all, no freaky planetary alignment or even an impromptu chorus line involving every rock in the asteroid belt would be able to turn off gravity here on Earth, even for a second -- the planets, especially the big ones like Jupiter with the most gravitational pull, are just too far away. And as for the inclusion of Pluto in the hoax, well this should give you some idea that it's provenance is less than serious. Pluto was, of course, demoted from planet to dwarf planet status several years ago, and it's way too far and way too small to have any noticeable impact on us.

In fact the laughable idea of Jupiter and Pluto conspiring to disable gravity here was originally just that, a joke that dates back more than 40 years to an April Fool's Day prank attributed to the late British astronomer Patrick Moore.

So, sorry folks, real science rains on the parade once again. Too bad, too, because without gravity the potential for epic cow-tipping and even cow-floating tales would have been historic. What would you do for a moment without gravity? Besides this cool trick with a Go Pro, that is.

Read More

Unknown 09:37  No comment

NASA — New Spacecraft Will Be Inflatable

Mars. It comes up in every conversation concerning NASA at some point. When are we going to Mars?

It turns out that NASA is continually trying to figure out how to do just that, and it now seems that a very simple design solution might be man’s ticket to the red planet.

The question of how to safely land a large spacecraft on Mars is just one of many challenges that NASA has to figure out before sending man to the fourth planet later this century. As a result of the problem, engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are working on an inflatable heat shield. The shield resembles an immense version of a toddler’s stacking toy. NASA engineers are confident that a lightweight, inflatable heat shield could be deployed upon entering the Martian atmosphere to help slow a spacecraft down before touchdown.

The development and implementation of such a device could open up a much wider range of touchdown locations on the red planet. NASA thinks that the use of such an inflatable heat shield could make it possible to reach the high-altitude southern plains of Mars and other areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. The problem with Mars is that it has an atmosphere. Landing a craft on Mars will be more difficult than landing on the moon – where there is no atmosphere. Rockets alone just won’t cut it. Additionally, though Mars has an atmosphere, it’s much thinner than that of Earth’s, so parachutes alone won’t work either.

The inflatable rings that NASA is coming up with will be filled with nitrogen and wrapped in a thermal blanket. After being deployed (inflated), the rings will sit on top of the spacecraft, making it appear like a giant mushroom.

Neil Cheatwood, the senior engineer at Langley for advanced entry, descent and landing systems, commented on the new inflatable system.

“We try to not use propulsion if we don’t have to. We make use of that atmosphere as much as we can, because it means we don’t have to carry all that fuel with us.”

NASA is looking to send humans to Mars as early as 2030, but they understand the challenge will be a difficult one. In addition to figuring out just how to land a spacecraft on the red planet, NASA has to also design new in-space propulsion systems, long-term living habitats aboard the spacecraft, advanced spacesuits, communication systems for deep space, and a hundred other solutions for problems that haven’t even been thought up yet.

Read More

Unknown 09:33  1 comment

Upcoming Astronomical Events for 2015. Great Reasons to Look Up to the Skies

The New Year is right around the corner and with it comes a new set of astronomical events to watch out for. A lot of memorable scenes in the skies were seen in 2014 and the same should be expected of 2015.

Right off the bat, planets will be more visible in January, with Venus and Mercury returning to the evening skies as soon as the New Year turns. Jupiter will also start showing in the same month and will be so bright it might cause a spike in UFO reports. Venus and Mercury will also be seen closest together on Jan. 11.

Come Feb. 20, the moon will be forming a tight triangle with Mars and Venus. The next day, the moon will be seen in front of Uranus, marking the first occultation by the moon for the year.

In March, expect a very mathematical day on the 14th as Pi Day is celebrated. Mathematicians typically celebrate the event every 14th day of the third month of the year because of the approximate value of Pi set at 3.14. This year, however, will be particularly special because the date lines up to 3-14-15. Rounding off the value of Pi to the nearest ten-thousandth will yield 3.1415.

A week after Pi Day, a total solar eclipse will take place on March 20, visible only to ships on the Norwegian Sea, Svalbard and Faroe Islands. The United States will not see another total solar eclipse until Aug. 21, 2017.

April will bring the first lunar eclipse of 2015 on Apr. 4, just before sunrise. As the event will be occurring late in the morning, those on the east coast will not see it. The start of the eclipse will be visible to those in the Midwest while those in the Pacific Coast and mountain states will mostly see all of it.

Venus and Jupiter will come together on June 30, making it hard to tell them apart. The two planets will be back together again in the morning of Oct. 6, lining up with Mars on Oct. 28.

On July 14, the New Horizons spacecraft will be finally passing by Pluto, giving everyone a glimpse of what the dwarf planet looks like up-close.

On Aug. 12 to 13, shooting stars will be visible around the Perseids.

On Sept. 27, the most visible lunar eclipse will happen. Aside from happening on a full moon, this particular lunar eclipse will coincide with a Supermoon and Harvest Moon. Expect tinges of red in the sky as well as the moon enters the Earth's shadow.

Without interference from the moon, shooting stars around the Leonids from Nov. 17 to 18 and the Geminids on Dec. 13 and 14 should also be highly visible.

Read More

Unknown 07:10  No comment

Frog gives birth to tadpoles as a first in the scientific world

Frog gives birth to tadpoles as a first in the scientific world

LONDON: For the first time ever, scientists have found a frog that gave birth to tadpoles. 

Nearly all the world's 6,000 frog species lay eggs but new born tadpoles are a first in the scientific world. 

An international team of researchers followed this unique species of fanged frogs from the Sulawesi Island in Indonesia for over a decade. 

On Thursday, they announced the first ever evidence confirming external fertilisation in frogs - the female lays eggs during mating while the male releases sperm to fertilise them. 

University of California, Berkeley, herpetologist Jim McGuire was slogging through the rain forests of Indonesia's Sulawesi Island one night this year when he grabbed what he thought was a male frog and found himself juggling not only a frog but also dozens of slippery, newborn tadpoles. 

He had found what he was looking for: direct proof that the female of a new species of frog does what no other frog does. 

It gives birth to live tadpoles instead of laying eggs. 

A member of the Asian group of fanged frogs, the new species was discovered a few decades ago by Indonesian researcher Djoko Iskandar, McGuire's colleague, and was thought to give direct birth to tadpoles, though the frog's mating and an actual birth had never been observed before. 

"Almost all frogs in the world have external fertilization where the male grips the female in amplexus and releases sperm as the eggs are released by the female," McGuire said. "But there are lots of weird modifications to this standard mode of mating. This new frog is one of only 10 or 12 species that has evolved internal fertilization, and of those, it is the only one that gives birth to tadpoles as opposed to froglets or laying fertilized eggs." 

Frogs have evolved an amazing variety of reproductive methods, says McGuire. 

Most male frogs fertilize eggs after the female lays them. 

Fanged frogs - so-called because of two fang-like projections from the lower jaw that are used in fighting - may have evolved into as many as 25 species on Sulawesi. 

The new species seems to prefer to give birth to tadpoles in small pools or seeps located away from streams, possibly to avoid the heftier fanged frogs hanging out around the stream. There is some evidence the males may also guard the tadpoles. 

McGuire first encountered the newly described frog in 1998, the year he began studying the amazing diversity of reptiles and amphibians on Sulawesi, an Indonesian island east of Borneo and south of the Philippines.

Read More

Unknown 09:21  No comment

New Project to Grow Lettuce on Mars

A student team in the UK plans to grow lettuce on Mars by 2018 using the atmosphere and sunlight on the red planet. LettuceOnMars, a student project from the University of Southampton Spaceflight Society, has reached the finals of an international competition, run by Mars One, a Dutch non-profit organisation, to land experiments on Mars. It is one of the ten short-listed university projects that was selected for technical feasibility and popularity.

The winning payload will arrive on Mars in 2018 together with the official Mars One experiments. The aim of the Southampton project is to send a small greenhouse to Mars in which lettuce will be grown using the atmosphere and sunlight on Mars. The team now needs the votes of the general public to be chosen as the winner and realise their plan to grow lettuce on Mars.

"To live on other planets we need to grow food there. No-one has ever actually done this and we intend to be the first. This plan is both technically feasible and incredibly ambitious in its scope, for we will be bringing the first complex life to another planet," Project leader Suzanna Lucarotti, said.

"Growing plants on other planets is something that needs to be done, and will lead to a wealth of research and industrial opportunities that our plan aims to bring to the University of Southampton," said MS Lucarotti.

"We have tackled diverse sets of engineering challenges, including aeroponic systems, bio filters, low power gas pressurisation systems and failsafe planetary protection systems and then integrated them all into one payload on a tight mass, power and cost budget. We can build this here and now, the only step now is to win the public vote," Ms Lucarotti added.

Read More

Unknown 09:20  No comment