April 1 -- April 30, 2005

April 29

Airlift to Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is winging its way toward the red planet. That is, via a C-17 Globemaster aircraft headed today for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Rolled out of facilities at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colorado, the huge spacecraft has been boxed up and given all the tender loving care required.

"We want to get the spacecraft down there...get propellant loaded...and launch. And we can't do that from Denver," Kevin McNeill, MRO program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems told SPACE.com.

Loaded with science gear, the MRO is being readied for liftoff with a launch window that opens August 10. Lockheed Martin's Atlas V launch vehicle -- designated AV-007 -- is now at Cape Canaveral and being prepped to hurl MRO across interplanetary space.

At 4,800 pounds (2,180 kilograms), MRO weighs as much as two Toyota Corollas. It is three times the weight of the Odyssey spacecraft now orbiting Mars.

Tim Gasparrini, mechanical systems manager at Lockheed Martin, said that the shipping container features its own environmental control system to keep an eye on temperature and humidity. Also, ultra-pure nitrogen is pumped in to keep MRO instruments super-clean during transport.

Once in Florida, MRO is slated for sets of tests to assure all systems on the Mars craft are in tip-top shape for launch.

MRO carries six primary instruments, including a zoom-lens camera system to reveal Mars as never before. During its global mapping mission, a ground-penetrating radar experiment will also probe for signs of underground ice and liquid water - resources that might prove convenient to future human explorers.

-- Leonard David

April 26

Complex Hydrocarbons Found in Titan's Air

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- A close flyby of Saturn's big moon Titan by the international Cassini spacecraft revealed an upper atmosphere brimming with complex organic material, a finding that could hold clues to how life arose on Earth, scientists said Monday.

Cassini flew within 638 miles of Titan's frozen surface on April 16 and discovered a hydrocarbon-laced upper atmosphere.

Titan's atmosphere is mainly made up of nitrogen and methane, the simplest type of hydrocarbon. But scientists were surprised to find complex organic material in the latest flyby. Because Titan is extremely cold _ about minus 290 degrees _ scientists expected the organic material to condense and rain down to the surface.

"We are beginning to appreciate the role of the upper atmosphere in the complex carbon cycle that occurs on Titan," said Hunter Waite, a professor at the University of Michigan.

Scientists believe Titan's atmosphere may be similar to that of the primordial Earth and studying it could provide clues to how life began.

The $3.3 billion Cassini mission, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997 and took seven years to reach Saturn. The European Huygens probe carried aboard Cassini was released on Dec. 24 and plunged to the surface of Titan in January.

-- Associated Press

April 25

Bright Meteor Surprises New England

A bright light that was likely a meteor sparked a flurry of frantic phone calls to police departments Sunday night across New England, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Called a meteor shower in some news reports, the flash was more likely a single object seen from different angles. It was spotted from as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south as Long Island, New York. Some witnesses apparently mistook the sky show for a plane crashing in Connecticut, the FAA's Holly Baker said.

"We've checked all around. There are no aircraft unaccounted for," she said.

An emergency management official in Massachusetts speculated that the object was part of the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaked Friday morning.

"I highly doubt that this object had anything to do with the Lyrid meteor shower," said Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Night Sky columnist.

"The characteristics are all wrong; Lyrids are not known for producing brilliant fireballs like this," Rao wrote today in his Skyway E-Mail Advisory, a newsletter he sends to astronomy enthusiasts. "More likely it was an erratic chunk of stone or iron, probably related to something out of the asteroid belt."

Firefighters in Branford, Conn., responded to several reports of a possible plane crash in Long Island Sound in the Thimble Island area, but a search did not turn up anything and was called off a short while later.

-- The Associated Press and SPACE.com reporting

April 21

Beamed Into Space: Whale Songs

From the deep ocean into the depths of space, the first live whale songs are to be broadcast into the cosmos on April 22 - Earth Day.

Providing the service is the Deep Space Communications Network, a private organization located near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Making use of a large dish antenna, the group will blast the whale songs out to some 3.5 light years into deep space covering an estimated distance of 18 trillion miles.

The distance the whale songs signal could go into the universe beyond the 18 trillion miles -- and still be detectable by other non-terrestrial systems -- "is an ongoing matter of speculation," said Jim Lewis of Deep Space Communications Network.

The Sirius Institute, located in Puna, Hawaii, contracted the Deep Space Communications Network to perform the duty.

Members of the whale chorus whose songs will be sent live into space are from pods of Humpback whales off the coast of Maui. Whalesong.net (http://www.whalesong.net/) will provide the live feed of whale music making use of an underwater microphone in the Pacific Ocean near Maui, Hawai'i.

Michael Hyson, research director for the Sirius Institute, said that dolphins and whales are the oldest sentient race on the planet, and it's about time they shared their songs with the universe.

Humpback whale songs are included in the gold records that are attached to the still-outbound Voyager spacecraft. But this is the first time that live whale songs will be transmitted into space.

-- Leonard David

April 20

Russian Astrologist Sues NASA

NASA has been taken to court in Russia over its plans to crack open a comet.

Marina Bai, a Russian astrologist, filed a lawsuit last month with the Presnensky district court in Moscow, demanding that the U.S. space agency call off its $311 million Deep Impact mission.  As reported in MosNews.com, Bai is also asking for 8.7 billion rubles ($311 million) in compensation for moral damages.

"The actions of NASA infringe upon my system of spiritual and life values, in particular on the values of every element of creation, upon the unacceptability of barbarically interfering with the natural life of the universe, and the violation of the natural balance of the Universe," Bai said in her claim.

Deep Impact, which is already in space, is scheduled to collide with Comet 9P/Tempel 1 on July 4^th of this year.  The spacecraft will be used to dig out a crater in the comet.  Scientists will then hope to learn what a typical comet is made of. 

The district court dismissed the Bai's case, but the Moscow City Court took up the appeal and will rule following a hearing scheduled for May 6.

Benny Peiser, a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University who follows asteroid science and the surrounding media and public attention, said even some Russian scientists have jumped on this court case, calling the space mission an act of "vandalism that cannot be justified."

"I can only hope that this irrational technophobia is not a sign of things to come in other parts of Europe, which is already falling worryingly behind internationally in science and technology, never mind space exploration," Peiser told SPACE.com.

-- SPACE.com Staff

April 18

European Probe Following a Moon Shadow

The European Space Agency's (ESA) SMART-1 has begun imaging the Moon in a search for lunar peaks of eternal sunlight.

Not only are there areas at higher elevation on the rim of polar craters that see the Sun more than half of the time. There are also areas in the bottom of near-polar craters that do not see direct sunshine where ice might potentially be trapped.

In collaboration with astronomers from the University of Arizona in Tucson, the SMART-1 team has analyzed SMART-1 images to look for potential sites at the Moon's north pole for emplacing future telescopes on the Moon, explained ESA SMART-1 project scientist, Bernard Foing.

This early robotic phase of reconnecting scientists with the Moon is expected to provide benefit to future lunar exploration, Foing emphasized.

"If we can confirm peaks of eternal light, or pairs of sites exposed to sunlight at any moment, this could be an advantageous location to install a solar power infrastructure to feed future robotic/human outposts and colonies," Foing explained.

-- Leonard David

April 15

Second Primordial Star Found

Astronomers have examined a star they think was among the first created after the universe began. It is only the second known example of such a primitive object.

Theorists say the universe began with the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago. For some 2 million years, stars could not form. Then things cooled enough for knots of gas to condense into the first stars. The gas present then was raw, primordial. It was mostly hydrogen and helium, with traces of lithium, helium and deuterium.

The first stars were composed of these raw materials, the thinking goes. Within the furnace of each first-generation star, heavier elements were created, then cast into the cosmos when the stars died explosively. Subsequent generations of stars created more and more heavier elements, including all the stuff that makes planets and living things.

The first stars should have been virtually bereft of iron, for example, while iron is common in latter-day stars like our Sun. They are challenging to find and study, because all that's left are the burnt embers of their previous shimmering glory.

The newly studied star, named HE1327- 2326, contains 300,000 times less iron than the Sun. It is similar to one announced in 2002.

The investigation was led by Anna Frebel of the Australian National University and is detailed in the April 14 issue of the journal Nature. The results should help astronomers learn more about the initial era of the universe, said Roger Cayrel, of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon in Paris.

-- Robert Roy Britt

April 12

Russia Celebrates 44^th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's Flight

MOSCOW. April 12 (Interfax) -Tuesday, April 12, is 44th anniversary the world's first manned space flight performed by Russian cosmonaut Yury Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

Gagarin blasted off from the Soviet Baikonur space launching site and flew around the Earth aboard the Vosktok-1 space rocket. His flight lasted 108 minutes.

Ceremonies marking the 44th anniversary of Gagarin's flight will take place across Russia.

A spokesman for Russia's Space Mission Control has told Interfax that link-up between the Roskosmos leadership and the 10th crew of the international space station, where Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, are stationed is scheduled for Tuesday.

-- Interfax

April 7

Public Hearings on Prometheus Space Nuclear Power

NASA's need for space nuclear reactors under its Prometheus program involves development of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). Part of that process solicits public input regarding space nuclear reactors to produce on-board power for instrument and propulsion needs to support the Vision for Space Exploration.

NASA has slated two public scoping meetings to provide information on the Prometheus PEIS and to ask for public comments. These meetings are:

1. April 19, 2005, from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. and 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Florida Solar Energy Center; H. George Carrison Auditorium; 1679 Clearlake Road; Cocoa, Florida 32922;
2. April 26, 2005, from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill; 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW., Washington DC 20001.

-- Leonard David

April 5

Dust in the Wind of a Supernova

Astronomers have discovered a dusty wind that blew off a star right before it exploded into a supernova. This is the first time that a wind has been observed from this type of supernova precursor.

The dust-filled gale was detected around SN 2002ic, a Type Ia supernova about a billion light years from Earth. Type Ia supernovae occur when a small compact star, called a white dwarf, gobbles up mass from a companion star. At a certain point, the mass becomes too great and the white dwarf explodes.

Because Type Ia supernovae are uniformly bright, astronomers have used them to determine how fast the universe is expanding. The data - somewhat surprisingly - say that the expansion is speeding up.

To confirm this acceleration, scientists want to learn more about how the Type Ia bombs tick. Rubina Kotak and Peter Meikle from Imperial College London were interested in SN 2002ic because it was the first Type Ia in which hydrogen had been observed.

When the scientists measured the speed of this hydrogen, they realized it was moving too slowly to be ejecta from the explosion. Instead, it must have come from a wind blowing off the white dwarf. Subsequent measurements in the infrared discovered hints of dust grains wafting in the wind.

These results were to be presented at the Royal Astronomical Society annual meeting April 5.

-- Michael Schirber

April 4

Shuttle Rollout Delayed to at Least Wednesday

The rollout of shuttle Discovery to the launch pad has been delayed until no earlier than 2 a.m. Wednesday.

High humidity in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, where the orbiter has been stacked with its external tank and solid rocket boosters, has slowed work on heat-protection tiles, NASA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said.

"We always do some minor step-and-gap tile bonding once we get to the VAB," she said.

Workers are doing final checks and closeout work in areas around the points at the ship's nose and where the orbiter attaches to the tank.

"That's just a typical thing we would do over there," she said. "We usually just have more time as far as that's concerned to worry about Mother Nature and humidity."

Most tile work is done while the ship is in its hangar. Discovery rolled from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building a week ago. Usually, it takes five days to get a shuttle ready in the Vehicle Assembly Building, Rye said. This time, seven days were allotted, though the work is taking longer. The launch planning window for Discovery extends from May 15 to June 3.

-- Chris Kridler, Florida Today

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