Supernova 2014J has brightened to 11th magnitude in M82 off the Big Dipper. It's visible in amateur telescopes during evening.
A surprise supernova has erupted in M82, the famous nearby irregular galaxy in Ursa Major. Observers are reporting it at about magnitude 11.3 as of Thursday, January 23rd, with a color on the orange side of white.
The supernova in M82 as imaged by Leonid Elenin (Lyubertsy, Russia) and I. Molotov (Moscow, Russia) on Jan. 22.396. It's located at right ascension 9h 55m 42.2s, declination +69° 40′ 26″. It was V magnitude 11.7 at the time. Image by Leonid Elenin. (Click Image To Enlarge)
A spectrum reported by Yi Cao and colleagues (Caltech) suggests that it may still be two weeks away from reaching its peak brightness. Spectra show it to be a Type Ia supernova — an exploded white dwarf — with debris expanding at 20,000 kilometers per second. It is reddened, and hence must also be dimmed, by dust in M82 along our line of sight.
The M81 Supernova before and after images (Click Image To Enlarge)
M82 is a near neighbor as galaxies go, at a distance of 11 or 12 million light-years. It's a favorite for amateur astronomers and researchers alike, with its thick dust bands, sprays of gas, and bright center undergoing massive star formation. The supernova is not in the central star-forming region but off to one side, 58 arcseconds to the west-southwest.
Remarkably, the supernova went undiscovered for a week as it brightened. Prediscovery unfiltered CCD images by K. Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan, show nothing at its location to as faint as magnitude 17.0 through January 14.5. But on January 15.57 is was magnitude 14.4; on January 16.64 it was 13.9; on January 17.61, 13.3; January 19.62, 12.2; and January 20.62, 11.9. Images.
This is the starburst galaxy M82 imaged by Hubble in 2006, with approximate location of the #supernova noted. (Click Image To Enlarge)
M82 is well up in the northeastern sky by 7 or 8 p.m. (for observers at mid-northern latitudes). The waning Moon doesn't rise until much later.
The new point of light received the name Supernova 2014J once its nature was confirmed. It originally went by the preliminary designation PSN J09554214+6940260.
Animation of the M81 Supernova. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Here's acomparison-star chart from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). North is up, east is left, the chart is 1° wide, and stars are plotted to magnitude 13.5. If you want other parameters, or if the link fails, make your own chart using the AAVSO Variable Star Plotter. For the star name enter SN 2014J. The chart does not plot the galaxy.
The location of the M82 galaxy where the supernova occured is located near M81 just above the Big Dipper facing north. (Click Image To Enlarge)
A Flukey Find
The first people to recognize the supernova were a group of students — Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack, assisted by teaching fellow Stephen J. Fossey — taking a quick image at the University College London Observatory (within the London city limits!) on the evening of January 21st, at 19:20 UT.
"The discovery was a fluke, a 10-minute telescope workshop for undergraduate students that led to a global scramble to acquire confirming images and spectra."
Fossey says.
'The weather was closing in, with increasing cloud, so instead of the planned practical astronomy class, I gave the students an introductory demonstration of how to use the CCD camera on one of the observatory’s automated 0.35-meter telescopes. The students chose M82, a bright and photogenic galaxy, as their target, as it was in one of the shrinking patches of clear sky. While adjusting the telescope’s position, Fossey noticed a star overlaid on the galaxy which he did not recognise from previous observations. They inspected online archive images of the galaxy, and it became apparent that there was indeed a new starlike object in M82. With clouds closing in, they switched to taking a rapid series of 1- and 2-minute exposures through different colour filters to check that the object persisted, and to be able to measure its brightness and colour."
The original press release, and the BBC repeating it, claimed that this is the nearest supernova since Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact SN 1993J in M81 was at essentially the same distance within the uncertainties, and two subsequent supernovae, SN 2004am and SN 2008iz (an obscured radio supernova), occurred within M82 itself.
Watch here for updates.
Courtesy of an article dated January 21, 2014 appearing in Sky & Telescope
THE NEW GOOGLE COMPLEX WILL REPORTEDLY BE THE ONE OF THE LARGEST SINGLE-CLIENT CORPORATE AIR FACILITIES IN THE WORLD.
Google executives love to fly, and they fly a lot. A recent NASA report by the space agency's inspector general found chartered jets shuttling GOOG higher-ups received discounted fuel from the federal government that they weren't entitled to; there's now talk of Google paying some of that money back. But Google may get to experience every Fortune 500 company's wildest travel dream next month: A $82 million jet center dedicated to executives' private planes.
Exterior view of the new Google private jet facility. (Click Image To Enlarge)
In January, groundbreaking is expected to take place on a 29-acre facility featuring approximately 270,000 square feet of hangar space. The huge swath of space will effectively become a separate airport for Google executives and other tech muckety-mucks; private aviation support firm Signature Flight Support has a 50-year lease on the facility and will operate it with a partner named Blue City Holdings. In a statement, airport executives described San Jose-based Blue City as a "corporation representing the personal aircraft of the principals at Google" and explicitly said they would grant private airport section access to "other figures in the Silicon Valley business community as well."
The pickup and drop-off area for fliers on Google-affiliated jets and other tech industry high roller. (Click Image To Enlarge)
So why is a significant chunk of San Jose's airport being given over to a private corporation? The answer, as always, is capital. Mineta San Jose will make approximately $3 million annually by leasing the space to Signature and Blue City/Google; this means a cool $150 million for the airport over the coming decades. Mineta officials say the space will be home to the personal aircrafts of Google's principals; the area on the airport's west side has reportedly been underutilized for years. Documents published in February 2013 reveal that the new facility will create 36 permanent jobs, generate 370 "direct and indirect jobs," and eventually generate more than $300,000 in taxes annually, over and above the $3 million annual lease cost.
Runway view for the new Google private jet facility. (Click Image To Enlarge)
However, Google won't be the first corporate client moving into the Mineta site. The west side area slated for Blue Sky contains Hewlett Packard's corporate hangers, among other facilities. The new Google complex will reportedly be the one of the largest single-client corporate air facilities in the world. Much of the site slated to be developed by Signature is currently leased by aircraft giant Atlantic Aviation; Atlantic filed legal challenges against the city of San Jose in May 2013. The company, which runs charter and small plane facilities around the country, alleges San Jose didn't fulfill California environmental requirements when approving the Blue Sky/Google facility.
The complex will comply with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines. (Click Image To Enlarge)
So San Jose's getting money and Google is getting, in effect, its own private airport. Right now, Google principals like Larry Page and Eric Schmidt stash their aircraft at Moffett Field in Mountain View. Moffett, a landmark for travelers on California's Route 101, is operated by NASA and has been home to Google's informal aircraft fleet since 2007.
A rendering of the new terminal for Google-affiliated travelers. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Earlier in this article, I mentioned a NASA report alleging that aircraft flying Google executives received steeply discounted fuel. The planes, operated by another Google-associated firm named H211, are alleged to have paid between $3.3 million and $5.3 million less than market rate for jet fuel. While NASA's report does not accuse H211 and Google of "intentional misconduct," it noted the prices "result(ed) in considerable savings for H211 and engendered a sense of unfairness and a perception of favoritism toward H211 and its owners." As of press time, it's unknown what the proposed Blue City-Google arrangement at Mineta San Jose will mean for the long-term future of H211's presence at Moffett Field.
[Images courtesy of Signature Flight Support]
COMMENTARY: On December 11, 2011, The Mercury News reported the three top executives at Google, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, are offering to pay $33 million to finish the restoration of the historic airship hangar at Moffett Field. The giant structure, built in the 1930s and called Hangar One, sits a few miles from the Googleplex and it’s well known the Google executives have special permission from NASA to park their jets at Moffett.
Google co-founders Sergey Brin (left), Larry Page (right) and Eric Schwartz. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The jets are not owned or operated by Google. Instead, the 3 Google leaders operate the fleet through an LLC called H211. Google has no official relation with H211. Ken Ambrose, the Director of Operations for H211, announced the funding offer at a public meeting this week. He also complained that NASA, which owns Hangar One, has taken too long to respond to the offer.
On first glance, it sounds like a purely noble gesture by the Google trio. The building is in the middle of a project to strip toxic materials in its siding. Lack of taxpayer funding to complete the project has raised fears that could lead to the demolition of one of the world’s largest freestanding structures.
But, as the Mercury News reported, “There’s a catch: They want to use up to two-thirds of the floor space of the hangar to house their fleet of eight private jets.” Most of the members on the Hangar One committee, along with the local congresswoman, support the idea, although there is some concern about the public-private partnership.
But whoa. Wait a minute. The Google execs own eight jets? 2.6 jets per person, for the 2 co-founders and the executive chairman?
Google's private 767 jet. (Click Image To Enlarge)
In 2007, TechCrunch reported on the Google execs first jet, a modified Boeing 767 and the controversy it created. (See Search Engine Land’s Guide To The Google Jet for more info.) In addition to the Boeing 767-200, they own two Gulfstream Vs.
Later, in 2007, the team picked up another Boeing, a 757 this time. A NASA lease document with tenant H211 lists those four planes. (PDF: see Exhibit C) Images of the Google jets can be seen here. Despite some fake images appearing around the web, there’s no Google logo on the planes.
Google CEO Larry Page with his new wife onboard the Google private jet. (Click Image To Enlarge)
In 2008, the New York Times reported they appear to have added a Dornier Alpha fighter jetto their fleet.
But, counting the fighter jet, that’s only 5 jets. What about the other 3? Perhaps, the Merc got the number wrong?
Thanks to a “Google Search,” two more articles came up confirming Ken Ambrose said “8″ planes at the meeting. One in the Mountain View Voice, and another with detailed notes of the Moffett Field Restoration Advisory Board subcommittee meeting on a Moffett Users website. At the meeting, a member of “Save Hangar One” said they don’t want to see “Google” in 200-foot letters on the hangar as part of the deal. Ambrose said the Google team didn’t want that either.
TechCrunch is trying to contact Mr. Ambrose for more information about the additional three jets.
The Google leaders and their friends are not the only ones using the jets. NASA conducts flights on the planes with its own researchers and equipment to gain scientific data. That deal was part of the unusual agreement with NASA allowing the Google team the use of Moffett Field, an airport closed to private aircraft. When that deal was announced, it raised concerns from the local community leaders opposed to expansion at Moffett. Other Silicon Valley private jet owners and users, who are not allowed to use the airport, couldn’t have been pleased either.
The Google jet fleet has been a source of fighting and controversy over the years. The Wall Street Journal reported on the lawsuits with its contractors and the famous dispute, settled by Schmidt, over what size beds the co-founders would have on the plane.
Of course, lots of CEOs and executives own or lease private jets. On one hand, the Google leaders can spend their money any way they please. Their time is valuable, and using the jets makes them more efficient. On the other hand, using private jets is not very environmentally friendly for leaders of a company that prides itself on being green. See Google Green.
Courtesy of an article dated December 16, 2013 appearing in Fast Company and an article dated December 11, 2011 appearing in TechCrunch
China's Jade Rabbit robot rover on display prior to its launch. The gold-coloured model has six wheels and wing-like solar panels. (Click Image To Enlarge)
China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, the first soft landing there for 37 years.
On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module used thrusters to touch down, marking the latest step in China's ambitious space exploration programme.
Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".
The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.
The Chang'e-3 mission launched atop a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket on 1 December from Xichang in the country's south.
China's space mission team celebrate after the landing
The official Xinhua news service reported that the craft began its descent just after 1300 GMT (2100 Beijing time), touching down in Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) 11 minutes later.
State television showed pictures of the moon's surface as the lander touched down and an eye-level view of the landing site was released later on Saturday. Staff at mission control in Beijing clapped and celebrated after confirmation came through.
The probe's soft-landing was the most difficult task during the mission, Wu Weiren, the lunar programme's chief designer, told Xinhua.
Chinese scientists tested the moon rover ahead of its launch. It is expected to land on the Moon on December 14. (Click Image To Enlarge)
It is the third robotic rover mission to land on the lunar surface, but the Chinese vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload than previous missions, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust.
"It's still a significant technological challenge to land on another world," said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane's Space Systems and Industry told the AP news agency.
"You have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you don't end up in a crater or on top of a large rock."
The landing module actively reduced its speed at about 15km from the Moon's surface.
Chinese scientists celebrated at the ontrol center in Beijng after China's first lunar rover touched down on the surface of the Moon. (Click Image To Enlarge)
When it reached a distance of 100m from the surface, the craft fired thrusters to slow its descent.
At a distance of 4m, the lander switched off the thrusters and fell to the lunar surface.
The Jade Rabbit was expected to be deployed several hours after touchdown, driving down a ramp lowered by the landing module.
The first time China launched an unmanned spacecraft was in 1999, pictured. It is the only the third country to have done so, after Russia and the US. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Reports suggest the lander and rover will photograph each other at some point on Sunday.
According to Chinese space scientists, the mission is designed to test new technologies, gather scientific data and build intellectual expertise, as well as scouting for mineral resources that could eventually be mined.
Schematic showing how the Jade Rabbit robotic rover fired its retro-rockets to make a soft landing on the surface of the Moon. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Sun Huixian, a space engineer with the Chinese lunar programme, said.
"China's lunar program is an important component of mankind's activities to explore [the] peaceful use of space."
The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can reportedly climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour.
Its name - chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters - derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e.
The rover and lander are powered by solar panels but some sources suggest they also carry radioisotope heating units (RHUs), containing plutonium-238 to keep them warm during the cold lunar night.
Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington DC, said China's space programme was a good fit with China's concept of "comprehensive national power". This might be described as a measure of a state's all-round capabilities.
Space exploration was, he told BBC News.
"It's a reflection of your economic power, because you need spare resources to have a space programme. It clearly has military implications because so much space technology is dual use".
He added:
"It reflects your scientific and technological capabilities, it supports your diplomacy by making you appear strong. China is saying: 'We are doing something that only two other countries have done before - the US and the Soviet Union."
Mr Cheng explained that the mission would also advertise the country as a destination for commercial space launches, as well as providing an opportunity to test China's deep-space tracking and communications.
"The rover will reportedly be under Earth control at various points of its manoeuvres on the lunar surface. Such a space observation and tracking system has implications not only for space exploration but for national security, as it can be used to maintain space surveillance, keeping watch over Chinese and other nations' space assets."
China has been methodically and patiently building up the key elements needed for an advanced space programme - from launchers to manned missions in Earth orbit to unmanned planetary craft - and it is investing heavily.
Prof Joan Johnson-Freese, of the US Naval War College in Rhode Island, told the AFP news agency.
"China wants to go to the Moon for geostrategic reasons and domestic legitimacy. With the US exploration moribund at best, that opens a window for China to be perceived as the global technology leader - though the US still has more, and more advanced, assets in space."
The landing site is a flat volcanic plain, part of a larger feature known as Mare Imbrium that forms the right eye of the "Man in the Moon".
The lander will operate there for a year, while the rover is expected to work for some three months.
After this, a mission to bring samples of lunar soil back to Earth is planned for 2017. And this may set the stage for further robotic missions, and - perhaps - a crewed lunar mission in the 2020s.
COMMENTARY: Yutu is designed to roam the lunar surface for at least 90 Earth days – three Lunar days – covering an area of about five square kilometres.
It will send probes beneath the surface as well as taking high-resolution images of the rock, a flat area formed from the molten basalt released by lunar volcanoes several billion years ago.
The journey of the Chang’e-3 probe and its final landing will be closely monitored by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is cooperating closely with China. ESA’s own launch station in Kourou, French Guiana, will immediately start receiving signals from the mission after take-off and it will upload commands to the probe on behalf of the Chinese control centre.
Thomas Reiter, director of ESA’s human spaceflight operations, said.
"Whether for human or robotic missions, international cooperation like this is necessary for the future exploration of planets, moons and asteroids, benefitting everyone."
In recent years, China has made considerable progress in its space programme.
In June, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked their craft with an experimental space laboratory.
In 2007, the country despatched an unmanned spacecraft called Chang'e to orbit the Moon. The craft stayed in space for 16 months before being intentionally crashed on to the Moon's surface.
The name Jade Rabbit was chosen after an online poll in which millions took part.
Ouyang Ziyuan, head of the moon rover project, told Xinhua earlier this week that the ancient beliefs had their origins in the marks left by impacts on the lunar landscape.
'There are several black spots on the moon's surface. Our ancient people imagined they were a moon palace, osmanthus trees, and a jade rabbit,' he said.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third country after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently.
The military-backed space programme is a source of national pride.
China is one of only three countries to have managed to independently send humans into space, the others being Russia and the US.
Courtesy of an article dated December 14, 2013 appearing in BBC News and an article dated November 30, 2013 appearing in the Daily Mail
Did extra-terrestrial beings engineer our DNA to create modern man or did they bring us here from another planet similar to Earth. (Click Image To Enlarge)
A U.S. ecologist has claimed that humans are not from Earth but were put on the planet by aliens tens of thousands of years ago.
A U.S. ecologist says conditions such as bad backs and sunburn suggest humans did not evolve alongside other life on Earth
In a new book, Dr Ellis Silver says aliens put humans our planet as recently as tens of thousands of years ago
He suggests the Earth might be a prison planet, since humans seem to be a naturally violent species and are here until we learn to behave ourselves
Dr Ellis Silver points to a number of physiological features to make his case for why humans did not evolve alongside other life on Earth, in his new book.
They range from humans suffering from bad backs - which he suggests is because we evolved in a world with lower gravity – to getting too easily sunburned and having difficulty giving birth.
Dr Ellis says that while the planet meets humans’ needs for the most part, it does not perhaps serve the species’ interests as well as the aliens who dropped us off imagined.
In his book, Dr Ellis Silver points to a number of physiological features to make his case for why humans did not evolve alongside other life on Earth. (Click Image To Enlarge)
In his book, HUMANS ARE NOT FROM EARTH: A SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION OF THE EVIDENCE, the ecologist writes the human race has defects that mark it of being ‘not of this world’.
"Mankind is supposedly the most highly developed species on the planet, yet is surprisingly unsuited and ill-equipped for Earth's environment: harmed by sunlight, a strong dislike for naturally occurring foods, ridiculously high rates of chronic disease, and more."
Dr Ellis says that humans might suffer from bad backs because they evolved on a world with lower gravity.
He also says that it is strange that babies’ heads are so large and make it difficult for women to give birth, which can result in fatalities of the mother and infant.
Dr Ellis says that humans might suffer from bad backs (illustrated) because they evolved on a world with lower gravity. He also says that it is strange that babies' heads are so large and make it difficult for women to give birth, which resulted in fatalities in earlier times. (Click Image To Enlarge)
No other native species on this planet has this problem, he says.
He also believes humans are not designed to be as exposed to the sun as they are on Earth, as they cannot sunbathe for more than a week or two – unlike a lizard – and cannot be exposed to the sun every day without problems.
Dr Ellis also claims humans are always ill and this might be because our body clocks have evolved to expects a 25 hour day, as proven by sleep researchers.
He says.
"This is not a modern condition; the same factors can be traced all the way back through mankind's history on Earth."
He suggests that Neanderthals such as homo erectus were crossbred with another species, perhaps from Alpha Centauri, which is the closest star system to our solar system, some 4.37 light years away from the sun.
He also believes humans are not designed to be so exposed to the sun as they are on Earth, as they cannot sunbathe for more than a week or two, unlike a lizard, and cannot be exposed to the sun every day. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Dr Ellis said many people feel that they don’t belong and feel at home on Earth. He said.
"This suggests (to me at least) that mankind may have evolved on a different planet, and we may have been brought here as a highly developed species. One reason for this … is that the Earth might be a prison planet, since we seem to be a naturally violent species and we're here until we learn to behave ourselves."
Dr Ellis said the book is intended to create debate, instead of being a scientific study and hopes it will lead to people getting in touch with him with further suggestions of 'evidence'.
While other scientists have said some bacteria arrived on Earth from space, Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA, said that to jump to the conclusion that it is alien life is "a big jump".
Was this home? Dr Ellis suggests Neanderthals such as homo erectus were crossbred with another species, perhaps from Alpha Centauri. Star Proxima Centauri is pictured in the star system, which is the closest to our solar system some 4.37 light years away from the sun. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Professor Wainwright from the University of Sheffield plans to investigate further, and believes that life is constantly arriving from space that did not originate on Earth.
Dr Ellis says that while his idea is an extreme evolution of that idea, it is intended to be thought-provoking and he claims to have had a largely positive response to it.
He is interested in whether humans came to Earth separately, perhaps by arriving on meteors and comets, before evolving into the species we know today.
He says.
"My thesis proposes that mankind did not evolve from that particular strain of life, but evolved elsewhere and was transported to Earth (as fully evolved Homo sapiens) between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago."
COMMENTARY: For some time now, I have come to the conclusion that modern man (a.k.a. homo sapiens), was engineered from the DNA of pre-historic Cromagnon Man, the species of humans that preceded Homo Sapiens.
I also believe that Earth was been visited by intelligent extra-terrestrial beings, many thousands of years ago, and they have been using our planet as a laboratory for their DNA experiments on both human and animal species. The Earth in effect has become a sort of labratory for DNA experimentation on a planetary scale.
These alient DNA experiments may account for the physical differences between humans of different continents. Each continental species was engineered so that they could cope with their local environments. This may help explain why humans from the continent of Africa, Latin and South America are generally darker skinned and have darker hair due to the hotter climates and abundance of sun in these geographic locations Europeans and North Americans, on the other hand, tend to be lighter skinned and have lighter hair because they tend to have less sun and the climates tend to experience both cold and warm periods throughout the year.
Personally, I believe that humans experience back problems and other skeletal and neurological illnesses or disorders because of poor posture, lack of exercise and improper nutrition and diet. African humans tend to be known for their physical prowess and ability to excell in physical sports. They tend to hunt for all of their food. On the other hand, humans in more advanced cultures tend to overwork, do not exercise sufficiently, sit behind a desk or are couch potatoes who watch too much TV, their diets are full of processed foods with too much fat, sugar and salt, that make us fat and put more weight on our skeletal structures, especially our spine. The result is a series of back ailements.
Another story that I keep reading about is that extra-terrestrials are using our DNA to bolster their own dying species. These aliens have created human-alien hybrids, with horrific stories of underground labs where these experiments are conducted.
Whereever the answer may be or lie, human beings are genetically different from extra-terrestrial beings. It is thought that aliens have taken an interest in humans because unlike aliens, we have a soul and are able to exist in multi-dimensional levels, but have yet to master this ability.
On the other hand, as Dr. Silver suggests in his book, perhaps we are the "castoffs" or "rejects" from other galaxies. The "defective" human beings who can't seem to control their emotions, full of evil and greed, with war-like tendencies, and this make us too dangerous to interact with at this time. If I were an alien and studied our species, I would wonder deep and hard why we keep hating each other and kill each other. The 20th century had five major war, and 100 minor wars between countries, and hundreds of millions of innocent human beings were killed by fanatics.
I know all of this sounds like mumbo-jumbo, or the ramblings of a deranged mind, but I just love to theorize where we came from, and why the aliens are here, and are unable to control us from killing ourselves. Perhaps they prefer to have us kill ourselves, than having to do it themselves. Afterall, they are technologically superiod in every possible way, and I am sure have the means to destroy our planet, and every living thing on it, but maybe, just maybe, they these aliens have evolved beyond hate, greed, and war, and have embrace peace and love. Something we have yet to master.
Courtesy of an article dated November 14, 2013 appearing in The Daily Mail and an article dated September 30, 2013 appearing in Yahoo News
Amazon Prime Air drones will deliver packages weighing up to 5-lbs using robotic drones like this one. (Click Image To Enlarge)
On a 60 Minutes segment last night, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed a plan that would put all other rapid shipping options to shame:a fleet of little drones that could carry items from a warehouse conveyor belt to a buyer’s doorstep, all within half an hour.
Hardware limits, safety questions, and FAA rules are all keeping Jeff Bezos' dream from becoming a reality
Like Google’s driverless cars or, on a grander scale, Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, the project — dubbed Amazon Prime Air — seeks to revolutionize how things and people move, offering speed, convenience, and the futuristic experience of a flying octocopter postman. Suggesting it could be possible in four to five years, Bezos said.
"I know this looks like science fiction. It’s not."
Close-up view of Amazon's Prime Air robotic air drones. (Click Image To Enlarge)
But in order to turn its ambitious concept into a reality, Amazon has a lot of work to do.
Amazon has said that its unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] should be able to carry a 5-pound package up to 10 miles within 30 minutes. To do that, it’s going to need a lot of battery power. Octocopters on the market today are often built to carry cameras heavier than 5 pounds, but they fly only a fraction of the distance; the SteadiDrone EIHG8, for example, is meant to carry between 2 and 13 pounds, but only for a maximum of 15 minutes and less than 1 mile — the heavier the package, the worse the performance. Aerial robotics company Skycatch, which has been working on a similar drone delivery project, sees the solution as swapping batteries automatically throughout the flight while traveling in an airspace corridor dedicated to unmanned vehicles.
Missy Cummings of MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics program thinks an Amazon drone would require a big leap in technology. She says.
"Unless Jeff [Bezos] has made some kind of amazing breakthrough in battery life, which I kind of doubt, the flight time is going to continue to be a problem."
Some have speculated that Amazon is building off hardware and software from Chris Anderson’s UAV company 3D Robotics, pointing to a GPS and compass module in the concept video; 3D Robotics declined to comment on this possibility. If Amazon is able to build a strong enough battery and account for variables like wind, the octocopters could fly semi-autonomously with a human supervisor, who Cummings suggests could manage up to 20 or 30 of them at a time, though the FCC’s rules are still largely unknown.
Once you build an octocopter that can make a 10-mile trip in half an hour and create a system to manage it, you start getting to the really interesting questions. How, for example, would you stop people from taking down Prime aircraft and stealing their cargo? Ryan Calo of the University of Washington’s tech policy lab. There’s also a more low-tech option: shooting the drones. Cummings says.
"Instead of shoplifting, we may begin to see delivery hacking. If you saw a drone flying fairly close overhead, maybe you could whip out a gun. Maybe you could whip out a slingshot. They would have to stay high long enough to basically either be out of sight or not in range of a weapon."
While protecting its drones from hijacking, Amazon has some major safety concerns to work out.Any plane can crash, and the octocopters wouldn’t have the same possibility of pilot error, but they'd also do something risky and virtually unprecedented: drop from a potential height of a few hundred feet, possibly with almost no human direction, right onto your driveway. Or your herb garden. Or, if you’re particularly unlucky, your dog. The sensors that keep planes from hitting each other in midair aren’t built to avoid tiny obstacles on the ground, though Amazon could use semi-experimental lidar systems like the ones on Google’s driverless cars to avoid obstacles. An Australian company could provide a test case — called Zookal, it plans to let urban buyers order textbooks and then wait outside for a drone to drop its package while hovering above the ground. Since its pilot program won’t start until next year, though, it’s hard to say how well this plan will actually work.
One potential answer is to combine this program with something like the Amazon Lockers deployed at 7-Elevens and drugstores in a few test cities. In a blog post, Skycatch describes what Amazon needs to make Prime Air a reality, including safety and anti-theft measures. After making most of its journey high in the air, it says, an ideal UAV would drop inside "authorized pick-up and drop-off stations" that would prevent theft and reduce the chances of a bad landing. It’s not as charmingly futuristic as a machine delivering something right to your door, though it’s still a lot more convenient than traditional shipping, and it’s probably what we’ll get in the foreseeable future. Skycatch’s Christian Sanz says.
"No one is going to fly a drone like the [Amazon] video suggests; too many things can go wrong. Props can take someone's eye out, batteries don't last long so you need an automated way to swap them, power issues are the main cause of UAVs falling off the skies, so you need a way to manage that. If the UAV falls from the skies you need a way to soften the landing."
All of this, of course, is making the vital assumption that the FAA will allow the program in the first place. Amazon has been vague about when exactly we’ll see Amazon Prime Air deployed; an FAQ says that it "will be ready" when the FAA’s deadline for commercial UAV guidelines comes up in 2015. But although the FAA is making slow progress towards figuring out how to certify UAVs and their operators, it hasn’t even completed a basic, early step: officially approving a set of six flight ranges to test its rules. From there, it’s going to slowly ramp up a pilot program, and by 2015, it’s not required to do much more than tell companies how to responsibly fly a commercial UAV and help them start testing. Amazon might well be ready at that point, but "ready" won’t mean one-click drone shopping.
Amazon is also taking aim at one of the most sensitive regulatory issues: letting drones fly above our cities and suburbs. Despite all those great cityscapes that filmmakers capture with UAVs, even hobbyists aren’t supposed to fly in populated areas; if you want justification, look no further than the quadrotor that dropped a few dozen stories and barely missed hitting a Manhattan businessman this fall. While this raises problems for Amazon, though, having a huge company take on the issue is probably good news for other UAV proponents. The company is a lobbying heavyweight in the tech sector beloved by American politicians, and it’s all but certain to push the FAA for faster rulemaking and more permissive policies, as long as it can demonstrate that looser rules won’t pose a significant safety problem. Whether this will actually speed the FAA’s decision is a matter of debate.
For the rest of the commercial drone world, Amazon Prime Air is a huge publicity coup.At best, small UAVs have been seen as potentially helpful novelties in the past; at worst, they’re associated with ubiquitous surveillance or the much larger military craft responsible for bloody airstrikes in places like Yemen and Pakistan. Now, though, Amazon is promoting its octocopters as a convenient and futuristic shipping option for its massive user base. For anybody with serious privacy or safety concerns, meanwhile, the plan is an incentive to speed up work on meaningful regulations. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), for instance, has used the Amazon announcement to promote his UAV privacy bill. He said in a statement,
"Before our skies teem with commercial drones, clear rules must be set that protect the privacy and safety of the public."
If anyone’s drones are in a position to teem, Amazon’s are. In 2012, the company said it shipped 15.6 million items on its busiest holiday shopping day; based on Bezos’ claim that 86 percent of packages are under 5 pounds, that could add up to a peak of 13.5 million eligible shipments per day, a number that will likely only grow over the years. Amazon’s FAQ says.
"One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today."
But a sky swarming with yellow octocopters is still far, far away, especially in the US. Cummings says.
"There will never be a time in our foreseeable lives where we look up in the sky and see a bird-trail of UAVs flying back and forth. I suspect that within the next 10 years, you will occasionally see one going by."
Within five years, she thinks the FAA might let Amazon send delivery vehicles between approved fulfillment centers; for anything like Amazon’s door-to-door concept, more like 10 to 15 if it happens at all.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we might not be seeing Prime Air drones in the sky sooner — it just won’t be over American soil. Besides Australia’s Zookal, Chinese company SF Express is reportedly testing a delivery UAV, albeit only in remote areas. Cummings says.
"Amazon is not stupid. They’ll go to other countries."
Bezos, meanwhile, has made clear that his company is in this project for the long haul. He said in 60 Minutes.
"I don’t want anybody to think this is just around the corner. This is years of additional work from this point."
But it will almost certainly take more than his optimistic estimation of a half-decade before the drones arrive at our doorsteps.
COMMENTARY: I remember what people were saying when Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon would be producing the Kindle, it's highly successful book eReader. Then he announced that Amazon would be producing its own tablet, the Kindle Fire. Well, folks. Never underestimate Jeff Bezos. The guy is a genius when it comes to developing great new ideas and products, and I would take Amazon's Prime Air robotic drone delivery service very seriously. Obviously a lot of kinks still need to be worked out, and the FAA has to establish guidelines for commercial UAV's like Prime Air, so I don't see this happening for several years. Having said this, I can definitely see a company, if not Amazon, using commercial UAV's to make deliveries of goods or provide services.
Courtesy of an article dated December 2, 2013 appearing in The Verge
World View Gondola as it would appear when it reaches an altitude of 100,000 feet. (Click Image To Enlarge)
It’s not space. It’s more like a high-altitude vacation. A new Arizona company is joining the outer edges of the tourism industry to find passengers who want to see a dark sky and the curvature of the Earth, all without boarding a sub-orbital rocket and paying the insane entry price.
World View CEO Jane Poynter said in a statement today.
“Seeing the Earth hanging in the ink-black void of space will help people realize our connection to our home planet and to the universe around us. It is also our goal to open up a whole new realm for exercising human curiosity, scientific research and education.”
Like the Spain-based zero2infinity, World View is planning rides in a relatively spacious gondola, suspended beneath a balloon, that will carry passengers to around 100,000 feet. The view is a long ways from Virgin Galactic’s plans for sub-orbital rocket rides at 360,000 feet, but the view from a gondola will last for a few hours (or more). It’s also a lot cheaper at $75,000, compared to the current ticket price of $250,000 for a ride on Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo which will only spend a few minutes at the peak of its flight before descending back to earth.
Virgin Galactic will ferry passengers into the fringes of outerspace for up to $250,000 per seat. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The ability to spend hours at 100,000 feet, does offer new opportunities, even if it doesn’t include the weightlessness being touted by Virgin Galactic’s parabolic flight path. The helium balloon could be launched at night to offer a spectacular sunrise opportunity with pretty much all of the atmosphere below you, and the darkness of space remaining above you even after the sun is up.
Just as Virgin Galactic isn’t the only company planning rocket propelled sub-orbital tourism rides — XCOR’s Lynx is a single passenger rocket plane — World View isn’t the alone in looking to offer a peaceful high altitude balloon ride. Zero2infinity’s is planning a similar experience to around 120,000 feet. Both companies are eager to point out the passenger view from the quiet balloon will be close to the same view offered by the rocket powered vehicles flying much higher. World View shared a copy of a letter from the Federal Aviation Administration saying that the company’s six passenger, two pilot gondola will qualify as a space vehicle because the conditions at 100,000 feet requires the same kind of protection as those that actually enter space, “because a person would rapidly experience fatal decompression.”
World View Gondola as it would appear suspended under a huge helium baloon when it reaches an altitude of 100,000 feet. (Click Image To Enlarge)
There is no actual line where the atmosphere ends and where space begins, so it’s common for many endeavors to include “space” as part of the title. Red Bull referred to Felix Baumgartner’s record setting jump as a mission to the edge of space. In fact, it used the same basic idea that World View and zero2infinity are offering with a pressurized gondola, and a lightweight balloon. Though the latter two companies have no plans on making the passengers exit at altitude for a supersonic return to earth.
The highest flying airplanes can fly at up to about 70,000 feet. Some jets have made “zoom” flight past 100,000 feet. But with only a few percent of the atmosphere at that altitude, the normal flight controls aren’t useful and they must use small rocket thrusters to maneuver.
Most definitions of space are less about a true scientific number, rather they opt for nice round numbers well above the atmosphere. Virgin Galactic and the Lynx both plan on climbing above the Karman line, an arbitrary and metric based definition of space at 100 kilometers altitude (62 miles or 328,000 feet). At that altitude you are definitely above anything that resembles the atmosphere. Pilots in the X-15 winged rocket plane were given astronaut wings for flights above 50 miles.
World View says it expects to launch its balloon and gondola from several locations around the United States. Eventually it could expand operations worldwide. Like zero2infinity’s bloon, World View’s gondola will be flown back to earth beneath a paraglider-type wing that will provided added range and maneuverability.
World View has not yet begun flight testing of its system, but is hoping for passenger flights as early as 2016. Zero2infinity recently tested a scale version of its system, including lifting the inflatable “pod” it is planning for passengers to more than 88,000 feet.
COMMENTARY: It's absolutely incredible how many experimental startup companies are stepping to the plate to ferry affluent passengers into the fringes of outerspace for between $75,000 and $250,000. Pick your poison. NASA, FAA and TSA need to keep a watchful eye on these startups to insure that they are doing everything absolutely possible to protect the safety of these passengers. Going into outerspace or extreme heights like World View, is no joke. It's dangerous, and exploiting a few priveleged, jaded and affluent passengers for the all mighty dollar, could end on one huge calamity.
Courtesy of an article dated October 22, 2013 appearing in Wired
Asteroid 2013 MZ5 as seen by the University of Hawaii's PanSTARR-1 telescope. In this animated gif, the asteroid moves relative to a fixed background of stars. Asteroid 2013 MZ5 is in the right of the first image, towards the top, moving diagonally left/down. Image credit: PS-1/UH Larger view | Unannotated version
More than 10,000 asteroids and comets that can pass near Earth have now been discovered.
The 10,000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was first detected on the night of June 18, 2013, by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope, located on the 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) summit of the Haleakala crater on Maui. Managed by the University of Hawaii, the PanSTARRS survey receives NASA funding.
Ninety-eight percent of all near-Earth objects discovered were first detected by NASA-supported surveys.
Plot of orbits of known potentially hazardous asteroids (size over 460 feet (140 m) and passing within 4.7 million miles (7.6×106 km) of Earth's orbit) as of early 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
"Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone. But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth."
(Click Image To Enlarge)
During Johnson's decade-long tenure, 76 percent of the NEO discoveries have been made.
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that can approach the Earth's orbital distance to within about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers). They range in size from as small as a few feet to as large as 25 miles (41 kilometers) for the largest near-Earth asteroid, 1036 Ganymed.
1036 Ganymed, is the code name of an asteroid that has a diameter of 34 kilometers. The giant asteroid ever discovered by Walter Baade on October 23, 1924. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Asteroid 2013 MZ5 is approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters) across. Its orbit is well understood and will not approach close enough to Earth to be considered potentially hazardous.
Eliptical orbit of near-Earth object codename 2013 MZ5 as of June 28, 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Don Yeomans, long-time manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said.
"The first near-Earth object was discovered in 1898. Over the next hundred years, only about 500 had been found. But then, with the advent of NASA's NEO Observations program in 1998, we've been racking them up ever since. And with new, more capable systems coming on line, we are learning even more about where the NEOs are currently in our solar system, and where they will be in the future."
Of the 10,000 discoveries, roughly 10 percent are larger than six-tenths of a mile (one kilometer) in size - roughly the size that could produce global consequences should one impact the Earth. However, the NASA NEOO program has found that none of these larger NEOs currently pose an impact threat and probably only a few dozen more of these large NEOs remain undiscovered.
The vast majority of NEOs are smaller than one kilometer, with the number of objects of a particular size increasing as their sizes decrease. For example, there are expected to be about 15,000 NEOs that are about one-and-half football fields in size (460 feet, or 140 meters), and more than a million that are about one-third a football field in size (100 feet, or 30 meters). A NEO hitting Earth would need to be about 100 feet (30 meters) or larger to cause significant devastation in populated areas. Almost 30 percent of the 460-foot-sized NEOs have been found, but less than 1 percent of the 100-foot-sized NEOs have been detected.
Barringer Meteorite Crater (aka Meteor Crater), near Winslow, Arizona, is one of the best known impact craters on planet Earth. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Barringer Meteorite Crater, near Winslow, Arizona, is one of the best known impact craters on planet Earth. The crater is one mile wide, and up to 570 feet deep. Historically, this crater is the first recognized to be caused by an impact rather than a volcanic eruption. A scientific investigation indicates that the asteroid responsible for the crater, a 300,000 ton nickel-iron meteor, impacted Earth near Flagstaff, Ariznona some 50,000 years ago. Estimates suggest that it was about 130 feet across and was traveling over 26,000 miles per hour. For comparison, the asteroid or comet impactor that created the Chicxulub crater 65 million years ago, and is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, was 6 to 12 miles across.
Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center says.
"When I began surveying for asteroids and comets in 1992, a near-Earth object discovery was a rare event. These days we average three NEO discoveries a day, and each month the Minor Planet Center receives hundreds of thousands of observations on asteroids, including those in the main-belt. The work done by the NASA surveys, and the other international professional and amateur astronomers, to discover and track NEOs is really remarkable."
Within a dozen years, the program achieved its goal of discovering 90 percent of near-Earth objects larger than 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) in size. In December 2005, NASA was directed by Congress to extend the search to find and catalog 90 percent of the NEOs larger than 500 feet (140 meters) in size. When this goal is achieved, the risk of an unwarned future Earth impact will be reduced to a level of only one percent when compared to pre-survey risk levels. This reduces the risk to human populations, because once an NEO threat is known well in advance, the object could be deflected with current space technologies.
Currently, the major NEO discovery teams are the Catalina Sky Survey, the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS survey and the LINEAR survey. The current discovery rate of NEOs is about 1,000 per year.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program manages and funds the search for, study of and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. The Minor Planet Center is funded by NASA and hosted by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch.
The Space Between: This artist's concept shows the Voyager 1 spacecraft entering the space between stars. Interstellar space is dominated by plasma, ionized gas (illustrated here as brownish haze), that was thrown off by giant stars millions of years ago. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (Click Image To Enlarge)
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.
New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident. A report on the analysis of this new data, an effort led by Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, is published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, said.
"Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind's historic leap into interstellar space. The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we've all been asking -- 'Are we there yet?' Yes, we are."
Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of interstellar space on the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets, in 2004. Scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of the spacecraft's interstellar arrival, knowing the data analysis and interpretation could take months or years.
This artist's concept shows NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft in a new region at the edge of our solar system where the amount of high-energy particles diffusing into our solar system from outside has increased. Voyager 1 is in an area scientists are calling the stagnation region, at the outer layer of the heliosphere, or magnetic bubble that the sun blows around itself (Click Image To Enlarge)
Voyager 1 does not have a working plasma sensor, so scientists needed a different way to measure the spacecraft's plasma environment to make a definitive determination of its location. A coronal mass ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, that erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the data they needed. When this unexpected gift from the sun eventually arrived at Voyager 1's location 13 months later, in April 2013, the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate like a violin string. On April 9, Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument detected the movement. The pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the density of the plasma. The particular oscillations meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of the heliosphere. Density of this sort is to be expected in interstellar space.
The plasma wave science team reviewed its data and found an earlier, fainter set of oscillations in October and November 2012. Through extrapolation of measured plasma densities from both events, the team determined Voyager 1 first entered interstellar space in August 2012.
This artist's concept shows the outer layers of our solar bubble, or heliosphere, and nearby interstellar space. NASA's Voyager 1 just passed through the Sun's heliopause or outer edge of the heliosheath and is officially in the region known as interstellar space, which is the space between stars that still feels charged particle and magnetic field influences from the heliosphere. The magnetic field lines (yellow arcs) appear to lie in the same general direction as the magnetic field lines emanating from our sun. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Gurnett said.
"We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillations in our data -- they showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region, comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally different than in the solar bubble. Clearly we had passed through the heliopause, which is the long-hypothesized boundary between the solar plasma and the interstellar plasma."
The new plasma data suggested a timeframe consistent with abrupt, durable changes in the density of energetic particles that were first detected on Aug. 25, 2012. The Voyager team generally accepts this date as the date of interstellar arrival. The charged particle and plasma changes were what would have been expected during a crossing of the heliopause.
Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said.
"The team's hard work to build durable spacecraft and carefully manage the Voyager spacecraft's limited resources paid off in another first for NASA and humanity. We expect the fields and particles science instruments on Voyager will continue to send back data through at least 2020. We can't wait to see what the Voyager instruments show us next about deep space."
Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2, launched before Voyager 1, is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 9.5 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun.
Beyond the Bubble: The general locations of Voyager 1 and 2 are shown in this illustration at the edge of the heliosphere, the bubble created by solar wind. Image by NASA-JPL-Caltech (Click Image To Enlarge)
Voyager mission controllers still talk to or receive data from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 every day, though the emitted signals are currently very dim, at about 23 watts -- the power of a refrigerator light bulb. By the time the signals get to Earth, they are a fraction of a billion-billionth of a watt. Data from Voyager 1's instruments are transmitted to Earth typically at 160 bits per second, and captured by 34- and 70-meter NASA Deep Space Network stations. Traveling at the speed of light, a signal from Voyager 1 takes about 17 hours to travel to Earth. After the data are transmitted to JPL and processed by the science teams, Voyager data are made publicly available.
This schematic shows our solar bubble moving through nearby interstellar space, or the space between stars. Interstellar space is shown in blue because it is filled with plasma, or ionized gas, that has a lower temperature than what is inside our solar bubble, also known as the heliosphere. Blue is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 Kelvin). Red indicates hotter temperatures of about 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million Kelvin). The black lines indicate the flow of the solar wind inside our solar bubble, and the flow of the interstellar wind in interstellar space. (Click To Enlarge Image)
John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington, said.
"Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors. Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey."
Scientists do not know when Voyager 1 will reach the undisturbed part of interstellar space where there is no influence from our sun. They also are not certain when Voyager 2 is expected to cross into interstellar space, but they believe it is not very far behind.
JPL built and operates the twin Voyager spacecraft. The Voyagers Interstellar Mission is a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Deep Space Network, managed by JPL, is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions.
The cost of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions -- including launch, mission operations and the spacecraft's nuclear batteries, which were provided by the Department of Energy -- is about $988 million through September.
For an image of the radio signal from Voyager 1 on Feb. 21 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Long Baseline Array, which links telescopes from Hawaii to St. Croix, visit: http://www.nrao.edu .
COMMENTARY:Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.
Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect.
Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music. Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space.
It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted,
"The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."
The definitive work about the Voyager record is "Murmurs of Earth" by Executive Director, Carl Sagan, Technical Director, Frank Drake, Creative Director, Ann Druyan, Producer, Timothy Ferris, Designer, Jon Lomberg, and Greetings Organizer, Linda Salzman. Basically, this book is the story behind the creation of the record, and includes a full list of everything on the record. "Murmurs of Earth", originally published in 1978, was reissued in 1992 by Warner News Media with a CD-ROM that replicates the Voyager record. Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, but it is worth the effort to try and find a used copy or browse through a library copy.
Bon Voyage to Voyager 1 as it enters interstellar space and continues on its journey to other solar systems, perhaps making contact with intelligent beings like us.
Courtesy of an article dated September 12, 2013 appearing in NASA JPL
Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the iPhone 5S unveiling event in Cupertino on September 10, 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
On Tuesday, September 10, 2013, Apple unveiled its new flagship iPhone 5S and a new budget smartphone, the iPhone 5C, as it seeks to attract more customers and revitalize interest in its devices.
The launch comes as the Cupertino, Calif., company faces heightened competition. Apple has been losing market share to rivals, such as Samsung, with its position in the most recent quarter falling to its lowest level in three years. As growth in the high-end smartphone market slows, Apple must find ways to attract new buyers, as well as expand into lower-priced phones.
Philip W. Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple took over the microphone and talked about reatures of the new iPhone 5S and 5C at the unveiling event in Cupertino. (Click Image To Enlarge)
iPhone 5S
The iPhone 5S is Apple's newest flaghip smartphone. According to Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing,
"The iPhone 5S the most forward-thinking phone we've ever created."
A person holds the new iPhone 5S during an event at the Apple campus on Sept. 10 in Cupertino, Calif. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The iPhone 5S includes updated components, comes in three colors (white, black and gold), and includes a fingerprint recognition sensor to unlock the device and make purchases. It will retail for $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, or $399 for 64GB, all with a contract.
Oh, and in the off chance that you're not a fan of cracked screens, Apple's also offering up proprietary cases that'll run you $49 a pop.
It's made of high-grade aluminum and comes in silver, gold, and "a new space gray."
f The iPhone 5S comes in three colors -- white, silver and gold (Click Image To Enlarge)
The iPhone 5S also sports a new A7 processor. The A7 chip includes 64-bit capabilities, which brings the processing speed and capabilities of desktop personal computer microprocessors to the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 5S is "up to twice as fast" as the previous-generation system and has twice the graphics performance as well. There's OpenGL ES 3.0 on board, but the next-gen handset still promises, thankfully, to remain compatible with the 32-bit apps of yesteryear.
Apple also incorporated a chip that it calls the M7. This is a "motion co-processor" that aggregates and monitors accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass data and offloads it from the A7. That enables a new generation of health and fitness apps, such as a new Nike+ Move app. The app keeps track of what users do, tracks their Fuel points, and lets them compete with friends.
On the Surface
Battery life is on par with the iPhone 5. The 5S has 10 hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of browsing over LTE cellular networks or Wi-Fi, 40 hours of music playing for all of your live Grateful Dead material, and 250 hours of standby.
The iPhone 5 camera features a sensor that's 15 percent larger than the one on its predecessor as well as a five-element, Apple-designed lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Also on board is autofocusing matrix metering, so you can leave the arty blurring to Instagram. Even the flash is getting an upgrade this time out. Apple's offering up "True Tone," which features 1,000 variations of color temperatures to help you get things like flesh tones just right.
The fingerprint reader folks were predicting ahead of launch. The iPhone 5S features a 170-micron-thick fingerprint recognition sensor with a 500 ppi resolution built into the Home button, dubbed Touch ID, that'll biometrically let you into the phone. It's still a physical button that a user needs to push down, but there's a metal ring that senses the person's finger. It can be used to unlock the phone or purchase items from iTunes. Oh, and if someone else wants to access your phone, you can also set the thing up to read multiple fingerprints. And before you ask, for extra security, all of that fingerprint information isn't stored directly to Apple's servers, because Apple apparently isn't in the market of collecting that info.
The Apple iPhone 5S now comes with finger print recognition for increased security and a more powerful A7 microprocessor that is twice as fast as its predecessor that will greatly improve digital images, music and video performance (Click Image To Enlarge)
The iPhone 5S is available for pre-order in three days. It'll start hitting Apple stores on the 20th of September in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK. In December, that list will expand to include more than 100 countries.
The iPhone 5 is going away, but the iPhone 4S will now be available for free with a two-year contract.
iPhone 5C
The iPhone 5C, which is made of plastic, starts at $99 for the 16GB version or $199 for 32GB with a two-year contact.
Preorders start Friday. The devices will be available in stores on September 20.
The new lower-priced Apple iPhone 5C front, back and side views. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Phil Schiller said during the event.
"The iPhone 5C is made with all the incredible technology that customers have loved with the iPhone 5, but there's more, too. It has an incredible new design -- one that's more fun, and more colorful than anything we've made before."
The iPhone 5C has a polycarbonate wrap-around back. It will come in five colors -- green, white, blue, red, and yellow. The screen wallpaper will match the exterior of the phone.
The iPhone 5C has a polycarbonate wrap-around back that will come in five colors -- green, blue, yellow, red and white. (Click Images To Enlarge)
For the new iPhone 5C, Apple also designed $29 custom cases made of silicon with a microfiber lining. The new custom cases come in six colors: white, red, yellow, blue, green and black. Add one of the six Apple‑designed cases to your iPhone 5c and it instantly goes from colorfully cool to impossible to ignore. The case design allows the color underneath to show through, creating 30 fun possibilities. So the iPhone 5c Case does more than just protect your phone — it helps it stand out. And it helps you make it yours.
The new iPhone C custom cases come in six colors: white, red, yellow, blue, green and black. (Click Images To Enlarge)
The iPhone 5C will sport a 4-inch retina display, like the iPhone 5, as well as an A6 chip inside with "blazing-fast performance." The battery is larger than in the iPhone 5, and it includes an 8MP iSight camera, with the five-element lens and IR filter as seen on the 5.
The iPhone 5c also comes with a new Camera app that raises your photography game. Now you can shoot images in a square format. And choose from eight live filters than can be applied before or after you take your photo. Use the Instant filter to give a group shot at the beach a vintage color look. Make a sunset even more vivid with the Chrome filter. Or choose Noir to capture a self-portrait in dramatic black and white.
The iPhone 5c also comes with a new Camera app that raises your photography game. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Now when you record video in 1080p HD, the new 3x zoom feature lets you get in tighter on your subject. Video image stabilization helps smooth out shaky footage from your high‑adrenaline moments. (Running of the Bulls, anyone?) Face detection for up to 10 faces makes sure nobody gets lost in the crowd. And the ability to take still photos while recording video comes in handy when you want to tell that story within a story.
The iPhone 5C camera includes video image stabilization to help smooth out shaky footage. (Click Image To Enlarge)
iPhone 5c comes with a new FaceTime HD camera. Larger pixels and an improved backside illumination sensor give it increased sensitivity in low light — great for, say, letting your friend back on the East Coast experience a West Coast sunset with you. You can also make audio‑only FaceTime calls with clearer sound than even wideband audio.
The new Phone 5c comes with a new FaceTime HD camera. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The iPhone 5C also represents Apple's chance to broaden its market. While its smartphones are popular around the world, the majority of people in places like China can't afford $800 phones. The company plans to host an event in China later this week, where it is believed that Apple will announce a partnership with China Mobile, the world's biggest carrier.
Upgraded iOS 7
Both the iPhone 5S and 5C come loaded with the latest version of iOS 7. Apple CEO Tim Cook calls the latest iOS 7
"The biggest change to iOS since the introduction of iPhone."
The newer iOS7 incorporates a "flatter" user interface and esthetics that provide a whole new user experience and does away with 3d icons, bevels, shadows, and rounded corners, and makes some operatons automatic and behind the scenes. Checkout the video:
But, there is good news for owners of older iPhones. On September 18, you'll be able to download the latest version, iOS 7 onto your older iPhone (models dating back to the iPhone 4), iPad (version 2 or later), iPad Mini or iPod touch (fifth generation). Here's a look at ten key new features.
Control Center: Swipe up from any screen to immediately jump into system settings such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as brightness controls, a flashlight, calculator and other utilities.
Camera app: When the camera app is open, beyond stills or video, you'll get two other labeled options: shooting the photo as a square picture or a panorama. You can also edit photos with Instagram-like filters.
Photo app: Apple is bringing organization to hundreds of photos, using the camera information about where and when they were shot to organize them into "Moments," "Collections" and "Years."
Find My iPhone lock: A new "activation lock" feature requires your Apple ID and password before you can turn off Find My iPhone, further thwarting thieves.
AirDrop: The new feature is Apple's answer to Samsung's Galaxy S line of phones, which let other Galaxy users share photos and other files by clicking the phones together. AirDrop lets other iOS users send items directly to each other, without opening up a text message or e-mail to do so. A slightly different version of the AirDrop feature has already been available on Apple's latest Mac computers.
Multi-tasking: Apple has improved multi-tasking. By pressing the home button twice, you can see preview screens of all your running apps and swipe to move from one to another. By swiping up you can delete an app.
Background updates: The new iOS will update apps automatically in the background and does so when you're plugged into Wi-Fi. The idea is that fetching such updates won't kill your battery.
iTunes radio: Apple's answer to Pandora will be available on computers and mobile devices when it arrives with the new operating system on Sept. 18. The program brings in pre-programmed radio stations to iTunes, and will let listeners create stations based on their favorite artists.
Safari: Apple's new look for the Safari browser will let you see more of your content and includes full-screen browsing. There's also a "smart search" field that unifies separate search and address fields into one, and a cool new tab view for scrolling from one page to another.
Siri: You'll find new male and female voices in Siri. Also new: Twitter search integration, which lets you ask Siri what people are chatting about on Twitter. Siri also now taps Wikipedia as a resource as well as Bing search.
Design: Not to be underestimated is the overall look and feel of the operating system. With freshly designed fonts, icons and animations — a flash of lightning, say, in the weather app — you may feel like you have a new phone without actually buying the latest hardware.
COMMENTARY: CEO Tim Cook is stuck in a no-win situation. On Tuesday, he was master of ceremonies of the unveiling of the new iPhone 5S and budget-priced iPhone 5C that seemed to please no one.
The unveiling event was short on surprises, and the new iPhone's played it safe for the most-watched company in the world.
Cook was criticized for pricing Apple's new cheaper iPhone 5C too high. By making the 5C a midrange product instead of a low-end smartphone, he protected the company's profit margins — and left a large swath of the market open to rivals selling inexpensive Google (GOOG) Android-based smartphones.
His decision on pricing also preserved Apple's reputation as a premium, aspirational brand. But Cook sacrificed the opportunity to increase Apple's smartphone market share and boost unit sales and revenue in order to maintain the company's business model and image.
On selling a cheap iPhone, Cook is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. And Apple stock was down nearly 6% in midday trading inthe stock market Wednesday.
As for the lack of surprises at the product launch, Apple is battling media leaks from supplier partners and lofty expectations set by its history of groundbreaking products under the late, great Steve Jobs.
Even when it did announce something unexpected on Tuesday, the media mostly shrugged, failing to see the significance.
Tech bloggers had photos weeks in advance of the iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor, dual-LED camera flash, the gold model 5S, and the colored plastic cases of the iPhone 5C, but they didn't predict everything. Those surprises, mostly overlooked Tuesday, concerned the details of advanced components and software in the new phones.
New A7 64-bit microprocessor chip that promises to deliver processing speeds twice as fast as its predecessor chip.
New M7 motion co-processor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency.
Free productivity apps available on both the iPhone 5S and 5C including Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which previously cost users $9.99 and let users create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and iPhoto and iMovie, which previously cost users $4.99 for editing snapshots and videos.
Making Pages, Numbers and Keynote available for free could make the handsets even more popular with professionals. Those software products compete with offerings from Microsoft (MSFT) and Google.
The pressure on Apple's CEO is likely to intensify in the months ahead. Cook has promised "amazing" products to be rolled out through 2014 and he had better deliver. Whether those include the rumored iTV television and iWatch smartwatch remains to be seen.
Apple Makes Huge Mistake Not Introducing A Big Display Phone
In my opinion, Apple lost out on another huge money-making opportunity -- launching an iPhone with a big display to match that of Samsung's Galaxy S4 (5-inch) and Galaxy Note 2 (5.5-inch). Samsung will also be unveiling a newer Galaxy Note 3 (5.5 inch) within the month. As you already know, the S4 (and S3 before) has run away with the market for large display smartphones. Since the S4 was introduced in May, Samsung has sold over 10 million
During a press event at IFA on September 9, 2013, J. K. Shin, President of Samsung mobile communications, revealed some interesting sales figures for the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2. According to Shin, Samsung has sold over 38 million Galaxy Note devices over the past two years.
That is a very healthy number and raises the question yet again about large screen smartphones (5 inches and over) verses smaller screen smartphones (4 to 5 inches). Apple has rigidly stuck to the smaller end, but iPhone fans seem happy with Apple’s choices since the iPhone continues to sell well. However Samsung has taken a different approach in that it offers phones with a variety of screen sizes including the popular Galaxy S3 (4.8 inches) and the Galaxy S4 (5 inches). If Samsung, HTC, LG and others are able to sell millions of phones with 4 to 5 inch displays plus the very same companies are able to sell millions of units featuring even larger displays then it is clear that consumers cherish the choice and that larger screen phones are not just an odd statistical blip.
Shin didn’t elaborate any further or breakdown the number per year or per device, but he did add that Samsung expects to sell at least 10 million Galaxy Note 3 phones. The 10 million figure is probably low, or maybe only a short term prediction, as both the Note and Note 2 sold in greater quantities.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will go on sale internationally from September 25 except for in the U.S. and Japan where it will be released during October.
Large display phones, also referred to as "phablets," because they resemble a hybrid between a phone and tablet, out sold tablets and laptops combined during Q2 2013, but Apple got exactly zero of those sales. According to several mobile technology analysts, iPhone owners are crying for an iPhone with a larger display. Having said this, you have to question why Apple CEO Tim Cook never considered producing the iPhone 5S with a 5-inch display as a defensive strategy. There is no longer any doubt that there is a demand for large display phones. If an iPhone phablet is in the works, why put it off when the market for them is boiling hot?
Apple made a similar mistake with the iPad, when Steve Jobs called 7-in tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy Tab as "dead on arrival." Well, surprise, surprise, Amazon sold 10 million 7-inch Kind;e Fire tablets over the next 12 months from it launch. Apple finally realized this mistake, and introduced the 7.9 inch iPad Mini in 2012. But, that was a rush job, the iPad Mini is under-powered and has an inferior display. I thought about buying a 9 or 10-inch tablet, and was even leaning towards an iPad, but after seeing and reading the reviews of Google's Nexus 7 2nd generation 7-inch tablet in early August, I bought one. Now I am leaning towards a 5-inch phone.
iPhone 5C and 5S Specifications
For those readers interested in the iPhone 5C and 5S technical specifications, check this out.
Click Image To Enlarge
For more detailed iPhone 5S and 5C technical specifications refer to GDGT1and GDGT2.
Courtesy of an article dated September 10, 2013 appearing in C|NET, an article dated September 10, 2013 appearing in Engadget, an article dated September 11, 2013 appearing in USA Today, an article dated September 9, 2013 appearing in Android Authority, an article dated September 9, 2013 appearing in Forbes, and an article dated September 11, 2013 appearing in Investors.com
A bike rider suspended beneath the Atlas, provides the power for the machine, the winner of the Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter contest prize (Click Image To Enlarge)
THE WINNERS OF THE SIKORSKY HUMAN POWERED HELICOPTER COMPETITION DIDN’T "THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX." THEY JUST CHOSE THE RIGHT BOX TO THINK IN.
On June 13, an enormous, ridiculous-looking pedal-powered contraption wafted itself into midair and made history. The helicopter, called Atlas, was designed to win an aviation challenge--the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition--that had defeated scores of aircraft designers and engineers for 33 years. The task sounds simple: Create a human-powered aircraft that can hover three meters in the air for at least a minute without drifting outside a 10-meter square. But satisfying those constraints meant designing an aircraft like nothing you’ve ever seen:
On June 13th, 2013, the AeroVelo Atlas Human-Powered Helicopter captured the long standing AHS Sikorsky Prize with a flight lasting 64.1 seconds and reaching an altitude of 3.3 metres. Visit www.aerovelo.com for more details. (Click Image To View Video)
"Until a few weeks ago, the people who literally wrote the book on the helicopter said that this problem is too hard--that this is actually physically impossible."
So how did Robertson and his team at AeroVelo--which he describes as "not specialists"--crack the problem? The answer is in that ungainly, ridiculous-looking contraption itself. It’s not anyone’s idea of a "practical" aircraft. It’s designed to do one thing, and one thing only: Win the Sikorsky prize, by any means necessary. Robertson says.
"We weren’t afraid to construct a Rube Goldberg machine."
This kind of innovation strategy often goes by clichéd names like "lateral thinking" or "thinking outside the box." But according to Robertson, "the box" was actually the key to succeeding where 33 years’ worth of other designs had failed. Atlas won the Sikorsky prize by zeroing in on the right box to think inside--and then rigorously, intensely, and persistently analyzing it. He says.
"Achieving the so-called 'impossible' is a matter of removing unnecessary constraints, and understanding what’s in the box."
The "most salient feature" of Atlas’s winning design, according to Robertson, is its sheer size. It relies on four pedal-powered rotors for lift--and each one is 10 meters in diameter. He says.
"Atlas is the size of every other human-powered helicopter [in the competition], combined."
Other design teams knew that size was important, too.
Robertson says.
"Everyone else said, 'We’re on a campus, so let’s find the biggest gym to build and test this aircraft in,' which translates to, 'How big is the gym we have? Let’s build our helicopter that big.' But that’s not a real constraint on designing the 'copter. That’s artificial. So we removed it."
Click Image To Enlarge
By realizing that the literal size of "the box" wasn’t actually relevant to solving their problem, AeroVelo tested Atlas in an enormous indoor soccer stadium near Toronto. But that insight wasn’t enough to make the rest of the process simple. Robertson, chief aerodynamicist Todd Reichert, and the rest of the team spent months digitally modeling the physical parameters of their newly liberated problem: Robertson says.
"Structure, aerodynamics, engine thermodynamics, pilot physiology, kinematics, all these different design considerations."
They also programmed an "optimizer" to take these variables and relentlessly iterate on possible designs--not with perfect fidelity but with a "good enough" set of tolerances. Robertson says.
"Then you hit 'go,' and it designs the helicopter. It only takes five minutes to run on a laptop."
Click Image To Enlarge
It’s often said that solving tough design problems isn’t about bashing your way to a difficult solution as much as it’s about bashing your way to the right question. Atlas is indeed a Rube Goldberg machine--not much good for anything but winning the Sikorsky Prize. But as a proof of concept for an innovation strategy, Atlas’s example can apply to problems far more serious than hovering a furiously pedaling human being in midair.
Robertson asserts.
"We don’t have 50 years to reevaluate our infrastructure, address climate change, or deal with other 'impossible’ problems. Getting 2% improvement is no longer acceptable as the right answer. We all need to start really questioning the state that we’re in and how to move beyond it at a much more rapid pace than ever before, and this approach of removing artificial or unnecessary constraints is one way to do that. We knew nothing about helicopters, but we were able to do the impossible. Everybody can become better problem solvers and global citizens by inhabiting that state of mind."
COMMENTARY: Wow, that's an incredible achievement. Without aeronautics knowledge or experience, and without even knowing whether the AeroVelo Atlas would even fly, these guys do the impossible. How the AeroVelo Atlas is able to lift-off with those four, slow-revolving helicopter blades, is beyond me. It's nothing short of a miracle. They deserve the $250,000 price for winning.
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