Tag: space

Credit: ESA

This summer, researchers tested two “hedgehog” robot prototypes, to get an idea of the machines’ potential to explore space locations inaccessible to conventional rovers.

Wheeled robots like the car-size Mars rover Curiosity work well on planetary surfaces, but in the low-gravity environment of a comet or an asteroid, such machines would be in danger of floating away or snagging on the rough terrain, NASA officials said.

That’s where the Hedgehog comes in. This spiked cube moves around using spinning and braking internal flywheels. The spikes keep the robot attached to the ground and protect its more delicate body from the terrain.

The Hedgehog robot will function regardless of which side lands facing up. Image released Sept. 3, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford

“Hedgehog is a different kind of robot that would hop and tumble on the surface instead of rolling on wheels,” Issa Nesnas, Hedgehog team leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

“It is shaped like a cube and can operate no matter which side it lands on,” Nesnas added. “The spikes could also house instruments such as thermal probes to take the temperature of the surface as the robot tumbles.”

Two Hedgehog prototypes were tested this summer aboard a NASA C-9 aircraft that flies parabolic arcs to generate microgravity conditions for a few seconds at a time. During 180 parabolas over the course of four flights, the robots’ handlers tried out several ways of moving them around on various types of terrain.

Some of the maneuvers in Hedgehog’s repository include “yaw” (a turn in place using the spikes) or a “tornado” (in which the robot can spin aggressively on a spike and launch off the surface).

One prototype was created by JPL and the other by Stanford University. The JPL prototype weighs roughly 11 lbs. (5 kilograms), while the Stanford prototype is smaller and lighter, and contains shorter spikes. Also, the two prototypes brake differently: JPL’s uses disc brakes, whereas the Stanford robot uses friction belts, NASA officials said.

The research is in Phase 2 development under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, and is led by Marco Pavone, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

A World View Enterprises balloon about to lift off from southeastern Arizona on March 8, 2015, on the company’s first commercial flight. Credit: World View Enterprises

The cost of sending a scientific experiment to the stratosphere aboard a balloon just went down.

Arizona-based World View Enterprises announced today (Sept. 8) that it’s introducing a cost-sharing system that will let researchers and educators loft payloads to near space, about 130,000 feet (39,600 meters) above Earth, via a balloon for as little as $20,000. (Typical “full flight” contracts, by contrast, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, company representatives said.)

The new system applies to payloads that range in mass from less than 1 pound (0.45 kilograms) to more than a few hundred pounds, World View representatives said.

“Until now, access to the stratosphere has been incredibly rare and very expensive. That’s what makes World View’s fractional payload pricing model a game-changer,” World View chief scientist Alan Stern, who also leads NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission, said in a statement. “We plan to take what was rare and make it routine and affordable.”

World View has already lofted payloads for NASA and other customers on unmanned balloon flights, and the company is working to get people to the stratosphere as well, for $75,000 per seat. Each manned flight would feature six paying passengers and two World View crewmembers.

World View hopes to start launching these crewed flights, which would allow passengers to see the curvature of the Earth and the blackness of space, sometime next year, company representatives have said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Astrophotographer Jeff Dai sent in a photo of Venus and Jupiter over Lake Namtso, Tibet, caught on July 15, 2015. Venus will be extremely bright in the morning sky during September and October. Credit: Jeff Dai

If you see a bright light just above the horizon at sunrise, don’t panic! It’s not a UFO — it’s probably just Venus.

Planetariums, observatories, weather offices and maybe even police stations may receive a bevy of inquiries in the coming days and weeks concerning a strange bright dot that is now dominating the predawn eastern sky. As sunrise comes later and later, more and more people may see this bright morning object.

But it’s only the planet Venus in the opening stages of a spectacular morning apparition that will continue through September and October. In addition, Jupiter will join Venus in the early-morning sky for a gorgeous celestial tango. [Photos of Venus, the Mysterious Planet Next Door | Venus]

Venus made the transition from the evening sky to the morning sky on Aug. 15, when it was rising 45 minutes before sunrise. By the start of September, it was coming up before the break of dawn, at around 4:50 a.m. local time. For the rest of this month, it rises about 2.5 minutes earlier than it did the previous morning. From Sept. 21 through Oct. 26, Venus will rise no later than 3:30 a.m., and will hold court in complete darkness for more than 2 hours before the eastern sky begins to brighten.

All month long, Venus will continue to brighten, and early-morning commuters will likely wonder about this brilliant luminous object that suddenly burst upon the predawn scene. By the end of September, Venus will be firmly established as a dazzling harbinger of sunrise.

Meanwhile, for the second time in 2015, Venus and Jupiter will engage in a close conjunction — this time, separated by just more than 1 degree, with Venus passing to the lower right of Jupiter and shining more than 10 times brighter than the gas giant. Then, there will be two “mysterious” bright lights for the price of one!

As October ends, Venus rises almost 4 full hours before the sun and hangs at nearly 40 degrees at sunrise. 

A quick transition

Some stargazers might wonder why Venus became a dazzling morning entity more quickly than those occasions when it seems to take many days, weeks and sometimes even months to make the transition into the evening sky. 

The difference between this current transition and evening-sky transitions lies in Venus’ position relative to the Earth. When Venus is moving from the morning sky into the evening sky (called “superior conjunction”) it’s positioned on the opposite side of the sun relative to Earth. Located about 160 million miles (257 million kilometers) from Earth on these occasions, Venus is moving at its slowest against the background stars. What’s more, it is also moving in the same apparent direction against the stars as the sun — to the east. So, in the days leading up to and after superior conjunction, Venus continues to languish in the bright glare of the sun. 

In an evening transition, Venus moves just far enough away from the sun to be glimpsed for a short time, low near the western horizon shortly after sunset. After a number of weeks, it climbs high enough to become visible in the evening sky.

But for a morning transition, things are much different: On Aug. 15, Venus was at “inferior conjunction,” meaning it was passing between Earth and the sun. It was also only about 25 million miles (40 million km) from Earth — more than six times closer than at superior conjunction — so it appears to be moving much faster against the background stars. And, most important of all, as seen from Earth, the sun and Venus appear to be moving in opposite directions. While the sun plods along toward the east, Venus is racing away to the west, which allows it to literally “bolt” into the morning sky and become readily established as a predawn beacon over a span of just a week or two, as opposed to many weeks in the evening. 

And lastly, because it’s so much nearer to Earth, morning apparitions begin with Venus already near its peak brilliance.    

Crescent Venus

Through a telescope right now, the phase of Venus looks most remarkable. Observers with optical aid will be treated to the marvel of a large crescent. You can even see the crescent with 7 X 50 binoculars. In the weeks to come, the crescent will slowly thicken and shrink as Venus pulls away from the Earth. As November opens, Venus will resemble a half moon. Later that month, continuing through the remainder of the fall and into the winter, Venus will have shrunk to a tiny, albeit brilliant, gibbous disk.  

So, if you hear about any early-morning UFO sightings during the coming weeks, know that these are most likely Venus sightings!

Editor’s note: If you capture an amazing view of Venus or any other night sky view and want to share it with Space.com, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at: spacephotos@space.com. 

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer’s Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

This composite photo made from five images shows the International Space Station crossing the sun’s face on Sept. 6, 2015. The images were captured from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

An amazing new photo shows the International Space Station crossing the sun’s face.

The picture, a composite of five images taken Sunday (Sept. 6) from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls, captures a “transit” of the International Space Station (ISS) across the solar disk.

Such transits don’t last very long, because the space station zooms around Earth at more than 17,000 mph (27,000 km/h) — the $100 billion complex completes one lap around our planet once every 90 minutes or so.

Transits can offer more than just aesthetic appeal. For example, in the 18th century, astronomers were able to calculate the distance from the Earth to the sun by carefully observing two transits of Venus across the sun’s face (one in 1761 and the other in 1769) from various locations around the globe. And NASA’s Kepler space telescope has spotted thousands of potential exoplanets by detecting the tiny brightness dips they cause when crossing in front of their stars from the observatory’s perspective.

The ISS is currently staffed by nine space fliers. But three of them — cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, Denmark’s Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan’s Aidyn Aimbetov — will come back to Earth Saturday (Sept. 12), returning the orbiting lab to its normal complement of six crewmembers.

Editor’s note: If you capture an amazing photo of a night sky view and want to share it with Space.com, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at: spacephotos@space.com. 

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Credit: NASA/@StationCDRKelly/Mash Mix by Space.com’s @SteveSpaleta

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech