Where did those famous words come from? Armstrong explains that he didn’t come up with his famous declaration until after he landed. Mission control “had no confidence in our ability to get down safely,” he jokes.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Where did those famous words come from? Armstrong explains.
The video has been moved at: http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/
Where did those famous words come from? Armstrong explains that he didn’t come up with his famous declaration until after he landed. Mission control “had no confidence in our ability to get down safely,” he jokes.
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/24/neil-armstrong-gives-a-rare-interview-to-discuss-the-apollo-program-and-the-moon-landing.html
Where did those famous words come from? Armstrong explains that he didn’t come up with his famous declaration until after he landed. Mission control “had no confidence in our ability to get down safely,” he jokes.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Quo vadis?
For the coming two decades, the US space program should focus more on finding the best methods to detect and deflect possible hazardous NEOs, as well as making progress in the actual exploration of the solar system by using robotic missions rather than human space flight. Top six missions should be:
- Perfecting the method of tracking and deflecting hazardous NEOs;
- Finalizing the James Webb telescope to replace Hubble;
- Intensive robotic search for life on Mars.
- Further exploring Europa, Enceladus, and Titan.
- Developing launch systems with better performance for deep space travel.
- Remain involved in an international venture to keep an ongoing orbiting facility.
It seems at the very least strange if not worrisome that in 2012 there is not yet a system to fully track and deflect asteroids that could impact Earth. Since this danger is a certainty, and the time of such an event is never known, being ready for anything possible seems to be the only right attitude. The US space program should dedicate an entire program to accomplish this task. It is more important to stay alive than flying humans in space. This should be a Number 1.
Having the James Webb telescope launched into orbit is also of crucial importance. The mission of the HST will soon come to an end, and we not only need a replacement, but a high performance tool to continue the outstanding discoveries brought by Hubble.
I believe that at least for now the US should focus on robotic exploration rather than human space flight. So far humans cannot go any further than LEO, maybe the moon, while Mars is still science fiction. Robotic missions have brought fantastic results in the last decades. The three main candidates for life in the solar system, Mars, Europa, and Titan were visited by robots only, and we should be thankful they were able to go in those places where humans would not make it even for a second, let alone the long trip to reach those worlds. Spirit, Opportunity , Galileo and Cassini-Huygens sent back a wealth of data leading to conclusions that life could exist elsewhere in the solar system. At this point, if life is out there, it will be a robot that will find it. On top of their excellent results, robots are cheaper and human lives are not at stake.
Another important aspect of the space program for the next 20 years is developing a better performance launch vehicle. Sad enough, we should start by making one such vehicle to reach the LEO, since no such tool exists yet. And of course, research and the development for a deep space travel is a necessity if we ever want to consider a trip to Mars with humans on board. Finally, a permanent presence in space has proved itself to be of crucial importance for humanity, and with the end of the ISS mission coming soon, a new such mission must be developed.
There is a strong trend in the field of space exploration supporting a human space flight, advocating an eventual return to the Moon and prepare for a Mars visit. President Obama proposed a first deep space trip by 2025, but there are many variables to consider into the equation for such mission to become reality. I believe that the US space program will focus primarily on the above mentioned missions as it is.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Benefits of Space Exploration
Public benefits that flow from space-related activities include scientific advances that have an impact on people’s life at various levels, including intellectual stimulation, access to a manifold spectrum of applications, from commercial and economic, to personal applications, but also national defense and national security. [1] Leaving Earth offers a better, clearer view of the universe, without atmospheric obscurations. Scientific advances may seem to benefit a small niche, specific fields such as astronomy, geophysics and geology, but also life sciences – biology and chemistry, which in turn have an impact on the science medicine and pharmaceutics. The progress made in medical technology is also a byproduct of space activities. Since every single person’s life is impacted by the field of medicine, there is no doubt that scientific advances brought by space exploration had tremendous benefits for everyone. [2]
Satellites, either meteorological, of navigation, or communication, have brought comfort in everybody’s life. Remote-sensing satellites improved the commercial and economic capabilities. Exploring space allows experimentation in a free fall environment, allowing testing and developing materials. Space exploration offers access to plentiful resources such as solar energy and materials that are not existent on Earth. [3] But space is also the final frontier of exploration and therefore it offers a new and unique challenge, stimulating the inherent human quality to explore. Space activities expand humanity’s knowledge and range of action. Finally, national defense has been greatly impacted by rocket science and various types of satellites in Earth’s orbit. However, exploring space not only brings security, but also propels a nation to a higher step in the world’s hierarchy. A nation capable of exploring space is a powerful nation.
Despite all these benefits, there are people complaining that the tax-payers have to pay for an expensive space program without having any immediate advantages. On top of the fact that any scientific research is conducted for the benefit of all humanity, much of people’s comfort comes from space exploration. Nobody would give up his cell phone, computer or TV. The space program is not only worth every penny, but it is probably the most profitable there is for the entire humanity.
NASA has released an application that demonstrates how space-related activities impact everyone's life on a daily basis. The application is called NASA @ Home and City and it is worth giving it a try. [4]
________________________________________
Notes:
[1] Kay, W.D. Defining NASA: The Historical Debate over the Agency's Mission. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2005, 8.
[2] Ibid, 8.
[3] Sellers, Jerry Jon. Understanding Space: An Introduction to Astronautics, 3rd Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005, 3.
[4] NASA. NASA @ Home and City. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm (accessed March 15, 2012).
________________________________________
References
Kay, W.D. Defining NASA: The Historical Debate over the Agency's Mission. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2005.
NASA. NASA @ Home and City. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm (accessed March 15, 2012).
Sellers, Jerry Jon. Understanding Space: An Introduction to Astronautics, 3rd Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The importance of Gemini
While the Mercury project proved that man can fly in space, during the project Gemini, man learned how to fly to the Moon. This is the importance of Gemini: learning how to get to the Moon. Gemini was special because without it the Apollo program would not have been ready to fly its missions. Gemini had 10 missions planed, and with each new mission, risk was escalading. Every Gemini mission tested a critical procedure in the flight to the Moon. [1] Missions were flown just a few weeks apart in the rush to accomplish the required skills to fly to the Moon by the end of the decade. Gemini taught the astronauts how to become familiar with the rocket and capsule, walk in space, rendezvous with another vehicle, spending enough time in space to travel to the Moon and back, and docking and operating two spacecraft in space.
Launched in March 23, 1965 Gemini 3 tested the new rocket (a converted ballistic missile) and the capsule, trying to return to Earth alive. This was the first time two Americans flew together in space. They practiced changing altitude and orbit, critical maneuvers on the trip to the Moon. Reentry was faulty because the rotation of the Earth was not included in the calculations and the capsule of Gemini 3 splashed down off-target. [2] Next step was walking in space. The EVA (extravehicular activity) was a key element that had to be accomplished before going to the Moon, to learn how it is like to float and live in space. This mission had to test the efficiency of the flight suit in keeping astronauts alive. The first American space walk occurred on Gemini 4. [3]
Rendezvous with another vehicle was the next critical step. This was the mission of Gemini 6 and 7. Gemini 6 and 7 had to find each other in orbit and fly inches apart. Despite the difficulties encountered during this mission, Gemini 6 and 7 capsules were able to rendezvous and fly in tight formation for 270 minutes, three orbits of the Earth. Gemini 7 also completed a two weeks mission in space to prove that astronauts can survive a long trip to the Moon and back. [4] The last critical maneuver was docking two spacecrafts in space. This mission was accomplished by Gemini 8, despite the issues encountered during the mission that led to landing to the next closest landing area to the original landing site. [5]
Teaching astronauts how to work in the vacuum of space was next. Gemini 9 attempted the longest space walk ever, but failed, together with the following two Gemini missions. After modifying the spacesuit and training methods, the last Gemini mission, Gemini 12 tried again and succeeded three EVAs (five hours). [6] Gemini ended in triumph, setting the stage for a mission to the Moon.
The accomplishments of the Apollo program would not have been possible without Gemini. The main, most important skills required for going to the Moon and returning back to Earth alive were acquired by NASA’s astronauts during the Gemini program. Gemini provided a solid foundation of technology, a team, and the confidence to go to the Moon.
Notes:
[1] Butterworth, Tyler. When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. Dangerous Films, 2008.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
Bibliography
Butterworth, Tyler. When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, Episode 2: Friends and Rivals. Dangerous Films, 2008.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Comets and the Origin of Life
Comets are packages of rock and ice, speeding around the Sun in numberless highly elliptical orbits, with the star at one of the foci. They reside in the furthest outer areas of the solar system, either in the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud. Kuiper Belt comets have short and intermediate orbital periods, not less than 20 and not more than 200 years, therefore visiting Earth more often. Their paths are eccentric, direct orbits, on the ecliptic plane, and most of them have an enemy in the giant Jupiter, as its gravity can completely derail their well-established trajectories. [1] On another hand, Oort Cloud comets have very long orbital periods, taking thousands of years and even more to fly by the inner planets, that is only if some external force, such as the gravity of another star pushes them towards the inner solar system. They have orbits randomly inclined to the ecliptic plane, and therefore they arrive in Earth’s neighborhood from different directions. [2] Comets are all about their tails. In fact, David Levy, one of the discoverers of the Shoemaker-Levy Comet believes that “comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do precisely what they want”. [3] As a comet approaches the Sun, solids and gases are released, and it develops a glowing atmosphere known as a coma, blown outward away from the Sun, as well as an ion and a meteoric dust tail reflecting light. In the words of astronomer Fred L. Whipple, comets are “dirty snowballs” [4], and some of that dirt is made of organic compound. [5] The ion tail is developed when gases are ionized by solar radiation. Since the solar wind travels very fast by the comet, the orientation of the ion tail is always against the Sun. The dust tail has a slightly different orientation than the ion tail. This material stays in individual orbit around the Sun, and therefore the dust tail is curved. [6] In contact with Earth’s atmosphere, it is the source of one of the most spectacular cosmic shows: meteor showers, popularly known as falling stars. Most importantly, comets are leftovers of the solar system formation, and hold the secrets of its beginnings. They formed slowly as leftover debris clumped together. Comets contain the building blocks of the solar nebula, material that has been pushed from the inner to the outer solar system. Some of these materials were organic compounds: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen, but also interstellar silicates and ices such as water, ammonia, methane, carbon monoxide, and recently discovered ethane. Comet dust is composed of silicates and some metals. [7]
What about life? Where did it come from? How did it come into existence? These are difficult, unresolved questions tormenting scientists for centuries, while the origin of life remains one of the most puzzling and controversial issues. When Earth was formed over 4.5 billions years ago, the planet was inhospitable and inhabitable. From that point on until a billion years later, some processes occurred that led to a planet teeming with life. [8] Life on Earth started 3.8 billion years ago, as soon as the environment and the conditions became slightly favorable to ignite the spark of life. These favorable conditions allowed life to become firmly rooted in less than half a billion years. [9] To figure out how this happened and how could non-living matter turn into living matter, biologists imagined the process of evolution in reverse. Reversing evolution concluded that life on Earth started in the oceans, and in simple forms, such as carbon-chained molecules capable of copying themselves. [10] These organisms did not have bones or shells that could have been fossilized and preserved, and therefore the evidence of their existence is scarce. However, ancient rocks dating over three billion years ago have revealed stromatolites, fossilized colonies of these single cell organisms. Life was thriving in the oceans just a billion years after its beginnings. [11] But where did it come from?
The Russian biochemist A.I. Oparin, and the English biologist J.B.S. Haldane introduced the so-called primordial soup theory of the origin of life. This theory states that a primordial soup of amino acids was formed on Earth a little under four billion years ago from molecules generated by chemical reactions between gases like nitrogen, ammonia, methane, and hydrogen. These amino acids would have later developed into organisms. This theory however was demolished when it was discovered that the early atmosphere on Earth had an oxidizing nature, meaning no life could have formed in such conditions. [12]
But what do comets have to do with the origins of life? It appears that the speculation about their connection started when Halley’s Comet last visited, in 1986. At that time the Vega and Giotto missions observed that the famous comet had in its composition carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in proportions just like on Earth. [13] Comets also have in their structure organic molecules. The Deep Impact mission has revealed evidence of organic and clay particles in the comet Tempel 1. Similar organic molecules were discovered by the Stardust mission in the comet Wild 2. [14] However, the samples returned by Stardust did not contain clay, and therefore the existence of clay in comets is still controversial. [15] The Herschel Infrared Space Observatory has recently discovered that the comet Hartley 2 contains the same kind of water as Earth’s oceans, allowing the scientist to assume that comets must have played a significant role in the origin of water on the Blue Planet. [16] The data brought by all these missions led to the conclusion that comets do contain all the prerequisites for life: liquid water, organic molecules, and clay surfaces that allow catalytic reactions. Life could have first developed on a comet, and travel later to Earth and other planets or moons. [17] It sounds like a process of contamination: Earth could have been literally contaminated with life four billion years ago. Since life on Earth started rapidly in geologic terms, it could have arrived on the surface of the planet ready-made. An extreme theory supporting this idea is called the Panspermia Theory, claiming that life originated elsewhere and spread by spores or bacteria to habitable planets all over the universe, developing wherever it found a suitable environment. [18]
But the connection between life and comets has been made centuries before in popular beliefs. It appears that Sir Isaac Newton has several times expressed his belief that the appearance of comets in the sky was related to the spontaneous generation of plants. [19] However his belief has been demolished by the theory of evolution. The publication of this theory by Darwin
The idea that comets had a role in the formation of planets was already proposed by both Newton Newton
In 1992 Carl Sagan expressed that “comets may be the bringers of life”. [23] It was already known at that time that life has developed a little under four billion years ago during the heavy bombardment phase, and that comets do carry organic molecules, which, if given energy, can break apart and re-combine in more complex forms, such as amino acids, proteins and potentially DNA. [24] To all this was added the knowledge that organic molecules on board a comet could have survived a violent collision with the planet, especially since 74 different amino acids unknown on Earth have been found in chondrites, and hence such amino acids could have easily survived a minor impact. [25] After all, thermofilic organisms are the common ancestors of the oldest forms of life found on Earth, which means that life has evolved in high temperatures. Prebiotic molecules could have also been sowed even if a comet exploded in the atmosphere and the debris would have fallen on the surface of the planet, or even from such interplanetary debris. [26]
The similarity in composition between humans and comets suggests at the very least that there must be a connection between life and comets. Humans contain 9.5 percent carbon, 63 percent hydrogen, 26 percent oxygen, and one percent nitrogen. Halley’s Comet contains 11 percent carbon, 55 percent hydrogen, 28 percent oxygen, and two percent nitrogen. [27] Recent studies have revealed organic compounds, clay and light water on board of comets. All of these seem to be enough to allow the spark of life to ignite. However, there is not yet enough evidence to support the theory that life has hitched a ride on a comet and arrived on Earth ready-made, and the fact that life is still yet to be discovered elsewhere is a drawback of such a hypothesis. If life arrived onboard of a comet, it must have contaminated other worlds too. But, if life turns out to be widely spread everywhere in the universe, the cometary contamination of all planets with life seems likely, and it is just a matter of time until such evidence will come up. Until then, panspermia through comets seems to be a fascinating theory on the origins of life.
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