Plans for the construction of the world’s largest digital camera at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have reached a major milestone. The 3,200-megapixel centerpiece of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will provide unprecedented details of the universe and help address some of its biggest mysteries, has received key “Critical Decision 2” approval from the DOE.
Science operations are scheduled to begin in 2022 with LSST taking digital images of the entire visible southern sky every few nights from atop a mountain called Cerro Pachón in Chile. It will produce the widest, deepest and fastest views of the night sky ever observed. Over a 10-year time frame, the observatory will detect tens of billions of objects—the first time a telescope will catalog more objects in the universe than there are people on Earth—and will create movies of the sky with details that have never been seen before. (1/9)
Florida Tech Experiment Heads to Space Station (Source: Florida Today)
A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule that is due to arrive at the International Space Station this morning is carrying a small but ambitious experiment designed and built by students at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. The box of nine vials will study how proteins organize themselves into long, thin strands, a process of self-assembly relevant to research about the origins of life and about degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer's.
"Once we understand that process, we might be able to then lead to an understanding of the cause of Alzheimer's disease, and maybe even eventually a cure or a treatment," said Sam Durrance, a Florida Tech professor leading the investigation, during a recent NASA interview. "That's the long-term dream." The experiment was selected by a 2012 competition sponsored by Space Florida and NanoRacks, a company that provides equipment and support for non-NASA research on the ISS. (1/12)
NASA Astronaut Suit Enables a Disabled Boy to Walk (Source: Inhabitots)
For three year-old Georgie Craig, learning to walk hasn’t been categorized as a normal developmental milestone: it’s the result of hard work and the innovative use of a NASA spacesuit. Georgie, who was diagnosed with Global Development Delay at age 1, struggled to learn to walk and to communicate until his parents discovered an alternative therapy involving a Therasuit, originally used by astronauts to help rebuild muscle strength after returning from outer space.
The challenging and rigorous play therapy helps Georgie train his brain, reflexes, and muscles to work together to help him walk. Since he began using the spacesuit last month, Georgia has made tremendous progress, including taking eleven unaided steps on Christmas Eve. His parents are hopeful that Georgie will continue making strides (literally) in his treatment and that he will begin making verbal progress as well. (1/12)
SpaceX’s Rocket Landing Platform Back in Port (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX’s ocean-going rocket landing pad — dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship — is back in port after a Falcon 9 rocket booster crashed on the platform during an experimental flyback maneuver following Saturday’s successful liftoff with supplies for the International Space Station.
Under tow from a tugboat, the 300-foot-long Marmac 300 cargo barge arrived at the Port of Jacksonville in Florida on Sunday afternoon. The images below show it in the St. Johns River near Dames Point Bridge. Photos of the barge show signs of blast and burn damage to cargo containers and possible wreckage from the rocket covered by tarps on the platform’s deck. The rest of the vessel appeared undamaged. Click here. (1/11)
Virgin Galactic Has New Vice President of Safety (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Virgin Galactic has named one its pilots, Todd Ericson, as its new vice president of safety and test. The appointment comes about a year after the company’s previous vice president of safety retired from the company. Ericson, who previously flew for the U.S. Air Force, joined Virgin Galactic as a pilot in July. (1/11)
What’s Behind the Hole in the Sun? (Source: Cosmos)
There were no fireworks from the Sun this New Year's. Instead NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft saw the exact opposite, as a gigantic dark hole appeared on the Sun’s surface. Located around the Sun’s south pole, the hole measured around 400,000 kilometres at its widest point – the equivalent of more than 30 Earths placed side-by-side.
So what caused this immense blotch on the underside of our Sun? Coronal holes were first seen by the Skylab space station in the 1970s. We still don’t know why they occur, but we do understand something of what’s going on. Click here. (1/12)
CRS-5 Docks with International Space Station (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
On Saturday, Jan. 20, 2015, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, carrying an unmanned Dragon spacecraft with supplies and scientific experiments for the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft made rendezvous with the ISS early Monday morning, was grappled by the ISS’s robotic arm, and successfully berthed to the station three hours later. (1/12)
NextGen Upgrades Required by 2020 (Source: Forbes)
The Federal Aviation Administration has mandated that all planes, including business jets, be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out (ADS-B Out) by 2020. Airplane owners should be thinking now about how they will upgrade their craft, says Jens Hennig, vice president of Operations at the General Aircraft Manufacturers Association. (1/9)
Contractors Receive Boost from NASA Climate Change Study (Source: Washington Post)
Exelis, Orbital Sciences and Science Systems and Applications are among the contractors helping NASA study the movement of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, in one of the first large-scale attempts to understand the specifics of climate change. (1/11)
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