Weekly Read & Watch List - Week of Jan 31, 2016

Week of January 31, 2016

This section is a curated list of articles, white papers, concepts, events, videos, and data releases. Some listed items may not be current but are nonetheless quite interesting.

Articles & Sites of Interest

• Galaxy Magazine archive
• USDOE: Energy Department Announces New Investments in Advanced Nuclear Power Reactors to Help Meet America’s Carbon Emission Reduction Goal
• New Study Zeros in on Plate Tectonics’ Start Date 
• McGill: Nearing the limits of life on Earth
• Planetary Society: NASA Could Choose Mars Human Landing Site during next Presidential Administration 
• Planetary Society: Europa Budget Bulge 
• NASA: Rocketology - NASA’s Space Launch System 
• Centauri Dreams: Proxima Centauri & the Imagination 
• NASA: Ceres - Keeping Well-Guarded Secrets for 215 Years 
• RAS: 1 trillion kilometres apart: a lonely planet and its distant star
• First launch from Russia's new Far East spaceport to be in April 
• Planetary Society: Postcards from Clementine  
• SPACEREF: New Theory Aids Search for Universe's Origin 
• Phys.org: Mars rover Opportunity busy through depth of winter 
• Spaceflight Insider: Euclid spacecraft set to unravel the universe’s mysteries
• Centauri Dreams: KIC 8462852: No Dimming After All? 
• Centauri Dreams: Bradley Schaefer - A Response to Michael Hippke 
• NASA: Pluto's Blue Atmosphere in the Infrared
• NASA: Pluto’s Widespread Water Ice
• BBC: Russia's troubled Vostochny space port readies for lift-off
• Pale Red Dot: The Doppler Method and Proxima Centauri  
• UCLA: Moon was produced by a head-on collision between Earth and a forming planet 
• Planetary Society: What's up in solar system exploration - February 2016 edition 

Concepts & White Papers

• High Frontier: The X-33: Nothing ventured, nothing gained
• arxiv: Science Learning via Participation in Online Citizen Science 
• Russian ultraviolet astronomy's long road to space
• NTRS: Mars Surface Tunnel Element Concept  
• The Europa Clipper 
• Eos: Europa Clipper Mission Concept 
• Europa Clipper Update 
• arxiv: Pluto's atmosphere from the 29 June 2015 ground-based stellar occultation at the time of the New Horizons flyby 
• RAS: A nearby young M dwarf with a wide, possibly planetary-mass companion 
• arxiv: Gravitational microlensing as a probe for dark matter clumps 
• arxiv: The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets XL. Searching for Neptunes around metal-poor stars 
• arxiv: A Neptune-sized Exoplanet Consistent with a Pure Rock Composition 
• NASA: Companies Selected to Provide Early Design Work for Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission Spacecraft 
• NTRS: Asteroid Redirect Mission Concept: A Bold Approach for Utilizing Space Resources 
• arxiv: How to Directly Image a Habitable Planet Around Alpha Centauri with a ~30-45cm Space Telescope 
• arxiv: Space telescope design to directly image the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri 

Events & Involvement

• Feb 1, 2016 - NASA to Announce Science, Technology Missions for First Flight of Space Launch System

Videos

• X-33 VentureStar - single stage to orbit space plane
• Aerospike Engine  (test demonstration)
• Skylon - single stage to orbit space plane
• Sabre jet engine for Skylon
• Astronomy in the year 2020
• CNBC: Boeing builds the most powerful rocket ever made
• Himawari: Glittering Blue - a day in the life of earth  
• JPL / DLR: Flight Over Dwarf Planet Ceres 
• Jan 24, 1986 - Voyager 2 makes closest approach to planet Uranus, at an altitude of 81,500 km, no further missions are yet in planning to surpass this
• Jan 24, 1986 - Voyager 2 makes closest approach to Uranian moon Miranda, at an altitude of 29,000 km
• Jan 25, 2004 - MER-B rover (Opportunity) lands safely on the surface of Mars in Eagle crater
• Jan 25, 2006 - discovery of exoplanet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, using a method known as gravitational microlensing, it was the first rocky / icy planet discovered around a main sequence star
• Jan 26, 1949 - Hale telescope sees first light through a 200" mirror, becoming the largest aperture telescope until it is surpassed by the BTA-6 in 1976 
• construction of telescope
• Jan 27, 1951 - Nuclear weapons test Operation Ranger proceeds at the Nevada Test Site
• Jan 27, 1967 - Apollo 1 experiences a fatal malfunction during a fully stacked test, killing three astronauts inside the capsule, Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee 
• part 2
• Jan 28, 1958 - The Lego company patents design of Lego Bricks
• Jan 28, 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger launches on mission STS-51-L; this is the final launch of the Challenger orbiter after experiencing a fatal malfunction with a solid fuel booster resulting in the destruction of the orbital stack during ascent 
• Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Investigation

Data

• Planetary Society: China invites public on-board its robotic missions; and how to download Chang'e data

Saturday Morning Films - Jan 30

I decided this feature would be better with a longer run-time goal of approximately 1 hour. No theme this week.

The Quiet Revolution - 1956

 

Archive.org  

 

United States Army Research and Development - Progress Report Number Six - Camp Century- 1964

 

Archive.org  

 

In the Suburbs - 1957

 

Archive.org 

LAMO 16

LAMO image 16 has just been released to the JPL Photojournal.

LAMO 16 primarily features the eastern rim and interior of Jarimba crater. As noted on the Photojournal entry, the imaged region is approximately centered at 24 degrees south latitude, 22 degrees east longitude.

LAMO 16 - PIA20306

Imaging Map (2016-01-29)

Ceres simulated flyover animation from NASA

A nice animation from DLR has been posted to the NASA webpage. I requested further information in regards to the source of the data, either Survey Orbit or HAMO but haven't yet heard back. I'll update that in the future if that information becomes available.

New Animation Takes a Colorful Flight Over Ceres

14th SBAG: Day 3

The 14th SBAG meeting continues on day 3 today.

Agenda (pdf)

Live video feed

Of most interest to me is the presentation from the Dawn mission at the start of the meeting today (currently ongoing). Following this presentation is an update to the James Webb Space Telescope construction, which just this morning, finished installing the final mirror on the monolithic assembly.  Later this morning is several presentations on small satellite concepts and the meeting will wrap up at noon-time PST. 

I received further comment from an SBAG committee member in regards to accessing the recorded presentations. The request was forwarded on to the NASA public affairs office which should provide an answer to whether these videos can be distributed.

UPDATE

Dawn presentation

I unfortunately did not get to see the entire presentation this morning. I am very hopeful that it will be possible to get a link to the recording for later viewing. For the portion of the presentation that I did see, there was a plentiful amount of new information with a lot of really great slides as well. Those slides aren't yet posted but I was told they should be up by the end of the day. Watch for another update here for that. One slide I screencapped was a previously unreleased LAMO image of a portion of Haulani. Its low in resolution from the video feed, but I can imagine it is much better in appearance in the PDF slide presentation. And once again, if I receive a link for the recorded presentation, you can expect it to be in an update here as well.

Haulani crater on Ceres from the Dawn mission in LAMO

LAMO 15

LAMO image 15 has been released to the JPL Photojournal.

LAMO 15 features a short segment of the far northwestern portion of Kerwan crater. A large, approximately 2 kilometer diameter crater is draped in a large amount of the white material that has been linked to salt deposits. The pattern around the crater would suggest the bright material in this location may have been just below the much darker surface layer and was thrown about landscape after an object impacted the local area. The crater is also located directly on the rim of major crater, Kerwan. As noted in the Photojournal entry, the imaged region is centered at approximately 2.5 degrees south latitude, 112 degrees east longitude.

LAMO 15 - PIA20305

Imaging Map (2016-01-28)

SBAG 14: Day 2

The Small Bodies Assessment Group meeting continues today.

Agenda (pdf)

Live video feed

Yesterday's presentations about New Horizons by Alan Stern can be watched here.

Several interesting presentations should happen today. A presentation from the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) team, Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment by Andy Rivkin, and current Phase A Discovery class missions to small bodies where we will hopefully get more details about them.

I will attempt to track down all of yesterday's talks and all future talks from the meeting and post them here in an easy to locate place. It was suggested that there will be a location on the SBAG website with links to them, but I haven't yet seen anything from this meeting or previous meetings that would facilitate this.

Update: I've been in contact with SBAG in regards to the recorded video material. Apparently there is no intention to provide links to this video content. I have an email out to several committee members in regards to this as well. I'm unsure if there are restrictions to the presentations that would prevent the videos from being distributed, but I suspect that there just isn't any plan to provide access. The New Horizons presentation link was provided in error yesterday. However, I will leave the link live for as long as it works.

Requiring people to watch these meetings live to gain access to the discussed information is rather unfortunate in my opinion. Most people have jobs that would essentially prevent access the information entirely, aside from the provided PDF slide presentations, which may or may not include descriptive text for each panel. I am absolutely sure there are many people out there that have an interest in the information being discussed at the SBAG meeting but are unable to attend or watch due to schedule conflicts. By denying access to the video content, I feel that its just another closed door in the face of an interested public. Outreach is imperative to maintain an interested public and all they need to do for outreach, is to provide content to keep the public interested and wanting more. /endrant

Going On Now: New Horizons Talk @ SBAG16

Rather short notice here, but in about half an hour, there will be a presentation from Alan Stern about New Horizons at the Small Bodies Assessment Group 2016 meeting.

Agenda (pdf)

New Horizons Slide Presentation

Live Event Feed

LAMO 14

LAMO image 14 has been released to the JPL Photojournal.

LAMO 14 features an unnamed region, south of major crater, Yalode. The most prominent feature of the region is a very large canyon, stretching across the image. The canyon averages approximately 4 kilometers across.

LAMO 14 - PIA20304

Imaging Map (2016-1-27)

LAMO 13

LAMO image 13 has been released to the JPL Photojournal.

LAMO 13 features the central interior region of Dantu crater. The prominent feature of the region is the Dantu crater central ridge, likely formed shortly after impact as the liquified terrain was cooling. Also prominent is a multitude of criss-crossing canyon-like linear features, also likely formed shortly after impact as a result of the cooling terrain. Another interesting feature to note is in the bottom right portion of the ridge, there appears to be central depression in a portion of the ridge. There's little further evidence to suggest this is a volcano, but it has a strong resemblance. And finally, there is a very bright patch of material near the central bottom portion of the imaged region. As with other areas with similar appearing material, this is likely related to salt deposits of unknown origin. As noted in the Photojournal entry, the region is centered at approximately 23 degrees north latitude, 139 degrees east longitude.

LAMO 13 - PIA 20303

Imaging Map (1-26-2015)

LAMO 12

LAMO image 12 has been released to the JPL Photojournal.

LAMO 12 features an unnamed region just north of Rongo crater. The region appears to set at the edge of a large, irregular depression. A reflective patch of material also sits at the rim of the largest crater in the region. As noted on the Photojournal entry, the region is centered at approximately 15 degrees north latitude, 351 degrees east longitude.

LAMO 12 - PIA20302

Imaging Map (1-25-2015)

Weekly Read & Watch List - Week of Jan 24, 2016

Week of January 24, 2016

This section is a curated list of articles, white papers, concepts, events, videos, and data releases. Some listed items may not be current but are nonetheless quite interesting.

Articles & Sites of Interest

• Archive.org: IF magazine collection
• Centauri Dreams: Pale Red Dot: Proxima Centauri Campaign Begins 
• EarthSky: How long would it take to get to Alpha Centauri? 
• Astronomy Now: NASA’s next flagship space telescope to get formal start - WFIRST 
• AstroBio: Explosive underwater volcanoes were a major feature of ‘Snowball Earth’  
• Centauri Dreams: Is Proxima Centauri a Bound Star? 
• AAS Assumes Leadership of WorldWide Telescope 
• Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet 
• NASA: NASA’s Van Allen Probes Revolutionize View of Radiation Belts 
• NYT: U.S. Acts to Spur Development of High-Tech Reactors 
• Another Physicist Congressman Attempts to Revive the Office of Technology Assessment 
• Centauri Dreams: Planet Nine: “An Uneasy Exhilaration”
• Gaia resolving power estimated with Pluto and Charon
• No shuttle? No problem. Space City’s new carrier aircraft exhibit soars
• BBC - What will power tomorrow’s spacecraft?
• NASA’s Journey to Mars and ESA’s Moon Village enable each other
• Space.com - Low NASA Budgets Threaten Spaceflight Safety: Report
• JPL - Voyager Mission Celebrates 30 Years Since Uranus
• Blue Origin Reuses Reusable Rocket
• NASA's WFIRST mission set for go-ahead
• WFIRST Mission Page
• You Can Now Explore the World’s Largest Train Set Using Google Street View
• SOFIA Science Session at Winter 2016 American Astronomical Society Meeting
• Color in the Solar System
• Pale Blue Dot, Pale Red Dot, Pale Green Dot, …

Concepts & White Papers

• The longevity of habitable planets and the development of intelligent life
• EVIDENCE FOR A DISTANT GIANT PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM 
• Habitability of Terrestrial-Mass Planets in the HZ of M Dwarfs. I. H/He-Dominated Atmospheres
• Post-main-sequence planetary system evolution 
• The long-wavelength thermal emission of the Pluto-Charon system from Herschel observations. Evidence for emissivity effects
• The Sun as a planet-host star: Proxies from SDO images for HARPS radial-velocity variations
• Pluto's atmosphere from the 29 June 2015 ground-based stellar occultation at the time of the New Horizons flyby
• Reagan’s Impossible Dream: The X-30 National Aerospace Plane
• Solar System Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope

Events & Involvement

• Wikipedia Year of Science 2016
• STEMN 

Videos

• SciMag: A new 9th planet for the solar system?
• NOVA: Mystery Beneath the Ice
• NASP, The X-30 National Aero Space Plane  
• Want to make a luxury cruise liner fast? Use two shipyards, then join the pieces together
• WFIRST: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Universe
• NOVA / What The Physics?! - Crazy Lake Experiment 
• Jan 17, 1773 - Captain James Cook sets a path to sail south of the antarctic circle
• Jan 19, 1983 - Apple debuts first graphically driven commercial computer, the Apple Lisa
• Jan 19, 2006 - Launch of New Horizons mission to Pluto on an Atlas V rocket, becoming highest velocity spacecraft to leave the Earth's gravity well
• Jan 20, 1929 - In Old Arizona is released, becoming the first motion picture to be filmed entirely outdoors 
• Jan 21, 1960 - Mercury capsule lifts off carrying rhesus monkey, Miss Sam on mission Little Joe 1B 
• Jan 21, 1981 - DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins production in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom 
• Jan 21, 2004 - NASA rover MER-A / Spirit ends mission after permanently losing contact with Earth 
• Jan 22, 1968 - Launch of Apollo 5 mission, carrying the first lunar module into space 
• Jan 22, 1970 - Boeing 747 jet enters commercial service 
• Jan 22, 1984 - Apple Macintosh introduced with famous 1984 Superbowl commercial
• Jan 23, 2003 - Pioneer 10 sends the last received transmission to Earth

Activities

• XCOR Lynx Paper Plane Tutorial Video 

Saturday Morning Films - Jan 23

 

The Factory: How A Product Is Made

 
Archive.org 

From the Ground Up

Archive.org

LAMO 10 & LAMO 11

LAMO image 10 and LAMO image 11 have been released to the JPL Photojournal.

LAMO 10 features the southeastern interior region of Dantu crater. In the upper left portion of the image, numerous canyon-like linear features criss-cross around the inner region of the major crater. Several bright spots are scattered the rim as well. These bright spots have been linked to salt deposits from currently unknown sources. As noted on the Photojournal entry, the image location is centered at approximately at 20 degrees north latitude, 142 degrees east longitude.

LAMO 10 - PIA20300

LAMO 11 features a region in the southern hemisphere, east of Darzamat and northwest of Chaminuka. The region has been saturated with impact craters, suggesting this area is one of the oldest on the surface. As noted on the Photojournal entry, the image location is centered at approximately 46 degrees south latitude, 101 degrees east longitude.

LAMO 11 - PIA20301

Imaging Map (1-22-2015)

Updates today and in the future

Apologies for the slow posting this week. At my work, we were installing a new exhibition. Later on I may have some posts featuring content from the exhibition. 

Later today I will be debuting a new feature for the blog with a focus on older educational videos. There is something about the mid-atlantic accent mixed with the over-the-top wonderfully curious lives featured in these videos that makes me miss them even though I was never around to see the format disappear. This feature will likely be shifted to a Saturday morning schedule and should include a mix of videos that together, span approximately 30 minutes.

Also, LAMO 10 and LAMO 11 from Dawn will be posted today. There doesn't appear to have been a release of images to the New Horizons SOC for the second week in a row. And finally, I also plan to roll-out some new mission pages for New Horizons, Juno and possibly Voyager.

In the past I've spent hours upon hours researching and locating documents, images and other content for NASA missions to update articles on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a great resource which is why I continue to link articles in these blog posts. However, maintaining an article is extremely time consuming. Unless you sit on the article and act as a rude hawk, defending your research and writing, it can take a very short time before your efforts disappear as one person rewrites this sentence and moves this section or completely deletes an entire portion. And that has to be ok because its a community project. No single person owns an article and you have to be willing to accept that some people will disagree with how an article is written. 

Nonetheless, my eventual goal for this blog and webpage is to bring that content to this blog in a format that I can easily maintain. My hope is that it will be a very dense resource, not just for those looking to learn about NASA missions but for those that want to know how a specific instrument functions to capture data.

This is a long term goal for this page and it can't happen over-night so check in regularly as I continue to update the blog.