Overview

This instrument has been integrated using the 3D PLUS technology in order to be as compact as possible. It includes includes 4 stacked levels in a 3D cube with a reduced volume of 35x35x23 mm3. The top level contains the 2048x2048 pixels color CMOS image sensor which is the key element of the camera. Images are provided by the CMOS sensor through the 10 LVDS multiplexable output pairs that can be configured as 20 single-ended outputs increasing the number of single-ended outputs up to 33 signals.

An FPGA is integrated in themodule andcan store images in the volatile memory placedat the same level and perform preliminary image processing as averaging, adding, windowing etc

The 3DCM681 space camerais suitable to cover a wide range of scientific applications such as planetology, but also platforms or launchers monitoring and star trackers.

2048 (H) * 2048 (V) active pixels on 5.5m pitch

User-configurable FPGA

Frame rate:

12 frames/s @ full resolution (12-bit mode)

16 frames/s @ full resolution (10-bit mode)

Embedded 2x512Mb SDRAM and 8Gb NAND Flash

Integrated clock and Timing generator

Integrated Image Signal Processor

Programmable gain amplifier and offset regulation

13 general purpose signals

10 LVDS output pairs and 2 LVDS input pairs

Radiation Hardened design

TID > 40Krad(Si)

SEL LET > 60MeV.cm/mg

Space Qualified Technology

Worldwide delivery guarantee

Original post:

4 Mpx CMOS Camera - 3D PLUS

Time seems to move faster at the National Space Science Center on the outskirts of Beijing. Researchers are rushing around this brand-new compound of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in anticipation of the launch of the nation's first X-ray telescope. At mission control, a gigantic screen plays a looping video showcasing the country's major space milestones. Engineers focus intently on their computer screens while a state television crew orbits the room with cameras, collecting footage for a documentary about China's meteoric rise as a space power. The walls are festooned with motivational slogans. Diligent and meticulous, says one. No single failure in 10,000 trials, encourages another.

For director-general Wu Ji, this 19.4-hectare, 914-million-yuan (US$135-million) campus represents the coming of age of China's space-science efforts. In the past few decades, Wu says, China has built the capacity to place satellites and astronauts in orbit and send spacecraft to the Moon, but it has not done much significant research from its increasingly lofty vantage point. Now, that is changing. As far as space science is concerned, he says, we are the new kid on the block.

China is rushing to establish itself as a leader in the field. In 2013, a 1.2-tonne spacecraft called Chang'e-3 landed on the Moon, delivering a rover that used ground-penetrating radar to measure the lunar subsurface with unprecedented resolution. China's latest space lab, which launched in September 2016, carries more than a dozen scientific payloads. And four additional missions dedicated to astrophysics and other fields have been sent into orbit in the past two years, including a spacecraft that is conducting pioneering experiments in quantum communication.

These efforts, the work of the CAS and other agencies, have made an impact well beyond the country's borders. The space-science programme in China is extremely dynamic and innovative, says Johann-Dietrich Wrner, director-general of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Paris. It's at the forefront of scientific discovery. Eagerly anticipated missions in the coming decade include attempts to bring back lunar samples, a joint CASESA project to study space weather and ground-breaking missions to probe dark matter and black holes.

But despite the momentum, many researchers in China worry about the nation's future in space science. On July 2, a Long March-5 rocket failed during the launch of a communications satellite, raising concerns about an upcoming Moon mission that will use a similar vehicle. And broader issues cloud the horizon. The international and domestic challenges are formidable, says Li Chunlai, deputy director at the CAS's National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing and a senior science adviser on the country's lunar program. China is often sidelined in international collaboration, and in recent years it has had to compete with the United States for partners because of a US law that prohibits NASA from working with China. Within China, the government has not conducted strategic planning for space science or provided long-term financial support. The question is not how well China has been doing, says Li. But how long this will last.

China's entry into the space age started with a song. In 1970, the country's first satellite transmitted the patriotic tune 'The East is Red' from low Earth orbit. But it was only after the cultural revolution ended in 1976 that the nation made serious progress towards establishing a strong presence in space. The first major milestone came in 1999 with the launch of Shenzhou-1, an uncrewed test capsule that marked the start of the human space-flight programme. Since then, the country has notched up a series of successes, including sending Chinese astronauts into orbit and launching two space labs.

China's space programme has made tremendous advances in a short period of time, says Michael Moloney, who directs boards covering aerospace and space science at the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington DC. And science has progressively become a bigger part of missions run by both the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which governs lunar and planetary exploration, and the China Manned Space Agency. The country's newest space lab, Tiangong-2, for example, hosts a number of scientific payloads, including an advanced atomic clock and a $3.4-million detector called POLAR for the study of -ray bursts blasts of high-energy radiation from collapsing stars and other sources.

The country's first lunar forays orbiters launched in 2007 and 2010 were more engineering demonstrations than scientific missions, but that changed with the first lander, Chang'e-3. The mission made China the third nation to accomplish a soft landing on the Moon. More importantly, Chang'e-3 touched down in an area that had never been studied up close. Radar measurements and geochemical analyses unveiled a complex history of volcanic eruptions that could have happened as recently as 2 billion years ago1. It has really helped to bridge the gap in our understanding of the Moon's past and deep structure, says study leader Xiao Long, a planetary geologist at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan.

The results have captured the attention of planetary scientists in other countries. There is an urgent need to determine the precise age and composition of the Moon's youngest volcanism, says James Head, a specialist in planetary exploration at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. This might soon be possible. As early as December, the Chang'e-5 spacecraft will launch on a mission to return samples from near Mons Rmker, a region known to host volcanic rocks much younger than those obtained from the Apollo landing sites. It would be a fantastic addition to lunar science, Head says.

The rising fortunes of Chinese space science have come in part from efforts by the CAS, which worked through the 2000s to convince China's government to boost the scientific impact of its missions. The academy's efforts were eventually rewarded with a pot of money: the five-year Strategic Priority Program on Space Science kicked off in 2011 and provided $510 million for the development of four science satellites.

One of the missions that has yielded early results and garnered worldwide attention is the $100-million Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) mission. The spacecraft launched in August 2016 and has been testing a peculiar phenomenon called entanglement, in which the quantum states of particles are linked to each other even if the particles are far apart. Last month, the QUESS team reported that it had used the satellite to beam a pair of entangled photons to two ground stations spaced 1,200 kilometers apart2 far exceeding an earlier record of 144 kilometers (ref. 3).

The team is also using the satellite to test the possibility of establishing a quantum-communication channel between Graz, near Vienna, and Beijing. The aim is to transmit information securely by encrypting it with a key encoded in the states of photons. If successful, a global quantum-communication network will no longer be a science fiction, says Pan Jian-wei, a physicist at the CAS's University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei and the mission's principal investigator.

Researchers are also expecting great things from the $300-million Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). The detector, which launched in 2015, is the most cutting-edge equipment for picking up high-energy cosmic rays, says Martin Pohl, an astrophysicist at University of Geneva in Switzerland and a co-principal investigator of the mission.

DAMPE's data could help to determine whether a surprising pattern in the abundance of high-energy electrons and positrons detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) aboard the International Space Station comes from dark matter or from astronomical sources such as pulsars, says Pohl, who also works on the AMS. Because DAMPE is more sensitive than the AMS to high-energy particles, Pohl says, it will make a significant contribution.

The dark-matter and quantum missions launched just before the CAS's space-science funding expired. Scientists, including Wu, had to battle for continued support. The Chinese government has lately prioritized applied research, and it took intense lobbying for the better part of 2016 before researchers convinced the government to allocate an additional $730 million to the CAS for space science over the next five years. It was not without a fight, Wu says. But we've managed to pull it off.

The new plan, which began this year, funds a number of missions slated for launch in the 2020s, including China's first solar exploration mission and a remote-sensing spacecraft to study Earth's water cycle.

The CNSA and the China Manned Space Agency have also been ramping up their space-science efforts. One source of excitement is a $440-million X-ray telescope led by the CNSA, called Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP). Planned for launch by 2025, the mission is being financed in part by European partners and involves hundreds of scientists from 20 countries. It is designed to study matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism that can be found only in space in the interior of neutron stars or around black holes, for instance.

The most innovative aspect of the satellite is its ability to simultaneously measure with high precision the timing, energy distribution and polarization of X-ray signals, which will provide insight into a range of X-ray sources, says co-principal investigator Marco Feroci, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome. eXTP will also carry a wide-field telescope to hunt for unusual, transient signals. Once it finds a potentially interesting source, all the other instruments will be zoomed in that direction, says Zhang Shuangnan, an astrophysicist at the CAS's Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing, who is leading the mission. It's the total weapon for X-ray astronomy.

Work is also progressing on projects led by the China Manned Space Agency. One is a dark-matter detector that has 15 times the sensitivity of DAMPE; it's set to be installed on China's permanent space station, which is slated for completion by 2022. There are also plans for a $730-million optical telescope to orbit near the space station. With a field of view 300 times that of the Hubble telescope, it will produce survey data that could be ideal for studying dark matter and dark energy as well as hunting for exoplanets, says Gu Yidong, a physicist at the CAS's Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization in Beijing and a senior science adviser to the China Manned Space Agency.

Such projects suggest that collaboration is strengthening between the CAS and China's other agencies involved with space. And a similar spirit is reflected abroad. China's space programme has become increasingly confident and outward looking, says Wrner. In the past, announcements were made only after a mission was successful; now, China routinely broadcasts launches as they happen. And Chinese scientists are increasingly reaching out to their international colleagues, building ties through small-scale partnerships.

Most major CAS-led missions have European partners, with collaborations initiated by researchers on both sides. But ESA hopes to establish high-level cooperation with the rising space power. In early 2015, ESA and the CAS issued a call for proposals for space-science missions. They selected a project called Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), to be led jointly and funded with $53 million from each group. The agencies work intimately together at every stage of the development, says Wu.

ESA and China collaborated more than a decade ago on a project called Double Star to study magnetic storms, but it was a China-led mission. Through SMILE, the agencies are testing a new, more intimate cooperation model. It's about building trust and bridges, so we could better understand each other, says Fabio Favata, head of strategy planning and coordination at ESA. Hopefully, this will open the way for larger-scale cooperation in the future.

A nation that is notably absent from China's current list of collaborators is the United States. In the past, China contributed key components to NASA missions. But NASA is now forbidden from such collaboration by a US law passed in 2011, and as a result China is excluded from participation in the International Space Station. On board is a product of earlier collaboration between the United States, China and a number of other countries the AMS.

Representatives from NASA and Chinese agencies still visit each other regularly. But with no official cooperation possible, there may be some inevitable replication of effort. In March, STROBE-X (Spectroscopic Time-Resolving Observatory for Broadband Energy X-rays) a project similar to China's eXTP mission was selected by NASA for further study. STROBE-X could launch by 2030, some five years after eXTP. Having two very similar missions at the same time is not ideal, says Colleen Wilson-Hodge, an astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and a member of the STROBE-X team. I wish there were a way we could all work together rather than competing with each other.

For China's space scientists, however, the main challenge is to convince their own government of the need for long-term investment. Zhang, the leader of several astrophysics missions including eXTP, refers to the situation as a constant state of zhaobu baoxi, which translates as not knowing where the next meal will come from. We'll be safe for another five years, he says. But nobody knows what will happen afterwards.

Feats of engineering and exploration still get priority over science. The Chinese space station, for instance, has a budget of $14.5 billion. But even though Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that the station will be China's national laboratory in space, there is no dedicated fund for the development of its scientific payloads. The station might support science as Tiangong-2 does, providing power and communications to various experiments. But there is also the danger, Zhang says, that it will be a house without furniture.

At China's sprawling National Space Science Center, the furniture is new, and the air still smells of fresh paint. Having secured the next bout of funding, Wu looks relaxed as he settles into a big leather armchair behind his desk. He acknowledges the institutional flaws but is optimistic about the future. So far, so good, he says, glancing at the satellite models that line his shelves. We can't expect things to change overnight.

This article is reproduced with permission and wasfirst publishedon July 27, 2017.

Continued here:

China Ramping Up Quest to Become a Space Science Superpower - Scientific American

Inside Higher Ed

Ready to Go Expat? Inside Higher Ed "Personally I think it is not the best way to spend 60 million," said Olivier Bern, a research scientist in astronomy at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology, in Toulouse, and one of the organizers of France's March for Science ...

See the original post here:

Ready to Go Expat? - Inside Higher Ed

VCG/Getty

This Long March-7 rocket carried a cargo craft to the Tiangong-2 space lab in April.

Time seems to move faster at the National Space Science Center on the outskirts of Beijing. Researchers are rushing around this brand-new compound of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in anticipation of the launch of the nation's first X-ray telescope. At mission control, a gigantic screen plays a looping video showcasing the country's major space milestones. Engineers focus intently on their computer screens while a state television crew orbits the room with cameras, collecting footage for a documentary about China's meteoric rise as a space power. The walls are festooned with motivational slogans. Diligent and meticulous, says one. No single failure in 10,000 trials, encourages another.

For director-general Wu Ji, this 19.4-hectare, 914-million-yuan (US$135-million) campus represents the coming of age of China's space-science efforts. In the past few decades, Wu says, China has built the capacity to place satellites and astronauts in orbit and send spacecraft to the Moon, but it has not done much significant research from its increasingly lofty vantage point. Now, that is changing. As far as space science is concerned, he says, we are the new kid on the block.

China is rushing to establish itself as a leader in the field. In 2013, a 1.2-tonne spacecraft called Chang'e-3 landed on the Moon, delivering a rover that used ground-penetrating radar to measure the lunar subsurface with unprecedented resolution. China's latest space lab, which launched in September 2016, carries more than a dozen scientific payloads. And four additional missions dedicated to astrophysics and other fields have been sent into orbit in the past two years, including a spacecraft that is conducting pioneering experiments in quantum communication.

These efforts, the work of the CAS and other agencies, have made an impact well beyond the country's borders. The space-science programme in China is extremely dynamic and innovative, says Johann-Dietrich Wrner, director-general of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Paris. It's at the forefront of scientific discovery. Eagerly anticipated missions in the coming decade include attempts to bring back lunar samples, a joint CASESA project to study space weather and ground-breaking missions to probe dark matter and black holes.

But despite the momentum, many researchers in China worry about the nation's future in space science. On 2 July, a Long March-5 rocket failed during the launch of a communications satellite, raising concerns about an upcoming Moon mission that will use a similar vehicle. And broader issues cloud the horizon. The international and domestic challenges are formidable, says Li Chunlai, deputy director at the CAS's National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing and a senior science adviser on the country's lunar programme. China is often sidelined in international collaboration, and in recent years it has had to compete with the United States for partners because of a US law that prohibits NASA from working with China. Within China, the government has not conducted strategic planning for space science or provided long-term financial support. The question is not how well China has been doing, says Li. But how long this will last.

China's entry into the space age started with a song. In 1970, the country's first satellite transmitted the patriotic tune 'The East is Red' from low Earth orbit. But it was only after the cultural revolution ended in 1976 that the nation made serious progress towards establishing a strong presence in space. The first major milestone came in 1999 with the launch of Shenzhou-1, an uncrewed test capsule that marked the start of the human space-flight programme. Since then, the country has notched up a series of successes, including sending Chinese astronauts into orbit and launching two space labs (see 'Earth orbit and beyond').

After achieving major space-flight milestones, China has put more support behind missions with scientific aims.

NSSC

1970 China launches its first satellite, Dongfanghong-1 (pictured, above).

1999 The launch of the uncrewed Shenzhou-1 test capsule kicks off China's human space-flight programme.

2003 Astronaut Yang Liwei flies aboard Shenzhou-5 on China's first crewed mission to orbit.

2007 Chinas first lunar orbiter, Change-1, is launched.

2011 Chinas first space lab, Tiangong-1, reaches orbit.

2013 The lunar spacecraft Change-3 makes the countrys first soft landing on the Moon.

2015 The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) reaches Earths orbit.

2016 The Tiangong-2 space lab launches, carrying 14 science experiments.

2017 China launches its first X-ray telescope, the Hard X-Ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT).

2017 China plans to launch Change-5 (pictured, below) on a mission to bring lunar samples to Earth.

Liang Xu/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire

China's space programme has made tremendous advances in a short period of time, says Michael Moloney, who directs boards covering aerospace and space science at the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington DC. And science has progressively become a bigger part of missions run by both the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which governs lunar and planetary exploration, and the China Manned Space Agency. The country's newest space lab, Tiangong-2, for example, hosts a number of scientific payloads, including an advanced atomic clock and a $3.4-million detector called POLAR for the study of -ray bursts blasts of high-energy radiation from collapsing stars and other sources.

The country's first lunar forays orbiters launched in 2007 and 2010 were more engineering demonstrations than scientific missions, but that changed with the first lander, Chang'e-3. The mission made China the third nation to accomplish a soft landing on the Moon. More importantly, Chang'e-3 touched down in an area that had never been studied up close. Radar measurements and geochemical analyses unveiled a complex history of volcanic eruptions that could have happened as recently as 2 billion years ago1. It has really helped to bridge the gap in our understanding of the Moon's past and deep structure, says study leader Xiao Long, a planetary geologist at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan.

The results have captured the attention of planetary scientists in other countries. There is an urgent need to determine the precise age and composition of the Moon's youngest volcanism, says James Head, a specialist in planetary exploration at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. This might soon be possible. As early as December, the Chang'e-5 spacecraft will launch on a mission to return samples from near Mons Rmker, a region known to host volcanic rocks much younger than those obtained from the Apollo landing sites. It would be a fantastic addition to lunar science, Head says.

The rising fortunes of Chinese space science have come in part from efforts by the CAS, which worked through the 2000s to convince China's government to boost the scientific impact of its missions. The academy's efforts were eventually rewarded with a pot of money: the five-year Strategic Priority Program on Space Science kicked off in 2011 and provided $510 million for the development of four science satellites.

One of the missions that has yielded early results and garnered worldwide attention is the $100-million Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) mission. The spacecraft launched in August 2016 and has been testing a peculiar phenomenon called entanglement, in which the quantum states of particles are linked to each other even if the particles are far apart. Last month, the QUESS team reported that it had used the satellite to beam a pair of entangled photons to two ground stations spaced 1,200 kilometres apart2 far exceeding an earlier record of 144 kilometres (ref. 3).

NSCC

The European Space Agencys director-general, Johann-Dietrich Wrner, and Wu Ji, director-general of the National Space Science Center, discussed space science at a meeting in 2016.

The team is also using the satellite to test the possibility of establishing a quantum-communication channel between Graz, near Vienna, and Beijing. The aim is to transmit information securely by encrypting it with a key encoded in the states of photons. If successful, a global quantum-communication network will no longer be a science fiction, says Pan Jian-wei, a physicist at the CAS's University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei and the mission's principal investigator.

Researchers are also expecting great things from the $300-million Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). The detector, which launched in 2015, is the most cutting-edge equipment for picking up high-energy cosmic rays, says Martin Pohl, an astrophysicist at University of Geneva in Switzerland and a co-principal investigator of the mission.

DAMPE's data could help to determine whether a surprising pattern in the abundance of high-energy electrons and positrons detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) aboard the International Space Station comes from dark matter or from astronomical sources such as pulsars, says Pohl, who also works on the AMS. Because DAMPE is more sensitive than the AMS to high-energy particles, Pohl says, it will make a significant contribution.

The dark-matter and quantum missions launched just before the CAS's space-science funding expired. Scientists, including Wu, had to battle for continued support. The Chinese government has lately prioritized applied research, and it took intense lobbying for the better part of 2016 before researchers convinced the government to allocate an additional $730 million to the CAS for space science over the next five years. It was not without a fight, Wu says. But we've managed to pull it off.

The new plan, which began this year, funds a number of missions slated for launch in the 2020s, including China's first solar exploration mission and a remote-sensing spacecraft to study Earth's water cycle.

The CNSA and the China Manned Space Agency have also been ramping up their space-science efforts. One source of excitement is a $440-million X-ray telescope led by the CNSA, called Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP). Planned for launch by 2025, the mission is being financed in part by European partners and involves hundreds of scientists from 20 countries. It is designed to study matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism that can be found only in space in the interior of neutron stars or around black holes, for instance.

NSCC

The Double Star mission launched a pair of satellites in 2003 and 2004 to study Earth's magnetosphere.

The most innovative aspect of the satellite is its ability to simultaneously measure with high precision the timing, energy distribution and polarization of X-ray signals, which will provide insight into a range of X-ray sources, says co-principal investigator Marco Feroci, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome. eXTP will also carry a wide-field telescope to hunt for unusual, transient signals. Once it finds a potentially interesting source, all the other instruments will be zoomed in that direction, says Zhang Shuangnan, an astrophysicist at the CAS's Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing, who is leading the mission. It's the total weapon for X-ray astronomy.

Work is also progressing on projects led by the China Manned Space Agency. One is a dark-matter detector that has 15 times the sensitivity of DAMPE; it's set to be installed on China's permanent space station, which is slated for completion by 2022. There are also plans for a $730-million optical telescope to orbit near the space station. With a field of view 300 times that of the Hubble telescope, it will produce survey data that could be ideal for studying dark matter and dark energy as well as hunting for exoplanets, says Gu Yidong, a physicist at the CAS's Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization in Beijing and a senior science adviser to the China Manned Space Agency.

Such projects suggest that collaboration is strengthening between the CAS and China's other agencies involved with space. And a similar spirit is reflected abroad. China's space programme has become increasingly confident and outward looking, says Wrner. In the past, announcements were made only after a mission was successful; now, China routinely broadcasts launches as they happen. And Chinese scientists are increasingly reaching out to their international colleagues, building ties through small-scale partnerships.

Most major CAS-led missions have European partners, with collaborations initiated by researchers on both sides. But ESA hopes to establish high-level cooperation with the rising space power. In early 2015, ESA and the CAS issued a call for proposals for space-science missions. They selected a project called Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), to be led jointly and funded with $53 million from each group. The agencies work intimately together at every stage of the development, says Wu.

ESA and China collaborated more than a decade ago on a project called Double Star to study magnetic storms, but it was a China-led mission. Through SMILE, the agencies are testing a new, more intimate cooperation model. It's about building trust and bridges, so we could better understand each other, says Fabio Favata, head of strategy planning and coordination at ESA. Hopefully, this will open the way for larger-scale cooperation in the future.

Xinhua via ZUMA Wire

Arriving in 2013, Chinas lunar rover Yutu carried out measurements of the Moons subsurface with ground-penetrating radar.

A nation that is notably absent from China's current list of collaborators is the United States. In the past, China contributed key components to NASA missions. But NASA is now forbidden from such collaboration by a US law passed in 2011, and as a result China is excluded from participation in the International Space Station. On board is a product of earlier collaboration between the United States, China and a number of other countries the AMS.

Representatives from NASA and Chinese agencies still visit each other regularly. But with no official cooperation possible, there may be some inevitable replication of effort. In March, STROBE-X (Spectroscopic Time-Resolving Observatory for Broadband Energy X-rays) a project similar to China's eXTP mission was selected by NASA for further study. STROBE-X could launch by 2030, some five years after eXTP. Having two very similar missions at the same time is not ideal, says Colleen Wilson-Hodge, an astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and a member of the STROBE-X team. I wish there were a way we could all work together rather than competing with each other.

For China's space scientists, however, the main challenge is to convince their own government of the need for long-term investment. Zhang, the leader of several astrophysics missions including eXTP, refers to the situation as a constant state of zhaobu baoxi, which translates as not knowing where the next meal will come from. We'll be safe for another five years, he says. But nobody knows what will happen afterwards.

Feats of engineering and exploration still get priority over science. The Chinese space station, for instance, has a budget of $14.5 billion. But even though Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that the station will be China's national laboratory in space, there is no dedicated fund for the development of its scientific payloads. The station might support science as Tiangong-2 does, providing power and communications to various experiments. But there is also the danger, Zhang says, that it will be a house without furniture.

At China's sprawling National Space Science Center, the furniture is new, and the air still smells of fresh paint. Having secured the next bout of funding, Wu looks relaxed as he settles into a big leather armchair behind his desk. He acknowledges the institutional flaws but is optimistic about the future. So far, so good, he says, glancing at the satellite models that line his shelves. We can't expect things to change overnight.

Read the rest here:

China's quest to become a space science superpower - Nature.com

Welcome to the University of Nebraska College of Law's Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program! Our LL.M. degree is the first of its kind in the United States and the only degree of its kind in the world taught in English. We have an outstanding faculty, including Professors Frans von der Dunk and Jack Beard, and Professors and Program Co-Directors Matthew Schaefer and Gus Hurwitz. We also have exceptional adjunct faculty who teach, and work, in areas of space law, cyber law and telecommunications law.

Our alumni council features top graduates from our LL.M. program, including those working US Cyber Command, SpaceX, McKinsey Consulting (satellite group), and the U.S. State Department. We draw speakers from the Air Force, NASA, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Aviation Administation, the White House, DirecTV, US Strategic Command, Clearwire, Skype, Virgin Galactic, AT&T, Boeing, and many Washington, D.C. law firms and other companies. While our advisory board has top lawyers and executives from private industry and government and helps mentor our students.

Major Erik Mudrinich received his Bachelors of Arts degree with a major in Political Science and International Relations from Saint Olaf College in 1996. He attended Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota where he received his Juris Doctor in May of 1999. Major Mudrinich also studied at the University of Oslo, Norway, completing his concentration in International Law. Major Mudrinich is the Chief of Space and International Law for Headquarters Fourteenth Air Force, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. In this capacity he is responsible for advising the dual-hatted 14 AF/CC (AFSPC) & Commander JFCC SPACE (USSTRATCOM), staffs, and the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg on a wide variety of legal specialties including space operations, military operations, international law, and national security law. Major Mudrinich participates in planning for and execution of global and theater military space operations and exercises, and coordinates with the supported geographic combatant commanders' staffs. As a member of the LL.M. class of 2011, Erik prepared a thesis dealing with cyber-warfare, specifically delineating what the cyber domain is and how this domain impacts military operations and national security at a technical level. It was published in Vol 68 of the AF Law Review 2012, titled "Cyber 3.0: The Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace and the Attribution Problem."

In 2013, he earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law (LL.M. Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications law). Since receiving his LL.M. degree, Mr. Schmitt has developed a specialty practice in cyber law and currently represents corporations and individuals in a variety of cyber, computer fraud, and internet-related matters. He recently published an article on computer fraud in the Creighton Law Review: David J. Schmitt, The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Should Not Apply To The Misuse Of Information Accessed With Permission, 47 Creighton L. Rev. 423 (2014).

Mr. Schmitt graduated from the University of Iowa (B.B.A. 1985) and Creighton University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1989), where he was the Assistant Editor of the Creighton Law Review. After receiving his Juris Doctor, he served as a federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable Lyle E. Strom, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. He has also served on the adjunct faculty at Creighton University School of Law teaching courses in trial practice and legal research and writing. He is admitted to practice in both federal and state courts in Nebraska, state court in Iowa, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Major Keira Poellet is currently the Chief of the Operations Training Division at the Pentagon where she advises The Judge Advocate General, Chief of Staff of the Air Force and senior leaders on legal matters pertaining to operations training, plans and policy. After graduating from the LL.M. program, Keira was an Operational Law Attorney at United States Cyber Command at Fort Meade in Maryland. She advised on the global mission for the Department of Defense network operations, was the legal advisor to an operational planning team in support of full spectrum cyber operations, coordinated and advocated for the Department of Defenses cyber strategy and policies with DoJ, DoS, and CIA, as well as key nations, and instructed operators, policy-makers, and other operational attorneys on cyber law.

Major Poellet coauthored an article with Colonel Gary Brown (UNL J.D. Class of 1987),The Customary International Law of Cyberspace, Strategic Studies Quarterly (Fall 2012). While a candidate in the LL.M. program, Keira focused her research on network neutrality and published an article with her thesis advisor, Professor Marvin Ammori,Security versus Freedom on the Internet: Cybersecurity and Net Neutrality, SAIS Review (Summer Fall 2010).

Major Poellet has served her country in other JAG Corps positions, including deploying as a Staff Judge Advocate in the Middle East; Deputy Staff Judge Advocate at Lajes Field in Portugal; and Chief of Military Justice and of Civil Law at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas. Prior to joining the JAG Corps, Keira was an acquisitions officer in the Strategic and Nuclear Deterrence Command and Control System Program Office at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado where she was a project manager on emerging satellite command and control programs for U.S. and Air Force Space Command. Keira graduated,cum laude, from Whittier College School of Law, Costa Mesa, California in May 2005, where she was a published member of the Law Review, an extern for the Honorable David G. Sills, a fellow in the Intellectual Property Law program, and received the Outstanding Student in IP Law Award. Keira graduated from Marquette University with a B.S. in Mathematics and is a native of Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Sarah J. Morris is a true Nebraska native born and raised in Omaha, she migrated to Lincoln in 2002 for her undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Graduating with a B.A. in English and political science in 2006, she continued her education there, receiving her J.D. from the College of Law in 2009. As an undergraduate, Morris developed an interest in law and public policy through her involvement as a senator and committee chairwoman for the Universitys student government, as a legislative page with the Nebraska State Unicameral, and as an intern in the D.C. office of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. As a policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute at New America Foundation, Morris assists in the research and development of policy proposals related to open technologies, broadband access, and emerging technological issues.While at the law school, Morris clerked at the Omaha, Nebraska, law firm Lamson, Dugan and Murray doing general litigation work and spent her semesters researching telecommunications law for Professor Marvin Ammori.

Morris culminated her legal education in the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law LL.M. program. As part of the LL.M. program, Morris completed her thesis on privacy and security concerns related to Smart Grid technology. After graduation Morris served as a Google Policy Fellow with the Media Access Project, where she assisted with research and drafting of FCC comments on issues including media ownership, the open Internet and retransmission consent.

Jeff Nosanov grew up in Los Angeles, California. At 5 years old, he went to the Griffith Observatory with his parents and knew at that moment he was going to spend his life as part of the space exploration effort. After attending the University of California-Irvine and receiving his degree in Environmental Analysis and Design, Jeff enrolled in New York Law School as a result of his interest in the legal and policy component of space exploration. The University of Nebraska created its Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications LL.M. program just in time for Jeff to come to Nebraska Law straight from NYLS in 2008. He was the programs first graduate.

While a student, Jeff found that his thesis was career determining. Focusing his research on export control law resulted in a job in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at NASA in Pasadena, California. He then moved to the Radioisotope Power Systems Program office at JPL., where he works on research proposals, writes on space policy affecting power sources for NASA missions, and helps bridge the gap between legal and technical issues when it arises. In August of 2012 Jeff was named as a NIAC (NASA Innovative and Advanced Concepts) Fellow at NASA. He continues his research at UCLA and The California Institute of Technology into novel space mission financing arrangements. He currently manages an engineering project and is in the process of proposing several more.In May of 2012 his family grew by one with the birth of his son Nathan and he and his wife began another adventure - parenting.

Maria-Vittoria "Giugi" Carminati is a trial attorney in Houston, Texas. She practices commercial litigation, qui tam litigation, and white collar criminal defense at the trial boutique Berg & Androphy. Her practice focuses on complex multi-jurisdictional cases ranging from mortgage fraud to allegations of conversion to pharmaceutical company's off-label marketing, and everything in between. Giugi is also co-owner and co-manager of ADE Aerospace Consulting, LLC, a human physiologic consulting company for extreme environments, including high altitude jumps and suborbital flights. Prior to joining Berg & Androphy, Giugi practiced Complex Commercial Litigation and (briefly) International Arbitration in the Houston office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges from 2008 to 2013.

Giugi has published numerous articles on commercial space, including a recurring column for Space Safety Magazine called "Cross-Talk: Space Law in Down-To-Earth English." In 2012, Giugi co-authored The Laws of Spaceflight: A Guidebook for New Space Lawyers published by the ABA, which became a best-seller and is currently used as a space law textbook in several law schools around the country. In May 2013, Giugi was the first graduate of the University of Nebraska's online LLM program when she obtained her LLM in Space, Cyber & Telecommunications law. Her LLM thesis analyzed the Space Activities Statutes in the six states which, at the time, had passed such legislation and discussed whether and how such statutes would be enforced by the various courts. Giugi is currently working on her Space Law JSD at the University of Nebraska Law School. Her doctoral dissertation analyzes management of liability exposure for commercial human spaceflight companies.

Giugi has taught Pre-Trial Litigation at the University of Houston Law Center and will teach Law and the Commercial Space Industry in Fall 2014. She is also Vice Chair of the ABAs Science & Technology Section Space Law Committee. Giugi also regularly lecture on topics relating to space law, including delivering an annual lecture at UTMB's Aerospace Medicine Short Course where she provides aerospace medicine students and residents an overview of space laws and regulations.

She will become Chair at the ABA Annual in August 2014. She is also an IISL Observer to UNCOPUOS, for which she attends UNCOPUOSs Legal Subcommittee meetings in Vienna in the Spring. In addition, Giugi is Associate Regional Organizer for the IISL's Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, North American Regional Rounds, which takes place at Georgetown Law School in March-April of every year. Finally, in 2012, Giugi published her first science fiction novel, Sparcus: Broken Worlds.

Jessica Tok is a civilian Strategic Communications Analyst (Space) in the Communication Synchronization branch of the Campaign Plan Division, Plans and Policy Directorate for the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), Offutt AFB, NE. Prior to joining USSTRATCOM, Ms. Tok obtained a law degree (J.D.) and a Masters of Law (LL.M.) specializing in Space and Telecommunications Law, and worked for multiple state and federal organizations, including the University of Nebraska College of Law, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. District Court of Nebraska. Ms. Tok also worked closely with top-level diplomats and scientists, serving previously as the Secretariat to the Association of Space Explorers standing committee on Near Earth Objects, and as the editor of their 2009 policy document, Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response. In 2010-2011, she was a U.S. delegate to the United Nations Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. She is admitted to practice law in Nebraska and currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska. Jessica resides in Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband, Mr. Matthew Carper.

Dennis J. Kamph received his Bachelor of Art's degree in Criminal Justice from Saint Cloud State University in February, 2002. After obtaining his undergraduate degree Dennis completed a post-baccuralette paralegal certificate program at the Minnesota Paralegal Institute where he graduated top of his class. After obtaining his certificate, Dennis enrolled at the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, whereupon he successfully completed his JD in May, 2008. While at Cooley, Dennis was an honors scholar and served as the Senior Research Editor for the Thomas M. Cooley Journal of Practical and Clinical Law. After graduating law school, Dennis worked in private practice, focusing on Criminal defense; Wills, Estates and Trusts; and Bankruptcy law. Dennis left private practice in 2011 to take a position with the Federal Government. Shortly after Dennis began the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Online LL.M. program at Nebraska Law. While studying at Nebraska Law, Dennis focused on Domestic Telecommunications and Cyber Law. The program provided Dennis a better understanding of the intersection of the law and technology and, upon graduation, helped Dennis take a more active role within the Government. Dennis is now working on protecting the United States' technological infrastructure and works with foreign governments to address their similar technological issues. Dennis is admitted to the Michigan and Minnesota bar.

Stephen Rooke grew up in neighboring Colorado and was always enthusiastic about space. He presented on quasars for his fifth grade science project, which included running through the halls of his elementary school with an alarm clock to illustrate red shift. Stephen received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & Policy Studies from Rice University and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

While at Michigan, Stephen served as the Managing Editor of the Michigan Journal of International Law and interned in Intelsat's international trade compliance and regulatory departments. He also wrote a blog article on the potential for National Trademark DNS servers for the Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review.

Stephen was a member of the 2012 LL.M. class. During his stay in Nebraska, Stephen helped promote space law by lecturing on the subject to Lincoln's Prairie Astronomy Club and was an avid bowler. Stephen's LL.M. thesis focused on the intersection of international satellite telecommunications law and the right to health care. He explored the capacity of satellites to bridge the urban-rural health care divide in developing countries and the conflict between national obligations to provide access to health care and state sovereignty over wireless communication technology. His thesis was published as a student note in volume 34 of the Michigan Journal of International Law. After graduation, Stephen joined McKinsey & Company's office in Stamford, CT. As a consultant, he has advised corporations, nonprofits, IGOs, and governments on a variety of topics including health care, telecommunications, oil and gas, media and advertising, and finance.

Jenifer Lamie grew up in Cheshire, CT. For undergrad, she attended the University of Hartford where she completed her B.A. in psychology and philosophy summa cum laude, with university honors. After, she worked as a children's art teacher until she took a job for a multinational Japanese corporation teaching English in Fukuoka, Japan. She then received a Masters of International Studies with distinction from Otago University in New Zealand and a J.D. cum laude from Vermont Law School before beginning her studies at Nebraska Law. While at UNL, she interned with USSTRATCOM working on cyber issues, competed in the Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition where her team won Best Brief, and completed a thesis on U.S. State Space Launch Legislation: Preemption, Immunity, and International Harmonization. After graduation Lamie co-authored the leading text book on space law, The Laws of Spaceflight: A Guidebook for New Space Lawyers, with Matthew J. Kleiman and 2013 LL.M. student Maria-Vittoria "Giugi" Carminati. She is currently an serving in the Army as a Judge Advocate at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and continues to write on space law issues in her free time.

Luke Pelican is an Associate at the Ammori Group, a public policy-focused law firm in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the Ammori Group, Mr. Pelican obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 2010, where he served as an Executive Articles Editor on the Michigan Journal of International Law. He subsequently earned his LL.M. degree in Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law, where his thesis advisor was Marvin Ammori. While at Nebraska, Mr. Pelican was a member of the school's Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Team. The team won the Best Memorial award for the North American Competition, a first for the school. Mr. Pelican was a Google Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2011.

Mr. Pelicans writing has appeared in the Washington Times, the Sacramento Bee, the Daily Caller, CNET, and Politico. His LL.M. thesis on the treatment of cyber espionage was published in the Spring 2012 volume of Catholic University Law Schools CommLaw Conspectus.

Many are the links between space and music music as the most abstract of arts often offering the most appropriate means to capture and reflect the out-of-the-ordinary character of outer space, where words may easily seem to come up short.

Browse the entire collection.

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LL.M. in Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law ...

On July 22, 1962, NASA launched the Mariner 1 probe, which was intended to fly by Venus and collect data on its temperature and atmosphere. It was intended to be the first interplanetary craftthe first time humans had sent a space probe to another world. Unfortunately, NASA aborted the mission 293 seconds after launch, destroying the probe in the Atlantic. What happened?

First off, a bit of history. Mariner 1 was based on the pre-existing Block 1 craft used in the Ranger program, which was aimed at gathering data on our moon. Those early Ranger probes didn't do so wellboth Ranger 1 and Ranger 2 suffered early failures in orbit. Mariner 1 was a modified version of the Ranger design, intended for a much longer mission to another planet. It lacked a camera, but had various radiometers, a cosmic dust detector, and a plasma spectrometerit would be capable of gathering data about Venus, but not pictures per se.

The two previous Ranger missions had used basically the same launch system, so it was reasonably well-tested. The Ranger probes had made it into orbit, but had been unable to stabilize themselves after that.

Mariner 1 launched on the evening of July 22, 1963. Its Atlas-Agena rocket was aided by two radar systems, designed to track data on velocity (the "Rate System") and distance/angle (the "Track System") and send it to ground-based computers. By combining that data, the computers at Cape Canaveral helped the rocket maintain a trajectory that, when separated, would lead Mariner 1 to Venus.

Part of the problem involved in handling two separate radars was that there was a slight delay43 millisecondsbetween the two radars' data reports. That wasn't a problem by itself. The Cape computer simply had to correct for that difference. But in that correction process, a problem was hidinga problem that hadn't appeared in either of the previous Ranger launches.

To correct the timing of the data from the Rate Systemthe radar responsible for measuring velocity of the rocketthe ground computer ran data through a formula. Unfortunately, when that formula had been input into the computer, a crucial element called an overbar was omitted. The overbar indicated that several values in the formula belonged together; leaving it out meant that a slightly different calculation would be made. But that wasn't a problem by itself.

The fate of Mariner 1 was sealed when the Rate System hardware failed on launch. This should not have been a fatal blow, as the Track System was still working, and Ground Control should have been able to compensate. But because that overbar was missing, calculations on the incoming radar data went wonky. The computer incorrectly began compensating for normal movement of the spacecraft, using slightly incorrect math. The craft was moving as normal, but the formula for analyzing that data had a typoso it began telling Mariner 1 to adjust its trajectory. It was fixing a problem that didn't exist, all because a few symbols in a formula weren't grouped together properly.

Mariner 1's rocket did as it was told, altering its trajectory based on faulty computer instructions. Looking on in horror, the Range Safety Officer at the Cape saw that the Atlas rocket was now headed for a crash-landing, potentially either in shipping lanes or inhabited areas of Earth. It was 293 seconds after launch, and the rocket was about to separate from the probe.

With just 6 seconds remaining before the Mariner 1 probe was scheduled to separate (and ground control would be lost), that officer made the right callhe sent the destruct command, ditching Mariner I in an unpopulated area of the Atlantic.

The incident was one of many early space launch failures, but what made it so notable was the frenzy of reporting about it, mostly centered on what writer Arthur C. Clarke called "the most expensive hyphen in history." The New York Times incorrectly reported that the overbar was a "hyphen" (a reasonable mistake, given that they are both printed horizontal lines) but correctly reported that this programming error, when coupled with the hardware failure of the Rate System, caused the failure. The bug was identified and fixed rapidly, though the failed launch cost $18,500,000 in 1962 dollarsnorth of $150 million today.

Fortunately for NASA, Mariner 2 was waiting in the wings. An identical craft, it launched just five weeks later on August 27, 1962. And, without the bug and the radar hardware failure, it worked as planned, reaching Venus and becoming the first interplanetary spacecraft in history. It returned valuable data about the temperature and atmosphere of Venus, as well as recording solar wind and interplanetary dust data along the way. There would be 10 Mariner missions in all [PDF], with Mariner 1, 3, and 8 suffering losses during launch.

For further reading, consult this Ars Technica discussion, which includes valuable quotes from Paul E. Ceruzzi's book Beyond The LimitsFlight Enters the Computer Age.

Read the original here:

Google Street View Now Lets You Explore the International Space Station - Mental Floss

In considering the relative brevity of human existence, astronomer Carl Sagan once wrote, "We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever." The same could not be said of the microscopic animals known as tardigrades, which, scientists are now predicting in the journal Nature, could stick around on Earth until the Sun dies.

Thetardigrade, also known as the moss piglet or water bear, is an admirably durable little monster. It superpower is a sort of half-death state called cryptobiosis. When hard times come around, the tardigrade simply curls up, dries up, and mostly stops living, only to re-inflate and rejoin the world when conditions are more comfortable. Studies have shown that tardigrades can survive scorching heat, blistering cold, starvation, desiccation, radiation, and even the vacuum of space.

That's just on the individual level. There are more than 1000 different tardigrade species [PDF], and all have already been around for a long, long time. Scientists estimate that the first tardigrades appeared on the planet around 600 million years agoabout 370 million years before the first dinosaurs. The dinosaurs disappeared. The tardigrades kept on trucking.

And according to the authors of the new paper, the moss piglets could just keep on trucking for another 10 billion years.

"A lot of previous work has focused on 'doomsday' scenarios on Earthastrophysical events like supernovae that could wipe out the human race," co-author David Sloan of Oxford University said in a statement.

But humans are far from the toughest kids on the block. ("Human life is somewhat fragile to nearby events," as the researchers diplomatically put it.) Why not try to find out how sturdier species would fare in those same scenarios? To do so, the researchers calculated the effects of three doomsday eventsan asteroid strike, a nearby supernova, and a gamma ray burst (another type of stellar explosion)on tardigrades' environment and physiology.

You can probably guess what they discovered.

"Although nearby supernovae or large asteroid impacts would be catastrophic for people, tardigrades could be unaffected," Sloan said. "Therefore it seems that life, once it gets going, is hard to wipe out entirely. Huge numbers of species, or even entire genera may become extinct, but life as a whole will go on."

Co-author Rafael Alves Batista, also of Oxford, said his team's findings should expand the scope of what we might consider a "habitable planet."

"Tardigrades are as close to indestructible as it gets on Earth, but it is possible that there are other resilient species examples elsewhere in the universe. In this context there is a real case for looking for life on Mars and in other areas of the solar system in general. If tardigrades are Earth's most resilient species, who knows what else is out there."

Continue reading here:

Tardigrades Could Live on Earth Until the Sun Dies | Mental Floss - Mental Floss

For all the efforts to find another inhabitable planet orbiting a distant star, it might surprise you to learn that a very real Earth 2.0 exists in this solar systemjust one planet over. Not Mars (which actually isn't much like Earth at all), but rather, our other neighbor: Venus. Mental Floss spoke to geophysicist Bob Grimm, a program director at the Southwest Research Institute and chair of NASA's Venus Exploration Analysis Group. Here are a few things we learned about Earth's twin sister.

Venus has a radius of 3760 miles. Earth's is 3963. Its mass and gravity are 82 percent and 91 percent of Earth's, respectivelypretty similar as planets go. Venus is composed of a mostly basalt crust, silicate mantle, and iron core. Earth is the same. The two planets likely share common origins somewhere around 4.5 billion years ago.

In fact, by all accounts, we should be able to land our flying saucers on Venus, saddle up a dinosaur, and start building tract housing. It's perfect for colonization, but for a few minor differences. Its year is shorter, at 224.7 days. (And its days are much longer, at 243 Earth days per Venus day.) The Sun would rise in the west and set in the east because of the planet's retrograde orbit (which, by the way, is the most circular of any planet in the solar system). And then there's another small problem

Venus is hotter than Mercury, despite being 30 million miles farther from the Sun. How hot? Hot enough, on average, to melt a block of lead the way a block of ice would melt on Earth. Venus suffers from a runaway greenhouse effect. Sunlight penetrates the dense clouds surrounding Venus, heating the landscape. The ground in turn blasts out heat, which rises and tries to escape the atmosphere. But carbon dioxide, which makes up 96 percent of its atmosphere, traps the heat, keeping things nice and toasty, around 900F. And those clouds aren't the white, fluffy variety. They're made of droplets of sulfuric acid, which makes its lightning storms especially harrowing.

"'Does Earth-size mean Earth-like?' is a basic problem of planetology," says Grimm. "Understanding how Earth and Venus diverged is essential to understanding comparative planetology, and potentially exoplanetsthese worlds orbiting distant stars that are being discovered telescopically."

Knowing more about Venus would help scientists better distinguish potentially habitable worlds out there, and better understand how a good world can go bad, from a sustaining-life perspective. "Geology and meteorology are intimately related to the evolution of the Earth and the evolution of life on Earth," Grimm notes. "Even though we may not be looking for life on Venus, it's important to understanding Earth's place in the solar system and in the universe."

You might have run across old illustrations of Venus with conditions similar to the Carboniferous Period on Earth. Astronomers have known for just under a hundred years that Venus's atmosphere is devoid of oxygen, without which you can't have water. But even a modest backyard telescope can see the clouds enveloping our neighbor, and as Carl Sagan explained, from there you're only a couple of erroneous jumps from assuming a brontosaurus. (Thick clouds mean more water than land. More water than land means swamps. Dinosaurs lived in swamps. Dinosaurs live on Venus. QED.) Said Sagan: "Observation: There was absolutely nothing to see on Venus. Conclusion: It must be covered with life."

But seeing is believing, and the Mariner and Venera series of probes disabused us of the romantic notion of a swampy neighbor to the left. Still, we should probably send robots there to check. Just to be sure.

Venus was the first planet we visited, with Mariner 2 achieving the first successful planetary encounter in 1962. Four years later, Venera 3 on Venus became the first spacecraft to touch the surface of another planet. (Communications were lost long before impact, but unless a dinosaur ate it, the spacecraft probably touched the ground.) Our first graceful landing on another planet? Venera 7 on Venus. Our efforts to reach its surface go back much further than that, though. The transit of Venus in 1761 practically invented the notion of an international science community. But we abandoned the surface of Venus in 1984, and NASA hasn't launched an orbiter to Venus since Magellan in 1989.

Since then, the Venus-science community has been trying to get another mission to the launch pad. Presently, U.S. planetary scientists have submitted proposals to NASA for a sub-$1 billion New Frontiersclass mission. They are also working with their colleagues in Russia to launch a joint mission called Venera-D. "We need better radar views of the surface," says Grimm, "and that has to happen at some point to understand the geology. We need deep probes into the atmosphere to understand it better, and we need a new generation of landers."

"There is evidence in the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio that Venus once had water, maybe hundreds of meters deep, more like a global sea than an ocean," says Grimm. A theoretical paper published last year posed a climate model for Venus suggesting that water could have existed on its surface as recently as 1 billion years ago. Clouds could form in a certain way, shielding the surface from the Sun and allowing stable water at the surface. Furthermore, near-infrared observations support the argument for a watery Venusian past. ESA's Venus Express orbiter in 2012 found evidence of granite-like rocks on some parts of the planet. Granite requires a multiple melting process in the presence of water. A mission to Venus could confirm this.

Meanwhile, one of the most significant revelations from Magellan is that there are only around 1000 craters on the surface with no differences in density, and it is hard to find craters that are obviously in a state of being wiped out by lava, or being faulted. Venus does not have plate tectonics, one of the central mechanisms that organizes all geology on the Earth. So what happened to the surface of Venus? Where is the evidence of the Late Heavy Bombardment seen on other terrestrial planets and moons? One hypothesis is that all of Venus was resurfaced at once. There may have been a global catastrophe on Venus, perhaps as recently 750 million years ago, that quickly "reset" its surface. Other models suggest a subtler resurfacing at work in which craters might be erased over billions of years.

"So this whole idea of the surface age of Venus is a pivotal question for how planets evolve geologically," says Grimm. "But what was Venus like before that? Was there a single catastrophe, or have there been many? Was there just one catastrophe and Venus was watery before that, or has Venus operated in a steady state going back to the first billion years? There is more consensus that in the first several hundred million years to billion years, there could have been water." Further landings on Venus could help us solve the mystery of when Venus's surface was formed, if there was ever water there, and why, if it existed, it went away.

If Matt Damon were to get stranded on Venus in a sequel to The Martian, he would need to be resourceful indeed to survive the heat and the corrosive air. But what he would find wouldn't be wholly alien. The winds at the surface of Venus are very gentle, around a meter or so per second. The vistas would consist of hills and ridges, with dark lava rocks of various types, mostly basalt. The atmospheric pressure is 90 times greater than Earth at sea level, so walking there would feel a lot like swimming here.

"I don't think [Venus] would look wavy and hot-hazy, because the atmosphere is pretty stable and uniform right at the surface," says Grimm. "It would be harder to walk through the dense atmosphere, but not as hard as walking through water. We know from landings that it's kind of yellow because of the sulfur in the atmosphere. So with the abundance of lavas in many places on Venus, it sort of looks like a yellowish Hawaii."

Original post:

These Deep-Sea Worms Could Live More Than a Thousand Years ... - Mental Floss

For all the efforts to find another inhabitable planet orbiting a distant star, it might surprise you to learn that a very real Earth 2.0 exists in this solar systemjust one planet over. Not Mars (which actually isn't much like Earth at all), but rather, our other neighbor: Venus. Mental Floss spoke to geophysicist Bob Grimm, a program director at the Southwest Research Institute and chair of NASA's Venus Exploration Analysis Group. Here are a few things we learned about Earth's twin sister.

Venus has a radius of 3760 miles. Earth's is 3963. Its mass and gravity are 82 percent and 91 percent of Earth's, respectivelypretty similar as planets go. Venus is composed of a mostly basalt crust, silicate mantle, and iron core. Earth is the same. The two planets likely share common origins somewhere around 4.5 billion years ago.

In fact, by all accounts, we should be able to land our flying saucers on Venus, saddle up a dinosaur, and start building tract housing. It's perfect for colonization, but for a few minor differences. Its year is shorter, at 224.7 days. (And its days are much longer, at 243 Earth days per Venus day.) The Sun would rise in the west and set in the east because of the planet's retrograde orbit (which, by the way, is the most circular of any planet in the solar system). And then there's another small problem

Venus is hotter than Mercury, despite being 30 million miles farther from the Sun. How hot? Hot enough, on average, to melt a block of lead the way a block of ice would melt on Earth. Venus suffers from a runaway greenhouse effect. Sunlight penetrates the dense clouds surrounding Venus, heating the landscape. The ground in turn blasts out heat, which rises and tries to escape the atmosphere. But carbon dioxide, which makes up 96 percent of its atmosphere, traps the heat, keeping things nice and toasty, around 900F. And those clouds aren't the white, fluffy variety. They're made of droplets of sulfuric acid, which makes its lightning storms especially harrowing.

"'Does Earth-size mean Earth-like?' is a basic problem of planetology," says Grimm. "Understanding how Earth and Venus diverged is essential to understanding comparative planetology, and potentially exoplanetsthese worlds orbiting distant stars that are being discovered telescopically."

Knowing more about Venus would help scientists better distinguish potentially habitable worlds out there, and better understand how a good world can go bad, from a sustaining-life perspective. "Geology and meteorology are intimately related to the evolution of the Earth and the evolution of life on Earth," Grimm notes. "Even though we may not be looking for life on Venus, it's important to understanding Earth's place in the solar system and in the universe."

You might have run across old illustrations of Venus with conditions similar to the Carboniferous Period on Earth. Astronomers have known for just under a hundred years that Venus's atmosphere is devoid of oxygen, without which you can't have water. But even a modest backyard telescope can see the clouds enveloping our neighbor, and as Carl Sagan explained, from there you're only a couple of erroneous jumps from assuming a brontosaurus. (Thick clouds mean more water than land. More water than land means swamps. Dinosaurs lived in swamps. Dinosaurs live on Venus. QED.) Said Sagan: "Observation: There was absolutely nothing to see on Venus. Conclusion: It must be covered with life."

But seeing is believing, and the Mariner and Venera series of probes disabused us of the romantic notion of a swampy neighbor to the left. Still, we should probably send robots there to check. Just to be sure.

Venus was the first planet we visited, with Mariner 2 achieving the first successful planetary encounter in 1962. Four years later, Venera 3 on Venus became the first spacecraft to touch the surface of another planet. (Communications were lost long before impact, but unless a dinosaur ate it, the spacecraft probably touched the ground.) Our first graceful landing on another planet? Venera 7 on Venus. Our efforts to reach its surface go back much further than that, though. The transit of Venus in 1761 practically invented the notion of an international science community. But we abandoned the surface of Venus in 1984, and NASA hasn't launched an orbiter to Venus since Magellan in 1989.

Since then, the Venus-science community has been trying to get another mission to the launch pad. Presently, U.S. planetary scientists have submitted proposals to NASA for a sub-$1 billion New Frontiersclass mission. They are also working with their colleagues in Russia to launch a joint mission called Venera-D. "We need better radar views of the surface," says Grimm, "and that has to happen at some point to understand the geology. We need deep probes into the atmosphere to understand it better, and we need a new generation of landers."

"There is evidence in the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio that Venus once had water, maybe hundreds of meters deep, more like a global sea than an ocean," says Grimm. A theoretical paper published last year posed a climate model for Venus suggesting that water could have existed on its surface as recently as 1 billion years ago. Clouds could form in a certain way, shielding the surface from the Sun and allowing stable water at the surface. Furthermore, near-infrared observations support the argument for a watery Venusian past. ESA's Venus Express orbiter in 2012 found evidence of granite-like rocks on some parts of the planet. Granite requires a multiple melting process in the presence of water. A mission to Venus could confirm this.

Meanwhile, one of the most significant revelations from Magellan is that there are only around 1000 craters on the surface with no differences in density, and it is hard to find craters that are obviously in a state of being wiped out by lava, or being faulted. Venus does not have plate tectonics, one of the central mechanisms that organizes all geology on the Earth. So what happened to the surface of Venus? Where is the evidence of the Late Heavy Bombardment seen on other terrestrial planets and moons? One hypothesis is that all of Venus was resurfaced at once. There may have been a global catastrophe on Venus, perhaps as recently 750 million years ago, that quickly "reset" its surface. Other models suggest a subtler resurfacing at work in which craters might be erased over billions of years.

"So this whole idea of the surface age of Venus is a pivotal question for how planets evolve geologically," says Grimm. "But what was Venus like before that? Was there a single catastrophe, or have there been many? Was there just one catastrophe and Venus was watery before that, or has Venus operated in a steady state going back to the first billion years? There is more consensus that in the first several hundred million years to billion years, there could have been water." Further landings on Venus could help us solve the mystery of when Venus's surface was formed, if there was ever water there, and why, if it existed, it went away.

If Matt Damon were to get stranded on Venus in a sequel to The Martian, he would need to be resourceful indeed to survive the heat and the corrosive air. But what he would find wouldn't be wholly alien. The winds at the surface of Venus are very gentle, around a meter or so per second. The vistas would consist of hills and ridges, with dark lava rocks of various types, mostly basalt. The atmospheric pressure is 90 times greater than Earth at sea level, so walking there would feel a lot like swimming here.

"I don't think [Venus] would look wavy and hot-hazy, because the atmosphere is pretty stable and uniform right at the surface," says Grimm. "It would be harder to walk through the dense atmosphere, but not as hard as walking through water. We know from landings that it's kind of yellow because of the sulfur in the atmosphere. So with the abundance of lavas in many places on Venus, it sort of looks like a yellowish Hawaii."

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Meet the Tully Monster, the Prehistoric Beast That Defies Categorization - Mental Floss

Erupting Piton de la Fournaise volcano. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

University of Hawaii at Mnoa (UHM) researchers have discovered a new method for predicting when lava flow-forming volcanoes will stop erupting using infrared satellite data.

UHM graduate student Estelle Bonny and her mentor, researcher Robert Wright of the Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP), tested a hypothesis first published in 1981 using data gathered for nearly two decades by NASA satellites. The hypothesis predicts that once a lava flow-forming eruption starts, its rate of dispersion quickly peaks and then declines over a longer period of time until reaching zero.

HIGP faculty developed the methodology which detects and measures heat emissions from erupting volcanoes using satellite-based sensors. Through the data gathered in space, researchers are able determine lava flow rates and subsequently predict when volcano eruption rates will reach zeroessentially becoming extinct.

The system has been monitoring every square kilometer of Earths surface up to four times per day, every day, since 2000, said Bonny. During that time, we have detected eruptions at more than 100 different volcanoes around the globe. The database for this project contains 104 lava flow-forming eruptions from 34 volcanoes with which we could test this hypothesis.

Though the hypothesis has existed for decades, this is the first time satellite data has been used to find and measure lava flow rates. The results of the research will benefit people living near active volcanoes.

Being able to predict the end of a lava flow-forming eruption is really important, because it will greatly reduce the disturbance caused to those affected by the eruption, for example, those who live close to the volcano and have been evacuated, said Bonny.

This study is potentially relevant for the Hawaii island and its active volcanoes, said Wright. A future eruption of Mauna Loa may be expected to display the kind of pattern of lava discharge rate that would allow us to use this method to try to predict the end of eruption from space.

Researchers plan to use the new approach during future eruptions as a predictive tool that can measure ongoing flows in near-real time.

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UH Scientists Use Satellites to Predict End of Volcanic Eruptions - Big Island Now

Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mnoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology recently discovered that infrared satellite data could be used to predict when lava flow-forming eruptions will end.

Mt. Etna from Space. Credit: NASA & US/Japan ASTER Science Team.

Using NASA satellite data, Estelle Bonny, a graduate student in the SOEST Department of Geology and Geophysics, and her mentor, Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology researcher Robert Wright, tested a hypothesis first published in 1981 that detailed how lava flow rate changes during a typical effusive volcanic eruption. The model predicted that once a lava flow-forming eruption begins, the rate at which lava exits the vent quickly rises to a peak and then reduces to zero over a much longer period of timewhen the rate reaches zero, the eruption has ended.

HIGP faculty developed a system that uses infrared measurements made by NASAs MODIS sensors to detect and measure the heat emissions from erupting volcanoesheat is used to retrieve the rate of lava flow.

The system has been monitoring every square kilometer of Earths surface up to four times per day, every day, since 2000, said Bonny. During that time, we have detected eruptions at more than 100 different volcanoes around the globe. The database for this project contains 104 lava flow-forming eruptions from 34 volcanoes with which we could test this hypothesis.

Once peak flow was reached, the researchers determined where the volcano was along the predicted curve of decreasing flow and therefore predict when the eruption will end. While the model has been around for decades, this is the first time satellite data was used with it to test how useful this approach is for predicting the end of an effusive eruption. The test was successful.

Being able to predict the end of a lava flow-forming eruption is really important, because it will greatly reduce the disturbance caused to those affected by the eruption, for example, those who live close to the volcano and have been evacuated, said Bonny.

This study is potentially relevant for the Hawaii island and its active volcanoes, said Wright. A future eruption of Mauna Loa may be expected to display the kind of pattern of lava discharge rate that would allow us to use this method to try to predict the end of eruption from space.

In the future, the researchers plan to use this approach during an ongoing eruption as a near-real time predictive tool.

See original here:

New Research Uses Satellites to Predict End of Volcanic Eruptions - Maui Now

Erupting Piton de la Fournaise volcano. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mnoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) recently discovered that infrared satellite data could be used to predict when lava flow-forming eruptions will end.

Mt. Etna from space. Credit: NASA and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

Using NASA satellite data, Estelle Bonny, a graduate student in the SOEST Department of Geology and Geophysics, and her mentor, Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) researcher Robert Wright, tested a hypothesis first published in 1981 that detailed how lava flow rate changes during a typical effusive volcanic eruption. The model predicted that once a lava flow-forming eruption begins, the rate at which lava exits the vent quickly rises to a peak and then reduces to zero over a much longer period of timewhen the rate reaches zero, the eruption has ended.

HIGP faculty developed a system that uses infrared measurements made by NASAs MODIS sensors to detect and measure the heat emissions from erupting volcanoesheat is used to retrieve the rate of lava flow.

The system has been monitoring every square kilometer of Earths surface up to four times per day, every day, since 2000, said Bonny. During that time, we have detected eruptions at more than 100 different volcanoes around the globe. The database for this project contains 104 lava flow-forming eruptions from 34 volcanoes with which we could test this hypothesis.

Once peak flow was reached, the researchers determined where the volcano was along the predicted curve of decreasing flow and therefore predict when the eruption will end. While the model has been around for decades, this is the first time satellite data was used with it to test how useful this approach is for predicting the end of an effusive eruption. The test was successful.

Being able to predict the end of a lava flow-forming eruption is really important because it will greatly reduce the disturbance caused to those affected by the eruption, for example, those who live close to the volcano and have been evacuated.

This study is potentially relevant for the Hawaii Island and its active volcanoes, said Wright. A future eruption of Mauna Loa may be expected to display the kind of pattern of lava discharge rate that would allow us to use this method to try to predict the end of eruption from space.

In the future, the researchers plan to use this approach during an ongoing eruption as a near-real time predictive tool.

Map of 34 volcanoes used to test hypothesis. Modified from Google Maps.

Original post:

New research uses satellites to predict end of volcanic eruptions - UH System Current News

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