Last Wednesday, breaking news crossed the CNBC wire:

NASA discovered seven earth-shaped planets orbiting a red-dwarf star in our galaxy a mere forty light-years away. According to this article on NASA's site:

Scientists are pondering the possibilities after this week's announcement: the discovery of seven worlds orbiting a small, cool star some 40 light-years away, all of them in the ballpark of our home planet in terms of their heft (mass) and size (diameter). Three of the planets reside in the "habitable zone" around their star, TRAPPIST-1, where calculations suggest that conditions might be right for liquid water to exist on their surfaces-though follow-up observations are needed to be sure.

We were surprised that not much attention has been devoted to how this may impact the Fed's decision on whether or not to hike rates in the upcoming decade.

We believe that a nodal analysis will allow us to understand the Fed's optimal strategy. Let us review the alternatives.

Node A: there is sophisticated life on one or more of these planets, they are hostile, and they know about us. Now what would you rather call home: a puny old Dwarf star, or a beautiful yellow middle-aged reclusive star like ours?

This can only mean that they're on their way folks!! It's just a matter of time. If an interstellar war is at hand, the last thing this planet needs is to offer people an incentive to save for their future: we may not have one!

Source: Forbes

Node B: there is sophisticated life, they are hostile, but they don't know about us yet. We want their first impression of our planet to be one where interest rates do not thrive. After all, interest rates are themselves a statement about future growth prospects and the economy.

Source: Dr. Aswath Damodaran

Do we really want to go around advertising our beautiful high rates to any hostile group of M-Dwarf invaders? We argue no, and we are positive the Fed will agree.

Node C: sophisticated life that is peaceful, they know about us, but they are not on their way. We need to consider that we have a possible set of new friends and allies! Why aren't they rushing out to meet us? Duh! Their economy must be suffering. What if they too are experiencing 4.8% unemployment like we are?

Do we want to blast our new-found friends with a nasty dose of poisonous interest rates? We don't want any gamma exposure from our economy radiating into the new Macro 2 economy: lower for longer, at least until we know more about why they have not come to visit us.

Node D: what if they are coming right now to share their knowledge with us about how to cure cancer or live peacefully with artificially intelligent robots or introduce a new and exciting mud wrestling segment to all meetings between the president and the press?

Furthermore, what if their spaceship cannot withstand merely low (as opposed to ultra-low) interest rate atmospheres? Our very own economy seems not able to bare them for the last decade: imagine the disastrous effects of a noble race, steadily inching closer to us on a fragile spacecraft that can only safely operate in ultra-low-rate environments.

The Fed needs to ensure that options-adjusted spreads on CCC-and-below junk bonds stay absurdly tight, like this:

Node E: only simple life forms exist. In this case, their economy is likely very undeveloped. The last thing that these poor cousins of our prokaryotic and eukaryotic brethren need are higher rates. After all, just what is the labor force participation rate for single-celled organisms these days stateside (No Fed data available for this series: what are they hiding)?

Now, that would mean that their jobless claims have been under 300,000 for the last 103 weeks: just like here in the US!

Source: Bespoke Investment Group

If we cannot take higher rates here in our own country, then how can we expect this simpler economy to flourish into our future friends (or enemies: see nodes A or B)?

What if they have just recently elected a new leader who has "big league" plans for cutting taxes and introducing massive fiscal policy? Furthermore, what if the general mood among the other single-cell organisms is that this leader will absolutely succeed in his goals beyond any question or shadow of doubt (see lift-off on Feb 9 announcement):

SPY data by YCharts

What would you want under said scenario: a policy rate that is still below the very bottom rate of the last recession, or one that could potentially counteract any inflation that may be close at hand?

Now you might be concerned at Node E that a further delay in rates may cause inflationary pressure on their budding economy. No no: it's okay to let the economy overheat. This too can have some really great effects. No rate hike after all!

Naturally the Fed doesn't want to surprise these markets (or our own for that matter). After all, if surprising markets could do this to our markets in late August 2015:

what could it do to theirs?

On the other hand, the Fed should at least talk about higher rates. Certainly lots and lots of contradictory chatter would be nice.

Now, for awhile at least these simple organisms might believe the Fed that higher rates are around the corner. But sooner or later they will figure out the game theoretic structure of the Fed's problem, and realize that they never actually intend to raise rates:

Source: CME FedWatch Tool

Now we do have rising inflation here in the US: will our Fed be as aggressive in keeping core PCE rates close to 2% when they are above 2% as when they are below?

We wonder whether the Fed will adopt an ultra-hawkish rate stance if core PCE reaches, say, 2.3%. After all, 2% is the golden number.

If 1.7% PCE corresponds to 65bp-rates, then shouldn't 2.3% require something like 1,650bps? The Fed incessantly refers us back to the deflation of the 1930s; isn't price stability a two-theatre war?

How vigilant do you suspect they will be from protecting us from foes on the other side of the magic 2% line?

Node F: No life. We're too late (or too early)! Our former high rates already devastated the economy of our seven earth-sized friends. We may already have the reputation among other M-dwarf stars and their planets as a galactic rate braggart and bully.

In September 2015 the Fed did not raise rates because China's economy seemed to be flagging, with real GDP falling perilously below 7% per annum. Well certainly somewhere out there is an economy that may or may not be in trouble.

Analyst Conclusion:

The Milky Way galaxy is home to approximately 100 billion stars. According to NASA:

Red dwarf stars -- also called "M-dwarfs" -- outnumber others, including yellow stars like our sun, by a factor of three to one, comprising nearly 75 percent of the stars in our galaxy. They also last far longer. And their planets are proportionally larger compared to the small stars they orbit. That means small, rocky worlds orbiting the nearest red dwarfs will be primary targets for new, powerful telescopes coming online in the years ahead, both in space and on the ground.

In Game Theory, a "dominant strategy" is one where each player's choice is optimal given the choices of all other players.

The real lesson here is that in nodes A-F, the Fed knows not to hike. This is the very definition of a dominant strategy.

Given that our galaxy is home to 100 billion stars, it is quite likely that there are hosts of planets that could more or less be categorized in nodes A through F continuously!

This being the case, the message is that the Fed should never raise interest rates again. Interest rates can become the new "barbarous relic", something that loons crow about when they've downed too much whisky and are harkening back to the old days.

Gold is a relic of Julius Caesar and interest is an invention of Satan.

-December, 1921: Thomas Edison

See folks: you heard it from Mr. Edison himself! If interest is an invention of Satan, then the Fed is just doing the Lord's work by keeping short rates at comatose levels into perpetuity.

"Thy will be done, on Earth is it is on M-Dwarf TRAPPIST-1."

Finally we have sound leadership in the world's central banks that share the Edisonian perspective

Thank you for reading. We'd love to hear from you in the comments section below. Please consider following us.

Disclosure: I am/we are short SPY.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: We actively trade the futures markets, potentially taking multiple positions on any given day, both long and short. It is our belief that the S&P 500 is meaningfully overvalued. As such, we typically carry a net short position using ES options and futures.

View original post here:

NASA Discovers Seven Earth-Sized Planets: Fed Ought To Stay On Hold! - Seeking Alpha

NASA managers said Friday they hope to know within a month or so whether it might be feasible -- or advisable -- to put two astronauts on board the first test flight of a huge 322-foot-tall Space Launch System super booster scheduled for its maiden launch late next year.

The study, requested by the Trump administration, already is underway, but William Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters, said major technical challenges will need to be resolved, and the agency will need more money to make it happen.

Its going to take a significant amount of money, and money that will be required fairly quickly to implement what we need to do, he told reporters. So its a question of how we refine the funding levels and the phasing of the funding for the next three years and see where it comes out.

If the feasibility study doesnt pan out, he said, we still have a very exciting mission.

The current plan calls for launching a Block 1 SLS rocket in late 2018 -- Exploration Mission 1, or EM-1 -- to boost an unpiloted Orion capsule on a three-week flight beyond the moon and back to a high-speed re-entry and splashdown.

EM-2, featuring an astronaut crew, would be launched atop a Block 1B SLS rocket in the late 2021 timeframe. Unlike the EM-1 rocket, the Block 1B version of the SLS would feature a more powerful, human-rated exploration upper stage, or EUS.

An artists impression of a Space Launch System rocket boosting an Orion crew capsule toward space.

NASA

The long-range plan, with its roots in the Obama administration, is to use the SLS to send astronauts beyond the moon in the mid-2020s, first to rendezvous with a robotically retrieved asteroid, or chunk of an asteroid, and then to orbit Mars in the 2030s.

The long gap between the SLS initial test flight and the piloted EM-2 mission, driven in large part by NASAs budget and a variety of technical hurdles, has raised concerns in some quarters about maintaining public and congressional support in a program with years between flights and competing demands on agency funding.

President Trumps transition team asked NASA to look into the possibility of either moving EM-2 earlier or adding astronauts to EM-1. Hill said the latter option was more realistic than the former because of major infrastructure modifications that will be needed to support the larger Block 1B SLS.

But there are major technical challenges with speeding up Orion development for an earlier-than-panned human mission.

We know there are certain systems that needed to be added to EM-1 to add crew, said Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA Headquarters, including a life support system, a waste management system, operational cockpit displays and an operational abort system, all big-ticket items.

In addition, the interim upper stage used by the Block 1 SLS is not certified for human flights. While a similar stage has flown flawlessly atop Delta 4 rockets, additional tests would be required and procedures put in place to ensure crew safety if a malfunction occurs.

So we have a good, crisp list of all the things we would physically have to change from a hardware standpoint, Gerstenmaier said. Then we asked the team to take a look at what additional tests would be needed to add crew, what the additional risk would be, and then we also wanted the teams to talk about the benefits of having crew on the first flight.

An Orion capsule, attached to an interim upper stage, in Earth orbit.

NASA

The risk-benefit trade will be a crucial element of the review. NASAs Aerospace Advisory Panel met Thursday, and in a statement, chairwoman Patricia Sanders cautioned the agency not to pursue an early piloted mission without strong technical justification.

NASA should provide a compelling rationale, in terms of benefits gained in return for accepting additional risk, and fully and transparently acknowledge the tradeoffs being made, she said. If the benefits warrant assumption of additional risk, we expect NASA to clearly and openly articulate their decision process and rationale.

In a Feb. 17 memo to agency employees, acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot raised the possibility of adding astronauts to Exploration Mission-1.

I know the challenges associated with such a proposition, like reviewing the technical feasibility, additional resources needed, and clearly the extra work would require a different launch date, he wrote. That said, I also want to hear about the opportunities it could present to accelerate the effort of the first crewed flight and what it would take to accomplish that first step of pushing humans farther into space.

The SLS-Orion missions, coupled with those promised from record levels of private investment in space, will help put NASA and America in a position to ... ensure this nations world preeminence in exploring the cosmos, he wrote.

In its initial configuration, the SLS Block 1 rocket will be made up of two shuttle-heritage five-segment solid-fuel boosters provided by Orbital ATK and a huge first stage powered by four hydrogen-burning RS-25 space shuttle main engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

The Block 1 version features an interim upper stage derived from Boeings Delta 4 rocket powered by a single hydrogen-fueled Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10B2 engine.

Even in its initial configuration, the giant SLS rocket will generate a ground-shaking 8.8 million pounds of thrust -- 15 percent more than NASAs legendary Saturn 5 moon rocket -- enough to boost the 5.75 million-pound rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere. Together with the second stage engine, the SLS Block 1 will be able to put 154,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit.

An SLS rocket is roughly as tall as the length of a football field.

NASA

NASA eventually plans to build a Block 2 version of the SLS featuring advanced strap-on boosters with a liftoff thrust of 9.2 million pounds.

Gerstenmaier said the agency was not under any political pressure to put astronauts aboard EM-1, saying this is something well go evaluate and ... well see what the results look like coming out the other side.

But it will not be easy. To convert the EM-1 Orion into a piloted version, life support and other critical systems will be required, along with extensive testing, adding to the missions price tag and inevitably delaying the flight. The flight would be limited to two astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the moon lasting eight to nine days.

Gerstenmaier said if the study shows the Orion spacecraft cannot be prepared for flight before the end of 2019 it likely would make more sense to stick with the original timeline and fly EM-1 uncrewed.

NASAs current deep space exploration program has its roots in presidential politics and agendas dating back to the shuttle Columbias destruction during re-entry in 2003.

In the wake of the disaster, the Bush administration directed NASA to finish the International Space Station and retire the shuttle by the end of the decade and to focus instead on building new rockets and spacecraft for a return to the moon in the early 2020s. Antarctica-style moon bases were envisioned as both a science initiative and as stepping stones to eventual flights to Mars.

NASA came up with the Constellation program and began designing a new Saturn 5-class super rocket to boost lunar modules and habitats to the moon, along with a smaller rocket to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit. The crew capsule was called Orion and the plan was to link up with the lunar lander/habitat in Earth orbit and then head for the moon.

After the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama ordered a review of NASAs human space program. A presidential panel concluded Constellation was over budget and unsustainable, suggesting instead that NASA adopt a flexible path architecture, bypassing the moon in favor of a manned flight to an asteroid and an eventual flight to orbit Mars.

The Obama administrations Office of Science and Technology Policy ultimately approved a two-tiered approach to human spaceflight. It retained the Constellation programs Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, and ordered NASA to build a single large rocket -- what became the Space Launch System -- for deep space exploration.

At the same time, the agency has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop piloted spacecraft, on a commercial basis, to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The idea is to encourage private industry to develop low-Earth orbit while NASA focuses on deep space exploration.

More recently, the Obama administration specified an asteroid retrieval mission to robotically haul a small asteroid, or part of one, back to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on exploration by astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft. Such missions would set the stage for an Orion, attached to a habitation module of some sort, to make an eventual flight to orbit Mars or its moons.

NASA staged a successful uncrewed test flight of the Orion capsule using a Delta 4 rocket in December 2014. Known as Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1, the heavily instrumented Orion capsule was boosted into an orbit with a high point of about 3,600 miles above the Earth. From there, the spacecraft plunged back to Earth, hitting the atmosphere at some 20,000 mph to test its heat shield and other safety systems.

Continued here:

NASA studies adding crew to super rocket test flight - CBS News

NASA generally proceeds slowly and incrementally especially when human beings are blasted into space. But President Trump apparently wants to do something bold with the space program, and his team has asked NASA to consider speeding up a long-planned moon mission.

So NASA has launched a feasibility study to see what the risks and benefits would be if the agency added two astronauts to the first test flight of a new rocket and capsule.

That flight, Exploration Mission 1, or EM-1, is scheduled for November 2018. The new Space Launch System rocket would blast off with a new Orion capsule on top. The Orion would orbit the moon, undergoing a kind of stress test, and then return to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere at tremendous speed and splashing down in an ocean.

NASA's current plan is to do this with mannequins aboard.

Only after this shakedown mission would it then put live astronauts into Orion and send them on toward the moon. That second mission is not scheduled until 2021.

On Friday, two NASA officials held a teleconference with reporters to discuss the feasibility study, and they avoided signaling whether they think adding astronauts to a test flight is a good idea.

I dont have a preconceived position as to whether I'm for this or against this, said William Gerstenmaier, an associate administrator who is the top official for human spaceflight. Echoing that sentiment was William Hill, a deputy associate administrator: We will let the identified risk and benefits drive this, as well as the data.

[NASA, heeding Trump, may try a first-term moon mission]

Gerstenmaier said the first flight, if astronauts are involved, would probably last eight or nine days.

The officials made clear that changing the current plan, and adding a crew to the first test flight, would increase the mission risk. Gerstenmaier said there are ways to limit the risk, including putting the Orion in an Earth orbit for a day or so to ensure that the life-support systems were working properly. If necessary, at that point the flight to the moon could be aborted. We might lose the mission, but we could still protect the crew, he said.

Gerstenmaier said adding a crew would offer benefits: Well get a chance to test systems in a very rigorous way with a crew on board. Hill seemed to contradict that a few minutes later, saying that NASA would like to stress the systems on Orion in the initial flight, which we probably wouldnt do with a crew on board.

The feasibility study should be complete in about a month. Adding a crew would probably push a launch date for EM-1 into 2019, Gerstenmaier said. If it proves impossible to launch with a crew aboard by late 2019, he said, NASA would stick to the current plan of a crew on EM-2 in 2021.

[How Trump could really disrupt NASA]

Trump has shown an interest in President John F. Kennedy's vow more than half a century ago to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, and, eyeing his reelection prospects, Trumpcould potentially announce some kind of ambitious space mission for NASA, likely in combination with entrepreneurial space companies.

But a lot remains uncertain at NASA, including the top leadership posts. Trump and his team have yet to nominate anyone to run the agency, and NASA is currently guided by acting administrator Robert Lightfoot, a civil servant.

Read more:

With Trump, Gingrich and GOP in charge, NASA may go back to the moon

NASA under Trump is waiting for marching orders

Will trump echo JFK's moonshot and vow to send humans to Mars?

NASA has a spaceship, but where will it go?

Follow this link:

NASA officials discuss Trump's push for first-term moon mission - Washington Post

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (second left) is honored onstage with actors (left to right) Janelle Monae, Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer - the stars of "Hidden Figures," which focuses on Johnson's work with NASA's Mercury program - during the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle is seen standing behind Johnson

The stars of "Hidden Figures," the 20th Century Fox film about NASA's early African American mathematicians, took to the stage at the Academy Awards Sunday night (Feb. 26), not to accept an Oscar, but to pay homage to the real-life "human computer" Katherine Johnson, who received a standing ovation.

"Movies about the lives of men and women in the history books have long been a staple of storytellers. Sometimes, the names and deeds are the heroes and their names are known to all," said actress Janelle Monae. [NASA's Real "Hidden Figures"]

"And then there are those films that shine the spotlight on those whose names are known to only a few, but whose stories are deserved to be told," added Octavia Spencer, who was nominated but did not win for Best Supporting Actress for her role as manager Dorothy Vaughan in "Hidden Figures."

We were honored to be in an inspiring film about three such women," continued actress Taraji P. Henson, "whose brilliance made our nation's achievements in space possible."

Henson then introduced Johnson, the mathematician she portrayed, as a "true NASA and American hero."

"Thank you all," said Johnson, 98, after being escorted to the stage by NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle.

Worth seeing again. Nice that Katherine Johnson got a standing ovation. https://t.co/tMOVPSl44H

"Katherine Johnson on the Oscars!" tweeted NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where Johnson and her fellow women mathematicians supported the early Mercury spaceflights and where "Hidden Figures" is set. "What a wonderful moment."

The segment was the space highlight of the night, which was few on awards for the nominated space-themed movies.

Despite being the top grossing film nominated for Best Picture, "Hidden Figures" lost in all three categories for which it was a contender. In addition to Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (for Spencer), "Hidden Figures" was also passed over for Best Adapted Screenplay. The movie was based on the book of the same title by author Margot Lee Shetterly.

"Passengers," the Morten Tyldum-directed science fiction film about two people (Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt) who are awoken early on an interstellar trip to an exoplanet, had been nominated for Best Production Design and Best Original Score, but like "Hidden Figures" did not win.

"Arrival," the second highest-grossing Best Picture nominee, came away from the night having fared slightly better. The sci-fi film about Earth's first contact with an alien race was nominated for eight Oscars and won for Best Sound Editing (Sylvain Bellemare).

Anousheh Ansari, who funded her own trip to the International Space Station in September 2006, and Firouz Naderi, the former director for solar system exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, accepted the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for "The Salesman," on behalf of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who did not attend in protest of the travel ban put into place by President Donald Trump. Ansari was the first Iranian and first Muslim woman in space.

Former NASA scientist Firouz Naderi (left) and engineer/astronaut Anousheh Ansari pose with the Best Foreign Language Film award for 'The Salesman' on behalf of director Asghar Farhadi in the press room during the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on Feb. 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California.

Mahershala Ali, who portrayed Katherine Johnson's husband, Jim Johnson, in "Hidden Figures," won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Juan in "Moonlight."

Damien Chazelle, who won Best Director for "La La Land," will next helm Universal Studios' "First Man," based on historian James Hansen's biography of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong.

Robert Pearlman is a Space.comcontributing writer and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a Space.compartner site and the leading space history news publication. Follow collectSPACEon Facebookand on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Follow us @Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

See the article here:

Oscars Honor Real-Life NASA Hero Katherine Johnson, But Pass On 'Hidden Figures' - Space.com

In Brief

With $30 million leaving the bank account over the next five years, NASA plans on setting up and supporting two institutes dedicated to extending humanitys reach in our solar system.

These Space Technology Research Institutes (STRIs) will each receive $15 million in NASA funding to develop technologies in biomaterials and biomanufacturing. Universities will lead multidisciplinary research programs in hopes of obtaining credible outcomes in the next five years. While the research is focused on expanding our species into space, the STRIs look to finding applications beyond just aerospace for the work.

Of the two STRIs, one is the Center for Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES)which will focus on incorporating microbes into food, fuel, materials, and pharmaceuticals. This research is intended to ease the journey of space travel, by providing biomanufacturing for astronauts who can be more self-sustained.

The other of the two STRIs is the Institute for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design (US-COMP), which aims to develop lightweight and super strong aerospace material with carbon-nanotube technology.

CUBES will be led by Adam Arkin Ph.D., a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, while US-COMP will be led by GregoryOdegard Ph.D.of Michigan Technological University.

While many outspoken voices on humanitys survival state that we need to leave Earth, one of the most compelling reasons was given by Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk. He believes that an extinction event isinevitableand that we must spread our species out if we aim to survive.

Others like Stephen Hawking are even more specific.Hawking believes that we only have 1000 years left on the Earth, and our only chance at survival is by setting up colonies elsewhere in the universe. Unlike Elon Musk, Hawking is skeptical of our ability to land on Mars in the next 200 or so years and behooves us to make steps to more fully address climate change, threats of nuclear war, and antibiotic resistance.

All in all, projects created by the STRIs will bring us closer to one-day extending humanitys reach.

See more here:

Two New NASA Institutes Will Prepare Us to Live Away From Earth - Futurism

Forbes

NASA Just Discovered Seven New Exoplanets... So What? Forbes On Wednesday, the scientists at NASA kind of freaked out. They announced the discovery of some seemingly Earth-like planets outside of our solar system, a group of rocky globes they're calling 'TRAPPIST-1.' How far away are these newly-discovered ... This Discovery Could Give NASA a Good Reason to Boldly Go Where It's Never Gone BeforeMadison.com Visit TRAPPIST-1e! NASA Travel Poster Advertises Exoplanet DiscoverySpace.com NASA Is Turning TRAPPIST-1 Into Science Nerd FanficGizmodo TechCrunch -GOOD Magazine -Stuff.co.nz -NASA all 255 news articles »

Read more:

NASA Just Discovered Seven New Exoplanets... So What? - Forbes

Last week, the House Science, Space and Technology committee invited four witnesses from NASAs past to discuss the agencys future endeavors, including a human mission to Mars, a possible return to the moon, and the commercial space sector. NASA consistently polls as Americans favorite federal agency, and its popularity cuts across party lines. The hearing could have been a brief respite from the bickering that has seized Washington of late. And it almost was.

Near the end, Ellen Stofan, NASAs chief science officer under President Barack Obama, gave Mars enthusiasts some reason for hope. Americans can expect a lunar habitat by the 2020s and humans in Mars orbit in 2032, she said.

Thats the clearest timeline on NASAs Journey to Mars in some time. Many space enthusiasts were, well, enthused. But then last Friday, Stofan shared this picture:

Where was she? Missing from more than the photo, it turned out. The House committees Twitter accountthe same one that has shared false climate-change information from Breitbart Newsdidnt mention her at all in its tweets covering the hearing.

The account posted 10 tweets total about the hearing, including a link to a video feed of the testimony. It shared sound bites from each of the panels other three witnesses: Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator from New Mexico; Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford, an astronaut on Apollo 10 and two Gemini missions; and A. Thomas Young, who was the mission director for the Viking Mars program and a former director of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

There must be a permanent public and political commitment to deep-space exploration and development, the account quoted Schmitt saying.

It also quoted Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the committees chair, and Representative Brian Babin of Texas, whose district includes NASAs Johnson Space Center, talking about American leadership in space. If youd read that feed for coverage of the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, youd be forgiven for thinking Stofan didnt show up at all.

But she testified at length. She gave detailed answers to numerous questions about the space agencys Earth science mission, about NASAs Mars trajectory, about human space exploration, and plenty of other topics, many of intense public interest. It was curious that she didnt appear at all in the committees Twitter feed.

I called the committees offices to ask about this omission. The person who answered the phone Friday paused and said, thats a good question, before referring me to the communications staff. At the time of publication, I had not heard back.

Stofan was nonplussed, both on Twitter and on the phone from her vacation home in North Carolina last weekend.

I understand that its probably mostly because they are the Republican witnesses. I was invited by the minority party, the Democrats. But the optics of being the only woman, she trailed off, with a rueful laugh. You know, I understand, thats the way the system works. I hope were turning away from that system.

Stofan was referring to the systemic mistreatment of women in science, as supported by a wealth of scientific papers in academic journals, which speak to the persistence of sexism, ossified gender roles, the prevalence and endurance of bias, and the underrepresentation of women (especially women of color). This body of research demonstrates the detrimental effect of these biases on Ph.D.s, salaries and careers and the importance of representatives and role models.

For these reasons and others, Stofans omission prompted an outcry. Dont ask questions about encouraging young people to get into STEM and then make it look like it's only for old white guys, one woman wrote to Stofan. As a woman seeking a STEM career, for that matter a human who cares about science ... this bewilders me, said another.

In this context, its worth noting the last tweet posted prior to the committee hearing. It highlighted the INSPIRE Act, a one-page bill that authorizes the NASA administrator to facilitate and support early-career female astronauts, scientists, engineers, and innovators to engage with K12 female STEM students and inspire the next generation of women. This is an admirable goal, and worthy of the committees support.

Of course, its possible that Stofans omission was unintentional, and an honest mistake. In our conversation, Stofan took great pains to praise the committee staff, saying they were all pleasant and welcoming, and she stressed that the questions from members of Congress were friendly and curious.

But its also worth noting that Stofan was the only witness who has worked at NASA recently. After leaving Goddard many years ago, Young spent two decades as the CEO of Martin Marietta and later Lockheed Martin. After losing his reelection in the Senate, Schmitt worked as a consultant and led an effort to encourage private companies to mine the moon. In 2008, he abruptly quit the Planetary Society because of disagreements over its Mars advocacy and its statements about a scientific consensus on climate change, which he said was ridiculous. As for Stafford, he worked for President Ronald Reagan as a defense advisor and later chaired a committee to carry out President George H.W. Bushs ambitious but short-lived Mars plan, before chairing the International Space Station Advisory Committee.

Stofan, on the other hand, served as chief scientist from 2013 until the inauguration. Previously, she spent 13 years as a planetary-geology professor and worked in the private sector as a research scientist. Before that, she spent a decade at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Stofan is the only witness to have worked at NASA since the 1980s.

It was a little frustrating to me that they were people who hadnt been involved in the agency in a long time, and in some cases werent entirely up to date on whats going on, Stofan said. When youre talking about the future of NASA, youd want to hear someone who was more recently involved.

In discussing her disappointment, Stofan quoted Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and a personal hero to many children of the space age, who said shortly before she died in 2012, You cant be what you cant see.

If we turn a blind eye, or dont show that women are there, what are we telling people about how women are valued? Stofan told me. What are we telling girls about their ability to go into different careers? The message it sends to women is not a great one.

Go here to read the rest:

Why Did the House Science Committee Overlook NASA's Former Chief Scientist? - The Atlantic

Mashable

An 'Elite Dangerous' star system closely resembles NASA's TRAPPIST-1 discovery Mashable David Braben, the CEO of Elite developer Frontier Development, highlighted the in-game system's similarity to TRAPPIST-1 in a new forum post. He also noted that a forthcoming update will tweak the star system to account for NASA's discoveries and ... and more »

Read more from the original source:

An 'Elite Dangerous' star system closely resembles NASA's TRAPPIST-1 discovery - Mashable

WASHINGTON: NASA plans to send its first robotic spacecraft to the Sun next year that is slated to get within six million kilometres of the blazing star to probe its atmosphere.

Humans have sent spacecraft to the Moon, Mars and even distant interstellar space. Now, NASA plans to launch the Solar Probe Plus mission to the Sun which is about 149 million kilometres from the Earth.

"This is going to be our first mission to fly to the Sun," said Eric Christian, a NASA research scientist at Goddard Space Flight Centre.

"We can't get to the very surface of the Sun," but the mission will get close enough to answer three important questions, Christian said.

First, the mission will hopefully unveil why the surface of the Sun, called the photosphere, is not as hot as its atmosphere, called the corona.

According to NASA, the surface temperature of the Sun is only about 5,500 degrees Celsius. However, the atmosphere above it is a sizzling two million degrees Celsius.

"You would think the farther away you get from a heat source, you would get colder. Why the atmosphere is hotter than the surface is a big puzzle," Christian said.

The scientists also want to know how solar wind gets its speed, 'Live Science' reported.

"The Sun blows a stream of charged particles in all directions at a million miles an hour. But we do not understand how that gets accelerated," he said.

The mission may also ascertain why the Sun occasionally emits high-energy particles that are a danger to unprotected astronauts and spacecraft.

NASA has designed a 11.4 centimetres carbon-composite shield, which is designed to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of 1,370 degrees Celsius.

The unmanned probe will have special heat tubes called thermal radiators that will radiate heat that permeates the heat shield to open space, "so it does not go to the instruments, which are sensitive to heat," Christian added.

Read this article:

NASA may send robotic spacecraft to Sun next year - Economic Times

An artist's impression of the Orion capsule in space.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA will take about a month to assess how much extra time, money and risk would be added to the debut flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket if a two-member crew was aboard, officials said today.

The launch, called Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), is currently scheduled to be the first test flight of the SLS booster, which will send an uncrewed Orion capsule into deep space. Under the existing plan, a crew would fly aboard the Orion/SLS system on the EM-2 mission in 2021.

The Trump administration has asked NASA to look at either adding crewmembers to the EM-1 flight or advancing the launch of EM-2, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told reporters during a news conference today (Feb. 24). [Photos: NASA's Space Launch System for Deep Space Flights]

Moving up the date of EM-2 is not feasible because of changes that have to be made to the SLS launch platform to accommodate a taller upper-stage motor that NASA plans to have in place for that mission, NASA officials said during the news conference.

Gerstenmaier said he also directed his team to look only at options that would take about one year or less to implement, so that a crewed EM-1 flight could launch in 2019.

"I felt that if we went much beyond 2019, then we might as well fly EM-2 and actually do the (plan) we're on," Gerstenmaier said.

The Orion spacecraft has not been fully upgraded to support human passengers since its first test flight in December 2014 (atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket). Gerstenmaier said he has no estimate on the additional costs of adding life support, an abort system and other hardware that would be needed for EM-1 to fly with a crew.

"This study will determine how much additional time is needed to add crew to EM-1," Gerstenmaier said. "We will definitely have a [later launch date]. We also recognize we'll need to add some additional funding."

The prospective mission would have a two-member crew fly in an Orion capsule on an eight- to nine-day mission around the moon, similar to the flight of Apollo 8 in 1968.

NASA's independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said in a meeting Thursday (Feb. 23) that the reasons for having astronauts fly on EM-1 must be compelling enough to override the additional cost, schedule and safety risks.

"We are not proposing what the outcome of NASA's assessment should be," Patricia Sanders, chairwoman of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said during the meeting. "But in the assessment, we strongly advise that NASA carefully and cautiously weigh the value proposition for flying crew on EM-1."

Flying astronauts on a rocket's debut flight would be a departure from NASA precedence. Only one previous spacecraft, the space shuttle, made its first flight with crew aboard, and that was launched using the well-tested Saturn V rocket.

"The space shuttle really wasn't built to be flown unmanned, and we would have had to do an awful lot to make that happen," former astronaut Bob Crippen, the pilot on the first shuttle flight, said in an interview with Space.com.

As a winged vehicle re-entering the atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound, the space shuttle was a far bigger technological leap than the Orion capsule, Gerstenmaier noted.

"This is still pushing the envelope in some areas, but it's not as big a step technology-wise as what we actually did in the case of the shuttle," he said. "We will be very cautious about what we go do. We will do the right thing."

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

Read the original post:

NASA Will Consider Adding Crew to Next-Gen Rocket's Debut Launch - Space.com

var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push();

PALO ALTO Mention the word asteroid and youll probably think about the downfall of the dinosaurs, or perhaps Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck duking it out in the movie Armageddon.

Now, NASA and a Palo Alto-based satellite manufacturer are working to geta spacecraft to an asteroid before one gets to us.

NASAs Discovery Program, aimed at improving our understanding of the solar system by exploring planets, moons and other celestial bodies, announced last month that it had selected two asteroid-centric missions each with a $450 million price cap to launch in the next decade. One of the missions involves sending a spacecraft to Psyche, an asteroid named after the Greek goddess of the soul that is made entirely of metal.

Scientists say metal asteroids are one of the last remaining things in our solar system that they have never seen up close.

Weve looked at rocky planets, gas giants, icy planets, rocky asteroids, comets but never anything like this, said Jim Bell, a professor of planetary science atArizona State University, where a team of scientists is leading the Psyche mission.The scientists believe the asteroid may be the metal core of a planet that was stripped of its rocky outer layers when it was destroyed billions of years ago.

Asteroids rocky space bodies that orbit the sun range in size from 600 miles in diameter to dust particles. Like Psyche, most are in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA estimates the belt contains between 1.1 million and 1.9 million asteroids larger than a half-mile in diameter, plus millions of smaller ones.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the Arizona teams principal investigator, recently told Space News that visiting Psyche will allow scientists to literally visit a planetary core the only way that humankind ever can.Psyches metallic iron and nickel composition is similar to Earths core, so studying the asteroid may help scientists understand how planets layers such as cores and crusts separate.

Bell, Elkins-Tantons second-in-command, will be in charge of obtaining color images of the asteroid and figuring out its surface geology from the images.

For Bell, Psyche represents the opportunity to study a world made of metal. We dont know what to expect regarding impact craters or tectonic features, he said. Our predictions are all over the map of Dr. Seuss-like landscapes.

The mission, set to launch from Floridas Kennedy Space Center in 2023, hopes to use data collected from the metallic asteroid to help scientists learn about how planets with cores like Psyche formed during the early days of our solar system.

Erik Asphaug, another investigator on the team, likens himself to a kid in a candy store. Like Bell, he yearns to understand the geology of an entirely metallic body: Was there ever water on Psyche? Is there evidence for chemical processes? Plate tectonics?

Added Bell: Were also trying to figure out what these kinds of asteroids are like, to inform us about others like it that could be a threat to Earth in the future.

The Arizona team says it will take five to seven years for the missions spacecraft to get to the asteroid which is 130 miles in diameter and then it will spend one year collecting data as it orbits the asteroid.

Bells imaging camera, along with a gamma ray neutron detector to detect the asteroids composition and a magnetometer to detect its magnetic fields, will also be making the journey. Information will be relayed back via a radio antenna on the spacecraft that communicates with the deep-space network antennas on Earth.

The responsibility of building the shuttle-bus-size spacecraft that will travel to Psyche falls to Space Systems Loral, or SSL a 60-year-old company that constructs and launches commercial communications satellites for companies such as Sirius XM and DirecTV.

When the company announced it was awarded the missions $127 million contract in early January, SSL President John Celli said years of experience and success in building state-of-the-art spacecraft positioned the company to contribute to the NASA mission.

The spacecraft will be built in conjunction with NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which will later integrate the scientific instruments and computer brain. Bob Mase, deputy project manager for the Psyche mission at JPL, called it a tag-team effort that leverages both parties strengths.

Harrison Pitman of Made In Space, a Mountain View company that manufactures technology for use in space, said that his company recognizes the importance of reaching resource-rich asteroids like Psyche.

Made In Space, which did not compete for the Psyche project contract, is working on another project aimed at traveling to an asteroid in deep space. The project involves using robotics to convert an asteroid into a self-propelled spacecraft that flies itself back to Earths orbit. Once in orbit, the asteroid can be mined for resources like rare metals that are unobtainable on Earth.

We believe that the insights gained on this Psyche mission and similar missions will provide the groundwork necessary to successfully develop asteroid-mining operations like ours, Pitman said.

The Psyche collaboration also marks a new trend at the nexus of scientific exploration and commercial production.

Al Tadros, a vice president at SSL who has been with the company for 28 years, said the firm has had to make some major adjustments to pull off the asteroid project but is loving every minute of it.

Its a change from communication satellites, which are business- and profit-driven, he said. But like our commercial business, NASA projects demand low risk and on-time delivery.

Tadros said SSL was chosen from more than 20 proposals following an initial selection process, vigorous oral evaluations and an on-site visit from 80 NASA reviewers.

Its pretty cool, Tadros said with a laugh.

View post:

NASA, Palo Alto satellite company team up to explore unique asteroid - The Mercury News

Photo: Courtesy Of Christopher McHugh, Attorney For Nancy Carlson

(Photo courtesy of Christopher McHugh, attorney for Nancy Carlson)

Images from the moon landing

Images from the moon landing

Apollo 11 (Lift off July 16, 1969): Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

Apollo 11 (Lift off July 16, 1969): Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

Apollo 11 (Lift off July 16, 1969): Astronaut Edwin E. ``Buzz'' Aldrin Jr. walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.

Apollo 11 (Lift off July 16, 1969): Astronaut Edwin E. ``Buzz'' Aldrin Jr. walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.

Visitors to the Kenndy Space Center in Florida get the opportunity to compare their own foot to a replica of that left by Armstrong when he first stepped on the moon.

Visitors to the Kenndy Space Center in Florida get the opportunity to compare their own foot to a replica of that left by Armstrong when he first stepped on the moon.

Visitors look at the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in July 2003, in Washington, DC.

Visitors look at the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in July 2003, in Washington, DC.

One of several spacesuits belonging to Armstrong.

One of several spacesuits belonging to Armstrong.

Armstrong walks back from the lunar ladder after stepping down on the surface of the moon. He became the first human to set foot on the planet after the lunar module landed.

Armstrong walks back from the lunar ladder after stepping down on the surface of the moon. He became the first human to set foot on the planet after the lunar module landed.

Neil Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong.

In this July 21, 1969 file photo provided by NASA, mission control personnel watch the moon walk by Apollo 11 astronauts, in Houston.

In this July 21, 1969 file photo provided by NASA, mission control personnel watch the moon walk by Apollo 11 astronauts, in Houston.

In this July 20, 1969 file photo, the Apollo 11 lunar module rises from the moon's surface for docking with the command module and the trip back to earth. The Earth can be seen rising in the background.

In this July 20, 1969 file photo, the Apollo 11 lunar module rises from the moon's surface for docking with the command module and the trip back to earth. The Earth can be seen rising in the background.

This July 16, 1969 file photo shows the Apollo 11 blastoff to the moon from Cape Kennedy, Fla.

This July 16, 1969 file photo shows the Apollo 11 blastoff to the moon from Cape Kennedy, Fla.

This July 20, 1969 file photo released by NASA shows Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. removing a scientific experiment from the Lunar Module "Eagle" during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

This July 20, 1969 file photo released by NASA shows Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. removing a scientific experiment from the Lunar Module "Eagle" during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

NASA ordered to return historic lunar bag, moon dust to highest bidder

Nancy Lee Carlson will finally get her moon dust back.

A federal judge Friday ordered the Johnson Space Center to return the Illinois woman's lunar collection bag and the dusty specimens left inside from the historic 1969 moon landing.

The bag and its contents - a rare find that a NASA lawyer deemed a "national treasure" - had languished at the space center for more than a year after scientists decided to keep it.

NEW PLANETS: Scientists announce discovery of seven, Earth-size exoplanets 40 light years away

"There are no other lunar bags out there," said Joseph Gutheinz, a former NASA enforcement officer and moon rock hunter who supported Carlson's effort. "It's unique as all get out. And because of that, the value of that bag is incalculable."

U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore in Houston ruled that Carlson is the bag's true owner, having bought it at a government auction for $995 in 2015.

The government may have erred in putting the bag up for sale, but government lawyers erred further by not appealing another judge's ruling on ownership, Gilmore concluded.

The bag is set to be covertly returned on Monday.

'Mission Unknown'

When the Apollo 11 capsule splashed down near Hawaii in July 1969, its celebrated crew came bearing loads of soil and rock stashed in specially designed collection bags.

The embroidered and zippered bag now owned by Carlson was among them, covered in microscopic moon dust and rock particles that NASA scientists discovered were difficult to remove.

Decades later, the round bag - about the size of a dinner plate - turned up in the home of a Kansas space museum's director, where it was seized by federal agents in an unrelated criminal case.

COOL HISTORY: Apollo 11 command module going on tour, coming to Houston later this year

The U.S. Marshal's office finally put it up for auction in 2014 as a "flown zippered lunar sample return bag with lunar dust. 11.5 [inches]. Tear at Center. Flown Mission Unknown."

The suggested opening bid was $20,000. Nobody bid on it.

When it went up for auction again in February 2015, Carlson was the highest bidder.

Carlson had watched the moon landing, like so many from her generation, as an awestruck 11-year-old in Marquette, Michigan.

"I just felt great that they left this planet and made it to the moon, but I felt even happier when they got back OK," Carlson said Friday at the Houston federal courthouse.

MORE SPACE EXPLORATION: Venus, once too hot to explore, now within NASA's reach thanks to new tech

Carlson's parents pushed her and her sister to pursue their dreams, and the space program embodied those big dreams, she said.

The package arrived by UPS at her home in Inverness, Illinois, about 50 miles from Chicago. It arrived in a simple cardboard box, with the lunar bag wrapped in brown paper inside. She kept it in her bedroom closet for safekeeping.

A few months later, Carlson contacted Ryan Zeigler, the lunar sample curator at the Johnson Space Center, curious to know if the bag actually contained moon dust. He said he'd be glad to test it if she'd send it to him.

He confirmed that the bag contained lunar dust, and further tests revealed even more: It was an outer decontamination bag for the first lunar samples ever collected on the first manned mission to the moon.

Historical artifact

That's when things got complicated.

Carlson and Zeigler exchanged emails over many months, ostensibly trying to arrange a time for her to retrieve her bag.

She eventually filed a federal lawsuit as part of the government's forfeiture action. A Kansas judge who got the case ruled the bag belonged to Carlson, but said a judge in the Houston region - where the Johnson Space Center is based would have to oversee enforcement of the order.

Federal prosecutors in Kansas did not appeal the decision, presenting further problems for prosecutors in Houston.

DID YOU KNOW? Little-known facts about astronaut John Glenn's historic 1962 mission to space

NASA officials said late Friday that they consider the case closed.

"NASA is obviously disappointed by the decision of the court due to the fact that it was primarily through the unlawful activity of a third party that put this historical artifact into the public domain," according to a statement from William Jeffs, the NASA spokesman for the astromaterials division. "This artifact was never meant to be owned by an individual. Moreover, this artifact is important, not just for its scientific value, but also because it represents the culmination of a massive national effort involving a generation of Americans, including the astronauts who risked their lives in an effort to accomplish the most significant act humankind has ever achieved."

NASA officials have asked Carlson to consider allowing the bag to be displayed publicly.

Her lawyer, Christopher M. McHugh, said she will consider it. But first she wants to get it back in hand.

"Given that this bag is really a national treasure," McHugh told the judge, "I don't think it's possible for Ms. Carlson to just keep the bag at home. That's not going to happen. But I do think a transfer of ownership has to happen."

Carlson is also considering a quiet visit to the Johnson Space Center over the weekend while waiting to pick up her treasure.

See the original post here:

NASA ordered to return historic lunar bag, moon dust to highest bidder - Chron.com

The galaxy is getting very crowded. There may be 300 billion stars in the Milky Way, but until just over 20 years ago, we knew of only one of them that was orbited by planets. In the years since, the galactic census has exploded, with more than 4,700 confirmed or candidate planets discovered so far and astronomers concluding that every star in the galaxy is parent to at least one world.

What has always been harder to spot are Earthlike planets relatively small ones with a rocky surface, orbiting their sun at the not-too-close, not-too-far distance that would allow liquid water to exist. Today, however, that changed in a big way, as NASA announced that a single star relatively close to Earth is home to no fewer than seven Earthlike planets. If you're looking for extraterrestrial life, there may be no place better.

The new findings, published in the current issue of Nature , are the result of more than six years of study of the small star Trappist-1 , located just over 39 light years from Earth barely one town over in a galaxy that measures 100,000 light years across. The star got its name from a rough acronym of the telescope in the Chilean desert that has studied it the most: the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope. As the name suggests, the Trappist telescope looks for planets by watching for the portion of their orbit in which they transit or pass in front of their star, causing a tiny but regular dimming in starlight.

Three Earthlike planets were discovered around Trappist-1 early in 2016 using this method. That prompted the astronomers who made the find led by Michal Gillon of the University of Lige in Belgium to bring in some bigger guns. Conducting more surveys with ground-based telescopes in Morocco, Hawaii, South Africa, Spain and Liverpool, as well as with NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope , the investigators found four more planets. All seven except the outermost one are closely grouped, and all orbit Trappist-1 at the right, cozy distance to sustain biology, at least theoretically.

"The planets form a very compact system," said Gillon during a teleconference prior to the paper's release. "They are very close to their star and are reminiscent of the system of moons that orbit Jupiter. They could have liquid water and life."

In a solar system like ours, very close to the sun is not the best place to live if you're looking to harbor life. Consider Mercury, our innermost planet, where surface temperatures reach 800 F (430 C). Never mind water surviving; at that heat, lead melts.

Trappist-1, however, is nothing like the sun. It's what's known as a red dwarf, a very small, comparatively cool star, barely 11% of the radius of our sun and less than half its 10,000 F (5,500 C) surface temperature. Historically, astronomers ignored red dwarfs in their search for habitable planets. If the only star you know of that has given rise to life is a larger, yellow, so-called M class sun like ours, why look at ones that are so much smaller and cooler? But if you huddle up close to an M dwarf you can soak up all the light and warmth you need. What's more, there are at least three time more red dwarfs in the galaxy than all other classes of stars combined.

If you draw a 30 light-year bubble around our sun, said Harvard University astronomer David Charbonneau in a conversation with TIME, youd take in about 20 sun-like stars and 250 red dwarfs.

Even better, a planet around a red dwarf is often easier to spot than one around a bigger star, since it is larger relative to its smaller parent. "These planets are 80 times easier to study in front of a red star than they are in front of a yellow one," says Gillon.

By no means is life anything like a sure thing in the Trappist-1 system. For one thing, the planets are so close to their sun that they are almost certainly tidally locked, which means that they keep one side forever facing toward the solar fires and one side away, the way the moon does with the Earth. That creates a stark temperature differential in the two hemispheres of the world, with one perhaps too hot for life to thrive and one too cold. Still, if any of the planets has an atmosphere a big if the heat and the cold could mix and moderate, at least in the regions that are forever fixed in dawn or dusk.

Another problem could be in the nature of red dwarfs themselves. They tend to be more volatile than M class stars, producing more solar flares, which blast out heat and radiation an especially dangerous state of affairs for a planet in a tight orbit. But not all red dwarfs are equally turbulent, says Gillon, and Trappist-1 is "a very quiet star."

If there is life on any of the planets, it could be discovered relatively soon. Sending a spacecraft to visit is out of the question, of course. Even traveling at the speed of light, which is nearly 671 million miles per hour (1.1 billion k/h), the ship would take 39 years to make the journey. The fastest spacecraft ever built, the New Horizons probe to Pluto and beyond, is creeping along at about 36,000 mph (59,000 k/h).

Instead, the hunt for life on the newly discovered planets will be conducted by both orbiting and Earth-based telescopes, which will study the spectrum of Trappist-1's starlight as it streams through the atmospheres of any of the planets during their transits. Different chemicals absorb different wavelengths of light and if you know what you're looking for, you can pick out not just the presence but the concentrations of organic gasses like oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and especially methane. The closer that chemical fingerprint comes to matching that of Earth's atmosphere, the likelier it is something's living on one of the other worlds.

So epochal a discovery could be made within the decade, the Trappist-1 team believes, especially when the James Webb Space Telescope the much more powerful follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescope goes into service in 2018. And if the seven planets don't harbor life yet, they still have plenty of time. Trappist-1 is very young, just 500 million years old, compared to our 4.5 billion-year-old sun. That makes the sun middle-aged with only another 5 billion or so years left to it. Red dwarfs, however, burn through their hydrogen fuel much more slowly.

"Trappist-1 will live for one thousand billion years," says Gillon. If life is going to emerge in the system, it has all the time it needs.

Here is the original post:

NASA Announces a Single Star Is Home to At Least 7 Earthlike Planets - TIME

An artist rendering of NASA's Space Launch System launching into the clouds. NASA is studying the costs and risks of flying astronauts in an Orion capsule launching atop the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket.(Photo: NASA)

NASA expects to have a better idea by next month whether it will put astronauts aboard a new rocket planned to launch in 2018.

The agency started a feasibility study as to whether it is possible to put humans on the test flight Exploration Mission-1 when it launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.On Friday,the agency's associate administrator of human explorations William Gerstenmaier said he expects preliminary results in about a month.

The EM-1is an ambitious three-week mission that NASA boasts will "launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown." The spacecraft is expected to orbit the moon, collect data, and return to Earth while layingthe groundwork for a trip to Mars.

As it stands now, the EM-1 flight is unmanned. Adding astronauts to the mission, if that's what is decided, would add time and money to the process. However, adding astronauts to the EM-1 would advance a manned space flight by years. The plan currently is forastronauts to boarda second flight, EM-2,which has a tentative launch date of August 2021.

After conversations with President Trump's transition team, acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfootlast week announced the feasibilitystudy to examine the risks and rewards of moving up a manned launch.

NASA to study flying crew on first flight of SLS rocket

Gerstenmaeirdenied the agency was being pushed to man the Orion sooner rather than later because of Trump's administration, which has shown support for advancing a space mission. He said the agency wasn't provided funding or time guidelines.

"There's not pressure to go do this," Gerstenmaier said. "This is something we're going to evaluate ... We'll see what the results look like coming out the other side."

The data, Gerstenmaier stressed, will lead NASA to its decision.The question for the agency, he said, relies on weighing the safety risks associated with the launch versus the benefits. The benefit of an early launch, he explained, is the ability "to testsystemsin a rigorous way withcrewon board."

NASA's Aerospace Safety AdvisoryPanel has urged caution at the prospect of a manned EM-1. The advisory panel stressed NASA needs a "compelling" reason for risking the lives of astronauts.

Gerstenmaier said he's assembled a team to explorethe additional funding and time needed to put a man on the EM-1. He also appeared open to pushing the mission back, asking the team to keep itstimeframe to no later than 2019.

William Hill, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systemsdevelopment, said a crew on EM-1 expands the possibilities of what can be done on EM-2.

Hill or Gerstenmaier didn't give a hard timeframe as to when the study would be complete, but added it wouldn't slow down the current plan for EM-1. Gerstenmair said there wouldn't be a firm recommendation at the end of the study. The final decision, he said, will come after an agency wide discussion that includes astronauts.

"We'll go through all the activity to make sure we understand the risks associated with this flight," Gerstenmaier said. "We need to look at what do we really gain by putting crew on this flight."

Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman

James Dean at Florida Today contributed to this story.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2lEyI2C

More here:

NASA weighs manning spacecraft to go farther than humans have ever flown - USA TODAY

Tech news was heavy this week. Uber is facing a sexual harassment claim as well as a lawsuit from Google, NASA discovered planets with what could prove to be Earthlike conditions, and more information was revealed about Apples new Apple Park campus. These are the top stories of the week.

1.Last week, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler accused the company of sexual harassment and human resources negligence in a blog post.In response, Uber CEO Travis Kalanickhas tapped former US Attorney General Eric Holder and Tammy Albarran, partners at law firm Covington & Burling, to independently investigate the accusation.Uber board member Arianna Huffington also came on to take part in the review. Other female engineers at Uber have responded to Kalanicks addressing of the situation by noting that Uber as a company has a systemic problem with sexismembedded into its culture. Lets be real though, Uber isnt the only tech companythat mishandles sexual harassment claims. This is a larger issue within the tech community.

2.NASA discovered seven Earthlike planets outside of our solar system about 40 light-years away.These new planets all inhabit another solar system and orbit a star called TRAPPIST-1. So far, we know that theplanets have awarm climateand rocky terrain, promising signs forwater and therefore life.

3.In addition to a sexual harassment claim, Uber is facing a lawsuit from Waymo, the Google-owned self-driving tech company. Waymo has filed suit against the Uber-owned self-driving trucking company Otto, on the accusation thatUber misappropriated trade secrets, and infringed upon its patents.

4.Apples new campus now has a name and an opening date. Apple Park will open in Cupertino in April of this year and provide work space for 12,000 Apple employees.In addition to the new office space, Apple Park is also going to have a big theater with a thousand seats called the Steve Jobs Theater.

5.Getting hacked is costly. After the disclosure of two massive data breaches, Yahoo and Verizon finally confirmednew terms forthe sale of Yahoo to Verizon. Verizon will pay $350 million less than originally planned, knocking the price down to$4.48 billion to acquire Yahoo.

6.After a first failed attempt due to a GPS error, SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft successfully docked at the International Space Station. The supply shipis filled with 5,500 pounds of supplies and materials for the crew of the ISS.

7.Content delivery networkCloudflare revealed a serious bug in its software that caused sensitive data like passwords, cookies, authentication tokens to spill in plaintext from its customers websites. The announcement is a major blow for the company, which offers enhanced security and performance for more than 5 million sites. The leak could have allowed anyone to collect a variety of typically encrypted personal information.

8.Facebook is closing in on Snapchat from all sides. Facebook-owned WhatsApp launched Status, an encrypted Snapchat Stories clone. The new tab lets you share decorated photos, videos and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours.

9.Snap wants to prove to investors pre-IPO that Spectacles were more than a branding stunt and could actually make money for the newly proclaimed camera company. Snap began selling its video-recording Spectacles sunglasses online for $130 in the U.S. at Spectacles.com. Prior to the online launch, you could only get Spectacles from pop-up Snapbot vending machine dispensers and its NYC store.

10.Airbnb finalized thedeal to buy social payments startup Tilt. Airbnb, which has a valuation of $30 billion, has been on a sort of buying spree as of late.

11.Last month,Atlassian bought Trello for $424 million the companysbiggest acquisition yet. Now, more details have emerged, and it looks like the whole acquisition went pretty smoothly.

12,Mark Zuckerberg released a 5,000 word product road map for Facebook last week, in which he outlined the companys humanitarian efforts. Another chunk of the piece was an ask to users to define content guidelines for what theyfeel is offensive or not. However the question may bewhether or not any additional data Facebook gathers from users witha content threshold setting will becomeanother way for Facebook to receivemore data tohelp it target ads.

13.Instagram wants you to share more photos in your feed.Instagram launched the ability to share a mix of up to 10 photos or videos as a single carousel post that friends can swipe through, kind of like an Instagram album.

Read the original post:

Weekly Roundup: Uber responds to sexual harassment claim, NASA discovers Earth-like planets - TechCrunch

Is a hot dog a sandwich? Its one of the internets greatest debates. Stalwarts of both sides have been arguing for years about whether tube meat in a bun is indeed a sandwich, but what we all failed to realize is that NASA settled this back in 1970 during the Apollo 13 mission.

This back-and-forth commentary from April of 1970 is being discussed on Reddit, but few are realizing the huge ramifications of a simple lunch in space. On a week NASA unveiled the discovery of seven earth-like planets, this might be the greatest revelation of all.

It should be mentioned that this conversation is absolutely, 100 percent real. It can be found on page 115 of a 930 page transcript held in NASAs archives. It clearly, and in no uncertain terms, shows one of the crew telling ground control in Houston he enjoyed a hot dog sandwich.

We absolutely must accept this to be an objective reality. I personally never believed a hot dog to be a sandwich, but none of us can be so fastened to our beliefs that we refuse to budge when someone clearly more intelligent than us shatters our reality.

NASA astronauts are some of the smartest people on the face of the earth. They understand engineering, astrophysics science the likes of which mortal humans rarely dabble. If they say a hot dog is a sandwich, then darn it a hot dog is a sandwich.

Those in the not sandwich camp will continue to cling to the 2015 ruling by the National Hot Dog and Sausage council that a hot dog is categorically NOT a sandwich, but trying to hold that argument up against a freaking astronaut is a fools folly.

There are moments in this life where we must all accept our reality has been torn asunder. This is one of those moments. Kudos to the believers in the definitely a sandwich camp, because you were right. The rest of us have been proven false prophets.

NASA, thank you for keeping this historical record, but you really could have saved the internet a lot of time by settling this years ago.

The rest is here:

NASA transcripts confirm a hot dog is indeed a sandwich - SB Nation

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, COLORADO SPRINGS

In dry northern regions, the melting from winter snowpack is crucial for filling reservoirs, irrigating crops and providing drinking water. In northern Colorado, communities get 80 percent of their water from snowpack, so knowing the water content of snow helps them plan ahead.

But, unlike other weather data about rainfall and storms - gathered from orbiting satellites - the dazzling, reflective nature of snow makes it hard to measure the depth of a snowpack from space. In fact, NASA weather scientists report that currently, worldwide estimates of the water stored in snow may be off by 30 to 50 percent. So NASA is launching an ambitious project to create a new snow satellite.

Ground measurements

The traditional way to measure snow depth and water content involves shovels. U.S. Forest Service scientist Frank McCormick says researchers tromp through the snow to selected areas, then do some serious digging.

To measure snowpacks, researchers dig snowpits down to bare ground.

Theyll dig a snow pit down to bare ground so that they can take very detailed measurements everything from temperature to water thats in the snow," he said.

Mountain snowpack can be so heavy, snow pits can be more than five meters deep. After theyre completed, scientists take careful measurements that accurately reveal that locations snowpack levels and water content.

But on a global scale, McCormick says, digging snow pits isnt practical, noting, We would need thousands upon thousands upon thousands of sites throughout the world.

Measurements from space

Thats why NASA launched SnowEx, a five-year project to design a satellite that will accurately measure snowpack while orbiting the earth. This means the satellite will someday measure snowpack everywhere.

When deployed, the SnowEx satellite will be able to measure snowpack depth and water content, even through trees.

SnowEx Project Leader Edward Kim says knowing snowpacks water content, when its likely to melt and so on, could help over a billion people. [For] one out of every six people in the world," he points out, "the majority of their water, that they use for drinking and agriculture and industry, comes from snow.

To design the satellite, 100 SnowEx scientists are teaming up to figure out the best ways to remotely measure snowpacks depth, its water content, how surface dust and temperature affect snow, and more. As a first step, theyre putting snow sensors above the earth though not as high as a satellite, yet.

At busy, noisy Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Kim points over his shoulder at a big propeller plane. The plane has an unusual bumpy nose and pointy tale. He says that's because the plane is equipped for measuring snow.

The airplanes carry the sensors of the same type that would eventually be on a satellite, he said.

Inside the plane, half a dozen scientists are fine-tuning 10 kinds of weather sensors, including microwave and laser. They stay on board, monitoring their instruments, as pilots fly over pre-selected snowy mountains, and high, snowy mesas. Theyre seeking accurate snow measurements, even when craggy peaks mean snow is at different levels in the peaks and the valleys. Even when trees and forests hide the snow.

Get the data

To fine-tune their airborne measurements, the SnowEx team will compare them with traditional snow pit data. SnowEx scientist Charles Gatabe says fitting it all together will require complex calculations, but at its hearts, the goal is simple: Get the data, look at the data, and say what the data is telling us.

Researchers currently gather snow data the old-fashioned way - in the field.

Theres so many people dependent on snow, he stresses, adding, and given this changing climate, who knows what happens? So if we can get a very good handle how to predict, you know, the changing snow, and the changing climate, I think its going to benefit a lot of people.

NASAs SnowEx team plans to use this data from this five-year project to make better predictions about snowpack around the world, including someday through a snow satellite. And they share their data in open access, to help people around the world, wherever there is snow.

See more here:

NASA Plans for Space-Based Observation of Snowpack - Voice of America

NASA is wind tunnel testing its revolutionary new supersonic passenger jet dubbed 'the new Concorde.'

The US space agency is working with Lockheed Martin to develop the project, officially titled, Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST).

This week developers reportedly began testing a scale model of the design in a wind tunnel.

NASA aims to create a low boom quiet jet that can break the sound barrier, potentially revolutionising air travel and allowing passengers to cross the Atlantic in half the time it takes a conventional aircraft.

Administrator Charles Bolden says the project is the first in a series of X-planes (experimental aircraft) in NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative.

NASA is working hard to make flight greener, safer and quieter all while developing aircraft that travel faster, and building an aviation system that operates more efficiently, said Bolden.

Read more: NASA admits there's 'a chance' that asteroid COULD smash into Earth

To that end, its worth noting that it's been almost 70 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 as part of our predecessor agency's high speed research.

"Now were continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter supersonic jet with an aim toward passenger flight."

They aim to build an aircraft that can fly at supersonic speeds, but create a supersonic "heartbeat" - a soft thump rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with supersonic flight.

Video Unavailable

Click to play Tap to play

Play now

Watch this video again

Video will play in

Developing, building and flight testing a quiet supersonic X-plane is the next logical step in our path to enabling the industry's decision to open supersonic travel for the flying public," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASAs Aeronautics Research Mission.

Lockheed Martin will receive about $20 million over 17 months for QueSST preliminary design work.

The New Aviation Horizons X-planes will typically be about half-scale of a production aircraft.

NASA hopes the prototype will fly by 2020, depending on funding.

Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years until it was retired in 2003. The plane could reach Mach 2 and cross the Atlantic in three and a half hours.

Continued here:

NASA wind tests 'the new Concorde' as space agency aims to launch revolutionary supersonic passenger jet in 2020 - Mirror.co.uk

With renewable energy on the rise, it makes perfect sense for the title "world's largest solar plant" to change hands pretty quickly. In 2014 for example, the 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm held the title, to be toppled in November by a 648 MW plant in Kamuthi India. At this point in time, China's Dam Solar Park has risen above them all with 850 MW of capacity. Sound like a lot? Here's some NASA satellite imagery to help put things into perspective.

The images were taken by NASA's Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8, the satellite behind Google Earth's new high-res imagery that launched in 2013. This satellite is capable of snapping images in greater detail, truer colors and at almost double the rate of its predecessor, Landsat 7.

NASA has released two images of Dam Solar Park in China's Qinghai province, one taken in April 2013 and the other on January 5 of this year, that show the rapid expansion of the farm over the four years in between. When the second photo was snapped, the plant covered 27 km sq (10 sq mi) and consisted of almost four million solar panels (the Kamuthi plant has 2.5 million).

China is leading from the front so far as solar power is concerned. Its total installed capacity doubled to 77 GW in 2016, surpassing Germany, the US and Japan to become the world's largest producer of solar power. This followed a big jump in 2015, where its installed solar capacity went from 15 GW to 43 GW. The comparison of these two photos below offers a useful perspective on what this kind of approach to solar power looks like when put into action.

Dam Solar Park as seen from space on in April 2013(Credit: NASA)

View post:

NASA snaps pics of the world's largest solar farm from space - New Atlas

New York Times

NASA, Mosul, Kim Jong-nam: Your Thursday Briefing New York Times The seven planets orbiting a dwarf star named Trappist-1, alongside the rocky planets in our Solar System. Some of the new planets could have water on their surfaces. Credit European Southern Observatory. (Want to get this briefing by email? Here's the ...

Read this article:

NASA, Mosul, Kim Jong-nam: Your Thursday Briefing - New York Times