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NASA Releases Images Of A New Mid-Level Solar Flare

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October 4, 2014

Karen C. Fox, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 3:01 p.m. EDT on Oct. 2, 2014. NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun 24-hours a day, captured images of the flare. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earths atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however when intense enough they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

[ Watch the Video: Twisting Solar Eruption And Flare ]

To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. governments official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an M7.3 flare. M-class flares are one-tenth as powerful as the most powerful flares, which are designated X-class flares.

Updates will be provided as needed.

What is a solar flare?

For answers to this and other space weather questions, please visit the Spaceweather Frequently Asked Questions page.

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NASA Releases Images Of A New Mid-Level Solar Flare

SpaceShipOnes Dubious Birthday

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TIME Science anniversary SpaceShipOnes Dubious Birthday Going somewhere? The start of SpaceShipOne's maybe-historic flight in 2004 HECTOR MATA; AFP/Getty Images A decade ago the first private spacecraft crossed the boundary of space and big promises followed. But there've been big disappointments too.

Whats the last thing you want to do when you achieve something great? Easy: dont promise more greatness to come. Its fine to hoist a Super Bowl trophy, but thats not the time to predict a threepeat over the next couple years. Ditto the first-time Oscar winner who goes public about buying a new mantlepiece for all the statuettes to come; ditto too the one-hit wonder whos already boasting about one day joining the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Thats just the hubris that afflicted Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and the other folks behind SpaceShipOne a decade ago when their little rocket plane won the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, beating 25 other teams from 10 nations competing to be the first private group to pull off a piloted suborbital space flight twice within two weeks. After that mission was accomplished, Rutan, the ships designer, publicly predicted that the big aerospace players like Boeing would realize they had just lost out in the most promising new market of all: space tourism. I think theyre looking at each other now and saying, Were screwed,' he averred.

Almost immediately, he and Allenthe co-founder of Microsoftlicensed the SpaceShipOne technology to Virgin Atlantics Sir Richard Branson, who predicted a five-ship fleet with a five-person capacity on each vehicle within three years. So hows all that working out?

SpaceShipOne, for all of the understandable applause its gutsy mission earned, was always overhyped. The ship was required to achieve an altitude of at least 100 km (62.5 mi.)which it beat slightlythen arc over in three minutes of weightless flight and return safely to earth. Nifty stuff, but its also something the U.S. accomplished with the flight of Alan Shepard as long ago as 1961, and the old Soviet Union didnt even bother with since they were capable of achieving orbitwhere you can get some real flying done.

The scientific applications for SpaceShipOne are limited too. Yes, there are some basic experiments that can be run during the brief cosmic toe-dip of a suborbital flight, involving testing hardware in space conditions, studying the behavior of fluids and other substances, and making brief atmospheric measurements. But if popgun missions like that could do the really substantive stuff, we wouldnt have built a massive orbiting lab like the International Space Station (ISS).

Instead, the promise has always been space tourismoffering paying passengers the chance to experience space and, after a fashion, call themselves astronauts. There are now up to 20 companies around the world competing in this new gameincluding big names like Jeff Bezos Blue Origin and Bransons Virgin Galacticbut none have flown so much as a single paying customer.

Bransons Virgin Galactic is the closest to delivering. His SpaceShipTwo is the direct descendant of the original Rutan-Allen ship, and he has signed up a long list of potential passengers who have all put down deposits toward their $200,000 fare. Last year, TIME attended something of a pep rally at the outfits Mojave Desert headquarters, during which hundreds of those passengers-on-standby gathered, mingled, ate high-end finger food and cheered speeches and videos hyping the ride to come. But a promised test flight of the ship was scrubbed due to high winds and that days much-repeated pledge that the spacecrafts maiden space trip would occur before the end of the year has slippedas it has so many times beforethis time to what Branson describes only as earlyish in the new year. As recently as August, he said hed be bitterly disappointed if he didnt make his before-2015 deadline.

None of this is to say that space tourism is doomed, but it is to say that the thinking behind it has always been flawed. The Ansari XPrize was modeled after the 1919 Orteig Prize, which offered $25,000 (the equivalent of $344,000 in 2014) to the first person who could fly nonstop from New York to Paris. Charles Lindbergh won that one in 1927 and before long, his historic trip became one anybody could make. But air travel is not space travelan exponentially harder, riskier and costlier proposition. SpaceShipOnedespite the decade-old hooplawas never the achievement of a dream, it was merely the beginning of one. Its true fulfillment is still many years away.

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SpaceShipOnes Dubious Birthday

Image: Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatories undergo spin tests

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11 hours ago Credit: NASA

The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, Observatory #4, is undergoing spin testing on the Miller Table for Mass Properties at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Engineers use this machine to determine the spacecraft's center of gravity, adding counter balances as needed to ensure it spins correctly in orbit. All four of the MMS observatories undergo this testing prior to launch.

Explore further: NASA's MMS observatories stacked for testing

(Phys.org) Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., accomplished another first. Using a large overhead crane, they mated two Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, observatories ...

On May 20, 2013, the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., reached an unprecedented milestone. The team mated the instrument and spacecraft ...

NASA's upcoming Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is comprised of a quartet of identically instrumented observatories aimed at providing the first three-dimensional views of a fundamental process in ...

(Phys.org) -- The decks have arrived. Engineers working on NASA'S Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission have started integrating instruments on the first of four instrument decks in a newly fabricated cleanroom ...

(Phys.org)On August 31, 2012 , NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission proved it was ready for its next steps by passing what's called a Systems Integration Review (SIR), which deems a mission ready ...

First thing every morning, the engineering team for NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission gathers for a 10-minute meeting. A white board sits at the front of the room with the day's assignments who ...

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Image: Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatories undergo spin tests

The Latest in Luxury – Richard Branson’s First Space Flight – Video

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The Latest in Luxury - Richard Branson #39;s First Space Flight
This week on the Latest in Luxury, space enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that Richard Branson #39;s commercial space fights may launch off sooner than expected. The Racing School launches...

By: EliteTravelerTV

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The Latest in Luxury - Richard Branson's First Space Flight - Video

My view: Space education success on Mars

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ATK conducts avionics testing of NASAs Space Launch System flight simulation in Clearfield Thursday, April 3, 2014. The Space Launch System is NASAs new vehicle that is being built to take astronauts into deep space, including Mars.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Enlarge photo

Mars has two new alien visitors. MAVEN, the latest United States space vehicle to reach the planet, entered planned orbit on Sept. 21.

Mangalyaan, Indias first Mars mission, reached the Red Planets atmosphere Sept. 25. This is the first initial Mars mission of any nation to succeed. Both spacecraft will collect data while in orbit.

The U.S. rover Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 4, 2004, after a complex journey of 300 million miles, ending with a perfect touchdown. Partner rover Opportunity came down on the other side of the planet 21 days later.

The two vehicles were expected to survive for approximately 90 days, but instead travelled and transmitted for years. In 2009, Spirit became stuck in soft soil but continued communicating until 2010.

After a year of operation, Opportunity temporarily stalled, its wheels buried in a sand dune. However, engineers on Earth 100 million miles away were able to get the vehicle out. Opportunity remains active, transmitting information back to Earth

In May 2008, after a journey of 10 months and 422 million miles, the Phoenix Lander arrived safely on Mars, as speed of 12,000 miles per hour was slowed to 5 mph before a soft landing. The laboratory Curiosity followed, arriving in August 2012.

Those involved including the University of Arizona, the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) achieved a tremendous triumph. Americans in general should take pride in the accomplishments.

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My view: Space education success on Mars

Renowned Space and Earth Explorer Scott Parazynski Joins ASU Faculty

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Arizona State University's first designated University Explorer, Scott Parazynski, has scaled Everest, orbited the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour and invented devices for surgery, spacewalking and the consumer market.

Parazynski joins the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as a professor of practice on Oct. 1. He comes to ASU from the University of Texas Medical Branch's Center for Polar Medical Operations, where he was director and chief medical officer. There, he oversaw health care and medical screening for the National Science Foundation's U.S. Antarctic Program, both on-the-ice care and medical screenings, including telemedicine.

"Dr. Parazynski is remarkable, as a physical explorer and former astronaut, and as an entrepreneur who navigates many different areas of endeavor," said ASU President Michael M. Crow. "His experience and perspective can inform ASU's space initiatives, help pioneer our high performance medicine partnerships with the Mayo Clinic and build bridges in the areas of bioengineering, earth and space sciences."

Parazynski holds a doctor of medicine with deep expertise in the fields of space physiology, aviation, biotechnology and human adaptation to extreme environments. He says that while he wanted to help people, he also looked to the stars from an early age.

"My father worked on Apollo, and it was always a dream of mine to go to space," said Parazynski. "However, it only became tangible when I began my medical training at Stanford Medical School. It was there that I realized, with NASA's Ames Research Center just down the street, I could craft a career that combined my two life-long career aspirations: to be an explorer and physician."

Over the course of 16 years, Parazynski was a mission specialist, physician, flight engineer and one of NASA's most experienced spacewalkers. He flew on five Space Shuttle missions, including STS 66/Atlantis, STS 86/Atlantis to the Russian Space Station Mir, STS 95/Discovery and STS 100/Endeavour to the International Space Station. On his last mission, STS 120/Discovery, he led the unplanned repair of a live solar array, a $1 billion national asset that required new tools and technical development in less than 72 hours.

Parazynski is the recipient of two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, five NASA Space Flight Medals, the Randolph C. Lovelace Award from the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons, the Aviation Week Laureate Award and Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorer's Club for his contributions.

Parazynski believes that his greatest skill set is creative problem-solving. As a technology innovator, he hopes to engage ASU students in clinical and laboratory environments, and develop research and technology programs to support human health in challenging environments. As a scientist, his unique perspectives can support ASU's NASA and commercial space endeavors. And as an inventor, he believes that building multidisciplinary teams offers the power to navigate uncharted territories and engineer new approaches, from the challenges of deep space exploration to rural telemedicine, commercialization of inventions and STEM education.

"Young people are excited by the allure of invention, but often don't understand the difficulties of taking an idea into the marketplace. Math and the sciences are the core languages of the future, even if pursuing careers outside of science," said Parazynski, who received an R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine for one of the top innovations in 2010. "Bringing together multidisciplinary teams, including engineering, scientific, legal, financial, marketing and other expertise, is often the missing link. Many new businesses fail because they get too enamored of their idea without thinking through all the other steps.

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Renowned Space and Earth Explorer Scott Parazynski Joins ASU Faculty

ASRC Federal Space and Defense Selected for NASA Wallops Engineering Contract

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Beltsville, MD, Sept. 30, 2014 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has selected ASRC Federal Space and Defense for the Wallops Engineering Services Contract. The five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a maximum value of approximately $45 million. ASRC Federal Space and Defense will provide a wide range of engineering and technical support services for NASAs Wallops Flight Facility, located on Virginias eastern shore.

Were excited and honored to get this new opportunity to support the Wallops Flight Facility, one of NASAs most dynamic and rapidly developing facilities, said Mark Gray, ASRC Federal president and CEO. Our team is well-suited to provide engineering expertise that will support NASA Wallops extensive array of launch and scientific research operations.

Programs supported under WESC include sounding rockets, research balloons, unmanned aerial systems and satellite launches. Support includes systems, electrical, mechanical and software engineering; technology development; guidance, navigation and control systems; metrology; and project management.

About ASRC Federal

ASRC Federal comprises a family of companies that deliver engineering, information technology, logistics and technical services and solutions to U.S. civil and defense agencies. ASRC Federal companies have employees in over 40 locations across the U.S. focused on providing reliable, cost-efficient services that help government customers achieve mission success. Headquartered in Beltsville, Md., ASRC Federal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. For more information, please visit:www.asrcfederal.com

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ASRC Federal Space and Defense Selected for NASA Wallops Engineering Contract

Model Shows Extreme Solar Eruption Hitting Earth | Space Video – Video

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Model Shows Extreme Solar Eruption Hitting Earth | Space Video
More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center, routinely runs computer models of many...

By: CoconutScienceLab

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Model Shows Extreme Solar Eruption Hitting Earth | Space Video - Video

Space Exploration, Robin Thicke: Intellectual Property

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Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is challenging a patent on which Amazon.com Inc.s Jeffrey P. Bezos is the lead inventor.

At issue is patent 8,678,321, which was issued March 25. It covers the sea landing of space launch vehicles and is aimed at re-using rocket elements, instead of discarding them during flight as is usually done.

According to the patent, a structure would be positioned in a body of water and the space launch vehicle would return to earth, landing tail-first on the structure. Re-using launch vehicles would make space travel cheaper.

The patent was issued to Blue Origin LLC of Kent, Washington, a company established by Bezos.

Space Exploration, of Hawthorne, California, said in its filing with the patent office that the technology in the patent is obvious and not new, making it ineligible for patent protection. The California company asked the office to take a second look at specific claims of the patent that it says are invalid.

Startups in Australia Seek Adoption of Patent Box Tax Scheme

Startup companies in Australia are advocating the adoption of a policy similar to the U.K.s patent box incentive, which lowers the tax rate on profit derived from patented products, Australias Financial Review reported.

Australias Treasurer Joe Hockey has criticized the proposal, saying it could tear apart the collective tax base for individual advantage, according to the Financial Review.

For more patent news, click here.

Gonzaga University, a small liberal arts college in Spokane, Washington, prevailed in a trademark suit against the operators of a radio station and the operators of a bar, the Downtown Spokane Daiquiri Factory.

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Space Exploration, Robin Thicke: Intellectual Property

Space debris expert warns of increasing CubeSat collision risk

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2 hours ago by Glenn Harris

The increasing number of small 'CubeSat' satellites being launched combined with a relaxed attitude to debris mitigation could lead to hazards for all space users unless preventative measures are taken, warns a leading space debris expert from the University of Southampton.

Speaking today at the 65th International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, Dr Hugh Lewis said that this combination leads to a growth in space debris, as a result of collisions between CubeSats and other objects in orbit.

CubeSats are small satellites (around 10x10x10cm) that are providing opportunities for companies to break into the space data and communications industries. Despite many CubeSats not having any manoeuvring capability so they cannot avoid collisions during the mission or manoeuvre to a disposal orbit at their mission end, they are still perceived to have a low impact on the space debris environment.

However, despite guidelines requiring the satellites to deorbit within 25 years, some are being launched into high Earth orbits, which means their orbital lifetime could be much greater.

More than a third of all CubeSats launched to-date (around 160 between 2003 and 2013) are predicted to remain on-orbit for more than 25 years. Since 2005, CubeSats have been involved in more than 360,000 close approaches of less than 5 km with other orbiting objects.

Dr Lewis says: "To reduce the risks, some effort is needed to engage with the growing small satellite community. All space users, not just those in the CubeSat community, who are taking the right steps should be encouraged to continue and, ultimately, lead on sustainable practices and debris mitigation activities.

"Those who are not yet engaged with this approach should be encouraged to do so. It's probably a matter of changing their perceptions of the risks and helping them to understand that there is a collective responsibility to ensure that outer space activities are sustainable so that future generations have the same opportunities to use space as we do."

Dr Lewis and his team used their Debris Analysis and Monitoring Architecture to the Geosynchronous Environment (DAMAGE) model to simulate three future CubeSat launch traffic scenarios until the year 2043. By comparing these with close approach data from 2005 to 2013, the team found CubeSats are estimated to be involved in millions of close approaches over the next 30 years, with a handful leading to a collision.

Analysis of the close approaches found that most of the collision risk from CubeSats comes from high-speed encounters with large spacecraft. In addition, many of these encounters were in Sun-synchronous orbits that are popular with remote sensing and Earth science satellites.

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Space debris expert warns of increasing CubeSat collision risk

NASA's Releases Images Of A Mid-Level Solar Flare

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September 29, 2014

Image Credit: NASA/SDO

Karen C. Fox, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 10:58 p.m. EDT on Sept. 27, 2014, and NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation from the sun. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earths atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however when intense enough they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event may have affected Earth, please visit NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. governments official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an M5.1 flare. M-class flares are one-tenth as powerful as the most powerful flares, designated X-class flares.

Further updates will be provided as needed.

What is a solar flare?

For answers to this and other space weather questions, please visit the Spaceweather Frequently Asked Questions page.

Related Link

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NASA's Releases Images Of A Mid-Level Solar Flare

'The ticket changed my destiny'

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Tong Jingjing's decision to reserve a seat on a spacecraft has propelled her life to new heights.

Tong Jingjing hasn't yet taken the private space flight she has booked but says her experiences since buying the ticket have already been out of this world.

The banker from Beijing says she has been surprised her planned trip (almost) to the stars has made her a star, and new opportunities have taken off before her spaceship.

"The ticket has changed my destiny," says the 41-year-old banker from Beijing. "Agents have been chasing me, offering to turn me into a celebrity. Many companies have invited me to become their spokeswoman."

Tong is among 32 Chinese who have booked flights aboard XCOR Aeronautics' flight on the Lynx II craft scheduled to start ushering tourists into space between 2015 and 2016. She'll pay about US$100,000 (S$127,726) to travel 103 km from Earth.

Tong is excited to see how viewing the planet from afar will change how she looks at it after she returns.

"So many things have happened since I bought the ticket in July that make me think life is so wonderful," she says.

A 3-D printing company asked her to test its model in zero gravity. A bank has invited her to be a spokeswoman for its credit card. And a cosmetics company offered her 2 million yuan (S$415,300) to promote their products, she says.

"They thought I look much younger than my age when they saw my photo in media reports," Tong says.

The BBC will document her life before the flight, she says. "If I don't make it back to Earth, that will be a precious record for my family."

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'The ticket changed my destiny'


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