Southern Oregon astronomers taking NASA telescope flight

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MEDFORD, Ore. A projected map cuts through the semidarkness of North Medford High Schools planetarium and shimmers into focus on the domes curved ceiling.

Its a flight path, showing planned liftoffs from Palmdale, Calif., on Wednesday and Thursday and a soaring route over Oregon, Washington, parts of Canada, Iowa and Idaho before a return to base; two 10-hour jaunts with no planned landings.

Sunset to sunrise, well fly all night, says Robert Black, North Medfords astronomy teacher and planetarium director.

What hes describing is no typical airplane flight. Black, 50, along with friend and fellow amateur astronomer Dave Bloomsness, 61, of Southern Oregon Skywatchers, will fly aboard SOFIA NASAs Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy the worlds largest flying telescope. They are among 24 educators selected from across the country for SOFIAs Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program.

Working alongside astronomers and other scientists, they will help collect infrared images and data pertaining to the study of interstellar gases, star formation and destruction, and black holes all at 45,000 feet in the Earths stratosphere, about twice the altitude of a domestic airliner flight. When they return, they will implement classroom lessons and public-outreach events based on their experiences.

Its a huge opportunity. Im really excited, Bloomsness says.

Educators have been taking similar flights since the Ambassadors program began in 2010.

Black says his mentor, Gary Sprague, took a flight in the 1980s aboard the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, a modified C141A military-cargo plane that ran research and observation flights from 1975 until its retirement in the 1990s. SOFIA took over in 2010.

Thats one of the high points of his career, Black says of Spragues flight. He volunteered to fly; somebody got sick. It was an accident for him, serendipity.

The opportunity for Black and Bloomsness didnt come by lucky accident. It took a meticulous application process, combined with weeks of advanced astronomy study.

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Southern Oregon astronomers taking NASA telescope flight

Carnival of Space #351

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Carnival of Space. Image by Jason Major.

Welcome, come in to the 351st Carnival of Space! The carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers, who submit their best work each week for your benefit. Im Susie Murph, part of the team at Universe Today and now, on to this weeks stories!

Leading off the big news this week, CosmoQuest kicked off a 36-day fundraiser with a 36-hour Hangoutathon this weekend! You can go over there to find links to the schedule and the videos on YouTube, and you can still donate to help DO SCIENCE!

And if youre wondering about what kind of science they do, in the first of what will be a series, Nicole Gugliucci explains the first peer-reviewed science paper to come from CosmoQuest citizen science. Why do we count craters, anyway?

Another worthy organization is discussed in Jason Majors article over at Universe Today. A penny for NASA this is the goal of Penny4NASA.org, an outreach group that strives to increase the funding if just by a little of the worlds most accomplished, inspirational, and powerful space exploration administration. (Before you know, it isnt.)

Then we go over to Brian Wangs Next Big Future blog, where he give us the scoop on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosters successful return to Earth, where it deployed its landing legs, and hovered for a moment. The ability, known as a soft landing, could allow the company to dramatically reduce the cost of spaceflight and one day land rockets on Mars. Then Brian covers SpaceXs intentions to use the Spacex Heavy lift vehicle and the Spiderfab robotic assembly machine to create structures in orbit cheaper and easier, such as space-based mirror farms to collect solar energy.

Next, we go over to Vega00.com where, until now, the orbital stability of the two nearest planets to 55 Cancri has been a mystery. Now, a new computational simulation shows that this is possible. (This article is written in Spanish.)

Then, Zain Husain over at BrownSpaceMan.com explains What are white holes? Its just a theory for now and possibly all it will ever be however, why is that? Here we take a look at the definition of a white hole and what we understand about them.

Next, over at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory blog, they explain how professional and amateur astronomers can join forces to study the skies, since amateurs have one resource that professionals often lack time to focus on one research project in depth.

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Carnival of Space #351

Southern Oregon astronomers taking NASA flight

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MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A projected map cuts through the semidarkness of North Medford High Schools planetarium and shimmers into focus on the domes curved ceiling.

Its a flight path, showing planned liftoffs from Palmdale, Calif., on Wednesday and Thursday that will soar over Oregon, Washington, parts of Canada, Iowa and Idaho before returning to base; two 10-hour jaunts with no planned landings.

Sunset to sunrise, well fly all night, says Robert Black, North Medfords astronomy teacher and planetarium director.

But the route isnt for a typical airplane flight, the kind with a cramped seat and a bag of stale crackers.

Black, 50, along with friend and fellow amateur astronomer Dave Bloomsness, 61, of Southern Oregon Skywatchers, will fly aboard SOFIA - NASAs Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy - the worlds largest flying telescope. They are among 24 educators who were selected from across the country for SOFIAs Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program.

Working alongside astronomers and other scientists, they will collect infrared images and data pertaining to the study of interstellar gases, star formation and destruction, and black holes - all at 45,000 feet in the Earths stratosphere, about twice the height for a domestic plane flight. When they return, they will implement classroom lessons and public outreach events based on their experiences.

Its a huge opportunity. Im really excited, Bloomsness says.

Educators have been taking similar flights since the Ambassadors program began in 2010.

Black says his mentor, Gary Sprague, took a flight in the 1980s aboard the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, a modified C141A military cargo plane that ran research and observation flights from 1975 until its retirement in the 1990s. SOFIA took over in 2010.

Thats one of the high points of his career, Black says of Spragues flight. He volunteered to fly. Somebody got sick. It was an accident for him, serendipity.

The rest is here:

Southern Oregon astronomers taking NASA flight

New All-electric Tube Bender Extends Shape-forming Capabilities of Aerospace Manufacture

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Madera, CA, Theaerospace tubular parts manufacturer SL Engineering is continuing its investment in advanced automation with the acquisition of a second all-electric CNC tube bending machine from Unison.

The new machine enhances SL Engineering's manufacturing capabilities, especially its ability to produce more complex tubular shapes. It also extends the size range of tubing that can be bent using all-electric servomotor-controlled movement - to tube and pipe diameters up to 80 mm.

"Engine and aircraft manufacturers are taking advantage of the advanced shape forming capability of state-of-the-art tube bending machines by specifying more complex shapes and highly challenging tighter-radius bends - to save weight and space and eliminate welded joints," says Shaun Stevenson of SL Engineering. "The sophisticated bending capability of Unison machines, which allow greater control over tube clamp and carriage push forces, helps us to achieve these new levels of precision. If we did the same jobs on our old hydraulic machines we would be much more reliant on highly skilled operators to both set up the machines, and make the parts with additional weld joints, and hence additional cost."

SL Engineering (SLE) is one of Europe's leading Tier 1 suppliers of rigid tube assemblies and precision machined parts for aerospace applications, and supplies components to major engine and airframe programs from commercial Airbus and Boeing aircraft to leading military programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Although the aerospace sector accounts for a large proportion of turnover, SLE also provides parts for industrial gas turbines, marine propulsion, and other critical industry applications.

SLE's business today is characterised by a need for manufacturing flexibility. The average batch is around 5 to 25 parts, and orders can even be for just a single emergency 'aircraft-on-ground' part. Demand for greater precision and shape complexity is another major facet of its work. Until recently, few tubular parts required bends with radii of less than 2D (twice the tube diameter). Today, however SLE regularly receives requests for bends of 1D, and for shapes with minimal straight sections between bends. The use of thinner walled tubing, and expensive specialist materials such as titanium and Inconel are further trends.

These demands are behind the company's moves to all-electric tube bending technology. SLE installed its first such bending machine in 2010 - a 30 mm diameter Breeze from the UK manufacturer Unison. Much of SLE's work is on diameters of 30 mm or less, and most of its current work falls into the sub-50.8 mm range. The first all-electric machine has proved critical for SLE, allowing it to handle small batch set-ups much more efficiently and quickly - with zero or minimal scrap. As a result, the company channels most new work for smaller parts onto the 30mm all-electric machine, and transfers many older parts onto the machine by creating new bending programs as orders come in. After almost four years of operation, the 30 mm machine now produces a significant proportion of SLE's business. SLE typically has anywhere from 500 to 1,000 live jobs at any one time.

The latest machine that SLE has acquired, a Unison Breeze 80, now gives the company all-electric CNC tube bending options for tube diameters up to 80 mm. The machine also incorporates a multistack/multiradius tooling capability. This feature is a critical aspect of achieving some of the complex tubular part shapes and multiple bend sequences that are being specified on today's aerospace programs.

"We continue to see many challenging opportunities in the sector, but it does require significant capital investment," adds Stevenson. "The new Unison bender, along with further investments in 5-axis machining, has helped SLE take its manufacturing capability to a new level. We can meet the most complex tube assembly specifications that aerospace companies require today, and the combination of advanced machinery and our know-how gives us a platform to raise the bar even higher, and differentiate SLE from our competitors. Another service we offer to clients who are able to provide us with pre-release drawings, is evaluating manufacturability and advising on the potential for manufacturing and cost saving improvements before final drawing release."

As an example of the exacting specifications that SLE faces, one current part for a military fighter program calls for a shape with multiple 2D bends but minimal straight sections between bends, using thin wall titanium tubing. Tube ovality also has to be less than 5% after bending - as compared with an industry norm of 10% - and the part shape has a positional and length tolerance of just +/- 0.005 inches after bending and welding. As the part is made from titanium, bending must be right first time as adjustments after shape forming are almost impossible. The consistency and repeatability of the Unison machine is a critical enabler for fabricating this part, as well as other titanium tube parts that SLE currently makes.

Another aspect of the advantages of the Unison machine for a contractor such as SLE is the ease of programming. Tubes are often the last parts to be defined and designed - whether they are for an engine or airframe. Using its own bespoke macro-driven CATIA V5 closed-loop CAD/CAM facility, and Unison's three-dimensional simulator, SLE can create new CNC bending programs for the Unison machine very rapidly - providing ideal support for clients that are unable to supply tube/pipe details until the very late stages of projects.

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New All-electric Tube Bender Extends Shape-forming Capabilities of Aerospace Manufacture

USMLE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE PEARL: Quick overview of SLEEP architecture – Video

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USMLE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE PEARL: Quick overview of SLEEP architecture - Video