Space: The Big Picture | Bad Astronomy

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Magnificent: The Big Picture has a series of incredible pictures from the latest Soyuz and Shuttle missions to the International Space Station.

They are all amazing, but I think I like this one the best:

astro_soichi_cupola

I know, it’s not what you’d think I’d pick, is it? But it shows astronaut Soichi Noguchi in the station’s cupola, taking one of his astonishing photographs that he posts on Twitter. Looking at this picture of him, and thinking of his incredible photos, really brings home the fact that humans are in space right now, circling the Earth over your head.


Report Shows US Geothermal Power Growth

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From The Engineer - News:

The US geothermal power industry continued to grow in 2009, according to a new report by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). The April 2010 US Geothermal Power Production and Development Update showed 26 per cent growth in new projects under develo

Obama Aims Space Program at Mars

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From Discovery News - Top Stories:

President Barack Obama said Thursday he is aiming to send astronauts into Mars orbit in the mid-2030s as he sought to quell protests over his earlier space policies. "By 2025 we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to be

Charles Wilson Peale and the Birth of the American Museum, Coney Island Museum, Tonight!!!

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Tonight at Coney! The final lecture in the Congress for Curious People series; tomorrow the symposium--as detailed in this recent post--begins! Hope to see you there!

Charles Wilson Peale and the Birth of the American Museum
An Illustrated Presentation by Samuel Strong Dunlap, PhD, Descendant of Charles Wilson Peale
Date: Friday, April 16th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
Long time historian and editor of the Peale Family Papers Dr. Lillian B. Miller (now deceased) described Charles Willson Peale as a true renaissance man. Peale is perhaps best remembered today as the founder of America’s first cabinet-of-curiosity like museum–the Philadelphia Museum (later the Peale Museum)–which housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and archaeological specimens and can be viewed in the image above. Famously, Peale’s museum also pioneered the habitat group–or natural history diorama–an art form memorably perfected by such museums as the American Museum of Natural History and Chicago’s Field Museum in the early 20th Century.

In this illustrated lecture, we will learn about Peale the museologist, and examine how his museological work continuously overlap with his inventive, artistic, scientific, literary and exploratory interests. Peale was a friend or acquaintance with most of the military, scientific, diplomatic and foreign individuals who played significant roles in our revolutionary war and the early growth of our democracy.

To find out more about this event and the larger Congress of Curious Peoples--including nightly performances and the epic opening night party--click here. For more about the Congress for Curious People, click here. Click on image or click here to download a hi-res copy of the above broadside. For information about the Coney Island Museum--including address and directions--click here.

Image: The Artist in His Museum (self-portrait, 1822)

Is an iPicoprojector in Your Future?

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In a move that could sheld light on the future of MacBooks and other related devices, Apple has patented a new pico-projector that could be integrated into a wide array of Apple devices ranging from the iPhone and iPad to your Macbook. While the company's intended plans are unclear, Apple's designer

ResearchBlogCast on iTunes | Gene Expression

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resblogResearchBlogCast is now on iTunes. You can search for it under “ResearchBlogCast” in the iTunes store and subscribe, or, just subscribe via this web page. We’re talking about the DASH diet next. Feel free to suggest ideas if you have anything clever, or want to hear our opinions on a specific topic. Just not something weird like Calvinist soteriology where there’s no chance that any of us are going to be able to follow the lingo.

DG Efficiency

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WE have one 160 Kva cummins DG set running on Diesel . the average load on this DG is only 60 KVa, I have tried to calculate the per litre unit generation and which came out 1.9 unit per lts. I hear that on an average DG generate 3.5 units per lts. Pl. guide me

AC Generator AVR

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hi

im looking for ac generator voltage regulator 8 amps, i google it and found some types saying that its 15amps, but when i checked the manual, it says that it can handle only 6amps continuous current and 12amps for only 10 seconds.

my question is, what they mean when they say 15

President Outlines Exploration Goals, Promise

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Astronauts will soar spaceward in commercial spacecraft while NASA develops technology so humans can venture to Mars and out into the solar system, President Barack Obama told a space conference Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Laying out his plans, President Obama committed NASA to a series of development milestones he said would lead to new spacecraft for astronauts to ride to the International Space Station, a modified Orion capsule developed as an emergency return spacecraft, and a powerful new rocket. He also promised a host of new technologies that would protect space travelers from radiation and other unique hazards.

"Early in the next decade, a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit," the president said. "And by 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space. We’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it."

 The president spoke to 200 senior officials, space and industry leaders, and academic experts inside the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy in the same area that was used to process Apollo spacecraft for the missions to the moon in the 1960s and 70s.

Standing in front of one of the space shuttle main engines that launched former U.S. Senator and astronaut John Glenn into orbit, President Obama said, "It was from here that men and women, propelled by sheer nerve and talent, set about pushing the boundaries of humanity's reach.

"The question for us now is whether that was the beginning of something, or the end of something. I prefer to believe it was the beginning of something."

The president's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal increases NASA's budget by $6 billion throughout the next five years to fund the plans.

Noting "the sense that folks in Washington -- driven less by vision than by politics -- have for years neglected NASA’s mission and undermined the work of the professionals who fulfill it," the president said the budget increase changes that.

The president's address comes at a critical juncture for NASA because the space shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired after three more missions. The president said it will be quicker and less costly to let private companies develop new spacecraft for astronauts rather than continue with NASA's Constellation Program, which was deemed too expensive and behind schedule.

"Pursuing this new strategy will require that we revise the old strategy. In part, this is because the old strategy -- including the Constellation Program -- was not fulfilling its promise in many ways," the president said. "That’s not just my assessment; that’s also the assessment of a panel of respected non-partisan experts charged with looking at these issues closely."

President Obama's plan largely mirrors the "flexible path" option offered by a blue-ribbon panel established by the president last year to help decide the best map for future space exploration.

The outline does not do away with all the research and development from Constellation . Noting the success of the agency's development of the Orion crew capsule, Obama called on NASA to develop a version of that spacecraft so it can be launched without a crew to the International Space Station. It will be based there as an emergency craft for astronauts living on the orbiting laboratory.

The speech kicked off the Conference on the American Space Program for the 21st Century.

Norm Augustine, chairman of the blue-ribbon panel called the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, that evaluated Constellation and came up with the "flexible path" option, endorsed the presidential strategy as the conference got under way.

Saying NASA is largely "trapped" in low Earth orbit, Augustine said industry, with NASA's guidance, can do its part for the plan.

The president acknowledged the need to get the decision right.

"Now, the challenges facing our space program are different, and our imperatives for this program are different than in decades past," the president said. "But while the measure of our achievements has changed a great deal over the past fifty years, what we do -- or fail to do -- in seeking new frontiers is no less consequential for our future in space and here on Earth."

The plan, the president said, would free NASA's designers and engineers to develop spacecraft, large rockets and new technologies that can extend the frontier of human space exploration to asteroids and even Mars.

About $3.1 billion of the additional funding would go into research and development for a heavy-lift rocket. A design for a large booster would be chosen in 2015 with the goal of launching the spacecraft a few years later. The bigger rocket could be used to loft payloads too large for most boosters, including giant fuel depots that would be parked in distant orbits so spacecraft could refuel on their way to asteroids, the moons of Mars and eventually Mars itself.

In addition to more funding, President Obama said his initiative brings more jobs than previous schedules.

"My plan will add more than 2,500 jobs along the Space Coast in the next two years compared to the plan under the previous administration," he said. "I’m proposing a $40 million initiative led by a high-level team from the White House, NASA, and other agencies to develop a plan for regional economic growth and job creation. And I expect this plan to reach my desk by Aug. 15. It’s an effort that will help prepare this already skilled work force for new opportunities in the space industry and beyond."

Taken together, the space strategy proves America is poised for a future as bright as its remarkable past, the president said.

"Fifty years after the creation of NASA, our goal is no longer just a destination to reach," Obama said. "Our goal is the capacity for people to work and learn, and operate and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite. And in fulfilling this task, we will not only extend humanity’s reach in space -- we will strengthen America’s leadership here on Earth."

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JPL Instrument Sees Disruptive Iceland Volcanic Cloud

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Infrared AIRS image of Iceland volanic ash plume
Infrared AIRS image of Iceland volanic ash plume, shown in blue. › Full image and caption
For the second time this month, Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano (pronounced "Aya-fyatla-jo-kutl") erupted. The latest eruption, on Wed., April 14, spewed a cloud of ash into the atmosphere and is disrupting air travel in Northern Europe and around the world.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the volcano at 1:30 p.m. local time (13:29:24 UTC, or 6:29:24 a.m. PDT) on April 15, capturing this false-color infrared image, as well as a visible image of the ash plume. The images show the ash cloud (in blue) enveloping Iceland and moving eastward over the Shetland Islands and onward to Europe. The ash clouds appear to be at an altitude of 3,658 meters (12,000 feet).

NASA works with other agencies on using satellite observations to aid in the detection and monitoring of aviation hazards caused by volcanic ash. More information on this NASA program is at: http://science.larc.nasa.gov/asap/research-ash.html . The ingestion of ash particles from such clouds can result in engine failure for aircraft.

Because infrared radiation does not penetrate through clouds, AIRS infrared images show either the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with high, cold cloud tops. In cloud-free areas the AIRS instrument will receive the infrared radiation from the surface of the Earth, resulting in the warmest temperatures (orange/red).

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