Astronaut offers floating peek inside International Space Station – Video

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Astronaut offers floating peek inside International Space Station
A tour of the International Space Station reveals small personal touches like Russian Orthodox religious icons affixed to one wall. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). Subscribe: http://smarturl.it...

By: Reuters

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Astronaut offers floating peek inside International Space Station - Video

Weekly Space Hangout – November 7, 2014: Ship Updates & Solar System Formation – Video

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Weekly Space Hangout - November 7, 2014: Ship Updates Solar System Formation
Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain) Guests: Morgan Rehnberg (cosmicchatter.org / @cosmic_chatter) Brian Koberlein (@briankoberlein) Nicole Gugliucci (cosmoquest.org / @noisyastronomer) This Week #39;s...

By: Fraser Cain

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Weekly Space Hangout - November 7, 2014: Ship Updates & Solar System Formation - Video

Eanes experiment going to International Space Station

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Next year, one group of Eanes students will boldly go where no student in their school has gone before.

About 300 middle-schoolers in the school district are vying to send one groups science experiment to the International Space Station to assess the role gravity plays in a particular chemical or biological system. One small, contained experiment from Eanes is expected to have a spot on a U.S. commercial spacecraft trip in the spring.

By participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, the brainchild of a non-profit and a private company established in 2010 as privatized U.S. space exploration was gaining traction, the Eanes school district joins nine other Texas school districts and 99 districts in America and Canada that have participated in the program so far. The opportunity isnt free Eanes paid $21,500 for the program through district funds.

Eanes officials have launched a community fundraising campaign to participate in future flights. The Eanes fundraising campaign for the project will begin 5:30 p.m. Nov. 13, when students put their projects on display at Westlake High School. The event will also feature a mobile planetarium and a presentation from retired astronaut Marsha Ivins. Individuals or companies interested in supporting the Eanes program should contact Jerri LaMirand at jlamirand@eanesisd.net

While West Ridge Middle School eighth-grader Aubrey Ireland said she has done plenty of science experiments in school labs before, this project is the first time she really feels like a scientist.

In past science classes, theyve always told us about being scientists, but they never let us take charge ourselves, Ireland said. Its kind of like learning a language. You can never learn from a textbook like you can just doing it yourself.

She is part of a team of four girls designing an experiment that will test how fern spores grow when theyre weightless. Ireland, 13, said she loves that the work is hands-on when it comes to researching a project idea, designing the device that will go up, and writing the proposal. The students do all this work themselves.

Its a major undertaking that some found intimidating at first, Eanes students said. But as they researched the concept of weightlessness in space, brainstormed ideas, looked at the programs past experiments and reached out to professional scientists, their excitement grew.

Its a real opportunity to see the research side of science, said Hill Country Middle School teacher Elisabeth Flohr. Its one thing to do activities and labs and blow stuff up, and its another thing to do experiments.

When an unmanned spacecraft exploded in midair Oct. 29, some Eanes students took a personal interest in the news because other districts experiments with the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program were aboard, including students projects from San Antonio and outside Dallas. Hill Country teacher Woodroe Kisers students were asking a lot of questions in class about the rocket failure, Flohr said.

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Eanes experiment going to International Space Station

Cockeysville native returning from space Sunday night

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Cockeysville native Reid Wiseman has spent the past five months sharing awe-inspiring views of Earth from more than 200 miles above, but in a recent tweet, he said he's ready for the opposite view of the International Space Station, distant and zipping through the night sky.

He'll have the chance soon, as he's scheduled to return from the space station Sunday night. The NASA astronaut and two crew mates, a German astronaut and Russian cosmonaut, are expected to land in the steppe of central Kazakhstan about 11 p.m. Eastern Time.

But the station won't go long without a Marylander aboard Columbia native Terry Virts is scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan in two weeks, and he said he is looking forward to following in Wiseman's footsteps.

Wiseman's time in space included shoutouts to his alma mater, Dulaney High School, and to fellow Orioles fans. He gained more than 300,000 Twitter followers with frequent images of Earth from space he shared.

"I've got some big shoes to fill," Virts said in an interview from Russia. "I'll do my best to try and keep up with Reid. It'll be tough."

Wiseman launched to the space station May 28 after 21/2 years of preparation. Over the summer and fall, he and crew mates maintained the station and conducted science experiments.

He embarked on two space walks last month, spending more than 12 hours in a spacesuit tethered to the station while installing and repairing equipment on its exterior.

But the 41st expedition to the space station will come to an end when Wiseman, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev depart aboard a Soyuz spacecraft about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, tumbling back to Earth less than four hours later. Wiseman tweeted Friday that the crew successfully test-fired the spacecraft's thrusters.

"Everything worked flawlessly ready for a Sunday departure," he wrote.

Wiseman's parents, Bill and Judy Wiseman of Cockeysville, are ready, too.

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Cockeysville native returning from space Sunday night

ISS performs emergency maneuver to avoid space junk impact

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The International Space Station (ISS) isnt designed to move around on its own, which presents a problem when a bit ofspace debris is threatening to smack into the station. Thats exactly what happened a few days ago, but the ESAs Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) happened to be docked at the station with enough fuel to save the day.

Even small objects can be extremely dangerous in orbit. Even a paint chip can cause damage to a spacecraft when it impacts traveling at almost 30,000 km/h. Its enough of a problem that astronauts aboard the ISS have emergency protocols to follow when space junk threatens the station. These objects can be almost anything parts from rocket engines, screws from derelict satellites, or even tools lost by astronauts. Theyre all moving very fast and are very dangerous. Scary stuff.

Scientists have been musing on ways to clear some of this debris from orbit with everything from giant nets to lasers. In fact, objects of this size are one of the main targets of such research as they can go unnoticed by radar until shortly before impact. One Australian company says it will be able to blast junk of this size out of the sky with lasers in 10 to 20 years, but until then we need to be able to get out of the way.

Prior to 2012, they would huddle inside the stations Soyuz escape ship and hope the station wasnt hit. In the last few years it has been possible to sue Russias Progress supply ship to move the ISS out of harms way, but that craft wasnt docked when the most recent scare happened. Luckily, the ATV-5 was connected and flight engineers took a chance.

The threat turned out to be a piece of Russias Cosmos-2251 satellite, which broke up after colliding with a second satellite in 2009. The bit of debris was about the size of your hand, but that could easily blow a hole in the stations hull if it were to hit. The calculated path of the object was within 4 km of the station, which is close enough that action needed to be taken.

ATV Georges Lematre had docked several days previously to deliver 6.6 tons of supplies to the ISS. This is a non-reusable vehicle. After making the delivery, it is dropped into the atmosphere to burn up. However, it still had enough fuel in its tanks to change the stations trajectory to avoid the satellite debris. ATV mission control did the necessary calculations and managed to fire the ATVs thrusters for a boost of of 1.8 km/h. This increased the stations altitude by 1 km, which took it well outside of the danger zone.

The ESAs ATV spacecrafts have proven to be a robust and reliable way of moving cargo in low-Earth orbit, but thats just the beginning. NASAs next-generation Orion crew transport vehicle will use an ATV-based service module for power and propulsion (seen above), making it a critical part of future manned missions. Design work on this version of the ATV capsule is expected to be completed around 2017.

Now read:Antares rocket explodes on liftoff to resupply International Space Station

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ISS performs emergency maneuver to avoid space junk impact

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo: Test Flight Milestones

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On Oct. 31, 2014, during its 55thtest flight and its fourth powered test flight, SpaceShipTwo suffered a serious accident, resulting in the destruction of the vehicle and death of one pilot, while another pilot parachuted to safety with injuries.

SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital space plane designed and built by Scaled Composites. The vehicle is designed to carry two pilots and six passengers on short space flights. Its predecessor SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004, after becoming the first private craft to fly people to space and back twice in the span of a week. Virgin Galactic has partnered with Scaled Composites with the intention of using SpaceShipTwo for commercial suborbital space flight. [Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Crash: Full Coverage]

Here is a timeline of major events and test flights for Virgin Galactic:

October 2004 - Virgin Galactic Announced -British billionaire Sir Richard Branson announces that he is forming the new company Virgin Galactic to build a passenger space plane for suborbital flights after witnessing SpaceShipOne win the Ansari X Prize.The new company would work closely with SpaceShipOne's builder Scaled Composites to build a new two-pilot, six-passenger spacecraft called SpaceShipTwo.

Dec. 7, 2009: First SpaceShipTwo Vehicle Unveiled-Virgin Galactic hosted a major event to debut the first SpaceShipTwo vehicle, called the Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Enterprise.

March 22, 2010: First Capture-Carry Flight-The carrier plane WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) went aloft for the first time while carrying SpaceShipTwo. The plane was unmanned and was not released.

July 16, 2010: First Crewed Flight-SpaceShipTwo was carried by the WhiteKnightTwocarrier plane for 6 hours and 12 minutes, but was not released. Peter Siebold and Michael Alsbury rode aboardthe VSS Enterprise and evaluated the spacecraft's systems and functions.

Oct. 10, 2010: First Solo Glide Flight-SpaceShipTwo was released at 46,000 feet, and had a total flight time of 13 minutes. The test was a glide flight only, meaning the engines were not turned on. The vehicle was piloted by Peter Siebold and copiloted by Mike Alsbury.

April 29, 2013: First Powered Test Flight-SpaceShipTwo ran its engines for 16 seconds while free of the carrier plane. The vehicle climbed to a maximum altitude of 56,000 feet (17,000 meters), and reached Mach 1.2 or 761 miles per hour (1224 km/h) at sea level, fast enough to break the sound barrier. This was SpaceShipTwo's 26th test flight, and it was preceded by two glide test flights, on April 3 and April 12. The flight was piloted by Mark Stucky and co-piloted by Mike Alsbury.

Sept. 5 2013: Second Powered Test Flight-SpaceShipTwo burned its engines for 20 secondsfour seconds longer than on the previous flight. The craft beat its previous record for altitude and speed, reaching a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet (21031 meters) and a top speed of Mach 1.6 or 1,217 miles per hour at sea level. The craft was piloted by Mark Stucky and copiloted by Clint Nichols.

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Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo: Test Flight Milestones

Science Documentary: Graphene , a documentary on nanotechnology and nanomaterials – Video

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Science Documentary: Graphene , a documentary on nanotechnology and nanomaterials
Science Documentary: Graphene , a documentary on nanotechnology and nanomaterials Graphene is a nanomaterial that is made out of pure carbon. Nanotechnology ...

By: ScienceRound

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Science Documentary: Graphene , a documentary on nanotechnology and nanomaterials - Video

Better Bomb-Sniffing Technology

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November 7, 2014

Image Caption: Ling Zang, a University of Utah professor of materials science and engineering, holds a prototype detector that uses a new type of carbon nanotube material for use in handheld scanners to detect explosives, toxic chemicals and illegal drugs. Zang and colleagues developed the new material, which will make such scanners quicker and more sensitive than today's standard detection devices. Ling's spinoff company, Vaporsens, plans to produce commercial versions of the new kind of scanner early next year. Credit: Dan Hixon, University of Utah College of Engineering

Provided by Vince Horiuchi, University of Utah

University of Utah engineers have developed a new type of carbon nanotube material for handheld sensors that will be quicker and better at sniffing out explosives, deadly gases and illegal drugs.

A carbon nanotube is a cylindrical material that is a hexagonal or six-sided array of carbon atoms rolled up into a tube. Carbon nanotubes are known for their strength and high electrical conductivity and are used in products from baseball bats and other sports equipment to lithium-ion batteries and touchscreen computer displays.

Vaporsens, a university spin-off company, plans to build a prototype handheld sensor by years end and produce the first commercial scanners early next year, says co-founder Ling Zang, a professor of materials science and engineering and senior author of a study of the technology published online Nov. 4 in the journal Advanced Materials.

The new kind of nanotubes also could lead to flexible solar panels that can be rolled up and stored or even painted on clothing such as a jacket, he adds.

Zang and his team found a way to break up bundles of the carbon nanotubes with a polymer and then deposit a microscopic amount on electrodes in a prototype handheld scanner that can detect toxic gases such as sarin or chlorine, or explosives such as TNT.

When the sensor detects molecules from an explosive, deadly gas or drugs such as methamphetamine, they alter the electrical current through the nanotube materials, signaling the presence of any of those substances, Zang says.

You can apply voltage between the electrodes and monitor the current through the nanotube, says Zang, a professor with USTAR, the Utah Science Technology and Research economic development initiative. If you have explosives or toxic chemicals caught by the nanotube, you will see an increase or decrease in the current.

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Better Bomb-Sniffing Technology