all about space - tour of the universe 2014 (gnv64)
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Welcome
tothe
p ce
T U
O TH
UN V RS
Once upon a time a man named
Neil
Armstrong stepped
onto the surface of the Moon claiming it to
be
One small step
for man
one gi nt leap
for mankind.
Join
us as
we take you
further than ever imagined across our Solar System and into
deep space Explore the ilky Way from
Earth s
natural
satellite the
Moon
to learning all about the star at the centre
of
our Solar System Further your understanding
of
how the
human
race is
exploring the universe
as we
search
for life
and prepare to become tourists in space Learn about the
science of space with the formation of the planets and the
Space Junk Crisis Finally you
will
head into the deepest
depths
of
the universe touring alien worlds and uncovering
the power ofsupernovas In this book you will also discover
some ofthe wonders of the universe and what mysteries
they hold Jump on board and get ready to tour the universe
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space
T U
OF THE
UN V RS
IrnoIIno *'IisI1inIlt
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rom
exploring our Solar
System
to th mysteries of deep
space
find out what makes our univ rs so
amazing
s
of
th
t
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Discover
the
wonders of
the Univers
chilling discovery c me to light in the Nineties
en astronomers realised the universe s expansion was
erating instead of slowing, s they d predicted.
little is currently known about the mystery. the
tenn
k mattereffectively exists d a placeholder - a means
an
unf thom ble problem in b rely more
way.
Thanks
to
more recent discoveries
we
at least
have rough idea of where dark m tter resides
inding rk
rk matterm pping
The Hubble
Telf: S opl:
helpl: d create
a 3D mapthat provides
the
fir5t dire
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Discover
the
wonders of the Universe
Who s
w Eric Schmidt
Schmidl
is lhe
exerullve
ch.airma
ofGoogle.
He
Is
i1lso
a celebrilted
50ftwilre
enginee
, larry Page
Piige
is
the CEO
o
Google and also
its
co-founder.
He sped.alises in
computer sdence
James Camer
Director
01
and Tenni 1aror 2
C.arTM fOfl
4 Iso hel
u i l t h e ~
Ch.allencet
Peter Diaman
~ n d l i s
~ l l i s h t
..,
e x p e r t i n ~
sp e
vehides.
mmers
10
harvesl
them.
Up
10 five
Ofbuallelescopes are
eXpecled
(()
be launched
by
2014
10
begin
lhe
survey.
Indeed. lhe exIStence of A.nelary Resourc:rs is fasemaung
because
il
is lt l
il
fOf
lhe long haul. creatinga oomplel:e1y
conceIVable
roodmap
10 assel
extr.JCIlOfl.
If
successtullhe
endeavour could prove very profilable Iof the company wnh
suxlJes IndICating lhal mosl a5 fOOs are nch
in
mlllll'rais
such as iron. niclceland
Ulanium
which are in
resr.riellve
SUPIXY on Earth.
II
these eiemenlS could be eXtracted and
iAoc ed il
would
proYl
invaWble for fulure
IndUSIry.
Whal
ts
mosIfasanatll18-
though. is
lhalln
ils
mlSSlOfl (()
mine
asll fOids.
A.net.uy
Resourc:rs
could
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irin
l s rs
on
Mars
The Science Laboratory mission to land the
uriosity rover onMars blasted off on 26
November 2011 and is a simply phenomenal
project Once has parachuted down to
Mars,
the state of the art vehicle has only one
purpose - to h el p a s se ss the habitdbilily of
the Red lanet It will do this by performing
various
tests in its onboard laboratory.
including large-scale chemical analysis of
its
rocky
surface. using a ChemCarn
laser
to 1apoUlise pieces the terrain for more
effective study
ook
a
ti htto
the ISS
Sp.JCeXs
Dragon sp3Cl Craft
is
exciting for
all the
fight
reason
As
discussed earlier (see pilge
12)
it
has
already
begun
cargo
missions 10
the
International
Space Station. and in the
next
fl W YCdrs it is set to begin
manned expeditions to sp; ce,
the first private sp
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Saturn s
moon
Tit
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Discover the
wonders
of the Universe
iscovering new
arths
Scientists
are
busy
n
their search
for
new, Earth-like
planets outside
of
our
Solar
System and new advances
in technology may help us
find
one soon
Projects like the James Webb
Telescope will bring Earth
sized exoplanets into view
Planet
hunting
is
a new
and
exciting
area
astronomy barely
two decades
old
that
thanks to missions such
as
NASA:s Kepler telescope. is revealing
more
,lnd more data
about intriguing
new worlds
outside
of
OUT
Solar
System
known
as
extrasolar planets
or exoplanets. Only in the
Mst
years
has
suffident technology
been
available to a llo w u s to categorically
prove the existence of these planets.
While we re still some way of seeing
detailed imagery of direct exoplanet
observations, projects like
NASA s
James Webb Space Telescope and
the European Extremely
Large
Telescope
I-.:-ELT) will
bring Earth-size
exoplanets into view and { \I n study
the composinon
of
their atmospheres.
The
number of bizarre
and
familiar
new worlds just waiting to
be
discovered is staggering. estimates
prove to be accurate. In our Milky
Way
alone there could be
hundreds
of billions of planets,
and so
far
we've found justa lew thousand. The
ullJmate goal for planet hunting
is
to
filld an Earth-analogous planet that
could
help ascertain whether hIe could
potentially grab a foothold outside o
our SolarSystem.
The key to discovering
an
Earth
like plalll't is to find those that are
within the habitable or 'Goldtlocks'
zone of a star, the area within which
the conditions are thought to
be
'jus
right for water to form. l(epler-22bw
the first such planet to be foulld and
while it
is
now thought to have a thi
atm05phere that
may
be mhospitable
to life, it was very influential in helpi
to spur the discovery of new Earth-li
planets. One example of these was
Gliese 581
g.
a planet no mOle
than
40-metre mirror
Not only wilt
the
E-ELT s
4 m
131ft) mirror take pictureso
er known ex1fasolar planets,
it's also hoped il
will observe
Earth-sized exoplanets, 100
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Discover the wonders of the
Univers
3 m zing
arth like
pl n ts
our
I.Jmes
the mass of Earth silting
right in the middle the habitable
zone ofits host red dwarf star. While
a year on this plalll't is only 37 days.
observations suggest that
GHese
581 g
may
be
a suitable planet on which life
could
reside_
Another potentially life-harbouring
planet is tiD
85512 b,
a so-called
'Super-Earth', like Gliese 581 g. with
a mass at least 3.6 times that of our
home planet but with a temperature
that could potenl.Jally allow for the
existence of liquid water, which
is thought to be one of the key
components for HIe to form or survive.
Over the next few years, as our
methods
of finding
and
characterising
exoplanets become more allCl more
sophisticated, irs likely that more
Earth-like planets like these will be
discovered all over the Milky Way
.
C ese581g
DIIUnce
from
brth :
20 9Iw:if'1
Stu: Ioe e SIll C o n s t f : ~ n : l b
DI Icovf red: XlIO
Mua:37mbdl.... l3r
Tf:lllperature:
.20 (
,
: ;
-
-
~ < . . . ;
i ~ \ ; ; ~ ~ ~
: t ~ ;
,
1ID85512b
DlsWKf: from
uth
36lsh ,.,...
Stu:
liD 85512 ConstelLation,
DI Icovf red: Xlll
Mus: 3 lim bdlus: lXlIo n
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he Milley
Way is a major component
of
the
Local Group
- a small galaxy cluster
some 10 million light years across
Explore
the
Galaxies
A t t he inner l imi t o f
the
spiJal arms the b.lr and
hub
are surrounded by a
structure known as
the
5kHoparsec Ring one Idloparsec is around 26
light years . Although we cannot see it in visible light.
the ring seems to contain huge concentrations of
star
forming
nebulas and young stars it s probably
the
mam
generator
of new
stars in the
Milky
Way
Above and below the main disc lies a relatively
empty
regIon
known as
the halo.
Many
faint
long-lived stars
pass
through this region
on
tilted
orbits, but the
h.1la s
most obvious occupants are
globular clusters - dense balls containing many tens
of thousands
of
old
red
and
yellow
stars that are
generally found above and
below
the galactic hub.
Similar led and yellow
SldfS
dominate the hub and
bar - they are relatively poor
in
heavy elements.
which
allows
them
to shine for billions of years
without
evolving significdntly.
As
J result they are
known as
Population
J]
stars,
in
contrast to the
younger, fastelevolving and heavyelementenriched
Population
[
stars in the galacticdisc.
Among
aU
these stars, the huge maJOrity
are Jaw.
mass red and orange dwarfs - stars with a fraclion of
the mass ofthe Sun,
which
shine so faintly that they
Cdn only be seen when they are relatively nearby,
Brighter
and more massive stars are much larel, but
tend to shine out
over
huge distances and so appear
mOIl
plOminemly
in
our skies. SimiLlrly, ageing but
brilliant red and orange giants are common among
the naked< YC stats seen
from
Earth,
bu t in fact fal
rarer
than they might appear at
first
glance.
What s
more, stats
In
our galaxy seem
to
be
gregarious - although they gradually drift apart from
the open clusters in
which
they form, many stars
remain together
in
binary 1 multiple stal systems.
Recent
research
also suggests thai planetary system
all also common there
may
be at least as
many
planets
as
there are stars m the
sky.
Within
the hub, statS become
mor{
densely
pack
towards the centre of the Milky Way the galactic
core. Only
Xrays.
radio
waves
and some infrared
waves can pass through these dense star clouds
unaffected, but Ihey
leveal an
intriguing picture of
the strange and violent conditions
in
the
core
Itself,
Al radio wavelengths. the
core
is marked by a
complex
radIO
SOUI known as
5.lgittarius A
it
consists 1a bubblelike structure (SagittariUS A
West)
a
few
1l ns
of
light years across - probably
the remnant 1an enormous supernova explosion.
Embedded within this is a threearmed spiral called
Sagittarius A East
roughly
ten light years
across.
The middle
of
the spiral
coincide-s
with the densest
concentration
of
stars In the
Milky Way,
and a third
pointlike sourer of radio waves known as Sagittari
A
that is believed to
mark
the
Milky Way s
cemre.
X Tay emissions reveal
huge
bubbles
and
twisted
lobes
of
superhol
gas
across Ihe region a
mix
1
supernova rt mnants and the effects of
hot
stellar
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xplore
t
alaxies
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Ascent stage
This 2.8m 9.2ft high and
4.0m x 4.3m
13.2ft
x 14.lft
wide, Irreguiilrshaped stage
is
mounted on top o the
descent stage. It carr;es the
astronauts to and from the
surface of the Moon
Antenna
The
parabolic SbiInd steerable
antenna provides a
voice
and data communications
link with the
Manned Space
Flight Network. The parabolic
rendezvous radar
antenna
is
used
when docking with the
Apollo Command
Module
rew
compartment
The
pressurised compartment
h
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Explore
the Galaxies
programme on
ice.
In 2003 just days after finalising
a plan tobring
CNN
reporter Miles O Brien to the
International Space Station
(ISS).
the Columbia
disaster brought the programme to a stop again.
The
era
of true
space
tourism began in
2001,
when
multimillionaire entrepreneur Dennis Tito a former
NASA
engineer. became
the first private cilJzen
to
pay his own wayan a spaceflight. The American
space tourism company Space Adventures r o ~ e r e
the deal
w
the
Russian
government to the
reponed tune of 20 million
(12.7
million). Against
NASA s wishes, Tito flew with two cosmonauts
bo rd
a
oyuz
rocket for a
sevend y vISit
to
th e
ISS.
On his safe return, Space AdventUll'S got busy lining
up more wouldbe astronauts.
It
has since arranged
ISS visits for six more ddventurers mcluding
billionaire Cirque du Solei
CEO
Guy Laliberte who
flew
in 2009.
While Russia was happy to sell an extra
Soyuz
seat when
it
had
one
available. wasn t
looking
to
make space tourism its primary business, All signs
indicated the future of space tourism would be
privately owned spacecraft.
The private spacecraft
era
began with the Ansari X
Prize,
a 10
million (6.3
million)
reward for
the
first
private team who built a 'ship thai could carry three
people
to space
twice in
three wreks.
Inspired by
th
early 20th Century prizes
for
aviation advances, the
XPrize Foundation issued the challenge to move lh
world
towards low-cost sparenight.
The plan worked_ Backed by funding from
Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen,
a team
led
by
aerospace engineer
Bun
Rutan completed he
challenge on 4 October 2004, The winning vessel
SpaccShipOne, employed a number
of
Innovations
minimise the danger and
cost
of launch and
re-enlr
Most
notably, instead
of
launching he craft vertica
from
the ground, the
team built
a jet-powered
mothership to carry SpaceShipOne into high altitud
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Rek>ased
at
about
kilometres (nine miles). the ship
needed much less rocket IXIwer to reach space.
The X Prize Foundation
set
thebar at
the
Karm.1n
line,
the
conventional
edge
of
space ,
While there s no
real
specific borderline, an altitude
o
100 kilometres
62
miles) puts you slightly
above
the point where
t
atmosphere
is too
thin for
aeroplanes
to
generate
enough l t to
fly. As
difficult
as
It is to reach this
region
of space, known
as
suborblt. it s
far
simpler
than climbing into orbit.
The added
thrust alld fuel
requirements make it much more challenging.
[t s no surprise then that most burgeoning
space
tourism companies
are
fonowlng SpaceShipOne s
lead
alld setting their
sights on
suborbital trips. Billionaire
entrepreneur Richard Branson w as s o impressed with
SpaceShipOne
that
he
parmered with
Burt
Rutan to
make the concept the backbone of a new commercial
spaceflight company: Virgin
Galactic.
Branson foullded the company n 2004 and
predicted his first customers would fly in
2007.
He pushed back the timeline, when
he
and Rutan
opted to
create
alarger version o the spacecraft
alld its mothership.
dubbed
SpaceShipTwo
and
WhiteKnightTwo respectively.
After training
exercises
with the first 100
customers, Virgin Galactic has deemed the two-hour
p ce
tourism
trek safe
for an adults in good health.
The
company
expects tobegin commerdal flights by 2014. at
200.000
127.000)
a
seat.
It
has
already taken 70
million 44.4 million) n delXlsits, from more than
536 astrollilut hopefuls.
Branson
offered William
Shatner a free ride
on
the inaugural flight. but he
declined. citing
an
aversion
to
vomiting
and
fiery
crashes.
Branson
has, however, mallilgcd to sign up
T om Ha nk s. Brad Pitt Angelina Jolle alld Katy Perry
The
American company
XCOR Aerospace
is
developinga promising commercial
space
plane
as
well.
Its
design. the Lynx, forgoes the mothership
strategy. opting instead for a
rocket-powered
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Explore
the Galaxies
horizontal takeoff. Wllhin a mmute of starting the
rockets. the Lynx
will
reach supersonic speeds. before
wring
up for
a
7S-degree
shot
to subOlbit.
XCOR
is designing
m >
ship
for
cargo and spact
tourism missions, wIth space
for
one
pilot,
one
pass( nger and multiple payload areas The nonprofit
group Citizens in
Space
has already reserved
100m
101
both payload and passengers on len
Lynx flights. Its
plan is to
lake 100 orso
cil.Jzl'nsc ence
experiments
Into suborbit in
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Space tourism
What
is
t
p ce
Tourism ociety
from
Earth orbit could someciaybecome an Olympic
sport,and my concept
for
IlleGreatwnarRcM r Race
Will be
in the works.
What advice
do yo u
have for anyone
who
is lookin
to work
in space
tourism?
Move
to LA. Or join theSpaWl appreciauon
01 how
bedutilul ourhome work
IS and how we nrod
to
work more clasl.'fy together.This
'Overview'(' fft'dls
in
my opinion themost impondnt
Whatare
the main
advantages
or commercial space
expIoratiODover government
space
programmes?
Actually. wa-king together like we are doingnow with
NASA paying
SpaceX
to supply CaTlP to the ISS
is
dgreat
thing.
The map- advantage
for
Xivate space
enterplise
tourism companies lSthat they profit motivated so
very eUkient. and [here
is
no limit
to how
large they
can grow. The spaceindustry is totallySCillable
and
had
limitless potential for bolh
profit
and
prestige.
What s the biggestmisconception about
space tourism
That
it sin
the
future,
On
28
April
2011.
our
Space
Tourism Sodery (S'1'S) hosted
a
dinner in LA ce1ebrating
the ten year anniver.>ary of the liftoff intoEarth
orbit
of
Dennis Tiro, the work. s first private
space
travellet.lle
spent
over
a
weekon board the ISS. Since then.
there
havebeen seven other privatespace traveller flights to
the ISS, withone person nying twice. There is awaiting
list of peoplewho can
pay
the $45 million
(28
million)
for
a night but there
is
no room
Cf1the
ISS any 1l'lClre.
Wh y did you decide 10 get involved in space
tourism in thefirst
place?
[always
Joved
science. spaceand
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Explore the Galaxies
he recibo
message
On 16 November
1974
astronomcrs Including Dr
rrank
Drake
and
Carl
Sagan devised a message
10 send Into thl distant leaches of space. The
message was Intended
to
show the possibilitIeS
of
communlc
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1 3
\
12 1
n
2
31
l
1
14 1
1 3
1
huge
amounts
of
power
that
would be easy to spot,
but this was not 0
It was widely believed that 510.,.1 had a good
chance of success, though, 0 in the Seventies
NASA
threw its hat into the ring. It established SETI
programmes
in California
at
its Ames Research
Center in Mountam VlI W and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory n
Pasadena to look
for signals around
stars like our
Sun
or otherwise. n the midNinetK'S,
however,lunding was cut. and the srn Institute was
for e to go it alone.
srI'
uses
a number of antennas and arrays
around the
world.
such as the
Allen
Telescope Array
in California,
to
observe distant stars and discern
whether
they
are emitting any artificial signals
produced by an intelligent race. Within minutes 01
observmg a star they have an answer, but to this
day they have yet to
find
any conclusive evidence of
extraterrestnaJ
Intelligence. Undeterred, workersat
SETI continue to search for signs
of life,
and they re
extremely confident
that they
will find something.
To aid in SEn s study, the hunt for habitable
exoplanets
might allow
us to
find worlds
where
life could reasonably
be
thought to reside. Finding
habitable exaplanets
that
Slo.i'l canstudy for signals
is
something that
will prove of
great importance.
Of
course, planet hunting itself
is
an area
astronomy
that IS not even two decades old - the first exoplanet
was
not
discovered unti11995, But while planet
hunting might
still be in
its
infancy,
the results we
have obtained from lust a handful of telescopes are
astounding. NASA's Kepler space telescope, which
launched
from
Cape
Canaveral in
March 2009, has
found thousands
of
planet candidates in
b.arely
four years
of
operations, and some
of
these
offer
tantahsing hints of being habltabk>.
But
KcplC'r is
lookIng
at just a
tiny
portion of
our
gIant Milky Way, which
m turn
is r 'latively
small
m th ' grand schem of the univC'rst'. Ba5l d
on
data from Kepler, astronomC'rs
at
the Harvard
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics t'Stimated m
January 2013 that there were at least 17 billion Eart
sized ( xoplanets in the MIlky Way, That s not a typo
billion.
not mtlll0n, Consider
that there
are
about
10
billion galaXlCS in
the known universe.
and
things
start
to
8< 1 really
cXClllng. Is It
really possible that.
out
of
1.7 trillion trillion pot('nllal planets in the 13.7
bl11ionyt'JroId universe only one, Earth, had the
necessary conditions 10
produce
Intelligent
life?
Ma
leadmg scientists
bellcve thiS to be unlikely.
Kepler, holvt'vcr, can only reveal very basic data
about an exoplanet. includmg
its
size,
mass
and
orbit. Future
telescopes.
like NASA's
Jamt'S
Webb
Space Telescope, wln
allow
us
to
study these plane
fl even moredetJil TIns giam space observatory,
whkh will launch
in
2018, might be able to directly
image
exoplanets and
('V('n
rcvealthe composltlon
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their atmosphere, a viLaI
clue
in discerning whether
they
are
habitable or llOt. Groundbreaking
research
into the possibility
of
measuring the atmospheres of
exoplanets for signs of methane, oxygen and other
elements, or even looking for signs of artifKialllghts
just
as we
can
see
the Earth
at
night from
space)
will
bring us closer to finding alien civilisations,
While we re searching for alien life, however, could
it
be
possible that other extraterrestrial
races are
also
doing the same thing? We ve been broadcasting our
position, both intentionally and unintentionally, by
emitting radio waves for about a century. fanyone
is within 100 light years of Earth, they
will
be able to
hear
us.
In
fact.
in 1974 we sent out something called
the Arecibo
message,
a broadcast of radio waves that,
for the first time, contained data about humanity that
could
e
interpreted by an alien race and understood
to
e
a call from our civilisation to theirs. It s not
incol ICeivable to think that other races might have
done the same thing; maybe there are thousands
of
Arecibo
messages
streaming through the
galaxy,
but
we
just haven t come
across
one
yet.
With all this talk of exoplanets, habitable worlds
and aliens, however, you might
be
forgiven
for
having
one
question burning in your mind;
if
there really
is intelligent life out
there,
then where is everyone?
You re
not alone in thinking this, Way back in 1950,
astrophysicist Enrico Fermi asked this very question,
which became known
as
the Fermi paradox,
He
argued that because the galaxy Isn t teeming with
spacecraft, or
that we ve
never
been
sent
a
message
from aliens, then either interstellar travel must
impossible therefore dashing our
hopes
of ever
exploring the galaxy) or
we are
the only Intelligent
civilisation in the universe,
There
are
a number
explanations
as
to why this
is so, but the mOS plausible relates to the history of
a
planet
IJke
Earth, Our pl.alK t is 4,6 billion years old,
but only in the
last
scvcral hundred million years
has it been inhabited y sophistIcated organisms,
Only in the
last
several thousand years has Intelligent
and senllentlife, namely humans, made its mark on
the
globe,
And only mtlle
past
one hundred
years
have w
seriously begun observing
and
exploring
the cosmos, and also sending out signals of our own.
Humanity won t e around forever: an extinction
event either natural or manmadc, could cut short
ve
lre dy
foun
life
There have been several instances where
controversial evidence suggested that w may
have already found life elsewhere in the umvers
Allan Hills 84001
In Antarctica on
oe>mber
1984, a team
of
American
scientists found a meteorite
named
Allan Hills
84001 AtH 84001) that shot to
fame
2
years
later when it
was
announced that it migh
conLain microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria.
However,
no conclusive evidence could prove
whether this was so,
The
Viking probes
In 1976. NASA landed two probes on Mars,
Viking 1and
2,
which
had
instruments to perform
biological experiments on the surface, Controvers
surrounded the
results;
early indications
sugges1e
they d found evidence of organic compounds. bu
some
claimed
that the natureof the
~ p r i m n t
which heated soil
samples,
would
have
destroyed
organics, wggesting the results were erroneous
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~
et involved
withS TI
[f
you re
j n r ~ e s t e d in 1)e oming an alien hunter,
then there s never been iI beller time to
gel
Involved With
the
SET] lnslitule_ Head over to
the
website at WWW.seti0l8tofindOl.ll
mOle,
You
c a
mark
the universe It Will be
down to
the work of various
people around the globe to make the vllal discoveri
that could mdicate the presence
of
intelhgcnt
01 baS
liJe
elsewhere. Whether it s experts at NASA
workin
on a
highprofile,
nextgeneratton planethunting
machme such as the JanlCS Webb Space Te1csrope,
or it's the valiant workers who are lookmg fOlslgna
outside of our
Solar
System at SET , oreven the
asuobJologists searching for bactefia on another
world.
these dedicated
people Will
continue to
work
towards
findmg
alien life.
They
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The Dragon
sp e psule
The first commercially produced and operated spacecraft
to
successfully enter orbit and return
to
Earth, and the
first to
deliver supplies
to
the International Space Station
Elan
Musk
founder of
SpaceK
named
this spacecraft mg as
credible as a the mythical beast.
The
Dragon is a reusable cone-
shaped space capsule.
It
has a
pressurised compartment to carry
cargo,
which in
future can be refilled
to carry seven crew members. n
unpressurised servIce module beneath
that section contains navigational
equIpment and propellant
for
the
Draco
thrusters that enable the 'craft
to
manoeuvred
in (,;arth orbit.
Underneath
it is
a
PICA X heat
shield
that can Withstand feentry from
an:>
plans,
however.
to fit
SupcrDraco thrusters
and
L:mdmg
gears to the capsule
to
enable ilto 1 meI on
solkl
ground.
After being founded
in
June
2002,
SpaceX developed the two-stage
52
Falcon
1liqUld-luelled rocket
It W lS
the
first commercial project
olns
tylJ C
to
put
a
satellite into
Earth
orbu
on
28
September
2008.
In the
meantime. SpaccX
began
work
on
the Dragon
CJpsulc
concept in
2004, Ayear later, NASA announced
its
intention to lund privJte companies
to build spacecraft to resupply the
International
Space
Slatlon
(ISS).
Under this Commercial Orbital
Transportation 5
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The Dragon space capsul
The
International Space Station sCanaclarm2
robo
armgrabs lhe Dragon capsuleand manoeuvres it
dock wilh the station s Harmony mod
sensor bay
The door of this unpressurlsed comp.lrtmeot opens
after it enters orbit and closes before re-entry
Heat shield
Backed by 5pac
Proprietary
Ablative
Materia
5PAM), this
is
t
best heat shield
currently availab
for space capsu
Pressurised
compartment
This
section
hilS
a volume of 10m)
(353ft
l
) and
s
pressurised to enable
It to carry specialised
payloadsor
up
to
seven ew members
Service module
Contains computers,
guidance navigation
equipment, eight
propellant tanks and two
pressurant tanks
Nose cone
The nose cone protecls thecapwle
during launch and
Is
jettisoned
Thrusters before entering Earth orbit
Nitrogen tetroxide
monomethylhydrallne
propellant
provide
40kgf (90Ibf) of thrust
to 18 thrusters, to carry
out orbital manoeuvres
Pressurised
compartment
In cargo
mode
this is
fitted
with
a modular
fade
system to carry
standard-sired
payloitds
Trunk
This unpressurised
14m] 490ft ) volume
o m p ~ r t m e n t
carries
i1ddition
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Explore the
Galaxies
training in
the
NBL
as
they would fo
the actual
EVA
The
suits each astronaut wears
for
the
NBL pool are very similar to
those
used
on an E :VA Many
ofthe
suit
components hal/{ ,
in fact.
been
salvaged from spacesuits
that
have
already seen
some
EVA action in orb
on the ISS. Ap.m from the addition o
weights and
neats
to gIl/{
the sui t w
its wearer Inside
the
properly of bein
neutrally
buoyant
while
in the
water
NBL
suitsare
distinguished by their
life support and environmental contr
systems.These
are self-contained wi
space EVA
suits but
while traming
i n t he
pool they're provided by an
umbilical cord attached to an externa
machme that
supplies electricity, wa
coolant arK pressurised breathing ga
Naturally, safety and the health
ofthe
astronautsintraining is
carefUlly observed while in th e
pool. Although
the
dives aren't
partICUlarly deep (12 metres 40 feet.
while deep for a swimming pool is
considered a shallow dive) they arc
for long penods of time. So the NBL
has a full
complement of
medical
staff on hand consisting
01
two
physiaans,
two paramedics and 12
physiology personnel.
The
NBL also
has a hyperbaric chamber onsue
to treat any dil/{'r suffering from
decompresSion sic1mess .
otherwise
known
as
the bends
reasons, performing
any
tasks slowly
and an awareness of
the
NBL pool can
help minimise these
limitations.
The
12,2'metre (40foot)
deep
pool
is primarily
used for
extravehicular
activlly (EVA) training. Astronauts,
particularly
those
embarkingon a
mission to
the
International Space
Station, practice full spacewalks lasting
five hours
at
a time, manipulating
objects and
moving around
Largescale
mock-ups of
the
craft they will be
working on.
The
fully
completed ISS,
at
107
x 73 metres (350 x 240 feet).
wouldn l
fit
inSide
the NBLS 52
x 31
metre
(202 x
102
feet) pool. but smaller
replicas 01
the module the astronauts
will work
on are
effeclJve
enough
to
fain With.The curren standard for
NASA
IS that astronauts.
depending on
th(' difficulty
of the
EVA. spend
fil/{
toseven t imes the amount 01 lime
How
astronauts
are
prepared
for
danger-filled space missions n
NASi\s
Neutral Buoyancy Lab
appears to hover in
the
same place
n water.
This
projX ny
of neutral
buoyancy is very simIlar
to
the
weightlessness endowed
by
the
lack
of
gravity
in
space:
an astronaut wearing
a neutral buoyancy suit
in
the pool
is easily manipulated just like they
would
be in
spdCt . but there are some
key
differences.
The
water drags on
the astronaut to make movement and
certain actions
(like
keeping an objo:t
still)
more
difficult
than
it
would
be in
space.
while makmg it casicr to sct an
obJ in motion Thc other problem is
that astronauts aren't truly wcJghtlc-ss
and can still feel the weight
of
their
bodies
while in
the
suit. For both these
Training
rOt
the
weightlessness of
space IS a major undertaking on
NASA s
part
thaI requires a dedicated
test facility and a ballery of cutling
edge equipment. As
zero gravity
freefal1 on a specially adapted night
isn't practical for long training periods
and antigravity machines are set
to remain the
stuff
of
sciell(e fiction.
NASA uses th e 23.Smlllion-Htre
(6.2milliongalJon) giant swimming
pool at its Neutral Buoyancy Lab in
Ilouston. Texas.
Neutral buoyancy itself is a property
of an object
that
gives it an equal
tendency to float to
the
surface as it
does
t o s ink to the
bottom, so
that
it
n t r
space training
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t was
forme
Apollo
astronaut and
second man on the Moon Buzz
Aldrin
who
uttered the words, 'Forget the
Moon,
let's
head
to
Mars This is
something that mankilld has been
working to achieve since the Sixties.
of flyby
missions,
orbiters,
rovers and Llndes
have
been
sent
on oneway missions to shape our
ullderstanding of the
Red
Planet.
setting down the groulldwork that
will
one
day lead to
the moment an
astronaut sets foot on
Martian soil.
At an
average
distance
of
around
225
million kilometres (140 million
miles). Mars
might
IlOt e
as
close
to
the Earth as the Moon or Venus. but
the ruddycoloured pLanet's potential
to provide us
with information to sate
our appetites for knowledge as well as
the
opportunity
to
expand
our
species
to
allOther world today encourages
generations
of
scientists
to
overcome
this distance with reLative ease.
However, It was not always this way.
The Soviet Union was the
rlrst
country to launch robotic missions
to Mars,
with a number of failed
launches
and
probes in the Sixties.
By
the Seventies, howeve they had
compelllion from the
Americans. With
two countries setting their sights
on
I.hl'
Red
Planet,
the
race was wen
and
truly on, but who would get there
first?
On 19
May
1971. the USSR's Mars
2 successfully raced through the last
of Earth's atmosphere with the Red
Planet
In Its
sights.
Russia was In
with
a good chance 1 winning this round
of
the Spare Race.
With
the
suCC't'SSful
launch of Mars 3laking place a mere
nme days later. thiS only reaffirmed
i.hl'
Soviets'
confidence.
However, on 30
May
1971 NASA
released Mariner 9
mto
Till' skies above
Cape Canaveral. hot
on the heels
of
Mars 2and Mars l t reached Mars by
14
November
of till same
year,
beating
I.hl'sluggish Mars 2 and 3 by a
few
weeks. Even
so,
Mariner
9
had to
walt
out
months
of relentless
dust storms
raging
across
Mars
before it
could
take
any
of the 7,329 clear Images of rhe
Red
Planet that
it
uillmately beamed
back to
anxiously waiting scientists
on Eanh. It saw
river
beds,
craters.
canyons.
grear
extinct vokanoes
such
as OlympusMons, as well as obvious
signs
of erosion from
water and wind.
Following
Mariner
9's sllccessful
visit. in
1975
NASA launched the twin
Viking
missions, each one combmlng
an orbiter and landcr. But that was
It
until the mIdNineties. Smce then
sever.1I robors have been senr to
Mars, determined to
be
the
first
ro
underpin the principles which will
one day
allow
humans to set foot
on
the planet s
Sllrface.
Satellites have
included
NASA's
Mars Glob.l.l Surveyor
and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and
the ESA's
Mars
Express,
S well
as till
successful Phoemx and Pathfinder
landers,
while
the
Spirit.
Opportunity
and Curiosity rovers touched down on
Mars
to
Inspeclthe Martian soil
for
signs
of
life and to take a few snaps
of
their new home.
However,
as
we
push for greater
feats
rhe rovers don'r seem ro be
enough.
We
need something
more
sophisticated. according to adVOClre
of the manned
exploration
of Mars
and
American aerosp.1ce
engineer,
Or
Robert lubrin of the
Mars
Society. We
need to
go
to
Mars
ourselves.
I do favour sending robots to
Mars
and
am very
happy that
we're
doing
that: says Zubrin. They are just
the advance scouts
and
you know.
the rovers,
love
them, but there s
nothing they can
do
that we [humans]
couldn t do a thousand times faster:
While the
work
of rhe rovels has
provided us with
an incredible
~ o u t
of infoonation. signatures
of
past
life such 3S fossils could
easily
be
overlooked
by
the robots. You could
The
Orion
module replaces lh e C
now
cancelled
Constellation
Program asourfurure
hopes
to send
man
to Mars
p.1rachute
100 rovers
[to
Mars] and
you would IlE Ver
find
a fossil: lubrin
explains. Fmding fossils
involves
hiking through lots of terrain,
it
Involves
pick and
pickaxing
work
and
it
involves diligent
work
such as
carefully
splitting open shells
to
rind
preserved fossils. This is way beyond
th' abihty
of robotic rovers and if
you're
talking about whether humans
Destination Mar
could setlle on Mars, then clearly, yo
have to send humans.
So
to
Mars humans must go. And
in a change of dynamic,
agencies
and organisations
are looking
p.1st
unmanned missions and instead are
focusing on landmg the
first man on
the Red Planet in a step that makes
SCleJlce
fiction a reality.
The
feat has
become a race onc' again.
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Explore the Galaxies
3.
NASA
4.
Mars One
Adamant
lhatlhl' ll'l'hnol ,ll'S to
1,IIUI
lht'
filsi
h nhlll'i
011 M.HS nisI
lJukh
,t,m,up
M,HS
011'-'
dum T
spt'nd
.Ill e TlIll,lll'd $f, hillioll 10
mill,llI
... s,'ml f ullnt l\'ldu,ll,
I
lilt
Ikd
PI,IIlt't. Tlll'v
Will
I , T,.sh'd
WIT
,...ttm '
up .I
h,lblt,lbl..
Utpl t
b,l>t'd
nil
I t , , , , I \ I l l . l d ~
ll.Hdw,m'
Ih,.1 willi
,...Ilt to IIll'
pl,lI11't III
dtl'''1I1''', M t ~
IIlSl,.lIl11g tlll'1I hahlt,.T, Ilw nWllllw
p(
till (lI,t
lok>n
... Uhldl' f Llith
will
bt'
exp, -.Wd to grow
Ih lf
own
IO ll. lIllIl leturn T M,utidll
Iblt
lI,illg
1lll'lh.1I1C' pro)lt'11,1Il1 111 ,1
.. from
Mdl''>
,;.IIlII'It'-ll'tlllll
ml>SIOIl
tJlll'tlllt'd [)r,l/:oll, th.11
Will
1'0 l o o ~
101 ' Ign,
of lif.. ,
It>
long-krill
pl,IIIS, howl'ver,.H Tn
,,-'nd
,l
nlollllwd IlII ,iOIl
T
M,ns
III
,I
modlhl'd
H'r,IOIl of It,
,.iTe,ld\-, t ,i1T
Ilr,lgon l,lp'lIlt ', I Iw
ill fole
long
you
have the first humanseulemem
on another wolld: says Zubrm. TheI'C
is
nothl11g in
this that
IS bl:'yond our
tcchnology: we can
do
this.
Ind( ( (\,
other organisations al('
clamouring to be the first. SpaceX s
Eion Musk
has aheady staled that
he intends
to
go
to MJIs,
while
..,,;;::::.:--
istory rs exploration
The NDX-\
sp.KeSult
designed by aerospace
engineer
Pablo
de l.eon for possible use on
Mars.
was able to l Ildure
the
Icy
temperatures and
battering windsduJinglesls in
Antarctica
Zubrln thinks he knows
how
to win
the race. In the N i l l l . l ~ he ~ l o p e
a daring plan that he called
Mars
Direct. lh basic idea of the Mars
Direct mission is to explore
Mars
With
a travel-light philosophy: he says
'Rather than buildmg gl.lnt spaceships
loaded with all of the food. watt'L air,
fuel and Clygen required
for
a
round
trip mission,
we lr y to
make the most
important of these on Mars,
ror
example, Zubrin
proposes thaI
an ullmanned
mISsion go
ahead
first,
carrying
with
it
an Earthreturn craft
and
the ability
to make rocket fuel on
Mars by reacting hydrogen with the
carbon dioxide in Mars s atmosphere
to
create the methalll' and
oxygen
rocket plOpellant and oxicllser. So
now you have a fully fuelled Earth-
return vehicle
walting
on the MartJdn
surface:
he
says. Then
you
$hoot
I do favour
sending robots
to
Mars ...
but
they are just the
advance scouts
1971
Mars3
This was
the first spacecraft
to achieve a soft landing on
the surface of
Mars but
a
great dust storm (Jused a
communications
failure.
1976
Viking1 2
The
Viking programme
reWIIle< hi-res images,
studied thesurface
and
atmosphere and allempted
10 sear
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4
pportunity
The Opportunity
rover
has
found Martian meteorites.
looked into geological
processes and studied
surface
composition.
6
Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter MRO
With asuite o instruments,
the MRO c:ontinues
to
analyse Mars s weather and
surface
conditions.
2 2
Curiosity
Curiosity is providing
information on the past
and present habitability of
Mars as well as taking hi-re
images
of the
landscape.
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xplore
t
alaxIes
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The basic idea
of
the Mars
Direct
mission
is
to
explore
Mars with a travel-light
philosophy
Destination Mar
be
able to
get [he-
financial backing
that they need in the time required?
Developing a transportation system
which brings people
to Mars
and bac
safely
is
something that will probably
take more than the few years left
to
the
2018
deadline: adds
Gromer.
honestly
wish
them all the luck.
but
I am pessimistic that they can really
achieve the super-tight schedule:
Another proposed privately funded
manned mission
is
that
of
Mars
One
not-far-profit organisation based in th
Netherlands that intends to establish
permanent human settlement on
M
by
2023.
by
sending astronauts there
on a
one-way
trip. The-ir plan is to
ge
funding by turning the adventure in
a reality TV show.
However.
Gromer
less convinced
by
their plans than h
is
fnspiration
MJrss.
Unlike
the team
of
Dennis
Tito. th
Mars One
team
lacks
the expertise
and
knowledge how
to approach
such super-ambitious progrilmmes:
he says.
Just simply recruiting and
maintaining such Iilrge ilstronaut
corps
is well beyond their
cilpabilitie
not
to
speilk
launchers. hilbitats.
spaCt'Suits etc.
Having
big
players lik
SpaceX [behind theml certainly help
but there is no indication these are
doing it for
free. Thilt
meilns. that ev
former
pm ate astronaut
Dennis Tito
has launched Inspiration Mars,
an
organisation that plans to send two
humans - a male and female. likely
married - on a flyby mission
of Mars
in 2018.
It's
a plan that
Zubrin
himself
pltched
to
NASA
in 1995.
but
they
didnt take him up on the idea.
Really
the key question of whether
Tito is
going to pull this
off is
whether
he can raise
the 2
billion
needed:
says
Zubrin. NASA is funded
to
a level
of 18
billion
per year.
Now
2
billion
is nothing to the government but it
is a
lot in
the private
world. but
really
if NASA had the courage
of
Tito we
would have done this when I proposed
it to them
In
1995.'
Dr Gernot Gromer
of
the University
of lnnsbruck and head of the
MARSl013
project agrees with Zubrin.
This
is
a truly ambitious plan. he
says.
f
you look
at
their papers where
they describe the mission
profile.
it
is well thought through andwritten
by
experts who are very good in
their subjects. However,
for
trajCClory
reasons they have to
keep
the 2018
deadline: That s the
big
problem.
says
Gromer.
Dennis
Tito is
only
lunding the
first
three years
of
that
profCl=t untllthe really high
financial
demand kicks in. Will they then
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theu
crewmates,
Mars-SOO
which
r.an
between 7 and
2011
and admitted
three separate crews, proved a success.
with most volunteers reportedly being
in
good
physical
nd
psychological
condition, However, with simulated
missions to the Red Planet far from
over. experts want to put potential
astronauts to the testeven more, How
would they deal with completmg
actual scientific experiments and
walkmg
for
miles across the tough
Martian terrain?
For such an occasion there was the
aforementioned MARS2013 project.
which took place in February
2013.
The monthlong simulation was
initially
b sed
at Camp Weyprecht
in the Mars-like Moroccan desert.
before a three-
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involving
3
nations
and
more th.:ln
100scientists. The team performl d
7 scientific experiments, as well as
fieldtesting new spacesuit designs
and deployable shelters, acting out an
astronaut-injury situation and testing
cHff.climbing robots.
Like
Mars500, a
20minute lime delay was lncludl d
in all communications with I::arth ,
simulating the wait as radio waves
travel at the speed of light from Mars
to I::arth and then back again. Data
collected from such simulations is
important in planning ndpreparing
for
the real thing.
And when that real thing likely
to occur?The Mars enthusiasts at
Inspiration Mars, Mars One, the Mars
Society
and
SpaceX would argue tha
it could happen by the
end
of the
current decade, or the beginning of
next
Others, howevel. are playing it
safer,
and
suggesting 2030 or later
as the most likely date for mankind
to reach the Red Planet. In the
end
it
will
be
decided
by
who can raise
the necessary money and have the
rourage that ZUbrin says is essential
make history by being the first to se
people to Mars
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The core reaches a temperature of abou
15
million degrees
Celsius,
hot enough fo
thermonuclear fusion to take
place
Discover the Solar System
At about ISO million kilometres (93
mlllion mill. s) from
Earth
lies
a giant
mcandl. SCl nt
ball
ofgas weighmg in
at
almost 2,000 trillion trillion kilograms
and emitting power
equivalent
to
1
million
times the annual power
consumption
of
the
United
States
in a single second. Since the dawn
of Earth
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Discover the Solar System
Like
the Earth, the Sun has an atmosphere, but the two are very different. The
Sun s can be incredibly volatile with powerful magnetic activity that causes
phenomena referred to as solar storms here on Earth
Solar storms ale violent outbUists
of
activity on
the Sun that interfere
with
the Earth s magnetic field and
inundate
our
planet with particles.
They are the result
o
outpourings
o energy from th
Sun,
either in the
form ofa
Coronal Mass
Ejection
CME)
or
a solar
nare.
The
former
is a release
of
a
large
amount
of materia . mostly
plasma. from the Sun whil th latter
is
a sudden release of electromagnetic
radiation commonly associated with a
sunspot. While no dlJ l C1 connl Ction
has been found between CMEs alld
solar flares. both
are
responsible for
causing
solar
storms on Earth.
The
reason why
these
two
events occur
is
due to the Sun s atmosphere and
its
turbulent interior. with dll of Its
components playing a part in bathing
our planet
in
bursts of
energy.
The lowest
part of the atmosphere.
the part dirl Ctly above the Sun s
radiative zone, is the photosphere.
This is the visible part
of
t he Sun t hat
we can see,
it
is
300 400
kilometres
180-240 miles) thick
and
h as a
temperature
of
about 5530 degrees
Celsius 9,980 degrees Fahrenhelt).
This producesa white glow although
from Earth this usually appears yellow
or orange due to our own atmosphere.
As
you travel through the
photosphere away from the Sun s
core the temperature begins to drop
and
the gases become cooler. in turn
emining lesslighl. This makes the
photosphere appear darker at its outer
edges and gives the Sun
an
apparently
clearly defined outer boundary,
although this is certainly not the case
as the atmosphere extends outwards
much further.
O nce you pass t hr ough t he
photosphere you enter the
chromosphere. which is about 2.000
kilometres
0.240
miles) thick. The
temperature rises to about 9,730
degrees Celsius
(17,540
degrees
Fahrenheit), surpassing that of the
photosphere. The reason for this
is
that the conve
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Intensi
SOlar
wind
typiCa
travels
at
1 6
milliOn k
on million mph). b
the
aplosive
event th
emits
a
solar
flare
c
send
it
hlKtling towar
t/l@ Earth
up
to fo
limes fast
7
Cyd
Solar flares
peak., l I ~
on
t i Y i t y ~
T
~
of these cydes
unknown.
In
petil;xh
inactivity there
un
less
thMI
one flare we
but when
the
Sun
is
its
busiest
there
severall Wf}'
cl
Explosio
A solar can relea
up
10
6 ~ l O joules
energy .n it explod
from
t
SlriKe of t
Sun. The giant clouds
r lJon Ill partick5 c
wke
up
to two
d ys
tr Jvel to
the
Em
Magnetosphe
The magnelic:
fl't
StnOUndinc the
E
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the Solar
System
capalje detoomg mcom1ll8 sola'
flares
lhal
could
be
potenually
ha.zardous
10 satelhle5 an d OIheJ
eleruomcs on E.uth.
Of the
12
InstIUments on board
SOHO one of tile' most InterestlJ18 is
tile'
Larse Angle and Specnomemc
Coronagraph
(LASCOl wlUch
studies
tile' Sun s
mona
by
creallllg an
a.mrlCiaJ
solar
eclipse.
The
LASCO
mSirumelll
has been
latJeIy responsible lor lnadvcrtCfltly
dl.SOM'nJ18
many cometS near the
Sun.
wilh OYer 1.800 lound 10 date.
5OHO has three pnrnary
o b ectlv e5
that
It
has been carrying
OUI since
ItS launch. One of thesewas to
invesllgate the outer regions of the
Sun.
speorlCally the corona.
At the momentlt IS still unknown
why the corona is hotler than the
photosphere
and
chromosphere of
the Sun, so it is hoped thai SOHO
might help
to
provide the answer
in
th e
future. OHO has also been used
to observe the solar wind. and also
to study the interior struClure of the
Sun
through a process known
as
helioselSlllology
ThL> Solar
an d
e ~
Ob:servalDry.
also known as 50110.
was
bunched
on 2 December 1995.11 was
built In Europe by prime COOlJaCtOr
Matra Marroru Space. whICh IS now
::ADS
AslJium.
The
spacecraft is
operated
JOIntly
by
th e and NASA.
It
studll'S the Sun In depth. a.1I the way
from
its
deep COIl.
to
ItS
oute1
corona
and its
soIa.J Wind.
50110
is ma.de
of
two modules,
the
Servire
Module and the Payload
Module. The lormer prov1des SOlID
with power.
while th e
Ianer houses
aU
of
the
mstrumeTtls on
the
spacecraft.
Ovl rallihere are
12
instrumeT1lS on
board
50110.
mne of which are run
by Europe as
well
as Ihree
from
the
Umted srales.
SOIlO
is
located nea.r to Lagrangian
point
I
which
IS
a point
bel:ween
the
Earth and the Sun about
15
million
kilometres (930.000 miles)
from
our planet.
It
is
the point where the
gravitational allraet.lon of the Sun and
the Earth cancel out. so a telescope
such as SOHO can remain In a
stabl Sun provides lhe energy for
on Earth.
It
seems quite natural
tl1
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Discover the
Solar
System
serving
th
un
Hwnanity has been fascinated by the
Sun
for
thousands of years and even
primitive records still prove useful.
Discover more about
the
past, present
and future of studying the Sun
Solar
edlpsesare.l
popular
time tD view tlR
SUn
but
USinJllhe CU t Ct
vi win equipment is very
ImpOl1anl for
Civilisations
have used the
Sun to keep an accurate
count
of days.
months and
years since
at
least
BC
Qbse ,ations
of
the Sun have
been used lor both scientific and
religious ~ r v t j o n s lor mlllennia
Civilisations havt used the Sun
to kPep an accurate count Of days.
months and years since
at
least
3OOBC.
while scientists such as G< liIeo
studied
th{' Sun
through telescopes to
discern some of its characteristics.
At the Chanklilo
archaeological
sil{o
in
Peru can be found
the oldeSt
SOlJl
observatory
in
the Americas, a group
of 2 300year old structures used
10
track
the
motion
of
Ihe Sun known
as
the Thirteen Towers These towers
provide
J
rudimentary solar calend.u
through which the Sun can
be
traced.
The
towers,
( Jell between 7S and
125 square ml lres (807 and
1.345
square
feet
in
Slle
run from north
to west along a ridge along a low IIl ll
from an observation
XltnllO
the west
of
the
ridge
the Sun call be seen
to
nse and set t different
points
along
the
ridge,
which allowed ancient
civilisations
to track
the number
of
days
takes the
Sun
to
mO\ (' from
lower
to towel.
Much later. n 161l.
the renowned
Italian astronomer Gahleo
Galilei
(1564164l) use
the sun
is
the Japanese Jlinode spacecrafL
Hinode
is
a telescope in sun
synchronous 8arth
orbit,
which allows
for
nearly continuous
obS(>rvation
of the Sun.
It
was
launched
on
September
lOO6
and was initially
planrK'd
as a threerlllssion study
of
the magnetic rlClds
of
the Sun, but itS
mission has since been extended as
it
contInues to operate nominally.
Another important Sun-
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All about the Su
ifferent ways
to
observe t un
On Earth we elceive the Sun to
be
yellow ball of
gas
in
the sky
but
like anything
as hot as
the
Sun.
it
is
olCluiilly closer to being
white hot when viewed from
sp;: Ce. The e ,ne several telescopes
currently observing the Sun but
the large majority of our images com
from
the
STEREO telescope
and
the solla observatory, both
in
orbit
around the Sun. By viewing the Sun
different wavelengths
we
can study
different characteristics and see som
of its main features in a diffe/entligh
Infrared
Infrared light
responsible for more than
halfof the Sun s power output, typically
around wavelengths of 1,080 nanometres.
Infrared Images show features of the Sun s
chromosphere
and corona. The dark
features
on the image are
areas
where the gas is more
dense, absorbingmore infrared light than in
other areas.
X ray
Light with awavelength shorter
than
ten
nanometres ten billionths of ametre
Is
known
as
Xray light. Xrays
are
emitted from the
Sun s
corona, the hottestvisible layer of the Sun s
atmosphere, The visible
areas
of brightness are
places where more
Xrays
are being emitted,
around
areas
of
increased
ilCtivity
on
the
Sun s surf.lCe.
Ultraviolet
Images of the Sun in
u l t r a v ~ t
light are
between
wdvelengths of
aboot
19.5 and 30.4
nanometres. Such an
im
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.
..
.
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;cover
the
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Moon
colonie
America's challen,ge
01
t0d3y has
forged man s destinyof OlTlOrTOW
said
Apollo 17 astronaut
Gene
~ l i n
as
he stepped back
into
the
Lunar
Mcxlule wllh fellow astronaut .Jack
Schmllt
on 14
December
1972. The
Apollo
llUSSlortS
were expected
10
IOCkslart an of human
explor.ltion. indudtng lunar colonies.
manned Mars missions an: posstiy
ventures beyond. But four
decades
Ial:et:. and
IIx
PIPE' dll ams
of
2OI:h
Cenl:ury V SlOOo)nes seem funher aw
than that
fateful
firsl:
Sl ep in
1969
Irs no exagger ltJOO
to
say
thaI.
in
the
year 2012.
many had pt dicred
space
to be
teemmg WIth human hll
The
fact
thaI irs not s M fa o handf
of astronauts aboard an orbnlns spac
SLltion. is a disappomlI11el1l to many
a space enthusiast. 8m is
it
really
all doom
and
gloom?
Are
we
truly
destlJlE d
10
remam
COflSlr.lined to
ou
Blue PLmet left
observe the
Moon
from afar rather than sel:lilli i0oi:. an
wing.
where
only a dozen men have
done so befon ?
If somethmgcan
be done.
II
ub.unalely Will be
done
Silys Dr
Paul SpudIS. talking 10 us about
the possibility of a future Moon
settlemcnt.
If
ilSOlTll.
pomt il
make
scnse for the Moon to
be
IX Tmal l nt
inhabited. then it will happen:
Dr Spudls
is
somewhat of
an
expe
when it comes
to
lunar exploration.
He is
currently a senior staff scientist
.:It
the Lunar
and
Planetary InstItute
in Houston,
Texas.
and has
worked
on both the Indian Chand Jyaan
Moon programme and
NASA's
Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter. H{
also
served on a
Whiw House
panel
10
analyse a return
to
tix Moon and the
estabhshment of a lunar base.
From
tix
outsidl Iookmg in
a
posslble Moon colony might SC('m
improbable. if
001
Impossible.
but
irs
an Idea that
has been sttggested
by
scientists SIJ1Cl Iix dawn of the space
age.
includmg
Dr
SpudlS himself
advocate a
TC lum to
the Moon
to
use n
for
the creation
of
a
new
5p
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Dec 9n
Apollo 7
While
the
last
humalls on the
surface
were
Americans Gene
Cernan and Jack Schmitt.
_ 22
Aug
976
Luna 24
This
was the last spacecraft to
date to
land
on the Moon and
return lunar samples to Earth.
r
-
Nov
8
Chandrayaan
This Indian probe
found
water
olllhe Moon. and released an
impactor to Ihe surface.
istory
ofMoon
exploration
r
3 Feb 1966
luna 9
This
Soviet
'cralt was the lirst
probe 10
land
on the
Moon
al'ld return surtlce Images.
r
3 May1966
Surveyor
The
first StKcesslul unmanl'led
American Moon
landing
returned 11,000 pictures.
July 1969
Apollo
Neil Armstrong
and
BUll
Aldrin
were
the first humans
to
set
foot on
the
Moon,
Dr
Spudis highlights the need
to quantify
how
much waler icc Is
available to ensure the success of a
lunar colony: Although we koow thaI
water
exists on lhe Moon, we have
many questions boDr
Its physical
stare
and how
It
varies
in
conc:entli1tion. We
need
ro prOSpl'(t and map ice deposlrs,
eXIT..,ct
some water
to
delermine
how
dlfficulrlt may be, and use il in space
to completely demonstrate the use
of lunar water
from an
endtoend
systems engineering basis,'
Whatever
the true qUilnrlty of
water
on the Moon, the possibility
of colomslng rhe
Moon
ls not only
exciting but also incredibly useful.
From a purely fmaada. perspel:tive.
the
plOSpectS
misht set'm bleak.
F..stlmatcs
suggest a lunar colony
would
cost
upwards
of
tens
of bIllions
of
dollars.
an amount of money simply
not
available to any space agency
in
the world.
But
the parenti l returns are
huge. in the form of
job
creation, new
mventlOns and bener rechnologl('5.
P every dollar invt'lited in the Apollo
miSSion,
it
15
saJd
that around 20
dollars
were
remmed to the American
economy. The prospect of a permanent
residence on the Moon would only
Increase the porenl1a] rerum, And
rhis
is
befole we even consider the
exislence of helium-3 on
rhe
lunar
surfa>. an isotope blasted across the
Moon by solar
wind
rhal could be
the key ingredient
to
creating
fusion
reaclors, and Iherefore
huge
sources
of
powl'r, on Ealth.
lIumanity is
not JUSt
a species
drivl'n by
money.
though, despite
what some would have yO\. believe.
We are inquisitive, curi01.1S, and we
constantlystrlve 10 furthel understand
the natural
world
Mound usand
the umvelSE' as a whole. COnfining
\ l r ~ l v e s to
our world and failing to
invest
lJl
manned sp.lCe e.xplorallon
wO\. ld be akm to giving up on OUI
natural
habits. to learn,
and would
relegate
us b.lck to an age where
humans merely looked upon the
stars with fondness, rather than the
rhought that
rhey could
be explored.
h
refelence
of
water on the
Moon
is
an important one. and is onl' of thl
primary
T \5Cln5 Ihatlunar
eltp orauon
has s uc h a n intriguing talking
point
once agam. TIlE discovery
ofwat(>f on the lunar surface was
fOimally announced
by NASA on
24
St'ptember
2 9 Found
by thi:'
Chandrayaan-l orbiter and impact
probe, it was a huge announceml'nt
wIth faHeaching ramifiutlons.
As
Dr
Spudis
mentions, water
a vItal ingredient for any form
or manMd space explOration. It's
'55ential
for llfe, and
its
conStlluents
hydr
to accomplish, Ie alone one nation
going it alone.
Ttli'
discoveryof water
on the Moon, hidmg as
Ice
in the
shadowed and cold rroches of the
deepest JunJl craters. raised the
very
real
possibility of a lunar colony being
Sl'lf-sustaming. rather than rehant on
resupplies from Earth,
'Water
on the- Moon is
tlll' most
important discovery for spacenlght
since
thi.'
rocket equation: explams
Dr
Spudls, 'It means that we can
learn how to 'hvc off lhe land' on the
Moon, an essential sklU for any SpJCC -
Fanng species.'
It's
not
quite as easy as
l.Jndlng
on
the Moon and scooping up
buckelFuls
of waler, however. While water
ICt'
('xist.s, us quantities are up for deb.lte.
The owestestimates place
at
makmg
up
lust 0.00001 per cent of
a portion of lunar soil. sparser thJn
the driest deserts on E.1rth
Upper
estimates suggest a quanllty of 85 per
rent, a
much
more uselul..,mount If
COllect. In March 2010. Chandrayaan1
agam mdde.m Important discovery,
this time llnding 40 permanently
darkened craters neaJ the Moon's poles
with a potentiaJ 600
million
metric
tons 1.3 trillion pounds) of Willer
ice
If
the upper eslimate holds uue.
84
we're
not
far
away from
returning man
to
the
Moon
ana creating a
Moon base
r aul Spudls
seniorstaffsdentist
LunarandPlanetaryInstitute
Discover the Solar System
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Moon colonie
riv tising
the Moon
The besl: WiJY to coIorusl the Moon
mighl be ID
INhse
the
commen::ial
benefItS of
il,
seulement
expl ft AI Globus told
us.
Globus
has
(l evxlUSIy
woRed
on the ISS from
Earth and. alongside betng chairman
of the N a Ollil
Space
Sooety s
Space
Setllefneont
Advocacy Commlltee. he
IS a big
proponent
of
seulemen
and has
WYil:ten
many paJX fS on
lhe
subject.
By theend of the 2010s. Globus
said. governments around
the
wiD haw
a number
of landers
and
orollers OIl and around the Moon.
The
big change
in
manned
space
exploration, however.
will be the hug
growth of the
private sector.
Sub
orbtlaltourism with the hkes
Virg
Galactic willl4ke-off. with
O'Ier
LOO
people a Y\ ar reaching space
by
2020
The next two decades will see
lun
mming companies begm to spring u
on the Moon.
he
continued. although
they
cook struggle financially
at
first
The
key
For
their success
will
be the growth
of
the space tounsm
Industry;
even
though the ISS
will
be
d
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and bruised by Jupiter and its other
moons.
10 sits at a distance of 420 00
kilometres 260.000
miles
from
Jupiter, which might
sound quite
far
away but consider that our own
Moo
sits 385.000 kilometres 240.000
miles away
from us and that Jupiter
almost 318 times more massive than
Earth,
while
10
is
almost exactly the
same size
as
our Moon.
For
this
reas
it s obvious
that
while
the Eanh
exerts a
small but OOliceablc
force
on the Moon, causing it to become
gravitationally
locked
to our planet
only a billion or so years ago, Jupiter
elrerting a
huge
force
on 10
This moo
which
itself is gravitationally
locked
Volcanic plumes
on 10 can tower JOOkm t9O
miles)
in
height
and
reiCh
half
the
speed
thai
would be needed
toescape the gravky
th
OO
Alien volcanoes on
1
and present are
as
clear as
day,
with large volcanic
rings the size of
California encirding either dormant
or active vokanocs.
While
data lrom the Voyager probes.
and later the Galilco spacecraft
has
shown
us volcanic plumes erupting
from the surfaceof the moon, we
are also able to discern some of
lo s
eruptingmonsters from observations
on Earth. Some vokanoes
have
even
been active for v r two
decades,
meaning that the driving
force
below
lo s
surface is even
more
violent and
ferocious than once thought.
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