Category Archives: Space

The Kepler spacecraft has a failure

Posted on May 17, 2013 by

Two of four reaction wheels seized up, critical for precise photometry Excerpt from the Kepler Mission Manager Update. (h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard) At our semi-weekly contact on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, we found the Kepler spacecraft once again in … Continue reading →

About these ads
Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 51 Comments

NASA to fly ‘green’ rockets

Posted on May 8, 2013 by

I have to wonder if this is a good idea, what with so many other green ventures not living up to expectations, this might actually end up getting people killed if it isn’t fully tested before making it into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 65 Comments

Experience 18 minutes of world history, as if you were there, landing on the moon

Posted on May 1, 2013 by

I still get chills and misty eyes watching this. For those of us that watched the Apollo 11 moon landing live on TV, we had to be content with the voices of Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra along with simulated … Continue reading →

Posted in Educational opportunity, Fun_stuff, Space | 107 Comments

NOAA retires polar-orbiting satellite

Posted on April 10, 2013 by

Satellite exceeded anticipated lifespan by eight years April 10, 2013 After nearly 11 years of helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it … Continue reading →

Posted in NOAA, Space | 11 Comments

Earth’s orbital debris – it’s a drag

Posted on March 26, 2013 by

From the Global Aerospace Corporation Removing orbital debris with less risk Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) announced today that the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is publishing an article entitled “Removing Orbital Debris With Less Risk” in the March/April … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged | 99 Comments

Inverse hockey stick in the lower troposphere – real or not?

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

Bishop Hill via correspondent Gras Albert noted this event early today: I looked through the entire satellite record, and couldn’t find any similar event. That meant it was either unique, or indicative of a technology failure like we witnessed with … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate data, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 56 Comments

Mysterious ‘electron stash’ found hidden among Van Allen belts

Posted on March 4, 2013 by

You’d think the science on the Van Allen Radiation belts was long ago considered “settled science”. Nope. And yet, while we discover new things like this, some insist we fully understand all aspects of the workings of Earth’s climate. Instruments … Continue reading →

Posted in Earth, Science, Space | Tagged , , , , | 157 Comments

New satellite to warn of severe weather by watching lightning

Posted on March 1, 2013 by

NOAA and NASA’s next generation weather satellite may provide earlier warnings A new satellite that will detect the lightning inside storm clouds may lead to valuable improvements in tornado detection. The GOES-R satellite is currently being built with new technology … Continue reading →

Posted in NOAA, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , | 44 Comments

The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, Original Data For Science Posterity

Posted on February 26, 2013 by

Guest post by Dennis Ray Wingo Introduction The foundation of all observational science is data. This is true whether the data is temperature measurements from ground networks, satellites, or any other thing in nature that can be observed, quantified, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Curious things, Science, Space, Technology | Tagged , | 84 Comments

Russian Chelyabinsk Meteor largest since 1908 Tunguska event

Posted on February 18, 2013 by

Image credit: Google Earth, NASA/JPL-Caltech › Larger view From the WSJ (NASA JPL Statement follows): The meteor that crashed to earth in Russia was about 55 feet in diameter, weighed around 10,000 tons and was made from a stony material, … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged , , , , | 173 Comments

A problem that is bigger than global warming

Posted on February 15, 2013 by

In light of what happened yesterday, this story is even more relevant now. It was written before the meteor event in Russia. Asteroid 2012 DA14 makes its closest approach at 2:24 p.m. EST/1924 GMT today. One wonders if yesterday’s meteor … Continue reading →

Posted in Disaster, Space | Tagged , , , | 150 Comments

Large meteor in Russia caught on tape – building hit

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

VIDEO: Large meteorite caught on dash cameras in Russia Image from RT video, see below. People are a little jumpy with news of the close flyby of the asteroid 2012 DA14 tomorrow. This meteor actually hit and destroyed a building. … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Space | Tagged , , , | 157 Comments

Claim: Meteorite discovered with signs of life in it

Posted on January 14, 2013 by

This looks to be a huge story, the first evidence of extraterrestrial life, if it holds up. I would remind readers that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence“. This needs to be confirmed by others in the science community before it … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged , , , , , , , | 249 Comments

Why ice loss and sea level measurements via satellite and the new Shepherd et al paper are highly uncertain at the moment

Posted on December 3, 2012 by

There’s a paper (Shepherd et al) on ice loss and sea level rise that has been making the rounds in media (such as this article in Science Recorder, claiming it validates global warming) that is causing some stir, mainly because … Continue reading →

Posted in Gravity, Greenland ice sheet, Sea level, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 199 Comments

That CO2 is powerful stuff, now causes satellites to be threatened in orbit due to lingering space debris

Posted on November 12, 2012 by

From the “CO2 is there anything it can’t do department” comes this ridiculous piece of research making the rounds in the MSM that worries about something that has not been observed to happen…oh, wait. From Nature Geoscience, note the text … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon dioxide, Space | Tagged , , , , , , , | 145 Comments

Curiosity: no methane found on Mars – yet

Posted on November 6, 2012 by

From NASA JPL, no evidence of Methane found in first tests. PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s car-sized rover, Curiosity, has taken significant steps toward understanding how Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere.

Posted in Methane, Space | Tagged , , , | 43 Comments

Finally: JPL intends to get a GRASP on accurate sea level and ice measurements

Posted on October 30, 2012 by

A climate science bombshell: New proposal from NASA JPL admits to “spurious” errors in current satellite based sea level and ice altimetry, calls for new space platform to fix the problem. People send me stuff. Today it is a PowerPoint … Continue reading →

Posted in Sea ice, Sea level, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 127 Comments

More evidence of past water on Mars – an old streambed

Posted on September 28, 2012 by

From NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, some exciting news of the “picture is worth a thousand words” variety – NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged , , | 111 Comments

Friday Funny

Posted on September 21, 2012 by

Readers may recall when I visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum last year and took this photo of the upcoming exhibit for the new Mars Rover “Curiosity”. It looked pretty neat…and to everyone’s surprise and thrill it actually made … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Space | Tagged , , | 65 Comments

Mars’s dramatic climate variations are driven by the Sun

Posted on September 6, 2012 by

From the University of Copenhagen – something interesting, but not really surprising. It does make me wonder though about dust and carbon soot related to Earth’s own polar ice cap. – Anthony On Mars’s poles there are ice caps of … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Climate News, Space | Tagged , , , , , | 50 Comments