Latest news with #Apollo12
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Science
- Boston Globe
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space 42 years ago today. Here's how weather played a role then and now.
For the launch to be successful, the weather had to be near perfect, and the east coast of Central Florida was basking in amazing conditions that morning. Liftoff commenced without delay with temperatures in the low 70s and near-still wind. This NASA file photo dated June 1983 shows America's first woman astronaut Sally Ride, as she communicates with ground controllers from the flight deck during the six-day space mission of the Challenger. Ride, the first US woman to fly in space, died on July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. - But bad weather in Florida upon return to Earth June 24, 1983, forced Challenger to land three time zones away at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in the Mojave desert, where still conditions were certain, especially for a powerless glider that depended on a stable atmosphere to land comfortably. The base also provided very wide runways for a smooth Challenger landing. Sally Ride and STS-7 returns safely in California after bad weather in Florida changed the landing location. NASA Advertisement NASA has strict parameters in place when it comes to weather to 'greenlight' a launch — most of which are obvious. Wind speed and direction need to be light and steady. High winds of 30 miles per hour or more will usually scrap flight plans for the day, and any sudden changes in wind direction may cause issues as the rocket moves vertically through the atmosphere. (Back when Sally Ride was breaking barriers in the Space Shuttle program, launches were delayed or canceled when wind speeds were as low as 22 miles per hour.) Advertisement High visibility with little to no cloud cover is also necessary. Any instability in the atmosphere, albeit minor, can cause lightning when a rocket burning copious amounts of fuel at extreme temperatures blasts through. Apollo 12 was struck by lightning twice during liftoff on Nov. 14, 1969, because of its heat production. Essentially, the rocket's exhaust system acted as a lightning rod and sparked lightning with already-lifting air from a nearby cold front. Temperatures and humidity both play critical roles in NASA rocket launches, as everything from the structural integrity and rocket performance can be impacted by weather conditions. Fuel, insulation, wiring, and other components can expand, contract, or break down if weather conditions aren't ideal. Many will remember the Challenger's last trip on Jan. 28, 1986, when air temperatures were 36 degrees, approximately 15 degrees colder than any other shuttle launch, causing the O-ring seal to become brittle and ultimately fail, leading to a catastrophic explosion. All Weather continues to play a critical role in NASA's strict 'launch commit criteria,' and if anything is near or outside the safe range, the launch is delayed or scrubbed for another day. Here's a look at an example weather checklist when considering safe conditions to launch. An example of the weather checklist utilized to proceed or delay a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. NASA Ken Mahan can be reached at
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Europe stages a moon landing to learn how to photograph the real thing (photos)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Pictures from a simulated moon landing, not designed to fool anyone into believing a fake but rather to provide a reference to make sure that we can get the best video images possible when astronauts finally do return to the moon, have been released by the European Space Agency (ESA). When Neil Armstrong clambered down the Eagle's lander to take his "one giant leap" in 1969, it was captured by a black-and-white slow-scan television (SSTV) with a resolution of a mere 320 lines and 10 frames per second. The transmission, beamed back via NASA's Deep Space Network, was sketchy, plagued by ghosts and poor contrast. The available 900 to 1,000 kiloHertz bandwidth just wasn't sufficient to transmit in color. Things improved slightly with Apollo 12, which had a wider 2 to 3 megaHertz bandwidth that permitted color footage — at least until the video camera was accidentally pointed at the sun, the solar intensity damaging its vacuum tube. Soon, NASA's Artemis crewed moon missions will be flying with high-definition and ultra-high definition color cameras with frame rates of up to 60 per second. But even though the technology has dramatically improved since 1969, there remain many challenges for successfully documenting a lunar landing on video. Bandwidth continues to be one of these challenges, as does the 1.3-second signal delay from the moon, dealing with bright sunlight starkly reflecting off the lunar surface, and moon dust that seems to be able to find its way into every nook and cranny. Therefore, taking detailed images and video footage of activities on the lunar surface and transmitting them back to Earth, all within the constraints of these challenges, is an acquired skill. We can't yet just pop to the moon to practice, so the next best thing is to simulate the environment of the moon somewhere on Earth. Indeed, this is the purpose of the LUNA facility in Cologne, Germany, which is a joint project between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym DLR). The idea is to create a lunar environment that is as realistic as possible for testing robotic landers, training astronauts and practicing with equipment — including, in this case, cameras. To that end, imaging experts from the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), which features representatives from 28 countries, have convened on LUNA to practice shooting astronauts playing make-believe in a simulated lunar environment. Spending time at LUNA gave imaging expert Melanie Cowan, who is ESA's representative on the CCSDS' Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group team, "a glimpse of what it may be like on the moon," she said in a statement. "One cannot get any closer to the real thing. It was a special and challenging experience to film and photograph in this surreal environment." Indeed, so realistic was this pretend moon that Cowan and fellow imaging experts had to wear protective clothing to prevent the simulated lunar dust from being breathed in, or getting in their hair or on their clothes. Dust could be a major problem for astronauts spending any appreciable time on the surface; it is so fine that it gets everywhere, sticking to surfaces and potentially clogging up equipment. So, donned in their protective clothing reminiscent of the head-to-toe suits used in clean rooms, the imaging experts captured footage of astronauts descending from a mock lunar lander, exploring the surface and even taking a selfie — something that Neil Armstrong may have wished he'd had the opportunity to do. (There are famously few images of Armstrong on the moon, since he carried the Hasselblad camera during most of his and Buzz Aldrin's historic moonwalk.) The point behind taking the selfie was to see how much detail could be captured in the reflection on the visor of the astronaut's helmet. The resulting images and video are intended to be used as reference files for the real thing, so that astronauts and imaging technicians can better understand what camera settings to use, and how large the resulting image or video files might be when transmitted. "These efforts should help agencies and companies create a ground truth for video applications and equipment," said Falk Schiffner, who is the DLR representative in the CCSDS Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group. "The activities to refine video quality are not geared only to moon imagery, but to all space transmissions." Capturing good footage on the moon is not as easy as on Earth. For one thing, because there is no appreciable atmosphere on the moon to scatter sunlight, the contrast between areas directly illuminated by the sun and areas in black shadow can lead to over-exposed daylight areas and totally black shadowed regions. And the slow rise and setting of the sun over a two-week period from any given location results in slowly changing conditions. To replicate all of this at the LUNA facility required a lot of trial and error with camera angles and lighting. "We tried different sun simulators and techniques to replicate the lighting of the sun on the moon," said Cowan. "We investigated the effects of the shadows from the rocks and inside craters. Early tests revealed that HDR video will provide more detail in shadowed areas on the lunar surface." Related stories: — European Space Agency: Facts & information — Apollo 11: First men on the moon — NASA's Artemis program: Everything you need to know HDR stands for "high dynamic range," which can drastically improve the contrast ratio of an image, or boost its colors. Camera manufacturer Nikon has already teamed up with NASA to develop modified Nikon Z9 cameras to be used by astronauts should they land on the moon as part of the eventual Artemis 3 mission. The Nikon Z9 possesses both HDR and UHD (ultra-high definition) capabilities that will be essential for use in the strange, stark lunar landscape. Taking an 8K UHD video camera to the moon is one thing, but transmitting all that data back to Earth in a livestream (or as live as it can be with the 1.3-second delay) has limitations in the available bandwidth. In particular, footage containing lots of motion is referred to as an "encoder killer," as it bumps the data rate way up. In practice, data transmission from the moon will be compressed, just as it already is from the International Space Station, for example, but even then methods will have to be found to squeeze it all into the available bandwidth without losing too much data. Help may soon be coming thanks to ESA's Moonlight initiative, which plans to launch a constellation of five satellites into orbit around the moon. Four of these spacecraft will assist future missions with navigation, and the other will provide high-data-rate communications between the lunar surface, spacecraft in lunar orbit or traveling to the moon, and ground stations on Earth. The intent is for Moonlight to be fully operational by 2030.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Science
- CBC
With uncertainty around life on Mars, human visits present an ethical dilemma
The first step by a human on the surface of Mars will inevitably transfer Earthly microbes onto Martian soil. Scientists are increasingly concerned with what the implications of contaminating another planet will be. A recent study, published this month in the journal Microbiome, analyzed the clean rooms at the Kennedy Space Center, where Mars landers are sterilized before launch. The team found 26 species of novel bacteria that could potentially survive the harsh environment of space. These organisms contain genes that enhance DNA repair, detoxification of harmful molecules, and enhance metabolism, all of which makes them more hardy. NASA goes to great lengths to ensure any spacecraft that departs for Mars is sterilized in these ultra-clean rooms and sealed in capsules before launch to prevent cross-contamination between two planets. We don't know whether any of these microbes actually made it to Mars because we have no way of examining the spacecraft while they are on the Red Planet. The chances of microbes surviving the vacuum of space, extreme temperatures, along with solar and cosmic radiation are slim, however there was a case where Earth microbes did seem to survive for years on the moon. In 1969, the crew of Apollo 12 landed close to a robotic probe called Surveyor 3 which had arrived on the lunar surface three years earlier. The astronauts removed a television camera, electrical cables and a sample scoop which were returned to Earth for study on the long term effects of exposure to space. To everyone's surprise, a common bacteria, Streptococcus mitis, was found inside the camera lens. This harmless organism, normally found in the mouth and throat of humans, was thought to have been on the spacecraft before launch because Surveyor was not sterilized. A later study done by NASA in 1998 suggested the bacteria could have come from contamination due to poor procedures after the lens was returned to Earth. But there is still the possibility that microbes could survive in space. Sterilizing a robotic spacecraft to prevent contamination is one thing, but sterilizing human beings is impossible. We are substantially made of bacteria, covered in microbes from head to toe and internally, constantly shedding them with dead skin and other detritus. And those organisms will travel with us to Mars. WATCH | Saturday cleaning day on the Space Station: New species of bacteria have been found inside China's Tiangong-1 space station and astronauts on the International Space Station are constantly cleaning the walls to prevent the buildup of microbes in that sealed environment. This is evidence that bacteria can survive the higher radiation environment of a space habitat. That means any human boot that touches the Martian soil will bring with it organisms from inside the spacecraft or colony. Whether those bugs could survive long in the Martian environment is to be determined, but the more serious issue is what they would do to any indigenous organisms that could already be living on Mars. Curiosity, one of the rovers currently driving around on the Red Planet, has been collecting soil samples from different areas and sealing them in tubes to be collected and returned to Earth by a future sample return mission. The idea is to look for signs of current life or fossils of past life using the powerful tools in Earth laboratories. But NASA is proposing cancelling the sample return, so we may not know for some time whether microbes exist in Martian soil. Mars shows signs of a warm and wet past, where the planet was once covered with lakes, rivers and oceans. This was during a time, roughly three billion years ago, when life was emerging on Earth. So far, no signs of life have been found on Mars, but we have only been looking on the surface, not underground where water might exist. Still, there is talk of sending people to Mars, even establishing a Mars colony. But is that wise before we determine whether the planet has life or not? In the classic science fiction story, War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, Martians come to Earth with invincible machines that wreak havoc on cities. Our most powerful weapons are useless against their incredible power. But eventually, the invaders are taken down by the tiniest creature, the common cold, for which they had no resistance. In real life, the tables are turned.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blue Origin's all-women flight to launch today with Gayle King, Katy Perry on board
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's space tourism company, will launch its latest spaceflight this morning with a historic all-women crew. Those on board 'New Shepard (NS)' include CBS This Morning host Gayle King, pop singer Katy Perry, activist Amanda Nguyen, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn and former TV host Lauren Sánchez, who is Bezos's fiancée. This flight is called NS-31. KIRO 7 will be taking the launch live throughout our morning newscasts. Each spaceflight lasts about 11 minutes, taking passengers just past the Kármán line — 62 miles above Earth, which some international aviation and aerospace experts consider the threshold of space — allowing the crew to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. The rocket will then descend back to Earth, with its single engine restarting to slow the booster down to just 6 mph for a controlled landing back on the launchpad. The capsule carrying the crew descends separately, deploying three parachutes for its landing nearby. According to Elle Magazine, Bowe will be bringing up the Apollo 12 flag, courtesy of the Museum of Flight in Tukwila. Crews have been prepping by taking zero-gravity flight simulations. It's unclear how much a seat on the New Shepard costs, but according to its website, there's a $150,000 fully-refundable deposit to begin the process. In 2022, MoonDAO, marketed as 'the internet's space program' said it paid about $2.5 million for two seats.
Arab News
13-04-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Japanese leader says he hopes Osaka expo will help reunite a divided world
OSAKA, Japan: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, speaking at Saturday's opening ceremony for the Osaka expo, expressed his hope that the event will help restore global unity in a world plagued by conflicts and trade wars. 'The world, having overcome the coronavirus pandemic, is now threatened by an array of divisions,' Ishiba said. 'At a time like this, it is extremely meaningful that people from around the world gather here and discuss the theme of life and experience cutting-edge technology, diverse ideas and culture.' Expo 2025 Osaka officially opened Sunday, with the theme of life, world and the future, and Japan hopes to bring unity and portray a future society. But the event's celebrations have been somewhat dampened by US President Donald Trump's recent tariff threats, which add to global tension and uncertainty, with Russia's war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East dragging on. Citing the expo's iconic lattice-like wooden 'Grand Ring,' which symbolizes unity and encircles the venue, Ishiba said: 'I sincerely hope the world will unite again through interactions among countries and visitors in and outside of this ring.' The costly ring, the world's largest wooden architectural structure, is 20 meters (65 feet) high and has a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) circumference. During the six-month event on the reclaimed island and industrial waste burial site of Yumeshima, which means dream island, in the Osaka Bay, the city is hosting some 180 countries, regions and organizations showcasing their futuristic exhibits inside of about 80 pavilions of unique designs. It is Osaka's second world expo after the 1970 event that scored a huge success and attracted 64 million visitors — a record until Shanghai in 2010. This time, Japan has faced dwindling public interest, and support and was hit by soaring construction costs due to the weaker yen. The cost nearly doubled from the initial estimate to 235 billion yen ($1.64 billion), about 14 percent of which went to the ring, triggering criticisms from many Japanese over the government's use of their tax money. The cost increase also caused construction delays for some countries. Several pavilions, including those of Nepal and India, were not quite ready Saturday. Conflicts also affected preparations for Ukraine and the Palestinians. Russia did not participate. Ticket sales have been slow. So far, 9 million advance tickets had been sold, far short of the organizers' target of 14 million. Organizers hope to have more than 28 million visitors at the event that lasts through Oct. 13. Emperor Naruhito, in his address at Saturday's opening ceremony, recalled visiting the earlier expo as a fascinating experience for a then 10-year-old prince. 'I vividly remember how excited I was coming across the latest technology, playing with a wireless phone and looking at the moon rock,' brought back by the US Apollo 12 lunar mission, said the emperor, now 65. Naruhito said he hoped the second Osaka expo would be as successful and expressed hope that children will learn more about people, regions and the world and think about future society by interacting with next-generation technologies and efforts for sustainable future.
