RSS Feed     Twitter     Facebook
Blog > Archive by tag 'Science & Environment'

Posts Tagged ‘Science & Environment’

British plan to tackle asteroids

August 31st, 2009 | No Comments

A team of British scientists are developing plans for a spacecraft that could stop large asteroids from destroying the Earth.

The 10 tonne "gravity tractor" would deflect any orbiting rocks years before any potential collision could happen.

The device, which would rely on the force of gravity, is being developed by Stevenage space company, EADS Atrium.

However the idea is still in its early stages and the company admits a prototype has not yet been made.

Gravity tractory

NASA’s Near Earth Object Programme reports on its website that it has recorded 1068 known "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids", however there are thousands more estimated to be present in space.

Dr Ralph Cordey, who is EADS Astrium’s head of exploration and business told the BBC that the concept of a tug was actually first mooted by two Nasa astronauts, Edward Lu and Stanley Love, a few years ago.

He said: "Frankly I thought it was crackers. I thought it would never work."

But he said after reconsidering the idea and focusing on specific engineering issues, including the size of the spacecraft, and long-term propulsion methods, it was considered by the team to be potentially feasible.

The tractor would intercept the asteroid from just 48 metres away and exert a small gravitational force on it, pulling the rock towards it. The pair would then embark on a different orbit, away from the Earth.

It could possibly be powered using solar panels.

However the device would have to be launched at least 15 years before any predicted collision and would need a team to monitor it from the ground during this time.

Dr Cordey said the company had worked with a number of space authorities on other methods of protecting the Earth from asteroids but this one would be able to target a wider range.

He said: "We have done quite a lot of design work on this with the European Space Agency and we believe this would work just as well on a big solid iron asteroid as well as other types."

But the high cost implications mean that before the device could be made, it would have to be commissioned by a government or a group of governments working together.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Shuttle Discovery arrives at ISS

August 31st, 2009 | No Comments

Discovery on the launch pad (Nasa)

The space shuttle Discovery has arrived at the International Space Station for a nine-day stay.

Commander Rick Sturkow used the main thrusters to dock at the station because the smaller manoeuvring ones were out of action.

The shuttle is carrying scientific and exercise equipment for the space station’s residents.

Its astronauts will also carry out a range of repairs and installations before returning to Earth.

Their schedule includes three spacewalks to replace exterior science experiments, prepare the platform for the arrival of a new module next year, and to install a new ammonia storage tank and return the used one.

Discovery will also drop off US astronaut Nicole Stott for a three-month stay on the ISS and pick up colleague Tim Kopra for the ride home.

The shuttle will spend a total of 13 days in space.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Europe looks to buy Soyuz craft

August 28th, 2009 | No Comments

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Soyuz (Nasa)

Europe is seeking to maintain flight opportunities for its astronauts by buying Soyuz spacecraft from Russia.

The European Space Agency (Esa) has asked Moscow if it is possible to increase the production of the craft from four to five a year.

Esa could then buy its own vehicle, perhaps with the Canadians who are also looking for more seat opportunities.

The expected retirement of US shuttles in 2010/11 means fewer humans will be going into space in the coming years.

The venerable Soyuz craft will be the only way of getting to the International Space Station (ISS), certainly in the short term.

Simonetta Di Pippo, the director of human spaceflight at Esa, told BBC News she was hopeful a deal on Soyuz could be put in place for 2013.

"From ’13 on, we would like to have at least one European astronaut per year flying and this can be done in various ways. One of the proposals we are putting on the table is to buy a full Soyuz," she said.

Frank De Winne (Nasa)

Discussions with the Russians on the subject took place at the recent International Aviation and Space Salon, MAKS 2009.

Various technical aspects would need to be studied, including the feasibility of ramping up production at manufacturer Energia and how the additional flight would be accommodated at the station’s docking ports.

"The feeling with the Russians was really good," Mrs Di Pippo said. "We had a great meeting and I think in two or three months, we will be able to come out with a firm proposal."

Europe’s astronauts are in the middle of an excellent run of opportunity at the moment.

Leopold Eyharts and Hans Schlegel flew to the station with the European Columbus science module in 2008. Christer Fuglesang and Frank De Winne are flying this year, with De Winne set to take command of the ISS in October.

Paolo Nespoli and Roberto Vittori will both launch next year. Vittori is set to fly on what presently looks to be the very last shuttle mission.

And Andre Kuipers has been selected for a six-month tour of the ISS which he will take up at the end of 2011. Beyond Kuipers, the European schedule is empty.

But Europe has just appointed six new candidates to its astronaut corps. Although the rookies must complete at least three years’ basic training before even being considered for a mission, Esa has to plan ahead now to find them rides.

Additional ‘room’

Mrs Di Pippo also said Esa was close to an agreement with the Americans on adding an extra European "room" to the International Space Station.

The intention is to leave one of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLMs) at the ISS.

The Italian-built MPLMs are the large cylindrical "packing boxes" put in a shuttle’s payload bay when the orbiter flies logistics missions to the orbiting platform. They hold about 7-10 tonnes of supplies.

Once in orbit, the pressurised module is picked up by the shuttle’s robotic arm and attached to a station docking port. The astronauts then unload its contents.

Normally, the MPLMs return home immediately with the shuttle, but with the orbiter fleet’s retirement, the intention now is to leave the module known as Raffaello in space to provide extra volume.

Raffaello in orbit (Nasa)

"It’s a great idea," said Mrs Di Pippo. "The issue though is that an MPLM was designed to stay in orbit for 15 days, so we would need to reinforce the protection from meteorites and debris. Nasa wants to consider it mainly as a storage compartment."

This role would allow volume to be freed up elsewhere on the station for science activity, principally in Columbus.

Mrs Di Pippo said she expected European engineers to arrive at Nasa’s human spaceflight HQ in Houston, Texas, next month to begin the design work on upgrading Raffaello.

The MPLMs were manufactured by Thales Alenia Space (TAS). Its contribution to the orbiting project has been remarkable: more than half of the pressurised volume on the ISS has come from TAS.

Raffaello, however, will not need to return to Italy for the upgrade; the strengthening work can be done in the US.

Mrs Di Pippo said she hoped the idea could proceed under a barter arrangement with the US, whereby the European work would represent an "in kind payment" to replace equivalent cash purchases Esa currently makes for ISS services provided by the Americans.

"The launch is scheduled for September next year so we need to start work right now," said Mrs Di Pippo.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Single molecule’s stunning image

August 28th, 2009 | No Comments

By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Pentacene molecule image (IBM)

The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule has been imaged for the first time, say researchers.

The physical shape of single carbon nanotubes has been outlined before, using similar techniques – but the new method even shows up chemical bonds.

Understanding molecular structure on this scale could help in the design of many things on the molecular scale, particularly electronics or even drugs.

The IBM researchers report their findings in the journal Science.

It is the same group that in July reported the feat of measuring the charge on a single atom.

Fine tuning

In both cases, a team from IBM Research Zurich used what is known as an atomic force microscope or AFM.

Their version of the device acts like a tiny tuning fork, with one of the prongs of the fork passing incredibly close to the sample and the other farther away.

When the fork is set vibrating, the prong nearest the sample will experience a minuscule shift in the frequency of its vibration, simply because it is getting close to the molecule.

Comparing the frequencies of the two prongs gives a measure of just how close the nearer prong is, effectively mapping out the molecule’s structure.

Atomic force microscope (SPL)

The measurement requires extremes of precision. In order to avoid the effects of stray gas molecules bounding around, or the general atomic-scale jiggling that room-temperature objects experience, the whole setup has to be kept under high vacuum and at blisteringly cold temperatures.

However, the tip of the AFM’s prong is not well-defined and isn’t necessarily sharp on the scale of single atoms. The effect of this bluntness is to blur the instrument’s images.

The researchers have now hit on the idea of deliberately picking up just one small molecule – made of one atom of carbon and one of oxygen – with the AFM tip, forming the sharpest, most well-defined tip possible.

Their measurement of a pentacene molecule using this carbon monoxide tip shows the bonds between the carbon atoms in five linked rings, and even suggests the bonds to the hydrogen atoms at the molecule’s periphery.

Tip of the iceberg

Lead author of the research Leo Gross told BBC News that the group is aiming to combine their ability to measure individual charges with the new technique, characterising molecules at a truly unprecedented level of detail.

That will help in particular in the field of "molecular electronics", a potential future for electronics in which individual molecules serve as switches and transistors.

Although the approach can trace out the ethereal bonds that connect atoms, it cannot distinguish between atoms of different types.

The team aims to use the new technique in tandem with a similar one known as scanning tunnelling microscopy – in which a tiny voltage is passed through the sample – to determine if the two methods in combination can deduce the nature of each atom in the AFM images.

That would help the entire field of chemistry, in particular the synthetic chemistry used for drug design.

The results are of wide interest to others who study the nano-world with similar instruments. For them, implementing the same approach is as simple as picking up one of these carbon monoxide molecules with their AFM before taking a measurement.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

India’s water use ‘unsustainable’

August 13th, 2009 | No Comments

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Farmers in paddy field

Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages. according to results from Nasa’s gravity satellites.

The Grace mission discovered that in the country’s northwest – including Delhi – the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.

The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis.

That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world’s second most populous nation.

"The situation has to stop today or tomorrow"

Dr Raj Gupta
CIMMYT

New crops needed to avoid famines

About a quarter of India is experiencing drought conditions, as the monsoon rains have been weaker and later than usual.

But weather and climatic factors are not responsible for water depletion in the northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, according to the Nasa study.

"We looked at the rainfall record and during this decade, it’s relatively steady – there have been some up and down years but generally there’s no drought situation, there’s no major trend in rainfall," said Matt Rodell, a hydrologist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC.

"So naturally we would expect the groundwater level to stay where it is unless there is an excessive stress due to people pumping too much water, which is what we believe is happening."

State of Grace

The Grace (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission uses two satellites flying along the same orbit, one just in front of the other.

Minute differences in the Earth’s gravitational pull cause the two craft to shift slightly in their positions relative to one another.

The Grace satellites provide a twin eye on Earth gravity

Grace twins measure ‘potato’ Earth

Artist's impression of Grace satellite in orbit

The mission can measure groundwater depletion because the amount of water in aquifers has a small gravitational attraction for the satellites.

Three years ago, Grace scientists noted a loss of water in parts of Africa – but the Indian result is more striking.

"Over the six-year timeframe of this study, about 109 cubic kilometres of water were depleted from this region – more than double the capacity of India’s largest reservoir is gone between 2002 and 2008," Dr Rodell told the BBC.

The northwest of India is heavily irrigated; and the Indian government’s State of the Environment report, published on Tuesday, noted that irrigation increased rice yields seven-fold in some regions compared to rain-fed fields.

Dr Raj Gupta, a scientist working for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), said that the current drought would lead to more groundwater extraction.

"Farmers receive no rains so they are pumping a lot more water than the government expected, so the water table will fall further," he said.

"The farmers have to irrigate, and that’s why they’re pumping more water, mining more water. The situation has to stop today or tomorrow."

Dr Gupta noted that some farmers might be able to switch from rice to crops that demand less water, such as maize or sorghum.

But, he said, that would depend on government policies – which have traditionally promoted rice – and on market demand.

Climate change is likely to be a constraint too, with the area of South Asia suitable for wheat forecast to halve over the next 50 years.

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

‘Alien-like’ rare frog reproduction caught on camera

August 11th, 2009 | No Comments

By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

"Alien-like" scenes of tadpoles feasting on eggs emerging from their mother have been caught on camera.

The footage marks the success of a captive breeding programme for the critically endangered mountain chicken frog, one of the world’s largest frogs.

In April, 50 of the amphibian giants were airlifted from Montserrat after a deadly fungus swept through the island, devastating the population.

Now several breeding programmes are under way to save the frogs.

Once numbers have been boosted in captivity, researchers hope to reintroduce the frogs back into the wild within the next two years.

Bizarre sight

The remarkable footage was recorded at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in Jersey, which took in 12 of the rescued frogs. Twenty-six others went to Parken Zoo in Sweden, and 12 are now housed in ZSL London Zoo.

So far, four pairs of mountain chicken frogs have started to breed – which could result in hundreds of frogs. And this has given researchers an insight into the way that these unusual amphibians care for their offspring.

Professor John Fa, director of Durrell, said: "Mountain chickens have very peculiar breeding habits because they form foam nests in burrows in the ground."

The females lay their eggs in these nests, which eventually hatch into tadpoles. But as the nests are underground, food is scarce – so the frogs need to find a way to provide nutrition for their young.

Professor Fa explained: "In the case of mountain chickens, we have discovered that the female comes into the nest and starts laying a string of infertile eggs.

Mountain chicken tadpoles feeding on their mother's infertilized eggs (Gerardo Garcia/Durrell)

"We thought that the eggs would come out and drop to the bottom of the nest and then the tadpoles would start eating them. But the footage shows about 40 tadpoles congregating around the female and eating the eggs as they come out of the female’s body.

"Every now and again, the female uses her back legs to push the tadpoles away from her body so another set can come up and eat as much as they can."

He added: "It is really weird – it is an alien scene. This is the first time we have caught this on film."

Frog killer

The mountain chicken frog (Leptodactylus fallax) is one of the world’s most threatened frogs. The frog is so called because its meat tastes like chicken.

It was once found on seven Caribbean Islands, but thanks to hunting and environmental pressures it is currently found only on Montserrat and Dominica.

Q&A: The frog-killer fungus

Dead rainforest frogs; credit: SPL

Now, however, the deadly chytrid fungus, which has devastated amphibian populations around the globe, has also ravaged Dominica’s mountain chickens.

The fungus was first detected on the island in 2002, and within 15 months, 80% of the mountain chicken population had been obliterated.

Conservationists were extremely concerned when they found that the chytrid fungus had spread to Montserrat earlier this year, and was sweeping quickly through the last mountain chicken population.

The team made a decision to airlift some of the last healthy frogs and bring them into captivity in a bid to save the creatures from extinction.

Professor Fa said: "Things are not going terribly well in Montserrat because chytrid has now infected the safe population – or at least the one we thought was safe."

The breeding success has offered scientists a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak situation, and they are now concentrating on increasing the frogs’ numbers.

Mountain chicken frog (Gerardo Garcia/Durrell)

They hope to eventually release the captive mountain chickens back to their native home of Montserrat, and are currently looking for sites that are free of the deadly fungus.

But Professor Fa said: "If that doesn’t work, if the area is infected, we will have to think again, and it could be that we take the animals to another island.

"Within a year or two we have to get these animals back to the wild. The longer you keep them in captivity, the more difficult it is for them to enjoy a life in the wild again."

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Skywatchers set for meteor shower

August 10th, 2009 | No Comments

Perseid (SPL)

Skygazers are getting ready to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on Wednesday.

The Perseid shower occurs when the Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle.

As this cometary "grit" strikes our atmosphere, it burns up, often creating streaks of light across the sky.

This impressive spectacle appears to originate from a point called a "radiant" in the constellation of Perseus – hence the name Perseid.

"Earth passes through the densest part of the debris stream sometime on 12 August. Then, you could see dozens of meteors per hour," said Bill Cooke of Nasa’s meteoroid environment office.

No special equipment is required to watch the sky show. Astronomers say binoculars might help, but will also restrict the view to a small part of the sky.

The Perseids can appear in any part of the sky, but their tails all point back to the radiant in the constellation Perseus.

In the UK, the best times to see the Perseids are likely to be on the morning of 12 August before dawn and from late evening on the 12th through to the early hours of the 13 August.

This year, light from the last quarter Moon will interfere significantly with the view.

The rock and dust fragments which cause the shower were left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle when it last came near the Sun.

The comet orbits the Sun once every 130 years and last swept through the inner Solar System in 1992.

Graphic

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

‘Crisis satellite’ returns images

August 10th, 2009 | No Comments

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (SSTL)

Britain’s latest imaging satellite has returned its first pictures.

UK-DMC2 was launched with a twin spacecraft, Deimos-1, on a Dnepr rocket from Kazakhstan last month.

The platforms have joined the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, which is used to obtain rapid information about areas struck by natural calamities.

UK-DMC2′s test pictures of the US states of Texas and Oklahoma show the satellite is performing to its design specification.

The UK spacecraft and its Spanish twin can acquire better resolution pictures than their predecessors in the constellation.

Their new sensors see double the number of pixels per hectare, giving their pictures a pixel size of 22m. The satellites also achieve this detailed view over a wide swath of 650km, meaning spacecraft will return a lot of information in just one pass.

When a major natural catastrophe strikes some part of the globe, the spacecraft and the orbital assets of Disaster Monitoring Constellation will be tasked with gathering emergency pictures as fast as possible.

The imagery will be used by governments and aid agencies to co-ordinate the relief effort.

Agriculture in Kay County, Oklahoma (SSTL)

UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 were manufactured by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited.

The constellation already includes spacecraft owned by the UK, Algeria, China and Nigeria.

When they fly over their home territories, the satellites acquire a range of data for domestic use – everything from urban planning to monitoring locust swarms. But when the platforms fly across the rest of the globe, they gather imagery which is pooled and sold on to commercial users.

The network as a whole is managed by an SSTL subsidiary, Disaster Monitoring Constellation International Imaging (DMCii).

DMCii has just been commissioned to image the whole of sub-Saharan Africa as part of Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme

The data will, in part, be used to keep a check on deforestation in the vast Congo Basin forest area.

As the second largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon Basin, it is an area of significant concern in the fight against deforestation and the quest to limit carbon emissions.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

In pictures

August 10th, 2009 | No Comments

Himalayan species under threat from climate change

Read More »

Scientists get closer to understanding ‘freak waves’

August 9th, 2009 | No Comments

By Griet Scheldeman
Science reporter, BBC News

Wave (Autocat/EyeWire)

Scientists in the US have made a major advance in their understanding of so-called freak waves.

These monster waves present a major risk to ships and offshore platforms.

A computer simulation developed by oceanographers in the US could help locate where and when these "rogue" phenomena are most likely to occur.

The theoretical study shows that coastal areas with variations in water depth and strong currents are hot spots for freak waves.

The history of seafaring is littered with tales of rogue waves capable of rendering ships asunder.

A freak wave is one that measures roughly three times higher than other swells on the sea at any one time. These phenomena can measure up to 18m (60ft) – the height of a six-storey building.

The new computer simulation was developed by Tim Janssen of San Francisco State University (SFSU) and Thomas HC Herbers of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Their findings are published in the Journal of Physical Oceanography.

Focal zone

Sandbanks and strong currents may cause waves to change direction and speed. This concentrates wave energy into a single point, which oceanographers call a "wave focal zone".

This zone is like a burning glass, Dr Janssen explained, where the light comes in and focuses all the energy on a single point, forming a hot spot.

The same happens when a wave travels over, for example, a sandbank, or over a current. The energy is being focused on to a single point.

Oil platform (Getty)

The researchers found these hot spots were much more likely to drive the formation of extreme waves.

"In a normal wave field, on average, roughly three waves in every 10,000 are extreme waves," Dr Janssen explained.

"In a focal zone, this number could increase to about three in every 1,000 waves."

The scientists fed data on real waves into their computer model. Then, they repeated a single experiment over and over, each time using different data.

The SFSU oceanographer said he next hoped to go to known freak wave hotspots such as the Cortez Banks on the coast of California to test whether his simulations held true.

"What’s really important about this research, is that it is easy to validate. We have a theory now, a prediction, and we can go to areas and actually measure whether this happens or not," he told BBC News.

Vital knowledge

Understanding where and when freak waves are most likely to occur could assist shipping and navigation in coastal areas.

The knowledge could be used for marine weather forecasts and could also inform the design of offshore platforms.

"If you know that a certain area is very prone to freak waves, then you might wish to stay away from it," Dr Janssen said.

"Anybody out in the ocean would like to [have this information]."

However, Dr Janssen was keen to stress that the study is theoretical.

"We have tried to be as realistic as we could, but we are a long way away from making a prediction solid enough for people to actually use. However, it might be something to work towards," he said.

Dr Janssen added that the word "freak wave" was unfortunate, as it suggests these types of wave are unexpected. But, he explained, the random nature of ocean waves means that any size of wave can happen at any time.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Experts puzzled by bright spot on Venus

August 1st, 2009 | No Comments

Venus (Esa/MPS)

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.

The spot was first identified by an amateur astronomer on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft.

Data from the European probe suggests the spot appeared at least four days before it was spotted from Earth.

The bright spot has since started to expand, being spread by winds in Venus’ thick atmosphere.

Scientists are unsure as to what caused the bright spot tens of kilometres up. However, a volcanic eruption is a possibility.

Much of the planet is thought to have been resurfaced by volcanism. Though no firm evidence for present-day volcanism has been discovered, scientists suspect it could still be happening on Venus.

But an eruption would have needed to be extremely powerful to penetrate this far through the planet’s dense, mainly carbon dioxide, atmosphere.

Another potential source for the bright spot are charged particles from the Sun interacting with Venus’ atmosphere.

Alternatively, atmospheric turbulence may have caused bright material to become concentrated in one area.

This is not the first time bright areas have been spotted on Venus. But this feature is unusual because it is confined to a relatively small region.

The spot was first identified by US amateur astronomer Frank Melillo, from Holtsville, New York.

Astronomers have recently been studying a "scar" on Jupiter, thought to have been caused by a comet or asteroid impact. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Bloodhound diary

July 30th, 2009 | No Comments

RAF fighter pilot Andy Green intends to get behind the wheel of a car that is capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,609km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the Bloodhound car will mount an assault on the land speed record.

Wing Cmdr Green is writing a diary for the BBC News Website about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team’s efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering.

He says the latter presents "a huge task", but is worth the effort. He adds: "If we want to live in a high technology low-carbon world in the near future, then someone is going to have to build it for us, and that someone needs to be inspired now".

‘EXCITING TIMES’

Bloodhound (Andy Green)

Every month we get together for a team meeting to discuss how all areas of the project are progressing – funding, engineering, public relations, education, and so on.

One of my contributions to these meetings has been a series of updates on the search for a desert in which to run Bloodhound.

Following recent tests, we’ve found out that surface preparation can be done adequately in South Africa, but not so easily in the US.

I’ve also started to look at the finer detail, such as where we would put the tracks, where the team would live, and so on. The interest in the team is electric; they really want to get the car built and get out there.

Every new day is a day closer to our objective – it’s hard not to be a bit excited.

The engineering is coming on well in most areas, with incredible support from our product sponsors (over 140 to date). In its current configuration, the car uses asymmetrical wheels.

We’re currently re-visiting the wheel design, looking at a symmetrical design.

The proposed symmetrical wheel may prove to be stronger, lighter and cheaper – which are all good things when there are incredible G-forces at the wheel rim.

This month we’ve also agreed a range of "down" loadings, or downloads, for the wheels (to summarise, never less than static weight on each wheel, and never more than a 2:1 ratio of weight distribution between the front and rear wheels).

This has been the result of 18 months of mathematical modelling and research, so it’s an important step for us.

These loadings affect stability, so now I’ve got some idea of how the car might handle and can start to think about the driving in more detail.

Asymmetrical wheels (Bloodhound SSC)

Our main problem area is still the aerodynamics required to deliver these downloads.

Bloodhound team member Dr Ben Evans and his team are producing impressive amounts of data, looking at some fascinating variations. We need to make sure that we pick the optimum combination of wheel, suspension, fin and bodywork layout.

We’ve even taken a jump sideways, to look at reversing the positions of the jet and rocket. After getting over the surprise of how it looks, it has some clear advantages. The question is: will the rocket tear up the surface if it is that close to the ground

We’re still researching that one – I don’t want to drive into a trench on the return run.

On the subject of driving the car, I was lucky enough to do some racing in the Elise Trophy Cup recently.

It’s not that I harbour any long-term ambitions to be a race driver – it’s not fast enough for me! But it got us some publicity, a little extra sponsorship and some car-handling practice for me.

Being a fighter pilot is fantastic preparation for the land speed record, but being a race-driving fighter pilot is even better.

Money is tight, as always. Still, if you’re going to launch a high-tech engineering project in the same week as the recession kicks in, then it’s to be expected. We’re still moving forward, despite the recession – and we’ve got some great new options for funding coming up, so watch this space.

The public response to Bloodhound continues to be astonishing. We’ve just taken the show car to Goodwood Festival of Speed for its public unveiling. It was great to watch people come into the pavilion and just stop dead in disbelief at the sight of it.

As a result, over 230 new members signed up to our supporters club there and then, unable to resist the chance to come and see the real thing as we build and test it in the UK. One question we heard a lot was: "Where will you build it"

We’re about to find out, with the four cities bidding to host us, and the bid proposals now coming in, we’ll soon know. These are exciting times.

Rocket firing (Bloodhound SSC)

To make a great weekend better, the first firing of our full-size rocket was achieved the following day. As soon as they start firing the hybrid rocket, I’m going out to the Mojave Desert to watch!

Yesterday, I was at Bridgnorth Endowed School (I work with the headmaster’s sister, who is an RAF Group Captain) for their annual prize-giving and to tell the pupils about Bloodhound.

Anyone who doubts that we’re inspiring children should have come with me to Bridgnorth. About 100 children sat spellbound for over an hour while I told them what we’re doing, including all the of the science behind it.

Structural design, aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, wheel design, cockpit instrumentation, data analysis – they just loved it all, including the video of Thrust SSC dropping a sonic boom.

Thrust SSC is the current holder of the land speed record, having reached a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph) on 15 October 1997.

In two years’ time it will be Bloodhound SSC making the booms – and children all over the world will be watching. Inspiring the next generation I think we’re well on the way.

BLOODHOUND SSC
1.Titanium or composite wheels – rear wheels sit outside bodywork, front wheels are steerable to comply with land speed rules
2.Driver sits behind front wheels and in front of engine air intake duct
3.Carbon fibre and titanium bodywork for optimum aerodynamic performance, reaching top speed over 4.5 miles. Same distance required for stopping
4.Bloodhound powered by Eurofighter jet engine with hybrid rocket attached, enabling car to accelerate from 0-1,050mph in 40 seconds
5. Fins maintain stability and downforce to keep car on the ground
6.Deployable aerostructures slow car at highest speeds; parachutes slow car at mid-speeds; finally, driver halts car with carbon fibre brakes
Bloodhound SSC

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Spaceman

July 30th, 2009 | No Comments

The UK spaceplane aiming to go to a new level

Read More »

New ‘crisis satellites’ launched

July 29th, 2009 | No Comments

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

DMC satellites integrated with launcher (SSTL)

A Russian Dnepr rocket will place two British-built imaging satellites in orbit on Wednesday.

The UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 spacecraft will join four platforms already in the sky that together form the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

The network obtains rapid pictures of areas struck by natural calamities – such as floods, earthquakes and fire.

The imagery is used by governments and aid agencies to co-ordinate relief efforts on the ground.

"After a major disaster, the first thing you need to do is supply the relief workers with an up-to-date map," explained Philip Davies, from manufacturers Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL).

DMC image of Burma (UK-DMC)

"If there’s been a big flood, there will be landslides, roads will have been washed away and bridges will be down. So you need a new map that shows you how to get around the area; and it’s the satellite imagery that helps you do that."

The launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 1846 GMT.

The two satellites will ride into orbit on a converted Soviet-era SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile.

UK-DMC2, as the name suggests, is Britain’s second contribution to the constellation. Deimos-1 is owned by a Spanish imaging company.

The pair joins orbital assets that belong to Algeria, China and Nigeria (a Turkish satellite is no longer operational after finishing its mission).

The spacecraft picture the Earth at resolutions between 4m and 32m, across an ultra-wide 600km-plus swath.

When they fly over their home territories, the satellites acquire a range of data for domestic use – everything from urban planning to monitoring locust swarms.

THE DMC SATELLITES

  • AlSat-1 (Algeria, 2002)
  • NigeriaSat-1 (Nigeria, 2003)
  • UK-DMC (UK, 2003)
  • Beijing-1 (China, 2005)
  • BilSat-1 (Turkey, 2006 – not op.)
  • Deimos-1 (Spain, 2009)
  • UK-DMC2 (UK, 2009)

But when the platforms fly across the rest of the globe, they gather imagery which is pooled and sold on to commercial users.

Every so often, however, a major disaster will strike some part of the globe and the DMC constellation will be tasked with gathering emergency pictures as fast as possible.

Recent deployments have included the Australian bushfires in February this year, and after the major cyclone that hit Burma in May 2008.

"The biggest use of the DMC was after the Asian tsunami is 2004," said Mr Davies.

"We used the fact that it’s a constellation and can cover very wide swaths to image the entire Indian Ocean coastline.

"Other satellites may have been able to deploy high resolutions at particular locations, but we were the only system that could cover the entire coastline at a reasonable resolution."

DMC image of California fires (UK-DMC)

The UK-DMC2 platform carries some improvements over the previous DMC satellites, including an enhanced camera sensor to deliver better ground resolution, and X-band transmitters that will enable the spacecraft to download data 10 times as fast as its orbital cousins.

The 96kg, 60cm cube is also carrying a student experiment called Poise, which was developed by pupils at Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire.

The experiment will measure variations in the ionosphere – the outermost layer of the atmosphere. These variations can affect the accuracy and safety of satellite navigation (sat-nav) systems.

SSTL is famous for producing the very first spacecraft for Europe’s forthcoming sat-nav system, Galileo.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Cool cosmos

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

<p class="first"

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Europe’s Mars rover slips to 2018

July 25th, 2009 | No Comments

By Jonathan Amos and Paul Rincon
Science reporters, BBC News

NEW EXOMARS MISSION CONCEPT

  • Now likely to leave Earth in 2018; primary aim is to search for life
  • Current proposal is to use a US Atlas rocket to launch ExoMars
  • US also to look after the rover’s entry, descent and landing
  • Hardware likely to be the same as for US 2013 rover, Curiosity
  • ExoMars would be targeted at key methane hotspots on the planet
  • It will have the capacity to drill 2m into the Martian ground
  • Esa states still have to sign off the plan and a budget

ExoMars concept (Esa)

Europe’s flagship robotic rover mission to Mars now looks certain to leave Earth in 2018, two years later than recently proposed, the BBC understands.

The ExoMars vehicle is intended to search the Red Planet for signs of past or present life.

The delay is the third for the mission originally planned to launch in 2011.

While the switch will disappoint many people, officials say the change will open up a greatly expanded programme of exploration at the Red Planet.

The European Space Agency (Esa) will now join forces at Mars with the US space agency (Nasa). The two organisations believe they can achieve far more by combing their expertise and budgets.

The basis for this approach was agreed at bilateral discussions in Plymouth, UK, last month.

Since then, scientists and engineers on both sides of the Atlantic have been working up the basic architecture for a series of missions in 2016, 2018 and 2020 (launch opportunities to Mars come up roughly every two years).

Mass issues

The plan, or baseline, for this programme is now starting to emerge.

It would see the agencies launch a European orbiter to the Red Planet in 2016. Its main aim would be to track down the sources of methane recently detected at Mars. The presence of methane is intriguing because its likely origin is either present-day life or geological activity.

Confirmation of either would be a major discovery.

Mars Express (Esa)

The American Atlas rocket used for this mission would also have capacity to carry sufficient mass to put some sort of static lander on the surface. The European orbiter would act as its data relay to Earth.

The 2018 launch opportunity would be taken by ExoMars, again launching on a US Atlas rocket. This mission window is actually one of the most favourable in terms of planetary alignment for many years, and that makes it possible to send a very heavy surface mission.

The proposal on the table currently is that ExoMars should be joined by a slightly smaller rover in the class of the US Spirit and Opportunity vehicles that are on the surface today.

ExoMars and its smaller cousin could be targeted at the Methane sources identified by the 2016 orbiter.

The 2020 launch opportunity would probably then be taken by a network of instrumented static landers.

Technological goals

Both Esa and Nasa will have tight finances going forward and will have to constrain their ambitions accordingly.

Curiosity and skycrane (Nasa)

European ministers pledged sufficient monies at their major triennial gathering last year to take the budget for ExoMars to 850m euros. Esa officials believe the proposals they are formulating with Nasa can broadly match the cost requirements and the technological goals of both parties.

For Europe, the primary goals are to land, to rove and to drill on Mars. However, under the plan outlined above, these objectives could not all be achieved during the ExoMars opportunity.

In 2018, it is likely the entry, descent and landing (EDL) of Europe’s rover would be handled by the Americans, using the "skycrane" system they have designed for their big 2013 rover known as Curiosity.

If Europe really does want to do EDL, the option is open for it to take responsibility for the 2016 surface package of instruments.

Esa’s director-general, Jean-Jacques Dordain, has promised to report to his member states in the autumn with firm proposals for a re-scoped Mars exploration programme.

Industrial jigsaw

Two months of intensive discussions will now take place in those member states, and in European industry which will be responsible for building the spacecraft systems.

If financial contributions to the mission from Esa member states were to change substantially, the space agency might have to re-visit the balance of industrial work allocated to different countries through the process of "juste retour".

Prototype ExoMars rover

Esa’s rules of juste retour ensure the work which returns to a member state reflects the financial contribution it makes to a programme.

One senior European space executive called at the recent Paris air show for the whole ExoMars industrial programme to be re-opened to competition.

The ExoMars rover was originally conceived as a small technology demonstration mission.

It was approved in 2008 and should have been launched in 2011. Then, as ambitions grew and the design was beefed up, the launch was put back.

At first, it was shifted to 2013. Last year, a decision was taken to move it even further back, to 2016, because of budget concerns.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Hubble pictures Jupiter’s ‘scar’

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

Jupiter (NASA/ESA/SSI)

Hubble has trained its new camera on the atmospheric disturbance on Jupiter believed to have been caused by a comet or asteroid impact.

The telescope used the Wide Field Camera 3 fitted on the recent shuttle servicing mission to capture ultra-sharp visible-light images of the scar.

The dark spot near the gas giant’s southern pole was noticed first by an amateur Australian astronomer.

Some of the world’s biggest telescopes have since taken detailed pictures.

Engineers at the US space agency, Nasa, interrupted the post-servicing commissioning of the refurbished Hubble to use the WFC-3.

"Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Details seen in the Hubble view show a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter’s atmosphere."

The pictures augur well for Hubble. Its servicing should give it several more years of life.

The WFC-3 will be used to take the deepest images of the cosmos yet.

Astronomers cannot be absolutely sure Jupiter was struck by a space object, but the evidence seems compelling. One estimate of the diameter of the impacting body suggests it may have been hundreds of metres wide.

"This is just one example of what Hubble’s new, state-of-the-art camera can do, thanks to the [shuttle] astronauts and the entire Hubble team," said Ed Weiler, Nasa’s chief scientist. "However, the best is yet to come."

It is 15 years since Jupiter was famously hit by Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. It broke up into several pieces as it plunged on to the gas giant. There was prior warning of that event and Hubble took some typically remarkable pictures on that occasion, too. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Audio slideshow

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

Deployed by the space shuttle on 23 July 1999 – the Chandra telescope is Nasa’s flagship mission exploring the realms of X-ray astronomy.

The observatory, which is named after the Indian astronomer Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, orbits the Earth once every 64 hours.

Here – Darren Baskill, an X-ray astronomer at the University of Sussex, explains Chandra’s importance, and looks at some of the colourful images it has produced in the past ten years.

Unless stated otherwise, images courtesy Nasa/CXC/SAO. Music courtesy KPM Music.
Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Publication date 23 July 2009.

Links

Chandra x-ray observatory
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

More audio slideshows

Man on the Moon

To the Moon and beyond: Nasa at 50

The Information Revolution
</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Deep space eye

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

Deployed by the space shuttle on 23 July 1999 – the Chandra telescope is Nasa’s flagship mission exploring the realms of X-ray astronomy.

The observatory, which is named after the Indian astronomer Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, orbits the Earth once every 64 hours.

Here – Darren Baskill, an X-ray astronomer at the University of Sussex, explains Chandra’s importance, and looks at some of the colourful images it has produced in the past ten years.

Unless stated otherwise, images courtesy Nasa/CXC/SAO. Music courtesy KPM Music.
Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Publication date 23 July 2009.

Links

Chandra x-ray observatory
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

More audio slideshows

Man on the Moon

To the Moon and beyond: Nasa at 50

The Information Revolution
</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »

Broadband satellite jumps rocket

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Hylas satellite

The UK Hylas spacecraft, which aims to help bridge the "digital divide" by supplying space-borne broadband net access, is switching rockets.

Its owner, Avanti Communications, signed a contract on Wednesday with Arianespace to use one of its launchers – either an Ariane 5 or a Soyuz.

Hylas will provide 2Mbs net connections to rural and other areas where terrestrial broadband is unobtainable.

The satellite was due to be launched on a novel US rocket known as a Falcon 9.

However, the Falcon’s launch schedule has been slipping as it prepares for the maiden and qualification flights it was supposed to make before carrying Hylas into orbit.

‘Scrappy start-up’

Avanti’s chief executive, David Williams, said his broadband company had now raised the extra money needed to buy the certainty afforded by Arianespace’s tried and tested – albeit more expensive – vehicles.

"We’re a classic example of a scrappy British start-up company," he told BBC News.

"A couple of years ago we had very little money. It’s turned out that our market was very much bigger than many of us thought and I now have a blue-chip shareholder base that is prepared to pay for the certainty and reliability of the world’s best launch vehicle."

Hylas (Highly Adaptable Satellite) is a commercialised venture that emerged from a space technology programme within the European Space Agency and carries significant investment from the British government.

Its payload will automatically vary the amounts of power and bandwidth needed to match the peaks and troughs in demand for net access across its European "footprint".

"This is a success for Europe because it is a European [rocket] which is going to launch one of the most innovative European telecommunications projects"

Jean-Yves Le Gall
chairman, CEO, Arianespace

The satellite is currently under construction and should be ready for launch next year.

The preparation is being shared by the UK division of EADS Astrium, Europe’s largest space company, and Antrix, a commercial arm of the Indian space agency (ISRO).

The 2.7-tonne satellite will operate in the Ka radio band and deliver broadband services to some 350,000 subscribers.

Bigger platform

A second satellite, Hylas-2, is already being planned even though the first has yet to fly. This spacecraft, for which Avanti hopes to secure the funding by the end of the year, should be able to support up to 1,000,000 customers.

And another, even bigger platform could then follow Hylas-2. Dubbed Hercules, this satellite would be capable of delivering 10Mbs (megabits per second) connections to up two million subscribers, and also some 50Mbs connections to a smaller group of people.

Hylas-1 will go into space using an Ariane 5 or Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.

Jean-Yves Le Gall is the chairman and CEO of Arianespace, the company that operates Europe’s launch services.

He said: "This is a success for Europe because it is a European [rocket] which is going to launch one of the most innovative European telecommunications projects."

The recent Digital Britain report reaffirmed the government’s Universal Service Commitment to ensure that every home in the UK can get 2Mbps broadband by 2012.

A range of technologies, such as DSL, wireless, and fibre, will be required to do this. The report said satellites had a role to play in delivering broadband to rural and remote areas.

Avanti faces competition from the long established Eutelsat space communications company, which is planning its own digital-divide-busting Ka-band satellite for Europe, delivering 10Mbs through its Tooway service. Eutelsat’s KA-SAT is also due for launch in 2010.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Read More »
Page 1 of 41234