The Space Elevator Reference
TEDx Talk: An Elevator to Space © Alan Chan Space Elevator and Earth. Is a Space Elevator pure fantasy or just a technological leap from reality? Markus Landgraf, a mission analyst at the European Space Agency (ESA), explains how to get to space via elevator. 2012 Space Elevator Conference Proceedings Available The proceedings for last year's Space Elevator Conference are available at the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) Store. Concept: Dirigible Space Elevator A Dirigible Space Elevator, a unique combination of aerospace design and geodesic geometry, has many monetary, efficiency and energy saving uses. ISEC Releases Space Elevator Concept of Operations Report The International Space Elevator Consortium has a released a 46 page report titled Space Elevator Concept of Operations. 2013 Space Elevator Conference Set for August in Seattle The annual Space Elevator Conference will once again be held in Seattle and for the second year in a row at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Space-Time Diagrams
Any discussion of cosmology requires a careful consideration of what we can see and when we can see it. A good way to keep track of these concepts is the space-time diagram. A space-time diagram is nothing more than a graph showing the position of objects as a function of time. The usual convention is that time runs up the diagram, so the bottom is the past, or early times, and the top is the future, or late times. The picture above shows a space-time diagram of the Earth going around the Sun. The line representing the position of the Earth as a function of time is called a worldline. The space-time diagram above shows particles with different velocities. Because the speed of light is special in relativity, space-time diagrams are often drawn in units of seconds and light-seconds, or years and light-years, so a unit slope [45 degree angle] corresponds to the speed of light. Back to the Cosmology Tutorial
Full Impulse on my mark… engage! | A User's Guide to the Universe
There has been a ton of chatter on the interwebs about yet another potentially habitable planet in the Gliese 581 system, approximately 20.5 light years from earth. This one, Gliese 581g, was discovered by the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey using Keck. Based on its size, is approximately 3 earth masses, with roughly earth-like gravity. More important still, is the fact that it’s roughly in the middle of the “Goldilocks zone“ Most everyone is focusing on the unfortunate fact that 581g seems to be tidally locked with its sun, which means that one side is blazing hot, and the other is freezing cold (and, of course, that there’d be only either day or night on each side). But who cares? Let’s go now. The Trip to Gliese 581g I’ve explored this sort of topic a number of times before. But if you don’t want to do all of that reading, let me just sketch it out for you. You are going to want to accelerate at g by the way, since one of 581g’s main selling points is the earth-normal gravity. -Dave
Moving slabs [This Dynamic Earth, USGS]
The layer of the Earth we live on is broken into a dozen or so rigid slabs (called tectonic plates by geologists) that are moving relative to one another. "Historical perspective"
Another dose of Martian awesome
If someone woke me out of a sound sleep and forced me at gunpoint to say which is my favorite camera in the solar system, they’d probably have to shoot me. But I think that HiRISE onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would be in the top three. And it’s pictures like this one that put it there: [Click to get to greatly embiggened pictures.] That is not a closeup of my chin before I shave. But what are those weird tendril thingies? In the Martian winter, carbon dioxide freezes out of the air (and you thought it was cold where you are). Now, you might think I’m making this all up. Oh, baby. I love stuff like this. Awe. We’ve seen this before on Mars, but it’s still shocking and amazing. If we can see this kind of thing from space, with robotic probes, what will humans see when they go there and can kick over some rocks?
Two planets found sharing one orbit - space - 24 February 2011
Update on 5 March: Lead researcher Jack Lissauer says: "Further study of the light curve of this target produced an alternative interpretation wherein one of the co-orbital candidates (KOI 730.03) has a period that is twice what we originally estimated. We think that this new interpretation, without co-orbital candidates, is more likely to be correct. We will continue to acquire Kepler data and ground-based observations ... so we can reach a better understanding of this interesting, multi-resonant, system." Buried in the flood of data from the Kepler telescope is a planetary system unlike any seen before. Two of its apparent planets share the same orbit around their star. If the discovery is confirmed, it would bolster a theory that Earth once shared its orbit with a Mars-sized body that later crashed into it, resulting in the moon's formation. The two planets are part of a four-planet system dubbed KOI-730. Gravitational "sweet spots" make this possible. More From New Scientist
The sun sends a charged cloud hurtling our way - space - 02 August 2010
Video: Magnetic eruption An unusually complex magnetic eruption on the sun has flung a large cloud of electrically charged particles towards Earth. When the cloud hits, which could be anytime now, it could spark aurorae in the skies around the poles and pose a threat to satellites – though probably not a particularly severe one. On 1 August, a small solar flare erupted above sunspot 1092. Despite being separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometres, the two events may be linked. Satellite threat Filaments are gigantic tubes of magnetism that fill up with solar gas and hang in the atmosphere of the sun. When the cloud hits our planet, as will happen any day now, satellites could be affected. In the grand scheme of solar things, this is not a big eruption. . Share on emailShare on gmailShare on stumbleupon More From New Scientist Alien ocean (New Scientist) The fourth state of matter: Consciousness (New Scientist) When does multiverse speculation cross into fantasy? More from the web (YouTube)
What's wrong with the sun? - space - 14 June 2010
Read full article Continue reading page |1|2|3 Video: Sun spots SUNSPOTS come and go, but recently they have mostly gone. But for the past two years, the sunspots have mostly been missing. The sun is under scrutiny as never before thanks to an armada of space telescopes. The stakes have never been higher. , and disputes over the sun's role in climate change, are adding urgency to these studies. Sun behaving badly Sunspots are windows into the sun's magnetic soul. When sunspot numbers drop at the end of each 11-year cycle, solar storms die down and all becomes much calmer. What's special about this latest dip is that the sun is having trouble starting the next solar cycle. The first sign that the prediction was wrong came when 2008 turned out to be even calmer than expected. As 2009 arrived, solar physicists looked for some action. Even with the solar cycle finally under way again, the number of sunspots has so far been well below expectations. More From New Scientist More from the web
