Category: Space Tonics

NASA’s WISE Spacecraft surfaces most lustrous Galaxy in Universe: Space Evolution

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s WISE has surfaced a far-flung galaxy, which is supposed to be shining intensely with infrared light with an intensity of nearly 300 trillion suns. The extremely luminous infrared galaxy (ELIRGs) is one of the most luminous galaxies to be discovered till date. Space evolution Chao-Wei Tsai at NASA’s JPL claimed that they have been witnessing an enormous stage of evolution taking place across galaxy. They are assuming that the source of the intense light could be from the growing spout of the galaxy’s black hole. According to Professor Andrew…

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SpiderFab: The Self-Fabricating Space Systems

Pooja Kashyap

Tethers Unlimited, an American aerospace company is busy making ‘SpiderFab’, a manufacturing system inspired by spider’s web making concept. The arachnids like robots are being built with an aim of placing gigantic objects and building big structures in orbit and beyond. For instance, these spider bots could be employed for constructing huge radio antennas, the extendible spacecraft booms, multiple solar panels, trusses and other multifunctional structures within the coming ten years as stated by Rob Hoyt, CEO and chief scientist of Tethers Unlimited.

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Ripples and not Rings in the Disk of the Milky Way: Galaxy’s Structure

Pooja Kashyap

As per the latest astronomical research, the galactic disk is molded into many concentric ripples, which makes our Milk Way more than 50% larger than currently estimated. According to the study led by Professor Heidi Jo Newberg at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, there exists a circle of stars which is protruding towards to the outside of the Milky Way. The conclusion has been drawn by re-visiting the data that was gathered from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey three years ago.

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10 Images of ESA’s IXV Mini-Shuttle: Blasting off in February 2015

Pooja Kashyap

ESA’s mini shuttle is all set to launch its flight and reentry mission. With this development, Europe will set strong foundation for innovative technology that would help future reentry missions for astronauts as well as other spatial bodies. The test flight is scheduled to be held on February 11. The entire operation would last for about 100 minutes testing the critical systems using 300 embedded sensors. Following are some of the images of the ESA’s space taxi, as they call it. 1) IXV during integration at Thales Alenia Space 2)…

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10 Images from Space Station Element Cupola: An Astronaut’s Office within the ISS

Pooja Kashyap

Last month, we covered a round up related to view from space and now we have some images from within Cupola, the pressurized Space Station Element with seven windows. Cupola The Cupola is an observatory module of the ISS. It has seven windows that are used for performing experiments, anchoring and observing Earth. The Space Shuttle mission STS-130 was kicked off from Earth on 8 February 2010 and docked to the Tranquility (Node 3) module. Considering Cupola’s successful attachment, ISS assembly has reached 85 percent completion. The observatory module is…

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Helena device can create Oxygen on Red Planet: Global Contest for Mars One’s First Unmanned Lander

Neha Shukla

Mars One, the controversial project that plans to create a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet has organized a competition called the Mars One University Competition. The competition has invited designers to prepare technology that can supply Mars citizens with breathable air. The victorious payload will have the opportunity to travel to Mars One initial unmanned lander mission that is scheduled to land on Mars in 2018. This mission will in turn prepare the way for the future colonists planning to reach Mars in 2025. A student team from…

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10 Images Captured by Orion: A View from Space at 32,000 kmph and 4,000°F

Pooja Kashyap

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) finally made its successful re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere after a dramatic test flight that hovered around the Earth twice in nearly 4.5 hours. The spacecraft made a fiery re-entry with 32,000 km/h enduring temperature of 4,000°F. This happens to be one of the fastest NASA capsule missions after the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972.

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Impression of Human Brain discovered on Mars: Athabasca Region of the Red Planet

Pooja Kashyap

Recent image received by NASA clarifies the fact that once the Martian surface was saturated by volcanoes. The image has a semblance of a human brain (pictured above) and it stretches over a distance of approximately 1.2 miles. The agency has called it the ‘circular island’ since it appears to be an island encircled by smoothly flowing magma.

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10 Photographs of NASA’s Abandoned Launch Sites: Space Program’s Forgotten History

Pooja Kashyap

Mr. Miller a passionate photographer journeyed across the US for a project, which required capturing stills from the abandoned NASA sites. He explored nearly 16 space launch sites including research facilities in Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico, and California. We are indebted to Mr. Miller’s effort because of which we were able to see the photographs of various space program’s forgotten history. Many of these sites have been demolished or repurposed especially the facilities at Cape Canaveral. Since the sites are still under the jurisdiction…

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Internet Satellite Swarm: SpaceX to develop fleet of Micro-Satellites

Pooja Kashyap

After creating a dent in the world of automobiles and aerospace by giving affordable electric cars and rockets, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk is moving towards delivering cheap Internet across the globe. This time, Mr. Musk is collaborating with Greg Wyler, founder of WorldVu Satellites Ltd., which happens to control a huge chunk of radio spectrum. Wyler has been working with Google Inc. but 2 months back he had left the tech giant and currently, he has been working with Elon Musk and SpaceX.

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ECOSTRESS: The New Thermometer for detecting Earth’s Temperature

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a space-based instrument for detecting transpiration within plants so that the flora can effectively use water. ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment (ECOSTRESS) is the name of the device that will be docked on the space station for monitoring the water loss through nano-pores occurring within leaves.

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Mangalyaan beams back Images from Mars: India’s First Successful Mission to the Red Planet

Pooja Kashyap

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission after positioning itself successfully into the orbit, took some images of the red planet. The image reflected the planet’s crater-marked surface. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) circulated the images across its network via its facebook page. Pictures containing orange surface with dark holes were taken at a height of nearly 4,536 miles. ISRO’s lead researcher V. Koteswara Rao confirmed that the spacecraft is working absolutely fine and that it has been able to click couple of pictures of the surface and its surroundings. Soon enough,…

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Interplay between Subsurface Liquid and Clathrates Reservoirs on Titan: Methane Rainfall

Pooja Kashyap

Information gathered by NASA in collaboration with European Space Agency Cassini mission has surfaced presence of numerous lakes across the northern polar area of Titan. Instead of consisting of water, these seas are composed of hydrocarbons, the organic compounds that are also present on Earth. As per the previous studies, the rainfall from the surface clouds brings about major amount of liquid on Saturn’s moon. However, the cycle of liquid moving through the moon’s crust and the atmosphere is still under consideration.

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