Gizmodo: outer space

Nasa IBEX Probe to Go Where Only Voyager Has Gone Before

Jack Loftus — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:40:00 EDT

On October 19, NASA will launch the IBEX, or Interstellar Boundary Explorer, into a 130 mile earth orbit to begin mapping the very edge of our solar system. This region of space, also known by the kick ass scientific name "termination shock," is rife with mystery. Only the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have ventured there, but they weren't armed with the right kind of tech to adequately catalog what's going on at the point where our solar system meets outer space. IBEX is, and from its orbit around our planet it will beam back some of the first detailed measurements of the region.

Unlike Voyager, IBEX's payload includes tech tailor made for measuring solar wind and creating a map of the void.

The satellite's payload will consist of two energetic neutral atom (ENA) imagers, IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo. Each of these sensors will consist of a collimator that will limit field of view, a conversion surface to convert neutral hydrogen and oxygen into ions, an electrostatic analyzer to suppress ultraviolet light and select ions of a specific energy range, and a detector to identify particle counts and the identity of each ion. IBEX-Hi will record particle counts at a higher energy band than IBEX-Lo. The payload will also include a Combined Electronics Unit (CEU) that will control the voltages on the collimator and ESA and will read and record data from the particle detectors of each sensor. — Wikipedia

[NASA via PopSci]

Apollo Astronaut Claims Asteroid-Nuking Missile Program Is Front For Weaponizing Space

Jack Loftus — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EDT

When you listen to Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart talk about the US government's current approach to deflecting ELE asteroids away from Earth, you'd be excused for thinking the great minds at NASA had watched Armageddon a few too many times. That's because NASA's preferred method, as outlined in a 2007 report, is to blast threatening asteroids out of the sky with nuclear weapons. The approach is America, Fuck Yeah!-approved, for sure, but at the very least it's ineffective, Schweickart told attendees during a public lecture in San Francisco last week. At the very worst it's a government-pressured nightmare scenario right out of Dr. Strangelove.

First of all, understand that Schweickart loves NASA. The agency put him in orbit around Earth, after all, but he believes its cash-strapped later years might have led the agency—under immense pressure from Washington—to endorse a program with an ulterior motive: put nuclear weapons in space.

To remedy that situation, Schweickart's group, the B612 Foundation, intends to "use gentler tactics" to observe and eventually deflect asteroids. It's totally make love, not intergalactic war, man.

These new methods include using more powerful telescopes as they come online throughout this century to ID targets ASAP, as well as unmanned spacecraft and probes. Most asteroids could be redirected easily by rear-ending or towing them with these craft, Schweickart said.

In his lecture Schweickart compared Earth's citizens to a blindfolded hitter in a batting cage. We know the pain is coming, but we have no way of knowing when. One day we will, and people like Schweickart hope we'll be ready to react with the most effective means possible. According to him, that means no nukes. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum will simply have to find another way to kill the aliens. [Wired]

Soviet Dog Cooked in Space Only Got this Lousy Statue

Jack Loftus — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:00:00 EDT

It's the stuff of canine legends. Fifty years ago Laika the dog went from stray zero to hero when the Soviet Union strapped her to Sputnik 2 and launched it into the cold reaches of outer space. The trailblazing pooch, who had a statue to her unveiled in Russia last week, proved that living things could survive in space. Her trip also paved the way for more ambitious human-related endeavors, like John's Glenn's historic orbit, the Apollo 11 moon landing and Tom Hanks' career. Laika eventually died an excruciating death from overheating when life support failed a few hours after launch, for which Russia recognized her with a monument. All that sacrifice, and just a statue?

Laika's statue resides outside the Moscow military research facility where her flight team prepared the original space mission in 1957. Reuters reports the monument features the hot dog standing atop a rocket.

Like all dogs used in the Soviet space program Laika was a stray. Strays were selected because Soviet doctors apparently believed the mean streets of Moscow were similar to conditions experienced in space. Small dogs were selected due to the size constraints of the Sputnik 2 capsule, but at least Laika got to travel in style with this custom space suit-complete with euthanasia needle and feeding trough!

"Laika was quiet and charming," Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote in his book about Soviet space medicine. He even took the dog home to play with his children. "I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live," he said. After fetch with the kids, Yazdovsky launched Laika into space, attached to a fuel-filled tin can with no parachute, and into history. We should all be so lucky. [Images: Telstar Logistics and Reuters]

Humans to Leave Earth Behind?

Gizloco — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:44:16 EDT

World-renowned smart guy scientist Stephen Hawking, who's no doubt an avid Gizmodo reader, yesterday gave a speech where he detailed what humanity needs to do in order to survive as a species: leave Earth. That's right, provided we don't blow ourselves up or succumb to a superbug—genetically engineered or otherwise—Hawking believes that humanity's only chance for long-term survival is not to go West (young man), but to go outward, with an eye toward Mars, specifically.

"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," said the wheelchair-bound theoretical physicist. If what he believes holds true, humans should have a colony on the Red Planet in 20 years and a permanent base in 40 years. So long as my iPod works on Mars, I'm all for it. – Nicholas Deleon

Hawking: Leave Earth or die! [The Register]