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The Daily Flash -Eco, Space, Tech (6/15)

Tom McFay — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:04:00 +0000

In the Hunt for Planets, Who Owns the Data? On Tuesday, astronomers operating NASA’s Kepler spacecraft will release a list of about 350 stars newly suspected of harboring planets, including five systems with multiple candidate planets. That data could dramatically…

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The Daily Flash -Eco, Space, Tech (6/15)

Robotic Probes Poised to Explore Milky Way by 2020 -A Galaxy Insight

Tom McFay — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Before the year 2020, scientists are expected to launch intelligent space robots that will venture out to explore the universe for us. “Robotic exploration probably will always be the trail blazer for human exploration of far space,” says Wolfgang Fink, physicist and researcher at Caltech. “We haven’t yet landed a human being on Mars but we have a robot there now. In that sense, it’s much easier to send a robotic explorer. When you can take the human out of the loop, that is becoming very exciting.” While Fink is encouraged by the progress made by missions such as the Mars Phoenix and its robotic arm, he emphasizes that the link between human and robot needs to be eliminated, allowing robots to make their own decisions on what science needs to be carried out. In reference to the Phoenix’s robotic arm he said, “The arms are the tools, but it’s about the intent to move the arms. That’s what we’re after. To have the robot know that something there is interesting and that’s where it needs to go and then to go get a sample from it. That’s what we’ve after. You want to get rid of the joystick, in other words. You want the system to take control of itself and then basically use its own tools to explore.” The physicist said he envisions a time when humans send out intelligent probes to explore the far reaches of the universe and send information back to Earth – without having to send people on excruciatingly long and dangerous space missions. “In the old Star Wars movies, especially in the Empire Strikes Back, the empire was sending out probes or floating robots,” said Fink. “Those were ideal robotic explorers because they floated over planets and had sensors and communication capabilities. Once you venture out to other planets, you need something that can operate on its own. You can’t monitor and supervise every single step. You want to deploy something that, on its own, can start a reconnaissance of the area and report back.” The key attribute robots need to possess is the ability to recognize something of interest, such as a rock or crater, something that a human mind would see as a scientific opportunity. At Caltech, Fink and others are working on programs that use images for robots to distinguish colors, textures, shapes and obstacles. Once artificial intelligence has the ability to do this, if the programming is complex enough, the robot can notice something that is out of place, or a region worth investigating (such as a strangely coloured patch of Mars regolith that a Mars robot will decide to dig into). The researchers also are working on a wish list of sorts for the spacecraft. The list would include things that NASA and university scientists would like the robot to investigate. “It’s very difficult to teach a spacecraft,” said Fink. “When a geologist goes into the field, they can tell you if they see something that sparks their interest. Based on that interest, it triggers more refined research. But the problem is if you encounter something that scientists had not foreseen, then you run the risk of not detecting it We’ll equip it with a database and a wish list, along with the ability to flag an anomaly.” Fink said NASA has shown some interest in their work. And that makes sense since NASA is planning an unmanned mission to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, around 2017. The CalTech physicist explained that an orbiter would most likely release a balloon-type vehicle that would float above the surface of the moon and send its findings back to Earth. “It takes more than hour to send communications back and forth to a space probe at Saturn or Titan,” said Fink. “It is not a problem so much if you are dealing with a Lander, which is immobile, or when you’re dealing with a rover which is not moving too fast. It becomes a significant problem if you deploy a balloon or air ship on Titan, let’s say. They are floating so you need a much quicker reaction time. If there’s a mountain or hill coming up, you need to make a decision right there and then. The main question is will robotic missions trump our basic human desire to explore space via manned missions? Posted by Casey Kazan. http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/28/by-2020-droids-will-explore-space-for-us/

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Robotic Probes Poised to Explore Milky Way by 2020 -A Galaxy Insight

Is Jupiter Protecting Earth from Massive Comet & Asteroid Impacts? "Maybe Not" Experts Say

Tom McFay — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:58:00 +0000

On 1994 July 16-22, over twenty fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the planet Jupiter. The comet, discovered the previous year by astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy, was observed by astronomers at hundreds of observatories around the world as it crashed into Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. This past July, a comet or asteroid ripped another Pacific-Ocean sized hole in Jupiter (image below). Is Jupiter a giant protective magnet for Earth, or are these events wake-up calls? As Stephen Hawking says, the general consensus is that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 kilometers in diameter that strikes the Earth will result in the complete annihilation of complex life – animals and higher plants. (The asteroid Vesta, for example, one of the destinations of the Dawn Mission, is the size of Arizona). Since 1941 many astronomers have thought of Jupiter as a protective big brother for planet Earth -a celestial shield, deflecting asteroids and comets away from the inner Solar System. This long-standing belief that Jupiter acts as a celestial shield, deflecting asteroids and comets away from the inner Solar System, has been challenged by the first in a series of studies evaluating the impact risk to the Earth posed by different groups of object. Dr Jonathan Horner of Great Britain’s Open University has studied the impact hazard posed to Earth by the Centaurs, the parent population of the Jupiter Family of comets. His research showed that the presence of a Jupiter-like planet in the Solar System does not necessarily lead to a lower impact rate at the Earth. Horner said that Jupiter’s role as guardian may have been overstated: “It seems that the idea isn’t so clear-cut.” The idea of Jupiter as protector was first proposed by planetary scientist George Wetherill in 19941. Wetherill showed that the planet’s enormous mass — more than 300 times that of the Earth — is enough to catapult comets that might hit Earth, like a slingshot ,out of the Solar System. Other astronomers have postulated that Jupiter’s gravitational pull would thin the crowd of dangerous asteroids and other objects, making Earth less impact prone. Other research has suggested that, in the past, changes in Jupiter’s orbit might have actually increased the number of objects on a collision course with earth. Until now, Horner says, little work was done to test either idea. The short period Jupiter Family of Comets (JFCs) are believed to originate from the Kuiper Belt and have orbital periods of up to 20 years and low inclination controlled by Jupiter. The Kuiper Belt is a large reservoir of small icy bodies just beyond Neptune. From collisions or gravitational perturbations some Kuiper Belt objects escape and fall towards the Sun. When they approach the Sun their volatile elements will start to sublimate off the surface and we will see the object as a comet. Because the orbit crosses that of Jupiter, the comet will have gravitational interactions with this massive gas giant. The objects orbit will gradually change from these interactions and eventually the object will either be thrown out of the Solar System or collide with a planet or the Sun. The second class of comets, the long periods, are believed to originate from the Oort cloud. This is a vast spherical reservoir believed to exist at the edge of the Solar System. The long period comets have periods of less than 200 years and no preference in orbital inclination. “The idea that a Jupiter-like planet plays an important role in lessening the impact risk on potentially habitable planets is a common belief but there has only really been one study done on this in the past, which looked at the hazard due to the Long Period Comets,” Horner continued.” We are carrying out an ongoing series of studies of the impact risks in planetary systems, starting off by looking at our own Solar System, since we know the most about it.” Horner and colleague Barrie Jones built several versions of the Solar System on the Open University’s computers: one with a Jupiter, one without, and several with a gas giant that was either a quarter, half, or three-quarters of Jupiter’s mass. The system also contained 100,000 centaurs — large, icy bodies from the Solar System’s Kuiper belt, within which Pluto lies. After running their models for 10 million virtual years, Horner and Jones found some striking results:The Earth was about 30% more likely to be hit by a centaur in a Solar System with a life-size Jupiter than it was in a Jupiter-less system. “We’ve found that if a planet about the mass of Saturn or a bit larger occupied Jupiter’s place,” Horner concluded, “then the number of impacts on Earth would increase. However if nothing was there at all, there wouldn’t be any difference from our current impact rate. Rather than it being a clear cut case that Jupiter acts as a shield, it seems that Jupiter almost gives with one hand and takes away with the other!” The weakness of Horner’s tentative conclusion is that it fails to take into account Jupiter’s ability to deflect Earth-colliding objects from the Oort cloud, a massive cloud of comets that surrounds the Solar System The Open University team is assessing the impact risk posed to the Earth by the asteroids and will go on to study the long period comets, before examining the role of the position of Jupiter within our system. But back to Stephen Hawking: How many times in our galaxy alone has life finally evolved to the equivalent of our planets and animals on some far distant planet, he asks, only to be utterly destroyed by an impact? Galactic history suggests it might be a common occurrence. Our cold comfort comes from the adjective “galactic” -that’s a hugely different time perspective that our biblical three score and ten. Posted by Casey Kazan Links: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070824133636.htm http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070820/full/070820-11.html http://allaboutscienceblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/jupiter-friend-or-foe.html http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~sheppard/satellites/jf.htm

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Is Jupiter Protecting Earth from Massive Comet & Asteroid Impacts? "Maybe Not" Experts Say

Is Saturn’s Titan A Mirror Image Of Earth Before Life Evolved?

Tom McFay — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:50:00 +0000

The Cassini spacecraft observations of Saturn’s largest moon, the orange-colored Titan, have given scientists a glimpse of what Earth might have been like before life evolved. They now believe Titan possesses many parallels to Earth, including lakes, rivers, channels, dunes, rain, snow, clouds, mountains and possibly volcanoes. “Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material — it’s a giant factory of organic chemicals,” according to Ralph Lorenz of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “We are carbon-based life, and understanding how far along the chain of complexity towards life that chemistry can go in an environment like Titan will be important in understanding the origins of life throughout the universe.” “When we designed the original tour for the Cassini spacecraft, we really did not know what we would find, especially at Enceladus and Titan,” said Dennis Matson, the JPL Cassini project scientist. “This extended tour is responding to these new discoveries and giving us a chance to look for more.” Unlike Earth, Titan’s lakes, rivers and rain are composed of methane and ethane, and temperatures reach a chilly minus 180 degrees Celsius (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit). Although Titan’s dense atmosphere limits viewing the surface, Cassini’s high-resolution radar coverage and imaging by the infrared spectrometer have given scientists a better look. Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. At an eye popping minus 179 degrees Celsius (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit), Titan has a surface of liquid hydrocarbons in the form of methane and ethane with tholins believed to make up its dunes. The term “tholins,” coined by Carl Sagan in 1979, describe the complex organic molecules at the heart of prebiotic chemistry. Cassini has mapped about 20 percent of Titan’s surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth’s oil and gas reserves. Dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth’s coal reserves. Proven reserves of natural gas on Earth total 130 billion tons, enough to provide 300 times the amount of energy the entire United States uses annually for residential heating, cooling and lighting. Dozens of Titan’s lakes individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane. “This global estimate is based mostly on views of the lakes in the northern polar regions. We have assumed the south might be similar, but we really don’t yet know how much liquid is there,” said Lorenz. Cassini’s radar has observed the south polar region only once, and only two small lakes were visible. Future observations of that area are planned during Cassini’s proposed extended mission. “We also know that some lakes are more than 10 meters or so deep because they appear literally pitch-black to the radar. If they were shallow we’d see the bottom, and we don’t,” said Lorenz. The question of how much liquid is on the surface is an important one because methane is a strong greenhouse gas on Titan as well as on Earth, but there is much more of it on Titan. If all the observed liquid on Titan is methane, it would only last a few million years, because as methane escapes into Titan’s atmosphere, it breaks down and escapes into space. If the methane were to run out, Titan could become much colder. Scientists believe that methane might be supplied to the atmosphere by venting from the interior in cryovolcanic eruptions. If so, the amount of methane, and the temperature on Titan, may have fluctuated dramatically in Titan’s past. Cassini’s mission originally had been scheduled to end in July 2008. A newly-announced two-year extension will include 60 additional orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its exotic moons. These will include 26 flybys of Titan, seven of Enceladus, and one each of Dione, Rhea and Helene. The extension also includes studies of Saturn’s rings, its complex magnetosphere, and the planet itself. “This extension is not only exciting for the science community, but for the world to continue to share in unlocking Saturn’s secrets,” said Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington. “New discoveries are the hallmarks of its success, along with the breathtaking images beamed back to Earth that are simply mesmerizing.” Based on findings from Cassini, scientists think liquid water may be just beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The small moon, only one-tenth the size of Titan and one-seventh the size of Earth’s moon, is one of the highest-priority targets for the extended mission. Cassini discovered geysers of water-ice jetting from the Enceladus surface. The geysers, which shoot out at a distance three times the diameter of Enceladus, feed particles into Saturn’s most expansive ring. In the extended mission, the spacecraft may come as close as 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the moon’s surface. Other activities for Cassini scientists will include monitoring seasons on Titan and Saturn, observing unique ring events, such as the 2009 equinox when the sun will be in the plane of the rings, and exploring new places within Saturn’s magnetosphere. Cassini has returned a daily stream of data from Saturn’s system for almost four years. Its travel scrapbook includes nearly 140,000 images, and information gathered during 62 revolutions around Saturn, 43 flybys of Titan and 12 close flybys of the icy moons. More than 10 years after launch and almost four years after entering into orbit around Saturn, Cassini is a healthy and robust spacecraft. Three of its science instruments have minor ailments, but the impact on science-gathering is minimal. The spacecraft will have enough propellant left after the extended mission to potentially allow a third phase of operations. Data from the extended mission could lay the groundwork for possible new missions to Titan and Enceladus. Cassini launched Oct. 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a seven-year journey to Saturn, traversing 3.5 billion kilometers (2.2 billion miles). Posted by Casey Kazan, adapted from materials provided by NASA. Related Galaxy posts: Saturn’s Rings as Ancient as Solar System

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Is Saturn’s Titan A Mirror Image Of Earth Before Life Evolved?

"Restaurant at the End of the Universe" – NASAs Roadmap to Life in the Milky Way

Tom McFay — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:34:00 +0000

“I know this great Restaurant at the End of the Universe.” Ford Prefect, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If we live in a physical universe versus a biological universe, where the ultimate product of cosmic evolution is planets, stars, and galaxies, Steven Dick, NASA’s chief historian, suggests it may be human destiny to populate the universe rather than to interact with extraterrestrials: humanity would eventually become the extraterrestrials. NASA has created an “Astrobiology Roadmap” in 2008 that outlines pathways for research and exploration to answer three huge questions that have gone unanswered through centuries of human history: How does life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond? Dick’s vision of a biological universe where planetary systems are common with life originating where conditions are favorable and culminating with intelligence is at odds with NASA’s current focus on earth-like microbial habitats and water-based habitats, which might be exceedingly rare in the cosmos: “A planet or planetary satellite is habitable if it can sustain life that originates there or if it sustains life that is carried to the object. Habitable environments must provide extended regions of liquid water, conditions favorable for the assembly of complex organic molecules, and energy sources to sustain metabolism.” Up until last year, when the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council strongly urged that NASA start searching for non-carbon based life forms in it’s report “The Limits of Organic Life.” NASA’s astrobiology program has concentrated on microbial life. “Nothing,” the report concludes, “would be more tragic in the American exploration of space than to encounter alien life and fail to recognize it.” Earth did not accumulate oxygen during the first roughly 3 billion years, or form an ozone layer until about 1.5 billion years ago. There is considerable emphasis on looking for contemporary Earth atmospheres that have oxygen and an ozone layer, but, the report hits home, we should also be using models with different anaerobic microbial non-carbon ecosystems, atmospheres that might parallel the different stages in the evolution of Earth’s atmospheres over 4 billion years, and conditions that could indicate the presence of a tectonically active planet. The report pointed out that the exploration of the planet is concentrated on looking for places where liquid water exists—which goes along with the idea of where life is found on the Earth. However, they emphasize that liquids such as ammonia, methane, and formamide could also be the building blocks for life. The challenge of remotely detecting life on a planet that has not developed a biogenic source of oxygen, the NASA “Astrobiology Roadmap” warns, is fraught with unknowns. What chemical species and spectral signatures should be sought? What metabolic processes might be operating? How does one guard against a false positive detection? Research that is guided both by our knowledge of Earth’s early (i.e., before the rise of an oxygenated atmosphere) and by studies of alternative biological systems can help address these questions and provide guidance to astronomers seeking evidence of life elsewhere. While the discovery of microbes will have less effect than the discovery of intelligence the discovery of fossils or microbes derives much of its impact from the fact that it is the first step on the road to intelligence. It would have great scientific interest, but might not necessitate the realignment of theologies and world philosophies. Some future version of a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will contain the answer to humankind’s great question: whether or not we are alone in the universe, at least within our galaxy. Olaf Stapledon’s vision of “Interplanetary Humanity” fifty years ago will be extended to “Interstellar Humanity,” in which our philosophy, religion, and science are much more attuned to the cosmos. By then we will know if we live in a physical or a biological universe, and we may even have traveled our nearest star some 40 light years away in Alpha Centauri. Posted by Casey Kazan NASA Astrobiology Roadmap 2008 The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap provides guidance for research and technology development across the NASA enterprises that encompass the space, Earth, and biological sciences. The ongoing development of astrobiology roadmaps embodies the contributions of diverse scientists and technologists from government, universities, and private institutions. The Roadmap addresses three basic questions: how does life begin and evolve, does life exist elsewhere in the universe, and what is the future of life on Earth and beyond? Seven Science Goals outline the following key domains of investigation: understanding the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the universe, exploring for habitable environments and life in our own Solar System, understanding the emergence of life, determining how early life on Earth interacted and evolved with its changing environment, understanding the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life, determining the principles that will shape life in the future, and recognizing signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth. For each of these goals, Science Objectives outline more specific high priority efforts for the next three to five years. These eighteen objectives are being integrated with NASA strategic planning. Goals In order to answer the fundamental questions of astrobiology, the NASA Astrobiology program pursues the following science goals: Goal 1: Understand how life arose on the Earth. Goal 2: Determine the general principles governing the organization of matter into living systems. Goal 3: Explore how life evolves on the molecular, organism, and ecosystem levels. Goal 4: Determine how the terrestrial biosphere has co-evolved with the Earth. Goal 5: Establish limits for life in environments that provide analogues for conditions on other worlds. Goal 6: Determine what makes a planet habitable and how common these worlds are in the universe. Goal 7: Determine how to recognize the signature of life on other worlds. Goal 8: Determine whether there is (or once was) life elsewhere in our solar system, particularly on Mars and Europa. Question: What is Life’s Future on Earth and Beyond? Goal 9: Determine how ecosystems respond to environmental change on time-scales relevant to human life on Earth. Goal 10: Understand the response of terrestrial life to conditions in space or on other planets.

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"Restaurant at the End of the Universe" – NASAs Roadmap to Life in the Milky Way

Is Social Trumping Search – Will Facebook Become Bigger Than Google?

Tom McFay — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:24:00 +0000

Yuri Milner is a 48-year-old Muscovite, post-Glastnost billionaire, and Putin clone has become one of the largest investors in digital media in the U.S. this past year, investing a huge sum in the new social platform we all know as Facebook. Milner is one very smart cookie: he has an advanced degree in theoretical physics and was doing research at the Institute of physics in the Russian Academy of Sciences before attending the Wharton School of Business and joining the World Bank where he was involved in the development of the financial sector in Russia. Milner, reports Michael Wolfe in Vanity Fair , “says he’s betting on personalities—Mark Zuckerberg, the C.E.O. of Facebook…which is something investors often say: it’s all about talent and drive. But a platform bet suggests a view beyond just gifted management. It’s a control-the-universe play.” In the same that Google is a control-the universe play in search, Microsoft Windows for the corporate and consumer desktop, and Apple’s iPhone for communications and entertainment. “Having a platform, in this geopolitical theory, makes you a superpower,” Wolfe adds. “Microsoft achieved world domination with Windows when operating systems were the ultimate platforms. But a platform is now a more metaphorical construct, suggesting not just functionality but a framework of behavior, and even a point of view, that habituates users and fosters their dependence, with an eye toward subsuming the rest of the digital world. Like Google.”. Which is why the emergence of a platform that acts as our social graph is so compelling to an investors like Milner and PayPal founder Peter Thiel, another major early investor in Facebook. Wolfe says that Facebook’s move at the end of last year to revise its privacy settings, was “really part of an ongoing attempt to make more user data public, shareable, and searchable—meaning Facebook has the opportunity to become the platform through which we search, not just public information but individual information, ever growing masses of it (including pictures). Search moves from the Web into people’s lives.” This prospect leads,to an I.P.O. for Facebook this year, which will transform the industry much as Netscape’s IPO did back in 1996 launching the Internet Era. A Facebook IPO could trigger a flood of dammed-up quality Web 2.0 IPOS and provoke the ultimate superpower platform war that far exceeds the old Microsoft Explorer/Netscape faceoff: a war between Google’s dominance over Web-page-based search and Facebook’s (and soon, Twitter’s) command of the “social graph.” Casey Kazan via Vanity Fair

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Is Social Trumping Search – Will Facebook Become Bigger Than Google?

Intelligent Robots Will Explore Milky Way by 2020 -A Galaxy Insight

Tom McFay — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:50:00 +0000

In line with the new US space strategy focus on new technologies, before the year 2020, scientists are expected to launch intelligent space robots that will venture out to explore the universe for us. “Robotic exploration probably will always be the trail blazer for human exploration of far space,” says Wolfgang Fink, physicist and researcher at Caltech. “We haven’t yet landed a human being on Mars but we have a robot there now. In that sense, it’s much easier to send a robotic explorer. When you can take the human out of the loop, that is becoming very exciting.” While Fink is encouraged by the progress made by missions such as the Mars Phoenix and its robotic arm, he emphasizes that the link between human and robot needs to be eliminated, allowing robots to make their own decisions on what science needs to be carried out. In reference to the Phoenix’s robotic arm he said, “The arms are the tools, but it’s about the intent to move the arms. That’s what we’re after. To have the robot know that something there is interesting and that’s where it needs to go and then to go get a sample from it. That’s what we’ve after. You want to get rid of the joystick, in other words. You want the system to take control of itself and then basically use its own tools to explore.” The physicist said he envisions a time when humans send out intelligent probes to explore the far reaches of the universe and send information back to Earth – without having to send people on excruciatingly long and dangerous space missions. “In the old Star Wars movies, especially in the Empire Strikes Back, the empire was sending out probes or floating robots,” said Fink. “Those were ideal robotic explorers because they floated over planets and had sensors and communication capabilities. Once you venture out to other planets, you need something that can operate on its own. You can’t monitor and supervise every single step. You want to deploy something that, on its own, can start a reconnaissance of the area and report back.” The key attribute robots need to possess is the ability to recognize something of interest, such as a rock or crater, something that a human mind would see as a scientific opportunity. At Caltech, Fink and others are working on programs that use images for robots to distinguish colors, textures, shapes and obstacles. Once artificial intelligence has the ability to do this, if the programming is complex enough, the robot can notice something that is out of place, or a region worth investigating (such as a strangely coloured patch of Mars regolith that a Mars robot will decide to dig into). The researchers also are working on a wish list of sorts for the spacecraft. The list would include things that NASA and university scientists would like the robot to investigate. “It’s very difficult to teach a spacecraft,” said Fink. “When a geologist goes into the field, they can tell you if they see something that sparks their interest. Based on that interest, it triggers more refined research. But the problem is if you encounter something that scientists had not foreseen, then you run the risk of not detecting it We’ll equip it with a database and a wish list, along with the ability to flag an anomaly.” Fink said NASA has shown some interest in their work. And that makes sense since NASA is planning an unmanned mission to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, around 2017. The CalTech physicist explained that an orbiter would most likely release a balloon-type vehicle that would float above the surface of the moon and send its findings back to Earth. “It takes more than hour to send communications back and forth to a space probe at Saturn or Titan,” said Fink. “It is not a problem so much if you are dealing with a Lander, which is immobile, or when you’re dealing with a rover which is not moving too fast. It becomes a significant problem if you deploy a balloon or air ship on Titan, let’s say. They are floating so you need a much quicker reaction time. If there’s a mountain or hill coming up, you need to make a decision right there and then. The main question is will robotic missions trump our basic human desire to explore space via manned missions? Posted by Casey Kazan. http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/28/by-2020-droids-will-explore-space-for-us/

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Intelligent Robots Will Explore Milky Way by 2020 -A Galaxy Insight

Extreme Life! Are Hidden Lifeforms Reshaping the Planet?

Tom McFay — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:16:00 +0000

Terry Pratchett once described life as a simple, tiny “Yes” being said wherever it could. Even when the question is “Seriously, no, that’s impossible, are you SURE somebody isn’t just making you up?” Extremobiologists among you may have heard of (and been suitably impressed by) organisms clinging to existence under kilometers of ocean and enough pressure to turn you into “Internet reader soup” at the bottom of the sea. But it seems life always has another trick up its sleeve, and now scientists have found bacteria buried in tiny rock fissures hundreds of meters after even the sea itself gives up and stops. A preview, perhaps, of lifeforms elsewhere in our Solar System on places like Mars and Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s moon, Titan. These extremely durable organisms derive energy from wherever they can get it. When you have to drill through a few football fields of stone to even get to the pitch black of the ocean bottom, the sun might as well be a Yeti with a winning lottery ticket. Instead energy is obtained by a bizarre set of chemical reactions, with major implications for the bacteria, geology and the search for life itself. For one thing, whatever these bacteria are doing it seems to work. Some samples show over a million bacteria per gram of retrieved rock. We can’t tell if this is representative of the average, but if it’s even close then these ultra-inaccessible lifeforms could make up a significant fraction of Earth’s biomass. There are so many of them, in fact, that they have geological effects. The waste products of these bacteria have been shown to radically alter the rock around them, a sub-aqua-terranean global warming resulting in accelerated weathering and even demagnetization of new rock formations. These extra-enduring lifeforms aren’t particularly attached to Earth – the much vaunted radiation from the sun doesn’t mean squat to them, and they don’t seem to need oxygen. Their only requirements are water, which we’re kind of keeping an eye out for anyway, and rock – which lots of planets are kind of made of. It may be disappointing to some – after all, of all the glamorous aliens you can imagine, single-celled rock eaters aren’t exactly sexy. They don’t even have green skin, and are unlikely to ask brave explorers to demonstrate more of “This Earth thing called ‘kissing’”. On the other hand, it’s strangely reassuring – it seems we discover more reasons to believe that other planets are life-capable everyday. And because unless we get very, very dedicated to polluting, it looks like at least one life form will survive whatever we do. Posted by Luke McKinney. Intraterrestrials http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/meet-the-intraterrestrials/

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Extreme Life! Are Hidden Lifeforms Reshaping the Planet?

Image of the Day: Mystical Beauty of Star Birth

Tom McFay — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:10:00 +0000

The awesome beauty of the Cocoon Nebula shown here, IC 5146, is the H II region located about 4,000 light years away toward the constellation of Cygnus. The ‘II’ in H II indicates that the hydrogen gas that enshrouds these young stars is ionized, which is the result of the hot, young stars that have formed recently, and are starting to burn away the cooler gas that condensed to form them. Based on recent measurements the massive star in the center is believed to have opened a hole in an existing molecular cloud through which much of the glowing material flows. The star, which formed about 100,000 years ago, provides the energy source for much of the emitted and reflected light from this nebula. Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT The image below of the Cocoon Nebula is from the Sloan Digital Survey using a green filter.

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Image of the Day: Mystical Beauty of Star Birth

Flash Gordon "Conqueors the Universe" -The 1941 Video Classic

Tom McFay — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:03:00 +0000

We thought you’d love this captivating piece of Americana (video link below), starring Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon as he goes up against the Emperor Ming to solve the mystery of the Purple Death, an electric dust that has struck Earth and leaves only a mark on the victims forehead. In the original 1934 series, the story begins with Earth bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr. Zarkov (left with Buster Crabbe as Flash) intuits the meteors are from outer space, and invents a rocketship to locate their place of origin. Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale, and the three travel to the planet Mongo, where they discover that the meteors are actually alien weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of the planet Mongo. After years of adventures on Mongo, with only a short break during World War II to fight the Red Sword invaders back on Earth, the three heroes begin to travel to other planets, with Earth their home base. Flash joins the World Space Council as a pilot and explorer. The long story of the Skorpii War takes Flash to other solar systems, using starships that travel faster than the speed of light, with frequent return to Mongo, where Ming has been overthrown and Prince Barin, married to Ming’s daughter Princess Aura, has established a peaceful rule. Video

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Flash Gordon "Conqueors the Universe" -The 1941 Video Classic