MESSENGER Spacecraft provides new details about Mercury Planet

The first measurements of Mercury planet's movements from a spacecraft orbiting the planet reveal new information about the make up of solar system's innermost world and its interactions with other planets.

Mercury does not rotate on its axis smoothly.  but it experiences regular fluctuations in speed over an 88-day cycle which is a year on the planet.  These fluctuations are caused by the planet's interactions with the Sun as it moves around it. The gravitational pull of Sun speeds up or slows down the Mercury's rotation depending on where the oblong shaped planet is on its elliptical orbit.

The new study details new measurements of Mercury's movements taken by the MESSENGER Spacecraft, which orbited the planet for more than four years before its propellant was exhausted and it purposefully crash landed on Mercury in April, 2015.  The new measurements from the spacecraft show that Mercury is spinning on its axis about 9 seconds faster than scientists had previously calculated,  It is not a huge difference but it is un expected.

The previous studies showed that Mercury rotates 3 times on its axis for every two revolutions around the Sun indicating that Sun was influencing the Mercury's spin.  The new study shows that Mercury has a more complex rotational behavior.

The scientists think that the rotational speed could come from Jupiter's large gravity field tugging on Mercury's orbit, changing the planet's distance to the Sun and its influence on its spin.   The authors of the new study propose that Jupiter, which travels around the sun roughly once every 12 years, has superimposed a 12-year, long-term libration on top of Mercury’s 88-day libration. This long-term libration could be causing the slight increase in speed observed during the time period of the new study and also cause a slow-down in Mercury’s spin at other times, according to the study’s authors.

Margot said the influence of Jupiter on Mercury is only one possible explanation for the new observations and additional measurements could unveil additional influences on the planet. The European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury launching in 2017 may be able to answer some of these questions, according to the study’s authors.

“It’s still a bit of a puzzle,” Margot said.

Robot Firefighter puts off its first Fire blaze

A firefighter Robot has been developed in USA which was tested recently to put off a fire.  The Robot looked on as a fire burned aboard the USS Shadwell.  The eyes of the robot scanned for the heart of the blaze.  Then it has grabbed the water hose and started spraying the water into the fire to put it off.

This is the first time a Firefighter Robot  - SAFFIR which is the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot.  And this is the first time a Robot was used to put off a fire.  SAFFIR was developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg for the US Navy ship for tackling fire without risking the human life.

The Firefighting Robot has a mass of 65 Kgs. and it is 178 centimeters tall.  The Robot uses dual optical cameras to see, thermal cameras to peer through smoke and find fires.  The Firefighting Robot uses Laser sensors to guage distances to the fire.  The Fire fighting Robot can walk and pick up the water hose on its own.  All other actions are controlled by human operator.  The designer of the Robot say that it can withstand temperatures better than human beings and it does not get tired like humans.

The first demonstration of the Fire fighting Robot was made in November, 2014 and SAFFIR was successfully able to walk on un even surfaces too identifying the fire.  It was able to locate the hose and handle the situation.  SAFFIR had a human operator operating it via computer but Navy Engineers are expecting it to be able to work autonomously one day in future.

Navy is planning to design an improved version of the SAFFIR which would have improved battery and software.  They are also planning to make this Robot a multipurpose robot to handle works like ship board measurements, scanning for corrossion and leaks by using additional sensors.

Here is a video which demonstrates the Fire Fighting Robot on the job......

Asteroid soil could fertilize farms in space

Now it is possible to grow plants in space - Crops grown in asteroid soil could sustain vast human population off-planet.

So if you want to grow plants in space and want to start a space farm, you need to search for an asteroid.  There is enough fertilizer around the solar system to grow vegetables for future generations of space colonies.  Researchers have already began to grow edible plants in space.  Asteroids are a hot topic now with the launch of Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft on 3rd December, 2014.  This spacecraft aims to return a sample from carbon-rich asteroid 1999 JU3.  

Astronauts are now spending longer time in space with first crew to spend a full year onboard the International Space Station due to launch in 2015.  Longer human missions in future will require the company of plants both in terms of providing food as well psychological comfort to them.  Mr. Bratislav Stankovic at the University of Information Science and Technology in Ohrid, Macedonia and his team is working on experiments to grow mini farms on the ISS  and is one of the first to grow plants in space. 

Nearly every space shuttle flight from 1980s and 1990s have carried out experimental plant payloads but plants struggled in micro gravity. The plants displayed strange genetic mutations, grew in undesirable shapes and seeds did not germinate or grow well.  

But now Dr. Stankovic and his team have made a capsule which enabled two generations of seeds to successfully grow on International Space Station.  The capsule tightly controlled soil moisture, light, humidity, air temperature and levels of carbon dioxide and ethylene - a hormone plants release into the air when they begin to open. A mesh held down a base of fertilized gravel in which the plants could spread the roots.   Once the system was installed by the astronauts, the system was remote controlled and monitored from the University of Wisconsin.  They grew a small edible flowering plant called Arabidopsis thaliana.  

The plants produced seeds and also 92% of them germinated successfully.  Some of these plants were grown on the ISS and others back on Earth.  There was little difference between the two.  The space seeds had their protein stores packed a little differently and the plants' branches grew in slightly different directions. But these are small details, Stankovic says. "It is likely that the previous failed attempts had to do with inadequate control of the growth environment," he says. "Microgravity per se is not a limiting factor."


For more details,  please read the article on growing farms in space

Seismic Cloaks developed to minimize damage to buildings due to Earth Quake

We all know how much damage can be caused due to an earth quake for the buildings.  Every one of us might be thinking of methods to reduce the damage caused due to earth quake and protect the houses and buildings.   There is a good news now...
 
Scientists have tested a prototype of a seismic invisibility cloaks experimentally in France.  So buildings vulnerable to earth quakes can be shielded from damage by surrounding them with these seismic invisibility cloaks.  The concept is to create protective barriers which divert earth quake energy away from sensitive facilities like nuclear power plants.


Computational Physicist Mr. Sebastien Guenneau and his colleagues at the Institut Fresnel have invented a method which involves modifying the ground around a building to divert the seismic waves thereby cloaking the structure from an earth quake. 

For more details please read the article on Seismic Cloaks to minimize damage due to Earth quake from the www.physicsworld.com website.

 

Sings of Water found on Water by Curiosity Rover

It is now clear that there are signs of water on Mars.  Almost every rover, lander or orbiter sent to MARS in recent times give some indications of the evidence of water on the Red Planet.  This gives rise to whether there was a life on Mars in earlier times.  The Curiosity rover of NASA landed on Gale Crater which is a place which used to hold a lake of water as per the latest findings of the Scientists of NASA and announced on 11th Dec., 2013.  

For more details please read the article about Signs of water found on Mars by Curiosity Rover.

China lands Jade Rabbit Rover on Moon

China has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on Lunar surface.   This is the first soft landing in the past 37 years.

The Jade Rover was landed on the surface of Moon on 14th December, 2013.  The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.   For more details,  please read the article on China's Jade Rabbit rover lands on Moon.

Send your own Spacecraft to Moon for just Rs. 20000 ( 199 Pounds)

Did you ever dream about exploring the solar system with your own spacecraft?   Yes it is now finally possible to explore the space using your own spacecraft.

If you are a space enthusiast, you have a unique chance to explore the solar system with your own space craft and that too at a very small cost - Just 199 pounds or Rs.20,000.

A British company is planning to launch thousands of mini spacecrafts on to the Moon.  Each of these spacecrafts can be bought for just 199 pounds and personalized by the sponsor.  A group of scientists, engineers and designers who worked on this concept at some of the world's leading Universities have come together to start this personal interplanetary space age and they have given an opportunity to you to join hands with them to become a space explorer.  So once you join this project, you can personalize your own spacecraft by adding a picture and customizing the message it transmits using just their web browser.  More technical explorers can even customize the software and hardware. The team has developed a website called www.PocketSpacecraft.com.  

The probes to be launched by Pocket Spacecraft, are of the size of a CD and as thin as a paper.  They will be released in June, 2015 over the Earth and over the Moon in June, 2016.

You can watch online at your spacecraft is being built in the lab and loaded into an Interplanetary CubeSat Mothership.    Once they are launched by a commercial rocket, some of the probes will be released into space to flutter to the ground in order to demonstrate landing on a planet with atmosphere (Earth).  The MotherShip will set off to Moon where, when it arrives many months later, the remaining probes will be released, photographed and then land on the Moon to complete the Mission.  

The owners of the probes can monitor the progress through out their own Pocket Mission Control App to track the progress of their Spacecraft as it is designed,built and travels through the space.  The data as it arrives from individual's spacecraft's instruments is relayed from space by a global ground station network direct to the owner's smartphone.  The users also can hold their phone up to the sky and use the augmented reality feature to point out exactly where their spacecraft is.

"As these spacecrafts are very light weight, they are extremely cheaper"  - says Mr. Michael Johnson who is the founder of Pocket Spacecraft.  The Bristol based company hopes to use similar probes elsewhere in the solar system.  If you are able to drop 1000 of these probes on Mars, you can do a planet-wide seismic survey. 

Read more about their current mission for details and join them on an expedition to the moon!

Are you interested  in exploring the space....    If you are interested to take part in the Pocket Spacecraft Mission to the Moon,  please fill up your details and submit.

You can see some details of the Pocket Spacecraft in the image shown below.