Quote of the Month

"Somewhere, something incredible

is waiting to be known."

- Carl Sagan

CAT Thruster - Alive and Well!

Even though the University of Michigan Kickstarter for the CAT engine—a revolutionary idea for cubesat propulsion—had failed to reach its funding goal, the project did not die. Yesterday, the team had posted an update on their Kickstarter page, detailing future plans for the project:

We hope you are well and wanted to let you know that we have an announcement coming in early October about a new CAT Engine Kickstarter campaign. We are hard at work on this and appreciate the tremendous support and encouragement to date.

In the meantime, we've had some nice progress on the hardware development for CAT and will reveal that during the launch. Additionally, we have listened to your suggestions and are working on exciting new rewards and a revised social media presence for the upcoming campaign.

Thank you, we look forward to your continued support.

-The CAT Team

Confirmed: Voyager 1 left the Solar System!

About a year ago, the twin Voyager spacecrafts possibly reaching the boundaries of our solar system had begun to surface. But scientists needed time to confirm the data. Well, today NASA has announced that Voyager 1 has indeed left the solar system and is now in interstellar space. The following is an excerpt from the official announcement from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

"Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind's historic leap into interstellar space," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we've all been asking -- 'Are we there yet?' Yes, we are."

At about 12 billion miles (19.3 billion kilometers) from Earth, well beyond the orbit of Pluto, the 36 year old spacecraft is our farthest ambassador, a truly remarkable accomplishment of all of humanity. What is most remarkable, however, is that Voyager 1 still has power estimated to last until 2025, relaying back data about the conditions of interstellar space, further advancing our knowledge and understanding of the universe. After that, it will orbit the center of our galaxy until the end of times. Just imagine: when we are long gone, Voyager 1 will still be out there, crossing the great void, with messages from a long forgotten civilization, on a tiny golden record.

Science is amazing!

* Illustration and video are from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Curiosity Rover Tracker

Ever wondered what Curiosity had done on a specific day? Did you ever wanted to see the entire timeline of the largest Mars rover? Well, if you answered 'yes' to any of these question, you are in luck. The folks over at The New York Times created an interactive timeline for Curiosity, encompassing the entirety of the mission, from Sol 0 to present day. You can check out nearly every day the rover had spent on the Red Planet and see what it did during a specific time period, as well as, look at related images. It is an awesome tool that should make every space geek smile! If you are at all interested, follow the link below:

Curiosity Rover Tracker Website

What is the Deal with Water on Mars?!

Every once in awhile, news about water on Mars pops up on science blogs and news outlets. In fact, the topic has been in the spotlight so much in recent years that many people just shrug when they read about it. What is the big deal; didn’t we find water on a half a dozen celestial bodies already? It is supposed to be a pretty common substance. We found traces of water on the Moon, on asteroids and comets, heck the entirety of Europa’s surface, Saturn’s largest moon, is comprised of mostly water—under a thick layer of ice. So why is Martian water so important? Well, the answer is quite interesting.

Everyone knows that water is an integral part of human life; in its liquid form, we need it for our everyday survival. We can also split water into oxygen and hydrogen and use the resulting elements as rocket fuel, to generate electricity or to produce breathable air. The role water plays in long-term manned space missions is fundamental, making this seemingly simple substance a crucial part of any future Mars initiative. But it is also a heavy substance! Carrying all the water astronauts will need on a years-long mission to Mars is expensive, even if we assume that most of it can be recycled. But what if much of the water needed would be readily available at the destination, therefore alleviating the need to ship it from millions of miles away? Such a case would significantly decrease the launch costs of manned Mars missions. Luckily, this precisely what seems to be the case as NASA has repeatedly demonstrated the existence of subsurface water ice. We also know that both polar caps consist of mostly said material, as well as the thin Martian clouds. To put it simply: Mars’ demonstrable water reserves bring us to the dream of a—at least partially—self-sustainable Martian outpost that much closer. But water has not only practical but tremendous scientific implications as well!

Quote of the Month

"From now on, we live in a world

where man has walked on the Moon.

It's not a miracle;

we just decided to go."

- Tom Hanks

How Much Does NASA Cost?

A study done a few years ago revealed that the average American believe that NASA's annual budget is around 20% of the total U.S. expenditure. That, of course, is ridiculous. NASA's 2011 budget was somewhere around 0.6%, a number that went even further down in recent years. To illustrate how small that amount really is, compare put it next to the military, which was over 900 billion (with a B!) dollars in in the same year! In fact, if you put together every penny the U.S. government has ever spent on NASA over the agency's little over 50 years of operation (which includes all the satellites, the Hubble Space telescope, the mars probes, the Apollo program, and every mission that gave pride to millions of Americans) it would still add up to less than what the U.S. spends on its military in a single year! Another interesting tidbit: the American government had spent more on the 2008 bank bailout than on NASA's in the last 50 years! So next time, when someone tells you that the United States spends too much money on NASA, you will know better. The chart below puts the points discussed in a nice, visual form (special thanks to Steve Heroz for allowing me to re-post his image here).

Lastly, here is a short video from Neil deGrasse Tyson where he addresses the issue in a way I could never dream of (special thanks to youtuber, Evan Schurr, who edited it). Watch it, listen to it, share it!

Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks in a Few Days

We are only a few days away from the peaking of the Perseid Meteor Shower, the largest annual meteor shower on the planet. The Perseids can produce up to 80 "falling stars" per hour; a spectacular show that is visible from the northern hemisphere and in some southern countries closer to the equator. As in previous years, I urge you to visit Spacedex for tips, tricks, and to find out about optimum viewing conditions in your area.

Image courtesy of Spacedex.com

The Future of the CAT Thruster

With a heavy heart I inform you that the CAT thruster for cubesats had failed to reach its goal of 200.000 dollars on Kickstarter. Fortunately it was not a total loss! First of all, considering how small the project was--a university campaign with very limited media access--the nearly $68.000 they did manage to collect I think is remarkable. To me, it shows that people do care about space exploration, similarly to the Arkyd space telescope even though not quite on the same scale. Secondly, and most importantly, the unsuccessful campaign does not mean the end of the project! After the deadline, Benjamin Longmier (project and science lead) published the below open letter, discussing the various possibilities for the future:

Dear Team,

We didn't make it to our funding goal of $200k with kickstarter in this first university funding experiment, though it's been a fun ride. Our team at the University of Michigan has been making great progress on the CAT engine, even since we first launched the kickstarter campaign, and we attracted a lot of attention from a few government and commercial partners. Some of these groups intend to fund this research and we are looking into these options. We are also considering re-listing the kickstarter campaign with a few tweaks, a lower funding goal, and some revised rewards. Please stay tuned as we heard the CATs, and we will keep you posted on the CAT engine research progress as things unfold in our lab. We remain excited about creating the next generation engine for deploying CubeSats around the Earth and sending them off into deep space, and we are quite grateful for your continued interest and participation in this journey.

Best regards,
Ben

One Year on Mars!

Exactly one year ago today, Curiosity has landed on Mars. Followed by the unblinking eyes of millions of people around the world, the rover began its career with a daring, never before seen maneuver: lowered onto the surface from a hovering rocket-powered skycrane. Although the landing was an incredible feat of engineering, it was only the beginning, the first step in an incredible journey to unravel the mysteries of the red planet. For all the science nerds out there, here are a few quick facts about Curiosity's first year on Mars:

Curiosity has...
... sent home over 71,000 images.
... traveled a little over a mile.
... fired more than 75,000 shots from its laser spectrometer.
... drilled into and analyzed 2 martian rocks.
... discovered ancient river beds.
... found evidence of PH-neutral water.

In the coming year, the rover will began its journey to Mount Sharp where layers of sedimentary rock promise a treasure trove of scientific data, a window back to a Mars very different from the one today. Although its destination lies about 5 miles from its current position, engineers at JPL hope to cover the distance in just under a year thanks to Curiosity's newly updated driving software. They will, of course, stop several times to do what they are the best at: science.

Lastly, here are two videos from the JPL team commemorating the landing and the 12 months that followed afterwords: