Yama Tkoi

Senin, 03 Juni 2019

An astronaut recorded a time lapse video of earth and it's breathtaking - CNN

Over the weekend, NASA shared a stunning timelapse of Hague's view from the International Space Station. The video condensed 30 minutes of orbit time around the Earth, going from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, into one beautiful minute. The many clouds visible only added to the awe-inspiring view taken from 254 miles above Earth.

"Took a moment to capture the beauty of our planet today. I was awestruck as I watched the wispy clouds disappear into the shadows," Hague tweeted.

Hague launched to the space station on March 14 and will return to Earth in October.

Recently, Hague also had a chance to speak to his son's class.

"I got a chance to speak with my son's class today. Kind of like 'bring you dad to school' day," Hague tweeted on May 17.

He also shared an update after his first two months on the station.

"2 months into my stay on @Space_Station! What's it like adjusting to life in space? My back stretched out due to lack of gravity & I'm now 2 inches taller, fluid shifts make me feel a bit stuffy, & the tops of my feet now have calluses since we use them like hands on handrails," he tweeted on May 21.

Hague launched to the station as part of Expedition 59 along with NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin. They joined NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos station commander Oleg Kononenko and the Canadian Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques, who were already on station.

Hague and Ovchinin got a second chance after their original October 11 launch failed.

Shortly after launch, there was an anomaly with the booster, and the launch ascent was aborted, resulting in a ballistic landing of the spacecraft, according to a NASA statement.

"We were violently shaken side to side, thrust back into our seats as the launch escape system ripped us away from the rocket," Hague described. "As all of that's happening, you're being shaken around, vision is blurry. I hear the alarm sounding and see the red light where the engine has had an emergency. I had the vivid realization we aren't making it to orbit today, we've been pulled off rocket and we have to land."

Astronaut recounts harrowing failed space launch

They walked away from the harrowing landing on Earth with a few bumps and bruises, eager to return to space.

Together, the space station crew members have been conducting experiments including biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science in the microgravity lab.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/world/astronaut-nick-hague-earth-timelapse-trnd-scn/index.html

2019-06-03 14:35:25Z
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NASA looking at “hard decisions” within its budget to pay for Artemis plan - Ars Technica

Enlarge / NASA Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate William Gerstenmaier is looking for "efficiencies" in the agency's budget.
NASA

Over the last two months, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has repeatedly said the agency's ambitious new Artemis plan for sending humans to the Moon in 2024 will not require raiding other areas of its budget, such as its broad array of science programs, technology research, or aeronautics work.

The reason, he said, is simple. The surest way to torpedo support for a program inside the agency is to take funding from someone else to pay for the new plan, and the surest way to lose support in Congress is to take work away from various field centers around the country.

"We can't cannibalize one part of the agency to feed another part of the agency," Bridenstine told Ars in April, which reflects comments he has made many times. "We can't cut the Science Mission Directorate to feed human exploration. We can't cannibalize the International Space Station to feed the Moon mission. So if we go in those directions, which have all been tried in the past, it never works politically. We can't do the same thing again and be upset that it didn't work."

"Make some cuts"

However, that may be exactly what happens. On Friday, during a meeting of NASA's Advisory Council, the agency's senior human spaceflight official characterized the challenge of paying for a plan to accelerate human landings on the Moon from the late 2020s to 2024, as Vice President Mike Pence has directed the agency to do.

"I don’t think we’re going to be able to get the entire budget as new money," NASA's Bill Gerstenmaier said. "We’re going to have to look for some efficiencies, and make some cuts internal to the agency, and that’s where it’s gonna be hard. Everybody can be on board when everything is going forward, and there’s an infinite amount of new money coming in to the agency."

Neither Bridenstine nor Gerstenmaier has said how much the accelerated lunar program—bringing forward development of the Space Launch System rocket, elements of a Lunar Gateway, building a three-stage Lunar Lander, and upgrading spacesuits—would cost. However, sources have told Ars the real cost of the Artemis Program is probably as much as $6 billion to $8 billion a year beyond NASA's annual budget of $20 billion a year.

"I know what the all new money number is, but now the question is can we find some other things to gain some efficiencies," Gerstenmaier told the council, which is chaired by Lester Lyles, a former Air Force General. "We’ve had a series of meetings already where we’re starting to discuss what other things can we cut, or where can we slow some things down to focus. We’re going to do that even within my own directorate. It’s not that your thing isn’t a priority any more, it’s still a priority, but we’ve got to have it moved back so we can do these other objectives."

The council's meetings are generally not broadcast or recorded, but the media and general public can listen in via a teleconference line. Gerstenmaier's remarks came as part of a presentation on how he wants to keep NASA's budget and deep space planning grounded within "fiscal realism" and how he does not want to devise lavish plans and then hope the funding materializes. The extent of Gerstenmaier's comments, and his deliberate manner, suggest he did not misspeak about the potential for cuts.

"We’re not going to get a huge upper," he told the council about NASA's budget. "We can get 1 or 2 percent increases, which are significant, but we’re not going to get a major, brand-new, multi-billion dollar program injected on top of us, and we’re going to have to make those hard decisions. The first thing is, we used to say, if we just had a compelling, inspirational program, a dump truck of money would back up to us and we would be swimming in dollars. My entire career, that’s never happened."

A "frugal" approach?

After Gerstenmaier's remarks, Ars reached out to NASA to ask how this talk of "cuts" squared with Bridenstine's view that some areas of NASA's budget would not be raided to pay for other programs. In response, the agency released a statement that included the following comment about "frugal approaches" to budget planning:

"The recent budget amendment has demonstrated this administration’s unprecedented commitment to request the resources NASA needs to achieve the goal of landing humans on the surface of the Moon in 2024, and Congress has shown bipartisan support towards the agency’s goals as well. However, as a part of prudent budget planning, we must also protect for alternate scenarios and consider frugal approaches to make the most of every dollar in order to sustain the effort to meet our goal."

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https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/nasa-spaceflight-chief-warns-of-internal-cuts-needed-for-moon-program/

2019-06-03 12:47:00Z
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Breaking the symmetry in the quantum realm - Phys.org

For the first time, researchers have observed a break in a single quantum system. The observation—and how they made the observation—has potential implications for physics beyond the standard understanding of how quantum particles interact to produce matter and allow the world to function as we know it.

The researchers published their results on May 31st, in the journal Science.

Called parity-time (PT) symmetry, the mathematical term describes the properties of a quantum system—the evolution of time for a quantum particle, as well as if the particle is even or odd. Whether the particle moves forward or backward in time, the state of oddness or evenness remains the same in the balanced system. When the parity changes, the balance of system—the symmetry of the system—breaks.

In order to better understand quantum interactions and develop next-generation devices, researchers must be able to control the symmetry of systems. If they can break the symmetry, they could manipulate the spin state of the quantum particles as they interact, resulting in controlled and predicted outcomes.

"Our work is about that quantum control," said Yang Wu, an author on the paper and a Ph.D. student in the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China. Wu is also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance.

Wu, his Ph.D. supervisor Rong and colleagues used a nitrogen-vacancy center in a diamond as their platform. The nitrogen atom with an extra electron, surrounded by carbon atoms, creates the perfect capsule to further investigate the PT symmetry of the electron. The electron is a single-spin system, meaning the researchers can manipulate the entire system just by changing the evolution of the electron spin state.

Through what Wu and Rong call a dilation method, the researchers applied a magnetic field to the axis of the nitrogen-vacancy center, pulling the electron into a state of excitability. They then applied oscillating microwave pulses, changing the parity and time direction of the system and causing it to break and decay with time.

"Due to the universality of our dilation method and the high controllability of our platform, this work paves the way to study experimentally some new physical phenomena related to PT symmetry," Wu said.

Corresponding authors Jiangfeng Du and Xing Rong, professors with the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, were in agreement.

"The information extracted from such dynamics extends and deepens the understanding of quantum physics," said Du, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "The work opens the door to the study of exotic physics with non-classical quantum systems."

Explore further

Novel approach to coherent control of a three-level quantum system

More information: Yang Wu et al, Observation of parity-time symmetry breaking in a single-spin system, Science (2019). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw8205

Provided by University of Science and Technology of China

Citation: Breaking the symmetry in the quantum realm (2019, June 3) retrieved 3 June 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-06-symmetry-quantum-realm.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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https://phys.org/news/2019-06-symmetry-quantum-realm.html

2019-06-03 10:53:47Z
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NASA Moon landing: THIS is what Neil Armstrong saw on the Moon after his 'one small step' - Express.co.uk

NASA won the space race to the Moon on July 20, 1969, beating the Soviet Union to the lunar finish line. NASA’s Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first two men to accomplish the unimaginable feat. And flying over their heads, locked in lunar orbit, was Command Module Pilot Michael Collins. However, the honour of being the first man to set foot on the Moon was given to Mission Commander Armstrong.

On July 21, just six hours after Apollo 11 landed, Armstrong and Aldrin exited their Eagle Lunar Module.

An estimated 650 million people worldwide watched with bated breath as Commander Armstrong descended to the dusty surface of the Moon.

The astronaut famously announced: “It’s one small step for man, one giant step for mankind.”

And shortly after the astronaut uttered his now iconic phrase, he described to NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, Texas, exactly what the Moon looked like.

NASA Moon landing: Neil Armstrong Apollo 11

NASA Moon landing: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon (Image: GETTY)

Thankfully for us today, detailed transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission and all audio communications, were stored and digitalised by NASA.

According to Commander Armstrong, the surface of the Moon is very fine and powdery, almost like sand.

The astronaut had no trouble moving around in the lunar regolith and immediately noticed his footprints.

And despite the Moon only having one-sixth of the gravity of the Earth, the astronaut said movements were easier than in Earthly simulations.

Commander Armstrong said: “Yes, the surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe.

It has a stark beauty all its own
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11

“It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots.

“I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch but I can see the footprints of my boots and the threads in the fine, sandy particles.

“Ah… There seems to be no difficulty in moving around – as we suspected.

“It’s even perhaps easier than the simulation of one-sixth G that we performed in the various simulations on the ground. It’s absolutely no trouble to walk around.”

A bit later, while Armstrong and Aldrin were photographing the Moon on Hasselblad cameras and collecting track samples, the astronauts vividly described the sights.

Armstrong said: “It has a stark beauty all its own. It's like much of the high desert of the United States. It's different, but it's very pretty out here.”

Apollo 11 and its three astronauts returned to Earth on July 24 and splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.

NASA Moon landing: Apollo 11 mission

NASA Moon landing: Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 (Image: NASA)

NASA Moon landing: Apollo 11 astronauts

Apollo 11 crew: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin (Image: GETTY)

Quick facts about NASA’s Apollo 11 mission:

1. NASA’s Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 16, 1969.

2. President John F Kennedy instructed NASA to land on the Moon in May 1961.

3. An estimated 650 million people all around the globe watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.

4. President Richard Nixon presented Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

5. The Apollo mission returned to Earth on July 24, 1969, and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

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https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1134700/NASA-Moon-landing-Neil-Armstrong-one-small-step-Apollo-11-nasa-news

2019-06-03 08:06:00Z
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Sabtu, 01 Juni 2019

After SpaceX Starlink Launch, a Fear of Satellites That Outnumber All Visible Stars - The New York Times

Last month, SpaceX successfully launched 60 500-pound satellites into space. Soon amateur skywatchers started sharing images of those satellites in night skies, igniting an uproar among astronomers who fear that the planned orbiting cluster will wreak havoc on scientific research and trash our view of the cosmos.

The main issue is that those 60 satellites are merely a drop in the bucket. SpaceX anticipates launching thousands of satellites — creating a mega-constellation of false stars collectively called Starlink that will connect the entire planet to the internet, and introduce a new line of business for the private spaceflight company.

While astronomers agree that global internet service is a worthy goal, the satellites are bright — too bright.

“This has the potential to change what a natural sky looks like,” said Tyler Nordgren, an astronomer who is now working full-time to promote night skies.

And SpaceX is not alone. Other companies, such as Amazon, Telesat and OneWeb, want to get into the space internet business. Their ambitions to make satellites nearly as plentiful as cellphone towers highlight conflicting debates as old as the space age about the proper use of the final frontier.

While private companies see major business opportunities in low-Earth orbit and beyond, many skygazers fear that space will no longer be “the province of all mankind,” as stated in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

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The Starlink launch was one of SpaceX’s most ambitious missions to orbit.

Each of the satellites carries a solar panel that not only gathers sunlight but also reflects it back to Earth. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive, has offered assurances that the satellites will only be visible in the hours after sunset and before sunrise, and then just barely.

But the early images led many scientists to question his assertions.

The first captured images, for example, revealed a train of spacecraft as bright as Polaris, the North Star. And while a press officer at SpaceX said the satellites will grow fainter as they move to higher orbits, some astronomers estimate that they will be visible to the naked eye throughout summer nights.

The satellites can even “flare,” briefly boosting their brightness to rival that of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, when their solar panels are oriented just right.

Astronomers fear that these reflections will threaten stargazing and their research.

Whenever a satellite passes through a long-exposure picture of the sky, it causes a long bright streak — typically ruining the image and forcing astronomers to take another one. While telescope operators have dealt with these headaches for years, Starlink alone could triple the number of satellites currently in orbit, with the number growing larger if other companies get to space.

One estimate suggests that the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope — an 8.4-meter telescope under construction on a Chilean mountaintop that will soon scan the entire sky — might have to deal with one to four Starlink satellites in every image during the first few hours of twilight.

And astronomers don’t yet know how they will adjust. “We’re really at that point where we have to assess what we’re going to do,” said Ronald Drimmel, an astronomer at the Turin Astrophysical Observatory in Italy.

Not only do these satellites reflect light, they also emit radio frequencies — which a number of astronomers find troubling. Dishes used in radio astronomy are often built in remote locations far from cell towers and radio stations. But if Starlink is launched in full — with the ability to beam reception toward any location on the planet — those so-called radio quiet zones might become a thing of the past.

Moreover, some are worried that Starlink plans to operate on two frequency ranges that astronomers use to map the gas throughout the universe — allowing them to see how planets as large as Jupiter assemble, and how galaxies formed immediately after the Big Bang.

“If those frequency channels become inaccessible, it’s extremely limiting to what we can learn about the early universe,” said Caitlin Casey, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.

Similar concerns emerged in the 1990s when Iridium launched dozens of satellites — which made their own flashes in night skies — to provide global satellite phone coverage. The Iridium constellation’s impact was ultimately minimal as technologies changed, and because it never grew larger than 66 satellites. The most reflective of its satellites are now gradually falling from orbit.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a federally funded research center that operates facilities across the world, said on Friday in a statement that it has been working directly with SpaceX to minimize potential impacts. The group is discussing what it called exclusion zones around some radio astronomy facilities, where SpaceX’s satellites would power down when traveling overhead.

Dr. Casey worries that this could still restrict where radio astronomers can work.

A view of Starlink’s satellites just before being deployed on May 24.CreditSpaceX

This week on Twitter, Mr. Musk said that Starlink will avoid using one of those two frequency ranges. But Dr. Casey said it’s possible that the adjacent frequencies the satellites will use might spill into areas astronomers study — even if they’re technically blocked.

Despite the outcry, Dr. Drimmel said he wasn’t calling for Starlink to be brought to a halt.

“I don’t presume that astronomy should be held more important than everything else,” he said. “So there may be some give and take, and compromises that need to be made.”

But he does worry about the irrevocable impact on human culture should internet satellites forever alter the face of the night sky.

“What I find astounding is that whatever we do will affect everyone on the planet,” Dr. Drimmel said.

Alex Parker, a planetary astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute, noted on Twitter that if these satellites orbit in the thousands, they could soon outnumber all of the stars visible to the naked eye. And even if just 500 are observable at any given time, Dr. Drimmel warns that it will be difficult to pick out constellations among those moving lights.

“It sounds dystopian,” Dr. Casey said.

Most of the frustration stems from the fact that discussions about the impact of this project did not take place before launch. And it may only be the beginning.

“It truly is the tip of the iceberg, especially as we get into a world where you have multibillionaires with the ability and the desire to do things like this,” Dr. Nordgren said.

So astronomers are hopeful that today’s conversation might shape the future. “I think it’s good that we’re making noise about this problem,” Dr. Drimmel said. “If we’re not aware of the threat, so to speak, this will all happen as planned and then it will be too late.”

Already, Mr. Musk has asked SpaceX to work on lowering future satellites’ brightness.

And other companies seem to be taking note. A press officer at Amazon said that it will be years before Project Kuiper — the company’s plan to place more than 3,000 internet satellites into orbit — is available. But Amazon will assess space safety and concerns about light pollution as they design their satellites, the press officer said.

Another entrant, Telesat, said its smaller constellation would operate at higher orbits than some companies’ satellites, making their satellites fainter.

Mr. Musk also upset some astronomers when he said on Twitter that Starlink was for the “greater good.”

“Who has the right to decide that?” Dr. Nordgren asked. “And do we all agree that that trade-off is one that we’re all willing to make?”

The night sky has the power to make people feel awe, he said.

“A star-filled night sky reminds us that we are part of a much larger whole, that we are one person in a world of people surrounded by the vast depths of the visible universe,” Dr. Nordgren said.

While they may see Starlink’s goal as worthy, scientists question whether it is truly the greater good.

“I’m sure there will be positive impact in terms of bringing the internet to the world, but just blatantly saying as one person or one company that this takes precedence over our knowledge of our own universe is scary,” Dr. Casey said.

Ultimately, many agree that the risks are far too great for this decision to be made by one company. And Dr. Casey is hopeful that SpaceX will take a cooperative approach with major astronomy organizations.

“The idea that one or two people somewhere in some country in some boardroom can make the decision that the constellations hereafter will suddenly be fluid, and move from night to night and hour to hour — well, I don’t think that’s their decision to make,” Dr. Nordgren said.

Earlier reporting on private space companies

SpaceX Launches 60 Starlink Internet Satellites Into Orbit

May 23, 2019

Space Gets an Artificial Star. Astronomers Ask: Do We Need More?

Jan. 28, 2018

Rocket Lab’s Modest Launch Is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business

Nov. 10, 2018

If No One Owns the Moon, Can Anyone Make Money Up There?

Nov. 26, 2017

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/01/science/starlink-spacex-astronomers.html

2019-06-01 15:28:43Z
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After SpaceX Launch, a Fear of Satellites That Outnumber All Visible Stars - The New York Times