Scientists could get their first glimpse of the dawn of the universe from a telescope buried up to half a mile underground. This new device is designed to detect gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are an elusive phenomena created by some of the most violent events in the universe such as black holes, neutron stars and the Big Bang.
Russians In Mars Space Race Set New Goals
Russians are aiming at getting to Mars.
An interplanetary spacecraft for a flight to Mars will be created not before 2025 and the maiden flight to the red planet will be possible only after 2035, said Russian space agency Roscosmos chief Anatoly Perminov on Wednesday.
“The possibility of a flight to Mars needs to be combined with the construction of a spaceship having a new nuclear power propulsion unit, which will make it possible to reach the planet in a month,” Perminov said in Russia’s upper house of parliament…
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Sold to the Highest Bidder: 3 Used Space Ships
Blasting off to the highest bidder.
Last week there were used battleships for sale on e-bay, this week we’ve got used space shuttles. But not going as cheaply as the warships and not being turned into pots and pans either.
NASA has been trying to flog these space shuttles for a while now; they have already been marked down from $42M to $28M. And it looks like they may have finally found a new, earth-bound, home.
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Scientist Explains Why Mars is Red (and How it Could Happen On Earth, too)
Mars is covered with a thin layer of radioactive substances including uranium, thorium and radioactive potassium.
Mars has not always been red. At least that is the theory proposed by a scientist who has discovered a reason as to how the red planet got its rosy color.
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Ever Wondered How NASA Photoshops Their Images?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5c1XoL1KFs&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
NASA generally releases some fairly pretty pictures of things that we humans who don’t have NASA-style funding wouldn’t ever be able to see. Well, it turns out NASA doesn’t necessarily see the things they’re releasing pictures of either, at least, not how they look in said released pictures…
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Take a Vitamin Supplement to Mitigate Effects of Radiation
Along with the anti-radiation drug potassium iodide, scientists recommend a vitamin pill.
Astronauts are exposed to more radiation than nuclear power plant workers. As a result, NASA has recommended taking vitamin supplements to mitigate any potential side effects.
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How NASA Recovers Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters
After they’re done getting a space shuttle into the upper atmosphere, the solid rocket boosters drop off and fall into the ocean. They’re recovered by the NASA vesselsLiberty Star and Freedom Star and refurbished for additional use. This video shows how it’s done. It’s rather long, so let me point out some highlights…
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First Space-Based Gas Station Set to Open in 2015
Space gas to become a reality soon?
In space, no one can hear you scream — about the soaring prices at the pump, that is. For what will be the very first time, plans for a space-based satellite filling station have been announced, with a launch date set for 2015. It may sound like a bit of unnecessary convenience some 22,369 miles above our heads, but experts say that the gas station will do much more than make Earth a planetary truck-stop. “This is a first-time-ever, huge, huge, huge event,” says the director of the Space Protection Program — and it’s sure to make space a little cleaner, too.
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Breathtaking Saturn Cassini Video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA9iIqIAUT4[/youtube]
The Cassini spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004, sending the clearest images of the most striking planet in the Solar System. Working at home, Stephen Van Vuuren used those photos to create the most hypnotizing space film I’ve seen. There is no CGI and no 3D models in these images. Just images from NASA. Jump to 0:56 for the final result of his work, so far.
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In Lasers We Trust: NASA Researches 5kW Galactic Trash Disposal System
Dealing with space junk.
Space junk is a growing problem — 200,000 pieces and counting — and as the amount of earth’s orbital debris increases, so does the chance some satellite will be involved in a cosmic collision. As this would cause much gnashing of teeth and woe for the affected terrestrial parties, some researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center have pitched the idea of removing said junk with a laser — once again proving that everything’s better with lasers…
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The Baikonur Cosmodrome – The World’s Oldest Spaceport
A newly “rolled out” Proton-M, carrying the Inmarsat-4F3 spacecraft.
There are, to be frank, not many spaceports on the planet as of 2011. Of the thirty or so only six of them have sent people in to space. Four of those are located in the US, another in China and the sixth and oldest is to be found in Kazakhstan…
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Is the Japanese Earthquake the Latest Natural Disaster to Have Been Caused by a ‘Supermoon’?
Did a ‘Supermoon’ cause this?
The powerful tsunami that today slammed into Japan’s eastern coast comes just two days after warnings that the movement of the moon could trigger unpredictable events on Earth.
Astrologers predicted that on March 19 – a week tomorrow – the so-called ‘supermoon’ will be closer to Earth than at any time since 1992, just 221,567 miles away, and that its gravitational pull will bring chaos to Earth.
Others on the Internet have predicted it will cause further catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Coming just three weeks after the quake which devastated Christchurch in New Zealand killing hundreds, this latest disaster will only add fuel to their fire…