Sabbah Report » Space

Build your own Sputnik

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:39:15 +0000

And possibly your Sputnik will get a chance to be launched to space. Isn't this cool?

BBC Magazine describes here 'How to build your own Sputnik' and promises that they'll investigate how to get your Sputniks launched.

It seems incredible that the technology that went into building the first successful satellite 50 years ago can now be found lying around the average house. You could even build one yourself [...] In simple terms, the Sputnik satellite was a metal sphere almost 2ft (61cm) in diameter, containing a radio transmitter. It also had a battery; equipment to measure temperature; barometric and temperature activated switches; and a fan to stop it getting too hot [...] You could probably find most of these components lying around your home. There are transmitters in mobile or cordless phones, wireless internet routers and baby monitors, and you may well have a thermometer in the medicine cabinet.

A party balloon can act as a simple pressure switch of sorts - a partially inflated one would certainly expand and burst if the pressure outside dropped to zero. And temperature switches can be found all over the house, including in the thermostat for the central heating system, or in the electric oven or washing machine.

Electronic gadgets contain batteries, and fans can be found in home computers or the kitchen extractor. The only thing you may have trouble laying your hands on is a large metal sphere with whiplash aerials poking out.

While finding all the components may be easy in 2007, actually getting them to work together would require a little expertise. There's also the small matter of all those wrecked domestic gadgets and appliances left in your wake.

SPUTNIK IN A BISCUIT TIN

1. Tomy baby monitor - transmitter and aerial
2. Wireless router - backup transmitter and aerial
3. Mercury thermometer - temperature sensor
4. x4 large batteries - power supply
5. Balloon - pressure sensor (expands and pops if case punctured)
6. Power-pack - backup power supply
7. Domestic thermostat - activates fan and changes radio signal
8. Battery powered fan - moves heat to casing (once tin lid is on)
9. Biscuit tin with foil - houses components and reflects solar radiation

Raining Red Aliens in India

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 09:56:08 +0000

As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louisï¿½s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens. In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samplesï¿½water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louisï¿½s home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001ï¿½contain microbes from outer space.

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600?F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250?F.) So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth. [Full story here]

Ras Al Khaimah Spaceport

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:03:39 +0000

Few days ago, the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has announced the creation of RAK Airways, the UAE's fourth national carrier which will start operations by the end of 2006. I thought, what the heck? Four carriers in UAE, what do they need all that for? And RAK... how many traveler do they actually have an annum?

Well, not after I heard some great news, which sounds related and actually justifies RAK Airways:

Space travel firm plans $265m RAK venture

Ras Al Khaimah - Space Adventures, the only company to have sent tourists into space, has announced plans to develop a commercial spaceport in the UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.

From the Ras Al Khaimah spaceport, the firm will operate suborbital flights, a report in Gulf News said.

The project will cost $265 million, officials said.

The Russian-built suborbital vehicle called Explorer will have the capacity to transport up to five people to an altitude of nearly 100 km in space, but the project's schedule is yet to be announced.

The spaceport will be funded among others by the Government of Ras Al Khaimah and Space Adventures. The Virginia-based company is also partnering Ras Al Khaimah to expand the spaceport project beyond UAE to other potential space tourism locations such as Singapore and the US.

The UAE spaceport, to be located less than an hour's drive from Dubai, already has commitments for $30 million.

"I am proud to announce Ras Al Khaimah as the site where commercial suborbital travel will flourish," said Shaikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Ras Al Khaimah Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler. "As a leader in tourism, the UAE is the ideal location for the spaceport," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures.

The company was behind the trips of the world's first three space tourists, sending Dennis Tito, Greg Oslen and Mark Shuttleworth to the International Space Station.

One of my dreams coming... closer!

Moon-to-Mars Plans Emerge

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 12:45:55 +0000

NASA is set to unveil today details of its new space architecture for Moon-to-Mars trip. Last week SPACE.com and Space News reported that NASA will announce today plans to send four astronauts to Moon in 2018 and sending humans to Mars thereafter. On the list: A re-usable vehicle that's safer than the shuttle; technology for extracting fuel from the destination; and an airbag landing upon return to Earth.

On this day!

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:54:39 +0000

On this day, last year, I said: Perseid Meteor Shower - This week, the skies above the Northern Hemisphere will be peppered with little bits of space debris that create the annual Perseid meteor shower. It could be the best display in several years, peaking Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Google Moon

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:57:14 +0000

Once again, the geeks at Google have blown away people with their shenanigans.

Their latest gag has been to import moon maps (courtesy of NASA maps), thus making Google Moon.

Their reasoning? According to the FAQ, it's the following:
"Because we couldn't think of a better way to commemorate the first lunar landing, which occurred on July 20, 1969, than to give our users an opportunity to surf around the lunar surface themselves."

If you've checked out Google Moon I hope you zoomed in all the way; if not, go do it. Isn't that sweet? Now I just need to find a picture of a space monkey and my day will be complete.

China to send pig sperm to space

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 08:29:21 +0000

China is planning to study the effects of space on sperm, by sending the semen from pedigree pigs into orbit.

Some 40 grams of pig sperm will be taken on board the Shenzhou VI spacecraft for its October launch.

Some of the sperm will be kept outside the spacecraft's biological capsule and some inside, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Russian sues Nasa for comet upset

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:58:30 +0000

Hours after a Nasa probe crashed into Comet Tempel 1, legal reverberations were felt in a Moscow court. A case which could see Nasa pay a local amateur astrologist millions of dollars in damages.

Writer Marina Bay claims that by slamming the probe into the comet, Nasa endangered the future of civilisation.

"Nobody has yet proven that this experiment was safe," says Ms Bay's lawyer Alexander Molokhov.

"This impact could have altered the orbit of the comet, so now there is a chance that the Tempel may well destroy the Earth some day!"

However, even if the comet stays at a safe distance from Earth, Ms Bay's own life, she thinks, will never be the same again.

Google Earth

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:19:18 +0000

Have you seen where do you live from space? Google Earth just launched the beta version. It's amazing view. Give it a try, it's worth it! Related posts: Space Technology Aids Life on Earth Robots Searching the Skies for Earth-Like Planet No cloud above, no earth below Related posts:

Happy 15th birthday Hubble

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:49:11 +0000

Happy 15th birthday Hubble. One of the coolest slide shows ever.

Toutatis: Almost Too Close

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:51:23 +0000

No, no... this is not real. It's just simulation of asteroid impact if Kerry get elected. Vice President Dick Cheney echoed earlier remarks, warning the United States will risk direct impact by the asteroid Toutatis if voters make the wrong choice.

IMO, the impact would be the same either (Bush/Kerry) get elected!

Perseid Meteor Shower

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 11 Aug 2004 15:25:31 +0000

This week, the skies above the Northern Hemisphere will be peppered with little bits of space debris that create the annual Perseid meteor shower. It could be the best display in several years, peaking Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Here are 10 cool facts you can use to impress friends and family late at night or early in the morning while watching for shooting stars:

1) Perseid meteoroids (which is what they're called while in space) are fast. They enter Earth's atmosphere (and are then called meteors) at roughly 133,200 mph (60 kilometers per second) relative to the planet. Most are the size of sand grains; a few are as big as peas or marbles. Almost none hit the ground, but if one does, it's called a meteorite.

Perhaps you knew all this, but the next two facts might surprise you ...

2) Comet Swift-Tuttle, whose debris creates the Perseids, is the largest object known to make repeated passes near Earth. Its nucleus is about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) across, roughly equal to the object that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Good thing it isn't going to hit us. And on that note ...

3) Back in the early 1990s, astronomer Brian Marsden calculated that Swift-Tuttle might actually hit Earth in the year 2026. More observations quickly eliminated all possibility of a collision. Marsden found, however, that the comet and Earth might experience a cosmic near miss (about a million miles) in 3044.

Do you really know why shooting stars glow? Keep going ...

4) When a Perseid particle enters the atmosphere, it compresses the air in front of it, which heats up. The meteor, in turn, can be heated to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 Celsius). The intense heat vaporizes most meteors, creating what we call shooting stars. Most become visible at around 60 miles up (97 kilometers). Some large meteors splatter, causing a brighter flash called a fireball, and sometimes an explosion that can often be heard from the ground.

Next page: A comet out of its element ?

5) Comet Swift-Tuttle has many comet kin. Most originate in the distant Oort cloud, which extends nearly halfway to the next star. The vast majority never visit the inner solar system. But a few, like Swift-Tuttle, have been gravitationally booted onto new trajectories, possibly by the gravity of a passing star long ago.

A river in space ?

6) Perseid meteoroids (and if you've been following along, you know these are things in space before they hit Earth's atmosphere) are anywhere from 60 to 100 miles apart, even at the densest part of the river of debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle. That river, in fact, is more like many streams, each deposited during a different pass of the comet on its 130-year orbit around the Sun. The material drifts through space and, in fact, orbits the Sun on roughly the same path as the comet while also spreading out over time.

How to be a cosmic hood ornament ?

7) As Earth rotates, the side facing the direction of its orbit around the Sun tends to scoop up more space debris. This part of the sky is directly overhead at dawn. For this reason, the Perseids and other meteor showers (and also random shooting stars in general) are usually best viewed in the predawn hours.

What Abe Lincoln has to do with all this ...

8) Comet Swift-Tuttle was last seen in 1992, an unspectacular pass through the inner solar system that required binoculars to enjoy. Prior to that, it had last been seen in the year it was "discovered" by American astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, 1862. Abraham Lincoln was President.

Wondering why "discovered" was in quotes? Keep going ...

9) Swift-Tuttle's orbit has been traced back nearly 2,000 years and is now thought to be the same comet that was observed in 188 AD and possibly even as early as 69 BC.

Don't stop now. We saved the coolest fact for last ...

10) Swift-Tuttle is due back in 2126 (as you know now, it won't hit us) and astronomers think it might become a spectacular naked-eye comet like Hale-Bopp. If historical calculations are correct (see Fact #9) then the 2126 appearance will mark the comet's 3rd millennium of human observation, assuming someone is in fact around to see it.

Source: space.com

No related posts.

Interplanetary Laser Communication

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:16:29 +0000

MIT-NASA team to test first interplanetary laser communication link.

A NASA?MIT Lincoln Laboratory team will forge the first laser communication link between Mars and Earth. This unique experiment, part of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, will greatly benefit the transmission of data from robotic spacecraft.

In 2010, the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration (MLCD) will test the first deep-space laser communication link, which promises to transmit data at a rate nearly ten times higher than any existing interplanetary radio communication link. MLCD will fly on the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter spacecraft, which is planned for launch in 2009. The experiment is a partnership among NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and MIT?s Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL).

"If we are planning to put people on Mars, we'll need highly reliable communication links with high data rates, and our team wants to show how this can be done with lasers," said Rick Fitzgerald, Project Manager at NASA Goddard.

"Lincoln Lab is very excited about this program because it challenges us, and it provides an opportunity for the country to field, in-space, a very advanced system far earlier than might otherwise be possible," said Dr. Roy Bondurant, leader of the MIT/LL team.

The expected data rate varies depending on Mars's position in its orbit, the weather and atmospheric conditions on Earth, and whether reception is occurring in daytime or nighttime. When Mars is at its farthest point from Earth and the reception is occurring during daytime, the team expects to receive data at a rate of a million bits per second, but when Mars is at its closest approach and reception is at night, the rate could be thirty times higher. Today, the maximum data rate transmitted to Earth by spacecraft at Mars is about 128,000 bits per second (for NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft).

Lasers have not been used for deep-space communications until now because they first had to be made reliable and efficient enough for use in spacecraft millions of miles from Earth. Additionally, the radio frequencies traditionally used for deep space can pass through clouds, while laser (optical frequencies) can be partially to completely blocked by them. The project hopes to overcome this limitation by employing two separate ground terminals, on the chance that if one terminal is clouded over, the other might be clear.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

European Satellites Track ‘Killer Waves’

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 23:14:09 +0000

Cataclysmic waves that smash ships to bits are considered the stuff of sailors' tales. But data gathered by the European Space Agency proves otherwise: rogue waves exist and surface more frequently than previously known.

More than 200 massive cargo ships sank over the past two decades and some of them could have fallen victim to "freak" ocean waves as high as 50 meters (162 ft), the European Space Agency (ESA) said last week.

The findings are the result of data relayed by ESA's earth-scanning satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which routinely monitor the oceans with their radar.

The satellites were deployed as part of a project called MaxWave set up by a consortium of 11 organizations from six EU countries in 2000. They were meant to probe longstanding rumors -- often dismissed by marine scientists as pure fantasy -- that towering killer waves were responsible for the mysterious disappearance of ships.

"Two large ships sink every week on average," Wolfgang Rosenthal, of the GKSS Research Center in Geesthacht, Germany, said in a statement. "But the cause is never studied to the same detail as an air crash. It simply gets put down to 'bad weather'."

"A great wall of water"

Tales abound of ships and liners that survived such encounters.

In February 1995 the cruise liner "Queen Elizabeth II" met a 29-meter high (85 feet) rogue wave during a hurricane in the North Atlantic. Ronald Warwick, the ship's captain, described it as a "great wall of water, it looked as if we were going into the White Cliffs of Dover."

The killer waves have also engulfed offshore platforms. In January 1995, the Draupner oil rig in the North Sea was hit by a wave measuring 26 meters (82 ft) in height.

As recently as 2001 two tourist ships, "The Bremen" and "The Caledonian Star," encountered turbulent 30-meter-high waves in the South Atlantic. The latter ended up drifting without navigation or propulsion for two hours.

A rare photo of a rogue wave was taken by first mate Philippe Lijour aboard the supertanker Esso Languedoc, during a storm off Durban, South Africa in 1980.

"The incidents occurred less than a thousand kilometers apart from each other," said Rosenthal. "All the electronics were switched off on the Bremen as they drifted parallel to the waves, and until they were turned on again the crew were thinking it could have been their last day alive."

Revolutionary data

Though scientists have been aware of the existence of the rogue wave phenomenon on the basis of measurements, so far statistics have shown that there haven't been monstrous deviations from the normal sea state and that they only occur every 10,000 years.

But the new data gathered by the ESA satellites blows apart that theory. The satellites sent back "imagettes" or pictures of the sea surface in a rectangle measuring 10 by 5 kilometers (6 by 2.5 miles), which were taken every 200 kilometers.

Around 30,000 separate images were produced by the two satellites during a three-week period in 2001. During that time they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25 meters high.

"With that we have proved that they (killer waves) exist and much more clearly than previously thought," said Rosenthal. "The next step is to analyze if they can be forecasted," he added.

Worldwide rogue wave atlas

In the next phase of research, a project called WaveAtlas will use two years worth of ERS imagettes to create a worldwide atlas of rogue wave events and carry out statistical analyses. The aim will be to find out the reasons for the cataclysmic phenomenon and identify which regions of the sea are most at risk.

The scientists involved in the ESA project are clear they are on the right track.

"Only radar satellites can provide the truly global data sampling needed for statistical analysis of the oceans because they can see through clouds and darkness," Susanne Lehner, Associate Professor in Applied Marine Physics at the University of Miami who worked on the MaxWave project said.

Source: Deutsche Welle

Space Technology Aids Life on Earth

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 13:57:25 +0000

Earthly spin-offs of technology developed for space travel has long been a bonus for nations launching humans and machines into orbit.

Two new machines developed with the help of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have found their way into hospitals on Earth, where physicians have put them to use sniffing out harmful microbes and probing patients' skulls.

In Europe, Russian air scrubbers built for the space station Mir -- and later installed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) -- have been integrated into hospitals to protect staff and patients alike from airborne spores, bacteria and viruses. Dubbed Immunair, the system creates a personal "clean room" that can be deployed around children to ward off infection or protect against biological agents like small pox and anthrax.

"I do believe that it could have a fantastic impact on medicine," Pierre Brisson, head of ESA's technology transfer program, told SPACE.com. "It yields more than a 99.9 percent reduction of bacteria in an environment."

Meanwhile, in California, NASA engineers are working alongside neurosurgeons to turn an infrared video camera normally used to study the Earth into a tumor-hunting brain scanner.

"It's pretty much like an infrared microscope," explained Sarath Gunapala, the camera's lead engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "And it's totally non-invasive."

Breathing easier

Developed for ground-use by the France-based firm AirInSpace, the Immunair portable clean room is an evolution of the Plasmer device originally constructed by Russian engineers to protect the air breathed by Mir cosmonauts from biological contamination.

Plasmer air scrubbers pass contaminated air through a series of strong electric fields and cold-plasma chambers to collect and kill bacteria, molds, fungi and other microorganisms. Bulky versions of the device were first invented in the 1990s and installed first on Mir in 1997 and then aboard the Russian Zvezda module of the ISS in April 2001.

"We knew the technology was capable for eliminating a wide range of microbes," said Laurent Fullana, general manager for AirInSpace, in a telephone interview.

The system successfully screened anthrax and small pox substitutes from the air in laboratory tests and cleared a hospital room full of fungi spores in minutes, he added.

With support from ESA, which provided market research, funds and the industrial suppliers, AirInSpace successfully created the portable Immunair that can be folded and wheeled through hospital corridors like an elementary school blackboard, then set up around an individual patient's bed.

To date, five European hospitals have portable Immunair systems on hand, some for emergency use and others to protect children with leukemia and bone marrow transplants from potentially fatal infections that could arise while their immune systems are suppressed.

Brain scanners

While European researchers work to stamp out airborne particles, a team of JPL engineers and neurosurgeons are hoping their infrared camera will lead to more accurate surgical procedures by isolating tumors from surrounding brain tissue.

Brain tumors run slightly hotter than their surrounding tissue due to their differing metabolic level, said the study's lead scientist Babek Kateb, a research fellow at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.

By tracking that thermal difference, surgeons will be able to determine definite boundaries between diseased tumor cells and normal brain matter.

Source: Space.com