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Destination Mankind (1972)
By David S. F. Portree
In May 1972, Krafft Ehricke, Executive Advisor in the Space Division of North American Rockwell Corporation, proposed that Apollo 17, scheduled for the end of 1972, be postponed until the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and dispatched to a new destination: a geosynchronous orbit (GSO) 22,300 miles above the Earth. An object in a GSO requires one day to complete one revolution of the Earth. Since Earth revolves in one day, an object in equatorial GSO appears to hang over one spot on the equator.
“The mission into geosynchronous orbit,” Ehricke wrote, would provide “additional return on America’s investment in Apollo” by dramatizing “the usefulness of manned orbital activities.” He added that his proposal, which he dubbed Destination Mankind, “would inspire many, as did the lunar missions before it, but in a different, perhaps more direct manner, because of its greater relevance to some of the most pressing problems of our time.”
Ehricke described a representative 12-day Destination Mankind mission. Reaching GSO would require about as much energy as reaching lunar orbit. The three-stage Destination Mankind Apollo Saturn V rocket would lift off from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at about 8:30 p.m. local time. Following first and second stage operation, the S-IVB third stage would fire briefly to place itself, the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM), and a Payload Module (PM) into 100-nautical-mile parking orbit. One orbital revolution (about 90 minutes) later, the S-IVB would ignite again for Transynchronous Injection (TSI). After S-IVB shutdown, the astronauts would separate the CSM and turn it 180° to dock with the PM, which would be attached to the top of the S-IVB in place of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). They would then extract the PM, maneuver away from the S-IVB, and settle in for the 5.2-hour coast to GSO.
The Destination Mankind CSM would ignite its Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine to enter a GSO at 31° east longitude. This would place it over the equatorial nation of Uganda – if the CSM entered an equatorial GSO. The mission’s GSO would, however, be inclined 28.5° relative to Earth’s equator, so the CSM would oscillate between 28.5° south latitude (over South Africa’s east coast) and 28.5° north latitude (southwest of Cairo) and back every 24 hours. The CSM would reach its southern limit at 10 a.m. local time and its northern limit at 10 p.m. local time. This 57°-long stretch of the 31° east longitude line would constitute Destination Mankind’s “Afro-Eurasian Station.” (The Meteosat-2 image at the top of this post approximates the view from Destination Mankind’s Afro-Eurasian Station)
more http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/destination-mankind-1972/
Robot jellyfish: U.S. Navy-backed researchers developing Robojelly
'Robojelly' prototype (SMS)
Researchers at Virginia Tech, the Univ. of Texas at Dallas and several other schools are working together to develop robotic jellyfish powered by sea water.
The "Robojelly" mimic the movement of jellyfish, using a combination of oxygen and hydrogen gases to contract its "muscles," or "nano-platinum catalyst-coated multi-wall carbon nanotube sheets, wrapped on the surface of nickel—titanium shape memory alloy," according to an abstract published in the April issue of Smart Materials and Structures.
"To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source," Yonas Tadesse, one of the projects lead researchers, told the BBC.
more
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/robot-jellyfish-u-navy-backed-researchers-developing-robojelly-152601359.html
Behold, the first-ever geologic map of volcanic moon Io
Feast your eyes on the volcano-covered surface of Io, the innermost of Jupiter's four Galilean moons.
We've been snapping photo's of Io's stunning surface features for decades, but only recently did the US Geological Survey team up with NASA to create a detailed "global" picture of the moon; what you see here is the product of that collaboration — the first geologic map of the solar system's most geologically active object.
You might think this map — which was published on Monday by the USGS — looks similar to others that you've seen, but there are a number of things that set it apart. For instance, unlike other planetary geologic maps, Io's surface features were characterized using four separate global image mosaics, combining the very best images collected from NASA's Voyager missions with those from the Galileo orbiter. All told, this map assembles data collected over the span of almost a quarter century. [Hi res version available here]
Of course, the length of time over which the global mosaics were collected presented the USGS with a significant challenge. Because Io is so geologically active, there were many instances where surface features had changed from one mosaic to the next. "Conveying information from multiple image mosaics in a single map," explained research geologist Ken Tanaka in a USGS press release, "necessitated the use of unique and complementary map symbols, colors, and feature names."
more
http://io9.com/5895256/behold-the-first+ever-geologic-map-of-volcanic-moon-io
Even Mars has cloudy days
Mars occasionally has cloudy weather. We intended to take a picture of the bright ice-covered dunes that are faintly visible through these thin clouds, but weather forecasting on Mars is just as challenging as on Earth.
Where the clouds are thin, the remaining bright winter ice is visible, protected in shallow grooves on the ground, in addition to covering the dunes.
http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_025914_2540
more
http://io9.com/5895312/even-mars-has-cloudy-days
Beer and Bling in Iron Age Europe
ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2012) — If you wanted to get ahead in Iron-Age Central Europe you would use a strategy that still works today -- dress to impress and throw parties with free alcohol.
Pre-Roman Celtic people practiced what archaeologist Bettina Arnold calls "competitive feasting," in which people vying for social and political status tried to outdo one another through power partying.
Artifacts recovered from two 2,600-year-old Celtic burial mounds in southwest Germany, including items for personal adornment and vessels for alcohol, offer a glimpse of how these people lived in a time before written records were kept.
That was the aim of the more than 10-year research project, says Arnold, anthropology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and co-director of a field excavation at the Heuneburg hillfort in German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. The work was partially funded by the National Geographic Society and Arnold collaborated with the State Monuments Office in Tübingen, Germany.
more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120319163710.htm
Study to Test New Tinnitus 'Treatment'
ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2012) — A new clinical trial is to test whether a pocket-sized device that uses sound simulation to reboot faulty 'wiring' in the brain could cure people with the debilitating hearing disorder tinnitus.
The CR® neuromodulation device delivers specific sequences of sounds to disrupt the pattern of neurons firing in the brain. It is believed that conditions such as hearing loss can cause neurons in the brain to fire simultaneously instead of in a random pattern which can cause an overload and lead to a ringing or buzzing in the ear, the classic symptom of tinnitus.
The study is being led by the National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing (NBRUH) which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), a partnership bringing together expertise from researchers at The University of Nottingham and the Medical Research Council Institute of Hearing with leading clinicians from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Dr Derek Hoare, a research fellow at the NBRUH, said: "In the UK, around five million people suffer from tinnitus, a debilitating condition which can be exceptionally difficult to treat due to the huge variation in symptoms and severity between individual patients.
more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120320115043.htm
My pet Mitt
By Dana Milbank,
In Washington, even the dogs are pundits.
My dog, a two-year-old golden retriever/poodle mix named Z.Z., had her cable news debut this week, on MSNBC’s “The Last Word.” Host Lawrence O’Donnell had us on set to discuss Z.Z.’s membership in Dogs Against Romney.
Z.Z. lay quietly at my side, mugging for the camera, as I explained her objections to Mitt Romney driving a car with his dog tied to the roof. At the end of the segment, Z.Z. ate a treat off the anchor’s table.
“Z.Z., thank you very much for joining me tonight,” O’Donnell said. Noticing that the camera had moved back to him, O’Donnell instructed: “No, don’t shoot me. Take a shot of this down here under the desk. Z.Z. gets the last bite tonight. The Ed Show is next.”
That would be Ed Schultz, not Mr. Ed.
As I watched video of Z.Z. obediently performing, however, I realized: Z.Z. isn’t a Dog Against Romney. Z.Z. is Mitt Romney.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-mitt-romney-is-like-a-dog/2012/03/22/gIQAV3BdVS_story.html
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