SeaDour - Slashdot User

Submission + - Deep Impact Mission May Be Extended

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SeaDour

on Friday April 13, 2007 @03:16PM

SeaDour writes: "The famous Deep Impact mission, which in 2005 launched a projectile in the path of comet Tempel 1, may be extended by NASA. The proposal is to slingshot the probe around the Earth as it passes by at the end of this year, putting it on a trajectory to reach comet Boethin in December 2008. Scientists want to see if the strange composition and behavior of Tempel 1 is more common than they had previously assumed. (The probe only had one projectile though, so we will not see another brilliant man-made explosion on this comet.) Additionally, while the probe is en route to the comet, researchers will point its on-board telescope at known exosolar planets to determine the compositions of their atmospheres."

Submission + - Spaceport America Takes Off

Submitted by

SeaDour

on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @04:18PM

SeaDour writes: "Spaceport America, being built north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is finally becoming a reality and is set to become the world's first commercial spaceport. Governor Bill Richardson recently secured 33 million dollars from the state legislature for the final design, and a proposed 0.25% sales tax increase in Dona Ana County, where the facility is to be constructed, is expected to bring an additional 6.5 million dollars per year (if approved by voters next week). Richard Branson, the head of upstart Virgin Galactic, on Monday agreed to lease the facility for 27.5 million dollars over twenty years. If all continues to go as planned, SpaceShipTwo will make its first suborbital joy ride in two to three years."

Submission + - New Horizons Probe Returns New Images of Jupiter

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SeaDour

on Monday March 12, 2007 @05:32PM

SeaDour writes: "The Pluto-bound New Horizons space probe, launched a little over a year ago, recently succeeded in passing through a narrow navigational keyhole by Jupiter. Using the gas giant's tremendous gravity, the craft now has a significant boost toward its final destination, shaving three years off its journey. As it passed through the Jovian system, the probe took some fantastic images of the neighborhood, including detailed observations of erupting volcanoes on Io, time-lapse photography of Jupiter's tumultuous atmosphere, and even the faint ring system that was first discovered in Voyager photography. These new images prove the tremendous capabilities of the small probe, which is set to reach Pluto in 2015."

Submission + - Cassini Returns Amazing New Imagery from Saturn

Submitted by SeaDour on Sunday March 04, 2007 @07:44PM

SeaDour writes: The Cassini spacecraft has recently entered a highly-inclined orbit around Saturn, revealing some never-before-seen images of the planet's ring system as seen from above and below the planet. "Finally, here are the views that we've waited years for," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute. "Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we've never seen before. It just doesn't look like the same place. It's so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo." The spacecraft will eventually return to its standard orbit parallel to the ring plane in late June.

Submission + - Total Lunar Eclipse This Weekend

Submitted by SeaDour on Friday March 02, 2007 @06:44PM

SeaDour writes: This Saturday night, March 3rd, a total lunar eclipse will be visible from nearly all inhabited parts of the world. A great shadow will stretch across the surface of the moon, eventually casting it in an eerie red glow as sunlight filters through our atmosphere onto the lunar surface. Viewers in Europe and Africa will have the best vantage point, able to watch the entire eclipse in action, while observers in most of the western hemisphere can see it eclipsed as it rises just after sunset.

Submission + - China Claims Successful Fusion Power Test

Submitted by

SeaDour

on Thursday September 28, 2006 @10:10AM

SeaDour writes: "China has claimed to have carried out a successful test on its experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor. But what exactly made this test 'successful' remains to be speculated. 'Xinhua cited the scientists as saying that deuterium and tritium atoms had been fused together at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for nearly three seconds. The report did not specify whether the device...had succeeded at producing more energy than it consumed, the main obstacle to making fusion commercially viable.'"

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