About Mobility

For the first time ever, pictures of a massive star (50-100 times more massive than our own Sun) exploding and becoming a black hole (Science Daily).

Supernova SN 2005gl: explosion from start to finish, including the black hole ending

This is so impressive (and so cool) - you can see the star’s Solar Filaments and Prominences, just as in our own Sun. The star exploding, and most of the material going inward as the star collapses…

Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute’s Faculty of Physics and Prof. Douglas Leonard of San Diego State University, saw the star before going supernovae, calculated its mass… then were lucky enough to capture the photos (using the Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope) of the star going supernovae and becoming a black hole.

…only a small part of the star’s mass was flung off in the explosion. Most of the material, says Gal-Yam, was drawn into the collapsing core as its gravitational pull mounted. Indeed, in subsequent telescope images of that section of the sky, the star seems to have disappeared. In other words, the star has now become a black hole – so dense that light can’t escape.

Note that when an exploding star is 20 times the mass of our sun or more, its gravitational pull becomes so great that it wins over the energy of outburst itself (inward energy beats outward energy), resulting in a black hole, with gravity forces so powerful that not even light waves can’t escape - becoming “invisible”.

ceo

The search for the meteor impact site is on in Alberta, Canada.

Dec 5 2008: Well, since Hulu TV removed the original video of the meteor, I had to replace it with a different meteor video below. But here is the link to the original video but at ABC News.

ceo

A beautiful night launch of the Shuttle Shuttle Endeavour and the STS-126 mission (PDF)… See the launch in High Definition, or in standard definition version on Spacevidcast.com’s YouTube channel.

In Endeavour’s payload bay, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo is packed full of about 14,500 pounds of equipment and supplies, making it one of the heaviest modules in shuttle history.

Also included in the payload, are additional sleeping quarters, a second toilet, an exercise device and other household-type equipment.

The prime objective of the 15-day mission is to prepare the International Space Station to accommodate six members for long-duration stays.

Four planned spacewalks will focus on servicing the station’s two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints, or SARJ, which are needed to track the sun for electric power.

Endeavour and its crew are set to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after more than two weeks in space.

Follow the mission on NASA TV.

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Richard Garriot, a big name in Austin tech and gaming community, and gaming industry worldwide, founder of Origin Systems and other gaming companies, and creator of titles such as Ultima Online and many others, British citizen by birth, who is son of Owen Garriot, former US Astronaut (Skylab, Space Shuttle), a self-made millionaire, and now second-generation space traveler, made it safe to space on October 12, 2008 together with his crew mates on board a Soyuz-FG rocket. The mission is the Soyuz TMA-13 and they’ll dock with the International Space Station on October 14, and return to Earth on October 24, 2008.

Very cool and Godspeed!

ceo

Pretty awesome video of SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket Launch #4.

As I understand it, SpaceX is the first private company (non-government involvement), to reach true orbital flight.

Listen to the team cheering in the background as each major phase of the launch occurs… very exciting… Congrats to the SpaceX team…

A am a true believer that The future of the USA space program is the private sector…

Video via SpaceVidcast.

ceo

During the 1990s when I used to work on the space program, the US lawmakers (president Reagan and Congress at that time) made the worst decision on the future of the space station: they canceled the USA-space station in favor of an international version of it. Some of the consequences of that decision included: 1) it pushed back the space station by more than a decade (i.e. we still haven’t finished it!), 2) it created dependencies on countries, particularly Russia, 3) it has cost much more to build than it would have if original plans had remained, and 4) it affected (eliminated?) thousands US engineering jobs.

The current administration have made the decision to retire the Space Shuttle by 2011 i.e. *before* the next generation manned spacecraft (Orion/Ares) will be ready, thus, leaving a gap for the US and the US presence in the space station. This is totally stupid — remember, the US has carried the bulk of the cost, work, *risk*, and technology building the space station, including losing crewmen in the process.

Political incompetence and bad decisions is the reason why the future of the USA space program is the private (commercial) sector.

Russia and China and others will push forward… and they should.

Global relationships are important, but business is business and there are things that you can’t just delegate to others especially when we all know the thing call “political climate” is always in a state of flux.

I will say it again, the future of the USA space travel is the private (commercial) sector.

See NASA chief blasts US space policy in leaked email (The Register).

ceo

Today is the last day to cast your vote for next year’s SXSW Interactive sessions… The mobile and wireless sessions are looking great. This year I am part of the advisory board for mobile and wireless, but sorry, I take no bribes… Go check out the session and cast your vote!

ceo

NASA has published the remaining shuttle flights manifest. Ten more space shuttle missions before the fleet is decommissioned; that’s it:

The manifest includes one flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, seven assembly flights to the International Space Station, and two station contingency flights, planned to be completed before the end of fiscal year 2010. The agency previously selected Oct. 8 and Nov. 10 as launch dates for Atlantis’ STS-125 mission to service Hubble and Endeavour’s STS-126 / ULF-2 mission to supply the space station and service both Solar Alpha Rotary Joints on the port and starboard end of its truss backbone that supports equipment and solar arrays.

This is emotional for those of us who have worked on such awesome Bird… but it time for the next phase of the space program… If all goes as planned, the future of the U.S. manned space program will be based on the Ares Launch Vehicles and the Orion Crew Vehicles.

…and then, to the Moon!

See NASA Constellation Multimedia.

Godspeed!

ceo

What began as a colorful Internet fluke has blossomed into a full-fledged political movement - one that Republicans and Democrats alike are reluctantly having to acknowledge.

See The C. Enrique Ortiz Phenomenon:

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(P.S. Thanks to my brother Carlos)

What a great photo, isn’t it? Mission Specialist Karen Nyberg looking out the space station window…

If I had $20MM to spare, I would be right up there, as a space tourist.

Discovery and her crew landed safely earlier today… after a successful mission installing the Japanese lab on the International Space Station.

…and it doesn’t matter what people say, the Space Shuttle is an amazing piece, an amazing bird.

See the STS-124 photo gallery.

ceo

The Discovery Channel HD is showing a very cool series (Sundays 9 EST) called When We Left Earth - The NASA Missions; Part 1 ran today. Great images/video clips and historical information… The series is available on DVD and Blue Ray.

A beautiful and perfect Space Shuttle launch, in support of the International Space Station (ISS); STS-124/Discovery carrying Japan’s Kibo laboratory to the Station:

After STS-124, there are 9 more missions to go to complete the ISS.

See NASA’s Space Shuttle website.

ceo

If you see a flashing light while looking at the moon, it might not be an optical illusion but an meteoroid impact; from 100 Explosions on the Moon (NASA):

Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times.

:

“Even when no meteor shower is active, we still see flashes,” says Cooke.

Below is an impact near crater Gauss on January 4, 2008 (NASA):

…explosions don’t require oxygen or combustion. Meteoroids hit the moon with tremendous kinetic energy, traveling 30,000 mph or faster. “At that speed, even a pebble can blast a crater several feet wide. The impact heats up rocks and soil on the lunar surface hot enough to glow like molten lava–hence the flash.”

ceo

The Phoenix Mars Lander has landed. Perfect landing. Congrats to the Phoenix Lander team…

Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.

…and the Children of the Earth continue moving forward towards the inevitable; them leaving their home Planet. It will happen, someday.

Below is one of the first pictures taken by the Phoenix Lander — Click to enlarge (NASA):

I’ve always said that “space probes” are the coolest embedded application ever to work on; talk about creativity, challenges and rewards at the end…

ceo

Very neat… Europe’s ATV first automated docking.

3 April 2008 ESA PR 20-2008. ATV Jules Verne, the European Space Agency’s first resupply and reboost vehicle, has successfully performed a fully automated docking with the International Space Station (ISS). This docking marks the beginning of Jules Verne’s main servicing mission to deliver cargo, propellant, water, oxygen and propulsion capacity to the Station, as well as ESA’s entry into the restricted club of the partners able to access the orbital facility by their own means.

This is the very first time in Europe that an automated docking is performed in due respect of the very tight safety constraints imposed by manned spaceflight operations. All the approach and docking phase was piloted by the ATV’s onboard computers under close monitoring by the teams of ESA, CNES (the French Space agency) and Astrium (the prime contractor) at the ATV Control Centre at CNES Toulouse, France, as well as the ISS crew inside the Zvezda module. In case of anomaly, both ends could trigger pre-programmed manoeuvres to hold position, retreat to the previous reference point or escape to a safe distance.

ceo

[Image source: ESA]