GPS, Never Get Lost Again

Have you ever been lost in the woods? Have you ever wanted to go back to that great fishing spot but can’t remember where it was? Have you ever found yourself wandering aimlessly in an unfamiliar part of the city having to ask people for directions? It happens more often than we would like that we find ourselves taking a wrong turn, and taking twice as long to find our way back. Well luckily, there is the perfect tool to guide us safely: It’s called Global Positioning System. Read more

NASA scientist has condemned film

A NASA scientist has condemned the doomsday film “2012″ and launched a web site, “Ask an Astrobiologist,” to quell the fears it is raising.

The film, now showing in the U.S., is the latest and most high-profile public airing of an ancient Mayan prediction that a world cataclysm will occur on the winter solstice in 2012. There have been many books and TV shows on the theory but “2012″ has had a much greater impact, creating widespread public fear that the prediction may be correct.

Dr. David Morrison, a senior scientist at NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, has become so concerned that he decided not to remain silent.

“Two years ago, I got a question a week about it,” said Morrison. Read more

NASA could return to the moon.

NASA needs to return astronauts to the moon under current plans, NASA has picked the wrong destination with the wrong rocket.

A test-flight version of the rocket, the new Ares I, is on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, awaiting liftoff later this month for its first experimental flight.

Instead, NASA should be concentrating on bigger rockets and new places to explore, the panel members said, as they issued their final 155-page report. The committee, created by the White House in May to look at NASA’s troubled exploration, shuttle and space station programs, issued a summary of their findings last month, mostly urging more spending on space. Read more

Latvia and anomalies.

Pokaini forest is located not far from Riga, Latvia. In 1996 Ivar Viks, a scientist from Riga, told journalists about strange meteorological anomalies and mysterious features of local rocks. This information brought up multiple discussions. It turned out that there were many other mysterious things happening there that could only be explained by supernatural.

Soon after Vicks’s conversation with the journalists, he passed away from an unknown disease. Yevgeny Sidorov, another Latvian scientist, continued the research. He found out that Pokaini forest was a place of pilgrimage for many tourists attracted by rumors about healing power of this place. Read more

The astronauts return to Earth …

The astronauts aboard the linked space shuttle and space station are nearly finished packing up a moving van for return to Earth in a few days.

The Italian-built van — essentially a giant cylinder — flew up aboard Discovery with seven tons of space station supplies and equipment. It will come back filled with a ton of trash, surplus gear and completed science experiments.

The astronauts will place the van back aboard Discovery on Monday night, just in time for Tuesday’s shuttle undocking.

On Sunday, the 13 space fliers got the night off after a week of virtually nonstop work together. Astronaut Danny Olivas, who went out on all three spacewalks, was looking forward to doing nothing for a change. He said he wanted to gaze out the window and snap some pictures. Read more

The mystery of life on Mars.

Astronomers discovered the system of so-called canals on the surface of the red planet. Percival Lowell, a well-known astronomer, set out a version of their artificial origin in his book. The mystery of life on Mars has become one of the most talked-about subjects in the field of space exploration since then.
“The War of the Worlds” written by Herbert Wells in 1898 became the first book about the invasion of extraterrestrial creatures. The creatures came to Earth from Mars, of course, and perceived humans as food. Read more

Final spacewalk.

Two astronauts will venture into open space again Monday on a fifth and final spacewalk of the shuttle Endeavour’s mission to complete the International Space Station.
Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn spent the final hours leading up to their task preparing their spacesuits and tools and reviewing procedures, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials said.
The final spacewalk is expected to run about six and a half hours.
During their fourth walk on Friday, Marshburn and Cassidy installed new batteries on one of the oldest of the four solar arrays that power the space station 350 kilometers (215 miles) above Earth.
The six newly fitted batteries “function as expected,” the U.S. space agency said, noting that the old batteries were stored on a cargo carrier that will be placed in Endeavour’s cargo barrier later in the day.
On Wednesday, NASA had ordered spacewalking astronauts back into the space station 30 minutes early after a spacesuit was found to be working improperly.
Higher than normal carbon dioxide levels were found in Cassidy’s spacesuit due to a problem with its lithium hydroxide canister, the U.S. space agency said, adding he had not been in any danger.
The carbon dioxide removal unit continued to operate in manual mode Sunday.
Cassidy and his partner Dave Wolf managed to replace only two of the six batteries, so part of Friday’s outing was to install the remaining four.
Each ISS battery measures 40 inches by 36 inches by 18 inches (101 centimeters by 90 centimeters by 45 centimeters), weighs 375 pounds (170 kilos) and is designed to last 6.5 years.
Endeavour took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 15 for a 16-day mission with a crew of six Americans and one Canadian to help complete construction of the ISS.
On the second Endeavour spacewalk July 19, the astronauts moved equipment from Endeavour onto the ISS and repaired a malfunctioning toilet on the orbiting station. Read more

Lightning and space shuttle.

NASA scrubbed space shuttle Endeavour’s Saturday evening launch after lightning struck at least 11 times near the seaside launch pad.

NASA technicians found no damage after an electrical storm Friday afternoon, but said they will need at least another day to check critical systems.

A mission management team plans to meet early Sunday to determine if all the testing has been completed and whether to fuel Endeavour for a possible Sunday evening launch. Read more

Space shuttle Atlantis landed.(video)

Space shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Sunday morning after a successful mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.(24.may)
Weather conditions forced flight controllers to pass up the shuttle’s first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said.
Thunderstorms had prevented the Atlantis from returning to its Florida home base for the third day in a row.
The shuttle, STS-125, arrived at the Hubble Space Telescope at the International Space Station on May 13. During the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, Atlantis’ seven astronauts performed five spacewalks on five consecutive days to repair and upgrade the telescope, according to NASA. Read more

Around mysterious satellite.

Author of sci-fi books, once said that a mysterious “unaccounted” satellite called Black Prince was spinning around Earth. The writer believed the object might be an alien probe, a messenger from extraterrestrial civilizations. Some people including scientists paid attention to the writer’s hypothesis.
U.S. astrophysicist Ronald Bracewell was the first to take the hypothesis seriously. In 1960, he published a study to back his conclusions with data of practical radio engineering. The data indicated some strange phenomena, Read more

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