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Moon meets GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory)

• The low down
• Launch : Sep 10, 2011
• Nearly identical spacecraft both about the size of a washing machine, only differentiated by the needs for one spacecraft to lead while the other follows
• The pair of science satellites fire up their critical braking thrusters for insertion into lunar orbit on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
• GRAIL’s goal is to exquisitely map the moons interior from the gritty outer crust to the depths of the mysterious core with unparalleled precision
• Significance
• The data collection phase of the spacecraft will last 82 days, starting in March, and could be extended for another two months if the solar powered probe survives a power draining Lunar eclipse in June of 2012
• In the coming weeks and months the spacecraft will gradually lowers to an orbital altitude of 34 miles [55 km] and trim their orbital period from 11.5 hours to nearly 2 hours.
• The spacecraft will maintain an orbital period in a near-polar, circular orbit
• The data from GRAIL will alter our understanding of how the moon and other rocky bodies in the solar system formed.
• The pair of spacecraft will transmit radio signals back to Earth that will be able to measure the distance between them with a precision withing a few microns, that’s about the width of a human hair and about the diameter of a red blood cell
• That means as the spacecraft orbit the moon the gravity of the moon exerted on the probes will cause the velocity and the distance between the probes to change
• Gravitational influences on the probes are visible surface features and unknown hidden concentrations of various materials.
• The data gathered will be able to make a high-resolution map of the gravitational field of the Moon
• From the gravitational fields scientists will be also to make some determinations of the Moons internal composition
• We might be able to answer major questions about the Moon, like why are the impact basins on the near side of the moon flooded with magma (seen as the ‘man in the moon’) while the far side of the moon does not have these features
• * Of Note*
• The probes also include MoonKAM(Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), four cameras equipped on the spacecraft, that will be used by middle school students to photograph selected targets on the Moon in an attempt to motivate kids to study Math and Science
• NASA hosted a contest inviting schools and students to submit new names. The probes will be christened with the winning names some time after the second orbit insertion
• The experiment is very similar to the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), which has been mapping Earth’s gravity since 2002.
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Grail “Go” for Launch Poll
• YouTube VIDEO : GRAIL Launch
• YouTube VIDEO : GRAIL Spacecraft Separation
• YouTube VIDEO : Post Launch Interview WIth Launch Director Tim Dunn
• YouTube VIDEO : GRAIL Spacecraft and Vehicle Flow
• IMAGE GALLERY: GRAIL mission @ NASA
• Social Media
• Twitter Results for NASA GRAIL
• Further Reading / In the News
• GRAIL Naming Contest @ NASA
• Two new Moons join the Moon – GRAIL Twins Achieve New Year’s Orbits @ UniverseToday.com
• Most Anticipated Space Missions of 2012: Photos @ news.Discovery.com
• First GRAIL Twin Enters Lunar Orbit – NASA’s New Year’s Gift to Science @ UniverseToday.com
• First of NASA’s GRAIL spacecraft enters Moon orbit @ PhysOrg.com
• NASA’s Twin Grail Spacecraft Reunite in Lunar Orbit @ NASA.gov
• NASA GRAIL Mission Page
• NASA Launches Twin Spacecraft to Probe Inside the Moon @ Space.com
• Twin GRAIL satellites ready for NASA lunar launch @ NASAspaceflight.com
• Twin probes to circle moon to study gravity field @ PhysOrg.com
• GRAIL Lunar Blastoff Gallery @ UniverseToday.com

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Bugged Bugs



• The low down
• A new technology is being designed to use an insect’s kinetic energy to power things that could be mounted on their backs such as miniature cameras and microphones.
• The process of harvesting an insect’s kinetic energy from its own wing movements is known as ‘energy scavenging.’
• Insects can be released into a building that is either too dangerous or when the gaps in the rubble are too small for human or search animals.
• Significance
• The devices would use the insect’s kinetic energy to power things such as miniature cameras and microphones that can be mounted on their backs
• Research team has already created a device that is able to harness the energy created by the wing movement of the Green June beetle
• The research team is hoping to be able to conduct the first insect test flights at some point
• * Of Note*
• A main drawback developing Micro-Air-Vehicles (MAVs), is the limited weight and volume available for power supply
• Energy scavenging from the insect provides a power source that lasts the insects lifetime
• Further Reading / In the News
• Researchers hope to use bugged bugs for search and rescue @ PhysOrg.com
• From DARPA: cameras mounted on beetles, powered by their wings @ dvice.com
• Bring in bug squad: insects may help in rescues @ Sydney Morning Herald
• Don’t tread on me, I’m a hi-tech life-saver! Insects could be used to help find survivors during disaster rescue operations @ dailymail.co.uk
• University of Michigan
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Balancing Unicycles



• The low down
• Perhaps the most well-known self-balancing unicycle is Trevor Blackwell’s Eunicycle, which also uses the OSMC.
• Although this one is not the first electric unicycle it is much cheaper than it’s predecessors
• Stephan Boyer, a student at MIT who has created an electric unicycle that not only does some self-stabilizing, but is an actual functioning vehicle which he uses to get himself around the school campus.
• Basics : custom MIG-welded steel chassis; 450 Watt electric motor; Two 7 Ah 12 Volt batteries’; 5DOF intertial measurement unit; OSMC H-bridge; ATmega328P microcontroller
• Significance
• It’s not much bigger than a plain-peddle unicycle
• It can zip along at up to 15 miles per hour and go for 5 miles [8km] before needing a recharge
• Gyro components inside only help to keep the rider from falling forward or backward
• Like a Segway – you lean forward to accelerate, and lean back to brake
• It integrates readings from the gyro and accelerometer using a complementary filter.
• It uses angle estimate fed through a PID loop (with no integral term) at 625 Hz for forward/back balance controls
• It has a duty cycle of 1.22 kHz connected to an H-bridge
• * Of Note*
• The code was written in C, and is in the public domain.
• There is a bit of a learning curve, just as there would be learning to ride a bike with no hands
• It currently has a hand held ‘kill switch’
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : ‘Bullet’ Self-Balancing Electric Unicycle
• YouTube VIDEO : Trevor Blackwell’s Eunicycle
• IMAGE : ‘Bullet’ laying on ground @ web.mit.edu
• IMAGE : Close up on curcuit board @ web.mit.edu
• IMAGE : Sitting on the ‘Bullet’ @ web.mit.edu
• IMAGE : Standing with the ‘Bullet’ @ web.mit.edu
• Further Reading / In the News
• MIT student builds self-balancing electric unicycle @ PhysOrg.com
• Self-Balancing Electric Unicycle @ stephanboyer.com
• MIT scholar builds a self-balancing unicycle to roll fast and furious around campus (video) @ endgadget.com
• MIT student creates self-balancing unicycle for campus transport @ dvice.com

Comet LoveJoy

• * Of Note*
• Comet Lovejoy, the little comet who, after after surviving a brush with the sun, has been gracing our friends in Australia with a show
• As astronomer in Esperance, Australia has been documenting Comet Lovejoy
• This 32sec time-lapse video covers a 5 hours time period and was taken as the comet starts to fave
• This might be the last time we ever see this comet
• Even the International Space Station has joined in with photography and video
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Space Station Commander Captures Unprecedented View of Comet
• VIDEO : 5 Hours of Beautiful Comet Lovejoy in 30 Seconds @ Vimeo
• IMAGE : Lovejoy from the International Space Station @ UniverseToday.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• 5 Hours of Beautiful Comet Lovejoy in 30 Seconds @ UniverseToday.com
• Stunning! Comet Lovejoy Photographed from the Space Station @ UniverseToday.com

A dose and science reality

• The low down
• Recently there has been a trend in some scientific journals for shorter, faster and more frequent publications
• Significance
• If it is applicable to have a concise publication for an experiment it is fine
• There are real risks in this trend toward shorter papers.
• The main risk is the increased rates of false alarms that are likely to be associated with papers based on less data.
• It does increase the number of citations an author would have, and thus somewhat increase influence
• Smaller experiments have greater statistical deviations, and you can have flukes in the data
• * Of Note*
• Editors of Journals find surprising results, often from the shorter papers resulting in smaller experiments, particularly exciting
• This is not saying that all fields of study are the same or that all papers and research is like this. It is simply that certain fields are seeing a trend towards this.
• Mainstream media then picks up on those hot stories, often proliferating results that later turn out to be different from the original experiment
• Further Reading / In the News
• The perils of ‘bite-size’ science psychologicalscience.org

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

Phobos-Grunt

• * Last time on SciByte*
• SciByte 20 (Nov 8)
• SciByte 21 (Nov 15)
• SciByte 23 (Nov 30)
• * What’s New? *
• Currently projected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in early January 2012, estimates right now put it at approximately Jan 15.
• Animation which recaps what has happened with the spacecraft so far, and what is expected to occur during the uncontrolled re-entry.
• A few pieces, including one experiment, will most likely survive the re-entry.
• If the capsule falls in water, which is highly likely, recovery would be highly unlikely.
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : New Re-entry Animation
• Further Reading
• Video: Phobos-Grunt Re-Entry Animation @ UniverToday.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• Jan ~6/7/8 1851 – 160 years ago – The Earth spun: Scientists had long tried to measure the drift of the Earth rotation by dropping object from great heights, but the experiments happened too fast and had too many complications to make an accurate reading. Foucault had an insight, and after weeks spent in his cellar he swung a 11 lb [5kg] pendulum from a 6.5 ft [2m] cable. He saw a small clockwise motion in the pendulums apparent swing. The pendulum was going straight, it was the Earth that was moving. Foucault refined this experiment and derived geometric ways to account for and measure the latitude of where the pendulum was. He demonstrated his discovery on 31 Mar 1851 for Napoleon.
• Jan 10 1968 – 43 years ago – Robots invade the moon: Surveyor 7 marked the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface, and was to be followed by the landing of an Apollo crew. Its mission including taking TV pictures after landing, determine relative chemical element abundance and manipulate the lunar material. It was the only Surveyor craft of the series to land in a lunar highland region. The TV camera returned 20,993 pictures on the first lunar day. A total of 21,091 pictures were transmitted to Earth. Surveyor 7 was the fifth and final spacecraft of the Surveyor series to achieve a lunar soft landing. The lander also successfully detected laser beams transmitted from Earth.
• Jan 4 2004 – 7 years ago – Martian Spirit Rover : Launched on June 10, 2003 the Spirit Rover rover bounced it’s way onto the Martian surface on Jan 4, 2004. Of the Spirit / Opportunity rovers Spirit landed first. On May 1, 2009 Spirit got stuck in an area of soft soil, 5 years 3 months 27 Earth days after landing, a whopping 21.6 times the planned duration of the mission. Spirit rover provided the highest resolution images taken on the surface of another planet. on March 9, 2005 the solar panels jumped from 60% original power to 93% followed by the sighting of dust devils teh following day. It was the first sighting of dust devils by the Spirit or Opportunity rovers. In March of 2004 is took the first photo od Earth from the surface of another planet.
• YouTube VIDEO : Discovery, Innovation and New Destinations Highlight " 2011 @ NASA ”

Looking up this week

You may have seen …

• Quadrantid meteor shower : Is a brief, but eye-catching, light show. Quadrantid meteors are the leftover crumbs of a shattered comet that broke apart centuries ago,

Keep an eye out for …

• Wed 4th : Earth is at it’s closest point to the Sun
• Sat Jan 7th : The bright stars around the moon are just stars this time, no planets [Aldebaran to the upper right, Betelgeuse to the right/lower right; Castor&Pollux to the lower left]
• Mon 9th : Full Moon

The southern hemisphere should, Keep an eye out for …

• After a few requests, and finally finding a few sites I am able to start having some information for our listeners in the southern hemisphere
• Jan 5 : The soon to be full moon will be sitting above the star cluster Pleiades, on most dark sky nights people can see 6–7 stars although some people can see more
• Jan 6 : the reddish-looking star above the Moon is Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus
• Venus is setting low in the southwest about two hours after the sun sets
• Jupiter is in the northwest at dusk, setting around 1am
• Mars is rising due East around 12:30 am
• Saturn is rising due East around 2am

More on whats in the sky this week

• Sky&Telescope
• SpaceWeather.com
• StarDate.org
• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au
• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org
• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz
• AstronomyNow
• HeavensAbove