Carnival of Space #557

Hi All and welcome to a new Carnival of Space.

I will start with a new photo I too of the winter Hexagon about a month ago

The winter Hexagon

And for this week articles

From UniverseToday:

• Astronomers Just Found 72 Stellar Explosions, but Don’t Know What’s Causing Them
• Launching Rockets from Balloons is About to be a Thing, But We Need a Better Name than “Rockoons”
• NASA Begins Construction of its New Quiet Supersonic Plane
• NASA Simulates Their Orion Abort System. Now That Would be a Crazy Ride

From TheHill:

• Two asteroid missions will help shape the economy of the 21st century

From Chandra:

• Perseus’s Cosmic Dance Helps Reveal the Secrets of Galaxy Cluster Astrophysics

From HotPopRobot:

• We're very pleased to have Grade Six-er, Artash Nath, deliver a bilingual address at the 2018 #TorontoMarchforScience! He'll be marching with us this Saturday, April 14th; and you should too! Check out his full bio at http://sciencemarchto.ca 

Here are two photos of the same object I took to demonstrate the importance of being tracked.

M45 30 seconds exposures all smudged up

M45 30 sec no tracking

The same with proper tracking - 110Sec exposure!

M45 110 sec with tracking

Carnival of space #550

Welcome  to a new carnival of space!

First I would like to say that I finally discovered the true source of the moon's light. See the following picture...

True source of the moon's light?

The photo is from the last full moon (which was a supermoon and also a total lunar eclipse, not visible from my area).  Although I am not into any supermoon hype, I always like to observe a full moon rising, and try to take nice pictures of it.

OK, hope you had some laugh and now for this week articles.

CosmoQuest.org

• Studying Agricultural Patterns as an Instructional Tool in Science Education Using Astronaut Photography

UniverseToday

• Some of The Last Glaciers in The Tropics. They’ll be Gone in About a Decade
• OSIRIS-REx Sends Home an Image of the Earth and Moon
• Astronomers Observe the Rotating Accretion Disk Around the Supermassive Black Hole in M77
• Opportunity Just Saw its 5,000th Sunrise on Mars

Archive from theVenusTransit

• The OSIRIS image presented in UT article above, is very similair to a potom from Messenger mission. See here many photos of "Earth from Space"

Carnival of Space #535

Hi all and welcome to another issue of Carnival of Space. Before going into the articles here are two nice picture I took in the last weeks. You might need to enlarge them to see properly:

The moon and Aldebaran

Venus and Jupiter

And to this week articles:

UniverseToday

• A Brown Dwarf Prevented a Regular Star from Going Through its Full Life Cycle
• Busy Space Coast December Ahead as SpaceX Reactivates Damaged Cape Launch Pad, Aims for Year End Maiden Falcon Heavy Blastoff
• Astronomers Practice Responding to a Killer Asteroid
• Proxima Centauri has a Cold Dust Belt that Could Indicate Even More Planets

CosmoQuest

• Now You Can Make a Contribution to Over 2 Million Astronaut Photos of the Earth taken from Space

NextBigFuture

• Xcor was making a suborbital reusable launch vehicle (a suborbital spaceplane). XCOR filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday in the Eastern District of California.
• NASA is providing an update on the first integrated launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft after completing a comprehensive review of the launch schedule. The new launch date for an unmanned first flight of the Space Launch System is Dec, 2019. This is NASA’s stretch goal target rather than June 2020 which is what the review expects will happen
• An explosion occurred on Saturday, Nov 4, 2017 during a test of a “Block 5” Merlin engine, which will be used in a future generation of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets.
  It was a engine qualification test and no one was injured.
  The block 5 Falcon 9 will have higher thrust on all of the engines and improvements on landing legs compared to the block 4 Falcon 9 Full Thrust. There are also a number of small changes to streamline recovery and re-usability of first-stage boosters. Alterations to the launch vehicle are primarily focused on increasing the speed of production and efficiency of re-usability. SpaceX aims to fly each Block 5 first stage ten times with only inspections in between, and up to 100 times with refurbishment.

Carnival of space #512

Hi all and welcome to CoS #512 with many great articles from the astronomy fandom!
And in this issue, we will go from the first black holes to new features on the moon. From Triton to Jupiter, to new rockets technique and to some space history and talks about the future. Spare yourself a hour and enjoy!

Carnival of Space #512

With no further delays, let us start.

From "The evolving planet"

• The Mystery of the 'Alien' Radio Bursts from the Outer Space is a Case Solved According to the Scientists

From "Universe Today"

• Super-Earth Planet Found in the Habitable Zone of a Nearby Star
• KSC Director/Shuttle Commander Robert Cabana Talks NASA 2018 Budget- ‘Stay on the path’ with SLS, Orion, Commercial Crew: One-on-One Interview

From "Chandra"

• The Intermittent Growth of the First Supermassive Black Holes

From "Blasting News"

• Andy Weir released the first chapter of ‘Artemis’
• John F. Kennedy at 100 and the legacy of Apollo
• Scientists discover frost at the moon’s south pole
• How the Outer Space Treaty can deal with commercial space

From "Business Insider"

• Reusable rockets are the future of space travel

From "Thought co"

• Exploring Triton: Neptune's Frigid Moon

From "Planetaria"

• A stormy, turbulent world: New science results from Juno reveal ‘whole new Jupiter’

From "Next Big Future"

• "Rocket Lab" broke new ground today when its Electron rocket reached space at 16:23 NZST. "Rocket Lab" has said they will charge $5 million for each rocket. The SpaceX Falcon 9 has a launch cost of $57 million. "Rocket Lab" will launch up to 225 kilograms. The Falcon 9 can launch 22800 kilograms to low Earth orbit. "Rocket Lab" 3D prints almost all of parts. They use carbon composite materials for many parts which are lighter. "Rocket Lab" uses advanced batteries to enable electric turbopumps.

Carnival of Space #482

Hello and welcome to a fresh and exciting "Carnival of Space".

Here are the articles from our contributors:

From Universe Today:

• NASA’s New Asteroid Alert System Gives 5 Whole Days of Warning
• China Just Launched Its Largest Rocket Ever
• Monster Meteorite Found in Texas

From BlastingNews:

• Congressman touts lunar resources as a way to jump-start space exploration
• Team Indus gets a launch contract for a private moon mission
• Moon Express proposed Lunar Scout Program for NASA payloads to the moon
• NASA takes the next step toward commercial partnerships for lunar exploration

From LinksThroughSpace (This is the 2nd article in a series!):

• From 2014 to 2016 I visited 2 separate prehistoric rock art sites in Morocco. I went to do a research on a possible connection between astronomy and prehistoric rock art. This article relates my adventure in ancient astronomy. Please read my series of 4 articles on Archaeoastronomy and the prehistoric rock art site that i studied. This is 2/4: Village of Ait Ouazik, Southern Morocco and the village of Oukaimeden, Atlas Mountains, Morocco. 

From Planetaria:

• New Horizons finishes returning Pluto data to Earth before continuing farther into Kuiper Belt

From NextBigFuture

• The new Long March 5 rocket launched successfully on Thursday. The rocket could be used to support a Chinese space station and send an uncrewed mission to Mars. The new Long March 5 rocket launched successfully from the Wenchang Space Launch Center. The rocket measures 187 feet, making it the largest produced by China. It can carry 25 tons of payload into low-Earth orbit. The rocket carried a satellite that will be used to test a variety of technologies, from observing space debris to electric propulsion.
• On October 5th 2016, Ranga Dias and Isaac F. Silvera of Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University released the first experimental evidence that solid metallic hydrogen has been synthesized in the laboratory. It took 495 GPa pressure to create. The sample is being held in the cryostat in liquid nitrogen. Atomic metallic hydrogen, if metastable at ambient pressure and temperature could be used as the most powerful chemical rocket fuel, as the atoms recombine to form molecular hydrogen. This light-weight high-energy density material would revolutionize rocketry, allowing single-stage rockets to enter orbit and chemically fueled rockets to explore our solar system. To transform solid molecular hydrogen to metallic hydrogen requires extreme high pressures.
• Harvard researchers have studied and observed solid hydrogen under pressure at low temperatures. With increasing pressure we observe changes in the sample, going from transparent, to black, to a reflective metal, the latter studied at a pressure of 495 GPa. They have measured the reflectance as a function of wavelength in the visible spectrum finding values as high as 0.90 from the metallic hydrogen. They have fit the reflectance using a Drude free electron model to determine the plasma frequency of 30.1 eV at T= 5.5 K, with a corresponding electron carrier density of 6.7x10^23 particles/cm3 , consistent with theoretical estimates. The properties are those of a metal. Solid metallic hydrogen has been produced in the laboratory. * they have made some metallic hydrogen and have it in a cryostat in liquid nitrogen * they might leave it under pressure and let it warm to room temperature or they could keep it cold and release the pressure * they are planning to test for high temperature superconductivity
• The telescope element of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest space telescope ever constructed, stands completed in an enormous clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. JWST will now go through a series of rigorous tests, including shaking and noise tests to simulate launch conditions, and cryogenic tests to make sure it can stand up to the frigid conditions of space. This telescope element of JWST includes the optical components and science instruments. After testing, the telescope will be affixed to a sunshield to prevent thermal heating and a spacecraft bus that contains the propulsion and communication systems to complete JWST. Launch is scheduled for October 2018. 

And my own archive article to celebrate the coming winter:

• The Winter Hexagon

The Winter Hexagon

Carnival of Space #457

Hello all and welcome to a new CoS. Something always happen in space and here you will find what happened in the last week.

We will start with Mercury Transit from last week. What I love about such events is that they are so global. For several hours many people all over Earth watched this event from different countries, Universe Today collected some of the best photos and videos and present them in a single article:

Mercury Transit

Images of Today’s Transit of Mercury From Around the World

One of my own videos is in UT's article and that is always an honor, but If you want more information and details including my photography setup please read my own summary of the transit as well.

Two more articles from UT:

• Will Earth Survive When the Sun Becomes a Red Giant? (My note: It is an interesting question but don't be concerned even if the answer is no)
• Messier 13 (M13) – The Great Hercules Cluster (My note: UT have great series about the different constellation and Messier objects. Pleasure to read)

From Chandra:

• Chandra Movie Captures Expanding Debris From a Stellar Explosion (It is a big explosion)
• Help Wanted: A Universe of Images 

From Planteria:

• New worlds galore: Kepler Space Telescope confirms 1,284 more exoplanets (My note: do you remember the first one discovered? Now there are 1284 and more will be!)

From BrownSpaceman:

• An astronomy guide to help you discover the wonders of the universe. It's a collection of things that got me inspired and more excited about astronomy (My note: A very nice article with useful resources)

Take in mind that next week Mars will be in opposition and as close to earth for the next two years, so grab your chances and aim a telescope to it and enjoy. It will not be as big as the moon, but even if you don't have a telescope you will notice its red bright color easily.

That's all for today. Have clear nights and long days!

Carnival of Space #452

Hello and welcome to Carnival of Space #452. I hoped to report about seeing Venus occultation today but the weather was not good , the skies were cloudy and hazy so I was not able to see it myself. Lets go straight to this week articles.

From Planetria: Pluto once had rivers and lakes of liquid nitrogen, New Horizons data suggests

From Examiner.com: Blue Origin launches and lands the New Shepard for a third time

From Chandra: Trigger for Milky Way's Youngest Supernova Identified

From LPI: The April edition of the LPI Earth and Space Science newsletter for educators is up.

From ADSABS: ADS Enhanced was a great April Fools Day site from the NASA Astrophysical Data Service. ADS Dating (sort potential mates...by citation!)

From Planetry.org: LPSC 2016: So. Much. Ceres.

From Ryan Marciniak: The Essence of Science and the Friges of Reality. How probability and rare occurrences shape scientific theories and allow us to push them to the limit. An Oxygen rich White Dwarf star proves the point.

From Universe Today: Opportunity Discovers Dust Devil, Explores Steepest Slopes on Mars ALMA Captures Never-Before-Seen Details of Protoplanetary Disk

That's All! Happy week and clear skies!

Carnival of Space #443

It is a time for another carnival of space. Did you manage to see all planets together in the dawn sky? After several rainy and cloudy mornings I got up at 6 am and was able to see all of them. Mercury was definitely the hardest as the sky were quite blue. It was about 30 minutes before sunrise and I will try even earlier later this month. Taking a photo of all planets is harder as they span over 100 degrees and a very wide lens is required (or taking several photos and stitching them in software).

Here is an illustration of the planets and some photos of the (not all together) planets.

All planets together illustration by Stellarium software

More planets at the end. And now for this week articles:

From Aartscope blog:

• Astroswanny is tracking asteroid 2016 BE, an interesting 79m asteroid on the risk table for 2076-2111 discusses what a Virtual Impactor is in order to demystify some of the asteroid terminology.

From Ryan Marciniak:

• Galaxies truly are islands in the vast cosmic ocean, though it doesn't look that way.  Can we find new galaxies hidden in field stars?

From Universe Today:

• Massive Ariane 5 to launch giant nextgen telescope in dynamic deployment to L2.
• Guide to the constellations and Messier objects by Tammy Plotner.

From Chandra's blog:

• Blast from Black Hole in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

From the Spacewriter:

• Creating the Moon in a Head-on Collision

From About Education:

• There's an Incoming Gas Cloud Straight Outta Intergalactic Space!

From the Venus Transit archives:

• The space shuttle, an article in respect to the crews of Columbia and Challenger space-shuttles.

And as promised, more planets. Notice the red hue of Mars in the first photo 

Moon and Mars (31/1/2016)

Venus and Mercury - 31/1/2016

Carnival of space #435

Hello and and welcome to Carnival-of-Space #435. If you are from North America maybe you saw (or still able to see ) the Venus daytime occultation today (7-Dec-2015). I am from Israel and the occultation is long after the moon sets. Here is a photo from this morning they are so close and getting closer by the hour! Venus is at the bottom left. the photo was taken with a smartphone camera (LG G4). Indeed anyone can take such a photo so go and try (Just make sure that the sun is blocked from your view)!

The moon and Venus (bottom left) 7-Dec-2015

Here is also my video from 2007. Also, get ready for the Gemenid meteor shower next week. Plan ahead for either Saturday, Sunday or Monday night according to your location and enjoy.

And holidays are taking place. The Jewish world is celebrating Hanukkah and others are getting ready for Christmas and new year. Here is the traditional Menorah with Venus and Jupiter as candles. Happy holidays to you all, regardless of your faith and beliefs, may your life be filled with light and happiness!!!

Whats in CoS this week?

From Planetaria:

• Drones on Mars? small ‘helicopter-like’ scout could be added to Mars 2020 rover mission.

From EverydaySpacer

• The Year in Space 2016 looks like a great Calendar.  Steve Cariddi has done it again!  In cooperation with The Planetary Society, read about the next great Wall Calendar that's more like a changing poster.  More beautiful pictures, bio and historical facts will entertain you for another 12 months!

From NextBigFuture:

• Russia is planning moon missions and a lunar base in the 2020-2030s

• "NASA’s Solar Probe Plus mission — which will fly closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has before — reached a major milestone last month when it successfully completed its Critical Design Review (CDR).

• "President Obama signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262) into law. This law recognizes the right of U.S. citizens to own asteroid resources they obtain and encourages the commercial exploration and utilization of resources from asteroids.
• "A team of astronomers have used the LCOGT network to detect light scattered by tiny particles (called Rayleigh scattering), through the atmosphere of a Neptune-size transiting exoplanet. This suggests a blue sky on this world which is only 100 light years away from us. The result was published in the Astrophysical Journal on November 20 (and is available on ArXiV).They observed several transits of GJ 3470b, a warm Neptune analog around an early M dwarf, in four different bands with the LCOGT and Kuiper telescopes."

• "China carried out a sixth flight test of its new high-speed nuclear attack vehicle on Monday designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses or carry out global strikes. The ultra-fast maneuvering strike weapon known as the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was launched atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile test center in central China’s Shanxi Province, according defense officials.The vehicle separated from its launcher near the edge of the atmosphere and then glided to an impact range several thousand miles away in western China, said officials familiar with details of the test."

From UniverseToday:

• New Horizons Takes Closet Image Ever of a Kuiper Belt Object

• What are the Earth’s Layers?

And an interesting fresh photo of Earth and moon from Japanese mission Hayabusa 2 from last week taken 3 million KM from Earth toward an Earth flyby in the way to its destination. I like "Earth from space photos" and collected many of them to this article in the link mentioned. That's all for this week. 

Earth and moon. Hayabusa 2 25-11-2015. Credit: Jaxa

Carnival of Space #422

Hello everybody and welcome to the #422 edition of Carnival of Space.  I am getting ready to the last total lunar eclipse in the current tetrad. Hope that you will be able to see it wherever you are. Another thing I am waiting for is the movie based on the book "The martian" I am sure it will look great in 3D.

Carnival of Space

Saying all that let's go right down to buisness with these week articles

From Universe Today

• NASA and New Horizons team pick post-Pluto target … and serve up an awesome video
• This one really amazed me. Legault is the master of such photos. Thierry Legault Meets His Own Challenge: Image an ISS Transit of a Solar Prominence
• August Full Moon Anticipates September’s Total Lunar Eclipse

From Planetaria

• Back to the ice giants: proposed new mission would re-visit Uranus or Neptune (or both!)
• Testing panspermia: searching for ‘bubbles of life’ in the galaxy

From NextBigFuture

• NASA Glenn Research Center, GRC, currently has several programs to advance near-term photovoltaic array development. One project is to design, build, and test two 20 kW-sized deployable solar arrays, bringing them to technology readiness level (TRL) 5, and through analysis show that they should be extensible to 300 kW-class systems (150 kw per wing). These solar arrays are approximately 1500 square meters in total area which is about an order-of-magnitude larger than the 160 square meters solar array blankets on the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has the four (pair) sets of solar arrays that can generate 84 to 120 kilowatts of electricity. Each of the eight solar arrays is 112 feet long by 39 feet wide and weights 2400 pounds. There were space missions involving astronauts working in space to install and deploy the ISS solar panels. Alliant Technical Systems, ATK, was selected in 2012 by NASA's Space Technology Program under a Game Changing Technology competition for development of a promising lightweight and compact solar array structure. The MegaFlex™ engineering development unit, EDU, was tested at NASA GRC Plumbrook facility this year. See below for the ATK deployment of the demonstration unit. Use of high-power solar arrays, at power levels ranging from ~500 KW to several megawatts, has been proposed for a solar-electric propulsion (SEP) demonstration mission, using a photovoltaic array to provide energy to a high-power xenon-fueled engine.
• NASA has selected the potential next destination for the New Horizons mission to visit after its historic July 14 flyby of the Pluto system. The destination is a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69 that orbits nearly a billion miles beyond Pluto.
• Researchers have developed a method for printing optical holographic lenses that could greatly simplify their fabrication. Because the method can be performed quickly and easily, it could potentially be used by astronauts to print lenses while in space for holographic lens telescopes. While current holographic lens fabrication methods are often expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, the new printing method can produce a lens in just a few seconds using only a single step. The method uses a nanosecond laser pulse to create interference patterns on a transparent substrate coated with light-absorbing materials.
• Axanar is the first fully-professional, independent Star Trek film. While some may call it a "fan film" as we are not licensed by CBS, Axanar has professionals working in front and behind the camera, with a fully-professional crew--many of whom have worked on Star Trek itself--who ensure Axanar will be the quality of Star Trek that all fans want to see. Axanar is in pre-production now and will start filming in October 2015 with an anticipated release in the first half of 2016.

Carnival of space #411

Hello everybody and welcome to the #411 edition of "Carnival of Space". Many things happen in space all the time and here are some of the best astronomy and space articles from around the globe! 

Carnival of space #411

Do you like to see Iridiums' flares? I surly do, and David from UniverseToday tells about the new generation of these communication satellites which unfortunately will not flare very well.

The biggest event of July in space is undoubtedly the arrival of New Horizons to Pluto after more than ten years! Nancy from  UT sends us a new Video which Will Get You Excited for New Horizons’ Pluto Encounter (as if you already aren’t…).

Zain from brownspaceman also likes Pluto and share with us some unknown facts about it: Pluto is absolutely fascinating! Here are my top 5 favorite things about Pluto!

  

Paul from The Meridian Journal And a new mission is on the way to investigate alien ocean: all systems go for new NASA mission to Europa

Paul also sends us an article about Mars: Methane discovered in Martian meteorites: a clue to possible life?

Joe from SpaceFlightInsider goes way beyond the solar system: Using a new technique on Kepler data, astronomers are able to determine the mass and density of exo-planets smaller in size than the Earth. The method uses Other planets in the system to look at changes in the planet's motion as it passes in front of its parent star.

The following articles are by Brian from NextBigFuture

Also about the mission to Europa

Beyond Earth, Jupiter’s moon Europa is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for signs of present-day life, and a new NASA mission to explore this potential is moving forward from concept review to development.

NASA’s mission concept -- to conduct a detailed survey of Europa and investigate its habitability -- has successfully completed its first major review by the agency and now is entering the development phase known as formulation.

The mission plan calls for a spacecraft to be launched to Jupiter in the 2020s, arriving in the distant planet’s orbit after a journey of several years. 

And also on Exoplanets

 A team of astronomers has measured the mass and size of the smallest exoplanet yet, a Mars-sized planet named Kepler-138b orbiting a red dwarf star about 200 light years from our solar system. Kepler-138b is the first exoplanet smaller than the Earth to have both its mass and its size measured. Kepler-138b is one of three planets that orbit the star Kepler-138 and that pass in front of it -- or transit -- on every orbit. Each time a planet transits the star, it blocks a small fraction of the star's light, allowing astronomers to measure the size of the planet. All three Kepler planets were identified by NASA's Kepler mission, which has discovered over a thousand planets around other stars. This video shows a mass-radius diagram based on measurements of 127 exoplanets. The video begins by showing a range of planets with masses up to that of Jupiter's, then gradually zooms toward the smaller masses and radii to display a comparison of the physical properties of the Kepler-138 planets relative to Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury. Fifteen years ago the first exoplanet that was found was 3000 times larger than Kepler 138b. [Via Centauri Dreams]

Adam Savage shares the story of his Star Trek Captain's Chair, which he became obsessed with building from scratch after acquiring an insufficient replica. With the help of friend Jeremy Williams, Adam spends a day wiring in the electronics to bring his new Enterprise command chair to life. After much problem solving and troubleshooting, the effort pays off in a big way.

And of course, go out in the evening and look west to see Venus and Jupiter together. I've added many new photos to the article from last week

The new moon Venus and Jupiter 18-June-2015

And a video of the moon Vens and jupiter setting

This is all for this week, Thanks for being with us

Carnival of Space #384

Hello all! It is the holidays season, here in Israel we are celebrating Hanukkah and all over the world is X-mas and New year just soon! Best wishes for all of you my fellows. Hope you are all well and having great time.

Great things happen in space just as usual and without any further delay let's move on to the #384 edition of Carnival of Space

I am doing quite well with 3 dimensions, I can think about the 4th, but a A Universe of 10 Dimensions? Well, yes according to Universe Today which sends us the story of A Martian Blue Snake, Brought To You By Canadians And A Spacecraft as well. Mysterious? Just follow the link and see.

First findings from Rosetta: Rosetta mission results point to a non-cometary origin for Earth's water. (Space Writer) Great to know that the mission already gives important scientific data. 

EveryDaySpacer wants us to be happy so she offers From now until December 24, 2014, you have a chance to win The Year in Space Wall Calendar 2015. Way to go!! Thanks! 

Cosmoquest continues with the fourth part in our blog series of the results from the first MoonMappers citizen science paper... where it's all about location.

And some more stories from NextBig Future:

• A seed ship is an interstellar spacecraft which is able to transport embryos or gametes over long distances. In order to keep them save and healthy it acts most of its flight like a huge fridge, because the unborn humans can only survive such long travel times in a frozen state. Close to the target system this “fridge” is transformed into some kind of brood chamber. Next the chamber begins to grow up the gametes or embryos to babies. After a few years when they have become older, the settlement can start. The two main questions that appear in this scenario are about transportation and how to parent and educate the children. A primary requirement for the freezing options is that there must be some kind of artificial uterus to grow the embryos or gametes [or adult women for implantation]. This capability is technically feasible in the next 10-30 years. Artificial wombs have been used for sharks and mice. Robotic teaching and nanny AI would need to be proven on earth before any interstellar mission usage
•  Ascension is inspired by the real-life Project Orion that existed under the administration of President John F. Kennedy. The show sets up an alternate version of reality in which, in 1963, President Kennedy and the U.S. government, fearing the Cold War will become hot and lead to the destruction of the Earth, decided to launch a covert space mission. They sent 600 men, women and children into space on a century-long voyage aboard the USS Ascension, a massive, self-sustaining generation ship. Their mission is to colonize Proxima Centauri, assuring the survival of the human race. We look at the Freeman Dyson's specifications for an interstellar version of Project Orion.
•  If you sent an interstellar generation ship in 1963 then your computer development would be frozen. We look at the computers of 1963. Also, we see that an interstellar orion would need ten times the number of nuclear bombs as were ever built by the USA.
• There are other challenges for an interstellar generationship than just the propulsion. The ecosystem problems have not been solved
• During the Dec. 16 launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which will send SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule toward the orbiting lab, Spacex will try to bring the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a controlled landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. The platform base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. It will allow refuel and rocket flyback in future

 And from the Meridian Journal we hear about Curiosity finds new evidence Gale crater was once a large lake

I will finish with just a photo of sundials stamps which were issued TODAY in Israel, I was a consultant for this series and I will share the whole story soon, so far just enjoy the first day envelope with 3 great sundials from Israel (Here is an article about many sundials in Israel)

Sundials in Israel - First day envelope

Reagrds

Gadi

Carnival of Space #370

Hi all! Here is a new edition of COS for you all to enjoy. Amazing things happen in the heavens above us all the time, so relax and find out a little about the newest stuff

From NextBigFuture

• Aquarius a nuclear thermal rocket that uses water heated to over 3000 degrees celsius to solve many human interplanetary transportation issues.Attributes of a reusable interplanetary human spaceflight transport are proposed and applied to example transits between the Earth/Moon system and Deimos, the outer moon of Mars. Because the transport is 54% water by mass at an interplanetary departure, it is christened Aquarius. In addition to supporting crew hydration/hygiene, water aboard Aquarius serves as propellant and as enhanced crew habitat radiation shielding during interplanetary transit. Key infrastructure and technology supporting Aquarius operations include pre-emplaced consumables and subsurface habitat at Deimos with crew radiation shielding equivalent to sea level on Earth, resupply in a selenocentric distant retrograde orbit, and nuclear thermal propulsion.
  
  Advancing in-space nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) technology to the point where fission reactor core temperatures exceeding 3000° C can be achieved during major translational maneuvers (burns). Under these conditions, water molecules pumped into the core will disassociate into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and specific impulse ISP near 1000 s could be achieved. This level of efficiency, twice that attainable with chemical propulsion, dramatically reduces total mass for an interplanetary transport of specified payload mass.
• An overview about SpaceX company

From Urban Astronomer 

• south African astronomers have confirmed that a small number of distant Cepheid variable stars lie in the mysterious flared region of the Milky Way's gaseous outer rim. Further study of these stars will allow us to finally characterize this unexplored region of the galaxy.

From The Meridian Journal

• Astronomers witness asteroid smash-up around Sun-like star
• Rainfall on Titan may create propane aquifers, study suggests
• Plate tectonics may increase chances for life on Europa

 From UniverseToday

• MAVEN Mars Orbiter Ideally Poised to Uniquely Map Comet Siding Spring Composition – Exclusive Interview with Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky
• Space Station’s Robonaut 2 Is Getting More Astronaut-Like By The Day

From CosmosQuest

• Send a message to asteroid Bennu to be included in a time capsule!

That's everything for this week, enjoy reading and remember that we are all sharing the same skies!

Carnival of Space #353

Welcome to a new edition of COS, number #353, with many articles by our community. A great list of articles dealing with astronauts, stars, planets, moon, comets, asteroids, spaceship, space's history rockets and space's business. There is no way that you will not find good material reading here.

Astroswanny investigates approaching Asteroid 2014 HQ124 discovered two weeks ago by the NEOWISE survey. Currently visible to only southern telescopes in the pre-dawn sky, 2014 HQ124 will make a 3.2 Lunar Distance close approach on June 8th. This is quite close for a large newly discovered asteroid whose size is between 300-500m.

Urban Astronomer takes us to  Titan - the largest moon of Saturn, which is an enigmatic little world. It has earth-like weather, rivers and seas, yet has an average temperature more than a hundred degrees below the coldest weather ever measured on Earth. The more planetary scientists learn about it, the more questions come to light.

Two articles from Universe Today:

•  Are we ready for contact - Nero-psychologist Gabriel G. de la Torre from the University of Cádiz is questioning whether or not astronomers, who have previously only looked for signs of extraterrestrial life, should actively send messages from Earth.
• While no one’s yet invented a replicator that can brew a cup of tea out of thin air, scientists have taken in step in that direction by creating an amazing replica of a Martian meteorite using a 3D printer .

 Chandra also sends us two stories

• Core-Halo Age Gradients In Young Stellar Clusters
•  NASA's Chandra Delivers New Insight Into Formation Of Star Clusters

 And the two items of CosmoQuest

• Planets in the sky (All naked eye are visible) - Go out and look up! Enjoy the planetary offerings in the night sky right now as the weather gets nicer. 
•  On the Educators' Zone, we're collecting ideas for crafty and artsy space and science projects. Have some in mind, please share! And visit our new collaborative Pinterest board to browse more ideas. 

 Don't miss Space-io9 a recently new member of CoS! Welcome!

• Square hole on a round sun. Coronal holes are nothing new, but the one that showed up this week looks striking.
• Space around Earth is downright crowded with the junk of old missions, broken spacecraft, and explosions.
•  This week marks the 53rd anniversary of Alan Shepard's flight, the first crewed American space mission.
•  The latest Morpheus prototype lander test flight used autonomous hazard detection, but what is it and how does it work?

From the Meridian Journal desk

•  Solar system’s largest moon Ganymede may have ‘club sandwich’ oceans
•  Curiosity completes third drilling in search of Martian organics

NextBigFuture with latest breaking news

•  The Spacex Falcon 9R rocket rose to a height of 3280 feet (1000 meters) in its latest test, posted on May 1st, 2014. The legs were in a fixed down position from launch to landing, but future tests will begin with them stowed.
•  Planetary Resources has shifted the company's focus to a more mundane space resource: water. Water found on or near asteroids, their theory goes, could be processed into fuel to extend the useful lives of aging commercial satellites.
•  Planetary Resources co-founders discuss the space mining companies plans and progress

That's all for this week, enjoy and don't forget to browse a bit in my own site .

Gadi

Carnival of Space #339

Hi all and welcome aboard the 339th edition of Carnival of Space. We will start this edition by honoring the 17 astronauts who have given their life to the American space program. On January 27 1967 during a training for the first Apollo mission, less than a month before the planned launch, a fire in the crew cabin took the life of  Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee. The challenger disaster occurred on January 28 1986 just 73 seconds after launch, taking the lives of Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. On February 1 2003 the Columbia disaster at the end of STS-107 mission, and in which Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, Laurel Clark and the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon died.
Dedicate a few moments in memory of these men and women in the official NASA day of  remembrance page.

Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia Astronauts. Credit: NASA

Back again to this week articles. We will start with our closest neighbor, the moon.
Dr. Paul Spudis shares his memories and knowledge as one of the investigators and researchers in Clementine missions. A comprehensive article about the mission can be found in Dr Spudis's blog. A summarized version can be found in Air&Space magazine.

The next item from CosmoQuest shows that even spaceships, orbiters, landers and such like to have some company from time to time. Read about the latest spacecraft imaging  another spacecraft, LRO take a snap of LADEE.

Another useful article from CosmoQuest. What are some great mobile apps for doing and learning astronomy? Here's a list with a link to our recent Hangout on the subject. I already downloaded few of these great apps.

The Synergy principal is true everywhere and also in space - three are better than one. The Urban Astronomer tells us about the Frontier Fields program - an ambitious attempt to combine the power of NASA's three flagship space telescopes (Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer) to peer deeper into the universe than ever before and learn about the structure of the first galaxies to form after the Big Bang.

From Discovery News we learn about vast rivers of Hydrogen flow into galaxies.

What's new on Mars? Meridian Journal discuss two new photographs from Curiosity: Dingo Gap and the ‘Firepit’.

The last three articles are from NextBigFuture: Elon Musk thinks there are five innovations that will change our lives in the decades ahead:

• The Internet, an astonishing invention by which people can access knowledge from anywhere.
• The transition to the sustainable production and consumption of energy.
• The extension of human life to other planets, depending on how rapidly we progress in developing space transport and how we live - if we manage to survive -- by then.
• Reading and writing genetic code
• AI - artificial intelligence.

Make yourself some free time and watch the videos of Elon Musk.

The discovery of water on Ceres arise many more plausible places for astrobiology research: Unlocking the solar system by unlocking water in the asteroids.


And back to the moon on a future missions to find exact location of water on the moon during 2018.

That's all for this, thank to all our contributors and readers. As always hosting the CoS is a pleasure.