Saturn: Lapetus

Some NASA images of Lapetus: one of Saturns moons.

Mars Phoenix Spacecraft Corrects Course

NASA's Mars-bound Phoenix lander completed its first and biggest course correction planned during the spacecraft's journey.

The second of the remaining five planned adjustments prior to landing is scheduled for mid-October.

"These first two together take out the bias intentionally put in at launch," said Brian Portock, Phoenix navigation team chief at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Phoenix blasted off Earth aboard a Delta 2 rocket on Aug. 4 and now careens through space at 74,200 mph (33,180 meters per second)-a speed necessary to cover the 422 millions miles (679 million kilometers) between Earth and Mars by May 25, 2008.

Following a difficult landing in the northern icy reaches of the red planet, Phoenix will unfurl a digging robotic arm to test the icy Martian soil for habitable conditions for microbial life.

So far, mission managers said, all is well.

"All the subsystems are functioning as expected with few deviations from predicted performance," said Joe Guinn, Phoenix mission system manager at JPL.

Over the next month, the $420 million spacecraft's support team will check its scientific instruments, radar and the communication system needed during and after the soil-sampler's landing. When it does land, Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith said it will be a milestone in space exploration.

"We'll be discovering the truth about the icy regions on Mars," Smith said during a briefing shortly after Phoenix's early morning launch.

Endeavour Lifts Off

08.08.07 - 6:36 p.m. EDT
Cheers and shouts can be heard throughout the Space Center as Endeavour, carrying the STS-118 crew, roars off the launch pad into the late afternoon sky to begin the 22nd mission to the International Space Station.

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Space Shuttle launch for today planned

The 22nd flight to the International Space Station, STS-118 will be the first flight for Endeavour since 2002. Launch remains on target for Aug. 8 at 6:36 p.m. EDT (= 7:36 p.m. Buenos Aires time or 0:36 a.m. CET)

If you want to see the launch LIVE on your PC go here.

Space Library Heads Towards Mars

The Planetary Society's disk contains countless novels and stories about Mars, a statement from Carl Sagan, images of Mars made on Earth and countless names of space enthusiasts. Credit: Dave Mosher/SPACE.com.

Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells, Kim Stanley Robinson and other greats in science fiction hitched a ride to Mars today-in a digital form, at least.

A glass CD loaded with literary, visual and audio science fiction works about the red planet was strapped to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, the Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif. said Friday. Called the "Visions of Mars" library, the 3.2-inch (8-centimeter) disk also contains more than 250,000 names of the organization's members and space exploration enthusiasts.

Planetary Society representative Amir Alexander hopes that future martian inhabitants will stumble across the little disk.

"Imagine a person ... coming across this old relic of a spacecraft, which is what this beautiful spacecraft Phoenix will be in a few hundred years," Alexander said, adding that they should find the DVD attach with Velcro to Phoenix. "What he or she will hold in their hands is a message from our world to theirs."

Phoenix launched at 5:26:34 a.m. EDT (0926:34 GMT) atop a Delta 2 rocket to begin a nearly 10-month spaceflight to the Arctic Circle of Mars near the planet's north pole. The probe carries a trench-digging robotic arm and other instruments to sample martian soil and ice to study its chemical makeup, as well as help scientists determine whether the region once sported conditions in which life might exist.

Bake and freeze

Although Alexander refused to divulge how much the disc cost to make, he said "it is in fact the most expensive DVD ever produced."

The cost arises from is customary nature.

"This is a special DVD that's designed to last for at least 500 years," Alexander said, and is made of durable silicon glass. "It was Velcroed to the spacecraft, then baked" to remove explosive gas bubbles, sterilize it and ensure it sticks to Phoenix as it careens toward and lands on Mars, he added..

What's more, Alexander explained, is that the disk was designed to withstand the planet's bone-chilling environment.

"It's designed to last several martian summers and winters," he said-even Phoenix's eventual encasement in solid carbon dioxide ice at its northern landing site.

An eternal honor

The CD contains 161 novels and stories, 63 pieces of artwork and four radio broadcasts related to Mars, totaling 1.43 gigabytes of data.

Inlcluded in the works are H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds," Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" and even Thomas Disch's "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars."

Kim Stanley Robinson, a popular science fiction writer, said he is thrilled to have his short novella "Green Mars" included on the CD.

"The idea that I'm part of the first library on Mars ... is really a fulfilling moment," Robinson said.

Second chance

Phoenix's launch wasn't the first attempt to send a digital library to Mars-the original was attached to Russia's Mars 96 lander.

"Unfortunately, Mars 96 never made to Mars," Alexander said. "It made it to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and that is where the original "Visions of Mars" disc lies today."

"Visions of Mars" also wasn't the first record of humanity launched into space: Voyager 1 and 2 carried famous "golden records" beyond the reaches of the solar system.

Scientific visionary Carl Sagan led the selection committee for the records' contents, and he also recorded an audio track for the Mars-bound tome in 1993 before he passed away.

"For 99.9 percent of our tenure on Earth, we've been wanderers," Sagan proclaims on the disk. "Whatever the reason you're on Mars is, I'm glad you're there and I wish I was with you."

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in Good Health After Launch

NASA's Phoenix Mars lander lifts off from Pad 17A aboard a Delta II 7925 rocket amid billows of smoke at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:26 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, 2007. Credit: NASA/Regina Mitchell-Ryall and Jerry Cannon.

A NASA probe bound to dig into the icy Arctic Circle of Mars is in good health after a picturesque predawn launch, mission managers said Saturday.

The Phoenix Mars Lander is precisely on target for its 422 million-mile (679 million-kilometer) trip to the red planet following an early morning liftoff today from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"We have a happy spacecraft," said Ed Sedivy, spacecraft program manager for Phoenix's builder Lockheed Martin, during a post-launch briefing here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, adding that telemetry from the probe was spot on. "At that moment, everybody knew that it was the homerun that they were looking for."

A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket blasted Phoenix into space at 5:26:34 a.m. EDT (0926:34 GMT), leaving a ghostly contrail of exhaust as the spacecraft left Earth behind. The lander is due to land on the flat arctic plains near Mars' north pole on May 25, 2008.

"It was the most beautiful thing I've seen," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona, of the liftoff. "This cloud turned into what looked like wings and a beak and a long tail and looked amazingly just like a phoenix bird, the message to me was: Phoenix bird has risen! And it has. We're on our way to Mars."

Phoenix is now speeding through space at about 12,300 miles per hour (19,794 kph) - almost its top speed - relative to Earth, and should pass beyond the moon's orbit by about 3:00 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) this afternoon, mission managers said.

The 772-pound (350-kilogram) spacecraft's launch was so precise that Phoenix was able to conserve about 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of precious propellant, which will add some maneuvering flexibility once the probe prepares for its Mars descent next year.

NASA's $420 million Phoenix mission is aimed at an icy, flat region of northern Mars known as Vastitas Borealis. There, the lander is expected to use its eight-foot (2.4-meter) robotic arm like a backhoe to carve out samples of the surrounding martian soil and ice. The samples will be analyzed by onboard ovens, cameras, microscopes and a wet chemistry laboratory to determine their chemical makeup.

Researchers are hoping to learn whether the icy terrain has preserved any organic molecules or compounds within the martian soil, which may prove useful in determining whether the area may have once been habitable for microbial life. Phoenix also carries a laser ranging and detection tool and other instruments mounted to a meteorology mast to study the arctic weather on Mars.

Much of Phoenix's structure and seven-suite science package were developed for or recycled from NASA's canceled Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander and the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, which was lost during its 1999 descent to the martian surface. Phoenix scientists hope their probe will recover some science lost from the 1999 mission's failure.

"It's a great day for America, it's a great day to continue exploration," NASA's Mars program director Doug McCuistion said after the successful Saturday launch.

Phoenix Heads for Mars!

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander launches into space atop a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:26:34 a.m. EDT (0926:34 GMT) on Aug. 4, 2007. Credit: NASA TV.

Phoenix blasts off

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander lit up the predawn Florida sky Saturday, launching spaceward on a mission to determine whether the planet could have once supported primitive life.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket launched Phoenix towards Mars at 5:26:34 a.m. EDT (0926:34 GMT) from Pad 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The three-stage booster is bound for the flat northern plains of Vastitas Borealis near the martian north pole, where it is expected to dig into and sample the region's icy soil with its eight-foot (2.4-meter) robotic arm.

VIDEO: NASA's Phoenix: Rising to the Red Planet

NASA: Phoenix Launch Postponed 24 Hours

The launch of the Phoenix spacecraft has been rescheduled to Aug. 4. Due to the forecast for severe weather in the vicinity of the launch pad on Tuesday afternoon, the Delta II launch team was unable to complete fueling of the rocket's second stage. The two available launch times on Aug. 4 are 5:26:34 and 6:02:59 a.m. EDT.

The Phoenix Mars lander's assignment is to dig through the Martian soil and ice in the arctic region and use its onboard scientific instruments to analyze the samples it retrieves.

Both rocket and spacecraft have been undergoing final preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Mars Exploration Rover Status Report: Spirit Sees Dustier Sky

This is a view from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the dust storms around Spirit and Opportunity. Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity are both enduring levels of reduced power supply. The rovers can survive at these levels, but NASA continues to sharply restrict their activities.

Spirit is under the dustiest sky ever seen at that location. Sunlight at Spirit's location is more obscured than current conditions for Opportunity, though not as severe as what Opportunity faced a week ago.

Mission controllers Thursday received the first status report from Opportunity in three days. This delay had been planned between transmissions to minimize the rover’s energy use. Power output from Opportunity's solar panels has climbed above 200 watt hours per day (enough to run a 100 watt bulb for two hours), compared with daily levels as low as 128 watt hours last week. Light must reach the solar panels for them to provide electricity.

Opportunity has resumed measurements of how obscured the sun is. These had been suspended for several days to save power. The new measurement included in Thursday's downlink indicates slight clearing. However, some dust has freshly settled onto the solar panels, lessening the increase in power output.

"We are still waiting out the storms, and we don't know how long they will last or how bad they will get," said John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Each rover has eight radioisotope heater units that supplement electric heaters for keeping batteries and electronics within their operating temperature ranges. The radioisotope heater units use the decay heat from plutonium-238. Each of them provides about one watt of heat. They aid the rovers' survival on very low-power days and through cold nights, though the electric heaters are also necessary.

Controllers are keeping Opportunity on an extremely low-power-use plan under which the rover transmits information to Earth only once every three days. A heater switch that has been stuck in the on position since landing day makes Opportunity more vulnerable to low power than Spirit. Spirit has suspended most activities, but is still communicating daily.

Phoenix Spacecraft: Next Stop, Mars

Launch
Date: Aug. 3
Time: 5:35 a.m. EDT

A new space explorer is waiting in the wings and ready to take center stage: the Mars lander called Phoenix. Set for launch aboard a Delta II rocket, Phoenix's assignment is to dig through the Martian soil and ice in the arctic region and use its onboard scientific instruments to analyze the samples it retrieves.

Both rocket and spacecraft are undergoing final preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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This animation shows an artist's concept of the Phoenix spacecraft landing on Mars.

NASA Rover Finds Surprising Evidence for Mars' Watery Past

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has found a patch of bright-toned soil so rich in silica that scientists propose water must have been involved in concentrating it.

The strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now has been unearthed by NASA's Spirit rover.

A patch of Martian soil kicked up and analyzed by Spirit appears to be rich in silica, which suggests it would have required water to produce.

Chemical analysis performed by the rover's robotic arm-mounted science instruments measured a composition of about 90 percent pure silica -- a material commonly found in quartz on Earth -- for the bit of Martian dirt, said mission scientists, who first heard of the find during a teleconference.

"You could hear people gasp in astonishment," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for NASA's twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "This is a remarkable discovery."

Draggin' the line

This discovery came about unexpectedly as the result of a mechanical failure.

Both Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity completed their original three-month missions in April 2004, and are aging. One of Spirit's six wheels no longer rotates, gouging a deep impression as it drags through soil. That scraping has exposed several patches of bright soil, leading to some of Spirit's biggest discoveries in its Gusev Crater exploration site, including the most recent find.

Spirit had previously found other indicators of long-ago water at the site, such as patches of water-bearing, sulfur-rich soil, alteration of minerals, and evidence of explosive volcanism.

One possible origin for the silica may have been interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water, though the material could also have formed in water in a hot spring environment, NASA said in a statement. The latest discovery adds compelling new evidence for ancient conditions that might have been favorable for life, the space agency added.

Researchers informally dubbed the newly exposed patch of soil "Gertrude Weise," after a player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

"We've looked at dozens of disturbed soil targets in the rover tracks, and this is the first one that shows a high silica signature," said Steve Ruff, of Arizona State University in Tempe, who first proposed using Spirit's thermal emission spectrometer to study the overturned soil's mineral composition last month.

Heart of glass

The silica readings in the overturned soil prompted mission managers to drive Spirit close enough to touch the soil with the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Silica commonly occurs on Earth as the mineral quartz, and is the main component of window glass, NASA said. The Martian silica at the Gertrude Weise patch is non-crystalline, with no detectable quartz, the agency added.

Spirit worked within about 50 yards of the Gertrude Weise area for more than 18 months before the discovery was made.

"This is a target-rich environment, and it is a good thing we didn't go hurrying through it," said Squyres.

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Private Rocket's Cargo Found: Ashes of Star Trek's 'Scotty,' Others Recovered

So what now? They will try shooting it in space again?

The payload container carrying experiments and the cremated ashes of some 200 dearly departed people - a cargo that includes remains of the beloved "Scotty" of "Star Trek" fame - has been recovered in the New Mexico mountains.

"It has been found. It is in good shape," Eric Knight, co-founder of the rocket firm UP Aerospace that launched the cargo, told SPACE.com Friday.

That payload section UP Aerospace's second SpaceLoft XL rocket landed in hard to search mountains within the White Sands Missile Range after blasting off April 28th from New Mexico's Spaceport America. The suborbital rocket shot the payload section up into space, with the booster stage and the top section individually parachuting back down to terra firma.

Tucked aboard the rocket were a series of experiments and the ashes of 200 people, including actor James Doohan - who portrayed the plucky Starship Enterprise engineer Scotty on television's "Star Trek" - as well as the remains of Gordon Cooper, one of NASA's seven original Mercury astronauts.

Repeated searches of a projected landing zone came up empty handed since the rocket was launched. But today proved successful, with bad weather as well as rough and tumble terrain making searches by helicopter tough duty.

In an earlier search, the rocket booster itself was found and recovered.

On the scene as part of the recovery team, Jerry Larson, President of UP Aerospace, reportedly found the missing in the mountain payload in good shape. More details regarding the finding of the rocket section are expected later today, Knight said.

Array of payloads

The April flight of the SpaceLoft XL - labeled SL-2 - took into space an array of educational investigations, as well as commercial and entrepreneurial payloads.

For instance, 800 students from teams around the country and the world, including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the Netherlands, developed and designed 44 scientific experiments for the SL-2 mission.

The SpaceLoft XL mission also marked the first Legacy Flight - a new service provided by Celestis Incorporated of Houston, Texas. That firm launches the cremated remains of individuals into space.

UP Aerospace is gearing up for future launches from Spaceport America, a site dubbed as the world's first "purpose-built" - or built from scratch - commercial spaceport being erected 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Truth or Consequences and 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

This was the second rocket liftoff for UP Aerospace from Spaceport America.

Last September, the firm's SpaceLoft XL ran into trouble during ascent then fell to Earth after 90 seconds of flight. Corrective actions were taken by UP Aerospace leading to the successful takeoff and full mission last month.

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NASA rethinking death in mission to Mars

Difficult choices and decisions. Wouldn't want to make them! A bit like playing God.

NASA will have to address thorny issues like sex, death and health in carrying out a deep space mission to Mars.

"How do you get rid of the body of a dead astronaut on a three-year mission to Mars and back?

When should the plug be pulled on a critically ill astronaut who is using up precious oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew? Should NASA employ DNA testing to weed out astronauts who might get a disease on a long flight?

With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most "Earth-like" planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration.

Some of these who-gets-thrown-from-the-lifeboat questions are outlined in a NASA document on crew health obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.

NASA doctors and scientists, with help from outside bioethicists and medical experts, hope to answer many of these questions over the next several years.

"As you can imagine, it's a thing that people aren't really comfortable talking about," said Dr. Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer. "We're trying to develop the ethical framework to equip commanders and mission managers to make some of those difficult decisions should they arrive in the future."

One topic that is evidently too hot to handle: How do you cope with sexual desire among healthy young men and women during a mission years long?

Sex is not mentioned in the document and has long been almost a taboo topic at NASA. Williams said the question of sex in space is not a matter of crew health but a behavioral issue that will have to be taken up by others at NASA.

The agency will have to address the matter sooner or later, said Paul Root Wolpe, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who has advised NASA since 2001.

"There is a decision that is going to have to be made about mixed-sex crews, and there is going to be a lot of debate about it," he said.

The document does spell out some health policies in detail, such as how much radiation astronauts can be exposed to from space travel (No more radiation than the amount that would increase the risk of cancer by 3 percent over the astronaut's career) and the number of hours crew members should work each week (No more than 48 hours).

But on other topics -- such as steps for disposing of the dead and cutting off an astronaut's medical care if he or she cannot survive -- the document merely says these are issues for which NASA needs a policy.

"There may come a time in which a significant risk of death has to be weighed against mission success," Wolpe said. "The idea that we will always choose a person's well-being over mission success, it sounds good, but it doesn't really turn out to be necessarily the way decisions always will be made."

For now, astronauts and cosmonauts who become critically sick or injured at the international space station -- something that has never happened -- can leave the orbiting outpost 220 miles above Earth and return home within hours aboard a Russian Soyuz space vehicle.

That wouldn't be possible if a life-and-death situation were to arise on a voyage to Mars, where the nearest hospital is millions of miles away.

Moreover, Mars-bound astronauts will not always be able to rely on instructions from Mission Control, since it would take nearly a half-hour for a question to be asked and an answer to come back via radio.

Astronauts going to the moon and Mars for long periods of time must contend with the basic health risks from space travel, multiplied many times over: radiation, the loss of muscle and bone, and the psychological challenges of isolation.

NASA will consider whether astronauts must undergo preventive surgery, such as an appendectomy, to head off medical emergencies during a mission, and whether astronauts should be required to sign living wills with end-of-life instructions.

The space agency also must decide whether to set age restrictions on the crew, and whether astronauts of reproductive age should be required to bank sperm or eggs because of the risk of genetic mutations from radiation exposure during long trips.

Already, NASA is considering genetic screening in choosing crews on the long-duration missions. That is now prohibited.

"Genetic screening must be approached with caution ... because of limiting employment and career opportunities based on use of genetic information," Williams said.

NASA's three major tragedies resulting in 17 deaths -- Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia -- were caused by technical rather than medical problems. NASA never has had to abort a mission because of health problems, though the Soviet Union had three such episodes.

Some believe the U.S. space agency has not adequately prepared for the possibility of death during a mission.

"I don't think they've been great at dealing with this type of thing in the past," said former astronaut Story Musgrave, a six-time space shuttle flier who has a medical degree. "But it's very nice that they're considering it now."

Source

Einstein was right, probe shows

The mission's data is shedding light on Einstein's theory of relativity

Early results from a Nasa mission designed to test two key predictions of Albert Einstein show the great man was right about at least one of them.

It will take another eight months to determine whether he got the other correct say scientists analysing data from Nasa's Gravity Probe B satellite.

The spacecraft was launched into orbit from California, US, on 20 April 2004.

The mission's chief scientist presented details at a physics meeting in Jacksonville, Florida.

Gravity Probe B uses four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure two effects of Einstein's general relativity theory.

A scientist starts with a bulldozer, follows with a shovel, and then finally uses dental picks and toothbrushes to clear the dust away from the treasure. We are passing out the toothbrushes now William Bencze, Stanford University

One of these effects is called the geodetic effect, the other is called frame dragging. A common analogy is that of placing a heavy bowling ball on to a rubber sheet.

The bowling ball will sit in a dip, distorting the rubber sheet around itself in much the way a massive object such as the Earth distorts space and time around itself.

Minute measurements

In the analogy, the geodetic effect is similar to the shape of the dip created when the ball is placed on to the rubber sheet.

Einstein is now being tested under highly controlled conditions

If the bowling ball is then rotated, it will start to drag the rubber sheet around with it. In a similar way, the Earth drags local space and time around with it - ever so slightly - as it rotates.

Over the course of a year, these effects would cause the angle of spin of the gyroscopes to shift by minute amounts.

The mission's principal investigator, Professor Francis Everitt, from Stanford University, discussed preliminary results at the American Physical Society meeting in Jacksonville at the weekend.

The data from Gravity Probe B's gyroscopes clearly confirm Einstein's geodetic effect to a precision of better than 1%.

The scientists from Stanford are still trying to extract its signature of frame-dragging from the data.

They plan to announce the final results of the experiment in December 2007, following eight more months of data analysis.

Larger puzzle

Professor Tim Sumner, a physicist at Imperial College London, told BBC News: "Having an announcement at this stage, on the way to the final result, is very encouraging. I'm very pleased to see that the result has now been released.

There is an expectation that at some level we will expose a departure from pure general relativity as envisaged by Einstein Professor Tim Sumner, Imperial College London

"Most individual measurements are part of a larger puzzle. But general relativity is one of the big branches of physics and it is poorly tested at the moment because of the relative weakness of gravity as a force."

"I would see this as a piece of solid verification to underpin general relativity, which occupies a special place in physics."

William Bencze, Gravity Probe B programme manager at Stanford University in California, said: "Understanding the details of this science data is a bit like an archaeological dig.

"A scientist starts with a bulldozer, follows with a shovel, and then finally uses dental picks and toothbrushes to clear the dust away from the treasure. We are passing out the toothbrushes now."

Unified theory

Tim Sumner said few physicists were expecting to see a deviation from Albert Einstein's predictions in this experiment.

But he said that other tests could start to reveal cracks in general relativity, suggesting where modifications might be made.

The gyroscopes were called the most perfect spheres ever made

Physicists have been unable to incorporate gravity into a unified theory to describe all that is known about the fundamental forces between elementary particles in nature.

Modifications to general relativity could be important steps towards a unified theory.

"There is an expectation that at some level we will expose a departure from pure general relativity as envisaged by Einstein," Professor Sumner said.

"One of the areas of general relativity that is less well founded is when you get into very intense gravitational field interactions. Some astrophysical objects will be in very high field situations such as pairs of massive black holes orbiting one another."

A joint mission between Nasa and the European Space Agency called Lisa (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) will study gravitational waves coming from binary systems such as these.

General relativity is not expected to break down in these situations. But Lisa should help scientists understand how the theory works in "high field" gravitational regimes such as pairs of massive black holes.

Other experiments are due to test the equivalence principle, one of the foundation stones of general relativity. This principle stems from the observation that when two objects are dropped, they will accelerate at the same rate.

"Here there is a theoretical framework where one might expect to see a departure from the equivalence principle," said Professor Sumner. "This might give us pointers as to the way forward."

The Imperial College physicist is involved in two mission concepts to test the equivalence principle. One is the Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (Step), which has been proposed by some of the same scientists involved in the Gravity Probe B mission. Another is the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer (Gauge).

Gravity Probe B was launched from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California on 20 April 2004. It transmitted its data for exactly 50 weeks, from August 2004 to August 2005.

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NASA Astronaut Completes Boston Marathon in Space

What an achievement! International Space Station Expedition 14/15 flight engineer Suni Williams is running the Boston Marathon on a station treadmill. Credit: NASA TV.

"After more than four hours of running in place, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams completed the Boston Marathon while orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

“Hooyah, I’m done,” Williams cheered as she passed the orbital finish line on the space station’s treadmill.

Williams, 41, began running the marathon at 10:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) as the race kicked off in Boston and the ISS circled Earth at some 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers) per hour.

“It’s coming up on 9.5 miles and it looks like we’ve gone around the world,” Williams said about 90 minutes into the 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) race. “So that’s pretty cool. A nice statistic.”

At about 2:24 p.m. EDT (1824 GMT) she radioed to Mission Control that she’d completed the race with an unofficial time of about four hours, 24 minutes, marking the first time an entrant has competed from orbit.

A native of Needham, Massachusetts, Williams grew up in the Boston area and participated in Boston Marathon once before as a teenager. She qualified for this year’s race during the 2006 Houston Marathon with a time of three hours, 29 minutes and 57 seconds. The Boston Athletic Association issued her the bib number 14,000, which Williams taped to the front of her treadmill, for Monday’s event.

“I think the idea came up because I’m a big proponent of physical fitness and I just wanted to make kids aware that it is a necessary part of your life,” Williams told reporters last week during a video interview broadcast on NASA TV. “I think if I could do something up here to show kids that it’s fun and it’s important, than maybe somebody will get off the couch and start working out.”

High and dry

Unlike her terrestrial counterparts, who braved strong winds and rain to complete the course in Boston, Williams stayed high and dry. She ran a steady six-mile (9.6-kilometer) per hour pace on a treadmill inside the outpost’s Russian-built Zvezda service module while orbiting about 210 miles (337 kilometers) above Earth.

The astronaut lauded Kenya’s Robert Cheruiyot and Russia’s Lidiya Grigoryeva, who won the Boston Marathon’s Men and Women divisions, respectively. Cheruiyot finished with a time of two hours, 14 minutes and 13 seconds, while Grigoryeva completed the race in two hours, 29 minutes and 18 seconds, according to the Boston Athletic Association.

“Incredible, congratulations to all those folks,” Williams said of the marathon winners. “[Those were] pretty horrific conditions and those are some great times.”

Williams said that while she wouldn’t experience some of the tougher parts of the marathon’s terrestrial course, such as Heartbreak Hill, running on the space station’s treadmill – known technically as the Treadmill Vibration Isolation System (TVIS) – is no picnic either.

The exercise equipment features a bulky harness and bungee cords to hold weightless astronauts in place while running, and can prove painful on the shoulders and hips during long treks, she said before Monday’s race. It has also experienced technical problems in the past, but performed admirably during Williams’ four-hour run.

“The thing held out like a champ, no problems, no faults, no nothing,” Williams said of the station’s treadmill, which has acted up in the past. “It’s a great piece of gear.”

Boston support

On Earth, Williams’ fellow NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg completed the Boston Marathon in three hours, 32 minutes and nine seconds. Also running the race in Boston were Williams’ sister Dina Pandya, flight surgeon Steve Hart and long-time friend Ronnie Harris.

Other friends and supporters were expected to cheer Williams and her fellow marathon runners from a vantage point between the race’s Mile 14 and Mile 15 markers, signifying the space station’s ongoing crew change between Expedition 14 and Expedition 15, the astronaut has said. Williams joined the space station’s Expedition 14 crew in December 2006, and will stay on for the first stage of the Expedition 15 mission.

Williams ran the Boston Marathon as many of her fellow crewmembers slumbered aboard the station, though Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Expedition 15 flight engineer Oleg Kotov prepared drink pouches and orange slices for her during the race.

“She has my undying respect,” Lopez-Alegria said after Williams completed the marathon."

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Space Station Commander Sets U.S. Spaceflight

NASA has a new spaceflight champion in astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is setting a new record aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the longest mission by a U.S. spaceflyer.

As of Tuesday, Lopez-Alegria has lived and worked aboard the space station for more than 197 days and counting, breaking NASA’s previous record of 196 days set in 2002 by Expedition 4 astronauts Carl Walz and Dan Bursch. By the time Lopez-Alegria returns to Earth on April 20 with crewmate Mikhail Tyurin, a cosmonaut with Russia’s Federal Space Agency, they will have spent 214 days in space since their September 2006 launch.

ISS flight controllers congratulated Lopez-Alegria, who commands the space station’s Expedition 14 crew, as he hit the 197-day mark, though the veteran spaceflyer said he doesn’t expect the title to stick.

“You know it’s kind of being like Barry Bonds and…Albert Pujos playing on the same team,” Lopez-Alegria, an avid baseball fan, said referring to professional ballplayers. “I have a feeling my record isn’t going to last very long, and I know exactly who is going to break it.”

Lopez-Alegria was referring to fellow NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, an Expedition 14 flight engineer, who will stay aboard the ISS after to join the station’s Expedition 15 crew after he and Tyurin return to Earth. Williams is due to return to Earth aboard NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour in July, though the delayed launch of next shuttle flight – STS-117 aboard Atlantis – will delay the astronaut’s homecoming until later this summer. By mid-July, she will surpass Lopez-Alegria’s 214-day record for NASA’s longest continuous spaceflight.

“Your glory days in the hot sun may not last long,” flight controllers told Lopez-Alegria.

But with 10 spacewalks and more than 67 hours of spacewalking time – half of it performed during Expedition 14 – under his belt, Lopez-Alegria still tops NASA’s list as the most experienced U.S. spacewalker. Williams too, with four spacewalks and more 27 hours during Expedition 14, holds the title for the most spacewalks performed by a female astronaut.

The world record for the longest single spaceflight is held by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent 438 days in space aboard Russia’s Mir Space Station between 1994 and 1995.

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Astronaut Will Run Boston Marathon from Space

If you have nothing else to do up there :)

"Zooming through low-Earth orbit at 17,500 mph, Suni Williams completes the standard marathon distance every 5.4 seconds. Good thing Rosie Ruiz never thought of that.

Williams is registered for next month's Boston Marathon, even though she'll be stuck on the international space station when the rest of the field lines up for the 111th edition of the race. So the U.S. Navy commander will run the equivalent distance on a treadmill -- 210 miles above Earth, and tethered to her track by bungee cords so she doesn't float away.

Not since Ruiz hopped the 'T' to the finish line to accept the winner's wreath in 1980 has a Boston Marathon competitor relied so heavily on public transportation.

"She thought it would be cool if she gave it a try,'' said Williams' sister, Dina Pandya, who will run the race the traditional way. "She said, 'I'll call you on Heartbreak Hill.'''

Another NASA astronaut, Karen Nyberg, will dodge the potholes from Hopkinton to Boston's Back Bay on April 16 along with Pandya and almost 24,000 other runners. Although the race starts at 10 a.m. EDT on Earth, Williams might not be able to run contemporaneously because her sleep schedule -- a fairly arbitrary matter in space -- is set for the arrival of a Soyuz mission.

"I'm not sure the timing will be that she'll be awake,'' Pandya said. "They're going to be on Russian time, so they're kind of sleep-shifting.''

Williams qualified for the Boston race by finishing last January's Houston Marathon in 3 hours, 29 minutes, 57 seconds. Pandya didn't sweat the logistics when she signed them both up, but on Dec. 9 Williams took off on the space shuttle Discovery and it became clear she wasn't going to make it to the starting line.

"I considered it a huge honor to qualify, and I didn't want my qualification to expire without giving it a shot,'' Williams told the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the oldest of the world's annual marathons.

The BAA offered to send an official entrant's bib and a special finisher's medal -- made without lead, per NASA orders -- to the space station. But when this month's launch of the shuttle Atlantis was postponed, Williams had to be e-mailed a bib that she can print out; the other souvenirs will have to wait.

Race organizers have cooperated with far-flung endeavors like the "Boston Marathon in Iraq,'' sending extensive packages of trophies, water bottles and even a finish line tape to the Middle East for three years running. A similar shipment is headed for Kosovo this year.

But this is the first satellite race they've ever had on a satellite.

"The Boston Marathon is the pinnacle achievement for most runners,'' BAA spokesman Jack Fleming said. "For Suni to choose to run the 26.2 miles in space on Patriots Day is really a tribute to the thousands of marathoners who are running here on Earth. She is pioneering a new frontier in running and in sports with her run, which will truly be out of this world.''

Williams, 41, has run a handful of marathons, and she went through rigorous testing before being blasted into orbit. But three months with little gravity takes a toll on a human, and NASA requires all members of a station crew to exercise on the treadmill, a stationary bike and a resistance machine to maintain bone density and muscle mass.

"In microgravity, both of these things start to go away because we don't use our legs to walk around and don't need the bones and muscles to hold us up under the force of gravity,'' Williams told the BAA.

Gravity remains a problem for the world's top marathoners as they trudge up Heartbreak Hill.

But Williams has her own problems.

A "vibration isolation system'' built by a NASA engineer will keep her from shaking the entire space station as she runs, but the machinery puts a strain on the runner's hips and shoulders. She also has to be ready to abort her mission.

Running a marathon is a strain under normal conditions: the first person who ran one, according to Greek legend, dropped dead when he finished. Since then, thousands of runners have sought refuge from on-course aid stations and finish line medical tents to be treated for hypothermia and dehydration, blisters and broken bones and heart attacks.

Williams won't get so much as a mylar blanket when she's done.

"That harness gets hard on her back and her shoulders or her hips. Her foot was going numb because the strap was on her hip so much,'' Pandya said.

"She realizes that she has to be OK (after she's finished). She mentioned the other day, 'There's no hot bath.'''

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New X-ray Image Shows Jupiter's Powerful Sky Lights

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured the largest data set yet of Jupiter's colorful lights called aurora, yielding a pretty picture that could help solve some mysteries about the phenomenon.

X-ray auroras observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory overlaid on a simultaneous optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

The phenomenon is similar to the Northern Lights seen on Earth, thought on a much larger scale.

"Jupiter has auroras bigger than our entire planet," said Randy Gladstone of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. In a NASA statement today, Gladstone called the purple rings in a new colorized image "Northern Lights on steroids. They're hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth."

Unlike Earth's auroras, Jupiter's hyper-auroras never stop. "We see them every time we look," Gladstone said.

On Earth, the most intense auroras are caused by charged particles unleashed in solar storms. But Jupiter generates its own lights, Gladstone explained. The giant planet turns on it axis once every 10 hours and drags its planetary magnetic field around with it. This spin produces 10 million volts around its poles.

"Jupiter's polar regions are crackling with electricity," says Gladstone, "and this sets the stage for non-stop auroras."

Jupiter's volcanic moon Io feeds particles of oxygen and sulfur into the Jovian system. The particles become charged, contributing to the lights.

But scientists don't know exactly how volcanic exhaust meanders from Io out through Jupiter's magnetosphere and back to Jupiter's poles. "We're still trying to figure it out," Gladstone said.

There's another mystery: There is an X-ray "pulsar" inside Jupiter's northern auroras. Sometimes Chandra sees it, sometimes not. When it's on, the pulsar emits gigawatt bursts of X-rays with a regular beat of 45 minutes. It might be solar powered.

"Maybe Jupiter's magnetic field, when it gets hit by a solar wind gust, rings like a bell with a 45-minute period," Gladstone speculates. "There are many other possibilities as well."

The new X-ray observations, made in February, are being matched with data collected from the Hubble Space Telescope, the FUSE satellite, XMM-Newton (a European X-ray observatory), the New Horizons spacecraft and many ground-based observatories.

"Jupiter's auroras have never been observed by so many telescopes at once," Gladstone said. "I'm really excited by these data, and the analysis is just beginning."

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