EXCLUSIVE space photo of the falling NASA satellite that might kill you today

And NASA has more here on the re-entry of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, which is expected to return to Earth's atmosphere late Sept. 23 or early Sept. 24 EDT. That's six years after the end what was a productive scientific life.

"Although the spacecraft will break into pieces during re-entry, not all of it will burn up in the atmosphere." That means it's going to fall to land or sea, and there is some risk, though it's extremely extremely small, that it will fall on you and kill you dead.

Real serious numbers now. Scientists have calculated that there is a 1 in 3,200 chance a piece will hit someone. And there is a 1 in 20 trillion chance that it will hits *you.*

Related NYT item here. My advice? Stay indoors and look at Boing Boing.

UPDATE: Orbital debris found!

[Shoop by Xeni.]

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How to build giant Space Invaders as public art

By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:26 am Friday, Oct 7

I asked Jason Torchinsky, one of my favorite makers/artists, to describe how he built his gigantic Space Invader sculptures for the IndieCade Festival (the international conference festival of independent games taking place October 7-9 in Los Angeles). Jason used the original space invaders shapes as templates and scaled them up to one pixel per square foot. Here's how he did it.

Read How to build giant Space Invaders as public art on MAKE

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Infographic on the history of space launches

By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 8:22 am Friday, Oct 7

From satellites, to probes, to capsules full of people—humans have launched more than 7000 objects into space. In a nifty infographic at Technology Review, Tommy McCall and Mike Orcutt illustrate reams of data, collected from hundreds of sources, to show how the character of launches has changed over time in different countries.

One of the first things you'll notice when you look at the graphic: The Soviet Union launched far more objects into space than anybody else. Why? According to Orcutt, it's partly because Soviet satellites were less robust. The U.S. didn't have to launch as many because we got more mileage out of the ones we did launch.

Via David Brin

Tags: History, infographic, satellites, Science, Space

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Hunting Space Invaders

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Could extended space missions make astronauts go blind?

[Image, REUTERS: Soyuz TMA-21 carrying International Space Station (ISS) crew members U.S. astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, descends, 92 miles (148 km) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, September 16, 2011. The Russian Soyuz space capsule with three astronauts on board landed safely in Kazakhstan last Friday, leaving a single three-man crew aboard the International Space Station.]

The LA Times reports that 60% of astronauts who have completed 6 months aboard the International Space Station reported blurring of eyesight upon return.

A newly discovered eye condition found to erode the vision of some astronauts who have spent months aboard the International Space Station has doctors worried that future explorers could go blind by the end of long missions, such as a multiyear trip to Mars.

Although blindness is the worst-case scenario, the threat of blurred vision is enough that NASA has asked scores of researchers to study the issue and has put special eyeglasses on the space station to help those affected.

"We are certainly treating this with a great deal of respect," said Dr. Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer. "This [eye condition] is comparable to the other risks like bone demineralization [loss] and radiation that we have to consider.... It does have the potential for causing mission impact."

(via @bwjones)

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The southern lights from space

Astronaut Ron Garan takes photos in space and posts them to Google+. This photo was taken yesterday, aboard the ISS, and shows the Southern Lights.

Real-time astronaut photos may be my favorite benefit of social media networks.

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Alan Shepard’s A-Okay and other space program myths

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Space Invaders couch

I have no idea if Igor Chak's "Retro Alien" (ahem, Space Invaders) couch is comfortable, or if it looks as good in real life as it does in renders, but it sure does look good in them renders!

Retro Alien Couch by Igor Chak (Thanks, Eric!)

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Hurricane Irene, as seen from space, Aug. 26, 2011

From NASA and NOAA, a "Full Disk Image of Earth" captured from the GOES-13 satellite on August 26, 2011. Hurricane Irene (NASA info page here) is now almost one-third the size of the US East Coast.

Larger image here, Flickr.

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Russian space agency says unmanned supply ship bound for ISS fails to reach orbit

SpaceFlightNow reports that "an "emergency situation" occurred during today's launch of a robotic Russian resupply ship ("Progress") headed for the International Space Station," preventing the Soyuz rocket from placing the freighter into orbit. CNN has NASA's statement, and some context, here.

More, from Associated Press:

The brief statement from the Roscosmos agency did not specify whether the Progress supply ship that was launched Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome had been entirely lost. Agency officials could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press. The statement said the third stage of the rocket firing the ship into space had failed at 325 seconds into the launch.

The ship was carrying more than 2.5 tons of supplies, including oxygen, food and fuel. Since the ending of the U.S. space shuttle program this summer, Russian spaceships are the only supply link to the space station.

All 43 previous Progress flights for the ISS over the last 11 years have been successful. Here is the Roscosmos website, but don't expect much of a detailed report there.

NASA has a previously scheduled daily Space Station update at 11am EDT, and will likely replay video of the Russian rocket failure during this video webcast.

Update: NASA's statement on the incident is here. The phrase they use to characterize the incident is "off nominal," which is what I'll start saying instead of "fail" from here on in. And I just watched the Soyuz "off nominal event" video replay on NASA TV. So did Warren Ellis, who says, "I clearly heard someone say 'thank god our guys don't have to ride on those.' And then 'Oh. Shit.'"

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Get to Space via Balloon with the Bloon

by Mark R - on August 16th, 2011

Now that the Space Shuttle program has been essentially grounded, it is time to start thinking of new ways to leave the atmosphere.

Virgin Galactic may be banking on expensive trips with space planes, but this is the first time that I have heard of traveling to space via balloon.

This lighter-than-air spacecraft, the Bloon, will reach 22 miles (36 kilometers) into space. That is enough to see the curvature of the Earth, but not enough to float the passengers with zero gravity. Check out the video after the jump to see what it might look like.

The balloon is the creation of company zero2infinity, and it only can stay in space for only a few minutes. From there, it lightly parachutes to the Earth, and you have a great story to tell.

The idea of traveling above the atmosphere in a balloon is not new, as it was the first balloonists who were able to actually see that the Earth was round. Too bad we can’t travel to the moon on a balloon like in The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.

As it turns out, we might be seeing the Bloon ready to take off by the year 2015. The cost of the flight is pretty up there at $156,000 per seat, and I wonder who will pay for this type of flight.

Source

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