New Mars Forums

I am on the lookout for a pic of the ISS transiting the Sun during the Venus transit.  Four times yesterday the ISS crossed the face of the Sun during Venus' transit; however, the ISS's transits were only visible in a very narrow 1-mile corridor through southern France, northern Italy, Canary Islands (IIRC?), etc.  This information was posted previously at spaceweather.com and in my "Lt. James Cook" thread. 

If anyone sees a pic on the 'net of Venus and the ISS both transiting, please post it. 

http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/ve … jpg]Gotcha! 

From spaceweather.com (18 June 2004...the web site is updated and archived daily):  "On June 8th, in a tiny village in Slovakia, Tomas Maruska took a picture that is ... beyond rare. It shows Venus and the International Space Station (ISS) transiting the Sun at the same time.  The double transit was visible only inside a narrow corridor a few hundred meters wide. And it was brief. The space station crosses in the Sun in a split second! Maruska knew when and where to look thanks to the predictions of Thomas Fly, an expert forecaster of ISS transits."

*Congrats Mr. Maruska.  He's the only person yet known to have snapped both ISS and Venus transiting the Sun at the same time.

BTW, spaceweather.com now has 14 pages of VT pics.

--Cindy

I am on the lookout for a pic of the ISS transiting the Sun during the Venus transit.  Four times yesterday the ISS crossed the face of the Sun during Venus' transit; however, the ISS's transits were only visible in a very narrow 1-mile corridor through southern France, northern Italy, Canary Islands (IIRC?), etc.  This information was posted previously at spaceweather.com and in my "Lt. James Cook" thread.

Close-up view of SMART-1's stationary plasma thruster

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/spc … 4_high.jpg

Engineers at ESOC, the European Space Agency's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, sent a command to begin the firing test

Electrons attracted into the discharge chamber collide with xenon atoms from the propellant gas supply, making charged atoms (ions). Current-carrying coils, inside and outside the doughnut-shaped discharge chamber, sustain a magnetic field oriented like the spokes of a wheel. By the Hall effect, ions and electrons swerving in opposite directions in the magnetic field create an electric field. This expels the xenon ions in a propulsive jet. Other emitted electrons then neutralize the xenon, producing the blue jet.

The SEPP consists of a single ion engine fuelled by xenon gas and powered by solar energy.

Blood-red Moon

May 2004
ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft has just made its 278th orbit, in good health and with all functions performing nominally

Oh, I just can't resist.
WWI        Wilson, Democrat.
WWII       Roosevelt, Democrat
Korea       Truman, Democrat
Vietnam   Opened by Kennedy, escalated heavily by Johnson, Democrats

One should maybe add to this list:

Vietnam, exit and peace - Nixon, Republican.
Detente with China, completing the wedge driven between Communist super powers - Nixon, Republican.

On Socialism: It's a lot about what you put into the word. If it means spending copiuos amounts on social security because of some metaphysical hang-up about the nature of man and her rights, that's one thing; if it means organizing the nation and re-allocate resources to optimize functions (including max trade-off well-being of the most miserable), for example overriding private property and stuff, it's something else, and the general social results will differ widely.

I completely agree with John Glenn. That is exactly what will happen to the ISS if and when we pull out of the program early. It has taken us years to build an infrastructure here to support the ISS. Most of the partners are still scrambling to build an infrastructure to support ANY manned space mission. Some are requesting expertise to learn from the mistakes of others that have been there. Most are not.

When the orbiter stops flying, as far as I know, the Russians will be the only ones capable of orbital reboosts. The HTV will be the only vehicle capable of delivering payload racks. There will be no capability of bringing entire payload racks back down. If large equipment like the Control Moment Gyros fails, there will be no way to deliver a replacement. ESA will no longer be able to use the MPLM. Unless the Hab module is completed, crew compliment will remain at a maximum of 3.

Bush's speech, though the word got out and we expected it, totally pulled the rug out from under us. The effort into Orbital Space Plane is archived, but cancelled. Basically, the mission totally changed.

Personally, I don't really care too much about sending man to Mars. I don't even mind putting a base on the moon. I would rather put effort into improving technology and lowering the cost of space flight. The Orbital Space Plane was a step in that direction. The CEV, or whatever the name is now, is two steps back.

I sometimes have doubts Bush is serious about Space and returning men to the moon, could just be a re-election stunt..florida

http://www.iknowwhatyoudidlastelection. … -court.htm

Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, proposed a sustained commitment to human exploration of the solar system -- with a return to the moon as a stepping stone to Mars -- in 1989, on the 20th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. NASA came up with a budget-busting cost estimate of $400 billion, which sank the project.

Since 1967, space-going countries have signed a treaty in which they promise to do everything possible to avoid contamination while exploring other planets. And thank goodness. If they didn’t do this, any life we one day find on Mars might simply be something we took there ourselves.The Question is will we ever live on Mars?

George Bush seems to think so. He has promised to send astronauts back to the Moon no later than 2020, with the intention of building a permanent base. From there we’ll then be able to go to Mars… and beyond, he said. Technologically it is possible. But critics are calling Bush’s statements an election stunt. And everyone agrees it will take immense amounts of money, time and resources to do it.

Former Ohio Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, has said that before deciding to race off to the Moon or Mars, the nation needs to complete the international space station and provide the taxi service to accommodate a full crew of six or seven.

At the same time, Mr Glenn said Nasa could be laying out a long-term plan, setting a loose timetable and investing in the engineering challenges of sending people to Mars.

U.S. space pioneer John Glenn said on Thursday that President Bush's space exploration plan "pulls the rug out from under our scientists" and might waste too much money to ever put astronauts on Mars.

"I think we're voluntarily stopping some of the most unique, cutting-edge research in the history of the whole world."
-John Glenn

Glenn, a retired Democratic senator from Ohio and the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, said NASA should not abandon research on the International Space Station and questioned the advisability of using the moon as a stepping stone to Mars.

His stinging rebuke of the Bush plan came in testimony before the presidential commission charged with developing a strategy for building a permanent base on the moon, then sending astronauts on to Mars. The commission met at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Glenn's home state of Ohio.

The octogenarian space pioneer's most cutting comments were reserved for NASA's plans to gut the International Space Station of a once-ambitious research agenda, limiting science only to studies applicable to the moon and Mars program.

"We have projects that are planned or in the queue now, projects that people -- academics and laboratories and companies -- have spent millions of dollars to get ready," Glenn said. "That pulls the rug out from under our scientists who placed their faith in NASA, and our scientists within NASA who devoted years and years to their work."

Glenn said basic research had always been part of the human space flight program, dating back to his own three-orbit flight in 1962: "We tried to get everything we could on to every flight back in those days."

He said cutting the research component of the space station program would save only about $2.5 million.

"I think we're voluntarily stopping some of the most unique, cutting-edge research in the history of the whole world. Now we're going to let other nations do it and they'll be able to benefit from it. I just don't think that's right. I think that's a mistake. For a few bucks, we could continue this research," he said.

NASA spokesman Glen Mahone said research aboard the space station will continue but will be limited to the effects of space flight on human physiology.

"We're going to do the research that's important for us to fulfill the president's vision," Mahone said.

Glenn said he would support returning to the moon for research purposes, but urged the panel to seriously consider whether building habitable moon bases as a stepping stone to Mars was cost effective.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp … on/2433348

What about our contamination of Mars? People and unsterilized robots will contaminate Mars with terrestrial organisms. Even if we are willing to risk our own lives, what about the rights of the Martians? If we did contaminate Mars with terrestrial microbes, that could complicate studies of any life that was found later on Mars.

The author Mark Lupisella, in 1997, wrote in an issue of Space Policy, "Could we forgive ourselves if we caused the extinction of the first extraterrestrial species we came into contact with?".

With their decades of experience, Russian space docs also lead the field in recognizing psychological asthenia and stresses. During Norm Thagard’s stay on Mir, Russian Flight Surgeons identified the danger of too little work (most of the American experiments were ruined early on) before the Americans, and suggested ways of integrating Dr. Thagard into the daily routine. The Russian psychologists felt Jerry Linenger was not suited for long-duration spaceflight, and it was they who first recognized his lack of communication as a sign of withdrawal.

Like the American astronauts, Russian cosmonauts have weekly private conference with their families, and weekly Medical conferences with their Flight Surgeons. In addition, cosmonauts and astronauts alike have an allowance by weight of personal effects to bring with them; books, tapes and videos are very popular (movie night is a popular pastime on Mir). Both Mir and the Shuttle Orbiter carry ham radios, for quick informal conversations with ham operators. Exercise is a popular stress-reliever, and astronauts and cosmonauts alike often get irritable if overtasking deprives them of their daily run. And in a liberty that American controllers look at askance, cosmonauts are allowed to bring small amounts of vodka aboard.

Clearly, despite the paucity of media coverage and hard scientific data, psychological countermeasures play a considerable role in maintaining crew health, and can be expected to gain prominence as stays on ISS lengthen and piloted Mars missions draw closer.