Goce gravity flight slips to 2009

Europe's gravity mission has been bumped to next year because of ongoing technical problems with its launcher.

The arrow-shaped Goce satellite will map tiny variations in the pull of gravity experienced across the world. The information will give scientists a clearer insight into how the oceans move, and provide a universal reference to measure height anywhere on Earth.But concerns about the reliability of its Russian rocket mean a lift-off is now unlikely before February.

On picture: Goce has fins to keep it stable as it flies through whisps of air.

It is a frustrating delay for the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (Goce). The satellite was already two years behind schedule when it was sent to the launch pad because engineers had to work through immense technical difficulties in building it. The super-sleek spacecraft was due to go into orbit on a modified intercontinental ballistic missile, known at the Rockot, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia in the spring. It was held on the ground while an investigation was undertaken into the performance of a different, failed rocket system that shared key components.

By Jonathan Amos http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7592689.stm

Large Hadron Collider

Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

The most powerful physics experiment ever built, the Large Hadron Collider will re-create the conditions just after the Big Bang in an attempt to answer fundamental questions of science and the universe itself.

Find out more about the LHC with this BBC News guide, starting at the top of the page with an introduction from Science Correspondent David Shukman. You can then explore key elements of the experiment using the links above.

They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with cataclysmic force.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

The first - clockwise - beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST. The second - anti-clockwise - beam successfully circled the ring after 1400 BST.

So far, all the beams have been stopped, or "dumped", after just a few circuits.

On Thursday, engineers hoped to inject clockwise and anti-clockwise protons again, but this time they plan to "close the orbit", letting the beams run continuously for a few seconds each.

The BBC understands that low-energy collisions could happen in the next few days. This will allow engineers to calibrate instruments, but will not produce data of scientific interest.

"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap. There were cheers in the control room when engineers heard of the successful test.

from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7604293.stm

About Great Ideas

There is nothing more powerful than an idea. Except for an idea put into action.

There's more than one way to nurture an idea until it bears fruit.

No one way is going to work best for all ideas, but here's a general scheme to frame your efforts:

1. Look at your idea. Observe it from different perspectives and angles.
2. Take your idea apart. Use different approaches. Try looking at each part as a separate idea.
3. Add to/remove from your idea. Your idea should be complete, but not overdone.
4. Modify/Substitute parts. Find out which works best.
5. Put the parts together. Use different designs and orderings.
6. Combine ideas together. In different ways.
7. Use your idea. Adapt it for a special purpose. Maybe some new ideas will occur to you.

Ariane 5 - Two more telecommunications satellites launched

Yesterday evening, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, in French Guiana, on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbits.

Lift-off of flight V184 took place at 23:47 CEST/Paris on 7 July (21:47 UTC/GMT; 18:47 UTC-3/Kourou). The satellites were accurately injected into the correct transfer orbits about 30 minutes later.

The payload comprised ProtoStar I, which will provide K-band/C-band relay capacity over Asia, and Badr-6, which will provide video broadcasting services for the Middle East and North Africa. The payload mass was 8639 kg; the satellite masses totalled 7537 kg, with payload adapters and dispensers making up the additional 1102 kg.

This fourth launch of the year keeps Arianespace and Europe's Spaceport on target for the seven missions planned for 2008 - the busiest year ever for Ariane 5.

Flight timeline
The Ariane 5's cryogenic, liquid fuelled main engine was ignited first. Seven seconds later, the solid fuel rocket boosters were also fired, and a fraction of a second after that, the launch vehicle lifted off.

The solid boosters were jettisoned 2 min: 20 sec after main engine ignition, and the fairing protecting the payload during the climb through the Earth's atmosphere was discarded at 3 min: 15 sec. The launcher's main engine was shut down at 8 min: 57 sec; five seconds later the main cryogenic stage separated from the upper stage and its payload.

Five seconds after main stage separation, the engine of the launcher's cryogenic upper stage was ignited to continue the journey. The upper stage engine was shut down at 24 min: 48 sec into the flight, at which point the launch vehicle was travelling at 9370 metres per second (just over 33 700 km/h) at an altitude of 640 kilometres and the conditions for geostationary transfer orbit injection had been achieved.

At 27 min: 34 sec after main engine ignition, ProtoStar I separated from the launcher's upper stage, followed by Badr-6 at 35 min: 35 sec.

Next launch
The Ariane 5 ECA for flight V185 has been delivered to Kourou and is being prepared in the Launcher Integration Building. Flight V185 will launch SuperBird-7 and AMC 21 into geostationary transfer orbits at the beginning of August 2008.

Ariane 5 ECA
Ariane 5 ECA is the latest version of the Ariane 5 launcher. It is designed to place payloads weighing up to 9.6 tonnes into geostationary transfer orbit. With its increased capacity, Ariane 5 ECA can handle dual launches of very large satellites.

From: http://www.esa.int

World Wide Telescope

Twirling galaxies, exotic nebulae and exploding stars are now just a mouse click away for amateur astronomers.

Microsoft has launched WorldWide Telescope, a free tool that stitches together images from some of the best ground- and space-based telescopes.

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. Feel free at any time to pause the tour, explore on your own (with multiple information sources for objects at your fingertips), and rejoin the tour where you left off. Join Harvard Astronomer Alyssa Goodman on a journey showing how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets. Take a tour with University of Chicago Cosmologist Mike Gladders two billion years into the past to see a gravitational lens bending the light from galaxies allowing you to see billions more years into the past.

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance Visual Experience Engine™ and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments. View the sky from multiple wavelengths: See the x-ray view of the sky and zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then crossfade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen Alpha view to see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide Telescope. Seamlessly pan and zoom from aerial views of the Moon and selected planets, as well as see their precise positions in the sky from any location on Earth and any time in the past or future with the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine.

WWT is a single rich application portal that blends terabytes of images, information, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience. Kids of all ages will feel empowered to explore and understand the universe with its simple and powerful user interface.

Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to the memory of Jim Gray and is releasing WWT as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe like never before.

How do you start exploring? Click the top of the Guided Tours tab and then click the Welcome thumbnail to watch a guided tour showing you how to navigate in WWT. Or click a link to read more: WWT in Depth
Site: World Wide Telescope