SPACE: WHERE ARE WE GOING? : MOON-WATER

Sunday, December 23, 2012

MOON-WATER

FROM: U.S. DOD/NASA

The Clementine spacecraft is launched aboard a Titan II missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in this Jan. 25, 1994, file photograph. The recent interpretation of data from the Clementine spacecraft mission, a joint Ballistic Missile Defense Organization/NASA venture, has revealed that deposits of ice could exist in permanently dark regions near the South Pole of the Moon. Initial estimates suggest that the ice deposit area is the size of small lake (60 to 120 thousand cubic meters), and that the lunar crater containing the ice deposit has a depth greater than the height of Mount Everest, and a rim circumference twice the size of Puerto Rico. The discovery of ice on the Moon has enormous implications for the potential return of humans to the Moon's surface and the establishment of a permanent lunar station. The lunar ice could be mined and dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen by electric power provided by solar panels or a nuclear generator, providing both breathable oxygen and potable water for the permanent station on the Moon. Hydrogen and oxygen are also prime components of rocket motor fuel and could potentially result in the establishment of a lunar filling station transport to or from the Moon more economical by at least a factor of ten. The Clementine spacecraft's primary military mission was to qualify lightweight sensor and camera technology for possible application for ballistic missile defense programs, but it also demonstrated a capability for low-cost, high-value space exploration missions. (Released)

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STAR FLASH

What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this had never been seen before -- supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash. In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter. Image Credit: NASA, ESA

THE SPIDERWEB GALAXY

Looking like a spider's web swirled into a spiral, Galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Seen in infrared light, faint starlight gives way to the glowing bright patterns of dust found throughout the galaxy's disk. At a distance of about 10 million light-years, IC 342 is relatively close by galactic standards, however our vantage point places it directly behind the disk of our own Milky Way. The intervening dust makes it difficult to see in visible light, but infrared light penetrates this veil easily. IC 342 belongs to the same group as its even more obscured galactic neighbor, Maffei 2. IC 342 is nearly face-on to our view, giving a clear, top-down view of the structure of its disk. It has a low surface brightness compared to other spirals, indicating a lower density of stars (seen here as a blue haze). Its dust structures show up much more vividly (red). Blue dots are stars closer to us, in our own Milky Way. New stars are forming in the disk at a healthy rate. The very center glows especially brightly in the infrared, highlighting an enormous burst of star formation occurring in this tiny region. To either side of the center, a small bar of dust and gas is helping to fuel this central star formation. Data from Spitzer's infrared array camera are shown in blue (3.6 microns), green (4.5 microns) and red (5.8 and 8.0 microns). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

JUMPING TO WARP SPEED

This cockpit view of a hypothetical spacecraft traveling at eight-tenths the speed of light shows the visual distortions that would be experienced at such high speeds. The star field is actually being wrapped toward the front of the craft in addition to being significantly blue-shifted. NASA Glenn leads the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, NASA's primary effort to produce near-term, credible, and measurable progress toward the technology breakthroughs needed to revolutionize space travel and enable interstellar voyages. NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

OBSERVATION FROM THE SPACE STATION