Topic: Space, Science and Tech stories. A bit of a mish mash.

[Nemesis]

Use the included links to read the full stories.

Link to story 1

NASA Gives OK to Fix Hubble Telescope

Aug. 10, 2004 ? NASA engineers got the thumbs up on Monday to start planning a robotic mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope.

Link to story 2

Hubble sights Milky Way's 'twin'

A stunning image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a galaxy that looks like a twin of our own.

NGC 3949 is a large spiral galaxy and, in astronomical terms at least, is relatively nearby at around 50 million light-years away from Earth.

Link to story 3

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter In Final Assembly

Pasadena (JPL) Aug 10, 2004
With one very busy year remaining before launch, the team preparing NASA's next mission to Mars has begun integrating and testing the spacecraft's versatile payload. Possible launch dates from Cape Canaveral, Fla., for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter begin Aug. 10, 2005. The spacecraft will reach Mars seven months later to study the surface, subsurface and atmosphere with the most powerful instrument suite ever flown to the red planet.

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a quantum leap in our spacecraft and instrument capabilities at Mars," said James Graf, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"Weighing 2,180 kilograms [4,806 pounds] at launch, the spacecraft will be the largest ever to orbit Mars. The data rate from the orbiter at Mars back to Earth will be three times faster than a high-speed residential telephone line. This rate will enable us to return a tremendous amount of data and dramatically increase our understanding of this mysterious planet."

Link to story 4

NASA Solar Sail Propulsion Team Successfully Deploys Two Solar Sail Systems

Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 10, 2004
NASA's Solar Sail Propulsion Team and industry partners have successfully deployed two 10-meter solar sails in a vacuum environment - a critical milestone in development of the unique propulsion technology that could enable future deep space missions. Solar sail propulsion uses the Sun's energy to travel through space. The work is led by the In-Space Propulsion Technology Projects Office at the Marshall Center.

NASA engineers and their industry partners have successfully deployed two solar sails - each nearly 33 feet in length along one side - reaching a critical milestone in the development of a unique propulsion technology that could enable future deep space missions.

Link to story 5

First space test for solar sailing

A delicate material that could let spacecraft reach distant planets by harnessing the Sun's rays has been unfurled successfully in space for the first time.

The Japanese Institute of Space Astronautical Science tested two solar sail deployments launched aboard an S-310 rocket on 9 August. It is the first time a solar sail deployment has ever been tested in space.

By reflecting photons from Sun, the metallic solar sails should theoretically receive momentum in the opposite direction to propel a spacecraft forward. By gliding along, building up ever more speed, spacecraft should be able to reach distant space targets in record time.

But finding a material that can be unfurled to cover a large area while remaining lightweight and sturdy enough has proven difficult. The designs tested by the Japanese space agency employed a reflective polyimide resin only 0.0075 millimetres thick.

Link to story 6

Earth to disappear from alien radar

The Earth is gradually vanishing from the view of any aliens that might be looking for us, because we are using fewer technologies that leak radio waves into space.

This is the view of one of the pioneers of the SETI project (that stands for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, in case you just crash landed), Frank Drake.

His remarks cast doubt over the current search methods employed by SETI in their hunt for little green men, but, he says, also suggest a reason for the deafening silence out there.

Link to story 7

Hikers help spread sudden oak death

Researchers have confirmed suspicions that trail users such as hikers and mountain bikers are helping to spread a disease that is devastating Californian forests.

The researchers found the pathogen causing sudden oak death was prevalent along trails through otherwise uninfected forests, but almost absent in soil samples taken two metres away from the trail.

They also found that the disease was more widespread in parks heavily used for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding than in less-visited areas. Previous work has shown that people can carry the pathogen on their shoes, but this is the first study to provide evidence of the consequences.

Link to story 8

Allergy vaccine hopes get boost

Medical researchers have obtained promising results from a trial of a genetically-engineered allergy vaccine.

During the trial, conducted in Austria, Sweden and France, the vaccine significantly reduced peoples' allergic response to pollen.

The team says it is already developing further GM vaccines to combat other allergies.

The research is reported in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It is estimated that around a quarter of the world's population is allergic to something. Some allergies, such as asthma, can be life-threatening.

They are caused by the body's immune system over-reacting to a substance which is in fact harmless.

[J. Carney]

Excelent posts!

I especially like the fact that they are going to fix the Hubble. I said once that we need to fix it till it is ready to fall out of the sky and then drag it to the moon and ground-mount it on the dark side!

[Iceman]

The gravity would probably mess the lens. That is why it's in space.

[S'Raek]

Thanks, Nemisis, some good stories in there.  I the Mars story and the ones on the solar sail.  Good stuff. 

[J. Carney]

The gravity would probably mess the lens. That is why it's in space.

Actually ZERO-G messed up the lens.

We ground it with gravity pulling down on it; when it went up, the loss of gravity is what caused it to go out of focus- if I got the story straight. That is why it needed glasses.