Planets' movement can set off tremors: Study

Scientists have discovered that even faint gravitational tug of the sun and moon can set off tremors deep underground, confirming the thousands of years old belief of astrologers.

The American researchers, who studied the San Andreas Fault - the infamous crack in the ground which triggered the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, found the same gravitational tugs that create tides, also trigger small tremors that originate around 15 miles below the ground.

The report, which will come in print in journal Nature, said, although the pull of planetary objects is too weak to set off a full blown quake but the findings suggest that they could set in motion a chain of events, leading to devastation on the surface, the Daily Mail said.

Dr Roland Burgmann, a professor of earth and planetary science at University of California, Berkeley, said: "Tremors seem to be extremely sensitive to minute stress changes".

"Seismic waves from the other side of the planet triggered tremors off the coast of Washington state after the Sumatra earthquake last year, while the Denali earthquake in 2002 triggered tremors on a number of faults in California," Burgmann said.

"Now we also see that tides - the daily lunar and solar tides - very strongly modulate tremors".

American earthquake experts compared records of 2,000 small tremors in the Parkfield region 170 miles north west of Los Angeles with the movement of the sun and moon over eight years.

US rocket ready to crash into moon

A US rocket is to crash into the moon on Friday in an experiment scientists hope will provide data about ice hidden in the perpetually dark lunar craters.

Astronomers around the world are prepared to capture the impact of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon's Caebus crater at 1130 GMT. The rocket will deliberately crash into the moon, kicking up a plume of dust that scientists hope to analyse for traces of water that they believe are abundant in the cold, shadowy craters.http://www.hindustantimes.com/images/edstoryimg/moon.jpg

The impact is designed to mimic that of the large, natural asteroids that slam into the moon several times a month. The probe belonging to the US space agency NASA is targeting a 100-km wide, 4-kilometre deep crater and is timed to strike when lighting conditions are ideal for observing the impact. The 585-km craft will hit the moon at about 9,000 kilometres per hour creating at impact crater about 2 metres deep.

Despite the concerns of some naysayers in the blogosphere, the moon will not be harmed by the event. "The impact has about a million times less impact on the moon than a passenger's eyelash falling to the floor of a 747 during flight," said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager.

The total event - from impact until the dust settles - will last just 120 seconds, but scientists say the experiment will produce valuable information to be collected on nine instruments, including five cameras that capture images in colour, thermal and near-infrared images.

Simultaneously, the companion Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite now circling the moon, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and terrestrial telescopes, will capture images of the impact. The composition of the material kicked up by theimpact will help scientists deduce whether water is present.

When seen from the ground with an amateur telescope, the dust cloud will amount to a dim shimmer across a shadow adjacent to the crater. NASA says the best way to watch is at the parties being hosted by astronomy societies or online at the NASA website.

Data from three deep-space missions late last month revealed that there are small, but widespread amounts of water across the entire surface of the moon. That announcement is seen as complementing, not preempting, the LCROSS mission.

Astronomers said before the impact that new data from $79-millionLCROSS mission will complement the earlier findings because water is believed to be much more abundant in the craters. The findings could aid future manned missions to the moon, which could

establish long-term outposts.

NASA scientists said that it is possible for frozen water to have remained in the moon's craters for billions of years, because the bottoms of the craters are never reached by sunlight and protect any ice from evaporation into the thin lunar atmosphere.

NASA to bomb Moon in search for water

Just weeks after ISRO and NASA announced discovery of evidence of water on the lunar surface, the US Space agency is all set to bomb the Moon tomorrow in search for hidden water in a controversial mission.

Scientists will see two spacecraft slamming into the moon's south pole at 9,000 kmph kicking up a 10-km-high shower of debris that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hopes will confirm the presence of enough water necessary to supply future visits by astronauts.

Amateur astronomers in parts of the world may be able to view the impact through a telescope; for everyone else, the crash will be broadcast live on the NASA website along with early pictures of the lunar dust cloud during the dramatic mission. Within an hour of the impact, scientists will know whether water was hiding there or not.

The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) announced last month that the country's first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-I found evidence of water on the moon within a month after it was launched in October last year to make the first such discovery. NASA had also announced last month that it found evidence of water.

The crashing spaceship was launched in June along with an orbiter that is now mapping the lunar surface. LCROSS, short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross, is on a collision course with the moon, attached to an empty 2.2-tonne rocket that helped get the probe off the ground.

NASA is carrying out this mission to see if any water, ice or vapour is revealed in the cloud of debris. Discovering sub-surface ice is important because the ice could be used as a source of water for efforts to build a colony on the moon’s surface.

The mission itself continues to be controversial.

Questions have been raised as to whether the crash-landing on the moon was necessary for science or will it be worth the damage done to the moon. Critics say the bombing mission interferes with natural forces.

But NASA says the bombing isn’t an act of hostility and it’s all part of our search for water in space.

According to reports, the spacecraft will hit that part of the moon where scientists believe billions of tonnes of trapped ice may be held.

In the early hours of Friday(GMT) LCROSS and its empty rocket will separate. At 1131 GMT(1701) the larger empty rocket will crash into a permanently dark crater and kick up a 6.2 mile high spray of debris. Railing just behind that rocket is the LCROSS satellite itself, beaming back to Earth live pictures of the impact and the debris plume using colour cameras.

It will scour for ice, fly through the debris cloud and then just four minutes later take the fatal plunge itself, triggering a dust storm one-third the size of the first hit.
The mission is a set-the-stage venture dreamed up by the NASA office that has been working on a 75 billion dollars plan to eventually return astronauts to the moon.

The two spaceships will smash into the moon at 9,000 km per hour, more than seven times the speed of sound. The explosion will have the force of 1.5 tonnes of TNT and throw 350,000 kgs of lunar dirt out of the crater. It will create a new crater inside an old one about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

UAE launches its first earth observation Satellite

The DubaiSat-1, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first earth observation satellite launched early on Thursday morning from Kazakhstan, has reached its desired position in the earth's orbit, WAM news agency reported.

The 'eye in the sky' satellite has achieved optimal position in orbit around the earth and has successfully connected with the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) earth observation station in Dubai, the report said, quoting officials.

"With the blessing of Allah, the launch process was completely successful, and DubaiSat-1 is now carrying the UAE's flag into space," said a jubilant Ahmed Al Mansoori, director general of EIAST.

"DubaiSat-1 is undoubtedly a sterling addition to the UAE's strategic accomplishments and what we have achieved so far can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of our national engineers and scientists," he said.

Comparing the achievement with the moon landing, Al Mansoori said: "While the moon landing was a huge leap for humanity, DubaiSat-1 is a huge leap for the UAE's science and technology initiatives, and for our nation's aspirations."

"The satellite will orbit 680 km above the earth with an orbital speed of 27,000 km per hour," he added.

The satellite was launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonour launching ground at 10:40 pm (UAE time) on Wednesday under the supervision of UAE engineers and scientists, who are responsible for more than a third of the project's implementation.

The EIAST confirmed that scientists at the Dubai earth observation station were able to stabilize DubaiSat-1 in its desired position and deployed its solar panels, which will power the satellite for the next five years.

The EIAST will organise a press conference on August 4 to inform the details of the progress and functioning of the satellite.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN SPACE SHIP

If 'N Sync singer Lance Bass almost became a space tourist, why can't you? Piers Bizony, a pop-science vet who's written about Mars and the tyrannical 1960s NASA administrator James E. Webb, draws a user-friendly map of the shifting terrain of post-Apollo, post-Challenger space travel in "How to Build Your Own Spaceship."

The first chapter of private space travel is already being written, wherein entrepreneurs will launch themselves and others into space. The pioneers are mostly uber-rich, such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (who's building a reusable spaceship) and Budget America hotel magnate Robert Bigelow (who has successfully tested an unmanned, orbiting suite). Bizony believes that you, the uninitiated reader, can "come up with a business scheme that can actually make space profitable," and he takes you deep into what's needed. But his lesson plan soon collapses under the weight of discussions of SSTO spacecraft, LOX vs. hypergolic fuels and, well, rocket science. Even though the unwashed masses with bank accounts under nine figures may not become aeronautical big boys in the way Bizony envisions, they can at least read about the final frontier in a book that sparkles with unquenchable enthusiasm.

Moon Footprints on Earth

One night, 40 years ago, a 12-year-old boy in Peru watched on a black and white television screen grainy, yet riveting, images of a man planting the first human footprints on another world.

Minutes after he had watched the images of Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, Pedro Medelius, a native of Lima, told his parents that when he grew up, he would like to be a scientist at Nasa.

Medelius today recalled the incident and his parents’ words — “well, you’ll have to work very hard to get there”. “They did not appear convinced, but they were supportive,” he said in an interview to The Telegraph.

He studied electrical engineering in Peru and in the University of Florida, and joined the Nasa Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in 1991 where he joined a team of engineers working on the electronics of the Space Shuttle.

On Monday, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Medelius will be at work, but expects a ceremony. There will also be a celebration at home — his daughter, Marie, who was born on the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing — turns 15 this Monday.

The Apollo missions have thrown up myriad technology spinoffs — from ready-to-eat, freeze-dried foods to athletic shoes, from water purification systems to special insulating materials used in homes and industries.

But in addition to spawning such tangible, quantifiable technology offshoots, the first human stroll on the moon also appears to have inspired a generation of youngsters to pursue careers in science and engineering.

“The excitement that human space flight generates is as important as technology spinoffs,” Medelius, who has received a prestigious Nasa Silver Snoopy Award for service to the Space Shuttle astronauts, said over phone.

“Kids need to get excited about science — in the long run, this benefits all of society,” said Medelius who was commended in October 1996 for “highly imaginative engineering” that helped improve space shuttle safety and reduced operating costs.

An online survey of about 800 scientists worldwide who have published research papers in the journal Nature over the past three years has revealed that half of them had been drawn to science by the Apollo missions.

High school students who watched the Apollo missions veered not just towards astronomy or planetary sciences but even towards life sciences and — like Medelius in Peru — engineering.

“I am sure (the landing) played an important role in driving me into electronic space business that I manage today at Texas Instruments,” said semiconductor expert James Salzmann, inscribing his thoughts on a special webpage containing recollections of the Apollo 11 landing created by Space Foundation, a US-based, non-profit organisation.

The Nature survey results published on Friday show that 90 per cent of the scientists believe human spaceflight has prompted technological innovations.

The Apollo missions have produced spinoffs that have made their way into everyday life -- lightweight water purifiers based on silver ions, and a super-durable athletic shoe where the foam was dumped in favour of a fatigue-resistant mechanical system.

The challenge of packing enough nutritious food into the cramped living quarters of the Apollo spacecraft spurred the development of freeze-dried foods that preserve the nutritional value and taste but are lightweight and have a long shelf life.

Two Indian laboratories -- the Central Food and Technology Research Institute and the Defence Food Research Laboratory -- independently developed this technology during the 1980s for subcontinental dishes -- dal to biryanis to chicken chettinad.

Indian polish on moonwalk - A lunar success abroad & an eclipse at Home

When the world sees what caused Neil Armstrong to commit a grammatical gaffe when he uttered those now-famous words after helping mankind take a giant leap with his moonwalk, an Indian company will claim credit for making man’s first steps, and a stumble, discernible.

A subsidiary of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has digitally enhanced the dark and fuzzy TV images of Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin toddling on the moon 40 years ago.

The result has revealed the gaffe more clearly: Armstrong’s famous “one small step” was actually a stumble. In the nervous moment when the astronaut became the first to set foot on the moon, he forgot to say “a” before “man”.

Lowry Digital, a Hollywood-based subsidiary of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company Adlabs Films, has done the enhancement work. Lowry has completed the initial phase of the restoration of the 150-minute footage beamed to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) from Apollo 11, which includes 15 sequences.

The enhanced footage now shows the clear outline of Armstrong’s spacesuit and helmet, a sharp improvement over the murky blob of the original. Aldrin, who followed Armstrong down, is seen making a two-footed jump off the module.

“We are honoured to have been selected by Nasa to handle the restoration of this historic footage,” said Adlabs Films chief executive Anil Arjun.

Nasa got together all the initial nine astronauts shortlisted for the moon project and released parts of the restored film in Washington yesterday.