Comet #ISON: Will the Government Shutdown Ruin #NASA's Big Chance?

from policymic.com: On October 1, the comet ISON will pass near Mars, where monitoring equipment can gain more information on what could be the comet of the century. As long as the coincidental government shutdown causing the furlough of nearly the entire workforce of NASA doesn't interrupt these observations, that is.

'Supermoon' Science: Biggest Full Moon of 2013 Explained

from space.com: There is more to a "supermoon" than meets the eye.
 
Science governs the appearance of the largest full moon of the year, and this weekend you can check out the amazing lunar sight for yourself.

On Sunday (June 23), the moon will be at its closest point to Earth — called perigee. This relatively close brush will happen as the moon enters its fullest phase, creating the cosmic coincidence known as the supermoon. At its fullest and closest, the moon will appear about 12 percent larger in the sky.

"It doesn't matter where you are, the full moon you're seeing will be the biggest for 2013," Michelle Thaller, the assistant director of science at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said. "… That 12 percent size different can mean as much as a 30 percent change in the brightness, so this will be a particularly bright supermoon."

Related:
Supermoon Sunday: Don't miss tomorrow evening's phenomenon

NASA taps 3-D printer firm for ‘Star Trek’-style food replicator

from rawstory.com: U.S. space agency NASA has tapped 3-D printer firm Systems & Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) to create the first-ever “Star Trek”-style food replicator using 3-D printing technology.
 
According to Quartz, NASA gave the company a six month, $125,000 grant contract to focus on developing 3-D printers that use cartridges full of carbohydrates, protein powders and oils that can be combined in layers to produce food.

The tech could dramatically cut down on food waste here on Earth while making it much easier to transport nutrients in bulk through space. Grocery stores could be gradually transformed to ultra-cheap cartridge retailers while non-nutrient edible products are phased out by market forces. 

Of course, that’s all a radical, highly speculative version of the future, but it’s what SMRC mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor envisions for 3-D printed foods. He’s already successfully used a 3-D printer to spit out chocolate bars; an admittedly rudimentary accomplishment. 

One day, however, more advanced printers could be used to customize nutrition for individuals, and whole meals could be downloaded over the Internet. But that’s all still fantasy until SMRC, or some other company, steps up to fill this void that most people don’t even know exists.

Biggest meteor hits Moon

from ITwire.com: The U.S. space agency NASA has been watching the Moon for about eight years, looking for signs of meteoroids hitting the lunar surface.
 
The results show that hundreds of recorded impacts occur each year. However, the biggest one ever recorded occurred on March 17th.

Bill Cooke, of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA, stated, “On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium. It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before."

According to the March 17, 2013 NASA article Bright Explosion on the Moon, the impact was viewable by anyone who happened to be looking at the Moon at the time of the explosion. Binoculars or telescopes were not needed, only naked eye observations. 

The impact site appeared to be as bright as a 4th magnitude star for a moment when the 0.98- to 1.3-foot (0.3- to 0.4-meter), in width, 88-pound (40-kilogram), in mass, meteor hit the Moon going about 56,000 miles (90,000 kilometer) per hour. NASA stated that the explosion “packed as much punch as 5 tons of TNT.”

Cooke added that “… NASA and University of Western Ontario all-sky cameras picked up an unusual number of deep-penetrating meteors right here on Earth. These fireballs were traveling along nearly identical orbits between Earth and the asteroid belt."

NASA contends that this meteor that hit the Moon and other meteors hit both the Earth and the Moon at about the same time.

For more on the story, please read the May 17, 2013 National Geographic article “NASA Announces Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever Recorded”.

Secret Space Vol. 1

Chris Everard produced and narrated informative "Secret Space". "From the late 1940s onwards, an unholy alliance of O.T.O devotees, NAZIs and senior 33rd degree Freemasons dupe the American taxpayer of billions of dollars and fake several moon missions in order to further their work on secret 'black budget' operations -- a series of secret space programmes designing space vehicles and weapons systems to thwart attacks by alien craft... For the first time on film we see the 'Baby Shuttle' -- a small space shuttle which fits inside the payload of the existing space shuttle and is then released into outer space for covert operations...It sounds incredible -- but Secret Space contains a wealth of documents, photos and footage which proves that all this and more has come to pass. Secret Space exposes the fact that nearly all the first American astronauts into space were high ranking 32 and 33rd degree Freemasons. And that the brother of one of the Apollo Mission managers was appointed Sovereign Grand Commander of all Freemasons in America as a 'thankyou' for engineering the fake Apollo moonshots of 1969," informs You Tube summary. Everard takes you where you've not gone before - the occult side of space program.

Earth's Missing Moon

NASA Grail Mission data results in speculative theory of a second Earth satellite. The Daily Galaxy article, "Earth's Missing Moon -- NASA: 'May Explain a Long-Standing Enigma'," reflects an interest maintained in theory:

"According to recent scientific speculation, the Earth once had two moons gracing our night skies. 'It's an intriguing idea,' said David Smith, GRAIL's deputy principal investigator at MIT. 'And it would be a way to explain one of the great perplexities of the Earth-Moon system – the Moon's strangely asymmetrical nature. Its near and far sides are substantially different.' The Moon's near side, facing us, is dominated by vast smooth 'seas' of ancient hardened lava. In contrast, the far side is marked by mountainous highlands. Researchers have long struggled to account for the differences, and the 'two moon' theory introduced by Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz is the latest attempt."

Two moons may account for the data but remains theory, nonetheless, an interesting one. Cyber/space\war first covered speculation on a second moon, last year.

To The Moon? Firm Hopes To Sell $1.5 Billion Trips

from foxnews.com: A team of former NASA executives is launching a private venture to send people to the moon for a price that is definitely out of this world. For $1.5 billion, the newly formed business is offering countries a two-person trip to the moon, either for research or national prestige. The venture was announced Wednesday. NASA's last trip to the moon was 40 years ago. The United States was the only country that landed people there, beating the Soviet Union in a space race to the moon that transfixed the world. But once the race ended, there has been only sporadic interest in the moon. President Barack Obama cancelled NASA's planned return to the moon, saying America had already been there. But the firm has talked to other countries, which are showing interest in going, said former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern, who is president of the new Golden Spike Company. Stern said he's looking at countries like South Africa, South Korea, and Japan. "It's not about being first. It's about joining the club," Stern said. "We're kind of cleaning up what NASA did in the 1960s. We're going to make a commodity of it in the 2020s."

Fermi Measures Cosmic 'Fog' Produced by Ancient Starlight

from spacedaily.com: Astronomers using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have made the most accurate measurement of starlight in the universe and used it to establish the total amount of light from all of the stars that have ever shone, accomplishing a primary mission goal.

"The optical and ultraviolet light from stars continues to travel throughout the universe even after the stars cease to shine, and this creates a fossil radiation field we can explore using gamma rays from distant sources," said lead scientist Marco Ajello, a postdoctoral researcher at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University in California and the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.

Gamma rays are the most energetic form of light. Since Fermi's launch in 2008, its Large Area Telescope (LAT) observes the entire sky in high-energy gamma rays every three hours, creating the most detailed map of the universe ever known at these energies.

Auroras Treat Viewers On Oct 8th, 2012

NASA website reports: "...coronal mass ejection [CME] that erupted from the sun on Oct. 4, 2012 at 11:24 p.m. EDT arrived at Earth on Oct. 8 at 12:30 a.m. EDT, as observed by instruments aboard NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft."  CME caused geomagnetic storms when it reached Earth's magnetosphere, resulting in Auroras. A description of Auroral mechanism at Wikipedia provides interesting details on different colors.  Ray McKenzie captured image (picture) of awe-inspiring Aurora in early hours of Oct 8, 2012 in the skies over Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  More stunning Auroras captured for your viewing pleasure at Universe Today!

#DataDump: Inception, Recognition, Space Sugar and more

Researchers Hack Brainwaves to Reveal PIN Numbers, Personal Data*
Inception helmet creates alternative reality*
Twitter Fights Back to Protect 'Occupy Wall Street' Protestor*
Russia’s Former Spooks Invest In Social Networking Propaganda Bots*
FBI to Share Facial Recognition Software with States*
Dotcom’s Frozen Funds Partially Thawed by New Zealand Court*
Wiper Malware That Hit Iran Left Possible Clues of Its Origins*
Toyota Contractor Accused of Sabotaging Company Network, Stealing Data*
Qatari Gas Company Hit with Virus in Wave of Attacks Targeting Energy Companies*
EFF Sues to Get Secret Court Rulings Showing Feds Violated Spy Law*
Storms spoil NASA second bid to launch satellites to Earth's radiation belts; next try Sunday*
UK Govt. Employee Arrested for Downloading Surveillance Footage of Couple Having Sex*
Topless UFO Enthusiasts Return to the White House Sunday*
Sugar Found In Space: A Sign of Life? ... floating in the gas around a star some 400 light-years away*

Will.i.am's New Single Debuts On #Mars

Establishment Shill Rewarded for #Obamessiah, #ClimateControl Work*
from latimesblogs.latimes.com: For will.i.am, what started as a fascination with space turned into a history-making song that was transmitted earlier this week from the Mars rover Curiosity... Times Science Writer Amina Khan discussed how will.i.am came to write the song and how NASA came to use the music as part of the Mars mission. “There’s no words to explain how amazing this is,” the singer, of Black Eyed Peas fame, said to the gathered audience, standing on stage with NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, the agency’s associate administrator for education. The song, called “Reach for the Stars,” was beamed back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where will.i.am took the stage to answer questions from students from Boyle Heights, where he grew up. The song features a 40-piece orchestra and isn’t your standard urban hip-hop anthem, the singer pointed out, because it’s meant to weather the test of time and be easily translated across cultures. “I know that Mars might be far, but baby it ain’t really that far / Let’s reach for the stars (reach for the stars),” will.i.am sings on the track.

#DataDump: #Flame, Blame, Hall of Fame and more

Massive Spy Malware 'Flame' Infiltrating Iranian Computers*

Flame Virus: Who's Behind the World's Most Complicated Espionage Software?*
Viruses More Prevalent On Religious Websites*
Activists Aim To Build A 'Bat-Signal For The Internet'*
Judge Defends Sentence Imposed on Dharun Ravi*
SKorea teens flock online to snitch on pro-North posts*
Computer Lockout Leads To Murder/Suicide*
'Geek In The City' Podcast on First-Person Shooter Video Games*
33 Inducted Into The Internet Hall of Fame*
SpaceX's mission ends with a splashdown in the Pacific*
SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down*
Audio Satire: NASA Shuttle Bus Delayed*

#DataDump: Electronic Curtains, Conflict Minerals and more

NSA Chief Denies, Denies, Denies Wired's Domestic Spying Story:
'NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)'*

Video: Author James Bamford - Inside the NSA's Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center*
Obama: US Will Breach Iran's "Electronic Curtain"*
Exclusive: U.S. dangles secret data for Russia missile shield approval*
Amazon’s $775 Million Acquisition of Kiva Systems Could Shift How Businesses See Robots*
'This American Life' retracts Apple episode, says Daisey fabricated parts*
Teenager arrested for comments made on Facebook page*
The Man With a Plan to Rebuild After the Apocalypse*
Google Wave Says Goodbye With Email Spelling Mistake*
Quintuple rocket launch reset due to weather*
NASA - Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX)*
Use of 'Conflict Minerals' Gets More Scrutiny*
Video: The Scramble For Africa*

1984 Cold War Incident: Soviet Laser Fired Upon Shuttle Challenger

Clark C McClelland, former ScO Space Shuttle Fleet, writes in a chapter from his book Stargate Chronicles: "Terra-3 Soviet Strategic Space Weapon Was Used to Attack U.S.A. Space Shuttle Challenger Spy Mission," about a volatile incident of Cold War era spying that almost ignited World War III! On Oct. 10 1984, Space Shuttle Challenger was engaged in a spy mission to take photos with a large format camera of the Sary Sagan anti-ballistic installation (pictured) near Lake Balkash in Kazakhstan. The Soviet Defense Minister concerned about American spying, ordered Terra-3 laser fired upon the Shuttle! The laser beam caused malfunctions on shuttle and sickened crew members, and resulted, in a formal diplomatic protest. McClelland summarzes Russian response, "the U.S.S.R. recognizing that the order given by their Defense Ministry under the watchful eye of the KGB had caused a very dangerous international incident and quickly responded to the angry United States protest by saying that the response taken by their government was only an action to annoy the crew of the space shuttle during their spy mission over sovereign Soviet territory. It was not meant to harm anyone on board the spacecraft. Of course it wasn’t, yeah, sure!" The former NASA employee also shares opinions on possible sabotage involved in NASA tragedies. You won't see sabotage in the mainstream press, so it's worth the read!

#DataDump: Homeless Hotspots, Phonehacking, Hollywood

Turning the Homeless Into 4G Hotspots at SXSW*

FBI says paying cash for coffee is a sign of terrorist intent*
FBI 'Communities Against Terrorism' Suspicious Activity Reporting Flyers*
New Arrest In UK Phone Hacking Probe*
DARPA’s Director Quits to Take Executive Slot at Google*
Digg's Kevin Rose Will Join Google*
Google Exec Joins Microsoft, Trashes Google*
Europe's Robotic Cargo Ship to Launch to Space Station Next Week*
Could a Nuke Stop an Asteroid After All?*
Video: Straight out of Hollywood: Supercomputer models atomic bomb saving Earth from massive asteroid*
@NASA is scheduled to launch 5 rockets within 5 minutes early morning March 15*
Update: NASA Five Rocket ATREX Mission Rescheduled*
Update: Dharun Ravi found guilty in Rutgers webcam spying trial*

#DataDump: Clash, Collusion, Christina and more

Obama, NSA 'Clash' Over Spying on Private Company Nets*

Collusion for Firefox Shows You Who’s Tracking You on the Web In Real Time*
Collusion :: Add-ons for Firefox*
Google Caught Violating Browser Privacy Settings to Track Users*
Google Once Considered Issuing Digital Currency*
Hackers penetrated NASA computers 13 times last year*
Moon acts as mirror, reflecting telltale signs of life*
Apple hits $500 billion marker*
Foxconn to Raise Salaries for Workers by Up to 25%*
James Murdoch steps down at NI*
Christina Hendricks: My Phone Was HACKED ... But Those Boobs Aren't Mine!*
#Audio #Satire: American Robot's Job Outsourced To Overseas Robot*

NASA laptop theft lead in to Star Wars?

A Daily Galaxy entry titled, "NewsFlash: Star Wars? ---ISS Control Codes on Stolen NASA Laptop," leaves a reader to wonder about its intent?  Yes, laptops are lost almost routinely, but should it be public knowledge some aren't properly encrypted and may have sensitive codes? The entry informs, "...stolen from NASA last year contained command codes used to control the International Space Station, an internal investigation revealed. The laptop was among dozens of mobile devices lost or stolen in recent years that contained sensitive information, the space agency's inspector general told Congress today in testimony highlighting NASA's security challenges." Readers shouldn't take the information at face value. You read a little further down, Jet Propulsion Lab computers were also compromised from IP addresses located in China!  Is the intent to implicate China in a public manner?  Why now, it's suspected, cyber wars have been conducted for years? This entry should be noted and filed away for future reference.

50th Anniversary: John Glenn and Friendship 7 Flight

Astronaut John Glenn is the first American to orbit Earth in the Mercury 6 capsule on February 20, 1962. NASA makes available a video (above) to celebrate the occasion of the 50th anniversary.

Universe Today shares excerpt from Glenn memoir how Mercury 6 acquired nickname of Friendship 7:

“I set about naming the capsule. Al’s (Shepard) Freedom 7 had struck the right note. Gus (Grissom) in Liberty Bell 7, had been inspired by both patriotism and the capsule’s shape. I had several ideas, but I was trying very hard to keep Dave and Lyn (his children) involved and make them feel a part of my mission. I asked them if they would be willing to think about some names...They pored over a thesaurus and wrote dozens of names in a notebook. Then they worked them down to several possibilities, names and words including; Columbia, Endeavour, America, Magellan, we, hope, harmony, and kindness. At the top of the list was their first choice: Friendship. I was so proud of them. They had chosen perfectly.”

You can also read NASA Mercury Project to place event into historical context. Russia had launched successfully, by 1962, two flights into orbit with Yuri Gregarin in April, 1961 and Gherman Titov, who orbited 17 times in August, 1961. The Wikipedia entry communicates sense of importance to event:

"As the first American in orbit, Glenn was celebrated as a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade reminiscent of that given for Charles Lindbergh. His fame and political attributes were noted by the Kennedys, and he became a personal friend of the Kennedy family. On February 23, 1962 President Kennedy escorted him in a parade to Hanger S at Canaveral Air Force station where he awarded Glenn with the NASA service medal."

Fifty years ago, John Glenn blasted off to famous words, "Godspeed, John Glenn."

Related: Search continues for secret John Glenn stamp*

 

NASA's science missions bring the universe into sharper focus

Even as agency struggles with manned flight
from washington post: Life is tough these days at NASA, the space agency that can’t launch anyone into space. It wrestles with basic questions: Where to go? How to get there? When? And for what purpose? But even as NASA goes through this awkward transition in human space flight, the agency has one bright spot: science. NASA’s scientific missions — robotic probes, telescopes, satellites — are bringing Earth, the sun, the solar system and the universe into sharper focus.

Roger Boisjoly, Whistleblower Warned of Challenger Disaster, Dies 73

from nytimes.com: Six months before the space shuttle Challenger exploded over Florida on Jan. 28, 1986, Roger Boisjoly wrote a portentous memo. He warned that if the weather was too cold, seals connecting sections of the shuttle’s huge rocket boosters could fail. “The result could be a catastrophe of the highest order, loss of human life,” he wrote.

The memo was meant to jolt Morton Thiokol, the company that made the boosters and employed Mr. Boisjoly. In July 1985, a task force had been formed, partly on Mr. Boisjoly’s recommendation, to examine the effect of cold on the boosters. The effort, however, had become mired in paperwork, procurement delays and a rush to launch the shuttle, according to later investigations.

Meanwhile, his apprehensions only grew. The night before the Challenger’s liftoff, the temperature dipped below freezing. Unusual for Florida, the cold was unprecedented for a shuttle launching, and it prompted Mr. Boisjoly and other engineers to plead that the flight be postponed. Their bosses, under pressure from NASA, rejected the advice.

The shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launching, killing its seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher from Concord, N.H.

Mr. Boisjoly’s memo was soon made public. He became widely known as a whistle-blower in a federal investigation of the disaster. And though he was hailed for his action by many, he was also made to suffer for it.

Mr. Boisjoly (pronounced like Beaujolais wine) died in Nephi, Utah, near Provo, on Jan. 6. He was 73. His death was reported only locally at the time. He lived in southwest Utah, in St. George. His wife, Roberta, said he recently learned he had cancer in his colon, kidneys and liver.

Related Update: Cancer Claims Janice Voss, Five-Time Shuttle Astronaut*