Giant Propeller Structures Seen in Saturn's Rings

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on Thursday, July 8, 2010 that giant propeller-shaped structures have been discovered in Saturn's rings.  NASA believes the structures were created by a new class of hidden moons.

The propeller-shaped structures were located by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.  The structures are located inside one the debris disk rings on the planet and are several thousands of miles long.  This discovery marks the first time scientists have been able to track the orbits of individual objects within a debris disk.  Researchers are hoping to learn how the structures form to give them more insight into the debris disks around other stars as well.

This isn't the first time propeller-like structures have been found in Saturn's rings.  In 2006 an area known as the "propeller belt" was found to be located in Saturn's A ring, its outermost ring.

The structures are gaps in the ring material created by "moonlets" a new class of objects smaller than known moons but larger than the debris particles that make up Saturn's rings.  Cassini scientists estimate the moonlets could number into the millions.

For more information and to see a photo of the propeller-shaped structures, click here.

President Barack Obama's Vision for NASA: Is it the Doom of US Space Exploration or a Misunderstanding?

There has been a great deal of talk about the plans the Obama administration has for NASA since those plans were announced earlier in the year.  Some feel that the current administration has all but taken the United States out of the business of space exploration.  Just what is the truth about the future of NASA?  Has President Obama sealed its fate or is it just one big misunderstanding?

Leaders at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have recently put together an FAQ about the direction the organization is now headed under the current administration.  They've answered some questions by offering further information to clear up some of the misconceptions about the future of the space program.  NASA would like for the public to focus more on the new directions of the organization, such as their plans to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 than on the furor surrounding the Obama administrations plans for NASA.

Is the Space Program Dead in the Water?
According to Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and member of the Augustine committee, the new administration didn't come in and kill the space program despite what is commonly being said.  Chiao feels that NASA is getting a slight bump from the Obama administration instead.  In 2010 the annual budget for the space administration was $18.3 billion.  The new plan has set aside $19 billion for 2011.  While that isn't a large increase, it isn't a cut, either.

Fmr. Astronaut & US Senator John Glenn: America Should Continue Flying Its Shuttles

On Monday, June 21, 2010, John Glenn released an eight-page open letter expressing his concerns about the future of the American space program.

According to Glenn, the United States shouldn't retire its fleet of Space Shuttles but instead continue flying them.  The shuttle fleet is scheduled to be fully retired either at the end of this year or early next year.  When that happens, the United States will be left without its own source of travel to and from the International Space Station for a very long time.

Glenn believes that the current shuttles are capable of continuing space flight carrying American astronauts into space and delivering astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station rather than the United States relying on, and paying, the Soviet Union to perform those tasks.  When the shuttle fleet retires, American astronauts will be hitching rides on the Soviet Soyuz for a fee.  Glenn believes the United States will spend almost as much paying the Soviets as they would sending their own vessels into space.

Space Shuttle Atlantis Finishes Final Flight

After 120 million miles, 25 years, 32 flights, 294 days in orbit 4,648 times circling the Earth, 189 astronaut passengers, 7 flights to Russia's Mir Station, 1 flight to the Hubble Space Telescope and 11 visits to the International Space Station, Atlantis, the fourth to fly in NASA's shuttle series, has finished its last flight.

While Atlantis might look old and worn out to the average eye, the trained eyes of NASA engineers believe the shuttle is still in its prime and could make at least one more flight. 

Twelve hundred guests stood by at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 26, 2010 to watch Atlantis gracefully touch down for the final time ending its 12-day journey to the space station.

Atlantis if the first of three shuttles going into retirement to eventually find homes in museums.  Discovery and Endeavour will be making one more flight each then they will join Atlantis in retirement.  Discovery is slated to fly in September and Endeavour in November.  Once the three shuttles have retired, the entire shuttle fleet will have retired.  Atlantis will be on stand-by as a rescue ship for the last shuttle flight then be moved to a museum.  It is possible Atlantis might be able to make one final supply run to the space station next summer provided no rescue mission is needed for Endeavour's flight.

By the end of June or July NASA officials should have decided which museum(s) Atlantis and Endeavour will eventually call home.  Discovery is headed to the Smithsonian Institution.

For more information:

NASA
USA Today Article
MSNBC.com Article

Massive NASA Space Balloon Crashes in Australia

A giant 400-foot (121-meter) balloon belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) crashed into the Australian outback on Thursday, April 29, 2010. The balloon was loaded with a telescope that had been built to scan the sky at wavelengths invisible to the human eye. the balloon crashed just after the balloon was beginning to lift its payload. It crashed through a fence, overturned a nearby SUV and narrowly missed another parked car containing an Alice Springs couple watching the launch. The equipment carried by the balloon was destroyed.

The launch of the balloon and telescope occurred at the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Center in the northern territory of Australia.

The telescope being carried by the balloon was a Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT), a gamma-ray telescope built by astronomer Steven Boggs and his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley. The telescope took the team of scientists years to build. Some of the NCT components appear to have survived the crash relatively intact.

Had the launch gone off without a hitch, the balloon would have climbed to an altitude of approximately 23 miles (37 kilometers). This was the second NASA balloon campaign this month in the Australian territory. The first experiment, which happened on April 15, 2010, was a launch of a Tracking and Imaging Gamma Ray Experiment, a gamma-ray telescope, for searching the galactic center of the sky for emissions from radioactive materials. That launch went according to plan.

The crash site has been cleaned up and the wreckage returned to a staging hangar. The crash is being investigated. The balloon was unmanned and no one was injured as a result of the crash.

Australian officials have announced another balloon payload, an X-ray telescope named HERO for mapping the galactic center for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in May of this year.

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an Executive Branch agency of the United States government. It's duties include aeronautics and aerospace research and the United States space program. The mission statement of NASA is to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." It was established on July 29, 1985 and became fully operational on October 1, 1958. It employs almost 18,000 individuals with an annual budget of almost 18 billion US dollars. It is is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 18 centers, stations and facilities in the United States and one station each in Canberra, Australia and Madrid, Spain.

For more information on NASA visit their official web site.