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NASA’s decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) fell back to Earth between 05h23 and 07h09 CAT on 25 September 2011, 20 years and nine days after its launch on a 14-year mission that produced some of the first long-term records of chemicals in the atmosphere. The precise re-entry time and location of debris impacts have not been determined. During the re-entry period, the satellite passed from the east coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific Ocean, then across northern Canada, then across the northern Atlantic Ocean, to a point over West Africa. The vast majority of the orbital transit was over water, with some flight over northern Canada and West Africa… (more)
Salt is essential to human life. Today, scientists have learned that they can harness this invaluable mineral to foresee the future of Earth’s climate. The oracles of modern climate science are the computer models used to forecast climate change. These models, which rely on a myriad data from many sources, are effective in predicting many climate variables, such as global temperatures. Yet data for some pieces of the climate puzzle have been scarce, including the concentration of dissolved sea salt at the surface of the world’s ocean, commonly called ocean surface salinity, subjecting the models to varying margins of error. This salinity is a key indicator of how Earth’s fresh water moves between the ocean, land and atmosphere… (more)
Eileen was recently in South Africa to deliver a lecture at the invitation of IBM. Her first mission was the first leg of a new joint space main programme between Russia and the United States… (more)
Two NASA spacecraft have been assigned a new mission after successfully completing their original science objectives… (more)
Click on these links for the latest in space technology:
Twins to meet in space; Kepler discovers multiple planets transiting a single star; Meteorite caught; NASA to probe the sun;
SA teachers attend space academy; Space Week 2010 to probe the mysteries of the cosmos
Read about the latest in space technology by clicking on each link:
Spirit may never phone home again
Space weather becomes an international problem
Hands-on experience for students building a CubeSat
SA partners with IAU to drive astronomy for the developing world
The release in 2009 of the 30 m ASTER global digital elevation model (GDEM) to the geospatial community was much anticipated and a welcome addition to other global DEMs available (e.g. the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission’s 90 m model). ASTER is an imaging instrument and operates on the NASA Terra platform. Amongst others, near-infrared (NIR) Band3 is acquired using a nadir and backward-looking telescope, thus providing along-track stereo coverage from which high-quality DEMs are generated using automated stereo-correlation… (more)
NASA has released the first-ever airborne radar images of the deformation in Earth’s surface caused by a major earthquake – the magnitude 7,2 temblor that rocked Mexico’s state of Baja California and parts of the American Southwest on 4 April 2010. The data reveal that in the area studied, the quake moved the Calexico, California, region in a downward and southerly direction up to 80 cm… (more)
Every year the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust recognises three radio amateurs for their contribution to technology and service to the community. The three awards, sponsored by Nokia Siemens Networks, were the Garth Milne Award, the NSN Radio Amateur of the Year Award and the NSN Amateur Radio Community Service Award… (more)
Click on these links for the latest in space technology:
New room-mate for ISS astronauts
NASA solar physicist David Hathaway reports that the top of the sun’s “great conveyor belt” has been running at record-high speeds for the past five years and he believes that it could explain the unusually deep solar minimum of the past few years… (more)
Carbon credits add a layer of complexity which is often underestimated, says Keith Jones of Avisen. “As more companies strive to ‘go green’ – either because they feel it is the right thing to do, or they are required to by law – there will be implications for their business processes which need serious consideration… (more)
Updates on space and beyond: How SA should take its satellite launch facility out of mothballs; NASA’S Chandra reveals origin of key cosmic explosions; another node for the International Space Station; NASA and Italian Space Agency find new use for module and FRD sponsors students for SA Amsat Space Symposium… (more)
South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Kenya plan to launch a constellation of earth observation satellites; SumbandilaSat commissioning on schedule; a fourth satellite for SA; sunspots are back; new SA Space Agency appointment, and Voyager solves interstellar mystery… (more)
Read all about a tale of planetary woe; SumbandilaSat payload activation going well; astronomy stars and a giant ribbon discovered at the edge of the solar system… (more)
- First antenna installed at Karoo site
- Fixes to Hubble Space Telescope successful
- Kepler detects an exoplanet atmosphere
- Creating a lab in space
- NASA celebrates Chandra X-ray Observatory’s 10th anniversary
- Salt finding hints at ocean within Saturn moon
- SunbandilaSat launch delayed again … (more)
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