Here’s some interesting news:
India has gone into business in outer space, launching its first commercial rocket. The rocket was carrying an Italian astronomical satellite that will be used to gather information about the origins of the universe. India is the fifth entry into the commercial satellite launch business after the US, Russia, China, Ukraine and the European Space Agency.
I hadn’t realised Ukraine was in the business too..
SBS World News just announced a news flash that Iran claims to have launched a space rocket. They said no other details were available.
See Update 4 – they didn’t it turns out..
Continue reading
After a bit of stochastic web-enabled research (( i.e. random searching looking for the conclusion of this case triggered by catching up on a story of Rich’s. )) I found this little piece of information from the UNSW Law Journal that everyone should bookmark away just in case they need it..
But what is the legal position in relation to damage caused by the return to Earth of a space object such as Mir? Are there any rules in place to cover such an eventuality? Under what circumstances would Russia have been responsible at international law for any such damage? What would be the extent of its liability? How is damage to be measured and what procedures (if any) are in place to facilitate compensation claims and to arrive at a determination of responsibility and its consequences? Once a determination is made, is it a legally binding and enforceable decision?
Just remember where you read it when you need it.. 😎
An interesting news article from the BBC, it is believed that the Chinese military did an anti-satellite weapons test against an old weather satellite of theirs and successfully destroyed it with a surface launched ballistic missile.
The report said that a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite, launched in 1999, was destroyed by an anti-satellite system launched from or near China’s Xichang Space Centre on 11 January.
There is the usual outrage over the test, but I do wonder whether they would have said anything if it was the US who had done the same..
Update: China has confirmed that this test took place.
Donna and I went out tonight to see if we could see Comet McNaught, but the smoke haze from the bushfires meant it was obscured. 🙁
The BOM is forecasting clearer conditions tomorrow (asides from possible thunderstorms) so that might work out – though it will be 39°C!
This is an excellent demonstration of the power of the MRO’s HiRISE camera, it has managed to return a beautiful full colour image of Victoria Crater and capture a view of the Opportunity rover from orbit.
Click on the thumbnail below to see the sub-image of the rover:
Yay! After months of waiting NASA’s MRO has reached its science orbit and taken its first snap with its HiRISE camera. NASA has a press release with a link to the gallery page of the image which has a scale of about 1 foot per pixel. They also have an 8MB TIFF “sub-image” available for download from the MRO’s calibration gallery.
But for the very latest you’ve got to check out the HiRISE team blog where they already have the fact that the second image is down, of layered deposits at the Martian North Pole.
Below is the first image!
Update: the page with the full image from which the above sub-image was taken is also available, but be warned, the full size JPEG is 23444 x 23377 pixels and ways in at a hefty 111.8 MBytes!
Ladies, gentlemen & popes; please welcome Eris (the object formerly known as Xena) the latest addition to the solar system as a dwarf planet.
First seen via the BBC – see also the official IAU telegram (text summary at SpaceRef) and the Wikipedia page on the goddess it was named after.
Spacecraft down at 0542 GMT, the BBC says:
Astronomers are now analysing a plume of fresh lunar “soil”, or regolith, kicked up by the crash. They have also been looking for the bright flash as the probe hit the surface. The impact was expected to leave a 3m by 10m crater on the Moon’s surface, spreading debris over 78 sq km (30 sq miles).
The Planetary Society reports:
SMART-1 scientist Detlef Koschy confirmed that mission control lost the SMART-1 signal at 10:42:19. He reported that folks at ESOC applauded when the “mission ended just as planned.” Team members at ESOC are now downloading final pictures. SMART-1 took images up to about 5 minutes before impact.
Astrobiology Magazine reports:
The European Space Agency’s Smart-1 mission ended on September 3rd 2006, at 07:42 CEST (05:42 UT). Its final lunar resting place is located at 46.2º West longitude and 34.2º South latitude.
Update: the Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea has the following image of the impact!
By my reckoning SMART-1 will impact the moon at 15:43 Melbourne time (also see the BBC report).