Methane Plumes On Mars.

Chapter sixty five its a mystery as NASA scientists are looking for clues as to the cause of methane plumes that have been detected on Mars again. As scientists say the rover, is now sniffing the air using its sensitive laboratory equipment, thus picked up a dramatic tenfold increase in methane gas this lasted for several weeks. The find, is described 2014 at the American Geophysical Union as published online by 'journal Science.
This reignites an already flammable issue the chances for methane-linked to life on Mars maybe a definable possibility.As methane gas has made a comeback on Mars. As with dairy life on Earth could their be life beyond Earth? NASA's chief scientist would like to find it have it analysed as fundamental. "It opens up a whole debate of methane on Mars once more was there basic life on Mars," said lead author Christopher Webster, lead for the rover's Tunable Laser Spectrometer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We thought we closed that chapter with a no, but now we're on to the next chapter where would it exist of like Earth gas exist in sedimentary rocks." In 2003, ground-based telescopes picked up signs of an enormous amount of methane - as much as 45 parts per billion - coming from the Red Planet in plumes. As NASA's Curiosity rover quashed the hopes of scientists and dreamers alike in 2013 when it found scant signs of methane on the Red Planet. On Earth, most of this gas is produced by living things and a healthy dose of this comes from organic molecules. So onto our rust-hued neighbor would have given researchers hope of finding signs of any life.

At the time, those results were hotly debated, particularly since the methane readings eventually disappeared and did not return. Some argued that the readings were off; the scientists stuck by their measurements. Curiosity, with a suite of high-tech instruments loaded in its belly, was expected to help settle the debate.In 2013, after testing the air for roughly eight months using its Tunable Laser Spectrometer, the rover gave the scientific community an answer - though perhaps not the one that many researchers had hoped for.
Methane levels were extremely low - no more than 1.3 parts per billion, a tiny fraction of what had been detected 10 years earlier."There was basically no methane on Mars, and that was a big disappointment to the planetary community," Webster said. "So we thought we had closed the book on the Mars methane story at the time." But then, around Thanksgiving last year, the rover picked up a strange increase - methane levels in the air jumped from an average of about 0.7 parts per billion to about 5 parts per billion. How much methane on Mars? Zero. Findings a setback in search for life. How much methane on Mars? Zero. Findings a setback in search for life "We were very surprised - we said, 'What the heck is going on?'" Webster said. When they checked a week later, the methane had risen further, to 7 parts per billion. They waited a month and still saw 7 parts per billion. Three weeks after that, it was 9 parts per billion. During this strange spike, the methane levels averaged 7.2 parts per billion - a 10-fold increase from the baseline average. Six weeks later, it had completely disappeared.

"The methane measurements are saying something about modern Mars," said study co-author Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, lead scientist for the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument package (which includes the Tunable Laser Spectrometer). "It's alive at some level; it's living and breathing and giving off little spurts of methane somehow. " The scientists do not know much about the origins of this methane.
It seems to be coming in from the north, though it's not clear whether the plume is big and far away, or small and close by. (They think it's small and fairly nearby because it disappeared fairly quickly, by methane's standards.) "It does indeed mean that we have an active planet," said Michael Mumma, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who led the research that picked up the 2003 methane signal. "We do not know where the methane is coming from yet, nor do we know whether it's generated by biology or generated by geochemistry. But we do know how to go about testing that. "Mars' once-thick atmosphere now stripped; bad news for life? These are questions that Curiosity may help answer as it continues exploring Mt. Sharp, a three-mile-high mountain in the middle of Gale Crater.

This also does not at all mean that there are or were microbes on Mars - the gas could be the product of geophysical processes. In fact it's unclear whether the methane is old or new - it could have been stored in ice traps called clathrates under the ground for eons and recently released upon the ice's melting, Webster pointed out."I personally feel that one has to treat each possibility as equal to the other," said Mumma, who was not involved in the current research.
"If it's not biology, if it's geochemistry, then that tells us we have a window into the interior processes of the planet. That's very important. If it is biology, then that's important too, for other reasons. It would mean that there would be likely an independent origin of life. "Some researchers expressed doubt that the results were free of contamination from the rover itself."There is considerable methane on the rover," Kevin Zahnle, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center who was not involved in the work, said in an email. "They are looking for Martian methane through a cloud of their own methane."Though the team has been diligent, Zahnle said, "they can not rule out the possibility that something funny is going on."

Orion The Next Generation.

Chapter sixty four as this is the Orion Mission it's unmanned, but in the future. As American Nasa hopes to use the spacecraft to send astronauts to an asteroid in the 2020s and ultimately take them to Mars in the 2030s.


The now delayed Orion was set to launch in early November 2014 but wind gusts temporarily delayed lift-off  Nasa now plans to attempt launch for December rockets hay little bit static and wallop to a crash. 'It's a little bit sad, it came quite unexpected,' Space expert Remco Timmermans of World Space Week, who was out at the launch site has to return over and over. He said 'It was a very long launch window, we've been here for a few hours, so it's a big disappointment.'People are deciding whether to come back to a later date most can not.
'The Delta IV has always been a very reliable launcher, so this is rather unusual for a launcher that is so well proven. I'd say we have a every chance getting man on off of Mars planet test. One whittles down its shortlist of hopefuls wanting to The new generation of human to be a space explorer. As new spacecraft are getting a new generation clock to count down speed schedules  launches exciting but can they match 1969 that slip off the tongue, some like it to the french kiss. Neil Armstrong left his boot prints on the moon, all american thing bit like the dream, a was it wasn't it.
The new forms of both the spacecraft and clock, will look familiar. But carry substantial changes and are run by modern technology. In the same way that NASA's Orion is a capsule shape akin to Apollo, the new countdown display at Kennedy Space Center's Press Site does not look all that different from its predecessor. Yet again, just as in the case of Orion and Apollo, the new version of the countdown will be display hopefully on line rather than being there. It is far more capable and boasts technology more akin to a stadium television than a simple wristwatch. The ship, called 'Rock Star' was passing through the Broad Causeway bridge, at 96th Street in Bay Harbor Islands, when the drawbridge suddenly slipped, crashing down on the yacht and causing major damage but no major injuries, all part of its success.

Ready for blast off Nasa unveils new hi-tech countdown Orion launch Test flight delayed after valve defect and heavy winds make lift-off dangerous. Nasa's Orion spacecraft is designed to carry astronauts to an asteroid and eventually to Mars in the 2030s. Spacecraft was set to launch at 12.05 GMT (07:05 local time) today from Cape Canaveral Station in Florida. But a rogue boat strayed into restricted waters within the launch site's danger zone, which delayed lift-off. A further problem occurred when a liquid oxygen 'drain and fill' valve on the rocket did not close properly. The valve combines propellants to ignite with the explosive force needed to thrust the rocket toward space.
Orion will orbit Earth twice in a 4.5 hour journey, before re-entering atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 km / h) In future, it will be used with world's most powerful rocket, the SLS, to take humans on deep space missions. Wind gusts and a sticky valve forced the Cape Canaveral team Orion be catapulted around the Earth twice in a 4.5 hour journey, before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 km / h). Here is one of the issues Dr Nigel Bannister, an expert in rocket propulsion at Leicester University, said Nasa will want to wait until the weather conditions are right, newer designs two part plane.

Then excessive wind twice halted the countdown. This was followed by valve trouble on the unmanned Delta IV rocket that could not be fixed in time. The valves control the flow of the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in the three first-stage booster engines. The propellants combine to ignite with the explosive force needed to thrust the rocket toward space.
Declining battery power in the rocket's video camera system reinforced the decision to quit for the day. Although there are specific windows in which they can launch, they will not want to risk it in the wrong environmental conditions. Rockets are not like aircraft - once they are moving and the bolts holding it to the launch pad have been released, there is no going back. 'Weather is a big issue for them. A rocket leaves behind a plume of gas that is extremely electrically conductive, and that turns a rocket into a giant lightning rod, so they will never risk launching if there are thunder clouds in the area. 'Wind shear can create extremely high stresses that need to be corrected very quickly so it is safer not to launch than risk losing a spacecraft that cost millions of pounds to build.' But if the faulty valve can be fixed, Seeing the complexities of mission controllers will be hopeful of getting at least a brief period of calm. Then gusting winds twice halted this morning's countdown with less than four minutes remaining.

 

Dr Jon Marchant, an astrophysics at Liverpool John Moores University space cruiser. the engines angle automatically to change the thrust angle to compensate. It's a bit like balancing a broom on your finger, you make constant corrections to keep the broom balanced, 'Obviously too big a gust will be beyond the capabilities of this "engine-angling" (correct term is "gimballing") to compensate and it'll crash. 'Then a valve in the unmanned Delta IV rocket malfunctioned at the three-minute mark. Launch controllers scrambled to check all of these so-called 'fill and drain' valves in the three first-stage booster engines, but time ran out.

The valves control the flow of the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in the three first-stage booster engines. The propellants combine to ignite with the explosive force needed to thrust the rocket toward space. Today's mission is unmanned, but in the future Nasa hopes to use Orion to put astronauts back on the moon by 2020 and take them to Mars in the 2030s. Next step as this mission is unmanned, but in the future Nasa hopes to use the Orion craft to send astronauts to an asteroid. Someday Mars let down as a large crowd turned out to watch Orion take-off  but they had to head back empty handed after the launch was postponed. Spectators are seen here walking back to the Saturn V Center at Cape Canaveral from the observing area. 'all unexpected,' said space expert Remco Timmermans, who had traveled out for the launch.

Always caution with launches that has proven part of the success large crowd turned out to watch Orion take-off  Remco Timmermans, who had travelled out for the launch. Ambition the earliest Orion might carry passengers is 2021; a mission to an asteroid is on the space agency's radar sometime in the 2020s and Mars, the grand prize, in the 2030s.
If the launch is successful tomorrow, this will be the first mission since the Apollo moon landings to take a spacecraft built for manned flight into deep space, beyond the limit of orbiting satellites.Orion is being developed alongside the world's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which is due to make its maiden launch in 2018 or 2019. Together, SLS and Orion will allow Nasa to send humans into deep space to destinations such as Mars. For this launch, Orion has been strapped to a Delta IV-Heavy rocket - currently the largest launch system in the world. Three RS-68 engines will produce about two million pounds of thrust at lift-off. Five and a half minutes after launch, at an altitude of around 200 miles (320km), fuel will have run out on both the Delta IV's main and booster engines. A couple of seconds later, the entire bottom end - or the 'first stage' of the rocket - will detach, while the second stage engine will ignite to take Orion to a higher orbit. The upper stage's protective fairings will then be jettisoned, along with the launch abort system, which is designed to protect the astronauts in the case of an emergency during launch by carrying the capsule to safety. All about NASA's Orion spacecraft that blasts off in December 2014 did every one to see as live photos show.

Under pressure as the launch should give engineers the opportunity to check the performance of Orion's critical heat shield, which is likely to experience temperatures in excess of 2,000 ° C (4,000 ° F) Under pressure: The launch should give engineers the opportunity to check the performance of Orion's critical heat shield, which is likely to experience temperatures in excess of 2,000 ° C (4,000 ° F) After two hours, and one orbit of Earth, the second-stage rocket will be ignited again, moving Orion up to an altitude of 3,600 miles (5,800 km). This is 15 times the distance to the ISS and will cause Orion to travel through the high-radiation Van Allen Belts. At three hours after lift-off, Orion will hit its peak altitude and then slowly start its descent back to Earth. The flight program has been loaded into Orion's computers well in advance, allowing the spacecraft to fly essentially on autopilot. It should give engineers the opportunity to check the performance of Orion's critical heat shield, which is likely to experience temperatures in excess of 2,000ºC (4,000 ° F). Its re-entry speed into the atmosphere will be close to 20,000mph (32,000km / h) - similar to the speed of the Apollo capsules that returned from the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
The dry run, if all goes well, will end with a Pacific splashdown off Mexico's Baja coast and Navy ships will recover the capsule for future use. whats holds the key to this flight as its a milestone voyage in to space maiden journey around earth as back to Earth: Orion is expected to have a rapid re-entry speed into the atmosphere close to 32,000km / h (20,000mph), according to Nasa Down to Earth: Orion is expected to have a rapid re-entry speed into the atmosphere close to 32,000km / h (20,000mph), according to Nasa. One minute, 25 seconds after liftoff, Orion goes supersonic. Four minutes after lift off, two of the Delta IV's three liquid-fueled boosters are jettisoned. Five minutes, 30 seconds, the last booster burns out and separates from the upper-stage engine.Six minutes, 15 seconds, with the second-stage burning, three protective panels separate from Orion's mock-up service module. Five seconds later, the launch escape system is jettisoned. Seventeen minutes, the second-stage engine shuts down, leaving Orion in its initial orbit of 115 by 552 miles (185 by 888 km) above Earth. Three hours, after a second burn of the upper-stage engine, Orion passes through intense radiation in the Van Allen Belts and reaches its peak altitude of 3,600 miles (5,800 km). Three hours, 23 minutes, Orion separates from its service module and the Delta upper stage and prepares to return to Earth.

Separation: Three hours and 23 minutes after launch, Orion will separate from its service module and the Delta upper stage, and prepares to return to Earth (shown) As this waiting game: news photographers and journalists watch as the sun rises on the Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft waiting for liftoff on the launch pad from the Cape Canveral Air Force Station in Florida. New dawn of space travel: Orion will allow the United States to send its own astronauts into space for the first time since the Space Shuttle. New dawn of space travel: Orion will allow the United States to send its own astronauts into space for the first time since the Space Shuttle. What will happen after launch?
Just minutes after lift-off, the entire bottom end - or the 'first stage' of the rocket - will detach, while the second stage engine will ignite to take Orion to a higher orbit. Flight sequence: Five and a half minutes after launch, at an altitude of around 200 miles (320km), the fuel will have run out on both the Delta IV's main and booster engines, so Orion will separate and head into a higher orbit The spacecraft is rigged with 1,200 sensors to gauge everything from heat to vibration to radiation. Programme manager Mark Geyer said: 'We're going to test the riskiest parts of the mission. Ascent, entry and things like fairing separations, Launch Abort System jettison, the parachute, plus the navigation and guidance - all those things are going to be tested. 'Plus, we'll fly into deep space and test the radiation effects on those systems.'

A crucial test will come when Orion flies through the Van Allen belts, which are two layers of charged particles orbiting around Earth.'The ISS would not have to deal with radiation but we will, and so will every vehicle that goes to the moon,' Geyer told the BBC. As that's a big issue for the computers.
These processors that are now so small - they're great for speed but they're more susceptible to radiation. 'That's something we have to design for and see how it all behaves.'Another key test will be on the heat shield on Orion's base, designed to protect the craft from the searing temperatures of atmospheric re-entry. It is 16.5ft (five metres) across and is the biggest, most advanced of its kind ever made.Test flight: Orion will make two big laps around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,200 km / h). Pictured is an artist's impression of the Orion craft in orbit Test flight: Orion will make two big laps around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,200 km / h). Pictured is an artist's impression of the Orion craft in orbit On this flight, Orion will reach close to 2,000ºC (4,000 ° F), not quite the 2,800ºC (5,000ºF) that was generated from the moon missions, but close enough for a good test of the technology. That's why Orion will aim for a 3,600 miles (5,800 km) peak altitude to pick up enough speed to come back fast and hot with this mission, officially called Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1).

Even though bears a strong resemblance to the Apollo command module that carried astronauts to the moon in the 1960s, it is bristling with the latest technology that makes it markedly different. 'There's an obvious comparison to draw between this first Orion launch and the first unmanned flight of the Apollo spacecraft on Apollo 4 [in 1967], but there are more differences than similarities,' space historian Amy Teitel  Apollo 4 flew a nearly lunar-ready command and service module, was the first flight of the Saturn V rocket, and demonstrated that both the S-IVB rocket stage and the spacecraft's own engine could ignite in a vacuum.'The EFT-1 flight is only testing a spacecraft; it does not even have its service module 'With Apollo 4, we knew we were going to the moon and it was clear this mission was putting us firmly back on that path after the major setback of the Apollo 1 fire. With Orion, we do not have a clear goal and a firm timeline for this new spacecraft. 'Does it compare to apollo module that took man to the moon in 1969 A 'new Apollo' As Orion bears a strong resemblance to the Apollo command module that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969, but it is bristling with the latest technology that makes it markedly different. This 'new Apollo'? Orion bears a strong resemblance to the Apollo command module that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969, but it is bristling with the latest technology that makes it markedly different.The Orion space capsule will enable Nasa to send its own astronauts into space for the first time since the Space Shuttle program was scrapped.

Brief history here as the next-generation vehicle will also herald a new era of space travel as it has been designed to carry humans to land on asteroids and even to other worlds.Ultimately Nasa hopes Orion will allow astronauts to make the first manned journey to Mars. Perhaps understandably the development of Orion has helped reawakened some of the atmosphere of exploration that surrounded Nasa during the Apollo missions that first landed mankind on the moon. But with almost exactly 42 years between the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, which launched on 7 December 1972, and the first flight of Orion, the technology has moved on considerably.

On the surface the two space capsules look the same - they are cone-shaped, and have a large heat shield to protect the astronauts from the intense conditions during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere. However, Orion is larger, capable of carrying four crew members rather than Apollo's three. It will also have to carry far more supplies than Apollo ever did. The last Apollo mission saw a two man crew spend just three days on the moon's surface while a mission to an asteroid or to Mars could see astronauts spending up to 450 days in space. Like the Apollo Command Module, Orion has a Service Module attached that houses a single large engine, batteries and storage. However, Orion will carry a pair of solar arrays to help keep the capsule powered in space - technology that Apollo did not use. Orion also uses up-to-date computers, electronics, life support and propulsion systems. The electronics also have a far more sophisticated radiation shielding than the Apollo modules. Nasa has also used some hard lessons to improve the heat shield. Measuring 16.5 feet (five metres) across, it is the largest heat shield ever built for a spacecraft and has been covered in a new material called Avcoat.

Nasa has also improved the parachutes, once used to land the Apollo spacecraft and slow the Space Shuttle, to help Orion land more safely in the water when it splashes down after a mission.Final countdown: The Orion capsule sits on top of the Delta IV Heavy rocket at the launch pad in Florida. It had to await the removal of a boat that had strayed into waters close to the launch site before the first launch could be attempted - before a faulty valve scuppered it poised. Orion awaits launch in Florida.
This is the first attempt to send a spacecraft capable of carrying humans beyond a couple hundred miles of Earth since the Apollo moon mission. But at 11ft (3.6 metres) tall with a 16.5ft (5 metres) base, Orion is much larger than the old-time Apollo capsules, and is designed to carry four astronauts rather than three.The earliest Orion might carry passengers is 2021; a mission to an asteroid is on the space agency's radar sometime in the 2020s and Mars, the grand prize, in the 2030s.We're approaching this as pioneers,' said William Hill of Nasa's exploration systems development office.'We're going out to stay eventually. It's many, many decades away, but that's our intent. 'However, Nasa has yet to develop the technology to carry out manned surface operations on Mars.

Orion project wants to take people to mars and back. but can humans survive this round trip to the red planet not like lunar mission or setting up base on  lunar moon easier can we survive a trip to Mars? Pictured is the surface of the red planet, as seen by the Viking I Lander. Scientists hope Orion will return humans to the moon by 2020 and transport the first visitors to Mars in the 2030s. But the 140 million-mile (225 million km) journey to Mars will involve extreme hazards threatening the lives of astronauts.
Space is filled with dangerous radiation that the Earth's atmosphere shields us from. The greatest threat comes from high energy streams of subatomic particles pouring out of the sun that can damage DNA, leading to cancer. How big is the radiation risk? Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover was hit by 0.66 sieverts of radiation during its 253 trip to Mars. That's the equivalent of receiving a whole body CT X-ray scan every five or six days. Intense bursts of radiation and particles erupting from the sun, in large solar flares or coronal mass ejections, have the power to disrupt electrical equipment and deliver potentially lethal doses. Radiation shielding coating the spacecraft can offer some protection. Is there a danger of being hit by a meteorite? Big and small rocks are continually flying around the Solar System, millions of which go undetected. On a long journey through space the risk of being hit is not negligible, and even a tiny meteorite could wreak unimaginable damage.

Bigger objects can be steered around if detected in advance, and Nasa has been developing armour-like materials and double-layer walls to protect against smaller objects. How easy is it to land on Mars? The answer is, not easy at all, which is why so many Mars missions have failed. Overall the success rate of landing on Mars is only about 50 per cent. This is one area where it pays off to have humans on board rather than relying on computers. During the Apollo moon missions, Nasa never lost a single lander, despite some very close shaves.
Mars is much more challenging, though, because it has an atmosphere and appreciable gravity. How bad is a Mars trip for your health? Without gravity, bones become brittle and muscles start to waste away. There is also evidence that gravity affects the way the brain works.The astronauts will have to undergo strict exercise regimes to make up for the lack of gravity. Another solution would be to provide at least some degree of artificial gravity by spinning the spacecraft as it travels. Psychological health is considered a very imported issue for long distance space travellers. The astronauts will need to be mentally tough to cope with being so far from home in the knowledge that so far out in space there can be no hope of rescue.Why go to Mars at all? Many experts say only so much can be done with robots. Humans are just so much better at finding and selecting samples, and spotting the unexpected. Others argue that it will inspire children and unite humanity in a common adventure.Some say that confining ourselves to a planet with limited resources is simply not an option if the human race is to survive. Mike Curie of NASA communications on Orion's engine systems.

On track: In the months leading up to launch, Orion has been rigorously tested as engineers prepare it for a journey beyond low Earth orbit. On track: In the months leading up to launch, Orion has been rigorously tested as engineers prepare it for a journey beyond low Earth orbit. Recovery: The US Navy and Nasa recovery teams will be on station off the cost of California and ready to recover Orion after landing. By comparison, it took eight years from the time President John Kennedy announced his intentions of landing a man on the moon - before John Glenn even became the first American to orbit Earth - to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's lunar bootprints in 1969. Given the present budget situation, 'it is what it is,' said Kennedy Space Center's director Robert Cabana, a former astronaut. The presidential election go ahead could bring further delays and uncertainties. As Lockheed Martin is handling the £ 236 million ($ 370 million) test flight and Nasa will be overseeing its operation right true. Nasa's last trip beyond low-Earth orbit in a vessel built for people was Apollo 17 in December 1972.'This is just the first of what will be a long line of exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit,' said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. 'In a few years we will be sending our astronauts to destinations humans have never experienced. It's thrilling to be a part of the journey now, at the beginning. '

Orion as due to travel 3,600 into outer space away from any earths influences. as this new craft built for interplanetary exploration for mankind orions exciting first test flight. As Technicians pack bags to be placed into Orion's stowage lockers with items from Sesame Street including a cookie belonging to Cookie Monster, Ernie's rubber duck, Grover's cape and Slimey the Worm. Nasa has packed its Orion space capsule with experiments and sensor designed to measure the conditions inside the vehicle. However, also hitching a 3,600 miles (5,800km) above Earth will be Captain Kirk, a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil and some Sesame Street puppets. They are all part of a weird collection of artefacts, celebrity photos and memorabilia that has been placed inside Orion's storage lockers.Nasa has also placed a tiny sample of lunar soil along with a fossil from a Tyrannosaurus rex donated by the Denver Science Museum, into the capsule. A microchip carrying the names of more than a million people who submitted their names will also be carried onboard. Lockheed Martin, the main contractor on Orion, worked with the Entertainment Industries Council to collect items from science fiction-related celebrities to place on Orion.William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series and is a noted space enthusiast, supplied an action figure of 'Captain Kirk in Environmental Suit'.

Director Jon Favreau offered an Iron Man challenge coin while Back to the Future actress Claudia Wells provided signed cast photos and a Delorean time machine model of Bialik, from The Big Bang Theory, also gave pictures of her ancestors. A collection of pins, medals and artworks will also be carried in the Orion lockers.Also among the cargo will be props from Sesame Street including a cookie belonging to Cookie Monster, Ernie’s rubber duck, Oscar the Grouch’s pet Slimey the Worm and Grover’s cape.When they return to Earth they will take prized spots on the long-running television programme in a bid to educate millions of children about space.In a statement on its website, Nasa said ‘Together, the artifacts chart humanity's progress and technological advancement as the nation takes a critical step forward on the Journey to Mars.’Carrying commemorative cargo into space, however, is not a new tradition and has been done since the very early age of space flight. Nasa's Mercury astronauts carried dimes in their spacesuits while astronauts on the Apollo missions carried photos and specially stamped envelopes.
The Voyager spacecraft have also carried gold discs featuring sounds of Earth along with a range of other information while the Curiosity rover on Mars carried a penny to calibrate its instruments.Orion's batteries were charged up using power from the launch pad as unlike future operational versions it does not carry solar panels. Heavy lifting: The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying Orion will burn through 450,000 gallons of hydrogen and oxygen fuel in order to produce the two million pounds of thrust needed to lift the 815 ton space rocket out of Earth's atmosphere ISS flight engineer: This is an awesome day for America 'This is just the first of what will be a long line of exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit,' said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. 'In a few years we will be sending our astronauts to destinations humans have never experienced' 'This is just the first of what will be a long line of exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit,' said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. 'In a few years we will be sending our astronauts to destinations humans have never experienced'.

Excremental Experiment.

Chapter sixty three as humans in space try to get away from complex manufacturing of rocket fuel. Example dilithium crystals. To rocket fuel of the future could be made from excrement or simply known as human waste. as space cruiser stipulates that algae might be catalyst in this whole process.
It's not just a whole load of old stool, more at the request of NASA, researchers based at the University of Florida have devised a means of converting human waste into rocket fuel. So could the star-ships of the future take recycling to extremes? A more likely scenario is that the newly discovered process, like so many space program spin-offs, will end up being used in applications back here on Earth. Until now, the inevitable end results - at least in a physiological sense - of human endeavor in space has been collected on board spacecraft then burnt up on re-entry. But applying the same science of the newly discovered process could mean that conversion of human waste takes place in a number of locations according to Pratap Pullammanappallil, a University of Florida (UF) associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. As this stuff maybe used on campus or around town, or anywhere, to convert waste into fuel," Pullammanappallil commented.The scheme has its roots in 2006 when NASA began forward planning to eventually build an inhabited facility on the moon sometime between 2019 and 2024 as part of the now amended plans for establishing a lunar outpost under the George W. Bush era "Vision for Space Exploration "declaration. Having set NASA's goal of making a lunar return, the space agency wanted to reduce the weight of spacecraft leaving Earth. Until now, waste generated by astronauts during spaceflight was dead weight, having to be carried by the mission until it could be gotten rid of on re-entry.

To carry this useless weight around meant in turn having to carry more rocket fuel around than would otherwise be the case. NASA's current practice is to store the waste in containers that are subsequently loaded onto space cargo vehicles that burn up as they re-entered Earth's atmosphere.Scientists work out how to turn human waste into rocket fuel.
That may be fine for missions to near Earth orbit. But for a long-term mission to the moon, possibly one that involved regular changes of moon-base crews much like the International Space Station, it's impractical to run what would amount to the equivalent of sewage barges back to Earth. The costs of such shittle missions, sorry, shuttle missions would increase excrementally, so to speak. Having no wish to see the moon turned into a dumping ground - there's quite enough of these here on Earth - NASA's already ruled out leaving the human waste on the moon's surface. That being so, the agency entered into an agreement with UF to develop test ideas. Pullammanappallil and colleague Abhishek Dhoble, who was then a graduate student, were up for the challenge.As Pullammanappallil explained,
Scientists were trying to find out how much methane can be produced from uneaten food, food packaging and human waste. "The idea was to see whether we could make enough fuel to launch rockets and not carry all the fuel and its weight from Earth for the return journey. Methane can be used to fuel the rockets. Enough methane can be produced to come back from the moon. "At the outset, NASA supplied UF researchers with a packaged form of chemically produced human waste that also incorporated everything associated with the entire bathroom experience - simulated food waste, towels, wash cloths, clothing and packaging materials. Pullammanappallil and Dhoble, who is now a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, ran laboratory tests to ascertain how much methane could be produced from the waste and as well as the gas' rate of production. The researchers measured methane production at 290 liters (76.6 US gallons) of methane per crew per day. By way of comparison, a typical car running on liquid petroleum gas - LPG consists of propane or butane, both a couple of steps up the hydrocarbon chain of compounds from methane - might get around 20 to 25 miles per gallon. Putting that in context, if a spacecraft were a family car it could run for roughly 1,723 miles on fuel derived from one week of a lunar crew's waste.

Granted, that's still some way short of the 240,000 miles or so that separates the Earth from the moon. But it must be remembered that unlike family cars that tend to stop abruptly when the engine is switched off, spacecraft do not fire their engines all the time but will keep moving at a constant speed. All they need is engine burn sufficient to get them up to the required speed to leave the moon's orbit and head back to Earth. As spacecraft operate in a vacuum, they're subject to Newton's first law of motion which states:

"When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force ".A little methane, therefore, could let a spacecraft go a very long way.To convert this putrefying morass to methane, the scientists developed an anaerobic digester process. That's to say a process that did not require free oxygen for it to work in both killing pathogens from human waste and producing biogas - a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide - by breaking down organic matter in waste. In Earth-bound applications, that fuel could be used for heating, electricity generation or transportation. As a by-product, the digestion process would also produce around 200 gallons of water annually from the waste. This water by-product would not be fit to drink, but on the Moon, almost certainly bereft of water in any form that's easily accessible, 200 gallons, even of non-potable water would be a very precious commodity indeed. Not only that, it would be 200 gallons less of H2O that would otherwise require to take up valuable cargo space on spaceships lunar-bound from Earth.To complete the symmetry of the whole process, the water by-product, can be electrolyzed to split it into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen. Lunar astronauts could breathe the oxygen, if necessary, as a back-up to normal supplies. Any carbon dioxide and hydrogen then exhaled could then be converted to methane and / or water as part of the process.