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Submission + - ISRO releases first images of moon by Chandrayan-3 (bbc.com)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: ISRO, India's space agency, has released the first images of the Moon taken by the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which entered lunar orbit on Saturday. After the spacecraft orbited the Earth for about 10 days, it was sent into the translunar orbit last Tuesday and successfully injected into the lunar orbit on Saturday. The lander and rover being carried by spacecraft are due to reach the surface on 23 August. If successful, India will be the first country to perform a controlled "soft landing" near the south pole. The rover is carrying five instruments which will focus on finding out about the physical characteristics of the surface of the Moon, the atmosphere close to the surface and the tectonic activity to study what goes on below the surface. ISRO has also released video of Lunar orbit insertion of the spacecraft.

Submission + - Perseverance Extracts First Oxygen from Red Planet

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), has successfully demonstrated technology to convert some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. The conversion process requires high levels of heat to reach a temperature of approximately 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius). To accommodate this, the MOXIE unit is made with heat-tolerant materials. These include 3D-printed nickel alloy parts, which heat and cool the gases flowing through it, and a lightweight aerogel that helps hold in the heat. In this first operation, MOXIE’s oxygen production was quite modest – about 5 grams, equivalent to about 10 minutes worth of breathable oxygen for an astronaut and MOXIE is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour. For future missions, Oxygen is the key for rockets or astronauts as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars because getting four astronauts off the Martian surface on a future mission would require approximately 15,000 pounds (7 metric tons) of rocket fuel and 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of oxygen.

Comment Re:Too busy (Score 2) 18

by William Robinson (#60691432) Attached to: India and Pakistan Dominate WHO's Air Pollution Database
Excellent comment!! Why are you anonymous?

India's problem with pollution is 'people do not care'. The laws and enforcement against pollution exist only on paper, because the officer himself wants some cash instead of making sure that people follow guidelines of pollution free nation.

BTW, India is huge population and it is easy to misunderstand India. (Please read blind men and elephant story).

Comment Re:This won't satisfy the Anti-Science mob (Score 1) 401

How about this - If a Communist government is faced with an embarrassing failure that could threaten it's hold on power, it will try to cover that up in order to preserve power. If a non-failure disaster occurs, the need for a coverup is far less likely.

Yeah, Hong Kong protests died peacefully.

Submission + - Chandrayaan 2, Indian Spacecraft, Enters Moon's Orbit (ctvnews.ca)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: An unmanned spacecraft, Chandrayaan 2, India launched last month has begun orbiting the moon before it lands on the far side to search for water. The spacecraft is in orbit of 114 km x 18072 km and will continue circling the moon in a tighter orbit until reaching a distance of about 100 km x 30 km from the moon's surface. The lander will then separate from the orbiter and use rocket fuel to brake as it attempts to land in the south polar region of the moon on Sept. 7. The mission is carrying a total of 14 payloads—13 Indian and one passive payload from Nasa—with special focus of the orbiter on mapping craters in the polar region, besides checking for water again.

Submission + - Scientists Produce 400 Year El Nino Record (phys.org)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: Using cores drilled from coral, scientists have been able to produce the first 400-year-long seasonal record of El Nino events. This understanding of El Niño events is vital because they produce extreme weather across the globe with particularly profound effects on precipitation and temperature extremes, all over the world. The study concludes that a new category of El Niño has become far more prevalent in the last few decades than at any time in the past four centuries. Over the same period, traditional El Niño events have become more intense.

Submission + - Scientists Discover How Serotonin Helps Brain Cells Cope With Stress (thehindubusinessline.com)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: Serotonin is a chemical that relays information from one part of the brain to another, and is known to play a key role in a number of functions ranging from sleep to social behavior. Scientists have found that the mitochondria in brain cells generate energy to carry out cellular functions and play a role in survival of brain cells under stress, and serotonin boosts energy production in brain cells and helps them survive under stress. Researchers have also found out the mechanism through which serotonin carries out its energy boosting function. It has emerged that generation of new mitochondria in neurons by serotonin is accompanied by increased cellular respiration and energy chemical ATP, and they claim that 'This new knowledge can potentially be used to develop anti-stress drugs in future.'

Submission + - A tectonic plate may have peeled apart—and that could shrink the Atlantic (nationalgeographic.com)

Submitted by pgmrdlm
pgmrdlm writes: For years, João Duarte has puzzled over a seemingly boring underwater expanse off the coast of Portugal. In 1969, this site spawned a massive earthquake that rattled the shore and sparked a tsunami. But you would never know why just from looking at the broad, featureless surface of the seabed. Duarte, a marine geologist from the Instituto Dom Luiz at the University of Lisbon, wanted to find out what was going on.

Now, 50 years after the event, he may finally have an answer: The bottom of the tectonic plate off Portugal's coast seems to be peeling away from its top. This action may be providing the necessary spark for one plate to start grinding beneath another in what's known as a subduction zone, according to computer simulations Duarte presented in April at the European Geosciences Union meeting.

If confirmed, the new work would be the first time an oceanic plate has been caught in the act of peeling—and it may mark one of the earliest stages of the Atlantic Ocean shrinking, sending Europe inching toward Canada as predicted by some models of tectonic activity. (Find out what scientists think will happen when Earth's tectonic plates grind to a halt.)

Submission + - InSight Detects First Marsquake On Red Planet (nature.com) 1

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: NASA’s InSight lander has detected the first known ‘marsquake’. The spacecraft picked up the faint trembling of Mars’s surface on 6 April, 128 days after landing on the planet last November. The quake is the first to be detected on a planetary body other than Earth or Moon. The seismic energy a relatively weak shaking produced was similar to that of the moonquakes that Apollo astronauts measured in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's not yet clear whether the shaking originated within Mars or was caused by a meteorite crashing into the planet's surface.

Submission + - Japanese Spacecraft Drops Explosive On Asteroid To Make Crater (phys.org)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: Japanese Spacecraft, Hayabusa2, released an explosive onto an asteroid to make a crater on its surface. The spacecraft safely evacuated and remained intact after dropping a "small carry-on impactor" made of copper onto the asteroid. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said that they plan plans to send Hayabusa2 back to the site later, when the dust and debris settle, for observations from above and to collect samples from underground that have not been exposed to the sun or space rays. If successful, it would be the first time for a spacecraft to take such materials. In a 2005 "deep impact" mission to a comet, NASA observed fragments after blasting the surface but did not collect them.

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