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NASA’s Solar Shield to mitigate damage to power grid from severe solar storms

The solar storms that cause the stunning aurora borealis and aurora australis (or northern and southern polar lights) also have the potential to knock out telecommunications equipment and navigational systems and cause blackouts of electrical grids. With the frequency of the sun’s flares following an 11-year cycle of solar activity and the next solar maximum expected around 2013, scientists are bracing for an overdue, once-in-100 year event that could cause widespread power blackouts and cripple electricity grids around the world. It sounds like an insurmountable problem but a new NASA project called “Solar Shield” is working to develop a forecasting system that can mitigate the impacts of such events and keep the electrons flowing.

In 1859 the most powerful solar storm in recorded history, known as the Solar Superstorm, or the Carrington Event, caused telegraph systems all over Europe and North America to fail. Today, the effects of severe solar storms are much more noticeable with the total length of high-voltage power lines crisscrossing North America increasing nearly tenfold since the 1950s. This has turned power grids into giant antennas for the geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) – the ground level manifestation of space weather that can overload circuits, trip breakers, and in extreme cases melt the windings of heavy-duty transformers, causing permanent damage.

Just such an event occurred in Quebec on March 13, 1989, when a geomagnetic storm much less severs than the Carrington Event knocked out power across the entire province for more than nine hours. In addition to Quebec, the storm damaged transformers in New Jersey and Great Britain and caused more than 200 power anomalies across the continental U.S.

Although many utility companies have taken steps to reinforce their grids, with demand for power growing faster than the grids themselves modern networks are stressed to the limit and vulnerable to the effects of a severe geomagnetic storms. With the possibility of long-lasting large scale blackouts a real possibility due to widespread transformer damage the Solar Shield project leader Antti Pulkkinen believes the project can “zero in on specific transformers and predict which of them are going to be hit hardest by a severe space weather event.”
How it works

When a massive burst of solar wind, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), is detected rising from the sun’s surface and headed for Earth, images from SOHO and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft would allow a 3D model of the CME to be created and predict when it will arrive. While the CME is making its way to Earth – a trip that usually takes 24 to 48 hours (although the Carrington Event CME took just 18 hours as an earlier CME had cleared the way) – the Solar Shield team would prepare to calculate ground currents.

About 30 minutes before impact the CME would sweep past ACE, a spacecraft stationed 1.5 million km upstream from Earth. Sensors aboard ACE would make in situ measurements of the CME’s speed, density and magnetic field and transmit this data to the Solar Shield team at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"We quickly feed the data into CCMC computers," says Pulkkinen. "Our models predict fields and currents in Earth's upper atmosphere and propagate these currents down to the ground." With less than 30 minutes to go, Solar Shield can issue an alert to utilities with detailed information about GICs.

Solar Shield is still only experimental and hasn’t yet been field-tested during a severe geomagnetic storm. A few utility companies have installed current monitors at key locations in the power grid to help the team check their predictions but, with more data allowing the team to more quickly test and improve the system, they are hoping more power companies join the effort. A few good solar storms would help too with the sun being mostly quiet during the past year – something like the calm before the storm.

App allows users to view electrocardiograms on smartphones

Gone are the days when we simply used our mobile phones for calling people – now we can conduct our own ECGs. We’ve already seen iPhone and Android applications that can create ultrasound images and that measure air pollution. Now tech companies IMEC and the Holst Center, together with TASS software professionals, have released a new heart rate monitoring application.
The IMEC/Holst Center application is designed for Android and it uses small monitoring sensors which are placed on the user’s body. The sensors are connected to a necklace that will wirelessly transmit the heart rate data to your Android phone.
Within minutes you will receive your ECG (electrocardiogram) heart rate monitoring report, that can easily be stored or emailed to your doctor. The sensors are unobtrusive and can remain on the user’s body all day if constant monitoring is required. The application would be suitable for athletes, patients wishing to be monitored from home, and heart disease sufferers.
The small Android interface uses low power and is based on the Linux kernel, and is thus easily compatible with other Linux-based devices, such as PDAs or laptops. It also has the ability to integrate with all the features available on Google’s operating system, such as SMS, e-mail and data transmission over the Internet.

Father and son launch video camera into outer space

 It’s an inspiring story that reminds you how the wonders of scientific exploration aren’t just limited to research institutions with big budgets... in August of this year, Luke Geissbuhler and his seven year-old son Max attached an HD video camera to a weather balloon and set it loose. They proceeded to obtain footage of the blackness of outer space, 19 miles (30 km) above the surface of the earth. Needless to say, there was a little more to it than just tying a piece of string around a camcorder.

Luke and Max created a miniature space capsule for their Brooklyn Space Program experiment, using a food take-out container. It contained the camera (with a peep hole for its lens), hand warmers to keep its battery warm, a “please return if you find this” note, and an iPhone, so that they could use its GPS to locate the capsule once it landed. The whole thing was coated in foam, to absorb the energy of a high-speed landing, and attached to a parachute.

The pair launched the balloon from Newburgh, New York, near their home in Brooklyn. Over the next 72 minutes, it proceeded to climb to over 100,000 feet (30,480 meters), encountering 100mph (161km/h) winds and temperatures of -60F(-51C) along the way. Due to the lack of pressure at such high altitudes, the balloon eventually expanded beyond its capacity and burst, sending the capsule on a 150mph (241km/h) parachute-assisted fall back to earth.

Amazingly, it landed just 30 miles (48 km) from its lift-off point, in the middle of the night. Using its external LED lamp to locate it visually, the Geissbuhlers found the capsule hanging from its parachute in a tree.
The project involved eight months of research and testing, but as you can see in the video below, the results were well worth the effort.

Space tourism takes another leap forward with plans for commercial space station/hotel

Out of financial necessity, Russia was one of the innovators when it came to the burgeoning field of space tourism, with American businessman and former JPL scientist Dennis Tito becoming the first space tourist in mid-2001 when he spent nearly eight days in orbit on the Russian Soyuz TM-32, the International Space Station (ISS), and Soyuz TM-31. Following Russia’s halting of orbital space tourism earlier this year due to an increase in the ISS crew size, private Russian company, Orbital Technologies, has now announced plans to build, launch and operate what could be the world’s first commercial space station (CSS). It envisions the station will be used by professional crews and corporate researchers to conduct scientific experiments, as well as private citizens looking for an out of this world holiday destination.


To be built by Russian spacecraft manufacturer RSC Energia, the CSS would be man-tended, with a crew capability of up to seven people, with the capability to expand the crew size over time. It would be serviced by the Russian Soyez and Progress spacecraft, as well as other human and cargo spacecraft that are expected to be in operation in the next decade. Orbital Technologies says such adaptability will be possible through the station’s unified docking system that will be compatible with any commercial crew and cargo capability developed in the U.S., Europe and China.

The CSS will be placed within 100 km (62 miles) of the ISS in order to minimize the energy required to transfer crew and cargo between the two stations and maximize the opportunities for commerce and cooperation. Its proximity will also allow the CSS to serve as an emergency refuge for the ISS crew if necessary.
"There is a possibility for the ISS crew to leave their station for several days. For example, if a required maintenance procedure or a real emergency were to occur, without the return of the ISS crew to Earth, habitants could use the CSS as a safe haven,” said Alexey Krasnov, Head of Manned Spaceflight Department, Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation.
The first module of the CSS will measure just 20 cubic meters (706 cubic feet) and will comprise four cabins. Despite the tight fit, the planned module will offer more comforts than the ISS and will feature large portholes providing a view of Earth that would be hard to beat.

Aside from being aimed at well-to-do individuals and people working for private companies wanting to conduct research in space, the CSS is also designed to serve as a staging outpost for human space flight missions beyond low earth orbit.
Orbital Technologies isn’t the first company to announce plans for a commercial space station designed to serve as a hotel. In 2007, Galactic Suite Design announced its plans to develop an “orbital hotel chain” starting with a luxury space resort that was due for completion in 2012. Although the company has already taken bookings, no hardware has yet been built or tested and critics have voiced skepticism about the veracity of the project.
Although the CSS is still at the design and development stage, Orbital Technologies has already signed cooperation agreements with RSC Energia and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for the project. It also claims that funding for the development and deployment of the CSS is already in place and is therefore proceding “on an expeditious schedule for the initiation of station operations” and plans to launch the first module of the CSS in 2015-2016. It hasn’t announced any potential pricing but if you’re interested in booking a room you might want to start saving those millions now.

First “potentially habitable” exoplanet discovered

If you’re looking to get away from it all then Gliese 581g might just fit the bill. But be prepared to pack enough for the trip that, even on a rocket traveling 30,000 km per second (18,640 miles per second), would take 200 years. Gliese 581g is the first exoplanet discovered that sits in an area where water could exist on the planet’s surface. If confirmed, this would make it the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a “potentially habitable” one.
Gliese 581g is located 20 light years from Earth, orbiting the nearby (in astronomical terms) red dwarf star Gliese 581. It, along with the discovery of another new planet, brings the total number of known planets around this star to six – the most yet discovered in a planetary system outside our own. Like our solar system, the planets around Gliese 581 have a nearly-circular orbit.

Full of potential

But perhaps put off packing your bags just yet. To astronomers, a “potentially habitable” planet isn’t necessarily one where humans would thrive. Rather, it refers to a planet that could sustain life. Actual habitability depends on many factors, but having liquid water and an atmosphere are among the most important.
With a mass three to four times that of Earth, Gliese 581g orbits its star in just under 37 days. Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet with a definite surface and enough gravity to hold onto an atmosphere.
However, the planet is tidally locked to the star, meaning that one side is always facing the star, while the other side is in perpetual darkness. This means that the most habitable zone on the planet’s surface would be the line between shadow and light known as “the terminator”.

A long time coming

Gliese 581g’s discovery by a team of planet hunters from the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz and the Carnegie Institution of Washington was the result of more than a decade of observations using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, one of the world’s largest optical telescopes.
Using the HIRES spectrometer on the Keck I Telescope, the team was able to precisely measure the star’s motion along the line of sight from Earth, and detect the new planet using the radial velocity method. This is when the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet causes periodic changes in the radial velocity of the host star.
"Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet," said Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. "The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common."
Two previously detected planets orbiting Gliese 581 lie at the edges of the habitable zone. One, Gliese 581c, is on the hot side and the other, Gliese 581d, is on the cold side. While some astronomers still think that planet d may be habitable if it has a thick atmosphere with a strong greenhouse effect to warm it up, others are skeptical. The newly discovered planet g, however, lies right in the middle of the habitable zone.
Sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the team’s new findings are reported in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.