Tuesday, June 18, 2013

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab at E3 video game expo - video gaming - Kerbal Space Program

Matt sent me the below link and I found an interesting read. The article also has a link to JPL's YouTube Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation which if you haven't seen should be entertaining. 

What was talked about was the developing video game 'Kerbal Space Program' where you can build your own spaceship.  While waiting for the real thing maybe you could invent your own rocket or at least come to grips with what it means to be a rocket scientist.  :-)

Some more information links follow.
- LRK -
---------------------------------------------


NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab is obsessed with a certain game, and I bet you can guess what it is
  • BY ANDREW GROEN
  • 6/18/13 AT 9:30 AM

  • FEATURE


NASA had a booth at this year's E3, and I stopped by for a chat with one of their software engineers to talk about why NASA decided to have a presence at a video game expo. During the course of our conversation we got to talking about video games. It turns out that quite a few of the folks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are video gamers and they're obsessed with one game in particular.

“The only thing that would make this week complete, and you may or may not know about this game, is if the developers of a game called Kerbal Space Program showed up. Half of JPL is playing that game right now,” said Douglas Ellison, a visualization producer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He's one of the people who helps make JPL's scientifically exact digital recreations of NASA missions like the Curiosity Mars Landing

snip

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation

Uploaded on Jun 24, 2011
This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which will launch in late 2011 and land a rover, Curiosity, on Mars in August 2012
snip
Kerbal Space Program is a sort of cartoonish space mission simulator. The player is given command of a space program run by little tadpole-esque creatures called Kerbals. The game is a sandbox title where the player can build completely custom rocket ships to blast off the planet and attempt to fly their ship through space to reach other planets and moons. You could even piece together your own space station or build a little solar-powered rover to take with you on your voyage.

The game is growing all the time, because technically it hasn't actually released yet. The game's developers, the indie team Squad from Mexico City, have launched Kerbal Space Program in a Minecraft-esque paid Alpha. So the game is constantly getting new and better features.

snip
---------------------------------------------

I had not seen this web site before and will spend some more time with it even though I am not an avid gamer. (never seemed to get above level one in whatever I tried.) If you are a gamer maybe something you can use.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------

OUR MISSION AND OUR TEAM

PAR isn’t just about video games, although video games are going to provide the backbone of our coverage. We’re going to discuss everything we’re playing, watching, reading, and experiencing in the world of gaming and technology. We’re going to dig deeper, write longer, and help you to avoid wasting your time on coverage that doesn’t take these topics as seriously as you do.

PAR combines original, long-form game reporting and shorter news blasts. The latest version of The Cut points out the best in game writing and timely stories about the industry, with our own commentary about why you need to read these stories and where we feel others may have led you astray. Our core values are staying the same, but our mission has become broader.

snip
---------------------------------------------

Back to the developing video game 'Kerbal Space Program' if you care to follow what IS developing see link below and maybe watch some YouTube videos of what others have done..
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------

Kerbal Space Program Forum

Welcome to the Kerbal Space Program Forum.
snip

Kerbal Space Program

KerbalSPOfficial uploaded and posted 3 weeks ago
Recovered Munar Footage from the Kerbal Space Center!!

Recovered Munar Footage

183,942 views
Kerbal Space Center recovered footage from a Munar expedition.
snip
---------------------------------------------

While poking around on 'The Penny Arcade Report' they had some comments about Microsoft's new Xbox One's usage restrictions and how they will affect military gaming enthusiasts. 
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
The military comes out swinging against Xbox One’s usage restrictions
It's amazing how many members of our military play video games, and they take their gaming seriously. A large number of e-mails come in from those serving, and we meet many of them at PAX. We think we use games to cut loose every now and then, but I can't imagine the pressure of being stationed overseas, and having video games be one of the few ways to escape what can be miserable conditions.

snip

New Xbox 'a sin against all service members'
Microsoft says troops should use old gear instead
Jun. 14, 2013 - 06:00AM
By Jon R. Anderson 
Staff writer

Navy Lt. Scott Metcalf was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Xbox One. Now he’s not even sure if he’ll buy one.

Indeed, for many in the military, the next-gen Xbox console may offer more endemic frustration than grand epic gaming, particularly for those deployed downrange, aboard ships and stationed overseas.

Xbox One, Microsoft’s much-anticipated new console, got its big reveal at the Electronic Entertainment Expo gamers’ convention in Los Angeles. Company honchos are confident it will come to dominate living rooms over the next decade not only as the gaming delivery vehicle of choice, but also with a barrage of other content, including a suite of apps, streaming video and music.

There’s one big but, however: To get all this entertainment awesomeness, the console will have to check in online with the Microsoft mothership at least once a day.

“With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection,” an Xbox spokesperson tell Military Times.

snip
---------------------------------------------

Even though I have not been a gamer I have often dreamed of having a program that could project a lunar base right in front of me on my coffee table in 3D.  You know, that science fiction stuff you see in the movies and TV. The new smart phones can let you loo at the display and overlay what the camera is viewing so we are close.  NASA is beginning to pay more attention to video gaming and hopefully someone will think that a virtual moon base game could help sell the idea of going back to the Moon. Maybe crowd sourcing the construction of the game would develop a greater awareness. At least this article expresses an interest in being in your living room. What would you like to see?
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
How NASA wants to use video games to make us all ‘Space Invaders’ 
Yannick LeJacqNBC News contributor
April 1, 2013 at 4:17 PM ET

“You are the space invaders,” NASA manager Jeff Norris declared last week to a packed audience at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

It was a dramatic ending to a surprise talk scheduled at the last minute into a conference usually packed with the most arcane and theoretical pieces of trade information game developers swap with one another over a week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. Gamers and developers alike may have been confused to see real-world space exploration suddenly creep into a flurry of conversations about virtual worlds, but, as Norris explained during his presentation, NASA’s projects have often overlapped with the work of game designers.

To start, there’s the “hallowed ground of the living room,” where viewers first witnessed the legendary Apollo 11 landing, which Norris said was the most watched television broadcast at the time in history.”

The living room is “a place we'd like to be again,” Norris said.

snip
---------------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.  
- LRK -
 
============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

============================================
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

Monday, June 17, 2013

Who Owns The Future?

I have been off the air of recent with typing still a problem for the right hand/arm but saw this title mentioned in a PBS Newshour TV interview with Jaron Lanier and it fit in with the other news about the NSA phone snooping and my science fiction readings about possible transhuman futures and my viewing of the Canadian TV series, CONTINUUM, showing on my cable Scyfi channel, so a bit of left hand single finger poking. :-)

I have also been reading Alvin Toffler's 1970 book, "Future Shock" with thoughts about where our rapidly changing technology is taking us so I thought I would pass on some of the info for your consideration and hope the future treats you well. (however you chose to shape it)
- LRK -
 
---------------------------------------------
Who Owns The Future?

"Everyone complains about the Internet, but no one does anything about it...except for Jaron Lanier."
—Neal Stephenson, bestselling author of Reamde and Cryptonomicon

“Who Owns the Future? explains what’s wrong with our digital economy, and tells us how to fix it. Listen up!”
—George Dyson, bestselling author of Turing’s Cathedral

"Who Owns the Future? is a deeply original and sometimes startling read. Lanier does not simply question the dominant narrative of our technological age, but picks it up by the neck and shakes it. A refreshing and important book that will make you see the world differently."
— Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch

“This book is rare. It looks at technology with an insider’s knowledge, wisdom, and deep caring about human beings. It’s badly needed.”
—W. Brian Arthur, author of The Nature of Technology

snip
---------------------------------------------

Jaron Lanier from Wikipedia.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
Jaron Zepel Lanier (/ˈdʒɛərɨn lɨˈnɪər/, born 3 May 1960) is an American computer scientist, best known for popularizing the term virtual reality(VR). A pioneer in the field of VR, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves. In the late 1990s, Lanier worked on applications for Internet2, and in the 2000s, he was a visiting scholar at Silicon Graphics and various universities. More recently, he has acted as an advisor to Linden Lab on their virtual world product Second Life, and as "scholar-at-large" at Microsoft Research where he has worked on the Kinect device for Xbox 360.
Lanier is also known as a composer of classical music and a collector of rare instruments; his acoustic album, Instruments of Change (1994) features Asian wind and string instruments such as the khene mouth organ, the suling flute, and the sitar-like esraj. Lanier was the director of an experimental short film, and teamed with Mario Grigorov to compose the soundtrack to the documentary film, The Third Wave (2007). As an author, Lanier has written a column for Discover magazine; his book, You Are Not a Gadget (2010), is a critique of Web 2.0. In 2010, Lanier was nominated (by himself) in the TIME 100 list of most influential people.
snip
---------------------------------------------

So the news has been a buzz with what the NSA may be doing in its quest to find the bad guy that might have overseas connections. Today's Internet networking and smart phones lets you share a lot of information about yourself. (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Often other applications as well require you to share a lot of information about the hardware you are using and your connection information as well. Don't want to share, read the preferences well and then don't install the application if it doesn't let you opt out. Even so, if you use the Internet your actions my well be tracked.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
The United States' National Security Agency (NSA) maintains a database containing hundreds of billions of records of telephone calls made by U.S. citizens from the four largest telephone carriers in the United States: AT&T, SBC, BellSouth (all three now called AT&T), and Verizon.[1]
The existence of this database and the NSA program that compiled it was unknown to the general public until USA Today broke the story on May 10, 2006.[1] It is estimated that the database contains over 1.9 trillion call-detail records.[2] According to Bloomberg News, the effort began approximately seven months before the September 11, 2001 attacks.[3] As of June 2013, the database is code named MARINA and stores the metadata for at least five years.[4]
The records include detailed call information (caller, receiver, date/time of call, length of call, etc.) for use in traffic analysis and social network analysis, but do not include audio information or transcripts of the content of the phone calls.
The database's existence has prompted fierce objections. It is often viewed as an illegal warrantless search and a violation of the pen register provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and (in some cases) the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
snip
---------------------------------------------

NSA Ground Breaking for new computing center.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------

Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for Computing Center

FORT MEADE, Md. - The National Security Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground today on the High Performance Computing Center-2, an NSA-run facility that will be located on base.
Photo of a digital keyhole
The project is an outgrowth of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), which the White House launched in 2008 to provide a unified approach to securing America's digital infrastructure. Scheduled for completion in 2016, the center will help to carry out the CNCI's mission by protecting national security networks and providing U.S. authorities with intelligence and warnings about cyber threats.
Dignitaries who attended the ceremony included GEN Keith B. Alexander, Commander, U.S. Cyber Command/Director, NSA/Chief, CSS; Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski; Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger; Major General Todd T. Semonite, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; COL Edward Rothstein, Garrison Commander, Fort George G. Meade; and Dr. Harvey Davis, NSA's Associate Director for Installations & Logistics.
snip
---------------------------------------------

I enjoyed the season 1 episodes and now season 2 has started. I managed to view again season 1 on YouTube but there is a DVD out and many of the links have gone dark and a number of sites want you to down load a viewer and ask too many questions and want credit card information so beware.. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/  The SHOW CASE Canadian web site doesn't want to play nice here but has information of interest.  Just be careful of the outside PLAY NOW ads that want to down load software and don't go away when requested to close..http://www.showcase.ca/continuum/continuumepisodes.aspx

I like their special effects and wish I had some of the heads up displays.

Continuum - Second Listen 1/4 (one of four parts of Season 2, Episode 8) - Unless blocked - LRK -
Kiera's suspicions, confirmed finally; there were time jumpers before she and Liber8 came to the present. Now they're popping up dead, and she must find out who's behind it. Alec is kidnapped by Garza, acting on orders...from Alec's future self.[20] 
Continuum - Second Listen 2/4
Continuum - Second Listen 3/4
Continuum - Second Listen 4/4

Here is of the Continuum episodes.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
Continuum is a Canadian science fiction television series created by Simon Barry. It was first shown on the Showcase channel on May 27, 2012. It premiered in the U.S on the Syfy channel on January 14, 2013. The series revolves around Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), a CPS "protector" (police officer) from the year 2077 who was transported back to 2012 with a group of terrorists called Liber8 who were scheduled for execution, before their time jump. Kiera must stop Liber8 from changing the past, so she disguises herself as a special agent, and teams up with Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster) and Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen) to stop them. Along the way, she forms an alliance with Matthew Kellog (Stephen Lobo), a reformed member of Liber8.

snip
---------------------------------------------

And books where you have to use your own imagination for the visuals.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
Last month I read "MORE THAN HUMAN - EMBRACING THE PROMISE OF BIOLOGICAL ENHANCEMENT" (non fiction) and "neXus" (fiction) by RAMEZ NAAM.

I found "MORE THAN HUMAN" (cr 2005) a light read of what was happening in biological enhancements back in 2005 time frame and his comments set the stage for the later fiction novel, "neXus", that is copyright 2013.

"neXus" starts out at Moffett Field, hanger 3, where there is a big drug party going on. This brought back memories of my being in VP-9 that was based in hanger 2 and although blImp hangers are certainly big enough to throw large drug parties I don't remember that being the case. :-)  Most of the story then goes on to unfold in the Bangkok,Thailand and points further north in Thailand, so again caught my attention. (my wife is Thai)  Several times Ramez uses phonetic transliteration of spoken Thai with English clarification which seemed to fit with my understanding of the language so a nice touch.

The action plays out with transhuman enhancements making for a lot action.  Would make for a bloody X-Box game.  Language a bit more explicit than I would use but fit the situations.

The preachiness of both books is that governments tend to do what THEY think is correct and people that are different often have laws passed against them and which use others to carry out orders that may be against humanity.

I grew up during the McCarthy witch hunts for suspected communists so again caught my attention.

LRK
--------------
---------------------------------------------

And if the Internet becomes intelligent.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------
Wake, also called WWW: Wake, is a 2009 novel written by Canadian novelist Robert J. Sawyer. It is the first installment in the WWW Trilogyand was followed by two sequels, Watch (2010) and Wonder (2011). An audio book was released on 7 April 2009.
Wake details the spontaneous emergence of an intelligence on the World Wide Web, called Webmind. It gains sentience through the efforts of Caitlin Decter, a 15-year-old blind girl who gains sight through a new treatment that allows her optic nerve to correctly decode the visual signals from her retinas. Caitlin struggles to understand and communicate with the emerging technological intelligence, as she is its only contact to the real world. Subplots involve a deadly disease outbreak in China and its cover-up, and a chimpanzee–bonobo hybrid, Hobo, whose perception of the world is altered after a web call with an orangutan.
Sawyer developed the initial idea for Wake in January 2003 when he wrote in his diary about the emergence of consciousness on the World Wide Web. The novel was named a 2010 Hugo Award nominee in the category for Best Novel.
snip
---------------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.  
- LRK -
 
===========================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

===========================================
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Find a Lunar Cave - Think about designing for that cave - 3D printing - Neri Oxman


Using caves on the Moon for habitats plays a part in science fiction and possibly for real if we ever go back to stay.  Finding them and checking out their usefulness will be necessary and Jaro alerted me to the below PDF article.

When you decide to move it will take a bit of fixing up and I have been viewing some videos of Neri Oxman of MIT's Media Lab using 3D printers. Could I use any of her ideas.  Look around and see what mother nature has done and be inspired and creative.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------------
44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2013) - 3080.pdf
SKYLIGHT: MISSION TO INVESTIGATE AND MODEL A LUNAR PIT. H. L. Jones1, K. M. Peterson2, W. L. Whittaker1,2, and U. Y. Wong1 1Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, {hlj|red|uyw}@cs.cmu.edu), 2Astrobotic Technology, Inc. (2515 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, kev-in.peterson@astrobotictech.com).

Introduction: Caves on planetary bodies beyond Earth have always been of great interest for science and exploration, but for many years there was no known way to enter. Unprecedented high-resolution imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed pits that are believed to be skylights – features formed by partial cave ceiling collapse that provide access into caves [1],[2]. Skylights have also been discovered on Mars [3], and similar features may exist elsewhere in the solar system [1]. Discovery of these features changes everything. The Skylight mission takes the next step to closely investigate one of these pits.
Mission Objectives: The Skylight mission seeks to answer science and exploration questions about the-se newly discovered lunar skylights. The objectives of the mission are to:
1. provide multi-perspective close-up images of a lunar pit,
2. build a detailed, high quality 3D model of the pit, and
3. survey the terrain surrounding the pit.

Mission Decription: The Skylight mission targets the Marius Hills Hole (MHH) in the Marius Hills re-gion of Oceanus Procellarum at 14.2°N, 303.3°E [4]. This pit is selected because of its location on the lunar near side, facilitating mission operations without re-quirement for installation of expensive communication infrastructure, as well as the indications of lava tubes in surrounding terrain.

snip
----------------------------------------------------------------

Neri Oxman
- LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------------

Neri Oxman, Founder of Mediated Matter Lab -- Part 1

Published on Feb 20, 2013
Neri Oxman, Founder of Mediated Matter Lab -- Part 1...

Material Ecology - http://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/i...
MIT - http://www.media.mit.edu/people/neri
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neri_Oxman
snip
----------------------------------------------------------------

What might you be able to create with nature in mind.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------------

Neri Oxman: On Designing Form

from  PLUS 3 years ago 
Architect Neri Oxman is the founder of MATERIALECOLOGY, an interdisciplinary design initiative expanding the boundaries of computational form-generation and material engineering. Named one of Fast Company's "100 Most Creative People in Business," Oxman investigates the material and performance of nature in an effort to define form itself.

snip
Uploaded on Mar 12, 2010
Architect Neri Oxman is the founder of MATERIALECOLOGY, an interdisciplinary design initiative expanding the boundaries of computational form-generation and material engineering. Named one of Fast Company's "100 Most Creative People in Business," Oxman investigates the material and performance of nature in an effort to define form itself.

----------------------------------------------------------------

What could you do with the 3D printer?
- LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------------

Revolution in Art & Design using 3D Printing | Objet for Neri Oxman

Published on May 4, 2012
As seen on the Objet blog: http://blog.objet.com/

A special thanks to MIT Media Lab's Neri Oxman, Peter Schmitt (3D printed clock) & Amit Zoran (3D printed flute) for kindly allowing footage of their 3D printed models to be used in the making of this film. (Some of these parts were created using a variety of 3D printing technologies including Objet.) 

In this insightful interview, Neri Oxman,architect, designer and professor of Media Arts and Sciences and Director of the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab, explains the differences between 'additive' and 'subtractive' manufacturing. Inspired by things that 'grow' in nature, Oxman uses the world's most advanced 3D printing technology - the Objet Connex500 multi-material 3D printer to produce some incredible models which will be on display at the Pompidou Center until August 6th 2012 at the 'Multiversites Creatives' exhibit. Neri also explains 3D printing within the wider paradigm shift in technology and manufacturing - comparing it to the Gutenberg 2D print revolution of the 1440's.

For more information about Objet: http://www.objet.com/
snip
----------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to express yourself.
Could you design a pair of space suit gloves that would not wear out an astronaut's fingernails?
- LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------------

Neri Oxman, Founder of Mediated Matter Lab -- Part 2

Published on Feb 20, 2013
Neri Oxman, Founder of Mediated Matter Lab -- Part 2... The Next List: CNN's hub for stories about innovation.

Material Ecology - http://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/i...
MIT - http://www.media.mit.edu/people/neri
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neri_Oxman

The Next List: http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/catego...
snip
----------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to think outside the box, inside the box, on the box, and really not so boxy in the first place.  :-)

Thanks for looking up with me.  
- LRK -
 
===========================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

===========================================
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Voyager: Looking Backward and Forward



A paper about the Voyager missions was given a headline that announced that Voyager 1 had left the Solar System and then was revised to be a bit less sensational.  Please do read Paul Gilster's blog, a snippet seen below.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------

Voyager: Looking Backward and Forward

by PAUL GILSTER on MARCH 21, 2013
The Voyager spacecraft have run into their share of problems as they move toward true interstellar space, but on the whole their continued operations have been a testament to what well designed equipment can do. Voyager 2’s camera platform locked for a time not long after the Saturn flyby but controllers were able to restore the system by experimenting with similar actuators on Earth. Three years ago the craft began having data problems resulting from a flipped bit in an onboard computer but a reset from Earth corrected the fault. Even the failure of the primary radio receiver not long after launch was resolved by the use of the onboard backup.
Obviously both craft are living on borrowed time as the power output of their radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) continues to decline, but we should still be getting signals for another decade or so. With the Voyagers now on what is designated their ‘interstellar mission,’ it’s pleasing to note that Alpha Centauri is the guide star that Voyager 1 used to reorient itself to resume transmissions to Earth following 2011 maneuvering to allow better detection of the solar wind. We continue to push deeper into a region of space that is now little understood.
Leaving the Solar System
Yesterday’s brief skirmish over Voyager 1’s true situation tells us how much we have to learn about the Solar System’s edge. A paper by William Webber (New Mexico State) and the late Frank McDonald (University of Maryland) reported that a sudden change in cosmic rays detected by Voyager 1 last summer showed that the spacecraft was in a new region of the Solar System they called the ‘heliocliff.’ What evidently confused matters was that the American Geophysical Union, publisher of Geophysical Review Letters — the publication at which the paper had been accepted — sent out a news release saying the craft had left the Solar System.
While the cosmic ray changes were marked, with galactic cosmic ray intensity suddenly doubling last August, Caltech’s Ed Stone issued a statement saying that a change in the magnetic field will be the true indication of Voyager 1’s arrival in interstellar space. No such change has yet been detected, and the AGU soon revised the news release headline to say that the spacecraft had ‘entered a new region of space.’ The ‘heliocliff,’ in other words, is apparently the same region that NASA scientists had already noted as a previously unknown ‘highway’ of magnetic particles. Nancy Atkinson straightened all this out quickly on Universe Today.

snip
--------------------------------------------------------

The American Geophysical Union corrected press release.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2013/2013-11.shtml
CORRECTED PRESS RELEASE
Please note that the headline on this release has been changed to better represent the findings reported in the study

Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate

20 March 2013
AGU Release No. 13-11
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON – Thirty-five years after its launch, Voyager 1 appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere, according to a new study appearing online today.
The heliosphere is a region of space dominated by the Sun and its wind of energetic particles, and which is thought to be enclosed, bubble-like, in the surrounding interstellar medium of gas and dust that pervades the Milky Way galaxy.
On August 25, 2012, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft measured drastic changes in radiation levels, more than 11 billion miles from the Sun. Anomalous cosmic rays, which are cosmic rays trapped in the outer heliosphere, all but vanished, dropping to less than 1 percent of previous amounts. At the same time, galactic cosmic rays – cosmic radiation from outside of the solar system – spiked to levels not seen since Voyager's launch, with intensities as much as twice previous levels.
The findings have been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
"Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere," said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He calls this transition boundary the "heliocliff."
In the GRL article, the authors state: "It appears that [Voyager 1] has exited the main solar modulation region, revealing [hydrogen] and [helium] spectra characteristic of those to be expected in the local interstellar medium."
However, Webber notes, scientists are continuing to debate whether Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space or entered a separate, undefined region beyond the solar system.
"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," Webber said. "We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting."
The work was funded by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Notes for Journalists
Journalists and members of the public can download a PDF copy of this accepted article by clicking on this link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50383/abstract
Or, you may order a copy of the final paper by emailing your request to Peter Weiss at pweiss@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number.
Neither the paper nor this press release are under embargo
Title:
“Recent Voyager 1 Data Indicate that on August 25, 2012 at a Distance of 121.7 AU From the Sun, Sudden and Unprecedented Intensity Changes were Observed in Anomalous and Galactic Cosmic Rays”
Authors:
W.R. Webber
New Mexico State University, Department of Astronomy, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA;
F.B. McDonald
University of Maryland, Institute of Physical Science and Technology, College Park, Maryland, USA. (Deceased)
Contact information for the authors:
W.R. Webber, Email: bwebber@nmsu.edu, Telephone: (575) 646-2007

snip
--------------------------------------------------------

Los Angeles Times article.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-voyager-20130321,0,2604128.story

Voyager 1 has left the solar system — almost

The American Geophysical Union announces that the space probe has become the first man-made object to enter interstellar space, only to backtrack when NASA scientists and others dispute the claim.

Voyager
A NASA illustration depicts one of the twin Voyager spacecraft. NASA scientists Wednesday disputed an announcement that Voyager 1 had moved beyond the solar system and into interstellar space. (NASA /August 9, 2002)

By Monte Morin and Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
March 20, 2013, 8:09 p.m.

It was welcome news to Earthlings: The Voyager 1 spacecraft had seemingly crossed a momentous threshold and become the first man-made object to enter interstellar space.
"Voyager 1 has left the solar system," the American Geophysical Union declared Wednesday in a news release. An accompanying study published online in the organization's journal, Geophysical Research Letters, also contained an unusually sentimental end note declaring that "we did it. Bon Voyage!"
Alas, the elation that spread through news and social media was short-lived. Voyager 1 was still in the neighborhood,NASA said, even after traveling for more than 35 years. Then the American Geophysical Union press office issued a correction of its headline, omitting any reference to the spacecraft having departed "the solar system."
snip
--------------------------------------------------------

And at JPL - Voyager - The Interstellar Mission

Thanks for looking up with me.  
- LRK -
============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

============================================
Posted by at
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)