Archive for the ‘SPACE’ Category

7 Aug

The Mars Science Laboratory; A Scientific Overview

Posted by seanduke in ASTRONOMY, SPACE. Tagged: , , , , , .


The $2.5 billion nuclear-powered Mars Curiosity rover is the size of a small car, and is packed with scientific tools, cameras and even a weather station (Credit: NASA).

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has landed safely on Mars, and it has begun its primary scientific job –  to assess whether life ever existed on Mars, or whether it still does exist there.

The robotic rover, Curiosity, pictured here on the right, will travel over the surface, carrying out a number of experiments. The mission is part of NASA’s long term Mars Exploration Programme, using robots to explore the Red Planet.

Scientists believe the MSL is a huge step forward in Martian exploration because it demonstrates NASA’s ability to land a very heavy rover on the surface, and helps pave the way for planned future manned mission.

LISTEN: Interview with Dr Paul Callanan (Astronomer and Physicist based at University College Cork).

This interview was broadcast on 2nd August 2012 on Science Spinning on 103.2 Dublin City FM

WATCH: NASA TV video representation of the MSL landing

16 Mar

Odds of finding ET life just got better

Posted by seanduke in ASTRONOMY, SPACE. Tagged: , , , , , , .


This image shows the Sun, Moon and Earth (not to scale) together with the ‘Earthshine’. Earthshine is caused by sunlight reflecting off the Earth first to the Moon and then back again to Earth(Credit: Enric Palle, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain).

The odds of finding extra-terrestrial life on Earth-like planets outside our own Solar System have suddenly improved.

This is thanks to the pioneering work of a team of astronomers including Dr Stefano Bagnulo based at Armagh Observatory.

The international team have devised a way to filter out the bright light coming from a nearby Star which blocked the view of astronomers when they were trying to look at a planet that might have life.

They team also came up with a definitive way to test for the presence of life on other planets – by looking at Earth from space.

This was achieved using the Moon as a large mirror to look back at Earth. Scientists know that light from the Earth bounces off part of the Moon’s surface and is reflected back to Earth, as ‘Earthshine’.

The signatures of life on Earth, in terms of composition of gases, can be determined by looking in detail at the information in Earthshine.

The scientists found that a unique ratio of gases are present in the Earth’s atmosphere that can only be explained by the action of living organisms. If life didn’t exist here, the gases would interact, and different ratios would be observed.

So if something similar is observed on another planet, it can only mean one thing: Life exists there. This can be determined with certainty without the need to physically travel to that planet.

This could be the method by which life is first discovered on another planet in coming years!

LISTEN: Interview with Dr Stefano Bagnulo

Broadcast on Science Spinning on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 15.03.2012

30 Dec

‘Space Junk’: A Growing Problem Ireland’s Helping to Solve

Posted by seanduke in SPACE, TELEVISION. Tagged: , , , , .


This 32 metre satellite dish based in Midleton Co Cork, will be used to track and monitor dangerous ‘space junk’ (Source: National Space Centre)

Since the launch of the the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union in 1957, there have been an estimated 600,000 pieces of space debris, of varying sizes, transported and dumped in space by mankind.

These pieces of ‘space junk’ no longer serve any useful purpose, but they have the potential to cause serious damage to the orbiting International Space Station, and its crew, and represent a hazard to any future space travellers.

There are thousands of no longer used spy satellites orbiting in the Earth’s atmosphere, as well as tiny pieces of paint or pieces of metal that have fallen off spacecraft of varying kinds over the past five decades or so.

Even small pieces of space junk have the potential to cause huge damage should they impact on the Space Station, or future spacecraft, as they are travelling at thousands of miles per hour.

In order to make space safer for mankind to explore, it is important that all space debris is, in the first instance, tracked and monitored, and ultimately cleaned up.

An Irish company, called the National Space Centre, based in Midleton, has signed a joint agreement with a number of Russian companies to monitor and track space debris.

This will be done using its 32-metre satellite dish, which was built in 1984 to transfer telephone calls between Ireland and the USA.

LISTEN: Interview with Rory Fitzpatrick, CEO National Space Centre

This interview was broadcast on Science Spinning on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 15.12.2011

WATCH: Segment below was broadcast on Elev8, RTE 2 Television 02-05-2012

10 Nov

What’s it like to be an astronaut?

Posted by seanduke in CAREERS, SPACE. Tagged: , , , .


Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, pictured here, will speak in Dublin during science week 2011

Ever wonder what it would be like to be an astronaut? To be the first person from your country to go into space? To conduct a spacewalk outside your spacecraft, while watching planet Earth passing by below?

Christer Fuglesang, from Sweden, pictured on the right, is one of the most experienced astronauts in Europe. He has participated in two space shuttle missions, and five spacewalks, and is the first person outside of the USA or the Russian/Soviet space programmes to participate in more than three spacewalks.

He is in Dublin next week for science week, and he will be talking about his adventures in space in Belvedere College, Dublin 1 on Thursday of next week, the 17th November from 6:30 to 7:30.

LISTEN: Interview with Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang

For more details on this talk, or on science week, visit www.scienceweek.ie

12 Jul

Catching Murderers with Pollen; The Shuttle’s Legacy, & What will Replace It?

Posted by seanduke in FORENSIC SCIENCE, SPACE. Tagged: , , , , , , .


LISTEN:  Catching Murderers with Pollen; The Shuttle’s Legacy, & What will Replace It?

Pollen grains such these pictured here by a scanning electron microscope, can help murder investigators locate a missing body, determine whether a body has been moved, and establish a physical link between a suspect & victim (Source: Wikipedia)

Patricia Wiltshire, UK Forensic Botanist; and Frances McCarthy, Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork

Broadcast on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 07/07/2011

To contact the show email:  sciencespinning@dublincityfm.ie

9 Jun

Cloud Computing; Living on Mars

Posted by seanduke in COMPUTER SCIENCE, SPACE, TECHNOLOGY. Tagged: , , , , .


Living on Mars will involve recycling of human waste and making use of the planet’s resources (Credit: NASA)

LISTEN HERE:  Cloud Computing, Living on Mars

Broadcast on 103.2 Dublin City FM, Science Spinning with Seán Duke, on 02/06/2011

To contact the show email: sciencespinning@dublincityfm.ie

13 May

Animal Morality, Cork’s ‘Deep Space Telescope’

Posted by seanduke in SPACE, ZOOLOGY. Tagged: , , , , , , .


Animal Morality, Cork’s ‘Deep Space Telescope’

Science Spinning: ‘The Show with an Irish Spin on Science’, Presented and Produced by Seán Duke

Elephants are sensitive, moral, creatures that display acts of kindness towards other elephants, even those they are not related to (Credit: Vegan soapbox)

Broadcast on 103.2 Dublin City FM, 12/05/2011

To contact the show email: sciencespinning@dublincityfm.ie

13 Apr

Astronauts perform tasks using Irish 3D training videos

Posted by seanduke in SPACE, TELEVISION. Tagged: , , , , .


The European Space Agency has contracted Irish firm, Cortona 3D, to provide 3D training videos to help its astronauts perform difficult tasks in space.  Astronauts are less likely to make mistakes, it is believed, when following video prompts rather than reading manuals, as was the case up to now.

Specifically, the Irish training videos will be used to help astronauts working on the Automatic Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, that docked recently with the International Space Station, or ISS.

The ATV is essentially a cargo vehicle, bringing food, water and other supplies to astronauts on the ISS.

WATCH:

Click below to watch slot broadcast on TV3′s Ireland AM on 19.08.2009

8 Apr

Cork’s Tyndall on a mission to Mercury

Posted by seanduke in SPACE, TELEVISION. Tagged: , , , , .


Relatively little is known about Mercury, one of our nearest planetary neighbours, but the European Space Agency is aiming to address this with a spaceprobe mission to Mercury set to launch in 2013.

One of the major problems for any probe getting close to Mercury is the extreme heat, with temperatures rising to 350C even when orbiting the planet. The current materials that are used to protect spaceprobes are simply not able to withstand such heat.

That is where researchers at the Tyndall National Institute at UCC have come in, by providing ESA with a new material that has been can help a mercury space probe withstand the huge tempeatures it will be facing.

WATCH:

Click below to watch slot broadcast on TV3′s, Ireland AM on 02.10.2009

8 Apr

Irish scientist predicting ‘solar storms’

Posted by seanduke in SPACE, TELEVISION. Tagged: , , , .


Solar storms, caused by eruptions of charged particles from the Sun can threaten the lives of astronauts working on the International Space Station as well as disrupt telecommunications and power systems on Earth.

The impacts can be dramatically reduced if such storms can be predicted and prepared for. That is exactly what Peter Gallagher, astrophysicist, and his team are doing at TCD – predicting the arrival of solar storms here on Earth.

WATCH:

Broadcast on Ireland AM 06.09.2009

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