Category Archives: Space Science

Over a Billion Miles – A Journeys End for Juno

I’ve been travelling a lot this past few months hence the radio silence. But one radio event that has come into view albeit on a more cosmic scale is the latest news that Juno NASA’s Jupiter mission probe is entering its last phase of an extremely long journey.  So I’d thought I’d dedicate this next post to a subject that is close to the title of my blog and draw on the analogy this brings.

We can only wonder at the immense feat this has accomplished.

 

Over half a solar system away, NASA’s $Billion Juno space probe is getting ready to fire its breaking rockets in a final push to enter Jupiter’s orbit on a day that has become popular for spaceflight landmarks — the 4th of July. Juno’s five-year, nearly 2 billion mile journey is expected to come to an end just like other missions that have shared special events on America’s Independence Day, like the touchdown of the Mars Pathfinder in 1997 and a comet collision as part of the Deep Impact mission in 2013.
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The Juno mission is designed to peer beneath Jupiter’s thick clouds and to see what’s inside. That, in turn, may yield clues to how our entire solar system came to be. “It formed first, so its formation, its gravity, will have affected the other planets as they formed,” Juno Project Scientist Gary Levin told USA TODAY. This is not NASA’s first visit to Jupiter. Besides several flyby missions, the Galileo spacecraft studied Jupiter and its moons from 1995 until 2003. But Galileo avoided getting too close to Jupiter’s intense, electronics-frying radiation. Juno’s mission is focused entirely on Jupiter itself — no moons – and takes a much more dangerous approach. The mission’s vicinity will allow Juno to measure Jupiter’s gravity, magnetic field, and microwaves, which scientists can use to determine its composition.
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One of the most intriguing questions is whether Jupiter is entirely gas or has a solid core deep in its center.“Right now our best theorists think that deep inside Jupiter … is this dense core somewhere between three and twenty times the mass of earth.
We have no direct evidence at all,” says Levin. Juno’s gravity readings should help confirm or refute that theory. Juno’s measurements should also allow scientists to estimate the amount of water on Jupiter and shed new light on how the planet was formed. “The water all by itself will tell us a lot about those theories of formation because if it formed from clumps of ice you’re going get a different amount of water than if it formed from the same cloud of dust that formed the sun,” Levin says.Although Juno is the second craft to orbit Jupiter, its design is quite different from the earlier one. For one, to address the dangers of dipping inside the radiation belts, the engineers built a titanium vault to shield the spacecraft’s electronics. 
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Juno’s flight plan will take it though a complex pattern of elliptical orbits that dive beneath the belts, but quickly reemerge, limiting the exposure to once every two weeks.Another mission first is Juno’s massive solar panels. Jupiter’s distance from the sun—nearly five times that of earth—means Juno only receives a small fraction of the solar energy available to Earth satellites. Engineers were forced to build huge panels to capture enough energy to deliver what is still a modest amount of power. Power being the operative word as the craft has to slow down from travelling 168,000 mph to close to Mach 2.
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Imagine experiencing the breaking G force on that ..at our earths gravity level. Beyond comprehension!!!! As stateside people get ready to celebrate with their pyrotechnics maybe the best fireworks this 4th of July will be in Jupiters orbit, 365 million miles away. But all you space buffs out there will have to be patient. As all the images and footage from Junos’ cameras will take some time to reach us here on planet Earth. For one I’ll be looking forward to seeing Jupiters Aurora’s in all their glory. I wonder how they compare to the lightshow so evident in our own Northern Hemisphere.

To all you reaching for the stars and fulfilling your life’s potential.

To the next

Steve

How to Launch Your Own Satellite

 

Many years ago in between jobs I launched one of the first Satellite  Radio stations ” Rock Shop Radio” from an Astra Satellite sub audio band completely free of charge. You could say it was  a bit of a favour from my old days at Murdochs Sky TV

Now you maybe thinking ..how on earth can Steve have rented time FOC on a major satellite network …well more on this in a later post!…. 😉

Admittedly space is an expensive business……

But ……If you’ve ever dreamed of developing your own Satellite and launching it into space then you maybe just a one step closer to realising your dream.  Shaun Whitehead’s very smart company  ThumbSat project has a one-stop shop solution to putting your experiment in space. It’s essentially a balloon-like design fitted-out with an array of electronic componentry such as  a microcontroller, transmitter, GPS unit and camera. For a cost of around $20,000 or so, a ThumbSat can literally “Thumb A Lift” on space rockets that have already been scheduled for launch, retrieve data and transmit it down to a number of global receiver stations for about two/three  months, and then burn up on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

 

ThumbSat essentially is bringing space exploration and making it affordable & available to everyone — from bedroom scientists to school & college students to even  NASA. The whole process is scaled down & streamlined so that you don’t experience the usual red tape & hurdles that characterises the usual process.

As their website proclaims Tiny Satellite = Tiny Cost = Huge Results.

A fascinating innovation that is going places.

Check it out

To your success.

Steve

NASA – Gratis Patents For You

This was a major bold move last week; for all you budding astronauts & space entrepreneurs out there.

NASA has invited tech startups to license patented NASA tech without upfront costs in an initiative called Startup NASA. The agency eliminated initial licensing fees and minimum fees for the first three years of use, but will collect a standard net royalty fee for any products sold after that period. An online patent portfolio organizes the 1,200-plus patents into 15 categories; to get started, entrepreneurs just need to fill out an application for a desired technology.

 

“The Startup NASA initiative leverages the results of our cutting-edge research and development so entrepreneurs can take that research — and some risks — to create new products and new services,” explained David Miller, NASA’s chief technologist.

The agency will waive the initial licensing fees, and there are no minimum fees for the first three years — but once a startup starts selling a product, NASA will collect a standard net royalty fee

That said, even with royalty costs later on down the road, free and unfettered access to the agency’s patent portfolio could be well worth it to the right startup. NASA’s patents range from materials coatings to sensors, aeronautics technology, instrumentation, and more — so there’s plenty of room for innovation.

The agency has even gone the extra mile and put together a “streamlined, online patent portfolio covering 15 categories and packed with patents protected by the U.S. government.” You can seriously just browse through the patent collection online, and once you’ve pinpointed a desired technology you think you could commercialize, you can get the ball rolling by filling out and submitting application through the website.

Further information on the initiative, as well as application info, can be found on NASA’s dedicated Web page.  NASA StartUps

This is really opening the book wide to everybody that might have an idea of how to harness state of the art thinking and make a viable business. As their opener suggests ” Bringing NASA Technology Down To Earth”

I’m certainly going to check out that webpage and see where my creative mind takes me!

Will you do the same as now the agency is encouraging innovation and expediting dramatic breakthroughs; so you have a chance to make your mark on the world stage.

What a great platform as a discussion point.

Time to make your own “One Giant Leap for Mankind”

Join me

Steve

What ET could teach you, me & our Scientists?

One could probably devote a whole website & fanbase to this subject but I couldn’t resist the current news release snippet that hit the airwaves in the last few days that certainly warrants an airing as part of my  wider interest; this has thrown into question why are there technologies available to us that are lying dormant locked away from public view. As a leaked memo suggests from FBI files has been seen & reported on the internet. The memo was unearthed at the Hakui Centre for UFO Research in Tokyo.

The truth will be outed  – there’s no doubt. The truth will reach a critical mass and explode across the planet eventually. Or as George Orwell once wrote: “In a world of lies and deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”.

People like Dr Steven Greer and The Disclosure team have done amazing things to bring awareness to the masses through all their endeavours about what is really happening behind the scenes.

Following NASA’s big announcement yesterday about water on mars, I can’t believe those known by reputable researchers  will stoop this low, to insult us with a few crumbs from their vast table of knowledge – people/us incidentally who pay for them – with a triffling story of “water or possible water, now and again”, nothing too concrete.

Let’s be honest here….Life is everywhere in the Solar System and the Universe at different evolutionary stages both advanced and primitive even cellular!

Here’s a gem of an idea for NASA: How about stop messing with the truth about having U.S/Russian/Alien facilities on the Moon and Mars since the 1960’s – that is on Mars both above and below the surface? The Martian ruins/buildings past and present, and the Mars/Earth connection.

The leaked memo  outlines that an “E.T.” inter-dimensional craft, the real thing has been brought down by military radar;  Our radar interferes with the piloting of their craft. The reason is, they are flown by mind control, what most of us mortals know as ESP, programmed into sophisticated software. The military call it ‘remote viewing’ and they have been practicing it since Roswell. Look up the history of Ingo Swann & Stanford University & the CIA.

Then there are all the other super technologies being withheld from us, like Zero Point energy, over unity propulsion systems (free energy) from the quantum vacuum – that is available to be tapped into all around us, to power most of what we need and even the odd human piloted flying disc, instead of forcing us to continue to poison the Earth with fossil fuels – something we have not needed since 1954. That was when Zero Point was successfully tested and then promptly buried, by certain government departments in favour of the oil cartel.

One has to ask how long is NASA going to keep up this farce of not divulging the details of their secret space program, which runs alongside’ the 1940’s primitive rocket technology version  – that E.T have already been contacted more than 60 + years ago under Eisenhower, the history of the various deals that were made with them by the military, and who exactly runs this planet today?

NASA and the arm of the Military Industrial Complex with their dark corporate partners have painted themselves into a corner with their pointless secrecy and lies, one from which they cannot escape. It’s all about weaponising super technologies and world control. They will have to tell the truth to the public eventually and they know it. I know there is an argument as to why everything is being held back as to what effect it will have on global markets and the possible global hysteria. But on the flipside the longterm advantages of knowing far outweigh the interim short term panic that will eventually wither away to acceptance.

Despite what we claim to know as human beings, the universe is far beyond our understanding & comprehension. Look at our technological advances over the last 100 years. Now try to imagine what a civilization with 100,000 or 1,000,000 years of technological advances might look like. They could just be explorers. Even though this possibility warrants caution. A species that has evolved and developed enough to traverse the universe is more likely exploring. Conflict and aggression are unfortunately part of the human species as we fight and claw our way through life( appearing almost prehistoric to ET) for dominance on this small planet of ours. These aliens don’t need Earth or it’s people or resources as they have the entire universe & trillions of galaxies at their disposal. They don’t live by the “law of the jungle” as they’ve emerged triumphant in their own space and are no longer fighting to survive. They have already harnessed abundance of knowledge on a galactic scale.

Some people believe that if there are aliens with great technology, they would have tried to make meaningful contact with us by now. Have you ever tried to make meaningful contact with an ant farm?

Perhaps we are no more than ants to them; a typical arthropod. Kind of puts things in perspective however exciting or daunting it may feel. Even if their civilization came about just only 1,000 years before us there is a good chance that it would be like showing a working laptop to King Harold ….”the Anglo Saxon King of England”! Completely Mindboggling!

But hold that thought for a minute!

Imagine you meeting ET and spending an hour with him? Imagine the idealogical gems that could be discovered! Advanced Hyper Physics & Exponential Technology for starters!

One to ponder over.

In the meantime chase your own dreams and make them a reality .

To your success

 

Steve

Tallest Lift on The Planet

It appears like a special effects design out of a Star Wars epic.
But engineers have drawn up plans to build an elevator that would lift astronauts and their craft 12 miles into the Stratosphere.
The idea is that they would take off at higher altitudes there-by burning about 30% less fuel than at ground level cutting costs significantly for manned space flight.
The firm Thoth Technology Inc ( http://thothx.com/ ) has been granted US & UK patents for its “space elevator” which would travel at 7mph up a freestanding tower.

It’s an important breakthrough because…

In the patent the firm explains that blasting off from the ground requires vast amounts of kinetic energy because the propulsion systems are weighed down with fuel and must counter atmospheric drag.

When using their new design at higher altitudes less “expulsion mass” exists working against gravity and lower ascent speeds can be achieved with less fuel in the stratosphere as drag is vitually elimated .

Conventional rockets take off vertically – shedding various modules as they get higher before turning horizontal to enter space. The elevator would eliminate this stage altogether with take offs from a launch pad flying off horizontally. Space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refueling and reflight.

Mind blowing and exciting stuff which will herald a new era of space transportation.

These are the topics I want to discuss in our mastermind group. Please opt in and strike up a conversation. Any Space Junkies out there that want to explore some new ideas?

 

Success is yours for the taking

Steve

 

Brain Cells & Expanding Galaxies

According to a study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports recently , the universe may be growing in the same way as a giant brain – with the electrical firing between brain cells ‘mirrored’ by the shape of expanding galaxies.

The results of a computer simulation suggest that “natural growth dynamics” – the way that systems evolve – are the same for different kinds of networks – whether its the internet, the human brain or the universe as a whole.

Did you know that inside your body if you look at brain nerves endings  under the microscope and observe the colourful patterns that appear,  you can find structures and features that look strikingly like celestial bodies – millions of light years away? The universe is just as alive and complex as we are, in some ways…

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Past studies by Dmitri Krioukov, a physicist at the University of California San Diego, showed brain circuits and the internet  look a lot alike & are not too disimilar in function. But despite finding this similarity, nobody had developed equations to perfectly predict how computer networks, brain circuits or social networks  grow over time,

Using Einstein’s equations of relativity, which explain how matter warps the fabric of space-time, physicists can retrace the universe’s explosive birth in the Big Bang roughly 14 billion years ago and how it has expanded outward in the eons since.

So Krioukov’s team wondered whether the universe’s accelerating growth could provide insight into the ways social networks or brain circuits expand.

The remarkable thing about this is that when the team compared the universe’s history with growth of social networks and brain circuits, they found all the networks expanded in similar ways: They balanced links between similar hubs with ones that already had many connections. For instance, a dog lover surfing the Internet may visit sites such as Google or Bing, but will also browse other websites or YouTube  dog Videos. In the same way,  neighbouring brain cells  like to connect, but neurons also link to such “Google brain cells” that are hooked up to loads of other brain cells.

The eerie similarity between networks large and small is unlikely to be a coincidence, Krioukov said.

“For a physicist it’s an immediate signal that there is some missing gap of understanding  of how nature works,”

It’s more likely that some unknown law governs the way networks grow and change, from the smallest brain cells to the growth of mega-galaxies, Krioukov said.

“This result suggests that maybe we should start looking for it,” he said

And the coolest thing about this is.. The Law of Attraction – could it really work ..is it as real as certain gurus suggest and is there a background science in another dimension that explains why certain events whether personal or global take place.

Could it be that  when you can harmonize with the universe..things start to happen for you in the right order.

We’re made of the same stuff as the rest of the universe, and this just shows how close we resemble the cosmos: We’re all made of star stuff.

One to ponder over..Discussions welcome.

 

Best

 

Steve

 

A Sky Pioneer….my proud moment in tech history

This is my first post as part of a personal challenge …its Day 4 and I’ve been scratching my head ..like a lot of people … imagining this is all part of the self discovery process. “Getting stuff & ideas out of your head and into the real world”. Gets me thinking about life’s path and what impact my experience can help others achieve their own goals, glory days & that light bulb moment.
The topic for today is “Accomplishments “

Well here goes…..
The year was 1989 & up until then I had already had a successful stint in media sales at the Financial Times, Daily Express & a spell in Australia on tabloids under my belt. (But that’s another story yet to be told ) My taste for media at the coal face had begun and I had already cut my teeth on some well respected newspapers, plying my trade of salesmanship to blue-chip clients and their respected agencies.
But I yearned for more & new horizons…..
One of my most proud achievements was joining the “scratch “launch team of Sky Television.
I’ll spare you all the corporate detail & boring stuff but Rupert Murdoch’s new start up & the initial shake up of the broadcast industry was received on stony ground & deaf ears to say the least.
Cable TV had already carved the path in USA & critics like Ted Turner spouted the usual negativity that it would never work. So we apparently had a large mountain to climb to convince stakeholders to invest in our “little satellite venture”.
This was all characteristic of an industry that was staid, overly controlled and far too traditional in its thinking. At the time Sky Channel was doing tiny ratings in Europe broadcasting to a few hundred thousand viewers using fledgling repeat programming (like “I Love Lucy”, “Rawhide”, “Bonanza” & “The Flintstones” to name a few) and the odd movie or two from an old shared satellite system with a meagre footprint.
But times were changing and a new Astra Satellite launch was imminent with new technology that would revolutionise the way we watch TV….and RM had already had a taste of the USA multi channel TV networks and saw a major opportunity in Western Europe and beyond.
There were only a handful of us (5 to be precise)who had left secure posts from other print media and agencies and were now working out of a tiny office in Ogle St West London. But we all shared a common belief that we were on the verge of a fantastic new frontier. It was exciting, ground breaking, we were challenging the norm; & our job was to convince the clients, Ad Agencies & naysayers that a whole new world of ‘Direct to Home’ broadcasting was beckoning.
And I was a major part of initiating that change.
There I was running around town with my complimentary satellite dish in toe & slide projector explaining to groups of eager ears the benefits of DTH ( direct to home ) satellite broadcasting. The virtues of a new breed of channel with exclusive sporting events and the latest movies all pumped into your living room from outer space. I was on fire, charged with enthusiasm, high on adrenaline, smoking red hot & passionate about extolling the virtues of our new business (which has now become a part of the nations everyday life & existence ) .It started off in small groups first ..but then I was standing in front of 500+ audiences as momentum gathered pace fielding questions and selling the concepts. It was a great time in my life that stretched me out of my comfort zone and helped me explore areas of my personality that I didn’t know existed.
I can always remember seeing that first Fosters Lager commercial I placed in the middle of an exclusive televised boxing event Tyson Vs Bruno from Las Vegas. We stayed up late that night due to the time difference; a bunch of a dozen friends huddled round my TV at 4 am, it was snowing outside, Chips N dips, Beers at the ready for the sound of the first bell. Mike Tyson won as usual and our Frank Bruno came home bruised and battered.
But seeing that ad I placed for the first time aired during the commercial break on screen from a concept that I was only just talking about a few months previous . ..got me thinking that the technological future is here already and we can’t get in the way of it . I was there at the crossroads of progress …at the forefront of the merger of TV, Telecommunications & IT; the very lifestyle that we are all enjoying today. It was great to be a part of that groundbreaking influence.
If you can take anything away from this short snippet …It’s this…..
No matter where you find yourself in life there will always be challenges & obstacles that seem immoveable….even though at the time daunting  .. finding ways to overcome those hurdles turns out to be the most proudest precious moments to be savoured.
Selling ideas ..finding your Dream team ..Challenging conventional wisdom … Breaking down barriers
Embracing new ideas …is what Life is all about …

Until the next time …Wishing you health wealth & success in all your goals.

Steve