NASA’s Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

All told, the flight test lasted about six minutes: the launch from the newly modified Launch Pad 39B, a two-minute powered flight, and then a splashdown of the rocket’s booster stage nearly 150 miles downrange.

The Ares I-X flight test will provide NASA the opportunity to test and prove the new rocket’s flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations, while also helping to verify computer and wind tunnel models. According to NASA, more than 700 sensors were placed throughout the vehicle to collect data for use in future exploration missions.

The Ares I-X is a prototype for the Ares I rocket NASA plans to use to launch its shuttle successor, the Orion spacecraft.

Source: NASA

The Ares I-X  is a prototype for the Ares 1 rocket NASA plans to use to launch its shuttle successor, the Orion spacecraft. The flight test will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I.

Of course, test flights like this don’t come cheap, and it’s estimated that this one will cost $360 million.

Below is NASA video of a test of the (22 million HP) Ares I solid rocket motor . This test was conducted in Utah last month.  The flame exited the rocket motor approached 4500 degrees Fahrenheit, approximately two-thirds the temperature of the sun’s surface.  At this temperature, steel doesn’t melt , it boils –and according to the video narrator, the sand around the rocket motor got so hot that it turned to glass.

Source: NASA

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The meteor shower will be peaking just before sunrise tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, when you may be able to see as many as 20 to 25 meteors an hour.

2.Look towards Orion, the constellation that’s also known as “the Hunter.” You probably know it because of its easily recognizable belt of stars.

3. At this time of year, Orion doesn’t rise until about 11pm. So, you don’t have to start looking until after that. Experts predict the best viewing won’t start until after midnight, or so.

4. Fortunately, the moon is in its new phase right now, so you don’t have to worryabout moonlight ruining the show.

5. You don’t need binoculars to see the meteors. Just go to a dark site away from city lights.

6. Dress warmly! It can get cold sitting outside after midnight.

7. Can’t fit the peak viewing early Wednesday morning into your schedule? That’s okay. You’ll still be able to see meteors for a few nights after the peak.

The Orionid meteors are created by small particles in the orbit of Halley’s comet.

Photo credit: jaredten

The bizarre story of a Colorado family’s runaway balloon aircraft this afternoon got me to thinking:

How many helium-filled balloons are required to lift a human off the ground?

Here’s a YouTube video that offers some insight into that question. Enjoy!

Photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt

Can a fan still cool you if it doesn’t have blades?

Apparently so, if it’s the new Dyson Air Multiplier ™ fan pictured above.

Dyson, a company well-known for advancing vacuum cleaner technology, has now developed a new generation of innovative bladeless fans. These fans use the simple principles of fluid dynamics –without the traditional fan blades –to multiply air flow 15 times, ultimately expelling some 119 gallons of air every second.

What more, since there are no blades, the Dyson Air Multiplier ™ fan is safe and easy to clean. Air flow is uninterrupted, and velocity is adjusted with a control similar to a dimmer switch.

How does it work? The Dyson website explains it like this:

1. First, an energy efficient, brushless motor draws air in using technologies similar to those at work in jet engines and turbochargers.
2. Airflow is accelerated as it passes over an airfoil-shaped ramp.
3. Air from behind the fan is drawn in by a process known as inducement.
4. Air from around the fan is also drawn in by a process known as entrainment. Altogether, the airflow is amplified 15 times.

You can watch an entertaining video of people reacting to this remarkable new fan here.

Technology like this isn’t cheap, however. The 12” version of the Dyson bladeless fan is available for $329.99. The 10” version will set you back $299.99

Source: Dyson

Ever wonder if there is water on the moon?

NASA does.

In fact, NASA is so curious that it’s going to “bomb” the moon tomorrow morning in hopes of creating a debris cloud that can be analyzed for water content.

NASA will use the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that it launched earlier this summer. Tomorrow, the LRO –which is now positioned for impact on a lunar pole –will separate into two parts, sending its Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage rocket towards the moon.

The impact of the Centaur will create a debris plume predicted to rise above the lunar surface. Four minutes later, the shepherding spacecraft will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before it, too, impacts the lunar surface and creating a second debris plume.

Here’s a video with animation that helps explain the mission:

Projected first impact at the lunar South Pole is currently: Friday, Oct 9, 2009 at 7:31 am EDT (4:30 a.m. PDT).

NASA says the debris plumes are expected to be visible from Earth- and space-based telescopes 10-to-12 inches and larger.

In addition, a NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The 1.5 hour broadcast includes:
•    Live footage from spacecraft camera
•    Real-time telemetry based animation
•    Views of LCROSS Mission and Science Operations
•    Broadcast commentary with expert guests
•    Prepared video segments
•    Views of the public impact viewing event at NASA Ames
•    Possible live footage from the University of Hawaii, 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea.

The live LCROSS Post-Impact News Conference will be 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m. PDT on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Source: NASA

Earlier today, the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to:

• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge,United Kingdom
• Thomas A. Steitz, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
• Ada E. Yonath, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

“for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”

These scientists used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.

But, what is a ribosome?

Ribosomes are cellular structures that produce proteins. DNA contains the informational “blueprint” for proteins, but ribosomes are the structures that actually make proteins. There are tens of thousands of proteins in the body and they all have different forms and functions. Essentially, poteins build and control life at the chemical level.

Thanks to the work of these three scientists, we now have a more detailed understanding of how ribosomes function. Specifically, they researched how different antibiotics bind to ribosomes. After all, if an antibiotic can be designed to specifically bind to –and impair function of –the ribosomes of a bacteria, the bacteria cell will die.

This information is now being used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity’s suffering.

Source: Nobelprize.org

Photo image: Milosz1

Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 awarded for achievements in the fields of optical and digital technology

Specifically, the award was presented to:

• Charles K. Kao,Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and Chinese University of Hong Kong,”for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”

and

• Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA,”for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor.”

Kao received one-half of the SEK $10 million (about $1.4 million USD) award; Boyle and Smith will split the second half.

In 1966, Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. Kao calculated that by using a fiber of purest glass it would be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilometers –quite an improvement over the fibers available in the 1960s, which transmitted light only 20 meters, or so.

Now, of course, optical fibers are integral to our communication in our society.

In fact, if we were to unravel all of the glass fibers that wind around the globe, we would get a single thread over one billion kilometers long – which is enough to encircle the globe more than 25,000 times.

In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device).

The CCD is the digital camera’s electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, allowing light to be captured electronically instead of on film. As we all know now, the digital form of photography facilitates the processing and distribution of images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, such as imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.

Source: NobelPrize.org

Photo image: www.flickr.com/photos/pong/7214586/

But, what is a telomere and why is this research important?

The Telomere (click to expand)

The Telomere (click to expand)

Telomeres are the “caps” at the ends of chromosomes. The long, thread-like DNA molecules that carry our genes are packed into structures called chromosomes, and telomeres are found at the ends of the chromosomes.

Telomerase is an enzyme that forms these caps.

Telomeres are important because they help regulate chromosome deterioration.

If the telomeres are too short, cells age. What’s more, certain inherited diseases are characterized by a defective telomerase, which results in damaged cells.

On the other hand, if telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained, and cellular senescence is delayed. This is the case in cancer cells, which can be considered to have eternal life.

The award of the Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Source: NobelPrize.org

Last year, the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), received results from an extensive study showing that the north Pacific humpback whale population has been growing 4-7% a year over the past few decades.

But, is that sufficient reason to delist the humpback whale?

Environmentalists disagree.

Some say that emerging threats, such as climate change and ocean acidification, continue to endanger marine mammals.

Others, like Ralph Reeves, who chairs the cetacean specialist group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), feel that conservationists must “embrace success,” and support delisting if populations have recovered.

There has been an international ban on commercial whaling since 1966.

Currently, researchers estimate that the global humpback population is about 60,000.