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50 years ago we went to space

On April, 12th of the year 1969, men went to space for the first time, the last frontier was finally crossed.

The Launch

On that date a Vostok-K rocket carrying Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was launch  at 06h07 GMT , from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Born 9 March 1934, Gagarine, begin flight school at an AeroClub, and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that would take up an increasing portion of his time. In 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot’s School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot’s wings in a Mig 15 . In 1960 was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet Space program. Gagarin was further selected for an elite training group known as the Sochi Six from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok program would be chosen

Sending Gagarin to space made USSR won the gold medal for placing a human on orbit. Space conquest was a race between the two super powers (US and USSR).

Looking back we know understand that was a victory for all mankind as it was 8 years later when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

As usual on those days Soviet Union prepares three press releases, one for success, two for failures. It was only known ten minutes after burnout, 25 minutes after launch, if a stable orbit had been achieved.

The Flight

The flight lasted 108 min and was automated; Gagarin’s controls were locked to prevent him from taking control of the ship. The combination to unlock the controls was available in a sealed envelope in case it became necessary to take control in an emergency. All went well, and, for the first time one man saw its planet as an all.

 

The landing

After retrofire, the service module remained attached to the Sharik reentry sphere by a wire bundle. The joined craft went through wild gyrations at the beginning of re-entry, before the wires burned through. The Sharik, as it was designed to do, then naturally reached aerodynamic equilibrium with the heat shield positioned correctly.

When Vostok 1 was still 7 km from the ground, the hatch of the spacecraft was released, and two seconds later Gagarin was ejected. At 2.5 km (8,200 ft) altitude. However for many years the Soviet Union denied this, because the flight would not have been recognized for various FAI world records unless the pilot had accompanied his craft to a landing. Gagarin’s parachute opened almost right away, and about ten minutes later, at 08:05 GMT, Gagarin landed. Both he and the spacecraft landed via parachute 26 km (16 mi) south west of Engels, in the Saratov region at  A farmer and her daughter observed the strange scene of a figure in a bright orange suit with a large white helmet landing near them by parachute. Gagarin later recalled, “When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don’t be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!”.

On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight , he and flight instructor  died in a Mig 15 crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodie of Gagarin  was cremated and the ashes were buried in the the wall of Kremlin at Red Square.

The mission

 

 

 

 

Call Sign: Kedr (Cedar ).

Crew: Gagarin

BackupCrew: Titov; Nelyubov.

Payload: Vostok 3KA s/n 3. Mass: 4,725 kg (10,416 lb).

Nation:USSR.

Agency: RVSN.

Program: Vostok.

Class:Manned.

Type: Manned spacecraft.

Flight: Vostok 1.

Spacecraft:Vostok.

Duration:0.0750days.

Period: 89.30 min



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Giant tsunamis as result of asteroid impact

Asteroid 1950 DA
Arecibo Radar Image

Lets talk about a nightmare. If an asteroid crashes into the Earth, it is likely to splash down somewhere in the oceans that cover 70 percent of the planet’s surface. Huge tsunami waves, spreading out from the impact site like the ripples from a rock tossed into a pond, would inundate heavily populated coastal areas.

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/

Computer simulation of an asteroid impact tsunami developed by UCSC scientists shows waves as high as 400 feet sweeping onto the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

The researchers based their simulation on a real asteroid known to be on course for a close encounter with Earth eight centuries from now.

March 16, 2880, is the day the asteroid known as 1950 DA, a huge rock two-thirds of a mile in diameter (1.1–1.4 km) , is due to swing so close to Earth it could slam into the Atlantic Ocean at 38,000 miles per hour. The probability of a direct hit is pretty small, but over the long timescales of Earth’s history, asteroids this size and larger have periodically hammered the planet, sometimes with calamitous effects. The so-called K/T impact, for example, ended the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Asteroid risks are interesting because the probabilities are so small while the potential consequences are enormous.

Although the probability of an impact from 1950 DA is only about 0.3 percent, it is the only asteroid yet detected that scientists cannot entirely dismiss as a threat. 

“It’s a low threat, actually a bit lower than the threat of being hit by an as-yet-undiscovered asteroid in the same size range over the same period of time, but it provided a good representative scenario for us to analyze,” says an UCSC scientist.

For the simulation, the researchers chose an impact site consistent with the orientation of the Earth at the time of the predicted encounter: in the Atlantic Ocean about 360 miles from the U.S. coast. Ward summarized the results as follows:

The 60,000-megaton blast of the impact vaporizes the asteroid and blows a cavity in the ocean 11 miles across and all the way down to the seafloor, which is about 3 miles deep at that point. The blast even excavates some of the seafloor.

Water then rushes back in to fill the cavity, and a ring of waves spreads out in all directions. The impact creates tsunami waves of all frequencies and wavelengths, with a peak wavelength about the same as the diameter of the cavity. Because lower-frequency waves travel faster than waves with higher frequencies, the initial impulse spreads out into a series of waves.

“In the movies they show one big wave, but you actually end up with dozens of waves. The first ones to arrive are pretty small, and they gradually increase in height, arriving at intervals of 3 or 4 minutes,”

The waves propagate all through the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. The waves decay as they travel, so coastal areas closest to the impact get hit by the largest waves. Two hours after impact, 400-foot waves ( 120 meters) reach beaches from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, and by four hours after impact the entire East Coast has experienced waves at least 200 feet high. It takes 8 hours for the waves to reach Europe, where they come ashore at heights of about 30 to 50 feet (6 to 15 meters).

Computer simulations not only give scientists a better handle on the potential hazards of asteroid impacts, they can also help researchers interpret the geologic evidence of past events, Ward said. Geologists have found evidence of past asteroid impact tsunamis in the form of inland sediment deposits and disturbed sediment layers in the seafloor that correlate with craters, meteorite fragments, and other impact evidence.

An important feature of the simulation is that it enabled  to calculate the speed of the water flows created by the tsunami at the bottom of the ocean–more than 3 feet per second out to distances of several hundred miles from the impact.

“That’s like a raging river, so as these waves cross the ocean they’re going to stir up the seafloor, eroding sediments on the slopes of seamounts, and we may be able to identify more places where this has happened,”

A tsunami warning system has been established for the Pacific Ocean involving an international effort to evaluate earthquakes for their potential to generate tsunamis. Asteroid impact tsunamis could also be incorporated into such a system.

Planetary scientists, meanwhile, are getting a better handle on the risks of asteroid impacts. A NASA-led campaign to detect large asteroids in near-Earth orbits is about half way toward its goal of detecting 90 percent of those larger than 1 kilometer in diameter (the size of 1950 DA) .

“Until we detect all the big ones and can predict their orbits, we could be struck without warning,” said Asphaug, a UCSC scientist. “With the ongoing search campaigns, we’ll probably be able to sound the ‘all clear’ by 2030 for 90 percent of the impacts that could trigger a global catastrophe.”

Rogue comets visiting the inner solar system for the first time, however, may never be detected very long in advance. Smaller asteroids that can still cause major tsunami damage may also go undetected.

LRO takes a new Look at Apollo 14 site

NAC image of the Apollo 14 landing site acquired 25 January 2011. Descent stage of lunar module Antares in center, image width is 500 meters

[NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

The LROC Narrow Angle Cameras continue to image the Apollo landing sites as the mission progresses. Every time LRO passes overhead, the Sun is at a different position so each image gives a different perspective. Repeat imaging also serves LROC cartographic goals. Since the position of the lunar modules and other pieces of hardware are very accurately known, the LROC team can check the accuracy of the mission-provided ephemeris. Think of the Apollo sites as benchmarks put in place four decades ago for the LROC team!

Close-up showing LM descent stage (right) and ALSEP (arrow), note astronaut tracks between the two landmarks

[NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

The Apollo 14 astronauts explored the surface of the Moon on February 5th and 6th, 1971, 40 years ago this weekend. Much was learned during the Apollo missions, yet most of the history and geology of the Moon remains a mystery.

Post EVA view from LW looking west towards ALSEP. Match astronaut track patterns in the surface image and LROC overhead view, AS14-66-9338

[NASA/Arizona State University].

The beauty of the Northern Lights

It is a timelapse video of the Northern Lights. All sequences are shot in or close to Tromsø in Northern Norway.

Author: Ole Christian Salomonsen (Norway) more at: http://vimeo.com/arcticlightphoto

Fukushima 50, Remaining for others to be safe

Pictures have been released of workers risking their lives to try to prevent a nuclear disaster at the stricken Fukushima power station in Japan.

Workers record the status of instruments at the power plant

Braving exposure to radiation, the engineers dubbed the ‘Fukushima 50′ are shown attempting to repair power lines and recording data in a darkened control room.

Other images taken on March 18, a week after the Daiichi nuclear plant was damaged by a huge earthquake and tsunami, show fire crews at work on the site.

Now, the country’s nuclear safety agency said more workers at the plant had needed treatment after being exposed to radiation.

“Three workers who were laying cables in the basement of the turbine building were exposed to radiation between 170 to 180 milli-sieverts,” a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa) said.

Workers check instruments in the central control room

“Two were sent to hospital after they found themselves in a puddle of water. Although they wore protective clothing, the contaminated water seeped in and their legs were exposed to radiation.”

Exposure of 100 milli-sieverts per year is considered the lowest level at which any increase in cancer risk is evident.

About two dozen people have been injured since the plant began leaking radiation after suffering tsunami damage on March 11.

Technicians have now restored power to the reactor number one control room.

The progress means workers can now use two crucial control rooms – at reactors One and Three – which they were earlier forced to abandon after a series of explosions and amid strong radiation and in darkness.

The quake and tsunami cut electricity to the plant and knocked out backup systems, causing the cooling systems to fail.

This left the fuel rods inside to heat up and evaporate water, threatening a full meltdown.

More than 20 people have been injured since the plant was damaged

Fire engines have hosed down the reactors and topped up spent fuel rod pools to prevent the uranium and plutonium from being exposed to the air – steps intended to stop a major disaster, but also creating radioactive steam.

Reconnecting the reactor control rooms was seen as a key step as workers hope to restart the original cooling systems.

See more at :

http://dailycosmicnews.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/fukushima-retreat-is-unthinkable/

Restoration at nuke plant disrupted, radiation fear spread to Tokyo

Work to restore power and key cooling functions was disrupted again Wednesday at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after smoke caused workers to evacuate, while fear of radioactive pollution spread to Tokyo with an alert not to give tap water to infants.

The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it learned at around 4:20 p.m. that black smoke was seen rising at the No. 3 reactor building, leading to evacuation of workers from the four troubled reactors, but added about an hour later that it was receding.

The radiation level was unchanged shortly afterward, meaning the smoke caused no massive release of radioactive materials, the government’s nuclear safety agency said. Smoke was also seen billowing from the No. 3 building on Monday.

It also turned out that the surface temperatures of the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor vessels have topped the maximum levels set by their designers, now that they can be measured due to battery-based backup power, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

In Tokyo, the metropolitan government said radioactive iodine exceeding the limit for infants’ intake was detected in water at a purification plant, apparently due to the ongoing crisis at the power station crippled by the March 11 massive quake and tsunami.

At the plant run by the utility known as TEPCO, all six reactors were reconnected to external power as of Tuesday night and workers scrambled to check each piece of equipment, such as data measuring instruments and feed-water pumps, before transmitting power to them.

With the work, TEPCO aimed to first restore a pump by Thursday to inject fresh water into the core of the No. 3 reactor, instead of seawater that has currently been poured using fire pumps, the nuclear agency said.

While the maximum vessel temperature set by the reactors’ designers is 302 C degrees, the surface temperature of the No. 1 reactor vessel briefly topped 400 C degrees and dropped to about 350 C degrees by noon, and that of the No. 3 reactor vessel stood at about 305 C degrees, the agency said.

Although the facilities are not expected to start melting at those temperatures, according to agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama, TEPCO increased the amount of seawater injected into the No. 1 reactor by nine times to help cool it down.

Nishiyama said TEPCO will continue to inject massive amounts of water into the No. 1 reactor so as not to raise the pressure in the reactor. High pressure in the reactor increases the risk of damage to the facility, and workers would be required to release radioactive steam from the reactor to lower the pressure.

At the No. 2 reactor, workers have been unable to replace some parts to help revive its internal cooling systems since Friday as high-level radiation amounting to at least 500 millisieverts per hour was detected at its turbine building, the spokesman also said.

Water-spraying operations, meanwhile, continued in the morning at the No. 4 reactor unit to help cool down its spent nuclear fuel pools, using trucks with a concrete squeeze pump and a 50-meter arm capable of pouring water from a higher point.

But similar operations for the No. 3 reactor were put off.

TEPCO also said two workers who had been installing a makeshift power source from Tuesday night were injured and taken to hospital, but they were not exposed to radiation.

Lighting in the No. 3 reactor’s control room was restored Tuesday night, a key step toward regaining control of the situation as operators have been unable remain in any control rooms for long hours due to high radiation levels and power outages.

After the March 11 earthquake and massive tsunami knocked out power at the plant, the cooling functions failed at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, while the pools storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 units have also lost all their cooling functions.

In addition to efforts to douse the pools with water sprayed from outside, workers are also attempting to inject water by reviving internal cooling systems, according to the nuclear agency.

As part of routine monitoring activities, helicopters of the Self-Defense Forces examined temperatures at the Fukushima nuclear power station Wednesday morning.

Kyodo News Agency