Follow your interests.
Discover what's new.
Explore related topics.

Tell us what you’re interested in and we’ll do the rest.

We’ll keep a look out for news stories that match your interests and pick out those which are most relevant to you.

This week's news on apollo 11.

Maker Faire Bay Area: Undersea Voyager Project Interview

17 May

MAKE Magazine

We’re merely two days out from Maker Faire Bay Area, the Greatest Show and Tell on Earth, with over 700 makers of all stripes coming out to the San Mateo Fairgrounds to show what they’ve made. One thing all these folks have in common is their immense sense of passion for whatever it is they make. Undersea explorer Captain Scott Cassell of the nonprofit Undersea Voyager Project (UVP) exemplifies this passion with his tireless love of the open waters of our planet and advocacy for the creatures who call it home. He’ll be bringing their salvaged and homebuilt submersible Great White to the Faire.
1. How did the Undersea Voyager Project get started and what is the main goal?
Undersea Voyager Project made its official debut on December 15, 2008, at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. The Undersea Voyager Project is a nonprofit (501)(c)(3) public-benefit company for oceanic research and educational outreach. Founded by me, UVP is designed to utilize manned submersibles to take a physical look at the first 100—1,000 feet of seawater (which is the largest environment on Earth) on a continuing series of missions to explore the Earth underwater. UVP is privatizing ocean exploration and science by inviting the public — in other words, everyone — to participate! Our Youth Ambassador Program has had excellent success in training teens how to become submersible pilots, scientific observers, and oceanographer’s assistants. One student even co-discovered her own new species of life!
2. Six years of work went into your home-built two-man submarine, Great White. How did acquire the original Kittredge K-250 submersible it’s built on and what modifications have you made?
In the summer of 2007 I was told about a little one-person sub in someone’s backyard. Soon thereafter an acquaintance introduced me to a retiring radiologist who owned the Kittredge K-250 submersible. The K-250 was designed by the honored Capt (Ret) George Kittredge. It’s a very successful design with a depth rating of 250 feet of seawater, although testing indicated the subs were very capable of going much deeper. The radiologist had the sub for over 20 years. During his ownership in the 1980s he successfully sank the sub once and had to mount a salvage expedition to recover it. He nearly killed himself a few times diving the sub improperly and recklessly, and then decided to store it outside for nearly two decades, allowing it to deteriorate.
When I saw it for the first time I fell in love with it regardless of her poor condition. In my mind’s eye I saw the beginning of my dream of an oceanic exploration nonprofit. After first offering to donate the sub to me for my nonprofit, the radiologist suddenly had a change of heart and decided to sell it to us for $10,000! The old “bait & switch” trick (which became the radiologist’s nickname). Not having the money I became demoralized. My good friend and mentor, Tom Mix, became my sounding board, and after hearing my dilemma went off and made a plan with his wife Linda. Believing in me, Tom stepped up with a hugely generous offer. He committed to purchase the sub from “Old Bait & Switch” and donate it to UVP! The problem, he explained, is that it will take most of the year to pay for it with payments. I presented the idea to “Old Bait & Switch” and he accepted. Frankly, I was (and still am) awestruck by the selflessness and friendship Tom exhibited. After a Herculean financial effort of payments each month, on the 26th of January 2008, Tom finally purchased the Trilobite K-250 submersible.
The modifications we made are all based on proven technology and designs of operating submersibles. I have over 900 dives as Pilot in Command on the SeaMagine submersibles, so I used concepts applied to those subs simply due to their unrivaled reliability and toughness.
First, the ballast systems were changed from bow and stern open bottom tanks to closed variable ballast mounted inside pontoons tubes fitted on the port/starboard, giving much improved stability and safety over the original design. The aluminum ballast tubes were mounted on beautiful arms that resemble giant music notes.
Second, the “boat-tail” was added to give room for scientific instruments, then stuffed with syntactic foam to float the tail with nearly 200lbs of lift, allowing us to pack nearly 200lbs of instrumentation in the tail with “as-required” flexibility. To communicate the power and data feeds, a titanium circular plate was fabricated and mated to a 6″-diameter seal with five submersible plug sets that can be easily changed with the unique needs of the instruments used.
Third, the sub has 18″ longer skids to allow for larger batteries that double as emergency-releasable 400lbs weight. We kept the system 12V for safety and simplicity at the cost of some efficiency.
Fourth, we added a brand new, thicker acrylic 24″ dome, new heavier steel ring, new thicker bow, 16″ port and new side view-ports, increasing the safety and depth range of the sub to an excess of 500fsw (feet of sea water).
Fifth, the original port/starboard moveable thrusters have been changed to the more traditional three-axis configuration (Thruster One: forward/backward, Lateral Thruster: yaw (turning), Vertical Thruster: descending/ascending).
Sixth, we added wheels to the sub! These solid rubber wheels allow us to push-launch our sub at almost any boat ramp so we can reduce our launch complexity. This opens up the entire coast to us! After we push-launch her, we can tow her out to the dive site with a vessel as small as a RHIB with a 25HP motor up to any size ship.
Seventh, we added a 72-hour life-support system including onboard emergency battery, CO2 scrubber, oxygen injection manifold, and O2 sensor.
Eight, Great White is bristling with cameras and lights so we can film our dives as well as surface-feed images and audio up an umbilical to the surface vessel so topside personnel can see what the sub sees. Soon we hope to be able to link our images of dives as they happen to our website so kids around the world can chat with the sub’s pilot during dives!
3. Tell us about yourself. How did you get interested in deep sea exploration and who are your inspirations?
As a child, I knew man should explore Earth’s inner space. And in my heart, I somehow knew that I would be among those explorers. One cold winter day when I was six years old, our family went to the movies. Little did I know this outing would set the course of my life. The film was Disney’s version of the Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I was enthralled by the action unfolded on the giant silver screen, to the point where I felt physically tired by the time the movie ended.
The movie deeply affected me — especially during the scenes where the giant squid attacked the Nautilus. The next day I visited the school library and learned that giant squid were REAL! At that moment, I knew my life would revolve around submersibles and giant squid. After all, how many kids don’t like monsters or dinosaurs?! The difference was that my “monster” was real — living in the present and not impossible to encounter. My childhood imagination flourished and has not abated to this day.
I was inspired by my mentor and personal hero, Dr. Andreas Rechnitzer, who was the project manager and senior scientist of the Trieste Bathyscaphe and the Nekton Project (Man’s Deepest Dive and first to the Challenger Deep in 1961). Although very proud of his achievements, he wanted to perform trans-oceanic scientific transects to study the condition of the oceans and report it to the world. But 1970 budget cuts prevented the program. I promised him if I could figure it out in the current economic environment, I would execute the missions.
4. You’re driven to “make people explorers once again, instead of remote control vehicles.” Why is this important?
I am 50 years old. When I was only a few years old, I watched Apollo 11’s astronauts take the first step on the moon. It made the entire world stop in its tracks. When the seven Challenger astronauts died in the Challenger accident, the entire world mourned. When humans scale Everest, discover new life, see something for the first time, the world notices in a primeval way. In contrast, when the first pictures from the Mars Rover came back, people were amazed, but few, if any, can tell you the date, or exactly what they were doing the moment they heard the news.
When people do incredible things in the name of science, people notice. We are a race of genetically predisposed explorers. We must know what is in the dark, the unknown. I am using that human trait to inspire the next generation of scientists, technicians, engineers, and mathematicians to pursue the sea as a way of life in order to get fresh new minds to untangle the global-wide extinction event previous generations (including mine, worst of all) have set. We are living at the time science fiction writers have expressed in their works for over a hundred years. The time when man faces extinction within a generation. What happens next? Do the unethical-money-motivated-extinction-causing human filth continue to win? Or, does the new generation of ethical science and technology make a radical and powerful change in humanity’s destiny?
Remote systems are critically important tools, but they inspire very few. We need explorers to become the heroes they are to our kids. Ask current scientists and engineers at JPL and NASA what inspired them. Most will say Star Trek and Jacques Cousteau.
5. How did you hear about Maker Faire and why did you decide to participate?
My VP and good friend, John Sanderson, learned about it, and since our sub is basically home-built he felt it was a good opportunity for UVP to get some public exposure.
6. How will you be bringing UVP to life at the Faire?
UVP has a life of its own now. It has our little sub, access to another sub (SEAMobile), and an underwater habitat is under construction. During the Maker Faire we will bring our submersible Great White in its fully operational status and give guided tours around the sub.
7. What new idea (in or outside of your field) has excited you most recently?
With our sub operational, I finally let in the possibilities of what she can accomplish. This fact has been suppressed inside me for years because the sub was not ready. Now we can do so much with research, exploration, and inspiring kids that I find it difficult to sleep at night.
8. Your passion for mystified (and often demonized) sea creatures, like the great white shark and the giant squid, is inspiring. What is your main message for the masses?
In the dark cold of the open sea live some of the most amazing creatures our planet has ever seen. They exist in a dark and often hostile world where man has only recently ventured, and with all of his technological mastery has seen just two percent of this vast and mysterious realm. We come from this! And, we are driven to re-explore it. What we find is amazing and incredible! Each time a deep submersible dives it has the chance of seeing something previously unknown. Mankind only loves what they are aware of. Discovery is the basis for all emotions we can apply to what exists in the sea. The more we know the more we can love and protect.
For example, when I saw Jaws I was terrified of the water based on the lies of a stupid movie that depicted great white sharks as plotting man-eaters.
Now, after 20 years of diving with many great white sharks, I can tell you that they are individuals with personality! I have swam with 3,500lb sharks and tickled their bellies, ridden on their backs, and petted them. I have learned to love them and see them much like folks see family dogs. They are nothing but animals and most of the time, harmless. More folks die from family dog attacks than white shark attacks.
We must leave our preconceived notions behind us and grow up! The only true monsters are men. Over 73 million sharks are killed just for shark-fin soup. That is over 200,000 per day! Last month a shark I loved for 20 years was murdered for her fins and jaws. Her 60-year long life ended for $1,800. Her 3,000lb body rots on a Baja beach, and I miss her.
9. Tell us about your outreach program in collaboration with Global SchoolNet.
The Global School Net program is yet to be plugged in but it is anticipated to be a real-time outreach program to kids in classrooms as well as a series of YouTube mini videos for kids and adults alike.
10. What advice do you have for young makers who are inspired by your project?
If you are comfortable, you are wrong! If you have a dream fueled by passion, build it! Don’t take no for an answer — find a way to make it happen. Sit down away from distractions and imagine. Imagine in great detail. Make well-thought-out designs and write it all down. Never stop imagining your dreams. That is reserved for when you die, just like comfort. Great people have gone past comfort and made events happen — often against all odds and against normal thought. Don’t be normal. Use imagination as a discipline to create. The greatest opportunity in the history of mankind exists today. Save the oceans to save ourselves. My god, human, invent!
Thank you Capt. Cassell! For folks who want to come see Great White in person and connect with thousands of like-minded makers, check out the Maker Faire website for all the information you need. See you there!

Read more over at blog.makezine.com
The Eagle Has Crashed (1966)

16 May

Wired - Top Stories

NASA tried to anticipate every emergency Apollo astronauts might face. In 1966, a NASA engineer analyzed the potentially catastrophic consequences of an abort just before landing, only a few hundred feet above the lunar surface -- a type of abort that very nearly took place during Apollo 11, the first moon landing mission.

Read more over at www.wired.com
Apollo 10 space-a-versary: Space Meal, 1969

16 May

Boing Boing

To commemorate the May 18, 1969 launch of Apollo 10, our friends at the Smithsonian are celebrating the launch by sharing this photo of a meal package from the Apollo 10 mission:
The Apollo 10 spacecraft launched from Cape Kennedy at 12:49 p.m. EST with commander Thomas Stafford, command module pilot John Young and lunar module pilot Gene Cernan. This liftoff marked the fourth Apollo launch in seven months. Its purpose was to serve as a complete dry run for the Apollo 11 mission, the first mission to land humans on the Moon.
Each crew member was supplied with three meals per day, which provided approximately 2,800 calories. This photo shows John Young’s Meal B lunch for mission Day 9. The mission only lasted eight days—he did not eat this food, but astronauts were provided extra supplies if they had to stay in space longer. It contains cocoa, salmon salad, sugar cookie cubes, grape punch and hand wipes.Meals were sorted by day and designated for each astronaut with a corresponding piece of Velcro—white for mission commander, blue for command module pilot and red for lunar module pilot.

Read more over at www.boingboing.net
Amazon CEO vows to recover Apollo 11 engines from seafloor

12 May

OrlandoSentinel.com - Space & Science

Each Saturn V engine weighs nearly 9 tons, and they came in a cluster of five

Just days after "Titanic"director James Cameron traveled to the bottom of the sea, another wealthy adventurer has announced a spectacular deep ocean discovery.

Read more over at www.orlandosentinel.com
A guide to the night sky | Great British walks

11 May

www.guardian.co.uk/travel
Our stargazing walking routes showcase the best of Britain's night skies. But do you know what to look out for?
The moon
Like the sun, the moon rises roughly in the east and sets roughly in the west. It keeps to its own timetable, however, arriving 50 minutes later every day. If you can't see it at night, that could be because it's far below the horizon. Or it may be in the sky but invisible …
How can something that is usually so bright simply vanish? The moon is mostly solid rock, as dull in its own right as a lump of coal. What makes it shine is reflected sunlight; as the moon orbits the Earth, the portion that is illuminated grows and shrinks over a 29.5-day cycle. When the moon is between the Earth and the sun, no reflected sunlight reaches us (a "new moon"); when it is on the other side of the Earth, the whole of the side that is facing us is lit up (a "full moon").
Binoculars will give you a better view of the surface, but they're not indispensable. Even without them, you should be able to pick out major features like Mare Tranquillitatis, the dark splodge where Apollo 11 landed.
Click here for moon phases, rises and setting times.
The planets
Remember the nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star? That's the key to picking the planets out from so many other pricks of light: in clear skies, stars twinkle and planets don't. Those planets that can be seen with the naked eye – Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and, if you're lucky, Mercury – are almost always brighter than the stars as well. To make identification a little easier, they all appear to lie along the same line across the sky, running broadly east to west, closer to the southern horizon in summer, further from it in winter.
Venus is the showiest of all. Prominent after sunset or before sunrise, it turns from "evening star" to "morning star" every 584 days as it overtakes the Earth on its way around the sun. Thanks to its brightness, it has often been mistaken for a UFO. The darker hours belong to reddish Mars, yellowish-white Jupiter, and pale‑yellow Saturn.
Galaxies
There are believed to be hundreds of billions of galaxies, each containing millions, billions or trillions of stars. The so‑called "irregulars" have no coherent structure, but others are shaped like spirals, lenses, rings …
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a loose spiral of many billions of stars stretching over 100,000 light years. It includes every star that can be distinguished with the naked eye. Light pollution – and the moon – often blot it out, but on a clear, dark night the mass of stars forms a dimly glowing band across the sky.
The Milky Way's nearest neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, appears as a hazy patch near Cassiopeia (see p71); use the deeper V of this W-shaped constellation as an arrow to point you in the rough direction (it will be about three "arrowheads" away). As with many faint objects, you may find it easier to observe Andromeda if you look a little to the side rather than straight at it.
Meteor showers
Every day, the Earth's journey around the sun brings it into contact with fragments of rock and ice known as meteoroids, many of them shed by comets on their own travels through space. Moving at least 6.8 miles (11km) a second, most of these objects burn up from friction long before they reach the ground. The light trails produced are what we call meteors, or shooting stars. A dozen times a year, things get really intense, as the Earth hits a cluster of debris. These meteor showers may last for days, with dozens of "shooting stars" every hour.
For the next 12 months, the main showers to look out for are the Perseids (peaking on 12‑13 August), the Orionids (20‑22 October), the Leonids (16‑18 November), the Geminids (12-14 December), and the Quadrantids (3-4 January). The showers are named after the constellations in which the meteors appear to originate.
The Plough
Find it just once, and the Plough becomes the most recognisable collection of stars in the northern sky – and the most useful, as it enables you to identify Polaris, AKA the Pole or North star. Its seven stars, which are the central feature of the constellation Ursa Major, form a sort of long-handled saucepan. This rotates around Polaris, so at times the saucepan may be standing on its "handle" or upside down. But for now let's imagine it the right way up, with the handle on the left, the pan on the right and the bottom of the pan parallel to the horizon.
To find Polaris, focus on the two stars that form the right-hand side of the pan. The star at the bottom is Merak, the one at the top is Dubhe. Together, they are known as the Pointers. To find Polaris, extend the line that they form four or four and a half times past Dubhe; the Pole star is the brightest star in that little area of sky.
Cassiopeia
Once you've found the Plough, the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia should be a piece of cake. It, too, revolves around Polaris – roughly opposite the Plough, roughly the same size and roughly as far away from the Pole star. Assuming it is presenting itself to you as a W, as opposed to an M, the deeper V will be to the right.
The constellation takes its name from Greek myth. Beautiful but bigheaded, Queen Cassiopeia made the mistake of boasting that she was lovelier than the sea nymphs known as the Nereids. This so infuriated the god Poseidon that he stuck her in the heavens, tied to a chair and condemned her to spend half her nights upside down.
However closely clustered they may appear from Earth, the five stars are far apart. The nearest, Caph, is 54 light years away; the furthest, Tsih, 613.
Orion
According to the ancient Greeks, Orion was a mighty and handsome hunter, who, after many adventures, died from the sting of a monstrous scorpion (or, alternatively, took an arrow from the goddess Artemis). Transformed into a constellation by the great god Zeus, he now chases seven sisters known as the Pleiades (in the form of a star cluster), while himself being pursued by a scorpion (the constellation Scorpius). Beside him are two hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, and a hare, Lepus.
Orion is at his best in winter, when he is high in the sky. Look for three bright stars in a short, straight line. These are Orion's Belt, surrounded by the four stars of his hands and feet. A faint "sword" of three more stars hangs below the belt; around the middle of these is the Orion nebula, a cloud of gas where hundreds of new stars are being born.
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) races through the ether at around 17,000 miles an hour, carrying its crew of six right round the world every 92 minutes. There have been humans on board, more than 200 miles above our heads, without a break since November 2000. With luck, there will be someone there until 2022. This flying laboratory – the world's ninth inhabited space station – is a joint venture between America, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, and has so far welcomed 202 astronauts from 15 nations.
Click here to find out when you next have a chance of seeing the ISS, how high it will rise in the sky and from which direction it will be coming..
Outdoors, look for a fast-moving speck of light (the ISS crosses from horizon to horizon in a matter of minutes). If it's blinking, you're almost certainly looking at a plane.
Northern lights
Also known as aurora borealis, the northern lights are one of the greatest shows on Earth – or rather above it. Curtains of greenish (or occasionally reddish) light spread across the sky, as charged particles from the sun collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere. In exceptional circumstances the glow may be strong enough to read by.
Unlike meteor showers, say, the lights do not follow a schedule. As the Norwegian tourist board puts it: "Aurora is an unpredictable lady, and you never know when she will decide to turn up."
As the name suggests, the further north you are, the more likely you are to see this phenomenon. But on rare occasions it can even be observed in southern England. You're mostly likely to encounter it in late autumn and early spring, and at times when the sun is active. Check your chances.
- Walking holidays
- Astronomy
Phil Daoust

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Read more over at www.guardian.co.uk