Space and Astronomy Around the World

Astronomy is a science that knows no borders. Everyone around the world can look up to the sky and see the Universe in front of them, providing the glare from city pollution doesn’t spoil the view. In the past scholars from around the world have theorised and pondered about our Earth and its position in the grand scheme of the universe. However, today many space and research programmes fulfilled still seem to be dominated by the original leaders of the space race, the Americans and Russians, but what other countries are making giant leaps in helping learning and exploring for mankind?

At the end of 2013 China successfully landed the Chang’e 3 lander on the surface of the Moon. This was the first soft-landed craft on the Moon since the Soviets landed Luna 24 in 1976. This catapulted China to the bronze medal position being only the third country to have achieved this feat. Not only that, China is also the third and final country to send people into space independently. In 2003, Yang Liwei became the first man in space who didn’t there in a Russian or American spacecraft. China is fast becoming a new world super power and is currently the largest exporter of goods with millions of various products labelled ‘Made in China’ hitting the shelves around the world. China making space probes and rovers perhaps does not come as a surprise considering the range of goods currently produced in the country. They seem to be currently aiming to take the lead in space exploration.

Another country recently making news with their place in space is India. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) locally called Mangalyann in November 2013. It is due to be in orbit of the Red Planet by the end of September this year. If this mission is successful, then ISRO joins an exclusive group of being only the fourth space agency to reach Mars (After Roscosmos, NASA and ESA). India has a fairly well-established launch capacity and has launched over 70 satellites. India’s vision is by 2025 to have increased their input into space exploration with perhaps manned space flight and planet exploration but also to increase communications for rural India. India has received some criticism in their budget allowances for space exploration. However the MOM project came in relatively inexpensively at a tenth of the NASA’s costs and it achieved something incredible that many other countries could only dream of doing. The Indian space program will not only help us internationally learn more about Mars and the space around us, but this event could inspire a new generation of rocket scientists and it should be something the country is proud of.

One of the smallest countries with its own launch capabilities is Israel. The Israel Space Agency (ISA) was formed in 1983 and by 1988 had launched its first satellite into space. It has since launched a further 12 satellites into orbit (nine of which were Ofeq series recconnaissance satellites). The Shavit is the launch vehicle used, which is a three stage launcher that can carry a payload up to 250kg. Most of the launches take place over the Mediterranean and are launched westwards initially, the opposite direction to the Earth’s directional orbit, as relations with neighbouring countries would not be helped by falling debris from a rocket launch. The Israeli space program also funds research programs on the ground, ranging from detecting near Earth objects to cosmic rays. Israel does not have the ability to send people into space, although Ilan Ramon an Israeli fighter pilot trained with NASA and became Israel’s first astronaut , on board the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. Tragically he lost his life alongside his crew members when the Shuttle was destroyed on re-entry.

Countries within Africa may not always be on the radar for astronomy and space programmes. However with a little help from other countries, Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has launched five satellites into orbit. The first satellite was built in the United Kingdom. Called NigeriaSat-1 and was used in monitoring the land for agricultural purposes. China has also helped launch a satellite for Nigeria in 2007 but this is no longer working. Nigeria too has faced criticism for spending money on satellites rather than on the people. However, these satellites will improve communication and information reaching more rural areas of the country, as well as helping monitor the land.

South Africa is leading the way with astronomical research in Africa with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) being established in 2010, it has two satellites in orbit, which their main focus is remote sensing and monitoring the ground. South Africa is also home to the largest optical telescope in Africa ,SALT (South African Large Telescope), which is used in the study of distant galaxies. Ethiopia have recently installed a telescope, 3000 metres above sea level in the Entoto Mountains, helped by the Ethiopian Space Science Society and funded by Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Alamoudi. At the end of 2013, Ghana announced plans of building a 32 metre telescope to help in the use of radio astronomy. In 2009, the concept of a united African Space Agency was suggested, but so far it remains just that. Individual countries within Africa need to best prioritise their funds and needs before attempting to take to the sky.

Chile is one of the wealthier countries within Central and Southern America and has a well-established base for observation. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) have the VLT (Very Large Telescope) based in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. This is one of the driest places on Earth perfect for clear skies. The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) also makes the most of these dry conditions as it seeks to survey the coldest regions of space. However, both of these telescopes are organised and ran by countries mostly in Europe with ESO headquarters located in Germany. Some of the other countries in Latin America also have their space programmes. The Brazil Space Agency successfully launched their first rocket in 2004, with the first Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes travelling to space on board the Russian Soyuz in 2006. Pontes was originally due to be a mission specialist on a Space Shuttle mission, but following the Columbia tragedy in 2003, flights were halted and Pontes became a cosmonaut flying with the Russians instead. Mexico also has their own space agency formed in 2010. The agency plans to use and coordinate research conducted using the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). The Mexican Space Agency has commissioned 3 satellites to be built and the first launched this summer to help improve mobile phone signal in Mexico. The MexSat satellites, although commissioned by Mexico are intended on being launched on board a Russian Proton M rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Many countries around the world have an established space programme or research facilities dedicated to the world of astronomy, although countries with a larger gross domestic product obviously will have a larger budget to dedicate to the Science. International collaboration either within a continent or a wider area is the way to continue into space. Sharing resources and knowledge will help continue the adventure into space and only improve on knowledge gained. Regardless of budgets and partnerships, many countries are still keen on having and maintaining a presence in space. With new up comers pushing their way to the forefront, the new space race is set to continue and it should lead to an exciting and interesting competition.

Group consisting of David Evinshteyn, Gregor Hartmann, and Nick Nielsen

     The group discussed the (familiar) possibility of offering prizes to stimulate research, discovery, and achievement converging on spacefaring and interstellar goals. To make the pot big enough to be tempting, it was suggested that a large number of research universities might be persuaded to chip in a small portion of their endowment to create a new endowment independent of any one university, but which would be conferred upon the successful program in a competition for the pot of money. An alternative to university funding would be an appeal to wealthy donors whose names could be attached to long-term, large scale projects as a legacy and for prestige.

     The emphasis would be on science-based missions that would return significant data. Among the possibilities were discussed placing a radio telescope on the far side of the moon, in the shadow of Earth’s radio noise, and a mission to the focal point of Jupiter (which represents a more current-technology doable project than a mission to the focal point of the sun, at 542 AU). The far side of the moon has a great many craters, which might be used to create radio telescopes by laying down wire mesh in a properly-shaped crater. Such a project might begin with a smallish crater and work its way up to larger radio telescopes. Further research would be necessary to determine whether the focal point of Jupiter would be a worthwhile project in its potential returns, and whether it is technological feasible to station a probe there. It was suggested that a polar orbit around Jupiter might make this possible.

     It was also envisioned that a graduated series of missions, each more ambitious than the last, could continue to keep such a competition vital by always establishing new achievements. In order to spread the wealth around, a major project could be divided into distinct segments, individually the objects of competition — like defense department projects that keep major contractors in business by spreading around the building of major projects to more than one vendor. For example, a radio telescope on the far side of the moon could be divided into three segments: 1) the booster, 2), the lunar orbiter, and 3) the lander that would include the radio telescope itself.

     In order to make this attractive, and the focus of research that would involve not only interested individuals but would draw in entire university departments in a spirit both of competition and achievement, the successful competitor would be promised funding for their project that would be ongoing for a period of time sufficient for a significant portion of the careers of individuals involved. Investigators would have proprietary access to data from the project for a given period of time, as an inspiration for students to devote themselves to an project that could define their careers in science and engineering.

Out of This World! The Most Amazing Space Discoveries of 2016

2016 has been a bountiful year for space science. Before the calendar runs out, here's our list of the biggest space stories and events of the past 12 months.
There were monumental new discoveries, including the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, which gives scientists access to a whole new realm of information about cosmic events. This year, scientists also discovered a potentially habitable planet orbiting the star nearest to Earth's sun.

As always, there were also hurdles and setbacks. The ExoMars mission sent both an orbiter and a lander to the Red Planet, but the lander crashed into the planet's surface before it could begin its science mission. And multiple studies searching for signs of a particle that could explain mysterious dark matter turned up empty.

A planet around the nearest star to Earth's sun

The star Proxima Centauri lies just 4.2 light-years from Earth's sun — a stone's throw, cosmologically speaking. In August, scientists discovered a planet orbiting in Proxima Centauri's habitable zone, or the region where liquid water might exist on the planet's surface (and thus boosting the odds that life might have evolved there). This newly discovered planet, dubbed Proxima b, has a minimum mass of about 1.27 times Earth's mass, further increasing the possibility that this planet could be habitable.

Shortly after the discovery was announced, a group called Project Blue started fundraising to build a space telescope with the targeted mission of studying Proxima b and looking for signs of life there.

In April, the Breakthrough Foundation — whose board members include physicist Stephen Hawking, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and entrepreneur Yuri Milner — announced an initiative called Breakthrough Starshot, which will aim to send a microchip-size spacecraft to another star. With the discovery of Proxima b, the Starshot project organizers announced that they would target this newfound planet, and potentially search for signs of life. The spacecraft would be accelerated with a massive (and expensive) laser system, and would still take about 20 to 25 years to reach Proxima b.

Ice deposit on Mars is bigger than Lake Superior

A massive ice deposit spanning a region the size of New Mexico was discovered in Mars' mid-northern latitudes. The deposit lies between 3 and 33 feet (1 to 10 meters) below the Red Planet's surface, it's between 50 and 85 percent water (the rest is dirt), and its total volume is about the same as that of Lake Superior, which holds about 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 cubic kilometers) of water.

The ice deposit could be useful if humans eventually settle on Mars. The region where the deposit was found, called Utopia Planitia, could be easily accessible by spacecraft because it is relatively flat and low-lying. The ice deposit was discovered using the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Hubble spies potential water plumes on Europa

The Hubble Space Telescope has spied what appear to be plumes of water erupting from the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. This icy satellite may harbor a liquid water ocean deep below its surface, and scientists think that ocean could have the right ingredients for life. NASA is currently planning to send an orbiting probe to study Europa in the 2020s.

If Europa is indeed spewing water from its ocean into space, that opens up the door for an orbiting mission to sample the water (without having to drill into the ice or even land) and look for hints of biology there. The Hubble telescope had spotted a plume erupting from Europa in 2012, but that detection seemed like it might have been a rare outlier, because no plume activity was observed in the intervening years.

Tabby's Star saga continues

In 2011 and 2013, a distant star known as KIC 8462852 (also known as Tabby's Star) appeared to dip in brightness as seen from Earth. This kind of brightness change can occur when an object such as a planet passes in front of a star, but planets orbit their parent stars on a regular time loop, and the changes in brightness coming from Tabby's Star were highly irregular. In 2015, a hypothesis emerged that captured the public imagination: Maybe an alien civilization had built some kind of megastructure around Tabby's Star, periodically blocking the star's light as seen from Earth. Alternative explanations (all of which seem far more likely) were produced, but there's not enough evidence to fully explain the mystery.

In 2016, the saga of Tabby's Star continued. New evidence suggested that the star's sporadic dimming might have been going on for a century. That makes it unlikely that the source of the dimming is a swarm of comets, but it could also make it unlikely that an alien megastructure is to blame. Further observations revealed that the star not only demonstrated periods of rapid brightening but was apparently decreasing in brightness overall.

That hasn't discouraged people from investigating the star further. The Breakthrough Listen initiative, which will spend $100 million over the next 10 years to hunt for signals possibly produced by alien civilizations, plans to study Tabby's Star with the 330-foot-wide (100 m) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Astronomer Tabetha "Tabby" Boyajian of Yale University (for whom the star is nicknamed) was part of the team that originally identified the star's irregular behavior. Boyajian and her colleagues collected more than $100,000 through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, and they plan to use those funds to pay for telescope time to study Tabby's Star further.

Kalpana Chawla - Biography of a Shining Star

Kalpana Chawla's story is an absolutely inspiring one! It’s the story of an ordinary girl who dreamt big and reached for the stars…literally. As most people know, Kalpana Chawla was an astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist for STS-107 (Columbia). She was killed in a spacecraft accident when at the end of its mission, Columbia disintegrated after reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Born in Karnal, Haryana, India on July 1, 1961 to Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi, Kalpana was the youngest of four siblings, after 2 sisters, Sunita and Dipa, and a brother, Sanjay. She completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Public School in Karnal. Chawla's mother has mentioned in an interview that her daughter was "different." "She used to cut her own hair, never wore ironed clothes, learned karate." One of her teachers remembered a project she had done on the environment, making "huge, colorful charts and models depicting the sky and stars." From her earliest childhood, she and her brother shared an interest in flying. Her interest in flight was inspired by J. R. D. Tata, India's first pilot. To pursue her dream of flying airplanes and becoming an Aerospace Engineer, she earned her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh in 1982. She was at the top of her class and had been offered a job in her own college. But when she learned that she was accepted at the University of Texas for a Master's in Aeronautical Engineering, she moved to the United States in 1982. There she obtained M.S. in Aerospace Engineering in the year 1984. In 1988, she received her Doctorate from University of Colorado. The same year she married Jean Pierre Harrison whom she had met on the day she landed in America for the first time. Harrison was a freelance flying instructor, and introduced Chawla to scuba diving, hiking, and long flying expeditions. She kept her brother informed of her budding relationship, and it was he who helped persuade their parents to let his sister marry Harrison.

With her Ph.D. in hand, Chawla began working at the NASA Ames Research Center in the San Francisco Bay area. The simulation of complex air flows encountered around spacecraft was the focus of her research. Later on, Chawla took a position with Overset Methods, Inc. in Silicon Valley. She served as the Vice President and as a research scientist. Her work and its results were presented at conferences and published in various professional journals.

Chawla was chosen for the astronaut program in December 1994 and was selected for her first flight in 1996. She spoke the following words while traveling in the weightlessness of space, "You are just your intelligence". She had traveled 10.4 million km, as many as 252 times around the Earth. Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a spacecraft. During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.

In 2000, she was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems. On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities included the microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety. On February 1, 2003, after completing their assigned duties, the crew of mission STS-107 was all set to return to Earth. Everything looked alright until US space shuttle Columbia gained entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. During its final descent, just 16 minutes prior to landing, the space shuttle exploded into pieces. The entire crew perished along with Kalpana Chawla. Since then, the tragic and untimely death of this extraordinary woman has remained in the memories of many.

Many awards and memorials have been instituted in the honor of Kalpana Chawla. The Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the University of Colorado, given since 1983, was renamed for Kalpana Chawla. At least 30,000 schoolchildren and citizens joined hands to make a 36.4 km-long human chain to support the demand for a Kalpana Chawla medical college in the city of Karnal to demonstrate that they continue to revere Kalpana Chawla as an outstanding astronaut. Haryana Government accepted this long pending demand of the people of Karnal and the establishment of Kalpana Chawla Medical College is in progress. The Government of Haryana has also made a Planetarium after her name called Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Jyotisar, Kurukshetra. Shortly after her last mission, India renamed its first weather satellite 'Kalpana-1' in her honor. Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created a song called "Contact Lost" in memory of the Columbia tragedy. The song can be found in the album Bananas.

Kalpana Chawla lived as a role-model for many young women, particularly those in her hometown of Karnal where she periodically returned to encourage young girls to follow in her footsteps. And in the end, she died a hero. Her brother, Sanjay Chawla remarked, "To me, my sister is not dead. She is immortal. Isn't that what a star is? She is a permanent star in the sky. She will always be up there where she belongs”.

5 Unforgettable Moments in the History of Spaceflight and Space Exploration

Humans have made great strides in spaceflight and space exploration in the relatively short amount of time since such feats were first accomplished. Here we explore five of the most important and memorable moments in spaceflight history.

First Satellite in Space

On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 became the first satellite to be launched by man, inaugurating the space age. According to Britannica’s aerospace industry article:

[The] launch of Sputnik in 1957 signaled not only Soviet technical leadership in a new field but also the capability and extent of Soviet large-missile development and production. This leadership persisted into the era of manned spaceflight, and, exploiting a minimalistic but sophisticated approach to technology, it continued in the pioneering era of space vehicles and space station

First Satellite in Space

On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 became the first satellite to be launched by man, inaugurating the space age. According to Britannica’s aerospace industry article:

[The] launch of Sputnik in 1957 signaled not only Soviet technical leadership in a new field but also the capability and extent of Soviet large-missile development and production. This leadership persisted into the era of manned spaceflight, and, exploiting a minimalistic but sophisticated approach to technology, it continued in the pioneering era of space vehicles and space stations

First Man in Space   

On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 became the first satellite to be launched by man, inaugurating the space age. According to Britannica’s aerospace industry article:

[The] launch of Sputnik in 1957 signaled not only Soviet technical leadership in a new field but also the capability and extent of Soviet large-missile development and production. This leadership persisted into the era of manned spaceflight, and, exploiting a minimalistic but sophisticated approach to technology, it continued in the pioneering era of space vehicles and space stations.

First Man in Space

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yury A. Gagarin, onboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, became the first human in space. The voyage, which began with launch at 9:07 am Moscow time, entailed one orbit around Earth, lasting 1 hour 29 minutes, and ended at 10:55 am in the Soviet Union with his safe return to Earth. It also brought Gagarin immediate worldwide fame.

The Lunar Landing

The Apollo 11 spaceflight, which on July 20, 1969, achieved its goal of landing the first humans on the Moon, was arguably one of the most momentous events in 20th-century space exploration. The flight, landing, and return of the spacecraft to Earth was witnessed on television by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. As Britannica’s biography on Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong recounts:

On July 16, 1969, Armstrong, along with Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, blasted off in the Apollo 11 vehicle toward the Moon. Four days later, at 4:17 pm U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), the Eagle lunar landing module, guided manually by Armstrong, touched down on a plain near the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquillity (Mare Tranquillitatis). At 10:56 pm EDT on July 20, 1969, Armstrong stepped from the Eagle onto the Moon’s dusty surface with the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” (In the excitement of the moment, Armstrong skipped the “a” in the statement that he had prepared.) Armstrong and Aldrin left the module for more than two hours and deployed scientific instruments, collected surface samples, and took numerous photographs.

Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope

On April 25, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope, named after Edwin Powell Hubble, was placed into orbit by crew members of the space shuttle Discovery. The large reflecting telescope was the most sophisticated optical observatory ever to orbit Earth, and the photographs it collected ultimately revolutionized the field of astronomy.

Flight of the First Private Spacecraft

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne, designed and developed by an aerospace development company known as Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, which was founded in 1982 by American aircraft designer Burt Rutan (author of Britannica’s SpaceShipOne article), became the first private manned space vehicle to fly past the boundary of space. The vehicle was flown by South African-born American test pilot Mike Melvill, who, in successfully soaring past the edge of space, became the first commercial astronaut-pilot.

10 Places to Visit in the Solar System

Having a tough time deciding where to go on vacation? Do you want to go someplace with startling natural beauty that isn’t overrun with tourists? Do you want to go somewhere where you won’t need to take a passport or get vaccinations? If you look up in the night sky, you’ll see a few of these places. All you’ll need is a fast rocket and enough food, water, and air for the trip, which could take months or even years.

Caloris Basin, Mercury

About 4 billion years ago, the inner solar system was being cleared of the remaining debris left over from its formation. During this period, which is called the Late Heavy Bombardment, a large asteroid like those that created the “seas” on the Moon crashed into the planet Mercury and formed the Caloris Basin, one of the largest such features in the solar system with a diameter of 1,550 km (960 miles). The interior of the basin is filled with high ridges and deep fractures that radiate outward from the centre. The basin is surrounded by Mercury’s highest mountains towering 3 km (2 miles) above the plains and many lava vents, which point to a period of active volcanism. Bring your sunscreen; you’ll catch about 7 times more rays than you do on Earth because you’re so much closer to the Sun.

Apollo 11 landing site, Sea of Tranquility, Moon

The solar system isn’t all stark craters and majestic vistas; humanity has scattered its artifacts among the planets and interplanetary space. If you had to choose one such historical site to visit, make it the Apollo 11 landing site at the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, where on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world. There you will see the lower part of the lunar module Eagle. But be careful where you step. Your footprints and those left by Armstrong and Aldrin will last for millions of years.

Valles Marineris, Mars

Arizona’s Grand Canyon is very impressive. It’s 450 km (280 miles) long and about 2 km (1 mile) deep. However, when set next to the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars, it is a mere ditch. Discovered in 1971 by Mariner 9 (for which it is named), Valles Marineris stretches 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the planet. Typical canyons are 200 km (125 miles) across and have walls 2–5 km (1–3 miles) deep. The center of the canyon system is a depression 600 km (375 miles) across and 9 km (5.6 miles) deep. It has been speculated that Valles Marineris may be a fault system separating two continental plates. If so, Mars and Earth would be the only planets with surfaces shaped by plate tectonics.

Olympus Mons, Mars

Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. It is 700 km (435 miles across and rises 22 km (14 miles) above the surrounding Tharsis plain. The edge of Olympus Mons is a cliff 10 km (6 miles) high. From there it is a shallow slope to the central craters, which are 85 km (53 miles) across. The largest such volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, is 120 km (75 miles) across and 9 km (6 miles) high, although much of it is hidden beneath the ocean floor.

Great Red Spot

The Great Red Spot is Jupiter’s largest surface feature, a swirling red oval storm twice the size of Earth. It has been continuously observed since 1878 and shows no signs of abating. The entire system rotates every seven days, with wind speeds at the edge of 400 km (250 miles) per hour. It floats above Jupiter’s main cloud layers, and it is unknown how far it extends into Jupiter’s interior. The spot itself sometimes changes color from an orange-red to gray, when it is covered by white clouds at a higher altitude. What makes the spot red is unknown, and speculation has ranged from sulfur and phosphorous compounds to organic material such as carbon compounds produced by lightning or chemical reactions with sunlight.

Io

Jupiter has four large moons, called the Galilean satellites because they were discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610. Because Io is the closest to Jupiter, tidal effects squeeze the moon like a rubber ball, heating the interior. This energy is released in spectacular volcanic eruptions of silicate lava. Io’s volcanoes were discovered by the American probe Voyager 1 in 1979, making the moon the first place beyond Earth where active volcanoes were observed. These eruptions are so numerous that Io is entirely resurfaced every few millennia. The surface is mottled in orange, white, and yellow hues from sulfur and sulfur compounds.

Europa

Europa is another of the Galilean satellites, but it is covered by ice. The surface is smooth with few impact craters, indicating that it is very young. In fact, the surface may be so young that resurfacing is currently happening on Europa. What is below the surface of ice is an interesting question. The ice is probably about 150 km (95 miles) thick, but below that may be an ocean of liquid water. Scientists have speculated that if such an ocean exists, it may harbor life with the heat energy coming from the tidal flexure of Europa (which would be less extreme than that suffered by Io, but still noticeable). If the cracks seen in Europa’s surface are much thinner parts of the crust, it may be possible for a submarine probe to melt its way down through the ice and travel the hidden waters of the subsurface ocean.

Saturn’s Rings

The rings of Saturn are one of the most distinct planetary features in the solar system. They have a diameter of 270,000 km (170,000 miles), but they are astonishingly thin, with a thickness of only 100 meters (330 feet). The rings are made up of many particles of rock and dust and lie within what is known as the Roche limit, the radius within which a large moon would be torn apart by the great tides that Saturn would exert upon it. These tidal forces also prevent the particles in the rings from agglomerating into a larger body.

South Polar Geysers, Enceladus

The brightest moon of Saturn, Enceladus, has a smooth, almost featureless surface covered with ice. However, at the south pole is the tiger stripe region, several ridges from which gigantic geysers spew water thousands of kilometers out into space and form one of Saturn’s rings. The geysers likely come from an ocean of liquid water underneath the ice. Where there is water and energy, there may be life.

Hawaii

After touring the solar system from the vast chasms of Valles Marineris to the frigid geysers of Enceladus to the immense storm of the Great Red Spot, you might want to end your vacation in a place with a breathable atmosphere and plenty of surface liquid water. Luckily Earth is full of such beautiful places, such as the volcanic island chain of Hawaii in the middle of the planet’s largest ocean, the Pacific. The volcanoes there are not as large as Olympus Mons and are not as numerous as those on Io, but they are conveniently located near paved roads, nice hotels, fine restaurants, and fabulous beaches. Have a good trip!

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

   Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian space agency, founded in 1969 to develop an independent Indian space program. Its headquarters are in Bangalore (Bengaluru). Its chief executive is a chairman, who is also chairman of the Indian government’s Space Commission and the secretary of the Department of Space.

   The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) operates through a countrywide network of centres. Sensors and payloads are developed at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad. Satellites are designed, developed, assembled, and tested at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore. Launch vehicles are developed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. Launches take place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, near Chennai. The Master Control Facilities for geostationary satellite station keeping are located at Hassan and Bhopal. Reception and processing facilities for remote-sensing data are at the National Remote Sensing Centre in Hyderabad. ISRO’s commercial arm is Antrix Corporation, which has its headquarters in Bangalore.

   ISRO’s first satellite, Aryabhata, was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1975. Rohini, the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle (the Satellite Launch Vehicle 3), was launched on July 18, 1980. ISRO has launched several space systems, including the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system for telecommunication, television broadcasting, meteorology, and disaster warning and the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites for resource monitoring and management. The first INSAT was launched in 1988, and the program expanded to include geosynchronous satellites called GSAT. The first IRS satellite was also launched in 1988, and the program developed more-specialized satellites, including the Radar Imaging Satellite-1 (RISAT-1, launched in 2012) and the 

   Satellite with Argos and Altika (SARAL, launched in 2013), a joint Indian-French mission that measures ocean wave heights. ISRO subsequently developed three other rockets: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for putting satellites into polar orbit, the Geostationary Space Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for placing satellites into geostationary orbit, and a heavy-lift version of the GSLV called the GSLV Mark III or LVM. Those rockets launched communications satellites, Earth-observation satellites, and, in 2008, Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon. ISRO plans to put astronauts into orbit in 2021.

A better way to learn if alien planets have the right stuff

A new method for analyzing the chemical composition of stars may help scientists winnow the search for Earth 2.0.

Yale University researchers Debra Fischer and John Michael Brewer, in a new study that will appear in the Astrophysical Journal, describe a computational modeling technique that gives a clearer sense of the chemistry of stars, revealing the conditions present when their planets formed. The system creates a new way to assess the habitability and biological evolution possibilities of planets outside our solar system.

"This is a very useful, easy diagnostic to tell whether that pale blue dot you see is more similar to Venus or the Earth," said Fischer, a Yale professor of astronomy. "Our field is very focused on finding Earth 2.0, and anything we can do to narrow the search is helpful."

Lead author Brewer, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale, has used the technique previously to determine temperature, surface gravity, rotational speed, and chemical composition information for 1,600 stars, based on 15 elements found within those stars. The new study looks at roughly 800 stars, focusing on their ratio of carbon to oxygen, and magnesium to silicon.

Brewer explained that understanding the makeup of stars helps researchers understand the planets in orbit around them. "We're getting a look at the primordial materials that made these planets," he said. "Knowing what materials they started with leads to so much else."

For instance, the new study shows that in many cases, carbon isn't the driving force in planetary composition. Brewer found that if a star has a carbon/oxygen ratio similar to or lower than that of our own Sun, its planets have mineralogy dominated by the magnesium/silicon ratio. About 60% of the stars in the study have magnesium/silicon ratios that would produce Earth-like compositions; 40% of the stars have silicate-heavy interiors.

"This will have a profound impact on determining habitability," Brewer said. "It will help us make better inferences about which planets will be ones where life like ours can form."

In addition to helping identify planets more like Earth, the study sheds light on the occurrence of "diamond" planets—planets with a high carbon-to-oxygen abundance. Brewer and Fischer found that it is "exceedingly rare" to find a star with a carbon/oxygen ratio high enough to produce a diamond planet. In fact, the new data reveals that the star of the much discussed diamond planet, 55 Cancri e, does not have a high enough carbon/oxygen ratio to support its nickname.

"They're even more rare than we thought a few years ago," Fischer said. "Diamond planets truly are the most precious."

Small troughs growing on Mars may become 'spiders'

Erosion-carved troughs that grow and branch during multiple Martian years may be infant versions of larger features known as Martian "spiders," which are radially patterned channels found only in the south polar region of Mars.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-small-troughs-mars-spiders.html#jCp

Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) report the first detection of cumulative growth, from one Martian spring to another, of channels resulting from the same thawing-carbon-dioxide process believed to form the spider-like features.

The spiders range in size from tens to hundreds of yards (or meters). Multiple channels typically converge at a central pit, resembling the legs and body of a spider. For the past decade, researchers have checked in vain with MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera to see year-to-year changes in them.

"We have seen for the first time these smaller features that survive and extend from year to year, and this is how the larger spiders get started," said Ganna Portyankina of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "These are in sand-dune areas, so we don't know whether they will keep getting bigger or will disappear under moving sand."

Dunes appear to be a factor in how the baby spiders form, but they may also keep many from persisting through the centuries needed to become full-scale spiders. The amount of erosion needed to sculpt a typical spider, at the rate determined from observing active growth of these smaller troughs, would require more than a thousand Martian years. That is according to an estimate by Portyankina and co-authors in a recent paper in the journal Icarus. One Martian year lasts about 1.9 Earth years.

"Much of Mars looks like Utah if you stripped away all vegetation, but 'spiders' are a uniquely Martian landform," said Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, a co-author of the report.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-small-troughs-mars-spiders.html#jCp

Carbon-dioxide ice, better known as "dry ice," does not occur naturally on Earth. On Mars, sheets of it cover the ground during winter in areas near both poles, including the south-polar regions with spidery terrain. Dark fans appear in these areas each spring.

Hugh Kieffer of the Space Science Institute in Boulder put those factors together in 2007 to deduce the process linking them: Spring sunshine penetrates the ice to warm the ground underneath, causing some carbon dioxide on the bottom of the sheet to thaw into gas. The trapped gas builds pressure until a crack forms in the ice sheet. Gas erupts out, and gas beneath the ice rushes toward the vent, picking up particles of sand and dust. This erodes the ground and also supplies the geyser with particles that fall back to the surface, downwind, and appear as the dark spring fans.

\Ball Mill Manufacturer

This explanation has been well accepted, but actually seeing a ground-erosion process that could eventually yield the spider shapes proved elusive. Six years ago, researchers using HiRISE reported small furrows appearing on sand dunes near Mars' north pole at sites where eruptions through dry ice had deposited spring fans. However, those furrows in the far north disappear within a year, apparently refilled with sand.

The newly reported troughs near the south pole are also at spring-fan sites. They have not only persisted and grown through three Mars years so far, but they also formed branches as they extended. The branching pattern resembles the spidery terrain.

"There are dunes where we see these dendritic [or branching] troughs in the south, but in this area, there is less sand than around the north pole," Portyankina said. "I think the sand is what jump starts the process of carving a channel in the ground."

Harder ground lies beneath the sand. Forming a spider may require ground soft enough to be carved, but not so loose that it refills the channels, as in the north. The new research sheds light on how carbon dioxide shapes Mars in unearthly ways.

MRO began orbiting Mars in 2006. "The combination of very high-resolution imaging and the mission's longevity is enabling us to investigate active processes on Mars that produce detectable changes on time spans of seasons or years," said MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We keep getting surprises about how dynamic Mars is.
"
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-small-troughs-mars-spiders.html#jCp

Searching a sea of 'noise' to find exoplanets—using only data as a guide

The new approach, outlined in a study published Dec. 20 in The Astronomical Journal, relies on mathematical methods that have their foundations in physics research. Rather than trying to filter out the signal "noise" from stars around which exoplanets are orbiting, Yale scientists studied all of the signal information together to understand the intricacies within its structure.

"It requires nothing but the data itself, which is a game changer," said senior author John Wettlaufer, the A.M. Bateman Professor of Geophysics, Mathematics and Physics at Yale. "Moreover, it allows us to compare our findings with other, traditional approaches and improve whatever modeling assumptions they use."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-sea-noise-exoplanetsusing.html#jCp

The search for exoplanets—planets found outside our own solar system—has increased dramatically in recent years. The effort is motivated, in part, by a desire to discover Earth analogs that might also support life.

Scientists have employed many techniques in this effort, including pulsar timing, direct imaging, and measuring the speed at which stars and galaxies move either toward or away from Earth. Yet each of these techniques, individually or in combination, presents challenges.

Primarily, those challenges have to do with eliminating extraneous data—noise—that doesn't match existing models of how planets are expected to behave. In this traditional interpretation of noise, searches can be hampered by data that obscures or mimics exoplanets.

Wettlaufer and his colleagues decided to look for exoplanets in the same way they had sorted through satellite data to find complex changes in Arctic sea ice. The formal name for the approach is "multi-fractal temporally weighted detrended fluctuation analysis" (MF-TWDFA). It sifts data at all time scales and extracts the underlying processes associated with them.

"A key idea is that events closer in time are more likely to be similar than those farther away in time," Wettlaufer said. "In the case of exoplanets, it is the fluctuations in a star's spectral intensity that we are dealing with."

The use of multi-fractals in science and mathematics was pioneered at Yale by Benoit B. Mandelbrot and Katepalli Sreenivasan. For expertise in the search for exoplanets, the researchers consulted with Yale astrophysicist Debra Fischer, who has pioneered many approaches in the field.

The researchers confirmed the accuracy of their methodology by testing it against observations and simulation data of a known planet orbiting a star in the constellation Vulpecula, approximately 63 light years from Earth.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-sea-noise-exoplanetsusing.html#jCp

Will the Indo-French Collaboration on Space Research Lead to a Lander on Mars

India and France’s collaboration on space research has been symbiotic from the very outset and now spans across Europe, Asia and South America

     Kourou: The Indo-French love affair for rockets spans across Europe, Asia and South America. In far-away French Guiana, at Kourou in South America, housed in the middle of lush green rain forests, is the expansive 700 sq km European space port.

When I reach, I encounter a heartening sight that fills one with national pride as I see the tricolour hoisted alongside the French and EU flags.
Another fact makes me feel at home, is a poster announcing that I am in a zone that houses deadly diseases like dengue and chikungunya to add to the icing it also warns against Zika.
It is here that I find a band of about a dozen Indian aerospace scientists who made a motel their temporary home and were carefully nurturing India’s big bird, the GSAT-18 satellite that was launched on the Ariane-5 rocket last week.
Cooking their own meals of rasam and curd rice, this merry gang kept a vigil on India’s satellite as it rocketed over the Atlantic Ocean.
There is no other country, other than France which has contributed and benefitted the most in partnering with India in the space sector. From helping India in its very first baby rocket launch, way back in 1963 to having launched India’s latest heavy weight communication satellite GSAT-18 on October 6, 2016, the Indo-French connection are deep and strong.

     India and France have made rocket engines together, helped each other learn things that were being denied to one another, have made satellites for each other and more than that both have helped train human resources in this frontier area. Today both countries are recognised as frontline space powers each in their own right.

Not known to many, India even contributed to the making and testing of the mighty Ariane rockets. On the 280th launch of rockets from Kourou and the 74th consecutively successful launch of the massive Ariane-5 rocket, India’s GSAT-18 – a 3404-kg communications satellite that helps the country boost its television and banking services was successfully placed in orbit.

ISRO chairman, A. S. Kiran Kumar, who watched the launch from the Jupiter building of the control centre in Kourou, called it a “glorious and flawless mission and like, on all previous occasions, Arianespace provided a magnificent textbook launch”.

India has had a long association since 1983 with Arianespace and Centre National Detudes Spatiales (CNES) or the French space agency, as Kumar says “This was the 20th launch for ISRO and we have been having a long cooperation with Ariane starting with our Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE). At ISRO we have capability of putting only 2.2 tonnes in orbit and we come to Kourou and Ariane for putting higher capacity satellites.”

This 20th launch was only the latest, in early years when the Ariane rocket was still struggling and had suffered back to back failures, it was India that risked putting its APPLE satellite – a 350-kg communications satellite onboard the third launch of the Ariane-1 rocket in 1983.

To be fair, CNES provided India with a free launch and since then the gates for commerce in rocket launching using the Ariane family of rockets have not closed. In 2017, India hopes to launch another two heavy duty communication satellites GSAT-17 and GSAT-11 using the trusted Ariane-5 rocket.

In 1963, when ISRO was not yet born, India launched its first sounding rocket from Thumba, a Nike Apache rocket given by the Americans, but even in this first launch the French link was evident as the payload of the sodium vapour experiment was provided by France.

Legendary French aerospace scientist, Jacques Blamont, was present on November 21, 1963 in the fishing village of Thumba, in Kerala who says he “had no difficulty convincing CNES to provide a radar for tracking and the sodium payloads to be placed first on the first sounding rocket”.

Blamont recalls that “a young engineer was sent the night before to fit the payload and nose cone, he later became the president of India in A. P. J. Abdul Kalam”.

One of ISRO’s workhorse liquid fuelled rocket engines is the Vikas motor, that still flies on both the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), also has its origins in France.

According to Blamont, “For India, the really major breakthrough in liquid propulsion systems came in 1974 when ISRO signed an agreement with the Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP) located in Vernon, France.

     “At that time the French were developing the Viking liquid engine for their Ariane launch vehicle programme. Without any exchange of funds, this agreement provided for technology transfer from SEP to ISRO for the Viking liquid engine. In return, ISRO would spare the services of 100 man-years of ISRO engineers and scientists to SEP for their Ariane launch vehicle development. Forty engineers, with a 5 years contract, participated in the technology acquisition programme in France.”

This is the real beginning of the success story of the Indian and French rockets.

In more recent times, India has launched some of Europe’s sharpest eyes in the skies in the form of Spot-6 and Spot-7 satellites a few years ago.

That the French relied on India’s highly reliable PSLV launcher shows how the two countries trust each-others’ capabilities.

In more recent times, the two jointly made a satellite dedicated to study the water cycle on Earth called Megha Tropiques.

This is a 1,000-kg earth imaging satellite and was launched using the PSLV in 2011. Just last week ISRO and CNES inked a new understanding to jointly continue with the mission for another four years.

According to Mathieu Weiss, the CNES representative in India, “the mission has already given rise to some 90 published scientific articles and more than 1,400 citations.”

Weiss adds that the mission is delivering a dynamic three-dimensional picture of different states of water in the atmosphere. The main feature of the satellite is the combination of its instruments and its position over the inter-tropical belt, in a low-inclination orbit enabling up to five revisits to the same location every day.

This unique capability has allowed it to achieve remarkable progress in estimating rainfall and forecasting cyclones, monsoons and droughts. Continuous monitoring of the turbulent giant tropical convection spots, where most extreme weather phenomena form, provides a better understanding of the cycles affecting mid-latitude countries and is extremely valuable for the global climate science community.

Forging a new partnership, CNES and ISRO have decided to engage in new joint climate missions. The French Argos data-collection instrument will fly on the Indian Oceansat-3 satellite in 2018. France and India have also begun development of a future joint thermal infrared observation satellite.

     “India is one of the best partners and customers for France,” says CNES president, Jean-Yves Le Gall who adds in times to come ISRO and CNES can hopefully jointly explore planets like Venus and Mars where India is already planning missions.

Blamont wants India and France to jointly launch an orbiter to Venus that will then send balloons down into the little understood atmosphere of the Venus.

“After India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, the next step has to be a lander. A lander on Mars is not easy, but it will be interesting to undertake,” says Le Gall.

Earlier this year on India’s republic day, at the summit meeting between India and France a letter of intent was indeed inked to explore landing on Mars.

In space technology no frontier is impossible and no dream is too big for India and France as they soar ever higher to decipher the unknowns of the universe, while not forgetting the needs of earthlings.

A Space First: Spaceships From 4 Different Fleets Linked Together

     HOUSTON – When NASA's shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station Saturday (Feb. 26), it made some space history: It marked the first time ever that spaceships from four different space agencies were docked together at the same time.

The historic moment occurred at 2:16 p.m. EST (1916 GMT), when Discovery arrived at a docking port on NASA's Harmony module, a multi-port hub on the space station. The shuttle joined two Russian Soyuz space capsules and three robotic space freighters (from Europe, Japan and Russia) that were also docked to the orbiting lab.

"That that's about as many different visiting vehicles as you can imagine," Discovery astronaut Alvin Drew radioed Mission Control in Houston before the docking.

Truly international space station

     With Discovery's arrival, the space station's mass jumped to 1.2 million pounds (544,310 kilograms). It is as long as a football field, making it the largest man-made structure in space.

     The station is so large that on clear nights it can easily be seen with the unaided eye if you know where to look, and sometimes even rivals the planet Venus in brightness.

The $100 billion International Space Station has been under construction by 15 different countries since 1998. It is currently home to six crewmembers from the U.S., Russia and Italy and has about the same amount of living space as a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

Five different space agencies, representing the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, are leading the effort. Of those, only the Canadian Space Agency does not have a spacecraft docked at the space station today, although Canada provided the robotic arm and Dextre maintenance robot for the orbiting laboratory. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

Busy space traffic control

     In the last few weeks, the station has seen a flurry of spaceship arrivals and departures leading up to Discovery's arrival. Here's a look at the busy port in space:
First, an unmanned Japanese cargo craft called the H-2 Transfer Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) arrived at the space station on Jan. 26.
     Astronauts used the station's robotic arm to latch onto the HTV-2 craft, which Japan's space agency named Kounotori 2 ("Kounotori" is Japanese for White Stork), and attached it to the station's multi-port Harmony module. Last week, the station's crew had to move the Japanese craft to a different parking spot because it would have blocked access to Discovery's payload bay
     On Jan. 28 Russian launched its robotic space freighter Progress 41 toward the station. It arrived two days later. An older Russian cargo ship, Progress 40, also undocked from the station to make room for yet another addition: the European Space Agency's second unmanned cargo ship.
     ESA launched its Automated Transfer Vehicle 2, called the ATV-2 Johannes Kepler, on Feb. 16. It arrived at the space station on Thursday (Feb. 24) – the exact same day that Discovery blasted off toward the orbiting lab. [Photos: Shuttle Discovery's Final Mission]
Discovery launched Thursday (Feb. 24) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is Discovery's 39th and final spaceflight before being retired along with the rest of NASA's shuttle program later this year.The shuttle is delivering a new storage room and a humanoid robot, called Robonaut 2, to the International Space Station.
Two Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which carried the six astronauts aboard the station in teams of three, are also linked to the space station.
     "It's a pretty amazing time if you think about it," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief, said before Discovery launched. "To think of all these international control stations working together – it's an amazing system of operations and systems to keep all the bits moving forward. What a great time in spaceflight."
The novelty of so many different spacecraft at the International Space Station has not been lost on NASA and its international partners.
     They hope to stage a space photo session by cosmonauts flying around the station in a Soyuz spacecraft if time allows during Discovery's flight.
A final decision has yet to be made, but if allowed, will add an extra day to Discovery's 11-day mission.
     SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik (@tariqjmalik) contributed to this report. Follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow.Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of Discovery's final mission STS-133.

International Space Station: Facts, History & Tracking

The International Space Station (ISS) is the most complex international scientific and engineering project in history and the largest structure humans have ever put into space. This high-flying satellite is a laboratory for new technologies and an observation platform for astronomical, environmental and geological research. As a permanently occupied outpost in outer space, it serves as a stepping-stone for further space exploration. This includes Mars, which NASA is now stating is its goal for human space exploration.

The space station flies at an average altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. It circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). In one day, the station travels about the distance it would take to go from Earth to the moon and back. The space station can rival the brilliant planet Venus in brightness and appears as a bright moving light across the night sky. It can be seen from Earth without the use of a telescope by night sky observers who know when and where to look. You can use our Satellite Tracker page powered by N2YO.com to find out when to see the space station.

Five different space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100-billion International Space Station and continue to operate it today. NASA, Russia's Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners on the project.

Structure

The International Space Station was taken into space piece-by-piece and gradually built in orbit.It consists of modules and connecting nodes that contain living quarters and laboratories, as well as exterior trusses that provide structural support, and solar panels that provide power. The first module, Russia's Zarya module, launched in 1998. The station has been continuously occupied since Nov. 2, 2000.

[Infographic: The International Space Station: Inside and Out]

Starting in 2015, changes to the ISS were performed to prepare the complex for crewed commercial spacecraft, which will begin arriving as early as 2017. Two international docking adapters will be added to the station. Additionally, an inflatable module from Bigelow Aerospace is scheduled to arrive in 2016.

Current plans call for the space station to be operated through at least 2020. NASA has requested an extension until 2024. Discussions to extend the space station's lifetime are ongoing among all international partners; several countries, such as Canada, Russia and Japan, have expressed their support for extending the station's operations.

During the space station's major construction phase, some Russian modules and docking ports were launched directly to the orbiting lab, while other NASA and international components (including Russian hardware) were delivered on U.S. space shuttles. [Rare Photos: Space Shuttle at Space Station]

How big is the International Space Station?

The space station, including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a U.S. football field, including the end zones, and weighs 861,804 lbs. (391,000 kilograms), not including visiting vehicles. The complex now has more livable room than a conventional five-bedroom house, and has two bathrooms, gym facilities and a 360-degree bay window. Astronauts have also compared the space station's living space to the cabin of a Boeing 747 jumbo j

The International Space Station (ISS) is the most complex international scientific and engineering project in history and the largest structure humans have ever put into space. This high-flying satellite is a laboratory for new technologies and an observation platform for astronomical, environmental and geological research. As a permanently occupied outpost in outer space, it serves as a stepping-stone for further space exploration. This includes Mars, which NASA is now stating is its goal for human space exploration.

The space station flies at an average altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. It circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). In one day, the station travels about the distance it would take to go from Earth to the moon and back. The space station can rival the brilliant planet Venus in brightness and appears as a bright moving light across the night sky. It can be seen from Earth without the use of a telescope by night sky observers who know when and where to look. You can use our Satellite Tracker page powered by N2YO.com to find out when to see the space station.

Five different space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100-billion International Space Station and continue to operate it today. NASA, Russia's Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners on the project.

Structure

The International Space Station was taken into space piece-by-piece and gradually built in orbit. It consists of modules and connecting nodes that contain living quarters and laboratories, as well as exterior trusses that provide structural support, and solar panels that provide power. The first module, Russia's Zarya module, launched in 1998. The station has been continuously occupied since Nov. 2, 2000.

[Infographic: The International Space Station: Inside and Out]

Starting in 2015, changes to the ISS were performed to prepare the complex for crewed commercial spacecraft, which will begin arriving as early as 2017. Two international docking adapters will be added to the station. Additionally, an inflatable module from Bigelow Aerospace is scheduled to arrive in 2016.

Current plans call for the space station to be operated through at least 2020. NASA has requested an extension until 2024. Discussions to extend the space station's lifetime are ongoing among all international partners; several countries, such as Canada, Russia and Japan, have expressed their support for extending the station's operations.

During the space station's major construction phase, some Russian modules and docking ports were launched directly to the orbiting lab, while other NASA and international components (including Russian hardware) were delivered on U.S. space shuttles. [Rare Photos: Space Shuttle at Space Station]

How big is the International Space Station?

The space station, including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a U.S. football field, including the end zones, and weighs 861,804 lbs. (391,000 kilograms), not including visiting vehicles. The complex now has more livable room than a conventional five-bedroom house, and has two bathrooms, gym facilities and a 360-degree bay window. Astronauts have also compared the space station's living space to the cabin of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

Crew size

A six-person expedition crew typically stays four to six months aboard the ISS. The first space station crews were three-person teams, though after the tragic Columbia shuttle disaster the crew size temporarily dropped to two-person teams. The space station reached its full six-person crew size in 2009 as new modules, laboratories and facilities were brought online.

Also in 2009, the record for the largest gathering in space was set during NASA's STS-127 shuttle mission aboard Endeavour. When Endeavour docked with the International Space Station, the shuttle's seven-person crew went aboard the orbiting lab, joining the six spaceflyers already there. The 13-person party was the largest-ever gathering of people in space at the same time. While subsequent NASA shuttle and station crews matched the 13-person record, it has never been topped. [Related: The Most Extreme Human Spaceflight Records]

With a full complement of six crewmembers, the station operates as a full research facility. In recent years, technology such as 3-D printing, autonomous Earth imaging, laser communications and mini-satellite launchers have been added to the station; some are controlled by crewmembers, and some controlled by the ground. Additionally, there are dozens of ongoing investigations looking at the health of astronauts staying on the station for several months. [Related: Weightlessness and Its Effect on Astronauts]

With a full complement of six crewmembers, the station operates as a full research facility. In recent years, technology such as 3-D printing, autonomous Earth imaging, laser communications and mini-satellite launchers have been added to the station; some are controlled by crewmembers, and some controlled by the ground. Additionally, there are dozens of ongoing investigations looking at the health of astronauts staying on the station for several months. [Related: Weightlessness and Its Effect on Astronauts]

Crews are not only responsible for science, but also for maintaining the station. Sometimes, this requires that they venture on spacewalks to perform repairs. From time to time, these repairs can be urgent — such as when a part of the ammonia system fails, which has happened a couple of times.
Spacewalk safety procedures were changed after a potentially deadly 2013 incident when astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet filled with water while he was working outside the station. NASA now responds quickly to “water incursion” incidents. It also has added pads to the spacesuits to soak up the liquid, and a tube to provide an alternate breathing location should the helmet fill with water. NASA is also testing technology that could supplement or replace astronaut spacewalks. One example is Robonaut. A prototype currently on board the station is able to flip switches and do other routine tasks under supervision, and may be modified at some point to work “outside” as well. [Infographic: Meet Robonaut 2, NASA's Space Droid]