A Moment in History: Creating Antimatter [Video]

A Brief Video History of Antimatter:

Creating Antimatter and the Future Implications:

Scientists at the Geneva particle-based research lababory, CERN, have created anitmatter. By trapping 38 antihydrogen atoms in a magnetic bottle, scientists can begin to measure and compare matter and antimatter. This is the first step in three fields, first understanding The Great Bang that created our Universe, second, it is the start the engineering of antimatter weapons, and possibly antimatter power stations.

Here is a photo of the machine used to make antihydrogen atoms:

When matter and antimatter meet, they destroying "... each other instantly on contact in a violent flash of energy." [CNN] Here's how the explosion works:

"In an antiatom, the antimatter equivalent of an ordinary atom, the electrical charges of all the component particles are reversed; while an ordinary atom has a positively charged nucleus with one or more negatively charged electrons orbiting it, the antimatter atom has a negatively charged nucleus with positively charged orbiting electrons. An ordinary atomic nucleus contains positively charged protons, while its antimatter counterpart contains negatively charged antiprotons." [New York Times]

DISCOVERY CHANNEL VIDEO - "MATTER vs. ANTIMATTER"

When the matter and antimatter meet, as two opposite electrical charges meet, they create a flash of energy. There has been prior research where scientists have created antiprotons and antielectrons, but this was the first time antimatter atoms have ever been created.

The Antimatter Bomb?

The dream here is to eventually be able to harness this energy for possible use as well as understand the makings of our Universe.

Sources: [CERN] [Huliq] [New York Times] [CNN World] [Boing Boing]

California Mystery Missile [Video]

CBS affiliate KCBS captured a mysterious rocket being launched into the sky Monday night, while so far there is no explanation for the siting.






Sources: [CBS News] [SPACE.com] [Live Science]

Mars 2025: NASA to Put Human-like Robot on the Moon

NASA's Project M

Recently NASA asked President Obama for $150 billion to send another man to the moon. Due to the current economic recession, such funds are unavailable. Instead, for $200 million + $250 million for the rocket, the US is sending a human robot to the moon.

The NASA and General Motors Built Robonaut [written about a few months earlier on OE Tech] will be sent to the moon in about 1000 days. The Robonaut [top half] was sent to the international space station last Wednesday.

"Project M also draws on other NASA projects that were already under way, including rocket engines that burn liquid oxygen and methane — a cheap and nontoxic fuel combination — and an automated landing system that could avoid rocks, cliffs and other hazards." New York Times

Sources: [New York Times] [NASA Project M Video]

New Earth Like Planet Found

Photo From NYTimes

Gliese [Glee-za] 581g is 20 light-years away. The planet orbits a star similar to our sun in the Libra constellation known as Gliese 581. After 11 years of research, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington made the discovery.

The planet, unfortunately, is 20 light years away, which means if we sent a probe out there, we wouldn't get any information back for another 200 years.

NASA's Kepler satellite is currently looking to "detect Earthlink bodies... [and] is expected to harvest dozens." (New York Times) Who knows how many earth like planets we will find in the next 10 years.

If you are interested in new earth movies, I would suggest you check out the movie Pandorum, where Tanis is another planet like Earth.

Sources: [New York Times] [YouTube - Associated Press]

Mars 2025: Water on Mars

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander has found that most of the CO2 in the atmosphere has come from volcanic eruptions a few million years ago, but it is clear that this carbon dioxide has "almost certainly reacted with liquid water" suggesting that the water surface on Mars existed more recently than the 20 million years ago, which was the previous estimate. The "Phoenix Lander's data suggest that water-iduced weathering of Martian rocks has mainly occurred in ow temperature areas" also suggesting the water survived on Mars in the cold and dry areas.

Sticking with the goal of landing a US manned ship on Mars by 2025, the survival of water [the essence of human life] in cold and dry areas of Mars may give insight into possible human dwelling areas on Mars.

Source: [Gizmodo]

Space News: Hubble Vision

Supernova Shockwave

This is a photo taken of a shockwave from Supernova 1987A hitting a gas ring from a dying star 20,000 years before the explosion occurred. This supernova is a single light year away, by the Large Magellanic Cloud, a "dwarf galaxy" by the Milky Way. [Gizmodo]

The Bubble Nebula

NGC 7635 is 10 light years in diameter with a violent O-type star in the Bubble's center. This star is several hundred thousand times more luminous and approximately 45 times larger than our Sun, creating harsh stellar winds and intense cosmic radiation. [Gizmodo]

Hubble Detects Mysterious Object

The Hubble discovered P/2010-A2, a mysterious X-shaped object traveling at 11,000 mph in January. NASA says that the object may be a comet [the product of a collision of two asteroids], but in truth, no one has any idea what this object is.

"The weirdest thing, however, is not only the prettyful X-shaped debris pattern, but the fact that its 460-foot-wide nucleus is outside the dust halo and separated from the trail. This behavior is something which has never been seen before in a comet or any other solar-system-swooshing object." [Gizmodo]

... Spaceship?




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Step 1 - in Designing Spaceship Reflector Shields

According to the British science firm Appleton Lab, a tiny magnet can be used to protect a spaceship from cosmic rays that the sun produces:

Because the solar wind is a plasma made up of charged particles, it too carries a magnetic field. When the solar wind's field meets the rocks' mini-magnetosphere, the two fields clash, exerting a force on each other. Something has to give. Because the solar wind's field is created by free-moving particles, it is the one that yields, altering its orientation to minimise conflict with the mini-magnetosphere's field.

Some parts of the solar wind shift more easily than others. The positively charged protons have nearly 2000 times the mass of the negatively charged electrons, so the latter are much more easily deflected. The electrons stay at the surface of the magnetic bubble, while the positive charges penetrate further in.

This separation of positive and negative charges generates intense electric fields up to a million times stronger than the magnetic fields that created them. Subsequent solar wind particles hit these electric fields and are strongly deflected. The result is a shielding effect far more powerful than the magnetic field alone might be expected to provide.

The firm is currently working with NASA to test their theory.


Source: [Gizmodo]

HD Tour the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

Take A good look at the International Spaces Station while you can, it is expected to be taken out of space by 2016, unless the European Union can save it.

Sources: [Crunch Gear]

NASA and GM Team Up To Build Robonaut2

MARS 2025

Theses Robonaut2 was designed to compete with Japanese Honda Asimo, and gives us a possible glimpse at the future of robotics. I want to note that the Honda Asimo and the Toyota Robot Violinist are both automobile companies while the Robonaut is a joint NASA anad GM project, thus suggesting the interest in a robotic, human-like, astronaut. The name, "Robonaut2," combines both robot and astronaut, clearly alluding to the clear fact that mankind will walk on Mars by 2025.

Sources:
[Gizmodo] [Engadget] [Crunch Gear]

Mars 2025: Ion Rockets

Getting to Mars in 39 Days...

"Currently, a return journey to Mars can take up to two years, with crew members having to wait a full year for the planets to realign, but with ion propulsion -- which uses electricity to accelerate ions and produce small but longevous thrust -- ships can get there within a reasonably tight 39-day window. Ion propulsion rocket engines were first deployed successfully by NASA in the Deep Space 1 probe in 1998, and the latest iteration's successful Earth-bound testing has led to plans for a flight to the moon and use on the International Space Station as test scenarios for the technology."

source: Engadget

Mars 2025: The First Crew

The Possible First Men and Woman to Land on Mars

Here at OE Technology we strongly believe the technology to land human life on mars already exists, it just needs to be adapted for suitable application. When imagining humans living on Mars or the Moon, it seems pretty logical that robots would be used to build shelters for human visitors. This technology is already under major development:

Honda Asimo

VS.

Toyota Robot Violinist