Ian O'Neill

Top 5 Space Exploration Mishaps of 2008

In the last 12 months, we’ve seen some of the most astonishing advances in space exploration technology. From SpaceX launching the first commercial rocket into Earth orbit to seeing the first Chinese spacewalk, all of our endeavours in space will help develop the future of manned spaceflight. Even the recently published Time Magazine Top 10 Scientific Discoveries list space and physics endeavours high up the list.

However, there is a flip-side to this coin. Fortunately there has been no loss of life through manned spaceflight in 2008, but we’ve had our fair share of mishaps. Some have been expensive, some just embarrassing, but each one has taught us what to do, and what not to do, as we begin to venture further from the protective atmosphere of Earth. So, to recognise our mistakes, and move on from them, here are the Top 5 Space Exploration mishaps of 2008…
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Fire at Auckland Warehouse Caused by Meteorite Impact? (Update)

Update (16:00 PST Dec. 14th): Eyewitness accounts are becoming more detailed, if you were in the Auckland area at 10pm (December 13th) and you saw something, please let me know (by leaving a comment below). Please give as detailed an account as possible, including your location and the direction at which you saw the meteorite. Hopefully we’ll piece this event together…

Auckland warehouse fire. Meteorite or foul play? (Paul Tonkin)

A fire erupted in an Auckland warehouse shortly after several eyewitness reported seeing a meteorite over the North Island of New Zealand. One witness (named “Mike”) even went as far to say that he watched the fiery object hit the Ponsonby area of the city, followed by an exploding noise.

The time of the several eyewitness reports (not amateur astronomer reports I want to point out) and the start of the blaze appears to correlate (although the local media is a little sketchy about the details at the moment). Apparently the fire caused serious roof damage to the warehouse and there was one minor casualty (a man who happened to be in the building at the time). However, none of the surrounding buildings were touched.

The meteorite was observed at around 10pm last night, and the fire was eventually extinguished at 11:30pm.
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Introducing the Exomoon, and Detecting them via Exoplanet Wobble

Exomoon: The natural satellite of an exoplanet.

Before today, I hadn’t heard anything about the possibility of looking for moons orbiting planets in other star systems. Sorry, exomoons orbiting exoplanets in other star systems. But a British astronomer has calculated that it is possible to not only detect exomoons, but it is possible to deduce their distance from the parent exoplanet and their mass.

All this is done by measuring the exoplanet’s “wobble”; a practice more commonly used in the pursuit of the exoplanets themselves. By detecting the wobble of distant stars, the gravitational pull of the exoplanet becomes obvious. The same can be done with exoplanets, possibly revealing the presence of Earth-like exomoons.

Of the 300+ exoplanets discovered, 30 are within the habitable zones of their stars. If these large gas giant exoplanets (usually several times the mass of Jupiter) have an exoplanet system of their own, these exomoons also fall within the habitable zone…

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

For the full article, check out Astronomers Now Looking For Exomoons Around Exoplanets on the Universe Today…

Small but Mighty: KPD 0005+5106, the 200,000K White Dwarf

A white dwarf called KPD 0005+5106 has been identified as the hottest star observed, ever. KPD 0005+5106 lives in the globular cluster M4, 7,200 light years away, and astronomers have always been intrigued by this stellar lightweight as its emissions have previously hinted it was quite toasty. Now, astronomers using data from the defunct NASA Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), have studied the white dwarf in more detail. KPD 0005+5106 emits radiation in the far-ultraviolet, indicating that its surface has a temperature of 200,000K. This is an unprecedented discovery, far-ultraviolet emissions are usually reserved for superheated stellar coronae. It may be small, but it’s a record-breaker…
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Carnival of Space Week 83 – Astroblog

Yes, I know it's upside down, but this is how Mars looks from Australia... really

Fresh from the land down under Ian Musgrave presents the Antipodian edition of the Carnival of Space. It’s a strange experience, and my caffeine-addled morning brain had a hard job understanding what was going on. But why are all the pictures are upside down? I pondered for a few seconds… Ah, now I get it, Ian lives in Australia! Fortunately I didn’t embarrass myself by sending him a message, advertising my sleep-deprived state. This got me thinking, if I host the Carnival, do I need to tilt all the images 56°… left? I might just do that next time and confuse Mr Musgrave with my SoCal edition of the Carnival… or, perhaps, I need to get back to bed…

So, enough of the rambling, get over to Astroblog for a superb Carnival, with loads of superb posts from the world of space blogging!

Nominate Your Most Important Science Endeavour of 2008

Over at the Universe Today, I’ve started a “Top 10 Scientific Endeavours of 2008” award. I’m calling for nominations for readers favourite topics posted on the Universe Today in the past 12 months (space, general science, or otherwise). Principally, this is in response to Time Magazine’s “Top 10 Scientific Discoveries” where many of the top 10 weren’t “discoveries” at all, more “achievements”. So in the UT top 10, we’re going to keep it simple and list the most popular scientific endeavours of 2008.

So, get over to the Universe Today and nominate! You have 7 days to make your nomination count…

Introducing the Multiple Kill Vehicle (a.k.a. The Scariest Thing I’ve Seen All Day)

The MKV in an unnervingly steady hover (MDA)

The ominously named Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) is the next advanced robotic weapon that could be deployed in space to defend against multiple incoming missiles. Designed and built by the US Missile Defence Agency, this little hovering craft will carry multiple anti-missile warheads to see off several threats.

To be honest, I didn’t write this post for the sake of showing off this robotic military tool, I actually think this is an interesting development for small, autonomous spacecraft. Also, when I watched the video of the test flight of the MKV, I had a wave of fear come over me. It may be small, but I sure wouldn’t like to bump into it during a dark orbit…
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Astroengine.com Joins a New Era for Blogging: WordPress 2.7 Locked and Loaded

Christmas has come early for WordPress bloggers… WordPress 2.7 has arrived.

Whilst readers will not notice any change in blogging service after the Astroengine upgrade, the changes behind the scenes could not be any more astonishing. The user interface is, quite simply, beautiful. The design, feel and speed are all working in tandem to deliver the best looking blogging experience I have ever seen. Often WordPress has been criticised as lacking in design when compared with other third party platforms, but critics will be silenced once they have a look under the hood of a WordPress 2.7-powered website.

This upgrade is called “Coltrane” after the legendary American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, and 2.7 was built by 150 programmers and designers, who responded to the needs of thousands of WordPress users via numerous polls and surveys. If you want to see open source at its best, read more about “Coltrane” and why the face of blogging has changed forever…

Astroengine Live #4: It’s a Black Hole. A Supermassive Black Hole

Listen to Astroengine Live, today at 4pm PST (7pm EST).

It’s been a fun few days for writing, and I’ll be sharing the best bits of space news with you in today’s Astroengine Live! This week we’ll hopefully have a few more listeners coming over from Facebook (the Astroengine Live group has swelled to a membership of 60, which is very cool). There will be a whole host of subjects, including your weekly Carnival of Space update (coming at you this week from Dave Mosher at Space Disco), so make sure you listen in. There will also be a special report about the results from a recent study into the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy… so I’ll hand over to Muse for one of my all time favourite tunes: Supermassive Black Hole!

Get Involved!

Have any articles or stories you want to contribute? Have an opinion on anything in the world of space? Email me on astro@wprtradio.com and I’ll be sure to give it a mention. Eventually, I hope to have telephone call-ins, but for now, email will do.

Listen to Astroengine Live using your default streaming audio player.

A Behind-the-Scenes Glimpse of the XCOR Press Conference

The faces of the New Space Game: XCOR press conference, Dec. 2nd (© Space Lifestyle Magazine/Angela Kyle/Ian O'Neill)

In my second assignment for Space Lifestyle Magazine, I was sent to the plush Beverly Hilton (in Beverly Hills, CA) to sit in on a grand announcement by XCOR Aerospace. Having seen the operations behind another space commercialization company (SpaceX) I was keen to see how the two companies differed. Firstly, comparing XCOR with SpaceX would be like comparing apples with pears; they belong to the same family (i.e. fruit), but they taste entirely different.

For starters, SpaceX is focused on launching payloads into orbit. XCOR is a space tourism venture (with it’s closest competitor being Virgin Galactic). They do however, have some common ground: both build their own rockets and both have a very enthusiastic outlook for this emerging industry.

Tuesday was XCOR’s day, so my wife Debra, colleague Angela Kyle and myself were all treated to a great meeting in the Beverly Hilton (a location more commonly associated with Hollywood stars than spaceships) where XCOR communicated their vision to the world…
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