Indias Chandrayaan along with NASA finds water on Moon

India's first moon mission has found water on the moon. The credit goes to one of the scientific instruments(Known as M3 - Moon Minerology Mapper) owned by NASA. This instrument was on-board Chandrayaan. Sniffing for water on the moon was one of the main objectives of the mission said Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director of Chandrayaan-1.

The Moon mapper also made the unexpected discovery that water may still be forming on the surface of the Moon, according to scientists familiar with the mission.

Though it may take time, but this, I feel, would trigger a series of moon missions for India. Today I am a very proud Indian congratulating the whole Chandrayaan-I team at ISRO. Looking fwd for an Indian manned moon mission.

Hubble is back in business.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe. The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble showcase the 19-year-old telescope's new vision. Topping the list of exciting new views are colorful multi-wavelength pictures of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula. With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light.
Here are a few samples of what the upgraded Hubble can do...

NASA Probe Orbits Moon

A NASA spacecraft has started its one-year mission to map the moon.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter entered the moon's orbit early Tuesday following a four-and-a-half day journey from earth, the space agency said.

The LRO will perform a series of four engine burns over the next four days to position itself for a "commissioning phase" orbit, during which time its seven onboard instruments will be brought online and checked out by engineers.

The LRO will transition to its primary mission orbit—about 31 miles above the moon--about 60 days later, according to NASA.

For the next year, the LRO will use an array of scanners and tools to create 3D, high-resolution maps of the lunar surface while peering into some of the darkest corners of earth's closest celestial neighbor.

NASA said it expects the LRO to return more data about the moon than any previous mission.

Courtesy: http://www.informationweek.com/

Cassinis flyby images and videos

Though I expected better pictures of Saturn, looking at these pictures and the videos was exciting too. I guess I was expecting a little too much :)

The new flyover maps show, for the first time, the 3-D topography and height of the 1,200-meter (4,000-foot) mountain tops, the north polar lake country, the vast dunes more than 100 meters (300 feet) high that crisscross the moon, and the thick flows that may have oozed from possible ice volcanoes.

Here are the links to the Videos of the 3-D terrain.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/files/PIA11830%20color%20FIG%201.mov
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/files/PIA11831%20Hotei.mov

Source: jpl.nasa.org

Cassinis Equinox Mission (Flyby - 19 hrs from now)

Cassini is another NASA mission and it completed its initial four-year’s of exploring the Saturn System. Now, the healthy spacecraft is working overtime on the Cassini Equinox Mission, seeking answer to new questions raised in Cassini’s first years at Saturn. It initially observed the southern hemisphere of Saturn and now its set to observe the Northen side. In August 2009 when the sun will shine directly on the equator and then begin to illuminate the northern hemisphere and the rings’ northern face, Cassini will observe seasonal changes brought by the changing Suns angle on Saturn, its Rings and its Moons, which were illuminated from the south during the mission’s first four years.

Many repeat visits(flybys) are planned for Cassini at the moons Titan and Enceladus – both important targets of the Equinox Mission. Cassinis next encounter with Titan is in about 19 hrs from now. Looking forward for a few Titan pictures!

Courtesy: jpl.nasa.gov

First of three Spacewalks

While I am here, writing my blog, astronauts Steve Swanson and Richardson Arnold are on the 1st of 3 spacewalks to install the S6 truss on the ISS. The main purpose of this spacewalk is to perform a number of tasks to help install the S6 truss. Once both the space walking astronauts are in place, Koichi Wakata and John Phillips will operate the stations robotic arm to carefully move S6 to the side of the already installed S5 truss. This space walk is expected to last 6.5 hrs. Man! What an experience.

Courtesy: www.nasa.gov

Discovery docked to ISS

Discovery successfully launched, headed its way to the International Space Station (ISS) and now it has successfully docked to it and delivered the final truss segment and pair of U.S. solar arrays and a new crew member to take up residence aboard the growing orbital scientific complex at 5:20 PM EDT today. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata will now be the official resident aboard the growing orbital scientific complex.

Prime business for the crews Wednesday will be to lift the truss segment out of Discovery’s payload bay with the shuttle robot arm and hand it off to the station’s mechanical arm for an overnight stay before Thursday’s permanent installation on the station.

Courtesy: nasa.gov