Rounding up a bombardment of space news

Yesterday was a busy one for me, because I had a couple of stories to write for the print edition of the Chronicle. Don’t get me wrong, I love the paper and those of you wonderful people who subscribe pay the lion’s share of my salaries. But as I was reporting and writing on Wednesday I watched as a slew of space news crossed my desk.

Pretty much.

Pretty much.

Given my time constraints yesterday I was helpless to try and blog all of it, or even some of it. So my solution is to round up everything that happened, in one tidy spot. Which is what you’ll find below.

NEWS: There’s lots and lots of radiation on the road to Mars

My thoughts: One of the really cool things that Curiosity did on its way to Mars was measure radiation levels, a handy thing for aerospace engineers to know if they’re ever going to send astronauts to the red planet. The findings indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA’s career limit for astronauts with current spacecraft. It’s like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days. Still, at least NASA now has a better understanding of what it’s up against and the space agency should be able to design effective countermeasures.

NEWS: Astronomers find a moon around an asteroid

My thoughts: Today an asteroid named QE2, nearly two miles across, is going to fly within a distance of Earth that’s about 15 times the distance between the Earth and Moon. It’s close — but not too close. The really cool thing is that astronomers have found a tiny moon around the asteroid as it neared Earth.

NEWS: Curiosity finds an old stream bed on Mars

My thoughts: Scientists who have had a chance to analyze images and data from the Curiosity rover have concluded that pebbly rocks observed on Mars must have been formed in an ancient stream bed.  At a minimum, the stream was flowing at a speed equivalent to a walking pace, and it was ankle-deep to hip-deep. Mars must have been a really interesting planet a couple of billion years ago. I’m glad to be alive in an age when we’re exploring it.

NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here. (NASA)


NEWS: People go nuts for a space telescope

My thoughts: When Planetary Resources announced a plan this week to raise $1 million from public donations for a space telescope to observe asteroids I was skeptical, because past fundraising efforts for space activities have been less than successful. Turns out they’ve already raised $518,000 and are very likely to meet their goal. I’m thrilled to be wrong.

NEWS: NASA solves mystery of moon’s ‘mascons’

My thoughts: The Moon has large, invisible regions that make the moon’s gravity uneven, a phenomenon that affects the operations of lunar-orbiting spacecraft. “GRAIL data confirm that lunar mascons were generated when large asteroids or comets impacted the ancient moon, when its interior was much hotter than it is now,” said Jay Melosh, a GRAIL co-investigator at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. “We believe the data from GRAIL show how the moon’s light crust and dense mantle combined with the shock of a large impact to create the distinctive pattern of density anomalies that we recognize as mascons.” Science is pretty awesome.

NEWS: Elon Musk may be dating Cameron Diaz.

My thoughts: Well, I’m not one for celebrity news, but hey, good for you, Elon. The guy who created SpaceX and may bring private launches to Texas is A-OK in my book. There’s something about Mary, for sure.

Eric Berger