Space on the Web!

On my main website at: http://www.michaelwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/

I’ve put a number of direct links to other websites. These are concerned mainly with matters of local interest to Hall Green and Birmingham as a whole, helpful organisations and national factors that affect people locally. Beyond this of course our high tech quality of life is enhanced by the wide range of interesting sites on the web. From time to time in this blog I’ll pick out a site or two that interest me in the hope that they may also be of interest you.

The first of these is the US space agency NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory site that, amongst more earthly concerns such as the study of climate, gives the very latest news and pictures from all current NASA missions. Since my main space interest is planetary astronomy, the three I’ll pick out are the Phoenix lander mission to Mars, the Dawn mission to the asteroid belt and my personal favourite the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.

There are some excellent photos of Martian soil and above all ice studied by the Phoenix lander. The study is important in understanding the geology of mars and in terms of the possibility of micro-organisms past or present and providing information for future missions. The Dawn mission will investigate two of the major asteroids (proto-planets) - minor planets as they used to be known - Vesta and Ceres. It is about three years to first encounter (Vesta) with these previously unseen worlds.

The Cassini mission investigates Saturn, its rings and satellites and has returned both stunning pictures and information especially on its large moon Titan (which has an atmosphere denser than ours and lakes of ethane) and the moon Enceladus from which sub-surface materials including water gush out into space and can be analysed. A landing was made on Titan by the associated European Huygens lander that returned excellent pictures as it descended and from the surface. These and much more on the JPL site at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

and the European Space Agency site at: http://www.esa.int/

And there’s a Hall Green connection too! We are lucky enough to have internationally renowned space artist David Hardy amongst our residents. David’s website at: http://www.hardyart.demon.co.uk/

has some wonderful images and imaginings of all the planets (and some interesting images on a DVD of Hall Green too!)

Just as a tailpiece, here’s a tricky space question:
What was the heaviest rocket ever to get off the ground?

Answer:
No, surprisingly, not the great Saturn 5 (the best launch vehicle ever built in my book) which launched the Apollo missions but the ill-fated Soviet rival, the N1. This question is a bit of a trick since (a) while the launch weight of the Saturn was a bit less than the N1 it could put more into orbit and (b) the multi-engined N1 never got more than a minute and a bit into flight before exploding.

The N1 was never tested thoroughly enough and I sometimes wonder if the aggressive Russian leader Vladimir Putin might resuscitate the N1 (if they’ve kept the plans - alas the Americans destroyed the Saturn blueprints on grounds of security, a decision they came to regret in the light of the space shuttle). For more on the N1, Google ‘N1 Rocket’ the Wikipedia reference gives all the gen and there’s a YouTube video of an N1 launch!