Alabama is proud of its role in the history of space exploration. That’s why it chose the mighty Saturn V rocket as its symbol of American Innovation for a new $1 coin. The coin will be out in Spring 2024, and the mint has just unveiled how it will look.
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The Saturn V was the rocket that took humans to the moon. It was a huge achievement of science and engineering. NASA launched 13 of them between 1967 and 1973. Nine of them carried astronauts to the lunar orbit or surface. The last one sent Skylab, the first space station, into orbit.
The Saturn V was a product of Alabama. It was designed and partly built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
The coin shows the Saturn V blasting off with a big full moon behind it. It captures the awe and excitement of the moon missions. The design is based on an idea by Justin Kunz, an artist who works with the mint. Alabama’s governor and a coin advisory committee liked his idea the best out of 11 options.
The coin also has the words “Saturn V” on it. That was a suggestion by the coin advisory committee. The final sculpt was done by Phebe Hemphill, another artist who works with the mint.
Another coin advisory committee had a different preference. They liked a different picture of the Saturn V, but they also praised Kunz’s work. The final decision was made by Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury.
The other side of the coin has the Statue of Liberty’s face on it. That’s the same for all the coins in the American Innovation series. The coin also has a small gear symbol, which stands for industry and innovation. Craig Campbell, another mint artist, created this side of the coin.
The Saturn V coin is the 23rd in the American Innovation series, which started in 2018. It is the second one for 2024. The first one is for Illinois, and it celebrates the steel plow. The next one is for Maine, and it honors the direct current defibrillator, a device that saves lives by restarting the heart.
The Saturn V coin is the third one in the series that has something to do with space or astronomy. The first one was for Delaware in 2019. It honored Annie Jump Cannon, an astronomer who came up with a way to sort the stars that we still use today. The second one was for Maryland in 2020. It celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope, which has given us amazing pictures of the universe.
New York also had a space idea for its 2021 coin. It was the Apollo Lunar Module, the spacecraft that landed on the moon. But the coin advisory committees didn’t go for it. They chose the Erie Canal instead.
The American Innovation coins are real money, but you won’t find them in your pocket. They are only sold by the mint in special packages. You can buy them in rolls or bags, or in sets that have proof or reverse proof versions.
Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries of the universe. It is a strange substance that we cannot see, but we know it is there. It makes up most of the matter in the universe, and it influences how stars and galaxies move. But what is it made of? This is a question that scientists have been trying to answer for a long time, and they have some guesses.
One of the possible answers is that dark matter is made of a particle called an axion. This particle was first suggested in the 1970s to fix a problem in physics, that had nothing to do with dark matter. It was about the neutron, which is one of the pieces of atoms. The neutron has a very small electric charge, much smaller than it should be.
Why is that? Scientists think that there might be a new particle, that barely interacts with the neutron, that makes its charge smaller. They called this particle the axion, after a type of laundry soap, because it cleans up a problem.
But the axion might also clean up another problem: the mystery of dark matter. Some theories, like string theory, say that axions could be very common in the universe, and have very little weight. This means that they could be the main part of dark matter. But how can we find out if this is true? How can we make something dark visible?
The answer might come from the stars. Not just any stars, but pulsars. Pulsars are what is left of huge stars that blew up in big explosions. They are very heavy, very small, and very fast. They spin around like flashlights, sending out waves of radio that we can hear on Earth. They also have very strong electric and magnetic fields around them.
These fields could be the key to showing the axions. According to some theories, axions can change into light when they meet a strong electric or magnetic field. This means that if there are axions around pulsars, they could make a dim light that we could see with telescopes. This would be a clear sign of dark matter, and a big discovery for the universe.
This is the idea that a group of scientists from Amsterdam and Princeton have recently studied. They have figured out how much light we could expect from axions around pulsars, and how we could see it. They have also found some pulsars that are good choices for this search, and suggested some future tests that could check their idea.
If their idea is right, we might be very close to solving the puzzle of dark matter. We might finally see what it is made of, and learn more about the reality of the universe. And we might have to thank a particle named after a laundry soap. Dark Matter: A Hidden Mystery That Pulsars Might Reveal
Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries of the universe. It is a strange substance that we cannot see, but we know it is there. It makes up most of the matter in the universe, and it influences how stars and galaxies move. But what is it made of? This is a question that scientists have been trying to answer for a long time, and they have some guesses.
One of the possible answers is that dark matter is made of a particle called an axion. This particle was first suggested in the 1970s to fix a problem in physics, that had nothing to do with dark matter. It was about the neutron, which is one of the pieces of atoms. The neutron has a very small electric charge, much smaller than it should be.
Why is that? Scientists think that there might be a new particle, that barely interacts with the neutron, that makes its charge smaller. They called this particle the axion, after a type of laundry soap, because it cleans up a problem.
But the axion might also clean up another problem: the mystery of dark matter. Some theories, like string theory, say that axions could be very common in the universe, and have very little weight. This means that they could be the main part of dark matter. But how can we find out if this is true? How can we make something dark visible?
The answer might come from the stars. Not just any stars, but pulsars. Pulsars are what is left of huge stars that blew up in big explosions. They are very heavy, very small, and very fast. They spin around like flashlights, sending out waves of radio that we can hear on Earth. They also have very strong electric and magnetic fields around them.
These fields could be the key to showing the axions. According to some theories, axions can change into light when they meet a strong electric or magnetic field. This means that if there are axions around pulsars, they could make a dim light that we could see with telescopes. This would be a clear sign of dark matter, and a big discovery for the universe.
This is the idea that a group of scientists from Amsterdam and Princeton have recently studied. They have figured out how much light we could expect from axions around pulsars, and how we could see it. They have also found some pulsars that are good choices for this search, and suggested some future tests that could check their idea.
If their idea is right, we might be very close to solving the puzzle of dark matter. We might finally see what it is made of, and learn more about the reality of the universe. And we might have to thank a particle named after a laundry soap.
What This Astronaut Saw From Space Will Blow Your Mind: Giant Icebergs!
Earth is heating up like crazy, and that’s breaking off huge chunks of ice from the frozen lands and dumping them into the sea. You can spot these icebergs from the International Space Station (ISS), where they look like little white specks on the blue water.
Andreas Mogensen, a European Space Agency astronaut and the boss of the ISS crew, shared some awesome photos of icebergs in the south Atlantic Ocean on X (you know, the social media site that used to be called Twitter).
He wrote in his post: “I never thought you could see icebergs with your naked eye from space. I would have said, ‘No way!’ But you can! We’ve been seeing a ton of icebergs lately in the south Atlantic. Maybe it’s because they have a cool shape or maybe it’s because they stand out from the water, but they are super easy to spot from space.”
Related: How Satellites Snapped the World’s Biggest Iceberg Breaking Off from Antarctica (photos)
Mogensen’s photos show three massive icebergs and some smaller bits that probably broke off them as they drifted across the ocean. You can also see some of the icebergs under the water and the waves smashing on them, as other X users pointed out.
He wrote in his post: “When I see the icebergs floating around, I think of climate change, and how the ice is melting fast and the sea is getting higher. Places like the Maldives might not be there in 70 years, because they will be under water.”
Most of the sea level rise is because of the ice melting on land and running into the sea. But the icebergs also make the sea level rise, because they make the water less dense when they melt.
Some other icebergs have caught the eye of astronauts and satellites lately. The world’s largest iceberg, called A23a, has been seen moving away from Antarctica after being stuck there for more than 30 years. It got thinner because of the melting, and that made it float better and go to the South Atlantic.
It’s good that we have eyes in the sky to watch the icebergs on Earth. Artificial intelligence is also helping to find big icebergs in satellite images, and to track how they change in size, shape and movement over time, and how they affect the environment.
The UK’s First Space Launch Was a Flop, But Here’s What We Learned From It: A Report
Earth is not big enough for all the satellites we want to send up there, so we need more rockets to launch them from different places. That’s why the U.K. Space Agency tried to do the first orbital launch from U.K. soil, using Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne from Spaceport Cornwall in southwestern England. The launch was in January 2023, and it had several smallsats on board. But something went wrong with the rocket’s second stage, and the satellites never made it to orbit.
The agency said in a report they released on Dec. 14: “Although the satellites onboard were not placed into orbit due to a technical glitch with the rocket’s second stage engine, this historic event showed the UK’s ability to launch, safely, legally and with the right coordination across government.”
The report also gave some tips on how to do better launches from the country. They said they should make the licensing process easier for companies to show they have the money and the skills to do a launch, share information among the different government agencies involved in launches and work better with other countries whose airspace and waters may be affected by launches.
The report said that many of these tips were because of the first-time use of new rules and processes, but they also blamed Virgin Orbit for some of the problems. They said that “international engagement was messed up by over-optimistic plans from Virgin Orbit, resulting in a lot of effort and good will being wasted across [His Majesty’s Government] and with other countries to make a launch window that was not realistic.”
Government officials admit the failed launch was a letdown but stay hopeful about the launch industry in the country. “It was a bummer, right? It was a huge letdown for everyone involved,” said Craig Brown, investment director at the U.K. Space Agency, during a Dec. 14 webinar on the U.K. space sector by the Westminster Business Forum. “It shows very well the challenges of launch and space in general.”
He said there was still a role for the country in launch, because of a “bottleneck” in launch worldwide. “Does the business case still work for small launch in the U.K.? We think that it does,” he said. “There are good reasons for the U.K. to have sovereign capability and be able to launch its own satellites from its own soil.”
Later in the webinar, Colin MacLeod, head of U.K. spaceflight regulation at the Civil Aviation Authority, said current rules were “fit for purpose” based on the strong interest his office is seeing. “We currently have nine launch companies in different stages of applications with us as the regulator. There’s not many other countries in the world that can say that.”
He did not say the names of those companies, but several companies, both those based in the U.K. and elsewhere, have said they plan to launch from spaceports in the country as soon as next year. The U.K. Space Agency said on Dec. 13 that the European Space Agency’s “Boost!” program gave 6.7 million pounds ($8.5 million) to HyImpulse and Orbex to help them develop environmentally friendly systems to support launches from spaceports in the Shetland Island and northern Scotland, respectively.
HyImpulse, which said they have an agreement to launch from SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetlands on Nov. 15, plans to start orbital launches there as soon as late 2025. Orbex, whose chief executive quit suddenly in April, has not given recent updates about the status of their launch vehicle or launch site. A company spokesperson said on Dec. 6 the company did not have a date for their first launch.
How a Mars Helicopter Landed in a Museum (Space News 5)
You’ve probably heard of dark matter. It’s the invisible stuff that fills up most of the universe, and makes galaxies and stars move the way they do. But what is it really? Scientists have been scratching their heads over this question for decades, and they have some ideas.
One of them is that dark matter is made of tiny particles called axions. These particles were first proposed in the 1970s, not to explain dark matter, but to solve another problem in physics. It was about the neutron, which is one of the building blocks of atoms. The neutron has a very tiny electric charge, much tinier than it should have.
Why is that? Scientists think that there might be another particle, that hardly talks to the neutron, that makes its charge smaller. They named this particle the axion, after a brand of laundry detergent, because it washes away a problem.
But the axion might also wash away another problem: the mystery of dark matter. Some theories, like string theory, say that axions could be everywhere in the universe, and weigh almost nothing. This means that they could be the main ingredient of dark matter. But how can we know if this is true? How can we see something that is dark?
The answer might be in the stars. Not just any stars, but pulsars. Pulsars are the leftovers of massive stars that exploded in huge blasts. They are very dense, very small, and very fast. They spin around like lighthouses, sending out radio waves that we can catch on Earth. They also have very powerful electric and magnetic fields around them.
These fields could be the clue to finding the axions. According to some theories, axions can turn into light when they meet a strong electric or magnetic field. This means that if there are axions near pulsars, they could make a faint glow that we could spot with telescopes. This would be a clear proof of dark matter, and a huge discovery for the universe.
This is the idea that a team of scientists from Amsterdam and Princeton have recently explored. They have calculated how much light we could expect from axions near pulsars, and how we could detect it. They have also picked some pulsars that are good candidates for this search, and suggested some future experiments that could test their idea.
If their idea is right, we might be very close to cracking the code of dark matter. We might finally see what it is made of, and learn more about the nature of the universe. And we might have to thank a particle named after a laundry detergent.
But before we can see dark matter, we can see something else that is awesome: a helicopter that flew on Mars. This is the story of how a copy of that helicopter ended up in a museum.
The Smithsonian is a place where you can see many amazing things, like the first plane that flew on Earth, or the first spacecraft that landed on the moon. But what about the first vehicle that flew on another world? That would be cool, right?
Well, the Smithsonian would love to have that, too. But there is a catch. The vehicle that flew on another world is still flying on another world. It is called “Ingenuity,” and it is a helicopter that went to Mars with a rover named Perseverance. It landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, and since then, it has been soaring and exploring the Martian sky.
Ingenuity is not coming back to Earth anytime soon. It is too busy breaking records and helping Perseverance find exciting places to study. So the Smithsonian had to go for the next best thing: a prototype of Ingenuity that was used to test if a helicopter could fly on Mars.
AI is the key to ISRO’s future space missions, says minister
ISRO is not just playing with AI. It is using it to make history in space. That’s what Jitendra Singh, the Science and Technology Minister, told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
He said AI helped ISRO in the Mars mission, where it steered the spacecraft and dodged dangers. It also helped in the Chandrayaan-3 mission, where it landed the spacecraft softly on the moon and picked the best spot.
He said AI has done many amazing things for space exploration. Some of them are:
– Going to other planets: Chandrayaan and Mars missions, where AI helped in flying and landing the spacecraft, and finding the best place to land.
– Making sense of space data: India’s satellites for remote sensing, weather, communication, and navigation use AI to process and analyse the data they get from space.
– Using space data for Earth: AI helps in making various applications from the satellite data, such as predicting crop yield, forecasting weather and disasters, making maps of land use and land cover, planning urban expansion, finding encroachment, built-up, settlement, urban waterbodies, forest cover changes, roads, dams, ships, vessels etc.
He said AI is part of many ongoing projects and programmes of ISRO. Some of the big ones are:
– The Gaganyaan Program: This is the big project to send Indian astronauts to space by 2024. AI will help in designing and operating the rocket and the spacecraft, and checking and predicting their health and performance.
– The Chandrayaan-3 mission: This is the recent mission to land a spacecraft on the moon. AI helped in landing the spacecraft softly and picking the best spot.
– Launching satellites and spacecrafts regularly: These are the regular programmes to launch satellites and spacecrafts for various purposes. AI helps in designing and operating the rockets and spacecrafts, and checking and predicting their health and performance.
– Analysing space data: This is the process of analysing and processing the data collected by the satellites and spacecrafts. AI helps in making various applications from the satellite data, such as predicting crop yield, forecasting weather and disasters, making maps of land use and land cover, planning urban expansion, finding encroachment, built-up, settlement, urban waterbodies, forest cover changes, roads, dams, ships, vessels etc.
He also said that AI and machine learning solutions are being made for other areas, such as space robots, space traffic management, and so on.
He said that the Department of Space is doing projects and programmes in the areas of AI, which are at different stages of studies and implementation. Some of the big ones are:
– Designing and operating rocket and spacecraft missions with AI: This is the process of designing and operating the rocket and spacecraft missions, using AI to make the best trajectory and do autonomous operations.
– Checking and predicting the health and performance of rockets and satellites from the data: This is the process of checking and predicting the health and performance of the rockets and satellites, using AI to analyse the data and find any problems or faults.
– Processing satellite data for mapping resources, predicting weather and disasters, finding objects and changes, and precision agriculture.