Volunteers Wanted to Help Classify Stars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Gaia probe floating at a Lagrangian point beyond the Earth-Moon system, also called L2. (ESA/D. Ducros, 2013)

The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for amateur astronomers to assist with its review of data from its Gaia Mission. What is the Gaia Mission you ask? The ESA site explains this and much more:

The mission was launched in late 2013 and now lies some 1.5 million km from Earth. With its two powerful telescopes and three science instruments, Gaia is creating the largest and most precise 3D map of the Milky Way. It does so by determining the position of its target stars and registering how they change throughout time.

So far, Gaia has measured 1.8 billion stars with unprecedented precision, the richest star catalogue to date. Gaia’s third major data release, published in 2022, includes 10.5 million variable sources over the entire sky, identified using machine learning methods in a supervised classification scheme.

That’s a lot of data. ESA is now looking for assistance classifying the variable stars, which are the stars that change in brightness over time. This is being done under an ESA-funded citizen science project call the Gaia Vari.

As of today, the project already has over 520 volunteers. You can be one more.

Go here to learn more and be part of the fun.

Space Quote: The Value of the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Components of the International Space Station (ISS). (NASA)

“An attempt to do a cost-benefit analysis on ISS science would be rather difficult. Science research rarely conforms to that kind of examination while it’s being done. Only after the fact, when an entrepreneur rolls out some new product or service, can one point to something done in a laboratory as having helped to make it happen. The best bet for ISS science is the technology for 3D printing human organs for transplant patients. The number of lives that would be saved might make the $100 billion spent on the ISS worth it.”

-Statement in a recent editorial from The Hill titled, “Has the science on NASA’s International Space Station been worth the money?” In addition to 3D printing of human organs, you might want to view the other ISS achievements (also mentioned in the editorial) and decide for yourself:

One Less Player in the Space Race

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Space company Virgin Orbit, owned by Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy after failing to raise sufficient funds to stay afloat. All of this follows a failed rocket launch back in January that set the company back.

Dan Hart, CEO of Virgin Orbit, stated in a company press release:

The team at Virgin Orbit has developed and brought into operation a new and innovative method of launching satellites into orbit, introducing new technology and managing great challenges and great risks along the way as we proved the system and performed several successful space flights – including successfully launching 33 satellites into their precise orbit. While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business. We believe that the cutting-edge launch technology that this team has created will have wide appeal to buyers as we continue in the process to sell the Company. At this stage, we believe that the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward to identify and finalize an efficient and value-maximizing sale.

It’s the sad end of a company that hoped to launch a “space revolution.” That task will now need to be taken up by others.