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February 11, 2010
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A NASA satellite that promises to deliver an unprecedented volume of data about the workings of the sun launched successfully atop an Atlas 5 rocket Thursday. The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:23 A.M. (Eastern Standard Time) after a one-day delay due to high winds at the launch site. The satellite separated from the upper rocket stage and deployed its solar arrays about two hours later.
SDO, expected to cost $850 million over five years of operation, carries three instruments that NASA estimates will deliver 1.5 terabytes of data on the sun’s workings every day. The torrent will include dozens of ultrahigh-resolution images each minute and helioseismology readings that track the propagation of acoustic waves across the sun’s surface. Those waves allow heliophysicists to make inferences about the convective inner workings of the sun, allowing for more reliable forecasts of solar activity and the space weather it creates, which can endanger satellites, power grids and astronauts in orbit.
The satellite will circle Earth in a geosynchronous orbit that allows for constant contact with a pair of dedicated radio dishes in New Mexico. That way, SDO can continually offload its data stream without having to store or heavily process information on-board. The downside of a geosynchronous orbit is that twice a year, near equinox, Earth will block SDO’s view of the sun. But SDO project scientist Dean Pesnell of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., says that the spacecraft’s minders will use those periods for calibration and tune-up of the satellite.
Launch photo: NASA TV
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What a waste of tax dollars!
Link to thisWE NEED TO STUDY MORE THE DANGERS THAT SPACE CAUSES TO OUR LIVELY HOOD AND THE GOOD OF OUR HOME PLANET. THIS IS OUR HOME AND WE HAVE TO PROTECT IT OR AT LEAST KNOW HOW OR WHEN DEVASTATION IS HEADING OUR WAY. WITHOUT THIS KNOLEDGE SPACE TRAVEL AND SPACE SCIENCE HAS NO FUTURE MEANS. AS A INTELLEFGENT SPIECES THIS SHOUD BE NOTICED FIRST AND TAKEN CARE OF BEFORE ANY OTHER PROJECTS. WITHOUT MORE TIME WE WILL NEVER MEET OUR GOALS WE SET FOURTH IN THIS RACE TO UNDERSTAND THE VAST ARRRAY THAT IS WAITING FOR US OUT THERE. TIME SHOULD BE ON OUR SIDE!!!!!!
Link to thisWhat kind of moron says this is a waste of tax dollars? You want to see a waste of tax dollars why don’t you look into the trillions spent each year on non-sense. At least this is something that can give us more information and guide us into a future of knowledge of how the hell our solar system operates. I would definitely rather the government spend a billion on a mission like this, rather then a billions on stimulating General Motors. General Motors who executives use private planes to fly to South America to attend wild parties and 60 year old men screwing young girls, while there wives are back in Michigan.
Link to thisI don’t understand why the article states that at equinoxes, the Earth will block the view of the sun from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. In a geosynchronous orbit the view of the sun will be blocked every 24 hours, for about 12 hours, anyway (after all, even New Mexico there is a sunrise once every day of the year; if people on the ground can see the sun then so can the satellite).
Link to this@GNIKOLOS Agree with you on that point I do, yet if we haven’t even begun to protect the environment and our way of life from within the confines of our atmosphere, what good will it be to protect it from beyond the stratosphere. The worse problem we face now here on earth is that of over poulation, global warming along with mindless bickering and ceaseless warring between the numerous countries, races and walks of life. It would be pointless to look beyond the heavens in hopes of finding solutions to problems that may someday come our way. Especially if we can’t even begin to put our finger on top of common issues humanity faces on a day-to-day basis down here on Earth.
If you ask me NASA and private entities should start workng on methods, means and processes in which we could attain interstellar travel within our lifetimes. We keep saying that the technology is not there or even that the knowledge this type of space travel is still hundreds if not thousands of years into the future. Why wait? Surely some people in the scientific community were nay sayers when Albert Einstein announced his plan to help build the Atomic Bomb, saying the kind of technology necessary to build such a device was years if not decades into the future and couldn’t be achieved with what was known at the time. Only to be disproven.
Why do we put so much effort and emphasis on gaining the initiative and achieveing our goals when it comes to warring and death. Yet when it comes time to put our knowledge, money and audacity to the test for science and the greater good for nature and humanity we seem lack the will or efficiency to get the job done. I’ve never understood this part of the human psyche and I guess I never will. If history has taught us anything, in the future our world and all living things will come to and end, not by extraterrestrial anomalies, but by our very own prowess and might. Or dare I say, lack thereof.
Link to thisPut 100 people in a ballroom that 50x 50 feet and the temperature will surely rise from its orginal 70 degree temperature.
Put a million people in small town who’s just recently had a major snowfall amounting to 10 feet of snow and I assure you the town will be completely free of snow within 12 hours. Wheras areas around this town will still have 9 feet of snow on the ground.
Put 50 billion people on Earth and supplement that by the amount of heat and fossil fuels needed to keep all these people eating, living and working and you will find yourself at our current state: Global Warming. That’s not even science, it simply common sense, or at least it should be.
Link to thisI can’t believe that anyone would be as short minded as the "waste of money" person! 17% of all products have technology coming from space exploration and we’ve only been in space 50 years. Our national defense is determined by satellites watching the "bad guys". John Kennedy would 10 times the money allotted to NASA. Current administration too busy dodging bullets and running for re-election to study the facts – as goes America. From a Vet.
Link to this1.5 terabytes of data on the sun’s workings every day, But WE THE PEOPLE can’t have 1 live 24/7 web camera .
Link to this1.5 terabytes of data on the sun’s workings every day, But WE THE PEOPLE can’t have 1 live 24/7 web camera . or any live feed from space , It’s nice when the shuttle is up you get a little more coverage but still a live view Maybe rotate the view from the module we delivered with this trip.
Link to thisWell gentlemen, I must add my two cents! The reason we need to study the sun is to be able to anticipate solar storms sending so much radiation our way that all satellites would be rendered useless or severely damaged. We are due for a huge sunstorm in 2011, and this device is a relief to me because now we will have a heads up as to when this radiation storm will be blowing our way. There isn’t much we can do but pick up the pieces when it is done, but we can unplug our appliances to avoid them being damaged when the power grid and transformers get fried. The magnetic field of the earth will protect us from most solar radiation, but when solar storms erupt on the sun, the intensity is too much. It gets through. Way to go NASA. Prevention is a good policy. I am actually very impressed, as the satellite that was monitoring the sun’s activity is reportedly on the fritz. Good job on this guys. I am breathing easier!
Link to thisThis would be true of a geostationary orbit, where the satellite remains above a given point on the earth’s surface. In a geosynchronous orbit, it remains above a given line of longitude, so that it orbits once every 24 hours; but it’s orbital plane is not the plane of rotation of the earth, so when New Mexico is in night, the satellite may be above or below the Earth’s shadow, and so still able to view the sun.
Link to thisIT WOULD BE POSSIBLE FOR THE SATTELITE TO PROJECT LIGHT AS NEEDED IN ORDER TO CLEAR OUT ANY DISTURBING DARK SPOTS. GRANTED, THIS WOULD REQUIRE SOME EXTRA ENERGY SUPPLY.
Link to thisThe flares on SUN is reported at higher temperature than surface of SUN. Does that mean that my proposed gravitoethertons theory is linked with this phenomena and also heat and light etc. produced mostly by focus of gravitoethertons at centre of SUN and not by nuclear fusion alone. Our earths centre is hot due to focus of gravitoethertons we know. So this dynamics of SUN in presence of gravitoethertons is a new chapter in our understanding and we will be waiting for results.
Link to thisNear equinox, the Earth will block the Sun once a day, at a maximum of a little more than two, not twelve, hours.
Link to this