Supercomputer Simulation of Magnetic Field Loops on the Sun

Magnetic fields emerging from below the surface of the sun influence the solar wind, a stream of particles that blows continuously from the sun’s atmosphere through the solar system. 

Researchers at NASA and its university partners are using high-fidelity computer simulations to learn how these magnetic fields emerge, heat the sun’s outer atmosphere and produce sunspots and flares.

This visualization shows magnetic field loops in a portion of the sun, with colors representing magnetic field strength from weak (blue) to strong (red). 

The simulation was run on the Pleiades supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. 

The knowledge gained through simulation results like this one help researchers better understand the sun, its variations, and its interactions with Earth and the solar system.

Image Credit: Robert Stein, Michigan State University; Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames

MARS Simulation mission completes successfully

Credit: Kai Staats

Ashley Dale, a PhD student in Aerospace engineering, led a team of seven experts on the two week mission to the Mars Desert Research Station [MDRS] in Utah.

Michaela Musilova

The team included two fellow PhD students from Bristol University, Michaela Musilova, an expert in astrobiology and geomicrobiolgy, and Sue Ann Seah, who works in haptic and spacesuit design engineering.

The aims of the expedition were to conduct research that would help prepare for future missions and to publicise the importance of space travel to Mars.

Sue Ann Seah

The team conducted a range of experiments, including successfully field-testing hardware developed at NASA that extracts hydrogen and oxygen from soil.

This technology could potential use naturally occurring resources on Mars to generate breathable air, drinkable water and rocket fuel for return to Earth.

This will dramatically reduce the weight and cost of future space missions.

ESA MARS Rover: Atacama Desert the site of a Mars simulation

In early October 2013, the Atacama Desert became the site of a Mars simulation for a week, as a team of scientists and engineers visited the area to test out their prototype Mars rover.

The test site is located close to European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory and was selected due to its harsh climate and its physical resemblance to the red planet.

Additionally, the Atacama Desert is known for its virtually sterile soil, largely due to the lack of moisture in the region: this makes the area particularly suitable for simulating the lifeless Martian environment.

The recent trials in Chile have featured a rover named Bridget (provided by EADS Astrium, Stevenage in the UK), which is part of the SAFER field trials (Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover).

ESA’s 2018 ExoMars mission is acting as the reference mission for the trial.

The project aims to give the science team first-hand experience of remotely operating a rover, and acquiring field data from the three instruments during a field trial.

The rover operation will be run so as to be as near to a real mission as possible for the science team and the remote control centre.

Parallel testing is taking place from the UK’s remote control centre based at the Satellite Applications Catapult Centre in Harwell.

The three instruments on trial are CLUPI (a close-up imager), which is the equivalent of a geologist’s hand lens used for examining the fine details of rocks, a PanCam (panoramic camera) emulator called AUPE-2, and a ground penetrating radar called WISDOM, which will provide a detailed view of the Martian subsurface structure.

Ultracold Big Bang Experiment Simulates Evolution of Early Universe

Scientists created this detailed, all-sky picture of the infant universe from nine years of data from the orbiting Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. 

The image reveals 13.77 billion year old temperature fluctuations—shown as color differences—that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies. 

Physicists now are using clouds of ultracold atoms in a vacuum chamber to simulate the growth of structure in the early universe. 

Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team

Physicists have reproduced a pattern resembling the cosmic microwave background radiation in a laboratory simulation of the big bang, using ultracold cesium atoms in a vacuum chamber at the University of Chicago.

"This is the first time an experiment like this has simulated the evolution of structure in the early universe," said Cheng Chin, professor in physics.

Cheng Chin

Chin and his associates reported their feat in the Aug. 1 edition of Science Express, and it will appear soon in the print edition of Science.

Chin pursued the project with lead author Chen-Lung Hung, PhD'11, now at the California Institute of Technology, and Victor Gurarie of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Their goal was to harness ultracold atoms for simulations of the big bang to better understand how structure evolved in the infant universe.

The cosmic microwave background is the echo of the big bang. Extensive measurements of the CMB have come from the orbiting Cosmic Background Explorer in the 1990s, and later by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and various ground-based observatories, including the UChicago-led South Pole Telescope collaboration.

These tools have provided cosmologists with a snapshot of how the universe appeared approximately 380,000 years following the Big Bang, which marked the beginning of the universe.

It turns out that under certain conditions, a cloud of atoms chilled to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) in a vacuum chamber displays phenomena similar to those that unfolded following the big bang, Hung said.

"At this ultracold temperature, atoms get excited collectively. They act as if they are sound waves in air," he said.

The dense package of matter and radiation that existed in the very early universe generated similar sound-wave excitations, as revealed by COBE, WMAP and the other experiments.

The synchronized generation of sound waves correlates with cosmologists' speculations about inflation in the early universe.

"Inflation set out the initial conditions for the early universe to create similar sound waves in the cosmic fluid formed by matter and radiation," Hung said.

Journal Reference:
C.-L. Hung, V. Gurarie, C. Chin. From Cosmology to Cold Atoms: Observation of Sakharov Oscillations in a Quenched Atomic Superfluid. Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1126/science.1237557

NASA Mars: Simulated View from Curiosity

Curiosity's simulated view of Mars

Spacesuit lets you feel like an astronaut on Mars

What would it feel like to be an astronaut on Mars?

Physicist Daniel Schildhammer wears the Aouda.X spacesuit simulator during a field test of Oesterreichisches Weltraum Forum (Austrian space forum) inside the Eisriesenhoehle (giant ice cave) at Dachstein mountain near the village of Obertraun April 28, 2012.

The outfit mimics Mars's lower atmospheric pressure and is equipped for extreme temperatures, with an onboard computer that controls a heating and cooling system based on information from a network of sensors.

Headphones allow the wearer to communicate wirelessly with colleagues on smartphones, with a radio backup should the main system fail.

Compared to the first version of the suit, which was tested in 2009, the current model is equipped with more robust electronics and a better voice recognition system to control field instruments.

However, according to Gernot Groemer, (www.ostina.org) the team leader, there are still improvements to be made. "The goal is to create a simulation that's so realistic that by closing your eyes, you would think you were on Mars," he says.

The suit is being tested in ice caves at Dachstein mountain in Austria to simulate astrobiology experiments. It is designed to collect samples without contaminating the external environment as long as the right procedures are followed. These are currently being evaluated at the site.

Commander Chris Hadfield: made it to orbit today in Soyuz Simulator

Commander Chris Hadfield made it into orbit today - 4 hours in the Soyuz simulator, wearing the Sokhol pressure suit.

Sam Blackburn: The voice behind Stephen Hawking at 70

Sam Blackburn has been Hawking’s technician since 2006. And for these 5 years, he’s the one responsible for the technology that has allowed Hawking to communicate through a computer and a voice synthesizer by twitching his cheek.

When he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (or ALS) at 21, physicist Stephen Hawking was only expected to live a few years. He turns 70 this week.

Since about 1986, he’s had to use a menu controlled by a computer system to speak. A computer highlights cells in a big grid of letters or words, and when the correct one is highlighted, he presses a switch.

But when he became unable to move his hands sufficiently, he moved to an infrared system mounted on his glasses, which detects movement in his cheek muscle. His facial muscles are the only ones he can control reasonably well.

When Blackburn first started, the system was breaking all the time. “I’d get calls at 1 o’clock in the morning saying ‘Stephen can’t speak, what do we do?’” he says. “So I needed to modernize the system.”

He did so incrementally, so the learning wouldn’t be too steep. “Stephen wouldn’t be able to ask for help because the very thing he wouldn’t be able to use would be the speech system,” he says. “Understandably that has made him very reluctant to upgrade.”

The only copy of Hawking’s hardware voice synthesizer is contained in a little gray box in Blackburn’s office. The card inside dates back to the 80s, and this particular one contains Hawking’s voice. There’s a processor on it that has a unique program that turns text into speech that sounds like Hawking’s, and they have only two of these cards.

The company that made them went bankrupt and nobody knows how it works any more. Blackburn is trying to reverse engineer it since they can’t just update the system with a new synthesizer.

“The voice is one of the unique things that defines Stephen in my opinion,” he explains. “He could easily change to a voice that was clearer, perhaps more soothing to listen to – less robotic sounding – but it wouldn’t be Stephen’s voice any more.”

However, Hawking’s progressive nerve decay means that his ability to control his cheek muscle is fading.

His rate of speech is down to about one word per minute. And while Blackburn’s been making slight advances in the current technology, they’re gonna have to move on to something new – like eye-tracking or brain scanning systems.

The challenge for Blackburn’s successor: to keep that well-known voice in working order.

Soyuz TMA-M Simulator in Star City

Life-size simulator of the Soyuz TMA-M descend and orbital modules at GCTC.

It runs on the same computers and the same navigation and guidance software as the real vehicle and is just as cramped and uncomfortable.

André Kuipers Reports progress on Soyuz Simulator

Always nice to manually fly the Soyuz module around the International Space Station and make a smooth docking.

 Astronauts practice with laser for range /speed between Soyuz and ISS. Just in case radar drops out. Soyuz has 2 sets of radar; KYPC (Koers) 1 and 2.

After 3 months back in the Soyuz simulator with my crew mates it feels like home.

Nice runs with my Soyuz crewmates today. Approaching and docking. And solving malfunctions of course.

Interactive 3D Model of Solar System

Click on the Picture to eneter the Solar System

Welcome to Solar System Scope space traveller, SSS means Astronomy for Everybody.

Whether you are a student, astronomy fan or an accidental browser, you are most welcome to play with our user-friendly application. 

It's full of space-art graphics, has easy-to-use interface with various settings and offers interesting information.

SSS will illustrate you real-time celestial positions with planets and constellations moving over the night sky.

But I can see you're not just a passive spectator - and that's good, because you can actively change parameters for a better understanding of happenings in our Solar System and the Universe.

DLR Virtual flight on a robotic arm

Five metres above the ground, Andreas Knoblach from the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics starts a virtual flight in the Robot Motion Simulator.

The 10-metre-long track along which the robotic arm moves permits larger manoeuvres. The 'pilot' communicates with the team on the ground via radio and a camera. 

During the virtual flight he experiences the same forces as would affect his body during an actual flight. Credit: DLR.

Only Andreas Knoblach's legs hang out from under the cover of the 'cockpit'. They are dangling in five metres above the ground while the enormous robotic arm slowly swivels the virtual-reality 'capsule' and its occupant and moves along a track in front of a large screen.

Mountains, valleys and meadows are visible. Knoblach can see the same scene on a screen in front of him. He is about to begin a flight that simulates everything. It lasts only a few minutes and he has already turned upside down and back again.

The robotic arm moves forwards and backwards, swivelling the man at the joystick up and back down again. Finally the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) scientist ends up sitting upside down in the capsule while he flies virtually through the air in a twin-engine light aircraft, working his way through spectacular aerobatic manoeuvres.

NASA Supersonic Green Machine

This future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The team's simulation shows possibility for achieving overland flight by dramatically lowering the level of sonic booms.

They do this through the use of an "inverted-V" engine-under wing configuration.

Other revolutionary technologies help achieve range, payload and environmental goals.

This supersonic cruise concept is among the designs presented in April 2010 to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate for its NASA Research Announcement-funded studies into advanced aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-2035 timeframe.

Image credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin Corporation

More images available at the NASA Image Gallery