A brightly reflective Enceladus appears before Saturn's rings, while the planet's larger moon Titan looms in the distance. Jets of water ice and vapor emanating from the south pole of Enceladus, which hint at subsurface sea rich in organics, and liquid hydrocarbons ponding on the surface on the surface of Titan make these two of the most fascinating moons in the Saturnian system.
NASA Image Gallery. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Solar Dynamics Observatory's revealing false color image of the sun
A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F). Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team
In February 2010, NASA launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), “the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun.” NASA’s mission for SDO:
During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun's magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate. Since launch, engineers have been conducting testing and verification of the spacecraft’s components. Now fully operational, SDO will provide images with clarity 10 times better than high-definition television and will return more comprehensive science data faster than any other solar observing spacecraft.
SDO will provide critical data that will improve the ability to predict these space weather events. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The mission of Planetary Resources
Planetary Resources’ mission is clear: apply commercial, innovative techniques to explore space. We will develop low-cost robotic spacecraft to explore the thousands of resource-rich asteroids within our reach. We will learn everything we can about them, then develop the most efficient capabilities to deliver these resources directly to both space-based and terrestrial customers. Asteroid mining may sound like fiction, but it’s just science.
Planetary Resources Inc. - Mission to the Asteroids
It should be no surprise to PaleoTerran readers that the extraction of scarce resources from the Earth leads to planetary scarring and environmental degradation. Tomorrow, a new company called Planetary Resources, Inc. will be announcing their mission, or missions, to search for precious metals in asteroids. According to their site:
We're preparing for the unveiling of Planetary Resources, Inc. on April 24. Join us to learn about our mission and how we plan to revolutionize current space exploration and help ensure humanity's prosperity for generations to come.
According to Wired:
A group of wealthy, adventurous entrepreneurs will announce on Apr. 24 a new venture called Planetary Resources, Inc., which plans to send swarms of robots to space to scout asteroids for precious metals and set up mines to bring resources back to Earth, in the process adding trillions of dollars to the global GDP, helping ensure humanity’s prosperity and paving the way for the human settlement of space.
The definition of the word chutzpah according to Dictionary.com: audacity; nerve
Yeah, that's about right.