Don’t talk to aliens - Hawking

THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.
The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.
Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.
Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.
"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," he said. "The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."
The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals — the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history.
One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they are picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.
Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.
He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach."
He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is "a little too risky". He said: "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans."
The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who is paralysed by motor neurone disease and has very limited powers of communication. The project took him and his producers three years, during which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the script and checking the filming.
John Smithson, executive producer for Discovery, said: "He wanted to make a programme that was entertaining for a general audience as well as scientific and that’s a tough job, given the complexity of the ideas involved."
Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.
So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances.
Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive and evolve there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds.
Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as likely places to look.
Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding.
"I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive," he said. "Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains."

“GSLV-D3 failure will not affect Chandrayaan-2”

The failure of the GSLV-D3 mission on Thursday will not have an impact on the Chandrayaan-2 mission scheduled for 2013, according to K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The GSLV-D3, which was launched amidst high hopes, having been powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine for the first time, ended in failure after the cryogenic engine failed to ignite. As per the ISRO's plans, it is a GSLV powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine that will put Chandrayaan-2 in orbit. The Chandrayaan-2 mission will also put a lander-cum-rover on the lunar soil.
The GSLV-D3 mission had three objectives: to develop and launch an indigenous cryogenic stage with the engine and associated systems; to evaluate the performance of the indigenous cryogenic stage and engine; and to put the communication satellite GSAT-4 into orbit. Only the first objective was achieved, the ISRO Chairman said.
S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said the cryogenic technology was the most complex of all types of rocket propulsion. France and the U.S. had also met with failures in using cryogenic engines. “Failures in cryogenic technology are not unusual. It is difficult to test the cryogenic engine even on the ground. We are disappointed. But we will overcome [the problems],” said Mr. Ramakrishnan
The GSLV-D3 rocket, including the indigenous cryogenic stage, cost Rs.180 crore. The ISRO spent Rs.36 crore to develop its own cryogenic stage with the engine. GSAT-4 cost Rs.130 crore.
Dr. Radhakrishnan said the cryogenic technology, which enabled communication satellites to be put into a geo-synchronous transfer orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km, was a highly complex technology. The GSLV-D3 mission was not successful and “we have to face it,” he said. “We have a long way to go and we will do that in the coming year [by launching GSLV with an indigenous cryogenic engine] … We have to work with dedication and I am sure Team ISRO will do it.” He refuted suggestions that there was a problem with the design of the GSLV because three out of the six GSLV missions from 2001 had failed.
GSLV-D3 is the sixth GSLV mission.
Dr. Radhakrishnan said there were no plans to recover the GSLV-D3 stages from the Bay of Bengal as the ISRO did when its GSLV flight failed in 2006.
Next flight
The next GSLV flight would take place in September this year but it would use a Russian cryogenic engine. It would put into the orbit a communication satellite named GSAT-5B. Another GSLV flight, also powered by a Russian cryogenic engine, would put GSAT-6 into the orbit.
PSLV launch
Meanwhile, a core-alone Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) of the ISRO is scheduled to lift off from the first launch pad at Sriharikota between May 8 and 10. It has already been fully integrated at the first launch pad. It will put Cartosat-2B, an Algerian satellite, two nano satellites from the Norwegian defence establishment and Switzerland, and a Studsat into the orbit.
The Studsat has been built by students of colleges in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Clues About Mars Evolution Revealed

Thomas Lapen, assistant professor of geosciences at UH, describes his team's findings in a paper titled "A Younger Age for ALH84001 and its Geochemical Link to Shergottite Sources in Mars," appearing April 16 in Science, the world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news and commentary.
ALH84001 is a thoroughly studied, well-known Martian meteorite. This stone is unique among Mars rocks available for study on Earth, since its formation age is more than 2.5 billion years older than any other recognized Martian meteorite, giving scientists the only sample of material formed early in Mars' history. Data from this rock may help geologists better understand, through analogy, the processes of early Earth evolution.
Lapen and his colleagues' data showed that the true age of this meteorite is 4.091 billion years old, about 400 million years younger than earlier age estimates. They concluded that this stone formed during an important time when Mars was wet and had a magnetic field, conditions that are favorable for the development of simple life. This finding precludes ALH84001 from being a remnant of primordial Martian crust, as well as confirming that volcanic activity was ongoing in Mars over much of its history.
"This research helps us better refine the history of Mars," Lapen said. "This has huge ramifications for our understanding of volcanic processes active in Mars and for the nature of deeper portions of the planet that are sources of magmas that produced the largest volcanoes in the solar system. These data also are used to refine models of initial planetary formation and early evolution."
With the crystallization age and formation of this rock being debated since its discovery in 1984, Lapen and his team seized an opportunity to better refine the early history of Mars. With samples provided by the NASA Antarctic meteorite curator and the meteorite working group, the researchers used a relatively new method that has never been applied to this stone -- lutetium-hafnium isotope analysis.
"We studied variations in isotopic compositions of minerals to determine the age and sources of magmas that produced these rocks," Lapen said. "We uncovered evidence that the volcanic systems in Mars were likely active more than four billion years. This connection allows the possibility that regions with the largest volcanoes in the solar system perhaps host some of the longest-lived volcanic systems in the solar system."
In addition to Lapen, the team includes Alan Brandon, an associate professor in UH's department of earth and atmospheric sciences, and their two post-doctoral researchers Minako Righter and John Shafer. Other collaborators were Brian Beard from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and NASA Astrobiology Institute, Vinciane Debaille from the University of Bruxelles and Anne Peslier, a research scientist at Jacobs Technology working at NASA Johnson Space Center.
The project was supported by NASA Cosmochemistry grants to Lapen and Brandon, a NASA Astrobiology grant to Beard and a grant from UH's own Institute for Space Systems Operations to Lapen. The Belgian Fund for Scientific Research provides current financial support to Debaille. The research took about 15 months.

Lightning on Saturn

After waiting years for Saturn to dim enough for the spacecraft's cameras to detect bursts of light, scientists were able to create the movie, complete with a soundtrack that features the crackle of radio waves emitted when lightning bolts struck.
"This is the first time we have the visible lightning flash together with the radio data," said Georg Fischer, a radio and plasma wave science team associate based at the Space Research Institute in Graz, Austria. "Now that the radio and visible light data line up, we know for sure we are seeing powerful lightning storms."
The movie and radio data suggest extremely powerful storms with lightning that flashes as brightly as the brightest super-bolts on Earth, according to Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging science subsystem team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "What's interesting is that the storms are as powerful -- or even more powerful -- at Saturn as on Earth," said Ingersoll. "But they occur much less frequently, with usually only one happening on the planet at any given time, though it can last for months."
The first images of the lightning were captured in August 2009, during a storm that churned from January to October 2009 and lasted longer than any other observed lightning storm in the solar system। Results are described in an article accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. To make a video, scientists needed more pictures with brighter lightning and strong radio signals. Data were collected during a shorter subsequent storm, which occurred from November through mid-December 2009. The frames in the video were obtained over 16 minutes on Nov. 30, 2009. The flashes lasted less than one second. The images show a cloud as long as 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) across and regions illuminated by lightning flashes about 300 kilometers (190 miles) in diameter. Scientists use the width of the flashes to gauge the depth of the lightning below the cloud tops.
When lightning strikes on Earth and on Saturn, it emits radio waves at a frequency that can cause static on an AM radio। The sounds in the video approximate that static sound, based on Saturn electrostatic discharge signals detected by Cassini's radio and plasma wave science instrument. Cassini, launched in 1997, and NASA's Voyager mission, launched in 1977, had previously captured radio emissions from storms on Saturn. A belt around the planet where Cassini has detected radio emissions and bright, convective clouds earned the nickname "storm alley." Cassini's cameras, however, had been unable to get pictures of lightning flashing.
Since Cassini's arrival at Saturn in 2004, it has been difficult to see the lightning because the planet is very bright and reflective. Sunlight shining off Saturn's enormous rings made even the night side of Saturn brighter than a full-moon night on Earth. Equinox, the period around August 2009 when the sun shone directly over the planet's equator, finally brought the needed darkness. During equinox, the sun lit the rings edge-on only and left the bulk of the rings in shadow.
Seeing lightning was another highlight of the equinox period, which already enabled scientists to see clumps in the rings as high as the Rocky Mountains। "The visible-light images tell us a lot about the lightning," said Ulyana Dyudina, a Cassini imaging team associate based at Caltech, who was the first to see the flashes. "Now we can begin to measure how powerful these storms are, where they form in the cloud layer and how the optical intensity relates to the total energy of the thunderstorms."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

Honey, finally we are going to Mars

President Barack Obama Thursday set a bold new course for the future of US space travel, planning to send American astronauts into Mars orbit within the next three decades.
And he sought to quell a storm of outrage which met earlier plans unveiled by his administration, vowing before NASA staff that he was "100 percent committed" to their mission and the US space agency's future.
"As president, I believe that space exploration is not a luxury, it's not an afterthought in America's quest for a brighter future. It is an essential part of that quest," he said at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The US president was making a whirlwind trip to the heart of the US space industry after stinging criticism of his decision to drop the costly Constellation project which had aimed to put Americans back on the moon.
Obama, who was accompanied by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, said his administration would pump six billion more dollars into the NASA budget over the next five years. But he had specific ideas how it should be spent.
"We should attempt a return to the surface of the moon first, as previously planned. But I just have to say, pretty bluntly here, we've been there before. Buzz has been there," Obama said.
"There's a lot more of space to explore and a lot more to learn when we do," he said, to loud applause.
"By 2025 we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first ever crew missions beyond the moon into deep space. "So, we'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow."
In a nod to critics who say the new approach will costs jobs and undermine American leadership in space exploration, Obama said he was retaining part of the Constellation project, the Orion capsule. Obama said he had instructed NASA administrator Charles Bolden to immediately begin the design of a rescue vehicle using technology already developed for the Orion capsule.
And the United States would also invest some three billion dollars in research on a heavy-lift rocket to send crew capsules and supplies into deep space, with the design to be finalized by 2015.
His plan includes ramping up "robotic exploration of the solar system, including a probe of the sun's atmosphere, new scouting missions to Mars and other destinations, and an advanced telescope to follow Hubble," he said. Obama also pledged the new plan would create some 2,500 jobs along the so-called space coast in the next two years -- aiming to bring new hope to a region blighted by high unemployment.
Critics, including the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong, were angered by Obama's decision earlier this year to scrap the bloated and behind-schedule Constellation program.
The aging US space shuttle fleet, which carries astronauts to the International Space Station, is due to be grounded at the end of the year, leaving the United States to hitch rides on Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station until a replacement is developed.
"Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity," Armstrong wrote in a letter, co-signed by two other astronauts.
Another powerful critic was Senator Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the subcommittee that has oversight of NASA spending. "This new plan does not represent an advancement in policy or an improvement upon the Constellation program, but a continued abdication of America's leadership in space," Shelby said in a statement Wednesday.
But Obama hit back Thursday saying: "We will actually reach space faster and more often under this new plan in ways that will help us improve our technological capacity and lower our costs.
"The bottom line is, nobody is more committed to manned space flight, to human exploration of space, than I am. But we've got to do it in a smart way. "And we can't just keep on doing the same old things we've been doing and thinking that somehow it's going to get us to where we want to go."

Indian edition of Cruz Missile

India is developing a sub-sonic cruise-type missile with a range of around 650 miles, The Press Trust of India reports. The 19-foot-long and 1.5-foot-wide Nirbhav missile is under development and was "getting into some shape," V. K. Saraswat, scientific adviser to the defense minister and the head of the Defense Research and Development Organization, said.
Nirbhav, meaning "fearless" in Sanskrit, is being developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory, a division of the DRDO. It has an inertial navigational system, will reach Mach 0.7 and is designed to deliver more than 20 types of warheads. The flight-trial of air-to-air missile Astra, with a range of 28 to 65 miles, is in preparation, but no date for a test launch was reported.
Saraswat was delivering the keynote address at a convention in Bangalore organized by the Aeronautical Society of India.
He said India's armed forces are looking for long duration loitering missiles that can enter enemy territory, seek targets including radar establishments and other concentrations of assets as well as enemy troop movements. Saraswat made a case for deploying space-based object recognition sensors to keep tabs on adversaries and generally gather military intelligence, a Press Trust of India report said. This is especially essential for tracking and detection of troop movements and without the sensors India's ballistic missile defense system wouldn't be a "potent weapon" it should be.
To that end India is working on electro-optical payload and synthetic aperture radar. "So, unless we prepare ourselves for future space-based systems, security is going to be a major issue," he said. The Nirbhav is intended to complement the military's BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
Saraswat's comments come after India successfully tested a maneuverable version of the BrahMos, Indian media reported late last month. The missile in all versions has been a joint development with Russia.
The vertical-launch version of the 180-mile range BrahMos was tested from the warship INS Ranvir in the Bay of Bengal off India's eastern coast, the PTI news agency reported.
The vertical-launch version of missile successfully adjusted directions to hit a target ship, making it "a perfect mission," BrahMos aerospace chief A. Sivathanu Pillai was quoted as saying. "After today's test, India has become the first and only country in the world to have a maneuverable supersonic cruise missile in its inventory."
The missile's name is derived from two rivers, India's Brahmaputra and Russia's Moskva.
The BrahMos can carry a 440-pound conventional warhead. The inclined-launch variants of the missile fitted with inclined launchers are already in service with the Indian navy and army. Air- and submarine-launch variants are in development.