Monday, October 24, 2011

That Dark Stuff Scientist Talk About

Dark matter is a crazy phenomenon is astrology because it is something that can not be proven that exists but scientist knows it is there. Dark Matter is a invisible force that supposedly  makes up 98% of the universe and can be detected through the gravitational pull on normal matter that makes up stars and planets. the dark matter gets darker when scientist come up with a new theory of "cold dark matter". Scientist have made a model to envision dark matter made up of cold, slow moving exotic particles that clump together because of gravity; this is how cold dark matter was discovered. This model proves in most situations correct until it is applied to mini dwarf galaxies where dark matter appears more spread out than it should be. Other scientist conducted a new study in calculating the mass distribution of two dwarf galaxies but these measurements completely contradict cold dark matter theory, making the problem worse. The model states that galaxies should be packed with dense clumps of dark matter  but it is spread out evenly in dwarf galaxies. Some researches have suggested that dark matter operates a different way by tending to spread out when it interacts with normal matter instead of contracting. In the end of this study scientist know less about this phenomenon then before.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Space Robot Gas Attendents

There are many satellites laughed into space to orbit earth for a specific job task. but after a couple of years they decommission because it has run out of fuel. Two companies are figuring out a way to give these out-of-commision million dollar satellites a second chance. The Canadian Company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.(MDA) are manufacturing a satellite that will be not only be able to refuel other satellites but also repair, tow, and inspect. This satellite will orbit around and attach itself to another satellite by a paying customer. the attaching process could take weeks but once attached repairing, towing, inspecting and refueling could take just days. this is an amazing invention because this changes the face of technology in satellites. When a company designs a satellite they have to decide what is able to go in it because of how much fuel it uses.  But since their will be a satellite that ability to refuel it then it changes the amount of technology going into the designs of new satellites. But in business there is always competition and the competition is Vivisat. Vivisat is designing a mission extension vehicle(MEV) which docks onto a satellite but instead of transferring fuel it uses its own thrusters to keep the satellite working. Vivisat says that this is less of a risk then MDA satellite. These are of course great ideas because they save companies millions of dollars by preventing them to buy another satellite and it will cause less chance of collisions by moving satellites that can not be saved out of the way of perfectly good ones.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Armageddon!!

Imagine a huge asteroid is heading towards earth that could wipe out the human race. what would be your first thought of how to stop it? Ironically, technology would not be the issue because we have the technology to do so, but the biggest problem would be the human race coming together as one. We have many ways to prevent the asteroid from hitting earth and the main answer will be "Gravity Tractor." A "Gravity Tractor" is where NASA sends out a huge satellite and it will end up next to the asteroid and the gravitational pull from the satellite  will move the asteroid off course from hitting the earth. This could take up to a year to do but if it is to late to use this solution, this will cause us to shoot a nuclear missile at the asteroid. This could cause more harm because it could possibly break the huge asteroid into many pieces that could crash into earth. Well we have solutions to prevent an asteroid from hitting us, but humanity needs to come together as one first. We need to come to together because all of this technology is very expensive. The "Gravity Tractor" can cost from $500 million to $1 billion and that exceeds the U.S bank account. So another problem is when all of the nations put in money for this satellite or missile, who builds the missile or satellite? when we shoot the missile at the asteroid, where do we aim the missile at because it can influence more east or west. This huge asteroid isn't about if, it is about when because it is going to happen sometime no matter what, humanity just needs to come together as one to prevent an asteroid from destoying the human race.