Science n Technology

Russian Craft Embarks On Space Station Hallow's Eve Mission

An unmanned Ruskies Progress supply dispatch took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome inside Kazakhstan on Wednesday to get a flight to the Global Space Station on Halloween.

The Development M-17M has been loaded with Only two.9 tons of items and equipment. It launched from its stay at home Kazakhstan at 3:Forty-one am EDT and effortlessly accelerated toward their orbit on a trail of fiery exhaust, reports CBS News.

The particular unmanned supply ship was launched into its designed preliminary orbit exactly nine minutes and Fortyfive seconds later, so that it is successfully on track to dock at the aft port of the Russian Zvezda demand module around 9:40 am EDT.

Stop commander Sunita Williams spoke with Their astronauts flight controllers within Houston, saying:

“Good day. Happy Halloween, as well as hopefully our minor trick-or-treat vehicle is on its way. We merely got to see it your window and that’s rather special. Hope you fellas are having a great day.”

NBC News notes that the Progress M-17M, which flew to the International Place Station, is filled with Only two,050 pounds of propellant, 926 lbs of water, 62 lbs of oxygen, and 2,738 pounds of spare parts. There’s no word on whether or not any candy ingrown toenail or other Halloween treats made it on board to help you the six jet pilots currently living about the space station celebrate Halloween.

While life aboard the ISS is definitely busy, this week is particularly so for the station’s crew. Not only are they accepting the actual Russian unmanned orbiter, but its release is just three days as soon as the first commercial unmanned freight delivery ship (SpaceX’s Monster capsule) undocked from the stop.

Crew members onboard the space station will also embark on a space wander on Thursday to mend an ammonia leak in a radiator.

The International Space Station Halloween craft will stay docked in the station until next April.

---post on Saturday, May 4, 2013---

Floating Pumice Result Of Under water Volcano Eruption Near New Zealand

A huge floating mass associated with pumice stone discovered off the New Zealand coast in July has been due to a massive eruption at the Havre Seamount, such as formation of a fresh volcanic cone.

New Zealand experts mapped out the under water volcano recently, while onboard the research vessel Tangaroa, reports Live Science.

As well as confirming the eruption from the Havre Seamount, the scientists also noted that there were two new volcano cones, one of these comes within Three or more,600 feet of the surface.

The eruption with the underwater volcano came in July 19 as well as sent pumice rocks flying to the surface. Your pumice “raft” measured 8,400 square miles. It absolutely was discovered on July 9 by the HMNZS Canterbury ship. The floating isle of lightweight stone measured 300 kilometers by 30 mls.

Lieutenant Tim Oscar, a Regal Australian Navy policeman aboard the ship, observed that the flying fluffy-looking rock “lit up a superb white color” under a highlight, “like the edge of an snow shelf.”

The Huffington Post notes that the research workers, from New Zealand’s Nationwide Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), stated their findings, along with an evaluation of satellite photos from the floating mass, make a good scenario that the underwater volcano ended up being the culprit.

Researchers mapped out the Havre Seamount in 2004 as well, using a multibeam echosounder, permitting them to compare images with the ones just obtained this summer. NIWA marine geologist Joshu Mountjoy said:

“The new map implies that the internal wall from the caldera now has up to One hundred and eighty meters [590 feet] of side ‘bulging’ indicating the location associated with future eruption, or walls collapse.”

There were furthermore two different types of magma which were expelled during the eruption. One too, called rhyolite, is more mind blowing. It was likely liable to shooting pumice for the ocean surface. The opposite, a less unstable one, settled down to develop the new volcanic cones.

NIWA scientists have said that the pumice sparring floor is still floating within thin areas. It'll most likely take some time to the rocks to distribute completely.

---post on Saturday, May 4, 2013---