Category Archives: NASA

goddard space flight center, NASA, van allen radiation belts

Another Belt Circles Earth

1 Comment

Science is about Discovering Things

One of the misconceptions that people uneducated in science often hold is that “science knows everything”. Yet, the very nature of science — which is an exploratory discipline — means that scientists are constantly finding new things and re-examining older knowledge in the light of new discoveries. That’s exactly what science is supposed to do.

A map of the Van Allen Belts and the newly discovered third belt. Courtesy NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Colorado/ASI.
A map of the Van Allen Belts and the newly discovered third belt. Courtesy NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Colorado/ASI.

Take the discovery of a third radiation belt around Earth, just announced today. For 50 years, we’ve known that Earth has two zones of trapped radiation surrounding our planet.  They’re called the Van Allen Belts, and without them, our telecommunications (for one thing) would be nearly (if not completely) impossible. They’re affected by solar storms, and the interactions between those belts and incoming swarms of energetic particles from the Sun can affect our GPS, communications, and other technologies.  I’ve written about this before, and a few years ago worked with MIT’s Haystack Observatory to produce a series of video podcasts called Space Weather FX that explains the complexities of the Sun-Earth connection and the role that our ionosphere and magnetosphere play in that connection.

Atmospheric researchers continually study those regions to characterize how the change over time, particularly during solar events. Of course, we don’t know everything about them yet, but increasingly more sensitive probes of that region (including studies done with ground-based atmospheric radars) tell scientists a lot about this constantly changing region.

The newly discovered third radiation belt was found by a set of spacecraft called the Van Allen Probes, and they will be critical in helping researchers understand the variability of all of Earth’s radiation belts, particularly as they respond to the variable activity of the Sun.

This finding shows us that there are still things to discovery, to study, to understand, and predict. Scientists knew quite a bit about the radiation belts before, but discoveries like this one are showing them that advances in technology are always going to uncover new and wondrous things! To learn more details about the Van Allen Probes and this discovery, check out today’s NASA press release about it.

 

NASA, space exploration, space shuttle

What IS Our Future in Space?

Leave a comment

A Look Ahead

In remarks given after space shuttle Discovery landed at Dulles airport yesterday, Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver gave onlookers a sense of where NASA is and where it might be headed now that the space shuttle program is no more.  She rightly pointed out the many accomplishments of the shuttle program, and she even acknowledged some of the melancholy flavor of the end of the shuttle era. “To those who say our best exploration days are behind us, I must disagree,” she said. “While it is wonderful to reminisce about the past, NASA continues to focus on the future. You need only admire the amazing  space shuttles and their accomplishments to realize the people, organizations and nation that created them have only just begun. Vehicles with names like Orion, Dragon and Dreamchaser are being built all across the country today. They will continue and expand on the space shuttle’s many accomplishments.”

She went on to talk about asteroid visits and Mars exploration, and how those programs might enhance jobs and technology. If all this happens, then perhaps the future is not so gloomy as it seems.  Although I’m waiting to see how the promise of the upcoming launch vehicles and our future as astronauts plays out, at least there’s some sort of plan in place, even if it doesn’t give our country its own launch capability for crewed exploration for a few years yet. But, the real proof of the pudding will be in whether or not the funding is made available to make all of it happen (and more).  And, that’s where things get dicey.

In  my last entry, I pointed out that Congress (representing the people, supposedly) has to make the money available.  And, that’s where the guts comes in. I don’t think there’s much in the way of guts in our representation right now. If people WANT a space program that is robust, and we make our voices heard, supposedly Congress will do the will of the people. But, I’m skeptical, since the Congress we all know today seems to be more about bowing to narrowly defined special interests and corporate lobbyists that do NOT seem to have people’s jobs and future in mind. I often wonder if we ALL made a huge fuss about increasing NASA budgets, etc., would Congress listen?

So, let’s say Congress gets its act together and starts doing something positive for NASA (and not the markup battles that are going on this week). What ARE we looking forward to in a long-term space program? I began reading through a National Academies of Sciences report called Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration, published in 2011 and available here (you can read it free online).  And, based on what I’ve read so far,there’s a very broad mandate that cuts across all disciplines of science. To reinvigorate NASA (as it says in the report), it will take all sciences, pulling together, to focus our space program on the challenges of the future, whether here on the ground or in low-Earth orbit, or on the way to Mars. For example, the report looks forward to human exploration of space, and the many challenges it will make on the physical bodies of our astronauts. It talks about the issues involved in searching out habitable places on the Moon and Mars, and the technical challenges of getting to those places and surviving there for long periods of time.

Of course, all the sciences involved in space exploration are supported by and support various industries and agencies, and those require trained people to do the jobs needed.  And, that raises a question of where the training is going to happen?  It’s been widely known for a long time that our country (the U.S.) is having problems in attracting more people to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines needed to do the jobs. In short, in many places, education is letting us down. Or, to put it more properly, support for science education itself is being let down. In part, that’s because our education system has been gutted and manipulated by non-educators with political axes to grind. The result is showing up in poorly trained students and a workforce that will not be ready to meet the challenges we face.  Where we will get the people to take those future jobs in space and other technological industries and disciplines is a mystery that we as Americans will need to solve. The people who are in science research NOW are holding the line on our decline in science interest, but what happens when they retire? Will there be new folks to step into their shoes and take up the cause of our space program and all the good things it does for us and our economy?

Where do we start?

Before anything else we do, I would love to see education removed from the manipulations of the political arena. I am reminded of a saying I saw on Facebook the other day: those who can’t teach make laws regulating those who can. It seems to be very apropos. Let teachers do their jobs, remove the meddling politicians and their ilk from the classroom, and stop screwing around with the teaching of science, as they are trying to do in Tennessee and other places where proud ignorance overcomes pragmatic common sense, and people with NO knowledge of science feel that it’s perfectly fine to meddle in things they don’t understand.

Our future in space needs well-trained motivated people who have received an education that promotes science inquiry. These people are the key to a  future that lifts us all up, and that’s where we should all be headed. The NAS report I cited sketches out a great future, but the weak link to everything we want to become is education. And, it’s a link we need to defend from the forces of ignorance and wilful stupidity. We did it once before, and if we care about the future, we will be able to do it again.