Prep Talk: I Don't Need A Ham Radio License. How often do we hear this? How often do those words float across a prepping page or group on social media. Steve breaks his silence and rants about how you DO need a license if you think you are going to just pick up a radio during shtf.

Solar sails rely upon pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. Get the sail closer to the Sun and not surprisingly efficiency increases. A proposed new mission called Mercury Scout aims to take advantage of this to explore Mercury. The mission will map the Mercurian surface down to a resolution of 1 meter and‚ using the highly reflective sail surface to illuminate shadowed craters‚ could hunt for water deposits.  Unlike conventional rocket engines that require fuel which itself adds weight and subsequently requires more fuel‚ solar sails are far more efficient. Light falling upon the sail can propel a prob across space. It’s a fascinating concept that goes back to the 1600’s when Johannes Kepler suggested the idea to Galileo Galilei. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 21st Century that the Planetary Society created the Cosmos 1 solar sail spacecraft. It launched in June 2005 but a failure meant it never reached orbit. The first successfully launched solar sail was Ikaros‚ launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency it superbly demonstrated the feasibility of the technology.  Artist’s illustration of IKAROS. Credit: JAXA It has been known since 1905 that light is made up of tiny little particles known as photons. They don’t have any mass but while travelling through space‚ they do have momentum. When a tennis ball hits a racket‚ it bounces off the strings and some of the ball’s momentum is transferred to the racket. In a very similar way‚ photons of light hitting a solar sail transfer some of their momentum to the sail giving it a small push. More photons hitting the sail give another small push and as they slowly build up‚ the spacecraft slowly accelerates.  Mercury Scout will take advantage of the solar sail idea as its main propulsion once it has reached Earth orbit. The main objectives for the mission are to map out the mineral distribution on the surface‚ high resolution imaging down to 1 meter resolution and identification of ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters. The solar sail was chosen because it offers significant technical and financial benefits lowering overall cost and reducing transit time to Mercury.  To propel the Mercury Scout module‚ the sail will be around 2500 square meters and 2.5 microns thick. The material is aluminised CP1 which is similar to that used in the heat shield of the James Webb Space Telescope. The sails four separate quadrants unfurl along carbon fibre supports and will get to Mercury in an expected 3.8 years. On arrival it will transfer into a polar orbit and then spend another 176 days mapping the entire surface.  To enable the entire planet to be mapped the the orbit will have to be maintained by adjusting the angle of the sail. In the same way the captain of a sailing ship can sail against‚ or sometimes into wind by adjusting sail angle and position so the solar sail can be used to generate thrust in the required direction.  Data from the Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer‚ or MASCS‚ instrument is overlain on the mosaic from the Mercury Dual Imaging System‚ or MDIS. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington Unlike other more traditional rocket engines whose life is usually limited to fuel availability‚ the solar sail is limited by degradation in sail material. Its life expectancy is around 10 years. Additional coatings are being explored to see if the life of the sail can be extended further.  Source : MERCURY SCOUT: A SOLAR SAIL MISSION TO THE INNERMOST PLANET The post Mercury is the Perfect Destination for a Solar Sail appeared first on Universe Today.

Since its launch in 2021‚ the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made some amazing discoveries. Recent observations have found a number of key ingredients required for life in young proto-stars where planetary formation is imminent. Chemicals like methane‚ acetic acid and ethanol have been detected in interstellar ice. Previous telescopic observations have only hinted at their presence as a warm gas. Not only have they been detected but a team of scientists have synthesised some of them in a lab. These molecules found in the solid stage phase in young protostars are an indicator that the processes leading to formation of life may be more common than first thought. The complex organic molecules (COMs) were first predicted decades ago before space telescopes observations inconclusively identified them. A team of astronomers using the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) on the JWST as part of the James Webb Observations of Young ProtoStars programme have identified the COMs individually.  MIRI‚ ( Mid InfraRed Instrument )‚ flight instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope‚ JWST‚ during ambient temperature alignment testing in RAL Space’s clean rooms at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory‚ 8th November 2010. One of the target objects observed as part of this study was IRAS 2A‚ a low mass protostar. The science team are particularly interested because the system has similar characteristics as our own star‚ the Sun. It gives us a great test bed to explore the processes of the Solar System and Earth’s development. The presence in the solid phase and earlier detections in the gas phase suggests the process behind their existence is sublimation of ice. The process of sublimation is the transition straight from solid to gas without going through the liquid phase. The detection of COMs in ice suggests this is the origin of the COMs in gas.  The scientific community are now looking at the liklihood of transportation of the COMs to early planets as they form around the young stars. It is believed that their transportation as an ice are far more efficient to the protoplanetary disks than as a gas. It is quite likely that the icy COMs can be transported and inherited by comets and asteroids  as the planets form. These new icy objects that develop can then‚ through their impacts‚ carry the complex molecules to planets‚ seeding them with the ingredients for life. A closeup of the inner region of the Orion Nebula as seen by JWST. There’s a protoplanetary disk there that is recycling an Earth’s ocean-full of water each month. Credit: NASA‚ ESA‚ CSA‚ PDRs4All ERS Team; Salomé Fuenmayor image The team not only detected complex molecules‚ they also detected formic acid (the stuff that makes some insect bites sting)‚ sulphur dioxide and formaldehyde. The sulphur dioxide was particularly useful since it allowed the team to calculate the deposits of oxidised sulphur as a function of emissions of the same. This is particularly of interest since it was pivotal in the development of metabolic reactions and processes in the young Earth.  A team from the University of Hawaii’s Department of Chemistry led by Professor Ralf I. Kaiser managed to synthesise a complex molecule known as Glyceric Acid. Understanding its formation process helps us to understand how life evolved on Earth. The experiments used interstellar model ices and estimates of Galactic Cosmic Ray levels to form Glyceric Acid with a photo ionisation laser. This may have been similar to the role of lightning in the evolution of our own atmosphere. Source : Cheers! Webb finds ethanol and other icy ingredients for worlds and Unraveling the origins of life: Scientists discover ‘cool’ sugar acid formation in space The post Webb Finds Deep Space Alcohol and Chemicals in Newly Forming Planetary  appeared first on Universe Today.

And speed up aging.

Dust of distant stars.

The following article‚ The Baltimore Bridge Collapse Is Going To Have An Enormous Impact On US Supply Chains‚ was first published on Conservative Firing Line. When I awoke early on Tuesday morning‚ I was stunned to learn that the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore had collapsed.  We are being told that it was a tragic “accident” and that there is no evidence that any foul play was involved.  Hopefully that is true.  But no matter how it was caused‚ … Continue reading The Baltimore Bridge Collapse Is Going To Have An Enormous Impact On US Supply Chains ...