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Navigation by Sextant
Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition
Shackleton's Epic Boat Voyage
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(2/9) EXAM 1 RESCHEDULED, RAIN OR SHINE (OR FIRE)!!!
- There was indeed an electrical short in the Phillips
service elevator.
- Bonus Excitement: NEAR spacecraft today
landed on asteroid EROS
Report on NEAR Landing
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Example of ongoing space mission: NEAR
Official NASA perspective on Apollo Moon program
From www.rocketry.com: "
Apollo 18 was originally planned in July 1969 to land in the moon's Schroter's Valley, a riverlike channel-way. The original February 1972 landing date was extended when NASA cancelled the Apollo 20 mission in January 1970. Later in the planning process the most likely landing site was the crater Gassendi. Finally NASA cancelled Apollo 18 and 19 on 2 September 1970 because of congressional cuts in FY 1971 NASA appropriations. There was also a feeling after the Apollo 13 emergency that NASA risked having its entire manned space program cancelled if a crew was lost on another Apollo mission. Total savings of cancelling the two missions (since the hardware was already built and the NASA staff had to stay in place for the Skylab program) was only $42.1 million. Before the cancellation, Schmitt was pressing for a more ambitious landing in Tycho or the lunar farside. Pressure from the scientific community resulted in geologist Schmitt flying on Apollo 17, the last lunar mission, bumping Joe Engle from the lunar module pilot slot.
Apollo 19 was originally planned to land in the Hyginus Rille region, which would allow study of lunar linear rilles and craters.The original July 1972 landing date was extended when NASA cancelled the Apollo 20 mission in January 1970. Later planning indicated Copernicus as the most likely landing site for Apollo 19. Finally NASA cancelled Apollo 18 and 19 on 2 September 1970 because of congressional cuts in FY 1971 NASA appropriations.
Apollo 20 was originally planned in July 1969 to land in Crater Copernicus, a spectacular large crater impact area. Later Copernicus was assigned to Apollo 19, and the preferred landing site for Apollo 20 was the Marius Hills, or, if the operational constraints were relaxed, the bright crater Tycho. The planned December 1972 flight was cancelled on January 4, 1970, before any crew assignments were made. Work was stopped on LM-14; CSM-115A was studied for use on a second Skylab mission; Saturn V 515 was earmarked for use on Skylab. The remaining Apollo missions were stretched out to six-month intervals, which would have placed the Apollo 20 flight in 1974 had it not been cancelled. No crew was formally selected, but in the normal three-mission-ahead crew rotation, and with the assignments at that time, the Conrad crew would have been named. Instead they were transferred to the Skylab program. At one time it was considered possible that Mitchell would command the crew in place of Conrad. But it has also been stated that since both Conrad and Mitchell had been on the lunar surface, Stuart Roosa would have been commander. Astronaut Lind was considered by Slayton as next in line for a chance to land as lunar module pilot, but not until the never-funded Apollo 21.
NASA realized that after the completion of the Apollo, Skylab, and ASTP programs there would still be significant Apollo surplus hardware. This amounted to two Saturn V and three Saturn IB boosters; one Skylab space station, three Apollo CSM's and two Lunar Modules. After many iterations NASA considered use of these assets for a second Skylab station in May 1973. A range of options were considered. Saturn V SA-515 would boost the backup Skylab station into orbit somewhere between January 1975 and April 1976. It would serve as a space station for Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft in the context of the Apollo ASTP mission. The Advanced or International Skylab variants proposed use of Saturn V SA-514 to launch a second workshop module and international payloads. This station would be serviced first by Apollo and Soyuz, then by the space shuttle. Using the existing hardware, these options would cost anywhere from $ 220 to $ 650 million. But funds were not forthcoming. The decision was taken to mothball surplus hardware in August 1973. In December 1976, the boosters and spacecraft were handed over to museums. The opportunity to launch an International Space Station, at 5% of the cost and twenty years earlier, was lost."
Interesting Short Article on Robots vs Human space exploration
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Extrasolar planets
NASA mission DAWN to study planetesimals (= asteroids)
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From a review of Chesapeake Invader: "Thirty-five million years ago, a meteorite three miles wide and moving sixty times faster than a bullet slammed into the sea bed near what is now Chesapeake Bay. The impact, more powerful than the combined explosion of every nuclear bomb on Earth, blasted out a crater fifty miles wide and one mile deep. Shock waves radiated through the Earth for thousands of miles, shaking the foundations of the Appalachians, as gigantic waves and winds of white-hot debris transformed the eastern seaboard into a lifeless wasteland. Chesapeake Invader is the story of this cataclysm, told by the man who discovered it happened. Wylie Poag, a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explains when and why the catastrophe occurred, what destruction it caused, how scientists unearthed evidence of the impact, and how the meteorite's effects are felt even today.
Poag begins by reviewing how scientists in the decades after World War
II uncovered a series of seemingly inexplicable geological features along
the Virginia coast. As he worked to interpret one of these puzzling findings
in the 1980s in his own field of paleontology, Poag began to suspect that
the underlying explanation was the impact of a giant meteorite. He guides
us along the path that he and dozens of colleagues subsequently followed
as--in true scientific tradition--they combined seemingly outrageous hypotheses,
painstaking research, and equal parts good and bad luck as they worked
toward the discovery of what turned out to be the largest impact crater
in the U.S. We join Poag in the lab, on deep-sea drilling ships, on the
road for clues in Virginia, and in heated debates about his findings. He
introduces us in clear, accessible language to the science behind meteorite
impacts, to life and death on Earth thirty-five million years ago, and
to the ways in which the meteorite shaped the Chesapeake Bay area by, for
example, determining the Bay's very location and creating the notoriously
briny groundwater underneath Virginia."
Update
of Chesapeake Bay impact
Permian
Extinction due to Impact?
Chicxulub
Crater: Animation
The
Five Worst Extinctions
Cenotes
of the Mayan People in the Yucatan
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- "It has often been said that, if the human species fails to make a
go of it here on the Earth, some other species will take over the running.
In the sense of developing intelligence this is not correct. We have or
soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far as
this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic
ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive
conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail,
this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned. The same
will be true of other planetary systems. On each of them there will be
one chance, and one chance only." (Sir Fred Hoyle, 1964)
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EPA Global Warming site
Site that collects skeptical opinions on global warming to support the energy industry's agenda
One of the main skeptics on global warming "hysteria" states his concerns
A site that argues that higher CO2 stimulates plant growth so is good, and that the sun has produced the observed warming trend
- "Assuming that the timing of the sun’s magnetic changes is a proxy
for the sun’s changing brightness, computer simulations of the earth’s
climate suggest that changes of 0.4% in the sun’s brightness could have
produced [the observed] global average temperature changes of about 0.5
C over the last 100 years."
"From the best science and economics emerges an opportunity for a "no regrets" policy of intense research while deep emission cuts are delayed. Consider first that the penalty paid in the increase of projected temperature in the next century by delaying severe reductions of greenhouse gas emissions is small. For example, assume the IPCC’s current estimate: that global warming will cause a temperature rise of roughly 2 C by the year 2100. In that case the extra temperature rise that will occur by delaying up to thirty years action on policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions is a few tenths of a degree C. The penalty of an extra few tenths of a degree, spread over a century, will be entirely negligible against the backdrop of natural fluctuations. Consider further that the projected warming -- judged by the temperature records -- is likely exaggerated. Should severe emission cuts be delayed, two major benefits may result: first, with further research a better understanding of climate change should emerge and lead to an improved estimate of the timing and magnitude of any problems. Second, mitigation and adaptation should become more affordable as technology advances. Together those considerations suggest a slow emergence of any global human effect and an opportunity to take the time to insure the best response to the possibility of human-caused climate change."
A thought-provoking site arguing for a huge population crash as the result of the imminent end of cheap oil
If the relentlessly pessimistic tone of the above turns you off, at least read this
- "Over the past fifty years, many oil companies, geologists, governments,
and private corporations have performed scores of studies of Estimated
Ultimately Recoverable (EUR) global oil. (EUR oil is the total amount of
oil that will eventually be pumped from the earth.) Taken together, the
great majority of these studies reflect a consensus among oil experts that
EUR oil reserves lie within the range of 1,800 to 2,200 billion (109) barrels.
As of the end of 1999, the world had consumed about 857 billion barrels
of these ultimately recoverable reserves. Given these estimates of recoverable
oil, and plausible assumptions of moderate growth in demand (about 2 percent
per year), we can use a simple model to calculate when world oil production
might begin to decline, driven by resource constraints.
At the low end, for EUR oil equal to 1,800 billion barrels, peaking could occur as early as 2007; at the high end (2,200 billion barrels), peaking could occur around 2013. If oil demand were held constant at today's [1999] level -- through some such measure as a carbon tax or a cap on carbon releases -- the time of decline could be delayed by decades."
The official USGS/DOE site which argues with unwarranted optimism that there is 40% more oil available eventually than the above authors assume
BUT, this geochemist looked at N. Sea oil production and makes the following comment
- "It doesn't appear that the U.S. DOE/EIA is considering the high decline
rates of major North Sea oil fields or the EUR values from the U.S. Geological
Survey9 when making projections of future production in the U.K. and Norway,
or for that matter, in their global assessment. The rapid decline of major
fields appears to exist in many producing basins around the world and must
be considered in long-term supply forecasts. If this situation isn't recognized
by national and international organizations that make projections of long-term
supply, the future may present some unpleasant surprises."
- A very level-headed
update by the author (12/00)
And more recently (4/01)
Some thoughts on how you can prepare for this new world
Duke Power's energy interactive assessment; ways to reduce your local heating bill if you don't live in a dorm
Relative costs of heating w/ natural gas vs. electricity
A conservative think tank's assessment of the current Kyoto agreement to limit emissions. The only way this treaty makes any sense to me is if its agenda is not to reduce emissions but rather to freeze US economic growth at the 1995 level so that the effects of the imminent end of cheap oil will be less catastrophic to our society. This effectively means a slowly declining standard of living because of population growth, which is certainly better than the results of an abrupt collapse!
- EXAM2
Grades
Chapter 5 including boxes but omitting numerical details there
Chapter 6 omitting boxes
Textbook reading for terrestrial planets (including atmospheres):
All of Chapter 7 (& box 7-1 only)
All of 8 (no boxes)
All of 9 (& box 9-2)
10-3 & 10-4
All 11 except 11-2 & 4 (no boxes)
All 12 except 12-1, 2 & 10
All 17 except 1 (no boxes)
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Europa's Ocean
Site for NASA's Europa Orbiter Mission
Not to be a broken record, but here is the best article on the facts behind the end of cheap oil that I have found so far. Send your friends/parents/loved-ones here first!
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International Fusion Reactor
- "ITER is an international collaborative project being undertaken jointly
by the world's leading fusion energy programmes with the objective of demonstrating
the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful
purposes. It represents the next step for the magnetic fusion development
programmes of the three main participants: Euratom, Japan, and the Russian
Federation.
This step for all the leading fusion programmes is to progress into full ignition conditions, to study the physics of burning plasmas and to demonstrate and test the key fusion technologies for establishing fusion as a practical energy source; ITER will fulfill this next step and will be the first fusion device to produce thermal energy at the level of a commercial power station. It would take just over 8 years to build ITER-FEAT and to bring it into operation. During the first 10 years of operation, the "average" DT pulse is expected to be at 500 MW and to last 400 s. Tritium consumption per pulse will be 0.4 g, and the consumption during the 10 years about 5 kg. The output and experience of ITER will provide the basis for designing and building the first full-scale demonstration electrical power generating fusion reactor to establish the economic feasiblility of fusion."
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Pulsar sounds
Grades
- Chapter 13-1, 5, 6, 7
Chapter 14 all except 5
Chapter 15 all except 3 & 4 (no boxes)
(Skip Chapters 16 & 17)
Chapter 18-1, 6, 7, 9 + box 18-2
Chapter 19 all except 3, 11, & box 19-3
Chapter 20-4 & 6 only for now
Chapter 21 all except 6
Chapter 22 all except 10 but include Fig. 22-26!
Chapter 23-2, 3, 8 & 9 only (no boxes)
Chapter 24-1, 2, 3, & 5 only + boxes 24-1 & -2
Whew!
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Detection of WD as Dark Matter in Our Galaxy
Dark Matter in the Universe
Mapping Dark Matter
- Dark
Matter Research
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The Lives of Quasars
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Dark Energy
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- The final will be comprehensive & 2:30 hrs
long. You should devote 90 mins to 45 multiple choice questions that will
review material covered by the class tests. The rest of the exam will be
11 short-answer questions (but not multi-part like the tests) that will
cover the material since the last test. As far as marks are concerned,
the syllabus mentioned 15% for pop quizzes & homework. We've had no
time for those, so the final will be worth either 55% or 40% of your final
grade (so tests worth either 15 or 20% each), whichever maximizes your
final class rank.