Small Asteroid (2010 WC9 ) to Fly Between Earth and Moon

Asteroid 2010 WC9 will make a close approach to Earth today (5/15/18) at 3:04 p.m. PDT (6:04 p.m. EDT, 22:04 UTC). At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will be no closer to Earth’s surface than about 120,000 miles (200,000 kilometers), which is about half the distance between Earth and the Moon. 2010 WC9 is about 200 to 400 feet (50 to 120 meters) across. The asteroid's velocity at the time of closest approach will be about 29,000 mph (8 miles per second, 12.8 kilometers per second). This flyby is the closest approach 2010 WC9 will make to Earth for at least two centuries.
Asteroid 2010 WC9 was discovered on Nov. 30, 2010, by the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and was tracked for about 10 days before it faded from view. Orbit calculations in 2010 ruled out any chance that the asteroid could pose a threat to our planet in 2018, but the distance of this year's close approach could not be predicted precisely until the asteroid was detected again last week as it approached our planet once again.



source  NASA

The Code for the Apollo Moon Landings Is Now on GitHub

Suprisingly Funny the code for the Apollo Moon Landings Is Now on GitHub.

Computing has come a long way since the 1960s. The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) on board the Command Modules and Lunar Modules of the Apollo missions had about as much processing power as a simple electronic calculator. Yet through ingenuity—and thousands and thousands of lines of code—NASA and MIT engineers succeeded in safely landing a person on the moon.

The MIT Instrumentation Laboratory had to develop a new type of software technology for the Apollo space program. Core rope memory, a now antiquated form of read-only memory, was used with a unique assembly programming language to write the code that ran the Apollo Guidance Computer.

 

 

On July 7, however, former NASA intern Chris Garry uploaded the entire AGC software to the code-sharing site GitHub, making the information available to thousands more people. And it wasn't long until the folks on thesubreddit r/ProgrammerHumor got ahold of it and started picking it apart

As interest in the code exploded, people soon realized that the comments and labels left by the original coders, full of jokes and cultural references, are more amusing than the software instructions themselves. The instructions for the master ignition burn is titled, BURN_BABY_BURN- -MASTER_IGNITION_ROUTINE, for example. There is even an explanation of the name for the burn sequence

The effort made the code available to any researcher or hobbyist who wanted to explore it. Burkey himself even used the software to create a simulation of the AGC:

 


Working Replica DSKY-AGC Apollo Guidance Computer




The Charming Genius of the Apollo Guidance Computer
Source:PM

Source: Quartz

JUNO & Amateur radio operators around the world ....

As NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft swung past Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, amateur radio operators around the world sent a Morse Code "HI" to the spacecraft. Would Juno hear their call?



Published on Dec 10, 2013 During its close flyby of Earth, NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft listened for a communication from amateur radio operators transmitting from locations around the world. This video clip depicts results, the "dits" and the "dahs," of this high-flying social experiment. The full image caption for this movie is available at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cata... A four-minute documentary depicting the efforts of a few of the amateur radio operators who participated in the event can be seen at: http://youtu.be/_yqHy_MpNiQ



Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Iowa

The CPU from the original PlayStation is guiding the New Horizons space probe

You probably already know that your smartphone is more powerful than the computers used to land astronauts on the Moon. But did you know that the processor used in the original Sony PlayStation  is guiding  the New Horizons space probe. Yep, the same Sony PlayStation   MIPS R3000 CPU


                                        
                                                                        

 

sourse Verge/GameSpot

17 CubeSats were deployed from ISS

17 CubeSats were deployed from the station this week exploring solar flares, the upper atmosphere, Earth imagery, ship tracking and weather.


Published on May 20, 2016

NASA ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites)

NASA ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 19 Satellites will be launched on 23:30 UTC, 19 November 2013 by Minotaur-1 rocket from Wallops Flight Facilit I introduce these satellites in the order. (C)IARU, (C)Zarya

1. Black Knight-1

1U cubesat intended to test a passive 2 axis attitude control system and a C328Rcamera.

 Downlink 437.345MHz

   
   (C)SSC09-XII-2.pdf
----------------------------------------

2. CAPE-2  

Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment Cubesat proposal with on board SDR, maritime buoy store and forward data 
relay and GMSK 38k4 capability. 

Downlink 145.825MHz and 437.325MHz

   
   (C)CalPoly edu
---------------------------------------

3. ChargerSat-1


The primary mission is to perform a technology demonstration of gravity gradientstabilization, improved solar collection and improved horizon communications on a pico-satellite. 

Downlink 437.405MHz

   
   (C)UAH edu
----------------------------------------

4. COPPER
Parks College 2U CubeSat, identical to Argus-1, intended to collect in-space radiation-event data on testcircuits to help calibrate new models for predictingthe effects of radiation on space electronics.
Downlink 437.290MHz 9600bps

   
   (C)SLU edu
-----------------------------------------

5. DragonSat-1

Drexel University 1U cubesat project with a mission to take pictures of aurora (northern and southern lights) to observe the radiation dissipation intensity during the solar events, and to perform a technology demonstration of boom deployment mechanism in space.
Downlink 145.870MHz

   
   (C)CalPoly edu
-----------------------------------------

6. Firefly
Goddard Space Flight Center Cubesat (3U) that will investigate the relationship between lightning and terrestrial gamma ray flashes.

   
   (C)NASA gov
-----------------------------------------

7. KYSat-2
Kentucky Space LLC, These institutions are:

- Kentucky Space LLC: Mission Management 
- Morehead State University (MSU): Communications, power systems 
- University of Kentucky (UK): On board computer, imaging payload once in orb it the spacecraft will transmit on the amateur UHF band and beacon using th e AX.25 protocol to portable ground station already developed by MSU for ou treach in K-12 grades.
Downlink 437.405MHz
   
   (C)Kentucky Space

--------------------------------------------

8. Lunar Orbiter/Lander CubeSat

1U cubesat, testing software and an imager for an eventual lunar orbiter/lander cubesat that will be sent to the Moon via a launch to geosynchronous orbit, from Vermont Technical College and the University of Vermont.

   
   (C)CalPoly edu

------------------------------

9.NPS-SCAT

Naval Postgraduate School
The primary mission is to test solar cells.
Downlink 2.4012 - 2.4476GHz and 437.525MH

   
   (C)NPS edu

------------------------------

10.ORS-3

USAF (United States Air Force) 
The flight's primary objective is testing space-based rocket tracking technologyand an autonomous termination system smart enough to destroy the rocket if it flies off course

   (C)eoPortal

--------------------------------

11.PhoneSat-v2

NASA Ames Research Center 
PhoneSat-v2 is a technology demonstration mission intended to increase the functional capabilities of PhoneSat-v1 and demonstrate complete satellite functionally in a low cost package. The satellite is built around the Nexus S smartphone which will be running the Android operating system and will be enclosed in a standard 1U cubesat structure.
Downlink 2401.200 - 2431.200MHz and 437.425MH

   
   (C)NASA gov
----------------------------------------------

12.STARE-B
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories Technology Cubesat (3U) which will demonstrate the tracking of space debris.

   
   (C)eoPortal

---------------------------------

13.STPSat-3
USAF STP(Space Test Program) 

- iMESA-R (Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer Reflight) mission 

- J-CORE (Joint Component Research) mission 

- SSU (Strip Sensor Unit), an AFRL Directed Energy (RD) experiment 

- SWATS (Small Wind and Temperature Spectrometer), a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) mission 

- TCTE (TSI Calibration Transfer Experiment), a NASA/NOAA mission

   
   (C)US Air Force
---------------------------------------------

14.SwampSat
Technology Cubesat (1U)
Downlink 437.385MHz

   
   (C)AMSAT-UK
--------------------------------------------

15.TetherSat-1,2
Naval Research Laboratory 3U cubesat that splits into two with a 1km tether to test electrodynamic 
tether propulsion.
Downlink 
Tethersat-1, 437.100MHz 9600bps AX25 GFSK 
Tethersat-2, 437.305MHz 9600bps AX25 GFSK

   
   (C)Colorado edu
---------------------------------------------

16.TJ3Sat
Thomas Jefferson High School 

The cubesat is expected to broadcast speech converted from a text string that istransmitted by the ground station. However, the main mission of the satellite isto develop resources that other students can use in the development of their ownsatellites and in their exploration of space.

Dwonlink 437.320MH

   
   (C)Popular Mechanics
--------------------------------------------

17.Trailblazer-1

University of New Mexico 1U cubesat intended to a variety of space weather projects including a dosimeter, gyro and magnetometer

Downlink 437,425MHz

   
   (C)COSMIAC

-------------------------------

18.Vermont Lunar Cubesat

Vermont Lunar CubesatVermont Technical College Testing the NASA Goddard GPS Enhanced Navigation System and star tracker camera for our proposed Lunar Lander/Orbiter CubeSat. 
Downlink 437.305MHz 9600bps

   
   (C)Vermont Space Grant Consortium

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by JE9PEL/1