Science Friday: Lunar Prize + Jupiter Impact + Ion To Mars + Glowing People + more

This week in TrekMovie’s Science Friday go to the Moon, Mars, and beyond with Lunar X-Prize and ion propulsion. For those of us still grounded here on Earth, you can take a look at a cometary impact into Jupiter. And, why don’t you glow in the dark while you’re at it? What, you didn’t know you could do that? Find out more in this week’s article, plus check out our gadget of the week: The Orb blutooth device.

Lunar X-Prize Sending Piece of Apollo Back to the Moon
After man’s first walk on the moon in 1969, there was a massive push for of funding for research endeavors, scientific careers, and new technologies. Spin offs from technologies used in the space program were so foundational that, according to some authorities, every $1 invested in NASA by the government produces $7 or $8 in consumer products. Additionally, humans now know more about themselves and the universe than ever before. The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission has focused public discussion on why we haven’t sent a man to another planetary body since then, when predictions at the time stated that we would have had a man on mars a decade ago.

The Google Lunar X-Prize is looking to change all that and wants to speed-up our presence on the moon by introducing the private sector into the mix. They are offering a $30 million prize (put up by the sponsor Google) to teams that safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. To honor the Apollo missions, each team will send with their spacecraft a plaque in which eleven of the surviving Apollo astronauts have bestowed their names. The plaque will read:

“We Apollo Astronauts congratulate the winner of the Google Lunar X PRIZE. May this place, placed on the surface of the Moon by this intrepid craft and its team, serve as a welcoming beacon to future generations of lunar explorers. This spacecraft returns in the spirit of our journeys of the 20th Century – in peace and with hope for all humankind.”

• Col R. Walter Cunningham, USMCR, (Ret.), Apollo 7
• CAPT James A. Lovell, Jr., USN (Ret.), Apollo 8, Apollo 13
• BrigGen James A. McDivitt, USAF, Ret., Apollo 9
• Russell L. Schweickart, Apollo 9
• CAPT Eugene A. Cernan, USN (Ret.), Apollo 10, Apollo 17
• Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11
• CAPT Alan L. Bean, USN (Ret.), Apollo 12
• CAPT Edgar D. Mitchell, USN (Ret.), Apollo 14
• LtCol Alfred M. Worden, USAF, Ret., Apollo 15
• BrigGen Charles M. Duke, Jr., USAF, Ret., Apollo 16
• Hon. Harrison H. Schmitt, Ph.D., Apollo 17

Jupiter Gets Big Impact
Something — probably a small comet — smacked into Jupiter on Sunday, leaving a bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean near its south pole. Just after midnight, Australian time, on Sunday, Jupiter came into view in the eyepiece of Anthony Wesley, the amateur astronomer that discovered the black spot near Jupiter’s south pole. Astronomers were scrambling to get big telescopes turned to Jupiter on Tuesday to observe the remains of what looks like the biggest smashup in the solar system since fragments of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into the planet in July 1994. “This was a big event,” said Leigh Fletcher of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “In the inner solar system it would have been a disaster.” Now, with all that being said, there are some that have postulated that this was in fact caused by time traveling Romulans, and that whole “comet” story is just a bad cover-up.

The bright spot in the image is the impact. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Ion Engine Can Power 39-day Trip to Mars
Sending humans back to the moon is all well and good, but many are beginning to say, “been there, done that,” and are pushing to send men onto Mars. Critics point out that such trips would be long and grueling, taking about six months to reach the Red Planet. But now, researchers are testing a powerful new ion engine that could one day shorten the journey to just 39 days.

Traditional rockets burn chemical fuel to produce thrust. Most of that fuel is used up in the initial push off the Earth’s surface, so the rockets tend to coast most of the time they’re in space. Ion engines, on the other hand, accelerate electrically charged atoms, or ions, through an electric field, thereby pushing the spacecraft in the opposite direction. They provide much less thrust at a given moment than do chemical rockets, which means they can’t break free of the Earth’s gravity on their own. But once in space, they can give a continuous push for years, like a steady breeze at the back of a sailboat, accelerating gradually until they’re moving faster than chemical rockets.

The engine is being developed by the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which was founded in 2005 by plasma physicist and former space shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz.

Don’t Look Now, but You’re Glowing. In the Dark. Yes, you!
Amazing pictures have been captured by Japanese scientists who have captured the first ever images of human bioluminescence. Although it has been known for many years that all living creatures produce a small amount of light as a result of chemical reactions within their cells, this is the first time light produced by humans has been captured on camera. The light is a thousand times weaker than the human eye can perceive. At such a low level, it is unlikely to serve any evolutionary purpose in humans – though when emitted more strongly by animals such as fireflies, glow-worms and deep-sea fish, it can be used to attract mates and for illumination. Maybe one day science can engineer a way to magnify this effect in humans making us SUPER GLOWING HUMANS! I’m not sure what advantage that would posses, but it’d be FREAKING SWEET!

Like I said, FREAKING SWEET!

Gadget of the Week: COOLEST BLUTOOTH HEADSET EVAR!
Yes, the coolest blutooth headset in the world (notice ALL CAPS headline), the Orb, is a sweet looking earpiece that transforms into a ring with a flexible organic LED (FOLED) data display that shows you caller ID, calendar items, and voice to text info. If you want to take a call, simply take the ring off your finger, and twist it into its headset shape. This is such a forward design, we were thinking it was a mere concept, but no — it’ll go on sale in January, with the base model selling for $129, and the Deluxe Edition (the one with that FOLED display) following in April for $175. Now if they could just make that little ring vibrate when a phone call comes in, it would be the ideal blutooth headset.

The headset showing both modes

A close-up of the FOLED ring

#FollowFriday

If you are on Twitter, you know there are plenty of amazing people out there tweeting away. And, many of them are scientists! Every Friday I’ll be bringing you a new list of great scientists, techies, and geeks to follow on Twitter. This week…

• @NathanFillion: Capt. Reynolds, star of Firefly. Recent tweet: “Things that scare me: Sharks. Bears. Zombies. Crowds. Zombie crowds. Closed spaces. Children singing.”
• @LCROSS_NASA: NASA mission to explore the Moon and see if there is water ice near one of the lunar poles! Recent tweet: "”It’s been a long road, To get from there to here.” Mission Day 34. 78 days more cruisin’ ahead. Have traveled over 2,538,000km in space.”
• @roddenberry: Rod Roddenberry. Recent tweet: “This is what real life exploration is about! Talk about alien life form… Don’t need to go to another planet to find… It’s right here!”

Science Quickies
Not enough science for you? Here’s a warp-speed look at some more science tid-bits that are worth a look.

• Eye of cosmic “storm” blazes with black hole, Spitzer Space Telescope has new awesome images!
• Giant toucan bills help birds keep their cool
• New NASA administrator optimistic about reviews

TrekMovie’s Science Friday is an homage the the great NPR radio show Science Friday. Science Friday® is a registered service mark of ScienceFriday Inc.