Space round up...

My research on water in space introduced me to the habitable zone of where life can exist and where H2O can exist as a liquid. Despite the atmosphere of space being empty and freezing, scientists now believe the moons of Saturn and Jupiter are holding water. I started out finding all this information in a couple of books from the library but their information was more general and on areas that didnt relate to water (or in a way that i could spin in my favour). I then turned to various scientific magazines, such as Discover, Popular Science, American Scientist, Science Illustrated, and New Scientist as well as a slew of websites from NASA's own to the Times, the Guardian and many magazines own archives.

Having so many different sources and having to put them onto this blog kind of got the better of me... I hoard reference material and used to print it all out for a folder but now putting on this blog is still taking some getting used to...

magazine articles:














and sites:

Europa :
http://discovermagazine.com/videos/27-life-on-europa

water on the moon:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/14apr_moonwater.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090923-moon-water-discovery.html

water on mars:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article6934078.ece

search for life:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026831.600-why-the-universe-may-be-teeming-with-aliens.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/milkyway_water_010412.html
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/mar/saturns-moon/?searchterm=water%20space
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/oct/16-search-aliens-gets-harder-but-more-encouraging

I even looked at who owns the moon ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6533169.stm / http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081210-who-owns-moon.html )

but as I've said a few times before, looking at water in space is kind of a dead end at the moment. We're at the point in history where new discoveries are just being made, as new plans for missions to Jupiter won't go ahead until later this year along with the possibility of returning to the moon so I've had to change my direction on water, space and how it affects us. With ideas of mining water from the moon it wouldnt really benefit us here on Earth, the scarcity of water is becoming a threat as the planet warm ups and the population continues grow, so i thought about looking at the developments made in space that would allow us to recycle water etc.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions10.htm

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/er_4.html

This again didnt prove to be too resourceful unless i wanted to research microchips etc. However, a lot of these discoveries have been made aboard the International Space Station (ISS), wheres since it's initial construction, it has carried out experiments in its on board laboratory that have benefited us here on Earth.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/space-exploration/international-space-station-article.html
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/I/ISS.html
http://www.pbs.org/spacestation/station/issfactsheet.htm




I then started looking into what the astronauts do on board and how they live... which I decided to focus my attention on and although it took me approx 3 and a half weeks out fo the 4 weeks allocated for this brief.. i eventually came up with the working title of...
"Should we be living as astronauts?"

as soon as I had this idea in my head, pieces of information and facts that i could illustrate immediately came to mind... although i did feel that this wasnt truly fitting to the brief (as if i expected it to be harder and that i should create a piece of work that will change peoples minds etc). I think I was getting too hung up on certain details (as usual) rather than focusing my attention down to a particular idea/theme...

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/f_water.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/waterrecycler.html
although the ISS had this water recycler on board for a while, they werent officially allowed to use it's water until safety tests were carried out but now... this piece of equipment will produce 6,000 lbs of drinkable water for its crew, saving on ferrying water to the ISS and waste.

what i should probably explain is that aboard the ISS, every piece of water is recycled to the best of their ability, that means sweat from the crew and moisture inside the ISS is condensed to be used as well as urine. Even the animals aboard the ISS contribute to the water recycling.. and i found out a fact about 72 rats producing the same amount as one crew member.. however it didnt say if this was water that was recycled from them or that they could produce.. so... i left that out of my final work. (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02nov_1.htm)

but i started looking at how they get water to space (same way the astronauts get there!) as its transported in large duffel bags and how astronauts go about their daily routine such as cleaning their teeth, having a wash and using the toilet. It's at this point that I discovered certain facts about water consumption aboard the ISS and decided to compare and contrast it to what the average family uses on Earth, for example they cant flush the toilet! they use a dry powder shampoo and what seems common knowledge now... their food is freeze dried but features instructions on the packaging on how much water to add to the food and how long to leave it hydrating for...



http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/095ns_001.htm
http://www.uswitch.com/water/how-much-water-use/





(god knows why they put Tight Fit's Lion sleeps tonight!) but this is clips from the IMAX Space Station movie, that shows the beginning of the space station during its assembly and its start up with the first crew aboard it to general living and activities of the crew.

I had already decided from the beginning that i wanted to make posters (and preferably screen print them).. but my idea changed slightly... i had originally thought about doing propaganda style posters mimicking the old space race posters and giving them a retro futurist style based on the ficitional idea that the first ones to plant a flag on water would control it for their people... (i mean the russians have planted flags underneath the ice so... why not? ;) but being an initial idea, it wasnt thought out too well. In the end with all the facts I found out I wanted to produce a sort of government information leaflet, since there are a tonne of organisations and websites giving us tips on how to save water - which all basically say.. turn off the tap whilst brushing your teeth or flushing the toilet less - but i didnt want to produce a large wordy pamphlet. I even thought of making an animation again.. but considering I get a little carried away when it comes to things like that I decided i'd best not... so.. i again came to posters as a quick and striking method to deliver information. We were meant to exhibit the work once we finished, so I figured the easiest way for someone to get my idea would be to make a bright striking image that you could glance at and understand but with very little text as I know peoples attention spans arent what they used to be.. ;)

I ended up coming up with these visual delights.. it gave me an opportunity to use Illustrator again (although i really dont know why i like that program so much!)... again sticking with the being able to glance at them idea, i went with designing simple to understand icons (or what i thought were easy to understand) and i hope that they could be universally understood no matter the language... and i cant help but try to include some humour in my work... (check out the 4 humans on the my water recycler illustration).

I'm happy with what I ended up producing, albeit a little rushed, I wasted many weeks researching and pondering over where to go next, and the problem with printers on deadline day (but thankfully i was able to print them in colour! and cheaper!)... but it wasnt until sticking them up that i noticed 2 stupid grammatical errors.. (theres no point changing them here as the tutors will have already marked it and seen the posters)... so.. on the pink one (recycler poster) in the last sentence i typed 'forceand' instead of 'force and' ... then on the orange (shower poster) I started the the last two lines with the same word ' Whereas' which just doesnt make for proper grammar nor reading! :( let this stand as evidence to ALWAYS proof read final pieces and not to rush it all on the last day :P ahahhahahah yeah right!





I still have a LOAD of website links that hold other bits of information and as a result I now avidly keep checking Discover magazine's site for updates as well as having rekindled my interest in getting my own telescope or joining ManAstro.co.uk .

Some other interesting bits of information I found out during my hunt for facts were...

due to zero gravity conditions, all bodily fluids start rising to the highest points in the body it can, so this is why the astronauts have to keep exercising in order to keep their muscles in their legs healthy... but as a side effect their taste buds become dulled thus why they prefer spicy foods! (the astronauts menu isnt as bland as popular thoery would have you believe!)


http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2009/06/water_in_space_what_happens.php

space cup:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1089667/The-zero-gravity-cup-Endeavour-astronaut-invents-novel-way-drink-coffee-space.html

fluid physics:
http://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/WaterBalloon/

Better late than Never

Well, the Christmas period is now on its way out... all we've got to look forward to now is New Year, which never really means much to myself but this year might be different (or not)...

anyway... this well needed break has given me time to get some things out of the way and the chance to not do others... but after making a bit of a hash of the project on the last day (due to printing difficulties) I'm now going to catch up on adding my research to my blog (then I'll add up the pieces of work I made too) and although I doubt it will now affect my mark anymore, it needs to be done for my own closure.

Mars and further:

After our own Moon the next closest sources for water (in ice form) are still within our Solar system and not some distant planet in a galaxy far, far away.

Space exploration has fallen down the back of the sofa of society, forgotten about except by those with an interest in it or until theres some discover that can benefit the human race. (i'm kind of going off on a tangent here, whether its to add cause to my research on water in space or just because I'm feeling a little defensive about space exploration). A few years ago, our interest was firmly set on Mars and discovering the hidden water on it's surface, from the ice layer beneath the soil, the believed liquid water flowing and carving it's way through the Martian landscape and the idea that Mars once held oceans.

The NASA Phoenix Mars Lander has given us the most extensive evidence of water on Mars from the images and data it has sent back from the planet's surface. Evidence of ice can be seen in its own tracks across the surface but it has also collected video of snow falling from the clouds on Mars.



http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/006

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4323651.html?page=1

This article from New Scientist ( http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10740-water-flows-on-mars-before-our-very-eyes.html or the original NASA article: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/mgs-20061206.html ) shows evidence of the changing landscape on Mars due to flowing water escaping from beneath its surface. Some believe it is merely the result of dust storms eroding away at the sides of the craters but when looking at Discover magazine's article on the evidence that Mars held oceans ( http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jan/nasa-rovers/?searchterm=water%20space ) you see carved rock similar to that of the Grand Canyon, where water has eroded down through the rock creating a valley/canyon and may have once held and channeled water on it's surface.






However, things are a still uncertain about where the future of Space exploration lies... whether it is on the surface of Mars or our Moon or even further a field...

This article (http://discovermagazine.com/2009/may/11-a-scientists-guide-to-finding-alien-life ), from Discover, interested me after I originally found out about the idea of a habitable zone in our solar system. Basically, since the big bang, our Sun has been expanding and growing hotter (which may mean global warming is not man made) but the heat given off of the Sun helps maintain water (h20) as a liquid on our planet, as well as allowing it to evaporate (but our atmosphere stops it all escaping completely and keeps the cycle going).



The band/zone that scientists say provides the optimal light, heat and radiation from the sun has our little blue planet sat in it, but it hasn't always been like this and nor will it remain. It is universally presumed that life needs water to survive and planets need water to sustain life which, based on Earth's placement in our Solar system makes it the perfect place... almost too perfect. We are comfortably sat in this band at the moment, but as I said, the Sun is continuing to heat up and expand which means the band/zone will shift too and may be why we are finding more encouraging signs of water on our Moon and Mars. It could also mean Mercury and Venus
could have once held water ( http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jan-feb/073 ) and supported life, but that Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and further may support life in the future if not at this very time but what will happen to Earth when this zone does shift?



If the above is true though, then why is it that we believe that some of the Moon's of Jupiter and Saturn hold liquid water or in the case of Europa are completely covered in an ocean of water under a sheet of ice... These all fall outside of the habitable zone but at the same time we are only just at the point in history were we are exploring deeper into our Solar system. It may be 10 years before we head out to these "Moons" (i say moons as technically the are planets, but they are captured in the gravitational orbit of Jupiter much like our own moon), but I can't wait to see what is discovered.

Water in Space

Ok, so I have neglected the blog a little bit, but that is purely because I took a bit of time off for my birthday and I've spent the rest of the time researching material... but it now means I've left myself with very little time to actually produce something as a final piece and I need to get all of my findings online for this friday... :/

damn... (i might run over a bit)...

I can't remember if I initially spoke about what got me onto water and space, but with the tone of the initial briefing looking very grim, I wanted a more positive subject to run at... and the recent finding of water on the moon sparked my interest, combining my love of space with science and dreams of science fiction.

With all the talk of Climate Change, the Copenhagen conference (currently going on) and Humankind basically destroying the planet we inhabit... the idea of finding another Earth for us to relocate to is growing in popularity. Although it sounds like something that only appears in tv shows or comics, recent discoveries are now adding new levels of plausibility to the idea, admittedly this still wont happen for god knows how many years, but "we" are searching local and distant galaxies for stars like our Sun that would provide sunlight and heat to neighboring planets with sustainable atmospheres.

But bringing this all back a bit closer to home, we have discovered signs of water existing or that existed on planets and moons in our own solar system. If you pick up any book on our solar system, you'll be presented with information about water on our Moon (averaging only 238,854 miles away from us!), evidence of water on Mars, Jupiter's moon: Europa or Saturn's moon: Titan. To me, this is amazing, since I was young I have pictured the other planets and moons to be like our deserts, barren and inhospitable to ourselves but the evidence of water suddenly opens up new possibilities and reasons to explore these places in search of life (maybe not your typical green or grey aliens, but lifeforms, microbes and bacteria),or ways in which we can harvest the water for our own benefits.

The Moon:



In early October this year, NASA bascially crashed a $79 million satellite into the Moon's surface, and it was intentional. This BBC page actually has some good graphics about half way down the page and a boring video at the top ( here ) as it explains the reasoning behind the crash. The idea was to give the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) one final mission to analyse the 6 mile high plume of debris kicked up from the inital impact of a spent rocket from the satellite, before the satellite itself crashed into the southern crater on the moon. The results showed promise, as from the data received proved there was water on the Moon, but also that it's a substantial ammount, 25 gallons was measured within the debris which is approx 94 litres or 200 pints for the average layman. (By the way, this was invisible to us here on Earth)



As I mentioned, I have always thought of our Moon like a giant, dry dust ball that is full of craters from passing meteors crashing into it's surface (or satellites!) but in November 2008, India launched it's first satellite, Chandrayaan-1 on it's mission to study the Moon,

"It will explore its minerals, map the terrain and find out whether water and helium deposits exist. It will also give us a deeper understanding about the planet Earth itself or its origins, Earlier missions did not come out with a full understanding of the moon and that is the reason scientists are still interested.

This will lay the foundation for bigger missions and also open up new possibilities of international networking and support for planetary programmes."

Taken from the Chandrayaan-1 homepage (here)

In a recent issue of Discover magazine, unfortunately a solely American publication, there was the first detailed map produced by the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which was attached and launched along with the LCROSS satellite but detached before the LCROSS crash, showing exactly where the water deposits are on the Moon's surface,



However, all this information is getting mixed signals, some say that it will now pave the way for future missions to the Moon in hopes of establishing a lunar base from which we can then launch other missions deeper into space, but others refer back to President Obama's inital plans to reduce NASA's budget and redirect funds from manned space exploration into education. The year 2020 seems to be the decider year, with at least 3 possibilities planned from returning to the Moon, heading to Mars again, or exploring Jupiter and it's Moons. The fourth option was to head to Titan, one of Saturn's Moons, as it appears to have an atmosphere of Oxygen too, but the decision was made to look to Jupiter and Europa. Either way, I'm really excited... in my opinion we can only really discover new things in 2 places now, the deepest depths of the sea and space... I know which I'm voting for...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6848177.ece

next to come... Mars, Europa and Titan.