Michio Kaku took to bigthink to address the doomsday prophecies for this year. He discredits any ideas that suggest there will be comet impacts or planet alignments. He does, however, say that a solar flare would cause unimaginable chaos to the world today.

Now we get solar flares every few years and they never cause much harm. What Kaku warns against is something similar to the Carrington Event.

The Carrington Event was a famous solar flare that occurred on September 1, 1859. Richard Carrington, one of England’s foremost astronomers, noticed an enormous group of sunspots. As NASA explains, just before dawn of the next day, skies all over planet Earth turned red, green and purple in a massive aurora that could even be seen in tropical environments.

Telegraph systems went completely haywire. Telegraph operators were shocked and paper in telegraph offices was set on fire. The telegraph systems were disconnected and the solar flare itself began operating the lines.

This all comes back to the idea that a solar flare on the scale of the Carrington Event could happen in 2012. What would that mean for us? Kaku explains that a solar flare of that magnitude would knock out most of our satellites, telecommunication systems and even the Internet.

Thankfully, it appears that such a solar flare happening again within our lifetime is unlikely. Whenever the sun ejects solar flares after flipping its magnetic poles every 11 years, the Earth dodges most of the energy due to its small size.

The chance for another Carrington Event is still possible, however, so NASA and other firms are petitioning for money to upgrade current systems to withstand massive solar flares.

Oh, and before you ask, the film Knowing is not an accurate representation of solar flares.

In 2010, President Obama proposed a change in how NASA operates. Prior to that, NASA had carried out the task of ferrying materials and personnel back and forth to space, for example to the International Space Station. President Obama proposed that the private sector handle more of those kinds of tasks.

In this age of financial crisis, austerity programs and budget cutting, NASA has had to rethink its old methods. One of the changes it is undertaking is this effort to blend government-sponsored programs (traditional NASA) with private industry.

It’s expected that proposals will lead to Space Act Agreements that will help NASA and the U.S. achieve safe, reliable, and cost effective human access to space. NASA expects to make multiple awards this summer, with values ranging from $300 – $500 million.

NASA’s announcement asks industry to propose a base period of approximately 21 months, running from award through May 2014. The goals of the base period include completing the design of a fully integrated commercial crew transportation system, which consists of the spacecraft, launch vehicle, ground operations, and mission control. In addition, NASA is asking for the proposals to contain optional milestones beyond the base period leading to and culminating in a crewed orbital demonstration flight.

Before you ask, yes, the robot actually does ingest matter and excretes it out. Scientists working at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory invented a robot that powers itself by ingesting food and water, digesting it and then releasing the leftover waste just as a human does.

“Robots that eat biological fuels could find enough fuel almost anywhere,” John Greenman, a scientist at the laboratory, told SA. “There is organic matter anywhere on Earth — leaves and soil in the forest, or even human waste such as urine and feces.”

The robot is called EcoBot and has been around since 2003. The first EcoBot fed off of E. coli bacteria that fed on refined sugars. The EcoBot-II used sludge microbes to digest dead flies, prawn shells and rotten apples. The latest model, EcoBot-III, is the robot that dumps the leftover waste it “digests.” If it didn’t do this, the robot would become poisoned by its own waste and stop working.

The scientists claim that these robots can keep operating for upwards of 30 years as long as they have food to eat.

The team has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their work. They hope to turn the robots into a machine that can tackle both sanitation and energy needs in poor countries that need it the most.

NASA is also eyeing the technology for extended space travel. If the robots can survive off of human waste, they would be the perfect companion for astronauts traveling to distant planets like Mars.

Fortunately for humanity, the robots can only perform tasks in short bursts before needing to recharge again. Once the technology improves, however, we can expect robots to eat everything on the earth in their tireless domination of the human species.

[Original lead image courtesy of NineInchNachos’ flickr]

New Horizons principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute, Alan Stern comments on the mission:

“We’re now in new territory as the closest any spacecraft has ever gotten to Pluto, and getting closer every day by over a million kilometers,”

In honor of the mission and the anticipation of finally “exploring Pluto”, the researchers at John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory have been circulating an online petition to have the stamp reissued with a new caption.

Below is an artists rendering of what the stamp could look like in this concept stamp, by Southwest Research Institute’s scientist and artist Dan Durda:

The stamp would commemorate the mission and the exploration of Pluto. They hope to collect at least 100,000 signatures on the petition, which will be directed at the USPS and its Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC).

Stern talks more about the petition and the stamp project:

“We’re asking people to sign the petition, because the post office considers not just the merits of a new stamp proposal, but also whether it is supported by a significant number of people,”

“This is a chance for us all to celebrate what American space exploration can achieve though hard work, technical excellence, the spirit of scientific inquiry, and the uniquely human drive to explore.”

Learn more about the project by watching the following video:

IceBridge project scientist Michael Studinger explains:

“We are actually now witnessing how it happens and it’s very exciting for us”

“It’s part of a natural process but it’s pretty exciting to be here and actually observe it while it happens. To my knowledge, no one has flown a lidar instrument over an actively developing rift such as this.”

The crack was noticed as they flew over in their DC-8 while doing work on another project to document Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. Using an Airborne Topographic Mapper the team measured the crack to be 18 miles long, 260 feet wide and between 160 to almost 200 feet deep.

Here’s a NASA video of the Glacier and the crack that has formed:

John Sonntag, Instrument Team Leader for the expedition explains his excitement:

“A lot of times when you’re in science, you don’t get a chance to catch the big stories as they happen because you’re not there at the right place at the right time, but this time we were.”

I wish I had a job like that. The scientist will continue to monitor the area in hopes of catching the transformation of the glacier section into an iceberg. They claim the Pine Island Glacier is the largest source of uncertainty in predicting global sea level change. It’s large and unstable. Interesting!

The the spacecraft are about the size of a washing machine. The measurements they take are very precise, down to a couple microns (fractions of a hair). Each craft is also fitted with two video cameras (MoonKAM’s). The videos created (and the MoonKam cameras) are specifically designed for a public outreach program by NASA.

The videos created (and the MoonKam cameras) are specifically designed for a public outreach program by NASA. The missions two primary goals are to create lunar thermal imaging maps and to educate the public about the moon. The two GRAIL spacecraft were launched into orbit on September 10, 2011 at 9:08 am.

The spacecraft took about three and a half months to reach the moon after being launched and spent another 2 months getting synchronized for their gravitational measuring task. The project will take approximately 82 days to complete. NASA will continue to present video from the two GRAIL spacecraft as part of their public education program.

They claim the attacker:

“used sophisticated hacking tools to gain unauthorized access to government and commercial systems.”

The accused person, Razvan Manole Cernaianu, allegedly also attempted to sell the secrets of how to gain access to the servers online. Organized crime prosecutors are cooperating with the FBI and officials at NASA in order to pursue the case.

What was actually discovered is alien particles of helium, oxygen, hydrogen, and neon.

Assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, David McComas comments on the find:

“These are important elements to know quantitatively because they are the building blocks of stars, planets, people”.

“matter outside our solar system doesn’t look like material inside our solar system. It seems to be deficient in oxygen…”

Researchers say that the lack of oxygen in these particle could indicate that the sun was formed in an area or region with less oxygen than that of its current location.

A video about the event and NASA’s explorer is available below. It will illuminate the details of the discovery better than I can in this article:

The game is available today on Facebook. NASA hopes to use the game as a too to introduce NASA to a “wide new audience of people accustomed to using social media,” according to David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications.

Players are presented with multiple choice questions. Correct answers earn 100 points, with a 20 point bonus for answering first. At the end of ten questions, the winner moves on to a bonus round where a correct answer to the final bonus question earns a badge.

The game looks like all kinds of fun for NASA fans and space buffs of all ages. Check it out here and let us know what you think in the comments.

In short, he wants a moon base and he wants one by the end of his second term as hopeful president.

Speaking at a rally in Cocoa, FL, Gingrich laid his plans out for the space program, which included some visionary outlooks.

“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American.”

The reason you have to have a bold, large vision is you don’t arouse the American nation with trivial bureaucratic irrational objectives. It gets to the question, do you want to be part of the generation that goes to the moon and Mars, or do you want to have pork?

It should be noted that Gingrich’s speech was given in an area which relies heavily on the space program to provide people with jobs, and have personal investment in its success. However, Gingrich wasn’t simply pandering to the crowd as he’s mentioned his plans on the national scene as well.

[Credit: Spaceflightnow]