Amateurs can analyse the data sent by space missions
There have never been so many planetary missions active at once as there are today. In 2010, spacecraft will explore the Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury and Saturn; many others are on their way to explore comets, asteroids, the cold worlds of the Kuiper belt and beyond.
More and more nations are seeking to participate in the exploration of the Solar System, and particularly of our nearest neighbour, the Moon. Japan, China, India, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia are all now planning or operating missions on the Moon.
Many of the next steps in the exploration of our neighbourhood in the Solar System are so challenging that they seem daunting without the commitment and cooperation of many of Earth’s space-faring nations:
- Establishing a permanent station on the Moon;
- Further study of moons of giant planets;
- Returning samples of rocks from the surface of Mars;
- Human flights to the asteroids and Mars.
Space is not just what we see at the other end of a telescope, we live in space, too, and it is important to study our own neighbourhood. Amateur astronomers are invited to participate in exploration of Solar System together with profesional scientists:
1. “Messages from Earth”. Now everyone can send his name to space. The oldest example is still in orbit around Saturn: Cassini carries a DVD0 with 616 400 handwritten signatures from people living in 81 countries. 2 DVDs, each containing four million names, were sent with the Mars Exploration Rovers. A DVD containing “Visions of Mars”, a collection of Mars-inspired literature, art and personal greetings from leading space visionaries of our time was included with Phoenix. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter carried names to the lunar orbit.
2. Analysis of scientific data. Members of the public helped examine more than 700 000 microscopic scans of the Stardust spacecraft’s interstellar dust collection plates, searching for a few dozen micron-sized grains of dust.
3. Watching the impacts. Two spacecraft of LCROSS in the early summer of 2009 and Japan’s huge Kaguya orbiter in the late summer crashed into the Moon. Observations of the plume raised by the impacts could confirm the presence or absence of water in these regions.
4. Analysis of images. Many missions now provide internet access to entire catalogues of raw image data (Mars orbiters, Cassini, Solar observatories) . Digital camera use in combination with increasing high speed internet access, has resulted in the birth of a worldwide community of armchair scientists who download, process, examine, and then discuss the images being returned by active planetary missions.
Prepared accordint to http://www.capjournal.org
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