Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TVhttp://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/03/live-orbital-taurus-glory-with-nasa-satellite/
Glory is a NASA satellite which is intended to study the climate and atmosphere of the Earth. It is a 538 kilogram spacecraft which was manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation and is based upon the LEOStar bus. It is designed to operate in a Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit at an altitude of 705 kilometres.
Glory is equipped with two solar arrays and a third solar panel mounted directly on the satellite, which will generate a total of 766 watts of power. It is propelled by four 4 newton monopropellant thrusters, with 45 kilograms of propellant onboard.
Its attitude control system provides three-axis stabilisation to provide the spacecraft with the correct orientation to complete its mission. Glory is expected to operate for at least three years, and scientists are hopeful that it will be able to last for more than five.
Two instruments will be flown aboard Glory. The Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor, or APS, is intended to study aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. It will study the light that aerosol compounds reflect, and use this to determine their properties and distribution within the atmosphere, looking for trends and investigating the effects of different circumstances and events upon the aerosols.
The second instrument on Glory is the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). TIM will be used to study solar radiation, and to monitor the amount absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. An identical instrument was launched aboard the SORCE satellite in 2003.
Once in orbit, Glory will become part of the A-train constellation. The A-train is a formation of Earth science spacecraft, currently consisting of the Aqua, CloudSat, Calipso and Aura spacecraft. The French Parasol satellite was also part of the A-train until December 2009, when it was repositioned for independent observations. The OCO satellite would have become part of the A-train if it had not failed to achieve orbit.The satellites orbit in the same order, with Aqua leading, followed by CloudSat, then Calipso, with Aura last. Glory will be positioned between Calipso and Aura. One more launch of an A-train satellite is currently scheduled, that of OCO-2 in 2013. A replacement for the failed OCO satellite, it will orbit ahead of Aqua.
In addition to Glory, the Taurus will deploy three CubeSats. KySat-1 was produced by Kentucky Space, and is intended for use as part of an outreach programme towards schoolchildren, who will be allowed to upload and download files to and from the spacecraft, and to operate its camera. It is a single-unit CubeSat; measuring ten centimetres by ten centimetres by ten centimetres, and is expected to operate for between 18 and 24 months.
Hermes is also a single-unit CubeSat. Funded by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium and operated by the University of Colorado at Boulder, it is designed to demonstrate systems to allow CubeSats to transmit data to Earth at higher rates. It will also be used to conduct research for future CubeSat missions, and to study the environment in which it operates. It carries instruments to monitor its temperature, and the magnetic field to which it is exposed.Explorer-1 [Prime] is essentially a reflight of the Explorer 1 satellite’s radiation experiment using modern technology. The original Explorer 1, the first American satellite, was launched in 1958. Its radiation payload was instrumental in the discovery of the Van Allen belts. Explorer-1 [Prime] is based on the Electra CubeSat bus, developed by the University of Montana, and is a replacement for the MEROPE satellite which was lost in the July 2006 Dnepr-1 launch failure.
Explorer-1 [Prime] was originally built as BarnacleSat, which was to have been used to demonstrate the deployment of a tether in space, and test the “RocketPod” deployment mechanism which was under development. BarnacleSat was intended to have been launched as a secondary payload on a Delta II, and would have deployed a tether, monitored its performance, and investigated whether it could be used to deorbit the rocket’s upper stage. The BarnacleSat mission was cancelled after the spacecraft could not be completed in time for launch.
Dr James Van Allen referred to the MEROPE satellite as Explorer-1 [Prime], so the replacement satellite was given this name in his honour. The reflight was originally intended to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Explorer 1; however its launch has been delayed by several years. Like the others, it is a single unit CubeSat. It was funded by the Montana Space Grant Consortium, and will be operated by the University of Montana.
The Taurus-XL rocket which will be launched has been named Hong after the wife of the NASA Mission Integration Manager. Hong will fly in the 3110 configuration, featuring a Castor 120 first stage, a small payload fairing, an Orion-38 fourth stage, and no fifth stage. This configuration has only flown once before; it was used for the failed OCO launch in 2009.The Taurus is a four stage all-solid expendable launch system which is operated by Orbital Sciences Corporation. It was developed in the early 1990s as a ground-launched version of the Pegasus rocket, and first flew in March 1994.
Despite having been in service for almost seventeen years, this is only the ninth Taurus to be launched, and the third Taurus-XL. The Taurus-XL differs from the original Taurus in that it has upgraded second and third stages. It is denoted by the first digit of the vehicle’s configuration being a three. Of the eight Taurus launches conducted to date, six have been successful; however two of the last three launches have failed.
The last Taurus launch was conducted on 24 February 2009, and was intended to have placed NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite into low Earth orbit. The payload fairing, which protects the satellite during its ascent through the atmosphere, failed to separate from the rocket, leaving it too heavy to achieve orbit. It reentered over the Antarctic Ocean.
Wednesday’s launch will begin with the ignition of the solid-fuelled Castor 120 first stage at T-0, at which time Hong will begin to climb towards orbit. Eighty five seconds later, the first stage will separate, and the second stage, an Orion-50SXLG, will ignite. The second stage, a modified version of the Orion 50S used on the Pegasus rocket, will also burn for eighty five seconds, before separating. The third stage, an Orion-50XL, will ignite two seconds later for a seventy nine second burn.
One hundred and seventy eight seconds into the flight, the payload fairing will separate. The Taurus can fly with one of two payload fairings depending on the requirements of the spacecraft it is to launch. The small fairing, which will be used for this mission, has a diameter of 1.60 metres. A larger fairing, with a diameter of 2.34 metres, is also available. The payload fairing separation system has been redesigned since the failure of the OCO launch.Following the end of the third stage burn, the rocket will begin a short coast phase, lasting five minutes and forty seven seconds. The third stage will separate during this coast phase, around sixty four seconds after burnout. At the end of the coast phase, the fourth stage will ignite and burn for seventy two seconds, placing Glory into orbit. Once the fourth stage burns out, powered flight will be complete. Glory will separate from the Taurus thirteen minutes and five seconds after launch, followed ten seconds later by the CubeSats.
Hong will launch from Launch Complex 576E (LC-576E) at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The complex was originally built in the early 1960s as a launch site for operational Atlas missiles. It was first used for an Atlas test launch in August 1962. Four Atlas-F launches were made from the pad, the last being in 1964.
Unlike other pads in Complex 576, pad E was not reused for orbital launches or sub-orbital reentry experiments, and did not see any more launches until it was converted for use by Taurus rockets in the 1990s. All eight Taurus launches to date have been made from LC-576E, and in addition the Orbital Boost Vehicle has also launched from the pad.
This is the second launch to be conducted by Orbital Sciences this month, following the launch of the USA-225 satellite on 6 February using a Minotaur I rocket. The next orbital launch scheduled to be conducted by Orbital Sciences is planned for May, when a Minotaur I will launch the ORS-1 satellite. The next Taurus launch is not expected until 2013, when a Taurus-XL will be used to launch a replacement for the OCO satellite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Point
Teilhard's universe is subdivided into matter and love, which are the tangential (rotational) and the radial (centripetal) components of the same spiral flow of fundamental psychic energy:
We shall assume that, essentially, all energy is psychic in nature; but add that in each particular element this fundamental energy is divided into two distinct components: a tangential energy which links the element with all others of the same order (that is to say, of the same complexity and the same centricity) as itself in the universe; and a radial energy which draws it towards even greater complexity and centricity—in other words forwards. <...> Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come to being. This is no metaphor; and it is much more than poetry. Whether as a force or a curvature, the universal gravity of bodies, so striking to us, is merely the reverse or shadow of that which really moves nature. To perceive cosmic energy 'at the fount' we must, if there is a within of things, go down into the internal or radial zone of spiritual attractions. Love in all its subtleties is nothing more, and nothing less, than the more or less direct trace marked on the heart of the element by the psychical convergence of the universe upon itself. —Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de, The Phenomenon of Man
Under the centripetal attraction of cosmic love, the universe's matter undergoes involution (in-formation) from the state of disorganized complexity (uniformly distributed particles of matter) to the state of singularity (pure love-energy, without any particles). Reduced to its ultimate essence, the substance of these long pages can be summed up in this simple affirmation: that if the universe, regarded sidereally, is in process of spatial expansion (from the infinitesimal to the immense), in the same way and still more clearly it presents itself to us, physicochemically, as in process of organic involution upon itself (from the extremely simple to the extremely complex)—and, moreover this particular involution 'of complexity' is experimentally bound up with a correlative increase in interiorisation, that is to say in the psyche or consciousness. —Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de, The Phenomenon of Man
The Omega Point (the Millennium, "the end of the world as we know it") is the period immediately preceding the singularity (the end of the world proper). During the Omega Point, the universe is in the state of organized complexity, being neither uniformly distributed nor completely singular (essentially already singular, formally still complex). For the sake of simplicity, Teilhard visualizes the Omega-universe as a single spiral galaxy,[1] whose nucleus is self-reflective (turned in upon itself) and plays the role of a conscious observer, quantum-mechanically orchestrating the rest of the "galaxy." Currently, the role of the conscious quantum-mechanical observer is played by mankind...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, Gaia theory or Gaia principle is an ecological hypothesis or theory proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeorhesis. Originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis,[1] it was named the Gaia Hypothesis after the Greek primordial goddess of the Earth, at the suggestion of William Golding, Nobel prizewinner in literature and friend and neighbour of Lovelock.[2] The hypothesis is frequently described as viewing the Earth as a single organism.[3]
