Space Shuttle Atlantis' last flight to be on May 14

Image via Wikipedia

Space Shuttle Atlantis will have its final space mission on May 14. This was the decision of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) top officials.

Atlantis will be flying to the International Space Station (ISS) to be bring new supplies.

Atlantis together with Discovery and Endeavour space shuttles will retire this year.

For the full story see the news below.

NASA picks May 14 launch for Atlantis' last flight - Yahoo! News

Asteroid 24 Themis as a Space Gas Station?

Image by FlyingSinger via Flickr

The discovery of water compounds on the asteroid 24Themis brought a possibility of having a space gas station for manned space flights. Water can easily be converted to hydrogen fuel through a simple electrolysis or can be purified to be used as drinking water for the astronauts.

Today's space mission carries a lot of supplies from the earth (i.e water) which makes the rocket payload much heavier. Having a water supply on or along the way to the destination will be a big reduction on the weight of the space craft and the power requirement of the rocket that will carry it.

The challenge though lies in the fact that the gravity on 24 Themis is far less than that of the Earth. It will be a real challenge on how extract water from the lonely asteroid.

Read the full story on the link below.
Yahoo News-24 Themis

Planet Venus Visible After Sunset

Image by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr

The brightest star in the night sky today is not actually a star but a planet. Planet Venus, the second planet from the sun is visible in the western sky just after the sun hides in the western horizon. It boast a magnitude of -3.9 that was brighter than any star in the dusk sky. Commonly mistaken as an airplane, the lonely planet can be seen just above the western horizon.

Planet Venus Trivia
- Planet Venus is named after the Roman equivalent of the Greek god love, Aphrodite.
- Galileo's observance of the phases of Venus led him to conclude that the Sun and not the Earth is the center of the Solar System. This was in agreement with the findings of an earlier astronomer, Copernicus.
- Planet Venus and not Mercury is the hottest planet in the Solar System. The cause of Venus' high temperature is the greenhouse effect due to its thick atmosphere of Carbon Dioxide.