Sunken Treasures of the Nile

Today on Discovery Enterprise we explore the archaeological treasure trove that can be found laying at the bottom of the Nile river originating from Ancient Egypt’s Pharaonic period.

Of all the archaeological sites in Egypt that may still yield ancient treasure, perhaps the richest is the Nile River.


This was an era when enormous boats navigated the river's perilous waters loaded with monumental items, such as the obelisks and riches for the pharaoh's royal temples.

Sunken Ruins of Cleopatra's Palace

Copyright National Geographic Society

Cleopatra's palace sank long ago into the Mediterranean sea, but in the not to distant future visitors to Alexandria, Egypt, may eventually view the remnants of the palace via the world's first underwater museum. In a few years, you may be able to see Alexandria the way it once was deep beneath the sea. The areas of classical Alexandria that contained the ancient world's biggest library along with Cleopatra's palace have sunk beneath the waves, but now it looks as if the United Nations may step in and help Egypt show off these structures in a unique underwater museum.



If built, the museum could display treasures and monuments of her palace, which once stood on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world before it was submerged by earthquake in the fourth century A.D.

Copyright National Geographic Society

Until then we present for your viewing pleasure the following National Geographic documentary “Sunken Ruins of Cleopatra's Palace”.  

The Star Wars Legacy

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present a documentary that will interest all fans of the Star Wars saga - “Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed”.

The Science of Star Trek

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present “The Science of Star Trek”.

The Science of Star Trek is an episode of the PBS series "The New Explorers", hosted by Bill Kurtis, which aired on January 18, 1995.

Heron of Alexandria

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present another exciting episode of the History Channel’s acclaimed documentary series “Ancient Discoveries” which focuses on one of the greatest engineers, inventors and Roboticists of antiquity – Heron of Alexandria.

Heron of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was lived and worked in his native city of Alexandria. He is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.

Heron published a well recognized description of a steam-powered device called an aeolipile (hence sometimes called a "Heron engine"). Among his most famous inventions was a wind wheel (or windmill), constituting the earliest instance of harnessing of wind energy. Heron was also a pioneer in early robotics and automation.

Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Tesibius (the inventor of the first mechanical clock).

The Elegant Universe - Strings the Thing

Today on Discovery Enterprise we are going to continue our voyage with host Brian Greene, in search of Superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the ultimate theory of everything with the second exciting episode of the “The Elegant Universe”.

In this second hour long instalment of the “The Elegant Universe” entitled “Strings the Thing” Brian Greene opens this episode with a whimsical scene in a movie theatre in which the history of the universe runs backwards to the Big Bang, the moment at which general relativity and quantum mechanics both came into play, and therefore the point at which our conventional model of reality breaks down.

Mysteries of Deep Space - To the Edge of Time

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present the debut of a new documentary series entitled "Mysteries of Deep Space" with episode one: "To the Edge of Time". This PBS series dates from 1997.

"Today, astronomers have opened a stunning new window on the universe. As we peer ever deeper into space, we travel farther back in time".

The science of astronomy is being transformed by a new age of technological advances. On mountaintops around the world, scientists are opening ever larger telescopes, capturing light from ever more distant reaches of the universe. That light may have travelled millions, even billions, of years to reach us. By the time it does, it offers a window into the distant past.

Galen, Ancient Medical Pioneer

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present another exciting episode of the History Channel’s acclaimed documentary series “Ancient Discoveries” which focuses on a medical pioneer of classical antiquity Galen of Pergamon (modern-day Bergama, Turkey).

This episode of “Ancient Discoveries” discusses ancient medical devices and procedures, and profiles the Greek physician Galen, who practiced eye and brain surgery two thousand years ahead of his time.

Krakatoa

Today on Discovery Enterprise we explore the forces which shaped our planet with the highly praised History Channel documentary series “How the Earth Was Made”. In the third episode of this series examine the unique geological conditions that make Krakatoa and it's successor, Anak Krakatau, extraordinarily explosive and dangerous.

The Elegant Universe - Einstein’s Dream

Today on Discovery Enterprise we are going to embark on a quest in search of Superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the ultimate theory that explains the entire Cosmos from the behaviour of quarks to the formation and motion of galaxies.

In the first episode of “The Elegant Universe - Einstein’s Dream” host Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Cornell and Columbia universities, makes the terribly complex theory of strings accessible to all. He possesses a remarkable gift for using the everyday to illustrate what may be going on in dimensions beyond our feeble human perception.

Infinite Secrets: The Archimedes Palimpsest

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present the PBS NOVA documentary "Infinite Secrets", which follows the story of a battered Archimedes manuscript that turned up after a thousand years, revealing the genius of this Greek mathematician from antiquity.

Ancient Computer?

Today on Discovery Enterprise we will examine a mysterious device that still baffles many of today’s experts – the Antikythera mechanism.

Moon Mysteries

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present another exciting episode from the acclaimed documentary series Naked Science which explorers the Moon in all its magic and mystery.

The moon's effect on Earth has been considerable. Its gravitational pull may have made life on our planet possible. In more modern times, some think it affects our behaviour. Still others think it causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Is the moon powerful enough to trigger natural disasters? Can the moon influence human behaviour? NGC puts a tightly-focused lens on the mysteries of the moon.

The Search for Habitable Worlds

Today on Discovery Enterprise we go in search for habitable planets within our galaxy.







Thus far, in this great age of planet hunting, we have yet to find anything like our solar system with rocky inner worlds in neat circular orbits, and evenly spaced Jovian gas giants on the periphery. Instead, astronomers have glimpsed a diverse planetary menagerie, with giant planets in wide orbits around their parent stars, others that swing in so close they leave a comet-like tail, or molten rocky worlds emblazoned with oceans of lava.

To Mars by Dragons Update

Image via Wikipedia

Robert Zubrin's ultralight Mars Mission proposal has generated some controversy. Over at NASASpacefight website people have been dissecting the proposal. The main problems have to do with the Dragon's modest volume and issues regarding microgravity and radiation. Dr Zubrin has posted his answers to these concern. I'm pleased to see that he agrees with me that the Dragons trunk area can take a pressurised module that would alivate the living space issue. . Below Zubrin answers is critics.:

Friends;
I apologize for not being able to include all the details of the proposed mission plan in my WSJ op ed, which had a 1000 word limit.

In answer to some of the objections raised in this forum, you may note the following:

1. There is no need for zero gravity exposure. Artificial gravity can be provided to the crew by tethering the Dragon off the TMI stage, in the same way as is recommended in the baseline Mars Direct plan.

2. Cosmic ray radiation exposure for the crew is precisely THE SAME as that which would be received by those on any other credible Mars mission, all of which would use the 6 month Conjunction class trajectory to Mars, both because that is the point of diminishing returns (the "knee of the curve") where delta-V trades off against trip time, and because it is uniquely the trajectory that provides a 2-year free return orbit after launch from Earth. Assuming the baseline mission, the total cosmic ray dose would be no greater than that already received by a half dozen cosmonauts and astronauts who participated in long duration missions on Mir or ISS, with no radiation induced health effects having been reported. (Cosmic ray dose rates on ISS are 50% those of interplanetary space. The Earth's magnetic field does not shield effectively against cosmic rays. In fact, with a crew of 6, the current planned ISS program will inflict the equivalent of 30 man-years of interplanetary travel GCR doses on its crews over the next decade. This is an order of magnitude more than that which will be received by the crew of the mission proposed here. ) There are enough consumables on board to provide shielding against solar flares.

3. The preferred method of Mars capture is aerocapture, rather than direct entry. This means that the Dragon aeroshield, which has some lifting capability, may well be adequate. To see this with a back of the envelope calculation, consider a loaded Dragon system with an entry mass of 17000 kg, an effective shield diameter of 4 meters, a drag coeffecient of 1, coming in with an entry velocity of 6 km/s at an altitude of 33 km, where the Mars atmospheric density is 0.8 gm/m3. Setting drag equal to mass times deceleration, you can see that the system would decelerate at a speed of 42 m/s2, or a little over 4 gs. It could thus perform a 1 km/s deceleration in about 25 seconds, during which time it would travel about 140 km. This deceleration is sufficient to capture the spacecraft from an interplanetary trajectory into a loosely bound highly elliptical orbit around Mars. If the perigee is not raised, the craft will reenter again, and again, progressively lowering the apogee of its orbit, until either a desired apogee for orbital operations is achieved or the craft is committed to entry for purposes of landing. That said, if a larger aerobrake were desired, this could be created by adding either a flex-fabric or inflatable skirt to the Dragon core shield.

4. The habitable volume is admittedly lower than optimal. However it should be noted that with 5 cubic meters per crew member, it is 2.5 times higher than the 2 cubic meters per crew member possessed by Apollo crews. It could be expanded in space by the use of inflatable add-on modules. Extra space could be provided on the ground by using a 4th launch to preland another Dragon loaded with supplies, including one or more inflatable modules which could be set up by the crew after they land.

5. The mission architecture is much safer than any based on complex mega systems requiring orbital assembly, since the quality control of orbital assembly does not compare with that which can be accomplished on the ground. It would be better to have a crew of 4, but if we are to do it with Falcon 9 heavy's, a crew of 2 is all we can do, and while it lacks a degree of redundancy otherwise desirable, it offers the counter benefit of putting the fewest number of people at risk on the first mission. It's quite true that not flying anywhere at all would be safer, but if you want to get to Mars, you have to go to Mars.



Re: Zubrin's Falcon Heavy Mars Mission
« Reply #79 on: 05/15/2011 11:55 PM » Reply with quote

Friends;
Here are further answers relating to concerns that have been advanced.

1. Habitable volume.
As noted, if the Dragon capsule alone is used, this provides 5 m3 living volume per crew member, which compares to 2 m3 per crew on an Apollo capsule, 9 m3 per crew member on the Space Shuttle, or 8 m3 per crew member on a German U-Boat (Type VII, the fleet workhorse) during WWII. This would be uncomfortable, but ultimately, workable by a truly dedicated crew. However these limits can be transcended. The Dragon has a 14m3 cargo area hold below the aeroshield. Into this we could pack an inflatable hab module, in deflated form, but which if inflated, could be as much as 8 m in diameter and perhaps 10 m long, thereby providing 3 decks, with added volume of 502 m3 and a total floor space equal to 1.5 times as much as that in the Mars Society's MDRS or FMARS stations, which have proved adequate in size for crews of 6. After Trans Mars injection, the Dragon would pull away from the cargo section and turn around, then return to mate its docking hatch with one in the inflatable. It would then pull the inflatable out of the cargo hold, much as the Apollo command module pulled out the LEM. The inflatable could then be inflated. The other end of the inflatable would be attached to the tether, which is connected to the TMI stage, for use in creating artificial gravity.
Upon reaching Mars the inflatable could either be expended, along with the tether system and TMI stage, prior to aerocapture. Alternatively, and optimally, the tether and TMI stage alone would be expended, but the inflatable deflated and retained for redeployment as a ground hab after landing.

2. EDL
Using just its aeroshield for deceleration, the Dragon would have a terminal velocity of around 340 m/s on Mars at low altitude (air density 16 gm/m3). So we could either give it a rocket delta-V capability of 600 m/s (a 20% mass hit assuming storable or RP/O2 propulsion, Isp~330 s) to land all propulsive, or we could use a drogue to slow it down (a 20 m diameter chute would slow it to ~70 m/s) and then employ a much smaller rocket delta-V for landing.


Heres the original article as published in the WSJ

*************
By Robert Zubrin, Wall Street Journal, 05.14.11

SpaceX, a private firm that develops rockets and spacecraft, recently announced it will field a heavy lift rocket within two years that can deliver more than twice the payload of any booster now flying. This poses a thrilling question: Can we reach Mars in this decade?

It may seem incredible—since conventional presentations of human Mars exploration missions are filled with depictions of gigantic, futuristic, nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceships whose operations are supported by a virtual parallel universe of orbital infrastructure. There’s nothing like that on the horizon. But I believe we could reach Mars with the tools we have today, or will have in short order. Here's how it could be done:



The SpaceX’s Falcon-9 Heavy rocket will have a launch capacity of 53 metric tons to low Earth orbit. This means that if a conventional hydrogen-oxygen chemical rocket upper stage were added, it would have the capability of sending 17.5 tons on a trajectory to Mars, placing 14 tons in Mars orbit, or landing 11 tons on the Martian surface.

The company has also developed and is in the process of demonstrating a crew capsule, known as the Dragon, which has a mass of about eight tons. While its current intended mission is to ferry up to seven astronauts to the International Space Station, the Dragon’s heat shield system is capable of withstanding re-entry from interplanetary trajectories, not just from Earth orbit. It’s rather small for an interplanetary spaceship, but it is designed for multiyear life, and it should be spacious enough for a crew of two astronauts who have the right stuff.

Thus a Mars mission could be accomplished utilizing three Falcon-9 Heavy launches. One would deliver to Mars orbit an unmanned Dragon capsule with a kerosene/oxygen chemical rocket stage of sufficient power to drive it back to Earth. This is the Earth Return Vehicle.

A second launch will deliver to the Martian surface an 11-ton payload consisting of a two-ton Mars Ascent Vehicle employing a single methane/oxygen rocket propulsion stage, a small automated chemical reactor system, three tons of surface exploration gear, and a 10-kilowatt power supply, which could be either nuclear or solar.

The Mars Ascent Vehicle would carry 2.6 tons of methane in its propellant tanks, but not the nine tons of liquid oxygen required to burn it. Instead, the oxygen could be made over a 500-day period by using the chemical reactor to break down the carbon dioxide that composes 95% of the Martian atmosphere.

Using technology to generate oxygen rather than transporting it saves a great deal of mass. It also provides copious power and unlimited oxygen to the crew once they arrive.

Once these elements are in place, the third launch would occur, which would send a Dragon capsule with a crew of two astronauts on a direct trajectory to Mars. The capsule would carry 2500 kilograms of consumables—sufficient, if water and oxygen recycling systems are employed, to support the two-person crew for up to three years. Given the available payload capacity, a light ground vehicle and several hundred kilograms of science instruments could be taken along as well.

The crew would reach Mars in six months and land their Dragon capsule near the Mars Ascent Vehicle. They would spend the next year and a half exploring.

Using their ground vehicle for mobility and the Dragon as their home and laboratory, they could search the Martian surface for fossil evidence of past life that may have existed in the past when the Red Planet featured standing bodies of liquid water. They also could set up drilling rigs to bring up samples of subsurface water, within which native microbial life may yet persist to this day. If they find either, it will prove that life is not unique to the Earth, answering a question that thinking men and women have wondered upon for millennia.

At the end of their 18-month surface stay, the crew would transfer to the Mars Ascent Vehicle, take off, and rendezvous with the Earth Return Vehicle in orbit. This craft would then take them on a six-month flight back to Earth, whereupon it would enter the atmosphere and splash down to an ocean landing.

There is nothing in this plan that is beyond our current level of technology. Nor would the costs be excessive. Falcon-9 Heavy launches are priced at about $100 million each, and Dragons are even cheaper. Adopting such an approach, we could send expeditions to Mars at half the mission cost currently required to launch a Space Shuttle flight.

What is required, however, is a different attitude towards risk than currently pervades the space policy bureaucracy. There is no question that the plan proposed here involves considerable risk. So does any plan that actually involves sending humans to Mars, rather than talking about it indefinitely. True, there are a variety of precursor missions, technology developments, and testing programs that might be recommended as ways of reducing risk. There are an infinite number of such potential missions and programs. If we try to do even a significant fraction of them before committing to the mission we will never get to Mars.

But is it responsible to forgo any expenditure that might reduce somewhat the risk to the crew? I believe so. The purpose of the space program is to explore space, and its expenditures come at the cost of other national priorities. If we want to reduce risk to human life, there are vastly more effective ways of doing so than by spending $10 billion per year for the next two or three decades on a human spaceflight program mired for study purposes in low Earth orbit. We could spend the money on childhood vaccinations, fire escape inspections, highway repairs, better body armor for the troops—take your pick. For NASA managers to demand that the mission be delayed for decades while several hundred billion dollars is spent to marginally reduce the risk to a handful of volunteers, when the same funds spent elsewhere could save the lives of tens of thousands, is narcissistic in the extreme.

The Falcon 9 Heavy is scheduled for its first flight in 2013. All of the other hardware elements described in this plan could be made ready for flight within the next few years as well. NASA’s astronauts have gone nowhere new since 1972, but these four decades of wasteful stagnation need not continue endlessly. If President Obama were to act decisively, and bravely embrace this plan, we could have our first team of human explorers on the Red Planet by 2016.

The American people want and deserve a space program that is really going somewhere. It’s time they got one. Fortune Favors the Bold. Mr. President, seize the day.

Dr. Zubrin is president of Pioneer Astronautics and of the Mars Society (www.marssociety.org). An updated edition of his book, “The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must,” will be published by The Free Press this June.

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Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present the story of the “Many Worlds” interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and the physicist who developed it - Hugh Everett III as told by his rock star son Mark Everett and of Hugh’s close associates and colleagues.


“Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives” tells the poignant story of a rock star in search of his father. Mark Oliver Everett, better known as E, is the lead singer of cult US band the Eels. What most of his fans don’t know is that Mark’s father, Hugh Everett III, was one of America’s top quantum physicists.

Secrets of the Tang Treasure Ship

Today on Discovery Enterprise we take a foray into maritime archaeology and go in search of a fabulous lost treasure fleet.

Historians have long speculated that thousands of wooden ships plied a Maritime Silk Route from the Middle East to China, braving long distances on white-capped seas, but time and the deep ocean have destroyed any evidence . . . until now. In 1998 German engineer Tilman Walterfang found a shipwreck from the Ninth Century blanketed by intact gold, silver and ceramic items. As we uncover clues and reveal the story of the wreck, re-enactments transport us back in time to an age of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor, when vicious seas ravaged wooden boats like matchsticks.

Ancient Discoveries - Chinese Super Ships

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present another exciting episode of the History Channel’s acclaimed documentary series “Ancient Discoveries” where we will meet the master shipbuilders of Imperial China.


These master shipbuilders of the Far East created the most deadly warships of ancient times in their quest for supremacy of the seas.

This instalment of Ancient Discoveries we uncovers the extraordinary ingenuity of the ancient engineers whose innovations would take shipbuilding to new heights and create some of the largest and most fearsome navies of the ancient world. Could this very same ancient Chinese naval technology have transformed China into a nascent naval power with the ability to discover and colonize this new world some seventy years before Christopher Columbus set sail into the unknown and discovered America?

To Mars by Dragons

Robert Zubrin has been looking at how SpaceX's hardware can be used to mount a human Mars mission. He believes a two person crew could be sent using Falcon 9 Heavies and a Dragon capsule. Now a Dragon has only 10 cubic meter volume so it would be rather cosy but a deep space version using the trunk for extra space should be possible.

The real problems are going to be the microgravity and the radiation. Unless those issues are addressed Mars expeditions are not going to happen.

By ROBERT ZUBRIN

SpaceX, a private firm that develops rockets and spacecraft, recently announced it will field a heavy lift rocket within two years that can deliver more than twice the payload of any booster now flying. This poses a thrilling question: Can we reach Mars in this decade?

It may seem incredible—since conventional presentations of human Mars exploration missions are filled with depictions of gigantic, futuristic, nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceships whose operations are supported by a virtual parallel universe of orbital infrastructure. There's nothing like that on the horizon. But I believe we could reach Mars with the tools we have or soon will. Here's how:

Oceans- The Mediterranean Sea

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present the seventh instalment of the highly acclaimed BBC documentary series "Oceans”. In this episode we join explorer Paul Rose, Philippe Cousteau Jr, Dr Lucy Blue and Tooni Mahto in exploring the Mediterranean Sea.

The sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea are home to over seven hundred varieties of fish and almost 10 per cent of the world's marine species. Its coastline is one of the most densely populated in the world and the human pressure on this sea is magnified each summer with the influx of holiday makers. Western civilization developed around these shores but now human activity is having a profound effect on this endangered sea.

The Exploration of the Asteroid Belt Nears

First launched in 2007, the Dawn spacecraft  will orbit the large asteroid Vesta on 16 July.  NASA has released the first picture. After exploring Vesta it will move over to the largest asteroid Ceres. 

The image from Dawn's framing cameras was taken on May 3 when the spacecraft began its approach and was approximately 752,000 miles (1.21 million km) from Vesta. The asteroid appears as a small, bright pearl against a background of stars. Vesta also is known as a protoplanet, because it is a large body that almost formed into a planet.

"After plying the seas of space for more than a billion miles, the Dawn team finally spotted its target," said Carol Raymond, Dawn's deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "This first image hints of detailed portraits to come from Dawn's upcoming visit."

Vesta is 330 miles (530 km) in diameter and the second most massive object in the asteroid belt. Ground- and space-based telescopes obtained images of the bright orb for about two centuries, but with little surface detail.  ...

The Machines of the Gods

Today on Discovery Enterprise we are proud to present another episode from the History Channel’s acclaimed documentary series “Ancient Discoveries” entitled “Machines of the Gods”.

This instalment of Ancient Discoveries will take an in depth look at the temple machines used to bedazzle worshipers in the ancient temples of Greece and Egypt.

Frankenstein: The True Story

The story of “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley or as it is known by its alternative title “The Modern Prometheus”, has trilled, frightened and chilled us in equal measure since it was first published in anonymously in London in 1818.



Here is the fascinating story behind the genesis of this novel:

IMAX Deep Sea 3 D

While surfing the vast video collection offered on Google video I came across this wonderful IMAX documentary entitled “Deep Sea” narrated by veteran actors Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. An undersea world full of breathtaking wonders awaits you in this magnificently made film chronicle of our world’s most fragile biome.

The balance of the earth's ecosystems is continually changing and nowhere is this more apparent than in fascinating world beneath the sea and this forty one minute film features breathtaking underwater photography from the coral reefs to the cold waters of British Columbia which focuses on the underwater inhabitants of this undersea world, their symbiotic relationships, and the ever-shifting balance between predator and prey.

David Attenborough's First life - Arrival

Today on Discovery Enterprise we join Dr. David Attenborough in search of the origin of life with his acclaimed documentary series “First Life” and follow the three and half billion year saga of life on Earth.


In fifty years of broadcasting, David Attenborough has travelled the globe to document the living world in all its wonder. Now, in this landmark series, he completes his journey by going back in time to the very roots of the tree of life, in search of the very first animals.

Cosmic Collisions – Galactic Collisions

Today on Discovery Enterprise we explore the violent cosmic collisions that have shaped the evolution of our universe with “Cosmic Collisions – Galactic Collisions”.

Everything and Nothing

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present a two-part BBC documentary entitled “Everything and Nothing” which essentially deals with two of the deepest and perplexing questions confronting science today – what is everything, and what is nothing?

In these two epic, surreal and mind-expanding episodes, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness. The first part, “Everything”, we set out with Professor Al-Khalili to discover what the universe might actually look like. The journey takes him from the distant past to the boundaries of the known universe.

From the Earth to the Moon - "Can We Do This?"

Today on Discovery Enterprise we present the first episode of the acclaimed twelve-part HBO television miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon- Can we do this?”


“From the Earth to the Moon” is a twelve-part HBO television miniseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick detailing the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin's book, A Man on the Moon, the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and outstanding special effects.