bringing out of this world topics to Chapel Hill’s doorstep
Meet the biggest
baddest Mars
Rover yet:
Curiosity in its
most advanced
form.
-Upcoming space
related events in
the Triangle Area
-Carolina Space
Symposium overview
-News from the
global space community
A Publication of UNC SEDS
January 2012, Volume 1, Issue 1
SEDS Spring 2012 Schedule of Events
January
9th-15th: high altitude weather balloon build
18th, 12:00pm in front of Wilson Library: weather balloon launch
18th, 12:00pm: the first edition of the newsletter will be given out at the balloon launch
February
3rd or 4th 9pm: movie showing
23rd, 2-5pm: Biology, Space and North Carolina Symposium put on by the Morehead
Planetarium
25rd: our rocketry competition officially begins
March
3rd, 12:00-3pm: rocketry build day in the quad, open to UNC and the public
17th: actual rocketry competition and flights
31st, 10:30am-7pm: Carolina Space Symposium
31st, 10:30am-7pm: the second edition of the newsletter will be given out at the balloon
launch.
April
12th: Yuri’s Night celebration
14th: camping/stargazing trip to Jordan lake (rain date will be following weekend)
Writers and staff for LaUNCh:
Editor:
Carson Fish
Writers:
Jack Fram
Audrey Horne
Patrick Gray
Charlie Harris
Graphic Design:
Charlie Harris
Title page photo credit: NASA
Final page photo credit: SEDS-USA
UNC Students for the
Exploration and
Development of Space
RED PLANET ROVER
Patrick Gray
Special points of interest:

Calendar of events

Overview of recent happenings in space/
astrophysics

Letter from the President
The red planet has
always been an intriguing one for
our species. It has stood out in
our sky since before recorded
history. In more recent memory
we have imagined it to be a wondrous place we’ve claimed it to
have canals – a sure sign of life –
and once this was disproved we
thought it’s atmosphere showed
signs of industrialization and
once that statement was falsified
we moved on to others such as
rocks with fossilized microbes
and even religious signs on the
planet’s surface. As the other
planets around us seem to have
such little chance of harboring
life we have clung to the hope
that maybe here on this close
neighbor there is or once was that
substance of terrible scarcity in
the universe - life.
On November 26, 2011
we launched our most ambitious
project with the goal of discovering with more certainty than ever
before – does Mars have any
life? The one ton Mini Cooper
sized Curiosity rover launched on
an Atlas V and is scheduled to
land around 9 months from now
on August 15th. The mission has
the goal of operating for at least
one Martian year, around 23
months, and the hope of continuing far past that goal, just as its
predecessors Spirit and Oppor-
tunity surpassed their 90 mission
goals and both operated for over
6 years with Opportunity still
exploring the Martian surface.
As Curiosity speeds through the
350 million miles of its journey
to Mars mission control will be
going over every thinkable circumstance that could come up
once the rover is lowered down
onto the surface by its rocket
powered sky crane.
The exact purpose of
the mission is to determine if
Mars was ever capable of supporting life in its most basic
forms and the rover is able to do
this with a number of incredible
instruments such as a highpowered laser to detect composi-
tion of rocks and sediment, a
robotic arm to collect samples
and a small lab to test them in, a
high def camera to send images
back to earth, and of course 10
pounds of plutonium dioxide to
power the whole show.
This rover is one of the
greatest scientific steps that
NASA has taken in recent years
and as long as the rover survives
the circus act landing that it has
coming in August it will increase
our knowledge of this mysterious
red planet by an enormous
amount.
Photo Credit: NASA
Page 4
UNC Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
THIS AUTUMN IN ASTROPHYSICS...
Jake Fram
As we roll into the
heart of winter let’s look at
what autumn has to offer to the
history of astronomy.
Sagan, however, is
most famous for his
popularization of
astronomy, including
television series and
books that would
inspire astronomers
today.
Edwin Hubble, born
November 20, 1889, is arguably
the most influential astronomer
of the 20th century. Hubble
applied the Doppler effect to his
observations of the universe
and discovered that the universe is expanding. The expansion of the universe is a cosmic
mystery whose implications
baffle physicists to this day.
Hubble was also the first astronomer to prove the existence
of galaxies outside the Milky
Way. Before Hubble published
his galactic discoveries, many
astronomers believed that the
Milky Way was the entire universe. Hubble expanded the
cosmos far beyond our own
galaxy and established a truly
massive scale for the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope,
one of the most innovative astronomical tools in recent history, provided the public some of
the first images of the distant
objects that Hubble discovered,
is aptly named after Edwin
Hubble.
Carl Sagan was born
November 9, 1934. Sagan’s
scientific contributions to astronomy focus on the geology of
moons and planets in the solar
system and how it affected the
potential for extraterrestrial
life. Sagan, however, is most
famous for his popularization of
astronomy, including television
series and books that would
inspire astronomers today. He
is primarily renowned for his
philosophical study and scientific exploration of life in the
cosmos. Sagan designed gold
plates attached to Pioneer
probes 10 and 11 engraved with
images of human beings and a
depiction of Earth’s location in
the Milky Way. Pioneers 10
and 11 had a trajectory that
would take them far from our
solar system; Sagan added the
plates to give the probes a human touch as they reached the
cosmos. Sagan was also an influential member of the Search
for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, which
scans the heavens for radio signals originating from a sentient
broadcaster.
On October 4, 1957,
the U.S.S.R. launched the first
artificial satellite, Sputnik 1;
thirty days later the U.S.S.R.
launched Sputnik 2. Though
neither satellite was advanced
enough to serve any military
function, the thought of the
Soviets reaching space before
the United States struck fear
into a paranoid American public. Though dinosaurs when
compared to modern technology, Sputnik satellites were the
dawn of the space age. The
U.S. and U.S.S.R. competed for
space domination during the
Cold War, launching arguably
the greatest technology boom in
history. Sputnik will always be
humanity’s tiny first step as it
leaped into the cosmos.
The history of astronomy is an intriguing, as it reflects the intimate struggle humans face as they search for
their place in the universe. As
the universe expands, both
through the vastness of space
and in the microcosm of the
human mind, so does its potential. With each small step we
take into the final frontier, we
stumble a little further into the
future. The last century has
witnessed tremendous advances
in both technology and scientific thought and one can only
wonder what the next century
will bring.
Note from the President,
The UNC Chapel Hill chapter of SEDS is relatively new and has grown rapidly in the last 12
months. Since our founding last spring we have grown to over 40 due paying members, hosted
speakers from the triangle area, held astronomy viewing nights at the Morehead Observatory, attended the largest student run space conference in the US at UC Boulder, and worked with the local
space community to hold joint events and network. We have an ambitious schedule for next semester of rocketry, conferences, astronomy, educational outreach, and more; whether you are a student,
a member of the UNC faculty, or a community member we would love to have you be a part of it.
Patrick Gray
UNC SEDS President
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 5
SPACE
VISION 2011: COLORADO
Charlie Harris
From October 27
through the 30th, five members of UNC Students for the
Exploration & Development
of Space visited The University of Colorado at Boulder
for the 2011 SpaceVision
national SEDS conference,
the largest student-run space
conference in the country.
Patrick Gray, Dan Plattenberger, Ignacious Beard, AJ
White & myself represented
UNC at this enlightening
and fun weekend.
The Conference was
hosted at a hotel very close
to Boulder’s campus. The
weekend started off Thursday night with keynote
speaker Bill Nye. Aside
from discovering “The Science Guy” to be truly as
goofy as we all witnessed in
our younger years, we
learned a lot from the nowExecutive Director of the
Planetary Society. He
touched on his views about
humanity’s future, the goals
of the Planetary Society (a
fascinating organization that
I recommend everyone join
& support), his own life and
passion for space, and how
we can realistically become a
space-faring species. Seeing
Bill Nye speak was an incredible experience. The
material he covered was reassuring and cemented my
strong beliefs in the goals of
this organization.
Throughout Friday
& Saturday, we were bombarded with countless workshops, intriguing speakers,
free stuff, and really cool
information. Some of the
features of the conference
included company booths &
information on aerospace,
business, or policy related
internships & jobs. Industry
leaders and engineers from
SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, Lockheed
Martin, and many other organizations such as the National Space Society and the
International Space University were in attendance.
Saturday night
capped off the conference
with an Astronaut Banquet
held in the upper boxes of
UC Boulder’s football stadi-
um. We were treated
to exquisite food and a
speech from Colonel
Steve Lindsay, an astronaut who served
NASA on 5 different
space shuttle missions,
including the final
flight of Space Shuttle
Discovery. The end of
the conference appropriately reflected upon
the past successes of
the Shuttle-era, and
the future of space
travel that is now open
before us.
t was an awesome weekend, and we look forward to attending next year’s conference in
Buffalo, New York. I strongly
encourage each and every one of
you to consider going. I didn’t
really know what to expect from
the conference, but I left with
more exciting information than I
could handle. It is a really great
networking opportunity, tons of
fun, and will surely peak the interests of any SEDS member. In
addition... to all this, hopefully we
will be able to bring SpaceVision
home to Chapel Hill with us for
2013!
“...hopefully we will
be able to bring
SpaceVision home
to Chapel Hill with
us for 2013!”
First Annual Carolina Space Symposium
SEDS is currently planning a space development conference on March 31st 2012. We have confirmed speakers:
NASA astronaut Dr. Story Musgrave, planetary geologist Dr. Mike Malaska, expert on deep space exploration
and interstellar propulsion Paul Glister, space biologist Dr. Chris Brown, astronomers, space start up entrepreneurs and even more in the lineup. The theme of the event will be on the intersection of current astronomy and
physics research with the recent developments in exploration of space, specifically in the private industry. There
will be a few tech demonstrations, including a high-altitude weather balloon launch, a moon rover display and a
free planetarium show. Finally, we will have an astronaut luncheon where the event attendees can meet all of the
speakers. Visit chapters.seds.org/unc/carolina-space-symposium/ for full schedule and more details as well as registration.
We have a number of sponsorships available for the CSS, just contact: [email protected] if you are
interested in advertising and making your company visible at this conference expecting around 400 attendees. This conference is not for profit and we are gladly accepting donations to help organize and
bring premier speakers to Chapel Hill.
Page 6
UNC Students for the Exploration and
Development of Space
March 31st 2012; See previous page for more details
Current Schedule:
9:30 a.m. – reception and registration
11:00 – first keynote address and introduction
11:45 – debate (on why we should go to space over saving money
for terrestrial problems)
12:30 p.m. – break for lunch with quick address and a meal with
speakers
1:45 – planetarium show (free for registered guests)
3:00 – weather balloon launch with live feed and tech demos
3:30 – panels (2-3 options): Titan vs. Mars, commercial vs. NASA,
future of manned missions, life on Mars
4:30 – speakers
5:30 – career fair/grad school info/networking event; coffee included
6:30 – close up speaker
7:00 – final keynote speaker
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 7
Neutrino Shenanigans
Audrey Horne
In September 2011,
the result of various
calculations done by
the Italian particle
physics laboratory-Laboratori Nazionali
del Gran Sasso--left
many humans wondering why the physicists of the world
were temporarily
depressed. LNGS
publically stated that
their research implied
an astonishing observation: neutrinos
moving faster than
the speed of light.
There are a few pieces of
knowledge that are necessary before the average person can understand the gravity of this statement.
According to PBS, neutrinos
are “teeny, tiny, massless
particles that travel at near
lightspeeds.” This may
sound similar to an electron,
but neutrinos do not have a
charge.
In addition, in order to understand the significance of
this alleged outcome, the
concept of the speed of light
must be broached. Basically,
the speed of light is a constant; in a vacuum, light
travels at approximately
300,000 kilometers per second.
According to BBC, “The
idea that nothing can move
faster than the speed of light
is a central tenet in modern
physics, forming among
many other things a critical
part of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity.”
prove the claim
have been published--namely,
Professor Sheldon Glashow
and Andrew
Cohen.
Einstein’s theory of special
relativity uses the constant
“c” to represent the speed of
light. His theory states that
anything with mass would
need an infinite amount of
energy to be able to travel at
the speed of light.
According to
BBC, “Prof
Glashow and
his co-author
Andrew Cohen
argued that
particles moving faster than
light should
emit further
particles as they
travel - in the process losing
energy until they slow down
to light-speed.”
Even massless particles,
such as neutrinos, should not
be able to exceed the speed
of light. The fact that a particle allegedly traveled faster
than the speed of light,
which is seen as a finite upper limit for speed, can now
be seen in perspective: it
would disintegrate several
major foundations of physics.
According to PBS, LNGS
claims that the neutrinos
arrived from CERN, a major
research center in Switzerland, 60 nanoseconds earlier
than the time light would
have arrived.
Following this announcement, a scientific frenzy
commenced with the sole
purpose to refute the claim.
Presently, only theoretical
papers attempting to dis-
However, the neutrinos were
not observed to have lost
energy during the trip from
CERN to LGNS. In a theoretical sense, this paper refutes the observation of a
neutrino traveling faster
than the speed of light, allowing physicists to at least
sleep a couple of hours.
“...a scientific frenzy
commenced with the
sole purpose to
refute the claim.”
Although this paper logically disproves LNGS’ research,
several more similar experiments must be done before
anything is definite. In addition, the flaw of the research
must also be found.
According to PBS, “Other
experiments are being prepared — at Fermilab and at
We have a number of sponsorships available for Carolina Space Symposium, just contact:
[email protected] if you are interested in advertising and making your company visible at this conference expecting around 400 attendees. This conference is not for profit and we are gladly accepting
donations to help organize and bring premier speakers to Chapel Hill.