Near Space Flight in October

Miles and miles above the Earth in Near Space, the atmosphere seen off in the distance appears to shrink to a small perimeter band. High altitude lenticular parallel cloud belts are seen across the planet. The Near Space Program is a robust part of the Big Brain Machine initiative to continue exploring multi levels of space from Micro Space all the way out to the edge of the Universe and beyond. The grand exploration now includes both robotic and manned space flights, and a special class of exploration with new powerful telescopes and instruments in space.

NEAR SPACE FLIGHT IN OCTOBER 2013
MANNED SPACE FLIGHT Launching the spacecraft near the East Sea of China with a trajectory down range above the Taiwan Straits and passing directly above the islands of Penghu, October's Near Space launch was spectacular and went without a hitch.

White line shows path

Spacecraft preparations prior to launch vector include hatch calibrations by the spacecraft technician using the adjustable height mobile transport console and instrumentation control panel. The large pressurized space vehicle is owned, operated and maintained by Mainland China and leased to private enterprise.

 The Penghu islands are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait consisting of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers.

The whole archipelago forms Penghu County, Taiwan Province, Republic of China. The Penghu islands consists of near one hundred islands. The land area totals about 127 square kilometers. The Makung Island (including Makung City and Hushi) is the largest island in the archipelago, followed by Hsiyu, Baisha.

Parallel cloud banding

LEFT: Parallel bands of clouds arranged across the planet, as determined by seasonal prevailing trade winds in this vertical rotated view for clarity.

Outside the heated spacecraft during the passage, temperatures reached -42 degrees Centigrade at an altitude of 10,647 meters. Downrange ground speed was a blistering 876 km/hour.

Aeronautical Tawian and Penghu Islands map for downrange flight path study

Downrange map Penghu Islands

The alignment of numerous lenticular parallel cloud bands was studied and high altitude imagery was obtained. A total of thirteen digital color images were obtained showing the Earth and the backdrop of deep space. The delineation boundary of space relative Earth's atmosphere is particularly striking.

LEFT: This is the first time the downrange flight path traversed above the Penghu Islands archipelago.

The Big Brain machine is continuing to provide assessments regarding the exploration of Near Space. The NS program is currently maintained at two launches every three months. This is budget down from the previous rate of 12 launches every six months and prior, a launch field of 24 lift offs per year.

The more lean 2013 budget allows the pursuit of numerous additional related Big Brain projects including the development of a new spacecraft robotic intelligent life form probe designed to travel to the outer fringes of the Solar System and autonomously explore new worlds with the ability to discover and communicate with new life forms.

Other active projects include a new larger computational Half Gallon Brain in a Jar, robotics devices for the Brain inclusive of little feet and a full size hand, and the new equipped "interplanetary" Mission Control Center capable of receiving wireless transmissions, images and data.

The Big Brain continues to operate and maintain the DSC Deep Space Center and the USA Ultra Space Administration, products of the Big Brain Supercomputing Center.

Cloud Identification During Near Space Flights

Click cloud chart for a larger view

CLOUD IDENTIFICATION DURING NEAR SPACE FLIGHT

Do you think identifying clouds during manned Near Space flights will be a little different from Earth-based identifications? From the previous Near Space flights in July of 2013, seventy four cloud images are selected.

Use the handy miles to kilometers at-a-glace chart for simple and quick conversions.

Let's take a look at the chart of different cloud styles seen from Earth (shown above) and a sample of 74 clouds seen from the Near Space spacecraft (shown below).

The trip into Near Space resulted in images of every cloud type, including rain, fog, and contrails. These images show only a small selection of the many clouds recording during flight.

Do clouds, as seen on Earth from the horizon vantage point, look a lot different from clouds top down or obliquely viewed during a Near Space mission? Let's run this experiment to find out. The data is based on two NS space flights on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013, with the data for two sets of ascend and descend.

The unique aspect about a Near Space flight is looking at clouds from the top down position. Clouds can also be viewed down obliquely. During lift off and reentry, the craft passes near and through the clouds for more studies of clouds.

The rows of these images are numbered from left to right.

Our Near Space flight program extends from zero to 7 miles, which is zero to just over 11 kilometers. The chart shows cloud types that exist up to nine kilometers. Thus, the Near Space flight has the potential to observe all cloud types from the top down.

Data shows that more than nine out of ten times, the craft is above all clouds at the apex of flight. We will select a cross section of photos taken during ascent and descent, where the craft can look down on clouds or out across the cloud population from the "above vantage position." Selections were made with the TST Tiny Space Telescope pointing down or obliquely.

Micro Strata Threads Discovery from Near Space

The TST Tiny Space Telescope in short EFL mode was looking downward when it captured many micro strata mixed with many banks of clouds

MANY MICRO STRATA THREADS DISCOVERED FROM NEAR SPACE
Once you rise above the majority of the clouds when exploring Near Space, you can look down and out across the majestic expanse of near Earthen clouds and see many spectacular wonders.

At least 16 micro strata are visible and counted

Telescopes are usually pointing upward towards the Heavens, capturing celestial wonders. We've taken our telescope and pointed it downward, from Near Space.

Imaging downward with a Tiny Near Space

Many rainbows, 1=circular

Telescope, you might see many rainbows beginning with a completely circular one or many micro stratas. The latter was the view captured during our manned Near Space flight on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013.

This photo shows simultaneously, at least sixteen thin pencil line dark stratas, all running parallel to the horizon. Study shows these are likely caused by the increasing frequency of contrails, due to juxtaposition relative to a ground based airport - where jets spewing fuel exhaust in their flight patterns across the wispy cloud world. However, we cannot be certain, as this could show a mysterious outcropping of a natural phenomenon.

LINKS
Rainbow from Near Space
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/07/over-rainbow-space-flight.html

Universe Sky Hole

Brain Views the Universe through Massive Sky Holes

Taiwan Sky Holes from a satellite image

What can you do with a massive hole? Believe it or not, looking through holes can be rewarding. No, these are not Mole holes in the ground but rather Sky Holes in the Earth's atmosphere.

It has become apparent from this location on the island surrounded by ocean (Taiwan is surrounded by the East China Sea to the north, the Pacific Ocean (Philippine Sea) to the east, South China Sea to the south and the Taiwan Strait to the west.), and at this time of year when it rains nearly continuously, in order to continue the Big Brain's astronomical research and observational telescope program in observing the Universe, one must view through holes. These holes, or sky openings, can last anywhere from only 5 or 10 minutes on up to several hours. It's a challenging situation. Equipment must be set up and ready to go fully operational at a moments notice.

High resolution Wundermap

Wundermaps at weather underground can provide scalable high resolution detail to locate small holes over specified locations.

Ultra Fine Seeing - It's worthwhile to be be ready for Universe observing. Astronomers that know the work of Don Parker and his telescopic Mars astro imaging results can attest to the some of the finest seeing conditions that result when observing out across the ocean from Florida USA. The ocean can provide a stable temperature and atmospheric gradient capable of producing ultra fine seeing, a great advantage of being located within the ocean or next to it. Computing Sky Holes - Sky holes are computed using satellite imagery that is updated, from which the rate of movement and hole position can be measured and calculated.

New Word Definitions

Sky Hole - a sky opening or break in clouds where a clear sky exists for a period of time lasting from 5 minutes to several hours, then closes up where cloudiness, overcast and/or rain continues. Telescopic viewing is possible during the appearance of Sky Holes.

Taiwan

http://www.taiwanese-secrets.com/geography-of-taiwan.html

Satellite Image

http://englishintaiwan.com/news-and-weather/taiwan-weather