Salt Isn't Just for Dishes

I now receive the benefit of being an avid follower of NASA projects - I won a t-shirt and a discount card at a local bookstore through my favorite radio station OK FM. Yesterday, after coming home from office I tuned in to 97.1 and heard of the promo. The DJ asked a question about the red thing that flew over Mayon Volcano last Sunday. Immediately I thought it was Atlantis. Though my second thought was that it was NoKor's nuke... hehehe... Alright, you might say I am again talking bad words here, but to those who can relate, STS-125 just finished its mission and Atlantis is now back here on Earth. STS-125's mission was to repair the aging Hubble Telescope. It launched some days after Expedition 19 of Kazakstan and the second shuttle to leave Earth this year after Discovery for STS-119. I am sorry though for the DJ cause I wrongfully answered him when he asked me is Challenger was the one that exploded in 1995. I think it was even during the time of Reagan. And I mumbled Discovery instead of saying Columbia when he asked what's the other shuttle that blasted after take off. My bad.

Artist Sketch of Aquarius, photo courtesy of NASA.

When I visited NASA's website again, I found out another thing about our planet. Many of us are aware of the present situation of Mother Earth with world wide movements on Global Warming. Studies are spearheaded on how to improve the condition of the planet and every government and even the UN is doing their part to lessen the impact of the global warming. Organizations are united in saying that the present global warming is caused by men and that a reversal of what we have done to the planet for over a millenium is the best remedy. But NASA scientists found out that aside from the Ozone layer, carbon emissions, and other warming factors, the salinity of the oceans and seas may contribute to the present environmental crisis. They theorized that salinity affects the density of the sea water thereby affecting its movement (curren) thus affecting the atmospheric condition. (SEE Meteorology)

In order for NASA to monitor the salinity of sea water which is said to have increased gradually overtime, they need to launch an unmanned satellite orbiter equipped with radio recievers and other high-end equipment. They coined the orbiter Aquarius, a SAC-D spacecraft.

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