Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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August 28th, 2023
Image credit: ISRO
India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander/rover continues to successfully operate.
Image credit: ISRO
According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), on August 27 the mission’s rover came across a 13-feet (4-meter) diameter crater positioned roughly 10-feet (3 meters) ahead of its location.
Image credit: ISRO
The Rover was commanded to retrace the path and it’s now safely heading on a new path, ISRO reports.
Newly posted imagery also shows the Chandrayaan-3’s position on the Moon, taken by the Moon-circling Chandrayaan-2 orbiter’s camera system.
Image credit: ISRO
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Image credit: JAXA
Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is set for liftoff, co-riding with the country’s X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) – a new X-ray astronomical satellite carrying new generation of X-ray imaging spectroscopy technologies to resolve mysteries regarding the formation of the universe.
An H-IIA launch vehicle carrying the payloads will depart the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Center.
The launch is slated for Sunday, August 27, 8:26 pm Eastern Time (9:26:22 a.m. Japan Standard Time (JST); 0:26:22 a.m. (UTC) on August 28, 2023).
Image credit: JAXA/ISAS
Landing objective
SLIM is to arrive in lunar orbit three to four months after launch, circuit the Moon for a month, then attempt a landing four to six months after launch.
The landing objective is to be within roughly 330 feet (100 meters) of the target point, the ejecta blanket of Shioli crater.
Image credit: NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/GSFC/ASU
Image credit: NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/GSFC/ASU
The feature is a small lunar impact crater located within the much larger Cyrillus crater on the near side of the Moon. It is a young crater with a prominent ray system.
The SLIM project aims to demonstrate pinpoint landing and obstacle detection techniques for touching down on the Moon.
Image processing
SLIM researchers are eager to convert conventional exploration of “descending where it is easy to land’” to “descending where you want to land.”
Image credit: JAXA/SLIM Project
The SLIM project is led by members of the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), and researchers from universities and other institutions across the country are working together to advance examination and development.
After reaching the sky above the landing site, the SLIM is to descend almost vertically while detecting the altitude with a landing radar. During this vertical descent phase, obstacle detection is performed at less than 985 feet (300 meters) above the lunar terrain.
SLIM is designed to process images captured by pointing a camera toward the lunar surface, recognizes craters, and compares them with the map of the lunar surface pre-loaded in memory to accurately measure its own position. SLIM engineers have developed a dedicated image processing algorithm with high computational efficiency to achieve both accuracy and processing time.
palm-sized Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2.
Image credit: JAXA/ISAS
Sloping area
For showcasing landing technologies, the SLIM team has selected a target site neighboring the Shioli crater near the “Sea of Nectar.” The area has a relatively constant slope of 15 degrees or less, according to a SLIM press kit. “Therefore, the method of landing safely on such a slope becomes important.”
Landing on such sloping area will be increasingly required in the future.
Image credit: Takara Tomy/JAXA/ISAS
In the case of SLIM, the main landing gear first touches the ground and then rotates forward to stabilize. This technique has shown excellent reliable landing results through simulation, the press kits states.
Image credit: Takara Tomy
Transformer
SLIM is to deploy a palm-sized Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) jointly developed with toy manufacturer, Takara Tomy, along with the Sony Group Corporation and Doshisha University.
The ball-shaped vehicle — SORA-Q — is equipped with two cameras and can transform its shape to traverse the lunar surface.
The wheels that move freely left and right can run in two types of running modes, “butterfly running” and “crawling running” because the rotating shaft is eccentric, according to the Takara Tomy company.
The popular toy manufacturer is scheduled to release SORA-Q for public purchase in early September 2023. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: 27,500 yen (tax included).
Go to this Takara Tomy video at: https://youtu.be/PupLqwt4d2o
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3928. Distance driven to date: 19.09 miles/30.72 kilometers.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now at the end of performing Sol 3929 duties.
Following a drive at Gediz Vallis ridge of roughly 6.5 feet (2 meters), the robot has been transmitting new imagery from its surroundings, including these photos:
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3929, August 26, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 3928, August 25, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image captured on Sol 3929, August 26, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image credit: Roscosmos
Working meetings are underway at NPO Lavochkin to begin sorting out issues that led to the August 19 crash of Russia’s Luna-25 Moon lander.
The Lavochkin group led the development, design, building and testing of the Luna-25.
Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, met with the Luna-25 development team.
Image credit: Roscosmos/IKI/NPO Lavochkin
“He discussed with the enterprise team and Russian scientists the possible reasons for the unfinished Luna-25 mission, as well as the future prospects of the Russian lunar program. Before the meeting, he toured the booth, which had been set up specifically to test the mission’s software,” according to a Roscosmos telegram posting.
Image credit: Roscosmos
Unfinished mission
“Yuri Borisov emphasized that the unfinished mission of Luna-25 does not put the prospects of lunar exploration on hold,” the communiqué noted. “There is no need to make a tragedy out of this, we need to draw conclusions and continue working in this direction,” adding that Russian designers and scientists are “burning with the idea of continuing the lunar project.”
According to the Roscosmos posting, “one of the options for continuing the program may be the possibility of repeating the mission to land on the south pole of the Moon in 2025-2026.”
Pre-launch checkout of India’s lunar rover.
Image credit: ISRO
India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander-deployed rover departed its ramp and has begun exploring the lunar surface. The plan calls for the wheeled rover to carry out investigation of the south pole region touchdown area for over 14 days.
From ISRO: “All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal.”
“All planned rover movements have been verified. The rover has successfully traversed a distance of about [26 feet] 8 meters.”
A number of lander payloads have been turned on and rover mobility operations have commenced, ISRO has announced.
Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Also, onboard the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Propulsion Module, orbiting the Moon, the SHAPE payload is in operating mode, ISRO said.
SHAPE stands for the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) experiment.
“Future discoveries of smaller planets in reflected light would allow us to probe into variety of exo-planets which would qualify for habitability (or for presence of life),” ISRO explains.
The SHAPE payload carried on the Moon-circuiting Propulsion Module is to perform spectroscopic study of the Earth’s atmosphere and also measure the variations in polarization from the clouds on Earth.
Video of the Chandrayaan-3 rover rolling onto the lunar surface is available at:
Image credit: ISRO
Image credit: ISRO
Image credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is pressing forward on the next orbital attempt for the company’s Starship project.
“SpaceX has submitted its final mishap investigation report to the FAA for review. That review is ongoing,” said the FAA in a statement provided to Inside Outer Space.
“When a final mishap report is approved, it will identify the corrective actions SpaceX must make. Separately, SpaceX must modify its license to incorporate those actions before receiving authorization to launch again,” the FAA statement explains.
Image credit: SpaceX
Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab
India’s “elite club” status is being heralded as the country’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander/rover mission continues to unfurl. It is the first nation to reach the south pole of the Moon and joins an exclusive set of countries succeeding in soft landing upon the lunar surface, the fourth country to do so following the former Soviet Union, the U.S. and China.
From the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the lander successfully deployed the Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan Rover via a ramp. “India took a walk on the Moon!” advises an ISRO X tweet. “Made in India. Made for the MOON!”
Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Pre-launch checkout of India’s lunar rover.
Image credit: ISRO
SHAPE payload
Meanwhile, the Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module from which the lunar lander detached is continuing its journey, set to orbit the Moon for months/years, ISRO states.
Onboard that Moon-circling module is the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) experiment.
“Future discoveries of smaller planets in reflected light would allow us to probe into variety of exo-planets which would qualify for habitability (or for presence of life),” ISRO explains.
The SHAPE payload carried on the Moon-circuiting Propulsion Module is to perform spectroscopic study of the Earth’s atmosphere and also measure the variations in polarization from the clouds on Earth.
This payload is “SHAPEd” by U R Rao Satellite Center/ISRO in Bengaluru, capital city of Karnataka state in southern India.
NASA laser retro-reflector array mounted atop India’s Moon lander.
Image credit: ISRO/NASA
Close-up of NASA laser retro-reflector array mounted atop India’s Moon lander.
Image credit: ISRO/NASA
Retro-reflector array
Now on the Moon, mounted atop the Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander is a NASA laser retro-reflector array. In NASA acronym-land, the device is better known as an LRA, supplied by the LRA project based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The ultra-small, compact LRA is designed to use reflected laser light from a laser altimeter or lidar on a spacecraft orbiting the Moon or landing on the Moon. They are too small to be radiated by laser light shot from the Earth.
An LRA consists of eight tiny retro-reflectors mounted on a small, high hemispherical platform. Total mass of the LRA is 20 grams, and requires no power.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X, congratulating India on the lunar landing success, adding: “We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”
Image credit: ISRO
Image credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space screengrab
India has successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 lander/rover on the Moon. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) broadcasts live coverage available via multiple platforms.
From ISRO via X tweet: “I reached my destination and you too!”
Image credit: ISRO via ESA
Along with the ISRO Website and the DD National TV channel go to:
YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLA_64yz8Ss
Facebook at:
Image credit: Roscosmos
Russia’s emergency commission for the recent Luna-25 Moon landing failure has been appointed and has started its work. Their duty is to sort out in detail what led to the “abnormal operation” of the spacecraft’s engine, sending the probe to its destruction on the Moon’s landscape.
Reportedly, that engine ran for 127 seconds instead of the calculated 84 seconds, resulting in the crash.
Next lunar missions
Yuri Borisov, head of Roscosmos, advised the Rossiya-24 television channel that the results will be taken into account when implementing the country’s next robotic Moon missions.
Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov.
Image credit: Roscosmos
Work on the Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions would be accelerated, Borisov said, and expressed the hope that these missions, along with Luna-28 will be successful, as noted in an Astronautics News posting at Novosti-Kosmonavtiki.
For details on what’s ahead for Russian lunar exploration, and the implications of the failed Luna-25 mission, go to: “Russia’s Moon Probe Failure: Why and What Next?” at:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/russias-moon-probe-failure-why-and-what-next/
Also, as posted on Space.com, go to:
“What does the Luna-25 moon lander crash mean for Russia’s lunar exploration plans?” at:
https://www.space.com/russia-luna-25-moon-probe-failure-consequences
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3924, August 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3925 duties.
“The Gediz Vallis Ridge has been a long-term, and, at times, seemingly impossible goal of the Curiosity Rover mission,” reports Deborah Padgett, Operational Product Generation Subsystem (OPGS) Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Our path to it has repeatedly been diverted from our first difficult climb onto the Greenhugh Pediment way back in 2020, our dead-end foray onto and across the pediment through a steep side ravine of the Gediz Vallis, ultimately blocked by the potentially wheel-eating “Gatorback” ridges in 2022, and finally to our recent slip-and-slide circuitous climb out of the Marker Band Valley onto the Gedis Vallis ridge itself,” Padgett points out.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 3924, August 20, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Recently, team members called that Gediz Vallis (GV) ridge the “Bermuda Triangle” of Mt. Sharp.
Uncertain footing
“We are now just a few meters away from being able to reach the arm out and get contact science on some of the ridge material, and anticipation is growing,” Padgett adds.
A recent drive of Curiosity on Sol 3921 ended a few meters short of the intended destination — a cluster of boulders — due to some sideways sliding by the robot en-route.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3924, August 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The uncertain footing also left our wheels unsafe to support a deployment of Curiosity’s arm,” Padgett reports, “so all of our weekend science activities will be via targeted remote sensing rather than use of the arm’s instruments for more detailed study.”
Sulfate-bearing bedrock
Padgett says that Curiosity’s Mastcam plan involved performing a 360 degree panorama, which should be spectacular!
Mastcam will also have large mosaics targeted at the transition between the dark “float” rock ridge material and the underlying sulfate-bearing bedrock, as well as multispectral imaging of the nearby “Skiathos” and “Skopelos” boulders.
ChemCam will zap those same rocks with its laser to study a possible surface coating and compositional variations between rock layers.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3924, August 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Robot bump
ChemCam will also use the telescopic mode of its Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) camera to zoom in on a light colored bedrock wall adjacent to a basin of dark sand and to continue its characterization of the amazing layering on Kukenan Butte. “Meanwhile, Navcam will take some dust devil movies and a measurement of dust in the air across Gale Crater, as well as imaging of clouds and their shadows on the beautiful peaks around us,” Padgett notes.
Another short drive of 6.5 feet (2 meters) was slated, which the team calls a “bump,” and should place Curiosity within arm’s reach of the boulder collection on Sol 3924.
Following the usual set of post-drive observations, Curiosity will perform AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) – a software suite that permits the rover to autonomously detect and prioritize targets.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3924, August 21, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
AEGIS and Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) imaging on Sol 3925 is to further document the geology of the robot’s new location. Also planned in the early morning of Sol 3926 was a set of atmospheric observations, including a dust measurement and a Navcam 360 phase function sky survey.
Decisional downlink
“With Monday’s plan, Curiosity will hopefully be able to finally perform contact science on a diverse cluster of GV Ridge boulders, presuming that our drive is successful and doesn’t leave our wheels perched on any of the abundant rocks on this steep slope,” says Padgett.
Another remaining challenge is a very tiny decisional downlink on Monday, “giving us very little data to decide on our next steps. In addition, on Monday, JPL is in the bull’s-eye of the very first tropical storm watch to ever be posted in Southern California by the National Hurricane Center, Padgett concludes. “Fingers crossed that the ‘GV Ridge Triangle’ will not claim another MSL [Mars Science Laboratory] plan before Curiosity reaches the top!”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3924, August 20, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
