Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
Author: 
May 3rd, 2020
Map the quietest places in the world to find the best places to go for peace and quiet!
Download a free app and make a sound level measurement from wherever you are, and upload the data to a map of the world.
Do you have any favorite urban, suburban or rural places you think are really quiet?
This project presented by NASA lets you measure the sound level and enter your data on a world map for others to share!
Observed by Janneydo on April 12, 2020
Credit: Janneydo
Sound level
The project uses your smartphone to make sound level measurements. The goal is to discover the quietest outdoor places in your town, rural location, or as you go about your travels and vacations.
Join the Silent Earth Project on Facebook to share your experiences, keep up on tips from the Project Director, and learn about environmental noise pollution by going to:
https://www.facebook.com/SilentEarthProject
You can also look at a blog for more details at:
http://sten.astronomycafe.net/silent-earth/
To learn more about other projects, such as “Satellite Streak Watcher” and “Night Sky Light Pollution,” go to:
Posted in 
Early satellite-spotting pioneers. In this 1965 photo, volunteer satellite trackers in Pretoria, South Africa, were part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Moonwatch Network, one of more than 100 teams worldwide.
Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives
Around the planet, a loosely knit but closely woven band of amateurs monitor the whereabouts of satellites – be they secretive spacecraft, robotic space drones, rocket stages, orbital debris leftovers, or lost-in-space planetary probes.
But what’s the motivation behind this group of sky prowling spirits? What kind of tools are they using now or in the future to purge secrets from space – at times revealing what some countries don’t want others to know about?
Space.com reached out to a small set of these hobbyists that contribute to SeeSat-L, a mailing list intended to facilitate rapid, reliable communications among a worldwide cadre of visual satellite observers.
For more information on this cadre of satellite observers, go to my new Space.com story:
How amateur satellite trackers are keeping an ‘eye’ on objects around the Earth
https://www.space.com/amateur-satellite-trackers-on-global-lookout.html
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing 2751 Sol duties.
An image of a rock on Mars called Glasgow (visible in the center of the above image. NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on April 30, 2020, Sol 2749.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars researchers are preparing to drill in this weekend’s plan, a target named “Glasgow,” reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
“Combined with ‘Hutton,’ these three drilled samples will give us a wonderful snapshot of the range of compositions of the three major geologic units we’ve explored in this region,” Fraeman notes.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 2749, April 30, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Go to continue
Last Wednesday’s pre-load test on Glasgow was successful, Fraeman points out, “and even created a small divot where the drill tip pressed down onto the rock which suggests this rock might be somewhat soft.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The chemical data from Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) also were in family with other rocks in this area, so the team quickly decided they were go to continue with the full drill, which will execute in the second sol of the three-sol (Sols 2751-2753) weekend plan.
New perspective
“On the first sol of the plan, we will take Mastcam images of the rover’s deck, some sand-filled troughs in the area, and a mosaic to capture the view of nearby Tower Butte and Greenheugh pediment with a new perspective from our current location,” Fraeman says.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Also on the plan is taking some additional Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of areas in our workspace.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B photo taken on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fingers crossed
The third sol of the plan has a lot of remote sensing, including Mastcam and Navcam environmental science observations, a Mastcam multispectral image and ChemCam passive spectral observation in the expected location of the drill tailings, a ChemCam z-stack of the expected drill hole, and ChemCam Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) observations of an area near the drill spot, “Glasgow_2”, and “Canongate.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As always, dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
“Fingers crossed,” Fraeman concludes, “at least some socially-distant team members will be able to enjoy the traditional post-drill donut holes during planning on Monday morning!”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2750, May 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: New China TV/XinhuaVideo/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab Inside Outer Space
The first Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) observations have been carried out by China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) – the world’s largest single-dish radio observatory.
The newly commissioned FAST used a 19 beam receiver in its inaugural SETI work.
Data stream
In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal that details the FAST SETI testing, a data stream was produced by the SERENDIP VI real-time multibeam SETI spectrometer installed at FAST, as well as its off-line data processing pipelines.
The FAST researchers identified and removed four kinds of radio frequency interference (RFI): zone, broadband, multibeam, and drifting, utilizing the Nebula SETI software pipeline combined with machine-learning algorithms.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab Inside Outer Space
“Birdies”
“After RFI mitigation, the Nebula pipeline identifies and ranks interesting narrowband candidate ET signals, scoring candidates by the number of times candidate signals have been seen at roughly the same sky position and same frequency, signal strength, proximity to a nearby star or object of interest, along with several other scoring criteria,” explains the paper led by Zhi-Song Zhang of China’s National Astronomical Observatories. “This preliminary testing on FAST data helps to validate our SETI instrumentation techniques as well as our data processing pipeline.”
The first observational test of SETI with the 19- beam receiver of FAST was done in July, 2019. Test signals, dubbed “birdies” were injected into the data to demonstrate the pipeline’s RFI removal capability.
SETI searches have the potential to detect whether the neighboring M31 Andromeda Galaxy is a locale of advanced technology and civilizations.
Credit: Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF
Longer term
For the longer term, FAST is planning a sensitive phased array feed, which could provide roughly 100 simultaneous beams, the paper adds, “excellent for a next generation SETI sky survey.”
The paper explains: “More generally, Earthlings are just beginning to learn how we might detect other civilizations if they are out there. We’ve only had radio technology for a century; that’s a blink of the eye in the history of the universe and life on this planet. We are beginning to explore tiny regions of the large parameter space of possible technosignatures from potential extraterrestrial civilizations.”
While researchers are in an infant stage, the paper adds, “SETI science and technology is growing exponentially. Radio telescope sensitivity has been doubling every 3.6 years for the last 60 years, and SETI spectrometer capabilities have been doubling every 20 months for the last forty years. This SETI sky survey commissioning work is a significant step, leading to a powerful new SETI survey on FAST.”
Frank Drake with cosmic equation to gauge the presence of intelligent life in the cosmos. The Drake Equation identifies specific factors believed to play a role in the development of civilizations in our galaxy.
Credit: SETI Institute
The FAST SETI team concludes that, hopefully, they expect that these ETI signal candidates could come from some warm Earth-size planets in the Milky Way, the number of which can be roughly predicted by the Drake equation.
For access to the paper — First SETI Observations with China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) – go to:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab7376
Also, for an available draft version dated March 26, 2020, go to:
FLIR
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
A few days ago, the Department of Defense (DOD) authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015, which have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017.
The U.S. Navy previously acknowledged that these videos circulating in the public domain were indeed Navy videos.
GIMBAL
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Air space incursions
From an April 27 statement by the DoD: “After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena.”
Furthermore, the statement explains that “DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos.”
GOFAST
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“Historical” Navy videos
The aerial phenomena observed in the videos, the DoD statement on the “Release of Historical Navy Videos” concludes, “remain characterized as “unidentified.”
The released videos can be found at the Naval Air Systems Command Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reading Room: https://www.navair.navy.mil/foia/documents
Debunking the videos
But for all you unidentified aerial phenomena followers, take note of the work of Mick West. He describes himself as a debunker, skeptic, writer, along with being a former video game programmer. He is author of the book: Escaping the Rabbit Hole – How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories using Facts, Logic, and Respect.
West has released a video called “Explained: New Navy UFO Videos” – and it is well worth viewing.
West has assessed the trio of videos, called FLIR, GIMBAL and GOFAST.
Mick West, debunker, skeptic, writer.
Credit: Mick West/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Likely explanations
“With the help of others, I quickly arrived at likely explanations for all three videos,” West explains. “The FLIR video is most likely a distant plane. The video was taken well after the famous encounter with a hypersonic zig-zagging tic-tac by pilots from the Nimitz [aircraft carrier]. This object doesn’t actually move on screen – except when the camera moves, and it resembles an out of focus low-resolution backlit plane. I don’t know what the pilots saw, but this video does not show anything really interesting.”
The GIMBAL video is also probably of a plane, West continues. “It’s not rotating. What you see is the infrared glare of the engines, larger than the plane. It looks like it is rotating because of an artifact of the gimbal-mounted camera system.” As for the “AURA” around the plane, that’s just image sharpening, he adds. “It happens all the time in thermal camera footage. It’s not an alien warp drive, it’s just the unsharp mask filter.”
Lastly, the GO-FAST video probably shows a balloon, West surmises. “It’s not moving fast, it’s not skimming the water, and you can verify this yourself because all the information you need is in the numbers on screen. It’s just an effect caused by parallax,” he concludes.
To view Mick West’s “Explained: New Navy UFO Videos” go to:
Credit: NASA
NASA’s Mars exploration program is in calamitous straits. Proposed reductions in the President’s fiscal year 2021 budget may well pull the plug on the ensemble of veteran orbiters and the space agency’s only active Mars rover, Curiosity. That off-world machinery has been on the red planet prowl since early August 2012.
Odyssey orbiter reached Mars orbit in October 2001.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
If unchanged, the budget numbers would close out a working relay/science orbiter, Mars Odyssey, this calendar year. It would also cripple Curiosity’s investigations just as it reaches the sulfate zone on Mt. Sharp in Gale Crater. The dollar shortfall would close out the rover’s work late next year, before it can explore a major climate transition recorded in the rocks higher on the mount.
Curiosity rover. A dollar shortfall would close out the rover’s work late next year, before it can explore a major climate transition recorded in the rocks higher on the mount.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Science floor
Furthermore, the FY’21 budget reduces by 20 percent the science sleuthing of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), cutting in half the number of targeted observations it can execute, purging most of the special data products associated with them. MRO is a dual-purpose orbiter providing zoom lens inspection of future landing sites and can relay data from surface missions back to Earth.
NASA’s robotic Holy Grail mission, a Mars sample return effort to bring back to Earth Martian collectibles.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Lastly, another budget casualty would be the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, reducing that mission to its “science floor” even as it observes Sun-Mars interactions and the planet’s resulting atmospheric loss to space over the rising half of the solar cycle.
For more information on this topic, please read my new Scientific American article:
Mars Needs Money: White House Budget Could Prompt Retreat from Red Planet – Proposed cuts could end decades of U.S. leadership in exploring that world
By Leonard David on April 30, 2020
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B photo taken on Sol 2748, April 29, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now working Sol 2748 tasks.
Mars researchers are planning the rover’s activities at the next planned drill site, Reports Sean Czarnecki, a planetary geologist at Arizona State University in Tempe.
That plan is to gather science data about the site before drilling “Glasgow.”
“This is very similar to what a field geologist on Earth would do,” Czarnecki notes.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2748, April 29, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Before gathering a sample, geologists must first: Determine what rock they want to sample, find the best location for sample collection, and record all relevant field observations/data in a standard field notebook.
Drill campaign
Despite the closest human geologist being over 115 million miles (186 million kilometers) away, “our curious little robotic geologist has all the tools necessary to do a similar assessment on Mars (with a little help from some humans on Earth). In the case of Curiosity’s current drill campaign, we had already determined which rock type we wanted to sample for this drill campaign and identified and drove to the location where the best sample could be obtained,” Czarnecki notes.
Curiosity Left Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2747.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
In a recent plan, the robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), and Mastcam are measuring the composition of the drill target Glasgow, and its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is slated to take images of this target before and after removing dust in order to document the rock surface prior to drilling.
Atmospheric chemistry
ChemCam will also target “Dalmellington Burns,” “George Square,” and “Large Island” for additional geochemical context of the drill area, Czarnecki explains, while Mastcam documents each of these targets with images.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 2747, April 28, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s APXS will also look to the sky to measure atmospheric chemistry.
Additionally, Mastcam will take a 360° mosaic, the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) and the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) will provide remote sensing measurements of the atmospheric and subsurface environment, and Navcam will search for atmospheric dust, clouds and dust devils.
Concludes Czarnecki: “That should be enough data to satisfy any geologist!”
Credit: NASA
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report: NASA: Assessments of Major Projects.
This is the GAO’s 12th annual look at the status of NASA’s major projects, finding that costs grew for the third year in a row. “NASA’s acquisition management is on our High Risk List,” the GAO observes.
According to the GAO report, expect to see cost increases and schedule delays for major programs to get worse. “For example, delays are likely for the Artemis I mission, NASA’s next step in returning astronauts to the moon in 2024. NASA is also planning other lunar-related efforts that will become major projects. These efforts are complex and could face significant cost increases and schedule delays.”
Credit: NASA
This new GAO report provides snapshot profiles of 24 of NASA’s major projects.
Mars 2020
For example, the just-issued report looks at the Mars 2020 project, noting it has encountered development cost growth of almost $360 million, which exceeds the 15 percent congressional notification threshold at a critical point in the development process when problems are most commonly found and schedules tend to slip. This cost growth was due to multiple development difficulties, delayed deliveries, and higher than anticipated procurement costs.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As of February 2020, the rover had shipped to Kennedy Space Center to begin preparing for July-August launch, the majority of the project’s flight hardware had been delivered and many of the project’s top technical risks were closed. However, the project is tracking a risk that components of its most complex development—the Sample and Caching Subsystem—could be late.
Performance: expected to worsen
Overall, what the GAO found is that NASA’s portfolio of major projects continued to experience significant cost and schedule growth this year and the performance is expected to worsen.
Space Launch System (SLS) Credit: NASA/MSFC
Since GAO last reported on the portfolio in May 2019, cost growth was approximately 31 percent over project baselines—the third consecutive year that cost growth has worsened after a period of decline. The average launch delay was 12 months, compared to 13 months last year.
“GAO has made a number of recommendations over the last 5 years to improve NASA’s acquisition of major projects. NASA has implemented changes in response to many of these recommendations, although 17 recommendations have not yet been fully addressed. NASA generally agreed with the findings in this report,” states the GAO.
For the full report, go to:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/706505.pdf
For a quick look of findings, go to:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/706507.pdf
Lastly, go to this GAO podcast on the report at:
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 2746, April 27, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2747 duties.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2746, April 27, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Next stop for the rover is a new drill site dubbed “Glasgow”, reports Roger Wiens, a geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The Curiosity rover is about 66 feet (20 meters) lower in elevation than its highest point near the “Edinburgh” drill hole. With the commands recently uplinked, the rover should arrive at the Glasgow candidate drill site.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2746, April 27, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Clay-bearing unit
“The purpose of this drill location is to sample the fractured intermediate unit, which is the last major (known) geological unit left to be sampled in the clay-bearing unit that Curiosity has been exploring over the last roughly 440 sols,” Wiens says.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The team has selected the name ‘Glasgow’ for this candidate drill site. Glasgow is the name of the largest city in Scotland. For trivia buffs, this is to be the fourth drill site starting with a “G,” after “Greenhorn” (silica alteration site, Sol 1137) and “Glen Etive 1 and 2” (drilled earlier in the clay-bearing unit, sols 2486 and 2527),” Wiens adds.
Two-sol plan
Mars scientists have built a two-sol plan (Sols 2747-2748) including a 4×4 Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) raster on target “Troon” and a 1×10 raster on “Buttery.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mastcam will take images of those two targets, Wiens points out, as well as a follow-up image of the ChemCam Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) autonomous targeting system targets from the weekend, a 6×4 mosaic of the planned drill area, and a stereo 2×5 mosaic of target “Alpin.”
Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) will get a full suite of images (25 cm, 5 cm stereo, and 2 cm) on “Troon.”
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Short drive
A very short drive of 15 feet (roughly 4.5 meters) is planned to arrive at the candidate drill site.
There are Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) passive and active observations and post-drive imaging, including a Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) observation.
On the second sol, ChemCam will take a passive sky observation and will do several passive calibration activities.
“With that, we expect Curiosity to be set for the Glasgow drill campaign,” Wiens concludes.
Road map
Meanwhile, a new rover road map has been issued.
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 2745 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (April 27, 2020).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).
From Sol 2742 to Sol 2745, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 110.63 feet (33.72 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 13.73 miles (22.09 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2746 tasks.
New imagery shows the rover’s current whereabouts and its surrounding landscape:
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Left B Camera image acquired on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2745, April 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
