Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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February 12th, 2018
Credit: NASA
President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget request for NASA is $19.9 billion.
“It reflects the Administration’s confidence that through NASA leadership, America will lead the way back to the Moon and take the next giant leap from where we made that first small step nearly 50 years ago,” explains NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot.
This budget codifies the President’s Space Policy Directive-1, which charges NASA to “lead an innovative and sustainable campaign of exploration that will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and use followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.”
Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot discusses the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal during a State of NASA address Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Notional Deep Space Gateway.
Credit: NASA
Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
“This budget also proposes we develop new opportunities on and around the Moon,” Lightfoot adds. “We will begin to build the in-space infrastructure for long-term exploration development of our nearest neighbor,” by launching the power and propulsion element to orbit the Moon in 2022 “as the foundation of a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. This will give us a strategic presence in the lunar vicinity that will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us further explore the Moon and its resources and translate that experience toward human missions to Mars.”
Further, drawing on the interests and capabilities of NASA’s industry and international partners, the space agency intends to develop progressively complex robotic missions to the surface of the Moon with scientific and exploration objectives in advance of human return there, Lightfoot explains.
International Space Station.
Credit: NASA
Space station/commercial sector
Lightfoot also notes that this budget proposes for NASA to ramp up efforts to transition low-Earth activities to the commercial sector and end direct federal government support of the ISS in 2025 and begin relying on commercial partners for our low Earth orbit research and technology demonstration requirements.
To view: “Budget Documents, Strategic Plans and Performance Reports” go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
and to view a NASA video, go to:
Posted in 
Credit: Paradox Interactive/Haemimont Games
“Colonize Mars and discover its secrets, with minimal casualties.”
That’s an opening premise behind Surviving Mars, a sci-fi settlement builder all about colonizing Mars and surviving the process.
- Choose a space agency for resources and financial support before determining a location for your colony.
- Build domes and infrastructure, research new possibilities and utilize drones to unlock more elaborate ways to shape and expand your settlement.
- Cultivate your own food, mine minerals or just relax by the bar after a hard day’s work.
- Most important of all, though, is keeping your colonists alive. Not an easy task on a strange new planet.
Management strategy game
Credit: Paradox Interactive/Haemimont Games
Paradox Interactive, a publisher of games, has announced that Surviving Mars, the upcoming management strategy game from Haemimont Games, will launch for all systems on March 15, 2018.
Surviving Mars will put players in charge of planning, designing, and maintaining a sustainable colony on the red planet, and players will be able to undertake this mission on the Xbox One, on the PlayStation®4 console, and on Linux, MacOS, and Windows PCs.
This game will be available starting at a suggested retail price of $39.99 on all platforms.
Resources
For more information, go to:
https://www.survivingmars.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3swV4JJKAc
For a review of this product, go to:
“Let’s Try: Surviving Mars — Sci-Fi City Builder!”
Navy’s Laser Weapon System.
Credit: John F. Williams
A recently released report forecasts the maturing nature of high energy laser weapons, high power microwave weapons and particle beam weaponry.
Apart from the U.S., China, Russia, Germany and India have stepped up efforts to design directed energy weapons, military hardware that can be used in the battlefield. These include high power radio frequency weapons, high energy lasers, and particle beam weapons, with effects ranging from satellite jamming to target damage.
The estimate is that the global directed energy weapons market will be valued at about $1.67 billion in 2017, growing to more than $4 billion in 2025.
Steadily and quietly matured
ASD Reports, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands explains: “Since the 1960s few weapons have held as much promise and have consistently failed to live up to that promise as Directed Energy Weapons (DEW). Over the past few years, however, even as most countries have scaled back their expectations and endowment from the highs of decades past, DEWs have steadily and quietly matured.”
Furthermore, while more moderate in power than the ambitious Airborne and Space-Based Laser programs of the U.S. and the Soviet Union, today’s DEWs have reached a point of operational maturity, ASD Reports points out.
Credit: ASD Reports
Major findings
According to a press statement from ASD Reports, their assessment points to:
- The most significant benefit is fielding these nascent directed-energy capabilities is that they will start the crucial process of integrating a new technology into operations, with the attendant innovations required in organization, training, concepts of operation and doctrine.
- New electrically powered, solid-state lasers (SSLs) may be the most promising alternatives for laser weapons that can be mounted on large mobile platforms such as surface naval vessels
- Previous high-profile DE programs failed to deliver on promises of game changing capabilities. These failures have increased the military’s reluctance to adopt a new generation of DE weapons concepts that are based on significantly more mature technology.
- DEWs will have to be proven in combat before militaries around the world grasps their full potential.
Full report
The full ASD Reports document examines, analyzes, and predicts the evolution of technologies, markets, and expenditures of Directed Energy Weapons from 2017 until 2025. The report examines each of these markets geographically, focusing on the top 95% of global markets, in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
For more information, go to:
Credit: National Geographic
National Geographic has issued an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip that follows the SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, and his team as they witness and celebrate the first launch of Falcon Heavy.
On February 6, SpaceX made history with the first launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket—and National Geographic was there, right alongside SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
The Falcon Heavy booster flew on February 6 and National Geographic was there, right alongside Musk.
This film clip – with more to come — is in preparation for the second season of MARS, which is returning to National Geographic in Fall 2018.
To watch the video, go to:
Technicians huddle near NASA’s InSight Mars lander to give the go for testing of the craft’s solar arrays.
Credit: Barbara David
Littleton, Colorado – NASA’s next Mars lander is in the final “ship and shoot” phases from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base – the first interplanetary mission to rocket from that site.
The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) is undergoing last checkouts here at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company – builder of the Mars-bound vehicle.
As InSight’s solar arrays unfurl, test engineers carefully inspect their deployment.
Credit: Barbara David
If all stays on track, InSight is to be shipped to the California launch site on February 28.
For a detailed look at final Mars lander preparations, go to my new Space.com story:
Meet the Next Mars Lander: Getting Insight on NASA’s InSight
https://www.space.com/39653-nasa-mars-lander-insight-up-close.html
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1960, February 10, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just begun Sol 1961 operations and is to perform a weekend of activities at the same location it has been stationed at all week.
“While we’re ready and eager to see some new terrain, we had no shortage of interesting science targets to fill our plan,” reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Long science block
On the first sol of the weekend plan (Sol 1961), the robot is to carry out a long science block filled with a suite of Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations: Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements on bedrock targets “Glenfinnan” and “Skara Brae,” a long-distance Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo of the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, and a passive measurement of “Bloodstone Hill.”
Curiosity Navcam Right B photo acquired on Sol 1960, February 9, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Change detection imagery
Curiosity is also scheduled to take a Mastcam image to document the LIBS targets and an additional Mastcam image for change detection.
“When we’re at a single location for an extended period of time, we like to take repeat Mastcam images of the same target area across multiple sols. This allows us to compare the images and look for any changes or movement in the field of view,” Kronyak explains.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) product from Sol 1960, February 10, 2018. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Also on tap, Curiosity will take a Navcam movie to look for dust devils.
Nighttime photos
In the evening, the rover will take Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) nighttime images of Glenfinnan and Skara Brae to take a closer look at some of the small-scale features within the rocks, with the additional benefit of some dust having been cleared by LIBS observations during the day.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) product from Sol 1960, February 10, 2018. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Kronyak notes that on the second sol, Sol 1962, the wheeled rover will drive to the next location at Vera Rubin Ridge, take some post-drive images, “and set ourselves up for an exciting week of contact and remote science!”
NASA Curiosity rover on the Red Planet prowl since August 2012 and assessing the habitability of Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Finding evidence for life on Mars has been a decades-long ambition of NASA. Billions of dollars has been spent with the Red Planet being wheeled over, poked, and probed as a result.
What are the limits of robot-performed “Curiosity science investigations” (CSI) on the Red Planet?
No doubt, Mars is holding its secrets tight – but in the event that the ongoing life detection work proves positive, what protocols are in place to confirm such a verdict?
Check out my new Space.com article that spotlights these and other issues.
Go to:
Life Detection on Mars: Are Red Planet Protocols in Place?
https://www.space.com/39650-mars-life-detection-protocols.html
Credit: SpaceX
It is official. That SpaceX Falcon Heavy payload has been assigned an interplanetary ID: Tesla Roadster (AKA: Starman, 2018-017A). The trajectory name is tesla_s3.
The computations were done by the Solar System Dynamics Group, Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System located at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The Horizons on-line tool can be used to generate ephemerides for solar-system bodies.
Dummy payload
In part, the Horizons site explains:
“Dummy payload from the first launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Consists of a standard Tesla Roadster automobile and a spacesuit-wearing mannequin nicknamed “Starman”. Also includes a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster on the car’s dash with a mini-Starman inside. A data storage device placed inside the car contains a copy of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” novels. A plaque on the attachment fitting between the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the Tesla is etched with the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees.”
Credit: SpaceX
“After orbiting the Earth for 6 hours, a third-stage burn-to-depletion was completed at approximately 02:30 UTC Feb 7, placing the dummy payload in a heliocentric orbit having a perihelion of 0.99 au and aphelion ~1.7 au.” The payload mass is roughly 2,756 pounds (1,250 kilograms), the site explains.
Boys and their toys
“I appreciate that the Tesla Roadster is a grand gesture which has certainly fulfilled the aim of raising awareness of space,” said Alice Gorman at the College of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University in Australia and an expert on space debris.
“The images of the car — and its spooky faceless driver — with the Earth as a backdrop are compelling. It’s a view we’ve never seen before – heading away from Earth on the ultimate road trip,” Gorman told Inside Outer Space.
Credit: SpaceX
Gorman said she is, however, uneasy with the symbolism.
“It feeds into a cult of personality which is at odds with the ‘space for all humanity’ narrative that we in the space world frequently use to justify space exploration,” Gorman said. “And let’s face it, there’s no getting away from the fact that a red sports car is all about boys and their toys. The car is a signifier of wealth and masculinity. We’ve been trying so hard to leave behind the era where the archetypal astronaut was an elite white male, and we’ve just stepped right back into it.”
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1957, February 6, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is just starting Sol 1959 operations.
Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist; for Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland, says expect “old site, new tricks.”
Turns out that recovering from a recent fault with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite “proved more challenging than expected, so our planned drive to the patch of pale tan bedrock in the image above did not take place,” Minitti explains.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1957, February 6, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New, less-common observations
Mars researchers took advantage of the fact that the robot has been parked at the same site for several sols to acquire both new and less-common types of observations.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1957, February 6, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) peppered Mt. Sharp with long distance mosaics, imaging a dramatically-layered unit pasted on the flank of Mt. Sharp above the rover, and various steep slopes to look for evidence of grain motion downhill.
Dawn’s early light
In a departure from the normal mid- or late-day imaging blocks available to the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), Minitti says the science team planned an early morning arm backbone to get dawn’s early light on the target “Arnaboll.”
Before the MAHLI images of Arnaboll were to be taken, ChemCam will shoot it with a raster to clear off dust and measure chemistry. Also, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is slated to perform a long overnight integration to add to the chemistry data collected from the site.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1957, February 6, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Unusual depression
The robot’s Mastcam is set to acquire a mosaic of “Soay,” a small, unusual depression about 26 feet (8 meters) ahead of the rover, and a multispectral observation of two targets previously shot by ChemCam, “Cocksburnpath” and “Harra Ebb.”
“Both these targets have a purplish red color, and the goal is for the Mastcam spectral data to illuminate how (or if!) iron-bearing minerals contribute to those colors,” Minitti adds.
Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1957, February 6, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Atmospheric dust
“We were able to fit in multiple sets of environmental observations across both sols, with early morning and afternoon observations of dust in the atmosphere, and movies looking for clouds and dust devils,” Minitti reports.
Lastly, the rover’s Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment will passively probe the subsurface around Curiosity for over seven hours.
Image shows a virtual reality impression of a Moon rover test. Credit: Canadian Space Agency
Prototype Moon rover work is being spearheaded by the European Space Agency.
The work is being carried out under the ESA-led Human-Enhanced Robotic Architecture and Capabilities for Lunar Exploration and Science, or Heracles for short.
Heracles is underway as a cooperative effort with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Human-robot partnerships
This collaborative effort aims for the next steps in lunar exploration, studying the potential of human–robot partnerships for exploring the Solar System, beginning with the still-unexplored far side of the Moon.
A prototype rover is commanded to drive in and sample a quarry resembling a lunar site. Astronauts tele-operating such a rover from lunar orbit will help to select better, more pristine samples of the Moon for return to Earth.
Rover testing has been done at St. Alphons de Granby quarry in Quebec, Canada. The Earth site was slightly modified and chosen for its Moon-like landscape. To recreate the difficulty of long-distance communications, the rover has been operated by teams based in Saint-Hubert (Quebec) and Germany.
ESA’s control centre in Darmstadt, Germany and CSA took turns operating the vehicle.
Video view
Go to this impressive 360° video of a simulated lunar rover mission from the Canadian Space Agency
