Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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December 7th, 2017
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now deep into Sol 1897 operations.
Long wheel tracks in Sol 1896 imagery from the robot show a successful drive of roughly 82 feet (25 meters), bringing it to another stop along the route on Vera Rubin Ridge.
“We’ll actually spend a few days at this stop, where we plan to assess the surrounding bedrock, soil, and what we think might be a small impact crater,” reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B photo acquired on Sol 1897, December 7, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Bedrock rubble
The bedrock around the rover at the new stop is quite rubbly, which made choosing targets for Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) measurements slightly more difficult, as it’s often hard to place the arm in contact with rough surfaces, Kronyak adds.
“Nevertheless,” Kronyak continues, “we planned a very busy 2 sols of science activities! We’ll spend Sol 1897 using the robotic arm to collect APXS and MAHLI data on two bedrock targets, named “Muck” and “Wick” and a soil target named “Sandness.”
Curiosity Mastcam Left image acquired on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Play it again SAM
Overnight on Sol 1897, a Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite (SAM) preconditioning activity is to be performed.
Doing so will mean carrying out a geochrononology experiment over the weekend on the onboard and stored “Ogunquit Beach” sand sample.
Suprahorizon movie
Sol 1898 is primarily devoted to remote science.
First, the rover will take some environmental measurements, including a suprahorizon movie, dust devil survey.
Next, the plan calls for analyzing the soil target “Sandwick” with the robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, along with use of automated software called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS, on a selected target.
Curiosity Mastcam Left image talen on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Sandy targets
“To wrap up our observations,” Kronyak notes, “we’ll take a series of Mastcam mosaics to capture the local geology, including the sand ripple target named “Loch Eil” and the coarse sandy target named “Ballantrae.” We’ll also take a few images of the terrain ahead to help assess our drive path along the Vera Rubin Ridge. We’ll remain at this location for the weekend as well.”
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo acquired on Sol 1895, December 5, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Exciting news
Kronyak says there’s exciting news.
Curiosity has crossed into a new section of the science team’s geologic map. This means using a new theme for naming targets.
“The new quadrangle is named after Torridon, a village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland that is near the Torridonian Supergroup, a geological formation that contains some of the oldest evidence of life of any rocks in the United Kingdom,” Kronyak explains. “We hope that this life-inspired Torridon quadrangle will give us good luck as we explore the ancient and potentially habitable environments along our trek up Mount Sharp!”
Posted in 
The James Webb Space Telescope Mirror
Credit: NASA
A U.S. House of Representatives Space Subcommittee hearing, “NASA’s Next Four Large Telescopes, was held on Wednesday, December 6, 2017.
The purpose of the hearing was to examine the development of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and the planning for a next generation space telescope.
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Credit: NASA
Witness testimony:
Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Cristina Chaplain, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, U.S. Government Accountability Office
A. Thomas Young, Former Director, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA; Former
President and Chief Operating Officer, Martin Marietta Corporation
“The current assessment of JWST’s status is
that integration and test will take significantly longer than planned. The result is a launch schedule delay and the consumption of most of the remaining funding reserves. In my opinion, the launch date and required funding cannot be determined until a new plan is thoughtfully developed and verified by independent review.” – Thomas Young
Credit: Inside Outer Space
Matt Mountain, President, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
Chris McKee, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, Physics, University of California, Berkeley, on behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
Also, go to:
NASA: Preliminary Observations on the Management of Space Telescopes
GAO-18-277T, December 6:
Testimony: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-277T
Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/688771.pdf
Credit: Maciej Rebisz
Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination has issued a free, downloadable book: Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities.
This volume takes on the challenge of imagining new stories at the intersection of public and private—narratives that use the economic and social history of exploration, as well as current technical and scientific research, to inform scenarios for the future of the “new space” era.
Credit: Maciej Rebisz.
Domestication of space
Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities provides fresh insights into human activity in Low Earth Orbit, journeys to Mars, capturing and mining asteroids, and exploring strange and uncharted exoplanets.
The stories and essays within the volume imagine human expansion into space as a kind of domestication—not in the sense of taming nature but in the sense of creating a space for dwelling, a venue for human life and curiosity to unfurl in all their weirdness and complexity.
“Why should we go to space? Our answers to this question have changed significantly over the past 70 years as the people, the methods, and the funding for space exploration continue to change,” suggest Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich, editors of the book.
Credit: Maciej Rebisz.
Stories, essays, interview
This volume contains stories by: Madeline Ashby, Steven Barnes, Eileen Gunn, Ramez Naam, Carter Scholz, Karl Schroeder, Vandana Singh.
Essays by: Jim Bell, Lawrence Dritsas, Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, Emma Frow, Roland Lehoucq, Andrew D. Maynard, Clark A. Miller, Deji Bryce Olukotun, Steve Ruff, William K. Storey, Sara Imari Walker, G. Pascal Zachary.
Credit: Maciej Rebisz.
The volume also includes an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson.
This project was supported by a NASA grant. The stories and essays in this report reflect the views of its authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of NASA or the United States Government.
Creative thinkers
ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination brings writers, artists and other creative thinkers into collaboration with scientists, engineers and technologists to reignite humanity’s grand ambitions for innovation and discovery.
The center serves as a network hub for audacious moonshot ideas and a cultural engine for thoughtful optimism. It provides a space for productive collaboration between the humanities and the sciences, bring human narratives to scientific questions, and explore the full social implications of cutting-edge research.
Credit: Maciej Rebisz.
Free to download
The collection is free to download in EPUB and MOBI e-book formats, as a PDF, and through Apple’s iBooks Store. You can also purchase a print-on-demand copy at cost for $20.09 (plus sales tax and shipping) from Blurb. The price covers printing costs only.
Profanity-Free Versions: A version of the book with all of the profanity in the narratives bleeped is available for kids, parents, educators, and anyone else who would prefer a profanity-free reading experience. Download the profanity-free version in EPUB, MOBI, or PDF.
Go to: http://csi.asu.edu/books/vvev/
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Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now in Sol 1896, NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover is wheeling across to new targets on Vera Rubin Ridge.
New December 6 imagery shows the Mars machinery moving into new science duties.
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Right B photo taken on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Navcam Right B image acquired on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo acquired on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1896, December 6, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: U.S. Air Force
The U.S. government should learn to live with the proliferation of space capabilities, even in the face of potential threats, in order to maximize their potential benefits.
That’s one of the key points in a new Mitchell Policy Paper Release: Leading in a Rapidly Changing World: Policy Issues in Global Space Operations
The authors of the new paper: Jim Vedda, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Space Policy and Strategy,The Aerospace Corporation and Peter Hays, Adjunct Professor of Space Policy and International Relations, Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
An advanced ground-based radar system – a “Space Fence.”
Credit: Lockheed Martin
Key points
Other key points raised in the paper:
- The United States and the growing list of global space actors currently are participants in a fundamental reordering of many tenets and assumptions that have been long-standing attributes of U.S. national space policy and international agreements.
- The United States should lead by example. Part of this leadership is creating a path that does more than react to the technical evolution, programmatic developments, and perceived intentions of other countries.
- The path should serve U.S. national interests by expanding capabilities that enhance security, the economy, and science.
- The United States should embrace emerging technologies and services rather than try to restrain them.
- U.S. entities can be competitive or even dominant in the world market if the U.S. government encourages and facilitates new space applications.
Vedda and Hays closely analyze many dynamic aspects of civil and national security space operations they believe will demand the attention of decision-makers in the near future, such as space traffic management, the expanded use of small satellites or “smallsats,” satellite and orbital vehicle proximity operations, debris concerns, counterspace threats, and norms of behavior.
Resources
For a copy of “Leading in a Rapidly Changing World: Policy Issues in Global Space Operations,” go to:
http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/a2dd91_05d0e00bdd0b4cd9a0e384fd716943f9.pdf
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image acquired on Sol 1895, December 5, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now in Sol 1895, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is slated to begin another “action-packed” science investigation for several days on Vera Rubin Ridge.
That’s the report from Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist from the University of Michigan in Dearborn.
Curiosity spent last weekend analyzing the chemistry of several interesting targets.
Doglegging left
The robot has spent the last several weeks progressing largely to the south, Salvatore notes, with the science team starting to command Curiosity to head more towards the east, doglegging left along the nominal Mt. Sharp Ascent Route (MSAR).
Curiosity Navcam Left B photo taken on Sol 1894, December 4, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Over the next few days, the plan is for Curiosity to investigate what appears to be a small eroded impact crater as well as an erosional window into some visually distinct bedrock outcrops,” Salvatore explains.
Before reaching these targets, Curiosity will conduct some additional investigations of the ridge and the local blocky materials.
Terrain targets
Curiosity Mastcam Left image acquired on Sol 1894, December 4, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Sol 1895 was slated to have a 1.5 hour block of time dedicated to remote observations of the surrounding terrain.
Curiosity will begin with some Mastcam color images of two interesting targets in front of the rover: a blocky exposure of fractured bedrock (named “Mapedi”) and a nodular piece of bedrock (named “Koonap”).
Afterwards, the rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) will make active laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements on three bedrock targets (named “Naute,” “Mzamba,” and “Nauga.” These targets are different in tone than other dusty materials in front of the rover.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 1895, December 5, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity’s Mastcam is set to image and document this target area.
Bulk chemistry
Following these measurements, Salvatore adds that Curiosity’s arm will be unfurled and the robot will acquire high-resolution Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the Mzamba target in addition to an overnight Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) analysis to derive the rock’s bulk chemistry.
“The next day, before heading towards the eroded impact crater, Curiosity will stow her arm in preparation for the roughly one-hour drive to the east,” Salvatore points out. “Following her drive, Curiosity will undertake the standard post-drive imaging sequence in addition to acquiring a MARDI image to document the terrain immediately under the rover’s belly.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo acquired on Sol 1894, December 4, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Ultra marathon
Salvatore notes a random fact of the day: One of the ChemCam targets is named “Naute,” which is the name of a dam in Namibia along a tributary of the Fish River. Namibia’s Fish River Canyon, he says, is the largest canyon in Africa, and is a widely visited tourist attraction for its scenic views. The Fish River Canyon is also home to an annual ultra marathon (100 kilometers distance) that travels through the difficult terrain along the margins of the river.
“As of today,” Salvatore concludes, “Curiosity only has another 82.174 kilometers to traverse before completing her own ultra marathon!”
Credit: Untethered spacewalker, Bruce McCandless.
Credit: NASA
“Lost in space” – a scenario no astronaut wants to face.
Thanks to new spacesuit engineering work, a patent has been filed for a self-return system to ensure space explorers are safe, even if no other astronaut can rescue them.
This spacesuit comes with a “take me home” button.
Self-return
Kevin Duda, a space systems engineer at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has studied astronauts and life on the International Space Station habitat.
The self-return space suit system, Duda explains, had to be capable of determining a precise location in a harsh space environment where GPS is unavailable. It had to compute an optimal return trajectory that accounts for time, oxygen consumption, safety and clearance requirements, and it had to be able to guide a disoriented and possibly unconscious astronaut effectively to safety.
Take me home
Draper’s director of space systems, Séamus Tuohy, said the return-home technology is an advance in spacesuits that is long overdue. “The current spacesuit features no automatic navigation solution—it is purely manual—and that could present a challenge to our astronauts if they are in an emergency.”
According to the patent, Draper’s “take me home” system can be configured to monitor movement, acceleration and relative position of the crewmember to a fixed object, such as an accompanying orbiting spacecraft.
Data fusion
The navigation, guidance and control modules can also accommodate various scenarios. For instance, the navigation module can be configured using GPS, vision- aided navigation or a star-tracker system.
Patent: Inventors Kevin R. Duda, Richard W. Loffi, Patrick Mark Handley. Credit: United States Patent Application Publication/Pub. No.: US 2017/0192425 A1
Duda et al.
Additionally, to improve the astronaut’s positioning and orientation, Draper has developed software that fuses data from vision-based and inertial navigation systems and benefits from the advantages of both sensing approaches.
The current research into spacesuits is funded by NASA.
Down to Earth
Draper’s “take me home” system can also be of benefit down here on Earth.
For example, clothing equipped with sensors and other smart tech could serve as an added safety measure for first responders and firefighters as they navigate smoke-filled rooms. The spacesuit work could also assist skydivers hurtling toward Earth and scuba divers who might become disoriented in deep water.
To view the patent, “System and method for assisted extravehicular activity self-return,” go to:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d9/4d/9e/a0d0311b0386e0/US20170192425A1.pdf
Photo: Mark Seliger for Rolling Stone
Elon Musk, SpaceX lead rocketeer, has twitter followers abuzz again.
Falcon Heavy artwork
Credit: SpaceX
This time Musk posted that his Falcon Heavy mega-rocket is to launch in January from the historic Apollo 11 pad in Florida. “Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,” Musk tweeted.
But there’s more. “Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.”
Tesla roadster to the Red Planet?
Credit: Tesla
Space reporters did their best to confirm with SpaceX that the tweets were truth…and now believe they are.
Pucker factor
For a review of what the real nail-bitter is regarding the SpaceX powerful booster, go to:
SpaceX’s First Flight of Falcon Heavy: “Major Pucker Factor” (Updated)
https://www.leonarddavid.com/spacexs-first-flight-of-falcon-heavy-major-pucker-factor/
Credit Space
Credit:. SpaceX
Opportunity Navigation Camera image at Sol 4924.
Credit: NASA/JPL
NASA’s Opportunity rover has been reconnoitering the Red Planet since landing on January 25, 2004 – and now has 28 miles on its odometer.
Now in Sol 4,926, the veteran robot is 4,836 Sols past “warranty.”
Winter exploration
At present, Opportunity is continuing its winter exploration of Perseverance Valley on the west rim of the Noachian-aged Endeavour Crater.
Opportunity Rear Hazcam image acquired on Sol 4923.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Opportunity has been carrying out science duties, including collecting a Microscopic Image (MI) mosaic of a surface target, and then placed its Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for a multi-sol integration.
Valley photo shoots
While the APXS was integrating, Opportunity continued to collect extensive color panoramas of the surrounding terrain. These image data are part of a complete digital model the rover is assembling of the entire Perseverance Valley.
Opportunity Panoramic Camera image taken on Sol 4924.
Credit: NASA/JPL
With the in-situ (contact) science complete using the APXS, the rover drove on Sol 4922 (Nov. 27, 2017) about 46 feet (14 meters) to the next lily pad (energy favorable location) down the valley. Here Opportunity will continue the extensive image collection and take advantage of any surface targets under her feet.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image taken on Sol 1892, December 2, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is closing out Sol 1892 duties.
Late last week, Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, reported the rover was preparing to hit the road for a next stop on Vera Rubin Ridge.
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Left B photo acquired on Sol 1892, December 2, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Unique patch of terrain
Curiosity’s Mastcam was slated to take a multispectral image of the region where the robot will be headed over the next few days, Salvatore said, “in an effort to fully characterize the spectral diversity of this location and to compare with orbital remote sensing data.”
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1891, December 1, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The rover is slated to continue wheeling to the southeast, headed for a “unique patch” of terrain that appears interesting in high-resolution orbital data. “The hope is to reach this unit on this drive, as that will allow the science team to investigate this interesting region over the duration of the weekend’s plan,” Salvatore added.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Curiosity Navcam Right B photo acquired on Sol 1891, December 1, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Traverse map
Meanwhile, a new Curiosity traverse map has been issued.
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1891 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (December 01, 2017).
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 1889 to Sol 1891, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 45.65 feet (13.91 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 11.06 miles (17.81 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 1891, December 1, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
