Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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April 3rd, 2017
Credit: Lockheed Martin
An orbital Mars Base Camp could be circling the Red Planet in 2028, a facility housing researchers to unlock key questions about that complex planet as prelude to a human expedition setting foot on the far-away world.
Joystick exploration
Circling Mars in a highly elliptical orbit, the six-person Mars Base Camp would make use of virtual reality, immersive technology, and artificial intelligence to joystick advanced rovers and other craft on the planet in real-time.
Credit: Lockheed Martin
Thanks to continuous, high-data rate communications, the Mars Base Camp is designed to vastly amplify the collection of imagery and scientific facts gleaned from multiple sites on the planet – data amassed over a full year of real-time exploration.
For more information on this innovative approach to human exploration of Mars, go to my new Space.com story at:
‘Mars Base Camp’: Lockheed Fleshes Out Red Planet Space Station Plan
By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
April 3, 2017 08:00am ET
http://www.space.com/36312-mars-base-camp-astronauts-2028.html
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Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image taken on Sol 1653, March 31, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars is now performing science duties during Sol 1654.
A three-sol plan has been scripted that involves the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo shoot of the first scoop location (OG1). The fine-grained portion of “Ogunquit Beach” Scoop #1 (now named “OG1”).
Here’s the scoop! Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1651, March 29, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Imaging suites
First sol work calls for use of Mastcam and Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) imaging for change detection. The second sol involves a number of remote sensing activities, starting with a long morning imaging suite for environmental monitoring observations, reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona and Michael Battalio, a Ph.D. candidate in atmospheric science at Texas A&M.
Sand laden topside of Curiosity rover. Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1653, March 31, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The imaging suites are special observations that include Navcam cloud movies and dust opacity measurements from both Navcam and Mastcam at an early morning time, when the rover is usually asleep and recharging,” they report.
Mosaic of Vera Rubin Ridge
On the schedule, the sol 1655 imaging suite is a long version that also includes a Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) passive sky measurement, which seeks to determine the chemical composition of the air near Curiosity.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1653, March 31, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
All of these measurements are duplicated in the afternoon to check for diurnal variability. Later in the afternoon, the script calls for taking a large Mastcam mosaic of “Vera Rubin Ridge,” for both stereo and multispectral analysis of the prominent ridge at the base of Mt. Sharp.
“We’ll also acquire a multispectral Mastcam image of the area observed by the Ground Temperature Sensor (GTS) to help with thermal modeling and grain size determination,” Edgar and Battalio report. The plan also includes the usual Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons measurements.
Additional REMS observations have been added to the plan to determine if the REMS GTS is affected by an increase in winds in the afternoon.
Laser pulses in Mars sand. Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo acquired on Sol 1653 March 31, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Dust devil movie
The second sol also includes more Mastcam change detection observations, and a large Navcam 15-frame dust devil movie to attempt to capture movement in individual dust devils and to estimate the amount of dust lifted by a range of vortex sizes.
Edgar and Battalio report that on the third sol, ChemCam will perform some calibration activities and analyze targets “Kamankeag” and “Hamlin Peak” to assess the composition of Murray bedrock and a small ripple.
Next week, look for more dune campaign activities.
Wang Xiaojun, commander-in-chief of Long March-7.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
Chinese space engineers are busily readying the country’s Tianzhou-1 – a resupply spacecraft.
A Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket will boost the cargo vehicle into space next month, blasting off from China’s Wenchang Launch Center, Hainan Province.
China’s cargo ship will dock with the now-orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab and refuel that facility.
Credit: CMSE
The launch of Tianzhou-1 faces challenges as the rocket’s launch window has to be accurate to a second, explains Wang Xiaojun, commander-in-chief of Long March-7.
“Rockets are composed of a complex system. And the operational procedure before the launch is also very complex. If there is a problem in any step in the process, it will be difficult for us to guarantee the zero window launch,” Wang told CCTV in a video interview.
Zero launch window
The cargo spacecraft will dock with the already orbiting, but unoccupied, Tiangong-2 space lab, and that requires a precise launch window accurate to a second, hence the name “zero launch window.”
Tianzhou-1 supply ship.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
There’s another launch issue. That is, the rainy weather in south China’s Hainan Province that can impact the launch time.
Wang underscores the fact that rocket designers have made the rocket waterproof – reportedly China’s first carrier rocket capable of being launched in rain.
Space lab link-ups
If successfully launched, the Tianzhou-1 is expected to dock with the Tiangong-2 space lab three times to evaluate rendezvous, docking, and refueling techniques.
The rocket will be launched in April “when the time is right,” said Che Zhuming, a senior engineer at the launch center in a previous CCTV interview.
Meanwhile, China’s space monitoring and control vessel team has also entered a key phase of its preparation, at the ready for the upcoming Tianzhou-1 liftoff.
Future plans
Tiangong-2 (Heavenly Palace-2) was lobbed into space in mid-September 2016. A two-person Shenzhou 11 successfully docked with Tiangong-2 in October 2016. Veteran space flyer, Jing Haipeng commanded the mission, with first-time space flyer, Chen Dong, forming the inaugural crew for the space laboratory.
Credit: CSIS
The crew landed successfully after their 33-day space mission on November 18, 2016.
China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo vessel is a key element of the country’s future plans to construct a multi-module space station in the 2020s.
For a recent CCTV-Plus video on Tianzhou-1 launch preparations, go to:
http://cd-pv.news.cctvplus.com/2017/0311/8045131_Preview_8198.mp4
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space.
Credit: Lockheed Martin
To get a leg up on leaving low Earth orbit, dispatching humans back to the Moon…or full throttle and go for the gusto by sending crews to Mars…or?
Private firm foothold on Mars? SpaceX Red Dragon makes use of Supersonic Retro-Propulsion (SRP) to land on Mars.
Credit: SpaceX
If you’re seeking advice look no further than the recent 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), held March 21-25. Scientists unleashed the latest findings regarding Earth’s Moon, Mars, asteroids, comets and a myriad of other objects of interest. Whereas robotic space exploration is the persistent currency of discovery, seeing humans return as beyond Earth exploration agents is viewed positively.
For more details, go to my new Scientific American story at:
Red Planet versus Dead Planet: Scientists Debate Next Destination for Astronauts in Space
Credit: Clouds AO
Yes, it’s filed under speculative, space, architecture.
But the New York-based Clouds Architecture Office (Clouds AO) has released details of “Analemma” and a system referred to as the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS).
Credit: Clouds AO
This same group worked with NASA recently to create a Mars Ice Home.
Overall, the group’s new concept trump’s Trump Tower!
Super tall tower
In the group’s new idea, by placing a large asteroid into orbit over Earth, a high strength cable can be lowered towards the surface of earth from which a super tall tower can be suspended. Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location.
Credit: Clouds AO
Clouds AO’s proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one fifth the cost of New York City construction.
The bottom line is that the concept inverts the traditional diagram of an Earth-based foundation, instead depending on a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended.
Figure-8 form
Orbital mechanics for Analemma: geosynchronous orbit matches Earth’s sidereal rotation period of one day. The tower’s position in the sky traces out a path in a figure-8 form, returning the tower to exactly the same position in the sky each day.
Credit: Clouds AO
Clouds AO explains that manipulating asteroids is no longer relegated to science fiction.
“Analemma can be placed in an eccentric geosynchronous orbit which would allow it to travel between the northern and southern hemispheres on a daily loop. The ground trace for this pendulum tower would be a figure eight, where the tower would move at its slowest speed at the top and bottom of the figure eight allowing the possibility for the towers occupants to interface with the planet’s surface at these points. The proposed orbit is calibrated so the slowest part of the towers trajectory occurs over New York City.
Credit: Clouds AO
Electromagnetic elevators
As detailed by Clouds AO, “Analemma would get its power from space-based solar panels. Installed above the dense and diffuse atmosphere, these panels would have constant exposure to sunlight, with a greater efficiency than conventional PV installations. Water would be filtered and recycled in a semi-closed loop system, replenished with condensate captured from clouds and rainwater. Developments in cable-less electromagnetic elevators have effectively shattered height restrictions imposed by elevator cable spool volume.”
Credit: Clouds AO
Height limit?
While researching atmospheric conditions for this project, Clouds AO experts realized that there is probably a tangible height limit beyond which people would not tolerate living due to the extreme conditions. For example, while there may be a benefit to having 45 extra minutes of daylight at an elevation of 32,000 meters, the near vacuum and -40C temperature would prevent people from going outside without a protective suit.
“Then again,” the Clouds AO website explains, “astronauts have continually occupied the space station for decades, so perhaps it’s not so bad?”
Credit: Clouds AO
High cost of construction
Analemma Tower is a proposal for the world’s tallest building ever.
“Harnessing the power of planetary design thinking, it taps into the desire for extreme height, seclusion and constant mobility. If the recent boom in residential towers proves that sales price per square foot rises with floor elevation, then Analemma Tower will command record prices, justifying its high cost of construction,” the Clouds AO website explains.
For more information on this innovative group, go to:
Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from the New Horizon’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).
Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI
After more than a decade of controversy, the debate over the icy world’s demotion to “dwarf planet” status shows no sign of stopping.
The upshot from the vote to downgrade Pluto as a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) continues to swirl around a major axis of dispute.
Turns out, it’s a world also caught in a vortex of nomenclature, planetary pedagogy, as well as a slight nudge from ambivalence.
Leonard David (left) at last week’s 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, interviewing Kirby Runyon about his Pluto as a planet campaign.
Courtesy: Kirby Runyon
New Horizons
There is no question that the July 14, 2015 flyby of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft – the first probe to do so – has sparked more debate about the famous object’s Solar System standing. That far flung craft revealed surprising, eye-opening detail about Pluto and its entourage of moons.
Back into the “planetary ‘hood?
But while plugging back Pluto into the “planetary ‘hood” is being advanced, it’s arguably a tough call.
For more on the debate, discussion, controversy, take a look at my new story for Scientific American at:
Mars rover Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken Sol 1648, March 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is busy working science duties, now in Sol 1651.
“Sol 1650 activities completed as expected, so it’s time to start scooping,” reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
The plan focused on acquiring Scoop #1 and dropping off a portion of the sample to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image acquired on Sol 1650, March 28, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“This is the first of four intended scoops at this location, aimed at sampling different grain sizes and their composition,” Edgar adds.
Wheel scuff
In the plan, a Mastcam mosaic of “Kennebago Divide” is to document some possible layering exposed by the wheel scuff on the right side of the robot’s workspace.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1650, March 28, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We’ll also take several Mastcam images for change detection to monitor active sand movement,” Edgar notes. Then the arm backbone was slated to start retracting the arm and a vibration was to clean the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).
Ripple crest
After that, the plan called for use of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to image “Flanders Bay” and Scoop #1 locations (prior to
scooping), and a very close-up image of the “Avery Peak” ripple crest.
“Next up, we’ll acquire Scoop #1! The sample will be sieved, and the fine-grained portion (<150 microns) will be delivered to SAM. These are all very power intensive activities so there wasn’t much room for other science during Sol 1650, but the plan today should accommodate more activities and context observations.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, acquired this image on Sol 1650, March 28, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“In the meantime, sitting on ‘Ogunquit Beach’ is providing a pretty great view,” Edgar concludes.
New traverse map
Meanwhile a new Curiosity traverse map has been released, showing the route taken by the robot trough Sol 1648.
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/University of Arizona
This map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1648 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars as of March 27, 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 1646 to Sol 1648, Curiosity drove a straight line distance of about 23.97 feet (7.31 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 9.89 miles (15.92 kilometers).
A future Mars protected from the direct solar
wind should come to a new equilibrium allowing an extensive atmosphere to support liquid water on its surface.
Credit: J.L.Green, et al.
Credit for background image: Michael Carroll
What are the prospects for altering the environment of Mars more to our liking?
Can the Red Planet be terraformed was recently spotlighted during last week’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) held at The Woodlands, Texas.
Terraforming serves up a variety of meanings, be it raising the pressure and temperature enough to allow intermittent liquid water and possible plant growth, to increasing the pressure and temperature so that humans could work directly on the Mars surface, requiring only breathing apparatus to provide oxygen
Two phase approach
A “terraforming timeline” has been outlined by Aaron Berliner at the University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, and Chris McKay of the NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California.
In their LPSC poster paper, they explain that terraforming Mars can be divided into two phases:
- Warming the planet from the present average surface temperature of -60ºC to a value close to Earth’s average temperature to +15ºC, and recreating a thick carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere. This warming phase is relatively easy and quick, and could take roughly 100 years.
- The second phase is producing levels of oxygen in the atmosphere that would allow humans and other large mammals to breathe normally. This oxygenation phase is relatively difficult and would take 100,000 years or more, unless one postulates a technological breakthrough.
Wanted: roadmap
The researchers propose, in part, that given the long-term timeline of a possible terraforming endeavor, there’s need to develop a roadmap that outlines the technological processes and advancements required to terraform the Red Planet.
That roadmap would involve adaptation of current and future robotic Martian missions for measuring specific elemental and mineral samples such that a geolocated Martian resource database can be constructed. Also there’s need for mathematical modeling of Martian terraforming to calculate costs for a specific set of terraform-related reactions.
Scene from “Mars,” a National Geographic Channel miniseries.
Credit: National Geographic, Imagine, RadicalMedia, Robert Viglasky
Start now
In addition, Berliner and McKay see a focused synthetic biology initiative for engineering organisms for Martian in-situ resource utilization. In addition they advise development of localized para-terraforming systems for evaluating processes in a controlled area on Martian surface and subsurface via probes.
Furthermore, the researchers envision a planetary protection agreement describing restrictions of terraforming processes “such that Mars can be maintained for future studies and terraforming can be explored beyond experimental and computational means.”
The Mars specialists report that such a roadmap should be started now, as it will require the input from many communities within space sciences, astrobiology, geosciences, and biological sciences.
CO2 deliverables
According to Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the terraforming of Mars in the near term is not feasible.
Artist concept of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Terraforming Mars would involve putting enough carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere to provide substantial greenhouse warming.
“Is enough CO2 available to do this? No,” explains Jakosky who is also the scientific leader of NASA’s now orbiting Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission that is busily studying the Martian atmosphere.
“It is not feasible today, using existing technology or concepts, to carry out any activities that significantly increase the atmospheric CO2 pressure and/or provide any significant warming of the planet,” he explains in a poster paper presented at the LPSC last week.
Extremely limited
Jakosky and his co-author, Christopher Edwards of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, conclude that the ability to release enough CO2 into the Mars atmosphere to provide any significant greenhouse warming is “extremely limited.”
This is the case even if most of the CO2 present on early Mars still remained on the planet, locked up in adsorbed gas and carbonates. Greenhouse warming is further limited in the likely event that the bulk of the early CO2 has been lost to space, as suggested by recent measurements.
While greenhouse warming is still conceivable by large-scale manufacturing of chlorofluorocarbons, as some researchers have suggested, this approach “is very far into the future at best.”
To view the full abstracts and more information presented in the two papers, go to:
The Terraforming Timeline
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/1032.pdf
Can Mars Be Terrraformed?
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/1193.pdf
Artist’s impression of the ExoMars 2020 rover and Russia’s stationary surface platform in background.
Credit:
ESA/ATG medialab
(Update: March 28, 2017)
Two ancient sites on Mars that hosted an abundance of water in the planet’s early history have been recommended as the final candidates for the landing site of the 2020 ExoMars rover and surface science platform: Oxia Planum and Mawrth Vallis.
The process to decide where Europe’s ExoMars rover will scout about on the Red Planet is underway this week.
In late 2015, one site – Oxia Planum – had been recommended as the primary focus for further detailed evaluation, with two other sites retained for discussion. Now experts will determine whether it will be Aram Dorsum or Mawrth Vallis that will also be put forward to study in further detail.
Landing sites
Aram Dorsum comes with a channel, curving from northeast to west across the location. The sedimentary rocks around the channel are thought to be alluvial sediments deposited much like those around Earth’s River Nile.
Mawrth Vallis is one of the oldest outflow channels on Mars, at least 3.8 billion years old. It hosts large exposures of finely layered clay-rich rocks, indicating that water once played a role here.
Oxia Planum contains one of the largest exposures of ancient – approximately 3.8 billion years old – clay-rich rocks on the planet. The finely layered formations record a variety of deposition and wetting environments believed to be similar to that of Mawrth Vallis.
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
ESA/Russia
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars rover and Russia’s stationary surface science platform are scheduled for launch in July 2020, arriving at Mars in March 2021.
A key objective of ExoMars is establishing whether life ever existed on Mars. Therefore the chosen site should be ancient – around 3.9 billion years old – with abundant evidence of water having been present for extended periods.
Drill depth
ESA’s rover is factory equipped with a drill that is capable of extracting samples from depths of over 6 feet (2 meters).
According to an ESA statement regarding drill depth, “this is crucial, because the present surface of Mars is a hostile place for living organisms owing to the harsh solar and cosmic radiation. By searching underground, the rover has more chance of finding preserved evidence.”
Drill samples are to be delivered to the Analytical Laboratory Drawer (ALD) in the body of the rover, via a sample delivery window.
ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter, now in Mars orbit since October 2016, will serve as a relay station for the ExoMars rover mission, as it continues to press on with its own science agenda.
For an informative overview of the ESA Mars rover, go to:
http://exploration.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=58857
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket successfully launched the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane on May 20, 2015.
Credit: ULA
The hush-hush mission by the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane has sailed past a previous program record for time in orbit.
Launched atop an Atlas booster on May 20, 2015, the OTV-4 (Orbital Test Vehicle-4) has winged past 674 days – a long-duration flight milestone for the program reached back in October 2014.
The first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle waits in the encapsulation cell of the Evolved Expendable Launch vehicle on April 5, 2010 at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla. Half of the Atlas V five-meter fairing is visible in the background.
Credit: U.S. Air Force
The robotic mini-space plane now in orbit is one of two reusable X-37B vehicles that constitute the space plane “fleet.” Also, this current OTV-4 space trek is the second flight of the second X-37B vehicle built for the Air Force by Boeing.
Space drone
Appearing like a miniature version of NASA’s now-retired space shuttle orbiter, the reusable military space plane is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 9.6 feet (2.9 meters) tall, and has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.6 meters).
The space drone has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed that can be outfitted with a robotic arm. It has a launch weight of 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) and is powered on orbit gallium arsenide solar cells with lithium-ion batteries.
A third mission of the Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle was completed on Oct. 17, 2014, when it landed and was recovered at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California following a successful 674-day space mission. The upcoming space plane flight – on the program’s fourth mission — may land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: Boeing
Track record
What this “winged warrior” is doing high above Earth is an on-going, tight-lipped affair.
Some payloads onboard the OTV-4 craft have been previously identified.
For example, Aerojet Rocketdyne has said that its XR-5A Hall Thruster had completed initial on-orbit validation testing onboard the X-37B space plane. Also onboard is a NASA advanced materials investigation.
The first OTV mission began April 22, 2010, and concluded on Dec. 3, 2010, after 224 days in orbit.
The second OTV mission began March 5, 2011, and concluded on June 16, 2012, after 468 days on orbit.
An OTV-3 mission chalked up nearly 675 days in orbit when it landed Oct. 17, 2014.
Recovery crew members process the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle at Vandenberg Air Force Base after the program’s third mission complete.
Credit: Boeing
Land ho?
There’s no telling how long the now-orbiting space plane will continue to fly. All the OTV craft to date have guided their way on auto-pilot to a Vandenberg Air Force Base, California tarmac-touchdown.
But that could change with the OTV-4 mission.
What is known is that progress has been made on consolidating X-37B space plane operations, including use of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida as a landing site for the robotic space plane.
A former KSC space-shuttle facility known as Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-1) was converted into a structure that will enable the Air Force “to efficiently land, recover, refurbish and relaunch the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV),” according to Boeing.
Former shuttle processing area at the Kennedy Space Center has been overhauled by Boeing to prep the military’s secretive X-37B space plane.
Credit: Malcolm Glenn
Rapid capabilities
The X-37B vehicle development falls under the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems in El Segundo, California, the firm’s center for all space and experimental systems and government and commercial satellites.
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is leading the Department of Defense’s OTV initiative, by direction of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Secretary of the Air Force.
What’s up?
“The Air Force continues to push the envelope of what the X37B can do, likely toward determining operational mission capabilities in the future,” explains Joan Johnson-Freese, Professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College. “It remains unclear what capabilities the spacecraft will add to those already available, other than duration in orbit,” she told Inside Outer Space.
