Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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January 29th, 2017
Candidate and confirmed RSL sites in the hydrated sulfate layered deposits or in craters near the layered
deposits. Background map is Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topography.
Credit: Stillman, et al.
One of the more intriguing findings on Mars of late has been spotting recurring slope lineae in certain areas of the Red Planet.
These dark fingers of mystery – RSL in Mars shorthand — emerge from steep, rocky exposures. They incrementally grow, fade, and reform on a seasonal basis.
But what RSL truly represent is controversial. Some researchers say they are suggestive that liquid water occurs on or near the surface of Mars today.
More to the point are RSL created via brine or just small rock/debris falls?
Opportunity rover observation
The upcoming 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), to be held March 20-24 in The Woodlands, Texas, promises to be a meeting of the minds on enigmatic RSL.
(Left) This HiRISE image shows the darkest and longest candidate RSL at Cape Victory on the SW rim of Victoria crater. Other HiRISE images show these candidate RSL recurring and fading.
(Right) False color Pancam image from Opportunity (MER-B) at Cape Verde on 04 November 4, 2006. This image shows the candidate RSL beneath Cape Victory as viewed by the rover. The arrow points to the same candidate RSL in (a) and (b).
Credit: Stillman, et al.
For example, new research is being presented that NASA’s Opportunity rover has detected candidate RSL sites in Cape Victory on the southwest side of Victoria crater and on the east side of Endeavour Crater.
Opportunity is a true veteran of Mars exploration. The wheeled robot just cruised past 13 years of service on the Red Planet; it landed on Mars on January 24, 2004.
Superimposed Opportunity rover on Rim of Victoria Crater (Artist Concept).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Solar System Visualization Team
The rover is now heading south, across rough and steep terrain, along the rim of Endeavour Crater. Its current scientific objective is to investigate a gully about a kilometer south of its current location.
As of Sol 4623 (Jan. 24, 2017, the total odometry for Opportunity since landing is 27.26 miles (43.87 kilometers).
Opportunity traverse map.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Serendipitously imaged
Research led by David Stillman of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, is to be presented at the LPSC – including a look at the first image of a candidate RSL recorded from the surface of Mars.
This feature was serendipitously imaged via the Panoramic Camera (Pancam) on Opportunity at Cape Verde back in November 2006, Stillman and his colleagues report.
The candidate RSL in Cape Victory is roughly 40 feet (12 meters) long and has been seen in over a dozen Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) images. Those images show recurrence and fading of the feature, but no incremental lengthening.
Confirmed, candidate sites
In introducing their research, Stillman and his fellow researchers note: “To gain insight into the formation and recharge mechanism(s) of recurring slope lineae (RSL), we have been using HiRISE images to search for candidate RSL sites. As of the December 2016 HiRISE release, we have cataloged 577 candidate RSL sites, of which 74 have been confirmed to exhibit RSL.”
Built by Ball Aerospace, the HiRISE camera system on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter yields unmatched views of layered materials, gullies, channels, and other science targets and also characterizes possible future landing sites for robotic and human missions.
Credit: NASA
Confirmed sites show recurrence, incremental lengthening, and fading of dark lineae, the researchers explain, while candidate RSL sites have dark lineae that look like RSL but do not possess all three of the characteristics in available imagery.
Close to Curiosity
Stillman and his research colleagues also note in their LPSC research – “Dark Lineae on the Equatorial Layered Deposits; Are these Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL) or Small Debris Flows?” — that candidate RSL near the Curiosity Mars rover have been detected to fade and recur.
This site is roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Curiosity’s current locale, with plans for the rover to drive much closer to the feature, enabling future imaging of the candidate RSL.
In their research, Stillman adds that candidate RSL are detected in most HiRISE images covering layered deposits with hydrated sulfates.
Self image taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.
Can it probe makeup of RSL? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Exploration implications
“If additional HiRISE images are able to confirm that RSL are being formed at locations where groundwater reached and altered the surface billions of years ago, this finding would support the hypothesis that RSL are formed and recharged via groundwater and that discharge groundwater is accessible to search or extant life or to be used as a resource for human exploration,” the researchers conclude.
Alternatively, the research team adds, “if these dark lineae never show incremental lengthening, fading, and recurrence, then we conclude that dark lineae in the hydrated sulfate layered deposits are debris flows. This would suggest these layered deposits are weak and could be used to chemically extract water from as a resource for human exploration.”
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Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1591, January 27, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Now in Sol 1593, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is set to carry out an agenda of science duties.
The Red Planet robot drove 26 feet (8 meters) on Sol 1591, with this weekend’s plan calling for additional driving.
Curiosity has carried out a wheel inspection, images that show damage given the one-ton rover’s rolling over Martian rocks since landing.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo acquired on Sol 1591, January 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Three sol plan
The three-sol plan — 1593-1595 — starts with a few data management activities for Mastcam and the robot’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), and a recovery sequence to restart the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) after it was marked “sick,” reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo acquired on Sol 1591, January 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Also on tap is taking Mastcam mosaics of “Dead River” and “Boil Mountain” to investigate laminations within the Murray formation and provide some context imaging of the “Misery” outcrop.
Edgar reports that this duty will be followed by use of MAHLI and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) to study “Misery” and “Dead River,” with an overnight APXS integration on “Misery.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo acquired on Sol 1591, January 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Atmospheric opacity
On the second sol, Curiosity is to wake up early for some environmental monitoring observations, including some Navcam movies and Mastcam imaging to assess atmospheric opacity, Edgar adds.
The plan calls for another Mastcam mosaic of “Ireson Hill” to document the stratigraphy with long baseline stereo imaging.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1591, January 26, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Contact science
The third sol includes additional environmental monitoring, a drive, post-drive imaging for targeting, and preparing for more contact science.
Edgar says that Curiosity will also perform a Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite evolved gas experiment to use the residual derivatization vapor in the sample manipulation system.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1591, January 27, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Since landing in August 2012, through Sol 1591, Curiosity has driven 9.53 miles (15.34 kilometers).
Eu:CROPIS – short for Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space.
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
A satellite is slated for launch later this year that will conduct plant growth experiments in both lunar and Martian gravity.
The spacecraft is Eu:CROPIS – short for Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space. Eu:CROPIS is an experiment by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).
Rotational force
During its mission, the Eu:CROPIS spacecraft will rotate around its own axis at an altitude of over 370 miles (600 kilometers), initially producing the gravitational force of the Moon within it for six months, and will then replicate Martian gravity for another six months.
During this time, tomato seeds will germinate and grow into small space tomatoes under the watchful eye of 16 cameras.
Tomato seeds will germinate and grow into small space tomatoes under the watchful eye of 16 cameras.
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
An entire group of microorganisms contained in a trickle filter will use synthetic urine to produce a nourishing fertilizer for the tomatoes; euglena will also be transported on board to supply the hermetic system with additional protection against excess ammonia and to produce oxygen.
LED light will be used to provide the day/night rhythm that the euglena and tomato seed require. A pressure tank will replicate the Earth’s atmosphere.
Local source of fresh food
The satellite, to be lofted via a SpaceX Flacon 9 booster this year, will be controlled by the German Space Operations Center (GSOC), which is operated by DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, while the ground station in Weilheim, among others, will handle communications.
“Ultimately, we are simulating and testing greenhouses that could be assembled inside a lunar or Martian habitat to provide the crew with a local source of fresh food,” explains DLR biologist Jens Hauslage, head of the scientific part of the mission in a press statement. “The system would do this by managing the controlled conversion of waste into fertilizer.”
Eu:CROPIS spacecraft undergoes testing.
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
Hauslage notes that in a lunar habitat, for instance, the greenhouse would be located in the astronauts’ ‘home’ in a simulated Earth atmosphere. Urine would be one of the waste products the astronauts would produce in abundance. Here, the plants would have to adapt to reduced gravity conditions – the gravitational pull on the Moon is approximately one sixth of what it is on Earth, and on Mars it is around one third.
Space test of technology
Once Eu:CROPIS and its scientific payload reach space, the first stage will be to activate the greenhouse that will simulate a lunar environment. The second greenhouse with Martian gravity will be activated six months later.
By this time, the microorganisms, tomato seeds and euglena will have been exposed to cosmic radiation for six months. That’s the equivalent to a flight to Mars. The DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine will measure the radiation exposure inside and outside the satellite throughout the entire mission.
DLR technicians work on Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space experiment, to be launched later this year.
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
“We are using Eu:CROPIS to space test technology for use in habitats on other celestial bodies, but it could be installed just as well in a terrestrial setting,” says Hauslage.
For instance, trickle filters can be fitted to make manure more effective and less odorous. Recycling urine in conurbations, for instance in greenhouses installed in high-rise buildings (vertical farms), would be another possible use.
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1589, January 24, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is carrying out science duties during Sol 1591.
The Sol 1589 and Sol 1590 plan went well, with the robot wheeling roughly 102 feet (31 meters).
Still sick
Curiosity’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) remains “sick” and some diagnostic activities are being planned for the upcoming weekend, reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1590, January 25, 2017
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are approaching the Bagnold Dunes,” Anderson adds, “so in order to save time and allow more room for science activities at the dunes, today’s plan does not include a drive.”
Wheel inspection
Instead, on the plan is a Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) check-up of the rover wheels.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1590, January 25, 2017
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Prior to that wheel inspection, the Sol 1591 plan starts with Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and MAHLI of the bedrock target “Munsungun,” followed by Mastcam of “Daniel Island” and “Chapman.”
Short bump
“After the MAHLI images of the wheels, we will do a short ‘bump’ drive to get in position for weekend science,” Anderson says.
Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite is slated to do an evolved gas experiment overnight.
Then on Sol 1592, the robot’s Navcam is scheduled for a dust devil search and Mastcam has some multispectral images of Hematite Ridge.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image acquired on Sol 1589, January 24, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mastcam also has a small stereo mosaic of “Maple Mountain.”
Driving distance
A map the Curiosity rover’s location for Sol 1589 was released on January 25.
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1589 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on the Red Planet that began in August 2012.
Numbering of the dots along the map line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up.
The base image from this map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
From Sol 1587 to Sol 1589, Curiosity has driven a straight line distance of about 94.78 feet (28.89 meters).
Since touching down in Bradbury Landing in August 2012, Curiosity has driven 9.53 miles (15.34 kilometers).
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1588, January 23, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing science duties as it works its way through Sol 1589.
This past weekend saw the robot drive roughly 92 feet (28 meters), reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1587, January 22, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Heavy on observations
The plan for Sol 1589 has the rover continuing its slow ascent of Mt. Sharp. Curiosity’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) remains in a “sick” condition, with ground teams trying to sort out the error that occurred last week.
The upshot is that the robot’s Sol 1589 science block is heavy on Mastcam observations.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo acquired on Sol 1586, January 21, 2017. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
After Navcam does an observation to watch for dust devils, Ryan adds that Mastcam will collect mosaics of the targets “Cape Elizabeth,” “Mount Battle,” “Mount Blue,” and “Hematite Ridge.”
Squeezing between rocks
Following this planned duty, Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is slated to measure the composition of “Cape Elizabeth” and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is on tap to take supporting pictures.
Once the robot’s arm activity is done the rover will drive about 98 feet (30 meters), squeezing between a couple of large rocks, Ryan notes, toward some bedrock that looks good for more contact science.
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1587, January 22, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
After the drive, Curiosity will carry out standard post-drive imaging.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
Work is underway in China to carry out the first Moon-sample return to Earth mission in over four decades.
Liftoff of Chang’e-5 is to occur at the end of November, according to the Xinhua news agency. The robotic craft is to ride atop China’s Long March-5 booster, departing from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan Province.
Four-part probe
According to Chinese news services, the over 8-ton Chang’e-5 is comprised of four parts: the “orbiter” “lander” “ascender” and a “returner” – an Earth reentry module.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
The mission will be China’s first automated Moon surface sampling probe, a mission that involves the first robotic docking in a lunar orbit to transfer collected lunar samples for return to Earth.
The lander will place lunar samples in a vessel in the ascender after the Moon landing. Then the ascender will take off from the lunar surface to dock with the orbiter and the returner orbiting the moon, and transfer the samples to the returner.
The orbiter and returner then head back to Earth, separating from each other far from Earth, with the returner module reentering and parachuting to Earth.
China’s Chang’e 3 lander.
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Past history
If successful, the Chang’e-5 mission would be the first lunar sample return to Earth in over 40 years.
The former Soviet Union successfully executed three robotic sample return missions: Luna 16 returned a small sample (101 grams) from Mare Fecunditatis in September of 1970; February 1972, Luna 20 returned 55 grams of soil from the Apollonius highlands region; Luna 24 retrieved 170.1 grams of lunar samples from the Moon’s Mare Crisium (Sea of Crisis) for return to Earth in August 1976.
Relay station
China plans to fulfill three strategic steps with the launch of Chang’e-5, “orbiting, landing and returning.”
The first spacecraft of China’s Moon program, the Chang’e 1 lunar orbiter, was launched in 2007, after which Chang’e 2 was launched in 2010. Chang’e 3, included a lander and rover and was launched in December 2013, successfully soft-landing on the Moon.
China’s Yutu lunar rover.
Also on the country’s Moon exploration schedule is the launch of the Chang’e-4 lunar probe around 2018.
Chang’e-4 is designed to make the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, and to conduct an in situ and roving detection and relay communications at the Earth-Moon L2 point, according to the China National Space Administration.
“The country plans to send robots to explore both lunar poles,” said the administration’s vice director Wu Yanhua late last year, adding that plans to send astronauts to the Moon were also being discussed, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Human exploration
Also last year, Tian Yulong, chief engineer of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) noted that “lunar exploration is endless.”
Tian said that China is in discussion with the European Space Agency and other countries “to build bases and carry out scientific investigations on the Moon, which will lay a technology and material foundation for human beings’ landing on the Moon in the future.”
For a behind-the-scenes look at getting China’s Chang’e-5 ready for its lunar mission, go to this CCTV-Plus video:
http://cd-pv.news.cctvplus.com/2016/1231/8039831_Preview_1806.mp4
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on January 18, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now at work on its Sol 1587 agenda.
The robot drove 43 feet (13 meters) back on Sol 1585, placing the Mars machinery in a good position for contact science.
“But the telemetry also showed that ChemCam [Chemistry & Camera] had been marked ‘sick,’ so we will not be able to use ChemCam this weekend while the problem is diagnosed,” notes Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Full weekend plan
Sol 1586’s plan called for the rover’s Right Mastcam to acquire small mosaics of nearby rocks named “Bell Brook,” “Blind Brook,” and “Beck Pond,” then Left Mastcam is slated to take another image of the rover deck to look for changes in the dust and sand on the deck.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1586, January 21, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The rover was scheduled to rest until late that afternoon, when the illumination will be good for Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo taking.
MAHLI is to take a single image before the Dust Removal Tool (DRT) is used to brush off a bedrock target dubbed “Belle Lake,” then take a full suite of images (plus extra stereo images) of the brushed spot.
MAHLI is to also acquire a full suite of images of another bedrock target called “Bluffer Pond” before the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) to be placed on the same target for a short integration.
Just before midnight, the APXS is to be placed on Belle Lake for a longer integration.
Multispectral set of images
Herkenhoff adds that on Sol 1587, the arm will be retracted and stowed to allow Mastcam to acquire a full multispectral set of images of Belle Lake.
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1585, January 20, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Navcam is to search for dust devils before the next drive. In addition to the standard post-drive activities, the arm will be unstowed to allow Navcam to take stereo images of the new arm workspace.
Curiosity’s Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) is slated to take images during twilight on Sols 1587 and 1588 to look for any changes due to winds.
Navcam is scheduled to again search for dust devils on Sol 1588, and the robot’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) is on tap to perform some maintenance activities overnight.
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/Univ. of Arizona
Straight line distance
In a map release of January 19, Curiosity’s Location for Sol 1584 shows that the robot has driven a straight line distance of about 101.10 feet (30.82 meters) from Sol 1583 to Sol 1584.
Since touching down in Bradbury Landing in August 2012, Curiosity has driven 9.48 miles (15.26 kilometers) as of Sol 1584.
Credit: TeamIndus
Moonshine – space exploration style!
A team of University of California San Diego (UCSD) engineering students is in ferment – all hopped up to see if beer can be brewed on the Moon.
Their experiment is designed to test the viability of yeast on the Moon. The brewmasters stem from UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering calling themselves “Team Original Gravity.”
They are one of 25 teams selected from a pool of several thousand entries to compete for a spot aboard a moonbound lander/rover planned for launch on Dec. 28, 2017.
TeamIndus
The spacecraft is owned by the Indian startup TeamIndus, an industrious Indian group competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE and a $30 million purse. To win, a privately funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon that explores at least 1,640 feet (500 meters) and transmits high-definition video and images back to Earth.
Credit: TeamIndus
TeamIndus has secured a launch contract from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for a booster flight.
TeamIndus invited experiment ideas from researchers under 25 years of age to imagine, design and build an experiment that will help humankind build sustainable life on the Moon.
Shortlisted experiments
In Phase-I of the “Lab2Moon” challenge, participants were asked to send in a concept note and video of their idea. That generated 3,000 entries from 15 countries and 300+ cities across the globe.
The competition then entered Phase-II in which 25 teams were shortlisted to build prototypes of their concept to showcase to an international jury of experts in March at the finals in Bangalore. Teams from India, Peru, Mexico, USA, UK, Spain and Italy made it to the list.
Other proposed experiment ideas include: radiation shielding using bacteria; effect on plant growth in lunar regolith; lunar sintering of lunar soil; inflatable dome testing; as well as a lunar gene bank for endangered species.
Brewmasters, Johnny Koo, Jared Buchanan, Han Lu Ling, Neeki Ashari, Srivaths Kalyan, and Tavish Traut.
Credit: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications
ALEiens!
In a UCSD press statement, Neeki Ashari, a fifth year bioengineering student at UC San Diego and the team’s PR & Operations Lead: “We all appreciate the craft of beer, and some of us own our own home-brewing kits. When we heard that there was an opportunity to design an experiment that would go up on India’s moonlander, we thought we could combine our hobby with the competition by focusing on the viability of yeast in outer space.”
ALEiens technology by Team Original Gravity.
Credit: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications
Understanding how yeast behaves on the Moon to brewing beer in space is just one application. It’s also important for the development of pharmaceuticals and yeast-containing foods, like bread, Team Original Gravity points out. “The symbiotic relationship between humans and yeast would no doubt be vital for future colonization of the Moon and other planets.”
To view the UCSD Astrobiology Club’s submission for Lab2Moon, go to:’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxkeDwJLo_A
For more information on TeamIndus, go to:
International Space Station as it flies in front of the Moon as seen from ESA’s space science center near Madrid, Spain, on January 14.
Credit: ESA
Observers on Earth have imaged both the International Space Station as well as China’s now un-crewed Tiangong-2 space lab.
The ISS outpost is the largest structure in orbit, spanning the size of a football pitch, but at 400 km altitude it still appears tiny through a telescope.
Sequence of images
Michel Breitfellner, Manuel Castillo, Abel de Burgos and Miguel Perez Ayucar work at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Space Astronomy Center and are members of its astronomy club.
The sky watchers braved freezing temperatures to set up two telescopes with reflex cameras to record a sequence of images as the ISS crossed the face of the Moon.
As the Station could be seen only when in front of the Moon, the group had to press the shutter and hope for the best. “Their calculations were perfect and the result speaks for itself,” notes an ESA statement on the astrophotography.
China’s Tiangong-2 space lab.
Credit: Mariano Ribas
China’s space lab
Meanwhile, satellite sleuth Mariano Ribas from Buenos Aires, Argentina has also released some new imagery of the ISS, as well as China’s Tinagong-2 space lab.
The Chinese space lab was visited late last year by the two-person Shenzhou-11 crew: Jing Haipeng, crew commander and a third-time space traveler, and Chen Dong, a first-time space traveler.
Credit: Mariano Ribas
The two astronauts lived for 30 days onboard Tiangong-2 before returning to Earth – the longest time Chinese astronauts have spent in space and a prelude to that country’s building of a permanent space station in the 2020s.
Cargo spacecraft
In related news from China, the Xinhua news agency has reported that the country’s first cargo spacecraft – the Tianzhou-1 — is set leave its factory site. The Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft has met all the requirements to leave the factory, Xinhua has noted.
The take-off weight of Tianzhou-1 is 13 tons and can contain up to 6 tons of material for docking with the Tiangong-2.
Chinese supply ship — Tianzhou-1 — undergoing pre-flight checks.
Credit: CMSA
That automated spacecraft is to be launched in April from the southern province of Hainan, then dock with the Tiangong-2 space lab and refuel the facility.
Doing so will signal an important step for China in building a space station in the 2020s. These cargo ships are required to transfer necessities from Earth for astronauts aboard the space station.
Opportunity Front Hazcam image taken on Sol 4616.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Two NASA rovers are busily working on the Red Planet – Opportunity and the Curiosity robots.
“Opportunity is mainly traversing uphill to the southwest on Cape Tribulation, trying to get back to the Meridiani Plains to head south to Cape Byron and the top of a gully system before the end of the southern summer.”
That’s the word from Ray Arvidson of Washington University in Saint Louis. He is deputy principal investigator of the rover mission.
Opportunity Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 4616.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Steady progress
Opportunity’s health is steady, Arvidson told Inside Outer Space, although climbing 15 to 20 degree slopes is difficult, he said.
“But steady progress is being made. We are characterizing the Shoemaker formation impact breccia outcrops along the climb uphill,” Arvidson said.
The robot airbag bounced to full stop in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004.
As of Sol 4609 (Jan. 10, 2017), the rover’s total odometry was 27.20 miles (43.77 kilometers).
“Frost Pond” can be seen in the middle of this image. Photo taken by Curiosity Navcam Left B Sol 1583, January 18, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Frost Pond
Elsewhere on Mars, the Curiosity rover is also at work, performing Sol 1584 duties.
On Sol 1583 Curiosity drove 52 feet (16 meters), a trek that set up touch-and-go contact science.
As scripted, the plan for the Mars robot is to start with a short Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) integration on the target “Frost Pond.”
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1580, January 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The intent is to investigate the chemistry of a typical Murray bedrock block, reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Then the plan calls for a full suite of Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images to be taken on the same target.
Search for dust devils
Later in the plan is acquiring a Chemistry& Camera (ChemCam) observation of “Frost Pond” for comparison, and also taking a Mastcam image for documentation.
Curiosity Navcam Left B, Sol 1583 January 18, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We’ll also acquire a small Mastcam mosaic of “Burnt Brook” to investigate some color variations and a Navcam observation to search for dust devils,” Edgar adds.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1580, January 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“After another drive, we’ll take post-drive imaging for targeting. Later in the afternoon we’ll use Mastcam to monitor the movement of fines on the rover deck and take a systematic clast survey,” and ChemCam will take another Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) observation, Edgar concludes.
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.
