Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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December 21st, 2016
Artist’s illustration showing crewmembers arriving at their pre-deployed Mars Ice Home.
Credit: SEArch/Clouds AO
Ice Home is a deployable Mars habitat concept based on an inflatable structure that makes use of In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) derived water ice.
This off-world home could provide a large, flexible, and cost effective workspace that can be used for many of the key activities that are essential for the long term success of a human outpost on Mars.
An inside look at the makeup of the Mars Ice Home.
Credit: SEArch/Clouds AO
The prospect of accessible ice on the Red Planet warms the heart of a collaborative group at the NASA Langley Engineering Design Studio in Hampton, Virginia – an expert team that is chipping away at blueprinting a Mars Ice Home.
For more information, go to my new Space.com story:
‘Mars Ice Home’: Team Chips Away at Off-Earth House’s Design
December 21, 2016 07:30am ET
http://www.space.com/35101-mars-ice-home-design.html
NOTE: Also, here’s a special website for more details on the team effort:
http://www.cloudsao.com/MARS-ICE-HOME
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Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1552, December 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now in Sol 1555, the Curiosity Mars rover made a short weekend drive. The robot is now at a new location “with plenty of science targets to choose from,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. “It has been quite a while since we had a plan with this many new target names!”
The Sol 1555 plan starts off with a remote sensing science block. Navcam and Mastcam both have atmospheric observations, and then the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) will analyze four targets: “Somes Sound,” “Schoodic Peninsula,” “South Bubble,” and “Schooner Head.”
Curiosity acquired this Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo on December 17, 2016, Sol 1552. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity’s Mastcam is slated then to acquire a number of mosaics covering the targets “Old Soaker,” “Squid Cove,” “Sieur de Monts,” “Goat Trail” and “Bald Peak.”
Short bump
Later on Sol 1555, the plan calls for a short “bump” to position the rover for possible contact science, Anderson explains. “After the bump, we’ll collect some post-drive images to help with targeting.”
On Sol 1556, on the schedule is use of the robot’s Navcam to make an atmospheric observation to watch for clouds.
Sol 1557 is slated to involve a routine engineering diagnostic activity for the Hazcams, “but otherwise Sols 1556 and 1557 are pretty quiet,” Anderson concludes.
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1554, December 19, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
Traverse map
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Curiosity website has posted a new “Traverse Map” showing the robot’s trek through Sol 1553.
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1553 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars, as of December 19, 2016.
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).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
From Sol 1526 to Sol 1553, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 24.20 feet (7.38 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 9.34 miles (15.03 kilometers).
Full Moon…full of lava tubes?
Credit: NASA/JPL
There is “mounting evidence” from a number of lunar probes that suggest the presence of vacant lava tubes under the surface of the Moon.
“Such large sub-lunarean structures would be of great benefit to future human exploration of the Moon, providing shelter from the harsh environment at the surface,” reports a Purdue University research team.
Indeed, some of those Moon tubes may be more than a kilometer in width.
Sub-surface stability
The team, led by David Blair of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue, have reported on “The structural stability of lunar lava tubes,” reporting their findings in the scientific journal, Icarus.
Blair and his colleagues also tackled whether or not empty lava tubes of this size are stable under lunar conditions? Furthermore, what is the largest size at which they could remain structurally sound?
The Purdue team addressed these questions by creating “elasto-plastic finite element models” of lava tubes using the Abaqus modeling software and examining where there is local material failure in the tube’s roof.
The city of Philadelphia is shown inside a theoretical lunar lava tube. A Purdue University team of researchers explored whether lava tubes more than one kilometer wide could remain structurally stable on the moon.
Credit: Purdue University/courtesy of David Blair
Roof thickness
Team results show that the stability of a lava tube depends on its width, its roof thickness, and whether the rock comprising the structure begins in a lithostatic or Poisson stress state.
Taking that into account, with a roof of some seven feet (2-meters) thick, lava tubes a kilometer or more in width can remain stable, they report.
The theoretical maximum size of a lunar lava tube depends on a variety of factors, the study group says, but given sufficient burial depth of 1,640 feet (500 meters) and an initial lithostatic stress state, their results show that lava tubes up to three miles (5 kilometers) wide may be able to remain structurally stable.
Artist concept of GRAIL mission.
The twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission of 2012 flew spacecraft in tandem orbits around the Moon to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Multi-country probing
This research made use of Japan’s SELenological and ENgineering Explorer “KAGUYA” (SELENE), the country’s first large lunar explorer, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and especially data gleaned by the two NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft.
For further information, go to:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103516303566
Also, check out this Inside Outer Space story on an early statement from the science team:
Tunnel Vision: Underground Cities on the Moon
https://www.leonarddavid.com/tunnel-vision-underground-cities-on-the-moon/
Orbital ATK Stargazer airplane carrying Pegasus rocket loaded with Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) spacecraft.
Credit: Orbital ATK
Skywatcher Paul Maley captured the entire train of 8 satellites from the December 15th Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) launch, a video showing the spacecraft passing over his house in Carefree, Arizona.
Artist’s view of Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS).
Credit: NASA
The spacecraft bus precedes this entourage by 2 minutes. The 8 CYGNSS satellites can be viewed over a 2 minute interval (altitude 328 miles) on December 18 at 12:47-12:50UT.
For video, go to:
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/NA/MaleyCYGNSS.mp4
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1552, December 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet is now in Sol 1553, with the robot’s engineering team still at work diagnosing drill issues.
“But in the meantime we are still getting good science done,” adds Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Target shooting
A Sol 1552 plan was scripted, starting off with Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations of the targets “Hall Quarry” and “Long Porcupine.”
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1552, December 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The robot’s Mastcam is slated to document those targets and then do a multispectral observation of “Western Head,” Anderson says.
The rover’s Mastcam is also to image the rover deck and Curiosity’s Navcam is slated to watch for dust devils.
Drive on tap
“There will also be some drill diagnostics on Sol 1552,” Anderson points out. “After sitting in the same spot for so long, it will be nice on Sol 1553 when we retract the arm and drive to an interesting area about 10 meters [33 feet] away.”
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1550, December 15, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
After the drive the plan calls for post-drive imaging and a taking a Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) image of the ground under the rover.
Sol 1554 is an untargeted sol, with Navcam and Mastcam atmospheric observations, Anderson concludes.
As always, dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Credit: ispace, Inc.
Innovative Moon robots geared to work in lunar environments — such as the depths of icy craters and inside lunar caves – is a pursuit of ispace, inc. of Tokyo, Japan.
As a private lunar robotic exploration company, ispace has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to jointly create a roadmap for lunar resource development.
That roadmap stretches from 2017 to 2030, according to the ispace website.
Mining, delivery and utilization
Under this agreement, both parties will utilize their knowledge and network to develop plans and frameworks for creating an industry around lunar resource mining, delivery and utilization.
“We are developing micro-robotic technology,” the company explains, “to provide a low-cost and frequent transportation service to and on the Moon, conduct lunar surface exploration to map, process and deliver resources to our customers in cislunar space.”
Swarm robotics for Moon exploration.
Credit: ispace, Inc.
2017 HAKUTO rover
The group currently manages the Google Lunar XPRIZE team, HAKUTO. Next year the company intends to send that rover to the Moon to demonstrate its micro-robotic technology for lunar exploration in an attempt to win a $20 million purse.
Credit: ispace, Inc.
In the next decade, ispace plans to establish a high-frequency transportation service to the Moon and conduct exploration missions to map lunar resources. In the long term, the company plans to deliver extracted and processed resources to customers on and around the Moon.
Three-step roadmap
In a press statement, Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and CEO of ispace, explained: “We think it is important to actively participate in the rule-making and commercialization while we are technologically competitive globally with our HAKUTO project.”
Google Lunar XPRIZE team, HAKUTO moon rover plans for 2017.
Credit: ispace/HAKUTO team
In the newly-signed agreement, ispace and JAXA will consider the following three points in creating a lunar resource development industry:
— A comprehensive plan for the space resource industry including necessary technologies and industrial value chains involving lunar resource mapping (including positions, compositions, characteristics), mining, storage, delivery, sales and utilization in space.
— Role allocation between public and private sectors for R&D activities and public procurement, as well as building of a national and an international framework needed for industry creation.
— Considerations for other necessary actions, including the expansion of relevant consortiums.
For more information on ispace, go to this informative video at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cMEJTnPq-I
For a video on HAKUTO, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZjL5l4ji0Q
For an ispace “site visit,” go to: http://ispace-inc.com/
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1548, December 13, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Now in Sol 1550, Curiosity rover operators have yet to solve issues with the robot’s drill.
“Use of the arm and driving remain off limits while the drill continues to be diagnosed,” reports Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
A two sol plan has been scripted that makes use of Curiosity’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Right Mastcam observations of bright vein targets dubbed “Bear Brook” and “Canon Brook.”
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1549, December 14, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Twilight looks
The plan also calls for use of the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) to acquire images during both morning and evening twilight to look for changes due to winds.
Also scripted are remote sensing duties on Sol 1551 that include ChemCam, Navcam and Mastcam observations of the sky and Sun at a couple times of day, and a set of ChemCam calibration activities, Herkenhoff adds.
Four volunteers are back on Earth after completing a 180-day space simulation.
Credit: CNS
Chinese researchers have completed a 180-day “survival experiment” that simulated a deep space human trek.
Since June 17, four Chinese volunteers — three men and one woman — lived inside a sealed space capsule situated in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province. They emerged from their off-world mock-up mission on December 14, local time.
The six-month experiment involved volunteers Tang Yongkang, Luo Jie, Wu Shiyun and Tong Feizhou.
An objective of the space simulation was to test technologies that could support China’s deep-space exploration projects. The effort is evaluating how food, water, and oxygen can be used and recycled under controlled conditions.
More than a dozen Chinese and overseas institutions are involved in the experiment, including the Astronaut Center of China, Harvard University and the German Aerospace Center.
Sealed capsule
The 1,340-cubic-meter sealed capsule has a floor space of 370 square meters, and is divided into eight compartments, including passenger compartments, resource compartments and greenhouse compartments.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
According to CCTV-Plus, the volunteers cultivated about 25 different kinds of plants in the capsule, including wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans, peanuts, lettuce, edible amaranth and Chinese cabbage. The plants are part of a large ecological treatment system that helps recycle and regenerate oxygen and water that will reduce the dependency on outside supplies.
Researchers engaged in the simulation have been monitoring and observing how a hermetic environment affects physiological changes, biological rhythms, sleep patterns and emotional well-being.
Tai Chi
In a CCTV-interview, volunteer Tang said that as time sped by, the psychological pressure of being in the confined capsule gradually built up.
Chinese researchers developed a series of Tai Chi moves specifically for use by the volunteers.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
“I think (the pressure has risen) during the middle and later stages of the experiment, around three quarters of the way through. But maybe everyone differs. During this period, the pressure on emotions and other areas might be comparatively higher,” said Tang prior to departing the facility.
To deal with stress, Chinese researchers developed a series of Tai Chi moves specifically for use by the volunteers.
“According to those of us inside the capsule, it did help in soothing our emotions. But further detailed statistical analysis is needed before we reach a specific conclusion,” said volunteer Tong.
New homes off-planet
Li Yinghui, head of the 180-day survival experiment in the sealed module, explained to CCTV-Plus:
“To develop new homes [on other planets], the first problem to be solved is how to survive there, including an environment for living, air for breathing, food, and then health security. So design of this experiment was aimed at such exploration targets.”
For a video look at the sealed space capsule and the volunteers, go to:
http://cd-pv.news.cctvplus.com/2016/1214/8038612_Preview_8010.mp4
http://pv.news.cctvplus.com/2016/1212/8038424_Preview_1481546069993.mp4
http://l3-pv.news.cctvplus.com/2016/0615/8024222_Preview_1465991623125.mp4
Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the universe at the SETI Institute.
Credit: SETI Institute
Are there ways in which biology and its environment co-evolve? The answer could give essential insight into how we might search for extraterrestrial life.
Today, December 14th, Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the universe at the SETI Institute, will give the prestigious Sagan Lecture at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.
Life elsewhere
“On Earth, as soon as life gained a foothold, it began to modify the planet’s environment. Subsequent generations inherited changed surroundings, and introduced their own environmental modifications,” says Cabrol.
“Understanding how this process might have worked on a world with environmental conditions other than Earth’s,” Cabrol adds, “could help in our exploration for life elsewhere.”
Extraterrestrial interplay
The interplay of environment and life is a central theme of astrobiology, and Cabrol will describe how studying its workings can help in the search for ancient or extant biology on Mars.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1521, November 15, 2016.
In its early days, the environments of Mars and Earth were similar, although they eventually diverged dramatically. So understanding the succession of physical and environmental processes in Mars’ first 700 million years is essential to envision what adaptation strategies life would have had to make to survive on the Red Planet, and which biosignatures could be preserved and possibly found.
Tune in resources
The Sagan Lecture is webcast and made available as an archived presentation on the AGU website.
Session: B32D Sagan Lecture
Program: Biogeosciences
Day: Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Time: 10:25 – 11:15 AM PST
Location: Moscone West, San Francisco
For more information, go to:
http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/news/dec-14-nathalie-cabrol-presents-sagan-lecture-agu-2016
To view the event, go to:
AGU on Demand: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2016/virtual-options/
Credit: NASA
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover continues to investigate higher and younger strata on the central mountain of Gale Crater, adding information about water-rich ancient environments in this part of Mars.
Since reaching the base of the mountain two years ago, the rover has examined more than half the vertical extent of a 180-meter-thick geological formation that provides a record of long-lived lake and groundwater environments.
Factors favorable for life
Analysis of rock composition at multiple sites is providing new evidence about how the environmental conditions evolved over time, including factors favorable for life, if it ever was present. Some ingredients may foreshadow what the mission will find at planned destinations farther up the mountain.
YouTube Video published on Dec 13, 2016 from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting this week.
Participants:
- Joy Crisp, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.;
- Thomas Bristow, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, U.S.A.;
- Patrick Gasda, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, U.S.A.;
- John Grotzinger, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.
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