Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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June 21st, 2017
Artist concept of the Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft now in Earth orbit.
Credit: CMSE
China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft has begun independent operation Wednesday, backing away from theTiangong-2 space lab.
Ground controllers initiated a separation of Tianzhou-1 from the space lab. The cargo ship stopped at a distance of nearly 400 feet (120 meters) in front of the Tiangong-2.
Credit: CMSA
The cargo spacecraft will continue space science experiments and applications. Tianzhou-1 is to carry out a “fast docking” with Tiangong-2 and a third in-orbit refueling.
That event is reportedly to occur near the end of its six-month mission, with Tianzhou demonstrating the fast docking procedure with Tiangong 2 – a simulation to mimic future crew and cargo spacecraft dockings with the orbital space station in six hours after launch.
Mastering refueling
As reported by CCTV, the two spacecraft completed their first in-orbit refueling on April 27 and their second on June 15. The Tianzhou-1 supply ship was launched on April 20 from south China’s Hainan Province.
Credit: CSIS
Following Russia and the United States, China is the third country to master refueling techniques in space, a capability the country needs for building and sustaining a permanent space station in the mid-2020s.
“As the International Space Station is set to retire in 2024, the Chinese space station will offer a promising alternative, and China will be the only country with a permanent space station,” explains CCTV.
Credit: CCTV
Posted in 
Credit: Clouds AO
Forget looking but don’t touch!
The concept is called HydroLander – an interplanetary long duration exploration vehicle focused on a human, on-the-spot search for life on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
According to the principal architects of the idea — Ostap Rudakevych and Masayuki Sono at the Clouds Architecture Office in New York – this explorer module is able to touch down on the surface of those icy worlds and take samples or harvest water ice.
Credit: Clouds AO
Crew of six
In an update on their research, they note:
“The icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter are believed to have oceans of liquid water and are thus prime candidates for extra-terrestrial life. This proposal is for an interplanetary vehicle to house a crew of six on a long duration exploration of icy moons in the Jovian and Saturnian systems.
Inflatable elements
As detailed by Sono and Rudakevych, the vehicle is a low mass hybrid of rigid and inflatable structural elements. During interplanetary travel the vehicle is in a compact state allowing for induced gravity from rotation. Inhabited pods would spin about a central axis generating 1 G of centrifugal gravity.
“The concept consists of three pressure vessels surrounded by transparent and translucent water ice for radiation shielding and views out. When the vehicle reaches a target moon it would stop spinning and park in an L1 spot (stable Lagrange Point),” the researchers note.
Credit: Clouds AO
Lowered via tether
From there, the habitat and surface modules would be lowered on a tether from the supporting counterweight at L1.
“The tethered expansion of the units allows for slow and steady analysis of atmospheric conditions on the way down to the surface. At its extreme limit the explorer module is able to touch down on the surface and take samples or harvest water ice,” they explain.
Credit: Clouds AO
The system can run indefinitely since it can recharge its supply of propellant by electrolyzing water. The unlimited supply of fuel allows for more flexibility in mission planning and adjustments based on findings by the human crew.
Be advised that this idea is filed at Clouds Architecture Office as speculative, space, architecture.
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Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1730, June 18, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing science duties, now in Sol 1732 operations.
The robot continues to wheel towards Vera Rubin Ridge, reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist and a Curiosity participating scientist and faculty member at Northern Arizona University.
“Curiosity continues to make progress along its planned ascent route up Mt. Sharp, and is quickly approaching the hematite-bearing Vera Rubin Ridge,” Salvatore explains.
Courtesy: Abigail Fraeman.
Signatures of hematite
“As a refresher, Vera Rubin Ridge is a high-standing unit that runs parallel to and along the eastern side of the Bagnold Dunes. From orbit, Vera Rubin Ridge has been shown to exhibit signatures of hematite, an oxidized iron phase whose presence can help us to better understand the environmental conditions present when this mineral assemblage formed,” Salvatore points out.
Courtesy: Abigail Fraeman.
Large rocky slab
Last weekend, the robot drove approximately 105 feet (32 meters) and parked in front of a large rocky slab that’s nearly the size of a large dining room table. Smaller rocky patches are nearby, “perfect for our continued documentation of the local bedrock,” Salvatore adds.
This rocky slab will be extensively imaged using Curiosity’s Mastcam. In addition to imaging, three rocky targets will be chemically analyzed by the rover.
Bedrock chemistry
“Pierce Head” represents a piece of the Murray formation and will be investigated using the rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), as well as the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) for context imaging.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1730, June 18, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Doing so, Curiosity can fully characterize the bedrock chemistry at its current location.
Alternatively, “Mosely Point” and “Leland Point” appear darker in tone, Salvatore adds, and exhibit slightly rougher and smoother textures, respectively, and will be investigated using only ChemCam.
Rough terrain
After these analyses, the robot is slated to set off on another drive over rough terrain to the east, where the rover will document its surroundings using its automated ChemCam targeting capabilities and its suite of cameras.
“In particular, the rover will turn its cameras to Vera Rubin Ridge for another suite of high resolution color images, which will help to characterize any observed layers, fractures, or geologic contacts,” Salvatore notes. “These observations will help the science team to determine how Vera Rubin Ridge formed and its relationship to the other geologic units found within Gale Crater.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) image from Sol 1730 June 18, 2017. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Deimos observation
Salvatore explains that “another super interesting observation” will be made during this planning period: an opportunistic nighttime astronomical observation of Mars’ smallest moon, Deimos, which will be imaged using Mastcam.
Even though Deimos is only roughly 8 miles in diameter, Mastcam’s resolution and pointing capabilities make these observations seem routine. “Imaging Mars’ moons allow scientists to better understand the evolution of their orbits over time,” Salvatore adds.
Restricted planning
Curiosity researchers are currently in a phase of “restricted planning,” where the offset in time between the Earth and Mars prohibits the ability to downlink data with sufficient time to plan on a daily basis. So, the science and engineering teams have planned two days’ worth of rover activities.
“We will reconvene on Wednesday to produce a similar two-day plan, and will do so through next week,” Salvatore concludes, assuring that Curiosity is busy as it continues its journey up Mt. Sharp.
Credit: Asteroid Day
Hundreds of events in multiple countries are slated to take place on June 30 – the anniversary of Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history: the 1908 Siberia Tunguska incident that flattened 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of forest in Siberia, Russia.
Events for Asteroid Day 2017 are being planned on all five continents and include participation this year from major space agencies: European Space Agency (ESA); Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and NASA.
Raise awareness
Asteroid Day was co-founded in 2014, by Brian May, astrophysicist and lead guitarist for the rock band Queen; Danica Remy, B612 President; Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart; and German filmmaker Grig Richters.
Last year, Asteroid Day was sanctioned by the United Nations as a global day of education to raise awareness about asteroids.
But there’s more, such as how our world can be rocked by asteroids and what can be done to protect humanity from dangerous impacts and facilitate future exploration.
Credit: Asteroid Day
Global conversation
As a unique element to Asteroid Day, there’s a first ever 24-hour live broadcast about the asteroid threat. Produced from the new Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) studio at RTL City, Luxembourg, the June 30 program will serve as a platform for the first global conversation about asteroids.
Resources
Go to this informative and fact-packed website at:
A full list of all the events can be found at:
https://asteroidday.org/event-guide/
Check out this interview with Brian May at:
https://asteroidday.org/page/brian-may/
Also, go to:
TWITTER: @asteroidday #AsteroidDay, #AsteroidDayLive;
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/AsteroidDay #AsteroidDay, #AsteroidDayLive
YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/user/asteroidday
NEEMO 22 dive.
Credit: NASA
Credit: NASA
The 22nd NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission is underway, an underwater analog exercise to train for spaceflight without leaving Earth.
Six aquanauts took a dive of some 65 feet (20 meters) to the sea floor where they will spend 10 days living and working below the waves. They are now on board the Aquarius underwater habitat off the coast of Florida.
The habitat acts as a makeshift “space base” for the aquanauts to make regular “waterwalks” in full scuba gear and, by adjusting their buoyancy, they can simulate the gravity levels found on the Moon, Mars or asteroids.
The crew taking part in NEEMO 22, the 22nd NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations mission.
Credit: NASA
Exploration tasks
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren will be commander for this mission that will focus on exploration spacewalks as well as tasks based on the International Space Station. He is joined by ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, planetary scientist Trevor Gradd and research scientist Dom D’Agostino, along with two support technicians.
To follow the 22nd NEEMO mission without getting wet, go to this link at:
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1727, June 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 1729 science duties.
A drive by the NASA robot on Sol 1728 was successful, reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “Our weekend plan will be chock-full of activities.”
Colorful workspace
On the first sol, Curiosity will do some contact science on a “rather colorful workspace that is currently in front of the rover,” adds Fraeman.
The schedule involves collecting Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) observations of two targets: “Frazer Creek” and “Lurvey Spring.”
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1727, June 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Also planned is carrying out Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations of “Mark Island” and “Frazer Creek” plus the corresponding Mastcam documentation images of these targets.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1727, June 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
In addition, full multispectral filter Mastcam observation of Mark Island, as well as additional Mastcam images of targets “Big Spencer Mountain” and “Monument Cove” will be done.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo acquired on Sol 1728, June 16, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Phobos observations
“Curiosity will wake up around three in the morning between the first and second sols of the plan to make a special observation of Mars’ moon Phobos,” Fraeman notes. “We are going to watch Phobos as it emerges from Mars’ shadow into sunlight. This will help us measure the amount and size of dust particles in Mars’ upper atmosphere.”
After the Sun rises on the second sol of the weekend plan, Fraeman continues, the rover will conduct full MAHLI wheel imaging. “We take images of our wheels using MAHLI throughout a full wheel rotation every few hundred meters to track the rate of wheel damage.”
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1728, June 16, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1728, June 16, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Imaging stops
On the third sol of the plan, the robot is slated to drive and have a post-drive ChemCam Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) observation and dust devil search.
Fraeman says that this Curiosity drive will place it roughly 115 feet (35 meters) closer to the second Vera Rubin Ridge approach-imaging stop.
The data Curiosity collected during the first imaging stop earlier in the week,” Fraeman explains, have been coming down over the last few days, and they look absolutely spectacular.
Fine scale details
“I mapped Vera Rubin Ridge using orbital data as part of my PhD thesis five years ago,” Fraeman adds, “so it has been so exciting for me to see these images after staring at the area from above for so long.”
The fine scale details that the robot is able to collect with its instruments “will help us understand how Vera Rubin Ridge formed and any implications for past habitable environments at Gale Crater,” Fraeman concludes.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
New road map
A new Curiosity traverse map through Sol 1728 has been posted.
The map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1728 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (June 16, 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 1727 to Sol 1728, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 63.00 feet (19.20 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 10.40 miles (16.74 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1727, June 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now in Sol 1728, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover completed a busy day of contact science yesterday, reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The plan now is dedicated towards remote science and driving.
“Fernald Point” as imaged by Curiosity Mars rover using Navcam Right B on Sol 1727, June 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fernald Point
A suite of Mastcam images for Curiosity to take included mosaics of “Preble Cove” and “Fernald Point”, some nice blocks of the Murray formation just in front of the rover.
Also on tap is snagging a few images of “Freeman Ridge” to follow up on a multispectral observation.
Long distance eye of ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager. Photo acquired on Sol 1727, June 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Drive ahead
The plan includes standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) observations.
Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1726, June 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“We’ll then continue driving towards Vera Rubin Ridge,” Kronyak adds, “and take some post-drive images to set ourselves up for an exciting weekend of more remote and contact science!”
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1726, June 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is performing Sol 1727 science duties.
“After a successful drive, our parking spot included a nice patch of Murray bedrock to allow us to perform contact science,” reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
That contact science involves use of the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).
“Our target for contact science is “Jones Marsh,” a dark patch of the Murray,” Kronyak adds.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image acquired on Sol 1726, June 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
On the roll
The Curiosity geology group has also planned a suite of observations of Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), which the robot is progressing towards.
Curiosity’s Mastcam is slated to perform a multispectral observation on “Freeman Ridge,” a small butte just in front of VRR that shows interesting color variations, Kronyak notes.
Laser zaps shown in this Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 1725, June 13, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
The rover’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) is scheduled to take a mosaic of VRR using its Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) to complement the Mastcam mosaic that was taken in an earlier plan. Also, an additional Mastcam mosaic will be made of “Spaulding Mountain,” an area of exposed Murray formation blocks along the robot’s drive path.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image acquired on Sol 1726, June 14, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Environmental observations
“We will then complete a drive, do some post-drive imaging of our new location, and finish up today’s plan with some environmental observations,” Kronyak explains. “These include tau, line-of-sight extinction, and sky survey measurements with Mastcam to assess how much dust is in the atmosphere.”
The plan also calls for performing standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) activities.
Curiosity Navcam Right B image taken on Sol 1725, June 13, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“With VRR on the horizon and the fantastic Murray formation underneath our wheels,” Kronyak concludes, “there is never a shortage of things to image!”
Image from first refueling test as craft approached space lab in April.
Credit: CGTM
Chinese space officials report that a second refueling test has been completed.
The testing involves the country’s Tianzhou-1 and Tiangong-2 space lab.
This second refueling lasted about two days, reports China’s Xinhua news agency “and cemented technical results from the first refueling.”
As China’s first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1 was lofted into Earth orbit on April 20 from the Wenchang spaceport in south China’s Hainan Province. The first auto-docking with Tiangong-2 space lab took place on April 22, followed by the two spacecraft completing their first in-orbit refueling on April 27.
Larger Chinese space station to be constructed on orbit in the 2020s.
Credit: CMSA
29 step program
As reported earlier on CCTV-Plus, during its two-month flight in space, the cargo spacecraft is slated to refuel the space lab three times.
Each refueling is scheduled to demonstrate a different aspect to China’s approach to space refueling. The refueling procedure takes 29 steps to complete and lasts for several days each time.
In-orbit refueling has been deemed as a major need-to-have by Chinese space officials to further their future space station plans – a multi-module complex to be completed in the mid-2020’s.
Go to this CCTV-Plus video clip regarding the Tianzhou-1 and Tiangong-2 space lab exercise at:
http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20170616/8053255.shtml
Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
The informative New Space journal is making available an Elon Musk commentary entitled “Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species” – a detailed overview of Musk’s plan to create a self-sustaining city on Mars.
The article draws upon Musk’s presentation at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, September 26–30, 2016.
Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
Major challenge
In the New Space commentary, Musk explores the planetary options for expanding to a spacefaring civilization and describes the advantages Mars offers. He provides a comprehensive review of a system architecture required for a rocket and spaceship capable of transporting people and supplies to Mars, comparing possible vehicle designs and performance features.
A major challenge facing engineers and scientists at present and discussed in the commentary is the need to improve the cost per ton of transporting materials to Mars by 5 million percent.
Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
Archival reference
“In my view, publishing this paper provides not only an opportunity for the spacefaring community to read the SpaceX vision in print with all the charts in context, but also serves as a valuable archival reference for future studies and planning,” explains Scott Hubbard, Editor-in-Chief of New Space.
“My goal is to make New Space the forum for publication of novel exploration concepts,” Hubbard adds, “particularly those that suggest an entrepreneurial path for humans traveling to deep space.”
Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
Make Mars possible
Musk notes in the commentary, “by talking about the SpaceX Mars architecture, I want to make Mars seem possible…make it seem as though it is something that we can do in our lifetime. There really is a way that anyone could go if they wanted to.”
New Space is a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
The article is available free on the New Space website until July 5, 2017.
Go to:
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/space.2017.29009.emu
