Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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June 4th, 2016
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1359, June 2, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The plan for NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet is to drill into the targeted “Oudam” bedrock.
Now in Sol 1361, Curiosity is to perform a full stint of drilling, followed by taking Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mastcam images of the new hole.
Drill sample transfer
Explains Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, after drilling the rover will rest until Sol 1362, when the drill sample will be transferred to the scoop for Mastcam imaging and sieved.
Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) was used to image this vein on Sol 1360, June 3, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A fine-grained portion of the sample is slated then to be dropped into the rover’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) for an overnight mineralogical analysis.
Vein observation
Following the CheMin data read out of the instrument on Sol 1363, Herkenhoff adds, Curiosity’s Mastcam will take a multispectral set of images of the drill tailings and a Right Mastcam mosaic of an outcrop southeast of the rover.
Curiosity rover’s ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager took this image on Sol 1360, June 3, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
In addition, the robot’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam will observe a vein target named “Onganja” and a bedrock target dubbed “Ongeama.”
Curiosity’s Navcam will search for dust devils as part of another busy weekend, Herkenhoff concludes.
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Curiosity’s Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1358, June 1, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars is busy at work, carrying out Sol 1359 duties.
According to Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, a the remaining “Okoruso drill sample” was successfully dumped onto the ground on Sol 1358. So the robot is ready for a new drill sample, he notes.
In preparation for that job, the Sol 1359 plan includes an arm preload test on “Oudam,” the next drill target, and cleaning out the sample-handling mechanisms of the rover’s Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device.
Images of CHIMRA are to verify that everything is clean, Herkenhoff adds.
Dump pile photos
Before all the arm activities, the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam will observe the Okoruso dump pile and a bedrock target named “Otjosondu,” Herkenhoff explains.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on June 1, 2016, Sol 1358.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The robot’s Left Mastcam is also slated to acquire a 5×2 mosaic of the “Fraktuur Dorp” area and extend the “Hartmann’s Valley” mosaic.
Late in the afternoon, when lighting will be better, Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is to acquire images of bedrock target “Onguati” and a full suite of images of the dump pile.
The robot’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is scheduled to be placed on the dump pile for an overnight data collection stint, Herkenhoff points out.
Russian RD-180 rocket engines used for main stage of Atlas-V rocket.
Credit: Energomash
A recently released report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) looks at the issues regarding U.S. continued access to space for national security missions.
The CRS report — National Security Space Launch at a Crossroads was authored by Steven A. Hildreth, a specialist in U.S. and foreign national security programs.
This May 13, 2016 CRS document was made available thanks to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
Explains the report: “A combination of factors over the next several years, as a worst-case scenario, could leave the United States in a situation where some of its national security space payloads would not have a certified launcher available.”
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off April 8, 2016, carrying a Dragon spacecraft to begin the CRS-8 mission delivering experiments and cargo to the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA/Tony Gray & Mike Kerley
Undercurrent of concern
The report reviews a long-standing undercurrent of concern over U.S. reliance on a Russian rocket engine (RD-180) for critical national security space launches on one of the primary Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rockets.
Furthermore, the report notes the legal challenges to the Air Force EELV program by SpaceX.
For your copy, of the report, go to:
Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform (URBOCOP).
Credit: Igor Ashurbeyli
A new proposal is on the table: Build an armed space station capable of tackling both natural and human-made threats to Earth.
Nations should cooperate in building the orbiting complex. Its duties would be to deal with space-derived threats to humanity, be they from incoming asteroids to violent solar storms – as well as threats arising on Earth from human activity including war and global warming.
Cosmic platform
Igor Ashurbeyli, chairman of the Moscow-based International Expert Society on Space Threat Defense unveiled his concept in a keynote address at the 4th Manfred Lachs International Conference on Conflicts in Space and the Rule of Law in Montreal, Canada.
The Conference was organized by McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law.
Ashurbeyli dubbed his defense idea “URBOCOP” – a Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform.
URBOCOP would be an armed, unpiloted space station capable of monitoring Earth and space. It would have on-board weapons capable of destroying both natural and human-made objects threatening Earth – including ballistic missiles launched by one national against another.
Credit: Igor Ashurbeyli
Free from human bias
The control system for URBOCOP would be entirely automatic and free from human bias, allowing it to make decisions about striking dangerous military launches, regardless of their country of origin.
To be acceptable to governments around the globe, Ashurbeyli said it must be an international platform with completely transparent intellectual property rights and open architecture. Funding and the right to use it must belong to all peoples – encompassing advanced nations and developing countries alike, with no restrictions or boundaries, he suggested.
Space threats
In terms of space threats, Ashurbeyli cites these worrisome factors:
- Sun storms and sun flares, known as coronal mass ejections.
- Changes in the Earth’s magnetosphere which results in the destruction of the protective shield that could deflect coronal mass ejections.
- Potentially dangerous asteroids and comets, which could impact Earth and lead to mass destruction of humanity.
- Human-made space debris.
- Climate change resulting from the effects of human technology, industrialization and solar radiation on Earth’s atmosphere.
- Cosmic radiation – Earth is constantly affected not only by solar radiation but also by cosmic rays from novas, supernovas and pulsars. This also needs to be taken into consideration.
- Earth being infected by biological threats from inside meteors and other small bodies that reach the planet’s surface.
Igor Ashurbeyli, chairman of the Moscow-based International Expert Society on Space Threat Defense.
Credit: Room – The Space Journal
Vulnerable planet
“The new, 21st century is not only the century of humanity’s greatest progress, but also of the realization that our planet is vulnerable…both in the face of man’s technological and military actions, and in the face of natural dangers originating in aerospace,” Ashurbeyli added.
Ashurbeyli is also founder and editor-in-chief of ROOM: The Space Journal that can be found here with additional information on the URBOCOP concept.
Go to: https://room.eu.com/community/Igor-Ashurbeyli-press-release
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on May 29, 2016, Sol 1355.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Now in Sol 1356 on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover recently completed a drive, placing it on a “nice patch of the Murray formation,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
That drive put the Mars robot in a good position for a very busy holiday weekend of tasks.
The Murray formation is a section of rock, 500 feet high, that represents the lowest sedimentary layers of nearby Aeolis Mons, commonly known as Mount Sharp.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image acquired on Sol 1356, May 30, 2016
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Targets documented
On Sol 1355, the plan called for the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam)
To make observations of the targets: “Auchas”, “Kaisosi”, “Inamagando”, and “Horingbaai”.
The rover’s Mastcam was slated to document those targets and then do some multispectral observations of the targets “Kunjas” and “Navachab”, plus a mosaic of the contact between the Murray and Stimson geological units, Anderson explains.
Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager photo taken from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 1356, May 30, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity’s Navcam was to round out the science block with some atmospheric observations.
Image from orbit of Curiosity
“Sol 1356 was an unusual one, with a bunch of small science blocks spread throughout the day,” Anderson notes. These were to enable a series of measurements leading up to a coordinated set of observations in the afternoon between the instruments on the rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Adds Anderson: “Yes, this means a new [Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter] HiRISE image of Curiosity is coming soon!”
Brightness changes
First thing in the morning on Sol 1356, Curiosity’s Mastcam and Navcam have a photometry observation. This was to be repeated a few hours later along with a multispectral Mastcam observation of the target “Inamagando”.
A few hours later, the photometry observation is repeated again. “The idea is to see how the brightness changes as the sun angle changes,” Anderson observes, and ChemCam is to make a passive sky observation.
Finally, there is another photometry observation, a Mastcam “sky survey” observation, and Mastcam “sky flats”. These are to be followed by a long-distance ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo shoot.
Curiosity image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, taken on May 30, 2016, Sol 1356.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Next drive
“On Sol 1357 we will drive again, followed by standard post-drive imaging. This plan will take us through the long weekend, so our next planning day will be on Tuesday,” Anderson concludes.
Dates of projected Curiosity activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Credit: NASA
There are numbers of nations that have Mars in their sights for robotic exploration. So many, in fact, is it time to better coordinate those efforts to enhance the opportunity for eventual human exploration of the Red Planet?
The idea of an International Year of Mars (IYM) is anchored in history.
Information sharing
Retro-fire to the past when a comprehensive series of global geophysical activities spanned the period: July 1957-December 1958. The objective was to share information acquired by participating scientists all over the world.
That undertaking was labeled the International Geophysical Year, or IGY for short. The IGY embraced a number of Earth sciences with new cooperative efforts forged between nations – some still alive and well in the 21st century.
Credit: National Academy of Sciences
The timing of the IGY also saw both the former Soviet Union and the United States loft their first artificial satellites of the Earth.
That was then…now fast forward to the future.
Joining forces
Collaborations between Europe, Russia, China, India, for example, along with the United States and other spacefaring nations, are likely to join forces to stage a human reach for the Red Planet.
Similarly, public/private contributions may well be in the cards too.
UAE’s Hope Mars orbiter.
Credit: UAE Space Agency
For example, consider these plans:
China: Chinese space officials have plans to send a rover to the Red Planet as early as 2020, a mission that could also collect samples of Mars for return to Earth around 2030.
Europe: An aggressive Mars plan is underway by the European Space Agency (ESA), tagged ExoMars. Their initiative includes a stylish rover to land on Mars in 2020. ExoMars 2020 also includes a Russian-provided surface platform replete with science experiments.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (left) and Chairman K. Radhakrishnan of the Indian Space Research Organisation signing documents in Toronto on Sept. 30, 2014 that included establishing a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars.
Credit: NASA
Europe’s ExoMars 2020 rover.
Credit: ESA
India: That country’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), named Mangalyaan, swung into orbit around the planet in September 2014. A NASA-Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Mars Working Group has been formed to investigate enhanced cooperation between the two countries in Mars exploration.
Japan: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is considering a go-ahead for a sample return mission involving one of Mars’ two moons — Phobos and Deimos. A selected moon is to be targeted for a landing in the early 2020s.
United Arab Emirates: The Islamic world’s entrance into space exploration, this UAE Mars orbiter would be launched in 2020 by Japan to search for connections between today’s weather and the ancient climate of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover.
Credit: NASA/JPL
United States: Following the 2018 launch of the InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander, NASA also is set to loft the Mars 2020 rover. Additionally, studies are underway to hurl to the Red Planet a multi-functional next-generation Mars Orbiter.
SpaceX Dragon on Mars.
Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX: Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, has openly discussed plans to land an unpiloted Dragon spacecraft on Mars as soon as 2018, to help “inform overall Mars architecture” with “details to come.”
Scientific and technological savvy
Given this rising global appetite for Mars exploration, is the time ripe for a coordinated, collaborative International Year of Mars – or perhaps an International Mars Year (IMY)?
By tapping the scientific and technological savvy of a cadre of countries and American private-sector muscle could this melding of capability provide the needed momentum to hasten the day of humans firmly setting foot on the Red Planet?
Your thoughts?
— Leonard David
Credit: Dan Durda
Space entrepreneur, Robert Bigelow, explains his expansive plans for space.
Credit: Space Foundation
“Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me
Long as you love me, it’s all right
Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me
You got the power to turn on the light”
— American Breed
Success today as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) reached “manual inflation complete” from its docking point on the International Space Station.
As BEAM expanded, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams reported a succession of “pops” as the structure began to take shape – sounds of success. Good motion was reported in both length and diameter attained by BEAM.
BEAM on the rise.
Credit: NASA TV
Initial efforts to inflate BEAM were called off last week after several hours of attempts to pump air into the module.
Vital pathfinder
BEAM is billed as a vital pathfinder for validating the benefits of expandable habitats. They can be used in low Earth orbit, cislunar space, as well as for Moon and Mars surface missions.
Builder of the BEAM is the commercial space firm, Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas.
The ISS-attached BEAM is headed for a two-year demonstration period.
Bigelow Aerospace facilities in North Las Vegas showcases future plans for larger inflatable structures.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Once fully inflated and checked out on the ISS, the BEAM is to be monitored for pressure, temperature, radiation protection, and micro-meteoroid/debris impact detection. Astronauts will periodically enter the BEAM to record data, and perform inspections of the module.
Despite initial problems in fully-inflating BEAM, Bigelow Aerospace remained confident that the structure add-on would achieve success.
Abundance of caution
In a May 27th statement from Bigelow Aerospace regarding the earlier inflation woes:
“Out of an abundance of caution for the ISS and the crew, operations were halted after the BEAM’s performance no longer matched the forecasted models on the ground. We recognize that the BEAM is a first-of-its-kind spacecraft, and we are in full support of safety being the number-one priority,” noted the statement.
“The BEAM spacecraft has been in a packed state for a significantly longer time than expected. It has undergone a tremendous squeeze for over 15 months, which is 10 months longer than planned. Therefore, there is a potential for the behavior of the materials that make up the outside of the spacecraft to act differently than expected.”
Pathfinder spacecraft
Back in 2006 and again in 2007, Bigelow Aerospace successfully launched and deployed two expandable, pathfinder spacecraft dubbed Genesis I and Genesis II.
Bigelow’s pathfinder Genesis II took this selfie as it orbited the Earth.
Credit: Bigelow Aerospace/Leonard David photo archives
“However, because of the BEAM’s location on the International Space Station, the deployment sequence has been dramatically modified to a much slower approach,” the newly issued statement explains.
“We fully expect that full deployment of the spacecraft will occur,” added the company statement, “there is no question whether the BEAM is capable of deployment.”
Look to the future
BEAM is a precursor to the Bigelow Aerospace B330, a much larger expandable space habitat privately manufactured by Bigelow Aerospace. The design was evolved from NASA’s TransHab habitat concept.
Bigelow plans have outlined use of expandable modules on the Moon.
Credit: Bigelow Aerospace
As the name indicates, the B330 will provide 330 cubic meters (12,000 cubic feet) of internal volume and each habitat can support a crew of up to six. This craft can support zero-gravity research including scientific missions and manufacturing processes.
Beyond its industrial and scientific purposes, expandable structures have potential to support space tourism and missions destined for the Moon and Mars.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1352, May 26, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1353. Landing on the Red Planet in August 2012, the robot has wheeled some 8 miles since touchdown.
After a recent drive, the Mars machinery took Sol 1352 imagery that shows there are sandy ripples ahead, and enough rocky patches that the rover should not have any problem driving toward the southwest, reports Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
“This is what we were hoping, so we are planning to drive in that direction on Sol 1353,” Herkenhoff explains.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1353, May 27, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
But firstly, Curiosity’s Mastcam was slated to acquire stereo mosaics of the “Murray-Stimson” contact and a couple of areas toward the west with nodular features.
Auto-suggest
Post-drive, the rover’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) will again autonomously measure the chemistry of a target selected by the Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS software.
To get a head start on planning for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, two sols are to be scripted, Herkenhoff reports. The Sol 1353 activities cannot be precisely targeted, he notes, so the rover’s Navcam will look for clouds and Mastcam will measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere at various times that sol.
In addition, ChemCam will perform a routine calibration activity.
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: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Driving distance
Meanwhile, a new map of Curiosity’s location for Sol 1352 has been issued.
The map shows the route driven by the automaton through the 1352 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (May, 26, 2016).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up.
From Sol 1349 to Sol 1352, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 53.00 feet (16.16 meters). Since touching down in Bradbury Landing in August 2012, Curiosity has driven 7.97 miles (12.83 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Close encounter of the Mars kind
Three images of Mars acquired this month by two cameras in space and one from Earth.
The image at left was taken on May 22 by amateur astrophotographer Dylan O’Donnell from his home-built backyard observatory in Byron Bay, New South Wales. Image at center was acquired by the Visual Monitoring Camera on Europe’s Mars Express orbiter on May 22, some eight hours after Dylan conducted his observation.Image at right was acquired by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on May 12th.
Credits: D. O’Donnell – ESA/Mars Express/VMC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO – ESA/NASA/Hubble
For you skywatchers, Mars makes its closest visit to Earth in 11 years on Monday, May 30th.
The Red Planet will be closest to our planet since 2005 – a mere 46,762,695 miles (75,279,709 km) away as it continues its 687-day elliptical orbit around the Sun.
Mars is quite photogenic due to the closeness between the two planets. Its proximity is spurring detailed imagery of Mars, such as from the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope – photos that reveal rarely seen weather conditions.
Credit: National Geographic
The next frontier in human space exploration is Mars, the red planet—and human habitation of this world isn’t much farther off.
NASA has declared Mars “an achievable goal” for its human spaceflight program. Other nations are also eyeing the Red Planet, perhaps hastening the day of a global undertaking to plant human footprints on that faraway globe.
Still, there are countless challenges ahead – not only technical, but physiological, psychological and sociological issues too – with a helping of ethics thrown into the mix.
Getting to Mars is one thing…but staying there is another matter.
Wall-to-wall-to-wall layout of Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet.
Credit: Barbara David
My visit
I’m extremely proud to have authored Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet.
The book combines science, technology, photography, art, and story-telling, offering what only National Geographic can create: clear scientific explanations, gorgeous photography from outer space and Mars itself.
The book promises to spur discussion and debate regarding the human exploration and potential settlement of Mars.
I recently visited the National Geographic offices to view the final layout and production of the volume – an awesome experience!
Leonard David with National Geographic editor and deadline whip-cracker, Susan Hitchcock.
Credit: Barbara David
TV series
Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet, with a foreword by movie producer, Ron Howard, is the companion book to the National Geographic six-part series “Mars,” a television milestone that documents and dramatizes the next 25 years as humans land on and learn to live on Mars.
Credit: National Geographic
The book provides dramatic scenes from the TV series featuring exquisitely constructed sets made to replicate Mars and makes the Mars experience visual to the viewer.
The Mars TV series is the product of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment that has recently partnered with National Geographic on Breakthrough as well as Mars.
Credit: National Geographic
For more information on the book – Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet — to be released October 25th, go to:
https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/books/books/new-books/mars
Also go to Amazon at:
Efforts called off to fully-deploy Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) from the ISS.
Credit: NASA
Efforts were called off today to fully deploy the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) from the International Space Station.
The wave-off came after several hours of attempts to introduce air into the module.
Flight controllers informed NASA astronaut Jeff Williams that BEAM had only expanded a few inches in both length and diameter at the time the operation ceased for the day.
Engineers are meeting to determine a forward course of action, with the possibility that another attempt could be made as early as Friday morning.
Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM).
Credit: Bigelow Aerospace
BEAM is billed as a vital pathfinder for validating the benefits of expandable habitats, for use in low Earth orbit, cislunar space, as well as for Moon and Mars surface missions. The ISS-attached BEAM is headed for a two-year demonstration period.
Deployment sequence
Launched to the ISS by a SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon, the BEAM was packed in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft. Once the craft was attached to the ISS, the Canada Arm removed BEAM from the Dragon spacecraft and berthed the module to the Tranquility node (Node 3) of the ISS.
Credt: Bigelow Aerospace
Astronauts initiated an automated deployment sequence, allowing the BEAM to start its expansion to full volume – but that plan was not fully realized.
Once expanded, the BEAM is to be monitored for pressure, temperature, radiation protection, and micro-meteoroid/debris impact detection. Astronauts will periodically enter the BEAM to record data, and perform inspections of the module.
Bigger plans
BEAM is a precursor to the Bigelow Aerospace B330, a much larger expandable space habitat privately manufactured by Bigelow Aerospace. The design was evolved from NASA’s TransHab habitat concept.
Dual B330s in lunar orbit.
Credit: Bigelow Aerospace
As the name indicates, the B330 will provide 330 cubic meters (12,000 cubic feet) of internal volume and each habitat can support a crew of up to six.
The craft can support zero-gravity research including scientific missions and manufacturing processes. Beyond its industrial and scientific purposes, however, it has potential as a destination for space tourism and a craft for missions destined for the Moon and Mars.
