Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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February 23rd, 2016
Curiosity’s Mastcam Left camera image taken on Sol 1260, February 21, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is on the prowl during Sol 1262, driving toward Naukluft Plateau.
“We’re gearing up for a nice long drive toward the “Naukluft Plateau,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center.
Anderson explains that the sol 1262 plan is to start off with Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) studies of the bedrock targets: “Gemsboktal” and “Ghaub.”
The rover’s Mastcam is to be used to document those bedrock targets, also to be used to take a picture of the interesting wind-blown ripples of the target “Hoachanas.”
Driving northwest
After that activity, Anderson adds that the plan calls for the rover to drive some 230 feet (70 meters) or so to the northwest, stopping on a small ridge. “After the drive, the rover will do standard post-drive imaging of our new surroundings.”
Curiosity Navcam Left B image, taken on Sol 1261, February 22, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The plan also calls for Curiosity’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) to be used overnight to analyze a sample from Scoop #5 on the target “Gobabeb.”
The Sol 1263 schedule includes untargeted observations.
Dust and sand build-up
Mastcam will observe the rover’s deck to assess how much dust and sand are on the rover, and ChemCam has two long distance Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics of the stratigraphy of the Peace Vallis alluvial fan. “These can be untargeted because they’re so far away that the camera pointing doesn’t really change much when we drive,” points out Anderson.
Self-inspection of its wheels. Curiosity’s Mastcam Left snagged this image on Sol 1260, February 21, 2016
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
As always, planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
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Credit: Lockheed Martin
Space planners are scoping out an outpost for humans to work in cis-lunar space – the space around Earth’s moon.
The work is expected to help plot out other deep-space destinations, perhaps to an asteroid, but also provide a leg-up on the larger leap to distant Mars.
Under NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Projects, how best to utilize the Orion spacecraft and future habitats to set up a cis-lunar outpost is being fleshed out.
Credit: Lockheed Martin
NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, is the agency’s first spacecraft designed for long-duration, human-rated deep space exploration.
For detailed information, go to my new Space.com story at:
Plans Being Devised for Human Outpost Near the Moon
By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
February 23, 2016 08:00am ET
http://www.space.com/32014-human-outpost-near-moon-cislunar-space.html
Credit: Virgin Galactic
The passenger-carrying VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo was unveiled last week in the FAITH (Final Assembly Integration Test Hangar), the Mojave, California-based home of manufacturing and testing for Virgin Galactic’s human space flight program.
That VSS Unity name was given to the suborbital spaceship by noted astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking.
During the February 19th rollout festivities, Hawking said that he once confessed that his ultimate ambition was to fly into space, “but I thought no one would take me.”
Richard Branson offered Hawking a seat on a suborbital SpaceShipTwo, a proposition that the scientist responded to by an immediate yes.
“Since that day, I have never changed my mind. If I am able to go – and if Richard will still take me, I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship,” Hawking said via a pre-recorded video at the Mojave ceremonies.
Watching eye
“The first private astronauts will be pioneers. The first flights are expensive. But over time, I hope that space flight will become within the reach of far more of the Earth’s population,” Hawking said.
Virgin Spaceship Unity is unveiled in Mojave, California, Friday February 19th, 2016.
Credit: Jack Brockway/Virgin Galactic
Branson added in the unveiling of the new SpaceShipTwo that the “Galactic Girl” on the side of Spaceship Unity now carries a banner using an image of Hawking’s eye.
“This watching eye remind us not only of his part in our journey but of the unique human experience that space provides,” Branson said.
700 reserved seats
Virgin Galactic is the world’s first commercial spaceline. Founded by Sir Richard Branson and owned by the Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS, Virgin Galactic has signed up 700 men and women from over 50 countries—greater than the total number of humans who have ever been to space—that have reserved places to fly on Virgin Galactic’s reusable space launch system, consisting of carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo and spacecraft SpaceShipTwo.
SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo are manufactured and tested in Mojave, California by its manufacturing wing, The Spaceship Company. Spaceflight operations will be based at Spaceport America in New Mexico, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.
NOTE: To view the Hawking message, published on February 20, 2016, go to:
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai.
Credit: K. Opprann/The Nobel Peace Prize
One of the many surprises at last week’s rollout of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo was a video featuring Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai.
Yousafzai’s 2014 Nobel Peace Prize win was motivated by her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.
From eleven years of age Yousafzai fought for girls’ right to education. After having suffered an attack on her life by Taliban gunmen in 2012, she has continued her struggle and become a leading advocate of girls’ rights.
STEM education
Virgin Spaceship Unity is unveiled in Mojave, California, Friday, February 19th, 2016. VSS Unity is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s wholly owned manufacturing arm, and is the second vehicle of its design ever constructed. VSS Unity was unveiled in FAITH (Final Assembly Integration Test Hangar), the Mojave-based home of manufacturing and testing for Virgin Galactic’s human space flight program.
Credit: Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic
At the rollout of the SpaceShipTwo, a recorded message from Yousafzai discussed the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and the role of women in science and engineering. She shared words about the importance of space to science and technical education.
That video, published on February 19th, is available here:
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1258 on February 19, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1260.
Reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on the Mars Science Laboratory: “The rover is fine, gradually working its way around the north end of a large dune.”
A few days ago, on Sol 1256, rover work included taking long distance Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) telescopic remote micro-imager (RMI) images of a location on Mt. Sharp. That was followed on the next Sol by Curiosity’s Navcam making atmospheric observations to look for clouds and measure wind direction above the robot.
In the second science block on Sol 1258, ChemCam repeated the passive sky observation, and Mastcam repeated the observation of the crater rim and the Sun. “These Mastcam observations were repeated one more time later in the day to see whether the amount of dust changes with time of day,” Anderson adds.
Weekend tasks
The over the weekend plan for the rover was performing contact science duties.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1259, February 20, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Slated were Sol 1259 ChemCam observations of the targets “Gross Aub”, “Groot Aub”, “Gorob”, and “Grosskopf.” A later in the day move was brushing the dust off of the target “Gorob”, with MAHLI images to be taken before and after.
The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) was to measure the composition of “Groot Aub” and then do an overnight measurement of “Gorob”.
Driving on tap
On Sol 1260, the plan called for driving Curiosity a few meters, then snag pictures of the rover’s wheels with its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). That was to be followed by driving the robot for another hour or so, followed by post-drive imaging.
Curiosity MAHLI image of target that received the brush off, taken on February 20, 2016, Sol 1259.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Finally, on Sol 1261, ChemCam will do some calibration target observations, and Navcam has a few more atmospheric observations, Anderson concludes.
Planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Virgin Spaceship Unity is unveiled in Mojave, California, Friday February 19th, 2016. VSS Unity is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s wholly owned manufacturing arm, and is the second vehicle of its design ever constructed. VSS Unity was unveiled in FAITH (Final Assembly Integration Test Hangar), the Mojave-based home of manufacturing and testing for Virgin Galactic’s human space flight program.
Credit: Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic
MOJAVE, California – The February 19th rollout of the new VSS Unity here proved to be a grand event, a morale booster for The Spaceship Company and Virgin Galactic that’s backed by founder and entrepreneur, Richard Branson.
Following the Oct. 31, 2014 mishap of SpaceShipTwo breaking up over the Mojave desert here and killing one of its two-person, test piloting crew, a new SpaceShipTwo was premiered, unveiled here at the Final Assembly Integration Test Hangar (FAITH).
It is the first suborbital vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s wholly owned manufacturing arm.
Richard Branson during rollout ceremonies for new SpaceShipTwo.
Credit: Leonard David
Teamwork
Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson said, “Together, we can make space accessible in a way that has only been dreamt of before now, and by doing so can bring positive change to life on Earth. Our beautiful new spaceship, VSS Unity, is the embodiment of that goal and will provide us with an unprecedented body of experience which will in turn lay the foundations for Virgin Galactic’s future. Her creation is also great testament to what can be achieved when true teamwork, great skill and deep pride are combined with a common purpose.”
Actor and Pilot Harrison Ford listens to Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave Mackay inside the new SS2.
Credit: Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic
Everyday explorers
Virgin Galactic CEO George T. Whitesides said, “We seek to open space to people from all walks of life, and today’s milestone is big step toward that goal. Outer space is the province of all humanity, and we think it is about time that all of humanity has a chance to explore it: not just pilots but also painters, not just engineers but also everyday explorers.”
Ready to start testing
The Spaceship Company President Doug Shane said, “Today is the final step of years of manufacturing and extensive testing on every subsystem and component that makes up the spaceship. Today is also the first day of a brand new spaceship that is ready to start testing as an integrated vehicle. I’m most proud of the fact that we have built a talented manufacturing and testing team with an end-to-end capability for vehicle design. We look forward to fulfilling our aim as The Spaceship Company with vehicles of the future for Virgin Galactic and the rest of the industry.”
Quite the day of enjoying the unveiling of VSS Unity, Leonard & Barbara David.
Credit: Robert Pearlman/collectSPACE
Virgin Spaceship Unity is unveiled in Mojave, California, Friday February 19th, 2016.
Credit: VG/Mark Greenberg
MOJAVE, California – Some 16 months after the mishap of SpaceShipTwo breaking up over the desert here and killing one of its two-person, test piloting crew, a new SpaceShipTwo has been rolled out.
It is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s wholly owned manufacturing arm.
VSS Unity was unveiled here at the Final Assembly Integration Test Hangar (FAITH).
Test dates
Noted astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, named the new vehicle Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity via a recorded speech.
With VSS Unity now fully manufactured and rolled out today, The Spaceship Company is set to undertake integrated systems verification, followed by ground and flight tests in Mojave and ground and air exercises at its future home in Spaceport America, New Mexico.
Company officials were tentative to discuss specific dates of future tests leading to commercial public space travel.
Pressing forward
It was announced here that The Spaceship Company has already started work on the next SpaceShipTwo.
Despite the Oct. 31, 2014 loss of SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, vowed to press forward on building the world’s first commercial spaceline.
Leap of FAITH taken by Richard Branson.
Credit: Jack Brockway
Branson said that after the accident, he was touched by messages that gave the company a very clear direction when it came to choosing a name for their next spaceship.
“And thanks to one message in particular I knew without a doubt who I was going to ask to name her. That message came from the great man himself who never ceases to amaze and inspire us all,” Branson said.
Space: a great unifier
The voice of Stephen Hawking boomed through the hangar, including an image of his eye projected on overhead screens. In part, he said:
“We are entering a new space age and I hope, this will help to create a new unity. Space exploration has already been a great unifier – we seem able to cooperate between nations in space in a way we can only envy on Earth. Taking more and more passengers out into space will enable them and us to look both outwards and back, but with a fresh perspective in both directions. It will help bring new meaning to our place on Earth and to our responsibilities as its stewards, and it will help us to recognize our place and our future in the cosmos – which is where I believe our ultimate destiny lies.”
Credit: U.S. Postal Service
On February 22, 2016, the United States Postal Service will release a new, one-ounce, international-rate stamp: A commemorative stamp.
Why? Because exploration of the Moon has always been an international endeavor, explains the U.S. Postal Service.
To distinguish this stamp from other Forever stamps, the shape of the international stamp is round and bears the words “Global Forever.”
The Moon features a detailed photograph of the full moon. The image captures the brilliant surface of Earth’s only natural satellite. The selvage features a tree line silhouetted against the night sky. The new Global Forever stamps are being issued in self-adhesive panes of 10. The stamp is issued at the $1.20 price.
How to order
Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail.
They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office, at The Postal Store® website at: https://store.usps.com/store/ … or by calling 800-782-6724.
They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:
The Moon Stamp
Special Events
PO Box 92282
Washington, D.C. 20090-2282
For more information on this stamp, go to:
http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2016/pb22435/html/info_008.htm
Mastcam Right camera on Curiosity snapped this image on Sol 1255 February 16, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
It is Sol 1257 for the NASA Curiosity Mars rover.
New imagery has been released showing the surrounding Mars landscape as the rover continues its mission since landing on the Red Planet in August 2012.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
A new map has been posted showing the route driven by Curiosity through the 1255 Martian day, or sol, of the robot’s trek on Mars, as of February, 16, 2016).
Numbering of the dots along the line in the photo indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. From Sol 1250 to Sol 1255, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 48.76 feet (14.86 meters).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Mastcam Left image taken by Curiosity on Sol 1255, February 16, 2016.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Navcam Right B image taken by Curiosity on Sol 1256, February 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The asteroid that exploded near Chelyabinsk, Russia on Feb. 15, 2013 has provided scientists new insights into the risks of smaller asteroid impacts. This 3D simulation of the Chelyabinsk meteor explosion by Mark Boslough was rendered by Brad Carvey using the CTH code on Sandia National Laboratories’ Red Sky supercomputer. Andrea Carvey composited the wireframe tail. Photo by Olga Kruglova.
Credit: Sandia National Laboratories
The Chelyabinsk superbolide of February 15, 2013 created a whopper of a mess just south of the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia.
But where in space did the Chelyabinsk space rock come from?
Spanish astrodynamicists, brothers Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos and Sverre J. Aarseth, a scientist of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) have taken a hard look at that question.
Their work has been published by The Astrophysical Journal.
Dynamical relative
The results of their modeling suggest that asteroid 2011 EO40 is a good dynamical relative of the parent body of the Chelyabinsk superbolide…although there is no spectroscopic evidence linking genetically 2011 EO40 to Chelyabinsk, at least not yet.
They report that the common origin of both celestial objects is a possibility that cannot be discarded using the currently available evidence.
The results obtained by the team indicate that the Chelyabinsk impactor likely passed a gravitational keyhole on February 15, 1982 – during a close encounter with Earth at a distance shorter than 0.0015 AU.
As a result of this close encounter, the initial 2011 EO40-like trajectory of the Chelyabinsk meteoroid was changed into the one that drove the meteoroid to strike the Earth over three decades later.
Tangled web
The researchers do admit that it is very difficult to know the exact asteroid that gave origin to the Chelyabinsk superbolide because in the neighborhood of our planet there is a tangled web of overlapping gravitational resonances that confines asteroids of heterogeneous, or diverse, origin to very similar orbits.
“These gravitational resonances create an environment like that of the great cities that attract people from different places and with very diverse backgrounds,” says de la Fuente Marcos, who adds: “Having two very similar orbits today does not imply that these orbits were also similar in the remote past.”
Video catalog!
A number of video records obtained by casual eyewitnesses, dashboard cameras in cars, security, and traffic cameras have been made publicly available on the Internet. These represent a rich repository for future scientific studies of this unique event.
This catalog of video records of the 2013 Chelyabinsk superbolide can be found here:
http://meteor.asu.cas.cz/Chelyabinsk/
The new research by Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos and Sverre Aarseth is to be published next month by the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
This work is now available at:
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/812/1/26
