Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
Author: 
February 13th, 2016
Dump pile photo from Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager, taken on February 12, 2016, Sol 1251.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The Curiosity rover on Mars is deep into Sol 1252 today.
Ken Herkenhoff at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center reports that the rover’s samples of dune sand were deposited onto the surface, “but it appears that the sample was partly blown by the wind.” There is enough sample left to investigate with various rover instruments, he adds.
Looking ahead, the Curiosity Sol 1253 plan begins with Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) passive spectra observations, as well as Mastcam multispectral observations of the dump piles and a recently brushed spot on Mars, Herkenhoff reports.
Sieved, unsieved sand
Later that sol, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is slated to take pictures of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) calibration target and both dump piles prior to the APXS is placed on the pile of sieved sand for appraisal.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image, taken on Sol 1251, February 12, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The APXS measures the abundance of chemical elements in rocks and soils.
After sunset, Herkenhoff says that the APXS will be moved to a bedrock target named “Bergsig” then to the pile of unsieved sand for a long, overnight stint of data gathering.
Surface frost
The rover is scheduled to wake up before dawn on Sol 1254 for an attempt to detect surface frost using ChemCam.
“This is the best time of year for water frost to form, so we’re hoping that ChemCam will see the hydrogen in the water,” Herkenhoff notes.
Later that sol, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe the unsieved dump pile and the brushed spot, this time using ChemCam’s laser to measure chemical composition.
“Mastcam will also image the frost target, the sun, and the distant crater rim to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere,” says Herkenhoff. Then MAHLI will image Bersig, the sieved dump pile to look for the imprint of APXS’s contact sensor, and the brushed spot.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo, snapped on Sol 1251, February 12, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Overnight, the robot’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) is scheduled to analyze the dune sand again, to improve the accuracy of the mineralogical measurement.
Drive northward
On Sol 1255, Herkenhoff says that the rover planning calls for the machinery to drive toward the north, to get around the sand dune to the west of the vehicle. In addition to the usual post-drive imaging, the Navcam will take a couple images of Mount Sharp to enable planning of future long-distance imaging.
Overall, it’s another full plan for using Curiosity that has kept the tactical team busy, Herkenhoff concludes.
Posted in 
At the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, a specialist from Airbus Defense and Space (Aquitaine) places an insulation tile on the exterior of Schiaparelli, the ExoMars entry, descent, and landing demonstrator module.
Credit: ESA – B. Bethge
Progress is being made on readying for liftoff next month of the European Space Agency’s 2016 ExoMars mission/
That mission to be launched via a Proton booster includes a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and an Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM).
Schiaparelli is the name of that entry, descent and landing demonstrator module.
Finishing touches
ESA reports that the finishing touches are being made to the protective heat shield of Schiaparelli before it is joined to the Trace Gas Orbiter.
Given a successful launch in Mars, Schiaparelli will plunge through the Martian atmosphere in October of this year and experience very high temperatures.
The entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, is part of ESA’s ExoMars 2016 mission. Schiaparelli is shown in its surface configuration after descent through the Martian atmosphere.
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
Tile work
For most of the descent, a front heat shield and a rear cover will protect the module.
The front shield is a carbon sandwich structure covered with 90 insulating tiles. These tiles are made of Norcoat Liège, a thermal ablative material composed of resin and cork.
A team of specialists from Airbus Defense and Space (Aquitaine), who arrived in Baikonur last week, are now busy placing and sealing the last of the tiles on Schiaparelli’s heat shield and rear cover.
The Schiaparelli surface payload, based on the proposed DREAMS (Dust Characterisation, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface) package, consists of a suite of sensors to measure the wind speed and direction (MetWind), humidity (DREAMS-H), pressure (DREAMS-P), atmospheric temperature close to the surface (MarsTem), the transparency of the atmosphere (Solar Irradiance Sensor, SIS), and atmospheric electrification (Atmospheric Radiation and Electricity Sensor; MicroARES).
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
The final launch preparation activities for Schiaparelli are drawing to a close.
Credit: NASA/Langley Research Center
Under the space radar screen is “Homesteading in Space – Inspiring the Nation through Science Fiction.”
Today at the California NanoSystems Institute/ UCLA in Los Angeles, California, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) co-sponsored a look at humanity’s space future.
Sci-fi/fact
Roughly 70 space scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, along with story-tellers, artists, directors, and producers met to show their interest in science fiction and space exploration with a view toward future “homesteading” in space.
Other co-sponsors were the National Academy of Sciences, Science & Entertainment Exchange, and the Museum of Science Fiction.
The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is an integrated research facility with locations at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. Its mission is to encourage university collaboration with industry and to enable the rapid commercialization of discoveries in nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Heady gathering
The intent of the heady gathering was to gather stories that will energize the public, inspire children to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) careers.
But a key add-on: help make science fiction become science fact.
Interactive discussions were held, each focused on specific areas of future science and technology related to how we can travel to and live on Mars and ultimately beyond.
Also on tap is how to include the future technologies needed to “homestead” in space.
What’s the view into the future?
Credit: NASA
Technology topics
Technical experts were divided between the following five future technology topics:
— Exploring Space: How will we leave the earth and travel to other planets?
— Prospecting: How will we find and collect chemicals and minerals from asteroids and other planets?
— Manufacturing: How will we make the materials and manufacture the things we need to build a community on another planet?
— Bioengineering: How will we use biotechnology, including synthetic biology, to create food, fuel, and useful chemicals using engineered bacteria and plant life?
— World Building: How will we not only survive but thrive in space, creating communities and maintaining our physical and mental health?
White House role
Making use of all media — novels, short stories, design fiction, new media, video, film, TV, VR, gaming, etc. – the gathering was focused on using science fiction to express positive, entertaining views of a future “homesteading” in space.
Credit: OSTP
The White House OSTP role was to ascertain what steps the government and the private sector can take to:
— further inform the creative community about a positive vision of a future in space; and
— encourage people to incorporate this vision into entertaining stories that will excite the public, energize entrepreneurs, and motivate inspire children.
Incoming! Who ya going to call?
A Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group (PIERWG) Charter has been developed.
Credit: NASA
A partnership between the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and NASA is in place “to develop guidance to prepare for any potential impact of our planet by a large natural object.”
A Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group (PIERWG) Charter was signed in August 2015 and is now available for public viewing here at:
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/signed_pierwg_charter_10212015.pdf
Unique threat
The Charter notes that “the risks are inherently unique and there are currently no national policy covering this particular threat.”
Spelled out in the Charter is the framework for the structure and processes of an interagency team focused on preparation for a predicted or actual impact of an asteroid or comet that could affect the United States or its territories.
The Charter details the roles, responsibilities, and membership of the PIERWG.
Coordinating agencies
The objective of the PIERWG provides a forum for affected U.S. Departments and Agencies to develop the essential information and recommendations needed by senior leadership to make informed decisions to respond to the “unique challenges” of an impending NEO impact.
PIERWG coordinating agencies include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Homeland Security-Science and Technology, as well as Department of Defense, and the Department of State’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology.
Approving the document is Damon Penn, Assistant Administrator of the Response Directorate of FEMA and NASA’s James Green, Director of the Planetary Science Division.
New NASA office
In early January, NASA announced the establishment of a Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) created to coordinate U.S. agencies and intergovernmental efforts to respond to future near-Earth objects that threaten Earth.
For details of NASA’s new office, go to:
NASA’s New Planetary Defense Office Gets to Work Protecting Earth
http://www.space.com/31770-nasa-planetary-defense-office-asteroid-threat.html
Curiosity Sol 1248 image taken by the robot’s Mastcam Left camera on February 9, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1249.
Mars researcher, Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff explains that the rover has traversed roughly 8 miles (12 kilometers) since landing in August 2012, and another drive is planned for Sol 1249.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1249, February 10, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The tactical planning team decided to forgo targeted remote science observations before the drive to allow more time for driving,” Herkenhoff adds. “The goal is to get the vehicle to a location that will allow the remaining dune sample to be dumped and examined in detail this weekend, and this will require more drive time than originally planned.”
Planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability.”
Dude of the dune
The nuclear powered robot’s dune-investigation campaign is adding to appreciating how wind moves and sorts grains of sand, in an environment with less gravity and much less atmosphere than well-studied dune fields on Earth.
Nuclear power system is shown in this Curiosity Navcam Right B image, taken on Sol 1249, February 10, 2016
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity has not caught a sand slide in action.
However, the rover’s images of the Namib Dune slip face show where such slides have occurred recently. These dunes likely are most active in Mars’ southern summer, rather than in the current late-fall season.
InSight Mars lander.
Credit: NASA/JPL
NASA’s InSight Mars lander is now safely back at its maker – Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado.
The spacecraft was successfully shipped back from Vandenberg Air Force Base to Denver on Saturday, Feb. 6. Its “return to sender” flight was onboard a C-17 aircraft from Vandenberg AFB to Buckley AFB.
InSight is currently housed in the Waterton Canyon campus in Littleton, Colorado company spokesman, Gary Napier, told Inside Outer Space.
A crate containing NASA’s Mars-bound InSight spacecraft was loaded into a C-17 cargo aircraft at Buckley Air Force Base, Denver, for shipment to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, was shipped Dec. 16, 2015, for launch in March 2016. The spacecraft is now back at Lockheed Martin due to launch delay.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin
Seismic experiment
NASA decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Discovery-class Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight). The launch scrub was due to unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the lander’s science payload.
The problem-plagued instrument was the sensitive Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS).
SEIS is designed to take precise measurements of quakes and other internal activity on Mars to better understand the planet’s history and structure.
Pre-ship photo shows NASA’s InSight Mars lander spacecraft in a Lockheed Martin clean room near Denver. As part of a series of deployment tests, the spacecraft was commanded to deploy its solar arrays in the clean room to test and verify the exact process that it will use on the surface of Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin
Leak problems
The SEIS had previously failed to retain vacuum conditions – a problem that was fixed. But during follow-up tests in extreme cold temperature (-49 degrees Fahrenheit/-45 degrees Celsius) another leak was detected.
Despite the repairs and the significant efforts of InSight teams, a cold pressure build-up, probably caused by a new leak, was detected on the sphere-shaped SEIS.
NASA officials determined there was insufficient time to resolve another leak, and complete the work and thorough testing required to ensure InSight’s mission.
Core sensors
“The thing that was leaking was the vacuum enclosure of the VBBs (Very Broad Band seismometers), which are the core sensors of the SEIS,” explains W. Bruce Banerdt Principal Investigator for InSight at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
Credit: NASA/JPL
“We call it the ‘sphere’… although it is only quasi-spherical,” Banerdt told Inside Outer Space. “JPL and the French have been working shoulder to shoulder — both literally and figuratively — since the first leak was detected at the end of August,” he adds.
Along the same lines, teams are jointly putting together a plan forward, Banerdt notes, for producing a robust vacuum enclosure for the presumed launch of InSight in 2018.
Resources:
For more information on the SES, go to this video in French at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3IOKszmnyo
For an English video on InSight, go to:
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are offering your own controllable view of a full-circle panorama beside “Namib Dune” on Mars. The Curiosity mission’s examination of dunes in the Bagnold field, along the rover’s route up the lower slope of Mount Sharp, is the first close look at active sand dunes anywhere other than Earth.
The Curiosity rover-provided view shows the downwind face of Namib Dune on Mars that covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon.
The site is part of the dark-sand “Bagnold Dunes” field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp.
The component images of the scene were taken on Dec. 18, 2015 by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on the robot.
The bottom of the dune nearest the rover is about 23 feet (7 meters) from the camera. This downwind face of the dune rises at an inclination of about 28 degrees to a height of about 16 feet (5 meters) above the base. The center of the scene is toward the east; both ends are toward the west.
A color adjustment has been made approximating a white balance, so that rocks and sand appear approximately as they would appear under Earth’s sunlit sky.
The mission’s examination of dunes in the Bagnold field, along the rover’s route up the lower slope of Mount Sharp, is the first close look at active sand dunes anywhere other than Earth.
Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover’s Mastcam.
Go to:
Asteroid Ida
Credit: NASA/PL
Organizers of Asteroid Day are staging a special press event tomorrow, February 9th, making use of multimedia platforms to accommodate speakers from around the world on current research on threatening asteroids.
The press conference is dedicated to reveal the events and partners for Asteroid Day 2016 and will start on Tuesday, February 9 at 1500 CET (1400 UTC). It is being held at ESA’s ESTEC technical center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
What is Asteroid Day?
Scheduled for June 30 around the world, this yearly event is a global movement to increase public awareness of potential asteroid collisions and the means to protect Earth. It was co-founded in 2015, by Dr. Brian May, astrophysicist and lead guitarist for the rock band Queen, Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, and German filmmaker Grig Richters.
Credit: ESA/ESTEC
Asteroid Day is held on June 30 each year to mark Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history, the Siberia Tunguska event, which devastated over 2000 square km, the size of a major metropolitan city.
In 2015, on the inaugural Asteroid Day, partners organized more than 150 events worldwide, educating millions of people and generating some 4 billion media impressions.
Resources:
To access the webcast, go to:
or
For additional information on Asteroid Day and the 100X Asteroid Declaration, go to:
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Right B image taken on Sol 1244, February 5, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
UPDATE: Curiosity is now in Sol 1245.
On Sol 1244, Curiosity did “bump” roughly 6 feet (2 meters) forward to get to a patch of bedrock. “The focus of the weekend plan is to study typical Murray formation bedrock, do some targeted remote sensing, and then drive towards the Naukluft Plateau,” explains Lauren Edgar at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the Mars Science Laboratory science team. A three Sol plan has been scripted, Edgar adds, with rover inspection of an interesting patch of nodules. On the third sol, Curiosity is slated to drive towards the Naukluft Plateau, and acquire post-drive imaging to prepare for the upcoming week.
Bedrock target
In a few hours, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover enters Sol 1245, landing on the Red Planet back in August 2012.
The rover is now focused on “bumping” towards a bedrock target to set researchers here on Earth on track for contact science in the upcoming weekend plan.
New Curiosity imagery shows that the robot used its rear wheels to create one last scuff in Namib Dune, documented as the robot drove away.
Explains Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona: “Looking forward to being back on bedrock!”
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1244, February 5, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1244, February 5, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Freshly broken rock
“We decided to bump just a few meters away to a target that will allow us to characterize typical Murray formation bedrock,” Edgar adds.
Before the drive, the plan called for a Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) passive observation of a distant crater to characterize the material that makes up the Gale crater walls,” Edgar points out. “We also planned a Mastcam image of a freshly broken rock named “Askevold,” and Mastcam deck monitoring to search for the movement of fines.”
Image taken by Curiosity’s Mastcam Left camera on Sol 1243, February 4, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Undermine a ripple
That planned action had the rover driving forward slightly, turn its wheels to undermine a ripple, image it with Mastcam, and then drive towards the contact science target.
“After the drive we’ll acquire imaging to prepare for contact science and targeting in the weekend plan, and we’ll also do some ChemCam calibration activities,” Edgar adds.
Curiosity’s Traverse Map Through Sol 1243.
This map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1243 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars as of February 4, 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).
From Sol 1221 to Sol 1243, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 13.85 feet (4.22 meters).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
These images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were taken by Rosetta’s navigation camera between August and November 2014.
Top row, left to right: Comet pictured on August 6, 2014, at a distance of 96 km; August 14, at a distance of 100 km; August 22, at a distance of 64 km; September 14, at a distance of 30 km.
Bottom row, left to right: Comet pictured on September 24, at a distance of 28 km; October 24, at a distance of 10 km; October 26, at a distance of 8 km; November 6, at a distance of 30 km.
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Word from the European Space Agency (ESA) – there are no vast caverns inside Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
A comet’s low density implies that these objects must be highly porous.
The view has been espoused that due to this porosity, huge empty caves may exist in the comet’s interior.
New study results have been published in the scientific journal, Nature. The research was led by Martin Pätzold, from Rheinische Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Germany. The team’s study has shown that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a low-density object…but they have also been able to rule out a cavernous interior.
The work is based on ESA’s Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Radio science
According to a ESA press statement, Pätzold’s team made their discovery by using radio science data to study the way the Rosetta orbiter is pulled by the gravity of the comet, which is generated by its mass.
The frequency of the radio link to Earth from Rosetta to ESA’s 35-meter antenna at the New Norcia ground station in Australia is studied to spot caves on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The variations in the signals it received were analysed to give a picture of the gravity field across the comet.
Credit: ESA
The variations in the signals received were analyzed to give a picture of the gravity field across the comet. Large internal caverns would have been noticeable by a tell-tale drop in acceleration.
This finding is consistent with earlier results from Rosetta’s CONSERT radar experiment showing that the double-lobed comet’s “head” is fairly homogenous on spatial scales of a few tens of meters.
Controlled impact
This September, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft will be guided to a “controlled impact” on the surface of the comet.
As Rosetta moves closer and closer to the complex gravity field of the comet, navigating the probe will become harder and harder.
The frequency of the radio link to Earth will be closely monitored – making use once again of ESA’s 35-meter antenna at the New Norcia ground station in Australia. The variations in the signals it receives will be scrutinized to give a picture of the gravity field across the comet – and a last ditch search for any large caverns in the comet.
The new research in Nature – “A homogeneous nucleus for comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from its gravity field” — can be found at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v530/n7588/full/nature16535.html
