Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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September 22nd, 2015
Curiosity Mars rover used its Navcam Left B camera to acquire this image of surrounding and distant terrain on September 20, 2015, Sol 1110.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Curiosity Mars rover has experienced some rough driving.
A drive on Sol 1111 was cut short after a little over 15 meters.
According to Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the Curiosity team, “we were driving over rough terrain and part of the rover’s suspension exceeded the allowed amount of tilt.”
Anderson adds that this is not a physical limit, just a threshold in the software that tells the rover to stop and check with Earth to be safe.
“The rover is fine and we plan to drive again in the Sol 1112 plan,” Anderson noted on Monday. “Meanwhile we are trying to decide where in the area we want to drill to maximize the science return. There are a lot of options because we’re surrounded by interesting geology!”
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1109, September 19, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Potential drill target
After the drive, post-drive imaging is on tap to allow scientists to choose targets on Wednesday.
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.
Posted in 
Future human Mars from using Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology.
Credit: NASA/Langley
Future Mars missions would greatly benefit from using Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology.
HIAD-based entry vehicles that generate lift can provide additional mission flexibility.
NASA’s is on the hunt for teams of undergraduate and graduate students studying in fields applicable to human space exploration (i.e., aerospace, electrical, and mechanical engineering; and life, physical, and computer sciences).
Wanted: innovative ideas
The initiative is called the Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea challenge. BIG is supporting NASA’s Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) efforts designed to rapidly mature innovative/high impact capabilities and technologies for infusion in a broad array of future NASA missions.
Lots of high-tech work ahead to firmly plant boots on Mars.
Credit: NASA/STMD
This GCDP-sponsored engineering design competition seeks innovative Ideas from the academic community for generating lift using HIAD technology.
In 2016, up to 4 teams may be chosen to compete at the BIG Idea Forum at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Each team will receive a monetary award to facilitate full participation in the BIG Idea Forum. The top winning team members will receive internship offers for the following summer from GCDP.
More information
The BIG Idea Challenge is managed by the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA.
Credit: NIA/NASA
Note that there is an optional deadline of October 9, 2015 to submit a Notice of Intent to take part in the challenge.
For more information on this challenge, go to:
China’s Moon program intends to support a lunar sample return in 2017.
Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
China’s powerful Long March 5 carrier rocket has been shipped from North China’s Tianjin port. The shipment signals a step toward a rehearsal of the projected 2017 liftoff of the Chang’e 5 lunar mission.
The booster has been designed by China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The first shakeout flight of the Long March 5 is slated for next year.
According to China’s Xinhua news agency, the Long March 5-boosted Chang’e 5 lunar mission will complete the last chapter in China’s three-step Moon program: orbiting, landing and sample return.
Complex mission
The Chang’e 5 mission is complex, one that will include automatic sampling of lunar material, launch the specimens from the Moon, then makes an automatic docking with a return stage high above the lunar surface, that then hauls the goods back to Earth.
As for the upcoming booster drill, it will be carried out in a launch site that involves both the carrier rocket and a probe, said the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
The Long March 5 will have a payload capacity of 14 tons to geostationary transfer orbit, the largest carrying capacity in China.
Long March 6 success
In other booster news from China, Xinhua also reports the successful test flight of the Long March 6.
Long March 6 on first test flight.
Credit: Chinese Internet via SinoDefense
That rocket flew September 20 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province.
The new carrier rocket will be mainly used for the launch of micro-satellites, according to Chinese authorities. This first test flight of the rocket carried 20 small satellites into the space for space tests – marking a new record high for China in one space shot.
Notes the informative SinoDefense website, the new rocket fills a launch capacity gap in the existing Chang Zheng launch vehicle family – and is
in the same class as the European Space Agency’s Vega and the Russian Angara-1 boosters.
Environmentally friendly
Zhang Weidong, designer-in-chief at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said the new rocket also “reformed the way carrier rockets are tested and launched in China,” as reported by Xinhua.
The loading, testing and positioning of the Long March 6 was completed in a horizontal position, before it was lifted upright for launching, Zhang said.
According to Wang Jianshe of Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation, the Long March 6 is environmentally friendly. The engine uses liquefied oxygen and diesel that produce carbon dioxide and water.
“This won’t pollute the environment,” Wang said, as reported by China’s CCTV.
Credit: Mars One
From the Mars One project, sports and underwear brand Björn Borg’s Spring/Summer 2016 (SS16) show at Fashion Week in Stockholm was a tribute to that project’s human mission to the Red Planet.
The catwalk featured a Mars-themed environment with red rocks, dust, and a Martian crater.
“It resulted in what is sure to be one of the most original fashion shows. This amazing brand opportunity enabled Mars One to reach a new audience and excite them about space exploration,” explains the Mars One project.
Check out the catwalk video at:
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly takes a selfie with the Bahamas from 250 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station.
Credit: Scott Kelly/NASA
The White House issued today a message from NASA astronaut, Scott Kelly, now onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The posting from Kelly underscores his midway status in a one-year stint onboard the ISS.
Here is that message from Kelly:
Heading into the unknown…
Almost everything we know about living in space ends at six months. Now that I am at the midpoint of my mission, heading into the second half of one year in space aboard the International Space Station, I am looking forward to exploring the science of this uncharted territory and stepping into the unknown.
My Russian colleague Mikhail Kornienko and I are living in space for one year to push the edge of our scientific understanding. To add in another dynamic, researchers are conducting “twin studies” to compare the subtle effects and changes in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying my twin brother and I, two individuals who have almost identical genetics, but are in different environments for one year. We hope that the knowledge gained on this mission will benefit the Earth and that the data collected will help send humans to new destinations, supporting the next generation of space exploration.
Whether it is living in low Earth orbit for one year or a two year mission to the Red Planet, I have learned that human potential is limitless and we should never stop pushing the boundaries of exploration.
Thank you for supporting me and joining me on this mission. I am posting on social media with the hope that I can bring all of you on Earth along for the ride. I want to inspire you to reach further for your dreams and know that anything is possible.
The people who make International Space Station operations possible, the flight controllers watching over our ship 24-7-365, and the researchers analyzing the data we get back have invested their careers and lives to this mission to serve the United States and inspire the next generation.
I have traveled 72 million miles around Earth in the past 171 days — flying at 17,500mph — and have had the opportunity to experience our home planet from an incredible perspective. When I come home in March, I will have orbited the Earth 5,472 times traveling 141.7 million statute miles and spent more time in space than any U.S. astronaut in history. Please join me for the next six months of my mission — as I reach these milestones and continue NASA’s work off the Earth, for the Earth.
Sincerely,
Scott
Scott Kelly, NASA Astronaut
Artist’s impression depicts the separation of Europe’s ExoMars 2016 entry, descent and landing demonstrator module — named Schiaparelli — from the Trace Gas Orbiter
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
Europe’s ExoMars 2016 mission has slipped its launch window from January of next year to March.
A problem recently discovered in two sensors in the propulsion system of the entry, descent and landing demonstrator module — Schiaparelli — has prompted the recommendation to move the launch to March 14 – still within the launch window of early 2016.
ExoMars 2016 is to be launched via a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
The ESA ExoMars 2016 mission will arrive at the Red Planet in October.
Technology testing
The European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli module will prove key technologies to demonstrate Europe’s capability to make a controlled landing on Mars.
The Schiaparelli will ride to Mars on the ESA Trace Gas Orbiter.
That orbiter is designed to carry out a five-year mission of studying Mars’ atmospheric gases potentially linked to present-day biological or geological activity.
Credit: ESA
Once released from the orbiter, Schiaparelli is to aerobrake in the upper Martian atmosphere, with a parachute phase and liquid-propellant thruster system phase following.
Landing site: Meridiani Planum
As the thrusters switch off, the lander will drop onto the Mars landscape. Its impact will be cushioned by a crushable structure built into the module.
Credit: ESA
The lander is targeted for touchdown in a region known as Meridiani Planum.
Schiaparelli is planned to operate on the surface for only a short time, powered by batteries. The lander will remain a target for future laser ranging studies as it carries a reflector designed for this purpose.
Credit: ESA
ESA’s ExoMars 2018 mission – also to be launched by a Russian Proton booster — is set to deliver a rover and an instrumented platform on the surface of Mars.
ExoMars is a joint endeavor between ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.
Outcrop of interest as seen through Curiosity’s Navcam Left B camera on Sol 1107, taken September 17, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A recent drive by the Curiosity Mars rover of 54 feet (16.6 meters) was completed on Sol 1107.
That drive placed the rover in front of a bright outcrop of interest, explains Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Rover planners have found some bright blocks that have been confirmed as good targets for contact science, Herkenhoff reports. The plan is to approach and study these targets over the upcoming weekend.
On tap was use of Curiosity’s ChemCam and Mastcam to observe nearby rock and soil targets named “Sphinx,” “Houle,” and “Utopia.”
Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1104, September 14, 2015
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Earlier this week, the robot made additional contact science on the Murray formation in search of good sandstone for the rover’s next drill target.
Should we stay, should we go?
Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, noted early this week that the bright patch of blocky outcrop was first identified in orbital images.
The question facing rover scientists: was the outcrop a good place to investigate further…or to keep driving?
Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, took this up-close image on September 16 2015, Sol 1106.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Edgar said: “Can’t wait to see what the new images will reveal!”
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.
Today is Sol 1108 for Curiosity, landing on Mars in early August of 2012.
Business plan for asteroid mining.
Credit: Joel Sercel/ICS Associates Inc. and TransAstra
A new method to harvest asteroids is being eyed as a possible game changer for space exploration. The ability to tap mega-amounts of water from asteroids could be used directly as propellant in solar thermal rockets to provide inexpensive space transportation.
Rock star status
Experimental work on the Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies (Apis) plan makes use of a new patent pending innovation dubbed “optical mining” – a way to excavate and process asteroids and transform them into “rock star” status.
White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico has a large solar furnace. It’ll shed light and heat onto and into the idea of asteroid mining.
Credit: Drew Hamilton, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
The research has been advanced by a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellowship and grant along with a small business contract.
The concept was detailed during a special NIAC session held September 2 during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Space 2015 meeting in Pasadena, California.For more details, take a look a my new Space.com story at:
Asteroid-Mining Plan Would Bake Water Out of Bagged-Up Space Rocks
by Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
September 18, 2015 07:38am ET
http://www.space.com/30582-asteroid-mining-water-propulsion.html
Credit: NASA History Office
From the NASA History Program Office, a new monograph in aerospace history is available that’s a fascinating read.
Emblems of Exploration: Logos of the NACA and NASA has been written by Joseph R. Chambers and Mark A. Chambers.
From Emblems of Exploration: Logos of the NACA and NASA.
This publication concentrates on the rich and interesting history of the conception and implementation of the world-famous NACA and NASA seals and insignias that have been displayed for decades on aeronautics and space research vehicles and facilities, as well as those proudly worn by flight research pilots, astronauts, and the dedicated employees of these two world-class organizations.
NASA seal
But those decades have also been marked by high-sign hullabaloo.
Admired symbol
As the authors note: “The logos became an intimate, ever-present component of activities as NASA achieved the necessary stepping-stones for travel to the Moon during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs,” they write.
NASA meatball
“The meatball insignia, in particular, became a publicly admired symbol as the nation raced to meet a seemingly impossible schedule for a Moon landing imposed by a President with his eyes on the stars and the immediate Soviet threat.”
Enter the worm
The NASA meatball was retired in 1975 by the artistic worm logotype insignia, “much to the dismay of many NASA employees,” they add.
NASA worm
But NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin retired the worm and brought back the meatball in 1992, “as a reminder of the glory days of the Agency to improve the morale of employees, the logo was welcomed back by many veteran NASA employees,” the authors explain.
For a free downloadable E-book of the monograph, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/emblems_of_exploration_detail.html
Special thanks to Debi Shoots/ODRSO Science Department for calling this report to my attention!
Architectural work is on-going to develop a Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments.
Credit: SHEE Project
On the Moon or Mars, cozy and self-deployable autonomous habitats might rule the day and night given the extreme climes at those extraterrestrial addresses.
Enter the “SHEE project” – the Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments.
The concept is the product of an architecture research idea initiated by architect Ondrej Doule, detailed here August 31 at a session on space habitats at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Space 2015 meeting.
This space habitat work may serve dual purposes — not only for creating off planet, home-away-from-home domiciles – but also useful here on Earth.
Work on extraterrestrial habitats for the Moon and Mars may find down-to-Earth application to help those afflicted by natural or human-made disasters.
Credit: SHEE Project
Videos and other photos
Time-lapse movie sped up 25 times shows a habitat equipped with internal furnishing and subsystems. The folding process was monitored earlier this year during a Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments (SHEE) workshop held in Marseille, France.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story:
Future Mars Explorers Could Live in Habitats That Build Themselves
by Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
September 16, 2015 07:20am ET
http://www.space.com/30553-self-deploying-mars-habitats-shee.html
