Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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October 13th, 2014
One of many newly-discovered young volcanic deposits on the Moon (4.330°N, 33.750°E), this example is near the crater Maskelyne. The direction of sunlight is from the right and north is up.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The Earth’s own Moon never fails to disappoint.
New data made possible by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has identified many young volcanic deposits.
A new paper, published in Nature Geoscience, presents 70 topographic anomalies, informally called Irregular Mare Patches, or IMPs. Furthermore, most of these occurrences were previously undocumented.
The new discovery has been made by a group of geologists at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) and shows that the Moon has seen small, but widespread eruptions of basaltic lava during the last 50 million years. That’s a geologically recent period.
According to co-author Mark Robinson, the principal investigator for the LRO Camera (LROC) on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft:
“Their sharp nature and general lack of impact craters greater than 20 meters in diameter indicate these deposits probably formed in the last 100 million years, perhaps even more recently than 50 million years ago. An amazing result!”
Changing the way we think
Robinson also noted that the images are changing the way we think about the Moon.
“Not only are the IMPs striking landscapes, they also tell us something very important about the thermal evolution of the Moon,” Robinson said on the LROC website.
“The nearside has extensive mare basalt flows covering much of its surface, however we know from analysis of Apollo samples and crater counts that the bulk of lunar volcanism occurred from 3.9 to 3.1 billion years ago, and shut-off sometime around 1billion years ago,” Robinson said. “However the IMPs seemed to have formed significantly after the canonical cessation of lunar mare basalt volcanism indicating the interior of the Moon is perhaps hotter than previously thought.”
Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott deploying heat flow probe.
Credit: NASA
Future lunar exploration
Lastly, the IMPs are a fascinating part of the story of lunar volcanism over time, and now they must be considered high priority targets for future exploration, Robinson added.
“A sample return mission from one of these enigmatic deposits would tell us so much about the Moon as a whole. When did these lavas erupt? Is their chemistry different than the basalts returned by the Apollo astronauts? Is it likely that volcanic eruptions may occur at some point in the future? A highly accurate age date for the IMPs would also serve as a much needed calibration point for the lunar cratering chronology,” Robinson said.
Understanding the IMPs is a “crucial improvement” not only for studying and understanding the Moon, but also for Mars and Mercury investigations, Robinson added.
Sarah Braden, a recent SESE graduate, is the lead author; the others are Julie Stopar, Samuel Lawrence, and Mark Robinson (all of SESE) and Carolyn van der Bogert and Harald Hiesinger of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in Germany.
For a sweeping review of the new evidence for young lunar volcanism, go to:
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/818
The full paper in Nature Geoscience is available here:
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2252.html
Posted in 
The shadow knows! China’s Chang’e 3 landing site.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) continues to circle the Moon, with the LRO Camera (LROC) team snagging impressive images of the lunar terrain.
Posted by J. Stopar of Arizona State University on October 9, a set of impressive images of China’s Chang’e 3 landing site is now available for your own surveillance.
In December 2013, the one-ton Chinese lander set down in Mare Imbrium near Laplace F crater, then dispatched the Yutu rover.
LROC imaged the China lander and Yutu rover once each month from February to May of this year.
In the May 10, 2014 image, the lander casts a long shadow to the northwest. Yutu’s shadow (located some 55 feet (17 meters) southwest of the lander) can just barely be discerned in this image, and the blast zone around the lander is nearly indistinguishable from its surroundings.
An animated time-series of shadows is also posted – those shadows cast by the lander and rover as they trace the Sun’s position in the sky. The first image of July 15, 2009 was taken before Chang’e 3 arrived on the surface. Between the second and third frames (December 25, 2013 and January 21, 2014, the Yutu rover can be seen in different positions along its traverse.
Also check out a pan and zoom capability that takes you around the Chang’e 3 landing site.
Image of China’s Chang’e 3 lunar lander taken by Yutu rover.
Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
As LROC continues imaging the landing zone, researchers will be able to assess small changes in the surface around the lander and rover over time.
Yutu Rover wheels across Moon.
Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
To see these unique images credited to NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University go to:
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/813
and
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.
Europe’s Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is nearing a nail-biting moment – when the Philae lander is to be unleashed for a touchdown on the celestial wanderer.
The primary landing site is landing site “J” – a spot that has relatively flat terrain and good solar illumination.
There is a detailed timetable for the descent of Philae.
On October 14, the primary landing site and the schedule will be finally confirmed or a decision made to descend on the backup landing site – landing site “C”.
If a go is given for landing site “J” the lander will undock from the Rosetta spacecraft at 09:35 Central European Time (CET) on November 12 at a distance of approximately 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) from the center of the comet and land on the surface about seven hours later.
The first confirmation of the landing is expected at around 17:00 CET.
The group of boulders in the center of this image reminded scientists of the Giza Necropolis. The largest boulder has therefore been named Cheops.
Credit:
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
The landing will be controlled from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Lander Control Center (LCC) in Cologne.
If spacecraft engineers decide to use the backup site, Philae will undock from Rosetta at 14:04 CET on November 12 at a distance of only about 8 miles (12.5 kilometers) from the center of the comet.
In this case, the descent will only take about four hours. A first signal from the surface would be expected at about 18:30 CET.
The signal travel time between Rosetta and Earth is 28 minutes and 20 seconds.
Close-up of the boulder Cheops as it casts a long shadow on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Cheops has a size of approximately 45 meters and is the largest structure within an a group of boulders located on the lower side of the comet’s larger lobe.
Credit:
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
“Tension is mounting,” says DLR scientist Stephan Ulamec, Project Manager for the Philae lander in a press statement.
Rosetta is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta’s Philae lander is funded by a consortium headed by German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; (DLR), the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), CNES and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
Credit: Mars One
Those signed up and patiently waiting for your trek to the Red Planet via the Mars One program, you might put on the speed brakes a bit and read a new analysis of the effort by a team of MIT students.
Flagged by Marcia Smith at SpacePolicyOnline.com News, the MIT review paints a picture of the outcome. The appraisal was delivered at the recent International Astronautical Congress held last week in Toronto, Canada.
The MIT study was supported by grants from NASA and the Josephine de Karman Fellowship Trust.
Go to Smith’s “MIT Analysis Paints Bleak Outcome for Mars One Concept” at:
For the full MIT paper, “AN INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE MARS ONE MISSION PLAN,” go to:
http://web.mit.edu/sydneydo/Public/Mars%20One%20Feasibility%20Analysis%20IAC14.pdf
Additional information on the Mars One mission plan – and likely a response to the MIT assessment at some point — can be found here:
Meanwhile, what do you think?
XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, California reports they are making progress on their Lynx suborbital craft.
The Lynx is a two-seat, piloted space transport vehicle that will take humans and payloads on a half-hour suborbital flight to 100 km (330,000 feet) and then return safely to a landing at the takeoff runway.
XCOR is busy at work on the vessel and has integrated the cockpit to the fuselage on the Lynx spacecraft. With the fuselage, pressure cabin and other segments, XCOR is bonding these structures together and integrating sub-assemblies, such as the landing gear, at its hangar in Mojave.
The Lynx rocket propulsion system continues to be tested on a first generation fuselage used to perform cold-flow and hot fire tests with XCOR’s proprietary rocket propellant piston pump technology.
Credit: XCOR Aerospace
In a press statement, XCOR said that they preparing for the final stretch leading up to test flights.
XCOR Aerospace is based in Mojave, California. It is currently creating a research and development center in Midland, Texas, and will be establishing an operational and manufacturing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the assistance of Space Florida.
The Lynx family of vehicles serves three primary missions: research and scientific missions and private spaceflight in the Lynx Mark I and Lynx Mark II, and micro satellite launch on the Lynx Mark III.
Credit: Turner Enterprises, Inc
Virgin Galactic, the privately-funded space company owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS, has announced that it has partnered with Ted Turner’s Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa as it continues to expand its New Mexico accommodation options for Future Astronauts and their families.
Located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Sierra Grande Lodge & Spa was built in 1929 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Lodge was fully restored in 2001, with a new spa added in 2006 and a fitness center adjacent to the Lodge in 2013. The Lodge and Spa was purchased by Ted Turner in 2013.
Located in the heart of historic downtown Truth or Consequences, Sierra Grande is within walking distance to shops, restaurants, entertainment, galleries, as well as a short drive to the Gila National Forest, beautiful Elephant Butte Lake, and soon-to-be-completed Virgin Galactic Spaceport.
Credit: Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic’s test flight program of the SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane is in its final stages leading to commercial suborbital operations, which will be based at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Hundreds of passengers have signed up for the suborbital treks. The seat price per person: $250,000.
Credit: IAU/L. Calçada
For the first time in history the public will be able to vote for the official name of stars and planets.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is inviting all public organizations with an interest in astronomy to register on the IAU Directory for World Astronomy website for the NameExoWorlds contest.
Those participating can in early 2015 suggest names for exoplanets and their host stars.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation.
NOTE: The deadline for registration for the contest is December 31, 2014.
Eligible organizations include: planetariums, science centers, amateur astronomy clubs, online astronomy platforms, but also non-profit organizations such as high schools or cultural clubs interested in astronomy.
A list of 305 well-characterized exoplanets, discovered prior to December 31, 2008, has been selected for naming by the IAU Exoplanets for the Public Working Group.
For more details about the contest, go to:
Credit: Ted Molczan
Here’s a new one from me up today on Space.com. Eyes to the skies!
Space Sleuths Piece Together Fiery Fall of Russian Spy Satellite Debris
By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
October 02, 2014 07:01am
http://www.space.com/27318-russian-military-spy-satellite-fall.html
Credit: Springer International Publishing
Given that the surrounding Universe may be awash in worlds, the expectations of finding ET out there is growing.
If the rate of discovery keeps up its current pace, one estimate has it that astronomers will have identified more than a million exoplanets by the year 2045.
Vanderbilt Professor of Astronomy David Weintraub has written a thought provoking new book: Religions and Extraterrestrial Life. It will be issued next month by Springer International Publishing.
Weintraub decided to find out what the world’s major religions have to say about the matter of ET, detailed in a recent Vanderbilt press release.
Weintraub’s book describes what religious leaders and theologians have to say about extraterrestrial life in more than two dozen major religions, including Judaism, Roman Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, several mainline Protestant sects, the Southern Baptist Convention and other evangelical and fundamentalist Christian denominations, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Seventh Day Adventism and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Islam and several major Asian religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and the Bahá’í Faith.
Public opinion
Public opinion polling indicates that about one fifth to one third of the American public believes that extraterrestrials exist, Weintraub reports. However, this varies considerably with religious affiliation.
Belief in extraterrestrials varies by religion:
— 55 percent of Atheists
— 44 percent of Muslims
— 37 percent of Jews
— 36 percent of Hindus
— 32 percent of Christians
Vanderbilt Professor of Astronomy David Weintraub.
Credit: Daniel Dubois/ Vanderbilt
Reincarnated as aliens
According to Weintraub, Asian religions would have the least difficulty in accepting the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Some Hindu thinkers have speculated that humans may be reincarnated as aliens, and vice versa, while Buddhist cosmology includes thousands of inhabited worlds.
Weintraub found very little in Judaic scriptures or rabbinical writings that bear on the question.
The few Talmudic and Kabbalistic commentaries on the subject do assert that space is infinite and contains a potentially infinite number of worlds and that nothing can deny the existence of extraterrestrial life.
At the same time, Jews don’t believe the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would have much effect on them.
Are we ready?
Among Christian religions, the Roman Catholics have done the most thinking about the possibility of life on other worlds, the astronomer discovered.
Weintraub also identified two religions – Mormonism and Seventh-day Adventism – whose theology embraces extraterrestrials.
All this and other information in the book leads to the big question: Are we ready?
In answer to that question Weintraub concludes, “While some of us claim to be ready, a great many of us probably are not… very few among us have spent much time thinking hard about what actual knowledge about extraterrestrial life, whether viruses or single-celled creatures or bipeds piloting intergalactic spaceships, might mean for our personal beliefs [and] our relationships with the divine.”
Are the world’s religions ready for E.T.?
Check out this video:
Credit: NASA
Windows on Earth is an educational project that features photographs taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.
Astronauts take hundreds of photos each day, for science research, education and public outreach. The photos are often dramatic, and help us all appreciate home planet Earth.
Windows on Earth also operates software on the International Space Station, as a window-side aide to help astronauts identify priority targets for photography.
Recently, nearly two dozen of these photos were selected for their artistic appeal, and displayed at Gallery Seven in Maynard, Massachusetts.
For a personal tour of the displayed images, go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz-cGB2fzy8&feature=youtu.be
Another web site provides free public access to virtually all of these photos, updated at least weekly.
That site is operated by TERC, an educational non-profit, in collaboration with the Association of Space Explorers (the professional association of flown astronauts and cosmonauts), the Virtual High School, and CASIS (Center for Advancement of Science in Space).
Also engaged is technical support from NASA’s Crew Earth Observation Program.
Take a look at:
