Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
Author: 
April 3rd, 2014
Europe’s ExoMars 2018: Landing sites under review
Credit: ESA-Roscosmos/LSSWG/D. Loizeau
Europe is pressing ahead on blueprinting its Red Planet exploration via the ExoMars program.
Some 60 scientists and engineers came together late last month for the first ExoMars 2018 Landing Site Selection Workshop, held at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Space Astronomy Centre near Madrid.
Their task was to begin the process of drawing up a shortlist of the most suitable landing locations for ESA’s first Mars rover.
The rover can cover a limited driving range in the course of its seven-month nominal surface exploration mission.
ESA’s ExoMars Rover.
Credit: ESA
And the landing site votes are in!
Four sites
The workshop attendees favored four candidate sites. All of the landing spots are located relatively near the equator.
They are: Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Oxia Palus.
The area around Mawrth Vallis and nearby Oxia Planum contains one of the largest exposures of ancient, clay-rich rocks on the planet.
The other two sites represent former fluvial environments.
A final shortlist of up to four candidate sites is expected in June 2014, prior to a more detailed analysis. According to the ExoMars project, some attention will be given to three other sites: Coogoon Valles, Simud Vallis and Southern Isidis.
The aim is to complete the certification of at least one landing site for the ExoMars rover by the second half of 2016. The final decision on the landing site will be taken sometime in 2017.
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module
Credit: ESA
Two missions are foreseen within the ExoMars program: one consisting of an Orbiter plus an Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module, to be launched in 2016.
The other mission, featuring a rover, has a launch date of 2018.
Both missions will be carried out in cooperation with Russia’s Roscosmos. Roscosmos will provide a Proton launcher for both missions.
The 2016 mission includes a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and an Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM).
The Orbiter will carry scientific instruments to detect and study atmospheric trace gases, such as methane.
The EDM will contain sensors to evaluate the lander’s performance as it descends, and additional sensors to study the environment at the landing site.
The 2018 mission includes a rover that will carry a drill and a suite of instruments dedicated to exobiology and geochemistry research.
Posted in 
It is tagged the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS for short.
Funded by NASA, ATLAS is being developed by the University of Hawaii as an asteroid impact early warning system.
When ATLAS is completed in 2015, it will consist of two telescopes, 100 miles apart, which automatically scan the whole sky several times every night looking for moving objects.
ATLAS can provide one day’s warning for a 30-kiloton “town killer,” a week for a 5-megaton “city killer,” and three weeks for a 100-megaton “county killer.”
Project officials for ATLAS report that a scaled-down prototype — “Pathfinder” — is now live on Mauna Loa, Hawaii Island. It is automatically scanning the sky and sending the data back to Honolulu.
ATLAS Principal Investigator, John Tonry.
Credit: ATLAS
Two observatories
Furthermore, on March 25, the ATLAS team obtained first light with a new MicroCam3 device outfitted on a Takahashi Telescope.
While MicroCam3 has a 16-megapixel detector, the eventual ATLAS camera will have a 110-megapixel detector, which is housed in a cryostat to keep the detector cooled to -50° C.
When fully operational, the two-telescope ATLAS system will survey the sky four times each night and take around 3,000 images per night.
By the end of 2014 the ATLAS team expects to have two observatories: one at the current location on Mauna Loa, Hawai’i Island, and a second on Haleakala, 100 miles northwest on Maui.
Roster of jobs
There is a roster of ATLAS errands that can be accomplished besides the important job of searching for dangerous asteroids. They include:
•Search for habitable planets outside our Solar System
•Look for denizens of the outer Solar System, such as dwarf planets like Pluto or Eris or a Nemesis star
•Search for minimoons that orbit Earth
•Track space junk
As noted in a recent ATLAS update: “We are very happy with our overall progress. We must be at full productivity in two years, and it’s impressive that the team is already able to find and report asteroids right now.”
Check out this informative video, detailed by ATLAS principal investigator, John Tonry.
Go to: http://fallingstar.com/video-1.php
For more information on ATLAS, go to the project’s website at:
Credit: International Space Exploration
Coordination Group
You may be interested in this document:
Benefits Stemming from Space Exploration
It was released in September 2013 by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group.
At its heart, this report explains that space exploration “will continue to be an essential driver for opening up new domains in science and technology, triggering other sectors to partner with the space sector for joint research and development. This will return immediate benefits back to Earth in areas such as materials, power generation and energy storage, recycling and waste management, advanced robotics, health and medicine, transportation, engineering, computing and software.”
Furthermore, the report stresses that “innovations required for space exploration, such as those related to miniaturisation, will drive improvements in other space systems and services resulting in higher performance and lower cost. These will in turn result in better services on Earth and better return of investment in institutional and commercial space activities. In addition, the excitement generated by space exploration attracts young people to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, helping to build global capacity for scientific and technological innovation.”
For full document, go to:
Promotional artwork for the 2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competition.
Credit: Humans in Space Art
May is the target time for a novel effort by the Humans in Space Youth Art Competition.
A “moon bounce performance” is slated using artwork in collaboration with visual artist, Daniela DePaulis, and the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in The Netherlands.
OPTICKS is a live radio transmission performance between the Earth and the Moon during which images are sent to the Moon and back as radio signals.
“From the art end, we are all set and have what we need,” said Jancy C. McPhee, Director of the Humans in Space Youth Art Competition at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Selected paintings will be bounced off the Moon.
The date for bouncing the artwork off the Moon will depend on ensuring that the radio telescope is working properly and on schedule, “as with any ‘science’ experiment,” she said.
Future of space
The international Humans in Space Youth Art Competition encourages youth to “Be Inspired, Creative and Heard” and is dedicated to inspiring the world about space via a global dialogue on the future of space.
The 2012-2013 competition invited young people from 10 to18 years of age to submit visual, literary, musical and video artwork expressing their vision. The winning artwork is woven into displays and performances designed to relay the youth artists’ messages to other young people and adults around the world.
The main 2012 partners in the Humans in Space Youth Art Competition were NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and Mission X, an international educational challenge focused on fitness and nutrition that encourages students to “train like an astronaut.”
Dwingeloo radio telescope in The Netherlands.
Credit: ASTRON – Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
Reflect on this
The OPTIKS project has been realized by artist de Paulis in collaboration with Jan van Muijlwijk and the CAMRAS radio amateurs association based at the Dwingeloo radio telescope in The Netherlands.
OPTICKS employs a technology called Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) or Moonbounce, developed shortly after World War II by the U.S. military as a form of reliable radio communication.
The long and short of the idea: EME uses the Moon as a natural reflector for radio signals. When the radio signals hit the Moon’s surface they are scattered in all directions so that only a small percentage of the original signals is reflected back on Earth.
Newton inspired
The title OPTICKS is inspired by Sir Isaac Newton, an English physicist and mathematician that, among other scientific inquiries, developed theories on light spectrum, reflection and refraction.
For the OPTICKS work, colors composing an image, converted into radio signals, are bounced off the Moon (reflected and refracted) by its surface during each live performance.
The project has been performed internationally, both in art festivals and science outreach events, including Global Astronomy Month 2011 and 2012.
Artwork
Promotional artwork for the 2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competition melded two renderings: The background piece, called “Industrializing Space,” was done by Jessica Sun, 15 years old, United States. She was awarded: 2nd Overall Visual Art Age 14-18.
In the foreground, the young man conducting the orchestra overlain on top of the painting is from the 2010 Humans in Space Youth Art Competition. He is shown conducting the Clear Lake High School orchestra playing his winning music composition for an assembled audience at the Opening Ceremony of the International Academy of Astronautics’ Humans in Space Symposium in Houston, April 2011. His name is James Tabata, age 16 (back in 2010), United States, 1st place overall, music, age 14–17.
Want more information?
NOTE 1:
For more information on the Humans in Space Youth Art Competition, go to:
NOTE 2:
Tabata’s musical artwork is visible here, as played during a live Houston performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ChTOnq1OeU&feature=plcp
NOTE 3:
More information on OPTICKS and Visual Moonbounce can be found at:
Artist’s impression of the Rosetta spacecraft at its destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The picture is not to scale; the spacecraft’s solar arrays have a span of 32 meters; the diameter of the nucleus is about four kilometers.
Credit: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab.
The Philae comet lander has been successfully reactivated and broke its planned radio silence by sending data to Earth on March 28.
Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft — with the Philae lander on board — has been making its way through space since March 2004 to investigate Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
What exactly is to be expected on arrival in August 2014 and Philae’s landing in November 2014 is still not known.
More than two and a half years – this is how long the Philae lander has been hibernating while travelling through space, according to a German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) press statement.
The lander will be deployed onto 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko while the Rosetta spacecraft orbits the comet. The comet has an average diameter of about four kilometers and is shaped like a giant potato. The comet rotates about its axis once every 12.6 hours.
Harpoons and ice screws
The orbiter and lander will be the first to witness a comet’s “awakening” as it approaches the Sun first hand – and warms up the celestial wanderer.
Once Rosetta is in orbit around the comet, the search will begin for a suitable landing site for Philae. The selected site must allow a safe landing, but at the same time provide a location that the scientists find exciting to study.
Philae is prepared to deal with the various surface materials it might encounter – harpoons and ice screws will be used to anchor the lander to the landing site before it begins taking measurements.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is responsible for this international mission with contributions from its member states and NASA, including major participation by Germany.
Group shot…China’s Chang’e 3 lander and Yutu rover.
Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
I asked Yong-Chun Zheng, an associate researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, to provide an update on the overall health of the Chang’e 3 moon lander and the Yutu rover.
Both mooncraft are soon to enter their next celestial slumber. On the Moon, there are roughly 14 days of sunlight/14 days of ultra-cold night.
In part, here is Yong-Chun’s response to me via e-mail:
Self-awakened hardware
Since the soft landing of China’s Chang’e 3 mission upon the lunar surface on Dec. 14, 2013, the Yutu (Jade rabbit) rover has experienced three lunar day cycles.
On March 14, the ground station received telemetry signals from the Yutu rover. It indicated that the rover was self- awakened successfully and entered into its fourth lunar day on the Moon, Yong-Chun said.
Two days earlier, the Chang’e 3 lander entered into the model of long-term management. The lander was also self- awakened into its fourth lunar day.
In the previous three lunar days, the lander operated normally. The science instruments on the lander, such as the lunar-based telescope, the topographic camera, the extreme-ultraviolet camera, and the lunar dust detector have completed the planned detection and measurements.
These instruments have generated a lot of science data and engineering data. As expected, the lander will work for one year on the Moon, Yong-Chun said.
Driving electronics
As previously reported by Ye Peijia, chief scientist with the Chang’e 3 lunar probe mission, the rover has suffered a problem in its driving electronics section.
“The rover cannot move again,” Yong-Chun said. In addition to that, the solar wings of the Yutu rover cannot be folded to keep the inside of the robot warm during lunar night. All other functions of the rover are working properly, he said.
Yong-Chun said that the Yutu rover has experienced very low temperatures during the last three lunar nights. According the designed procedures, the rover has entered into the mode of long-term management.
Meanwhile, Yutu’s panoramic camera and its ground penetrating radar “are working normally,” Yong-Chun reported.
Solid foundation
“The rover was designed to walk several miles. Actually, it walked only about one hundred meters on the Moon, Yong-Chun said. That being the case, “it influenced the achievements of the science goals of the rover.”
However, the Chang’e 3 lander and the Yutu rover have achieved their engineering tasks successfully.
“They got a lot of engineering data and science data,” Yong-Chun said. The experience of soft landing and driving a rover on the Moon, he concluded, provided a solid foundation for future lunar surface missions.
Credit: NASA
NASA has released its 2014 Strategic Plan, with the space agency’s Office of Strategy Formulation identified as the responsible office.
“Our long-term goal is to send humans to Mars. Over the next two decades, we will develop and demonstrate the technologies and capabilities needed to send humans to explore the red planet and safely return them to Earth,” explains NASA chief, Charles Bolden, in the opening pages of the document.
“One of the steps toward this goal is a proposed mission to find, capture, redirect a near-Earth asteroid safely into the Earth-Moon system, and then send astronauts to explore it. This mission will allow us to further develop new technologies and test mechanisms and techniques for human operations in deep space, as well as help us understand potential future threats to human populations posed by asteroids,” Bolden explains.
For access to the entire document, go to:
http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/npg_img/N_PD_1001_000B_/N_PD_1001_000B_.pdf
Want your own glimpse of Apollo 11’s grab and go samples from the Moon, in all 48 pounds (22 kilograms) of rock and soil specimens?
This collection has been created through collaboration between The Open University in the United Kingdom and the NASA curation facility.
You can now examine Apollo 11 thin sections using the Open University’s Virtual Microscope.
The Virtual Microscope for Earth Sciences Project aims to make a step change in the teaching of Earth Sciences by broadening access to rock collections that are currently held in museums, universities and other institutions around the world.
“Higher” education – shoot for the Moon
The intention of this unique effort is to engage and excite students in schools or higher education, and anyone interested in materials that make up the Earth’s surface.
Furthermore, the virtual microscope allows users to examine and explore minerals and microscopic features of rocks, helping them to develop classification and identification skills without the need for high-cost microscopes and thin section preparation facilities.
The Apollo 11 collection includes coarse-grained rocks from the lunar highlands, samples of basalt lava flows and samples of regolith (the layer of dust that covers the surface of the Moon).
Visit the Apollo 11 collection at:
http://www.virtualmicroscope.org/content/apollo-11
NOTE: The collection of moon rocks drawn from all the missions can be found at:
http://www.virtualmicroscope.org/content/moon-rocks
Moons – a visual feast
Also, check out “Moons” a new course from The Open University that started on the FutureLearn platform on Monday, March 17th.
The requirements: “An interest in learning about the moons of our Solar System and the methods used to understand them. Prior knowledge of astronomy is not expected.”
This course is suitable for anyone with an interest in geology, astronomy or planets and does not require any previous experience of studying these subjects.
The course covers many aspects of the moons of the Solar System.
Go to:
http://www.virtualmicroscope.org/content/virtual-microscope-used-free-course-moons
Mast Camera (Mastcam) (MSSS-MALIN) image for Sol 574. Credit: JPL/MSSS-Malin
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached areas where orbital images had piqued researchers’ interest in patches of ground with striations all oriented in a similar direction.
Here’s a sampling to whet your own curiosity that you may find of interest.
Mast Camera (Mastcam) (MSSS-MALIN) images for Sol 574. Credit: JPL/MSSS-MALIN
