Space News thread

[Takeovers]

No. 3 sounds like it will be very difficult indeed.

Actually it is. But it looks like it is even more complex to get Rosetta Stone into orbit because the gravity is so low.

Orbiting


Landing

[Takeovers]

But look at this. How Rosetta got where it is now in a 12 year journey.

1. Rosetta was shot from earth into interplanetary space.
2. After a long flight it got back to earth for a gravity assist flyby.
3. Rosetta did a Mars flyby for gravity assist back to earth
4. Another earth flyby for another gravity assist to the outer solar system meeting an asteroid in the asteroid belt
5. Coming back into the inner solar system and another earth flyby for a third earth gravity assist.
6. Back to the outer solar system meeting another asteroid and then continuing outward.

All these have already happened. What is now to come in May:

7. Finally meeting its target comet and getting into orbit around it, deploying the lander and do the science it was designed for.



It's the most advanced and complex mission done by ESA so far. All these flybys were necessary to get into the needed trajectory for meeting the comet. Without them they would need an extremely large launch vehicle which could give all the delta-v (acceleration) needed.

[harrybarracuda]

Nice viewable Panorama of the moon from the Chinese lander in this Daily Mule article:

China's lunar probe give the world a panoramic view of the Moon | Mail Online

[Takeovers]

The chinese moon rover Yutu has experienced a problem. In preparation for the cold moon night the solar panel should fold over the rover to protect it. That movement has failed and it seems now almost certain that it would not survive the night. Yutu was designed for a 3 months life. It seems it will not reach that.

A chinese source said the early demise is surprising and compared it with the US rover Opportunity which had also 3 months design life time and is still operational after 10 years.

But this was the first chinese lander and landing and IMO landing and operating it at all is still a big success. Conditions on Luna are much harsher than on Mars. They will learn their lesson for the next rover.

Beijing, we have a problem: China's first moon rover Jade Rabbit breaks down | South China Morning Post

"Reading between the lines, I think the Chinese are preparing for the loss of their rover," said Lutz Richter, a planetary rover specialist with Kayser-Threde, a German aerospace company that works with Nasa and the European Space Agency. "This is speculation, but I think there's a problem with the electrical motors that close the solar panels," he added.
If the solar panels were not able to close, internal electrical components sensitive to temperature that would normally be shielded would freeze during the lunar night and become damaged beyond repair, said Richter.
A video grab shows China's first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, separating from Chang'e-3 moon lander. Photo: XinhuaThe problem arose before Jade Rabbit went into its second dormancy at dawn yesterday - the start of the lunar night, which lasts the equivalent of about two weeks on earth. The lunar daytime temperature can reach 100 degrees Celsius, while at night it plunges to minus 180C.
Jade Rabbit and the Chang'e-3 lunar lander "woke up" two weeks ago after the first two-week dormancy.
"It might be dust blocking the mechanism," Richter said, adding that extreme temperatures could also damage its hinges and motors.

The Xinhua statement highlighted previous failures of space missions by other countries, such as the crash of the US lunar probe Ranger 4 in 1962 and that of a Japanese probe in 1993. But Professor Jiao Weixin , deputy director of the China Society of Space Research's space probe committee, said it was surprising that problems should occur so soon.
"Despite some minor problems, Opportunity, the US Mars rover that also had a design lifespan of three months, is still working after almost 10 years," Jiao said.
"It is quite surprising that Yutu should experience problems at such an early stage."

[Necron99]

^ What did they expect?

Typical Chinese shit, works for 4 weeks then breaks.
Should have gone with made in Japan...

[Latindancer]

Yes...a big HA HA from me, because of what they're doing in Tibet. I hope they lose a lot of face.

[aging one]

The Chinese report really shows how different they are from the rest of us.


CNN) -- China's brand new moon rover is already saying farewell. The diminutive lunar explorer, known as Jade Rabbit, or "Yutu" in Chinese, was about halfway through a three-month mission to study the moon's crust when it suffered a potentially crippling breakdown, said state media.
The report, authored by China's state-run Xinhua news, was written in the voice of the rover itself.
"Although I should've gone to bed this morning, my masters discovered something abnormal with my mechanical control system," said the Xinhua report, in the voice of the Jade Rabbit. "My masters are staying up all night working for a solution. I heard their eyes are looking more like my red rabbit eyes."
Jade Rabbit moon rover in trouble
See moment lunar rover lands
China launches first moon mission
"Nevertheless, I'm aware that I might not survive this lunar night," it added.
During a lunar night, which lasts about 14 Earth days, the moon's surface temperature can plunge to minus-180 Celsius. To make it through the cold, the lunar rover must "hibernate" to preserve its delicate electronics.
If a mechanical problem keeps it from hibernating properly, then the Rabbit could freeze to death.
Named after a mythical rabbit who lives on the moon, Yutu was a source of national pride when it launched into space last December along with the lunar lander Chang'e-3, named after the moon goddess who kept Yutu by her side.
The successful lunar landing made China the third country in the world to perform a "soft landing" on the moon's surface.
Earlier, Yutu and Chang'e survived their first lunar night together, from Christmas until the second week of January.
The Chang'e-3 lander successfully entered a second hibernation on Friday and is expected to function normally for another year.
"[Chang'e] doesn't know about my problems yet," said the voice of Yutu in the Xinhua report. "If I can't be fixed, everyone please comfort her."
On social media, thousands of Chinese internet users sent their well-wishes to the little robot.
"You have done a great job, Yutu. You have endured extreme hot and cold temperatures and shown us what we have never seen," wrote one microblogger, as quoted by Xinhua.
Another wrote: "This is too heavy a burden. If the rabbit can not stand again, maybe we should let it have a rest."
Despite the setbacks, even the little Rabbit seemed aware of the odds it had overcome.
"Before departure, I studied the history of mankind's lunar probes. About half of the past 130 explorations ended in success; the rest ended in failure," noted the Jade Rabbit in its report.
"This is space exploration; the danger comes with its beauty. I am but a tiny dot in the vast picture of mankind's adventure in space.
"The sun has fallen, and the temperature is dropping so quickly... to tell you all a secret, I don't feel that sad. I was just in my own adventure story - and like every hero, I encountered a small problem," said the Rabbit.
"Goodnight, Earth," it said. "Goodnight, humanity."

[Takeovers]

Typical Chinese shit, works for 4 weeks then breaks. Should have gone with made in Japan...

Yes...a big HA HA from me, because of what they're doing in Tibet. I hope they lose a lot of face.

Quite amusing rants from people that are either ignorant or deliberatly obtuse.

This mission is still at least 90% success and a great learning eperience.

[Necron99]

Hardly a rant, more of jopke...

" "My masters are staying up all night working for a solution. I heard their eyes are looking more like my red rabbit eyes.""
Hello Kitty in Space....(echo..echo..echo..)

^ Learn what that they couldn't have gotten from 40 year old NASA samples?

[Takeovers]

Learn what that they couldn't have gotten from 40 year old NASA samples?

Space is still hard. Ask the russians who have launched a huge number of rockets. They have a clean record of 100% failures for over 30 years going to Mars now with many tries.

NASA has a very good record on interplanetary probes unsurpassed by anyone and they still have the odd failure.

[Takeovers]

A new crater on Mars.




Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Fresh crater caught on camera aboard Mars orbiter

The high-resolution mapping telescope on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has monitored the changing Martian landscape for more nearly eight years, but a fresh impact crater seen in an image released Wednesday is one of the most dramatic scientists have ever discovered.
The crater spans about 30 meters, or 100 feet, across and formed some time between July 2010 and May 2012. Researchers looking at pictures from the orbiter's context camera, a wide-angle imager used to complement MRO's main mapping instrument, noticed a new surface feature appearing in 2012 not there two years before. Scientists requested MRO's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, to take a closer look. The camera captures the sharpest views of Mars ever taken from orbit, and it turned its aperture toward the crater site to image the region Nov. 19, 2013.
What they saw was a dazzling crater with ejecta rays extending outward in all directions up to 15 kilometers, or 9.3 miles, from the impact site. Whatever carved the bowl-shaped pit in the Martian bedrock caused one of the biggest explosive events ever seen on Mars since spacecraft began visiting the red planet.

Some more info if you follow the link.

This looks like it would be worthy of posting in the amazing pictures thread too.

[Takeovers]

A picture of earth and moon made by the Curiosity rover.



The earth moon part is enlarged and enhanced but they are both in this picture even if you cannot see the moon in the original.

An earlier picture of earth and moon taken by the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera would make a great backyard telescope for viewing Mars, and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.

This camera is of course not meant to take this kind of pictures. Its purpose is mapping Mars on the highest resolution achieved ever.

[harrybarracuda]

February 10, 2014



The question of whether there could still be liquid water somewhere on Mars today is one of the most debated in planetary science, and now there is new evidence that there just might be. The findings were announced today, February 10, 2014, by scientists from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.

The new results have to do with features on the Martian surface called "recurring slope linear" (RSL), which are dark, narrow streaks on some slopes which flow downhill and can reoccur in the same locations over and over again. They tend to form during periods of warmer temperatures and look like small rivulets of water running downhill, but is that what they really are?

"We still don't have a smoking gun for existence of water in RSL, although we're not sure how this process would take place without water," said Lujendra Ojha, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He is the lead author of two new reports about the unusual flows.

In order to try and determine if these streaks are indeed water-related, Ojha and colleague James Wray examined RSLs at 13 known locations using images from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

While not yet finding the spectral signature of water or salts, they did find them for ferric and ferrous iron-bearing minerals. The minerals are more abundant in the slope streaks and so thought to be left over from whatever process created the streaks. Two possible explanations are related to these, and both involve water: an increase in the more-oxidized (ferric) component of the minerals, or an overall darkening due to moisture, just like you see with wet sand or dirt. It is also possible that fine dust is being removed from the surface, which could involve either a wet process or a dry one.

According to Ojha, "Just like the RSL themselves, the strength of the spectral signatures varies according to the seasons. They're stronger when it's warmer and less significant when it's colder."

As to why water itself wasn't detected yet, the spectral observations might easily miss them since the dark flows are much narrower than the area of ground sampled by CRISM.

The most likely explanation for the RSLs according to scientists though is still near-surface briny water or ice, which, during warmer periods, could leak out at the top of slopes and remain liquid long enough in the cold and thin atmosphere to flow down the slopes.

"The flow of water, even briny water, anywhere on Mars today would be a major discovery, impacting our understanding of present climate change on Mars and possibly indicating potential habitats for life near the surface on modern Mars," said Richard Zurek, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

[Takeovers]

Elon Musk keeps himself in the news. He has not released a detailed plan but keeps dropping hints on his Mars ambitions.

He has stated they are building a new large rocket, much bigger than Saturn V was. Much larger than anything, NASA, the Russians or Chinese are even contemplating.

The aim is going to Mars in 10 or 12 years. He wants to move there and as nobody else does it he needs to do it himself. Going there is not for scientific research or a "flags and footprints" mission. No doubt if NASA wants to send people for research they would be welcome for a good fee. But his plan is for establishing a settlement that will grow until it is self sufficient no longer needing a lifeline from earth.

The spaceship that will be launched by the large rocket will be called MCT - Mars Colonial Transport. He has recently stated that it will be able to send 80-100 persons per flight. For cargo flights the anticipated capacity would be up to 50 tons. Such a capacity is needed to send large equipment for building the settlement.

Both rocket and spaceship will be fully reusable to reduce cost dramatically over existing plans. For the return flight large amounts of fuel need to be produced on Mars. It is impossible to send both large payload and fuel for the return flight. This plan has become possible because it is now proven there is a lot of water on Mars that is needed for the colonists to live and to produce propellant.

A photo of the second Grasshopper, now renamed Falcon 9R1


This is how the actual first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket will look when returned to the launch pad after launch. If everything goes well (in spaceflight rarely everything goes well) it will happen on the flight of the dragon spaceship to the ISS this coming march. Depending on getting permission for the return flight. Permission is tricky as an incoming rocket to Cape Canaveral Airforce Base is seen by some as a critical event.

A photo of a landing leg in the SpaceX Hawthorne factory.

But it is a test model not exactly the real thing.

[Takeovers]

Here what two important people have said recently about Elon Musk.

The commanding General of the US airforce responsible for space activities.

I no longer doubt that man. When he says he is going to do something he will do it.

The head of the russian space agency Roskosmos in an article in Isvestia:

The russian space industry is not competetive. To become competetive we have to do development and production the way Elon Musk does.

[harrybarracuda]

You never know when mankind might actually need one....

February 26, 2014
Scientists with NASA's Kepler mission announced Wednesday that the number of verified planets beyond our solar system (also called exoplanets) has increased by 715. These newly confirmed exoplanets orbit 310 stars,many are in multi-planet systems much like our solar system. Almost 95 percent of these worlds are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of the Earth. Four of the newly announced planets are less than 2.5 times larger than the Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone where the surface temperature of the planet may be suitable for liquid water.

"The Kepler team continues to amaze and excite us with their planet hunting results," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "That these new planets and solar systems look somewhat like our own, portends a great future when we have the James Webb Space Telescope in space to characterize the new worlds.”

The treasure trove of planets were confirmed using a technique called verification by multiplicity. Kepler has observed 150,00 stars and has found a few thousand of those to have planet candidates. If the potential candidates were distributed randomly amongst the stars Kepler observes, very few would have more than one planet candidate. Kepler, however, has observed hundreds of stars with multiple planet candidates. The 715 new planets were confirmed through careful study of this sample.

"Four years ago, Kepler began a string of announcements of first hundreds, then thousands, of planet candidates --but they were only candidate worlds," said Lissauer. "We've now developed a process to verify multiple planet candidates in bulk to deliver planets wholesale, and have used it to unveil a veritable bonanza of new worlds."

All of the newly confirmed planets came from the first half of Kepler's four-year primary mission. Many more could be announced as more recent data is analyzed using the new technique. In 2017 NASA plans to launch its next planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

The Kepler team is continuing to test the spacecraft for a new mission phase that they refer to as K2 which will allow Kepler to continue its search for exoplanets despite having lost two reaction wheels which help point its telescope and hold it steady. In a recent update, mission manager Roger Hunter of NASA's Ames Research Center reported that one of the 21 science detectors that Kepler uses to search for transiting planets had failed.Another detector had died early in the mission, nearly four years ago. Hunter said that the failure should not impact the potential K2 mission because the remaining 19 modules still allow for a very large view of the sky and the area observed by the failed detector could be assigned to other units. In early March, Kepler will begin a data gathering campaign which will be an engineering dress-rehearsal for the K2 mission.

[harrybarracuda]

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — An asteroid is headed this way. But even though it will come closer than the moon, astronomers say it will pose no danger.

The newly discovered asteroid, called 2014 DX110, will hurtle between the moon and Earth on Wednesday. DX110 will pass an estimated 217,000 miles from Earth.

That's approximately nine-tenths of the distance between the moon and Earth.

The asteroid is an estimated 45 to 130 feet across.

Relatively close approaches like this occur all the time, although DX110 is extra close.

Asteroid 2014 DX110 is set to fly between the Earth and the moon Wednesday. Slooh Space Camera will broadcast the flyby live starting at 4 p.m. EST on March 5.

[harrybarracuda]

March 21, 2014 12:25PM

Using more than 2 million images collected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have developed a dramatic 360 degree portrait of the Milky Way, providing new details of our galaxy's structure and contents. The 20-gigapixel mosaic uses Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope visualization platform. It captures about three percent of our sky.
NASA presented a zoomable, 360-degree mosaic of our galaxy at the TEDActive 2014 Conference in Vancouver, Canada.
The star-studded panorama of our galaxy is constructed from more than 2 million infrared snapshots taken over the past 10 years by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Robert Hurt, an imaging specialist at NASA's Spitzer Space Science Center in Pasadena, California, said that if they actually printed this out, they'd need a billboard as big as the Rose Bowl Stadium to display it, asserting that they instead created a digital viewer that anyone, even astronomers, can use.

The 20-gigapixel mosaic uses Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope visualization platform. It captures about three percent of our sky, but because it focuses on a band around Earth where the plane of the Milky Way lies, it shows more than half of all the galaxy's stars.

Using GLIMPSE data, astronomers have created the most accurate map of the large central bar of stars that marks the center of the galaxy, revealing the bar to be slightly larger than previously thought. GLIMPSE images have also shown a galaxy riddled with bubbles. These bubble structures are cavities around massive stars, which blast wind and radiation into their surroundings.

All together, the data allow scientists to build a more global model of stars, and star formation in the galaxy -- what some call the "pulse" of the Milky Way. Spitzer can see faint stars in the "backcountry" of our galaxy -- the outer, darker regions that went largely unexplored before.

GLIMPSE360: Spitzer's Infrared Milky Way

[Mid]

Mars To Make Closest Approach To Earth On April 14

BANGKOK, April 12 (Bernama) -- National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Public Organisation) (NARIT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, has reported that Mars will make its closest approach to Earth in seven years on April 14, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.

NARIT invites the people to observe the rare phenomenon.

Its Deputy Director Dr Saran Posayajinda told journalists on Friday that Mars was on the opposite side to the Sun on April 9 and will make its closest approach to Earth in seven years, at about 92.39 million kilometres away, on April 14.

He said that the Red Planet will rise in the southeastern sky in the Virgo Constellation after 6pm on April 14 and will appear bigger and brighter than any other stars until it sets in the morning of April 15.

The NARIT deputy director said that Mars will, therefore, be visible to the naked eyes and details on its surface could be observed through small telescopes.

According to TNA Mars and Earth usually align and become closer every two years. The last time Mars was close to Earth was on March 5, 2012 and after April 14, the next date will be on May 31, 2016.

bernama.com

[Latindancer]

Apologies if this has been posted before :



Every single satellite orbiting Earth, in a single image » Techly

[Takeovers]

Today there will be another flight for ISS resupply. This flight may go down in history. It is the first time that an operational space launching rocket carries legs that will enable the huge and expensive first stage to fly back to the launch site for a soft landing to fly again instead of dumping it after it has released the second stage.

It will not happen with this flight. They need to get more experience so it will only attempt to softly touch down out at sea before they get permission for flyback and landing at the launch site.






The launch will be broadcasted on NASA TV as live stream beginning before launch at 22:58 CEST. With any luck we will get to see the engines of that first stage firing after stage separation. NASA will have an airplane in the area to record it. They are very interested because of supersonic retropropulsion. That is a rocket engine firing against a supersonic airflow. This was regarded very difficult and require a lot of research to do but SpaceX has done it at least once already.

[Cujo]

Today there will be another flight for ISS resupply. This flight may go down in history. It is the first time that an operational space launching rocket carries legs that will enable the huge and expensive first stage to fly back to the launch site for a soft landing to fly again instead of dumping it after it has released the second stage.

It will not happen with this flight. They need to get more experience so it will only attempt to softly touch down out at sea before they get permission for flyback and landing at the launch site.






The launch will be broadcasted on NASA TV as live stream beginning before launch at 22:58 CEST. With any luck we will get to see the engines of that first stage firing after stage separation. NASA will have an airplane in the area to record it. They are very interested because of supersonic retropropulsion. That is a rocket engine firing against a supersonic airflow. This was regarded very difficult and require a lot of research to do but SpaceX has done it at least once already.

Interesting stuff, cheers.

[Takeovers]

A video of a recent Sojus launch with an ESA-satellite.



Worth watching if you not have seen launches recently. The onboard cameras provide a stunning view. This video shows in parallel the onboard video and the view from the ground.

Watch closely for the engine flames. See how they change from bundled to spreading out when the rocket leaves the atmosphere. Amazing change on how the rocket exhaust spreads out.

[kingwilly]

Christians see blood moon events as a sign Jesus will return



IT’S been trending on Twitter and not just because it’s a rare astronomical event that has left star gazers excited.
Last night’s blood moon, where a full lunar eclipse occurred, also got Christians talking, some of whom were convinced it’s a sign that Jesus is set to return.
The moon moved into Earth’s shadow causing it to appear a reddish hue. These eclipses usually happen twice a year, although some only partially.
But astronomers, some Christians and even NASA are excited because four full eclipses will take place in 18 months.
Heavens, Jesus is that really you?
Heavens: Some Christians believe the lunar eclipse is a sign from God. Source: AP
This month’s total eclipse is the first of four consecutive eclipses dubbed blood moons occurring at about six-month intervals — a phenomenon called a tetrad.
The next eclipse is on October 8 this year, and there will be two more totalities in 2015, on April 4 and September 28.
Some Christians claim the phenomenon represents the End of Days and the second coming of Christ, which is predicted in the King James Bible: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes.” (Joel 2:31)
The moon appeared red-orange because of the sunsets and sunrises shimmering from
The moon appeared red-orange because of the sunsets and sunrises shimmering from Earth, earning it the name blood moon Source: AP
Others say a passage in the New Testament - “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord” (Acts 2:20) - is further proof Jesus is coming.
Some Christians say the tetrads herald major historical and biblical events, the first of which occurred in 1493 which saw the Jews expelled from Europe, and the second coinciding with the establishment of Israel in 1949.

The third tetrad happened less than 20 years later - precisely at the time of the Six-Day Arab–Israeli War - in 1967.
Whether it’s a coincidence or just a rare event, some on Twitter are convinced it has more heavenly meaning and is a sure sign Jesus will return.

Christians see blood moon events as a sign Jesus will return | News.com.au

Others had little faith that it had anything to do with Jesus or any Biblical event.

But according to NASA the astronomical event isn’t as exciting as some might think.
According to the space agency, tetrads aren’t actually that rare.
It said it was unique only because this tetrad was visible from all parts of the United States.

[harrybarracuda]

For the first and perhaps the last time ever, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, whose mission is to orbit Saturn, has captured a new moon emerge from the Jovian planet's rings. As you might know, the birth of a moon is an extremely rare event, and in Saturn's case, it might never happen again. You see, there's a theory that the sixth planet from the sun used to have a much larger ring system, which led to formation of numerous natural satellites. After birthing a whopping 62 moons, though, the rings are now too depleted to make more, even if they still look lush from afar. This could be our very last chance to observe how Saturn's ring particles form a natural satellite that detaches from the planet and ultimately orbits around it.

Scientists estimate that the newborn, which they have named Peggy, is merely half a mile in diameter. That makes it positively tiny compared to the planet's largest moon, Titan, which has a diameter that measures 3,200 miles, or around half the size of Earth. In fact, it's so small that Cassini can't even take a decent picture of it, though NASA plans to observe it more closely when the spacecraft moves closer to the outer edge of the rings in 2016. Sadly, scientists believe Peggy won't grow any bigger and might be falling apart, so the little one might never get to become a legitimate Saturn satellite.

NASA catches a glimpse of Saturn birthing a new moon