Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance Announce Agreement to Place a B330 Habitat in Low Lunar Orbit

Bigelow Aerospace logo / United Launch Alliance (ULA) logo.

Oct. 21, 2017

Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are working together to launch a B330 expandable module on ULA’s Vulcan launch vehicle.  The launch would place a B330 outfitted module in Low Lunar Orbit by the end of 2022 to serve as a lunar depot.

B330 Habitat in Low Lunar Orbit

“We are excited to work with ULA on this lunar depot project,” said Robert Bigelow, president of Bigelow Aerospace. “Our lunar depot plan is a strong complement to other plans intended to eventually put people on Mars. It will provide NASA and America with an exciting and financially practical success opportunity that can be accomplished in the short term. This lunar depot could be deployed easily by 2022 to support the nation’s re-energized plans for returning to the Moon.

"This commercial lunar depot would provide anchorage for significant lunar business development in addition to offering NASA and other governments the Moon as a new exciting location to conduct long-term exploration and astronaut training.”

B330 A Fully Autonomous Stand -Alone Space Station description

The B330 would launch to Low Earth Orbit on a Vulcan 562 configuration rocket, the only commercial launch vehicle in development today with sufficient performance and a large enough payload fairing to carry the habitat. Once the B330 is in orbit, Bigelow Aerospace will outfit the habitat and demonstrate it is working properly.  Once the B330 is fully operational, ULA’s industry-unique distributed lift capability would be used to send the B330 to lunar orbit.  Distributed lift would also utilize two more Vulcan ACES launches, each carrying 35 tons of cryogenic propellant to low Earth orbit.  In LEO, all of the cryogenic propellant would be transferred to one of the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES). The now full ACES would then rendezvous with the B330 and perform multiple maneuvers to deliver the B330 to its final position in Low Lunar Orbit.

Image above: Radiation Protection and Debris Shielding. Terrestrial test data and on-orbit validation suggest that a fully outfitted B330 spacecraft will have robust debris and radiation shielding.

“We are so pleased to be able to continue our relationship with Bigelow Aerospace,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “The company is doing such tremendous work in the area of habitats for visiting, living and working off our planet and we are thrilled to be the ride that enables that reality.”

Actual Bigelow module (BEAM) test on International Space Station

Bigelow Aerospace is a destination-oriented company with a focus on expandable systems for use in a variety of space applications.  These NASA heritage systems provide for greater volume, safety, opportunity and economy than the aluminum alternatives.

Launcher's, Modularity & Scalability (not to scale)

The B330 is a standalone commercial space station that can operate in low Earth orbit, cislunar space and beyond.  A single B330 is comparable to one third of the current pressurized volume of the entire International Space Station.  Bigelow Aerospace is developing two B330 commercial space station habitats that will be ready for launch any time after 2020.

Related links:

Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM): https://www.nasa.gov/content/bigelow-expandable-activity-module

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Commercial Space: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/index.html

For more information on Bigelow Aerospace visit http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/

For more information on United Launch Alliance (ULA), visit the ULA website at http://www.ulalaunch.com/

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ULA/Bigelow Aerospace/NASA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Expedition 53 Spacewalk Successfully Comes to an End

ISS - Expedition 53 Mission patch / EVA - Extra Vehicular Activities patch.

October 20, 2017

Image above: Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 7:47 a.m. EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk. Image Credit: NASA TV.

Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA completed a 6 hour, 49 minute spacewalk at 2:36 p.m. EDT. The two astronauts installed a new camera system on the Canadarm2 robotic arm’s latching end effector, an HD camera on the starboard truss of the station and replaced a fuse on the Dextre robotic arm extension.

Space Station Crew Completes a Trio of October Spacewalks

The duo worked quickly and were able to complete several “get ahead” tasks. Acaba greased the new end effector on the robotic arm. Bresnik installed a new radiator grapple bar. Bresnik completed prep work for one of two spare pump modules on separate stowage platforms to enable easier access for potential robotic replacement tasks in the future. He nearly finished prep work on the second, but that work will be completed by future spacewalkers.

Image above: The two astronauts installed a new camera system on the Canadarm2 robotic arm’s latching end effector. Image Credit: NASA TV.

This was the fifth spacewalk of Bresnik’s career (32 hours total spacewalking) and the third for Acaba (19 hours and 46 minutes total spacewalking). Space station crew members have conducted 205 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 53 days, 6 hours and 25 minutes working outside the station.

Related links:

Expedition 53: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition53/index.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video (NASA TV), Text, Credits: NASA/Melanie Whiting.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA's SDO Spots a Lunar Transit

NASA - Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) patch.

Oct. 20, 2017

On Oct. 19, 2017, the Moon photobombed NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, when it crossed the spacecraft’s view of the Sun, treating us to these shadowy images. The lunar transit lasted about 45 minutes, between 3:41 and 4:25 p.m. EDT, with the Moon covering about 26 percent of the Sun at the peak of its journey. The Moon’s shadow obstructs SDO’s otherwise constant view of the Sun, and the shadow’s edge is sharp and distinct, since the Moon has no atmosphere which would distort sunlight.

SDO captured these images in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light that shows solar material heated to more than 10 million degrees Fahrenheit. This kind of light is invisible to human eyes, but colorized here in green.

Solar Dynamics Observatory or SDO spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA

Related links:

Eclipses and Transits: https://www.nasa.gov/eclipse

SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/main/index.html

Animation, Images Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO/Joy Ng/Text: Lina Tran, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s MAVEN Mission Finds Mars Has a Twisted Tail

NASA - MAVEN Mission logo.

Oct. 20, 2017

Mars has an invisible magnetic “tail” that is twisted by interaction with the solar wind, according to new research using data from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft.

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft is in orbit around Mars gathering data on how the Red Planet lost much of its atmosphere and water, transforming from a world that could have supported life billions of years ago into a cold and inhospitable place today. The process that creates the twisted tail could also allow some of Mars’ already thin atmosphere to escape to space, according to the research team.

“We found that Mars’ magnetic tail, or magnetotail, is unique in the solar system,” said Gina DiBraccio of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s not like the magnetotail found at Venus, a planet with no magnetic field of its own, nor is it like Earth’s, which is surrounded by its own internally generated magnetic field. Instead, it is a hybrid between the two.” DiBraccio is project scientist for MAVEN and is presenting this research at a press briefing Thursday, Oct. 19 at 12:15pm MDT during the 49th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences in Provo, Utah.

The team found that a process called “magnetic reconnection” must have a big role in creating the Martian magnetotail because, if reconnection were occurring, it would put the twist in the tail.

Image above: Artist's conception of the complex magnetic field environment at Mars. Yellow lines represent magnetic field lines from the Sun carried by the solar wind, blue lines represent Martian surface magnetic fields, white sparks are reconnection activity, and red lines are reconnected magnetic fields that link the surface to space via the Martian magnetotail. Image Credits: Anil Rao/Univ. of Colorado/MAVEN/NASA GSFC.

“Our model predicted that magnetic reconnection will cause the Martian magnetotail to twist 45 degrees from what’s expected based on the direction of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind,” said DiBraccio. “When we compared those predictions to MAVEN data on the directions of the Martian and solar wind magnetic fields, they were in very good agreement.”

Mars lost its global magnetic field billions of years ago and now just has remnant “fossil” magnetic fields embedded in certain regions of its surface. According to the new work, Mars’ magnetotail is formed when magnetic fields carried by the solar wind join with the magnetic fields embedded in the Martian surface in a process called magnetic reconnection. The solar wind is a stream of electrically conducting gas continuously blowing from the Sun’s surface into space at about one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) per hour. It carries magnetic fields from the Sun with it. If the solar wind field happens to be oriented in the opposite direction to a field in the Martian surface, the two fields join together in magnetic reconnection.

The magnetic reconnection process also might propel some of Mars’ atmosphere into space. Mars’ upper atmosphere has electrically charged particles (ions). Ions respond to electric and magnetic forces and flow along magnetic field lines. Since the Martian magnetotail is formed by linking surface magnetic fields to solar wind fields, ions in the Martian upper atmosphere have a pathway to space if they flow down the magnetotail. Like a stretched rubber band suddenly snapping to a new shape, magnetic reconnection also releases energy, which could actively propel ions in the Martian atmosphere down the magnetotail into space.

Since Mars has a patchwork of surface magnetic fields, scientists had suspected that the Martian magnetotail would be a complex hybrid between that of a planet with no magnetic field at all and that found behind a planet with a global magnetic field. Extensive MAVEN data on the Martian magnetic field allowed the team to be the first to confirm this. MAVEN’s orbit continually changes its orientation with respect to the Sun, allowing measurements to be made covering all of the regions surrounding Mars and building up a map of the magnetotail and its interaction with the solar wind.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution or MAVEN spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA

Magnetic fields are invisible but their direction and strength can be measured by the magnetometer instrument on MAVEN, which the team used to make the observations. They plan to examine data from other instruments on MAVEN to see if escaping particles map to the same regions where they see reconnected magnetic fields to confirm that reconnection is contributing to Martian atmospheric loss and determine how significant it is. They also will gather more magnetometer data over the next few years to see how the various surface magnetic fields affect the tail as Mars rotates. This rotation, coupled with an ever-changing solar wind magnetic field, creates an extremely dynamic Martian magnetotail. “Mars is really complicated but really interesting at the same time,” said DiBraccio.

The research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN began its primary science mission on November 2014, and is the first spacecraft dedicated to understanding Mars’ upper atmosphere. MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission. NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project and provided two science instruments for the mission, including the magnetometer. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, as well as the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Bill Steigerwald/Nancy Jones.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

A more precise measurement for antimatter than for matter

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

19 Oct 2017

Image above: Stefan Ulmer, spokesperson of the BASE collaboration, working on the experiment set-up. (Image: Maximilien Brice, Julien Ordan/CERN).

This week, the BASE collaboration published, in Nature, a new measurement of the magnetic moment of the antiproton, with a precision exceeding that of the proton. Thanks to a new method involving simultaneous measurements made on two separately-trapped antiprotons in two Penning traps, BASE succeeded in breaking its own record presented last January. This new result improves by a factor 350 the precision of the previous measurement and allows to compare matter and antimatter with an unprecedented accuracy.

“This result is the culmination of many years of continuous research and development, and the successful completion of one of the most difficult measurements ever performed in a Penning trap instrument,” said BASE spokesperson Stefan Ulmer.

The results are consistent with the magnetic moments of the proton and antiproton being equal, with the experimental uncertainty of the new antiproton measurement now significantly smaller than that for protons. The magnetic moment of the antiproton is found to be 2.792 847 344 1 (measured in unit of nuclear magneton), to be compared to the figure of 2.792 847 350 that the same collaboration of researchers found for the proton in 2014, at the BASE companion experiment at Mainz, in Germany.

“It is probably the first time that physicists get a more precise measurement for antimatter than for matter, which demonstrates the extraordinary progress accomplished at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator, ” added first-author of the study Christian Smorra.

The BASE experiment at CERN's Antimatter Factory

Video above: Drone footage of CERN's BASE experiment (Video:Noemi Caraban/CERN).

You can read the scientific paper here: http://doi.org/10.1038/nature24048

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related links:

BASE: http://home.cern/about/experiments/base

Antimatter: http://home.cern/topics/antimatter

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: http://home.cern/

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Corinne Pralavorio.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Final Spacewalk Preps Before November Cygnus Launch

ISS - Expedition 53 Mission patch.

October 19, 2017

Four Expedition 53 crewmates huddled together and made final preparations the day before the third and final spacewalk planned for October. Meanwhile, NASA’s commercial partner Orbital ATK has announced Nov. 11 as the new launch date for its Cygnus cargo carrier to the International Space Station.

Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba are reviewing procedures and configuring tools before their spacewalk set for Friday at 8:05 a.m. EDT. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Paolo Nespoli from the European Space Agency will assist the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits and guide the duo as they work outside.

Image above: Astronaut Joe Acaba (foreground) assisted crewmates Randy Bresnik (right) and Mark Vande Hei before they began a spacewalk on Oct. 10. Image Credit: NASA.

The spacewalk was originally set for Wednesday before mission managers replanned a new set of tasks due to a camera light failure. Bresnik and Acaba will now replace the camera light assembly on the Canadarm2’s newly installed Latching End Effector and install an HD camera on the starboard truss. The duo will also replace a fuse on Dextre’s payload platform and remove thermal insulation on two electrical spare parts housed on stowage platforms.

Orbital ATK is targeting the launch of its eighth Cygnus resupply mission to the station for Nov. 11. Cygnus will make a nine-minute ascent to space after launch, then begin a two-day trek to the station where it will be installed for a month-long stay after its capture by the Canadarm2.

Related links:

Orbital ATK: https://www.nasa.gov/orbital

Expedition 53: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition53/index.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

New NASA Study Improves Search for Habitable Worlds

NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center logo.

Oct. 19, 2017

New NASA research is helping to refine our understanding of candidate planets beyond our solar system that might support life.

“Using a model that more realistically simulates atmospheric conditions, we discovered a new process that controls the habitability of exoplanets and will guide us in identifying candidates for further study,” said Yuka Fujii of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, New York and the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, lead author of a paper on the research published in the Astrophysical Journal Oct. 17.

Image above: This illustration shows a star's light illuminating the atmosphere of a planet. Image Credits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Previous models simulated atmospheric conditions along one dimension, the vertical. Like some other recent habitability studies, the new research used a model that calculates conditions in all three dimensions, allowing the team to simulate the circulation of the atmosphere and the special features of that circulation, which one-dimensional models cannot do. The new work will help astronomers allocate scarce observing time to the most promising candidates for habitability.

Liquid water is necessary for life as we know it, so the surface of an alien world (e.g. an exoplanet) is considered potentially habitable if its temperature allows liquid water to be present for sufficient time (billions of years) to allow life to thrive. If the exoplanet is too far from its parent star, it will be too cold, and its oceans will freeze. If the exoplanet is too close, light from the star will be too intense, and its oceans will eventually evaporate and be lost to space. This happens when water vapor rises to a layer in the upper atmosphere called the stratosphere and gets broken into its elemental components (hydrogen and oxygen) by ultraviolet light from the star. The extremely light hydrogen atoms can then escape to space. Planets in the process of losing their oceans this way are said to have entered a “moist greenhouse” state because of their humid stratospheres.

In order for water vapor to rise to the stratosphere, previous models predicted that long-term surface temperatures had to be greater than anything experienced on Earth – over 150 degrees Fahrenheit (66 degrees Celsius). These temperatures would power intense convective storms; however, it turns out that these storms aren’t the reason water reaches the stratosphere for slowly rotating planets entering a moist greenhouse state.

“We found an important role for the type of radiation a star emits and the effect it has on the atmospheric circulation of an exoplanet in making the moist greenhouse state,” said Fujii. For exoplanets orbiting close to their parent stars, a star’s gravity will be strong enough to slow a planet’s rotation. This may cause it to become tidally locked, with one side always facing the star – giving it eternal day – and one side always facing away –giving it eternal night.

When this happens, thick clouds form on the dayside of the planet and act like a sun umbrella to shield the surface from much of the starlight. While this could keep the planet cool and prevent water vapor from rising, the team found that the amount of near-Infrared radiation (NIR) from a star could provide the heat needed to cause a planet to enter the moist greenhouse state. NIR is a type of light invisible to the human eye. Water as vapor in air and water droplets or ice crystals in clouds strongly absorbs NIR light, warming the air. As the air warms, it rises, carrying the water up into the stratosphere where it creates the moist greenhouse.

This process is especially relevant for planets around low-mass stars that are cooler and much dimmer than the Sun. To be habitable, planets must be much closer to these stars than our Earth is to the Sun. At such close range, these planets likely experience strong tides from their star, making them rotate slowly. Also, the cooler a star is, the more NIR it emits. The new model demonstrated that since these stars emit the bulk of their light at NIR wavelengths, a moist greenhouse state will result even in conditions comparable to or somewhat warmer than Earth's tropics. For exoplanets closer to their stars, the team found that the NIR-driven process increased moisture in the stratosphere gradually. So, it’s possible, contrary to old model predictions, that an exoplanet closer to its parent star could remain habitable.

This is an important observation for astronomers searching for habitable worlds, since low-mass stars are the most common in the galaxy. Their sheer numbers increase the odds that a habitable world may be found among them, and their small size increases the chance to detect planetary signals.

The new work will help astronomers screen the most promising candidates in the search for planets that could support life. “As long as we know the temperature of the star, we can estimate whether planets close to their stars have the potential to be in the moist greenhouse state,” said Anthony Del Genio of GISS, a co-author of the paper. “Current technology will be pushed to the limit to detect small amounts of water vapor in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. If there is enough water to be detected, it probably means that planet is in the moist greenhouse state.”

In this study, researchers assumed a planet with an atmosphere like Earth, but entirely covered by oceans. These assumptions allowed the team to clearly see how changing the orbital distance and type of stellar radiation affected the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere. In the future, the team plans to vary planetary characteristics such as gravity, size, atmospheric composition, and surface pressure to see how they affect water vapor circulation and habitability.

Image above: This is a plot of what the sea ice distribution could look like on a synchronously rotating ocean world. The star is off to the right, blue is where there is open ocean, and white is where there is sea ice. Image Credits: Anthony Del Genio/GISS/NASA.

The research was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Program through the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science; the NASA Postdoctoral Program, administered by Oak Ridge Affiliated Universities, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Maryland; and a Grant-in-Aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan (No.15K17605).

Related links:

Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, paper: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aa8955/meta

Astrobiology, Exoplanets: https://www.nasa.gov/content/the-search-for-life

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Bill Steigerwald.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres

NASA - DAWN Mission patch.

Oct. 19, 2017

NASA has authorized a second extension of the Dawn mission at Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. During this extension, the spacecraft will descend to lower altitudes than ever before at the dwarf planet, which it has been orbiting since March 2015. The spacecraft will continue at Ceres for the remainder of its science investigation and will remain in a stable orbit indefinitely after its hydrazine fuel runs out.

The Dawn flight team is studying ways to maneuver Dawn into a new elliptical orbit, which may take the spacecraft to less than 120 miles (200 kilometers) from the surface of Ceres at closest approach. Previously, Dawn's lowest altitude was 240 miles (385 kilometers).

Image above: This artist concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft above dwarf planet Ceres, as seen in images from the mission. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

A priority of the second Ceres mission extension is collecting data with Dawn's gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, which measures the number and energy of gamma rays and neutrons. This information is important for understanding the composition of Ceres' uppermost layer and how much ice it contains.

The spacecraft also will take visible-light images of Ceres' surface geology with its camera, as well as measurements of Ceres’ mineralogy with its visible and infrared mapping spectrometer.

The extended mission at Ceres additionally allows Dawn to be in orbit while the dwarf planet goes through perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, which will occur in April 2018. At closer proximity to the Sun, more ice on Ceres' surface may turn to water vapor, which may in turn contribute to the weak transient atmosphere detected by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory before Dawn's arrival. Building on Dawn’s findings, the team has hypothesized that water vapor may be produced in part from energetic particles from the Sun interacting with ice in Ceres’ shallow surface.  Scientists will combine data from ground-based observatories with Dawn's observations to further study these phenomena as Ceres approaches perihelion.

The Dawn team is currently refining its plans for this next and final chapter of the mission. Because of its commitment to protect Ceres from Earthly contamination, Dawn will not land or crash into Ceres. Instead, it will carry out as much science as it can in its final planned orbit, where it will stay even after it can no longer communicate with Earth. Mission planners estimate the spacecraft can continue operating until the second half of 2018.

Dawn is the only mission ever to orbit two extraterrestrial targets. It orbited giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months from 2011 to 2012, then continued on to Ceres, where it has been in orbit since March 2015.

The Dawn mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit: https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission

More information about Dawn is available at the following sites:

https://www.nasa.gov/dawn

https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Elizabeth Landau.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Take a Walk on Mars -- in Your Own Living Room

NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) logo.

Oct. 19, 2017

When NASA scientists want to follow the path of the Curiosity rover on Mars, they can don a mixed-reality headset and virtually explore the Martian landscape.

Animation above: Access Mars allows any member of the public to explore the discoveries of NASA's Curiosity rover. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Starting today, everyone can get a taste of what that feels like. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, collaborated with Google to produce Access Mars, a free immersive experience. It's available for use on all desktop and mobile devices and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) headsets. That includes mobile-based virtual reality devices on Apple and Android.

The experience was adapted from JPL's OnSight software, which assists scientists in planning rover drives and even holding meetings on Mars. Imagery from NASA's Curiosity rover provided the terrain, allowing users to wander the actual dunes and valleys explored by the spacecraft. Since being rolled out to JPL's scientists in 2015, OnSight has made studying Martian geology as intuitive as turning your head and walking around.

Image above: Access Mars lets users visit several sites from the past five years of discoveries made by NASA's Curiosity rover. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Access Mars lets anyone with an internet connection take a guided tour of what those scientists experience. A simple walkthrough explains what the Curiosity rover does and details its dramatic landing in 2012. Users also can visit four sites that have been critical to NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission: Curiosity's landing site; Murray Buttes; Marias Pass and Pahrump Hills. Additionally, the rover's latest location on lower Mt. Sharp will be periodically updated to reflect the mission's ongoing progress.

At the first three locations, users can zero in on objects of scientific interest, including rock outcrops and mud cracks. Katie Stack Morgan, a JPL scientist on the MSL mission, will explain the evidence of habitability Curiosity has unearthed.

Image above: Clicking on the floating spheres in Access Mars lets users see actual photos taking by NASA's Curiosity rover that allowed scientists to make new discoveries. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

More than anything, Access Mars offers a visceral impression of what it would be like to walk alongside Curiosity, wandering through the lonely, red desert.

"We've been able to leverage VR and AR technologies to take our scientists to Mars every single day," said Victor Luo, lead project manager at JPL's Ops Lab, which led the collaboration. "With Access Mars, everyone in the world can ride along."

Access Mars was created using data collected by JPL and built on WebVR, an open-source standard, in an effort to expand access to immersive experiences. Google's Creative Labs team was looking for novel uses for VR and encouraged developers to experiment using its tools.

Access Mars Web VR: A Virtual Walk on Mars

Video above: When NASA scientists want to follow the path of the Curiosity rover on Mars, they can don a mixed-reality headset and virtually explore the Martian landscape. Now everyone can get a sense of what that looks and feels like by visiting https://g.co/accessmars . NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, collaborated with Google to produce "Access Mars," a free immersive experience. It's available for use on all desktop and mobile devices and VR/AR headsets. This includes mobile-based iOS and Android devices. Users can visit four sites that have been critical to NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission: Curiosity's landing site; Murray Buttes; Marias Pass; and Pahrump Hills. The rover's location on lower Mount Sharp will be periodically updated to reflect the mission's ongoing progress. For more about all of NASA's Mars missions, go to https://mars.nasa.gov

NASA has collaborated with a number of outside organizations to create immersive experiences that allow people to "travel" to distant destinations. NASA worked with Google Expeditions, a free immersive app, to provide 360 tours of JPL Mars rover sites, the International Space Station and other NASA locations, and to profile the careers of women at NASA.  JPL also teamed with Microsoft to create OnSight for that company’s HoloLens mixed-reality headset. Using JPL's OnSight software, Microsoft collaborated on a public experience called "Destination: Mars" at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 2016.

"Immersive technology has incredible potential as a tool for scientists and engineers," Luo said. "It also lets us inspire and engage the public in new ways."

Experience Access Mars here: http://g.co/accessmars

For more information about the Mars Science Laboratory mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/

Destination Mars: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6220

Careers of women at NASA: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6768

Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Martin Perez/JPL/Andrew Good.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

An Atmosphere Around the Moon? NASA Research Suggests Significant Atmosphere in Lunar Past and Possible Source of Lunar Water

NASA - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) patch / NASA - Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) logo.

Oct. 19, 2017

An Atmosphere Around the Moon? Image Credits: NASA/MSFC

Looking up at the Moon at night, Earth’s closest neighbor appears in shades of gray and white; a dry desert in the vacuum of space, inactive and dead for billions of years. Like many things, though, with the Moon, there is so much more than what meets the eye.

Research completed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center planetary volcanologist Debra Needham in Huntsville, Alabama, and planetary scientist David Kring at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, suggests that billions of years ago, the Moon actually had an atmosphere. The ancient lunar atmosphere was thicker than the atmosphere of Mars today and was likely capable of weathering rocks and producing windstorms. Perhaps most importantly, it could be a source for some, if not all, of the water detected on the Moon.

“It just completely changes the way we think of the Moon,” said Needham, a scientist in Marshall’s Science and Technology Office. “It becomes a much more dynamic planetary body to explore.”

Needham will present the research at the annual Geological Society of America conference in Seattle on Oct. 22. The research paper, available online, will be published in the Nov. 15 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Images above: A time sequence of lunar mare -- lava plain -- flows in 0.5 billion year time increments, with red areas in each time step denoting the most recently erupted lavas. The timing of the eruptions, along with how much lava was erupted, helped scientists determine that the Moon once had an atmosphere and that the lunar atmosphere was thickest about 3.5 billion years ago. Image Credits: NASA/MSFC/Debra Needham; Lunar and Planetary Science Institute/David Kring.

Discovering the existence, thickness and composition of the atmosphere began with understanding how much lava erupted on the Moon 3.9 to one billion years ago, forming the lava plains we see as the dark areas on the surface of the Moon today. Needham and Kring then used lab analyses of lunar basalts -- iron and magnesium-rich volcanic rocks -- returned to Earth by the Apollo crews to estimate the amounts and composition of gases -- also called volatiles -- released during those volcanic eruptions.

The short-lived atmosphere -- estimated to have lasted approximately 70 million years -- was comprised primarily of carbon monoxide, sulfur and water. As volcanic activity declined, the release of the gases also declined. What atmosphere existed was either lost to space or became part of the surface of the Moon.

The researchers discovered that so much water was released during the eruptions -- potentially three times the amount of water in the Chesapeake Bay -- that if 0.1 percent of the erupted water migrated to the permanently shadowed regions on the Moon, it could account for all of the water detected there.

“We’re suggesting that internally-sourced volatiles might be at least contributing factors to these potential in-situ resource utilization deposits,” Needham said.

Image above: The color mosaic of the Moon’s north pole gives a small glimpse into the complex, dynamic past of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor. Image Credits: NASA/JPL/USGS.

Water is one of the keys to living off of the land in space, also called in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Knowing where the water came from helps scientists and mission planners alike know if the resource is renewable. Ultimately, more research is needed to determine the exact sources.

The first indication of water on the Moon came in 1994 when NASA’s Clementine spacecraft detected potential signatures of water-ice in the lunar poles. In 1998, NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission detected enhanced hydrogen signatures but could not definitely associate them to water. Ten years later, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and its partner spacecraft, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), definitively confirmed the presence of water on the Moon. That same year, in 2008, volcanic glass beads brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 15 and 17 crews were discovered to contain volatiles, including water, leading to the research that indicates the Moon once had a significant atmosphere and was once much different than what we see today.

Casting one’s eyes at the Moon or viewing it through a telescope, the surface of the Moon today gives but a glimpse into its dynamic and complex history. Recent findings that propose Earth’s neighbor once had an atmosphere comparable to Mars’ continue to unravel the lunar past, while prompting scientists and explorers to ask more questions about Earth’s mysterious companion in the solar system.

To learn more about Marshall’s lunar and planetary science research visit: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/solarsystem.html

To learn more about NASA’s research for solar system exploration visit: https://sservi.nasa.gov/

Related links:

Nov. 15 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X17304971?via%3Dihub

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html

Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center/William Bryan.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Deep Space Communications via Faraway Photons

NASA - Psyche Mission logo.

October 19, 2017

A spacecraft destined to explore a unique asteroid will also test new communication hardware that uses lasers instead of radio waves.

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) package aboard NASA's Psyche mission utilizes photons -- the fundamental particle of visible light -- to transmit more data in a given amount of time. The DSOC goal is to increase spacecraft communications performance and efficiency by 10 to 100 times over conventional means, all without increasing the mission burden in mass, volume, power and/or spectrum.

Image above: Artist's concept of the Psyche spacecraft, which will conduct a direct exploration of an asteroid thought to be a stripped planetary core. Image Credits: SSL/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Tapping the advantages offered by laser communications is expected to revolutionize future space endeavors - a major objective of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

The DSOC project is developing key technologies that are being integrated into a deep space-worthy Flight Laser Transceiver (FLT), high-tech work that will advance this mode of communications to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. Reaching a TRL 6 level equates to having technology that is a fully functional prototype or representational model.

As a "game changing" technology demonstration, DSOC is exactly that. NASA STMD's Game Changing Development Program funded the technology development phase of DSOC. The flight demonstration is jointly funded by STMD, the Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) Program and NASA/ HEOMD/Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN).

Work on the laser package is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Things are shaping up reasonably and we have a considerable amount of test activity going on," says Abhijit Biswas, DSOC Project Technologist in Flight Communications Systems at JPL. Delivery of DSOC for integration within the Psyche mission is expected in 2021 with the spacecraft launch to occur in the summer of 2022, he explains.

"Think of the DSOC flight laser transceiver onboard Psyche as a telescope," Biswas explains, able to receive and transmit laser light in precisely timed photon bursts.

DSOC architecture is based on transmitting a laser beacon from Earth to assist line­of­sight stabilization to make possible the pointing back of a downlink laser beam. The laser onboard the Psyche spacecraft, Biswas says, is based on a master-oscillator power amplifier that uses optical fibers.

The laser beacon to DSOC will be transmitted from JPL's Table Mountain Facility located near the town of Wrightwood, California, in the Angeles National Forest. DSOC's beaming of data from space will be received at a large aperture ground telescope at Palomar Mountain Observatory in California, near San Diego.

Biswas anticipates operating DSOC perhaps 60 days after launch, given checkout of the Psyche spacecraft post-liftoff. The test-runs of the laser equipment will occur over distances of 0.1 to 2.5 astronomical units (AU) on the outward-bound probe. One AU is approximately 150 million kilometers-or the distance between the Earth and Sun.

"I am very excited to be on the mission," says Biswas, who has been working on the laser communications technology since the late 1990s. "It's a unique privilege to be working on DSOC."

The Psyche mission was selected for flight in early 2017 under NASA's Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system.

The spacecraft will be launched in the summer of 2022 to 16 Psyche, a distinctive metal asteroid about three times farther away from the sun than Earth. The planned arrival of the probe at the main belt asteroid will take place in 2026.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton is Director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe. She is the principal investigator for the Psyche mission.

"I am thrilled that Psyche is getting to fly the Deep Space Optical Communications package," Elkins-Tanton says. "First of all, the technology is mind-blowing and it brings out all my inner geek. Who doesn't want to communicate using lasers, and multiply the amount of data we can send back and forth?"

Elkins-Tanton adds that bringing robotic and human spaceflight closer together is critical for humankind's space future. "Having our robotic mission test technology that we hope will help us eventually communicate with people in deep space is excellent integration of NASA missions and all of our goals," she says.

In designing a simple, high-heritage spacecraft to do the exciting exploration of the metal world Psyche, "I find both the solar electric propulsion and the Deep Space Optical Communications to feel futuristic in the extreme. I'm proud of NASA and of our technical community for making this possible," Elkins-Tanton concludes.

Biswas explains that DSOC is a pathfinder experiment. The future is indeed bright for the technology, he suggests, such as setting up capable telecommunications infrastructure around Mars

Animation above: Laser communications conceptual animation. An animated concept of Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) between Mars and Earth. Animation Credit: NASA.

"Doing so would allow the support of astronauts going to and eventually landing on Mars," Biswas said. "Laser communications will augment that capability tremendously. The ability to send back from Mars to Earth lots of information, including the streaming of high definition imagery, is going to be very enabling."

As a "game changing" technology demonstration, DSOC is exactly that. NASA STMD's Game Changing Development program funded the technology development phase of DSOC. The flight demonstration is jointly funded by STMD, the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) program and NASA/ HEOMD/Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN). Work on the laser package is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

For more information about NASA's Technology Demonstration Missions program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/main/index.html

For more information about NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

NASA's Psyche mission: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/psyche/

Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/dsoc/index.html

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Gina Anderson/JPL/Andrew Good/Written by Leonard.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Team Finds Noxious Ice Cloud on Saturn’s Moon Titan

NASA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

Oct. 18, 2017

Researchers with NASA’s Cassini mission found evidence of a toxic hybrid ice in a wispy cloud high above the south pole of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

The finding is a new demonstration of the complex chemistry occurring in Titan’s atmosphere—in this case, cloud formation in the giant moon’s stratosphere—and part of a collection of processes that ultimately helps deliver a smorgasbord of organic molecules to Titan’s surface.

Image above: This view of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is among the last images the Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Invisible to the human eye, the cloud was detected at infrared wavelengths by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer, or CIRS, on the Cassini spacecraft. Located at an altitude of about 100 to 130 miles (160 to 210 kilometers), the cloud is far above the methane rain clouds of Titan’s troposphere, or lowest region of the atmosphere. The new cloud covers a large area near the south pole, from about 75 to 85 degrees south latitude.

Laboratory experiments were used to find a chemical mixture that matched the cloud’s spectral signature -- the chemical fingerprint measured by the CIRS instrument. The experiments determined that the exotic ice in the cloud is a combination of the simple organic molecule hydrogen cyanide together with the large ring-shaped chemical benzene. The two chemicals appear to have condensed at the same time to form ice particles, rather than one being layered on top of the other.

“This cloud represents a new chemical formula of ice in Titan’s atmosphere,” said Carrie Anderson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a CIRS co-investigator. “What’s interesting is that this noxious ice is made of two molecules that condensed together out of a rich mixture of gases at the south pole.”

Previously, CIRS data helped identify hydrogen cyanide ice in clouds over Titan's south pole, as well as other toxic chemicals in the moon's stratosphere.

In Titan’s stratosphere, a global circulation pattern sends a current of warm gases from the hemisphere where it’s summer to the winter pole. This circulation reverses direction when the seasons change, leading to a buildup of clouds at whichever pole is experiencing winter. Shortly after its arrival at Saturn, Cassini found evidence of this phenomenon at Titan’s north pole. Later, near the end of the spacecraft’s 13 years in the Saturn system, a similar cloud buildup was spotted at the south pole.

The simple way to think about the cloud structure is that different types of gas will condense into ice clouds at different altitudes, almost like layers in a parfait dessert. Exactly which cloud condenses where depends on how much vapor is present and on the temperatures, which become colder and colder at lower altitudes in the stratosphere. The reality is more complicated, however, because each type of cloud forms over a range of altitudes, so it’s possible for some ices to condense simultaneously, or co-condense.

Anderson and colleagues use CIRS to sort through the complex set of infrared fingerprints from many molecules in Titan’s atmosphere. The instrument separates infrared light into its component colors, like raindrops creating a rainbow, and measures the strengths of the signal at the different wavelengths.

“CIRS acts as a remote-sensing thermometer and as a chemical probe, picking out the heat radiation emitted by individual gases in an atmosphere,” said F. Michael Flasar, the CIRS principal investigator at Goddard. “And the instrument does it all remotely, while passing by a planet or moon.”

The new cloud, which the researchers call the high-altitude south polar cloud, has a distinctive and very strong chemical signature that showed up in three sets of Titan observations taken from July to November 2015. Because Titan’s seasons last seven Earth years, it was late fall at the south pole the whole time.

The spectral signatures of the ices did not match those of any individual chemical, so the team began laboratory experiments to simultaneously condense mixtures of gases. Using an ice chamber that simulates conditions in Titan’s stratosphere, they tested pairs of chemicals that had infrared fingerprints in the right part of the spectrum.

At first, they let one gas condense before the other. But the best result was achieved by introducing both hydrogen cyanide and benzene into the chamber and allowing them to condense at the same time. By itself, benzene doesn’t have a distinctive far-infrared fingerprint. When it was allowed to co-condense with hydrogen cyanide, however, the far-infrared fingerprint of the co-condensed ice was a close match for the CIRS observations.

Artist's view of Cassini Titan flyby. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Additional studies will be needed to determine the structure of the co-condensed ice particles. The researchers expect them to be lumpy and disorderly, rather than well-defined crystals.

Anderson and colleagues previously found a similar example of co-condensed ice in CIRS data from 2005. Those observations were made near the north pole, about two years after the winter solstice in Titan’s northern hemisphere. That cloud formed at a much lower altitude, below 93 miles (150 kilometers), and had a different chemical composition: hydrogen cyanide and cyanoacetylene, one of the more complex organic molecules found in Titan’s atmosphere.

Anderson attributes the differences in the two clouds to seasonal variations at the north and south poles. The northern cloud was spotted about two years after the northern winter solstice, but the southern cloud was spotted about two years before the southern winter solstice. It’s possible that the mixtures of gases were slightly different in the two cases or that temperatures had warmed up a bit by the time the north polar cloud was spotted, or both.

“One of the advantages of Cassini was that we were able to flyby Titan again and again over the course of the thirteen-year mission to see changes over time,” said Anderson. “This is a big part of the value of a long-term mission.”

The Cassini spacecraft ended its Saturn mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini:

https://www.nasa.gov/cassini

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Karl Hille/Goddard Space Flight Center/Elizabeth Zubritsky.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Solar Eruptions Could Electrify Martian Moons

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) patch / ESA & NASA - SOHO Mission patch.

Oct. 18, 2017

Powerful solar eruptions could electrically charge areas of the Martian moon Phobos to hundreds of volts, presenting a complex electrical environment that could possibly affect sensitive electronics carried by future robotic explorers, according to a new NASA study. The study also considered electrical charges that could develop as astronauts transit the surface on potential human missions to Phobos.

Solar Wind at Martian Moon Could Impact Future Missions

Video above: The Martian moon Phobos is directly exposed to the solar wind, a stream of electrically charged particles constantly blowing off the surface of the Sun. According to a new simulation, the interaction of the solar wind with Phobos creates a complex electrical environment that statically charges the moon's night side. Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab.

Phobos has been considered as a possible initial base for human exploration of Mars because its weak gravity makes it easier to land spacecraft, astronauts and supplies. The idea would be to have the astronauts control robots on the Martian surface from the moons of Mars, without the considerable time delay faced by Earth-based operators. “We found that astronauts or rovers could accumulate significant electric charges when traversing the night side of Phobos – the side facing Mars during the Martian day,” said William Farrell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. “While we don’t expect these charges to be large enough to injure an astronaut, they are potentially large enough to affect sensitive equipment, so we would need to design spacesuits and equipment that minimizes any charging hazard.” Farrell is lead author of a paper on this research published online Oct. 3 in Advances in Space Research.

Image above: The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took two images of the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos, within 10 minutes of each other on March 23, 2008. This is the first. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. Although this study focused on Phobos, similar conditions are expected at Deimos, since both moons have no atmosphere and are directly exposed to the solar wind – a stream of electrically conducting gas, called a plasma, that’s constantly blowing off the surface of the Sun into space at around a million miles per hour.

The solar wind is responsible for these charging effects. When the solar wind strikes the day side of Phobos, the plasma is absorbed by the surface. This creates a void on the night side of Phobos that the plasma flow is obstructed from directly entering. However, the composition of the wind – made of two types of electrically charged particles, namely ions and electrons – affects the flow. The electrons are over a thousand times lighter than the ions. “The electrons act like fighter jets – they are able to turn quickly around an obstacle -- and the ions are like big, heavy bombers – they change direction slowly,” said Farrell. “This means the light electrons push in ahead of the heavy ions and the resulting electric field forces the ions into the plasma void behind Phobos, according to our models.”

The study shows that this plasma void behind Phobos may create a situation where astronauts and rovers build up significant electric charges. For example, if astronauts were to walk across the night-side surface, friction could transfer charge from the dust and rock on the surface to their spacesuits. This dust and rock is a very poor conductor of electricity, so the charge can’t flow back easily into the surface -- and charge starts to build up on the spacesuits. On the day side, the electrically conducting solar wind and solar ultraviolet radiation can remove the excess charge on the suit. But, on the night side, the ion and electron densities in the trailing plasma void are so low they cannot compensate or ‘dissipate’ the charge build-up. The team’s calculations revealed that this static charge can reach ten thousand volts in some materials, like the Teflon suits used in the Apollo lunar missions. If the astronaut then touches something conductive, like a piece of equipment, this could release the charge, possibly similar to the discharge you get when you shuffle across a carpet and touch a metal door handle.

The team modeled the flow of the solar wind around Phobos and calculated the buildup of charge on the night side, as well as in obstructed regions in shadow, like Stickney crater, the largest crater on Phobos. “We found that excess charge builds up in these regions during all solar wind conditions, but the charging effect was especially severe in the wake of solar eruptions like coronal mass ejections, which are dense, fast gusts of solar wind,” said Farrell.

Image above: This picture, captured on Jan. 8, 2002 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, shows an enormous eruption of solar material, called a coronal mass ejection, spreading out into space. Image Credits: ESA/NASA/SOHO.

This study was a follow-up to earlier studies that revealed the charging effects of solar wind in shadowed craters on Earth’s Moon and near-Earth asteroids. Some conditions on Phobos are different than those in the earlier studies. For example, Phobos gets immersed in the plasma flowing behind Mars because it orbits Mars much closer than the Moon orbits Earth. The plasma flow behind Mars’ orbit was modeled as well.

The research was funded by Goddard’s Dynamic Response of the Environment at Asteroids, the Moon, and moons of Mars (DREAM2) center, as well as the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), based and managed at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

SSERVI is a virtual institute that, together with international partnerships, brings science and exploration researchers together in a collaborative virtual setting. SSERVI is funded by the Science Mission Directorate and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Related links:

Advances in Space Research article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.08.009

Space Weather: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/3165/space-weather

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/overview/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Bill Steigerwald/Nancy Jones.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Weekly Recap From the Expedition Lead Scientist, week of October 9, 2017

ISS - Expedition 53 Mission patch.

Oct. 18, 2017

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

(Highlights: Week of October 9, 2017) - Preparation for combustion experiments, samples for immune function studies, and tests of movement control and cognition were part of the science conducted aboard the International Space Station during another week that included a spacewalk.

European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli worked on reconfiguring the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) ahead of the upcoming Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) investigation. The CIR is used to perform combustion experiments in microgravity. The Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) Chamber Insert Assembly (CIA) from the CIR combustion chamber was removed for the final time, and was replaced by the ACME chamber insert. The ACME investigation is a set of five independent studies of gaseous flames to be conducted in the CIR. ACME’s primary goal is to improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollutant production in practical combustion on Earth. Its secondary goal is to improve spacecraft fire prevention through innovative research focused on materials flammability.

Image above: European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli works on reconfiguring the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) ahead of the upcoming Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) investigation. Image Credit: NASA.

Astronauts also collected samples for the Multi-omics analysis of human microbial-metabolic cross-talk in the space ecosystem (Multi-Omics) investigation this week. It has been suggested that living aboard the orbiting laboratory likely causes immune dysfunction in astronauts, but the precise underlying mechanisms for this dysfunction is not well understood. Recent studies have indicated that an imbalance in gut microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, resulting from a variety of environmental stresses, could lead to immune dysfunction. Therefore, metagenomic analysis of the gut microbiota from astronauts should result in better understanding of the immune dysfunction of crew members on the space station. Multi-Omics could identify candidates of bacterial and/or metabolic biomarkers for immune dysfunction which could be useful for the health management of astronauts.

Crew members set up the Spaceflight Effects on Neurocognitive Performance: Extent, Longevity, and Neural Bases (NeuroMapping) hardware, and performed their Flight Day 30 tests in “strapped in” and “free floating” body configurations. During the test, the astronauts executed three behavioral assessments: mental rotation, sensorimotor adaptation and motor-cognitive dual tasking. The NeuroMapping investigation studies whether long-duration spaceflight causes changes to brain structure and function, motor control or multi-tasking abilities. It also measures how long it takes for the brain and body to recover from possible changes. Previous research and anecdotal evidence from astronauts suggests movement control and cognition can be affected in microgravity. The NeuroMapping investigation performs structural and functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (MRI and fMRI) to assess any changes that occur after spending months on the space station.

Image above: NASA astronaut Joe Acaba configured the back of the Optics Bench for the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) upgrades, in preparation for the ACE-T-6 investigation. Image Credit: NASA.

While physical changes in astronauts’ bodies were studied, so too were changes in the crew’s culture. The Canadian Space Agency investigation, Culture, Values, and Environmental Adaptation in Space (At Home in Space), assesses culture, values, and psychosocial adaptation of astronauts to a space environment shared by multinational crews on long-duration missions. It is hypothesized that astronauts develop a shared space culture that is an adaptive strategy for handling cultural differences, and that they deal with the isolated confined environment of the spacecraft by creating a home in space. At Home In Space uses a questionnaire battery to investigate individual and culturally-related differences, family functioning, values, coping with stress and post-experience growth.

Potential benefits of this work include a better understanding of the inter- and intrapersonal factors that may affect long space missions, which may ultimately facilitate the development of more effective countermeasures and empowerment strategies for long-duration missions. Other benefits would be the design of effective procedures to enhance crew feeling at home in space. Findings could also have applications to people living in remote, confined, and isolated environments (e.g., oil rigs, long-voyage tankers, and the Arctic and Antarctic), and to those whose employment requires periodic absences from family (e.g., military deployments).

Space to Ground: Quick Work: 10/13/2017

Video above: NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Video Credit: NASA.

Progress was also made on the following investigations last week: Fine Motor Skills, Veg-03, Lighting Effects, Space Headaches, ISS Ham Radio, Advanced Nano Step, Plasma Kristall-4, Biochemical Profile and ACE-T-6.

Related links:

Expedition 53: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition53/index.html

Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/326.html

Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1908.html

Multi-Omics: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1949.html#top

NeuroMapping: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1007.html

At Home in Space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1988.html

Fine Motor Skills: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1767.html

Veg-03: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1294.html

Lighting Effects: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2279.html

Space Headaches: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/181.html

ISS Ham Radio: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/346.html

Advanced Nano Step: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/783.html

Plasma Kristall-4: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1343.html

Biochemical Profile: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1008.html

ACE-T-6: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1968.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Erling. G. Holm/John Love, Lead Increment Scientist Expeditions 53 & 54.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch