A stormy shape-shifter

ESA - Venus Express Mission patch.

19 January 2015

Venus Express snaps swirling vortex

This ghostly puff of smoke is actually a mass of swirling gas and cloud at Venus’ south pole, as seen by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) aboard ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft.

Venus has a very choppy and fast-moving atmosphere – although wind speeds are sluggish at the surface, they reach dizzying speeds of around 400 km/h at the altitude of the cloud tops, some 70 km above the surface. At this altitude, Venus’ atmosphere spins round some 60 times faster than the planet itself. This is very rapid; even Earth’s fastest winds move at most about 30% of our planet’s rotation speed. Quick-moving Venusian winds can complete a full lap of the planet in just four Earth days.

Polar vortices form because heated air from equatorial latitudes rises and spirals towards the poles, carried by the fast winds. As the air converges on the pole and then sinks, it creates a vortex much like that found above the plughole of a bath. In 1979, the Pioneer Venus orbiter spotted a huge hourglass-shaped depression in the clouds, some 2000 km across, at the centre of the north polar vortex. However, other than brief glimpses from the Pioneer Venus and Mariner 10 missions in the 1970s, Venus’ south pole had not been seen in detail until ESA’s Venus Express first entered orbit in April 2006.

Visiting Venus

One of Venus Express’ first discoveries, made during its very first orbit, was confirming the existence of a huge atmospheric vortex circulation at the south pole with a shape matching the one glimpsed at the north pole.

This south polar vortex is a turbulent mix of warming and cooling gases, all surrounded by a ‘collar’ of cool air. Follow-up Venus Express observations in 2007, including this image, showed that the core of the vortex changes shape on a daily basis. Just four hours after this image the vortex looked very different and a day later it had morphed into a squashed shape unrecognisable from the eye-like structure here.

A video of the vortex, made from 10 images taken over a period of five hours, can be seen bellow. The vortex rotates with a period of around 44 hours.

Close-up view of south polar vortex

The swirling region shown in this VIRTIS image is about 60 km above the planet’s surface. Venus’ south pole is located just up and to the left of the image centre, slightly above the wispy ‘eye’ itself.

This image was obtained on 7 April 2007 at a wavelength of 5.02 micrometres. It shows thermal-infrared emission from the cloud tops; brighter regions like the ‘eye’ of the vortex are at lower altitude and therefore hotter.

For more information about Venus Express mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Venus_Express

Images, Animation, Text, Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA/Univ. Oxford/MPS/DLR/IDA, M. Pérez-Ayúcar & C. Wilson.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

SpaceX shares dramatic video of failed Falcon 9 landing

SpaceX logo.

16 January 2015

Elon Musk shares dramatic imagery and video of mostly successful Falcon 9 1st recovery attempt, hard landing on Drone Ship

Image above: Elon Musk commented on his tweet: Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event. Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day!

Dramatic new photos and video of the daring and mostly successful attempt by Space X to land their Falcon 9 booster on an ocean-going “drone ship” were released this morning, Friday, Jan. 16, by SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk.

Musk posted the imagery online via his twitter account (@elonmusk) and they vividly show just how close his team came to achieving total success in history’s first attempt to land and recover a rocket on a tiny platform in the ocean.

Falcon 9 rocket crash on SpaceX landing barge

Musk described the attempted rocket landing last weekend as "close, but no cigar" — but this assessment doesn't really do these images justice.

The 14-story-tall Falcon 9 rocket is seen hitting the deck of the barge at a 45-degree angle as the four stabilizing fins lose hydraulic power.

The engines then fire in an attempt to restore balance but it's too late and the rocket smashes into the deck of the ship.

SpaceX landing barge docked

The four images tweeted by Musk, who cheerfully sums up the situation: "Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event. Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day!"

For more information about SpaceX, visit: http://www.spacex.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: SpaceX/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA, NOAA Find 2014 Warmest Year in Modern Record

NASA logo / NOAA logo.

January 16, 2015

The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists.

The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000. This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

2014 Warmest Year On Record

Video above: The year 2014 now ranks as the warmest on record since 1880, according to an analysis by NASA scientists. Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

In an independent analysis of the raw data, also released Friday, NOAA scientists also found 2014 to be the warmest on record.

“NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate on a global scale,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity.”

Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius), a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades.

“This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades. While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.

2014 Continues Long-Term Global Warming

Video above: This video shows a time series of five-year global temperature averages, mapped from 1880 to 2014, as estimated by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña. These phenomena warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño-neutral year.

“NOAA provides decision makers with timely and trusted science-based information about our changing world,” said Richard Spinrad, NOAA chief scientist. “As we monitor changes in our climate, demand for the environmental intelligence NOAA provides is only growing. It's critical that we continue to work with our partners, like NASA, to observe these changes and to provide the information communities need to build resiliency.”

Regional differences in temperature are more strongly affected by weather dynamics than the global mean. For example, in the U.S. in 2014, parts of the Midwest and East Coast were unusually cool, while Alaska and three western states – California, Arizona and Nevada – experienced their warmest year on record, according to NOAA.

Image above: This color-coded map displays global temperature anomaly data from 2014. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The GISS analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. This raw data is analyzed using an algorithm that takes into account the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the calculation. The result is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.

NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but a different baseline period. They also employ their own methods to estimate global temperatures.

GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.

NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites, as well as airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

The data set of 2014 surface temperature measurements is available at: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

The methodology used to make the temperature calculation is available at: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/sources_v3/

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

Image (mentioned), Videos (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Steve Cole/Goddard Institute for Space Studies/Leslie McCarthy.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Beagle-2 lander found on Mars

ESA - Mars Express Mission patch.

16 January 2015

The UK-led Beagle-2 Mars lander, which hitched a ride on ESA’s Mars Express mission and was lost on Mars since 2003, has been found in images taken by a NASA orbiter at the Red Planet.

Colour image of Beagle-2 on Mars

Beagle-2 was released from its mother craft on 19 December 2003 and was due to land six days later. But nothing was heard from the lander after its scheduled touchdown, and searches by Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Odyssey mission were fruitless.

Now, over a decade later, the lander has been identified in images taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The lander is seen partially deployed on the surface, showing that the entry, descent and landing sequence worked and it did indeed successfully land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003.

“We are very happy to learn that Beagle-2 touched down on Mars. The dedication of the various teams in studying high-resolution images in order to find the lander is inspiring,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.

Close-up of Beagle-2 on Mars

“Not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 remained a nagging worry. Understanding now that Beagle-2 made it all the way down to the surface is excellent news,” adds Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time.

The high resolution images were initially searched by Michael Croon, a former member of the Mars Express operations team at ESA’s Space Operations Centre, ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany, working in parallel with members of the Beagle-2 industrial and scientific teams.

The small size of Beagle-2 – less than 2 m across when fully deployed – meant this was a painstaking endeavour, right at the limit of the resolution of cameras in orbit around Mars.

After the identification of potential counterparts to Beagle-2 in the expected landing of Isidis Planitia, a large impact basin close the martian equator, further images were obtained and analysed by the camera team, the Beagle-2 team and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Beagle-2 on Mars

The images show the lander in what appears to be a partially deployed configuration, with only one, two or at most three of the four solar panels open, and with the main parachute and what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue parachute still attached close by.

The size, shape, colour and separation of the features are consistent with Beagle-2 and its landing components, and lie within the expected landing area at a distance of about 5 km from its centre.

Possible features have also been speculatively identified for airbags, which cushioned the landing, and possibly for the front heatshield. Further imaging will be needed to confirm the latter targets.

The partial deployment explains why no signals were ever received from the lander: full deployment of all solar panels was needed to expose the radio antenna to transmit data and receive commands from Earth.

Artist's impression of Beagle 2 lander

Unfortunately, given the partial deployment and covering of the antenna, there is no possibility of reviving Beagle-2 and recover data from it.

Nevertheless, knowing that Beagle-2 did after all land successfully on Mars adds renewed impetus to the next phase of Europe’s exploration of the Red Planet, with the launches of ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator in 2016 and the ExoMars rover in 2018.

Notes for Editors:

For more information and reaction, see the UKSA news report: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-led-beagle-2-lander-found-on-mars

Beagle-2 was the UK’s first mission to another planet. The project was a partnership between the Open University, the University of Leicester and EADS Astrium UK (now Airbus Defence and Space). Other funding partners included ESA, the Office of Science and Technology of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Wellcome Trust, the National Space Centre and the Millennium Commission.

Professor Colin Pillinger from the Open University led the Beagle-2 project with inspirational enthusiasm; he died in May 2014. Professor George Fraser of the University of Leicester and Professor David Barnes of Aberystwyth University were also major contributors to Beagle-2, both of whom also died in 2014.

For more information about Mars Express, Visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express

Mars Express overview: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express_overview

Mars Express 10 year brochure: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/publications/BR-312/

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/HiRISE/NASA/JPL/Parker/Leicester/Beagle 2.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Rejigging the Cluster quartet

ESA - Cluster II Mission patch.

16 January 2015

Aiming to study Earth’s ‘bow shock’ in the solar wind, the constellation of Cluster satellites is being rejigged to bring two of the four to within almost touching distance.

ESA’s Cluster quartet, in orbit since 2000, is studying the detailed structures of Earth’s magnetosphere – our protective magnetic bubble – and its environment in 3D.

Cluster quartet

The four identical satellites fly in highly elliptical orbits between 600 km and 20 000 km apart, depending on the regions that each satellite’s set of 11 identical instruments is studying.

This month, satellites 3 and 4 will be manoeuvred to within about 6 km of each other, adjusting the formation to observe activity at Earth's bow shock – the region where the solar wind decelerates from super- to subsonic speeds before being deflected around our planet.

Checking the maths

“The scientific aim is to have a pair of satellites orbiting a few kilometres apart in the free solar wind just ahead of the bow shock, to collect data at very small scales,” says Detlef Sieg, a flight dynamics specialist working on Cluster at ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

This requires careful calculations of orbits and thruster burns, lining up Cluster 3 and 4 in almost the same orbit while ensuring they can’t collide during this close-formation period.

Earth’s bow shock and magnetosphere

Since there is no communication between the satellites and we know their positions only to within a few hundred metres, they must be flown carefully from the ground to prevent any collision risk.

“During each orbit, they cross almost the same two points just three seconds apart. Between, they are side by side and one overtakes the other.”

The ultra-close alignment was achieved on 7 January, and they will stay like this until mid-March.

During this two-month alignment, the other two satellites will maintain more or less steady positions with respect to the first two, about 5000 km away.

Plenty of teamwork

“Adjusting the formation requires plenty of teamwork and coordination, not only among teams in Darmstadt but also with the Joint Science Operations Centre in the UK and the Payload teams,” notes Cluster operations manager Bruno Sousa.

“We also work to optimise fuel usage and eliminate any risk of potential collision, though this only becomes really significant if we go down to 1–2 km separation.”

Detlef Sieg and Bruno Sousa

The two satellites will be so close that, as seen from a ground tracking station, both will be in the same slice of sky. This allows a single station to communicate with them simultaneously on different frequencies.

However, this time-saving technique requires validation so, for now, only one will be tracked at a time (more about Estrack: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Estrack_tracking_stations).

Getting up close to Earth's bow wave

This is not the closest separation achieved between two Cluster satellites – that was just 4 km in 2013 – but it is the first time that two have come so close at the bow shock, which typically occurs some 90 000 km above Earth.

“This enables us to study physical processes such as plasma heating and acceleration at the bow shock,” says Philippe Escoubet, the mission’s project scientist.

“Previous studies of the bow shock have shown electron heating over distances as small as 16 km, but we want to see what is happening using two satellites at smaller scales.”

These observations one of the main aims for the 2015–16 mission extension, which was agreed by ESA’s Science Programme Committee in November 2014: http://www.esa.int/link%20to%20http://sci.esa.int/director-desk/54999-working-life-extensions-for-esas-science-missions

Exploring the Sun-Earth connection: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cluster

Cluster overview: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cluster_overview2

Cluster Operations: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Nothing to Squirm About: Space Station Worms Help Battle Muscle and Bone Loss

ISS - International Space Station patch.

January 16, 2015

It is said that great things can come in small packages. In this case, one key to keeping astronauts healthy on long-duration space missions may be found in a tiny roundworm barely a millimeter long.

Image above: Caenorhabditis elegans -- a millimeter-long roundworm with a genetic makeup scientists understand -- will be central to a pair of Japan Aerospace Agency investigations into muscle and bone loss of astronauts on the International Space Station in the first few months of 2015. Image Credit: NASA.

Two Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) investigations on the International Space Station help researchers seek clues to physiological problems found in astronauts by studying Caenorhabditis elegans -- a millimeter-long roundworm that, like the fruit fly, is widely used as a model for larger organisms. The results of the investigation could lead to new treatments for bone and muscle loss in humans living in space. Findings may also be beneficial to people on Earth suffering from muscle and bone diseases.

"Spaceflight-induced health changes, such as decreases in muscle and bone mass, are a major challenge facing our astronauts," said Julie Robinson, NASA's Chief Scientist for the International Space Station Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We investigate solutions on the station not only to keep astronauts healthy as the agency considers longer space exploration missions, but also to help those on Earth who have limited activity as a result of aging or illness."

We rely on gravity to develop stronger muscles and bones. Athletes will lift weights -- resisting the pull of gravity -- to make their bodies even stronger. When gravity is greatly reduced -- as in spaceflight -- we don't use those muscles to resist the force of gravity, and muscles and bones can slowly start to deteriorate. Even with assigned daily exercise, the bodies of astronauts in microgravity lose bone and muscle mass.

International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA

This is the same problem facing people who are on prolonged bed rest. The inactivity, even removing simple daily movement, can have a negative effect on the bones and muscles of the infirm or elderly. Patients on prolonged bed rest experience muscle atrophy, bone density loss and changes in metabolism, similar to the effects of long-duration spaceflight.

One investigation, scheduled for launch to the station on the SpaceX’s sixth space station resupply mission in 2015, is called Alterations of C. elegans muscle fibers by microgravity (Nematode Muscle). It will look into the muscle fibers and cytoskeleton of the roundworm to clarify how those physiological systems alter in response to microgravity. Space station crew members will grow these worms in microgravity, as well as another batch in one-g using a centrifuge. This will simulate the force of gravity while the C. elegans remain physically in orbit, allowing a direct comparison of the effects of different gravity levels on organisms in space.

A different JAXA investigation currently on station is taking a much closer look at C. elegans by examining their DNA. The Epigenetics in spaceflown C. elegans (Epigenetics) study launched to the space station on the SpaceX CRS-5 resupply mission. It requires astronauts on the orbiting laboratory to grow four generations of the worm, with adults and larvae from each generation preserved at different points during their lifespan. The worms will return to Earth in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in January.

Image above: A researcher prepares samples of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Epigenetics investigation at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch on the fifth SpaceX resupply mission to the International Space Station. Image Credit: JAXA/Tohoku University.

"The astronauts will cultivate multiple generations of the organism, so we can examine the organisms in different states of development," said Atsushi Higashitani, principal investigator for both investigations with Tohoku University in Miyagi, Japan. "Our studies will help clarify how and why these changes to health take place in microgravity and determine if the adaptations to space are transmitted from one cell generation to another without changing the basic DNA of an organism. Then, we can investigate if those effects could be treated with different medicines or therapies."

Worms grown in each investigation will be compared to similar batches grown in a laboratory in Japan. Understanding the molecular changes that take place in microgravity could help researchers develop treatments or therapies to counteract the physical changes associated with aging and extended bed rest, such as muscle atrophy or osteoporosis, and could help develop treatments or exercises for astronauts on long voyages.

This simple, tiny roundworm could lead to a cure for symptoms affecting millions of the aging and infirm population of Earth, and the astronauts orbiting it, potentially offering a solution to a major problem in an extremely small package.

Related links:

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): http://global.jaxa.jp/

Model for larger organisms: https://blogs.nasa.gov/ISS_Science_Blog/2013/11/13/model-organisms-shining-examples-for-simple-effective-biology-research/

The Epigenetics in spaceflown C. elegans (Epigenetics) study: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1075.html

SpaceX CRS-5 resupply mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/spacex_cats

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/International Space Station Program Science Office, By Bill Hubscher/NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Begins First Stages of Pluto Encounter

NASA - New Horizons Mission logo.

January 15, 2015

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft recently began its long-awaited, historic encounter with Pluto. The spacecraft is entering the first of several approach phases that culminate July 14 with the first close-up flyby of the dwarf planet, 4.67 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) from Earth.

“NASA first mission to distant Pluto will also be humankind’s first close up view of this cold, unexplored world in our solar system,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “The New Horizons team worked very hard to prepare for this first phase, and they did it flawlessly.”

NASA New Horizons animations

Video above: NASA’s New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt of icy, rocky mini-worlds on the solar system’s outer frontier. This animation follows the New Horizons spacecraft as it leaves Earth after its January 2006 launch, through a gravity-assist flyby of Jupiter in February 2007, to the encounter with Pluto and its moons in summer 2015. Video Credit: NASA/JHUAPL.

The fastest spacecraft when it was launched, New Horizons lifted off in January 2006. It awoke from its final hibernation period last month after a voyage of more than 3 billion miles, and will soon pass close to Pluto, inside the orbits of its five known moons. In preparation  for the close encounter, the mission’s science, engineering and spacecraft operations teams configured the piano-sized probe for distant observations of the Pluto system that start Sunday, Jan. 25 with a long-range photo shoot.

The images captured by New Horizons’ telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) will give mission scientists a continually improving look at the dynamics of Pluto’s moons. The images also will play a critical role in navigating the spacecraft as it covers the remaining 135 million miles (220 million kilometers) to Pluto.

Image above: Artist’s concept of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto and Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, in July 2015. Image Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben.

“We’ve completed the longest journey any spacecraft has flown from Earth to reach its primary target, and we are ready to begin exploring,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

LORRI will take hundreds of pictures of Pluto over the next few months to refine current estimates of the distance between the spacecraft and the dwarf planet. Though the Pluto system will resemble little more than bright dots in the camera’s view until May, mission navigators will use the data to design course-correction maneuvers to aim the spacecraft toward its target point this summer. The first such maneuver could occur as early as March.

“We need to refine our knowledge of where Pluto will be when New Horizons flies past it,” said Mark Holdridge, New Horizons encounter mission manager at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “The flyby timing also has to be exact, because the computer commands that will orient the spacecraft and point the science instruments are based on precisely knowing the time we pass Pluto – which these images will help us determine.”

The “optical navigation” campaign that begins this month marks the first time pictures from New Horizons will be used to help pinpoint Pluto’s location.

Throughout the first approach phase, which runs until spring, New Horizons will conduct a significant amount of additional science. Spacecraft instruments will gather continuous data on the interplanetary environment where the planetary system orbits, including measurements of the high-energy particles streaming from the sun and dust-particle concentrations in the inner reaches of the Kuiper Belt. In addition to Pluto, this area, the unexplored outer region of the solar system, potentially includes thousands of similar icy, rocky small planets.

Graphic above: Timeline of the approach and departure phases — surrounding close approach on July 14, 2015 — of the New Horizons Pluto encounter. Image Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI.

More intensive studies of Pluto begin in the spring, when the cameras and spectrometers aboard New Horizons will be able to provide image resolutions higher than the most powerful telescopes on Earth. Eventually, the spacecraft will obtain images good enough to map Pluto and its moons more accurately than achieved by previous planetary reconnaissance missions.

APL manages the New Horizons mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, is the principal investigator and leads the mission. SwRI leads the science team, payload operations, and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft.

For more information about the New Horizons mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons and http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

Image & Graphic (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Michael Buckley/Southwest Research Institute/Maria Stothoff.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch