Evacuation Drills, Science Work and New Crew Launch Preps

ISS - Expedition 42 Mission patch.

March 18, 2015

Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti and Anton Shkaplerov practiced emergency procedures Tuesday, preparing the three crew members for the actions they would take in the unlikely event that they must evacuate the International Space Station.

Cristoforetti went back to work on the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES). She will be setting up MARES hardware inside the European Columbus lab module over the next two days. Virts assisted her with the MARES deployment just before lunchtime.

Image above: US astronaut Terry Virts and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are ready to select a fruit snack during a brief break from work aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 15, 2015. The apples, suspended in microgravity are easy targets. Both astronauts are flight engineers with Expedition 42. Image Credit: NASA.

Read more about the MARES: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/352.html

Virts later moved to the U.S. Destiny lab module to pack up a physics experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The commander stowed the Coarsening in Solid Mixtures-4 (CSLM-4) experiment, an investigation studying solid-liquid mixtures, which will be returned on a future SpaceX Dragon mission.

Read more about Coarsening in Solid Mixtures-4: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1755.html

3D virtual spacewalk outside the International Space Station

Meanwhile, Soyuz TMA-16M Commander Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are preparing for launch on March 27, when they will join Expedition 43 at the orbital laboratory. Kelly and Kornienko will stay in space until March 2016. Padalka will return to Earth Sept. 11.

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA/ESA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Rocket Proton-M & spacecraft Express-AM7 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome

ROSCOSMOS logo.

19.03.2015

Rocket Proton-M & satellite Express-AM7 launch

Today, March 19, 2015, 1:00 05 minutes Moscow time from the launch complex No. 200 Baikonur cosmodrome launch vehicle (LV) Proton-M with the upper stage (RB) Breeze-M and telecommunications spacecraft (CA) - Express AM7.

After the regular separation from the third stage of the launch vehicle orbital assembly composed of RB Breeze-M and the spacecraft Express-AM7 continues autonomous flight.

Further removal of the target orbit spacecraft carried propulsion upper stage. Estimated time of separation of the spacecraft Express-AM7 from RB - 10:00 Moscow time on 18/19 March.

Proton-M/Briz-M Launch with Express AM-7

Express AM7 spacecraft was created for FSUE Russian Satellite Communications by French company Airbus Defense and Space. The satellite is designed to provide communication services, broadcasting, broadband Internet access in Russia, Europe and India. Lifetime of the spacecraft - 15 years.

Express AM7 satellite

Carrier rocket Proton and the upper stage Breeze-M developed and commercially manufactured Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Research and Production Space Center of MV Khrunichev. "Upgraded Proton-M", equipped with the upper stage Breeze-M, is able to deliver on the geosynchronous transfer orbit a payload of more than 6 tons.

Roscosmos Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/21374/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency/Roscosmos/Tsenki/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Spacecraft Detects Aurora and Mysterious Dust Cloud around Mars

NASA - MAVEN Mission logo.

March 18, 2015

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere.

The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) to 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface was not predicted. Although the source and composition of the dust are unknown, there is no hazard to MAVEN and other spacecraft orbiting Mars.

Image above: Artist’s conception of MAVEN’s Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) observing the “Christmas Lights Aurora" on Mars. MAVEN observations show that aurora on Mars is similar to Earth’s "Northern Lights" but has a different origin. Image Credit: University of Colorado.

"If the dust originates from the atmosphere, this suggests we are missing some fundamental process in the Martian atmosphere," said Laila Andersson of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospherics and Space Physics (CU LASP), Boulder, Colorado.

The cloud was detected by the spacecraft’s Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument, and has been present the whole time MAVEN has been in operation. It is unknown if the cloud is a temporary phenomenon or something long lasting. The cloud density is greatest at lower altitudes. However, even in the densest areas it is still very thin. So far, no indication of its presence has been seen in observations from any of the other MAVEN instruments.

Possible sources for the observed dust include dust wafted up from the atmosphere; dust coming from Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars; dust moving in the solar wind away from the sun; or debris orbiting the sun from comets. However, no known process on Mars can explain the appearance of dust in the observed locations from any of these sources.

Image above: A map of IUVS’s auroral detections in December 2014 overlaid on Mars’ surface. The map shows that the aurora was widespread in the northern hemisphere, not tied to any geographic location. The aurora was detected in all observations during a 5-day period. Image Credit: University of Colorado.

MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) observed what scientists have named "Christmas lights." For five days just before Dec. 25, MAVEN saw a bright ultraviolet auroral glow spanning Mars' northern hemisphere. Aurora, known on Earth as northern or southern lights, are caused by energetic particles like electrons crashing down into the atmosphere and causing the gas to glow.

"What's especially surprising about the aurora we saw is how deep in the atmosphere it occurs - much deeper than at Earth or elsewhere on Mars,” said Arnaud Stiepen, IUVS team member at the University of Colorado. “The electrons producing it must be really energetic."

The source of the energetic particles appears to be the sun. MAVEN's Solar Energetic Particle instrument detected a huge surge in energetic electrons at the onset of the aurora. Billions of years ago, Mars lost a global protective magnetic field like Earth has, so solar particles can directly strike the atmosphere. The electrons producing the aurora have about 100 times more energy than you get from a spark of house current, so they can penetrate deeply in the atmosphere.

The findings are being presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.

MAVEN was launched to Mars on Nov. 18, 2013, to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere and much of its water. The spacecraft arrived at Mars on Sept. 21, and is four months into its one-Earth-year primary mission.

"The MAVEN science instruments all are performing nominally, and the data coming out of the mission are excellent," said Bruce Jakosky of CU LASP, Principal Investigator for the mission.

MAVEN is part of the agency's Mars Exploration Program, which includes the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the planet.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential. In parallel, NASA is developing the human spaceflight capabilities needed for its journey to Mars or a future round-trip mission to the Red Planet in the 2030’s.

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project. Partner institutions include Lockheed Martin, the University of California at Berkeley, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

For images related to the findings, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/maven

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/Goddard Space Flight Center/Nancy Neal-Jones / Bill Steigerwald/University of Colorado/Jim Scott.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Ice venturers yield results for CryoSat

ESA - Cryosat-2 Mission logo.

18 March 2015

Trekking to the far reaches of the Arctic for the sole purpose of collecting snow and ice measurements may seem extreme, but it is thanks to these efforts that scientists will soon have even better satellite information at their fingertips to assess changes in polar ice.

Over the last year, the measurements made by scientists camping on the ice and from various aircraft during a month-long expedition have been painstakingly processed so that they can be used to confirm data from ESA’s CryoSat ice mission.

Cold Facts

CryoSat measures the height of ice – both of that floating in the polar oceans and of the vast ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica. This information is essential for working out the thickness of the ice and how it is changing and, ultimately, how the volume of Earth’s ice is being affected by the climate.

Given the crucial nature of understanding the links between ice and climate, it is important to make sure that CryoSat’s measurements remain accurate, even if this means heading out to one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

Scientists from numerous European and North American organisations volunteered to do just this.

Ice camping

Their task was to take measurements of the Arctic sea ice using a suite of sensors on a different aircraft, as well as to measure snow and ice depth meticulously by hand on the ice – all the while keeping an eye out for polar bears.

The ground team ranged from hardened polar scientists who wore jeans and took measurements with their bare hands despite temperatures of –30°C to PhD students who had never experienced the harshness of an Arctic campaign.

First-time camper Rachel Tilling, from University College London, said, “It was tough, and apart from coping physically, the cold also caused some technical problems.

“For example, we needed a generator to power our radar, without power we couldn’t take our measurements. We actually had three generators in the camp, but at times none of them worked because of the extreme temperatures.

Ice sensor towed by aircraft

“Nevertheless, over time we manage to get at least one of the generators working and the long daylight hours allowed us to catch up – it was all pretty exhausting, but a great experience.”

Polar explorer Marc Cornelissen, who has participated in a number of ESA’s Arctic field campaigns, said, “With teams in different aircraft and on the ice, this campaign was one of the most complex I’ve been involved in, and the first time we’ve actually looked after people camping on the ice for days at a time.

“Over the years, I’ve seen changes happening to our fragile Arctic environment, but CryoSat is giving us the hard facts. Campaigns are essential to assure scientists that they can have absolute confidence in the satellite data.”

The campaign measurements actually go further than just validating the CryoSat satellite data, they contribute significantly to the continuous improvement in the quality of ice-thickness maps.

In fact, this latest Arctic expedition has played an important part in ESA’s upcoming CryoSat data product release.

ESA's ice mission

From April, scientists will have, for the first time, access to systematic sea-ice ‘freeboard’ information with which to generate ice-thickness maps. Freeboard describes the height of sea ice protruding above the water line.

Until now, scientists had to process the CryoSat data to calculate this.

Tommaso Parrinello, CryoSat Mission Manager, said, “The validation aspect also indicates that the satellite is still in excellent health and providing precision data despite being in orbit for five years.”

Malcolm Davidson, Head of ESA’s Earth Observation Campaigns, said, “We are using CryoSat to measure an extremely dynamic environment.

New ice boundary

“Between winter and summer the Arctic Ocean typically loses roughly the same amount of ice that could be held in Lake Constance 340 times, it is then regained the following winter.

“While the ebb and flow of the extent of ice has been observed by satellites for some years, CryoSat is giving us clear information about changes in the volume of ice so that these seasonal changes can be measured accurately and, importantly, to ascertain year-on-year change.

“Thanks to the ground team who were prepared to venture out onto the ice and the Danish and Canadian air teams, we can remain assured of CryoSat’s accuracy.”

Related links:

Access CryoSat data: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/esa-operational-eo-missions/cryosat

Earth Observation Campaigns: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/The_Living_Planet_Programme/Campaigns

Campaigns blog: http://blogs.esa.int/campaignearth/

Campaigns data: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/campaigns

Cold Facts: http://coldfacts.org/

DTU Space–Geodynamics: http://www.space.dtu.dk/english/Research/Research_divisions/Geodynamics

University College London–CPOM: http://www.cpom.org/research.html

Natural Resources Canada–Permafrost, Ice & Snow: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/sciences/permafrost-ice-snow/10815

University of Alberta–Earth & Atmospheric Sciences: http://easweb.eas.ualberta.ca/

York University–Arctic Sea Ice Geophysics: http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/profile-eng.aspx?profileId=2968

NASA Operation IceBridge: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/M. Cornelissen/AOES Medialab/Cold Facts/A. Casey–University of Alberta.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA's LRO Spacecraft Finds March 17, 2013 Impact Crater and More

NASA - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) patch.

March 17, 2015

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) acquired images of the lunar surface before and after the largest recorded explosion occurred on the surface.

On March 17, 2013, an object the size of a small boulder hit the surface in Mare Imbrium and exploded in a flash of light nearly 10 times as bright as anything ever recorded before.

This bright flash was recorded by researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville with coordinates 20.6°N, 336.1°E. The Lunar Reconnaissance Camera (LROC) scientists were able to obtain observations before and after the impact. Comparing the actual size of the crater to the brightness of the flash helps validate impact models.

New Craters on the Moon

Video above: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's powerful cameras are enabling scientists to find present-day impact craters on the Moon.

LROC’s first set of post-impact flash images acquired on May 21, 2013 by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) were targeted on the Marshall-reported coordinates and numerous small surface disturbances (“splotches”) were detected by comparing the pre- and post-flash images, but no new crater was found.

A second set of NAC images was acquired on July 1, 2013, showing three faint ray-like features and several chains of splotches and asymmetric splotches that generally pointed to a common area west of the Marshall coordinates. A NAC pair was targeted on that convergence point for July 28, 2013; comparison of this third set of images with preexisting coverage revealed a new crater.

Before

After

Two Images above: This image shows a lunar impact crater created on March 17, 2013. The two images are from the LROC instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The above image is from Feb. 12, 2012, and the bellow image is from July 28, 2013. The new crater is about 59 feet wide. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University.

The crater itself is small, measuring 18.8 meters (61.7 feet) in diameter, but its influence large; debris excavated by the sudden release of energy flew for hundreds of meters. More than 200 related surficial changes up to 30 kilometers (19 miles) away were noted.

The results are published in the January 31 edition of the journal Icarus.

The March 17 impact crater is one of thousands of craters being mapped by the instrument. The LROC team is going back to images taken in the first year or two and comparing them to recent images. Called temporal pairs, these before/after images enable the search for a range of surface changes, including new impact craters, formed between the time the first and second image were acquired.

As of January 1, 2015, LROC has acquired about 10,000 before and after image pairs.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Image Credit: NASA

Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the moon. LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

To download the visualizations of these impacts, visit: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4242

To read more about the March 17, 2013, impact crater, visit LROC’s website: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/770

For more information about Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Nancy Neal Jones/Arizona State University/Nicole Cassis.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

"Mini Supernova" Explosion Could Have Big Impact

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

16 March 2015

In Hollywood blockbusters, explosions are often among the stars of the show. In space, explosions of actual stars are a focus for scientists who hope to better understand their births, lives, and deaths and how they interact with their surroundings.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have studied one particular explosion that may provide clues to the dynamics of other, much larger stellar eruptions. 

Image above: "Mini Supernova" Explosion Could Have Big Impact. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/RIKEN/D.Takei et al.

A team of researchers pointed the telescope at GK Persei, an object that became a sensation in the astronomical world in 1901 when it suddenly appeared as one of the brightest stars in the sky for a few days, before gradually fading away in brightness. Today, astronomers cite GK Persei as an example of a “classical nova,” an outburst produced by a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf star, the dense remnant of a Sun-like star.

A nova can occur if the strong gravity of a white dwarf pulls material from its orbiting companion star.  If enough material, mostly in the form of hydrogen gas, accumulates on the surface of the white dwarf, nuclear fusion reactions can occur and intensify, culminating into a  cosmic-sized hydrogen bomb blast. The outer layers of the white dwarf are  blown away, producing a nova outburst that can be observed for a period of months to years as the material expands into space.

Classical novas can be considered to be “miniature” versions of supernova explosions. Supernovas signal the destruction of an entire star and can be so bright that they outshine the whole galaxy where they are found. Supernovas are extremely important for cosmic ecology because they inject huge amounts of energy into the interstellar gas, and are responsible for dispersing elements such as iron, calcium and oxygen into space where they may be incorporated into future generations of stars and planets.

Although the remnants of supernovas are much more massive and energetic than classical novas, some of the fundamental physics is the same. Both involve an explosion and creation of a shock wave that travels at supersonic speeds through the surrounding gas. 

The more modest energies and masses associated with classical novas means that the remnants evolve more quickly. This, plus the much higher frequency of their occurrence compared to supenovas, makes classical novas important targets for studying cosmic explosions.

Chandra first observed GK Persei in February 2000 and then again in November 2013. This 13-year baseline provides astronomers with enough time to notice important differences in the X-ray emission and its properties.

This new image of GK Persei contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (yellow), and radio data from the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (pink). The X-ray data show hot gas and the radio data show emission from electrons that have been accelerated to high energies by the nova shock wave. The optical data reveal clumps of material that were ejected in the explosion. The nature of the point-like source on the lower left is unknown.

Over the years that the Chandra data span, the nova debris expanded at a speed of about 700,000 miles per hour. This translates to the blast wave moving about 90 billion miles during that period.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spacecraft. Image Credits: NASA/CXC

One intriguing discovery illustrates how the study of nova remnants can provide important clues about the environment of the explosion. The X-ray luminosity of the GK Persei remnant decreased by about 40% over the 13 years between the Chandra observations, whereas the temperature of the gas in the remnant has essentially remained constant, at about one million degrees Celsius. As the shock wave expanded and heated an increasing amount of matter, the temperature behind the wave of energy should have decreased. The observed fading and constant temperature suggests that the wave of energy has swept up a negligible amount of gas in the environment around the star over the past 13 years. This suggests that the wave must currently be expanding into a region of much lower density than before, giving clues to stellar neighborhood in which GK Persei resides.

A paper describing these results appeared in the March 10th issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors were Dai Takei (RIKEN, Spring-8 Center Japan), Jeremy Drake (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), Hiroya Yamaguichi (Goddard Space Flight Center), Patrick Slane (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), Yasunobu Uchimaya (Rikkyo University, Japan), Satoru Katsuda (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Read More from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/gkper/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center/Janet Anderson/Chandra X-ray Center/Megan Watzke.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Cavorting corona

ESA - PROBA-2 Mission logo.

16 March 2015

Solar corona viewed by Proba-2

This snapshot of our constantly changing Sun catches looping filaments and energetic eruptions on their outward journey from our star’s turbulent surface.

The disc of our star is a rippling mass of bright, hot active areas, interspersed with dark, cool snaking filaments that wrap around the star. Surrounding the tumultuous solar surface is the chaotic corona, a rarified atmosphere of super-heated plasma that blankets the Sun and extends out into space for millions of kilometres.

This coronal plasma reaches temperatures of several million degrees in some regions – significantly hotter than the surface of the Sun, which reaches comparatively paltry temperatures of around 6000ºC – and glows in ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet light owing to its extremely high temperature. By picking one particular wavelength, ESA’s Proba-2 SWAP (Sun Watcher with APS detector and Image Processing) camera is able to single out structures with temperatures of around a million degrees.

As seen in this image, taken on 25 July 2014, the hot plasma forms large loops and fan-shaped structures, both of which are kept in check by the Sun’s intense magnetic field. While some of these loops stay close to the surface of the Sun, some can stretch far out into space, eventually being swept up into the solar wind – an outpouring of energetic particles that constantly streams out into the Solar System and flows past the planets, including Earth.

Even loops that initially appear to be quite docile can become tightly wrapped and tangled over time, storing energy until they eventually snap and throw off intense flares and eruptions known as coronal mass ejections. These eruptions, made up of massive amounts of gas embedded in magnetic field lines, can be dangerous to satellites, interfere with communication equipment and damage vital infrastructure on Earth.

Despite the Sun being the most important star in our sky, much is still unknown about its behaviour. Studying its corona in detail could help us to understand the internal workings of the Sun, the erratic motions of its outer layers, and the highly energetic bursts of material that it throws off into space.

Proba-2 spacecraft

Two new ESA missions will soon contribute to this field of study: Solar Orbiter is designed to study the solar wind and region of space dominated by the Sun and also to closely observe the star’s polar regions, and the Proba-3 mission will study the Sun’s faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever before been achieved.

Related links:

Proba-2 mission: http://sci.esa.int/proba2/ and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Proba_Missions

Proba-3 mission: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Proba_Missions/About_Proba-3

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/ROB.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch