NASA’s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission

NASA - Kepler Mission patch.

July 18, 2016

An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Among the findings tallying 197 initial planet candidates, scientists have confirmed 104 planets outside our solar system. Among the confirmed is a planetary system comprising four promising planets that could be rocky.

The planets, all between 20 and 50 percent larger than Earth by diameter, are orbiting the M dwarf star K2-72, found 181 light years away in the direction of the Aquarius constellation. The host star is less than half the size of the sun and less bright. The planets’ orbital periods range from five and a half to 24 days, and two of them may experience irradiation levels from their star comparable to those on Earth. Despite their tight orbits — closer than Mercury's orbit around the sun — the possibility that life could arise on a planet around such a star cannot be ruled out, according to lead author Crossfield, a Sagan Fellow at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

The researchers achieved this extraordinary "roundup" of exoplanets by combining data with follow-up observations by earth-based telescopes including the North Gemini telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the Automated Planet Finder of the University of California Observatories, and the Large Binocular Telescope operated by the University of Arizona. The discoveries are published online in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

Image above: Artist concept. A crop of more than 100 planets, discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, includes four in Earth’s size-range orbiting a single dwarf star. Two of these planets are too hot to support life as we know it, but two are in the star’s “habitable” zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface. These small, rocky worlds are far closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun. But because the star is smaller and cooler than ours, its habitable zone is much closer. One of the two planets in the habitable zone, K2-72c, has a “year” about 15 Earth-days long—the time it takes to complete one orbit. This closer planet is likely about 10% warmer than Earth. On the second, K2-72e, a year lasts 24 Earth days, this slightly more distant planet would be about 6% colder than Earth. Image Credits: NASA/JPL.

Both Kepler and its K2 mission discover new planets by measuring the subtle dip in a star's brightness caused by a planet passing in front of its star.  In its initial mission, Kepler surveyed just one patch of sky in the northern hemisphere, determining the frequency of planets whose size and temperature might be similar to Earth orbiting stars similar to our sun. In the spacecraft’s extended mission in 2013, it lost its ability to precisely stare at its original target area, but a brilliant fix created a second life for the telescope that is proving scientifically fruitful.

After the fix, Kepler started its K2 mission, which has provided an ecliptic field of view with greater opportunities for Earth-based observatories in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Additionally, the K2 mission is entirely community-driven with all targets proposed by the scientific community.

Because it covers more of the sky, the K2 mission is capable of observing a larger fraction of cooler, smaller, red-dwarf type stars, and because such stars are much more common in the Milky Way than sun-like stars, nearby stars will predominantly be red dwarfs.

"An analogy would be to say that Kepler performed a demographic study, while the K2 mission focuses on the bright and nearby stars with different types of planets," said Ian Crossfield. “The K2 mission allows us to increase the number of small, red stars by a factor of 20, significantly increasing the number of astronomical 'movie stars' that make the best systems for further study."

To validate candidate planets identified by K2, the researchers obtained high-resolution images of the planet-hosting stars as well as high-resolution optical spectroscopy. By dispersing the starlight as through a prism, the spectrographs allowed the researchers to infer the physical properties of a star — such as mass, radius and temperature — from which the properties of any planets orbiting it can be inferred.

These observations represent a natural stepping stone from the K2 mission to NASA's other upcoming exoplanet missions such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and James Webb Space Telescope.

"This bountiful list of validated exoplanets from the K2 mission highlights the fact that the targeted examination of bright stars and nearby stars along the ecliptic is providing many interesting new planets,” said Steve Howell, project scientist for the K2 mission at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. "These targets allow the astronomical community ease of follow-up and characterization, providing a few gems for first study by the James Webb Space Telescope, which could perhaps tell us about the planets’ atmospheres."

This work was performed in part under contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) funded by NASA through the Sagan Fellowship Program executed by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute. 

NASA Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Related links:

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite: http://www.nasa.gov/tess

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): http://www.nasa.gov/webb

For more information on the Kepler and the K2 mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

For more information about exoplanets, visit: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Jessica Culler/Ames Research Center/Michele Johnson.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Not Really Starless at Saturn

NASA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

July 18, 2016

Saturn's main rings, along with its and moons, are much brighter than most stars. As a result, much shorter exposure times (10 milliseconds, in this case) are required to produce an image and not saturate the detectors of the imaging cameras on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. A longer exposure would be required to capture the stars as well. Cassini has captured stars on many occasions, especially when a target moon is in eclipse, and thus darker than normal. For example, see PIA10526.

Dione (698 miles, 1123 kilometers across) and Epimetheus (70 miles, 113 kilometers across) are seen in this view, above the rings at left and right respectively.

This image looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 2, 2016.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 257,000 miles (413,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 34  degrees. Image scale is 15 miles (25 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Related link:

PIA10526: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10526

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org and ESA's website: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Martin Perez.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Sends Trailblazing Science, Cargo to International Space Station Aboard SpaceX Resupply Mission

SpaceX - CRS-9 Mission patch.

July 18, 2016

Instruments to perform the first-ever DNA sequencing in space, and the first international docking adapter for commercial spacecraft, are among the cargo scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station after Monday’s launch of the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services-9 (CRS-9) mission.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft launched at 12:45 a.m. EDT on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with almost 5,000 pounds of cargo. The spacecraft will be grappled to the space station at 7 a.m. Wednesday, July 20, by NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, supported by NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.

Image above: SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft launched at 12:45 a.m. EDT on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with almost 5,000 pounds of cargo. Image Credit: NASA.

“Each commercial resupply flight to the space station is a significant event. Everything, from the science to the spare hardware and crew supplies, is vital for sustaining our mission,” said Kirk Shireman, NASA’s International Space Station Program manager. “With equipment to enable novel experiments never attempted before in space, and an international docking adapter vital to the future of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft, we’re thrilled this Dragon has successfully taken flight.”

The mission is the company's ninth cargo flight to the station under NASA’s CRS contract. Dragon's cargo will support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations during the station’s Expeditions 48 and 49.

DNA testing aboard the space station typically requires collecting samples and returning them to Earth. The Biomolecule Sequencer seeks to demonstrate, for the first time, that DNA sequencing is feasible in microgravity using a crew-operated, miniaturized device to identify microbes, diagnose diseases, monitor crew health and possibly help detect DNA-based life off the Earth.

Maintaining safe temperatures is difficult in space where there is no atmosphere to moderate the extreme heat and cold provided by direct, unfiltered sunlight. The Phase Change Heat Exchanger, a NASA investigation to test temperature control technology for future spacecraft, uses a continual process of freezing and thawing to maintain temperatures inside a spacecraft, thereby protecting crews and equipment.

The crew also will test a new efficient, three-dimensional solar cell.

SpaceX Launches Resupply Mission to the ISS

Millions of Americans experience bone loss resulting from disease or the reduced effects of gravity that can occur in immobilized patients. New ground-based studies are using magnetic levitation equipment to simulate these gravity-related changes. Research delivered under the station’s role as a U.S. National Laboratory includes OsteoOmics, a test to determine whether magnetic levitation accurately simulates the free-fall conditions of microgravity by comparing genetic expression in different types of bone cells.

Improved understanding of the mechanisms behind bone loss could lead to better ways to prevent it during space missions. This also could contribute to better prevention of, and treatments for, bone loss as a result of diseases like osteopenia and osteoporosis, or from prolonged bed rest.

Another National Lab investigation called Heart Cells studies how microgravity changes the human heart, and how those changes vary from one individual to another. Future exploration of the moon, asteroids or Mars will require long periods of space travel, which creates increased risk of health problems such as muscle atrophy, including possible atrophy of heart muscle. Heart cells cultured aboard the space station for one month will be analyzed for cellular and molecular changes. Results could advance the study of heart disease and the development of drugs and cell replacement therapy.

Dragon is scheduled to depart the space station Monday, Aug. 29. After splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, more than 3,300 pounds of science, hardware, crew supplies and spacewalk tools will be returned to shore.

For more than 15 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space. A truly global endeavor, more than 200 people from 18 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 1,900 research investigations from researchers in more than 95 countries.

Related links:

Biomolecule Sequencer: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2181.html

Phase Change Heat Exchanger: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2077.html

OsteoOmics: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1284.html

Heart Cells studies: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1914.html

New efficient, three-dimensional solar cell: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1874.html

Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crews, at: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram and Twitter at: http://instagram.com/iss and http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

Learn more about SpaceX's resupply mission at: http://www.nasa.gov/spacex

Image (mentioned), Video (NASA TV), Text, Credits: NASA/Cheryl Warner/Sarah Ramsey/JSC/Dan Huot.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Resupply Rocket Launches on Two-Day Delivery Mission

ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.

July 16, 2016

Image above: The Progress 64 cargo craft launches on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA TV.

Carrying more than three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted ISS Progress 64 cargo craft launched at 5:41 p.m. EDT (3:41 a.m. Baikonur time July 17) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

At the time of launch, the International Space Station was flying about 250 miles over Eastern Chad.

Russian Cargo Ship Launches to the Space Station

Less than 10 minutes after launch, the resupply ship reached preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas as planned. The Russian cargo craft will chase the station during the next two days before docking to the Pirs Docking Compartment at the orbiting laboratory at 8:22 p.m. Monday, July 18. The Progress 64 will spend more than six months docked at the outpost before departing in mid-January for its deorbit into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Beginning at 7:45 p.m. Monday, NASA Television will provide live coverage of Progress 64’s arrival at the space station’s Pirs Docking Compartment.

Watch live on NASA TV and online at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

To join the online conversation about the International Space Station and Progress 63 on Twitter, follow @Space_Station and the hashtag #ISScargo.

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

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

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Sails Full-Speed Ahead in Solar System Exploration

NASA patch.

July 16, 2016

NASA's Juno is now poised to shine a spotlight on the origins and interior structure of the largest planet in our solar system. As we wait for Juno's first close-up images of Jupiter (to be taken Aug. 27 during the spacecraft's next pass by the planet), NASA continues to explore our solar system to help answer fundamental questions about how we came to be, where we are going and whether we are alone in the universe.

"Juno is the latest example of the extraordinary science we have to look forward to right in our own solar system," said NASA Planetary Division Director Jim Green. "There are many uncharted, promising worlds and objects we are eager to explore with our current and future missions."

Image above: This color view from NASA's Juno spacecraft is made from some of the first images taken by JunoCam after the spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on July 5th (UTC). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.

The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb telescope), set to launch in 2018, can observe not only faint objects across the universe, but also all of our neighboring planets and their moons within our solar system. Webb's angular and spectral resolution will allow us to observe these targets with unprecedented sensitivity and even follow geologic activity.

With Juno exploring Jupiter, NASA is also intrigued by its largest moons.

Io's intense geological activity makes it the most volcanically active world in the solar system, something Webb could potentially follow-up with. And NASA has selected nine science instruments for a future mission to investigate whether Europa -- a mysterious moon that scientists believe to have a liquid ocean beneath its icy surface -- hosts habitable environments.

Hubble, with its suite of upgraded instruments, has captured Jupiter's auroras and found evidence of saltwater on Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. The mission has been extended another five years, and NASA expects it to continue to provide excellent science.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft continues exploring Saturn, its rings and moons, as it has since 2004. In 2017, during the final phase of its long mission, Cassini will complete 22 dives through the narrow gap between Saturn's outer atmosphere and its rings. This exciting set of orbits, called the Grand Finale, will be like a whole new mission, with new views and profound new scientific insights.

Image above: Sunlight glints off of Titan's northern seas this near-infrared, color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image Credits: NASA/JPL/Univ. Arizona/Univ. Idaho.

Titan is one of the major satellites of Saturn, with a rich atmosphere and surface chemistry that has been observed extensively by Cassini and ESA's Huygens Probe. After Cassini's mission ends, Webb will begin operations, providing an excellent platform for continuing studies of Titan with its unique new capabilities.

On July 14, NASA celebrated the one-year anniversary of New Horizons' flyby of Pluto, which brought the world unprecedented views of the dwarf planet and its moon, Charon. The mission has been extended to study an object in the Kuiper belt, an icy field of early building blocks of the solar system packed with primordial organics.

NASA's Dawn mission set out to investigate the solar system's two largest asteroids remaining intact since their formation -- Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. The mission has revealed strange, bright regions on Ceres with the highest concentration of carbonate minerals ever seen outside Earth.

 Flight Over Dwarf Planet Ceres

In September, NASA will launch OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer), the first U.S. mission to a near-Earth asteroid (Bennu) to collect a sample for return to Earth in 2023.  OSIRIS-REx will help unlock secrets of the history of our solar system, and shed light on how life may have come to be on our planet.

On our journey to Mars, we are closer than ever before to sending American astronauts to our neighboring Red Planet. The Opportunity and Curiosity rovers are traversing Martian soil, while MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Odyssey are cruising the Martian skies above. They are helping uncover Mars' past, present, and future by searching for clues in both the surface and the atmosphere.

Montage of planets. Image Credits: NASA/JPL

The next Mars rover scheduled for launch in 2020 is under construction, and NASA's InSight Mission to study the interior of the Red Planet is scheduled to launch in 2018.

"We are fortunate to live during a time when grand scientific quests are possible, and in a country that values curiosity and discovery as inherently noble pursuits," says Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA has recently directed nine planetary missions to plan for continued operations through fiscal years 2017 and 2018, contingent on available resources: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/2016seniorreview

Related links:

James Webb Space Telescope (Webb telescope): http://www.nasa.gov/webb

Cassini spacecraft: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

New Horizons spacecraft: http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Felicia Chou/Video: NASA/JPL.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Weekly Recap From the Expedition Lead Scientist Week of July 4, 2016

ISS - International Space Station logo.

July 15, 2016

(Highlights: Week of July 4, 2016) - On a week when the International Space Station welcomed three new crew members, the current residents on the orbiting laboratory watched the skies over the Pacific Ocean as a super storm struck Asia.

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams powered up the hardware for the Cyclone Intensity Measurements from the International Space Station (Tropical Cyclone) investigation. Earth scientists wanted to collect data on Typhoon Nepartak in the Pacific Ocean as it neared Taiwan. The investigation uses a specialized, automated camera and other instruments to acquire data about the storms through one of the portals on the orbiting laboratory.

Image above: Typhoon Nepartak begins to make landfall in Southeast Asia. An investigation on the space station, Tropical Cyclone, collected data on this storm from space. Combined with information on sea-level surface temperatures and air pressure, scientists hope to more accurately predict the wind speed, strength and intensities of future cyclones prior to landfall. This information would assist emergency responders and coastal residents to better prepare for oncoming storms. Image Credit: NASA.

Scientists are demonstrating new techniques for accurate real-time measurement of the intensities of strong tropical cyclones by using passive instrumentation from low-Earth orbit. This method requires measurements of the temperature of the top of the eye wall clouds of the storm and the height of these clouds above sea level. Combined with information on sea-level surface temperatures and air pressure, scientists can more accurately predict the wind speed, strength and intensities of cyclones prior to landfall. This information would assist emergency responders and coastal residents to better prepare for oncoming storms.

After watching the storm develop on Earth, the station crew turned their attention inward to radiation detection in the orbiting laboratory with the Radi-N2 Neutron Field Study (Radi-N2) investigation. Williams NASA deployed eight radiation detectors around the orbiting laboratory. The Canadian Space Agency's bubble spectrometers, placed in predetermined locations throughout the station, measure neutron radiation levels while ignoring all other radiation. This investigation characterizes the station neutron environment, defining the risk posed to crew members’ health, and provides the data necessary to develop advanced protective measures for future spaceflight. Because neutrons carry no electrical charge, they have greater potential to penetrate the body and damage tissue. Radi-N2 will help doctors better understand the connections between neutron radiation, DNA damage and mutation rates and can be applied to other radiation health issues on Earth.

Image above: During the week when America celebrated Independence Day, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams captured this image of the distinctive coastline of Massachusetts and Rhode Island from the International Space Station. He posted it to his Twitter account -- @Astro_Jeff -- along with flyover images of the rest of the original 13 colonies that made up the United States. Image Credits: NASA/Jeff Williams.

Williams installed three new water pump tubes in the European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) on the station. This plant incubator is an ESA (European Space Agency) experimental facility dedicated to studying plant biology in a reduced gravity environment. It supports the cultivation, stimulation, and crew-assisted operation of biological experiments under controlled conditions. It can provide dedicated life support for plants, including temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and water supply as well as illumination and observation capabilities for scientists. The EMCS facility’s data and command capabilities allow experiment control by the crew and from ground, downlinking housekeeping, science, and image data.

International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA

The facility has already performed multi-generation experiments -- growing plants from seeds until those plants create new seeds -- and studies the effects of gravity and light on early development and growth. In the future, this facility may be used for experiments with insects, amphibia and invertebrates as well as studies with cell and tissue cultures.

Progress was made on other investigations and facilities this week, including BRIC NP, Mouse Epigenetics, Ex-HAM-Interstellar Carbonaceous Solids along with various other Ex-HAM samples, Meteor, ISS Ham, DOSIS-3D and 3D Printing in Zero-G.

Human research investigations conducted this week include Dose Tracker, Fine Motor Skills and Space Headaches.

Related links:

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

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

International Space Station (Tropical Cyclone) investigation: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1973.html

Radi-N2 Neutron Field Study (Radi-N2) investigation: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/898.html

Mouse Epigenetics: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1992.html

Ex-HAM-Interstellar Carbonaceous Solids: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2052.html

Meteor: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1323.html

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

DOSIS-3D: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/184.html

3D Printing in Zero-G: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1115.html

Dose Tracker: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1933.html

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

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

European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/345.html

European Space Agency (ESA): http://www.esa.int/ESA

Canadian Space Agency (CSA-ASC): http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Kristine Rainey/John Love, Acting Lead Increment Scientist Expeditions 47 & 48.

Best regards Orbiter.ch

NASA's Next Mars Rover Progresses Toward 2020 Launch

NASA logo.

July 15, 2016

After an extensive review process and passing a major development milestone, NASA is ready to proceed with final design and construction of its next Mars rover, currently targeted to launch in the summer of 2020 and arrive on the Red Planet in February 2021.

The Mars 2020 rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life, probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. Throughout its investigation, it will collect samples of soil and rock and cache them on the surface for potential return to Earth by a future mission.

“The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potential multi-mission campaign to return carefully selected and sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth,” said Geoffrey Yoder, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This mission marks a significant milestone in NASA’s Journey to Mars – to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars, and to advance our goal of sending humans to the Red Planet.”

Image above: This image is from computer-assisted-design work on the Mars 2020 rover. The design leverages many successful features of NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, but also adds new science instruments and a sampling system to carry out new goals for the 2020 mission. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

To reduce risk and provide cost savings, the 2020 rover will look much like its six-wheeled, one-ton predecessor, Curiosity, but with an array of new science instruments and enhancements to explore Mars as never before. For example, the rover will conduct the first investigation into the usability and availability of Martian resources, including oxygen, in preparation for human missions.

Mars 2020 will carry an entirely new subsystem to collect and prepare Martian rocks and soil samples that includes a coring drill on its arm and a rack of sample tubes. About 30 of these sample tubes will be deposited at select locations for return on a potential future sample-retrieval mission. In laboratories on Earth, specimens from Mars could be analyzed for evidence of past life on Mars and possible health hazards for future human missions.

Two science instruments mounted on the rover’s robotic arm will be used to search for signs of past life and determine where to collect samples by analyzing the chemical, mineral, physical and organic characteristics of Martian rocks. On the rover’s mast, two science instruments will provide high-resolution imaging and three types of spectroscopy for characterizing rocks and soil from a distance, also helping to determine which rock targets to explore up close.

A suite of sensors on the mast and deck will monitor weather conditions and the dust environment, and a ground-penetrating radar will assess sub-surface geologic structure.

The Mars 2020 rover will use the same sky crane landing system as Curiosity, but will have the ability to land in more challenging terrain with two enhancements, making more rugged sites eligible as safe landing candidates.

Image above: Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity" sky crane landing system. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"By adding what’s known as range trigger, we can specify where we want the parachute to open, not just at what velocity we want it to open,” said Allen Chen, Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "That shrinks our landing area by nearly half."

Terrain-relative navigation on the new rover will use onboard analysis of downward-looking images taken during descent, matching them to a map that indicates zones designated unsafe for landing.

"As it is descending, the spacecraft can tell whether it is headed for one of the unsafe zones and divert to safe ground nearby,” said Chen. "With this capability, we can now consider landing areas with unsafe zones that previously would have disqualified the whole area. Also, we can land closer to a specific science destination, for less driving after landing."

There will be a suite of cameras and a microphone that will capture the never-before-seen or heard imagery and sounds of the entry, descent and landing sequence. Information from the descent cameras and microphone will provide valuable data to assist in planning future Mars landings, and make for thrilling video.

"Nobody has ever seen what a parachute looks like as it is opening in the Martian atmosphere,” said JPL's David Gruel, assistant flight system manager for the Mars 2020 mission. “So this will provide valuable engineering information.”

Microphones have flown on previous missions to Mars, including NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008, but never have actually been used on the surface of the Red Planet.

"This will be a great opportunity for the public to hear the sounds of Mars for the first time, and it could also provide useful engineering information," said Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager Matt Wallace of JPL.

Mars 2020 rover drawing. Image Credit: NASA

Once a mission receives preliminary approval, it must go through four rigorous technical and programmatic reviews – known as Key Decision Points (KDP) — to proceed through the phases of development prior to launch. Phase A involves concept and requirements definition, Phase B is preliminary design and technology development, Phase C is final design and fabrication, and Phase D is system assembly, testing, and launch. Mars 2020 has just passed its KDP-C milestone.

"Since Mars 2020 is leveraging the design and some spare hardware from Curiosity, a significant amount of the mission's heritage components have already been built during Phases A and B,” said George Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "With the KDP to enter Phase C completed, the project is proceeding with final design and construction of the new systems, as well as the rest of the heritage elements for the mission."

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Driven by scientific discovery, the program currently includes two active rovers and three NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars. NASA also plans to launch a stationary Mars lander in 2018, InSight, to study the deep interior of Mars.

JPL manages the Mars 2020 project and the Mars Exploration Program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Related link:

NASA’s Journey to Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars

For more information about Mars 2020, visit: http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/Laurie Cantillo/JPL/Guy Webster.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch