NASA Sees Hurricane Matthew Heading for the Bahamas

NASA - EOS Terra Mission logo.

Oct. 5, 2016

Matthew (Atlantic Ocean)

Satellites from NASA and NOAA have been tracking and analyzing powerful Hurricane Matthew since its birth just east of the Leeward Islands on Sept. 28.

On October 4, 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall on southwestern Haiti as a category-4 storm—the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean nation in more than 50 years. Just hours after landfall, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a natural-color image that showed the western extent over the eastern tip of Cuba and the eastern-most extent over Puerto Rico. 

Image above: On October 4, 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall on southwestern Haiti as a category-4 storm—the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean nation in more than 50 years. Just hours after landfall, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image. At the time, Matthew had top sustained winds of about 230 kilometers (145 miles) per hour. Image Credits: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the NASA/NOAA GOES Project combined infrared and visible imagery from NOAA's GOES-East satellite into an animation of Matthew. The animation of imagery from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5 shows Hurricane Matthew making landfall in Haiti and eastern Cuba then move toward the Bahamas.

On Oct. 5, there were many warnings and watches in effect on Oct. 5 from Cuba to the Bahamas to Florida.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma and Las Tunas; the Southeastern Bahamas, including the Inaguas, Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay, and Ragged Island; the Central Bahamas, including Long Island, Exuma, Rum Cay, San Salvador, and Cat Island; the Northwestern Bahamas, including the Abacos, Andros Island, Berry Islands, Bimini, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama Island, and New Providence. In Florida a Hurricane Warning is in effect from north of Golden Beach to the Flagler/Volusia county line and Lake Okeechobee.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the Cuban province of Camaguey and north of the Flagler/Volusia county line to Fernandina Beach. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Haiti, Turks and Caicos Islands. In Florida a Hurricane Watch is in effect for Chokoloskee to Golden Beach, the Florida Keys from Seven Mile Bridge eastward, and Florida Bay.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Matthew was located near 21.8 degrees north latitude and 75.2 degrees west longitude. That's about 55 miles (90 km) north-northwest of Cabo Lucrecia, Cuba and about 105 miles (165 km) south of Long Island, Bahamas.

Satellite Animation Shows Hurricane Matthew Moving Toward Bahamas

Video above: This animation of NOAA's GOES-East satellite imagery from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5 shows Hurricane Matthew make landfall on Oct. 4 in western Haiti and move toward the Bahamas on Oct. 5. TRT: 00:38.  Video Credits: NASA/NOAA GOES Project.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said "Matthew is moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 kph), and this motion is expected to continue during the next 24 to 48 hours. On this track, Matthew will be moving across the Bahamas through Thursday, and is expected to be very near the east coast of Florida by Thursday evening, Oct. 6.

Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph (195 kph) with higher gusts.  Matthew is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.  Some strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days, and Matthew is expected to remain at category 3 or stronger while it moves through the Bahamas and approaches the east coast of Florida. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles (280 km)."

The minimum central pressure reported by both Hurricane Hunter planes was 962 millibars.

An unconfirmed wind gust of 155 mph (250 kph) was reported in Baracoa, Cuba, on the night of Oct. 4 as the eye of Matthew passed nearby.

For storm specifics on rainfall, wind and storm surge, visit the NHC website: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.

NASA’s Terra satellite: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/terra/index.html

NOAA's GOES-East satellite: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Rob Gutro.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Blue Origin - In-flight Escape Test success

Blue Origin logo.

Oct. 5, 2016

Blue Origin launch their New Shepard rocket for In-Flight Escape Test

Today Blue Origin launched their New Shepard rocket for the 5th time. During this test the crew capsule tested the in-flight escape system to get itself away from the rocket incase of a malfunction. Liftoff took place at 15:36 UTC.

New Shepard In-Flight Escape Test (Flight 5)

Like Mercury, Apollo, and Soyuz, New Shepard has an escape system that can quickly propel the crew capsule to safety if a problem is detected with the booster. Our escape system, however, is configured differently from those earlier designs. They mounted the escape motor on a tower above the capsule – a “tractor” configuration – the escape motor would pull the capsule away from a failing booster. But because a capsule cannot reenter Earth’s atmosphere or deploy parachutes with a tower on top, the tower, along with the escape motor, must be jettisoned on every flight – even the nominal flights. Expending an escape motor on every flight drives up costs significantly. Further, the jettison operation is itself safety critical. Failure to jettison the tower is catastrophic.

The design of New Shepard's escape capsule during In-flight Escape Test

The New Shepard escape motor pushes rather than pulls and is mounted underneath the capsule rather than on a tower. There is no jettison operation. On a nominal mission, the escape motor is not expended and can be flown again and again. We’ve already tested our pusher escape system, including many ground tests and a successful pad escape test, but this upcoming flight will be our toughest test yet. We’ll intentionally trigger an escape in flight and at the most stressing condition: maximum dynamic pressure through transonic velocities.

Great Day in West Texas (pad escape test)

Capsule in-flight escape testing was last done during the Apollo program. From 1964-1966, in-flight escape tests were performed with Apollo simulator capsules using an expendable booster called the Little Joe II. We’ll be doing our in-flight escape test with the same reusable New Shepard booster that we’ve already flown four times. About 45 seconds after liftoff at about 16,000 feet, we’ll intentionally command escape. Redundant separation systems will sever the crew capsule from the booster at the same time we ignite the escape motor. You can get an idea of what will happen in this animation:

New Shepard Capsule Escape Animation

The escape motor will vector thrust to steer the capsule to the side, out of the booster’s path. The high acceleration portion of the escape lasts less than two seconds, but by then the capsule will be hundreds of feet away and diverging quickly. It will traverse twice through transonic velocities – the most difficult control region – during the acceleration burn and subsequent deceleration. The capsule will then coast, stabilized by reaction control thrusters, until it starts descending. Its three drogue parachutes will deploy near the top of its flight path, followed shortly thereafter by main parachutes.

Image above: Blue Origin's New Shepard crew capsule floats back to Earth under its main parachutes after In-flight Escape Test.

What of the booster? It’s the first ever rocket booster to fly above the Karman line into space and then land vertically upon the Earth. And it’s done so multiple times. We’d really like to retire it after this test and put it in a museum. Sadly, that’s not likely. This test will probably destroy the booster. The booster was never designed to survive an in-flight escape. The capsule escape motor will slam the booster with 70,000 pounds of off-axis force delivered by searing hot exhaust. The aerodynamic shape of the vehicle quickly changes from leading with the capsule to leading with the ring fin, and this all happens at maximum dynamic pressure. Nevertheless, the booster is very robust and our Monte Carlo simulations show there’s some chance we can fly through these disturbances and recover the booster. If the booster does manage to survive this flight – its fifth – we will in fact reward it for its service with a retirement party and put it in a museum. In the more likely event that we end up sacrificing the booster in service of this test, it will still have most of its propellant on board at the time escape is triggered, and its impact with the desert floor will be most impressive.

For more information about Blue Origin, visit: https://www.blueorigin.com/

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: Blue Origin.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Liftoff of Arianespace’s Ariane 5 with Sky Muster™ II and GSAT-18

Arianespace - Flight VA231 Mission poster.

5 October 2016

Ariane 5’s Flight VA231 liftoff (illustration from Flight VA227 launch)

The Arianespace mission with Sky Muster™ II and GSAT-18 is now underway following Ariane 5’s liftoff at 5:30 p.m. local time from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Total lift performance for today’s launch is estimated at 10,660 kg., with the two satellites to be deployed during a flight lasting approximately 32 minutes.

Designated Flight VA231 in Arianespace’s numbering system, today’s dual-passenger mission was the 231st launch of an Ariane-series vehicle.

Launch of Heavy Ariane 5 with Sky Muster II & GSAT-18 (VA-231)

Arianespace supports Australian and Indian customers

Sky Muster™ II is the mission’s upper passenger and was released first in the flight sequence at 28 min. after liftoff. Produced by SSL (Space Systems Loral) for operator nbn™, it will help extend high-speed internet across Australia, including the country’s rural and isolated regions.

To be deployed from Ariane 5’s lower passenger position is GSAT-18, which was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to strengthen its current fleet of 14 operational telecommunications satellites. This spacecraft’s separation occured approximately 32 min. after liftoff – completing the October 4 mission.

As the fifth heavy-lift Ariane 5 flight so far in 2016, tomorrow’s launch continue a busy year of mission activity for Arianespace’s full family of launchers, which also has included two flights performed with the medium-lift Soyuz and one using the lightweight Vega.

Sky Muster™ II

Sky Muster™ II will be the second satellite launched by Arianespace for the Australian operator nbn owned by the Commonwealth of Australia, after the first Sky Muster™ spacecraft orbited in September 2015.

Sky Muster™ II reflects the country’s political commitment to bridging the digital divide, especially in the rural and isolated regions of Australia. This new satellite will help extend high-speed internet to the entire country, including the Norfolk, Christmas, Macquarie and Cocos islands, in conjunction with the services already delivered by Sky Muster™ I.

Sky Muster™ II will be the eighth satellite that Arianespace has launched for Australia, following Aussat 3, Optus C1/D1/D2/D3 and 10, and Sky Muster™ I.

Built by SSL (Space Systems Loral) in Palo Alto, California using a 1300 platform, Sky Muster™ II will be the 59th SSL satellite to be orbited by Arianespace – which has four more satellites from this manufacturer in its order book.

GSAT-18

GSAT-18 will be the 20th satellite from ISRO to be launched by Arianespace. Since the launch of the Apple experimental satellite on Flight L03 in 1981, Arianespace has won 86% of the geostationary orbit launch contracts that the country has opened to non-Indian launch systems.

Built by ISRO, GSAT 18 will provide telecommunications services for India, strengthening ISRO’s current fleet of 14 operational telecom satellites.

ISRO fosters the use of space to help develop the Indian subcontinent. It focuses on all types of space applications, including Earth observation, telecommunications, broadcasts of educational programs, science and navigation.

The long-standing strategic partnership between ISRO and Arianespace reflects the strong relationship between India and France in the space sector.

After choosing Arianespace to launch its GSAT-17 and GSAT-18 satellites in 2015, ISRO selected Arianespace most recently to launch its GSAT-11 satellite. GSAT-17 and GSAT-11 will be orbited by 2017.

nbn website: http://www.nbnco.com.au/

SSL website: http://www.sslmda.com/

ISRO website: http://www.isro.gov.in/

Arianespace website: http://www.arianespace.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Arianespace/ISRO/SSL.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Orbital CRS-5 Launching Hot and Bright Science to Space

ISS - Expedition 49 Mission patch.

Oct. 5, 2016

Orbital ATK is scheduled to send new science experiments to the International Space Station in early October on its sixth Commercial Resupply Services (CSR) mission. The Cygnus spacecraft will blast off from Wallops Island, Virginia atop an Antares rocket, carrying supplies for the crew along with dozens of experiments, including studies on fire in space, the effect of lighting on sleep and daily rhythms, collection of health-related data, and a new way to measure neutrons.

Cool Flames

Low-temperature fires with no visible flames are known as cool flames. In previous combustion experiments aboard the space station, researchers observed cool flame burning behaviors not predicted by models or earlier investigations. Cool Flames examines low-temperature combustion of droplets of a variety of fuels and additives in low gravity.

Image above: A burning heptane droplet during the Flame Extinguishing Experiments investigation on the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.

This investigation employs the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), a general purpose system for combustion experiments aboard the space station with combustion chambers, fuel and oxidizer controls and cameras. The payload launching for Cool Flames includes enhancements to the CIR: a new camera system with filters designed to look at these invisible flames, upgraded hardware for image processing and storage, and a new radiometer package for measuring radiation produced by combustion.

Data from this investigation could help scientists develop more efficient advanced engines and new fuels for use in space and on Earth.

Lighting Effects

Light plays a powerful role in our daily, or circadian, rhythms. Astronauts aboard the space station experience multiple cycles of light and dark every 24 hours, which, along with night shifts and the stresses of spaceflight, can affect their sleep quality and quantity. Poor sleep impairs alertness, reaction time, and cognition and can increase risk of accidents.

The Lighting Effects investigation tests a new lighting system aboard the station designed to enhance crew health and keep their body clocks in proper sync with a more regular working and resting schedule. The system uses adjustable light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a Dynamic Lighting Schedule (DLS) that varies intensity and spectrum of the LEDs in tune with sleep and wake schedules. Research has shown that enhancing certain types of light can improve alertness and performance while other types can promote better sleep.

Image above: Expedition 18 Commander, Mike Fincke, with an early version of a Solid State Lighting Assembly (the General Luminaire Assembly or GLA) in Node 2 of the ISS. Image Credit: NASA.

Lighting manipulation has potential as a safe, non-pharmacological way to optimize sleep and circadian regulation on space missions. People on Earth, especially those who work night shifts, could also improve alertness and sleep by adjusting lighting for intensity and wavelength.

EveryWear

A user-friendly tablet app provides astronauts with a new and faster way to collect a wide variety of personal data. The EveryWear investigation tests use of this French-designed technology to record and transmit data on nutrition, sleep, exercise and medications.

Astronauts use the app to complete questionnaires and keep medical and clinical logs. They wear a Smartshirt during exercise that records heart activity and body position and transmits these data to the app, while a fingertip device records and transmits pulse and blood pressure. A sensor patch placed on the forearm records and transmits real-time skin temperature and activity level to assess sleep quality. Finally, rather than manually recording everything that they eat, crew members scan barcodes on food packets to collect real-time nutritional data.

EveryWear has potential for use in science experiments, biomedical support and technology demonstrations.

Fast Neutron Spectrometer

Outside the Earth’s magnetic field, astronauts are exposed to space radiation that can reduce immune response, increase cancer risk, and interfere with electronics.  The Fast Neutron Spectrometer (FNS) investigation will help scientists understand high-energy neutrons, part of the radiation exposure experienced by crews during spaceflight, by studying a new technique to measure electrically neutral neutron particles.

These particular particles pass through most measuring systems undetected, but the FNS uses a “gate and capture technique” that slows down neutrons and captures them in special glass fibers loaded with lithium. That process produces a unique flash of light, which custom electronics in the FNS recognize and analyze to determine radiation level. This technology is less susceptible to false triggers from other forms of radiation and can significantly improve reliable identification of neutrons in the mixed radiation field found in deep space. This improved measurement will help protect crews on future exploration missions.

ScienceCasts: Strange Flames on the International Space Station

Because it experiences radiation from a variety of sources, the space station provides an ideal environment for evaluating the FNS.

The space station serves as an orbiting lab for a wide range of science investigations such as these, designed to benefit future space exploration as well as life on Earth.

Related links:

Previous combustion experiments: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/cool_flame.html

Investigations. Cool Flames: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1947.html

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

Fast Neutron Spectrometer (FNS) investigation: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2103.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, Text, Credits: NASA/Kristine Rainey/JSC/Melissa Gaskill.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

SOFIA Detects Collapsing Clouds Becoming Young Suns

NASA & DLR - SOFIA Mission patch.

Oct. 5, 2016

Researchers on board NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, observed the collapse of portions of six interstellar clouds on their way to becoming new stars that will be much larger than our sun.

When a gas cloud collapses on itself, the cloud’s own gravity causes it to contract and the contraction produces heat friction. Heat from the contraction eventually causes the core to ignite hydrogen fusion reactions creating a star.

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. Image Credit: NASA

Astronomers are excited about this SOFIA research because there have been very few previous direct observations of collapse motion. These SOFIA observations have enabled scientists to confirm theoretical models about how interstellar clouds collapse to become stars and the pace at which they collapse. Actually observing this collapse, called “infall,” is extremely challenging because it happens relatively quickly in astronomical terms.

“Detecting infall in protostars is very difficult to observe, but is critical to confirm our overall understanding of star formation,” said Universities Space Research Association’s Erick Young, SOFIA Science Mission Operations director.

Using the observatory’s GREAT instrument, the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies, scientists searched for this developmental stage in nine embryonic stars, called protostars, by measuring the motions of the material within them. They found that six of the nine protostars were actively collapsing, adding substantially to the previous list of less than a dozen protostars directly determined to be in this infall stage.

For several weeks each year, the SOFIA team operates from Christchurch, New Zealand, to study objects best observed from southern latitudes, including the complete center of the Milky Way where many star-forming regions are located. Heading south during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter months, when the nights are long and infrared-blocking water vapor is especially low, also creates prime observing conditions.

Image above: An infrared image of the W43 star-forming region located 20,000 light years away in the direction of the constellation Aquila, one of the places where Wyrowski et al. detected cloud clumps collapsing to become massive stars. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/2MASS.

“With the Southern Hemisphere deployments of SOFIA, the full inner Milky Way comes into reach for star formation studies. This is crucial for observations of the earliest phases of high-mass star formation, since this is a relatively rapid and rare event,” said Friedrich Wyrowski, astronomer at the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany.

The results were from observations made in the Southern Hemisphere in 2015, and were published in Astronomy and Astrophysics earlier this year. SOFIA spent seven weeks during 2016 observing from Christchurch. The scientific teams involved in the Southern Hemisphere observations are analyzing the acquired data now.

SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 100-inch diameter telescope. It is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, DLR. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley manages the SOFIA program, science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center's Hangar 703, in Palmdale, California.

For more information about SOFIA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA Ames Research Center/Kassandra Bell/SOFIA Science Center/Nicholas A. Veronico.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

X-ray Telescopes Find Evidence for Wandering Black Hole

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch / ESA - XMM-Newton Mission patch.

Oct. 5, 2016

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UNH/D.Lin et al; Optical: NASA/STScI

Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to discover an extremely luminous, variable X-ray source located outside the center of its parent galaxy. This peculiar object could be a wandering black hole that came from a small galaxy falling into a larger one.  

Astronomers think that supermassive black holes, with some 100,000 to 10 billion times the sun’s mass, are in the centers of most galaxies. There is also evidence for the existence of so-called intermediate mass black holes, which have lower masses ranging between about 100 and 100,000 times that of the sun.

Both of these types of objects may be found away from the center of a galaxy following a collision and merger with another galaxy containing a massive black hole. As the stars, gas and dust from the second galaxy move through the first one, its black hole would move with it.

A new study reports the discovery of one of these “wandering” black holes toward the edge of the lenticular galaxy SDSS J141711.07+522540.8 (or, GJ1417+52 for short), which is located about 4.5 billion light years from Earth. This object, referred to as XJ1417+52, was discovered during long observations of a special region, the so-called Extended Groth Strip, with XMM-Newton and Chandra data obtained between 2000 and 2002. Its extreme brightness makes it likely that it is a black hole with a mass estimated to be about 100,000 times that of the sun, assuming that the radiation force on surrounding matter equals the gravitational force.  

The main panel of this graphic has a wide-field, optical light image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The black hole and its host galaxy are located within the box in the upper left. The inset on the left contains Hubble’s close-up view of GJ1417+52. Within this inset the circle shows a point-like source on the northern outskirts of the galaxy that may be associated with XJ1417+52.  

The inset on the right is Chandra’s X-ray image of XJ1417+52 in purple, covering the same region as the Hubble close-up. This is a point source, with no evidence seen for extended X-ray emission.

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

The Chandra and XMM-Newton observations show the X-ray output of XJ1417+52 is so high that astronomers classify this object as a “hyper-luminous X-ray source” (HLX). These are objects that are 10,000 to 100,000 times more luminous in X-rays than stellar black holes, and 10 to 100 times more powerful than ultraluminous X-ray sources, or ULXs. 

At its peak XJ1417+52 is about ten times more luminous than the brightest X-ray source ever seen for a wandering black hole. It is also about 10 times more distant than the previous record holder for a wandering black hole. 

The bright X-ray emission from this type of black hole comes from material falling toward it. The X-rays from XJ1417+52 reached peak brightness in X-rays between 2000 and 2002. The source was not detected in later Chandra and XMM observations obtained in 2005, 2014 and 2015. Overall, the X-ray brightness of the source has declined by at least a factor of 14 between 2000 and 2015. 

XMM-Newton observatory. Image Credit: ESA

The authors theorize that the X-ray outburst seen in 2000 and 2002 occurred when a star passed too close to the black hole and was torn apart by tidal forces. Some of the gaseous debris would have been heated and become bright in X-rays as it fell towards the black hole, causing the spike in emission.

The location and brightness of the optical source in the Hubble image that may be associated with XJ1417+52 suggest that the black hole could have originally belonged to a small galaxy that plowed into the larger GJ1417+52 galaxy, stripping away most of the galaxy’s stars but leaving behind the black hole and its surrounding stars at the center of the small galaxy. If this idea is correct the surrounding stars are what is seen in the Hubble image.

A paper by Dacheng Lin (University of New Hampshire) and colleagues describing this result appears in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online. 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/2016/xj1417/

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra and http://sci.esa.int/xmm-newton/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mohon.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Swiss instrument in ESA's probe soon en route to Mercury

ESA - BepiColombo Mission patch.

October 5, 2016

A device developed by the University of Berne leave for the planet closest to the sun in 2018.

BELA the probe will be presented Wednesday at the European Space Agency (ESA). In space from 2018, this meter laser, very accurate, will provide from 2024 3D data of the surface of Mercury.

Image Above: This unit will provide from 2024 3D data of the surface of Mercury. (Photo: University of Bern).

BELA (BepiColombo Laser Altimeter) is the first altimeter laser for studying the planets developed in Europe, said Tuesday the Bernese alma mater in a statement. The altimeter is used to measure the height of objects, in this case, structures on the surface of the planet. An international team of researchers from Switzerland, Germany and Spain was developed at the Center for Space and Habitability of the University of Berne since 2005.

In April 2018, BELA should board the "Mercury Planetary Orbiter" ESA and begin its journey to the planet nearest the sun. After a journey of 80 million kilometers, the spacecraft will go into orbit around Mercury.

From 2024, BELA transmit data on the topography of the surface of the planet. "Until now, we had 2D images through camera shots. By creating the BELA probe, the goal was to have a three-dimensional analysis", says co-director of the project Nicolas Thomas, said in the statement.

Image Above: Bepi Colombo - Mission to Mercury (artist view) MMO separation at Mercury. Image Credit: ESA.

Accuracy to the meter

At a distance of 1000 km, BELA can calculate an accuracy of one meter. "It's as if we measured to the nearest meter from Hamburg to the north face of the Eiger" illustrates Thomas.

By developing a measuring accuracy of such a mission in space, the challenge was that it weighs less than 14 kg, says the project manager Karsten Seiferlin, said in the statement. Temperatures up to 200 degrees on the orbit of Mercury has also been a challenge for scientists.

The probe will bring a lot to the understanding of the planet Mercury, according to co-director of the project. Albert Einstein, know the motions of Mercury was of paramount importance when developing the theory of relativity, he said.

Related links:

ESA - BepiColombo: http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/

University of Berne: http://www.unibe.ch/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NPX/ ATS/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch